I Wish It Was Saturday Night...

I only heard the Blasters a few years ago and was duly impressed, but to be honest it was Dave Alvin's solo songs heard on a few choice mixes that put me on the search to hear more. Lucky as usual, usenet provides and in this case, doubly so. The debut albums of both brothers, Phil Alvin's Un-Sung Songs from 1986 and Dave Alvin's Romeo's Escape from 1987. Plenty to recommend on both, the straight country that Dave has blew me away 'Every Night About This Time' could be a Don Williams song (close enough that I actually went and checked to verify), plus the basic perfection of '4th of July' makes this an excellent country rock album. Phil's album is qualitatively different but no less impressive, with the dip towards more blues, jazz and 50's style rave-ups. Not generally my thing, but damned if this didn't get under my skin, particularly 'Daddy Rollin Stone'. I mainly wish it was Saturday because this album and Dave's need to be played at around 9pm with some folks over and drinks being served. Also, Phil's album seems to demand cigarettes, lots of them. The pops of the vinyl rip seem to give a puff of sweet menthol every time.

Brand New Rock 'N' Roll

Inspired by the recent country-rock discussion on the obner board, this seemed to be a logical choice. The first two solo albums from Don Everly, the self-titled Don Everly from 1970 and Sunset Towers from 1974. I believe this may be currently available as a bundled disc, but the single albums themselves are long deleted. Which is a shame because it's some first-rate country-rock. 'Don't Drink the Water' and 'Februrary 15' are both standouts from the debut album, the latter being a weird folk-rock with a surprising modern feel. 'Warming Up the Band' from Sunset Towers has a surprising near funky groove while 'Let it Rain' could easily be My Morning Jacket's best idea for a cover. Recommended for your Son Volt, Wilco and My Morning Jacket fans.

The Return of The Jack

After a full year of nothingness, it's time to get back to it. I figure this is one hobby I want to recommit too. Stuff is about to happen.

I Gave You The Diamonds, You Give Me Disease

After seemingly a dead serious promise to keep up with this blog, I've clearly let things bog me down to the point where I'm unable to string together a bunch of words and upload some serious records to share. Well, seeing as I'm an unreliable fuck at the best of times, this should be no surprise. But on the upside between April and now, I've accrued a lot of terrible albums to share. This was a recent gem I Give You Diamonds, You Give Me Disease: The Exile Outtakes. It's pretty much as nasty as one would expect it to be. What blew me away were the alternate takes of such signature tunes. The early 'Tumbling Dice' song 'Good Time Women' was pretty much the best thing I've heard all week. And the original is one of my all time favourite songs. The basic structure is there, that quality is present, but that relaxed heroiny groove is replaced by a more uptempo beat. If 'Hillside Blues' or 'Travellin' Man' doesn't make you want to commit war crimes, then there' just no pleasing you.

Dolled up in Neon, Strut your Wares down the Street

At the risk of already becoming redundant and/or predictable, I've come back to post some more about the Forgotten Rebels, but in this case I come bearing actual albums. These are all out of print now, so I don't feel bad. The main impetus for this post was the recent acquisition of This Ain't Hollywood. I snagged it from another blog, which claimed it was a vinyl rip of their 1981 album. Now, it nearly is a vinyl rip of the album however, for some reason in place of the original version of 'Surfin' on Heroin', there is the 1986 remake that appears on The Pride and Disgrace. The remake distinguishes itself from the original by being slightly longer with some additional sound effects, namely puking. It's still great...just not the original. But every other song on This Ain't Hollywood is just as good as I remember it being. I think I mentioned earlier that it's been at least 15 years since I've heard the album in anything other than a hissy old dubbed cassette. I'd forgotten how good 'Memory Lane' with its "I won't stop and stare, I'm far away but not there..." refrain and the title track is just as fantastic as ever. Same with the pissy 'England Keep Your Stars', which is worth repeating in full:

I remember you so many years ago
What I saw in you, I don't know
I saw stars when I opened your door
They landed on our fair shores
Their novel accents made them so rich
While I'm stuck playing In a rotting ditch
Now London don't swing like a pendulum do
England keep yer starts

So won't you keep yer stars
England Keep yer stars
Won't you keep yer stars
England keep yer stars

Through Canada and America they played the biggest arena
They took money from our pocket then they got ripped off
I wanna be so bloody rich, I wanna be a snob
and make my wife a bitch
Now London don't swing like a pendulum do
England keep yer stars

Radio loves the English bands
Radio loves the American bands
Have they censored Canada to get their money from foreign lands?
Rebels like us who have it rough
Canadian radio will not play our stuff
Now New York don't swing like a pendulum do
England keep yer stars

So in honour of getting this long awaited album I thought I'd put up their debut In Love with the System and The Pride and Disgrace. I probably like the debut as much as the This Ain't Hollywood, and this version also contains some bonus tracks of their earliest songs like 'Forgotten Rebel' and 'Reich 'n Roll'. The Pride and Disgrace released in 1986 tones down the obvious glam rock of their previous album and bounds more towards straight rock and roll. You can't really call an earnest cover of the Beatles 'Rain' punk rock, although perhaps the lead-off track 'Ethiopia' with it's ragging on LiveAid (i.e. Ethiopia, forget about, Ethiopia, the whole bloody thing is a sham...what do we ignore our own poor with rich rock stars and celebrity boors) can still make a case for them being pissed off. And the rape-murder story 'Little Girl' still kind of freaks me out. ('...and you found, yes you found a brand new romance, little girl in the snow, you should have stayed home, baby it's cold out there tonight'), but these are buttressed against wonderfully goofy tracks like 'I Am King' ('I'm so great, I'm so cool I am the king and the Rebels RULE'), 'Live Strippers' and 'Underwear'. It's actually a better album than I remember.

Also, as promised in that previous post. A shot of me getting ready for the Rebels show in 1992. It is 10am.

I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away...

Of all the urban legends in music, probably my favourite is the one about Merry Clayton. As the story goes, her incredibly incendiary performance of 'Gimme Shelter' during the Let it Bleed sessions induced a miscarriage. The funny thing about urban legends is they always seem particularly unbelievable, Rod Stewart's semen story notwithstanding, but listening to her on that song, frankly, it doesn't seem that out there. Her vocals are quite literally hair-raising, particularly the 'raaaaape, muuuurdddder' part. In addition to that notorious song, she also backed another ridiculously famous tune, 'Sweet Home Alabama'. On her solo debut Gimme Shelter she never quite burns down the house, but it's fantastic to have an entire album of her voice. In addition to her own cover on the title track, which while no way as intense as the original, there is a wholly unnecessary cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters'. I fucking hate that song, so it's my problem. Others may find it lovely. Her cover of The Doors' 'Tell All the People' is, however, really good. But some of the more powerful, and near hair-raising moments are on the slower numbers like 'Here Comes Those Heartaches Again' and 'I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away'. I don't exactly know why Merry never took off as a major artist. It's weird how things work out.

You Can't Get There From Here

I don't know if these guys really looked like this, but I hope they did. Wrapped in bullets and carrying guns. This was the only picture I could find of the band, so I assume they're all dead. I actually first found a mention of this band on Skynfan's Guide to Rock 'n Roll and while the songs were good, the actual listening experience was terrible because it was an awful rip. However, Usenet pays off again with four of their albums. If you like, for lack of a better term, 'southern rock', then you will almost certainly dig Potliquor. They don't have the epic southern mystique of the Drive-By Truckers or Lynyrd Skynyrd. They're more along the lines of Marshall Tucker Band or early ZZ Top with a bit more dixie swing. They also remind me a bit of Lucero. Anyway, this album, Louisiana Rock & Roll, has been a favourite of mine this week. Great rock & roll music, done right and clocking in around 40 min. They probably should have been bigger than they were, aside from an interesting curio from a bygone era.