Month: July 2020

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Goofy TV Gigs

I completely missed this one when it aired.  I don’t remember hearing about it at all.  A little sad, by ’79 the Ramones should have been too big for the Sha Na Na show.

But I did happen to be watching the tube in ’68 when psychedelic proto-punks The Seeds (as The Warts) mimed their biggest hit, the classic pushy-girlfriend-fuck-off song, “Pushin’ to Hard” on a now-forgotten sitcom called The Mothers-in-Law.  I bought the album soon after.  Oddly enough, that album had been released two years earlier, and they’d released another since, but they were still pushin’ this song on TV.  The second verse and guitar break were edited out.

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Uh, wild thing, uh, I think I love you…

This novelty single actually reached #20 on the charts, according to Wikipedia.  I remember hearing it on AM radio very often when it was first released, so it might have charted higher in some areas.  It was taken out of rotation after his assassination.

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Forgotten Proto-Punk Standard

Like “Louie Louie,” “Hey Joe,” and “Wild Thing,” this song was covered many times.  As far as I know it was never a big hit, but it should have been.  I’d be hard pressed to pick which of these three is best, so I posted them all.  The versions by Them and The Troggs come with each band’s usual strengths.  The Haunted’s version is a raw gem (I don’t know anything about them past this song).  There are numerous other 60’s versions, including one by the MC5.   To my ears, none are competetive with the three above.   Richard Hell  also covered it later, but I hear nothing special in it.

If you haven’t heard this song but it sounds familiar, that might be because Beck lifted the main riff for Devil’s Haircut.

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Flangipanis

In clear violation of the refined sensibilities cultivated on this blog, please enjoy / loathe the above.

Disclaimers:

  • your IT dept should block this
  • Australian punk grrl don’t care what you think
  • shut up
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Live Totem Pole EP

So I was listening to the latest episode of the My Favorite Album podcast yesterday. David Cross was the guest, and instead of choosing his actual favorite album (Quadrophenia), he chose something obscure that he listened to a lot, lamenting that it had been out of print for years and wasn’t even available to stream.

Nothing piques my lizard brain’s interest like scarcity, so when podcast host Jeremy Dylan mentioned that someone had been nice enough to upload it to YouTube, I dove into that dumpster with glee. And found it.

Live Totem Pole is an odd EP. It’s live, for one thing. But the really odd part is that five of the seven songs are covers, including those by Blue Öyster Cult, Public Enemy, Butthole Surfers, Superchunk, and Wire. BUT HOLY SHIT, IT WORKS. And the way it was recorded makes you feel like you’re in the room.

I downloaded the audio from the YouTube videos and packed it up like an album. Right click the cover up top if you’re so inclined …

I listened to fIREHOSE in college, especially fROMOHIO and Flyin’ the Flannel. Anybody unfamiliar with these guys should check out their fascinating origin story on Wiki-wiki-wikipedia.