News via e-mole... Roky headed for Europe this summer!!

THU MAR 1 / GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL / SAN FRANCISCO / NOISE FEST
THU MAR 15 / THREADGILL'S SOUTH / AUSTIN / ROKY'S ICE CREAM SOCIAL
SAT APR 28 / POLO GROUNDS / INDIO, CA / COACHELLA FESTIVAL
WED MAY 2 / HOUSE OF BLUES / NEW ORLEANS / PONDEROSA STOMP
SAT JUN 16 / HULTSFRED FESTIVAL / SWEDEN
JUL 5-8 / ROSKILDE FESTIVAL / DENMARK
JUL 6-8 / RUISROCK / FINLAND
AUG 8-11 / OYA FESTIVAL / NORWAY

Long Gone John wishes it to be known that "my house is slowly being taken apart at the seams or so it seems...i'll be moving to olympia soon...a lot of my stuff has been shifted to the grand central art center in santa ana for a show called "pictures of the gone world" it opens this saturday (feb 3rd) and runs through march 18th...i went to see it today and all things considered it looks pretty cool...the film, "the treasures of long gone john" will screen twice saturday night at 6:00 and 8:30 (free to the public) also showing will be gregg gibbs new film, "the gone world" which i think is about anorexic penguins in the belgian congo or something like that...pass this along to concerned parties if you are able... thank you...thats it...like that...over and way the fuck out!!"

Mr H in Montana sez "Your future is before you unless you are turned around" and he's not wrong. And while you ponder that, consider this recommendation from the man...

"Acid Archives a book offshoot from LYSERGIA by site operator Patrick Lundborg with help from unindicted co-conspirators Aaron Milenski and Ron Moore is already in its second printing. The book covers the American and Canadian rock underground from 1965 - 1982 and if you are a regular reader of NBT, then you're going to want to check it out. The book, ostensibly a collector's buying guide, focuses on giving rarity and value ratings to over 4,000 (many hopelessly obscure) vinyl LPs from the aforementioned time and place, but functions as so much more. Plus, many of the vinyl rarities are easily obtainable in CD format. New light is shed on some familiar names--Music Machine, Chocolate Watchband, David Crosby (!)--by the authors who write from an enthusiast's rather than a collector's perspective, but the bulk of the book is given to things like this about Boyd McCoy of Rochester, NY and his band's live '72 rouser: ". . .a live example of prime drink-spilling lounge music made up of mostly hard rock and soulful funk cover songs. Instead of the usual homogenized, family friendly lounge act, Boyd and the boys are a trashy, grungy and out-of-control intoxicated whirlwind.!" I don't know about you, but my interest is piqued. AA can be divided roughly into five broad categories psych, prog, garage, folk and outer limits. Many of the records covered began as self-produced basement jobs (Stone Harbour, 1971 Ohio "Extraordinary . . . basement psych with songs fading in and out of the speakers, cavemen drums, primitive electronics and murky fuzz lurking in the background") or intriguingly unclassifiable--and often tortured--swipes at "art"(Robbie the Werewolf 1964 L.A. "Remarkable early private press that manages to be a folk LP and a parody of a folk LP at the same time. Half of it is monster-fan-piss-takes on standards such as . . ."Tip Toe Through the Tulips" the other half is Robbie originals hitting an unforgettable apex with the echo-laden Count Dracula track, "...watch out for those vampires some of them are QUEER.") Foreword by Mr. Mike Stax who gives the word, " ...englightened music listeners can separate the hip from the hyped, and begin to navigate their way more readily through the strange and fascinating world of Underground sounds." Oh, and lots of cool pix too. Check with SUBLIMINAL SOUNDS if you want to score a copy."

Is this thing on...? It better be, because The Raunch Hands are back and "Bigg Topp" just fell off the Licorice Tree!!

Can You Handle the Fireball??

"Once upon a time, The Raunch Hands were the best band in the world. Nothing has changed. MIKE MARICONDA, legendary producer and the most dangerous guitar player on seven continents, now living in Austin, Texas, had an idea. He began working on his latest Rock'n'Roll Blockbuster with a team of Texas players that came to be THE STEPBROTHERS. They had already destroyed every club in Austin. Now he had lined them up to record his Greatest Statement, a Powerhouse Odyssey of Rhythm and Soul!

But there was something missing... The grease, the action, the suave-as-all-git-out, kill'em all attitude of the RAUNCH HANDS!!!

Over twenty-years traveling the world with the Raunch Hands, Mariconda, with his team of MICHAEL CHANDLER on vocals and MIKE EDISON behind the drums, had developed a technique now known as THROWING THE FIREBALL. It was time to do it again.

Chandler was last seen in Brooklyn singing for his garage-gospel band CHANDLER AND THE CHASERS. Edison had been working in Manhattan as a pornographer, and traveling France and Spain with his outer-space blues band the EDISON ROCKET TRAIN. Mariconda sent them plane tickets and summoned them with these instructions:

Come to Austin. IT IS TIME TO THROW THE FIREBALL.

The result is THE RAUNCH HANDS' BIGG TOPP, a shocking dose of Rock'n'roll, Soul, Twang, and Power. It is more than a just a record, it is a Party Out of Control, a Biological Dirty Bomb, the The First Great Rock'n'Roll Statement of the 21st Century!!!

Says Mariconda: "There was no way I could make the best rock'n'roll record of all time without Chandler and Edison. Science has yet to find a substitute. Hide the women and children, The Raunch Hands are back."

Here is the Raunch Hands’ Bigg Topp new release- “Feel It”! Get ready for eleven tracks of uncensored, overwhelmingly filthy grooves! "Second Hand Man" rips and shreds with brutal slide guitar! "The Sophisticated Screw" twists and turns with criminal sex appeal! "Mojo Hannah" is Crescent City Second Line played with the ferocity of a hurricane!!!"

So we moved over to this new blogger thing and everything seemed fine. However, today i've had problems with posting in general and sometimes the photos are taking a while to appear. These things are presumably sent to try me. It's been giving me Henry Rollins neck all sodding day. But hopefully it's just teething troubles. Or perhaps it's just me? Myspace has been taking the piss too. If it weren't for these Tiny Tim cds keeping me relatively mellow it could all end in tears. After all that, this'll probably "publish" nae bother. To compound all this, it's back to the day penetentiary for me tomorrow. Oh joy.

Feathered Apple have collected the works of Swiss Punk combo The Bastards onto one footlong platter entitled “Schizo Terrorist”. A 9 song legacy complete with that customary excellent liner note information that we’ve come to expect from this imprint. I’d never heard any of this stuff before but it certainly puts a lot of what was passed as punk rock here into perspective. As time goes on, the case is made that Europe was awash with great music at the time. The UK serves as the focus but I’m sure we haven’t heard the half of what is actually out there. Thanks to guys like Rolf we’re able to find out. The story of The Bastards is really quite incredible and you have to read it for yourself, you couldn’t make this stuff up. As with many of the sounds from territories outwith the UK, the sound didn’t conform to the brit template. It has traces of Australian and American music clearly founded in rock’n’roll or sixties beat. Here’s one case where it’s perfectly legitimate to let The Bastards grind you down.

Distro in the UK by F-Minor, it’s also available here from Volcanic Tongue.

“The Spirit Girls sound has been described as something of a cross between Sonic Youth, King Crimson and 17th Century French Romantic paintings”, it sez in the blurb. Well I never heard any of The Paintings stuff but I don’t recognise a lot of similarity with the other two. “Forever Free” is a concept piece that floats these souls through the imaginary landscapes en route to their billet in the afterlife. It has a folky edge tempered with that LA-pop ethic. It’s actually pretty unusual and coming as it does in some nifty digi-packaging it looks like something on Sympathy. I think it sounds like Sandy Denny just found out she was Buffy and has to deal with it… no actually that’s bollocks but I’m not sure this thing can be pigeonholed. “Milk Maid” (track 2) recalls Angel CC, mainly because of the accordion. Otherwise it has an almost classical rock feel. Not classic rock dumbass, more of a symphonic afterburn. My other immediate favourite was “Small Town” with it’s Ministry type industrial segue into Burundi drumming and back to the gothosphere. I imagine that this section is breathtaking in a live situ. “Haunted Horse” is one of the great titles, so it’s an extra that it’s a cool song also with a kind of toytown Suicideness about it. “Song for the Spirit Girls” would be Abby from NCIS’s favourite I think. The Spirit Girls have been kissed with a little of that David Lynch soundtrack fairy dust. As a whole “Forever Free” has that detached void feel pretty much down pat while still selecting the odd heartstring to pluck. Peculiar but well worth the effort. Also check out lead SG Marni Weber’s arthaus!

Del Rey and The Sun Kings “Battleship Potemkin” is a homage to the silent Eisenstien movie. The director had stated that he hoped that a new soundtrack for the film might be composed every 10 years. The film is now 82 years old or thereabouts and I think that onetime Savage Republic man Jackson Del Rey was horrified that the most recent attempt was by The Pet Shop Boys. This somewhat ambient score somehow seems more fitting and I wonder if there have actually been public screenings with this providing the sonic backdrop. As composition goes, the kraut-rockish elements interweave with more traditional instrumentation. I don’t have the credentials to even begin to tell you how this guy has succeeded in such an astronomical task. But he has.

17 Pygmies were active in the 80’s but I don’t recall them at all. Their musical stylings have been dubbed “arcanica” by themselves. Apparently it means no-hit wonders. This "13 Blackbirds/13 Lotus" doublepack isn’t something you can stick on and instantly become acquainted with. It’s intricate and practically baroque. Folk but not as you reporter is familiar with the form. The pastoral piano shards of “Bley” other-world music are better soaked up in a peaceful environment. I tried playing it loud but it made much more sense at a more gentle volume. Maybe they could come up with some kind of pod for you to climb into for best results. Like a flotation tank.

Visit Trakwerx and check out these strange, NEW, sounds for yourself. The proof of the pudding after all…

Anybody out there got one of these for sale?

I just got a note from Murray which included a bit of a shock. Have checked it out and it's true. Jeez...

RIP - Charlotte Lesher

TV SMITH & THE BORED TEENAGERS

CROSSING THE RED SEA SHOWS 2007

Commemorating 30 years of THE ADVERTS "Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts",

one of the most influential punk albums of all time.


"After a couple of singles in 1977 put them in the top 10 charts and on Top Of The Pops, seminal UK punk band THE ADVERTS released their first LP which confirmed they deserved a top spot on punk rock's podium along with their peers The Clash, The Buzzcocks, and The Damned . Though "Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts" didn't reach the popularity levels of these bands, it has been a major influence on artists like Henry Rollins (Black Flag, The Rollins Band), Ian Mackaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi), Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), Ian Brown (The Stone Roses), as well as too many others to mention, and has been named " one of the best punk albums of all time " by some of the biggest music magazines on the globe, including MOJO, Q and UNCUT.

TV Smith, the Adverts' frontman and songwriter, continued his musical career after the demise of the band in 1979, playing solo shows all over the world, as well as frequent collaborations with other bands, like Die Toten Hosen in Germany, and Suzy & Los Quattro in Spain. After releasing a single with the Spaniards, a project named TV SMITH & THE BORED TEENAGERS was born, which toured for three weeks in Spain in 2006, receiving rave reviews. The high energy level of the shows and the great chemistry between the punk veteran and his younger but well experienced musicians - all of them die-hard Adverts fanatics - wasn't lost on the crowds, and was voted "Show Of The Year" by the readers of Gruta 77 magazine.

On the 5th April 2007, TV SMITH & THE BORED TEENAGERS will play a one-and-only small venue performance at the historic 100 Club in London, commemorating 30 years since the birth of The Adverts, and performing the whole of "Crossing The Red Sea" live from beginning to end for the first time since 1977, plus an encore featuring other TV Smith and Adverts' classics.

Shortly after that the band embark on a select series of performances throughout Europe.

Bookings are now being taken for Crossing The Red Sea summer dates between May and September, so be sure not to miss this unique chance to get the real deal..."

Thanks to Jonathan @ Producciones Barbudas for the info

TV Smith website... he also has a show with Kim Salmon next Sunday in Melbourne!

People have been asking what I make of the “new” Stooges track on their Myspace page. The answer is not much. I’m far more intrigued to hear Mike Watt’s contribution to the new Kelly Clarkson record.

Far more worthy of your dinero is the Eddy Current Suppression Ring on Dropkick Records. They’re making the kind of energised rock’n’roll that isn’t trading on anything but a jolt to the parts that don’t get too much fizz these days. Mr H first brought the band onto my radar some weeks ago and Glenn Terry of the fine Vicious Sloth Collectibles operation was kind enough to send it all the way from their native down under. As you know, the aussies have a way with this kind of thing. Imagine John Otway fronting a skewed approximation of Television, The Fall and maybe The Scientists. It’s punk rock but not as we conventionally know it. Or try this, Wreckless Eric duelling with Compulsion (remember them?) via the Feelgoods? By all accounts this is the closest the band has come to transferring their live jizz to the recording studio with anything approaching the intensity of a live show. The ECSR is an unexploded bomb and if they get closer to splitting their particular atom then stand way, way back or just bathe in that lovely noise. Quite what is being suppressed evidently isn't treatable by conventional medication. I get the impression that “Having A Hard Time” could last somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes depending on their mood swings, not to mention roundabouts. I’m thinking of adopting their “Insufficient Funds” opus as my theme song. It’s good that this particular incubation jar is out in Australia. That means it can gestate before the contents can be tampered with by what approximates a music press here. By the time they get here, the virus will be unstoppable. By all accounts of the cognoscenti in their part of the world, it’s pretty chuffing virulent as it is. Like the guy says "It's all square, even when it's round".

Available in the UK via Cargo.

Sitting here catching up on e-mail listening to The Sabrejets session on Radio Ulster’s Across The Lines. Just heard a track from the new Lucinda Williams album “West” and it’s really great. Sounds like it’s live or something and furthermore rankles me that I didn’t go to the Barras. Then they follow it up with a Jesse Malin track “Lucinda” which confuses me because I’ve resisted Malin’s solo work. Mainly because of the involvement of that twonk Ry*n Ad*ms. I actively dislike RA. There’s something totally disingenuous about his shtick. My good mate, the Rigrocker, always said that I oughtta give Jesse a break. After all, I was a D-Generation fan but Adams didn’t taint them. Anyway the gist is that this “Lucinda” cut is really very good so I’m gonna take a tip from Mr Tepper and check out the new long-player, I’ve no idea if the aforementioned bugbear is involved but by the sound of this he isn’t. This show complete with Sabrejets session songs (including the rockabillified "Blitzkrieg Bop") is available on the BBC listen again feature for a week from last night (Friday). Now they're playing the Tom Morton-tipped Hold Steady who will be in Glasgow at The Cathouse on Valentines Day (February 14th)... check out Tom's new "Bobland" song on his myspace... distracted? Who me??

RIP - RK Sloane

(Thanks to Stefan for drawing my attention to that. Never had a clue that he passed away in October)

Been having ongoing technical problems and other bullshit to contend with. Something resembling normal service is always a possibility but in no way certain.

The Nomads website is switching to a new URL so visit them and bookmark this new one. They are kings of rock and roll no matter how much they protest. Talking of which, Little Steven's "Coolest Song Of The Week" for w/e December 31st 2006 "Ain't No King Of Rock and Roll" will be available on vinyl courtesy of Devils Jukebox. A pink vinyl split 45 with Brighton's Sweet Zeros. Limited to 666 copies so get yer order in...

Sticking with Sweden, SOS kicked off this years antics with a show at Nice'n'Sleazy. It seems to have been refurbished since I was last there and was surprised not to be sticking to the floor. The name has connotations with The Stranglers for me and that's not good. Anyway it was a pleasant shindig with a decent turnout for Vapnet (pronounced Wapnet). They make a sound not unlike Bob Hund swapping blows with OMD. After a couple of bursts of a black metal direction courtesy of the PA, the evening settled down and the band laid their morricone-mariachi pop stylings upon us. Per-Olof and Jesper from the HS brass action combo (as well as Autisterna) were there and the singer in Vapnet, Martin (Hanberg) also duets with Annika on the Säkert album. Like that, all of the songs were in Swedish but it didn't matter a jot. Apparently the last song in the set was about all the people they hate but not done with a hateful sound. Hopefully they'll come back and play again. For longer. With a PA that hasn't been handled by some Norwegian church burners. Openers, Skeleton Bob weren't bad either. They did a cheeky wee version of "Mama Mia". Might have played a wee bit too long but when they get around to pacing their set then who knows, they could leave people wanting more.

I'm having trouble with this bloody thing tonight, think i've caught something on myspace that you can't buy cream to rub on.