By Steve Rhodes
“For years, Paulette Lanzoff tried to keep her passion for the Grateful Dead a secret from fellow employees,” Shia Kapos reports for Crain’s
“I used to work at a straight-laced company. I was 35 or 40 and trying to be an up-and-comer in my career and play the political game,” recalls Lanzoff, 60 and a Dead fan since high school. Now technical director at Synergy Flavors in Wauconda, Lanzoff isn’t hiding anymore. “You get this senior statesman status and people think you’re kooky anyway, so it’s OK.”
I’ve got news for you, Paulette Lanzoff: You don’t understand the first thing about the Dead.
*
I can’t even with the rest of this piece.
*
Here’s the Dead’s heretofore last show, at Soldier Field. They start out shaky, but “Shakedown Street” is a definite highlight, and “So Many Roads” is one for the ages. Boy, Vince Welnick, who replaced the estimable keyboardist Brent Mydland, was terrible.
–
Man! She Feels Like A Woman
Lydia Loveless Remembers Shania Twain.
King Cotton
Poco dude grew up in small-town Illinois.
Justin Townes Earle Still Pissed
“After going from a wonderfully easy working relationship with Bloodshot to a bunch of prenatal nitwits that don’t know what they’re doing – it put quite a rush on this record,” Earle says.
Background: Justin Townes Earl Battling With Record Label.
Lupe Fiasco Is Back
That’s the critical consensus.
An example from Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis on a recent Sound Opinions:
“Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco was written off by some after battling his label for years and earning notoriety for his outspokenness on Twitter. According to rumor, it even took threats from hackers for his new album to be released. But according to Jim, Tetsuo & Youth is Lupe at his lyrical best.
“The deft pop culture references are wonderful, of course. But ultimately it’s the tragic evocation of life in poor black communities that moves Jim to tears.
“According to Greg, the density and poetry of Lupe’s rhymes is matched by the adventurousness of the music, filled with unconventional jazzy rhythms. He calls it the rapper’s best work since his debut.
“That makes it a double double-Buy It in a single episode.”
Chief Chief Keef Keef
“A new list says rappers are recycling rhymes left and right,” BET reports.
“Kid Cudi, Azealia Banks and Chief Keef all made it to Top 10 of the ‘23 Most Repetitive Rappers‘ posted by RapAnalysis.com.
“The tally measures which artists ‘repeat the same words the most’ based on anywhere from 20 to 426 songs from each particular artist (some had a larger catalog to pick from than others), but bends the definition of what is considered a ‘rapper.’
“For example, Lil Jon is more of a DJ and pretty much expected to hype the crowd with some form of repetition; he landed at No. 3 on the list.
“will.i.am and Pitbull are in first and second place, while Snoop Dogg, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj fall at 11, 12, and 13.”
Doing Des Moines
“As the hub of interstate highways 80 and 35, Des Moines is a crossroads for bands traveling from Chicago to Omaha and Denver, and Minneapolis to Kansas City.”
Omaha?
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on February 11, 2015