Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

I had that a few years ago. Didn't last long until given over to trade credit. Take even more of the boogie stomp out of major label Kansas, add more prog, lose the singing voice for the radio, that was Proto-Kaw.

I don't think that's what the Bringing It Back LP is, though. Haven't played it and the debut back to back to make sure, but I'm pretty sure these are the same recordings, just in a different order.

What do you think of the Meercaz album, xhuxk? Haven't seen any mention of it anywhere else except the Gulcher site. All I know is that it's got a dude with an afro on the front and it's on Gulcher, but it's new, right? Looks acid rock.

And this might be one for the Krautrock also-rans poll, but has anyone heard the Dschinn s/t record? Might be barrel-scrapings, but I hear they did a pretty decent Sabbathy/Lone Crow-ish hard rock type thing.

Popovic Popoff gives it 6/8 in his 70's book which makes it solidly better than average but not quite spectacular. The review indicates it comes down on the side of rock, rather than art, which is usually a good thing with regards to the early-70's.

So what was it about Uriah Heep and the Midwest? Was that where their biggest market was, or something? They clearly had some bearing on certain of the louder early songs by Styx and Kansas, and I've been playing Head East's Get Yourself Up from '75, and "Jailer" turns out to be full-on unmistakable Heepish organ-sludge. "The Victim" and "Trouble," also on Side Two, are likewise loud (and, in the former case, doom-ridden) enough that I think Martin Popoff should've included the album in his '70s metal book. (As is, he only featured Head East's '79 live album, which I've never heard, though he ended with a perfectly apt line I really wished I'd written myself: "drenched in electricity, paryting like harvest is done with.") First side of Get Yourself Up (a recent used $1 purchase, with a jeep hauling an Afro-shaped load of weed on its cover) dwells in more good-timey, early-Speedwagon territory (I dunno, did R.E.O. have any Heepful moments themselves early on? I'd have check), with shore sounds opening and closing "Sailor" (rhymes with "Jailer"!) and a brief funky Afro-Caribbean percussion breakdown at the end of the ladies' choice "This Woman's In Love" -- reminds me of the Stones circa "Monkey Man," though actually Head East save their own "Monkey Shine" to open Side Two.

What do you think of the Meercaz album, xhuxk?

Marginal. Fuzzy. Unproduced. May well have actual rock songs buried in the acid fuzz, but if so they're hard to get to. So basically, I need to listen to it more. Seriously doubt I'd recommend anybody spend money on it, but I got mine for free, and it's still here. Here's what Stigliano wrote (scroll down -- though he doesn't say so outright, I get the feeling he's somewhat ambivalent as well):

http://black2com.blogspot.com/search?q=meercaz

Someone ought to reissue Get Yourself Up. It's made for Wounded Bird or that company that did the Tommy Conwell two-fer. It was mid-70's, by which time Heep was in decline, so all to the good that someone was still interested in recycling their good style.

Both Styx and Kansas went through sharp style changes. The four Wooden Nickel Styx records, and Equinox, are all organ/synth boogie records descended from the style of Heep. And to a lesser extent, Kansas was. Then Styx picked up Tommy Shaw, jettisoned one of their older guitar players, and went off into Grand Illusion territory, a lot more weighted toward getting on the radio with sappy stuff, ala "Lady." Kansas turned the corner on the past with Leftoverture.

xp Speaking of Dschinn (as ambient bangers was a few posts up), here's Metal Mike Saunders a couple months ago on another German early '70s band that Popoff mentions in his Dschinn review. (I've never heard either band myself; the opinion Metal Mike was dissenting to, as I recall, was actually George's):

i just played the entire 2nd Tiger B Smith (american pressing, cheesy thin Janus vinyl) and i have to file a wildly dissently modern opinion. it is HOOKY, top to bottom. 11 cuts/35 minutes (8 cuts are < 3:30, and the other 3 are > over 5 min; really nice mixture of track times thereof). It has a thin/distorted-pedal guitar sound kinda like 1971-72 Uriah Heep, "heavy" but nowhere heavy metal. it plays all the way through, not one tune w/o strong guitar riffs or hooks. the singing is, uh, functional (rhythm section ditto). rhythm guitar is the loudest instrument in the mix, just like early early 70's hard rock/metal album should be. it's an A- or B+++++ as Robert Christgau might opine in his 1972 front sitting-room. "every listen has given me pleasure or made me tap my foot." uh sure, Bob, tapping my foot to the The Band is my favorite pasttime suuure. why stop there? why not the 1952 Weavers? or some of those crazy Pete Seeger early solo sides? never mind, i made up that quote.

What Mike had written a couple days earlier:

i actually have/bought a 10-cent bin copy of the 2nd lp, american pressing (on Janus) at Moby Disc on ventura blvd, late 70's. funnny, it was spot-checked/audited once only, and misfiled it (forever, until just now) into the "crap, what is this?" misc uncategorized section. since it had a rather confusing cover, not clear if it was a real act or some "fake band" or "rock/disco studio creation, not a band" (as late as the late 70's, america had not yet figured out that the "fakeness" of much UK74 glitter rock was actually a badge of "authenticity," ie fake being a criterion for true UKglitter's 2nd-wave. and don't forget that lousy In-Betweens 45s. or the earliest (and lousy) Bolan and Bowie 60's 45s.

when they're actually a German heavy rock/prog rock thing that jumps into "glitter rock" in 1974 (like all the UK hasbeen/neverwas schlubs in 1973-74).

May well have actual rock songs buried in the acid fuzz, but if so they're hard to get to

As in, sounds like they're miked through a municipal aquarium's worth of murky water full of dead fish. And most feel too wobbly and sickly and unformed and mush-mouthed and aimless to be called "rock songs." But if you've got an abnormally high tolerance for, say, shittily recorded live tapes of mid '70s Ohio or Maryland accidental-punk psych-blooze guitar-and-rant lone wolves (thinking George Brigman in the latter case) trying to match Funhouse or the Groundhogs while shooting cock rockets into deep space and not quite getting it right but coming off somewhat endearing anyway, this might be up your alley. Not that it's half as meaty as Brigman or any famed Cle legends. But for something released in 2009, it's closer than you'd expect; the wah-wahs curdle recognizably even when songs are inaudible, and "Unlust," at least, could almost be some weird lost homemade punk 45 from days of yore. (Looks like the Meercaz aka Mozzley M dude plays most of the instruments, with pals helping out here and there. And yeah, his Afro photos make me want to like him.)

In other news, what the hell is a "Gydget"?

via email today:

UFO

"The Visitor" - Gydget

http://www.spv.de/gydgets/ufo-thevisitor.html

Please spread it!!!!!

See UFO live 2009

31.05. D-Gelsenkirchen - Rock Hard Festival
01.06. D-Bad Salzungen - Presswerk
03.06. D-Leipzig - Theaterfabrik
05.06. SE-Sölvesborg - Sweden Rock Festival
06.06. I-Udine (Osoppo) - 23 rd Biker Fest International
07.06. NL-Uden - Nieuwe Pul

09.06. GB-Brighton - Concorde 2
10.06. GB-Cambridge - The Junction
12.06. GB-Belfast - Spring&Airbrake
13.06. GB-Glasgow - O2 Academy
14.06. GB-Newcastle - Academy
16.06. GB-Leeds - O2 Academy
17.06. GB-Nottingham - Rock City
19.06. GB-Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall
20.06. GB-Manchester - Academy 2
21.06. GB-Bristol - O2 Academy
23.06. GB-Southampton - The Brook
24.06. GB-London - Shepards Bush Empire

26.06. D-Speyer - Halle 101
27.06. D-Ulm - Ulmer Zelt
28.06. B-Dessel - Graspop Metal Meeting
03.07. D-Mössingen - Mössingen Rockt!
30.07. D-Wacken - Wacken Open Air
07.08. GB-Stratford Upon Avon - Bulldog Bash

Are they worth seeing without M. Schenker? They had one of the alltime great runs of LPs from '74 to '79. Damn was some of that stuff awesome.

What's important is they do the songs from the Schenker period, particularly "Too Hot," "Only You Can Rock Me," "Rock Bottom," etc. That said, they've done live stuff for their last couple CDs which includes 'the hits' and while I haven't kept up (I already have the entire UFO catalog up until they first called it quits, which includes all the material with Schenker's replacement, who was pretty good), it should be simple to check used. The guitarist they currently have was one of the hot shot late-Eighties US shredders, I think.

I just looked at that tour schedule and noticed that it's only a European tour. but i would definitely see them now. I grew up in Chicago in the 70s and 80s and they were absolutely huge there, though I don't think they put much of a dent in the US market otherwise.

UFO accrued an impressive reputation live. That, in turn, along with Schenker as one of the first emerging metal guitar heroes, kept the label -- Chrysalis -- really interested in them. Ron Nevison was brought on as a producer to give them more of a guiding hand and it certainly worked for Lights Out and my favorite in the cat, Obsession. That's about where they peaked, along with Strangers In the Night, the live album. However, it's gotta be noted that George Martin produced their next studio record, the first after Schenker left and was replaced by Paul Chapman. That was No Place to Run and it's a very listenable record. There you start hearing more of the band's fannish enjoyment of Bruce Springsteen, believe it or not. Actually, you could start hearing it on No Heavy Petting when they covered Frankie Miller who was a Bruce Springteen-esque Brit guy.

Then they entitled an album The Wild, the Willing & the Innocent which was not at all like Jersey rock. The final one before the first break-up was Making Contact, and that's a favorite of mine, too. Some great hard rock songs on it; Phil Mogg does a tremendous job putting them over. But the heart of the catalog is still from Force It to Obsession and Strangers in the Night.

At one point, I think Chrysalis started pushing the Babys ca. 76-81 and it caused some friction because UFO thought, naturally, they had been there first and were doing better material. There are some merits to this argument, but the Babys got the grease toward the Eighties, were sent Keith Olsen to produce, and he put them on the radio with a couple hit singles, something UFO never enjoyed.

Interesting. Ive never heard of the Babys but they should be post #1 on the terrible names thread.

Strangers in the Night absolutely smokes.

You never heard "Midnight Rendezvous"? That was their e-ticket, John Waite and the boys dressed in black plastic gayware on the cover of Union Jacks. Actually, they were a pretty good band, early distinctly in the vein of Free. Then it was mandated they appeal more to girls and such, hence the 80's black shiny black plastic clothes for the sake of a presumed coolness. I bet John Waite flinches when he sees that now.

The Babys send album also has a cover to make you flinch. They were definitely pushed as pretty boys, similar to John Waite's 'look' when he went solo. Although it's hard to take him seriously as something girls'd want to wrap around.

Ironhouse self-titled album, 1979 (also cost $1) -- Being portly past-their-prime Canucks, these Randy Bachman-led bufflo-bisons naturally get made fun of by Popoff, but I'd say this album is more subtle than he lets on, inasmuch as BTO alumni can be subtle. The obvious new wave ketchup moves are fun (deadpan backup vox in dance-oriented "Jump Into The Light," weird "Roland synthesizer guitar" effects in "Stateline Blues"); I like how the single "Sweet Lui-Luise" (just barely went Top 40 in the States, and vaguely recall it getting some minimal AOR airplay in Detroit at the time) so unashamedly recycles Randy's old riff from "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", and like Popoff points out, "Old Fashioned" (great title for old farts) and "There Ain't No Cure" are legitimately heavy, in ways BTO may or may not have even been themselves. Could see some latter-day cowpunks like say Restless Kelly killing for a tune like "Tumbleweed," which is partly built around a "Gudbuy T'Jane" riff, proving once and for all that BTO were the Slade of Canada. Hearty meat-and-tater riffs throughout, in fact.

More Canucks: Headpins, Line Of Fire, 1985, actually splurged and paid $2 (!) for this one based on a couple people's recommendations on this board and elsewhere, and while I wouldn't say it's quite worth that exorbidant amount, it's definitely worth a buck at least and hence a keeper. Get the idea I might've liked it more had it been recorded a few years earlier (never heard the band's '82 debut -- they were a Chilliwack spinoff apparently); as is, you can really detect the codifying of early-MTV/pre-hair '80s metal in the arrangements and songwriting. As such bands fronted by pretty girls go (Jasper and Oliver on the scratchy screecher here: "the delicious Darby Mill, who makes Kate Bush seem positively unattractive"), 1994 or Shakin' Street's hooks packed considerably more idiosyncatic punch. But the songs all rock regardless, side openers in particular. "Mine, All Mine" even seems to have a little bit of Girlschool's version of "Live With Me" hidden in it somewhere. Nifty hockey hair as well!

My gut feeling was that Turn It Loud, the debut -- was a bit better. Sort of the
same as Shakin' Street, in which the French debut was a bit better than the US remake and add-on with Ross the Boss and Sandy Pearlman producing, although the latter was way more common.

Headpins probably not as good as 1984, another in the delicious female front sweepstakes. Also suffered a dropoff for the second.

I actually like both Shakin Street and 1994 LPs; hard to imagine judging from that followup that Headpins' debut could be nearly as classy as either of those other bands's second ones, but I'll still pick it up if I see it for a buck.

Biggest surprise on Derringer from 1976 (also $1) is the almost-disco band-funk track "Envy" at the end of side one; Rick was a Celina boy, guarantee he was digging the Ohio Players then. Best and hardest rocking tracks, though, are "Sailor" (better than the Head East song with that title) and "Beyond The Universe," in the middle of side two. And actually, he'd always been pretty funky in his own way to begin with, as I recall. Can't believe nobody gave me shit for not including any Derringer LPs in Stairway (just had "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" as the #82 single, jeez).

I'm sure I've knobbed about Derringer previously. And I'm also positive I mentioned Derringer reissues in Rolling Hard Rock the year before. I was going to mention the new Derring Live in Cleveland, which was a radio gig at the Agora promoting the first album. Blue Sky probably only made it available as a promo to radio because Derringer Live, which is about the same but including material from Sweet Evil was what the formal release was. It's on Wounded Bird which occasionally resurrects things which were never issued domestically when they were fresh.

Anyway, every Derringer band album smokes, the first and fourth being the most pop. Popovic disses the first one but he doesn't much like things like songcraft which the first really hits drills on. You mentioned "Envy." There's "Let Me In" which is great, and the double wah-wah incineration duel on "Sailor." "Across the Universe" is the 130+ beats per minute see what we can do with our fingers thing.

Me from the 2007 thread:

Derringer Live is a fairly hot example of what the guy was doing in the mid-70's, which was be in a band, as opposed to solo. Danny Johnson is on second guitar so there's a lot of shit hot axe dueling, like on "Across the Universe." "Sailor" is a fairly good slice of hard and fast rock with hook and great wah-wah solo to the beat in the middle. Version of "Teenage Love Affair" is good, too. "Hootchie Koo" is long, drawn out for concert show-boating. The band was great if you saw 'em, completely thrashing Aerosmith at the Spectrum when Steve & Joe were getting into their totally wasted before going onstage habits.

However, this didn't translate to sales. Proving ground for Danny Johnson and Vinnie Appice who went off to Axis who did the very Derringer-like "It's A Circus World and I'm an Animal." That lasted a few months and then Appice was in Black Sabbath.

Rick Derringer replaced them with Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher, who'd in turn get lifted for Pat Benatar's band, the rest of which is history. Before that Derringer did "If You Weren't So Romantic I'd Shoot You" with them which is as good, often much better than the first.

Searching isn't exact on ILX no matter how improved, so I can't resurrect all the material I'm sure I addressed.

Headpins surely don't outclass 1994 but for cheap it's worth a listen or more.

Here's something to read and it has nothing to do with music or hard rock but I didn't
know where else to put it. I offered a story on torturing of people in the war on terror to the Village Voice, based on my experience with it as per my involvement as a consultant to a famous terror trial in 2005. In the process of making themselves most attractive for New Times,
the Village Voice turned it down. "We don't do stories like that anymore," I was told. Yeah, good call. Being New Times attractive didn't help. They were all fired anyway.

Now here we are today with the New York Review of Books and the Obama administration, and many others, revealing in unexpurgated terms what a lot of people knew was happening years ago but couldn't get into print because we have such a 'free' press.

Sorry for the side track. Back to the regular program. Don't be troubled.

Boy, and this is absolute fact, I put on Derringer right before this! A bang up record
ended and I thought I'd take a moment doing something else. Now I'll put on the new Boxmasters CDs.

Cool to see you guys talking about Headpins, they were a good band. Saw them a couple times in the mid-80s (once opening for Helix in '85, a terrific Can-Rock bill), and have been cranking "Just one More Time" on the mp3 player as of late. My favourite tune of theirs.

Their first album was really big in Canada, "Don't it Make Yoou Feel" was a huge single, while their third album was a lot slicker, with a synth-heavy, Fairbairn-esque gloss to it.

"We don't do stories like that anymore"

At least they're honest, though it's surpising they'd be so blunt about it. But yeah, pieces like the one you pitched are one of the things that went by the wayside as soon as Michael Lacey took over. I need to catch up with the Banner New York Review Of Books that somebody linked to from your blog. For what it's worth, today's NYT front-pager on the interrogation memos actually managed to work the word "torture" way up in the third graph. Jumped to almost a full page on A-10 inside, including a large sidebar chart detailing techniques, rationalizations, and permitted combinations.

Back to hard rock, there was a little discussion on another thread today on '90s stuff by D Generation and Hoodoo Gurus, based on songs I'd put on a mix tape for myself over a decade ago. The D Generation song referred to is "Capitol Offender"; James K Polk says later the (far better) Hoodoo Gurus track "Mind the Spider," sadly, was uncharacteristic for them:

Song Lists From Ancient Mix Cassettes I Just Pulled Out Of Storage After Several Years

What do you folks think of The Answer's Everyday Demons? I reviewed it for Outburn, some really solid "kids doing classic rock" stuff with some catchy songs and good riffs, but a little too much filler and modern rock influence. Definitely some keepers on it, especially the opening track, "Demon Eyes," which Kirk Miller in decibel panned as being too much like The Darkness, but to me it has a ridiculously catchy chorus and that's good enough.

I like the Answer's album; here's what I wrote about it for Spin:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/answer-everyday-demons-end

And what the heck; also did the new Datsuns album (which I don't like nearly as much) for them:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/datsuns-headstunts-cooking-vinyl

The new hard rock band album I've liked most lately is the one by Last Vegas, who are scheduled to open Motley Crue's tour. Haven't decided yet how much I like it, but I definitely like it a lot more than Crue's album from last year.

And the new Cobra Verde album (worse than the Answer or Last Vegas, but better than the Datsuns. Also worse than at least a couple previous Cobra Verde not to mention Death of Samantha albums):

http://www.blender.com/guide/new/55405/havent-slept-all-year.html

But yeah, pieces like the one you pitched are one of the things that went by the wayside as soon as Michael Lacey took over.

Which is why we're in a pickle now. "Not doing stories like that" guys aren't so shit
hot as watchdogs. Eh, prisoners being tortured in dungeons? Borrring. BTW, the Village Voice's website is almost as awful as that of the LA Times. It's the we're so desperate will screw it up with so many flash and scripting ads you'll think your computer just hung. "Meet New York Sex Bloggers," "Hot for Teacher: Sex with a Naughty Professor," "There's a Hot Lesbian Party and You're Not Invited," "The Raw Intensity of New York's Elite Youth Basketball," "Teens Grapple with Rihanna and Cris Brown," Ask a Mexican, a column by a guy who lives in Orange County, the Off Broadway version of The Toxic Avenger, the rich/poor gap is the largest in 17 years (that's really astute), etc...

The new hard rock band album I've liked most lately is the one by Last Vegas, who are scheduled to open Motley Crue's tour

They won a Guitar Center contest/promotion which involved a shopping spree at GC, too. And that amounts to quite a windfall of good fortune.

Hoo boy, xhuxk. The Datsuns, damned by faint praise.

BTW, here's the next torture thing on a mirror blog I'm running off the DD domain. It trails the original by a few minutes but was necessary because Blogger has become more and more unreliable and fraught with 'oh, snap!' moments if you use it to publish to a server not under the control of Google. Which is what a lot of people do with their own domain.

Anyway, it's WordPress and while I've not used it long enough to comment, I would recommend people stay away from Blogger if they're serious about long-term use under their own
name or on their private net property.

More torture!

Busboys American Worker (released 1982, purchased for $1 2009) is, as I've heard rumoured for more than a quarter century, a definite failed AOR (out of Chuck Berry-styled new wave) move by a black band dressed like Louis Jordan (and also like actual busboys I guess), though the only remotely heavy (as in say Living Colour-precursor) cuts are the excellent "Yellow Lights" and especially "I Get Lost" on Side Two. Otherwise, a surf semi-parody, some (slightly Thin Lizzy inspired?) protest reggae corn ("Opportunity"), and sundry attempts at corporate fake-wave, Tommy Tutone/early Huey Lewis-style -- most notably Chin/Chapman-written hard-pop "Heart And Soul," which Exile had taken to #103 in Billboard the year before and Huey himself would take to #8 a year later. All of which is News (nyuk nyuk) to me; always assumed it was a Huey original. Guess they just kept throwing it bands til they finally found one that could make a hit out of it.

Oh yeah, title track "American Worker" probably a failed attempt at having a populist early-Reagan-era recession "Working For The Weekend" type anthem: "In every American city/In every American town/Let's go dancing/We work hard all week/To put some money in our pockets/Now we can afford to dance to the beat." Which just goes to show that black guys could write blue-collar rock lyrics as dumb as any white guy.

Also totally missing the punchlines (the one where whites move in so there goes the neighborhood, the one where they join the KKK, the one where "I bet you never heard music like this by spades") of their '80 debut. So not as good, but I still like it. (First album charted higher -- #85 to #139, so the sellout didn't work. Their closest thing to a "hit" didn't come til '84, with #68 "Cleanin Up The Town" off the Ghostbusters soundtrack.)

I just spent four days hanging around Dublin and Belfast with The Answer. They're good guys and put on a great live show; the bassist is their secret weapon. Whenever the main riff seems pedestrian, check him out - chances are he'll be doing some crazed Entwistle/Geezer Butler spinoff thing in his corner. The drummer's a monster, too, played for almost two weeks with an undiagnosed broken hand until finally having to cancel a gig on Monday night. I agree they incorporate a few too many modern rock influences in some of their songs, but at least they've got a rhythm section that actually rocks (and swings), which is more than most big-selling rock bands can say these days. The first album, Rise, is good too, though not released in the U.S. (it's from 2006, and there's a double-disc deluxe edition at this point filled with acoustic versions, live tracks, covers etc.), and they're selling a live EP on tour that includes some guest vocal work by Paul Rodgers. They'll be back in the summer, still opening the AC/DC tour but in outdoor stadiums this time with a third act added to the bill. Current contenders in Rumorland include Jet or possibly the new incarnation of Wolfmother.

I like The Answer a lot more than Wolfmother. At least the rocking doesn't seem like a pose with them. And while rock 'n roll doesn't necessarily need to be "authentic," it's always nice when the group seems like they actually love what they do.

Not sure why you'd doubt that Wolfmother love what they do (hey, it beats milking kangaroos, right?), but maybe you know something about them I don't. (Never read an interview with them. Just figured they were a mediocre hard rock band, and hard to hate, just like their countrymen Jet; there are far more worthy targets out there, as far as I can tell.)

Played the Last Vegas album twice in a row all the way through yesterday, and it just keeps sounding better to me. The hooks really sink in. When's the last time there was a sleaze/glam album this good -- 15, 20 years? Second Faster Pussycat album maybe?
(Not sure whether Love/Hate or Cinderella's Still Climbing or The Spaghetti Incident? count; anything else obvious I'm not thinking of?)

I haven't heard the Last Vegas album, but I liked both of the first two Buckcherry discs.

I liked those okay (and their last one too actually), but the Last Vegas album is much, much better than any of those. (Also better than the more garagey indie album they put out themselves a couple years ago, which I may or may not still have in a storage box in my closet.)

Well, you know I don't trust you at all when you use words like "better," but I'll maybe check it out in an idle moment.

Also better than those Buck Cherry albums (which were ridiculously spotty, truth be told -- they could use a best-of someday if that ballad hit last year didn't suck so bad): Michael Stanley Band, Heartland (1980, $1). George had made me a real good CD-R called The Thumbnail Michael Stanley a few years back, highlighting what I took to be his hardest rocking songs, but the only one from this LP that's on there seems to be his early-Bryan Adams/Rick Springfield-type hard pop smash "He Can't Love You" (Stanley's biggest hit -- went to #33) -- which might not even be the best track here, and definitely isn't the hardest rocking. Really like the tough Diddley beat "Working Again," the even bigger-rhythmed "Voodoo," and the midwestern praire rocker (as in Head East/REO) "Save A Little Piece For Me" (where "save a little piece" sounds more like "sentimental bitch"). And "All I Ever Wanted" hits me as some kind of middle ground between Mitch Ryder (he's listening to a Detroit station, like when Mitch covered the Velvets' "Rock and Roll") and Eddie Money nostalgia classics like "Take Me Home Tonight" from a few years later. A couple extremely furry mustaches in the band, too. Still doesn't seem to have broken them far beyond Cleveland much more than momentarily, though. (On the CD-R that George made, last time I checked, my favorite tracks were "Rosewood Bitters" -- Joe Walsh on guitar I believe, "Heavy Weight," "He Can't Love You," "Hard Time," near-hit "My Town," and "Fire In The Hole.")

Wolfmother always seemed like they were going through the motions to me, like "Look at us, we are playing rock music, please to give us record deal." Just never really struck me as having a rock 'n roll soul, and you can usually tell when bands are forcing it.

Tried really hard to connect with Jackson Highway's 1980 self-titled LP on Capitol (also $1), thanks to the timely title "Rock And Roll Man (Hung Up On A Disco Girl)," but after a few listens I'm convinced Jasper and Oliver were right in dismissing them as "very commerical Southern boogie, not hard enough to stand alongside other outfits in the genre." Except they can't stand alongside the the best commercial stuff in the genre (like say .38 Special) either, plus they're as much would-be late '70s Seger (sans songs or hooks) as would-be Southern rock, to my ears. The closing track with a bunch of Blackfoot guys guesting on it is long (4:43) but not especially brutal; deadliest thing on the LP is probably the guitar-squall intro of "Hook, Line And Sinker." "Nobody To Love" (in which the singer can't find nobody to love) plays fast and loose with double negatives. Buddy Holly "Rave On" cover is just passable. Rock guy dealing with disco song, best thing on the album, could afford a funkier beat.

Truth be told, a track or two on that Bus Boys LP I blurbed about a few posts up come closer to heavy Southern boogie rock (in the Mother's Finest sense in Bus Boys' case) than anything by Jackson Highway.

This is my jam right now. 1971 hit Australian single I'd never heard before a friend of mine put it on a mixed CD for me. Sounds like the Bob Seger System mellowing out to some Canned Heat or something. Or Brownsville Station on a beach Whatever it is, I played it six times in a row while cleaning out my basement last weekend.

(sorry I didn't read enough of this thread to know if this fits. just the australian bands mentioned above + "past expiry" made me think of this)

Yep, I bought a (early '80s reissue) 12-inch of that for $1 last month, too. Didn't get it at first, but I came around. This is from another thread:

amazed to learn "Eagle Rock," which is really no great shakes, was a gigantic hit in 1971 in Australia, where it somehow topped the charts for ten weeks. Maybe I'll force-feed it to myself a couple more times, but I doubt it'll hit. (Copyright on my 12-inch single says '82, so I guess it's possible this is a re-recording.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 12 April 2009 01:14

Turns out Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock" does have some kind of archival riff and primal structure to it, best overheard loud from the next room over after a couple beers (which is how it was probably often heard in Australia at the time, I bet.) So not as great a pub-boogie single as say "Teenage Head" or "Smokin' In the Boys Room," but still not bad. (And the lyrics to their B-side "Daddy Rocks Off" basically go something like "boogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie boogie.")

― xhuxk, Monday, 13 April 2009 16:06

Has great rhythm thump and guitar turnarounds without being heavy. Song used in the opening sequence of "Wolf Creek", Australia's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," mostly for its bonhommie in the car with three students, one guys/two girls, on their way for a tour after a night of excessive drinking and barfing with friends.

― Gorge, Thursday, 16 April 2009 02:59

(Actually bought it for 50 cents. Not that anybody cares.)

THERE IS A NEW UFO ALBUM COMING OUT.

not that i really care...

In constructing this new album, legendary rock icons UFO composed more than 35 new tracks in advance of hitting the studio, 13 of which were short-listed and produced at the studio, and 10 of them making the final cut. The final product; the band's new album, The Visitor.

The current UFO lineup continues to consist of the three original members, Phil Mogg (vocals), Paul Raymond (guitar, keyboards), and Andy Parker (drums), as well as American world-class guitarist Vinnie Moore. Bass legend and original member Pete Way is currently suffering from a liver disease and was unfortunately not available for the studio production.

"All those who have been into UFO for a long time will find all our characteristic trademarks on The Visitor, and anybody new to the band will be impressed by our enthusiasm and dynamism," frontman Phil Mogg enthuses on the subject of the new songs. The Visitor sees the band benefiting especially from their collaboration with Vinnie Moore, who joined UFO in autumn 2003 and has made an excellent impression on the albums You Are Here (2004) and The Monkey Puzzle (2006), and on the band’s tours. Mogg continues,"Without running down previous UFO lineups, it's been a long time since we had a team as strong as this one. Vinnie contributes his youthful energy and amazing guitar technique, and in Andy's return we've seen the reappearance of a musician who has always been very important to the band's original sound."

Cracks me up that you guys were already talking about Eagle Rock this month. Guess I should have done a search. It was a grower with me too - took me a few times now I can't get enough.

chuck, have you ever heard/owned the Buster album I bought last weekend. mid-70's glam rock/pop. do a killer cover of Born To Be Wild. You would love it.

I saw Cherry Bombz once! Dire. Throw it in the bin.

now playing:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s48598.jpg

wasn't sure if that would show up. only album by Growl. it rocks. on the zappa label DiscReet for some reason. 1974. seriously scuzzy black oak take on "hound dog". if you are gorge or chuck you need this if you don't have it already. same with the baby album, actually. would have loved to see a baby/growl/jukin' bone triple bill. all serious as a heart attack grunge bands.

Hah, skot. You got me listening to Baby. You could only write a song called "Born & Raised on Rock 'n' Roll" and carry it off unselfconsciously back then, God bless 'em, they were full of enthusiasm and great vim.

How did it go so wrong? Their second album was called "Where Did All the Money Go?"

Spontaneous Combustion giving me a Brit pastiche feeling, some early semi-prog, some hippie psyche feeling, one song sounds like early Who, and a lot of Captain Beyond except with a high-voiced singer. They were probably pre Captain Beyond, right?

yeah, the two spontaneous combustion albums are like 69/70. something like that. the only stuff i've heard from the first album is whatever is on youtube. seems more drifty psych. greg lake produced the first album for them.

it's a sound a find addictive. those rural prog guitar jams. its why i adore the first three or four wishbone ash albums so much. they could go in and out of the clouds, but still hit you hard when they wanted to.

turns out that tony brock the drummer from spontaneous combustion was in the babys later on. he was also in the early 70's hard rock band strider. i wanna hear their records.

i lied, of course. according to rateyourmusic both albums came out in 1972? now i'm confused. okay, 1972 then.

these are lists of some of the favorite albums of Japanese noise music legend Merzbow! he's got great taste!

* East of Eden East of Eden
* Van Der Graaf Generator H to He, Who Am the Only One
* Brian David's Every Which Way (same)
* Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick
* Spontaneous Combustion Triad
* King Crimson Earthbound
* Warm Dust Peace For Our Time
* Gentle Giant Acquiring the taste
* Can Landed
* Peter Green End of the Game

The Frost - Frost Music
The Fraternity of Man - s/t
Savoy Brown - Lion's Share
Man - Do You Like It Here Now
Roky Erickson - Don't Slander Me
Cromagnon - Elliot/Grasmere Connecticut Tribe
Godz - 2
Ten Years After - Live at Fillmore East
Butterfield Blues Band - East West
The Seeds - s/t

Man and East Of Eden are two other bands that mined the same ground as Spontaneous Combustion. i love that east of eden s/t album on harvest. merzbow and i have a lot in common.

Listened to the live disc of "Slade at the Beeb" earlier on - an Xmas gift. It slays, of course. Noddy seems to be struggling to get the audience to work with him, and the sleeve notes explain that a lot of them were pensioners left over from the (easy listening) Jimmy Young show.

I've been thinking of getting that with Xmas money. Saviy Brown's Lion's Share? That's the album SB were touring in support of when they made the Live in Central LP later released on Relix, an album that contains some of their most pulverizing live boogie licks. One of singer Dave Walker's best performances, as well as the rhythm section which was just on fire. Killing version of the Marcus-Hook Roll Band's "Shot In the Head," also on the studio plat.

Was Tsunami Bomb considered a good mall punk band?

Why were the New Christs and all those other Birdman spinoff bands in Australia supposed to be giving a new-Detroit sound?

Didn't it have something to do with this (from New Race's myspace page)?: "New Race was made up of ex-MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson,ex-Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and three former members of Radio Birdman (Rob Younger, Deniz Tek and Warwick Gilbert). They toured Australia once in 1981." Also, Tek himself was from Ann Arbor. So everybody assumed that Radio Birdman and the hundred bands that followed in their wake sounded like they came from Detroit. Which was not actually true. (New Christs were basically a powerpop band, as I recall. Had a 45 once. Oh wait, I also reviewed a reunion CD from a couple years back; and okay, I wasn't past throwing in a couple Detroit reference points):

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-03-02/music/music/1

Yeah, there was a good deal of chiming Brit invasion guitar in the album, along with the Doors thing sans keyboard, so powerpop kinda fits. I remember having a review copy of that Smog Veil release and passing on it after a few listens.

Btw, speaking of Aussies who cover the MC5 and Stooges (also the Cramps fwiw), that Grong Grong CD that Scott's been touting like crazy in these parts takes a couple listens, but sounds pretty wacky and crazed guitar-noise-wise on the way and eventually something resembling tunes sink in. Can definitely hear Flipper in the anvil-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea bass throb, but who they mostly remind me of (mainly wrongly, since I haven't heard the latter for ages) is their fellow marsupials from a few years later, Feedtime. Definitely more artsy Killdozey blues-gunk rock than hard rock though. Pick hit: "Grong Grong," their theme song.

grong grong!

that OTHER reissue i got of the kryptonics stuff starts out very underwhelming. like, the first 4 or 5 songs. so much so that i wasn't even gonna listen to the whole thing. which would have been a big mistake. the first incarnation of the band was kinda bad jangly mod garage stuff, but the later line-ups get rocking big time. much brawnier, gnarlier solos, etc. lotsa detroit love action. the liner notes are written by the main dude in the band and he said a big moment for him and others in australia was hearing "city slang" for the first time.

i've really enjoyed listening to feedtime this year, by the way. i didn't listen to them much way back when.

i need records by the australian X. i never see them though. there is a live one ebay for 15 bucks.

gorge you need to start a new thread! are you awake?

It's only 5:30 here in the City of Roses, Scott. I'm having a bag of microwave popcorn, some iced tea and
deciding what to burn to CD from my ill gotten gains.

but according to ilm it's january 1st!

we are on britisher time or something.

7:56 in Austin. About to crack open my first Stella, warm up some fettucini, and decide which Netflixed TV series to watch episodes from (State Of Play, Breaking Bad, or Veronica Mars).

Were Feedtime's albums reissued recently, Scott, or did you find used ones? I listened to Shovel a ton circa 1987, then reviewed their covers LP Cooper S in the Voice a year later, but inexplicably got rid of both as part of the great pigfuck purge a few years after. Surprised you've found their records easier to find than the Oz X's, whose X-Aspirations from 1979 has been reissued at least twice in the past decade -- in 2001 on Rocknroll Blitzkrieg/Now! (whatever that is) in the U.S., and in 2008 on Aztec Music down under. I'd say it's good not great, but you've inspired me to pull my copy back out.

Well, I just made the thread but can't find it at the top. Great stuff, I tell ya.

xp Uh...not Stella. Harpoon. (I don't have beer on draught at home, duh.)

Did it again. Here 'tis for the sake of the Britishes. ILM safety features, I guess.

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

i am drinking coffee and black & tans (made of guinness and bass).

i just saw shovel on vinyl for CHEAP and i feel stupid now for not picking it up even though i have a copy. it's pricey online. i don't think its on cd.

and yeah i had a used EP (that i liked but i sold it in the store) and a used shovel which i'm keeping cuz i like it. never heard the later album. the later one sells for cheap online.

okay, it's to the new thread i go!