In a more positive rock movie vein, the Paula Tiberius directed GOLDIROCKS is a Canadian indie movie that's worthy of your time should you ever get the chance to see it. Sorta feels like SINGLES transplanted over the border with a great soundtrack. The Tijuana Bibles "Rock'n'Roll Fighting" is particularly memorable as is Neglected's rattle through Teenage Head's "Let's Shake".

Watched the "Hey Is Dee Dee Home" documentary. What a depressing and generally pointless exercise that turned out to be. It takes an hour to tell the story of "Chinese Rocks"? For hardcore Ramoneiacs only, this isn't much of a background to the guy at all, merely a one-dimensional portrait of his dark side and a bloody boring one at that.

"Wir ain" Amy Allison on WFMU this past Friday with the one and the only J. Graboff Esq.

Cresser's shopfront photo by Dave Henniker

I guess you're all headin' out there to the hill(ocks) rollin' yer eggs or whatever it is people do on Easter Sunday? Me? I'll be attempting to sort out my stationery/packing materials that I can no longer keep at work. Those what ken me know that as well as horde-ing print, music and film - that I tend to do the same with boxes, envelopes, jiffy bags, indeed anything that can be used to transport things through the mail or whatever. All manner and all shapes and size of box just waiting for the right item. Often scoffed at but the tide always turns when the non-believer is presented with a receptacle completely fitting their specification. One thing I did do successfully the other day was to get a whole host (maybe a ton plus) of recycleable stuff to a worthy cause in Edinburgh that deals with such material for charities and organisations that use such stuff for kids craft classes and the like. Better that than for it all to end up in a skip and eventually landfill. I hate waste with a pathological gusto and all around I just see more and more of it. On a similar note, I learned this week that Cresser's - the brush store in Auld Reekie's Victoria Street, just across from The Bow Bar - is up for sale. Another casualty of the shit times we live in. Do they have Bargain Books on Rodeo Drive? A place like this should be immune from the sickness of the taste-marginalised masses who've seen to it that institutions like this just can't afford to exist anymore. It better not become a bloody mobile phone shop... This ain't progress believe me. Merely change for the worse which brings me neatly back to Monday and the circus that awaits in the shadow of Wallace's monument. Mel Gibson has a lot to answer for. End of Chapter One kids...

So yeah, it's been a funny ol' week. Pre-occupied by the end of a 23 year era which has seen my place of employment shift its collective arse to a new location. Said new location is very scenic but unfortunately the denizens will soon see to that. There goes the neighbourhood on a grand scale. The move itself was/is somewhere well south of a shambles. We'll see how it all unfolds but it's nipping my heid just to think about it. So hopefully I'll get to viewing and listening to a few things this weekend in order that I can post something you might find a little more interesting than my whining.

It feels like ages since I last mentioned some new wax here (not that there were too many discs of worth so far this year), but slowly some goodies are startin' to appear on HQ's doormat. Biggest surprise yet is a 10" LP by Dutch p-rockers the Sack-O'-Woes. Fine, fine wailin' stuff, that avoids all the trappings that spoil so much of the form's output these days, and easily the best Dutch disc of it's kind in ages, and dig their take on "A House In The Country". And speakin'of surprises; how's about a damn near perfect powerpop LP from Japan?. Let me please introduce you to Teenage Confidential, probably the best band to emerge from Nippon since Teengenerate. Even with the lyrics bein' close to incomprehensible (and thus makin' singin' along out of the question), the songs 'emselves are extremely well crafted (think Nerves, Beat, Cheap Trick, Boys, Redd Kross etc), and with a real solid production, this beats just about every powerpop-by-numbers disc put out in the past decade or so (you might wanna skip the first tune tho'). As much as the new Bobbyteens LP is a disappointment due to it's lo-fi sounds, Tina Lucchesi's other current band the Deadly Weapons offer a much better proposistion, solid west coast punk that seriously reminds me of the mighty Avengers. And while we're at it; be on the look out for two new 45s in Norton's Stones tribute series (tho' the Lyres disc contains nothin' new sadly), and a nicely executed double 10" of the Prisoners' TheWiserMiserDemelza with bonus tracks on Munster...

(from thedictators.com) Handsome Dick gets radio gig.
Handsome Dick Manitoba has joined the Sirius Satellite Network. He will be starting a three-hour show, heard nationally, in early May, on Thursday nights, 6-9 p.m. EST. The show is not yet named, so feel free to send in ideas for a name for Mr. Manitoba's radio DJ gig to DFFD123@aol.com.

Some incredible pictures of Roky Erickson and the Aliens from 1976. By Jean Constant Gindreau.
(Link c/o Stephan in Germany).

The itinerary for the forthcoming Fleshtones French Tour is now as near-as-damn-it finalised. Big Beat Sessions are open to all and will be held in:

13 May - Paris; 14 May - Bergerac; 15 May - Lyon; 17 May - Fontainebleau; 18 May - Rennes; 19 May - Brest; 20 May - Amiens; 21 May - Lille; 22 May – Cherbourg

The names of the venues and some of the support bands can by found on the Gigs page over at The Fleshtones Hall of Fame.

And while I was away we lost another bunch o' greats; RIP: Gene Allison, Jan Berry and Johnny Bristol. For obits be sure to check Phast Phreddie Patterson's Grim Reporter columns.

Awrighty!, back from the dead. Yep, I was off-line for about two weeks as my computer drew it's last breath and various parts had to be replaced.
As you can imagine I'm somewhat behind what a lot of stuff, including e-mail etc. So if you're waitin' for a reply from me; I'm workin'on it!.

brother don in frisco writes this report 'bout Magic Christian "forgive me for a sketchy report but i'm exhausted...just got home from great american music hall. most impressive debut for cyril's new band. they really rocked. cyril wore dark trousers, beatle boots and a long sleeve sort of t-shirt. he had his trademark dan armstrong plexi thru fender twin reverb and purple (!) vox ac-30. he had a pretty killer echo sound (rack stuff). alec palao in great check jacket w/velvet collar and black turtleneck played a brand new gorgeous hollow body gretsch bass. they had another guitarist who played a telecaster - but only played occasionally - he also played some keyboard (dx-7). paul - also in black t-neck and checked trousers - didn't play guitar. he belted out the lead vocals and banged on a tambourine. prairie prince - in god save the queen t-shirt- was pretty awesome on drums. they were LOUD and POWERFUL. even tho i've heard a lot of the new stuff i didn't recognize half the songs as these were super new. my fave that they did is called - i think - no time to cry - or something like that. very beatles. KILLER! cyril took a very george solo on it. oh - cyril played mostly without a pick - reminding me of mick green (from the pirates). they did a great version of the spoonful's "my gal" - dedicated to zal. originals i recognized were "too close to zero", and "here she comes". cyril peeled off some great solos -- he was in good form. i met eric and tom - from this list- in the back of the joint afterwards. very cool guys. chas was sorely missed. there were quite a few oldtimers in the crowd including KALX dj (and ex-groovies roadie) marshall stax. (he swiped the set list - as always). also spotted roy loney. cyril was great afterwards, chatting with everyone and posing for pictures during the romantics set. at one point in the show he said, "it's great to be back". and it's great to have him back. in case you're curious...the other bands were very good too -- chesterfield kings before and romantics after. romantics were suprisingly excellent -- they did great versions of the pretty things "midnight to six man" and the kinks' "she's got everything". they were really tight. all in all a great job was done by all - especially our hero. it was a real rock n' roll assault!

OK, the MC5 thing rumbles on. Dennis has posted a response on the site in the link from my post of the other day. Today, I went on to Amazon to see if they were pre-selling the DVD and they have it listed as True Testimonial and are offering it for $11.89. Nobody's gonna be getting very fat off a retail price like that. But anyway, it's all very disappointing and ugly and I hope it all gets sorted out fairly and squarely in the very near future. Surely BMG should put up the requisite licence money if they want to release it and everybody involved should get their slice of the action, particularly the musicians and their families. Being cited as a legend or being seminal doesn't pay them bills. So screw the noggins there troops...

Keeping up the theme of "returns", all hail the second coming of Kentucky's finest NINE POUND HAMMER

Ex-Mono Men Leader Returns With The Dt's - "Once the leader of America's best mid-'90s garage rock combo, the Mono Men, Estrus Records owner Dave Crider has been quietly woodshedding in his hometown of ..." Michael Goldberg - NEUMU

The other side of the story... As far as I'm concerned all I want is for people to be able to see the film. To see that it was all there, fully formed in 1969 and it's seldom, if ever been bettered. DKT/MC5!

Check out this MC5 SHOCKER! and please explain to me exactly why this could be happening? Maybe Brother Wayne meant it as an early April Fool's jape but somehow I don't think so. In these days of ever dwindling returns for artists, how could such a fine piece of film-making and indeed vehicle for the band be referred to as "unlicenced" or "bootleg"? It's rockin' time kids, we need to help David and Laurel "kick 'em out".

A bulletin from Craig at the I-94 Bar... The Morgan/Royale Soulmover tag team is on the loose!

The mighty new issue of PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO is in the racks now!