Bands I Love

[Toy Ranch]

The past couple of nights, we've talked about bands in chat. I told Gamma and toollady I'd post some links.

Here are a few of my fave Belgian bands.

Evil Superstars (http://houbi.com/belpop/groups/evilsuperstars.htm)

Another Evil Superstars link (http://www.mauroworld.com/)

dEUS (http://www.deus.be/)

Zita Swoon (http://www.zitaswoon.com/)

Soulwax (http://www.soulwax.com/)

Millionaire (http://www.pias.com/millionairewebsite/)

Just-released Millionaire video from their new album (http://www.imonahigh.com/) <just saw it, it rocks!

[Toy Ranch]

Others (not from Belgium)

Convolution (from Spain) (http://www.arrakis.es/~silmes/convolution.htm) (electronic/experimental)

Arto Lindsay (from Brazil) (http://www.artolindsay.com/disco.htm) (just... different)

Hellacopters (from Sweden) (http://www.hellacopters.com/) (rock n roll, hard driving American style rock)

Check out the video for their latest: 'Everything's On T.V. (Hellacopters) (http://www.hellacopters.com/site/disco.asp?action=everythingsontv)

[Toy Ranch]

A few from the US

Ween (http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/ween/ween_new/index2.html)

El Vez (the Mexican Elvis) (http://www.elvez.net/)

Tenacious D (http://www.tenaciousd.com/)

Jad Fair and Half Japanese (http://www.jadfair.com/)

Pere Ubu (http://ubuprojex.net/)

The Residents (http://www.residents.com/)

[Toy Ranch]

More, from all over:


Aphex Twin (http://www.drukqs.net)

Helios Creed & Chrome (http://www.helios-creed.com/)

Coil (http://www.brainwashed.com/coil/main.html)

Brian Eno (http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/)

Negativeland (http://www.negativland.com/)

Squarepusher (http://www.warprecords.com/artists/index.php?artist=sqp)

Throbbing Gristle (http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/)

[Toy Ranch]

Those were mostly electronic and/or experimental bands.

Here's some Jazz and stuff...


Albert Ayler (http://www.ayler/supanet.com/)

Les Baxter (http://www.lesbaxter.com/front.html)

Blonde Redhead (http://www.blonde-redhead.com/loader_content.html)

Professor Longhair (http://www.professorlonghair.com/)

Beausoleil (http://www.rosebudus.com/beausoleil/)

Clifton Chenier (http://www.coldbacon.com/music/clifton.html)

Combustible Edison (http://www.subpop.com/bands/combustible/comed/)

Pepesito Reyes (http://www.narada.com/images/AlbumPage/PepesitoReyes/pepesitoreyes.htm)

Afro-Cuban All Stars (http://www.afrocubaweb.com/afrocubanallstars.htm)

Martin Denny (http://www.chaoskitty.com/t_chaos/denny.html)

Esquivel (http://www.spaceagepop.com/esquivel.htm)

More later...

[Toy Ranch]

Some more... I'm just putting up links to stuff that others may not have heard of...

Arthur Lyman (http://www.arthurlyman.com/)

Lounge Lizards (http://www.strangeandbeautiful.com/)

Wagon Cookin' (http://www.wagoncookin.com/)

Acid Mothers Temple (http://www.acidmothers.com/)

[Toy Ranch]

Angry Samoans (http://www.angrysamoans.com/)

Aus Rotten (http://www.static-pulse.com/ausrotten/)

Jim Carroll Band (http://www.catholicboy.com/catholicboy.com-asp//index.asp)

Circle Jerks (http://www.officialcirclejerks.com/)

Black Randy & Metrosquad (http://www.furious.com/perfect/blackrandy.html)

Bush Tetras (http://nowave.pair.com/no_wave/bush.html)

Buzzcocks (http://www.buzzcocks.com/)

Congo Norvell (http://www.jetsetrecords.com/bands/congo_norvell/default.asp)

D.O.A. (http://www.suddendeath.com/doa/)

Dead Boys (http://punkandoi.free.fr/deadboys.htm)

The Dickies (http://www.thedickies.com/)

The Dils (http://vcp-inc.com/dos/kinman/dils/thedils.htm)

The Dwarves (http://www.thedwarves.com/)

The Fall (http://www.visi.com/fall/)

Fear (http://www.fearband.com/)

[rossshow]

Tragic Mulatto http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=tragicmulatto

[Toy Ranch]

Thanks for adding one of your faves, Ross. Feel free to add more!


Flesheaters (http://www.flesheaters.com/)

Flipper (http://www.markprindle.com/flipper.htm)

Gang of Four (http://www.gangoffour.co.uk/)

Germs (http://www.suburbias.com/punk/germs/)

PJ Harvey (http://www.pjharvey.net/)

Richard Hell (http://www.richardhell.com/)

The Jesus Lizard (http://www.southern.com/southern/band/JESLZ/disc.html)

Joy Division (http://members.aol.com/lwtua/joydiv.htm)

Killdozer (http://www.geocities.com/renaldo_larue/killdozer/)

Magazine (http://shotbybothsides.com/)

Meat Puppets (http://www.meatpuppets.com/)

[rossshow]

I was gonna add Flipper, too. Those are bands that were playing out at the same time I was playing out, in the Bay Area.

Fright Wig, for instance, those girls rehearsed across from us, at the Turk St. Studios.

I lived there, for a couple months, not fun.

[rossshow]

http://www.residents.com/

Phillip "Snakefinger" was a very close friend of mine.

[GammaWaif]

The past couple of nights, we've talked about bands in chat. I told Gamma and toollady I'd post some links.




OMG What a treasure trove! Thank you, Bobby, so very much!

I dunno how I would have found all this cool stuff, without you. :1hug2: :1kiss1:

OK, I'll quit getting all sloppy over you. ;)

:1clap4:

[FLvamp]

Fright Wig and Joy Divison. Wow. In the same thread. :)

Vampy likes a ton of stuff. Mostly 80's alterno and industrial stuff. Don't like much current stuff excepting System of a Down (and some Velvet Revolver). Hittin the highlights where I like most of production, there's waaaaaaaay too much to list it all:

Marilyn Manson
My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult
KMFDM
Nitzer Ebb
Ministry
White Zombie/Rob Zombie
Jane's Addiction
Sisters of Mercy
The Mission UK
The Cure
REM
Morrissey/The Smiths
Violent Femmes
Sonic Youth
U2
The Cult
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Temple of the Dog
Mother Love Bone
Fishbone
Rage Against the Machine
Echo & the Bunnymen
Concrete Blonde
Sugarcubes
Public Image Limited
Sex Pistols
The Clash
Cocteau Twins
Mazzy Starr
Garbage
No Doubt

The Beastie Boys :p

Shakira
Kirsty MacColl

Nina Simone
Ertha Kitt

old Van Halen
early David Lee Roth solo
Guns n' Roses
Queensryche
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Eric Johnson

Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
The Doors

:1guitarpl

[flawedplan]

I'm impressed. Dumfounded, even.

[rossshow]

A couple of my favorite Japanese Rock bands:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/213458
http://www.larc-en-ciel.com/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=music-artist&field-artist=Pillows/
http://www.pillows.gr.jp/



Fright Wig and Joy Divison.

I really like BOTH those bands. I have a "New Order" poster from 1983 on my wall.

[rossshow]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/213858/002-9042626-0301656

[rossshow]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/87919

[flawedplan]

I'm almost fifty and still have a poster of Ian Curtis on my kitchen wall. I was a big supporter of Frightwig back in their day, and the Lounge Lizards first album is still my favorite when I need to clear the room of irritants and undesirables. At one time I had everything Half Japanese ever recorded, hundreds of discs, including 7 inches. I read the names on this thread, names I hold close to my chest, most people have no idea who I'm talking about, the significance of the bands, or why I am cool for having climbed into their bedroom windows, crashed on their beds, reading back issues of CREEM while eating up their cheap, mexican food. Not that it matters. The links are making me fucking reminisce. Thanks rOss for calling me back to this bittersweet forum.

[rossshow]

Thanks rOss for calling me back to this bittersweet forum

You belong here. One of the first threads was dedicated to the songs that YOU had posted.

Mia from Frightwig was my closest female friends in the early 80's! I'm happy you supported that band.

[rossshow]

The Mentors

http://www.web2000.com/heathen/default2.htm

[Toy Ranch]

Ah yes, back to the M's.

The Mentors, definitely!



Meat Puppets (http://www.meatpuppets.com/)

Meatmen (http://www.southern.com/southern/band/MEATM/)

Middle Class (http://www.thisispunkrock.btinternet.co.uk/ps/us/4/middle.htm)

Minor Threat (http://www.angelfire.com/ok/endall/)

Minutemen (http://www.hootpage.com/)

The Misfits (http://www.angelfire.com/mi/misfits420/)

Necros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necros)

New York Dolls (http://www.nyrock.com/misc/nydolls.htm)

Poison Idea (http://www.taang.com/poisonset.html)

Iggy Pop (and the Stooges) (http://www.iggypop.com/)

Ramones (http://www.ramones.com/)

Rudimentary Peni (http://www.southern.com/southern/band/RPENI/)

Sex Pistols (http://www.sex-pistols.co.uk/)

Siouxsie and the Banshees (http://www.vamp.org/Siouxsie/)

Patti Smith (http://www.pattismith.net/)

Sonic Youth (http://www.sonicyouth.com/)

The Stranglers (http://www.stranglers.net/)

Television (http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/)

The Weirdos (http://www.breakmyface.com/bands/weirdos.html)

X (http://www.xtheband.com/index.html)

[Toy Ranch]

Beasts of Bourbon (http://www.briansway.com/beasts_of_bourbon_photo_gallery.html)

The Blasters (http://www.davealvin.com/blasters.html)

The Cramps (http://www.thecramps.com/)

Robert Gordon (http://www.robertgordontheloveless.com/)

Gun Club (http://www.thegunclub.net/)

Hank Williams III (http://www.hank3.com/)

Link Wray (http://www.rockabillyhall.com/LinkWray.html)

The Meteors (http://www.kingsofpsychobilly.com/)

Panther Burns (http://www.limbos.org/tavfalco/)

[Toy Ranch]

And all my friends in Texas.


Big Boys (http://www.soundonsound.org/) :(

Boxcar Satan (http://www.boxcarsatan.com/)

Butthole Surfers (http://www.buttholesurfers.com/)

Culturcide (http://www.geocities.com/bradleybee/cultdex.html)

The Dicks (http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~edge/idle_time/dicks/)

Hickoids (http://www.empty.de/Hickoids.htm)

Honky (http://www.honky.net)

The Huns (http://www.breakmyface.com/bands/huns.html)

Legionnaire's Disease Band

Miracle Room (http://www.bar-none.com/bios/mrbio.html)

The Offenders (http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2002-03-15/music_phases16.html)

Really Red (http://www.breakmyface.com/bands/really_red.html)

Reversible Cords

Rote/Biological

Scratch Acid (http://www.southern.com/southern/band/SCRAT/)

The Skuds (http://www.breakmyface.com/bands/skuds.html)

Stick Men With Ray Guns (http://www.stickmenwithrayguns.com/html/home.html)

Superman's Girlfriend/Dot Vaeth Group/Infants (http://texaspunkjunk.homestead.com/OHLOISWELCOME.html)

Vomit Pigs (http://www.breakmyface.com/bands/vomitpigs.html)

[Toy Ranch]

Good times, bad times... and today, I think about all the people who died.

[quote]

All the People Who Died
Jim Carroll Band

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"
But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died
[/url]

[GammaWaif]

OMG Jim Caroll. I was thinking of him, recently. I think I stumbled over my copy of The Basketball Diaries.

Man, I can hear the song in my head, just looking at the lyrics.

I've recognized more of your band names. . .feeling a little less square. LOL

:1headspin

[flawedplan]

Panther Burns! Tav Falco's Panther Burns, Blow Your Top and the Bourgeois Blues!! God! I just stopped there, you're killing me, has anyone covered the Undertones, Replacements, Lydia Lunch, and poser Ska revivalists and ruinous Oi bands yet?

I have opinions about all bands listed so far, too much useless information, and strong, angry opinions. I'll be reading Trouser Press before the night is through. Please kill me.

[FLvamp]

OMG! I forgot Fugazi.

There's just sooooooo much music ... I once owned a music store.

[Toy Ranch]

Panther Burns! Tav Falco's Panther Burns, Blow Your Top and the Bourgeois Blues!! God! I just stopped there, you're killing me


Love Panther Burns

, has anyone covered the Undertones, Replacements, Lydia Lunch, and poser Ska revivalists and ruinous Oi bands yet?

Personally, I never cared that much for the Undertones, Replacements, or poser Ska revivalists that much. They were OK, but no big deal to me.

Lydia Lunch... Teenage Jesus was great. So was her Queen of Siam album, the 8-Eyed Spy stuff, and her 13.13 album, and Beruit Slump. After that, I didn't care for that much of her stuff. It was often repetitive. The stuff she did with The Birthday Party was excellent though...

[rossshow]

The Misfits ! Yeah!

I played drums in a band that opened for them at The Mabuhay in SF!

[rossshow]

I have opinions about all bands listed so far, too much useless information, and strong, angry opinions.



Oh! Say them!

[Toy Ranch]

! Yeah!

I played drums in a band that opened for them at The Mabuhay in SF!

I opened for them a couple of times, too. ;)

[flawedplan]

Austin, huh, a few of my friends, I'd put more but this comes up when I tried:

You have included too many images in your signature or in your previous post. Please go back and correct the problem and then continue again.


Bad Livers. Punk fiddlers. Image denied.


Wannabes: NON-SEXIST, mean, melodic, power-pop gentlemen, king punk mods.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004YWN5.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Joe Ely: singer/songwriter, hard-driving cornerstone of The Flatlanders, keeper of the Lubbock flame of High Plains boogie.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2405/joeyclinton0oc.jpg

Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Voice high and lonesome train whistle Zen philosopher, married five, six times; nut house women.

http://stevenfromholz.com/images/linkslogos/jimmiedalephoto.jpg


Lucinda Williams: image denied, rOss!

Michelle Shocked

Roky Erikson

Nuns, True Believers, Alejandro Escovedo Orchestra, the only band that matters, their image was denied!


And Kinky for Governor:

http://stevenfromholz.com/images/linkslogos/kinkyphoto.gif

[CountryRoad]

This is a band I was just turned onto...out of Canada. They freaking rock..

Called 'The Mark Inside'..

http://www.markinside.com/home.html

Vampy, you & I have the same taste in music. I think you'd love 'em. :)

TR, I had to go download that butthole surfers song that you posted the lyrics to..haven't heard it in forever..

[rossshow]

I opened for them a couple of times, too. They Really could ROCK!

[rossshow]

The Nuns! Yeah!

[Toy Ranch]

Roky Erikson

Nuns, True Believers, Alejandro Escovedo Orchestra, the only band that matters, their image was denied!


And Kinky for Governor:

http://stevenfromholz.com/images/linkslogos/kinkyphoto.gif

Roky, yes, how did I forget to add Roky?

And for Alejandro, you forgot one of my fave Alejandro bands, Rank and File!

And yes... Kinky for Governor. Why the hell not?

[rossshow]

Rank and File!

Did anyone mention Social Distortion?

[flawedplan]

Ok, first of all, Paul Westerberg is important. A Titanic genius.

I don't understand how you could have possibly missed that, TR. It's shocking, really.
There's nowhere to go from here.

What were you reading at the time? Christgau?

I'll do some probing, save us some time. GG Allin, yay or nay?

[flawedplan]

OK, fuckit you're off my shitlist. Tony Kinman is the reason I moved to Austin, I was so overly, sickeningly smitten with Rank and File.

[Toy Ranch]

OK, fuckit you're off my shitlist. Tony Kinman is the reason I moved to Austin, I was so overly, sickeningly smitten with Rank and File.

lol, we may know each other

[flawedplan]

What are we supposed to do now?
rOss?

[Toy Ranch]

GG Allin, yay or nay?

nay...

[flawedplan]

Nay here too. I need to stop talking to you now.

It's been nice.

[rossshow]

What are we supposed to do now?
rOss?

Keep talking about cool bands that are meaningful to each other. Cause I like those bands, too.

Music is meant as communication. It can be communication between listeners, as well.

[flawedplan]

OK. Your most embarrassing moment in rock and roll history? I'll go first, FlawedPlan, the Lost Years:

When I was fourteen the NY Dolls played the Minnesota State Fair; on the bigger stage across the track was a Southern Rock third-rate Pure Prairie League four piece called Heartsfield, highly hyped. I read the press and the bass player was cute. I had never heard of the Dolls, I was fourteen, the Heartsfield bass player was far out and as I haughtily handed him a piece of paper with my phone number, I imagined myself gloating over my first big groupie triumph for years to come, all the while completely oblivious to the New York Dolls, who were playing on a stage within a five minute walk.

[rossshow]

Excellent story! Really a sweet tale of innocence retained.

Embarrassing?

Like being backstage at a concert, and getting so DRUNK, that I actually got THROWN OUT?

I was backstage at the very first Def Leppard show in Oakland, 1981.

http://www.siogo.com/def.htm

They were the OPENING ACT for a band that I was working with called "BlackFoot".

I got SO smashed, that I lost my backstage pass, and was so angry-drunk that I just was like, OK, fuck you, to the security guy. And I swung on him. Well, suddenly there's 6 guys. You know. TOSSING me out! THROWING me OUT!

I was so drunk, I ended up sleeping for a few hours in an apartment building elevator.

But, hell, I'd done my business. No one ever said anything. I guess no one noticed. If they had, they certainly would have said something?

[rossshow]

http://www.siogo.com/blackhist3.htm

Pretty WILD tour, all around:


Oct. 18-Nov. 22, 1981: A fun little tour, with Def Leppard (http://www.siogo.com/def.htm) (Pete Willis on guitar) opening for us. The bands get along real well, but as happens on some tours, the threats of "just wait until the last night" began to come, initially from the Leppard camp. The last night of the tour finally came, in San Antonio, Texas. Since Blackfoot was the headliner and was to play last, Def Leppard would get the parting shot, so we decided to make our first shot a good one (with Ted Nugent a few tours earlier, it had been raw egg fights in Detroit's Cobo Hall).

When Leppard hit the stage in the San Antonio Convention Center at 7:45 PM on Nov. 22, all Hell broke loose. A large "DIK LIKKER" backdrop unfurled behind the band. Riggers in the lighting trusses dropped ping pong balls to the stage, first 2 or 3 at a time, then handfuls, then bushel baskets full, followed by flaming streamers of flash paper. Fumes from stink bomb fluid on a towel thrown in front of drummer Rick Allen's electric fan filled the stage. When lead singer Joe Elliott exhorted the crowd to "put your hands in the air", our band and crew were hidden behind the amp stacks, with only our arms and waving hands sticking out. When Joe yelled to the crowd "we were in Houston last night, and they made a lot more noise than you're making", a stagehand on an offstage microphone boomed "oh nooo they didn't!".

The audience had no idea what to make of all this mayhem. After all that, it turns out that Def Leppard had been bluffing, and really had nothing planned for our set. While we were playing, Leppard bass player Rick Savage dribbled a basketball across the stage, and then someone tried to shove a big commercial-size laundry basket across the stage, with one of their girlfriends inside. The basket makes it about half way across, and there the poor embarrassed girl is, sitting in the center of the stage, stuck with her ass in the in the basket and her legs hanging out from the knees down, for probably a minute, until someone came out and wheeled her and the basket offstage.
We had a great time with these guys, and I'm real happy for their success.

[flawedplan]

So that's what you were doing in 1981. Were you a corporate rock promoter/manager and then later/earlier punk rock musician? Timeline, please.


Let's see, in '81 I was program director at an AM radio station in a town called Normal (Bloomington) Illinois, and I made a snap decision one day, no more Pat Bentafucktard, time to go punk rock. I made the decision after sitting in a club the night before and hearing Talking Heads '77 straight through for the first time.

I didn't have any records, and complained about it on the air, so for months henna-haired college students in 1940s dresses would come to the station, their shy boyfriends hauling wooden crates filled with their own records, just offering their use til I could get the free promo wheels turning. These people knocked me out. Above all, they wanted me to be educated, and they'd bring in tomes of criticism, Lester, Ira, Christgau, and stacks of Bomp! and Trouser Press, though I preferred Creem, which was frowned on, of course.

And they'd call me in a hot second if I mispronounced a band's name, or called a punk a "new waver" by mistake.

Over the next four years I got fired three times from that AM radio station in Normal Illinois, every time the listeners got petitions together, pestered the advertisers and went to the press to get me re-hired.

I was finally canned for good when I accidently played the wrong track on a MAGAZINE album, the post-Buzzcocks Howard Devoto project; played a song called PERMAFROST at 3:30 pm on a Wednesday, with a chorus of "I will drug you and I will fuck you" over and over and over, some hausfrau driving her kid home from school made it her mission to shut me down.

The next day I went to pick up my stuff and saw huge red graffiti spraypainted on the wall of the radio station, taken from the Kinks--ONE OF OUR DEEJAYS IS MISSING.

I've never seen anything come close to punk rock community.

[rossshow]

Dammit. I typed a big post and it got lost.

[rossshow]

I always had a Day Job. I played in bands, and worked in the Biz.

My first gig in the Biz was "Artist Relations" at Anvil Case Company in Rosemead. (the person in that job before me was Grover Jackson, later owner of Charvel Guitars)

That started in 78 and ended shortly before the Def Leppard Show, in about August 81. So, at the show I was between jobs. There to schmooze.

I had played in the LA "Rock Scene" but had moved to San Francisco to try out a new town. I had begun to HATE the LA scene.

So, I auditioned for a punk band, a few months later, like December 81. I was hooked.

About mid 82 I went to work for a second tier guitar company as Sales Manager and Artist Relations. I was still playing out every weekend.

Played in bands until just about 5 years ago.

After the guitar company I went on the road as an independent sales rep for several music companys at once.

[rossshow]

http://www.musicianshotline.com/archive/interviews/charvel.htm


Grover Jackson came to me from Anvil Case Co, he was I believe working in the administration part of Anvil Case. I hired him to do the business end of my company. At that time he didn't know or do anything with the guitars. After a while when I decided to sell because of the stress and the money problems we were having, Grover decided he wanted to buy it and I sold it to him.

[rossshow]

It was pretty damn cool working for a case company. My cases are pictured on Warren Zevon's "Live at The Roxy and Elsewhere"... I didn't meet any presidents, however. I did meet every band that came through LA.

[rossshow]

played a song called PERMAFROST Off the FIRST Magazine Album, if I'm not mistaken.

[flawedplan]

I don't know how music is made, it's very mysterious to me. I imagine you know about guitars and shit. Not just the Gibson verses Les Paul manufacturing aspect of guitars and shit, but ways to modify them, like, how the musicians make the sounds come from them that were not meant to be? This has always fascinated me, how certain musicians do that signature thingy. Not asking for details, I know it's inside information. Do you like Farfisa organs? I think they're very carnivally divine. And one more--minimalist drum sets like Mo Tucker's, or that 80 piece deal you sold your friend Psychoman? My favorite drum sound is fast and loud and rough, to wit: the Fall.

Off to bed for me. I think it's true when you said I can boycott the other fora and still belong in this one. It's decent, even saw a reference to Ruthless Reviews, everywhere else I'm the only one reads that.

:1hug1:

[flawedplan]

So much for inside information, I just read your link on modifying guitars. This is what I was wondering about:


and what I did to his guitar was I made a " brass plate about 3"x3" en routed out the bottom right under his bridge of his guitar because he wanted he wanted more sustain. We sunk that brass into the guitar and we put the bridge back on it and he played it for a couple of weeks, brought it back and said it was to good, it sustained too much, so we changed it and made a thinner plate for it.

Gotcha!

[Toy Ranch]

1979-80, I was a senior in high school, and the only "punk rock" kid in the school, or the school district (which had 3 high schools, in suburban Dallas). Nobody could figure out why my hair was short and choppy, except that I must be a "fag". So I dyed it black with 4 gold stripes through it. This really did not go over well at all. See, our rival high school's mascot was the 'Tigers', so it looked like I'd had Tiger striped put on my head. Of course, who the school's rival was did not interest me, and the stripes were supposed to be white, but came out gold instead. It wasn't until this heresey was revealed to me at school that I realized what had happened, and was appropriately amused at the whole thing.

The chorus of "fag fag" grew louder and louder. This didn't bother me in the least, however the death and dismemberment threats were getting a little over the top. Then something totally unexpected happened. The leader of the "anti-TR" gang was this uber jock guy who was both a captain of the football team, and a member of the rodeo team (Texas!). His girlfriend was, of course, a cheerleader. She and I had always been on friendly terms, and his outrage at my hair and music preferences helped her realize she was dating an asshole. So she switched teams. Now the "faggot" was fucking his girlfriend. It was a relationship of convenience, to both of us, and we realized that, but we did have fun, and were fond of each other. It didn't last long, but that was OK. It accomplished goals for both of us, and we had fun along the way.

Then in February or so, I was in a band, and my first gig was opening for Black Flag on their Jealous Again tour, at a little nightclub in Ft Worth. It was a Tuesday night or something, there were about 30 people there. It was the Dez on vocals version of Black Flag. They were touring in Spot's little short wheel base van, with all their equipment... Chuck was sick and said after they played that he kept puking but didn't want to come off like Johnny Rotten, so he was swallowing it back down and puking it back up all night... always careful to never let it out onstage. lol!

They didn't have a place to stay, and didn't make enough money to get a motel room, so we took them to this abandoned house our bass player had just moved from, and told them it was haunted and a witch coven had lived there. Someone had broken a window and cut themselves climbing in a day or so earlier, so there was blood all over the place, and a TV that was really screwed up and looked like Poltergeist or something.

Years later, they said they wound up sleeping in their van that night, with all their equipment, in the driveway. It was below freezing outside, and the power was still on inside. Their "rep" kinda worked against them that night. I felt bad about it later, but it was punk rock, what can you say?

[FLvamp]

Damn TR! That's rich! :1clap3:

[FLvamp]

Social D yes, GG no.

[rossshow]

and what I did to his guitar was I made a " brass plate about 3"x3" en routed out the bottom right under his bridge of his guitar because he wanted he wanted more sustain. We sunk that brass into the guitar and we put the bridge back on it and he played it for a couple of weeks, brought it back and said it was to good, it sustained too much, so we changed it and made a thinner plate for it.


Ahhh! The age old debate about the wood to brass ratio!

Every guitar player and guitar company has different ideas about this issue. Drummers and drum companys, too.

Any instrument made of wood and metal has a "balance point". Such balance between materials as far apart in density as wood and metal is sometimes difficult to determine.

And the end result will vary between individual instruments. Art and science combined.

[CountryRoad]

Has anyone mentioned The Dead Kennedys?

[rossshow]

Dead Kennedys I don't think so. I did link to their record company:

http://www.alternativetentacles.com/

IN about 1984 I went to work as a bouncer, in San Francisco. I worked at The Mabuhay, The Stone, The Rock on Broadway, and various other San Francisco Venues. Did that for a little more than a year.

Worked a DK's show at a place called "The Farm". Excellent show!

After that I went to work for yet ANOTHER second tier guitar company, also in Artist Relations and Sales Management. After that it was back on the road as an independent rep, again.

[CountryRoad]

LOVE The Dead Kennedys. They were a staple in high school. Along with Black Flag, Circle Jerks etc.


Here's someone totally unique:

Devendra Banhart (http://www.younggodrecords.com/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=71)

We released Devendra's recordings because we'd never heard anything quite like him, ever. His voice - a quivering high-tension wire, sounded like it could have been recorded 70 years ago - these songs could have been sitting in someone's attic, left there since the 1930's. The response was astounding.

[rossshow]

Do you like Farfisa organs?

I sure do! That sound, there's nothing like that sound.

I think they're very carnivally divine.

It always reminds me of 96 tears


And one more--minimalist drum sets like Mo Tucker's, or that 80 piece deal you sold your friend Psychoman?


I went thru a phase, when I was playing in the rock scene in LA, where I played a HUGE kit. Double bass, 6 toms, 8 cymbals and a high hat.

No need for all those drums, in Punk rock! About that time I started using a 5-piece kit. Bass, two mounted toms, a floor tom and 4 cymbals an a hi-hat

Now, in my office, I have a very tiny kit: snare, bass, tom and one cymbal.


My favorite drum sound is fast and loud and rough, to wit: the Fall.



I can do that.

[rossshow]

I think it's true when you said I can boycott the other fora and still belong in this one.



I am so pleased. You're so damn knowledgable about so much of the music that I love. As far as I'm concerned, you belong in this forum. Welcome home.

[Toy Ranch]

Jello Biafra is an idiot. I liked them for a short time, and then decided I hated them.

One night, I was standing outside the "Sound of Music" in SF when the Kennedys were playing, waiting for them to get finished so Flipper could go on... Bruce Loose from Flipper came running outside with a sweaty and magic marker decorated t-shirt and said it was Jello's, and started trying to auction it off for beer money on the sidewalk. Nobody would bid, so I told him I'd give him nothing for it. He threw it at me and went back inside. I brought that shirt back to Dallas and sold it to a Kennedy's fan for $50! :D

[rossshow]

"Sound of Music"

LOL! I played there and watched a million shows there.

The Turk Street Studios were directly across the street (and owned by the same person)!

Had my bachelor's party there, the band I was in was opening act for an all girl punk rock band called Boy Trouble.

[flawedplan]

I have mixed feelings about Jello myself, he's so damn humorless. But he's an icon, so I give him his due. He also gave the bloggers one of the big contemporary slogans "Become the media" and that was nice.

I come from a strict, working trash, Catholic, repressed background, some of which I sought after myself to balance the criminal and anti-social elements in my family of origin. I was a Girl Scout, I went to church, I didn't use drugs, I stayed in school, and in my family this made me a black sheep. So I was afraid of punk rock when I first got into it, the Dead Kennedy's scared me, and the first time I heard "Garbageman" by the Cramps (the Cramps! Those harmless kids!)I left the room, and went for a walk "What is happening to me? What am I turning into? Is this right, is this valuable?"

I was angry enough with the world that there was no worry that I'd reject punk rock. But I had to go through a whole lot of moral and intellectual development before I could embrace the bohemian life.

And I got suckered in, bands like DOA, Minor Threat, the Dils, I thought they were about changing the world, and leading this sort of exemplary life, it was a movement of moralism and hedonism was okay! We were all in it together! Nihilism? Why not? Out of many, none.

Girls playing bass, for the first time girls forming their own rock-n-roll bands. And girls calling the shots, forcing our way onto the floor, onto the stage, demanding respect, then writing zines and songs, exposing by name the ass-grabbers and hair-pulling malefactors. I remember comforting girls, a girl would cry the first time a dude wearing a Gang of Four tee-shirt turned around and squeezed her tits in the mosh pit. This kind of thing was dealt with. You can't do that in a Gang of Four tee shirt!

You guys know what I'm talking about? All this severe idealogy; true believers with a lot of explaining to do, it was nuts.

[Toy Ranch]

I always rejected the ideology and embraced the nihilism... loved Gang of Four, but could care less about their politics. That said... titty squeezing in the mosh pit while wearing a Gang of Four t-shirt? lol! That is more than a tad ironic... I think uninvited titty squeezing isn't really OK, no matter what t-shirt you're wearing though, eh? There were always more than a handful of frat brothers who went to the local record shop, bought some t-shirts, and went out with the sole purpose of misbehaving... kinda like during the 1st gulf war, I was living in Seattle, and actually overheard someone who was shopping for a new outfit to wear to that evening's riot. That kind of irony exists everywhere... which is part of the reason I embraced nihilism so much.

Now I just think it's kinda funny and sad, and don't have to get all nihilistic about it.

[flawedplan]

rOss:

I can do that.

Standing up?

[rossshow]

LOL! Ya got me.

No, I do stand up, for effect. Not the whole time, though! LOL!

I worked out "moves" for myself, early on.

I have this one I like: to stand up, and hit the front side of the cymbal, just as I'm jumping up, then grab the back side to mute it and end a song. I have a bunch of "cymbal tricks" like that.

[flawedplan]

Toy Ranch, you lived in the land of K Records, Calvin and the Beat Happening scenesters? Were you a part of that? That's my Soft Spot: artsy/smartsy shallow/deep sincere cynics, the whole drama of the gifted Calvin who let the critics wonder.

From mp3.com:

Beat Happening was among the truly seminal and influential American bands of the post-punk era, a paragon of pop minimalism, rebellious innocence, and indie defiance. The linchpin of the Olympia, WA-based International Pop Underground, they adopted a stance in direct opposition to the accepted norms at the heart of rock music, ignoring all notions of pretense, professionalism, and stardom, Beat Happening created an unorthodox, raw sound which democratically rotated vocal, guitar, and drum duties between members while jettisoning bass altogether.


http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000244F1E.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Nancy Sin

nancy sin won't you let me in
good girl
bad girl
good girl
bad girl
good bad girl
there is something i must do
nancy sin just do it again
good birl
bad girl
good girl
bad girl
good girl
won't you be my mentor tonight?
take some of these
take some of these
fill my mouth with hot sand
kiss you and meet my brand
good girl
bad girl
nancy sin where have you been?
good girl
bad girl
good girl
bad girl
good girl
bad girl
just do it again

[rossshow]

Beat Happening Uh oh! That's one I haven't heard of.

[flawedplan]

No, I do stand up, for effect.

It's a great effect, playing a minimalist kit standing up, we girls find it oddly and very erotic.

Beat Happening was a big influence for Kurdt Cobain, and Beat Happening was influenced by the Cramps, the Jam, Velvet Underground and the Modern Lovers. Everytime I think I'm done I come across six more bands I have to talk about on this thread!

And we haven't even gotten to the desert island discs, scene reports or anthem thread yet. (Cautionary note: Rock-n-roll anthems can improve your life.)


I went to the library today rOss, to pick up a few things to add to this forum, and met an ex-con on the bus who looked and talks just like Boomhower on King Of The Hill, then dropped by my neighborhood liquor store, chatted with the proprieter who saw me in there crying once a week while breaking up with my ex, we hugged, we know all kinds of personal shit about each other except our given names, it's all Honey this and Honey that, You look good, honey, buy this 27 dollar bottle of Baileys, you deserve it, do!; picked up a bottle of bargain basement Irish Cream and am about to make iced coffee cocktails while I go over some of my ideas.

More, soon.

[rossshow]

It's a great effect, playing a minimalist kit standing up, we girls find it oddly and very erotic.




LOL! I always thought popping up at certain times was WAY cooler than "stick tricks" like twirling sticks and tossing sticks.

I have a bunch of stand up moves.

There's a double cymbal version, like I'd smash the left cymbal AND the right cymbal at the same time, drop the sticks, Then stand up and grab the front of both, pushing both cymbals, and cymbal stands so that the stands would be tottering on 2 legs pushing out towards the stage. I lean so far that'd I'd be almost bending over the mounted tom toms.

I had a very animated style. There's three tips to playing drums.

Make the hard look easy, make the easy look hard, make it ALL look cool!

Oh. And: start the song (count in), que the changes, que the ending, and keep the tempo the whole time.

I was classicly trained, from the age of 10, starting on Tympani and Orchestral Percussion moving on to Jazz and Drum Corps, all the music and band classes in school I could take, I took. LA Unified School District had a fairly good music program at that time.

SO:
Make the hard look easy

Was easy, for me. Because of my schooling, playing rock, and then punk rock was a breeze. Usually I was the better musician in ANY band I was in, something I daren't say to some guitar players. Damn guitar players. So sensitive!

What I had to work on, when I first started playing rock, WAS that "persona". And I worked on it like I worked on my playing, I practiced, again and again and again.

Some early drum teacher had suggested Aikido, for developing drumset technique. It also helped me develop the physical style that was my trade mark.

Damn. I can STILL rock the drumkit.

[flawedplan]

This one is really talented, we're in genius territory now, rOss, my hands are actually shaking.

I have followed him for over 21 years, and can spend two days just reading online fansites, so I am gonna do this quick, but I swear this Edwardian punk is your cup of tea, see?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/collective/dnaimages/gallery/billychildish/16.jpg




Damn your fuckin work
Damn your fuckin work
Damn your fuckin work!

I wanna be

a youngblood

We thought disco was fuckin dead!
We thought disco was fuckin dead!
We thought disco was fuckin dead!
But now it's back inside my head
I wanna be a youngblood!


Billy Childish

http://www.psychogarage.freeserve.co.uk/childish/graphics/billy2.jpg

"A seething, dyslexic, better-looking British Bukowski"--
Observer

His bands:

- Buff Medways - Thee Headcoats - Thee Headcoatees
Thee Mighty Caesars - Thee Milkshakes - Pop Rivets - Del Monas


http://www.theebillychildish.com/dvd/crdvd86.jpg


Musician, writer, painter, enigma, cultural icon - all of these and more apply to Billy Childish, an artist the world is waking up to. Over three years in the making, "Billy Childish Is Dead" is the first ever in-depth documentary to explore the extraordinary life of the man behind the myth.

Billy Childish is reputed to have recorded 100 LP's during his 24-year career. As if that's not enough to be getting on with, he's also painted 2,000 odd paintings, written 2 novels & penned 30 plus volumes of poetry. Expelled from the prestigious St Martins School of Art early in his career, Childish has continued to paint, write and make music independently ever since.

Childish bands have long been championed by a succession of more established artists; Kurt Cobain liked Thee Mighty Caesars, & more recently The White Stripes - Jack White appeared on Top Of The Pop's with Billy's name scrawled on his forearm. Billy has also enjoyed an increasing public profile over the last twelve months with regular articles and interviews appearing in national newspapers and magazines. His stock as an artist is probably at its greatest.

Featuring rare archive footage from many of Billy's musical projects, "Billy Childish Is Dead" offers a fascinating insight into Billy's life and his views on many aspects of his childhood, career achievements and everyday existence - Billy granted the filmmakers access into his home and on tour with his current band The Buff Medways. Many of Billy's friends, colleagues and admirers, including Shane McGowan, Holly Golightly, journalists Miranda Sawyer and Matthew Collings, Kids director Larry Clark and renowned author Bevis Hillier give their own unique insights into the man and the phenomenon.


Check out his paintings and woodcuts, here. (http://www.theebillychildish.com/art.htm)


I'm listening to Wiley Coyote right now:


What's that strange creature

I see speeding on my highway
Ain't no Jaguar or Thunderbird
That there's a roadrunner bird
I go see if I can goes catch them
go see if I can catch one of her tailfeathers
And then she'll know exactly who I am

Well I'm a wiley coyote
And I'm huntin all night long
Well I'll catch you roadrunner
Before too long

I got a stack of dynamite and a
hundred ton weight
Got TNT birdseed to use as my bait
I got a blunderbuss contraption
and a sherman tank
Got cannon ball fuel injected rollerskates
so little road runner let me put you straight

Cause I'm a wiley coyote
And I'll catch you if I can
I'll catch all you pretty womens
that crosses my land

guitar break

I got a catapult system that just can't be beat
I got 6 foot bedsprings tied to both of my feet
I got a tommy powered cadillac built just for speed
so little roadrunner
I think you'll agree
That I'm a wiley coyote
And I'm huntin all night long
Well I'll catch you roadrunner
Before too long


http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0753510618.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I have a favorite passage from that book, from any book, you may have already seen it on my blog, troublewaits, but what's worth saying once....

“I starve myself as to remember. Never to be a slug, that’s my ambition. Never to be a glutton of the fat. To live with a little hunger, a feeling, always hollow in my belly. Never to become one of them, absolutely never to become a grown-up.”--Billy Childish, My Fault



Read about Billy Childish on the art movement, Stuckism, here. (http://www.stuckism.com/)

"The Stuckists are... the bane of my life"


http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/1899598103.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


Book Description, from Amazon:

In 1977 a 16 year old Billy Childish purposely smashed his own hand with a 3lb club hammer and walked out of his job as an apprentice stone mason. Over the following three years, he was accepted four times into art schools on the 'genius clause', a provision for students who lack the normal entrance qualifications but show exceptional artistic potential, but was expelled for refusing to paint within the schools. Since then he has produced novels, LPs and more than 2,500 paintings, some of which are collected and explored in this volume.

His music is enough to recommend him, aside from all the literary/art stuff, he makes the loudest, drunkenest burlesquest teenage noisefest filtered through a distorted R & B true and genuine real deal punk rock and roll attitude, here's a taste of what I was listening to when I was breaking up with my ex, played it nonstop, am listening to it right now, as the first drumbeat makes my kitten jump up six feet--





Smile Now

You didn't care when I begged you to stay
Why don't you smile now?
You laughed at me then you walked away
Why don't you smile now?
Why don't you smile, yeah
Smile woe
Why don't you smile yeah?
Smile, woe
Why dontcha smile now?
Fancy talk
Cadillac car
But his love didn't get you far
Why don'tcha smile now?
You said he could give you all you need
You said he could give you more than me
Why don't you smile now?
Why don't you smile, yeah
Smile, woe
Why don't you smile yeah?
Smile, woe
Why don'tcha smile now"
(break)
Cheap wedding dress, high heeled shoes
Baby all you got was blues
Why don't you smile now?
Now you're back
You want back in
But baby you just watch me grin
Why don't you smile now?
Why don't you smile yeah
Smile, woe,
Why don't you smile now?

[flawedplan]

http://www.slipcue.com/music/pop/artists/scrawl/images_scrawl/scrawlportrait.gif


Scrawl began when three Columbus, Ohio college students set out to play music inspired by both midwestern hard rock and early 80s Rough Trade groups. With one personnel change (drummer Carolyn O'Leary was replaced in 1992 by token male Dana Marshall) they've been at it ever since despite an unerring instinct for signing to labels that have either gone out of business or been unable to keep their records in print.


I'm listening to the album He's Drunk right now:

where they demolish and then rebuild the Hombres' garage-rock classic, "Let It All Hang Out"

I was walking down the street one night feeling alright-alright-alright-alright-let it all hang out...

http://www.slipcue.com/music/pop/artists/scrawl/images_scrawl/scrawl_93velvet.gif

from Inkblot:

I must admit to being a Scrawl newbie. My first introduction to the band came but a few months ago when Bill Meyer's review of Nature Film inspired me to buy the album. I'm a sucker for sad, strong women singing sad, strong rock songs, and this album nearly killed me.


From Slipcue.com on Nature Film:

This is Scrawl's masterpiece. At a time when the music industry was obsessed with finding the next Nirvana or Green Day, and literally hundreds of untested, uninterestingly hyperactive, snotty rock bands were being thrown on the wall to see if anything would stick, Scrawl were still plugging away in indie-land, and had become intensely introspective. The level of songwriting skill and maturity of thought involved with this album were almost unheard of. The highlight is the plaintive, "Tell Me, Boy", an emotionally complex look at the pitfalls of cocooning, and a song which has never failed to get a strong response with the radio audience, generally along the lines of, "Yikes! That's my life they're singing about!"


I had an interview scheduled with them the day after I got fired from my last radio station in Cincinnati. I was loading my stuff in the music room while they were on the air with my clueless stand-in, I couldn't even look at them. Found an interview online at this site, (http://www.jennytoomey.com/scrawl.html) some excerpts:

In the 15 years of Columbus punk trio Scrawl's existence, Sue Harshe and Marcy Mays have seen all sides of the indie underworld. They've played gyro shops and recorded at Prince's Paisley Park Studios. They've executed exhaustive tours of the US and Europe with a veritable "who's who" of the indie elite. They've released records of all shapes and sizes, from the instantly out of print Bloodsucker to their most recent Nature Film, released through Warner Brother's massive distribution channels. Hell, they were even on Rough Trade back when that label was "kinda Socialist"!


Mays is a songwriter's songwriter. Artists from Mark Eitzel to Steve Albini cite her as inspiration, yet few cover her work. Perhaps no one wants to take on the intense subject matter, or compete with the intimacy conveyed in Mays' smoky soprano. ... I can't imagine the arrogance of a singer who'd attempt covers after listening to the bleak perfection of the originals.



"HER BRAINS CAN BREAK YOUR HEART" -- Robert Christgau on Mays lyrics

Jenny: What was it like to be a punk kid in Ohio in the '80s?

Sue: You were one of few, I would say, which was probably the charm.

Marcy: It wasn't a popular thing like it is kind of today.

Sue: We just played at gyro shops.

Marcy: Yeah, pizza shops.

Sue: Bagel shops.

Marcy: ...and went to see Black Flag to yell at them because they weren't really punk.

Sue: We were punk.

Marcy: They were poseurs. "Poseur" was a word you heard a lot back then.

Marcy: It was totally pre-MTV, or just right as MTV was coming out. You had to look hard to find the damn leopard-skin coat or something back then.

Sue...though we have this "veteran" status, we've also found that kids who are running college radio stations now have NO idea of our history or that we've been around longer than Hole or Liz Phair. It's frustrating to know that people think Natalie Merchant wrote a Patti Smith song, you know? I think it's just the nature of being in a business where a new rock & roll generation develops every six years or so, and when you're around longer than that allotted time frame, people get confused.

Marcy: When we met Steve Albini and came to record in Chicago, it was in a period where we were like, "We're never recording again." But Terry Tolkien was like, "Try Steve." The very first thing he said we met him was, "So, are you guys lesbians?"

Sue: Which really endeared him to us.

Marcy: We were like, "Thanks." And then he commented on our bust size--

Sue: Which is always much appreciated.

Marcy: "The biggest breasted band in the land," is what he used to call us when we'd walk in.

Sue: We'd never had our songs finished when we went to the studio ever. I mean, I'm always re-writing them up to the bitter end. Well, he'd come over to the headphones and go, "Uh, you're wasting my time." And we'd be like, "Oh, shit. Okay, well, we'll figure that part out in a second."

The second time we recorded, he was friendlier. Then after we recorded the song, "Please Have Everything," that was it, the relationship was sealed. I'd never sung the song before and the version that's on the record is the very first take, the very first time I ever sang that song out loud.

When we finished he came on the headphones and said, "You guys can do that song again or you can do it all night, but I'm not taping over that. That's the one that's going on the record. I just want you to know." It was really a beautiful thing. Especially after Small Mouth we were just beat down as talentless hacks. To have someone like him -- who is like the last person you would think that would appreciate a pretty, simple song -- to have him say, "That was a moment, and we're not going to ruin it," that was really great.

Sue: And he made really good pizzas.

Marcy: Really good pizzas, great waffles, and good coffee.


CHARLES

Charles, Charles, stay up and wait!
Charles, Charles, stay up and wait!
And if ya do
I promise you, it will be worth the wait.
Charles, you're
some kind of man
and when you give
you give on command
Charles, you're some kind of man
and when you give,
you give on demand, Charles.
Charles, Charles stay up and wait!
Charles, Charles stay up and wait
And if you do, I promise you
it will be worth the wait
I have a schedule to keep
I can't come home and find you asleep
Charles, I have a schedule to keep
I can't come home and find you asleep
Charles,
I might be out all night
Me and the girls are playing
and we just can't get it right
Charles I might be out all night
Me and the girls are playing
and we just can't get it right
I know I stay out
But I don't get out
Thats the way it goes
That's the way it goes
That's the way it goes
Charles! Charles! Stay up and wait!
And if you do
I promise you

it will be worth the wait.


...I'm interested in what you're saying, Marcy, about going through this trauma and writing lyrics to prop yourself up, and then not being able to sing them. There's a lot of confession in your songs...

Marcy: Not gross confession. Not like, "I fucked him."

No, but you give away a lot in your songs. I'm curious if you think that's the role of an artist?

Marcy: You know, nowadays people write confessional lyrics all the time. It's like down your throat, which really kind of bums me out, the whole Alanis Morrisette thing and all. I mean, you can tell when it's sort of faked. I don't think we've ever consciously said, "This is the kind of music that we're going to write." But it ends up being successful. When I feel like a song is successful, then I feel like it's because it's an honest song.

Sue: It depends on what kind of artist you are. You know, there are great storytellers who write incredible music, and they're not confessionals, they're narratives. It just kind of depends on what floats your boat, and why you're writing music. Some people aren't writing music as therapy.

Marcy: ...You know if honest lyrics are our strength, then I'm not going to apologize. We can't apologize for that. I hope the people don't think that it's contrived because contrived stuff like that drives me nuts, like fakey, whiny confessional crap.

I think it's very generous. I think a lot of people mask what they're doing; they don't give themselves really away. But I think a lot of the best artists do give themselves away.

Marcy: When you talk about giving stuff away with your music, there are people who come to mind, like Mark Eitzel. Even, I guess, old Big Star, kind of hits me. And early Replacements, I think of that. But I don't know if I -- I mean, there are certain songs that I've sung that I couldn't sing anymore because it was too close or too far from how I felt at that time. I guess I don't think about it too much because if I probably thought about it as giving something away, I don't know if I'd do it. And I don't really know if even I realize sometimes until years later what a song may be about sometimes.


You've been a band for 15 years and you've been tied to every "woman in rock" movement from Riot Grrrl, to Foxcore . How do you think it's changed in 15 years for women musicians? Or has it?

Sue: Sound men don't pat us on the head anymore after we play.

Marcy: Right. That doesn't happen.

Sue: I don't know. It could have gone so well. It could have gone so well. That's just how I look at it. And then Courtney Love...well, it's over now. Enough said.