Pencilstorm Hall of Fame Nominee: Get The Knack by The Knack - Scott Carr

Click here for the complete nomination list for the 2016 Pencilstorm Hall of Fame. Winners announced April 14th at CD102 Big Room Bar.

When the idea of the Pencilstorm Hall of Fame was first hatched and the nominating committee began bouncing ideas around, Get The Knack by The Knack was the first thing that I thought of.

Released at the tail end of the 70's , Get The Knack is possibly the best power pop debut album ever released. Actually, you could say best debut album from any genre. Comparisons to The Beatles were often mentioned in early reviews of the band but The Knack felt musically they had more in common with The Kinks and early Who. Listening to Get The Knack proves the band was more in touch than their critics.

"My Sharona" still stands as one of the best singles ever released. The guitar solo in "My Sharona" is worthy of it's own nomination in the Pencilstorm Hall of Fame...it's really that good.

Beyond "My Sharona" the album is loaded with great songs. I won't bore you with all the details but you can read my article I wrote about it last year on it's anniversary here..

While I respect Pencilstorm mastermind Colin G's choice of Paul Stanley's 1978 solo album being inducted this year. Paul's album has one major flaw: has anyone heard the song "Hold Me, Touch Me"?  It's a snoozefest. Get the Knack is 100% perfect start to finish. So, if we only induct one album into the hall this year it should without question be Get The Knack.

So I ask my fellow committee members to not "Nuke The Knack" and give this album some serious consideration for the 2016 class of the Pencilstorm Hall of Fame.

Listen to the "My Sharona" guitar solo in all it's glory.......

I don't own the rights of this piece of song; they belong to The Knack

One listen to Get The Knack and you'll agree it deserves a spot in the Pencilstorm Hall of Fame....

Vinyl

....and lastly check out the trailer for the new movie Everybody Wants Some!

Subscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6h Subscribe to COMING SOON: http://bit.ly/H2vZUn Like us on FACEBOOK: http://goo.gl/dHs73 Follow us on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/1ghOWmt Everybody Wants Some Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Glen Powell, Tyler Hoechlin Comedy HD A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.

Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH  bands Radio Tramps and Returning April. Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.

Pencilstorm Hall of Fame Nominee: Guns n Roses - Live At The Ritz 1988 - by Big $

Click here for complete list of 2016 Pencilstorm Hall of Fame nominations. Winners to be announced Thursday April 14th at the CD1025 Big Room Bar.

Imagine if you will, a twelve year old Big$ wanders into his living room on a Friday night only to find it vacant of any adult supervision. Strategies begin to run through my mind: search for a scrambled channel?; see if the lady on "Dream On" is exposing anything worthwhile?; Falcon's Crest??? Even with those options at my disposal, my hand was inspired to move the knob on the ole cable box to "15" which was (and still is) MTV.

Now this was pre-"Teen Mom" MTV, so the odds were good that something of quality was about to beam through the old tube set. Even with this expectation, 1980's MTV outdid themselves. For on this evening, Guns and Roses - Live at the Ritz was being broadcast coast to coast. My mind was completely and utterly blown. Coming into my living room was a Scooby Doo sized sandwich of sweat, sex, drugs, suspenders, booze and screaming girls between two slabs of screeching vocals and killer riffs. On top of the sleazy pomp and circumstance, the songs were out of this world. The Appetite For Destruction tracklist is so strong that the mighty "Anything Goes" is often an afterthought. If you doubt the power of these songs, go listen to "Rocket Queen" right now and let it sink into your bloodstream. Your significant other will thank you.

Now the parents who so flippantly vacated the living room on this evening will spin tales of the glory of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I'm no Beatles guy, but I'm not gonna diminish the importance of that event just based on the fact that it may or may not have led to Black Sabbath. What I will say is that there were no neckties or holding hands in GNR's Live at the Ritz. Instead, what you see are the rock and roll visions prophesized by Chuck, Little Richard and Jerry Lee in living color.

This must be a 1st ballot Hall of Famer!

If you don't believe me, watch for yourself

Guns N' Roses - Live At The Ritz 1988 - Full Show All rights reserved.


Pencilstorm Hall of Fame Nominee: "Thunderbird" by Terry Anderson and The OAK Team - Colin Gawel

Click here for the complete nomination list for the 2016 Pencilstorm Hall of Fame. Winners announced April 14th at CD102 Big Room Bar.

As the great sage Slim Dunlap (of The Replacements, among others) once told me, "Music gives you all kinds of gifts, you just have to look for, and appreciate them." Playing shows with and then becoming friends with Terry Anderson and The Olympic Ass-Kickin Team has been one of the great joys of my rock n roll life. 

Random Highlights Include:

- Terry calling me at home out of the blue one Sunday while traveling with The Yahoos, "Colin, it's Terry, we are driving near Columbus looking for a good place to drink tequila. Anything near I-70 and mile marker 134?". My wife was like, "Who's that?"  I covered up the phone with my hand and breathlessly whispered, "It's the real Terry Anderson. On the phone. With me. Right now!"  "Um, ok. Well, what does he want?" "He wants to know a place to drink tequila close to the highway! This is so cool!"

- Terry and The OAK Team backing up Erica Blinn on her very first recording.

- Letting me write up their set-list at a show at Slim's in Raleigh, NC.

- Hanging out with the guys at a Clippers baseball game at the old Cooper Stadium on Mound Street, along with my then 3 year old son Owen. "The Clippers Welcome Terry Anderson & The OAK Team " on the scoreboard. Thanks to my pal Mark Galuska for help on that one. 

BUT, the biggest highlight (and I think Ricki C. would agree with me) was one of the first shows Watershed opened for the OAK Team was at a club in Macon, Georgia. I was already a fan but I had never seen them do a full two-set, hell-raising rock show. Standing back by the merch table with Ricki C. I remember saying, "Is it me or is this band like 1,000 times better than NRBQ?" Ricki responded in an instant, "Absolutely. I saw NRBQ a bunch back in the day, and these guys are better."

Blasphemy I know.  Don't get me wrong, NRBQ is a great band, but on this night, The OAK Team were better. In fact, every night I saw them, The Oak Team were better than NRBQ. They are just a better band with better songs. 

"It's like watching a cover band except it's all originals. Every song is so great. Everyone is so great. I don't know who to watch" I yelled in Ricki's ear. He nodded even though I'm not sure he heard me. Ricki's ears are sorta shot, though to be fair, it was loud.

Anyway, it's getting near last call, people are standing on tables, busting shit up, you know... when after telling a hilarious rap about digging around the fridge at a gas station, Terry starting singing...

"Why don't you come over here, and help me drink this Thunderbird / Why don't you come over here and help me drink this Thunderbird / Why don't you come over and help me drink this Thunderbird / Why don't you come over here and help me drink this Thunderbird"

I thought, "Oh no.. he..is..not..." That is the chorus. Read those words again. Try to imagine how that can work. Read them out loud. That CANNOT work. It's just the same lines. How can that work? How did he even show it to the band? That can't work.

Not only does it work, the hook gets drilled directly into your brain's hard drive and for the rest of your life you will find yourself singing it in some random moment. Like jogging in the park, driving in your car, or attending the funeral of a person you didn't know very well.

Writing serious songs is easy. The real trick is writing a fun song that the world never asked for but now we cannot imagine a world without. When questioned about my all-time favorite songwriters I tick them off real quick: Chuck Berry, Ray Davies, Paul Westerberg, Bruce Springsteen and...Terry Anderson.  The man is a songwriting genius and I'm sure people would argue he has 40 more deserving songs than this one. They might be right. But "they" aren't on the Hall of Fame committee and I am.  So....

I would like to ask my fellow committee members to support "Thunderbird" by Terry Anderson and The Olympic-Ass Kickin Team for inclusion in the 2016 Pencilstorm Hall of Fame. - Colin Gawel

Terry Anderson Thunderbird

The OAKTeam has been selected as finalists for the Great American Band Contest and we need your vote. Please go to: http://www.fox50.com/contests/8684162.html and vote for terry anderson and the oakteam... The band with the most online votes out of these 6 will go to vegas in the fall for the t.v.


Pencilstorm's Most Popular Stories - February 2016

Dan Baird and Homemade Sin Scheduled to Perform Hellraisin' Rock n Roll, Wednesday, March 2nd, in Wapakoneta, OH

We have all seen the movie Roadhouse like 50 times, right? Well, Route 33 Rhythm and Brews in Wapakoneta, OH has much in common with the Double Deuce. Granted, the bouncers are less attractive, but the levels of boozin' and hell-raisin' are just the same. They also throw a pretty mean rock n roll party once in awhile. 

On Wednesday, March 2nd, the great Dan Baird and Homemade Sin will be gracing the RT 33 stage as they tour America in support of their latest record, Get Loud! If you can get somebody to cover your shift Thursday morning, I highly recommend you Cbus folk make the short trip up RT 33 to Wapak to catch a small town rock n roll show that is sure to leave your big city slicker jaw agape.

Local celebrities Quinn Fallon (Dan produced some of his records) and Mike "Biggie" McDermott are rumored to be attending the show and spending the night at an undisclosed Indian Lake location.  

Click here for more info on tickets and RT 33 Rhythm and Brews

Click here for more info on Dan Baird and Homemade Sin. 

Click here for some recent setlists from Homemade Sin  

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin recorded at Akkurat in Sweden in May 2013. Dan Baird from Georgia Satellites and Warner E Hodges from Jason and the Scorchers on lead guitar. Mauro Magellan on drums and Keith Christopher on Bass. For more information about the band see http://danbairdandhomemadesin.com/ or...


Classic Album Artwork Exhibit Opening At Columbus Museum of Art - by Scott Carr

A great new exhibit entitled Spin Art is opening this Friday February 26th at the Columbus Museum of Art.

The exhibit travels back to a time when the artwork on an album cover was almost as important as the music pressed into the grooves of the vinyl. It's an art form that got lost during the CD generation but with a renewed interest in vinyl, album cover artwork is alive and well. Spin Art will display actual album covers along with information about the art on the covers. Several different genres of music will be represented in the exhibit including Classic Rock, Punk, Heavy Metal, Alternative, Funk, Hip Hop and Jazz. Many iconic covers will be instantly familiar while others will be a bit more obscure. 

Albums from Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Sonic Youth, Funkadelic, Yes and Iron Maiden are just a few that will be on display during the six month run of Spin Art at CMOA. Just as recognizable as the names of the bands that created the music are the names of the graphic artists who brought album artwork to life including Andy Warhol, Roger Dean, Winston Smith, Derek Riggs and Gerhard Richter. 

The Spin Art exhibit was put together by Jeff Sims, a creative producer for the Columbus Museum of Art. Jeff enlisted help from Brett Ruland of Spoonful Records to track down a specific list of 90 album covers to be featured in the exhibit. Brett along with his wife Amy Kesting contacted several local vinyl enthusiasts, including myself, as well as local record store owners Kyle Siegrist of Lost Weekend Records and David Lewis of Elizabeth's Records to lend records for display in the exhibit.

Several of the Spin Art contributors gathered at the Columbus Museum of Art last night for a sneak peak of the exhibit. Photo courtesy of Kyle Siegrist and taken by Amy Kesting.

Several of the Spin Art contributors gathered at the Columbus Museum of Art last night for a sneak peak of the exhibit. Photo courtesy of Kyle Siegrist and taken by Amy Kesting.

Spin Art opens on Friday February 26th and runs through August 21st. 

Below are five of my all-time favorite album covers that are NOT featured in the Spin Art exhibit but these are some covers that I would gaze at for hours in my youth.

1. Kiss - Destroyer

Not my favorite Kiss record but the cover is epic!

2. Alice Cooper - From the Inside

My favorite Alice "solo" record and the cover is very inventive. It has doors that open on the front and back of the cover that let you see inside Alice's insane asylum.

3. AC/DC - Powerage

One of my favorite AC/DC albums and I always felt like this album sounded the way the cover looks. Loud and full of energy!

4. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

I love this cover, always thought it looked like a cool comic book or video game.

5. T. Rex - Electric Warrior

A very simplistic design but very effective. Very iconic image.

Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH  bands Radio Tramps and Returning April.  Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.