DTK/MC5 at the Paradiso, Amsterdam.
It was close call but I nearly missed this one. But as it is, I made it to the Paradiso in record time by bus, train and taxi. And was it ever worth the bother!.
I missed the first part and came in durin' 'Call Me Animal', havin' seen the 'A True Testimonial' film I didn't need to adjust to Five's current looks and only had to wonder if the hippy guy on stage was or wasn't Evan Dando (he wasn't). The sound was great from where I was standing, and there's obviously no complainin' as far as the songs go; 'Lookin' At You', 'Shakin' Street', you name it. The addition of Nicky Royale was a cool move, he really took songs like 'American Ruse' and 'Gotta Keep Movin'' to another level. Excuse the incoherence here, but the adrenaline is still flowin' as I'm writin' this. 'I Believe To My Soul', 'I'm The Man For You Baby', 'Highschool' and even 'Starship' were beyond believe. Kramer, Thompson and Davis deserve all the credits due to 'm and more.
At one point I realized I was standing next to Lisa Kekaula, who is to join the band for the next leg of the tour, she was groovin', almost casually, to the band, applauding', singin' along, and suddenly I got a hunch that you Brits might be in luck gettin' to see her on stage in the next few days (and this comin' from someone who can't stand the Bell-Rays!).
OK, I really gotta go get some sleep. Final note: got to see the Forty-Fives in the upstairs bar afterwards and they rocked!. They're tourin' Euroland right now, and you owe it to yourself to go 'n check 'm out.

Ok. Just spent a lengthy period trying to sort out my inability to upload pictures and wasn't successful. The attempts will continue...

Coming up this week... 5678's in Glasgow tonight, another movie tomorrow, Laura Cantrell and the crew in the 'hood on Tuesday/Wednesday and a couple of other things all in the run up to The Ramones movie and culminating in the DKT/MC5. Woah... and who knows? Maybe some rest.

It’s a good thing that there’s a lot of other stuff going on because The Edinburgh Film Festival schedule was pretty thin pickings this year. Thursday was the first movie of our schlepp and to be honest I wish we hadn’t have bothered. Calvaire (The Ordeal) was as shite a film as I think I’ve ever seen. Here’s how the blurb went… "Deliverance meets The League of Gentlemen in this chiller from the Low Countries" that's France - Belgium - Luxembourg, "a deranged narrative that manages to be simultaneously horrific, disgusting, genuinely frightening and weirdly funny all at the same time". Bollocks.

It was disturbing alright and so were the audience that was in full “we’ll laugh at an egg boiling” mode. People would seem to be very easily pleased these days and I'll be damned if the guy in the movie didn't deserve what came to him. If he's made that ultimate sacrafice in those opening minutes then the ol' karma wouldn't have caught up with him. Plain as that. Implied bestiality and butthumping notwithstanding this is a dull, dull film. The locations and cinematography were good though. Pity about the stereotypical inbred "locals" that blotted the genuinely bleak landscape. I keep reading positive reviews of this clunker... what the hell is wrong with these people? I know. It must be me. This isn't entertainment. It's premeditated exploitation of the lowest order. And not in a good way.

"The human side of the Ramones" in N.Y. Newsday.

Check out the line-up for the Azkena Rock Festival 2004: New York Dolls, DKT/MC5, Radio Birdman, Flamin' Groovies, Lindsay's faves Turbonegro and plenty more...

On Friday, Aug. 20, Andy Shernoff will perform in the Losers Lounge and the HOWL! Festival presentation THE LEGENDS OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE!!! Featuring music by the Dictators, Blondie, The Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, etc. 2 shows, at 8 and 10pm -- at CBGB.

Computers. What a pain in the ass. I can't post photos because of a firewall glitsch and hope to have this rectified soon. The recurrent e-mail problems are also back so I'm not altogether down with who's receiving what, when or whenever. Normal service as they say, will resume at some juncture...

Elmer Bernstien has left the auditorium...

Over 300 pictures taken at Little Steven's Underground Garage Feastival can be found here.

Another review of the End Of The Century movie can be found in the Village Voice by Robert Christgau.

Apologies for the strange business of the vanishing link to the latest instalment of the Ramone circus. It's not for the faint hearted and it should be pointed out that the Vedder involved ain't Jeroen... TRY THIS!

From the makers of SONIC REDUCER...



Brothers, sistas, and hairdressers!

The DKT-MC5 juggernaut is nearly upon us, thankfully sans Dando, and instead adding The BellRays' Lisa K and the old grave-digger hisself, Dave Vanian! Unfortunately, the absolutely pants Mooney Suzuki have now been added to several UK dates, as has bed-wettingly awful LA scenester Roxy Saint! Weeeel, you gotta take the ruff with the smoove, rite? Anyhoo, us Sonic Reducer boys are gearing up for Wednesday 25th at London Astoria, with the lovely guys at Sub Pop in Seattle even sending us a gratis Radio Birdman vinyl set so we can add some "Yeah, hup!" to the proceedings, by spinning the Oz 45 versh of "New Race", alongside other suitably righteous sounds ... The '5 folks are real excited about taking an exclusive tour of The Small Faces' East End haunts (The J60 Music Bar, Itchycoo Park et al) that's set to be given by KatManDude (whose pop grew up with Stevie M) on the afternoon of Friday 27th, and then Michael D's spinning discs ("Bring lots of Beach Boys") as our special guest DJ at Sonic Reducer that very evening! Phew! What with The Soundtrack Of Our Lives at London 93 Feet East on September 7th, and The Detroit Cobras at London ULU the following night, plus a UK solo tour by You Am I mainman Tim Rogers coming up, it's shaping up to be a great Autumn! As our I-94 brethren would say, see you at the bar!

Selah

Joss & Joe

The Ramones in NY Daily News.

This from Blair Buscareno:

Who: The Miscreants (8:30 PM) and The Anything People (7:30 PM)
What: Rock'n'roll of course! LIVE rock'n'roll!
Where: Magnetic Field, 97 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY
When: Saturday August 21st at 7:30
Why: You've got an obligation to be cool.
How: $3 at the door gets you 2 mighty fine sets of rock'n'roll.
And: At 10 PM, Dave the Spazz starts spinning!
Be there or be afraid. Listen - Look

Hey Lindsay,

You missed a good one. The long day started with Davie Allan and the Arrows, who were OK but marred a bit by poor early sound. The bands were on a huge revolving stage and for the first six or seven the stage turned as one band finished their couple of songs and the other band started. Of course the stage broke down as the Fondas were coming on and didn't work for the rest of the day causing small gaps between the songs whihc a selction of MCs tried to fill with tedious and embarassing banter - they would have been better leaving a silnce between bands. Celebrity MCs include Kim Fowley - mostly great, carried the show really - Edd Kookie Byrnes - painfully bad ,eemed a bit senile really and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - FUCKIN' BROOOCE! Oh yeah and some guys from the Sopranos - I don't know what that is about. Highlights were the Richard and The Young Lions with the recently deceasd Richard Tepp's 15 year old son filling in for him, Nancy with Clem Burke on drums, The Dictators who lifted the day out of inteminable three chord garage rock recreations, New York Dolls seemed to be having a genuinely good time and of course the show closers - Iggy & The Stooges. 100 time rowdier than when I saw them in glasgow a couple of months ago, the Stooges were truly awesome. Anyway, I said hi to Handsome Dick for ya, he say take care a yasself. Hope Amy Allison was good too.

Cheers, Colin

NY Daily News Report HERE!.

I'm pleased to report that RAMONES RAW isn't just a padding out of Ramones Around The World. I have a tape of the TV broadcast that aired in the US recently and it's very entertaining both in a knockabout sense and in terms of showing what a gruelling schedule the band undertook. Pluses for me is that there's a fair amount of good Joey stuff and a short sequence with Mark, Joe and Al (Leo Schnauser/Grandpa Munster) Lewis. Footage from a Rome show (Castle of Saint Angelo 1980) is just about the best concert film I've seen of them ever, the sound is incredible and even if it might have been tampered with (I hear strange harmonics on the guitar in particular), it's bloody good. RAW also includes the CBS segment on the opening of Joey Ramone Place and a whole lot more. It paints a very positive spin on the band as a bunch of amiable freaks that should have taken over the world. I guess the evil spirits that were winding up the tensions in the wings and preventing their overground success were on vacation when this was put together. The link above is to Amazon UK who are offering it for just £9.74. Amazon US is $17+. Will have to check out Play.com... just did and it's not listed yet.

Some interesting stuff from this great Sex Pistols site:
"Johnny Ramone and Arturo Vega are celebrating the Ramones 30th anniversary with a gig at the Avalon Theatre in Hollywood, California on 12th September. Steve Jones will be one of the guests. Note, Johnny Ramone will not be performing at the show. For a more extensive list of guests, click on the Cook 'n' Jones link on the menu above.
The movie End Of The Century - The Story Of The Ramones starts Friday 20th August at Angelika Film Centre, NYC.".
Besides that, the site holds some amazingly rare pictures, including several from the Pistols' two visits to Holland.

Apparently Str*kes fans are planning to hit Randalls' Island at 7pm tonight to get a good spot. Blair Buscareno makes a good point that anybody with any semblance of taste will be queuing for the lavvies or something else at that point with a view to being ready for The Stooges. If a further example that this world is going to hell in a handbasket is required, The Ramones "Rock'n'Roll Radio" was used as background music in a fishing show called Trout'n'About on Scottish Television this week. You couldn't make that up, right? All going well, I'll be taking a look at this RAMONES RAW thing tonight and will let you know the score. I have fears that Marky boy has just padded out that Ramones Around The World travesty but we'll see. Looks like I'll be able to make the Saturday screening of END OF THE CENTURY on the 28th in Edinburgh after all. What's that thing about Ramones movies and buses?

"Eric Ambel CD "Knucklehead" from Lakeside Lounge Records. "Roscoe's Gang" and "Loud & Lonesome" deluxe reissues too.

With the release of Knucklehead on his own Lakeside Lounge Records, Eric "Roscoe" Ambel - guitarist for Steve Earle & The Dukes and the Yayhoos clears the slate on 14 years of tracks that have been clogging his iPod. The record features 15 songs with various bands including various Roscoe's Gang configurations, the all Roscoe "Gringoman", the Bottle Rockets, Martins Folly, some pre-Yayhoos and the Yayhoos recording of the Del-Lords "Judas Kiss" with Steve Earle providing harmony. The record features some new Ambel compostions (Stepside, Garbagehead, Hole In My Head), some covers by the Backsliders Chip Robinson, Tom Waits, Neil Young and a previously unreleased Steve Earle tune (The Usual Time).

Lakeside Lounge has also re-issued Ambel's 2 previous solo records. Rolling Stone Magazine called Ambel's 1988 debut Roscoe's Gang "The record Keith Richard should have made". The core band is Springfield MO's Morells with Syd Straw and Peter Holsapple as guests. Loud & Lonesome is Ambel's '94 release featuring songs written with Kevin Salem, Dan Zanes, Dan Baird and Terry Anderson with a very raw 3 pc muscle car band featuring Andy York ripping through the tunes. Roscoe's Gang gets a blistering re-mastering from the original analog masters. All 3 titles are in the deluxe digi-pack format with extensive notes and photos."

You can order all of these fine recordings HERE! There's a special deal if you score all 3 at once.

I would imagine that a whole bunch of you folks would own at lease some of these already but it's worth springing for the set because the packaging and annotation by Roscoe and The Hound is boss. It should be noted that the great RG album includes the second part of the Power Lounger theme that was missing from any copies I ever came across of the original US and UK releases. KNUCKLEHEAD is a great trawl through the backwoods of 'scoe's career and includes The Yayhoos swampoid version of "Judas Kiss". The version of "Shake Some Action" from the final Del-Lords session is spine tingling. The version of "Always On My Mind" recorded with Martin's Folly is utterly haunting and performed with more than it's fair share of soul. K'heid underpins the importance of Roscoes contribution to the canon of rock'n'roll from 1990 - the present.

Springsteen, T and Paulie - now I get the "biblical" bit... if anybody can stop the rain these these guys can... the full running order and timing is HERE!
How though, does a band that hasn't got 10 minutes worth of material end up playing for 50 minutes. Maybe it's an exercise to rumble them... can't wait for the reports to start comin' in...