“Wave News”? Must be a German thing. Gotta love that sweet colored vinyl. We’ll definitely keep this “limitierte auflage” compilation because it’s a crazy mixed bag of “new generation” music from 1980 and ‘81, released in ‘82. I split the foldout in two so you can get a good look a whats-his-face from Depeche Mode. What is he, thirteen? Sporting that look I doubt he made it to lunch before being mistaken for a girl. My favorite track is definitely “Disco Man” by The Damned, followed closely by “Countdown” by U.K. Subs. Mary says she got this at a record store in D.C.
I would keep this one for the sleeve art alone. The music is fun too. I said everything I can think of about this series when I posted Volume 4, one year ago this week. The most well-known song on Back From the Grave Volume One (1985), to me at least, is probably “That’s the Bag I’m In” by The Fabs. It’s also the rockin’est. On the back the artists’ names are written “Fabs”, “Jujus”, “Rats,” etc. Because everyone of them is a “The” name! Those were The days.
I’ve never met a girl who can be my friend
The only money I’ve got is Chinese yen (some currency confusion there - TS)
They’ll probably drop the bomb the day my ship comes in
I want a steady girl who could be tall and thin
That’s bag I’m in!
First of all, if you haven’t seen the movie Everything is Illuminated make sure to put it on your list. It stars Elijah Wood, but to me the real star is Eugene Hutz. Eugene is also the singer of Gogol Bordello. The film is excellent, and I’ll leave it at that. The soundtrack, which is why we have gathered here today, is also excellent. Most of the music is original stuff from Paul Cantelon. Other artists have also contributed songs, with a couple from Gogol Bordello, including “Start Wearing Purple.” I’ve praised that number before. That happens to be the most raucous song on the album. While raucous is usually my thing, I do enjoy the entire soundtrack. I could sit on the couch and just listen to it over and over. I prefer to consume music as primary activity. But let’s say you do your music listening mostly as a secondary activity, say, walking around town with your iPod. Everything is Illuminated would make the experience of running errands a lot more interesting. It’s full of unusual music and often slightly mysterious moods. Pretend you are in the movie.
I don’t like to be at any social function, no matter how casual, without music. Good music. It’s a little obnoxious to bring your own tunes when someone else is hosting, but I gotta do what I gotta do. For the annual Christmas Eve get-down at my folks’ I have packed Christmas with the Rat Pack. And this ain’t the first time. If you have to listen to Christmas music you can’t do better than some classics performed by Dean, Sammy and Frank. And who among your family and friends isn’t going to dig it? Even the packaging on this album is top notch. From the notes:
Forget about Ho Ho Ho and bells that jingle. This Christmas will be strictly… Ring-A-Ding Ding!
Here’s some more lovin’ from the Oktoberfest oven. I’ve had this record forever and kept it in “various,” but I now realize that the name of the performing group is “Percussive Oompah (Rudi Bohn and his Band).” This one is instrumental. There are some, at the time, contemporary songs like “Mack the Knife” in addition to more traditional stuff like “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus.” It’s all pretty decent and I enjoy it because it just seems so strange to me. But the cover is why I had to have it. Brew in the brass horn makes me happy. And speaking of the cover, do you get the feeling the label really wanted you to know about “Phase 4 Stereo”? Inside the gatefold there’s even a diagram of how it works, along with painfully long explanations about how it was recorded, including the make and model of the microphones!
But wait! There’s more… This stuff always brings up stories of when Mary’s family was stationed in Germany during the late 1970s. Mary laments how in the prime of her childhood she was deprived of some crucial elements of American culture. The top three being Pop Rocks, Bubble Yum, and Charlie’s Angels. They had the American magazines though, so they did know what they were missing. On the other hand, they had a “beerman.” That’s right, a man, who delivers beer, regularly, right to your house. I’m not old enough to have ever seen even a milkman, and something tells beermen never existed in this country. Mary’s dad got to be friends with the beerman. On Saturdays the beerman would bring Mary’s dad beer, my father-in-law would give the beerman a cigar, and they would hang out for a bit, drinking and smoking. Those were the days.
Sit down in a comfortable chair, take a sip of beer, close your eyes, and visualize this scene.
A small German village snuggled in a valley, surrounded by high snow capped mountains — a large circus tent pitched in the town square, completely encircled by stalls selling trinkets, games, and variations of German goods, sausages, and beer.
The sounds are those of thousands of people laughing, dancing, singing and in the tent are tables upon tables of happy beer drinkers, being served by waitresses dressed in traditional bavarian style, then weaving their way back for a refill — all the while the bands and singers are blaring forth with their intoxicating rhythms in three-quarter time.
For this is the traditional OKTOBERFEST, the most popular of all German Festivals.
Get the picture? — ENJOY.”
LEE PALMER
Take me there now! TAKE ME THERE NOW!
I’m celebrating all month long, maybe longer, at Siglerhaus and I have a couple apropos records that I’m going to share. German Drinking Songs (Recorded Live in Munich) has a number of classics. I love this record, even though everyone else finds it annoying. Maybe that makes me like it more. The good news for you is that there are a few copies on the German eBay. Don’t wait!
These are drinking songs but I have a feeling a couple are about world domination. I don’t Deutsches sprechen so that’s just a guess. This album contains the old classic “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” with the catchy chorus line “Eins, zwei… g’suffa!” That translates to something like “One, Two… Cheers.”
I use to work with a guy named Glen Council at a shipyard. Glen was a full-time professional model maker at the yard. I was only a model maker on an occasional, as needed, and sadly, temporary basis. There were only two of us. Glen rode a real chopper, not one of those goofy American Chopper theme bikes, or one of those sissy airbrushed trailer queens. This bike was legit. He also had a tubbed pro-street Camaro, three massive rottweilers, built clocks as a hobby, and played the flute. Yeah, he was that cool. I learned a lot about working with my hands from Glen. He was always cool under pressure.
One day Glen and I decided to call in sick later in the week, and go do something fun. We weren’t able to go the real Oktoberfest in München, but we did go to the Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, VA. “The Old Country.” From the moment we decided to play hooky Glen kept singing “Eins, zwei… g’suffa!” That dude couldn’t wait to get to Das Festhaus at Busch, get some brews, and listen to the live band play “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus.” We also did the obligatory brewery tour and got our limit of free beer samples. All in all it was an excellent day of not working for the man.
This Youtube video is actually a still, but you can hear “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus.” This version is not quite as rollicking as the live one on my record.
“1985 - C/Z is born (a year prior to the launching of the Sub Pop label) with the release of the DEEP SIX compilation featuring the first available recordings from Soundgarden, Melvins, and Green River (who later spawned Mother Love Bone & Pearl Jam). The record marked the earliest beginnings of grunge. In time these bands are signed and successful.”
The six bands are: Green River, Malfunkshun, The Melvins, Skin Yard, Soundgarden and U-Men. The most noteworthy descendant band not mentioned above is Mudhoney. Singer Mark Arm was first in Green River. Many would consider this the first significant record from the burgeoning 1980s Seattle scene. Some would call it “grunge”, but I’ve read that many of the bands didn’t like being lumped into a single category.
Wikipedia has a good article about Deep Six where you see the song list and the band rosters. Scan the list and you’ll see a lot familiar names sometimes under less familiar bands. These guys moved around a lot.
I was very excited about this music because it was essentially guitar-based rock that wasn’t, for the most part, stupid mainstream stuff from guys with teased up hair and makeup. I suppose it was punk in its own way, but with better riffs.
There were only 2000 copies of Deep Six made. It’s supposedly collectible, and tonight I saw a copy on eBay for $75.
No camera can capture the intense greenness of this album cover. I enjoyed The Blasting Concept Volume II more than I expected. I forgot how metal-sounding, a high compliment, some of these bands were back then. I have records by most of the bands on here, but it’s worth keeping for the few good songs I don’t have, like “Watch the Tractor” by Gone. My favorite is the Minutemen’s punkish cover of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talking About Love.” I’ve never heard a bad version of that song, even from the garage band I played drums for in junior high.
The ultra-cool Crypt Records put out the Back from the Grave series in the 1980s. I have a few records from the series and this is the first one I came across. These records are compilations of relatively obscure 1960s garage rock bands. Many of these groups, despite that they often wore matching shirts or suits, can, and should, be considered the original punk rockers. This stuff had a pretty solid cult following in the 1980s. There were even quite a few new bands at the time emulating the sound and look of the originals. The Fuzztones, Nomads, Vipers, Lyres, and Chesterfield Kings are some of the better-known ones.
If you study the album cover you’ll notice the ’60s punk rock zombies are back to take over. Robin is driving the Batmobile dragging Cyndi Lauper(?), Boy George and Prince. Hippies, joggers and break dancers are all getting their comeuppance.
I find it interesting now, looking back, that less than 20 years after this music was new that there was such an interest by some folks in the 1980s. Maybe it was a reaction to the glut of synth music at the time. Is it possible this niche guitar rock revival eventually went more mainstream in the form of “grunge”? Anyhow, I find it hard to imagine that right now in 2007 there will be a revival of underground late 1980s music. This ’60s garage rock was special, from a special time right before music got a little less fun. It reminds me of the movie Animal House. It came out in 1978 and was set in 1962, only sixteen years earlier. But think about how different those periods were. Would a movie today set in 1991 seem that distant?
The Sonics are by far the best-known band on this record. My favorite track is the extra-fuzzed out “Flash and Crash” by Rocky and the Riddlers.
OK, that was a pathetically long lay off. Work gets in the way. We’re back with some more DC hardcore. Alive and Kicking is a six song, six artist 7 inch in cool milky clear vinyl. The bands are United Mutation, Gray Matter, Beefeater, Mission Impossible, Cereal Killer, and Marginal Man. I like pretty much all of it. Some of it is straight-up hardcore and some songs, like Beefeater’s “Wars in Space” with someone playing “out” on sax, are more art-edge punk.
And, no, this wasn’t put out by Dischord. It was released by WGNS Recordings and Metrozine. Mary thinks she got it at a show, but says she knew so many of the people in the bands that she may have bought it from one of the guys.
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