OK, I'll tell you why I've been hardly prolific here in recent weeks; first up is the acquisition of various hi-fi elements like a new amp, speakers and a stylus for my trusty Torens, which has led me to enjoy such long forgotten experiences like actual stereo and low-end sounds. Aaah, the wonder! And there's always books to keep me away from this here blog of course. Moanin' At Midnight (Pantheon) by James Sergest and Mark Hoffman is a long overdue biography on the life and times of Howlin' Wolf. Extremely detailed and a true labor of love, this is mandatory stuff for any NBT reader. Let The Good Times Rock (Music Mentor) is a great collection of magazine articles and liner notes by Bill Millar. Sub-titled 'A fan's notes on post-war American roots music' it is is fact a lot more exciting than just that, with topics ranging from Benny Joy and Etta James to Young Jessie, Jerry Lee Lewis , Major Bill Smith, Link Wray and much, much more. This book serves as a virtual bible for those of us raised on Kicks magazine. Simon Reynold's Rip It Up And Start Again (Faber and Faber) will obviously be of less interest to most of you, as it documents the postpunk years 1978-1984 from a seriously non-rockin' POV. But as it is, I gotta admit that I really enjoyed reading this and pulled records from the shelves that I'd hadn't bothered with in the past two decades. Half of the music involved is absolute rubbish (remember ZZT, The Associates or "postive punk"?), but the general picture is refreshing enough to serve as fine follow-up to Jon Savage's England's Dreaming...

R.I.P.:Wally Tax.

In recent weeks, something that has pissed me off is the lukewarm to lame reviews of the new Stereo Total album, "Do The Bambi". Then some investigation turns up the news that they're bound for Edinburgh on Thursday the 21st of this month for a show at The Venue. A well kept secret but not for long... more later...

If you ever wondered what it might have been like to have Blue Oyster Cult collaborate with Zappa soaked on Primus to come up with a re-score of Carnival of Souls then Mike Watt's new opus "The Secondman's Middle Stand" might just offer such an insight. It's a complex, yet strangely amenable collection coming from a place that's decidedly off, away from any beaten track I've been down lately. Available now on Easy Action Records, a release date of June 13th is quoted on the blurb sheet but the man is at present on a lengthy European tour and if you hit up his SITE, then you can catch all the dates there. He's on the road until May 13th and in the UK between May 2nd and 7th (Mono in Glasgow on May 5th)then Ireland at the tail end. He'll be back with The Stooges to do festivals in the summer but I'd urge you to devote your attention to this project instead. Watt's "Stand" is a million miles away from crunching out what are now over-ripe standards in a field to lifestyle zombies that couldn't actually give a fuck. The package also includes a dvd which has two clips which you'll most likely never see on MTV. More's the pity...