Kevn Kinney‘s music has always been lurking in the cobwebbed corners of your mind, even if you weren’t aware of it. After making the big move from Milwaukee to Atlanta back in the ’80s, he happened to be close to Athens, Ga., the birthplace of R.E.M., when that band was really catching fire. He caught the always-open ear of Peter Buck, who produced some material by Kinney’s band, Drivin N Cryin, which would latch onto a support slot for an R.E.M. tour. Fast forward to the new millennium, and Kinney has moved to Brooklyn, where he’s cut a fine solo record, A Good Country Mile, with Anton Fier and the Golden Palominos. The new disc somehow manages to fit Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Van Morrison under the same tiny leopard-skin pill-box hat. Kinney will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Kinney: Back in 1977 I created a fanzine called The Sheet. It was just a single
sheet of paper fanzine …
After going to a show, I’d type out a review on the old fashioned mimeo
drum hand cranked machine left over from my grandfathers days as a
union organizer …
This yearn for rock ‘n’ roll journalism eventually grew into a larger
more Village Voice monthly I co-founded with Dave Luhresson, now with
the Milwaukee Journal, called X-Press …
Now here’s the cool thing about owning a newspaper … free
records! … Here’s the bad thing …
it was the late ’70s and so we got a lot of free shitty records … a
lot of horrible disco
But I still remember the day when the Dictators‘ Bloodbrothers
came in the mail …
little did I know what a classic record I was holding in my hand, but what a
difference they would make in my rock ‘n’ roll journey … This is an amazing
record!
The Dictators were everything a boy from Milwaukee needed … I felt
like they were writing songs about my neighborhood …
smash you in the faces rock … I still stand up and raise my fist to “I Stand Tall”!
I knew New York loved their bands like the Dictators or the
Ramones but the Midwest needed them!
After moving to New York I realized just how similar Queens and
Milwaukee were. We have George Webb you have White Castle.
I don’t think they get as much credit as they deserve. Though I must say,
usually when people talk about the early New York rock scene you
also have the obligitory names like Ramones, Television, Blondie, Talking
Heads and I often have to interject … and the Dictators …
Maybe they were too early … they did shows with early, early Kiss, or
maybe they were not arty enough ….
Maybe it was there humility and code of honor “Fuck you, we are the
Dictators!”
I dont know, but I love them and I see them as an extremely vital and
important part of New York rock history.
Years later they released another album called Manitoba’s Wild
Kingdom! Amazing is the only word I know
Everyone has that band, that when you’re just not having your best of
days, you need to turn up as loud as you can
disappear into their raw power
When it first came out, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ would crank it backstage to get
ready …
The mad genius behind this fantastic New York Landmark is Andy
Shernoff … the brilliant songwriter from Queens and his band of
brothers like Richard Manitoba, lead singer and former wrestler from the
Bronx, and one of the most accomplished guitar players of all time, the
shredder, Ross The Boss!
I could go on and on but lets just say Dictators Forever!
Video after the jump.
