Last year, American student, Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. The killing took place in the apartment the two young women shared in Pergugia, Italy, in 2007. It was an event that literally divided continents - Americans tended to believe Amanda innocent; while Europeans thought her guilty. The paparazzi dubbed the 23-year-old, “Foxy Knoxy”, while the prosecution described her as a sex-mad, drug-addled psycho, all of which detracted from the horror of the crime and complexities of the case.
Gene Loves Jezebel was the coolest band ever to be fronted by identical twins (Michael and Jay Aston). And ‘Motion Of Love’ was one of the hookiest songs of the 80’s.
The brothers Aston look a lot like Gina Gershon and Juliette Lewis in this video. I’d consider fucking them.
Two of my favorite musical artists, Neil Young and Daniel Lanois, have collaborated on Neil’s new album Le Noise. Daniel discusses the process of making the record.
Le Noise is being released on September 28. It’s just Neil, some guitars, some amps and a mixing board. I dig it, but I can’t help but wonder what it might have sounded like with Crazy Horse in the mix. Still, pretty powerful. SImple yet epic. Zen metalism.
Paul Morrissey, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin and Tim Buckley at Max’s Kansas City, 1968
In 1998, High on Rebellion, the definitive oral history of Max’s Kansas City, the bar/restaurant/nightclub that was THE in-spot of New York’s rock/art demimonde, was published. Written by Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin (once the wife of Max’s founder, Mickey Ruskin) it’s a classic book, one that should rightfully be as well-known as Edie: American Girl, Please Kill Me or POPism: The Warhol Sixties, one of a handful of truly must-read volumes if you want to understand what was happening culturally in New York City during the Sixties and the Seventies. Sadly, the book is obscure, but hopefully it will be republished one day.
At Max’s, the regulars would include names like Alice Cooper, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, William Burroughs, Larry Rivers, Tennessee Williams, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Philip Glass, Halston, Jackie Curtis, the New York Dolls, Candy Darling, Iggy Pop, John Waters, Salvador Dali, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Rauschenberg, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, John Cale, the list could go on and on. Devo, Tim Buckley, Aerosmith, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bruce Springteen, Tom Waits, Sid Vicious, the B-52s and Gram Parsons all played Max’s and Debbie Harry and Emmylou Harris were waitresses there. As Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler said, “You knew even the assholes would be famous one day. It was that kind of place.”
He’s right about that. Abrams Image has just published a gorgeous new coffee table book of photographs and ephemera (menus, newspaper ads, notes from an art auction) from Max’s, titled, appropriately enough Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll. Edited by NYC gallery owner Steven Kasher with contributions from Lou Reed, Lenny Kaye, Danny Fields, Lorraine O’Grady and Steven Watson, this oversized volume is one of the best books of this sort to come out in a long.long time. It also makes a nice, decade-late companion to High on Rebellion: If the earlier book was primarily anecdotal, Kasher’s volume takes the opposite approach of a picture being worth a thousand words. When the subject is a place like Max’s—once described by writer Terry Southern as “the lower circles of Dante’s Inferno filled with Bosch and Breughel characters—a well-framed photograph communicates more than words ever could...
For instance, a big part of Max’s legend was the infamous “back room” VIP area where anything could—and apparently did—happen. (The line in Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” about drag queen Candy Darling: “In the back room, she was everybody’s darlin’” refers to Max’s). Not only is there a shot in the book of a man (identified as poet/artist Rene Ricard, although you can’t really see his face) giving another man a blow job right in the middle of the restaurant—tell me that’s not context, people!—there is also a photograph of someone standing on a table in the foreground, with people laughing, but in the background, where the camera wasn’t pointed, we see Warhol superstar Taylor Meade, bare-assed naked. Casual nudity seems like the way it was done at Max’s, if these photos are to be believed.
Max’s was open on Park Avenue South from 1965 until 1974 and reopened under different management in 1975. That incarnation lasted until 1981. 213 Park Avenue South, the building that once housed the insanity that was Max’s Kansas CIty is now occupied by a Korean deli (that I went to often). Mickey Ruskin died in 1983.
Below: Some (mostly silent) footage from the heyday of Max’s Kansas City shot by Anton Perich featuring Warhol actress Andrea Feldman (who killed herself at the age of 24), Taylor Meade, Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, a gorgeous young Mary Woronov and towards the end (with audio) Max’s owner, Mickey Ruskin himself.
Generally when Wisconsin’s All Tiny Creatures goes out on tour, band member Andrew Fitzpatrick carries around an old Sony handheld cassette recorder, tapes a bunch of random phenomena then edits the best of it into a sort of abstract personal memento of the experience. Says Fitzpatrick, “I managed to capture about three hours worth of material over the course of 14 days, which I then edited down to about 14 minutes. The process of editing the material is rewarding; it enhances my memories of the trip, and it’s an interesting way to construct a new narrative of sorts.” Makes for good listening, says I.
Although they recorded but three albums, Buffalo Springfield was one of the most influential rock bands of the 60s. This Fall, surviving Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay are reuniting to perform at Young’s annual Bridge School benefit concerts on October 23rd and 24th in Mountain View, California.
Furay told Rolling Stone that got he a text message from Young that read, “Call me.”
“I called and he asked me if I’d be up for a reunion at the Bridge School Benefit,” Furay says. “He said, ‘If you’re into it, I think Stephen [Stills] will be into it.’ The three of us then arranged a conference call, chit-chatted for a few minutes, and planned it all out. The last time I was onstage with them was the last Buffalo Springfield show at the Long Beach Arena back in 1968. Our lives have gone in different directions and I wouldn’t say that we’re close friends, but we’re friends and its an opportunity for us to get together again for a good cause. I’m very excited.”
Rick Rosas (from Neil Young’s band) will sit in for the late Bruce Palmer, with CSN drummer Joe Vitale filling in for Dewey Martin who died in 2009.
Below, David Crosby performs in stead for an MIA Neil Young as Buffalo Springfield sing their million-selling single, “For What It’s Worth” at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Introduced by Peter Tork of the Monkees.
These film stills are taken from ffffilm a website where users can upload and share frames from their favorite films. ffffilm reaffirms the notion that we tend overlook many beautifully composed scenes when watching a film. Looking at these images, I was reminded of a book from the 1970s, which did something similar by examining the best of Laurel and Hardy frame-by-frame, except here you have hundreds of films to look at. It also brought to mind Douglas Gordon’s 24-Hour Psycho, which presented the incredible skill, artistry and ambiguity in a slowed-down projection of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 thriller Psycho.
Abbey Road is pop culture’s most iconic location. It served as the title and backdrop to The Beatles’ eleventh studio album, and is the site of the world’s best known recording studios.
Scots photographer Iain Macmillan was given ten minutes with George, Paul, Ringo and John, to capture one of the most famous and most imitated album covers ever. Now, a live webcam, allows Beatle fans and road lovers everywhere the chance to watch that legendary zebra-crossing 24/7.
