V.I.P. ticketing on Soundcheck

I was honored to talk about V.I.P. ticketing today on Soundcheck, where I uttered an unintentional howler: artists, I said, are “horrified and jealous” by the prices scalpers get for their tickets. John Schaefer didn’t miss a beat on that one.

Here’s the show, in a nifty embed.

And here is my story from the other day on the same topic.

Talking ‘Exile’ on WFUV

The good people at WFUV asked me back to chat about the reissue of Exile on Main St. Listen here, subscribe here.

I’ll be back there next week to review the new Teenage Fanclub.

Golden girls

Macy Gray and Betty White backstage at Leno, via The ’FUVblog.

Somebody at the AP is too big of a Snoop Dogg fan

An Associated Press report in the Sports Briefing column on Wednesday about a guilty plea to a felony drug dealing charge by Emanuel Mayben, a former Binghamton University men’s basketball player, misstated the given name of the team’s coach, who was suspended last season. He is Kevin Broadus, not Calvin. (Go to Article)

Kevin Broadus ≠ Calvin Broadus

Right on, anti-social media bros

(Photo via NYT. Turns out, though, that these bros dislike more than just when their third-grade classmates bug them to be friends again.)

Press release of the day: Rhino Remembers Dio

Quite touching, actually:

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio

The Rhino family is deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Ronnie James Dio. As a member of Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, and Heaven & Hell, Ronnie was truly a pioneer in rock ’n’ roll, with one of the most powerful voices in the history of music.

Ronnie had a nearly 50-year relationship with the Warner Music Group family, from one of his first singles on Atlantic in 1962 to his platinum albums with Black Sabbath and Dio on Warner Bros. Records up to his final release with Heaven & Hell last year on Rhino.

Not only was Ronnie a true legend in rock ’n’ roll, but he was also a sincere, gracious man that we were proud to call a friend. One of our favorite memories from Ronnie’s many visits to the Rhino offices was the time he personally went from office to office to thank people individually for all the hard work they had been doing on his behalf — a truly sincere gesture that demonstrates what a generous, caring person he was. Today we take the time to celebrate his life and music.

Ronnie, your Rhino family is raising our horns up for you today. We know that is the way you would have wanted it.

My Dio obit here.

Extry, extry! Get the latest Hustler!

They’re juicy and ripe and oh so sweet, those Hustlers. Great if you’ve got an oral obsession!

Hustler brand Bartlett pears, that is, packed and supped by the Sacramento River Association in Courtland, California. Why, what did you think I meant?

That and many other vintage fruit-crate labels are available for your enjoyment — with reproductions for sale — at Vintagraph. There are also some racist and racy ones out there too, in addition to all kinds of bizarre and delicious crates like these:

Sweetback: the ‘hood opera’ version

For a limited (?) time, the French TV network Arte is running a complete web video of Melvin Van Peebles’s musical theater/‘hood opera’ version of his classic 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” as done earlier this year at the Sons d’Hiver Festival in Paris.

Back in January I interviewed the endlessly fascinating Mr. Van Peebles as he prepared a few workshop performances of the piece at BRIC Studio in Brooklyn. Fans of the film will find the plot alterations and additions interesting; everybody else will just dig the baadasssssness of it.

Arte has helpfully tagged a few highlights in the video, like Beatle’s “public relations business” spiel (47:00), a new speech and song about that unattainable “sweet old utopian American apple pie” (37:30), and, for the pervs out there, the bordello sex party (27:50) and the fucking contest (68:00). At the end, maestro Melvin grooves onstage and addresses his crowd en français.

A big addendum to the “Fame ’90” 90

Can’t believe I missed this one before. But Sam McPheeters’ fascinating Vice interview with Glenn Danzig prompted me to add this to my running tally:

• Danzig, “Mother ’93” (Buscuitsploitation)

Also, this is a less exciting one, but:

• Mudhoney, “Fuzz Gun 2001” (a reference to, if not really a version of, the dated-upon-arrival “Fuzz Gun ’91”)