La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "Beatles Selfies" Edition

Yeah, yeah, it's gimmicky. But it's also terrific.

That's the work of a British musical comedian/impressionist named Stevie Riks, who grew up Liverpool adjacent, and who's apparently been doing this kind of thing for a while now (you can find out more about him at his official website over HERE).

And I should add that if the actual Beatles had the same technology available to them back then, we can say with some certainty that they would have taken advantage of it.

In any event, this leads us inexorably to the subject of the weekend's business. To wit:

...and the best (or worst) single song or album by a post-1964 artist (solo or group) making obviously deliberate attempts to ape elements of the Fab Four's style/sound is...?

Discuss.

No arbitrary rules here, but let's just say that if you attempt to nominate an actual Beatles tribute band or the original cast album of Broadway's Beatlemania ("Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation") I will come to your house very late on a weeknight and give you a severe tongue-lashing.

Anyway -- for my choice? Album-wise, I don't really have a dog in this hunt, sad to say. But an indivdual song? Well, this won't be a surprise to anybody who knows me, but IMHO this one is the ne plus ultra.

C'mon -- nobody but nobody has ever done it better. And the fact that it's by a bar band from down the street from my childhood digs in Teaneck, New Jersey makes it even more fun.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!

[h/t Ida Langsam]

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed (Let Alone Loved): Special "If I Was a Carpenter and You Were a....Oh, Wait!!!" Edition

And speaking as were yestrday about folk-rocker/country star Mary Chapin Carpenter, from 1990 please enjoy her powerful and insinuating "Quittin' Time."

That was a strictly country radio hit, i.e., it didn't get any pop/rock crossover to my knowledge, and I'm somewhat perplexed about how it showed up on my bingo card. If I had to guess, I suspect I got hepped to it by my colleague/friend Alanna Nash, who was Stereo Review's country music maven/reviewer for most of my tenure over there.

In any case, a terrific song/record; if the production was just a tad tougher sounding, I would go so far as to say Fleetwood Mac-or-Petty and the Heartbreakers terrific.

Be Still My Beating Cornea

From 1993, recorded live in Glasgow, please enjoy Mary Chapin Carpenter and a nicely semi-countrified version of The Records' jangle-pop classic "Hearts in Her Eyes."

Jon Bryant 2 · Mary Chapin Carpenter - 'Hearts in Her Eyes' - Glasgow, Scotland 10/21/93

I was unfamiliar with that until the other day, when it turned up on the Facebook page of Records drummer Will Birch, who co-wrote the song with the late and much missed John Wicks.

Longtime readers will, of course, recall that another take on it appears on The Floor Models' (recorded in 1982) live album.

As you may be able to tell, our version was quite blatantly cribbed not so much from the Records original but rather from The Searchers' cover (on their self-titled 1979 comeback album). I should add that "Hearts..." was the very first non-original song that the Flo Mos ever worked up, and that we performed it I would guess at just about every gig we played in our entire career. Hell, we did it so often everybody in Greenwich Village thought we wrote it.

In any case, Ms. Carpenter's version does it full justice, I think. Birch thinks so too.

Hmm...I seem to recall I had an 80s Carpenter CD with an original of hers that I listened to a lot at the time. Let me do the research on that and get back to you.

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]