(Tenth in a series)After the somewhat diminished success of their second LP, ??Untitled??, it took three years to produce the next one, ??*L.P.*??. They switched labels, from Atco to the lesser-known East-West. After recording 14 songs for the new release, the “Friends” theme they’d thrown together in three days came back to haunt them when the show became a massive hit. For the full story
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(First in a series)This week's discovery of a few upcoming live shows, new website and a few new tracks on MySpace has once again put The Rembrandts, probably my favorite Power Pop or pop/rock group, on my personal radar. I have been following this duo for 18 years now, and here's the video and song that started it all:My apologies - the video is not the sharpest image, but the only one availab...
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(Third in a series)*Kim Fowley* was the manager (creator? exploiter?) of the all-female group *The Runaways*, where a young *Joan Jett* got her start. But after losing his grip on them, he discovered a new group, playing around L.A., to promote - *The Quick*, a powerpop quintet which was the first band to put a young *Rembrandt*-to-be Danny Wilde on record. (Stage name? You betcha! Danny was bo...
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(Fifth in a series)After Great Buildings broke up, Danny Wilde spent the latter half of the 1980s looking for success as a solo artist. The first solo LP, entitled ??The Boyfriend??, was released in 1986.His fellow Rembrandt-to-be, guitarist extraordinaire/singer/songwriter Phil Solem, came along (from *Great Buildings*) for the ride on that first LP, providing lead guitar and background voca...
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(18th in a series - for an index with links, click on dermahrk, upper left)After the release of their 4th album, Lost Together, The Rembrandts entered the current phase of their career. Most of their time is spent on solo projects, but they still play the occasional date together (this year they are doing some tour dates with Gin Blossoms). Many of these concert appearances are stripped-down ac...
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(Eleventh in a series)One of the three non-LP tracks on the Rembrandts' ??This House Is Not A Home?? CD single was this remake of "Money (That's What I Want)". Being such big Beatle fans, I imagine that's where their inspiration came from. But a quick trawl on AllMusic.com shows no less that 256 recordings released with this song, starting with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in 1961. It was w...
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(Second in a series)Note: the same song is present in the video, so I'm not bothering with the red-button version)
(Sixth in a series)The new Rembrandts website (therembrandts.net)has been a godsend to me. It includes a link to a free download of a Westwood One radio show from 1988 featuring Rembrandt-to-be Danny Wilde, live, in 1988. The attached track is from that concert and has never been studio-recorded and released on his solo LPs. But - on to the chronological. 1988 saw him signed to Geffen Records f...
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(Ninth in a series)After a pretty good public reaction to their first LP and singles, the second release by The Rembrandts was released in 1992. The title? *“Untitled”*, and playing on the artistic connection to their name, the front and back covers featured paintings. (Since then, *Rembrandt* has also become a toothpaste, but let’s not go there, even though there’s a tube of it in my bath
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(Eighth in a series) - Note: If you click on MORE, you only get a truncated version. Click on my name - only on my page can the full post be seen. God knows why.....So, finally..after 14 years of history I didn't discover until after the bug had bitten me, The Rembrandts released their first CD in 1990.You will discover that this fabulous duo seemed to have a difficult time coming up with grea...
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(Fourth in a series)The twosome that make up The Rembrandts – Danny Wilde (second right, above) and Phil Solem (leftmost) – first recorded together in a group called *Great Buildings*. After the breakup of *The Quick* (see last post), Danny reunited with the bassist/keyboard player from that group, Ian Ainsworth and, with Phil Solem and drummer Richard Sandford added, Great Buildings was born.
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(17th in a series. For an index with links, click on dermahrk at top left)After 4 years apart, during which time Danny released a new CD and two EPs of demos while Phil recorded with his band Thrush, The Rembrandts got back together in 2000 and began putting songs together for a new album, Lost Together. So far, this is the last of their albums of new material. Hopefully it will not be the fi...
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(14th in a series)Hey, it only took Sony 28 years to re-issue the one and only LP recorded by Great Buildings - the earliest pairing of Phil Solem and Danny Wilde, later to become the Rembrandts. But they finally did, a few days ago. So I can finally toss my burned-vinyl CDR and enjoy a cleaner version. And there's more good news - there is some interest in also releasing their second album, re...
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I have a lot of favorite guitar solos (Nowhere Man - Harrison?) but nothing beats Phil Solem and his solo in their hit "That's Just the Way It Is, Baby". It is so fluid, so melodic, so muscular, so....hard to play (believe me, I've tried!). I've seen him reproduce it live a few times and it is, and will always be, a thrill.Here's hoping these guys make some more new music soon. For anyone that...
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A little over two years ago we published a feature called Sound Tracks that aimed to highlight some of the most memorable and musical scenes in modern cinematic history with the intention of demonstrating just how important musical scores and soundtracks are to any given film and scene-- some of the most revered scenes wouldn't be as powerful without the music that accompanied the action. W...
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