Recent Referrals

Some good stuff has been coming through the pipeline lately...only I'm usually not the one that's been finding it all.

Handsome Dick Manitoba on Jimmy Fallon, 1/10/2012.  HDM started a tumblr not too long ago as well.  (ISTR a late-'90s Dictators show, either at CB's or Coney Island High, where he went on an anti-computer rant and swore he'd never buy one.)






I can't say I'm a fan of the "comedy stylings" of Opie and Anthony or Colin Quinn, but I did dig their discussion about '80s Long Island clubs on YT (starts around the 24 minute mark through to 45).  Thanks Tommy!  Naturally, there are at least two FB groups on this topic and era.






Stupefaction and Flaming Pablum both recently featured an episode of a wacky '80s public access cable dance show called New York Dance Stand, which was shot at Danceteria and Trash and Vaudeville.  There's even a bit of garage action within--keep your eyes peeled for a glimpse of Wendy Wild and Dino Sorbello of the Mad Violets during the dance contest segment, starting at 17:50.  I was a mere tyke and more into mainstream rock and roll at this point, but I used to relish reading about places like this in the gossip columns of the Post and Daily News.  So many of these songs permeated the very air of Louis Armstrong Middle School back then--and jeez, who knew the singers of "A-E-I-O-U, I sometimes cry" were British and male???  A shorter portion of the show as broadcast on Night Flight, including some commercials ("brought to you by Sergio Valente"), is also on YT. Danceteria has a couple of FB groups devoted to it, as does Trash and Vaudeville.  And Nile Rodgers discusses Danceteria in his fantastic memoir (and essential addition to your NYC rock and roll reading list) Le Freak...but he preferred Area at the time.







Not long after I watched this, Bryan of This Ain't the Summer of Love posted a link on FB to Robert Carrithers' most recent blog entry, featuring newly unearthed phots he'd taken at Danceteria and Club 57--including a couple of shots of the aforementioned Wendy Wild.


Speaking of FB, if you're not on the NY Rocks, Fillmore East, or Steve Paul's the Scene groups, you oughta be.  I'm particularly digging the reminiscences on Nobody's that the Scene group has been abuzz with lately. There's a group for the '80s Peppermint Lounge too--seems I've been on it for a while, though I have no recollections of ever joining it.  I'm sure if I looked up every NYC club/venue of note on FB I'd eventually find a page for each one...I wonder how the action for such things is on Google+.


A bit of coverage on Ed Sanders' Fug You, which still hasn't made its way up here to local bookshops yet: NY Times review (and EV blog interview from last month), Interview magazine conversation, Dangerous Minds review.

Patti Smith/Chelsea Hotel controversy. [ETA 1/13/2012: She ended up canceling.]


Lastly, here are some nice ads sent in by reader Barry.  The Gaslight ones date from 1968, and the Folk City ones are from May 1970.

Which is on fire...on fire

'79 Clash Palladium Super-8 footage unearthed and soundtracked at TheClashBlog.  Thanks to the ever-vigilant Tim B. at Stupefaction for the alert.


Super-cool Ed Sanders interview at the NY Times East Village blog.  I hope Fug You arrives at T.O. bookstores in a more timely manner than Love Goes to Buildings on Fire did.


But yes, I did manage to score a copy of Love Goes over the weekend, and have devoured 2/5ths of it already...pretty good progress, considering that each of the book's five chapters corresponds to a year in the author's coverage period of '73-'77. Since I've spent much of the past year studying this time frame in depth, certain aspects of the narrative feel a bit like deja vu all over again.  Will Hermes' scope reaches far beyond that of this blog though--he devotes as much attention to the music scenes I'm less well-versed in, and I appreciate the edification.  Still, I feel that the rock and roll portions of the book suffer a bit from a lack of the intense deep examination I crave, as it seems like only the best-known stories on the major figures in NYC proto-punk and punk are told.  Great stuff of course, but by now that's well-trodden territory for all rock book aficionados worth their salt--it's the more obscure folks who need to be documented at this point.  I generally agree with Times reviewer David Gates' assesment that "he writes more evocatively about jazz, salsa and concert music than about rock 'n' roll" (add the early hip-hop scene to that list too). But where Gates dismisses Hermes' interwoven personal tales of burgeoning Queens teen music fandom as unnecessary, those have naturally been my fave aspects of the book so far.  I'm always a sucker for a protagonist I can identify with--and not only was Hermes a bit too young to experience the best stuff firsthand, he grew up right near my high school in Fresh Meadows.  No matter how this tome will turn out, he's already won me over on that basis alone.

Can't wait for my library reservation on James Wolcott's memoirs to come through, which seems like it'd be the perfect companion volume.  But it's not as if I've been lacking for NYC rock lit lately--I also recently finished The Last Sultan (on Ahmet Ertegun) and Ten Thousand Saints (a novel largely set among the '80s East Village straightedge hardcore scene), and enjoyed them both.  Next up will probably be Jerry Blavat's memoirs--yet believe me, these might seem like a ton of books, but none of my efforts will ever lessen the sheer height of my Sisyphean "to read" pile.    

Two to look forward to

Oy--as if I don't have enough of a backlog to read and watch already, more interesting stuff just keeps coming out at a relentless pace!  Thanks to Tim B. and Tom B. for these links.

Due in early November...check Amazon and Faber for more info. 

The Viking of Sixth Avenue from Holly Elson on Vimeo.

Here's the film's site...I don't see a screening schedule so it's possible that it hasn't been completed yet.