0 Jeff Dahl - "All Trashed Up" (CD, Triple X - 1999)

A true Underground hero for how long, three decades now? I'm only having good words about Jeff Dahl, in everything got involved through years passing! He managed to have a pure rock & roll career without selling out his punk rock ethos not a single time, he had putting out fanzines (Sonic Iguana especially, belongs to the better ones ever printed, up there with Ugly Things, Sniffin' Glue or Kicks), released records to amazing artists through his own label Ultra Under (Freddy Lynxx, Gunfire Dance, Jacobites) and who knows what else am I forgetting now?
I remember asking him for an interview some years back, sending him the questions and after a month of no reply and without getting back at him, I received an email asking me if he ever answered my questions... I was amazed! And you know,  they were lots of 'heroes' that said me they 're gonna give me an interview but never replied, not caring for the love and time I have put into these questions... NOT Jeff though! Saying all this, there's no way for such a cool person to not having a CV of ass-kicking and purely honest (at least) records .
A three chord wonder in the very close meaning of the title! Check out if there's still around somewhere (my friend Mr. Rambler from SOTD had posted them both quite back) the sadly never re-printed and an only  for the fan club release of  Glamfag volumes/tributes for instance (only 500 pressed). A very basic, almost childish approach on 70s glam numbers by Suzi Quatro, Alice Cooper, New York Dolls, David Bowie and Sweet among others well known and not, that somehow and due to Jeff passion's re-birthed with a Dead Boys/Heartbreakers prism and a know for the first time freshness!
This one's for sure in my top-5 Jeff Dahl list and perhaps, the last one I ever enjoyed from start to finish. In "All Trashed Up" Jeff for the first time gives us more of the glam element of his sound, without of course dumping the well known Thunder-esque guitar styling.The album features as well Mr. Michael Brooks, guitar slinger supremo of the Beat Angels (great band!) on some tunes and you know what this means... A full twin attack blazing and bastardizing Mott and Dolls, New York powerpop in the vein of the early Boyfriends and Ramones with the usual Heartbreakers/Dead Boys feel. If Jeff had in mind to make a variation of the glam Bowie produced period of Lou Reed, he failed entirely...Thank God, he-he!!!

Detail: Jeff Dahl - "All Trashed Up" (CD, Triple X - 1999)

0 Nikki Sudden - "Reflections On Johnny Thunders" (Excerpt from Sonic Iguana Issue #1, 1997)

Probably the best piece on Johnny Thunders. The Jewel Thief in a six and a half page tribute/memoir/praise for the Heartbreaker on the Jeff Dahl's old fanzine.
"One reason I think Johnny took to me was due to the strange fact that I told him that I preferred the original mix of L.A.M.F.  to the re-mix that he and Tony James had cobbled together. The subject was never raised again but I can remember the look in Johnny's eyes when I mentioned it first. The fact that I wasn't prepared to suck up to him. Beacuse really no one respects flatterers. Johnny invited me down to some of the rehearsals he was doing for the upcoming show. He was playing about the best guitar I've ever heard anyone play..."

The way rock & roll journalism was meant to be and sadly only a few times was such vibrant. I wish Nikki Sudden was still with us (of course the same for Johnny!). He had so much to offer and the author side of him only a bit developed... You can't put your arms around a memory! 

               

                   

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Detail: Nikki Sudden - "Reflections On Johnny Thunders" (Excerpt from Sonic Iguana Issue #1, 1997)