Looney Tunes: "We Will Rebuild!"by Brian Alleva

Karl Groeger, owner of Looney Tunes in West Babylon, Long Island, before the store perished in an electrical fire last week.

Record stores, for any music lover, are like a second home. You could hang out with your friends, some of whom were employees, and talk music all night. After Tower Records closed it's doors, and many independently run shops did the same thereafter, it seemed all hope was lost. Yet Looney Tunes - a West Babylon, Long Island independent music store - stood strong and outlasted everyone. Yes, there was still a place you can buy used CD's. Yes, there was still a place that loved music as much as you, and had the memorabilia to prove it. Sadly, in the early morning hours of August 30th, an electrical fire turned 95% of Looney Tunes into smoke and ash.

For those of you who aren't from the area, think about that place in your hometown that you knew you could always rely on, for whatever it is in life that drives you. To many here on Long Island, that's what Looney Tunes was. Where else could you go and see guitars hanging on the walls, signed by some of the most legendary rock stars of all time? What other record store hosted a rooftop concert that attracted 7500 fans? Looney Tunes did, with the band Staind, at the height of their popularity. Try asking an employee at another record store about a certain song or album, and see if they can help you find it as quickly as Looney Tunes owners Karl and Jamie Groeger.

While the store is currently boarded up, a message remains clear, as it was spray-painted in huge letters on the front: "WE WILL REBUILD!" However, it will undoubtedly be a long and difficult process, and it is time that we as music lovers give a little bit back to a landmark store. To help the rebuilding process, Looney Tunes is accepting donations, including memorabilia. If you are reading this, and have anything you can give in support, please don't hesitate!

Send contributions care of:
Don Van Cleave
Coalition of Independent Music Stores,
3738 4th Terrace North, Birmingham, Ala., 35222.

You can also go to www.looneytunescds.com and click on the "contact us" tab.

Help bring the music back to Long Island! We all can lend a hand!

Message and comment your favorite bands on Myspace, and let them know of the situation and how their help is needed! If you know anyone in the music industry, get them on board! Now is the time, that with everyone's help, we can make Looney Tunes better than ever - and restore a Long Island landmark to glory.

Hilly Kristal, 1932 - 2007

(NEW YORK) — Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75.

Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club's eviction from its home of 33 years, died Tuesday at Cabrini Hospital after a battle with lung cancer, his son Mark Dana Kristal said Wednesday.

Last October, as the club headed toward its final show with Patti Smith, Kristal was using a cane to get around and showing the effects of his cancer treatment. He was hoping to open a Las Vegas incarnation of the infamous venue that opened in 1973.

"He created a club that started on a small, out-of-the-way skid row, and saw it go around the world," said Lenny Kaye, a longtime member of the Patti Smith Group. "Everywhere you travel around the world, you saw somebody wearing a CBGB T-shirt."

While the club's glory days were long past when it shut down, its name transcended the venue and become synonymous with the three-chord trash of punk and its influence on generations of musicians worldwide.

The club also became a brand name for a line of clothing and accessories, even guitar straps; its store, CBGB Fashions, was moved a few blocks away from the original club, but remained open.

"I'm thinking about tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and going on to do more with CBGB's," Kristal told The Associated Press last October.

Kristal started the club in 1973 with the hope of making it a mecca of country, bluegrass and blues — called CBGB & OMFUG, for "Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandisers" — but found few bands to book. It instead became the epicenter of the mid-1970s punk movement.

"There was never gourmet food, and there was never country bluegrass," his son said Wednesday.

Besides the Ramones and the Talking Heads, many of the other sonically defiant bands that found frenzied crowds at CBGB during those years became legendary — including Smith, Blondie and Television.

Smith said at the venue's last show that Kristal "was our champion and in those days, there were very few."

Throughout the years, CBGB had rented its space from the building's owner, the Bowery Residents' Committee, an agency that houses homeless people.

In the early 2000s, a feud broke out when the committee went to court to collect more than $300,000 in back rent from the club, then later successfully sought to evict it. By the time it closed, CBGB had become part museum and part barroom.

At the club's boarded-up storefront Wednesday morning, fans left a dozen candles, two bunches of flowers and a foam rubber baseball bat _ an apparent tribute to the Ramones' classic "Beat on the Brat." A spray-painted message read: "RIP Hilly, we'll miss you, thank you."

Other survivors include his wife, Karen, and daughter, Lisa.

Have No Fearby Daniel Michael Alleva

Like it says on their Myspace page, Long Island's The Fearless is ready for world domination. And anyone who takes a sample of the collection of tunes featured on the page will see it's hard not to imagine their worldly aspirations gracing computer screens all across the world.

"It's so crazy now because with a MySpace page, it's like "Who needs a website?" says guitarist/vocalist John Neder in a phone interview conducted from his Long Island home. This summer, The Fearless have been packing the Long Island clubs with eager fans and curious observers alike. "Now that people have access to the music [at the Myspace page], I see more and more people singing along with us, and that's really great - because we're just a much better band in a live setting when we've got this kinetic energy going between us and the fans. We're wild up there, and it's no fun when there's no one else to share that with."

If this weekend serves as any indication, The Fearless won't ever have to worry about playing to an empty ballroom. This Saturday night at Mulcahy's in Wantagh, Long Island, the band will be featured as one of the finalists in The Long Island Music Festival, sponsored by Good Times Magazine. Neder, a festival winner in a previous outfit - has an altruistic outlook on the festival, and its impending outcome. "You know, it would be really great to win the whole thing, but they've got an early projection of a thousand attendees at this thing, and that's definitely the largest crowd we'd ever played to. Just to get to this far is enough in itself."

The Fearless, with their uncanny harmonies - like if Revolver was made by the Kings of Leon instead of The Beatles - are the surely the act to catch at this year's festival, but if you miss them, they'll be at the Arlene Grocery in NYC on September 21st. From there, the band will retreat back to their own studio, deep in the sand of Long Island, and by November, we should be able to expect brand new material from The Fearless. And continuing the tradition, it will all be featured on their MySpace page.


The Long Island Music Festival
featuring The Fearless
8/25, Muchahy's Pub
Wantagh, NY
www.myspace.com/thefearlessmusic
www.mulcahys.com

Ciao, Bella!by Daniel Michael Alleva

Canadian-based Bella have a lot to be happy about. Touring through Canada and the American West since 2003, the indie-pop trio will be coming to Piano's, located at 158 Ludlow at Stanton in NYC, on the 20th of September - just two days after the release of their new record, No One Will Know (Mint Records), on September 18th.

Bella - Cameron Fraser, Tiffany Garrett Sotomayor, and Charla McCutcheon - is a catchy and upbeat synth three-piece that keeps the tempo steady while keeping the hooks coming, much like their buddies in Imperial Teen, who stop by to add a little spice to No One Will Know. On the heels of the album, Bella's multi-talented members will be criss-crossing the States, as no soon do they leave the stage at Piano's, they are of to Seattle, where they will be playing at the Crocodile Cafe the very next night! Be sure to cath them in your area!

Catch Bella On Tour This Fall!

SEPT 5, VANCOUVER - at The Media Club (with The Brunettes)

SEPT 20, NYC - at Piano's

SEPT 21, SEATTLE - at Crocodile Cafe (with Imperial Teen)

SEPT 22, PORTLAND - at Lola's Room (with Imperial Teen)

SEPT 29, SAN FRANCISCO - at Bottom of the Hill (with Imperial Teen)

OCT 4, VANCOUVER, BC - at the Railway club
(No One Will Know CD Release Party!)

OCT 12, EDMONTON - venue tba

OCT 13, CALGARY, AB - at The Marquee

OCT 21, MONTREAL, QC - venue tba

OCT 22, OTTAWA, ON - at Mavericks

OCT 23, TORONTO, ON - at The Horseshoe Tavern

OCT 24, GUELPH, ON - at the E-bar

OCT 26, LONDON, ON - at the Alex P. Keaton

OCT 27, WATERLOO,ON - at the Starlight (with Mother Mother)

OCT 28, TORONTO, ON - at The Drake

Click here for more Bella!

A Lap Steel Slides in Brooklynby Daniel Michael Alleva

Megan Hickey’s The Last Town Chorus is a collection of Brooklyn musicians, lead by Ms. Hickey, the Pittsburgh native, and her elegant lap steel guitar. But before you let the image of a female-fronted Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals creep into your mind, give a spin of TLTC’s Hacktone Records-debut, Wire Waltz. Instead of playing the instrument in a traditional blues sense, Ms. Hickey and company create a spacious and accentual environment to compliment the storyteller, much like Nick McCabe did for Richard Ashcroft in The Verve, and much like Angelo Badalamenti did for so many films of David Lynch, all the result of a unique relationship between a girl and her guitar.

Ms. Hickey, who grew up listening to 80’s new wave and pop country, says that the pairing of these two dynamic elements (Megan’s wide open voice rings out for city blocks, like Hope Sandoval meets Beth Orton, circa-Trailer Park) is the central unity within The Last Town Chorus. Trained in other instruments, Ms. Hickey feels strongly that her true motivation as a songwriter comes simply from the doors the instrument opens. One listen to the jangly “Caroline” from Wire Waltz, and it’s easy to see why. The lap-steel is what pushes songs like “Understanding” into becoming sonic flights through the sky. The song could easily play it safe as a simple ballad, but add the longing howl of a lap-steel – there just to make Wire Waltz that much more as an album – and The Last Town Chorus gives a brand new outlook on roots music.

While Wire Waltz was written, produced, and engineered by Megan herself, this summer she has had the chance to take The Last Town Chorus out on the road, and play with another truly great songwriter, Hacktone label-mate, Mark Olson. Recently, the two performed together at The World Café; a stream was available online courtesy of NPR. Ms. Hickey has also brought her traveling circus through New York twice this summer, first at a free in-store performance at the Border’s in Columbus Circle, and as part of the River to River festival. The Last Town Chorus returns to New York once more, back on the road again with Olson, on August 30t at The Bowery Ballroom.

Third is a Charm for Jason Bourneby Josh Gizelt

The Bourne Supremacy, Paul Greengrass' follow-up to Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity, was an interesting sequel, taking the concept from the first film and ratcheting up the tension through the use of hand-held cameras and edgy editing (Oliver Wood shot all three films). The action sequences, while visually confusing, managed to be more appropriate than the analogous sequences in, say, a Michael Bay film, because they are stylistically tied into the way the rest of the film was shot. It was also notable for how it built on the previous film, following and deepening the fates of the established (surviving) characters from the first film.

The Bourne Ultimatum picks up where Supremacy left off in more ways than one. Barely wasting any time establishing what's going on (if you haven't seen the first two films, you'll be completely lost), the film plunges the viewer directly into the blindingly paced endgame of the series, and yet, despite the breakneck pace, every very story element is kept in focus, preventing the film from becoming at all confusing or bogged down by distractions. This is particularly astounding given Matt Damon's reports that the screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi was being rewritten each day.

Perhaps the uncertainty the actors had with regards to what they were going to do from day to day worked in the film's favor; almost every character is being pushed to extremes for their own reasons, and the cast - especially Damon - sells that. David Strathairn is particularly good in his role as a desperate project leader who knows he's an errand boy with an important job. The action and chase scenes are created without any CGI, creating a feeling of brutal honesty about them, which makes Bourne's calculating approach even more effective. John Powell's score follows in the tradition of the previous two; while this is not my favorite genre, his work here is very effective.

Perhaps the best aspect of the film is that it does what it sets out to without attempting to overwork the concept to make it epic, as so many of this recent spate of trilogy-cappers have done. This is an edgy espionage thriller, and it is about paranoia, espionage and thrills. It can not be judged solely on its own, but as an element of a trilogy (or series, if they continue with the post-Ludlum Bourne titles). In that respect, it works as a great conclusion to two very interesting films. For once, a trilogy has not dropped the ball.

Josh Gizelt is a daily contributor to Monsters From The Id

Beastie Boys: Mixing it Up, and Speaking Outby Daniel Michael Alleva

Last week, before their performance at McCarren Park Pool - which coincidentally marked the first ever Beastie Boys performance in Brooklyn - AdRock, Mike D, and MCA fielded questions from a handful of journalists as part of a very intimate press conference, which was held at the SOHO House in NYC. It appeared early on that their latest release, a collection of instrumentals and jams entitled The Mix Up, has been on the minds of many journalists, specifically in regards to the "statement" the Beastie Boys - one of the earliest success stories in hip-hop culture - were trying to make on the status of hip-hop music by releasing an all instrumental record. "We've been getting asked that a lot lately." says MCA, and AdRock follows up by saying, “In a way, the album was a reaction to our hip-hop. Our last record was an all rap record, so when we started recording [The Mix Up] we wanted to work with some instruments, and it just sounded cool, so we kept with it.”

But Mike D offers another explanation. “We get asked [about The Mix Up], and we also get asked "What do you think of the state of hip-hop today?" Maybe I’m being defensive, but it seems like people always look for us to come out and criticize hip-hop. But hip-hop is what we grew up on, and it continues to be one of the only forms of music left that strives on evolution and innovation. Yeah, we might be in a spell where we’re waiting for that next record to come out and change everything - but still, that’s what hip hop is and that’s what puts it in its unique place."

On some level, it must be difficult for Michael Diamond (Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA), and Adam Horovitz (AdRock), to field questions like these. Together, the Beastie Boys are a polite, incredibly funny, and relatively soft-spoken group. But to this day, twenty years after the release of their debut record, License to Ill, they are still asked if "they still feel the need to fight for their right to party." And if that wasn't bad enough, they are still rather crudely regarded as "the white boy rappers" by certain journalists. "I'm not trying to call anybody out," says MCA, "but we always seem to get asked by journalists in other countries about being white rappers. There seems to be some kind of focus on that, and I'm not sure why. I think what is most important is that people are making music regardless of what color they are. Some people are making interesting music, and some people aren't, that's just how it is."

Even their Jewish heritage is still a topic of discussion for some people, primarily in regards to the emergence of Jewish artists like Matisyahu. To this point, Diamond offers, "I think how we identify ourselves with being Jewish has more to do with how we identify ourselves as being New Yorkers. It's more of a cultural connection than a religious one. When we started out, I was living in Brooklyn Heights, and Yauch lived a few blocks away. Once we started playing, a lot of our friends were in bands as part of this downtown New York City hardcore scene. We never thought it was going to last this long, let alone be successful and inspire people, but at the same time, if it does inspire people for whatever reason, that's good." Yauch adds that, "I don't think we really were conscious of the fact that we were all Jewish until journalists started pointing it out." And as Diamond concludes, "Let's face it: to find three Jewish kids hanging around New York City is not uncommon."

Because the Beastie Boys have never been limited to a particular style, or even a certain school of thought (other than to just make music that feels good), it's hard not to be curious if the B-Boys have any intention of recording an album of new hardcore material. “There’s always a possibility of a hardcore record, even though we don’t have any plans for it," says Yauch, who just produced the latest release from hardcore legends, Bad Brains. "That’s definitely a fun type of music that we like to play.” When asked how much their punk rock and hip-hop influences overlap each other, Horovitz says that "They are very similar forms of music, in a way. I feel that punk rock and rap have the same headspace. You know, that attitude you have when you make punk records is very similar to when you make rap records." Diamond adds that there is a commonality of energy and attitude within the genres. "It's easy to look at outward trimmings of each, but when we were growing up and going to clubs, all the new wave/punk rock clubs that we would go to would play all the new hip-hop records when they would come out, and it seemed to all fit together in a very natural way."

If the major music industry is, at the very least, experiencing a period of transcendence, the Beastie Boys don't seem to mind. "It seems to me that the tools for doing it yourself are more available than ever before," says Diamond. He continues on by saying, "When we put out Pollywog Stew, we had to actually go and press a 7" - you don't have to do that anymore. Now you can use your MySpace page." When asked if the way things were done back in the day are a testament to longevity, Diamond seems overtly unsure while remaining optimistic. "For me, I'm excited to see what people can do using their home computers or their video cameras. Some of it might be wack, but their will be some that are completely self-reliant, and will attain its own audience." Horovitz adds that, "The whole idea of success and "making it" is changing into a different thing. Do you want to be playing arenas, or do you want people to just watch your YouTube video? So, we just have to see what happens next."

The Beastie Boys will continue to tour in support of The Mix Up through the fall.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Webster Hall, NYC, 8/7/07by Daniel Michael Alleva

Karen O. pranced, pogoed, and howled, while Nick Zinner and Brian Chase provided an explosive backdrop to her antics, as New York City's Yeah Yeah Yeahs crashed through Webster Hall last week, performing in support of their latest release, The Is Is EP. O., dressed in fishnet stockings and little more, draped herself with what appeared to be christmas tree tinsel, and throughout the performance, donned several props, including a bowler hat, and a mask that made her look strikingly similar to one of the "party guests" in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

The Yeahs, consummate performers of bare-bones retro-punk, ran through their catalog with splendid detail. Highlights of the evening were "Cheated Hearts" and "Phenomenon," both from the Yeahs last full-length release, the fantastic Show Your Bones, as well as the gems from their breakthrough release Fever to Tell, such as "Tick" and "Black Tongue." The coy sexuality of O., combined with her penchant for jamming the microphone into her mouth and screaming, crept over Chase's snap-from-the-wrist pounding, and Zinner, now certified as the most innovative guitarist in rock today, held command over the melodies along with touring guitarist, Imaad Wasif.

Tiny Masters of Today, the group consisting of pint-sized siblings Ivan and Ada, along with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins, opened the show, and closed their set with a humorous cover of House of Pain's "Jump Around."

Photo by Rebecca Smeyne, courtesy of The Village Voice

The Color and the Shape (Reissue) - Foo Fightersby Daniel Michael Alleva

When The Color and the Shape was release in the Spring of 1997, Dave Grohl's post-Nirvana vehicle had already received moderate success with their self-titled debut. But on the first record, Grohl played virtually every part. So The Colour and the Shape would be the first Foo Fighters record to be recorded with what was previously only the touring band - Germs/Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear, and Sunny Day Real Estate refugees Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith. Goldsmith would be gone before the record would even see the light of day, with Grohl re-recording the album replacing himself over Goldsmith's parts. And the album itself would document Grohl's divorce from Nirvana photographer, Jennifer Youngblood.

It's important to note that the Spring of '97 was the first time that America seemed somewhat recovered from the hangover of Grunge. People had died. Bands had broke up. Teenagers were no longer teens. Still, nothing really changed, other than it felt really good to be free of all of it. So when "Monkey Wrench" hit the airwaves as the first single from the record, with it's catchy hook and blow-out finale, everything Grohl had experienced, everything he held dear which had not gone for the best, from the day they found Kurt Cobain dead to the day he signed divorce papers, was put to bed for the last time.

Nirvana's loud-soft-loud dynamic was rock and roll at its most recognizable, it just came with a lot of feedback, from a place that America somewhat forgot existed, and Grohl was as much a part of that whole equation as Cobain was. So, as on songs like "My Poor Brain" and "New Way Home," there's a turn of tides that The Color and the Shape undergoes that reflects the change in attitude. It felt better, perhaps, to think more about "My Hero" instead of my "Heart-Shaped Box," even if it was at the expense of Grohl's own heartbreak.

The acoustic Howard Stern Show performance of "Everlong" would eventually become a staple on the radio, but the original album version is a track for the ages. And again, there's Grohl, wondering the same things anyone would wonder being in his position: could everything be this real forever? Will anything be this good again? The questions hit so goddamn deep, it's hard to even imagine the answers.

This tenth-anniversary edition, featuring the original release along with newly-written liner notes by Nate Mendel, comes with six bonus tracks, including the covers of "Baker Street" and Gary Numan's "Down in the Park." While 1997 saw some stiff competition as far as Album of the Year was concerned, The Color and The Shape was the first out of the gate, and it remains in front of the pack ten years later.

Rating - A+

Click here for more Foo Fighters!

Finding Forever - Commonby Daniel Michael Alleva

Finding Forever is the seventh album from Chicago rapper Common. Over well-crafted tracks from the likes of Kanye West and the late J Dilla, Common elevates his flow to ear-pleasing levels by serving it with his signature balance of socially conscious and deeply personal lyrics. In addition to mic contributions from West, Finding Forever also features guest spots from Lilly Allen, and most notably, D'Angelo. The album is the first release from the Midwest legend to reach the top of The Billboard 200.

The Nightwatchman by Daniel Michael Alleva

Check out Tom Morello's new project, The Nightwatchman.

Morello, known mostly for his power riffing in groups like Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, trades in his electric for an acoustic, and the result is an uplifting collection of folk mastery that is somewhere between Springsteen and Strummer. The album is out now on Epic Records, but you can visit The Nightwatchman's website now to preview some of the tracks.

National Public Radio’s World Cafe will be broadcasting a Nightwatchman session on Tuesday, August, 14th, 2007. The World Cafe with host David Dye can be heard on nearly 200 stations nationwide.

Watch Tom Morello, along with Serj Tankian, on The Henry Rollins Show