By Don Jacobson

Two new rock ‘n’ roll books are on my radar, one that chronicles how a terrific music scene can spring up and prosper in an unlikely place and another that takes a clear-eyed look at the perils and rewards in the everyday lives of rock world working stiffs.
1. I know the Beachwood is a Chicago thing, like Jake, the so-called “Neighborhood Guy” says on those never-ending Old Style radio commercials they play during the Cubs games. “The Spindle. It’s a Chicago thing.” “The Outfit. It’s a Chicago thing.” “Horrible watery beer made in Wisconsin. It’s a Chicago thing.”
But I also like to think that broad musical tastes are a Chicago thing as well, which is the justification I’m using to take this opportunity to relate a few highlights of a new book about Minnesota’s rock music history. Full disclosure impels me to say that I’m a St. Paulite by birth and current residence, but also a former Chicagoan who paid his dues with all the “neighborhood guys” hanging around outside the group homes at the Bryn Mawr Red Line station, so, yah know, there yah go, okay? I know you like Minnesota bands, you really can’t fool me, so let me tell you a bit about Music Legends: A Rewind on the Minnesota Music Scene by Martin Keller.

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Posted on July 30, 2007

By The Beachwood Grandstand Affairs Desk

A comparison of acts coming to grandstands, Miller Lite Main Stages, Budweiser Music Pavilions and Leinie Lodges at state fairs near you.
*
FAIR: Wisconsin State Fair
MOTTO: The Grand Champion of Summer
DATE: August 2 – 12
LINEUP
Doobie Brothers w/Kansas

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Posted on July 25, 2007

By Don Jacobson

Roky Erickson turned 60 this month, and, really, that’s something of a miracle right there. Not only did he manage to survive the acid-drenched late ’60s San Francisco psychedelic rock scene, where he was considered something of a magic child in a culture where such prodigies were frequently worshipped to death, but also the long, lonely years that followed in which he coped as best he could with the ravages of mental illness under the misinformed and smothering guardianship of his wacky mother back home in Austin, Texas. That he is now seemingly fully recovered from his “schizophrenia” (a disputed diagnosis) – free even of anti-psychotic drugs – and has made a triumphant return to the rock ‘n’ roll stage is a story that has few equals even in the excess-stained annals of music lore.

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Posted on July 23, 2007

By Don Jacobson

1. Even 30 years after his death, Elvis Presley continues to be a never-ending cheese factory. It’s amazing how he’s managed to do that. Then again, unlike fellow ubiquitons (my brand-new term for movie and rock cultural icons that are so overexposed their relevance has changed from who they actually were to the fact that they are ubiquitous) Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, Presley’s handlers – like “Colonel” Parker – seemed as if they were cynically planning for the post-mortem nostalgia market from the get-go. How else could you explain the fact that Dead Elvis raked in $52 million in 2005, according to Forbes, the most of any deceased celeb?

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Posted on July 16, 2007

By Anne Elizabeth Moore

Of all the wacky responses I got from the announcement of Punk Planet’s closure (“Have you considered going online?”, “Why don’t you just move to Canada?” and “Why didn’t you warn me?!”) by far the most prescient was this one:
“Sucks. Does it have anything to do with this?”
In fact it does. Not in the sense that I’m so disgusted with Sonic Youth for signing with Starbucks that I must give up on the idea of supporting autonomous music cultures (although I sympathize with those who are), but in the sense that Sonic Youth is willing to do what I was not. And soon, that may be what it takes to survive in culture. Which does, indeed, disgust me.

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Posted on July 12, 2007

By Don Jacobson

The Live Earth effort was so huge that it was impossible for one humble reviewer to digest it all. I spent most of Saturday hunkered down in the basement media center with my iBook hooked up to the stereo, watching the different feeds from all the stages live on MSN.com, which in and of itself was pretty cool, as was the basement media center, considering at was about 100 degrees out in the real world, so nice timing there. I also listened a bit to XM Radio’s audio coverage.
The job MSN.com on Live Earth did was truly a breakthrough in using the Internet to stream live coverage of an event. Utterly comprehensive. It probably took someone with the mammoth servers of a Microsoft to do this, because I’m sure the demand must have been overwhelming and yet only once during the day did I encounter a “servers too busy” message. The sound quality was excellent, and since I have a Mac, I was using Flip4Mac to convert the Windows Media Player streams into QuickTime. The results were great. There was absolutely no skipping, no freezing . . . I couldn’t have asked for more, really. The experience was far superior to watching the NBC highlight reel on Saturday night. It reminded me of watching NBC’s coverage of the Olympics when the games are held overseas – that is, truncated and after-the-fact.
That being said, I think I was able to watch a fair amount of the proceedings, and was able to compile a few choice moments.

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Posted on July 9, 2007

By Don Jacobson

When I think of Time-Life Books, I think of sturdy, well-turned bindings and covers. They were so cool; they were frequently much better than the books’ actual contents. Nice, hefty cardboard that was engineered to look classy on your living room bookshelf, kind of like that faux-brick facing they put on clapboard houses in first-ring suburbs. Mass-produced, down-market, cheesy-cool. You can also find millions of Time-Life books at garage sales, mostly covering such topics as ’70s pop stars and DIY home repairs.
Chicago’s Time-Life Records are much the same – who among us can say they weren’t suckered into calling that toll-free number to order up a heapin’ helpin’ of Sounds of the Seventies, Guitar Rock or the easy listening sounds of Super Hits (reissued as AM Gold)? Plus, they were unbelievably complete compilations thanks to Time Warner Corp.’s licensing pull. If you can find any of these babies at the garage sale, snap them up immediately. They’re golden cheese.
The only drawback was the way Time-Life’s telemarketers would sign you up for about a billion records to be sent out to you every month when you thought you were only buying one. Very tricky. So now, thanks mainly to the Internet, we’re older and wiser in the ways of mail order and telemarketing tactics. That being said, Time-Life Records, now no longer owned by Time Warner, is still very much in the music compilation business, this time coming out with a breathtakingly comprehensive look at folk rock. Its new four-CD set is entitled Four Decades of Folk Rock and will be released (unironically) on Sept. 11.

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Posted on July 6, 2007