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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

It Might Get Loud DVD & Blu-ray release, December 22nd, 2009

Just the thing for all the middle-aged white guys on your Christmas list.

According to the official press kit: "It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes)."

PDGB sees it like this:
Jimmy Page: Aided in no small part by his like-minded Led Zeppelin band mates, James Patrick Page essentially created the genre of bombastic, riff-based arena-rock by regurgitating the blues through cranked-up VOX AC30's and Marshall stacks, making each lick his own along the way.

The Edge: In a quest to create an unmistakable musical voice worthy of U2's ambitious lyrics, Mr. David Howell Evans cleverly combined sparse, syncopated guitar rhythms with the latest available signal processing technology, inadvertently spawning an entire sub-genre of copycat guitarists more concerned with the effects rack than the fretboard in the process.

Jack White: Choosing to go low-brow right from the start, John Anthony Gillis created an instantly recognizable tone to call his own by combining inexpensive instruments with uniquely configured analog gear, confirming what ol' Pagey has known about white boys playing the blues all along: It's what you've got to say that matters, not the amount of words you can cram into a sentence.

Now, how about that sequel spotlighting
Ron Asheton(RIP),
Robert Quine(RIP),
Johnny Ramone(RIP), Tom Verlaine, Greg Ginn, and Josh Homme?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Toledo Pop Festival-This Week In Toledo, Ohio, 1969:

Toledo Pop Festival, MC5, Alice Cooper, Toledo Raceway Park
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So Happy Together!  
Sunday, September 14th 1969
Four short weeks after Jimi Hendrix closed the generation-defining Woodstock Festival with a soul-stirring, whammy-bar laden performance of the Star Bangled Banner, Toledo fans got a homegrown opportunity to air out their freak flags courtesy of the daylong Toledo Pop Festival.Culled primarily from the S.E. Michigan/N.W. Ohio axis of high-energy rock'n'roll, the day's slightly disparate line-up featured a virtual who's who of Rust Belt axe-slingers: Brothers Wayne Kramer and the late-great Fred "Sonic" Smith from the MC5; Ted Nugent from the Amboy Dukes; The Frost's Dick Wagner, who would later go on to co-write, record, and tour extensively with the likes of Alice Cooper and Lou Reed, among others; Ron Koss of Savage Grace; Gary Quackenbush of SRC; Steve Correll of The Rationals; and, the soon-to-be-known-as “Leather Tuscadero” in the persona of one Miss Suzi Quatro, performing bass, vocal and jail-bait duties for the Pleasure Seekers, a band consisting chiefly of her brothers and sisters.

turtles alice cooper mc5 SRC Frost toledo-pop-festivalPDGB wonders if the concert promoter’s somewhat curious decision to place feel-good hit-makers The Turtles atop a bill filled largely with outfits known for their aggressive, potentially incendiary histrionics was -at least in part- a conscious decision intended to serve as a musical blow-off valve, The Turtles cheery melodies and infectious lyrics helping to ease the attendees transition from frenzied jam kick-outing to the parking lot slough that awaited them. Then again, maybe they just needed a big name to sell some tickets.

Either way, we’re sure the inevitable twenty minute-plus live rendition of “Happy Together” didn’t go unnoticed, reshuffling the synapses of numerous first-time psychedelic users so completely that even now, some forty-years later, the simple act of hearing said melody errantly whistled by passerby is capable of triggering intense psychotic episodes of such severity that even immediate medical attention followed by years of therapy can't guarantee the return of normal brain activity. Way to go Boomers!
Held at Toledo Raceway Park (which we assume is the Horse racing facility of approximately the same name that still stands in North Toledo today) the $5.00 admission ($4.25 Advance) was an unbelievable bargain, even adjusted for inflation.
If you attended the Toledo Pop Festival and have a recollection you'd like to share about it -or any like event/concert/happening in the N.W. Ohio/S.W. Michigan region- click that comment button and tell it!