Tuesday's Music-Themed Photo Funnies

That last one isn't music-themed per se, of course. But it is how I wanna be remembered.

Television Notes From All Over (An Occasional Feature): Special "And You Thought the Clash Were Angry" Edition

Okay, so a certain Shady Dame and I have been watching a BritBox show -- a comedy/drama -- from last year called Riot Women and we're totally hooked.

The premise: A bunch of mostly menopausal British gals with shall we say difficult lives (the show is set in the present) get a chance to form a punk band and against the odds decide to go for it. Hilarity (not to mention violence, anger, and all sorts of obstacles in their way) ensues.

Seriously, I lack the words to describe how much fun -- and occasionally how outrageous -- the show is. Plus the music, featuring a lot of well-chosen vintage punk and New Wave stuff on the soundtrack plus some new songs written specifically for the titular Riot Women by an actual alt-rock gal band called ARXX, is terrific, and the acting is fabulous across the board. I'm particularly taken with Rosalie Craig (the red-headed hot mess guitar player in the trailer, who's a real-life Brit musical theater star with amazing pipes), but they're all great, and apparently most of them learned how to play their instruments for the show, which is totally cool. And I've gotta say, that scene above where Tamsin Grieg (as an ex-cop) has to count up the frets of her bass before they start a song is one of the funniest things I've ever seen outside of Spinal Tap.

There are six episodes in the first season; as of this writing, the BBC has announced it's renewing the show for a second batch, and I can't wait.

Hey -- trust me, you'll love it; if you've got access to BritBox, pounce. If not, consult (as they used to say) your local listings.

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "I Can't Believe I've Never Done This One" Edition

And by the way, I'm not kidding about the above title -- I really can't believe I haven't already done this one.

But that being the case, enough of my yakkin' -- let's get right to the subject of the weekend's business. to wit:

...and your favorite (or least favorite) cover(s) of a song by Chuck Berry that is NOT by The Beatles or the Rolling Stones is/are...???

Discuss.

And since we're in total hurry-up mode, here are mine.

That's live, of course, and the monster groove back-up band is Brinsley Schwarz. I should add that I stole some of Edmunds' echoed guitar licks from that on numerous occasions over the years, including in the studio.

And then there's this.

About which I can only say (and I think we can all agree) that's it's kinda not good, although somebody (lead singer Stevie Wright?) does an okay impression of Chuck's occasionally nasal vocals. 😎

In any event, as long time readers are aware, I'm a humongous Easybeats fan and I found it quite disappointing overall. Your mileage etc.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Just Shoot Me Now

BAND NAMES THAT RISE

Bread Zeppelin
The Rolling Scones
Macaroon 5
Bonbon Jovi
Mötley Crüeller
Olivia Newton Flan
The Beached Boys
Feastie Boys

Earth, Wind & Fryer
Limp Biscuits & Gravy
The Grateful Bread
Snack Sabbath
Pancakes at the Disco
Oreos Speedwagon

I think my favorite is Mötley Crüeller. 😎

Don't Mince Words, Ladies -- Tell Us What You REALLY Think!

From their just released and utterly fab reunion album, the splendidly monikered (and brilliantly art directed) GRRRR!!...

...please enjoy pioneering Melbourne femme garage pop-rockers Girl Monstar and the lead off track "Hate Train."

Inspirational verse:

Monster's got money and hate on his lips
He's a baby man in an electric van on an egomaniac trip yeah
Driving the hate train

He's driving the hate train, driving it off the rails
No brakes for women, no brakes for kids, knows he'll never go to jail
Yeah He's got you in his pocket, your phone is a gun on his hip
He's got satellites in the sky and soldiers on your street
Driving the hate train

He imagines he's a master, imagines he's a god
Imagines nothing but himself in total control
He's not liable for your losses, not liable for your pain
Selling gasoline lies and light the flame
Driving the hate train

Monster's got money, thinks he's so hot
Tells me he loves me, wants to f$ck me on his yacht
He's not liable for my losses, not liable for my pain
He's just ringing the hate bell, again and again and again and again

Driving the hate train

That first came out as a single at the end of last year, but it seems even more relevant to the tragic events of the past January.

I mean -- hey, I could be wrong, but I think we all know who the song is about, specifically.

And even if these kids didn't mean it as a protest song indicting you-know-who, the metaphor is inescapable and inarguable.

Anyway, Girl Monstar, who I was previously unaware of, have been big faves on the Australian rock scene since 1988, although individually they had moved on to other areas (both musically and geographically) by the early 90s. More recently, they apparently felt they still had work left to do, as you can plainly hear from the above.

Here's a recent and very brief bio-pic that will give you an idea just how cool they are!

And in the meantime, you can hear (and purchase) the rest of GRRRR!! over at Bandcamp HERE.

[h/t Dave Laing]

Tuesday's Cartoon Giggles

The Springsteen is genius. 😎

I Could Be Wrong, But I Have a Sneaking Suspicion Bob Dylan Would Really Dig This!

Some ladies my age (heh) sing a huge and thoroughly deserved FUCK YOU! to you know who. Based on a classic by some guy (not coincidentally) from Minnesota.

In all seriousness, watching that for the first time I got as choked up as I did watching the videos for the new songs by Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen.

Hang in there, grannies.

[h/t Robert Soltermann]

La Fin De La Semaine Essay Question: Special "A Study in Scarlet" Edition

Okay, I can now die happy -- that "bands that played at CBGB" box set (featuring a track by my 70s group The Hounds) that I've been tediously bending your ears about recently is officially released today, at last.

On Cherry Red Records, a/k/a the Coolest Label in the World™.

I promise I won't bore you about it further in the future, but at this juncture I feel obligated to mention that my candidate for the most underrated of the big time bands out of CBs -- and by far my personal favorite of all of them -- is without a question Mink DeVille.

Seriously -- those guys sounded like an unholy out of this world shtup between the Stones, Dylan, the Drifters/Ben E. King and some half-remembered NYC latin rock group. And their two albums on Capitol (produced by the great Jack Nitzche) remain astounding. I should also add that a) it is one of the great regrets of my adult life that I never got to see them live and b) that if you get me drunk sometime, I will tell you an absolutely terrifying story about what happened when I interviewed front man Willy DeVille in 1981.

But anyway, speaking of Cherry Red, now comes word that they're giving a similar deluxe box set treatment to -- be still my beating heart -- The Lovin' Spoonful.

From the official press release:

7 CD, 170-track box set compiling the complete 1960s recordings by The Lovin’ Spoonful.

• Mastering is by Grammy nominated archivist/producer Alec Palao.

• Includes their first four studio albums 'Do You Believe In Magic' (1965), 'Daydream' (1966), 'Hums Of The Lovin’ Spoonful' (1966) and 'Everything Playing' (1967) in both stereo and mono plus stereo mixes of their two soundtrack albums 'The Lovin’ Spoonful In Woody Allen’s ‘What’s Up Tiger Lily?' (1966) and 'You’re A Big Boy Now' (1967).

• Also contains the Joe Butler-helmed final album 'Revelation: Revolution ’69' (1969), original guitarist Zal Yanovsky’s solo album 'Alive And Well In Argentina' (1968) and stereo and mono versions of the early Lovin’ Spoonful tracks included on Elektra’s 1966 compilation 'What’s Shakin’, the mono mixes appearing on CD for the first time.

Including all of their hits: ‘Do You Believe In Magic’ (US #9), ‘You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice’ (US #10), ‘Daydream’ (US #2, UK #2), ‘Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind’ (US #2), ‘Summer In The City’ (US #1, UK #8), ‘Rain On The Roof’ (US #10), Nashville Cats (US # 8, UK #26), ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ (US #14), ‘Six O’Clock’ (US #18) and ‘She Is Still A Mystery’ (US #27).

Bonus tracks include ‘Alley Oop’, an out-take from their debut album sessions plus demos, alternative versions and instrumentals.

The Lovin’ Spoonful’s first seven singles gave them seven consecutive US Top 10 hits. Often described as Americas answer to The Beatles, The Lovin’ Spoonful were so much more. They rose out of the Greenwich Village folk boom and adjacent to the British Invasion hit big with their ‘good time music’, an exhilarating mix of jug band, blues, folk, rock and roll and big-hearted pop. MOJO Magazine’s Lois Wilson describes the members in the notes as “John Sebastian, a hugely talented, often underrated songwriter with a preternatural command of words and melody; Zalman Yanovsky, a protean guitar player, capable of fuzzed out psych, mercurial blues and fingerpicked folk; then Steve Boone and Joe Butler, bass and drums respectively, who provided a rock ’n’ roll framework with a jazz player’s lightness of touch”.

Just to let that sink in -- that's pretty much every single note they ever recorded in one handy dandy package.

The set is due to be released on March 27th, and let me just say that if anybody reading this here blog wants to get me a copy for my birthday I wouldn't say no. 😎

Anyway, that leads us to the subject of the weekend's business. To wit:

...and your favorite (or least favorite) track by John, Zal, Steve and Joe is...???

Discuss.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, here's my fave, which I think will surprise you.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

The Boss Speaks For Me

He names names, too.

Lyrics at the link.

You know, I've described myself as sort of a lapsed Springsteen fan for a while now, but the above is the kind of thing that made me a fan in the first place.

Loudest New Song of the Week

Spın̈al Tap's great bassist Derek Smalls has a new single out.

Inspirational verse:

"IT TAKES BALLS TO MAKE A PIZZA WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO COOK."

I think we can all agree that goes to eleven. 😎

Incidentally, the highly anticipated third Tap movie -- Spinal Tap at Stonehenge: The Final Finale, a concert flick shot live in 2025 at the actual Stonehenge -- is apparently on hold as a result of the tragic murder of director Rob Reiner and his wife last December.