Artist: Lazarus Track: “Stay With Me” Release: Stay With Me (7″) Year: 1965 Duration: 2:30
Steve McNicol is the pen behind this single. This is also the second version of the song he recorded, with the first one laid down by his previous group, The Rugbys. The Rugbys, featuring Glen Howerton on drums (no not that Glenn Howerton), released two singles in 1968, with “Stay With Me”. The B-side to “Stay With Me” ended up being The Rugbys biggest hit ever, “You, I”.
Before we learn about Steve, though, we should go back a bit further to a man named Shelby Sumpter Singleton. According to the Wikipedia page entry for The Rugbys, Shelby is partially (albeit heavily accused of being) responsible for the demise of the group and lack of success due to not conforming to the trending FM radio styles of the late 1960s. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but I get it. Shelby started out at Mercury Records doing promo and production work in the 1950s. By 1960, he had produced his first big hit, Brook Benton’s “The Boll Weevil Song”.
Shelby worked for Smash Records for 9 years, producing more minor hits, and then in 1962 purchased the master recording of “Hey Paula”. Releasing that single provided him even more clout in the music scene. Four years later, in 1966, he would resign from Mercury to form some of his own labels; including Plantation Records and Amazon Records. Plantation would release the smash single “Harper Valley P.T.A.” by Jeannie C. Riley. This move now made Shelby a big player in the industry. In 1969, Shelby bought Sun Records from Sam Phillips and began reissuing many of the old hits from that catalog throughout the 70s.
Elvis Presley was one of the most famous Sun artists and Shelby knew that. Shelby was the guy behind the infamous Orion, the masked Elvis lookalike claiming to be the King-reborn. Well, sort of claiming. People just drew those conclusions themselves and Shelby ran with it.
So now that we know who Shelby is, let’s dig in to “Stay With Me” a bit. This recording is the Lazarus version, which from what I can tell is not quite the same band as The Rugbys but must share some similar personnel. The re-recording is almost identical to the original one, other than the splash of acid that’s been laid over the top of it. The original has that mid-sixties garage band sound, and the later version is a bit more psyched out, which a guitar solo and horns added.
The B-side to “Stay With Me” is…”Stay With Me”. I cannot tell the difference between the two recordings, so I’ll assume they are the same track. According to Discogs, it is the same recording.
In 2007, Garage Hangover did a write up of The Rugbys that talked about their history as a band, starting out as The Oxfords. Rugbys/Lazarus lead guitarist and songwriter Steve McNicol actually dropped into the blog to respond and provide some more info. A handful of people close to him and the Louisville ’60s scene also dropped in to add to the thread. Steve died in 2018, but his niece added her thoughts on the group’s legacy to that same thread afterward.
In honor of McNicols and Shelby Singleton, let’s give “Stay With Me” one more spin. Thanks for reading!
Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s guns episode! Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re engrained in society and have been since their early conceptual days in China over a thousand years ago. Today we’re gonna talk about everything gun-related. Gun types, ammunition, gun laws, gun collectors, and more come up during the episode. We’re also going to raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer of The Clash toward the end of our show.
01:10 If you live in America in the 21st century then you are 100% aware of what a gun is. Many Americans love to reference their US Constitutional 2nd Amendment which states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.“
01:40 Much like the Bible, the Quran, and other outdated texts that are for some reason still referenced in this day and age, this amendment has words that are open to interpretation by the reader. Because of this, America fights over guns every single day, slogging through mass shooting after mass shooting just to send more thoughts and prayers and start the whole process over again. Unfortunately, also because of this, we have a full clip of songs about guns in the episode and had plenty to choose from.
02:10 Starting things off is The Rebel Spell with guns personified. “I Am A Rifle” speaks from the gun’s perspective and boy is it a harsh reality. Toddserious’ final lyric of the song gives me chills to hear and read. “I am a rifle, I am this blockade, I am the fire of a thousand murdered sons, I am resistance, I am your problem, I’m not leaving and I am your fault!” Extremely apt and on point. Sadly, Toddserious fell while rock climbing near Las Vegas in 2015 and died. What an unbelievably tragic end to something so hopeful. Propagandhi covered it in 2015 after Todd died, but here’s Todd and The Rebel Spell doing “I Am A Rifle”.
00:15 There’s definitely a market out there for people who love to look at scantily-clad women sporting an assault weapon. It reminds me of being a kid and seeing posters on garage walls of uncles who loved Harleys or that older brother character in 80s teen movies. Back then it seemed liked such a trucker/biker thing, but there’s nuance in fetish and clearly the concept attracted people all over the ideological spectrum. That was The Cramps doing “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns”.
00:40 The Lillingtons play that Ramones-core punk rock that other groups like Screeching Weasel, The Queers, The Riverdales, The Eyeliners, and Teenage Bottlerocket are known for. With simple lyrics, chords, and solos, the Wyoming punks pride themselves on simplicity. “Gunbullet” is a tune about a double agent who travels to West Iran to…mess up “their” plan.
01:10 Aussie punks The Chats play classic punk revival from down under. Their sound is nearly identical to the groups who first created it almost 30 years before The Chats were born. “The Kids Need Guns” references little Johnny and Petey; two American kids who shoot the kids at school after learning it from the TV. It sounds so unreal, yet it happens almost weekly in America.
01:40 One of those classic punk bands that has made an impact on The Chats was The Damned. A classic masterpiece in the punk scene, Machine Gun Etiquette. This album was harder and faster than their previous two records, perhaps due to having Lemmy Kilmister join Rat Scabies, Dave Vanian, and Captain Sensible in their offshoot effort Les Punks.
02:10 Coming up in our next set, we have some California skate punk paired up with Aussie and British garage acts. Leading off the set is the very first Rancid song I ever heard, “Gunshot”. Taken from Epitaph Records’ 1994 release Let’s Go, the track blasts out of a gun barrel with Lars Frederiksen’s hooky licks. Here’s Matt Freeman singing for the gang with “Gunshot”.
00:15 That songs gets dark fairly quickly. That’s kinda how Billy Childish writes, though. The legendary punker and painter has been kicking out music since the mid 1970s and has released well over 100 albums in that time. “The Gun In My Father’s Hand” was featured as the A-side to a double dad-hating single from 1996. The B-Side was titled “The Day I Beat My Father Up”. Given that Billy’s dad was thrown in jail for smuggling drugs, I’d imagine these are fairly autobiographical daddy ditties.
00:40 Straight Arrows played before that with the tune “Gun Man” from their 2018 album On Top!. The Sydney group recorded their debut album It’s Happening on “strictly 1950s equipment” according to their Bandcamp page. Something must be in the water down under, because the psych fuzz music they put out down there is unmatchable to the rest of the West.
01:10 Wild Smiles hail from Hampshire and slap their British take on surf fuzz with their 2014 album Always Tomorrow. The band’s sound has been described as a mix of the Beach Boys, the Velvet Underground, the Shoes, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Dinosaur Jr. Or, if you’d like to simplify that, surfgaze. Is that a thing? I mean its all under the psych umbrella anyway. “The Gun” from Always Tomorrow was sandwiched in the middle of this set.
01:40 Joey Cape and the SoCal skate punks Lagwagon dropped by for a cut from most-likely their best known album Let’s Talk About Feelings. The LP was released on Fat Wreck Chords in 1998. Original band drummer Derrick Plourde left the band after their 2nd album Hoss, but would go on to drum for Joey Cape’s other band Bad Astronaut up until Derrick’s suicide in 2005. According the Kris Roe of The Ataris, Derrick shot himself.
02:10 And on that note our next set is filled with songs about staying away from those damn hand cannons. Tijuana Panthers are here to proclaim that you not shoot your guns. In 2015, the group put out Max Baker, their 4th LP. They hail from SoCal and their spin of surf rock sounds like its been thrown through a wow and flutter K-hole and scooped back out with a can of Tecate. Maybe its their chord progression or writing style, but I dig it. Here’s “Don’t Shoot Your Guns” from the T-Panthers.
00:15 I can’t even imagine the weight, much less impact of a six barrel shotgun. A single barrel shotgun has enough kick to break weak shoulders, imagine that times six? Black Rebel Motorcycle Club hail from the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, one of a handful of Bay Area artists on the show today. “Six Barrel Shotgun” comes from their ’03 release Take Them On, On Your Own.
00:30 The indie oasis of Austin, Texas has been serving up amazing rock and roll since the early days with garage groups like Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs and the infamously dubbed first-ever psychedelic group; The 13th Floor Elevators. The Black Angels take some cues from the Elevators with their tripped out psych sound, although I don’t ever hear the jug making a psychedelic comeback anytime soon. Their cautionary tale “Don’t Play With Guns” was the only single released from their 2013 LP Indigo Meadow.
01:00 More Bay Area psych sounds played before that with John Dwyer and the gang playing “Dead Man’s Gun” from Thee Oh Sees’ 2016 LP A Weird Exits. That album, along with its companion EP An Odd Entrances, was the first for the band to feature dual drummers. At that point, they began experimenting with progressive rock style song structures and jams, with some songs lasting upwards of twenty minutes!
01:30 German band Suspect Parts played us a cut from their 2017 self-titled debut. Well, the re-release was self-titled. The first tour edition of the album was titled Run For Your Life. “Madmen With Guns” laments living in fear of being shot and in many parts of the Western world that reality is just that, reality. What really gets you thinking, is what is considered a “madman”.
01:50 Up next we’re gonna hear about a few types of guns. I could probably put together an entire playlist just on gun types with how many gun songs are out there. Let’s keep it basic today and stick to a few well-knowns. How about revolvers, pistols, shotguns and machine guns? In 1933, German playwright, poet and Nazi Hanns Johst wrote a play titled Schlageter that uttered the famous and very often misattributed line “When I hear the word culture, I release the safety on my Browning.” Gross. This line has been twisted up a bit over the years and often credited to other infamous Nazis. Case in point, in 1981 Clint Conley of Mission Of Burma wrote the next song and titled it “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”; a mistranslated version of the quote.
00:15 Casey Royer of DI and Adolescents fame wrote some complicated lyrics for the song “Guns”. It seems to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, calling out America’s love for guns and fear of them at the same time. Throw in a dash of libertarian-leave-me-alone and a few sprinkles of anti-authority and you have the makings of an essential 80s punk song. “Guns” was one of the first songs recorded by DI, released on their debut EP in 1983. You can find more DI on abp’s surfing and johnny episodes!
00:40 RMBLR formed out of the ashes of Atlanta glam punks The Heart Attacks. The Heart Attacks took cues from fellow Atlanta punks Black Lips and brought shock and awe to their stage presence, going for the typical rock and roll imagery and lifestyle. I mean, the lead singer’s name was Haircut. That was Chase Noles, who now goes by Chase Tail for RMBLRS. We heard “Machine Gun” from RMBLR’s 2021 self-titled EP.
01:10 Ty Segall side project Gøggs referenced the double barrel in their 2016 track “Shotgun Shooter”. Much like Suspect Parts’ tune from earlier, this song discusses the fear of being shot by someone on a rampage. Gøggs is comprised of Ty, Charles Mootheart, and Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult. We’ll hear more from Ty a bit later.
01:30 Kings of Leon’s first two LPs stand tall in the garage rock revival days of the early ought’s. Garage punk would eventually take over toward the end of the decade, but bands like Kings, White Stripes, Strokes, etc. paved the way for the return of rock and roll to the mainstream. Apparently, the band hadn’t fully formed or learned all their instruments by the time they were offered a record deal. So they locked themselves in a basement with an ounce of grass and practiced until they were ready. We heard “Pistol of Fire” from their 2nd album Aha Shake Heartbreak.
02:00 LA hardcore punk band The Bronx is up next with “Guns Without Bullets” from their self-titled debut; the first of 5 self-titled albums. The Bronx also performs as a mariachi style band as Mariachi El Bronx and has released 3 full lengths under the pseudonym. Guns would be nothing without the ammo inside. Let’s take a stroll down the bullet-vard and see what we can find.
00:15 You may have recognized that tune if you’re a big Clash fan. And if you are a big Clash fan, you’ll like the next set! “Washington Bullets” is an anti-war song written by Joe Strummer that drums up the horrible history of US foreign policy. I’ll give you a hint, it isn’t a peaceful history and bullets were almost always present. Strummer claimed he had never heard of the NBA team of the same name, however they won the NBA championship in 1978, just two years before the song’s release. I have to imagine he subconsciously saw it on a newspaper or something, or else its just a coincidence. I mean why would they name the team that?
00:40 UK band Franz Ferdinand took their name from the historical figure of the same name, the Archduke of Austria. Historians have pretty much agreed that Franz Ferdinand’s assassination was the most immediate cause for World War I. Was it poison? Was it a bombing? The assassins tried the latter earlier in the morning that Franz was killed, but failed. So instead, you guessed it, Franz and his wife were shot point blank while riding in their car. Killed by a bullet, the title of the Franz Ferdinand track played.
00:55 Ty Segall crooned about being abused in “Bullet Proof Nothing” before Franz’s tune. I honestly cannot tell if he is sincerely asking to be treated like dirt in some sort of sadomasochistic way, or if he’s speaking tongue-in-cheek about having a bad relationship full of abuse. “I’m a bullet proof nothing to you, point blank target to your ways of abuse.” The cut comes from the Caesar single.
01:15 Brody Dalle and The Distillers were everywhere in the pop punk craze of the early ought’s. She famously hooked up with (at a very young and concerning age of 17) Tim Armstrong who helped launch her to stardom. Tim’s been accused of grooming Brody during their relationship, to the point that the man she left him for, Josh Homme, has threatened his life. Oddly enough, Brody would go on to marry Josh and have 3 children with him, but divorced him in 2019 citing domestic violence and drug/alcohol abuse. During court proceedings over their competing domestic violence restraining orders in January 2022, Dalle testified that Homme headbutted her so hard she “saw stars” and said he fantasized about murdering her. She was also fined and sentenced to community service a month prior for not honoring court ordered custody time for Josh and the children.
01:40 Although Tim’s allegedly made some very questionable decisions in his past, he has also put out some pretty good music. Its no secret that his favorite band is The Clash, and that was very evident in the late 90s reggae/dub phase of Rancid’s music. If you liked that “Washington Bullets” cover, you’ll like the next set. Here comes two gun cuts from Give ‘Em Enough Rope, followed by a couple of Clash-adjacent songs and a chill ending.
00:15 I seriously considered a cover for that, but the original is just untouchable. The guitar tone, the eerie vibe, the Tarantino connection; it had to be the OG. Nancy was partnered up with Lee Hazlewood in the early 1960s at the request of her father Frank Sinatra. Lee was a hip new producer who had scored a hit with Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser”, one of the most famous guitar instrumentals in rock history. That came out in 1958, and in 1959 Lee would produce Duane again for his Especially For You LP, which featured Duane’s cover of “Peter Gunn”, the tune you hear now in the background.
00:40 Prior to Nancy was The Crickets with a very famous rebel tune. After Buddy Holly died, The Crickets pushed on and brought in new singer Earl Sinks to help them put out another LP. In Style With The Crickets was moderately successful, led by a handful of singles. I’d have to argue that “I Fought The Law” was ultimately the most successful song off the album, though. It may not have sold a lot, but its legacy is cemented in rock and roll history. The Clash covered it on their 1979 EP The Cost Of Living, released just 6 months after Give ‘Em Enough Rope.
01:10 Dropkick Murphys played their punk cover of the Clash’s “Guns Of Brixton”. The original version was sampled in 2004 by Cypress Hill for their song “What’s Your Number?“. It featured Tim Armstrong on guitar. Tim also can be heard shouting the title of Rancid’s 1994 album Let’s Go throughout the song. The Murphys cover comes from a 1998 split EP with Anti-Heros.
01:40 The Clash played a couple of gun songs to kick off the set; both from their sophomore album. The first was “Guns On The Roof”, a tune partially inspired by Topper Headon and Mick Jones shooting air-soft guns at racing pigeons on the roof of their rehearsal building and getting arrested. Most of the song, though, is about how controlled the world is by the gun. Live by the gun, die by the gun, I guess.
02:10 The second gun song was “Tommy Gun”. Big shocker here, but this one was also anti-gun. Its notable that drummer Topper Headon plays the snare like the sound of a tommy gun in many parts of the song. This was also done in “I Fought The Law”, with the line “robbin’ people with a six/zip gun” playing over a snare that hits six times.
02:20And on that note, we must return the safety switch to the Browning. As difficult as it was at times, its been a real pleasure discussing the tools of death today, and I hope you had fun! Remember kids…don’t play with guns…don’t play with guns….
Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s space episode where intergalactic planetary audio comes flying towards your ears at the speed of light! Today we celebrate the great unknown, the dark skies above, our galaxy and every other one beyond it. We’re all about space today. Not necessarily that kind of space you need for safety or from others, but the space that exists beyond Earth’s atmosphere. We’ll talk about John Dwyer, Dirtnap Records, Ramones-core, blink 182, and a bunch of other interstellar stuff.
01:10 There seems to be a common draw amongst surf, garage, and punk rock songwriters that compels them to scribe about the stars. There’s a lot out there, and the unknown provides unlimited possibilities of storytelling.
01:40 I suppose I could venture a guess that isolation, loneliness, and the feeling of unwelcome might contribute to a writer’s ideas of leaving this planet. Maybe someone out there understands me, they think. Or maybe the thought of what could be out there is just so appetizing that it deserves a song. Space is that great unknown that we can actually see and hope to get to, leaving the imagination to run wild with possibilities.
02:10 One of the most common tropes in a space song is finding your interplanetary love interest out there in the stars. Let’s dig into a few songs about that very topic. Starting things off is the London power pop group The Only Ones. Their debut LP, released in 1978, included their biggest ever song “Another Girl, Another Planet”; a tune written about being in love on another planet. The Replacements famously covered this song, as well as blink 182 for the reality TV show Meet The Barkers. Here’s the original, though.
00:15 Much like The Only Ones space tune, The Riverdales wrote about being in love on another planet. Sometimes it can feel that way, I suppose, when you find that one person in the world who gets you. The Riverdales were a musical outlet for Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel when the band first broke up. They would serve as the band that Ben played and recorded with whenever SW wasn’t active. We heard “Stranded In Space” from their 2010 LP Tarantula.
00:40 The Riverdales first gained national notoriety when they opened for Green Day during their 1995 tour. Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong co-produced The Riverdales debut album. It was released on Lookout! Records, the same label that released Green Day’s Kerplunk! just a few years prior. “2000 Light Years Away” is Billie Joe’s ode to his future wife Adrienne, who lived in Minneapolis at the time while he was in Berkeley.
01:10 Brief Candles dropped in for a shoegaze, spaced-out cover of A Flock Of Seagulls’ “Space Age Love Song”. The band scoops their name up from an old track by The Zombies and is based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The mix on this brings the vocals to the background, but its a beautiful rendition nonetheless.
01:40 Before Brief Candles, we heard the legendary Zolar X. Zolar X was an alien band from another planet based out of LA in the early 70s. Zolar were early frontrunners in the glam scene in LA, playing Rodney’s English Disco and landing a residency at the Troubador. They only recorded one official single, of which ten copies were pressed in 1974. Jello Biafra is a fan, though, and in 2004 helped reissue a deluxe edition of their 1982 Timeless compilation.
02:10 We’ll talk more about Jello a bit later. Coming up next is a set about one of the most mysterious, yet well studying phenomenon; black holes. You know, those things in space that would suck you into another dimension or time? A collapsed supernova? First up is “Black Hole, Weirdo Shrine” from La Luz. La Luz had to cancel their spring 2022 tour due to the diagnosis of cancer in lead singer Shana Cleveland, but were back playing shows by June. Here’s the quasi-title track produced by Ty Segall from their 2015 LP Weirdo Shrine.
00:15 I wonder if any of The Lillingtons claim to have seen UFOs in that vast Wyoming night sky. More Ramones-core came to us out of the Equality State, with Kody and the gang doing “Black Hole In My Mind”.
00:40 Greg Cartwright and Oblivians dropped in for a blast from their 1995 EP Six Of The Best. “Big Black Hole” was one of a group of songs from two EPs that Oblivians recorded for Sympathy For The Record Industry that year, which were rereleased in 1996 as Sympathy Sessions. Due to the sexual nature of the cover art on both releases, I am questioning the subject matter of this big black hole song.
01:10 Kyle Thomas played us a King Tuff track called “Black Holes In Stereo” from his third LP Black Moon Spell. Kyle plays in Ty Segall’s band The Muggers, and Ty played drums on this albums opening title track. Bobby Harlow of Detroit band The Go, which featured Jack White early on, produced the album. The tune is an homage to the endlessness of the record world, with the vinyl disc on your turntable representing the black hole for you to get lost in.
01:40 Straight outta Russia, now. The Meantraitors were Russia’s first psychobilly band, well at least that’s what they claim. The vocals of singer Stas Bogorod stand out amongst other psychobilly bands, incorporating a Geddy Lee-like wail to the style. Their debut LP From Psychobilly Land remains their best known, and the band re-recorded “Black Hole” in 2022 with Stas singing down a pitch or two.
02:10 “Black Hole Sun….won’t you come….”. What a cool surf cover going on behind us now with a cut from the Fujiyama Monsters. Coming up next is a set about planets, some of them located right here in our Milky Way galaxy, in the “Solar System”. Riverdales guitarist Dan Vapid is about to re-educate us on the planets of our solar system with a song titled exactly that.
00:15 The cartoon imagery of blasting off to Pluto on a rocket is so great. Picture Ronald Reagan in a cosmonaut suit. Why not? Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys had already stopped playing shows and were on the verge of a split by the time Bedtime For Democracy came out. Jello and the band still haven’t made amends, but the rest of the members still flaunt the DK name in order to land gigs. Jello forever, though. We heard “One Way Ticket To Pluto” from them.
00:30 More 80s punk legends played before DK with the Misfits’ “Teenager From Mars”. There are a handful of versions of this track, with it being recorded multiple times during the late 70s/early 80s messy years of the Misfits discography. That bands has one of the most complicated release catalogs in existence. To make things mildly simple, we played the version first recorded for their Static Age LP, which was scrapped upon initial recording and not released until 1997.
0:50 The Oh Sees are fans of 80s punk, as is evidenced not only by their sound on certain tracks but also by their live covers. The band covered 4 Black Flag tunes in 4 minutes during their 2020 pandemic album Live In Big Sur 2020 Henry Miller Memorial Library. Along with King Gizzard and Ty Segall, The Oh Sees have become the 21st century’s most prolific rockers, releasing over 20 albums in this century alone. Thank you John Dwyer.
01:20 Minneapolis’ Scrunchies tore through the set with their 2022 track “No Home Planet”. The cut comes from the groups sophomore release Feral Coast, out on Portland’s Dirtnap Records. Scrunchies shared members with Twin Cities punk group Kitten Forever, whom opened for Peach Kelli Pop in 2018. However, in June 2022, Kitten Forever called it quits. Ideally, that would leave more time for singer Laura Larson to continue with Scrunchies…
01:40 Alright well now we’re going to get weird with it. Mysterious, rather. Let’s talk about things in the sky and what is out there. The “truth is out there” according to The X-Files. We’re all about UFOs in this next set. Kicking it off is more Ramones-core from Chicago. Ben Weasel (Foster) reformed Screeching Weasel as soon as possible following an incident at 2011 SXSW where he got into an altercation with a female fan and club owner. The rest of the band quit after that, but Ben chugged on and stated “Screeching Weasel is never breaking up again. The band dies when I do.” Here’s Ben discussing his personal beliefs with “I Believe In UFOs”.
00:15 Oh Sees frontman John Dwyer originally had all of his different sounds separated by bands. OCS was his psych folk outfit, Zeigenbock Kopf was his electronic/noise psych outfit, Damaged Bug was his electronic/experimental outfit, Coachwhips was his noise punk outfit, etc. At this point, most of those sounds run through Osees as a spectrum of genres channeled through one band. But in 2002, Coachwhips was stomping out noise punk better than anyone. Ty Segall took notice and replicated it in his own way, landing him where he his today. We just heard “UFO, Please Take Her Home” from Coachwhips.
00:40 Nobody does Ramones-core better than…the Ramones. Although some of their later albums might suggest otherwise. Might. 1989’s Brain Drain was the last Ramones album with Dee Dee, because he left to be a rapper. Yes, that happened. Check out his Dee Dee King record some time, if you dare. Brain Drain does have some of the band’s bigger hits, though. “Pet Sematary” was their biggest selling single ever, and the album closer “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)” has gained a large audience over the years. We heard “Zero Zero UFO” from that LP.
01:10 Moving West from New York City over to St. Paul, we heard a cut from Hüsker Dü. “Books About UFOs” is a bouncy little piano-laden punk ditty about a woman Grant Hart knows who is obsessed with space. Or maybe she isn’t even real and is just the subject of this little story. Either way, she’s just sittin’ in her room reading books about UFOs.
01:40 Wimps are Seattle’s best nerd punks. They’re not even that nerdy, but their vibe sort of is, and its amazing. They play punk tunes with odd chord changes, stops, and unique subject matter within the lyrics. Lead singer Rachel Rattner has the ability to channel the mundane, the under-thought-about day to day subjects like naps, work, frustration, food, and wet boxes. We heard “UFO” from their 2013 debut LP Repeat on Kill Rock Stars.
02:10 Up next is more little green men subject matter. Before UFOs were given an official title, the mid 20th century space craze had dubbed them “flying saucers”. Tell me, do you have any saucers in your kitchen these days? Who uses a saucer anymore? Anyway, we’ve moved on to a more scientific term. The Rezillos didn’t, though, and are here to tell us about when the little men from Venus and Mars came to visit.
00:15 That was The Spits with a song from The Spits. Which one you might ask? 3. The Spits albums are all self titled, but they don’t use that gimmicky color crap that Weezer is obsessed with. Its like they took a joke and just kept using it for some reason. The 3rd Spits album was released on Portland’s Dirtnap Records and features the cut “Space Guitar”.
00:40 Before The Spits, The Aquadolls dropped in for some mermaid rock and roll. The garage/surf trio from SoCal put out Stoked On You in 2013 with the LP released by Burger Records. One of the first songs on their Bandcamp page is called “I’m Your Burger Dream Girl” and oh my goodness does that song hit differently after the whole Burger Records sexual abuse and grooming fiasco. I highly doubt anyone would write that song these days, but maybe? Despite all the terrible shit, there was some great music put out by that label. We heard “Big Headed Alien” by The Aquadolls.
01:10 Maybe Tesla does the Astro? Jack White wrote the lyrics to “Astro” just before the band recorded it. It was initially an intrumental jam, but Jack decided to write it like a dance craze song from the 50s and 60s. See “Mashed Potato” or “The Twist”. The “Astro” is what you do in secret; like space gaze or read books about UFOs. Jack played with Bobby Harlow in The Go during this time, too. The song comes from the White Stripes’ debut 1999 self titled LP, produced by Jim Diamond of The Dirtbombs.
01:40 Billy Lee Riley recorded “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll” in 1957 in Memphis for Sun Records. It was a hit, but nothing like his next song; “Red Hot”. “Red Hot” was climbing fast and about to make him a star, but then came Jerry Lee Lewis and his “Great Balls Of Fire”. There just wasn’t enough room at Sun Records for two men with hit singles about hot elements. Sun focused on promoting Jerry Lee, and Billy Lee faded away. Both songs made a comeback in the late 70s when Robert Gordon and Link Wray covered them.
02:10 Speaking of cover songs…how about we play a couple? First up is the first punk cover I ever heard. Back then, it was a mislabeled Limewire mp3 file titled “blink182-rocketman.mp3” that I had downloaded with the hopes of learning about more blink 182 songs. Instead I got a computer virus and this banger. My world was changed immediately and my fascination with punk covers lives on today. I mean, punk bands have been covering songs since Day 1. The Clash, anyone? Here’s Me First And The Gimme Gimmes doing Elton John’s “Rocket Man” from their 1997 debut LP Have A Ball.
00:15 Earth below us. Drifting, falling. Floating, weightless. Calling, calling home. We all know the melody, but only a handful of us understand what the Travoltas were singing about there. That was “Major Tom”, the song not written by David Bowie but totally taking place in the Bowie universe. Major Tom was the character in “Space Oddity” communicating back and forth between him and ground control. Peter Schilling took the character and placed him into a new space-themed track in the Reagan era, and then the Travoltas covered that song.
00:40 One of Ronald Reagan’s noteworthy policies was the creation of Star Wars. No, not the movie franchise. The Cold War heightened people’s nuclear missile panic to an all time high, and Ron didn’t like the idea of mutually assured destruction. So, he created this stupid ass named program to fund more military endeavors in the name of fear. Nevertheless, this tune references the real Star Wars. Mark Hoppus laments his love for Princess Leia in the 1997 blink 182 track “A New Hope”.
01:10 The Mugwumps hail from Wyoming and are possibly the least known group on the setlist today. In fact, I only discovered them through Teenage Bottlerocket’s Stealing The Covers album. The fellow Wyomingites, Wyomingans, Wyomingos, or whatever they’re called put out an album of cover tunes in 2017 that featured some very unknown tunes to the mainstream world. They gave the songs a whole new light and thankfully introduced us to a grip of other bands that rock that Ramones-core sound. The Mugwumps played us “Alien Motion Technology” from their 2007 LP Banana Brain.
01:40 More Lookout! Records punk rock bounced through the skull with Groovie Ghoulies’ “50,000 Spaceships”. The band held a perfect niche in the punk world for nearly 40 years, channeling pulp comics, classic horror and sci-fi, and adding in a splash of 60s bubblegum pop. The Ghoulies ended when founders Kepi and Roach, who were married since the start of the group, divorced in 2007.
02:10 And on that note, we’re blasting off! Its been a real pleasure spending time and space with you all today and I hope you enjoyed our galactic jams. Live long and prosper. May the force be with you. To infinity….and beyond!
Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s holiday episode! Today we get festive with the holiday cheer, scrooge-y with holiday grumps, and green with holiday envy. Holly and envy, what a Christmas combination! You can find a holiday playlist just about anywhere these days, with many of them featuring the classics we’ve all grown to love. Today on abp, we are venturing into unknown territory. Sure, you’ll hear a classic or two, or maybe a cover of one, but most of these songs are a bit more rare for this time of year, even though this time of year is the entire reason they were recorded!
01:10 There’s an unsurprisingly large amount of holiday punk and garage rock songs out there, and it was quite the challenge to limit this set to 30. Some topics are just more prevalent in rock and roll. A quick search on Spotify or Apple Music returns countless compilations of Christmas cookery, some of them legit releases and many of them fake playlists disguised as a formal release.
01:40 I suppose the reason for so many weird playlists or mixes is because many, many artists record and put out a Christmas song as a single or B-side only to stow it away for the rest of their years. Some recorded them as jokes or gags, some did it to fulfil contractual obligations, some just wanted to party by the punchbowl. Today, we get to dig into some of those obscure ones.
02:10 Many of you might recognize the song playing in the background. That’s the Black Flamingos covering John Williams’ brilliant Home Alone score track “The House”. The introduction song to the movie, Home Alone. Coming up and starting off our fun today, is one of the punk rock Christmas classics you hope to hear this time of year. Gwen Stefani and No Doubt covered this for the popular A VerySpecial Christmas series in 1997; just over a year after bringing The Vandals on tour with them as an opener. Yes, The Vandals opened for No Doubt. Here’s the story of Haji and Trevor, a turban-wearing punker and a skinhead, respectively, duking it out with a scimitar and num-chuks only to have Haji stop Trevor’s bleeding with his turban and for them both to have whiskey in the pub below. “Oi to the punks, oi to the skins, oi to the world and everyone wins…”
Set 1: He Goes By The Name Jesus And Steals Hubcaps From Cars…
00:15 What a classic! One of the oldest punk covers in existence also happens to be a Christmas song. Sounds about right. The Dickies share The Vandals’ knack for comedy and rock and roll with their jokey lyrics and superbly designed band logo. while also hailing from Southern California. I’d say The Dickies basically started the trend of the “punk cover”. Their debut featured covers of Black Sabbath and Barry McGuire songs along with their first few singles all being covers, including the one we just heard; “Silent Night”.
00:40 The Humpers jumped in to cover Chuck Berry’s smash hit “Run, Rudolph, Run”. They and many others stylize it as “Run, Run Rudolph”, though. Chuck put out the single in 1958 and it peaked at number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2019, 62 years later, it hit number 45 on the same chart, setting a record for the largest gap between charting instances. The Humpers’ version came from the 1993 10″ Christmas punk rock compilation Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus.
01:10 Before that, we heard another Chuck Berry Christmas song. Chuck’s “Christmas” is a slower jam than its menacing holiday predecessor “Run, Run Rudolph”, but that song doesn’t reference spinning records with cocaine and cake! “Christmas” comes from Chuck’s 1970 blues rock album Back Home. a reference to his return to Chess Records after a few albums on Mercury.
01:40 One of the earliest psychedelic groups to form, The Blues Magoos started in NYC in 1964 as The Trenchcoats. After a couple years of lineup changes and name shifts, the band put out their debut album Psychedelic Lollipop in 1967. The album featured their lone hit “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet”, which in my opinion is basically Ricky Nelson’s “Summertime” cover dripping in brown acid. The following year, the Magoos put out a Christmas single “Jingle Bells” with the B-side “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”.
02:10 Up next is a song that celebrates the holiday many of us choose to observe this season for an excuse to air our grievances at one another. “I gotta lotta problems with you people, and now, you’re gonna hear about it!”. Its hard to find information on Pondicherry Bomb other than a little on their Bandcamp and some random Youtube videos. What I do know, though, is that they hail from Paris, France, play some cool surf/garage rock sounds, and put out an EP in 2015 called The Ginger. This one’s from a standalone single though in 2017, Festivus.
00:15 Pointed Sticks hail from the land of Nardwuar; Vancouver, BC. They were originally active in the late 70s/early 80s, but reformed in the 21st century to continue the magic. They released their debut self-titled in 1980 along with a handful of singles around that time before splitting and reuniting in 2006. In 2012, they put out a Christmas single which included the power pop tune “Xmas Time Again”.
00:40 Vancouver is also home to the garage rock band Dead Ghosts. In 2011, Light Organ Records released a holiday sampler with some exclusive recordings on it from their then-lineup, including the lofi jangle “Christmas Time” from the Canadian foursome.
01:10 The original Irving Berlin-penned, Bing Crosby tune “White Christmas” is the highest selling single of all time with an estimated 50 million copies exchanged for dough. If you look up the most covered songs of all time, “White Christmas” lands at number 11 with 200+ covers. I wonder if they counted this version by Bad Religion?
01:40 The Soaks hail from SoCal, just like Bad Religion, although a bit further south down the coast. The San Diego trio channels their band’s region and fits in well amongst the waves. Their version of “Deck The Halls” alters the vocal melody while holding to the chords and it makes for a delightful holiday delicacy.
02:10 In our next set, we talk about the man…or creature…in red. The US basically bastardized what is now known as Santa Claus, with that exact term first being printed in the Rivington’s Gazette out of NYC, December of 1773. Of course, the legend and mythology behind Santa goes back many hundreds of years, to either Saint Nicholas of the 4th century Greeks bringing dowries to poor Christians, or even more recent to the merging of Father Christmas, Sinterklaas, and other European versions of the frequent flyer. Let’s start off with giving him the rock and roll treatment, though. Here’s “Rock And Roll Santa” from The 5.6.7.8’s.
00:15 Lord Douglas Byron was the frontman for The Continentals (out of LA) in 1962. There are only two known singles recorded by him and the group, with Byron dropping the band’s name from the second release – “Surfin’ Santa”. The end of the tune sounds very similar to “Alley Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles, produced by Gary Paxton. Paxton is credited with producing this one too. I think he was on to something.
00:40 Much like Gary, Bob Morrison was a songwriter based our of LA in the late 60s who eventually moved on to country music in the ’70s. His most famous pen might be “Lookin’ For Love” by Johnny Lee from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. Back in 1965, he recorded a few singles for Columbia Records, including the novelty tune “Santa Mouse”.
01:10 “Father Christmas” is not only a bigger hit in England, but there are still many, many Americans who have no idea who Father Christmas is. The Kinks’ Ray Davies wrote the tune about a Mall Santa getting accosted after putting on such a joyful face for all the little girls and boys. The song has punk elements to it, which is probably why its been covered by numerous punk bands, such as Bad Religion.
01:40 The Woggles released a benefit album in 2019 for Jeff Walls, aka The Flesh Hammer, one of their founding members. Jeff died of a rare pulmonary disease in May of that year. The band features The Mighty Manfred, a regular DJ on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. The benefit is a compilation of earlier recordings, including one from their 2014 Christmas single Santa’s Coming, which we just heard.
02:10 Alright, continuing on with the surf theme, let’s kick of the next set with one of the pioneering surf groups, The Surfaris. Perhaps thrown in the the hat with other surf rock legends like the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, The Surfaris reign supreme due to their early play in the game, and also due to one of the most iconic drum solos in music from “Wipe Out”. This track, though, comes from a single released a few months after “Wipe Out”, their Christmas single “A Surfer’s Christmas List”. Santa, can you please just bring him some baggies and a customized woody?
00:15 Thee Wild Billy Childish is heard at the beginning of that last track, a cover of The Sonics’ “Santa Claus” done by Billy’s all-women protégé band Thee Headcoatees. Originally performing as The Delmonas, once Holly Golightly joined them for a cameo, Billy renamed them and they began their own storied career. More from Holly later.
00:40 Can we even really be sure that Santa doesn’t have a mullet? I think Nerf Herder makes a strong point here. Comes from the land of ice (hockey), always wears a hat with long flowing white locks out the back, has friends named Rudy, Don, Blitz, etc. What a great tune from their ultra rare holiday EP Hi-Voltage Christmas Rock from 2002.
01:10 More SoCal rock played before that with California coastal advocates Best Coast. Named as such to match Bethany Constantino’s initials, but also to plug the west coast as the best. They channeled their surf-rock ancestors the Beach Boys with a cover of “Little Saint Nick”, taken from an Amazon exclusive holiday playlist in 2019.
01:40 Before Best Coast, we played more surfin’ Santa satire from, you guessed it, Southern California. I heard they like to surf there. The Turtles were out of LA and hit it big with “Happy Together” but not before recording a few LPs and singles for White Whale. One of those singles, “Santa And The Sidewalk Surfer” wasn’t released officially until their 1974 compilation LP Happy Together Again.
02:10 While many of us who celebrate this time of year want nothing but a perfect, snowy white day with everything going our way, that almost never happens. In our next set, we hear about some holiday mishaps and non-ideal conditions to celebrate. Perhaps one of the most famous holiday mishaps, is the story of Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer. You know, the reindeer whose nose glowed red and lighted the way for Santa’s sleigh? Totally logical. Here’s the Galaxies out of the Pacific Northwest USA from the Merry Christmas garage rock compilation in 1965 singing about that magical flying hooved creature.
00:15 There’s spending Christmas alone, and then there’s spending Christmas alone on a cot in a tent in a warzone. The Black Lips’ “Christmas In Baghdad” is one of the most depressing holiday songs around with lyrics pining over wanting to go home and not end up dead, face-down in the sand. Too real, man. To all those soldiers stuck somewhere during the holidays, even if you want to be there, this ones for you.
00:40 Tommy James & The Shondells were riding high in 1968 after their titular single “Mony Mony” hit the airwaves. Their album of the same name reached #193 on the Billboard 200, and when the next LP was due to be released, the first single, “Do Something To Me” featured the B-side “Gingerbread Man”, which was actually taken from Mony Mony.
01:10 Another sixties garage staple played prior to that with Paul Revere And The Raiders doing “Rain, Sleet, Snow”. The group was waning in popularity by 1967 with the tide changing toward a more psychedelic sound than the standard pop rock. So, naturally, the band turned up the fuzz and wah and made a Christmas album. It works though!
01:40 Holly Golightly covered a lesser-known songwriter’s ode to a burning evergreen. Tom Heinl, the Eugene, Oregon based musician wrote “Christmas Tree On Fire” for his 2003 album With Or Without Me. The album also featured a second round of every song after the final track, with the vocals removed. Tom called the “Stereoke” tracks and was hoping you’d sing along. Holly released her cover as a standalone single in 2006.
02:10 Alright, Christmas night is fast approaching and we’ve got one more set to go. Up next are some real classic holiday songs out of the punk world. blink-182 took their sound in a new direction after reforming and adding Tom Delonge-replacement Matt Skiba to the lineup. Their early records still stand with the best 90s skate punk, though. In 1997, just after releasing Dude Ranch, the band recorded “I Won’t Be Home For Christmas” for KROQ’s annual holiday concert/party. This was one of the last recordings to feature their original drummer Scott Raynor. Scott, this one’s for you, sir. Here’s Mark, Tom, and Scott doing their holiday jam.
00:15 That song was destined for greatness the moment it hit the airwaves on December 9th, 2000. Saturday Night Live premiered their Season’s Greeting bit with an original tune performed by Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, and Tracy Morgan. The song was catchy. So catchy, that fellow NYC native Julian Casablancas of The Strokes recorded this version for a standalone single to his solo album 9 years later.
00:40 More NYC holiday rock before that with The Ramones doing their famous holiday tune “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)”. The song’s been covered by Bowling For Soup, Mattiel, Asobi Seksu, and even Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul. Yep, that Little Steven! It also proclaims a great message. Maybe just for one night, we don’t have to fight.
01:10 Though inspired by The Ramones, Shonen Knife totally outlasted them as a punk band. The Japanese all-women trio formed in 1981 and found notoriety in America due to Kurt Cobain putting their debut tape on his “Top 50 by Nirvana” list found in his autobiography. Well, that came later, they actually opened for Nirvana on their 1991 Nevermind tour and thought the Seattle trio looked scary and very grunge. Ha! We heard “Sweet Christmas”, a single from 2007.
01:40 From the Big Apple over to the Windy City, Sass Dragons hail from the Midwest’s largest metropolis, Chicago. The punk trio contributed their 2007 song “Every Day Is Christmas” from their Snacking For Sissies split to the Chicago-based band comp Half-Assed Chicago on Johann’s Face Records.
02:10 Well that brings us to the end of the episode. I hope you enjoyed some of these tracks and facts and welcome you to join abp again next time! Now go open that “Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis” and learn about how she got pregnant…or didn’t.
Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s zombie episode! Today we are going to dig up from the dirt and claw our way out of our graves. Today is all about zombies! The Wikipedia definition of a what makes a zombie is a fictional undeadcorporealrevenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. So, walking dead.
01:10 Zombies have become apart of normal culture now, with more and more movies and artistic works putting their own new twist on the old idea of reanimation. These days, you might find zombies spawning in other ways such as carriers, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, scientific accidents, etc.
01:40 Zombies go well with rock and roll. They’ve been written about musically since the 60s and have always had that dark side vibe to them. Really though, they’re just shuffling bags of rotten meat meandering through the night looking for brains. The horror punk genre will be represented well today.
02:10 The Creepshow have cycled through three singers over their years, starting with Jen “Hellcat” Blackwood. Jen contribtued to the band’s debut album and recorded a music video for “Zombies Ate Her Brain”, but would ultimately leave the group after getting pregnant and starting a family. Those pesky kiddos. The group then brought on Sarah “Sin” Blackwood for a few albums before shifting to Kenda Legaspi. Here’s Jen singing that first single.
00:15 I’d like to think of that one as theme song to today’s themed episode. Well, that’s the song I quoted in the playlist artwork. The Lillingtons ask if we’ve “all turned into zombies” in their 2006 tune “Zombie”. The band has been churning out tight, three chord punk rock since the mid 90s, with lead singer Kody Templeton fueling the fight. Kody also sings and plays for Teenage Bottlerocket; Wyoming’s other punk band. Just kidding, I’m sure there are dozens of them…
00:40 Uttering the words Hawaii and punk will likely spark a conversation about The Quintessentials, Hawaii’s most famous horror punk group. Of course, “most famous” is relative and opinion-based, but you get the point. Led by Les Hernandez, the group churned out five albums since their inception. “Zombie Girl” comes from their 3rd LP, 2005’s Legends From The Grave.
01:10 Riot Squad were a punk band out of Mansfield, UK that formed in the early 80s. After forming, a few of the members started Rot Records to release their music along with other local punk acts. In 1984, they put out the compilation Two Ninety Nine, a collection of UK bands. Sick Vicars landed two songs on the comp and we heard “Zombie Nay-shun” from them.
01:40 The Brains are a Canadian psychobilly band led by Rene De La Muerte Garcia. After 18 years and a solid seven albums leading The Brains, Rene was tapped by scene legend Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman to play drums for them. Kim is famous for playing a standup bass shaped like a coffin. We heard “Zombie Nation”, the title track from The Brains’ 2010 LP.
02:10 Coming up next is a zombie jamboree dance fest! Mark Sultan and King Khan put out What’s For Dinner? in 2006 as The King Khan & BBQ Show. The duo channels retro sounds in all walks of their music, be it funk, soul, garage, or punk, and mixes in their own new flavors. With “Zombies”, you get that punk attitude chugging along in a very militant way accompanied by a lamenting for being alone. Here’s “Zombies”.
00:15 Full Moon Fever showcased some of Tom Petty’s influences along with some of his extremely talented friends. Fellow Traveling Wilburys Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and George Harrison all contributed to this LP, with Jeff producing it. Del Shannon, someone Tom looked up to as a kid and befriended as an adult, contributed the animal noises to the interlude, right after “Runnin’ Down A Dream”; a song that references Del himself.
00:40 Zombina & The Skeletones are a Liverpool band hopelessly devoted to horror punk. Vocalist Zombina also learned the theramin to bring that spooky, UFO sound to their music, too. Paying homage to the Ramones’ 1992 album Mondo Bizarro, the group named one of their EPs Mondo Zombina!. That EP features “Zombie Hop”.
01:10 Timmy V from The Lillingtons was the Eyeliners’ touring drummer for a while, connecting the Wyoming group with the New Mexico sisters. Lisa, Laura, and Gel Baca make up the punk trio. They recorded “Do The Zombie” in 1997 at Poop Alley Studio, the same studio that Beck recorded “Loser” at. Three years later, they would put the song on their Here Comes Trouble album.
01:40 The Cramps, the Godfathers of psychobilly, dropped in with a song the Lord taught them. The Cramps predate the Misfits by only a few months, but both bands put their own spin on spooky songs. The Cramps were more Carl Perkins than Ramones, with the Misfits being the opposite. “Zombie Dance” is a classic and must play for today’s show.
02:10 Misfits fans, rejoice! The time has come for the CEOs of Horror Business to rain blood on our episode. Coming up next is a five song set all from the Misfits, in one way or another. Misfits mastermind Glenn Danzig announced in 2016 he’d be rejoining the group, bringing the main original lineup back together. Right before that, though, Jerry Only and his son had recorded the Friday the 13th EP with drummer Chupacabra featuring the zombie tune “Mad Monster Party”.
00:15 Zombies speak in groans, and half of the Misfits’ catalog is whoas, ohs, and oohs. 88 Fingers Louie, named after a Dick Tracy character, covered the Misfits’ zombie classic “Night Of The Living Dead” for the 1996 Hopeless Records compilation Hopeless Devoted To You; a take on Grease.
00:40 The Unborn ate brains in Italian with a cover of ‘Braineaters”. The closing track from Misfits’ Walk Among Us was sang by the entire band to give the effect of a mob of zombies chasing their dinner, lunch, breakfast and brunch. The Unborn rewrote the verses with completely different lyrics, instead singing about eating heads and the lack of options in the city as a zombie leaving you to just eat brains. The song comes from their 2020 EP The Last Man On Earth.
01:10 King Flamingo earned my respect solely due to the punny genre they classify themselves as; Goo-Wop. Goo-Wop Records put out King Flamingo’s Covers Baby, Vol. 1 back in 2018 and also most of the group’s other efforts. The lo-fi garage act took a new approach to the often covered “Astro Zombies”.
01:40 Glenn Danzig wrote “London Dungeon” with Misfits’ then-guitarist Bobby Steele while the two were in a London jail cell after a battle with some local skinheads. When the Misfits returned to the US from that 1979 European tour, Bobby quit and went on to form The Undead the following year. The Undead would then go on to cover the song on their 2016 LP The Morgue…The Merrier.
02:10 Moving from the “Night of the Living Dead” now, to a set of living dead songs. The Plasmatics were a metal punk band led by the notoriously wild Wendy O. Williams. Wendy was a porn star-turned-rock star famous for her onstage antics, including chainsaws, toplessness, and other extremities. Her voice, was not that of singing birds, either. She’s almost like the opposite sex version of G.G. Allin, if such a person could exist. I stress almost. Here’s Wendy and the group doing “Living Dead” from Beyond The Valley of 1984.
00:15 Jim Burgett was a little-known rockabilly singer out of Ceres, California who was active in the late 50s Lake Tahoe scene. Jim stuck with it for a while but his songs would never gain the national notoriety. He recorded his most well-known hit, “The Living Dead” in 1961 and would lay down a few more tracks throughout the 60s before calling it quits.
00:40 Strange Hands hail from Bordeaux, France and classify themselves as Hippie Punk. The band put out the Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things EP, which was put out on cassette by Burger Records. “Living Dead” comes from their 2010 EP Dead Frozen Deer.
01:10 The Spookshow are a Swedish horror punk group right in the vein of The Creepshow or The Horrorpops. The makeup of a horror punk group does offer a stereotypical cliche; pinup girl-esque singer, stand-up bass (sometimes shaped like a coffin), and sideburns. Lots of sideburns. The formula works, though. As many of these bands have proven. The Spookshow played “Talk About The Living Dead”, led by Laura Weed.
01:40 UK Subs became the first Western band to play Poland in 1982 after martial law had been imposed. They were touring for their recently released album Endangered Species and after the addition of Steve Roberts on drums and Alvin Gibbs on bass had taken the punk band in a more metal direction. “Living Dead” fit in nicely behind the Plasmatics.
02:10 The Horrorpops were one of the original purveyors of that special horror punk formula. That stand-up coffin bass? Signature bass of Kim Nekroman, lead singer and founder of Nekromantix; one of the first psychobilly bands. Kim is married to Patricia Day, singer of the Horrorpops, and helped launch her career after the two met in the mid 90s. Here’s Patricia singing “Walk Like A Zombie” from their sophomore LP Bring It On!.
00:15 Barb Wire Dolls are a Greek punk band that made their name in front of the legendary Lemmy Kilmister at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. After seeing them play, Lemmy signed them to his Warner Bros. backed subsidiary label Motorhead Music. Their sophomore album, Slit, was produced by Steve Albini and the intensity of its sound proves so. I played “Walking Dead” from that LP.
00:40 The Vicious were a Swedish garage punk band in the late 2000s that put out one EP and one album before splitting up and forming a different group. 3/4 of The Vicious went on to form Masshysteri, a similar band but with lyrics in Swedish. The Vicious’ lone EP had a song on it titled “Masshysteri”, the Swedish word for mass hysteria. “Walking Dead” came from their 2008 LP Alienated.
01:10 Speaking of aliens…Roky Erickson formed the Aliens (as blieb alien) after doing a stint at the Rusk State Hospital in Rusk, Texas. He was transferred there from the Austin State Hospital where he was being held due to his conviction of the possession of a single joint. Facing ten years, he plead insanity and was henceforth given a bunch of electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments. “I Walked With A Zombie” comes from the first two overlapping LPs recorded with the Aliens in 1980/1981.
01:40 The Cynics were formed in the early 1980s at the direction of Gregg Kostelich. Gregg would form Get Hip Records to put out the band’s material and also sign other garage rock artists that continue to carry the lo-fi fuzz torch. Get Hip has put out albums by Thee Headcoatees, The Black Hollies, The Fleshtones, The Gories, and more. From their final LP, Spinning Wheel Motel, the band contributed “Zombie Walk”.
02:10 On Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever album, he name drops Del Shannon’s “Runaway” during “Runnin’ Down A Dream”. For Screeching Weasel’s 1988 sophomore LP, the Chicago band threw down a cover of “Runaway”, albeit only thirty-some seconds long. What more do you need? Coming up, from 1988’s Boogadaboogadaboogada, this is “Zombie”.
00:15 The Crewnecks were a group of college kids that played the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania area for a four years before splitting up. They recorded only a few singles, including “Rockin’ Zombie”, which was covered by garage rock band Messer Chups. The group would split in 1961, though, due to military commitments.
00:40 The Dickies released their sophomore LP Dawn Of The Dickies just six months after George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead hit theaters in the US in 1979. In a clear homage to George’s film, the album cover shows the band being attacked by blue painted zombies with the lettering accompanied by blood spatter. “Infidel Zombie” tells the story of a girl on a murderous mission.
01:10 Let’s think about what makes a zombie a zombie. Undead? Check. Eating brains? Check. Shuffling along looking for their next victim? Check. These are some common zombie features. Fake Tides exemplify the sounds of their habitat perfectly. They hail from SoCal; San Diego, California. Imperial Beach exactly. That surf/punk/garage sound wafts through the air waves of herb smoke and vape emissions. Fake Tides did “Zombie Features” from their self-titled debut.
01:40 Just a few blocks away, perhaps, resides another SoCal San Diego group; The Frights. The group enlisted FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper to produce their third album Hypochondriac. For their followup, though, they enlisted bass player Richard Dotson to produce in a cabin in Idyllwild, California. From their 2nd EP, Fur Sure, that was “Del Mar Zombies”.
02:10 Alright deadites, that’s the end of it. Grab your chainsaws, your shotguns, your machetes, your flamethrowers, and any other zombie deterring weapons you have just lying around. Its time to liquify the dead! I hope you enjoyed the show and stay safe out there!
Completely random find. As I was parsing through the various Commodores and Jim Reeves albums at the local antique mall, suddenly this black and white, somewhat DIY-press-looking thing popped out at me. It was literally between a Poco record and a Christmas compilation. What the hell?
So, of course I start looking it over, trying to find some information on it. It’s a split album, one side per band. Malachi Krunch and Sold On Murder. The Malachi Krunch side has some text that implies their EP is titled American Realities along with a picture of two people in hats, glasses, handkerchief masks and holding guns. Its kind of intimidating.
Flipping it over shows the artwork for Sold On Murder’s side. A longhorn skull with a bunch of symbols behind it and what appears to be an interpolated gas mask is staring back at me. Alright, it’s time to hear what this stuff is like.
Side one; Malachi Krunch.
It’s fast. Its loud. Its hardcore. Yep, that’s kinda what I was expecting here. This isn’t music for a Sunday morning brunch. This is Saturday night, punch a cop, piss in a gutter, debauchery straight outta Connecticut.
Now for what I’ve been able to find. Malachi Krunch was the first band of New Haven, Connecticut punk Jim Martin. Jim would go on to front the band Broken, and later Chem-Trails. As I page through the insert a bit and read some of the lyrics, its clear to me that this band’s message is right up my alley. Cutouts of “STOP THE WAR ON THE POOR” and “Resist Amerikkan Genocide AND Drug War” are plastered betwixt lyric sheets. Yes! Song topics range from Puerto Rican revolt due to lack of representation, resistance, homelessness, pollution, and and ode to Dan Quayle’s wife Marilyn.
Jim’s still fronting hardcore crust acts today and leads the group Chem-Trails. Here he is performing with them in 2018.
Further digging yielded this basement performance recording of Malachi Krunch and Seizure in 1989. That’s Jim there with the long hair and sideburns, a completely different image from his more well-known shaved head aesthetic. His look matched the picture of him in the insert. I wonder if the pic was taken at this show?
Now for side two. Sold On Murder is muuuuch more difficult to find information about. I found this interview with Kris Keyes, a frontman for the band Dive Bomber in Los Angeles. He talks about how he first started painting himself in the music world while working with a band called Sold On Murder in New Haven, Connecticut. This checks out, too, because in the liner notes it thanks Kris Keyes for help on “Open Mind/Mind Decay” and “An Insanity Plea”.
According to a comment on this news story about a murder victim in New Haven in 2008, one of the members of Sold On Murder was, in fact…murdered. John Evers Robinson played bass and sang vocals for Sold On Murder, but was killed before the album was released. This was confirmed after I started looking through the inserts that came with the record.
One side of the lyric sheet is a memorial to John that also includes some pictures of Dan Quayle and his contradiction quotes. The lyrics are wild, in the sense that topics range from eating the world, drinking blood, sex, anti-capitalism, mental illness, and police brutality. Rad.
The music itself is hardcore. Fast, uptempo, brutal vocals, messy guitars, blazing solos. Its peak late 80s hardcore, like Bad Brains mixed with Living Colour (both of which are mentioned in the “thank yous”. This was absolutely worth the buy and a very fun trip into history. Its a real shame that John was murdered, the message behind his art is poignant 30 some years later. I’ll leave you with his quote from the insert.
Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s Johnny episode! Today we are going to dive into the phenomenon that surrounds an ideal of a man named “Johnny”. Now, I bet you could name at least a handful of songs that mention Johnny. I bet you could also name a bunch of songs sang by a Johnny (Rotten, Cash, Nash, Karate). Johnny is forever and Johnny is never.
00:40 Johnny seems to be the go-to character for rock songs. It seems like everyone and their mother Mary has written about a Johnny, or vicariously lived through Johnny in the music. John has been in the top 20 most popular baby names of the U.S. since the census began. It was the most popular name for males until 1924 but still remains in the top 20 to this day. Other forms of John include Jon, Jonathan, Jack or Jackie. We’re gonna stick to just Johnny today.
01:10 A bit later in the episode, we’ll be treated to a meta Johnny couple of sets. NOFX’s “Jaw, Knee, Music” quotes lyrics from a grip of punk songs about our titular subject matter. I’m gonna play at least 10 of those references. More might be scattered throughout the show.
01:40 Kicking off today’s episode is the song that started it all. Well, it wasn’t the first “Johnny” song by any means, but this song started the mythos of Johnny in rock and roll music. Not only did Chuck Berry launch an entire new genre with his new rhythm and blues sound, “rock and roll”, but he also started the legend of Johnny. And for those of you (like myself) who weren’t around when this song hit the airwaves, maybe this channels something in you to time travel…
02:10 Berry propped up Johnny as a rock star. A guitar god from the backwoods of Louisiana. That may sound a bit autobiographical for Chuck and that’s because it partially was. Chuck took parts from Bob Wills’ “Ida May” and gave it a new sound to create his first single “Maybellene”. For “Johnny” he lifted the guitar intro from Louis Jordan’s “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman“. Alright fellas, well “here’s a blues riff in B, watch me for the changes and..try to keep up.” Here is “Johnny B. Goode”.
00:15 Whew! That was garage rock lo-fi staple, Ty Segall. Ty is by far one of the most productive musicians in garage rock. After releasing his debut album in 2008, Ty put out over fifteen albums with various bands in the span of a decade. He released three albums in 2012 alone. This dude doesn’t stop! From early on in his career, that was “Johnny” from Lemons.
00:40 Before Ty, we were treated with some Zero Boys. The Indiana punks put out one EP, Living In The 80s, and one LP, Vicious Circle before splitting up in 1983. They recorded songs for a second album but split before finishing it. One of those recordings was “Johnny Better Get”, and was included on the compilation album that featured those lost songs; History Of…
01:10 With our first taste of Northern Ireland punk rock today, that was Protex. The Clash are allegedly the origination of punk rock in Belfast. They were scheduled to play there in 1977 but the show was cancelled by the insurance company supporting the band. They were scared. The band still made a profound impact and launched a scene that would generate bands like Stiff Little Fingers, Rudi, Protex, and many more. Protex even took their band name from a Clash song; “Protex Blue”. They played “Look Out Johnny” after the Stones.
01:40 Chuck Berry actually wrote five songs in total about his famed Johnny. After the success of “Johnny B. Goode”, Chuck would go on to write “Johnny B. Blues”, “Go Go Go”, “Lady B. Goode”, and “Bye Bye Johnny”; the latter of which was covered by The Rolling Stones. The Stones released their eponymous debut EP in January of 1964. “Bye Bye Johnny” was the lead track on the album, leaving the absolute possibility that this track was the first Stones song some people heard.
02:10 Chuck once said he hopes Bob Dylan lives ’til 100 and that he (Chuck) lives forever. The two formed a bond later in life that lasted until Chuck’s death in 2017. Chuck didn’t live forever, but his music will and he can keep us forever young. Some say Dylan helped create rap music with this next song. I’m not so sure about that, but he sure does quite the poetry slam. Here’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” from Bobby D.
00:15 Fat Mike is such a punny guy. “Jaw Knee Music” caps off the set but will remain in our hearts and minds for the next half hour or so. When Mike started punkvoter.com to oust Bush Jr. from the White House in 2004, he was forced to forgo some of those punk rock hassles of selling out and mainstream media coverage. He appeared on Dennis Miller, the band played on Conan O’Brien, and they would register voters at Warped Tour. Too bad it was all for not. During that time, Fat Wreck Chords put out the Rock Against Bush compilations, which would feature unreleased cuts from some pretty big names; including an exclusive from Green Day. NOFX contributed “Jaw Knee Music” to the first comp, a song comprised of punk rock references all in the name of Johnny.
00:40 Like NOFX, Death Lens started out in Los Angeles. Also like NOFX, they’ve released a few split albums with some other stellar bands. Their first split with The Frights was titled DeathFrights and came out in 2014. It featured two originals from each band, one cover of the other band’s tune, and one collaboration song. The original version of “No Colt, No Johnny” is on this EP.
01:10 “Ride, Johnny, Ride!” The Misfits’ debut single Cough/Cool may have been recorded without a guitar, but possessed all of the demonic attitude for a Misfits record. The single, released by Glenn Danzig’s Blank Records, would stand out only to get Mercury Records to donate 30 hours of studio time to the band in exchange for the rights to Blank Records trademark. The Misfits used that to record 13 songs, none of which anyone wanted to release. So in true punk DIY fashion, they released it themselves EP by EP, starting with their 2nd EP Bullet.
01:40 On Dylan’s shotgun blast song, “Like A Rolling Stone”, he croons “You say you never compromise/with the mystery tramp/but now you realize”. The Mystery Trend misheard that lyric, although Mystery Trend is a great band name. They couldn’t get their career to take off along with all of the other San Francisco Sound psychedelic acts of that era, perhaps due to band member cycling or to the lack of promotion from Verve Records. They did release one single in 1967, though, “Johnny Was A Good Boy”.
02:10 Starting into our Jaw Knee Music sets now, here’s So-Cal band D.I. The lyrics to this song also start off “Jaw Knee Music” and feature our beloved Johnny having a problem and being out of control. Quite the change from that Southern backwoods Louisiana boy who could play a guitar like ringing a bell. Here’s “Johnny’s Got A Problem”.
00:15 Wrapping up the first Jaw Knee Music set of the day, that was The Replacements’ “Johnny’s Gonna Die” from their 1981 debut LP Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash. Fat Mike quoted the song verbatim with the line “Johnny always needs more than he takes/Forgets a couple chords/Forgets a couple breaks”. The track would turn out to be the slowest and longest on an 18 track-36 minute ear blast of an album.
00:40 The Vandals took issue with what they saw as hypocrisy when someone who had it pretty good decided to sing the blues. The blues are for when you don’t have it pretty good, right? “Johnny Twobags” is the story of a guy who thinks he has it rough, but when put into perspective, he’s just having a bad day. From the 1995 punsationally-named LP Live Fast Diarrhea, that was “Johnny Twobags”.
01:10 In verse three of “Jaw Knee”, Mike asks “Johnny, is he queer?”. In the late 70’s, Josie Cotton moved to Los Angeles from Texas and found herself in the blooming punk scene. After hooking up with Larson and Bobby Paine, Josie was offered the track and included it on her 1982 album Convertible Music. She would also appear in Valley Girl, but after a second musical effort in 1984 would she would ultimately fade out of the scene.
01:40 X stopped by with “Johnny Hit And Run Paulene” from their debut album Los Angeles. Although they fit in perfectly well with their drugged-out scene cohorts, X’s angle was purposefully void. No band name (X), no bass player (John Doe). X crossed rhythm & blues guitar styles with punk rock fervor, resulting in a kind of 50s greaser meets 80s speed freak vibe.
02:10 Fat Mike also sang the line “Johnny says he’s bound by only six strings to this world”; a direct lyric lift from the Bouncing Souls song “The Ballad Of Johnny X”. Originally recorded for the Punk Suckscompilation, the track would be re-recorded for their sophomore album Maniacal Laughterlater that year and both tracks feature the actual Johnny X on them. Johnny X is Mike Cavallaro, a comic book writer and artist that went to the same high school as the Souls. Once again, Johnny is someone’s alter ego. Here’s “The Ballad of Johnny X”.
00:15 Stiff Little Fingers’ version of “Johnny Was” doubles the track time of the original. The original cut, done by Bob Marley on Rastaman Vibration, was credited to his wife Rita upon release. Bob was in contractual standoffs with Cayman music and rather than battle them in court, he gave all credits to his friends and family with hopes to provide for them using future earnings from the music. Mike sings “Johnny was a good man” in reference to this song.
00:40 According to Reagan Youth, if you rang a bell, Johnny would start to drool. Also, Johnny “wastes his days eating ‘ludes”, was “a teenage vegetable”, and was “a mindless brainwashed pig”. All of those descriptors are from Reagan Youth’s “Degenerated”, fully repurposed by NOFX for the theme. Remember when this song was covered in that Airheads movie?
01:10 Fat Mike soap-boxed fellow Bay Area punkers Rancid by placing some of their Johnny lyrics in his composition. Rancid released Let’s Go in 1994 and rode the mid-90s punk/alternative wave until going full reggae-rock band by 1998. Let’s Go introduced us to Lars Frederiksen, their 2nd guitarist, and also included the song “The Ballad Of Jimmy And Johnny”. The band would return to their punk roots on their 2000 self titled release.
01:40 Towards the end of “Jaw Knee Music”, Fat Mike can be heard singing “Johnny questions sellout bands”. Before Rancid, Less Than Jake played us “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts” from their 1996 album Losing Streak. LTJ was one of the more underground ska bands that emerged in that late 90s weird ska punk phase, leaving the fame to the Bosstones or Reel Big Fish.
02:10 Alright, well that’s done. That was fun! Coming up next is a continuation of what Johnny was. According to The Adicts, “Johnny Was A Soldier”. Furthermore, Johnny was an amputee; possibly an angry amputee? Is this what Fat Mike is referencing? The Adicts are droogs incarnate, the gang members from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. From their sophomore album, Sound Of Music, here’s “Johnny Was A Soldier”.
00:15 Bruce Springsteen wrote “Johnny 99” during his recording sessions for Nebraska after reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. The entire album is bleak and quiet, with topics limited to murder, despair, and longing; its amazing. Philadelphia, PA punk band The Loved Ones covered Bruce’s “Johnny 99” on their Distractions EP and brought the song into a whole new light.
00:40 The Woggles are led by the Professor Mighty Manfred Jones. He hosts a radio show on Little Steven’s Underground Garage chock full of music that would fit in perfectly well with abp’s episodes. Little Steven signed The Woggles to his Wicked Cool record label right after the release of their 2003 LP Ragged But Right. From that LP, that was “Johnny Come Lately”.
01:10 The Attacks are a Danish garage rock revival band that broke up a year before releasing their reunion LP Strikes Back. Then they broke up again. That album included a cool cover of a techno song from another Danish group Superheroes that originally appeared on their label’s 15 year anniversary compilation Saluting The Crunchy Frog in 2009. That was “Johnny And I”.
01:40 The Diaboliks were a little-known garage rock band from the 90’s. Featuring a mostly female lineup, the band would put out a mixtape of an LP as a debut, a few EPs, and one full-length LP in 2000. Lineup changes and band tension led them to split after the release of their full-length Three Fur Burgers…And A Hot Chilli Dog To Go!; where we lifted “I Love Johnny Bravo” from.
02:10 Dead Moon was comprised of Portland legends Fred and Toody Cole along with Andrew Loomis. Fred engineered most of the band’s recordings using the mono lathe that the Kingsmen, another Portland group, used for “Louie Louie”. Dead Moon carried the torch for garage rock revival in the 80s, keeping their sound limited to the capabilities of a few instruments and analog tape. One of their more influential and well-known songs is up now. Here’s “Johnny’s Got A Gun” from their 1990 LP Defiance.
00:15 Television’s debut single “Little Johnny Jewel” was released on Ork Records (the same label that originally agreed to put out Misfits’ Bullet EP but the deal fell through). Richard Hell formed the group with Tom Verlaine but after a falling out left and started his own band, The Voivoids. After his departure, Richard Lloyd joined and they recorded the 7-minute epic debut. They must have enjoyed the jam session, because on their debut album Marquee Moon, they included the 10-minute epic title track to round out Side A.
00:40 After a minor charting hit in 1960 with “One Boy”, Joanie Sommers landed a #7 hit single with 1962’s “Johnny Get Angry”. Once called “The Voice Of The Sixties”, Joanie wouldn’t repeat the success she found with “Johnny Get Angry”. Now with clear hindsight, we can say Joanie was most likely not the voice of the sixties. Who do you think was?
01:10 Screeching Weasel play into the leather jacket Fonzie aesthetic that makes many a punk rock song fun. Keeping with that Happy Days vibe, Ben Weasel sings about the dreamed-up love affair between Joanie Cunningham and someone named Johnny. Perhaps its Johnny Suede? Or maybe this is a fantasy. I mean, the song does mention Fonzie getting fucked up on ‘ludes and Joanie and Johnny doing heroin. Screeching Weasel also covered “Johnny, Are You Queer?” on their 1994 album How To Make Enemies And Irritate People.
01:40 After Dead Moon was an old punk jam from The Gizmos, a band out of Bloomington, Indiana that’s had more lineup changes than records released. While they never released an official full album, the band put out four EPs and split record before calling it quits. We played “Johnny Got A Gun” from the compilation Rock & Roll Don’t Come From New York.
02:00 Alright Johnnies, that about does it for today. May the legend of Johnny live on forever in our collective imaginations. Now…what women’s name would be a good companion episode to this one….?
Artist: The Dynettes Track: “Witness To A Heartbreak” Release: New Guy / Witness To A Heartbreak (7″) Year: 1965 Duration: 2:30
Maurice Williams scored a huge hit in 1960 when he and The Zodiacs put out the single “Stay”. At just 1:36 in length, the single would become the shortest song to ever reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the United States. After groups like The Hollies and The Four Seasons laid down their own versions of the song and pushed it into an international audience, Maurice & The Zodiacs would reap the benefits. Jackson Browne interpolated it into the finale of his 1978 masterpiece album Running On Empty as “The Load Out / Stay” which again brought the song to new audiences. It wasn’t until the song’s inclusion on the 1987 soundtrack to the film Dirty Dancing, though, that it would sell it’s highest amount of copies.
In 1965, Maurice wrote and arranged a pair of tracks for the girl group The Dynettes to record. I can’t seem to find much on The Dynettes individually, but as the record suggests the song was recorded in Chicago, Illinois around 1964 under the production of Bill “Bunky” Sheppard. According to the comments section of this Nerdtorious.com post, the lead singer’s name was Idella and she was last known to reside in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s it. That’s all I can find, and that’s assuming the comment is legit.
As for the song itself, it bounces along like a lollipoppy, mid-60s soul jam with a nice, clean guitar chasing the messy drumbeat backed up by an organ and a call and response type vocal setting. It’s a shame this one didn’t make it further up the charts.
I’m sure the saturation of sixties girl groups made for a challenge for anyone to break through to fame, especially with the absolute domination from Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound groups.
The A-side, “New Guy” is another gem, this time with a more up-tempo approach. I love how the deep horns back up the girls’ vocals in start contrast. This song could easily be found on a movie montage or soundtrack. Something Summer-y.
The Constellation Records catalog has all kinds of hidden soul gems from 1964-65 and you can currently find the Constellation of Rhythm & Blues compilation on streaming services. Give it a dig sometime, these songs are the epitome of “lost treasures”. Instead of posting links to just the Dynettes’ music, here’s the full compilation.
Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s coffee episode! Today we honor one of the most famous and well-known drinks of the world; coffee! Java, espresso, cappuccino, Americano, cold-press, nitro-infused, etc.; the list of styles of the usually-served hot drink may be too long for the show. Are you a zombie before you get your morning brew? Does the caffeine addiction afflict you too? I hope you’ve had your dose of daily drip because we’re about to turn up the speed.
01:10 Historical accounts of humans consuming coffee for its energizing effects date back to at least the 15th century. East Central Africans first used the beans in the modern sense of roasting and brewing. Not much ahs changed since then in the form of preparation, though certain regions do things a little differently.
01:40 National Coffee Day is celebrated on September 29th each year in the United States. The day gives millions of people an excuse to celebrate their morning caffeine addiction by justifying it as a necessary step to our days. Yes, I am also one of those coffee heads. I’ll throw all the excuses at you that you’ve already heard; kids, job, stress, sleep, blah blah.
02:10 Have you ever drank too much coffee? I can definitely say that I have. That sick feeling, nauseous like you ate something terrible, all the while you’re blood seems to be at 1000 degrees and heart is pumping like it’s running a marathon. Suck. The Promdates, out of Norway, know all about that overdose, too. The lyrics to the next track describe that moment you realize you’ve gone too far. From their 2016 split with the Meeps, here’s Norway’s best coffee-guzzling punk band with “Coffee OD”.
00:15 Sweet Children doesn’t really sound like a band that tours filling stadiums, does it? Or maybe it does, what the hell do I know? That’s what Green Day was originally called before moving to the more ambiguously colorful descriptor. Billie Joe Armstrong has been a vocal critic of the name, though, in 2001 stating it was the worst band name in the world. From early in their career on the Slappy EP, that was Green Day with “409 In Your Coffeemaker”.
00:40 A generation later, we move from Billie to Joey. Billie Joe’s son Joey Armstrong plays drums for Berkley band SWMRS. The band took influence from Green Day and others’ pop punk sound and mixed it with the EDM-tinged sounds of the 2010s. That was “Too Much Coffee” from Berkley’s On Fire.
01:10 From the West Coast, to the Gold Coast. Kinda. Lunatics On Pogosticks hail from Melbourne and channel all the right elements of garage rock. Slightly lo-fi sound, energy, simplicity, fun lyrics, they’re doing it right. The final track to their excellent 2014 EP Sleeping Till The Weekend, “Cappuccino” sits in the middle of the set.
01:40 Remaining in the Southern hemisphere, we heard Carbona from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The band takes their name from the Ramones song “Carbona Not Glue”, a track removed from their 1977 LP Leave Home because the company who made the stain remover Carbona didn’t want to be associated with, well, glue-sniffing. “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” might have fed them that worry. Carbona, the band, sand “Coffee With You” from their sophomore LP Back To Basics.
02:10 Up next, The Smugglers ask the age old question – “Coffee, Tea, Or Me?”. The Vancouver, British Columbia band kept garage rock alive and well in the 90s and into the 2000s before calling it quits. Their 2000 LP Rosie was released through the legendary Berkley, California punk label Lookout! Records, the same label that released Green Day’s early works. Here’s The Smugglers with “Coffee, Tea, Or Me?”
00:15 That song seems to have a very familiar…sound to it. Very Bill Haley-ish. Perhaps that’s because the Rock ‘N’ Rollers are a studio-exec crafted band created solely for the purpose of selling records in line with a fad. If that really is the case, is “The Rock ‘N” Rollers” really the most creative name they could find? Apt, I suppose. Still. The EP Rock ‘N’ Roll Time, directed by Ken Jones, is five basic as hell rock and roll songs, and I love it. That was “Coffee Break” from said EP.
00:40 Glen Glenn was a rhythm and blues rock and roller from the 50s that did everything he could to mimic the swinging pelvis seen on TV. That is, until he got drafted. Glen recorded a few songs in 1958 and they’d actually get pressed to wax, but only days after his music hit the public he was drafted to the war and his career was over. Slightly. He would re-emerge in the 80s and record collectors began hunting for those early singles. His best known song, “One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette” graced our ears just now.
01:10 When Jay Watson left The Novocaines to play drums for Tame Impala, the band thought it was over. However, they reformed and put out a solid EP in 2009 titled Ragdoll. The lead single “Cup Of Coffee” starts off paying homage to Dylan with the line “One more cup of coffee before I go”.
01:40 The White Stripes covered at least three songs on their debut LP, including the Bob Dylan Desire-era ballad. The others being old blues songs from Son House and Robert Johnson and a rendition of the traditional folk song “St. James Infirmary Blues”; a track which Dylan also covered. “One More Cup Of Coffee” followed the Smugglers.
02:10 Coming up next is a trip down percolator lane. A trip that starts out light and poppy and climaxes with some real heavy psychedelic stuff; as most trips go. Starting things off is a cut from the debut record of Montreal, Quebec group Rock ‘N’ Roll Television. Here comes a bright, up-tempo discharge of television jonesing from the band titled “Coffee At Least”.
00:15 Alright, pull your head out of the clouds now. We’re back on Earth. That sure was fun though. Another amazing Aussie group contributed to the set with Psychedelic Porn Crumpets doing “Coffee”. The song comes from the part two of their High Visceral releases. I wonder what Billie Joe Armstrong thinks of this band name?
00:40 The Wildflower, from A Pot Of Flowers, smoothed things out a bit after the Candy Hearts treat. Almost like a sip of warm coffee after a snowy breath. The Wildflower never released a proper album of their own, though they did compile all of their tracks for a release in 2008. The few songs they contributed to this comp, though, fit right in with the titular nature of the album and the whole San Fran peace-love-dope thing. We heard “Coffee Cup”.
01:10 As stated earlier, Candy Hearts represent their band name well in this set, bringing a light, poppy rock sound to what can usually be an intense set of songs around here. The New Jersey band put out two albums before reforming and renaming themselves Best Ex and going full-on pop. That was “Coffee With My Friends” from the group’s final album All The Ways You Let Me Down.
01:40 St. Louis, Missouri band The Bottle Rockets could easily be lumped into the 90s alt-country craze that took place, led by groups like Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and the rest of the similar acts. But these guys seem to be a bit more raw, grittier, maybe even cowpunk-esque? From the Leftovers album, a literal collection of randos, that was “Coffee Monkey”.
02:10 Sometimes coffee is instant, sometimes coffee is black. Sometimes we just need to get back on the punkwagon. Up next is the seminal song from hardcore-turned-sludgepunk act Black Flag. After guitarist Greg Ginn took up a more heavy cannabis habit, things slowed down and Black Sabbath was channeled. The result spawned even more new groups looking to mimic this weird new slowed down punk thing. Here’s Black Flag doing “Black Coffee”.
00:15 What’s worse, instant coffee or bugs in your coffee? Bugs, obviously, you coffee snob. These Bugs, though, won’t bother you. Unless you really hate pop punk or Australian people. Brisbane group Bugs channel the late 90s/early 2000s pop punk sound while adding in new elements and lyrical relevance to the new world we live in. Of course, there are plenty of love songs though. That was “Instant Coffee” from Growing Up.
00:40 The artwork for today’s episode quotes Lagwagon’s “Mr. Coffee” from their 1992 debut Duh. Before they thought up such an eloquent band name, they were called Section VIII. Their demo tape made it to Fat Mike of NOFX/Fat Wreck Chords, who then decided to record them. A name change was in order, though. Singing “on legal speed, the American way”, that was Joey Cape and Lagwagon.
01:10 It was brief, but we got a hit of the most well known caffeine addict in the punk rock kingdom. That would be Milo Aukerman, singer of the Descendents. With many of his lyrics pointing toward his caffeine addiction and away from drugs or alcohol, Milo has championed the java jingle since the early days of the group in 1980. We heard “Coffee Mug” from 1994’s Everything Sucks.
01:40 Its not often we get Turkish rock and roll around here, so when we do I want to celebrate it. The Ringo Jets are one of the few, well-known garage rock groups in Turkey and dig up blues vibes along with their loud-fast energy. They covered Slim Harpo on their debut album, which closed out with “Black Coffee Blues”.
02:10 Londoners Margot are up next with a standalone single from 2018. “Coffee Stained Scars” was released before their debut EP Margotzeko and has yet to be placed on a physical medium. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t play it. Here’s Margot sharing their love for BLTs.
00:15 Straight outta College Station, Texas and released on Valentine’s Day 2020, that was Skunk Monkey doing “Coffee Girl”. The band’s sophomore release Ego Deaf was led by the single “Cherry Girl” and includes a second coffee song – “Americano”. I liked this one more, though.
00:40 Will Toledo formed Car Seat Headrest as a solo project and released 12, yes 12 albums on Bandcamp before signing to Matador Records. This guy works. The final self-released album Nervous Young Man includes the finale “Knife In The Coffee”, a garage rock epic; how rare!
01:10 The 80s brought a resurgence of rockabilly thanks to the Stray Cats. Deuces Wild were fellow Brits in hope of achieving slicked back stardom. They released two LPs and one EP between 1989 and 1991 before dissolving. From the 2nd LP, Johnny Rider, we heard “Sugar In My Coffee”.
01:40 I couldn’t really find a punk cover of “Java Jive”, but it is absolutely necessary in a coffee show. Bob Dylan plays the original version from the Ink Spots on his coffee episode of Theme Time Radio Hour, but if I’m gonna do a punk and garage rock show about coffee I have to keep the tempo up! The Platters did a groovy version of the song in the mid 50s and included it on their Encore Of Golden Hits, perhaps being the most up-tempo version of a slow song about coffee.
02:10 Things get real weird with the next track. Its new wave-y, its punk-y, it sure is lyrically…interesting. With an ode to one of the best sensations that can come along with drinking hot liquid, dunking, we’ve got The Deep Freeze Mice. From their 1981 debut LP Teenage Head In My Refrigerator, this is “I Like Digestive Biscuits In My Coffee”. For those non-Europeans like myself, the name doesn’t necessarily imply the reaction when it comes to these cookies. Oh, and there’s a long intro so just stay tuned…
00:15 That is how Cream should have recorded “The Coffee Song”. The South African group Fleadom’s Children took a song not included on US versions of Fresh Cream and gave it a heavier, psyched out sound. The group would change their name to Freedom’s Children after releasing the “Coffee” single, apparently for political reasons.
00:40 Speaking of politics, Neil Young practically made a name for himself writing about his political beliefs and causes. Neil has been a vocal opponent of all things unequal since his days with Buffalo Springfield. From his album with The Promise Of The Real, The Monsanto Years, Neil tackles corporations with “A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop”. Without naming them, who do you think he was talking about?
01:10 Jonathan Fire*Eater was the origination of half of the members of The Walkmen. They released two albums and an EP before calling it quits in 1998. Many claim them to be largely influential on the NYC post-punk revival sound that would spawn acts like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more. From their second and final album, Wolf Songs For Lamb People, that was “Station Coffee”.
01:40 Although Meggie Brown isn’t a largely known name even in her hometown of London, she still managed to land an opening spot for The Hold Steady in 2020. That is, before the pandemic ruined live music. Her debut single was produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos at Edwyn Collins’ studio, which is a fantastic starting point! We heard “Fast Coffee” from the Journey Of Goodbye EP.
02:10 Well mudheads, that brings us to the end of this episode. If you’ve been sipping your coffee while listening along, you may need to head to the bathroom right about now. Maybe not, I don’t judge. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!
02:15 (music plays and fades out)
Outro
37
”Italian Coffee”
Fabrizio Fornaci
The Surfaces Vol. 2
2016
Check out my List for all of the releases featured!
Bought for a quarter in central Minnesota by my mother-in-law, this record’s artwork was enough to pique my interest. But then I see, “Minneapolis”!
On my last spin session, I discussed the work of Robert “One-Man” Johnson and his induction into the Central Iowa Blues Hall of Fame. Well, here’s another inductee!
The harmonica player on this album is Iowa legend Bobby Keith Dorr, or Bob Dorr as he’s known these days. Bob had quite the career in the music industry, first performing with local Iowa bands, then Little Red Rooster Band, then onto a long tenure with the Blue Band, all while maintaining a voice at Iowa Public Radio.
Something about this private pressing seems…better. It was issued by Crow For A Day Records in 1980; the sleeve is high quality cardboard and textured. Also, I’m going to have a soft spot for this record in my heart due to it being recorded at one of Minneapolis’ famous venue The Cabooze. I’d sometimes stop there after hanging out at legendary punk haunt The Triple Rock Social Club, as it was just under Highway 94 to get to the Cabooze.
This was recorded live in Minneapolis in 1979. All but two of the tracks on this album are blues standard covers. The originals are “Dance, Dance, Dance” , which is not a cover of the Steve Miller Band song, nor the Beach Boys’ song. The other original is “3 A.M. Back Door Lady” which can be heard below.
Whomever uploaded this video to YouTube mislabeled it as “Sweet Sadie”, the opposite side’s first track. Perhaps the labels on their record were reversed? Regardless, this original track is great! The harp playing from Bob gives the blues/funk crossover a perfect swagger and entrance for the rest of the song.
Its a shame the band didn’t put anything to studio, but this LP is a great addition to any collection for a blues harmonica/guitar fan. The musicianship is tight and unique, while the recording captures a room full of rowdy Midwesterners on the verge of an 80s digital music revolution. This keeps it simple. The covers are great, too. “Shake Your Moneymaker” blows the doors off the exits on a night even this sleepy dude wishes he was in attendance.
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