I’m with the Band (and their Private Jet)

”If you were operating at the top echelon of the record business, you had to have the Starship,” music photographer Neal Preston told the New York Times in 2003, who held a boarding pass for perhaps the most legendary and rock’n’roll private plane there ever was. Led Zeppelin Welcome aboard the Starship I. And yes,…

The Tokyo Subculture of 1950s Rockabilly Gangs

They say rock’n’roll never dies, but there’s one slick-back haired subculture in a corner of Tokyo, Japan that’s making damn well sure of it. Suited up in full-leather gear and greased with obscene amounts of hair gel, the Tokyo Rockabilly Club has been gathering every Sunday in the city’s famous Yoyogi Park near Meiji-Jingumae station…

The Most Famous Band You’ve Never Heard Of

Whether you know it or not, you have definitely heard them play. Popular music of the 1960s was dominated by young bands like The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas and The Monkees – bands that didn’t play their own records. Sometimes, the only members of famous bands to appear on their own records…

You May Be Cool but You’ll never be Cordell Jackson “the Rockin’ Granny” Cool

Somewhere in between Willie Nelson and Jimi Hendrix was Cordell Jackson, an American musician thought to be the first woman to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label. She was making music reminiscent of the Velvet Underground before the world was even introduced to rock & roll. The Mississippi-born, ballgown-wearing guitarist played with…

The Groovy Imitation Bands of 1960s Japanese Rock

When the Beatles arrived in Japan in June of 1966, they caused as much pandemonium when they did when they triggered Beatlemania in the United States in 1964. A total of 8,400 policemen were mobilized for security at a cost of 90 million yen and more than 6,500 Japanese teenagers were taken into custody. They had been…

The Tiny Island on the Thames That Once Held The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and the UK’s Largest Hippie Commune

Let’s take a walk along the towpath by the Thames, breathing in the heady scent of summer. See that island in the middle? That’s where we’re headed. And I’ve got a map, so I know it’s there! Past the gently bobbing riverboats moored at Twickenham, Until we reach a single footbridge. Here we go… And we’re…

Hot Wheels: Janis Joplin’s Porsche

In 1968, Janis Joplin bought herself a 1965 Porsche 356c Cabriolet, one of 16,674 356c’s ever produced. It had one of the most desirable configurations with convertible spec, disc brakes and the hot engine. She had her roadie, Dave Richards paint it while she was on tour, a psychedelic paint job he called, “the history…

Then & Now: The Rolling Stones’ French Villa of Debauchery

In the Spring of 1971, Keith Richards began renting a villa on the Côte d’Azur for $2,500 a month. The British government was threatening to confiscate the bands’ funds if they did not leave the country by April 5th of that year as part of the Labour government’s punitive 93% tax on high earners. The Rolling…

Time Travel Movie of the Week: That Thing You Do!

One of my favorite things in life is finding someone who hasn’t seen one of my favorite movies of all time. So I’m hoping there are a few of you out there who missed this little-known Tom Hanks film called That Thing You Do. In 1996, when I was about eleven years-old, (yikes, the mid-nighties…