THE SLASH-ERA LINE-UP. DON'T ARGUE.

My car stereo took a shit about a week ago so I've been listening to portable FM radio when I'm driving. The reception pretty much sucks, but the Mexican radio stations, due to not being subject to FCC regulations, came in loud and clear. It reminded be of the old days when XPRS, a station in Mexico, broadcasted Huggy Boy's show, loaded with r&b and oldies with a decent chunk of lowrider type oldies. The station could reach most of the west coast so it was great for road trips. Huggy Boy was on XPRS from 1981 to 1982. Right about the time the Blasters came out with "Border Radio". So, when I was listening to one of the Mexican stations, my thoughts went to songs about Mexican radio stations, "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo, "Heard it on the X" by ZZ Top and "Border Radio". Blasters win this one. I saw them several times live and one show was one of my most memorable musical experiences ever, it still kinda gives me chills. So, there's the Wall of Voodoo and ZZ Top songs down there in case you're curious.  Tonight, though, belongs to the Blasters.

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Listen:
The Blasters - Border Radio (streaming) at YouTube
Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio (streaming) at YouTube
ZZ Top - Heard it on the X (streaming) at YouTube
The Blasters - Marie Marie mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
The Blasters - American Music mp3 at Adios Lounge OG Rollin' Rock version
The Blasters - Red Rose mp3 at AM Then FM
The Blasters - Dark Night mp3 at Tumblr
Video:
The Blasters - I'm Shakin' (live) at YouTube

WHEN 1980 WAS "LATE"

Bob Biggs, the guy behind Slash Records, died a few days ago. He came aboard in the waning days of Slash, the magazine, and funded Slash Records, taking over that avenue when the magazine folded. I hadn't reviewed the Slash discography in a while and was surprised when I took a look. Everybody into punk rock will remember Slash as the label that put out the seminal first LPs by the Germs and X. I had forgotten that the Slash discography also included the first Dream Syndicate LP, the first Gun Club LP, Rank and File, the Blasters and Los Lobos. Each of those bands was significant, in a big way. The label also had the Violent Femmes, L7, and Faith No More. Reading further I realized that I had probably never read through the entire discography. If I had I would have definitely remembered that Slash put out two Burning Spear LPs. That I did not know.

Here's just three songs. There are more by the other bands mentioned above elsewhere on other posts here. Just use the search box (at the top left above the mast head) or the tags to the right. I'm not going to cut and paste links all night.

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

Listen:
The Gun Club - Sex Beat mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Blasters - Marie Marie mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
The Dream Syndicate - Halloween mp3 at Quit Mumbling

Visit:

Slash Records discography at Discogs

TAILGATING IN THE LIVING ROOM

The other night after listening to some of the Radiohead/Thom Yorke stuff, I decided to watch the ball game. I came to a startling discovery. I cannot go from Radiohead to baseball in one step. That was a close one. Shit, the whole season could have been tainted. So I went to some good ol' American rock 'n' roll for the warm up. Worked like a charm. Peanut shells all over the place.

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

Listen:
The Blasters - Marie Marie mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
The Blasters - American Music mp3 at Adios Lounge OG Rollin' Rock version
The Blasters - Red Rose mp3 at AM Then FM
The Blasters - Dark Night mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
The Blasters - I'm Shakin' (live) at YouTube

SHIT WEEK STRIKES AGAIN

By now you know the Queen of Soul is dead. Fuck. There's no replacing her. Gone. That's enough to make it Shit Week. To make matters worse a friend of mine passed away two days ago. Suicide. He was the nicest guy, around the scene for decades. A music freak, mechanically minded, artistic, and selfless, big in the local chapter of Amnesty International. The type of guy that you'd see at shows, or at a taco stand, random places over the years and just assume that everything's ducky. I never saw him angry, sad, or distraught. Then out of nowhere, gone. That one I cannot wrap my head around. He wasn't irrational, or a substance abuser (even when many of us were), always level headed. It just doesn't seem possible. Needless to say I've been a bit distracted the last day and a half.

Tim, my friend that passed, was a roots guy. One band I associate him with is the Blasters. So here's some Blasters. If you need an Aretha fix, check this post from a couple days ago.

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

Listen: 
The Blasters - Red Rose mp3 at AM Then FM
The Blasters - Dark Night mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Blasters - Marie Marie (streaming) at YouTube OG Rollin' Rock version

THEME THROWDOWN

You know what I was thinking about the other night? I'll tell you. I was wondering what makes those chest beating patriots tick. Not the genuinely patriotic, more power to them. I'm talking about those chanting mobs. You know, the "U.S.A.! U.S.A!" loudmouths. They're imbedded everywhere. You go to a parade, they're there. Fireworks show, there. At the Olympics, the race track, everywhere. I am not down with that. The other night a guy was yelling "America!!!" Brilliant (thought the cynic), you're really giving ol' Thomas Paine a run for his money.

If there is one thing that would ever come close to making me feel outwardly patriotic, it would be American music. We kick ass at that. Here's three songs with American music as subject matter. You can guess which I prefer.

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Listen:
The Blasters - American Music mp3 at DK Presents
The Violent Femmes - American Music mp3 at High Def Stuff (?)
The Fleshtones - American Beat mp3 at ROIR

FUCK, WHAT A LABEL

If ol' Ronny Weiser isn't good at tooting his own horn, I'll toot the damn thing for him. First a little background. Weiser is the founder of Rollin' Rock Records, specializing in rockabilly records. In the late seventies, because rockabilly was big in the UK, interest kind of seeped into the record collections of the punk rock crowd, including Southern California. That's where Rollin' Rock, a Los Angeles based label comes in. Former rocker Ray Campi, then a moonlighting school teacher, was already getting a lot of attention in the UK in the late seventies, for his Rollin' Rock 45 "Rockin' at the Ritz". Then, about 1979-80, British rockabilly band Levi and the Rockats appeared in L.A., for what was an extended stay (they may have moved there, I forget). Though well intended, I gotta say, they always reminded me of a rockabilly version of what boy bands are now, pretty boy types; maybe because gals seemed particularly interested. Those unconvinced, like myself, would find themselves gravitating towards Rollin' Rock, which was slowly gaining appreciation from a whole new crowd. They had a few old rockers, like Campi, Mac Curtis and others, a few a little further out there (the long hair and bearded Johnny Legend), and some other younger out crowders just cutting their teeth. A Rollin' Rock compilation from the mid-seventies included three songs by Billy Zoom, who was in X around the time all of this backtracking was happening. In 1980, The Blasters debut LP was released, and all hell broke loose. Okay, maybe just some of hell.

Recorded a year or so before their Slash debut, which shares three of the same songs, there were only 2,000 copies of the Blasters Rollin' Rock LP pressed. It sold out quick. Adios Lounge just posted a handful of songs from the original LP, along with a great long and detailed thing about that particular Rollin' Rock LP. That's what prompted this mess, and had me digging for the past day and a half.

 

Weiser moved to the U.S. in 1965 to go to college. Bummed that authentic early rockabilly, and rhythm and blues weren't quite the rage he thought they'd be, he networked, meeting like minded nuts, and starting The Hollywood Rock 'n' Roll fan Club in 1969. The club needed a fanzine, so that's how Rollin' Rock began. In 1971 he started Rollin' Rock, the label, recording bands in his home (there are records with telephones ringing and dogs barking in the background). Crude, but it worked. What followed became a rocker's safe haven, for decades. His is a fascinating story. Check the links below for more on how things coalesced. These were true believers, an island surrounded by a sea of Marshall stack miscreants.

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

Listen:
The Blasters - American Music (Rollin' Rock version) mp3 at The Adios Lounge 1980
The Blasters - Crazy Baby (Rollin' Rock) mp3 at The Adios Lounge 1980
The Blasters - Barefoot Rock (Rollin' Rock) mp3 at The Adios Lounge 1980
The Blasters - Three more songs at The Adios Lounge all from 1980
Billy Zoom Band - Bad Boy mp3 at BillyZoom.com Mid-70's
Billy Zoom Band - Say When mp3 at BillyZoom.com Mid-70's
Billy Zoom Band - Crazy Crazy Lovin' mp3 at BillyZoom.com Mid-70's
Ray Campi and the Rockabilly Rebels - Rockabilly Man mp3 at Music Pop Hits (?) 1980
Ray Boy (Campi) and Jimmy Lee - I Need Love mp3 at Haurie.free.fr/softs 1980
Ray Campi - Rockin' at the Ritz mp3 at Haurie.free.fr/softs 1977
Visit:
Rockin' Ronny Weiser and Rollin' Rock Records at Rockin' Records Translated from French (by Google bot)
The Vinyl File: The Blasters – American Music at The Adios Lounge
Ronny Weiser Interviewed by his son at Rock In Roll (?) Very short, just the facts.
Ronny Weiser interview at The Rockabilly Hall of Fame 2001
Ronny Weiser interview at The Rockabilly Hall of Fame 1999

ATTENTION POSEURS

Have you heard this kid Willy Moon? Oh brother is right. It got me thinking about how things get watered down, and how some music really should require some degree of authenticity. If you borrow heavily from a particular genre or era, you really ought to think twice before you try to fuck with the formula. This Moon kid reminds me of hearing Blink 182 way back when and thinking, some people think this is punk rock? There's just no fucking pedigree, real or imagined. It's just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
 

A few posts after the Moon one, I ran into one about Nick Waterhouse, While it didn't exactly cheer me up, it did lessen the "Oh god, this shit is weak" blow. Waterhouse does a respectable job, but he doesn't have me bouncing off the walls. Not like Nick Curran did. (The video below is required viewing.)

By now my early rhythm and blues/rock 'n' roll ADD is kicking in. I started thinking about others that have tried to tackle this sort of music, early rock 'n' roll with horns and/or piano, and who has, not only the pipes, but the authenticity to pull it off. Here's a few that gave it a shot, with varying degrees of success.

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

Listen: 
The Blasters - Marie Marie mp3 at Full Songs (?) 
The Blasters - Red Rose mp3 at AM Then FM 
The Blasters - Dark Night mp3 at OST For Me 
Nick Curran and the Lowlifes - Kill My Baby mp3 at KEXP
Nick Curran and the Lowlifes - Reform School Girl mp3 at Austin Town Hall
JD McPherson - Wolf Teeth mp3 (via Box.com) at The Slow Drag
JD McPherson - Carol (Live in studio) mp3 at MOKB
JD McPherson - Scratching Circles mp3 at Cortesia de la Casa
Eli "Paperboy" Reed - Ace of Spades mp3 at Ryan's Smashing Life
Eli "Paperboy" Reed - Explosion mp3 at Dr. Mooney's 115th Dream
Nick Waterhouse - Some Place mp3 at Augasm
Nick Waterhouse - (If) You Want Trouble mp3 at Augasm

TO THE BLASTERS

What other band could share a bill with X on one night and Carl Perkins and Willie Dixon on another? It might happen these days at one of those festivals with wildly varied bills, but in 1982? You pea greens might not see what the fuss was about, and the video below, good as it is, doesn't do the Blasters justice. I saw the Blasters often back then and I'm here to tell you that they were one of the best live bands I've seen, before or since, big venue or small. They fucking brought it.

I remember one show in particular, like it happened last week. I'd been up front for the first part of the set,  and decided to move to the rear of the hall, a small club, to drink it all in. I turned around. The communal joy in the room just hit me smack dab in the face. I was literally almost breathless, getting chills and all of that. I was lucky enough to have that moment, and straight enough to recognize how special it was. It was all rock 'n' roll. One hundred percent good old fashioned rock 'n' roll.

Here's what I could find floating around online. Very few mp3s out there, damn shame that is. I highly recommend you check the video above, and the post at Beware of the Blog, Songs We Taught the Blasters [sic], a collection of original versions of songs the Blasters have covered.

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

Listen:
The Blasters - Marie Marie mp3 at Full Songs (?) 
The Blasters - Red Rose mp3 at AM Then FM 
The Blasters - Dark Night mp3 at OST For Me 
The Blasters - Marie, Marie (streaming) at YouTube Original Rollin' Rock version 
Covered by the Blasters

Little Junior Parker - Barefoot Rock mp3 at Beware of the Blog

The Rockin' R's - Crazy Baby mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Little Willie John - I'm Shakin' mp3at Beware of the Blog

Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Big Joe Turner - Roll 'em Pete mp3  at Beware of the Blog

Lee Allen - Walkin' With Mr. Lee mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Staple Singers - Samson & Delilah mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Don & Dewey - Justine mp3  at Beware of the Blog

The whole collection:

Songs We Taught the Blasters [sic] at Beware of the Blog

JUST THE SAX, MA'AM

Maybe it's happened to you at one time or another. You have a Forrest Gump type moment, where you find yourself in the presence of some sort of celebrity, or someone significant for some other reason, and just kind of take a step back, and try to wrap your head around the situation. It's happened to me an a number of occasions over the years and I've always prided myself on keeping my cool, like it's no big deal. There was one time though, that I became a gushing fan boy.

A friend of mine was one of the founding members of the early Paladins, when they were a four piece. In the late eighties, when he was no longer in the band, but still tight with them, he took me to a show they were playing, opening for the Blasters. After the show, he took me backstage. Now, I was really familiar with the Blasters and had seen them on multiple occasions. All was going well, "Hi, enjoyed the show Phil,..." and so on. Then, lurking in the corner I spotted Lee Allen. The Lee Allen; the sax player all over early rock n' roll and New Orleans R&B classics. I was in the presence of royalty. And I was stinking drunk. I don't remember much of the conversation, but it was something like, "Man, I can't believe it! You're the man! You're on Little Richard's stuff,.. Fats Domino! All that New Orleans stuff!" He just took it all in. I've tried to recall more of the event over the years, and he was either friendly, or just plain tolerant. One thing I do remember is that he didn't try to get away, nor did he make me feel like the knucklehead I probably was.

If you're wondering why a sax player would make someone a stammering goon, check out the profiles below. In a nutshell, he was in the New Orleans session band. Much like the Wrecking Crew or the house bands at Sun, Stax, or Motown, the group that he played with (which often included Allen Toussaint and legendary drummer Earl Palmer) had a distinct sound. So much so that acts were flown to New Orleans to record with them. It also bears mentioning that the brand of New Orleans R&B they laid down was part of what morphed with traditional Jamaican music to become ska. Yeah, royalty.

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

Listen:
Lee Allen - Walkin' With Mr. Lee mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Lee Allen solos:
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at SMU
Little Richard - Lucille mp3 at On the Spur of the Moment
Professor Longhair - In the Night mp3 at DJ Perro
Fats Domino - I'm In Love Again mp3 at Bill Capes
Shirley & Lee - Feel So Good mp3 at Rocky-52.net
LP download:
Lee Allen - Down on Bourbon St at Be Bop Wino This LP includes all of his "Walking With Mr. Lee" album and a handful of singles. (Alternate link with high resolution scan of cover and liner notes here.)
Video:
The Blasters with Lee Allen - So Long Baby Goodbye at YouTube
The Blasters with Lee Allen - I'm Shakin' at YouTube
Visit:
Lee Allen - Profile at Offbeat
Lee Allen - Bio & partial discography at Black Cat Rockabilly
Lee Allen - Profile & interview at Taming the Saxophone

BILLY ZOOM, BEYOND X AND BACK

As a guitarist, singer, producer, and general fiend, Billy Zoom is a 100% unadulterated rock n' roll purist. I'm not just talking about X. He had his head on straight before X (and since). I'll give you an idea what runs through his veins. What were you listening to before punk rock? Bowie? Stooges? New York Dolls? Not Billy Zoom. He would have none of that. As he said in 1998, "I think everything between Woodstock and the Ramones is an embarrassment and needs to be erased from the history books. I hated all of that stuff." Before punk rock had even entered the picture, he'd already played with soul legends Etta James, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Johnny Taylor, and rockabilly first stringers Gene Vincent, Ray Campi, and Mac Curtis. He had his own bands too, notably his rockabilly band that had a few cuts on Rollin' Rock Records in the mid-seventies, the Billy Zoom Band. And this wasn't some sort of latching on to a trend type of thing. Rockabilly was all but dead in the mid-seventies, and Zoom was young. The fact that he landed on Rollin' Rock says a lot about the respect he commanded in the small L.A. rockabilly camp.

Everyone thinks of Zoom as the guy with the silver Gretsch, standing with legs spread, apart, on the left of the stage; as he did night after night with X. But he's no punk rocker. He is a rocker, as in old school, unabashed. Not one for trends in music or anything else. There's a telling scene in the X biopic, The Unheard Music. As it shows Top Jimmy, a friend of the band, giving John Doe a tattoo, Zoom is asked if he's going to get a tattoo. He replies "No." When asked why he's not, he answers "Don't want one." Period. No elaboration is offered or needed.

We all know about the spot-on guitar Zoom provided for X. He made it look easy. That was partly intentional, as he tells it, a direct result of having to witness one of the Doobie Brothers play a simple solo with an agonizing guitar face,..."So as a joke, I would play something difficult and just smile and not look at the guitar and act like it was nothing." Dave Alvin, who took his place in X, said it was no easy task learning his parts. "How Billy Zoom put his parts together was amazing. For a three-piece band, his orchestration on guitar was really tremendous. They were almost mathematically perfect arrangements."

Today's whole Zoom-fest started with a hunt for his Rollin' Rock cuts. I'd lost the long out of print Rollin' Rock compilation that they appeared on, and hadn't heard them in at least twenty years. In the time that's elapsed, my tastes in rockabilly have become more refined, and I wondered, if I ever found them again, if I would still think they were as good as I remembered. I found them today, right under my nose, on Zoom's site. And they are as good as any rockabilly I've ever heard, vintage or not. And not just the Rollin' Rock stuff. There's a cover of Ray Charles' "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," recorded live in 1981 (at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go), that sounds like Eddie Cochran back from the dead. A few oddities on his site as well: X doing a Budweiser spot (utilizing the same backing tracks used for their cover of "Wild Thing"). And an X "blooper" (as he calls it), where his guitar is out of whack from the git-go, before the whole song just falls apart. (Exene, the only non-musician of the band, sounding a little peeved, "Whose fault was it? Whose fault was it?!") Following that, theme music for Gearhead TV (all instruments and production by Zoom); and a great, no, outstanding profile/interview, by Buddy Seigal (AKA Buddy Blue). There's more mp3s and radio interviews, so dig in!

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

Listen:
Billy Zoom Band - Bad Boy mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom Band - Say When mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom Band - Crazy Crazy Lovin' mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom Band - Hallelujah, I Love Her So (live, 1981) mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom Band - Big Legged Woman (live, 1976) mp3 at BillyZoom.com
X - Budweiser commercial "Bud Thing" mp3 at BillyZoom.com
X - In This House That I Call Home (live, blooper) mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom - Gearhead TV Theme mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom - Gearhead Tenor Sax Theme mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Billy Zoom - Gearhead Alto Theme mp3 at BillyZoom.com
Watch:
X- Beyond and Back (live, with snippet of Billy Zoom interview) video at YouTube
X - Los Angeles (live) video at YouTube
X - Live, David Letterman appearance, video at YouTube
Billy Zoom with the Blasters - Long White Cadillac/Border Radio (live in Finland, 1987) video at YouTube
Read:
Billy Zoom interviewed by Buddy Seigal (Buddy Blue) from the OC Weely, 1998
Billy Zoom at Wikipedia
Billy Zoom's Official site

ROCK OUT WITH DEBBIE D.

Yeah, you're wondering who Debbie D is, right? She's been posting on WFMU's Beware of the Blog, and after looking through her posts, you'll find yourself thanking her. She was the one who posted over four dozen killer mp3's under the title "Songs the Wobbles Taught Us", which was the original versions of songs the Wobbles have covered. Turns out she's done a series of these, most recently "Songs We Taught The Blasters", 33 songs that the Blasters have covered. You can guess what's on that post. Everything from Little Willie John and the Staple Singers to Don & Dewey and the original version of California Sun (by Joe Jones, not the Rivieras...who knew?!). She also did a "Songs We Taught the Fall", which is eclectic as all get-out. The Sonics (aka Godhead), the Monks, the Saints, Lee Perry, Leadbelly, Merle Haggard, Dean Martin, Beefheart...you get the idea. (Which, of course means that if I were getting tanked at a record party, I'd rather have Mark E. Smith spinning than one of the Alvins. Though Phil or Dave could take over during a pee break, no problem.)

When you add similar posts featuring songs that the Mummies, Untamed Youth and the Gories have covered, you're pushing 120 awesome mp3s, even if you discount the few "don't need thats". Granted it takes a total freak to dig the range of music on these posts, but if your tastes are anything like mine, you're wasting time reading this, just go there and start clicking!

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

A sampling of some of the posts:

Little Junior Parker - Barefoot Rock mp3

The Rockin' R's - Crazy Baby mp3

Little Willie John - I'm Shakin' mp3

Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3

Big Joe Turner - Roll 'em Pete mp3

Lee Allen - Walkin' With Mr. Lee mp3

Staple Singers - Samson & Delilah mp3

Don & Dewey - Justine mp3

Joe Jones - California Sun mp3

Gene Vincent - Rollin' Danny mp3

The Sonics - Strychnine mp3

Hank Mizell - Jungle Rock mp3

The Saints - This Perfect Day mp3

The Scotsmen - Beer Bust Blues mp3

Muddy Waters - I Just Want To Make Love to You mp3

Rolling Stones - I'd Much Rather Be With the Boys mp3

The Monks - Oh, How to Do Now mp3

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: All of Debbie's posts at WFMU's Beware of the Blog