World Series prediction (American League wins), CMJ in town

It's not "Bizarro Baseball" anymore, the Rays won the AL Pennant! I predict they will go all the way and win the World Series too.

Reggie Jackson has something to say about "The Race for Mr. October" in USA Today, and his player by player predictions are pretty interesting, but also self-revealing. Of Pat Burrell he said, "He's a guy who can get hot and kill you. He can bust loose at any time. Here's a guy trying to get a new contract, and guys like this figure out how to play well when it counts." Reggie is still a great interview, just not when you go up to him in the stands and say you were a fan. The dude ignored me and I was in the seat behind him! I'm still into Reggie, however.

George Vecsey of the Times wrote a great overview of the Rays and their climb from the cellar.

The press is focused on the Rays, and I hope it doesn't hurt them. Evan Longoria in the NY Times today.

The LA Times had a nice article about the presence of African Americans on the Rays, similar to a story Sports Illustrated did last summer.

Who has the better pitching and bullpen? What players will get the clutch hits? I think we should expect most of the games to be squeakers but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of bombs and a football score in there too.

My prediction: Rays in 6.

The Rays "Beat the Devil" (AP)

Tropicana Field has some idiosyncrasies!

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But the big story that the annual college radio conference CMJ is in town. This is my 25th trip to the Music Marathon. I wonder what the requirements should be for the College Radio Hall of Fame? There will be more corporate sponsorship at this conference than ever before. The bands have a tougher climb to success, but an easier one to notoriety than ever.

As the oldest in the conference, I must ask "The Four Questions":

1. Is Cheeseburger the next Replacements? What does it mean to "win" CMJ?
2. In olden times, the bands would hope to get signed to a major label deal, etc. Who are they hoping to impress by performing this year?
3. Are college radio people put off by advertisements mixed in with their music or are they numb to marketing?
4. On this night we dip our herbs twice, why?

Baseball and Portishead back for '08

Baseball Returns

Enough with steroids, new stadiums (DC and coming soon to NY, Minn. and Florida), crossover promotion and even the winter leagues, I'm ready for the real deal. I have the 2008 Preview issue of Baseball Digest, and that's all I need (and Street and Smith's) right now.

Baseball Digest is the place you go to read about the game from a historical perspective, comparable to MOJO, the english classic rock magazine. In a world of pitch-by-pitch updates on cell phones, I still find their content fascinating. The letters, the quiz, old man John Kuenster's editorial and The Game I'll Never Forget are features I love. The Goose is in the new issue too as this year's sole Hall of Fame inductee.

It's now down to 8 issues a year after going from 12 to ten a few years ago. I hope BB Digest is around forever but turnarounds aren't typical in show business. Please read and subscribe to Baseball Digest if you are into baseball. They recently put out a book compiling their greatest stories, The Best of Baseball Digest, which is a nice resource on many players and topics.

The baseball digest letters section is great for people griping and looking up old info, as well as stating an opinion. It's similar to the MOJO letters column, where our old friend Daniel Makagon (formerly of KXLU, Los Angeles and WMTU, Houghton MI) recently called out my hero and client Elvis Costello in response to an epic interview (conducted at the Lincoln Memorial) where Elvis said he would never make another album and never play another show in England! Makagon thought EC was hypocritical for re-releasing his catalog several times essentially. There were a lot of negative reactions, but in my book (and my blog), Elvis can't do much wrong.

Fear Nuttin' Band

Fear Nuttin' concludes their tour with The Toasters and looking for stations to visit. Please read below about a band who's album I promoted years ago that started out just like Fear Nuttin'. They are a fierce combo of dance-hall reggae and hard rock. Sir Walford of WCDB Albany will probably be our first stop and accurately compared them to the Bad Brains. Sir Walford is a legendary roots reggae dj who has been on the station since the 80s and has a ton of listeners to both "The Other Side of Sir Walford" and "The Many Moods of Sir Walford."

Joseph Israel

Joseph hits Miami hard tomorrow with the Marley family at Carifest, and continues on to the following: 3/2: Jacksonville; 3/3 Wilmington; 3/4 Asheville; 3/5 Falls Church; 3/6 New York City; 3/8 Canton NY; 3/9: Boston; 3/10 New Market NH; 3/11 Rochester NY; 3/12 Athens OH; 3/13: Cincinnati OH; 3/15 Fayetteville AR

Willie Nelson
The new video features Jessica Simpson, Paula Nelson, Ben Dorsey, Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Willie in the First Bad Boy Lawn Mower Race through Luck TX. (embedding disabled so please click to view)

Buddy Miles RIP
The LA Times obituary says he sang for the California Raisins as well as playing drums with Jimi Hendrix and Mike Bloomfield, two of the greatest guitarists ever. Here's a bit of Buddy Miles as I remember him best:



Portishead back for 2008, fresh as ever

Our friends Portishead return with a new album in April. In 1994, with the grunge revolution still going strong, earbender took a project no other indies were interested in, the debut by Portishead, Dummy, and it made it to the top 10. I'm glad they are back but will be at Jazzfest when they do their Coachella thing. An interview with artist Jonathan Coulton on twit.tv where he described the loyalty of his fans, generated slowly and steadily via blogging reminded me of Portishead.

College radio is where Portishead engendered such loyal fans that ten years later, they come back to headline the best festival in the USA. Portishead will have good songs, and the passage of time makes me wonder how their sound might have changed (especially now that so many have caught up and adopted spy music/beats/chanteuse style. But I will be at Jazzfest for the re-debut.

Paula Nelson on KUT 2/27

In anticipation of SXSW, here's a bit of our client Paula Nelson on KUT this past Wednesday. Paula will also be broadcasting live from the legendary south Austin spot The Saxon Pub tonight on KGSR.com, so please tune in. The Saxon Pub is a great hang where Poodie once gave me the definitions of "Friday Night Hero" and "Pressure Cooker" strip clubs in the same story. It's going to be a fun night and Paula's album Lucky 13 is coming soon.

If you can't make it to Austin, you can virtually visit the Best Pub in Britain.

Hank Aaron, Bob Marley and Babe Ruth Birthdays

This week, I am into commemorating three of my heroes who happen to have a birthday within two days of each other, Hank Aaron (2/5) and also Bob Marley and Babe Ruth, who were both born on February 6. It was also Fat Tuesday yesterday, and the word from the Big Easy is that it was almost back to pre-Katrina levels in attendance.

I'll be forever loving Bob Marley! Here's a great version of "Forever Loving Jah" as sung by a cancer-ridden Bob about six months before his death in 1981 at age 36. I was moved by a great special on XM's Reggae station the Joint today that featured an extensive narrative of the group's early years by Bunny Wailer. He said the Wailers story was "magical and mystical" and I agree. Many thanks Bob Peter and especially Bunny!




I also dropped by the Giants parade (see video below) yesterday, celebrating their incredible win over the NE Pats in Super Bowl LXII. Take that, Red Sox nation! I was predicting a Giant win based on vibes and Sports Illustrated, and I let Patrick Bryant from WMBR, Cambridge know it ("your guys are going down and I can't wait to see it.") They cheated against the Jets, and they lost their perfect season to the Giants. Very sweet.

For years, I have been pumping up El Serie del Caribe (that's "Caribbean World Series" en inglés), and in recent years coverage has increased to the point where we now have two stations in New York as well as the great MLB.com going almost all out. The lineups are at least 60-70% current major leaguers and the crowds and parks look great. I hope I get to see it someday.

One thing I didn't see was the last U2 tour. Sometimes you can't make it on your own, you know? I didn't work it that hard but I'm glad because I saw the film the other day and want to let everyone know that U2 3D is a GREAT concert movie, maybe one of the five best ever. Amazing music played well and the 3D effect is excellent. We see the band (like Larry hitting those drums!) in detail from many angles, never boring. After 30 years to have all the original members in a band is so great, it seems like no time has gone by at all. They have even survived a baldness gracefully.

Even the crowd shots in U2 3D convey nothing but energy, exuberance and joy from the kids who are packed in and pulsating in unison to the music. If you like U2, don't miss it.

Speaking of the great Hank Aaron, I was disappointed to hear that earbender Sports Personality of the Year Lewis Hamilton had been the target of racism from racing fans at a race held in Barcelona, Spain last weekend.

Another friend of ours with a Hank Aaron connect (they are both from Alabama) is Shelby Lynne, who appears on Craig Ferguson tomorrow night (2/7).

RIP, Pimp C, apparently the victim of a cough syrup overdose.

On the promotion front, our client Joseph Israel is back on tour:

Feb 6 - Broadway Oyster Bar, St. Louis MO
Feb 7 - Iowa City Yacht Club, Iowa City IA
Feb 9 - The Wild Hare, Chicago IL
Feb 10- Iowa State University @ The Maintenance Shop, Ames IA
Feb 14-The Record Bar, Kansas City MO
Feb 16-The Bottleneck, Lawrence KS
Feb 17-The Waiting Room, Omaha NE
Feb 20- The Snorty Horse, Springfield MO
Feb 21- VZD's, Oklahoma City OK
Mar 1 - 15th Annual Bob Marley Caribbean Festival, Miami FL
Mar 2 - Free Bird Live, Jacksonville FL
Mar 3 - 16 Taps, Wilmington NC
Mar 4 - Emerald Lounge, Asheville NC
Mar 5 - State Theater, Falls Church VA w/ Lionize
Mar 6 - Sullivan Hall, New York NY
Mar 8 - The Java Barn (St. Lawrence University) FREE SHOW, Canton NY
Mar 9 - Bill's Bar, Boston MA
Mar 10- The Stone Church, New Market, NH
Mar 11- Water Street Music Hall, Rochester NY
Mar 12- The Blue Gator, Athens OH
Mar 13- Annie's, Cincinnati OH
Mar 15- George's Majestic, Fayetteville AR
May 25- Desert Rocks Music Festival, Moab UT

Crossovers are Important These Days

I know EPMD wasn't into the idea, but I think crossing over is a good thing. There is no such thing as "purity" anyhow (except for Neil Young maybe). Everyone is out for a co-branding sitch at this point, and a few interesting ones slid across my screens this week, with the Winter Classic, followed on NBC immediately by Seal on Ice. I let Seal play.

These days you have to do whatever you can to sell a song, and Seal went all out the other day. Here he is playing "Crazy," acoustic while some dude figure skates. Our man Doug Wimbish from Fats Comet and Living Colour played on the record, is this him here?



I knew someone in the stands in Buffalo, Mike Parrish of FMQB and former WBNY music director. He's always been into sports AND punk/rock, I can recall asking him about the lines in the Sabres logo even then and a fanzine the kids before him there had called "Avenue Player" about wrestling, rock, hockey and strip clubs. This is the sort of lifestyle that got me thinking about sports and music crossovers in the early 90s, which is now a huge business.

But an outdoor hockey game on New Year's Day in the snow in Buffalo is visual spectacle that hopefully got some non-fans to watch the game. I had the rare treat of attending the King-Ranger game held in Las Vegas in 1991. That was a very warm night and there was mist over the ice. Jon McHugh helped us sneak into a party where I met Jim Patrick and Tony Granato before getting bounced.

I was chilling on the phone when my tv turned from the Buffalo game to the Music of Seal on Ice. What a bizarre and lame idea someone had! But I wasn't near the remote, and it played on. Now of course, Seal is some good soccer mom music, so combining it with figure skating is not a bad call. Seal sold it well in my opinion, however, and I hope the program got some ratings as well as sales for his music. Is Seal our Lawrence Welk?

I wonder if the juice company had any extra sales from their sponsorship.

My friends think I'm lame for liking this special and one even cited that I liked Luther Vandross, so this isn't so strange. Luther Vandross was pretty awesome, I know no one is going to disagree with me on that.

But I mostly wrote this because I thought both the Winter Classic and the Seal show were pretty good tv on New Year's Day.

Here are some highlights from the Winter Classic:



Yes, crossing over is important these days. Just ask Barack Obama!

Bud Selig and College Radio

Had to jump on to add a story in reference to the Mitchell Report of Steroid Use by Major League Baseball Players, as Commissioner Bud Selig is now taking questions from the press. This is a big story, years in the making and this is only the second of three press conferences the principals will be holding today to get the story out.

So Selig makes his comments and invites questions from the assembled media. The third question was from Stephanie Stepp, a reporter from WHCR, New York the radio station at Manhattan's City College!!!!!!

It was a long-winded question that mentioned the Glory Days exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York and how present times seem almost the opposite of the 50s for baseball. Stepp then asked about the implications of Barry Bonds' case on his future efforts, to which Selig answered "it would be inappropriate to comment."

But I'm pumped one of our people was in there along with Bill Madden, Selena Roberts and the other regulars. Here's a link to her program "What's Going On," broadcast on Sunday afternoons at 3pm on WHCR.

Way to go Stephanie Stepp!

Sigue Sigue Sputnik

Here it is, a photo circa 1986 of Sigue Sigue Sputnik. A lot of college radio stations, including WNYU played them. I also noticed they were recently included in a video game and you know that can't be bad.

Since it's all all-important, maybe a good reason to make them the first band on earbender is that Sigue Sigue Sputnik was promoted ardently college and alternative radio. In 2.0, we would also be pumping them on a blog, so here they are to represent that old idea of artist development,and what could happen on this very page someday.

But having Sigue at the top of my page will also encourage me to keep posting because this picture really should only be glimpsed, not featured -- and even then only once in a while.