THE BOX TOPS
“Cry Like a Baby”
1960s
Alex Chilton was never really cut out to be a pop star.
Archive for the Rock Category
REDD KROSS
“Jimmy’s Fantasy”
Live at the Echoplex, Los Angeles (11/02/07)
Redd Kross should have been the band that brought alt-rock to middle America.
This phone video might be unwatchable to you, but I was there last Friday and the show was epic. Jeff, Steve, Robert andRoy (the best Kross lineup) all survived the 90s, got healthy and got back together. They still aren’t playing any new songs but they did throw in their cover of “Citadel.”
If you can’t handle the video quality above, check out the proper music video of “Jimmy’s Fantasy,” starring a young Earl Hickey.
FLAT DUO JETS
on ‘IRS The Cutting Edge’
MTV 1985
Peter Zaremba takes us on a tour of Dexter Romweber’s living quarters.
LOVE MONSTERS
Four-Song EP
(Boston 1983)
There’s no chapter, paragraph or even footnote about Love Monsters in the history of Boston rock. As far as I know, their entire career unfolded behind the gates of Harvard University.
I don’t think the band would have left a trace if they hadn’t won a 1983 campus Battle of the Bands.
After a surprise upset over Speedy & the Castanets, someone thought Love Monsters should release a 7″ to commemorate their victory. I’m not sure this record was ever distributed off-campus and the band broke up when Dan Wilson graduated.
Harvard bands were generally pretty terrible and Love Monsters most definitely the great exception. Matt and Dan Wilson had played Boston clubs in Animal Dance the year before (no Animal Dance 45s or cassettes, as far as I know) and went on to greater things in Trip Shakespeare, but Love Monsters played just for the college kids.
I’m sad to report that Speedy and the Castanets qualified as terrible. There was absolutely no hint that Dean Wareham and Damon Krukowski would later go on to form Galaxie 500 with Naomi Yang.
Trip Shakespeare’s A&R person at A&M would have liked to hear “Kiss Away the Tears,” a genuine love song stripped of all the weird lyrical obsessions that have plagued Matt Wilson’s commercial development (cf. “Rebecca” on this EP).
The Harvard Crimson newspaper archive offers some interesting real-time commentary:
Dan Wilson’s Free Life is out now on American Recordings.
- Download: “Cold Days“
- Download: “Picture of a Girl“
- Download: “Rebecca“
- Download: “Kiss Away the Tears“
(self released: no label or catalog number)
TRIP SHAKESPEARE
“Toolmaster of Brainerd (live)” & “Reception (live)”
(Minneapolis, MN 1990)
Dan Wilson’s solo album Free Life comes out today.
Long before he was in Semisonic, Dan played guitar and keyboards in Trip Shakespeare with his brother Matt.
A&M could never get Trip Shakespeare on the radio, so their following never grew outside of the Midwest.
Since you had to see them to really get it, here’s a couple of live recordings from “The Crane” 12″ single.
- Download: “Toolmaster of Brainerd (live)“
- Download: “Reception (live)“
(A&M Records SP 18019)
MARY MY HOPE
“One Cigarette”
(Atlanta 1989)
After my last post about Mary My Hope, Peter from Fansite: Mary My Hope asked me to rip the b-side of “It’s About Time.”
Here you go.
- Download: “One Cigarette“
(Silvertone Records ORE 3)
Oct
10
2007
“One Link in the Chain Gone Could Make It All Go Away”
Posted by: JB in Rock, Florida, 00s, Video
Runnin’ Down a Dream Trailer
dir: Peter Bogdanovich
2007
Before I get into this, I want to be clear: Tom Petty is the Man. For most of the 70s & 80s, Tom was the only guy on mainstream radio you could be sure still listened to his copy of Nuggets.
Runnin’ Down a Dream looks amazing, if only because a four-hour DVD cut will allow them to use as much vintage footage of the band as they can find.
But here what Tom says at about 2:50 in to the trailer:
“There’s something special about this group of people. I treasure it now, because one link in the chain gone could make it all go away.”
What the hell?
Is that comment highlighted because the kid who edited the trailer thought it sounded uplifting or is it a cheap shot at ex-drummer Stan Lynch?
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers managed to alternate between Ron Blair & the late Howie Epstein on bass, but things haven’t been the same since Stan quit in 1994. Steve Ferrone may be a more technically accomplished player, but Stan meshed better with the band.
Maybe it’s out of context and there will be half an hour’s worth of serious Stan love in the completed film.
Or maybe I just have an overdeveloped ear for band politics. I thought the Bruce Springsteen Wings for Wheels documentary was most notable for how everyone went out of his way to make amends and give credit to Mike Appel. And all I can remember about Michael Stipe’s speech at R.E.M.’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction is how he pointedly left Jefferson Holt off a thank-you list of what seemed like a hundred people.
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers = still worth seeing any night you can get a ticket. But it was better when Stan was in the band.
Oct
09
2007
Under the Influence: Lil Jon vs. Suicidal Tendencies
Posted by: JB in Rock, 00s, 80s, Video
LIL JON & THE EAST SIDE BOYZ
“Stop Fuckin Wit Me”
Crunk Juice
(Atlanta 2004)
Rick Rubin produced this one. I’m pretty sure they were listening to this one down at the studio:
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
“Institutionalized”
Suicidal Tendencies
(Los Angeles 1983)
THE DISTRACTIONS
“Time Goes By So Slow”
(Manchester, UK 1979)
THE DISTRACTIONS
“Nothing”
You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That
(Manchester 1978)
The popular history of Factory Records makes Tony Wilson sound like an austere visionary whose minimalist aesthetic gave us Joy Division.
That image doesn’t exactly match up with the actual Manchester 70s guy who fronted the Granada Television show “So It Goes.”
The Distractions look like real live 70s people and not the art-schoolers who invented punk rock. Check the cover of the You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That EP: the drummer is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and one of the guitarists sports a “Distractions Fail Sex Test” t-shirt, the kind with the iron-on fuzzy letters you could use to spell out whatever message you wanted.
Tony signed them after that EP came out and “Time Goes By So Slow” was released in September 1979, three months after Factory put out Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures.
Even though the 45 sleeve doesn’t stand out in a pile of Factory releases, the Distractions’ actual music is everything the art-schoolers hated: earnest and accessible, enthusiastic and well-rehearsed.
It’s the standard ‘77 rock fix: crank up the guitars on your trad rock songs and maybe you’d pass for punk. Even with the stylish Factory logo, no one was buying the Distractions as avatars of the new style.
That’s too bad. “Time Goes By So Slow” holds up as one of the absolute best Factory titles. If Island’s distribution had managed to deliver this record so that the Distractions outsold Joy Divison in 1979, the Factory story might have been far less austere.
Failed Sellout Alert: The Distractions recut “Nothing’ for their 1980 Island Records album Nobody’s Perfect. Unfortunately, polishing the rough edges sucked all the life out of the song. The rest of the album isn’t much better. Nice Peter Saville cover design, though.
- Download “Time Goes By So Slow”
- Download “Nothing”
(”Time Goes By So Slow” - Factory Records FAC 12)
(You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That - TJM Records TJM2)
THE HIVES
“Tick Tick Boom”
Black & White Album
(Sweden 2007)
These guys cashed a $12 million check from Jimmy Iovine and keep making the same record over and over. Good. I’ll keep buying it.
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