#3 show highlights

now that i've started to get my feet wet at radioboise, the third installment of the rabble rouser show should be as much a treat to listen to as it was a treat to put together. hope you'll enjoy. the archive will  be available by monday on the internet archive site or the mixcloud site for a short time.

r.i.p. Ian Curtis (may 18, 1980)
singer of the legendary underground new wave both industrial band joy division, i'd like to think frankebryan, host of monday night's return of the disco witch hunt for turning me on to the fact that this week was the the 35 anniversary of curtis' passing. it seems like every year i learn this and then it slips under the rug again, but alas 5/18/1980 is famous for more than just the mt. st. helens eruption, its also the date that ian curtis committed suicide and the goth world in particular has not been the same.  often imitated, never duplicated, joy division was a one of a kind acted still revered 35 years later.

r.i.p. BB King :')

the blues king left us last thursday.  i don't want to undercut the legend, though i'm not so quick to refer to him as the greatest. think: robert johnson, willie dixon, howlin' wolf, bo diddley, muddy waters, mississippi john hurt, etc etc etc.  there have been so many greats, it's nearly impossible to pinpoint a best one. if cornered in a dark alley, i'd probably defer support to willie dixon as the king of the blues. but the man before us today, the venerable bb king illustrates well one of my frequent claims. the period from 1966/67 to 1972/3 was the ultimate golden era of music. almost everything recorded during that period was the best music ever made. and since 1972/73, the music world has rested on those laurels. bb king truly exemplifies this fact as well...

king had made a name for himself since the 1950s, but it was in 1968 he first crossed over into the mainstream. this was partly due to the burgeoning psych rock movement that was paying homage/stealing from the great 50s blues artists, but king certainly cashed in on this exposure to another crowd. it also seemed to have correlated with his rise in the r&b world as well.  the r&b charts were newly established about 5 years previously, which is a different story in its own right, but bb's 14th album "blues on top of the blues" (rel. 1968) featuring classics "heartbreaker" and "paying the cost to be the boss" went to #46 on the r&b charts, marking his first appearance on a music chart. later in dec 1968, he released "lucille" named for his distinct brand of gibson es-355 guitar that seem to produce the prototypical blues sounds on their own. thru the extra exposure king received by playing live with eric clapton and then being the opening act on the rolling stones 1969 u.s. tour, king's popularity rose dramatically for his 1969 album "completely well," raising the ante on his career with his most legendary tracks "thrill is gone" and "confessing the blues." trying to up the ante, his producer brought in an all star cast for his 1970 album "indianola mississippi seeds" about his hometown. bb always considered it to be his finest work and, indeed, the album reached #26 on the pop charts, #8 on the r&b charts, and #7 on the jazz charts.  after a couple well received live albums, king came back with "l.a. midnight" in 1972 featuring taj mahal that was a focused blues/jazz album that is perhaps my favorite of all. by 1973, when the rest of the music industry committed suicide, king hit the superstar circuit and basically toured on the strength of his late 60s/early 70s output for most the rest of his career.

i do certainly that when buddy guy passes on, the world looks back on him with as much admiration and gives him as much retrospective attention as they gave bb king this past week. buddy says bb was the best, but bb probably said buddy was the best. not to get carried away mourning the dead, buddy is a legend still with us. he is also still touring and will be around the pnw this summer. not coming  to boise, to my knowledge, he will come relatively close.

spokane, july 7 at the martin woldson theatre. and in billings july 31 at the magic city blues fest.


maiden voyage by herbie hancock

a jazz staple turned 50 years old this week. most every jazz aficionado touts it in the top 10 albums of the 1960s as do many listeners of other genres. the atmospheric concept album of sea faring, was a quintet of five of the greatest jazz musicians of their time: hancock on keys, freddie hubbard on trumpet, george coleman on tenor sax, ron carter on bass and tony williams on drums.







rabble rouser of the month nominations:
#sHELLno #PaddleInSeattle

photo: reuters / via common dreams

hundreds of people took to the waters of elliot bay over the weekend to stage peaceful protests vs shell oil, who has been granted conditional approval to drill in the arctic this summer.  one of shells's oil rigs for the expedition arrived in port recently, while the other waits for clearance in everett. the port commission recommended the vessel stay out while the port challenged a ruling to keep them out. the seattle mayor has lobbied hard to not allow shell to moor in the port.

alli harvey says, "science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the arctic - the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground." a day of peaceful disobedience on monday attempted to block shell's presence in terminal 5 at port of Seattle, a major point of contention between the city and environmentalists all year long.  activists have pointed to shell's failed attempts in 2012, which aborted their 2013 drilling, as evidence shell couldn't respond to a spill. shell has "unleashed a very robust opposition movement," said eric de place.

the stranger followed some of the action with a collection of tweets, including  "TV is up there. we're down here. follow alternative media." renny reep of seattle's raging grannies was quoted, " we're building a movement. and this is how it starts."

jennifer pawluck
the montreal instagrammer has been given 100 hours of community service and 18 months probation for posting a picture she took of a piece of graffiti that features a policeman with a bullet in the head. one has to wonder if they get probation for posting a pic, what would be the punishment for actually getting caught making the graffiti?

makaila ragan
a tillamook high school student started a somewhat unintended wave of support by joining an anti-gay protest with her own pro-gay support at the main intersection in tillamook.

other interesting facts:
on this date in 1924: bobby franks murdered by leopold and loeb in what the pair intended to be the "perfect crime" that turned out to be less perfect in leopold's pompous attitude about the facts of the case.
on this date, two major crossings of the atlantic. in 1927, charles lindberg completes his solo flight and in 1932 amelia earhardt completed her solo flight.
fats waller was born 111 years old today.
mr. t is 65 years old today.