2009 Holiday Special....Show #279

Today's program featured all Christmas/Holiday based songs. Several of the songs were from newer bands, but many were older classic songs from the 60's Garage and 70's Punk era.

In 1966, on the Northwest coast three Garage Rock bands put together a Christmas album Titled Merry Christmas. This album was made up of almost all original compositions and the songs on the album are not your traditional holiday songs.  It featured three bands, The Sonics, The Wailers, and The Galaxies. On this album you will find three songs by The Sonics ("Santa Claus", "The Village Idiot", and "Don't Believe in Christmas"), three songs from The Wailers ("She's Comin' Home", "Christmas Spirit", "Maybe This Year"), and four songs from The Galaxies ("Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "Please Come Home For Christmas", "Christmas Eve", "The Christmas Song"). Originally released on The Wailers Etiquette label, this album was re-issued on CD in 1991, but is often overlooked. It is a great Christmas album in true Garage Rock fashion, that now is very hard to find because it is no longer in print. On today's program I played a song by The Sonics from this album. I also played two other bands covering "Santa Claus" (The Gruesomes, and The D4), which is a song that is also on this album.  

Christmas Play List:

1. The Features - Christmas Wish Book
2. Pointed Sticks -X-Mas Time Again 
3. The Swimmers - The Christmas Sound
4. Duotang - Old Man Davie's Christmas Kingdom
5. Snow Globe-ins - Christmas Dog
6. Evaporators - Who Are You?
7. Atomic 7 - Senor Santa El Es El Monstruo
8. Johnny Cash - I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day
9. The Bicycles - Snow 
10. The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song
11. Los Straitjackets - Jingle Bell Rock
12. The Greedies - A Merry Jingle
13. The D4 - Santa Claus
14. The Yobs - Silent Night (Single Version)
15. Stiff Little Fingers - White Christmas 
16. The Kinks - Father Christmas
17. The Sonics - Don't Believe in Christmas
18. Joey Ramone - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 
19. The Pogues - Fairytale of New York 
20. Julian Casablancas - I Wish It Was Christmas Today
21. The Gruesomes - Santa Claus
22. Pearl Jam - Santa God 
23. The Flaming Lips - Christmas At the Zoo
24. REM - Christmas Griping
25. REM - Parade of the Wooden Solider (Alt.Version)

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

Here Are The Sonics...The Sonics Story and Show # 193

The Sonics had their beginnings in the early 1960s and were from Tacoma, Washington. The band known for its raw driving garage fueled sound first got its initial start as part of other local bands. After going through some line up changes the classic line-up of The Sonics formed around 1963/64. The classic line up was Gerry Rosalie (Lead vocals), Larry Parypa (Lead Guitar/vocals), Andy Parypa (Bass), Bob Bennett (Drums), and Rob Lind on Saxophone. The bands sound can be described as R & B influenced, but also they took some of their influence from bands such as The Kingsmen, The Kinks, and The Wailers. Gerry Rosalie's vocal style has often been described as a white Little Richard. The band was quite influential on any band in the Seattle area, they were known for their energetic live shows. In 1964 the band released their first single which was the song titled "The Witch". The single was very popular with the local fan base and was one of the biggest selling singles in the Northwest; The song contained controversial lyrical subject matter (as are a majority of their original songs). The song was also considered quite strange by others compared to what was coming out musically at the time.

In 1965, The Sonics started recording their first album with recording engineer Kenny Barton. It would be titled Here Are The Sonics. Recorded in Seattle, Washington the album is known for employing different recording techniques which resulted in the bands unique sound. For the drums the band used only one microphone to capture their sound (usually when recording drum sounds bands use at least three or more mics). The actual album contains many of the bands well known songs which lyrically were very different with subject matter ranging from drinking strychnine in ("Strychnine"), to witches ("The Witch"), and psychopaths ("Psycho"). This was contrasted with more light-hearted subject matter dealing with 60s culture such as girls, surfing, cars, and guitars. The album also contains some cover songs by Chuck Berry and Little Richard as well as other originals that are equally as great such as "Boss Hoss".

The next album would be titled Boom and would come out in 1966. For this album the band reportedly ripped out the sound proofing of the studio they were recording in to give it more of a live sound. Many Sonics fans choose Boom as their favourite album, but the first and second albums are both very good. This time the band came in with more unique original songs such as "He's Waitin'", "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", and "The Hustler". The album was also balanced out with some covers of R&B classics such as "Louie, Louie", "Hitch Hike", Skinny Minnie", and "Let the Good Times Roll". After this album the band would go to another label (Jerden Records) and go to Hollywood to record yet another album, this time with a more polished, cleaner sound.

Introducing The Sonics came out in 1967, and did poorly. Because of its more conventional sound, it did not do as well; The band would later denounce this album calling it "The Worst Garbage'. After this the band was essentially over and in 1968, the band dissolved. Members of the band would go on to other bands or to school to lead more conventional lives. The Sonics would briefly fade into obscurity. The band reformed in 1972 for one live show and in 2007 the band reunited for the Cavestomp Garage rock festival. The Sonics are currently still together and in 2008, recorded a radio session for BBC 2. The Sonics have been influential on numerous bands, being known as unique garage rockers. The band has influenced the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Eagles of Death Metal, The Dead Boys, The Fall, The D4 and others. They are known for their raunchy, raw, garage rock, punk influencing sound.

The Play List:

1. Buzzcocks - No Reply
2. Sex Pistols - New York
3. Teenage Head - Picture My Face (With Marky Ramone)
4. Gruesomes - You Said Yeah
5. Munks - Long Time Waiting
6. Haunted - Eight O'Clock
7. Painted Ships - And She Said
8. Hammersmith Gorillas - My Son's Alive
9. Standells - Riot on the Sunset Strip
10. Pretty Things - Buzz the Jerk
11. Sonics - Strychnine
12. 13th Floor Elevators - Reverberation
13. Velvet Underground - What Goes On
14. MC5 - Looking At You
15. Modern Lovers - Modern World
16. Stooges - Shake Appeal
17. Generation X - Night of the Cadillacs
18. The Saints - Nights in Venice
19. Ride Theory - Alright
20. Young Rival - Authentic Child
21. Tokyo Police Club - In A Cave
22. Young Knives - Up All Night
23. Only Ones - City of Fun
24. The D4 - Omerta
25. The D4 - Trust Nobody
25. Dirty Pretty Things - You Fucking Love it

Surfin' in the Garage...Show # 135

This week I did an entirely different show, one that was all surf rock and garage rock instead of good old punk rock. Why? for some variety, also because I've been collecting and listening to surf rock and garage rock for quite some time. I had so much of it I figured I'd play some it on CJAM for some variety. I'd also like to point out that this show was just a mix of bands I thought sounded surfish or garageish. I played The Who and The Kinks. These guys are kind of garagey at times, they influenced early punk in my opinion. Sex Pistols loved The Who and they used to cover "Substitute" in concert. The Clash also loved both these bands. They opened for The Who in the 80's and have stated that they practiced Kinks songs when first starting out. In fact the song "Dead End Street" eerily sounds like The Clash's "London Calling". 

I will talk briefly of two bands this week one surf and one garage. First the surf band, The Ventures. The Ventures formed in 1959 in Tacoma, Washington. They were a popular instrumental band. They would have many hits and charted singles/albums, but their larger fan base would be in Japan. Originally stemming from the group The Impacts, Bob Wilson and Don Wilson formed a group. After getting a bass player Nokie Edwards and a drummer Howie Johnston The Ventures were in place. The band would cover many different types of music for example, garage rock, psychedelic, and of course surf (which is what they started out doing). The band would also do TV Themes, one of the most notable being the theme song for the TV show Hawaii Five-O; it would reach #4 on the charts in 1969. After this around the early 70s, the band would focus more on the Japan music market. The band would continue to play, members came and went and played through out the 80's and even in 1996.

Now for the garage band. The Sonics are a band from Tacoma Washington as well. The band was a unique and raw sounding band. They are defined as garage rock, but they are just a early rock and roll group. The band was Gerry Rosalie (vocals, piano/organ),Bob Bennett (drums), Andy Parypa (guitar), Larry Parypa (Bass) originally. The band was influenced by bands such as The Kinks and early blues from the 50s. The bands recordings are rough, raw and gritty. They were a big local attraction and influenced many bands, but never made it out of the Washington area. The band would not last long at all, they would break up in the late 60s (they formed in the mid-60s). Many bands have been influenced by them today too.  Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder is a Sonics fan, also the Pointed Sticks a Canadian band played on my show have covered "The Witch" which The Sonics have done.

A variety of bands were played this week from obscure Canadian bands like The Ugly Ducklings to Atomic 7, to more familiar bands such as The Beach Boys and The Who. Most of the bands that were played this week and are classified as garage rock, were influential or were a prelude to what was going to become punk rock in the late 70s. The Who definitely had a larger impact on early punk, The Count Five were also influential on Sex Pistols. Next Week I will return to my original format of punk and punk inspired rock, it will be loud, angry, and awesome so tune in next week to CJAM 91.5 FM Wednesday at 9pm (or stream it at www.cjam.ca).

Here's what was played:

1. Dick Dale & His Deltones – miserlou
2. The Chantays – pipeline
3. The Challengers – one man flight
4. The Charms – so romantic
5. The Vipers – cheated and lied
6. Ugly Ducklings – nothin’
7. Great Scots – ball and chain
8. Jury – who dat
9. Atomic 7 – she’s got haggar party slacks
10. Atomic 7 – seven stranded castanets
11. Surf Trio – crash
12. The Torpedoes – torpedoes
13. Aqua Velvets – subterranean
14. Secrets – cryin’ over her
15. One Way Street – I see the light
16. The Stems – she’s a monster
17. Dick Dale & His Deltones – surf beat
18. The Ventures – dick tracy
19. The Ventures – Hawaii five-o
20. The Trashmen – surfin’ bird
21. The Missing Links – some kind of fun
22. The Kinks – till the end of the day
23. The Who – Out in the Street
24. The Fun Things – lipstick
25. The Tornadoes – bustin’ surfboards
26. The Sonics – it’s all right
27. Thundermug – Africa
28. Metalunas – blast off!
29. Phono Comb – pummeled
30. The Count Five – pretty big mouth
31. The Beach Boys –surfin’ safari
32. The Beach Boys – shutdown