CAVESTOMP ! - New York City branch

In NYC in the the mid-1980's (about 1982-1985), there were a bunch of bands that collectively breathed new life into the 1960's "Punk Rock" garage bands. These bands would play "Nuggets" era covers (The Seeds, Music Machine, etc) and originals as well.

While the bands from this scene played all over NYC and NJ, one particular club called THE DIVE, became home base for many of these bands. Additionly, "Paisley Underground" national bands (Green On Red, Rain Parade, etc) would also play at The Dive when in NYC.

Today, we'll feature some of the bands that made that time in NYC so cool.

The Fleshtones: "The Super Rock" kings have been kickin it since 1977 and are still going strong. Still touring as well! The Fleshtones style was high energy dance oriented r n b with a healthy dose of the 60's garage sound.
By the early 80's, The Fleshtones were already successful. They had been signed to IRS records and were featured in the 1981 concert film Urgh A Music War.
They had already released two albums nationally on IRS (Roman Gods & Hexbreaker) . They also were featured on the soundtrack for the Tom Hanks movie Bachelor Party. Lead singer Peter Zaremba also hosted 120 Minutes on Mtv for some time in the late 80's.
The Fleshtones would often bill themselves as The Hexbreakers when they played at the Dive.
Fleshtones Website
Buy Fleshtones Music

The Vipers - Jon Weiss and The Vipers featured a more early 60's Brit sound. Jon would later be instrumental in reviving the scene in the late 90's and beyond as the creator of Cavestomp!
Vipers Website

Buy Vipers Music

The Fuzztones - Total garage animals, firmly entrenched in the American Int'l films and bands like the Music Machine, The Seeds and The Count Five, The Fuzztones were led by Rudi Protrudi and featured the sultry Deb O'Naire on keyboards for many years. The Fuzztones took the bad-ass attitude of the punk scene and melded it with the biker fashions and black turtlenecks of the late 60's and made their own concoction.
Fuzztones Website

Buy Fuzztones Music

The Raunch Hands - Fronted by lead throat Mike Chandler, The Raunch Hands played drunken, bluesy punk. Rarely was there a time when the audience or band wouldn't be wasted at the end of a show.

Rauch Hands Site

Buy Raunch Hands Music

Other bands of that era include: The Cheepskates, The Outta Place, The Mad Violets, The Mosquitos, Smithereens, The Tryfles and many more.

A great resource for Garage Punk is: www.garagepunk.com

Today's posting is dedicated to

THE OGNIR DEATH SQUAD.

Toonage:

The Fleshtones - R-I-G-H-T-S
The Fleshtones - The Girl From Baltimore
The Fleshtones - Shadow Line
The Fuzztones - Green Slime
The Fuzztones - Bad News Travels Fast
Vipers - Nothings From Today
Vipers - Cheated & Lied
Raunch Hands - Naked Naked Naked

Worst president ever, but a heckuva dancer

All I can say is, he's not my President. As an American, I am disgusted by this douchebag. With-out 9-11, he would have found some other way to completely fuck this country up.
How he turned the World's good-will against us and billions of dollars of budget surplus into a trillion dollar deficit is something that future historians will write epic tomes about. Incredible, Clinton gets impeached for screwing an intern. GWB gets re-elected for screwing the country.


At least he's got his dance moves.

Toonage:
Violent Femmes - Dance Motherfucker Dance
New York Dolls - Dance Like A Monkey
Killing Joke - War Dance
Lagwagon - Dancing The Collapse
M.O.T.O. - Dance To The Radio

Starving children... Unacceptable!

Yeah- you're all too cool for school.

But I watched the American Idol telethon last nite, and I can report:

I still don't understand why Ellen Degeneres is popular. There have to be talented funny lesbians out there that can actually be entertaining. Hillary Clinton comes to mind.

Earth Wind & Fire performed first. Then Quincy Jones showed up. Apparently, there are no black entertainers under the age of 80 that wanted the opening gig.

Elvis Presley performed with Celine Dion (thanks to the magic of television). In my perfect universe, Celine Dion died on the toilet in 1977 and Elvis is still alive and performing in Vegas nightly.

Jack Black sang "Kiss From A Rose" in some stupidly rigged "random" audience selection. Of course, Fox blew it by showing Kyle Gass about 15 seconds before the shtick began. Than Seal showed up to "critique" Jack Black. And also to impregnate Heidi Klum again.
Kelly Clarkson (dressed like some early 70's house-frau) performed with JEFF BECK (looking as Jeff Beckish as ever- in other words... like the bastard half brother of Ric Ocasek and Todd Rundgren) and of course was wonderful.

Carrie Underwood was shown serenading starving African children with a Pretenders song. Perhaps it would have went over better if she would have brought some freakin' sandwiches with her! I can just see the producers...

"OK kids, just sit there and listen to the nice lady sing. Nigel, pan the camera away from the two kids that just died. All right, another two minutes and we have a baloney sandwich for you kids.".

Madonna appeared via video from Africa and chastised us all. I think she adopted 9 more african kids (she had to stay under ten to be allowed to use the express check-out aisle).

Bono is sporting the "Bent" concentration camp hairstyle. He showed up at the end to "coach" the contestants and heal some lepers. He also related how years ago some poor starving african father wanted Bono to take one of his starving african children back to Ireland with him. Bono turned him down. Kid died. Thanks Bono.

Anne Lennox came on to sing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" even worse then Johnny Cash did. Of course, Johnny Cash had the excuse that he recorded the song 2 weeks after he died.

PS- Hey Annie... after you hit 60, it woulda really helped to start wearing a bra. Old lady hooters are not really that tasty to look at, easpecially after watching starving kids for an hour.

The AI contestants were all dressed in white. Because they're angels, y'know.

The relentless "save the children" video footage was heart-wrenching.

no one was voted off. it wouldn't have fit in with the spirit of charity I guess.

And yes... I donated money. Although I know deep down, it will end up in the pockets of some dirt bag savage war-lord.

It's pathetic that people only wake up to the plight of starving children in our country as well as the world when celebrities and TV programs get involved. None of the information presented last night should have been a surprise to anyone.

The situation in this world in which children starve and suffer is unacceptable. If you can donate money to a charity, you should. Any charity. But you knew that already. Nuff said.

Save The Children
One.org
American Idol Aid

Toonage:

One - U2 (Live at Live 8 - 2005)
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel

Australian Punk

There's gonna be a new race

Kids are gonna start it up

We're all gonna mutate

("New Race "- Radio Birdman)

Radio Birdman were probably the first punk band in Australia. They were started up in 1974 by Rob Younger and Michigan born Deniz Tek (they got their name from the misinterpreted lyrics of the Stooges song "1970" (Radio Birdman = Radio Burnin’). The band took the hard driving musical styles of Tek’s fellow Michigan-ite’s The Stooges and MC5 and forged a proto-punk sound that laid the foundation for future Australian Punk bands.

Releases include the seminal Burn My Eye ep in 1977 and the lp Radios Appear (name taken from the lyrics of a Blue Oyster Cult song!)
The song “New Race” incurred a backlash (as did the Radio Birdman logo) as the band was accused of being closet Nazi’s; a charge the band vehemently disputed.
The band was short lived. No commercial success and a volatile relationship between several band members spelled the end for the Radio Birdman by 1978.
The band reformed in 2006 with the excellent Zeno Beach and toured the USA for the first time ever.

Radio Birdman just announced a tour of the USA for June and July .

Official Radio Birdman site
Radio Birdman Myspace

Radio Birdman FanSite

Buy Radio Birdman music

Led by Chris Bailey (vox) and Eddie Kuepper (guitar), The Saints are the band most people think of when the topic of Aussie Punk comes up.
Stooges freaks (as were the Radio Birdman), their 1976 I’m Stranded album is a Punk classic (and the song "Stranded" is on virtually every Punk compilation album of the past 30 years!). Eternally Yours, released in 1978 is terrific as well.
They have reformed repeatedly over the years and just played the SXSW conference in Austin Texas this past March. An American tour is in the works for this summer.
A new album Imperious Delirium will be released mid October

Official Saints Site

Buy Saints Music


The Stems aren’t really punk. They are more of a garage punk band, taking their cue from the mid 60’s, rather than the late 60’s.Started by Dom Mariani and Richard Lane in 1984, The Stems only released one album and a few singles before breaking up. The Stems were the Australian branch of the 1980’s “Paisley Underground” trend featuring Fuzz-tone guitars and snotty vocals. Their 1987 album At First Sight Violets Are Blue was a huge hit in Australia.
Yep, they reformed too (in 2003) and are out there touring occasionally with a new album expected later this year.

The Stems Official Site

Buy Stems Music

Toonage:
Radio Birdman - Burn My Eye
Radio Birdman - New Race
Radio Birdman - Do The Pop
Radio Birdman - TV Eye (Stooges cover)

The Saints - Demolition Girl
The Saints - Wild About You
The Saints - This Perfect Day

The Stems - She's Fine
The Stems - Under Your Mushroom

Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeo's

The Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian Garage Punk band, that were Alt-College favorites during the 1980's. Led by guitarist/singer Dave Faulkner, the Gurus had a number of underground hits during that period.

The band formed in 1981 in Sydney and released their first album Stoneage Romeos in 1984. This album, thanks to the infectuous single "I Want You Back" became a hit here in the USA.

Their follow up album, 1985's Mars Needs Guitars, established The Guru's as major players, even getting videos on Mtv with the songs "Like Wow, Wipe-Out" and "Bittersweet".

1987's Blow Your Cool and 1989's Magnum Cum Louder continue the solid recorded output.

The Hoodoo Guru's also were an excellent live band. I saw them a few times and was never disappointed.

In the 1990's the band continued to release albums, but their heyday was certainly the mid-80's. They broke up in 1998.

In 2004, The Hoodoo Guru's reunited and last month toured the U.S. Reports of their performances were extremely favorable.

Hoodoo Gurus Official Site

Buy Hoodoo Gurus Music

Toonage:

I Want You Back

Like Wow- WipeOut

Come Anytime (live)

Bittersweet

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey

Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (Ramones cover)

Friday Grab Bag- Baseball Good. Killing Bad.

With the horrifying atrocity in Virginia and the continuing senseless tragedy of Iraq; it becomes more important than ever to find a mental release and distraction from the depressing daily news.

What better way to lose one's self than in BASEBALL!

The season's a couple of weeks old and it looks like great things are in store for my hometown Mets and Yankees.

And it looks like the usual tough times are ahead for the Cubbies.

Here's hoping the Red Sox totally suck it up this year. Aside from the visitor from outter space that is Manny Ramirez and the awesome Big Papi, David Ortiz, the rest of the Blow-Sox can kiss my New York ass.

Somehow, my kid decided to become a Blow-Sox fan. Normally, this would result in me disowning him. However, as he is doing this primarily to piss his old man off, I not only forgive him; but am proud of him. After all, what could be more Punk freakin' Rawk then rebelling against one's father by choosing the wrong baseball team! I'm so proud.

So here are some songs, if not about about baseball, then at least with the word "ball" in them. Hey gimme a break, it's been a tough week!

Toonage:

Ozzy Osbourne - Take Me Out To The Ballgame

(yeah, Ozzy live at Wrigley Field!)

The Cramps - She's Got Balls

The Dwarves - Big Balls (AC/DC cover)

Love & Rockets - Ball Of Confusion

X- Curse Of The Wrecking Ball

(dedicated to the soon to be demolished Shea and Yankee Stadiums)

Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughed

"It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here

And I'm most obliged to you for making it clear

that I'm not here"

(Jugband Blues)

Now there’s a look in your eye’s,

like black holes in the sky

(Shine On You Crazy Diamond)

The story of Syd Barrett is pretty well known at this point. The mad genius who founded Pink Floyd and departed the scene (thanks to drugs and insanity) before their commercial triumph.

Roger (Syd) Barrett founded “The Pink Floyd Sound” (named after 2 blues musicians) in 1965. Originally, the Floyd’s sound was more blues based, but with the increasing popularity of mind altering drugs, Syd’s song writing became more adventurous.

Along with Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright, Pink Floyd became the preeminent Psychedelic band of swinging 1966-1968 London. Syd experimented with various techniques in both Pink Floyd’s live and recorded output, utilizing feedback and delay gear to great effect.

Virtually all of Pink Floyd’s first album Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as well as all of the early singles were written by Syd.
Unfortunately, drug abuse would prove to be destructive for Syd. His bizarre behavior in live settings would prove to be increasingly untenable for the rest of Pink Floyd. Episodes of Syd standing motionless on stage and unable to play or playing completely against what the rest of the band played became increasingly unacceptable to the rest of the band.

The rest of the band brought in David Gilmour as a second guitar player. The plan was to go with a 5 member Pink Floyd. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out, as Syd went further out into the dark globe.

Eventually, it got to the point that the rest of the band didn’t bother to include Syd in recording songs or live shows and he officially left the band in 1968.

Syd recorded two solo albums (enlisting the help of the rest of Pink Floyd, especially David Gilmour, who produced many tracks). The Madcap Laughs and Barrett are full of whimsical visions with often child-like lyrics. Most of the material reportedly was written by Syd during his time with Pink Floyd.

Syd did a handful couple of live performances between 1969 and 1972 and virtually disappeared from the Public eye until his death in 2006.

Syd Barrett's effect on Pink Floyd looms large. Entire portions of later day Pink Floyd masterpieces such as Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall were written about or directly influenced by Syd.

His departure from music and sanity was truly a loss.


Toonage:

Dawn Of The Piper – this is a wonderful compilation of 20 Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd demo’s, live performances and rarities. Courtesy of the “Harvested” web site.

Dark Globe
Baby Lemonade
Golden Hair
Octopus

Syd Barrett website
Syd Barrett Wiki
Buy Syd Barrett music

Buy Pink Floyd music

GANG OF FOUR - not great men

Combining funk bass lines, angular scratchy guitars and lyrics that sometimes bordered on Socialist and Marxist dogma; the Gang Of Four were among the originators of “Post Punk”.

Forming in the aftermath of the “summer of 1977” UK Punk revolution, Gang Of Four (reportedly the band was NOT named after the Mao era Chinese Political cabal and was instead named after a bunch of philosophers) came to prominence with their first single “Damaged Goods”. Behind Jon King’s disaffected vocals and a great dance beat, "Damaged Goods" became a #1 indie hit and gained the Go4 many U.S. fans. The single also featured a couple of great songs on the flip side, "Armalite Rifle" and "Anthrax". "Anthrax" featured dual vocals… in one channel was the song (comparing love to disease) and the other channel had a spoken word diatribe. The vocals weave in and out, supplemented by Dave Allen’s almost dub-like bassline; creating something dissonant and spectacular. All the while, guitar player Andy Gill meshes feedback to the beat.

Their first album Entertainment is a classic. Featuring songs such as “At Home He Feel’s Like A Tourist”, "I Found That Essence Rare", and "Not Great Men", Gang Of Four became vastly influential tolater Post Punk bands such as Fugazi and The Minutemen.

Their next album Solid Gold (1981) and the live Another Day/Another Dollar (1982) are essential pick-ups as well. “What We All Want”, “Paralysed” and “He’s Send In The Army” are all stand-outs. “Another Day” shows that the Go4 were a solid live unit.

Sara Lee replaced Dave Allen (who left to form Shriekback) on bass for 1982’s Songs Of The Free and 1983’s Hard. Songs Of The Free became a huge hit due to a more blatant dance (even overtly Disco) sound on songs like “I Love A Man In Uniform” and “Call Me Up”.

After that, Gang Of Four essentially disappeared as a band until 1991’s Mall.

After year’s of watching lesser bands get rich and famous on their sound, Gang Of Four reformed in 2005 to release Return The Gift, which inexplicably featured the band rerecording and remixing songs from their first three albums. The cd package actually included money (“Return The Gift” – get it?)

Official Gang Of Four Site

Buy Gang Of Four music

Toonage:

Gang Of Four- Damaged Goods
Gang Of Four - Anthrax (7 inch version)
Gang Of Four - I Found That Essence Rare
Gang Of Four - Not Great Men
Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty (live)
Gang Of Four - What We All Want (live)
Gang Of Four - Sweet Jane (live)

Friday Grab Bag - Taxman, Mr. Thief

Here in the good old U$A, we're coming up on Tax Day (April 15). This is the date when last year's personal income tax "debt$" must be settled up. Whether or not the U$A is legally entitled to collect income tax is up for debate. However, as "good citizens", we ante up around 35% of our salaries every year, to pay for wars, pork barrelling and other government largesse.

In honor, here are some songs reflecting this season of Federal ass-raping.

Toonage:
Tenacious D - The Government Totally Sucks
The Sonics - Money
The Vandals - Money's Not An Issue
Clutch - Money (Pink Floyd Cover)
The Kinks - The MoneyGoRound
Kraut - Kill For Cash
NOFX - Murder The Government

Iggy & The Stooges - Live

Hey, you all know how awesome Iggy & The Stooges are.

Everyone should know that they have have a new album out called The Weirdness. Well, they're on tour, and if they happen to pay a visit to your town, you'd be sadly remiss if you didn't catch em. I've seen em a few times in the past couple of years and they always kick ass. I have a special treat for you all today... it's a mighty big download (150 megabytes), but it's an excellent broadcast of Iggy & The Stooges performing at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain August 31st 2006. Yes, Mike Watt is providing the bass, Steve MacKay is on sax, and the Asheton brothers are on geetar and drums.

For me, what makes this show is Mike Watt's bass. That shit be snaking in & out big time.

Enjoy this show, it really is terrific and is worth the download!

Iggy & The Stooges - 8-31-06 azkena rock fest spain

and here is an alternate version of TV Eye (Funhouse sessions)

AGENT ORANGE - Bloodstains! Speed Kills!

bloodstains speed kills

fast cars cheap thrills

rich girls fine wine

i've lost my sense - i've lost control - i've lost my mind

Agent Orange were a southern California based Punk rock band of the early 1980's who were forerunners of the So-Cal surf-punk sound. That meant big riffs, buzzsaw guitar and the "surf beat". The power trio (Mike Palm- guitar/vox, Scott Miller- Drums, James Levesque - Bass) laid the foundation of a type of punk that will be later utilized to far more success by the Fat Wreckords stable of bands of the late 80's/early 90's .

The band's first release was the classic single "Bloodstains", which was released on a complilation in 1979.

From there, Agent Orange unleashed the album Living In Darkness, which had such great riff oriented tracks as "Too Young Too Die" and "Everything Turns Grey".
In 1982, Agent Orange came out with an ep called Bitchin' Summer (later to be combined on 1 cd with Living In Darkness) that featured some surf classics ("Miserlou", "Mr. Moto", "Pipeline") as well as Breakdown- an original that seems to address the topic of "selling out".

i don't want to think about it

i don't want to see

i don't want to know the kind of fool they'll make of me

the public gets what they deserve

not what they demand

unless we all decide to be a business, not a band

In 1983 came When You Least Expect It. It featured cover versions of "Somebody To Love", "Secret Agent Man" and "Out Of Limits", but only a couple of originals.


This Is The Voice (in 1986) showed Agent Orange to be back with a vengeance. However, poor production ruined the record.


Most of Agent Orange's better hits (and remastered) can be found on the 2003 compilation Sonic Snake Session.


The band still tours occasionally, so watch for em.

Official Agent Orange Site
Buy Agent Orange Music

Toonage:
Bloodstains
Everything Turns Grey
Too Young To Die
Breakdown
Seek & Destory (Metallica cover!)

Drugs Are Good (Friday)

Now I was lying in my room

It was raining drugs all afternoon.

The poison ivy that I apparently contracted last week has rendered me an itchy, rashy, scratchin' mess. Thank goodness (and Merck and Pfizer) for drugs. For while they may or may not actually be working, they certainly can't be hurting. Lord only knows how much more discomfort I would be in if I wasn't on a bunch of different steroids, cortisones, allergy pills and balms. I've spent the last week spaced out in another dimension with no end in sight. It makes the work day go nicely, but the discomfort ain't worth it.

However, I haven't gone as far as this guy.
So, today's post will be in tribute to all things pharmaceutical.

Hey, leave me a comment if you have any home remedies to cure this crap!

Toonage

Dead Kennedys - Drug Me.mp3
Supersuckers - I Want The Drugs
Fleshtones- High On Drugs
The Cramps - Bop Pills
The Clash - Drug Stabbing Time
Andrew WK - Pushing Drugs

NOFX - Drugs Are Cool

Circle Jerks - Deny Everything!

I've got the world up my ass

and i'm gonna move fast

be the first

won't be the last

i've got the world up my ass

society is burning me up

take a bite, spit it out

take their rules, rip 'em up, tear them down

(World Up My Ass)

The Circle Jerks were started in 1979 by original Black Flag singer Keith Morris and Redd Cross guitarist Greg Hetson. As one of the bands featured prominently in the classic Punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization; The Circle Jerks, along with Black Flag and Fear came to embody the west coast hardcore punk sound of the early 1980’s.



Their first album, Group Sex featured 14 songs and took up about 15 minutes of vinyl time! This record featured such classic Punk tunes such as "Beverly Hills", "I Just Want Some Skank" and "World Up My Ass".

Their next album, 1981’s Wild In The Streets suffered from horrible production and poor distribution. Faulty Products (a division of IRS Records) went bankrupt soon after the release of the album.

In 1983, Golden Shower Of Hits was released, featuring a bizarre medley of cover songs from artists such as Tammy Wynette and The Carpenters.

The Circle Jerks were also featured in the movie Repo Man, playing a lounge version of “When The Shit Hits The Fan" whilst dressed in tuxedos.

Following this, the Circle Jerks replaced their rhythm section and released Wonderful and VI.

In 1989 Greg Hetson quit the Circle Jerks to join Bad Religion (a role he still holds).

The Circle Jerks reformed in the mid 90's and released Oddities, Abnormalities, & Curiosities; which most notably featured The Soft Boys' “I Wanna Destroy You” (with teen pop princess Debbie Gibson on backing vocals!).

There’s also a pretty good live DVD of a 2004 show on the Kung Fu Records "The Show Must Go Off" series of vids.

The Circle Jerks have regrouped intermittently over the years. Keith Morris has suffered from health problems (such as diabetes) over the years as well.

Last month, the band released a new song called “I’m Gonna Live” (available on Myspace) and there are rumors of a new album. They’ve been touring the U.S. West Coast as well.

Toonage
(From The Decline (live))
Beverly Hills
(From Group Sex)
I Just Want Some Skank
Deny Everything
World Up My Ass
(From Wild In The Streets)
Wild In The Streets
Trapped
Put A Little Love In Your Heart
(From Golden Shower Of Hits)
Golden Shower Medley
(Live)
When The Shit Hits The Fan

Flipper - Sex Bomb Baby, Yeah!

Flipper suffered for their music.

Now it's your turn.

An acquired taste to be sure, Flipper started up in 1979 and featured songs that were dissonant, sludgy, simply played and at points absolutely maddening. The band featured two bass players and deliberately played slowly, which was the the antithesis of the hardcore punk sound that everyone else was doing.
On the SF Underground compilation, Flipper released "Earthworm"; a slow, ponderous dirge about being an earthworm. Subtlety was never their forte.
Flipper concerts were often exercises in agit-prop, as the band's stated purpose at one point was "to be bad in ways that no band had ever been bad before". The stage was often inundated by the audience, adding more chaos to the show.

However, Flipper attracted as many fans as they repulsed, becoming a somewhat popular band during the early 1980's.

Singles such as "Love Canal" (featuring a picture sleeve of a deformed baby), and "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" actually became underground hits.

Their highpoint is undoubtedly their 1982 Generic album. This record featured the timeless "Sexbomb" which is basically one riff repeated over and over for about 8 minutes with dissonant saxophone and the lyrics "Sex Bomb Baby Yeah" repeated over and over.

After Generic came Gone Fishin' (1984) and American Grafishy (1990).
Additionally, there are several live albums out: Blow'n Chunks (1984), Public Flipper Limited Live (1986) and Live At CBGB's.

In 1987, singer Will Shatter died of a drug overdose. The remaining members of the band Bruce Loose, Steve Depace and Ted Falconi still tour; former Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic has played live with them in the past two years.

Toonage:
Sex Bomb
Ha Ha Ha
Love Canal
Earthworm


Flipper Wiki
Buy Flipper Music