The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck

The Cramps have been around for 20+ years. They play mostly up-tempo Garage Rock while blurring the lines between several different genres, including Blues, Rockabilly, 60's Monster Movie Soundtracks, and Surf Rock. Despite a revolving door of members throughout their existence, The Cramps have put out several quality albums, most notably Bad Music For Bad People, a collection of B-Sides released on IRS Records during a nasty parting of ways w/ the influencial record label. Though it was released in 1984, I first discovered it as a little skater punk jackoff in 1988. At the time I was listening to throwaway pop like Bobby Brown and overplayed hair metal from the likes of Poison and Motley Crue. Anyway, one day a kid brought over a mixed tape that another friend had made him and on this tape was some of the densest shit I've ever heard, including Black Flag, The Minutemen, Bad Brains, and Fear. Also on this mix tape was a song by The Cramps called "Goo Goo Muck", a crazed, horror movie styled piece of Psychobilly. Hear it. Fall in love with it. Poo a baby for it.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MN17MERL

Essential Cramps Albums:
-Songs The Lord Taught Us (1980)
-Psychedelic Jungle (1981)
-Bad Music For Bad People (1984)

If you like this try:
-Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
-Legendary Stardust Cowboy
-Screamin' Jay Hawkins
-Reverend Horton Heat

The Greatest Albums Of My Life...So Far. Pt. 1

Been thinking about doing this for awhile...

Take every year of your life and line 'em up. Then, pair it up with your one favorite album from that year. First post will include 1977 to 1981. This is gonna be a bitch...

1977: Dammit! One year in and this already feels like killing babies. While great releases like Television's "Marquee Moon", Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True", The Talking Heads' "Talking Heads:77", David Bowie's "Low", and self-titled debuts by The Clash, Motorhead and The Damned all deserve mention, I'm afraid I have to go with Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" album. Just too damned many amazing, catchy songs (The Passenger, Success and Lust For Life, etc).

Essential Download: Iggy Pop - The Passenger

1978: Awesome releases by Funkadelic ("One Nation Under A Groove"), Cheap Trick ("Heaven Tonight"), AC/DC ("If You Want Blood, You've Got It"), Bruce Springsteen ("Darkness On The Edge Of Town") and The Cars (self-titled debut) highlight '78 but none of them touch the power and size of the 1st release of the mighty Van Halen. Van Halen s/t is loaded from top (Runnin' With The Devil) to bottom (On Fire) and is the blueprint for what became the Hollywood Boulevard 'hair' scene.

Essential Download: Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil

1979: Several very good albums were released this year such as The Cars' "Candy-O", Van Halen's "II", Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures", Gang Of Four's "Entertainment!", The Police's "Regatta De Blanc", the Madness debut "One Step Beyond...", and classics such as Pink Floyd's "The Wall", AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" and self-titled debuts by The B-52's and The Specials. But the top album has to go to The Clash's "London Calling". With classics like Spanish Bombs, London Calling, Rudie Can't Fail, and Train In Vain, "London Calling" is the most complete U.K. punk album ever recorded.

Essential Download: The Clash - London Calling

1980: Good God, 1980 was a huge year for music. Prince's "Dirty Mind", Judas Priest's "British Steel", X's punk classic "Los Angeles", Peter Gabriel "III" (aka "Melt"), Talking Head's "Remain In Light", The Pretenders self-titled debut, The Ramones' "End Of The Century", The Cure's "Seventeen Seconds", Motorhead's distortion-fueled "Ace Of Spades", Devo's frantic "Freedom Of Choice", The Dead Kennedy's "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables", Black Uhuru's reggae classic "Sinsemilla", The Clash's "Sandinista", Tom Waits' "Heartattack And Vine", Suicide's second self-titled album, Ozzy Osbourne's "Blizzard Of Ozz", The English Beat's "I Just Can't Stop It", Siouxie And The Banshees' "Kaleidoscope", Van Halen's "Women And Children First", Adam & The Ants' "Kings Of The Wild Frontier", "Black Flag's "Jealous Again" 12" EP and the other-worldly "Back In Black" by AC/DC were all considered classics within their respective genres. But with songs like World Up My Ass, Back Against The Wall and Live Fast, Die Young, The Circle Jerk's album "Group Sex" has the distinction of being the densest batch of American punk rock ever recorded.

Essential Download: Circle Jerks - Live Fast, Die Young

1981: Pop albums like Phil Collins' "Face Value", The Go-Go's "Beauty And The Beat" and Duran Duran's self-titled debut, arena rock releases such as Billy Squier's "Don't Say No" and Def Leppard's "High N' Dry" and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts two(!) classic pop rock albums ("Bad Reputation" and "I Love Rock N' Roll") gave us a glimpse into the not-so-distant future in terms of where the music business was headed. But 1981 was still the year of American punk rock with the release of such classic albums as Flipper's "Generic Flipper", Dead Kennedy's "In God We Trust, Inc.", Minor Threat's 12" LP, Mission Of Burma's "Signals, Calls And Marches", and Black Flag's brilliant Damaged album, which gets the nod as top album. No other American punk album ever released truly captured the despair of the middle-class youth stuck in a suburban hell quite like the Damaged album.

Essential Download: Black Flag - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie

So, I'm sure I left some albums out...feel free to debate me on the list. 1982 to 1986 is coming around the bend so pull on your big boy pants and get ready another music history lesson.

*Disclaimer* I'm just trying to turn people on to great tunes. If any of the record labels and/or bands want these mp3s removed, feel free to email me and I'll gladly do so. I certainly don't wanna bruise any of your tender egos or cheat your back pockets out of another .25 cents.

Young Again...For One Night Only.

Black Francis, the latest incarnation of Frank Black sans The Pixies, hit the stage at 7:30pm on the nose (take notes, Mr. Waits) and promptly punched everyone in the mouth with "Threshold Apprehension" from his latest release, the intense Bluefinger. Black sounded awesome, his growl firmly in check, his high-pitched screech well, screechy. So screechy, in fact, the teenage punkass security guards in front of me had to go get extra pairs of earplugs. I loved that.



Black Francis burned through several songs off the Bluefinger album, including the bluesy "When They Come To Murder Me", the rolling "I Sent Away" and the very dark title track. Black spoke little, prefering to end one song and surge right into another, playing for a solid 45 minutes virtually without pause.



After Black Francis left the stage, the waiting game began. Apparently, STP don't read my blog or they would have been aware of the fact that I'd already had to wait 45 minutes over the scheduled start time to see the great Tom Waits and really was not in the mood to do so again. However, Nokia Theatre is 100 times the venue the Palladium will ever hope to be and did the fans the common courtesy of actually running the air conditioning before the show started. Hey Palladium, I like beer sales as much as the next guy but shoving 1500 people into a sardine can and killing the air to promote said sales is horseshit, bush league business. Anyway, after waiting for a little over an hour, STP hit the stage and so began my journey back to the age of 17.



Opening the show with "Big Empty" was a suprise since it's a ballad but I think it really worked because the crowd was so amped to see them, the second that song finished and they dove straight into "Wicked Garden", everyone lost their collective shit. From there Stone Temple Pilots played hit ("Creep") after hit ("Interstate Love Song") after hit ("Plush") after hit ("Lady Picture Show") after hit ("Vasoline"), tossing in a rarity ("Coma") and a little spontaneity (pieces of both Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" and Queen's "We Are The Champions") to keep things from falling into a by-the-numbers type of vibe.



Scott Weiland was all over the stage, dancing and preening for the crowd, pausing for those of us lucky enough to have taken our photo taking devices, even going so far as to make his way into the front row of the crowd for "Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart". Dean DeLeo was great as always, playing near perfect guitar. Eric Kretz showed off behind the kit, laying down a dense, jazz-based rock beat (even if the mix on the drums WAS a bit too loud) and Robert DeLeo was a standout on bass, even stopping the show at one point to talk to a kid who threw his band's demo on stage. They looked like they were having FUN (Dean tried to pull Scott's pants down, Scott tried to get Eric to sing lead) and it didn't look like they were just playing another gig. That got the crowd of over 5000 off like you wouldn't believe as damn near everyone I could see (including the security guards) were singing along to almost every song which had Robert smiling ear to ear more times than once.



Here's the thing: the wheels could shoot off this bus at any minute. Scott has a history of addiction problems and the DeLeo Bros. have a history of bailing on him when these issues arise. It could happen again. Hell, it probably will. But for at least one night, right here in Dallas, Texas, STP turned back the hands of time and were as great as they were back in 1993. And for me, it was nice to tune out the bullshit of life for one night only and just be fuckin' 17 all over again.

Tom Waits, God, And 1,000 People Walk Into A Bar...Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before

At times, the patience of Job was called upon to get me through, but after waiting and sweating and waiting and sweating and waiting and…

Tom Waits hit the stage just past 8:30pm last night, making his first appearance on a Dallas stage in more than two decades, stomping, crooning and willing the sweltering crowd through a 2+ hour set (which included a 5 song encore) which featured nods to the old (”Anywhere I Lay My Head” from the classically sinister Rain Dogs album) mixed with several of his more recent releases (”Make it Rain” off the amazing Real Gone).Opening the show with “Lucinda”, Waits came out and took control of a somewhat restless crowd (it was hot in there, dammit!) stomping and yelping his way through boozy waltzes (”Singapore”), heartfelt ballads (”Lucky Day” and “There’s Never a Rose”), and spoken word beat-style performance pieces (”Chocolate Jesus”).



On several occasions, Waits told stories, interacting with the crowd and carrying on short conversations with various members of the audience which kept the mood very light despite the intensity and darkness of the music. Make no mistake about it, Tom Waits is a total pro and while he doesn’t tour like he used to (the vocal chords simply don’t allow it), he runs a room like few I’ve ever seen.



Despite the wait, despite the heat factor (you people at the Palladium should seriously consider taking a look at your lack of air conditioning), despite the fact that it became so cramped at one point I think I may well have impregnated the ass of the chick standing in front of me, the show was amazing and Tom Waits was on his game. Here’s hoping the enthusiastic crowd response will prevent him from waiting another 20 years to get him back around this way.

Gay, Loving It, Loud Guitars, Fuck Me, Please

Found my way to a big show tonight…
The True Colors tour rolled into town this evening and did not disappoint. Pre-show was spent with a couple thousand of my closest homosexual brothers and sisters (one of whom decided he’d continually fire a couple of bubble guns in the air while clad in nothing more than a rinestone studded dog collar.) Priceless.

Once the show got underway (opened by the nights host, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Carson Kressley), the place began to fill out a little even though the sun was still very much in play (and hotter than a bitch). They opened with a girl named Lili Hadyn (and her extemely sreechy violin) and Wanda Sykes, who was actually pretty funny. After Sykes, the main show got started with a bit of a wimper as Andy Bell (Erasure) came bounding onto the stage in a pair of short shorts and a tank top and basically did karaoke to 5 Erasure songs, including their two biggest hits, “Chains of Love” and “A Little Respect”, to a less than enthusiastic crowd. It just seemed sad, really. The guy can still hit all the notes, even those high-assed motherfuckers in “A Little Respect”, but the fuckin’ tanktop and shorts just came off as cheap and half-assed. Nevermind the fact that he was up there dancing around by himself…no band…not a soul…no one…just him. Jeez.

After Bell skipped(!) off stage after butchering a duet with Cyndi Lauper, the great Joan Jett & the Blackhearts jumped on, coming out onto the stage to the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” before tearing straight into “Bad Reputation”. I don’t know much about anything but I know this: Joan Jett can still sing her ass off and when she does those cat growls that she’s famous for my fucking pants shoot off my legs, give me head, then kick me in the face. I have never wanted to fuck a chick more than I wanted to fuck Joan Jett during her performance which, given her particular sexual orientation, would probably make her throw up in her mouth. Fair enough. Anyway, she and the Blackhearts powered through the hits (”Crimson and Clover”, “I Love Rock N’ Roll”, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”) and mixed in 3 songs from her new album which didn’t sound too bad, especially one called “ACDC”. Joan Jett: Sexiest rocker chick of all time…and could pretty much kick your fuckin’ ass, guaranteed. Dammit, I love her.



After Joan Jett bailed, the greatness of the B-52’s hopped on and I was more than a little nervous about it. I had seen some clips of recent performances and let’s just say I was less than thrilled at what I’d seen. Any bit of trepidation I had going into the show however was completely washed away with their first song “Pump” which is also the first song off their new release, Funplex. I was blown away at how good Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson sounded and Fred Schneider controlled the stage like a total pro, jumping and dancing around and making the crowd feel like they were a big part of the festivities. Since the day had so many acts, everyone was working with a shorter setlist so after “Pump” they followed with “Mesopotamia”, ”Ultraviolet”, “Roam”, “Juliet of the Spirits”, “Love in the Year 3000″ and, ”Love Shack”, before closing the set with “Funplex” the title track off the new album, and the awesome "Rocl Lobster". They were the main reason I went to the show and they put on the best show of the night.

After a brief intermission, Cyndi Lauper hit the stage with “Change of Heart” which jumped right into a song from her new album, Bring Ya to the Brink. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve never been a huge fan of Cyndi Lauper’s music, but I respect the shit out of her voice and her ability to connect with a crowd. Straight and Gays alike were eating out of her hand and she jumped around the stage like a 20 year old. She mixed in a few relatively forgettable new songs with some of her bigger hits like “She Bop” (my personal favorite Cyndi song) and “I Drove All Night” but recieved the biggest cheer of the night when she and the band cranked into “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. After leaving the stage she came back for an encore, singing one more new song before going into “Time after Time” and “Money Changes Everything”. After leaving the stage a second time, she and the band returned, this time with the B-52’s, and sang a cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People” and one of Cyndi’s biggest hits, “True Colors”. The show closed with everyone on stage and in the crowd celebrating Lauper’s birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” to her. I’m still not a big fan of most of her music (especially the new, more dance-geared stuff) but she’s a hell of a performer and can still hit some crazy notes vocally.

My Crystal Bloody Beach Boy

Were the Beach Boys to bend My Bloody Valentine over a table and love on them really, really hard while the Phil Spector produced Crystals stood off in the background putting on their makeup and giggling, the Miracle Fortress album Five Roses would be the christ-child born unto them. With songs like "This Thing About You" Graham Van Pelt (the lone full-time member of Miracle Fortress) has borrowed heavily from MBV's airy, distorted tone, the Beach Boys melodic sensibilities, and Spector's 'wall of' drum sound, piecing together an amazingly listenable album of dense, well-crafted pop songs.

Now take me into your mouth...we've so much to catch up on.

Hardcore Troubadour

Steve Earle has demons to spare. He's done time for drug and weapons charges, been married seven times, and has managed to get neck deep in and crawl out of a serious heroin addiction. Called the "Hardcore Troubadour", Earle is one of the few mainstream musicians out there still waving a flag for the folk genre. While Earle's political leanings are a common thread that run throughout vitually all of his albums, he never allows the message to bog down the music. Mixing elements of rock, country, folk and most recently hip-hop, the later of which can be found on his latest release, the Grammy Award winning Washington Square Serenade, Earle's efforts, while sometimes disjointed, are always interesting. Despite feeling slightly less focused than previous releases (the uber political albums Jerusalem and The Revolution Starts...Now), just the fact that this old dog is trying to teach himself a new trick ("Tennessee Blues") makes Washington Square Serenade one of Earle's most interesting releases to date.

Now ease your pants down, lay down in in grass and watch the clouds.