Category: Rocks Like Fuck!

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Pop/Punk Fix

Good punk/pop from Tucson.  They drink the same Buzzcocks/Clash/et alia Kool-Aid as their more talented predecessors, The Exploding Hearts.  I also detect some Johnny Thunders and Hives, and this seems to channel Love.  Some weaknesses in lead vocals, but strong guitar work and decent hooks compensate.  I’d put them on par with The Number Ones from a few years ago.  Formulaic perhaps, but it’s still a great formula after almost fifty years. As for lyrics, does anyone care in this kind of music?

The above songs are not necessarily the best from a recent album worth listening through.  There are a couple of semi-duds, but even those have some strong points.  I think they have two earlier albums, but I haven’t gotten to them yet.

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More Cowbell!

I wanted to submit this for today’s Music League round (songs about drinking), but it’s not on Spotify.  This one may surprise you.  Atypical for PH, as it was written by their guitarist instead of one of their two keyboardists.  He began asserting himself more in the later albums of his tenure with the band, sometimes for better, sometimes not.  The one thing he should never have done is sing.

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Damn

Love me a solid rhythm section that’s nothing fancy but still brings that shit. Bonus points for that poor bass player’s back holding up that Thunderbird.

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Get Happy

If you haven’t played through this whole album lately, do yourself a favor.  I have no foul moods that this album won’t dissipate before turning me into a grinning idiot.  I find “Dracula’s Daughter” (and many others) addictive,  but it’s a bit uncharacteristic; the rest of the album rocks like fuck.  When I finally got around to buying a copy a couple of years ago, it had a sticker that said “10 Brand-New Songs Scientifically Designed To Make Anybody Happy.”  Rare case of marketing matching the product.

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Lordy This Song Rips

David Letterman and his longtime cohort Paul Shaffer discussed a great many things about their lengthy stint as the host and bandleader of Late Show with David Letterman. At one point during the interview, Letterman reflected fondly on the show’s various musical guests, singling out, in particular, last year’s star-making performance by The Orwells.

The young Elmhurst natives appeared on the program in early 2014, busting through a chaotic rendition of “Who Needs You” that is still memorable to Letterman more than 12 months later. “After all these years, something like that really tickles me,” Letterman said of the performance.

Break out the headphones.

And watch for the reaction of Letterman and Shaffer at the end.

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Gerhardt Leigh Ludvig!

Thanks to G for mentioning this album in the Nashville Teens comments, which got me to finally listen to it.  If you haven’t heard it, it’s a smoker.  Jerry Lee’s in top form, and the Nashville Teens are red-hot.

There’s something funny about Germans going apeshit over Jerry Lee Lewis.

Many Memphians have Jerry Lee stories.  Mine might be unique, as it does not involve sex, drugs, or guns (maybe because I never encountered him personally).  Anyway, back in the mid-80’s I dated a girl for a while who lived downtown at the Waterford, which overlooks the Mississippi.  Her apartment was a couple of stories down from the penthouse, where JL was living at the time.  I never saw him (although said girl claimed he hit on her in the elevator a couple of times–he was in his 50’s and she was 19 or 20), but sometimes we could hear him playing.  On nice evenings we’d hang out on her balcony.  He must have had his balcony door open to catch the river breeze, because we could very clearly hear him practicing and noodling around.  So I have this sort of magical memory of our lounging on the balcony, drinking beer, watching the sunset over the river, enjoying the breeze, and eavesdropping on the great JL playing the piano.  A good time for sure.

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I Am Everything

Hell yeah, I’m in! Anything more cringe than Pat motherfucking Boone singing “Tutti Frutti?”

Produced by Bungalow Media + Entertainment for CNN Films and HBO Max, in association with Rolling Stone Films, director Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything. Directed by Lisa Cortés, LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING is produced by Robert Friedman, Cortés, Liz Yale Marsh and Caryn Capotosto and Executive Produced by Dee Rees.

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I Like It!

We’re playing with these guys in March at DKDC. Listening to Cathedral Ceilings’s’s new album on Spotify, I’m getting notes of fIREHOSE, early Soul Asylum, some Husker Du, and for this song, somebody I can’t put my finger on. Maybe you bastards can help.