The only record on YouTube by the Breakaways is “Walking out on Love”; this song was often performed in the Nerves’ live shows but had never been recorded by them. You can hear the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9sYvy4G3NA . Green Day performed “Walking out on Love” as their last encore following the final performance of their musical American Idiot on Broadway; that version is also available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAgKwA7-GLI&feature=related . (April 2012) * * * Opposition to the unfair imprisonment of two women in Pussy Riot became a cause célèbre of many Western celebrities plus musicians from every genre imaginable: Bryan Adams, Beastie Boys, the Black Keys, John Cale, Peter Gabriel, Green Day, Nina Hagen, Kathleen Hanna, Paul McCartney, Moby, Yoko Ono, Pet Shop Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Patti Smith, Sting, Pete Townshend, etc. Pussy Riot was featured on 60 Minutes as well.
For their part, the bandmembers in Pussy Riot that were not in prison distanced themselves from all of this attention and were quoted as saying: “We’re flattered, of course, that Madonna and Björk have offered to perform with us. But the only performances we’ll participate in are illegal ones. We refuse to perform as part of the capitalist system, at concerts where they sell tickets.”
(December 2013) * * * The truly heartbreaking part of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis is that Glen Campbell had just launched a comeback a few years before, with his 2008 album Meet Glen Campbell that features Campbell covering songs by U2, Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, and Green Day – “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” being the latter song – plus one of the last songs written by John Lennon, “Grow Old with Me”, and an early Jackson Browne song, “These Days” that was first recorded by Nico in 1967.
(February 2015)
* * *
Iggy Pop began working with the Stooges again on his 2003 album, Skull Ring that also featured several younger artists: Green Day, the Trolls, Sum 41, and Peaches. The Stooges toured extensively between 2003 and 2008 with founding members Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar), and Scott Asheton (drums), along with (at Ron Asheton’s suggestion) new bandmember Mike Watt (bass guitar), formerly of Minutemen and fIREHOSE, and guest musician Steve Mackay (saxophone), who had performed on the Fun House album. During these tours, the Stooges released an album of all new material, The Weirdness (2007). Also, Elektra Records reissued the band’s first two albums, The Stooges and Fun House in deluxe 2-CD packages in 2005. * * * Allmusic says about this bunch (courtesy of Steve Huey): “The Dickies were the clown princes of punk, not to mention surprisingly longstanding veterans of the L.A. scene. In fact, by the new millennium, they’d become the oldest surviving punk band still recording new material. In contrast to the snotty, intentionally offensive humor of many comedically inclined punk bands, the Dickies were winningly goofy, inspired mostly by trashy movies and other pop culture camp. Their covers were just as ridiculous as their originals, transforming arena rock anthems and bubblegum pop chestnuts alike into the loud, speed-blur punk-pop – basically the Ramones crossed with L.A. hardcore – that was their musical stock in trade. As the band got older, their music slowed down little by little; but their sound and their sense of humor stayed largely the same, and they were an avowed influence on new-school punkers like Green Day and the Offspring.” (March 2017) * * * Anyway, here is what and who I talked about last year: June 2017 – 1990’s-2010’s Sixties revival band THE LOONS; Story of the Month on “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”; also, Green Day, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O, Bomp! Records, the Black Keys, the Sloths. (Year 8 Review) |