RIP - JUDITH DURHAM (THE SEEKERS)

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THURSDAY AUGUST 18th?

 

KNBT 11 - ONE LOUDER (SLIGHT REPRISE) ENTIRELY FOR EDJUMUCATION PURPOSES ONLY

 

Lost Highway (intro) The Zantees (Bomp/Charly)

 

Endless Weekend The Golden Horde (Mother) 

Wrong Side Of Town The Prize (Anti Fade) 

Dumb Me Down The Dahlmanns (Pop Detective) 

Hey Diana Screeching Weasel (Striped Music) 

Nothing But Trouble Kid Gulliver (Red on Red) 

Feel The Gas Hormiga The Ant with Paty Critter (Bandcamp) 

Alex Turner Ginebras (Vanana) 

Reza a Dios Grasias (Vanana) 

New Jersey Rock ‘n Roll Ben Vaughn (Relay Shack)

 

9,999,999 Tears Dickie Lee (RCA)

 

Silverbird Mark Lindsay (Columbia) 

Lo ho in mente te (I Have You In Mind) Equipe 84 (Ricordi) 

Tugboat BMX Bandits (with Angel Corpus Christi) (Elefant)

 

Caliphate Hate DANG!!! (Apollon) 

Eleven (They Will Never Solve) The Shangs (JudiGee!) 

El Boogashake Mario Allison Y Su Combo (Vampisoul) 

Heart and Soul Bobby Mizzell & His Rockin' Piano (20th Fox) 

Let’s All Dance (Our Last Summer) Lola Dutronic (Bandcamp)

 

Stripper Sohodolls (Loser Friendly) 

Lost Highway outro The Zantees (Bomp/Charly)

CALIPHATE HATE - THE DANG!!! VIDEO THAT SHOULD NOT BE WATCHED BY THE PROFESSIONALLY OFFENDED. ALL CONTENT COMPILED FROM YOUTUBE CLIPS YET THOSE BUGGERS BANNED IT

DANG!!! - Caliphate Hate (Official video) from DANG!!! on Vimeo.

YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COMBO!

THE SOUND OF YOUNG ARENDAL

AWFUL DISCLOSURES OF THE PRIMO PUNK ROCK PERSUASION

“The Awful Disclosures of Screeching Weasel” is the latest instalment from the oft copied, never equalled exponents of anthems for any generation worth their salt, a rare case of still ‘having it’ and being in total control of their own destiny. This one features Ben’s son Joe on keyboards here and there that adds a harmonic to the fray that really sets it apart. The heyday Alice Cooper/Ramones fusion hinted on “Baby Fat (Act 1)” is now fully formed. Guitars skirl like bagpipes here and there throughout and there’s no way I can play this as loud as I want to in the house. Surely I don’t really have to tell you how good this is. 

If you don’t and you’re one of those idiots that has some peeve with Ben Weasel then just move on along and indulge your delusion elsewhere. Feel free to fact check my opinion at Bandcamp or wherever but please go listen and don't (or try not to) be a divot. 

Favourites straight out of the traps are “In La Quinta del Sordo” and “Hey Diana” but the whole thing is over so fast that you just have to play it (on repeat). That might mean getting of your arse to turn the record over but you can likely deal with that.

European types hit up Striped Music.

EXHAUSTIVE DICTATORS COVERAGE WITH NIFTY TRANSLATION DEVICE (CLICK ON THE GRAPHIC)

 

RIP - LARRY STORCH

RIP - MANNY CHARLTON

IT'S A HIT!

LET FREEDOM ROCK...

EVERY YEAR ABOUT THIS TIME

ESPINAFEST - THIS WEEKEND!

 

VIA BROTHER DON CICCONE - NEW TO ME!

MEANWHILE, BACK IN 2016

MIDSOMMARTIDER!

FLESHTONES INTERVIEW FROM SERBIAN ZINE CALLED OUT OF THE DARKNESS BY MARKO PETROVIC

Marko offered this chat with Sir Peter Zaremba, he thought you'd like to see it... 

Hey Peter... is this your first interview for a Serbian/Yugo zine? 

PZ: Yes, this is my first time in the Balkan press! 

Tell me about your first encounters with Serbia or former Yugoslavia at that? I remember you telling me about watching Richard Burton as Tito back in the early 70s...under the influence of psychedelics if I am not mistaken? 

PZ: You didn't need psychedelics watching that movie but I recall me and my early musical collaborator Brian Spaeth were pretty high on some sort of mix. Burton made an excellent Tito, I'd have him play me if he was still around. The one and only time The Fleshtones played in Trieste we were put up in an old Inn. I soon realized that by cutting across some gardens and fields we'd be in then disintegrating Yugoslavia so of course, Ken Fox and had to go. The border guards barely paid any attention to us, their eyes were glued to their TV set. I thought they were watching a weather map but the map had all these little explosion icons all over it instead of thunderclouds, fog or sunshine symbols - they were actually watching where the war was breaking out. We just walked far enough into the soon to be independent Slovenia to buy ourselves some beers and fried calamari. I still have the left over Yugoslavian dinars from that excursion. 

I also know you're a big-time tennis fan and support Novak Djokovic. Of Course he's huge in Serbia but not universally loved. Some people don't like his safe, heavy on personal branding image. Plus, his dad and his wife are complete morons but love the limelight and that doesn't help his cause. Why do you dig him so much? 

PZ: Exactly for those reasons and he's not Roger Federer. Tennis can be a bit pretentious -even given John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. Novak is down to earth, well actually very eccentric, okay a nut but he's basically a good guy. Not that a sports star has to be a good guy or gal. I think maybe he could have planned the Adria Tour a bit better but what the hell, the condemnation he received was way over the top. My wife and I picked him for greatness very early on and it's satisfying to watch him do so well - and to confound his haters. Go Nolly, the perpetual underdog! 

Tell me how you got through the lockdown. Remember you telling me it was hard not being able to play shows first time since forever. The Fleshtones are known, amongst many other things, as a band that never had a non-active year since you started back in 1976. So besides doing the radio show for Little Steven what else kept you busy? 

PZ: We led a very pastoral life, really. Long walks in the country, I got my fishing rods all primed, and I started to learn all these songs and practice the keyboards. That lasted about two months then I said fuck it but we still took the walks. Oh, and I was working on a Count Zaremba French language song - I'm still working on that - a year later. French - it's a whole other language. As the lockdown started to fade into history (I hope) I kept feeling that it wasn't so bad after the hysteria died down a bit, it was quality time with the family, Something I'll remember fondly. 

Now that things are kind of getting back on track, with plenty of stops and starts, what are your plans with the band? USA, Europe and beyond... 

PZ: Well, by the time you read this we hope to have played our first post-covid shows in France, although a show or two were cancelled at the last minute due to new government restrictions. Then in September, we want to pick up where we left off with club dates here in the States. A new all-Spanish language Fleshtones 45 will be out in November, pressed at Jack White's Third Man Record plant. He knows what a rock and roll 45 should sound like – LOUD! Then finally, the postponed trip to Scandinavia. Who knows, maybe even our own 'Adria Tour' - hopefully without the vengeful press! 

I love your latest album 'Face of the Screaming Werewolf'. Give a little background info on how you came up with the idea for it. 

PZ: Thanks, I was hoping you'd like it. Our bass player, Ken Fox is way more into cheap horror flicks than I am. I just used to watch all this stuff, starting as a kid in the 60s, then in the 70s with my mentor Brian Spaeth (he plays sax on all our early records). Brian and I even started to film our own fake Mexican horror film that we planned to splice some random John Carradine footage into that we'd just film off the TV, but our ideas out-stripped our willpower and the footage we shot has been laying in box since 1974. Some shots pop up in some of our videos. Watch 'Beautiful Light' and pick them out. Anyway, Ken Fox sent me something on a movie by his favourite director Jerry Warren -'Face Of The Screaming Werewolf'. I just kept repeating the title over and over in my head - or saying it out loud to whoever was around. It had to be the title of our next album - and it inspired me to really try and guide what that album would sound and look like. Intellectually speaking, I've always been a real slacker. In all those years, I never put it together that all these crazy patched together movies exploiting an aging John Carradine we're all the work of one man – but of course it was Jerry Warren! Auteur de 'Face Of The Screaming Werewolf'. Besides, I also finally realized that Bruno VeSota is in all these movies -my favourite movie star all my life without me even knowing it! As Sonny Boy sang - 'don't start me to talkin'! 

My favourite tracks are the title song, Manpower Debut and the genius instrumental Swinging Planet X. Can you elaborate on those tracks? 

PZ: Genius? Sure I'll elaborate. Another cool thing about this record is that Keith and I started working on the songs together just like in the olden times. We'd sit around his kitchen table in his old Williamsburg 6-story walk-up (the legal limit) tenement and brainstorm. Since I already plotted to call the album 'Face of The Screaming Werewolf' we just needed some moody, atmospheric music which Keith already had. A little trip to the body and fender shop and voila! Same thing with 'Manpower Debut', Keith had the music but I think he also had the title. I added the 'Debut' just to fuck it up, and the lyrics. You can interpret them as you wish - a confession, a joke, whatever. 'Swinging Planet X' is an instrumental I've had in my head since - well before the band, maybe even the late 60s. I was really inspired to finally do something with it by watching Brian (Hurd) of Daddy Long Legs. I thought to myself "hey I play one of those things too!' Now I should add that besides being driven mad by the title 'face of the Screaming Werewolf' I had been doing a radio show (Arts & Seizures) with my buddy, the author Mike Edison (I Have Fun Where Ever I Go, Sympathy For The Drummer - Why Charlie Watts Matters - he was also in The Raunch Hands) We were doing our blues nightclub act 'Sharky & The Count'. Mike and I were hanging out listening to the (then) new Stones blues album and Mike said 'whatever you guys do your next album has to be fresh. The way 'Some Girls' was for the Stones. What Mike said really became my modus operandi for the album. 

I know that you, like myself, are a huge movie fan. One genre that I'm not familiar with are Mexican horror movies. As I remember they're your forte. I was re-reading Jodorowsky's 'My Spiritual Journey' and he mentioned his affair and subsequent conflict with the controversial singer/politician Irma 'la Tigresa' Serrano. Did you watch any of her movies? If not, where should I start? 

PZ: Quien sabe? Like I said I've always been intellectually sloppy. Irma Serrano? Jodorowsky? Maybe I've seen some of that. I grew up watching movies, on TV and in the cinema only we called it a 'movie house' but when your mom is taking you to see first-run Brando in 'The Fugitive Kind' and 'Synanon' (Chuck Connors) it's the same thing. Hell I remember watching creaky old talkies on TV like 'Disraeli' and 'Hallejulah!' (both great). I was happy to read that's exactly how Scorsese got his film education. Everything, I repeat everything was on TV – except promo of course. Now Mexican films? They're getting into vogue, no? Start with 'El Baron Del Terror' staring matinee idol Abel Salazar then even try the 'beloved holiday classic' Santa Claus directed by Rene Cadona. That has terrified generations of children. For Mexi-noir, Doloras Del Rio in 'La Otra' - later remade in Hollywood as 'Dead Ringer' (the only thing better about the Hollywood version was the title), and of course Luis Bunuel's Mexican work, top of the list 'Ensayo De Un Crimen' (Criminal Life Of Archibaldo De La Cruz). Enough? 

While on the subject give me your tips on movies, books, records that you have enjoyed lately? 

PZ: That question always makes my mind go blank - a good feeling, ask it again but I'm always insisting you watch this movie or that. Did you finally watch Gary Cooper in 'The Virginian'? I started to read 'I Burn Paris' again when the lockdown started but lost interest when the politics became too predictable. John Fante? But avoid all movie versions, even the ones he wrote the screenplays for! Donald Goines? Short stories by Conrad, Capote and de Maupassant? Especially de Maupassant. That's the best because there are a lots of them. As for music, I like the French groups Les Gry-Grys and Liminanas. Also the spooky Russian surf instrumentalists Messer Chups (although there’s only so much surf instrumental revivalism I can take in one dose) and of course Savage Beat! 

Hope to see you real soon! 

PZ: Likewise brother but the next time you invite me out for pizza, make sure we’re in the same country.

I LIKE THIS... REMINDS ME OF COMPULSION!

I'M WAY OVERDUE A VISIT TO THIS PLACE!

LAURA TIBURONA'S OTHER COMBO

IT'S ONLY TEENAGE WASTELAND...

9 DAYS TIL YOU NEED TO BE AT YOUR STATION - FUNTASTIC 2022

 

THE LATEST EXHIBIT AT LA FIAMBRERA, MADRID

 

CAMPAMENTO RUMANO - BACKDATED MUSIC FOR THE FUTURE FROM BILBAO

RIP - M. HENRY JONES

BRAND NEW TODAY!

FUNTASTIC IS SEVENTEEN GOING ON CRAZY!

LOLA'S SUMMER ANTHEM 2022

"I'M SO SORRY"... RIP JULEE CRUISE

GINEBRAMANIA!

JUST A LITTLE OVER A WEEK AWAY...

 

MAX CREEPS!

RIP - DJ MOONCUP (ELLEN PERCIVAL)

ANOTHER NBT...

KEEPING THEM COMING...

RIP - HOWIE "PYRO" KUSTEN

RIP - RIC PARNELL (ATOMIC ROOSTER/SPINAL TAP)

POST-PANDEMIC WOLFBANE

SCANDINAVIAN ROCK VIA MADRID!

AMY IN LONDON AT THE END OF MAY!

A HYMN

RIP - SUSAN JACKS (THE POPPY FAMILY)

KURT GOES ACKER (BILK)

KNBT10 – SIPPING CHAMPAGNE WITH A BIRD ON THE BIG WHEEL AND OTHER ADVENTURES!

Presented for entertainment purposes only, you are encouraged to support these artists and their work. Several generations need to be educated that there’s no such thing as a free lunch or music for hee haw. This title of this episode is a lyric from The Freshies song that pretty muckle represents my current mood.

KNBT10

Lost Highway (intro) The Zantees Bomp/Charly

Fiesta Electric Playboys Imposible

New Machine DANG!!! Apollon

Tin Foil Soldier The Hellacopters Nuclear Blast

Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham The Tremeloes CBS

Wrap Up The Rockets The Freshies MCA

Culo De Cuscús Grasias Vanana

Opinión de mierda Los Punsetes Canada

Wolves Big Russ Wilkins and Lightning Holling Bandcamp

Non Ti Lascerò The Courettes Wild Honey

Hang With The Girls Hoodoo Gurus Big Time Phonograph Record Co.

Tomorrow Came Today The Dahlmanns Beluga

El Grupo Americano Las Varonas Snap/FOLC/Delia

Get Us To The Eurovision Lola Dutronic Bandcamp

Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit Gina G Eternal

Dancing In My Mind Ben Vaughn Relay Shack

Supermujer Georgina WEA/Tool Music

23 Minutes In Brussels Angel Corpus Christi A&R

Avtryk Annika Norlin Razzia

Picking Up Beer Cans On The Highway Homer Henderson Lulie

Funny How Time Slips Away Billy Walker Columbia

Dracula YeYe Andre Pajares Munster

Do The Drongo! The Drongos Bandcamp

La Illusion del Ahorro Adefesios Discos AleHop!

Vote Those Fuckers Out Willie Gibson and Helen McCookeryBook Gare Du Nord

Lost Highway (outro) The Zantees Bomp/Charly

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR MADRID TICKETS!

THE WORD IS OUT - PLEASE SPREAD IT!

GREAT POP SONGS I NEVER HEARD BEFORE - AN ONGOING SERIES

COMING IN AUGUST - CLICK ON IMAGE TO PRE-ORDER

 

RIP - HOMER HENDERSON (PHIL BENNISON)

I DON'T RECALL EVER SEEING THIS!

BEN VAUGHN'S REALITY!

RIP - CHRIS BAILEY

KID GULLIVER IN MADRID - A MATTER OF WEEKS AWAY!

REWATCHING BETTER CALL SAUL

KNBT9 - BROADCASTING FROM THE PLAGUE BUNKER

Seems like I haven’t learned anything since my last one of these. 

I’ll qualify that with hating to babble because the music is what's important, introducing it to folks who might not know the stuff.

Click on the link below and you'll be transported to Mixcloud where all of these reside.

KNBT9

Lost Highway The Zantees (intro) Bomp/Charly 

14th Street Emily Spray Two Boots 

La Cuidad Huele A Sudor Ginebras Vanana 

Fall In Love Hayley Mary Via Bandcamp 

Rat Kinder Angst Kinderangst Music 

Kiss Of The Rat Nuevo Cateclismo Católico FOLC 

Soccer Sucks No Brains Plato Utrecht 

Won’t Let You Go The Courettes Damaged Goods 

Tura Satana Tiburona FOLC 

The Last Time The Dahlmanns NBT 

Gotta See Jane Ben Vaughn Many Moods 

I Started A Joke Kid Gulliver Red On Red 

Darkest Shade Of Dark Annika Norlin Razzia 

BBC Ming Tea Hollywood 

Tchang Tchu Yo Georgie Dann Discophon 

Blue Light Disco Mr Teenage Flightless 

White Beaches (French Version) Blue Violet Blue Violet 

Don’t Go Downtown Parlor James Discovery 

Baby Baby Baby Make The Girl Dance Roy Music 

Lost Highway The Zantees (outro) Bomp/Charly

RIP - BOBBY RYDELL

KID GULLIVER HEAD FOR SPAIN!

 

FIRST PRIZE! - THE PRIZE LIVE!!

RIP - JORDAN

IT'S HAPPENING...

 

THE COURETTES IN MRC!

A SHOCKER...

RIP - GAVIN MARTIN

THE UKRANIAN ANSWER TO THE BEN VAUGHN COMBO

THE GURUS COME FROM THE FUTURE

NEW LOLA

RIP - GARY BROOKER

ADEFESIOS ON BANDCAMP

RIP - DONNA QUATTRO

PLAGUE ISLAND JUNE 2022 - CLICK ON FLAVIA AND MARTIN FOR DETAILS

EXPLORE THE CANYONS!

LO LO LOLO LO LO LO LOLO! !

A SUGGESTION YOU MIGHT WANT TO FOLLOW...

FIESTA!

DADDY LONG LEGS BACK IN MADRID

REISSUE COMING VIA MUNSTER SINGLES CLUB!

MATT and KIM with K. FLAY

SUGAR AND TIGER 2022

ROLL ON SEPTEMBER

FROM OZARK SEASON 4 - PART 1

ON THE RAZZIA IMPRINT!

CHEAP THRILLS

BOOK YOUR COPY NOW!

UGLY UGLY PEOPLE REDUX

RIP - RACHEL NAGY

FORGOT ALL ABOUT THIS...

FEATURING SANDRA GINEBRA

RIP - RONNIE SPECTOR

RIP - BRUCE ANDERSON (MX-80 Sound)

JULY WEEKENDER IN "THE LONDON"?

IT'S A GAS!

FINLAND CALLING!

TWENTY ONE - PROOF THAT IT WASN'T ALL BAD.

I’m not really one for these end of year lists but a couple of folks asked me so what the heck... and there are links so you can hear for yourselves that these are worthy of your indulgence.

Absolutely my most played album of 2021, I discovered GINEBRAS via the trailer for a show called Sky Rojo in March of last year. My gateway drug was a version they’d worked up of a song that I since found out has had a trillion YouTube views called "Con Altura" by someone called Rosalía that I swear, I'd never heard of. Their interpretation just had a unique chemistry and down the rabbit hole I went. Turns out their debut album “Ya Dormiré Cuando Me Muera” (“I’ll Sleep When I Die”) consists of nine wall to wall pop gems. Ten if you count “La Cuidada Huele A Sudor” (“The City Smells Of Sweat”) which has a video just to make it even cooler. That last title is on the Edición Deluxe of their album on Vanana Records. GINEBRAS is getting more popular by the day and a friend I alerted them to from The Netherlands recently told me “The sense of pure and non-ironic joy they emit is very contagious”. They really seem like they like to have a laugh too whilst retaining the ability to knock out a damn good tune. I’ve never been more sold on an act since I discovered Hello Saferide and while I fully realise that being Spanish language is problematic in other territories, I don’t think that I’d want them to record in English. The language here is like an additional set of instruments and just plain old catchy but in the positive sense, not like this damn virus that’s been harshing our collective mellow. The Sky Rojo show itself is a hoot, made by the folks that brought us La Casa De Papel. Both Netflix.

The release of The Courettes “Back In Mono” (Damaged Goods) coincided with the band making it back to Plague Island and somehow waking this dead from the ankles up land mass for a couple of weeks. NBT types should all have their copies by now but this is an album that should be Amy Winehouse big. It boots that Mark Ronson/Daptone retro app sound square up the jacksy and turns it full Spector-al. Just a pity there are no pop programmes on TV anymore because this pair would make quite the scene and maybe jump start a whole new generation of hit makers. Is Later still on? The producers should be begging Flavia and Martin to appear. By all accounts, they’ll be back this way around May/June time so somebody should be trying to make that happen. Mark that on your minds! They’ve just recorded four new songs so I imagine they’ll be coming our way to coincide with that. Meanwhile order all of The Courettes records via their Bandcamp page. Full disclosure. I'm biased. What's it to you?

DANG!!! released “Sociopathfinder”, a record largely out of step with most other things that seem to have gotten traction in recent times. It sounds old but never backdated in the way it connects 60s and 70s shapes in a blender with a few shots of left field snifters. These Scandinavians, abetted by key guests from across understand the majesty of rock better than most and this something that should have a big stage. There are plans to make it live but it demands a scale that likely isn’t available to something unknown at this moment in time. I’m hoping that an opportunity will be forthcoming. DANG!!! will be back for a second season and that monster is currently being revved up with a view to the result being available during 2022. “Sociopathfinder” is on the Apollon imprint.

IN THE RED Records released “NEGATIVITY” – the first Scientists record in Forever. It also issued the final recording that Alan Vega made with Ben Vaughn, Palmyra Delran and Barb Dwyer in 2015. Entitled “After Dark”, it continues the pioneering free-form of "Cubist Blues". I’m pretty sure I’m right in saying this was Alan’s final session outside of anything he made at home with Liz and Dante. It features all the tracks except for a "Dream Baby Dream" revamp that will hopefully appear in due course.

Back to España and the debut by Tiburona (FOLC Records). They’re three Punk Rock Grrrls from Madrid and the statement of intent that is “Sola Y Feliz” (“Alone and Happy”) combines a stroppy spirit with an equally feisty take on what it takes to sound like they mean it. They even have a song entitled “Tura Satana”. That alone should have you itching to hear it.

Memphis Electronic’s “One + One = One” is a lonesome outing by Didier from Dum Dum Boys and Non! Lo-Fi to the point of No-Fi but pulsating to an altogether ‘nother backbeat. Great version of the Stones “Miss You” like you never heard it before. Mono-Tone Records. Numbered edition of 300.

Elia y Elizabeth’s self titled and “Alegria” releases on Vampisoul are the antithesis of shouty punk rock. These Colombian sisters recordings from the 70s are just timeless and I think you’ll recognise the song that is entitled "Pesadilla” on the self-titled set.

Kid Gulliver hooked us with “Susie Survived Chemotherapy” and find themselves collecting all the tracks that have come out since then on to one handy compact disc or album length "Greatest Hits" download entitled "Kismet".

The Primevals keep making them and the listening public need to catch up but that doesn’t deter them. “New Trip” continues their grasp on being trapped in a world they never made. That listenership needs them more than the band needs these lollygadders but some attention beyond the converted is long overdue.

And one for 22, seeing as it’s out January 24^th. I mentioned Hello Saferide before and Annika Norlin has an album entitled “Mentor” released by Razzia Records. The tracks I’ve heard so far indicate that this will likely head any list for this year.

The formatting went a bit awry but rather than do something that means I have to start again, I'll leave you to deal with the mis-spacing. Almost never writing anything here anymore, I'm not down with any of the stupid tweaks Blogger has made to irritate me. How we ever got to fixing things that don't require it only to leave more important work incomplete is a symptom of the times. May you continue to avoid the ongoing plague like the plague. That outbreak of common sense is still scheduled as far as I know.

K-OTICA!

SONIC REDUCTION

NEW TO ME...

INTRODUCING THE NAGGS!

COBWEBS BEGONE!

2021 SEASON FINALE

RIP - BRUCE BROMBERG (PRODUCER)