The Next Big Thing

Playlist: It's been about two months so I figure it's about time for another playlist from this end. Been on a serious Flamin' Groovies bender once again, a re-occurring habit of course, with their Sire-era material gettin' the most frequent spins on the Hi-Fi. Too bad this material is currently hardly available in any decent format, with the Groovies' Greatest Grooves CD bein' a surrogate thingy at best as it omits such eternal faves like Take Me Back and Good Laugh Mun. It's such an obvious job for Rhino to put matters straight here, but maybe they're too busy compiling more Grateful Dead box-sets. Anyways, besides the above two, Between The Lines, I Can't Hide and You Tore Me Down round up my current Groovies top 5. More pop tunes; Chris Stamey - The Summer Sun, Chilton produced masterpiece that works especially well in these dark days before christmas. Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing, their first and best, with Nick Lowe at the controls they turn this Ray Davies song into a big Spector-ish production job, easily one of the best girl group 45s of the 70s along w/ X-Offender. Bram Tchaikovsky - Sarah Smiles (original 45 version), a minor radio hit over here way back in the day that still blows me away every time I hear it, what ever happened to Bram?. Nomads - Crystal Ball, our Swedish friends at their poppiest , best spun back-to-back w/ the Ramones' Poison Heart. Dwight Twilley Band - Sincerely, genius 1975 psychedelic-pop masterpiece, backwards guitars 'n all. On to the other stuff; Turbines - Wah-Hey, pulled this out after hearin' the A-Bones version again on the recent 2CD set, way big soundin' twang w/ a chorus that's perfect to sing along to when drunk. Blues Explosion - Burn It Off, the perfect tune to get elderly Stones fans out of their self-inflicted coma, would have been a highlight on Exile On Main Street. 22-20s - Devil In Me (see below). Paladins - Follow Your Heart, these guys often get a bit too workman-like, but this early 45 is easily their finest moment. Unholy Trinity - Rise To The Occasion (mini LP), recommended by Mark Giddens in response to my last playlist, I scored a copy of this for 99 cents on eBay. When the Sid Presley Experience split all attention focused to the Godfathers, but the other remaining SPE members came up w/ this pretty solid, but completely overlooked, 6 track disc. Most of the material stems from the SPE setlist if memory serves me right and only suffers from a typically weak 80s production job. Good stuff tho' (thanks Mark!). More general, the followin' have been doin' the 33/45 rounds as well; James Brown, CCR, Boonaraaas, Poison 13, Carl Perkins (nothin' beats his country weepers on Sun!) and in tribute to the recently departed Errol Thompson such long standing reggae faves like Culture's Two Sevens Clash, the African Dub series and Prince Far I's Under Heavy Manners. That's it for this go 'round, more as it happens...