Scott Kempner celebrates a birthday today. Here’s some extremely rare vid of him during his brief reign in 1980 as the guitar god in the Helen Wheels band. Thanks to the videographers at the Local East Village blog for hanging on to this stuff for 30 plus years!
— Salvi C.
Feb. 1 means two things to us in DFFD land: 1, winter is halfway over, and more importantly, B, we have an excuse to run a couple more of these fantastic pictures from the Dictators’ first-ever New York concert, which took place at the Capitol Theatre on Feb. 1, 1974.
Photos are property of Ross Friedman, and are not to be reproduced without his permission.
— Salvi C.
Filed under Dictators Assembled, Live
Happy Birthday to HDM!! Here’s proof that “The Handsomest Man in Rock and Roll” was not just an empty boast. Be still, my heart.
— Salvi C.
Can you imagine how great this might have been? When two guitar monsters face off, declare “we don’t need no stinking vocal mics” and rip through instrumental versions of “Rambling Rose” or “Science Gone Too Far?” Maybe they trade off on the long instrumental break that used to be the prelude to “Two Tub Man,” or dust off “Interstellar Overdrive.”
It could have been a gig for the ages. Unfortunately, Reality kicked Imagination’s a** yet again, and it was merely your garden variety rent party. Brother Wayne had just left Gang War, and was in dire straits financially, allegedly reduced to sleeping in abandoned cars on the LES. Ross had just left Shakin’ Street, and the Dictators reunion, which had kicked off the previous November, was on hold for another few weeks until Richie Teeter cleared his calendar.
RTB’s recollections of the night were succinct — “Wayne did most of the singing. We did some MC5, some reggae.”
— Salvi C.
Filed under Ross the Boss, The Cincotta Archives
Beat the birthday drums for Dictators/Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom/MANITOBA percussionist extraordinaire, Thunderbolt Patterson!
Filed under PSA, Thunderbolt
Forget Springsteen, forget Diana, forget the Donald. There is only ONE Boss.
Filed under PSA, Ross the Boss
Leader: “Ah, Agents K and S. Report on your plan for Dictators World Domination. As I recall, 2011 and 2010 were very quiet. Was 2012 more of a success?”
Agent K: “Yes, Leader, in previous years, the stupid, stupid humans were resistant to our message, and activity was limited. But we consider 2012 to be one of the best years in many, and it promises future success, which will affect us in the future.”
Leader: “Elaborate.”
Agent S: “2012 saw the formation of the band Manitoba, which brought the loud message to people of the Northeast, Canada and Spain, and which will surely continue to spread the gospel of Faster and Louder. They will ring out 2012 with a huge show at the Bowery Electric on Dec. 31.”
Leader: “Excellent. Is there more?”
Continue reading
Filed under 'Tators Tracker, PSA
Had enough of being force-fed the same 10 Christmas songs everywhere you go? Here’s the perfect antidote, a cleansing for your musical palate. Add it to your mix CD for Xmas Eve with the family, and odds are good that “go tell the elves to f*ck themselves” will induce the Xmas lovers to shoot eggnog out of their noses.
— Salvi C.
Filed under Adny, Music Review
See what you might have missed in The Dictators Holiday Gift Guide!
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