Rock Star Journalist

Damn. Two people who meant a lot to me musically have passed in the past couple of days, and I’d like to offer my sympathies to the families of Ike Turner and Lynette Knackstedt. Turner , despite all the bad press related to What’s Love Got to Do With It, publicly apologized to Tina, and has somewhat regained his place as one of rock ‘n’ roll’s progenitors. KC rock act Parlay used to do a mean cover of “Man On the Chopper,” which was my first indication that Ike might be something other than a wife-beating scumbag.

Knackstedt was the guitarist for Skankin’ Pickle, as well as the post-Pickle skacore act 78 RPMs. Her vocals on “Watch Your Tone” rank right up there with anything done by Pauline Black, Doreen Schaffer, or Rhoda Dakar back in the 60s and 70s. Mike Park wrote a touching memoriam that you shoudl really take the time to read.

And Alex Trebek had a heart attack. Sweet fucking Christ, it’d be nice if people’d stop dropping all around here. I mean, he didn’t die, but it’s making me kind of jumpy.

Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - “Rocket 88”
Skankin’ Pickle - “Thick Ass Stout” (live)

Halloween parties are par for the course this weekend. Looking to liven yours up? First, you should tune into this tonight at midnight, Central Standard Time at 90.7FM (for those of you in the Kansas City / Lawrence area) or listen online at KJHK’s web site….

Failing that, there are scads of mp3 blogs willing to help you with your spooky partytime fun. Scar Stuff has Sounds to Make You Shiver for download. Coincidently, this is the same music I’ll be using for background on Sunglasses After Dark tonight.

Oddio Overplay has two compilations for download, both of which are guaranteed to get your party rocking from dusk ’til dawn. There’s Calling All Fiends, whichis “frightening, damaging, and disturbing” Halloween music or Ghouls With Attitude, a slightly more traditional, “fun” mix.

Dave’s Free Halloween Sounds is loaded with .wavs for your mix cd pleasure. Plenty of creepy, oddball, and fun shit.

Failing that… you can always download a shitload of Misfits bootlegs and spend your evening getting your scare on like that.

the Misfits - “Monster Mash” (live)

Thanks to Nuthousepunks you have the soundtrack for your Halloween party, now all you need are wicked costumes to wear. Get creative and go as the Misfits with a kill devillock, some black leather and plenty of white make-up. There are so many adult costumes that you can wear that run the gamut from strange to sexy, or horrifying to goofy. If you happen to be throwing a party, turn your place into a haunted
house with some killer Halloween decorations that will surely be remembered by everyone who attends.

Last night, Love frontman Arthur Lee died in Memphis. He was 61.

Sad. The band had been playing dates here and there until Lee was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this year. I’d held out hope that I would get to see them play stuff like “7 and 7 Is” and “Little Red Book” live at some point. The band made a wonderful transition from Nuggets-style rockers to beautiful pop over the course of their career, and it’s sad to know that I’ll never get to see “Alone Again Or” performed.

“Alone Again Or”

A wonderful tribute post with a rare song is up over at Little Hits.

Poor Bon Scott. Syd Barrett dies and every mp3 blog has some sort of tribute or remembrence.

Thieves steal a plaque from the original singer of AC/DC’s grave, and it’s just a tiny little two paragraph blurb. Sad, really. Especially as the damn thing was stolen on what would have been his 60th birthday.

Well, I love ya, Bon.

AC/DC - “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap“

Sad news in the world of ska today. Mr. Desmond Dekker, the King of Ska, died yesterday at his home from an apparent heart attack, says Yahoo! News.

That’s some sad stuff. The songs that man made… and I’m not just talking about “007 (Shanty Town)” or “Israelites.” “It Mek” and “Unity” are guaranteed dancehall barnburners, if I might mix my metaphors. The man was a pioneer in the Jamaican music world- literally. “Israelites” was the first hit from Jamaica. After that, people like Bob Marley, Johnny Nash, Prince Buster… all of them were able to bring Jamaican music to the world.

Hell, “Israelites” has been covered by Millencolin and Madness. Even such a luminary as Trey Anastasio has busted it out from time to time (I hate Phish with all my heart, but the man is talented on the guitar) with Oysterhead. Sure, all those covers pretty much sucked… but they were loving tributes. And that’s got to count for something.

The fact of the matter is, Desmond Dekker recorded amazing music, and the world is a sadder place for having lost him. He was a popular choice at the bakery where I work, and I have a feeling some of Mr. Dekker’s music is going to be played in his honor tomorrow.

“Honour Your Mother & Father“

Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall-of-Famer and soul artist Wilson Pickett, died of a heart attack yesterday at the age of 64. The whole story can be read here. The man was a true soul brother. He did “Land of 1000 Dances”, “Mustang Sally”, “In the Midnight Hour”… like a grittier, tougher Otis Redding.

Pickett had suffered from health problems for a while, so I suppose this didn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. It’s always sad to lose another one of the greats, tho’. Pretty soon, they’ll all be gone and it’ll be tougher and tougher to convince the TRL-watching children of the world that music can be good without being idiotic.

Wilson Pickett - “Mustang Sally“

Original Vandals singer, Steven “Stevo” Jensen, died this past weekend at his home on the island of Maui.

Jensen was the Vandals’ singer from 1980-84, through the albums Peace Through Vandalism and When In Rome Do As the Vandals. In 1985, he was replaced by current vocalist Dave Quackenbush. You can read a press release from guitarist Jan Nils Ackerman over at Punknews.

Personally, I always liked Jensen better than Quackenbush. It was one of the songs Jensen sang on, “Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)”, that first introduced me to the Vandals. While that’s one of my favorite tunes by the band, my all-time winner is from a little-known compilation entitled When Men Were Men And Sheep Were Scared. The album came out in 1985 on Beamis Brain Records. The song is “Dachau Cabana”, a truly sick and twisted take on Barry Manilow’s hit, “Copa Cobana.”

As an interesting note, that comp also featured a band called the Falling Idols, which featured as their lead singer Dave Quackenbush. He’d leave the group shortly after When Men Were Men…’s release to sing for the Vandals.

“Dachau Cabana“