Category: Friday Night Rock-Out

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Never Say Never”

Let’s face it. New Wave music has a bad rap. It’s associated with bad 1980s movies and “Old Wave” nostalgia night at your local dance club. 

Having grown up in the era of both punk music and New Wave, I can say with some authority that New Wave music, at its best, was every bit as powerful—and a lot more meaningful—than punk. In fact, New Wave gave us some of the best music of the 20th Century. The Talking Heads. Blondie. Gary Numan. And on and on.

One of my favorite songs of the era is this little number by Romeo Void. You might remember it from an obscure (but not bad) 1980s movie called Reckless starring Aiden Quinn and Daryll Hannah, who dance to the song in one surprisingly effective scene.

I like the song because it’s like a mash-up of The Sex Pistols and a San Francisco poetry-slam. It hits.

Rock on…

BONUS: Here is that scene from Reckless…

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Listen to Her Heart”

Of the hundreds of kids who graduate from Gainesville High School every year, relatively few (I’m guessing) are aware that they attended the same school as the late, great Tom Petty. (My son Connor definitely was aware because I was constantly reminding him of it, to his annoyance. LOL.) Petty is still Gainesville’s most famous native son, and with good reason. He was one of the greatest rock musicians of his generation. In fact, I think of him as America’s version of David Bowie—brilliant, inventive, always changing and yet always the same.

(Fun fact: one of Gainesville’s other famous sons, Don Felder, taught Petty how to play piano, or guitar, depending on who you ask.)

My favorites of Petty’s songs are the early classics like this one, “Listen to her Heart.” If you’ve ever feared losing a lover to a rival with a lot of money and cocaine (and who hasn’t?), this song is for you.

Rock on…

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Trouble”

Forget Van Halen. Forget Hendrix. Forget Clapton. Lindsey Buckingham is the greatest guitarist in the history of rock music. Don’t believe me? Listen to this song, “Trouble,” from his 1981 solo album Law and Order. If it doesn’t transport you to another plane of existence—yes, forgive the cliche; to an actual soundscape—then you need to get your ears checked.

Buckingham was, of course, the driving force behind Fleetwood Mac’s second incarnation, when they produced one of the greatest rock LPs of all time, Rumours. (When he joined the band, he insisted they also hire his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, who also had a bit to do with the group’s ultimate success.) As band leader Mick Fleetwood saw at the time, Buckingham is not just an incredible guitarist, he is also a phenomenally talented song-writer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer.

Getting back to his guitar playing, though, let me add that Buckingham uses an usual finger-picking technique—more like a banjo-player—which he employs in a variety of styles and with amazing creativity. That creativity is on full display here. 

Rock on…

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Eighties”

If you’ve ever gone to a dance club on “Old-Wave Night” when they play the greatest alterna-hits of the late 1970s and 80s, you’ve almost certainly heard this song. I, of course, am old enough to have heard it on its original run, when it still had complete cultural currency. (Personally, I think it still does.)

Killing Joke was not only one of the wittiest and most subversive bands of the era, they were one of the most talented. And hard-hitting. You know you’ve done something right when later classic bands such as Metallica, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, and Nirvana site you as an influence. In fact, Kurt Cobain liked Geordie Walker’s guitar playing so much that he borrowed from it heavily on Nirvana’s great hit, “Come as You Are.” As one of the song’s producers explained, 

…we couldn’t decide between ‘Come as You Are’ and ‘In Bloom.’ Kurt [Cobain] was nervous about ‘Come as You Are’ because it was too similar to a Killing Joke song but we all thought it was still the better song to go with. And, he was right, Killing Joke later did complain about it.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?

Rock on…

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Oscar Wilde”

Indie rock is famously difficult to define but I know it when I hear it. It’s got something to do with the DIY quality of the music, and the pared down nature of the arrangements.

My favorite Indie band of the last twenty years is Company of Thieves. I first heard them on Daryl Hall’s wonderful YouTube show Live from Daryl’s House, and I was struck by the power and passion of Genevieve Schatz’s singing, as well as Marc Walloch’s impressive guitar chops. They reminded me a bit of The Pixies and some other great bands that I used to listen to in college. 

Rock on…

BONUS: Here is Company of Thieves’ cover of The Zombies’ Time of the Season on Live from Daryl’s House…

What I’m Reading: “Dancing with Myself”

Dancing with Myself book

In any given decade, one or two musicians discovers exactly the right sound, look, and vibe to capture the spirit of the times. Such “triple-threat” artists are rare. Elvis Presley was one. David Bowie was another.

For many in my generation of kids growing up in the early 1980s, there were two such figures. One was Madonna. The other was Billy Idol. Unless you were a teenager in that dark, troubled time, you can’t imagine what a huge impact Idol had on youth culture. Let’s start with his look, an ingenious mix of pre-Goth romanticism (complete with black leather and rosary beads) and science-fiction cyberpunk (he had the same peroxide blond hair and chiseled features as Rutger Hauer’s Nazi replicant in Blade Runner).

Idol looked like…well…an idol. A pop idol, that is. But it was his sound that really mattered. Just as Elvis took the energy and soul of R&B and turned into something that middle-class, white American kids could enjoy, Idol took the punk sound of 1970s London and turned it into kick-ass American hard rock. His early hits like “White Wedding” and “Mony, Mony” stuck out a mile on FM radio (not to mention MTV, where they stuck out two miles). Not only were his songs vicious and fast, they had an actual beat; you could dance to them. And we did.

In short, Idol did what the Sex Pistols never could: he brought punk to mainstream America.

Continue reading “What I’m Reading: “Dancing with Myself””

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Masterplan”

Back in the early 1980s when I was in high school, Wendy O. Williams and The Plasmatics played the annual Halloween Festival Concert at the U.F. Bandshell. I didn’t go, but some of my friends did, and word quickly spread that Williams and the band had played a great set. Also, apparently, Williams  bared her breasts, as she was wont to do in concert. In fact, I heard that she had come on-stage wearing nothing on her upper half except a heavy coating of whipped cream (which quickly slid off).

Ahhh, punk rock.

Sadly, Williams’s life ended tragically when she committed suicide in 1998. She battled depression throughout her life, and it finally caught her.  Which really sucks, because she sounded like an amazing person. Also, I think she would have had a comeback, at some point. She and the Plasmatics made some incredible music. My favorite of their songs is this one, “Masterplan.”

Rock on…

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Linda Linda”

The power of rock-and-roll transcends language. And that’s a good thing because I don’t speak a word of Japanese. Even so, I love this song. It’s from Japanese punk band The Blue Hearts, and it sounds like something The Ramones might have done, back in the day.

Also, I’m pretty sure it’s about a girl named Linda. Or maybe two girls named Linda. Or maybe one girl named “Linda Linda.” Or maybe…

Screw it. Rock on…

Friday Night Rock-Out: “Got Me Under Pressure”

ZZ Top is the brainchild of lead guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons, who is a genius. Ever since I learned that he essentially named the band after his hero, blues legend B.B. King, I’ve always thought of ZZ Top as a kind of parallel-universe version of B.B. King. (In that other universe, B.B. King is a rock star and ZZ Top is a blues band. Pretty cool, huh?).

My favorite ZZ Top song is one a lot of young people have never heard, “Got Me Under Pressure,” which comprises one of my the simplest and yet devastating lines in the history of rock lyrics: “She likes cocaine.“

Oh, yeah…