I am still wrestling with my Big Deadline, but may I bring you up to date on some of my writing in recent weeks for Rolling Stone? I wrote about Against Me!, both in an article for the magazine and in an online interview with Laura Jane Grace (né Tom Gabel) and James Bowman. I interviewed Damon Albarn of Blur and the Gorillaz about his forthcoming solo album, Everyday Robots. I attended the David Lynch Foundation tribute to Ringo Starr, filing both a report on the evening and a micro-interview with Ringo. Then I attended a Grammy ceremony honoring Neil Young and transcribed his excellent acceptance speech (which couldn’t get across the full flavor of his humor, but it’s still cool to read) and grabbed a micro-interview with Neil as well. There was a fusillade of other Grammy reports: a report on Clive Davis’s annual night-before party, a rundown of all the pre-show awards (at an odd but convivial not-on-TV ceremony–to file that one, I had to walk across the street to the Staples Center and use the free wifi there before the Grammys telecast started), and a short dispatch on what happened at the Staples Center that you couldn’t see on TV. In addition, I wrote about the British Invasion episode of the Sixties documentary on CNN produced by Tom Hanks, the huge mural commissioned by Foster the People, and the late Pete Seeger. And I filed a bonus interview with the Swedish DJ known as Avicii.

But if you want check out one piece that I’m responsible for in the past month, I would recommend my gallery of some of the greatest performances ever on Soul Train. It’s all great stuff, but I particularly recommend the James Brown showcase (especially “The Payback”), the Smokey Robinson duet with Aretha Franklin, and the four (!) songs Al Green did with a hot live band. Enjoy!

posted 12 February 2014 in Outside and tagged Against Me!, Avicii, Damon Albarn, Grammys, Neil Young, Pete Seeger, Ringo Starr, Rolling in the Deep, Soul Train. no comments yet