frank meyer

Frank Meyer, guitarist and vocalist 
The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs
James Williamson & The Pink Hearts
Online and TV producer
Stooges archivist
Los Angeles, CA

TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2020

1. Armored Saint - Punching The Sky 
My favorite metal band of 2020 was my favorite metal band in 1984…the mighty Armored Saint. This is their best in a decade and one of the best of their career. John Bush is the Paul Rodgers of metal, a swaggering bluesy beast over vintage yet modern power metal. I fucking love this band.

2. Kix - Midnight Dynamite Re-Lit 
Producer Beau Hill went back and stripped away all that bad ‘80s reverb and my favorite Kix album it sounds the like AC/DC meets Aerosmith album it always should have. And the demos are way cool, junior!

3. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
The piano in the opening song “I Want You To Love Me” literally made me burst into tears when I first heard it. And every time since. Not kidding.

4. The City Kids - Things That Never Were 
Best OC Punk band Leeds ever produced! These guys got a Social Distortion by way of Backyard Babies vibe that just won’t quit.

Los Angeles-via-Detroit underground punk legends The Dogs have unleashed a new digital single “Under The Coast” that was co-written with and features fellow rock ‘n’ roller Frank Meyer (The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, James Williamson & The Pink Hearts) on guest vocals and guitar.

The socially conscious, topical song is available now through Chicanery Chick Records/Die Laughing Records on all digital formats, and deals with the chaos and dissonance of modern times.

Plenty of people won’t “get” this record. That’s the inherent risk when you move forward and don’t stay comfortably treading water in one swimming pool.

It’s the second solo album for James Williamson (third if you count the live one with The Careless Hearts) and “Behind The Shade” doesn’t kiss-off his substantial Iggy & The Stooges legacy. More pointedly, it reinforces that Williamson is no one-trick pony.

Of course you should know James for inventing one of the most brutal guitar styles ever. Iggy himself paid him a back-handed compliment by saying that his former collaborator filled every possible space in their band’s soundscape. He did say it was to the point of claustrophobia, or words to that effect.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Homicide – Trading Aces (Ripple Music)

Hello I-94 Barflies , it’s been a while but there’s a bit to talk about with The Farmhouse rocking to the sounds of  Trading Aces’ “Rock ‘n’ Roll Homicide”, and what a ripper this album is.

Trading Aces is a supergroup of well-known, and not so well-known, musicians coming from all over the world to pay homage to one, the late Eddie Van Halen, and, boy, does it rock. 

Frank Meyer of the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs is joined by Dennis Post of City Kids (both on guitar and vocals) .Bjarne Paamand (Warrior Soul) is on bass and Ivan Tambac (also Warrior Soul) is on drums. They got together to make some tunes and express their grief at the loss of Eddie into some hard rock, metal, punk and pop.

Call The Dogs – The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs (Heavy Medication)

Their youthful days of diving across tables and sliding down the length of venue bars are probably behind them but they still matter: If The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs have made a bad record, well, you know the email address. The veteran LA outfit gets off the chain again on this four-song 10-incher, their first release since the stellar “One More Drink” album of 2021, and it hits the spot as well as any dive bar cocktail.

These days sax player Geoff Yeaton is firmly integrated into the line-up and adds an extra dimension to the Cheetahs’ trademark high-energy Detroit sound. The title tune is as good an example of that, featuring some stabbing guitarwork from lead vocalist Frank Meyer and Bruce Duff.  

The debut album from ex-Iggy and the Stooges guitarist James Williamson and his new band, The Pink Hearts, comes out on June 22 and we’ll have a review live in about a week.

“Behind the Shade” by James Williamson and The Pink Hearts will be on Williamson’s own Leopard Lady Records and is a diverse but powerful effort, with Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) and Petra Haden (That Dog) sharing lead vocals. 

Haden was one of the feature vocalists on Williamson’s album of previously unreleased studio versions of Stooges songs, “Re-Licked”. She also contributed violin to “The Departed” on the final Stooges album. “Ready To Die”. 

On “Behind The Shade”, Williamson supplies all of the riffs, guitar parts and most of the bass. The album also includes a host of accompanists.

They include Michael Urbano (Smash Mouth, Bourgeois Tagg, Todd Rundgren, John Hiatt) on percussion, Gregg Foreman, Hervé Salters, Paul Roessler, Nick Hart, and Audrey Vera on keyboards and piano, Jason Carmer on bass, Don Rooke on lap steel, Geoff Yeaton and Tony Peebles on saxophone and Steffen Kuehn on trumpet.

Click Read More for a video teaser and the tracklist.

Motherfuckin’ Rock ‘n’ Roll – Frank & Spaghetti (Kitten Robot Records)

Hello Barflies! The Farmhouse has been rocking these past few weeks because the principal members of two of my favourite American bands, The Streetwalkn’ Cheetahs’ Frank Meyer and the fabulous Supersuckers’ Eddie Spaghetti, have joined forces as Frank & Spaghetti to release a long player, “Motherfuckin’ Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

“Motherrfuckin’ Rock ‘n’ Roll” is just that and follows a couple of digital singles by the duo (and friends), the epic “Shit’s Fucked” and a cover of Tom Petty’s “Jammin Me”.

Filth – The City Kids  (Very Fried Artists) 

“Filth” is one helluva punk-glam headbanging album that has to be heard and played loud. The City Kids are out of the UK (with a bit of Danish blood) and this is their second album.

Named after a Pink Fairiessong (later covered by Motorhead), “Filth” has The City Kids poised to be heavy metal’s next big thing. Dave Sanders’ drumming, in particular, on this is fucking outstanding.

I was once told  by a very well-known Australian drummer  that every band is only as good as the drummer. Obnoxious prick that he was, he was spot-on. Sanders is 100 percent on the money.  Just WOW!

Driving South – Highway 61 (Rum Bar Records)

The album only took 30 years, a pandemic and a bout of leukaemia to make. The reunification of these four friends three decades after they were a working band produced this very good collection of blues based rock ‘n’ roll. And thank fuck for that.

I love this album but, hey, I’m a bit biased, being a big fan of everything Frank Meyer, music-wise. Highway 61 is Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) on guitar and vocals. Andy Medway on guitar, Mike Knuton on drums and Russell Loeffler on bass and vocals. 

Quick backstory: Playing the LA circuit in the early ‘90s, these blokes basically burnt themselves out. As Mike Knuton says, they were playing as many gigs as they could get. They split up but remained close. Then Andy Medway was diagnosed with leukaemia.

Redline EP – Sweet Justice (Eternal Music Group)

Hello Barflies! Well folks, The Farmhouse has been rocking these past few weeks. Los Angeles’ Sweet Justicehave released the follow-up to their debut album - and it's only taken 18 years.

Why so long? Well, these boys are always busy, what with their other band the fabulous Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs (among other projects) keeping these fine musicians very busy.

Sweet Justice is a three-piece band featuring Frank Meyer (guitar and vocals), Bruce Duff(bad ass bass) and Mike Sessa on the skins (replacing original drummer Chris Markwood.) What as pedigree these blokes have. having worked with James Williamson (Iggy & the Stooges), Eddie Spaghetti, Jeff Dahl, ADZand Wayne Kramer (MC5).  So you know this ain’t no garbage or garage band I’m talking about.

Angus Khan II: Wrath of Khan – Angus Khan (self released)

Angus Khan is one helluva biker heavy metal band and “Angus Khan II: Wrath of Khan”  is one helluva album, a wonderful 2020 follow up to the most underrated and fabulous “Black Leather Soul”.The Los Angeles-based band’s music has been described as: “Where Angus Young meets Genghis Khan in a back alley fight” and that’ll do me. Both these albums need to be played loud.

Angus Khan was a collaboration band between punk and rock ‘n’ roll acts The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs and B-Movie Rats that spawned “Black Leather Soul” in 2009 and broke up in 2012.  “Angus Khan II: The Wrath of Khan” sat on a hard drive for years before being released in digital format.

Mainman Frank Myer (Streetwalkin' Cheetahs, James Williamson and Eddie Spaghetti & Frank Meyer) dropped by the I-94 Bar to give us a track-by-track on the sophomore album. Here’s the download.

_{Eddie Spaghetti (left) of The Supersuckers thinks it's all a bit loud but Frank Meyer begs to differ. Ed Culver photo.} 

Los Angeles musician, author and filmmaker Frank Meyer is a surprisingly talented singer songwriter and a highly skilled, captivating raconteur. He seems like a genuinely all around good guy, so I'm a little embarrassed I did not get that hip to his extensive discography much sooner.

I first became aware of both Frank Meyer and fellow feature article subject John 5 way back in the hazy distant past-maybe like, 23 years ago, in the pages of a glossy punk ‘n’ roll bible, “Pop Smear”, with both my boyhood idols, Evil Knievel and David Lee Roth on the cover. I was workin' at a news stand in the Midwest where long lines of unhappy barflies flooded in front of my cash register all day, incessantly wanting to buy the scratch off lotto tickets. "I'll take ten Lucky Pots Of Gold and five Leprechaun's Rainbows".

Frank seemed to have won the rock ‘n’ roll lotto when he got to hang out with John 5 and David Lee Roth, live, and in-person, on multiple occasions, and then, went on to write books and form his own bands that criss-crossed the country. He was playing bills with all the other bands I liked at the time and releasing a long and prolific stream of records I never really heard.

One More Drink – The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs (Dead Beat Records)

Eighteen years after their last record and a quarter of a century since they formed, the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs have roared back to deliver their best yet. A baker’s dozen songs, overflowing with guitar power and pop hooks. “One More Drink” kicks harder than a toddler with a tooth-ache having a sugar-deprived tantrum in the confectionery aisle of a supermarket.

The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs might be named for the Stooges but they’re from Los Angeles, a shiny and often cruel place that coincidentally did the Dum Dum Boys no favours, but they mix so many influences you might wonder which box to put them in. Don’t bother. There’s punk,Motor City jams, Cheap Trick-style pop and new wave, mixed in with Motorhead-flavoured metal, boogie rock and speedcore.

When Wayne Kramer was in the ascendancy as a solo artist in the early ‘90s, the Cheetahs were his touring support and backing band for a spell. Five studio albums, two live records, a split with the BellRays,singles with Cherie Curie and Deniz Tek, and another EP were the fruits of their hard slog before splitting in 2002. 

 
Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, Trading Aces, Highway 61) Top Ten Records for 2023:

01 - L7 in Melbourne. 
This was a blast. Playing “Bricks Are Heavy” in full ,plus all those other wonderful tracks from the ‘90s. It’s number-one because it’s recent.

02 MONAROS – “Can’t Polish a Turd”.
As good as it gets. What a bloody great record with songs like “Kareen”, “Best Cop In Town” and the awesome “Mum Washed Me Cum Sock”. It’s a no-brainer for the #2 slot.

_{Frank with The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs.}

TOP TEN ALBUMS

 Cheap Trick – "In Another World" 
The masters of hard rock power-pop return with another banger. What year is this? How is it possible these guys are still so good? 

The Wildhearts – "21^st Century Love Songs"
Ginger is one of my favorite songwriters and this Wildhearts album is a ferocious reminder that he is still at the peak of his powers.

The Darkness – "Motorheart"
My favorite Darkness album since their debut, this one has swagger, hooks, and lots of blistering guitar riffs!

THE FARMHOUSE’S TOP TEN

Hello I-94 Barflies. What a shitty year it’s been. Charlie Watts’ passing makes me feel old and I type with a heavy heart with the passing a few days ago of my friend, the great guitarist John Nolan (Bored!, Powder Monkeys, Spencer P Jones and The Escape Committee and more recently Powerline Sneakers.) Last drinks, last smokes. R.I.P.

Thank fuck there is music. There have been numerous great releases this past 12 months, so here we go.