Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

I reinstalled the turntable a couple weeks ago and have been actually using it more than the CD player.

Last night's playlist:

Dave Edmunds Rockpile

Ten Years After Rock 'n' Roll Music to the World Boo! 'Choo Choo Mama had developed a skip.

First side of Humble Pie's Eat It "Good Booze and Bad Women" and "Drugstore Cowboy" were the highlites.

First side of Nugent's Double Live Gonzo: "Just What the Doctor Ordered" (St. Holmes' only vocal on the thing, I think), "Yank Me Crank Me," "Gonzo" and "Baby Please Don't Go."
Boy, Ted's rhythms were faster back then, particularly on the last.

"In my mailbox this week: a two-DVD set by Deep Purple including tons of performance footage by all four lineups from '68-'76"

Very cool

It's not bad. Garagey, crude and angry-primitive. I like it better than the Nugent live thing, though that's got its merits too; nice version of "Wango Tango" and a briefly diverting run through various guitarists' styles and/or trademark riffs (Chuck Berry, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, a few others). He's still pretty fast.

I just tried out Ten Years After for the first time this week; downloaded Ssssh. Didn't care for it - too much psychedelic foofery, not enough raw blues-rock madness. Do I need contemporaneous live recordings instead?

get undead, or cricklewood green, or watt, or a space in time, or recorded live, or rock & roll music to the world.

yeah, get recorded live. the double album. that's got some serious jams.

Get Recorded Live and skip right to "I'm Going Home." That's the most crunching high velocity version of it. Plus, there's lots of blooz thud and guitar craziness on the rest of the double.

I suspect you'd also like Undead which is TYA's first live recording, done at a small club, Klooks Kleek, which was part of the British blues boom. It's raw and shows off a lot of jazz noise, something Lee was into but which he downplayed once he became an arena god.

"Boogie On" from Alvin Lee & Co. is also a great thing to hear in this vein.

A Space In Time has TYA's most famous song, "I'd Love to Turn You On" -- but that isn't really a hard rock number, having been mostly used for flavoring as a song in Vietnam-era, or harkening back to Vietnam-era, movies.

Scott and I concur.

i never bought that live at the fillmore set that came out. i'll bet i'd love it though.

did i mention that i love ten years after.

stonedhenge is actually my fave album, but i'm not recommending that one on purpose. cuz that album has a whole different vibe compared to most of their albums.

I have the Fillmore set. It's really almost identical to Recorded Live, only
much longer. You would definitely like it although it's not critical since you have all the other LPs.

Ten Years Later was also a great album, although the original band was gone.

this is what i was loving yesterday:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CeTfgCKjnlo/Rp_oZxCZN_I/AAAAAAAAAcI/nUuMOZII2Hs/s320/Canned_Heat_-_Hallelujah_-_Front.jpg

some seriously cool guitar on that record.

All right, I'll give Recorded Live a listen. Thanks!

you might want to rent that isle of wight festival documentary too. they are awesome in it. and it's just a good movie.

people i would have loved to see at the isle of wight festival directly or indirectly related to this thread:

mighty baby

black widow

the groundhogs

howl

terry reid

taste

family

cactus

ten years after

the doors

the who

free

jethro tull

jimi hendrix

hawkwind

pink fairies

fairfield parlour

procol harum

Man, I lost track of this thread quick. Briefly: I did indeed review (and probably entertainingly overrate) Seduce's self-released debut in Creem Metal in the mid '80s. I got that new double Nuge set in the mail this morning; may not get to it right away. Always liked Ten Years After's Watt, though should probably explore them more sometime, which isn't to say I'll get around to it. Need to pull out my copy of Trigger; not sure if I've unpacked all my "T" LPs yet or not (half of vinyl collection still in boxes beneath the stairs until I buy shelves -- top of the master bedroom closet now full.) Like the second 1994 LP more than George does, but right, not nearly as much as their first one. Have never actually heard Laurie and the Sighs, though I'll now be on the lookout for it.

Played DC3's 1985 This Is The Dream this morning -- first album by Dez Cadena-guitared-and-vocaled not-as-powerful-as-I-wish SST label power trio who say in the liner notes they want to make an album like their favorites by Deep Purple, Captain Beyond, Humble Pie, and Mountain. They don't pull it off -- singing and guitaring is too thin (though the title track and "98 Malvern St" do okay in the latter department), songs seem too hippie-sloppy and marijuanified and not-quite-finished, Spot production murk probably doesn't help -- but for punk rockers remembering the '70s sludge they grew up on so early in the game, it strikes me as a valid attempt. Remember liking their later The Good Hex more at the time (#314 in Stairway), but I don't have a copy of that anymore. Weird to think the first DC3 album is now 24 years old, though -- We're as close to it now as it was to 1961, wow.

Liking a couple new stoner-doom-type albums okay this week, too, for the first time in some time -- the ones by Snail and Black Pyramid on Meteor City (also liked the one by Elder on that label late last year) and the (more Answer-type '70s mainstream rock revival I guess) one by Grand Union on Rise Above. None of them are great; can't promise I'll still be listening to any of them even a couple weeks from now. But for now, they're sounding not bad. (The other three or so albums I got from Meteor City last week didn't quite cut it for me, though.)

ps) Oh yeah, I need to look over Scott's tape list above sometime. As for the first City Boy LP, I'll pass for now, Scott; on a budget. But if I ever see it somewhere for $2 or less, I may snatch it up.

Albums on Scott's tape list that I actually own (on CD):

Anacrusis - Manic Impressions
The Zeroes - 4-3-2-1....

May or may not own that live Angel City album on vinyl. (+ some Sabbath and Godz ones, duh.)

Been curious about Mekong Delta ever since Popoff compared them to Voivod in his book. And I didn't like that latter-day Death of Samantha album when it came out, though maybe I would if I heard it now.

Sidewinders - Auntie Ramos Pool Hall

This is the late '80s band (who I know absolutely nothing out), not the Billy Squier powerpop one from the '70s, right? Awesome album title, either way.

Taste and Cactus were at Isle of Wight? Cool, Jim McCarty and Rory Gallagher on the same stage. Two underappreciated guitar geniuses.

Today is Wishbone Ash day at my record store. I've already played their debut three times in a row today. ESSENTIAL ALBUM FOR ANYONE READING THIS THREAD. i mean, you all knew that, but just in case there are lurkers.

Dragged out the TYA Fillmore East set over the weekend. It is as I remembered, much like "Recorded Live" but longer. Not essential unless you're really really nuts for TYA. But if one can't find RL, then it's a more than adequate demonstration and substitute, at a somewhat more intimate venue -- although not by much -- than the ones where the former where recorded in Europe.

And not related to this thread, but in case you'd like to hear what I sound like these days, from a radio show.

Weekend $1 purchase Coup De Grace by Mink Deville from 1981 is mostly not hard rock enough for this thread, except maybe "Love Me Like You Did Before" (only cut with Thom Panunzio rather than Jack Nitzsche co-production credit), and then only marginally and it's nothing special otherwise. Rest of the LP is sub-sub-Springsteen bar-band soul even less distinctive than the two Southside Johnny LPs I bought cheap copies of recently, with occasional glimmers of sax or Drifters-style Latin rhythm, and a more or less passable Arthur Alexander cover, but no riffs or songs as memorable as M.D.'s "Cadillac Walk" or "Rolene" or especially "Spanish Stroll" elsewhere. Strange how Willie Deville could look so eccentric with those Parisian features and that pencil thin mustache, yet usually sound so un-.

I never 'got' Mink DeVille, either. Had to have been an exclusively Manhattan thing. Had Coup de Grace and a solo album -- Le Chat Bleu? -- and neither got much play after I'd heard mostly what seemed to me to be a Parisian or Iberian peninsula
bar-type thing.

Was he big from Paris to Lisbon or in Barcelona?

I can definitely see/hear him as background in that Russell Crowe movie, A Very Good Year.

Well, just checked Amazon and Le Chat Bleu received five five-star reviews, so if you were into his voice, you must have thought it great. I completely missed it but he did, apparently, have enduring appeal in Europe. I do remember it was not, initially, released domestically, as my copy was an import.

no reason to listen to mink deville when you can listen to thin lizzy. or bruce springsteen, for that matter. or phil lynott solo. or friggin' tonio k, my hero. listening to tonio's amerika album recently, i was once again blown away by his tribute suite to kurt schwitters. so great! and years ahead of george kranz's tribute.

though, of course, george kranz's tribute is totally genius too. much respect.

I have totally been on a Tonio K kick lately! But I dunno, seems to be Amerika has nothing as great as Mink D's "Spanish Stroll" or "Rolene" (much less Moon Martin's "Rolene") on it, and neither does the La Bomba EP (which I like better than Amerika.) And both of those records obviously pale up against Life In The Foodchain, one of Scott's and mine's favorite albums in the history of the world. (But that goes without saying, right?)

Only George Kranz song I've ever heard is "Din Da Da," shamefully enough. I clearly need to hear more.

Le Chat Bleu received five five-star reviews

It gets four out of five in the 1983 blue edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide where Marsh calls it a "near masterpiece" and Deville a "late Seventies Mitch Ryder, with tripled angst." Pretty sure I've never heard that album; maybe I should. Marsh gives the other three albums up to that point three stars each. But that's under the D's; under the M's, both Mink Deville and Return To Magenta get four stars each from John Milward -- one of my favorite editing fuckups in record guide history. (Milward claims Deville "sounds like everyone from Lou Reed to Isley Brothers," which sounds interesting but I'm also pretty sure is bull.)

Speaking of Mitch Ryder, I noticed that Nugent covers "Jenny Take A Ride" on his new live double, paying tribute to a hometown hero with Johnny Bee helping on drums. No idea why he thinks BB King, Albert King, Freddie King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan constitute "Motown soul," though. But I did really like his "Bo Diddley" homage, and his "Soul Man" is more substantial than the brief one that was on last year's gratitious live album. Also, Ted yells "freedom!" a lot and covers the "Star Spangled Banner" ('twas a 40th anniversary show recorded at the Pontiac Silverdome last July 4.) Also brags a lot about his venison-barbecuing prowess. Very fun CD to blast with the windows down at all the bikers cruising through Austin for their convention this weekend, obviously. Though just as obviously, I'm pretty sure it won't get much play from hereon.

Oops sorry; not Silverdome, the "DTE Energy Music Centre," whatever that is -- apparently in Clarkson. (A clue!: If you type "Pine Knob" into Google, DTE is the default. Hey, I've been gone a while.)

speaking of mitch ryder...this video is the weirdest thing I've seen in awhile. from 79, w/backing band who look like the prototypical midwestern bar band of the period. and mitch is like... pardon the expression...mincing around on stage. is he gay? not that it matters. anyway i was looking for some footage of the 1970 DETROIT band and found this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MisLnQjKP00

oh and I've decided that the rockets' first album love transfusion is some kind of lost classic.

What you guys think of the Chickenfoot? I know Chuck isn't a big fan of the Red Rocker, but I found it a lot of fun. For pros jamming in the studio, without trying to be An Important Supergroup.

mitch is like... pardon the expression...mincing around on stage. is he gay?

Yep. Well, I'm not 100 percent, but I'm pretty sure Marsh wrote about this in the '80s, and Ryder may have even sang about it on that mid '80s LP that John Cougar produced, where he covered Prince...

Chuck isn't a big fan of the Red Rocker

Hey, I gave "Mas Tequila" a glowing review in the Voice when it came out a few years ago (along with Metallica's "Whiskey In The Jar")! Also like the first Montrose album. And "Why Can't This Be Love" even. So I'm not a big NON-fan, either...

Sorry. You just make fun of him a lot in Stairway (I believe the operative word was "Putz")! I thought it was a fair assumption. So what do you think of the Chickenfoot?

Reviewing that Nugent live one for AMG. It's an entertaining enough thing to listen to once (pretending they still broadcast concerts on the radio), but I doubt I'll be returning to it and it damn sure won't be taking the place of Double Live Gonzo! in my iPod. (Neither will Sweden Rocks, though that was a pretty good one, too.) I think I've mentioned this before, but when I interviewed Nugent last year he was able to rattle off just about every piece of gear Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels were using back in 1966; the guy's a serious gear geek.

You just make fun of him a lot in Stairway

As opposed to all the people I don't make fun of in Stairway? ...Well, okay, maybe I make fun of Sammy more than some. But I make fun of lots of bands that I don't actually hate of in that book!

Haven't heard Chickenfoot, though. (Or even knew they existed, to be honest, 'til you mentioned them.)

Hey George, I think you might like the Backsliders. Tough-gal singer, 10 songs in 23 minutes on new album, including a cover of "Keep A Knockin'" by Little Richard. Haven't decided yet how good it is, though. I liked their album from last year, but then never wound up returning to it after I reviewed it.

Their myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/thebacksliders

So what do you think of the Chickenfoot?

Haven't heard it except for the promos running on local TV ads for BestBuy. That sounded OK but I haven't bought anything by Sam Hagar in awhile. Actually, I bought all the albums on Capitol, when he was still calling himself Sammy and really was 'the Red Rocker.' In fact,
Sammy Hagar -- his second, might be my favorite album of his. Includes the touchstone party stuff, "Rock & Roll Weekend," "Cruisin' & Boozin'," "Red". Then there's "Trans-Am" and "Plain Jane" from Street Machine and "Turn Up the Music" and "Reckless" from Musical Chairs. Put them all together with his live cut of "I've Done Everything For You" -- which Rick S. must've sent him lots of royalties on -- and you have one really
great soCal sun hard rock and pop album. And that's all from his Capitol catalog.

Saw Ted acting in Toby Keith's Beer for My Horses -- a mostly dreadful and corny straight to video movie in which the biggest gags are supplied by Rodney Carrington who is about as funny as an audible wet fart. The biggest star was Ford's biggest pickup truck. Running gag in which the son of a Mexican drug lord is regularly knocked unconscious by Keith throwing an elbow into his face. The Nuge's part was as the movie's good guy posse speechless
weapons man. Must have been hard to do that, for Ted, not the weapon's part, but the
silences.

"In fact,
Sammy Hagar -- his second, might be my favorite album of his."

Are you including his stint in Montrose? Some of that stuff is so effortlessly good it's indescribable.

No, first album Montrose is classicly righteous, and that's in a league by itself, if only for "Rock the Nation" which really could have. Second, Paper Money, not nearly so good although "I Got the Fire" and the title cut, slammed together on a live YouTube clip of the band are fist-waving material.

That I Got the Fire solo is insane

The Backsliders' myspace page bit me, so I went to their domain. Am listening to the album now and it is, indeed, really good rock 'n' roll with a tough girl singer. And, blimey,
they can write songs. Twenty plus minutes is just the right length. But for some reason, their website design is toxic, too, crapping out on the LP play halfway through, or somewhere before "Keep a Knockin'." I smell too many Mac users spoiling the soup. They can't do anything right. Whoever Isotope Interactive is, the Backsliders should ask for their money back and
plus damages.

Liked "Maybellene Don't" a lot although the YouTube video of it doesn't do it justice. Just another desperate afternoon at a walk-in festival in Texas, I guess, turn down or you'll scare the kids in strollers. And why isn't the camera at the front of the stage? Fuck, it's not lkem there's a crowd one would get in the way of.

There's a fragment of a show from SXSW that shows 'em digging into a Yardbirdsy-style
real good.

Damned by faint praise in USA Today. They should've not sent the review copy. Thanks, Ken, I'm sure they thought.

USA Today April 24, 2008

THe Backsliders, You're Welcome (out now): Dallas band with a highly promising singer in Kim Pendleton and a few impressive songs, mostly front-loaded (the remainder slide down into mere adequacy). Definite growth potential.

-Ken Barnes

Damn. It is damn near impossible for me to type a message into the ILX reply box without it scrawling off the side of the screen and forcing errors.

A couple old records randomly pulled out for replay while unpacking boxes recently turn out to accidentally work as matched pair. But one is better.

The Janitors Thunderhead EP, In Tape UK, 1986 -- gallant but failed apparent Brit attempt to keep up with mid-American fake-hard-rock pigfuckers of the Killdozer/Scratch Acid persuasion, but with an even more inept singer and rhythm section and sense for writing tunes. Topics, inasmuch as they can be made out, concern stuff like (of course) mass murderers who (of course) kill with their bare hands. Still, pretty beefy for Brits at the time, especially guitarwise; they may have even passed for blues-based if you let blues mean Beefheart or the Birthday Party. Side openers "Thunderhead Johnny" and "Really Shining" are the most memorable tracks. Singer is an off-tune one-note whiner in usual '80s Brit fashion; sounds like the guy in Age Of Chance. Prodcuer Jon Langford from the Mekons and Three Johns (the latter of whom did catchier if less self-consciously quasi-dangerous loud quasi-rock) was spending a lot of time in Chicago at the time; I'd be surprised if he hadn't been exposed to say Big Black, or some of the noisy Touch 'N Go bands from then. Many of whom (just like Green River etc from Seattle) seemed refreshing from an indie-rock perspective at the time for not being wimps, but few if any of whom actually made convincing hard rock.

There's way more convincing thunder on Thundermug's 1973 Strikes, which I bet I picked up for $1 somewhere along the line because of their name, and because the band members on the back all look like total hang-dog hippie slobs, one of them with a neck beard, and the fattest one wearing a ponytail. Turns out, according to Martin Popoff, they came from London, Ontario. And they really do get that big-bottomed BTO buffalo-burger hockey-rink funk into their sound -- in "Jane 'J' James," "Where Am I," the start of "Garden Green" before it goes more hard pop. "Africa," too, though as the title suggests that one pulls of some nifty fake jungle polyrhythms (and may or may not mention "the colored man," I'm scared to go back and make sure.) Closer "Bad Guy" has the most bad-assed sound, approaching heavy Nazareth. And they do Beatles and diddybop harmonies elsewhere, when the mood suits them, plus a loud Kinks cover and something called "Mickey Mouse Club" that I gather might be political. Overall -- idiosyncratic, confused, rocking, with hints of prog and glam like they didn't know what they were. I like it a lot -- wondering if George or Scott have ever heard it. (Popoff liked it, too; gives it a 5 for heaviness and 8 for quality, and compares it to not only BTO, but also early Trooper. Though if I'm reading him right, his copy has different side-openers than mine. Maybe they shuffled the track order for American release, which was on Epic.)

the 2nd thundermug album is pretty collectable. harder to find.

thundermug means toilet, right? in some places. probably canada. or chamber pot.

xp Another inspiration on the Janitors at the time might be the Screaming Blue Messiahs, also from the UK and signed to Elektra; they put out their debut LP in '86 but an EP the year before (and some guys in the band had released an album as Motor Boys Motor as far back as 1982). Janitors feel sonically noisier, but that's the only way they're better -- Messiahs had more boogie, a singer, tunes, lyrics.

" And they really do get that big-bottomed BTO buffalo-burger hockey-rink funk into their sound..."

^I love this

also, the U.S. copy of Thundermug Strikes is actually songs from their first two albums. Strikes and Orbit. for instance, "Mickey Mouse Club" is on Orbit.

I sold a Moxy album yesterday! This guy said, "where did you get all this weird Canadian stuff from?" and i said, Moxy aren't weird, they're cool!

i bought myself a present on ebay. the only album by Texas band Houston Fearless. ten bucks for a sealed copy. 1969 hard rock. i dig it. a minor album. great rockin' cover of "mr.soul" on it.

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20060509/4877841590.jpg