VAMPS VS. VORES

You want to hear two total killers from late in the first punk era? Right here, right now? OK, first I’ll grant access to THE VAMPS’ “Carving Knife”, a great NY Dolls-like stomper from San Antonio in 1980. It missed all the Killed By Death comps somehow but it’s as raw & unhinged as anything on there. These guys opened for the Sex Pistols at “Randy’s Rodeo” down there – remember those scenes from “D.O.A.”? Second up is “Amateur Surgeon” from Buffalo, NY’s THE VORES, a 1978 high-tempo scooter with some nutty lyrics about medical accidents. Both unheralded classics. Download them for your homemade “KBD alternates” CD-R comp.

Play or Download THE VAMPS – “Carving Knife”
Play or Download THE VORES – “Amateur Surgeon”

RIDICULOUS HARDCORE, PART 1 - CIRCLE ONE

Man, the laffs I’ve had over the years making fun of CIRCLE ONE, a second-wave Los Angeles hardcore band famous for being one of the very first bands to inspire their own gang. I mean gang as in Surenos and Nortenos, as in Bloods and Crips. As in the LMP’s, the FFFs and the Suicidals. Then I put on their hit song “Destroy Exxon”, and all laughs are temporarily ceased. What a ripper! This 1981 classic came out on Smoke Seven records comp LP called “Public Service” (pictured), a collection that also featured RED CROSS and BAD RELIGION and a couple of lesser lights. This is ripped-jean, muscle-flex bandanna hardcore of the highest order. Of course it’s still totally ridiculous – but you’ll learn to love it!

Play or Download CIRCLE ONE – “Destroy Exxon”

KNIGHTS BRIDGE - BOTH SIDES NOW

It won’t be hard to tell you much about this incredible 45 from 1966 Texas psych/garage band KNIGHTS BRIDGE, particularly when I can cut & paste their entry from “Answers.com”! :

Made up of sophomores from high school in Odessa, Texas, Knights Bridge was an astonishingly adept and hard-edged garage band. They were signed to Sea Ell Records of Houston in 1967 and cut a debut single, "Make Me Some Love" b/w "CJ Smith," that oozed punk defiance on a level that would've been more appropriate to a group five years older. The record only ever had a few hundred copies pressed, and reportedly changed hands for prices of up to $500 in the 1980's. In 1994, both sides of the record, plus a demo of "C.J. Smith" and a fourth Sea Ell-recorded track, "I Need Your Love," turned up on Collectables Records' History of Texas Garage Bands In the '60s Volume 1: The Sea Ell Label Story. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Sophomores! Correct me if I’m wrong, but sophomores typically are 15 or 16 years of age. Whoa. The 45 has been comped many other places as well, most notably on an amazing CD series called “Texas Flashbacks”. It’s absolutely one of the great ones, and now you get it for free.

Play or Download KNIGHTS BRIDGE – “Make Me Some Love” (A-side)
Play or Download KNIGHTS BRIDGE – “CJ Smith” (B-side)

SNAKE-EYED DROPOUT BOOGIE

Years from now or even minutes from now when someone, say a potential employer, does a search on my name in Google or whatever, there’s the distinct possibility that one of the results that will come back will be the one I’m typing presently on the CHILD MOLESTERS. Such is the Faustian bargain that one must strike with the Information Age. I’d like to make it known that I only endorse said band’s name for its potential, probably now past, to shock and confound the bourgeoisie – which I’m certain was its aim when these Los Angeles-based art cretins launched it on the world in the late 70s. Possibly by now you may already have a sense of the band; Forced Exposure magazine brought this punk-era combo new life in the late 80s with a slavishly adulatory series of articles, soon followed in the early 90s by reissues of their work both legitimate and illegitimate. I bought them all. Some aged better than others, but the one track that still slays me is this one from their posthumously released “The Legendary Brown Album” called “Snake-Eyed Donkey, Fish-Eyed Snake”. Chugging Beefheart worship drives this rambunctious bit of mouth-breathing, remedial, low-down dirty blues, and I get the heebie jeebies every time I play it. Likely recorded in the early 80s, as the band ceased production in 1982. This is some real late 20th century black snake moan, and I invite you to hear it or own it by clicking the link below.

Play or Download THE CHILD MOLESTERS – “Snake Eyed Donkey, Fish-Eyed Snake” (from 1994 LP/CD “The Legendary Brown Album”)

THE AGITATED MAJESTY OF SHOES THIS HIGH

I knew I’d be posting this one sooner or later, and I suspect it’ll be one of the more popular entries on Detailed Twang to date. Which is good, ‘cause I’m going on vacation for a few days anyway so you’re in good hands with this agitated post-punk masterpiece ‘til I return. Here’s what I had to say about 1980 New Zealand-based act SHOES THIS HIGH on an earlier blog of mine:

“.....Think it was all whimsical happy-go-lucky goofball pop music down there in New Zealand twenty-some-odd years ago? Songs about sheep and fish and heartbreak? You gotta hear SHOES THIS HIGH, a quick-lived 1980 Auckland-by-way-of-Wellington quartet who are by far one of the best lost post-punk bands I’ve had the pleasure of finding out about. Think a more jagged Minutemen, The Gordons, Seems Twice, Pere Ubu, some Beefheart-like deconstructed stabs at atonality – or, as Gary Steel’s liner notes for the reissued 7”EP exclaim, “killer-riffing-angry-in-your-guts-avant-garde-pin-pricking punk funk". The lead track on their sole four-song single, “The Nose One”, has a real spastic stop/start structure which successfully masks some great weary, disengaged vocals. Guitars chime in and chop out of all four tracks, some of which are pretty biting and aggressive (hence the GORDONS comparison). The greatness of this thing again reminds me of the strong influence of The Fall in NZ, where “Totally Wired” went actually into the Top 5. Not that Shoes This High sound much like The Fall, but there’s gotta be a hook there somewhere. Recorded December 1980, released in 1981, reissued on Raw Power records in 2002. Please do yourself a favor and begin a tireless, unyielding quest for the Shoes This High EP forthwith.....”

Here’s the entire EP for your listening pleasure.

Play or Download SHOES THIS HIGH – “The Nose One”
Play or Download SHOES THIS HIGH – “A Mess”
Play or Download SHOES THIS HIGH – “Foot’s Dream”
Play or Download SHOES THIS HIGH – “Not Weighting”

STROKE BAND – “FICTION/NON-FICTION”

THE STROKE BAND were a Valdosta, Georgia combo who put forth one 1978 LP and a 45 in their brief time on earth and no more. The long-playing record is called “Green And Yellow”, and there’s talk of getting a reissue going. Myself, I’ve never heard it, but I have heard and own a track from it called “Fiction/Non-Fiction” (courtesy of an old CD-R from the “Homework” series), and it’s one of the most killer slices of punk-era pop I’ve ever heard. Velvet vocals, strange time patterns, and plenty of bold moves that presage much of the Southern pop that would flow like so much wine in the years to come. Don Fleming, later of many DC-area bands like the Velvet Monkeys, was a member of this band, as was a guy named Bruce Joyner whose name I know from somewheres. Give this song a download and let’s start the reissue campaigning going so we can hear some more.

Play or Download THE STROKE BAND – “Fiction/Non-Fiction”

YOUR ROADMAP TO THE WORLD OF POOH

It makes me happy to see references to late 80s/very early 90s outsider nervo-pop act WORLD OF POOH online, and yet chagrined that the band is still such a goshdarned secret to so many. Granted, I was lucky enough to be a free-spending, heavy-drinking, club-hopping early twentysomething San Franciscan during their heyday, and so I got to see the band live about half a dozen times. They were about my favorite band going for about six months – and then they broke up. I’ll never forget the last show of theirs I saw (which was either their last show ever or their last San Francisco show), at the Blue Lamp bar, in which guitarist/bassist Brandan Kearney smashed a sand bottle on bassist/guitarist Barbara Manning’s head, causing the entire crowd to gasp, and then chuckle with relief. Me & my pal Tone EB always talk about the show in 1989 where they played with The Melvins & The Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, right as the latter had arrived from a sweaty first-US tour and blew everyone away, as being among our favorite rock n roll experiences ever.

If you look at old issues of WIRING DEPT. magazine (not that you have any lying around), there are references to a pre-Manning, pre- Jay Paget World of Pooh in which the band sounds like a more dark & strange beast with keyboards & noises & whatnot. Around 1987, with the arrival of recent Chico State college grad Barbara Manning, legend has it that they morphed into the jagged, oddly constructed New Zealand-meets-100 Flowers-meets-second album Wire pop trio they became marginally known for. I was a college radio DJ when I heard 1989’s “The Land of Thirst” LP at our station, and that’s when I knew there was this small treasure in my own backyard that I didn’t even know about. The record went out of print very quickly, where it remains. Rumors have persisted that it will be compiled onto CD with much or all of their other work, and Kearney himself has told me and others that a multitude of failure points have kept this event from actually happening. So they had those final six months or so, and poof – were gone. Manning presently went on to quite a career of her own, amassing a body of songs that are or should be the envy of singer/songwriters everywhere. Paget too didn’t miss a beat, and joined those aforementioned Thinking Fellers right away. Kearney went deep into experimental music and absurdist comedy – here’s a good interview with him if you want to know more.

One booster and friend of the band from day uno was Seymour Glass’s BANANAFISH magazine; I’m posting two tracks that the band put out with him from freebie comps that came with the mag – “Strip Club” (100 Flowers) and “Drucilla Penny” (The Carpenters). Both are fantastic, with the former being among the best cover songs I’ve ever heard. I’ll also include two tracks from “The Land of Thirst”, both with a Kearney vocal, as this is an excellent record top-to-bottom, and needs to find a new legion of devotees starting right about now. Finally, World of Pooh put out two 45s after they’d broken up, both of which were great. There’s “G.H.M./Someone Wants You Dead”, and there’s a 4-song EP on Kearney’s Nuf Sed label called “A Trip To Your Tonsils”, which has some of the best non-LP songs they were playing live up until their dying day. I’m giving you a healthy smattering of my favorites here. Anyone with stories or contributions of any kind is invited to share them by clicking the comments button.

Play or Download WORLD OF POOH – “Stones of Judgment” (from posthumous EP “A Trip To Your Tonsils”)
Play or Download WORLD OF POOH – “Owl Business” (from posthumous EP “A Trip To Your Tonsils”)
Play or Download WORLD OF POOH – “Playing One’s Own Piano” (from “The Land of Thirst” LP)
Play or Download WORLD OF POOH – “Laughing At The Ground” (from “The Land of Thirst” LP)
Play or Download WORLD OF POOH – “Strip Club” (from a Bananafish comp CD of some kind)
Play or Download WORLD OF POOH – “Drucilla Penny” (from a Bananafish comp 7” of some kind)

SACCHARINE TRUST – “DISILLUSION FOOL”

No time to write anything about this 1982 scorcher from SACCHARINE TRUST today – I suggest you click over to this previous post I put up with another creepy-crawler one from them called “Hearts and Barbarians”. This one was ignominiously placed at the end of a compilation album called “LIFE IS UGLY SO WHY NOT KILL YOURSELF?”. It’s one of my favorite things the band did outside of their excellent first two albums.

Play or Download SACCHARINE TRUST – “Disillusion Fool”

DRUNKS WITH GUNS – “ALTER HUMAN INDUSTRIAL FETISHISMS” EP

Man, were me and my record geek friends excited when all that DRUNKS WITH GUNS vinyl started pouring forth in the mid/late 80s. Exceptionally rare, exceptionally raw noise of a sort I’d never heard before, totally rooted in FLIPPER-fied sludge but taking the evilness and gutter-scraping depravity to a new low. It sounds pretty wack in this day & age, doesn’t it? Years ago I tentatively rendered a posthumous Juke Box Jury verdict on these guys as INNOCENT, with this commentary:

“Could be a real easy one for most to dismiss without actually listening to their late 80s output, as their shtick revolved around way-“heavy” topics like blood, guns, deviant sexual behavior etc. All well and good when you’re in the naïve, blossoming flower of youth, but it doesn’t wear so well on a 35-year-old. But St. Louis’ Drunks With Guns, who barely released anything back in the day that you could actually find without resorting to extreme ninja record collecting tactics, mitigated all of their youthful stupidity with the most flattening, bottom-heavy creepy crawl THUD that moved well beyond the benchmark set by FLIPPER into new realms of heavy ugliness. I listened the other day to some of their achievements, and tracks like “Drunks Theme” “Hellhouse” and, uh, “Dick In One Hand” still have it. They also were blessed with a terrific vocalist (Mike Doskocil) who “sang” with an affected miserable, angry white trash drunkard’s voice, and actually pulled it off. Many lesser lights have tried, and for all their raw, chapped vocal cords and belligerent posturing, their bands’ records are sitting in the 99-cent bins today (Iowa Beef Experience or god forbid, TAD, anyone?). Meanwhile, Drunks With Guns vinyl changes hands for $50+ for each of those impossibly rare 45s. JUKE BOX JURY VERDICT? Never mind the rarity – for their bloodthirsty music alone, I call DWG INNOCENT.”

A few years so, and I’m actually going with the 1987 “Alter Human Industrial Fetishisms” (whatever that means) 7”EP as their high-water mark. 500 copies on Dental Records. This was the last record with guitarist Stan Seitrich, who went on to form the tasteful and refined Strangulated Beatoffs (who were a lesser version of DWG by far). If pressed before a jury of my peers, I’d admit that this stuff is all pretty silly at the end of the day – but ah, the memories of more simple, less judgmental times. Here are all three songs for ya.

Play or Download DRUNKS WITH GUNS – “Zombie”
Play or Download DRUNKS WITH GUNS – “Leprosy”
Play or Download DRUNKS WITH GUNS – “Enemy”

VKTMS – “100% WHITE GIRL”

My first favorite punk songs in the early 80s were all female-throated: “The American In Me” by THE AVENGERS, “100% White Girl” by THE VKTMS and, uh, “Nuclear War” by SIN 34 (don’t get angry, but a major SIN 34 post is coming to the ‘Twang in the near future). It was likely the incongruity of raw, ripping female vocals over raw, ripping punk rock music that hooked me in – and so I went searching for these records in my youth, primarily at Rasputin’s in Berkeley, CA. As mentioned previously, I saw a 45 called “White Girl” with a great sleeve and bought it – took it to my grandparents’, waited ‘til they’d exited the premises, and then plopped it on at full blast. What a letdown! I had bought X’s “White Girl” 45 instead of THE VKTMS’ – and I totally hated it (love it now, as I do the first two X singles).

It took a while, but I finally got my own copy of the “`100% White Girl” 45 by San Francisco’s VKTMS. It’s a straight-up screamer in the late 70s style, released in 1980. There’s a lot more information on the band located both here and here. If I’m not mistaken, I’m actually the third person to post this to the world. Now you truly have no excuse to own these ones & zeros (by the way, the B-side's lame, as was almost the entirety of this band's output beyond 2-3 songs).

Play or Download THE VKTMS – “100% White Girl” (A-side)
Play or Download THE VKTMS – “No Long Goodbyes” (B-side)

MIKE REP’S TRUE BELIEVERS – THEIR CROWNING (& ONLY) GLORY

MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS you probably know a thing or two about; they were one of 1975-76’s original recipe proto-punk space teleporters, playing savage, ear-flattening freak punk before there was any cachet in such a thing. Their sound, which can be approximated as the force of a thousand amps projecting simple, screaming chords into the cosmos, is as alive as any other punk, pre-punk or proto-punk whatsis of the 1970s – and the man didn’t stop there. The Quotas have resurfaced several times in many guises through the years – including a mere two years ago - and if you want to learn some more about it, you can start with the interview I did with Mike Rep upon his most recent visitation.

One of the prime movers in the QUOTAS then and now is a guy named Tommy Jay. Once he started writing songs for the group, a name change was in order, and the TRUE BELIEVERS were born at the end of the 70s. Here’s what I cut-n-pasted from the web:

A few years later Tommy and Mike and Tommy's brother "The General" formed a live performing group, calling themselves TRUE BELIEVERS. "True Believers became a media buzzword after the REV. JIM JONES GUYANA MASSACRE for anyone belonging to a weird cult", says Hummel, "That group was in essence The Quotas reborn and renamed, just like good reborn cultists should be. Plus we were playing Tommy and The General's songs too by that point and so a new name seemed appropriate". In 1980 the critically acclaimed True Believers "Accept It!" 7" EP was released on Hummel's fledgling NEW AGE RECORDS label, and actually sold 1000 copies, "quite a feat for a domestic band on an unknown label at that time".

If you believe everything you read (I do), and this time I’m quoting directly from a website partially maintained by one Nudge Squidfish, the Columbus, OH-based TRUE BELIEVERS were:

GEN. ROBT. E. LEE - BASS & VOCALS
MIKE REP - GUITAR & VOCALS
TOMMY JAY - DRUMS
NUDGE SQUIDFISH - GUITARS & KEYBOARD
CARLA LUST - VOCALS & KEYBOARD

So they had one moment, and it is this, a three-song 7”EP released in 1980 on Rep’s New Age Records, later changed for somewhat obvious reasons to Old Age/No Age Records. I think it’s one of great buried American underground recordings. Perfectly off-beat, well-crafted heartland folk punk, with droney keyboards, a sense of dread & foreboding, and even a weird playfulness that makes a terror tale like “Death By Freezing” totally goddamn funny. The whole 45 needs to be immortalized and on every world citizen’s iPod this summer. So let’s do this!

Play or Download TRUE BELIEVERS – “Accept It!” (Side A)
Play or Download TRUE BELIEVERS – “Gusto Hungry” (Side B, Track 1)
Play or Download TRUE BELIEVERS – “Death By Freezing” (Side B, Track 2)

Note - On Sunday 7/8 we received some excellent clarification on some True Believers mysteries by none other than Mike Rep himself. Here's what he told us:

Hi Jay! Just saw The True Believers EP posting - I was going to comment but I don't have a Google account / password - The band lineup given was the T.B.'s last incarnation (Aug.'80 to Jan.'81) and instrumentally was their then 'live' lineup (excluding the erroneous Nudge keyboard credit). There are many recordings of this version of the group which may sometime see the light of day (?) ..... On the 7" EP itself, recorded in early 1979, the lineup is a Trio; TOMMY JAY Drums, Acoustic Guitar throughout & Lead Vocal on Accept It! & Gusto Hungry) THE GENERAL: Bass & Lead Vocal on Death By Freezing) / MIKE REP (Electric Guitar & Keyboards on Accept It, Acoustic Guitar & backing vocs. on Gusto Hungry) - Nudge Squidfish had not yet joined the group, but did record the EP (mixed by Rep). Nudge never played Keyboards in the T.B.'s, only Electric Guitar, and along with Carla Lust appears only on as-yet unreleased material. Carla joined in the summer of '80 played keyboards & sang (and wrote) some songs also. Her presence greatly added to the band's live popularity (a hottie who could ROCK!) Both "Accept It!" and "Gusto Hungry" ill be among six BONUS TRACKS that will appear on the CD version of CDR's reissue of "Tommy Jay's Tall Tales Of Trauma" (due out in August) no other "True Believers" material on that release though..... Just some fine fact tuning for anyone that cares - later my friend, "Rep"

ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU – “SHE SAID”

Here’s some wacked-out, electro-propulsive garage punk at least five years ahead of its time from some French fellas based in London in the late 80s/early 90s called ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU. Julian Cope wrote a big thing about the band here, and it’ll have to be the definitive history on the band until someone does him one better. I wrote previously that,

"Hey" in particular reminds me of a 60s-inspired CHROME or METAL URBAIN, while the other two tracks (on their “Hey” 7”EP) "rawk" but not quite as aggressively. One of the fellas on the sleeve had an outstanding white man's 'fro, which is perhaps what got my wallet out of my pocket back in the day.

Well actually I got my song titles mixed up and the one I really dig & described thusly is called “She Said”, and it’s posted for you here. Right now. Below.

Play or Download ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU – “She Said” (from 1989 three-song single)

METROPAK – “OK LET’S GO”

Perhaps no song epitomizes the late 70s rain-sogged UK “Messthetics”/D.I.Y. sound for me as much as METROPAK’s “OK Let’s Go”. This 1979 single was the first of three from this Scottish band, who to my surprise have a great MySpace tribute site up right now where you can download even more, look at photos, watch a video and all that. The distant, delicately strummed chords; the out-of-place keyboard bleeps; the pointless chug and sputter tempos; and the general ennui that pervades this thing make it as much a candidate for this era’s hall of fame as “Redbox” by I JOG AND THE TRACKSUITS and “Smokescreen” by the DESPERATE BICYCLES, to say nothing of “Chance Romance” by SUBVERSE that we posted a few weeks ago.

Play or Download METROPAK – “OK Let’s Go” (from 1979 single)

THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS - A “COSMIC KAZOO MEDICINE SHOW”

It’s only been a couple weeks since I got acquainted with the absurd & joyous music of Nashville’s ramshackle folk collective CHERRY BLOSSOMS, but I’m a convert for life. They’ve been playing around since 1991, with a core of John Allingham and Peggy Snow writing, plucking and hollering around what sounds like a cast of dozens. There’re the jew’s harp guy, the kazoo lady, the ukulele weirdo in the corner, that one girl shouting in the back, an acoustic guitarist tripping on mushrooms, etc. Or who knows, maybe it’s only four or five folks. I’ve only heard one other modern band going for this vibe, whatever it is, and they’re called VALLEY OF ASHES & they’re pretty neat too.

THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS decided to put out a proper record in 2007, an LP, and it’s imaginatively called “The Cherry Blossoms”. I can’t find an image scan of the cover to load up for ya so you get a band photo instead. The record is a wild one – songs start up organically, musicians join in, people start shouting, tape hiss fluctuates here and there, and yet it’s not an improv or a weird-America record, really. It’s truly got the feel of long-ago Americana played by worshippers of the pre-WWII form, but who’ll play it their demented way & their way only. It’s a blast! They have a CD-R with our heroine JOSEPHINE FOSTER out now too so they’re really revving up the hype machine this year, hunh?

Play or Download THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS – “Charlie Prim”
Play or Download THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS – “The Mighty Mississippi”

LE CRÈME DE LE CRÈME DU 60s POP

I’m posting three brassy, loud, wonderful pop songs from 1960s France, sung by three sexy mademoiselles from an era & ethos of a long, long time ago. By way of explanation, I’m going to re-post a thing I wrote on the ye ye girl/Ultra Chicks phenomenon four years ago – then get set to download great songs by ANOUK, CHRISTINE PILZER and PUSSY CAT.

Originally written for Agony Shorthand on April 22nd, 2003:

YOU TOO CAN LOVE LES FEMMES DE PARIS....As I've mentioned before, I've got a real affinity for overblown, loud, brassy, well-crafted 60s girl pop -- the kind with enormous hooks, screaming horns, and a saucy, coquettish playfulness that runs through your better US and UK girl groups & solo artists. But hands down, the queens of the 60s pop hop were the French -- specifically le femmes de Paris and the groovy-to-a-fault "ye ye girls". There is nothing quite like hearing LIZ BRADY's majestic and flat-out booming "Palladium" or CLAIRE DIXON's charm school central ball of fluff "On M'appelle Petit Bout De Chou" to wipe that smug I-only-listen-to-the-13th-Floor-Elevators pout off your beak. And while in the past few years there's been a slightly heightened awareness of these girls' existence, this stuff is still incredibly laborious to hunt down -- even the recent reissues. A tour of the web finds one very solid albeit un-updated site and a bunch of message board posts desperately pleading to all readers, "Please, where can I find this stuff?!??". I'm here to help, folks. These "teenie-bopper doyennes of the Coca-Cola bubble-gum pop culture" were huge in their native France during the rough period spanning 1965-68, when rock and pop continued exploding into smithereens to satisfy the mainstream, the hippies, the drug underground, and of course the teenage kids. I am under no illusion that this music was made for anyone but pre- and pubescent French girls, which in no way negates the craft and genius of these songs' arrangers, nor the power and bite of the songs themselves. The 60s french girls were a roll call of lush first names: VIOLAINE, JOCELYNE, CLOTHILDE, COSETTE, ARIANE, etc. CHANTEL KELLY (who's an absolute dead ringer for Audrey Tatou's Amelie in other pictures and was likely quite a perv-magnet in her day) and the aforementioned Claire Dixon are among the less coquettishly-monikered ye ye girls who have some of the most stomping hits. In the mid-90s the "ULTRA CHICKS" compilations started popping up in better North American record stores, and they continue to do so, with a 5th volume coming out in 2000 and a 6th appearing sometime last year. These are far and away the best starting points for this stuff, if you can even find them. I highly recommend Volumes #1-4, even the one called, um, "Baby Pop", and then the recent Volume #6, which continues the series' winning ways after a somewhat rotten Volume 5. Sprinkled in among these are a few non-French but still ripe international pop bombshells, from places with less mellifluous languages like Italy, Germany and Syria. I found the first 4 by e-mailing some record stores in Montreal until they surrendered the name of the guy who put them out (somewhere I'd read that he was a native). Damn if I didn't misplace that email address through. However, another fantastic series is called "SWINGING MADEMOISELLE", which overlaps a little with Ultra Chicks but might have the higher batting average song for song. These two LPs were put out by Sasha Monet records in France, and when I contacted the guy or gal that runs the label in search of the first volume, he/she told me it was sold out but that they'd gladly make me CD-Rs of both volumes, with a ton of extra tracks plopped on the end of each. I paid a pittance -- something like $12 US, which included shipping -- for both. Contact the label here and see if magic can strike twice. There are a couple of lesser series out there as well -- "FEMMES DE PARIS" have beautiful digipack sleeves but rely way too much on covers of British and American hits en Francais to be of much listening pleasure -- unless EILEEN trying to out-Nancy NANCY SINATRA on "Ces Bottes Sout Faites Pour Marcher" sounds like a good time. Likewise, "SIXTIES GIRLS" have some terrific sleeves, and up the ante by including entire 4-song EPs, but then you get the crap songs as well. Better to sit back and let the programming wizards of "Ultra Chicks" and "Swinging Mademoiselle" take the reigns for you. Hopefully should you decide to dip a toe in this stuff you do so with an appreciation not so much of the KITSCH involved (lame) but of the song craft itself. I'd rank the best of this stuff up against any American 1965-68 summer AM radio hit you care to mention.

Postscript – what’s changed since the thing above was written is the very existence and now-ubiquity of terrific mp3 blogs, several of which actually specialize in ye ye. Check BLOW-UP DOLL, SPIKED CANDY and YE YE LAND – just remember that Detailed Twang still picks the finest songs.

Play or Download ANOUK – “Jimmy Est Parti”
Play or Download CHRISTINE PILZER – “Champs Elysees”
Play or Download PUSSY CAT – “Les Temps Ont Change”

XMAS EVE – ONE OF THE AMERICAN UNDERGROUND’S LOST CHILDREN

I’ve written about it before – I was such a rabid teenage college radio junkie, totally ecstatic about the amazing amount of crazy music that I was hearing for the first time (1980-82), that I would spend hours actually writing down every song that the DJs would back-announce, and then “rate” them. This process gave me an insight into what records to purchase the next time I was in Berkeley, CA, a total record store mecca at the time (Rasputin’s, Universal, Rather Ripped and Leopold’s!), visiting my grandparents. I think I actually drew stars next to the songs – 5 stars was a must-purchase (and that’s how I bought my X “White Girl” 45, only I had missed the name of the band, and I’d really wanted THE VKTMS’ “100% White Girl” instead), 1 star was among the worst songs I’d heard to date. I only remember giving one song the dreaded single star, and I’m pretty sure it was something I heard on the Maximum Rock And Roll radio show – a song called “It’s Your Birthday” by XMAS EVE. Then again, I was 14 years old, and not quite ready for strange, rough, American post-punk jangle (and why this hardcore-only show was playing it, not sure). I’m guessing the song was from a demo tape or something, because there’s no record of it anywhere and it didn’t make XMAS EVE’s one and only 45.

The band were from El Sobrante, CA – I town I actually called home in the early 70s as an exceptionally young man (4 years old to be exact). Later, members went on to the bands YO and EL SOB. I have only heard the song I’m posting for you today, and it’s fantastic. It came out several years ago on an out-of-print compilation called HOMEWORK #5. It’s from 1982, and it exists in a time of rampant experimentation within standard rock and roll forms. It might sound pretty pedestrian to you, but I hear elements of WIRE and THE MINUTEMEN, as well as a tuff & arty presaging of what we later called “college rock” as made popular by acts like R.E.M.. Great track. Anyone know what the others sound like?

Play or Download XMAS EVE – “My House” (from 1982 single)

A SHORT RUN THROUGH A BIG PILE OF 45s

You folks who’ve sent us 45s the past couple months – this is your time. Thanks for your patience and for sending us stuff in the first place. Here are abbreviated reviews of several singles that the mailman brought Detailed Twang recently, along with two I purchased last month:

CHEAP TIME – “Spoiled Brat” 7”EP

Simple, snotty, RED CROSS-inspired rasp punk. Similar in style & spirit to early 90s Texas doofus-punks THE INHALANTS. Album coming soon on In The Red.

THE LAMPS – “Fred Astaire” 7”EP

Hands down best thing I’ve heard from LA distorto-garage kingpins THE LAMPS, debut LP included. Mud-caked primitive shit rock with bleary-eyed depresso vibe to spare.

GEISHA GIRLS – “In The Monotone / Last Touch” 45

Panicky angular 80s rock in the MISSION OF BURMA style, with a dose of Middle Class-ish barked vocals as well. In fact “Last Touch” was lifted straight off of the second Middle Class single, showing some serious class and taste. Not half bad!

CHEVEU – “My Answer Is Yes! / Lola Langusta” 45

(45 is the one pictured above) I remember the A-side from CHEVEU’s wild but star-crossed show last month here in San Francisco, when they essentially fried a P.A. with overloaded analog synth & static-chop guitar. They were outstanding, even though they kept profusely apologizing for almost destroying an entire club’s equipment. No problem! B-side’s the real winner here, a strange slide-guitar country skiffle with electro-drumbeat. Perhaps recorded in the South of France circa ’71 with Mick, Keith, Gram Parsons, and Gary Numan?

TYVEK / CYGNUS split 45

TYVEK are a big recent favorite around this house (you gotta hear “Fast Metabolism”!); I bought this one off the band the same night as the Cheveu show. Their untitled side is a spookhouse dirge, a ’79-style UK-influenced echo-laden weirdo. Cool. CYGNUS are like that, but a comparatively formless, tuneless, dark and impenetrable charnel house of horrors. Decent single, I can think of better ones even in this list.

JUNIOR MAKHNO – “The Theater Of The Macabre” 7”EP

Strange and pleasingly ill-fitting mash of distorted horror rap, electronic tweedling, screams, monster sounds, and manipulations of all sorts. Mostly instrumental, and heavy in every sense of the word. Kindred spirits of the aforementioned CHEVEU for sure.

THE TOUCHED – “Funeral Dress” 7”EP

Loads of chaos, feedback and lo-fidelity cheap punk thrills. Fans of THE LEWD and other alcoholiday-taking, trackmarks-up-the-arms gutter-punk bands will find the spirit dutifully kept here.

TOUCH-ME-NOTS - “Cool Enough For California” / GRAVE BLANKETS “Foreward” split 45

The TOUCH-ME-NOTS jog outside of their comfort zone for a relative ballad, a hooky pop song delivered in their southern fried rockabilly tear-it-up style. GRAVE BLANKETS present a live, loud, distorted blues. Very middling.

TOUCH-ME-NOTS / RED ROCKETS split 7”EP

“Life Of Crime” (no, not that one) is easily in the Touch-Me-Nots’ top five so far, a bouncy, one-take scorcher with a swaggering NY DOLLS feel to it. “This Kind of Music” is nearly as hot, with vocals multi-tracked and echoing off of every surface. RED ROCKETS are standard-issue, government cheese bar punk.

TEENGENERATE’S ONE TO BEAT

In retrospect it’s hard for me to get overly excited about TEENGENERATE, a mid-90s Japanese garage punk band who were a hit with the kidz at the time. They did everything right and yet almost never strayed from an unerring template of fast, buzzsaw-raw, distorted ’77-meets-’81 splatter-punk, with harshly barked vocals and way, way too many covers. Sort of like a whiplash version of early RADIO BIRDMAN or first-LP RAMONES. In the end they won a few hearts, taught a few youngsters how to pogo, and then splintered up into a couple new, similarly laser-focused bands. There is one 45 of theirs that lords mightily over the rest of their catalog, as well as over their likewise unimaginative peers. It’s a 1-sided, two song 45 that came out in 1995 on Rip Off records called “Out of Sight/Pushin’ Me Around”. An absolutely note-perfect, louder-than-loud blast of punk rock blur, with both songs clocking in well under two minutes. A perfect candidate for the “tonearm repeat” feature on your 1970s-era turntable. Or in the digital age, downloading ‘em right here.

Play or Download TEENGENERATE – “Out of Sight”
Play or Download TEENGENERATE – “Pushin’ Me Around”

A YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO JOSEPHINE FOSTER

JOSEPHINE FOSTER’s bizarre, avant-folk songs travel musical history via a ghostly linkage with the Appalachian porch whisperers of the pre-WWII era, with a pinch of the British Isles folk touch to boot. One thing for certain about her these days is that she doesn’t stand in one place for too long – witness her most recent CD, “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing”, a German-language run through 19^th century tunes that was even too much for me to take. Recently I heard some new material of hers and it was weird-ass, free-form noise. It’s OK – I am fully on board, because I think she is a singular talent, and one of this decade’s true originals. I love the delicate complexity of each ringing tone she coaxes out of her guitar with strange tunings and stranger patterns, and with a voice that's equally as eerie (and beautiful beyond doubt), and which goes through every imaginable permutation to get to the deep emotional truth at each song's core. Foster’s lungs take a little bit of patience for the uninitiated, but at least she sounds like a w-o-m-a-n, albeit a woman transported from 16th century England tearooms by way of Mary Poppins films.

I’m picking a representative smattering of five songs from her catalog for ya. Two are from a heavy psych/folk CD she put out with a backing band called The Supposed (“All The Leaves Are Gone"); one is from her second-ever homemade CD-R (“Little Life") – she has about a half-dozen of those, and you can order some of them right here; one is from her fantastic CD from 2005 “Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You” ; and one was a freebie cover song of THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS, whom Foster has collaborated with) on a comp that came with THE BELIEVER literary magazine. All are superlative. If you like this, there’s a lot, lot more to delve into.

Play or Download JOSEPHINE FOSTER & THE SUPPOSED – “Well-Heeled Men” (from 2004 “All The Leaves Are Gone” CD)
Play or Download JOSEPHINE FOSTER – “The Golden Window” (from June 2005 compilation CD included with “The Believer” magazine)
Play or Download JOSEPHINE FOSTER – “There Are Eyes Above” (from 2005 “Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You” CD)
Play or Download JOSEPHINE FOSTER – “Francie’s Song” (from 2001 “Little Life” CD-R)
Play or Download JOSEPHINE FOSTER & THE SUPPOSED – “John Ave. Seen From The Gray Train” (from 2004 “All The Leaves Are Gone” CD)

LIVING IN A WHITE GHETTO

Among the pearls buried on an unduly unheralded late 80s compilation of “driving bands from Los Angeles” called “GIMME THE KEYS” was a band called THE THIRSTY BRATS. There wasn’t a lot to these fellas – their thing was raw, dirty, 50s-inspired drunk-and-roll in the vein of then-current acts like the LAZY COWGIRLS and slightly earlier bands like the SUICIDE KINGS. Little did I know it until today, but SCOTT “DELUXE” DRAKE claims to have been a member of the band at one juncture. I believe him.

(Note, 7/2/07 – Drake not only confirmed this for us, but sent the photograph you see here as proof. It replaces the one we had up previously).

I saw the band one time only, at an all-day free festival/alcoholiday of Trigon Records acts in Isla Vista, California. This’d be around 1989, I’d say. I think the Thirsty Brats might have been hopped up on goofballs, as their set was exceptionally sloppy, the singer harangued the crowd unduly and often, and loads of drunk people danced their asses off to the dirty rock and roll beat. Other acts that appeared that day included CLAW HAMMER, a tripping-on-acid CRAWLSPACE (confirmed to me personally by the band), FEARLESS LEADER (stymied by the Isla Vista Park Service in their attempt to “let a chicken loose” during their set), and MOIST-N-MEATY. In other words, pretty much all the bands on “Gimme The Keys”. Eighteen years later I spin the record and my favorite track not by Claw Hammer is easily “White Ghetto” by those same Thirsty Brats. In fact, I kinda think it’s a classic. Whatever that means.

Play or Download THIRSTY BRATS – “White Ghetto” (from 1988 compilation “Gimme The Keys”)

ASTEROID GARAGE BOP FROM THE ETTES

One of my favorite tracks of the past year is “Reputation” from an LA mersh-garage act called THE ETTES. They say that they are a cross between “Nancy Sinatra + The Stooges + Thee Headcoats + Thee Headcoatees + The Strokes + The Sonics + The Rolling Stones + Compulsive Gamblers + Patsy Cline”. Well there’s at least a few ringers in there, aren’t there? So I got the CD and I wasn’t particularly thrilled by it – but I’ll admit I probably need to give it another spin or two before reflexively chucking it. But “Reputation” is a wowzer. Loud, over-amped multitracked vocals, a killer set of riffs, SIMPLY SAUCER-ish “space sounds”, and all knocking by in under two minutes. A great one, one that it’s hard not to play over and over and over. I’m certain you’ll agree.

Play or Download THE ETTES – “Reputation” (from “Shake The Dust” CD)

THE PROMISED X MASTERWORKS

In our fEEDTIME post a few weeks ago, some mention was made of three tracks from the incredible late 70s Australian punk band X. I said I’d post ‘em – here they are. Here’s what I wrote about the tracks in 2003:

If you ask me, the best pre-1980 Australian punk rock ever recorded was NOT necessarily by the SAINTS. nor the PSYCHO SURGEONS, nor the LEFTOVERS, nor RADIO BIRDMAN -- but by X. The Australian X, of course. The past decade has seen them garner some deserved attention, mostly for the low-profile Amphetamine Reptile reissue of their raw, spastic debut LP "X-Aspirations" (also known by some as simply "Aspirations"). I think they actually topped that monster with their amazing earliest recordings, though: the three tracks "Home Is Where The Floor Is", "Hate City" and "TV Cabaret Roll" that were posthumously cobbled together on the Aberrant Records' "Why March When You Can Riot?" compilation. If these tracks had been put out as a 45, you'd be seeing it on numerous "best punk records of all time" lists, certainly on mine (note: these were put out on a 45 a couple years ago on a US label, now out of print, I'm afraid). We're talking barreling, steamrolling punk rock, but minus the "snotty" vibe and the over-the-top antics that mark some other richly heralded Aussie punk of the era. Not particularly well recorded, mind, but you never cared about that much, right? About the closest equivalent I can think of would be a kindly US punk band like The CONTROLLERS -- not too aggro, not too "punk", but blazing nonetheless. Skip the recent "X - Live At The Civic" CD -- despite looking like it should be an out of control rock and roll juggernaut, it's -- uh -- a bit boring. One last thing: if you now desperately need those 3 aforementioned tracks, you're in luck -- there's a double-CD on Small Axe Records that collects three Aberrant Records comps into one package called "Go And Do It". You can find it here.

Or you can download them right here and put them on your own CD.

Play or Download X – “Hate City”
Play or Download X – “Home Is Where The Floor Is”
Play or Download X – “TV Cabaret Roll”

SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS BAND - “SWEET NUTHIN’”

For years the only way to hear the oft-talked-about, under-heard SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS BAND was to buy an expensive original 45 or cheaper bootleg 45 of the one-song single “City Slang” (with a stereo a-side version and a mono b-side version), trade live tapes or bootleg vinyl (extremely hard to come by), or to buy a semi-legit split LP from France with Ron Asheton’s DESTROY ALL MONSTERS 45s on the a-side and various SRB material on the back, including the stereo “City Slang”. Me, I’ve heard most of what this 1975-80 Detroit-based act had to offer up, and for the most part, it’s just-above-standard-issue FM power rock, electrified significantly by the wild guitar playing of axe hero Fred “Sonic” Smith, late of the MC5. I’d position it somewhere between The Stooges and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, except on the longer tracks where Smith gets to go ape, and then it’s “the 5” all the way. You can read a lot more about them here.

In 1990 I was in a band with a fella who saw the band in Detroit many times in their heyday, and we decided to do an instrumental cover of the song “Sweet Nuthin’” from that French LP. It was so easy to play that even I could do it – but the song remains, especially in this instrumental version, to be a singular moment in their catalog: a sprawling, repetitive, understated but nasty rock and roll mauler. The opening guitar riff is just filthy, as they say in baseball. No need for a 6-CD box set – all the magic’s on the “City Slang” 45 and right here!

Play or Download SONIC’S RENDEZVOUS BAND – “Sweet Nuthin’” (from posthumous split LP with Destroy All Monsters)

WHAT’S IN DETAILED TWANG’S CAR CD PLAYER, IPOD AND HOME STEREO SYSTEM

I don’t quite have the time or the patience to painstakingly write record/CD reviews the way I once did. That said, some of you out there have sent me 45s to listen to and/or review, and I’m going to do just that, in one fell swoop, in the next few days. There’s still an incredible amount of fantastic music being made or compiled, however. Here’s what’s been floating the proverbial boat this past month – all highly recommended:

TYVEK – “Fast Metabolism” download CD
CHEATER SLICKS – “Walk Into The Sea” LP
“REPORT FROM THE COUNTRY” 60s/70s country music comps from Derek Bostrom
THE BAD TRIPS – “The Bad Trips” LP
OPAL – “Early Recordings Volume 2” fake CD
THOMAS FUNCTION – “The Insignificants” EP
MESSTHETICS #103 – CD

SILVER DAGGERS GO SPLITTERTY SPLAT

Last year the outstanding radio show ART FOR SPASTICS gave me my first taste of Los Angeles band the SILVER DAGGERS, and I very much liked what I heard. I know I’m lazy, and do this all the time, but why repeat myself – here’s what I wrote about them in March 2006:

“Los Angeles’ SILVER DAGGERS are part of a new breed of exploratory, pummeling agit-noise acts operating on the NOT NOT FUN label, and for my money, and based on the evidence, they’re the best of ‘em. This EP from last year is a strange mix of aggressive, guitar-heavy EX-style sturm und drang, and freeform honking and tooting. Since they’ve taken their name from an ELECTRIC EELS song, I’m sure you’re as curious as I was to know which era Eels they’re emulating. The early “Agitated”, “Cyclotron”, “Refrigerator” Eels? Or the later “Pleasure Boating”, “Spin Age Blasters” Eels? I’d have to go with the latter, given the jarring sax and clarinet all over this EP, and if there’s not a serious STYRENES fan in the band then I’ll be damned. The lead track “We Didn’t Pay” is a monster, and has got to be a nutbuster live for all of its 75 seconds of pound. This one in particular should win the band fans from those who refuse to believe that Amphetamine Reptile are no longer putting out records. Heads up on this bunch – I suspect they’re not done wowing us quite yet”

So here they are with a brand-new CD on Load Records called “New High & Ord”, and it’s got quite a bit of pummel to go round. The EX comparison is far more evident, even though I think even The Ex would not stoop to title a song “Governkkk”, even during the “No war/no KKK/no fascist USA” Reagan era. But that’s just kids being kids, right? It’s a solid CD – and I still haven’t seen them live. Here are my two favorite tracks (so far).

Play or Download SILVER DAGGERS – “Displacement”
Play or Download SILVER DAGGERS – “Joy”