Anvil: The Story of Anvil Review

You might have heard of this new documentary called "Anvil: The Story of Anvil" and thought that a film about an obscure metal band from the 80's would be of zero interest to you. I thought the same way, but let me tell you, it would be a mistake to let this film pass you by. It is one of the finest rock documentaries that you will ever see. After being a big hit on the film festival circuit last year, this movie has already set a box office record as the highest grossing rock doc of all time in the UK. The hard luck tale of the two founders and leaders of the group, Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner is a surprisingly powerful and emotional ride that you don't want to miss.

Anvil is a metal band from Toronto, Canada, formed in 1978, who made some waves in the early 80's as a band that were among the earliest progenitors of speed and thrash metal. They are considered a group who laid the ground work for the thrash movement and were an influence on bands like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. At the outset of the movie, members of all three bands testify to the band's significance. Robb Reiner's jazz-trained drum style in particular is singled out for its excellence. The band's first three albums on a small Canadian label called Attic are considered significant artifacts of the era, a time when thrash style metal was in its early days and was just as underground and indie as punk. Their output had a small following ,they did play on the same bill as metal titans such as Iron Maiden and Motorhead, and footage at the beginning of the film shows them playing a metal festival in Japan on the same bill as Bon Jovi and Whitesnake.Lips was a distinctive front man whose big gimic was to play his guitar with a vibrator. He was also the lyricist behind such Anvil gems as, "Metal on Metal", "Show Me Your Tits", "Mattress Mambo"and "Five Knuckle Shuffle". However, by the late 80's they had been left in the dust by the bands who were influenced by them, missing out on the fame and fortune that those bands achieved as this kind of music went mainstream.

And that, really should have been that. But the band refused to pack it in and just soldiered on year after year and album after album to nothing more than a small cult of followers. Director Sacha Gervasi, who once roadied for the band in the 80's and who has gone on to become a successful screenwriter, picks up their story in 2006 as Lips and Robb are now in their early 50s, married, and working menial 9 to 5 jobs in construction and school lunch delivery. Yet they still have a version of Anvil that they perform with in whatever sports bar or small club will have them and have long-time fans with names like Cut Loose who like to drink beer through their nostril. Despite their current status, Lips and Robb still cling to the dream that they are going to make it and become rock stars.

The heart of the film is the symbiotic relationship between Lips and Robb, two guys who have been playing music together since junior high school, in all over 30 years together in bands. Lips is outgoing, frenetic and emotional, while Robb is stoic and level-headed. While they are far from dumb guys, they are regular Joe kind of guys who, because they are still in a rock and roll band, live in that state of mind where at least part of them is forever a teenager. You immediately get the sense that the pursuit of the dream is the only thing that brings any sense, meaning or joy to their lives.

This film is being promoted as sort of a real life "This is Spinal Tap", the 1984 comedy directed by Rob Reiner about a buffoonish English metal band who go on a disastrous US tour. This is certainly a valid comparison as the similarities between Anvil and the fictitious Spinal Tap are numerous and uncanny. Such as:

They embark on a disastrous, shoe-string budget European tour, organised incompetently by the girlfriend of one of the other band members. The bookings are bad, the travel plans are screwed up and they find out they are not even scheduled to perform at some shows and at others the promoter refuses to pay. They play many shows in Eastern Europe, including something called the Transylvanian Metal Festival where a 10,000 seat hockey arena is booked and only 175 people show up.

They meet up with former contemporaries from the 80's ( like Michael Shenker and members of Whitesnake) at a Swedish Metal Festival who don't seem to remember them.

The ridiculous and ridiculously literal album cover art, every one featuring an anvil.

Stupid, sexist songs like "Hair Pie" and "Tease Me, Please Me".

They visit Stonehenge!

The falling out and eventual reconciliation between Lips and Robb.

They are offered a gig in Japan and make a triumphant return there.


While all of this is great fun, a strange shift happens about half the way through the movie--aided by the back story about their upbringing-- in that you begin to really care for these guys and hope that they can perhaps make it. After the ill-fated tour, the action shifts to the guys wanting to record their 13th album, to be entitled most brilliantly "This is Thirteen". They are currently without a label deal, yet they have secured the interest of one of their old 80's record producers, the famous metal producer Chris Tsangarides. The band then must try and raise the money it will cost to record the album with Tsangarides in England. After failed attempts at earning money with second jobs, Lips older sister fronts the money for the album to be recorded.

Not only has the world seemingly passed the band by, but the world they are trying to be a part of is almost a thing of the past. In their mind they are going to be signed by a major label, get some radio play, have a video on 'Headbanger's Ball' and the kids will rush to the record store and buy their album. Does anything sound wrong here? Anything just slightly outdated? These days it is all about DIY and the internet.

They even naively believe that a record company A&R man might come to one of their European shows and sign them. Once you see the sh*tholes they are playing in places like Croatia, you will understand how foolish a notion that is. However, even this band begins to "get it" that they won't be signed because they are old and seen as has-beens and it might make more sense to self -release their album and sell directly to fans, cutting out the record label middle man.

Ultimately you admire their sheer pluck and determination in the face of a world,that for the most part, is indifferent. This film really shows what drives people to create--even if we may find that expression not to our taste--and to doggedly pursue a dream despite the seemingly insurmountable odds. My only quibbles with the film is that it really tries hard to pluck the sentimental heartstrings towards the end, though it sure is effective at it. I also question if the finale in Japan in 100% legit, but I wasn't there so I guess I just have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of the film I didn't find myself liking Anvil's music any better than I did at the start of the film, in fact, I pretty much hate it. However, I definitely love these slightly dopey guys and I am inspired by their story of perseverance. I am sure anyone who sees it will come out of the theater feeling the same way.

Star For George

This blog posting was written about April 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA.

Today I am standing at 1750 Vine Street, site of the Capitol Records building. This, the world's first circular office building, was completed in 1956. It stands thirteen stories high and many believe the myth that it was designed to look like a stack of records. Atop the building is a spire and at the tip of the spire is a little light that at night blinks out the words "Hollywood" in morse code.

The reason I am here today is for the George Harrison Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. Beatle George is receiving a star today from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The Hollywood Walk of Fame was established in 1958 as a way to spruce up the image of this main drag of Hollywood. The two thousand plus stars are located on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Avenue to La Brea Avenue and north to south on Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard. The first star was awarded to Joanne Woodward (actress and wife of the late Paul Newman) in 1960 you trivia buffs out there.

In order to receive a star, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's Walk of Fame committee is usually solicited by a sponsor (movie studio or record label) but sometimes by the star themselves. If the committee approves the celebrity,then $25,000 must be paid and there is usually a proviso that the celebrity, if living, must show up to attend the ceremony. Well, no chance of that happening today, but Capitol Records (the sponsor for George) no doubt promises to wheel out a cavalcade of celebs and near-celebs to honor the quiet Beatle.

A crowd somewhere near a thousand people have gathered in the area just outside the barricades set up at the edge of the sidewalk and another set about half way into the Vine Street. I would describe this mass of humanity to be comprised of many Beatle fanatics, some might say nerds. Yes, Beatle nerds. Beatle nerds belong to a special sub-category of music nerds. Nerd-dom can take on so many forms: Comedy nerds, movie nerds, Star Wars nerds, Dungeon and Dragons nerds, (video) Gamer nerds, Monty Python nerds (often in tandem with Beatle nerds I find--perhaps they belong to the larger school of Anglophile nerds), and science nerds are the ones I can think of right off the bat.

Nerdiness is a form of obsession adopted by people in their formative years as a way with coping with the world. What better way to combat your social awkwardness than to obsess over something and at the same time find like-minded individuals to bond with over said obsession. Nothing wrong with being nerdy: it demonstrates you are really serious about something and often it shows you can really devote yourself to the pursuit of that something and master it. Some nerdy pursuits can really get you ahead in life. For instance, computer nerds now run the world. Beatle nerds, on the other hand, show up outside an office building at 10 am on a Tuesday. To be fair, I'm sure some of them have jobs.

My Beatle nerd-dom began in 1979 when my mother purchased the Beatle compilation albums "63-66" and "67-70" (aka the Red and Blue albums) on cassette and indoctrinated me to the world of the Beatles' music. To say my life has never been the same would be an understatement. Prior to this, I had dabbled in music, mostly the John Denver,Waylon Jennings and Simon and Garfunkel albums my dad would play on car trips and soundtracks such as "Saturday Night Fever", "Grease" and, god help me, "Thank God It's Friday". I also joined a record club (RCA Record Club - 8 albums for a penny) back in 78' maybe, but was mostly indifferent to the motley assortment of albums I selected. Not sure what my methodology was, but I do remember receiving Peter Frampton's "Frampton Comes Alive", Bob Seger's "Night Moves", Steve Miller Band's "Greatest Hits 74-78" and maybe a James Taylor record. Of course I never sent back the monthly form to reject that month's selection, so our house was inundated with such gems as Fogat's "Rock and Roll" (cover sported a picture of a small stone and a dinner roll) until my mother called the RCA Record Club and pitched a fit about how young I was and they agreed to cancel my membership.

The Beatles was a whole other story. I was initially captivated by the music, but it became a full-time obsession soon after the death of John Lennon. I heard about Lennon's murder like many American males did--from Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. I ran to tell my mother,who I was staying with on that particular evening, this during the early stages of my parent's separation. She shrieked "What !!" and was no doubt more stunned by the news than I was. My mother, though by no means a Beatle fanatic, had actually seen the group live in Stockholm in 1963 during their Scandinavian tour, several months before they even came to American for the first time in February 1964.

Soon after my whole world was Beatles. I bought all the albums. I bought most of the solo records up to that point. I bought books and old Life magazine covers. I started buying picture sleeve singles and bootlegs. I became a regular customer at the hole-in-the-wall used record store downtown (what was the name of that place, Morgan?) that traded in such contraband. I went to these shoe string budget Beatle "Film Festivals" at places like the Davis Veteran's Memorial so I could see old grainy clips of Beatle press conferences, Ed Sullivan and other television appearances, promo films such as "Hello, Goodbye" and "Strawberry Fields" and maybe that amateur filmmaker disaster, "Magical Mystery Tour". I went to a midnight screening of "Let It Be" at the Varsity Theater in downtown Davis and even persuaded someone to drive me to a showing of "Wings Over America" at the dome shaped (where I saw "Star Wars" in 77') Century Theaters in Sacramento. I think I was bored to tears by those last two films, but such was my mania for all things Beatle that I could not pass them up.

At one point I was even looking into attending a Beatles convention in Los Angeles. If you are attending a convention of any fan-worshipping kind, you have most certainly graduated into another realm of nerd-dom.This period of insanity lasted from approximately 1980 until some time in 1982 when I began to discover other music and my obsession was redirected and soon mutated into so many other directions that I soon lost count. I think my buddy Morgan's obsession with the Who soon sent me down that road and into all things mod-related, though I never did adopt a mod fashion identity.

So, this must be why I am standing out here on this overcast Los Angeles morning waiting for the dignitaries to show up for this questionable dedication to a music great. A public address system has been set up and George Harrison solo music plays from the speakers placed atop stands. As the song 'All Things Must Pass' plays from the speakers, it is not lost on many folks in the audience that the producer of this song (Phil Spector) sits in a Los Angeles jail cell waiting to be sentenced for second degree murder. And wouldn't you it, as the "Concert For Bangladesh" version of 'Here Comes The Sun' plays, the sun begins to peak through the clouds and shower us in sunshine. I would claim divine intervention, but perhaps it is just a well-timed case of typical Los Angeles marine layer being burned off by the sun as we approach noon.

There are two platforms set up outside of Capitol Records. One is for the assembled press, who take their places as the 11:30 start time approaches. The other is situated a few feet in front of them--a dais with a podium for today's speakers. And at the appointed hour the VIPs file out of the front doors of Capitol Records, I'm thinking by order of importance. We are all straining our necks to see who has come and I immediately start recognizing and checking off in my head who is there. Tom Petty ( major rock star and a Travelling Wilbury), Mike Campbell (a member of Petty's band), Jeff Lynne ( ELO leader,produced George's "Cloud Nine" and also a Travelling Wilbury, Jim Keltner (drumming god who has played with everybody, including George), T-Bone Burnett (producer and solo artist extraordinaire), David Foster (big-time producer and writer of mostly MOR music), Joe Walsh (James Gang, The Eagles, solo artist), Ray Cooper (session percussionist who played on many George albums), Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth and solo artist-'Dream Weaver'-who played on some George albums), Ed Begley Jr. (???--actor and environmental activist), Tom Hanks (???--2 time Academy Award winning actor), Eric Idle (founding member of Monthy Python, actor/comedian) and Olivia (the wife) and Dhani ( the son, musician in his own right, and spitting image of his father) Harrison. What? No Beatles are here? Then Sir Paul McCartney is the last to emerge from the foyer of Capitol Records and the assembled Beatle fans really lose their sht*t.

What follows is a twenty-odd minute ceremony that sees a member of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce read, verbatim, the press release bio of George's life that was posted on his web site. Then we get another member of the Hollywood CoC who gives a speech where he repeatedly says that George is "with the angels now" and then, bizarrely, presents George's wife, Olivia, with some b.s. certificate from the city and a loaf of bread he says was the last loaf baked by a group of locals nuns whose ovens have broken down and they are now trying to raise money for. He also introduces representatives of the British and Bangladeshi embassies and his whole appearance basically makes for the one truly awkward moment of the day.

Next up is Tom Hanks, top notch actor and seemingly good guy, but why on earth is he up here stumping for George? Perhaps he was a close friend of his, I don't know. Hanks gives a brief, blustery, over-the-top kind of speech that sounds like he was making it up on the spot. Perhaps he was. His speech is very specific to the impact the Beatles had on America and how trans-formative they were to popular culture. He then gestures to the Capitol building and says "They built this!"--not quite, but he meant well.He signs off with "All things must pass, this this true, but George Harrison will live forever".

Eric Idle is next.He was a close friend of George (George was a Python nut and went on to almost single-handedly finance "Life of Brian" and then through his Hand Made Films production company, finance several other Python-related films) and he proceeds to give a comic speech that is by turns ribald, funny, not funny,crass and inappropriate.One thinks that George would have probably approved. Idle pondered what George would have thought of a star on the Walk of Fame and then says George would have said "What a load of old bollocks". No doubt this is true. Idle then solemnly recounts how Paul McCartney was there for George in his final days when he was ailing from the throat cancer that killed him on November 29, 2001 in Los Angeles at the age of 58. Idle stated the often rumored fact that Harrison died in (one of ) Paul McCartney's homes. This turns out to set up a joke: "George died in Paul's house, which is why I won't go stay with John Cleese"--they both live in the L.A. area.

Olivia Harrison, who was a secretary at A&M Records when George met her in the mid 70's, then gave a brief speech thanking all those who came out and those who spoke and saying of George, "...he was a mystical man living in a material world, funny as the day was long and just as perplexing." His son, Dhani, followed by just saying "Hare Krishna" and then it was on to unveiling the star. A wood panel was lifted to reveal the freshly-minted new star and Olivia, Dhani, Idle, Hanks and McCartney posed for a photo. Tom Petty and a few others also came down for a photo op and that was pretty much that. McCartney, who was bombarded with cries of "Paul ! Paul !" (one can only wonder what a life of hearing that for 46 years can do to a person) tried to mount the podium and say thanks, but it had already been shut off. He mouthed the words, placed his hands over his heart and then was gone.

Alas, no sign of Ringo.

Deep Hit of Morning Sun:Primal Scream @ Club Nokia

Tonight's show is by two leading exponents of what you might call modern psychedelia, psych-punk or late 60's rock revivalism.Call it what you will, but Primal Scream and The Brian Jonestown Massacre are both now long tenured acts that have carved out a notable career by borrowing heavily from rock's past and trying to give it a modern spin.

This evening's venue is the rather sterile and way-too-modern, theater-sized, Club Nokia, situated in the new-ish L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Staples Center. The 2,400 capacity club is on the third floor of this entertainment behemoth. As I cross the Nokia plaza with it's giant digital display of "Nokia" taking up one side of a building, I see Anderson Cooper bathed in intense white lights and surrounded by a film crew and bystanders. That's L.A. for ya.

This venue has all the charm of a hotel convention hall. That and the fact that the prices for everything are sky-high ($20 to park, $10 beers, $9 for a pre-made sandwich or salad) do not put me in a great mood for a night of wild rock and roll. The sound and lighting are top-notch, and the back bar looks like it has the same art direction as a Stanley Kubrick film, but this place feels cold and empty. Welcome to the 21st century, I guess.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre are up first. This band has been led by the mercurial Anton Newcombe since 1990. They specialize in a sort of droning, psychedelic guitar music that draws on such influences as The Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones circa 1967, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Spacemen 3 and a touch of shoe-gazer acts like Ride.

BJM are probably best known for the 2005 documentary, "Dig"--a must-see rock-doc about two friendly and similar bands (BJM and The Dandy Warhols) who get caught up in classic music industry hype. We witness how this affects their relationship and how they go about dealing with it. It is a fascinating study of how the two band leaders (Newcombe and Courtney Taylor-Taylor) cope with the prospect of imminent fame and success. Both are portrayed as being maniacal control freaks, but while Taylor-Taylor is seen as an ambitious opportunist, Newcombe comes off as someone who shys away from the attention and seems hell bent on self-destruction and self-sabotage. They both to battle to a draw in who can come off as being the more self-involved jerk. Nevertheless, it is an essential document of how art and commerce often exist uncomfortably together, as well as the corrupting effects of money, media and fame on smart and creative individuals.

This evenings opening slot sees Anton Newcombe and his seven cohorts plow through a 45 minute set that covers a wide range of material from throughout their career. Suprising to see erstwhile members Matt Hollywood (guitar and vocals) and Joel Gion (tambourine shaker extraordinaire, comic relief and used buyer at Amoeba in SF) back in this ever-shifting line-up after having been out of the band the last time I checked. Newcombe is situated stage right all the way at the end, with his mic and body turned sideways facing the band. Either he suffers from some stage fright or else he wants to keep a close eye on his charges. He is looking pretty haggard, but then that is usually par for the course with him and it doesn't seem to affect his performance at all.

Their reverb-heavy, druggy and hypnotic sound is mesmerizing, however it is performed with such cool detachment and at times lacks really memorable tunes, that often you feel that it is a bit of a studied pose. Hard to believe these guys were once being hyped as a potential big mainstream cross-over act. They would seem most at home in some small, low-down club and appear out of place in this sterile and cavernous corporate venue.

Primal Scream, meanwhile, are perhaps too big for this hall. They are practically an institution in the UK and have been filling arenas and playing huge European festivals for close to 20 years now. They were formed in 1984 in Glasgow, Scotland by former Jesus and Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie (lead vocals), Andrew Innes (lead guitar) and Martin Duffy (keyboards) who remain the core of the group,but are now supplemented with former Stones Roses member Mani (bass), Darren Mooney (drums) and a second touring guitarist.

The Scream have had a long and distinguished career that has seen many changes in their sound. This has led to criticism in some quarters that they are musical magpies--hopping on whatever musical bandwagon is trendy and then hopping off and onto the next passing trend. Perhaps this notion has been overstated, but it is true that their career has seen time for 60's psych-revivalism in a Byrds and Love mode (not too successfully I might add), MC5 style hard rock (again, kinda of iffy), indie rock/dance ( on the landmark "Screamadelica" album that brought Acid House and rock music to the masses, at least everywhere but the U.S.), early 70's Rolling Stones clones (a sound they embraced wholly on "Screamadelica's" follow-up "Give Out But Don't Give Up" and have been returning to as sort of a default setting, especially 06's "Riot City Blues" ), electronica (1997's "Vanishing Point"), and noisy Krautrock (2000's brilliant "XTRMNTR" and 02's "Evil Heat"). This schizophrenic approach to their music has made them a most eclectic band who now can draw upon all these influences and put on one hell of a rock show. I have never seen them before and they don't play the U.S. too often (last time being in 2001 I believe), so I was very primed for this show.

So it was that they took to the stage at Club Nokia and proceeded to just about take the audiences heads off with the volume and propulsive attack of their music, aided and abetted by a truly disorienting light show filled with relentless flashing strobes and a laser beam that I haven't seen since The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" film. The first five songs, beginning with 'Kill All Hippies' and concluding with 'Jailbird' was about as breathtaking an opening salvo as I've seen from any band ever. Andrew Innes' Gibson Les Paul played through a Marshall stack amplifier was absolutely lethal.

They then slowed things down to take on some of their more trippy, psychedelic songs, where the two guitarists made ample use of their effects pedals and keyboardist Duffy provided spooky textures and strange loops. The high point of this middle section was 'Higher Than The Sun' from "Screamadelica" and 'Deep Hit of Morning Sun' . Lead singer Gillespie is a stick figure with a Phil May circa 1965 haircut. He is not the most powerful vocalist out there, but he gets the job done and is a charismatic front man.

They then shifted back to an uptempo mode and ripped through seven high octane rockers that began with 'Exterminator' and finished off with their heavy Stones-referencing, 'Movin On Up' and 'Rocks'. A four song encore followed, highlighted by Stonesy-stomp of 'Country Girl' and capped off with the mind-bending (and ear-splitting) tour-de-force that is 'Accelerator' a feedback spattered bit of noise rock that is a fitting farewell from this band.

I am stunned by how good this show was and how powerful this band is. I am completely worn out! They have spent 25 years of developing into a first rate rock band with enough stylistic detours to keep it interesting and a somewhat dark and mysterious image that serves them well too. I'm hoping that they will be back sooner next time and when I see them I plan to bring ear plugs and sunglasses.

Strange Animal: Sparks at Royce Hall

Some time back in either late 1982 or early 1983,I was introduced to the this strange little group called Sparks. I think it may have been after seeing their video for "I Predict" off of their 'Angst In My Pants' album or else I caught them as the music guest on 'Saturday Night Live'. Either way they made quite a unique first impression both musically and visually. The lead singer Russell Mael sang in a fruity sort of quasi-operatic falsetto and sported a spangled jacket, a floppy curly-haired fringe haircut and pin-up good looks. The keyboard player,Ron Mael, on the other hand, had what can best be described as a Hitler mustache (or maybe Charlie Chaplin), clothes that looked like a middle-aged man of the time on a fishing trip (polyester pants and dopey hat), and a look of perpetual consternation on his unsmiling face. "Who are these guys?", I wondered. 'Angst In My Pants' became my next purchase (on cassette!) and I was ushered into the odd-ball, art-pop world of the Mael Brothers.

Little did I know at the time, but the brothers Ron and Russell had been at this for quite a long time before I stumbled upon them. They were Los Angeles natives who spent their teenage years in the sixties as models for mail-order catalogs(mail, male, Mael?) They formed their first band, Halfnelson, as students at UCLA in 1970. They recorded their first album in 1971, a self-titled affair produced by Todd Rundgren for the Bearsville label. Soon after they changed their name to Sparks, and the first album under the new moniker appeared in 1972, titled "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing".

The band's style was a unique concoction of keyboard-based songs (mostly written by Ron Mael) with a tough rock backing and Russell swooping vocals laid on top. They were odd, often bizarre tunes with a very skewed world view and much off-beat humour. Art Pop is the label most often thrown at them, though the band itself has gone through three distinct musical phases, all the while remaining unmistakably them.

Phase one took them through the glam rock years and it was during this period that they became big stars in England, a country they subsequently moved to for a few years. They went to number two with their song "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" in 1974, a track off their classic album 'Kimono My House'. They had similar success for the next year or so, where the Brothers style, mixed with the almost Spiders From Mars-ish rock band backing made them fit in well with the times.

After a couple of flop albums, the brothers changed labels, band members and direction, as they enlisted famed disco producer Giorgio Moroder to helm their 1979 come-back album, 'No.1 Song In Heaven'. This album not only spawned a pair of UK hits, but also was highly influential for the emerging techno pop movement of the early to mid-eighties. The pair used this template for roughly the next 20 years, fusing Ron's synth-based backing to such lyrical oddities as "Tryouts For The Human Race", "SexTown USA","All You Ever Think About Is Sex", "When Do I Get To Sing My Way", "I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car", "How To Get Your Ass Kicked" and the song they are probably the most famous for here in the U.S., 1983's duet with Jane Weidlin of the Go-Go's, "Cool Places",which reached the lofty heights of number 49.

By the turn of the 21st century, Sparks sensed it was time to move in a totally new direction. Considering how patchy many of their albums were from the mid-80's on, it was probably not a moment too soon. Since 2002's "Lil Beethoven" album, the Mael brothers have now adopted a style of elaborately layered keyboards (though more actual piano than ever before), string sections and vocals ,and almost no drums. Ron Mael is now creating quasi-classical compositions of great complexity and detail. Though different in approach, these are still Sparks tunes and new song titles such as "Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls", "I Married Myself", "Dick Around' and "The Director Never Yelled 'Cut' " let you know that their tongue remains firmly in cheek.

Sparks are definitely an acquired taste. In fact, they are most likely to inspire a very negative reaction in most. I am not sure there is a middle ground in ones opinion of them and I can totally understand when their music makes many people lunge for the stereo in an effort to turn it down or off. They are the epitome of a cult band and I'm sure their international following, especially in England, France and Japan, wouldn't have it any other way.

Which brings us to this special Valentine's Day performance at Royce Hall , which is a snazzy performing arts building on the UCLA campus that is modeled on a famous basilica in Milan. The all-seated venue seems more appropriate for a visiting orchestra or dance troupe than a weirdo pop band, but here we are. Though they still live in the Los Angeles area, Sparks rarely play the states and the fact they are doing a special show in which they are performing their new album 'Exotic Creatures of the Deep' and their classic 'Kimono My House' in their entirety has made this a special event. The show was sold out (1800 seat capacity) and the crowd seemed like a West Coast Sparks convention, such was their enthusiasm. I overheard people saying they had come from as far as Arizona, New York , and even Japan for the show.


It turns out to be a fantastic show. Sparks did the new album in its entirety, took an intermission break and came back out and did 'Kimono My House', then reemerged again for an 8 song encore that included "Propaganda", "At Home, At Work, At Play", "No. 1 Song in Heaven","BC", "Mickey Mouse", "Dick Around" , "When Do I Get To Sing My Way" and "Suburban Homeboy".

The staging for 'Exotics Creatures' was amazing. There were giant gilded picture or mirror frames suspended in the air towards the back of the stage. The backing band, which included Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, played behind and in-between the frames,so as to appear to be giant portraits come to life. There was a massive video screen in the middle of them, also with a giant picture frame around it. Films and graphics were displayed on it, timed to go with whatever song was being played. The Mael brothers played on front, center stage: Russell flouncing around and Ron mostly sitting at his keyboard and making his usual weird faces that look like a combination of irritability and consternation.

On a few songs Ron was interacting with the footage on screen. For instance, on "Let the Monkey Drive", Ron called an animated monkey out to play an animated piano. The most clever bit was when Ron appeared to be playing a piano on the video screen (which was made to look like a desk top computer screen with application icons running down the one side) during "Photoshop (Me Out of Your Life)", in an update of the classic Daffy Duck cartoon, the piano kept changing size, color, position, number of pianos, as Ron frantically pretended to keep trying to play the song. Brilliant piece of theater. Another bit came at the end of the "Kimono" performance when each album cover would be displayed on the screen and Ron would light a real lighter at the bottom of the screen and it appeared the album was engulfed in flames. They did this for each and every one of the albums, which gave the audience a chance to applaud their favorites; I was particularly boisterous for my first Sparks album, "Angst In My Pants". When the new albums was "burnt up", Ron tossed the lighter over his shoulder and and walked off the stage as the band concluded 'Equator' and the album.

Ron and Russell appeared as they have in the photos for the last couple of albums. Russell has some dyed floppy fringe cut and Ron has perfected his crotchety old-man-next-door look, complete with those round horn rimmed glasses that George Burns once favored.

No sign of huge Sparks fan, Morrissey, but they did perform the song "Lighten Up,Morrissey" (which if you listen to the lyrics is not really a dig at him, but a plea to him to not be so appealing to the singer's love interest) and introduced it my saying it was about "a good buddy of ours". They even sold t-shirts with that song title emblazoned on the front. I am certain that Moz was there someplace that night: he has been in town recently to launch his new album.

Again, it was a great show. I went in uncertain about the two albums in their entirety format and wished it was more a standard show, but I was pleasantly surprised how I enjoyed it all. I don't see any gigs scheduled in the U.S. on their web site; looks like London (including an appearance on the Jonathan Ross show) and Tokyo next. I'm glad I was able to finally see this most elusive of old favorites live. See them if you get a chance

Lux Interior: Requiem for the Undead

On Wednesday night I returned home from a show in Echo Park at around 10:30 and sat down to look up some info on the band I had just seen. As I was was surfing for info on the group at the NME website, I saw a news headline on the homepage that said "Cramps founder dies". I did a quick double-take to make sure I had read this correctly. What? No! This can't be!

Sadly, the news was indeed true that Lux Interior, the lead singer of the pioneering punkabilly group, The Cramps, had passed away early Wednesday morning in nearby Glendale from a pre-existing heart condition. I was absolutely stunned. I had no idea that he suffered from any health problems, but then he and his wife and co-conspirator, Poison Ivy, were always a fiercely private and secretive couple. Also, as a friend would mention to me later, "How can someone who is already dead die?"

This remark would have undoubtedly amused Lux. The Cramps entire image was founded on an obsession with horror films and trash culture of the 50's and 60's. Lux and Ivy looked like the freakiest and most ghoulish couple to ever walk the face of the earth. They could have jumped onto the screen of any zombie, vampire or monster movie of the last 75 years and fit in perfectly. Surely, a rock n' roll zombie can't really die, can he?

Erick Lee Purkhiser was born in Stow, Ohio, a small suburb of Akron, in 1946. From an early age he had a fascination with horror and sci-fi films of the 40's and 50's and EC comic books like, "Tales from the Crypyt" and "Vault of Horror". By his teen years he was also a huge fan of early rock and roll, particularly as it was presented by local Akron disc jockey, Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers. The Mad Daddy mixed horror, rock n' roll and R&B with a rapid-fire delivery that was usually done in rhyme and hipster jive. Another early influence was local late night television host ,Ghoulardi, who introduced horror and sci-fi B-movies on "Shock Theater" with his own hip slang, using catchphrases like "Stay Sick" and "Turn Blue".

After living in the Akron area into his early 20's and trying to avoid the Vietnam draft--mostly by staying unemployed and untraceable---Lux decided to move to California and enroll in college as a way of ducking the draft legitimately. He moved to Sacramento some time in the late 60's and began attending school at Sacramento State. One fateful day he met the person who would become his life-long partner in love, music and other crimes, one Kristy Marlana Wallace, born 1953 in Sacramento. Lux swears that he met her while she was hitch-hiking near campus in 1972. They also were in the same art class together and soon became inseparable,eventually moving into a mid-town apartment together.

Lux was already a fanatical collector of rockabilly, garage punk, surf, and early rock n' roll / R&B records, especially the really rare stuff. Records by regional garage bands that only released one or two 45s in limited quantities or that one rockabilly record that every hillbilly or failed country artist who thought he was going to be the next Elvis made. Ivy was also a big fan of early rockers like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy and particularly Link Wray. Lux did extensive record rummaging around Northern California, tracking down all kinds of rare stuff before there was a real market for it. It is worth noting that there was no re-issue market and generally no compilations for most of the rockabilly and garage obscurities that we take for granted today on collections like "Nuggets", "Pebbles" and "Desperate Rock and Roll". If you wanted to hear this stuff, you had to track down the original 45. Many of the people who were tracking down these obscure releases were the people who wound up putting together many of those quasi-legal compilations.

One favorite record haunt was the Records shop on the K Street Mall in downtown Sac. Ray, the late owner of the place, befriended Lux and Ivy and was instrumental in turning them onto R&B vocal groups (never say "Doo-Wop"), whose wild vocal gymnastics on up-tempo numbers would also play an important role in the eventual sound of The Cramps.

Tiring of what they thought was the "small town mentality" of mid-70s Sacramento, as were they of a hippie scene they did not feel a part of, the couple briefly moved back to Akron in early 1975, but by the fall, after having seen The New York Dolls perform and being inspired by their look and their desecretion/veneration of R&B, they decided to move to New York City and start a band. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision, as they wound up being at ground zero of the punk movement there, which was centered around the Bowery dive bar known as CBGB's. It was here that they adopted their new monikers of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy.

The band they put together would be an original amalgamation of all the things that Lux and Ivy had been soaking up for years--Lux was almost 30 at this point. The sound they came up with, to quote Lux, was "A patchwork hybrid with a life of it's own--a rock n' roll Brides of Frankenstein". Rockabilly was only the starting point. Rockabilly was fused with the fat, distorted, fuzztone power chords of Link Wray, the surf riffs of groups like The Ventures and the twangy reverb of Duane Eddy. The guitar playing was simple, but menacing and effective. Lux also said of their nascent sound, "There were all these bands, like The Rolling Stones and The New York Dolls, that took R&B and did something with it, but nobody had done anything with rockabilly yet". As a line in their seminal single "Garbage Man" said, they were indeed "one half hillbilly and one half punk".It was a sound that found room for Link Wray, Sun Records rockabilly singles and Sonics-style garage punk.

One novel approach they had in their early years was that they had no bass player. Instead they recruited second guitarist,Bryan Gregory, more for his looks (peroxide blonde hair combed forward, obscuring half of his acne scarred face, scary-looking face) than his musical ability. Gregory lay on thick sheets of atonal guitar noise while Ivy held down the more traditional, structured guitar licks. The drums would be a primitive, stomping beat (provided by Nick Knox) that was straight out of snarling garage punk classics of the mid-60's.On top of all of this was Lux's echo-drenched vocals and vocal mannerisms that were a combination of rockabilly yelps and hiccups, the nonsense jive of R&B vocal groups and bird calls and animal noises that may have come from Exotica records or Tarzan movies, maybe both.

Lyrics were handled exclusively by Lux and were such marvelously humorous and inventive things. Funny lines that were a distillation of every song lyric, movie dialogue quote,comic book image or Maddy Daddy and Ghoulardi bit he had ever heard or seen, mixed with a twisted sense of the macabre and more than a touch of surrealism. Later in their career he would dive whole heartedly into lewd and racy lyrics that were a product of the sex-ploitation films, such as Russ Meyers', that he became a big fan of, as well the "blue" lyrics of certain smutty, double-entendre jump blues records of the late 40's and early 50's. Here are a couple of examples of Lux's lyrics.

"Well I'm a human flyIt's spelt F-L-YI say buzz ,buzz, buzz, and it's just because..I'm a human fly and I don't know whyI got ninety six tears in my ninety six eyes.I got a garbage brain, it's drivin' me insaneAnd I don't like your ride, so push that pesticideAnd baby I won't care, 'cause baby I don't scare'Cause I'm a reborn maggot using germ warfare. Rockin'Zzzzz..." Human Fly (1978)

"oh baby i see you on my tv set yeah baby i see you on my tv set i cut your head off and put it in my tv set i use your eyeballs for dials on my tv set i watch tv i watch tv since i put you in my tv set oh baby i hear you on my radio yeah baby i hear you on my radio you know i flip flip flip for my radio you're going drip drip drip on my radio am radio pm radio since i tuned you inside my radio... like this! oh baby i see you in my frigidaire yeah baby i see you in my frigidaire behind the mayonnaise, way in the back i'm gonna see you tonight for a midnight snack but though it's cold you won't get old 'cause you're well preserved in my frigidaire" TV Set (1980)

" I been a drag racer on LSD, and i rode bare-assed on top of the shpinx, i even had a gorilla on the slopes of kismet, and man, that was fun for a while you bet but... well i savored many foriegn kinds of delicacies, intoxicated til i can't tell what the hell i could see, had all the violence and liquor within close reach, but all bars, pills and threeways lead me back to the beach and... now they say that virtue is it's own reward, but when that surf comes in i'm gunna get my board, got my own ideas about the righteous kick, you can keep the rewards, i'd just as soon stay sick..." Bikini Girls With Machine Guns (1990)

"Torso tossin'. Shockwave a causin'. A wammy in the boogaloo. Busted up bustle, too. Gear strippin' dynamo. Limbo down kinda low. I can do the camel walk. Torture me. I won't talk. Down in the fashion pits. Girls wearin' tourniquets. Rough and ready riff raff. Straight jacket sneak attack. Wig hat jack knife. Out on bail for life. Sex in the cycle set. Mama don't allow no pets." Dames, Booze, Chains, and Boots (1991)

The Cramps also excelled at covers, unearthing many obscure gems from rock and roll's past like "Goo Goo Muck" (Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads), "Sunglasses After Dark" (Dwight Pullen), "Rockin' Bones" (Ronnie Dawson), "She Said" (Hasil Adkins), "Love Me" (The Phantom), and "Save It" (Mel Robbins) just to name a few. These were never straight covers,but songs given a signature Cramps style, often slowed down, dirtied up and spooked out versions, with bits of other songs sometimes thrown into the mix, like in the case of "Sunglasses After Dark" which is fused with a Link Wray song called "Fat Back". In other cases the band shamelessly stole other songs and created their own. For example, The Busters "Bust-Out" instrumental would mutate into "I'm Cramped", while The Riptides "Machine Gun" would serve as the basis for "Call of the Wighat". There are a couple series of albums devoted exclusively to songs that the band covered or cribbed from, one being the "Born Bad" series and the other known as "Songs The Cramps Taught Us". Both are highly recommended, though not always easy to find due to them essentially being bootlegs. Whatever the case, one of the enduring legacies of The Cramps will be that they exposed many people to a ton of classic obscurities. They were a gateway drug to so much great music from the 50's and 60's.

The first two Cramps singles (Surfin Bird/The Way I Walk and Human Fly/Domino) were self-released in 1977 and 78' respectively and they were soon signed by IRS records where they were to do their most influential ,and many would argue best, work. 1980's "Songs The Lord Taught Us" and 81's "Psychedelic Jungle" are both considered the high water mark in terms of their quality and their hipness. These albums and assorted singles sides of their IRS tenure are still held in high esteem and even gave birth to an entire genre known as Psychobilly, a term they coined but later disowned when they became disenchanted with so many inferior groups trying to copy their style. During the early to mid-80's they were considered as cool and hip as any act out there. Any store selling rock merchandise would be sure to have plenty of Cramps t-shirts, buttons, stickers, and posters, almost always with their trademark dripping band name logo.

A legal fall out with IRS left them without a label for a few years and between 82' and 85' only the self-released (and subsequently licensed) 6 song live EP (of new material) "Smell of Female" came out. During this time they had also moved from New York City to Hollywood, California. By the time the of 1986's "Date with Elvis" album, they had ditched the second guitarist format and had recruited their first in a long line of bass players, for a more conventional set up. From this point forward, the songs lyrics became more sex-obsessed and less horror film-oriented. They became more burlesque ,and some would criticize, more cartoon-y. This may have resulted in a loss of some of the hipster crowd, but their now world-wide cult remained as strong as ever. They toured North America, Europe, Japan and Australia with regularity.

The longer they went on, the freakier their appearance became. What began as a look that was merely dressing in black, eventually became all manner of lingerie, gold lame, latex rubber bondage gear, leopard print pants,shirts and bikini briefs. Lux was known to wear women's high heel shoes,makeup and maybe a string of pearls on stage, too. Lux and Ivy also had the palest, mostly deathly pallor I have ever seen on two human beings. This just added to the allure and to the enduring image of the scary but somehow adorable freak show they had become over the years.

Live shows were where they were really in their element. A Cramps show was always an event, a guaranteed good time out. Many in the audience would dress as outlandishly as they did. Lux was the consummate showman, always giving 100% of himself and his body. He had a gallery of facial expressions he would pull during a performance as he stalked the stage, often seemingly trying to swallow the mic , dropping to his knees, his latex pants hanging half way down his ass as he would eventually be nearly (and occasionally entirely) naked by show's end and god knows how many mic stands he destroyed over the years.

The show-stopping finale for as long as I can remember was their version of The Trashmen's "Surfin Bird". This began as a fairly straight version of the first half of the song (the "Birds the Word" section) but when it came time for the "Poppa Om Mow Mow" second half, all hell would break loose and Ivy and whomever their bass player happened to be would unleash a wall of distorted noise and feedback for 10 to 15 minutes, the drummer (another revolving door after the January 1991 departure of the long-tenured Nick Knox) tried to keep up a relentless beat while Lux went totally berserk. Lux would destroy mic stands, climb all over the speaker stacks, lay on the ground writhing or pouring a bottle of wine over his body while still trying to sing the "Poppa Om Mow Mow" mantra. Words don't do this justice. Lets just say it was as unbelievable a spectacle as your are likely to see on a music stage. Pure theater of course, and heavily indebted to Iggy Pop's performance style,but thrilling nonetheless. One of the six times I saw the band was at a KWOD radio show concert where they were on the bill with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Weezer. Most of the audience were teens there for Weezer. When The Cramps went into their "Surfin' Bird" number, I have never seen so many shocked and baffled faces in my life. I think a number of them actually stepped back, away from the mayhem.

Now back to their recording career, both "Date With Elvis" (1986) and "Stay Sick" (1990) were both excellent albums in their new perverse, tongue-in-cheek style. "Stay Sick" contained the single 'Bikini Girls with Machine Guns', earning them their first national chart hit of any kind--number 35 in the UK. However, with "Look Mom, No Head" (1991) it was the first time they genuinely disappointed me, though it has a handful of good tracks, especially 'Dames, Booze, Chains, and Boots'. "Flame Job" (1994) I thought was a pretty good return to form; having what amounted to a major label deal certainly inspired them to dig a little deeper. However, "Big Beat From Badsville"(1997) was just an awful piece of crap and it was the point where I stopped caring about them so much. They were back in indie-land and the album was a collection of really generic originals that had no impact. They were masters of unearthing great songs to cover (or steal shamelessly from) , but not on this dud. Not a single track was memorable at all.

The final album "Fiends of Dope Island" (2003), released a full six years after the last one, was an improvement, but not by much. Ivy was just recycling the same old tired riffs and the Cramps formula seemed spent. They were not a band that was ever going to embrace any changes; it was the antithesis of what they were about in the first place. At least in the past they seemed inspired to write great songs. I guess eventually all artists lose it and become hacks or a shadow of their former selves.So, the last 13 years produced two fairly crappy albums that nobody bought and most people were not aware were out anyway.

Lux and Ivy had moved to Glendale in the late 80's and spent their time ensconced in their home with their massive record collection, their cult films ,Lux's 3-D photography and Ivy's cats. Whether they had a new album and tour or not, they would always emerge from their lair each year for a Halloween show in San Francisco (because they said SF gets into the spirit of that holiday the best) and maybe a New Years show in LA or SF.

They were still great live and could draw crowds world-wide as a cult act. They were a band that always seemed out of sync with what was going on, yet they endured. Bands form and break up, trends come and go, The Cramps outlasted them all. They were so completely original and true to themselves that they were almost beyond reproach, at least as a live act. Most bands develop a fanbase and more or less keep the same one until it dwindles to the select few. The Cramps, on the other hand, were always regenerating their audience. It was always a wide range in ages with many young people at the shows.

Their sound was already out of time with what was considered trendy in the punk/alternative/underground rock world when they began, so they never fell out fashion. Really it was a timeless sound that lasted for over 30 years and will still sound great in another 30.

Hard to believe that the great ghoul of rock and roll is gone. He was genuinely a hero of mine, from back at a time when I still had those. I never thought he would go this soon. Hell, since he seemed to be amongst the living dead, I wasn't sure he would ever disappear at all. I can't believe there will never be a Cramps show to go to again.

Perhaps Lux took a look around the beginning of the 21st century, found it boring, and went back into his crypt to sleep this one out, waiting to emerge again in the 22nd century to terrorize the world's stages and teach the human race of the future what real rock and roll is. Well, it's a nice dream anyway.

Under Heavy Manners

I had my Bad Manners show ruined by some skinheads Saturday night. "Skinhead!", you say. Yeah, but keep in mind these skinheads were not the racist Nazi skinheads that many people believe are what all skinheads are. In fact, some of these skinheads were Chicanos. Confused yet?

Well, what I have discovered down here in Los Angeles is a fascinating sub-culture of working class Hispanic youth that are enthralled with the British working class youth/fashion movements of the late 70's-early 80's. Skinheads, Rock-a-Billy (or PsychoBilly), and Oi! Punks with Spanish surnames abound in this city. I don't know enough about it to know why this is or how it started, but there is a sizable Chicano following for these styles, often crossing over from one to another. Another strange thing is that many of them are fervent followers of Morrisey and The Smiths; they now pretty much make up his fan base here in Southern California--but that is a whole other story.

Many skinheads are known as S.H.A.R.P.s, which stands for skinheads against racial prejudice. It is an actual organization,but many Skins who are not officially part of it identify themselves as such. This working class youth movement began in England in the 1960s and was originally an outgrowth of the mod movement. The skins were more or less the poorer mods who couldn't afford all the latest fashions than the more well off peacock-ish mods could and they tended to be from rougher backgrounds and thus more gang-oriented and prone to violence.

The Skins favored Dr.Marten steel-toe boots, straight-leg Levi jeans or Sta-prest trousers, button-down shirts, Fred Perry or Ben Sherman polo shirts and braces (aka, suspenders), and flight jackets or blazers. They were rabid fans of the Jamaican music they heard from their Caribbean immigrant neighbors: ska, rock steady and early reggae.

When reggae began slowing down the tempo of the music and started singing about Black Nationalism and Rastafarianism, the Skins could no longer relate to the music and thus their connection to Jamaican music ends by about the very early 70's. Their was a skinhead revival in the late 70's that was parallel to the punk movement and found Skins following certain harder edged street punk groups as well as forming the core fan base for the 2 Tone revival of ska in the late 70's-early 80's, a more uptemo, punk-infected take on the genre.

Bad Manners was one of these groups, though they never actually recorded for the 2 Tone label. They were a strictly-for-fun 9 piece ensemble who recorded ska-pop orginals as well as covers of old ska, reggae, 50's R&B and novelty songs. They were and continue to be led by Buster Bloodvessel, a bald, 300 + pound mountain of a man who liked to revel in his own girth and stick out his considerably large tongue a lot. Between 1980 and 1983 they amassed 12 chart hits and were seen as a lightweight alternative to some of the more earnest socio-political messages being articulated in song by The Specials, The Selecter, and The (English) Beat. When the ska craze in England died down, so too did Bad Manners popularity. They tried to move away from their ska roots and released a dreadful pop album on the Portrait label called "Mental Notes". That flopped and in the 20-odd years since they have been a cult act who have toured the world playing the old hits and r eleasing a string of forgettable ska-oriented albums and countless compilations, re-recordings and live albums.

Which leads us finally to the show itself. I arrive at he Knitting Factory's main room, which is a dark and fairly unremarkable performance space with a back bar and an upstairs balcony that is closed off for tonight. Buster (now the only remaining original member) is holding court near the bar: chatting with fans and taking photos with them. In every single photo op he sticks out his tongue. I have seen Bad Manners a couple times before, but that was up in the college town of Chico, California and it is now a good 15 years ago. Buster appears much shorter than I remember him, considerably less than six feet. What is really surprising is how much weight he has lost. He is much more svelte than he has even been in his life. I'm thinking he must of had gastro-bypass surgery.

Bad Manners take the stage at 10:30 to their traditional opener "Echo 4-2". Buster hits the stage and they proceed to move through the same set they have been playing for years. I think only a couple new songs are ever added to the format of hits and live favorites from the first four albums. A couple of things from their late 80's attempt at a serious comeback are now live staples, including "This is Ska", "Sally Brown" and "Skaville UK".

All seems to be going fine, when all of a sudden, the crowd starts moving in my direction and away from the front right-hand side of the stage. I look over and see two Mexican skins pummeling some white guy senseless. The music stops and security come over and grab the dazed victim, who is bleeding profusely from his lower lip, and start to escort him from the building. I am thinking that it will only be a moment before the guys administering the beating will get the same treatment. Nothing happens. The band start to play again and now one of the Mexican skins has taken his shirt off (for some reason,a classic tough guy move) that shows off his muscles and his 2 Tone man and English Beat girl tattoos. At this point you get the sense that he is not through kicking ass, and it takes just a few seconds before he starts attacking someone else in the crowd. The band stops again and security again make a feeble attempt to restore order. This mostly involves waving flashlights around . Once again they don't do anything to try and kick out the trouble makers.

Buster has left the stage momentarily, perhaps he is in discussion with the promoter over what is becoming of the show. He returns and make a plea for everyone to stop the violence and that what we need to do is show one another "luff". At least the guy is trying. He then strikes up the band to start playing a slow ska-reggae version of "Can't Keep My Eyes Off Of You", perhaps hoping the lilting lovers rock tune will mellow out the crowd. A white skinhead couple are dancing cheek-to-cheek right next to me when all of a sudden they are violently shoved by some other Mexican skin. They shove back and things seem to be unraveling quickly. At this rate,Ska-Reggae's message of racial unity may be forgotten pretty soon. I start sizing up which exit is closest and/or easiest to get to in case this thing blows wide open. I might be seen as a likely target for someone to get their Saturday night frustrations-jollies out on.

A Mexican skinhead girl (who looks like quite the bruiser, let me tell you) pushes her way through the crowd and wallops some other girl for no apparent reason. And in a unintentionally funny moment, Buster says from the stage, "That doesn't look like luff to me." No kidding, big man.

The security staff have had enough and I see one of them give to the finger over neck symbol to kill the show. The sound man gets on his mike and declares the show is over. Many people, including myself,are unhappy, but perhaps a little relieved too. This does not change the fact that we paid $20 and only got to see approximately half the show. People mill around not wanting to leave, while the security staff start waving their stupid flashlights around. People are screaming about refunds and a crowd gathers at the box office outside in a vain attempt to get their money back. That isn't going to happen any time soon, so I am out of there.

It is really sad that 95 or so people had their Saturday night ruined by the actions of maybe 5 morons. I abhor violence, but if it has to happen, then let it be for a reason. These idiots seemed hell bent on creating a violent confrontation just for kicks or as some stupid weekend ritual they go through all the time to prove how tough they are or as a temporary escape from their grim day-to-day lives. But now I'm being extremely speculative.

As I move east down Hollywood Boulevard, away from The Knitting Factory and that night's debacle, I see a couple of cop cars and an ambulance heading in the other direction. I'm pretty sure I know where they are headed.

Ghosts of Top Ten Lists Past

I was rummaging through some old boxes at my parent's house yesterday and I uncovered a list of top ten albums of the year that I had done in the mid-80's. These were the first and last top tens I did until 2000.

It is quite the time capsule of what I was into at the time. 85'-87' were pretty seminal years as far as my music fandom went. It may have been the peak of my music fan obsession. 80' and 81' were my Beatle years. 82'-83' had a lot of "new wave" like Elvis Costello,XTC, Talking Heads,Squeeze and Joe Jackson ;synth-pop (Heaven 17, Thomas Dolby and Thompson Twins, anyone?) ; new romantics (hello, ABC), Two-Tone (Specials, English Beat and Madness) and punk survivors like The Jam and The Clash. 1984 I started to embrace a lot of the rootsy American bands (Long Ryders, Three O'Clock, Dream Syndicate, Blasters,True West, Los Lobos,Green On Red, The Gun Club) that were making a name for themselves on college radio and starting to creep onto the fringes of the mainstream via modern rock stations like The Quake in San Francisco or KWOD in SacTown. British band like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Alarm, The Pogues and The Smiths figured highly in 84',too.

Concurrent with all of this, especially since about 84', was my interest in older music, "source music" as Guy Kyser once said. Through my buddy, Morgan Young, I learned all about the 60's American and British bands other than The Beatles, bands who became the backbone of my entire music collection and sensibility--though that other stuff I listened to is still a part of me too. On my own I investigated soul, funk, 50's rockers,rockabilly and some country.

Yet what is happening at the time is what you can actually experience first hand and so these lists document a time when I would obsessively follow these band and know everything about them I could (all that one could in the pre-internet stone-age),as if my life depended on it. I still love music, but it would never be quite the same again. I don't think it ever is once you are no longer a teenager.

Anyway, the lists are accurate I suppose. I am shocked that there is no Pogues on any of these lists (must of forgot them), as well as being baffled as to why Naked Prey made it twice; I don't remember much about those roots rocking dudes. No surprise to see my big four of that era all over these lists: Husker Du, The Replacements, R.E.M. and The Smiths.

Then, as is now, they are not the most cutting-edge lists you will ever see. They represent stuff that was maybe on the more popular and accessible side of what passed for "alternative" or "college radio" type music.More than half are on major labels. I can't pretend I was discovering the most obscure or hip bands back then or now. That said, these acts, with the exception of R.E.M., were hardly selling huge quantities of records. I guess my love of The Beatles has set me up for a lifetime of needing music that was catchy, hooky,song-driven. No matter the style, I think all of these records qualify as having that. Anyway, without further ado, here are those lists.

Top 10 1985

1) Husker Du- "Flip Your Wig"

2) Husker Du- "New Day Rising"

3) The Replacements- "Tim"

4) The Smiths-"Meat is Murder"

5) Green on Red- "Gas, Food, Lodging"

6) Shriekback- "Oil and Gold"

7) R.E.M.- "Fables of the Reconstruction"

8) Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers- "Rockin and Romance"

9) Billy Bragg- "Brewing Up With"

10) Camper Van Beethoven- "S/T"

Honorable mentions: XTC "Big Express"; Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper "S/T"; Jefferey Lee Pierce "Wildweed"; Jesus and Mary Chain "Psychocandy"; Channel 3 "Last Time I Drank", Talking Heads "Little Creatures".


Top 10 1986

1) Peter Case- "S/T"

2) Elvis Costello -"King of America"

3) Screaming Blue Messiahs- "Gun Shy"

4) Husker Du- "Candy Apple Grey"

5) R.E.M.- "Life's Rich Pagent"

6) The Cramps- "A Date with Elvis"

7) The Housemartins- "London 0 Hull 4"

8) Elvis Costello and the Attractions- "Blood and Chocolate" (In retrospect, should not be on this list)

9) The Smiths- "The Queen is Dead"

10) Naked Prey- "Under the Blue Marlin" (Still trying to figure out why they are here)

Honorable mentions: Billy Bragg "Talking with the Taxman About Poetry"; Let's Active "Big Plans for Everybody"; XTC "Skylarking"; The Redskins "Neither Washington Nor Moscow".


Top 10 1987

1) Husker Du- "Warehouse: Songs and Stories"

2) The Replacements- "Pleased To Meet Me"

3) The Meat Puppets- "Huevos"

4) R.E.M.- "Document" (This should not be on here either; first lame album of their career)

5) Warren Zevon - "Sentimental Hygiene" (He sticks out like a sore thumb. Great album despite the bloated 80's production)

6) Thin White Rope- "Moonhead" (Might seem like a nod to the hometown boys, but it really is a great album)

7) Dinosaur- "You're Living All Over Me" (Before they had to add the "Jr" to their name)

8) The Gun Club- "Mother Juno"

9) The Screaming Blue Messiahs- "Bikini Red"

10) Naked Prey- "40 Miles From Nowhere" (Again with these guys--why?)

Honorable mentions: Sonic Youth "Sister"; Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers "Modern Lovers 88' "; The Soup Dragons "Hang Ten".