Category: Rock (Page 202 of 241)

Screw that “New Cars” crap. Stick with the old model.

September 6, 2006 / Will Harris

According to USA Today’s Listen Up blog, Ric Ocasek has a new Cars project in the works. It’s a live CD/DVD called The Cars Unlocked, due Oct. 17, taken from his own collection and featuring more than 20 unreleased performances and plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. “I don’t know if I’d call it a documentary as much as a really well-done home movie,” Ocasek said of the package, which follows the band from 1979 to 1986.

By the way, Ocasek also indicated that he hasn’t completely written off doing any future work with the Cars…which answers the question, “How well did his 2005 album, Nexterday, do?”

Alternative, Artists, News, Pop, Rock

Suddenly, my collector’s items are worth NOTHING!

September 1, 2006 / Will Harris

While preparing to start work on a new album in October, piano man Ben Folds is going to keep some fans happy by releasing supersunnyspeedgraphic, the lp, a collection of rarities.

Other fans, however, are gonna get really pissed off, mostly because all of the songs on the set have been available either through limited-edition EPs sold through Folds’ site or on various soundtracks, thereby immediately lowering the value of those previously-collectable EPs. (Though it’s perhaps mild consolation, fans should be aware that the tracks have been remastered, reworked, and relocated since their original releases.)

Alternative, News, Pop, Rock

Kenny Rogers & The First Edition: “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”

August 30, 2006 / John Paulsen

Picture this: A few years ago, I’m watching “The Big Lebowski” for the second or third time and I hear this cool tune play during the Dude’s crazy hallucination scene. I wonder – who sings this?

Kenny Rogers? You mean “Islands in the Stream” Kenny Rogers?

Hell, yeah.

Kenny already built up some cred with “The Gambler,” but this track more than tripled it.

Listen to a sound clip here.

Artists, Deep Cuts, External Music, Rock, Songs

Lost Bands: Pleasure Thieves

August 30, 2006 / Will Harris

Another one of those bands that seems to ring a bell only with former record store employees who used to snake any and every promo disc that came in, the Pleasure Thieves released one album on Hollywood Records – Simple Escape – in 1992…and not much else. (Further research shows that they did a cover of the Who’s “Boris the Spider” for the soundtrack to Arachnophobia, but, honestly, probably even less people own that than do Simple Pleasure.)

Lead singer Sinjin-William Dolan…and, no, I don’t know what kind of name Sinjin-William is, either…sounds almost like Neil Diamond at times with his husky voice, and the music’s very synth-heavy; neither were attributes that would’ve led any band to success in the early ’90s.

The group vanished so far into oblivion that they have no website, no MySpace page, nothing…but in a bizarre post-script to the band’s career, the band’s song “Blue Flowers” – a highlight of the album – was discovered by a DJ in the Phillipines and became a hit there…in 2002!

If anyone has any idea if the band or Dolan went on to record anything else, please leave a posting.

Alternative, Lost Bands, Pop, Rock

Blue Flowers Pleasure Thieves Simple Escape Sinjin-William Dolan

The Incredible String Band: “Worlds They Rise and Fall”

August 25, 2006 / John Paulsen

Usually, I have some recollection where I first heard these so-called “deep cuts,” but this personal discovery eludes me. It’s a gorgeous yet melancholy piece of folk-rock from the 1971 album, Liquid Acrobat As Regards the Air, but the version I have is from BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert.

Listen to a song clip here, but I have to warn you, the live version is better.

Artists, Deep Cuts, Rock, Songs