Showing posts with label Rockabilly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rockabilly. Show all posts

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The Senders - "Goodbye Cruel World" (CD, Action Records - 2000)

Hi there!
You know, the hardest thing in this blog thing situation is what to write the second time you present a band or an artist from your 'pages'? To think what you haven't notice the first time and put it down. But what about the third? OK, I guess is not that hard if this band are the mighty Senders from New York and happens (naturally) to belong on your 'favorites' close club.
We 're leaving out this time the usual Johnny Thunders references and go further, straight to the point. So this album's my fave. Even though is from latter period of the band and has original ace guitarist Wild Bill Thompson playing in half of the songs. Cause you know, on the rest there's some Freddy Lynxx guy (he-he!!!) filling his shoes! Hmm, I guess the Senders and the Thunders relations would never stop, cause Freddy's like the only one ever never mimic the Saint but carried the torch of his unique style playing to the new generations. The production's great, the performances are SWINGIN' and the songs as usual a prefect blend of originals and splendid taste cover toons (from Willie Dixon to the Stones and from Gene Vincent to the Crazy Teens!). You really have no idea guys HOW MUCH I DIG bands in the vein of the Senders, like the Red Devils or the Fabulous Thunderbirds! This greasy punkitude R&B wailin'! I wish they were more of that heritage around today...

PS: I must thank one more time WTS faithful 'follower', Steve, for handing me this in a better bitrate til the day find it somewhere in its real condition. Thanks man!


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The Flaming Stars - "London After Midnight - Singles, Rarities and Bar Room Floor-fillers 1995 - 2005" (CD, Big Beat - 2006)

This greasy haired wild bunch of Londoners should have been my fave band ever. I mean, the Flaming Stars are the only 'round the dark and fluid basements that for so many years are able to reflect so perfectly my moods, my influences in all aspects of what people think of as 'art'. They named their-selves probably after the amazing Elvis song (which along with 'Crawfish' belong to the all time faves WTS pantheon) blending brilliantly and uniquely twangy surf, outlaw hardcore country, southern fried Sun/Meteor rockabilly, straight ahead R&B with Rat Pack's brat class, 60s garages original feel, Bukowski oozed lyrics and the Peckinpah originated set up, in a lethal cocktail no real rock & roll admirer could or would like to resist!
Every coin has two sides they say and the Flaming Stars stamped theirs on the penny that has the Godfathers on the other. Forget the easy and for me totally out of place comparisons with the Tindersticks or the Bad Seeds. And if Cave's not that far from them, at least in frame - the Tindersticks look like some 'Brian Ferrys' to my eyes where the Flaming Stars are the Only Ones with Dean Martin on the mic or the Voidoids with Jarvis Cocker. No wonder for a band that had its roots on the Earls of Suave (a legendary outfit with ex-members by the Gallon Drunk, the Headcoats, the Cannibals and the Sting-Rays!).
What amazes me the most though are their guitar dual channeling arsenal. They were handy enough to combine Link Wray with Ennio Morricone and the glam days of  Lou Reed in a way that sounded at least natural to these ears. The creepy organ/piano was squinting with the one eye turned to Jerry Lee and the other to Human Expression's mournful melodies and the hypnotizing (in many cases) rhythms were in dept of the Velvets nonchalant drug addiction minus the art-faggotry element. Their singles and CDs had sleeves with a direct line/tribute to all the cool crime novels and sleazy paperbacks of the 50s (check the permanent link on the blog for Max's AMAZING book, 'Straight from the Fridge, Dad' - proceed without second thoughts!) and it was the main reason for starting buy them when they were a completely uknown act to me. The DRUNKEN night back to the late 90s Athens at An's basement wasn't just a memorable show (Max on the liners seems to have the same opinion as me) but a Dionysian celebration. Here's a perfect compilation, the way such releases should be done. I wonder if they're still around?

Buy it HERE

Pic taken from Ace records website


















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The Cramps - "My Daddy Drives A U.F.O. - The Lux-urious And Elegant Unease Of The Cramps Bootlegs Vol.2, Studio Demos" (WAXCD 006)

Well, well, well! Hell yes we‘re here, ready to present our 6th "CD" and at the same time second volume of the Cramps bootlegs in the grave look for series. Hmmm... I really don't know what else to write and add. We know words hardly matter on posts like this and your only ambition is to hear. Fair enough. So, for a second time in a row, the man behind the ripping duties is my pal Jean Philippe. And like a good gravedigger he is, he picked on the best tracks his Cramps related bootlegs vault hides, only this time concept says ‘studio stuff’ or as we like to say here at WTS HQ, ‘Coffin recorded material’. By the time this lines being written I'm not totally aware of our product and due the fatherhood obligation orders, with the one ear I’m (trying to) listen to the Ivy's snatchy guitar licks and with the other to catch a possible fight between my boys... Who told you bloggin' is an easy ‘job’ for someone to do? And you know what, this music's definitely NOT the right one for keeping two little male demons calm... Ha-ha who cares? Maybe their mother, but I prefer (or for better wish) to follow their daddy’s steps than their mom’s (you know, there’s a big gap between Motorhead and Rihanna…). As we promised this volume is going to have the studio stuff not officially lapsed through the band's shrunk hands. All selections are from a specific period, the earliest and the best. From the time Miriam Linna was banging' the traps till the day Nick Knox took her place, deeply cared with cool covers if you think yourself a connoisseur and with the best possible sound. As usual, no bootlegging on WAX CDs. Share and dance freely!  



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The Cramps - "My Daddy Drives A U.F.O. - The Lux-urious And Elegant Unease Of The Cramps Bootlegs Vol.1, The Live Tapes" (WAXCD 005)

Things worked faster this time! Ok, it’s all up to my buddy’s Cramps related snugness but I have to admit, Jean Philippe showed me the way! In less than a month, tracks picked up, rips were made and cd covers blow-by-blow designed for (what else?) the next WAX ‘release’ and as you can see this thing’s planned for at least two volumes! The idea came to my head when I was preparing the Pub Rock volume and proposed my comrade to think of a Cramps boot volume as a next step. I mean, with such a vault, it’s a crime to not touch our hands on and pitch on the cream of the crap, don’t you think? And this is by a good 99%, a JPStooges sound cared project. My correlation focalized/minimized in some kind of ‘spiritual’ guidance about the way covers should look or how this project might be called or how this could or should be build, virtual not the things a rock & roll fan might be interested in. And I’m so gee-whiz for the end result!
So, the WAX team jointly decided to split this ghoulish idea in two parts. The ‘studio’ material and the ‘live tapes’. And we thought it’s better to start from the hoodoo stage rituals the Cramps got through 'round the world during their heyday (I know we are all fans, but we must admit that from the late 80s – maybe earlier, our monsters have started to transform their selves from voodoo idols to cartoons)! Detailed, carefully placed and with the 'semi-pro, my ass!' artwork approach of the WAX twins, this is the first volume of the Cramps tumulus raped material.  What we had in mind was to create something Lux might have been proud of! We know this is a rather childish urge (i can't even think to write my childish thoughts on the most venomous female ever brandished a Gretsch...) , but the Legion of the Cramped lives no matter how many years Rockin' Bones gazette is out of print. And for one time at least we cheat the cheaters (aka bootleggers) in their own game, ha! Are we the baddest motherfuckers or what?! So as usual, NO bootlegging on WAX CDs. Share and dance freely. 
Stay sick, more to come!




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The Cramps - "Songs The Lord Taught Us - Alternate Mix, French Release" (Illegal Records, 1980)

We’re gonna bury you guys in Cramps rarities over the next days (OK, maybe months, it depends on our spare time…). The start waxed the day before with the Cramps mega rare single and since this blog have a Cramps PhD holder, Jean Philippe, we’re gonna share whatever we think our ‘vaults’ (actually JP’s, myself stayed to the official releases with a few exceptions) hide and deserves exposition. And boy this never heard by me either. I’m just the guy learned it a few hours before of you! And some hours before me, Jean Philippe just had bought it (are we a straightforward blog or what?!). So let’s begin: On the minor exceptions I was talking about some lines above, was the well known bootleg “Songs the Lord Might Have Taught Us”. If my tired memory serves me right, “Might Have Taught Us” was unofficially released by two at least different bootleggers. The one I own for sure has a 'polite' sound, at least for the Cramps standards. Audible of course, in a way clear, but weak. Hearing it for the first time made me think that our beloved monsters did no wrong with these recordings keeping them off many people’s ears, even if these ears belonged to their fans (I’m one so I believe I can talk from the fans point of view, right?). All the following listenings made my meditation even stronger. And I know a lot of people who faith that these recordings were in fact demos, maybe in their anxiety to defend their/our heroes. My impression after only one shot of this, is that these are the alternate mixes of the band's classic debut all Cramps fans looking for. Exactly what my buddy JP told me, he's the Cramps-torian and I’m not the one to contradict this. What’s for sure this record here's a totally unique item in the Cramps rapidly growing official/unofficial discography. For a better readout of this semi-official release (?), wise what my partner mailed me:
“More Cramps shit? You may have heard about the very rare (50 copies) promo version of "Songs the Lord Taught Us" LP, which contains alternate mixes and with “Drug Train” instead of “TV Set”. I don't have it (and probably never will, as it's a several thousands Euros piece of plastic), but it was bootlegged several years ago as "Songs the Lord Might Have Taught Us". I have the bootleg but I couldn't enjoy it as the sound is very, very thin. It doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't sound right (it's in mono and doesn't have balls). BUT, I found (just today!) the alternate mix of the rare promo on a French -official- pressing of “Songs The Lord Taught Us" LP. It's a very basic mix, with less echo on Lux’s vocals, and in most cases, drums have much more "presence". The version of “TV Set” (which is not on the promo LP nor on the bootleg) is not only a different mix, it's an alternate take, and a pretty good one. I loooooooove it. Here it is, without the bootleg shitty sound!" We believe you don't need more, right?




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The Cramps - "Human Fly / Domino" (Vengeance, 7" - 1978)

Days and years are going by much quicker than you might think. It’s already three years since Lux Interior; the Bad Elvis left this world for another. I’m not saying dead cause I’d like to remember him always as a zombie! My favorite, the coolest and the dirtiest! A primordial swamp hillbilly punk who came to this world to remember us poor sinners how rock & roll was a force of nature and not just music to dance by. I always put the Cramps in the punk movement and not in the psychobilly area. They were PUNKS! In the true-est sense of this word. And they got further than more acolytes did. They didn’t just got back to the basics, they denude it, had with it WILD SEX, discharged it from his recent years guilts and make it again DANGEROUS! Well, this is a VERY HARD TO FIND item of the Cramps discography. And a very expensive as well if you can find it in a mint copy. It came out from their own label (I think…) Vengeance, and has a DIFFERENT somehow dirtier mix of “Human Fly” than the one most most of us know from “Off the Bone”. Producer here's too Alex Chilton, but still this looks like a nonidentical version of the well known song. Don't know, if someone of you guys and gals know some more, shine a light. As my partner JP said, “You can hear Lux singing very close to the mic and the sound quality is better!”
Bizzz, bizz, bzzzzzzzzz!



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The Cramps - "1976 Demo Session W/ Girl Drummer Miriam" (Bootleg LP, 19??)

Happy New Year to you all White Trash Soulsters out there!
Hope this season be the best in your lives til the next one. Not many time ago, i was ranting 'bout Miriam Linna's drum pounding for the early Cramps. I offered some things and i asked if anyone by you was sitting on a demo session she did with them, that produced not by any other but Richard Robinson, mostly known as the man behind the board for the Flamin' Groovies masterpiece, "Teenage Head".
A very cool bloke from France named Jean Philippe, was hearing upon my wishes and answered today with this (full scans included)!
A million thanks mate! I am truly now "an eternally grateful bastard"!
So, the very first blog entry for 2011 is by the Cramps, featuring M. Linna on traps.
It doesn't get more primitive than this!
FLAC

1976 Demo Session


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The Cramps featuring Miriam Linna on drums (Excerpt from "How to Make a Monster", Vengeance - 2004)

OK, I'm bored to death to repeat my self even though i do this thing constantly. Well, is there anyone of you guys out-there that you don't already know who Miriam Linna is? OK, if you 're a newcomer on this blog I'll give some tags to google a little and find out for yourself her brilliancy! These are : KICKS magazine, Norton Records, Flamin' Groovies Monthly, The Zantees, The A-Bones and... The Cramps!
Many mistake Miriam as the original drummer of our beloved and mighty cannibals, but... actually the first was Pam Ballam (whatta a great nick was that!). But she was the first the Cramps did a recording with. Officially some of them found its way to the public through 2004's "How to Make a Monster" Cramps CD compilation with lotsa previously unreleased tracks of the band and with various line ups included. If my memory serves me well, that brought some tension between Lux, Ivy and Linna, cause the first two never get permission from the last to release this stuff; but the sad loss of Lux made the ones that left behind to bury the hatchet. It's obvious on Miriam's blog entrances about her early days with the Cramps. If you didn't already read and save on you HDDs these pieces, do it swiftly here, here and here! That's history, written in the unique "KICKS" way and essentially given to the fans with great pictures and stuff! I have made pdf files of every post so far Miriam uploaded on Kicksville 66, as a letter of administration to my children when they grow up and must catch on the right chapters of rock & roll! I advise you to do the same, before it's too late...
So, these recordings here not the complete with Miriam behind the traps but sure are the better sounding! I use most times, the Wang Dang Dula site for a deeper knowledge on things i like and i found some boots with more or less, most of the tracks they did together. The one i really need to catch is the "1976 Demo Session" produced by the Flamin' Groovies soundman Richard Robinson!... Any of you guys got it? If yes, please share and I'll be an eternally grateful bastard! 
320Kbps

Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk! 


Tracks:
- Live at Max's, Kansas City, on January 14, 1977 -
Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk / I Was A Teenage Werewolf / Sunglasses After Dark / Jungle Hop / Domino / Love Me / Strychnine / TV Set / I'm Cramped
- Studio, October 1976 produced by Richard Robinson -
I Was A Teenage Werewolf / I Can't Hardly Stand It




 

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Book of the YEAR! Max Décharné - "A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music" (Serpent's Tail, 2010)

For people not in the hoax, Max Décharné is a multi-talented person, mostly known as a musician. He began as the drummer of the Brit swampabillys, the Gallon Drunk but he played also a key role in the Dean Martin version of the Cramps, the Earls of Suave. Not much after this he created the Flaming Stars, a rare in taste rock & roll band. An original rock & roll street preacher full on (or of) culture. His impecable taste on movies, books and of course music, ranking him as the best of a kind that sadly fades, the last 20 years (at least for me)! 
When he finally tried his luck on writing a book he just topped! Hipster, with a deep knowledge of language, slang, records and facts of what generally called now "Rock & Roll" culture. 
Max Décharné was the last man interviewed by legendary John Peel. Both were mutual admirers. 
"Rocket in My Pocket", is what the title exactly says. "The Hipsters guide to Rockabilly music". I bought it yesterday and i'm SO hooked on this, that i stopped reading it only for going to work or sleep (late). An a few days ago release (in other words FRESH!) that certainly won't let you disappointed! As every other book by Max did. Forasmuch Billy Miller or Miriam Linna don't write a book, Max will be the one and only in the square that really deserves your time and money! Buy "Rocket in My Pocket" NOW!


Max Décharné's Bibliography:

  • Beat Your Relatives To A Bloody Pulp & Other Stories, Malice Aforethought Press, 1989
  • The Prisoner Of Brenda & Other Stories, Malice Aforethought Press, 1991
  • I Was A Teenage Warehouse & Other Stories, Thirst Editions, 1997
  • Straight From the Fridge, Dad: A Dictionary of Hipster Slang, No Exit Press, 2000
  • Hardboiled Hollywood – The Origins of the Great Crime Films, No Exit Press, 2003
  • King's Road: The Rise And Fall of the Hippest Street in the World, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005
  • A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music, Serpent's Tail, 2010

PS: As an accompaniment to this, the great ACE Records, told Max to compile a CD full of rockabilly blasts well chosen and with just one thing in mind, to get WILD! If you don't already own the lot, if not all of these toons, well here's your chance! Take a look here!





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