Andrew Stankevich is as big as his job. Nonchalantly chain-smoking Newports and guzzling coffee, he cheerfully confronts non-stop adversity head on. And there’s plenty to go around when you’re responsible for feeding the poor. A nervous chuckle escapes as Stankevich’s 24-foot delivery truck dies a slow death, steadily bleeding coolant out of a crack […]
Frank De Blase
Posted inMusic
Boom de boom de boom de boom boom
It’s the beat, the beat, the beat. OK, so Chuck Berry had the licks and Elvis got all the chicks. Buddy Holly had the twang and Little Richard made ’em shake that thang. But Bo… Bo Diddley had the beat. The Bo Diddley beat. If you’ve ever heard the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy” […]
Posted inMusic
Whole lotta Low Ton
A band is a kinetic thing. It is motion. It is emotion. It is the sum of souls with something to say. You love them. You hate them. You see their picture before hearing the music, and that snap says something about them. It draws you in. Low Ton is a heavy progressive rock […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Queer eye for the single guy (or gal)
Hurry up. They keep telling me speed dating is the answer. And though the six-minute courtship vignettes cut out a lot of the aggravation (by creeps) and rejection (if you’re a creep), there’s still nothing like the thrill of the hunt: that sense of slow seduction. But more and more folks have less and less […]
Posted inMusic
Buy the kid a good guitar
Man, what a great year it’s been so far. I guess I’m still waiting for the other shoe to fall. Sure, there’re a few new maladies, a couple more gray hairs, but rock ‘n’ roll is still pogoing all around me. And you all look fabulous. Christmas shopping was a cinch: I bought potholes on […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Shuffleboard on ice
Perhaps you’ve seen it on TV: a giant rock sliding across the ice as two folks with squeegees maniacally sweep and scrub the ice in its path. Some 500 years ago, the Scottish, lamenting the Highlands’ golf-less winters, played this game with rocks and standard-issue kitchen brooms on frozen rivers. They called it “curling,” deriving […]
Posted inMusic
What would Roger do?
If a musician falls in the woods, and there’s nobody there to hear him, does he still make a sound? The late, great Unkle Roger, helped make that question irrelevant. Through his lifelong dedication to local music of all styles, Rog helped to fill that forest with lots of critters to hear the rock ‘n’ […]
Posted inMusic
A supa super stupor
Nothing makes me want to climb a tower with a rifle quicker than premature holiday music. The first set of yuletide yahoos I plan on admiring through my crosshairs and blowing apart like bowls full of jelly will most assuredly be the pagan programmers at WBBF. All Christmas, 24 hours a day? Already? Are you […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
You’re dead
It’s really no surprise. You knew it was coming all along. Perhaps it got here sooner than you expected, or maybe not soon enough. At least you’re not alone. Roughly 6,500 people die every year in Monroe County. And now you’re one of them. You’re dead.
Posted inMusic
Mud, blood, and soul
The Mars Volta is punk-rock Rush. Swimming at Water Street Music Hall last week in atmospheric dissonance, the San Antonio prog outfit played a long, six-song set (one tune clocking in at a mere 45 minutes). They accurately portrayed the comatose limbo of their latest album. I’m actually surprised that the young crowd got it. […]
Posted inMusic
Alice Cooper’s Favorite Rock Star
When you invoke the name of Alice Cooper, you’re gonna get a reaction. The rock fan nods in knowing reverence, John Q. Uptight cringes. With a 35-year reign of challenge, instigation, and gender-bending theatrical horror, Cooper is truly a pop culture icon. The music on Cooper’s new record, The Eyes Of Alice Cooper, is […]
Posted inMusic
Mourning the Blonde Bomber
Tuesday, September 30, marked the end of an era for me. I’ve been faced with some challenges lately, but none more heartbreaking than the loss of my dear friend and hero, Ronnie Dawson. Ronnie was 64 and had been battling the big C down in the big D. It won. I played my last […]
