Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

The reissue of Thunder's Back Street Symphony sound sufficiently great to make me dig out my old copy of Their Finest Hour, a sixteen tune 'best of' from '95 bought at the Tower firesale in Pasadena.

The original copy, which I'd reviewed for a newspaper around fifteen years ago, was a repackaging for the US market. Didn't look at all like the UK version. This one had a photo of Harry James, the drummer, dressed in a tutu and, I think, was made up to capitalize on the video for "Dirty Love." Anyway, the reissue is the original UK cover art.

"Dirty Love" was a tremendous party tune, even included 'na-na'-na's', and at least half the record is just about on a par with it. It probably saved Thunder from being totally wiped by grunge in the US market although they lasted here until '95 and never seemed to be able to build on what "Dirty Love" furnished them.

It's all meat-and-potatoes very hard rock and pop. Thunder could write nice hooks and not humiliate themselves in the lyric department. "Englishmen on Holiday" is fairly amusing for its story of Brit hooliganism at Euro resorts. "Distant Thunder," which closes the album is great metal boogie. "Love Walked In" was the obligatory ballad, something Thunder did well without much sop.

Along with the best of has made me consider picking up the other two from their first three.

Also great over the holidays were SPV's reissues of the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, one of the pieces of the British blues boom that didn't make it. Surprisingly, four albums on two double CD sets. Sometimes they imitated all the people that did last, for a couple songs you swear it's Savoy Brown, for another Ten Years After. Cover art by Hipgnosis, production made to sound like Mike Vernon. The first album has "Chevrolet," retitled as "Watch and Chain." Foghat would get much more use out of it years later. Dr. Dunbar's Prescription was their most second and most successful album. It looks a psyche LP but it's still mid-tempo white boy blooz with a heavy Hammond sound. If you're a fanatic for this Brit stuff, these reissues hit the spot.

Aynsley Dunbar is one of the Zelig's of hard rock. He seems to have been in many really big bands just, infrequently with indifferent results, most notably Journey, I think (although he seemed to be in the right place at the right time for Whitesnake). Notable Frank Zappa sideman, also on some Jefferson Starship LPs.

Repackage of Iron Butterfly's last two mid-Seventies albums, Scorching Beauty and Sun and Steel. Great album art but only two original members, guitarist Erik Braunn and drummer Ron Bushy. Not at all like the psych organ 25-million sold In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida Butterfly.

Completely different, showing some yen to do Brit-style glam pop. Almost unbelievable.
Guitarist Erik Braun sings, sounds like a poor man's Brian Ferry or someone in Badfinger's back line, or Cockney Rebel with loud guitar. One or two things sound like early Yes or Badger, the rest interspersed with US-centric boogie so they could still entertain in the bars without frightening people screaming for the oldie. Makes for a diverse listen in the 70's hard rock genre. Utterly panned. Didn't sound like anything else in the market at the
time. If you liked the odd mid-70's losers like Captain Beyond or Pavlov's Dog, this stands a good chance of scratching that itch.

16 weren't properly heard in their prime. Chalk it up to poor distribution and a mighty sound that didn't exactly fit the style, being far more violent in riff and concussion than the great stoner mean. 16 smoked in an unfastened way, like the guy with an irrational number of burning cigarettes stuffed in his maw on the cover of their first album, Scott Case.

Bridges to Burn is their new one. Because it's on Relapse, it will have better play than anything they did in the intervening fifteen years or so. And, wowza, they haven't aged a bit, being just as pounding and enraged. Good album, see here for a longer write.

got the new vines album in the mail the other day. you remember them, right? saviours from the last "rock" "revolution" along with, um, i dunno, the datsuns and the white stripes or whoever. anyway, it's unlistenable. in the red oversaturated horror show. i literally can't listen to it cuz of the sonic hell it puts you through. and it's reason enough to listen to old iron butterfly albums. lord knows, the snowboarding highlight clip industry needs rock bands like the vines to keep them in montage music, but no ordinary human needs them anywhere or anyhow. singer supposedly was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome a while ago and i would have given them at least a smidge of cred if they had named their album *Welcome To Ass Burger, How May We Help You?* but they are too lame to be funny.

A little write-up on hearing Patto's "The Man" from their 1970 debut as part of trailer music for Seth Rogen's mall cop movie, "Observe and Report". Here. Good band, good album, vanished without much trace. Good to see someone in Hollywoodland listens to it.

SWEET PERFORMS AT HOUSE OF BLUES ON APRIL 30TH

The UK Rock Band Behind Fierce Hits Ballroom Blitz, Fox On The Run, Love Is Like Oxygen, Little Willy, Hellraiser, Teenage Rampage, Blockbuster And Action Will Perform In LA

WHO: UK rock band Sweet led by bassist/vocalist Steve Priest and joined by guitarist Stuart Smith, singer Joe Retta, drummer Richie Onori and keyboardist Stevie Stewart

WHAT: Concert to perform their 70s hits Ballroom Blitz, Fox On The Run, Love Is Like Oxygen, Little Willy, Hellraiser, Teenage Rampage, Blockbuster and Action, among others.

WHERE: House of Blues Sunset

8430 W. Sunset Blvd.

W. Hollywood, CA

323-848-5100

WHEN: Thursday, April 30th

9 p.m. show

Doors open at: 8 p.m.

So what is the general consensus on Cold Chisel? I'd never listened to them before, at least not consciously, but I paid $1 for a copy of their 1980 Elektra LP East (their only LP ever to chart in the U.S., went to #171) at Austin's citywide garage sale a couple weeks go, and I have to say that -- in terms of my experience with usually much more brutal late '70s/early '80s bogan-rock -- I'm kind of disappointed with it. At least half of it seems like medium-rock attempts at meaningfulness somewhere in the vicinity between the Police and Midnight Oil (with obligatory white-reggae bent and fetishes on Asian girls). But I like "Rising Sun"'s Faces-style rockabilly (Faces being a big Rose Tattoo influence too I suspect), and the tough Viet-vet AOR drama of "Khe Sahn," and esp. the killer surf-to-Police-to-Slade closer "No Time To Cry."

Jasper and Oliver, though, peg East as sort of a sellout: "changed style...to a radio-bias AOR sound." They call their earlier stuff "Australian hard rock with r&b tints," which might land them closer to AC/DC/Rose Tattoo/Angels territory. Or is this just wishful thinking on my part -- just like I assume Elektra was thinking wishfully by giving them one shot in the States in the wake of Back In Black's blockbusting. (What other Aussie bands get released in the States then? Looks like Midnight Oil didn't chart hear until 1984, a few years later. Though Angel City did first chart twice in 1980, before Back in Black but after Highway To Hell, which was AC/DC's commercial breakthrough. Rose Tattoo also only charted at the tail end of 1980, fwiw; Rock N Roll Outlaw got to #197.)

Also, new albums I've liked this year that might somehow pass muster as "hard rock" (though some are probably more "past-expiry" than others, and some of the country ones are inconsistent about rocking). Order of preference, more or less, and leaving out some less explicitly old-school-oriented metal stuff:

(Various Artists) – The Chiswick Story, Part 1 (Ace reissue ‘08)
Ian Gillan – One Eye To Morocco (Eagle Rock)
Rufus Huff – Rufus Huff (Zoho Roots)
Rodney Atkins -- It’s America (Curb)
Death – …For The Whole World To See (Drag City reissue EP)
Sarah Borges And the Broken Singles – The Stars Are Out (Sugar Hill)
Zero Boys – Vicious Circle (Secretly Canadian reissue)
Pat Green – What I’m For (BNA)
Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous: Live At The Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1977 (VH1 Classic reissue)
Sinner – Crash And Burn (Candlelight USA)
X (Australian Band) – X-Aspirations (Aztec Music reissue)
Eric Church – Carolina (Capitol)
Steadlür – Everything Is Nothing (Roadrunner)
The Reds – Early Nothing (Tarock)
Wicked Witch – Chaos 1978-86 (EM reissue)
(Various) – Keep Your Soul: A Tribute To Doug Sahm (Vanguard)
Edguy – Tinnitus Sanctus (Nuclear Blast)
(Various) – Heavy Metal Killers (Earache)
Saxon – Into The Labyrinth (SPV)
Dead Man – Euphoria (Crusher)
Keith Urban – Defying Gravity (Capitol Nashville)
Elder – Elder (Meteor City ’08)
Fires Of Rome – You Kingdom You (The Hours)
The Answer – Everyday Demons (The End)
Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs – Long Live Rock and Roll (Aztec Music reissue ’08)
Living Things – Habeas Corpus (Jive/Zomba)
16 –Bridges To Burn (Relapse)
Gene Dante and the Future Starlets – The Romantic Lead (Omnirox Entertainment)
Jason Aldean – Wide Open (Broken Bow)
Meercaz – Meercaz (Gulcher)

Hell, maybe toss in the new Buckwheat Zydeco album Lay Your Burden Down on Alligator, too -- includes songs previously done by Led Zeppelin ("When The Levee Breaks," originally Memphis Minnie), Brownsville Station ("Let Your Yeah Be Yeah," originally Jimmy Cliff), Gov't Mule (the title track), and Captain Beefheart (his long-ignored-probably-due-to-its-normalness Southern soul move "Too Much Time," always one of my favorites by him) -- though only the five-minute "Levee" really sounds like hard rock, at least so far. Anyway, I never cared at all about Buckwheat before (he's been around forever it seems, and his voice seems pretty average), but I like this record. Best original so far: "Throw Me Something Mister," which basically sounds like mid '60s funk-band instrumental with party-chant interjections.

By "mid '60s funk band" I guess I mean Meters, duh. Who didn't actually chart til the late '60s. Also, I get the idea that, in general here, Buckwheat employs his accordion like an organ, so I'm not sure how "zydeco" any of it really sounds. (Not that I'm a zydeco expert myself, and not that anybody reading a hard rock thread might care one way or the other.)

Skyhooks were an Aussie band with a release schedule in the US around the same time as Cold Chisel. They were an odd glammy band with an unusual look. Big in Australia, they went over like a lead balloon here. I have a lot of their stuff, dig it out once in awhile. Iron Maiden covered one of their songs. Skyhooks required an unusual sense of humor to 'get', which is why they got no traction in the US heartland, which took them for fags if they took them at all.

Living Things actually made it to a second record?

Zero Boys must be a reissue of their first which was paint-by-number US punk rock, although a very good paint-by-numbers things.

And reviewed, an interesting and very funny comic/personal memoir worked around the legend of GG Allin.

Yeah, no idea how the Living Things lasted to see another release (on the same major label); it's not like their debut (which took years to come out in the first place) even came close to taking the world by storm, and the live sets I was seeing a few years back didn't exactly suggest guys who seemed destined to survive as a band, or maybe even survive as human beings. New album seems more compromised, somehow, and forces their protest angle even more incoherently, but still works as catchy semi-punk. Could become either a major annoyance or a revelation if modern rock radio picks any of it up.

And right, that's a Zero Boys debut reissue; had never actually heard the album before, and was surprised by how much I like it. Secretly Canadian also just put out a singles-etcetra comp by them called The History Of which is not nearly as tuneful in its paint-by-numberness; they seem to have subsequently gone more slamdancey, which didn't make them sound more urgent, just more average.

SWEET PERFORMS AT HOUSE OF BLUES ON APRIL 30TH

OK, a friend saw The Sweet last year (on a bill with Showaddywaddy and The Rubettes!) and said they were appalling. Nowhere near as appalling as the Brian Connolly-led version (when he was still alive), but at least he had the excuse of being a human trainwreck.

So anybody know what the deal is with this other LP I bought for $1 a couple weeks ago -- a Kansas album called Bringing It Back on the Design Ltd. Music (whatever that is) label, copywritten 1980 though all of its titles seem to be drawn from Kansas' 1974 debut album, except in a different order and without "Death of Mother Nature Suite"?

Hadn't listened to the debut (which I've got on CD) for a while, so I relistened, and decided "Belexes" (erroneously spelled "Believes" on the LP cover) and "Journey From Mariabronn" are by far the hardest rocking songs, with an almost Zep type kick to them. "The Pilgrimage" and "Apereu" are wimpier, but it's charming how Kansas managed to work sorts of hillbilly fiddle hoedowns into their Yes imitations, like they instinctively realized (which for all I know they may have) that lots of that high-flown British classical foo-foo started off as jiggy dance music to begin with. And then there's the J.J. Cale cover "Bringing It Back," a kind of rustic choogle that doesn't really fit at all with what people think about Kansas. Let me know if I have this wrong.

Anyway, I'm still interested in what the heck this LP is. Seems like some weird bootleg or something. It doesn't get listed in Kansas's AMG entry or Wiki page; there's no copies for sale at amazon and ebay, and it's barely mentioned on the web at all. Crazy.

Also no photos of the band on the back or front cover, btw. Which is a shame, because on the actual back of Kansas's debut CD, they look like real good ol' boys standing out in the farm field, some even wearing overalls. Get the idea they ditched that hick look before they became superstars, though. (Back of 1975's Song For America, they're cleaned up, a couple ready to hit the disco with their polyester and pants-bulges. One guy still has suspenders on, but even he seems more cosmopolitan.)

Actually, a couple copies of the LP (but not much more information) are here, so at least I know I'm not dreaming:

http://www.musicstack.com/album/kansas/bringing_it_back

secret soft spot for Kansas right in here (my chest that is.)

Well really, obviously, what they looked like (in 1974) was a Southern Rock band. But they sure didn't sound very much like a Southern Rock band. Eight-minute "Death Of Mother Nature Suite" (had to pull out the actual CD for that one) is definitely heavy and doomy in intermittent parts, however.

Buckwheat Zydeco
cranks up his accordion
like a metal god

Saw him close a show
with "Hey Joe" back in the day
Shredding feedback hell

I saw Kansas quite a bit around the time of their first three albums. Belexes is the best song off the first. It's built off a Uriah Heep-type figure and it was a high point of their early show. Back then they all looked like hicks who just got off pitchforking hay at the local farm, Walter Brennan Real McCoy suspender dungarees and all. Second album has a pair of hammerdown blooz stomps, one fast, one slow ("Down the Road," which is very Charlie Daniels 'suvvern' and "Lonely Street.") Then the rest of it, now overwrought hand-wringing prog trying for nobility, "Song for America" shtick, with another fast tune, "The Devil Game" stuck in near the end. I never heard much of a Yes influence in these. Starcastle was the mid-western band that sounded like Yes.

"Masque" was the third album and was the best marriage of their styles, raging guitar heavy hard rock, hoedown fiddle interludes, overwrought but fairly catchy prog. Next, "Leftoverture" broke them big through "Wayward Son" but marked the end of the road for my interest in them.

I bet this is the stuff from Kansas (mark II) now called Proto-Kaw. http://www.protokaw.com/index.php?pageid=1

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006IXGD probably bootlegged or shady contract release.

I had that a few years ago. Didn't last long until given over to trade credit. Take even more of the boogie stomp out of major label Kansas, add more prog, lose the singing voice for the radio, that was Proto-Kaw.

I don't think that's what the Bringing It Back LP is, though. Haven't played it and the debut back to back to make sure, but I'm pretty sure these are the same recordings, just in a different order.

What do you think of the Meercaz album, xhuxk? Haven't seen any mention of it anywhere else except the Gulcher site. All I know is that it's got a dude with an afro on the front and it's on Gulcher, but it's new, right? Looks acid rock.

And this might be one for the Krautrock also-rans poll, but has anyone heard the Dschinn s/t record? Might be barrel-scrapings, but I hear they did a pretty decent Sabbathy/Lone Crow-ish hard rock type thing.

Popovic Popoff gives it 6/8 in his 70's book which makes it solidly better than average but not quite spectacular. The review indicates it comes down on the side of rock, rather than art, which is usually a good thing with regards to the early-70's.

So what was it about Uriah Heep and the Midwest? Was that where their biggest market was, or something? They clearly had some bearing on certain of the louder early songs by Styx and Kansas, and I've been playing Head East's Get Yourself Up from '75, and "Jailer" turns out to be full-on unmistakable Heepish organ-sludge. "The Victim" and "Trouble," also on Side Two, are likewise loud (and, in the former case, doom-ridden) enough that I think Martin Popoff should've included the album in his '70s metal book. (As is, he only featured Head East's '79 live album, which I've never heard, though he ended with a perfectly apt line I really wished I'd written myself: "drenched in electricity, paryting like harvest is done with.") First side of Get Yourself Up (a recent used $1 purchase, with a jeep hauling an Afro-shaped load of weed on its cover) dwells in more good-timey, early-Speedwagon territory (I dunno, did R.E.O. have any Heepful moments themselves early on? I'd have check), with shore sounds opening and closing "Sailor" (rhymes with "Jailer"!) and a brief funky Afro-Caribbean percussion breakdown at the end of the ladies' choice "This Woman's In Love" -- reminds me of the Stones circa "Monkey Man," though actually Head East save their own "Monkey Shine" to open Side Two.

What do you think of the Meercaz album, xhuxk?

Marginal. Fuzzy. Unproduced. May well have actual rock songs buried in the acid fuzz, but if so they're hard to get to. So basically, I need to listen to it more. Seriously doubt I'd recommend anybody spend money on it, but I got mine for free, and it's still here. Here's what Stigliano wrote (scroll down -- though he doesn't say so outright, I get the feeling he's somewhat ambivalent as well):

http://black2com.blogspot.com/search?q=meercaz

Someone ought to reissue Get Yourself Up. It's made for Wounded Bird or that company that did the Tommy Conwell two-fer. It was mid-70's, by which time Heep was in decline, so all to the good that someone was still interested in recycling their good style.

Both Styx and Kansas went through sharp style changes. The four Wooden Nickel Styx records, and Equinox, are all organ/synth boogie records descended from the style of Heep. And to a lesser extent, Kansas was. Then Styx picked up Tommy Shaw, jettisoned one of their older guitar players, and went off into Grand Illusion territory, a lot more weighted toward getting on the radio with sappy stuff, ala "Lady." Kansas turned the corner on the past with Leftoverture.

xp Speaking of Dschinn (as ambient bangers was a few posts up), here's Metal Mike Saunders a couple months ago on another German early '70s band that Popoff mentions in his Dschinn review. (I've never heard either band myself; the opinion Metal Mike was dissenting to, as I recall, was actually George's):

i just played the entire 2nd Tiger B Smith (american pressing, cheesy thin Janus vinyl) and i have to file a wildly dissently modern opinion. it is HOOKY, top to bottom. 11 cuts/35 minutes (8 cuts are < 3:30, and the other 3 are > over 5 min; really nice mixture of track times thereof). It has a thin/distorted-pedal guitar sound kinda like 1971-72 Uriah Heep, "heavy" but nowhere heavy metal. it plays all the way through, not one tune w/o strong guitar riffs or hooks. the singing is, uh, functional (rhythm section ditto). rhythm guitar is the loudest instrument in the mix, just like early early 70's hard rock/metal album should be. it's an A- or B+++++ as Robert Christgau might opine in his 1972 front sitting-room. "every listen has given me pleasure or made me tap my foot." uh sure, Bob, tapping my foot to the The Band is my favorite pasttime suuure. why stop there? why not the 1952 Weavers? or some of those crazy Pete Seeger early solo sides? never mind, i made up that quote.

What Mike had written a couple days earlier:

i actually have/bought a 10-cent bin copy of the 2nd lp, american pressing (on Janus) at Moby Disc on ventura blvd, late 70's. funnny, it was spot-checked/audited once only, and misfiled it (forever, until just now) into the "crap, what is this?" misc uncategorized section. since it had a rather confusing cover, not clear if it was a real act or some "fake band" or "rock/disco studio creation, not a band" (as late as the late 70's, america had not yet figured out that the "fakeness" of much UK74 glitter rock was actually a badge of "authenticity," ie fake being a criterion for true UKglitter's 2nd-wave. and don't forget that lousy In-Betweens 45s. or the earliest (and lousy) Bolan and Bowie 60's 45s.

when they're actually a German heavy rock/prog rock thing that jumps into "glitter rock" in 1974 (like all the UK hasbeen/neverwas schlubs in 1973-74).

May well have actual rock songs buried in the acid fuzz, but if so they're hard to get to

As in, sounds like they're miked through a municipal aquarium's worth of murky water full of dead fish. And most feel too wobbly and sickly and unformed and mush-mouthed and aimless to be called "rock songs." But if you've got an abnormally high tolerance for, say, shittily recorded live tapes of mid '70s Ohio or Maryland accidental-punk psych-blooze guitar-and-rant lone wolves (thinking George Brigman in the latter case) trying to match Funhouse or the Groundhogs while shooting cock rockets into deep space and not quite getting it right but coming off somewhat endearing anyway, this might be up your alley. Not that it's half as meaty as Brigman or any famed Cle legends. But for something released in 2009, it's closer than you'd expect; the wah-wahs curdle recognizably even when songs are inaudible, and "Unlust," at least, could almost be some weird lost homemade punk 45 from days of yore. (Looks like the Meercaz aka Mozzley M dude plays most of the instruments, with pals helping out here and there. And yeah, his Afro photos make me want to like him.)

In other news, what the hell is a "Gydget"?

via email today:

UFO

"The Visitor" - Gydget

http://www.spv.de/gydgets/ufo-thevisitor.html

Please spread it!!!!!

See UFO live 2009

31.05. D-Gelsenkirchen - Rock Hard Festival
01.06. D-Bad Salzungen - Presswerk
03.06. D-Leipzig - Theaterfabrik
05.06. SE-Sölvesborg - Sweden Rock Festival
06.06. I-Udine (Osoppo) - 23 rd Biker Fest International
07.06. NL-Uden - Nieuwe Pul

09.06. GB-Brighton - Concorde 2
10.06. GB-Cambridge - The Junction
12.06. GB-Belfast - Spring&Airbrake
13.06. GB-Glasgow - O2 Academy
14.06. GB-Newcastle - Academy
16.06. GB-Leeds - O2 Academy
17.06. GB-Nottingham - Rock City
19.06. GB-Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall
20.06. GB-Manchester - Academy 2
21.06. GB-Bristol - O2 Academy
23.06. GB-Southampton - The Brook
24.06. GB-London - Shepards Bush Empire

26.06. D-Speyer - Halle 101
27.06. D-Ulm - Ulmer Zelt
28.06. B-Dessel - Graspop Metal Meeting
03.07. D-Mössingen - Mössingen Rockt!
30.07. D-Wacken - Wacken Open Air
07.08. GB-Stratford Upon Avon - Bulldog Bash

Are they worth seeing without M. Schenker? They had one of the alltime great runs of LPs from '74 to '79. Damn was some of that stuff awesome.

What's important is they do the songs from the Schenker period, particularly "Too Hot," "Only You Can Rock Me," "Rock Bottom," etc. That said, they've done live stuff for their last couple CDs which includes 'the hits' and while I haven't kept up (I already have the entire UFO catalog up until they first called it quits, which includes all the material with Schenker's replacement, who was pretty good), it should be simple to check used. The guitarist they currently have was one of the hot shot late-Eighties US shredders, I think.

I just looked at that tour schedule and noticed that it's only a European tour. but i would definitely see them now. I grew up in Chicago in the 70s and 80s and they were absolutely huge there, though I don't think they put much of a dent in the US market otherwise.

UFO accrued an impressive reputation live. That, in turn, along with Schenker as one of the first emerging metal guitar heroes, kept the label -- Chrysalis -- really interested in them. Ron Nevison was brought on as a producer to give them more of a guiding hand and it certainly worked for Lights Out and my favorite in the cat, Obsession. That's about where they peaked, along with Strangers In the Night, the live album. However, it's gotta be noted that George Martin produced their next studio record, the first after Schenker left and was replaced by Paul Chapman. That was No Place to Run and it's a very listenable record. There you start hearing more of the band's fannish enjoyment of Bruce Springsteen, believe it or not. Actually, you could start hearing it on No Heavy Petting when they covered Frankie Miller who was a Bruce Springteen-esque Brit guy.

Then they entitled an album The Wild, the Willing & the Innocent which was not at all like Jersey rock. The final one before the first break-up was Making Contact, and that's a favorite of mine, too. Some great hard rock songs on it; Phil Mogg does a tremendous job putting them over. But the heart of the catalog is still from Force It to Obsession and Strangers in the Night.

At one point, I think Chrysalis started pushing the Babys ca. 76-81 and it caused some friction because UFO thought, naturally, they had been there first and were doing better material. There are some merits to this argument, but the Babys got the grease toward the Eighties, were sent Keith Olsen to produce, and he put them on the radio with a couple hit singles, something UFO never enjoyed.

Interesting. Ive never heard of the Babys but they should be post #1 on the terrible names thread.

Strangers in the Night absolutely smokes.

You never heard "Midnight Rendezvous"? That was their e-ticket, John Waite and the boys dressed in black plastic gayware on the cover of Union Jacks. Actually, they were a pretty good band, early distinctly in the vein of Free. Then it was mandated they appeal more to girls and such, hence the 80's black shiny black plastic clothes for the sake of a presumed coolness. I bet John Waite flinches when he sees that now.

The Babys send album also has a cover to make you flinch. They were definitely pushed as pretty boys, similar to John Waite's 'look' when he went solo. Although it's hard to take him seriously as something girls'd want to wrap around.

Ironhouse self-titled album, 1979 (also cost $1) -- Being portly past-their-prime Canucks, these Randy Bachman-led bufflo-bisons naturally get made fun of by Popoff, but I'd say this album is more subtle than he lets on, inasmuch as BTO alumni can be subtle. The obvious new wave ketchup moves are fun (deadpan backup vox in dance-oriented "Jump Into The Light," weird "Roland synthesizer guitar" effects in "Stateline Blues"); I like how the single "Sweet Lui-Luise" (just barely went Top 40 in the States, and vaguely recall it getting some minimal AOR airplay in Detroit at the time) so unashamedly recycles Randy's old riff from "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", and like Popoff points out, "Old Fashioned" (great title for old farts) and "There Ain't No Cure" are legitimately heavy, in ways BTO may or may not have even been themselves. Could see some latter-day cowpunks like say Restless Kelly killing for a tune like "Tumbleweed," which is partly built around a "Gudbuy T'Jane" riff, proving once and for all that BTO were the Slade of Canada. Hearty meat-and-tater riffs throughout, in fact.

More Canucks: Headpins, Line Of Fire, 1985, actually splurged and paid $2 (!) for this one based on a couple people's recommendations on this board and elsewhere, and while I wouldn't say it's quite worth that exorbidant amount, it's definitely worth a buck at least and hence a keeper. Get the idea I might've liked it more had it been recorded a few years earlier (never heard the band's '82 debut -- they were a Chilliwack spinoff apparently); as is, you can really detect the codifying of early-MTV/pre-hair '80s metal in the arrangements and songwriting. As such bands fronted by pretty girls go (Jasper and Oliver on the scratchy screecher here: "the delicious Darby Mill, who makes Kate Bush seem positively unattractive"), 1994 or Shakin' Street's hooks packed considerably more idiosyncatic punch. But the songs all rock regardless, side openers in particular. "Mine, All Mine" even seems to have a little bit of Girlschool's version of "Live With Me" hidden in it somewhere. Nifty hockey hair as well!

My gut feeling was that Turn It Loud, the debut -- was a bit better. Sort of the
same as Shakin' Street, in which the French debut was a bit better than the US remake and add-on with Ross the Boss and Sandy Pearlman producing, although the latter was way more common.

Headpins probably not as good as 1984, another in the delicious female front sweepstakes. Also suffered a dropoff for the second.

I actually like both Shakin Street and 1994 LPs; hard to imagine judging from that followup that Headpins' debut could be nearly as classy as either of those other bands's second ones, but I'll still pick it up if I see it for a buck.

Biggest surprise on Derringer from 1976 (also $1) is the almost-disco band-funk track "Envy" at the end of side one; Rick was a Celina boy, guarantee he was digging the Ohio Players then. Best and hardest rocking tracks, though, are "Sailor" (better than the Head East song with that title) and "Beyond The Universe," in the middle of side two. And actually, he'd always been pretty funky in his own way to begin with, as I recall. Can't believe nobody gave me shit for not including any Derringer LPs in Stairway (just had "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" as the #82 single, jeez).

I'm sure I've knobbed about Derringer previously. And I'm also positive I mentioned Derringer reissues in Rolling Hard Rock the year before. I was going to mention the new Derring Live in Cleveland, which was a radio gig at the Agora promoting the first album. Blue Sky probably only made it available as a promo to radio because Derringer Live, which is about the same but including material from Sweet Evil was what the formal release was. It's on Wounded Bird which occasionally resurrects things which were never issued domestically when they were fresh.

Anyway, every Derringer band album smokes, the first and fourth being the most pop. Popovic disses the first one but he doesn't much like things like songcraft which the first really hits drills on. You mentioned "Envy." There's "Let Me In" which is great, and the double wah-wah incineration duel on "Sailor." "Across the Universe" is the 130+ beats per minute see what we can do with our fingers thing.

Me from the 2007 thread:

Derringer Live is a fairly hot example of what the guy was doing in the mid-70's, which was be in a band, as opposed to solo. Danny Johnson is on second guitar so there's a lot of shit hot axe dueling, like on "Across the Universe." "Sailor" is a fairly good slice of hard and fast rock with hook and great wah-wah solo to the beat in the middle. Version of "Teenage Love Affair" is good, too. "Hootchie Koo" is long, drawn out for concert show-boating. The band was great if you saw 'em, completely thrashing Aerosmith at the Spectrum when Steve & Joe were getting into their totally wasted before going onstage habits.

However, this didn't translate to sales. Proving ground for Danny Johnson and Vinnie Appice who went off to Axis who did the very Derringer-like "It's A Circus World and I'm an Animal." That lasted a few months and then Appice was in Black Sabbath.

Rick Derringer replaced them with Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher, who'd in turn get lifted for Pat Benatar's band, the rest of which is history. Before that Derringer did "If You Weren't So Romantic I'd Shoot You" with them which is as good, often much better than the first.

Searching isn't exact on ILX no matter how improved, so I can't resurrect all the material I'm sure I addressed.

Headpins surely don't outclass 1994 but for cheap it's worth a listen or more.

Here's something to read and it has nothing to do with music or hard rock but I didn't
know where else to put it. I offered a story on torturing of people in the war on terror to the Village Voice, based on my experience with it as per my involvement as a consultant to a famous terror trial in 2005. In the process of making themselves most attractive for New Times,
the Village Voice turned it down. "We don't do stories like that anymore," I was told. Yeah, good call. Being New Times attractive didn't help. They were all fired anyway.

Now here we are today with the New York Review of Books and the Obama administration, and many others, revealing in unexpurgated terms what a lot of people knew was happening years ago but couldn't get into print because we have such a 'free' press.

Sorry for the side track. Back to the regular program. Don't be troubled.

Boy, and this is absolute fact, I put on Derringer right before this! A bang up record
ended and I thought I'd take a moment doing something else. Now I'll put on the new Boxmasters CDs.

Cool to see you guys talking about Headpins, they were a good band. Saw them a couple times in the mid-80s (once opening for Helix in '85, a terrific Can-Rock bill), and have been cranking "Just one More Time" on the mp3 player as of late. My favourite tune of theirs.

Their first album was really big in Canada, "Don't it Make Yoou Feel" was a huge single, while their third album was a lot slicker, with a synth-heavy, Fairbairn-esque gloss to it.

"We don't do stories like that anymore"

At least they're honest, though it's surpising they'd be so blunt about it. But yeah, pieces like the one you pitched are one of the things that went by the wayside as soon as Michael Lacey took over. I need to catch up with the Banner New York Review Of Books that somebody linked to from your blog. For what it's worth, today's NYT front-pager on the interrogation memos actually managed to work the word "torture" way up in the third graph. Jumped to almost a full page on A-10 inside, including a large sidebar chart detailing techniques, rationalizations, and permitted combinations.

Back to hard rock, there was a little discussion on another thread today on '90s stuff by D Generation and Hoodoo Gurus, based on songs I'd put on a mix tape for myself over a decade ago. The D Generation song referred to is "Capitol Offender"; James K Polk says later the (far better) Hoodoo Gurus track "Mind the Spider," sadly, was uncharacteristic for them:

Song Lists From Ancient Mix Cassettes I Just Pulled Out Of Storage After Several Years

What do you folks think of The Answer's Everyday Demons? I reviewed it for Outburn, some really solid "kids doing classic rock" stuff with some catchy songs and good riffs, but a little too much filler and modern rock influence. Definitely some keepers on it, especially the opening track, "Demon Eyes," which Kirk Miller in decibel panned as being too much like The Darkness, but to me it has a ridiculously catchy chorus and that's good enough.

I like the Answer's album; here's what I wrote about it for Spin:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/answer-everyday-demons-end

And what the heck; also did the new Datsuns album (which I don't like nearly as much) for them:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/datsuns-headstunts-cooking-vinyl

The new hard rock band album I've liked most lately is the one by Last Vegas, who are scheduled to open Motley Crue's tour. Haven't decided yet how much I like it, but I definitely like it a lot more than Crue's album from last year.

And the new Cobra Verde album (worse than the Answer or Last Vegas, but better than the Datsuns. Also worse than at least a couple previous Cobra Verde not to mention Death of Samantha albums):

http://www.blender.com/guide/new/55405/havent-slept-all-year.html

But yeah, pieces like the one you pitched are one of the things that went by the wayside as soon as Michael Lacey took over.

Which is why we're in a pickle now. "Not doing stories like that" guys aren't so shit
hot as watchdogs. Eh, prisoners being tortured in dungeons? Borrring. BTW, the Village Voice's website is almost as awful as that of the LA Times. It's the we're so desperate will screw it up with so many flash and scripting ads you'll think your computer just hung. "Meet New York Sex Bloggers," "Hot for Teacher: Sex with a Naughty Professor," "There's a Hot Lesbian Party and You're Not Invited," "The Raw Intensity of New York's Elite Youth Basketball," "Teens Grapple with Rihanna and Cris Brown," Ask a Mexican, a column by a guy who lives in Orange County, the Off Broadway version of The Toxic Avenger, the rich/poor gap is the largest in 17 years (that's really astute), etc...

The new hard rock band album I've liked most lately is the one by Last Vegas, who are scheduled to open Motley Crue's tour

They won a Guitar Center contest/promotion which involved a shopping spree at GC, too. And that amounts to quite a windfall of good fortune.

Hoo boy, xhuxk. The Datsuns, damned by faint praise.

BTW, here's the next torture thing on a mirror blog I'm running off the DD domain. It trails the original by a few minutes but was necessary because Blogger has become more and more unreliable and fraught with 'oh, snap!' moments if you use it to publish to a server not under the control of Google. Which is what a lot of people do with their own domain.

Anyway, it's WordPress and while I've not used it long enough to comment, I would recommend people stay away from Blogger if they're serious about long-term use under their own
name or on their private net property.

More torture!

Speaking of Shel Talmy, I love his work, but my knowledge is basically relegated to what he did in the '60s. What's he up to now? Is there any post-'60s stuff I should check out by him?

Secured the Hitmen's It is What It Is, the '82 follow-up to Hitmen a year earlier. I commented here, liking it a quite a bit, best song being a number called "Kings of the Surf" that sounded explicity modelled to be able to fit on The Dictators' Go Girl Crazy.

Here on Rolling Hard Rock 2008

It Is is a lot more of the same. There are a few official videos on YouTube that show them sort of splitting the difference between pop and zippy Detroit rock, lighter toward the production side. Maybe too light, in retrospect.

"Bwana Devil" got some mileage. None of this was released in the US although a bio says they impressed in the suburbs of Aussie big cities, being driven there by loutish allegedly unadventurous crowds associated with Rose Tattoo and the other barroom fighter Aussie bands. Johnny Kannis has a better voice than Dick Manitoba and they wrote catchier tunes than Radio Birdmen, a bit surprising since much of the band was actually in Birdman at one time or another. You can hear the influence only this band is much less Stooge/Doors.

"Work began on album number two with RCA making a fatal mistake, imposing Mental as Anything producers Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop on the band ... It Is What It Is was the result and it lacked guts, being released in November 1982 to widespread disappointment," sez a blog.

It does have a strong New Wave influence, the title cut and a single, "Everybody Knows I Don't Like Love,"
particularly so, heading toward first/second album Rick Springfield territory. Except the single isn't as good as anything RS wrote around the time.

"No Clue" is the most Iggy & the Stooges tune, 'cept containing a heart on sleeve chorus which the Stooges would
never have performed.

Who names a song "I'd Like to Kiss You"? The Hitmen did. Like putting a "Kick Me" sign on your backside. Plus half of it is hard rock reggae and that's bad, too.

"Everybody Knows I Don't Like Love" is good but the first single and live versions of it by the same band were
better.

Lessee, Springfield's Hard to Hold movie which marked his peak of teenage girl popularity was '84 so it's entirely possible the record company wanted The Hitmen to play ball in the same arena. That would explain why a lot of these tunes sound the way they do. The vocals and guitar in the chorus of "Everybody Knows" really hits the Springfield sound. And the record closes on something that sounds like a cross between hard rock and something by
the Zombies and/or the lighter side of the British Invasion.

http://www.australianmusichistory.com/the-hitmen/

Did I mention this reminds me of poor man's Rick Springfield? Compared to the first album, no wonder the fans -- what there were of them -- were disappointed. Not bad but considering the band was doing Blue Oyster Cult and Dictators tunes live ...

Speaking of records somewhere at the Springfield/Brit-invasion juncture (forced transition, since those aren't even the main things it does, but what the heck), there's David Werner's self-titled Epic album from 1979. Joel Whitburn calls him a "Pittsburgh-based guitarist-vocalist" (sorta like Donnie Iris I guess), and says the album hit #65 in the U.S., not bad. I actually remember as many as four (!) different cuts getting airplay on Detroit AOR stations at the time, though there's a good chance I'm conflating that memory with whichever tracks I used to hear on college radio station KCOU in Missouri a couple years later; definitely at least a couple got Detroit airtime, though. Rolling Stone Record Guide calls him "Midwestern glitter rock," says nothing else, and give the LP zero stars. Jasper and Oliver say "David Werner is described as heavy metal David Bowie, and this sums him up. He seems to appear at irregular intervals on different labels." But there is nothing particularly heavy metal or Bowie about the '79 album, to my ears; both of those record guides say he put out an earlier album, called Imagination Quota, on RCA in 1975. (1 star in the RS guide), but I've never heard it, and it didn't chart.

No Wiki page I can find. His last.fm page lists an even earlier album, Whizz Kid from 1974 (when apparently he was really young, but Whitburn does not list a birth year); photo at last.fm does indeed look extremely glammy, even tranny. That page also lists a 1979 live album (though I wonder whether that may have just been a radio station promo.)

Anyway, 1979 album is real good -- fast snarly This Years Model Costello spurned-guy wave ("Can't Imagine"), dizzy Car/Music Machine/T. Rex hybrid ("What's Right"), souped-up and super perty Pet Sounds/Zombies/Turtles whatever heaven-rock ballad ("Melanie Cries"), semi-electronic half-metal pomp ("Every New Romance" -- the AOR hit, I think, though no singles charted Hot 100), perfect Adams/Springfield hard pop a couple years too early ("Too Late To Try.") Tails off toward the end, but there's more than enough hooks before then to go around.

You can tell it was marketed as new wave, since Werner is headless on the cover but with a skinny tie and a little button with his face on it pinned to his lapel. But really, I'd more classify as late '70s glam-after-the-fact, like say Nick Gilder. But not sung in such a high voice.

I had the Werner album, played it an awful lot in early grad school, bought from the punk rock/new wave record store in Northampton.

http://powerpopcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/06/david-werner-1979-glam-rock-has-been.html

Here it is at Power Pop Criminals, unintentionally URL's as 'glam-rock-has-been', which is
harsh.

"She Sends Me Away," which they like, I did not. Too fey.

However, "Every New Romance" had great guitar chomps and semi-hooky bludgeon riff. "What's Right" was also a favorite. The Nick Gilder comparison is fair although I liked Werner's album more than anything of the LP which spawned "Hot Child In the City."

Ha ha, "similar artists" according to last.fm (swear I didn't see this when I wrote that previous post): Blue Ash, Nick Gilder, 20/20, Dwight Twilley, the Records, the Nerves.

Nick Gilder's "similar artists" are less trustworthy: The Raspberries, Bob Welch, Bay City Rollers, Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds, Orleans.

Dwight Twilley's: Dwight Twilley Band, Phil Seymour, Blue Ash, Pezband, the Raspberries, the Scruffs.

--

And right, "She Sent Me Away" was one of the tail-offs I was referring to at the end of the album. (Though "Melanie Cries" from the first side, which is even more fey, a lot more likeable. Just a much prettier melody, I guess -- And I'm not much of a Pet Sounds fan.)

So somewhere upthread I theorized that Moon Martin's "Bootleg Woman," having a copyright of 1970 and a songwriting credit of Fontaine Brown, was a cover version. But what I only just realized (and am smacking my head about) is that it is a cover version of a song by Moon's old band Southwind, of which Fontaine Brown was a member. Duh. It's on the What A Place To Land LP from 1971, which is more Southern rock and less new wave than Moon's solo albums, but possibly equally rockabilly. Also more "band"-oriented, soundwise. Still not sure if I like it more.

You caused me to review Moon Martin, so skipped Shots from a Cold Nightmare, the obvious, for Escape from Domination and his third, Street Fever.

With a Tommy Roe-like voice, he really doesn't work up much friction or sweat in his rock 'n' roll. Domination[i] was the best, the second half I think for "Rolene," "Hot House Baby" and the Fontaine Brown number. [i]Street Fever was supposed to, I think, be more of a rock band thing, self-produced, and its more lacking in oomph although the songs are written, I think, to be oomphier.

It's all rockabilly New Wave stuff, bordering on twee at times, and -- for the life of him -- he just seemed incapable of scraping the cement even a little. Which doesn't explain how Robert Palmer did such a better job with Martin's "Bad Case of Loving You."

Speaking of oomph-lacking, reviewed the Nervous Eaters' major label debut from 1980. And it's as uniformly New Wave sissy as I remember it, a watered down power pop with songs like "Out On a Date," "The Girl Next Door" and "She's Got the Kind of Love."

Totally mystifying, as this was a band from Boston which was known for material with titles like "Just Head," "I'm a Degenerate," and "She Smelled Like Fish" and "Get Stuffed," only the latter of which is on the major label debut.

All the others are on a CD reissue that came from Barcelona called Eaterville which is pretty great, veering between low-rent productions of tunes ripped straight off the Stones and the Stooges. Done in the early Seventies, it totally rocks and the high point is
"On the Avenue," great Jeff Beck/Yardbirds mania, "Beautiful Delilah" -- the Stones doing Chuck Berry, and the formentioned "I'm a Degenerate" in which the singer indicates he going to put a stiletto up someone's asshole. Half of these things totally unplayable on radio.

They did an EP Hot Steel and Acid[i] on Ace of Hearts (the Lyres label) in the mid-Eighties for the indie Boston scene and it tries to be as good as the Seventies stuff but isn't, only getting there with a remake of "On the Avenue." Second song is called "Nazi Concentration Camp Blues" which wins some kind of all time stupidity prize in titling.

Now I'm eager to hear [i]Eat This, something released a couple years ago said to be along the lines of the Eaterville comp/style.

Here's "Just Head" from '79, which was a single. "Get Stuffed" was the other side.

http://www.kbdrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/02-nervous-eaters-just-head-1979-usa.mp3

Nervous Eaters' Eat This, from 2003, is here.

http://digivinyltal.blogspot.com/2009/07/nervous-eaters-2002-eat-this.html

Four albums worth of records from 1972-this decade, summarized: first alb on Elektra -- worthless, Hot Steel & Acid on Boston indie, OK, Eaterville, stuff from 1972-79, released by Barcelona label -- great to really great, Eat This -- current follow-on by way of Barcelona again, really great, totally overlooked at the time except at the Boston Phoenix where it got a good review but hardly a rave.

Four songs are totally great sneering hard rock tunes with hooks and hot shit guitar action: 5-2-9, Over My Head, New Face and Poe Boy Blooz. The rest is never less than B- . If I'd had had access to it then, I'd have given it a smash review in the Voice. How did it go missing everywhere? Simple. It was from Barcelona and it was just rock 'n' roll.

"Look Wot U Dun" from it is not a Slade tune although the titling is crazee Slade.

Band now made up of one of the original guitarist/singer/writer, plus a member of the Fools and
an axeman from Willie Alexander's old Boom Boom Band. History of the Eaters says that in the early Seventies, half of 'em split to form the Fools, then were replaced by other guys who did the "Just Head" single, etc.

waaaay past expiration date on these guys but you know what? the rockets are so much better than I remember. saw em live a few times when I lived in Michigan and dismissed as not being sufficiently punk/new wave but hey. mainstream hard rock -- even during its late 70s/early 80s nadir -- has aged better than anybody could've expected. well at least better than I anticipated. some of the stage moves on display here are kinda silly but check out mccarty's guitar solo on "oh well" sweet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoLHfVo8B2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KOx_6SJ-1Y&feature=related

this record, oh man, i have been to the gonzo power trio mountaintop. jeezus. it's like speed metal 1970 style.

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20090212/170302214148.jpg

u.k. harvest copies sell for a bunch, but if you are lucky like me you might be able to find a u.s. stock copy around your town. i paid 8 dollars, but i would have paid 20 after listening to it in the record store i was at. the band is triad, by the way. album is spontaneous combustion. don't know if anyone here is a fan. not the greatest SONGS in the world, but who cares when you hear what these guys could do with a guitar, bass, and drums. i can't stop playing it. you know those great early wishbone ash guitar jams? okay, now play them twice as fast!

Actually, you've got that reversed. Spontaneous Combustion is the band, Triad is the album. They also had a self-titled debut, apparently, and both are available on a single CD.

oh wait yeah i got that mixed up. i'm hungover. too much thud last night.

so you've heard this album! i want to start a fan club.

have you heard it? where'd you go?

now playing:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2304/2222286636_0491be0fbd.jpg?v=0

waaaay past expiration date on these guys but you know what? the rockets are so much better than I remember

Yeah, they were discussed quite a bit further up, including the "Desire" vid which is always great. It all disappeared into the ILM pink box of abbreviation. Anyway, all six of their albums plus the first collection of demos on a Tortoise acetate -- which isn't very good, suprisingly, are ripped on the net. I'd gone back to listen to Love Transfusion, the official debut, and it is also still good, better than I thought at the time because it, as you indicated, came out when punk.New Wave styling was the rule.

Speaking of Detroit-type sounds, maybe xhuxk can tell me. Why were the New Christs and all those other Birdman spinoff bands in Australia supposed to be giving a new-Detroit sound? I ripped the New Christs first album, Divine Rites, really a collection of their singles, and couldn't get through all of it the other night before my eyes gave out on the couch. I'll try again.

But I do remember it having something to do with Dave Fricke reviews and college radio. I'm no longer hearing it if it was ever there. Rob Younger, doing a Doors thing, slightly artistic and bleak, not nearly as much iron in it as I'd thought. The Cult's Electric and follow-ups really greased it in sonicly in terms of style and power a couple years later.

The Suburban Studs Slam, a collection of everything they did is fairly entertaining. "I Hate School" was their signature tune but the band was very good at fast laughing, sneering and anger. Sex Pistols-ish with a little of the pub rock vibe thrown in, a decent sulphated version of "My Generation" fit for the Mods and Eddie & the Hot Rods fans. Some of the band members, particularly the guitar player, seem to be doing the old US trick of hard rock experienced guys updating their wardrobe and look for the style. Which probably puts them in with Slaughter & the Dogs and company.

And the Rubber City Rebels' lone record on Capitol in 1980 -- produced by Doug Fieger (?!), maybe -- still sounds good. Mixes their Akron stuff with a couple newer tunes which seemed to be directly influenced by the first Plimsouls album. Since they were playing in Hollywood with 'em, I guess that makes sense.

Haven't heard it yet but found a download link 30 seconds after reading your post.

Yeah, so did I. I'll let you know what I think thisafter or maybe tomorrow, depending on the NYE sked. Dull football game will ensure I turn off the sound and turn on the CD.

now playing. very cool. made for this thread. no fuss. no muss. just rockin' you.

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/3429/baby0bi.jpg

produced by norman petty, even.

do i need to listen to this decry album from 1985 or this cherry bombz album from 1987 before i put them out for sale? something tells me i might not need to. i barely remember decry. cherry bombz were nu-glam warriors, no? okay, maybe i'll try the decry.

I'd ignore the Cherry Bombz. Don't know about Decry.

I saw Cherry Bombz once! Dire. Throw it in the bin.

now playing:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s48598.jpg

wasn't sure if that would show up. only album by Growl. it rocks. on the zappa label DiscReet for some reason. 1974. seriously scuzzy black oak take on "hound dog". if you are gorge or chuck you need this if you don't have it already. same with the baby album, actually. would have loved to see a baby/growl/jukin' bone triple bill. all serious as a heart attack grunge bands.

Hah, skot. You got me listening to Baby. You could only write a song called "Born & Raised on Rock 'n' Roll" and carry it off unselfconsciously back then, God bless 'em, they were full of enthusiasm and great vim.

How did it go so wrong? Their second album was called "Where Did All the Money Go?"

Spontaneous Combustion giving me a Brit pastiche feeling, some early semi-prog, some hippie psyche feeling, one song sounds like early Who, and a lot of Captain Beyond except with a high-voiced singer. They were probably pre Captain Beyond, right?

yeah, the two spontaneous combustion albums are like 69/70. something like that. the only stuff i've heard from the first album is whatever is on youtube. seems more drifty psych. greg lake produced the first album for them.

it's a sound a find addictive. those rural prog guitar jams. its why i adore the first three or four wishbone ash albums so much. they could go in and out of the clouds, but still hit you hard when they wanted to.

turns out that tony brock the drummer from spontaneous combustion was in the babys later on. he was also in the early 70's hard rock band strider. i wanna hear their records.

i lied, of course. according to rateyourmusic both albums came out in 1972? now i'm confused. okay, 1972 then.

these are lists of some of the favorite albums of Japanese noise music legend Merzbow! he's got great taste!

* East of Eden East of Eden
* Van Der Graaf Generator H to He, Who Am the Only One
* Brian David's Every Which Way (same)
* Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick
* Spontaneous Combustion Triad
* King Crimson Earthbound
* Warm Dust Peace For Our Time
* Gentle Giant Acquiring the taste
* Can Landed
* Peter Green End of the Game

The Frost - Frost Music
The Fraternity of Man - s/t
Savoy Brown - Lion's Share
Man - Do You Like It Here Now
Roky Erickson - Don't Slander Me
Cromagnon - Elliot/Grasmere Connecticut Tribe
Godz - 2
Ten Years After - Live at Fillmore East
Butterfield Blues Band - East West
The Seeds - s/t

Man and East Of Eden are two other bands that mined the same ground as Spontaneous Combustion. i love that east of eden s/t album on harvest. merzbow and i have a lot in common.

Listened to the live disc of "Slade at the Beeb" earlier on - an Xmas gift. It slays, of course. Noddy seems to be struggling to get the audience to work with him, and the sleeve notes explain that a lot of them were pensioners left over from the (easy listening) Jimmy Young show.

I've been thinking of getting that with Xmas money. Saviy Brown's Lion's Share? That's the album SB were touring in support of when they made the Live in Central LP later released on Relix, an album that contains some of their most pulverizing live boogie licks. One of singer Dave Walker's best performances, as well as the rhythm section which was just on fire. Killing version of the Marcus-Hook Roll Band's "Shot In the Head," also on the studio plat.

Was Tsunami Bomb considered a good mall punk band?

Why were the New Christs and all those other Birdman spinoff bands in Australia supposed to be giving a new-Detroit sound?

Didn't it have something to do with this (from New Race's myspace page)?: "New Race was made up of ex-MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson,ex-Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and three former members of Radio Birdman (Rob Younger, Deniz Tek and Warwick Gilbert). They toured Australia once in 1981." Also, Tek himself was from Ann Arbor. So everybody assumed that Radio Birdman and the hundred bands that followed in their wake sounded like they came from Detroit. Which was not actually true. (New Christs were basically a powerpop band, as I recall. Had a 45 once. Oh wait, I also reviewed a reunion CD from a couple years back; and okay, I wasn't past throwing in a couple Detroit reference points):

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-03-02/music/music/1

Yeah, there was a good deal of chiming Brit invasion guitar in the album, along with the Doors thing sans keyboard, so powerpop kinda fits. I remember having a review copy of that Smog Veil release and passing on it after a few listens.

Btw, speaking of Aussies who cover the MC5 and Stooges (also the Cramps fwiw), that Grong Grong CD that Scott's been touting like crazy in these parts takes a couple listens, but sounds pretty wacky and crazed guitar-noise-wise on the way and eventually something resembling tunes sink in. Can definitely hear Flipper in the anvil-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea bass throb, but who they mostly remind me of (mainly wrongly, since I haven't heard the latter for ages) is their fellow marsupials from a few years later, Feedtime. Definitely more artsy Killdozey blues-gunk rock than hard rock though. Pick hit: "Grong Grong," their theme song.

grong grong!

that OTHER reissue i got of the kryptonics stuff starts out very underwhelming. like, the first 4 or 5 songs. so much so that i wasn't even gonna listen to the whole thing. which would have been a big mistake. the first incarnation of the band was kinda bad jangly mod garage stuff, but the later line-ups get rocking big time. much brawnier, gnarlier solos, etc. lotsa detroit love action. the liner notes are written by the main dude in the band and he said a big moment for him and others in australia was hearing "city slang" for the first time.

i've really enjoyed listening to feedtime this year, by the way. i didn't listen to them much way back when.

i need records by the australian X. i never see them though. there is a live one ebay for 15 bucks.

gorge you need to start a new thread! are you awake?

It's only 5:30 here in the City of Roses, Scott. I'm having a bag of microwave popcorn, some iced tea and
deciding what to burn to CD from my ill gotten gains.

but according to ilm it's january 1st!

we are on britisher time or something.

7:56 in Austin. About to crack open my first Stella, warm up some fettucini, and decide which Netflixed TV series to watch episodes from (State Of Play, Breaking Bad, or Veronica Mars).

Were Feedtime's albums reissued recently, Scott, or did you find used ones? I listened to Shovel a ton circa 1987, then reviewed their covers LP Cooper S in the Voice a year later, but inexplicably got rid of both as part of the great pigfuck purge a few years after. Surprised you've found their records easier to find than the Oz X's, whose X-Aspirations from 1979 has been reissued at least twice in the past decade -- in 2001 on Rocknroll Blitzkrieg/Now! (whatever that is) in the U.S., and in 2008 on Aztec Music down under. I'd say it's good not great, but you've inspired me to pull my copy back out.

Well, I just made the thread but can't find it at the top. Great stuff, I tell ya.

xp Uh...not Stella. Harpoon. (I don't have beer on draught at home, duh.)

Did it again. Here 'tis for the sake of the Britishes. ILM safety features, I guess.

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

i am drinking coffee and black & tans (made of guinness and bass).

i just saw shovel on vinyl for CHEAP and i feel stupid now for not picking it up even though i have a copy. it's pricey online. i don't think its on cd.

and yeah i had a used EP (that i liked but i sold it in the store) and a used shovel which i'm keeping cuz i like it. never heard the later album. the later one sells for cheap online.

okay, it's to the new thread i go!