I'm going to do my best not to make excuses anymore, d'oh!...I just did it again. For those of you disappointed when you check back and nothing has been posted for two weeks running, I sincerely apologize. Work has been consuming me 247 and that still might not be good enough. I had another handful of well intentioned post ideas lined up for this past month and I couldn't get anything done. I feel like I can't work out, I can't blog, I can't listen to music...I'm running on empty all of the time and still I'm not comfortable. Oh [...]
I know Elton John has ceased to be anything resembling a Rock Star for decades now, but I couldn't help but make one final mention of his talent. Great musicians, whether they just make music, write lyrics or both are sort of, to pilfer a phrase, like Candles in The Wind. You really have no idea, I can only imagine, whether you've got what it takes to be successful, let alone become a worldwide mega star. I know many of you are just too young to relate to Elton John, but this guy had it going on like nobody's business [...]
Depending on your point of view, England's Tears For Fears were either great or a band that was played so often on the radio that you can barely stand to hear them anymore. I can tell you I was in the latter camp for quite awhile, but I've made it back to the former with the passing of the years. Somebody handed me a copy of 19832s The Hurting around the same time as 19852s Songs From The Big Chair hit the charts. I remember hearing "Change" from The Hurting off and on at WBCN, but I was floored when [...]
I didn't know whether to file this one under Guilty Pleasures or not, but I wanted to pass along that I had a great time at The Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark show last night. Boston's Paradise Rock Club, 969 Commonwealth Avenue on your GPS dial, has seen its share of legends pass through. OMD was talking about their first show there some 30 years ago during the concert. 30 years. Man I'm old. 1981. I remember listening to Charles Laquidara on WBCN 104.1, The Rock of Boston (R.I.P.), at the time. Charles had a feature on his [...]
Colorful Lou Reed has had a Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame career. You hear all these stories alleging that he's a miserable interview and here at The Giant Panther we'll never know. The closest I ever got to Lou Reed was Orchestra R/C RR seat 102 on March 10, 1989 at The Orpheum Theatre on the New York Tour. Those of you from Boston will recognize this seat as roughly 14th row on the aisle. The New York tour was fabulous and though it was my only time to see Lou Reed he did not disappoint. The first half [...]
I admit to having been around a while. In 1970 I got my hands on a 45 RPM copy of Johnny Cash's single "A Boy Named Sue." The song was getting a lot of airplay on New York's WABC 77 AM station. I know I've said this before, but I didn't really make the distinction between genres in those days. I didn't think of The Supremes or The Temptations as Motown. I didn't think of Three Dog Night or The Grassroots as Pop music. It was a Pop music, but I didn't even realize that. Heck, I was ten years old [...]
The mystery, or not, surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain seems kind of pointless to me. The guy is gone. I read the book Love & Death by Max Wallace a couple of years ago now and while it was very entertaining, I didn't put much stock in it to be honest. If there was even a shred of credible evidence that hellcat Courtney Love was involved I figure she'd be behind bars by now. It's not like she hasn't fractured a few laws in her time so they'd be [...]
I have to admit, I'm not much of a Punk. I mean, I like an awful lot of music that could be considered Punk, but I, myself, would never qualify as a Punk Rocker. I've never slam danced. I never got a tattoo. I never pierced anything on my person. I've never even worn torn clothing. I've never bleached my hair or colored it purple or orange or red. I've never spit on anyone. My last pair of Chuck Taylors had to be 30 years ago. I've never owned a pair of Doc Martens. I've never participated in anarchy or even [...]
Last year I posted a bunch of "love" songs on Valentine's Day and it turned out to be one of our more popular posts this past year. Maybe a lot of folks out there look for some Lover's Rock to populate some iPods for their betrothed...I don't know, but if it ain't broke don't fix it right? I have a lot of fun doing it, but sometimes it's kind of pain to keep on eye on last year's songs and previous posts so I don't repeat myself. As much complaining as I do about repetitive programming on the [...]
Progressive is a term you hear thrown around a lot these days. If a band plays music that isn't easily categorized they are sometimes called Progressive. If your insurance company comes with its own name your own price gun it's called Progressive. If you like your Government leading reform they call you Progressive. It's even the name of complicated software that enables enterprises to be operationally responsive to real time changing conditions and customer interactions; whatever that means. There are some bands, like Rush and Jethro Tull, that are so unique, that they are lumped in with the Progressive Rock [...]
I was plugging along at the gym this afternoon, you know, maintaining my (I'm wild about my Jelly, 'bout my sweet) Jelly Roll (Blues), and my Sony iPod like device began to blare the song "Wrong" by School of Fish. I was absolutely digging this tune. I have about 1600 or so songs on this particular device they play alphabetically. "W" comes up about every five months now I'm working out an embarrassing two days a week until I feel comfortable that I've built a business I can rely on. I'm in sales and all we do, at this level, [...]
I was listening to Alice Cooper's syndicated radio show recently on Boston's WZLX and was thinking what a great life this guy has now. Of course he had to give up drinking, but in exchange he still gets to rock when the mood strikes him, does his own radio show from his house in Arizona once a week and plays golf the rest of the time. Give or take a couple of Mexican drug cartels encroaching on his personal space, he's living large. Sounds like a good life to me. Long before Shock Rockers like Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie [...]
I've always had a place in my musical heart for Chicago's Warren Zevon. I didn't know the man personally, but he seemed like a regular guy with a regular voice. As someone who can't sing a lick I have always identified with the so called average voiced Rock Star; the Bob Dylans and the Neil Youngs for example. These artists are so spectacularly great nobody cares if they are upper echelon singers. Warren Zevon had this booming baritone of a voice that got the job done. The feeling behind his music is what sold the public. Like most people I [...]
Australia's INXS was one of those bands that slowly but surely creeps into your consciousness until you can't ignore them any longer. By the year 1990, either you loved them unconditionally or you were so over them you'd had enough of them. From my point of view I'm pretty sure I ODed on them around 1987, but at the end of the day I'm still a big fan. I'm sure an 802s station in your part of the world plays the absolute classic INXS tunes "The One Thing" or "Don't Change" from 19822s Shabooh Shoobah, but INXS has had a whale of a [...]
I'm more than a little disappointed in how Rod Stewart's career has turned out. I have to be honest. I detest the schmaltzy American Songbook crap. But while we're being honest how many of us would have liked to have lived his life? Rod Stewart has something Ordinary Average Guys (thanks Joe Walsh) like me don't have. He's got more Charisma with a capital C. Any dude with the nads to sing a song called "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" has get some credit. What kind of credit I'm not sure, but while it wasn't one of his better songs, [...]
It's the not the side effects of the cocaine. I'm thinking that it must be love. It's too late. To be grateful. It's too late. To be late again. It's too late. To be hateful. The European cannon is here! My admiration for David Robert Jones knows no real bounds. I remember getting to college and finding out EVERYBODY had a copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars. New Jersey isn't exactly the bastion of high culture; see Shore, Jersey as a shining example, but it is next to New York. We listened [...]
Athens, Ga is one of those cities with a national presence when it comes to music. The first "Rock" band to make it big out of Athens was probably The B-522s in the late 702s. I can still remember being dumbfounded by their first self titled album. Forget "Rock Lobster," which was a monster smash; "Dance This Mess Around, Planet Claire, 52 Girls and Lava" were all brilliant tracks. 100 Beacon Street in Back Bay Boston might not have been the musical mecca of the universe in 1979, but what a smorgasbord of differing tastes. Those of you who didn't [...]
When I was about 17 or so, I used to think New Year's Eve was when all the females in the world lost their minds and handed out kisses at midnight in one special five minute period that didn't exist the rest of the year. It was Sadie Hawkins Day baby! Little did I know the mythical Sadie Hawkins was a cartoon character from the Li'l Abner comic strip. A cartoonist named Al Capp (shouldn't he have written Andy Capp? Oh, that was Jerry Bittle? Fiddlesticks...) conjured up a 35 year old spinster (Spinster - an old maid, an older [...]
I love the Winter Brothers. Johnny represents good old boy Texas Blues in the best possible way. Edgar represents Jazz, Classic Rock and the lighter side of the Blues. I remember spending the night at my friend Dave Youngblood's house in the seventh grade. Staying over a buddy's house was huge at 13 or 14 years old. I remember his parents had a basement where we could spread out a few sleeping bags and listen to music. This had to be around 1973 by my best guess. The reason I remember it so vividly had nothing to do with the [...]
One of Rock's reluctant stars, Eddie Vedder, turns 46 today. Born Edward Louis Severson III on December 23, 1964, Eddie is among those who kind of lose out by having their birthday synonymous with the Christmas season. I have a March birthday myself and I kind of like it. Forget about images of my parents getting busy in the back seat of a '57 Chevy in June of 1959, having a Spring birthday as The NCAA Tournament and the baseball season are heating up each year suits me just fine. It's only encroached on by St Patrick's Day, a drinking holiday for [...]
The Giant Panther
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Better Days
New Track: "Trying to Be Cool" (Moon Bounce Remix) - Phoenix
Giorgio Moroder - Live at Deep Space
Listen The Lonely Island and Solange together on “Semicolon”
