A TIP OF THE HAT TO YOUR SPOUSE

I don't remember how I ended up there, but today I found myself on the blog of Miriam Linna, Kicksville 66. If you don't know the name, she's one half of Norton Records, one half of Kicks Magazine, which can only mean one thing, she's one half of Billy Miller and Miriam Linna, two of the most passionate rock n' roll fiends to have ever entered my sphere of cognition. If you've never read the now-defunct Kicks magazine (their first joint effort), any description that I can offer wouldn't be sufficient. (But, like most things I'm not sufficiently good at, I'll try anyways.)

It was a rather haphazardly laid out magazine, that was all about regular good ol' fashioned rock n' roll. By that I mean, they made no effort to present anything current, unless it was part of a lineage of rockers, you know, as in fifties real-thing rockers. It had word balloons here and there, all sorts of oddball in joke references in hand written captions that you wouldn't get unless you delved a little bit more into their world, a world in which Chan Romero was a household name, and Hasil Adkins was as authentic as Link Wray, Jerry Lee Lewis, or the Sonics. It was packed, every primitive square inch of it, and the writing, casual as it was, made it seem like you were shooting the shit with them over a beer. It was, and still is, my favorite music magazine ever, and I'm loath to admit that I only have one of my issues left. (It you want to see what the fuss is about, they have remaining copies of the last issue for sale here.)


Billy Miller and Miriam Linna's band, the A-Bones

So, that's why I'm a little giddy. One of my favorite rock n' roll writers has a blog that I didn't even know about until today. It's not a normal must-update-today type blog, it is, in her terms, "what life was like in NYC in the seventies, at least for one awkward kid from the boondocks" (the boondocks being Kent, Ohio). What makes it an interesting read, besides her writing, is that Linna was dialed in. Before moving to New York, she was pals with Peter Laughner (Rocket From the Tombs), and various pre-Pere Ubu members and pre-Dead Boys members. And, right after moving to New York, she was the drummer for the Cramps, for their first year of existence. She was the president of the Flaming Groovies fan club, saw the Stooges in '73, received two original still sealed Sonics LPs for her birthday from Lux Interior, and basically ran with a crowd that knew shit from shinola. It's like a scrapbook, with a lot of words and a lot of memories; a memoir in blog format. A five star time suck.



I haven't even touched on the record label, Norton Records (which is excellent), or the current band she's in (with Miller), the A-Bones. Another post perhaps. Here's some semi-related stuff: songs the A-Bones covered, Cramps influenced mixes, and a bunch of Miriam Linna/Billy Miller links at the bottom. Note: I couldn't find any mp3s of the A-Bones.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Songs the A-Bones cover:
The MC5 - One of the Guys mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - All Night mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Sentinals - The Bee mp3 at Beware of the Blog
16 more songs the A-Bones cover at Beware of the Blog
Norton Records artists:
Hasil Adkins - She Said mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Hentchmen - All About Girls at Ghetto Recorders
Post Linna Cramps (she never recorded with them):
The Cramps - I Was A Teenage Werewolf mp3 at Zdanz
The Cramps - Tear It Up mp3 at Lost Turntable
The Cramps - Fever mp3 at Zdanz
The Cramps - I Can't Hardly Stand It mp3 at Zdanz
Lux & Ivy's Favorites - 11 full length mixes (in zips) at Beware of the Blog Cramps influences, many of them covered.
Read:
Kicksville 66 - the blog of Miriam Linna
Miriam Linna at Wikipedia
Norton Records
Nortonville - Norton Records blog
Interview with Billy Miller and Miriam Linna about their involvement with Hasil Adkins
Added 2/1/11:
Lengthy interview with Billy Miller at Turn It Down This is excellent: Kicks, Norton Records, Esquerita and Hasil Adkins.