Anything Could Happen: Tommy Stinson Talks Bash & Pop 2.0 –  Anything Could Happen by Bash & Pop released 1/20/17

Nothing not to like about the new Bash & Pop record.  Tommy Stinson, now safely nestled upstate in Hudson, got some pals together in his home studio with the intention of capturing the energy and power of a live rock n roll band.  This was in contrast to the last couple of solo efforts where he played everything and stitched pieces together.  Of course a few passes with the iron afterwards but in essence we’ve got a live in the studio approach with Stinson’s songs brought to life by a cast of diverse talented characters who each appear on a handful of tracks.  Notably, Steve Selvidge of The Hold Steady or Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi All Stars doing the heavy lifting on guitar and Frank Ferrer of Guns N Roses or Joe Sirois of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones pounding the skins.  It should be noted that some material was recorded in London as well while The Replacements were on tour.

The first question, maybe, to be answered then is why call this a Bash & Pop record when personnel-wise, the only common denominator between Anything Could Happen and 1993’s Friday Night Is Killing Me is Stinson himself.  The answer is the sound of the album and, somewhere along the line a remark was made about bashing it out.  The second question might be how does this album relate to that Replacements tour from the summer of ’13 to the summer of ’15.  Regarding that, first in case you missed it, it was amazing and it made a lot of fans blissfully happy. However, as Stinson remarks in the bonus video clip below when I asked him about his brother Bob, there was always going to be something intrinsically missing. Even with that as a given, he was ready to make a new Replacements album and he went into studios with Paul Westerberg and company on three different occasions to try. It wasn’t to be and Stinson turned the page.  Armed with a few songs he had penned with The Replacements in mind as a point of departure, Anything Could Happen, and it did.

Oh yeah, the show at the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday was killer and the interview was recorded outside WFUV, at Fordham University, on Friday.  Keep your eyes and ears open for the session recorded then that also included Steve Selvidge.  It will premiere, along with an interview that Stinson did with Russ Boris, on February 21st and will live on afterwards on the radio site.   

The Compulsions: Log Cabin Studio Session 2016

If you’ve spent a night in a NYC venue listening to a rock show over the last decade, you might have seen Rob Carlyle and/or his mates who have played innumerable gigs in dives, joints, clubs, and theaters across the five boroughs and beyond. The core lineup of Carlyle, Frank Ferrer, Richard Fortus and Sami Yaffa is featured on The Compulsions’ full-length debut, Beat The Devil (2011) as well as the follow-up, Dirty Fun (2015). However, the guys are in-demand session players so The Compulsions’lineup has been somewhat fluid.

Sami Yaffa did five year stints in Hanoi Rocks as well as the New York Dolls while Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer are members of Guns N Roses. Fortus joined up with Axl in 2001 while Ferrer came in five years later. Another key Compulsions contributor, guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, has also worked with Guns N Roses. He provides the fretwork on a trio of Compulsions singles slated for release in 2016: namely covers of Revolution by The Beatles, Shock Me by Kiss and Fascination Street by The Cure.

Carlyle pointed to Ferrer, who has a wicked resume, as his favorite drummer in town. He was pounding the skins during this session at Log Cabin – a beautiful place to record at 34th and 8th that’s part of the Manhattan Center complex that includes Hammerstein Ballroom. Ferrer was joined by Alec Morton who earned his reputation playing bass for Raging Slab for almost two decades. Morton is a relatively new addition to the crew although Carlyle had his eye on him for a long time as a potential co-conspirator. Hugh Pool, who played lead in this session, has won acclaim through his guitar work in Mulebone and was inducted last year as a master artist into The New York Blues Hall of Fame. Poole also works on the other side of the glass as co-producer, along with Carlyle and Ken Rich, of nearly every track the band has put out. A third Compulsions disc is currently in the works and should be released next year.