(FW:)
Saturday 28 June
MOIRA presents @ EKKO [Bemuurde Weerd 3 Utrecht/Holland]
THE HARD FEELINGS
Support: LOS IDIOTAS
Doors: 20.00 hours
Damage: 6 euro

Once again MOIRA on location @ EKKO. This time bringing you the fantastic HARD FEELINGS from Austin Texas. John Schooley, former frontman of The Revelators, rocks hard with Hard Feelings, the Rootsiest Punk or the Rawest Roots Band from the USA. Sounds like Hound Dog Taylor meets The Stooges.
Support band LOS IDIOTAS, a two-piece from Spain, once again show that Spain is El Pais del Rock 'n Roll. Punkrock with a bite. Unos, Dos, Tres Vamos!

Caught Mary Lee's Corvette in Edinburgh when she blew through the other night. Her band consisted of a drummer and a bassplayer and they swung in a groovy Smithereens kinda fashion. She's a top songsmith with a mind to take it the whole road who's has been on tour throughout Europe with Joe Jackson who does nowt for me but there y'go. Look out for her new album, 700 miles - Available on the Southbound imprint, produced by the one and only Eric "Roscoe" Ambel.
Much ado has been made of their rendition of Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks" and rightly so. I think it's better than the original and I ain't saying that to be controversial. Check her out at www.maryleescorvette.com.

The Blasters are coming to Glasgow on July 28th for a show at The Renfrew Ferry, an old ferryboat moored on the River Clyde.
Ticket details are available at www.soundsfine.co.uk and if anybody needs the heads up on getting to the city for the show then gimme a holler. I'm gonna compile a list of accomodation and travel details for those who are making the trek. It's gonna be quite a night. This will be followed by two shows in London on 29th and 30th July. I think the two prior shows are at The Paradiso in Brother J's locale and at El Sol in Madrid. The original line-up of one of the greatest rockin' machines ever to grace a stage, I urge you to catch this because it's unlikely that said combo will be doing any European shows for a while after this.
Additional info on the tour is also available on www.blastersnewsletter.com.

This Month's releases from Ace. GO!

RIP: Dave Rowber (Animals). GO!.

(Brother) Wayne Kramer dropped into Edinburgh last night for a hastily arranged show at the last place on earth one would have expected. Said jams were well and truly kicked oot (as opposed to out) and he's packing one helluva combo. If it'd have been Glasgow it woulda been packed to the rafters I'm sure. Anyway, Mother Superior declined to come here and we got some proficient, angular, noisenik local pish to contend with which drove us outside for a while. By the time Wayne came on, everybody was in the market for some real rock action and that's what they bloomin' got. Starting with "Looking At You" he marked out the territory pretty good. The next couple hours was a rollercoaster of styles that trew up a real blend. Some of it veered close to being a Blue Oyster E-street Cult kinda deal and recalled our dear-departed friend David Roter so there's nowt wrong with that. One thing for sure, this guy has still got it and his axe-shredding will have you in raptures. Hopefully next time the fireworks will be on the ol' West Coast. That oughtta rule in some entertainment for the guys onstage too. But hey, he came and it's not often that Sunday night gets its butt kicked like this.

Nomads tour dates;
03-06-26 S/S Blidosund - Stockholm,
03-05-30 Umea - Umeafesten,
03-05-31 Karlskoga - Nobelfesten,
03-07-04 Halmstad - Stadsfesten,
03-07-05 Borlange - Peace & Love,
03-08-01 Ostersund - Storsjoyran,
03-08-11 Goteborg - Liseberg,
03-08-19 Malmo - Malmofestivalen.

sixtiesgaragemp3, now there's a concept I can get behind !.

God (Dog?) knows what these will amount to, but anyone in or near Holland next weekend is advised to check out the Sky Saxon & the Seeds shows either in The Hague (June 14) or Amsterdam (June 15). For all I know this could be a disaster, but just think; how often does a band like this play in your neck of the woods, and are you gonna miss 'em when they finally do?. I thought not...

The complete line-up for Spain's Serie Z festival set for late August, now includes Radio Birdman, Hoodoo Gurus, Nine Pound Hammer, Hydromatics and the Hellacopters !.

A number o' folks have been axin' about the Cramps Euro dates recently. Martin Percival was kind enough to land us a link where to whole shebang is listed (ticketsale for the lone Dutch show has already started BTW). GO!.

Seems that ace comicbook publishers Fantagraphics (Peter Bagge, Los Bros Hernandez, Daniel Clowes etc.) are in serious financial trouble and in dire need of some extra patronage. So get out those credit cards and order BIG!. GO!

LINK: (via Dubbelmono) Vintage Detroit rock photos by Sue Rynski (Rob Tyner, Destroy All Monsters, Sonic's Rendezvous Band etc.). GO!

Hey. Care to pitch in on a wee idea? To mark 26+ years of NBT, I've got a mind to assemble something called "WHO WILL SAVE ROCK'N'ROLL?" and would like to include your good or bad self (Delete as applicable) havering on about anything, everything or nothing at all. The beastie itself will be a binder (bit of found object-ness goin' on here...). A totally DIY type deal in the spirit of how it all started and lets face it print is still the preferred medium to this guy. I'd like to donate at least $1 per copy (hopefully more) sold to The Lymphoma Charity in Joey's name. Being that so far we've never got the UK version of his Birthday Bash together just yet. So how about it? Feel free to pass the invitation to anybody who you'd like to see participate also. My e-dress book is a tad muddled and several crashes have consigned much e-contact to the cyber dumper. My overwhelming desire to ditch AOL will peak soon and then I'll shift my arse into gear with regard to switching ISP. Anyway let me know whatcha think. I'm obviously way older but none the bloody wiser so let's go to conventional print. The only way to go... Ungawa an' that!

Saw The Thanes launch their new album "Downbeat and Folked Up" on Friday past at the Cafe Royal in Edinburgh. Just out on Screaming Apple, it finds the band in typical devotion to their profession. "There are few other groups with a collective age of 145 that have the talent to arrange an album of this scope." sez the sleevenote. It's true. The Thanes are true to their school to the point of kamikaze. Lenny Helsing is indeed the Laird of the boss racket supreme and a damn fine geezer to boot. Way more worthy than yon gink Childish and his deerstalking posse. The Thanes are solid, bankable exponents who play music which is a religion to them. They're unfettered by the alleged "garage" upsurge and will be doing this long after it's the LBT. Until the idiots who think The White Stripes are the bee's knees recognise that The Fleshtones should be shifting twice the amount of "units" that they do they can just bloomin' well fook aff. Support The Thanes and all who sail in 'em then. The venue was pretty good too. Ideally situated and a good size and not a hovel. Let's hope that Angus McPake gets something going here on a regular basis. Edinburgh could sorely use it. The capital is lagging way behing it's West Coast rival on that score.

Was sorry to hear about the death of Mickie Most who lost his battle with cancer on Friday past also. His output on RAK was an incredible array of glitter pop/glam garage madness which is now gaining ground in collector circles. Look out for an album called "Velvet Tinmine" which celebrates the very pinnacle of this teen D-U-M-B greatness.

New Angel Corpus Christi disc out now on Gulcher:
From the press blurb; '"Divine Healer' is Angel's first full-length release since her sadly overlooked major-label disc in 1995, White Courtesy Phone' (on Herb Alpert's Almo label).  The core band of Angel (vocals, accordion, harmonica), Rich Stim (guitar, bass, piano), Dave Mahoney (drums), and George Earth (guitar, bass) is augmented by contributions from songwriter Don Ciccone, Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500 and Luna), bass player Nancy Kravitz, and behind the mixing board, Craig Leon (Ramones, Blondie, etc.), Mark Bingham (MX-80, Social Climbers, etc.), and Dave Nelson.
A couple Angel faves are resurrected for all the ears who missed 'em the first time: "Pull Girl" is a tasty piece of mutant bubblegum, like Veronica Lodge fronting Suicide, and "Candy" is even sweeter.  The Ross/Stim songwriting team also give us "You," "Rock & Roll Shoes," "Sadder," "Sleepwalker," and with help from Don Ciccone, "I'll Say Goodbye" and "She Said."

OK, some straight propaganda here, the Dictators are out 'n about again, just make sure you catch 'em.
Friday, May 30, Maxwell's, 1029 Washington Ave. Hoboken, NJ
Tuesday, June 10, The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd. San Diego, CA
Wednesday, June 11, Spaceland, 1717 Silverlake Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
Thursday, June 12, Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St. San Francisco, CA
Friday, June 13, Dante's 3rd and Burnside, Portland, OR
Saturday, June 14, Crocodile Cafe, 2200 2nd Ave. Seattle, WA
Saturday, June 21, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. New York, NY

LINK: Amazing site that houses video-interviews (in quicktime) w/ a whole bunch o' NYC scenemakers; H.D. Manitoba, Leee Black Childers, David Johanson, Danny Fields, Martin Rev, John Holmstrom, et f'in' cetera. Like I said; amazin', but you might need a decent cable or DSL connection (some ungodly time in the middle o' the night usually also does the trick). GO!.

LINK: Here's a bunch o' pics taken at the opening of some exibition at Manitoba's, lots of old familiar (wrinkled) faces. GO!

Post-Eyerack. That what they're putting the UK's dismal zero in the way of points display in the Eurovision Song Carry On. Nowt to do with plumbing new depths in sub karaoke galumphing then? While all that was happening though, Avy and I were doing some Avant gardening at Le Weekend in Stirling. This is a yearly event curated by David Keenan of The Wire which brings outsider gear to Scotland. I'm not up to any speed whatsoever with this stuff but it's fun to gawp for at least a day. LW isn't yer average festival and The Tolbooth isn't yer average joint. It's a civilised place and being an auld guy I likes that.
After a wee spell in Europa Records ( a store withan amazing vinyl grooveyard oot the back) it was time to go hang aboot and take in sets by Damon and Naomi with Ghost. Not the ghost that inhabits The Tolbooth, the Japanese ensemble. Very atmospheric and if you were scoring a film this would be the way to go... quality haunted psychedelic folk.
Next up was Arthur Doyle. A strange cat says Thurston Moore and that turns out to be quite the understatement. As droolingly incoherent as much of his pieces were, Arthur was strangely entertaining. No question, he looks like an old homeless guy but his sax and piano attacks were equal parts captivating and un-nerving. Folks with weak stomachs were runnin' for the exits. Arthur Doyle is here, Arthur Doyle is Here he scatted, yes he is but he is also (way) out there. Caught up with my auld mucker, Edwin Pouncey who was utterly to blame for the period I spent writing for Sounds. A top guy who's lose none of his edge over the annums. Le Weekend is a weird scene but lang may it convene. It reaches parts other festivals could never reach let alone tweak.