The Giant Panther

Today I thought we would celebrate the music of The UK's Siouxsie & The Banshees. When I came to school in the fall of 1978 I had no idea of who Siouxsie & The Banshees were. I always felt like I was musically adventurous, but it really wasn't the truth until the onset of the 1980's. Around that time I was still listening to Heart, Supertramp, Electric Light Orchestra, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd along with my Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Doors, Floyd, Bowie, CCR, Who, Petty, Yes, Aerosmith, Sabbath, ELP, Crimson, Tull, Zeppelin, Moody Blue childhood core. It's enough to make The Giant Panther wretch, but there's nothing I can do about that. It's still my musical DNA. It's the baseline to what comes after. I can remember rummaging through my best friend's older sibling's record collections like a heat seeking missile thirsting for an unknown target. Joni Mitchell, It's a Beautiful Day, Love, The Byrds, Cream, John Mayall, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Buffalo Springfield, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Mama's & The Papa's...icons of the late 1960's...the list is endless. I was hooked unlike anyone else in my town including my friend Jim. We'd play rummy 500 or Strat-0-Matic (a baseball dice game for those of you not in the know) and go through six or seven albums at a sitting. We'd argue over the merits of Foghat or Alice Cooper and by 1974 or so I felt like had the best album collection in my town for a kid.

Coming to Boston after high school was an eye opener. There were so many local bands; The Neighborhoods, Mission of Burma, Berlin Airlift, The Dogmatics, The Cars, The Lyres, Robin Lane & The Chartbusters, Private Lightning, Willie Loco Alexander & The Boom Boom Band, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, The J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, The Atlantics, The Real Kids, Human Sexual Response, The Nervous Eaters, The Outlets, The Del Fuegos, Classic Ruins, Unnatural Axe, The Real Kids, La Peste and countless others. They were being played on the radio, mostly WBCN and WCOZ in those days, right next to the big boys. It was hard to distinguish them from the national acts because I was hearing so many new sounds. I wasn't very familiar with the local club scene and it wasn't until I interned at WBCN for several years that I was able to make the distinction. WBCN wasn't perfect, but it did a tremendous job of promoting local music and local comedians.

Regarding Siouxsie & The Banshees; I first heard the song "Christine" from Kaleidoscope around 1980 and it stopped me in my tracks. I used to get it confused with another song from that era I just loved called "Echo Beach" by a Canadian act called Martha & The Muffins. I have always loved female singers fronting rock bands. You can laugh at Heart all you want, but before they went soft in 1987 with that awful mega selling What About Love single I really loved them. Ann & Nancy Wilson were great as far as I was concerned. And before you ask, yes I loved Joan Jett and any other woman who really rocked. Let the derision commence. Today I just love Karen O and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The new record is a bit soft, but Maps put 'em on the map so I shouldn't complain. They are going to have a hard time topping that debut in my opinion. Santogold are very good too and I just learned that their song "My Superman" was based in part on Siouxsie's "Red Light" from Kaleidoscope (thanks Wikipedia...I think). Pretty cool admission if you ask me (but no one ever does). The Banshees were very influential. Heck, even The Cure's Robert Smith played with them for a short while.

Siouxsie & The Banshees have an impressive catalogue of great tunes. In addition to Christine, they can list Hong Kong Garden, Happy House, Dazzle, Cities in Dust, Kiss Them For Me, Peek-a-Boo, Shawdowtime, Spellbound, their covers of The Beatle's Dear Prudence and Iggy Pop's The Passenger and the song I'm leaving you with today; The Killing Jar. Their 1988 release Peep Show was a big college radio hit and I was all over it. The band had been together for about 12 years by then and had plenty of success, but real commercial recognition had eluded them until then. Cities in Dust from 1986's Tinderbox was a pretty big single, but I would say their popularity peaked with 1991's Superstition and the single "Kiss Them For Me." It was a top ten alternative rock song for that year without a doubt. By 1995 the band had had enough. The party was over. I still enjoy the heck out of their catalogue though and the song "The Killing Jar" was always a favorite of mine. Enjoy.

I don't know why I'm filing this one under Guilty Pleasures because I don't feel guilty. Most people know Magic Carpet Ride or Born To Be Wild and that is the extent of their Steppenwolf education. Too bad for them. I had these 45's when I was a kid, make no mistake, but Steppenwolf was a great band and one of Canada's finest rock exports. Formed in 1967, this band sold over 25 million records. Sounds like nothing next to sales of say, U2, but in those days people didn't buy records, they bought singles. The Beatles and The Stones might have sold actual albums, but after that not too many bands were selling a lot of albums. Album Oriented Rock (AOR) radio was just getting started. Before that all you got was the 45 rpm single with an "A" side and "B" side.

One of my very first singles was The Box Tops version of Wayne Carson Thompson's The Letter. The "B" side, Happy Times, I couldn't tell you a thing about. Sometimes the "B" song was terrible. Another early single in my collection was The Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Woman. The "B" side was "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Wow. Now there's a double whammy for your 99 cents or whatever I paid in 1969. Still other singles, like The Shocking Blue's "Venus" has an obscure "B" side like "Hot Sand." Hot Sand was a great track I still love to this day, but nobody I know has ever heard of it. As much as I loved Venus, I never came anywhere close to buying the whole album. It just wasn't done in those days. Today you have iPod Nation focusing on singles and mixed track play lists. It's really the same thing except we had crappy portable Close and Play turntables for our 45's. I may have mentioned in this space in the past that I held a yard sale and dumped all my Beatles 45's for pennies so I could buy bubblegum and baseball cards. Fool. Anyway...

Steppenwolf had several radio friendly hits besides the two mentioned above like Rock Me, but they were a blues band first and foremost in my opinion. Anybody who has heard their cover of Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher" from their first album and made famous by its inclusion on The Easy Rider Soundtrack knows what I'm talking about. What's ironic about this band is that they basically were given credit for coining the phrase "Heavy Metal" as it was used in the song "Born To Be Wild" to describe a Motorcycle's noise quotient. They were too heavy for the AM radio dial where they first made their bones, but they were not heavy metal. I could go on and on about why I loved this band or which songs were my favorites, but from 1968-1976 Steppenwolf was one of the biggest names in rock. Motorcycle clubs still gravitate to their music to this day. The record I'm taking the song I'm posting from is called Steppenwolf The Second. People will probably laugh and The Giant Panther will have yet another chuckle at my old wrinkly expense, but there isn't a bad cut on this record (nor the first record for that matter). I'm leaving you with one of my all time favorite Steppenwolf tracks called Don't Step On The Grass Sam. It's essentially a call for the legalization of marijuana, but it's more about telling the government to find more important things to worry about. It's got some great imagery and sound effects and it's bluesy as all get out. Truly a guilty pleasure as defined by me. Happy Memorial Day to everyone. This one's for the Veterans of the 60's. THANK YOU!

Goth Rock. Atmosphere. Depression. Self loathing. The color black. Hypnotic beats. Tribal sounds. Dirge like music. Dark lipstick. Heavy eye makeup. Pasty skin color. Dyed jet black hair. Far away eyes. Skeletal physiques. Body art. A particular fashion trend. Drum machines. The Cure. Sisters of Mercy. Siouxsie & The Banshees. Bauhaus. The Cult. Gene Loves Jezebel. Dead Can Dance. Killing Joke. The Fall. Fields of The Nephilim. The Mission UK. Mistle Thrush. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Joy Division. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. This Mortal Coil. Tones On Tail. Love Like Blood. The Goth scene has always fascinated me. The culture of Goth is kind of interesting, but it's the music I've always loved. I don't know Peter Murphy or Robert Smith, like most people, but they represent the face of Goth to me. I'm very big fans of both. Today The Dresden Dolls and several others try to carry the flag, but to me it seems like Goth's time has come and gone (musically anyway). I don't mean that in any kind of derogatory way because I'm still a big fan of the genre some 30 years later, but I was never involved in the Goth culture. I might have felt disenfranchised at some point, but I never marched to the Everyday is Halloween mantra. That doesn't make me right or them wrong; it's just what my experience was. I never ran into it much until the early eighties. By the 1990's into this decade they were making movies like Blade, The Craft, The Crow and The Labyrinth that celebrated the Gothic way of life. Loved the movies, loved the music. Pretty cool when you think about it...

Regarding the music one of the many bands I loved from that era was Love and Rockets. Bauhaus is probably the mother of all Goth Rock bands. When lead vocalist Peter Murphy left the band in 1983 some of the remaining members, Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins formed Love and Rockets in 1985 after Ash and Haskins had spent a couple of years in Tones On Tail. Love and Rockets was not really a Goth band per se, but their music demanded your attention. I can still recall their cover of The Temptations' Ball of Confusion being played on TV's Miami Vice. Crockett and Tubbs doing their thing to Love and Rockets. The nation got a taste of Goth as millions watched. How cool was that?

Their first release, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven in 1985 didn't set the world on fire, but I thought it was great. Haunted When The Minutes Drag was an interesting track. Their followup to that was Express in 1986. I just loved this record. In addition to Ball of Confusion (US release) it had All in My Mind, It Could Be Sunshine and a tremendous track called Kundilini Express. Then they released Earth Sun Moon in 1987. I was all over this record when it came out. It had hits, sleepers, and even a folk song or two, but No New Tale To Tell rocked me hard. I still love this song. Two years later they released the self titled Love and Rockets with the single "So Alive" on it. The cumulative effect of the past three records pushed this one as high as #14 on the U.S. charts if you can believe what you read on Wikipedia. That's about as high a chart position as you'll ever see an alternative rock band rise. They never again reached these heights, but I'll always look fondly on my four Love and Rockets CDs even if my local alternative rock station, WFNX, seems to have forgotten they ever existed. It seems so much more important to them to play Rancid's "Time Bomb" over and over again. I don't know, maybe I don't see how dated this band (maybe it's me who is dated) is. I'm willing to leave room for that possibility, but I really enjoyed this band's music. Hopefully you did too.

It's mid May and the weather is ever so slowly starting to break in Boston. Please Come To Boston for the springtime as Dave Loggins once crooned. I live in the Northeast because I enjoy humidity free weather. It's my exact favorite weather here, all things considered, between late April and June 1st and from mid September until November 1st. Those are my twelve weeks. After that it's central air or bust. Certain bands represent the summer for me and The B-52's are one of those bands. They played The House of Blues next to Fenway Park last night and I had no designs on attending. I spent the afternoon trying to help a friend of mine's son with his Little League game. As a result I was invited over for dinner. During that stay I got a call offering me free tickets to the show. I'm really glad I accepted. Six or seven friends of mine and I enjoyed a great show.

It's kind of an eye opener, not that I need an eye opener when it comes to this, when you see these performers carrying on into their sixties still performing. I go to see new bands and old bands alike, but you see some folks at these shows, the way they behave as if they haven't been out in years, and you realize you are getting up there. I don't feel particularly old, but my peer group would seem to indicate otherwise. If you were in college between 1978 and 1982 chances are you loved The B-52's. There has never been anyone like them. Some folks consider them a novelty act. I know The Giant Panther isn't very high on them, but I've always been a big fan. I think I've seen them roughly half a dozen times without doing any fact checking. It's more of a social thing for me. Women love them and men love women (most of the time I guess I should add in the name of Fred Schneider). They're kitchy, funny and danceable. If I had never heard a note of Cosmic Thing I would still be a big fan. I love Lava, Dance This Mess Around, 52 Girls, Planet Claire, Dirty Back Road, 53 Miles West of Venus, Give Me Back My Man, Strobe Light, Quiche Lorraine, Devil in My Car, Mesopotamia, Whammy Kiss, Private Idaho...heck even Rock Lobster even though I've heard it a nauseating number of times. Make no mistake, they have some shaky material on the market. They've had their down time, but this band has always had my respect. I wasn't expecting much last night to be honest, but they were a blast as always. Everyone was friendly and dancing and the vibe was a lot of fun. If you know jaded Boston you know that is not always the case. Everyone at the show feels like they're in on the joke and they think it's funny. There are worse ways to spend $36 (face value ticket price) even if you could care less if you EVER hear Love Shack again. Good luck with that...

This Athens, Georgia band was mixed in the New Wave genre, but they were their own sound. Fred Schneider is sometimes closer to a tongue in cheek comedian that a true lead singer. Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson take turns with Fred manning the microphone and their voices have always blended tremendously. The crowd ate it up last night. Capacity for this venue is in the 2500 range and it was fairly full. They ran through all their hits including most of their smash Cosmic Thing plus a handful of new tracks from the underrated Funplex. It's pretty amazing they could take a 16 year hiatus and their first song back (Funplex) is right where they left off. I never looked at these entertainers as favorites or even take them very seriously, but that doesn't mean they aren't damn good at what they do. I've supported them for years and I'm glad they seem to still be having fun because I know the crowd is. I didn't need to see them again, but I'm happy I went because it was good clean fun and I had a good time. That's what The B-52's are; a good time. If you've never seen them you should. If you have seen them before don't be afraid to see them again on this tour this summer for fun. They still sound letter perfect and deliver their own particular brand of the goods. I ain't no student, of ancient culture, before I talk, I should read a book, but there's one thing I do know, there's a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia...

Another band that rocked my world many moons to the south is Gang of Four. I was a freshman in college when their debut album, Entertainment!, burst into my consciousness. The Gang were a post punk minimalist band that surfaced in 1979. Nobody sounded like them in my opinion, though they might have taken their cues from bands like Wire and Television (if you don't have a copy of Marquee Moon by now just take yourself out back and shoot yourself...you completely missed the boat). The first song I ever heard by them was Damaged Goods and it was like I broke down another musical wall in my tiny world. As has been discussed on this site in the past, I was a classic rocker when I came north to Boston. I was too young to be weened on CBGB's, The Bottom Line and Max's Kansas City. It is with great regret that I tell you I never step foot in any of these legendary clubs. I lived about an hour west of NYC in rural NJ and it was like night and day with metropolitan cities. I had no real desire to return once I got a taste of city life. Today I live about eight miles outside of Boston and sometimes it feels like much further when I feel like knocking back a few. The difference between $20 and $30 cab rides adds up over time. The reason I tell you this is because I only saw my heroes from the New York scene a paltry number of times. I saw Patti Smith maybe twice. Never saw Television. Never saw Blondie. Saw Lou Reed once. Saw The Ramones once. Saw Talking Heads once. Pretty sad for a guy with somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 concerts under this belt.

Regarding Gang of Four, I've never seen them either and that's a real shame. I can imagine their concerts being electric. I'm not much of a dancer, but I can see myself Shakin' All Over to Gang of Four. I have a lot of trouble differentiating between Damaged Goods, I Found That Essence Rare, What We All Want, At Home He's a Tourist, Return The Gift, Anthrax, I Love a Man in a Uniform and a couple of other Gang of Four tracks. They all rock...hard. This band was tremendously influential and rightfully so. I love reaching back and playing these cuts at eleven when the mood strikes. Originally from Leeds in the UK, Gang of Four took a quasi political stance by naming themselves after a leftist faction of four members of the Chinese Communist Party who were eventually charged with treasonous acts in the 1970's. Allegedly someone in the band The Mekons suggested the name when driving around with eventual Gang of Four members Andy Gill and Jon King. Their song "I Love a Man in a Uniform" was banned in the UK during the Falklands conflict. Regardless of all these fun facts Gang of Four came and went very quickly. They had a couple of later year releases that didn't sell very well, but their sweet spot was between 1979 and 1983. I'm leaving you with "I Found That Essence Rare" today. I've always been a massive fan of this song and hopefully you'll dump it onto your iPod and think of The Giant Panther fondly. Don't forget to leave me some comments!

I have to admit, I have always had a thing for Australia's The Church. There are a handful of CDs, say 75, from 1988-1993 that exemplified what was then called Alternative Rock and Starfish was one of them. Most of you will recall the single "Under The Milky Way," but this record had some other great music on it as well. They say Starfish was recorded in Los Angeles and that this was the first time The Church had recorded outside Australia. They had a great single called "The Unguarded Moment" way back in 1981, but it was not smooth sailing for these guys. They struggled to get noticed and were dropped by their label over the ensuing seven years or so. They recorded a record called Heyday in 1986 that received some praise, but it was a relative commercial flop. Reading fan reviews these days many of their loyal following like it better than Starfish. High praise indeed as the saying goes.

Pressed for my favorite Church song I could probably narrow the list to three. One would absolutely be Metropolis from Gold Afternoon Fix. I never ever seem to get tired of hearing that song. It just feels like ear candy to me. Two might be Ripple from Priest = Aura. And three has got to be North, South, East & West from Starfish. Every time this one pops onto my Sony iPod like device (about every 800 songs or once every three months in gym time) I get psyched. Nobody listens to The Church anymore; at least nobody I know, but getting down to this particular cut on Starfish? Anytime anywhere? Forget it. Not even at my favorite local watering holes. I wonder if they even play it in Australia somewhere once a year. So apparently it actually exists only in my steel trap mind forevermore. I don't care. So what if all of my long time concert going buddies have long given up that kind of life style? I still enjoy the heck out of seeing live music even if I have to go by myself.

Speaking of which, I saw The Church perform only one single time on September 9, 1988 at The Orpheum Theatre in Boston about eight months after Starfish was released. My memory is a bit hazy, but I could swear this was a great triple bill involving The Cult and possibly Lenny Kravitz. Don't quote me on the warm up acts, but the date is accurate as I'm staring at the ticket stub as I type. I used to work in a ticket broker's office and we had these great seats in the 14th row on the aisle for nearly every Orpheum event. I indulged in my share for certain. The 14th row might seem like nothing to some of you professional concert goers, but these seats were dead center and The Orpheum is tiny. You were about 20 yards from the stage inside what today is euphemistically referred to as the "Golden Circle." You know, the phrase that allows tiered pricing in concert halls these days? The face on The Church tickets was $18. $18! Today those seats would run you more like $118 in this overinflated economy. Has your income increased as much exponentially? Mine either...

Anyway, the homesick Church knocked this CD out inside of two months and then hightailed it out of glitzy schmaltzy L.A. It's been said that Steve Kilbey, lead vocalist for The Church, was forced to take voice lessons prior to recording this record with then famous producers Waddy Wachtel & Greg Ladanyi at the controls. There was a lot of misery and friction during the recording of Starfish, but the result was worth the hassle. Whatever the strife The Church went on to knock out three great records in a row and were college radio mainstays for a good long stretch. Their star faded pretty quickly after that, but I loved them. Today, unfortunately, their whole career is boiled down to one song about a hash bar in Amsterdam. I could get discouraged, but my fandom burns on and I still listen to them from time to time with admiration and a smile. I hope you feel the same way.

The Manchester (UK) scene was a favorite of mine in the early 90's. For those who weren't completely cognizant of that drug addled period of time it was a quick hitter roughly spanning the years of 1989 to 1993 or so. Fueled by the drug ecstasy, it was all about danceable beats and the Hammond B3 organ. I just loved it. I soaked up every act that came out of that movement. Manchester had a ton of history prior to this small blip on the radar, but this particular slice of history seemed to spawn a lot of same sounding acts that I just couldn't get enough of at the time.

I bought a new house (read old house) and have been swamped with so many not cool tasks like skim coating and ceiling painting, and have severely neglected blogging. Luckily John is Music Encyclopedia Jones, and has been able to share some great tunes to save TGP from being a barren wasteland. Finally he posts on my favorite band of all time, though my favorite album is Speaking in Tongues, with More Songs a very close second place.

I don't have time for a full write up on each of these artists/albums, but I wanted to quickly share some of the tunes I've been into lately. Some are brand new, some are brand old, much like the current state of appliances and luxuries such as a functioning roof a new/old house like mine can/can't provide.

I've been washed over with an overwhelming amount of new music discoveries lately, which is a great feeling. Here are a few of them:


MP3 Jeremy Jay - In This Lonely Town Alt Link
Buy Slow Dance
Jeremy Jay myspace

I had never heard of Jeremy Jay, but I heard this song a few months back on Sirius XMU. My radio display is broken and I couldn't figure out who it was. I tried and tried with google to identify it with the song lyrics with no luck. Then I realized my girlfriend has an app on her Verizon phone where you can play any song into the phone and within ten seconds it will tell you what the name of the song and artist is. Pretty much the coolest feature I've ever seen on a cell phone, I wish they made it for other carriers/blackberries.

The song came back on the radio the other day and I was able to record it to my voicemail and on a longshot played it back on speakerphone and the app figured it out!

This tune has a 90s indie feel to it, something you would expect to hear from Pavement or Built To Spill. Rest of the album is pretty decent too, though more synth than the 90s indie this song lets on.



Bat For Lashes - Daniel Alt Link
Buy Two Suns
Bat For Lashes Myspace

What can I say about Bat For Lashes that you haven't already heard? This girl is good, and no doubt my current obsession. I didn't really get into her first album, it was a little more midevil fair, where Two Suns is more Kate Bush 80s goodness. I love the video too, nice cameo by a Daneil Larusso type figure. Where is the love for Johnny the blonde haired bad guy though? I think her follow up album should feature Johnny in his Halloween skeleton face paint, after being soaked by a hose while trying to smoke a bone, and possibly with a bloody nose. Get this album if you haven't caught the hype already.




School of Seven Bells - Connjur Alt Link
Buy Aplinisms
School of Seven Bells Myspace

How am I not sick of this song by now? Without fail I've listened to this song at least three times a day for the past three weeks. I can't get enough of it, it's like Gator Gum. Do they still make that stuff? Used to get a few pieces before every little league baseball game. The bridge/breakdown of this song kills me every time. Amazing sound, great for headphones or a lonely car ride.


Swans - Blind Alt Link
Buy Various Failures

While I'm busy asking questions, how did I never come across Swans before? Dark wave/goth rock fill in your favorite label here, with beautiful lyrics and soundscapes. Often very dark subject matter, and vocals in a deep Joy Division/Leonard Cohen type of delivery. Excellent stuff from the late 80s/early 90s. This track, Blind, a lost Michael Gira gem is a five star in my humble library.

MP3: She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart Alt Link
MP3: Bauhaus - Bela Legosi's Dead Alt Link

One of my guilty pleasures is the show Fringe on Fox. 99% of shows on network TV I end up despising, but Lost and Fringe have managed to keep my attention. On the last episode there was a club scene, and I swear I thought they were playing Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead". We were saying how cool it would be if there was a club in Boston that would play that type of music instead of the typical club music horseshit, maybe there is and I'm just not goth enough to know where it is. Then I started to doubt my ears so we pulled out the phone for the song ID thing again (nice literary recall), and lo and behold it said it was "Tear You Apart" by She Wants Revenge! I seemed to remember She Wants Revenge, though I don't think I ever gave the full album a chance. Then I listened to both songs and realized how similar they are in sound, but wasn't satisfied with that explanation. I did some digging, and sure enough that episode actually featured both songs back to back in that club scene, so my ears weren't wrong after all. Long story long, here are both tunes for your listening pleasure.

I'll be playing all of these songs along with some other good stuff at 21 Nickels in Watertown, MA this Saturday if you are like me and want to try something other than horseshit club music.