In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The Lead Guitarist Was Nekkid

For those of you who never had the opportunity to see The Replacements; this song by Tommy Womack perfectly sums up the band.


"The Replacements" - Tommy Womack

Tommy Womack's Website
The Replacements Website

Lookin' High, Lookin' Low

It's finally summer (or something) in the northern hemi. Waking & Baking. Music. Beer. Sun. Pool. Backyard. I've decided it's a Grateful Dead and Superman comics weekend. If I get motivated, maybe we'll hit the beach too.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ps- the picture above was taken of me playing a show last year. It's my favorite picture of me. Ever.

pss - 'cause Mr. Charlie told me so!

Happy Birthday Joey Ramone

Wow, Joey Ramone would have been 59 years old if Lymphoma didn't steal him away from us back in 2001.

Long time readers of this here blog should have a pretty good idea of my love for The Ramones.

Joey Ramone saved my life from middle class suburban tedium way back in the 70's when I first saw them on a rerun of Don Kirshners Rock Concert. It was like a bolt of lightning (or something). I actually felt my young life change... I knew then that there were freaks like me that could get on TV and be rock stars! After all, I sorta looked like a young Joey... all limbs and long black hair and t-shirts and Queens NOO YAWK accent (shitty eyesight too!).

Overnight I went from being a long haired fm radio dweeb to a long haired punk rock loser.

It's been a wacky 30+ years since then... full of sex, intoxicants, hi-jinks and ROCK N ROLL. And I ain't slowing down (much).


This is where it all started for the teenage Nazz:


Thank you Joey!

Holy Dio

Rest in Peace DIO, Hope yer leadin' Satan's band with Bonzo on Drums .

Ka-Boom

The Buzzcocks show was great- they still rock it. They actually opened up with the entire version of Boredom... instead of just the tease that they do on "Another Music". Straight run thru's of the "Kitchen" and "Love Bites" elpees and 4 encores. The place was packed.

However, dear friends; that is not the tale of the evening. During "Esp" the show stopped. A puzzled band than announced that the owner of a 1991 Oldsmobile was to please leave the show and move their car. Than the show began again. Weird.

Until the show ended and we all discovered that the 4 block radius around the theater had been evacuated! Yep- A BOMB SCARE. The car in question had some gas cannisters in the back and the NYPD brought the bomb squad in.

All of this was interesting, but my car was in the sealed off area! Nothing to do but go for some more cocktails. So many people were standing around at the perimeter watching the events. I call those people "idiots"! We hightailed it out of the area in case there was an explosion.
About 2 am, the threat was contained. They had a robot blow out the windows of the car and it also did some damage to a building.

It turns out, the car in question was parked 20 feet away from my car! Directly across the street!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very lucky that the (small) detonation didn't trash my car as well!
I wonder how much my insurance rates would have went up if my car was blown up by the NYPD!!!!!!!

HERE'S THE STORY!!!!!!!!

Sixteen Again

Green Day should be tithing 10% of their salaries to The Buzzcocks. If it wasn't for Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle's punk-pop paeans to the pathos of post-pubescent romance, there wouldn't have been any freakin' Green Day.

First single: Spiral Scratch circa 1976; which was arguably the first UK DIY punk release. Here it is 666 years later and they're comin' round again with run-throughs of the legendary "Love Bites" and "Another Music In A Different Kitchen" elpees. It seems like every old band is getting their axes tuned and redeploying to tour with "classic albums". I guess it's easier to trade in nostalgia than new material, especially given the costs involved. Old fans for the most part don't give a shit about most new product and would rather live on the band's past glories. A safe investment.

I'm not complaining... yeah, I loved their 90's and aughts releases (and saw em in concert doing 'em). But those two albums they're doing are fucking great. And besides, ANY opp to see the Boos-Cawks is welcome. And if it puts a few more bucks into their pockets, groovy. Though the ticket for the NYC show cost me $41 with all the myriad charges.

Although, I have done the punk rock shuffle and seen em free over the years as well.

A couple of notable shows included an in-store appearance they did in the 90's; where your humble narrator attended said show in a suit and his wife appeared in a maternity shirt 7 months along. No slam dancing for us that night.

More regrettable was a show 'round '94 or so, in which during the encore of "I Believe", my wedding band flew off. I hit the floor to look for it, only to be continually picked up by friendly punks who thought I had fallen during the "dancing". Never did find that ring!

A fun fact: Peter Shelley is, ahem "Homosapien". Or something. So those songs about unrequited love have a special meaning.

Rock n roll.

Hit me up if yer heading to the show Thursday night at Irving Plaza, of The Fillmore, or whatever they are calling it these days.

GONZO GARAGE RAWK N ROWL

We were on time. Hungover, but sober. We waited, while the wanna Madonna clonette did her groove thing and looked very pretty doing it.

The place got crowded as we set up. Didn't talk to anyone. All business.
And then we had to wait 15 minutes. I entertained the punks with bass renditions of Misty Mountain Hop and 2112. We were ready.And then we struck. Part Of The Problem with it's Brother JC Affe spreadin the word in the prologue until all comes back to earth. And then right into the Love theme (to Kids Go to The Woods, Kids Get Dead) :Boobs and blood Fuck Yeah!" lead-in. tHAN pROFESSOR dAMAGE DREadGES THE SWAMP.The place got nuts there were what seemed like a couple of dozen camera's flashing and vids rolling and a slam dunk into The Theme From The Jeffersons.
By this point it was apparent that the tiki glasses were crashing, heads were shaking violently and there were loud cheers.
We literally were trying to have a very suspect looking part of the ceiling collapse and offered free beer if we could make it happen. Alas.
But after a guitar change it was...NERVOUS BREAKDOWN and the joint got jumpin.
At this point I knew we won. The battle against sucking had been won. A knockout in one round. Pulling into The Widow Cobain's Celebrity Skin, my legs got moving and I played a dual bass line through most of the song- can't wait to hear the playback.
Still freaaaaaaking at all the flashes. And the place was just totally filled. Old punks, young gen pouffers, didn't matter... we had em all.
Then into the Ballad Of John List- a tale of a suburban father who killed his family ... it happened in Jersey. Had to have my shit together on that one since I lead it off with a little bass line. And there are a couple of nice breaks in the song- one is a reggae break that transitions into a minor threat mosh- that's my doing. Then not one of my faves-- the moping, gloomy Sweet 16 Abortion. But we wail on it totally, it's creepy, I can see that one being our big hit. And then, my Fave; It's Raining Shit. Good bassline (they get isolated at points), nasty gnarly bluezy vox. Just a song that gets in you face like the alien dude,

At this point I am just hoping that nothing goes wrong- we're on a wild ride and no one is in the drivers seat.

But KingJaffe starts the shpiel from FOnda "we wanna be free... etc... and we wanna get loaDEd"- and the band actually hits all the notes on time during the intro and then it was offffff we went into interdimensional frenzy=. Professor Damage and his protective helmet richertted comets and syurupernovas off his rig and jlo was playing between the drums. And it all melts perfectly into another bare bassline for Erection and it's a bass groove with backing vocals. OOOOOOOOH OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH
whoa whoa whoa whoa whow whoa


the ceiling is actually shaking. So whooomp- whooooomp -whooooomp Be My Baby- The Ronettes tune and its love for everyone. Tears were pouring down the most hardened crusty punks faces.

We tried to leave when the encore requests started. The voting between band was Surfin Bird or Black To Comm. Surfin Bird it was.... a compleetewall of noise. Mo and I startedswordfightinwithour guyitars and tangling necks. by the end of the song, my a and e strings were dead.
rock n roll- \\
we even sold 6 of our shirts (hey $10 each - just what they cost us). We got paid with a tip bucket and all proceeds were spent buying flaming volcaNO DRINKS.
Spentalot of $$$$ on party props and didnt regret a second of it.

Rock n Roll

Caterwaul Saturday

If you are in New York, I heartily recommend you come out this Saturday night to check out my band Caterwaul Of Sound. Lethal rock n roll, toxic drinks, and a good time. Guaranteed. And it's free! You'll feel a little dirty afterwards, but that's good. We go on at 9 pm. Sharp. Because we're prompt. And it gives us more time for drinking afterwards!

Machete! or, an open letter to Arizona

Holy crap! Did you guys catch this? A response to the moronic scheme Arizona cooked up, brought to you by Robert Rodriguez and a bunch of Hollywood Stars.
Whatever view you have on immigration, and I am on the side of extreme limitations (and sending illegals back), the "show me your papers" mentality that Arizona will be enforcing is very scary.

Machete!

Look On Up From The Bottom

An interesting week that featured an excursion to the slammer, a rollicking version of Rush's Spirit Of Radio, much in the way of intoxicants, a viewing of Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, and listening to alot of Grateful Dead. And dropping a thousand dollars on a new washing machine and car repairs.

The new Dead album from a Philly 1989 show is pretty good. They rocked the show, and the sound quality and song selection is as good as yer gonna get. Listen to it for Free, here.

And Beyond is soooo much trashy Faux Hippie fun... I love the Phil Spector character going homicidal at the end!