The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Going Live

It seems as though live podcasting all the rage of late. Marc Maron, Julie Klausner and Paul F Tompkins among others have recently hosted live versions of the podcasts to great acclaim and have netted millions of internet dollars in the process.

In my ongoing effort to prove that I can imitate successful people, I'll be doing the same. This Saturday, I'll be hosting the first ever Unblinking Ear Podcast LIVE at the Diamond in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

It will be much like my usual podcast, only instead of it being 45 minutes or so, it will run, I don't know, four to six hours. Other bonuses include:

• The songs I select will be played through a full sound system rather than your tiny computer speakers.
• Listening to said songs while drinking alcohol in the company of other living humans rather than alone in your dirty apartment, staring into the middle distance.
• The possibility of having a conversation with ME! (If you can get past my entourage.)

Another difference is that I won't be talking in between set over looped RZA beats to back announce the songs. The good folks at the Diamond are fans of my podcast but when they play it in the bar, they find the talking distracting.

What's that you say? That this is just a DJ gig and I'm trying to pass it off as something more grandiose and exciting?

You've got a lot of nerve, hypothetical person.

DJ Paul Bruno presents
The Unblinking Ear Podcast LIVE!
Saturday, November 5th
@ The Diamond
43 Franklin St
(between Quay St & Calyer St)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
10 pm
FREE!

Download the latest The Unblinking Ear Podcast

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Children By The Million...

...sing for Alex Chilton.

I'm quite certain there's no chance of me writing a better tribute to Mr. Chilton than the one Westerberg did many years ago. So I'll just note that the three albums he made with Big Star are indeed every bit as brilliant as everyone says they are and worthy of their legendary status. In fact, they cast such a long shadow that many seemed to resent Chilton for not remaking them in his (admittedly scattershot) solo career. At the very least, you have to hand it to Chilton for being a muse-follower rather than a crowd pleaser. Songs like "Walking Dead" and "My Rival" are among the most fucked-up rock n roll recordings you'll ever hear from a major artist, released well before that sort of willful deconstruction had any aesthetic cachet. (The collection Stuff, is as good an introduction as any to his solo work.)

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any performance footage of pre-reunion Big Star available, nor any of his prior band, the Box Tops, where they aren't miming. (Though this one pairs footage of the recording of their first album with a song from their third.) So here's LX, in the mid-80s, promoting his Feudalist Tarts EP by playing a few songs and giving a brief interview.