Best Of 2013: Tim Murr

When I started thinking about how my best of list was going to look, I had four entries in mind. I kept putting off writing it though, because I still hadn’t seen Jessica Cameron’s Truth Or Dare, Lawrie Brewster’s Lord Of Tears, Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein’s Army, or heard the new Black Flag album. Well, the year is winding down and I must move on. No doubt I’ll blab at great length about them all later. So my list is short, but strong.

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Goodbye, Lou: Reed Gone at 71

By Tim Murr

The Best of The Velvet Underground: The Words and Music of Lou Reed blew my mind freshman year of high school. It was already a bit of a watershed year, anyway, when I first heard a lot of punk and industrial music for the first time, not to mention Nirvana’s breakthrough. My friend had made a pilgrimage to Knoxville (our closest big city) to buy some Velvet Underground based on an older friend’s recommendation. He returned like Moses down from the mountain with the precious plastic cassette that would launch multiple garage bands.

“You’ve got to hear this,” he said pressing the tape into my hand.

Nevermind came out of my Sony Walkman and BAM! The Velvets had their hooks in me. “Waiting For The Man” and “Run, Run, Run” were so primitive and raw and not at all what I knew and/or assumed about ’60s music.

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Goodbye D.O.A., Thanks For All The State Smashing!

By Tim Murr

Hardcore architects and Canada’s Clash, D.O.A., are on their farewell tour! They hit the road on August 29 and have now reached the East Coast (tour dates below)

D.O.A., along with Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys, created hardcore punk in the late ’70s/early ’80s. Always outspoken leftist agitators, D.O.A. have spent their career standing up for various political causes and performing benefit concerts.

Sudden Death Records will be releasing a definitive double live album, Welcome To Chinatown, which includes songs from the band’s entire history.

Hats off to Joe and the boys; it’s been a great run!

You can keep updated by checking the band’s website.

NORTH AMERICA:
September 17: West Chester, PA; The Note
September 18: Washington, DC; Black Cat
September 19: Pittsburgh, PA; 31st Street Pub
September 20: Louisville, KY; Phoenix Hill Tavern
September 21: Columbus, OH; Rumba Cafe
September 22: Indianapolis, IN; The Melody Inn

EUROPE:
October 9: Hamburg, Germany; Hafenklang
October 10: Kiel, Germany; Schaubude
October 11: Eindhoven, Netherlands; The Rambler
October 12: London, UK; Boston Arms
October 13: Leeds, UKvBrundell Social Club w/ Chelsea
October 14: Glasgow, Scotland; Audio
October 15: Nottingham, UK; The Dog House
October 16: Paris, France; TBA
October 17: Lyon, France; Warm Audio
October 18: Milano, Italy; Lo-Fi
October 19: Bologna, Italy; Freakout Club
October 20: Luzern, Switzerland; Sedel
October 21: Nuremberg, Germany; TBA
October 22: Dresden, Germany; TBA
October 23: Wroclaw, Poland; Alibi
October 24: Warsaw, Poland TBA
October 25: Gdansk, Poland; B-90
October 26: Tampere, Finland; TBA
October 28: Wormerveer, Netherlands; De Groote Weiver

The Robocop Remake Gets A Trailer

By Tim Murr

I was 11 when the original Robocop came out in 1987. The first pictures I saw from the film and the TV spots hooked me. I became obsessed with seeing this movie. Since I was poor and the film was rated R, I didn’t get to see Robocop on the big screen, but I was allowed to rent it the week it came out on VHS.

Robocop has been one of the biggest pop culture obsessions of my life and also one of the biggest disappointments. Since ’87, we’ve witnessed a TV series, two animated series, a bunch of toys and collectibles that range in quality from brilliant to “why did they make this piece of crap,” and two sequels that were just awful.

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It Came From Ohio! Pere Ubu

By Tim Murr

My friend Jase told me and he heard it from Black Francis via Twitter who retweeted from @Ubuprojex: “I quit music. Goodbye.”—David Thomas

“There goes another one,” I thought. Another favorite band gone. We’re also talking about a trailblazing band that has been around almost 40 years and have recorded two of their finest albums in the last couple of years. To have them just break up now, so unceremoniously, would be quite a loss for rock and roll.

Well, false alarm apparently. Thomas had a “fit of frustration,” but no, Ubu was still going.

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