Vinyl

Anyone watch Vinyl on HBO last night? I'm not hearing particularly positive things about it. I haven't watched it yet, and am looking for reasons why I should or shouldn't.

Apparently there's one scene in which the New York Dolls literally rock the house down, which sounds silly.

Most appalling, though, is I hear that there's a scene in which a punk rocker scoffs at Slade.

Which I guess isn't out of the question, but I seem to recall that Slade was generally okay amongst the punks - maybe not quite as respected as Mott the Hoople, Bowie, or T. Rex, but not anyone who was regarded as a symptom of what was wrong with music. I think they were mostly considered to be an acceptable bunch of rowdies.

I know they were one of the important transition bands in my family's journey from being typical top 40 listeners to an odd clan of Illinois farm boy punks.

I keep hearing lousy things about it. It's sitting in my DVR, waiting for me to commit to two hours of pilot.

Richard Hell reviews it here. The gist: he's not crazy about it, less because of what it gets wrong about the era, than that it's really just another macho crime show rather than a show about music.

Which, if true, is a shame, as the most interesting thing about it to me (at least that I've read) is that the repertoire of the fictional band the Nasty Bits is based on that of a real, but obscure, 70s NYC band called Jack Ruby. Story here.

Oh. It's a police procedural? Not a show about music? Two snaps down.



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

"Apparently there's one scene in which the New York Dolls literally rock the house down, which sounds silly."
You mean like in the Aristocats?

Holy Tap-dancing Jesus did that show suck. The pilot went on for about a year, but I thought maybe it would pick up so I watched the second, 1-hour episode and it got worse. I'm out. "Under the Dome" made more sense and had more appealing characters. Maybe that CBGB movie (which I haven't seen) isn't so bad after all. It can't be worse than this.

I got about, oh, 65 minutes through the pilot and gave up. Maybe it'll get better, but I've got beter things to do (especially this time of year, with SXSW creeping up like an ax murderer) than wait for that to happen, frankly.

The Wolf on St. Mark's Place

The Dolls scene is in the beginning of the show so you can watch it and then turn it off. Having read a ton of biographies from the era, I got all the references but the show really did nothing for me other than reinforced the idea that Scorsese is indeed jumping the shark. He needs a new angle on the powerful men are garbage worldview he has (and I share.)
The Dolls scene is cool, although it would have been better if David J would have been in it. Even at 100, he looks more like his young self then the singer in the show.

> Holy Tap-dancing Jesus ...

And lo, another band name is born.

Well, according to the dependable Robert Lloyd (formerly of the great power-poppers The Lopez Beatles) it does NOT get better:

[www.latimes.com]