Tag Archives: Peter Buck

R.E.M. Give ‘True Love Scars’ Another Plug; LitQuake Rock Critic Reading This Week!

Don’t know how I managed to miss this, but last month my friends at R.E.M.H.Q. did a cool post about an interview with Peter Buck I did prior to the release of New Adventures In Hi-Fi, back in 1996.

And they included a nice plug for my novel, “True Love Scars.”

You can check out the post and read the interview with Peter Buck here.

Coming up this Friday, August 17, 2014 at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco is the momentous LitQuake “Rock ‘N’ Roll Circus: A Cavalcade of Stars,” an evening of music critics reading from their latest books.

The lineup: Gina Arnold (author of the book “Exile In Guyville”), former San Francisco Chronicle pop music critic Joel Selvin (“Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues”), Kerouac/Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally (“On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom”), Addicted To Noise founder/former Rolling Stone Senior Writer Michael Goldberg (“True Love Scars”), musician Bruce Cockburn (“Rumours of Glory”), rock journalist and author Denise Sullivan (“Shaman’s Blues: The Art and Influences Behind Jim Morrison and the Doors”), rock historian and college teacher Richie Unterberger (“Jingle Jangle Morning: Folk-Rock in the 1960s”) and best-selling authors Keith and Kent Zimmerman (“Shining Star: Braving the Elements of Earth, Wind & Fire”).

Providing music will be Camper Van Beethoven cofounder Victor Krummenacher.

The evening starts at 7 pm and admission is a cheap $10.

And finally, for today and maybe Tuesday the Kindle version of “True Love Scars” is available for $2.99. A bargain at three times the price. Soon it will be again priced at $9.99, so get it on the cheap now.

[Rolling Stone has a great review of “True Love Scars” in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —

Photos: R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tuker & Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic in the Studio

Peter Buck, Corin Tucker, Bill Rieflin, Krist Novoselic and Scott McCaughey in the studio. Photo by Lance Bangs.

The other day I posted about the debut performance by super-Earth, the new supergroup formed by Peter Buck and Corin Tucker. Not it turns out that Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic is also in the band.

These two photos are by Lance Bangs. The group is currently recording. No news on song titles or when recordings will be available.

ucker, Buck, Kurt Bloch, Bill Rieflin, Novoselic, and Scott McCaughey in the studio. Photo by Lance Bangs.

[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]

– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Audio: New Peter Buck, Corin Tucker ‘Supergroup’ Debut 12 Songs at Portland’s Secret Society

Corin Tucker & Peter Buck at Secret Society in Portland. Photo via The Oregonian.

Last night super-Earth, the new band that finds Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck collaborating, performed in Portland at Secret Society, opening for Buck.

The group played 12 songs that David Greenwald of The Oregonian wrote were “so fresh, Tucker had lyric sheets.”

More from Greenwald’s review:

The occasional look to her music stand didn’t stop Tucker, still one of the best rock singers working, from commanding a room that had filled in by the time super-Earth took the stage. The new material, speedy and loud, was full of power chords, enthusiasm and the occasional signature Buck arpeggio — less punk rock than power-pop but always knife-sharp. It sounded like an album: hopefully it will be.

In addition to Buck and Tucker, super-Earth includes guitarist Scott McCaughey (Minus 5), drummer Bill Rieflin (Swans, Ministry), and guitarist Kurt Bloch (ex-Fastbacks).

The group are currently working on an album, according to the Portland Mercury.

Buck and Tucker have worked together in the past. Tucker sang on both of Buck’s solo albums.

Here are two songs on Peter Buck albums featuring Tucker:

“Drown With Me”:

“Nothing Means Nothing”:

Plus Pearl Jam, Sleater Kinney, Peter Buck and members of his band do “Rockin’ in the Free World” November 29, 2013:

– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Watch: Joseph Arthur, Peter Buck & Mike Mills Play ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ on ‘Letterman’

Mike Mills (L), Joseph Arthur (C) and Peter Buck (R).

Last night Joseph Arthur performed “Walk On The Wild Side” on “Late Show with David Letterman” with assistance from Peter Buck & Mike Mills, once of R.E.M.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –

Peter Buck Is Ready To Blow Your Mind!

Peter Buck has a new album about to reach record stores.

The album is called I Am Back To Blow Your Mind Once Again.

I haven’t heard it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

Here’s Buck and friends performing “10 Million BC” January 18, 2014 at his Todos Santos Music Festival.

Here’s what Buck posted today (January 30, 2014) at REMHQ:

Bo Diddley 3am

Hey everybody, this is Peter. I am back in Mexico gearing up for the 3rd annual Todos Santos Music Festival. By gearing up I mean that I am drinking tequila at 3am and listening to Bo Diddley. What a mighty, mighty man he was, ever changing always the same. But that has nothing to do with this screed. I am here to talk about my second solo record.

The record is finished and will be available any day now. It is called “I Am Back To Blow Your Mind Once Again”. No false modesty, maybe no modesty at all, I once saw an orangutan try to break into a box of live lobsters on Hollywood Blvd. That blew my mind. I am hoping my album does the same for yours. If you can’t find it at your local small retailer the best way to obtain it is on the web at littleaxerecords.com. They will be taking orders soon and the record should be available to ship by the end of the month. This being indie world all dates are approximate.

The last record I put out I gave the working phone number of the record company as a contact point. I got a panicked phone call at 12:30pm the next day from Eric who owns and manages Mississippi Records. He was completely freaked out, their answering machine was full and the phone was ringing every 15 seconds. In an outraged voice he told me, “We had to unplug the phone!”

A sane person might ask, who wants to be on a record label who unplugs their phone on the day of release because of too many orders? That person would be me. I spent over 30 years in what is laughably called the professional music business, and I came to the conclusion that there were 3 things that I loved: writing songs, recording songs, and playing songs. So that is how I run my business in conjunction with Mississippi Records: no interviews, no photos, no videos, no promo copies for radio play or reviews. The record is out there. It can be found. And I am pleasured beyond belief that 6,000 of you managed to find the last one. We have pressed up more this time so they should be easier to get. I am doing exactly what I love in exactly the way I want to do it.

I will be hitting the road in certain places this Spring, starting in February with Alejandro Escovedo. Keep up with REMHQ. It’s the only way I seem to be able to communicate regularly with the outside world beyond personal conversations.

-Peter Buck

“(You Must Fight To Live) On The Planet Of The Apes”:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Video: Dream Syndicate + Peter Buck + Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones Jam on ‘John Coltrane Stereo Blues’

Photo via Steve Wynn’s Facebook page.

This is crazy cool.

Peter Bucks hosts the Todos Santos Music Festival in the southern Baja region of Mexico each year (this was the third fest).

This year there was a major jam session on January 24, 2014 with The Dream Syndicate, Buck and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.

The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn writes on Facebook:

Ah, I had a feeling something would show up–and there it is. The Dream Syndicate playing “John Coltrane Stereo Blues” in Todos Santos last Saturday with John Paul Jones and Peter Buck (with Linda Pitmon and Josh Kantor) And check out JPJ’s solo around the 7 minute mark. Amazing–I was flashing back to seeing Led Zep at the Forum back in 1976.

Here’s The Dream Syndicate doing the Velvet’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” at the festival:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Watch: 3/4 of R.E.M. Reunite, Play “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville”

Photo via Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Last night three-quarters of R.E.M. reunited at Athens, GA’s 400 Watt Club and played a groovy version of “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” from 1984′s Reckoning.

Mike Mills and Bill Berry joined Peter Buck, who was there to perform with Kevin Kinney of Drivin’ N Cryin’. Michael Stipe was in the audience, according to a Twitter post by a fan who was there, but Stipe failed to take the stage.

Post-R.E.M. Peter Buck Talks About Vinyl Records, The Punk Revolution & Lots More

peter_buck

Peter Buck did a rare interview with Salon that was published today. The former R.E.M. guitarist and songwriter seems quite happy with his life. He’s working with musicians he digs, taking walks, writing songs and pretty much having a ball.

It wasn’t always that way. Buck says when R.E.M. disbanded, he was in a bad way.

“It seemed like everything occurred at once,” he told Salon’s David Daley. “I remember I felt really sorry for myself for a day or two, and then I thought, well, this is bullshit. I have got a million friends; if I was broke I could just call them and stay on their couches for 10 years. I still have whatever ability I had, which isn’t a lot. I’ve got great family, great friends. You know, I don’t have to work for a reason; there’s no need.

“I was just down. Disheartened when things end. When lots of things end — I was really sad when my kids went off to college. They weren’t.

“I’ve just got to remember who am I and consider what I’m going to put my time to doing. You know, I’m like a lot of people my age — music is not something I need to do 24 hours a day, but I want to continue to create. And I want to do things that are interesting and entertaining and fun.”

Buck still thinks back fondly on the days when he could introduce journalists to great unknown bands of the punk and post-punk era.

“We had bands open for us that we really respected.,” Buck told Salon. “At a time when no one knew who the Minutemen were, I would play tapes of them for writers in England, and they’d say, ‘This is amazing. This is a revolution happening right now in America and nobody’s paying attention to it.’ We’d talk about it, whether it’s Howard Finster or Flannery O’Connor. You know, we weren’t getting a lot of information either. I grew up in Atlanta in 1978, and every once in a while somebody would have a Melody Maker that was six weeks old.

“The B-52s went to New York and they would tell you things. I didn’t know them very well, but you’d hear, ‘Wow, there’s this great band called Gang of Four.’ My whole thing was whenever I would do interviews, I’d say, you know, it feels like there’s only 20 people in this town, but there’s 20 people in every town in America interested in these things. I’m still really good friends with a lot of them — Steve Wynn, Bob Mould. People who helped shape scenes where they lived.”

Buck recorded a solo album for Portland-based Mississippi Records and only released it on vinyl.

“Well, when R.E.M. went the way of all flesh — it was all amicable and we decided and we agreed 100 percent, but it left me thinking, well, I’ve been dissatisfied for a few years with what has gone on. So what don’t I like? And I sat down and made a list of things I like and a list of things I don’t like. The things I don’t like had nothing to do with music — it was all the other stuff. The business part of it, and you know, the interviews. I’ve only done five in the last five years. I don’t promote my own stuff with interviews because I don’t need to. But for years I’ve been saying I hate the way CDs sound, and on top of that I don’t like records that are made on Pro-Tools, even though that makes it easier. So I went all the way to the other side. I’ve been lucky enough where I don’t have to make a living making records. So I can do it exactly the way I want to — and if that’s seen as exclusionary, that’s OK, but you know, you can order the records.”

For more, head to Salon.