And those “Teenagers”? Well they’re three-fifths of Suzy Y Los Quattro. Having missed their UK debut last May in Liverpool, I wasn’t about to miss out again. Imagine The Ramones fronted by Brenda Lee. Or maybe Debbie Harry with Screeching Weasel or indeed neither of those but you'll get the idea. Suzy Chain is the kind of performer that could have legions of young (and old) males crying themselves to sleep the way that some of my crew used to sob over Clare Grogan. There’s a risqué innocence (or should that be innocent risquéness) about the way she prowls the stage, cute as the proverbial button. These are infectious metallic teenage bubblepunk anthems. A cover of “Rock’n’Roll Love Letter” favours The BCR version over that of The Records. That small detail outlines these kids supreme-eority. Of course that’s not a real word but it ought to be. A fleeting visit by the aforementioned TV Smith feller during “New Church” was a nice touch also and added to the sense of occasion. 
The KING BROTHERS:
"All hail, kits'n'kittens!
In keeping with the ongoing 30th anniversary of “punk rock”, I'm duty bound to impart the news that Issue #1 of NBT came out on the fateful April Fool’s Day of 1977. Having given much consideration to whether or not there'll ever be another printed edition then the verdict is no. Not only does little of the infrastructure with which it was distributed exist but it'll be kinder to trees. The folder/binders that were going to be employed in the "Who Will Save Rock'n'Roll" project will be donated to a school or to one of those scrap stationery type places. It's all just clutter and I don't have the wherewithall to put myself into hawk again. Not so much an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint, more a rare burst of common sense. My thanks to you folks out there that give a damn, who visit this outpost despite my deficiencies in the communications department. There will be no commemorative digest but gracias for asking.
Sorry if it takes a wee while to download to your browser but I couldn't get it to be anywhere near legible in any smaller format. You can click on the particular images to open them in order to read it. Incase you can't crack the scrawl, here's a transcript... beware though, it contains language not suited to the sabbath day, but it's all part of the experience. Like gobbing at the band!
"Dear Shit-Face, here's your pathetic shit-rag back. Sorry, I wouldn't wipe me arse on it. Oh yeah, I offered the Dead Boys a chance to step outside and the pitiful morons were too fucking scared to try it. ANYTIME you want to try it - come right up to the NME + I'll put your teeth down the back of your throat, you middle-class turds. You have no chance of ever doing anything - if you try making a career as writers, you will starve to death. If you weren't so pathetic you'd be funny. What a bunch of wankers you are. Fuck off wankers. Tony Parsons. TURN OVER TURD (Yes there's more!!) The Ramones, Dead Faggots + Blondie all think your "assessments" are correct because you are grovelling sycophantic arse-lickers. Good luck with your "writing". Ha! HA! HA! Now fuck off, shit-face. "
HA! HA! HA! indeed you tumchie, ever get the feeling you were an elmer?
It's some time since I saw Camera Obscura. Since then they've traded up and non-stop in pretty much that order. They've managed to shake off the popular misconception of them being a companion piece to Belle and Sebastian. I think that their recorded work is actually more consistent. And, for me, so are the songs. But anyway, a packed Liquid Room is indicative of a band whose star is in its ascendancy. There's something very "Swedish" about the delivery and inherent charm. At their best, CO deliver understated pop/folk in the tradition we've come to expect from Scandanavia. Tracyanne Campbell has an inflection in her vocal style that is practically exotic considering her Glaswegian origin. The fact that they recorded their latest album in Stockholm is purely coincidence. If I have a criticism, there was a bit too much changing of guitars, the gaps need to be tightened up. They could have added another song to the set in the time that was spent futzing around. That said, they’d just been re-joined by one of their number so maybe it was just a glitsch. Now that The Beautiful South have called it a day, there's no reason why these folks couldn't enjoy that level of success.
The last Thursday of the month, you say? Why, then SUSQUEHANNA INDUSTRIAL TOOL & DIE CO. must be at OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD this week -- and with a mischievous baby on board, as in THE BABY MARIA! Yes, we'll be joined by our favorite little gypsy as we take to the Otto's stage for our regular monthly delivery of hillbilly "ballads, boogies & blues" -- all the while knowing that we'll be off and afar for the month of April and won't return to Otto's until the merry month that is May...
I’m listening to Amy Rigby’s extended 10th anniversary version of “Diary Of A Mod Housewife” and wondering why it doesn’t enjoy a place in the rock pantheon next to something like the first Boston album. There’s still time I guess and the sooner that comes the better. Oh yeah, I discovered this via her Little Fugitive blog. Amy has a way with finding this stuff. And in the course of the day to day, the past couple of weeks has turned up the latest albums by some of my favourite combos on the planet right about now.
It’s a little over two years now since I saw The Boonaraaas tear up the Lolitabar in Kassel. The show as part of Punk Kongress rekindled my faith that there is cool stuff out there despite what the established comics would have one think. So I’m standing watching these four German girls blast out the coolest line in teen garage pop that you could possibly imagine. I recall telling Andy Shernoff that I’d found the group that I was gonna give The Debs song that one had decided wouldn’t be passed to The Rezillos. Well anyway, their new “5 Steps Ahead” album is out now on Sounds of Subterrania, a label that, as the fates would have it, is based in Kassel. I’ve already reviewed the album for the next issue of The OX and you know how I feel about ‘em so let’s not labour the point. If you need to hear before you buy then you can scratch that itch by visiting their myspace page. They have the look, the energy and the songs to make it seem like maybe all is not yet lost. And they haven't even gotten to that song yet! 
Konie is the missing link between Moby and John Carpenter. His filmic soundscapes embrace a fundamental rock’n’roll sensibility with a krautrock marinade. The result is anything but synthetic or outright electronic. The shards of the conventional and downright odd intertwine to arrive at a shimmering new strain of themes from imaginary and imagined soundtracks to life and the situations of living in these peculiar times. The church organ sound in “Skilsmässa” is immense and “I’m Just Another Boy” reminds me of “truck train” period Pastels. There’s an early Roxy Music vibe to the noises that this guy manages to exact from his musicians. Something soulful that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to emit from such technology. “The Club Is Open” is yet another Razzia release (you can hear "History/Science" on their myspace) that defies any discernable pigeonhole. “My Life Is Shit But I Am Funky” smells like a hit to me and would make a great T-shirt/bumpersticker slogan into the bargain. “The 1000 Piece Puzzle” is like Vic Mizzy Vs Badalamenti battling to provide a tune to open a sixties ITC series. Like a bizarre world version of The Persuaders. And hey, any album that has somebody called Sonny Boy Gustafsson on it has to be worthy of your support.
So while we’re on the subject of music that doesn’t quite fit the crash, bang and wallop of our general fare, let’s sort you out with “Coachmania – The Coachmen on Holiday in Septimania”. It seems as though JD King met up with the folks from Septimania and decided to have a post-prog, no-wave hoedown. Strangely ambient and ambivalent folk forces are at work here and I’d venture that this is more accessible than “American Mercury”. That’s said, it’s far from the beaten path of what largely passes for popular music. Released on Jonathan Thomas’ Commodify This! Imprint, Coachmania, like Konie, instills recollections of the stranger aspects of Eno-period Roxy. The liner notes are great and go some way to explaining this meeting of some very abstracted minds. “Ballad of Furious Moe Howard” is somewhat Martin Rev-headed.
So in addition to making it’s platter debut on the Munster two x footlong, The Nomads “Ain’t No King” is available on a split 45 with The Sweet Zeros, pressed on fetching but not hot pink vinyl in a limited edition of 666 copies by Devil’s Jukebox. The Zeros deliver a fine line in short, sharp punk snot and the flip should require no introduction to visitors here. While you’re at it, grab a slice of their “City Slang” on white vinyl 7” also. The “A” side plays at 33 but you can’t have everything and this is a classic, must-have song. Flip is “Electrophonic Tonic”. These are culled from “Too Much Crank” an album also out on DB. It’s the sixth cd from the Easy Action box struck in pristine white 180g plastic and it’s a smoker.
Back yonder I was reminiscing about Kassel and on the same night as I was introduced to The Boonaraaas, I also became acquainted with CZD. A combo from Ljubljana that quite simply have to be seen to be believed, combining almost polka-like formations with a pure adrenalin attack. They’ve recently made “The Constitution” available in a pressing of just 300 copies. Recorded live in their rehearsal space last November. Dušan Hedl is a man of intense vision and his combo could well conquer far beyond their Slovenian borders. This is proper world music for the taking courtesy of the folks who run the Center for Dehumanisation via Front Rock Records.
The same label has also released some live Pankrti recordings from 1977 and 1982. Completely indispensable for students of punk rock as a phenomenon that spread way beyond the confines of the UK. It indicates the band coming together as a raw reflection of what was breaking out across the world and gradually becoming tighter. “Behind The Iron Curtain – Live” provides conclusive proof that this music was the last proper expression of individualism. Before the advent of brands and identikit music that has been manufactured to satisfy a limited demographic. Grab these now while you can.
We live in peculiar times. The expression"Kick Out The Jams" has been absorbed into popular culture. I wonder how many people who are involved with this thing have actually even heard of the MC5 let alone "kicked 'em out" to the strains of their almighty roar. But anyways, this is a local thing and I think an interesting example of how kids are returning to what was pigeon-holed "classic rock". ie, made before last week. It's like punk never happened. If you look at their myspace listings there are a lot of old dinosaurs in there rubbing shoulders with bands that have made careers out of aping said combos. Here's the info...This all reminds me of a dvd project I received from my friend Žiga from Llubljana Rock City recently. Džumbus explores some of the same terrain.
"Detached Youth" sounds like a lost band from 1977 but now it's a local government project. Life continues to pull faces behind the back of art. As it was in Gran'paw's day...
Mr Spence wishes it to be known that... IT'S THE STARFUCKER GARAGE PUNK ROCK'N'ROLL 
hello!
"Say, could it be that there's a touch of spring in the air? SUSQUEHANNA INDUSTRIAL TOOL & DIE CO. has got a seasonal dose of something, alright -- being freshly returned from a recording session in rustic Ohio with the good folks at Ropin' Records. We're not exactly sure what all that fresh air did for us, but perhaps you'd care to join us and see for yourself?
So it’s Sunday afternoon and maybe it’s time for something that’s a little more sedate. Something to stave off the thought of Monday. And there’s nothing better for that than Maia Hirasawa's debut album "Though, I'm Just Me" on Razzia. The title is something of an understatement. There's a broad base of potential appeal here which straddles your average demographic. In Maia-world, you can take a step back and just let the classic pop craft do the work. Her exotic accent is a result of being Japanese, living in Sweden and singing in English. This album contains 11 songs and is out on April 4th. 
Scientists shows in Australia and Europe, coming up to promote the new live album "Sedition", recorded at the Shepherd's Bush Empire last year. It's coming out on the ATP imprint.
Whilst some folks are still getting to grips with “The Tiredness”, I’ve been getting deeper into The Raunch Hands “Big Topp”. Seems to me that Chandler sounds more like the old Jimmy O than the guy himself. Some will argue that Mariconda is no Ron Asheton but that’s got sod all to do with it. As dirty ol’ rock’n’roll goes, few have delivered it stinkier than these guys over the years. I mean that in the most positive sense of the expression, like bad = good and all that drift. What this really is of course is a cut and shut of RH with The Stepbrothers. 
Hi everybody,
