Beastie Boys - Coney Island High 22.11.1995 & The Scott & Gary Show, 9.12.1984. - VIDEO

Beastie Boys' rapper, bassist, video director and Tibetan rights promoter Adam "MCA" Yauch has succumbed to cancer yesterday, aged 47. I haven't had such a strong feeling of personal loss due to a musician's death since Joe Strummer had died. Both of these men were influential to my life, not only by providing a soundtrack to countless great moments I have had, but also by giving me a framework of various interests to explore, musics to discover, even clothes to wear (I have not attended a wedding in the last 15 years wearing anything besides the Beasties' suit-and-sneakers attire). The Clash's "Sandinista!" and Beastie Boys' "Check Your Head" stand as two of the most obvious examples of outsiders successfully taking in different styles of music not "appropriate" for their background, in the process teaching their fans that all music is worthy of at least giving a chance to. Hell, even the Beasties' switch to hip-hop was such a then-unheard-of cultural/musical mismatch that it took them half a decade to prove they were NOT a joke band! Another common thread connecting Joe's and Adam's death for me is the fact both were still making vital, creative and immensely enjoyable music, and both had - or that's what I thought - still lots of time left to give more. I will never find out where Joe would have went after "Global a Go-Go", an incredible record that in my book stands much higher than the respectable, but inherently failed posthumous work "Streetcore" (and on a side note, do all those celebrities and journalists who proclaimed "Streetcore" Joe's best work, really think it's a compliment to say that a man's best work was the one others had finished for him, without his guidance and participation?); I will also probably never again hear a new Beastie Boys record. I have never seen Joe live; I have also, and will never, see the Beastie Boys live. I have seen their live footage on TV and firmly believe they were one of the best, most fun and most energetic live acts ever; even watching them on TV, I couldn't help jumping a little. I was always certain there would be tons of chances to catch them, and have missed out on shows in my region (the closest one being the Exit festival in Novi Sad, Serbia), waiting for them to come closer to my town. Who would've thought they would be taken from us so cruelly? Before I end this rambling post with a video of their two punk rock shows, one recorded in the "modern" Beasties era and the other an ancient one, I will add a few simple words bass legend and punk rock's official father figure Mike Watt wrote about Adam:

good people,

this man, brother adam... how he could work the bass!

respect!

learner watt

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The Devil Dogs - Live at the Revolver Club

Subtitled "The Greatest Rock'n'Roll Album You'll Never Hear!", this short and sweet live LP seems designed to be obscure - I just don't know whether it's a reference to a particularly limited pressing, or to a world that has been indifferent towards the Ramones for twenty years, so how much attention could the Devil Dogs expect? For those who don't know, and sadly there's too many of them, this band has been one of the starters of the Nineties' garage punk explosion, sharing seven-inchers with the likes of the New Bomb Turks (who idolized them, and deservedly so!), writing a shitload of incredible rock'n'roll tunes and releasing them on beautifully illustrated LP's and singles every decent household should own (I myself only have the "Big Beef Bonanza!" mini-album on vinyl, but I live in the third world so I'm excused). Of all the Crypt-and-related bands of this time period, I have always thought the Devil Dogs and Teengenerate to be the two most fun, exuberant and life-affirming ones; Teengenerate were usually more roughly recorded and produced, while the Devil Dogs were a more professional-sounding affair (well, in Crypt terms, at least!). This record however, and I don't know whether it's due to the original recording or the vinyl-to-mp3 conversion some kind soul has done, is much more harsh, loud and clipped than the Dogs usually sound, more in the Teengenerate territory, and I really don't know why I am even writing this because it really doesn't matter at all. The Devil Dogs are great any way you can hear them, but as this rip I'm posting is a lot truer to the original LP than the one available elsewhere (who encodes a rare record in 128 kb/s?! that's just mean!), I'd recommend it anyway.

Track listing:

1. Twist and Burn (2:03)
2. They're Not Around (2:16)
3. Chinatown (2:17)
4. Go On (2:00)
5. Action (2:56)
6. Pussy Whipped (1:42)
7. Hosebag (1:25)
8. Time Enough for Love (2:41)
9. Burnin' Love (2:12)
10. C'mon Lil' Baby (2:39)

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Peter Brötzmann - Live in KSET

I'm not a jazz fan, although I did try to get into it during my college years - turns out I'm still more inclined towards regressive punk than progressive jazz. Still, I'm sharing this because I know the guy is well loved and respected, and the recording is of a very high quality and not available elsewhere. I don't know when this show was recorded as Brötzmann has played in KSET a number of times - I think I might have seen him once, but I may also be confusing him with Mats Gustafsson. One of them played with ZU from Italy, but the fact that I fell on my elbow while pogoing and had pains in my arm for two months afterwards indicates that it was not a typical jazz show. Or was Brötzmann's show the one where a guy blew in a trumpet without playing any notes, just making a "PFFFFFF!" sound? And of course that gig was a sit-down affair in a tiny venue, so I couldn't leave until the first break, which took ages. Well, that was the last time I went to a jazz gig. I haven't listened to this so please tell me whether it's any good!

Track listing (a very useful one):

Disc One:

1. Track 01 (45:29)
2. Track 02 (3:37)
3. Track 03 (4:37)

Disc Two:

1. Track 04 (30:01)
2. Track 05 (14:01)

Fun fact: the first track is longer than any Ramones album.

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