carolyn pennypacker riggs illustration for 2009 LA RECORD Mike Watt interview Mike Watt is set to complete his third opera. Here is the message transmission exactly as we received it: mike watt (minutemen, fIREHOSE, solo artist, Stooges’ bassist, missingmen and secondmen leader) sez: “I’m finishing my third opera (“hyphenated-man”) w/bass brother tony maimone at studio [...]

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Dan, maybe the Coltrane one’s too old, even though it’s got the only complete live version? If so, please substitute w/ Petra Haden’s “Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out,” ok?

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Evangelista’s latest recording, Prince of Truth, takes this evolution one psychic step further, like a lucid trip into the darkest recesses of the unconscious mind—a realm free from the formal constraints of traditional compositional structure, comprised of surreal theta ruminations and random outbursts of kinetic energy. This harrowing work of ethereal beauty would be at home in a playlist featuring Rachel’s, Amber Asylum, and late SWANS/World of Skin.

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Suddenly a new super group emerged on stage, with Djin Aquarian and Billy Corgan on bass! This was “YaHoWha 33” and suddenly the calm, meditative breather from before must have recharged his chakras! Djin rocked and cooed and smiled from behind his beard like nothing I’ve seen since the Soggy Bottom Boys appeared on screen a few years back. No hippie love jam this, unless by “jams,” you meant things to Kick Out. There was rock and sweat and vitality, screaming dudes in robes, and man, I just could not believe Sky Saxon was dead, because I felt so alive!

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Guitarist Nels Cline (spotted most recently with Wilco) grew up in the shadow of the Seeds and Sky Saxon and later went on to perform and record with Sky himself. He takes some time today to send L.A. RECORD these thoughts: I am truly saddened to learn of the death of Sky Saxon. As a [...]

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christine hale UPDATE: Nels Cline sends us this obituary for Sky Saxon, his “first rock idol.” UPDATE: Members of the Source Family remember Sky Sunlight Saxon, also known as Arelich. L.A. RECORD is deeply saddened to learn that Sky Saxon—mentioned only days ago in our interview with Isis Aquarian, historian of the Source Family—has passed [...]

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At one point during Wilco’s rousing set at Pomona’s recently renovated Fox Theater, Jeff Tweedy stepped away from the mic and cupped his ear to elicit the crowd to take a verse during Yankee Hotel Foxtrot favorite “Jesus Etc.” It was not the only instance of a massive crowd singalong during the band’s one-and-half-hour set. If any alt-country-leaning band could ever be legitimately described as “arena-ready,” Wilco certainly made a case for itself on Saturday evening.

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I don’t know if Bobb Bruno realizes it, but he’s the Bizarro-World Kim Fowley—an unwitting svengali who’s produced girl bands and wrote or played songs on countless other bands’ albums, but whose utter lack of self-promotion almost hints that he secretly is horrified of his own project Making It Big.

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