What if I've been chasing the wrong goal?
Recently I had this great idea, I’d join the Neil Young and Crazy Horse fan page on Facebook and post one of our Neil Young-influenced songs. The group has 25,000 subscribers! I…
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Reflections of an Entry-Level Guitar at 30
Note: This post was written by the guitar pictured above. I, Mark Sullivan, had nothing to do with the content or characters described below and take no legal responsibility.
Mark is not a nostalgia kind of guy, so I’ve been…
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The Unknown Legacy of a Musician - Frank Zanks
Above: The Midnight Quartet: Frank Zanks on guitar on the far right.
I’m reposting the following reflection written by my old friend John Oleniacz about Frank Zanks. All of us are from the small town of Hampton, NJ. It…
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The Last Waltz - Like the First Time
Once in a while something happens that may not have happened if things were normal, like Ryan renting a theater for a band and close friends only viewing of The Last Waltz.
My favorite movie. The most influential piece…
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Year End List
I’ve always loved reading people’s year end lists of favorite music. I’d spend most of January trying to catch up on what I had missed in the previous year. A few years ago, Warm by Jeff Tweedy appeared on numerous…
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Paleo for Rock Stars
Come January, I’m going Paleo. Given the choice between continuing to take a bunch of pills every day for the rest of my life or suspending my skepticism for a month to eat only what my caveman forefathers ate, I’ll…
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Everything I Learned about Education I Learned from Rock and Roll
Working part-time from home the last nine months has enabled me to observe more closely my kid’s education. We’ve been homeschooling for more than 10 years, so the pandemic didn’t really change the way we do business.
What I’ve noticed…
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You Can’t Say That: There Is a Class System in the Music Business
As I get older and crankier, I’ve gotten fussy about how music is covered in the media. There are few writers whose opinions I trust and fewer publications that I can turn to for “what’s good.” But more frustrating is…
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ANIMAL ATTITUDE
Sly, an enormous yellow lab, started out
as a golden ball of fur with papers
naming him Sylvester Buttercream.
Sly is the name we call him, although
there is nothing Sly about his intentions
as he bounces across the room
…
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Greatest Song of the 90s - Back on the Flat
“Back on the Flat” is my pick for the greatest song to come out of the 1990s.
And I’ve heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Alive,” and “All Around the World” etc…
That I would make such a statement is a…
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Remember The Blackwells
Above: Flyer from our appearance on the WYEP Lunchtime Concert Series.
Between February 1995 and June 1996 The Blackwells played 50 shows in Western, PA at some of the most historic clubs in the Pittsburgh: The Decade, Graffiti, The Bloomfield…
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25th Anniversary of Blue Margins by The Blackwells - Side Two
Above: The cassette only release of Blue Margins. We had a CD made to send to WYEP. It cost $30 to burn a CD in 1995.
One of my friends from the graduate school program I was in at Carnegie…
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25th Anniversary of Blue Margins by The Blackwells - Side One
Above: Vintage Steve Everett-designed flyer. Before the internet age, this was how you promoted gigs. The line in The Deep Roots song, "Over Our Heads," references these flyers. "Hanging flyers, we'll make it big, but no one came to our…
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Interview with James Sullivan on the 40th Anniversary of the Passing of John Bonham
Do you remember how you first got interested in John Bonham and Led Zeppelin?
My drum teacher [Chris Belin] gave me a lesson sheet that had some beats to practice. He had penciled in at the top “The Ocean, Led…
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25th Anniversary of Blue Margins by The Blackwells - Intro
The Blackwells: from left to right: Mark Sullivan, Steve Everett, Marc Nelson, and Andrew Plonsky.
I’m a child of the box-set era. The CD-reissue era, with bonus tracks, photo, essays, and linear notes. Rhino Compilations were made for people like…
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Sleeplore: New Project from Clyde Rosencrance
“One of the biggest changes that I’ve seen in the recording industry in the last 10 to 15 years has been the loss of specialization,” said Clyde Rosencrance, Producer and Engineer at Republic Audio Studio in Clarks Summit PA.
“There…
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Turn Off the News and Turn on Local Music (How Local Bands Will Save Democracy)
So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for you." – Ray Davies
"The waiting is the hardest part." – Tom Petty
Just let me know the outcome so that I can go deal. Is that too much to ask?
…
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Can Your Band Play "Stairway" and Still Be Cool?
I know cool bands don’t cover “Stairway to Heaven.” In fact, I’ve never heard any band cover “Stairway” anywhere period, but that is the only song that James has ever insisted that the band learn. It is difficult to deny…
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To Be a Cult Band
At the start of Vulgar Boatmen Awareness Month I wrote, “The point of Vulgar Boatmen awareness month is to highlight the fact that our language has difficulty communicating that a band can be qualitatively better than 99% of the other…
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How I Bought My First Vulgar Boatmen Record
Having an "official" favorite band used to be important. When I went to high school back in the 1980s, it was common to dress in accordance with your favorite band or style of music - Dead Head, Metal Head, Goth…
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