Monday, February 28, 2011

SUZE ROTOLO 1943-2011


Last week, the world lost one of the great icons in the Bob Dylan universe, as the stunning Suze Rotolo, Bob's former lover and the girl he is walking arm in arm down Jones Street in New York City on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, died at the age of 67 on February 24th after a valiant battle with an undisclosed illness, according to Rolling Stone. For a beautiful obituary on this West Village treasure, please check out J. Hoberman's piece in The Village Voice. Her muse helped inspire Dylan to write some of this greatest songs, including "Boots of Spanish Leather", "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", as well as "The Death of Emmett Till", as she was the one who first told Bob about the controversial 1955 murder case that inspired him to write one of his most renowned protest anthems.

"Right from the start I couldn't take my eyes off her," Dylan gushed in his 2004 memoir Chronicles. "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blooded Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid's arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard."

A lifelong New Yorker who based her whole being in the West Village in spite of its ever-changing facades, Suze will be greatly missed.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

NEW BATTLES!


It's called Gloss Drop and it comes out June 7th. It's the band's first album as a trio since the departure of Tyondai Braxton and, based on the track listing, thankfully seems to find them doing more instrumental music akin to their first 3 EPs, with the exception of tracks that feature a host of prolific guest vocalists like Gary Numan, Boredoms frontman Yamantaka Eye and Blonde Redhead chanteuse Kazu Makin. For more information, check out the Battles site. You can pre-order Gloss Drop via the Warp subsidiary Bleep as well. Get psyched.

Track Listing:

01 Africastle
02 Ice Cream [ft. Matias Aguayo]
03 Futura
04 Inchworm
05 Wall Street
06 My Machines [ft. Gary Numan]
07 Dominican Fade
08 Sweetie & Shag [ft. Kazu Makino]
09 Toddler
10.Rolls Bayce
11 White Electric
12 Sundome [ft. Yamantaka Eye]

Video for "Tras":

Friday, February 11, 2011

THE WEINGARTEN/BIEBER DUO

Check out this video of former IRT contributor/ex-Parts and Labor drummer/current 1000TimesYes CEO Christopher R. Weingarten debuts his new solo outfit The Weingarten/Bieber Duo before a crowd of jacketed hipsters at St. Cecilia's Convent in Brooklyn on 1/29.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Neil Young + Crazy Horse's 1991 World Tour: The 20th Anniversary


This year marks the 20th anniversary for Neil Young's tour with Crazy Horse for the band's 1990 grunge classic Ragged Glory with opening acts Sonic Youth and Social Distortion in what could easily be one of the wildest triple bills in rock history, probably. Here is the band opening up one of the shows with "Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)". If you have your copy of Weld on hand, I suggest that you break it out in celebration this week. -Ed.