🎸
Way back on this day in 1977, a new CBGB-created template for guitar heroism was born.
Think you 🙏🏻 to the late Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd for showing us that not all guitar gods wear capes or “I’m working hard over here” faces.
Cool art is possible without bullshit macho posturing.
This song and album is ground zero for me.
Six-string midnight mass. 🕯️
“I remember how the darkness doubled.”
About as New York City an album as I can conjure.
Feb 9, 2024
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Acoustic guitars! What?!? I’m pretty sure that very early teenage me thought this intro was amazing. So when the Electric Guitar and Drums enter, they do so with Aplomb. To put it mildly. The guitar is HUGE. The riff is HUGE. All Of This And Nothing - the band’s most ambitious piece, at that juncture. 6 minutes 23 seconds.
A phonebook full of accidents
A girl to drive your car
A suit to wear on Mondays
And a coat a magazine
A heavy rain a holiday
A painting of the wall
A knife, a fork and memories
A light to see it all
You didn't leave me anything
That I can understand
It’s pretty great, really great, and then, well, it doesn’t *quite* deliver the money shot.
Hey, I never meant that stuff
I want to turn you round
But then the final, excellent conclusion
Now I'm left with all of this
A room full of your trash
Maybe a touch too much sax, but lovely.
The band that refuses to be a rock pop band makes an almost perfect rock pop album.
I'm pretty sure my first band started almost right after this. I couldn't play for shit, but then, I didn't NEED to.
6d ago
Just really stunning early alt rock songwriting that Big Star is known for, but the guitars on this one are a big step up from #1 Record.
Mar 7, 2025
On this day, all the way back in 1985
Two Scots brothers with wraparound shades, birds-nest hairdos and an affinity for white-noise feedback, American girl groups and the Ramones made a debut album that still ranks among the wildest things I’ve ever heard.
I saw them on an early US tour where the set barely lasted a half hour and guitarist William Reid (one of the two brothers) played in the dark with his back to the audience. “Contempt for everyone” might be a good descriptor of the band’s early stage and personal presence.
Legendary. Rediscovered later (around the time they broke up for the first time) via the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s “Lost In Translation.”
Nov 18, 2024
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The man responsible for dozens of Teenage Symphonies to God
"Sad songs about happy things" (the first time, as a kid, I can recall the sweet/sour combo of melodies that could make you cry attached to songs about endless, bottomless love)
I've long since lost track of how many weddings and funerals I've attended that have featured this song; suffice it to say, "a lot."
God only knows what we'd been without him 🙏🏻
1d ago
May 22, 2025
Hey tyler hopefully this doesn’t violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I can’t wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! ❤️
Mar 27, 2024