Ten Reasons To Love YouTube!

10. The Tourists "Immune To Life" (LIVE) 1979

Thanks to YouTube, we have the chance to catch up on bands we totally missed seeing thefirst time around. As much as this writer may have loved The Tourists as a kid, unless we actually grew up in Britain, we missed seeing them  on TV shows like Revolver.  Thanks to those who were kind enough to record such musical events at the time and upload them to YouTube decades later, those of us who totally missed such awesomeness are able to do some catching up.

The first thing you'll probably notice in this clip of the Tourists performing "Immune To Life" is that they seem to be performing to an audience of carbon-based robots.  If the second thing you notice is that the fiery blonde keyboardist looks a little like a punk-rock Annie Lennox, that would be because that IS a punk rock Annie Lennox playing keys in The Tourists.  The bassist is Dave Stewart, who would form Eurythmics with Lennox shortly after this band's demise.  Knowing their fate as we do only makes this clip that much more amazing.

9. The Sounds "Living In America" LAST NIGHT at Double Door

We had tickets to the show, but pulled our back muscle playing stupid co-ed flag football so we missed catching The Sounds Sunday night at Double Door. Never fear, Youtube is here.  Yep, thanks to the trusty online video host and one concertgoer with an iPhone (we presume), it's almost like we were there.

8. Thavius Beck "Chopping Samples" in Ableton Live 9.

Wanna learn the latest recording software, but hate wading through poorly-written manuals?  Thanks to YouTube and talented mofos like Thavius Beck, a popular recording artist who also doubles as an Ableton Certified Trainer happy to share his knowledge via real-world applications, thereby trimming your learning curve considerably and turning you on to things no manual would have taught you anyway.  It doesn't stop there, as there are thousands of instructional videos for every recording software package you can imagine. not to mention those showing you how to play the guitar, bass, drums, and so on.  

7. Boomtown Rats "Banana Republic" Live 2013

You just heard your favorite band has gotten back together, but you wanna make sure the original singer is in the band before you pay good money to catch their show when they come to America next summer?  In the case of Boomtown Rats, Geldof is indeed back with the band, having agreed to "get the band back together" last spring to help out a couple members who'd fallen on hard financial times.

Say what you will about the man best known for organizing Live Aid and the Band Aid sessions that yielded "Do They Know It's Christmas", he can still bring it live.

6. The Alarm "Reason 36" (Audio Only)

Can't find a copy of that UK-only B-side anywhere, not even on the band's deluxe reissues series, and are starting to doubt your own sanity?  Is it possible you dreamed the whole thing?  Of course not.  A quick search of YouTube will usually restore sanity, not to mention your belief in rock & roll.

For us, we'd long loved "Reason 36" from The Alarm and were dumbfounded by the song's absence from the band's deluxe re-issues of their catalog, each with tons of bonus tracks, but none of them "Reason 36".   Having unsuccessfully scoured every other source for hard-to-find tunes that we could think of, it was YouTube that would ultimately come through for us!

5. "It's Slade!" BBC Documentary (1999)

Did you know that the band that wrote "Cum On Feel The Noize", which Quiet Riot would cover years later, got its start as a skinhead band?  For we rock nerds who devour any rockumentary we can get our hands on, YouTube is a treasure trove of rock docs on bands famous and not-so-famous.  As far as Slade goes, they're a national institution in Europe, and rightfully so, but the answer to a trivia question everywhere else in the world.  Thanks to YouTube, though, we Americanos finally get to watch the band's BBC documentary from 1999 and have our minds blown by the awesomeness of SLADE!

4. NPR Story on Big Star from 2010

Are you just now finding out about a Big Star radio special that aired on NPR three years ago?   Granted, there's no video to speak of, but that doesn't stop YouTube from being a great source of radio shows and interviews on such great bands as Big Star.

See, for we big-time Big Star fans, even the tiny nugget of info or insight can be found in sources such as this that help us fill in the many blank spaces on our favorite bands.

3. Nada Surf live streaming performance and record-release party for "The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy".

You wouldn't think it possible, but YouTube is also capable of putting you there in real-time as your favorite band performs songs from their then-new album.  What next, YouTube, broadcasting gigs before they happen?

2. Off Broadway In-Store Appearance and performance of "Stay In Time" (LIVE)

There is history aplenty to be found in our own backyard by those having the foresight all those years ago to capture such events as a local in-store appearance by Off Broadway to mark the release of their second album, Quick Turns.  Mind you, this is completely fan-shot, which was a helluva lot harder to do back then, which makes such footage that much more amazing!

1. Cheap Trick 1980 Dress Rehearsal

For a generation of midwest rock fans, seeing Cheap Trick at Chicagofest 1981 was a pivotal moment.  The idea that we could one day be able to witness rehearsals for that performance, thereby catching a glimpse of the band's inner workings and watching new bassist Pete Comita wrestle a zebra-striped 12-string bass guitar.