Bloggerhythms

When I first heard The Grip Weeds they instantly reminded me of another New Jersey band, The Smithereens . Then, while doing research for this article, I found out that The Weeds' lead singer/drummer, Kurt Reil, has a history of working with the late Pat DiNinzio, so the similarities are probably not a coincidence. The band's name is a cool bit of trivia. They're named after Private Gripweed, the character John Lennon portrayed in  How I Won The War , the 1967 movie he made after The Beatles quit touring and before they became heavily involved with  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . Kurt is joined by his brother, Rick, on rhythm guitar and by the drummer's wife, Kristen Pinell Reil, on lead guitar. The three made their first CD together in 1994 after forming in the mid-80s. Dave DeSantis was the last to join the band in 2012, stabilizing the lineup after a series of bassists came and went. He replaced Michael Kelly who held...

Concerts Under the Stars is an annual, outdoor, summer concert series in King of Prussia (Upper Merion Township), Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb famous for its absolutely gigantic, high end shopping mall. This past Saturday night Nick Lowe paid his first visit to the venue with Nashville's  Los Straitjackets  who I've seen live twice before. It was my first Lowe concert. For those of you who aren't familiar with Los Straitjackets, the quartet plays an instrumental mixture of surf and garage rock. They feature two electric guitars, bass and drums. Lowe played an amplified acoustic. No keyboards were to be found anywhere. Their Mexican wrestling masks may lead some people to believe Los Straitjackets are nothing more than a gimmick, but they're a really tight band. They're also a perfect fit for Lowe because both acts embrace the sounds of early rock 'n roll. The English star played five songs from his latest album, the fine  Ind...

Among my many childhood memories are listening to my mother's kitchen radio tuned to the music popular with adults of the early 60s. True, those artists included some giants such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, and Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, but unfortunately, I also had to listen to The Ray Coniff Singers and The Singing Nun . Then, in February 1964 The Beatles arrived in New York to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show . It wasn't love at first sight, but my conversion came about swiftly and completely. From then on music superseded baseball as a childhood obsession. The Beatles led me to listen to Philadelphia's only radio station that played rock & roll, top 40 WIBG (WIBBAGE), radio 99 on the AM dial. Later, I moved on to the more modern, faster-paced WFIL, Famous 56 , who usurped WIBG's throne. For those of us living in the northern Philadelphia suburbs we could also listen to the king of all the top 40 stations, New Yor...

If you're mostly going to be remembered for one song "There She Goes" is a great one to have as your legacy. The La's - a rock quartet from Liverpool, UK - only issued one full-length, studio album and this very cool, power pop, single was one of its tracks. The song was originally released in Britian in 1988 and only went to #59. Two years later it was remixed by the renowned producer Steve Lillywhite. His version peaked at only #49 stateside when it was issued as a single along with the album. The second time around it did better in the UK, climbing all of the way to #13. It has been alleged that the song is about heroin, but to me, its overall vibe is too bright and popish to be discussing such a depressing subject. Both La's guitarist, Paul Hemmings, and lead singer and songwriter, Lee Mavers, rebuff those assertions despite lyrics such as "Racing through my brain" and "There she goes again, pulsing through my vein...

I'm not surprised if you're unfamiliar with Victor V. Gurbo . That's because he's another one of the innumerable spokes caught in the wagon wheel of talented, but sadly unknown musicians who deserve a larger audience. The singer-songwriter's website describes him as " a Brooklyn-based roots revivalist musician " who has built a solid reputation on his home turf. Gurbo's Outrun the Invisible Man is a ten-song album he recorded at home during the COVID lockdown with his multi-instrumentalist friend and collaborator, Mark Caserta, who is the only other musician on this set. After meeting on Craigslist, they worked together during the unfortunate lockdown by sending iPhone recordings to each other for overdubbing. Together, they recorded over a hundred songs. Gurbo's six original songs on Invisible Man were inspired by the pandemic and feature themes the lockdown made people th...

It should come as no surprise to those of you who know the song that Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" is among the more controversial rock records in history. It was released in 1968 on the hard rocking quintet's debut album - and for reasons we'll be discussing here - the backlash it received because of its lyrics overshadowed its powerful, well-meaning message. The song was written by multi-talented Hoyt Axton (1938 - 1999), who found success in Hollywood as a folk singer, a composer and as an actor. Axton suffered from a cocaine addiction that he was fortunate enough to overcome, but he was also a big proponent of medical marijuana. The composer wrote a lot of songs in addition to "The Pusher." Among them are "No-No Song," another anti-drug track made famous when it became a hit for Ringo Starr off of his Goodnight Vienna LP. The Kingston Trio recorded Axton's ...

Chrissie Hynde's Pretenders have always rocked hard despite her ability to compose easily accessible melodies with introspective lyrics that listeners normally would find on albums released by more placid singer-songwriters. This fact is abundantly clear on the band's recently released, limited edition, live, double LP, Kick 'Em Where It Hurts that has already sold out after its June 13, 2025 release. Fortunately, you can still stream it or download it at many well-known online outlets like Amazon and iTunes. Hynde told Ultimate Classic Rock  that she prefers playing smaller venues - where all of these songs were recorded in 2024 - even though she knows there is more money to be made playing large arenas. The Ohio native believes theaters are more hospitable places to play because the band can see the the audience - and in turn - the fans can see the quartet working hard for them on stage. The rock star can still kick butt at age 73, and ...

Regular visitors to Bloggerhythms should be very aware by now that I've always considered most rap/hip-hop distasteful. Only a couple of exceptions come to mind: " My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style " (1991) by Canada's Dream Warriors and much of Gil Scott-Heron 's work that - to me - sounds like rap in an embryonic state. Just because I'm featuring Beastie Boys today doesn't mean my tastes have changed. But, when an artist - any artist - creates work that I believe is worthwhile I like to spread the word. The critically acclaimed trio released two instrumental albums during their career, and neither one is a rap record although you can hear elements of the genre in both of them. The older one,  The In Sound From Way Out!  (1996), is a compilation of previously released tracks. It contains five instrumentals from the Brooklyn outfit's  Check Your Head  LP, six from  Ill Communication  and two b-sides. You'll hear Stax and...