Rockabilly: The Twang Heard 'round the World - The Complete Illustrated History

Before I even opened this book, I fell in love with it!  A sumptuous hardback cover photo of Elvis strumming his acoustic and singing his heart out; with a cut out to top and right with the word ‘Rockabilly’ designed to mimic the King of Rock n Roll’s debut album cover; and one ‘borrowed’ by The Clash for their album, London Calling.

In 1977 I was a 12 years old quietly listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little yellow transistor radio pressed against my air when DJ Tony Prince announced in a broken voice that Elvis, the king of rock n roll, was dead.  At the time the only effect this had on me was surprise that it meant so much to someone that he stopped playing the contemporary music I tuned in every night to hear, and began playing back-to-back songs by Elvis Presley (though he was the president of the UK fan club)!

I never forgot that night in August 1977, though rock n roll at the time for me was God Save The Queen, The Sex Pistols and The Clash.  But as I became older, and the constraints of Punk Rock made way for Post-Punk and New Wave, influences from further afield began new hybrids of music in the late 1970’s. Retro sounds merged with punk angst and soon there was a flood of new terms and genres to describe new sounds.

In 1979 my musical tastes were broadened by the re-emergence of Ska music as The Specials paid homage to 1960’s Jamaican legends such as Prince Buster, while a group called The Cramps took influences from old 1950’s Rockabilly, b films, 60’s surfing and garage music to create a grungy, dirty, punk-riddled Rockabilly sound that had music journalists fighting over new labels – Punkabilly, Psychobilly, in fact anything with ‘billy’ in the title.

Like The Specials signposted me to 1960’s Jamaican Ska and Bluebeat, The Cramps opened my ears to less commercial, garage punk Rock n Roll and in turn the original recordings for the Sun Records label by Elvis Presley. Great songs like ‘Mystery Train’ and ‘That’s Alright Mama’ sounded so wonderful to me, where my opinion of Elvis and Rock n Roll had hitherto been tainted by the likes of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ & ‘Hound Dog’.  It was not so much the quality of the songs, but the clean, over-produced production that left me cold, whereas the original Sun recordings gave the music a certain edginess and something more akin to garage and punk.

So, now I am reviewing an illustrated history of Rockabilly music – a music born out of country, bluegrass, jazz, and the blues in the 1950’s that became known to the world in a more commercial sense as rock ‘n’ roll.

Rockabilly: The Twang Heard ’round the World – The Complete Illustrated History by Greil Marcus tells the history of the genre and its main characters.  Of course there is a large splash on Elvis Presley’s first steps to becoming the ‘king of rock n roll’ along with other great Sun Recording artists like Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis; along with such legends as Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly & Wanda Jackson along with lesser known artists of the day, as the book relives the golden years of Rock n Roll between 1955-1959 full of photos, movie posters, rare records, the guitars and the fashion.

The story picks up again in the late 1970’s with the revival of Rockabilly with bands such as The Cramps and The Stray Cats. I never knew Brain Setzer, the amazing guitarist & singer with The Stray Cats almost joined The Cramps in 1979 before he enjoyed a short burst of worldwide success in the early 1980’s with songs ‘Runaway Boys’, ‘Rock This Town’ & ‘Stray Cat Strut’.  During this period, the UK was flooded with garage punk / rockabilly bands influenced by The Cramps, those early days of rockabilly from the 1950’s and garage punk of the 1960’s; and the final chapter is a show of strength for the influence of rockabilly today in the music and fashion of artists like Imelda May.

This is a truly great book, a wonderful read, assembled with great loving care by Greil Marcus and worth every penny to all rockabilly psychos or just plain music lovers that have ever wondered where rock n roll came from.

Rockabilly: The Twang Heard ’round the World – The Complete Illustrated History by Greil Marcus published by Voyageur Press in hardback priced £20.00 (RRP).

michael monroe - sami - ginger

Legendary punk rocker Michael Monroe is hitting the UK again this summer having just been announced for the infamous Download Festival 2010! While the band demos new material in NYC for their debut, they’re still finding time to get a few summer festival appearances in.

After a sensational stint at SXSW this year followed by a captivating debut UK show earlier this month at London’s Islington Academy, the band, completed by Ginger from The Wildhearts, Sami Yaffa, Steve Conte and Karl Rosqvist, are more than a little bit excited to revisit the UK audiences.

Ginger shared some fond memories of Download;
“Fuck yeah!! Download is the first and the best. I was educated at Donnington Monsters Of Rock, it was always the place where magic happened and the stories would last a year until the next one. I’ve had so many great moments at this festival (bad acid trips, public blowjobs by complete strangers, arms impaled onstage by the Psycho Cyborgs …the list goes on) and playing here with Michael Monroe continues the theme of great moment after great moment. We’re bringing the punk, we’re bringing the rock n roll, now all we need is you. Be there or be elsewhere.”

Great stuff, Rock & Roll or what?

Here is a current list of Michael Monroe upcoming gigs around the world:

09.05.10
Highline Ballroom
New York
USA

05.06.10
Helsinki Live 2010
Helsinki
Finland

09.06.10
Sweden Rock
Sölvesborg
Sweden

12.06.10
Download Festival
Derby
UK

03.07.10
Peace & Love Festival
Borlänge
Sweden

10.07.10
Ruisrock
Turku
Finland

16.07.10
Pakkahuone
Tampere
Finland

17.07.10
Simerock
Rovaniemi
Finland

07.08.10
Summer Sonic Festival
Osaka
Japan

08.08.10
Summer Sonic Festival
Tokyo
Japan

15.08.10
Ankkarock
Vantaa
Finland

Dirty Shirt Rock n’ Roll: The First Ten Years by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will be released on 24 May on Shove Records. The first seven albums to be reissued throughout 2010.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

In 1990 the blues exploded. Already high on a cocktail of overloaded frequencies, Jon Spencer and his cohorts took the full force. The shards pierced so deep that when the trio finally came to, they exhaled with enough energy and charisma to send the clichés flying. They had become The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Dirty Shirt Rock n’ Roll: The First Ten Years charts the fallout from that first incendiary incident, right up to the band’s 2002 long player Plastic Fang. For those who missed Jon Spencer’s chaotic pyrotechnics first time around, this compilation is a fantastic, brain-melting introduction.

References to the past are never far from the surface, including blues, rock n’ roll, late sixties garage, punk and the sleazy psychedelia of Parliament’s Funkadelic. However, when The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion sold their souls at the crossroad, they must have ripped off the dark prince’s head and ingested the power at source.

At their rawest the band rip into standard progressions with a primordial roar, stretching guitars to their screaming limit. However, it’s not all neck-breaking distortions of the past. Bellbottom funks with a scuzzy slouch of a riff that absconds with the Rotary Connection’s string section before retiring to a lust-lathered Bedouin tent. And Love Ain’t on the Run takes a twin-eyed peek below the surface and unhinges a sun-starved bar, where the ghost of Laura Palmer still struts a strobe-lit groove.

Shards of the past may be lodged deep within the band’s psyche but their songs are visceral, amplified assaults that drag notions of hackneyed rehashes kicking and screaming into the future. Along the way they’ve enlisted the help of contemporary adventurers including Beck, Mike D, UNKLE and Little Barrie. The result is a barrage of electrifying, unadulterated sonic explosions that shock the mind and light up the body.

Dirty Shirt Rock n’ Roll: The First Ten Years is followed by reissues of the band’s first seven albums later in the year, complete with rare and unreleased bonus tracks, copious liner notes and eye-popping photos.

Now I Got Worry and Controversial Negro – out in late June.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (First Year) and Extra Width + Mo Width – out in late August.
Orange + Remixes (2-disc) and Acme + Xtra Acme (2-disc) – out in late October.

Visit The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion website for more information and live dates.

Read Matador Record’s notes on The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Watch the great promo video for Wail from the band’s 1996 album Now I Got Worry.

I have only just recovered from the launch of the second season of The Red Bull Bedroom Jam at the Sanctum Hotel in Soho, London.

While the Sanctum did not seem the obvious venue to host the post-hardcore-emo-pop-punk-rock party, Red Bull pulled out all the stops to make sure that the second annual party was about as stereotypical rock n roll as possible – from hot tubs to naked rock stars running around the patio!

Throughout the night Attack! Attack! (not to be confused with the American Attack Attack!), Saving Aimee and Young Guns played short sets in the Penthouse Suite.

With the mattresses pushed up against the walls and friends and fans sitting in bathtubs,  the only word to describe the atmosphere was intimate.

Disappointingly, the plug was pulled on The Blackout after only one song, as the council decided we were all having a little too much fun… okay, well there may have been some noise complaints as well.

Due to very limited space each in room-come-venue, I really only had a chance to see Saving Aimee and Attack! Attack! However, neither disappointed.

Saving Amiee delivered upbeat  1980’s influenced synth pop rock, and although not all that original, the set was a lot of fun and the band exhibited great energy, particularly during the performance of their new singles  ‘Fresh Since ‘88’ and ‘We’re the Good Guys’.

Next up were the guys from Attack! Attack! from  Wales.  These guys have been creating a lot of buzz in the UK music scene recently and I was quite excited to get the chance to finally see them play. Clearly drawing influence from bands like the LostProfits and Fall Out Boy, this four piece also had impressive energy as they belted out their infectious pop-punk songs. So infectious in fact that my friend (who would have rather been at a Beyonce gig) even started tapping her foot.

As the music came to an early end, the party continued well into the night, with mattresses moved over in front of the windows to try and muffle the noise. As one guest put it while running around the patio in his boxers “It’s a Fucking Pop Punk Party!”

The Red Bull Bedroom Jam was started in order to help unsigned bands gain exposure through an online platform.

In order to have an opportunity to be showcased bands must upload videos of themselves performing in their bedrooms. People then login to the Red Bull website to vote for their favourite acts, and the lucky winners are given the chance to play a live gig. It is a great idea and way to support up and coming acts.

You can check out videos from the night on www.redbullbedroomjam.com.

Thom Yorke @ Latitude Festival: photo by Paul Wesley Griggs

Latitude Festival Music Stages
There were four main music stages at this year’s festival: Obelisk (main stage) Arena and The Lake Stage were open air, while the Uncut and Sunrise Arenas were in tents.

Latitude Festival Highlights – Sunday 26th July

Thom Yorke – Obelisk (main stage) Arena
I’m sure a large majority of all ages at this year’s Latitude Festival was excited at the last minute special guest announcement that the main stage would start at midday on Sunday to accommodate a rare solo performance by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

The main arena was packed and like me was probably wondering which Thom would turn up to play for this friendly festival crowd.  Would he be silent between songs, sultry and moody, play songs and take a bow. Or would he be Mr Jolly on this sunny summer day?  He turned out to be the most responsive and talkative of all the acts I went to see over the whole weekend.

Thom Yorke was greeted by a very enthusiastic cheer as he walked onto the main stage and sat behind a piano to play an opening song from his solo album, Eraser.  I like Thom Yorke’s solo album but I love Radiohead, and I wasn’t the only one wanting Thom Yorke to play acoustic versions from their back catalogue.  After all, it was a festival!

Yorke was in good spirit, replying to the crowd as the called for songs.  He was very upbeat, vocal and amusing.  At one point introducing an unreleased track which he said would now be available on YouTube. Throughout the set Yorke moved between piano, synthesizer, bass, electric and acoustic guitar with an excellent set including two Radiohead songs.  I was hoping for a sing-a-long moment with Creep, but settled for Everything In Its Right Place & There There.

Gaslight Anthem – Obelisk (main stage) Arena
I spent much of Sunday afternoon taking in non-music attractions but had earmarked Gaslight Anthem as soon as I had received the weekend’s timetable, after seeing their performance at this year’s Glastonbury.  I was hoping for another big performance from the Springsteen-lovers from New Jersey.

For whatever reason it was a shame to see the main arena was only half full when Gaslight Anthem started their late afternoon set.  But as their garage rock anthems began it was like the Pied Piper calling.  The main arena was soon pretty full with a mix of fans and the uninitiated.  But everyone was dancing and enjoying one of the best live bands around.  There was even a small, excited mosh-pit formed in front of the stage, while to the sides families had young kids on their shoulders.

A couple of songs in and the place erupted with the opening guitar strumming of the wonderful ’59 Sound, the title track from their current album; a perfect song for a perfect summer festival, echoing a blend of early Clash and Bruce Springsteen, nice!

Simple songs about cars and girls, the Gaslight Anthem sound is both garage and stadium rock.  Whatever side of the fence you walk, they make for a great live experience.  Good clean old fashioned rock n roll, but no cussing to be heard from these tattooed lover boys.

Saint Etienne – Uncut Stage
Saint Etienne drew an older crowd to the Uncut Stage tent looking to reminisce and have a good time.  The music was good and they looked great, especially the gorgeous Sarah Cracknell in a grey trouser suit.  She admitted she was nervous beforehand as to whether they would attract an audience at all. No reason to worry.  The tent was completely full and was in full ‘happy mode’ from the first track, Nothing Can Stop Us Now.

It seemed Saint Etienne was enjoying themselves as much as the audience as they played a set including A Good Thing, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Who Do You Think You Are, Burnt Out Car and He’s On The Phone.  Excellent!

The Saint Etienne set left me with a big smile on my face, really happy and even more so when later, my 12 year old son said it was his favourite performance of the whole weekend.

Magazine – Uncut Stage
Post-punk art rock group from the late 1970s / early 1980s Magazine followed Saint Etienne and played at the same time as Editors on the main stage.  Clearly the recently reformed Magazine appealed to an older audience, though I did have my reservations.  Not only opposed to going to see nostalgia over a contemporary sound, but also witnessing a band who I once loved reform and play without a vital member.  Guitarist John McGeoch was an integral part in the influential sound of both Magazine and Siouxsie & The Banshees and the way I wanted to play guitar, but sadly died in 2004. It wasn’t quite the same as seeing The Jam without Paul Weller, but I think you get the idea.

But Magazine shone out as a mature post-punk band in 1978 not just because of McGeoch’s guitar sound but also Barry Adamson’s throbbing bass (he went on to be a member the original Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and the wonderfully eccentric lead singer Howard Devoto.

The sound was good, very edgy especially Barry Adamson’s bass.  Howard Devoto was his eccentric off-the-wall self and very entertaining.  For sure they had realised they were here to entertain a crowd heavy with anticipation and nostalgia, and they didn’t disappoint.   They opened a set of classics with The Light Pours Out Of Me that also included at the delight of the receptive audience Song From Under The Floorboards, Permafrost and my personal favourite Motorcade, before ending on a real high with Shot By Both Sides.

Black Lips live in Brighton photo: Brooke Campbell-Johnston

Black Lips have been carting their chaotic rock n roll show across the globe for years, but have only achieved anything approaching “success” in the last 12 months. Much to the annoyance of their hardcore fans apparently, selling out to the scenester driven indie scene and putting out their seminal Good Bad Not Evil on uber-cool Vice records.

Tonight saw the end of the England leg of their tour and it was a sweaty affair as expected. Boys were hurting each other and girls were throwing their booty around, because if you stopped moving, you opened yourself up to physical abuse.

The tunes were all rock by numbers, but performed with a swagger and arrogance that felt appropriate in this era of sensitive, disenchanted pop rock nonsense.

Black Lips have porn star moustaches, and £30 guitars and will give you crabs after the gig. For free. This is their life now, playing dirty clubs and signing albums for drunk delinquents. Living the dream.

In India recently, Black Lips got in trouble for on-stage snogs and a bit of indecent exposure. Perhaps Brighton in all its liberal, taboo-free glory didn’t have any boundaries left to cross, but it didn’t stop them raising the roof with catastrophic riffs and psychedelic freak-outs.

High energy, total commitment and well worth the £9. Whilst new album 200 Million Thousand won’t be reinventing garage or raising the benchmark for American rock and roll, it will pack guilty giggles and a spunky attitude a plenty.