Remembering Sean Costello (1979-2008)

Blues guitarist Sean Costello died yesterday, one day short of his 29th birthday. The talented fretburner and singer had recently released his critically-acclaimed fifth album, We Can Get Together, and was touring heavily in support of the album. No cause of death has been determined yet. Fans are leaving messages on Costello's MySpace page.

You can read the Reverend's review of We Can Get Together on the About.com Blues website. A phenomenal talent, Costello's death is a tragic loss for the music community. He is best remembered through the magical music that he created, some of which you'll find below.

Sean Costello - "Love Is Amazing"


Sean Costello - "Double Trouble" (live)


Sean Costello - "Hard Luck Woman" (live)


Sean Costello - "Hucklebuck" (live)

A New Look At Springsteen's Youngstown

One of my all-time favorite Bruce Springsteen songs is "Youngstown," taken from the vastly underrated 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad. The most overtly political statement of Springsteen's lengthy canon of works, the album's diverse lyrical themes are drawn from then-current events, the songwriter suggesting that amidst the so-called prosperity of the Clinton years, that something was rotten beneath the surface. A new working class was created by poorly-paid immigrants while factory jobs that once offered a comfortable living wage were being exported to Third World countries, with American workers at the whim of the Clinton-signed NAFTA act. A once-stable American middle class was forced to scramble for the economic security that once seemed to be its birthright as the financial chasm between blue collar and boardroom grew ever wider....

"Youngstown" is a quietly elegant song, powerful in its emotion and pointed in its criticism of the economic forces that gutted the once-proud steel-manufacturing region of western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio. This video collage is magnificent, capturing the spirit of the song while presenting Springsteen's stark lyrics in all of their potent simplicity, matching the words with indelible images. It's a message we should take to heart as another Clinton runs for the Presidency after eight disastrous years of the Bush administration.

Bruce Springsteen - "Youngstown"


(Click on the CD cover to buy The Ghost Of Tom Joad from Amazon.com)

Take A Good Look At The Fleshtones!

For over three decades, the Fleshtones have cranked out their own unique blend of what they call "super rock," a high-energy, octane-rich brew of '60s-styled garage rock, rockabilly, early R&B and retro-roots music with raucous riffs and screaming Farfisa organ. Fronted by vocalist/keyboardist Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng since 1976, the New York City rockers have stayed true to their original musical vision, from the band's 1980 debut album Roman Gods, all the way up to the band's latest opus, Take A Good Look! (Yep Roc Records).

Along the way, the Fleshtones have had a fair amount of their history documented through the medium of music video, perhaps the next best thing to actually attending one of the band's legendary out-of-control live performances. We have a fine collection of suitably rockin' Fleshtones vids to offer, beginning with the their very first, a psychedelic-colored reading of the band's classic "Soul City." The performance of "Shadowline," from 1980, is taken from the "new wave" concert film Urgh! A Music War and was shot at the legendary CBGB club in NYC's notorious Bowery district. The 1984 video for "American Beat 84" received a modicum of airplay on MTV; the song was recorded for the film Bachelor Party and the video includes scenes from the movie interlaced with the band's performance.

Jumping to the '90s, we found an incredible video for "Take A Walk With The Fleshtones," taken from a French TV show sometime around 1993. Also from the grunge decade, here's a video for an exciting studio performance of "Accelerated Emotion," also from French television. There's almost a minute-and-a-half of of intro/discussion before the band kicks in, but it's well worth the wait! Finally, a performance of "Hard Lovin' Man" captured live in Chicago in 2007.

For more Fleshtones' videos and commentary on each from Streng and Zaremba, check out the band's fascinating Yep Roc video chronology. If you're already a Fleshtones fanatic, you should pick up a copy of Joe Bonomo's most excellent tome, Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America's Garage Band, available from Amazon.com through the book cover link to your right. Enjoy!

The Fleshtones - "Soul City"


The Fleshtones - "Shadowline"


The Fleshtones - "American Beat 84"


The Fleshtones - "Take A Walk With The Fleshtones"


The Fleshtones - "Accelerated Emotion"


The Fleshtones - "Hard Lovin' Man"

(Click on the covers to buy Take A Good Look! or Sweat from Amazon.com)

The Jesus of Cool returns!

A member of seminal early-70s pub-rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz, Nick Lowe earned a reputation as a snappy songwriter with a skill for turning a phrase. That band’s roots-rock sound never caught on far beyond the streets of London and Camden Town, however, and Brinsley Schwarz broke up in 1975 after recording five now highly-collectible albums. After working in the studio as a producer for Graham Parker, Wreckless Eric, Elvis Costello and the Damned, Lowe toured the U.S. as part of Dave Edmunds' band, opening for Bad Company. Lowe launched his solo career in 1978 with the release of Jesus Of Cool, a whip-smart collection of pop-rock gems that welded contagious melodies with Lowe’s often-demented lyrical tales.

Because the album’s original British title was considered too “edgy” and controversial for the United States, Lowe’s debut album was released stateside under the title Pure Pop For Now People with different sequencing and songs. Under either title, the album won no little amount of critical acclaim; during the 30 years since Lowe has forged a lengthy and varied solo career that has resulted in a dozen studio albums and several hit songs. Long out-of-print, the original Jesus Of Cool album is being reissued on CD and limited edition vinyl on February 19th by Yep Roc Records. This thirtieth anniversary edition will include every song from both versions of the original album, as well as seven B-side and rare bonus tracks (including the original version of Lowe’s “Cruel To Be Kind” from his sophomore album).

One of the influential and defining albums of ‘80s-era “new wave” rock, Lowe’s Jesus Of Cool is a definite “must have” disc for any fan of intelligent power-pop, retro-sound fiends and those who have followed Lowe’s varied career from the beginning. To celebrate the return of one of rock's best albums, we decided to have us a little "Nick Lowe celebration" courtesy of YouTube. "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass" is a great tune from Lowe's Jesus Of Cool album. We have two different tracks from Lowe's collaboration with Edmunds in the band Rockpile, including the very cool tune "So It Goes." Finally, we have a pair of versions of Lowe's classic song "What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding," the first performed by Lowe with his own backing band, the second video from some sort of TV special that features Lowe swapping verses with Elvis Costello and a scorching guitar performance by the legendary James Burton. Enjoy!

Nick Lowe "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass"

Nick Lowe w/Dave Edmunds "They Called It Rock"

Nick Lowe w/Dave Edmunds "So It Goes"

Nick Lowe "What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding"

Nick Lowe w/Elvis Costello "What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding"

(Click on the CD cover to buy Jesus Of Cool from Amazon.com)

M.I.A. - Paper Plane

Further proof that MTV has very little to do with real music, it came out over the weekend that the cable network censored the video for the song "Paper Planes" by British artist M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam), the third single released from her new album Kala. Built around a sample of the Clash's classic "Straight To Hell," M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" intersperses a shotgun blast with cash register bells in a very catchy sing-song double-dutch chorus. I'm not quite sure what "Paper Planes" is about (consumerism=violence? a critique of capitalism?), but the song and its accompanying video are both quite entertaining, the sound a mix of hip-hop style vocals and Worldbeat rhythms, with a hint of punkish aggression in the grooves. Besides, the Sri Lanka-born and London-raised Arulpragasam is quite fetching; if her radical roots and political leanings didn't scare the hell out of U.S. media execs, she could be a big star stateside.

Tom Briehan of the Village Voice points out the apparent double-standard when it comes to broadcasting videos on MTV and BET, that rappers are held to a different set of rules than are white rock bands (and, unfortunately, the U.S. corporate media seems to have pigeonholed M.I.A. as a rap artist although she is, really, so much more). Any overt reference to drugs, sex or violence is scrubbed from rap videos by bleeping or silencing the "offensive" language while rock bands can figuratively get away with murder in their videos. As rapper 50 Cent recently pointed out, the "music television" network changed the name of his song "I'll Still Kill" to "I Still Will" while they have no problem playing a song by the band the Killers. M.I.A., in a blog that appeared over the past weekend on her MySpace page (and since pulled?), called MTV's move "sabotage." Her performance of the song on Letterman's TV show was also censored...so is "Paper Planes" a dangerously subversive song or not? Somehow, I think that Joe Strummer would be pleased....

M.I.A. "Paper Planes" (2007)


(Click on the CD cover to buy Kala from Amazon.com)