'New Age'

D.O.A., "New Age." The studio version's at the second clip, and dwell on that lead guitar solo for a minute or two. The rockin' guitar sounds set DOA apart back in the day:

And don't just take it from me. Keith Morris says DOA blew his mind at the Starwood on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1980. I was there as well. DOA opened for X, who were huge at that time. But Keith makes me laugh when he says, at 2:25 minutes, "I was thinking, how the f*ck was X going to follow these guys?"

See what I mean?

'Nothing From Nothing'

Perfect Democrat theme song. You don't gets to be hangin' with those mofos unless you be chippin' in some snaps (cash). And Billy Preston's 'fro is da kine!

I'm not tryin' to be your hero
'Cause that zero is too cold for me, Brrr
I'm not tryin' to be your highness
'Cause that minus is too low to see, yeah

Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
And I'm not stuffin'
Believe you me
Don't you remember I told ya
I'm a soldier in the war on poverty, yeah
Yes, I am

Red Hot Chili Peppers Are Back

At Los Angeles Times, "A new beginning for the Chili Peppers: After a rough patch, the veteran L.A. band is back with a new guitarist and a new album due out this month."

'Rhinestone Cowboy'

Heard it yesterday while out driving my wife's new Jeep Liberty (been meaning to post pics, and no excuses other than lagging). She's got Sirius radio in there, and she loves it. What a variety!

'In For The Kill'

At the request of my youngest, and I really like La Roux:

Another version here (reminds me of Siouxsie Sioux).

'Pumped Up Kicks'

When you drive around with a teenager you get bombarded with the lastest hipster pop music. And I like Foster the People:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet (link).

'Hey Jude'

It's ranked #8 at Rolling Stone's all-time best song list, "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

I'm taking my boys to see the Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil in a couple of weeks, so bear with me on the continued Beatles postings, LOL!

'Nervous Breakdown'

This is gold!

If you were into punk, late-1970s, this was THE song of youth alienation and anarchic abandon.

Note though, I think this is OFF! at the clip, Keith Morris' new band (not the Circle Jerks). Off! launches a European tour this week.

Keith Morris sang the original "Nervous Breakdown" on Black Flag's breakout EP in 1978. Totally cool:

I'm about to have a nervous breakdown
My head really hurts
If I don’t get the hell outta here
I'm gonna go berserk,

Cause I'm crazy and I’m hurt
Head on my shoulders
I'm going berserk

I hear the same old talk talk talk
The same old lines
Don't do me that today, yeah
If you know what's good for you you'll get out of my way 'cause
I'm crazy and I'm hurt
Head on my shoulders
Going ... berserk

I won't apologize
For acting outta line
You see the way I am
You leave any time you can 'cause
I'm crazy and I'm hurt
Head on my shoulders
Going ... berserk

Crazy! crazy! crazy! crazy!

I don't care what you fuckin' do!
I don't care what you fuckin' say!
I'm so sick of everything
I just want to... Die!

'No Matter What'

Badfinger, rocking:

Singer Pete Ham committed suicide at age 27, same age of death as Amy Winehouse and so many others.

30 Years of MTV

At Independent UK, "It's 30 years since MTV launched and in its three decades, it’s changed the way we think about – as well as watch – music."

I just miss JJ Jackson and Martha Quinn. See, "MTV at 30: Original Veejays, Where Are They Now?"

40th Anniversary of Concert for Bangladesh

Well, this gives me the chance to play George Harrison (via Selena Gomez on Twitter).

And check the George Harrison page here.

Lady Gaga on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'

I didn't even know she was in L.A.

At Los Angeles Times, "Lady Gaga takes over Hollywood Boulevard, peacefully."

Here's the clip. It might be taken down for copyright violation, so enjoy it while it lasts:

And at MTV, "Lady Gaga Finally Confirms 'You And I' As Her Next Single."

RELATED: At Daily Mail, "Lady Gaga takes the plunge in a daring low cut number slashed to the thigh", and "Forget your skirt Lady Gaga? Cheeky singer leaves little to the imagination in a pair of see-through tights." Gaga looks a little chunky at that last link.

'Piece of My Heart'

Well, I've been reflecting back a bit since Amy Winehouse passed away. It's the 27 Club, and I'm not the only one. See Vanderleun, "Someone Wonderful: Janis 'Didn't I make you feel like you were the only man —yeah!'":

With Janis Joplin I just want to teleport back to late 1960s to see her sing. Look at the clip. She makes love to the music at the guitar interlude. And as always, beholding her emotional pain is crushing.

Oh, and check the comments at the blog. An interesting discussion.

'Holidays in the Sun'

Upon request, from my 9 year-old son. Sex Pistols songs play on his Wii game, "Tony Hawk's Proving Ground." And I promised more skateboarding, so until then:

PREVIOUSLY: "Tony Hawk Birdhouse Tour 2011."

A Cheap holiday in other peoples misery!

I don't wanna holiday in the sun
I wanna go to new Belsen
I wanna see some history
'Cause now I got a reasonable economy

Now I got a reason, now I got a reason
Now I got a reason and I'm still waiting
Now I got a reason
Now I got reason to be waiting
The Berlin Wall

Sensurround sound in a two inch wall
Well I was waiting for the communist call
I didn't ask for sunshine and I got World War three
I'm looking over the wall and they're looking at me

Now I got a reason, Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason and I'm still waiting
Now I got a reason,
Now I got a reason to be waiting
The Berlin Wall ...

Dan Peek, 1950 – 2011

Just learned of Dan Peek's death, at Wizbang, "Dan Peek, RIP."

I posted this clip last year, "This Is For All the Lonely People..."

See the write-up at Ultimate Classic Rock, "FOUNDING AMERICA MEMBER DAN PEEK DIES AT 60." Also Aaron Goldstein at American Spectator, "Dan Peek, R.I.P."

Plus a news report at Kansas City Star, "Dan Peek, founding member of soft-rock trio America, dies at 60."

Sixties too young. God bless Peek's family.

'Love Me Two Times'

Jim Morrison was 27 years-old when he died, as was Amy Winehouse. Heard this one yesterday afternoon on The Sound LA. Part of a great set while on the road:

2:01 - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman Turner Overdrive

2:05 - Let My Love Open The Door by Pete Townshend

2:08 - Love Me Two Times by Doors

2:47 - You Got Lucky by Tom Petty

2:50 - Crossroads (live) by Cream

2:55 - All Along The Watchtower by Dave Mason

2:59 - Empty Spaces / Young Lust by Pink Floyd

Amy Winehouse Sadly Joins 'The 27 Club'

London's Daily Mail has a exceptional report on the death of Amy Winehouse, "Tragic Amy Winehouse 'heartbroken' over split from Reg Traviss as she dies aged 27." (And at Memeorandum.)

Troubled singer Amy Winehouse died yesterday of a suspected drug overdose at her London home.

The 27-year-old star, who had fought a long and well-publicised battle with drink and drug addiction, was pronounced dead after police were called to her £2.5 million three-storey home in North London.

Her untimely death follows a long list of musicians who have all died at the age of 27, known as the 27 Club. They include rock legends Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

Amy was said to be devastated and ‘inconsolable’ after being dumped by her on-off boyfriend Reg Traviss, 34, just before she checked herself into The Priory rehabilitation clinic last month.

There's speculation that she killed herself: "Amy Winehouse Death a Suicide?"

But see the appreciation at New York Times, "For Winehouse, Life Was Messier Than Music."

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Amy Winehouse, 1983 – 2011

I got a sharp hit to the stomach upon seeing the news, at Bob Belvedere's, "NO SURPRISE: Amy Winehouse Found Dead – Overdose Suspected," and following the link there to Joy McCann, "Amy Winehouse Found Dead in Her London Flat."

I wasn't the biggest fan, but her substance abuse was troubling to me. A beautiful and talented woman, now lost to a blues singers' ugly death.

See New York Times, "Amy Winehouse, British Soul Singer With a Destructive Image, Dies at 27":

Amy Winehouse, the British singer who found worldwide fame with a smoky, hip-hop-inflected take on retro soul, yet became a tabloid fixture as her struggles with drugs and alcohol brought about a striking public career collapse, was found dead in her home in London on Saturday. She was 27.

The cause was not immediately known. The London police said that they had been called to an address in Camden Square in northern London on Saturday afternoon and found a 27-year-old woman, who had been pronounced dead at the scene. The police did not identify the body, but according to a report by The Associated Press, the London Ambulance Service said it was Ms. Winehouse.

The police said that they were investigating the circumstances of the death, but that “at this early stage it is being treated as unexplained.”

Ms. Winehouse’s American record label, Universal Republic, said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer. Our prayers go out to Amy’s family, friends and fans at this difficult time.”

Instantly recognizable from the heavy makeup and high beehive hairdo she borrowed from the Ronettes, Ms. Winehouse became one of the most acclaimed young singers of the 2000s, selling millions of albums, winning five Grammy Awards and kicking off the British trend of retro soul and R&B that continues today.

Yet from the moment she arrived on the international pop scene in 2007, Ms. Winehouse had an image that seemed almost defiantly self-destructive. In songs like “You Know I’m No Good,” she sang alcohol-soaked regrets of failed romances, and for many listeners the lyrics to the song “Rehab” — which won her three of the five Grammys she took in 2008 — crystallized her public persona. “They tried to make me go to rehab,” she sang, “I said, ‘No, no, no.’ ”

I'll have more later. Fausta blogs Winehouse as well.

Added: Now a Memeorandum thread.

Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)'

Well, a change of pace from The Beatles (via GSGF):

It's funny. A Rebecca Black cameo, Corey Feldman and more!

Fans First Coalition

I've dealt with this issue for years. I even had a buddy who did a pretty good job scalping tickets. The trick is to get them when they're first issued. But who gets them?

A report on concert middlemen, at New York Times, "Scalping Battle Putting ‘Fans’ in the Middle":

It’s the summer concert season and, as usual, many fans are frustrated that rampant ticket scalping online has made seeing their favorite performer almost as much a frustration as a thrill. But now a new group says it wants to help.

This week a new nonprofit group, the Fans First Coalition, announced itself with a mission of protecting ordinary consumers from predatory ticket scalpers. The group appeared to have broad support from the industry, including prominent artists like R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Maroon 5 and Jennifer Hudson.

What fans might not know is that the coalition is financed by Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, and that it has grown out of a lobbying fight between Live Nation and StubHub, the biggest legal online ticket reseller, over control of the multibillion-dollar secondary ticketing market.

Muddying the waters further, there is another group with a confusingly similar name, the Fan Freedom Project, which also claims to represent the interests of consumers. But it is largely financed by StubHub, a division of eBay.

The organizations, which were introduced with the help of Washington public relations firms, are of a sort typically referred to as astroturf groups. They are unusual for the entertainment industry but to political watchdogs, the idea of powerful interests creating apparently populist nonprofits is all too familiar.

I'm old fashioned. I like to have ticket in hand when I head out the door. All I've got to do is get to the concert and get inside. But RTWT. The issue is how are markets for concert tickets organized. There's just a couple of big players, and few outlets drive up prices. Interesting, in any case. I'd like to see more concerts, especially with front row tickets.