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big star

Alex Chilton 1950-2010

March 18th, 2010 · 1 Comment

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said there are no second acts in American lives and a resilient and lucky breed of Americans have been proving him wrong ever since. First heard from as the gravelly Memphis boy bluesman fronting The Box Tops, where he suffered rockstar burnout while making hit records even so crabbed an anticommericalist [...]

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ZIG ZAG WANDERER: MICHAEL JACKSON, KIM FOWLEY AND ALEX CHILTON

July 25th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Straight and Frankenstein tall stood Kim Fowley in the low-roofed Redwood Lounge last weekend. Presiding over another installment of “Hollywood Sexual Underground”, the legendary songwriter-producer-impresario was haranguing a roomful of sweating freaks and lovelies when I clambered in off the street on another boiling hot Friday night. “Are there any lesbians or drunks in the house tonight?” he intoned from somewhere near the ceiling, glowering about the narrow room like a rock ‘n’ roll Vincent Price.

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PETER HOLSAPPLE AND CHRIS STAMEY: CRAZY IN RETROSPECT

July 17th, 2009 · No Comments

Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple were (legendarily) the only people in North Carolina who bought Big Star albums the very first time around, and they’d team up most famously for the power-pop band the dB’s. (Stamey would also release Chris Bell’s 45 and Holsapple would go on to play with Hootie and the Blowfish!) They are now teamed up as a band with no official name. This interview by Dan Collins.

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STEVE WYNN: YOU CAN’T THROW A WHISKEY BOTTLE AT ME!

July 9th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The Dream Syndicate found whatever was in Sister Lovers and Tonight’s The Night still breathing in L.A. in 1984 and used it to make Medicine Show, still a nervous and wild local classic. Guitarist-singer Steve Wynn will perform the album in its entirety tonight with his band the Miracle 3. He speaks now from a quiet park in New York. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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