Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Where's the Fire Marshall?

This is a perfect example of a great show almost being ruined by a bad venue. The venue in question, the Uptown Nightclub in downtown Oakland, is a nice place, but a horribly designed one. This would become apparent as the club filled with patrons for this jam packed show.



The headliner is the legendary punk band The Buzzcocks, a Manchester-based group formed in 1975 who were there for the birth of the punk movement in the UK. They are punk royalty, the architects and pioneers of punk-pop, influencing everyone from Husker Du to Green Day to Weezer to Blink-182.



Their legacy rests on the peerless run of singles they released from 1977 to 1979. Many of these were released on the classic compilation 'Singles Going Steady' in 1979, an essential artifact of the era.They carried on having serious chart hits in England until the early 80's. Their hot streak ended in about 1980, not helped by the fact that their label United Artists had been purchased by EMI, a label that didn't seem that interested in them. They broke up in 1981, but band leaders Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle reformed in 1989 and have been together ever since, touring and releasing respectable studio records.



While the punk movement in the UK was filled with rage and social commentary, the Buzzcocks lyrics tended to look inward and deal with the kind of emotional terrain that is universal and eternal. While other acts were calling for "Anarchy in the UK" or a "White Riot" or even to "Smash it Up", the songs of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle asked questions like "What Do I Get?", "Ever Fallen In Love (with Someone You Shouldn't ve?)" and "Why Can't I Touch It?" (in the existential sense,not the physical, you pervs out there). These were songs of yearning, vulnerability and frustration. It is obvious that fellow Mancunian, Stephen Patrick Morrisey, was taking notes for his future band the Smiths. And I suppose the roots of emo-punk can be traced back here as well--unfortunately. I think these songs endure long after many others because the themes are timeless.



The Buzzcocks brought a certain melodic sense to punk's three chord rush, but also a serious dose of Krautrock that is not often seen in the groups they inspired. This German influence is apparent in the minimalist rhythms to certain songs, courtesy of their obsession with Can. There is also unexpected, and atypical for punk, bits of jagged guitar interplay which stretch out some songs in interesting ways that again betrays the Can influence.



Now back to the gig. The Uptown is a newish punk/alternative club that opened in 2007. The crux of this venue's problem is that it is two separate rooms crying out to be one room. Upon entering the club, one is met by a long (40 feet maybe) and fairly narrow space with a mirrored bar on one side and a brick wall on the other. On the other side of the brick wall is the performance space, also long and narrow. While this is fine when sparsely populated, when a sizable crowd gathers it can be problematic.



The problem lies in the fact that when the headliner takes the stage, the crowd for the entire place moves into the performance room. While the venue may not technically be oversold, the imbalance of too many people in one room and very few in the other made it seem like it was. When the Buzzcocks came on the room was hot, cramped and claustrophobic. That long and narrow room began to resemble a human corral. There were some desperate folks wading through the crowd looking for an exit and some fresh air. I am tall and not as susceptible to a crush of people, but I was very uncomfortable throughout.



The show itself was tremendous. On this tour the Buzzcocks are engaging in the latest trend for live band marketing:playing entire albums from start to finish. Tonight the Cocks do two: the first album 'Another Music In a Different Kitchen' and the second, 'Love Bites'. Pete Shelley looks like a middle age pub landlord these days,but he still has the voice and the energy to put the songs across. Steve Diggle may look like a middle age cabbie, but tonight he is a punk rock guitar god, flailing at his instrument and doing half windmills. They are ably supported by two younger musicians that make up their rhythm section.



They dispense with the two albums with nary a word spoken, other than occasionally calling out the song title. Both of these albums are considered punk classics, in a genre known more for singles than albums. Nevertheless, there is some filler on both records in my opinion, but they are mostly great. The crowd is loving it, but they go particularly nuts for any of the 'Singles Going Steady' tracks.'Kitchen' contains the singles sides "I Don't Mind" and "Autonomy", while 'Love Bites' has "Ever Fallen in Love" and "Just Lust". When the band returns for the encore they wheel out other 'Singles...' chestnuts in rapid succession: "Promises", "Love You More", "What Do I Get?", "Harmony In My Head" and finishing with "Orgasm Addict". The crowd is going ballistic at this point and is heartily singing along to the choruses of each.



As soon as "Orgasm Addict" ends, I am out the door and happy to have finally seen one of my favorite punk bands after 25 years, but also glad to be out of the Nightclub's sweat box of a performance space.

Enjoy Yourself: The Specials @ Club Nokia

It may have been 2010 and not 1980, but the reconstituted Specials proved they could still bring enough energy and verve to their performance at Club Nokia last week.



First thing I saw when I entered the hall was the sight of what looked like Terry Hall dj-ing at the front of the stage. Only this wasTerry Hall circa 1979, buzz cut and all, just like he looked in the "Dance Craze" movie, except with a more tan complexion. Oh, wait a minute,of course that can't be him. However, if that isn't Terry Hall progeny then I need my eyes and head examined. It turns out it is his son, Felix, who is playing tour dj and spinning reggae 45s only. Kid has his dad's temperament too: at one point some jerk took exception to all the reggae music and young Felix threatened to take him outside and smack him.



I arrived early enough to receive my wrist band allowing me into the pit area. I was nervous about this due to my bad experience at that Bad Manners show in Hollywood last year. I scanned the crowd anxiously for skinheads and piss-heads and general troublemakers of every stripe. There were a few benign looking skinheads out with their girl, but no gang of them or any sense of menace evident. That's a relief.



The Specials hit the stage and launched into the party starting anthem "Do The Dog". Six of the seven original members are present and accounted for: singer Terry Hall (absent from any Specials-related shows until last year), singer-guitarist Lynval Golding (who exuded the friendliest vibe and seemed just so thrilled and grateful for this reunion to be happening), singer-toaster Neville Staples (with the sleepy eyes and sly grin of someone who must be smoking some great weed), bassist Horace Panter (dapper in his suit and demonstrating the calm reserve of many great bass players), guitarist Roddy Radiation (big eared, suspenders-wearing rockabilly freak), and drummer John Bradbury (looking lean and hard behind the kit). The band were also supplemented with a keyboard player standing in for absent founder Jerry Dammers, as well as a three piece horn section on a few songs.



Seeing this line-up is a dream come true for me. The Specials actually played in Davis in either 1980 or 1981 at the UCD coffee house. I would have been 12 or 13 at the time and was a year or two away from discovering this band--probably in early 1982 is when I became aware of the whole 2-Tone thing. This show represents not only a reunion of six of the original seven Specials, but also Terry, Neville and Lynval who split from the band and formed Fun Boy Three in late 1981. The two original Specials albums as well as the two Fun Boy Three albums were a big deal for me during my high school years. No FB3 songs are being played tonight,of course, but it is a thrill to see that trio back on stage and performing again.



Terry Hall has always been one of pop music's strangest ducks. He always has a permanently dour expression on his face,yet he is also capable of being drolly hilarious. His participation is what really makes this a legitimate Specials reunion. The other five guys have worked together in various incarnations of the Specials (or sometimes as Special Beat with English Beat members) since the third wave ska revival of the 90's. What was missing was Terry's vocals and general presence to make it authentic.



Terry is center stage but he lays back and doesn't get too close to the front. His general demeanor is one of someone who would rather be anywhere else but on that stage. Coming from any other performer this might seem offensive, but with Mr. Hall it is part of the act and makes perfect sense. Terry demonstrated a bit of like father, like son early on in the show when he called out an idiot fan who was trying to "gob" like it was 1977: "If you do that again I'm going to come down there and smash your fookin' head in", much to the delight of the audience. Of course it is easy to be hard when you have nine band members and several crew members to back you up. Terry also facetiously announced to the crowd they should come back to the band's hotel (the celebrity swank-fest that is the Sunset Marquis) for an after show party. "Just tell them you're there for a reception, they will love it. I won't be there, I will be asleep in my room." He also said quite randomly at one point "I'm delicious".



The band was a real well-oiled machine as it tore through virtually the entire first album (no"Too Hot" or "Stupid Marriage") and exactly half of the second record. They also tackled the classic single "Ghost Town" and its b-side "Friday Night and Saturday Morning". The energy level, while perhaps not the same as in their prime, was high and the audience was enthusiastically skanking away and showing their appreciation the whole time. The performance was only marred by Roddy Radiation taking over lead vocals for "Concrete Jungle" while Terry took break. Roddy's guitar work was ferocious but the guy cannot sing. It would also have been nice to hear the cover songs from the 'Too Much Too Young' EP that they have performed at other shows.



Still, as Neville Staples, at age 50-something, ran across the tops of the band's monitors just like in the old days, the only thing I could do was to marvel at the fact that I was finally seeing this band after a mere 28 years and that the wait had been well worth it.



Set List

'Do The Dog'
'(Dawning Of A) New Era'
'Gangsters'
'It's Up To You'
'Monkey Man'
'Rat Race'
'Hey, Little Rich Girl'
'Blank Expression'
'Doesn't Make It Alright'
'Stupid Marriage'
'Concrete Jungle'
'Friday Night Saturday Morning'
'Stereotype'
'Man At C&A'
'A Message To You Rudy'
'Do Nothing'
'Little Bitch'
'Nite Klub'
'Too Much Too Young'
' You're Wondering Now'
--------------------------------------
'Ghost Town'
'Enjoy Yourself'

Peter Gabriel and The Soft Pack

Two current releases that I am really into.



1) Peter Gabriel :"Scratch My Back" is Gabriel's covers record. It has twelve tracks performed without drums or guitars, but plenty of piano and orchestra. Really lovely interpretations of older tracks/artists like Paul Simon ("Boy In The Bubble"), the Talking Heads ("Listening Wind") and Randy Newman ("I Think Its Going To Rain Today"), as well as Gabriel tackling such younger/newer tracks and artists as Bon Iver ("Flume"), Elbow ("Mirrorball") and Arcade Fire ("My Body Is A Cage").



Mood is very somber, though " The Book Of Love" (Magnetic Fields song) and "Power Of The Heart" (Lou Reed song I was unfamiliar with) provide some uplift and are both very powerful. This is not what I would call a sunny day record. The tone is very hushed throughout, the vocals at times so conversational that it seems like Pete is not having to exert himself too hard to actually sing. On the whole, it is a subtle and restrained work that I am really digging and I highly recommend it.



2) The Soft Pack: The self-titled album by this San Diego band formerly known as the Muslims is a real grab bag of influences from 60's garage rock, 70's punk and 80's alternative. I suppose one might rate them as a Strokes-ish type band, but I have to say that this debut is short and too the point with no excess filler. All the songs are catchy as hell and it is rare for me to come away from listening to an indie rock release where I can say that the whole thing was good to great.



This band has been buzzed about since late 2008. Last year I read about them in the LA Weekly as the "Pick of the Week" for their show at the Echo (in Echo Park). I went to check them out, though for such a supposedly buzzed about band they attracted maybe 50 people. It was a Wednesday, but still, out of population of 12.9 in the LA Metro area it is kind of surprising. This would hardly be the first time I experienced this in LA. If you were not the hipster band of the moment, often bands could look forward to the kind of apathy and low attendance that I have experienced so many times in Sacramento. The band was good, especially the rhythm section--really tight. Not the most dynamic performers in the world, but then again the audience was small and not too fired up.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZGv8VTBVE This is a fan video for Peter Gabriel's "The Book Of Love". As soon as I heard it I thought there must be a music supervisor scrambling to get this included in a TV show. Turns out I was right: I read that it was included in the final episode of "Scrubs", not a show I have ever watched or was too keen on.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgU2NhcoqWg This is video for The Soft Pack's "C'Mon".

Bomp #20-- January 79'--Penultimate Issue

These five photos are taken from the January 1979 issue Bomp! magazine. I found a copy in a local Davis comic book and hobby store the other day. It is a document of what was an exciting time in popular music.



Published by Greg Shaw, Bomp! specialized in punk, power-pop, new wave and 60's garage and Brit Invasion influenced guitar rock. There was also a record label called Bomp! that released similar fare. It documents an time in which the 45, at least for this type of music, became king again and three minute manic pop thrills of guitar, melody and energy came to stimulate a soporific music scene dominated by the Bostons, Eagles and Yeses of the day. You of course know all this.



Publication of Bomp! began in 1970 and ran until Bomp! number 21 in 1979. That make this the second to last issue they ever published. That's a shame as it looks pretty jam-packed with cool stuff to me, including a very detailed discograghy of British Beat groups. This issue covers the letter F (Tony Fabian) to Fi (First Gear); it's a shame they were not able to complete it.



#1: Nick Lowe adorns the cover and the headline reads, "Nick Lowe Insults Everybody. An Outrageous Interview". The article doesn't quite live up to that hype, but Nick is definitely opinionated. These were booze and what have you days for him.



He does say that his favorite bands as a teen were the Small Faces and the Move. He also liked the Creation and the Who. He says "I used to go see the Small Faces in the mod era, and I had a scooter and spikey haircut and the kids used to go and dress up in the new clothes. That's the thing with the New Wave, that's part of the fun of it, the clothes."



Another quote: "Oh, Jimmy Page, wanker. He hasn't played a good solo for f-ing years. He's just a wanker"



On the Damned: "When I first met the Damned, I hated their group. I thought they were terrible but it was the fact that other musicians I knew hated them as well. They just didn't think they were a shitty group, they hated them. I thought, well, any group that can stir that emotion up in people must have something going for them so I started going around with them and going to see a few gigs and I changed my mind about them."



Praise for Cheap Trick: "Cheap Trick are the best group I've seen in years. They're great because they've got a sense of humor. There's so many people who take themselves seriously. Cheap Trick are tight. They got it all covered. They've got two pretty boys and two bozos. It works perfectly...I'd really like to work with them."



#2: The Human Being Record Chart-- a chart compiled from fan votes. The Ramones are all over the singles chart. Many punk and new wave gems mixed in with Cheap Trick, the Cars and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Nice to see the Jam on there at #34. I have most of these gems, though I don't know the Pleasers and the Zones, both Arista acts. Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City" looks out of place here.That album chart is loaded with classics.



Such a great time for music back then. This is from a period that I wouldn't discover for another 3 to 5 years. Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, the Clash, the Jam and Nick Lowe came first, around 1982 or 83'. I see no Joe Jackson on this chart: his first two albums were popular, accessible and favorites of mine.They were all among the more commercially successful of the "New Wave" and college student staples of the time, Davis being no exception. The Buzzcocks, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and some of the more abrasive stuff was more 1984 and 85' for me. The Cars, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty would actually get played on true commercial rock stations. They kind of had their feet in different camps. I was always aware of them, knew the radio hits and liked them I suppose; I wouldn't truly appreciate them until years later.



#3,4,5: Full page adds from the era. The add proclaiming "Take No Prisoners" the best live album of 1978 seems very funny now. That album was notorious for Lou telling bad jokes and harassing rock critic Robert Christgau, who was in the audience.



Anyway, thought you might dig it.