April 2018 News

JOAN JETT fills out headliner list for Stampede night shows
from: medicinehatnews.com
By Medicine Hat News

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are coming to Medicine Hat this summer.

Jett has been loving rock 'n' roll since co-founding The RUNAWAYS in the mid-1970s, producing hits like "I Love Rock 'N'Roll," "Do You Wanna Touch Me?" and "Bad Reputation" along the way. In addition to The RUNAWAYS, Jett has been performing with The BLACKHEARTS for nearly 40 years and has spent time as a solo artist.

Joining JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS in Medicine Hat will be The Guess Who. The Canadian legends once led by Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman are known for their huge hits "These Eyes," "American Woman" and "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature." The current lineup of the band consists of D#, Will E, Garry Peterson, Rudy Sarzo and Leonard Shaw.

Tickets for the July 28, 8 p.m. show start at $69 all in and are available at http://www.mhstampede.com.

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS and The Guess Who replace Huey Lewis and the News, who had to pull out of the show as Lewis deals with the sudden loss of his hearing.

---

Live Nation announces $20 concert ticket deal
from: wcpo.com
By Allison Horn

KGTV) -- Concert goers can see select shows for $20, courtesy of a Live Nation ticket sale for National Concert Week.

The deal is offered between 8 a.m. on April 30 through May 8 on select shows, while supplies last. Ticket delivery and print-at-home fees are not included in the $20 offer.

Bands whose shows are part of the deal include:
[more]

---

Baseball!
from: noisey.vice.com
By Josh Terry

JOAN JETT, Ben Gibbard, Kevin Morby, and more give their thoughts on America's Pastime.

The 2018 Major League Baseball season officially kicked off on March 29, which like Tax Day and the music festival lineup announcements, is one of the surest signs that summer is almost here. Because of the inherent optimism that comes from the first few weeks of baseball, the words “Opening Day” can feel like Christmas to the most diehard sports fans. It's a month of endless possibilities like maybe winning the World Series or at the very least drinking several overpriced beers and eating lots of hot dogs outside.

In a lot of ways, music and baseball are pretty similar. They're both great uniting forces, able to facilitate cross-generational bonding: your first baseball game can be just as formative as the first record you bought. They're both also surprisingly meditative: There's something about the pace and sounds of the game that evokes the same nostalgia as hearing one of your favorite songs. On top of that, obsessive record collecting hits the same parts of the brain that filling out a score card or memorizing old baseball stats. While that might seem like a stretch, it's not off-base to say that baseball and music are extremely good.

It's no surprise then that a ton of musicians are also big-time baseball fans. These are the artists who schedule tours so they can catch games on the road, who watch games on their tour buses and vans, and hold their favorite teams in the same regard as the music that inspired them to make their own. Some, like Ben Gibbard, even wrote walk-up songs for players on their favorite team like Ichiro Suzuki while others like Chris Thile, even named some of his first albums after his love for the sport.

As Thile said in our interview, "One of the great things about baseball is that there's this massive mosaic of memories that comes from just thinking about the game. For baseball fans, the beginning of the season is that time for these memories.” He couldn't be more right. Though it's not a totally comprehensive list (for some reason no one who supports the New York teams were available to talk and because this author is a former season ticket holder for the Chicago Cubs, he subconsciously asked a ton of North siders to be a part of this roundup), each artist has their own unique perspective on the game with stories about their favorite baseball memories to boot.

JOAN JETT
Favorite team: Baltimore Orioles.
"I've been a fan for 48 years."

Favorite player:
"From back in the day: Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, and Jim Palmer. From the ‘80s and '90s: Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray. Now: Manny Machado and Adam Jones."

Favorite Baseball Memory:
"There are so many! There was the first live game I ever saw with my Dad and brother at Memorial Stadium - Aug. 13, 1969. Jim Palmer threw a no hitter. I was 13 rows behind home plate! There's also doing Fantasy Week with the Orioles in 1992, singing the national anthem for Cal Ripken's record breaking game, and just going to random games on the road with The BLACKHEARTS."

Joe Casey of Protomartyr
Favorite team: Detroit Tigers
"My Dad was always into baseball. He used to sit in his chair and listen to it on the radio and keep score with stacks of scorecards he'd keep around the house. I played a little bit when I was kid. I was terrible at it but I stayed at it in little league. I played outfield because there wasn't too much skill involved. I fell off from baseball when I was a teen but got really back into the team when Jim Leyland became manager in 2006. I've been a fan ever since.
[more]

---

Celebrations kick off at Rock Hall with special screening of JOAN JETT documentary
from: fox8.com/
By LEIGH ANDREANI



CLEVELAND-- Celebrations are in full swing at the Rock Hall as the 33rd Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction is quickly approaching.

The Rock Hall kicked off festivities Friday night in a special collaboration with the Cleveland International Film Festival.

A large crowd enjoyed a special screening of the documentary, "Bad Reputation," which follows the life of rocker JOAN JETT.

The documentary highlights everything from the early days of Jett's career with the band The RUNAWAYS to her success fronting The BLACKHEARTS.

"We were very fortunate to have this brand new film with JOAN JETT explaining her career, so between the inductions and this great new film, all the stars aligned this time," said Todd Mesek, the Vice President of Marketing at the Rock Hall.

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS were inducted into the Rock Hall in 2015.

Saturday is Celebration Day at the Rock Hall, which means fans can get into the museum for free.

---

JOAN JETT talks about Times Square movie similarities and being Screen-Tested
from: youtube.com
By C.C. Quinn

---

'New Wave: Dare To Be Different' on Showtime Is Fun If Faulty Look Back At Pioneering Radio Station WLIR
from: decider.com
By Benjamin H. Smith



I hate putting on my old man shoes (A.K.A. New Balance 992s), but lemme tell ya, when it comes to discovering cool new music, you kids got it easy. Everything in the history of recorded music is but a keyboard click away, while nearly 70 years of rock n' roll culture is continually being mined by music blogs, music supervisors, and boutique record labels, turning obscure bands from yesteryear into critically lauded touring artists. Before the Internet, if you wanted to hear anything outside the mainstream, you had to hunt it down via fanzines, tape trading, and college radio stations whose signals were so weak you had to continually turn the dial to tune them in.

One of the first commercial radio stations in the nation to try to break the grip of dinosaur classic rock programming was Long Island's WLIR. Years before the grunge bands ushered in the alt rock heyday, before Green Day brought pop-punk into every living room, "The original new music station" showcased British post-punk, American new wave, synth-pop, indie rock, reggae and other music you wouldn't hear outside of record stores, rock clubs and college dorms. The 2017 documentary New Wave: Dare To Be Different is a fun, if faulty, revisionist history of the station and its legacy, airing on Showtime.

Founded in 1959, WLIR 92.7 was the first stereo FM radio station on Long Island, the seemingly endless run of suburbs and farmland east of the New York City borough of Queens. In the early 1970s, the station adopted the progressive rock radio format (not to be confused with the genre), playing album tracks by contemporary rock bands of the era. Because of their location outside the city and competition from other area stations, WLIR struggled to attract listeners and advertising dollars. "We had to do something," says DJ Denis McNamara.

On August 2, 1982, the station switched over to the New Music radio format. Longhaired classic rock bands were out, funny haircuts and synthesizers were in. DJ Steve Jones called the switch "an earthquake of seismic activity," while old school Long Island rockers like Blue Öyster Cult and The Good Rats considered it a betrayal of the highest order. The old motto of "Long Island's Original Rock Station" was replaced with "The Station That Dares To Be Different," hence the documentary's title.

WLIR soon became a beachhead from which bands operating throughout the greater post-punk diaspora could launch their careers in proximity of the United States' major media market. DJs and show producers would go on record buying trips to England or work directly with distributors to get the latest imports. Many British artists got their first American exposure on the station, making their ramshackle offices in Hempstead a crucial tour stop to plug a new record or club date.

Though the documentary's title name-checks new wave, the genre was actually on the wane by the time WLIR switched formats. Indeed the station itself preferred the terms "new music" and later, "alternative." Their playlist may have included '70s holdovers and local heroes like Blondie, the Ramones and JOAN JETT, but it was soon flooded with a deluge of British acts, be they video-centric pretty boys Duran Duran, the synth-pop of Depeche Mode, or mopey rockers like Echo & the Bunnymen and The Cure.

Despite it's new found success, the station continued to struggle financially. Employees joke that the call letters stood for "Low Income Radio," and recount how they would rush to cash their paychecks early in the morning, lest the money be gone by afternoon. Meanwhile, an entire suburban club scene sprouted up on Long Island, with WLIR-sponsored events featuring the music they helped popularize. This gives the station's now-middle aged fans a chance to nostalgically reminisce about the haircuts and antics of their youth.
[more]