New column  at the Coliseum. An excerpt:

Recall that 80s pop — even at its most putrid – had a remarkable and rarely discussed quality. For instance, beneath the noxious pep of Wham! was a foundation of extremely high-caliber musicianship.

Wham! arrangements typically featured such ace studio musicians as bassist Deon Estus, who seemed capable of mimicking Jaco Pastorious at will. And maybe I’m reaching, but I posit that Wham!’s “Freedom” is a mall-pop descendant of Weather Report‘s “Birdland.”

Wham! wasn’t alone in this regard. Go back and listen to the most irritating and bland Top 40 artists from the 80s –- the Cutting Crew, Mr. Mister, Richard Marx —- and beneath the crap surface lay a bedrock of virtuosity.

That’s not the case in today’s vapid pop scene.

Anyway…

(Pal) Rob and I decided there should be a Wham!-Jaco tribute band called…

Wham! Report

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!!! GOD’S BALLS !!!

Tad Doyle

A stroll down memory lane over at When Falls the Coliseum, with excerpts from the wonderful and perfectly fermented bio of Seattle rock band TAD:

Being part of the TAD experience is like waking up in the middle of a train wreck, or like turning over to slap the snooze bar on your radio-alarm only to find you have no arms. Look around you. Nothing but ashes and molten slag: You’re in the hypercenter of something big. Something that thinks, moves, DESTROYS. The TAD experience is rock history.

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