So let's see... I'm sitting here waiting on the person who is gonna replace the car glass. I'm not real good at waiting or at that other thing they call patience be it a virtue or not. However, here's some Bambi Molesters news for those lucky enough to be in their locale...

"On Monday, 29.03. "Nights of Forgotten Films" is released in Europe by Warner Music. Next week "Sonic Bullets - 13 From the Hip" will also be released in Europe by Warner. THE BAMBI MOLESTERS tour has been rescheduled for May/June. Here's THE STRANGE gigs update: 02.04. Zagreb - Tvornica (Zlatna Koogla), 08.04. Velenje - Max and 09.04. Ljubljana - Orto Bar."

Meanwhile to scratch the itching brought upon by their tour rescheduling then do what you have to in order to procure their Backstage Pass DVD. There's definitley no return after clocking this, very inspiring stuff.



OK, gotta deal with this glass thing now. More later perhaps...

So here we are, April 1st and NBT is 28 years old today. #1 hit the streets on this day in 1977 and it's been onwards, not necessarily upwards from there.

Take last night... the Tom Morton Roadshow from Grangemouth High School capped what was a pretty weird day even by my recent standards. I'd never set foot in the place for over 30 years. I used to go into registration then hightail it over the field to work in the local record emporium, Orbit. Anyway last night in addition to Tom, Simon Black was there valueing records(?) and so was Bruce Findlay in his capacity of being ABERFELDY's manager. It was a strange, not unpleasant (until later) experience. When I went to leave the less than salubrious surroundings what was waiting to greet me but a caved in rear windscreen and all the joys that such a caper bestows. To call it a pisser is understating the point somewhat and now, minutes ago, I find out that it won't be rectified until tomorrow. At this point the seething is controllable but I'm not sure how long that'll last before it turns into full blown rage.

ABERFELDY are a pretty decent wee pop group with some potential and I don't think their music is necessarily the soundtrack to damaging cars. They sound like Pulp might if they'd gestated in Folk City, NY or thereabouts. They're from Edinburgh and not Aberfeldy incidentally.

Anyway, I'm not sure how all this is going to play out. Right now, I need this not but wodjagonnado? Not breathing exercises, that's for damn sure.

This month's releases from Ace Records.

Picked this up when Ben posted it on the Staysick board...

"Hi there, I got this from Kopper at Garagepunk.com Forums just now:

"For those of you who may have gotten to see Guitar Wolf here last week, you will be saddened to learn of the passing of Billy Bass Wolf (Hideaki Sekiguchi). Billy, the one and only Bass Wolf, passed away from a heart attack this morning in Tokyo. He was 38. He truly lived LAMF and was loved by all who knew him."

Post thoughts/condolences/remembrances here:
http://www.garagepunk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15955

From Guitar Wolf's BBS:

Vigil and funeral information is as follows:
Vigil: 18:00p.m. (non-relatives 19:00p.m.) on Tuesday, April 5
Funeral: 10:00a.m.-11:00a.m., The Hearse to Leave at 11:00a.m. on
Wednesday, April 6 Place: Rinkaisaijo http://www.rinkaisaijo.or.jp
1-3-1, Tokai, Ohta-Ku, Tokyo. Phone: 81-3-5755-2833
*Since there is NO parking lot, we kindly ask you not to drive to the place.
We announce that all shows will be cancelled.
We hope to have your understanding."

The Sack-O'-Woes - The Men With Bogart's Face (Looprekords SACK-O'3).
These here Sack-O'-Woes are one of the very few Dutch p-rock bands not caterin' to either the P.C. crusties, or the fuzzy-dice, flames and tattoos crowd. You know, a genuine punkrock band, kinda like the New Bomb Turks, to whom they ain't too dissimilar soundwise either. Their latest disc is available in both authentic vinyl format and (free!) MP3 download. So dig in and enjoy kiddies...

I still haven’t altogether recovered from the clocks going forward the other night. The reverberations of this encroachment into precious downtime are making me smart. That is in the sense of mild hurting not in the kingdom of the grey matter. But anyways, it’ll be April 1st on Friday, 28 years since NBT #1 hit the streets. If I’d committed some kinda big heist or even mass murder I’d probably be out by now, maybe doing the chat show circuit following a book and movie deal? So instead of armed robbery, I started a fanzine. Suffering for your art can take on many forms and looking at that big picture I was pontificating about the other day, I’m not doing too badly but would like to do better. Could this be ambition? Perhaps I need to try harder? Or just shut the fuck up and get on with it?? Yeah, I thought so. I hear “where you’re comin’ from” (Frank).

If Holland ever had a band to equal the live-dynamics of the Fleshtones or Untamed Youth it must be the Firebirds. No idea what their current status is, but it looks like at least one ex-member has joined Das Aldi Combo. They're on tour with King Kahn this week, and if you need convinsin' on why you should check 'm out, just dig their crazed take on Human Fly that's available as MP3 from their site...

Details are very sketchy, but it looks like there is a Sire Records Box Set in the works.

Amy brought over the pilot episode of NBC’s remake of The Office which aired there last Friday night. Words cannot express what a waste of time, effort, resource and whatever else this is and has and always will have been. One would imagine that it’ll surely be put out of its misery after one “season”.

People stateside who were interested, presumably saw the original. Nobody else out there probably cares or will recognise the enormity of the folly associated with it but heads oughtta roll. All of the characters have been re-named and even the approximation of “Keith” is beyond all reasonable ken, y'ken?. The show lasts for 25 minutes(ish) and is hard going. Much has been made about it not having a “laugh track” and how this will confuse the American viewer. No it sodding won’t, because the channel will have been flipped well before they notice that it ain’t there - such is the chasm between the appropriation of what was formerly comedy gold and this travesty. Where much of the success lay in the uncomfortable familiarity and realistic nature of the material, this is a flat, dull atrocity. And, when they try to americanise the fare, then it slips another couple of rungs. Whoever sanctioned this could use a shot of “downsizing” themselves. Far as I know, the US AbFab was aborted due to the fact that it quite obviously didn’t work. I have no idea if the same people or indeed network was/were involved or who did the decent thing on that score but the culprits here require a loan of the radar that arrived at that decision.

I am still somewhat aghast and it took three episodes of The Honeymooners to restore my faith in how American comedy once, and very often still does, tower over the occasional (accidental) UK hit show.

If it was up to me I'd spend several days a month in another country, as these trips always provide some much needed fresh input into a mind that, at times can get seriously bogged down by the ongoing day-to-day grind, and spendin' the past couple o' days in Glasgow was a good reminder that I need to do this kind o' thing much more often.
As opposed to Edinburgh, Glasgow is hardly a tourist attraction, more the kind o' city where people actually live and work. Visually it's as diverse as can be, you really have to adjust to the fact that within' one block on just about every street, one can encounter at least a dozen completely opposite types of architecture that hardly ever compliment each other. But if you keep an eye out there's a lot to enjoy. Didn't really have the time to visit the various musea, but the Glasgow Museum Of Modern Art (GOMA) had a small but well rounded collection that is well worth a visit. We spend Saturday afternoon in the company of Avy and Lindsay, who showed us around the Barras flea-market and the wonderful West-End. Despite Lindsay's misgivings about the state of recordshops in Glasgow, it actually had just the type o' shops I was lookin' for. No fancy collector-scum kind o' deals, just old-fashioned 2nd hand shops with prices way below London/other Major City levels. L viewed all that was on offer as rubbish, but how I whish people were sellin' that kind o' rubbish over here in Holland!
Our stay ended with a nice meal at a place called 'The Piping Centre', in the company of our hosts, where I was able to fulfill my long standing desire to taste Haggis. Being semi-vegetarian, I always make an exception for these regional dishes that people warn you about. As it was, it tasted just fine and hardly resembled the road-kill pigeon I was told it would...
There's at least a dozen city's goin' through my head right now that I wanna go to next, but as it is I'll have to take on an extra paper-route before I can even start thinkin' about another trip.
Muchos gracias to Avy and Lindsay for takin' the time to show us around, we owe you one...

Handsome Dick Manitoba has moved from his weekend slot in the Underground Garage to a FULL-TIME one! ..... He can now be heard, EVERY WEEKDAY, Monday through Friday, at 8 pm (8pm to 12 midnight) Eastern time ..... that would be 5pm to 9pm on the left coast! Sirius Satellite Radio/Channel 25/The Underground Garage. Joan Jett moves into a weekend slot.

Where have all the fanzines gone?...

Perspective is a great leveller and while it's not always possible to maintain such a dimension then it's important to try and regain some kind of equilibrium. My lambasting of my pathetic day to day chops being affected by the megalomania of relative nonentities is getting to be a pretty easy target. The world doesn't owe me a living but it's kind of a pisser when my fate is in the hands of people that I wouldn't trust to clean the lavvies. No disrespect to lavvie cleaners intended.

I heard this week that my friend, Theresa Brilli (Wilson) was taken by cancer and to be honest, I didn't know she was ill. As bolts from the blue go - it was somewhat un-nerving. It made me consider my own situation where I can sit here and vent. I can take on what I consider to be the injustices of existence and realise that I have a lot to be (relatively) thankful for. My "struggle" pales into total and utter insignificance compared to that of Theresa's family. She was a unique character, the kind of which are all too rare.

Yesterday, we were hanging out in Glasgow with Jeroen and Alice and today Amy Allison arrived to master her record. Being able to do that is something that shouldn't be taken for granted. In my bleaker moments, when I'm waiting and/or expecting for the hammer to come on down, it would perhaps do some good to be able to take in the bigger picture. The one where (maybe) all the apples didn't fall on me (after all). I think I ought to at least try to do that.

'bye T. I hope you're doin' alright in that next instalment.

FV Music continues to provide great music to the good people of Ljubljana in the form of the three noisenik combo from Columbus, Ohio GRAFTON, this coming Wednesday (30th).

Amidst the tumult at St. Margarets Drive in Glasgow (that's the BBC) they still have the will to produce excellent radio documentary action. This week these took the form of Davie Scott's angle on Simple Minds "New Gold Dream" . Not a "classic album" for me but it reiterated to me what a character Jim Kerr is and it also features some great stuff from Bruce Findlay. The Frank Gallacher story is priceless. The other item was a programme about Dundee songwriter Michael Marra. Search both of these out on the "listen again" function.

Here’s an expression that I’ve heard “tossed around” in recent times more and more Around the open prison type establishment that I work. “The needs of the business” is a phrase that should earn whoever coined it a sound thrashing or maybe even death. Not a very charitable thought this Easter time but I make no apology for that. This is a further erosion in employment terms to an extent which is for me, unsurpassed. Further grist to the mill with regard to a monolithic vote of no confidence in those who are fiddling while this particular “Rome” slides down the figurative lavvy.

In a completely co-incidental turn of events (with it being Easter and all and being synonymous with eggs and all that palaver), it would seem that chickens are coming home to roost. This has been a rough and tumble week and the diry big sharp kitchen implements are out. What can I tell ya? If I hadn’t got The Bambi Molesters "Backstage Pass" dvd from Lada then things could have been a whole lot worse.

So, it’s Good Friday (as opposed to TGI Friday) and at 12.30pm today, it actually went one louder because that’s when I drove outta the penitentiary. If I get hit by a bus this weekend then I won’t have to go back.

See, I am capable of looking on the bright side…