BWhee's Playhouse

I can feel it.  Despite the whipping wind tearing at my skin and rendering my winter coat virtually useless as I walked down the sidewalk last night, I can feel it.  Spring is in the air. 

How can I make such a bold statement at this stage of the game in the unforgiving weather of the Northland?  How can I dispense such a bold proclamation before high school tournaments begin and the inevitable snowfalls that arrive in tandem begin littering the streets with even more snow?

The answers are many. The boys of summer have begun spring training. Summer touring season has begun. Major albums are being released.

Obviously, baseball's spring training is the first clue.  Yeah, they retreat to the warm climes of the south, but that's so they can tell the difference between a fastball and a snowball.  Makes sense.

Tom Petty is about to make a major announcement, possibly as early as today.  Many are speculating the announcement of a summer tour, which would give this summer's concert tour season a huge boost in eclipsing last year's tour season, which was underwhelming to say the least.

Finally, spring time means huge CD releases in advance of tours.  This particular CD I'll refer to will not precede a tour, as it is from Johnny Cash.  His final (?) posthumous release contains songs that almost seem to call from beyond the grave.  By the way, I mention his CD release because in my mind, Johnny Cash transcends music genres.  He could be country, gospel, or snarling rock at any given moment.  Anyone who can pull off a cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" and Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" is a rock star in my book.  And he was The Man in Black.  You can't get more rock than that.

Rest assured, spring is coming...even if old man winter didn't get the memo.

R.I.P. Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack. 

Good for you Joaquin! You found a razor! Not sure about the Miley and Liv teamwork, but whatever floats your boat, buddy!

Word from Blabbermouth.net is that Sir Paul was almost a member of Them Crooked Vultures, the Dave Grohl/Josh Homme/John Paul Jones supergroup. Here's the skinny:

According to NME.com, Paul McCartney wanted a place in Dave Grohl's supergroup THEM CROOKED VULTURES, but was turned down in favor of LED ZEPPELIN legend John Paul Jones.

THE BEATLES star said he was first told about THEM CROOKED VULTURES by Grohl when the two went out to dinner together after playing together at last February's Grammys ceremony.

"We went out for a bite to eat afterwards and Dave told me he was starting this band with Josh [Homme]," he told the Daily Mail. "I asked him who was playing bass and he rather sheepishly told me he'd approached John. So you read it here first; Paul McCartney was nearly the bass player in THEM CROOKED VULTURES."

John Chopper has cornered the market on rants thus far. By no means will this be an attempt to steal that crown.  Still, I've got some issues I'd like to share regarding an entity that I've come to rely upon as an authority in the music world.  I'm talking about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Lately, the Rock Hall has been falling a bit short of my expectations. 

They're not alone.  I won't even get into how ridiculous the Grammy Awards have become.  Ever since Jethro Tull's "Crest of a Knave" (with all due respect to Jethro Tull)beat out Metallica for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, I've witnessed failure after failure at the Grammys.  But this rant is not about that.

What concerns me is the lack of focus (or sheer ineptitude) on behalf of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to recognize some worthy artists.  To pending inductees ABBA: you're not one of the worthy.  You do not rock.  You will never rock.  According to Rolling Stone magazine, ABBA member Benny Andersson admitted "I didn't think this would happen because we were a pop band, not a rock band."

So who are the more worthy candidates, you may ask?  Here's a few to start: Alice Cooper. The Moody Blues.  KISS.  None of these are remotely shaky candidates.  They are meatball-in-the-wheelhouse-homerun candidates.  If you looked at the list of who is in and who is out, you'd easily come up with a few head-scratchers of your own.  I could go on and on with a list of my own, but I don't have to.  Google it and you'll find all kinds of worthy candidates as well as others that are at least worthy of debate.

Pop icons?  Yes.  ABBA was/is a pop icon.  But they do not rock.  Seems to be an obvious prerequisite to being in the Rock Hall, don't you think?  It's time the Rock Hall gets their rock acts straight.

I just read that a new release of full studio cuts that have been 'previously commercially unavailable' will be made available in March.  First reaction: cool!  Then I wondered, how good could these tracks be if they've been sitting around for 40 years, only to surface now?  Is this truly a treasure trove of Jimi's brilliance brought to see the light of day 4 decades later? Or, is it simply another opportunity for beggars and hangers-on to cash in on the Hendrix legacy?  I'm skeptical to say the least.  Plus a good number of those who would be interested in 'lost' Hendrix tracks may very well own these in bootleg form already.

Here is an exerpt of the press release, taken from Blabbermouth.  You be the judge.

Experience Hendrix LLC and Sony Music Entertainment's Legacy Recordings launch their monumental 2010 Jimi Hendrix Catalog Project on Tuesday, March 9, with the release of "Valleys of Neptune", a newly curated album of 12 fully realized studio recordings, more than 60 minutes of music never commercially available on a Jimi Hendrix album, from the artist Rolling Stone magazine called the greatest guitarist of all time.

Centered around tracks recorded during a pivotal and turbulent four-month period in 1969, "Valleys of Neptune" unveils the original JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's final studio recordings, as the group lays down the foundation for its follow-up to "Electric Ladyland", alongside the guitar superhero's first sessions with bassist Billy Cox, an old army buddy he'd recruited into his new ensemble.

"Valleys of Neptune" provides an essential, compelling, and up-til-now largely unseen view of what Jimi Hendrix was up to musically in the critical period between the release of "Electric Ladyland" in October 1968 and the 1970 opening of his own Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, the state-of-the-art facility where he would begin his final project, the ambitious double album "First Rays of the New Rising Sun".

Janie Hendrix, CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, the Hendrix family-owned company entrusted with preserving and protecting the legacy of Jimi Hendrix, noted, "My brother Jimi was at home in the studio. 'Valleys of Neptune' offers deep insight into his mastery of the recording process and demonstrates the fact that he was as unparalleled a recording innovator as he was a guitarist. His brilliance shines through on every one of these precious tracks."

KISS drummer Peter Criss on VH1's 'That Metal Show', talking about his battle with breast cancer.

Strongbad from homestarrunner tells it like it is. A classic.