Showing posts with label Protopunk - Garage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Protopunk - Garage. Show all posts

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[Re-Up!!!] Flamin' Groovies - "Shake Some Action" (LP, Philips - 1976 ~ French original pressing)




From Kicksville66


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Flamin' Groovies - "Shake Some Action" (LP, Philips - 1976 ~ French original pressing)

You know, taking breaks from something you REALLY love, doesn't mean necessarily you won't be interested anymore. Something like this, happened to both of us here at WTS the previous months. I've started a new blog the previous year exclusively dedicated to my fave basketball team and as the games were getting tougher and the attention on this bigger, I naturally turned my head more into it (the back to back European Championship title didn't help things either but you know, I'm not complaining at all!). Same thing for JP. He had found a place (a 'sonic-masonic temple' in fact as I like to call it, I'm teasing you bro, he-he!) to share his knowledge and passion on all things technical that I'm not able to understand and get right and as a result of all these was more or less, this site to have fewer posts as it used to had...
But we're back! We sit our lazy ass down once again for a double shot of WAX love and some mo' cool things for your listening pleasure, starting with this!
Perfect timing's everything in life, right?! I had in my mind to 'reply' to my friend Gyro and his great recent  Flamin' Groovies posts on Twilight Zone with something 'rare', but JP and without knowing it gave me something even better! A European (French) pressing of the 'Shake Some Action' masterpiece!! "Big deal" some might say, "who needs another SSA post"? Well, everyone! As my buddy mailed me:

This French pressing sounds different from the US or Canada LP I've heard (and also different from CD). They are quite muddy. Not as bad as LAMF UK, but too much bass and not much highs.The French version solves this issue.

Boom! The basterd was right once again!! I've had it in two supposedly different CD versions previously (mind you, the one a Jap) and never ( I mean, NEVER!) heard before this POP jewel sounding SOOOOO good and fresh! I was totally aware of the good job Philips did back then with the single (who handled Sire releases in Europe and picked mysteriously on the amazing Capitol 'version 2' take for the single - a BRILLIANT MOVE!) but not for the long play!!! Do I need to say more?

PS: Stay tuned and check constantly for re-ups...


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Iggy & the Stooges - "Unrough Powder: The Trueborn Raw Power Mixes" (WAXEP001)

Well, well, well... Is there anything about "Raw Power" that hasn't been said or written yet, especially after all those previous years re-mixes, re-masters and re-issues? Quite honestly, no. I just deleted a 3000 words piece cause it had nothing utterly new to tell... Lester Bangs did it first and it sucked too some times. Come on, feel free to abuse me for the previous line but the best thing ever wrote (and it sums perfectly the punk rock attitude) was this Troggs appreciation (RIP Reg Presley) on Who put the Bomp... I hate the 'Funhouse' review!
Include ourselves of course to the above, cause if you can recall almost two years back to this day, we have tried to give you some of our postures on the subject by posting the rare original UK CBS vinyl. So?
So, we had absolutely nothing to discover hither, at least the we way did with "L.A.M.F."  and we knew that from the very start. It was however the natural next step for us to try something with "Raw Power". I mean, the similarities with "L.A.M.F." are spotless. A hugely influential rock & roll record, a blurry history/mythology, a long lasting 'bad production' debate, a 'Revisited' like attempt (Iggy's 1997 remix) and the most important thing, is 'the other' fave ever record for the Bobcat Twins (JP must own 20 different issues)!
What we also knew was that CBS was no Track at all. There were/are many bad pressed or bad transferred "Raw Power" editions around through the years (the first ever CD edition is a very good example) but if you're looking for secretly different mixes to be found somewhere, I'm sorry no such thing here (with the only known exception of "Search & Destroy" of the UK press). Actually what we had on our hands and deserved to be used for WAX-ing was the "Original Bowie mix" in some pleasant pressings, "Iggy's remix" which btw lead us to some arguments with JP (a VERY infrequent situation - I like it, he hate it) and the often bootlegged "Original Raw Power Mixes" again by Iggy, which in most cases were barely audible but never altogether compiled. Bomp's "Rough Power" had 'em all of course if you want to object, but this WEIRD reverb/echo storm throughout the songs presence, destroyed everything and makes us STRONGLY believe now that 'some hand' added these ridiculous and totally extraneous effects just to sound 'different'. Don't get us wrong, WE LOVE Bomp and you know it well BUT this is clearly some cook kind of thing.
There was no motivation for us to deal actually with the first two well known foresaid mixes and it's easily understood the reason why of this. All of them are in print now and most of the 'different' pressings have been posted on internet many times before. If we had to touch our hands somewhere there was only one path for us to cross. The one of the 'Original Mixes'.
So why an EP this time? Cause after countless conversations my buddy convinced me he was right. Quality over quantity as he wrote me! The often recycled WABX radio broadcast has a crappy sound in all cases/releases and any thought on using it, abandoned immediately. There's no need to represent something's not worth a shit (and it ain't won't worth a shit!). On the other hand what through the ages surfaced as what was Iggy's original essay that annoyed all the jerks at MainMan, were only four songs (Search & Destroy, Hard To Beat, Raw Power and Shake Appeal). We couldn't do much except to find the best ones. And that's what we did. Look no further, these are actually the best sounding survivors, scattered in four different and very hard to find now bootlegs plus the rare as hell "Search & Destroy" version of the UK press, for the first time all gathered in one!
We found A LOT entertaining the way we created the covers with this 'hostile to Bowie' approach. After all we're not his biggest fans, he-he... We sure like what he did at times, and as you perhaps, we both grew with his mix, that's what we learned to like and love but hey, this is an Iggy and the Stooges 'release', dedicated to the most furious rock & roll ever commited to tape, so a hate note and a sour feel it is incumbent upon, right? RIGHT!!!
And, oh! One more thing... The 'badly produced/recorded Ashetons' steam engine or the 'visionary' Bowie mix are in questioning with these tapes...Hear for yourself, and let us know!


"It wasn't about production and it wasn't about being popular. It was about this gut-level expression, almost like a soul singer. And it's no accident that it comes from Detroit". 
Rod Firestone, 
Rubber City Rebels 

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Crushed Butler - "Uncrushed - First Punks from the British Underground 1969-1971" (CD, RPM - 2005)

The perfect example of someone being ahead of its time. Of the few bands deserving the tag 'proto-punk'. Legendary Jesse Hector, Darryl Read and Alan Butler's three piece dynamite and predecessors of the Helter Skelter and the sadly underrated Hammersmith Gorillas (later just Gorillas) was probably Britain's own answer to MC5's soul guttering rock & roll (Whaaat? The Deviants? Come on, you must be joking right..?)! Hippie haters and prog-rock's squall enemies, were just what the Tubes immortalized with their classic "I was a Punk before you were a Punk" a few years later...Back to the basics rock & rollers, primal screamers and ex-mod mobsters. Waaaaaaayyy too wild to be compared with any other act of their time. They blew Slade, Atomic Rooster and Mott among many as the story smugly is saying now and they set the parameters for the generations to come (glam, pub rock, punk). Sometimes I really wonder what the public was then thinking by consuming massively Led Zep's pseudo blues crap...? If you think you 're offended by the last statement, stay away - if not, well this is the shit!



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The 13th Floor Elevators - "The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators - Original Stereo Mix" (LP, Inernational Artist - 1966)

Fuck fake ass psychedelia, SF late sixties hippie scene, peace, love and understanding! What the world (still) need's punk rock! In a time that bankers and religion leaders doing whatever the fuck they want, we 're not having the privilege of 'peace'. I live in a land that day by day all its social spar is collapsing in front of your eyes gloriously and swankily. Everything's for sale now (history, ethos, consciousness - the far right is growing rapidly and all this to the place that gave birth to democracy...) and you just don't have the right to remain in silence. Fuck your generation baby! And somehow all these shit are linked for me with the hippies. I mean, call me crazy you might be right, I never read for a 'leader' of today to admit he was part of the punk scene, but many for the opposite. I wish Joe Strummer to had an influence even a minor to some jerk up there but (naturally) he was not.
The Elevators were the only psychedelic band ever, all others were a bunch of lame ass imitators or some 'let's get some drugs and shag some chicks with a good reason' wankers. Period! OK Syd Barrett's Floyd were the European similar/twin but from there nothing else stands for psychedelic, at least for me (you see - I'm a very Democratic person, he-he!). And what seems crazy and weird to me still is the birthplace of this band. I guess Texas wasn't always the world center of obscurantists... And this is as groundbreaking as a record can be! Come on, you don't need me to tell you HOW IMPORTANT the Elevators were, right? A possessed bunch of acid punks, flushed on drugs and armed with the most dangerous rock & roll of their time. Roky was always a stoned murmuring James Brown in a mix with Dion and Syd Barrett and this album is the shocking ancestor of a generation about to come with 'dope, guns and fucking in the streets'. Thankfully Roky didn't had Syd's future. From time to time fed us with masterpieces like 'I Think of Demons' and 'Don't Slander Me' to quench our thirst. Anyway, what the WTS team has to offer is NOT the usual CD recently remastered version (or not) , but the old plastic grooved STEREO. I was never good at it so here's what Jean Philippe sent me along with the links:

"And FWIW, here's my 2 cents usual audiophile shit contribution (btw, what follows is also true for 'Easter Everywhere'):

As far as we know, the REAL original stereo mix of the 13th Elevators has never been reissued (even as a bootleg). In the late 70's, a slightly different mix was released by International Artist label. These LPs are known as 'Masterfonics' version (because that's what you can read in the dead wax). A good mix, but not as good as the true original stereo mix (some unnecessary echo/reverb was added), which has crystal clear high frequencies. Over the years, 'The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators' has been reissued countless times, unfortunately not from the original mix, but from a very poor copy made from Masterfonics LP. You can easily tell which is which: on Masterfonics LP, the intro of 'You're Gonna Miss Me' has some distortion, and the intro of 'Don't Fall Down' is missing a few notes. The same mix was used for the pricey 2012 vinyl box set 'Music Of The Spheres'. International Artists record label claimed their stereo version is 'a remastered version of the original stereo mix', but that's not true, as evidenced by the aforementioned flaws found on the Masterfonics version. The 2010 CD box set 'Sign Of The 3-Eyed Men', contains an alternate stereo mix, not the original mix. Frankly, those two box sets look incredibly cool, but are a major disappointment sound quality-wise.

The first pressing of 'The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators' is now very expensive and hard to find in good condition, but I'm lucky enough to have a very cool friend (JF) who owns a top mint copy –amongst many other Elevators rarities, such as the insanely rare French EP. So thank you JF, for allowing me to pick up this priceless LP from your collection to rip it for WTS readers pleasure."


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The Hollywood Brats - "The Hollywood Brats" (Cherry Red, Re-issue 1994)

In Greece we have an expression for Jekyll & Hyde situations that says: "Every coin has two sides". Probably you guys and gals from anyplace you’re coming from got it too or something similar anyway, but that's not our subject. Ever heard about New York Dolls evil twin? No? Too bad cause their Brit boyfriends and half the pattern of my beloved Hanoi Rocks’ sound (and from there of about a million more androgynous punk rebels) was the ‘other side’ of the aforementioned coin, probably as cheap as a penny and for sure as valuable as the Dolls.
This goddamn masterpiece believe it or not, had to wait in the can for seven long years! Recorded back in 1973 but came out for the first time in 1980... Think now what happened during those seven long years and what may have happened if this fucker was out on time! The Hollywood Brats would have now sickle Dolls saga. Truly outrageous, full of feathered boas, mascaras and stuff but without the all too feminine Dolls stylebook, championed by loonies like the prime minister of them, Keith Moon (the president would have been no other than Screamin’ Lord Sutch) and set the first step of one of my very fave bands ever, the Boys!
Did I say “The Boys”? Oh well, the all time sleaze break-up tune of “Sick On You” and “Tumble With Me” can be found here in all its prime savagery like the Faces of “Ooh La La” in drag, with campy piano playing that owes more to Esquerita than to Little Richard (listen to those first notes of “Chez-Maximes”, seconds before the guitars fire burn entry!) and thee syllable to syllable snotty edge that if you’re 15, bored to death and fat full of exploding hormones naturally becomes your national anthem (I’m not talking of course ‘bout good boys)! And the similarity with New York Dolls doesn’t stop here… Thunders gang ADORED 60s girls groups with most notable example this of Shangri-Las. Hollywood Brats fixation with the Crystals transformed into the best rock & roll adoption (“Then He Kissed Me”) of the Phil Sector’s finest gals songs (I love the Ronettes but sorry not as the sometimes Darlene Love fronted wildcat crew) along with the Fallen Angels “He’s A Rebel” take! The production was more garage oriented without the big stomping sound of the other glam acts in the UK, but hey, we’re talking about a punk band here, right?! Ha, I forgot to tell you that these brats were at first call themselves Queen! An out of control Freddie Mercury (well...kind of) one night at the Marquee crashed and demanded to change their name. Of course our boys kicked the shit outta him but they forced (I guess…) to change it in the end when the moustache fronted combo had its first hit.  On the 1994 Cherry Red re-issue CD, the few words in the liners almost like a blog post of A. Matheson made me realize why the dude was such a clever punk and why he was able to write such amazing lyrics!
“The HollywoodBrats was born of disgust. We simply couldn’t stomach anything that was happening in music at the time. It was all denim and drum solos. Where was the excitement, the danger, the outrageous clothes, the aggression, the glamour that made rock & roll the erotic narcotic we craved?” (…) “Next stop Olympic Studios where we continued to outrage all and sundry and trouble dogged our heels like a mutt with a fetish. We lorded over the Eagles, the Bee Gees, and Donovan because they were relegated in the mighty studio A while were relegated to the lowly B and C.Take up thy gongs and leave... The battle raged as producers and engineers kept trying to tone us down and smooth off our rough edges. Only we knew what the sound was supposed to be. We clawed like tigers in tantrum and soon the hired help wilted and slunk off down the corridors muttering death threats and left us to our devices” (…) “ We had made the music we wanted to make with no compromises or apologies but it was apparently too much, to soon. That’s life!”
Punk rock pioneers or what? 


pic taken from http://www.hollywoodbrats.com/


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The Ramones - "It's Alive - Audio Fidelity Limited Edition" (Warner Bros, 2009)

Yay! This is the morning (OK, noon...) of a great night out with my old pals. Not much time for all of us even though we are living in the same city. Blame the fuckin' situation down here for that... Anyway. Our day jobs kept us me and JP as well very busy all past week. Probably this will happen and the one is starting over tomorrow. Keep an eye in here cause more things are about come from the WAX side of this site. You know what is the thing with the place is called Greece the last thousands years? SUN! Right this moment I'm sitting in my balcony having my one son of the two putting out of his mothers plants all the mold (the other one's a lazy dog, sleeping with no worries in the big fat shade!) and yours truly is trying to write something for the next post. Which is in much relation with the sun, and the summer. What really amazes me the most about Jean Philippe it's the almost unrealistic timing we share! I was about to post something by da brudders and found this on my mailbox this morning by my pal:

"Off-topic: audiophile punk-rock, what the fuck?
I already confessed my deadly sin: no Ramones records in my collection until recently. But I think I'm forgiven: since I purchased "It's Alive", I gave it so many spins it's almost like I played it once every week for 2 decades. And you know (you must know) what I did next: try & finding a better sounding copy. I don't buy so-called audiophile records. They just sound baaaad to my ears, with virtually no high frequencies. I usually stick to original copies or old reissues. Recent remastered crap isn't my cup of tea either (makes my ears bleed). And I usually stay away from records with "180g" sticker, and yet I bought the one shown below. It was mastered by audiophile guru Steve Hoffman. I usually care more about who's actually playing than who's touching knobs in the studio, but all the Hoffman-mastered records I have (Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Doors) sound really good (better than originals), I mean exactly like I enjoy rock music: bold but not harsh, sweet but not dry, blablabla (and all the audiophile shit talk you can think of). Anyway, his version of "It's Alive" is really good. I'm listening to "Teenage Lobotomy" now: it feels like my head is actually IN the drums. Kick-ass sound, really! My neighbor will hate me. The CD version sounds like what you can hear when you play music directly trough a mobile phone. OK, enough audiophile shit, 1,2,3,4"

I told you before mate, you REALLY have it, haha! So, this is the official twin bro of another Ramones goodie i posted some time ago. I'm not 100% on what my my good friend wrote (a Japanese vinyl pressing i own just kills!) but as always he has a good point here! Don't know who this Steve Hoffman mister is, but for sure he did an exceptional job to one of the best LIVE albums ever pressed. The kicking-ass masterpiece of the Ramones, recorded on New Year's eve 1977 with the 28 already classics by the three milestone first Ramones LPs ("Ramones", "Leave Home", "Rocket To Russia"), with no pause and hyper-speed delivery!

Have a nice week all!


 

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Radio Birdman - "Ritualism" (Crying Sun Records, 1996)

We Greeks always had a special admiration/bond for all things Aussie, especially in Rock & Roll. As I documented countless times before in here, we‘re not much (I mean arithmetically) listening to these sounds, but we‘re 100% into it. To give you an example in the midst of REM craze, Madchester rave and pre-grunge days, the Sunnyboys and the Lime Spiders were household names in every cool bar of the city. And this city had many of them. The Dubrovniks were able to pack a 1000 persons club easily, and every time you dragged yourself to some record shop asking for these names, the ‘old’ ones were telling you to ‘go find the Saints and the Birdman’! Not bad, right?  And if the Saints records' due mostly to the French New Rose label were ‘easier’ to be found, Birdman’s was a HELL of hunting and a very good reason to let these bastards rip you off! I still remember my feelings contrast from the showcase to the cashier when I first saw ‘Radios Appear’ overseas version over hanged… Anyway, it took me some years to gather finally all Radio Birdman releases but the first was this!
Yep, the ‘re-union’ live CD can carry still a special place in my heart. I’m pretty sure that for about two months this small disc rarely got out of the machine. Forget here all these greedy old men trying to mess up with their past. The performances of the songs are at least revitalizing and this time with all the weight been thrown to the roll element of their punk, which for me is an A plus! The production was recorded completely live and with no overdubs. They picked on the best material of their catalogue (yes the Birdman had shitty songs too, don’t try hide it, ‘Man with the Golden Helmet’ is probably one of the worst songs I‘ve ever heard!) electrifying themselves, their instruments and the all the people heard this! Radio Birdman for me it's a brother band to the Dictators. A punk rock gang that never been scared to mark out their love for hard rock (‘Radios Appear’ for example comes from a Blue Oyster Cult song lyric just like their name from a Stooges!). It’s impossible to describe Birdman’s importance with a few words.  I’m fortunate enough catch ‘em playing and to this day I’m wearing proudly the baseball hat with their cool logo on it! Up there with the Stooges and the MC5, the better examples of what is high energy rock & roll!



Official Site           Myspace             Facebook



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MC5 - "Kick Out The Jams - Japanese Pressing" (Elektra, 1969)

The boulder! The moment rock & roll lost its virginity and punk's seed was planted. The storm and the hurricane, that no one ever even came close. The raw power several years before ‘Raw Power”. The black instincts by white people. The left-wing anarchism, in a country and a period flushed of the diverse powers. The rock n’ soul in its first and purest incarnation. A band that had the nuts to make a debut on stage, where wrinkle and lacking of balls are easily shown if you don't carry 'em making you overnight a laughingstock. The ones that first pressed in vinyl and gate-fold, the word every pseudo-thug wanker today spits with his record's company prompt: MOTHERFUCKER! I dig Lester Bang’s provocative writing style, and I’m sure he’s only ambition was that; to raise namely assertions but his review for this on Rolling Stone (the worst music press ever?) was in full function with the magazine’s ethos…CRAP! The words “ridiculous”, “overbearing” and “pretentious” perhaps had a ground for the remaining re-union band under that moniker (not name…), but upon the release of this such confrontation is at least malign… And don’t get fooled again, such overpowering energy vomit not even the Who’s “Live at Leeds” had! The very meaning of the term “high energy”.
Quite simply, the BEST EVER LIVE long play, a moment captured for the sake of a humanity that had the testes to resist, to think and to act. An album that refuses to be played uneventfully. We know you own it, you should if you don’t already… Here in a Jap pressing with all its dynamics blown of the grooves! Brother and sisters, the M-C-FIVE! 







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R.I.P. Michael Davis (5 June 1943 - 17 February 2012)

By the time this poor world understands clearly who was who and with who as individuals must deal with, this doomed planet will probably walk his last steps. For days all media jerks ‘round the globe making tributes to Whitney Houston and really makes no wonder to me that legendary MC5’s bassist Michael Davis departure left inconsiderate the majority of our fellowmen… And it’s totally understandable cause from the time IQ tests discovered; the results make happy every dark government around the earth. And I’m not expecting WTS visitors to know who M. Davis was, today and from a sad post. I haven’t replied yet even to my partner’s JP late night email for the sad news. If I had to pick from the two Detroit monsters I’m totally for the MC5. “Kick out the Jams” was for sure in the first ten records I bought. What the MC5 had that Stooges hadn’t was the radical political act and musically speaking, that they got SOUL! Iggy’s comrades had a minimal, almost industrial sound. The 5 proved that rock & roll was not only music to dance by. They wore proudly their black influences, they declared war (and of course have lost…) against everything unethical. I tried some years ago to interview Michael Davis for our fanzine. His wife was manager of the Lords of Altamont and after this, attempted to sneak and speak to him. I didn’t succeed. If my memory serves me well, his wife politely tried to tell me that he wasn’t cool for interviews. At least I tried… No hard feelings for this of course. My faith on the remaining bunch of “5” staggered for a while with the re-union touring (I haven’t regret to this day that I didn’t go see them when they came to Greece) and the Levi’s commercial… This wasn’t for the MC5 and I still believe if Rob Tyner was alive would have killed them. And probably he would be right. In addition we’re talking about the “dope, guns & fucking in the streets” band here, not Aerosmith. He was also jailed in the 70s for narcotics just like Brother Wayne Kramer and to me except for the Destroy All Monsters project with Ron Asheton, all his other activities are just information. Hopefully during the next days along with Jean Philippe, we‘re gonna drive back to MC5, grub into our vaults with the hope to rediscover and offer you something peculiar. Our sincere sympathizing to Michael’s wife and kids. 

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Eddie & the Hot Rods - "Live At The Marquee EP" (Island Records, 1976)

Hi there! Happy new year to every single one of you guys and gals! We 're back, entering our 3rd year's essence; looking forward for mo' action packed music! So, let's get straight to the point. Eddie & the Hot Rods are among those bands I'm still listening constantly in fact since my early teens. And how not? They are kicking some serious asses as i'm reading on gig reviews still! Of course the period from 1975 to 1981 was their landmark and the peak of their hi - powered rock & roll engine. I yet think of their 45 rpm singles and EPs as the better format for buying and hearing them firing in all cylinders! My fave Hot Rods period was when the absolute brat / reincarnation of the ancient blues outlaws, Lew Lewis, blustered this poor harmonica as a full force member but don't look for him in this dynamite. He just sat there for two singles. But the storm wasn't about to simmer down... What's in here is the very definition of punk rock! A pub rock band, casting in the past and finding the lost for many years rock n' roll roots! And when i'm talking about 'roots' i'm not saying the obvious ones (Chuck, Bo etc) just like the rest of their comrades did. These vagrants got a little further though by checking the 60s garage and R&B bands to draw up from there all their primitive instincts! Question Mark & the Mysterians "96 Tears", Bob Seger's best Chuck Berry song that the Man never wrote "Get Out of Denver", Them's "Gloria" and Stones' "Satisfaction" delivered in hyperspeed  and sweat. At the end of 1976, NME journalists vote for this single as the second best of that year. I really wonder what was the first...


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The Sorrows - "Take A Heart" (Piccadilly, 1965)

Hi there! I'm pushing myself too hard the last weeks on many things and i feel kinda tired. We are working along with Jean Philippe for many days now on a new WAX CD also and as you can easily imagine there's hardly no time for anything else. Likewise, i don't want to lose touch with you guys and gals and even if I'm not in a good mental shape, i thought to devote some lines on a very underestimated band of the British sixties boom that more or less the previous post taught me about through their cover versions. Of course we 're talking about the Sorrows. The archetypical 'freakbeat' group and in a way proto-punk was as many said not that R&B oriented as the Pretties or the Downliners, but for sure that hard! That's their first on Piccadilly, a subsidiary of PYE and it's the aggressiveness in personage! Raucous vocals, thundering drums, lightning guitars for a band that obviously was too much ahead of its time! Call me paranoid, call me sulfurous, call me what you will anyway, but the Sorrows 'Take A Heart' was (and still is!) way better than say Who's 'My Generation'! A little later they turned out as psychedelic kinda Dylan-esque outgrowths or Italian speaking pre-progsters, but we forgive them. There are not much long plays from that period of time with an edge like theirs!

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Various Artists - "Songs DMZ Taught Us - 28 Beat & Proto-Punk Originals To Scare The Shit Out Of Your Local Mohawk Caricatures!" (WAX CD 003)

Welcome to our 3rd installment on what this space regards as ‘heroes’, leavin’ out almost always what the large crowd might thought or not on what is ‘rock & roll’! WAX CDs are here at WTS HQ, a rejuvenescent breath and each time me and Jean Philippe exchange ideas, rip records and design the covers of a ‘new release’,  we’re in a “speed’ situation! And DMZ were/are for both of us a legendary outfit. Of the few in their era that wore proudly the then unknown roots of punk with the Sonics, the Wailers or the Troggs. A band that pre-dated Lyres and the whole 80s garage revival movement (or trend) by far! No paisley shit, no mop top pretentiousness, just raw undisputed energy deeply sourced to every Kennedy era US town daddy's garage and teen faces full of acme and raunchiness!
We knew that in 2011 most of these songs if not all, are well known but there’s always a new field to seed your weeds right? This time most of the tracks ripped by Jean Philippe and with a good reason. He transferred most of the songs here from vinyl records instead of CDs (I was about to do the opposite, i know... I'm a lazy bastard!) and gave our label the marking we declare! WAX from waxed godammit! Our pattern was every single DMZ release through the years plus a new Munster release of a Lyres line up represented by the 4/5 of DMZ. So, as our title proudly pronounce, what you get is "28 Proto-punk & Beat" rave-ups, by the original artists (in some cases not) "to scare the shit out of your local punk caricatures"! And believe me, these blasts they'll do it snugly! So long.
*No bootlegging on WTS - WAX CDs. This is ONLY for Soul Self Satisfaction and/or educational purposes. Share and dance freely!



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Don Craine's New Downliners Sect - "I Can't Get Away From You / Roses" (PYE, 1967)

I recently put out of the shelf some early Ugly Things issues to check some things on (what else?) the Pretty Things. I was immediately hooked on an excellent three piece homage (maybe the best and the more detailed ever) on the R&B-protopunk savages, the Downliners Sect. I was totally forgot the reason why dusted off those vintage (now...) sheets. BTW, did you know that the Sect turned down both Rod 'the mod' Stewart and Steve Marriott in an audition for the place of the band's new harmonica player? Did you know that Van Morrison still rates them high? Knowing those trivia or not, many have tried all over the years to undermine Sect's importance and influence. Even Greg Shaw... Yes, the man whose alone responsible (in a big part) for all this garage revival movement, in the Bomp's British Invasion issue wrote them off and hounded them! Anyway, this time pick up on a rare, beautiful and kinda strange piece of plastic - at least for all of us who know well Downliners' history and fanaticism for R&B... The story goes like this...By the end of 1966, R&B wasn't the hottest thing around. Pop, Psychedelia and Soul took over the charts, and as a result of this the bands who still wanted to play the blues started to have day by day less gigs bookings. Soon the Sect had to confront this new order. Of the known members only Don Craine (guitar, vocals) and Keith Grant (bass, vocals) stayed in place and a new band created from scratch with the additions of Kevin Flanagan (drums),  Bob Taylor (lead guitar) and...Matthew Fisher (keyboards). Have i ever told you how I HATE Procol Harum? No? Well here's the moment! MUCH! As much as post-Syd Barrett Pink Floyd or any other prog shit. But here the man's just painting with his organ. The influences of soul and psychedelia are obvious on both sides of this single, even though the raw R&B holds up for good here too. The late reissue of the record inverted the original location of the songs ("Roses" metamorphose into A side tune), but the prototype one-off Pye release had the Remains (!) song as covered by the Sect first in line. And that's an oddity. I really wonder how this tune came to Sect's repertoire cause I'm quite sure at the time at least, the Remains was a no familiar name for the British crowd. And "Roses" quite simply one of the very best songs the Downliners Sect wrote and recorded throughout their long lasting career. I'm not going nuts usually for what the mod/garage crowds referred to as "Freakbeat", but this two-sider really stands out as one of the genre's best! If you wanna hear the Sect going heavier, darker and organ driven here's your chance.

0
The Nomads (US) - " From Zero Down" (Crypt LP 006, 1985)

''Here 'tis at long last a full - length long player chock - fulla primitive, raunchy rockin', most of it in its first airing to the public cauz these songs were never released. Mount Airy, North Carolina is a quite southern town - at least it was until 1966, when four teenage outcasts began rockin' up a torrent of sounds to get the world off their backs, swing with chicks, make some dough and most of all, have fun. The Nomads played all summer at roller rinks, Elks lodges, and a whole slew of bars throughout the upper reaches of North Carolina and southern West Virginia. In March, 1966 they recorded a batch of demo songs at the basement Stark studios. These songs make up most of this album. In Summer '66 they re-recorded and released two songs on a 45; "Not For Me" and " How Many Times". No big chart action resulted from this 45, and they held off from recording again until April 1967, with the release of the awesome "Thoughts of a Madman" / "From Zero Down" 45 for Tornado records. The group started to split up in late '67 due to college, Vietnam and jobs. So, we present the full recorded history of one of America's great lost garage punk combos.''
That's a piece from the back of this GRRRRRR-eat record (and one of the first numbers for Crypt). I didn't bought it at the time came out cause i was too young and the only Nomads i knew was the 'modern' garage outfit from Sweden, but when i first got it on my hands i was totally blown away! All of the back sleeve looked like jumped out pages from an early Kicks mag! The photos, the fonts, the way liners being written - the whole set up! And what's inside, some really hot shot teenage punk of the Kennedy era US! No moptops, no paisleys, just underage filth! The funny thing's that Tim Warren always hated the same named Swedish now legends (and here's maybe the only disagreement i ever had with the master, i really like them!).
By coincidence i was trying to clean up mess on my warehouse the other day and came across to this.

 

Hahaha! Tim Warren always knew where the true and good punk rock is! Along with the Squires LP, anything by the Lyres, the two Wylde Mammoths, the Devil Dogs, the Raunch Hands and the Dirtys CD, the absolute peak of the Crypt records raw shit output!


0
The Pretty Things - "The Pretty Things" (Fontana, 1965)

I've read already countless times that The Pretty Things debut long play was "a legendary exercise in anarchy". As much as a cliche this might sound, it's the least you can say about it. Fontana records chief Jack Baverstock when arrived to oversee his label's newest 'hitmakers', "walked out after half an hour with us" as the liners point out. Indeed, the Pretty Things were no less than five unruly, filthy and dirty to the max youths with a never-ending hunger for rhythm & blues! When you're going to read something about 'em the word 'mayhem' appears on the script immeasurable times. No wonder why Mick Jagger used all his connections to keep them down and even if those creeps sang the opposite, this indigestible prick finally succeed. But tapes and records are still here to remind us who were the filthiest of them all. The spiritual godfather of this album is the Man, Bo Diddley. Chuck's here too but his tunes Diddleyfied so much that sound to these ears like Bo's tracks or as i read somewhere else, like outtakes of the "Two Great Guitars" sessions. No less than four McDaniel toons appear in here. But the whole 'jungle beat' filtered and distorted through over-amped guitars, crushing drums and snarling vocals. Again, this is really one of the places where punk started. A roaring example of how garage was born. Sometimes i wonder how the rock & roll history would have be if the Pretties weren't THAT MUCH suicidal. The ironic front sleeve is perfect introduction of what are you going to witness. Five bumps who dare to provoke and even if you try to beautify them, the end result will be a total disgust! Is that punk or what? That's British R&B at its rawest and dirtiest and if the Rolling Stones are too pussy for you, well here's your chance. And Vivian Prince fuckin' rule!


The A-Bones drum head with Viv Prince


0
Kent Morrill of The Fabulous Wailers (R.I.P. 1941-2011)

I just found out that the organist/vocalist of the NW legends and proto-punk masters, the (Fabulous) Wailers, died a few days ago after some years battle with the fuckin' disease... His wife said that the night before sang in his sleep "Louie Louie", a song the Wailers had an equal share in fame as the song's own writer the mighty Richard Berry! You can actually read more on this on the Louie Report... If you don't own already the Wailers material, you should start immediately. White Trash Soul sends his boundless respect to Kent Morrill for what he achieved in life. The Wailers, The Sonics and the Louie! Its' all about THREE CHORDS, a CATCHY TUNE and a bunch of UNDECIPHERABLE WORDS! R.I.P.

0
The Sonics - "Live - Fanz Only" (LP, Etiquette/Fan Club - 1987)

Imagine this. Let's say there's somewhere a lexicon with words explaining pictures (or sounds...). And somewhere in it there's this classic photo shoot of the Sonics "BOOM!" front sleeve, OK? So, let's give it a try and put aside all these words perfectly fits 'em...
"Savage", "ferocious", "explosive", "mayhem", "vulgar", "dirty", "motherfuckers", "bumps", "strollers", "hooligans", "tough", "gritty", "hard", "thump", "powerhouse", "energy", "raw", "stripped down", "manic", "splinter", "punchy", "bust", "fuck", "young", "juvenile", "devilish", "tilt", "distortion", "fuzz", "buzz", "drunk", "earthquake", "dangerous", "venomous", "lethal", "uncontrollable", "sweaty"...Gosh, it's endless...
Or you can abstract all the above with just one......Punk! That's right, the one and only true punk band ever stomp feet n' boots on this planet. The Stooges looked like lame imitators and the Black Flag as an orchestra of wind and string instruments compared to the Sonics. Hard boiled, rock n' roll thugs that took genre to another level. Don't frazzle it, this is where the action is! Period.
PS: That's a very rare item of the Sonics discography. Came out in 1987 by Etiquette (their original company) in the States and the French New Rose/Fan Club label for the Europe. Three tracks here, recorded during the 60s decade ( James Brown's "Please, Please, Please", the Seeds "Pushin' To Hard" and Bo Diddley's standard "I'm a Man") and three more from a 1972 reunion show (Little Richard's "Lucille" in a version that RIPS, and their own "Psycho" and "The Witch" - the later two outcropped on the "Psycho-Sonic" compilation and the Norton's reissue of "BOOM!"). That's the only record by them i don't own. Thankfully Jean Philippe did and made the rip for our listening pleasure (and unpleasantness for your neighbors!), exclusively of course for White Trash Soul!
FLAC

Aaaahhh Wooooo! 



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Iggy & the Stooges - "Raw Power" (1973, UK Edition - CBS) In search of the best mix, the best pressing or the best mastering..?

There's a weird justice in music and especially in rock & roll when someone referring to a "successful" band or record. Something like a hoodoo voodoo shit. I mean, no one seemed to like the Stooges when the Stooges actually were the hottest shit around. Disappointing sales lead to many of the problems they confronted (drugs was another one) and sooner than later disbanded. Through the years and as their legend still grows (they tried their best to reduce him with all these unnecessary tours and the crap that titled "Weirdness" - thankfully failed), the sales around the "Stooges" trademark should grow by now, day by day. I own all their official albums in three or four different editions, and I'm of those Stooges fanatics that didn't get a lot further. Of course there are some cool boots too on my library. Sales wise, the Stooges must  be now a strong card. Not long time a go some dust got up for the Legacy "Raw Power" box set-special edition whatever anyway they named it. "Raw Power"'s my all time fave album (OK, "Exile"'s too but no Velvets' "Banana" here sir...). My desert island record. The one that changed my mind on what is "hard" or "metallic" in music. Til then i was searching on the wrong places for it (Sabbath etc). I know, i was another one that ate the bate, thankfully for a little. Through the ages, people referring to this monolithic output as "one of the most important proto-punk records".I spit on this. This is (along with "Here are the Sonics" and "BOOM!") THEE proto-punk classics. The only ones you really NEED to own. And there comes the 1.000.000 dollars question... What's the better mix of this? Or better should we add, the better pressing...or mastering?  I've got already four different "Raw Power" releases and I've heard already some more. The first one i picked was bought by me back in 1994 and it's a CD with the reference CDCBS32083. Next steps were the "Rough Power" mixes put out by Bomp!, the 1996's re-mixes of Iggy's for Legacy and the last one's the big fat vinyl of Sundazed. There are tracks that had obvious differences like for example "Search & Destroy" or "Gimme Danger" and others that in my ears at least sound exactly the same ("Raw Power")... But actually are more on the subject. So much, that you have to become an academic and not a punk rocker... But what the hell, I've grown up enough to claim still that I'm a young speed freak and to tell you the truth it always fascinated me searching on "mysteries" like the one we opened here.
 Facts: The secret weapon that makes "Raw Power" a legendary long play (except for its brilliant music of course) , is the disadvantage of the "production". I don't know if exists a book on the matter (probably not - i guess i would have know its existence but anyway...) but as you can find on various sources, Iggy blew it by himself. He had Columbia on his back, the best line up ( i prefer Ashetons as the rhythm section and Williamson as the axeman) a 24 track studio...and he used just three channels... THREE! It always sounded like a demo snappily recorded - alive in the studio, than a major label's project. And all these to me are GREAT! If it comes for rock & roll (aka punk rock), fidelity it's a small matter. It's the performance and the action that really counts. And both aforementioned elements, shines throughout "Raw Power"'s duration. Naturally, big fat ass people of the Main Man and CBS, freaked upon hearing the original mixes and bring along Bowie to set an order to the mess (or chaos). I don't like Bowie. But there are things on him that makes me respect him. And yes, I'm one of those who dig better Bowie's mixes than Iggy's. Iggy agreed with the Bowie option.
"...The most absurd situation I encountered when I was recording was the first time I worked with Iggy Pop. He wanted me to mix Raw Power, so he brought the 24-track tape in, and he put it up. He had the band on one track, lead guitar on another and him on a third. Out of 24 tracks there were just three tracks that were used. He said 'see what you can do with this'. I said, 'Jim, there's nothing to mix'. So we just pushed the vocal up and down a lot. On at least four or five songs that was the situation, including "Search and Destroy." That's got such a peculiar sound because all we did was occasionally bring the lead guitar up and take it out.." said Bowie on an interview.
You really need some guidance to go further and spent some more money on the same record to hear by yourself and judge. I tried to track down Jean Philippe to tell his opinion on this cause he's a master at it. I mean, this bloke has at least 10 different "Raw Power" copies... I failed. But you know what, i love internet. I thought i was one of the few fans of the Stooges and "Raw Power' especially... What a dumb-ass! Jean Philippe turned me on to a different mix i haven't noticed til a few days ago. The "Embassy Reels"...And it's an entirely different chapter that we're going to explore together but after finishing my homework first. He was right, i did a research and through the lot of the "Raw Power" posts found zero on the UK edition, with the unbeatable echoed version of "Search & Destroy"! So he made as usual an EXCELLENT rip of this and sent me the links to share it with you people. You really need to hear this version! Above, there's a copy of some things sent me via emails we've exchanged the last days to see a master's view on the subject.
"As for Raw Power, so many things have been said about it...where to start?
To make a long story short:
* Since its 1973 release, people -including the stooges themselves- have been complaining about the thin sound of the Bowie original mix. In fact, only the first track, Search & Destroy has a harsh sound, other tracks have balls.
* The original 1973 CBS UK pressing has a different mix for Search & Destroy. Who did this mix? Who knows/who cares? Punchy mix with clearly audible bass & drums. It was also available on *some* cassettes ["cassette mix"] and on *some* 1977 Raw Power UK reissues on CBS/Embassy ["Embassy mix"]. I own an Embassy reissue, but it doesn't have the alternate mix. It does sound different, though, with more bass, but it's probably a mastering issue rather than a different mix. As far as I know, the alternate mix was a UK-only release (Holland and Australian pressings, for example, have similar orange CBS label, but it's the same mix as the US one).
* The recent Raw Power Sony 3 CD reissue was supposed to have alternate mixes ("Embassy Reels"), but this rip-off release just has the regular mixes:
"Background on two more tracks: ‘Raw Power’ was cut from the Columbia U.S. catalog within a year or so after its release, but had reappeared on the CBS UK budget-line Embassy Records line, “by popular demand” of Brits at the dawn of the punk rock era. Matheu began importing copies to the Peaches record store he managed in Detroit. He immediately noticed the Embassy LP and cassette mixes of “Raw Power” and “Search And Destroy” were different than the U.S. mixes he knew. Three decades later, Matheu informed Dickinson of the Embassy issue, and Dickinson contacted Richard Bowe at the Sony UK archive. They were able to find the original tapes – now known as the Embassy Reels – which did, indeed, have different codes and matrix numbers on them. As Dickinson began transcribing the Embassy Reels, it wasn’t just ‘Raw Power’ and ‘Search And Destroy’ that were different, it was a completely alternate mix for the whole album. The alternate mixes of ‘Shake Appeal’ and ‘Death Trip’ on this Rarities CD are some of the fruits of that search."
This is just bullshit.
* Until recently, I wasn't even aware of this alternate mix (only Search & Destroy is different, the rest of the LP is the same), though I've been listening this LP for almost 25 years. When I found it, I share it with some members of the stooges forum. One of them re-posted it on a crappy Velvet Underground forum, without even letting me know, but I don't really care. Maybe it's time for this UK mix to have an "official" posting (sort of), and your cool blog is probably the best place for it...if you want..."
Many thanks Jean Philippe!
FLAC

Raw Power!
Removed due to complaints






0
Downliners Sect - "Nite In Gt. Newport Street" EP (Contrast Sound RBC SP 001, 1964)

The Downliners Sect had no common ground with all the other British R&B bands of the era. Although many puts 'em in the same can with the Rolling Stones or the Yardbirds, the Sect were rawer and punkier. The only band could match them, were the early Pretty Things. They had obvious similarities. Both bands were edgy. Both bands were punky in sound and attitude. Both bands blew them all cause they were too filthy to be superstars and both bands understood exactly what Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry were trying to say with their unique sound! The parents and the tabloids of the era complaining about the Stones and the Beatles long hair... C'mon, are kidding me?! Mick and Paul were too cute and pretty and in a big way even though their fans deny it, much of their impact on gals wasn't for their music. Don't get me wrong here. I'm a huge Stones fanatic and i respect Beatles melodies and harmonies brilliancy like not much other things in the world, but hey, Don Craine or Phil May never going to be everyone's darlings! And that's the reason why i rated them so high in my mind's hierarchy! And their sound...Gosh that CRUDENESS! I mean, those two gangs were the only from the entire British empire that could easily put their selves in the garage punk intelligentsia!
The "Nite In Gt. Newport Street" EP was the Sect's first release. They had previously recorded on studio Bo & Chuck's "Cadillac" & "Roll Over Beethoven", but for some strange reason this took turn on 1965 if I'm right. Penniman's people have it on the streets again, and i tell you, especially on Bo's tune they kick some serious asses. I strongly believe that this along with the Liverbirds version of "Mona", are the best ever approaches by white people, if not any, on Big Bad Bo (even though i remember clearly John from the Sound Explosion disagree with this opinion, cheers mate)! So, this EP was a self financed release on the large amount of...400 copies. And it worth's a fortune today. If you don't picked up already Penniman's 1000 copies reissue, i guess you'll have to wait for another one pick it up and make it available again in all its crude and raw excellence! Oh, i forgot to tell you that this shit, recorded live in the street's club Studio 51 and i guess you might guess what's happening in here, right?! As the front cover warning, the Downliners Sect PREACHING Rhythm 'N Blues! The hard way i must add... But don't expect something less from people with such bad behavior and their name taken from a Jerry Lee Lewis song... 
This is the most primitive record came outta England, and that's enough reason to pay some respect to its savageness!
320Kbps
                                                          Nite In gt. Newport Street


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