Don't forget... this coming Tuesday (21st June), The West End of Glasgow welcomes the ubiquitous STEREO TOTAL to Oran Mor for a gratis parading of their substantial repertoire - plus, Mr Cruickshank informs me that ADVENTURES IN STEREO will be joining them. The first show by this fine local combo in what seems like forever.

With ST currently providing their version of The Plastics "I Love You Ono" as the soundtrack to a Sony Camcorder TV ad, they could be about to break on through to whatever is on the other side of such a beastie. Hopefully massimo popularity...

News just in from Mr Percival, always the first on the block...

RHINO GETS WEIRD WITH THE RAMONES

Comic Book-Styled Ramones Boxed Set Arrives August 16

LOS ANGELES--Hey kids! Tired of that bully kicking sand in your face?
Quit being a 98-lb. weakling! The Ramones will show you how! Now one of the hardest working bands ever gets a boxed set befitting its legendary status as Rhino releases WEIRD TALES OF THE RAMONES, a three-CD/one-DVD package featuring an amazing comic book, on August 16. Created at Johnny Ramone's request, the box is available at regular physical and digital retail outlets and at www.rhino.com for a suggested list price of $64.98.

Drawn from 16 action-packed albums, the 85 tracks on WEIRD TALES OF THE RAMONES' three CDs tell the whole musical story--from 1976's "Blitzkrieg Bop" to 1996's "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." The DVD gives fans the complete Ramones music video collection--Lifestyles Of The Ramones, making its digital debut, consists of all of the Ramones Sire Records videos laced together with interview footage and other interstitial material. Also included on the DVD are all six of the videos the band made while on the Radioactive record label.

How much would you pay now? But wait! There's more! While all of those Ramones songs and videos should be enough to make anybody happy, the super cool thing about WEIRD TALES OF THE RAMONES is the book that comes in the box. A groundbreaking band deserves something special, and this book is unlike any ever created for a music box set.

Rather than beat on a dead brat with some stuffy liner notes recounting the band's history and importance, Rhino has commissioned 25 top graphic novel/comic artists (who also happened to be Ramones fans) to create new works for the book, including Rick Altergott (Doofus), Sergio Aragones (Mad Magazine), Mary Fleener, Bill Griffiths (Zippy The Pinhead), Xaime Hernandez (Love And Rockets), John Holmstrom (Punk magazine, Ramones album covers), Carol Lay (WayLay, Story Minute), John Pound (Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, Mad Magazine), Scott Shaw, William Stout, and Jim Woodring.

Included are comic book style ads for Ramones wigs, Ramones rubber masks, and "Sea Markys," as well as a 3-D comic complete with the necessary glasses. Words really can't do this book justice--one look and you'll want to be sedated.

Establishing themselves from the get-go with an unmistakable sound and a look that became iconic, the Ramones proved they had strength to endure. There are only a few groups who can truly claim to have changed the course of music history, and the Ramones are one of them. With WEIRD TALES OF THE RAMONES the original punks are immortalized in a manner befitting juvenile delinquents turned rock royalty.

Marek J spotted this on the Bomp Mailorder List...

BARRACUDAS, The - What you Want is What you Get
Ltd ed of 100 copies with signed photo! Jeremy Gluck and Robin Wills are back in action, this time with the addition of ex-Flamin' Groovies Chris Wilson. This is their first recording in more than a decade, three minutes of squalling, screaming and kicking garage punk genius, flipped by "Somebody '05", the reinvention of their
timeless "Drop Out With The Barracudas" classic. A brand new album is planned for the summer. Surfers are back! 7" $8

The album should be available at the end of this month. Soon as I know - you will...

Greetings this Saturday morning from Discombobulated Central. Things be still awry but I guess that's how such a fluid situation can inhibit a creature of extreme routine. Maybe I'm suffering from a mild form of depression because I never got any tickets for the Live 8 shows. And why? Because I never entered the lottery to win any. And why (the sequel)?? Because I have no interest at all in being "part of history". So thereby hangs a tale... I am so devoid of any kind of ambition that I've been wondering lately why? As others jockey and crawl for some crumb of "status", for some tangible link to what they conceive as normal or acceptance - I'm rowing frantically in the opposite direction, out to sea, lunch, wherever. As far away from what i consider to be a sickness as is humanly possible, hoping that a wave will knock me out of my wee boat and either drown me or wash me up on some distant shore, out of the all-enveloping bollocks once and for all.

The slide toward Scotland's lockdown is gathering pace as the world leaders of the apocalypse ride toward Gleneagles. The toothless call for a humungous number of people to descend upon this daft wee country gets more shrouded in stupidity with every passing moment. There isn't an infrastructure to deal with the possibility and we ain't talking Woodstock here. Fuck's sake, there aren't even litter bins in most rail stations because don't ya know there are terrorists waiting to blow our sorry arses off the main line between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Tomorrow (Sunday 19th) is No Computer day. I ain't even switching it on, no matter how it begs and pleads. It's time to revisit the days before these things took control of my existence, I might even get to a casual schlepp through that pile of cds that are gathering dust over there just out of vision. My e-mailholism is out of control and isn't helping cod-fisted attempts to stabilse the day to day chaos. The turbulence continues and it's at times like this you need all the Fuck Y'All records you can get. But more about that down yonder road...

Tickets for the Count Bishops reunion show at the 100 Club on September 23rd are available now from Bang Bang. Latest word is that Boss Goodman will be spinnin' the discs that night!.

...Wanna do something useful and rock at the same time? Join The Star Spangles at The Mills @ East Falls, 3502 Scotts Lane, Philadelphia, 8pm, June 25th for part of Scooter Week, a series of events benefiting The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. It's an all ages show on a Saturday evening, the Walkmen are headlining and your $20 goes to a very good cause, so now you have no excuse... Click here for further info

The new AMY RIGBY album LITTLE FUGITIVE is out on Signature Sounds this August 23rd. Mixed by Don Dixon, it contains the "if there's any justice" smash "Dancing With Joey Ramone" and 11 other top compositions delivered in customary splendor (note - US spelling). Amy also has a songbook, with lyrics and illustrations available now.

The one and the only Karen McB sent me this link to a D-GENERATION clip today. In 1994 even, everything seemed possible and the performance is great. They were the missing link between Aerosmith and The Dead Boys that got away. The albums aren't wall to wall great but they have their moments and you can probably score them for a buck off Ebay. Anyway, they knew how to use a stage and this wee snapshot proves that conclusively.

Received quite a few messages today about the "too much stuff" malaise. Seems like it's a pretty common ailment. It also reminded me of the 100 records concept. Essentially you can have 100 records, that's total. In order to get a new one you have to let an old one go. I've heard stories about people who could live with such a discipline but I never met anyone who actually practices this dark art. Could such control really be possible?

There's a piece in the latest issue of WORD magazine that really hit home with me. David Hepworth is writing about there being too much stuff out there and very candidly states some names that he hasn't ever heard. Some of these names are very obvious but he's managed to distance himself from the feeding frenzy where on top of hearing stuff there's room to appreciate it more because there's room to breathe.
Just lately I've become a binge listener, because somehow I've been robbed of all the time I seemed to have had. I gorge myself on album after album. Sometimes something comes along like Angel CC and that occupies heavy rotation but then I get back on the treadmill. Hepworth has pointed out the error of my ways but it remains to be seen if I can discipline myself out of this habit. I like his message about not having to hear EVERYTHING. It's simple and it's obvious but is it workable?

Mr Vahlberg tells me that SATOR will be playing at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden this coming weekend. Chips K will also be conducting an ensemble of rolling vocalists throughout a set to mark 20 years of the event and Nick Nomad is one of these. I hope they get the weather.

It's official. Absolutely NOTHING is sacred or indeed safe from reinterpretation... an "urban" version of perhaps the greatest sitcom of all time. Couldn't they at least have called it The Homeynooners? The trailer does not inspire confidence but maybe some of our US readers could expand upon the subject. What the hell is next?

Angel's Louie Louie is up and at ya available now. It's a fabulous thing in a svelt card sleeve and it deserves to deliver a marked increase in status for our SF based lassie. Ad executives, soundtrack compilers and even people with ears should be able to recognise the shimmer that this stuff gives off. What's not to license...? Moby is so back in whatever day.

She has also entered the blogosphere and you can track down her music there, direct from the source. But beware, this is a sonic elixir of substance - not some casual mis-use of style so approach this material with that in mind. It will sooth the savage beast and then kick your ass. It's time Angel got her share of the limelight, she's not going on tour and she's not gonna be in all the magazines. This medicine is to be administered as a slow drip and you're being offered the privilege of getting in on the basement. It's an album like this that makes me remember why I bang my fucking head against the brick wall that claims to be the mainstream. Hoping that my napper will open up a fissure that'll let a little of the good stuff trickle in...

I know, this shindig was last night but Nuria's artwork - as always - is a wonderful thing to behold. So behold already...

So it's Fathers day next Sunday and the TV advertising is in full swing. A three CD Deep Purple box is the ideal gift apparently and to be honest I'm not knocking that as a concept. I always think of FD being a kinda Matt Monro or Max Bygraves vinyl album or slippers kinda day. Sometimes I forget that this is the 21st Century. We've made progress and the fact that you can pick up the new Cauldplay album with your muffins and Bran Flakes is supposed to underline this. Perhaps not. Another fact that's been widely reported this week is that practically every high street in the country has exactly the same shops. That'll be a revelation to anybody with eyes that's ever walked down one then, right? We are being bombarded with shite. Bloody big lumps of it. In every way imaginable. Even something as important as wiping out poverty has all these abysmal acts involved with it. Tis almost G8 time and the country is getting ready to party like it's 1999 to the most talent starved has-beens imaginable. Its not like any of them need the money that they'll undoubtedly make on the back of it. There are trains and boats and planes full of people headed for Edinburgh on July 6th apparently. The capital doesn't have enough toilet facilities on a regular day so it could get a tad stinky over there. It'll be Hogmanay Celebrations plus and probably pissing rain. And to get a ticket for the thing, you have to text. There is a provision for snail mail but the main mode of getting to see this terrible bill is to use your moby. I don't know how to do that so I can't go. Big shame I know, but I feel the sacrifice is worth it.

News on the upcoming new Fleshtones album 'Beachhead' can be found here.

The Rhythm Hive presents...
Saturday 11th June - downstairs at the Marquis of Lansdowne (aka Barden's boudoir Room 2), 48 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XJ (Dalston Kingsland top train or 67, 76 ,149, 243 buses)

THE MAKEOUTS
teengenerate-style garage-punk snottiness from Stockholm City!!!! 45 out soon on P.Trash Records!

BLACK TIME
sunglasses after dark punk rockers mainlining the Cramps and Huggy Bear!
VENOM SEEDS

geisha girls wrestling YYYs and Sonic Youth!!

DIRTHOLE
double drummer bursts of bruised and anguished garage-punk!!

8 til midnight. £4 on the door.

This coming Friday, June 10th ... 8:30pm - 3:00am

GOLDBLADE
There’s a lot of indie kids out there who thought it was something new and exciting when the Detroit garage scene exploded - no bandwagon jumpers, Goldblade anticipated that sound years earlier. Their soul-flecked rhythm’n’blues überdelic rock’n’roll may near enough be matched by their US counterparts but you won’t see a more inspiring and enlivening show from any of those. No one else delivers the testifying rock’n’roll gospel like John Robb – his restless spirit courses through the urgency of their glam-drenched strut, giving you a sense that every moment of your life should be an all-or-nothing, doing it to the utmost, that rock’n’roll can be your salvation, your reason for living. He’s a rock’n’roll Billy Graham, bug-eyed and wild on adrenalin – you will have no choice but to howl out your devotion to his band. A shamelessly fundamental collision of The Ramones, James Brown, The Stooges, backed by the tribal thump of two drummers, the song with which they open their set !
says it all: "Do You Believe in the Power of Rock’n’Roll?"

ELECTRA
Though being sharp and well-defined, this band is not about concept – it’s about good songs, the kind that remain hard to find. The songs in question are a fabulous blend of sixties soul and seventies punk – a unique blend of sweet melodies wrapped in loud, edgy guitars, songs that are direct and warm as any real pop anthem should be and yet also complicated and angry as the soul of a true teen rebel. In the couple of years since this power trio formed they have gained a devoted local crowd around the Tel Aviv area, with Time Out Tel Aviv calling them "the most kicking band in rock’n’roll". Following their debut single in the spring of 2004 the band signed a publishing deal with the Israeli branch of EMI and put out their second release. Now it’s time for Israel’s most happening band to head for the UK!

DANGERLUST
"Fancy some female-fronted dirty rock and roll with perfect pop choruses? That's the MO of this Sheffield band. Think the Pixies fronted by an uber-cool rock chick rather than a bald lardo..." says NME. Lurching, rhino-fart basslines, spiralling, bitten off guitars reminiscent of the Pixies/Breeders with effectively sneery vocals, Dangerlust are menacing, knowing and snide in equal measures, awesome riffage and fun solos , they show a honed sensibility for what it takes to get a club full of kids leaping around! As a Leeds Music Scene said about them: "Sleazy, filthy rock and roll. Just slap it in your CD player, sit back and nod your head in admiration 7/10" Meanwhile, the Sheffield Star says, "Personality, an appetite for riffs and a welcome dollop of scuzz." And we say you can't go wrong with a bit of scuzz!

GENERAL KHAKI
It was but a year ago that The General left the forces in disgust and assembled an elite fighting unit: on lead vocals and Fender Telecaster, Wing Commander Tommy Mack; on vocals and bass, Lance Bombardier Kat Stevens; on vocals and drums, Grenadier Dan McKennan. Their Mission: Clad in razor-sharp matching uniforms, to rendezvous at the barracks in London's fashionable East End and prime their primitive yet deadly weaponry for a sonic assault of their elusive leader's design – jagged Beefheart meets Buzzcocks bubblegum hooks, detonated with the breakneck speed and free-wheeling energy of the music the kids call 'hardcore', a manic swingpunk two-step and the raw guitars of that which they call 'garage-rock’. With a debut single out this summer on 1234 Records, and the majors sniffing around their sweaty hides like so many rabid hounds, General Khaki are on a mission to bring the brains and the beauty, the fun and the fury back to the fore, to put a dip in your hip and a glide!
in your stride - everything all together, everything all at once! www.generalkhaki.com

15.00 - 03.00 at Debaser, Stockholm... Tickets are 160 SvKr + service (a bargain really) at http//www.ticnet.se or at the door (18y)

15.00 The Midsummer pole is raised, Dj's are playing music and food can be bought in the big outdoor area. The party indoors starts at approx. 19.00hrs.

The Line-up: The Fleshtones (us), Los Plantronics (no)
Hipbone Slim & The Kneetremblers (uk), Dee Rangers, Tiny Teasers

Dj's Brock Sternberg (dk), Måns Månsson, Baby Diamondback, Mike Barbwire and more.....

The latest from Ace Records.