RIP Tom Snyder

Having just heard the news of Tom Snyder's passing, I thought it would be appropriate to post some memorable clips from the Tomorrow Show.

The Clash


Plasmatics


U2


An interview with Iggy Pop

There is also an interview with John Lydon/Johnny Rotten that is worth checking out. Click here to link to the search results page on YouTube.

And finally...

This DVD showcases all the great musical artists featured on The Tomorrow Show.

BTW, for the last couple of weeks, I have been listing relavent bands scheduled to appear on the late-night talk shows. I was unable to find any performances of interest this week, but tonight's episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson will feature a Tom Snyder tribute.

New Mullet on Monday - Love & Rockets

It's about time Love & Rockets made an appearance on this blog, and why not for hair-related reasons? Today's mullet graced the head of Daniel Ash (vocals, guitars, and saxophone) in 1986. Love & Rockets disbanded in the late nineties, re-forming Bauhaus with Peter Murphy. As recently as 2006, Bauhaus toured (supporting Nine Inch Nails). According to Wikipedia, Bauhaus members had expressed a desire to record an album of new music after the tour, which, if it happens, will be their first studio album since 1983's Burning from the Inside.

All in My Mind

Love and Rockets Related Links:
danielash.org and loveandrockets.org - Fan-run, but listed as official according to the official Bauhaus site...
David J.'s Official Site
Messy Music - A project of Kevin Haskins
Official Tones on Tail on MySpace
Official Bauhaus on MySpace
Bauhaus Official Website

Hooky: "See you in court!"

Peter Hook has responded via blogpost to the statement released last week by fellow New Order band mates Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris. Click here to check it out.

The Del Fuegos

Perhaps you remember this critically acclaimed Boston band, named "Best New Band" in 1984 by Rolling Stone Magazine. Between 1983 and 1990, The Del Fuegos put out five albums, and their Songs Don't Run Wild and I Still Want You received some play on radio and MTV.

Vocalist Dan Zanes has found success making all-ages music (probably stating the obvious to any readers who are parents). In 2003, Zanes told NPR that when looking for children's music for his daughter, "he just couldn't find the sound he was looking for -- an updated version of the music Zanes grew up listening to, artists like Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, Ella Jenkins and Woody Guthrie. So he and some other dads started to create it themselves." In February of this year, the Dan Zanes and Friends album Catch That Train won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album For Children.

According to Wikipedia, guitarist Warren Zanes went on to earn two Master's degrees and a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Arts. He is also the Vice President of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I was hoping to add a video to this post, but the only YouTube offerings appeared to be made from pointing a video camera at a TV Screen. So here's a link to I Still Want You on ifilm.com -- I'd rather send you to another site if there's a better quality option -- that's just how much I care.

Links!
Dan Zanes Official Website
Warren Zanes Official Website
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Tour Dates

Click on the band or artist name to link to the tour dates. Many other relevant artists (Sonic Youth, The Cure, Squeeze, the English Beat, just to name a few) are touring at this time. Just do a search on the Blogger navbar (upper left) for tour date info previously posted on this site. Here are some that haven't previously been mentioned here:

• The Jesus and Mary Chain will play a few dates around Europe in August and September.
  
• Sinéad O'Connor played a sold-out show in New York City last night and will be performing in Europe and Asia in August, coming back to the U.S. in September.
• Cowboy Junkies - Shows are scheduled through May of next year; one London show in October, and the rest in the U.S.
• Edie Brickell and New Bohemians will play at the Calgary Folk Festival this weekend.
• Lots of U.K. dates are scheduled for the Happy Mondays.
• Patti Smith has many U.S. shows scheduled over the next few months.
• The Smashing Pumpkins' next show will be August 5 in Baltimore, then they're off to Scandinavia and other European locales for the remainder of the month. In September, they will return to North America for several more months of shows.
  

Briefly...

• A U.S. release date of November 2 has been announced for the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.

• Billboard.com is reporting that Robert Smith has started work on a DVD documentary to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of The Cure's first album, Three Imaginary Boys. Click here for the story.

• Also from Billboard.com, this October, Virgin Records will release a special 30th anniversary edition of The Sex Pistols' debut album, Never Mind The Bollocks ... Here's the Sex Pistols. The story is here.

• This interview with X's John Doe ran today in The Providence Journal (projo.com) .
  

• The July/August issue of American Photo included a feature on rock star photographers, and included photographs by, among others, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Michael Stipe.
  

Lost and Found Video - Fuzzbox

This week's lost and found video is Love is the Slug from Fuzzbox (Known in the UK as We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Not Afraid to Use It). The Birmingham, England quartet was formed in 1985, released this song in 1986, and continued playing together until 1990, with a brief stint trying a dance-pop style toward the end.

Vocalist Vickie Perks has a band called Vix n' the Kix, and their MySpace page is here. Otherwise, more Fuzzbox nostalgia can be found here.

Nick Heyward: Les is More

Well, it's late Monday night/early Tuesday morning and the day is looking full, so just a quick video post for today. This amusing little item was posted on MySpace TV...

And, having a soft spot for Nick Heyward, here's one of his videos:BTW, Whistle Down the wind is another movie song (see yesterday's post) -- from Sixteen Candles.

New Mullet on Monday - Paul Hyde and The Payola$

Today's mullet is a particularly blond and curly one, worn by Paul Hyde in 1985, and featured in this video for You're the Only Love. Honorable mentions go to the drummer and keyboardist.

Although You're the Only Love is a song that I quite enjoy (sentimental reasons), as an added bonus, here's a video from better days -- musically, and hair-wise: The 1982 single Eyes of a Stranger. You may remember this tune from the Valley Girl Soundtrack.

On July 17, The Payola$ released a seven-song EP entitled Langford Part One.  You can find them online at payolas.com.

On the Talk Shows this Week

• The Late Show with David Letterman - Buffalo Tom (July 27).
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - The Saints (July 23).  Note:  This show is listed with the assumption that the band is the Australian band The Saints, who are still playing live -- there is at least one other band out there with the same name.  

New Order with no Hook?

Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris of New Order have finally spoken about Peter Hook's claims that the band has broken up. In a joint statement, Sumner and Morris said: "After 30 years in a band together we are very disappointed that Hooky has decided to go to the press and announce unilaterally that New Order have split up. We would have hoped that he could have approached us personally first." They continued, "He does not speak for all the band, therefore we can only assume he no longer wants to be a part of New Order." Adding, "Whatever happens musically or otherwise, New Order have not split up, they continue to exist."

As of this writing, Hook's MySpace blog contains no reply. Stay tuned...

Photo Credit: Crackers United

An Evening with Adam Ant

With the paperback edition of his autobiography, Stand and Deliver, set for release in the U.K. on September 7, Adam Ant has scheduled a special reading and performance on September 24 at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London. According to adam-ant.net, he will be reading excerpts of the book, telling some bonus stories, and singing with acoustic guitar accompaniment. This performance is said to be Adam Ant's first in several years.

Adam Ant Links:
Adam-Ant.net on MySpace
Ant Lib Online - A fun fan site.

No More Banshees or Creatures

Siouxsie is all set to release her first solo album, called Mantaray. The debut single, Into a Swan, will be released on August 27, and the album is to be released on September 10. The video for Into a Swan was leaked and ended up on YouTube, was taken down, and, well, is there again, so here it is.

Links:
Siouxsie's Official Website
Siouxsie and the Banshees on MySpace
thebansheesandothercreatures.co.uk - Looks official, but I'm not 100%.

One thing leads to another...

No, this post isn't about The Fixx. It's actually a note about yesterday's post featuring The Dickies. After losing myself in YouTube looking for (and finding) Video Concert Hall Videos, one thing led to another, and now I've whipped up a tribute blog. If you are also a fan (and I realize it's probably a pretty slim demographic) click here to see it. If you do link over, be sure to refer to the disclaimer in the "About the Editor" section where I express my intent to post as many of the videos the show played as possible, good or bad. Some of them are pret-ty bad, but a lot of them are really good.

Thanks!

Lost and Found Video - The Dickies

I'm sure there are more people out there (besides my sister and myself) who remember Video Concert Hall -- after all, there is a Wikipedia entry for it. This show predated MTV and aired music videos, in the same order, on a nightly basis. It seems like every few months they would add and subtract a few videos and rearrange the order. The show provided my first exposure to Squeeze and Split Enz, and gave a first look at The Police and Gary Numan. And of course, there was this gem from The Dickies.

Briefly...

Here are a few stories out this week:

• Mike Peters of The Alarm spoke about his experience with cancer in this Boston Herald interview. Peters, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1996 and leukemia in 2005, is currently in remission.

• Digital Spy is reporting that The B-52's are close to finishing their new album. Click here for the article.
  

• Glenn Tilbrook commented on the possibility of Squeeze continuing beyond this summer's reunion tour in this story from popmatters.com (Courtesy of the The Morning Call in Allentown, PA).
  

• And here's a fun bit of trivia from prinside.com (provided by wenn.com) -- Matt Groening tells about how, many years ago, as a rock critic, he offended Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo). Elfman went on to compose the theme song for The Simpsons.
  

New Mullet on Monday - Tears For Fears

For the most part, I try to feature deeper cuts when posting videos to this blog, but for a couple of reasons, I'm going with the following Tears For Fears selection:

It was 22 years ago this month that Head Over Heels was blazing up the U.S. charts, eventually hitting #3 (not that I consider chart position the true measure of a song's greatness). Perhaps it is just my take, but I recall that this song caused an emotional reaction in a great many people, and the vibe (at least where I was), was that those who weren't already sold on Tears For Fears were on board after hearing this song.

While I now may poke a little fun at Roland Orzabal's mullet, at the time, I wanted to marry him -- in that navy blue sweater he wore at the end of the video.

Tears for Fears reunited in 2000 and have been touring of late, with upcoming dates in Las Vegas and around California. Curt Smith became a U.S. citizen earlier this month.

Tears For Fears Links:
tears-for-fears.com
Curt Smith on MySpace - Includes TFF tour dates.
Memories Fade - A Comprehensive Fan Site

On the Talk Shows this Week

I keep seeing bands perform on the late-night talk shows and think, "D'oh -- that should have been on the blog." Then I proceed to repeatedly strike myself in the head. So, in order to avoid further self-torture, the Classic Alternative Blog presents some TV performances you may want to catch this week. If there are any other shows I should be looking out for, comments and emails are most welcome.

• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - Suzanne Vega (July 18) - Vega, BTW, has a new album, Beauty and Crime, coming out on July 17. You can sample the album and check out her tour dates on her MySpace page.
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien - Nick Lowe (July 16).
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Patti Smith (July 19).
• The Henry Rollins Show - Shane MacGowan (July 20).
  

Hoodoo Gurus News

The Hoodoo Gurus recently announced that they will be touring in August and September. The band will be in their native Australia at the beginning and end of the tour, with dates in between in the United Kingdom, Spain, and the East Coast of the United States (U.S. cities TBA).

A new album is reportedly in the works with a planned release sometime this year. In 2006, the band released Tunnel Vision, a double DVD featuring a Hoodoo Gurus documentary, all 30 of their music videos, and a full concert performance.

Hoodoo Gurus links:
hoodoogurus.net - their official website
Hoodoo Gurus on MySpace

Upcoming CD Releases

Here are a couple of CDs slated for U.S. release on July 17:

• The Mission U.K. - God is a Bullet - With the exception of the latter half of the '90s, the Mission U.K. has been recording and touring, with Wayne Hussey (vocals & guitar) as a constant presence, and the only original band member in the current line-up. The band's official website is here, and you may click here to link to their MySpace page.

• Meat Puppets - Rise to Your Knees - Since forming in 1980, Meat Puppets have weathered two break-ups and three incarnations. Curt Kirkwood (vocals & guitar) never left, and in 2006, original bassist (and brother) Cris Kirkwood got back on-board. The Meat Puppets official website is here, and their MySpace page is here. The band will tour the United States from July 21 through mid-September.
  

Lost and Found Video - The Lucy Show

The Lucy Show's 1986 album Mania (yes, the actual vinyl version) was one that got countless spins on my college radio show. I was starting to wonder if I would ever hear The Lucy Show again, then a few weeks ago, Jeff surprised the heck out of me (thanks!) by playing A Million Things on his radio show, The 80s Underground. He also informed me that Mania has been re-released on the Words on Music label, after having been out of print for over 15 years. Click here to link to a full Lucy Show bio on the Words on Music Website, and be sure to look for the MP3 link at left.

I was also quite surprised to find the video for A Million Things on YouTube (sweet YouTube, eases the pain...). Sorry about the audio quality -- again, just pleased to have found it.

MySpace links for The Lucy Show and it's members:
The Lucy Show Music
Typewriter -- A project of vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Mark Bandola.
Robert Vandeven - Vocals/Bass
Peter Barraclough - Guitars/Keyboards

Briefly...

Here are a few interesting stories out recently:

• On the eve of The Police show in St. Paul last week, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran a story about classic bands reuniting -- focus is on The Police, of course, with a mention of the Stray Cats. Paul Westerberg was also quoted on the possibility of a Replacements reunion (low).
  

• In a Mercury News (San Jose) interview, Dave Wakeling talked about about getting kicked out of a Bob Marley concert in the mid-70s. Other topics included Wakeling's recent work with Reggae legend Pato Banton, and Smile Train.

• Spin.com reported that Mick Jones and Billy Bragg recently did some impromptu performing in a surprising place. Click here for the story.
  

• The Kansas City Star ran a review of the new Crowded House CD, Time on Earth, which was released in the United States today.

• Channel NewsAsia featured an interview with Robert Smith.

• Pitchfork.com featured an interview with Deborah Harry.
  

• Yahoo Music reports that Johnny Marr and Morrissey often get together, but do not talk about The Smiths. And another Smiths-related story -- NME is reporting that the historic  Salford Lads Club, featured on the inner sleeve of The Queen is Dead, and in the Stop Me if You've Heard this one Before video, "has been dealt a severe blow after thieves stole lead and guttering from the roof."  The club, built in 1903, is in the process of restoration. 
  

• Chrissie Hynde will be opening a vegetarian restaurant in Akron, Ohio. The story was reported by many outlets -- link here for the CMJ version.

• Richard Butler talks about his solo album and reuniting with the Psychedelic Furs, who are in the midst of a major summer tour along with The Alarm and The Fixx in an interview with The Examiner. The three bands play in Boston tonight.
  

New Mullet on Monday - U2

It has been a long, long time since Bono has been seen with a mullet, and hopefully it isn't hair-related shame that keeps Under a Blood Red Sky from being released on DVD.

It was difficult to choose one clip out of all the offerings from this excellent show -- here's The Electric Co.

Ask Bob

Last week's entry on Bob Mould neglected to mention a recent side-project -- the Ask Bob column in the Washington City Paper.  Since the column debuted on April 5, Mould has tackled a number of different topics -- from how to approach celebrities and the effect of MP3 piracy on musicians to giving tips on cooking on a grill and quitting smoking (nothing is off-topic).  Mould has, for the last five years, called Washington D.C. home.

Never enough Bob, IMO.

Nvr Say Nvr

Debora Iyall, artist, teacher, and former singer for Romeo Void, will be performing with her new band, Nvr say Nvr, in Portland next Friday (July 13). You can click here to check out Iyall's website, and here for her MySpace page.

Now for a little editorializing: I'm going with the obvious video choice for a couple of reasons: (A) No record company appointed models there to distract from the beautiful Ms. Iyall, and (2) you get to see a lot of Benjamin Bossi in addition to hearing his amazing sax playing.

Lost and Found Video - Game Theory

You may have never known that this little jewel was made into a video (I didn't).

After releasing nine albums in the 80s, Game Theory disbanded, with lead singer and guitarist Scott Miller moving on to The Loud Family. Their latest effort, What if it Works (with Anton Barbeau) was released in 2006.

And here are your links!
The Loud Family official website (includes Game Theory Related items)
The Loud Family on MySpace

Speaking of R.E.M...

The band is currently working on it's 14th studio album, and is in the midst of a five-night stint of audience-attended working rehearsals in Dublin. After taking a break on Monday, the band will play the three remaining rehearsals starting this evening. These are the only live appearances R.E.M. is scheduled to make this year.

A special website/blog has been set up -- remdublin.com. For all of your other R.E.M. related needs, their official website is remhq.com, and their MySpace is here.

Pic of Michael Stipe, Sunday night in Dublin, by remdublin on Flikr.

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3

While at the IFC/Henry Rollins website looking for the Bob Mould clips, I saw that Robyn Hitchcock appeared on the show last weekend. Hitchcock has recently been backed by The Venus 3 -- Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey (The Young Fresh Fellows) and Bill Rieflin (arguably best known for his work with Ministry). McCaughey and Rieflin are also unofficial members of R.E.M., both having recorded and toured with the band. Hitchcock and the Venus 3 recorded an album together, Olé! Tarantula, which was released last October, and a concert EP -- Sex, Food, Death and Tarantulas -- released in March of this year. The four also finished up a string of live dates in mid-June. Click here to see Hitchcock and the band's Henry Rollins Show performance, and here for the interview. The show will re-air on July 31.

IFC isn't the only indie movie channel on which Hitchcock has recently appeared -- The Sundance Channel produced a documentary on Hitchcock, entitled Sex, Food, Death and Insects, which debuted in late March. An interview (and additional clip) can be found here.

Hitchcock occasionally plays with other musicians, including John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin (on mandolin).

For information on all of Robyn Hitchcock's exploits, check out robynhitchcock.com, and find tunes to sample on his official MySpace page.

New Mullet on Monday - Nik Kershaw

Our Mullet for today was sported by Nik Kershaw, circa 1984. The Riddle is a song that will always remind me of Rock Over London, a syndicated program, which around the same time, introduced US college radio listeners to (among many others) Alison Moyet, Tears For Fears, and even China Crisis. Other fans of the show might be interested to hear that host Graham Dene is still a radio announcer in the UK.

But back to today's video: For some unknown reason, I find myself continually surprised at the number of artists of the era who are still making music. Nik Kershaw is indeed still recording and has an official website, nikkershaw.co.uk, and a MySpace page, where fairly regular blog entries can be found.

Concert For Diana

The Concert for Diana is going on at this hour, featuring performances by (among others) Bryan Ferry and Duran Duran. VH1 is providing live coverage and streaming the concert at vh1.com and will also be rebroadcasting the event this week (details and clips at vh1.com). NBC will feature highlights tonight at 8 p.m. EST. The Concert for Diana homepage features info on how the concert can be viewed from non-North American locales.

Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran recently talked to People Magazine about his band being Princess Diana's favorite -- click here for the article. D2 will again be performing at Wembley Stadium on July 7 at the Live Earth U.K. concert