New England Music Scrapbook Newsletter
Alan Lewis, Editor

Our Corner of the Rock 'n' Roll Life

December 28, 2007
Issue 2007:255

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We've got Thrills, chills, Dirty Water
What more do you need?
When the big beat hits ya
Comin' from your transistor
Like the T at full speed
When the big beat hits ya...

-- "Boston Lullaby," Dudick/Naihersey.
Copyright c. 1980 by Camaraderie Music, BMI.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.


. . . . .


BRATTLEBORO, VT, December 27 - The bad news is that, predictably
enough, we have very, very little news this week. No matter how
informed and up-to-date you may be this coming week, it will be little
thanks to us.

The good news is that at least reading this newsletter issue will not
kill a lot of your time.

If you got any really great and particularly unexpected records as
holiday gifts, we would be interested in hearing about it. By
"unexpected" I mean lots of different things, including records you
did not anticipate receiving, recordings you have never even heard of,
records you liked lots more than you thought you would ... those sorts
of things.

I played "In Black and White" by the

LOVE ME NOTS (Arizona band),

for one of my kinsmen, after describing the music. My description
sounded to be of interest enough that he chose listening to that disc
over many other worthy contenders. But afterwards, he told me he
enjoyed The Love Me Nots record lots more than he thought he would.
If you had a similar experience, we'd like to hear about it.

Please write us by way of the following Web page:

http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/fred.htm

I have only heard it once, but so far I am really hot on "Silver
Mountain" by the

DEADSTRING BROTHERS.

(I know, I've gotten the name of this band wrong quite possibly one
hundred percent of the time up 'til now.) This album reminds me of
some possible cross between The Rolling Stones and one of my favorite
Boston bands of the past ten years or so, the

SO AND SO'S.

I could not guarantee that you, personally, would like "Silver
Mountain." But out of you, collectively, I am absolutely certain that
a lot of individuals would enjoy this disc. It would be right up many
people's line.

The biggest hit of the holiday season hereabouts is almost certainly
the new "Notes From Elsewhere" by singer-songwriter

PETER MULVEY.

I've got changes going on right now with my ears. And once I have my
hearing improved and settled down, I'm going to give "Notes From
Elsewhere" a playing with the volume cranked way UP. I believe I am
picking up inflections in his voice and features in his guitar
accompaniments that would be enhanced at a higher volume - the sorts
of thing that could make or break a lesser album and could make this
one even better.

My periodic hearing problem is thought by medical science to have food
allergies as the root cause. From there, it gets terribly complex.
But this has been an uncommonly bad year for my hearing, and this is
by far the worst food allergy year I have ever experienced. So it
certainly seems to me that medical science, as far as it goes in this
case, is right, and these two things - food allergies and hearing
troubles - go hand in hand.

Because my ears have been stopped up, my listening has been quite
limited. I have a stack of records waiting to be played for the first
time. If I can get my hearing back soon (which is seeming like a
distinct possibility at the moment), I may go into this more later. I
would really like to pull together an organized Best of 2007 list.

The albums that I did hear enough times to make a judgment and were
close to certain to make my 2007 favorites list are:

Josh Brooks, "The White House Sessions"

Peter Mulvey, "Notes From Elsewhere"

Jimmy Ryan, "Fun With Music"

Noam Weinstein, "We're All Going There"

"New Arrivals Vol. 2" compilation.

Another album that very likely would be among my 2007 top picks, but I
haven't been able to hear it enough times to say for certain, is "Come
the Storm" by Eileen Rose. Talented gal. If I can play "Come the
Storm" more times, I'd love to comment more.

From the start, Vermont singer-songwriter Josh Brooks has been at his
best with roots-influenced performances. He is now part-time in a duo
act with a drummer, Kent Blackmer, who is a simply perfect match. His
upcoming record is a thing to look forward to, but for now we are
quite happy with "The White House Sessions."

Peter Mulvey recorded "Notes From Elsewhere" in response to fan
requests for solo acoustic performances of favorite songs from his
prior releases. This notion seems solid enough; but the album itself
shows that Mulvey fans, evidently independently of one another, came
up with a phenomenally fantastic idea. I imagine this will be a big
seller.

I don't know what more to say about "Fun With Music" than that it is
Jimmy Ryan's best record released under his own name. The very worst
track is pretty good - there are not a lot of albums I could say that
about - and this disc includes a couple real gems. Ryan should do two
things. 1) Feel really proud of this disc. 2) Work in more
instrumentals next time. We have GOT to hear more of your mandolin,
guy...

Maine singer-songwriter David Mallett says the main reason Harvard
Square is there is to give people a spot to shop. But Noam Weinstein
claims he found a place in Harvard Square to go to school - behind a
fence or something - and who knows, it could be true. But we
seriously doubt this is where he learned to make records like "We're
All Going There." It is much more in the spirit of old
Boston-Cambridge nightspots such as the Idler's Back Room, the Inn
Square Men's Bar (Ladies Invited), and lawd knows The Tam. What came
out is Weinstein's best album to date, "We're All Going There." It is
a little serious here, perhaps the least little tiny bit silly there,
and works in some excellent if slightly eccentric songwriting. As
usual, it features a band that knows like no other how to come
together for ensemble playing. For sheer tightness, his studio
ensembles remind me of The Remains always and late-1970s J. Geils Band
- the tightest rock 'n' roll groups it has been my pleasure to hear.

The Rachael Sage music machine known as MPress Records has a series of
fundraising albums called "New Arrivals," with Vol. 2 being the latest
release and Vol. 3 in the works. Out of all the pop-oriented various
artist compilations I have heard, "New Arrivals Vol. 2" is easily
among the best ever. I have - believe it or not - actually filed some
recent favorites, while I have not yet gotten to filing others. It is
making records hard to locate, and right now I cannot find "New
Arrivals Vol. 2." (It may be loaned out.) But I believe it may be the
volume that includes tracks by Gregory Douglass, Melissa Ferrick,
Trina Hamlin, Mieka Pauley, and the best-dressed woman on the planet,
Rachael Sage.

If I were to give a really careful listen to every last 2007 album we
have received and one of these album I have just named were to fail to
make it onto my Top 10 favorites list, I would be VERY surprised.

There are many recent arrivals here that I have been able to play only
once or not at all, so I really have not been able to consider them
yet. Obvious worthy contenders, that I have spied in the last few
minutes, are the latest releases by Becky Chace and Sara Cox.

We persist in not receiving New England music news. I would hold this
issue, for mailing later, if I thought there was a reasonable chance
we would get much more news sometime in the next 24 hours. But it is
slow out there on a record-setting pace. So I guess what I will do is
simply give in to this being our least-busy time of year, mail this
issue, such as it is, and pick up the pieces after the start of the
new year.

What would Luanne say at a time like this?

Oh, yes...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What little news we have this week appears below.


= = = = =


BRIEF ITEMS :


DENNIS BRENNAN
Boston to Austin
Given a New Twist

"I am pleased to be nominated by Austin's 'Third Coast Music'
magazine's Freeform American Radio FAR & Away Best of 2007 for
ENGAGEMENT (album of the year), as well as for best male artist."

-- Dennis Brennan Mailing, December 24, 2007

Congratulations are in order...

CONGRATULATIONS!


THE CHANNEL NIGHTCLUB

At one time Boston had quite a large rock nightclub called

THE CHANNEL.

Make no mistake about it, The Channel had definite glory days.

We have lately received a query from a Web surfer in hopes of
obtaining a Channel T-shirt. (I wouldn't mind having one of those,
myself!)

Not long ago, we were sent a scanned image of a photo of a scene there
that included a Channel EMPLOYEE's T-shirt. (I wouldn't mind having
one of THOSE, either!)

If you can suggest a possible source of a Channel T-shirt, please
e-mail us by way of the following Web address:

http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/fred.htm


THE ROCK BAND GAME IN THE COMICS

To my experience, these rock-oriented computer games are terrifically
popular among young people. We were sent this about a reference to
the "Rock Band" game:

Here's a recent webcomic reference to Rock Band

http://xkcd.com/359/

I believe Penny Arcade has done a couple of comics recently along the
lines of Rock Band/Guitar Hero.


HOT STOVE, COOL MUSIC
According to FoM Russell Chudnofsky

"January 6, Sunday - Hot Stove, Cool Music at The Paradise in Boston:
'Sox general manager Theo Epstein will break out his guitar in the
charitable event as will ESPN baseball guru Peter Gammons. Ken Casey
of the Dropkick Murphys will also perform, as well as former Sox
right-hander Bronson Arroyo, Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty
Bosstones, Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom, singer/songwriter Lori
McKenna and alternative rocker Kay Hanley.'"

-- Russell Chudnofsky Mailing, December 26, 2007


end BRIEF ITEMS


= = = = =


GUITAR HERO/ROCK BAND

MY OWN INTEREST IN THESE GAMES is that they do a lot to interest
young people in rock 'n' roll including some really good rock music,
some coming from really good New England bands. But I don't
personally play these games. I'm having enough trouble finding time
to clean my bathroom. (My kitchen is in process.) So I don't totally
understand all of the following. But it is intended to be subjective
commentary, representing an individual point of view: always fun. And
I think it will interest people who play, or are curious about, the
"Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" games.

You probably already know that Activision is the new company behind
Guitar Hero, while Harmonix has started in on the Rock Band franchise.

Here's the part that's interesting:

On the XBox 360, Guitar Hero Guitars will work on Rock Band, though
they will have some features missing (No effects switch means no
effects, no upper frets means no solos without strumming). This is
because Harmonix designed the Guitar Hero Guitars for the prior games.

The PS3 version was designed by Activision, so it's not similar to the
original. The Rock Band Guitars, however, will not work with Guitar
Hero 3. This was Activision's decision, evidently. It's kind of
absurd that they would lock out the Rock Band controllers, since they
allow you to play the game with a controller. You know, a regular
video game controller.

On the PS3, this doesn't work. Harmonix wanted to release a software
patch to allow the Guitar Hero guitars to be usable with Rock Band.
Harmonix has put out a press released indicating that Activison
pressured Sony to stop this from happening. Activision indicated that
they had offered to come to an arrangement with Harmonix, and that
Harmonix had declined. This almost certainly translates to an offer
in which Activision wanted to charge. In any event, they made it
sound like Harmonix, the company planning on making the patch, were
the unreasonable ones.

Activision also has a rather thorough disclaimer in their Guitar Hero
3 manual which insists that use of another guitar controller is not
licensed, and can damage your game (ridiculous) and so on. They're
trying to be completely proprietary, and it looks like the reason
comes down to money. I think this will only hurt them in the end,
though Activision is a titan in the game industry.

There was also a press release regarding the Blizard/Activision
merger, which includes music rights from Universal. You can read the
news at the following link from Kotaku:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/business/vivendi-games-and-activision-merge-to-create-a\
ctivision-blizzard-328919.php


NEMSnews

New England Music Scrapbook
Brattleboro, Vermont

E-MAIL US via:
http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/fred.htm

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. . . . .


IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO WOULD BE interested in any of the items in
this issue, please forward this newsletter to them. Thanks! We
believe this is one of the main ways we pick up readers.


As a rule, we do not post SHOW LISTINGS. The reason is quite
simple. Though our name is the NEW ENGLAND Music Scrapbook, probably
an easy majority of our readers are based outside the six New England
states. The great majority of show listings would be of no interest
at all to the great majority of our readers.

We make exceptions when show listings are part of an item of more
general interest. CD-release events are great examples. For us, the
main point of an item of this sort is that an act has a new record.
The show being announced is of secondary interest to us - if that - as
far as the contents of our newsletter goes.

In the very few, truly exceptional instances where we post show
listings...


... Shows can be canceled, sold out, or even moved to another
date or location. We recommend checking the Web, calling ahead or
otherwise confirming details.


To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter:
http://www.geocities.com/nemsnewz/subscribe.htm

E-MAIL via:
http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/fred.htm
(Please do NOT click the Reply button.)

NEWSLETTER's Yahoo Groups Home Page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uridfm/

General CONTACT Information:
http://www.geocities.com/uridfm/contact.htm


Issue 2007:255

Published no less often than monthly.
We're guessing eventually we'll settle
into an every-other-week schedule.

Copyright © 2007 by the New England Music Scrapbook. All rights reserved.

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