From Dan Penniman at NEGATIVE RECORDS HQ

Hey everybody, A great night in store this Saturday as VENUS RAY join Vic Godard and Subway Sect under the wings of PennyBlack Music. With the irreplaceable Barney Oliver on an extended walkabout in the Australian outback, the show will mark the Venus Ray debuts of newcomers Jake Tassell on toy organ, sartorials and electronics and Gavin Mulcahy on the bass guitar. Venus Ray will be unveiling songs from their forthcoming 3rd album, due out in August.

The Spitz is a great venue with restaurant and art gallery, 5 mins from Liverpool St and Brick Lane’s finest eateries. Should be fine just turning up on the door, but it seems you can reserve tickets by calling Spitz Box Office (020 7392 9032) and pay for them when you pick em up on the night. More details below.

On Monday 16th February THE SCOUNDRELLES debut album ‘Organic Molecules In Action!’ is released. It’s already attracting raves in the press – look out for the 4 star review in the next Mojo. Available in all good record shops and on-line direct from Negative or Amazon.

And to celebrate the release The Scoundrelles headline London’s greatest garage rock night, the Dirty Water Club on Friday 20th February, with support from Norwegian all-girl beat combo THE LAUNDERETTES.

DIRTY WATER CLUB at the Boston Arms, 178 Junction Road, London N19 5QQ opposite Tufnell Park tube. Bands til midnight, DJs til 3am. http://www.dirtywaterclub.com More details nearer the time.

I got that Timothy Carey pic from a site called WHAT A CHARACTER.
A veritable mine of great stuff.

NORTON NEWS! February, 2004



WHAT: THE WORLDS GREATEST SINNER (1962)

WHERE: LINCOLN CENTER NYC (WALTER READE THEATRE, 165 W 65 STREET,
PLAZA LEVEL)

WHAT : FEBRUARY 14, 5 PM

Valentines Day is one week away, friends, so don't forget to blast some T.
VALENTINE (Norton LP/CD 280 and 45-094)! ... and if you're local to our sector
here in NYC, do not delay in getting tix for you and ya lovebug to the NYC
public premier of THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, Timothy Carey's magnum opus circa 1962, the greatest rock n roll flick ever made... it makes CITIZEN KANE look
like THE SINISTER URGE, people! This mammoth and majestic film needs no
introduction to the tried and true who've either managed to get a glimpse of a ratty
vid somewhere along the way or who've yearned for the day that now approaches,
but for the uninitiated, may we direct you to Kicks #7 and PSYCHOTRONIC #6
(psychotronic.com -- editor Michael Weldon can be reached at pvzine@intercom.net) , plus there's great stuff including a feature in FILM COMMENT at filmliinc.com, Lincoln Center's website-- plus you can buy tix right there online for $10 (plus $1.25 for credit card processing). Handy dandy indeed!

Timothy Carey was a genius and one of the coolest cats ever to roam the planet.
When's the last time we directed you all to fine film fare-- just do it!
You'll see our revered Ray Dennis Steckler in the film credits and get your breath
baited for this unheralded brand of film fabulosity that now gets the royal
treatment on the big screen in the big town! Frank Zappa stole his beatnik
beardo "look" when he was writing the fantastic music for Sinner- without a doubt
his best song ever -- covered by the A-Bones on their Giant Claw 45 with none
other than Tim Carey spouting his own brand of boney sinner spew in the
intro-- the Aussie 45 is outta print but look for it on the A-Bones non-LP tracks
compilation due out in September! See youse at Sinner!


MORE NORTON NEWS...
Check in at nortonrecords.com for our boss current releases
including DON'T KNOCK THE ROK!, never ished Roky Erickson and The Alien's hot sock outtakes that rival only King Uszniewicz in the wildass late night oldies on
the rampage department. Roky's instore appearance in support of the album at
Waterloo Records in Austin last month brought out hundreds of adoring fans who
dug the meet-n-greet and slurped on Roky Rocky Road ice cream courtesy of Amy's
of Austin! The groundhog went back into hiding until the new crew of Nortons
arrive, some of our biggest releases to date.... stay tuned and don't forget to
CRANK IT UP!... big giant thanks to all the stars and friends and stompers
who made our December 27 Soul Spectacular a memorable night indeed! Hats off to
Andre Williams, Rudy Ray Moore, the Mighty Hannibal, Lonnie Youngblood, King
Coleman, Nathaniel Mayer, the Shanks, Barrence Whitfield, Betty Lavette, the
Soul Shakers, deejay Mr. Fine Wine and the whole gang who made it all a wild
birthday blast for Billy Norton (as Hannibal has dubbed our Mr. Miller) and a
crazed holiday/new years shindig for the whole pack! Birthdays greets go out to
Nathaniel Mayer, who celebrates his big 6-0 in style with the Shanks back in
Detroit this Saturday, Feb. 7 and the Attic (11667 Joseph Campau, doors at 8,
show at 10. Cover charge $10). Locals check out Lonnie Youngblood at Frank's
Lounge in Brooklyn Thursdays through February (frankslounge.com). Anybody heading down to the Sunshine State next weekend? Check out King Coleman at his own Florida stomping, or shall we say swamping grounds, on Valentines Day in Fort Lauderdale, tag teaming with X-rated legend Blowfly! WFMU's Dave The Spazz (wfmu.org) has the scoop and will be covering said event in person.
Andre Williams headlines Scotland and Norway in April, Hannibal is auditioning for
a TV show (true!)... and rumor has it that Arch Hall, Jr. may be performing
this year, live with his Wild Guitar! Stay tuned for more late breaking news
and check us out via the link opposite.

LFT's is the expression I use for those of us who couldn't make those shows for one reason and another. However, I didn't realise that Steve was goin' out there so at least he'll be able to clue us in. Ain't you eager to hear what you missed?

Also, you want the skinny on Zurich? visit Crawford Smith's GREEN RIVER

"we less fortunate types"?. Please rest assured that our very own Steve Coleman is out there havin' fun under the cold Stockholm moon...

Well those Scandanavians have the trump card this weekend Not more so than the Fleshtones/Nomads/Maggots triple bill that's hitting up Debaser in Stockholm tonight. Anybody out there up for filing a report? Helsinkians and Oslovians also, clue we less fortunate types into your brush with the thing they call Super Rock!

The German Alien Snatch label is steadily becomin' one of the prime sources for current none-lame p-rock. Take the Von Zippers, a Canadian band who's name spells third-rate-Estrus at best, but who deliver the goods in fine style on their latest 'The Crime Is Now' disc. I could call 'm a slightly more accessible New Bomb Turks, but that would be sellin' 'm short 'cause there's a singular mind at work here, but it gives you the general direction anyhoo. Poppier (mainly thanks to the addition of some great cheesy organ sounds), but no less hard edged are The Minds. Housed in a suitably tacky 1979 "new wave" sleeve, their 'Plastic Girls' LP borders on powerpop, and that ain't no bad thing per se, but the guitars are loud enough to keep you hard-liners satisfied. Best of the bunch tho' is the eagerly anticipated (by me anyway) debut full-length by Ghetto Ways, who put out an excellent, but impossible to find, 45 last year, that gets a solid follow-up with this; the first great LP of 2004. "Detroit" is the first thing that springs to mind listenin' to this, but forget about the Stooges for a while, think soul/punk ala the MC5 or Dirtbombs, but only as some kinda reference, 'cause these guys have a similar scope, one that's way beyond that of you're average garage combo, touchin' on several decades 'n styles for inspiration w/ out ever soundin' derative. A sound investment if ever there was one.

Dutch readers are advised to check out the Demons - Carrera show at dB's on thursday the 12th of februari right here in Utrecht.

This month's releases from Ace Records.

If it happened or is happening in the Tri-State Area then you'll most likely find it on NEATNESS

Jim Fields' END OF THE CENTURY documentary about THE RAMONES will be distributed in Europe by Metro-Tartan. Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

The culture just keeps coming... check out and support
THE SECRET CINEMA

Prepare to enter a whole 'nother world... Planet LUCHA VAVOOM

Good news for our American readers: The fantastic Master Plan album is out now on Total Energy.

That makes young Vedder, HBV - King of Men Version 2.0! Keeping up the Dictators theme, Agent Heiko found this piece that I'd never seen before. Comes from a webzine called LITTLE CRACKED EGG that I think you'll like to dig around in.

While scannin' the below news on the Dictators site I noticed that MY SON SHARES HIS BIRTHDAY WITH THE HANDSOME ONE !. Hows about that for bein' "born under a good sign"?...

From Dictators.com...

THE HANDSOME ONE'S FULL PLATE

He's celebratin' half a century on earth this week and is father of an active 1-year-old, but Handsome Dick Manitoba clearly scoffs at the idea of taking it ease. The Dictators' Not-So-Secret Weapon and keeper of your favorite bar (Manitoba's, 99 Ave. B, NYC) fills us in on his goings-on: "I am working on a book with former editor of High Times, and Heeb ... It will be anecdotal, with stories about growing up Jewish, Bronx stories, food stories, recipes, restaurant reviews, plenty of photos, and drawings ... the first chapter will be done soon ... tentative working title? ... MANITOBA EATS NEW YORK! ... also the official MANITOBA'S website will be up soon ... www.manitobas.com."

Oh yeah... Steve has rightly pointed out the daftness of posting huge files agin the fact that not everyone has a broadband connection. I know how much of a pisser it was to wait for pages to load on a dial-up modem and apologise for any pissed-offedness caused. Please visit again and often. It willnae happen again...

It's been a heckuva week out here. Ever get the feeling that the country you live in is screwed? Heading it all up is what happened to the BBC. The organisation is in the throes of having all of its teeth removed to be replaced by a set of falsers called TBTV. One head that actually made a difference rolled and the staff there actually rallied to shout it out but ultimately it won't stop the rot. This government can and is damaging our collective health. They "let" Scotland have its own council to help it along or maybe even speed up the process. And Osama's mob are taking the piss again. More flights from the UK to the US cancelled due to "threats". One way or another, it's all very depressing because if it gets any worse we're gonna be back to where we were before the wheel was invented. It's very difficult to be enthusiastic about anything in such a climate. Life is sucking the will to live outta me but wadjagonnado? I don't think that even Finntroll will be able to save us!

"One night in march 1997 two men were sleeping in a rehearsal room in Helsinki. The other woke up and started playing the keyboards and came up with a folkish melody. Soon the other one woke up too. Liking the melody he asked the other guy to play the riff in traditional finnish "humppa" style (humppa is a variety of polka...). This sounded very mean and guitars and brutal vocals were added immediatly. Thus Finntroll was born.." (This picture just about sez it all...)
(Link c/o Tony Slug).