Just for fun, here’s a clip from March of Danielle Howle at the Windjammer in Charleston, singing the Faces “Ooh La La” with Mac Leaphart and Mark Bryan (of Hootie and the Blowfish).
Monthly Archives: August 2008
Jimmy Page at the Olympics
So, Led Zeppelin was everybody’s favorite band in high school, but did you happen to see Jimmy Page at the closing ceremonies of the Olympics tonight? Not sure that was the most classic moment in his career, Olympics or not, and whoever that chick singing was, I just wasn’t feeling it like I would have had it been Robert Plant.
Here’s the funniest thing about it: almost before it was over, I found the following clip online which somebody posted by videotaping their television while this travesty of musical histrionics was taking place–the title’s not in English, and there are a couple people talking over most of it, also in a non-English language…somehow it reminded me of those Mystery Science Theater episodes with the guys down front making comments on horrible sci-fi clips. I wish I could understand what was being said in the background.
(Update: Sorry, but this embed no longer works, YouTube has taken all clips of this performance down at the request of the copyright holders–NBC, I suppose.)
Gary Lee Conner Singing, Not Screaming
Two coincidental events convinced me I needed to post this tonight–first, I noticed in the birthdays list in today’s paper that it was the birthday of Gary Lee Conner, who was in one of the best bands of the Seattle grunge era, The Screaming Trees. Second, when looking around for what Conner might be up to these days, I found this 1985 acoustic demo from Gary Lee which was just posted on YouTube today. It’s a pretty cool tune that foreshadows the swirling gothic grunge rock of the Trees early work, even without the gutteral vocals of Mark Lanegan.
Turns out Gary Lee is now living in Texas with his family and still writing and playing music a bit. He even has a brand new Myspace profile which is linked in that video’s information notes.
Here’s a Screaming Trees clip for good measure, of my favorite song from them, “Dollar Bill”.
“My Baby, She’s Alright”
One of my personal favorite bands from the 1980s was Boston group Scruffy The Cat. Sort of retro, sort of rockabilly, kind of twangy, with some very catchy tunes, the band was a WUSC favorite around that time, too. In 1986, the same night REM played the Township Auditorium, Scruffy was set to open a show at Rockafellas for an REM-like band from Athens, Dreams So Real. A group of us from WUSC that went to the REM show actually left early so we wouldn’t miss Scruffy’s set–I’ve never regretted it. Here’s a video of the single from their Tiny Days album, “My Baby, She’s Alright”:
While Scruffy is no more, singer-guitarist-songwriter Charlie Chesterman is still kicking, playing and recording a number of solo albums that are mellower takes on the same simple rock ‘n’ roll riffs of his original band.
