Category Archives: 70’s

Cleveland’s Blue Arrow Records To Release Jonathan Richman Singles

JoJo_17-hr_photo_credit_Rory_EarnshawI am so stoked to be able to share this:

Cleveland’s Blue Arrow Records have started their own record label with the same name and first on their roster is the amazing Jonathan Richman.

Seeing that I am huge fan of them both, I could not help but stop what I was doing tonight to share the good news.

Jonathan Richman is easily one of my favorite singer-songwriters out there.  His career reaches all the way back to the 70s with the Modern Lovers and has continued over the years with him turning more into a solo artist.  I have always appreciated his upbeat outlook on life as well as got a kick out of seeing him in There’s Something About Mary and Kingpin.

Blue Arrow Records is a brick and mortar record store staple on Waterloo in the East Cleveland neighborhood of Collinwood. Owned by the good folk Pete and Debbie Gulyas, the store has been selling vinyl and other music related formats/memorabilia since 2009.  I adore that store (and the owners) and have found some incredible gems there over the years including a lot of Richman’s catalog.

The Gulyas’s actually used to own a shop on Coventry in Cleveland Hts. and met Richman in the area some 18 years ago.

Over the years, a friendship was formed between the Gulyas’s and Richman.  Just a few years back, Richman asked the Gulyas’s to help sell merch on an East coast tour.  It just makes sense that this is happening.

On March 1st, Blue Arrow will release 7-inch singles by Richman, “O Sun” and “Keith”.  There are plans for a full length to drop in the Fall as well as extending the label to other acts in due time.

Click on the album covers below to place your pre-order today at Blue Arrow Records ($10 each – Ships in April):

O Sun 7-Inch Single  Keith 7-Inch Single

Richman is actually playing the Euclid Tavern on March 8th with Tommy Larkins on drums.  If you know what is good for you, you will make it and see him perform.  It is a show not to be missed.

New Music Video: Buzzcocks – “It’s Not You”

It’s nice to see bands legends like the Buzzcocks still do what they do best and not disappoint at all.

Buzzcocks

Today, the UK punk pioneers dropped a video for “It’s Not You”, a single off their new album titled The Way.  This all new release if scheduled to be available on November 18th on 1-2-3-4 GO! Records.

Check it out:

I do not know about you, but I dig this track a lot.  Nice to see a band that is pushing 40 years still have no problem delivering some solid material.

Pre-Order a copy of The Way today by clicking HERE.

Repo Man Soundtrack Tribute In The Works!

I’ll admit, I am not one for tribute albums and never really have been.  There are a couple of exceptions out there (Bad Religion’s tribute from SPIN Magazine is one of them), but overall I just turn my head away usually when I hear the term “tribute album”.

Today was one of those days I changed my mind about a certain tribute.  Earlier today, I heard about a tribute album and rather than ignore it, I got excited.  I got really excited.

American Laundromat Records announced today that they would be releasing a tribute for the soundtrack to the 1980s cult classic Repo Man. Having a tribute featuring modern day bands cover classic late 70s / early 80s punk rock tracks from one of my favorite soundtracks to date has the potential to be seriously awesome.

Maybe it is because I adore the movie so much that I like this idea, or perhaps the fact that Those Darlins are covering the title track for Repo Man originally performed by Iggy Pop.  Come to think, it could even be because Polar Bear Club is covering Black Flag’s “TV Party”.

Regardless, this is one of those “exceptions” I spoke of earlier in regards to tribute albums, and I have already put in my pre-order for the CD that drops September 18th.

Why did I pre-order so early? Check this out (taken from ALR’s website):

All pre-order customers receive a 6-panel CD eco-wallet featuring original artwork by revered rock poster designer Lonny Unitus (Melvins, Decemberists, Willie Nelson), bonus promo pin, album preview prior to release date and, while supplies last, an official Little Trees’ royal pine tree-shaped air freshener which were featured in the film — “you find one in every car… you’ll see” (Miller to Otto).

Did I mention the CD pre-order bundle is only $10? Click HERE to pre-order one for yourself.  See the track list below.

While you are at it, click HERE to check out a post I did in 2009 about why I like Repo Man so much.

Track List:
“Repo Man” – Those Darlins
“TV Party” – Polar Bear Club
“Institutionalized” – Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra
“Coup d’Etat” – New York Rivals
“El Clavo y la Cruz” – Black Francis
“Pablo Picasso” – The Tellers
“Let’s Have A War” – Mike Watt
“When The Shit Hits The Fan” – TBA
“Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man)” – Matthew Sweet
“Bad Man” – TBA
“Reel Ten” – Weekend

Dearest Danzig…Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 Still Ruled.

I am sure many of you caught my last post about good ol’ Danzig’s awesome show I caught at Fun Fun Fun Fest this past weekend.  Love it or hate it, Danzig’s set on Friday night had the potential to ruin my weekend.

I knew the plug was going to get pulled the moment he announced to the crowd that they were told they could only play 5 more minutes.  That’s why I grabbed my camera and took that terrible video.  I wanted to capture the moment shit hit the fan, and I did.  I just discovered the Spin.com has used the video in one of their posts.

Prior to that announcement, I was finally starting to get into the set, granted the band just played “Vampira”.  I will not lie, they could have sounded way better.  I am sure there was a multitude of factors that resulted in what I heard.  It was windy as hell out and the equipment was heavily used all day , but there is no doubt in my mind that the band’s techs were not satisfied with their sound check.  Not only did the asshats do an impromptu sound check while the Murder City Devils were still playing (dicks), but they also had that extra 45 minutes before Danzig went on stage.

One of the whole reasons I went to Fun Fun Fun Fest this year was to check out the Danzig Legacy.  I was so hoping to hear “Hybrid Moments” and maybe even “Hollywood Babylon”, but we all know that was not the case.  Instead I heard heard Danzig, including 2 mediocre songs, some not so good sounding Samhain, and you know what happened after…

Plug pulled + Temper tantrum on stage = Me leaving and getting awesome vegan pad thai in downtown Austin.

Danzig make $100k that night and never finished his set.  The fans were all disappointed, and I was too.  Face it, we were all standing in front of the Black Stage to hear Misfits songs and nothing else.  With the time limit, one would think that Danzig could scrap one part of his set and focus on what people really wanted.  I felt worse for Doyle who probably just caked all that make-up on his face before coming out on stage.

Don’t worry, I did not want to tear off my Misfits tattoos and stomp on it after what I saw.  Hell, I am still a fan and always will be.  I was just pissed that Danzig was acting like a diva but also knew that I had 2 more days of Fun Fun to look forward to.  Perhaps the Misfits, the REAL Misfits, were never meant to be resurrected.  I do not care what Danzig has done for the music world, all I know is what I saw was unprofessional and beyond rockstar.  He was given fair warning of the time limit, did not want to even play, and then pulled his shit.  You know what?  I’m done talking about it.  Maybe if the Danzig calamity happened Sunday night I would have a different “Attitude” about the weekend but it was only night one.

I was already in a great mood after seeing Murder City Devils and Russian Circles take the stage Friday night.  Saturday I got to see Hot Snakes and The Damned (both were mind-blowing).  Sunday I saw Eyehategod, Kid Dynamite, Cannibal Corpse, HUM ( amazing) and eff’n Slayer. I also throughout the weekend saw Major Lazer, Diplo, Childish Gambino, Big Freeda, Spoon and Del The Funky Homosapien.

There was one quick performance though that just made me happy to be a part of the entire weekend.  While my friends and I were walking across Auditorium Shores to check out a veggie hot dog eating contest we noticed that there was a band covering Misfits songs on one of the main stages.  We all stopped dead in our tracks and literally ran to see what the hell was going on.  We caught the end of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’s set where Leo and friends were performing their Misfits cover band TV Casualty.  It was awesome, it was funny, and it sounded awesome.  The four songs that Leo and crew played made up for the bullshit Danzig stirred up Friday night.

I’ve been to a whole bunch of festivals in my time.  This years Fun Fun Fun Fest was the best one I have ever been to and I was only at maybe 1-1/2 of it.  I missed all of the early shows due to other things going on in Austin like eaten grub or getting a sweet tattoo (stay tuned for that).  I was ok with missing a couple of the acts as the main ones were in the evening.  I got to see MCD, Hot Snakes, and HUM all in a weekend.  How cool is that?

This is not a review.  This is me declaring how much fun I had last weekend.  Great music with the greatest of friends, old and new.  Throw in the sweet motor-boating I did on a healthy rack right before Slayer and, my friends, I may have had one of the best weekends ever, in fact, I know I did.  Thanks Austin.  Thanks Fun Fun Fun Fest.  I wish it was last weekend all over again.

Album Review: Rival Sons – Pressure & Time

I don’t know if I can speak for all of you out there on this memory of mine, but I remember once when I was a kid I was flipping through my father’s LP collection.  His collection consisted mostly of late 60s and 70s bands, bands considered “classic rock” these days.  Still new to the game called music, I had no idea who all these bands were and was ever so curious to familiarize myself with them.

I marveled at the pictures at first, some more than others thanks to scantily clad women gracing the covers, and soon was just playing record after record teaching myself what to like and what to disregard.  There were gems that I found in those stacks of records that pretty much kick started my love for music.  I bring up this story because I swear that the new Rival Sons album, Pressure & Time, that I just listened to easily could have been one of those records that I pulled out from the stack, listened to, and said “woah.”

Hailing from Los Angeles, Rival Sons are a modern day classic rock band, all talent and no gimmicks at all.  The foursome has been around since 2008 and released their sophomore album Pressure & Time on Earache Records.  At times the band sounds like a cross between classic rock like Led Zeppelin but also hints towards a modern White Stripes/Jack White feel.  The collection of genres makes for a great sound that has been seemingly dismissed these days in the music world when it comes to new bands.

As soon as “All Over The Road” started, I found myself almost in shock to hear what I was listening to.  “Pressure and Time” won me over after I listened to it.  I adored the whole song start to finish.  Just check out the video below and see if you agree.  I can see the ladies already swooning over “Only One” once it hits their ears.  Reminding me of a Black Crows song, it was a sly cut to listen to with nice keyboard and heavy bass guitar playing.

“Get Mine” was a straight up jam with an ever so addicting funky bass riff that was met up some classic guitar playing.  “Burn Down Los Angeles” was just bad ass.  The drumming, the bass, the guitars, and the signing all together kept your head rocking and toughened up your skin.  “Save Me” had a fun start with a little classic guitar and bass exchange and then was smothered with a nice helping of soul.  Throughout it reminded me of a Sweet song, not like “dude, it was sweet”, but like the band Sweet…never mind. (additionally this song has been featured on a Jeremiah Weed commercial).  The lighter flicking, body swaying, arena destined “Face Of Light” closed out the album.

Pressure & Time seemed to just breeze past me while listening to.  At 30-minutes, I really would have loved to heard more, a lot more.  I really was not expecting Rival Sons to sound the way they did.  I was told that they “rocked” but that is an understatement.  This band must have gone back in time and hung out with the legends to sound this great. The lead singer looks like the lovechild of Jim Morrison and sounds like Jack White as well as Robert Plant.  The band dresses to impress and supposedly puts on some of the best like shows (still yet to be determined by this guy).  Apparently they have shared the stage with bands like Kiss and Judas Priest already in their short career.  Not too shabby boys.

If you like your rock classic and have been looking for something new to check out and just sink your teeth into, look no further.  Rival Sons have arrived and I am pretty sure all the folk out there who rocked out in the 70s, perhaps even your parents, are going approve.