Monday, June 28, 2010

Where the Wild Things Is...er, Are.





If I were to say the phrase ‘Wild Thing’ and visions of feuding Troggs crept into your mind, then I’d say you stand w/ most music aficionados. If, consequently, visions of Denise Richards and Neve Campbell dikeing out w/ Matt Dillon from the Outsiders permeate your grey matter, then I’d say you watch too much Showtime Late nite and are an unapologetic pervert. In this case either one is perfectly acceptable, as the Wild Things I’m sellin are of neither camp, yet at the same time, decidedly camp -a terminally obscure, if not, unknown variety of hair-hopping garage punk monsters.

Don’t believe me? Dig the pix. I mean, these guys look like a cross between Johnny Suede, Sleazy P. Martini (from GWAR) and Congo Powers. The later, in particular, as majority of the members are of Mexican extraction, doing there best Tav Falco, sporting Gomez Addams moustaches and Teddy boy frocks.



While decidedly ‘Drape’ in appearance, these hombres are straight up amateur night garage punk, if their first single ‘Weird Hot Night (Suffer Baby) is any indication. I see this track turn up on some of the more obscure private press comps- a rare gem considering how close to the bottom of the barrel we’ve come with regards to good, unreleased garage punk tracks. The flip ain’t no slouch either, with both tracks exhibiting low production values without even the slightest regard for technicality, a surprise given Gary Us Bonds involvement in SQRLs production

The third track enclosed, Old Lady, tends to complicate matters, as this later incarnation (69’) of Wild Thing is widely regarded to be the same band as the previous single, though I can find no definitive copy to back that up (Fuck it. I’ll just assume and make an ass out of me). Despite what the mile-high hair and shtick might suggest, Wild Thing were not a studio creation, but were signed by Electra at the behest of a scene headhunter, a full length LP of covers rounding out their single input – a move ultimately considered an embarrassing failure by the Electra production team – never quite living up to the intensity of their previous singles.

While I might spare you the horrors of this lack-luster lp, these singles represent the unhinged talent (and follicles) of a true, grass-roots project - unfettered by the demands of a major label and free to let their hair down, or up, as this ridiculous picture seems to suggest.

Weird Hot Nights (Suffer Baby) – Wild Thing

Don’t Fool With My Girl – Wild Thing

Old Lady – Wild Thing

P.S. Special thanks to Vinyl Dog (Oddly enough, his real name)for inadvertantly sending me on a Wild (Thing)Goose-chase

RedBoy XXXVII





There Are Two Kinds of People in This World, Those w/ Loaded Guns and Those Who Dig…You, Dig. Dig?





To all 2A detractors:

Look, it’s a done deal. Guns have always been a part of our country and ideology. To suggest anything less is disingenuous, to demand anything more is arrogant. I was taught from an early age to respect guns and the power they promise, in return they have respected me; their very existence insuring me that no matter how dark the skies may get, be it political climate, or all out bedlam, I will always have a means to fight back and protect me and mine from an increasingly emboldened, ruthless, and entitled world. Happy as I am w/ today’s SCOTUS outcome, I did not need the Heller decision to enumerate this right, nor do I need today’s McDonald decision to make it so. It is an immutable fact; older than the hills and just as relentless in it permanence.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Looks like the peace-niks are gonna have to find a new ax to grind. Just as well…you should never bring an ax to a gun-fight, anyways.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Revenge: A Dish Best Served Cold (and w/ Cheese)





I’m takin’ this opportunity to shine a light in my little corner of internet sky (Be it ever so humble). One-Hundred thousand hits might seem like a drop in the bucket, especially in a place where information flows like so much blood and attracts just as many rubberneckers as it does flies to the edges of its sticky imbruement, but it’s a distinction I’ll wear w/ pride. If I could turn just one noggin upside down w/ an unknown, or unknowable recording thanks to my efforts, than it is worth a thousand times a thousand computer crashes and just as many unwarranted political entanglement (I’m always right- just for future reference).

Now, if psychologists are to be believed, then we are not born bad, we are, however, every last one of us born square, and as such, we each have to start from square one.

It’s precisely for this reason that I’m highlighting – what is in my humble opinion- the greatest record ever pressed - a record which blew my mind like a cherry-bomb in a trash bin at a time where I was branching off from what I understood music to be (Totally wrong, by the by), and into a miasma of detritus popular critics would exemplify as everything music should NOT be. The record is the Rat’s Revenge; the reasons it strikes a chord, albeit, slightly out of tune, are myriad.



First, the Rats Revenge is not so much a song, as it is a meandering jam; loose in a way that seems juvenile, yet w/ the sincerity that only some wet-behind the ears 16 year old could hope to muster up. Second, Rat’s is completely spontaneous in it’s arrangement; one gets the feeling even the Rat’s themselves don’t quite know where this shit is going’, even knowing full well where this shit has been. Third, as I am a sucker for anything with a pt 2, these bookends are actually on par w/ each other, continuing the narrative (Such as it is) in lieu of just dumpin’ a slightly tweaked DUB track on the flip.

As for the Rats themselves? Word on the street places the Rats in Ohio circa 66’. Word on Tim Warren’s liner notes for BFTG vol 1 places them in the studio where, as the sensational combo the Decades, they recorded the instro classic ‘Strange Worlds’. Would that that had been enough, Mystics producer Terry Rose decided to hip the Decades to a lucrative proposition: Being that the beach party films staring Frankie Avalon & Annette Funichello were so popular, and a big part of that popularity is thanks to their antagonist, Erik Von Zipper (the late Harvey Lembeck) and his motorcycle gang, the Rats, how could a song by the Rats, about the rats, not sell a million copies? The result: after several dismal takes, the band was cautioned not to be so ridged and just have fun with the track…and thus the Rats Revenge was born. Needless to say, the disc sunk like a stone, was disavowed by the band and remains a cult classic to this day, despite the fact that “Most of the 500 copies pressed ended up in a garbage dump in Kent Ohio” …which is right where I come in…square one.

As a kid burned out on punk and ripe for some non-sensical, non-proselytizing R ‘N’ R, Rats revenge is everything I wanted out of a disc; stupid, crude and w/ absolutely no social message or redeeming value…kinda like this blog and it’s owner. SUPERGORILLA!!!

He’s to a Hundred Thousand more! Salute!

Rat’s Revenge pt 1 – Rats

Rat’s Revenge pt 2 - Rats

P.S. Fuck the Golden Pelicans!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

RedBoy XXXVI





Pssst! Hey Kid...Wanna Buy Some Records?





Yeah? Then get your lazy ass to the Highland Park record sale Friday, June 18th (2pm-8pm)in beautiful, scenic Highland Park, N.J.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Hi-Fi for Small Fry





“I want Candy”

Really, not so much anymore. They say your tastes change as you get older, and they may be right. Anyone who knows me knows I crave to most ridiculous brands of candy. Be they liquid in form, sour, tongue transmogrifying or of the gummy variety, I’m all over them- or, at least I was. These days my pallet has changed, some would argue, for the better. That doesn’t mean I can’t indulge in some auditory sugar-lumps on occasion, especially when I can’t make it to the local ‘Five Below’ for my requisite stock of Cherry Clans and Laffy Taffy (Shitty jokes not withstanding).




Note: I don’t give a fuck what Ferrera Pan calls em’ these days. They are still Cherry Clans to me)

Here we have the Candy Men, not to be confused w/ the Candy Men or the Candy Men. Now, before you jump all over my shit w/ the obligatory “But, Peter Pan Records sux” spiel, know that under any other circumstances I would agree w/ you, the majority of ‘Pan’s’ output being barely listenable kiddie dreck. But as well known collector and all around solid sender ‘Vinyl Dog’ (Co Chair of the Legendary Highland Park Record Sale) told me whilst trying to entice a trade for some Bollywood soundtracks I scammed outa the Newark Salvation Army, this ‘Pan’ track is actually pretty awesome and worth the switch. He was indeed correct.

Spearmint twist was the carrot offered for trade, but to tell you the truth, as much as I dig the instro side, it’s ‘Candy-Bar Twist’ that has really got me in a, um, twist. You better download em’ now before Joey Dee unleashed the dogs of war and takes this candy from you, baby.

Candy Bar Twist – Candymen

Spearmint Twist - Candymen

Currently Watching...





The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

"Roger Corman's, and most people's, choice as the best of the Edgar Allan Poe pictures. Masque offers the expected creepy atmosphere and violence against peasants, plus metaphysical ponderings and pointed satanic cruelty. (Corman was operating as much under the influence of Ingmar Bergman as of Edgar Allan Poe.) Nicolas Roeg's color cinematography and Daniel Haller's elaborate production design would be stellar in any Hollywood A-movie; the mono-colored rooms of the prince's castle are a startling effect. Vincent Price is in fine fettle as Prince Prospero, the devil-worshipping sadist who throws lavish parties while the countryside is ravaged by the plague."


Equality...





Thursday, June 10, 2010

Knifed o'er a Pair of Jordans!?





I guess it makes sense that I bought this disc in a shit-bedecked chicken coup out near Lancaster PA, as the Brothers Jordan hail for nearby Schuylkill County PA, and as anyone who has ever spent a nickel of time out in that area know, it’s a family affair.

The Jordans were a popular regional act from the inception of their first single in 54’ all the way till their disbandment in 1986; quite a long stretch for a band that never made it out of their own county. Be that as it may, the Brothers still have quite a following amongst the locals, who spend their youth pawin and pettin the local trim at their capacity gigs, strollin to the cool sounds of Basin Street Rumble, as if any of those youths had ever seen the business end of a stiletto out there in Amish county. Man, times sure have changed.

Find your way out to Lancaster now and you are just as likely to get iced by a 'Crip' or buy cocaine from a Mennonite than to see even a stitch of unmolested, verdant farmland, but that’s progress for you. Maybe now Basin Street Rumble can finally live up to it’s name. As for me, I personally think the flip, 'Sloe Gin' is cooler, but when it's six of one, half-dozen of the other, you gotta go with name recognition.

Basin Street Rumble – Jordan Brothers

Sloe Gin – Jordan Brothers

RedBoy XXXV





Currently Reading...







Ishi's Brain - In Search of America's Last Wild Indian

"Touted in his day as "the last wild Indian," Ishi, of the Northern Californian Yahi people, survived by adapting to a life housed within a San Francisco anthropological museum, where spectators paid to see him make arrowheads, until he died in 1916. Under 1990s repatriation laws, a group of Maidu Indians from the Sierra Nevada region sought to reclaim Ishi's ashes, buried in a San Francisco cemetery, but a rumor persisted that Ishi's brain had been removed during autopsy, pickled, and was still hidden somewhere. Duke University anthropologist Starn searched for the brain and here offers an unlikely narrative, informative and politicized, with easy-to-read, much-needed thumbnail histories of the Indian Wars. (As Starn notes, California Gold Rush atrocities against Native Americans are so recent that people remember them firsthand from their grandparents.) One of Starn's main accusations is that the widow of the important, early anthropologist Alfred Kroeber first made Ishi's story famous through "writerly liberties" as well as "careless research and made-up dramatic effects." Starn himself makes his own feelings and impressions central to the story, allowing himself to tell us, for example, that he "fell asleep at midnight with the motel swimming pool's blue floodlights glowing through the curtains like the beams of an alien spaceship." His search takes him from the University of Berkeley to the Cornucopia Restaurant in Oroville, Calif., to the Repatriation Office and "wet collection" in the Smithsonian Museum of National History, to an Ancestral Gathering at Mount Lassen National Park, to "Grizzly Bear's Hiding Place." For some readers, Starn-as-protagonist will ground this intellectual mystery, while others will find him distracting. But on the whole, the book satisfies as a quick review of sordid chapters in the nation's history, and a genuinely compelling investigation of how one culture's attempt to dominate another can take bizarre, persistent forms."

You Always Hurt the Ones You Love...





Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Shameless Self Promotion 06/02/10





What you missed Return to the Planet of GO APE?...
Don't Fret...
It's the sequel... Conquest of the Planet FANCY!
Get your primate on, swing over to and get new the issue of the FANCY! Digest It's A Caper! w/ special guests Brookline Mass. bad asses Tunnel Of Love, GO APE! recording stars THE BRIMSTONES,and THE HECKLERS. Plus hours of EYE POPPIN' SUPER ROCKIN' video from the vaults Jolly Roger Digital Video Archive.
Sat. June 5 th
9 pm
$5.00
The Delancey
168 Delancey Street (at Clinton st.)
in the basement
J,M,Z & F train to Essex
Come Get FANCY!
VISIT www.fancymag.com DOWNLOAD your own MONKEY MASK and get in FREE

Some of the videos we will be showing
HAWKWIND - Silver Machine (Promo 1972)
SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS - Trailer (1968)
SHARON TANDY with FLEUR DE LYS - Hold On (BeatClub 1968)
The IMPOSSIBLES - Intro (1966)
THE COCKNEYS - After Tomorrow (Swinging U.K. 1963)
THE VANDELLAS - Nowhere To Run (It’s What’s Happening Baby 1965)
The T.A.M.I. SHOW - Trailer (1964)
LITTLE MILLIE SMALL - My Boy Lollipop (Swinging U.K. 1964)
THE EQUALS - Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys (Promo 1971)
MONKEY MUSIC - Excerpt from Son Of Kong (1933)
MTV STARSHIP CRUISE - Commercial (1983)
THE DICKIES - Banana Splits (Tra La La Song) (Promo 1979)
JUDAS PRIEST - Hot Rockin’ (Promo 1980)
BIGFOOT & WILDBOY - Intro (1978)
THE BRIMSTONES - Shut Me Down (2009)
MEADE LUX LEWIS - Low Down Dog (1944)
THE ROLLING STONES - We Love You (Promo 1967)
RAT PFINK A BOO BOO - Trailer (1966)
ROCK ROLL - Bedrock Twitch (The Flintstones 1962)
BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA - Trailer (1952)
THE ZEROS - Wimp (LA, CA TV 1978)
DIE KREUZEN - Fuck Ups (Milwaukee, WI 1984)
GO APE RECORDS - The Brimstones Record Release Party (2010)
THE SAINTS - (I’m) Stranded • Know Your Product (Promos 1977 - 78)
JERRY LEE LEWIS - Whole Lotta Shakin’ (195?)
LITTLE RICHARD - She’s Got It • Whole Lotta Shakin’ (Paris 1966)
BLACK RODEO - Trailer (1972)
THE ROLLING STONES - Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Promo 1968)
SMALL FACES - Rollin’ Over (Surprise Partie, French TV 1968)
THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER - Trailer (1965)
JET SCREAMER - Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah (The Jetsons 1962)
CHUCK BERRY - You Can’t Catch Me (Rock, Rock, Rock 1956)
EDUARD KHIL - Trololo (USSR 197?)
APE OF DEATH - Excerpt from the Mighty Boosh (2004)
BOB SEGER & THE LAST HEARD - East Side Story (Swinging Time 1966)
THE SHADOWS - Apache (1960)
THE TORNADOES - Blue Blue Beat (Swinging U.K. 1963)
THE MILLS BROTHERS - Caravan (1942)
THE MARVELETTES - Please Mr. Postman (Teen Town 1965)
LANCELOT LINK - Rollin’ In The Clover (1970)
WOOLWORTH - Christmas Ad
MC5 - Tonight (MusikLaden 1972)
THE TUBES - White Punks On Dope (OGWT 1976)