LouieB

Which ones? The singles series? I only have the first. There are four terrific Fame comps and a great two disk (and a 5 disk) Specialty set. I like the Savoy R&B reissues but those are from an earlier period. Check out the Numero Group material (discussed here numero-us times before). There are a couple Vee Jay comps that are good too. In fact every small label has some comp out there as well. LouieB

Just to be clear I am not dismissing Daniel Johnston because of his mental illness. I am not uncomfortable with mental illness per se, but I do think some people's fascination with him (and Roky Ericson, etc.) does involve his illness. There is nothing romantic about mental illness. I do need to actually listen to his records, but since I haven't given them away I someday will. LouieB

The Candi Staton cut is a hoot. I played that on my show a few months back. Some of those that claim to be overlooked aren't. If you want to have a discussion on this, there are terrific soul comps that cover some of this territory so you don't have to go out looking for records you will never find for less than a fortune. The best part of the CD era is that much of this material is anthologized and available to any fan. LouieB

I did not give then away yet. I feel like I should give him a shot, but like I said it is painful to think about. I have said this before, but I saw three documentaries about musicians with mental health issues about the same time. Two were about folks with serious problems, the other being the Roky Ericson movie and the third being about the Brian Jonestown Massacre (whats the name of that movie??) Recently when I saw the Rodriguez movie I got the same vibe. Clearly there is more going on with the guy than just he didn't quite make it, but the filmmakers were not very forthcoming about t

I saw Pere Ubu (well sort of) at the Empty Bottle in Chicago last night.. LouieB

Daniel Johnston is one of the saddest dudes in the pantheon of mentally ill rock figures. The movie bummed me out (and still does) and when I bought a couple CDs of his work, I couldn't bear to put them in the player and listen. LouieB

Ezra Klein is so right. The glitches in the law could be fixed and it would be even better, but the GOP isn't interested in that. Lots of people don't even know it is a law. LouieB

Thanks. Looks like you can listen on terrestrial radio too. LouieB

Well let's give the Byrds and Bob Dylan a bit o credit here too. LouieB

Giving a bit more notice this time. I will be on WNUR.org or 89.3 here in Chicago this Sunday September 22 at 5-7 PM. Hope for less dead air. I will be playing cuts from the Specialty Records Catalogue, Numero's Twinight comp, a flashback of Sly Stone, a bunch of soul singles I just got, a Staple Singers piece about MLK, and I will also tie in the Replacements reunion to R&B. Tune in if you can (stand it.) LouieB

I am in the vast minority here. Let Congress shut the government down (of course they still get paid no matter what, go figure.) At that point more folks will figure out what the government is good for, or not depending maybe not. We need a good crises to shock the crap out of folks a bit I think. Stop payments to vets, Social Security, etc. and let's see how fast some folks come around. LouieB

Neko got herself a nifty little "talk of the town" article this week in the New Yorker. LouieB

Tommy Stinson is a sideman by himself. I saw him a few years back and he couldn't even fill Schubas. He was fun to see, but he ain't Paul Westerberg, who is the brains behind the outfit. When the Replacements broke up 22 years ago they probably could not have attracted the crowds they can attract now. Their reputation has done nothing but grow, just as Big Star did the same in its absence (or any number of other artists now regarded as seminal who were not that popular at the time.) I mean 22 years is a long long time. There were folks in the crowd at Riot Fest who were barely out of d

Oh yea, I forgot, actually the NRA doesn't want more people killed, they just more people armed to shoot back at shooters......silly me. Louieb

Exactly. Hixter keeps saying we should enforce the current guns laws and I suppose there is some truth to that, but ultimately the NRA doesn't even want that. I am particularly fond of him saying that this kind of thing has been going on since the beginning of time, so I guess we just have to accept that humans are stupid and violent and live with it. No point in ever thinking that things can get better. Nice world view. LouieB

Actually the sad part about this event is that it is barely registering any more. As I said a few months back, we have this stuff happen so often that we have become numb to it. This stuff is just going to keep happening over and over again, so we might as well get used to it. LouieB

This is sad because the band had great chemistry. I don't think I would go see them again at this point. I have seen them do lots of interesting shows which I will remember always. LouieB

Agreed. That seems like a tad high (which lots of people were) but the place in general was mobbed. LouieB

It would. Although the Replacements could open for Wilco, I can't imagine they would. At this point they are headliners. As was already mentioned, people were coming in from all over the country to see them at Riot Fest. I think it remains to be seen if Westerberg wants to continue or not. Considering what I saw of the Pixies the other night, this reunion biz can become are routine and boring as never breaking up. LouieB

I was sent the link and didn't look at when it was put up. Can you link it here? I think folks would be interested. I know DeRo is way cooler than me, seeing bands back in the day and getting to brag about it. But for those of us NOT as cool, seeing the replacement Replacements the other night was pretty fucking cool. I would not be surprised if he wrote most of prior to the show to prove what a cool dude he is and how bogus this whole reunion thing is (which makes Riot Fest the epitome of bogus because most of the bands were doing reunions or were older.) But to simply trash what was

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for country radio. It is the one format that still has a big fan base (apropos of your comments about not listening to radio.) If you watch the CMAs (which I am sure you don't) the artists always thank the country radio listeners. And despite some terrible things being played on all radio these days, the country artists are actually trying to write songs. Mostly I was referring to driving cross country, not listening in the city.. Country radio is sometimes all there is. There may be an oldies station too, but it is interesting to tune into th

The Chicago duo of Sound Opinions were split on this. Kot was very complimentary to the whole thing and DeRogatis was not. True to his usual MO DeRo was kind of a dick. No time to post up these links, but that is what Google is for. LouieB

I didn't read this yet, but I am sure that is true. I kind of got that feeling too, but that's what he told me. Will check it out. LouieB

I got lost in this thread. I spoke to Jim Becker at Pitchfork and he doesn't seem to up for rejoining the band. He told me 10 years was enough. Too bad. LouieB

There are no other radio stations in the area or you are curious about what is being played on shitty country stations instead of listening to the shitty auto-tune songs on shitty contemporary pop stations.(Compared to some of the shit on pop stations, the country shit isn't so bad.) LouieB