The Spazzys and Marky Ramone: Live, 2004

(Image taken from RamonetotheBone)

Hey come check out my top ten Spazzys videos over at The Big Takeover!!


Yesterday, we talked about the return of Australia's queens of pop-punk, The Spazzys' (see HERE) . Today, we're going to re-present to you a bootleg of the band playing in Sydney with Marky Ramone back in 2004. Marky's role in this show, aside from drumming, was to introduce all of the songs with this unbelievable stage banter which sounds somewhere between Paul Stanley and Wayne Newton - "We're gonna get some sun in California now" - and  thereby validates an iron rule of showbusiness, "Never let the drummer talk". All the rest of the music is provided by the Spazzys, with usual drummer Allly taking most of the lead vocals. Almost the entire set list consists of Ramones classics done with good spunk but the two exceptions, a take on Joey Ramone's version of "It's a Wonderful World" and the Spazzys own, very fitting, "I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone" really makes this a fascinating document .



Spazzys- Spazzys TV from agostino soldati on Vimeo.

(All great stuff here - but to see the Marky/Spazzys clip, skip to 9:37) 


 For lots more Spazzys on MRML go HERE!

 (photo courtesy of i94bar.com)

Let us know what you think of this Spazzys-Ramones alliance in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find a link for either an MP3 or a .Flac version of the show).

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Ally Spazzy solo

The Spazzys and Marky Ramone: Live

The Spazzys sure make for odd back-up. The oddness of that video (see here) of them with Chris Bailey is that it looks (and sounds) a bit like a set-piece from a seventies variety show, it's like the Spazzys get to play Pink Lady to Chris Bailey's Jeff.

(That line-up is fucking gob-smacking - BJ with Bear in tow, Hef plus six centerfolds, Cheap Trick not doing "I Want You To Want Me' and a hot tub - is it any wonder viewers like me were ruined for life?)

Then there's this 2004 concert from Sydney with Marky Ramone. Marky's role in all of this, aside from playing the drums, was to introduce all of the songs with this sub-Vegas stage banter which sounds somewhere between Paul Stanley and Wayne Newton - "We're gonna get some sun in California now" - and to thereby prove the validity of the iron rule, "Never Let the Drummer Talk". All the rest of the music is provided by the Spazzys, with usual drummer Allly taking some lead vocals. Almost the entire set list consists of Ramones classic done with good spunk but the two exceptions, a take on Joey Ramone's version of "It's a Wonderful World" and the Spazzys own, very fiting "I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone", make it odd in the best sense.

(both photos courtesy of i94bar.com)

The Spazzys and Marky Ramone Live (.flac*)

I Just Want Something To Do
California Sun
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
I Don’t Care
I Wanna Be Sedated
Rockaway Beach
Rock’n’Roll High School
The KKK Took My Baby Away
It’s A Wonderful World
Chinese Rocks
Pinhead
Blitzkrieg Bop
I Wanna Cut My Hair like Marky Ramone

* all tracks claim to be by Einstürzende Neubauten, which was too funny to fix.

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: Dumb is Forever (2011)

After one of those soul-crushing legal battles that are a part of rock lore (i.e. Springsteen's forced inactivity in the mid-70's) The Spazzys have re-emerged with a newly released, Japanese-only, album titled Dumb is Forever. Definitely more of a power-pop (Cheap Trick division) album than a pop-punk one, this is still an ass-kicking, name-taking record. While a certain bitterness pervades the album ("Divorce",  "Dissolution Was the Only Solution, "Love = Pain") these rippling, melodic songs (check out the Fastbacks-like "Best Waves Ever") just exude a steely undaunted sound. Since these songs were actually recorded years ago, maybe we can now hope for a quick, rocking follow-up with international distribution. (For lots more Spazzys on MRML go HERE!)





Let us know what you think of this new Spazzys stuff in the COMMENTS section!

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Ally Spazzy solo

The Spazzys: I Met Her at the 7-11

In interviews Hellcat Records punk-metal band Civet {hey check out my review here} imply that there's been a dearth of tough all-girl rock n' roll bands since the Runaways. The Spazzys lay waste to such a self-serving claim. It's not that the Spazzys (who are from Melbourne, Australia) feign a macho-girl stance, as some of their competitors might, they just know how to dig all the best trash from the ruins of rock n' roll. At first appearance, it looks like the went through the Ramones garbage as obsessively as A.J. Weberman dug through Dylan's. To whit, check out out their T-shirts (two out of three), identical surnames (twins Kat and Lucy plus Ally all go by the name Spazzy) and song titles ("I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone").


The current fate of the Spazzys, meshed in some godforsaken legal limo, is so dire that their Wikipedia sounds as it was translated from Swahili, their MySpace remains static and their website in on Angelfire (no, really). So, here at MRML we're left to take a scattered look at their discography, starting with the I Met Her at the 7-11 e.p. It's five Ramones meets Go-Go's songs in ten minutes and there's not a clunker among them. From the first strains of "Surf'n Bird" (an original) the Ramones chug is ever-present but the melodies, the vocal arrangement and the lyrics prove them to be a band unto themselves. Just listen to the Beatles-quoting tale of unrequited love in the international pop underground, "Paco Doesn't Love Me", and you'll know that great rock n' roll doesn't give a shit about gender.


I Met Her at the 7-11 e.p.

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: Hey Hey Baby

Ramonesaphillia is not as disabling as most overwhelming influences. Bands from the Undertones to the Mr. T Experience to the Queers to the Spazzys (see here) can steal Ramones-isms at will, chuck in their own lyrical and musical peculiarities and instead of sounding derivative it's fucking exhilarating. And there's lots of stolen exhilaration on this little record. The Spazzys' song-writing, good from the get-go, is now in full force. Just listen to the glorious blast of pop that is "Hey Hey Baby"and try not to sing along, either to the dopey lyrics or those joyous Beach Boys backing whoo-hoos. (And enjoy or be creeped out by Marky Ramone's guest appearance in the video.)



Ramonesaphilliacs live or die by their fidelity to Bob Dylan's dictum that to achieve greatness artists need to go back and dig deeply into what works originally influenced their influences. By establishing that any late fifties to mid sixties three minute rock n' roll single was a primal source the Ramones made such historical research fun and easy. The Spazzys establish their star pupil credentials by being both reverential and gonzo in their cover of the Everly Brothers "By Bye Love" and then laying down another first-class original Blitzkrieg Bopper, "Let's Keep Going to the Show" .


Hey Hey Baby 7"

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: My Boyfriend's Back

Covering the Angels and the Riverdales on one little record shows just how good the Spazzys' (see more here) taste is. Their version of "My Boyfriend's Back" while fuzzed-up and rocked-out is ultimately pretty faithful, right down the hand-claps and the hey-la's.



The Riverdales cover, "I Don't Wanna Go to the Party" is fittingly Ramones-ish but adds a bit of the spunk occasionally lacking in that section of Ben Weasel's catalog.


My Boyfriends' Back 7"


(A fascinating video of the Spazzys backing up Saints' leader Chris Bailey on the same song. Odd.)

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: Aloha! Go Bananas

And so the Spazzys (see here) story ends with a cliffhanger. Not long after the release of Aloha Go Bananas a seismic schism split band and their record label, Fur Records. Though their second album was finished, it's lain in limbo while the lawyers grow fat and the twins teach little kids how to trash their instruments via a program called Kiddie Rock.


For the album the Spazzy women refused to stand pat. While the the rockers, like album-opener "Zombie Girl" are thicker and heavier, the pop songs, like "Shake and Twist" and "You Left My Heart in the Garage" are all dolled up with layered vocals.




There are a few singles that overlap with the album (and even a more recent one called "I Want a Divorce" which even though they only pressed five hundred copies in Japan still got the lawyers all riled up). This interview from September 2009 claims the release of their old new album Dumb is Forever is imminent. To be continued...



Aloha Go Bananas (plus bonus tracks)

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

Ramonesongs

"Who's your favourite Ramone?"

It's Joey. However, it's not unquestioning as with, say the Clash (Strummer wins), or a Rorschach test like the Beatles used to be (nowadays it's all John). The Ramones gang-mentality made them slightly harder to distinguish. Johnny was the punk rock anchor, Dee Dee the key song-writer and Joey brought the pop. Tommy, Richie and Marky's importance can't be discounted, though perhaps C.J.'s can.

So while Joe Strummer inspired dozens of songs about him, to the exclusion of his Clash-mates, Ramones tribute songs (as opposed to covers) are legion and less exclusive in their devotion. In these twenty-six Ramonesongs, Joey takes the lion's share but Dee Dee gets enough, while Johnny and Marky also get namechecked. The remainder are bands who just let their tattered Ramones flags fly.

1. Motorhead - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Motorhead make most other bands sound like sissies.

2. Eastern Dark -Johnny and Dee Dee
Handclaps, harmonies and hammering guitars - hey ho let's go.

3. Sloppy Seconds - You Can't Kill Joey Ramone
A junk-rock prayer for the dead.

4. Queers - Goodbye California
Joe King embodies the Johnny/Joey - rock/pop dichotomy in one surly man's body and hence all of his songs are Ramones tributes even when they only mention the band in passing.

5. Mr. T. Experience - End of the Ramones
When MTX was a two-song-writer organization, Jon Von's goofy garage-rock tunes always complimented Dr. Frank's more sarcastically cerebral pop-punk songs.

6. Marky Ramones and the Speed Kings - I've Got Dee Dee On My Mind
In the documentary End of the Century Marky says the Ramones greatness lied in their stamina and which Ramone has shown more stamina than Marky?

7. The Vacant Lot - Dee Dee said
May in fact be a love song for former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Meyers.

8. Helen Love - Joey Ramoney
If Bridget Jones formed a twee-pop band who sang only about the Ramones this is what they would sound like.

9. Dr. Frank - I Wanna Ramone You
Solo song from the leader of MTX and it's from his self-penned soundtrack to his novel, King Dork.

10. Lenny & the Piss-Poor Boys - Beat on the Brat
This is CBGB's music; not drugged-up punk or straight-edge hardcore but country, blue grass and blues - Bowery style.

11. Amy Rigby - Dancing With Joey Ramone
Country-tinged power-pop with a sharp eye for detail.

12. Spazzys - I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone
Screeching Weasel surf with the Go-Go's in Australia.

13. Parasites - I Wanna Be Like Dee Dee Ramone
In 1:40 Dave Parasite does a more fitting tribute to tha brudders than his hour-long cover of "It's Alive".

14. Badtown Boys - Dee Dee Took the Subway
A zippy lament for Dee Dee's doomed solo career.

15. Hanson Brothers - Joey Had To Go
A salute to Joey by the NoMeansNo side - band who sound uncannily like NoMeansNo trying to sound vaguely like the Ramones.

16. Greenland Whalefishers - Ramones
The Pogues but Norwegian.

17. The Wildhearts - 29 X the Pain
Actually an advertisement for leader Ginger's very discriminating taste in rock n' roll (with the exception of Kiss who blow no matter what cockamamie theory anyone offers to the contrary).

18. Raging Slab - Dry Your Eyes (For Joey Ramone)
The Ramones inspired seventies-styled sludge-rock bands too.

19. We Vs Death and Tom Sweetlove - No Future (For Joey Ramone)
Some call it post-rock, I call it art for art's sake.

20. Sleater Kinney - I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone
Their time as crit-darlings is long gone and this song represents the best of the noise-damaged art-punk they left behind.

21. Guitar Wolf - Kung Fu Ramone Culmination Tactic
Japanese feedback-mongers offer an instrumental tribute to the Ramones (at least I think that's what they're doing...)

22. Swoons - My Grandpa is Joey Ramone
A (possibly) Japanese band who'll make you miss Shoenen Knife (a.k.a the Osaka Ramones).

23. Boris the Sprinkler - Kill the Ramones
Rev. Norb spews out more of his Ramonesaphobia.

24. Huntingtons - What Would Joey Do?
The Huntingtons plied their Ramones-by-way-of Screeching-Weasel shtick for ten years and it never hurt anyone.

25.Acid Reflux - Do Your Parent Know You're a Ramone
A :37 second old-school hardcore smear.

26. Jello Biafra - Joey Ramone
They say generals are always fighting the last war and Jello Biafra is a punk rock general forever fighting against the mid-seventies.


Download Ramonesongs

P.S. With so many songs about the Ramones I elected to delete some songs before this turned into a friggin' box set. That being said, please feel free to comment on songs left off.

P.P.S. Still time to vote on the Last Great Ramones Album.

Next: I Was A Teenage Ramone

MRML TOP 22.1 SONGS of 2011

Sure I love doing year-end lists (best non-albums releases HERE, best under-appreciated albums HERE and my want list is HERE)  but making one for songs-of-the-year list is sheer folly in light of thousands of songs released over any given twelve moth period. So let us suspend our disbelief in the comprehensiveness of this blogger's listening and enjoy some ripping tunes. And ripping it must be, since we here at MMRL crave music that, regardless of genre,  >  moves  >

Unlike my unappreciated albums list, neither acclaim nor sales (or the lack thereof) are a factor here - and crossover betwixt the two lists is discouraged - this time it's strictly about the songs!

Here, in no particular order, order are the songs, each of which contains a hyperlink to allow you to hear and/or see the song.

1.  Greg MacPherson:   "Party at Greg's House"   (from Disintegration Blues)
Winnipeg singer/song-writer/community activist/label head MacPherspon (more HERE), has his own way to rock but goes anthemic here to intoxicating effect.

2.  The Spazzys:   "Divorce"   (from Dumb is Forever)
Comeback of the year for these Australian queens of pop-punk (more HERE), after they survived a tortuous legal battle to release their second album, with kick-off/kiss-off single.

3.  Ben Jones:   "I Wish I Was the Person I'm Pretending To Be"   (from Echobox)
Self-loathing never sounded so hummable, as it does on this track from the excellent solo debut from the leader of British power-pop band, The Lovedays.

4.  Paul Simon:   "Rewrite"    (from So Beautiful, So What)
Of course every writer of lists got pulled into Simon's narrative about a damaged Vietnam vet who works at the car wash while endlessly revising his screenplay, because we all sympathized a bit too much, it didn't hurt that the song is just beautiful.

5.  The Generators:   "You Against You"   (from Last of the Pariahs)
These long-running former Schleprock-ers (more HERE), never get the respect they deserves for their Social Distortion-meets-Bad Religions punk sound but they perservere.

6. The Front Bottoms:   "Flashlight" [or "Maps"]   (from Self-Titled)
To get this New Jersey indie-punk band, sort of a mixture of The Weakerthans and mewithoutYou, it helps if you love songs that put the heart-breaking narratives up high in the mix.

7.  Houseboat   "Quivering"   (from Thorns of Life)
I already regret leaving this off the "Best Albums of the Year" list what with Grath unloading one of his best batch of "pityscapes" with catchy tunes and endlessly clever lyrics on us.

8.  Buffalo Tom:   "Guilty Girls" (from Skins)
It's funny how I've always admired the commitment and intelligence of nineties alt-rocker Bill Janovitz but never fell in love with one of his songs till this infectious number.

9.  Mates of State   "Palomino"    (from Mountaintops)
Sure, maybe it's just a 21st century kind of pop but if you love soaring hooks and alternating male/female vocals you can find some unguilty pleasure herein.

10. Night Birds:  "Bad Biology"   (from Fresh Kills)
This ultra-ultra-ultra catchy ripper by NJ surf-core band featuring at least one ex-Erg is originaly from 2009 but finally saw wide release on this 2011 singles collection.

11. Tommy Stinson    "All This Way for Nothing"   (from One Man Mutiny)
Replacements advocates, like yours truly, are often left grasping at straws when trying to explain how, if the band was such a crucial part of the eighties, why so little great things have come from the band's members in the twenty years since their break-up. Well  this Stones-y album from bass player Tommy Stinso ain't gonna settle a thing but at least it gives us a replacement Replacements track in, "All this Way For Nothing".

12. The Decemberists:   "The Calamity Song"   (from The King is Dead)

Somewhere between Bad Religion and The Band (well no one but me would read them that way, exactly) lie this widely-praised beloved Portland indie-folk-rock band, who I've always found pleasant but never so much as on this album packed with finely-written acoustic pop songs!

13. Will Hogue:     Goddam California  (Hogue discusses the song HERE)
Glad to have a country song make the list, this wouldn't have got any mainstream radio play but that's just because of the cursing and not because Hogue couldn't lay waste to a lot of today's' country elite in song-to-song combat




14. Teenage Bottlerocket:   "Mutilate Me"   (from Mutilate Me 7")
Wyoming's finest rock n' roll band spit out another trashy but catchy punk tune from their sole release of the year.

15. Wild Flag:   "Romance"   (from Self-Titled)
This song is catchier and more fleshed-out then any I remember from Sleater-Kinney

16. The Smoking Popes:   "Still in a Punk Band"   (from This is Only a Test)
An improbable nineties come-back tale by this band who sound a little like a Morrissey-fronted Weezer, which now that I think of it might be a goad career move for all concerned.

17. The Copyrights   "Crutches"   (from North Sentinel Island)
Y'know some bands get praised for their consistency and other bands, like the Copyrights get damned for it, as if the band making a prog-metal concept album based on Bartleby the Scrivener or having Kenny G play with them on national television would be more worthwhile then another slab of jackhammer pop songs.

18. 1/2 Man 1/2 Biscuit   "Left Lyrics in the Practice Room"     (from 90 Bisindol)

While it's no Achtung, Bono, the new 1/2 Man 1/2 Biscuit (whom BBC DJ Andy Kershaw called "the most authentic British folk band since The Clash") album still offers even more proof  that Nigel Blackwell is, like Roy Harper or Robyn Hitchcock, one of those Englishmen so particular in their eccentricities, that their appeal becomes (sort of) universal.

19. Canon Bros.   "Out of Here"    (from Firecracker/Cloudglow)
This track puts this Winnipeg duo's guitarist, Allanah Walker, on lead vocals, where she excels, and lets her winningly chant “Hey Let’s get out of here, I hate it here!” until you want to reach through the speakers and help her escape.

20. The Valkyryans (ft. TV Smith):   "Gary Gilmore's Eyes"   (from Punk Rocksteady)
These Finns have by no means made a perfect album but this collection of punk covers, Jamaican style,  does overcome its novelty appeals by proving just how the malleable the punk rock canon is.

21.  Cold Warps:   "Stupid Tattoos"   (from Self-Titled cassette)
This lo-fi punk-indie band's cassette was a strong contender for non-album release of the year list but Brushback only told me about it last week!

22. Okkervill River:   "Wake and Be Fine"   (from I Am Very Far)
Yup, they are one-time indie darling (though ones who recorded an album with Roky Erickson) and yup, they have bearded members but this songs is strong and the band perform it with a real jump in their step.


oh...


22.1 I Am Chimp!    "Old Men in Coloured Trousers" (from "I Am Chimp EP)
The best :21 second song of the year, bar none!


Y'know our last two lists generated less COMMENTS than usual...

So,
please leave a COMMENT: 

A)  TELL US IF WE GOT YOU TO TRY SOMETHING NEW!
B)  TELL US WHICH GREAT SONGS WE MISSED!!

AND, OF COURSE, IF YOU LIKE THE MUSIC - SUPPORT THE DAMN BANDS!!!