You know the scene. Hell, if you grew up in a certain era, it’s practically tattooed on your eyelids. Lloyd Dobler (deftly played by John Cusack) stands in the driveway of the home of his beloved, Diane Court (Ione Skye). It’s early morning. He has his boom box, and his Peter Gabriel cassette. He raises the boom box above his head …
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut, Say Anything…, Fox has released the film on Blu-ray. In addition to the film itself, the disc includes some worthwhile new bonus features including a revealing documentary that looks back at the film 20 years later, a conversation with Cameron Crowe, and even a trivia track that includes over 200 questions about the film. There’s also a cast commentary which was originally recorded for the DVD version, and alternate, deleted, and extended scenes.
Lloyd and Diane are classic high school outsiders. She’s brilliant, and beautiful, with a bright future in front of her that includes a fellowship that will take her to England to study. At the same time she’s lonely, and insecure. Her parents divorced five years earlier, and when given the choice, Diane opted to live with her father, brilliantly played by John Mahoney. Lloyd, who lives with his sister (played by his real life sister Joan Cusack), has no really discernible future, unless kickboxing, “the sport of the future,” catches on (which of course it did). But he’s an eternal optimist, and you have the sense that he’ll land on his feet no matter what happens. (more…)
The Airmen and the Headhunters is the most recent entry in the PBS series Secrets of the Dead, which has been running for nine years on the network. The documentary tells the little-known story of U.S. airmen who bailed out of their stricken aircraft over Japanese-occupied Borneo in 1944. On the island, they encountered Dayak tribesmen, also known as the “wild men of Borneo,” who kept them hidden from the Japanese until they could be rescued in 1945. These tribes were best known for hunting the heads of their enemies.
In the 1930s, Christian missionaries came to Borneo, and were successful in converting many of the island’s tribal people. When the Japanese occupied the island at the start of WW II, they murdered the missionaries and their families, which caused a great deal of anger among the indigenous people of Borneo. That’s why they were only too willing to assist the airmen when they arrived on the island.
By 1945, the tide of the war had turned in the Allies’ favor, and they were re-taking many of the territories that they had lost to the Japanese. The recapture of Borneo, a former British and Dutch colony, was high on their list of priorities. Toward that end, the British sent an eccentric anthropologist named Tom Harrisson to organize a guerilla war to coincide with the coming invasion of the island. Harrisson was only too happy to allow the natives to bring back the practice of headhunting which had been banned at the turn of the century, and the Dayaks were thrilled to resume the practice. Also employing poison blow darts, the Dayaks struck fear into the hearts of the Japanese. (more…)
For the follow up to her fine 2007 album Lullagoodbye, Taylor Mills has once against enlisted the help of her Brian Wilson Band colleague Scott Bennett, as well as her husband, drummer Todd Sucherman. Bennett, who was a key collaborator on Wilson’s most recent album That Lucky Old Sun, is responsible for eight of the songs on Under the Surface (Aqua Pulse Records). He and Sucherman produced the album and played all the instruments, save for the flugelhorn and trumpet parts on “I Wanna Stay Home,” and “If We Let Go” which were played by Probyn Gregory, another member of the Wilson Band.
As a songwriter, Bennett often mines the same territory that Bruce Springsteen did on Tunnel of Love, albeit from a pop perspective. His lovers are committed, but at the same time frightened, and unsure of what the future might bring. In Taylor Mills he has found the perfect foil for this material. Mills has a big voice, full of yearning, but she never feels the need to resort to the sort of “vocalizing” that many of the popular divas of the day traffic in. She sings the songs as if the message is more important than any glare that the spotlight might cast on her. It’s a very endearing quality for a singer to possess.
There is nothing overwrought about Under the Surface. In keeping with the effectively direct vocals, everyone involved keeps it simple and to the point. Though nice production touches abound, nothing sounds fussed over. Listen to “Just a Second” to get what I’m talking about. (more…)
On November 9, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, PBS in New York (check your local listings for date and time in your area) will air the 60-minute documentary How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin. The film is co-produced by WNET.ORG and London’s Blakeway Productions.
You’ve probably seen that very raw two-minute clip of the Beatles playing “Some Other Guy” at the Cavern in Liverpool in 1962. That clip was shot by a filmmaker by the name of Leslie Woodhead. Twenty-five years later, while Woodhead was making films in Russia, he first became aware of the major impact that Beatlemania had in the Soviet Union. Now Woodhead has made a film that explores the lasting power of the Beatles in the former communist bloc.
The Beatles and their music were banned in the Soviet Union, but that did little to deter the fans of the Liverpool band. In the ’60s, there was a flourishing black market in Beatles music, which was recorded onto x-ray film, creating flexi-discs that were called “ribs” because you could often see the image of someone’s bone structure on the discs. After purchase, the music on these discs was transferred to tape recorders, giving it a longer shelf life. Tribute bands were formed. In St. Petersburg, Kolya Vasin built a “Temple of Peace and Love” to John Lennon. All of this was illegal and carried a high degree of risk. (more…)
Just when you start to think that Rhino is the only company that knows how to do the box set thing, along comes ABKCO Records with their entry in the definitive statement sweepstakes. In this case the statement in question is in regard to the classic live Rolling Stones album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out from 1969.
Exactly how do you build a big fancy box set out of a single disc live album from 40 years ago? Well you start by remastering the original tracks. Then you dig up five previously unreleased tracks from the Madison Square Garden shows that didn’t make the original cut, and make them your second audio disc. The sets by the show’s stellar opening acts, B.B. King, and Ike and Tina Turner, have never been released before, so you make those Disc Three.
You’ll need a DVD, so grab that footage from the Maysles brothers (who also made the tour documentary Gimme Shelter), which includes full-length versions of the five newly released Stones tracks, and some behind the scenes stuff. The songs are great, but the opportunity to see Mr. Watts interact with the donkey with whom he’d eventually share the album’s cover is priceless, and the footage of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin backstage at the Garden is touching. Less than a year later they would both be gone. Watching the Stones and the Dead in a parking lot in San Francisco waiting for the helicopters that would take them to Altamont is simply chilling. Finally, you’ll need a book, and ABKCO have filled their 56-pager with an essay from tour photographer Ethan Russell, and the original Rolling Stone album review by the great Lester Bangs. In between all the words, publish some interesting photos, including one of the album’s original cover. (more…)
I am certain that when Frank Sinatra was a child, he must have gazed at the Manhattan skyline just across the Hudson River. If you’ve ever been to Hoboken, you know that the big city appears to be so close that you can almost reach out and touch the buildings. It’s a place where a young man can dream big dreams. When Sinatra was old enough, he made his escape. For him, and for countless others, “The Apple,” as he called it, became the center of the world.
The esteemed reissue masters at Rhino have chosen to commemorate this love affair between a singer and a city with a new five-disc package called, appropriately, Sinatra: New York. Four of the discs are audio CDs featuring Sinatra concerts from a variety of New York City venues. The earliest performance, on Disc One, was recorded at Manhattan Center in 1955 at an event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Tommy Dorsey band, a group which Sinatra had famously been part of in the 1940s. Sinatra does three songs with Dorsey and the band for the occasion. The remainder of the disc was recorded at the United Nations in September, 1963. It was U.N. Staff Day, and Sinatra performed accompanied only by pianist Skitch Henderson. Among the songs that day were “I Have Dreamed,” and “My Heart Stood Still,” from the Concert Sinatra album which had been released earlier that year.
Frank Sinatra was only 55 years old when he called it quits in 1971. Somewhat predictably, he returned two years later with Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back, and a year after that he went on tour to benefit Variety Clubs International, a children’s charity. One of the stops on that tour was at Carnegie Hall on April 8, 1974. There, Sinatra not only sang classics like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Come Fly With Me,” but dug into his then-new album for splendid versions of “There Used To Be A Ballpark” and “You Will Be My Music.” I was reminded again of Sinatra’s wonderful practice of naming the songwriters of each song that he sang. It was an endearing gesture of respect from the singer to the artists who provided his material. (more…)
Wolfgang’s Vault is one of the Internet’s greatest treasures for music lovers. The site hosts thousands of concerts that are available for free streaming, as well as vintage memorabilia that includes t-shirts, posters, photographs, tickets, and other items of interest. Thus far, only a limited number of the shows in the Concert Vault have been available for download. That’s about to change tomorrow. Last week, I had a chance to speak with Wolfgang’s Vault President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Johnson from his office in San Francisco.
Let’s start with a bit of the history of Wolfgang’s Vault. How did it come into being?
Wolfgang’s Vault began in 2003 with the acquisition of the Bill Graham archives. Bill’s real name was Wolfgang Grajonca. That’s how the site got its name. Our founder, Bill Sagan, originally acquired these assets from Clear Channel as they were spinning off Live Nation. The Bill Graham archives contained the collection of what he had amassed over his 30-year career in the music business, and then ten years after he died. Bill Graham was one of the early inventors of the rock concert, and in this archive was posters, tickets, handbills, you name it, from classic shows and classic venues like the Fillmore East, the Fillmore West, Winterland, Graham’s Day on the Green shows. There were also audio and video recordings of some of these legendary bands like the Grateful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence, the Who. It was just a who’s who list of what was out there.
Bill Graham was one of the first to present certain artists. On the site you can get Elton John playing his first show on the west coast. It’s just an amazing, awesome raw show. In addition to that, we’ve acquired another dozen or so archives that include different collections of both memorabilia, vintage posters and photography, and recordings. So we have the recordings of the King Biscuit Flower Hour, Silver Eagle Cross Country, which is the country version of King Biscuit, the Ash Grove, which was a club that was open in L.A. from 1958-1973 with just amazing early folk and delta blues performers, and the Newport Festivals. It’s just a huge array of music spanning 50-plus years, and about 20 different genres of music. (more…)
Can you remember 1992? I certainly can, and what I remember is that trash TV — and to some extent, even the mainstream media — was filled with stories about Kurt Cobain and his bride, Courtney Love. They had been married in Hawaii in February of that year, and already there were lurid tales of addiction, arrest, and marital discord. In the midst of it all a daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born in August.
A lot of the stories questioned Cobain’s “health,” by which they meant drug addiction, but there were also rumors that Nirvana might be breaking up. It didn’t help things when the band decided not to undertake another U.S. tour to promote their major label debut, Nevermind, instead opting for select dates here and there. The reason given at the time was “exhaustion,” and everyone knew, or thought they knew, what that meant.
The band’s answer to all the rumors came at England’s legendary Reading Festival on August 30, 1992. Nirvana had played Reading the previous year, but at that time, they were halfway down the bill. When they returned in 1992, it was as the headliners. That night Nirvana played what Kerrang magazine called one #1 of the “100 Gigs That Shook the World,” and Nirvana fans voted the show “Nirvana’s #1 Greatest Moment” in a NME poll. (more…)
I have to admit that I was hesitant to make Rickie Lee Jones’ Pirates the subject of this week’s Cratedigger. The weather has been gloomy here in New Jersey all week, the Yankees dropped the first game of the World Series to Philadelphia, and my finances are in the sewer. Since Pirates is perhaps the most heartbreaking album I’ve ever encountered, I was afraid listening to it again would throw me into an even deeper funk. Despite the sorrow, when pressed, I will tell you that Pirates is one of the best albums ever made, and it is easily ensconced in my personal Top Five, where it has resided since its release in July, 1981.
Rickie Lee Jones burst on the scene with her eponymous debut, and it’s massive hit single, “Chuck E.’s In Love,” in 1979. She was part of a bohemian L.A. crowd that included the aforementioned Chuck E. Weiss and singer/songwriter Tom Waits, with whom Jones was in a relationship. The songs on her second album, Pirates, are largely a wistful reflection on her time with Waits, following their breakup. “We Belong Together,” “A Lucky Guy,” and the title track all refer to her relationship with him, and “Living It Up” and “Traces of the Western Slopes” (written with new boyfriend Sal Bernardi) are peopled with characters from the bohemian milieu that they moved in. The most devastating heartbreak of all, however, comes in the song “Skeletons,” based on the true story of a young man who was killed by the Los Angeles police in a case of mistaken identity as he was driving his wife to the hospital to give birth. (more…)
So, friends, here we are again to determine whether you need to purchase the latest entry in Island’s U2 remastering series. First a question; what kind of U2 fan are you? Casual or committed? If it’s the latter, you probably need to read further only to enjoy the beautiful prose. You’re going to buy this. Hell, you were probably at the store on Tuesday morning to grab the first copy. It’s the casual fan who needs to make a decision. I’ll try to help you out.
In March, 1984, U2 gathered at Slane Castle in Ireland to begin recording their fourth studio album. The sessions marked their first collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Together, they would create one of the most unique and recognizable sounds in the history of rock and roll. The Unforgettable Fire (Island Records) is the album that marked the beginning of U2’s rocket ride to the top of the world. Propelled by the massive hit “Pride (In the Name of Love),” the band approached the peak of their anthemic glory, a destination at which they would arrive with their next album, The Joshua Tree.
The music will be familiar to most people. In addition to “Pride,” “Bad,” “A Sort of Homecoming,” and the title track have entered the public consciousness over the years. Yes, the remastering, guided by the Edge, does make a difference. There’s a newfound clarity to the recordings, and more separation between the instruments. Larry Mullen’s drumming has been brought to the forefront, and seems more crisp and powerful. The Edge’s guitar chimes more brightly, and Bono may be at his most passionate here. (more…)
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You know the scene. Hell, if you grew up in a certain era, it’s practically tattooed on your eyelids. Lloyd Dobler (deftly played by John Cusack) stands in the driveway of the home of his beloved, Diane Court (Ione Skye). It’s early morning. He has his boom box, and his Peter Gabriel cassette. He raises the boom box above his head …![68741-104[1]](http://popdose.com/wp-content/uploads/68741-1041.jpg "68741-104[1]")
The Airmen and the Headhunters is the most recent entry in the PBS series Secrets of the Dead, which has been running for nine years on the network. The documentary tells the little-known story of U.S. airmen who bailed out of their stricken aircraft over Japanese-occupied Borneo in 1944. On the island, they encountered Dayak tribesmen, also known as the “wild men of Borneo,” who kept them hidden from the Japanese until they could be rescued in 1945. These tribes were best known for hunting the heads of their enemies.
On November 9, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, PBS in New York (check your local listings for date and time in your area) will air the 60-minute documentary How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin. The film is co-produced by WNET.ORG and London’s Blakeway Productions.
I have to admit that I was hesitant to make Rickie Lee Jones’ 
