The Weirdos We Got The Neutron Bomb Single & Show # 511

Released in 1978, the We Got The Neutron Bomb/Solitary Confinement single was the second single released by The Weirdos. Part of LA’s first wave of punk bands alongside bands such as The Germs and The Nerves, The Weirdos were started by lead vocalist John Denney and his brother Dix Denney who would play guitar. The rest of the band members would be in a state of flux from the band’s initial 1977-1981 run. Some of the band’s other personnel would be Dave Trout who would also play bass briefly and drummer Nickey Alexander on drums. Cliff Roman also played guitar and bass and wrote some material with the band. "We Got The Neutron Bomb" is often seen as a strong and classic single in the band’s catalog. The track itself seems to lend itself to proto punk influence such as Iggy & The Stooges, New York Dolls and Ramones while lyrically it taps into Cold War paranoia with lyrics such as “We don’t want it/Don’t blame me” and “We don’t want it/But we got it anyway” showcasing the band’s political leanings at the time. The B-side “Solitary Confinement” is a more aggressive rant. When hearing this song, one seems to think of the band’s preshow ritual, which was to cover themselves in paint and sometimes garbage.

While the band never did release a full-length album during their initial run as a band from 1977-1981, they did record a collection of demos, some with Kim Fowley. To further add to the band’s “weird” reputation, vocalist John Denney apparently delivered the band’s demos to their record label dressed in an astronaut suit, the label did not find it so humorous. After the band’s initial split in 1981, they did reform for several reunions throughout the 80s and even released a full-length album of new material in 1990 entitled Condor. A collection of the band’s early material and demos was put together on the Weird World: 1977-1981 Time Capsule compilation album and was originally released in 1991 on the Frontier record label. A second volume featuring early 1977 material and later post 1981 material was released in 2003. Both of these compilations were re-issued via Burger Records on cassette recently. Thirty-seven years after its initial release, fans can still feel the effects of The Weirdos music and second single, We Got The Neutron Bomb, minus the spacesuit or with it depending, which way you look at it.

Saturday Night Playlist:

1. The Black Angels - Sunday Evening
2. Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - Running Meredith
3. The Sonics - It’s All Right
4. The Spits - 2018
5. Moondogs - Ya Don’t Do Ya?
6. Ian Rubbish & The Bizzaros - Living In The Gutter
7. No Fun - Fall For A Cliche
8. The Demics - The Least You Can Do
9. Dik Van Dykes - Road Warrior
10. Talking Heads - The Big Country (Live)
11. Twin Library - A Cruel Rodeo
12. Tire Swing Co - Forgive Me
13. James OL - Bastimentos
14. Salmon Breath - Cadillac
15. Alex Chilton - Waltz Across Texas
16. Iggy & The Stooges - Cry For Me (Pin Point Eyes)
17. Modern Lovers - I’m Straight
18. Public Image Limited - Albatross
19. Laughing Clowns - I Want To Scream
20. Spizzenergi - Where’s Captain Kirk?
21. Tanz Der Youth - Delay
22. The Soft Pack - Head On Ice
23. Tay Falco’s Panther Burns - Where The Rio De Rosa Flows
24. Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs - Cream
25. The Weirdos - We Got The Neutron Bomb
26. Radio Birdman - Descent Into The Maelstrom

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 31. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

XTC 3D EP & Show # 510

XTC released the 3D EP in 1977, this being the debut release from the new wave pop group. While often being lumped in with the new wave and punk scene of the late 70s in the UK, XTC are often considered a pop band first, drawing influences from artists such as The Beatles, The Kinks and The Beach Boys. The sound displayed on the bands early recordings and especially the 3D EP have an undeniable punk influence that seems to shake the bands early sound with a frenetic energy, despite their pop influences. XTC is fronted by two main songwriters, Andy Partridge on guitar/vocals and Colin Moulding on bass/vocals. It has been said that Partridge writes/performs two thirds of XTC material while Moulding writes/performs one third of the band’s material. The track listing on the 3D EP further emphasizes this, as it features two songs written by Partridge and one by Moulding. It should also be noted that prior to being issued as an EP, two songs, “Science Friction” and “She’s So Square,” were issued as a single briefly before being withdrawn in favour of the EP.

The band on the EP consisted of Andy Partridge (guitar/vocals), Colin Moulding (bass/vocals), Terry Chambers (drums) and Barry Andrews on keyboards/vocals. The songs found on the 3D EP were produced and engineered by John Leckie at Abbey Road in London, England and released in October of 1977 via Virgin Records. The EP starts with the quirky “Science Friction” apparently inspired by Partridge’s astrophobia, comic books and aliens. The song features a frenzied pace, slashing guitars and erratic, yet melodic keyboard parts supplied by Barry Andrews. With lyrics such as “Science friction burns my fingers/Electricity still lingers/Hey put that ray away/How do you Martians say I love you”, the listener is transported into a world of astronomy, aliens and a quirkiness that still seems to have an unnerving paranoid effect.

“She’s So Square” is a different tempo, but still keyboard-driven and sounds influenced by the proto-punk sounds of Roxy Music. The song is rumoured to be lyrically about Kathy McGowan of the UK music television program Ready, Steady, Go! “Dance Band” and ends the EP with midi sounding synthesizers, staccato guitars, heavy bass and a catchy chorus featuring shouts of “Don’t step on my toes”. This song compliments the two prior tracks and ends the EP on a catchy, yet odd note. The 3D EP is the beginning of what would become a series of singles and albums released by the band. The music would develop on a deeper level on future releases such as Oranges & Lemons and Skylarking, but the 3D EP resembles its anaglyph-like 3D artwork made up of what looks like green and red razorblades. The songs are sharp and if you look at them right, they just might catch you off guard.



Saturday night play list:

1. The Bell Peppers - The Hokey Cokey
2. Pink Mountaintops - Wheels
3. Snake River - Hours I: Don’t Hide Things Anymore
4. Chad Vangaalen - Lila
5. Temples - Keep In The Dark
6. Holy Wave - Night Tripper
7. Magazine - Definitive Gaze
8. Iggy Pop - Dum Dum Boys
9. Big Audio Dynamite - Get It All From My TV
10. Klark Kent - Don’t Care
11. Damaged Bug - Gloves For Garbage
12. The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
13. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Clubland
14. Colour Me Psycho - Black Covair
15. The Hentchmen - Virginia Dare
16. Demon’s Claws - It’s Over (Roy Orbison Cover)
17. Ray Condo - Jumps, Giggles & Shouts
18. Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys - The Glamour Of The Sun
19. Indian Wars - Denny
20. Ramones - I'm Makin’ Monsters For My Friends
21. Teenanger - Teenanger
22. The Victims -TV Freak
23. The Pagans - Not Now, No Way
24. Deja Voodoo - I Wish That Cat Would Shut Up
25. Deja Voodoo - Rock Therapy
26. Thee Oh Sees - Camera (Queer Sound)
27. Lou Reed - Average Guy
28. Guided By Voices - Shine (Tomahawk Breath)
29. Guided By Voices - Hat of Flames
30. XTC - Science Friction

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 24. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

The Chessmen Time Machine & Show # 509

This week marked the last Tuesday episode of Revolution Rock to air on CJAM FM. From now on Revolution Rock can be heard every Saturday night from 7-9 PM. Join me this Saturday May 24th to hear the first Saturday edition of the program!

The Chessmen - Time Machine



The following video is for the song “Time Machine” by The Chessmen. The Chessmen were a garage rock band from Hamilton, Ontario (not to be confused with The Chessman from Texas in the 60s). The Hamilton band blended elements of R&B, garage and psychedelic sounds into their music. They only released one full length self titled album in 1989. They have since been featured on numerous garage rock compilations most notably Mister Garager’s Neighbourhood on Og Records, What’s All The Fuzz About through What Wave magazine and the Time Machine compilation out on Stomp! Records in 1996.

The play list:

1. The Chessmen - Time Machine
2. Huevos Rancheros - Raunchy
3. BBQ — I Wanna Be The Only One
4. The King Khan & BBQ Show - Hold Me Tight
5. Ex-Cult - Shattered Circle
6. The Coathangers - I Wait
7. Dum Dum Girls - Everybody’s Out
8. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
9. The Horrors - I See You
10. The Delmonas - Comin’ Home Baby
11. The Howlin’ Brothers - Night And Day
12. Eels - Parallels
13. Neil Young - Journey Through The Past
14. Sloan - Dignified & Old
15. Exploding Hearts - Rumours In Town
16. Sonny Knight & The Lakers - Hey Girl
17. Jolly Green Giants - Caught You Red Handed
18. Gentlemen Of Horror - Overhead Projector
19. Lost Patrol - Dead Or Alive
20. Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant (1976 Denmark Street Demo)
21. The Adverts - We Who Wait
22. The Undertones - Let's Talk About Girls
23. Beck - Say Goodbye

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 20. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Thee Oh Sees Drop & Show # 508

After announcing that the band will be taking a hiatus last year, Thee Oh Sees released their eighth full-length album at the end of April. Entitled Drop, the album brings in an intense focus to the band’s already established San Franciscan psychedelic garage sound. There’s gritty garage sounds with scruffy guitars, psychedelic solos, a bit of kraut rock and elements found on 2012’s Putrifiers II and 2013’s Floating Coffin.

“Penetrating Eye” opens with a dungeon-like synthesizer that sounds as if it was lifted from an 8-bit NES video game, before scuzzy, sludgy guitars, drums and vocals kick in. The lurking and spooky synthesizer sounds as if it came out of one of the dungeon levels found in the original Legend of Zelda video game for NES. Each song on this nine-track album is a battle, with a myriad of murky and delightful garage noises ranging from the psychedelic sounds of 60’s garage nuggets compilations, the sounds of early Pink Floyd, to the intensity of the solos once performed by The Stooges. “Penetrating Eye” is one of the heaviest songs in the bands catalog to date, featuring catchy “la la la la la la’s” throughout. There is also a pop element to this track and it starts the album in a somewhat symbolic way. The song seems to start off the album in a sound not unlike the noises explored on the track “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” from 2013’s Floating Coffin album. The penetrating eye discussed in this track lurks all over this album bringing along a spooky goodness, that only John Dwyer and Thee Oh Sees could deliver.

“Encrypted Bounce” the second track on Drop, is also the longest song found on this release. Musically the song sounds like a battle of Beatles sounding backwards guitars, early Syd Barrett Pink Floyd, and Thee Oh Sees unrelenting punk psych energy, one that was displayed in excellent form on 2011’s Carrion Crawler/The Dream. Lyrically the song seems to reference San Francisco, perhaps it is an ode to the city, as John Dwyer recently relocated to Los Angeles. “Savage Victory” begins with its prominent tension filled bassline and bouncy snare drum, before being flooded with synthesizer and ultra fuzzy guitars as sharp as a knife’s edge. The lyrics in this song which emphasize a victory by attack with words such as “I will wait for you someplace/Where you can’t see my face” this, in conjunction with the lyrics found in “Put Some Reverb On My Brother” “I can’t see you/you can’t see me/I can’t feel you/you can’t feel me” both contrast with a feeling of hiding in waiting. The later track could also reference Dwyer’s San Francisco garage rock brethren Ty Segall. The album’s title track “Drop” attacks with a garage punk romp, while lyrics such as “I don’t expect to see them again” in the opening verses of this song and “I expect to see them again” in last verse of this song, could perhaps indicate the current situation of Thee Oh Sees hiatus. It was however announced that Thee Oh Sees would perform live shows as a three piece in May 2014, minus Brigid Dawson and Petey Dammit.

The song “Camera (Queer Sound)” brings us to just about the half way point of Drop, which was for the most part recorded with John Dwyer on most of the instrumentation in a banana ripening warehouse. The catchy vocal dualities and harmonies of Brigid Dawson are absent here, as are the frenetic guitar stylings of Petey Dammit, but there are contributions from Chris Woodhouse on drums, Mikal Cronin on saxophone and others. It is at this point when “Camera (Queer Sound)” comes in that if we were really in a dungeon in the original Legend of Zelda for NES, that things would get more quiet and intense. As such, the lyrics in the pop fuzz chorus of this track seem to portray a search for an identity with words “I try to wear the faces of other men/But Life is a camera/And I cannot get near ya” and also have been said to be a comment on the infamous selfie. “Transparent World” is a song of building noises consisting of heavy synthesizers, bass and inaudible vocals sounds. It is like the final battle in the dungeon for our quest in this Legend of Zelda like comparison before we are taken to the conclusion that would be the song “The Lens”. This cello driven song is much indebted to The Beatles as the catchy chorus draws an undeniable influence. The lyrics such as “And then we both arrive/At the same time again/Then we’re both alive at the same time again” and ”You look through the lens today/All is cracked and hazy/here, there/hand in hand we will survive” emphasize a victory of sorts here. But John Dwyer may also be reflecting on Thee Oh Sees past and present. “The Lens” takes us to the end of our quest through the metaphorical dungeon from the depths of a world of psychedelic garage sounds provided by Thee Oh Sees. Drop is victorious in its savage, primitive and unrelenting garage psych riffs, while the pop elements sink in deeper amongst the synthesizers and crude album cover artwork. But as Drop ends, we know that at the end of this quest another begins.



The Play List:

1. Thee Mighty Caesars - I Was Led To Believe
2. The Castaways - Liar, Liar
3. Guitar Army - Let’s Go To The Beach
4. The Hellacopters - Born Broke
5. Sonic Avenues - Waiting For A Change
6. The Challengers - Asphalt Spinner
7. Nick Lowe - 36 Inches High
8. Katlina Cowan - Cocaine
8. The Zellots - Soldier
9. Sheep Look Up - Civil Disobedience
10. The Legend Killers - Strychnine
11. Paul Jacobs - Drug Theaters
12. Paul Jacobs - Morphine Daydream
13. Survival Knife - Fell Runner
14. Pink Mountaintops - Ambulance City
15. Lou Reed - Sally Can’t Dance
16. Andre Williams - Pass The Biscuits, Please
17. The Who - Don’t Look Away
18. The Meltones - You’ll Never Surf In This Town Again
19. Black Lips - Smiling
20. The Bears - Frank Nitty
21. Thee Oh Sees - Savage Victory
22. Thee Oh Sees - Drop

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 13. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Chad Vangaalen Shrink Dust & Show # 507

Shrink Dust is the follow up to 2011’s Diaper Island by Chad Vangaalen, an artist from Calgary, Alberta. The songs that make up Shrink Dust are difficult to pin down, as are a majority of the songs by Chad Vangaalen. He calls this album his “country album” and although it isn’t a standard country album per se, you can hear the underlying influences of artists such as The Flying Burritos Brothers, as Vangaalen has stated in interviews for this album. There is also pedal steel work throughout this album that pops up, Vangaalen recently acquired and taught himself how to play this instrument recently. Recorded entirely in his home studio in Alberta, Shrink Dust seems to come off with a mood or feeling resembling that feeling just before you fall asleep, crossed with a nightmare.

Vangaalen has his own unique style of songwriting. When he sings, it comes off in a way with haunting vocals that have been compared to the likes of Thom Yorke and Daniel Johnston. Shrink Dust is also loosely based on a feature length sci-fi animation styled film that Chad has been working on to be titled Translated Log Of Inhabitants. Apparently it will be released later this year and it is a cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Strange Brew, in terms of subject matter.

The album begins with the song “Cut Off My Hands”, a song that sets the tone for this album, music and lyric wise it will be dark at times. “Doused in waves of static haze” is sung at one point during this acoustic folk track, but then a weird synthesizer effect, sounding like garbled ocean noises comes in. Throughout the song there are strange instruments adding to its esoteric textures, the pedal steel comes in near the end of the song with a haunting echo. “Where Are You?” was the first single released for this album. It features an eerie sounding synthesizer, fuzz bass sounds, an almost hip hop drum beat and other texturizing sound effects that add to its soundscape, while a song like “Frozen Palace” features many elements in addition to Vangaalen’s psychedelic folk sound. Including some electronic and hip hop elements, “Frozen Place” sounds like it could have been recorded in an arctic snowstorm. “Lila” once again displays Vangaalen’s own folk influenced sound, but features a highly catchy layered chorus. “Monster” has a shuffle-like beat and tells the story of transforming into another life form. I would imagine this could be the basis of the artwork found on the album cover for Shrink Dust, but once again is extremely catchy and creepy at the same time.

Songs such as “Weighted Sin” and “Hangman’s Son” both cater to Chad Vangaalen’s country sound as he would call it, but they come off here with their dark imagery and sonic dynamics as psychedelic country. “Hangman’s Son” in particular seems to draw from the well that Neil Young once drank from on Harvest Moon. The imaginary sounds kick in on the drone-like “Evil”, while “Leaning On Bells” picks up the pace in a groove that was once explored on the more psych garage sounds found on 2011’s Diaper Island. “Cosmic Destroyer” ends the album, bringing in a relaxed vibe, with pedal steel, with Chad Vangaalen’s layered expansive sound. The lyrics to this track “When the world in your head/is the world where you live/the people seem stranger there/paranoid dreams it goes on and on” seem to stick out as a relevant point of interest when discussing Shrink Dust. This album, while loosely based as a score for his forthcoming animation feature that is to feature 150 characters, takes us on a weird journey with lush psychedelic sounds with dominant acoustic guitars, pedal steel and layered vocals. Shrink Dust is a strange and beautiful look into the world of music and characters in which Chad Vangaalen creates that goes on and on like a paranoid dream.

The Play List:

1. Ramones - Do You Remember Rock n' Roll Radio?
2. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - White Palms
3. The Black Angels - The Flop
4. The Sunsets - I Want Love
5. Hot Snakes - Kreative Kontrol
6. Lame Brain - Sleeping King
7. Ty Segall - Son Of Same (Chain Gang)
8. The Modernettes - Red Nails
9. Hot Nasties - I Am A Confused Teenager
10. Pointed Sticks - No Use For U
11. Twin Library - Kick It Apart
12. Sun Parlour Players - By Your Side
13. Denney & The Jets - Water To Wine
14. Chad Vangaalen -Evil
15. Chad Vangaalen - Leaning On Bells
16. Death - North Street
17. Japandroids - For The Love Of Ivy
18. Young Rival - Too Hip
19. Shotgun Jimmie - Onomatopeia
20. Dee Dee Ramone & The Chinese Dragons - Chatterbox
21. The Weirdos - Life Of Crime
22. The Replacements - Hootenanny

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 6. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

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.

The Stooges Drummer Scott Asheton 1949-2014 & Show # 501

On March 15th, 2014, Scott Asheton, best known as the drummer in the band The Stooges, passed away. Scott performed with The Stooges on all three of their albums along with his brother Ron, who passed away in 2009 due to a heart attack. Scott and his brother Ron, along with original Stooges bassist Dave Alexander formed the core rhythm section of the early line up for The Stooges, which had its beginnings in 1967. In a recent post on Rolling Stone, Iggy talked of his time with Scott Asheton, calling him “magnetic, and having a “boxer’s authority” when playing drums. In the article, Iggy Pop discusses the band’s early stages and his transition from drummer to lead vocalist and taking the center stage. He taught Scott Asheton how to play the drums in the early embryotic stages of The Stooges. Iggy Pop elaborated on this in the very same Rolling Stone article:

“I first met Scott Asheton when I was working at Discount Records in Ann Arbor to augment my drumming. He used to stand with [future Stooges bassist] Dave Alexander at the corner of State Street and Liberty, which is grand central for the University of Michigan campus. Scott impressed me immediately by his obvious physical gift. He remembered this better than I do, but he would bug me to teach him how to play drums.

Following The Stooges first break up in 1971, there was a period of time when Scott along with his brother Ron were in limbo before being recruited by Iggy Pop to reform The Stooges with James Williamson on guitar, and original guitarist Ron Asheton moving to bass. They would record what many feel is The Stooges best album Raw Power in 1973. After the band split again in 1974, Scott Asheton and brother Ron Asheton would continue music separately through with other groups. Scott would go on to play with a variety of other Detroit related groups such as Fred “Sonic” Smith’s post MC5 band Sonic’s Rendezvous Band along with fellow Detroit musician Scott Morgan. Scott Morgan had been in a Detroit Garage group called The Rationals in the mid 60s, but Scott Asheton would go on to play with Scott Morgan and his related projects such as Scot’s Pirates and The Scott Morgan band throughout the 80s. Additionally, Scott Asheton played live with Iggy Pop in 1978, and played with Sonny Vincent & His Rat Race Choir along with Captain Sensible of The Damned, among other bands. The Stooges reunited in 2003 and eventually went on to record two more albums 2007’s The Weirdness, with Ron Asheton on guitar and in 2013 Ready To Die with Raw Power era guitarist James Williamson.

Although The Stooges were overlooked for the most part when active as a band from 1967-1973, they have since gone on to become not only a cult classic band, but also a band responsible for having roots into what was to become Punk Rock. The Stooges are still a highly influential band and important group in Rock history and it was Scott Asheton in the drummer seat. Currently there is a documentary in the works about The Stooges that is to be done by Jim Jarmusch.

This Week's Play List:

1. The Spys - Welcome To The Cruel World My Friend
2. The Poles - CN Tower
3. Blam Blam Blam - Battleship Grey
4. Thee Mighty Caesars - I’ve Got Everything Indeed
5. Dead Drugs - Get Weird
6. The Revelions - Sighs
7. Scott Morgan - 16 With A Bullet
8. Sonic’s Rendezvous Band - You’re So Great
9. The Stooges - TV Eye (Takes 7 & 8)
10. The New Values - Straight Line
11. Damaged Bug - Photograph
12. Papermaps - Poor City
13. Public Image Limited - Memories
14. Johnny West - You Make Me Feel Like An Impotent Squadger
15. Novels - Mr. Foster’s Teenage Daughter
16. Indian Wars - Won't Do A Thing
17. Neil Young, Bob Dylan & The Band - Looking For A Love (Live San Francisco, CA Kezar Stadium 1975)
18. The Polymorphines - Mainstreet Jimmy
19. The Stomach Mouths - Waiting
20. The Pagans - I Don’t Understand
21. The Diodes -We’re Ripped
22. The Skids - Masquerade
23. Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Going Gong Gone

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for March 25. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Revolution Rock: Tales Of A Late Night DJ & Show # 500

This week marked the 500th episode of Revolution Rock to air on CJAM FM’s airwaves in the Windsor/Detroit area. When I originally started the program back in June of 2004, I always wondered if I would make it to 500 episodes, well I suppose that now I have. When Revolution Rock started as a radio program back in 2004 CJAM was still located on 91.5 FM on the FM dial and the show focused specifically on 70s Punk and New Wave music. For approximately two years the show played that genre, rarely venturing outside of the world of the music created during that time period. At the time I created the program, CJAM had many “Punk” programs, but none of them for the most part really featured any music from the late 70s Punk scene specifically, whether in the UK or otherwise. The very first week that I was to be on the air, I recall going to CJAM FM located in the basement of the University of Windsor CAW Centre. I had been given the late night or graveyard shift from Midnight until 2 AM on Thursdays, a position I held for a few years. The very first time I was supposed to be on CJAM, I wasn’t able to get in the building. I told a bunch of my friends that I would be on the radio and they said they would be tuning in that night to hear my program, I was not aware at the time that University was locked on some occasions during late night hours. The next day at the University, some friends told me they heard my radio show, but “didn’t hear much talking from me”. Since I wasn’t there to do my program a CD was put on repeat for the night. It was rather fitting to know that being a radio DJ could be done by a CD player on repeat, but that was a rather short sighted point of view at the time, something that would change with time. This was also before the world of mp3/music playlists could be fully utilized by computers.

The following week I was able to get into the building and actually be on the air. I was extremely nervous to be on the radio live for the first time and when I walked into the studio, some friends of mine from the University's Communication Studies program were hosting their show. One of my colleagues was shirtless and for some reason sweaty and perhaps there were also some outside influences were at play that night. When I asked my colleague why he wasn’t wearing a shirt his reply was “It makes me perform better”. This was my first real introduction to the world of campus/community radio.

During the late night hours at CJAM FM, I explored the 70s Punk and New Wave genres, the music that influenced those genres in great detail and sometimes newer music. But at the time I was still a bit influenced by the mainstream media and way of thinking. Each week on Thursday night or Friday morning for that matter, I delved deeper into this world and in combination with my education at the University's Communication Studies program and the CJAM FM community, I began to think differently. I also learned a few valuable things from my experiences. On Thursday nights, the University had “Pub Night” and often confused drunk University students would wander into the lobby of CJAM FM, not located too far away from the bathrooms and the University Pub. They would at times yell out loud both profane and incoherent thoughts while I was talking on air during my program. This is where I learned, lock the door to CJAM when you are programming late at night. You never know who might wander in.

Then there were the late night callers. They would not be unlike the drunken University student wandering in from the Pub, sometimes starting phone calls either as prank calls where no one got the joke, or just to comment on the fact that they really hated what they were hearing. I recall one very specific instance when a caller phoned in, picking up the phone the anonymous caller on the other end said “Why aren’t you playing Techno music?” When I explained that my program focused on 70s Punk Rock they replied with “This makes me want to smash my head against a brick wall. It sucks!” then promptly hung up. As cruel as that sounds, there were also loyal callers that called in to make requests that were sometimes very obscure or just to tell me they liked what they were hearing in general. Some of those loyal listeners followed me when Revolution Rock switched time slots, which it did twice. For another few years, Revolution Rock aired Wednesday nights from 9-10:30 PM, I was followed by the Electronic program The Rhythm Gallery. It was also around this time in 2006, that I created this blog. It was created as a place to profile bands that were featured on the program and as a way to share my program online with a wider, more international audience.

In September of 2008, Revolution Rock moved to its current time slot Tuesday mornings from 10:30 AM – 12 PM. Since those early days in 2004, the program has evolved greatly in terms of content. Revolution Rock grew to incorporate Garage Rock, Surf, Alternative, Indie and many other related sub-genres into the shows format, but still keeping true to the 70s Punk and New Wave attitude and ethos that the genre helped to create. With the 500th, episode of Revolution Rock now over with I can’t help but think back to my first program in June of 2004. My sweaty shirtless friend introduced me to a world that I had not yet been exposed to. The shirt has now been taken off so to speak and I am no longer trapped between the confines of the mainstream way of thinking and the beginnings of my University education. In essence, I now perform better as a programmer with my metaphorical shirt off. I mean after almost ten years and 500 episodes, you would have to be right?

(NOTE: Revolution Rock switched time slots on May 24th, 2014. It can now be heard Saturday's from 7-9 PM on CJAM 99.1 FM)

The Play List:

1. Sun Stone Revolvers - Elmore's Surf
2. Action Makes - Nothing For Money
3. Simply Saucer - Get My Thrills
4. 63 Monroe - Twist My Wrist
5. The Victims - Open Your Eyes
6. St. Paul & The Broken Bones - The Glow
7. Holy Wave - How Do You Feel?
8. Them - You Just Can’t Win
9. Thee Oh Sees - Wait Let’s Go
10. Link Wray - Raunchy
11. Paul Jacobs - I Got It
12. No Fun - I Ain’t Got No Face
13. Carbonas - Hate You
14. Pointed Sticks - I’m Numb
15. The Scabs - Don’t Just Sit There
16. Ruefrex - Cross The Line
17. Slow - Have No Been The Same
18. The Replacements - Left Of The Dial
19. The Kinks - Powerman
20. Guided By Voices - A Good Flying Bird
21. The Clash - Deny
22. Ty Segall - Femme Fatale (Velvet Underground Cover)
23. The Black Lips - My Struggle
24. The Velvet Underground - Beginning To See The Light (Early Version)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for March 18. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Bob Dylan & George Harrison New Morning Sessions & Show # 499

Bob Dylan’s controversial album Self Portrait was released in 1970. The album was meant to be bad on purpose and was known for the infamous lines in Greil Marcus’ Rolling Stone review, which opened with “What is this shit?” The album was a double album of odd covers with bizarre overdubs and some poorly mixed live recordings. The songs were released in this fashion as a reaction to fans harassing Dylan at his family home. Bob said in a 1984 Rolling Stone interview: “'Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can't possibly like, they can't relate to. They'll see it, and they'll listen, and they'll say, 'Well, let's get on to the next person. He ain't sayin' it no more. He ain't given' us what we want,' you know? They'll go on to somebody else.” The idea didn’t really work out as planned, but around the same time Dylan was working on another album, one that was to become 1970’s New Morning.

Those sessions are known for their beginnings, which took place on May 1st, 1970, with Beatle George Harrison on guitar. The sessions were a mish mash of covers and a few originals and have been widely bootlegged for some time. However, the sessions showcase an interesting point in Dylan’s career, the transition from Self Portrait to New Morning is night and day. New Morning excels where Self Portrait conveys quite the opposite. From these sessions a few songs were considered for release on New Morning, but they were never used. A few of these songs “Working On A Guru”, a version of “Time Passes Slowly” and “If Not For You” have since been released officially.

New Morning was released four months after Self Portrait. Recording sessions for Self Portrait began in April of 1969, and went on until March of 1970. The beginning of the New Morning sessions occurred on May 1st, 1970, before Self Portrait was even released. Dylan even stated in a 1975 interview “We were working on New Morning when the Self Portrait album got put together."

The May 1st session was to be recorded in secret, but even though the rumours spread, the Bob Johnston produced session went down as planned. Musicians on the session included Charlie Daniels on bass, Russ Kunkel on drums, Bob Johnston on keys and of course Bob Dylan and George Harrison. The session is loose and features several tracks that are of a rough around the edges quality. George Harrison’s guitar playing often reflects influences from the early days of The Beatles. Songs such as “I Don’t Believe You”, Carl Perkins “Matchbox”, the muddy “When’s My Swamp Gonna Catch Fire?”, “Honey Just Allow Me Just One More Chance”, a recording of an early still unreleased Bob Dylan original “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind”, a version of The Beatles “Yesterday” which ends with George Harrison saying that they should “put some cello on that”, all serve as candidates in favour of the sessions. There are still some weaker moments, but overall the sessions symbolize a unique point in both musicians’ careers. They also add to the vast and mysterious unreleased catalog that Bob Dylan has created during various points in his career.

As George had just become an ex-Beatle and was beginning work on his All Things Must Pass album, Bob Dylan was dealing with a difficult period with over obsessed fans viewing him as a sight seeing prophet. Both musicians had plenty on their mind. If these loose and for the most part off the cuff sessions show us anything, it is just a collection of musicians having unstructured fun in the studio rediscovering themselves, while the distractions of the outside world remain elsewhere.

Self Portrait and several of the tracks from the New Morning sessions are revisited on 2013’s The Bootleg Series Vol 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1972), including a full and proper remixed concert from the Isle of Wight with Bob Dylan & The Band.

Bob Dylan - Time Passes Slowly #1 from Columbia Records on Vimeo.
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The Play List:

1. The Rezillos - Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight
2. Ramones - Highest Trails Above
3. Wire - Just Don’t Care (1977 Demo)
4. Zombie Surfers - Zombie Hand
5. The Orions - Always Clean And Fresh
6. North By North - Burn It Down
7. Deathcats - Aligator
8. Fruit Tones - Just Feeling Lucky
9. Aron D’Alesio - Carousel
10. Picastro - Endlessly
11. The Big Cat Band (Drew from Dead Ghosts and members of Indian Wars) - Jimmy
12. Dead Ghosts - Girl (The Keggs Cover)
13. Bob Dylan (With George Harrison) - When’s My Swamp Gonna Catch Fire?
14. Bob Dylan (With George Harrison) - Mama You’ve Been On My Mind
15. Scattered Bodies - The Many Moments
16. Vaguess - Television Dreams
17. The Zellots - On The Dole
18. Female Hands - Divided By Three
19. Active Dog - Nothing Holding You
20. Tim Ray & AV - Quarter To Eight
21. Private School - Rock & Roll Radio
22. Spizzenergi - Soldier Soldier
23. Magazine - Shot By Both Sides (1977 Definitive Daze Demo)
24. Bob Dylan (With George Harrison) - Working On A Guru
25. Bob Dylan (With George Harrison) - Time Passes Slowly # 1

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for March 11. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Devo's Bob Casale (1952-2014) & Show # 498

On February 17th, 2014, Bob Casale, one of the founding members of Devo passed away due to heart failure. Bob Casale played rhythm guitar, keyboards and provided MIDI sampling in Devo, but also provided back up vocals, and from 1984 served as the band’s sound engineer on their albums. Just last year In June of 2013, Alan Myers passed away due to a battle with cancer. Alan was often referred to as “The Human Metronome” and drummed with Devo until 1984. Both members were part of Devo’s classic line up.

Devo formed in Akron, Ohio in 1972, and were comprised of brothers Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald and Bob (referred to as Bob 2) Casale and Alan Myers on drums. Bob initially was a trained medical radiation technician, but was asked by his brother Gerald to join Devo. The band became a seminal New Wave-era band in the late 70s/early 80’s. Most people recognize them for their quirky hit song “Whip It!”, but when the band first started out and even up to their most recent release 2010’s Something For Everybody, the music they made was based on the theory of devolution. Devolution in its simplest explanation is the theory that man was devolving into a regressive and earlier state, as opposed to be advancing in our modern society. The band first caught the attention of David Bowie at the Ann Arbor Film Festival where their short film The Complete Truth About De-Evolution won a prize at the festival. The film was shot by Chuck Statler incorporating Devo’s theories of Devolution and their music. It was essentially a music video, but following that prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the band went forward from there.

Following the initial split of Devo in 1999, Bob along with other members of the band went on to other music related ventures. Most notably Bob joined the music production company Mutato Muzika, along with other members of Devo that was founded by Mark Mothersbaugh. Bob collaborated with Mark and the company on numerous films and television related programs. Some of the company’s credits include the films Happy Gilmore, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rugrats Go Wild, and many others.

The Play List:

1. La Luz - Sure As Spring
3. La Luz - Phantom Feelings
3. Martin Van Ruin - American Moon
4. Holy Wave - Psychological Thriller
5. Temples - Shelter Song
6. Habibi - Far From Right
7. Tire Swing Co. - I Awoke
8. Middle Sister - Maudite
9. Handsome Ned - One Hundred Miles of Open Road
10 The Hidden Cameras - Doom
11. Dum Dum Girls - Cult Of Love
12. Devo - Big Mess
13. Devo - Freedom Of Choice
14. Devo - Through Being Cool
15. Roky Erickson & The Aliens - I Walked with A Zombie
16. The Hoop - Phog Lounge
17. The Vapids - Powerchords and Skateboards
18. Light Bulb Alley - Liquor Store (Rough Mix)
19. The Basements - Wrong
20. The Black Angels - Better Off Alone
21. Teenanger - Psychic Sonya
22. Wanda Jackson - There’s A Party Goin’ On
23. Handsome Ned - One Hundred Miles of Open Road
23. Stompin’ Tom Connors - The Horseshoe Hotel (Live At The Horseshoe 1971)
25. Lou Reed - Nobody’s Business


To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for March 4. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Takeshi Terauchi Let's Go Terry! & Show # 497

Takeshi Terauchi is an Instrumental/Surf guitarist from Japan that has earned a legendary status overseas, but is fairly unknown in North America.  His guitar playing style is frequently described as wild and frantic and he is also often listed as being a contemporary in regards to his guitar playing ability alongside artists such as Davie Allan & The Arrows, Link Wray and The Ventures.  Takeshi or Terry as he goes by, started playing guitar in Jimmy Tokita & The Playboys who played Country and Western styled music.  In 1962, Terry formed Takeshi Terauchi & The Blue Jeans, an instrumental group that performed instrumental Surf music.  The band played what was called “eleki” music, which was a new thing at the time, but basically meant electric guitar music.  The “eleki boom” was spearheaded by The Ventures visit to Japan in 1962, which resulted in thousands of young aspiring Japanese musicians to create electric guitar music.  Takeshi played with The Blue Jeans until 1966, right around the time of the British invasion when bands such as the The Beatles and others of that time made their mark in the US and around the world.  Being influenced by British Invasion styled sounds at the time or as what was commonly referred to as GS (Group Sounds), Terry formed Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys who also incorporated vocal numbers into their sound.  This was done in addition to the Instrumental Rock and Surf stylings that were first explored in The Blue Jeans.  

The first album released by The Bunnys was the album Let’s Go Terry!, which was prefaced by the December 1966 single “Terry’s Theme” and was backed with the energetic and frenzied “Test Driver”.  Both these songs would make it on the Let’g Go Terry! album, which also goes by the name Bunnys Tanjou.  Let’s Go Terry! brought forth a dirty Garage and Punk styled sound at times, blended with 60s Pop Group Sounds influenced by the British Invasion sound and also traditional Japanese Folk songs, which would be incorporated and adapted to Terry’s “eleki” guitar sound in more detail on The Bunny’s second full length album entitled Seico Tera Uchi Bushi.  Let’s Go Terry! featured many fuzzed out Garage riffs blended with a Punk attitude songs such as “Black Carnation” that also features prominent and haunting organ parts, “The Glamour Of The Sun” which is an organ fuelled song that sounds like an amped version of the early Kinks sound.  “Terry’s Theme” which was first released as a single, features a more mid tempo pace, but an extremely catchy melodic guitar line, while “Test Driver” begins with a hectic drum pattern, followed by a building organ part before the guitar kicks in with a frantic western twang.  

The vocal tracks on this album are also worth mentioning.  Despite begin sung in Japanese it is difficult to ignore “Irrevocable Vow”, a slower paced Pop song that sounds influenced by fifties Rock ballads, “Burning, Burning” that seems to blend a sixties Garage sound with Minyo, Japanese Folk elements.  The middle section of this song slows down as shouting is heard.  The song then launches into a solo that sounds influenced by Dave Davies.  “Dream In The Ocean” sounds like it could have been influenced by the early sounds of The Beach Boys, while “I Believe” ends the album in a slower fashion with its flamenco styled guitar parts.  

Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys did not remain together too long, they disbanded in 1968.  It was rumoured that he reformed The Blue Jeans to focus on his guitar playing and get away from the Group Sounds that were prevalent in The Bunnys.  Throughout this period with The Bunnys, there was however a plethora of material released.  The Bunnys released sixteen singles and six albums.  In 1969, Terry reformed The Blue Jeans and has continued to play with the band ever since.  1966’s Let’s Go Terry! still stands as a testament to the wild Rock and Roll sound that Takeshi Terauchi could produce and balance with slower vocal based, Group Sound material.  Songs such as “Burning, Burning”, “Test Driver”, “Black Carnation” and “The Flying Guitar” all serve as examples of the Garage and Punk aesthetic that was displayed by Takeshi Terauchi that he blended with his Ventures and instrumental Surf Rock sounds.  Although Takeshi Terauchi has played a variety musical genres, Let’s Go Terry! is one of the examples of him branching out.  The song “Irrevocable Vow” is perhaps a good metaphor for not only this album, but Takeshi Terauchi’s time with The Bunnys.  Irrevocable means in essence something that cannot be reversed or changed.  With Let’s Go Terry! and his work with The Bunnys, Takeshi Terauchi incorporated Group Sounds into his music and after a short period of time and a wealth of music that was produced during that time frame, it was over and he moved on to something else.  Takeshi Terauchi did not go back or change or continue with the music he once created with The Bunnys, but the music remains for us to discover.  

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This year's Revolution Surf program once again featured a guest segment from Derk Brigante of the Surfphony of Derstruction 2000 podcast. Derk previously had his program Surfphony of Derstruction on CJAM FM, but it now continues a podcast online.  His podcasts are highly recommended, which draw from a well of new and old Surf music.  Derk also first introduced me to Takeshi Terauchi many years ago, his selections for this years Revolution Surf were both interesting and diverse.  You can hear his podcasts over at his Surfphony of Derstruction blog and also like his page on Facebook.  

Surf Rock Play List:

1. Os Morgans - Opus (Portuguese Nuggets Vol 1: A Trip To 60's Portuguese Beat Surf And Garage Rock - 2006)
2. The Future Primitives - Everybody Up (Fender IV Cover) (Songs We Taught Ourselves - 2013)
3. Wes Dakus & The Rebels - Cavalier Twist (Wes Dakus & The Rebels Vol 1 - 2006)
4. The Mel-Tones - Kung Fu Saturdays (Surf Sensation - 2004)
5. Jon & The Nightriders - Hit Man (Charge Of The Nightriders - 1984)
6. The Surfites - Surf Reveille (It Came From The Hideout - The Best Of The GaragePunk Hideout Vol 1 - 2011)
7. Les Skyliners - Entre Nous Il Est Fou (Les Introuvables - Volume 2 - 2007)
8. Les Devalons - The Lonely One (instrumental) (Les Introuvables - Volume 7 - 2007)
9. Polaris! - Hypnovista (Polaris - 1997)
10 Eddie Angel - Kawanga (Eddie Angel's Guitar Party - 1997)
11. The Panasonics - Penepede (Introducing The Inscrutable Panasonics (Featuring Eddie Angel On Guitar) - 1995)

DERK BRIGANTE OF SURFPHONY OF DERSTRUCTION 2000 SEGMENT:

12. Takeshi Terauchi - Moanin’ (The World Is Waiting For Terry - 1967)
13. The El Caminos - Hornets Nest (Reverb Explosion - 1997)
14. Yuzo Kayama - Crazy Drivin’ (The Exciting Sounds of Yuzo Kayama And The Launchers - 1966)
15. The Surf Coasters - Redzone Deadzone (The Surf Coasters - 1999)
16. Goggle-A - Reverb Chase (Dendeke Rock Combo - 2003)

17. Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys - Terry’s Theme (Let's Go Terry! - 1966)
18. Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys - Black Carnation (Let's Go Terry! - 1966)
19. Martin Schiller - The Innocuous Pastiche meets Professor Adventure (The Innocuous Pastiche meets Professor Adventure - 2011)
20. The Vy-Dels - Unknown (New Wave Surf Party! - 1981)
21. The Junior Raymen -I’m Branded (Rumble '66 - 1966)
22. Dead Ghosts - Commanche (That Old Feeling Single - 2010)
23. Pow Wows - The Horse Thief (Live) (Bent Out Of Shape - 2013)
24. Davie Allan & The Arrows - High Rise (Cycle Breed - 2008)
25. The Vondells - Dill Pickles (The Vondells (Unreleased - 2003))
26. Progressives - Man Of Mystery (Lost Legends Of Surf Guitar Vol III - 2003)
27. The Bell Peppers - Salt Shaker (Sizzling Hot Bell Peppers - 2013)
28. Dick Dale And His Del-Tones - Tidal Wave (Summer Surf - 1964)
29. Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - The Case Of The Missing Lady Fingers (Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham - 1991)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for February 25. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Grant Green's Solid & Show # 496

Grant Green was a Jazz guitarist that has, as often noted been overlooked during his lifetime. Green was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 6th, 1935, he quickly built up an ability to play guitar and started sitting in Jazz bands as early as age 12. He was influenced by other Jazz guitarists such as Charlie Parker and Charlie Christian, but while he was known as a Jazz guitarist his playing was said to always have been deep rooted in Blues. Green would become associated with the Blue Note label and recorded a large number of recordings for the label both as a sideman and as a solo artist, his recordings total over 20 for Blue Note alone. Later in his career his style would cater more towards Funk and Soul, and after a resurgence of interest in the nineties, Green has come to also be considered the father of “Acid Jazz”.

Many cite 1963’s Idle Moments as one of his best for Blue Note, however in 1964 he recorded two sessions that are often seen as some of his most interesting and inspired works, they also remained unreleased for fifteen years before they saw the light of day. With two thirds of John Coltrane’s rhythm section Elvin Jones on drums and McCoy Tyner on piano and Bob Crenshaw on bass, Green recorded what was to become the album known as Matador in June of 1964. In May of the same year he headed back into the studio with the same core of musicians to record was was to become 1964’s Solid and as such, Solid is seen as a companion piece to Matador. It should also be noted that while Jones, Tyner and Crenshaw are on both of these releases there was a horn section on Solid only. The horn section was James Spaulding on alto saxophone and Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone for Solid. Nevertheless, Solid turned out to be a hard hitting collection of songs, said to reflect a Hard Bop Jazz style, that differs from most of the work that Green is known for.

2010 Music Matters reissue

Solid initially was released with five tracks, “Minor League”, “Ezz-Thetic”, “Grant’s Tune”, “Solid” and “The Kicker”. When it was remastered and reissued for CD, it was appended to include “Wives And Lovers” by Burt Bacharach. The exact same version of this song is also included on Matador. Duke Pearson’s “Minor League” opens the album with an upbeat swing propelled by Elvin Jones’ drumming, Green’s melodically crisp guitar solo lines, which trades off between horn section solos and piano solos, all the while it is held down by Crenshaw’s steady smooth bass lines. “Ezz-Thetic” is said to be an experimental piece with Jazz modal scale stylings from Green, “Grant’s Tune” is the only original composition he has on this release, but this song like Sonny Rollins “Solid”, are deep rooted in Blues. Joe Henderson’s “The Kicker” ends the album in an upbeat and inviting fashion. This song was also found on Bobby Hutcherson’s The Kicker released in 1963, which Green played on as a session guitarist. Green’s version while recorded in 1964 would not be heard until Solid’s posthumous release in 1979.

During his time as a Jazz guitarist comparisons were made between Green and another Jazz guitarist known as Wes Montgomery. While both obviously had technical skill and ability, Green’s style of play has often been said to have been more melodic and crisp and as mentioned previously, rooted in Blues. Grant Green was said to have also played a green guitar, wore a green suit, and even drove a green cadillac, playing into his namesake. Green passed away due to a heart attack on his way to a gig on January 31st, 1979. In addition to his notable Blue Note recordings, his later Funk and Soul inspired recordings are also noteworthy especially 1972’s soundtrack The Final Comedown. Matador along with Solid may not have been heard during Green’s lifetime, but are now seen as some of his most interesting early work recorded for the Blue Note label. They are an example of what was in turn a formative influence on Jazz guitar music put forth by Green.

The Play List:

1. A.C. Reed - I Got Money To Burn (I’d Rather Fight Than Switch/I Got Money To Burn Single - 1963)
2. Thunderbirds – Thunderbird Twist (Jerk Boom! Bam! Vol.5 - 2012)
3. Irma Thomas – I Did My Part (It’s Raining/I Did My Part Single - 1962)
4. Mable King – Go Back Home Young Fella (Go Back Home Young Fella/Lefty Single - 1962)
5. Bo Diddley – Mr. Custer (Live) (Bo Diddley’s Beach Party - 1963)
6. Andre Williams - Goin’ Down To Tia Juana (Goin' Down To Tia Juana/Pulling Time Single - 1955)
7. The Five Dollars – That’s The Way It Goes (Nolan Strong & The Diablos Meet The Five Dollars - From The Beginning To Now - 1963)
8. Nolan Strong & The Diablos – Jump, Shake and Move (Daddy Rock - 1963)
9. Joe Weaver & His Blue Note Orchestra – 1540 Special (Baby I Love You So - 2000)
10. Tinariwen - Timadirt in Sahara (Emmaar - 2014)
11. Mikey Dread - Saturday Night Style (African Anthem (The Mikey Dread Show Dubwise) - 1979)
12 Clancy Eccles All Stars – Bangarang Crash (Trojan Singles Box Set - 1999)
13 Ray Charles – I Wonder Who (Up On The Roof: Gems From The Atlantic Vaults 1961-1962 - 2013)
14. Carla Thomas – Wish Me Good Luck (Up On The Roof: Gems From The Atlantic Vaults 1961-1962 - 2013)
15 Gladys Knight & The Pips - Room In Your Heart (Every Beat Of My Heart/Room In Your Heart Single - 1961)
16 Prince La La – She Put The Hurt On Me (She Put The Hurt On Me/Don’t Know You Little Girl (I’m In Love) Single - 1961)
17. The Rollers – Troubles (Jerk Boom! Bam! Vol.7 - 2013)
18 Elaquent - The Little Things You Do (Green Apples And Oranges - 2014)
19 Tappa Zukie - Pick up The Rocker (From The Archives - 1995)
20 Chuck Berry - Let It Rock (Live Walled Lake Casino, Detroit, Michigan 1963)(You Never Can Tell: The Complete Chess Recordings 1960-1966 - 2009)
21. Chuck Berry – Almost Grown (Live Walled Lake Casino, Detroit, Michigan October 1963)You Never Can Tell: The Complete Chess Recordings 1960-1966 - 2009)
22. John Lee - Alabama Boogie (Alabama Boogie - 1951)
23 Grant Green – Minor League (Solid - 1979)
24 Grant Green – Grant’s Tune (Solid - 1979)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for February 18. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.