Really hope that you folks around these parts can make this screening. Not in a conventional cinema but let's thank Denny Tedesco personally for making such a great film.

There are other showings around the country and I'll get to those but Glasgow, being the UK's premier rock'n'roll town, needs to step up to the plate here.

Stereo, Glasgow. Friday July 20th.

There's something wrong with Blogger - the formatting just keeps kicking me out.

In addition to everything else, like wearing glasses two prescriptions old, a bit of gallivanting and a whole mess of other guff - This thing is taking a back seat. I'm not dead but I'm most certainly not resting.

My thanks to those that are keeping yours truly afloat every which way. So let's see if this works...

A late Monday for a school night reiterates the fact that I’m too old for this. Although signs in some of the sounds would indicate that I could be travelling through a timeslip. One look at the back of Mojo and the fact that much of the “music” on show tonight is firmly rooted circa when I came in to the fray during the early 70’s.

Ultimate Thrush yada yada have a long, long name. This isn’t necessary and first impressions suggest that they’re Los Murky without the charisma. They go on and on in some kind of studied melee and they have an album out on Chemikal Underground that I really don’t need to hear.

Next up - Holy Mountain. A hairy three piece that apparently includes a guy from Idlewild. I sort of warmed to them when, at the end – they teetered on the brink of BOC and whipped out a little Skynyrd frisson. I’m hoping that they recognise the fact that this is daft. Mighty riffs are capable of great magic sometimes and this amalgam of Sabbath, Black Widow, Led Zep, Taste and the Nuge actually works to a degree. If they looked like Guitar Wolf then they could rule the world.

Which brings we to that very beast. As a concept, the Wolf is brilliant. Theoretically crossing The Cramps with The Ramones and then whapping them into a blender with some serious stoner tendancies is something you’d like to hear. But it all comes back to songs and these guys don’t really have any. Even as an experience, with the volume – the “lock and loll” begins to grate. Mickey asked me if I heard the bit of “Kick out the Jams” and had to admit that I didn’t. Oh there were little elements of all sorts but we couldn’t help pondering that if Guitar Wolf morphed with Holy Mountain’s riff ammo then truly we might have something.

As it is, sadly we don’t.

Having closed May, one expected (by me) occurrence hasn’t happened. The ongoing situation is making it difficult to find the time and energy to actively post here. This has all intensified the consideration that I’m sick of jumping through hoops and somewhat sickened at other crap that’s going on in and around my vicinity. This general malaise has resulted in a lot of “sleeping with the TV on” only there’s no recollection of William Powell dying amidst any of it but anyway it’s a while since I just wittered on so let’s see where some of this goes.

I’ve read acres of yatter about Adele’s record and how great it is but there’s not one song on it that comes anywhere near Amy Allison’s “No Frills Friend”. Nothing to do with being contrary just calling it like I hear it. Now if the aforementioned multi-million seller were to recognise this and record “Hell To Pay” then we’ll say no more about it. Anyway, it’s my plan this weekend to not travel far from the bunker. To try and knock it into some kind of shape or at least just plank stuff up in the loft, to paraphrase another Amysong “out of sight, out of mind”.

Eric is back and blogging as only he can.

Much is being made of the alcohol pricing being mooted to “save lives”. Now I’ve heard some pish being spouted but this ranks right up there. Really, do they think our heid’s button up the back? Now, if one really thought such a levy would benefit the health service then it wouldn’t be a problem but the revenue stream will be diverted into some other lamebrain scheme. I don’t trust government to do anything but to keep pruning our civil and sundry other liberties. That particular pastime is the sum total to which they excel.

Finally got around to finishing “You Only Rock Once”, The Jerry Blavat book I was gifted last fall. It’s a star-studded affair that tells the story of the Philly legend that actually invented the televised rock’n’roll hop. I was particularly taken with his remarks regarding The B*atles. The Geator is still packing them in along the South Jersey Shore and beyond and there’s no sign of him letting up. If you haven’t had the pleasure of Ben Vaughn’s Birthday tribute to the Boss with the Hot Sauce then do so now. The book expands upon the theme set down over the course of that two hours but the sheer excitement generated during Ben’s celebration is pretty damn infectious.

Sometimes when the TV just goes over the score in terms of shite, an executive decision to watch more Car 54 (Season Two) has been taken. So let’s see what transpires tonight but expectations should be kept on the DL. Punk Britannia is on tonight and so is the TV Smith documentary. The big question around here is “will BB Quattro be in it”?

In relation to the recent deaths of Robin Gibb and Donna Summer I was thinking about the pigeonhole known as Disco. Of course it has since taken on the mantle of “club” which is probably supposed to sound better. Certainly more vague. My early encounters with the form were odd. While there were good records, the whole ‘lifestyle’ aspect just didn’t appeal when measured against that of the various strains of rock’n’roll. When I saw Saturday Night Fever, I hated it apart from the use of White Castle. After all, this was where The Dictators were pictured on the inner bag of Go Girl Crazy. SNF at that point was as close as I ever expected to get to it.

The “Death To Disco” movement was sort of fun too and it seemed like a good idea at the time. The notion of life being cut and dried is as far from reality as a galaxy way, way out there (points to the heavens). It seems even further away now. I have no idea what the deal is with physical postage overseas but the recent hike here is less than agreeable.

Pay more for a crappier service seems like the order of the day. So I guess the outcome of this is that I’ll be forced to use the service less – or find lighter things to mail overseas but records, confectionery and haggis tends to be weighty. Consolidation isn’t the answer either but I’ll figure something out.

And to top it all off, we’ve got to sustain all this jubilee guff. The country is close to being towed out into the ocean to be sunk and we’re being force fed an antiquated notion that went out with the ark. A historic occasion apparently. Well not to me. And as for this upcoming “sporting” event, that’s an even bigger obscenity just visible on the horizon. Most of the "events" will be papered due to a mass epedemic of cannae-be-arsed. Even the idiots aren't on board for this bun fight.

But hey, it’s the right side of Friday and the BBC is serving up Punk Britannia to celebrate our sceptic isle. Oh how the more things change, the more they stay the same. But it could be worse, right?

RIP - Doc Watson

I am so far behind with stuff that it is entirely possible that catch up will never be achieved but let’s try to at least address some of it.

Tav Falco will be doing a reading at Rough Trade East tomorrow afternoon at 3pm.

Eric and Amy kick off their return to these pallid shores tomorrow night (30th) at The Greystones in Sheffield, nice joint. Check here for the full itinerary and if you don’t have tickets for London then you better be quick. The dynamic duo is also headed for Germany. I’ll see you in Hull my friends...

Count on Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. to keep you in corn. This week at Otto's followed by a return to the home of "Sleep No More" and our last Rodeo Bar show until September!

*THURSDAY, MAY 31st / OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD / 538 East 14th Street (just west of Avenue B) in ol' Manhattan / A pair of big & bawdy sets, from 8:00 sharp until 10:00 / No cover!

*TUESDAY, JUNE 5th / MANDERLEY BAR at THE McKITTRICK HOTEL / 532 West 27th Street (between 10th & 11th Avenues) in Manhattan / 10:30 'til 11:30, following the evening's performance of "Sleep No More" / Mention "SIT & Die" at the door after 10pm for *free* admission! /

*WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13th / RODEO BAR / 375 Third Avenue (on the corner of 27th Street) in Manhattan / Our last Rodeo residency show for the summer! / 9:00 sharp 'til midnight / No cover!

Yours in hardcore corn,
Michael
Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.
"Ballads, Boogies & Blues"

So, let’s take the Foo(d) Fighters as a point of reference for comparison to Imperial State Electric. How nice a guy or how much of a fan he is of music, Dave Grohl and co have no songs. They throw all the right shapes and never fail to come up short. Two albums in to their existence, ISE burst in and kick the FF’s arse at every turn. In terms of outright “rock”, I’m not sure that there’s a better recent example than “Pop War”.

It’s so soulfully and beautifully constructed from shards of the past yet it’s no museum piece. Proof that, when done with this much love for the form, that it can be timeless. While audiences are queuing to hear albums being played live in order, the bastards are quite happy to shuffle play their lives away. Or make do with approximations. It’s no secret that I believe (and still do) that The Hellacopters should have ruled the earth. Nicke Andersson is a master craftsman. Tinkering away caring not a jot if the world catches up with him or not. His fellow passengers in the ‘copters are all doing other things too but if Dregen has stayed put and not joined Backyard Babies then the landscape of this story might be different.

Consisting of just 10 songs, this is over before you know it. Never outstaying any welcome and even countering ADD, it just rattles through offering quality over quantity, leaving the listener wanting more. It’s quite a tonic to these times in addition to being such a joyous noise. I wonder if there’s a tear in the timeslip that could connect these guys with the size of audience that they deserve. I’m afraid it might actually be too pure for mass consumption. But that would be any potential consumer’s loss. We don’t have time to concern ourselves with that.

Anybody with the chops to sound like they thought it would be a good idea to resuscitate memories of Montrose one minute and have the cheek to emulate Roy Wood-era ELO the next is entirely the type of person who should be in high rock office. “Enough To Break Your Heart” does just that and well, it is. And as the strings soar into the stratosphere, I can’t help but think that we should move lock stock and barrel to ISEland. For it seems like a far, far better place.

Which brings us to the Stockholm 'burb of “Solna”, also the title of the new Nomads album. Now I’ve written many acres about that band over the years and they’ve never ever let me down. I believe them to be like family. So it was pretty great to see such deserving folks as they crash the Swedish album charts lately. So I mention them here because they’ve made a really fine record. Perhaps their best, all this way down the road. Never resting on their laurels or diluting something that was never a good idea in the first instance just bashing out their primo gear as only they can.

And, had it not been for them, there would be no Imperial State Electric, or Hellacopters. Someone asked me recently if I thought “Miles Away”, the album opener was trite. And while I recognised what this person was getting at – having gone back and studies it to some degree – I’m pleased to report a resounding “no fucking way”. Rather it sets out the stall perfectly for what follows.

The 45 version on Universal has a stoating Tommy Ferdi Andersson song entitled “Something Good, Something New” on the flip. The Devils Jukebox release has “American Beat” on its reverse. And “Make Up My Mind” is just one of the greatest wee pop tunes that I’ve ever heard. Yes, ever. Maybe one day it’ll be a 45 too because it sure deserves to be. The vinyl edition or “Solna” includes “Fine Fine Line” that sounds like Mud taking a crack at “Jukebox Babe”. Glam-mungous!!

It may have taken a wee whiley to get this together but it was sure worth it, excellent work gents and gracias for continuing to deliver the goods.

RIP - Robin Gibb

A new Joey Ramone album, 11 years after the big fella left the building, is finally coming out soon and of course the over-riding plus in all this is we get to hear his voice again. One song, “Party Line” is, in my opinion, up there with anything he ever did but how is the rest of it. Is it like the time Natalie and Nat King Cole got together or the colourisation of a classic black and white movie?

Actually it’s pretty good. Having been assembled from demos and rebuilt using friends/fans to lay down the firepower, “... ya know?” is a “relative” success being that Joe’s brother Mickey Leigh has coordinated it. It sounds big and powerful and Joe is singing great. As I understand it, it's culled from across quite some stretch of time. Haven’t clocked a finished copy so I don’t know if such information is annotated. I sure hope that it is.

The road to this has been twisty. It would have been nice if there could have been a “documentary” version that presented the songs as they were with what they became. Maybe a film to go with it but this ain’t the case so we should probably just savour the fact that it exists in any form. One big question that bugs me however and it’s this...

Would Joey have wanted this material out? I’m thinking perhaps not. But it’s the closest we’ll ever be to him being around and – in essence - anything that makes the memories of the guy burn has to be a good thing.

I can just about listen to “Party Line” now without feeling like I have something in my eye. The first time it outright made me cry. “Waiting For That Railroad” is practically roots rock of Del Lords variety. The Percy Faith(ful) rendition of “Merry Christmas” is cool. Wish they’d slapped “Duke of Earl” on here too – did you ever hear that? Blasting off with Joe’s voice soaked in funky cold medina on “Rock’n’Roll Is The Answer” would perhaps have gotten to radio if that medium still existed. Joey's predeliction for Bolan really comes across here and there.

He should have owned the airwaves when he was alive but unfortunately we are where we fucking are - missing the fact that the greatest singer of my generation ain’t still around making music and being a force for good. The star-studded cast brought together to nail this presumably did so out of a common goal to celebrate the subject. After all, Joey and his group made it possible for many of them to be where they are. The rock pantheon, like life, is an ill-divided platform. Sitting on a mushroom out in the woods throwing some WHO shapes seems like a fairly attractive proposition right about now.

So here we have Little Stevie Van Zandt playing train conductor (those are his dulcet tones at the end of “New York City” right?) and “I Couldn’t Sleep” seems to radiate a Jukebox Babe kind of mutant rockabilly. Maybe this should have been the single because it positively crackles. Kinda got chills when I heard “Wonderful World” blasting out as the music bed of a Thomas Cook ad in The Hippodrome recently.

The Ramones brand is ubiquitous but it saddens me that only Tommy remains to see it but CJ and Ritchie may yet enjoy some fruit from their association. I don’t count Mark and as I understand it, he’s on some of this scratching out further mileage.

With only Line Dahlmann coming close to delivering a more devastating woah-oh-oh these days, it’s a fine notion to be able to enjoy my old friend’s voice again. It was suggested to me lately that Mickey might have re-recorded some of the vocals but that’s a bridge too far for me to even contemplate. Such a conspiracy theory is surely up there with the notion that the twin towers was an inside job. Isn’t it? I often wonder what Joey would have thought about what happened down there and how it affected his “town”.

Anyway hear it for yourselves here, I’m curious as to what YOU think.

RIP - Chuck Brown

RIP - Doug Dillard

RIP - Donna Summer

So I started off this morning thinking it was Wednesday. The psychological tsunami that overcame me when the penny dropped was a little fractious but by the time I get to tomorrow I’ll be back on track. It’s hard to keep stock and it seems like it’s even harder to find the time, or more importantly the will, to blog anything. This is problematic because there’s stuff that I want you to know but never get around to. Tonight is a night “off” so let’s try to address that after I knock my column for The OX into some kind of order.

Don’t fret. I’m sceptical that I’ll make it back too but you just never know.

RIP - Donald "Duck" Dunn