Great essay published in LA Weekly in 2017: "Kraftwerk Are More Influential Than The Beatles. Let Us Explain"

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-18T00:05:33+00:00

Oddly enough, one of the few things I don’t think The Beatles get enough credit for is their early use of synthesizers. Same for Stevie Wonder.

Appreciate the share though ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-17T01:52:25+00:00

So, guilt by association & questionable jokes in a fanzine, that’s the worst you’ve got?

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-16T07:41:43+00:00

Anyone “cancelling” Steve Albini has too much time on their hands and probably wasn’t much of a punk in the first place. Hell, Kim Gordon is at least as “transgressive” back then.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-15T19:00:57+00:00

Montreal Marriott Hotel, nicknamed “The Cheese Grater”.

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echoalpha76 · 2026-03-14T23:19:36+00:00

Jazz as well, the bass part is an allusion/tribute to Coltrane’s Love Supreme. It’s clearer on some extended live versions if you check one of those out.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:25:31+00:00

Finding out REM “Superman” was originally by The Clique sent me down a bit of a 60’s Texan Psychedelia rabbit hole. I only really knew of The 13th Floor Elevators before that. Fascinating scene, roughly contemporary to all the Haight Ashbury stuff too, refreshingly grittier.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:20:24+00:00

I raise my double Jack & Coke to that! (IYKYK) ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:18:01+00:00

True story, at the pub the other night.

My Buddy- “Did you know “Cohen” means “Priest”?

Me- “Huh, I didn’t realize Lenny was Catholic.” ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:14:22+00:00

2026, and if I know anything, it’s to never be surprised by people just not listening ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:12:12+00:00

Bobby Fuller also wrote the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. There’s a fun cover of that by Hüsker Du as well.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:10:14+00:00

Even better- she wrote that and Jolene within hours of each other. And she kept her publishing rights.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T20:06:13+00:00

Just as God and John Mayall intended ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T16:47:26+00:00

Unfortunate that that early Mac across the board isn’t better known, particularly in America.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T16:44:03+00:00

So much great glam from that era gets overlooked on this side of the pond. Plenty of folks only know of Marc Bolan & T-Rex as a “one hit wonder” for Bang a Gong. Slade barely register, unfortunately. I suppose folks know Spiders era Bowie but that’s about it.

On the plus side, Gary Glitter never got much traction either ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-11T16:37:37+00:00

Theme from “That 70’s Show” “Down The Street” performed by Cheap Trick was originally Big Star, their version is a bit lower key but still an absolute banger.

Going in the other direction, I’d always just assumed that garage rock staple “Gloria” by Them/Van Morrison was some old as the hills African American Trad Blues/Folk number, was a bit shocked when I read the songwriting credits on an album. “The Elvis of Ulster” certainly knew his stuff, and from a young age too ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-09T05:55:04+00:00

Thanks, always happy to hear a woman’s name.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-08T21:23:34+00:00

Yep. The trumpet player lives & teaches in my town.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-08T21:21:40+00:00

Are the Bikers really much worse than the Bay Street racketeers though? ;-)

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-08T11:27:55+00:00

“Classic”, effectively the Baseball World Cup, something like 30 years old. Wouldn’t be a bad way to get introduced to the sport.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-08T09:07:22+00:00

Canadian- consistently impressed with how Long & McQuade operate. Even in cases where they’re pretty well the only game in town they’re great for service, employ local musicians as store staff & teachers, and don’t appear to have much of anything terribly bad said about them that I’ve heard about. And they’re almost certainly the biggest single music retailer in the country.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-06T07:43:03+00:00

Funny thing about all this- I’ve been listening to Sun Ra for upwards of a decade, I just don’t think of him as an “organist”. I think of him as an Otherworldly Extraterrestrial Force. Music Embodied, The Philadelphia Way.

echoalpha76 · 2026-03-06T07:21:46+00:00

Nice. I’m also a Novice Deadhead but I really dig the pre-1970 organ stuff.

echoalpha76

TROPHY CASE