Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

one of my good buddies had that Billy Thorpe album in high school (or rather, I think it might have been his dad's!), and it became kind of a running joke between us. in a good way, though! we used to sing the lyrics to "Children To the Sun" to each other at random moments. Good times.

yeah chuck the title cut totally got played on FM radio! maybe not often, but I've heard it there more than a couple times. with long space intro whooshes and all...

and yeah, once I later became all nerdy record collector and learned of the existence of a Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs from Australia, I immediately flashed back to 'Children of the Sun'. still never heard any of the Aztecs stuff tho! I know it was all reissued recently by the same label that did all the Coloured Balls stuff

thought of this thread the other day when I ran across The Boyzz album in the record store. figured it must have been talked about here at some point, did a search, and sure enough: about 20 posts on various 'expiry' threads, ha. Didn't buy it though, it was 3 bucks. I refuse to pay more than 2

Yeah, it's pretty hard to avoid charges of anti-Semitism when you let slip you believe 'satanic Jews' are 'a cancer destroying humanity.' Their pages would seem to indicate their gigs are probably now fairly limited to out of state backwoods machine gun festivals and a couple places in the Lehigh Valley. There's enough stuff on the net about them in terms of quotes and interviews -- they get 'defended' by Willis Carto's old organization -- that the rep is toast. If you have the patience to read and listen to all of -- they do microradio broadcasts -- there's also this undercurrent gripe of US money being 'debauched' and that people have to come up with their own system of currency, which explains the animosity and song called "FinCen", indicating they'd like to do something bad to the Dept. of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit. You got your real case study there.

I've seen that Billy Thorpe LP around, it's on CD and he was run by Quiet Riot's management in LA, but have never heard it. The old Aztecs live CD made me think he was the Mark Farner of down under. Which may explain why the Aztecs were never brought here. We already had Grand Funk.

And here I have some more comment on how xhuxk's AF jest and how it's impossible to tap into the sense of humor of the easily fooled angry American. Plus a belief that was slipped into the stream, one that shows it's no secret what a scary number of them really want:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/04/02/april-fools-everyday-for-angry-americans/

Anyway, if people go to the Poker Face website it's all very tidy-looking if you don't know the
people linked to such as the American Free Press and the Barnes Review, which are Holocaust as well as 9/11 deniers. If you're judged by the company you keep or association with the philosophies of such, they're damned by their own hand. The Barnes Review had the distinction of one time launching a
campaign to insist Adolf Hitler was an 'overlooked' candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

To get out of this ditch -- Poker Face and xhuxk's Ted Nugent joke, which through no fault of his own showed how pandering, morally repellent and indefensible a character the latter has transformed into in old age. I've tried to get uplift through things which show our better selves. A morale boost after the terrible laughing ignorance, discouragement and cruelty.

And one such thing is the rock opera episode of Buffy in 2001, Once More, With Feeling.

"Walk Through the Fire" is still quite the inspirational piece, an equal to the "Overture" from Tommy with vocals. A thing about striving and triumph in a fairy tale it would take the hard heart not to enjoy, a high point of orchestral jangle rock and making the absolute best of the singers at hand. And whoever played drums on that ruled. If you're looking for it, the second highest d/l on YouTube is the best video/music combo. And then you can listen to Giles sing "Behind Blue Eyes."

Error -- it's actually the highest rated vid for it. YouTube's idiot search engine just doesn't show it as the number 1 slot.

So, I'll get back into true hard rock gear here sooner or later, but should mention that, had Stormy been at this guy I talk about below's house this weekend, he could've picked up that Boyzz LP, and both the hit Billy Thorpe LP and his one that charted right after it (which I passed up, maybe I shouldn't have), and many many other things, for a buck each. Here's what I got; definitely lotsa hard rock on the list:

"I'd buy that for a dollar!" Great purchases for a buck or less

Haven't started into the pile yet -- well, one side of the Klart Kent LP this morning, which I liked a lot, but that's it -- but will soon.

Spent some time yesterday listening to a couple new wave/artfuck scene comps from the '80s -- N.Y. in 1980 (Marty Thau Presents 2x5 on Red Star, which Scott gifted to me last year) and L.A. in 1984 (Radio Tokyo Tapes: Volume Two, a $1 purchase last month.) Big influence on the N.Y. one is probably Suicide (maybe not surprising, since their own debut was on the same label), most obviously in the case of the Revelons' "Red Hot Woman" but also maybe in re: The Bloodless Pharaohs, whose artsy fartsy sotto voice goth-prog-wave is basically saved by Brian Setzer's pre-Stray Cats rockabilly twang being put into a context (maybe his last one?) that doesn't turn him into a total cartoon so you can actually concentrate on how much he's learned from Link Wray or whoever. Chris Stigliano (who's heard more of them than I have) says the Pharoahs remind him of Roxy Music, which I can sort of hear (Roxy at their most pompous anyway), especially in their theme song I guess "Bloodless Pharoah." Their singer sounds like a real blowhard dork, but I still think I like them better than Stray Cats. Other bands on the comp are the Student Teachers, Comateens (who Stigliano also likes -- claims both they and the Pharaohs "straddle the boundaries between mid-seventies intense underground energies {Pere Ubu, Kongress, MX-80 Sound...} and early-eighties gnu wave fashion-kitsch," but to me they just sound like an okay co-ed new wave pop band to me), and the Fleshtones, the latter of whom dont annoy me on this comp as much as I'd've predicted, but maybe they just got more annoying (and more quasi-"garage") later. Saw them live once and I thought it was like watching a band full of Fred Schneiders, made me pretty queasy.

Stigliano writes about Bloodless Pharaohs here (just noticed he posted some youtube links over the weekend to the great '70s Midwestern Ghoul TV show, too; I'll need to check those out sooner or later.)

http://black2com.blogspot.com/2010/03/duff-week-if-you-ask-me-and-why-wouldnt.html

Radio Toyko Tapes L.A. comp is artier and sleazier; actually makes for a more interesting listen overall, if you don't hate pagan-ritual-drummed Cali goth bands ripping off the Virgin Prunes (which is how I'd more or less classify Kommunity FK, 17 Pygmies, and Food And Shelter.) Favorites though might be the girl-led post-funk/post-punk groups Animal Dance and Pleasure Mask; could've sworn they both had saxophones, but only Animal Dance credit one in the notes. There's also various shades of diverting bullshit, of course. (Well, even the tracks I like the most are diverting bullshit, obviously. But none of those have bagpipes, or John Trubee doing a Jello Biafra style spoken word rant about -- stop the presses! -- how evil and dirty a place L.A. is.)

Widowmaker self-titled (Jet 1976, feat. Ariel Bender from Mott the Hoople on guitar and
backup vocals

Best tune, clenched jaw belligerence: Ain't Telling You Nothing

I always liked it but doesn't really deliver on what you expect from the personnel -- Bob Daisley on bass, Hugh Lloyd Llangton from Hawkwind, plus Bender. "Leave the Kids Alone" is kind of tail-end
glam mixed with some country & western lilt.

Yesterday And Today (London 1976 -- pre-Y&T metal dudes)

Upstream, talked of this. Animal Woman, Alcohol, 24 Hours a Day, did what they knew, etc.

Glad to see some talk of Riot here. They were totally an influence on NWOBHM. Fire Down Under (1981) might be their best. I've been listening to them mixed on a playlist with early Def Lep, The Angels/Angel City, Teaze, UFO, Legs Diamond, Starz, Rex Smith, Kiss, and 80s Thin Lizzy/Whitesnake/Rainbow.

Another great playlist right now is called Proto-Punk/Trash Rawk, with Radio Birdman, Dictators, Runaways, Suzi Quatro, New York Dolls, Ramones, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, more Kiss, early Motorhead, Slade, Sweet, etc. What else would go good with that?

finally got myself a decent copy of tommy bolin's private eyes. for 50 cents, naturally. god the production on that thing is like one hot overstuffed airless cocaine chamber. but i dig the album anyway. just the way he mixes weirdo disco/pop/funk moves with occasional 5 minute guitar solos. and i actually really like his voice. always have.

i passed on a 1981 whitesnake album for some reason.

did buy fluffy's black eye on vinyl though. fluffy of xgau raves.

got the 1979 album by ALIAS called Contraband. haven't played it yet. southern stuff with a backup band consisting of artimus pyle, ricky powell, billy powell, and leon wilkeson.

also bought the 1980 album by FM. City Of Fear. don't think i was ever that big on FM. always liked their album covers and song titles and they were on passport, but i always forget what the hell they sound like. i'll give this one a go.

"What else would go good with that?"

lots of stuff! read this thread for hot tips.

Another great playlist right now is called Proto-Punk/Trash Rawk, with Radio Birdman, Dictators, Runaways, Suzi Quatro, New York Dolls, Ramones, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, more Kiss, early Motorhead, Slade, Sweet, etc. What else would go good with that?

The firs three Joan Jett & the Blackhearts albums, Silverhead, first two Starz albums, Rich Kids, the Move's heavier stuff, first Heavy Metal Kids record, Mott the Hoople's Live album. That's a start.

Oh, and I kept the playlist mostly to 1973-77, probably because I had just seen the Runaways movie. I also had some Lou Reed, Dr. Feelgood, Eddie & the Hot Rods, Mott the Hoople, 101ers, Stranglers, Bowie, Big Star, Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe, John Cale, Jobriath, Alex Harvey, George Brigman, Hydra, T. Rex, Heavy Metal Kids, Nugent, Ian Hunter, Gary Glitter, Streetwalkers, AC/DC and Pink Fairies.

Silverhead is a great idea, I've never really heard them yet.

...Count Biships, Brownsville Station, Earth Quake, Flamin' Groovies, Sparks circa Kimono My House/Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing, Ram Jam, the '70s band Mr. Big, Rags, Flame, Artful Dodger, Rocket From The Tombs -- honestly, that's just scratching the surface. But like Scott said, peruse the last few Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock threads and you'll have more ideas that you can possibly use, I promise.

What Streetwalkers do you like, Fastnbulbous? We were discussing them last year; I got an album for $1 but coldn't really get into it.

Also, are these playlists on lastfm, or where? (Is "lastfm" just basically assumed when people say "playlist" now? I am so out of it.)

Bunch more, using bands you've listed as a guideline: Hello, Mud, Racey, Fanny, Bay City Rollers, Dave Edmunds, David Werner, Smokey, Raspberries, Stories, Tubes, Arrows, Sailor, Crack The Sky, Good Rats, Max Webster, early John Hiatt, Elliot Murphy, Coloured Balls, Buster Brown, Thundertrain, Billion Dollar Babies, Hank The Knife And The Jets, Rudolf Rock Und Die Schocker...(Obviously depends on how heavy you wanna keep it, but you've listed plenty of non-heavy stuff already.)

Some of those obviously maybe "too prog" or "too bubblegum" (and for many of them you might want to be selective as to particular tracks and/or albums); depends on what exactly you're looking for, and how you're defining "Proto-Punk/Trash Rawk" (that spelling still always makes me wince, but whatever.) Also, if you're going to include the Streetwalkers and John Cale, you seriously might want to read what is said upthread about Kevin Coyne, since seems to me his aesthetic came close to both of their neighborhoods and probably did it better -- at least judging from the live LP I've got, which has really grown on me since I discussed it up there. (Also, he's proto-punk both in the sense that John Lydon and Mark E. Smith are apparently big fans, and that he was lyrically obsessed with both insane people and a dying England.)

Yeah, definitely re Kevin Coyne. If you check the Youtube vids of stuff I sampled on my blog, you may find some of that definitely has the potential to fit in with your theme.

I have Coyne's Marjory Razorblade and Dynamite Daze, but they haven't really stuck to my brain yet. I figured it would be good eccentric singer-songwriter stuff along the lines of Peter Hammill. I'll revisit, though maybe not rocking enough for that particular playlist. I own Streetwalkers' Red Card (1976), which is fun. I've heard MP3s of Downtown Flyers (1975) which is nearly as good. I have a 2TB flac collection ripped from my CDs both at home, and backed up at work. I make the playlists with Mediamonkey, and at home, use them with my Squeezebox system throughout the house, controlled both on the desktop computer and wireless remote. I play music usually for most of my workday either on the powered Harman speakers or headphones.

might want to try these too:

http://www.myspace.com/grannysintentions

ugly custard

incredible hog

heavy jelly

warm dust

toad

'igginbottom's wrench

http://www.myspace.com/dogthatbitpeople71

paper bubble

http://www.myspace.com/fuzzyduck70

hairy chapter

deaf cuckoo

flasket brinner

shakey vick

plastic penny

agnes strange

wooden horse

http://www.myspace.com/rainbowffolly67

hunter muskett

mighty baby

magic mixture

http://www.myspace.com/ginhouse1971

just kidding.

I cut the http off this so it wouldn't mount. So cut and paste if you wan't another example of bizarre, if mostly rocking, extremist stuff from Pennsy's soft white underbelly. It's The Mysterious Fog...

youtube.com/watch?v=W4IRY4BbpEE

To be fair, this falls right in the great statistical mean of the stuff discussed here. He could do a lot worse.

http://www.spin.com/articles/watch-slash-wolfmother-frontman-rock-leno

As far as this number is concerned, it <strike>almost</strike> makes a stoner rock vibe respectable
rather than just monochromatic, slow and turgid.

Should I get this record?

Fave comment, in response to someone who made a tangential comment about Lady Gaga collaboration
and apparent resistance to growing old more gracefully:

what do you know? youre just som e liberal junkie who knows nothing about music. so shut up
you retard.

Wait, was that comment to you, George, about one of your Pokerface posts? Or to Slash? (By the way, I'm curious to what extent you think Pokerface's brand of anti-Semitism is connected to their Lehigh Valley roots, in general. I keep remembering all those Nazi paraphernalia booths at the Q-Mart in Quakertown. Also wondering how to what extent their pondering "What is a Turkish Mongol – Yiddish speaking race of Ashekenazi/Khazars who have little to no SHEMite blood in them doing in Palestine to begin with?" is a running meme within the U.S. Jew-hate realm; there's an unduly crimes-of-Israel-obsessed commentator on Genesis Communication -- the radio network that also runs Alex Jones --who also brings up the Israeli-Jews-are-not-actually-Semites thing a lot, but in a seemingly more civilized way than Pokerface; I'd actually never heard the argument before, and now I'm guessing it's a red flag.)

Haven't heard the Slash album; actually didn't even think to check it out (even though Rhapsody asked me to write up a post on solo albums by guitarists last week pegged to its release.) Maybe I'll try sometime. Here's my solo guitarists thing. I'm really no expert, so don't laugh too much at it. I know there's probably lots of great ones I missed:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/04/riffing.html

Anybody else heard this new EP by Batusis on Smog Veil? Cheetah Chrome and Sylvain Sylvain doubling on guitar and vocals; couple ex Joan Jett sidemen on rhythm instruments. Some surf, some quasi AC/DC, some poppish hard-rockish punk, four songs in 15 minutes, sounds promising but after a dozen or so listens I gotta say none of it is actually sticking to my gills. Anybody wanna convince me it's better than that?

http://www.myspace.com/batusis

(Er, "brings (it) up a lot" might be an overstatement; I've heard him bring it twice, maybe. But given how erratically I actually happen to tune into that station while punching buttons in the car -- yeah, I've got the conspriacy theorists on pre-set now, it's like gawking at a car wreck -- I bet he does mention it fairly often.)

The jew-hate thing was around in the Lehigh Valley. You could come upon it any place in Pennsy's
interior. Some of the Pennsylvania Dutch harbor it, unsurprisingly. It wasn't everywhere in Pine Grove but it was also not exceedingly rare.

As to where they come up with this cockamamie stuff -- you can wade through Poker Face's site, or Paul Topete's quotes for hours, he's certainly not shy with them EXCEPT when talking to the local newspaper, as I showed today. And there's no logic to anything he spouts. It's just a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories, references to books and newsletters no one in their right mind would read or give credence to, paranoia, anger at the government. These people are upside down on everything but there's no talking with them. Whatever broke them, they're permanently screwed up. Enlightening reason doesn't work. It's just more evidence to fuel their fires.

What's new is that now the gentler side of it is mainstream. Glenn Beck is, by any definition, a profoundly screwed up John Bircher. John Birchers -used- to be viewed with extreme disdain in this country. I watch him for a few minutes each week and can't find anything logical or well reasoned from him ever. So the even more extreme elements see this and it encourages them to be more vocal and active which is why Poker Face was always interested in doing political shows for Ron Paul and the Tea Party.

It's like in the movie Falling Down, where the Mike Douglas character walks into a military paraphernalia store, and the neo-Nazi running it rushes to congratulate him and say, hey man, you're one of us, and then goes to show him his prize possession, an empty canister from a concentration camp gas chamber.
And then the Mike Douglas character expresses shock and they get into a fight in which he kills the neo-Nazi.

So did anybody know that the Gap Band covered a song by Free, "Little Bit Of Love," on their debut LP in 1977? Me neither. Thing is, if there was ever much hard rock in the Free version (I'd have to go back and check), the Gap guys drain it all out; their version is more like a pop reggae ballad, with a slight Latin lilt. Still makes me wonder whether they had hopes for a rock audience -- back cover shows two long-haired white guys in the band along with the five black guys (hilariously, on the inner sleeve the only white guy there has his hair pulled back to resemble an Afro, and is jumping around in funky clothes); Leon Russell plays piano on one track; and they were kind of a funk throwback in '77, half-competently aiming for Sly and Stevie overall, pretty much ignoring disco except for in "Hang On (To Yourself)," which oddly might be the catchiest cut on the album. Which really isn't all that good; they actually whomped a lot harder when they got less purist in the early '80s, in the big hits "Early In The Morning" and "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" and especially smaller hit "Burn Rubber On Me." Bet more rock fans bought those too. (Not sure about country fans, though they were from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and wore cowboy hats sometimes, so maybe.)

To answer your question, yes -- there was some hard rock in the Free tune.

BTW, did you ever get around to listening to the 'new' Uriah Heep rehash CD, Celebration? I saw it in the store today.

i can't believe how much i have enjoyed listening to motley crue's too fast for love album today. what a great record. haven't heard it in a zillion years.

Boy, the new Hendrix record seems to have gone over like a lead balloon. I read Tuscaloosa Ann's review of it in the LA Times a few weeks back. Since she liked it, I figured it must have been fairly skippable.

I listened to that new Heep album once; sounded good, but haven't been able to convince myself there's a point to it. Think I'm waiting for somebody else to do A/B comparisons with old versions. Who knows, maybe some songs are better than before. Will try to put it on again soon, but can't promise I'll have anything more enlightening to say about it.

I was kinda shocked myself that the Hendrix estate wasn't able to get a Rolling Stone cover out of that compilation. I'm sure they got a Guitar Player cover story, though.

Even more likely Guitar World, too.

god, I have no interest in this new Uriah Heep thing, even though I defy anyone on ILX to be a better fan than me of the original group.

in the sense that: my fave rhythm duo of all time is Lee Kerslake on drums and Gary Thain on bass.

^^^^ right there, those two, favorite rhythm sections of all time

I actually thought this was AMAZING:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se4YjAV4CZA

i was poking around, looking at latter day Heep vids, and this rocked me pretty good.

helps that Hensley was guesting :) but still, this totally rocks

actually it's: Kerslake/Thain, Shirley/Ridley, Jones/Bonham

Kerslake/Thain, Shirley/Ridley, Jones/Bonham

You sure that's it? Ridley's dead. It looks more like Trevor Bolder, ex-Spider, who has been a Heep member way longer than Gary Thain or even when the former was with Bowie. It basically looks like the current Heep line-up, which is only Box and Bolder as the 'old' members. I'd almost say Ken Hensley on keys but I think he generally played almost all the slide on the old Heep numbers, and I saw them
a lot.

Anyway, you're right. Definitely lacks nothing on the original.

Following the 1976 replacement of vocalist David Byron (with John Lawton - formerly of bands Lucifer's Friend and The Les Humphries Singers), Uriah Heep turned away from fantasy-oriented lyrics and multi-part compositions back toward a more straightforward hard rock sound typical of the era. In 1977 they scored a top 40 chart hit in Australia with "Free Me" which went all the way to #1 in New Zealand

This part of the 'history' from Wiki makes me laugh because it's so classically bad. Um, no.

Manage to mention 'the les humphries singers' -- utterly worthless german version of a k-tel mimic band -- probably because Metal Mike Saunders spent time promoting them.

So the Wiki bio completely overlooks which Heep albums and tunes made big impressions.

The 'worm' debut -- Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble'[i] in the UK, infamously reviewed by Saunders'
girlfriend Melissa Mills, [i]Look at Yourself, Demons & Wizards[i], [i]The Magician's Birthday[i], and [i]Live. Secondarily Wonderworld and Return to Fantasy, which was awful and is now mostly out of print.

I saw at least three of the tours for these records.

You haveta laff. The very idea that 'the les humphries singers' were any good neatly defines the word -- ludicrous.

Kerslake/Thain, Shirley/Ridley, Jones/Bonham.

You sure that's it? Ridley's dead.

Gorge, I understand about Ridley. comment was more of an "all-time" thing. whole point is: in MY estimation, the original Shirley/Ridgely and Kerslake/Thain sections are the two greatest British rhythm beasts of all time. Put in Appice/Bogart for America, i guess, I'm talking hairy rip-ass thud rhythm sections.

the kid in the video I posted does a good David Byron

I'm talking hairy rip-ass thud rhythm sections.

Ah, point taken.

Had to happen eventually, I guess; from a NYTimes piece today about Rand Paul, Ron's son, Libertarian-leaning, Tea Party-backed candidate for the Republican nomination for a Senate seat in Kentucky:

He quotes Thomas Paine as well as the rock band Rush: “Glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity.” The prizes, Dr. Paul told an audience outside Ol’ Harvey’s Eats in Lawrenceburg, are the pork barrel projects politicians bring home even though there is no money to pay for them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/us/politics/11kentucky.html

Rand?! The kid's name is Rand!? How much you want to bet he has another son named Roark...

Plan to get it today or sometime this week:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/04/13/jesus-loves-the-stooges/

Haw ... poster for the Georgia Peaches Stooges show at Richards lists Hydra as the opening act.

I have a hard time imagining Hydra onstage with the Stooges. Hydra was about a year away from their debut on Capricorn. They probably thought they were good next to the Stooges who were ending.

On the live extra, for the beginning, I'm hearing Williamson's track cutting in and out jaggedly, although he's also in the room mix from blowing down the vocal mike. But that's really here nor there when it comes to Stooges live recordings. Best recording of Ron Asheton on bass I've heard, though. Lots of piano from Thurston which gives the band an entirely different sound than was on Raw Power.

Piano goes away for a lot of the next tune, the guitar finally sounds right on "Gimme Danger." Which is, incidentally, great. "Search & Destroy" does not benefit from Scott Thurston's 'rollicking' barroom
piano.

Mix-wise Asheton's bass is right in the same sonic range as Williamson when he's playing rhythm, so they panned Williamson to one side, Asheton to the other. "I Need Somebody" is good, sinister, crunching and bluesy. Won't spoil the dirty poem that intros it for you.

Sounds like there was a crowd of about a dozen.

"Cock in My Pocket" delivers what you wanted. One of the Stooges rampagingly more conventional
beats, worked off a classic rock n' roll guitar figure.

"Doojiman" which I'd never heard before. Good jungle beat, good chopping rhythm workout by Williamson
-- this would have made people laugh had it been on the original album. Which was probably not the desired effect and why it was left off.

And there you have it, pretty much.