How NOT To Treat Your Fans

Jack White abruptly ended his sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday night, drawing the ire of fans who saw the former White Stripes frontman perform for just 45 minutes without an encore.

White, who is touring behind his recent solo album "Blunderbuss," was apparently unhappy with the historic New York venue's sound and left the stage, leaving 5,000 or so concertgoers--most of whom paid at least $40 per ticket--disillusioned.

Many fans, thinking it was an unusually early encore or setbreak, remained in the concert hall, some clapping and cheering to encourage White's return to the stage. But when ushers began to inform them that the show was over, their disillusionment turned to anger, and things got ugly.

"Fuck Jack White!" some chanted as they left Radio City. Others returned concert merchandise they had just bought.

"I've been waiting for an encore for longer than Jack White's set," Jeremy Current wrote on Twitter.

"I just paid $90 a ticket to see Jack White play for less than an hour?" Brian Pluta tweeted. "Fuck that guy."

"Jack White does NOT DESERVE to play in NEW YORK," John Kushay wrote. "EVER again."

It's unclear why White ended the show so abruptly. Some speculated he was irked by a less-than-enthusiastic response from the audience ("Jesus Christ, is this an NPR convention?" White asked at one point) or what Buzzfeed said were "a huge amount" of the tickets that went to scalpers. Others, though, claimed it was the poor acoustics.

"Mystery solved," Hunter Walker, a reporter for the New York Observer, tweeted. "Security guy [at] Radio City said Jack White 'wasn't happy with the sound.'"

Earlier this week during a performance in Boston, White apparently complained about the sound, too.

"Jack White is a control freak," the Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb wrote in his review. "Yes, he's obsessed with a sound, image and branding devoted to making him look like a mad genius. As he should be, that's what's rock 'n' roll is about." White eventually "relaxed into the night," the Herald said, with "a set of new songs, White Stripes classics, Raconteurs gems and a Hank Williams cover."

The 37-year-old Detroit native is something of a rock-and-roll diva, banning cellphones at his concerts. "All musicians can't stand looking out from the stage and seeing a thousand blue rectangles staring back at you," White told the New York Post in a recent interview. "No one likes it--you can ask anyone."

What is clear is that Saturday's show was the shortest of White's current tour. - By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News

Soundtracks Of My Life: Thrasher Magazine's Skate Rock!

Many of you reading this won't remember those ancient days when only a few people you knew had personal computers, there was no Internet, and if your friends didn't have music you wanted there was either the local record store or expensive mail order catalogs.  As a young teen, you certainly didn't have much money for mail orders, especially for music your parents didn't approve of.

Well, when I started skating in the mid-80s there was no way I was going to be able to find any recordings by any of these bands, whether I could afford all the music (I couldn't) or not.  Enter the Skate Rock series of compilations by Thrasher Magazine!  Thrasher put together cassettes full of Cali-derived skate punk/thrash/hardcore that went great with grindin' trucks and a boneless off the curb.

Was the music great on this?  On this particular volume, no, not really - but in my mind it was MANDATORY to play it on my stereo while skating in the driveway. 

Download HERE.

1. LOS OLVIDADOS "Listen To You"
2. THE BIG BOYS "Red/Green"
3. RIOT .303 "Murder The Prime Minister"
4. MINUS ONE "Bored Of It"
5. THE FACTION "A.U.K."
6. SKOUNDRELZ "Exterminator"
7. DRUNK INJUNS "Program"
8. J.F.A. "Great Equalizer"
9. RIOT .303 "Skate Punx"
10. MINUS ONE "I Remember John"
11. LOS OLVIDADOS "Don't Cry"
12. MINUS ONE "The Kids Don't Skate Here"
13. SKOUNDRELZ "Jimmy Closet"
14. RIOT .303 "Depression Session"
15. DRUNK INJUNS "Your Mama"
16. BLACK ATHLETES "Die Laughing"
17. THE FACTION "Boredom Awaits"
18. LOS OLVIDADOS "You're Dull"
19. MINUS ONE "Nick of Time"
20. RIOT .303 "Nightmares of Another Kind"
21. DRUNK INJUNS "Pumpshank"

Random Ticket Stub: Lou Reed - Sydney 1974

Peaches Teaches You How To Rock The Fuck Out

Peaches and Chilly Gonzales perform Suck And Let Go at the Teaches Of Peaches record release party in Berlin, October 2000.  Footage recorded by Electrigger TV.

Record Store Archaeology: Record Revolution

My dad bought this from Record Rev around the time it first came out in 1981.  It still has the shrink-wrap!

Bootleg Time - Tyrannosaurus Rex - "BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert"

I have had this bootleg for a long, long time and never gave it much of a listen.  Personally, I find Marc Bolan much more exciting when he's the aggressive Glitter Rock frontman.  Gimme the 20th Century Boy any day!  This psyche-folk persona with pretentious stream-of-consciousness lyrics does nothing for me.  Hopefully, some of y'all will enjoy the great psychedelic Dandy with his bongo-playing sideman, Mickey Finn.

On January 1, 1970, Marc Bolan, along with new partner Mickey Finn, performed a live show in the studio for the BBC. The concert was actually recorded for the first installment of John Peel's "Sunday Show," a forerunner to the "Live in Concert" series. Broadcast three days later, this 30-minute gig showcases Bolan's acoustic guitar work and delicate vocals (as in the love song "Dove") and Finn's flair with the bongos ("The Wizard"). A large part of the show covers A Beard of Stars, but also includes material from the earlier My People Were Fair and Prophet Seers and Sages, as well as the later T. Rex. A spare performance, Bolan stirs it up with two electric guitar pieces originally found on the superb A Beard of Stars: the excessive "Elemental Child," spotlighting Bolan's raw soloing, and a slightly altered version of "By the Light of a Magical Moon," Bolan's signature piece and the highlight of the show. The duo's energetic, spirited performance of "Debora" is an acoustic standout. Unfortunately, Bolan's compositions and playing, however groovy, were often elementary and overly repetitive. "Debora" is such a tune, musically and lyrically, as is the finale, "The Wizard." At over eight minutes, the excesses and redundancies of this acoustic piece render it simply annoying. While most of the recordings on BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert are solid, they aren't on a par with the studio album versions, failing to improve or expand upon them. At under 30 minutes, the release is also hampered by its brevity. Listen for Marc's mystical musings on God between two of the songs.  - Allmusic.com

Download HERE in lossless audio! 

 

Honoring An American Original - GG Allin

I can't tell if this dude is paying tribute to GG or just really, really hates him.  Either way, GG certainly asked for it.

J-Card Paradise: The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.

You aren't really seeing this.  It's an illusion.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the legendary, near-mythical L.A.M.F. cassette case J-card.  Wanna know where I got it?  Bet you're wondering if I have the cassette that came wrapped inside this paper Rock & Roll blanket, ain't ya?  Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.  You may wanna jump over to White Trash Soul.  Trust me.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre at the 9:30 Club

OK, what would be more appropriate than following up the Dandy Warhols gig I went to a few months ago with a Brian Jonestown Massacre show?!  Well, nothing, to be honest! 

I had no idea what to expect from BJM - shambolic?  volatile? - well, those adjectives are WAY off the mark, as what hit the stage was a loose, professional, dedicated band.  But before I roll into that, let me start from the beginning...which happened to be at a homosexual watering hole (or GAY BAR to those of you that don't know what Urban Dictionary is).

So, I met up with Coop after work, drove into the city, and then looked for a place to grab a drink before Brian joined up with us.  Well, what better place for a coupla guys to grab a beer than a sports bar, right?  Well...yes and no.  I noticed the rainbow-colored chalk sign outside of Nellie's Sports Bar  advertising an LGBT event, but didn't make much of it.  This is DC and politics are everywhere to be found.  Well, we went in and grabbed a beer...and noticed a couple of things.  Aside from the gay dudes at the bar, which normally wouldn't ring any bells, Coop looked at the wall and saw this:

Are you man enough for Nellie's?  Click HERE and find out!

Oops!  So, Coop finished off is drink, I finished my beer, and after some random dude slapped his buddy's ass we paid and left and met Brian at the Greek Spot for dinner.  I had a falafel that was quite good.  The falafel balls were a little soggy, but tasted great.

OK...onto the musical part of the night.  By the time we made it to the 9:30 the doors were open.  We hit up the bar again and waited for the opener, a band I'd never heard of called Magic Castles.  Brian, Coop, and I were thoroughly impressed.  A neo-Psyche-Space Rock kinda band with a great rhythm section - the bass and drums punched right through me - and jangly, melodic guitars and vocals.  Anton sat on a stool at the back of the stage and played tambourine for their first number and sang backup on the second. 



So, onto BJM.  The long and short of it is that they played a massive set lasting nearly THREE FUCKING HOURS!  Anton was in great spirits, as was the rest of the band.  I was NOT expecting a 5-guitar lineup:  At one point the roadie (who wore a dress) came to play some keyboards so the keyboardist could play a guitar! At varying times there were 2 12-strings, 2 6-strings, and the bass, and not once did it sound like a traffic jam.  It was a BAND.  

A great, great wall of sound spilled into the crowd.  The crowd was loud and responsive for every number, but reached another level when Matt Hollywood took charge.  I will never, EVER miss another BJM show.








Here are some photos from the FUZZY LOGIC blog!

Anton

Joel Gion's unending cool on the tambourine and maracas.

Matt Hollywood

Joel and Frankie "Teardrop" Emerson

Daniel Allaire

Collin Hegna

Teardrop, Rob Campanella, and Ricky Maymi

The Setlist 

01 Stairway To The Best Party In The Universe
02 Vacuum Boots
03 I Want to Hold Your Other Hand
04 Got My Eye on You
05 Anemone
06 Wisdom
07 Viholliseni Maalla ->
08 Super Sonic
09 This Is Why You Love Me
10 You Have Been Disconnected
11 There's A War Going On (Bobby Jameson Cover)
12 Not if You Were The Last Dandy On Earth
13 The Clouds Are Lies
14 David Bowie I Love You Since I Was Six
15 Walking Up To Hand Grenades
16 Jennifer
17 Who?
18 Open Heart Surgery
19 Prozac Vs. Heroin
20 Sailor -> Jam
21 That Girl Suicide
23 Servo
24 Oh Lord
25 Straight Up And Down 

26 Feedback...end...