The Giant Panther

I have to admit, I love Midnight Oil. I always have. First of all; what a great name for a band. Midnight Oil. Just the thought of burning the midnight oil makes you feel like you are all grown up. Staying up late always seemed to be cool and it didn't matter if you thought you were being productive or just goofing off. The old saying that nothing good happens after midnight is probably more accurate than many of us ever want to believe. I'm a certified night owl. 10 PM is like 7 PM to me. I'm just gettin' started. I'm just heading into my favorite three hours of any given day. I rarely turn the lights out by 1 AM. I'm aware that my sleep habits are awful, but just throw that on the pile next to my diet. Luckily my exercise habits are borderline excellent or I'd probably have diabetes or some other affliction by now (knock wood). If Midnight Oil were a company and it somehow applied to my lifestyle I'd own stock. As it is I have contributed substantially to this band's bottom line over the years. There can be no denying that. I saw them several times and bought everything in sight.

My first Midnight Oil show was Sunday May 27, 1990 at Great Woods in Mansfield, MA. I remember seeing super fan Peter Gammons of Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated and ESPN fame at the show. Peter used to use (maybe he still does, but I refuse to subscribe to ESPN The Magazine just so I can read his column) the names of some of the song titles of his favorite bands as leads ins to the blurbs in his great Boston Globe baseball column in the late eighties. You'd routinely see references to Del Amitri, John Hiatt and Midnight Oil every Sunday like clockwork. I felt a kinship with Peter even though I never met him and we rooted for different baseball teams. We generally liked the same music. It was great to see him supporting Midnight Oil as I was although in hindsight he probably got his tickets for free. The Oils were on top of their game in 1990. Diesel and Dust was an international smash in 1988 led by the track Beds Are Burning. Blue Sky Mining had just been released and it too had some great songs led by Blue Sky Mine, Forgotten Years and King of The Mountain. My favorite track by Midnight Oil by now was Stars of Warburton I think, but suffice to say that the band was kicking some serious alternative ass in those days. The place was packed and everybody was excited.

If you have never seen Midnight Oil live their lead singer Peter Garrett shakes and bakes like nobody I have ever seen. Maybe that is the way they dance in Australia, I've never been and I'm clearly clueless, but he's highly entertaining. It's like some kind of Monster Mash as he struts and jukes with his shaved noggin all over the stage. He looks kind of scary in a rock & roll way, but he was riveting. It certainly helps that they had some 15 GREAT songs to go along with 10 good ones by then. They put on a whale of a show. When you think of Australia's greatest exports you think AC/DC, INXS, The Bee Gees, The Church, Silverchair, Jet and, gulp, Men at Work. After that there are several lesser bands that folks might remember such at The Seekers (of Georgy Girl fame), Johnny O'Keefe (Wild One...later recorded as Real Wild Child by Jerry Lee Lewis and Iggy Pop), The Easybeats (Friday On My Mind), and Icehouse (Electric Blue). Later on you had The Vines, Airbourne and Wolfmother. Then you had Midnight Oil. I don't know that there was ever anybody like them. They were distinctive.

The Midnight Oil catalogue runs from 1976 to 2002, but they were never hotter than the five years between Diesel and Dust (1988) and Earth and Sun and Moon (1993). Diehard Oils fans will point to half a dozen other overlooked and ignored records in their back catalogue, but aside from a greatest hits type package you could be forgiven if you just had these two records and Blue Sky Mine (1990). I just loved them. Earth and Sun and Moon was a really good record, but I think Midnight Oil got a lot of criticism, not that I was paying much attention to it at the time, for not only being one of the first hard line environmentally conscious or "green" bands, but for being overly political at times. Peter Garrett was a lawyer so I'm sure that played a part in their overall message. If I understand the thrust of their Beds Are Burning message, they were trying to shine a light on the treatment of the Aborigines, which I believe were the first human inhabitants of Australia. I suppose they could be compared to the plight of the Native Americans of North America in that they literally got railroaded off their land by settlers. I don't claim to have read up on the politics of Midnight Oil, but by 1993 they had pretty much run their course as far as their popularity was concerned. Trugernanner, also known as Truganini, was allegedly the last full blooded Tasmanian Aborigine to die in 1876 and the Oils wrote yet another great protest song to document her passing. I don't know if her situation can be compared to the plight of Sitting Bull, but let's just say it's in the ballpark. This was the last great Midnight Oil single in my opinion. Their star shone extremely bright about 20 years ago, but I still enjoy their music. I hope you do too. This was a great band. Out of steam, they broke up in 2002.

Ask and you shall receive! I posted a song by Tom Dickie & The Desires last night and I got a rare comment. Somebody mentioned that they can't wait for somebody to post The Rings song I Need Strange from 1981. Done and done my friend. For those who don't know anything about this band you are not alone. The Rings were fairly hot in Boston from 1979 to 1982 when they broke up. This record was no one hit job though. I could have posted My Kinda Girl, Watch You Break, Opposites Attract, Let Me Go or Third Generation and it's doubtful anyone would have known the difference. This is no cut out bin record; you can't even find this thing and I don't believe it was ever out on CD. They had one more great song called Uh Oh Here I Go Again on their next release, The Rhythm Method, before finally breaking up. MCA took a chance on these guys and I don't care how many records it didn't sell; this was a great record. I still enjoy listening to it to this day. I never saw them live and I couldn't name one band member without researching it, but this record was a blast. I'm going to keep this one short since I'm running low on time today, but I just couldn't resist a near real time request. I'm more than happy to try and do this going forward, but don't expect the same lightning quick results. How about that? I take requests...enjoy!

I feel like blogging once an hour for the rest of my existence. That's physically impossible, but, as The Cowboy Junkies used to say, ('Cause) Cheap is How I Feel. I'm taking the Way Back Machine all the way back to my third full year in Beantown. In 1981, a record so old that Amazon.com is totally clueless about what month it came out, Tom Dickie & The Desires released an album called Competition. I couldn't tell you a single other cut on this record, but I can tell you it wasn't the worst record I ever heard. I can tell you Strawberries, a record chain in the northeast nobody remembers today, had a Midnight Madness sale and yours truly purchased the record based on one song. One. Downtown Talk was a ROCKIN' tune. Among the very best of 1981 that the Boston area was playing on AOR radio. I don't know if it was WBCN or WCOZ, but Downtown Talk rocked my 21 year old ass back to the stone age. Laugh if you want, but this NYC band had a huge impact on this youngster. I didn't need another tune. It doesn't have the same long term resonance of Turning Japanese or any other massive one hit wonder song, but this song will never be forgotten by my circle of friends.

In 1981 I was even younger and more naive than I am today. I spent my days on the beach and my nights being Johnny Nacho. That didn't help me with the Pretty in Pink girl, but I was 145 lbs of liquid dynamite (or so I thought) at the time. This is probably the most obscure tune I have posted to date, but I can assure you I am not done. I've got an arsenal of forgotten classics in my collection that would embarrass The Lost 45's program. I feel like every day that goes by I'm missing a chance to reinstate a tune that deserves a lot more billing than Funky Cold Medina (no slight to Tone Loc...I'm dead serious on that note...I love the Funky Cold Medina). I've got no history to report on Tom Dickie. They had maybe three albums and nothing has been reprinted on CD to my knowledge. Still, Downtown Talk is in my personal Hall of Fame without a doubt. It's not even a one hit wonder...it was regional tune that just rockin' my world. More than half you won't even recognize it. I don't care. This tune was TREMENDOUS. I can still remember rocking to this tune on Nahant Beach in Massachusetts. Go ahead, cackle if you must, but I will stand by this tune until I'm six feet under. I hope I can jog some memories, but failing that I hope I can turn just one person onto this song. Great stuff to this day. This was Boston in 1981. It was played right next to I Will Follow no lie.

I know it's fashionable to trash rock bands that take the stage past their 50th birthday, but most, if not all, of that criticism comes from a much younger demographic. When you are talking rock bands in their 60's forget it. I've seen The Who and The Rolling Stones combined roughly 25 times and aside from some stale set lists I've yet to see a band perform as well consistently with the possible exceptions of U2 and Bruce Springsteen. Want to know why? E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E. There is no substitute for it it seems. Call them oldies bands or whatever other sarcastic and dismissive labels you want, but these bands deliver the goods. I must have over 1000 concerts under my considerable belt. I'd like to believe I have a clue. I go see new bands and old alike. Last night's J. Geils Band concert at the new House of Blues was phenomenal. I'm so glad I was there.

The band took the stage at 9:25 PM and it was instant gratification on the spot. First I Look at The Purse. Peter Wolf has a habit of twirling his hands like that woman behind home plate in Cincinnati. If you've ever seen footage of the 1975 World Series you will see a woman trying to distract the Boston pitchers by rocking back and forth in her seat and twirling her hands. It is pretty comical when you go back and watch it. When Peter Wolf does it it's electrifying. I love it. The J. Geils Band broke up at the absolute height of their fame in 1983 over internal squabbles. I don't know how a band that big that had worked so hard to climb the mountain can blow it all up just when it was all paying off, but that is what they did. A Blues band at heart, Geils put out three straight big sellers beginning in 1978 with Sanctuary, Love Stinks in 1980 and Freeze Frame in 1982. Purists would argue, and I wouldn't give them too much of a battle on this point, that their very first album called simply The J. Geils Band, was their best. Others might say Bloodshot (1973). If you own these five plus Nightmares (1974) and Monkey Island (1977) you've pretty much got this band covered as far as studio recordings go, but it was their live show that audiences responded to. Between Detroit and Boston The J. Geils Band were as big as anybody in the 1970's. Peter Wolf was hanging with Mick Jagger and John Lee Hooker for crying out loud. Boston has a killer rock legacy, but if you boil it down for the rest of the nation you are talking Boston, The Cars, Aerosmith and The J. Geils Band. The first band I'd knock off this list is Boston though their debut album was the biggest seller of all of these bands. Unfortunately it's been beaten to a bloody pulp by Classic Rock stations to the point where I may never play it again. Seriously. The couldn't really sustain after that though they had their moments. Aerosmith from 1973 to 1976 were as good as Boston rock has ever seen. Period. But they lost their way a bit after that time frame. The Cars, like Geils, split up at the height of their fame around 1984 as well and never looked back. Then there was The J. Geils Band.

The venue for last night's concert was The House of Blues. Folks who have lived in Boston for decades will know that the original House of Blues was opened in Cambridge, MA on Thanksgiving Day 1992. The club was a stone's throw from Harvard Yard. It was quaint and different and it catered to the Blues. I absolutely love the Blues and so did Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Aerosmith, River Phoenix, Paul Shaffer and apparently Harvard itself. They were among the original contributors to this franchise. Now they have tremendous facilities in New Orleans, Las Vegas and Chicago to name three other HOBs that I have visited. The problem with the Cambridge HOB was that it has zero parking and it was tiny. Great for exclusive opening nights and all, but lousy for consistent business. It eventually closed somewhere around 2002 leaving Boston without a HOB for several years in this decade. Long time Boston nightclub Czar Pat Lyons finally relinquished control of his prized Metro-Citi-Avalon-Spit-Axis clubs and leased his buildings to the HOB chain even though he was in the midst of refurbishing the site yet again. He was seen at the show last night of course. It was opening night at HOB last night and there were issues. Knowing Boston somebody obviously didn't get their beak wet regarding the new venue because they had people waiting in line in the rain outside for hours in some cases. The show was substantially general admission. WTF right? I showed up around 8:30 PM and I figure I waited some 30 minutes myself. Then a first floor bathroom flooded. How does that happen on opening night? The line for the remaining men's rooms dominated the line for the ladies rooms. Go figure. These were minor disturbances though. The sound was great, though Magic Dick's harmonica needed more volume, and it was a night to run into old friends. I found an old college buddy I hadn't seen in years. Tickets that were $125 face were selling on Craigslist an hour before the show for $250. It wasn't a good night to be needing a ticket. This was one of the hottest shows in Boston since Aerosmith opened the now defunct Mama Kin Music Hall in the 90's.

The J. Geils Band has not performed together much over the years. I remember they played an outdoor shed called Great Woods (at the time) in the mid 90's, but I couldn't make that show. I did see them play June 19, 1999 at the Paradise here in Boston. That was a great show too, but last night roughly 2400 spectators got a spectacular show. Homework, Sanctuary, Musta Got Lost, Hard Drivin' Man, Give It To Me, Love Stinks and on and on...to think The Gypsy Kings were going to be the first show at this Blues Rock palace made me sick. No offense intended to those folks. Thank god a home grown Blues talent stepped up to the microphone first. I'm here to tell you these guys could record a new record right now and it would sell. They were very tight for not having played in ten years together. It was a great night all around. I'm leaving you with an old J. Geils favorite of mine from Bloodshot called Back To Get Ya. I don't think this band will be touring any other cities any time soon, but if you ever get a chance to check these guys out in concert you owe to yourself. What a blast. I doubt very much if anything I have written here conveys the sheer fun of the evening last night, but I had to give it a shot. New venue, great band, old friends, great time. Freeze (Frame) it!

The J. Geils Band - Back To Get Ya.mp3 YSI

I can remember being sooo into The Psychedelic Furs. I remember hearing Susan's Strange, We Fall and Sister Europe from their first album and thinking how cool these guys were. In 1981, when their second album Talk Talk Talk hit the streets, I was working as a line cook at TGI Fridays on Newbury Street in Boston. At the time there was a lot of students from Boston College and MIT working their way through school there as I was. I was getting exposed to all kinds of music at work. One guy was a David Bowie freak, but that wasn't so unusual really. Unfortunately his best work was behind him by then. The Clash was huge then, but they were nearly done by then too. The local college radio stations, which I had paid precious little attention to after having been cut from DJ tryouts at Emerson, WZBC and WMBR, were playing different sounds and my co-workers were turning me onto them daily. I still loved Van Halen and mainstream AOR radio, but I also loved the new stuff. Still do. I know it's hard to tell by this blog sometimes. Just let me get it all out of my system and you'll eventually find this to be true. I just loved The Furs sound and Richard Butler sound like absolutely no one else in rock. This group was happening back in the day and I was definitely riding the wave.

I was in love with a cocktail waitress at T.G.I. Fridays in the spring of 1981 and while I really don't think she ever knew, I was totally paralyzed by her in every way. I'm still kind of bummed to this day that she didn't catch on to my sophomoric crush on her, but that's obviously on me. In fairness she was dating someone else of course, but Love Stinks, especially at that age. Forgetting about my schoolboy crush for a moment, after every shift we used to sit down for our free pitchers of beer and talk it over with the tunes blaring. No publicly owned restaurant could ever get away with this today of course, but at least we were located in the heart of the city and the majority of us were on foot so it was relatively cool. Sometimes we'd be there until 3AM plus. The cleaning crew was working the graveyard shift so the place really never closed. My favorite thing about working there, besides the women, was that they used to let us play the house sound system loud when we setting up or closing up. In those days, bands like the Psychedelic Furs or Echo & The Bunnymen were considered avantgarde. You'd never hear stuff like that when the public was dining in the restaurant. Today stuff that was popular then like Human League's Don't You Want me and The Clash's Rock The Casbah are considered harmless elevator music, but back then it was radical. When I first heard the song Pretty in Pink by The Psychedelic Furs I just loved it. Every time I heard the song and some girl was wearing pink I'd be in some kind lovesick zone. It was quite comical actually, but the song always reminds me of my youth to this day. I'm still a big fan of The Furs.

Pretty in Pink is a song that many of you, like me, have heard over 10,000 times. When that happens it loses something. Very few songs can stand that type of repeated air play. For me there are many songs I never ever get tired of hearing, but I'd prefer to hear them less and less these days. Too many other options out there. I often think, when I hear The Who's Baba O'Reilly for instance, how great that song is to have withstood that much exposure. I reach for Talk Talk Talk more than I reach for Who's Next, but there can be no discussion about which record is greater. In fact I have a Hall of Fame full of records that I no longer really play. I know every note and lyric, but I have other music I'm interested in exploring. It's kind of funny that my jukebox software (I'm still using MusicMatch Jukebox even though it's been deleted, unsupported and absorbed by an inferior product...by the way I'm open to suggestion if anyone has found a non iTunes product that has real functionality...I can only keep using this as long as I don't upgrade my operating system...I've got three years max I figure) is sorted by artist and I just punch in a random letter and start browsing. That is how I decide what to listen to. I don't even see the artwork prior to pushing play. That was a key factor for me in the old days in deciding what to buy and or what to play when I was browsing my own collection. Great artwork created an interest in some records that wouldn't necessarily be there otherwise in some cases for me. I really miss that since the advent of the compact disc.

Getting back to The Furs I was able to see them, in the front row no less, on August 6, 1987 on Boston Common. I used to play softball in the field nearby and listen to any number of artists while I tried not to drop fly balls. The reason I mention this show is I took one of my best friends to the show (who didn't know The Furs from a hole in the wall) and Richard Butler came off the stage and stood up on a vacant chair and sang, coincidentally enough, Pretty in Pink while using my friend's shoulder for balance. Pretty cool. Too bad for the fool who thought it was a good idea to use the john huh? I'm leaving you with my absolute favorite cut on Talk Talk Talk. It's called Dumb Waiters (fitting for reliving my Fridays days I suppose). It represents some of the great urgency The Furs once had before they started hitting the ballads. I saw them maybe three times, but the last time was a reunion gig about two years ago at the old Avalon in Boston. The Alarm, The Fixx and The Furs (in that order). I had a blast. The Furs were as good as ever. Don't you just love live music? I can never get enough of it. I'm going to a show tonight in fact. More on that tomorrow.

Over the President's Day Weekend, in between Stimulus Bill rhetoric, I was listening to a lot of my favorite singles from the 1990's. My list of songs I want to blog about is getting pretty long now, but I actually spent a lot of time relinking the songs I had already blogged about. I apologize to those of you who came and found the links dead after less than six months (yet another of my pet peeves), but I was unaware. The site I host my links on sometimes goes down, I'm assuming from the volume, and it exasperates me to no end. It's not the interruption of service so much as the download count. Since I get so few comments I have no other way to track the number of visitors I get. When my download figures get knocked back to zero I easily lose the mental count to see if a particular post has been successful. While that is frustrating I recently discovered another issue that crushes me.

It must have taken me nearly two hours to relink everything dating back to October, but the only reason I did it is because I discovered that any link over two months old, once fractured by downed service, is considered dead by the host because, in its eyes, nobody has downloaded the link in that time. Translated, every time I lose service now, anything over two months old will just disappear. That really depresses me I have to tell you. I know the service is free, but I've got believers (kidding). I try to be vigilant, but if you discover a dead link here please let me know OK? I'll bet those other links were dead for ten days or more. I just never knew. Arrrrghhh....

About 18 years ago, a guy named Mark Griffin, better known as MC 900 FT Jesus, released a single called The City Sleeps. I loved it the very first time I heard it. It's essentially a rap over a drum machine (at least I think it's a drum machine) about a serial arsonist. The lyrics and the imagery are great. I don't have all the facts, but I'm pretty sure MC released three records between 1989 and 1994. This one comes from Welcome To My Dream in 1991. I bought the CD single after my first listen, but I found the full length CD in a cut out bin about a year ago finally. I hesitate to call any artist a one hit wonder as previously noted, but I haven't heard anything that compares to this song in his catalogue. On top of that, there isn't a heckuva lot of information out there about him. No matter. Dallas can be proud of this export as far as I'm concerned. I'll be mixing this song into my own personal play lists for another two decades the way I feel about it. It's definitely one of the top alternative tracks of the 90's for my money. I hope you like it too.

You think about your one hit wonder bands and there is always a caveat. Well, they weren't REALLY one hit wonders...there was always a couple of back up cuts that diehard fans felt eliminated said artist from that particular discussion. I was just hanging around at One Hit Wonder Central and I took a quick gander at their Top 100 One Hit Wonder list for fun and games. Some of you folks might be a tad young to remember, but number two was Tighter, Tighter by Alive & Kicking (check), Fijid Pink's version of House of The Rising Sun at number four (check), Bobby Bloom's Montego Bay at number six (check), Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes at number eleven (check), The Divinyls I Touch Myself at number twelve (check) and Soho's Hippy Chick at number thirteen (check). No issues there at all. I was impressed with Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in The Sky, David & David's Welcome To The Boomtown, Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight, Autograph's Turn Up The Radio, Blue's Image's Ride Captain Ride (although Pay My Dues was a great "B" Side) and Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime as selections as well. This is when a couple of semi questionable selections start to creep in; Jimmy Eat World's The Middle. Big Country's In a Big Country (Fields of Fire was a definitely a minor hit, but we're splitting hairs here I suppose). They righted the ship with Lipps Inc's Funky Town, Marmalade's Reflections of My Life, R. Dean Taylor's Indiana Wants Me and Dee-Lite's Groove is in The Heart. But then things deteriorated with Devo's Whip It, Gary Numan's Cars and Mountain's Mississippi Queen. No Way on all three counts. Anyone with a lick of rock & roll sense knows, at the very least, Mongoloid, Down in The Park and Theme For An Imaginary Western disqualifies those three acts on the spot. Anyway...

One hit wonder discussions are the life blood of the crossroads of where pop fluke meets real artist. I'd kill to have written Turning Japanese, Come On Eileen, The Rapper, Venus, Time of The Season, Vehicle or Tainted Love, but I'm just a consumer. I can't imagine what a real artist who thinks his tune is one of several great songs must angst over. At the end of the day the 80's seem to have this amazing aura about them that I guess I just didn't grasp while I was living them. I knew Punk sort of gave way to the Synth of A Flock of Seagulls and the quasi polished Punk of Billy Idol, but I never really separated a great song from a genre. To a certain degree I still don't. My Way Back Machine song today is Peter Godwin's Images of Heaven. It is such a one hit wonder that I couldn't find anything remotely redeeming on his Greatest Hits record released years later. In fact, much like Lene Lovich's New Toy (Please don't confuse her with a one hit wonder artist as she has several good tracks in her catalogue) there wasn't even an album to attach the song to. Usually you can at least affix a great track to a overrated album, but not this one. I don't care who thinks I'm a slug for loving this song to be honest. I thought a lot of it then and I think a lot of it now. I play it too much at the gym in fairness. If I lost it for a couple of years I'd love it even more I think.

This posting, in fact. might be my way of excising it from my decades long play list. After all 1982 was a freakin' QUARTER CENTURY AGO! I swear, when you folks are on the verge of turning 49 as I am next month you will understand. At least I know I'm not alone in respecting this African born one hit wonder artist. David Bowie covered a Peter Godwin song called Criminal World on his mega smash Let's Dance in 1983 (yeah...I know what you're thinking...doesn't that make him a two hit wonder by definition?...ah, no...ever hear David Bowie's version on the radio?). Bet Peter didn't mind that one iota. He had a one hit wonder AND a piece of one of the hottest selling records of all time. Good for him I say. He earned it. Today he's an acclaimed author, but once upon a time...And there's nothing I can do, the camera made you, and there's nothing I can do, 'cause you don't exist, you don't exist...just Images of Heaven. The actual value of the music of the decade of the 80's is a bit overvalued for the moment, but when I hear this song on Leftover Lunch or my Sony iPod (sic) I always get a bit psyched. For whatever reason, it does the job for me. I hope it does for you too. For a Synth Pop song it has balls and that's a rare animal indeed. Just don't look for a comeback anytime soon though. I'm sure he doesn't want to jeopardize his one hit wonder status. Ya think?

It's been a busy week and I'm just catching up so I'll probably rapid fire a few posts out the next couple of days. I've got about ten things I want to blog about, but sometimes things happen and the timing of them supersedes everything. Last Tuesday I took in The Heartless Bastards show at Great Scott in Allston, MA. I'd link you to their site, but they don't put nearly enough effort into it so you'll have to take my word for it that it exists. I hadn't been there in FOREVER, but it's a good venue. Especially when you had room to move and enjoy the concert.

A little background on this show. I promised to suspend drinking for the month of January for no particular reason other than to drop a few pounds. Mission accomplished. 33 days, 15 pounds and $500 in bar bills saved later I was ready for The Heartless Bastards show. February 3rd turned out to be my re-entry into the stratosphere. I sat out the Superbowl even though I was eligible and had visions of extending it another two weeks when the show came up like a high hurdle at a track meet. White Men Can't Jump. My friend Marc and I decided to take in the show even as a minor four to six inch snow storm hit The Hub. It was a mere dusting as snow storms around here go and I was never in question, but you never know how someone else is going to view the conditions. Fortunately Marc was game. We strolled in around 11 PM and no sooner had we ordered a round the music began. I dream of timing like that. Great Scott is nice dive bar and I felt right at home instantly. It's not for crowds of over 200 people, but the snow storm held down the traffic and the sound was great. Now mind you, the only time I got to actually SEE the band was when I used the men's room, but outside that restrooms you could see very well. Once you were there though you were there and there wasn't exactly waitress service back there. I spent the entire show about 25 yards from the action with a limited view, but I didn't mind. Some folks from Austin, TX were there on a whim and filled me in on Erica Wennerstrom's love life and subsequent relocation. Stupid me; not being up on the personnel and city changes. No matter. I didn't even notice from a musical standpoint, but I don't want to offend any former members. I was socializing my brains out as usual and had a great time at the show. I really like Austin, TX too. It's young and vibrant and caters to the Blues. What else is there?

I think my friend Marc, who didn't come out of his shoes over the Heartless Bastards when I first mentioned them and loaded them on his iPod, but I think he benefited from seeing them live. Their new record, The Mountain, was just recently released and once again the critics (I don't consider myself a critic by any stretch...I'm a fan, period) are relatively favorable. I have listened to this records maybe ten times so far and I'm having trouble picking a clear favorite. Some would consider this a bad thing, but not me. That means it's pretty steady for my money. This band is going to have a hard time topping Stairs and Elevators in my mind, but this seems like a step back in the right direction versus All The Time (their second CD). Note to Erica; I want to hear you rocking. I was to hear that great urgency in your voice straining to hit the notes. Blues are almost ballads by definition sometimes, but I want rockin' Blues. I think this band has a lot of potential and Austin, TX is the perfect place for them. Chicago, Memphis, and Clarkesdale were probably the only alternatives. I'm looking for growth in the coming years. I hope they can sustain. Buy The Mountain and go see this band if you like a great female lead vocal on top of a solid working garage blues band. I'm talking to YOU Austin, TX. Enjoy...

P.S. Don't miss The Heartless Bastards National TV debut on David Letterman Tuesday the 10th! That's this Tuesday at roughly 11:35 PM EST.

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain.mp3

Heartless Bastards- The Mountain.mp3 YSI

www.thehearlessbastards.com

I'm not going to say I was a huge Rockabilly, Psychobilly or even a turbo Cramps fan, but the death of Eric Lee Purkhiser recently was a real shame. Eric, or Lux Interior as he was better known, was a real pioneer. His band, The Cramps, were a ground breaking act in that their brand of in your face Halloween horror rock sort of merged with an Elvis Presley tinged glam humor and created a real force in the 70's. They incorporated garage, punk, rockabilly and surf music in their act, but it was the energy that people responded to if the legend is true. I never saw The Cramps myself and I regret it now, but I did respect what they did. My friend Rick turned me onto Human Fly (I spell that F-L-Y), Goo Goo Muck and Bikini Girls With Machine Guns around 1990. I recently turned my friend Marc onto those songs and he was wildly enthusiastic. Thanks Rick. That literally makes my day.

I'm not going to go into a long diatribe on the effect Lux and his wife Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace) had on my life, but it's kind of cool, if the story is true, that they met while Ms Wallace was hitchhiking in some spike heels and Lux picked her up. I don't know if it is also true that she helped fund the band initially with money she had made as a dominatrix, but why spoil a great legend if it isn't? Rockabilly has long battled the stigma of sounding dated. Think Lenny & Squiggy and greasers with cigarettes twisted up in their white tee short sleeves. I have to admit I didn't want anything to do with The Stray Cats when they burst on the scene in the early eighties, but I did like Robert Gordon's (My Girl is) Red Hot (You're Girl Ain't Doodley Squat). But Rockabilly was wildly important and probably still is. There is SUCH a fine dotted line from Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins & Elvis Presley to Bill Haley & Gene Vincent & Johnny Cash to Chuck Berry and on to The Rolling Stones. I know it sounds kind of ludicrous, but there is your road map with a half dozen artists missing. I recently downloaded a CD called Red Hot Rockabilly For Ice Cool Cats and it hit me; as much as I hate to admit being wrong about this genre all these years, I'm a Rockabilly fan. I used to walk around saying I hated Country music and as I've gotten older I realize that's not even close to being true. I still struggle with Jazz, but I'll go see it live any time. I guess I've learned not to be so rigid and judgmental in my old age. I'm still not much for today's Top 40, but I'm always listening to something a little out there. You'd think I'd be listening to The Cramps (speaking of out there) right now wouldn't you? No, that was earlier, the correct Jeopardy response would be Who is My Bloody Valentine? Just gettin' in the mood for another quiet Valentine's Day I guess...

Lux Interior was more than a front man and entertainer. He was an icon to millions and a trailblazer. Headlining in the 70's at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City right along with Patti Smith and Television is a long way from Sacramento and Akron. This man will be missed. Rest in Peace Eric.

www.thecramps.com