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Awesome People Hanging Out Together
05.28.2011
07:42 pm
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The site Awesome People Hanging Out Together has rather fine photographs of celebrities from times gone-by just hanging out together.

Here you’ll find William Burroughs having dinner with Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger; Grace Slick and Janis Joplin playing-up for the camera; and the usual suspects backstage at concerts. There are also a couple of fun video clips, including a chat-show meeting between Alfred Hitchcock and James Brown. It’s a bit like Us or Hello! Magazine with a degree in Pop Culture, and you can see more here.
 

 
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Grace Slick, Janis Joplin
 
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Jack Nicholson, Lauren Bacall, Warren Beatty
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.28.2011
07:42 pm
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Moby Grape in ‘The Sweet Ride’
05.26.2011
04:25 am
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Moby Grape perform the title song in the 1968 hippie/surf/biker/drug flick The Sweet Ride starring Tony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin, Jaqueline Bisset and Bob “Gilligan” Denver.

Cool shots of a very animated Skip Spence on stage. And, yes, that’s Lee Hazlewood on the dance floor and hanging out at the bar in a suit and acting surly.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.26.2011
04:25 am
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Win tickets to ‘Re-Animator: The Musical’
05.25.2011
06:00 pm
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By popular demand Stuart Gordon’s campy, macabre Re-Animator™ - The Musical—which I’ve given a rave review to here before—will be extending its run through Sunday, June 26 at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. It’s a super fun night of musical comedy.

Re-Animator™ - The Musical, the horror-comedy based on the 1985 cult movie hit and earlier H.P. Lovecraft story, has extended its run due to popular demand through Sunday, June 26, 2011 at the Steve Allen Theater.  Half price student tickets available for all June shows.  The production has been setting records and sending grinning patrons out of the theater humming the tunes and washing off the blood.  Stuart Gordon, who directed both the new musical and the movie on which it is based, notes “There’s a lot of liquid spurting through the air. The special effects are even better in 4D than they are in 3D.” 

The new performance schedule for this funny, bloody and tuneful production includes three shows per weekend:  Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 8:00pm.  Costumes are encouraged and seating is open – come early and sit up front in the “splash zone.”  Ticket prices are $30 for general admission, $15 for students (with ID).

The Steve Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027.

We’ve got two pairs of free tickets to give away to readers who write in to the comments and tell us why they should get the tickets and not someone else. We choose the winners. It’s up to you to get yourself to the play in Los Angeles, where tickets will be waiting for you at the door (Translation: Unless you live in Los Angeles or intend to be here before the play’s run ends, please don’t waste your time).

Below, Jesse Merlin as the villainous “Dr. Carl Hill” loses his head in a scene with Graham Skipper as “Herbert West,” re-animator.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.25.2011
06:00 pm
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Club Zanzibar and Newark’s dance revolution
05.20.2011
12:38 am
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In the late 1970s into the 80s, before its disintegration into a magnet for prostitutes and crackheads,The Lincoln Motel, located on the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, was a powerful vortex in the disco universe. While downtown Manhattan had the Paradise Garage and Midtown had Studio 54, Newark had Club Zanzibar.

Located in the second floor ballroom of the Lincoln, Zanzibar took over the space formerly known as Abe’s Disco. Under the creative direction of Al Murphy and with its formidable line-up of massively influential deejays, starting with Hippie Torrales and Gerald T, the club became the laboratory from which was spawned some of the best dance music to appear on the planet. Many of the deejays became influential producers like the mighty Tony Humphries, some started record labels like Francoise Kervokian. Others, like the late Tee Scott and Larry Levan, went on to pioneer new styles of club music that incorporated garage and house and eventually techno.

Music historian Bill Brewster describes Club Zanzibar’s lavish debut:

The opening night of Club Zanzibar was on August 29th, 1979. Newark had never seen anything like it. Local television filed reports from the club; there was a live feed from radio station WNJR. There were jugglers and magicians, Le Clique-style dancers adorned in paste-diamond jewelery and showered in glitter. To top it off, Murphy and Berger had installed real lions and tigers in cages. The whole of New Jersey’s musical royalty turned out, with Kool & The Gang, Tasha Thomas and the All Platinum stable hanging out in the DJ booth. Remembers Hippie Torres: “[All Platinum’s] Joe Robinson came up to me saying, ‘Look, we have this record. The first it was played was last week on a radio station in Texas. Nobody else has played it in the New York area. I want you to play it.’ It was ‘Rappers’ Delight’. Those were the kinds of things happening on opening night. It was a really amazing night.”

Zanzibar was close enough to New York to pick up on the Manhattan vibe, but far enough to create its own sound, often referred to as Zanzibar music or the “Jersey sound.” In addition to its own brand of flavor, Zanzibar deejays were known for dropping songs into the mix from bands like The Rolling Stones, B-52s, ESG and Talking Heads. The crates were not segregated. No song was exempt, as long as it shook the dance floor. Latin, rock, garage, house and disco shuddered the boards.
 

Mix master Tony Humphries
 
Despite superficial differences, Club Zanzibar was to dance music, what CBGB was to punk - a raw space where young artists could freely explore their creativity, experimenting in front of open-minded and enthusiastic crowds. In both clubs the D.I.Y. spirit thrived. Zanzibar was a testing ground for new sounds that would eventually pop up on the shelves of record stores in the form of 12 inch dance mixes. The turntables at Zanzibar launched many one-hit-wonders. It was almost impossible to keep up with the amount of vinyl that was piling up in places like Manhattan’s legendary Vinyl Mania.

I think the reason clubs like [the Garage and Zanzibar] were such an experience was because the records weren’t just of one type,” reflects Tony Humphries of that lost era. “It wasn’t like going to a house club or a techno club or a classics club, everything was intertwined. The hours were long so obviously you didn’t want to hear ten hours of straight house music. If you’re going to pay $15-20 to hear this guy, you want to hear the whole damn spectrum and whatever it is, it better be quality. And, believe me, you had to come with everything possible. Talking Heads and The B-52s don’t sound like Zanzibar/Garage records but they were. They were just funky records. I think that’s what the appeal was.”

The Lincoln Motel was demolished in 2007, long after Club Zanzibar had closed. It had become, in the words of The New Times, “a depressing symbol of Newark’s downfall” and, as described by one real estate developer, “a blemished, rat-infested drug-haven eyesore.”

Like so many of the seminal music venues of the 1970s and early 80s, Club Zanzibar’s influence has outlived its brief red hot history. Some things are etched in the memory, others, like Zanzibar, work their way down to the bone.
 

 
DJ Punch reminisces about the glory days of Club Zanzibar. Plus, video of Vinyl Mania’s closing day after the jump…

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Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.20.2011
12:38 am
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Before there was Tim Burton, there was ‘Mad Monster Party’
05.18.2011
05:51 pm
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Mad Monster Party is a 1968 Halloween-themed children’s film created by the Rankin/Bass animation house and written by Mad magazine’s creator, Harvey Kurtzman (with Len Korobin).

Rankin/Bass were famous for their stop motion Christmas favorites like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. The film was directed by Jack Bass in their signature “Animagic” process.
 

 
Many of the characters in Mad Monster Party were designed by Mad’s Jack Davis, a man well-suited for the gig by his earlier comedy/horror work in the pages of EC Comics. The film featured the vocal talents of Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller who were represented onscreen by their own likenesses.

Mad Monster Party was very influential on Tim Burton’s short film Vincent, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Some of the monster characters in Corpse Bride seem to be in homage to the earlier film. It would also appear that the Sesame Street character, “The Count” made his first appearance here, too…
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.18.2011
05:51 pm
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Coca Cola sued by record label over the trademark ‘Relentless’
05.18.2011
10:38 am
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Here in the UK one of the most popular energy drinks (after Red Bull, of course) is the relatively new Relentless. The drink is a trademark of, and is aggressively promoted by, Coca Cola. So much so that in November of last year Coke threatened the Relentless Steak and Lobster House in Portsea with legal action over the typography of their sign. The matter has since been settled.

The tables have turned however, as the established British record label Relentless (which in the past has released music by Joss Stone, Seth Lakeman and KT Tunstall) is now taking Coca Cola to court over the use of the name in relation to music. This could force the drink company to drop the brand altogether. They have already been declined a trademark on their slogan “No Half Measures” because of a Glasgow-based management company of the same name. From The Independent:

The label sought mediation with Coca-Cola but has now issued a writ, calling for the drinks company to stop using the Relentless name in connection with music and to pay damages for trademark infringement.

Shabs Jobanputra, Relentless Records’ co-founder, said: “It is causing real confusion because Relentless drinks has a tented stage at the Reading Festival and sponsors venues like the Garage in London. Artists and managers are asking if we’ve been bought up by Coke. Some artists don’t like that kind of corporate association.”

Relentless, now an independent label after ending a partnership with EMI, is spending valuable resources on the court case. Jobanputra said: “We’ve been trying to resolve this for four years but their attitude is, ‘Let’s see how much money you’ve got’. They are a huge company. But it’s clear that we established the Relentless brand in music, years before the drink launched.”

Coca-Cola declined to comment on the record company’s case, but said it has reached a deal with the Portsmouth restaurant. A spokesman said: “We requested that they redesign the font of their logo. We believed it bore a strong resemblance to our energy-drink design and that this had led to consumers thinking the two were connected.

I await the outcome of this with interest!

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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05.18.2011
10:38 am
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The Beatles Über Alles
05.17.2011
02:35 pm
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On June 15, 1964 The Beatles flew into Melbourne, Australia to play a couple of shows at Festival Hall. A huge crowd of over 30,000 fans were there to greet them. At one point, the group sought shelter on the upper floors of Town Hall where they waved and goofed around from a balcony for the fans below. Spoofing their own fame, power and the hysteria of their fans, John gave the throng a Nazi salute while mimicking Hitler by placing his finger over his upper lip as though it were a mustache.

On the balcony with John are Paul, George, Ringo and Ringo’s substitute drummer Jimmy Nicol.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.17.2011
02:35 pm
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‘14 Hour Technicolor Dream’: London be-in, 1967
05.14.2011
03:39 am
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The “14 Hour Technicolor Dream” be-in which took place at Alexandra Plaza Palace in London was the English art and music community’s answer to the San Francisco acid tests. It was intended to raise money for counter culture newspaper the International Times which was facing an obscenity trial but it ended up being a financial bust.

No one seems to be absolutely clear as to every musician that played the event. There were dozens invited but not all showed. Among the ones that did were The Soft Machine, Arthur Brown, Yoko Ono, The Flies, The Move, The Pretty Things, Pete Townshend, The Deviants and Pink Floyd. Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon were in the audience.

What Is Happening? made for British TV show “Man Alive” focuses on the audience, dancers, performance artists, gawkers and the event in general. While it’s not a concert film it still has the energy of rock and roll.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.14.2011
03:39 am
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The B-52’s doing the ‘Rock Lobster’ in Atlanta, 1978
05.13.2011
08:10 pm
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Here’s a terrific video of The B-52s performing “Rock Lobster” in Atlanta, Georgia in 1978. Almost a year before this video was shot, I saw the band’s New York debut at Max’s Kansas City. They had arrived with little fanfare. I had actually gone to Max’s to see another band on the bill, The Pinkos. As soon as The B-52’s hit the stage and kicked things off with “Planet Claire,” it was obvious to everyone in the club that something magic was happening. At a time when punk was raging, Fred, Cindy, Kate, Keith and Ricky were making music that defied categorization and seemed so fresh and original. It was as if the group had stepped out of a John Water’s movie. And they sounded great.
 

 
Via Bedazzled.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.13.2011
08:10 pm
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Flamin’ Groovies TV promos
05.12.2011
06:00 pm
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“Shake Some Action,” both the song and album, is one of my all-time favorites. The Flamin’ Groovies’ celebration of sixties garage rock and their punkish power pop sound was too ahead of its time for the USA . They moved to England where they found an audience receptive to their brand of unadulterated rock and roll.

Here’s two promo videos from The Groovies followed, after the jump, by a terrific performance of “Slow Death” on French TV.


“Shake Some Action” - November 1, 1987 on French TV show “Decibels.” This incarnation of The Groovies features only two of the original group: Cyril Jordan and George Alexander. With Jack Johnson and Paul Zahl from Roky Erickson’s band.

“Slow Death” -1973 The Marquee, London, England. Firing on all cylinders. Chris Wilson, Cyril Jordan, George Alexander, Tim Lynch, Danny Mihm
 

 
“Slow Death,” 1972 TV performance after the jump…

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Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.12.2011
06:00 pm
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