Record company honcho
ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC, ANY OLD WAY YOU CHOOSE IT…
Hot Knives/Young Modern/Screaming Tribesmen
Thrilled to release these three bands on my momentarily re-actived Grown Up Wrong! label. Young Modern were named Australia’s first power pop band in Bomp! mag in ’79, which is when I
discovered them via a Stuart Coupe piece in RAM. I always hear a bit of ‘Loaded’-period Velvets in these guys, alongside Beatles, Byrds, Stones etc, so I don’t really see them as power pop, just a great, light, tight, melodic rock band. This live recording from 2010 is fantastic.
Hot Knives on the other hand were a Flamin’ Groovies offshoot who released two 45′s in ’76 and left behind an unreleased album that I got wind of via an online Roy Loney interview and which Jud Cost found for me. Releasing this was of course a huge thrill, and it’s a great great record – ’60s Frisco folk-rock with Groovies energy.
The Tribesmen of course were a band I saw countless times from ’84-87 or so, and one of my favourites of the era. Alas I missed their shows this year, but the ‘Date With A Vampyre/Top of the Town’ cd especially is full of great tunes, including some fantastic live covers that really capture what their shows were like back in the days. Another not-quite power pop band, the Tribesmen in their prime were just a great high energy rock’n'roll band with great tunes and glorious guitars.
Decline of the Reptiles
One reforming band I fortunately did not miss, the Reptiles Melbourne show mid year was fantastic and better than I remember them ever being, as was their new album ’13 Songs for the Rodeo
Girls’. Soulful, powerful, smart and individual, and loaded with great songs.
P.G. Six ‘Starry Mind’
A recent discovery for me although they’ve release a bunch of stuff over the years, this US band reminds me here of Television with a pronounced UK folk-rock influence, or maybe some of the
late-period Peter Laughner stuff.
Iggy & The Stooges
Maybe because I hadn’t hyped myself up with ridiculous anticipation, or maybe because the Williamson material somehow felt more legitimate in the hands of a bunch of old guys than the
earlier more open and of-the-moment stuff, I enjoyed this more than the Ron show here some years back. The new live DVD is incredible too.
MC5/Primal Scream ‘Black To Comm’ Double CD+DVD
Way better than it had any right to be, the MC5 stuff here, with current Alice in Chains vocalist William DuVall nailing a perfect Rob Tyner (DuVall used to sing for apparently Blag Flag-influenced SST band B’last, so maybe we should forget about the Alice in Chains connection) captures the band’s ‘High Time’ vibe wonderfully. Wayne Kramer’s guitar tone is perfect too - not heavy, but beautifully
coloured.
Dave Davies ‘Hidden Treasures’
A real revelation for me, especially as late ’60s Kinks is only something I’ve really started investigating. The approximation of what Dave’s proposed at the time solo album was meant to be is fantastic, and new to me songs like This Man He Weeps Tonight and Mindless Child of Motherhood add a new dimension to the distinct and wonderfully organic sound that was the Kinks of the period.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band ‘Live at the Main Point 1975′
Semi-legit issue of oft-booted radio broadcast with magnificent sound. This is Springsteen pre-Born To Run, still doing a bit of what John Sinclair accurately described as rock’n'roll music
theatre or somesuch, but still sounding real and exciting all the same. All the originals sounds better than the studio versions, and the rare cover of Dylan’s I Want You is pretty special.
Chris Altman/Van Walker
Leading lights of Melbourne’s roots/country/folk scene. Chris’ great 2010 album was great long-haired country rock a la Grateful Dead ‘American Beauty’ and Doug Sahm, and I finally got to see him and his band Que Pasa (complete with Huxton Creeper Paul Thomas on pedal steel) play when they did their farewell show mid-year (Chis has moved to Canada). They were great. His song The Other Side of the Moutain is an absolute, bone fide classic country rock song. Van is more of a folk-rocker is a Paul Kelly vein – when he’s not rocking hard with the Swedish Magazines or doing a Tom Petty/Big Star guitar pop thing with the Livingstone Daisies that is. His ‘Underneath the Radar’ collection was a great summation of his solo career to date.
Rocket From the Tombs ‘Barfly’
One of the best reformation albums by anybody. Maybe a disappointment after last year’s great I Sell Soul 45 – my favourite thing here – but still great. Cheetah Chrome and Richard Lloyd are a dream team on guitars.
Ron S Peno & The Superstitions
I figure most folks reading this now how great ’Future Universe’ is. The live show is fantastic as well. Ron couldn’t have found himself a better band.
Straight Arrows/Royal Headache/Frowning Clouds
I’m finally getting hip to some of the great YOUNG Australian bands around at the moment. Sydney seems to have a fantastic scene – for the first time since the mid-80s maybe? – and
the SA’s and Royal Headache are leading it. Their respective albums – the Straight Arrows from last year and Royal Headache’s much lauded one form this year – are both really good. Likewise the new generation in Melbourne – there’s some good stuff going on in the wake of Eddy Current, and, in the Frowning Clouds, maybe the best ultra-primitive garage band since the very early Bo-weevils.
Rockpile – “Live At Montreux 1980″
The first ever official live album from Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe’s late 70′s sledgehammer rock’n'roll group sounds at times like the Everly Bros on a diet of Sex Pistols and Thin Lizzy.
Daddy Cool ‘Daddy Who? Daddy Cool”
Fucking Sony could’ve made it a bit more special given it’s never actually been on CD before, but it’s still perfect as it is. Pure rock’n'roll mania from a band that Kim Fowley loved and most Australian rock’n'roll fans have not paid enough attention to.
‘The Fame Studios Story 1961-73′
Unbelievable 3cd of great Southern Soul. OTis Redding, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Candi Staton, the Osmonds’ Jackson 5 soundalike ‘One Bad Apple’, and plenty of Dan Penn tunes. Which means I’m also loving ‘Sweet Inspiration: The Songs of Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham’.
DMZ -’Radio Demos’
Amazing collection of early demos; maybe the best DMZ stuff out there. Hits the right spot between the Dolls and ’Raw Power’ Stooges.
Barrence Whitfeild & The Savages ‘Savage Kings’
DMZ guitarist Peter Greenberg makes a long awaited return to Barrence’s side - new R&B album of the year hands down.
X – ‘X-Spurts’
Not as exciting as the super raw ’Live 8 July 1978′ album that Spriral Scratch released in the ’90s, but certainly the best studio representation of the pre-’X-Aspirations’ band. Which means it’s killer.
Leadfinger – ‘We Make The Music’/Chris Masuak – ‘Workhorse’/ Deniz Tek – ‘Citadel Years’
A good year for lyrical local guitar slingers. Leadfinger’s latest lacked anything of the calibre of the stunning ‘Thin Lizzy On My Mind’ off his previous album, but was loaded with a fine and varied array of stuff. If Stew was around in the ’70s doing this sort of stuff, he’d have connected to your average Chisel fan. That’s not faint praise either. I also have the band to
thank for turning me on to a couple of great Rory Gallagher tunes in recent times too.
Klondike’s second solo effort was a ripper, and worth noting that he is covering new ground here – the majority of the songs wouldn’t fit a Hitmen or Tribesmen template.
Tek’s Citadel Years best of brought home what a great body of work the man has put together under his own name.
The Left Banke reissues on Sundazed.
First album is almost too-good-to-be-true 60′s pop perfection.
Richard Thompson BBC boxset.
Especially the early stuff with Linda, which I can never get enough of..
Old tracks recently discovered by me -
Derek & the Dominos – Phil Spector-produced 45 version of ’Tell The Truth’. Now I know why the Groovies played it live.
Powell St John – ‘The Hardest Working Man’ and ‘Song of the Silver Surfer’ – 2 tracks from the Texan folk/blues man (and occassional Elevators lyricist’s) 2009 album ‘On My Way To Houston’. The first is a Roky tune that I’ve never heard before. Killer garagey folk-rock from a true maverick, with Bill Miller of the Aliens on autoharp.
David Bowie’Growing Up’ (A Diamond Dogs outtake – Bowie covered Springsteen in ’74, who would’ve thought it?)
…and some other older stuff I’ve been digging of late -
Various things from Melbourne’s mid-late ’70s ‘Carlton’ underground. Really listening to early Skyhooks for first time in my life, unreleased demos by Spare Change and Parachute, the amazing first Dots EP, my early teen faves Sports, the Pure Shit sound track cd, Mondo Rock’s ‘Primal Park’ album (I kid ya not – sounds for the most part like a hotwired Graham Parker & The Runour without the brass) and Aztec’s forthcoming collections from the Bleeding Hearts and Eric Gradman’s Man & Machine.
Stevie Klasson ‘Don’ t Shoot The Messenger’- great album from a few years back by Swedish journeyman guitarist best known for being Johnny Thunders’ final sideman. I picked this up
for his killer cover of ‘All the Action’ by former Groovie Chris Wilson, but it’s all solid.
First couple Warren Zevon albums/Tom Verlaine first solo album/Richard Lloyd ‘The Cover Doesn’t Matter’ (why is this guys solo stuff not more highly regarded??)/Van Morrison ‘Tupelo Honey’/Equals – so many great singles!/Eddie & The Hot Rods ‘Life on The Line’ album/Graham Parker & the Rumour everything up to ‘Squeezing Out Sparks’/Beatles ‘Let It Be’/ Led Zeppelin…
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Place your comment