During my lost decade in Austin (2000-09), no band encapsulated my love for the city’s music scene like Grand Champeen. The first time I saw them was opening for Slobberbone at Lucy’s Retired Surfer’s Bar on 6th Street. It was the spring of 2001 and they were no more than 3 songs into their set […]
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The Vinyl File returns and it’s again focused on The Blasters. This was not intentional. I was recently interviewed by Peter Zimowski II of Now Spinning and as the name of his website might suggest, we discussed collecting vinyl and discovering music. If you wanna know how a 7-year-old boy solves the KISS vs. […]
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In August 1986, Phil Alvin released his debut solo album in the wake of The Blasters‘ unfortunate dissolution. They had one of the great first runs in American music history (roughly 1980-85), but with brother Dave jumping ship for X in March, not to mention pianist Gene Taylor quitting after a famously terrible gig […]
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