I'm a little pissed off with the whole Ebay phenomenon right now. A large proportion of this is down to the spoof mails that arrive two or three times a day from parasites eager to get bank, credit card or whatever details. A victim of its own success, the TV advertising and general media boom created round the site now is squeezing the pus out of the boil in terms of the lengths that thieving scum will go to. Anyway, that said - there are still bargains to be had. Classics that have yet to enjoy the status of being so and PARLOR JAMES "Dreadful Sorry" EP and "Old Dreams" album fall into that category. There are copies on there now for virtually nowt. As you may or may not know, these discs feature the early works of Amy Allison. The production could be described as iffy but "Hell to Pay" on the ep in particular is more than worth the entrance fee. Just go to ebay, search on Parlor james and take a wee flutter. It'll be fun.

A missive from Mr Spence... it's a GREASE MONKEY world!

"Howdy Folks! I know it's late notice, but we only found out today that we were playing...

THURSDAY 7TH APRIL- KING TUT'S WAH WAH HUT, ST VINCENT ST., GLASGOW Tickets - £11(!!!)*; Doors - probably 8pm
TH' LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS - seminal roots rockabilly from Kentucky, rated by Hank Williams III, Jason Ringenberg, the Reverent Horton Heat, and Jello Biafra! - and - THE GREASE MONKEYS we're getting tickets to sell for it tomorrow (yeah great - thanks Tuts!) which we can sell to you at a cheaper price. So drop me a line back if you want tickets kept by on the door for you at Monkeys discount price.

(If you want to do this e-mail NBT and I'll pass the info to Jim)

Also, later this month we've got the (sorta) Bronx Cheer Fest.....

MONDAY 25TH APRIL - THE BARFLY, CLYDE ST., GLASGOW
Tickets - £7; Doors: 8pm

THE BELLRAYS - maximum rock'n'soul from LA - current LP, "The Red, White & Black" is out on both Poptones and Alternative Tentacles...
SUNSHINE - nope, me neither. Probably a corporate buy-on w/ a name like that! - and - THE GREASE MONKEYS

TUESDAY 26TH APRIL - NICE 'N' SLEAZY, SAUCHIEHALL ST., GLASGOW
Tickets - (probably) £7; Doors: 8pm (I think)

THE IMMORTAL LEE COUNTY KILLERS III - the essential fucked-up blues, all the way from Auburn, Alabama w/ releases on Estrus & Sweet Nothing - now w/ additional keyboards! HIGH PLANE DRIFTERS - nope, me neither - but they're playing the Barfly this Weds w/ the Soledad Brothers, Kain, etc, if you wanna preview - and - THE GREASE MONKEYS

Anyways, hope to see y'all at a show this month.

All the Best....................Jim 'n' the Grease Monkeys!"

The Jason Pierce curated event, a kind of Meltdown in the North (Meltdoon even) in Newcastle Upon Tyne in May goes as follows... Thanks to Mr Campbell for the info...

Tav Falco Sat 21st May w/ DJ Andy Weatherall
The Dirtbombs Mon 23rd May w/ DJ Jason Pierce
Daniel Johnston Thur 26th May w/ DJ Jason Pierce
The Flaming Stars Sun 29th May

also showing Robert Gordon films on the afternoons

and of course SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS on Sat 14th with Los Coyotes.

All of this action takes place at

The Head Of Steam At The Cluny
36 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. NE1 2PQ

New from Crypt Records: "VARIOUS ARTISTS The Ikon Records Story: America's #1 Unsung Garage Label: 1964-1966 Double 180-gram LP CRYPT-09629 tracks (22 originals and 7 cover versions) (plus 2 radio adverts) of never reissued 1964-1966 garage punk, surf instros, frat stomp and folk-punk from 20 teenage bands recorded at Sacramento's IKON STUDIO. These 28 cuts, culled from the to-be-simultaneously-released 60-song double CD on the FRANTIC RECORDS label, are the result of FRANTIC RECORDS' Joey D and ACE RECORDS' Alec Palao having spent the last 6 years tracking down every band, every master tape, and (often without luck) the impossible-to-find 7" singles released on Ikon. This vinyl version is housed in a deluxe full-color inside-and-out gatefold jacket crammed with color and b&w photos, label shots, and extensive liner notes.

After 27 years of extensive reissues of 60s garage punk rarities, only ONE Ikon track has ever made it to a reissue - WHY? Because almost NOBODY even owns any of the original Ikon 45s... The sole KNIGHTSMEN copy is in a collection in Seattle, 2 fiends in Petaluma and Australia have 12 or so Ikons, 2 in Connecticut, 4 in NJ... TUFF stuff to find, baby!

Well... prepare yourselves for an ass-whomping BOOM when you drop the needle on any of these 4 sides, baby! MARAUDERS "Surf Jam", SHONDELLS "Something's Got A Hold Of Me", DENNY & KENNY DUO "Meet My Little Sweetie In The Night Time", AVANTIS "Too Much", JOHN ROSASCO QUARTET "The Shift", PROPHETS "It's All Over Now", BRISTOLS "She's Gone Away", KNIGHTSMEN "Daddy Was A Rolling Stone", MADD INC "I'll Be The One", PARISH HALL BLUES QUINTET "I Can Never Say", UNKNOWN GROUP "Searching", SHONDELLS "It's True", PROPHETS "You Wonder Why", MYMES "You Lose Girl", BOBBIES "Orangutang", TOWNSMEN "High Heel Sneakers", MADD INC "Sooperspy", AVANTIS "Countdown", BOBBIES "Truck". RC & THE TAMBOURINES "The Quirk", KNIGHTSMEN "Fever", MYMES "I've Got Better Things To Do", MERGERS "Love, You Funny Thing", TOWNSMEN "Leaving Me", SONS OF SOUND "I'm Coming Home", CAUTIONS "Groovin", SHONDELLS "I Cried Last Night", MADD INC "Batman", KEE-NOTES "St James Infirmary"

Well, I could get used to this. No drive to work, just a wee stroll to the post office and the shops. In and around this I've been trying to do a little promo work on my fathers album of pipe music. This an alien genre to me but a necessary facet of punting "the product". This type of music is even more cut-throat than yer average rock, pop, whatever. It seems to exist on the back of labels that press hundreds upon thousands of cds and sell them to shops for less than 2 quid a pop. We can't compete with that so an alternative means of shifting these units may have to be employed. It's early days though and an infinitley preferable task to that which your man here normally has to undertake. I can do all this to the soundtrack of a Napoleon XIV album which includes the originals, answer records and foreign language versions of "They're Coming To take Me Away". More about this, on the Vampire imprint, in due course.

From Murray Ramone...

::: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :::



TODOS SOMOS RAMONES RECORD LISTENING PARTY

CBGB's 313 GALLERY, 313 BOWERY ST, NEW YORK, NY

FRIDAY APRIL 8, 2005 7.00-9.00PM ($4.00 Rheingold beer available)

Buenos Aires, Argentina's own Rockaway Records is proud to announce the release of its 59-band, international tribute to the Ramones, the TODOS SOMOS RAMONES: A HOMMAGE double CD. So come on down to CBGB's 313 Gallery on Friday April 8, 2005 between 7.00PM and 9.00OM for special listening party. Copies will be on sale. TODOS SOMOS RAMONES is the first-ever wordwide tribute album of its kind with 90% of the featured acts being direct associates of the band. Songs from all 13 of the band's official albums are featured on this release. The deluxe package contains a 60-page, full-color booklet containing extensive liner notes by Tommy Ramone and Dr. Donna Gaines as well as a host of never-before seen photos by Roberta Bayley, Leland Bobbe and Alan Tannenbaum.

Rockaway records founder, Mariano Asch single-handedly crafted this eclectic, world-class tribute to the greatest band ever to come out of New York City as a labor of love. Not only did he get permission for the various band member's estates, he even got Ramones long-time engineer, Ed Stasium to master the record!

The CD features tracks by local heros, Stop [feat. Joey's brother, Micky Leigh], Furious George, Sonny Vincent, Sylvain Sylvain w/the She Wolves and The Bullys. Also featured are with the individual Ramones collaborating with their favorite bands: Dee Dee w/Youth Gone Mad, Joey w/the Independents and C.J. with Argentina's own, Bien Desocupados.

The CD also contains tracks by veteran 1977 punk legends: The Heartbreakers, Ivan Julian, Stiv Bators, Alternative TV [whose own Mark Perry created the legendary Sniffin' Glue fanzine after hearing the Ramones self-titled debut], The Boys [the Ramones personal favorite] and Airport, feat. Buzzcocks bassist Tony Barber.

Copies of TODOS SOMOS RAMONES will be on sale at the event.

For more information, contact Bryan Swirsky @ 718.855.4504 or bswirsky@mindspring.com. Click HERE for full band listing and ordering information.

So with Ms Allison safely deposited at the airport only to find that there's a three hour delay, I'm back in the bunker. Yesterday turned out pretty good after the bollocks with the glass, etc. The fragments continue to haunt me and I shall make a concerted effort to banish these later. I have a few days off so methinks the Sunday dread will not be making its presence felt today. Instead further inroads into Joe Bonomo's fine Fleshtones tome will be made to the soundtrack of some recent acquisitions. Amy's newly mastered album sounds really amazing and this will hopefully be lighting up the airwaves across the planet by the summer. Things are all pretty positive on that front so that's where I'm at today thus far. Prepare then for a bunch of new ravings on stuff to check out over the next couple of days. Reality will be back soon enough but for now it's in detention.

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.