Lyres, DMZ, the real kids, Billy and Miriam/Norton Records to start

* Tangle by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. This band truly is one of the major lost gems of the '90s, one of the most unjustly overlooked groups of their era. And this album (their second) is so overlooked, I overlooked it myself. For some reason I thought I had all their albums. Somehow I never had this one until now.

I first stumbled across the Fellers back in 1991 -- the Summer of Grunge! -- when I was up in Seattle to go to a wedding. They were headlining a bill of fellow unknowns at a little club called The Off Ramp. Their strange, discordant, yet lovably goofy sound twisted my head off. Describing that night in a review of another TFUL282 album back in 1996, I wrote, "I was amazed at how joyful and childlike the Fellers were, not in a self-conscious or cloying way as they created their musical magic, how they could be sweet and ear-wrenching at the same time. I'd never realized before that night that a mandolin could be used as an audio assault weapon." In Tangle, I hear echoes of Captain Beefheart, The Fall, maybe even a little Husker Du. But mainly I hear that crazy band I loved so much at the Off Ramp nearly 20 years ago.


*Git High Tonite! by Bloodshot Bill. He's a one-man rockabilly band from Montreal. He's a crony of both King Khan and BBQ, and allegedly even has his own brand of hair gel called "Nice 'n' Greasy," and -- like me -- he's a major Roger Miller fan. Sometimes you can hear it in his voice.

Although he rose from the punk scene, Bloodshot Bill does not play "psychobilly." You can feel the love and respect he's got for the rockabilly tradition. No metal riffs, no songs about werewolves or zombies (at least not on this album) .

But like the late great Ray Condo, you can hear the "psycho" in his vocals, his hiccups, his yodels.

I'm looking forward to a couple of upcoming CDs on Norton Records featuring this guy -- The Ding-Dongs with Mark Sultan (aka BBQ) and Tandoori Knights with the King (Khan, that is.)

* I Learned the Hard Way by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. I wouldn't call this "over-produced," but Sharon's fourth album with the Dap-Kings is noticeably more polished than he previous efforts. There's strings and vibes and background singers, more obvious references to Motown -- pretty classy stuff, though I prefer Jones and the Daps more gritty and less sweetened,

It took me a few tracks to start to sink into Hard Way. But it was worth it. There's some fine tunes here.

"Money" kicks off with a mini-sermonette about the recession woes, the message here basically is the same as other songs of similar titles - she needs MONEY! "Mama Don't My Man" is nice and basic -- just a guitar, some foot-stomps and some background singers. I bet somewhere there are Shirelles demos that sound a lot like this.

But by far the strongest here, and one of the best Sharon's ever done, is "She Ain't a Child No More," a tragic story of abuse and growing up too fast.

See for yourself. Here's Sharon and the lads performing this song recently on The Colbert Report.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - She Ain't a Child No More
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes

* Rosco's Rhythm by Rosco Gordon. You gotta love eMusic. Believe it or not, this, album is classified as "electronic experimental."

And no, it's not ska either, although Rosco's shuffling piano rhythms have been credited with inspiring a generation of Jamaican musicians.

But in reality, it's good basic R&B from the '50s. Rosco started out in Memphis where in the late '40s he was in a group called The Beale Streeters, which included B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and the late great Johnny Ace.

I will be posting Playlists starting with tonight's show....We will be on Live 7 to 9 est....go to Westcottradio.org and click Listen Now at 7pm...see you there....Petey Lightning swt said:

Sounds good. You should post your playlists here.

Sounds good. You should post your playlists here.

Walk The Plank Radio airs live every Monday night from 7 to 9pm est. We play a great eclectic rock n roll show featuring Roots rock n roll, Garage, Punk, Rockabilly, Country, you name it......find us at Westcottradio.org.....just click LISTEN NOW on Monday at 7pm......you can also find us archived there........Petey Lightning    WALK THE PLANK DJ  

Episode 2 is done and posted! Track listing below.

Rockin' Rebels - Rumble
The Delmonas - Peter Gunn Locomotion
Myrtle K Hilo - Kaimuki Hula
Luie Luie - El Touchy
Devendra Banhart - Long Haired Child
Yvonne Fair - Say Yeah Yeah
The Occasionals - Sometimes
Trost - Man On The Box
Terry & The Topics - Where's My Pussycat
Guru - Plenty ft. Erykah Badu
Cool Calm Pete - Heart
Wolf Gang - Back To Back (Active Child Remix)
Tanlines - Real Life (Memory Tapes Remix)
Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)
Beach Fossils - Desert Sand
The Champs - Train To Nowhere
Big Youth - Tipper Tone Rock
Os Mutantes - Panis et Circenses
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - California Soul
Eden Ahbez - The Wanderer

So that's episode 2. It was fun...and gave us warm beach vibes. That Yvonne Fair song has been in our heads all week. As always, thanks for listening. Koala out!

If you accept some help from lysergic influence,BARDO POND could give you a long and futher trip...
;-)

NASA Voyager Recordings - Symphonies Of The Planets

And Solid Space's album Space Museum has a sci fi video game feel, imho.

Come listen to some out of this world music here: http://www.immergent.com/.

I think Spacemen 3 were best but Spirtualized were pretty decent as well.

Check out Bunnies from Massachusetts..especially future shock!

had the great man kip on ma couch about 1987. Played a one off in Dundee of all places. we sat up to the wee small hours and even tho iy was mano a mano i could'nt help but think, ' you've influenced me in so many ways and are a real star in my eyes and here we are speakin shite and drinkin coffee in a flat in Dundee!' a real humble guy. I stayed in touch with him for years, and he is indeed a great loss to music. he'll be somewhere with Lux just now, chillin' an speakin' nonsense. until the next time big guy!

Andy

Hey Dead Boy, thanks for the video - I hope the film gets made, I'd love to see it. The moment, when Nick Cave stops to speak is so sad... Reminds me of the Johnny Cash-Video of Hurt, when June stands on the stairs and just watches Johnny - so sad...

Doc

"Trailer for Rowland S. Howard - Autoluminescent feature documentary. A co-production between Ghost Pictures and Lindsay Gravina's King Blank Productions."

Definitely broke here. For all of the work we put into releasing things, sure it would be really cool to at least break even. And we haven't given up on that. But like some others have said, this is more of an obsession type thing. You don't really get involved in making/releasing this type of music for money. I'm not suggesting that you are or anything. I think the best we can do is try to support the small labels that we like. The other part is, you can't give up. The more good stuff you release, the more people should eventually find out about your label and buy stuff from it. Which equals you putting out more. There are some places that have made a success out of putting out niche music, look at Norton.

Wonder what Apple's doing here. Just got this eMail from LaLa:

Joenzy thought you would say that about Bruce:He just laughed a little too early Reply by ixnayray 2 hours ago "I bet Bruce Springsteen has a better fucking record collection." Joenzy said:

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

This has been a pretty interesting read. Some good points of view... a bit of attitiude. I like it.

I've never actually listened to Little Steven's show. Not my cup of tea by the sound of it, judging by some of the names mentioned in this discussion. However, it did peak my interest...

So I went to his site and found "The 50 Coolest Songs Of The Decade", or something like that. Here's some of the artists mentioned : OASIS, PRIMAL SCREAM, AEROSMITH, STEVE EARLE, NEIL YOUNG, THE HIVES, COURTNEY LOVE, PEARL JAM, THE GO-GO's, KELLY OSBOURNE, U2 and GARBAGE.

I bet Bruce Springsteen has a better fucking record collection.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

I'd say start with volume 10 which features Paul Bearer and the Hearsemen on the cover and then volume 1.

Thanks! LOTS of good stuff on the Sundazed website.

KRLA was the best "oldies" station in LA hands down. They played real 50s and 60s rock n roll/R&B/instros/etc. as their regular playlist. KRTH was OK, more generic (from what I remember). I hardly listened to it. Today KRTH is just laughable. It's such a pile of shit that it should not even exist anymore. Who listens to that shit? As Mike said, KROQ in the 70s and early 80s was really good. I agree with that. It WAS really good. My older brother was a mod/rude boy back in the late 70s/early 80s and he would listen to KROQ and they played lots of different stuff. Hell I even remember the "Freeze Disease" play Johnnny Chingas "Se Me Paro" for chrissakes!! KCBS (93.1FM) was an oldies station for about 1 year and they played pretty good stuff too... THE SURF (1260AM) was an oldies station that started in the early 2000s for about 2 years and THAT was an AMAZING station. They played oldies ala KRLA and didn't venture past 1966 or so. They had specialized shows on the weekends such as "Finger Poppin and Snappin" which was pure R&B and "dance" records. It was soooo great. Then one day it was gone. It's back again as RETRO, but they play more "swing" and "lounge" stuff now. However at nights and on weekends they play just 50s/60s oldies so that's a good time to tune in. Art Laboe is still on the air on 92.3 every night, but his show is so different than how it used to be. Every so often he plays a gem, but it's getting rare. Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

Well, I've been in the Seattle area for close to 25 years. Moved here in 1984 (which was a great year to do so). But every so often, I'd look at the websites of some of the stations from Los Angeles and they don't seem to different from anywhere else in the States. Yeah, KRTH (K-Earth 101) did generify. I remember when I lived there that they had a Number 1 records weekend (KRTH had the best weekends) and heard Jose Jimenez' Astronaut skit. Never heard that anywhere else.

As for Real Don Steele, I never heard of him until I heard that Don and the Goodtimes song "I'm Real". But I don't think he was on any oldies station until after I moved away.

Mike said:

I forgot about KRTH, they were good too, the Real Don Steel was on there for a long time wasn't he? Or was that KRLA? But at some later point in time I think they dumbed down their playlist to just the standard generic national charting oldies. Are they still around? Even KLOS and KMET were miles above what is out there now. You had real DJ's still. Jim Ladd is still on KLOS late at night. I'll hear him once in a while at work, and he'll actually suprise me with something good once in a while in between his griping about the state of radio today.

This guy has a lot of KROQ recordings, and even some KMET stuff from the 70's and mostly 80's for download.

http://fromthegarage.blogspot.com/

Well, I've been in the Seattle area for close to 25 years. Moved here in 1984 (which was a great year to do so). But every so often, I'd look at the websites of some of the stations from Los Angeles and they don't seem to different from anywhere else in the States. Yeah, KRTH (K-Earth 101) did generify. I remember when I lived there that they had a Number 1 records weekend (KRTH had the best weekends) and heard Jose Jimenez' Astronaut skit. Never heard that anywhere else. As for Real Don Steele, I never heard of him until I heard that Don and the Goodtimes song "I'm Real". But I don't think he was on any oldies station until after I moved away. Mike said:

I forgot about KRTH, they were good too, the Real Don Steel was on there for a long time wasn't he? Or was that KRLA? But at some later point in time I think they dumbed down their playlist to just the standard generic national charting oldies. Are they still around? Even KLOS and KMET were miles above what is out there now. You had real DJ's still. Jim Ladd is still on KLOS late at night. I'll hear him once in a while at work, and he'll actually suprise me with something good once in a while in between his griping about the state of radio today.

This guy has a lot of KROQ recordings, and even some KMET stuff from the 70's and mostly 80's for download.

http://fromthegarage.blogspot.com/

I forgot about KRTH, they were good too, the Real Don Steel was on there for a long time wasn't he? Or was that KRLA? But at some later point in time I think they dumbed down their playlist to just the standard generic national charting oldies. Are they still around? Even KLOS and KMET were miles above what is out there now. You had real DJ's still. Jim Ladd is still on KLOS late at night. I'll hear him once in a while at work, and he'll actually suprise me with something good once in a while in between his griping about the state of radio today. This guy has a lot of KROQ recordings, and even some KMET stuff from the 70's and mostly 80's for download. http://fromthegarage.blogspot.com/

I have some at evilempirerecords.com and a standing 10% off deal for any hideout members (enter coupon code garagepunkdotcom)