NRBQ Classic or Dud

still, they (along w/ frank zappa and lester bangs) liked the shaggs. so they get brownie points for that.

"I Want You Bad" is catchy as hell. I'm suprised that it hasn't had a popular cover.

Anyone know what's going on with the Q? They haven't played a show together in quite some time (a reunion show in Massachusetts back in April was the last, I believe).
I heard something about Terry Adams possibly having problems with his hands? Anyone?
I know they can't go on forever, but they were always fun live.

Revived, thanks to talk on the Fabulous Thunderbirds thread, where I just wrote this:

(Don't get me wrong about NRBQ -- I like a few songs by them a lot, especially "Me And The Boys," and I probably should have kept a couple LPs by them. I even saw them play on a New York Blues Cruise boat once! Just never understood the worship they seem to inspire. But I've been on a pub-rock kick lately, so maybe I'd like them more if I listened to them now.) (Also never knew they had lots of fans on ILM; has there ever been a thread? Maybe I'll revive one.)

i always liked that 'little floater' track.. used to get heaps of airplay on oz radio..

me, I like Tapdancin' Bats better than any of their other stuff, altho their Skeeter Davis collaboration is...cute.

Tapdancin' Bats is great but I'll take Yankee Stadium over anything else, although the former does a better job in representing the band's quirkiness.

I just downloaded a whole pile of their stuff via this blog but I haven't got round to it yet. I actually have no fucking idea what they sound like, but I remember a guy with an email address something like nrbqlover@somethingorother who made me a tape of Sarah records/Billy Childish stuff back in the late 90s so when I saw it available for download I thought eh why not.

You had to see them live, during their heyday with Big Al, to really appreciate them IMO.
They're still on hiatus due to some dispute over the recording of a reunion show, I believe.

I just read Michael Lydon's old piece on Carl Perkins, wherein Perkins is hanging and playing with NRBQ in the studio. They're all gathered around him as he tells stories from back in the day.

Terry Adams is touring with a new group

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/01/19/nrbqs-terry-adams-on-his-unbeatable-combination-of-spirits/

So good:

http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/009/322/0000932202_350.jpg

NRBQ a dud? So wrong

Hasn't Terry been playing with the Rock and Roll Quartet for years?

Formed in 2007.

So "new" is incorrect.

But thankfully the link just refers to them as his "current" band.

They were fun last night. Lotsa NRBQ covers. Too quirky at times for me, but otherwise pretty swell

Definitely want to check them out.

i tend to only go as far as yankee stadium. really like the s/t from '69, and workshop, and scraps.

tom ardolino home recordings album that josh from mystery train records in amherst put out on vinyl - think it was only on import cd before that - is one of my favorite things from the last couple of years. crazy teenage one-man rock songs he recorded when he was 17. Unknown Brain. highly recommended if you like weirdo outrock from 60's and 70's.

oh and i finally got a decent copy of the wildweeds album a couple months back.

still never heard the album they did with carl perkins.

Scraps is one of the longest-surviving, well-loved LPs in my collection. Brought a promo home from a local radio station's trash bin when I was 14.

NRBQ back, sort of ...
Terry Adams comes clean about the band's demise, and the cancer treatment he kept secret from fans.

I mean, c'mon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-s8JFTt-vo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRK2o3EkOUw

Anybody see the new band live? They are doing a free show here in the next couple months and was wondering if it's worth the trip downtown, parking fees etc.

^ anyone? They're in Chicago (well, Berwyn) next week and wondering the same.

I haven't seen them post-'80s, have no idea what they sound like now.

"Ridin' In My Car" is one of these songs I CANNOT BELIEVE wasn't a huge hit, or even a small hit. WTH was wrong with people in the mid-'70s, sending "You Light Up My Life" to the top of the charts and ignoring a catchy-as-all-getout gem like this?

Also, NRBQ At Yankee Stadium NEEDS this song to feel complete - on the original LP but a licensing squabble has resulted in it being missing from the CD reissues.

Well, it was originally on All Hopped Up (released a year earlier and a great album in its own right) and only put on the Yankee Stadium album as a bonus.

At Yankee Stadium was on a major label whereas AHU was on an indie with spotty distribution in some areas; IIRC part of the contract when they signed with Mercury (I think that's who it was) for Yankee Stadium was inclusion of "Ridin' In My Car" on the new album.

What do you all think of the recent She & Him cover of this song?

I'm utterly delighted to see a thread about this marvellous band... IMO one of the best in the world, & they're still going.The original NRBQ started in a bedroom in 1965.

I helped interview Terry Adams a week ago. You can hear the result in a review of their new album,'Keep this love going' (it's great),on Radio New Zealand/The Sampler for 2 weeks from August 30th. It should be easy to Google.
Their relative lack of fame, after 45 years(!), totally puzzles me. Their is no real best album (they've done 30+) as all the ones I've heard are wonderful & consistent to their overall vision. I suppose 'At Yankee Stadium', 'Tiddlywinks' & the new one are my favourites at the moment.

Who is actually in the band at this point? I was considering going to that Fitzgerald's show.

The present line up is
Terry Adams - piano, clavinet, vocals
Scott Ligon - guitar, organ, vocals
Pete Donnelly - bass, vocals
Conrad Choucroun - drums, vocals

Tom Ardolino - honourary member still... plays drums on 2 tracks of new album & designed the cover. He just doesn't tour anymore.

when they played at the riverfest here in town this year tom and conrad both played drums. double drum nrbq. i couldn't go though cuzza work. sold terry some records though.

For those interested,the interview I helped conduct with Terry Adams re new NRBQ review, is available for Podcast from 6th September. Not 30th August.

Anybody see the new band live? They are doing a free show here in the next couple months and was wondering if it's worth the trip downtown, parking fees etc.

― Mucho! Macho! Honcho!: Turn Off The Dark (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, August 19, 2011 10:41 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

As luck would have it, this show was tonight and a friend happened to be having her birthday party at a bar around the block afterwards. So I went.

As bad luck would have it, I got a mild case of food poisoning from my late lunch, so I only got to see parts of their set.

However, I did get to hear them do "Me and The Boys" and the rest of what I heard (not stuff familiar to me) was pretty good. They weren't as zany as legend and vintage youtubes tell.

Also learned Conrad Choucroun (the new drummer) is a Houston boy and a vet of Banana Blender Surprise, an area party band that wanted to be NRBQ really bad.

R.I.P. Tommy Ardolino, a sweet guy who really knew how to swing.
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=3056331932353

More here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NRBQ-Headquarters/221489064545160

Love watching Tommy's face as they play "Music Goes 'Round" at about 3:02.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qSHEGfbkvQg

so sad! terry adams was kind enough to introduce me to tom last summer here at the store and i'm really glad i got to shake his hand and tell him how much i enjoyed his work. such a nice guy. i can't recommend the Unknown Brain recordings of Tom's teenage stuff highly enough. One of my favorite archival releases of all time. Hilarious and awesome. Josh from Mystery Train here put a pressing out on vinyl and you can still find it online.

Unknown Brain is used throughout this video. First time I had heard it. Sounds just like Terry Adams on the clavinet! Who influenced who?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNBEviii-FE

that guy who makes those videos was such a weirdo. and he wrote really rude shit about my pals at MT on youtube. i thought that was uncalled for. they were nice enough to let him in and let him film their store, and then he does that. he's supposedly a vinyl-addicted dj and he didn't look at anything in my store. i didn't get it.

sorry, when i see those vid clips i just go grrrrr....can't help it.

Yeah, that's a real dick move.

RIP to one of the swingin'-est, thwackin'-est backbeat drummers I ever saw. I've been surfing Q clips today, and this one had me smiling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEsTO6uslhI&feature=related

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/arts/music/tom-ardolino-56-longtime-drummer-for-nrbq-dies.html?_r=1&ref=music

I don't think Tony Bennett gets it.
"Every song featured ear-torturing mistakes, bizarre random noises, wrong notes aplenty, and just plain bad playing from Adams."
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/ae/3814293-review-nrbq-bewilders-bayfront-blues-audience

Anyone would sound shabby next to Scott Ligon.

the real tony bennett would be totally into nrbq

I need this.
http://www.newhampshire.com/storyimage/UL/20161110/NEWHAMPSHIRE0105/161119982/AR/0/AR-161119982.jpg?q=100

That awesome feeling when you're just hanging on a Friday night and you hear NRBQs local guitarist is playing the burger place next to the bowling alley for free. Beatles covers, Everley Brothers, Beach Boys ...a blast!

Green Light sounds so much like an alt mix of a Squeeze song that hearing it without context baffled me.

This band sucks so much ass

"Do you wish the Grateful Dead was just the Bob Weir good lovin shit?" is not a good mission statement

UMS I generally enjoy your posts, but this is the epitome of wrong. One of the finest bar bands ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d5Hdqyjj5o

While sometimes NRBQ’s eclectic bar band approach works against them, they do not suck.

dan p i'm not sure that video is demonstrating what you want it to demonstrate

in that it is a video of a band sucking

been trying Dan! you know I will give any old rock band the benefit of the doubt but something about this band really rankles me, too cute

the first album had some good stuff but man that Live at Yankee Stadium record I was like THIS is it

rather, I would say to their everlasting credit, the 'Q is everything that the Dead, a pox on on music and life upon this earth, is not. It is exceedingly odd, UMS, given what I know about you via ILX, that they bother you …I saw the Q about as many times as many shitheads I knew saw the Dead from 89 to 95, and have only seen them once since Al left, in 96. Have 0 interest in seeing Terry playing with whichever 40-50 year old oddballs consorting with him…

Current Q is really good, it's heartwarming to me to see Terry still active, but yeah I miss Al (and Tom.)

I do get the 'too cute' label though, it's not entirely unwarranted, especially when they cover, like, Patience and Prudence.

If you're not on board w/Yankee Stadium, the Q is not for you.

Also, to my ears, Yankee Stadium has at least as much in common with new wave as it does with Shakedown Street.

Yeah, it's very Rockpile/Graham Parker-y.

...and of course Dave Edmunds has covered some NRBQ/Al Anderson stuff.

WTF this band is great. At Yankee Stadium, Scraps, and especially All Hopped Up are absolutely packed with beautiful melodies/chord progressions, solid power-pop grooves; and clever, if sometimes corny lyrics. If you can't handle a bit of well-crafted cuteness, I just feel bad for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DsK2yke5ng

“Riding in my car” is great power pop. “Me and the Boys “ and “I want you bad” are also great rockin pop songs.

Their young ringer guitarist lives near me, and plays these occasional intimate gigs in the back room of a local burger place, doing covers of the Kinks and Beach Boys and Beatles and the like.

Want to say the last time I saw him he did a set of Everly Brothers.

We were talking about the Q over on the main Little Feat thread recently:

You know who else makes good companion listening to the Feet?

'70s NRBQ.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, October 7, 2019 8:18 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

recommend an LP?

― calstars, Monday, October 7, 2019 9:01 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Omnivore's been reissuing a bunch of theirs, also a few recent sets (Terry Adams with an all-this-century line-up, I think) The best reissue I've heard is their s/t debut, from 1969, smokin' Louisville backyards and other spaces. Don't know how many of these have been reissued by now, but I liked several of their 70s, At Yankee Stadium, Kick Me Hard, Grooves in Orbit, and Tapdancin' Bats---oh yeah, All Hopped Up has been reissued, but seemed too or wrongly gimmicky at times; they could be that way (ditto the current crew)
And if you really want to take the plunge, Omnivore's High Noon - A 50-Year Retrospective is pretty refreshing, for the most part---as it damn well better be, with 5 CDs.

― dow, Monday, October 7, 2019 9:20 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was just listening to Workshop, which is what inspired me to post. I've got it was part of a vinyl two-fer with their prior effort Scraps, which might be a good place to start (Sundazed did individual LP reissues). At Yankee Stadium has them starting to get New Wave-y in a way the Feat never lived to reach, but it's the consensus pick and very much worth your time.

I should point out that where the two bands most overlap is in their wacky sense of humor. NRBQ used the Beatles as a jumping-off point the same way the Feat used the Stones.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, October 7, 2019 10:11 PM (two weeks ago)

That box set is often amaaazing, though they could get too cutesy at times.

I'm blanking on it right now, but there's a track on either Scraps or Workshop that would slot in perfectly on the first two Feats albums, down to an LG-esque slide part.

From a consid of NRBQ box and Sun Ra singles comp (thee biggest and most recent, though still not complete):

...n 1969, co-founder and sole constant of all line-ups Terry Adams was quoted by the New York Times as declaring that NRBQ was based on “the Sun—-Sun Ra and Sun Records.” It’s a good hook, and basically true---and would be, in the sense of an adventurous, driven and canny spirit shared, whatever the stylistic differences—-=even if, as he recounts in this set’s booklet, Adams hadn’t first visited Ra at the end of the 60s, when too much was up in the air; he was given a Saturn Records 45 RPM single of “Rocket Number Nine”—hearing this, Adams realized he had to get NRBQ back together and dedicate his life to music (the reunited combo’s own version of “Rocket…” soon blasted off, sonically if not commercially).
https://www.nodepression.com/sun-ra-and-nrbq/

man, I used to describe Terry's style as Jerry Lee Monk, but you can't beat that Sun/Sun remark…

I lived in Louisville from year 0 to 18, so I had a lot of pride in the 'Q. One day, at the shit telemarketing job I had the summer before I went o college, I looked over at the red-faced alky hippie who was sitting across from me, and realized it was Steve Ferguson. The lunch breaks at this job were suddenly fascinating for me, although he was unaccustomed to being around teenagers who knew who he was and then pestering him at whatever job he found himself taking…

I'm a Spampinato fan. A song like "Still in School" is like...thank goodness someone honors the Lovin' Spoonful tradition.

Jerry Lee Monk! Hell yeah. And some of their most inspired work was with Steve Ferguson---an excellent example is well described here:
...all funked up and frenzied. It’s hard to identify each note among the slurs and bends, but by my count he manages in those four seconds to play at least twenty-four of them. Ferguson called himself a blues player with a country right hand—meaning he naturally pulled out the blue notes, the bends and slides and double-stops, but syncopated the picking rhythm in the style of the old-time classic Nashville or Memphis sound. If you listen with this in mind you’ll understand what he meant; although over the years he would venture widely and experiment with about every imaginable genre of music, the sound and style here remained his signature, the opening lead into “Flewzy.”
https://www.oxfordamerican.org/item/1389-nrbq-flat-foot-flewzy
Also, for instance, his choice and treatment of a Vacation Bible School fave, as heard on the box.

Hey C Grisso: I went through Scraps and RC Cola and a Moon Pie (more or less Workshop) since I'm curious what tune you mean but I can't figure it out…I don't hear the parallels between Feat and the 'Q…

can you gimme some more indications of what you remember?

Tonight for the first time in three years Scott Ligon returned to our local dive bar/burger joint with the rest of NRBQ (minus Terry Adams) for a set of '60s rock. Beatles, Byrds, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Burt Bacharach, even a few things that didn't start with B, like the Sir Douglas Quintet and Sun Ra and Johnny Cash and Gram Parsons. A good time was had by all.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/461993953_1070647221095897_3734171097780268875_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=6mi_l0K0WaYQ7kNvgFbPwrg&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=AZhbJbxaeMpKqYWP6nSoPSK&oh=00_AYCwh2PHPoQAwd4kf9bienMkbwbtXWFH0qTEWZ_PI1QHuQ&oe=6709194A

omg love it

awwww

i guess they didn't have a communal living room like the beatles?

gosh look at those cd prices. they're higher than today even w/o inflation.

"Can I borrow your Bruce live box?"

"No brother, you gots to get your own!"

love these guys

Record stores really did look like that the day the Bruce live box dropped; it seemed to account for about 2/3 of sales that day. If I saw someone walking by holding a bag with a 12"x12" item in it, I knew what it likely was.

Fab factoid: Springsteen Live '75-85 is the only album ever to be released as on LPs, CDs, cassettes, and 8-track cartridges.

the compact disc sign threw me, because the photo looks older than that. Has to doublecheck the live box release year.

we are ready for 2025!

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472276667_10162762800987137_6676701766746775686_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=McM5m5za2WgQ7kNvgE50zoD&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=APaA9K7bGqfhCHRnpLqC00R&oh=00_AYCBh_GNUPbWG8pkVWLAO8EJOjY9dzBQWwaiBSzbX3Mi9Q&oe=677CBFD5

i discovered "scraps" last week and have been obsessed

I love that record so much. It’s actually one of the oldest pieces of vinyl in my collection. I got a promo out of a radio station waste basket when I was 14.

https://www.discogs.com/release/4219826-NRBQ-Scraps

that’s awesome

tom staley’s drumming is so incredibly good on this record. it is so subtle. and recorded in a way that i really love. just these really small touches and fills that send me

so far, "workshop" is a pretty big step down from "scraps." they're back in form by "all hopped up," however, and it sounds like for various reasons there's tons of '70s material scattered on various albums throughout the '80s. so i'm trying to make sense of it all.

i'm sure it will change with time, but for now i like that i can't guess whether a tune that catches my ear was penned by adams or spampinato.

that's real interesting that you think that Workshop isn't a patch on Scraps, because I had purchased and internalized every single Q record other than Scraps by 1991, and only got Scraps in like 2018, and to me it's not as good as every other Q record before Groove in Orbit. There are no Al songs on this record, for instance…

what are your favorite songs on "workshop"? it felt like such a slog to me. i like when they write catchy songs with big hooks, but it can be exhausting sometimes when there's a long stretch on one of their albums and they can't seem to get out of "old time rock n roll" mode.

it's not that i don't mind a sprinkling of that here and there, but with "workshop" it felt like it was the whole record

*it's not that i mind

there are some great songs on "grooves in orbit," although overall it's a mixed big, as most of their records seem to be, i'm discovering (excerpt for "scraps," haha!)

i like this one in particular, where terry adams seems to channel this nice colin blunstone/zombies vibe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAfPiNlXZIQ
My Girlfriend's Pretty

I know a mellow-roonie boy named Durward Kirby

i reserve the right to make changes to this, but i put together a mix of 18 tunes that for me represent the best of NRBQ across six albums (Scraps, All Hopped Up, Tiddlywinks, Grooves in Orbit, At Yankee Stadium, and Kick Me Hard) and which i'll likely use in the future should i need to get anybody into the band. roughly 55 minutes of what is for me their catchiest, earwormiest material! all killer, no filler! if anyone's interested i can try to put it up in dropbox or something

Ridin' In My Car
Hymn #9
It Was a Accident
Rain at the Drive-In
Call Him Off, Rogers
Talk to Me
Tragic Magic
My Girlfirend's Pretty
Magnet
It Feels Good
Scraps
That's Alright
Boys in the City
Howard Johnson's Got His Ho-Jo Working
Hobbies
Get a Grip
It's Not So Hard
Me and the Boys

Here are mine — a bit longer — including a separate list of my favorite Q covers.

Originals
Ridin' In My Car
Things To You
Queen Talk
That's Alright
Green Lights
I Love Her, She Loves Me
That's Neat, That's Nice
I Want You Bad
It Comes to Me Naturally
Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard
Waitin' on My Sweetie Pie
Rain At The Drive-In
A Girl Like That
RC Cola And A Moon Pie
Wacky Tobacky
Don't She Look Good
It Was a Accident
I Want to Show You
Stay With We
Howard Johnston's Got His Ho-Jo Working
Do You Feel It?
Time & Place
I Say Gooday Goodnite
Captain Lou
I Don't Think of …
Me and the Boys
You Can't Hide
Beverly
Feel You Around Me

Covers
Cecilia
I Got A Rocket In My Pocket
Music Goes 'Round and Around
Get Rhythm
Ain't Nice To Talk Like That
It's A Sin To Tell A Lie (live)
Hey! Baby
Rocket #9
Rats in My Room
12 Bar Blues

Somebody herein, someone with an impeccable grasp of trad R&R but I can't remember who, said that this band seemed too hokey, too good timey or somesuch… it reminds me of someone pointing out here that the Band, and you can certainly say this about NRBQ, doesn't have any brooding, spooky parts of their repertoire, like "Down by the River" or "Gimme Shelter" or "The Chain," that its all good timey knees-up shit… that is true of both acts and I spose that could be a relevant point, but I would hope that a spin through either of the above would make the skeptical less skeptical… two founders of this band were from my hometown of Louisville, they pretty much are one of alltime faves, and I saw as many shows by the Q as others did the Dead, their polar opposites— but I did not know anyone else my age who liked 'em, except a bandmate I turned on to the Q… I saw them once after Big Al left in 93, I didn't like it without him and the prospect Terry running around with younger dudes now just seems to me like a terrible idea…

There are many Band songs I'd consider brooding, less so NRBQ but "Tragic Magic" definitely is ... but in any event, the Rolling Stones never released a free jazz album and Neil Young has never made an album of solo banjo Roy Rogers covers, and I don't need any single artist to meet all of my demands as a listener ...

my favorite Q covers

i must admit their cover of "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" charms my pants off

No, not the deepest or darkest, but as I said in a link upthread, their 50-year box holds up surprisingly well. Also the reissued debut, from late 60s Louisville, smoking mellow gold in thee backyard.

Search:
Green Lights
Feel You Around Me
Boys In The City
Ridin' In My Car
Magnet
Hobbies
I Want You Bad
Me And The Boys
Music Goes Round And Around
Roll Call
Never Take the Place of You
Howard Johnston's Got His Ho-Jo Working
Rain At the Drive-In
A Little Bit of Bad

Stupid Fun:
Things We Like To Do (cover of Alvin & The Chipmunks)
SPAMPINATO (a lesson in how to spell Joey's name)
North to Alaska

Destroy:
It Comes To Me Naturally (I can't get past the lyrics)
Girl Scout Cookies
I Want My Mommy