It Was A Blast ! !

Christmas extravaganza in Denver every year!

Rockabilly galore!

The Best!

The Castle Lady

Happy Holidays!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Are you looking for some really rockin' presents this year? I have started a list for you so hear me out, check out the list and just add whatever you think will make for a true rock and roll Christmas to your own list. Here goes:

1. A Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock wireless guitar, approx. $100 (you can get it at guitarhero.com

2. A Crosley USB turntable will run about $165 from fredflare.com

( hint: it converts old vinyl LPs into digital files for your up-to-date devices!)

3. A Samsung Electronics MP3 player will cost about $80

4. Audio-Technica portable folding MP3 speakers only about $28 from momastore.com

5. The Nikon D3 SLR

( To see what this one is all about visit www.stunningnikon.com/challenge )

Ho ho ho!

Have a Merry Christmas!

The Castle Lady

Who is Michael D.R.I.V.E. ?

Chi Coltrane has said, "Usually in the case of a rock band, if you take away the band and just leave the singer with the guitar, it's not very impressive; but in Drive's case, it's completely different. If you were to take away the band, you would see that he shines; like a multi-faceted diamond. His voice is unique...his musicianship, and his songwriting are excellent."

Michael Drive was born and raised in L.A. but in 2003 he moved to Paris and moves around Europe (touring mostly France, Germany and Switzerland) playing venues and recording songs with other musicians he crosses on the road. He has been playing as an opener for the de Palmas and has a new recording out "One Direction Left...From Hell". Some of the lyrics from his title song are:

There's a boy reaching for his girl

But her eyes are reaching for someone else

As he crawls around inside her soul

Trying desperately to touch her there

But she's far away and he does not know

That today she'll say goodbye.

His music is available at http://www.girdermusic.com/ and his titles are:

One Direction Left...From Hell

Live in Paris

The Acoustic Collection

This former lead singer of Barren Cross is inspiring and winning the hearts of many loyal fans worldwide. Check him out!

New note: Michael is now back with Barren Cross and they are

back touring the States this summer. Check out his web site and theirs >

http://www.michaeldrive.com/ http://www.barrencross.net/

& www.myspace.com/michaeldrive1

All rights reserved

Evelyn M. Wallace 11/4/07

Rock Band- the new video game!

This new game which can be used in the PS2, PS3 and XBox 360 is coming out in stores by November 20th! Remember the Rutles? The Rutles. HELLOooo! Well the reason you need to check this out is because the original creators of Guitar Hero invented this new "air guitar" phenomenon and adding a second guitar, a drum kit and a microphone is this guy's way of turning things up to 11. If you were unfortunate enough to be born in the 80s that's just going to go over your head. Now- back to coolness! XD

This game gives several players a chance to play in person or virtually and form a video game band. Like Guitar Hero, Rock Band is pumped up to 11 and uses replica instruments to allow you to play along with Rock, Jazz or pop of any kind. While the lead and bass guitars are quite the blast, the microphone might be a little embarrassing. Better learn to sing, dude! XD The drums are well worth it and you'll probably be fighting over who takes them. May the best man win! MTV has supplied a good stock of original masters for this sweet one as well. I have a feeling you'll find plenty of riffs and licks to choose from. Have fun! Better get in line now!

All rights reserved

Evelyn M. Wallace 2007

Magma and Gong!

Rock and Roll has certainly had its share of particularly strange groups throughout the years but I'm not going to touch on the obvious stand-outs at this point in time. Some people think KISS was a rock oddity but if you have some knowledge of Rock history, you'd know that many bands took the "make-up and elaborate costumes" route and many teenagers and young adults didn't think it out of ordinary at all. Before KISS, Alice Cooper did a more psychological but creepy approach to Rock that may never die out. Today it is known all over the world as Death Rock and there are a myriad of European bands which tout just that but they are certainly not original. Alice Cooper takes the bows for that alone.
Here's a band I consider to be my version of an oddity. Does anybody remember the band Magma? Didn't think so. Don't feel bad, I don't either but they were before my time! It's not surprising that most of you won't because it was a band formed in 1969 in France by Christian Vander. They considered themselves an Art Rock phenomenon because they invented their own language: Kobaian. That's right, Kobaian which was supposed to be from the planet Kobaia.

This gets even better so keep reading.

Vander was a percussionist who loved Elvin Jones music (Jazz) but he was really a devotee of both contemporary Classical and modern Jazz (a` la Coltrane, Sun Ra). Christian Vander, from these influences, constructed music that had some intriguing polyrhythmic tunes and all his albums were conceptual (very much like Frank Zappa!) but involved interplanetary communication, galactic warfare and even the apocalypse. They toured with another band called Gong (who were even more bizarre, keep reading...) and while touring often stayed in fans homes because they were so low budget. This is not to take away from their musical viability, however, as they put out an impressive amount of albums and if you attend enough garage sales you may run across one of their albums someday! Here are some titles to look for:

Magma- 1970, 1001 Degrees Centigrade- 1971, Live (on Utopia Records) 1975, Udu Wudu- 1976, Edits, Attahk- 1977.

If you ever find any of these e-mail me because I'd like to buy at least one of these records and actually hear them ! ! ! !

Now Gong were formed a year later than Magma in Paris by an expatriated Australian by the name of Daevid Allen. All but a few of their titles were in English and they had the distinction of being not only in compliment to Magma (i.e. UFOs, mythology buffs) they were more of a European post-hippie band which mixed Rock, Folk and Jazz in with synthesizers but emulated Magma's musicality. (The Kelly Family might be a good example as a more modern equivalent.) As time progressed in their evolution they had frequent personnel changes. When Allen started out he was basically a beatnik who attended the Canterbury College of Art back in 1966. While his group evolved he went on to greener Rock pastures. He had the opportunity to work with an impressive number of "well-knowns", mentioned further in this entry. Before his departure from Gong he was able to complete a trilogy he created about the planet Gong. These LPs were Flying Teapot, You, and Angel's Egg.

In 1979 with the release of one of his few French titles N'existe Pas he led the first Gong group to play the U.S. He lived for a time in Woodstock (quel surprise!) and did solo tours for a time as the Divided Alien Clockwork Band.

Pierre Moerlen took over Gong in 1973 and the real Gong specialized in percussion-heavy Jazz Rock under Moerlen's influence. His first recording with them was Angel's Egg in 1973. He had actually studied music at his father's old alma mater the Strasbourg Conservatory in 1967 until 1972 and was well prepared for his rotating cache of sidemen which included some big names like Steve Hillage, Todd Rundgren, ex-Rolling Stone Mick Taylor ( on whose solo debut in 1979 Moerlen contributed.) The only remaining original member was Didier Malherbe, the saxophonist/flutist.

He re-united with Allen in 1977 to record Gong Est Mort and at that point they began to do more work in America after signing with Arista. Gong is most unique in that many different "incarnations" of the band, using the very same name, were allowed to flourish which most likely is the reason that Moerlen's band received very little notice for their U.S. concerts. Their brand of Rock was simply more popular in Europe at the time. Don't hesitate to let me know if you ever see Gong's or Magma's LPs in a garage sale. Check out Gong's discography below:

1973- The Flying Teapot

Angel's Egg

1974- Continental Circus

Camembert Electrique

You (Virgin Records)

1976- Shamal

1977- Gazeuse

Live!

Magick Brother

Gong Est Mort

Expresso 1978
Expresso II

1979- Downwind

Time is the Key

Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live

Evelyn M. Wallace

All rights reserved 2007

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Rock

But I'm gonna tell you anyway!

This is my official title of this blog. Tomorrow at this very same time you will be reading an awesome piece of writing on Rock Oddities (one of my catagories.) I started this blog, however, to write about women in Rock which I'm going to do a series on for the next two years. Keep checking back because you're going to learn more about Rock and Roll from my blog than you can by picking up your average Rock magazine these days. I may diversify eventually, but for now... it's all about Rock AND Roll!

Evelyn M. Wallace aka The Castle Lady