Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Well...Steve Vai inadvertently caused a bit of a hullabaloo in heavy metal circles this past week. In an interview published by Eonmusic in the U.K., Vai discussed his newly released Vai/Gash album, a previously unreleased collaboration with the late Johnny ‘Gash’ Sombrotto recorded in the early 1990's. Vai happened to mention that he also recorded another unreleased collaborative album in the '90's -- with none other than Ozzy Osbourne. Wait... what?!? Here is what Vai told Eonmusic about this: "I'm sitting on a whole Ozzy record, and it's like the Gash record - not 'like' the Gash record - but it's a project that I recorded that's sitting on the shelf. I don't have any control over it or rights to it, obviously, but we did record some pretty good stuff. The interesting thing about that stuff we recorded from a guitar perspective is all of my rhythm guitar parts, I use an octave divider [guitar effect], and that record doesn't ...

For Record Store Day 2023, the Black Keys will issue a limited edition vinyl EP documenting their first concert from 2002. Live at Beachland Tavern March 31, 2002 will be limited to 5,000 copies, and pressed on tangerine-colored vinyl. The EP was previously available as an exclusive item from the duo's webstore in November 2022, and was limited to 1,500 black vinyl copies. This record captures the very first live performance by the duo of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums), which took place in Cleveland, Ohio two months before the release of their indie debut album The Big Come Up . This set does not exactly have the same type of dirty blues sound of that basement-recorded debut album. The venue may have been small, but the Akron-based duo sounded very much above ground. If you're expecting a White Stripes-like garage-rock sound, you may be surprised by the relative sophistication of the short set, which features disciplined playing that is not drench...

Jerry Blavat, the legendary disc jockey known by such nicknames as "The Geator with the Heater" and "The Boss with the Hot Sauce", died at age 82 on January 20, 2023. Blavat was regarded as one of the early rock and roll DJ's, and is often credited with (blamed for?) the creation of the "oldies" radio format. Blavat first gained fame in the 1950's as a teenage dancer on (American) Bandstand , during the TV show's early, pre-Dick Clark days when it was based in Blavat's hometown of Philadelphia. Blavat later hosted his own dance show called The Discophonic Scene , as well as a syndicated radio show in the '60's which specialized in "oldies" -- which, at that time, often meant that the songs were approximately five years old, and were no longer heard on format-based radio stations. Blavat helped many performers achieve fame, including the Four Seasons, the Isley Brothers, and Dionne Warwick (who spoke at Blavat's funeral...