If you want to complain that young rock bands have no sense of the past; no melodies; no hooks; no hope then what do you call a young band with the sense and taste to take a freaky masterpiece like Zep III as a model for their debut? Weak? Lazy? Unworthy of a listen?
For famously civilized and jaded New York City, the crowd at the resplendent Beacon Theatre is uncommonly involved. Loud requests, many in tangled liquor dialects, boom from the balcony:
"'REDNECK FRIEND'!"
Onstage, Jackson Browne smiles and shakes his head.
"'COCAINE'!"
"I could do that, but it would have to be the rehab version." [crowd roars]
It’s the day after the office Christmas party and yet Bloodshot Records founder Rob Miller gamely agreed to have a chat.
“Our party’s been at the same Mexican restaurant for the past 19 years and I have an incredible superstition that if the bar tab is not bigger than the food tab then we’ve had a bad year.”