ANOTHER GIFT FOR YOU

It's never too early for Christmas music.
Especially when it's this good.

christmas in athol

christmas time

buy this now! click here then click the cover.
( this is a great Christmas album!)

twenty or thirty pounds of potatoes or twenty or thirty beers

a turkey on Thanksgiving
like arms for the poor
all we need are
those necessities and more...

the new world
X cover by The Blacks

aquarium drunkard has Alice's Restaurant

Between Us

While watching All You Need Is Cash on VH1- Classic the other night I came to the conclusion that THIS IS MY SPINAL TAP. I even think the Rutles LP is great. I probably listen to it more than I do the Beatles.

teenage fanclub sing between us (rutles cover)

a working man in his prime

For the third time in recent months an episode of Austin City Limits has impressed.
This time it was Van Morrison.
His band, his voice, and his song selection were on top form.
Amazing considering he recorded Gloria over 40 years ago.

brown-eyed girl

Why Ask Why ?

Does it mean I'm a true fan when I buy a remix of an album I'm not even sure I like yet?
Good news. I like it better than the original.


Maybe cause it's shorter.

it's available from smog veil
it's also on itunes.

strawberries yields forever

At one time Strawberries was the only place to buy "records and tapes" in the area. Before that it was department stores where you had to match up the corresponding letter to the price chart. Yeah Strawberries had it all, we thought, till we found Al Bum's and realized there was a whole other world of music out there. Still Strawberries was the main place to go to buy music. In fact I met one of the Philco Bros there. He was a manager working the register and I was buying a Velvet Underground LP. I remember him playing the Dream Syndicate at full volume against strict playlist rules. Well things changed a little when the first CDs started showing up and we realized we could find better music if we drove a few miles down route 9 to Newbury Comics. I would still stop in every now and then to comb the bargain bins and find something amazing that people had passed by for years but for the most part Strawberries was a thing of the past. Now what few stores remained have become FYE (the same company that tried to buy Tower) and Strawberries is no more.

Here are some photos (thanks Bruce) of REM at an in- store appearance at the Cambridge Strawberries. We only got Bryan Adams in Shrewsbury. One more thing I'd like to mention is they hid all the Husker Du albums behind the counter for about a year because they didn't show up for their in-store appearance.
rem at strawberries

hot (love) for teacher

You remember all those Bob Welch classics:

Sentimental Lady
Ebony Eyes
Hypnotized....

and Hot For Teacher?

bob welch-hot for teacher

a man in a purple dress

it's fucking brilliant, isn't it?

Your Favorite T

It never looked as good on you
as it looks on me.

Pink Lemonhead

interview with David Gilmour in Q:
What song do you wish you'd written:
My Drug Buddy by the Lemonheads...But I probably shouldn't say that...
Why?
No, I can't say. I really liked Evan Dando and the Lemonheads. It's A Shame About Ray is a great album.

random notes

It was funny to pick up Rolling Stone yesterday and see the line then there were two before David Fricke's (did I mention I met him?) excellent review of Endless Wire.
read it here
They also used the same picture I did.

Speaking of reviews, I like Robert Christgau's review of Willie Nelson's Songbird but he's wrong about the title track.
hear a sample
He's entitled to his opinion but he's still wrong.

It sounds like the band is playing the wrong Fleetwood Mac song (Dreams maybe?) and Willie might be singing the song for the first time but somehow it works. Like Christgau I wanted to rip this album and fault "the producer" Ryan Adams but I can't. It's Willie and as always he's good.

then there were who

Watching The Who steal the show at The Concert For New York City a few years back confirmed what I had been reading in English magazines. The Who, with Zak (son of Ringo) Starkey in the drummer's chair, were once again a powerful live act. I finally gave in and bought The Royal Albert Hall dvd and was floored. They sounded as good as ever. They continued to tour after losing John Entwistle but Pete still promised a new album and I was gonna buy it no matter how bad the advance tracks sounded. Well it's finally here (take that Chinese Democracy!) and after the opening sounds (some variation on the Baba O' Reily synth) nearly scared me away, I have to say...
It's good.
Not Who Sell Out good.
but good.
Some nice acoustic guitar songs with Roger singing
with Pete singing
a couple mid tempo rockers
and a mini-opera to boot.
I'm glad they're back.
preview Endless Wire
buy Royal Albert Hall dvd

Andrea Lou Connection

Sally can't dance no more, more, more.
How do you like it?

sally can't dance