Michel Pagliaro celebrates Walk of Fame honour @ The Phoenix, Saturday

Canada's Walk of Fame honouree Michel Pagliaro celebrates tonight with a rare Toronto show at The Phoenix Concert Theatre. 

Happy Birthday Gregg Kostelich of The Cynics

Cheers to The Captain on his birthday! Here's Gregg with The Cynics on Rockpalast in 2007 and some documentary footage. 

Catl returns to rock the Casbah in Hamilton, Saturday

If you're in Hamilton on Saturday, don't miss Catl with the Carrie Clark Band and Rocket & The Renegades. Get tickets here.

Remembering songwriter and singer Tommy Boyce on his birthday

Remembering Tommy Boyce – one half of the Monkees' Boyce & Hart songwriting duo – with Bobby Hart interview. 

One For The Weekend: Equipe 84

Since it's September 29th, here's Modena's finest Equipe 84 performing their psych-pop classic "29 Settembre" for the cameras.  

Montreal's Steel Saddle w/ Roy, Rogue Tenant @ Monarch Tavern, Thursday

Montreal country crew Steel Saddle are back for another pickin' party at the Monarch with Roy and Rogue Tenant. Doors at 8pm. 

Get tickets for Steel Saddle's show at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton) right here. 

Remembering Brazilian soul great Tim Maia

Celebrating the birthday of Tim Maia with a short introductory video and a couple of his brilliant Racional albums. 

Happy Birthday John Gilmore!

Remembering saxophone great John Gilmore on his birthday with a couple of his performances with Sun Ra's Arkestra.

Watch Jon Spencer and crew bash out "Ghost" and "Dang"

Here's a Jon Spencer with M. Sord, Sam Coomes and Bob Bert knocking out "Ghost" and "Dang" in Houston way back in 2019. 

Happy Birthday Randy Bachman!

Celebrating Randy Bachman's 80th birthday with The Guess Who's classic ripper "It's My Pride" and a Valerie Pringle interview. 

Bob Pollard previews new Circus Devils album with nutty "Here We Are" clip

The new Circus Devils album, Squeeze The Needle, is out October 27th via GBV Inc. Check out "Here We Are" below.

Happy Birthday Gary Bartz!

Celebrating the 83rd birthday of saxophonist Gary Bartz with a 1974 performance of Dr. Follow's Dance and a Jazz Is Dead show.

R.I.P. David McCallum, 1933-2023

Sadly actor/musician David McCallum – who played Ilya Kuryakin on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. – has passed away at 90. 

Black Milk shares clips from new album Everybody Good?

Check out the videos for "Downs Got Up," "Wait Til Fate" and "Ain't Nobody Coming Down To Save You" all starring Black Milk

Watch a film about pianist Glenn Gould and an Alex Trebek interview

Since it's Glenn Gould's birthday, check out "Genius Within: The Inner Life Of Glenn Gould" following an Alex Trebek interview. 

Happy Birthday Michael Gibbs!

Celebrating the birthday of composer/musician Michael Gibbs with a performance featuring pals Bill Frisell and Gary Burton.

Nas reflects on his career in hip hop, Large Professor discusses Illmatic

Nas gets the Billboard spotlight and producer Large Professor talks about Illmatic with Talib Kweli for the People's Party. 

Happy Birthday Allen "Tarheel Slim" Bunn!

Remembering singer/guitarist Tarheel Slim on his birthday with his rockin' "Number 9 Train" cut for Bobby Robinson's Fury label. 

Max Décharné discusses King's Road with Miriam Linna on Waterloo Underground

Musician/author Max Décharné gives Miriam Linna the lowdown on London's King's Road during the swingin' 60s. 

Here's the scoop on King's Road...

The King's Road in Chelsea was at the epicentre of not one, but two worldwide cultural shifts. In the mid-sixties, it became a focal point and shop window for the new ‘swinging’ London, encompassing music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion and much more. It remained at the forefront of developing trends throughout the following decade until it became the breeding-ground for UK punk rock, helping inspire youthful rebellion the world over.

In short, it was the place to be. In the time between the formation of the Rolling Stones and the demise of the Sex Pistols, the King’s Road had the attention of the world. Just how this came to be is a classic rise-and-fall story of satisfaction and sedition, featuring some of the most famous people of the late twentieth century and many of the pivotal moments of the fifties, sixties and seventies.

This revised and expanded edition of King’s Road covers the cultural history of the King’s Road, tracking many key figures who lived or spent time there, from Henry VIII to David Bowie, Margaret Thatcher to Vivienne Westwood, Karl Marx to The Beatles, and Mozart to Mary Quant.

Max Décharné is a writer and musician from London. His other books include Vulgar Tongues, Hardboiled Hollywood, Straight From The Fridge, Dad and A Rocket In My Pocket. He has written about music for MOJO magazine since 1998, and his work has also appeared in the Spectator, the Sunday Times Colour Magazine, the Observer, the Guardian and the TLS, among others. 

Max was the drummer in Ironfish and more famously, Gallon Drunk, then the singer and principal songwriter with The Flaming Stars. In a long and varied career in the music business, he has recorded many albums and singles, nine John Peel Sessions and played shows all across the USA, Canada, virtually every country in Europe and in Japan.

What the critics are saying about King's Road:

'Razor-sharp history of London's coolest rock route. A towering feat... the threads linking the cultural hotspots and characters are so skilfully woven. Essential for swingers and squares alike.' 8* Classic Rock

‘A gloriously forensic expansion… happily the vanishing art of investigative writing survives in this magnificent tribute now destined to sit with the UK’s great socio-cultural chronicles’ 4**** Kris Needs, Record Collector

'In Max Décharné's thoroughly researched and entertaining book, the ghosts of London’s past collide almost on every page.' Louder Than War

'Comprehensive and incredibly entertaining' Loupe Magazine

Get a copy Max Décharné's King's Road via Omnibus Press right here. Listen to his chat with Miriam Linna on Waterloo Underground. 

 

Happy Birthday Joe Hill Louis!

Remembering Memphis one-man-band Joe Hill Louis on his birthday with a couple of his boogie blues classics. 

Thurston Moore's Sonic Life memoir due October 24

Thurston Moore tells the Sonic Youth origin story of how he got from Connecticut to Manhattan's East Village in Sonic Life. 

Here's the scoop...

From the founding member of Sonic Youth, a passionate memoir tracing the author’s life and art—from his teen years as a music obsessive in small-town Connecticut, to the formation of his legendary rock group, to thirty years of creation, experimentation, and wonder

Thurston Moore moved to Manhattan’s East Village in 1978 with a yearning for music.  He wanted to be immersed in downtown New York’s sights and sounds—the feral energy of its nightclubs, the angular roar of its bands, the magnetic personalities within its orbit.  But more than anything, he wanted to make music—to create indelible sounds that would move, provoke, and inspire.

His dream came to life in 1981 with the formation of Sonic Youth, a band Moore cofounded with Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo.  Sonic Youth became a fixture in New York’s burgeoning No Wave scene—an avant-garde collision of art and sound, poetry and punk.  The band would evolve from critical darlings to commercial heavyweights, headlining festivals around the globe while helping introduce listeners to such artists as Nirvana, Hole, and Pavement, and playing alongside such icons as Neil Young and Iggy Pop.  Through it all, Moore maintained an unwavering love of music: the new, the unheralded, the challenging, the irresistible.

In the spirit of Just Kids, Sonic Life offers a window into the trajectory of a celebrated artist and a tribute to an era of explosive creativity.  It presents a firsthand account of New York in a defining cultural moment, a history of alternative rock as it was birthed and came to dominate airwaves, and a love letter to music, whatever the form.  This is a story for anyone who has ever felt touched by sound—who knows the way the right song at the right moment can change the course of a life.

Get a copy of Thurston Moore's Sonic Life from Penguin Random House right here. Read Thurston's instagram announcement for Sonic Life followed by a recent interview with Daniel Belo on a sunny beach in Portugal below. 

Teenage Fanclub get quietly reflective on Nothing Lasts Forever album

The tracks for Nothing Lasts Forever were cut in a ten-day Rockfield Studios session where socks were apparently left unrocked off. 

Here's the scoop on Nothing Lasts Forever...

The first sound you hear is a sustained feedback note that hangs in the air with the grace of a dragonfly before an acoustic riff spirals out of it, soaring upwards. It’s blissful and sun-soaked, like a late summer haze blurring out all the details on the horizon. When voices join the music, they arrive perfectly locked together, honed in on a single melody. “It’s time to move along / and leave the past behind me…” The message is simple. Don’t look back, only forward. 

Foreign Land is the opening track on Teenage Fanclub’s eleventh full studio album Nothing Lasts Forever (out today). That track - and the rest of this beautifully rich and melodic album - is the sound of a season’s end, of the last warm days of the year while nights begin to draw in and thoughts become reflective and more than a little melancholy. 

Norman Blake on Foreign Land: “The song is about moving forward, not dwelling on the past. We shot the video in Hamilton Mausoleum, near Glasgow. Given that the album is called Nothing Lasts Forever we thought it would be appropriate to shoot a video inside a tomb.” Watch the video for "Foreign Land" – shot by longtime collaborator Donald Milne – below. 

That reflection is everywhere on the record, whether on the autumnal folk rock of Tired Of Being Alone that repositions Laurel Canyon to somewhere deep in the heart of the Wye Valley, the William Blake quoting Self-Sedation or on the song that preceded Nothing Lasts Forever’s completion, last year’s I Left A Light On, where a spark of hope is kept alight at the end of a relationship. 

One of the recurring themes on Nothing Lasts Forever is light, as a both a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. Although the band’s songwriters Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley found themselves touching on similar themes, it was pure coincidence. 

Raymond: “We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record. We don’t plan much other than the nuts and bolts of where we’re going to record and when. That thing about light was completely accidental; we didn’t realize that until we’d finished half the songs. The record feels reflective, and I think the more we do this thing, the more we become comfortable with going to that place of melancholy, feeling and expressing those feelings. 

Norman: “These songs are definitely personal. You’re getting older, you’re going into the cupboard getting the black suit out more often. Thoughts of mortality and the idea of the light must have been playing on our minds a lot. The songs on the last record were influenced by the breakup of my marriage. It was cathartic to write those songs. These new songs are reflective of how I’m feeling now, coming out of that period. They’re fairly optimistic, there’s an acceptance of a situation and all of the experience that comes with that acceptance. When we write, it’s a reflection of our lives, which are pretty ordinary. We’re not extraordinary people, and normal people get older. There’s a lot to write about in the mundane. I love reading Raymond Carver. Very often there’s not a lot that happens in those stories, but they speak to lived experience.” 

While the vocals and the finishing touches on Nothing Lasts Forever were recorded at Raymond’s place in Glasgow, the music was recorded in an intense ten-day period in the bucolic Welsh countryside at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in late August. You can hear the effect of that environment on the record - it’s full of soft breeze, wide skies, beauty and space. 

Raymond: “We like to get something out of where we go, and you can definitely hear a stamp of Rockfield on the record. We recorded our album Howdy there in the late ’90s. Prior to that I’d been a bit reluctant to go as everyone seemed to record there, especially if you were signed to Creation, but I thought I’d go and have a look at the place. When I went down there, I loved the fact that there’s no memorabilia about anyone who’s ever been in the studio. The only visual musical reference is a picture of Joe Meek on their office wall. Anyway, over twenty years after our first visit we decided to go back. When you’re there, it feels like your place. We’re really rubbish at trying to find words to describe how our music sounds, but maybe because we recorded in Rockfield in late summer, there’s something pastoral about the record.” 

The band that recorded Nothing Lasts Forever - Blake, McGinley along with Francis Macdonald on drums, Dave McGowan on bass and Euros Childs on keyboards - arrived at the residential studio without a fixed plan. Their confidence and ease with working together meant the record came together incredibly quickly. 

Raymond: “When we got offered ten days in Rockfield, we weren’t ready in our minds but then we just thought, ‘Fuck it’ and went for it. If you’re sitting around waiting for the stars to align, you can end up never doing anything. We turned up and worked our way through ideas, and came up with some while we were there. The song Foreign Land was born in the studio. If we hadn’t gone there at that point through happenstance, that song wouldn’t exist. We like to let things happen. As people, we find a deadline inspiring. We like to put ourselves on the spot and see what happens. We usually get away with it. This record is the cliche of the blank canvas, which thankfully we managed to fill.” 

Norman “We’ve all been playing together for such a long time. In the past, whoever had written the song would have been the director. ‘This is how I’m hearing the drums, if you could play the bass like this…’ We don’t do that now. Raymond or myself would just bring in the idea and people would listen and play what works with it. We’d play for a couple of hours and that would be the arrangement. There’s a trust that comes from knowing each other such a long time, a kind of telepathy. Everyone knows where they fit in the puzzle.” 

One of the most striking lyrics on the record is on the closing track I Will Love You. A gorgeous seven minute almost Kosmiche acoustic daydream drone, it looks to a point beyond the fury and polarisation of our modern discourse, to a time when “the bigots are gone/after they apologise/for all the harm that they’ve done.”

Raymond “In many ways, us-and-them-ism has taken over the world. I Will Love You is looking for positivity but it’s being totally fatalistic at the same time. This shit will exist forever, what are you going to do about it. I came up with the line “I will love you/until the flags are put down/and the exceptionalists are buried under the ground” while I was playing the guitar. I started wondering what that was all about and where it might go. It’s looking for positives within a fatalistic, negative view of human nature.” 

Looking for positives while faced with the grim realities of the 21st century feels very Teenage Fanclub - a band who’ve been a force for good for over three decades and who can effortlessly turn melancholy into glorious, chiming harmony. Get a copy of Nothing Lasts Forever via Bandcamp right here. Watch a short zoom interview with Norman Blake followed by the video for "Foreign Land" and an audio clip for the closer "I Will Love You" following the track listing below. 

Teenage Fanclub – Nothing Lasts Forever

1. Foreign Land 

2. Tired Of Being Alone 

3. I Left A Light On 

4. See The Light 

5. It’s Alright 

6. Falling Into The Sun 

7. Self-Sedation 

8. Middle Of My Mind 

9. Back To The Light 

10. I Will Love You

Happy Birthday Marlena Shaw!

Celebrating the birthday of Marlena Shaw with two versions of "Woman Of The Ghetto." Where's the Montreux 1973 live footage?

Ian Blurton's Future Now @ Maxwell's in Waterloo, Sept. 23

Ian Blurton's Future Now shares the bill with By Divine Right and Hung at Maxwell's (35 University Ave, East). Get tickets here.

One For The Weekend: Nolan Chance

Here's "Just Like The Weather," Windy City soul gem by Nolan Chance that became a popular spin on the UK Northern soul scene.

Behind the mix of The Replacements' Tim album with Ed Stasium & Bob Mehr

Ed Stasium & Bob Mehr discuss mixing the Let It Bleed edition of The Replacements' Tim album.  

James McMurtry, BettySoo @ The Horseshoe, Friday

Texas tunesmith James McMurtry – a favourite of Stephen King & Patterson Hood – plays a rare T.O. show at the 'Shoe on Friday. 

Here's the scoop on James McMurtry's The Horses and the Hounds:

In James McMurtry’s new effort, The Horses and the Hounds, the acclaimed songwriter backs personal narratives with effortless elegance (“Canola Fields”) and endless energy (“If It Don’t Bleed”). This first collection in seven years spotlights a seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns toward reflection (“Vaquero”) and revelation (closer “Blackberry Winter”). Familiar foundations guide the journey. “There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.”

The Horses and the Hounds is a reunion of sorts. McMurtry recorded the new album with legendary producer Ross Hogarth (Ozzy Osbourne, John Fogerty, Van Halen, Keb’ Mo’) at Jackson Browne’s Groovemaster’s in Santa Monica, California. Hogarth recorded McMurtry’s first two albums, Too Long in the Wasteland and Candyland and later mixed McMurtry’s first self-produced album, Saint Mary of the Woods. Another veteran of those three releases, guitarist David Grissom (Joe Ely, John Mellencamp, Dixie Chicks), returns with some of his finest work.

Get a copy of James McMurtry's great new double album The Horses and the Hounds via New West Records right here. Check out the title track followed by a recent performance below. 

 

LINKS

The Arts Fuse Singer/songwriter James McMurtry: Playing With Words

R.I.P. Belgian songwriter/producer Lou Deprijck, 1946-2023

Belgian music producer Lou Deprijck – who co-wrote and sang Plastic Bertrand's hit "Ça plane pour moi" has passed away at 77.  

LINKS

NME.com Belgian composer of punk hit "Ça plane pour moi," Lou Deprijck dies

Kensington Market Jazz Fest: Elizabeth Shephard Trio @ Tapestry, Sept. 29

Elizabeth Shepherd will be joined by Scott Kemp & Colin Kingsmore at Tapestry on Sept. 29 from 9-10pm. $25 cash only cover.

KMJF runs from Friday (Sept 29) through Sunday (Oct. 1) and events are cash only. Check the schedule here.

Dennis Graham discusses Drake's connection with Memphis

Since it's Dennis Graham's birthday today, here's a recent ABC24 Memphis-TV news story about Dennis and his son Drake.

Happy Birthday Eddie Bo!

Celebrating the birthday of New Orleans legend Eddie Bo with a piano performance, a Little Richard fave and a rare 1977 LP.   

R.I.P. James Pobiega, aka Little Howlin' Wolf, 1950-2023

Colourful Chicago street musician James Pobiega, aka Little Howlin' Wolf & Buccaneer Bob, has passed away at the age of 73. 

Woody Shaw's Blackstone Legacy debut recirculated on vinyl by Jazz Dispensary

Jazz Dispensary's new 2LP version of Woody Shaw's Blackstone Legacy was remastered by Kevin Gray from the original tapes. 

Here's the scoop from Jazz Dispensary...

Blackstone Legacy, the 1971 debut from influential trumpeter Woody Shaw, has been made available again on vinyl by Jazz Dispensary as part of their Top Shelf series. An elusive grail for many cratediggers, this 2-LP release marks the first reissue of the album in over 50 years. Showcasing the musician’s virtuosic talents as a bandleader, composer and improviser, this politically charged, postmodern classic also boasts impeccable performances by Gary Bartz, Lenny White, Ron Carter, Bernie Maupin, Clint Houston and George Cables.

As with all the releases in the Top Shelf series of reissues, Blackstone Legacy has been meticulously remastered (AAA) from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl at RTI. The 2-LP album is housed in a gatefold tip-on jacket, featuring faithfully reproduced designs, as well as Nat Hentoff’s original liner notes, which include commentary by Shaw. Blackstone Legacy is out now. Get it from your platform of choice right here. 

A pioneering figure in modern jazz, Woody Shaw (1944–1989) was revered for his unique harmonic approach and innovative technical abilities on the trumpet. Raised in Newark, NJ, Shaw began performing as a teenager, gaining formative experience as a sideman for the legendary saxophonist Eric Dolphy and spending over a year in Paris, where he honed his craft in clubs across Europe. In the mid-’60s, Shaw returned to the US, where he worked alongside such greats as Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Andrew Hill, Max Roach and Art Blakey. By the turn of the decade, however, Shaw was eager to branch out on his own.

Balancing the past with the future, Shaw sought to honour his bebop roots, while embracing the avant-garde. His debut as a leader, Blackstone Legacy, embodied that stylistic bridge. Recorded in December 1970 and released the following year on Contemporary Records, the album featured some of the era’s most exciting talents, including funk-jazz icon Gary Bartz (alto and soprano saxophone), veteran bassist Ron Carter and fusion pioneer Lenny White (drums), plus such innovators as Bernie Maupin (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet) and Clint Houston (electric bass), as well as the esteemed keyboardist George Cables, whose work as a composer is also highlighted on two of the LP’s tracks (“Think On Me” and “New World”).

Shaw spoke to Nat Hentoff about his intentions behind the record. “We’re trying to express what’s happening in the world today as we—a new breed of young musicians—feel it. I mean the different tensions in the world, the ridiculous war in Vietnam, the oppression of poor people in this, a country of such wealth. . . . We’re all also trying to reach a state of spiritual enlightenment in which we’re continually aware of what’s happening but react in a positive way. The music in this album, you see, expresses strength – confidence that we’ll overcome these things.”

Shaw added that the album was dedicated to the era’s youth, as well as to “the freedom of Black people all over the world.” He continued, “The ‘stone’ in the title is the image of strength. I grew up in a ghetto . . . I’ve seen all of that, and I’ve seen people overcome all of that. This music is meant to be a light of hope, a sound of strength and of coming through.”

The six tracks on Blackstone Legacy are expansive, allowing each of the musicians to embark on heady, improvisational journeys. The album opens with the dynamic, 16-minute-long title track, during which Shaw shines as a leader, as he confidently guides the septet through the energetic composition. Another highlight is the free-bop “Lost and Found,” which boasts several impressive drum solos by White, as well as the joyful “Boo-Ann’s Grand” (dedicated to Shaw’s wife, Betty Ann). The Cables-penned “New World,” meanwhile, offers phenomenally funky interplay—particularly between the electric pianist and Houston, who delivers plenty of groovy wah-wahs on the bass. The record closes on a reflective note, with a tribute to Shaw’s late mentor, “A Deed for Dolphy.”

In his liner notes for the album, Hentoff extolled, “What is so arresting about the performances . . . are the extraordinary range of colours; the fascinating dialogues and trialogues among the horns; the brilliantly fused rhythm section; the quite astonishing multiple-time-levels drumming by Lenny White; the sound of Bernie Maupin’s bass clarinet . . . and the unusually evocative textures George Cables creates on electric piano.” He adds that Blackstone Legacy would be “one of those records people are going to take care of because years hence, it is going to be a milestone, as it were, in a singularly influential career.”

Certainly, the critics agreed—and still do. Reflecting on the album decades later, AllMusic declared it to be “a landmark recording, and a pivot point in the history of post-modern music.” Blackstone Legacy launched a new era for Shaw, who would go on to release more than two dozen albums as a leader, including the Grammy-nominated Rosewood (1978). Throughout the rest of his life, the prolific trumpeter, flugelhorn and cornet player continued to perform regularly as a sideman, appearing on records by Azar Lawrence, Bobby Hutcherson and Dexter Gordon, among many others. Dubbed “The Last Great Trumpet Innovator” by NPR, Shaw also dedicated much of his time to educating and mentoring others, while his work directly impacted the “Young Lion” generation of horn players, including Terence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis and Chris Botti—the latter two of whom studied under Shaw in the ’80s.

Shaw was a consistent favourite in the DownBeat Reader’s Poll, earning such awards as Best Trumpeter (1980) and Jazz Album of the Year (Rosewood, 1978), while in 1989, he was inducted posthumously into DownBeat’s Hall of Fame. Perhaps even more importantly, Shaw was universally respected by his peers, heroes and fans— including Dizzy Gillespie (“Woody Shaw is one of the voices of the future”) and Miles Davis (“Now there’s a great trumpet player. He can play different from all of them”).

Listen to a digital version of Woody Shaw's Blackstone Legacy following Jazz Dispensary's promotional clip for their reissue below. 

Happy Birthday Daniel Lanois!

Celebrating the birthday of songwriter, musician and producer Dan Lanois with a wide ranging three-hour chat with Rick Beato. 

DJ Muggs connects with Kool Keith for Divinity soundtrack

Check out "Divinity 2 Infinity: The Odyssey" by DJ Muggs & Kool Keith off the soundtrack for Eddie Alcazar's sci-fi flick Divinity

R.I.P. comic book artist Joe Matt, 1963-2023

Sadly, cartoonist Joe Matt, creator of the autobiographical Peepshow, has passed away at age 60. He'll be greatly missed. 

LINKS

Bleeding Cool Joe Matt, creator of Peepshow, has died at 60

CBR.com Joe Matt, acclaimed creator of Peepshow, passes away at age 60