Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

i am! it's going in my next column.

also got some cool lo-fi punk noise stuff from mike williams, the singer for eyehategod. that's going in my column. the noisy stuff he is doing totally reminds me of bedroom 80's industrial noise stuff. i dig it. i've got TOO much to write about this month. the world of noise/weirdo/whatever music is very healthy. and prolific.

xp I should have guessed! And oh wait, duh, what was I thinking -- Scott, I have that Lyn Todd record already. Pretty sure it came in one of those great Metal Mike charity boxes, a few years ago. Super sleazy glam-rock/disco merger for gay bars, as I recall; she(assuming she's technically a she -- could be a drag queen for all I know) covers "Rebel Rebel" and "Pinball Wizard." But now it's moving back from the shelf upstairs again, to the to-be-played pile by the turntable downstairs.

that's the one! so much fun.

Bobby Orlando is/was a genius. The Fast, The Now, The Flirts, Man 2 Man, the stuff he did for Divine. All the dance stuff in the 80's. i was excited to find the Lyn Todd record.

Orlando produced and penned numerous hits that span multiple genres in mostly self-created groups and aliases, often just consisting of Orlando himself. His productions were released as: Ian Darby, The Beat Box Boys, Spooge Boy, Something/Anything, New Breed, Jonny Bankcheck, Hotline, Banana Republic, Oh Romeo, Teenrock, The New York Models, Hippies With Haircuts, Girly, Barbie & the Kens, Wow, 1 plus 1, The He Man Band, The Boyd Brothers, Nancy Dean, Ian Darby with Ya Ya, Cha Cha featuring Don Diego, Yukihoro Takanawa, This is House, Joy Toy, Dressed To Kill, Band Of South, Dynasty featuring Dexter D, Darlene Down, The Fem-Spies, Gangsters of House, Girls Have Fun, Zwei Maenner, Gomez Presley, Gringo Lopez, Patty Phillipe, Malibu, Lilly & the Pink, Miss Tammi Dee, Mc Fritz and the P-Rockers, Charlene Davis, Claus V, Ronnie Goes to Liverpool, The Bang Gang, Bubba and The Jack Attack, Fascination, Free Enterprise, Sandra Ford, Future Generation, Citrus, The College Boys, Condo, The Bigalows, Free Expression, Lola, Lifestyle, I Spies, Latin 1, Kinski Music, Gina Desire, Beachfront, Vision 1 and others.

great info here:

"So, when leaving the music business, what did Bobby do then? He actually completed his law studies and he completed a book he had been writing which refutes Darwin's theories of the evolution. The book was called Darwin Destroyed, a book I have failed to retrieve."

http://www.disco-disco.com/artists/bobby-o.shtml

i want a 10-LP boxed set of Bobby O.

Stiglano on that O. Rex CD I was talking about above:

http://black2com.blogspot.com/2010/11/o.html

A page on Triphammer, with MP3 samples from a retrospective CD by them, which I've never heard

http://www.empirearms.com/triphammer.html

Both bands probably Grand Funk Railroad fans too, come to think of it.

("Act Naturally" video cracked me up), but I'm still too bummed out about election results and resulting impending middle-class carnage to talk much more about it here. (Wonder if Rand Paul played Rush at his victory rally.)

The subtler point was at least the GOP has stars. They may be crazy but at least they're something. And their plan, and it seems a good one, is to gum up things so the economy will get far worse, enraging voters who will take it out on Obama again in 2012 because the man either can't or won't make the simple argument that they are, indeed, crazy. At which point they'll be able to get someone with a reality
show and/or in a straight jacket elected because the blue voters will be so discouraged they'll either be homeless, not vote or go for some trivial third party candidate.

Plus I wanted to do something with early Beatles guitars.

Pretty sure George knows who this guy is

Yeah, I had his first LP. Him, Monte Cazazza and Factrix. They were the dudes. Fun times alienating people in the grad school apartment.

Accidentally switched to the AM band on my car radio today and heard a Tea Party/Gig-is-up-for-Obama/Take-back-the-country updating of "Renegade" by Styx -- or the last verse or two of it, anyway -- but I'm not finding it on line. You're not missing much, though.

Played that Lyn Todd LP that Scott picked up the other day, and am leaning toward thinking that Lyn may well be a man, especially since the singer his/her husky voice most reminds me of is Divine doing "Walk Like A Man." (Possibly the only Divine track I've actually ever heard, come to think of it.) And though Lyn says "ever since I was a young girl" in "Pinball Wizard," he/she also makes a point of covering the Bowie song where the hot tramp's mother's in a whirl for not knowing if he or she is a boy or a girl. Really fun album, either way -- British invasion pop-rock ("It's You") and Sex Pistols guitars ("This Time I'm Doin' It For Love") in a pop glam disco new wave context, and Bobby O's Italodisco instrumental "Metropolis Suite" is totally gorgeous. Also, most of the songs are really short (including two well under two minutes). Drums, I just noticed, are credited to Jerry Nolan, presumably of the Dolls and Heartbreakers. Bobby Orlando plays most of the instruments, though, but also credits "Bobby Orefice" (!) for some additional guitars. (Actually, the other 1980 record it reminds me of is the new wave disco EP by Amy Bolton that I mentioned once in Accidental Evolution since she covered "Talk Talk" by Music Machine on it. Have no idea why I got rid of that one.)

Also surpised a few days ago to discover that, on the Ohio Express's 1968 debut LP (with "Yummy Yummy" and "Down At Lulu's" on it), they also did three eerie psychedelic tracks, or notable attempts, at least: "First Grade Reader," "Turn To Straw," and the five-minute closer "The Time You Spent With Me" all sound like Kasenatz-Katz had been absorbing lots of Yardbirds, and maybe Byrds too.

lots of K&K bubblegum albums had great psych tracks on them. i mean, they usually had a couple of surefire singles to sell and then a whole album to fill. so i don't think they were very picky about how it got filled. (kinda like how the b-sides of the singles would be nonsense like the single played backwards. they were all about the a-side. like phil spector before them.) playing this the other night. AWESOME psych guitar jams on it that sound absolutely nothing like their smash bubblegum hit:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qZMtGqhHP_o/S4dzmoe51lI/AAAAAAAAA2E/9FfNwNsVOTI/s400/LemonPipers.jpg

oh and yeah i love that ohio express album too. have always thought it was overlooked or dismissed by a lot of rock fans. a lot of people probably just think that its silly kid stuff or whatever. their loss.

How you're allowed to make money for others. The internet music economy, in under 500 words

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/11/17/advertising-funnies/

So while you don't have the grease to bribe into iJobs or Rhapsody, you're good enough to finance others through click micropayments.

So you can flog for BP, the asshole football player known as Chad Ochocinco and Susan Boyle. Among many others.

Explain to me how pro music journalism isn't interested in this.

Lemon Pipers were a big Cincinnati area psych band in the late 60s (formerly Ivan & the Sabres) - those filler trax like "Dead End Street" were what they "really" sounded like. as you all know guitarist Bill Bartlett went on to RamJam of "black betty" fame. actually RamJam was the name K&K assigned to Bartlett's glam band Starstruck. history repeats...

Was just listening to the Lemon Pipers. And RamJam's "Right On the Money". Coincidences.

I have only ever owned one-half of a Lemon Pipers album -- a split record with the 1910 Fruitgum Company called Checkmate on Buddah, presumably from the late '60s. It's been in my nebulous "sell pile"; seemed ignorable or redundant to me before (i.e. the 1910 cuts I liked overlapped ones on Rhino's Best Of Bubblegum LPs I guess), but yesterday I pulled it out to re-check it. Guessing, though, that it's mostly singles from both bands, which would probably mean minimal psychedelia. Wonder if it's worth anything.

The youtube scenario George has been talking about on his blog sounds vaguely familiar to me, from my time at Billboard -- Was it part of some deal the company cut not only to potentially monetize user videos, but to keep label copyright lawyers off their backs? I might be wrong about that. But if so, I don't think I ever had a good grasp back then about how it would actually work on the ground, I'm not finding much about it on line, and I don't remember anybody bringing up the issue of fair use. Sucks, either way.

Old song that surprised me this morning, and that I probably never even noticed before: "Benny And The Bouncer," the two-minute Cockney greaser bar-brawl on ELP's Brain Salad Surgery; lands somewhere on the evolutionary line between music hall and oi!

i still need a copy of this album. their latter-day super-k effort.

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20100619/170502511317.jpg

got a sweet copy of syndicate of sound's little girl album and i always think i'll keep a copy when i find one, but then i play it and i'm reminded of how wimpy it is. obviously little girl is genius and their cover of witch is okay, but the rest ain't so hot. i'm probably good with just a 45 of little girl.

was playing back door men the other night (great sundazed reissue that i've had for years - the sound is extra punchy and punky) and i almost shed a tear. so glorious. so heavenly. this is just great 20th century art. period.

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20100126/300390959167.jpg

Was it part of some deal the company cut not only to potentially monetize user videos, but to keep label copyright lawyers off their backs?

If it wasn't an actual come right out and say it deal, it certainly looks that way in practice. It gives them the opportunity to say to the copyright nazis (where fair use means no use) -- here's some money and how you can profit off this. It also gives them a hook into attaching advertising to a much wider base among their users.

The regular presence of ads on "Act Naturally" for the corporate pariah, BP, is an example of one obvious money maker. BP must pay YouTube/Google to try and direct viewers to their commercials which are obviously held in the same regard as rat poison. No one would do such a thing without seeing a check. Corporate nuisances probably jump at paying YouTube to do this -- credit card companies, anything associated with Steve Jobs/Apple/iStuff, etc.

Comically and pathetically, I always see BP commercials on Sunday mornings, interrupting the politics shows like This Week and Meet The Press (or Face The Nation, or whatever it is), usually right after a story putting BP on the hotseat.

Scott, I've got Back Door Men (always a big Metal Mike/Gregg Turner fave iirc) as a (1998 I think) Sundazed reissue too, albeit on CD. (I gathered yours was vinyl from the picture you posted, might be wrong.) Definitely a big-deal proto-hard-rock album.

And I was right the first time about the Lemon Pipers half-album I have -- "Green Tambourine" is nice, but the rest of their side is just way too cups-and-cakes twee for my ears; no psych at all on this one. 1920 Fruitgum's funky "Soul Struttin'" kinda rules, tho.

Played Grand Funk Railroad's Closer To Home this morning, too, and liked it more than I'd remembered. Must be in good mood.

Or maybe not, because Alice's West Side Story rewrite "Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets" from School's Out is on now, and it's kind of making me wince. Dude was already letting his thespian side win the battle over hard rock, wasn't he?

Also, I meant 1910 Fruitgum, obviously.

Eh, "Public Animal #9" still fun high-school glam I guess. (Popoff picks that one and "Gutter Cat" as the two non-hit highlights.)

Now back to Nantucket Long Way To The Top -- AC/DC cover (best one ever?) into excellent hard powerpop ("Living With You") into new wave Nazareth partially about law school (??? that's what it sounds like anyway, a few times) with a proto-Kix explosion at the end ("Time Bomb") into high-harmony stretched-out multi-part road-life hard rock with saxomaphones and squealing synths ("50 More") into a speedy stuttering number about rock celebrities in Rolling Stone that again partially reminds me of Nazareth and has more sax honk ("Media Darlin'") into another bubbly-and-efervescent-as-Kix AC/DC rip w/ boogie-woogie piano ("Rugburn").

Then Side Two. More new-wave-leaning powerpop AOR ("Too Much Wrong In The Past") into chunky catchy rock with Who's Next guitar/keyb loopage and singing that could again pass for Dan McCafferty ("Over And Over Again") into a happy finger-snappy one about rock radio that I'm guessing was probably the AOR airplay track (might even remember hearing it on the air -- "Turn The Radio On") into a funky hey-hey-hey frat-party soul-rocker seemingly based either on "Good Lovin'" or "Do You Love Me" or both ("Tell Me [The Rhythm Method]") into some hard-guy macho Bad Co./Foreigner gutbust with lonely pretty lovelorn yacht-pop harmonies and melodic sections and eventually smooth-jazz sax interspersed ("Rescue") into an endearingly dorky kiss-ass early Loverboy-style powerchord-and-Cars-keyboard semi-ballad just in time to ring in the decade ("Rock Of The '80s," where they plead "let's have some fun"!) Cool!

i was listening to that nantucket album last week. was digging it.

Played Grand Funk Railroad's Closer To Home this morning, too, and liked it more than I'd remembered. Must be in good mood.

― xhuxk, Thursday, November 18, 2010 2:19 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's a killer album, good mood or not.

xp Oh, and after "Rock Of The '80s" Nantucket stick in a free half-minute barbershop-harmonied singalong maybe called "Stella" (but not named on the cover or label) where they rhyme "rock'n'roll" with "doggie bowl." Also, on the back cover, the bassist ("Pee Wee Watson") is crouched down with a silver jacket and a hat with Highway To Hell horns (I guess) on it; lead guitarist has a real bushy '70s-disc-jockey mustache and chest hair to match and is wearing what looks like a kimono; sax/keyb guy is wearing a Hawaiian shirt; another guy (second guitarist I think) has a button on his shirt that says "FUCK RUSSIA"; and a skinny scraggly longhaired guy (drummer I think) with a comb (??) sticking out of his back pocket seems to making a mincing stance with his butt sticking out. You can tell which guy is the singer (Larry 'L. Factor' Uzzel) just from his pretty boy hair, Jagger lips, arrogant expression, and the apparent cucumber in his pants. (And oh yeah, almost all their clothes are really bright and colorful, to boot.)

they had to be colorful to match those album covers.

*love*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4MJXw3oKEo

I want to like Wishbone Ash, but I can't get past that vocalist. He over-enunciates and it bugs me. Musically, the band is great, though.

the vocals are a means to an end. bands like wishbone just wanted to jam.

Scott, what albums by Wishbone do you recommend, other than Argus (which I think is great)? I've heard some later ones (late '70s/early '80s), which were passable, but nothing on those ever stuck with me, and I never feel any need to put them on.

Btw, played Nantucket's one-album-earlier ('79) Your Face Or Mine after Long Way To The Top, and it seemed solid, just not nearly as much fun. More workaday, I guess (Jasper/Oliver call it a temporary AOR sellout), though one song (didn't note which) seemed like they were shooting for Aerosmith. Checked their Wiki bio, and turns out that they started out as a "beach music" band called Stax of Gold (!) in North Carolina. So the soul influence I've been hearing definitely was not my ears playing tricks on me.

first two albums before argus are really good. s/t and pilgrimage. demo version of the first album that came out on cd a couple of years back is REALLY good, but probably not easy to find. maybe find There's The Rub in the dollar bins too. I dunno, I have a pretty high tolerance for the later stuff, but i might have a hard time justifying that tolerance. i mean, i'm someone who owns (and likes), at last count, like, 9 or 10 Barclay James Harvest albums, so i might not be the most reliable narrator.

That's about my opinion, too. First album has a couple crushing pieces on it, the hardest. The reissue of Argus is excellent because it contains the a promotional live ep they did in the US around the same time. Also sounds very hard and rocking. The live album, Dates, which was big here is not critical. It's not as good as the first studio records. The fourth album begins the slump -- becoming a bit like the Dead. Everything else is pretty negligible.

http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/11/18/johnny-winter-return-of-the-screamin-demon/

Excellent piece on Johnny Winter. Second page has a great low key version of Hootchie Koo from what likes the early Seventies, in a tv studio.

i agree about the live album. was excited to hear it when i got a copy, but its not very exciting.

my deep , abiding and enduring love for Wishbone Ash is well-documented. So I will just say that *Argus* is all time top-10 lp, without even thinking about it. That and Pink Fairies 'Kings of Oblivion' are my two go-to smashed-out-of-mind albums to jam at 3 AM. If you like the sound of the electric guitar, you should love Wishbone Ash. because they were all about the sound of the electric guitar. just listen to that "Jailbait" clip that Skot posted. and yeah, first two albums rule! "Vas Dis"! Brother Jack McDuff cover! they ruled so hard. Hipgnosis cover art, sweet Martin Birch production, what's not to love?

*Argus*, *Kings of Oblivion*, and *Happy Trails*. bury me with those three

did you guys ever talk about HOUNDS on these threads? hard-rock looking band, from Chicago apparently, album on Columbia ( or Epic or whatever) saw the album in the used bin last night, never heard of them before, mildly curious

Yeah, we definitely have. Both albums are great, in my book -- second one is probably one of my favorite hard rock albums ever, by now. There's also this thread, fwiw:

Where is the love for HOUNDS and STREETHEART and SHOOTING STAR and PRISM?

And ha, I never even noticed this one that George started once:

Christgau on The Hounds

nice! i may just head back there and pick it up there. first album, i gather (cuz had no title), woman on the cover. $2.99

First album from '78 (Unleashed, but looks self-titled if you only glance quickly at it) had a woman with a dog collar around her neck. Second album from '79 (Puttin' On The Dog) had a woman in black underwear talking on her phone, in an expensive hotel room surrounded by shaggy dogs (afghans and salukis, or some breed along those lines). Guessing you saw the first one.

Okay, my turn. Anybody here have strong opinions about any albums by Back Street Crawler, D.B. Cooper, Trapeze (feat. Glen Hughes), Tycooon, or Private Lines? Possible a couple of them have been discussed here before, when I wasn't paying close attention. Anyway, I saw LPs by all of them in a dollar bin the other day that looked vaguely interesting, but not interesting enough for me to buy them. If somebody really thinks any of them were great, though, maybe I'll go back.

the back street albums with kossoff are good. when they shortened their name to crawler they started to suck.

well they didn't START to suck, the crawler albums just kinds suck. i like trapeze. i have had one or two tycoon albums but can't remember much. don't know private lines.

okay i checked i have the first tycoon album but yeah can't remember...must not have impressed me much.

I *love* the self-titled Trapeze album. From like, '77, i think? anyway, it was a later album not the first (which you might assume a S/T alb would be) real good Zep-derived rock

Okay, my turn. Anybody here have strong opinions about any albums by

>>Back Street Crawler

Free-lite. Kossoff was diminished when he started this band. After he died, no point to them. Shortened name to Crawler.

>>D.B. Cooper

Definitely up your alley. Two albums, both pretty good. Fast and catchy bar band hard rock with loud crunching guitars, very tuneful, some nods to new wave but not so much it waters down.

>>Trapeze

First album was soft rock like Moody Blues. Then they kicked some guys out and went power trio with Glenn Hughes and Mel Galley. s/t, You're the Audience, We're Just the Band. a couple after. Often funky but had no really distinguishing tunes. Lots of live stuff floating around, most of it good. Had a huge following in Austin -- they might have actually moved there at one point -- so should be easy to find their stuff. Austin had a fetish for B, C and D level hard rock bands from the Seventies and early Eighties, probably because of a radio station that catered to them.

Trapeze-Medusa is really good.

My latest on Ted Nugent's holiday season spirit, or lack of it:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/11/29/ted-nugent-not-big-on-holiday-spirit/