A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican May 6, 2009 With apologies to Edgard Varèse (and Ruben Sano), "The modern-day garage snot rocker refuses to die." Not only that, they're all over the world. I just got this bitchen little CD, Drop In and Go from sweet Adelaide, Australia, by an Aussie band I'd never heard of called The Molting Vultures. I had a feeling I was going to like it when I first saw the cartoon vulture surfing on the cover. And I was right. The music of the Vultures is a modern-day extension of the basic Question Mark and the Mysterians/Blues Magoos sound, which hardly ever gets old. Lot of great Farfisa organ (or at least it sounds like the good old Farfisa) and fuzztone guitar. Plus, the band has a singer, Phillip Vulture, whose only instrument is the theremin, giving some nice science-fiction effects on songs like "Gulls Rock," "Mummy Shakes," and "Bad Bad Woman." All the musicians have the surname "Vulture." Besides Phillip, there are Nick, Mick, Jamie, and Michael "Popeye" Vulture. Their mom, Mrs. Vulture, must be very proud. While the band rarely strays from the basic hopped-up garage sound, there are some unusual touches. For instance, the song "It's What I Wanted" features some pounding piano that sounds straight out of "Crocodile Rock." This boogie sound returns on the album closer, "Tear It Apart," which also features a childlike harmonica solo by Popeye. One of my favorites here is the roughly six-minute "Insane Jane," in which the band gets slow and psychedelic, with Jamie Vulture playing the organ nice and spooky and the guitars growling, reminding me a little bit of The Black Angels' sound. Yes, this kind of music has been done a zillion times before, and The Molting Vultures don't score a lot of points in the originality category. Still, this is the sound I've loved since the days of "Dirty Water" and "Liar Liar." May these down-under Vultures ever molt. Also recommended * Used by Black Smokers. Another sound that refuses to die is that of the crazed guitar-and-drums blues/punk duo. Think Flat Duo Jets, The Black Keys, and The Moaners — and The White Stripes in their early days. And now, from the great nation of Italy — via Chicago's Pravda Records, one of my favorite little labels — comes Black Smokers, which consists of singer/guitarist/theremin (that again!) player Marcello Milanese and Ivano Zanotti on drums. The Smokers do lots of high-charged, crunching rockers — as bands of this sort are prone to do. "Kickboxer Girl" is an oughta-be classic. The instrumental "Raccoon City Limits" packs a solid punch in less than two minutes, as does "Notturno Op. 69," in which Milanese makes his slide guitar wail. "Cheap Woman" sounds like the music of a punkier ZZ Top, and "Toc Toc" suggests a stripped-down quasi-rockabilly style. The thing is, the Smokers aren't afraid to tackle the slower and dare I say pretty ballads as well, such as the dark minor-key "Foggy Days" and the meandering "Rain on the Ocean." Milanese has a gruff, soulful voice that lends itself to these songs as well as to the crunching rockers. And speaking of the Flat Duo Jets, I bet Dex Romweber would dig the tango-soaked blues of the title song on this record. Gee, it seems like only yesterday — actually it was just a week ago — that I wrote "the free world probably didn't need another version of 'Folsom Prison Blues.'" Nobody listens to me. Here's another one, a 90 mph slide-guitar version. I gotta admit, I kinda like it. * Happier Than You by Jesus H. Christ and The Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse. This is a poppy little New York group with, yes, four hornsmen (trumpet, sax, and two trombones) and an amazing singer, Risa Mickenberg, who has a sexy, nasally voice and a nicely skewed outlook on love, life, and people we all know. The album starts out with a song about a character that office workers around the world will recognize: "Liz, the Hot Receptionist." ("She never got promoted/Always wondered why/Her desk was by the printer: easy to stop by.") Mickenberg sings about the type of relationship that rarely makes it to song in "Back Burner Guy." It's about a man she wants around to "talk about music, talk about art" and have in case her real relationship falls through. "As long as I know you lust after me/I can be the girl he wants me to be," she happily chirps. Another favorite is "Alcoholics in My Town" sung by Mickenberg and band mate Joel Shelton. It's a folk/rocky little tune about the sad but lovable town drunks they know. Mickenberg and Shelton also share vocals on "Vanity Surfing," which is about Googling yourself on the Internet. (”It’s a special kind of masturbation,” Shelton sings.”) I hope they Google this. Hey Risa, you're in Pasatiempo!

You are correct. Sonny, it was one of your finer moments. movingV said:

Re Koko Joe: Let's give props to the writer, all-around Renaissance Man Sonny Bono.

Re Koko Joe: Let's give props to the writer, all-around Renaissance Man Sonny Bono.

For the last couple of years I've been posting my monthly eMusic downloads on my blog. (You can find those HERE.) If anyone gives a rodent's posterior I'll start posting them here too. There's lots of the kind of stuff we talk about in this Hideout, * Undead 'n' Live by Nekromantix. Horror-obsessed psychobilly from a band that started out in Denmark. Granted the concept isn't that original -- and Roky Erikson does the spookhouse schtik far more convincingly that these guys. But Nekromantix rocks. This nuclear-powered monster mash is irresistible. Among my favorite songs on this live "greatest hits" collection are "Bloody Holiday," "Devil Smile" (which owes more to Black Sabbath than rockabilly) and the title song to one of their studio albums, "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend." *You Got My Mind Messed Up by James Carr. He never made it as big as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett or even Percy Sledge. But here's what Stax/Volt songwriter Dan Penn had to say about this amazing soulman: “Everybody keeps asking me what’s my favorite version of `Dark End of the Street.' As if there was any others but James Carr’s.” Penn should know. He co-wrote the song. (He makes this decalration when introducing the tune on the 2005 album Moments From This Theatre: Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham Live.) Carr, who died of lung cancer in 2001, reminds me a lot of Redding -- and I don't throw around such compliments lightly. This is an album of Carr's greatest hits -- or shoulda-been hits. "Dark End" is here and I pretty much have to agree with Dan Penn. Carr's story is a tragic one. The cry in his voice was authentic. And when he sang "You Got My Mind Messed Up," he knew what he was singing about. Carr suffered from severe depression. According to the All Music Guide, " ... Carr found himself unable to deal with the stress of touring; he frequently wandered off alone and got lost. By 1968, his mental state had deteriorated greatly, making even recording sessions a challenge. " This album is pure unadulterated Memphis soul that deserves a wider audience. Consumer note: One of those weird e-Music blunders. The last two tracks have the song titles mixed up. "To Love Somebody" (yes, the old Bee Gee's hit) is labeled "Freedom Train" and vica versa. Come on, eMusic, there's way too much of this! * The Radio Tisdas Sessions by Tinariwen. I stumbled upon this, Tinariwen's first album, the night after I saw them play at The Santa Fe Brewing Company. These guys are all Tuareg tribesmen from the country of Mali. They were nomadic folk forced into military service by Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Crazy Mo didn't teach 'em how to play electric guitar though. This is trancy guitar rock with strong Saharan percussion provided via derbouka, a conga-like instrument. I don't understand the lyrics, but I understand they've gotten the group banned on the radio in Mali and Algeria, so they must be subversive. This was the only Tinariwn album I didn't have. I actually prefer Aman Iman: Water Is Life (2007) and Amassakoul (2004). The good news is that eMusic has them too. And I've conveniently linked them for you. * Jungle Hop by Don & Dewey . Here are the original righteous brothers! In fact you'll find a couple of actual songs here that Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield later covered -- "Koko Joe" ("the coolest little monkey in town ...") and, more importantly, "Justine. (" ... you just don't treat me right.") You'll also find original versions of early rock 'n' roll staples like "Farmer John" and "Big Boy Pete" (The Kingsmen later turned this into "The Jolly Green Giant") here, not to mention "I'm Leaving It All Up to You," a tune turned into a country pop hit a few years later by a duo called Dale & Grace. Don Harris and Dewey Terry, both of whom came from Pasadena, recorded for Specialty Records in the late '50s. When you listen to these tracks you have to wonder why they never became stars in their own right. Harris, however, didn't exactly fade into obscurity. By the end of the '60s, he adopted the nickname "Sugarcane" and was playing electric violin -- not on Desolation Row, but with Frank Zappa, John Mayall and others. Fans of Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh will remember him wailing on "Directly From My Heart to You." *Youth Against Nature by The Monsters. Tender little love songs your grandma would enjoy. If your grandma is Ma Barker or Typhoid Mary. This is rock 'n' roll the Beatman way -- wild, raw and trashy! If you don't know what I'm talking about, get thee to Voodoo Rhythm! This album was recorded in 1997 at Toe Rag Studios in London (that's where Billy Childish has recorded his best stuff in recent years.) Uncompromising as it is, this album is far more accessible to the only other Monsters album I have, Garage Punk Vol. 1. (For my review of that, CLICK HERE and scroll down.) Check out the noirish instrumental "Cosmic Bell Dance." Also the crazed jungle-drum/fuzz-guitar driven "Voodoo Love" where Beat-man sings about "suicide murders from Hell." Plus .... * The last seven songs on Merriweather Post Pavilion, the new album by Animal Collective. (I downloaded the first four at the end of last month.) About the first thing that pops in to my head when listening to this music is "Brian Wilson Conquers the Martians." This band and TV on the Radio are about the only distinctively 21st Century modern rock I'm listening to these days. Usually I hate synth-based music, but you can't deny how creative these boys are -- and how catchy and addictive their music is. That being said, I think I prefer 2007's Strawberry Jam. Merriweather's growing on me though. and ... * Eight tracks from Como Amigos by Flaco Jimenez. Back about the time I graduated from college and moved back to Santa -- we're talking the fall of 1976 to be exact, I heard Ry Cooder's version of "He'll Have to Go," a Tex-Mex arrangement featuring an accordian player I'd never heard of previous -- Flaco Jimenez. I was astonished! I was so impressed that I didn't even want to get the Ry Cooder album until I sought out more music by Flaco. A couple of days later, I was downtown and decided to check out the old Star Records, which then was located in La Fonda. Sure enough, they had a Flaco album on some tiny Texas label, so I bought it. Pure unadulterated Flaco. My favorite tune was one of ethnic pride, "Soy Chicano." Who knows what happened to my copy of that album. But though I've heard Doug Sahm's version (which he just called "Chicano"), I hadn't heard that original Flaco version in years -- until last Monday night. Bob Hastings was on B.C. Caldwell's Blue Monday show on KSFR. When two record collectors that serious get together, you know something amazing is going to happen. Bob was playing some of his great old family '78s -- mariachi music, Mexican, Tex-Mex. And sure enough, he played that original Flaco version of "Soy Chicano." Man, it sounded great. A strange voice led me to eMusic, where I found the song on this album. So I used my last remaining to download that plus seven others. All primal Flaco. No guest rock stars. No English lyrics. No covers of popular American songs. Just that cosmic accordion.

I seem to recall Panther Burns covering 'Jungle Fever'. (I think ?)
The Guana Batz covered Orbison's 'You're My Baby' on their first LP ('Held Down To Vinyl.. At Last', ID Records 1985).
The Cramps covered 'Problem Child', though it never went beyond the demo stage. It's available on various bootlegs.
Crazy Cavan 'n' The Rhythm Rockers covered 'Tongue-Tied Jill'.
All the above mentioned are from the Neo-Rockabilly side of things, no surprise there.

Thanks for that! I'll comb the shelves for it, I guess it's one to have anyway... wish me luck! Dead Boy said:

The Nomads covered "Jungle Fever" of Feathers on their 2nd album "Hardware". It's a good version, but the LP is out of print.
http://www.thenomads.se/hardware.htm

I agree and disagree with ixnayray: I'd certainly categorize "The Clash" as the band's ONLY punk album, although I still love that album. I also like "London Calling" and --dare I say it-- "Combat Rock". But I'm going to like what I like, whether it is labeled "punk" or not, so what difference does it make?

Well said GAS-HOUSE GORILLA - i see your point. Hey, i'm not a fan of GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE and you are... and that's what makes the world go round. As for SANDINISTA - after listening to it many, MANY times I have narrowed the 38 tracks down to 23... and i think its a classic when i listen to it my way. They were a band that transcended the 70's punk genre, and they are one of my favorite bands of all time - so i hope no-one thinks i'm running them down, as i listen to them on a daily basis. It's just that it's the punk stuff that i don't like as much - and thats what got me thinking and made me start this whole discussion.

that's rad. kopper said:

No, I still listen to ELO (not so much Queen, though, I admit). I have a lot of tastes that go way beyond the world of garage-punk. In fact, I'd love to get my hands on the Zoom LP that came out in 2001 to rave reviews but that's now OOP. Anyone have a copy? I'll even settle for MP3s at this point.

Mike said:

kopper said:

And I was also one of those kooks who was listening to ELO and Queen, too. So sue me. ;)

Ha! Well you may have been listening to those Kopper, but I doubt you were one of those kook types I was refering to. We'll just rack it up to youthfull experimentation on your part.....now what did I do with that Blondes Have more Fun picture disc my brother gave me in the 7th grade?

one of the best albums of all time? bold statement. i disagree. but i love that record. the clash definitely had hits and misses - a lot of misses, in my opinion - and most peoples, really. love the Clash. fuck the Boo! and fuck you! Kevin Schneider said:

The first album is amazing - one of the best albums of all time by any band, any genre, and is in many ways the very definition of what punk meant in the late 70s. Give 'em Enough Rope is really, really good. London Calling is just okay. Sandinista, Combat Rock, and Cut the Crap all suck. Those three albums combined have three good songs total. Two of those three songs, Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah are overplayed to the point where I am no longer able to derive any pleasure from hearing them. The third, and the only worthwhile song on the 3 disc monstrosity that is Sandinista, is Police on My Back, which is a cover.

Alex said:

On a slightly unrelated note... if you want some cool 60's African garage rock, I'd recommend a compilation called Cazumbi, that just came out in the past year.

have you heard our 45 rpm releases by the ridiculous trio? it's instrumental tuba/ drums marching band sounding version of songs by the stooges. no lie. amazing!

Alex said:

If you're in or around NYC, I'd recommend a trip to Other Music, on E. 4th St. between Lafayette and Broadway. They have all sorts of weirdness there, and the employees do a fantastic job of writing their own reviews of their recent favorites. They have some fairly obvious garage/punk/rock stuff, but then there's a whole load of weird things from other countries, odd electronic... your imagination is the limit. They literally have everything from 70's Nigerian Funk to Khmer Pop. Also a sweet bargain bin, where I found a copy of Luis and the Wildfires "Brain Jail" on Norton.

Ha! Way cool shope, I enjoy that name... On my list now - big thanks. See that's cool, Cazumbi has a topic post somewhere here. That's what I would call likeminded forum thrashing! Alex said:

If you're in or around NYC, I'd recommend a trip to Other Music, on E. 4th St. between Lafayette and Broadway. They have all sorts of weirdness there, and the employees do a fantastic job of writing their own reviews of their recent favorites. They have some fairly obvious garage/punk/rock stuff, but then there's a whole load of weird things from other countries, odd electronic... your imagination is the limit. They literally have everything from 70's Nigerian Funk to Khmer Pop. Also a sweet bargain bin, where I found a copy of Luis and the Wildfires "Brain Jail" on Norton.
On a slightly unrelated note... if you want some cool 60's African garage rock, I'd recommend a compilation called Cazumbi, that just came out in the past year.

If you're in or around NYC, I'd recommend a trip to Other Music, on E. 4th St. between Lafayette and Broadway. They have all sorts of weirdness there, and the employees do a fantastic job of writing their own reviews of their recent favorites. They have some fairly obvious garage/punk/rock stuff, but then there's a whole load of weird things from other countries, odd electronic... your imagination is the limit. They literally have everything from 70's Nigerian Funk to Khmer Pop. Also a sweet bargain bin, where I found a copy of Luis and the Wildfires "Brain Jail" on Norton.

On a slightly unrelated note... if you want some cool 60's African garage rock, I'd recommend a compilation called Cazumbi, that just came out in the past year.

kopper said:

I never thought I'd hear the Oak Ridge Boys cover a White Stripes song, but now I have...

Geez, what's next, The Sonics covering the Mummies?

Now I haven't been good with playing loads of weird stuff on Sonic Nightmares, I must admit it could be more twisted. But I think Gringo has a particular concept to our show that would shatter him if we broke out of the garage mode. Still I played some early Grand Funk that needed playing, hahaha!

I read that on the DVD release there is a deleated scene where Phil Chess is mentioned briefly. Also, how about the whole Willie Dixon narrative. Did he actually record any kind of oral history of the label as they show in the film's begining?

Yeah, really! It puzzles me how that seems to be an option in doing the whole thing. Like: "O.K. we really like the taste of this type of orange, looks great. We wanna make some juice out of it, looks like it will sell! But let's just give it a different paint job, light green maybe? The shape, no the shape don't work for what we have in mind. Also the juice it's just... it don't fit. We thought, maybe use an apple after all - they are so in fashion and the concentrate is soooo much sweeter!" Hahaha. Has anybody heard what Mr. Berry thought of how it all was presented? kopper said:

Wow. Amazing how they can just rewrite history for film, ain't it?

Hey now! These are only CD's. The vinyl would be $$$.

play it loud. it won't fuck up your speakers. it just sounds like that.


damn, you don't even deserve those records!

Hahajahaahah! Great great post! I had the same thought and I think it's fun to spend time thinking of an album like that. It gives for many chuckles... loud music on the listener end, not easy to handle. Something more to it, like leather jackett smell fused to audio! I like that concept, different then perfectly clean mixed rock albums (not that I don't enjoy THAT!). It's nice to see a record that demands you to spend some time setting up the playing of it. But sure it ain't fun to hurt your stereo! I like the warning sign on JET GENERATION and it seems to keeps it's promise. I talked to a sound engineer friend about that, but we didn't cross the point of joking about it....

In all seriousness, is there a way to do this? I just bought "Jet Generation" and "Missile Me" and gave them a listen through on very low volume. I can't figure out how to set up the EQ and Volume in a way that won't trash my speakers. Any suggestions?

I see that there is very special stuff on that show, classy, great set's. I'm just thinking: Is it nonsense to record shows by young bands, because it falls out of the roster of what has been played?

I mean if the recording is good and the show crisp, is there a chance it can be more recent and small and therefor possibly not be so appropriate for the programming and the VAULT line?

With all the things going on, it would be awesome to check in with and hear some young bands recorded, in addition to the already great "classics."

Well how you feelin' bout that GP checkers???

Right on... Idon I still cannot decide what i'd listen to... i think i'd just make music instruments outta sea-life and go at it. IDON MINE said:

Yeah, yeah, ....yeah, yeah that one too, and that, ok!

Alla tha things here are sweet end times listening!

The Sonics would have to work as the last refuge blow to take out a 1000 zombies attacking my sandwich stash - like they did eversince they were played first! That record is gone doin' what it does best.

So then after the hordes have been shot/beat down I'll be sitting back enjoying a club with a turn at "BO DIDDLEY's ROCK'N'ROLL"!!! Over and over again.

That is until a play of SPRINGEY coming from some cavern raises another horde - like it did eversince. I'll have to launch the NEW BOMB TURKS NIGHTMARE SCENARIO at them right before it is deleted and sit my four down in some loud peace finally, watching the red settle over the ruins.


"BOOM! MO' FO's"