Showing posts with label The Libertines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Libertines. Show all posts

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Magic Stick Memories - Drummers

  In the decade-plus that I watched bands at the late Magic Stick I saw a lot of excellent drummers.  Here are three of my favorites.
   Gary Powell of the Libertines, the jazzed-trained, technichally-flawless, timekeeping dynamo.  

  Jimmy Lindsay of the High Water Marks.  The person who recorded this in-store appearance in Chicago was savvy enough to keep the camera fixed on Jimmy.  



   Carla Azar of Autolux

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas.......

.....and forecast to be the inspiration for songwriters for another 5 billion years.

  Intro   In 1993 They Might Be Giants recorded a cover of "Why Does the Sun Shine?" originally written in 1959 by Hy Zaret.

The next song is 'My Head is in the Sun' by The Rentals it fits perfectly into the unheard category as it only has about 4,000 hits on Youtube.  Another version put together by a fan has 7,000 plays.  Great song to sing along to in the car.

    Back in March of O-10 my wife and I rented a car for a short weekend trip.  The vehicle was brand new and had a six-month free satellite subscription which made the hours of driving pass quickly.  On the Sirius XMU channel Bethany Consentino and Bobb Bruno's band Best Coast had a song 'The Sun was High' in moderate rotation.  When we arrived home from the trip I found out they were going to play in Detroit at the Magic Stick in April.  Even though their debut CD wasn't released until July of that year,  I was able to purchase a Lisa Frank sticker spangled CD-R that contained all the songs that appeared on their upcoming disc.

   There's a universe other than the one I reside in,  where bands can put out intelligent cutting edge, melodic power pop, get radio play and sell records.   From October 2002 to August 2004 the London band The Libertines released 2 full length albums and 3 EP's.  A mercurial rise was followed by an equally quick implosion as the relationship between the band's two song writers Carl Barat and Pete Doherty became strained by the latter's  increasing erratic drug-fueled behavior.  In fact, by the time they played the Magic Stick in October of 2004 Doherty had left (or was kicked out of) the band, for a series alternating stints of rehab and jail.  Their contribution to the songs-about-the-sun theme is 'Don't Look Back Into the Sun'.   Although the video has 4.8 million youtube plays, I doubt it has been played on a commercial radio station in Detroit.