Posts by Brian Robbins

Sans loops, laptops, and samplers, STS9 hit the stage in Denver, CO this past December and made music using just the basics – fingers, wood, wire, sticks, and keys – doing it live, without a net. The results are documented on STS9’s latest release, Axe The Cables. And they are nothing short of pure pleasure.

Up until now, the hands-down best book written about the Rolling Thunder tour has been On The Road With Bob Dylan by Larry “Ratso” Sloman. Sid Griffin’s new Shelter From The Storm approaches the Rolling Thunder tour in a very different manner, taking the journalist out of the mix, maintaining a respectable objectivity, and using a wider lens to take in the bigger picture of what was going on with Dylan during that time period.

Hey – what’s that smell? Did someone just open up a time capsule? Oh, I see: it’s a copy of First Gasp! Ha!  What we have here is the debut release from the Brooklyn, NY-based Sloppy Heads, a 4-song EP that conjures up visions of what it must’ve been like to hear the Patti Smith Group or The Velvet Underground for the first time.

Sweet Release may be Velvet Truckstop’s debut album, but it sounds like the work of a band who’s comfortable in its own skin and knows what it wants to sound like. Constanten and Cage, being the pros that they are, step onboard only to serve the song; Sweet Release is a solid sample of Velvet Truckstop’s voice from beginning to end. They ain’t tryin’ to be nobody but themselves.

Led by vocalist Greg Prevost (who sounds like a cross between Mick Jagger and David Johannsen and looks like a cross between Chris Robinson and the late Johnny Thunders back in his New York Dolls’ days), the Chesterfield Kings are all about the rock ‘n’ roll and aren’t afraid to show their influences.

Debates will go on ‘til the end of time itself about when the Dead was at the peak of their powers. The Winterland box set makes a pretty damn good case for the summer of ‘77.   

Don’t be digging into Parke Puterbaugh’s new Phish: The Biography looking for details of who consumed how many drugs and how wasted they were when they did – and shame on you if you do. Move on, my friend; be glad that all hands have returned from the dark side and are smiling once again. I suppose you could say that Puterbaugh’s love for the band no doubt tempered his attack, but there’s not a whole lot left out that we need to know – and what’s here is a good read for those who love the band.

Now, here’s a book that delivers what it promises. White Light/White Heat is truly a day-by-day accounting of the band that was part of the root system for everything from glam to grunge. The funny thing is, if everyone who claimed (and still claims) to have been influenced by the Velvet Underground bought an album, their record sales would’ve been three times greater than they were … but no matter. The Velvets were too cool for this world and couldn’t have lasted any longer than they did.

It’s a tale that’s been told before: young person grows up on the poor end of the avenue with a dream of making it in the music world; works hard; gets knocked down; works even harder; gets a break/makes a connection; career takes off; explosion of fame, fortune, and bad habits followed by a roller coaster of comebacks and nosedives. After a number of chapters of tightrope walking, we end up with either a tragic crash-and-burn or a soul salvation.

Philip S. Bryant’s Stompin’ At The Grand Terrace captures the heart and soul of jazz like no written words have since Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.