RIP: Mariska Veres (Shocking Blue)

The Rt Hon. Jon Hammer is having a little art opening on Wednesday, December 6 at World of Style Vintage, Jersey City's finest source for old stuff. The show consists of big prints of the monthly pin-up gals he's been doing for the award winning Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. website.

His calendar will be available there also, Jon sez "makes a great stocking stuffer for any fan of girls with tools. That didn't come out the way I intended, but let's move on".

Swing by the World of Style Vintage, 172 Newark Ave. in romantic Jersey City, just up the street from the Grove street PATH. Directions and related details about the shop are on the WOS website.

JESSE HECTOR - A MESSAGE TO THE WORLD - Documentary Film Premier - London

A Message To The World is being shown at 9pm on December 4th at 242 Acklam Road W10 at the Westbourne Studios, London. Admission is free.

Press Release: 'A Message To The World'

Mutton-chopped Jesse Hector was a permanent fixture in the English music press of the mid-Seventies and the electrifying live performances of his band The Gorillas proved an inspiration to such faces on the burgeoning Punk scene as Paul Weller, Billy Idol, Shane McGowan and Rat Scabies.

Jesse has always believed in the revolutionary and rejuvenating power of music - the cover of The Gorillas album showed his band of space ace Mods hurtling towards earth on a meteorite to save the world with rock n' roll - and his belief in music is as strong today as it ever has been.

He now works as a cleaner at Hackney Empire and The Royal Horticultural Society and this documentary follows him as he journeys around London and retraces his fifty years in rock n' roll - skiffling at the 2 I's in Old Compton Street at the age of 12, playing guitar with Mod Freakbeat legends The Clique, fronting proto-punk bruisers Crushed Butler and The Hammersmith Gorillas - and attempts to find out, as the NME's Roy Carr wrote in 1977, Whatever Happened To Jesse Hector?'

Wotcha trakMARXists,

The World's First PUNK ROCK XMAS FAiR is taking place in Stockport on 10th Dec 2006 @ The Bulls Head, Market Place, Stockport - 4pm till 11pm - Admission: £1 before 6pm - £2 after 6pm.

The FAiR features the NO DRESS CODE old school punk night: dance to music you know you like, meet people you know you'll get on with, drink copious amounts of strong alcohol, buy your xmas presents, drink some more (maybe a few shorts), dance & pogo & cavort about a bit, chat up a few members of the opposite sex, drink, fall over & lose your xmas presents on the way home! Just GOOGLE "Punk Rock Xmas Fayre" - & you'll see it's never happened before! This is a unique event. People are welcome to come along & sell their own stuff - like some kind of anarchists car boot sale - groups, promoters, fanzines, studios, labels - come on down! Under 18s are welcome - but won't get served at the bar. No religious claptrap either!!

For more info:

www.myspace.com/nodresscode

or email - punkrockxmasfair@yahoo.co.uk

Punk Rock Fair organiser, Miles Barter: "This is unique. I've searched the whole of the world wide web thingy & nothing like this has ever happened before. The idea is for punks to get together for an xmas party, but people can just turn up, find that present for their difficult 14 year old mohican or their difficult 44 year old aging rebel, & bugger off again. There are no rules."

Three authors of Punk Rock works of reference will be in the area on the night in question:

1) Alex Ogg will be flogging you copies of his most excellent "No More Heroes" & signing them for you:

www.myspace.com/alexogg

2) David Nolan will be doing likewise with his sturdy "I Swear I Was There", the story of the Sex Pistols legendary 1976 Manchester shows:

www.myspace.com/davidnolanwriter

3) Ron Watts will also be in attendance with his very own "100 Watts
- A Life In Music":

www.heroespublishing.com
(Up The Villa!)

ALSO - a special appearance with stallage from Overground Records very own head honcho, John Esplen:

www.overgroundrecords.co.uk

Ho Ho H Ho Ho Ho
jean encoule
trakMARX@Xmarse
www.trakMARX.com

Spirit is life/It flows thru/the death of me/endlessly/like a river/ unafraid/of becoming/the sea - g.corso

trakmarx
wastebin@trakmarx.com

It was a little sad today to hear of the death of Alan “Fluff” Freeman. I think he was the first dj that I paid attention to. I must have been about 11 years old when I first started to take an interest in “Pick of the Pops”. Scribbling the chart rundown into a jotter or notebook as AF counted it down. Yep, I was a saddoe even then and look where it got me. Tonight I heard BBC Radio Scotland’s John Cavanagh talk about him. He can do a pretty uncanny impression of him too, which was sanctioned by the man himself. They don’t make them like “Fluff” Freeman anymore.

So anyway, time marches on and those Susquehanna boys just keep on moving…

Are you suffering from a bout of post-Thanksgiving depression, dear friend?
Nah, we aren’t either, but perhaps you’d best not risk it and join us, SUSQUEHANNA INDUSTRIAL TOOL & DIE CO. , for our regular last-Thursday-of-every-month hullabaloo at our post-holiday home-away-from-home, Otto’s Shrunken Head Tiki Bar & Lounge. Why, our show is virtually guaranteed to make you feel better about yourself. And how.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30th / OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD /
538 East 14th Street (just west of Avenue B) in Manhattan, NYC /

Two BIG shows, from 8:00 sharp until 10:00 / No cover! /

And, coming up –- our Christmas-themed offering for the season...

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14th / RODEO BAR /
375 Third Avenue (corner of 27th Street) in ol' Manhattan, NYC / 10:00 sharp until 1:00 /

No cover & lotsa free peanuts! /

Sincerely yours,
Michael, Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. “Ballads, Boogies & Blues”

And I’m going to shut up about Hello Saferide in the meantime and refer you to this great Pitchfork Media review.See, it ain't just me...

RIP - Alan Freeman

Much as the concept of just hibernating appeals more than anything at the minute there's no rest for the wicked. Or the criminally cheesed-off. If there was a prize for the person least likely to get anything together right now then I’d scoop it hands down.

Got a wee bundle of vinyl to sift through here but i've got a problem with my turntable. Also been trying to figure out whether or not the bloody jukebox is fixable at all. My will to live ebbs and flows. Heavy on the ebb.

Caught Everett True's Nirvana book event in Edinburgh on Saturday. It wasn't a conventional launch but it was pretty entertaining. A strange venue too, The Forest Café in Edinburgh. More about that when I get to grips with the tome.

Later, The Drams (who used to be Slobberbone) played at The Bongo Club. The record is good but the live scenario left me pretty much unmoved. Best parts were a tune that sounded like Roky Erickson and a version of “I Am The Cosmos”. Openers, The Porch Song Anthology sounded fairly promising. A couple of them used to be in Telstar Ponies with Mr Keenan.

Monorail Music and Mono are extremely pleased to announce this year's Project Ability exhibition which opens on Thursday 30 November at 7pm. The fantastic Bill Wells Trio will perform live and Norman Blake and Duglas T. Stewart will dj. This event is free.
Project Ability is one of Scotland's leading specialist arts organisations, working with children and adults with a learning disability, people with mental health problems, and others who find it difficult to access mainstream activities. The output is spectacular and brilliant - raw art fans will go nuts for the latest selection by curator, Alison Mitchell. Exhibition open every day, noon - midnight until the end of December 2006.

Mono and Monorail Music, 12 King’s Court, King Street,

Glasgow G1 5RB - T: 0141 552 9458

Project Ability, Centre for Developmental Arts, 3rd Floor, 18 Albion Street,

Glasgow G1 1LH - T: 0141 552 2822

Beatles painting by Ronnie McCulloch

The Nomads - Vooruit, Gent (Belgium) 25-11-2006.

It's stating the obvious that we here at NBT like the Nomads... A lot!... Just check the recent Nomadic Dementia comp and try 'n tell me there's another band out there that's been doin' it, and doin' it right, for the past 25 years. God knows how Lindsay managed to cut things down to a single CD...
Anyways, two years since I last saw 'em (in Paris), last night's show proved that (thankfully) little has changed and the Nomads can still knock 'em dead today just like they did whenever it was when I first saw 'em in Rotterdam (1984, I just checked)
It took a couple of songs before they were able to shift into third gear, but as soon as these guys are firein' on all cylinders there's no stopping 'em...
These days a "hit" is something to boost the statistics of your webcounter, the Nomads are purveyors of the long lost tradition of writing hit songs, and delivering 'em in an appropriate manner (even with Hans and Bjorne bein' somewhat worse for wear after a wild night in Stockholm)
As always, the crowd of 1200+, including the largest number of Turbojugend I've ever seen, needed some oldies to really get into things, but a brief shift into psychobilly-mode for Real Gone Lover is all they need to win 'em over. Game, set, match.... No competition....
Word from Bjorne is that he and Chips have about 16 new songs ready for a new album, and if Ain't No King Of Rock 'n Roll Tonight is any indication of what to expect, we're in for another good un'...
Long may they reign...

A message from B. F. Mowat...

"Before "Indie-rock", "alternative", "new wave" or "punk" was.. SimplySaucer IS.. I really didn't think this was ever going to happen butit's true...After a 27-year absence, Simply Saucer returns to the live stage on December 28th for a full-length concert presentation at the Casbah, corner of King & Queen Street in downtown Hamilton.

Quite simply, the Saucer was and is, the original "new music" "proto-punk" - orwhatever equally stoopid term you can think of - rock combo that wastaking their musical queues from "Kraut"-rock (e.g. Can, Faust, Neu, etc,), The Stooges and The Velvet Underground before any of that stuff wascommon currency. The only groups we can think of who were even remotelyin the same head space were the early NYC bands (Television, etc) or the early Cleveland groups (Rocket From The Tombs, Mirrors).

Starting in 1973,the group careened through six years of musical mayhem before finally imploding in 1979. Over the years, the group's reputationspread, first with the ltd (920 copies) 1989 vinyl LP release of Cyborgs Revisited, and subsequently, withy the CD reissues of same in 1991 and-most recently - on Sonic Unyon in 2003. These recordings have earnedcritical kudos world wide from such redoubtable publications as Spin, New Music Express, Mojo, Uncut and The Sunday London Times.

After a completely unplanned, out-of-the blue reunion gig on September 17th at the once-legendary Corktown Tavern (with '78-79 guitarist -and former member of Teenage Head Steve "Sparky" Park), left everyone concerned feelin' groovy about playing Saucer songs, it was felt a revamped, no-nostalgia version of the group could be assembled. (Sparky couldn't commit to this version, but he has given his blessing to the "Mach V" version of Saucer).

Original singer, guitarist , and chief songwriter Edgar Breau along with original bassist The Legendary Kevin Christoff, will take the stage with their former manager (for one, brief disastrous 1979 gig In Guelph..ask him about it!) and drummer for the Forgotten Rebels, Joe Csontos. And we are extremely stoked about our newest generation of Saucer members - watch for further bulletins for more info (e.g. gear used, previous experience, favourite colours, what constitutes a great date, that kind of thing..).

We like to think that this edition of the Saucer will integrate both the Ping Romany eraelectronics AND the dual guitar attack of the Sparky era There are tentative plans to record the new Saucer line-up , either the live shows, or some "unfinished business" (like, about 50-60 songs worth).

They also plan to perform in all of the "Original Six" NHL hockey cities (Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, Chicago, Boston and New York) in 2007. Edgar, by the way, will continue to pursue his solo career - he's putting the finishing touches to Patches Of Blue, his second solo CD even as I write this - but all rock/band format will be forwarded to the Saucer desk, while all solo/singer-songwriter material will be forwarded to the solo tray.

To give you an example: "Simcoe County Country Girl" an acoustic country-blues number that dates from Cyborgs era Saucer(1975) is appearing on Patches Of Blue, while "Nice Noise", an unreleased stomper from 1977 is clearly marked for the band tray.

Also featured on the bill is the one-man electro-rock (pardon my PUN...)sensation of Electroluminescent Tickets are $15 in advance and can be purchased RIGHT NOW at at these stores:-

DR.DISC - 22 Wilson. 905.523.1010 (ALL shows)-

SONIC UNYON - 26 Wilson 905.777.1223. (ALL shows)-

CASBAH LOUNGE - 306 King St W @ Queen 905.521.4441

(ALL shows less Sellout Enterprises shows)

PLUS :: Hamilton East-Enders Take Note,

-- CRASH LANDING PUNK CLOTHING -297 Ottawa St N -- 905-548-0039

ATTENTION OUT OF TOWNERS...we know a lot of you Cyborg-kids will want to attend this, so we're selling ticks ON-LINE via TIXIT.CA orUNDERGROUNDROCKS. CA Tickets go on sale TODAY @ 5 p.m. For more info, view Ed's websites

PRESS TYPES: talk to Sean Palmerston @ Sonic Unyon

sean@sonicunyon.com or phone 905 777-1223 Or me, if you haveaccess to my personal e-mail/phone #"

What’s in a name? I have to tell you, that on first impressions - Lucky Soul strikes me as something that might appear on something like (sharp intake of breath here) X Factor. The e-mail that introduced me to them could so easily have been spam but it wasn’t. There was a charm about it and that particular commodity doesn’t come that particular processed meat product in any manifestation. So anyway, Lucky Soul, as it turns out is a very groovy London combo which could almost be Swedish. Such is it’s predilection for knocking out a great pop tune. They’re just about to put out their third release on Ruffa Lane. On December 11th to be exact. And it’ll be available as a 7” EP as well as a three track cd. “Ain’t Never Been Cool” will undoubtedly further cement the reputation they seem to have been building up over the course of the past year or so. With the popularity of acts like The Pipettes, then maybe the UK hit factory isn’t dead after all. Ali Howard’s vocals evoke all the great girl group singers you ever heard without actually sounding like any of them. If you ever had a soft spot for those fantastic Tracey Ullman singles on Stiff then this is for you.

The band have a tight rein on providing just the right jetstream for those to float on. Like The Maisonettes vs The Wilsations via the Rezillos, this stuff'll have you singing into your hairbrush or digging out that tennis racket from the back of the cupboard. Air guitar is not a symptom of this kind of timeless beat. LS should be enlisted to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest because then they’d have the platform to reach the people who will lap this stuff up. The “gots the magic” alright. If you look up “effervescent” in the dictionary in coming years, it might well have a photo of these folks. As ever, if you think that I’m twisting that melon of yours or whatever then the proof of this sumptious pudding is merely a click away. They’re also playing the fabulous Debaser club in Stockholm in December, see dates below…

28 Nov - The Fly
05 Dec - Bardens Boudoir
15 Dec - Debaser, Stockholm, Sweden
31 Dec - New Year’s at the Hope & Anchor

Pester your local non-chainstore, although HMV has copies of the vinyl on all three releases at keen prices. (Thanks to Seb for the info and for taking the time to alert me to their existence. Sometimes operating in one's own time/space continuum can be limiting.)

PS - The Lucky Soul shop is now open...

Turn it Down interview with the Rt Hon. Billy Miller. (Link c/o nimereht vis Staysick)
Actually everything on Rich Tupica's blog is mandatory reading...

Nice to see young people enjoying themselves... Josh Taylor's Friends Forever

(link via the e-mole newsletter)

A sizeable Thanksgiving Day (and weekend) to all our US Visitors today!

Meanwhile some of us out here in one of the old countries have to go to work...

Seven days after watching Bobby Bluebell open for HS with The Poems, I just watched a great documentary on Channel 4 called Young @ Heart, about an old people's choir that packs a mean version of "I Wanna Be Sedated". Look out for it...
More about them here.

Bloody hell... there I was minding my own business and out of the blue - the message comes in that one of the best out of print albums ever has been just been released on cd.

The Unforgiven have been given a new lease of life by Almacantar Records. Time to get your local chapter of the Roverpack back in action...

RIP - Robert Altman (Thanks to Steve for the link)

Mike Watt and Kelly Clarkson....?

As you know, this isn't just a source for music info. We pride ourselves in pushing all kinds of cultural info. In this instance, check out the London Review of Breakfasts.