Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

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.

Bands who had their heydey in the '70s (and UFO was fucking awesome) always go overboard in trying to say that their newest album is a return to form.

RIP Pete Way

the album by New Adventures i bought was kinda cool too. 1980. thought it was gonna be more punk pop, but it's definitely got more of a rockin' soloin' vibe. they were dutch, i think. they just got new wave haircuts is all. the titles tell it all: drive me wild, spacelab cowboy, if your mamma don't like it, rock & roll woman, back to the pit.

Bands who had their heydey in the '70s (and UFO was fucking awesome) always go overboard in trying to say that their newest album is a return to form.

The most recent Uriah Heep album was pretty solid.

I need to listen to that new Uriah record. (Was actually thinking of tracking through it on Rhapsody yesterday, but I am always slow when it comes to on-line listening.)

Have never heard Buster, Scott. Will keep my eyes peeled, though!

i'm listening again, and the Buster album is a dream. Such amazing production. And such an uncanny mix of awesome 60s-era sunshine pop and 70's glam. It doesn't hurt that my copy is a super-clean british rca pressing. don't know if it came out in the states, but if it did it was probably on crappy dynaflex vinyl. the guitars and the drum break on born to be wild are friggin' awe-inspiring.

Pete Way apparently not dead yet. But unable to get back into the US because of the war
on terror.

I'm guessing what happened is: Like many British rockers, Pete has a few drunk driving, drunk & fighting, drunken disorderly, or drunk with drugs in the US. Petty stuff when no one cared and the label, Chrysalis, had a lawyer to come down pay your bail, work out any outstanding warrants and convince a judge you weren't a threat to society. Same with Phil Mogg who had trouble getting into the US a few years ago on the same thing.

So Pete leaves the US to record and play back in England with Waysted. And now not only is he sick, but he can't get through Homeland Security because DHS now routinely denies entry to anyone who has or once had the taint of undesirable or a history of arrests. I'm wagering this is now commonplace and if you're not wealthy and famous and with big lawyer, like f'r instance,
Ozzy or what's left of the Stones, this is now a huge hassle for old rock musicians. And it would probably be worth a news story.

GWOT collateral damage: Old Brit drunks denied entry into US as potential terrorists.

Actually, I'm surprised Pete Townshend can still get into the US. I bet his lawyer is always busy.

It's too bad about Pete Way, both the illness and the visa troubles. I have a couple buddies in the music business who know him somewhat well, and they say he is an absolutely great guy.

Well my attempts to get a response about this guy hasn't provoked anything on the Dadrock thread.

http://www.winterband.com/

I'm hoping this inspires some Fussell-styled analysis from Dick Destiny. Used to live nearby this guy. Wild.

Best song titles:

9. Trinity Schminity
13. Jesus Ain't No Hippie

He really doesn't go for the father/son/holy ghost thing.

Also, uppity women:

We were honored to be able to give a CD to Senator Zell Miller and he was kind enough to let us take a picture with him and drummer Philip (and to give permission for us to put it here).

For the couple of fans of Dave Gilbert, the Rockets and New Order, Dennis Thompson has a new blog and explains how DG messed up a showcase in front of Mercury Records. Neal Merryweather even makes an experience at the Starwood.

Here. For those who don't know, Gilbert left New Order and was taken up by the Rockets. The Rockets' second album featured a semi-FM smash, "Oh Well." A little success went to the head. Subsequent albums, while good, did not get as much traction. Gilbert became more erratic, eventually derailing the band. Mostly known for being big in bars around Detroit. Truly a great classic rock 'n roll voice. Dead now.

As for Winterband, hmmm, there's a lot of heavy crazy in the US now. F'r instance, fits right in with the special manias of the Lehigh Valley Biblical Neo-Nazi, the scripture-spouting anti-union ex-union steward.

These are the class of people, now almost all the GOP or loosely associated with it, who voted for decades to instate as leaders the people who've wrecked the economy and made the American brand name into a joke. For reasons difficult to explain other than just plain stupidity and susceptibility to manipulation, instead of now hating on those who've done the dirty
work, they hate on the allegedly Godless, or homos, people they think want to take their guns, union workers, 'socialists,' 'commernists' or other people in their same economic slice.

If you lived in Italy prior to WWII maybe you'd have something pungent to say about this, seeing how Benito Mussolini seems to be the kind of savior they're looking for. In fact, the end of Mussolini's power could be a metaphor for the GOP now. The rest of Italy sensibly refused to fight the Allies after the Sicily landings, forcing the Wehrmacht to take over and employ Otto Skorzeny to rescue the Duce. Except the GOP has no modern Otto Skorzeny, no Wehrmacht to reconstitute the old law and order.

Talked about this a little in Rolling Country, too: The cosmic illogic of John Rich pushing his Detroit song on Sean Hannity's America.

Completely different than when Pete Seeger went around singing "This Land is Your Land."

Okay, I'm now COMPLETELY obsessed with "Eagle Rock" -- insidious earworm! Googling turns up an alternate early video, a boozy reunion version, and animated Wiggles. But here's how to play it on the balafon:

xp For what it's worth, I edited or oversaw pieces at both the Voice and Billboard (connected to a Cat Stevens a/k/a Yusuf Islam cover story in the latter case) about foreign musicians having Visa problems post-9/11, but George is right -- a piece specifically about aging, now fifth-tier rock guys whose terrorism-unrelated civil misdeeds are being used aginst them, and who can't afford to fight it, surely seems like it could be interesting.

Speaking of UFO, I got an advance of the new album in the mail yesterday, and made it about halfway through it. A couple songs seemed okay (third one was even fast I think), but I can't say they were exactly holding my attention. Nice guitar parts here and there, though. I'll get back to it eventually.

Did listen a couple times today though to this $1 album Spitballs, which came out on Beserkley in '78 and has all the wimps and weirdos on the roster (Modern Lovers, Greg Kihn Band, Earthquake, Rubinoos, and UK pub rock guy Sean Tyla, supposedly, though no names are credited on my domestic copy) covering their favorite '50s and '60s oldies. Guess the label was the cloesest thing to a Stiff in the U.S.; the camaraderie feels comparable to me (and I read once that Earthquake had recorded a cover of Ian Dury's "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll"; not sure if it ever saw the light of day). Favorite spitballs are mostly versions of songs I never heard before or at least never thought that much about -- "Gino Is A Coward" (?), "Over & Over" (Bobby Day?),
"Let Her Dance" (Bobby Fuller Four sort of imitating Buddy Holly I think), "I Want Her So Bad" (no idea, but it's easily the most punk rock thing on the album.) Most mainstream-'70s-hard-boogie cuts are probably "Knock On Wood" and "Feel Too Good," the latter credited to Roy Wood so I assume it's a Move number. And the rendition of the Who's "Boris The Spider" make it seem like an Alice Cooper precursor. Side closers are "Telstar" and "Batman," pretty neat.

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!