We Are Moving! Please visit www.rockerzine.com

Hello darlings,

Well first off let me say that over the 5 (!) years I have been writing this wee and sporadic blog I have been so pleasantly surprised that anyone other than blood relations, boyfriends, and persons in an inebriated state (though that may be the majority of you) have taken the time to enjoy my ramblings.  When I look at my stat counter keywords I am amazed that people quite regularly Google phrases like "Too Old To Rock Blogspot", "Hot Fuck Old Young" or "Is Bret Michaels Bald?" just to find this little blog.

All that changes today though, when I promote myself to The Editor In Chief of Rocker Magazine!

Here are some questions you doubtlessly have about this change:

Q: MzAmar, will your new site still have your sparkling wit?  

A: Oh how lucky you are, yes it will!  Also it will have the wit of an array of other amazing writers, all writing on Oldternative topics and interviewing Oldternative artists you love or will love soon.

Q: Will you now talk about young people?  As an aging hipster I often feel so alone and confused.  Your blog was the one thing keeping me from pulling a Michael Hutchence (wow, that was in bad taste).  

A: Have no worries aging hipster, at Rocker Magazine you are gonna see everything you ever needed for continuing to feel vibrant and rocking, despite needing a colonoscopy every once in a bit.

Q: Can Rocker Magazine whiten my teeth, bring my greying hair back to its original lustre, and help me lose 10 lbs?

 
A: Yes.

Q: I am young and fresh faced, clear minded and dewey complexioned.  Is there anything Rocker Magazine can do for me?

A: Don't worry kiddo, one day you will be saggy and addled - I guarantee it!  There is no such thing as being too prepared, so rock on over to www.rockerzine.com now!

Q: Is Rocker Magazine right for me?

A: Ask your doctor if Rocker Magazine is right for you.  Or just go here:  www.rockerzine.com

Mitch Easter of Let's Active - Live 2011

Just back from catching Mitch Easter of Let's Active at Johnny D's in Somerville.  A top show and the kind of thing that reminds one why experience trumps youth any day of the week.  The band was so tight, the energy was so there, it was truly a hypnotic evening.  

Was fortunate enough the interview the living legend for upcoming issue of my fancy new magazine - Rocker (are you on our Twitter feed yet?).  Here's some nice video from the show, showing he who produced every record you ever loved, kicking it with "To Be, Cool Thing" from his 2007 release Dynamico, and monumental pop single, "Every Word Means No".

Take our Survey - Please!

Hello dear readers.  Believe it or not, this very blog will soon transform into an EVEN FANCIER magazine with EVEN MORE CONTENT.  I know you are excited.  I know I am.

We do need some help though in understanding some stuff about how to make the website able to reach most of you darling aging rockers, so that said, would you please click below to take our poll?  3 questions long and a world of thanks is yours to keep!

http://polldaddy.com/s/04D709502719982C

Portlandia with Carrie Brownstein - Please Get Funnier

Have you ever been to a party where everybody knows each other really well, but you don't know anybody except the friend who invited you?  

Have you ever spent the night at said party sitting in the corner, nursing your plastic cup of Trader Joe's bargain bin wine, while being regaled with stories full of inside jokes about people you don't know, which everyone in the room laughs at so hard milk practically comes out their nose, while you find yourself scanning the snack table for what's left of the brie?  

Have you seen IFC's new show Portlandia starring Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen?

Portlandia should be funny.  A series of sketches poking fun at the somewhat dated and overly precious political correctness of the residents of Portland Oregon, the subject is very much like the neighborhood I live in and if that weren't enough, Steve Buscemi makes a guest appearance. So why am I not laughing?

Despite Armisen's tenure on SNL he seems surprisingly unaware of how sketch-based humor works, and in Portlandia he neither pushes the envelope far enough, nor owns or fleshes out the characters he and Brownstein create.  So even when the pair portray a couple who leave a restaurant to personally visit the local farm where their sustainably raised chicken is being produced before ordering, they come off as merely annoying people in your neighborhood rather than actually funny.  

Brownstein is looking good in her mid-30's, and seems no longer the brilliantly tortured guitar queen of her youth. A shame then that she isn't taking comic aim at the Portland music scene, a topic she'd know well and have a unique humor insight into.  Comedy which cuts close is always the best, and in this case would doubtless would have made Portlandia a whole lot funnier. 

Till one of the stars allows Portlandia to become more personal though, it is going to continue to be like that party, laced with jokes that only insiders get.  Finding the rest of us looking for an early ride home. 

Top Grossing Tours of 2010 - Old People Music Wins

Courtesy of Digital Music News and my friend Tristram who put me on to this - enjoy list of top grossing tours of 2010.  What's the most interesting thing to note?  Bands that appeal to older people made the most cashola.  Sorry Justin Bieber, you only make it to #11!

Check out the top 8 grossers - see anything this gang have in common?:

Bon Jovi  (age 48)

Roger Waters (age 67)

Dave Matthews (age 43)

Michael Buble (age 35) 
     (but my Mother asked for his CD for XMAS so that makes him older)

The Eagles (most aged 63)

Paul McCartney (age 68)

Lady Gaga (age 24)

James Taylor (age 62) and Carole King (age 68)

Yes, that's right 5 of these 9 folks can receive social security payments while on tour.  Only Lady Gaga had not yet arrived at the age where she's wondering if her IRA is properly invested. 

One hopes these artists were selling band-branded Viagra, power scooters and explanations of Medicare Part B at their merch booths. On the upside, I guess this is proof that though the pretty young people may be all over the media, the old ones still make all the money when they go on tour.

Hometown Rant - A Few of my Favorite Things

Happy New Year!  I just stumbled across these amazing videos of some of my favorite Boston bands of the late 70's and early 80's and had to post them as a group.  Each reminds me of something that excites me about music from the past.

First up is The Atlantics - a band who were a local sensation in the early 80's, but whose lone LP - Big City Rock - I don't think really captured the excitement the band were able to convey in their locally released radio tapes and singles.  Here they are on an unnamed TV show playing a song I nearly forgot I loved "Weekend" - if this isn't perfect pop I don't know what is!  The clever guitar lines and frontman Bobby Marron's antics really make it happen.  Later members of this band would go on to form Ball and Pivot.  Guitarist Tom Hauck now writes novels.  Sadly bassist/singer Bruce Wilkinson and drummer Paul Caruso have passed away. 

Next is Human Sexual Response.  I long for the days when bands would wear crazy outfits like this on stage.  I met singer Larry Bangor years later when a band I managed opened for The Zulus, the band he and HSR guitar hero Rich Gilbert formed after this band's demise.  It was that night that Gilbert hung upside down from the rafters while playing a solo.  Hard to find performers like this anymore.

Closing out the trio, a song I reflect on all the time - The Sex Execs with "My Ex".  This song just about perfectly sums up everything about exes, and why not to go back to them.  Oh it's a simple rhyme scheme, but have there ever been truer words said than "When I think of you, I think of sex. When I think it through, I'm glad you're my ex. But then again, I still love you.  But then again, I'm glad you're my ex"  Execs Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie went on to become producers and with others found Fort Apache Recording Studios which the production house for an array of area notables including Big Dipper, Blake Babies, Tracy Bonham, Buffalo Tom, Lemonheads, Bosstones, and pretty much every other record you love.

Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind, .....