The Who Hits 50 Collection Over the past 50 years, The Who have given rock ‘n’ roll a lot. Feedback, instrument destruction, the most stoic of bassists and the rock opera. They can also be credited with having an eye for and popularising POP art. …
David Chase’s Not Fade Away If you’re looking for some rock ‘n’ roll viewing over the holiday stretch, Netflix has loads of great documentaries and a few cool dramas. But if you’re like us, you may often get lost in the search engine abyss …
Hipgnosis Portraits
When CDs replaced vinyl in the 80s, the biggest shame was the loss of the 12-inch cover art. The CD reduced the format to a piddley 5-inches and streaming —well, not much to look at there. Hipgnosis was a design collective consisting of Strom Thirgerson, Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell and Peter Christopherson. The group were responsible for some of the most inspiring and innovative album cover art of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s. Hipgnosis Portriats is a fantastic recollection on their art and, more interesting, how it was made. Continue reading You can judge a book by the album cover.
The Marshall Action Speaker Some brands just have more rock ‘n’ roll swagger than others. Marshall walks the walk with big loud footsteps. And now you can get some of that swag for your mobiles and tablets. The Marshall Action Speaker connects to your mobile through …
Classic Vibe Stratocaster 50’s Fender has been celebrating the 60th anniversary of it’s Stratocaster throughout 2014. A couple of weeks ago we featured our favourite of the 6 special editions, the 60th Anniversary American Vintage 1954 Stratocaster. It’s a beautiful guitar, but at $1500, it’s not …
Deer Tick Ugly Sweaters
It’s that time of year holiday shoppers. If you don’t like being cold, but you like irony, then a Deer Tick Holiday Sweater is the perfect gift for you and all the indie music loving peeps on your list.
Deer Tick have been creating amazing country, rock, indie tunes for going on 10 years now. To celebrate, they’ll be playing a string of shows at the Brooklyn Bowl from December 26 to December 31. Which is pretty cool in itself, but to up the amazing, they’ll be playing their favorite band’s albums from start to finish each night along with their own stuff. At the New Year’s Eve gig, they’ll be playing an all Deer Tick fan chosen set list. Continue reading SNUG AS A BUG
Rocks: My life in and out of Aerosmith There’s been a lot of ink spilted about Aerosmith. Much of it by it’s own members. Joe Perry, with his Rocks: My life in and out of Aerosmith, is the third member of the band to tell their …
Sound Man by Glyn Johns So Glyn Johns has sat in the room with the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Zeppelin and the Clash while they crafted their music. What would you do to have a beer with this guy? Which is highly unlikely for …
The American Deluxe Dimension Bass IV HH
The new Fender Dimension Bass series comes from a quality pedigree. The Fender Precision Bass and Jazz Bass are both pillars of the rock ‘n’ roll rhythm section. The Precision Bass was the first electric bass to seriously shake things up in the 50s and has remained widely popular ever since.
Not that Fender hasn’t had a misstep or two along the way, in 1986 the company released the Performer Bass, an unfortunate name in hindsight. Perform it didn’t and was discontinued in 1987. More recently, in 2004 Fender introduced the Dimension Bass IV and V. They were well built, but went largely unnoticed and were unplugged in 2007.
Funky bass walk to today and you have the introduction of the New Dimension Bass series. Totally redesigned, the New Dimension is sweet reboot of a good idea. Featured is the American Deluxe Dimension Bass IV HH. The cadillac of the series, it’s dual humbucking pick ups offer loads of power to shake a whole lot of money makers.
You can ogle the full line up here.
Muscle Shoals Wild Horses Bill This Muscle Shoals bill for a Rolling Stones session in 1969 is quite a piece of rock ‘n’ roll history. The Stones were putting together a masterpiece that was to become Sticky Fingers. Part of a 4 album run of …
Ohio State Marching Band’s Tribute to classic rock The Ohio State Marching Band paid homage to rock ‘n’ roll during the half time of the Buckeyes vs Rutgers matchup Saturday. The bit ended with a guitar being smashed à la Pete Townshend. The Who’s founding …
The Clash at Bond’s International Casino Poster
A concert poster announcing a show that’s sold out is a curious thing. And hype-that-shit-up 101. These architects of puck rock knew how to create a buzz along with pushing buttons. In this case, it also left behind a tasty artifact of a historic week for the Clash.
The band’s week long stint at Bond’s casino historically turned into 17 performances. The capacity of the venue was 18,000. The practice at the time was to pack closer to 25,000 into the hall. In this case, the promoter got a little greedy selling 35,000 Continue reading PUNK ROCK HISTORY
Pearl Export EXX Back in 1985 someone at the Coca-Cola Company decided to change the formula of one of the world’s most popular soft drinks and replace it with something called New Coke. If you look up marketing bone-headed moves, you might find a …
Ltd. Ed. Slash “Rosso Corsa” Les Paul Standard Besides single handedly keeping the top hat relevant, Slash is a shining star of the Les Paul legacy. His signature “Rosso Corsa”, modeled after Les Paul AFD, has always been a favourite. Slash himself has also …
The Cymbal Guitar Pick
At first glance, guitar picks made out of cymbals may seem a little out there, not to mention totally awesome. But the very first picks dating as far back as the Egyptian empire, that’s pre-vinyl kids, were made out of stuff like turtoise shells, ivory and bones. So suddenly this puppy sounds quite practical, although no less awesome. The Cymbal Guitar Pick by Master Artisan Guitar Picks is a one of a kind tool of the rock gods created from a brass cymbal. No word if said cymbal was ever on tour with the Stones, but feel free to add your own embellishments.