My hands were shaking a bit as I sent the message. Was I really going to ask THE Steven Blush for an interview? I had to remind myself that despite the fact Blush has been such a prominent and powerful figure in rock n’ roll journalism, he has always been a really cool guy. But years have passed since I’d last spoken to him… years that resulted in him rising in the ranks from music journalist and founder of Seconds magazine, to published author and filmmaker. Would he agree to the interview? Would he return my message? Would he even remember who I was? Well, it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Blush is just as awesome as ever.

A New York native, Blush spent much of his childhood hanging around with his dad, who worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when “it was still a crazy, fucked up place,” according to Blush. He would stumble into bars like CBGB and the Lismar Lounge and rock n’ roll landmarks like Trash and Vaudeville, witnessing the rise of bands like The Talking Heads and later White Zombie and Circus of Power. Blush also lived in Washington, D.C. for a brief stint and got involved in the hardcore explosion out there. He began booking shows and deejaying.

The trailer for the upcoming biopic CBGB, based on the legendary NYC venue which became a musical landmark and showcased many first wave punk bands like The Ramones, Blondie, The Dead Boys, Television, and The Talking Heads, has been released online.

The movie stars Alan Rickman almost unrecognizable as the late bushy haired, paunchy club owner Hilly Kristal. Kristal, who started the club in the early 1970s first a Country, Bluegrass, and Blues establishment (hence the abbreviated of sorts moniker CBGB) and wound up taking on some of the disenfranchised bands and alienated youth of NYC and burgeoning states, showcasing them, in some cases even managing them, and unexpectedly created a revolution in noise that at peak level, became one of the most notorious, liberating, and stark white honest musical genres ever to rear its head in music history. The name affixed to this somewhat new genre of sound was punk.

Check out the trailer below.

CBGB, the legendary club which was a stomping ground for the original New York City punk scene of the mid-1970s, is back in the spotlight with a feature film starring Alan Rickman, plans for a traveling festival, and possibly a new venue.

Alan Rickman (Harry Potter) will star in CBGB, a feature film about the NYC club due to start shooting late summer, directed by Randall Miller and written by Jody Savin. According to the BBC, Rickman will play the club’s owner Hilly Kristal in CBGB, which will tell the story of how he opened the venue in 1973.

CBGB closed its doors in October 2006 after 33 years, but it’s now going on the road to scores of small clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn this July as part of a four-day festival named in its honor, according to The New York Times. The festival, which will sport film screenings, panels, and over 300 bands, will eventually culminate in a large Central Park Summerstage concert on July 7th and will showcase acts like post-post-post punks Rocket From the Tombs and 80’s hardcore group The Cro Mags, and other lesser known bands as well. The organizers modeled this new festival after Austin’s SXSW annual gathering.