One of my favorite moments of 2010 was seeing John Doe and The Sadies play Cal State Northridge on November 20, and totally by chance. I stumbled upon the LA Weekly listing the day of the show, called a friend, and was at the venue before realizing the enormity of what I was about […]
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“When (Sam Cooke) first heard ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ on the new Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album J.W. (Alexander) had just given him, he was so carried away with the message, and the fact that a white boy had written it, that he was almost ashamed not to have written something like that himself. It […]
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Otis Redding and The Bar-Kays - Try A Little Tenderness December 9, 1967 Video filmed for Upbeat the day before Otis’ death With Otis, it was all about feeling and expression. Most of his songs had just two or three chord changes, so there wasn’t a lot of music there. The dynamics, the energy, the […]
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“The Heartbreakers blew everyone away, for no more reason than that they were just more experienced — they had their roots in R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. They were able to go onstage and draw on all that, whereas these kids (The Damned, Clash, and Sex Pistols) couldn’t draw on anything yet. Real rock […]
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“I’ve kind of gotten to a place where I’ve done that quite a bit where it’s just like, you can overthink things too much. And just say, I’m gonna write a simple riff, the simplest thing, and just put it together and not think about it and not over-analyze it and just see what […]
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