I-94 BAR TOP TENS

Eric (right) and Aussie expat Robert "Jacko" Jackson at the Ann Arbor Rock and Roll Revival show

(Eric flew from Paris to Detroit a week ago to be a guest vocalist at the Ann Arbor Rock and Roll Revival Show with Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek, the irRationals, Hiawatha Bailey, the Gorvettes and Mazinga, so he had a good reason for filing this late)

1/ Deniz Tek & friends at the Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI for the Ann Arbor Revival Show December 18th, 2009.
If politicians all over the world had al least half of the energy Deniz shows on stage, we would not need any Copenhagen fuck up to clear the global warming. Check him out doing Birdman, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Stooges, MC5 songs. It’s a locomotive to the end of the world.

2/ Advanced copy of 3 Headed Dog release.
Best thing I heard from Vinzzzzzzzzz (ok The Holy Curse is out of contest here)

3/ The 13th Floor Elevators Sign of the 3 Eyed Men boxset.
Such an incredible piece of work and of music history

4/ Sonic Trip
The new radio show by Isabelle (who co presented Substitute radio show with Vincent Hanon) on Aligre FM www.aligrefm.org It’s in French, so what?

5/ New Christs Gloria album.
These Reasons will be taught as a classic in rock n roll universities and catching with these guys live on their European tour was a buzz.

6/ The Holy Curse recording with Rob Younger, and how he makes you work hard, how he makes you feel confident, how he makes you proud, and how he makes you laugh with his funny stories

7/ Couple of great books including Travelin Man: On the road with Bob Seger , Robert Matheu’s The Stooges, and reading again Keep it Together (Pink Fairies) and Give the anarchist a cigarette ( Mick Farren )

8/ DVDs : Imperial Dogs (waiting for it but I know it will be a scorcher) – Burn after Reading – The Hangover – Inglorious Besterds – 24 Season 7

9/ The Passengers getting back together again and their great album. The Love Me Nots got me high as well.Great rockin band from France named 455SD (what else?) – The brilliant latest Cowboys from Outer Space - The Rationals 2xCD reissue

10/ It wasn’t Johnny’s day : the best song The Holy Curse ever recorded (my taste guys, ok) based on the true story of Mark Sisto in FNQ.

11 / Catching up with all these great people from A2/Detroit last week and especially seeing Deniz and Mark Sisto again. Christmas before Christmas

TOP regrets: The passing away of Ron Asheton and James Gurley. 2009 started and finished bad.

Here’s Eric doing Radio Birdman’s “New Race” at the Rock n Roll Revival Show. Thanks to Retrokimmer for the footage:

Baby-faced Parisian bass-player for Dimi Dero Inc, Penelope Inc and Holy Curse

A Top Ten? Aah, that’s a good exercise for me, cause I never know what day it is - ask my bandmates : whenever I have to design a flyer for a show, I fuck up on the date everytime. And I mean EVERYTIME. So that will be good to help me remember where I was and when, since January, 2008. Yeah,  whatever. Here we go – in no particular order, 10 memorable shows of 2008 :

Dead Clodettes @ Machine à Coudre, Marseille. 
Three girls, who can  hardly play together, but there’s more ideas, style and sound in two of their songs that many bands will have in their whole career.

Bellrays @ Corner Hotel, Melbourne. 
As performers, few can compare –  cliché, I know, but so true – The thing is that if they can put on fantastic shows like that, what will it be like when they have a great song or two ?

The Holy Soul @ Pony Club, Melbs. 
They were good before, but their new drummer Kate really brought them to a new level.

New Christs European tour in May.  
On top of playing from very  good to excellent shows, you could see the guys are happy doing it, get along well, and Brent’s switching from guitar to keyboards adds a new  dimension to their sound. Can’t wait for the new album.

Dirtbombs Maroquinerie, Paris. 
Nothing beats a packed place, two drummers in full groove and the rest of the band working their asses off to make the audience be part of the show.

Spoils + Don Lurie, le 1929, Rennes. 
The Spoils are a great Melbourne band, in the Dirty Three/ Black Pony Express family… Don Lurie is alone with his guitar, and though not a brilliant guitarist, this limitation only enhances and strengthens the emotion with which he delivers his songs. Raw, moving, and intense.

The Groovers @ le Volume, Nice. 
Awesome show from this classy  rock/power pop band. These guys should be on Off the Hip (Chris & Mickster, are you listening ?)

Whodunit @ la Miroiterie, Paris. 
They stole our thunder that night…

Ron Peno trying to show Penny Ikinger how she should play and sing  the song they wrote together while we were recording the bass & drums  tracks @ Hothouse studio. 
Dimi and I were looking at them through the  window of the control room where they were, and could hear them talk and sing through the headphones. Ron dancing and singing around Penny… the kind of moment that makes up for all the shit you go through as an underdog rock’n'roller. OK, that’s not a show, but it was great all the same.

6FtHick @ La Mécanique Ondulatoire, Paris. 
A bit like seeing the Beastie Boys of Bourbon. Fantastic show, rocking harder than the rest by far, and they play an X cover (“The Feel”, if I’m not mistaken). What more can you ask?