Rock Star Journalist

The debut single from Wisconsin’s the Lonesome Savages, All Outta Love, might be the only thing the rockabilly genre’s produced worth listening to since the first Amazing Royal Crowns LP. It’s an astoundingly original take on the genre, yet draws on enough familiar influences (Charlie Feathers by way of the Cramps) to keep it grounded in some sort of reasonable genre ballpark.

Now, is it three covers and one original? Yes. But it’s not like it’s the first debut release to do so. The Cramps’ Gravest Hits was mostly covers, as was half of the Specials’ self-titled. This is what bands do, if they’re able – when you don’t have enough songs you’ve written, you take the ones you know and put your own sonic imprint on ‘em. Let those fuckers know who you are, one way or another, am I right?
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While Voodoo Rhythm might drop the occasional bomb, it seems that anything released featuring label head Beat-Man is a gem. In some cases, that gem is a diamond in the rough – emphaiss on the rough. Such is Die Zorros‘ Future, a strange journey through originals and covers in what the label accurately terms a “Farfisa Organ Fiasko.”

Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” is stripped down to its instrumental components, with the only lyrics being “No, no, no.” It’s a deconstruction that continues on through the rest of the album – the only words in their strange surf version of “Paint It Black” is the rhythmic chanting of “black.” The whole thing plays like a warped version of lounge music, from a world where LSD is passed out like after-dinner mints and absinthe gets tossed back like PBR. The covers are familiar enough once your ears catch onto what’s being done to them, but the twists come fast and furious.
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Author Max Décharné‘s new book on the history of rockabilly, A Rocket In My Pocket, was an instant favorite here at Rock Star Journalist headquarters. The book’s take on the rock ‘n’ roll genre precursor focuses just as much on the obscure gents releasing barely-heard singles on local labels as it does the big hits, making for an engrossing and informative read. So, it ges without saying we were thrilled beyond belief when offered an opportunity to interview the man. He was kind enough to take some time to answer our questions regarding his book and career via e-mail.
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Max Decharne‘s new history of rockabilly for Serpent’s Tail, A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster’s Guide to Rockabilly, takes a little bit to get going. It’s understandable – there’s a lot of history to set up, and a lot of characters to introduce, be they Sun Records owner Sam Phllips, cover boy Elvis Presley, or the queen of rockabilly, Wanda Jackson. Basically, Decharne takes several dozen rockabilly musicians, as well as various labels that run the gamut from international to recording in someone’s garage, and gives them to the reader in a flurry of names.
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To make the obvious joke, we play videos… some pop-punk, rocket roll, more pop-punk, and some hardcore. All relatively recent, and good. Although, really… my promo copy of the new H2O album, Nothing to Prove, ended up being blank. SO I can’t say as to whether or not the whole record is as good as the singles I’ve heard.

Reading about stuff, especially music stuff, makes me happy. I mentioned Seven Ten Twelve recently, but I’d like to more deeply explain why it’s one of the best vinyl sites out there. Yeah, the stuff he covers is a litte hipster-y, but it’s all quality stuff that my local record store carries, so I actually know what i’m getting into. It’s like a second opinion from a friend you trust. A lot of the stuff Paul (Lawton, the fella who runs Seven Ten Twelve) mentions is limited, so it’s a nice heads up regarding things you might otherwise miss out on. And, as an added bonus, he’s from Canada, so you get interesting spellings like “tonne.”

Along the lines of obscure, limited vinyl is the simply-named Limited Edition Vinyl. As one would expect, that’s the subject, be it big name or small name stuff. You get pressing colors, variations, numbers, and (most importantly) where you can get this stuff ASAP. The best part about the site aside from the content is the insanely long list of labels that sell vinyl in the page’s sidebar. You can start randomly clicking and soon find your credit card maxed out. I recommend starting over at Voodoo Rhythm out of Switzerland. It’s run by the Reverend Beatman, frontman for the Monsters. Crazy crazy blues garage rockabilly label.

Lo-fi craziness, as is the stuff over at Douchemaster. They put out a Hex Dispensers 45 that I picked up after SXSW, and it’s damn good. They’ve put out a couple Carbonas singles, as well. Their stuff is a little more limited than the Voodoo Rhythm material, but the site isn’t a hodge-podge of bad HTML and spotty English, either.

the Monsters – “I Wanna Do What I Wanna Do” (from Garage Punk Vol. 1)
the Hex Dispensers – “Taxidermy Porno” (from the Lose My Cool single)

Recently acquired colorful vinyl:

* Marble green – Hipshakes / Cococoma tour split 7″
* Purple – the Stranger‘s Prison Called Life 7″
* Oxblood red – Naked Raygun‘s Throb Throb LP reissue
* Good ol’ black – the Hex Dispensers‘ Lose My Cool 7″
* Good ol’ black – the Polecats‘ Make A Circuit With Me LP

In actual, real news, it appears that Sandstone is Sandstone again. Good. Now I don’t have to explain what the hell I’m talking about to KU freshmen anymore… at least in this respect.

Also, if I were a fifteen year-old (or 25 year-old who smoked too much pot), I would be totally fucking stoked that Warped Tour and a Snoop Dogg / 311 show are both at Sandstone a week apart. I am neither – although if I could figure out a way to justify the $32 ticket price, I’d go see My Chemical Romance on the 15th. There’s something about MCR that makes me feel the need to justify my fandom regarding the band to pretty much everyone I meet – that would be the fact that most fans of MCR are 15 year-old girls who wear WAY too much eyeliner and shop at Hot Topic for A Nightmare Before Christmas accouterments.

Still, the band kicks ass in a theatrical way that bands really haven’t done since the ’70s. They’re up there with Alice Cooper and Queen, along with a little bit of the Tubes, as far as bands that put on shows, as opposed to concerts. Then again, their shows always come when I’m either broke or otherwise committed, so I pretty much have to go on reviews, which just get me all salivary.

This post was all over the fucking place, huh?

My Chemical Romance – “Welcome to the Black Parade“

Sorry for the long break in posts here, but I’ve been dealing with an uncooperative IDE enclosure. However, that’s been dealt with, and I even managed to get some photos off a very old drive that I’d thought long dead. I also have a slightly slower Internet connection, thus causing it to take somewhere in the realm of two-three hours to upload the photos that once took half an hour. Still, $20 Internet beats the hell out of $55 a month, especially when it costs $85 a year just to host this site (as well as the parent, nigh-on-never updated, Nuthouse Productions).

Anyhow… SCADS of pictures, some going back nearly four years, and others as recent as this past Saturday. Trust me – I was still learning how to work my camera at that point, and it shows. Still, there’s some pictures over at Rock Star Photography from the following bands:
Shotgun Idols, the Primetime Heroes, Love Me Destroyer, the Federation of Horsepower (several times), the Pink Spiders, Honeywagen, the Gloryholes, Unknown Stuntman, Black Tarantulas, Thunder Eagle, National Fire Theory, HorrorPops, No Age, and the Throttlers.

Speaking of the Pink Spiders and HorrorPops show… I was really looking forward to that show, mainly because of Steve E. Nix & the Cute Lepers, featuring members of the Briefs. The Cute Lepers canceled the show Saturday night, however. This is the band who were the main point of me going to the Bottleneck that night, and they ended up getting arrested in Denver (so I was told). Dammit. I now have to pay insanely high shipping from Interpunk to get their new record on 1-2-3-4 Go!.

So, this meant the show was just the Pink Spiders and HorrorPops. The Pink Spiders were all right, and managed to acquit themselves a nice cover of the Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks.” I’ve never seen such a sea of blank, uncomprehending faces at a cover song as I did then, however. The young women standing next to me looked at me like I was the world’s saddest man for knowing the words. “Modern Swinger” sounded pretty nice, too.

HorrorPops – a band that I’ve tried to see no fewer than three times before, only to be thwarted by late arrivals or early departures. They went on, and I was terribly underwhelmed. The show was just “eh.” The dancers were ridiculously hot, but Patricia had a fairly canned line of patter (I swear to god, if I’d had to hear “Is that a ‘hell yeah’?” everytime the crowd cheered, I was going to kill someone) and Nekroman didn’t seem to be all that happy to be there. The songs don’t really have a lot of “oomph” live, either. So, after about five songs, I hightailed it down to the Replay.

The Replay started out busy, and got worse as the evening progressed. The opening act was called the Black Tarantulas, and played a great dirty garage rock with some surf influences. They had tons of energy, and aside from half their songs sounding a lot like the other half, they’ve got some seriously potential.

The next act up was Thunder Eagle, who pretty much sounded like the Bronx. Loud, heavy rock ‘n’ roll, with lots of screaming. Good, but not what I was expecting or wanting to see that night. By the time their set got underway, the bar was packed both inside and out, and I was starting to get a little claustrophobic and tired. So, despite how much I wanted to see Brimstone Howl, who were headlining, I felt more like a good night’s sleep, and getting away from the crush of the packed bar.

Since then, it’s pretty much been me getting ready to go to SXSW in a couple weeks. Ostensibly, it’s for the radio station for which I act as music director, but you are more than welcome to ply me with food and coffee for a plug here.

the Throttlers – “Action”
HorrorPops – “Thelma & Louise”
the Pink Spiders – “Modern Swinger“

Tune in and listen up THIS FRIDAY NIGHT as a few of your favorite KC Roller Warrior derby ladies hit the airwaves to make a guest apperance on SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK from 10-11PM on 90.7 FM KJHK.

The KC Roller Warriors are the 2007 Flat-Track Roller Derby Champions, and start their season on February 16 at the Winnwood Skate Center against the Denver Roller Dolls with the Bloody Valentine bout. We’ll also have two pairs of tickets to give away for the season opener!

Out of the listening area? Only own an iPod? No problem! You can tune in LIVE and streaming right from the comforts of your own home!! Just go the the KJHK website and listen in from your computer!! It’s just a click away! So don’t forget – this Friday, February 8th, Sunglasses After Dark from 10-11PM.

In honor of the KCRW derby girls, here’s a selection of awesome female-fronted rock ‘n’ roll…

Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
the Dollyrots – “Because I’m Awesome”
the Distillers – “Drain the Blood”
Sahara Hotnights – “Alright Alright (Here’s My Fist Where’s the Fight?)”
Tsunami Bomb – “Take the Reins”
HorrorPops – “Where They Wander“

My radio show, Sunglasses After Dark (Fridays, 10pm-midnight Central on KJHK 90.7FM) presented three local bands at the Jackpot here in Lawrence last night. I only started booking shows back in September of last year, but I’ve learned that every show has one issue or another, or something goes horribly awry – be it a band that cancels, or someone showing up late, etc.

Well, every show except this one. All the bands showed up on time, nobody pissed off another band, there were no equipment failures, and basically, the show just ran like fucking clockwork. It was nice.

Young Livers from Kansas City opened the show with an energetic st of cowpunk and rockabilly. Frontman Jody knew how to rock the mic and keep the energy level going. An especially nice touch was his stepping off to the side and combing down his pompadour during an instrumental break – definitely cool. Drummer Allister was twirling her sticks like Peter Criss while Ryan and Tripp rocked out on bass and guitar, respectively. A well-done cover of the Misfits‘ “Hollywood Babylon” just ended up being the cherry on a great kickoff to the evening. (Young Livers pictures here)

Also from Kansas City, the Rich Boys took the stage second. Rocking the stage like a band possessed, the group knocked out dirty rock song after dirty rock song with howling energy. Fantastic, and yet another reason why the KC rock scene could use some national attention. These guys are up for “Best New Band” in the Pitch Awards this year. You should go vote for them. (the Rich Boys pictures here)

Last up was Lawrence’s own the Havok On Polaris. It’s a testament to the talent of these pop-punkers that they held their own after two high energy groups of out-of-towners. After two sets of gritty rock, the melodic stylings of this three-piece was a really nice change of pace. There were tons of kids up front for their set, since they were shooting for a forthcoming dvd. The band didn’t miss a note, beat, or lyric the entire set, and it was like going back to Gee Coffee or an all-ages Bottleneck matinée ten years ago… man, I miss pop-punk. Big ups for the “Maneater” and “Linoleum” covers, as well – Hall & Oates and NOFX in the same set is certainly diverse (and fun). (the Havok On Polaris pictures here)

Thanks to all three bands for playing. It was fun, easy, and everybody there seemed to have a whole lot of fun. I didn’t see one bored or upset face the entire evening, the bands all went home with some money in their pockets, and I managed to make it through the evening without drinking. I think it was a success.

the Misfits – “Hollywood Babylon”
Hall & Oates – “Maneater”
NOFX – “Linoleum“