ORIGINAL EMPIRE STRIKES BACK TRAILER FROM 1979

In honor of today, May 21, which marks the 30th anniversary of the opening day of the crown jewel of the Star Wars saga.

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY PAC-MAN!

I'll never forget the first time I ever played Pac-Man. I believe it was at either the arcade at Nathan's on Old Country Road in Westbury or perhaps the Levittown Roller Rink or maybe even, for some strange reason, Borelli's, the Italian restaurant in East Meadow that my family and I have been dining at since it opened over 50 years ago.

Regardless, the moment I bugged my mom for a quarter and popped it into that glowing red "Insert Coin" button, I was immediately hooked. My obsession with Star Wars took a momentary detour for Pac-Man. I had just about everything: bedsheets, gumball machines, stickerbooks, that stupid board game, that even stupider Atari 2600 game, stuffed animals, rubber figures, the whole nine. If you were to see my notebooks from elementary school back then, they were covered with attempts to perfect the Pac-Man caricature. Game-wise, it took me a while to get to the Pretzel level, but I finally made it after several quarters and a lion's share of patience. It's hard to believe that it has been 30 years since Pac-Man became the national sensation that made 1980 one of the greatest periods of time ever, in spite of a recession, a hostage crisis with Iran and Richard Pryor nearly burning himself alive freebasing cocaine.

Here at the IRT, we pay tribute to the 1980 Midway/Namco game that started it all for many of us in Generation X. Thanks to Pac-Man, more kids are addicted to video games than they are to crack, smack or the wacky tobacc. Happy Anniversary, yellow guy.

Original 1980 Gameplay:


Pac-Man cartoon opening theme:


Pac-Man "A Bad Case of the Chomps"


Pac-Man Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee pasta commercial:


"Pac-Man Fever"

RONNIE JAMES DIO 1942-2010 \m/

Message from Wendy Dio
"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever." - Wendy Dio



"Never More" with Elf 1973


"Man on the Silver Mountain" with Rainbow 1977


"Heaven and Hell" with Black Sabbath Live 1980


"Holy Diver"

SOCIAL DISTORTION SIGN TO EPITAPH; NEW ALBUM THIS FALL

Here's the press spiel. Will definitely be at that Chance show in Poughkeepsie! -Ed.

SOCIAL DISTORTION SIGNS WITH EPITAPH RECORDS

May 11, 2010 - Los Angeles, CA - Epitaph Records is proud to welcome Southern California's iconic rock ‘n' roll group Social Distortion to the label with plans to release their first studio album since 2004 in fall 2010. The signing pairs one of rock ‘n' roll's most renowned bands with one of the most respected independent labels for what could be the greatest match in decades.

"We feel that Epitaph has a natural understanding of Social Distortion; both the history of the band and the direction we want to go," says frontman Mike Ness. "Combine that with their successful track record and it felt like a good next step for us. We've always been open to new ideas and pushing the envelope, but we have also been very conscientious about the decisions we've made. We considered a lot of options, but in the end, Epitaph feels like the right home for us. We're looking forward to taking this step forward, opening some new doors with this upcoming album and this next chapter of Social Distortion."

"My relationship with Mike goes way back to the beginnings of our careers in the LA music scene," adds Epitaph owner and president Brett Gurewitz. "Through the years Social Distortion have been a matchless voice in American rock and roll and I couldn't be more thrilled to play a part in the next chapter for this great band."

In March the band entered a Burbank studio to record their yet to be titled seventh studio album, produced by Mike Ness, which is slated for release this fall.

"We went back to tape, old compressors and old microphones," Ness recently told Spinner.com. "We're just really trying to fight modern technology as much as possible."

"The record reminds me very much of Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (the band's 1992 release), but also I'm bringing elements of early New York '70s punk," said Ness.

Social Distortion also recently announced a U.S. summer tour with Dan Sartain and The Action Design. The tour kicks off July 27 in Poughkeepsie, NY and makes seven stops in the Northeast before the band heads to Chicago for an August 7 main stage performance at this year's Lollapalooza. Dates with Dan Sartain and The Action Design resume in Green Bay, Wisconsin on August 8. A complete list of tour dates follows.

Formed in Fullerton, CA in 1979, Social Distortion have spent the last three decades performing their signature style of roots driven rock ‘n' roll and hard luck stories for fans worldwide while recording six classic, critically heralded albums including Mommy's Little Monster, Prison Bound, Social Distortion, Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, White Light, White Heat, White Trash and Sex, Love and Rock ‘n' Roll.

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Social Distortion Tour Dates:
July 27 - Poughkeepsie, NY - The Chance
July 28 - Hampton Beach, NH - Casino Ballroom
July 30 - Providence, RI - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
July 31 - Hartford, CT - The Webster
Aug 1 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
Aug 3 - Wantagh, NY - Mulcahy's
Aug 4 - Lancaster, PA - Chameleon Club
Aug 5 - Rochester, NY - Nola's BBQ
Aug 7 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
Aug 8 - Green Bay, WI - Oneida Casino
Aug 10 - Council Bluffs, IA - Stir Cove @ Harrah's
Aug 11 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater
Aug 13 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory
Aug 14 - Medford, OR - Medford Armory

"Ball and Chain"

El-P RELEASES ALL-INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM AUGUST 3RD ON GOLD DUST

Exciting news for fans of the former Company Flow wordsmith who were wondering what his next move following the folding of Definitive Jux might be. Here's the label spiel:

Few artists can combine uncomfortable with catchy; paranoiac with head-nodding; morbid with springy. It's hard to scare the sh!t out of you while simultaneously keeping your foot moving. Rapper, producer and Def Jux founder El-P knows how to get to parts of the brain others can't. As a solo artist and frontman for seminal hip-hop group Company Flow or producer of Cannibal Ox, Cage, Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock, NIN, Beck, The Mars Volta (and many, many more), an El-P production can drive you to hide underneath the bed, punch a wall and nod your head all at the same time. Which brings us to Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 (August 3rd, Gold Dust), the sort of, kind of but not really follow-up to his past two mixes of the same name previously released at live shows.

It's another unique release in the artist's catalog. In the tradition of Company Flow's Little Johnny From The Hospitul (1998), El's own Collecting The Kid (2005), and more recently Weareallgoingtoburninhellmeggamixxx2 (2007), Hell3 is a fully realized suite of instrumentals that continues to exemplify the producer's versatile, otherworldly, futuristic and wholly original sonic worldview.

"I wanted to do little mini-movements that had a real beginning, middle and end and then moved on," says El-P. "The challenge for me was taking all these seemingly unrelated little pieces of music I had laying around and fitting them together as a cohesive piece. I wanted to craft a record that had an arc."

Given this format, Hell3 both sounds similar to and nothing like anything you've heard before. "Drunk With a Loaded Pistol" starts off woozy and deranged before evolving into a warning alarm/drum attack. "Time Won't Tell" opens as a soundtrack for the apocalypse followed by the layering of guitar-driven pop over boom-bap drums. As the album title implies, El-P creates a dark, dystopian sonic universe filled with ominous basslines and thumping, punishing drums.

Comprised of original instrumentals as well as remix instrumentals to Kidz in the Hall's "Driving Down the Block" and Young Jeezy's "I Got This," Hell3 represents songs that were meticulously crafted yet never found a home on a proper release. While sonically different from J Dilla's instrumental masterpiece Donuts, that album would prove inspirational to El-P. "Like Donuts, I wanted to keep things short and to the point. I think that's an aspect of instrumental music that so many more people can relate to. I didn't want anyone to listen to this record and at any point get bored."

While the producer is currently working on the follow-up to 2007's I'll Sleep When You're Dead, Hell3 functions as both a stopgap and standalone album. "This was a chance for me to give something to my fans as a reward for their patience as I worked on my new record. With the past Megamixxes, I never sat down and really tried to make a record. It was more like, 'Here's a bunch of cool stuff you haven't heard.' I look at this new one as a proper album. Me calling it a Megamixxx is just an excuse to get to Volume Three of anything."

Tracklist:
01. Take You Out At The Ball Game
02. Whores:The Movie
03. Meanstreak (In 3 Parts)
04. DMSC
05. Drunk With A Loaded Pistol
06. Time Won't Tell
07. Secret Police Man's Ball
08. I Got This (El-P Remix) Redux
09. Jump Fence, Run, Live
10. He Hit Her So She Left
11. Driving Down The Block (El-P Remix) Redux
12. Honda Redux
13. How To Serve Man (Stripped)
14. Contagious Snippet (Wilder Zoby Feat. El-P)
15. Eat My Garbage 2

THE IRT ALBUM REVIEW: 4/30/10 Edition

by Ron Hart

IGGY AND THE STOOGES

Raw Power: Legacy Edition (Columbia-Legacy)

A recent episode of Lost found central character James “Sawyer” Ford wallowing in anger and self-pity within the confides of the house he and his dearly departed beloved Juliet lived in as the crackling sounds of a beat-up vinyl copy of Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power blared from a portable record player with the album’s iconic cover art displayed in the foreground. For anyone who watches the ABC’s epic time traveling island adventure series, it was a pivotal moment that perfectly defined the essence of Sawyer, who in many ways reflects the fuck all attitude that Iggy Pop so viciously displayed on this pivotal 1973 album that for many people serves as the first true genesis of punk music. For Raw Power, the late, great Ron Asheton switched from guitar to bass to make room for James Williamson, whose piercing, buzzsaw guitar was as confrontational as Iggy’s daring, disturbing stage antics that included picking fights with members of the audience, cutting himself with glass and smearing his wounds with peanut butter. This two-disc Legacy edition restores the original tranlsation of Power, which featured Iggy behind the production desk and his pal David Bowie at the mixing console, and it sounds fiercer and more violent than ever (including the 1997 single disc reissue). Also included in this version is the long sought-after bootleg “Georgia Peaches”, an excellent audience recording culled from Ron Asheton’s personal cassette of a September 1973 gig at the Atlanta rock club Richards, which finds Pop taunting the Southern crowd with verbal spikes like, “Do you wanna get your fuckin’ face punched in, little cracker boy?” Serious Raw Power junkies will want to cop the Deluxe Edition box set of the LP, which adds a third disc of rare outtakes and alternate versions, a half-hour-long documentary DVD and a reproduction of the Japanese-issue picture sleeve 45 single of the album’s title track b/w the iconic “Search and Destroy” on the flip, available exclusively at www.iggyandthestoogesmusic.com. (RH)

GRATEFUL DEAD

Crimson, White & Indigo: Philadelphia, July 7, 1989 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)

The late 1980s were a vibrant, revitalized time for the Dead, seeing the band finally achieve the Top 40 success that eluded them for so many years with the unexpected smash of “Touch of Grey” from their 1987 classic In The Dark, no doubt augmented by the San Francisco institution’s first video for the song in constant rotation on a still-vital MTV. The whirlwind two years that followed the album’s release hit its fever pitch on Independence Day weekend in 1989, when the Dead played the final show at Philadelphia’s storied JFK Stadium before it was razed in the name of somebody’s idea of progress. Jerry, Phil, Bob, Mickey, Bill and the late, great Brent Mydland were firing on all cylinders on this day, and this show remains the crown jewel of that 89 tour for many Dead fans, and is now finally made commercially available by Rhino as a 3-CD/1-DVD set that earns its place amongst Fillmore West ’69 and Europe ’72 as one of the most essential official live documents of the Grateful Dead available at your local record shop. (RH)

HOT TUNA

Live at the New Orleans House Berkeley, CA September 1969 (Collector’s Choice)

As most JamBasers are aware, the first official Hot Tuna album was culled from a live recording of a September 1969 stand the acoustic offshoot of Jefferson Airplane booked at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, CA. This gorgeous-sounding set contains 68 minutes worth of material taped from those shows but never released until now. Featured here are alternate performances of the six tracks we’ve all come to know and love, as well as seven other tunes that never made the final cut, including some key covers of such blues chestnuts as Blind Boy Fuller’s “Keep On Truckin’”, the Rev. Gary Davis’s “Candy Man” and Blind Blake’s “That’ll Never Happen No More”. And, of course, Jorma’s unmatched guitar mastery shines throughout this essential addition to your “Tuna” salad. (RH)

SWEET APPLE

Love and Desperation (Tee Pee)

Indie vet supergroup Sweet Apple was formed over the course of a mother’s passing, a long car ride, a random phone call and a healing hang-out session in Brattleboro, VT. Comprised of John Petkovic and Tim Parnin of Cobra Verde, Witch bassist (and group namesake) Dave Sweetapple and his drummer, Dinosaur Jr. guitar master J. Mascis, this band is essentially the Traveling Wilburys of underground scuz rock and Love and Desperation is their Vol. 1. Largely written by Petkovic and Parnin in the wake of the passing of Petkovic’s mom, this 12 track set is loaded with therapeutically catchy songs about driving, flying and feelings set to a perfect storm of pure pop puzz turned up to 11. Mourning has never sounded so heavy. (RH)

THE MYNABIRDS

What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood (Saddle Creek)

We’ve heard John Davis’ take on the bust-up of the DC post-punk duo Georgie James with his Boss-covering new band Title Tracks. Now we get to hear the other side with the debut of this lovely solo project from the group’s fairer half Laura Burhenn. Taking its handle from the mythically short-lived Motown band that featured Rick James, Neil Young and his future Buffalo Springfield bandmate Bruce Palmer, the Mynabirds encapsulate a sound that is nothing like its namesake, whose unreleased sessions are out there on the Internet to hear if you look hard enough. However, what Burhenn and producer Richard Swift create with What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood is far more impressive and soulful than anything the original Mynahs conspired in their brief tenure. This album is a warm slice of garage soul pie with a modern twist with nods to both Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2 and Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis. Absolute magic. (RH)

TONY ALLEN

Secret Agent (Nonesuch)

Fela Kuti might be considered to be the father of Afrobeat. But the late Nigerian legend’s longtime drummer and musical director is the Holy Ghost. Released earlier this year in Europe, Tony Allen’s label debut on World Circuit/Nonesuch finally arrives stateside. But for those who expect to hear the influence of his rich partnership with Blur/Gorillaz charge and partner in The Good, The Bad and The Queen Damon Albarn, guess again. Secret Agent, recorded with his touring band, celebrates the music of his Motherland, incorporating elements of high life and Nigerian drumming with African soul and jazz to craft a wealth of ethnocentric rhythm and harmony that belies Allen’s 70 years on Earth. (RH)

GRAHAM PARKER

Imaginary Television (Bloodshot)

On what easily should be considered his best album since The Up Escalator, British New Wave legend Graham Parker delivers an intriguing concept album for our times that centers around America’s unhealthy obsession with TV culture by penning eleven theme songs for eleven different fictional television shows. And, in a great move that almost forces you to have to buy the physical product in order to understand the idea, Parker’s liner notes are laid out like an old issue of TV Guide containing brief synopses for each “program”, including such wild premises as a series about a 28-year-old agoraphobe who suddenly becomes the central figure of a civil war between liberals and conservatives and a reality show that follows the career a 250-lb. female rapper from the Bronx who rhymes about her bowel movements. Yet beneath these zany yarns exist personal, poignant songs enhanced by the warm production of longtime Band associate Prof. Louie Hurwitz. Recorded at the Prof.’s studio in West Hurley, NY, Imaginary Television comes across exactly like what you’d expect Graham Parker up in Big Pink country to sound like: AWESOME. (RH)

DJ NUTS Arthur Verocai Mix DOWNLOAD THIS NOW!

Peep this amazing mix from DJ Nuts containing nearly 80 minutes of music from one of Brazil's most renowned musicians and composers in conjunction with Mochilla's outstanding Timeless concert DVD box set.

But first, read the press jargon:

The Timeless Concert Series wasn't just a series of stunning performances. All the shows were framed by our favorite DJs. Madlib, J. Rocc, House Shoes and Quantic all came with amazing sets. Cut Chemist even raised the bar with a one turntable romp.

One the eve of the Verocai show, DJ Nuts was supposed to perform with Madlib. He made the arduous journey from Brasil after completing a show with Marcelo D2. He endured a punishing series of flights that took 20 hours to complete, and in the end, a plane delay caused him to miss his own set at the start of the show.

In a pinch, J. Rocc stepped up to the plate and performed a stellar set at the Luckman in his place, and Nuts went on to DJ a mind-blowing two hour set at the after-party.

So much of Mochilla's dealings in Brasil would not have been possible without Rodrigo Teixera (known to the world as DJ Nuts). The Verocai concert surely would never have happened without him. His role in helping with the pre and post coordination was enormous.

DJ Nuts is an astute and rigorous historian of Brasil's vast and varied musical culture. His record collection is legendary; his skills as a DJ are world class. We commissioned him to make this mix to help people understand the extraordinary legacy of Verocai. Many by now know Verocai's self-titled album, some even know the more popular compositions and arrangements, but none have dug as hard as Nuts. Years of collecting and a strong friendship with Verocai himself have made this historic mix possible. 78 minutes of all Verocai compositions and arrangements is a dream come true.

For such a mix to be made, only a true Brasilian music aficionado could have created this, and we are honored to be able to share it with you.

Download the Verocai mix here.

Thank you. -Ed.