I’d like to take a moment to thank WNUR (Northwestern University Radio) … Well actually … ALL this area’s college radio stations – WZRD, WRRG, WDCB, WHPK, WLUW (I apologize to the stations I’ve forgotten) for enticing my ears & opening my mind. Without you I’d be happy to guzzle whatever garbage commercial radio has been serving up for the last 26 years of my life.

I’m gonna keep this short … (well, short for my ranting big mouth)

I recently attended a “festival” that featured several bands throughout the day. It was a mix of cover bands & bands playing originals. Some were great, some were background music and then there was the final act. I stood there watching & listening … giving them a “fair listen” … and then it hit me. THANK JEBUS I FOUND WNUR!!! If I hadn’t stumbled across 89.3 when I was 14 years old, I might have ended up in a band like the one that I was suffering through. Imagine a blend of all the worst parts about Metallica (including prima donna attitudes), Stone Temple Pilots, and a poorly executed dash of Skynyrd. I gave it 15-20 minutes before I opted for Karaoke at a nearby bar.

Yes … I said Karaoke! Those people singing their “out-of-key” hearts out were more interesting & genuine than the overgrown adolescent boredom-machine that I had just escaped. This band (which shall remain nameless) weren’t quite as old as me, but they were well out of their teens – I guess physically just not emotionally nor mentally.

Big D’s tip for the day … aww hell the week – month – forever! … take some time & listen to College Radio, your soul will thank you.

Also – donate during you favorite station’s pledge drive if you can … they need it. NOTE – I’m not affiliated with any media source, so this isn’t an “ad” for any particular radio station.

August in Chicago generally means oppressive heat that swells with “pea soup-like” humidity. But something strange has been going on. The last week has been freakishly cold for August. Some may start thumping their recycling bins to say, “I told ya so” but that’s far too simple an explanation. I believe it all started last week when The Amino Acids came to town.

The Amino Acids, like visitors from another planet, command your attention even though fear of the unknown may surge through your body. You can’t turn away & you begin questioning your musical familiarity … Does thrash exist is surf? What would happen if you merged Dick Dale & Tony Iommi? Can you really trust a man (or alien) with a Theremin?

The Amino Acids play the darkest most aggressive breed of surf I’ve ever heard. It’s heavy, fast, melodic, fun, at times comical and some may even say bizarre. Clad in black, behind stark white smiling masks the Amino Acids put on one of the best shows I’ve seen this year. If they aren’t coming to your town any time soon, check out their latest release “Humanity Will Fall Like Pins”. It’s a down-n-dirty thrill ride that will give you a small taste of what an evening w/ The Amino Acids is like. And if they do come to your town, strange things may occur but fear not … do not alert the authorities … just remember “Klaatu Barada Necktie” and all will be well.

hee hee hee hee heeeee … www.theaminoacids.com

There once was a magical place called The Cabaret Metro. It was dark, smokey, loud, and filled with rock-n-roll degenerates … well, at least the nights that I was there, and I got to see some kick-ass shows there.

Some kind person on youtube has posted majority of one of those shows.
Nirvana from 1989:

THIS LINK will take you to the Youtube Playlist Page so you can watch all 9 songs.

This footage makes me smile

Damn … Chicago lost a character this week. Troy “Roach” Coates, frontman from The Plague – Lungbrush – Stunt Double Jesus – Rising Up Angry – Ghost of the Underground, passed away due to complications from a rare form of Adrenal Cancer.

I saw The Plague a few times & Lungbrush once, after that I lost track of Roach’s other bands. I was more of a fan of The Plague myself. They along with bands like Life Sentence & Zeotrope were important in the mid-late 80’s in Chicago because they were a bridge between the punks & the metal heads at the time.

Generally, you could be sure to see a fight if a pack of headbangers walked into a punk show & vice-versa. But with the growing Hardcore Scene, there was an acceptance at shows. I’m not saying people held hands screaming Kumbaya or anything, but the fights were over things other than the uniform you wore.

Anyhow – whether it was Cabaret Metro, The Cubby Bear, The Iron Rail or some dive bar Roach always put on a lively engaging performance. If memory serves correct, I think I saw Lungbrush at Circuits on Cicero when they were starting up – Good stuff, just more metal than I was hoping for. The Plague was fast, strong & in your face … and that’s what I dug about ‘em.

The scene is gonna miss you Roach! If you’d like more in-depth info … check out www.rockforroach.com

Pulled out an oldie but a goodie today. The self-titled Debut LP (1987) from Life Sentence! Chi-town hardcore that at times reminds me of a blend of 7 Seconds & D.R.I. with a touch of Suicidal Tendencies on the guitar solos. And when I say solos, I mean brief blasts of seering fuzzed out guitar riffs … no wankery here! This is my favorite of their few releases. This record sounds like it was recorded at a VFW Hall while a herd of drunken teens were running around losing their minds.

There’s nothing subtle about this album, everything sounds hot & urgent. Even the skank-a-rific slower parts of “Race to Die” gets the adrenaline flowin’. “In the Streets” throws a few quick stop-starts at you & then the drums pummel you as if you were falling down a three story flight of stairs. “Punks for Profit” is another standout track, not just for the lyrical sentiment but the music starts out with a fists in the air stand-up & shout vibe and then whirls into a thrashing frenzy and back to the fists in the air and so on … it a brilliant 53 seconds which you should hear.

There are some other good tracks & then a few that are ok … but “In the Streets” “Punks for Profit” and “Race to Die” are three tracks that no midwest punk +/or hardcore comp should go without. Check ‘em out on MySpace … looks like there’s a reformation of the band hittin’ the clubs.

Life Sentence played on Radio

2009 gets off to a crappy start with the discovery of Ron Asheton, dead in his home on Jan. 6th. If you’ve come across this entry from a google search, then you’re already aware of Ron’s importance in the world of rock-n-roll. If you’ve stumbled across this post & are not familiar with Ron Asheton – I’ll keep it brief.

Ron Asheton had a style & tone that challenged the established guitar world in the late 60’s. He created a sound that would bore through you and electrify your senses. It was down dirty & huge … and it probably frightened a fair amount of the general public.

Iggy gets most of the attention when The Stooges are referred to, but without Ron’s monstrous guitar & his brother Scott’s thundering drums, as well as Dave Alexander’s driving bass … The Stooges would have been just another garage band.

Although too young to see them in the late 60’s/70’s, I’ve seen 2 of the shows with Mike Watt on bass … and I’m saddened that I won’t be seeing any more.

Between the Stooges demise & the re-union, Ron was in Destroy All Monsters & Dark Carnival (both w/ Niagara), The New Order (no not the Blue Monday one), New Race (w/ Radio Birdman & MC5 members) and The Empty Set. And in the mid-90’s he was in a wonderfully “B” horror movie called Mosquito (w/ Gunnar “Leatherface” Hansen from The Texasa Chainsaw Massacre).

Here’s one of my favorite Stooges clips, from the television broadcast of The Cincinnati Pop Festival in 1970.

Brothers & Sisters … although the path may be dark at times … although you may feel an emptiness in your soul … although you may think you’ve been forgotten … Brothers & Sisters, Fear No Longer! There is a light that will clear your vision, warm your being and embrace you with All that Rock-n-Roll should be!

This light … this energizing light … this almost Blinding Furious Ball of Light is known as The Jim Jones Revue !
Prepare to redeem your rock-n-roll soul!

The Jim Jones Revue recently released their debut self-titled album, and it’s just what I needed! It’s 30 sizzling minutes of rock-n-roll that’ll make ya wanna do flips like Jake in Church. This album was recorded really “hot” but natural … if you have some beat up Lil Richard 45’s layin’ around – you’ll find that The Revue’s debut fits in quite nicely with them.

Speaking of Lil’ Richard, there’s a cover of “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey!” on the album and I think Jim Jones was possessed by the spirit of young Lil’ Richard during the recording … Holy Crap it SMOKES!!!

Jim Jones has been a part of some amazing bands (Thee Hypnotics & Black Moses) and The Revue is yet another one. It’s different stylistically but energy-wise it’s much like Thee Hypnotics “Liv’r Than God”.

This is an album full of riffs you’ve probably heard before, with traditional Rock-n-Roll themes, and it’s LOUD … it’s down-n-dirty blues-boogie ass-shakin’ hard-partyin’ rock-n-roll that has one thing in mind … A Damn Good Time! These are well written songs played masterfully by a pack of maniacs! I really hope they make it to America … specifically Chicago.

So you surrendered … broke down … gave in … yep, you bought an Amy Winehouse cd. Silly silly boy, why did ya do it? I realize it was used and under $10 but c’mon … you know better. Ohhhh, I see … it was all that Grammy hype that piqued your interest. I forgot, your collection is just FULL of recent Grammy winners. You think you should give her a fair shake since you’ve only heard the big hit off the record … that’s sweet of you. Maybe there something magical buried in the “deep cuts” of the disc … yeah – like the silence between tracks. Well, fine! You bought it! Now YOU gotta listen to the damn thing!

The above is a loose transcription of the ass-chewing my conscience gave me for picking up Back to Black by Amy Winehouse. I almost put it back because I kept thinking about what a product she is. She’s got the look & the attitude to sell cd’s, dvd’s & downloads. Get a good producer, organize a backing band of kick-ass studio musicians, and give her as many takes on each song (with the auto-tune pitch control on of course) as she needs and you’re ready to unleash the next hip thing. That’s not a singer – it’s a widget! But then I thought, wait a minute – isn’t that pretty much what Motown did? Hmmm, is she a modern day Diana Ross or a modern day “girl #2 on back-ups”? So I figured if Motown is acceptable, then Ms. Winehouse should get a spin … so c’mon … pop that disc in!

I must give kudos to the engineers & producer … this disc has a warm spacious sound. The band is smooth as hell. The instrumentation of the songs keeps things interesting. Ms. Winehouse does a bang up job on this disc. Touch of raspiness here, a lil’ cockeyness there, some smooth soulful moments and then some downright naughtiness sprinkled around. Overall this is a great Pop Vocal record.

You have to remember that Pop is not Rock, and that creativity is measured differently between those genres. Rock bands get rewarded (in public opinion) for things other than “writing a good tune”. Alternative tunings, odd time changes, new sounds, etc. are things that elevate rock bands’ reputations in people’s minds even though the band might not be able to write a single catchy song. The Pop genre relies on proven material or sounds and leaves it up to the vocalist to make it creative.

Amy Winehouse makes things interesting with her voice & her lyrics. Her voice is intriguing if you can stand it. She hangs out in the higher register with a nasally quacking type voice and when she tries to go low, it’s thin and not as moving as you’d think it should be. But, once your ear adjusts to it you can appreciate her phrasing and inflection. Lyrically, these aren’t traditional love songs or torch songs about a woman pining for her man. They are contemporary assertive & at times rude.

You’re not going to find much in innovation on this record, so if you’re a stickler for bands having to do something you’ve never heard before – don’t bother with this disc. But, if you can appreciate a tight band playing some great sounding soul & jazz with a touch of ska, with a gal who doesn’t sound like every other soul singer on the market – then pick up Back to Black. There’s nothing “New” on this disc, but it’s a party … the songs will be familiar sounding (even if you’ve never heard this disc), it makes ya move your feet (and grind your hips once in a while), and it sounds like fun … again, kudos to the producer for that.

Since I found myself diggin’ this cd, I figured I’d hunt down her earlier release “Frank”. Luckily a friend had it & said I could check it out along with a live recording “I Told You I was Trouble”. My conscience laid off on me because now it was kind of ashamed about the whole “yer a dope for buying into the hype” beratement. Anyhow …

Immediately after popping Frank into the disc player you hear a totally different vibe. The disc sounds more contained than Back to Black. It also doesn’t have that groovy sound. Remember the 90’s? Remember Jamiroquai? Well this disc has that hip-hop/70’s soul/Disco sound to it. Again, not very original – but this time not arranged as well and the recording isn’t as good and the band’s parts border on boring and then we have Ms. Winehouse.

Ah yes, Amy Winehouse … or the cat strangler … it’s really your choice here. Frank is a painful listen due to her voice. She attempts to climb scales & jump octaves and it’s always up-up-up with that thin nasally voice. I could only handle about 45 seconds of her bludgeoning “There is No Greater Love” before I had to eject the cd – run & grab my Dinah Washington version of the song and sooth my ears with a proper rendition of it.

At this point my conscience piped up with an, “AHEM! What did I tell you?” but I forged on! I put Frank back in the player and fought hard to listen to the rest of the songs in their entirety, but I couldn’t do it. Stale hip-hop/70’s soul and that voice … yikes! I made it through about halfway through on each of the remaining tracks.

Did I say that the producer of Back to Black deserves more recognition. Hmmm, according to Wikipedia, Salaam Remi (who produced Frank) & Mark Ronson are credited as producers, since Mr. Ronson is the new player in this equation – my money’s on him. However he got her to stay in a reasonable range and quit all that scale-climbing octave-fluttering is anyone’s guess, but thank goodness he did.

With my conscience doing a victory lap shouting “told ya so told ya so” I grabbed a cold one & popped in the live disc. This would be a test of Amy & the band. I knew it would be produced and not a true representation of a live show, but at least it was out of the studio and she had to sing with the band and it’s as close to seeing her live as I’ll get, so …

This recording has a nice medium room sound to it. The band is kickin’ ass on Back to Black & Frank tracks and Amy sounds great for a good portion of the disc. Unfortunately she mumbles like crazy, she does that high pitched scale crap, and the thinness of her voice is very apparent. When she’s on – she’s On … but there’s several times where she sounds like a bad impersonation of Billie Holiday shifting into a mediocre Ella and then a slightly better Tina Turner. I was happy to hear a Toots & the Maytalls cover though (Monkey Man). My conscience was too … when ya cover a cool tune like that ya gotta be sorta ok.

So – what have we learned … Amy Winehouse is unique in her delivery and tone but she ain’t all that. At least not yet. If she doesn’t end up OD’ing and she takes some direction and her voice matures, she just might end up being the type of singer she thinks she is. The band is awesome! The songs on Back to Black & their stage fashion show their Mod influences (Northern Soul, Ska, Rock Steady, Jazz) and I like the fact the general public is getting clued in on that scene.

Did she deserve all those Grammy Awards? C’mon … it’s the Grammy’s – who freakin’ cares. Outside of saluting musicians that should have been recognized 30 or 40 years ago or even posthumously, the Grammy’s salute the cream of the crap.

Well, I’ll save my Grammy Rant for another time … Amy Winehouse is not as bad as I figured. I wonder if I can find an instrumental version of Back to Black … that’d be fantastic.

I was lucky enough to see Channel 3 last week at a small “old man” bar called Memories. From front door to the stage, the joint is maybe 20′ wide X 40′deep. I’ve seen shows there before (and played there) and as you’d figure, the sound is generally too loud & out of balance – but last Friday the sound was freakin’ great!

Anyhow, the line-up was different from the advertised line-up & like any show started late … but that’s nothin’ new in Chicago. The first band was The Clorox Girls – at first I thought they were “ok”, but as the set went on I liked ‘em more & more. I’m sure they get compared to The Briefs (I believe they’re from the same area) but I heard more influences & sounds … like Radio Birdman and early Replacements. Anyhow, I’d say check ‘em out if they roll through yer town. I missed the name of the second band, but it was basically The Clorox Girls minus their singer. They were fun, but less dynamic – more “Ramones beat up the Beach Boys”-ish.

Then Godzilla hit the stage with a hooligan anthem titled “Drink Beer Tonight” (er something to that effect) and it was a great “beers in the air” sing-along. Their set was aggressive & impressive. The drummer deserves a raise – holy crap was he “ON”! The whole band was “ON” … but at the velocity that the drummer was playing, he was tight & solid. I guess if ya gotta categorize Godzilla they’d end up in the hardcore category but they’ve got some great Oi melodies goin’ on and it isn’t all speed. Based on the show I saw, they are a balls out live band that I’d see again.

Local boys Destroy Everything played next … I had heard good things about them so I was excited. They have that Malcom McClaren inspired punk look and they’ve got a few years under their belt so I was looking forward to a ‘77-O-riffic set. Well … it was more Blanks 77 than 1977 … and when you’re playing that fast there’s no room for “push-n-pull” on the drums. The guitar & bass raced away from the drums on a handful of songs so maybe they just couldn’t hear the drums … I dunno – it was dissapointing. Who knows – it could’ve been the room, like I said earlier the sound usually “so-so” (but the other bands sounded good so what happened?) and maybe at a different venue they’d sound better or maybe it was just an off night … I’ll just have to check out another show.

Up to this point I had been having a great evening. Ran into some folks I haven’t seen in 12 or so years … the beer was cold … the music was rockin’ … I figured things couldn’t get any better. DOH! I was wrong … so wrong …

Channel 3 hit the stage & charged into a slew of songs that I couldn’t tell you the names of, but I knew the melody, I knew when the chorus was comin’ up, I even shouted out a line or two … I kept saying to myself, “Shit! that was CH 3?”. Ya see, The only CH 3 stuff I owned was a collection of comp tapes from friends that featured a song here & a couple songs there (maybe 12 in all) … that was a lil over 20 years ago. Well, those cassettes died in the great basement flood of 1992 and since then I haven’t thought alot about CH 3. Well that all changed about 3 weeks ago. Anyhow – back to the set …

So, they played all the shit that made me dig ‘em back then as well as more recent songs. I liked the new stuff, so I downloaded it from eMusic the next day. It’s got balls and isn’t a buncha “punk rock mid-life crisis” songs, or as those big time critics would say, “It’s a mature album … blah blah blah”. Anyhow – the singer was hysterical … crackin’ jokes, havin’ fun, playin his ass off. Hell – the whole band played their asses off but had this relaxed confidence that you’d swear this was the 5th night of a week long stay at Memories – it was simply fantastic.

If you get a chance to see Channel 3 … do so. If not, keep your eyes open for an upcoming documentary called One More for All My True Friends – it looks like it’ll be a good flick.

A week away from turning 60, and Mr. Pop is humping Mike Watt’s bass amp, rolling cross the floor, leaping into the crowd & floppin’ around like he stepped on a utility cable … DAMN! He makes me smile!

So, last night … The Congress Theater was the site of The Stooges Chicago performance. It’s not the greatest sounding venue in the world, but it’s the right capacity. The show was sold out, and we arrived in the middle of Shellac’s opening set, so we cruised up to the balcony and found a surprisingly good spot.

The stooges opened up w/ “Loose” & tore the Congress a new-one. They stuck w/ stuff from the first two albums for 4 or 5 songs and then started mixing in new material here & there. Overall it was a kickass show – but I woulda liked to hear more of the new album.

They played “My Idea of Fun”, “She Took My Money” & “I’m Fried” as well as “Lil’ Electric Chair” & “Skull Ring” … ummm, and maybe one more new one … arghh I forget. Anyhow the rest of the set covered majority of “The Stooges” & “Funhouse” albums and they played their asses off! I’m hoping performance from this tour end up released as DVD +/or CD.