DEVO: The Men Who Make The Music [1979, HQ]

With the passing of original DEVO drummer, Alan Myers (a.k.a. 'The Human Metronome'), it's time to re chart the course of DEVO. The Men Who Make the Music is a VHS-era film that features not only a lot of the conceptual bafflegab that comprised the band's philosophical underpinnings but also a slew of fantastic live footage from their guitar-centered seventies era. Watch 'em rock:





CLUBDEVO


Follow @jeffen69

William Mysterious: Security of Noise 7'' (1982)

 (all scans and rips by Roberto!)

William Mysterious (a.k.a. Alastair Donaldson) who played with Scottish folk band Silly Wizard before becoming the bassist (and sax player) for both The Rezillos and The Revillos has died (obituary). His role in The Rezillos and The Revillos was no mystery; he had to keep the flighty zaniness of Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds grounded. And oh did he lash their day-glo flights-of-fancy like "(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures" right to the earth so they could bounce around in front of our ears.





This obscure 1982 single on Mysterious' own Mezzanine Records, featuring a backing assist by Fay Fife and The Revettes, is Mysterious' sole solo release.





Feel free to share your thoughts on the work of Mr. Mysterious in the COMMENTS section.  


Support the band

Homepage

MySpace

Amazon

iTunes





Follow @jeffen69

Urban Struggle: The Battle of the Cuckoo's Nest (1981) ft.Black Flag, Circle Jerks, T.S.O.L.

"Our main premise is to get people to hate us."

Derf Scratch, Fear

Especially with the bands present here (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Fear), this 1981 documentary by Paul Young feels like a mini-sequel to Penelope Spheeris' seminal punk film The Decline of Western Civilization. In case you feel those grizzled punks complaining about how kids today have it soft are just seeing things through shit-coloured glasses, this film really captures the violent, repressive milieu these kids lived (and reveled) in.


Urban Struggle: The Battle Of The Cuckoos Nest from York Shackleton on Vimeo.


The footage for this film was incorporated into the newer documentary, We Were Feared, apparently without the legal OK.

Here's the seemingly shorter, YouTube version:

MRML readers, let us know what you think of this lost shard of punk rock history in the COMMENTS section!

Follow @jeffen69

Dr. Feelgood: Live in Berlin, 1980

If you haven't watched Oil City Confidential, director Julian Temple's latest examination of 1970's England, do not delay any further. Temple's brilliant use of British gangster films to sell the story puts Oil City Confidential into the elite company of Rock Docs that transcend the stultifying "they were influential' talking head dynamic.





Of course, Temple also wisely honed in on a band widely regarded, even to their detractors, as a riotous live act. Now, thanks to Bandit999, you can witness some of that live fire from the Feelgoods, albeit sans the attention-grabbing antics of Wilko Johnson.





HOMEPAGE

Follow @jeffen69

My Life is Likened to a Bargin Store...

Last year, Winnipeg's Into the Music purchased the archives (CD's and vinyl) from both our local CBC radio station and the one from our "neighbouring" city of Regina. Last weekend they blew out the last of the CD's for $.50 each (or 100 for $25.00). Needless to say, I dived in head first, trying the patience of my fellow rock walk'ers.

Nothing highlights trash/treasure dichotomy quite like store-wide blow-out sale. Surely you will disdain some of my purchases; when the prices go down the better angels of my judgement pull out their debit cards.

We've got a lot of styles in this soufle; ska (King Apparatus), protest folk (Phil Ochs, Malvina Reynolds), Alt-country (Cactus Brothers, Mack McKenzie, Jughead, Cheryl Wheeler), Brit-folk (The Levellers), power-pop (Doughboys, Chris Page), celtic (Spirit of the West), world music (3 Mustaphas 3), straight-up country (BR5 49, Blackhawk) and, inevitably, failed super-group (Little Village).

And this is only the fifty-cent bin I also stalked the slightly more expensive two-dollar bin but more on that later...

So, MRML readers, what are some of your favourite finds in the cheapie bin?

Follow @jeffen69

The Fastbacks: Tributes (1991-1998)

(A re-up for Eastvan)

One consequence of the CD glut of the nineties was the dawn of the so-called 'tribute album', in which a a range of modern exponents of a genre (especially underground ones) would record a cover from a formative artist like The Ramones or Nick Lowe or The Shaggs or what have you. Typically, the results of all this tributing varied all the way from mediocre to middling. No matter how good the original band and no matter how many good newer bands they'd cobbled together, most of these collections just came off as throwaways. (It's indicative that that the only CD I ever kept from this sub-heading was one called Tulare Dust which featured alt.country acts covering Merle Haggard).





One band who could always guarantee to liven up these dull albums was Seattle's The Fastbacks (more HERE). Partly it was that the band was just on a roll around the time these tributes began mushrooming up but mostly it was because, as a band who'd put out their first single in 1981, Kurt Bloch & co were a rocking link between the first wave of punk and the nineties underground explosion. Hence this MRML-compiled collection of Fastbacks covers, MOST of which are from some long out-of-print, fly-by-night label's half-baked tribute CD.

So, MRML readers, what's your favourite Fastbacks cover song? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
Support the band

Amazon

iTunes

SubPop

Homepage

Follow @jeffen69

Greenback High: Bombs Away 7" (2012)

Fucking Hell! Do you love power-chording punk with huge choruses that won't let up until you fucking surrender? Well then, I have found your new favourite band. Featuring drummer FloorTom Jones (ex-DOA), guitarist Snakes and Joshy Atomic from the Jolts as well as The Vicious Cycles bassist, Beardo. While there's a hell of a lot of Clash '79 rumbling around in here, there's also shards of sing-along Oi bands like Cocksparrer, big-guitar-pop bands of the eighties like Big Country and Ramones-loving 90's bands like Screeching Weasel and more besides. Check it out!





Facebook