That's awesome. I ordered a shirt from TKO back in the late 90s... all white with the Beltones logo and a M-16 (or M-60) across the chest. Still wear it today, despite the stains. You gotta any of those T-shirts lying around?

But the really cool thing is how I was introduced to the band.... saw the Swingin' Utters play Des Moines, Iowa in the summer 99 when I was living out there. Ended up drinking beers with the band afterwards and talking about music, sports (big NBA fans) and old SNL episodes. Anyway Johhny Peebucks and I struck up a friendship of sorts as we talked about a band called the Strike. I told him I'd send him their latest LP on casette tape. He returned the favor with a tape consisting of the Beltones, Workin' Stiffs and the Real McKenzies. Good stuff indeed!

Dennis Guthrie said:

The Beltones are great.  I used to print their t-shirts when I worked at my buddy's shop, Crash & Burn (in Atlanta).

Jason Feldmann said:

Everyone should know, love, appreciate and emmulate the Beltones. Their On Deaf Ears EP collects all their early 7 inches onto a CD. Only 20 minutes. But 20 minutes is all you need to have your life turned upside down!!  I love this goddamn band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eS3mtb...

The Beltones are great.  I used to print their t-shirts when I worked at my buddy's shop, Crash & Burn (in Atlanta).

Jason Feldmann said:

Everyone should know, love, appreciate and emmulate the Beltones. Their On Deaf Ears EP collects all their early 7 inches onto a CD. Only 20 minutes. But 20 minutes is all you need to have your life turned upside down!!  I love this goddamn band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eS3mtb...

Everyone should know, love, appreciate and emmulate the Beltones. Their On Deaf Ears EP collects all their early 7 inches onto a CD. Only 20 minutes. But 20 minutes is all you need to have your life turned upside down!!  I love this goddamn band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eS3mtbFlr90

woops!poor pipeline.

Light Bulb Alley ( New LP out!) said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rutyA12z3Ok I DONT KNOW IF YOU HEARD OF THIS GUY... BUT HES KIND OF A BIG DEAL :P

Holy cow.

He thinks: "How many notes can I play per second with my eyes closed?"

Light Bulb Alley ( New LP out!) said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rutyA12z3Ok I DONT KNOW IF YOU HEARD OF THIS GUY... BUT HES KIND OF A BIG DEAL :P

Light Bulb, Ultimatemost High & Ruby... you guys DO realize you can embed these videos directly into your posts, right?

I love Shooter! That's good to know. I'm gonna reach out and try to snag him for my showcase!

joey fuckup said:

I know you're focusing on the garage department here, Steve, but Adam Sheets told me that Shooter Jennings will be doing a showcase down there with bands and musicians he's promoting right now. Billy Joe Shaver has signed on, that much I know.

You don't have to buy the badge at all. I have never bought one and it's never, ever prevented me from seeing a show I want to see. I'd say 99% of all shows are free and everyone is able to get into them. If you want to do conferences and seminars and stuff, buy the badge. If you're just going to check out bands, don't worry about it!

Shtbird said:

So I checked out the website (Never attended a music festival of any sort). Lineup looks pretty fun, I've seen a handful of them on little west coast tours.

But 675 for a Music Badge?

and Hotel Rooms at 150+ a night?

We're talking at least 1500 (including travel, food, drinks, etc.) I don't know about you guys, but I'm dirt poor working class. I can't afford that shit.

Does anyone know of a cheaper way to do this?

I have a showcase down there again this year. I'll be doing it at The Elysium. One of the awesome bands I'll be having on is the Riverboat Gamblers!! I'm so excited for it. We're gonna have a pig roast and free beer. This year though I'm taking the nanny. I'm a mama and it's tough dragging a baby all over SXSW!

My fave shows are house shows or outdoor BBQ's and stuff. Maybe I'm just old but watching 1000 wasted kids run around isn't so fun anymore. 

If anyone knows of any killer bands looking for a showcase, send them my way! I'm taking submissions now and making decisions at the end of them month. 

Hope to see you there!

T. Tex Edwards said:

Nervebreakers will be playing Get Hip showcase, Dog & Duck and more...

The $675 is for the actual conference. Few buy that outside of industry people.

I think they still sell wristbands that get you in all the shows -- supposedly. I've been turned away from some shows where even the festival badge won't get you in.

But like Eddy said, there are jillions of parties during the day that aren't officially affiliated. Many of these are free and open to the public. I almost always go to the Bloodshot Records party at the Yard Dog gallery. In fact the Yard Dog has shows there almost every day. Lots of labels have daytime shows.

And here's some good news -- most of those daytime parties give you free beer and sometimes food. (I went to this party at the late lamented Las Mananitas restaurant one year -- not sure how I got invited -- that featured Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Joe Ely, Freddy Fender and a bunch of great Mexican musicians. They were giving away free tamales and beer. A pretty lady took my beer and opened it for me. I didn't realize for a moment that it was Sandra Bullock. ) 

Also, if you want to stay at one club all night, most, I understand will let the public in for a cover charge. 

I'm a reporter so I've always gotten a comp badge (been there about 10 times since the mid 90s) But I'm almost tempted to try it this year without any badge or wristband to see how I fare.

Can't help much with the price of hotels. My only advice is to make reservations early.

Shtbird said:

So I checked out the website (Never attended a music festival of any sort). Lineup looks pretty fun, I've seen a handful of them on little west coast tours.

But 675 for a Music Badge?

and Hotel Rooms at 150+ a night?

We're talking at least 1500 (including travel, food, drinks, etc.) I don't know about you guys, but I'm dirt poor working class. I can't afford that shit.

Does anyone know of a cheaper way to do this?

Nervebreakers will be playing Get Hip showcase, Dog & Duck and more...

@ SWT....If you're doing a vinyl show at just about any campus radio station, you're best to bring your own cartridges. Where i do a show, (campus radio) the needles are constantly bent or damaged yet people still use them. And yes, it'll damage your records.

I always bring my own headshells, turntables mats etc and have no problems with record damage...now if the fucking hiphoppers (or whatever they are) would stop fucking with the wiring to the turntables i'd be all set...vent over.

(kopper said) "You get used to the convenience of being able to pop a CD into a disc player and hitting the track number and pause button, cued up and ready to go."

Boy, I second that. I lug a crate of CDs into KSFR twice a week for my shows. But I used to lug in two crates. These days about half my shows are from my iPod.

What you said about vinyl is true too. A huge pain in the ass to cue and the ever present danger of fucked up needles.

kopper said:

Well, having a few radio shows spanning over 20 years spoiled me. You get used to the convenience of being able to pop a CD into a disc player and hitting the track number and pause button, cued up and ready to go. Cuing up vinyl LPs every two minutes for two or three straight hours is a huge pain in the ass, especially when you're also supposed to be going on mic every so often, keeping a log of the songs you're playing, plugging in PSAs, commercials, etc., and still finding time to answer the phone, run to the bathroom, smoke a cigarette, take transmitter readings, whatever. CDs made being a radio DJ a LOT easier. But these days you don't even need to lug your CDs around to do a radio show... all you need is an iPod or two, plug them into the control board and no one will know the difference. Also, playing your precious vinyl on radio station turntables with questionable needle quality (you have no idea how the other jocks on the station are treating these needles, and they may go six months or a year before getting replaced) you often find your records getting worn down a lot sooner than they should be. So anyway, while I saw the convenience of CDs from a radio DJ's point of view (to the point where I would actually prefer bands send CD promos to me instead of vinyl), I can also totally understand why we've reached the end of their lifespan. They're just not necessary anymore when you can purchase 320 kbps MP3s from just about anywhere and burn your own CDs, or put them on your MP3 players or whatever. They've just become the next dinosaur.

That's fan-fucking-tastic. Great post. But who else has been super jazzed to find a sweet piece of vinyl. Slide out the vinyl... Side A is near mint... and then BAM.... Side B looks like it was used by some amateur wanna be scratchin' DJ. Or even worse.... whole thing looks immaculate but only when you come home do you discover a small nick that totally ruins your listening experience and fucks up your needle to boot.

Oh Boy you got Me down to a "T" (whatever that means). ho, ho! Si mon

N yeAH I probably aquire more rubbish than I care to mention

i would kill for a phantom special ,if the fuzz is anythinglike the one in the starstream then its even more amazing than i thought (and i think its godly anyway)

Time For Tiffin said:

this kinda sounds like George Michael.

SarahJayne said:

I really like the Secret Affair's version of 'going to a go go'

Ahhhhh fuckin' Modz.  I was one '79 ish ....yeh  a revialist, powered by thee jam.  Quadraphenia movie's out.  Every dickhead Jimmy wannabe riding round gardens at drunk'n parties, wardrobes pushed outta bedroom windows, pill popping.... anyol'shit the pharmacists son could steal.... incuding cod liver oil capsules.

What turned me off mod was when God - Bo Diddley came to a city 12 miles away.  I and 2 friends went on scooterz.  (I expected the place to be full of suited coolsterz but nah those mods had no idea, other than thee who, quadrahenia and motown).  I shared Bo with greasy ol' long haired biker rockerz.  It still is the best live experience ever.   A small pub backroom and Bo backed by an eager young rock n' roll group.

I'd suggest checking out dutch mods -

any q65 material http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgduSEG2gG8 

de maskers - sensations in sounds album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dx168kpFAg

and bo diddley.

....how do you embed vids?......

I remember seeing the Prisoners at a place in Croydon , London back in the mid 80s (Underground club) Fab, The Three O Clock were supporting I think...

some bands that started off as Psychobilly went kind of garage/punk The Vibes probably were the best of these doing covers old Pebbles clssics like "Hurricane Fighter Plane" , I'm in Pittsburgh", "double Decker Bus" ... so not mod then but hovering around that groove S'pose .

Si mon

Dan ring said:

The prisoners are a great example of the mod sound. Another band that had some bite,also from the 80's was les elite.

...more on the power pop tip but a personal fave of the mod revival groups of the 80's was the teen beats! They had a great 7" out called I can't control myself.
Thee Retroman said:

The Prisoners were a mod band with bite! and so were the Daggerman... the energy of these bands was how mod should sound. 

The Eyes

The Sorrows

Johns Children

Downliners Sect

The Wheels

Them

The Artwoods.......................

theres a few to start you off lol

I've always loved Fabienne's voice... even more than Holly Golightly's. I highly recommend picking up some of her stuff with The Bristols.

http://www.grunnenrocks.nl/bands/b/bristols.htm

That cover shot could make me spit my drink out , too ! : )

Try the Eccentric Soul series!  Pretty fantastic shit!