Top Ten of The Week-Spring Ahead

Strange weather and a strange winter.  We have had 4 straight record days temps of 80 degrees or warmer if you can believe that.   So it actually feels like the last day of spring rather than winter.  And I'm sure we'll pay for it later in the year.

1.  It's Monk Time-The Monks 1999   It took them over 30 years to finally make their way to the US, strange considering they were a US bunch of guys that had a bigger following over in Germany than over here. Hell, I never heard of them till I saw their Black Monk Time out on Infinite Zero/American Recordings and figure that Henry Rollins had a lot to do with reissuing their album  Light In the Attic took over the reissue department after Infinite Zero closed their doors.  I'm guessing the original album was out on Polydor years ago.  This is from their Cavestomp appearance of 1999 and for a bunch of old men, they got the groove down pat.  Pere Ubu owes them for the quirky vocals of Gary Burger.

2.  St. Vitus Dance-Black Sabbath 1972  Betcha didn't think these guys could do a country tune?  At least is sounds like Tony Iommi trying to do a country number but it still sounds like heavy metal.  Seems like Bill Ward doesn't quite know how to take the beat here, so he resigns to a lot of cymbal crashes and half beats.  I'm sure this is Sharon Osbourne's argument that he can't play drums very well and it may be but you can't fault the over the top bashing that he does on Supernaut.  To be original doesn't necessary mean you have to be good all the time but being sloppy in the right places.  And there ya go.

3.  Canyons Of Your Mind-Bonzo Dog Band 1969  Before Monty Python there was the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and even the Brits didn't know what to take or think of these comedy rockers.  On the History Of The Bonzo's there's even a introduction which went missing on later comps. Keith Moon produced some of their work and although he is mention as Producer of this song on the History Album, Gerry Bron seems to be the real producer of choice although the Ba Ba bas might be Moonie himself.  Speculation is nice and wonderful but it doesn't pay very well....unless you're a oil speculator on Wall Street playing to the fears of the public which is why gas prices continue to go up up up.  But I'm getting off topic anyway. The Bonzo's were way ahead of their time but most of their stuff is classic.  Except for Slush, which even the Brits couldn't figure that one out either.

4.  Everytime You Walk Into The Room-The Searchers 1964  A off the all compliment to Bob Dorr to which when he's live in the studio he will play the Dusty Springfield version of said song.  He says it's a running joke and there are those out there that know about it.   As for myself, I think I like the Searchers' Byrd version more than Springfield's Phil Spector like arrangements.





5.  Jesus Built My Hot Rod-Ministry 1991  This is where Al Jorgensen makes his industrial metal classic and has Gibby Hayes from Butthole Surfers scat and scream around swirling guitars and straight ahead pounding beats.  Took Ministry a good year to complete the album which goes under a couple different names, myself I call it the S/T album.  Easier to type than Psalm 69, the way to succeed and a way to suck eggs. Or the Clock album, Or the naked angel album, or KENSIHO (ah fuck it can't spell it anyway).....

 


6.  Cuz You're Gone/Torn Apart-Goo Goo Dolls 1995  From a live radio performance in Milwaukee, they were promoting their Boy Named Goo album at the time.  To which this version they stop after a fight broke out in the audience and the boys help keep the peace.  This is probably their last attempt to be The Replacements after The Replacements went soft (or Westerburg broke them up) before reinventing themselves as the Emo Journey on Dizzy Up The Girl and hitting gold.  Also probably the last time they performed anything off their first album to which Torn Apart came from.  Got this as a bootleg CD at the old Relics Records years ago and Jerry used to have a great collection of bootleg CDs.  I missed those days.

7.  Voices In My Mind-Mrs. Hippie 1999  From the dudes at Metal Blade Records and I really didn't know much about it when I bought it for a dollar at Half Priced Books about a couple years ago. Further research reveals that this was the first band featuring Joacim Cans who later joined HammerFall.  Nevertheless, this is fairly decent, bass sludge metal and Cans has this voice like Ronnie James Dio or Geoff Tate.  Heard stories he really unleashed the banshee in him in HammerFall but I have yet to hear any of their metal.  Not high on my list though although Voices In My Head is one of the better tracks of their album Lotus.

8.  Soul Searching Time-The Trammps 1976  Regarding of the passing of Jimmy Ellis, lead singer of The Trammps, I have never considered The Trammps a disco band before Disco Inferno turned them into a disco band afterwards.  They were the more jamming equal of The Spinners who at that time were borrowing some of The Trammps on their songs and shared MFSB, the Philly International house band, whereas The Spinners songs were three or minutes long, The Trammps were about 5 or 6 minutes long due to the extended beat.   The secret weapon to both Spinners and The Trammps was Earl Young playing drums on both bands. For albums Where The Happy People Go had more jam and funky beats than Disco Inferno and to this day can't consider them a disco band.  Things fell apart in a hurry after that and by the time The Trammps recorded the throwaway Mixing It Up in 1980, disco was dead.  Rhino records did put out a best of The Trammps but edited most of the songs down to a 3 minute edit which didn't work for me, I enjoyed their long versions more but shows the world they were a top notch R N B band.  Makes me wonder had Jimmy Ellis taken over for Phillippe Wynne instead of Johnnie Edwards how The Spinners would have sounded like.

9.  Industrial Town-The Men They Couldn't Hang 1989 From the Domino Club album.  Fun name for a band, in fact Shane McGowan was going to name The Pogues after that according to rumor, either that or After Pogues band but went with Shane McGowan And The Popes.  This band made two albums for Silvertone/Jive and have yet to find the first album.  Back in 1999 thereabouts, I found a Mister Money store in Davenport that had plenty of forgotten albums of the late 80s to which nobody seem to buy except for me. The Domino Club was one of them.

10.  Living In America-James Brown 1985  The comeback of Soul Bro Number 1.  The 80s weren't too kind to the greatest showman ever.  Seemed a bit degrading to go from Polydor to Scotti Brothers, the hack label of the 80s and working with Dan (Instant Replay) Hartman (RIP), but Gravity to me was a fun album, although it could have been much better than cliche stuff of some of the songs Hartman and Charlie Midnight gave James.  This was a top 20 hit and if memory serves me correct, Stevie Ray Vaughn plays guitar in the video.

Bonus Track:  Here Today, Gone Tomorrow-The Ramones 1977  It's a rare occasion when I add a bonus cut. Basically this week I did things a bit different, put the lists of songs together and see what I come up with. And in the end I had a extra cut.  Been playing a bit more Ramones stuff and reading the bargain bin book On The Road With The Ramones as well, found it for 10 bucks at Half Priced Books and there's a new autobiography on the late Johnny Ramone who was the de facto leader and hard ass Conservative who thought Ronnie Reagan was the best president ever.  Johnny had his favorites and there were some albums that he didn't like (Brain Drain) and he didn't like the black mohawk dude who produced Animal Boy, he didn't like the production of Jean Benviour.  Didn't like Phil Spector's production on End Of The Century and Graham Goldman on Sweet Dreams either. A tough nut to crack but Johnny did mention that he loved this cut from Rocket To Russia.  The Ramones would survive till 1996 and once Joey Ramone passed away in 2001 the domino effect came and Dee Dee and Johnny would be dead within 5 years.  You have your Ramones faves and I have mine, The first three albums are pure simple rock and roll with punk leanings. Road To Ruin has moments and there's a change in sound and direction.  End Of The Century, Spector ruined the sound and despite what Johnny thinks Sweet Dreams is enjoyable.  Subterranean Jungle  suffers from a dated 80s mix by Glen Kolotokin  (can't spell worth a fuck today) and Kenny Laguna  and Tommy Ramone and gets the guys to make their last album classic Too Tough To Die.  Anything else you're on your own. There are good moments on every album but I never heard Halfway To Insanity, Brain Drain is spotty and the Radioactive years I can take or leave (Adios Amigos my fave with a blazing Spiderman cover).

I guess in the long run, my go to album is Rocket To Russia since it was the first Ramones album I bought (at the old Record Realm) to the point that I had to get the 180 gram vinyl album all over again (CD didn't really cut it), or the first album (Wish I could have kept that ABC/Sire version of that album, Why Rod why?).  Anyway since the revival of the vinyl, you can actually get the first four Ramones for 12 bucks which is cheap.  CDs are about 7 or 8 dollars, or even as cheap as 5 bucks.  Guess you can say The Ramones were our Beatles of my generation.