Just wanted to let you know that the Master Plan's 'Colossus Of Destiny' is due for vinyl release on November 10th on the Demolition Derby label. The Master Plan are: Andy Shernoff (Dictators), Keith Streng & Bill Milhizer (Fleshtones) and Paul Johnson (Waxing Poetics). If you would like to order a copy, you should be able to find the details at: www.demderby.com

Johnny Barker leaves the Buff Medways...
"Not to worry though, the show goes on with Graham Day, formerly of The Prisoners, Thee Mighty Caesars and currently the singer/guitartist of The Solar Flares temporarily joining the band! The Buff Medways first gig with the new look line up will be on November 14th at the Dirty water Club. Also playing that night are the legendary Armitage Shanks, who are back and better than ever with a new album "Urinal Heap" on Damaged Goods". For more info: Thee Billy Childish.com

(from joeyramone.com) "It is now finally official!
The City Of New York is dedicating the corner of Bowery and Second Street as Joey Ramone Place on November 30th, 2003 at 1:00pm. Contrary to other reports elsewhere that this was a done deal long ago, New York is finally giving it up for Joey Ramone! Come out and witness this historic event if you can!"

While typin' this I'm surround by what could be best described as a Christo-type work of art, everything around me is covered in plastic. As of tomorrow we will, albeit temporarily, no longer have a roof over our heads, not to mention the fact that it looks like I won't be able to take a shower here for at least three weeks !. Yep the re/de-construction of HQ is in full effect.
But as promised I'll still try to give you some updates on what I'm diggin' culture wise.
So here goes; Bacchus Archives have just reissued the stellar first 45 by LA powerpop legends The Quick. Main tune on this 45 is 'Pretty Please', a song most of you will know as by either the Dickies or Redd Kross, but to quote Dobie Gray; "the original is still the greatest". The latest batch from Ace Records includes a solid soul comp with all tunes related to the war in Vietnam. ''A Soldier's Sad Story' is easily one of the best soul comps since those Dave Godin compiled 'Deep Soul Treasures' series. From Soul Jazz comes 600 % Dynamite, a real "grower" featuring a bunch of fantastic (and even to me) obscuro Jamaican hits, that are sure to highlight your next shindig. Hey, I gotta agree with Lindsay's POV on the Nomads tribute disc. The fact that there are a number o' tunes on this that the guys did in tribute themselves, should be evidence enough that they are masters at creating their own body of work no matter the source.
'N yeah, this might seem like shorthand, I know... Too bad, but I'm headin' for my last shower in what might be weeks right now, so please forgive me for bein' so brief here....
Damn, almost forgot mentioning the Dirtbombs latest. Easily one of the top 5 p-rock/garage discs this year...

Stop the world the MTV awards are coming to Edinburgh this week. It's gonna be a massive boost to the local economy don'tcha know? The price we're paying is that it's getting saturation coverage. Forget the fact that Edinburgh has no tangible music scene as such but it does have a castle. And at Christmas time, it has a dirty great ferris wheel planked in front, or to the side rather, of Scott's Monument in Princes Street, just along from Bargain Books. All Edinburgh is these days is a soulless money drain. Damned scenic looking in a fur coat, nae knickers kinda fash but is there no end to the constant "gies yer money" vibe. Meanwhile good folks like the Mouats are trying to put on quality entertainment there on a regular basis and get piddly wee audiences. It's an ill-divided world right enough...

In a proper world, The Nomads would enjoy the megastardom they deserve and The Demolition Doll Rods would have been the combo to put Detroit back on the map but we cannae have everything... stand by for the Nomads tribute 20 Years Too Soon comin' atcha this very week courtesy of Big Bongo/Wild Kingdom. It kicks off the party with The Dictators 16 Forever and hammers home the message that those Solna boys introduced us to some damn fine tuneage over the years. Voladoras do more than justice to The Way (You Touch My Hand) and I'd say that all told, this is a damned goodnatured project. More than just a bunch of covers, there's some heart and soul here. The Hellacopters Pack of Lies makes one wonder what it'll take to hep the kids to the fact that they should be selling the tickets and records that T*rb*ne*ro are. Can we get to turning the tables here?

Still getting to grips with this broadband and severing the ol' ties with AOL. Never had this kinda guff with pen, paper and stamps. This is like moving house without actually moving. A proper posting soon, nae kidding. Swedish readers may be interested in picking up todays DAGENS NYHETER to read a report on Glasgow by Niklas Wahllof who suffered for his art I can tell ya. It's not on line but early reports are most favourable.

Time certainly flies when you're, well uh, busy... It's almost a week now since returning from our holiday trip and I've hardly posted anything here. As some of you already know I'm headin' for parenthood somewhere early in the next year if all goes well, and the logistics that come along with that take up a lot of time at the moment. We're gonna have an extra floor build on top of HQ in the next couple o' weeks, not to house our upcomin' baby tho', but to make room for my ever expanding record collection ! (earlier today I was tryin' to clear up the mess that is my "music room" and I noted that over the past six days I had bought 18 LPs, that's three a day!... that's insane!...) But, as you can well figure, that building business will be needin' most of my attention in the near future, so please excuse me if I'm temporarily not as frequent with my posts as what you're used to.
Enough of that tho', let's talk "culture". First off, I finally got to read Robert Gordon's amazing Muddy Waters biography 'Can't Be Satisfied' during our stay in Greece. A fantastic read that doesn't go all scholarly like most books on blues, but tells Muddy's story in plain detail. Fascinating, captivating and inspiring, how's that for superlatives?. Another great read was the new issue of Ugly Things magazine. Mike Stax has really outdone himself with the Misunderstood story, and with all the other info available in it's 200 or so pages, this one will take a while to fully digest. For no apparent reason I also dropped Charles White's Little Richard biography in my traveling bag after it had been gathering dust on HQ's bookshelf for a decade or so. I had forgotten what fantastic book this is, easily as wild as the reverend Penniman's wildest discs. The story of his encounter with Buddy Holly is worth the price of admission by itself !. That's it as far as reading is concerned, as for my current listening habits; I'm stuck to a steady diet of old blues 'n soul discs, everything from pre-war country blues to Bobby Womack's early 70s LPs. It never stops to amaze me how much great music is still out there to be discovered, we're talkin' over a century of record music here !, yet people are actually gone over such horsedung like the Darkness and King Of Leon these days, bands that no one will give a shit about in 12 months time. Truth is; fifty years down the line you can put on a Muddy Waters or Little Richard disc from their heyday and sparks 'll still be flying, while these current "contenders", baskin' in their 15 minutes, can't even hold a candle to either of 'em. Excuse me while I do the Boogaloo and refuse to be duped into yet another marketing ploy....

Welcome back J. This guy is the glue that keeps all this together y'know. Been hunting for more victims for my Ebay clearout. Repatriating stuff that's been in boxes in the loft for a while now. I'm letting 'em out on good behaviour for whatever they raise. I think quite a lot these days about how, if I go out some morning or whatev. and get hit by a bus, that it'll all end up in a skip anyway. The idea then is to raise some dosh so I can spend time with my extended family across this planet. They know who they are. Anyway, music stuff soon. There's been a certain amount of turmoil about the abode this weekend. We've gone broadband so I haveta shut down the AOL thing and make sure that I have all the info I need outta that account before it's deep sixed for good. Will this new faster, doesn't kick you out every 15 minutes connection make for an increase in postings? You never bleedin' know mate...

OK, back from Greece and downing the final parts of a bottle o' "imported" Greek wine.....
I'll spare you the details (at least for the moment) and just urge you all to get a hold of the new Zodiac Killers full length 'Society's Offenders'. As fine a p-rock blast as you're gonna get in this day 'n age.....

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest but I've got a stinkin' cold and today's papers are full of crap about The Strokes. This is in sharp contrast to yesterday when my cold was just creepin' up on me and hearing Steve Earle talk about The Dictators on BBC Radio Scotland pre-11am.
Also how hard does the new Mojo suck? Not the cd or Sylvie Simmons thing on Johnny Cash but their latest Hall of Fame "list" might finally be the thing that pulls the plug on me buying it ever again and nothing to do with the fact that I'm actually forbidden by religion to buy issues with Oasis, The Beatles, Paul Weller or The aforementioned Str*kes on the cover. I hope those thunderstorms ain't raining on Jeroen's parade too hard now...

I've been called a lot of things in my time but capable isn't one of them. Ok kids, wanna see Godlis? some kinda iconic punk rock photographic action as only NY could serve it up. Go!

While all o' you are checkin' this blog on monday morning at work, Alice 'n me are off to Greece for some well deserved, uh, rain and thunderstorms apperantly.... So I'll have to leave you in the capable hands of Steve 'n Lindsay for the next 10 days or so. Please be kind to 'em....

Time to shunt this WHO WILL SAVE ROCK'N'ROLL project into action. This was prompted by meeting a friend of my brother's in the supermarket this morning. He reminded me how lame the kids of today are. Did you read Metal Mike Saunders thing on sissy-rock recently? It was brilliant but anyway, the "parents" are taking the kids to Linkin Park and in my book that sucks. My old man would never have taken me to see Alice Cooper or Led Zep and the world could do with a generation gap more than ever. I guess it'll all be washed down with a pre-match swally in McDonalds? So anyway, please feel free to pitch in anything on the subject. I'd like to get it all in by the end of November to be published early in 2004. Kids ain't allowed to be kids anymore. I blame computers and the continual peer pressure hard sell but that's what we auld fellers do. Parents goin' to concerts with the kids, never woulda happened in my day. Then there are those that take them to the frauditorium and wait outside in the SUV while the little sorry-asses groove to the nu-metal boybandness. It's all handed out on a frickin' plate.

Cap'n Per Hagred crossed my cd player with a copy of an album by a combo called The Blackstone Valley Sinners and what a wee cracker it is too. Reminds me of a country-fried (not -fied) Guadalcanal Diary. Swingin'. Go!

I was just (politely) chastised for not being up to date with my buddy of old, Art Fein's Another Fein Mess. The A fella is a one of a kind writer that, when I read his stuff, I wonder how the hell he isn't some kinda high-falluting "writer" that gets paid a hefty wad and on the best-seller lists. his writing, no matter what it's about, rocks. He also has a public access TV show that has a guest list that reads like a proverbial who's who. The standard dipped when I was on in 1992 but it has since regained its wall to wall status. I met Art when he managed The Blasters and was representing The Cramps in 1982. In the 20 years since he has stuck to his guns and continues to champion exactly what the heck he likes. Read what he writes and attempt to live by it. Because you could y'know... GO!.

An alternative guide to Glasgow culture and beyond anyone? GO!

"The Rocket From The Tombs non-reunion continues to roll on in its inimitable non way. A second tour begins November 17 in San Diego and runs up the west coast, across the top, down the east coast and across the south ending December 14 (maybe). Like topsy it keeps growing. Go here for the latest state of affairs.
The lineup continues, miraculously, as David Thomas, Cheetah Chrome, Richard Lloyd, Craig Bell and Steve Mehlman.
An album of studio recordings of the live set will be released on Smog Veil Records. It's called Rocket Redux and features the following songs: Frustration, So Cold, What Love Is, Ain't It Fun, Muckraker, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Sonic Reducer RFTT, Never Gonna Kill Myself Again, Amphetamine, Down In Flames, Final Solution RFTT, and Life Stinks. Copies will be on sale at the upcoming concert dates but the commercial release and general availability will not be until Feb 1 2004".
Persistant rumors from Cheetah Chrome insist that a Euro tour is in order for early next year !.

And another one down; apperantly Andy Starr passed away on the same day as Johnny Cash. On 21st October, he would have celebrated his 71st birthday. (News forwarded by Jan Kooi).

As previously mentioned, the Dictators will be playing CBGBs on December 5th (w/ the Star Spangles) & 6th (w/ the Fleshtones) as part of the CBs anniversary fest. Word just came in that both shows will be filmed for a DVD release. That's the good news. Sadly there are also strong rumors that this may be one of the final events at CBGBs as their lease is up at the end of the year and doesn't look likely to be renewed.