Zappagram #91: Happy birthday, Legs!
Here's to many, many more...
Hey Zappagrammers,
One of my 2024 goals is to include a piece of original artwork in every week’s newsletter. This week, the artwork and quote of the week are both legendary music journalist and one of my idols, Legs McNeil.
Legs contacted me out of the blue a few years back and wanted to discuss publishing some of my work on his website legsville.com. Once I picked my jaw up off the floor from the pure shock that Legs McNeil and I were talking and that he liked my writing, my immediate answer was something to the effect of, “Fuck yes, of course!”
I’m honored to know Legs and to call him a friend. If you’ve never read his book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, you would do well to snatch up a copy and dive in. You can even get a first-edition, signed copy at that link.
It’d be a great way to say happy birthday to an absolute legend who also happens to be a really nice guy, despite what he’d have you believe.
Happy birthday, Legs! Here’s to many, many more…
Ground control to reader: Take your protein pills. Put your helmet on.
This newsletter ain’t gonna read itself.
“Getting these high-fashion designers, what does that have to do with punk? So rich people could go slumming? Come on, give me a break—it’s a masturbatory fantasy for Anna Wintour and Vogue. They always go and try to co-opt what they can’t own. They try to co-opt authenticity and turn it into something boring.”
—Legs McNeil
ROCK THE VOTE
:: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
WEEKLY PLAYLIST
:: NEW MUSIC EVERY WEEK
Featuring: Ramones, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Sex Pistols, The Clash, New York Dolls, Dead Boys, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, The Dictators, MC5, Iggy & The Stooges
ZAPPAGRAM #91
ZAPPAGRAM PLAYLIST (ALL WEEKS)
MUSIC NEWS
:: WHAT’S GOING ON
Cypress Hill Announces We Legalized It 2024 Tour Dates
Cypress Hill is pledging $1 of each ticket sold to the national non-profit, The Last Prisoner Project [Billboard]
Pitchfork Being Moved Under GQ
The long-running music publication was purchased by Conde Nast in 2015 [Consequence]
Pouring One Out for Pitchfork – 9.2 Music Publication in a 3.7 Digital Media World
As the hugely influential music site is being "folded into GQ," a longtime staffer looks back on what P4K meant and how working there changed his life [RollingStone]
Anthony Kiedis’ ‘Scar Tissue’ Headed to the Big Screen
Universal has optioned the rights to the Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman's 2004 memoir [RollingStone]
New Orleans Jazz Fest Reveals 2024 Lineup With The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters & Neil Young
The Killers, Chris Stapleton, Jon Batiste, Queen Latifah, Vampire Weekend, and Heart are also heading to the Big Easy [Consequence]
Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense Returning to Theaters Again
Plus, a collector's edition Blu-ray available to purchase at every screening [Consequence]
Green Day to Perform Dookie and American Idiot on Upcoming Stadium Tour
The band will celebrate two of their classic albums on "The Saviors Tour" [Consequence]
R.E.M., Steely Dan Inducted Into Songwriters Hall of Fame
This year's inductees also include Timbaland, Dean Pitchford, and Hillary Lindsey [Consequence]
Coachella 2024 Full Lineup Announced
Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator, and Doja Cat will headline, with No Doubt, Ice Spice, Blur, J Balvin, Peso Pluma, and more down the bill [Pitchfork]
Ween Announce 40th Anniversary Tour
The band has announced its intentions to “paint the town brown all year long” [Pitchfork]
Susie Tennant, Seattle’s “Unsung Hero” Who Helped Launch Nirvana, Dead at 61
Longtime member of the Seattle music community, a promotions and marketing legend, and an early supporter of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and others, has died of early onset dementia [Consequence]
Marlena Shaw, ‘California Soul’ Singer, Dies at 81
The jazz and soul singer's daughter shared that her mother "went listening to some of her favorite songs." [Billboard]
Mary Weiss, Lead Singer of the Shangri-Las, Dies at 75
The pop singer was behind countless hits in the 1960s, including “Leader of the Pack” [Pitchfork]
The Soft Moon’s Luis Vasquez Has Died
Post-punk artist's final album, Exister, was released in 2022 [Consequence]
Z-REX
:: ZAPPA’S RECOMMENDATIONS
The Ramones played the Rainbow Theater in London on December 31, 1977. The show became It's Alive, released in April 1979, and considered one of the best punk records of all time. If the raw energy of the set opener, “Blitzkrieg Bop,” doesn’t kick you in the ass, you must be dead inside.
NEW RELEASES
:: RECENTLY DROPPED MUSIC
Green Day: Saviors [listen]
Sleater-Kinney: Little Rope [listen]
RELEASE RADAR
:: UPCOMING RELEASES
- JAN 26 -
Future Islands: People Who Aren’t There Anymore
Gruff Rhys: Sadness Sets Me Free
The Smile: Wall of Eyes
Ty Segall: Three Bells
- FEB 2 -
Brittany Howard: What Now
J Mascis: What Do We Do Now
Lee “Scratch” Perry: King Perry
Paul McCartney & Wings: Band on the Run (Underdubbed Mixes)
- FEB 9 -
Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Madi Diaz: Weird Faith
Sonic Youth: Walls Have Ears
- FEB 16 -
Grandaddy: Blu Wav
Idles: Tangk
ON THIS DATE
:: MUSICAL HAPPENINGS OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
- JAN 22 -
Birthdays: Sam Cooke (1931) • Steve Perry of Journey (1949) • Michael Hutchence of INXS (1960) • Steven Adler of Guns N’ Roses & DJ Jazzy Jeff
(1965) • The Beach Boys went into Gold Star studios to record 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', which would be the opening track on their forthcoming album Pet Sounds. (1966)
- JAN 23 -
Birthdays: Django Reinhardt (1910) • Anita Pointer (1948) • Danny Federici of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band (1950) • Robin Zander of Cheap Trick (1953) • Singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke (1964) • Nick Harmer, bassist of Death Cab for Cutie (1975) • David Bowie released his tenth studio album Station to Station, which was the vehicle for his last great character, the Thin White Duke. (1976) • Terry Kath, best known as the original guitarist and founding members of Chicago, accidentally shot himself dead. (1978)
- JAN 24 -
Birthdays: Neil Diamond & Aaron Neville (1941) • Warren Zevon (1947) • Jools Holland (1955) • New Jersey state prosecutors issue a warning to U.S. record dealers that they would be charged with distributing pornography if they were caught selling the John Lennon / Yoko Ono LP Two Virgins. The front cover of the album showed the pair frontally nude, while the back cover showed them from behind. (1969) • Butch Trucks, drummer of The Allman Brothers Band, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the age of 69. (2017)
- JAN 25 -
Birthdays: Etta James (1938) • Alicia Keys (1981) • After changing their name from Warsaw (inspired by the song “Warszawa” on David Bowie's Low album), Joy Division made their live debut when they played at Pips Disco in Manchester, England. (1978)
- JAN 26 -
Birthdays: Andy Hummel of Big Star (1951) • Lucinda Williams (1953) • Eddie Van Halen (1955) • Anita Baker (1958) • Prince made his TV debut on the U.S. show American Bandstand. (1980) • Billie Eilish swept the board at the 2020 Grammys, winning five awards including “Best New Artist” and “Song of the Year” becoming the first person to achieve the feat since Christopher Cross in 1981. (2020)
- JAN 27 -
Birthdays: Blues musician Elmore James (1918) • R&B singer Bobby Bland (1930) • Nick Mason of Pink Floyd (1944) • Music journalist Legs McNeil (1956) • Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies (1961) • Mike Patton (1968) • Tricky (1968) • John Lennon wrote, recorded, and mixed his new single Instant Karma!, all in one day. (1970) • Mahalia Jackson died in Chicago, aged 60. (1972) • Folk singer, songwriter, and activist, Pete Seeger, died at the age of 94. (2014)
- JAN 28 -
Birthday: DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill & Sarah McLachlan (1968) • Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane died in San Francisco at the age of 74. (2016) • Tom Verlaine of Television died in New York City age of 73. (2023)
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Peace and love to all,
🤘🏻🖤
