Our Boy Roy & Show # 506

In 2010, Telephone Explosion, a record label based out of Toronto, Ontario put out a tribute album to Roy Orbison. Titled Our Boy Roy, this was not your average tribute album, it was a Garage Rock tribute to Mr. Roy Orbison. The album featured many bands from the labels roster such as Teenanger, Holy Cobras, and other popular newer Garage artists such as Ty Segall, Charlie & The Moonhearts, Jacuzzi Boys and six others. For those of you who are not familiar with the label or the above aforementioned bands, they are not only Garage bands, but they also venture into noisy, distorted territory at times pushing high thresholds of volume and Punk Rock attitude.

The first track on this eleven-song album “Problem Child” originally appeared on Roy Orbison’s 1961 album At The Rock House. Camero Werewolf Band covers this track in a gritty, lo-fi take on the Orbison original and starts the album off on an offbeat note. This one track, which at times sounds like a bootleg recording sets the tone of what to expect on the Our Boy Roy compilation. It's going to be dirty, loud and different from what you might expect from a Roy Orbison tribute album. Jacuzzi Boys offer up their take on “You Got It” as the next track. This lush cover is one of the highlights of the album with its clean scratchy guitar in the verses and fuzzy guitar lines at the end of each of the catchy choruses. Montrealer Bloodshot Bill covers the obscure 1958 Orbison song “Cause of It All” in his Garage/Rockabilly style following this.

Throughout each of the eleven tracks found on Our Boy Roy, we travel from distorted, noisy versions of Orbison songs, classics and some obscure. On the noisy, sludgy side we have Haunted George’s version of “Rock House” that has garbled vocals and oozes with a primitive sludge that sounds like a cross between The Phantom, The Sonics and something that has crawled out of a radioactive sewer. There is also the Holy Cobras version of “Domino” almost unrecognizable as a Roy Orbison song here. It sounds musically as if it was recorded with one microphone at the back of a room, while slightly more audible vocals rest on top. Ty Segall tackles “Pretty Woman” adding his trademark fuzz, echo and reverberations to this track with the addition of psychedelic yelps that pop up at various points before leading us in to “You’re My Baby”. This song is done by Toronto’s Garage Punkers Teenanger.  They deliver this track with the original soul and emotion that Roy Orbison first showed us back in 1956, but with a dash of Garage and a pinch of Rockabilly showcasing an edge similar to early music by The Gun Club. Oh and if that isn’t enough this song was originally written by Johnny Cash, but performed by Roy Orbison.

Demon Claws add depth to this album with their jangly Garage/Indie take on “It’s Over”, providing a wonderful rendition of this Orbison ballad deterring us from what we might expect based on their ominous band name. Cheater Sticks perform an aggressive version of “Crying”, while still maintaining the melody and emotion of the original. This version musically sounds like a mixture of early Velvet Underground and a Surf band. Surf licks lay overtop the Garage Rock foundation of this song. Charlie & The Moonhearts, a band featuring Mikal Cronin, who is not only a solo artist, but he also plays frequently with Ty Segall’s live band and has recorded some material with Ty cover “Chicken Hearted”. This track is a bastardized version of the original “Chicken Hearted” and comes off with the feel of something on the Reverse Shark Attack album by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin.

1000 copies of Our Boy Roy were originally pressed in 2010 on vinyl only by Telephone Explosion. It sold out quickly. But the thought of Roy Orbison and Garage Rock is not something completely foreign. Back in 1966, Roy Orbison released the single “Twinkle Toes” for the MGM record label, reportedly in an attempt to sound current at the time. The song features a prominent and ominous fuzz guitar line amongst the rowdy crowd noise filling in the background of this track. On this tribute album, Roy Orbison’s complex and dark ballads take on a new life just as it did on his song “Twinkle Toes” in 1966. The rowdy crowd noise and ominous fuzz guitar is pushed forward from the background into the foreground on this compilation album and it was all inspired by our boy Roy Orbison.

The Play List:

1. The Stand GT - Cool As Me
2. Famines - Faux Famous (Live July 14, 2008)
3. The Ugly - Alley Cat
4. OFF! - Void You Out
5. The Coathangers - Merry Go Round
6. Sabers - Big Fish
7. Natural Child - Rounder
8. Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos (2012 Movie Mix)
10. Big Star - September Gurls (2012 Movie Mix)
11. Roxy Music - Street Life
12. Scattered Bodies - Rain On The Red Tin Roof
13. Particle Wave - Grand Unifier
14. Laughing Clowns - Diabolic Creature
15. Roy Orbison - Twinkle Toes
16. Bloodshot Bill - Cause Of It All (Roy Orbison Cover)
17. Teenanger - You’re My Baby (Roy Orbison Cover)
18. Mystics - So Cold
19. Ty Segall - Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison Cover)
20. Raised By Weeds - Fun And Games
21. Sex Pistols - Whatcha Gonna Do About It
22. Supergrass - Mansize Rooster
23. Ramones - Teenage Lobotomy
24. Radiohead - Bodysnatchers
25. Weirdonia - Don't Move To New York
26. Fergus & Geronimo - Uncanny Vision/Spies
27. Nirvana - Stain

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 29. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Revolution Rock (Revisited) Detroit Garage Rock & Show # 505

This week’s episode was a repeat of a program that first aired in February 2014. The program focused entirely on music from Detroit featuring primarily Garage Rock, but also other genres from Detroit and the surrounding areas. My original post was on The Hentchmen’s Hentch Forth-Five.

Here are some other bands/music featured on the program:

The Gories – You Little Nothing

This now legendary Detroit Garage Rock band featuring Mick Collins (who would later go on to play in The Dirtbombs and numerous other groups) had one of their first recordings featured on the 1987 Detroit compilation album It Came From The Garage Volume II. “You Little Nothing” was one of the first Gories recording to be released. "Give Me Love" another Gories song was also featured on this compilation. "You Little Nothing" would be re-issued with two other recordings on the Bug House Waterbug And Roach Traps EP in 1995 via Get Hip Recordings. There were only ever two It Came From The Garage compilation albums, Volume 1 was released in 1986 and Volume 2, as previously mentioned in 1987. Each of these compilations along with featuring a variety of Detroit bands such as Zombie Surfers and 3D Invisibles, also featured the Windsor bands Prehistoric Cave Strokers and Lost Patrol.



Detroit Garage Play List:

1. Sonic’s Rendezvous Band – City Slang (City Slang Single - 1978)
2. Blue Squares – Stop And Wonder Why (Live At GBS Studio, Detroit - 2011)
3. Two Star Tabernacle – Hotel Yorba (Live at the Gold Dollar - 1998)
4. The Von Bondies – Lack of Communication (Lack Of Communication - 2001)
5. The Fishcats – My Lips Are On Fire (It Came From The Garage II - 1987)
6. John Lee Hooker – Sally Mae (Boogie Chilen' - 1948)
7. Joe Weaver & The Don Juans – Baby, I Love You So (Baby, I Love You So - 1956)
8. Outrageous Cherry – ‘Til I Run Out (Outrageou Cherry - 1994)
9. The Sights – Send Your Loving To Me (Live) (Ghettoblaster Volume 2 - 2002)
10. Hysteric Narcotics – Anna (It Came From The Garage - 1986)
11. The Rationals – Look What You’re Doing (To Me) (Look What You're Doing Single - 1965)
12. The Go – Keep On Trash (Whatcha Doin' - 1999)
13. The Gories – You Little Nothing (It Came From The Garage II - 1987)
14. 3-D Invisibles – I Married A Monster From Outer Space (It Came From The Garage - 1986)
15. Chit Chat – Attitude (Chit Chat EP - 2012)
16. King Sound Quartet - Annihilate This Week (Annihilate This Week Single - 1996)
17. Fake Surfers – Nonsense (Fake Surfers - 2012)
18. Death – Freakin Out (... For The Whole World To See - 2009)
19. Destroy All Monsters – Nobody Knows (What Do I Get? Single - 1979)
20. The Dirtbombs – Cedar Point '76 (White Stripes/Dirtbombs Split Single - 2000)
21. MC5 – Looking At You (Back In The USA - 1970)
22. White Stripes – Little Bird (De Stijl - 2000)
23. Andre Williams – Bobby Jean (Mr. Rhythm Is Movin'!. The Original 1955-1960 Fortune Recordings - 2011)
24. Mary Wells – I’m So Sorry (I Don't Want To Take A Chance Single - 1961)
25. Hentchmen – Late Model Ford (Hentch Forth Five - 2007)
26. The Stooges – Down On The Street (Single Mix) (Fun House Deluxe Edition - 2005)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 22. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Black Lips Underneath The Rainbow & Show # 504

In April 2014, Black Lips released their seventh full-length album. Underneath The Rainbow followed their last album Arabia Mountain, the sixteen track Mick Ronson produced (for the most part) album that showed us Black Lips could have a higher fidelity produced LP and still keep their raunchy Garage “Flower Punk” sleaze. For this release Black Lips recorded with Patrick Carney drummer of The Black Keys and Tommy Brenneck of the Budos Band on a few tracks. The tracks on Underneath The Rainbow have a cleaner production style, but don’t let that fool you as it has for some reviewers, who have written Black Lips off as cleaning up their sound too much. For this release, Black Lips have pulled in some Country Rock and Southern influences in conjunction with the sound they have been known for.

“Drive By Buddy” begins Underneath The Rainbow with its Country/Garage twang and lyrics such as “Well brother what’s the matter/Do you hate the life you chose/Well I hope it doesn’t flatter/When you’re bathing with a hose” and “We’re hanging on a broken T-Bird hood” sung by guitarist Cole Alexander. It starts the album starts off with a sleazy vibe on all fronts setting the tone of the album, and also drawing some comparisons in some reviews to The Monkees’ “Last Train To Clarksville”. “Smiling” is a sloppy Psychedelic Garage track that recollects being thrown in jail, sung by bassist Jared Swilley based on a real life incident that occurred last year, “Make You Mine” is a catchy jangly Garage Pop track that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 2011’s Arabia Mountain, while “Funny” brings 80s styled synthesizers into the Black Lips fuzzy Garage mix. “Dorner Party” is a fizzy Garage Punk track that is sung by drummer Joe Bradley and is followed by “Justice After All”, another fuzzed out song also sung by Bradley.  It is a more laid back Garage styled track, complete with fuzzed out guitar riffs and lyrics such as “What’s your name? Who you after? Where you gonna go?” and “We’ll take you name and get back to ya/Serve it up/Justice after all”, this song seemingly evokes a social commentary that has musically drawn comparisons to music from Neil Young.

Other highlights include “Boys In The Woods” that attacks with its Southern Blues/Soul drawl regaling us in a tale of drinking bathtub gin and causing mischief. “Waiting” echoes production techniques of The Black Keys, while “I Don’t Wanna Go Home” is a Jared Swilley sung track complete with guitar fuzz a la early 60s Rolling Stones. “Dandelion Dust” features a Blues raunchiness and “Dog Years” ends the album with an agitated weirdness, that comes off as natural within its Psych Garage dynamics. Overall, Underneath The Rainbow comes off with a production style not unlike 2007’s Good Bad Not Evil, but with more twang.

There is a brief moment in the music video that was created for the song “Justice After All” that perfectly describes what to expect from Black Lips on this album and more than likely in the future. In the video, we see shots of the band performing live and running down a street. At one point during the solo we see a shot of guitarist Ian Saint Pe playing a solo as another shot of guitarist Cole Alexander slides in and he pukes on the ground. This moment shows the listener and viewer that while they are trying new things, they are still the same band that we have all known. They may have branched out on Underneath The Rainbow, showcasing a slightly different spectrum of sound with Southern twang influences, but they are still the same Black Lips.

The Play List:

1. Outrageous Cherry - Sign Of The Times
2. The Spooky But Nice - Everytime
3. Guided By Voices - Writer’s Bloc (Psycho All The Time)
4. Bagg Team - Twentieth Century Dog Faced Boy
5. Condition - Wet Shoes
6. Beck - Country Down
7. Tire Swing Co - Pelee Island # 2
8. The Men - Different Days
9. Jacuzzi Boys - You Got It (Roy Orbison Cover)
10. The Rich Kids -Young Girls
11. Damaged Bug - Eggs At Night
12. Female Hands - No One Likes Me
13. The Painted Ship - Audience Reflections
14. Vaguess - Company Ink
15. Paul Jacobs - I Want More
16. The Bureaucrats - The Game
17. Lost Patrol - Grown Up Hard
18. The Professionals - Too Far Too Fall
19. The Drones - The Underdog
20. The Damned - I Feel Alright
21. Victim - Strange Thing By Night
22. Black Lips - Drive By Buddy
23. Black Lips - Dorner Party

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 15. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Mac DeMarco Salad Days & Show # 503

Mac DeMarco is a Canadian artist who is known for his strange prankster live antics and lyrical content. Currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, but originally from British Columbia, DeMarco has released an EP (Rock And Roll Night Club) and an album entitled 2. The album 2, showed a change in musical style, but still catered to DeMarco’s style. With his newest release, Salad Days, DeMarco shows a growth in his song writing ability still keeping true to his original style, but gravitating more towards maturity at the same time. A good way to describe Salad Days would be that it is maturely playful with more perspective. DeMarco has mentioned Jonathan Richman and Steely Dan as influences, among others. However, he is commonly lumped into the Indie Rock genre. The first single from Salad Days "Passing Out The Pieces" features lazy melodies and synthesizers sounding as if they were slowed down on purpose, but originally recorded at a faster speed. Salad Days was released on April 1st, 2014 on the Captured Tracks label.



This Week's Play List:

1. Pow Wows - You Haven’t Got Me (Live)
2. Fruit Tones - Will My Life Live Without Me
3. 13th Floor Elevators - Thru The Rhythm
4. Jim O'Rourke - Therefore I Am
5. Could Nothings - No Thoughts
6. PJ Harvey - The Letter
7. Jale - 3 Days
8. Jellyfishbabies - Never Really Knew
9. Death - Keep On Knocking
10. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Dang
11. Holy Cobra - Feed Yr Head
12. The Dishrags - Love/Hate
13. Teenanger - Off The Beaten Path
14. Dick Dale - Eight ‘Till Midnight
15. The Bell Peppers - Whiskey And Cigarette Blues
16. The Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
17. Parquet Courts - Stoned And Starving
18. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
19. Mac DeMarco - Let Her Go
20. The Saints - Untitled
21. The Hives - Insane
22. The Gun Club - Sex Beat

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 8. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Repo Man Soundtrack Revisited & Show # 502

In 1984, Alex Cox released his cult classic film Repo Man, a film that he wrote and directed that took the seedy underworld of a repo man and wrapped it around Punk Rock music and Science Fiction. The film stars a young Emilio Estevez who portrays a visceral performance alongside Harry Dean Stanton who is his mentor throughout the film. Along with the film’s strong memorable characters, there were quotable lines such as: “The life of a repo man is always intense.” “Put it on a plate, son. You’ll enjoy it more.” “The more you drive, the less intelligent you are” and “Look at those assholes, ordinary people. I hate’em.” Repo Man also has a very interesting soundtrack.

The Repo Man soundtrack documents the LA Punk scene at the time, featuring music from The Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, Fear, The Plugz and others. The Circle Jerks have two tracks featured on the soundtrack “Coup d’Etat” from their 1983 album Golden Shower Of Hits and a lounge/acoustic version of “When The Shit Hits The Fan” also from the same album originally. In the film, the band also makes an appearance as a lounge act performing the soundtrack version of “When The Shit Hits The Fan”. The Plugz also provide quite a few tracks to not only the soundtrack, but also in the film. The band puts their Punk noir spin on Surf Rock covering “Secret Agent Man” and the songs “Reel Ten” and “El Clavo Y La Cruz”. “Reel Ten” significantly creeps in and out of the film, especially in the films ending sequence. It should be noted that along with being a part of the soundtrack, Tito Larriva and Steven Hufsteter of The Plugz created the film score for Repo Man. Along with these tracks there is also the films “Repo Man” theme that drifts in and out of the film like the demented character Dr. J Frank Parnell in his radioactive 1964 Chevy Malibu. The film’s main theme was written and performed by Iggy Pop. When the films director Alex Cox approached Pop, he advised him to do what he felt like for the film’s soundtrack. The result was a song influenced by Davie Allan & The Arrows as Pop mentions on the Criterion edition of the film.

The recording sessions for the theme by Pop, were tracked and done quickly. On the website repomanfilm.com, assistant engineer Chas Ferry discusses the session which took two days to record. The other musicians involved in the recording of the “Repo Man” song were Clem Burke on drums and Nigel Harrison both of which made up the rhythm section of Blondie and Steve Jones on guitar from Sex Pistols. With Pop as director the collection of musicians quickly came up with the parts necessary for the song and laid the track down in two takes. Chas conveyed his excitement:

“We began setting up with the engineer, Bev Jones, and the musicians started to arrive. Clem Burke from Blondie arrived to Play Drums. Then Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols and Nigel Harrison of Blondie arrived. I couldn't believe I was going to be involved in this. Iggy arrived. He came up to me and said, "Hi I'm Jim, nice to meet you". Then he started talking with the band. “

The vocals were recorded the next day due to a drug related misstep. The vocals were recorded in a similar fashion to how they were done on Iggy Pop’s Lust For Life album, which was run through a Fender Champ amplifier and Space Echo. Chas elaborated a bit more on this for his piece once again on repomanfilm.com:

“I knew about the Lust for Life setup and had it ready in the booth. Iggy was totally excited about that and ready for lots of distortion on his voice. Bev Jones arrived and Iggy excitedly told him about the setup. I realized by the look on Bev’s face that I'd just totally screwed up and put him in a very bad position. Now Bev was stuck with Iggy wanting to record his voice through an old Fender Champ and a Space Echo. Bev knew this was probably going to sound like shit, but if he didn't agree to it he might offend Iggy. Bev, being a very cool character, calmly suggested that we put up a good Neumann for Iggy, move the Champ to the bathroom and route the vocal back to the Space Echo/Champ through an aux send. Iggy consulted with Sachi (his wife at the time), and she agreed that it was probably a good idea.”

In 2012, a tribute version of the soundtrack was recorded featuring new artists. While the original 1984 version is long out of print, the soundtrack, along with the film has grown in status since its original release. The film leads fans to the soundtrack and vice versa. Repo Man the film stands as both a document of the LA Punk scene in the 80s, but also a story that is both bizarre, funny, was unconventional and defied classification. The film also pays tribute to the film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly. Its radiating glow was different showing a sense of detachment from mainstream culture and the films soundtrack took us for a ride along the way.



The Play List:

1. The False Poets - A Girl I Know
2. Your 33 Black Angels - Patient Love
3. Dum Dum Girls - Under These Hands
4. Old And Weird - Lamps
5. Os Tartaros - Tartaria
6. The Plugz - Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man)
7. The Circle Jerks - When The Shit Hits The Fan
8. The Folk - In Silence
9. The Mods - Coming In And Out Of The Rain
10. The Young Canadians - Don’t Bother Me
11. Teenage Head - Some Kinda Fun
12. BA Johnston & The Moby Dicks - McDonald's Coupon Day
13. Korean Gut - Your Misery, Our Benefit
14. Topless Mongos - Hey My My
15. The Ketamines - You Can't Serve Two Masters
16. Frustrations - Damaged Goods Make History
17. Silicone Injection - At War With Peace
18. Radio Birdman - Do The Pop
19. Generation X - 100 Punks
20. The Libertines - The Good Old Days
21. The Modern Lovers - Old World
22. The Teardrops - Teardrops And Heartaches
23. Iggy Pop - Repo Man Theme
24. The D4 - Mysterex
25. The Rolling Stones - Factory Girl

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 1. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.