Part(y) 1 tonight...

RIP - David Wilkerson

(link via Miriam Linna's fb)

The Fleshtones will be bringing the Brooklyn Sound Solution to Europe over the next month or so. Keep checking here for details,the first lot are up now.

There's a good chance of an instore this Friday before the show the poster is for (thanks jm).

Exactly why the antics of what’s happening at the other end of the country could interest anyone is a huge mystery to me. That goes for this week and the 2012 gubbins, up there with the pyramids and maybe even the Loch Ness monster. However, as long as you keep well away from the TV and every other form of media then it's provided an extended weekend break. Make like you’re on a plane or in the quiet coach of the train and turn off your gadgets. We'll still be here after it all dies down. perhaps even during to offer an alternative.

I guess that the weekend there recharged my ailing batteries to some degree. Hooking up with old/new friends and associates taking up the burn of the day to day hokum. I just saw something about “major studios streaming to YouTube” which brought me down a bit. It’s all so desperate. Still if someone would rather watch something on the (very) wee screen as opposed to anything like a decent sized one then why the hell should I try to stop ‘em. I guess the only real winner here will be specsavers or some other such outlet that deals in seeing gear.

On the subject of the pictures, if you’re in Glasgow next Tuesday (May 3rd) then there’s a screening of the Creation Records documentary that will be followed by a Bandits set and other stuff of that persuasion.

Another passing... RIP - Huey P. Meaux

RIP - Phoebe Snow

The rabbits are a hoppin' this week -- with Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at its last-Thursday-of-every-month residency at warm and fuzzy Otto's Shrunken Head!

THURSDAY, APRIL 28th / OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD / 538 East 14th Street (just west of Avenue B) in Manhattan /
Two brightly colored shows, from 8pm sharp until 10pm / No cover! /

Happy Easter!
Sincerely,
Michael

Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.
"Ballads, Boogies & Blues"

I’m not sure how such events are curated anymore but whatever brought the Flamin Groovies in the form of The A-Bones + Ira Kaplan + Roy and Cyril to Le Beat Bespoke 7 is all that’s important. Quibbles about the sound notwithstanding, it was an occasion. Of course, audio quality isn’t everything but perhaps if the guy at the desk had spent less time checking his phone then maybe the necessary tweaks could have been addressed. There’s nothing this type of attention deficit could do to snuff out the humungous good vibe though. As the racket boomed around the gym hall style room there were plenty of satisfied grins across coruscating coupons (that’s faces to folks that don’t hark from around here). Young Nick West who sustained an ankle injury couldn’t be there and I think he bribed the gods into a little mischief.

From the opening rip through “Second Cousin”, this was a celebration of a great catalogue and some of the finest rock’n’roll songs ever written. Occupying a position that pre-dated tribal pigeonholes, the various forms the Groovies took over the years has percolated into the firmament. I can’t say how this stacked up against the Ponderosa Stomp reunions because I wasn’t there but there was one distinct difference that we’ll get to later for better or the flipside.

I’d never met Cyril before but what a top geezer and of course, gentleman Roy Loney has to be one of the most convivial blokes in the business. Perhaps that’s what has conspired to keep him from overground notoriety. More likely that it’s just a case of the public at large having no taste. And what can you say about the band that is to these guys what the Wondermints are to Brian Wilson although for my money, them A-Bones have dollups more juice in the spirit department in addition to the proficiency.

Apparently Cyril had said something on WFMU prior to this trip that he’d welcome Chris Wilson on stage in London. What's that one about careful what you wish for? As the day went on, it seemed like a rumour but sure enough – CW was outside the venue when we daundered in from across the road. So the prospect of him joining in for “Shake Some Action” seemed great, if nothing else for historic significance and the burying of hatchets. Reports that his performance was staggering aren’t totally unfounded but not in the jaw-dropping sense, more in the case that there’s a rogue “was” at the start of this sentence. Like the thing that wouldn’t leave, it could have been great if he hadn’t been completely pished.

In a grand display of patience and good humour, everyone else on stage worked around the intervention to make the best of the situation. So no time for “Jumpin’ In The Night” due to the curfew but I was able to jump on to the #27 bus (thanks Penny) that took me all the way to Chiswick. Like the song sez, “All’s well that ends well”. Just a tad too early was all. Maybe we can do it all again in Spain or something?

Please excuse the lack of photographic evidence. Some pillock (me) left his camera in the dressing room – known here as the board room – it’s safe though. Miriam has it so we’ll sort out the logistics of getting it back in due course and maybe adding some to this.

A final consideration then... No opening act other than one that is sanctioned by the headliner but preferably no support at all. As attention spans deteriorate and buffoons fanny about with phones this has to be a consideration surely. It’s also a facet of getting older. Having to bear – in the main – crap acts and stand about waiting while they “warm” up the crowd (not) is time consuming. And we’re all getting painfully aware of how precious that commodity is. How would lesser known quantities become known? That - my friend - is the dilemma of the person or unit, leave me the eff out (of it). What’s with a situation where a disco can blare out until the wee hours but a band can’t knock a few more tunes out?

The campaign for eradicating openers that offer bugger all to the party starts here. And it starts now. Of course, if there was some hike in the quality control then this edict could be re-evaluated.

RIP - Poly Styrene

All in French for those of you who can parlez da lingo. I wonder when there'll be a show in Paris? Meanwhile, I imagine there'll be a number of folks travelling to London this weekend to see the band. Viva le pilgrimage!!

RIP - Jon Cedar

End and tether are two words that spring to mind right about now. Discouraged and disgruntled are two more. I’m struggling to update this as often as I should but still feel obliged to at least post something every day.

I'm hoping that this weekend's encounter with them Groovies will relight the pilot of this decidely rickety escapade. Hooking up with the crew definitely will but then there's the part where one turns back into a pumpkin. Or equivalent. No disrespect to the actual fruit in question.

It's easter everywhere. Well nearly everywhere, somebody up here in Northern Britain has made a right pig's ear of the holiday this year. Par for the course. Still, if you can hold on until October, Capt. Kevin Morris has announced that the first big thing for Glasgow Americana this year is Alejandro Escovedo on October 9th.

And there's a ton of great shows taking place all over. Info on these will be conveyed as it becomes available. And fine new recordings also by some of our staple artists. Taken in that context then things don't suck at all, it's just the life experience of the past 4-ish months that has been wearing me down. There's an expression that goes "Everything that's for me is against me". I tried googling it and got exactly nada by way of an explanation but it pretty much sums things up for yours truly. Recited in a Scottish brogue, it makes perfect sense.

B-Side the A-Side Easter Special with The Nuns & The Deltics!

Yer hosts DJ Louie (Louie) and BigKegShandy (Sonic Reducer, The Stripchords) proudly present a B-Side the A-Side Easter Special with live guests The Nuns, the world's only all-lady, six-piece tribute to 1960s legends The Monks, featuring members of The Headcoatees, Mambo Taxi and Echobelly. Plus local garage punk groovers The Deltics! All for FREE!

Saturday 23rd April8pm-late
The Royal Oak Free HouseLower Bristol Road, opposite Windsor Bridge Bath, Somerset

Check out The Nuns whompin' on "I Hate You"!

RIP - Kent Morrill

10 years since Joey died? Hardly seems possible but that’s exactly what it is. The news broke shortly after we got back from The Nomads 20th anniversary antics in Stockholm. Obviously there are a ton of great clips on this interweb thing so go watch some.

The Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds show was a blinder last night. You have to catch them while they’re in the UK if you can. A highly entertaining combo indeed that makes a funked-up, space rock groove laced rock’n’roll racket the like of which you’re unlikely to hear anyplace else. Really first class.

RSD tomorrow and I am unable to take any more requests as I’m just about to go and queue overnight for my Flaming Lumps box set. Not. Ebay is already creaking under the strain of opportunists that hope to make themselves a wee fortune out of resetting their swag. Not exactly the spirit that the event was born out of but an unfortunate cul-de-sac of human nature.

I hope you manage to snag something. Most likely something that isn’t part of the stramash that you’ll get many hours of pleasure with.

And finally... from facebook via Monte A. Melnick and Genya Ravan...