stolen body on the loose

Very good to see another independent vinyl label springing to their feet in the UK. Bristol's Stolen Body are certainly making enough noise to be taken seriously. They've got a list of interesting artists building and the latest release due in January is by Al Lover, a San Fransican producer (wots he doin' in Bristol then) with a back catalogue of garage and psyche. His new release 'Cave Ritual' is giving your ears 20 minutes of layered science fiction trance and a side of shorter tracks.
There's the briefest taste of that below.. (come on guys lets have a minute at least).

There's a Bristol Psychedelic Festival that the label are obviously all caught up with (Check their Facebook page) planned for 2015 plus further releases.
Stolen Body records also doubles up as a record shop selling vinyl from other labels specialising in garage rock and psychedelic rock (but not exclusively).
Much afoot down in Bristol then. See their website for some splendid noise and some tasty distribution for Rhino Records, and other classic bands of the genre. Even got 3 classic The Doors albums on 180 gram vinyl. Great stuff.

the ramones first album demos 1975

How these recordings have come to light is miracle of the times, given that it was probably only ever on a cassette in the first place. This set of demos by The Ramones recorded in 1975 was to eventually become their first album.
As raw and lo-fi as it is those chainsaw guitars and snotty vocals are all in place some two years before their debut album is released. Some of the songs sound a bit slower or even in different keys but within those couple of years and CBGB's later they would be tighter and faster and make one of the most important albums of the the 1970's and inspire a new era in rock and roll.
Here's the track listing with the time each track begins -

1. I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement Demo 00:00
2. 53rd & 3rd Demo 02:27
3. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend Demo 04:50
4. Judy Is A Punk Demo 06:39
5. Loudmouth Demo 08:20
6. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue Demo 10:40
7. I Can't Be Demo 12:22
8. Today Your Love Tomorrow The World Demo 14:18
9. I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You Demo 16:29
10. I Don't Wanna Be Learned I Don't Wanna Be Tamed Demo 18:22
11. You Gonna Kill That Girl Demo 19:25
12. What's Your Name Demo 22:09
13. Chainsaw Demo 24:58
14. You Should Never Open That Door Demo 26:54

garage psyche that ended well

Here's the second album from 'The Bad Joke That Ended Well', "Alta Loma" made it out of the studio in 2 days. Just like it used to be done when the record company wouldn't spend the dough and bands wouldn't dream of taking any longer to make an album. And it probably wasn't too different for the guys in 'Bad Joke', and anyway garage rock is not well suited to over thinking things. Ask Iggy Pop, he just let this stuff out and people figured it out later. They never even got around to learning Johnny B Goode. And you can bet 'Bad Joke' haven't either.
Go looking for psychedelia in their hometown of Bristol (UK... yes it's still the UK) and you'll be wading through trance and club DJ sound sytems until you're half tripping. 'The Bad Joke That Ended Well' are not one of these.
Hear the rest of "Alta Loma" at bandcamp where they will also sell you it on vinyl too. If they've got any left that is.

trip with the 'slow motion rider'

See the poster above. That's the way to work a band, get in a club at the weekend and stay there until you're chucked out and it obviously took a month for Slow Motion Rider to leave Casey's in Downtown LA. Must have been a very good scene there at the weekend.
After that residency the ideal move would have been to tour the new album but alas no tour dates are scheduled yet. So for now there's just the album to absorb. And what a sound they've produced or rather Rob Campanella (The Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist) has produced.
If this trio of Alan Stone (vocals/guitar), Blake Kennedy (bass) Austin Hand (drums) can get close to the sound of this album playing live they're are set to blow some minds in the rest of the States. Europe would love this band too. This is superior garage psyche that has the playing power of the best jam style German and Swedish bands around with that added authenticity of US psychedelia. Make your own comparisons from psyches heritage because you'll hear them and dig it.
The widget streams 4 tracks from the self titled album, and below that the video for "Wondered Why". Which is low res and really just about the track.

Their label 'Committee to Keep Music Evil' are obviously a bespoke independant with the likes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Asteroid 4, and Elephant Stone amongst their artists. Buy the Slow Motion album on Vinyl, CD, and MP3 here

Email newsletters for bands at ReverbNation.com

nuggets anniversary new york

You know the name Nuggets. It's that fab compilation vinyl album of garage beat and psyche from the mid - late 60's, or as was properly titled 'Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era'.
The original album was released by Elektra in 1972 and overseen by Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records, and Lenny Kaye, who later went onto be lead guitarist with the Patti Smith Group (shrewd choice there by Patti with Kaye being one of the first to use the term "punk rock" on the Nugget sleeve notes. And yes punk rock did first begin in the States and not the UK as some might like to believe).

Anyway all of that is now well documented rock history, but it is one hell of a good chunk of vinyl if you haven't got one yet.
The point is in June this year and slipping under the radar somewhat was a reunion called "Summer of Nuggets 2" at the New York City Winery, and joining Lenny Kaye were various and assorted guests all gathered in to recreate those throbbing beat songs of the era.
Here's a little seen clip from the night with Lenny Kaye, Glen Burtnik, Tony Shanahan, Jack Petruzzelli Jay Dee Daugherty and the Red White 'n' Blue rhythm section playing 'She's About a Mover' which is a 1965 song by the Sir Douglas Quintet.
Although in this clip you won't be seeing much of the band because the camera was operated solely by someone who had his lens on one thing. The Nuggettes. !
And The Nuggettes were rather unsurprisingly two go-go dancers who wiggled and shimmied in proper 60's fashion, even down to the white knee length boots.
During the evening the bands do a pretty good job of keeping the beats moving but you can't help but think that maybe with a couple of them using music stands to read the music this might have lost some of the early reckless spirit of the originals. It would have been good to see some young dudes trying their hands at this stuff.
Still, except for the last shot and the drummer in the background we don't get to see any of the band in this clip because of course we'll be going go-go dancing.
Lets go go.

big lazy, kickstarter and a cardboard guitar

Big Lazy are doing a Kickstarter campaign to record a new album. You might even get a cardboard guitar if you help out.
The bands Stephen Ulrich explains the project -

"We are extremely excited to return to the studio and make the new album so many of our fans have asked about. This campaign is how you can make sure that happens. For the past year I’ve enjoyed countless hours writing for this fifth album. I’ve reinvented the band with Yuval Lion on drums and Andrew Hall playing bass and we’ve further refined Big Lazy’s sound - stripped down highway twang and raunchy crime jazz - in a Brooklyn basement. We will record the album at Vibromonk Studio in an industrial loft in Brooklyn. This is the same time tested environment where all the Big Lazy albums were made. We have a classic approach to making records where we inhabit a recording studio for two weeks getting our hands dirty and capturing raw performances with a focused and collaborative approach. We’ve been performing the new material in NYC clubs for the past year. Big Lazy is now a finely tuned machine and ready to record! If you’ve been to our shows you know we capture the essence of this live experience in our studio work." -

Well we've never seen one of their live shows but it sounds like it's got to be a whole lot of twang for the good.

via Derek See at Bedazzled

to hell and back for tor-peders

This our final preview of the Fruits De Mer upcoming summer vinyl album releases, and it's a sad tale as much as it is a story of determined completion for how the Swedish band 'Tor-Peders Kepell' (or 'Tor-Peders) album 'Brev Fran Ederstorp' actually came to be.

"The band was conceived in guitarist Jonas' (Redmo) mind around 2007, the vision being an "organ-propelled fuzz-injected instrumental beat" orchestra with barbed-wire surf guitar on top...
The influences consisted of different kinds of 60's and 70's music, fusing high-energy surf/garage with jam-oriented prog/psych, and an occasional touch of Swedish folk music.
After a year's hiatus, the debut gig was performed and a 7" released. Further recording and more gigs in Sweden and abroad followed,
It all, however, came to a grinding halt as Jonas tragically was run over and killed by a car in August of 2011. The band effectively ceased to be, and what was going to be the debut album was put on ice in the mourning of the loss, probably never to see the light of day.."

The group by then had managed to record enough material for their first album at the time of Jonas' accident.
A few weeks before this he'd also been in contact with Keith Jones at FDM before the fatal accident. At a later date and by a fate of luck (the band at least deserved that) one of the musicians names had been recognised by Keith on a separate FDM recording and subsequently renewed contact was made leading to the release of this one and only album by the band.

"The music is raw, honest, and follows the original intention of sounding like an unreleased album from decades past— something it almost became itself."

A final part of the bands synchronicity to FDM releasing 'Brev Fran Ederstorp' came when they found they'd covered a well recognised tune from BBC Radio One's early years back in the mid 60's composed by George Martin called 'Theme One', and which also happened to be FDM's first release in their catalogue (vol 1) by 'Schizo Fun Addict' back in 2008, and long since sold out in case your wondering.
A triumphant sounding theme also made very familier in the 70's by prog rock legends Van Der Graaf Generator and also given true justice here by Tor-Peders.
It's a great tribute to Jonas and the band, and reaffirming "Fruits de Mer is clearly a label of love".
Details on the album ordering are here.

Here is a clip of Tor-Peders' new version of "Theme One".

the limiñanas

"Yé-yé was a style of pop music that emerged from France, Italy and Spain in the early 1960s. The term "yé-yé" derived from "yeah! yeah!" wiki(and was mainly led by female singers).
So that's where Yeah Yeah all came from and if your a fan of tough rock and roll, right now you'll be thinking "no thanks" to some lightweight European pop.
But you'll be wrong and missing the sound of a Vox amp with it's tremolo turned up to kill on this searing hot single released last year by The Liminanas (yes even that sounds bananas) "Votre coté yéyé m'emmerde". Who have quite simply redefined "yeah! yeah!" with this recording.
Stick that shuddering Vox, a swamp backbeat and the delicious Francez vocals of Francesca Cusimano on it and you have some mesmerizing psyche.
Oh yeah and if your wondering what "Votre coté yéyé m'emmerde" means, try "Your side yéyé fuck me"
This is a mean rock and roll sound. 7" Vinyl released on Nasty Records... and you can see why.
They're also on Bandcamp

merchandise on vinyl

There's claims the lineup for Merchandise are just three, Carson Cox (vocals), David Vassalotti (guitar), Patrick Brady (bass) but pictures show four of them. They're from Tampa, Florida but sound like they came from the depths of a grime ridden industrial wasteland. It's said there's been much hype about the band yet the lineup has been in a state of flux or chaos since it began and listening to their new single is not going to help figure it out because that sounds like it's just escaped from 80's Berlin after one of Iggy's less than lucid sessions.
The track begins like it's been dragged up from the basement with a chain and tackle.
Effin' great stuff... and the things 14 minutes long! Anti pop at it's best.

Having first appeared on a now highly collectable split tour cassette with Chelsea Light Moving at the tail end of last year, 'Begging For Your Life / In The City Light' will receive a one-time vinyl pressing in February 2014 on 4AD. Weighing in at 14 minutes long, just 1,000 individually numbered copies are being manufactured as a one-sided, clear 12" with etching. Details at the website.

david clayton thomas and the bossmen "brain washed"

This must be one of the first rock anti-war Vietnam songs, and a classic piece of garage rock.
David Clayton Thomas and The Bossmen recorded "Brain Washed" in 1966 and was a No1 hit in Canada for 16 weeks. Although it's subject matter was less to the liking of the US and the radio stations there refused to play it.
Apart from the outstanding vocal delivery and controversial lyrics by Clayton Thomas the 45 is also remarkable for its use of a jazz piano insert into parts of the song. Unheard of for any rock let alone the raw grind of garage rock's heyday
Clayton Thomas 3 years later had a safer future and more successful one with Blood Sweat and Tears and today he's all but forgotten as part of rock and rolls angry past.

A lyric search on the track produced zero results so here for the first time are the words... except one that is. Because darn it we just can't make it out. The missing word/s are in asterisk.

I've been brain washed
I've been brain washed

I woke up one morning
and took a look around
found myself sleeping in the city dog pound
told myself this just can't be
in the home of the brave and the land of the free
I found myself a voice and I began to shout
I gotta gotta gotta tell you what it's all about

Brainwashed ah yes I am
Brainwashed ah yes sir

Now it pours from our papers
from our radio
telling me what to do and which way to go
a white knight charging down at me with a lance
stabbed me in my belly don't stand me a chance
the whole o population take a walk in outer space
I gotta gotta tell you what we;ve all got to face

now I'm with the hangman
rather fight than switch
******** insulation
don't know which is which

we won ourselves a victory, the casualties were light
judging by the news machine
it ain't much of a fight
60 million people
know all about Vietnam
85% of them don't give a "bleep" (damn)

Brain washed

r-evolution revaluates the doors

It's always seemed a bit of a mystery why The Doors never released much footage from their 1970 performance at the Isle Of Wight Festival and as it was just 4 months later on December 12th the band played their last performance with Jim Morrison you would have thought that film stock would've been a precious commodity.
Bootlegs of the soundtrack eventually circulated in later years and these days there's some good quality FLAC files sitting around the web, but the film has taken a whole lot longer to surface.
It's probably more likely the whole thing comes down to who owns what, and until some people start dying off or time starts running out that's how it's gonna stay.
Although that still doesn't explain why parts of the footage have shown up, in particular the songs "The End", "When The Music's Over" and now thanks to this December's DVD release of 'The Doors R-evolution' one more track is shown of the IOW footage with 'Break On Through To The Other Side'.
With this release it does rather confirm a possible and very good reason for the missing IOW film. The lighting is nearly non existent. DIm and murky.
It's rumoured one JM wanted lights out for more than this concert over fears he might be shot at from the audience. If true, what ever it was Jim was into or had been taking it had produced a fairly high level of paranoia.
Although at the time it might even be seen as rather a trend of the times for several out of face years in rock stardom you just might just believe "they are out to get me".. conversely at the same time other lesser lights with substantial egos might also be concluding "if not me, then why not". But after all that lets not rule out Jim might have just liked hearing the music and singing in the dark.
No. the plain truth of the IOW footage is for what ever reason lights were dimmed, it rarely flickers above candlelight. The one spotlight that occasionally falls onto Manzerak or Krieger puts them in stark relief as full technicolour, it then makes you realise how monochrome the rest is. So, here was a last chance to see one of the great rock bands of the 60's and it's in the dark. These really were strange days.

Back then to the new DVD. It does make the story of The Doors a lot easier to evaluate than in previous archive footage. For the first time a compilation of appearances through the bands short life, covering about 3 years of film clips from TV appearances and their own films shows the evolution of the group as much visually as aurally, with added bonus material for the dedicated fan.
"The Deluxe Edition is packaged in a 40 page DVD sized hard back book with a scrapbook style presentation on each track including lyrics, background info, trivia & photos."
The price is reasonable as well, at about £12 (UK). It's a compilation that should have been released years ago. Amazon have it along with others.
Here's the Isle Of Wight footage in all it's dimly lit glory. The music's just fine though.

kid karate

Always great to see new rock coming out of Ireland... and 'Kid Karate' really rock. As their PR says "they make more noise than two people should".
The two people are vocalist/guitarist Kevin Breen and drummer Steven Gannon and hail from Dublin. They've just released an EP 'Lights Out' with an LP 'Night Terrors' to come. '
What's more they give you a free download of the track 'Heart' (below) so have at it people and then go and give these deserving young guns 4 dollars for their EP at the ITunes store, if you can bare being in that place that is.

TITH summer solstice compilation

Valis Hertel at Trip Inside This House blog and excellent radio show at KDHX curates Volume 6 in the series of psych garage tracks.

Trip Inside This House
Summer Solstice. Vol VI

Running order

1 - Pretty Lightning - (Saarbrücken, Germany) - Drip Of Moongel 4:12
2 - The Garage - (London, England) - Is This Illusion 4:32
3 - Mordecai Smyth - (Berkshire, England) - Out in the Stars with D.S.P. 3:10
4 - The Karovas Milkshake - (Yekatarinburg, Russia) - Do You Wanna Eat Me/Godiva 6:33
5 - The Balcony Stars - (Liverpool, England) - Shards and Splinters 4:58
6 - The Janitors - (Stockholm, Sweden) - Aside (Outside) 4:39
7 - Stuart Gray - (London, England) - Rays Of The Sun 5:55

Download from > Trip Inside This House
or direct from media fire here > Summer_Solstice_2013
or from the Soundcloud widget below

iggy ready to die

So mixed reviews then for Iggy's new album. But then he wouldn't care what some music critic has got to say, if they're read at all these days. The one thing you can be sure of when Iggy's not flogging you some insurance or a car or something else to do with motors, he'll still has one of the most exciting shows around.
After the sudden death of the mighty wall of guitar Ron Asheton, you had to wonder where he was going to turn to find someone with the credentials for another outing with the Stooges. But of course it would have to be back to James Williamson again after a 40 year break from their 70's garage and pre-punk classic 'Kill City'.
The other thing you can always rely on with Ig' is how he boils a lyric down to the raw component and then adds that arch humour. Check out this promo video for a taste of that, and then here the whole grimy rock of 'Burn', the first track of the new album 'Ready to Die' released at the end of April. The show will be good when he rolls it out this year.

the pink fairies do it

Don't think about it. Well all you've got to do is, do it. Well don't talk about it. All you do is do it, do it. Don't lie about it. Do it, do it. Write about it honey. Then we'll just do it. Yeah,do do do do do do do do do do do it. Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it. You all just do it. Don't sing about it. If you ain't gonna, do it. Don't write about it man. If you ain't gonna, do it. Rock and roll. And the message is, do it. You're gonna rip me off man. You blew it, do it, do it, do it. Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it. Do it.

Never Never Land. 1971.

game of dreams

The Garage update.
New album 'Game Of Dreams', out now and free to download.
Go to > the garage mp3 albums
Hope you all enjoy the sound.

the future of rock and roll

If rock and roll is going to survive for the next 50 years it'll need some effort.
And here's some real effort !
15 year old Misia and her 12 year old brother playing the greatest garage version of Neil Diamond's 'Cherry Cherry' you'll ever hear.
And if you think Neil Diamond is an unlikely name for the youngsters to pick a tune from it's even more of a shot between the ears to find their musical influences are Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins and The Troggs amongst others.
It'll take a minute for you to adjust to the avalanche of noise this duo create in their bunker but when you do Misia Vessio's drumming will blow half your mind and the grunge guitar of Dante Vessio will blow the other.
"CHANGE THE WORLD".
You bet Misia. Outstanding !
via Marc Campbell at Dangerour Minds

burger records

California's 'Burger Records' must be the ultimate one-stop in low fi productions. They've got around 200 hundred bands releasing albums and ep's on cassette tape, which they claim are high quality, and they're adding to this massive by releasing a tape a day through out January 2013. Although they do add that may be a tentative schedule... er well good luck guys.
For those not lucky enough to own a clapped out tape deck or a mangled Walkman, they also do downloads, vinyl and cd.
It's a mind bending production line of diverse bands.

Here's their sampler

And here's one of their bands on video. The strange androgynous and hypnotic over driven sounds of The Garden.

the tolstoys new single

Great to see the The Tolstoys have been back in their garage working on a new single and now have the video to go with it.
Since our last post in the summer (here) our friends from the Ural's (and that's Russia) have paired down to a duo and it's clear to see and hear they're none the worse for that reshaping.
With another new single due in February and a tour to back that up later in the year it must surely get them a whole lot of new fans in Europe.
The Tolstoys have as good a garage sound as you'll hear today. We'll post more when it happens.
Here's the video 'We're Not Going Home', followed below by their latest track on soundcloud released just this month, 'Little Omen'.

jack white's blunderbus

Jack Whites debut solo album 'Blunderbus' released early this year has had many plaudits rating it as one of the top albums of 2012.
It's hardly surprising his solo album has taken time to appear despite it first being rumoured in 2003. It's also clear enough by now this man is pretty much a rock and roll jukebox, although more accurately and rather drily described as a "musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist" this doesn't quite explain the story.
The White Stripes came to an end in 2011 after 14 years of Punk, Garage and Blues.
With The Raconteurs in 2005 White produced a Grammy award album with band going on to support a Dylan tour, this was then followed by the thunderous Dead Weather in 2009 and he shifted to the drum kit and vocals, and in between all that numerous side projects. Prolific might be a better way to describe Jack White.
It's also an extra quality he finds some excellent female musicians to work with in his groups as he redefines some of the roots of rock and roll with his present band. The women by the way, despite a spectacular visual presence are certainly no gimmick addition.
This years 'Blunderbus' has a balance of two different personal line-ups for the album, here's one half performing the single 'I'm Shakin' live on Conan O'Brien's US chat show in November this year.
Jack White is not afraid of taking risks, it's become rather fun to see what his next phase is going to be.