Haven't heard it yet but...

Available now from Dirty Water Records!

Halfway through November already, it'll be 2008 before we know it. Actually, the way it's going, it'll be 2010 at least before I have a scoob. A mix of circumstance and technology has conspired with a basic inability to be arsed. Anyway I try to square it, we're talking about some serious deck clearing to a life laundry extent. It would also be useful to try and get my bloody jukebox fixed or even establish if this is indeed possible. Finding someone to undertake such an activity hasn't proved easy but it's a high priority. But anyway, General Johnson and Joey Ramone are on Cake, it's Friday night and I'm going noplace anytime soon and this thing is being turned off in about 10 minutes. There are Curb's to be viewed and I need to know what happens to LD.

ladies and gents....

Saturday is mad scary for me, since I'll be playing alone. So if you live in the new york area, come out! Parkside Lounge presents Gotham Blowout with Emma Vikingskull, Dj's and Go Go Dancers. PAY WHAT YOU WANT (100 % goes to starving swede in new york city) AND OPEN BAR (or one dollar drinks for whoever's not a jerk or foreign). Parkside Lounge: 317 Houston St, btwn attorney and suffolk (no worries, it's just where ave b and c turns across the street). 21 + or fake id's. Acoustic goes massmedia chaos with distorted sounds and monkey growls. Various songs from various times/countries and in various tempos (not really, but it reads good). Great covers of course to save up for whatever might lack in my own work. Cover choices should be a surprise, but some Vagrants is to be expected. I'll take requests from now til' sat at 10:00 pm. I go on at 10:30 pm, the open bar is btwn 10-12.

SATURDAY IS NOW ALSO SUNDAY AT FONTANA'S... every sunday, you know this by now. See www.myspace.com/lexicondevils for more info on. but.... YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS BY NOW

MONDAY.....PUB NIGHT AT OTTO's SHRUNKEN HEAD! Finally it's the third monday of this month. Special guest dj for the night is HARRY FLOWERS. She's a cool bird from the UK that has a flourishing love for the music of her country and more so, what they produced in the nineteensixtees. Psychic Drive live on stage at 10:00. The Pub is always free and it's always rocking with swinging pubrock and cheap booze. And your host Vikingskull, of course. Flyer attached. more info on www.myspace.com/thepubnyc

Coming up in December, except what might be the best pub night of them all... Norton's mutherfukkin' holiday show, starring Reigning Sound (with guest appearance from Mary Weiss), The Nouvelles and A-Bones with guests - Roy Loney, Handsome Dick, Figures of Light, The Great Gaylord and probably some more. December 15th.
The Pub on December 17th has been in the works since the summer. I will reveal details in my next newsletter.

For you swedes who can't attend the shows. www.vikingskull.blogspot.com new york och musik bloggen rullar på som vanligt med uppdateringar nästan varje dag.

As for The Jadewalkers, well, we hope to keep Rico. He was awesome at our last show and he also dresses really sharp. And yeah, he's a rockin' bass player. Jadewalkers might play in Dec, details tba, but most likely we'll be going underground polishing our set and our new members til' we head out of town beginning of next year.

hope to see you limeys out.

Emma Vikingskull

There was cause, last night, to go into town. This is something I avoid at all costs but sometimes needs must and all that. With the impending festive explosion gaining momentum, the stores are full of crap that they expect people to buy. Mounds of stuff. Absolute and utter waste in terms of money, effort and existing in the first instance. Then I noticed the Virgin store "rebrand". If ever there was a pointless exercise then this must be a textbook case. The shopping areas take on the general aspects of a Romero scenario at an accelarated rate at this time of the year. Calling them headless chickens would be damning 'em with certifiable praise. And they're not zombies either though because such a beastie wouldn't deean themselves by slothing along the pavie staring at a mobile phone screen. Walking along the precinct, I genuinely felt utterly detached from the whole thing. I was actively looking forward to getting to the dentist, at least there was some purpose involved in that. Despite the sign that says "NO MOBILE PHONES" in the waiting room, it doesn't deter the jones of your average patient. Oh, no. Perhaps it doesn't apply to them? What is it with the hold these fucking devices have over people? Could somebody explain it to me because I have no idea. And why don't I have the desire to gaze into these things. What's wrong with me? To quote the old A&R (that's Angel and Rich) chestnut. They'll possibly say "There's nothing wrong with you" but there must be. Mustn't there?

However, there is sanity and great, great writing at Amy Rigby's Blog to sooth the savage beast. Savour it, because I know I do. Hopefully the gremlins that have been plaguing this pc have been banished. Only time will tell but I'm done for the night either way. Tomorrow is allegedly another day...

Lenny Helsing has recovered enough to file this Cavestomp field report...

New York Cavestomp 2007: Warsaw, Greenpoint, Brooklyn NYC

Friday November 2nd

First group on the bill, at 8pm sharp on this first night of New York Cavestomp 2007 were The Staggers, all the way from Austria. The compere for tonight’s party was Peter Zaremba, vocalist with The Fleshtones – who would play on Sunday, the final night… more later. The Staggers play wild, uninhibited frat-shake punky garage-style rock’n’roll slop that makes most of the punters that are lucky to be there early come out from the venue’s nooks ‘n crannies, and the adjoining bar too, and out into the main hall to jump ‘n dance, ‘n shout. The Staggers were a great fun group to start this party for sure… action a plenty, grunts and screams, the focus on raw energy, with front man Evel carrying on in the grand tradition of the mighty Screaming Lord Sutch, there was even horror-fun with a big plastic knife which was brought out during ‘The Ripper’…one of the other highlights for me was ‘Out Of Your Mind’, or maybe it was ‘Out Of My Mind’…well it was great whatever it was called…

NY garage veterans The Outta Place were on next… I remember them from way back in the mid-80s; they made a right old fuzzy rumble on that mini-LP they had out back then, on Midnight or somethin’?… anyway I was lookin’ forward to hearin’ these fuzzed-up scuzzballs here at Cavestomp, but I have to say I was mightily underwhelmed; the sound they got was actually pretty sludgy and muddy and way too heavy, as opposed to fuzzy and rumbly, which rendered most things they did kinda overly sludgy and muddy …so therefore I didn’t really watch them for any length of time, preferring instead to see if I could catch up with any folks I knew, and drink some more of our crap (but free) piss, I mean beer… No Polish beer for the artists, we got Budweiser instead. Ouch!!!

Then it was the turn of The Satelliters, an uptempo swinging garagey rock outfit from Germany. I’ve seen this bunch before, and even played on the same concert bill with them too at one of the Festival Beat events in Italy a good few years ago. They got the by now sizeable crowd going a bit and they are good players and all that, but they just don’t really do it for me I’m afraid. I know, this may be just my problem, but that’s OK I can live with that. For me, if I’m being honest, a lot of what they play is rather unexciting to listen to. They’re not a bad group by any means, but they come across as a little pedestrian, you know, garage-by-numbers sort of thing. By this time though I was probably zoning out a bit anyway, getting ready for my lot The Thanes to take the stage…the nervous system working overtime, excitement and adrenalin pulsing, as we were on next, well what can I say. The crowd were certainly getting well into the spirit of things that’s for sure and more and more people were crowding around the stage by this time…Smash! Twaaaang! Boom! Screeee! Bang! Crash! And it’s all over, phew! Ha ha! Everyone we spoke to, or that came up and spoke to us afterwards said we were really great, and really different sounding, with a real loud, clear sound cutting right through.

The anticipation … now… of finally getting to witness the legendary and downright awesome group The Sonics was really palpable, the stomach-churning thrill-in-waiting was really getting to me for sure, and then when these fucking righteous demi-gods of real ‘60s garage punk took the stage I swear there were like showers of sparks flying through the air everywhere I looked… Hitting us hard with ‘He’s Waitin’ was a great opening move and they never really let us down all night…’Have Love Will Travel’ had everyone bouncing around the place with smiles this big, and ‘The Hustler’ was just as it should be. And of course ‘Strychnine’ was positively seething with unadulterated punk rock’n’roll power. Gerry Roslie was on keyboards and lead vox, Larry Parypa was on lead guitar, Rob Lind was on sax. These cats were the absolute real deal, from the original ‘60s Sonics. They were ably joined by bass player Ricky Lee Johnson, ex- of The Wailers, and Paul Revere & the Raiders, and drummer Don Wilhelm, ex- of The Daily Flash. They were mind-bogglingly great at times, with a tough, no-nonsense sound to match. They even slowed it a little (just once I think) for a great rendering of ‘Boom’ LP classic ‘Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark’ before gnashing and tearing it up back into the likes of ‘You Got Your Head On Backwards’, ‘Shot Down’, and the killa-dilla rocker ‘Boss Hoss’…I was real glad too that they chose to include such inimitable groovers as ‘Maintaining My Cool’ and ‘Like No Other Man’. Things finally came to an end after an absolutely deadly version of ‘Psycho’. By now of course the crowd were literally baying for more, more, more! This was rewarded too when the group jumped back on stage flinging out their brilliant interpretation of the global frug-u-like ‘Louie Louie’ and then sax-player Rob Lind wanted some extra audience participation during the chorus of what will be their eternal signature tune, ‘The Witch’. Rob certainly got it, and how! Waaaaargghhhhhh-hooooooooooo! OK so some people who witnessed this said that Roslie doesn’t really scream any more like he used to and that lead guitarist Parypa was a little hit and miss on occasion, but so what when it's this good. And get this, and get real… it is not 1965 anymore, and it was not the group lip-synching along to ‘Here Are The Sonics’ and ‘The Sonics Boom’ which would have been a total travesty, and very lame indeed. No, this was The Sonics, here and now, and the overall Sonics-ness of the performance was absolutely frightening to witness. Uniquely them, there’s no mistaking that sound.

Saturday November 3rd

Today was the big day for the WFMU record fair, up in Manhattan’s W 18th St. So we Thanes and Wildebeests and various others met up there. Crikey, that is one hackuva huge hall, and I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of records on display, so I just stayed in one corner, beside Todd Abramson and Billy ‘n Miriam’s Norton stall. That would do me just fine! Anyway, onto the New York Cavestomp’s Second night…Man, it was always gonna be so so hard to beat the previous night’s shenanigans, but here we go anyway… Peter Z was still on MCing duties and tonight’s pre-and-post band DJ was none other than “Switched On” Audrey Moorehead, who spun some seriously cool ‘n groovy platters. The previous night we were treated to boxes of 45s by DJ Pokomonojeff - erratic, hell yeah, but great too!

Up first onstage, again 8pm sharp - no pressure lads - were the UKs newest and greatest group, from Sandgate (read Folkestone) The Higher State. I love this group a lot and I think if you were down the front like I and some others were, then the sound was actually OK, not great, not too loud, but still OK. However the farther back you went it seems the sound all but disappeared, especially Mike Warren’s drums and frontman Marty Ratcliffe’s Rickenbacker 12-string. The group’s vocalists Marty and Mole you may recall as part of The Mystreated a good few years back, and the group’s sound is really something like an evolved version of that combo. Nice folk-punk jangle one minute, savage revved-up fuzz attack with layered psychedelic edges the next, and some cool vocal harmonies coming through. Their LP ‘From Round Here’ (also the title of their opening number) is out now on Misty Lane, and there’s a great new single too ‘And In Time’ / ‘If We Don’t Realise’ out now on their own Higher State label.

The Urges, outta Dublin, Ireland were the next bunch to take the stage and with the crowd expanding all the time, they made certain to entertain. They’re young, brash, and full of rock’n’roll attitude. They have an all-action vocalist in Jim Walters, a Greg Prevost of The Chesterfield Kings-type, ’87 style, jumping around, howling, preening and pouting while the group, including Rosco on bass, Glen on lead guitar and Ken Mooney on drums pound out (mostly) three-chord garage raunch behind him. The titles say it all: ‘You’re Gonna Find Out’, ‘You Don’t Look So Good’, ‘So Uptight’, ‘Curse It All’. Sometimes they sneak in little creepy sections where organist / rhythm guitarist Gary Clarke gets a bit of the limelight, and off-beat bridges here and there that take their sound outta the normal? riffage they’re so fond of, and for me that’s when they’re at their most interesting / appealing…These guys also have a brand new, debut LP called ‘Psych Ward’ out now on Screaming Apple. Fans of ye olde Chesterfield Kings, and vintage Fuzztones will dig The Urges for sure.

Hey! Who would’ve ever thought that in late 2007 we would also be witness to a live show from Back From The Grave alumni The Alarm Clocks of thee royally righteous punkers ‘Yeah’ and ‘No Reason To Complain’, but lo and behold there they were onstage right in front of us. We can thank Billy and Miriam at Norton HQ for that, as they’ve seen fit to not only release an LP of the group[‘s vintage recordings, but also of their latest material, produced by the great Freddy Fortune. Bassist / vocalist Mike Pierce can still scream like a wild banshee at times and can still rock out like some possessed cave-teen, this was especially proven on those afore-mentioned killers, but maybe even more so during their final rockin’ numbers which included a wild-as-all-get-out version of Bo Diddley’s ‘It’s Alright’… Original Alarm Clockers Bruce Boehm and Bill Schwark are joined these days by guitarist friend, and fan, Tom Fallon.

The final group of the night were vintage flower-power, psych-garage outfit The Strawberry Alarm Clock. Well, I really really wanted for them to be so great, I mean I love their first LP, and the 45 of ‘Tomorrow’ / ‘Birds In My Tree’ is such a milestone in psych music, and what to say of their great big flower-psych hit ‘Incense And Peppermints’, and especially that crazy flipped-out B side ‘Birdman Of Alkatrash’…but the reality was that, give or take a number or two, I and seemingly lots of others didn’t rate them too highly here at Cavestomp. They started off pretty well I thought, doing a great ‘Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow’ early on, then they kinda blew it on their strange rendition of ‘Birdman…’, and after a few more I just kinda drifted off, as did lots of other folks. I don’t think they should’ve had so many drums and percussion instruments on stage, it just seemed a bit of a bad omen…Anyway, I can’t tell you much more about this, but so many people said the same thing… I’ll be a little more polite and just say, on the whole, not very good.

Sunday November 4th

As usual, at 8pm sharp the first group were onstage, and tonight it’s the turn of The Hall Monitors, they were pretty cool and made a decent rock’n’roll beat racket, and the sound wasn’t too bad for them either. Once again though I didn’t watch all their set as I had to get ready to whack the drum-kit and do a bit of screaming for The Wildebeests as they were gonna be the next band up… we were introduced by tonight’s MC, none other than the legendary Lenny Kaye, that’s right cats ‘n kittens, Mr Link Cromwell hisself. Wow, how cool is that, well I tell you, for me/us that was a real honour… of course I can’t say too much about what we Wildebeests were like, but we did have a great sound so a lot of folks told me later, and from my vantage point I could tell that many many Cavestompers were enjoying our din. I could certainly hear the guitar that Russ bought to play this gig loud and clear, in fact better make that L O U D and clear way above everything else. It was one of those reissue square Bo Diddley-type guitars and really sounded boss.

We Wildebeests from Scotland were followed by The Lyres, that long-running garage combo from Boston MA, who I thought tonight sounded pure rock’n’roll magic as per usual, even though the sound, again, was beginning to get a bit muddy and sludgy, blurring some of the organ lines, and guitar subtleties. Jeff ‘Monoman’ Conolly was joined by spot-on genius drummer Paul Murphy, Danny McCormack on guitar and Rick Coraccio on bass…needless to say I think they did everything you would’ve expected them to do in their short 40 min or so set.

I’ve never been much of a fan of The Fleshtones it has to be said, but they seem like good guys, and they certainly got the crowd jumping about during their pretty zany, uptempo show. Peter Z had the audience eating out of his palm at times. There was a lot of people really getting into them for sure and, by all accounts, they put on a real exciting show. I only watched a few numbers, and saw another couple via the monitor screen through in the bar.

Well, there was only one group left to take the stage now, and of course that was, for the second time this weekend, Tacoma WA’s legendary super punk garage rock stars THE SONICS!!! If it was at all possible that they could’ve been better than their Friday night set, then I guess maybe they could’ve been, I dunno man… it gets really hard to tell sometimes, but for this particular fan, well maybe I just dug them just that little bit more on the Friday night, though whether or not that was because of that genuine first-time-around thrill or something, I’m not sure. But, wow, once again these guys really showed all us younger folks a thing or two about rock’n’roll. There weren’t many, if any, changes to the set, I don’t think but somehow the crowd were really even more there for them tonight. Perhaps there were more people there that didn’t see them on the Friday also, that were making a bigger noise…anyway, just to reiterate, THE SONICS were pure class, especially when they executed such thrilling versions of ‘Psycho’, ‘Boss Hoss’, ‘Shot Down’, ‘Dirty Robber’ and ‘The Witch’. If you missed ‘em and they play again anywhere near where you live, you gotta make the effort to catch them. You’ll have heard folks say how great certain vintage groups were on their comeback shows, like The Remains, ? & The Mysterians and The Monks, for example… well The Sonics were definitely up there in that select few. Gerry, Rob, Larry, Ricky and Don, if you read this, or someone you know does and can pass on the message, thanks so much again for these truly wicked wicked rock’n’roll Cavestomp shows.

Hey ho, kidlets!
Toothsome twang and naughty movies that are rite up yer alley will be forthcoming from The Stripchords this Saturday November 17th, when they return to Londinium, to play the Sweet But Deadly crew's Beatrocket nite at the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes. This swinging affair will also feature South Coast garagers The Guillotines, resident DJs Phil Istine & Beat Girl, plus guest spinners BigKegShandy (onna double-duty kinda
tip) and Eric Ulcer (Corn Rocket Club)! Yowza!

See you at the ball rack? Remember to get some wrist support (like Jesus)...

Selah , The Stripchords

---------------------------

The Beatrocket , Date: Saturday November 17th
Venue: Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, Basement of Tavistock Hotel, Bedford Way, W1.
Tube: Russell Sq./Euston. Doors: 7.30pm Entry fee: £6

www.sweetbutdeadlyclub.org.uk
www.myspace.com/sweetbutdeadlyclub
www.myspace.com/thestripchords

Advance tickets are on sale for the event at
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/23258

Mr Rooney has a message...

hi,
the primevals are playing in the twisted wheel (old rock garden) in queen st. on friday 30th november at 9p.m. this is free show.

this is a launch for our new record 'there is no other life and this is it' which we are releasing on our own label 'triple wide' so spread the word.
hope to see you?
best
mickey

The band is at Dirty Water on Friday December 7th, with The Priscillas and The Nuns (not the SF band)

Mose Allison is 80 today. A "certified senior citizen!"

Regulars to this neighbourhood will be familiar of my penchant for Stereo Total. If you haven't heard them then you're missing out. If you haven't seen them then you should because there is almost nothing more awe-inspiringly inspiring around. They take shards of everything and make it into an explosive cocktail that is so jaw-droppingly entertaining that I can't even begin to explain in mere words. It was nice to finally briefly meet them too because they're one of those great rock'n'roll couples. You know the other ones...

So yeah, Thursday night in The Hold located in the Basement of The Admiral bar. The group that opened, Fangs, organised this shindig so kudos to them for taking up the initiative. This is a power trio born out of the ashes of Motormark. A sort of retro-futuristic singles combo that could soundtrack the apocalypse. The guitar/bass player was positively wailing. I particularly liked the song that went along the lines of "I'm 17 and I know where you live". If they do then you better double lock the door. They look great too and this should be being force fed to 10 - 14 year olds. It'll make them better citizens. If you can imagine The Sweet crossed with Silverfish then you're in the ballpark. They're about to tour with Sons and Daughters so strap yourselves in for the Grand Old opry show if you can. That should be your average riot, right there.

And Stereo Total? Well the supremely groovy crowd frugged, boogaloo'ed and swum and did about 997 other dances to their sublime lesson in exactly what the great unwashed needs in their lives. Françoise and Brezel put on a great show which is frantic electropunk one minute and swoonsome outright pop the next. Utterly charming and completely bewildering. Why they aren't selling out venues at least the size of Barrowlands is quite frankly beyond me. Sometimes they nail the concept of popular music so sweetly that it gives me chills. Their oeuvre is entirely infectious and the energy level leaves the audience little choice but to get the f-word down. They continue to push it real good and seem to be having a very cool time doing so.

If they head to or even in the slightest bit near your town then you owe it to yourself to see them. Stereo Total offer sonic invigoration like imbibing a case of Red Bull. They'll give you wings and then some goddammit!

RIP - Norman Mailer

The fab Boonaraaas at DWC a week past Friday in full swing...

'SUITE 69'

The original 60's French Pop Discotheque
Djs Le Pape Du Pop & Le Marquis De Jardin play
Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Jacques Dutronc, Brigitte Bardot and many more
plus:
Scotland's only French language Garage Punk band
les BOF!
www.myspace.com/lesbof

SATURDAY 10th NOVEMBER
HENRY'S CELLAR BAR
MORRISON STREET, EDINBURGH
11pm - 3am £5/4

The Stereo Total show ran very late so more about that later. I'm almost awake so we'll see how that pans out, meanwhile...

News from Mr Tannock on the New STEREO, opening tonight in ol Glasvegas...

"Hello Everyone,

We are having our opening party for stereo and the ground floor will be open from 8pm, with the basement opening at 9pm.

The Parsonage will start the evening's musical proceedings, followed by many special guests, in particular, Don Don Don, who have come all the way from Bavaria to help make this a great night.

Entry is free. Early attendance recommended.

stereo is a cafe/bar at ground level and a venue in the basement.

The venue will host a variety of events with alternative touring bands featuring heavily and is available for private hire.

The cafe/bar will be open from 8am mon-fri, from 10am at the weekend, and till midnight every night. (only opening from noon this weekend)

The kitchen is based around a small organic bakery and will bring a much needed 'quick & healthy' option to the city centre. As usual, all food will be completely animal free, though we will offer organic cows milk as an option with coffee. The kitchen will be open from Monday.

Hope you can join us tonight, or failing that, can check us out soon.

Please spread the word.

Thanks

Craig"

And the word was spread...

RIP - Hank Thompson

Well inbetween following the Garagepunk.com dialogue on Cavestomp and everything else, I be even more distracted than ever. Anyway, I can't recall if I posted this before but Elizabeth Cook is the wife of one Tim Carroll. And he's gonna be there. So, it ain't everyday that you get an ex-Gizmo in Glasgow so why not head on down.

And don't forget Stereo Total at The Admiral tomorrow. It's not at the new Stereo in Renfield Lane that opens tonight by all accounts, but that would have been perfect wouldn't it?

"Would you care for schnitzel with that?" It’s the sensible combination of hillbilly music and Viennese comfort food as Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. returns this Wednesday to Park Slope's charming Cafe Steinhof! Come early if you're hungry, as the Steinhof kitchen will be serving up its great renditions of Austrian favorites until 11pm -- and if you’re merely thirsty there’s a wide selection of Austrian and German beers and wines, plus specialty drinks. No cover, to boot!

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7th / CAFE STEINHOF /
422 Seventh Avenue (at 14th Street) in Park Slope, Brooklyn /
Two teutonic shows, from 10:30 sharp until 12:30 / No cover charge / Plus, should you just happen to be of the Long Island swing set... TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13th / SWING DANCE LONG ISLAND / Brennan’s Irish Pub, 546 Route 111 in Hauppauge, NY / Dancing (including free lessons!) begins at 8:00 / $10 (members $6) / Yours truly- Michael
Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.
"Ballads, Boogies & Blues"

RIP - The Fabulous Moolah!