by quarantoons | Apr 13, 2021 | Music
If you were a young guitar player growing up in Philly in the 70s (like me), you were a fan of Hendrix, Page, all those guys, but Todd Rundgren was The Guy – the local hero made good. After two albums with The Nazz, TR struck out on his own with a string of solo...
by quarantoons | Apr 2, 2021 | Music
This tune from The Cars’ debut album was never released as a single, but ended up getting nearly as much airplay as the singles. I’d already finished the track with a synth bass, but it felt like it needed a little more human feel, so my bud Tommy Dolan...
by quarantoons | Apr 1, 2021 | Music
There are some songs to which the term ‘atmospheric’ definitely applies, and this is one of them. This track from Australian band The Church’s 1988 album Starfish was the band’s biggest hit in the States, and won Single of the Year at...
by quarantoons | Mar 29, 2021 | Music
This one’s been in the works for a few weeks, and with good reason… I’m always thinking of how far we can go with the choice of songs with this site, and in between the rockers I always like to do something a little more ambitious. So I reached out...
by quarantoons | Mar 26, 2021 | Music
When I got it in my head to cover this Post-Punk classic by London, England’s The Godfathers, the first person I asked to help me do it was my friend Scott Bittner. It’s got everything you need – snarling guitars, a soccer-worthy singalong chorus,...
by quarantoons | Mar 23, 2021 | Music
This song by former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown has always intrigued me – from the opening orchestration I was hooked. The song didn’t really do much here in the States, but in England it won the NME award for Best Single of 2001. The lyrics are an...
by quarantoons | Feb 25, 2021 | Music
When John Genua suggested doing a Green Day tune, I was all in. We decided to do this track from Dookie, with John singing lead and playing lead guitar, me on bass and rhythm guitar (and all 9 words of the background vocals). When I worked in a band with John, I...
by quarantoons | Feb 23, 2021 | Music
Here it is – the 50th song we’ve done for this project! And on such an occasion, we figured ‘Why not swing for the fences?’ So Tommy Dolan and I decided to tackle the opening track from Radiohead’s iconic 1997 album OK Computer. This one...
by quarantoons | Feb 5, 2021 | Music
This one goes back to the near-beginning of the Stones’ extensive catalog – from the 1965 Out Of Our Heads album, and the B-side of the ‘The Last Time’ single. I was thinking of the epic West, Bruce & Laing 13-minute version of the song...
by quarantoons | Feb 4, 2021 | Uncategorized
It’s with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Danny Calvagna due to the COVID virus. Danny was one of the biggest contributors to this site, having done three tracks last year. I’d originally approached Danny with the idea of putting a wicked...
by quarantoons | Jan 25, 2021 | Uncategorized
I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon, and I’ve been thinking about doing this 1966 garage rock classic by The Count Five for a while, so I dove in. I went after the loose feel of the original, so I kept the takes to a minimum and let a few clams slide....
by quarantoons | Jan 22, 2021 | Music
When Billy Kohout suggested doing this classic by Bill Withers, I couldn’t resist. I always loved the economy of the arrangement, so I stayed close to what was on the original – with the exception of adding a solo, of course. And Billy did a nice job on...
by quarantoons | Jan 19, 2021 | Music
I learned this Shooter Jennings tune for a gig I did with the band Stagecoach a couple of years ago, and it’s been a favorite since. After I got the track put together I reached out to John Genua, who helped out with harmony vocals and an acoustic guitar track....
by quarantoons | Jan 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
We’re kicking off 2021 with a song by one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever to walk the planet – Rockpile. This one’s a Rockpile tune through and through, even though it was released on the Dave Edmunds 1979 solo album Repeat When Necessary. I...
by quarantoons | Dec 26, 2020 | Uncategorized
Hendrix. He was my guy when I first got serious about playing guitar, and every single song was a new challenge. There’s some stuff of his that I still don’t know how to play after years of listening and studying, but I still like to give them a try. This...
by quarantoons | Dec 10, 2020 | Music
You can’t go wrong with a little Petty. The lead single off the Wildflowers album, it’s one of my favorites. The overall sound is so spare, but there’s a whole lot going on instrumentally. I had a little space to fill today, so I went down to the...
by quarantoons | Nov 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
This song from Bob Dylan’s pivotal 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited has long been my favorite Dylan lyric. Six verses, no chorus, with a lyric that contains poverty, disease, loose women, crooked cops, alcohol, drugs and New York City. What more do you need from...
by quarantoons | Nov 2, 2020 | Music
It was only a matter of time before The King showed up here. This song was a Top 5 hit for Big El in 1961, and it’s been covered by everyone from Ry Cooder and Robert Plant to Pearl Jam and Dwight Yoakam. I had a little downtime over the weekend, so I figured...
by quarantoons | Oct 25, 2020 | Uncategorized
I’ve had it in my head to do this song for a while. ‘Bus Stop’ was The Hollies’ first Top Ten hit in the US, and it’s always been my favorite Hollies tune. Since the song is so harmony-dependent, I asked Bob Sole if he’d help me...
by quarantoons | Oct 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
When Tommy Dolan and I did ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ a few weeks ago, he raised the idea of doing the other side of that double-A Side single, so here it is. We got a little help on this one from Rich Forman on keyboards and Robert Sole on vocals. This...
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