Punk Pop Teen Idol Throwdown!!!--Travoltas vs Bonaduces

This is post is to a humungous degree an imaginary indulgent exercise, existing only within my own overactive imagination. But what the hell....

I recall a friend of mine who spent some time in Siena, Italy, who witnessed a yearly Medieval-themed tournament, where different sections of the City competed for glory, each district bearing their own distinct banner.

Well here we are in the semi-modern, post-fab punk-rock world (No Borgia's!, No Savonarola's), and the real purpose of this post is to extol two lesser known punk-pop groups who deserve more recognition. But the banners that these worthies fly are 70's American TV icons, the people we venerate today, the precursors of today's reality divas. One band is from the European Union, more precisely, the Netherlands, the other from the Heartland of our neighbor to the North, Canada, more precisely Winnipeg.

Travoltas vs Bonaduces.

Will  Proud Canada win a shootout in overtime? Or will they pass the Dutchie? Will resolute Dutch Courage triumph, or am I merely tilting at windmills? There is no clear cut favorite here. And no burning of flags or banners here either.

Travoltas:

 

 

 

 



 



 

 The Travoltas are a Punk-Pop band from Tilburg, Netherlands. As has been stated and cut and pasted many times over, they combine the 60's Pop stylings of the Beach Boys with the hard and fast Ramones sound. Other comparisons can be made to Weezer, and to Vancouver's Zumpano, at least as to the vocals and harmonies in spots. I must say that Teenbeat (which was released in 2000) sounds fantastic! They do what they do as good as any of the better known American acts who garnered serious cash. Radio ready punk-pop. If you heard this on someone's playlist, you'd probably ask "who the hell are these guys"? There is a timeless quality to their music.

 

 

 

 

Perry: Lead vocals

Vincent: Guitar, Synths

Eric: Bass and backing vocals

JD: Guitar and backing vocals

Wooter: Drums

 

Bonaduces:

 

 

The Bonaduces are a Punk-Pop band from Winnipeg, Canada. The Democracy of Sleep is a remarkable album also. Their music possesses some of the attributes found in the Travoltas, but either by osmosis or design there is a lot of heartland Minnesota punk influences, like the Replacements, Huskers, early era Soul Asylum or even Montreal's shoulda been contenders The Nils. Yeah, and maybe some Buzzcocks thrown in. They sound a tad scruffier than their Dutch counterparts, but in terms of lyrical poetry and musical inventiveness they really stand out. They are more of heart on sleeve, emoesque group--the songs seem really personal. The tunes by The Travoltas are great but I have to say that I'm not all that concerned with what they are singing about. The Bonaduces sound is itchier, intense, with a lot more originality.

 

Doug McLean: vocals, guitar

Michael Koop: Guitar, background vocals

Bob Somers: bass and background vocals

Chris Hiebert: drums

 

 

Yeah, I know this post is silly, but its just another way to talk about two albums I like very much.
If you've seen this blogpost before, you know that I like to write about what I think is the good stuff. And it's a win-win situation with these two groups. I say that if there has to be a winner, its the Bonaduces, because the album is more of a unique animal, idiosyncratic. Teenbeat by the Travoltas on the other hand may actually be a perfect Pop-Punk album. The sound, the songs, are superb, almost flawless. But they don't have the rough edges, the personal touch that would single themselves out. A great pop album that doesn't sound that dissimilar from a lot of other groups.

But you know what, that's merely my personal taste, and I would not be surprised if a lot of people disagreed with me. If you are a power pop fanatic, the sort of person who thinks that the Posies sold out after their early albums, you would definitely prefer Travoltas. As for me, I'm probably going to be getting more music by both bands. It's a long shot, but I'm going to try to get a physical copy of The Bonaduces K is for Catherine which won't require me to take out a mortgage. And find out what these guys have been doing for the last 10 years. They are a pretty amazing group. I have to believe this is one of the great 90's alternative albums that most people haven't heard.

I probably would have never found out about them except for a terrific blog spot, Music Ruined My Life. I've found out about some great Canadian bands from that site--one of the best music blogs out there. I do think that America is still snobbish about Canada and its culture. I think a lot of American don't believe it exists, you know Canadian culture. I recently read a book of essays (actually more like speeches) by the great Canadian writer, Robertson Davies, where he refers to some writer who referred to Canada as "America's attic". Wow! How subconsciously offensive is that!

These days music fans all know about Arcade Fire, Metric, New Pornographers, perhaps Sloan. When I was a kid, I think we were all strangely shocked when we discovered that Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, The Band, Guess Who, BTO, were Canadian. But I think for years a lot of Americans have missed out on some excellent music being made due North. These days we seem to finally be breaching a cultural wall, one that has resisted globalization. I listen to the Bonaduces and I feel deprived, in a similar way as when I heard the Nils and Pointed Sticks for the first time, long after the bands broke up. I feel I still have a lot of catching up to do. I've just read two commendable books about Canadian music history, recently published, that I'll hopefully chat about soon.

And there is a similar feeling toward European bands--unless its American or English, how good could it be? The real answer is very, very good!

But you discover if you dig enough, great bands in Scandanavia and Germany. And of course, the Dutch have Travoltas, Johan, The Nits, The Ex, Bettie Serveert, The Serenes, to name a few. Even France has great bands, despite the stupid caricatures. Bands like the Dogs, and Les Thugs, and even Plastic Bertrand made some fun music. And if you can overcome people singing in other than your own language, well the whole world is your musical oyster. Zimababwe, Brazil, Russia, Phillipines, Japan. Just when I think I've heard it all, I get blown away once more, unexpectedly.

Like a Version--Whipping Boy---Caroline Says

Thought I would post this little version of a Velvet Underground classic,

by the recently resurrected Irish band Whipping Boy. Nothing new, just a B-side from an old single, but I was listing to this the other day and thought it was worth posting.

I've heard that Whipping Boy began as a Velvets cover group, and it does not entirely surprise me.

Mutton Birds--The Brown Paper Bag series available again!!!

Well, here we are once again in a New Year.

I guess I've been a little overwhelmed lately but I'm glad to get back to my other job, jibber-jabbering about music, and whatever else crawls into my consciousness.

I went on the fab web site for New Zealand's Mutton Birds, A Religion of  a Kind and found to my surprise that the self-released CDs that were sold on their defunct web site store are now available again.

The discs are Too Hard Basket, a collection of B-sides, unreleased and alternate tracks, Angle of Entry a live acoustic set, and Live in Manchester, a live electric set. If you go to the website there is a link to Discogs where they are being sold.

I had the first 2 discs, which I purchased directly from the Mutton Birds website.

Too Hard Basket, as I said, is an odds and sods compilation--completists will want it most definitely. Some of the material I could do without, but there is a lot of  great stuff. Notably, their version of Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper, which appeared in Peter Jackson's movie The Frighteners. Less cowbell, but a lot more of Don McGlashan's harmonium. But there is a lot more. Inbetween Man is a great number--for a split second you might think you were listening to a Martin Phillips/Chills tune. There is the simmering Zombieish He Turned Around (with Time of Season "ahs") and the torchy country rockin' Ballad of Kelvin. Three minutes is essentially a perfect 60's pop tune with great harmonies. Hard to believe it didn't make any of their albums. Ash Wednesday is another brilliant song, maybe the best song on the record, a song that had not been released before. So Long is also a great, more uptempo number. Face in the Paper and Answerphone are also very good. So basically I am saying the good songs greatly outweigh the so-so tunes. So all in all a worthy addition to the Mutton Birds canon.

Angle of Entry is a corker, Live at the 12 Bar Club in London. An acoustic set circa the release of Envy of Angels, probably the first album for the uninitiated listener to pick up. Great, great album. So, while there is a lot of Envy of Angels represented on the set list, there are also the old classics for the Kiwi expatriates in the audience to sing along to, like White Valiant, Dominion Road, and the great nostalgic I wish I was in "Wellington". I think even with the old songs, you have a road tested band playing an intimate setting. The there is a warmth and ease to the set that shines a different light on the earlier numbers. Really great disc--I've played it to death over the years.

Live in Manchester was a tough one for me to get. I procrastinated and procrastinated, and during this period the band stopped being a band, and Mutton Birds store became a historical, inactive shop. I had trouble finding the disc for sale anywhere, much less actually being able to buy it. This past year I got lucky and won an Ebay auction. Live in Manchester is an electric set, recorded around the time of their also highly recommended Rain, Speed and Steam album. Very glad I was able to get this, and this particular disc was autographed by 3 band members. Another great set. It includes classics like Winning Numbers, which is one of my favorite song of theirs, Pulled Along By Love, and Small Mercies. It also includes tracks from their first two albums and Envy of Angels.

I have no idea whether they whipped up a new batch of discs, or they were stock that has been sitting around for years. If you are an interested party, I wouldn't wait around on these.





It came to my attention that the Mutton Birds reunited last year and did some touring. For those of us who didn't make the shows, the band released a live album Free Range, commemorating the tour,which is readily available. I would definitely recommend A Religion of A Kind, the aforementioned fan site, which has loads of live mp3's and info about the band. I remember actually pinching myself when I got to see Don McGlashan briefly perform in Brooklyn a few years back at Big Takeover Magazine's 30th anniversary show. Seeing him sing Anchor Me left an indelible imprint on me. Who knows? Maybe the Mutton Birds might someday come tour in the US and Canada. It would definitely make me pretty happy.

How to make a Sonic Kiwi Salad--Soundtrack: 118 New Zealand Albums by Grant Smithies

I was lucky enough to grab a copy of Grant Smithies' engaging book on New Zealand music. Turns out, the Flying Nun Records website had some for sale.

Basically its a list of 118 interesting and sometimes great albums by New Zealand musicians, covering a variety of genres, and covering the 1960's up to the late 2000's. Overall, most of the albums are from the 1980's forward. No doubt anyone who reads the book and follows the Kiwi music scene will have disagreements as to inclusions and omissions in the book. I would have preferred a book listing 218 albums. Overall, I think that he did a pretty fine job. If nothing else the book is gorgeous, with plenty of photos and album covers.

A labor of love.

I consider myself a bit of a enthusiast of music from New Zealand, but this book brought to light a lot of music I've never heard of, never listened to. So in one way, I got my ego deflated a bit (not the worst thing), but in another way the book got me excited about new artists and even new musical worlds I haven't ventured into yet.! I do the best I can considering I live on the complete opposite ends of the earth from New Zealand. I don't gush over every release that comes out from there. But I also find it pretty pretentious that artists doing terrific things don't get their due, and to a large extent because of their provenance. The reason for inclusion of artists, beyond being from New Zealand, is that they created something terrific, or at the very least very interesting or creative.

Smithies is a critic so the book is not a puff piece. And the author wisely includes contributions from numerous sources. There are pieces in the book by actors, musicians, jouralists, designers, poets, music industry executives, musicologists, describing albums that mean a lot to them. There are numerous anecdotes about bands, about seeing the groups perform in clubs.

There are some great pieces here on The Gordons, one of the loudest bands to ever walk the earth.
There are pieces on groups I am anxious to get albums of, like Fat Freddy's Drop, and Feelstyle. I just picked up a record by SJD who apparently is one of the most talented electronic artists in New Zealand. There is a lot on Shane Carter, Chris Knox, The 3D's, and other Flying Nun groups. There is a even a small section on Maori show bands and 60's garage groups, which was terribly interesting to me.




In the preface to the book, Smithies states that didn't really feel the need to include better known, popular artists, like Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, Crowded House, Mutton Birds. And I can understand this because this book was no doubt intended for home consumption (and a few musical freaks like myself). The reality is that there probably is no great international market for a book like this, which is too bad. But another reality is that while bands like the Mutton Birds might be a little better known today, surprisingly, they have never had any of their studio albums, much less a greatest hits compilation released in the U.S. As he says in his preface, he made some difficult choices when he was creating this book. But when you think about it, even taking the New Zealand market having some of these popular groups included in the book might have been a trojan horse of sorts. Somebody might pick the book up for Dave Dobbyn and wind up being turned on to Tama Waipara, Edmund Cake, Upper Hutt Posse, Humphreys and Keene, HDU or Coco Solid. Its no wonder why magazines like Mojo seem to have The Beatles and the Stones on their covers seemingly every other month--it's not usually because the bands are extra busy.




But for my own selfish purposes, I'm glad that he didn't do the complete kitchen sink approach when he put this collection together. There is a certain coherent musical integrity here rather playing musical politics. It really is a collection of people who love music sharing their favorite albums and memories with the world. Warm, funny, intelligent, enlightening. I really enjoyed this book a lot--I think Smithies has made a great musical contribution here. So if you love music I strongly recommend that you pick this book up. It was being sold at an affordable price on the Flying Nun Label. Shipping a book across so many time zones is usually a pretty expensive proposition. There is such a variety of music here that I can almost guarantee you will soon discover a few great new bands you might never have heard of otherwise.

Merry Christmas!! Mark Lanegan Sings!

Merry Christmas! From Mark Lanegan's European Tour-only Cd, Dark Mark Does Christmas.


Simply beautiful. Like coal polished to a diamond.

A Final Christmas Memento from the Pointed Sticks!

Word on the street is that Vancouver's reunited Pointed Sticks may have played their final gig, and they are ready to call it quits. Today, one of my favorite bands, I was blissfully unaware of their existence in their original 80's days. Sometimes its so crazy--it's as though there was some invisible cultural border fence separating America from all these fantastic Canadian bands. I'm discovering great Canadian bands, new and old, and I'm completely shocked by my ignorance.

Well thanks to the good folks at Sudden Death Records, the Sticks' early output is mostly covered by their reissuing of  Perfect Youth their lone studio album, and the indispensable compilation, Waiting for the Real Thing. Out of Luck is one of my all time favorite songs. What was once rare music is now readily available. I recently bought a copy of the Pointed Sticks comp released by Zulu Records, but I lucked out--that one seems a little pricey these days. Their 2nd album, Three Lefts Make a Right is another worthy collection of music, that I recommend highly.

But since it's Christmas I wanted to share with you something I stumbled on accidentally. The Pointed Sticks posted complimentary MP3's of two Christmas tunes a few years ago. Well, they pressed a  nifty 7" single with the two holiday songs that they were selling at their final shows.

Well it turns out that they did not sell them all. If you are a Pointed Stick fanatic or maybe just plain Christmas crazy, you can get a copy without hiring a sled team and heading due north.

La-Ti-Da records (latidarecords.com) has a number of said Christmas single, with the songs Power Pop Santa & Xmas Time Again. Both exemplary Christmas songs, with a festive Christmas package cover and green vinyl. Very cool. They have some other cool things for sale, like a 7" single by the Tranzmitors.


Though possibly gone but probably not to be forgotten, The Pointed are also rumored to be releasing a third studio album in the near future, entitle Missed The Bus. I'm hoping that they ultimately decide to be like the Clean, and reassemble once in a blue moon, record a bit, do a few gigs, and go back to civilian life. If they call it quits entirely, there will probably be a national day of mourning in Japan!
In any event, if you don't know their music, I urge you to check them out--Waiting For the Real Thing belongs right next to your well-worn copy of Singles Going Steady.

Saturday Night is Not Quite Dead Yet!! Graham Parker and The Rumour's Return

Last night in Tarrytown, Graham Parker and the Rumour, reunited after 30 or so years, opened their new tour, debuting live the material from their new album Three Chords Good, plus a big beautiful pile of old classics. With no aspersions cast on his recent backing band, Saratoga's 2nd finest, The Figgs, seeing him with the Rumour was a revelation. Do yourself a favor and see them perform if you can. I really enjoyed watching these old hands in action.

Boys are back in Town---Tarrytown!

Well despite the title of this blog post, they did not perform Saturday Night is Dead, my lone regret. There were regrets around me that he did not perform "I Want You Back", the Jackson 5 nugget. As much as I love his take on it, with the number of fantastic songs he's penned, it would have felt to me like a novelty song, in all honesty.

Though small in stature, Graham Parker has a huge voice and charisma--he seemed to get bigger and bigger, growing to behemoth size as the night progressed. The band was tight as could be expected after all this time, though collaborating on a new album surely must have helped their timing. Excluding Graham, there were at least three original Rumours, Stephen Goulding on drums, Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont on guitars.

No warmup band. Little disappointed because I'm often surprised about warmups. At Tarrytown I've seen Tift Merritt, John Wesley Harding, Duke Robillard, Cash Brothers, The Acorn, Chris Smither...

Oh, yeah, and Graham Parker.

I saw him in a warmup capacity in Tarrytown, performing solo, supporting his recent album Imaginary Television. Seemed like a real gent, very funny. It was the first time I've seen him live.





He is an artist I've always identified with greatly, loved his songwriting, and emotional soulful singing. And as a young man, all the anger. Seeing him live many years later, I choose not to see him as the artist "formerly known as an Angry Young Man", but rather a mature adult man who merely makes more efficient use of  his anger. I'm sure he is aware of the perils of climate change.



Yeah,I couldn't have been happier to see Graham and Co, short of hopping in a time machine back to 1980, which technology we haven't quite worked out yet. I guess what is amazing is that it was the entire Rumour backing him. As I said before Graham was in fine voice, and I was surprised that he played a few songs that occurred between the bookends of the era of the Rumour, and a few from prior which was less surprising. And seeing them live finally, I have to say, Stephen Goulding is a remarkable drummer, incredibly fluid, setting beats in interesting ways. With Andrew Bodnar, a great rhythm section. Martin Belmont was particularly excited to be back, jumping up and down with enthusiasm, which I thought was great. Brinsley Schwarz was also superb,laying down riffs and leads like a consummate pro. Bob Andrews was particulary impressive on keyboards....wish I could play like that.

Though I have not purchase the new album, Three Chords Good, which was released a little over a week ago, what I heard last night impressed me. Maybe not quite on the level of his best work, but there is little to no discernible drop in quality. People were not walking out to use the bathroom or make a phone call during the songs. Probably more like the music prior to Squeezing Out Sparks.
Overall they mixed it up pretty well, promoting the new one plus paying homage to the older material. He started his set with Fool's Gold, saving most of the Squeezing out Sparks material for the second half and the two encores. He played Protection, Passion is no Ordinary Word, Discovering Japan, You Can't Be Too Strong, Local Girls from SOS. Also Don't Ask Me Question, Soul Shoes, from Howling Wind, and Start a Fire from Mona Lisa's Sister. Rumor has it, the band is featured in the new Judd Apatow comedy This is 40. So this is a big year for Graham Parker. I have to say it was a real blast to see Graham Parker and the Rumour live. Don't pass up the opportunity to see them--You Won't Regret It!!!!