Steve Miller has led many musical lives. First he was the guitar-wielding Space Cowboy who blew minds with the blues in the psychedelic San Fransisco of the late ’60s. Then he morphed into the laid-back Joker, crackin’ wise amid the slightly more self-serious singer/songwriters of the early ’70s. He graduated to full scale arena rocker in the middle of the decade with amped-up hits like “Rock ‘N Me” and “Take the Money and Run,” and by the ’80s songs like “Abracadabra” made him a video star on a nascent MTV. Now the icon is looking back on his remarkable musical journey with Ultimate Hits,...
- 9/13/2017
- by Jordan Runtagh
- PEOPLE.com
Lost In America
Blu-ray
Criterion
1985 / 1:85 / Street Date July 25, 2017
Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty
Cinematography: Eric Saarinen
Film Editor: David Finfer
Written by Albert Brooks, Monica Johnson
Produced by Marty Katz and Herb Nanas
Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein
Directed by Albert Brooks
According to a Newsweek cover story published that same year, 1984 was “The Year of the Yuppie”, referring to those ferociously materialistic young professionals whose numbers blossomed during the Reagan administration. The following year director Albert Brooks and his co-writer Monica Johnson delivered Lost In America, an acerbic road movie detailing what happens when one of those upwardly mobile hot-shots decides to get back to nature and “touch Indians”.
The result is one of the great American comedies, a mile-a-minute talk fest worthy of writer-directors like Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and in particular Preston Sturges, whose The Palm Beach Story told a similar tale about two young-marrieds who find...
Blu-ray
Criterion
1985 / 1:85 / Street Date July 25, 2017
Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty
Cinematography: Eric Saarinen
Film Editor: David Finfer
Written by Albert Brooks, Monica Johnson
Produced by Marty Katz and Herb Nanas
Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein
Directed by Albert Brooks
According to a Newsweek cover story published that same year, 1984 was “The Year of the Yuppie”, referring to those ferociously materialistic young professionals whose numbers blossomed during the Reagan administration. The following year director Albert Brooks and his co-writer Monica Johnson delivered Lost In America, an acerbic road movie detailing what happens when one of those upwardly mobile hot-shots decides to get back to nature and “touch Indians”.
The result is one of the great American comedies, a mile-a-minute talk fest worthy of writer-directors like Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and in particular Preston Sturges, whose The Palm Beach Story told a similar tale about two young-marrieds who find...
- 7/26/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Last night, at the end of a busy week at work when I was just in the mood to hang out at home and unwind a little, I decided that it was a good time for me to wrap up my viewing of Criterion ’68 by ingesting an assortment of short films that had accumulated, like the last crumbs of cereal at the bottom of the bag, in my chronological checklist of films that I’ve been blogging about over the years. It was a suitable occasion for me to fully immerse myself into what turned out to be a festival of random weirdness. My wife, recovering from a bout with illness, was feeling a bit better but wanted to find a productive use of her time with the resurgence of energy, so she kept herself busy by working on a new quilting project. That left me free to indulge without...
- 2/25/2017
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
An amazing talent gone way too soon, Janis Joplin is more than her boozy, brash public image. This bio docu has the personal background and the insights of those her knew, plus the Texas and San Francisco context in the Rock breakout of the late 1960s. Janis: Little Girl Blue DVD Filmrise / Mvd 2015 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date May 6, 2016 / 19.95 Starring Janis Joplin, Cat Power (voice), Peter Albin, Melissa Etheridge, Clive Davis, Laura Joplin, Michael Joplin, D.A. Pennebaker, Kris Kristofferson, Country Joe McDonald, Dick Cavett.. Cinematography Francesco Carrozzini, Jenna Rosher Film Editors Mark Harrison, Maya Hawke, Billy McMillin, Garret Price, Brendan Walsh Produced by Amy J. Berg, Alex Gibney, Katherine LeBlond, Jeff Jampol Directed by Amy J. Berg
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Janis: Little Girl Blue is an entertaining and emotionally affecting bio-film about the noted singer and songwriter, whose rise to fame in the San Francisco scene of the...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Janis: Little Girl Blue is an entertaining and emotionally affecting bio-film about the noted singer and songwriter, whose rise to fame in the San Francisco scene of the...
- 4/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
20th Century Fox and filmmaker Shawn Levy are set to team on a biopic of legendary music promoter Bill Graham.
Having fled the holocaust as a child, he came to the U.S. where he pioneered the promotion of rock concerts into major events. His venues the Fillmore and Winterland brought the San Francisco music scene to prominence, and in the process helped define an era of rock in the 1960s with break out acts including the Grateful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane.
He died in a helicopter accident in 1991 at the age of 60. Based on Graham's autobiography "My Life Inside Rock and Out" which he co-wrote with Robert Greenfield, Levy will produce the project.
Source: Deadline...
Having fled the holocaust as a child, he came to the U.S. where he pioneered the promotion of rock concerts into major events. His venues the Fillmore and Winterland brought the San Francisco music scene to prominence, and in the process helped define an era of rock in the 1960s with break out acts including the Grateful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane.
He died in a helicopter accident in 1991 at the age of 60. Based on Graham's autobiography "My Life Inside Rock and Out" which he co-wrote with Robert Greenfield, Levy will produce the project.
Source: Deadline...
- 2/18/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
It's tough to keep up with Snoop Dogg. From the rap career to the reality television show to the reggae conversion to the name change, it's hard to know where he's going next. But one thing is for sure: he'll be at San Francisco's Fillmore auditorium on 4/20.
A famously weed-friendly artist playing an iconic venue in one of America's most weed-friendly cities on the most weed-friendly day of the year sounds like a marriage made in stony heaven--like discovering you can put mac and cheese inside of a grilled cheese sandwich.
The show comes only a few days before the release of "Reincarnated," Snoop's Diplo-produced debut album as Snoop Lion. That record promises to give the world its first full-length taste of his transformation into a reggae artist following a life-altering trip to Jamaica that saw him converting to Rastafarianism.
Even so, as Sf Weekly notes, the show's poster...
A famously weed-friendly artist playing an iconic venue in one of America's most weed-friendly cities on the most weed-friendly day of the year sounds like a marriage made in stony heaven--like discovering you can put mac and cheese inside of a grilled cheese sandwich.
The show comes only a few days before the release of "Reincarnated," Snoop's Diplo-produced debut album as Snoop Lion. That record promises to give the world its first full-length taste of his transformation into a reggae artist following a life-altering trip to Jamaica that saw him converting to Rastafarianism.
Even so, as Sf Weekly notes, the show's poster...
- 4/11/2013
- by Aaron Sankin
- Huffington Post
Bb King, who has just turned 87, has returned home to Mississippi to play to family and friends. In the experience of a lifetime, Ed Vulliamy joins him and hears from the maestro about his rise from the cotton fields to international stardom
The fat red sun settles itself against the horizon, throwing a last, honey-sweet light through humid evening and over a small crowd on the lawn beside a railroad track that cuts through the cotton fields beyond. A quarter-moon rises and a chorus of cicadas serenades imminent twilight, now conjoined by the sound of the band; the drummer catches the backbeat and the compere announces: "How about an Indianola hometown welcome for the one-and-only King of the Blues: Bb King!"
And on he comes, to applause from people who know him well and claim him as their own – the last of the blues masters a few weeks short of his 87th birthday.
The fat red sun settles itself against the horizon, throwing a last, honey-sweet light through humid evening and over a small crowd on the lawn beside a railroad track that cuts through the cotton fields beyond. A quarter-moon rises and a chorus of cicadas serenades imminent twilight, now conjoined by the sound of the band; the drummer catches the backbeat and the compere announces: "How about an Indianola hometown welcome for the one-and-only King of the Blues: Bb King!"
And on he comes, to applause from people who know him well and claim him as their own – the last of the blues masters a few weeks short of his 87th birthday.
- 10/7/2012
- by Ed Vulliamy
- The Guardian - Film News
Big Brother and the Holding Company: Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 (Columbia Legacy)
This 71-minute sonic document was recorded and produced by the late Owsley "Bear" Stanley (famed personal soundman to the Grateful Dead), who stated, shortly before he died last year, "I believe this album will be hailed as the definitive Big Brother live album of all time."
I think he's correct. Even before I pulled out the booklet and read the notes, I was already thinking that I’d never heard lead singer Janis Joplin sound so explosive.
Not even the odd mix, with vocals and drums in one channel and other instruments in the other channel, can dim the vividness of this performance (it helps to push your speakers together, eliminating separation). She and the band perform with great freedom and intensity; one suspects they had little or no idea that this night (Sunday, June 23) would live...
This 71-minute sonic document was recorded and produced by the late Owsley "Bear" Stanley (famed personal soundman to the Grateful Dead), who stated, shortly before he died last year, "I believe this album will be hailed as the definitive Big Brother live album of all time."
I think he's correct. Even before I pulled out the booklet and read the notes, I was already thinking that I’d never heard lead singer Janis Joplin sound so explosive.
Not even the odd mix, with vocals and drums in one channel and other instruments in the other channel, can dim the vividness of this performance (it helps to push your speakers together, eliminating separation). She and the band perform with great freedom and intensity; one suspects they had little or no idea that this night (Sunday, June 23) would live...
- 5/12/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
By Akshay Bhansali
Is it too easy to begin this post with a reference to Dirty South’s version of the Diddy-Dirty Money hit "I’m Coming Home"?
Maybe. But frankly that couldn't be more fitting for the occasion. On Monday (April 23), Kaskade revealed exclusively to MTV in a new tour video that he’s added epic home-state dates in Los Angeles, and San Francisco to his already mammoth, 50-plus date "Freaks of Nature" tour. His July 27 gig in L.A. will make him the first solo electronic dance musician ever to headline the Staples Center. The show will be followed by a hearty showing the next day in San Francisco, where his career in music began.
Get More: Kaskade, Music News
Buddies Alvin Risk, Fareoah, Treasure Fingers and Le Castle Vania will be joining Edm icon Kaskade on his "Freaks of Nature" tour. Pre-sales for L.A. and San...
Is it too easy to begin this post with a reference to Dirty South’s version of the Diddy-Dirty Money hit "I’m Coming Home"?
Maybe. But frankly that couldn't be more fitting for the occasion. On Monday (April 23), Kaskade revealed exclusively to MTV in a new tour video that he’s added epic home-state dates in Los Angeles, and San Francisco to his already mammoth, 50-plus date "Freaks of Nature" tour. His July 27 gig in L.A. will make him the first solo electronic dance musician ever to headline the Staples Center. The show will be followed by a hearty showing the next day in San Francisco, where his career in music began.
Get More: Kaskade, Music News
Buddies Alvin Risk, Fareoah, Treasure Fingers and Le Castle Vania will be joining Edm icon Kaskade on his "Freaks of Nature" tour. Pre-sales for L.A. and San...
- 4/23/2012
- by John Mitchell
- MTV Newsroom
Hottest ticket this summer is electronica artist deadmau5. Following his headlining festival appearances at Lollapalooza in Chicago and Outside Lands in San Francisco this month, more dates have been set for deadmau5.s massive North American Meowingtons Hax tour. Today (Friday, August 19), tickets for a second night at the Fillmore in Detroit on October 21 and at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on October 29 go on sale. Fat Boy Slim, A-Trak, Tommy Lee & DJ Aero and Feed Me will join deadmau5 at the San Francisco show. Named after his mischievous cat Professor Meowingtons, the Meowingtons Hax tour is a huge trek for deadmau5 through the U.S. and Canada, encompassing more than 35...
- 8/19/2011
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Plan B and Mayer Hawthorne also on the bill for two-month North American outing.
By Gil Kaufman
Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae's "Hooligans in Wondaland" poster
Photo: Atlantic Records
Bruno Mars and Janelle Monáe took it old-school at the Grammys on Sunday night, and judging from the poster for their just-announced North American co-headlining tour, the pair plan to offer up plenty more retro-soul goodness when they hit the road beginning in May.
The poster for the Hooligans in Wondaland Tour looks like an old paste-up for a James Brown-era all-star show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, in keeping with both artists' back to the future vibe. Joining them on the trek will be British singer/ rapper Plan B and blue-eyed retro-soul singer Mayer Hawthorne. The two-month outing is slated to kick off on May 4 with a show at New York's Roseland Ballroom and wind up on June 15 at Comerica Theatre in Phoenix,...
By Gil Kaufman
Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae's "Hooligans in Wondaland" poster
Photo: Atlantic Records
Bruno Mars and Janelle Monáe took it old-school at the Grammys on Sunday night, and judging from the poster for their just-announced North American co-headlining tour, the pair plan to offer up plenty more retro-soul goodness when they hit the road beginning in May.
The poster for the Hooligans in Wondaland Tour looks like an old paste-up for a James Brown-era all-star show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, in keeping with both artists' back to the future vibe. Joining them on the trek will be British singer/ rapper Plan B and blue-eyed retro-soul singer Mayer Hawthorne. The two-month outing is slated to kick off on May 4 with a show at New York's Roseland Ballroom and wind up on June 15 at Comerica Theatre in Phoenix,...
- 2/16/2011
- MTV Music News
I was in Heaven. My hideously painful crush on Esther was finally getting some wonderfully tangible relief and hope. It was April 1970 and I had slept out for two nights to the immediate south of the marquee of the Fillmore East to get tickets for the Who's Final Performance of "Tommy" at the absurdly ostentatious and downright silly venue, The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Bill Graham was organizing and promoting the show for the management of The Met. Consequently, the tickets were going on sale at the Fillmore East's box office on the Monday morning of whatever week that was in early April. I arrived on Saturday evening while people were leaving the early show of that weekend's performance. I don't recall who was on the bill that night, but I remember saying hello to...
- 6/16/2010
- by Binky Philips
- Huffington Post
There's no question that the music industry is in trouble, and record labels are doing everything they can to try to stay afloat and figure out how to do business in the new media world. Despite the financial troubles of some of those institutions, you would think that certain places would be protected by history. But there was a scare last week when a rumor floated around that Emi was thinking about selling Abbey Road Studios, made legendary by the Beatles for their 1969 album Abbey Road and the site of the recording of legendary albums like Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Radiohead's The Bends.
But though composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was floated as a potential buyer, Emi announced that they were not planning on selling the place. "We believe that Abbey Road should remain in Emi's ownership," the company said in a statement.
That's good...
But though composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was floated as a potential buyer, Emi announced that they were not planning on selling the place. "We believe that Abbey Road should remain in Emi's ownership," the company said in a statement.
That's good...
- 2/22/2010
- by Kyle Anderson
- MTV Newsroom
Gaga's Miami show is one of the hottest bills in the country.
By Gil Kaufman
Lady Gaga
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
It's fitting that MTV's Woman of the Year is going to cap off a tremendous 2009 by playing one of the most anticipated New Year's Eve shows in the country. Lady Gaga's December 31 show at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach is currently the hottest New Year's Eve ticket on the market, according to "Extra," despite ticket prices that range from $425 to $25,000. The show has already sold a reported $1 million in tickets.
But Gaga isn't the only star ringing in the new year from the stage. She joins a cavalcade of bold names who will hoist some bubbly on Thursday, including Mariah Carey, Adam Lambert, John Mayer, reunited jam band Phish, Maroon 5 and psychedelic astronauts the Flaming Lips.
Lambert, MTV's #3 Man of the Year, will take...
By Gil Kaufman
Lady Gaga
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
It's fitting that MTV's Woman of the Year is going to cap off a tremendous 2009 by playing one of the most anticipated New Year's Eve shows in the country. Lady Gaga's December 31 show at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach is currently the hottest New Year's Eve ticket on the market, according to "Extra," despite ticket prices that range from $425 to $25,000. The show has already sold a reported $1 million in tickets.
But Gaga isn't the only star ringing in the new year from the stage. She joins a cavalcade of bold names who will hoist some bubbly on Thursday, including Mariah Carey, Adam Lambert, John Mayer, reunited jam band Phish, Maroon 5 and psychedelic astronauts the Flaming Lips.
Lambert, MTV's #3 Man of the Year, will take...
- 12/30/2009
- MTV Music News
Gaga's Miami show is one of the hottest bills in the country.
By Gil Kaufman
Lady Gaga
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
It's fitting that MTV's Woman of the Year is going to cap off a tremendous 2009 by playing one of the most anticipated New Year's Eve shows in the country. Lady Gaga's December 31 show at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach is currently the hottest New Year's Eve ticket on the market, according to "Extra," despite ticket prices that range from $425 to $25,000. The show has already sold a reported $1 million in tickets.
But Gaga isn't the only star ringing in the new year from the stage. She joins a cavalcade of bold names who will hoist some bubbly on Thursday, including Mariah Carey, Adam Lambert, John Mayer, reunited jam band Phish, Maroon 5 and psychedelic astronauts the Flaming Lips.
Lambert, MTV's #3 Man of the Year, will take...
By Gil Kaufman
Lady Gaga
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
It's fitting that MTV's Woman of the Year is going to cap off a tremendous 2009 by playing one of the most anticipated New Year's Eve shows in the country. Lady Gaga's December 31 show at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach is currently the hottest New Year's Eve ticket on the market, according to "Extra," despite ticket prices that range from $425 to $25,000. The show has already sold a reported $1 million in tickets.
But Gaga isn't the only star ringing in the new year from the stage. She joins a cavalcade of bold names who will hoist some bubbly on Thursday, including Mariah Carey, Adam Lambert, John Mayer, reunited jam band Phish, Maroon 5 and psychedelic astronauts the Flaming Lips.
Lambert, MTV's #3 Man of the Year, will take...
- 12/28/2009
- MTV Music News
Release Date:June 20
Director: Merle Becker
Studio/Run Time: Freakfilms, Inc., 88 mins.
Becker crosses the country to trace history of gig posters, getting some great interviews along the way
Before Bill Graham and his legendary Fillmore West venue, posters were not common and were generally poorly printed, slapdash affairs. But Graham began hiring artists to produce high quality posters to give out to the first 500 concert patrons that left each night—as a way to clear out the room. That’s just one interesting tidbit in Merle Becker’s new documentary, which examines four especially creative periods in the history of the gig-poster scene: the psychedelic late sixties, the punk flyer scene of the early eighties, the poster rebirth in the mid-nineties, and the present day.
Director: Merle Becker
Studio/Run Time: Freakfilms, Inc., 88 mins.
Becker crosses the country to trace history of gig posters, getting some great interviews along the way
Before Bill Graham and his legendary Fillmore West venue, posters were not common and were generally poorly printed, slapdash affairs. But Graham began hiring artists to produce high quality posters to give out to the first 500 concert patrons that left each night—as a way to clear out the room. That’s just one interesting tidbit in Merle Becker’s new documentary, which examines four especially creative periods in the history of the gig-poster scene: the psychedelic late sixties, the punk flyer scene of the early eighties, the poster rebirth in the mid-nineties, and the present day.
- 8/13/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
(Rock 'n Roll High School director Allan Arkush, above. Photo courtesy of NBC.)
by Jon Zelazny
Editor’s Note: this article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on April 24th.
Jersey City native Allan Arkush has enjoyed a prolific career in television, currently producing and directing for the hit series “Heroes.”
He started in show business at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore East concert theater in New York City, then worked for the equally legendary low-budget movie producer Roger Corman. 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Arkush’s solo directorial debut, the beloved cult classic Rock ‘n Roll High School.
I met with Arkush in his home office in West Los Angeles, and tried to keep from drooling all over his killer record collection.
Did you go to Springsteen last night? I thought he was amazing.
Allan Arkush: He really was. I thought it was interesting that he started out with some fairly dark songs: “Badlands,...
by Jon Zelazny
Editor’s Note: this article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on April 24th.
Jersey City native Allan Arkush has enjoyed a prolific career in television, currently producing and directing for the hit series “Heroes.”
He started in show business at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore East concert theater in New York City, then worked for the equally legendary low-budget movie producer Roger Corman. 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Arkush’s solo directorial debut, the beloved cult classic Rock ‘n Roll High School.
I met with Arkush in his home office in West Los Angeles, and tried to keep from drooling all over his killer record collection.
Did you go to Springsteen last night? I thought he was amazing.
Allan Arkush: He really was. I thought it was interesting that he started out with some fairly dark songs: “Badlands,...
- 5/10/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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