Blog: Altrok's Rantcast

Well folks it's time to announce the date for the 4th Annual Pinfield Era Melody Bar Reunion, which just so happens to be Saturday February 27th, 2010. Once again we will be at the Elk's Lodge in downtown New Brunswick. We'll start around 7 pm and rock until midnight. All your favorite DJ's from back in the day will be there spinning all the great music from our glorious past, including Matt Pinfield, of course... We raised a ton of money for the Elk's charities last year I look forward to us stuffing their pockets [...]

Pete Santiago 's always been committed to the annual Old-School Melody Bar Reunion (which should be happening this year a bit earlier than usual - late January dates are being tossed around) but this year he's going further. How much further? If you've ever tried to create a top-100 list for anything, you know how much work that can be...but that's what Pete wants to do, and we're fully behind letting him do it. He continues: Anyone who has ever gone to the Melody can play along... all you [...]

Thursday, November 12, 2009 Joan Osborne, Holmes Brothers and Paul Thorn at BB King's Rob Thomas, Onerepublic and Carolina Liar at Beacon Theatre Rakes at Highline Ballroom Mavis Staples and Marshall Crenshaw at Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown NY Penn & Teller at Gramercy Theatre Drivin & Cryin at World Cafe Live, Philly Kyle Hollingsworth (x-String Cheese Incident) at Sullivan Hall Aster Pheonyx and Mash McLain at The Saint Radney Foster, Mark Erelli and Matthew Ryan at Living Room [...]

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Dan Auerbach at Webster Hall The Academy is..., Mayday Parade, Set Your Goals, The Secret Handshake and You Me At Six at Irving Plaza Ghostface (of Wu Tang) at BB King's Roger Daltrey at Wellmont Theatre Neko Case and Joey Burns & John Convertino at Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown NY Joe Perry Project at Starland Ballroom [...]

Friday, November 6, 2009 Jesse Cook at BB King's Bill Maher at Wellmont Theatre John Pinette at Community Theatre at Mayo Center for Performing Arts, Morristown Dana Fuchs at Highline Ballroom Monsters Of Folk at United Palace Amy Milan (of Stars and Broken Social Scene) at Bell House, Bklyn Bo Burnham at Starland Ballroom Keb Mo and Kristina Train at Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown NY Rick Barry at Old Man Rafferty's Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles at [...]

Kings Of Leon launch clothing line. Are you kidding me? I mean, okay, I get that there's no reason to expect that their newfound top-40 fame will last forever, and it'd be nice if licensing brings in an extra buck or two, but...there's just nothing about Kings Of Leon that makes me think "that's how I wanna dress." And, assuming I do want to dress like them, there's nothing stopping me going to Target (no slight against Target, mind you) and doing that. Though I wouldn't mind these [...]

The Insignia pocket-size HD Radio available at Best Buy is actually a very nice portable radio at a fairly cheap price ($50); here's why: It's small. It sounds rather nice when you're listening to regular FM stations. It sounds very nice indeed when you listen to HD radio stations. If the HD radio station is running separate audio streams (HD2 and HD3), it lets you hear them. ...but it's got some negatives: It only has a USB charging cable, so you need [...]

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 Powerman 5000 at Gramercy Theatre Say Anything, Eisley, Moneen and Miniature Tigers at Irving Plaza Laura Izibor at Highline Ballroom Richard Shidell at World Cafe Live, Philly Laura Warshauer at Red Lion For more on the next four weeks of shows: Click here for the list of shows or here [...]

The odd saga of the signal at the very bottom of New York City's FM dial - so far down, in fact, that it's not actually part of the FM dial - took yet another odd turn this weekend, as the 87.75 FM frequency (actually the audio portion of analog TV channel 6) changed from dance music formatted Pulse 87 run by a now-insolvent nascent media group to...dance music formatted Party FM (itself actually a simulcast of Party 105.3 out on eastern Long Island.) Because of Party 105.3's history, I've [...]

Monday, November 2, 2009 The Ventures at BB King's For more on the next four weeks of shows: Click here for the list of shows or here for the artists that are playing or here for all the venues that are doing shows.

Need a few tracks for your Halloween? We'll be running a collection of our favorite Halloween tracks starting at 6PM Eastern tonight, and continuing through to 8AM Sunday (Eastern Daylight Time - we're ignoring the time change...)

Saturday, October 31, 2009 Capitol Steps at Count Basie Theatre Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams at Gramercy Theatre Misfits at BB King's Get Up Kids and Kevin Devine at Irving Plaza World Inferno Friendship Society and O'Death at Grand Ballroom/Manhattan Center Robert Earl Keen at Wellmont Theatre Thievery Corporation at Terminal 5 [...]

Stiffy Biceptz is disgusted, has had enough, and must speak out on a topic that has burned me up for awhile now. Some bands are completely defined by their key members. If that key member leaves the band or dies, the band dies with them. That's not an opinion, it's an immutable fact, like gravity, or death. Whether or not the other members of the band want to continue on or not is irrelevant. The band as it was known, the synthesis of all the parts that made the band what it was is dead and gone forever [...]

Friday, October 30, 2009 Living Colour at Highline Ballroom Dethklok, Mastodon, Converge and High On Fire at Hammerstein Ballroom Steven Wright at Wellmont Theatre Cypress Hill at Nokia Theatre Get Up Kids and Kevin Devine at Gramercy Theatre Pinback and Obits at Irving Plaza Misfits at Starland Ballroom Robert Earl Keen, Todd [...]

Thursday, October 29, 2009 Keb Mo and Kristina Train at Count Basie Theatre Hooters at BB King's Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider and Bruce Robison at Town Hall Blackmore's Night at Irving Plaza Hollywood Undead, Atreyu, Escape The Fate and Sleeping at Roseland Ballroom Snoop Dogg and Method Man & Redman at Nokia Theatre For more [...]

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Chad & Jeremy at BB King's Julio Iglesias at Count Basie Theatre Raise The Roof: A Benefit For The Northside Town Community & Cultural Center w, Charles Bissell (of The Wrens), They Might Be Giants and Nada Surf (acoustic) at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Bklyn Snoop Dogg and Method Man & Redman at Starland Ballroom A Fine Frenzy and Among The Oak And Ash [...]

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Guy Clark and Elizabeth Cook at BB King's Vic Chesnutt Band (feat Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion), Godspeed you! black emperor, Witchies and Clare & The Reasons at Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Bklyn Cartel and Roadrunner at Gramercy Theatre Australian Pink Floyd at Hammerstein Ballroom Used and Almost at Roseland Ballroom Krashkarma at The Saint [...]

Monday, October 26, 2009 Brian Wilson at Count Basie Theatre Vic Chesnutt Band (feat Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion), Godspeed you! black emperor, Witchies and Clare & The Reasons at Bowery Ballroom Steve Morse Band at BB King's For more on the next four weeks of shows: Click here for the list of shows or here for the artists that are playing [...]

I can say I played Nirvana before "Smells Like Teen Spirit" , but honestly not by much - I managed to completely miss the boat on "Bleach" , but played the hell out of the "Sliver" single when it came out. Even so, sales of 40,000 on "Bleach"'s original release is nothing to sneeze at; it's almost certainly what made Geffen Records stand up, take notice, and sign those callow lads. They probably also didn't realize they were signing two geniuses (Cobain was a savant; Grohl clearly wound up far more in [...]

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