V.A. Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father (1988)

Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father was a benefit album for Childline that included a load of late eighties British alterna-rockers covering The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety. The long out-of-print albums' hit was sorta smarmy version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" by Wet Wet Wet which was very strangely made a double A-side with Billy Bragg's version of "She's Leaving Home", thereby allowing Bragg (fully embracing his Cara Tivey side) to have a number-one-hit-by-association.




So while I'm not sure this contribution showcases Billy at his best, it's great to hear Sonic Youth , The Wedding Present and The Fall adding a dose of grubbiness to this whole affair.



Tracklisting:
A1 The Three Wize Men - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
A2 Wet Wet Wet - With A Little Help From My Friends
A3 The Christians - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
A4 The Wedding Present with Amelia Fletcher - Getting Better
A5 Hue & Cry - Fixing A Hole
A6 Billy Bragg with Cara Tivey - She's Leaving Home
A7 Frank Sidebottom - Being For Benefit Of Mr. Kite
B1 Sonic Youth - Within You Without You
B2 Courtney Pine Quartet - When I'm Sixty-Four
B3 Michelle Shocked - Lovely Rita
B4 The Triffids - Good Morning Good Morning
B5 The Three Wize Men - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
B6 The Fall - A Day In The Life

So tell us what you make of this strange passel of eighties UK indie bands? Leave us a COMMENT (wherein you'll find the link).

Nigel and The Crosses (R.E.M., Soft Boys, Squeeze and Bragg

While I'm not YET prepared to go right down the Robyn Hitchcock rabbit hole, his best songs ("I Wanna Destroy You", "Have a Heart Betty, I'm Not Fireproof, "Queen of Eyes", Cynthia Mask" and I know I've hardly scratched the surface thus far) are mercilessly wonderful.





Nigel & The Crosses was the band name for Hitchcock plus various combinations of Peter Buck, Peter Holsapple, Glenn Tilbrook, Mike Mills, Billy Bragg, Andy Metcalf & Morris Windsor. This bootleg from a 1989 show at The Borerline in London features a great set list of both originals and covers in excellent sound quality.

Setlist :

1. I Wanna Destroy You
2. She Said She Said
3. Eight Miles High
4. Queen Of Eyes
5. Waterloo Sunset
6. America
7. Freeze
8. The Veins Of The Queen
9. Birdshead
10. Rain
11. Flesh Number One
12. Bells Of Rhymney
13. The Rumour
14. Kingdom Of Love
15. Listening To The Higsons
16. Revolution Number One
17. Sin City
18. Route 66
19. You Ain't Going Nowhere
20. I Saw Her Standing There
21. Foxy Lady

COMMENTS would be most appreciated (and that's where you'll find the Nigel and the Crosses link)

Billy Bragg: Joe Strummer Tribute (2003)

While former Clash-man Joe Strummer seemed to visibly struggle with his agitator personae as he aged, Billy Bragg never has. Perhaps it's has something to do with the fact that when (most of us) first heard Joe, he was yelling, "I wanna riot of my own" whereas the first we heard of Billy he was confessing, "I don't want to change the word...I'm just looking for another girl". Maybe being a lover and a fighter made Bragg's mixing of pop and politics more tenable in the long run. (Cue debate over whether it's better to burn out or fade away...)





This is an audience recording, which not just because it has that you-were-there sound but also because this show is about the audience, who all sing along and mourn together. In this small club setting, with a set laced with his more rabble-rousing originals alongside a brace of Clash covers, Billy becomes less of a performer and more the leader of a rock n' roll wake.

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P.S. Interesting Guardian video HERE about politics at Glastonbury this week, need less to say it features a chat with Mr. Bragg

A Folk Tribute to Bob Dylan - BBC Radio 2 May 18th 2011

As someone who once compiled a bootleg collection of Billy Bragg doing Bob Dylan covers (see HERE) I was excited to see this collection British folkies, ancient and modern, covering Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin Bob Dylan, in its entirety. As this programme arrived amidst the ONSLAUGHT that accompanied Mr. Dylan's 70th birthday, I filed it in the bulging "Blog Ideas' folder. Then as my Billy Bragg series (see much, much more HERE) grew more obsessive, I thought this was the time to present it to those MRML readers who like music where you can hear fingers striking guitar strings and where singers 'lean forward just a bit'.

01. Programme Intro
02. Blowin' in the Wind - Seth Lakeman
03. Girl from the North Country - Thea Gilmore
04. Masters of War - Martin Simpson
05. Down the Highway - While and Matthews
06. Bob Dylan's Blues - Ewan McLennan
07. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Karine Polwart
08. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Ralph McTell
09. Bob Dylan's Dream - Martin Carthy
10. Oxford Town - Coope, Boyes and Simpson
11. Talkin' World War III Blues - Billy Bragg
12. Corrina, Corrina - Cara Dillon with The Scoville Units
13. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance - Rory Mcleod
14. I Shall Be Free - Rab Noakes with Fraser Speirs

NOTE TO LISTENERS: At the explicit demand of the original uploader this programme is offered here only in .flac format. If you are at all uncomfortable with this wonderful-sounding but wildly cumbersome format simply convert it 320 kbps MP3's using a FREE version of a program like Switch Sound Converter.

See you in the COMMENTS section!

Billy Bragg: The Complete Peel Sessions (1983-2001) FIVE CD SET!

I was wrong.

I said that all Bragg's BBC recording would be another five CD box set. In fact, just Braggy's sessions for Peely require a five CD {bootleg} box-set!!

And now, thanks to a most generous reader, Andy Campbell, you all get this mind-bogglingly expansive five CD set for yourself.

#1
(recorded 27th July 1983 ; first broadcast 3rd August 1983)
A New England
Strange Things Happen
This Guitar Says Sorry
Love Gets Dangerous
Fear Is A Man's Best Friend
A13 - Trunk Road To The Sea

#2
(recorded 21st February 1984 ; first broadcast 27th February 1984)
Lover's Town
Myth Of Trust
To Have And To Have Not
St Swithin's Day

#3
(recorded 18th September 1984 ; first broadcast 20th September 1984)
Between The Wars
Which Side Are You On ?
A Lover Sings
It Says Here

#4
(recorded 20th August 1985 ; first broadcast 2nd September 1985)
The Marriage
There Is Power In A Union
Jeanne
Days Like These

#5
(recorded 2nd September 1986 ; first broadcast 15th September 1986)
The Warmest Room
Greetings To The New Brunette
Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto
Ideology

#6
(recorded 30th August 1988 ; first broadcast 19th September 1988)
She's Got A New Spell
Valentine's Day Is Over
The Short Answer
Rotting On Remand


Billy Bragg - The Whole Peel : Volume 2 (1991 to 1996)


#7
(recorded 12th May 1991 ; broadcast 15th June 1991)
Life With The Lions
Tank Park Salute
Accident Waiting To Happen
The Few

#8 (acoustic)
(broadcast live 13th October 1995)
Northern Industrial Town
A Pict Song
Brickbat
This Gulf Between Us

Reading Festival
(recorded & broadcast 24th August 1996)
Levi Stubbs' Tears
Greetings To The New Brunette
Waiting For The Great Leap Forward
Upfield
Sexuality
A New England (fathers' version)


The Whole Peel : Volume 3 (1996-1998)



Peel Xmas Spectacular
(broadcast live 22nd December 1996)
Goalhanger
Levi Stubbs' Tears
Dark End Of The Street
A New England
Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly

#9 Woody Guthrie Session
(broadcast live 9th July 1998)
My Flying Saucer
Another Man's Done Gone
Black Wind Blowing
Psalm
Aginst Th' Law
All You Fascists Bound To Lose
Ingrid Bergman
Christ For President


The Whole Peel : Volume 4 (1999 part 1)



Tracks 1-8
Live From Peel Acres
(broadcast 25th March 1999)
Billy co-presents the John Peel Show live from John's house (Peel Acres) and plays tracks from the Mermaid Tour official bootleg

Tracks 9-15
Billy Bragg & The Blokes at Glastonbury
(recorded 25th June 1999 ; broadcast 30th June 1999)
Milkman Of Human Kindness
The Warmest Room
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key
All You Fascists Bound To Lose
California Stars
Glad & Sorry
A New England


The Whole Peel : Volume 5 (1999-2001)


John Peel Tribute Concert, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
(recorded 4th December 1999 ; broadcast 9th December 1999)
It Says Here
Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance
Island Of No Return
The Myth Of Trust
Man In The Iron Mask
Richard
St Monday
Jeanne
Levi Stubbs' Tears
A13

Festive Fifty 25th Anniversary Special
(recorded 13th December 2000 ; broadcast 19th December 2000)
Brickbat
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

John Peel's 40th Anniversary In Radio, King's College Student's Union, London
(recorded 24th September 2001 ; broadcast 11th October 2001)
A Lover Sings
Milkman Of Human Kindness
St Monday
She Came Along To Me
Everywhere


This is is the largest single-serving download MRML has ever presented and I would REALLY appreciate some shout-out's to Mr. Andy Campbell in the COMMENTS section for his staggering gift to us.


(Download linkS are in that same COMMENT section where you may say your thanks!)


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Glen Campbell

News Item: Glen Campbell announces that he has Alzheimer's Disease but he plans final album and tour. (via Expecting Rain)

This century has killed a lot of country singers; Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Waylon Jennings and, at some point yet undetermined it will take down Glen Campbell. Campbell, one time Beach Boy, One time TV host, long time superstar and frequent source of tabloid-fodder, played one of my least favourite variants of what we call country music. Some called it Countrypolitan, some called it The Nashville Sound and others sneered it off as Nash-Trash. This sound, heard in Campbell's hits like "Galveston" and "Wichita Lineman" featured the songs of professional pop tunesmiths and a glossy production style awash in strings. But the man's voice and his hard-twanging guitar always cut through the bullshit. Plus there is something about the way Campbell responds so deeply to those mad songs of Jimmy Webb, which often seem to obey no laws of song-writing (has a song as infernally elliptical as "Wichita Lineman" ever entered the narrative-happy country charts? Does anything at all happen in "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"?) I often find common ground between my love of country music and punk rock on account of there simplicity and directness but Glen Campbell, while plenty capable of playing it simple and direct, was never afraid of pomp. And that courage will help him rage against the dying of the light.

Here's Glen Campbell and Stevie Wonder doing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind":

Billy Bragg: Peel Session (1996)

So, , according to the wonderful site Keepin' it Peel, Billy Bragg's The Peel Sessions album (MRML's inaugural post) doesn't even scratch the surface of Bragg's visits to Peely. When I found this sesion it was labelled as Christmas Spectacular and was identified as occurring on December December 12th 1996. I can't find that date on the aforementioned Peel site (the interview is left in here, so there can be no doubt whose show this is) but it's a great solo Bragg session circa the album, "William Bloke".



All I can say is enjoy this and if anyone can help hook me up with more of Bragg's legion of BBC recordings (really, a third box set - "The Bard of the BBC"!) I would be a most appreciative blogger!


Don't forget to leave us a COMMENT (which is where you will find the link for
1996 Peel Session).


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Riff Raff: The Singles (1977-1980)

Perhaps Billy Bragg's punk era band, Riff Raff left, as Andrew Collins, author of Bragg's biography, believes, "a prevailing sense of would've" but I suspect he's been wearing his nostalgia goggles too tightly. Riff Raff have a really nifty catalog of under-appreciated songs but there's a thousand bands from this era that can claim the same or better. Riff Raff were another casualty of the cross-fire between punk rock and pub rock, who, by sorta splitting the difference between the two, got 'shot by both sides'. "I Wanna Be a Cosmonaut" is a great ripper, "Romford Girls" (listen here) is very nice pop song while both "She Don't Matter" and "Richard" effectively lays the groundwork for what will come. It's a fascinating collection, well worth it for obsessives, but it lack the inventiveness and the fire that defines the man's solo work. One suspects that it wasn't the birth of punk that changed Billy's life but it's widely-rumoured death.



What do you think of Riff Raff in comparison to Bragg's solo work? Leave us a COMMENT (which is where you will find the link for The Singles (1977-1980).


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The Decline

So regular readers will know that I religiously track (at least) three numbers here at MRML: visits, downloads and comment numbers. The last two numbers have been very healthy these last two months (as have the blog's number of followers and its subscribers on Google Reader) but the visitor figures have plummetted. We hit a high of 37,000 visitors a month in April sunk down 33,000 in May and I can guarantee you June will not make 30,000.

That's over a 20% drop in two months!

Why?

Here's some speculation:

1) The death of Totally Fuzzy
The internet's highest profile blog aggregator recently quit posting blog updates. This hurts us because Fuzzy readers' interest could be piqued by a good write-up, the same of which cannot be said of our other key sources of referrals (search engines, blog rolls etc.)

2) A decline in blog readership?
I don't know if the Twitter-ification of the universe has taken mouse-clicks away from us in Blog-land.

3) A change in Google's search algorithm.
I've seen this happen before (and it almost made me cry) but it was not this sustained. I also know Google's been tinkering a lot with its search results lately...

4) A decline in quality here at MRML.
Not my favourite theory but it is a possibility.

5)

_______________________________________________________


I haven't really decided on my reaction to this statistical deviation but any thoughts on it's origins from other bloggers or more tech or number savvy readers would be appreciated.

Billy Bragg: Live in Toronto (1991)

More from the "Don't Try This at Home" tour of 1991 and from the Canadian leg of the tour that yours truly witnessed, albeit in Vancouver rather than Toronto, from where this bootleg originates. Fuzzpsych, who posted this show at Archive.org, mentioned that he wasn't able to capture the final song of the night, a twenty minute version of Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" with solos and guest appearances and whatnot. I'm gonna call that a blessing as I found the whole thing intolerable but then I'm a real grump sometimes...



So COMMENTS are obviously a good thing - please carry on leaving them (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the BBC Paris Theatre link).


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Billy Bragg & Kirsty MacColl Hackney Empire (1991)

Wince-inducing cover art aside, this is a BIG one. It`s a New Year's Eve concert broadcast live by the BBC this includes lots of Bragg-iness and also an entire set by the wildly-talented and prematurely-departed Kirsty MacColl. Billy and Kirsty's intersecting history includes having their less-than-auspicious debut records come out on the same day in June of 1978 on Chiswick Records (Bily in Riff Raff, Kirsty in The Drug Adix), both having covered Smiths` songs (Bille did "Jeanne" and Kirsty totally owned "You Just Haven't Earned it Yet, Baby" ) having both recorded Bragg's "A New England" (Billy`s had less words and Kirsty`s had more production) and, always a big one for this blogger, they both loved The Clash:





Interestingly, Billy and Kirsty also bonded over the less-than-stellar Johnny Moped song "Darling, Let's Have Another Baby" to which they manage to inject a lot of life.



CD 1 76:09
Billy Bragg:
1. Richard
2. Little Time Bomb
3. St Swithin's Day
4. A Lover Sings
5. Honey I'm A Big Boy Now
6. The Few
7. The Man In The Iron Mask
8. Levi Stubbs Tears

Kirsty MacColl & Band
9. A New England
10. Fifteen Minutes
11. Don't Come The Cowboy
12. Train In Vain
13. Walking Down Madison
14. Free World
15. They Don't Know
16. There's a Guy Down at the Chip Shop Swears he's Elvis
17. Fairytale of New York
18. Darling Lets Have Another Baby (w/ Bragg).

CD 2 75:10
Jupitus as Porky the Poet
19. Bestiality

Billy Bragg
20. Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
21. The Warmest Room
22. Suwlk
23. Accident Waiting to Happen
24. Help Save The Youth Of America

Everybody
25. Auld Lang Syne

Billy Bragg
26. You Woke up my Neighbourhood
27. Greetings to the New Brunette
28. Body of Water
29. North Sea Bubble
30. Must I Paint You A Picture
31. Mother of the Bride
32. Cindy of a Thousand Lives (w/ MacColl)
33. Sexuality (w/ MacColl)

CD 3 30:08 / 33:05 / 2.48
34. Between The Wars > A New England
35. Billericay Dickie

Everybody
36. A Message To You,Rudi > Messages / Intros

Billy Bragg
37. A13, Trunk Road to the Sea

By the 90`s Bragg was touring with a full band (led by long-time associate Wiggy), The Red Stars, who I saw at The Commodore in Vancouver in 1991. The band was good, as this bootleg ably demonstrates, but there was a certain air of business-as-usualness that those old solo shows never had.




So COMMENTERS, two questions, what did you make off Bragg`s Red Stars era and what`s your take on Kirsty MacColl (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the three Hackney Empire links).

P.S. I`m still looking for shows from a few different eras so if anyone knows a good source for Billy Bragg bootlegs let me know!!


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Billy Bragg: Live in Wellington (1987)

By 1987, Bragg's records were no longer one-man affairs. While Bragg layered on piano, backing vocals, pretty guitar, and other assorted horns n' strings he began to slowly bury that raw-as-hell guitar and that rough-as-hell voice.



The good news for those of us who love our Bragg performance free of violin, flugelhorn and that damnably tinkly piano sound he favours, there's a tonne of great sounding boots made during this period where Billy still toured solo. This one from Wellington in 1987 includes a slew of tracks from the excellent (despite the excessive fiddly bits) album Greetings to the New Brunette all roughed up.


So do you think Braggy's ever-slicker production took away from his music or added to it? Leave us a COMMENT (and don't forget that is is where you'll find the Live in Wellington link).


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Billy Bragg: Live in Edinburgh (1986)

Yup another radio show (and yes another German radio show despite the shwo taking place in Scotland). While this includes an inordinate amount of DJ patter (all in Deutsch), the person who ripped this made sure to keep most of the talking as separate tracks.




Thanks for all the awesome Braggy COMMENTS - please carry on (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the Live in Edinburgh link).


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Billy Bragg: Live in Bremen Schauburg (1984)

Braggy sure spent a lot of the eighties either on TV or the radio!




Today's boot is a great-sounding 19 song radio broadcast from Germany in 1984.



Our videos, also of mid-eighties and German vintage, but are from a show in Rockpalast in 1985, much of which is on YouTube.

MRML readers: Love the COMMENTS thus far !! (which is the section wherein you'll find the Live in Bremen link).

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Billy Bragg: Live in Malmö (1986)

Both the sound quality and the performance on this 1986 Swedish radio show are furious. Do yourself a favour and give it a listen. Speaking of favours, YouTube user onionbaraon has Uploaded an ENTIRE concert from Billy's visit to East Germany - phenomenal!!




MRML readers: Let us know you make of this treasure trove of early Bragg stuff in the COMMENTS (which is where you'll find the Live in Malmö link).

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Billy Bragg: BBC Paris Theatre (1984)

Lots more to say about Billy Bragg but for now let's continue to observe the man's evolution with this BBC concert from back in 1984!



Thanks for all the Bragg-related COMMENTS on our last Billy post, it was encouraging to hear your early reactions ot the Bard of Barking



So COMMENTS are obviously a good thing) - please carry on leaving them (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the BBC Paris Theatre link).


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Bill Bragg: Live at the Key Theatre (1983)

Billy Bragg started this blog.

Well, not him personally but my first upload, nigh-on four years ago, was Bragg's criminally out-of-print BBC Sessions and I seem to return to Bragg's rough-hewn folk-punk n' whatnot sound every year - like some sorta concussed migratory bird. After all, once I began talking about British agit-punk of the eighties like The Redskins (more HERE) and The Neurotics (more HERE) I knew more Bragg was coming.

I'm not gonna tell you I knew who Bragg was in 1983 (though I did try to translate an article from a French magazine about him in 1985). It wasn't all the way until 1988 when the now out-of-pint compilation Back-to-Basics so devastated me. Hard-strumming, sing-along folk was the soundtrack of my childhood whereas clashing, shout-along punk rock got me though my adolescence. Now one man had had found the essence of each and spliced the two divergent strains of Anglo-American music together. Bragg's solo electric style is singular one and, while influential on a whole new generation of folk-punks, is rarely attempted by others.



This real early bootleg is raw-as-hell and contains the rare song "Voice in the Wilderness". Supposedly there is a longer version available but this seven track version is all I can offer (unless some milkman of human kindness out there has an upgrade for us!)

MRML readers: What did you make of this early Bragg stuff when you first heard it? Let us know in the COMMENTS (which is where you'll find the Live at the Key Theatre link).

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Rob Stoner: If You Want It Enough (1983)

Well folks, first we brought you Dylan sideman (amongst other gigs) Rob Stoner's ultra-rare major label album, Patriotic Duty (see HERE). But now, thanks to the extreme generosity of our new friend Pachi (who, as you can see, got his copy signed by the man himself), we can present you the FAR rarer 1983 album on the re-born Sun Records, If You Want It Enough.


And this one is a bullet, hell it's a full clip - these 10 songs shoot by in less twenty-eight minutes! While some might prefer the powerful and polished sound of Stoner's debut that he made while workin' for MCA, this both-guns-a-blazin' follow-up suggests that ganging up with a re-armed Sun Records sharpened his aim even further.



So, while there's no Dylan covers this time, songs by both Pomous/Shuman and Lennon/McCartney do get revved-up rockabilly readings. Seven of the remaining tracks are Stoner originals co-written with one Ruby Stoner. One of our commenters, Karate Boogaloo, mentioned that Ruby Stoner, who is interestingly credited with "all arrangements", is Rob's ex-wife. Also of note is that she is the only other hand in this one-man show, for which Rob Stoner plays all the instruments and sings all the vocals!


So let us know what do you think of Stoner's two album solo career (and make sure to leave a BIG thank you note for Pachi) in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the link for If You Want It Enough).


Rob Stoner's Homepage!

Interview with Rob Stoner

V.A. God Save Us From the USA (1987)

Compilation albums in the eighties, especially ones that were done for the benefit of some greater cause, often wore their musical schizophrenia as a badge of honour. This benefit for Nicaraguan solidarity gives you anarcho-pop-punk from Zounds, spoken word pieces from Nic Toczek, reggae-punk from Culture Shock, socialist-pop from The Neurotics, Welsh-language pop-punk from Anhrefn, weird-core from Karma Sutra, skronk-rock from Some Weird Sin, post-noise from The Apostles, grindcore from Heresy, pop-punk from Dan and novelty-folk from Attila the Stockbroker .







Unlike Punk and Disorderly, We Won't Be Your Fucking Poor or even Underground Rockers, this compilation shows a UK punk scene in transformation. If back in 1987 you weren't all that into mid-period DRI et al, you not only knew a lot of these bands but you also probably wanted to know why they left off The Joyce McKinney Experience.

A1 Nick Toczek – Noo Yawk Squawk / Sheer Funk
A2 Culture Shock – Catching Flies
A3 Anhrefn – Nefoedd Un, Uffern Llall
A4 Dan – Best Of Families
A5 The Neurotics– Never Hold Your Tongue
A6 Zounds – Demystification
B1 Attila The Stockbroker – Libyan Students From Hell
B2 Karma Sutra – Let Them Eat Somozas
B3 Some Weird Sin – God Bless America
B4 Instigators – Eye To Eye
B5 Heresy – Flowers In Concrete
B6 Heresy – Cornered Rat
B7 The Apostles – Inner Space


So did the late eighties, all things considered, have a more diverse underground? Leave us a COMMENT! (Which is where you'll find the God Save Us From the USA.)

The Neurotics: His Masters Voice (1979-1987)

The (Newtown) Neurotics began in the late seventies sounding like a politicized, Anglicized Ramones ( ("C'mon C'mon Don't be so slow, be like The Ramones - go man go!" they once sang) but gradually developed a sound they described as "good pop on a bad budget".



The Neurotics were an under-appreciated part of a loosely-affiliated anti-Thatcher/pro-pop music scene that included everyone from The Housemartins to The Redskins to Madness to the Style Council to Billy Bragg. Exactly when the band hit their peak is a subject of some debate, with some advocating for their early singles and others, such as yourS truly, arguing that they were a bit plain as a straight-up punk band and really found their most distinctive voice on releases like 1985 's "Repercussions".



While you should not judge this out-of-print collection by it's incomprehensibly dreadful packaging, you should realize that its merely a decent overview and far better releases (that don't leave off "Living With Unemployment" [!]) have superseded it and should be sought out via the links below.


When do you think the Neurotics hit their peak? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll also find the His Master's Voice link).

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"I Say 'A' for ABBA, She Says 'A' for Anarchy"

Darren Hanlon is clever, tuneful guy. Some people sneer at clever tuneful guys. Their loss.



"Punk's Not Dead" from his 2002 album, "Hello Stranger" weds clever rhymes and catchy rockabilly-inspired guitar bits to a melody that sticks into your head like a knife.



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The Redkins: Rarities

Apparently, Michael Moore has offered Bridget De Pape a job!



Now, first we gave you a lengthy political diatribe to accompany The Redskins BBC Sessions (see HERE) but we had to skip ahead to the later stuff, such as 1986's "The Power is Yours!" 7" because the band's first two singles, were part of an oddly-compiled, exceedingly brief compilation called Epilogue (Insurgence, 2010).



Here's a lovingly put-together vinyl-era bootleg of Redskins rarities.


Comments, comrades! (Which is also the section where you'll find the link for Rarities!)

MRML has way more Redskins HERE!

My Top Ten Redskins Videos list HERE!

And don't forget to visit I Vomit 4 U for even more Redskins!



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Rob Stoner: Patriotic Duty (1980)

Until I came across an actual copy of the above-pictured L.P. last week, I had no idea that seventies sideman-to-the-stars, Rob Stoner had ever released any solo work. But there's nothing like a flip through the vinyl bins to disturb the slumbers of history.


While Rob Stoner, a New York City multi-instrumentalist/song-writer, had worked in the studio with many folk artists, his first taste of fame was likely his role in Don Mclean's mythopoeic "American Pie" (for which McLean apparently felt the sideman important enough to drag along to the 1972 Grammy Awards.)


(I think Stoner's back there but I might be wrong...)

No matter how enduring "American Pie" may be, the item most likely to dominate Stoner's obituary somewhere down the line, will be his mid-seventies role as bassist/band leader for both the traveling circus that was Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and the chaotic recording sessions for Dylan's 1976 album, Desire. On the tour, Stoner not only lead the band known as Guam but he also got to sing lead on his own song, "Too Good to Be Wasted (But Too Wasted To Be Any Good)".



Next up was a multi-year association with New York Rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon, who always had a killer sense of what makes a good sideman (Gordon hired first Link Wray, then Chris Spedding and then Danny Gatton as lead his guitarist, all during the time that he also employed both Stoner and his fellow Guam member Howie Wyeth as his rhythm section!) When Stoner left, Gordon picked Tony Garnier to be his bassist - the man who would go on to play bass for Bob Dylan's touring band for twenty-two years and counting!




The album, 1980's long out-of-of-print Patriotic Duty, is fine seventies-styled rockabilly album akin to some of Dave Edmunds' material but even more hyper-focused on that boom-booming Sun Records sound. Rolling Stone's David Fricke described it as, "High octane punkabilly, cool vocals and energetic, heady New Wave attack" and, in The Rolling Stone Record Guide, John Swenson gave it four stars.



As if all that isn't enough, the LP also features a cover of the rare mid-seventies Dylan tune, "Seven Days" to recommend it to Dylan obsessives:




Comments on this rarity and the history we've awoken here today would be most appreciated, dear readers.

The link for "Patriotic Duty" can be found in that COMMENTS section.



Rob Stoner's Homepage!

Interview with Rob Stoner

P.S. The rip of the vinyl come from the great viacomclosedmedown on youtube over at the amazing resource that is Down Underground - please go visit them, you have nothing to lose but a few gigs of space on your hard drive!

The Redskins: Last Gig (1986)

1) Defiance in the face of a regime built on contempt.


2) Come visit The Big Takeover for my Top Ten Redskins Videos list!

Now, first we gave you a lengthy political diatribe to accompany The Redskins BBC Sessions (see HERE) then we skipped to give the the later singles since the band's first two singles, were part of an oddly-compiled, exceedingly brief compilation called Epilogue (Insurgence, 2010) and finally we arrive at the posthumous era.



This fansite bootleg does what it says on the tin - gives us the last gig (which was also caught on video!)


Comments, comrades! (Which is also the section where you'll find the link for The Last Gig!)

MRML has way more Redskins HERE!

And don't forget to visit I Vomit 4 U for even more Redskins!


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