Fifteenth and Final Round (Love Train Gone Askew on Treadle)----The Chills----New Zealand is a Tropical Loveland

Wet Blanket!
This is one of a multitude of great songs by Martin Phillips aka The Chills. Wet Blanket was originally from the Brave Words album. This is a remastered version, with new vocals that was included on the Heavenly Pop hits compilation. I love Brave Words, but if the whole album was remastered like this, it might very well be regarded as the best New Zealand album ever.

Pick up anything you can get your mitts on by Martin Phillips. He's one of the greats.

Fourteen is Gene----Valentine's is over when we say so!

Fabulous band led by Martin Rossiter with a lot of great songs. Maybe derided a bit due to comparisons to the Smiths. They both had great guitarists, though not so evident on this track. Gene's was Steve Mason. From their odds and sods collection To See The Lights.

I Can't Help Myself

The Thirteenth Floor Elevator of Romance--The Slugs---Get Hooked!

Some low-sodium romantic music from Chicago's Slugs. Guaranteed to make you melt. The original can be found on the K-Tel spoof of 70's covers made by Pravda Records, Twenty Explosive Dynamic Super Hit Explosions!!! Very fun stuff. Pravda made three of these!

Number 12 on the Love List----Alex Chilton---The Master on Kismet

What would Valentine's Day without Alex Chilton's music? An empty barren loveless wasteland, I say.
Call me a romantic.

What's Your Sign? says it all. From A Man Called Destruction.

Ambitious Lovers are #11 on the Love Menu!!! Tropicalia delight...

I did a post on Ambitious Lovers' Greed album. Crazy great blend of just about everything mixed in a big bowl of tunes---A sonic churrascaria!! Arto Lindsay Rules, from No Wave to the New Millenium!!

Go-Betweens are Love Potion #10----Happy Valentine's

What more can you say. I can die happy knowing I saw these guys twice.

The Beatles have often been called British equivalent of the Go-Betweens. Maybe the greatest cultural export Australia has produced. Ignore this band at your peril.

Finding You---

Valentine's Nine---Visqueen---Seattle's Finest Never Holds Back

So sad to hear Visqueen played their last shows in 2011. One of my favorite bands--saw them in Brooklyn in 2010 and came away even more impressed, if it were possible. Well, one more plug for the road.

Valentine's Day--The Ocho!! Arthur Lee knew what Love is....

Love's Forever Changes is in my top 5 of 60's albums. I used to see the album as a teenager and wrote it off as hippie/incense and peppermints stuff.

Boy was I wrong about that one! Truly a fantastic one of a kind album. And this is and more again......

Hey Valentine! Equal time from Roddy Frame! Valentine's Day rolls a Seven!

Roddy Frame, you know, the guy from Aztec Camera.

I Can't Stop Now---This is from his Surf album. How romantic is this!

So what do you think?

Scotland--Sexy country, or sexiest country?

More Rocking and Romance from Hunters and Collectors---Valentine's Day Part 6!

Throw your arms around me---from the Human Frailty album. Terrific stuff from Australia.

Could have seen Hunters and Collectors on the tour for that album....very easily. Today I feel a little ashamed. But I only feel delight when I hear this little number.

For your own Special Someone from The Silos---Valentine's Day Part 5!

From the excellent Cuba album by The Silos. For Always.

Happy Valentine's Day Part 4--Arab Strap!!!!

The Arab Strap tug at our heartstrings once again. From the Ten Years of Tears comp. It's a secret track!

Enjoy, lovebirds.

Valentine' Day Three----Mark Lanegan

Here's some testifyin' from Mark Lanegan. He's got a new one out, but this is from his covers album.
Brilliant!

Happy Valentines Part 2--Mr T Experience

Here's some super crunchy romance from Lookout Records! It's The Mr T Experience, led by Dr. Frank, aka Frank Portman, author of novels King Dork and Andromeda Klein.

Happy Valentines! Trash Can Sinatras

Here's a little romantic music from Scotland's Trash Can Sinatras, sung by the inimitable Sir Francis Reader.

For Your Valentine----Cotton Mather's Kontiki reissued this week!

Just a quick note--At last, the 2-disc expanded remastered version of Cotton Mather's classic album is being released on Valentine's Day. I wrote about this recording in a previous post, and now the reissue has come to fruition. What better gift to give your favorite somebody if they happen to be musically obsessed like I am? This is a flat out amazing album!

The reissue project of this great Austin band became a reality through Kickstarter, where friends and fans actually donated money to make this happen. It's all about the love. Ranked #26 in John Borack's 200 greatest power pop albums of all time and an album dear to the heart of Oasis' Noel Gallagher, this is a very creative rock album that any fan of the Beatles would enjoy. And if any of you hipsters are planning to attend the SXSW extravaganza in Austin, you will get a chance to see the band perform a reunion concert to celebrate the album release.

Available on Amazon and from Robert Harrison's Star Apple Records. Check it out.

Big Town, Small Friends, Fast Food, Split Ends!! Street Chant---Means

Sometime it's hard to find.

Street Chant's Means album is the best new thing I've heard so far this year, and it's not really so new. This New Zealand trio has got to be one of the best groups today. I bought this a while ago, but never got around to hearing it until this morning. The white hot energy on this disc has me completely blown away! Beautifully noisy as hell, innovative, but enough hooks to satisfy an arena of power pop aficionados. Arch Hill Records has done it again, albeit in 2010. Just like me to be on top of things.....



And like labelmate Surf City, it's great to see the musical continuity from the great Kiwi bands of the past to today. Clearly musicians in New Zealand have spent time spinning the classics from their parents' old records. And although you can see the influences of NZ legendary groups like 3D's, Chills, Clean, Look Blue Turn Purple, there is a lot more at work here. So much talent in this group that I'm already looking forward to their next recordings. Emily Littler is on shredding guitar and lead vocals, and Billie Rogers is the bassist. At points the music is so intense that it seems like the songs are about to descend into chaos. Definitely some Sonic Youth/Live Skull/Sleater Kinney comparisons can be made. They should be getting the attention like The Joy Formidable is getting. Perhaps it is just the mix on this album, but I think the thing that sets this band apart is the remarkable drumming of Alex Taylor. The way he propels the music to another level makes the already exciting music flat out phenomenal.



I'm only listening to this record for the second time now and I am so completely hooked on this! Cloud Jumpers is simply terrific, which I'm listening to right now. But by the second song Scream Walk, I was already jumping for joy. It's like The Clean mainlining Red Bulls. Blister is an equally awesome tune--Littler's vocals make this one shine. And the lyrics! Blister on a wire...Shimmers like a sunbeam.......

Street Chant should be really proud of what they've done on Means. I could go on and on about this. There are probably 5 more songs here that are exceptional. They played  New York last year back when I had no idea what a glorious racket they raise. These guys are the real deal, believe me. The more I hear some of these New Kiwi groups I really start to think that there is some kind of renaissance going on in that country. I think the reality is that there were still good things going on---it's just that most of us on the other side of the world weren't hearing about it. But as your musical advisor I can't stress more strongly that this is a recording essential to your musical well being.

So I was a little late getting on the Street Chant bandwagon. I think the ride has just begun. Pick this one up yesterday, if not sooner.

The Eastern Dark--Where Are All the Single Girls? Legendary Australian Band's Brief Flicker Brought the Thunder

One of the great groups from Australia careers ended not long after they began. Where Are All the Single Girls? is an outstanding compilation of The Eastern Dark, containing their small output of studio recordings supplemented by live tracks. Half a Cow records released this collection in 2000, and reissued the CD in 2010. Unfortunately, the band was involved in an automobile accident which killed lead singer/guitarist James Darroch, and injured the other band members, Bill Gibson (bass) and Geoff Milne (drums). What a great band these guys were--you can only speculate what levels they may have gone to had tragedy not struck. This collection is essential Australian rock and roll. Certainly some of their songs released as single can be found on Australian Punk rock compilations like Do The Pop, but you really need every scrap you can find of this band in my opinion.

Inflammable material this is! Fast and furious, but loaded with pop hooks and harmonies, with the added treat of Darroch's remarkable lead guitar work. I would agree with the argument made by many, that had these guys avoided disaster, they would probably spoken in the same breath as The Saints, Radio Birdman, and the Scientists. They weren't around long enough to release an LP. And I am equally blown away with the
live tracks. It's pretty clear they were a monstrous live act if these tracks are indicative. The intensity of these tracks make my heart race. There is not a duff track in this collection. And there is also an extremely informative 40+ page booklet that comes with the disc.



A lot of people refer to the bands love of The Ramones, as can obviously be seen by song titles like Julie is a Junkie and Johnny and Dee Dee. But I think they had their own thing going, even at this early stage. Certainly they combined pop smarts and punk energy as The Ramones did. I think the Husker Du comparisons are pretty spot on also. Just listen to I Don't Need The Reasons and you'll agree. Drums are fantastic on this one. The aforementioned songs are as good as it gets as far as pop/punk goes.

Actually a lot of the recordings sound to me like a more tuneful variation on The Scientists, like on songs like Mr Clean and Stay Alone. A song like Over Now sounds like Nirvana may have cribbed some ideas from these guys. Walking is classic hard rock riffing at its finest, like punked out AC/DC. No Pictures and Julie Loves Johnny are just more example of punk pop perfection--it's like finding another punk rock holy grail.



The live stuff shows another facet of this band; out of the studio they rock with the energy of early Replacements, but tight. I'm impressed by the spoken word bits by Darroch in the song Whore. You can't help but admire the chain saw boogie of a tune like C&W Metal. Remarkable tunes like The President is Dead, and Stay Sane Somehow never saw the inside of a recording studio, but thankfully we have these molten live versions.



I think as far as the US goes, Australian music is a bit of a mystery. People think of Men at Work, INXS, Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, but there is so much more going on Down Under. HooDoo Gurus, Go-Betweens, Triffids, Saints, DM3, Hummingbirds...the list is pretty impressive and goes on a lot further than this. Unfortunately, the US dollar is pretty weak these days, so some of these cool Australian reissues are prohibitively expensive for us, and sometimes just plain scarce. Where are the Single Girls is readily available directly from Half A Cow along with a host of other worthy recordings. While not cheap, I think this collection is well worth the cost. This is an unbelievable disc that belongs in any good music collection.

Cruising Down Route 66, Did You Dream of Lochs and Highlands? Ballads of the Book--A Conspiracy of Scottish Poets and Musicians

The Scottish label Chemikal Underground released a very interesting collection of songs in 2007. Or maybe they weren't really songs? Because Ballads of the Book is a project where Scottish musicians collaborated with Scottish poets and writers to create songs, or more accurately, putting poems to music. Even the album cover was designed by the estimable novelist and poet Alasdair Gray. In reality the project began with Roddy Woomble of Glasgow's Idlewild, a band I regard highly. At the end of the final song of 2003's epic album Remote Part, Remote Pt 1/Scottish Fiction, poet Edwin Morgan intones poetry over the bands instrumentation at the conclusion, with effective results. I didn't know Edwin Morgan at all, but I certainly do now. I don't believe Morgan went on tour with the band---he was rather elderly.

That this collaboration involving multiple musicians and writers actually happened is probably remarkable. Definitely one of the most singular tribute albums I have heard. But this sort of thing often ends with less than memorable results. The idea of putting this out is commendable, but the ultimate litmus test would be listening to the results and enjoying them. On that basis, I would say that Chemikal Underground did a great job. The list of contributors is impressive; King Creosote, Emma Pollock of  The Delgados, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton of Arab Strap, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, James Yorkston, Vashti Bunyan, Sons and Daughters, Idlewild (of course), and Mike Hern (Incredible String Band). The writers include Edwin Morgan, Alasdair Gray, Ali Smith, Louise Welsh, and Ian Rankin, and many others of whom I must claim ignorance (It's probably me, not them).



But one of my favorites tracks here is performed by an artist I am unfamiliar with, Karine Polwart, singing The Good Years, by Edwin Morgan. Another artist I need to learn more about is King Creosote, who performs Where and When?, by Laura Hird. I know his new collaboration with Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine has received critical accolades--I just haven't heard it yet. Aerogramme and DeRosa are also good, but I also don't really know their body of work. Aidan Moffett and crime novelist Ian Rankin make a complementarily jaded pair on The Sixth Stone, which sounds like it's about Ian "Stu" Stewart, adjunct keyboard player for the Rolling Stones. Worthy of John Rebus' creator.




From Beggars through to Exile
you dug out rhythms like black diamonds
but cruising down Route 66,
Did you dream of lochs and highlands?

Though the bulk of this collection is of a folk nature, there are some notable exceptions like Sons and Daughters' performing A.L. Kennedy's The War On Love Song, which is a dark edgy little number in the manner of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Impressively creepy. Dreamcatcher is Scottish Cowboy music by Rody Gorman performed by Foxface. Malcolm Middleton and Alan Bisset's rough electro-pop The Rebel on His Own Tonight is another gem on this record.

Pure as vodka, Pure as snow
She kisses like its a terrorist's act
"Everythings about ghosts you know,"
she said, then dressed, then packed....

Of course the big boys delivered here also, though it's never a given. Trash Can Sinatras are as good as you would expect on Ali Smith's Half an Apple. Breathy exquisite balladry. Norman Blake channels Chris Bell on Girl By John Burnside. Emma Pollock shines on Louise Welsh's Jesus on the Cross. The musical arrangement on this is impressive, excellent piano. Idlewild is also in fine form on Edwin Morgan's Sappho and the Weight of Years, though clearly there is a lot of folk instrumentation here. The song sounds more like an outtake from Roddy Woomble's first solo album. James Yorkston and Alasdair Roberts also perform excellent introspective folk numbers here.



Overall, this is a pretty ambitious project, and I think everything turned out quite superbly. I would hope some day for a Ballads Part II, maybe with writers like James Robertson, Irvine Welsh, or James Kelman. But maybe the success of this undertaking might not be able to be duplicated again. But I certainly appreciate the effort and cooperation it must have taken to get this recording done. Let's hope more projects like this get green lighted.

No Internet! No Cel Phones! No PC'S!--Bloodied But Unbowed---Historical Documentary of Vancouver Punk Scene now on DVD!

Bloodied But Unbowed is a highly entertaining documentary movie by Susanne Tabata, chronicling the Vancouver punk scene of the late 70's /early 80's. And now it's available on DVD!!  For $10.00!!! Go to www.thepunkmovie.com. Excellent product for a cheap price. The collectors 3-DVD version is sold out; they only made 150 of them, unfortunately. I held out and found myself out of luck last month. Luckily I managed to win one on Ebay. The single disc is still worth double what they are asking. If this project is successful, maybe more film makers will be encouraged to make more films like this.



This is a white hot, intelligent, humorous look at a special scene that like a lot of punk scenes, came and went in a short short period. And while things that happened there paralleled the trials and tribulations of other scenes, as in the early days places like Vancouver were islands in a mainstream ocean. Hell, they were an island in their own city! These days all bands are alternative, so this is something a lot of people probably don't understand. That punks had to travel in groups in order to risk getting mauled by complete strangers.
But the Vancouver had its own unique qualities, and that had to do with the unique personalities of the musicians.

A big part of this movie of course is D.O.A. and the Subhumans, excellent bands who are more hardcore punk. But the documentary includes a variety of bands, showing the diversity and experimental nature of the scene. In other words there was a high level of musical tolerance in those days. It wasn't like certain styles were considered verboten then.

One of the biggest problems was finding venues where punk rock was accepted, one of which was the Smiling Buddha, which seemed to be a bit of a dump but nonetheless a haven for the new sounds. Of course one of the problems was that places got wrecked, so there was not going to be a second booking. There is a lot of historic footage in the film, plus loads of contemporary interviews with many of the Vancouver groups and also American musicians of the era who performed in Vancouver and were fans of the music. San Francisco and Vancouver were very much kindred scenes with a lot of similarities. Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra and The Avengers' Penelope Houston have a lot of insight on the subject, as do Southern Californians like Black Flag's Henry Rollins and Circle Jerk's Keith Morris.

In addition to the above mentioned bands, there are interviews with Pointed Sticks, the amazing pop punks, Tim Ray, Jade Blade of the Dishrags. You have interviews with Buck Cherry and Mary Jo Kopechne of the Modernettes. Kopechne speaks with a great deal of candor about her punk experience. On the one hand, getting involved got her into a community, because she was going in a bad direction earlier. On the other hand, some of the things that happened to her in that period are absolutely harrowing. It's no wonder that she is disillusioned about the old days. As tough as it was to a punk rocker in those days, it was triply tough to be a female punker. You also have an interview with Art Bergmann of the K-Tels/Young Canadians, one of the most talented artists of the era, who unfortunately did not find the success his ability merited.

One of the most intelligent, engaging interviewees is Gerry Hannah of the Subhumans. Later on you find out that he was an extreme environmental activist, one of the Squamish Five, who did some pretty serious stuff. They blew up a factory building parts for cruise missiles and also a power plant. He did five years hard time out of a possible 10. Today he still holds strong convictions, but is contrite about how you go about achieving goals. Another one of the cautionary parts of this movie is the destructiveness of hard drug use. A lot of people who could have been in this were not around to do it.



I highly recommend this movie. By viewing this movie, you get a good idea of what things were like in those days. And the interviews are insightful and funny. It puts a face on the great music we listen to today. A lot of the recordings of these bands can be found on Joe Keithley of  D.O.A.'s music label, Sudden Death Records. It's great that classic Canadian punk music like The Modernettes, D.O.A.,K-Tels/Young Canadians, and Pointed Sticks and the landmark Vancouver Complication comp are readily available today. But check out this documentary sooner than later. I think you will really enjoy this. Kudos to Susanne Tabata and all involved in the making this important movie.