R.I.P. Ron Ashton - An original Stooge

Just found out that Ron Ashton, guitarist for Iggy and the Stooges, was found dead yesterday. For me, Ron's shining moment was not on guitar, but on bass. On the Raw Power album, his churning bottom riffs—scraped directly from the sludgy floors of a thousand rock club bathrooms—pounded out the foundation for one of the most vivacious, out-of-control rock albums of all time.

Rest in peace, Ron!

Gary Shandling

I hereby declare Live Totem Pole EP by fIREHOSE to be the most ass-rocking cover album ever produced ever. EVER!

Rock god.

Interviewer: So you're some kind of "spaceman," then?
Ace: No, actually, I'm a plumber.

How the hell...

...do you go from this:


To this?:


I will puke now.

Musical weekend

This weekend I went to check out my buddy Andrew's new band, the Brokedown Playboys, at the Quarry House in downtown Silver Spring. The QH is a nice place to see bands (and a great place to play, too. MyLOH played there and got free Belgian ale all night long), and the beer list is just insane.

I went with Sylvia's friend Charlotte's dad, Bill. We had gone to Baltimore to see the previous incarnation of the Playboys, then known as Ron Scott's Four Star Combo (the BP is the combo minus Ron Scott). It was interesting to see how the band had developed without a "front man." The band seemed tighter and more focused, and the sound was much better (Andrew's guitar playing is fantastic rockabilly precision, and his Tone King amp is smooth as a greased mink). I like Andrew's vocals better than Ron's, too, to be honest. Plus I always like to support my friend's bands, because goddammit, it's hard to get people off their asses and into a club these days.

An unexpected plus was running into another musician friend, John, who plays bass in Her Next Friend, a band that opened for MyLOH on a couple of occasions. Nice guy, and I hope to collaborate with him in the near future on an upcoming project.

Speaking of projects, I have a new single up on the myspace site for ¡Coño! called "Fool You All." Check it out...IF YOU DARE!

Feast of Stephen Reunion Now Live on the Web!

It's finally here! The Radio Free Charleston documentary on the Feast of Stephen reunion is now live and on the Web! Special thanks to Rudy Panucci, the brains behind RFC; Jerry Fugate, our intrepid cameraman and great friend; Brian Young, who ran the mixing board; and especially the other guys in the band: Tommy, Rad, Dan, Bob, and Fred, you guys are my musical brothers forever!

Surf, don't walk, over to Radio Free Charleston right now to watch this great show. You can see out-takes from the rehearsal the night before (which include our biggest hit, "Gomec") on the Feast of Stephen Website (look to the left-hand side of the screen under the band info). And Rudy gives the background on the show on his Myspace blog.

This was a fantastic experience for me and the guys, and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we did. This is Stephen. Witness His Feast.