A discussion of "supergroups" broke out on the Songfight forums yesterday, and someone inevitably mentioned the Power Station.  They were, of course, the band made up of Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson from Chic and John and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran.  I was inspired to dust off their 1985 self-titled CD and play it in the car this morning, and to be honest, I think this music has aged pretty well.  LATFAP forever!

"Some Like It Hot" and their T-Rex cover "Bang a Gong" got a lot of airplay during MTV's salad days, but one track I am more partial to is "Communication."

YouTube link for a video for "Communication" that I didn't even know existed until now.

I briefly mentioned in a previous post that I first saw and loved the 1979 movie Rock 'n Roll High School on a low-rent premium cable service, and it remains a favorite film of mine to this day.  It's not simply a great movie with great music, it's a great rock 'n roll movie.  It encapsulates, demonstrates, and celebrates all of what makes rock 'n roll great.

During the movie, the Ramones play a concert in the protagonist's hometown.  No lip-syncing took place - they actually filmed a live performance and replaced the audio with studio overdubs later on.  "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Teenage Lobotomy", "California Sun", "Pinhead" and "She's the One" were all redone, and in large part exceeded their earlier studio album counterparts.  These are still my favorite versions of "Bop", "Lobotomy" and especially "Pinhead."  This film was made during the band's late-70's performing prime, and this medley is just awesome.

Click here to watch Part 1 of the film segment featuring "Ramones Medley" on YouTube.

Click here to watch Part 2.  If these look vertically stretched to you, they are - someone from Spain ripped it from an anamorphic (16x9-encoded) DVD.  Of course, what really bugs me about that is that this movie has been released in the US on DVD FOUR TIMES, NONE of them in 16x9.  Wankers.

Wanna hear this without all the dialogue?  It's on the film's soundtrack album as well as a recent reissue of the 1978 Ramones album Road to Ruin.

I was grooving on RHCP's Mother's Milk (1989) while being held up by a train during my commute this morning.  When those Flea licks start happening and I start playing air bass on the armrest, people must think I have a serious nervous twitch.

During college I worked at a Texaco gas station for well over a year, and one evening I was at the cash register tending to a goodly-sized line of people.  There was a radio nearby, and "Stone Cold Bush" started playing.  I abruptly stopped what I was doing, said "ah, bass solo", turned the radio up, and then totally held those people in limbo while the Fleameister did his thing.

Stuff like that is probably why I got fired.  Oh well, that job sucked anyway.

Click here to hear "Stone Cold Bush" on YouTube.

Click here to watch a live performance.

During my freshman year in high school I had this friend named Kevin, who fancied himself quite the skater punk.  Except he didn't look or act like one.  He was just a regular dude who liked to ride skateboards and listen to punk rock.  One of several bands he turned me on to was the Toy Dolls.

Unlike most punk groups, the band has never harbored an overly indignant, angry or disaffected attitude - they are one of the most fun and irreverent groups around.  Their songs usually deal with very specific happenings (and people) in the life of singwritarist Michael "Olga" Algar, without a trace of belligerence or profanity.  In fact, Olga has made the conscious choice not to swear in his songs in the name of kid-friendliness.  But aesthetically, they are as energetic and exciting as any band.

We need more bands like this.  Constant ranting and bitching about people in charge just gets stale after a while.

A huge Toy Dolls fave of mine is "Bitten By a Bed Bug", from the 1991 album Fat Bob's Feet.  And whaddya know, there's an MP3 on the band's website.  Give it a listen all legal-like.

Click here to download "Bitten By a Bed Bug" from the band's website.

FLASH!  AAAAAHH!!!

Music video on YouTube!  AAAAAHH!!!

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Queen.

Shortly after Jazz was released in 1978, one of my grade school friends told me it came with a poster showing a whole slew of nude women on bicycles.  I remember seeing it shortly thereafter and being let down.  I mean, if only they could have placed the camera here.  Or shown more of this chick right over here.  Hey, I wanna see more of that one back there.  Or, wait, was I going somewhere with this?

Oh yeah, "Don't Stop Me Now" is a great track from it.

Click here to watch a video for "Don't Stop Me Now" on YouTube.  Oh, and I have a succinct message for music critic Dave Marsh, who opined that "Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band" after this album came out:

Go f**k yourself.

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Queen.

Yes, there was a Queen song called "Sheer Heart Attack" released three years after the album of the same name.  Written by drummer Roger Taylor, it was still incomplete by the time Sheer Heart Attack came out in 1974, so we didn't get our grubby hands on this rocking little number until 1977's News of the World.

Taylor also played guitar and bass on this track, and although he didn't sing lead on it, he did sing most of his own compositions in Queen's catalog.  He was Dave Grohl 20 years before Dave Grohl.

Click here to watch a video for "Sheer Heart Attack" on YouTube.

Click here to watch a live performance.

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Queen.

From A Day at the Races (1976), this is the song Elton John SHOULD have played at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.  After all, it was written about Elton's manager, John Reid, who also managed Queen.

In any case, this might actually be my very favorite Queen song.  Everything that was ever great about the band - and that's a lot - is represented in spades on this track.  Even more so than "Bohemian Rhapsody", I believe.  Wayne and Garth may disagree, but phooey on them.

Click here to hear "The Millionaire Waltz" on YouTube.

Click here to watch a live performance.

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Queen.