Flamin'

Look. There are two kinds of people hanging around at the I:94 Bar this week. There are Flamin’ Groovies people and Blue Oyster Cult people. Now, as Quentin Tarantino has famously explained it, you can like both but you have to like one more than the other. Do you come down on the side of Teutonic precision or do you let your dancing shoes do the talkin’.

Tuesday night rock'n'roll at the Annandale? Not gonna be an eventful night, no sirree....goin to pay homage to some power-pop legends who have given me years of inspiration and pleasure, coupla beers and some great tunes and home to bed. It's Tuesday night for chrissakes, can't get carried away, what can possibly go wrong I thought...I often forget about the influence of rock'n'roll on my weak will.

Plans are underfoot to make a movie about the Flamin' Groovies with a Kickstarter campaign raising more than $US10,000 of its $70,000 target with a month to go. Watch the promo below, then make a donation here.

In case you haven’t heard, the Flamin’ Groovies have a new album dropping in 2016 and a single about to hit the shelves. US tour dates have just been announced for November.

What started as a reunion in 2013 with tours of Japan, Australia, and the UK, has continued and evolved into a full-blown return. In the past two years the band has toured the USA extensively with repeated visits to New York, L.A. and their hometown of San Francisco, as well as recently returning from a hugely successful tour of Spain, France and Italy.

In anticipation of their 50th Anniversary in 2016, they are  putting the finishing touches on a new album and a documentary.

Their forthcoming single features two Cyril Jordan/Chris Wilson penned tracks - the recently written "Crazy Macy" and the first track ever written by Jordan & Wilson, "Let Me Rock" recorded for the first time.

You can hear a taste of the new output on teaser track “End of the World” by reading on.

Flamin' Groovy? The verdict is that it is indeed - and why wouldn’t it be? The singer for the most enduring (and some might say best) Flamin’ Groovies pop line-up re-surfaces with a solo album and ropes in Cyril Jordan, George Alexander, Mike Wilhelm - and even original line-up vocalist Roy Loney - from that same storied band. 

Thirty-one years after they last graced a stage in Spain, US powerpop supremos the Flamin Groovies are out on the road again. Mid-period vocalist-guitarist Chris Wilson is back in the fold, teaming with originals Cyril Jordan (guitar-vocals) and George Alexander (bass.) One of the catalysts behind the regrouping is the Dig It Up! travelling festival in Australia, curated by fans and friends the Hoodoo Gurus.

With successful tours of Japan, Australia, London and the U.S. last year under their belt and a new studio album pending, the Flamin’ Groovies have announced extensive runs of shows in the U.S., Spain and France.

As the Flamin’ Groovies celebrate 50 years with a special gig in San Francisco this week, DAVE "DOG MEAT" LAING checks out their new single vinyl seven-inch, "Crazy Macy" b/w "Let Me Rock"...

Okay, so the Flamin’ Groovies have a new single out for Record Store Day, on the very cool Californian Burger Records label. This is exciting stuff – even more exciting than walking into my first Groovies show on the ’86 Australian tour, seeing they had a new single (“Way Over My Head’ b/w ’Shakin’’) for sale, and buying five copies of it because I never knew if I’d see it again.

That was what, maybe five or six years since their previous release, the “River Deep Mountain High” single? This one comes more than 25 years since we’ve heard anything new from the band – a long fucking time.

Of course the Groovies, with ’71-’80 lead singer Chris Wilson back in place, have been back in action since the second-last Dig It Up! Festival in Australia a few years back.

While we Down Under may have copped them a tad underdone (the Caravan Club show on Melbourne was sensational though), a look at more recent YouTube footage shows the band firing on all cylinders and sounding very much like they must’ve live in ’75 or so, on the cusp of releasing the landmark “Shake Some Action” LP.