SDCXTRA RADIO

Monday, October 28, 2013

Lou Reed, 1942-2013 Outsider Whose Dark, Lyrical Vision Helped Shape Rock ’n’ Roll


Lou Reed performing in New York City in 2009.
By BEN RATLIFF

Published: October 27, 2013



Lou Reed, the singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had a major influence on generations of rock musicians, and who remained a powerful if polarizing force for the rest of his life, died on Sunday at his home in Amagansett, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 71.

The cause was liver disease, said Dr. Charles Miller of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where Mr. Reed had liver transplant surgery this year and was being treated again until a few days ago.

Mr. Reed brought dark themes and a mercurial, sometimes aggressive disposition to rock music. “I’ve always believed that there’s an amazing number of things you can do through a rock ‘n’ roll song,” he once told the journalist Kristine McKenna, “and that you can do serious writing in a rock song if you can somehow do it without losing the beat. The things I’ve written about wouldn’t be considered a big deal if they appeared in a book or movie.”

He played the sport of alienating listeners, defending the right to contradict himself in hostile interviews, to contradict his transgressive image by idealizing sweet or old-fashioned values in word or sound, or to present intuition as blunt logic. But his early work assured him a permanent audience.

The Velvet Underground, which was originally sponsored by Andy Warhol and showcased the songwriting of John Cale as well as Mr. Reed, wrought gradual but profound impact on the high-I.Q., low-virtuosity stratum of punk, alternative and underground rock around the world. Joy Division, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, R.E.M., the Strokes and numerous others were descendants. The composer Brian Eno, in an often-quoted interview from 1982, suggested that if the group’s first album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico,” sold only 30,000 copies during its first five years — a figure probably lower than the reality — “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”

Many of the group’s themes — among them love, sexual deviance, alienation, addiction, joy and spiritual transfiguration — stayed in Mr. Reed’s work through his long run of solo recordings. Among the most noteworthy of those records were “Transformer” (1972), “Berlin” (1973) and “New York” (1989). The most notorious, without question, was “Metal Machine Music” (1975).

Beloved of Mr. Reed and not too many others, “Metal Machine Music” was four sides of electric-guitar feedback strobing between two amplifiers, with Mr. Reed altering the speed of the tape recorder; no singing, no drums, no stated key. At the time it was mostly understood, if at all, as a riddle about artistic intent. Was it his truest self? Was it a joke? Or was there no difference?

Mr. Reed wrote in the liner notes that “no one I know has listened to it all the way through, including myself,” but he also defended it as the next step after La Monte Young’s early minimalism. “There’s infinite ways of listening to it,” he told the critic Lester Bangs in 1976.

Not too long after his first recordings, made at 16 with a doo-wop band in Freeport, N.Y., Mr. Reed started singing outside of the song’s melody, as if he were giving a speech with a fluctuating drone in a New York accent. That sound, heard with the Velvet Underground on songs like “Heroin” and “Sweet Jane” and in his post-Velvet songs “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Street Hassle” and others, became one of the most familiar frequencies in rock. He played lead guitar the same way, straining against his limitations.

Mr. Reed confidently made artistic decisions that other musicians would not have even considered. He was an aesthetic primitivist with high-end audio obsessions. He was an English major who understood his work as a form of literature, though he distrusted overly poetic pop lyrics, and though distorted electric guitars and drums sometimes drowned out his words.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Gary Lee Kirkpatrick - One Night Stand

Basic Band Info






Band Name:
Gary Lee Kirkpatrick

Album Name:
One Night Stand

Email Address:
kirkpatrick0525@aol.com

Website Address:
http://www.garyleekirkpatrick.com

Music Style:
Country

Influences:
Personal

First Name :
Gary Lee

Last Name :
Kirkpatrick

Geographic City: New Lenox
State: IL
Country: US
Zip Code: 60451

Band Description

Singer/songwriter, Gary Lee Kirkpatrick, has a new album, “One Night Stand.” A combination of traditional and modern country music. The end result is a style of musical story telling that is refreshingly new and yet comfortably familiar

This ten song album was recorded in Nashville, at Merit Studios, and engineered by multi-Grammy award winner, Tom Pick and produced by Hubert “Hoot” Hester. Gary Lee’s creative lyrics and strong country vocals bring his music to life with each song. His vocals soar on love songs like, “You Don’t Know How I Feel." This track, combined with high energy songs like, “Whitewater” and “Nobody’s Hero,“ highlight Gary Lee’s versatile vocal range and ability to tell a good story.

“One Night Stand.” A combination of traditional and modern country music. The end result is a style of musical story telling that is refreshingly new and yet comfortably familiar.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Steve Law Band


Basic Band Info
Band Name: Steve Law Band
Album Name: Steve Law Band
Email Address: steve@stevelaw.com
Website Address: http://stevelaw.com
Music Style: Folk Rock
Influences: Tom Petty Personal
First Name :Steve
Last Name :Law
Geographic City: Denver
State: CO Country:USA
Zip Code: 80202 

Band Description

Our songs are original, guitar driven, melodic, harmonic stories of love and life on the planet.
Can be purchased at CDBaby, itunes, and others.

Steve Law Band


After releasing a five-song EP, Balance, in 2011 and a live album last year with Kyle Zender,Steve Law returns with a self-titled release that doesn't stray too far from the acoustic-guitar-driven folk rock of the EP. While Law sounds like he's influenced by the likes of James Taylor and Paul Simon, his vocal delivery at times recalls that of Rufus Wainwright, especially on the opening cut, "On the Run." The cozy, stripped-down tracks here suit his relaxed vocal style, as do the harmonies by Toddy Walters. Law no doubt has a knack for writing catchy tunes, such as the radio-friendly "Other Side of Your Heart" and "Telluride," which features some gorgeous pedal-steel work from John Macy.