They came, they rocked the drunkards. Last night, The Hold Steady played Lawrence, Kansas's Granada Theater, a bigger room with a bigger stage than the Bottleneck, site of their last foray into Larrytown. The crowd was bigger, too, and more combustible, and younger and dumber (Hello fratboy meatheads pushing your way to the front! Hello world's waifiest male crowd surfer! Hello loud unfunny guy! Hello tattooed girl to whom Craig Finn earnestly implored "put your shirt back on, please"!). Take away that my presence significantly raised the average [...]
Once, years back, I was loitering in a bookstore, perusing the pages of some pop music encyclopedia, and the first words in the entry for each artist gave some florid description of their music, like "psychedelic dream pop" or "proto goth metal." Then I got to The Replacements, and it said simply rock and roll . Damn right, I thought. And so as I prepare to see another rock and roll band – The Hold Steady – tonight, I give you a non-exclusive list of ten great no-nonsense, four-on-the-floor, guitar-bass-drums (keyboards optional), rock and roll [...]
Here at Teenage Kicks , we love us some Canadians. From Trip's current crush Jeremy Fisher to longtime faves New Pornographers to the primo power pop of Sloan, O Canada, we will stand on guard for thee. In ought-six, we both fell hard for Jason Collett , a sterling purveyor of North Americana, and word comes this week that he'll breach the northern border with a new disc in February. Can't wait 'til then? Us, either. So thanks to the good folks at Arts [...]
The best rock and roll should always be able to surprise... and inspire. And that's why Danny and Dusty, a one-off anti-supergroup of L.A. paisley underground gadflies qualifies as the best rock and roll. Formed around the nucleus of Dan Stuart (Green on Red) and Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), Danny and Dusty recorded (apparently in one legendary 36 hour bender) one booze-soaked masterpiece of pure alt-fun. I hadn't known anyone who even knew who these guys were (besides my brother Scooter) until recently I met up with someone who was able to burn me a copy of their long [...]
While it still doesn't exactly qualify as writing , last week's effort at jumpstarting the creative process by making a list proved such a ratings bonanza that I've opted to make it a regular feature. In 1973, I was watching Sesame Street twice a day and listening to radio religiously. I was an only child at the time, but thanks to the older children of my parents' friends, I was exposed to a stream of 45 rpm records, mini-platters that mattered, stacks of wax that blew my impressionable mind. [...]
Here in Kansas City, we have a sports columnist named Joe Posnanski. I collect records. Joe collects National Sports Columnist of the Year awards. He has been in Japan following the Land of the Rising Sun's answer to the World Series (Nippon Ham Fighters' manager Trey Hillman is set to take the same post with the Kansas City Royals). While experiencing searing back pain and a sense of isolation in a very small room, he composed these words on his relationship to Bruce Springsteen's songs .
I have been less than prolific lately. I could offer excuses (my mind occupied by the success of the Missouri Tigers football team – We're number 9!), but it's mostly a lack of inspiration. For years, when I looked at the discs on the shelf and could find no inspiration, the rule was to play Squeeze's Singles 45's and Under . And when I can't find the will to write, the rule is to make a list. And so today, in an effort to get the wheels spinning, I combine those two rules and present a list of the [...]
Do you like romantic comedies? John Cusack in The Sure Thing, Say Anything and High Fidelity ? Do you think that the Undertones "Teenage Kicks", Motorhead's "Ace of Spades", The Cure's "In Between Days" and The Smiths "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" can peacefully co-exist within the same great movie? Do you like The Graduate ? Do you find Michael to be a poncey wanker? Do you fancy being clever? Or beautiful? Are you in love with life itself? Then rent the [...]
After warming up with some world music esoterica (Thomas Mapfumo, Os Mutantes, an early Bob Marley rarity), the greatest device ever invented just laid down this epic troika: "Rock and Roll All Nite," KISS "Unchained," Van Halen "Kiss Me On The Bus," The Replacements It then served up Elvis's "Mystery Train" as a smooth-finishing chaser. Props to Trip on the epic Hold Steady post (I didn't know that Zep cover existed). I'm slated to see the band in three weeks, and hope to have something equally rapturous to report. I've also got [...]
Teenage Kicks unabashedly supports The Hold Steady as the best band in America. Last night, once again, they crushed expectations with yet another exuberant rock revival meeting. Who says rock is dead? Surrounded by friends everywhere I looked, I realized that's what sets The Hold Steady apart – a real feeling of kinship between band and audience. I counted at least 40 people I knew or kinda knew - Mary Z and Kevin, Scott, Alan, Feeney, Peter and his date Craig, Nan, Kat, Barb, Billy, Billy's son, Brandt, Angelo, Hartmaier, Fudgie, Dave, Ann, Lieve (Leeeeve...say it right!), Dave and [...]
I'll try to get back on track, honest I will.
Just for no good reason, here's three in current heavy rotation in my house. We got alt-country pop courtesy of Southern California's The Hideaways, whose breezy Tupelo meets Beat Farmers at Jayhawk Drive honky tonk recalls a great song called "Kissed A Girl" by the late, lamented (by me) Star City. I wish I could post that one too but I can't currently find it. Stranger's Heart The Hideaways myspace page Then there's the light, but top 40 in my mind, uber-melodic pop of "Sex Without [...]
I am not even close to a huge Radiohead fan – I think their prog leanings take what could be a fine little art-pop band and create a pretentious, self-important behemoth. That said, I've heard moments of unquestioned beauty and superb arena anthems sprinkled throughout their catalogue. I don't have any animosity towards the band – their music just generally leaves me cold. My Teenage Kicks co-conspirator Michael champions their work so maybe someday he'll knock some sense into me. Radiohead's new direct-to-consumer model is being heralded as the music industry's new world order. I see [...]
We haven't had as much time as we'd like to devote to this countdown (yo, XPN, check our schedules next time, will ya?), but I've been listening the best I can, and it's a tour de force of musical geekery, and I mean that as a huge compliment. The previous lists of songs , albums and artists must have been arduous enough to compile, but this countdown is far more high-concept and labor intensive, and Bruce Warren, Dan Reed [...]
By Sunday morning I will have seen Bruce Springsteen in concert 55 times (yes I'm an obsessive nerd and I keep a list of every show I've ever seen). Currently I am listening to a pristine, mind-blowing bootleg of the first Bruce Springsteen concert I ever attended – a life changing evening at The Tower Theater in December 1975. It's an astonishing document of a band at its creative peak – just after the release of Born to Run and the Time and Newsweek covers and just before the leap [...]
N o way we can do all 885... but the first 50 truly seemed to be calling our name. 885: Soul Survivors Release "Expressway To Your Heart" M: Ugh. What I feared. I can see it now. 722: Melanie releases "Brand New Key." 649: Tony Orlando releases "Tie A Yellow Ribbon." 511: The SLA releases Patti Hearst. T: All right... Philly represents. But honestly, didn't the Beatles themselves have 885 more memorable musical moments than this song? [...]
Well, we weren't gonna, then we were gonna, and now we're kinda gonna. Of course, we resereve the right to change our mind ten more times. Michael: A couple of years back, I heard some media expert twist Andy Warhol's most notorious line, saying that because of the Internet, in the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen people. Teenage Kicks cultivated its fifteen people of fame (more or less) last year for our running commentary on WXPN's 885 greatest artists countdown. [...]
It's been a slow week here as we prepare for our wall-to-wall coverage of the release of Bruce Springsteen's Magic album (really, if we don't talk about it, who will?). To reward your patience, dear readers, we give you this ferocious live collaboration between Bob Dylan and Jack White on the Bard's "Meet Me in the Morning," one of my favorite tunes from Blood on the Tracks . It comes courtesy of Heather , who has all the details, but can it really be that this was the first time [...]
Admit it, back when you were grooving to Rupert Holmes's schmaltz classic, you thought "that could never happen." Guess again .
It occurs to me that Teenage Kicks recently had its first birthday, but neither of us noticed. How are we going to supplant Rolling Stone as the pinnacle of hipster cred if we don't continually celebrate our history with retrospective pieces? So here's a half-hearted effort. If you want to go back to the beginning, click here and here , but forgive the font colors, which were a victim of the site's epic redesign a few months back. And listen to [...]
Teenage Kicks
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
