KIKE FOREVER! (link courtesy of Cap'n Dynamite)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
THE GREASE MONKEYS will play a live online set on Sub City Radio tonight (Tuesday 7th Feb) between 8pm & 10pm GMT - tune in & crank it up!!!
I can't seem to upload photos on this, not sure if that's a problem at this end or at Blogger? I tried the "republish index" button but it didn't work. Bollocks. No time to futz with it just now...
I can't seem to upload photos on this, not sure if that's a problem at this end or at Blogger? I tried the "republish index" button but it didn't work. Bollocks. No time to futz with it just now...
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Please excuse me while I toot my own horn here, but it was great to see some of my past "achievements" actually earnin' some cash on eBay. First, the second 45 by my 80s band earned somebody slightly more than loose change, and next up a book I co-wrote provided someone else with a decent meal. Too bad I haven't got a stack of copies of both here at HQ...
BB Quattro kindly sent a link via the band's myspace page to a video for "Lipstick To Japan" shot during their tour in the land of that rising sun beastie. Dunno about you but any attempt to connect with myspace completely crashes this pc so I used the YOUTUBE portal instead.
RIP - Al Lewis.
Reunited with Gunther and Francis at the great precinct in the sky. I remember meeting him outside his restaurant, Grandpa's in New York in the late 80's. He was exactly like Leo Schnauser, carnapcious but gracious with his time.
Billy and Miriam took me along there with some friends and he was just sitting outside. To me it was the equivalent of meeting royalty or whatever. I'll never forget it.
Reunited with Gunther and Francis at the great precinct in the sky. I remember meeting him outside his restaurant, Grandpa's in New York in the late 80's. He was exactly like Leo Schnauser, carnapcious but gracious with his time.
Billy and Miriam took me along there with some friends and he was just sitting outside. To me it was the equivalent of meeting royalty or whatever. I'll never forget it.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Here's a random selection of new wax you kids out there might enjoy; The Reigning Sound's Live At Goner Records (Goner) beats Telstar's live offering from last year by several miles, esp on the fidelity front. Great tunes and fantastic delivery, here's hopin' for a Greg Cartwright solo country album! Soul Jazz is really churnin' 'em out, the year has hardly started and there's 4 new sets already. The latest duo again stem from the Studio One vaults (v/a - Studio One Soul vol.2 and Sound Dimension - Jamaican Soul Shake vol.1), and good as the music is, it seems that the Soul Jazz compilers have reached a bit of a dead end. Over familiar rhythms and a total lack of "surprise!". From the people who have brought you Las Vegas Grind and Jungle Exotica comes The Lavender Jungle, a compilation of gay-ish exotica supposedly all originating from Hollywood's Senor Charro label. You're bound to see some raised eyebrows when people locate this disc in your collection, but the sounds are top notch, and on a par w/ the stuff on the Jungle & Grind comps. From the same source come two volumes of Barnyard Soul!, two LPs or one CD of greasy, gritty and groovy southern soul stompers. Short on liners (there's none!), but soundwise A-OK!. While checkin' the soundtrack of the Broken Flowers movie, which also includes the Greenhornes and Holly Golightly, I came across this great jazzy tune by Mulatu Astatke, who, on further investigation, turned out to be a Ethiopian keyboard player. I picked up a untitled LP by him on the L'Arome label (LAP005LP). And it's a great blend of traditional Ethiopian music, Jazz and funk from the 70s. One or two cuts don't really cut it, but the rest sure sounds fine. Not sure what it is but all African recordings have this wonderful muffled/dusty sound that might be caused by the fact that the mastertapes have been stored in overly warm conditions, who knows, but it sounds great. Next up is more 70's u-ground from the U.S. of A. Stay tuned...
ROBBIE FULKS is headed for Kilkenny in Ireland and The Borderline (London) in May. If you haven't seen him then you have to go. If you have then you'll be familiar with the fact that he ain't to be missed.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
"press release…February 2nd 06…
…after a frustrating year - thanks to circumstances way beyond our control - The Star Spangles return to CBGB’s for a series of shows. Starting in February, the band will play there every third Wednesday of the month – that’s
February 15th, March 15th, April 19th and May 17th
…stage-time will be 11pm sharp, and a different set is promised each time. In June, we will switch to a weekend and play monthly until the club closes. More details will be announced later…
…many of you have inquired as to our well-being and we appreciate your concern. We are determined that all the set-backs we experienced last year will make us stronger and better. Unfortunately, our inactivity was just too much for Nick & Joey, who have moved on to other things. We wish them well in their future endeavors. The line up for February’s show will be: Ian Wilson, Tommy Volume, Warren Franz and John Weber (drums). Warren has been a friend of ours since we first went to the UK and John was introduced to us by Bazooka!!! producer and honorary Ramone, Daniel Rey…
…a permanent drummer and bass player are still being sought, so if you know anyone who has their own equipment and likes to make the beautiful noise, have them get in touch. Obviously, you have to live in the NYC area and if you know who Earl Palmer and Danny Mihm are, even better… write to: thestarspangles@optonline.net
…the 2nd album, “Dirty Bomb” has been finished since Oct 28th and still awaits a release date…
My recollection of Robyn Hitchcock records from "back in the day" was that they were Barrettesque anglodelica. Nothing terribly thrilling for me at the time but when he hits Glasgow with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck in his combo then it has to be worth a look. Even on a bleak winter school night. Nothing could have prepared me for such utter power pop-rockin' flawless set. I didn't know many of the songs but they seemed to have been rejuvenated with an infectious energy. I wonder if Hitchcock's stage banter is the same every night because his ability to veer off on a tangent is exemplary. Maybe it's a loose script or something. Anyway, it doesn't seem like yer usual monosyllabic Hello - "insert placename here", and is very entertaining. It teetered precariously close to parody between Spinal Tap and The Rutles but the sheer gusto of the sound reigned supreme throughout.
The first part of the encore had Scott perform two songs from the just-released Minus 5 “Gun Album”. In this fucked up world there are still people who can transport you and these gents provided that conduit for me on Monday night back yonder.
The Gun Album is released by Cooking Vinyl on February 6th.
The first part of the encore had Scott perform two songs from the just-released Minus 5 “Gun Album”. In this fucked up world there are still people who can transport you and these gents provided that conduit for me on Monday night back yonder.
The Gun Album is released by Cooking Vinyl on February 6th.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
David Behrel of the Havox has been doing some research and reveals that the Monks had genuine rivals in the 60s garage rock stakes. He writes: "Are you familiar with a Wisconsin band from the 60's "The Cords?" They recorded the song "Ghost Power" which appeared on Back From the Grave Volume 1. They had another WILD! instrumental 45 on Cucu records called "Cords, Inc" which happens to be one of my prize possessions. Anyway, fellow Havoc Bob and I did a little digging on these guys and were pretty impressed with what we came up with. To see a cool photo of them, go to Sandalprints Archives and scroll down to Fr. James Kendzierski at the bottom, then double click on the PDF of his bio. Then go to page 7. I think you'll be impressed but you really have to hear the songs to get the full impact.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Out Soon on Screaming Apple: MAGGOTS - MONKEY TIME! "The Maggots have been playing their brand of rockin' garage punk since 1999. The main influence behind The Maggots lay in the original garage punk from the 60's but that's not the whole picture. Years - hell, decades! - of dedicated love for everything that is real rock'n'roll is rolled into the Maggot sound! The Maggots has been touring Germany, Spain, Italy, England, Scandinavia, Belgium, France, Holland. They've been touring with the Fleshtones and successfully backed up Jeff Conolly as "Lyres" in Sweden. 'Monkey Time!' is the fourth Maggots album and we're happy to release it on Screaming Apple records - a label that goes way back and who's love of the garage/punk sounds is well documented. On this album they have added a fourth member on Farfisa organ to spice up the sounds some more. 'Monkey Time!' is a vital record, trying to capture the timeless qualities of all good rock'n'roll while paying the dues both to the original 50's/60's garage/r&r/beat and to the member's own roots in the first 80's garage wave. The record consists of 9 original songs and 3 covers where we do our takes on some old fave songs..."
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