RIP - Jack Palance

Yaka Yaka is the password to Peter C Johnson’s cave. The latest recording to emanate from that lair is a stark reminder of this guys talent. More orator than vocalist, PCJ recites like a seasoned broadcaster. The music is at times more atmospheric more than instrumentation and the result is equal parts bleak and reassuring. Like Johnny Dowd channelling Nick Nolte or maybe if Kris Kristofferson had recorded Lou’s "Berlin". You’ll get some kinda ballpark idea of where this is both coming from and headed. A tough fragility bordering on psychosis and not a thousand miles from the sound of Dire Straits if they found themselves in a Deliverance situation. I’m not sure what a “subterranean cluster fuck” is but it’s probably not pretty. I do like the way Ardys Flavelle says it though. I also find the reference, "the best way to dismantle someone is to isolate them" that occurs in his apocalyptic take on "I Still Miss Someone" to resonate chillingly with my own journey of late.

Like Joe Meek dabbling in country/folk backdrops, the version of “Victims of the Flood” here is entirely different to the one he recorded in 1978(?). He certainly has a way with words (and sounds) that sits entirely apart from anything else you ever heard. On the site, the album is described as “one man’s story of loss, grief, confusion and redemption in a violent world”. It certainly doesn’t conform to any single shard of commerciality but it shimmers all the harder for it. At the moment it’s only available from CD Baby. I think you can listen to it there too and you should make time to do that. It’s quite a journey. Jimmy Ryan from the Laura Cantrell troupe appears on “The War Is Over”. The sparse, spare stylings of Peter C. Johnson are exactly what you need to get acquainted with over these coming winter nights. This isn’t something that’ll hit you instantly but if you give the chance then there are depths to be mined here and it never sounds the same twice.

"MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL NEWS RELEASE Central Library Friday 24th November at 6:30PM

The Rock Journalist who introduced Kurt to Courtney will be in conversation at Central Library Find out what really happened when Kurt Cobain met Courtney Love from the man that introduced them. Rock journalist Everett True will be in conversation with journalist John Robb to talk about his book Nirvana: The True Story.

Everett True is responsible for bringing Nirvana to the attention of the masses and it was he who introduced frontman Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love at a Butthole Surfers gig in 1991. True started out writing a fanzine called The Legend and contributed to NME and went on to become Assistant Editor of Melody Maker and Editor of Vox. It was through his work with the British music press that he was to befriend the late Kurt Cobain.

He travelled to Seattle in 1989 to cover Sub Pop records and what was then becoming known as Grunge. He wrote about Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Pavement and the Lemonheads among others and gained a reputation for dishing the dirt. However he was also a friend to many of the musicians and particularly Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in April 1994. True performed with Nirvana and is known for the fact that he pushed Kurt Cobain on stage in a wheelchair at the Reading Festival in 1992. He is also the only journalist who was allowed into Cobain's house immediately after his death. He is held in high regard by many music fans and journalists alike and has written books on The Ramones and The White Stripes. Councillor Mark Hackett, executive member for culture and leisure at Manchester City Council said: "Central Library is a great venue for authors, journalists and poets to come and share their work with a captive audience. I am sure that fans of Everett True and the music he has written about will find this event very informative and entertaining. It is certainly one not to miss for fans of Nirvana."

To find out more about the event or the Henry Watson Music Library

call Steve Shepherd on 0161 234 1976.

Just incase you don't read the "comments"... this message came in:

"I'll also be in Edinburgh and Glasgow the following two days -

Saturday 25th Eve 5pm – Edinburgh Forest Café 0131 220 4538 www.theforest.org.uk

Sunday 26th 11:00 am at Hitherto/Tinderbox

Unit 4, McIntyre Hogg Building, 14/1 Ingram St, Glasgow".

"Greetings Friend,
Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. heads uptown this weekend -- in a return to the quaint Riverdale section of the Bronx for the monthly "Riverdale Round-Up"! The setting is An Beal Bocht Cafe, a warm and friendly Irish bar that serves up both a cold pint and a hot sheperd's pie, and your singin' "Round-Up" host is Karen Hudson, so join us, won't you?
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11th / "RIVERDALE ROUND-UP" / An Beal Bocht Cafe / www.AnBealBochtCafe.com /
445 West 238th Street (between Waldo and Greystone) / Show starts at 9:30, with SIT & Die Co. sets at 10:00 and 11:00 / No cover charge! /
Quite truly yours, Michael
Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.
"Ballads, Boogies & Blues"
www.SITandDieCo.com

Saturday Night in Stockholm... Voladoras Burlesque Action!

(Thanks to Ima Wino for the link)

Dead Flowers Presents: Norton Records 20th Anniversary bash!

Featuring; The Real Kids and The Stalkers

Plus DJs Josh Styles! and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus!

Friday November 10. Early Show! 8:00 PM sharp!!! at: Magnetic Field, 97 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY. This may sell out, more info and advance tix at: http://www.magneticbrookyn.com

RIP: Art Wood.

"Hi all:

I'm happy to report that my biography of The Fleshtones is coming out. Continuum (the press behind the cool 33 1/3 series) is publishing Sweat: Thirty Years Of Nonstop Rock & Roll With The Fleshtones, America's Garage Band next Sept/Oct.

There will be a couple of book-release events in and around the NYC area when the book comes out. I'll keep everyone posted.

Joe Bonomo"

Turkish Delight: The bizarro world of Turkish record sleeves...

Whilst I echo that sentiment entirely, as I told you before I'm a sucker for a great Christmas song and Hello Saferide's "iPod Xmas" is exactly that. Thanks to the good offices of Craig at Swedesplease and the Razzia Myspace, you folks can hear this festive nugget for yourselves. More about the comp when I lay my mitts on a copy... and those debut UK shows are just a week away now.

The Star Spangles are back on the beat... NORTHSIX in the borough of Brooklyn!

It's been a woolly few weeks. Working all last weekend pretty much took its toll. Not much time for blogging far less anything else but hopefully this weekend I'll be able to rectify the backlog. Or at least some of it. Of course, this could all go down the pan but I am armed with the finest intentions. Meantime, Brother Patrick made a whistle stop trip to San Francisco and has filed the following report...

One Groovy Halloween Day in San Francisco

"My plan was just to go to see the Cramps and DollRods Halloween show in San Francisco and then come back to France. I was thinking of Elvis taking his plane just to go to eat his fave hamburger. As Oscar Wilde once said “when I was young, I thought that money car make you happy ... now I know it”. Now I know it too, so I’d like to become rich so I can attend more shows in the USA.

Anyway, here’s a little resumé of my trip...

Due to unattended luggage, there was panic in the Paris Airport then everything was great. Cool plane, roomy seats and a classy lady in the next seat that looked like the French actress Clémentine Célarié. After more of 24 hours of planes, airports, trains, taxis, I finally arrived at my hotel, near to the Fillmore. I called Don, the greatest Flamin’ Groovies fan on earth to arrange to meet at Amoeba, the greatest record shop in town, at the Groovies section, where else ?

In the morning, I got an email from Danny Doll Rod, asking me to call him on his cell phone. After a quick visit to the tourist area, Union Square, I called Frank Margerin, the famous French rock’n’roll cartoonist, and another bonafide Groovies fan (he even married Chris Wilson’s ex wife, ahahah) and arranged to meet him at Amoeba Records too.

I walked from my hotel to Amoeba, a long walk but a very good way to experience magic Frisco. On my way, I stopped at Jack’s Record Cellar, Roy Loney’s shop, 254 Scott Street (another Flamin’ Groovie as everyone should know, thanx for the tip, Jacques) but it’s only open from Wednesday to Saturday and it’s Tuesday. Haight Street is a very long street, filled with awesome shops of all kinds. Amoeba isn’t the best record shop I’ve ever visited, but it’s the biggest and friendliest one. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead was there to autograph stuff (maybe the 563rd Dead album, I didn’t check). So Don, who looks exactly like a 1976-78 Groovie, Frank and I talked about our mutual friends or the people we like, Little Jim (singer of Wild Child, a French combo), and of course Chris Wilson. Frank told us of Chris recent troubles (he lost his visa in Spain, his health ...). Don and Frank are great guys. We all recommend albums to each other, this shop is overflowing with good stuff. Among other things, I bought an Isley Brothers album, the one with the song “Vip Vop” on it. When Frank left to get dressed up for his Halloween party, Don and I went for a beer in a cool pub. Don called Cyril Jordan to ask him to join us; Cyril said hi, but he was on his way to the studio to finish the second Magic Christian album.

We talked about Jonathan Richman, who lives in Frisco now, about Angel Corpus Christi with whom Don played/wrote songs, and, as you already guessed, about those Groovies. I had almost nothing to tell Don – well, I confirmed that “Shake Some Action” was issued first in France and told him that Sterling Morrison (of Velvet Underground fame) all time favourite album is “Flamingo”. Here are some (non private stuff) that Don told me. Lou Reed was in the studio (he came to see producer Richard Robinson) while “Teenage Head” was recorded and that’s why Lou came back to high energy rock’n’roll. He told me that no recording of “Sweet Jane” or another Velvet song by the Groovies exist but that, maybe, he had a recording of the Flamin’ Groovies live in London Roundhouse in 1972 ! Don also explained why the Groovies disbanded, on October 31st 1981 (25 years ago to the day) : the band was supposed to play 2 shows, the first at the Best Western Miyako Inn (Where I was staying, by coincidence !) and the second at a party for film director John Carpenter. Chris, for some reason, only wanted to play one show so Cyril got angry : exit the ”real” Flamin’ Groovies. So the last show was at the Miyako Hotel and guess what : Don gave me a CD of it !!! Can you imagine a cooler guy ? The show featured exclusives like a poem by Aleister Crowley, an instrumental song, taken from Dave Edmunds “Rockpile” album (didn’t have time to check the name yet) and “Kicks” a song by Paul Revere & the Raiders. Don also gave me an unissued album by his group The Trip (from 1976) that features a ripped-off-but-as-good-as-a-Groovies-song called”The Love That’s In Your Eyes”; only 2 songs out of the 7 on this album were issued on compilations, when this record is so good that every song could have feature on the recent “Nuggets” or “Shake Some Action” compilations collecting pop treasuries from the 70’s, indeed. Don is putting together a band with members of the Sneetches : once a Groovie, Groovie forever ! My gifts to him were a couple CD’s too, including my recording of Chris Wilson & His Groovin’ Flames Paris show. Those presents really made our day ...

... but my day wasn’t finished : I headed for the Fillmore – by the way, I saw no flyer or poster in town to announce the show, even the flashing marquee didn’t announce it. Danny Doll Rod came to see me. I gave him a copy of “Trash is Neat 3” (# DDR). TIN 3 is the result of my friend Sean’s great idea of brand new groups covering The Cramps to celebrate 30 years of Crampdom. He also sent me TIN 3 # 666 that Danny kindly gave to Lux and Ivy. In my package for them, I also included the note from my friend and staysicker Nimereht in which he explains the idea of his beyond belief compilations, called “Lux & Ivy’s faves” (8 volumes so far, around 240 songs !), as well as a little mixed Cramps/DDR interview that I prepared. My questions are related to details about their tastes in music (kinda : Lux & Ivy, you like DDR, Flat Duo Jets, but what song in particular), their upcoming stuff (Margaret’s second album, Danny’s first, the upcoming DDR dvd on Munster, the Cramps “Gravest Gravy”) and a question Nimereht asked : did Lux love Harold Lloyd, his 3D photos – and what about publishing a 3D book one day, with Ivy pix, among others .... I hope that the Cramps will answer, I’m sure that DDR will do.

The Fillmore is the best venue I’ve ever seen with lotsa posters (saw 2 Cramps), photos (saw 1, Nick and Candy era) and many bars.

The merch stall sold mostly T-shirts, stickers, pill boxes, the latest albums / DVD’s by DDR / Ghoulies, but no poster of tonight’s show. Except a few gratis after the show, the only way to get one autographed was to play lottery tickets ($ 2 for 1, 3 for $ 5).

The Groovie Ghoulies opened the show with a short but entertaining and humorous Chuck Berry-esque set that was interrupted by acts like girls throwing Halloween treats to the audience from the stage:sweets, glow in the dark bats, stuff like that. The Ghoulies catchy tunes sound better on vinyl than on stage in my opinion.

Then another two chicks and one guy band hit the stage, the Doll Rods were as sexy as ever with a beautiful makeup for Margaret and Tia. Danny had blue/gray make up around his eyes and looked like a vampire zombie from hell. It was the best show of theirs i’ve ever seen (the 3rd in 2006) and included just songs from their latest and highly recommended album “There Is A difference”. Here’s the set list : Get It On / Take It Off / How Does It Feel To Feel / I Wanna Take You Home / I Bet You / We Will Ride / Let Yourself Go / Little Piece Of Leather / On The Way To School / Booty Call / Baby Say Unh ! / Open Up Your Door, with a great horny intro by Margaret.

I saw Lux taking pictures of the Doll Rods but the Cramps finally arrived, at 10:10 PM (precise, ain’t I?) : what, Lux with 3 girls? But ain’t that Harry wearing a skirt and a pompadour, yep ! Ivy took her place after spilling salt all over the stage. She was wearig a short short dress. Sean Yseult, the new bass player (of Famous Monsters and White Zombie fame) was wearing shorts and Lux his usual vinyl trousers.

This was the best I’ve seen them since the early days (I mean 1980-84) and the first I saw them in the US : Mystery Plane/My Flash On You/speaking about drugs, this is another song about drugs, Lux said to introduce Bop Pills/then, thank you , you’re sick motherfuckers, wanna have trouble before Everything Goes/Papa Satan Sang Louie/Big Black Witchcraft Rock/Goo Goo Muck, with a great intro by Sean Yseult /Human Fly, gigantic version/Sunglasses After Dark/Teenage Werewolf - at that part, Lux jokes with his broken mike stand – look at the balance on that sucker, excellent/The Most Exalted Potentate Of Love/ What’s Inside A Girl?/I’m Mean/Ultra Twist/ Lux asked if we wanna see his tattoo, pointing to his dick, that he won’t show tonight (we’re in the USA!). He also pointed out Elvis in the audience who’d come incognito, then TV Set/Psychotic Reaction saw Lux spitting wine, most of it splashing Sean who rapidly recovers her smily face. Lux teased her a couple of times, reminding me of the Fur era (I don’t think he did that with Candy). Ivy too seemed to be in a very good mood, smiling and sexy as ever/Wrong Way Ticket/Encores: Lux pointed out that it was their 30th anniversary and started an incredible version of She said, the best version I’ve heard/And then it was time to tear that damn place up; Lux stole a hat from one of the guys in the crew that was standing next to me. The crowd screamed for another encore, but it was over.

The audience put on their own show, two thirds of them decked out in full Halloween costumes. There was a girl dressed like a typical 19th century Frenchman (beret, moustache, baguette), a real jerk, that was throwing pieces of bread on to the stage – you should have seen her face when Jack tapped her on the head with a piece of the baguette she threw. I hope that he didn’t figure she was a real French dummy, ahahah.

I had another chat with the DDR folks, who were very happy with their performance (they sure should be!). Danny stayed mesmerized in front of a portrait of Miles Davis whom he really loves. I gave them best wishes for the forthcoming shows and I received a big hug in return. They were rock’n’roll stars tonight (for me, they’re a combination of the Cramps and the Kinks), they got a great reaction from the crowd which was well deserved. They are such nice, down to earth, generous people.

Before leaving, I told Jack that I’d see him soon with his band, the Lords Of Altamont, in my town, Evreux. He shook my hand and I went to have a rest before another 24 hour journey.

I know why I’m not doing drugs to feel good/better. I just have to crank the stereo up with groups like these, they’re the only drug I need. And that’s what I’m gonna do on my way back:listen to the shows. What could be more exciting than these kinds of recordings, that you can share, rather than scum collecting a rare record that will impress just another collector who’s looking for the same record, when everybody else will say “Yeah ? So what ?”

Patrick / music lover

PS : And probably, because I’m a lucky guy, on my way back from Philadelphia to Paris, I sat next to the famous sci-fi author, James Morrow and his wife, Cathy. They kindly helped me to improve the style of this little report."

The Stripchords headline Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, Nov 4th!

"Howdy-doody lads, lasses, and hairdressers!
Following on from their wildly-received headline set at Londinium's celebrated Lady Luck Club, situated at the former Windmill Club, those charming ponces The Stripchords are pleased to announce their next bill-topping appearance, which will be taking place this Saturday, November 4th.
The Stripchords are to headline a Turning Worm bash entitled "Gutterball - High Teasin!", in tribute to that saucy knave Guy Fawkes, which also boasts turns from former Beatings fella Nick Pankhurst's oddball punk duo, the Creepy Morons, and skronk-blues maestro Honkeyfinger, plus Sonic Reducer Tag Team DJs facing-off against The Truckin' Lauras.
Dave and Piers' Turning Worm nights at this subterranean, transplanted vintage bowling alley are always a right crack, and you can enjoy dancing and bowling until 3am!
See you at the bar!
Selah
The Stripchords
www.myspace.com/thestripchords
--------------------
Gutterball @ Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes
Saturday November 4th 2006
Bands: The Stripchords, Creepy Morons, Honkeyfinger
DJs: Sonic Reducer Tag Team Vs The Truckin' Lauras Basement Of Tavistock Hotel, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9EU 7pm, £6"

According to the calendar it's November. But there are still leaves on the trees? Things are pretty fucked and I just had several goes at uploading an image to no success. Business as usual then. Guess i'll try again later... or maybe this won't post either and there go another few minutes that can't be gotten back.

RIP - Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo) . I-94 piece.

Thanks to Trevor Block for the links.

If you're still lookin' for todays soundtrack, check session 108 at Probe is Turning-on the People!...

MORE (DUTCH) YOUTUBE GOODIES

Beatles in Holland Pt 1 & 2 (this one's for Lindsay)
Cuby & the Blizards - doc
Dukes - Friday On My Mind
Golden Earrings - Daddy Buy Me A Girl
Golden Earrings - That Day
Pretty Things in Blokker
Ro-d-y-s - Take Her Home
Rolling Stones 1964
Tielman Brothers - Rollin' Rock

"WMBR 88.1 FM Fundraiser starts November 8th….tune into Gorilla Got Me 2:00-4:00 PM EST…..

The Wednesday, November 8th edition of Gorilla Got Me will involve me begging you for money. It is the annual WMBR fundraiser....the one time of year the radio station asks for listener support. WMBR is all volunteer/commercial-free/free-form radio and relies solely on listener support to keep the station in operation.

There will be lots of great treats and premiums (concert/club tix, CD/DVDs, books, etc.) for your much appreciated donation offerings. Hope you can join me and lend some change or small dollar (or large) amounts to the Gorilla! Tune in 2:00-4:00 PM EST as we let the begging begin.

Go Go Gorilla!
Sara J.

You can phone in donations during the show on November 8th, 2:00-4:00PM EST at 617-253-8810"