Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Earlier this month, Omnivore Recordings released a Big Star live recording titled Live In Memphis in both audio and visual formats. It captures the reformed '70's band in a concert from October of 1994, at the New Daisy Theatre in the city of Big Star's founding. Original singer-guitarist Alex Chilton and original drummer Jody Stephens were joined by Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow from the Posies (replacing Chris Bell and Andy Hummel). This concert was performed a year-and-a-half after the same lineup appeared at the University of Missouri for the official Big Star reunion in the spring of '93 . Live In Memphis shows them in finer form, after they had more time to rehearse and develop better chemistry. Chilton still was not able to sing some of his old songs as well as he once could -- for example, "September Gurls" and "The Ballad Of El Goodo" might have been better handled by one of the two Posies guys. Otherwise, Live In Memphis is a long-over...

Troubled times continue for the Australian metal band AC/DC. Earlier this year, founding member Malcolm Young was forced to retire due to illness. And now, the band’s long time drummer Phil Rudd has been arrested in New Zealand. Rudd was initially charged with attempting to hire someone to kill two people, but that charge has now been withdrawn due to insufficient evidence. (Insert your own “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” joke here). However, Rudd is still being charged with threatening to kill yet another person, and also faces drug-related charges. The timing of this turn of events is very unfortunate, not only because AC/DC are about to release Rock Or Bust , their first album in six years, and are about to go on tour next year. (As of this writing, the band says that those plans will not be affected by Rudd’s arrest). But the timing is also odd because Rudd just recently released a solo album titled Head Job in Australia, just a few short months ago. Head Job is the first-ever...