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  • Deep Cuts: Best Of Benefit Albums

    Benefit gigs are great for a few reasons:  they raise lots of money, and hopefully a good chunk of that flows to the designated charity;  they bring together disparate artists that may otherwise never share a stage;  and most importantly for music geeks the resulting albums offer live and alternate takes that must be collected…

  • 79. No One Will Guide You Through Armagideon Time

    “Hey, you’re a little headbanger. Want these?”  I handed Sherri’s little brother my 8-track collection:  KISS, AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath. “Why, what’s wrong with them?” “Nothing.  I’m just not into this stuff anymore.” “Peter Criss?  Peter Criss sucks.” “Do you want them or not?”

  • Congratulations Kelly and Tomas

    Last week I posted the doodle to your left, which was the cover I did for my high school’s literary magazine in the mid-eighties.  When I found it in the attic my first thought was, “Man, I really ripped off ______,” so I decided to give a prize to anyone who could correctly identify _____.…

  • Deep Cuts: Daisy Petal Pickin’

    Tres Hermanas in Sacramento, California’s Midtown District is to Mexican food what the Sistine Chapel is to men in drag and funny hats — it just doesn’t get any better.  The place has been a Sacramento institution since the three sisters (thus the name) from Chihuahua, Mexico opened shop.  The location isn’t bad, either.  City Bicycle…

  • From The Stacks: The Kid Inside and Chestnut Street Incident

    Johnny Cougar/John Cougar/John “Cougar” Mellencamp/John Mellencamp made three — three — albums before the sort-of-self-titled John Cougar, which most people think of as his first album.  There’s nothing really unusual about that — lots of artists’ careers have false starts — but this is “From The Stacks,” and I have two out of three of those albums…

  • Gillian Welch Signs On For Calgary Folk Music Festival

    My love for American roots music isn’t exactly a secret, be it bluegrass, blues, hillbilly, gospel, folk, or country up to and including the Nashville Sound.  In previous pieces I’ve mentioned Doc Watson, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, L.A.’s soon to be huge Tawny Ellis, Emmylou Harris, and  Allison Krauss.  Did you hear that sound? …

  • 78. But Ain’t That America

    So I had a new job thanks to my new friend, Alex, who was kind enough to lie to Steve The Manager on my behalf.  And I  had another friend at Camelot, too.  His name was Dan, and we’d been classmates since the fifth grade.  We were more acquaintances than friends, though my first act…

  • From the Stacks: Crown of Creation

    Crown of Creation was Jefferson Airplane’s fourth album, released in 1968.  It did well, reaching number six in the US.  It’s hippy-dippy, dated, doesn’t really hold up, but that’s not what grabs me.

  • Patti Smith At The Mondavi Center, 05/08/12

    The vineyard is just to the right once I exit the freeway.  I see a jack rabbit with impossibly long ears milling about, but by the time I park the Mobile Music Laboratory, my fire-breathing mid-life crisis car, to get a photo he hops deep into the rows of grapevines.  This is my alma mater,…

  • Deep Brushstrokes: Guess The Plagiarism, Win A Doodle

    I found this in a box in my attic.  It’s the original artwork that I did for the cover of my high school’s literary magazine.  I don’t know if it was a “balls on her chin” visual pun or what, but I do know this: