Saturday, June 20, 2009

ANOTHER HUMDINGER FROM DAPTONE HQ


A laid back Afro-funk vibe, perfect for a summer evening BBQ mix, on one of those after beach sunburn-nursing nights. The Budos Band is a horn heavy twelve-piece, made up of different Daptone band members. Can you dig the Budos beat? I know that you can....
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

THE ONLY CARD I NEED


Ever wonder what "Ace of Spades" would sound like as a full-on funky soul send-up replete with screams, breaks and horns? Dig it, this one's a keeper!
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If you're a little skeptical about how it translates, you're not alone. But, unless you know the original well...no, even if you know the original well, it might not hit you until you hear Lemmy's future epitaph, "That's the way I like it, I don't want to live forever!" It works, primarily because Reed has the pipes and the soul sensibility to interpret it remarkably well. Now, you wanna feel old? The original (which should be a staple in the collection of everybody over 40) came out in 1977, 32 years ago. Reed is 23. Yeah, uh-huh, his parents probably hadn't even met...
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Friday, May 29, 2009

A KING KHAN PRIMER: DUDE'S A NUT


I don't know what to make of King Khan and I don't have to. All I need to know is his batting average, in terms of how often I dig a random download of his. That would be a long winded way of saying he's pretty much batting a thousand. A little suspect, I would agree (so don't bother saying it). But, I have to add that I picked up a used CD of his, and it's pretty damn good, beginning to end. Dare I say it, but I haven't heard a anything he's done that I don't like. Not bad for a Canadian (I'm kidding, maple leafers!).
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So what's he sound like? Jeez, let's see, a little garage, a little psych, a lot of rock n' roll, a little bit o' horns, some tamborine and farfisa, and an ounce of ballad. Oh, and not entirely retro. Confused? You don't have to know what to make of him either. Just dig the vastly under-rated boss sounds of the guy with the Bollywood looks and the Pabst beer gut.
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Sunday, May 17, 2009

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 ~
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Sunday, May 10, 2009

THIS WOMAN IS A SAINT


That's my Mom. I can't even start to list the reasons why she was a saint, but trust me on this one. She had five kids in five years and anyway you add it up, that's non-stop diapers for a long-ass time. Never mind five sack lunches a day, the grocery shopping, the school clothes shopping, the PTA meetings, the laundry, the swimming lessons, the housework, the Christmas shopping, the enchiladas done until they were just crispy around the edges and the sloppy joes made with onion soup mix. After we hit our mid-late teens, my Pop split and she handled the rebel years of her kids solo, with grace and acceptance. That's just the beginning. (If I continued, we'd be here all night.) She was, and is, the coolest Mom I have ever met.
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It's Mother's Day, and although she would have preferred Nat King Cole, Stan Kenton or Gene Krupa, I'm sure she would pound the minute steaks for dinner to the beat of "Mother Popcorn" by the GFOS James Brown.
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(Thank you Boogie Woogie Flu for posting it.)
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Saturday, May 2, 2009

SERENDIPITOUS SCORING


[NOTE: After testing the mp3 links in this post, I realized that the the hosting site Pogo A Go-Go has disabled direct links, which is his perogative. Rest assured though, all of the tunes can be found and downloaded at his site: Pogo A Go-Go, with links to specific posts below. In other words, I'll be damned if I'm going to delete this post after going through the hassle of writing it...]
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Every once in a while, in need of something to post, I'll start browsing blogs that I haven't been to in a while and find a few mp3s that scream "download me now you hack, or you'll forget where you saw me!" Today's screaming mp3s come from Pogo A Go-Go. There's plenty to devour there, and some, well, some of that screaming variety. Case in point: "A Different Story", by the Subway Sect. The Subway Sect were contemporaries of the Sex Pistols (they were in the early punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue for cryin' out loud!) and that whole first wave of UK punk, but were already leaning toward a post-punk kinda "I'll let those guys bang out the chords, I'm a little smarter than that..." type of sound. Despite the fact that they may have thought themselves above three chord simpletons, they came and went after only two proper 45s (a comp of stuff came out later).
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Fil, the host of Pogo A Go-Go, demonstrating that he's clearly got his head on straight, is currently ranting about some really messed up venture called "The Rock n' Roll Experience." It's some really fucked up hoity-toity thing where you can pay a few thousand dollars and go to Hawaii to jam (and play golf) with "rock legends" like Gerald Casale (Devo), Earl Slick (one time guitarist for Bowie), Al Jardine (the second lamest Beach Boy, after Mike Love) and Glen fucking Matlock (yeah, a former Sex Pistol). Oh yeah, there's also Clem Burke (the drummer from Blondie) and, it pains me to even mention it, Wayne Kramer (from the MC5). Get out your sticks kids, it's definitely time to draw the line. (Remember the scene in Animal House when John Belushi, as Bluto, says "...Neidermeyer? Dead!!"? It's kinda like that...)
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Showing his kindred soul side, Fil writes:
"Dearest Friends, this is a travesty. This is not rock 'n' roll. This is balding, fiftysomething, system analysts with their remaining strands of hair scraped behind their heads into dork handles. This is Euro trustafarian brats decked out in Bench and Von Dutch. This is the annoying, botox-injected fucker who cut me off today in his Porsche Boxter. This is whore meets john." Sting like a bee!
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Besides Subway Sect's cut, he's also posted "The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle" which has always been credited to the Sex Pistols, but was actually the music of Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, with all of the people auditioning to be Johnny Rotten's replacement trading vocals (including the wonderful stylings of Edward "Who Killed Bambi" Tudor-Pole, who was chosen to be Rotten's successor). And, to take us back to a time before trustafarians, he's also posted Chuck "I see see London, I see France" Berry's "Johnny B. Goode".
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Proving he's not a one trick pony, Fil's previous post featured five vintage ska tunes, including Daddy Livingstone's "Rudy, A Message To You" (covered during the Two-Tone era by the Specials). And an earlier post has Mudhoney's "This Gift". A whole bagful of stuff over there; this is just the few I found in a matter of minutes.
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Subway Sect - A Different Story mp3 found on this post
Sex Pistols - The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle mp3 found on this post
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode mp3 found on this post
Daddy Livingstone - Rudy, A Message To You mp3 found on this post
Mudhoney - This Gift mp3 found on this post
All found on Pogo A Go-Go
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Saturday, March 28, 2009

INFECTIOUS GROOVE TIME


Everyone has a song that's like a security blanket; one that is comforting to know is around when you need it. Althia & Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking" is one of those songs for me. I've dragged it out of the 45 closet on a regular basis for years. And it never fails to put a smile on my face, no matter how shitty I feel.

It was a hit in 78 in the UK, one of scores of reggae one-hit-wonders. Everything about it rubs cheerfulness; the groove of it, the lyrics, the light Jamaican patois. I can't put my finger on it, but if it does one ounce of good to you that it does to me, it's worthy of a download.

As much as I like the song, I was a little hesitant to watch a video, for fear that it might wreck the long-running vibe it held for me. Thankfully, that fear was ungrounded. The video clip from Top of the Pops (on YouTube) is downright adorable.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:.
Althia & Donna - Uptown Top Ranking mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Rhythm source:
Alton Ellis - I'm Still In Love With You mp3 at Stop Okay Go
Video:
Althia & Donna - Uptown Top Ranking video at YouTube
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Thursday, February 5, 2009

RAISE A GLASS OF STRYCHNINE


I'm in my boss' office. He's on the phone with his son. "You're going to band practice? Be home by eight..." (I'm thinking, if he is home by eight, he has no career in rock n' roll.) I ask my boss, "What kind of music does he play?" "Just 'klang, klang klang!!!' " he says, making wild motions with his arms that looked like a combination of a good guitar thrashing, and what appeared to be Keith Moon destroying a drum kit. (Hmmm, I think, maybe his son is cut out for it.) I walk out of his office and into a coworker. He says "the singer of the Cramps died" Within about a half second, I was dipped in shit.
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Lux Interior wasn't just the singer of the Cramps, nor was squeeze Ivy just the guitarist. Equal parts archeoligists and interpreters, they did our dirty work. Digging through dusty records in thrift stores and watching late night creep shows; distilling everything through a four piece filter and into young impressionable faces. And the death of Lux, most assuredly, means the end of the Cramps.

Huge loss. They were everything that the fat cats hate: Elvis, from the waist down. They reminded us that there was a part of rock n' roll that could, and should, discourage parental affinity. And they taught us. They taught us about about the true common vein in all savage rock n' roll, rockabilly or garage record. Not just the sound, or the song, but that certain thing; the old fart repellent. They taught us Ricky Nelson could be cool, Johnny Burnette could be really wild, Little Willie John could be creepy, and that "Surfin' Bird" was damn close to rock n' roll Dada.
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They were B-culture geeks; trash historians cum sex machines. Creedence with balls. They were the "klang, klang, klang!" that my boss heard. They were the unsavory that we so savor. Long live the Cramps. Long live rock n' roll.
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

R.I.P. RON ASHETON


I never thought I'd see the day when I'd hear four Stooges songs on the radio in one day. I was at work today, and out of nowhere "I Wanna Be Your Dog" comes on. I'm instantly transported, and in an instant, all sorts of memories associated with the first two Stooges albums start to get tangled in my already vunerable should-be-plugging-away work mindset. (But not before turning it up.) Then the DJ comes on and says that Ron Asheton, the Stooges guitarist, had died....Fu-huck.
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It was bound to happen. People get older, they die. In all sorts of occupations. People post tributes and mp3s on their blogs, and links get emailed to rowdy old friends. One after another, you've seen them pass. But now, in this, the era of dying under-appreciated rock legends, it's starting to get personal.
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My friend Ed turned me on to the Stooges, in 1977. He read Creem magazine way more religliously than I did, and took their recommendations seriously. He had been on the lookout for Stooges albums, then out of print, long before punk rock increased their archetype equity. I'm not certain, but I think my first Stooges album was from his stash.
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Without going into more detail than I should, suffice it to say that the first two Stooges album have a lot of memories tied to them, thirty years of memories. "Turn it down!" memories, hangover memories, getting laid memories, DJing memories, sitting-around-with-other-guys-who-can't-get-dates memories...you get the picture. And it is Ron Asheton's buzz saw/wah-wah/feedback-bleeding guitar, not Iggy Pop's vocals, that dominate those Stooges inspired flashbacks-gone-wild.

For it is written, in the Book of Bacon Street, Clapton most assuredly is not God. But Ron Asheton is close. (He is in this house.) As rock guitar goes, he's got very few peers. There have been great guitarists in every type of rock n' roll, and most of them are technically better than Asheton. But very few were radically original players, and fewer still capable of turning volume knobs from the grooves of a record. (That much I know, as the owner of once prized JBL speakers that were blown beyond repair from one such Stooges spin.) Not even other noted early punk influences Johnny Ramone, Johnny Thunders or Wayne Kramer, had the punch of Asheton on those first two Stooges LPs. Lest the reader imagine him as a one dimensional three chord wonder: he was a jazz freak. His MySpace page lists Sun Ra in his top 7, and Thurston Moore, a rather noisy guitarist in his own rite, described the Stooges thusly: "Their music was total high-energy blues, with the contemporary freakout of Jimi Hendrix and the free-jazz spirit of John Coltrane." As the kids say, true dat.
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While shirtless showboat Iggy Pop claimed much of the spotlight, later claiming creation of the Stooges sound, ask any Stooge fiend. Pop's decline started post-Funhouse, coinciding with the courtship of coattail anchor #1, David Bowie. Raw Power, the third Stooges LP (laden with Bowie-stink), while more sophisticated, lacked the intensity and, er, raw power of the first two albums. Within a few years, Pop would be getting cozy with Dinah Shore and resting on laurels that weren't rightfully his. Meanwhile Asheton soldiered on, in a succession of bands, never straying far from his Ann Arbor roots. (He actually passed away in the house he grew up in.) Why, then, isn't he better known? One word: humility. He was a regular guy, without the look-at-me ego required for rock stardom. A telling quote from after the first Stooges reunion, a few years ago:
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“When I was a young guy coming up, going to the Grande Ballroom every weekend, I got to see my heroes play. Jeff Beck, the Who, everyone. I didn’t want to be a fanboy, but I’d stand there and wait — ‘I just want to say hi, this was great.’ I saw them walk by me with blank stares like they were zombies. I said to myself, you know, if I ever make it, I’ve got at least one minute for everybody who wants to say something. So I talk to people, and that’s what’s exciting now.” Dude was a saint.
Check out the mp3s below, particularly the full version of No Fun, all 6:48 gloriously noisy minutes. If there is any doubt who was the foundation of the Stooges sound, and an archetype for all future punk rock guitar players, after three minutes you should start to see what I've been getting at. If you've got an open mind, and feel brave, there's a mash-up of the Stooges and Salt-N-Pepa that, with Iggy Pop mixed out, shows Asheton's guitar capable of making even a couple hip hop divas rock.
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The Stooges - No Fun (full version) mp3 and 1969 (original Cale mix) mp3 at The Days of Lore
2 Many DJs - No Fun & Push It mp3 (Stooges/Salt-N-Pepa) (NOTE: Scroll to bottom of post to find mp3, direct link unavailable)
at Pogo a go-go WARNING: Mash-up alert; purists proceed with caution
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Sunday, November 23, 2008

DJ'S CHOICE: GO-TO GLAM


A while back, I found myself in my hallway, sheltered by walls on all sides. I was doing something I hoped no one would see. Well into my middle age, head down with a concerned look on my face, I was playing air guitar. It stuck me as odd, to feel embarrassed about it. After all, I only date ladies who are air guitarists. Which reminds me: before I die, I will date a girl who plays air guitar to Suzi Quatro.
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Suzi Quatro was from Detroit, but found fame in the UK at the peak of the Glam years. That was a weird period over there. You could transverse, from art farts Roxy Music, through Bowie, elbow T-Rex out of the way, have a beer with Mott the Hoople and then get after-hours-stupid with Slade. Shit, I just described a night at the Pink Panther. Which is totally apropos.
NOTE: Not "rough and notorious", more like "drunk and horny"
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Pink Panther was a bar that I used to frequent and DJ'd at on a fairly regular basis. I ususally DJ'd with a partner, which made it more like a private record party (that is, with free beer and a captive audience). I had a bunch of partners during the Panther's heyday, but most often it would be my friend, Julie D.
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Julie was a perfect DJ parner, she knew music (we met when she was working at a record store) and loved to mix it up as much as I did, This led to some wacky sets, and it wasn't unusual to play Can, George Jones, Alice Cooper and X-Ray Spex in the same night. "48 Crash" by Suzi Quatro was one of the many songs played with regularity (often followed by Sweet's "Hellraiser", or one of Slade's foot-stompers).
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Taken out of a glam context, these types of songs were perfect what-the-fuck segues and almost always stoked a few people who'd forgotten about them (this was way past the glam era). These days, whenever I hear classic glam it takes me back to the Panther, and the beer soaked nights spinning with my pal Julie. So, this one is for Julie.
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Sunday, November 9, 2008

ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES


"This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you."
~ Barack Obama, November 4, 2008..
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During the last days of the presidential campaign, I was on the way home from my nightly swim when I ran into my neighbor Patty, a semi-retired oceanographer, on her way home from her nightly run feeding the stray cats up the block. After commenting on her Obama badge, we began talking about the election and our hopes that things would change, that the pendulum would swing towards making things better for all Americans, with an eye on global repercussions of our foreign policy..

After a couple minutes, another neighbor walked up. Matt is a Marine and member of a bomb disposal unit with two tours of Iraq under his belt. During the course of the campaign he had switched his allegiance and was to vote for a Democratic president for the first time. He opined that, with where the country had gone in the past eight years and where he saw it headed if McCain would be elected, he could not vote along party lines with so much at stake.
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At this point in our street corner conversation, the sun was down, I'm still dripping wet and getting butt-ass cold. Right when we were getting ready to part ways, Willie, another neighbor from across the alley walked up. He was on his way home from work, as a cobbler & shoe shine man. He's a fixture in Ocean Beach, and has been here since I was a little kid. A few years ago, some racists burned his shoe shine stand to the ground (he's African-American) and some locals rebuilt a better one for him the very next day. His take was that it was much more than the last eight years. He had been waiting a long time for this, and while not going into detail, I knew from past conversations with him, that stealth racism was something that troubled him deeply. He doesn't bring it up much now that he's given up drinking (under doctor's orders), but when I used to run into him on his way home from the VFW bar, he'd let it spill.
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After a few more minutes, the four of us went our separate ways. The three of them had each made two new friends, we all felt a sense of community and hope, and I went home shivering, feeling warmer then I had in quite a while.
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Though more detached, I've experienced that same sense of community the last few days while visiting mp3 blogs. t's been really interesting to see the comments and song selections posted in reaction to election. Rather than just download songs, you really ought to check out the hosting blogs and take in what they're saying; from "Dream Come True", on Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop, a blog from a Brit expatriot, to the succinct "Fuck Yes!!", posted on the largely punk rock blog, Last Days of Man on Earth.
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Bob & Marcia - Young Gifted and Black mp3
The Impressions - We're a Winner mp3 at Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop
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Thursday, November 6, 2008

OBAMA LOVE FEST CONTINUES


I'm still high on the election, so here's two Obama links. One is a post about a Kenyan/American group, Extra Golden, and an mp3 of their song "Obama". Its got a mellow African vibe, and you kinda start to get all cozy and adult-like. That is, until about the sixth minute when you realize it's crept into an awesome guitar freak-out. A free mp3, interview and story at npr.org.
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The other link is to photographer Scout Tufankian's site, with photos from the entire span of the Obama presidential campaign. A ca-ca load of really cool photos of appearances, private moments, and behind the scenes type stuff; mixed in are street shots of supporters, crowds and scenes of rallies. Some of my favorites are the ones in the Secret Service chapter; they're all "Men In Black" looking.
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On a sidenote, I'd be remiss if I didn't add that I think Scout Tufankjian is the coolest name ever (espescially for a woman).
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Extra Golden - Obama mp3, interview and story at NPR.org
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008


Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - This Land is Your Land
at Ingrained Refrains
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Sunday, October 19, 2008

SHAKE YOUR SHOULDERS, EVERYTHING IS FINE


Sometimes an record can be like an old friend. You become attached to it, lugging it from one apartment to another, never far from the top of the recent plays. Alton Ellis' "Sings Rock and Soul" is, for me, one such record. I don't remember when I bought it, but I do remember having it in 1982. Like a snapshot, I remember my friend Mark (AKA Dr. Marvelous, his self-given beach nickname) visiting me when I lived in San Francisco, reading the title "Alton Ellis Sings Rock and Sooouull!", with an emphasis on "soul" that I've murmured to myself just about every time I've played it ever since.
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Just a couple years ago, another friend, Ruth (who was also living in San Francisco back when I was), was visiting from her new home in Australia. I hadn't seen her in years and, because our decades-long friendship was dominated by a common love of music, I asked her what she wanted to hear. To my surprise, of all the music that we had shared over the years, she asked to hear, you guessed it, "Alton Ellis Sings Rock and Sooouull!"
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Alton Ellis passed away recently, and as this particular record has been with me for a long time and been the soundtrack for many memorable moments, I could not let the sad event pass without recommending that you begin your relationship with Alton Ellis and his music. The record referenced above, though not rock nor straight soul, represents the transition of ska into reggae, and is considered by many the start of rock steady. The song "Get Ready" (often referred to as "Rocksteady") gave the genre its name.
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Ellis' voice is soulfully smooth and comes through remarkably clear, considering that the overall recordings are primitively produced, charateristic of the era. To put it succinctly, Ellis had some of the best pipes in reggae, and even a crappy mix couldn't fuck 'em up.
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Alton Ellis on MySpace (samples of his music, no downloads)
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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

...FIVE TIMES!


In 1986, I learned more about James Chance in one short moment than I had after listening to his music, or reading about him in articles written during (and about) the early No Wave scene. It was at a small performance space in lower Manhattan, a word-of-mouth show in a tiny room, with no bar or club-like trappings. During one of his patently manic sax solos, the microphone stand was knocked to the ground. Most performers, even the most humble, might shoot a dirty look at the person who knocked it over. Some would keep playing and wait for someone else to upright the stand. At the very least, they might pick it up themselves. Not James Chance. He got down and continued the solo, lying on his side. On the floor.
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It wasn't at all a daring or dangerous move, nor was it something that required talent. What it did require was a different way of of reacting, without a predisposition to do what was reasonable or expected. Click...Now I get James Chance.
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If you know me, you know I'm always partial to a good larynx shredding. So, while the whole of the Contortion's first album Buy is worthy, you really, really, need to download "Contort Yourself" for your morning pilates.
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Thank you Swan Fungus
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Sunday, September 21, 2008

NORMAN WHITFIELD 1942 - 2008


Norman Whitfield died last week. He wrote (or co-wrote) many of the definitive late 60's/early 70's songs for Motown, so his name should be recognizable to anyone record-geek enough to actually peruse songwriting credits. Among them, "War" (which has to be the most powerful anti-war song to ever chart; #1 in 1971), "Ain't to Proud to Beg", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Ball of Confusion", "Cloud Nine", "I know I'm Losing You" and roughly 300+ other songs (see the massive listing at the Songwriters Hall of Fame).
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As with any good song, the proof is in the pudding: how do the cover versions stack up? For "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" I'm including a link to the Slits decidely sparse version, and for "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" I had to include a link to the Pioneers version, my favorite, over even the Temps original. I tried to find D.O.A.'s cover of War (the only version that comes close to updating the intensity of the Edwin Starr original) to no avail (but turn up Starr's version and see if it doesn't still hit you in the gut). "Paint the White House Black" is a 1993 post-Motown song, co-written by Whitfield, George Clinton and about a half dozen others.
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This is just a sampling. For more Whitfield songs, check out the sites hosting these MP3s. And you should really read his bio/obit at the Guardian, to throw everything into context. (Thanks to Ted for the suggestion. I owe you again Snail!)
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Saturday, September 6, 2008

STAY CLASSY SAN DIEGO


Looking back at 1977, it still amazes me how much happened, how fast it happened and how it changed the game forever. It was pivotal year, no doubt about it, and it wasn't just in terms of how the whole punk rock/DIY revolution changed the way the music business operated. It was the movement that defined who the tools and non-tools of the music industry were.

The Zeros, a band always included in the '77-'78 roll call of original Southern California punk bands, weren't tools. There were unbeholden to the music industry, which wasn't unusual at the time. What set the Zeros apart is that they were never really beholden to punk rock either. Though they didn't reject the punk tag, they were a rock n' roll band, pure and simple. From their first record in 1977 all the way through to their last recording in 1999. Like Sweden's Nomads (who did a remarkably loud-yet-faithful cover of the Zeros' "Wimp"), they had their own sound and their own disarming look. No spiked hair, no torn clothes, no studs.

Through different eras of the band, you only had to look at the covers they did to get an indication of what wound their watches: Bo Diddley, Mitch Ryder, Bobby Freeman, the Sonics, the New York Dolls, the Seeds, and the Standells. And every cover they played had the distinctive Zeros sound, somewhere between Johnny Thunders and the Ramones.

Their first 45, "Don't Push Me Around" b/w "Wimp" seems, lyrically, to be the stuff of JD's in training. Keep in mind, these guys were kids, between 16 and 19, when they began recording. They were documenting their own still-evolving attitude, and I-could-give-a-fuck swagger.
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Their earliest hometown appearance came on a local San Diego morning talk show, Sun Up (they were actually from Chula Vista, which is about 8 miles south). View the clip and take a look at the faces, the knock-kneed stances, feet practically glued to the floor; these are clearly kids. And this was just a scant few months after their first L.A. appearance, sandwiched between two other debuting bands, the Germs and the Weirdos.
The clip is from the fall of 1977, and they're lip-syncing both sides of their 45. It was just days before their first San Diego appearance, what would be the first San Diego punk rock show, with the Dils and the Hitmakers (the latter, a band that featured two ex-Dils and future Crawdaddy/Nashville Rambler Ron Silva). Things would progress quickly in the ensuing months, with regular gigs in L.A. and quick trips to San Francisco (Lead singer/guitarist Javier Escovedo would later write "I was the only one who could drive and had to motor my station wagon from Chula Vista up to The City, play the show, then drive right back so Robert, Baba and Hector could attend school the next day".)
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Their sound started to coalesce and by the time of their second 45, they had fully developed what would be the two sides of the band (on this record literally). While the B-side, "Beat Your Heart Out" showed their pop-influenced love song side, "Wild Weekend," the A-side, continued the theme of youthful defiance, with a stepped up pace and, lyrically, a line-drawing of the age card that ranks up there with the Who's "My Generation". The scene is set, on a Friday night, with the parents gone, a six pack of beer, and a girl:
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Baby, baby, I can't let go,
We got the Seeds on the stereo,
If they walked in now,
Man, I'd get get hung,
but I don't care,
Fuck them, I'm young,

It gonna be a wild weekend,
and I just know it,
I'm feelin' crazy,
and I gotta show it.

It's 1:33 of unadulterated rock n' roll bliss, ending with a twelve second guitar solo straight out of the Johnny Thunders songbook. "Wild Weekend" was on my top ten list in Substitute (my short lived fanzine) in 1978 and it still ranks up there as one of my favorite songs of any era, thirty years later.

The Zeros on Sun Up: "Don't Push Me Around" and "Wimp" (and short interview) video here(Some faulty video until :28, but the clip is 7:14 long)

The Zeros - Wild Weekend and Beat Your Heart Out MP3s at Last Days of Man on Earth (Dig around on the Last Days site; there's a lot of good stuff)

The Zeros bio (by Javier Escovedo 1991) at the Mod Pop Punk Archives

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Wednesday, September 3, 2008


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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

ISAAC HAYES 1942 - 2008 (SAMMY DAVIS JR IS A PUNK)


Given that Isacc Hayes' "Shaft" is such an universal icon of 70's cinematic soul, it's kind of a drag that fewer people are familiar with his ability to radically interpret already familiar songs, as he did with Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By." He turned a great pop song (a hit for Dionne Warwick) into a twelve minute opus of late night lovin'. The damn song builds up, slows down, builds again, climaxes, and ends with a spare drum beat that allows you to catch your breath. How did he hear that? Amazing.

"I felt what I had to say musically could not be said in two minutes and thirty seconds, ... So I did my thing. If it was a hit, great. But I just did what I wanted creatively.”

He also did a nine minute version of "Close to You" (a hit for the Carpenters), another late night lovin' reinvention.
Isaac Hayes - Walk On By mp3 at Louder Soft
Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft mp3, Close to You mp3 and three others at the Vinyl District
Theme From Shaft - Eight covers and variations at Moistworks (including a version by Sammy Davis Jr that just makes you want to slap him.)
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Saturday, August 2, 2008

HERE COME DA FUZZ


While the definitive version of "Train Kept A Rollin" is open for debate, the distortion-laden version by Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio [sic] has gotta be the most groundbreaking. It's a general consensus that it was the first rock n' roll record with fuzz on it. What's more significant is that it set the template for just about all future interpretations.

Almost without exception, subsequent rock n' roll versions of the song all ape the Trio's treatment, itself a cover of the original by Tiny Bradshaw. But the treatment and the fuzz was all theirs. Just whose fuzz in particular, though, remains a question.

In this corner, we have the accident, according to guitarist Paul Burlison, "Just before a show, the leather strap on my blond fender amp broke, and the amp fell to the floor. When I plugged the guitar in, it had a real fuzzy sound. I looked in the back of the amp, and one of the tubes was barely sticking in the prongs -- It was acting like rheostat. The guitar sounded pretty good, so I left the tube the way it was. From then on, whenever I wanted to get that sound, I'd just reach back there and loosen the tube. It sounded real funky."

In the other corner, we've got studio whiz Grady Martin. WFMU's Beware of the Blog cites session player Martin as the guitarist. I thought that possibly a slip-up, because it also says Martin invented the fuzz guitar sound in 1960, four years after the Trio cut "Train Kept A Rollin'" and "Honey Hush", another fuzzed-out rocker. (See Country Fuzz Spectacular link below for more on Martin and other country fuzzers.)

In the process of fact checking online, I found the writing of a true fuzz-orgin fiend, and it opened up a real can of worms. It's a lengthy dissertation on the origin of the fuzz on "Train Kept A Rollin'." When I say lengthy, I mean that I spent over a half hour on a single page. It comes up with some hard-to-ague points about said fuzz, including an argument that it probably wasn't fuzz at all.

Though the still-debated fuzz was a big part of what made the Trio's version memorable, it was the overall treatment and sound, and Burnette's manic, panting, vocals, that made it theirs and a Rockabilly milestone.
I'd like to believe Burlison's version, if only to contemplate the possible power of a mistake. Either way, the lineage of the song is something remarkable and comforting. Whether a dropped amp or a song three ex-boxers made their own, I marvel at how it fed through the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, and on through Aerosmith, and continues today in the bedrooms of future shredders with big dreams.

Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Rockabilly Boogie (streaming) at Walk Between the Lines

Did Paul Burlison or Grady Martin play guitar for Johnny Burnette & The Rock'n'Roll Trio? Long-ass dissertation by Victor Gordon & Peter Dijkema at the Rockabilly Guitar Page

NOTE: These next three links were added 11/30/10, for reference (see comment from Paul Burlison's son in "Comments" below.)
Howlin' Wolf - I'm the Wolf mp3 at hic1.kazserv.com/~khabs(?)
Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88 mp3 at NYNetResources
Marty Robbins - Don't Worry (w/Grady Martin) mp3 at Beware of the Blog

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