Monkey Bastard's MP3 Blahg

Del Shannon was born Charles Westover in 1934. After a few hit singles in the U.S. (Runaway, Hats Off To Larry etc) he became quite the star in England. By 1970 there wasn't much left of his career. He suffered from depressions and soon succumbed to heavy drinking. He recorded a comeback album in 1990, but before its release he shot himself in the head. According to his wife, it was his recent drug use that prompted him to take his life. The album was released posthumously as Rock On.

Shannon was at his best when he played his own material (all five songs below are Shannon originals), but unfortunately he relied too much on other people's songs. Besides the tried and true (read: boring) 60's standards like Twist And Shout, he recorded the Rolling Stones' Under My Thumb, Roy Orbison's Crying (doing his best to sound just like Orbison), Beatles songs like World Without Love and From Me To You (where he sounded almost identical to Lennon & McCartney). That is, when he wasn't busy impersonating Hank Williams on some of Williams' most well-known songs, like Cold Cold Heart and Your Cheatin' Heart.

His songs were, and still are, covered by a wide variety of artist. Elvis Presley, The Small Faces, The Misfist, John Fruisciante and The Beach Boys all performed their own versions of Runaway, and I Go To Pieces was a hit for Peter & Gordon in 1965. Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

 Runaway

 Hats Off To Larry

 So Long, Baby

 I Go To Pieces

 Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow The Sun) (highly recommended)

Buy Del Shannon @ Amazon. 

Today boys and girls, I bring you a very special treat. A poppish punk band from the U.K. named The Crack (stop snickering at the back). A band that released a series of singles in the 80's, as well as an album called In Search Of The Crack (one more giggle out of you, and yer off to see the headmaster). That's just about all I know about The Crack (oh shut up), but I know for sure they're damn good. Plus, some bonus tracks that don't have much to do with The Crack. The song by The Nips is courtesy of Scot at Funeral Pudding. Go there and download tons of songs by The Nips (and plenty of other quality stuff as well, for that matter).

Don't You Ever Let Me Down (highly recommended)

Everybody's Dreaming

You Keep Running (highly recommended)

Don't Just Sit There (live)

Bonus tracks:

Peter & The Test Tube Babies - Up Yer Bum

The Tights - Howard Hughes

TV Smith - Gary Gilmore's Eyes (live)

The Nips - Vengeance (live)

Dropkick Murphys - Vengeance (The Nips cover)

Buy it @ Amazon.

Some bands just shouldn't play covers. Maybe they shouldn't play music period. Today I give you six cover songs so wonderfully horrible, they are sure to brighten your day. Calcutta Anazamama's rap metal rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit has to be heard to be believed.

Calcutta Anazamama - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

Soulquake System - Firestarter (The Prodigy)

Rammstein - Stripped (Depeche Mode)

Zircus - Drain You (Nirvana)

Corporal Punishment - It's A Sin (Pet Shop Boys)

World Of Silence - Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)

This blog wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for the inspiration I've gotten from all the great mp3 blogs I've been frequenting the last year or so. I figured the least I can do is pay some respect where respect is due. Pay these guys and gals a visit:

Aversion

buddyHEAD

Built On A Weak Spot

Captain's Crate

Dans Mon Café

Dreams Of Horses

Funeral Pudding

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS

i guess i'm floating

I Rock Cleveland

@ indiechristoph @

INVISIBLE ORANGES

Jefitoblog

La Case De L'Affreux Thom

The Late Greats

Mainstream Isn't So Bad...Is It?

Mars Needs Guitars

Modern Music

MOISTWORKS : AN MP3 BOOMBOX

more than milk

Motel de Moka

Music Of The Moment

My Old Kentucky Blog

The Noise Show

The Perm & The Skullet

rbally

sixeyes

Snakes Got A Blog

speed of dark

Swan Fungus

swedesplease

to die by your side

THE VINYL VILLAIN

WFMU's Beware Of The Blog

Gary Graff described Tom Waits' voice as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car". While this is certainly an accurate description, Tom Waits is hardly the only one with such vocals abilities. Here's Tom and four more freaks who sound like they're lying in the gutter dying from alcoholism, kidney stone and a real motherfucker of an ulcer. Hell, Freddie Wadling even had a book written about him called Freak!

Tom Waits: 

Hang On St. Christopher

Lucky Day

Come On Up To The House

 

Freddie Wadling:

Into The Garden Of Your Mind

Animal Man

Ships

 

Screamin' Jay Hawkins:

I Put A Spell On You

Portrait Of A Man

I Don't Know

 

Howlin' Wolf:

No Place To Go

Wang Dang Doodle

Spoonful

 

Captain Beefheart:

Zig Zag Wanderer

I'm Glad

Autumn's Child

 

Buy these nutters @ Amazon.

This story story begins in Detroit in 1964. A gentleman by the name of Scott Morgan was the lead singer and guitarist of a garage band called The Rationals. They never had a big hit, altough the single Respect (recorded a year before Aretha Franklin scored big time with her own version) did break the Billboard 100 in 1966. After the band parted ways in 1970, Morgan joined forces with MC5's Fred Smith, Gary Rassmussen of the band Up and wild-man Scott Asheton from The Stooges to form Sonic's Rendesvouz Band (which I will from here on refer to as "SRB", because it's just too damn long).

The band only ever released one single before they split up, but over the years a cult following grew. Bootleg live albums were traded and rock 'n' rollers world wide drooled over this "supergroup", full of Detroit rock royalty. One of these rock 'n' rollers was Nick Royale of Swedish rock heroes The Hellacopters, a band greatly influenced by the Detroit scene of the 1970's. On the vinyl version of their second album Payin' The Dues (1997), they included a cover of SRB's City Slang. This did not go unnoticed and soon Scott Morgan became friends with The Hellacopters. In 1998 Nick got together with two member of the Dutch rock band The Nitwitz to form the project The Hydromatics, which basically started as a SRB tribute band. Scott Morgan was asked to perform the vocals on the recording and the resulting album, 1999's Parts Unknown, is an amalgamation of SRB classics and original material by Nick and bassist Tony Slug.

In September 1999 The Hellacopters got their asses on a plane to New York to record two SRB songs with Scott for a single on SubPop Records. These two songs, 16 With A Bullet and Slow Down (Take A Look), were later included on the Hellacopters rarities compilation Cream Of The Crap Vol. 2 in 2004. During these sessions Scott and Nick also collaborated on a new song, entitled Hurtin' Time, which was later recorded by The Hellacopters for their 2000 album High Visibility. Still with me? Okay, good.

With Nick's newfound love for classic soul and r'n'b, and Scott hailing from the soul capital of the world, The Solution took form in 2003. Demos of songs were sent back and forth across the Atlantic, and with a full album's worth of material assembled, Nick & Scott got together in Atlantis Studios in Stockholm to record Communicate!, with a horn section, female back-up singers and the whole shebang. The first single I Have To Quit You Baby became a top 10 hit in Sweden, and the album was greeted with well deserved rave reviews, with more than one reviewer drawing parallells to blue-eyed soul legends Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels. To make a soul album is a tricky thing for white people, and the fact that Communicate! sounds nothing like The Commitments is a monumental achievement.

The Solution:

Get On Back (highly recommended)

Top Of The Stairs

Phoenix

 

Scott Morgan & The Hellacopters:

16 With A Bullet

Slow Down (Take A Look)

 

The Hydromatics:

Dangerous

Get It Together

Calling LWA (highly recommended)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.

Three songs each by three sadly overlooked bands from the British isles. No time to waste!

First up, Diesel Park West from Leicester. Active since 1981 and still going strong. I think. Not keeping track. These selections are from the 2002 demo compilation King Of Ghosts:

When The Hoodoo Comes

Walk With The Mountain

The Waking Hour

Next, Compulsion from Dublin (okay, so they're not British, but gimme a friggin' break, it's close enough). Guitarist Garret Lee went on to produce U2, Kasabian, Snow Patrol and Editors. Compulsion existed between 1992 and 1997 and released two albums, Comforter in 1994 and The Future Is Medium in 1996. These songs are from the latter.

Western Culture Collector

Spotlight Into Space

Lost On Abbey Road

Thirdly, The Wonder Stuff from Stourbridge. Formed in 1986 and has since released six studio albums, two compilations and two live albums. These here jolly tracks are from the 2001 live album Cursed With Insincerity.

Circlesquare

Golden Green

Welcome To The Cheap Seats

...and just because I feel like it and because I'm such a gosh darned swell fellow, I'll throw in a Magic Numbers b-side free of charge.

The Magic Numbers - I Hear You Knockin'

Here I was gonna write a post about Roky Erickson's second solo album Don't Slander Me from 1986. But I'm in a hurry, so this was copied and pasted from Wikipedia.

Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson (born on July 15, 1947), one of rock and roll's most famous cult figures and burnouts, is perhaps as well-known for his erratic personal behavior as for his musical talents.

Erickson's first notable group was The Spades, who scored a regional hit in 1964 with We Sell Soul. Erickson cofounded The 13th Floor Elevators in 1965. He was the chief songwriter along with Tommy Hall. In 1966, the band released The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators. The album had the band's only charting single, You're Gonna Miss Me, which remains probably Erickson's best-known work. In 1967, the band followed up with Easter Everywhere, perhaps the band's most focused effort, featuring the epic track Slip Inside This House, and a cover of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.

The Elevators were vocal proponents of LSD and marijuana use, and were subject to strong attention from police. In 1969, Erickson was arrested for possession of one marijuana joint in Austin, Texas. Facing a ten year prison term, Erickson pled insanity, which proved to be a mistake. He was sent to the Rusk State Hospital for the criminally insane, where he was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments and held until 1972.

When released from the state hospital, Erickson's mental outlook had changed. In 1974, he formed a new band called called Bleib Alien. His new band exchanged the psychedelic sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators for a more heavy metal sound that featured lyrics on old horror film and science fiction themes. Two Headed Dog was released as a single.

The new band renamed itself Roky Erickson And The Aliens. In 1981, the band released The Evil One, an album of his material on horror movie themes. In 1982, Erickson asserted that a martian had inhabited his body. He was arrested in the 1980s on charges of mail theft (Erickson took unclaimed mail from the halfway house where he lived, and taped it to the walls of his room. He insisted that he never opened any of the mail, and the charges were ultimately dropped).

Several live albums of his older material have been released since then, and in 1990 Warner Bros released a tribute album, Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye produced by WB executive Bill Bentley. It featured versions of Erickson's songs performed by The Jesus and Mary Chain, R.E.M., ZZ Top, and Primal Scream. The album not only spurred interest in Erickson, but heartened him as well; he'd had little idea of how admired his music was.

In 1995, Erickson released All That May Do My Rhyme on Trance Syndicate Records. The release coincided with the publication of Openers II, a complete collection of Erickson's lyrics. Published by Henry Rollins' 2.13.61 Publications, it was compiled and edited by Casey Monahan with assistance from Rollins and Erickson's youngest brother Sumner Erickson. Sumner was granted legal custody of Roky in 2001, and established a legal trust to aid his brother. As a result, Roky received some of the most effective medical and legal aid of his life, the latter useful in helping sort out the complicated tangle of contracts which had reduced royalty payments to all but nothing for his recorded works.

In September 2005, Erickson performed his first full-length concert in 20 years at the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival with The Explosives. A documentary film on the life of Roky Erickson titled You're Gonna Miss Me has been recently made by director Keven McAlester.

In the Dec. 30, 2005 issue of the Austin Chronicle, in Austin, Texas, Margaret Moser brings up to date the story of Roky's recovery with the aid of his brother Sumner. According to the article, Roky played at 11 gigs in Austin in 2005, has obtained a drivers license, owns a car, and voted last year. He has plans to do more concerts with The Explosives in the future.

From Don't Slander Me (1986):

Don't Slander Me

Crazy Crazy Mama

Nothing In Return

You Drive Me Crazy

Bonus tracks:

The Spades - We Sell Soul (1964)

The 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me (1966)

The 13th Floor Elevators - You Really Got Me (The Kinks cover, 1965)

Roky Erickson And The Aliens - Two Headed Dog (1981)

R.E.M. - I Walked With A Zombie (Roky Erickson cover, 1990)

I'll never forget my first Gemma Hayes experience. It was 2002 and the Swedish tv show Musikbyrån interviewed this thin fragile Irish woman, showed some footage of her and her band playing Making Waves at the Hultsfred festival, and to finish things off she performed an acoustic version of Back Of My Hand right there in the studio. I was hooked. When your face combines Uma Thurman and Winona Ryder, and your music mixes PJ Harvey with Beth Orton, you simply cannot go wrong.

Gemma was born 30 years ago in Ballyporeen, Ireland. During college (which she left pretty much as soon as she enrolled), she started playing gigs around Dublin. In 2001 she released two EP's, 4.35am and Work To A Calm, followed by her first full-length, the sublime Night On My Side, in 2002. Easily one of the top five albums of that year. After touring the album she went on hiatus, until she emerged in 2005 with her second album The Roads Don't Love You.

The US version of Night On My Side for some idiotic reason changed the order of the tracks, omitting some of them completely, and replacing them with songs from the 4.35am EP, thus completely destroying the dream-like flow of the original release. As if that was enough even the album cover was changed, from the lush, artistic cover of the original to a cover showing off Gemma's (admittedly extraordinary) looks. Bigger chance for the American record company to make money back I suppose. No matter the reason, the UK version is to prefer for every single imaginable reason.

So do yourself a favor and check out Night On My Side, I have a feeling you won't regret it.

Hanging Around (highly recommended)

Back Of My Hand

Over & Over

Let A Good Thing Go

Ran For Miles

Buy Night On My Side @ Amazon.com.

When you cross paths with a band with a name like that... How can you not share? I first came in contact with the band in late 2005 when an album entitled Veil by a band called Sex Gang caught my eye. The band name intruiged me, and it was dirt cheap so I figured "Whythehellnot?". Having never heard of them before, I decided to do some research. Easier said than done. What little I know about them was cobbled together from a few dozen or so websites, many of which contradicted each other. So I'm not sure about the accuracy of this information, and you shouldn't be either. But here goes:

Around 1982 a band was formed in England that named themselves Sex Gang Children (which, rumour has it, was the name Boy George originally wanted to give Culture Club). According to Wiki, they relied on "heavy bass, tribal drumming, sudden mood shifts, a woozy cabaret ready sound that influenced the rise of the later Dark Cabaret scene". If you say so...

The band apparently split up for a while (or not), but the leader Andi Sex Gang kept the music alive through different incarnations with different musicians under different names, one of them being the shortened Sex Gang. Although some sources claim Veil was actually an Andi Sex Gang solo album, not a Sex Gang/Sex Gang Children album. Either way, I don't give much of a shit. All I care about is the music. And it's darn tootin' good.

Don't know quite how to describe it though. The aforementioned stuff about tribal drumming and whatnot may have been accurate for 1982, but hardly for 1999, when Veil was released. It does sound very English somehow, and their early 80's goth roots are long gone. Occasionally a bit glammy, even a bit symphonic at times. Land Of Ghosts sounds like Ryan Adams produced by Mercury Rev (or perhaps like Mercury Rev produced by Ryan Adams), while Liberty Blue feels like a song by a Urban Hymns-era The Verve of some other similar Britpop band, and Phase Out The Boy would sound good if covered by The Polyphonic Spree. Aw hell, I don't know. I always sucked at labelling music anyway.

Just give these four tracks a shot, and listen for yourself. Andi's voice is an accquired taste, but you'll grow to like it as I have. And recently I found a Sex Gang Children album called Bastard Art (released in 2002) in a local record store, I'm picking it up later this week. And guess what. It was also dirt cheap. They were practically giving it away for free. Could it be no one else in the entire world cares about this band? This must change! Let it start here - download, share, and spread the word.

Liberty Blue

Bathsheba

Phase Out The Boy

Land Of Ghosts

Buy Veil @ Amazon.com