SUH-PRI-ISE! JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #289!

Barney Hoskyns – RocksBackPages.com (Archive) :: Most likely alla youse modern day whizz kids won’t know what I’m talking about but, back in the good old days when the world was all analog all the time, the only way you could get the licentious low-down on what was up with your favorite debauched musical degenerates was to scrounge up a weekly rock rag like Rolling Stone and New Musical Express and Melody Maker or a monthly scandal sheet like CREEM and Circus and Hit Parader.

Of course, less literate culture vultures like myself had to resort to drooling over the cheap pulp-printed skin shots in Rock Scene while upscale Freddie Mercury fans always had the latest lavender-laden issue of After Dark to breathlessly peruse.

However, thanks to the visionary wherewithal of journalist Barney Hoskyns and the ace archivists at RocksBackPages.com, these formerly ephemeral examples of pioneering music writing are now digitally preserved forever—and that’s a mighty long time—on the RBP website in their original unadulterated form, as originally written by the world’s greatest rock critics.

Currently celebrating its Tenth Anniversary on the Information Superhighway, this peerless historical library and reference resource is made all the more invaluable by its unique audio archive which includes a wealth of rare tape recorded interviews with almost every seminal rock legend you can think of—from boozing Jim Morrison to bopping Marc Bolan—so go here and mebbe alla youse modern day whizz kids will know what I’m talking about.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go and cash my RBP payola check—but if it bounces like the one from 16 did that Gloria Stavers sent me, I’ll be mighty riled; mighty riled indeed.

David Francey – Late Edition (Laker Music) :: Wherein a great album title is made even greater by a disc full of simple—but never simplistic—heartfelt folksy blues songs lightly laden with banjo and fiddle that aren’t afraid to edge into edgier territory out where the trams don’t trot. Plus, the equally impressive stereo mix allows each song ample room to breathe; it’s a dying art, folks.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: The B-52s – With The Wild Crowd! Live In Athens, Georgia (Eagle) :: Show me a live-in-their-hometown reunion album and I’ll show you a lazy litany of last gasp let down expectations—but not this time I won’t ’cause this is the most kinetically frenetic fun fiesta a go-go since their pulsating Party Mix! radically redefined what a remix record should sound like. Even better, these kitschy camp runamuck jive bombers haven’t missed a strategically placed lick since their “Private Idaho” and “Love Shack” hit single heyday. Not only do they rock harder than ever, their witty retro-ironic antics jibe with today’s pop culture landscape in a kooky cool way that vitally resonates even more than it did thirty years ago. That’s why the line to elect Fred Schneider into the Rock Hall starts here.

Be seeing you!