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The Glove: Robert Smith and Steven Severin’s experimental side-project, 1983
01.30.2012
03:51 pm
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During Robert Smith’s tenure as the guitarist in Siouxsie and the Banshees (1982-84), a period that yielded the “Dear Prudence” hit single, as well as Hyena and live Nocturne album, Smith and Banshees’ bassist Steven Severin also formed The Glove, a side-project with vocalist/dancer Jeanette Landray (Smith’s Cure contract forbade him from singing with another group).

The Glove produced just one album, the experimental, druggy, yet still poppy-sounding Blue Sunshine (yes, they copped the title from the cult film about the bad LSD) and two singles, “Like an Animal” and “Punish Me with Kisses.”

The 2006 reissue of Blue Sunshine as a 2 CD set features a disc of demos with Smith singing instead of Landray.

Below, “A Blues in Drag”:
 

 
After the jump, the video for “Punish Me With Kisses”:

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.30.2012
03:51 pm
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Recently unearthed film of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Rome, 1968
01.30.2012
02:40 pm
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Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band filmed onstage at the 1968 Rome Pop Festival at the Palazzo Della Sport. Image how freaky these guys must’ve seemed at that time. Hell, even by today’s standards, they’re still arch freaks!

From the description on YouTube:

Paul Brown: One obscure Beefheart performance, which has been preserved on film, is the Rome Pop Festival from May 1968 - this was broadcast by the BBC on Saturday 18th May 1968. The BBC were covering it, possibly due to the influx of UK bands, ie Julie Driscoll and The Brian Auger Trinity who were headlining it and The Move who, on the third day, were the ones to incite the police and authorities to close the Festival two days early. Captain Beefheart was the only one to represent the West Coast although there were big plans to try and get a few of the larger, and possibly at the time more well known groups to attend. (But it seems Beefheart was the only one willing to attend on the money offered. Probably because they were already in Europe). The clip with Beefheart and the band shows an unknown person, it is Krasnow?, nodding his head to what sounds suspiciously like Dropout Boogie - then the camera is on-stage and the band are performing Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do. There are closeups of Don Vliet in Top Hat and Jeff Cotton in his Yellow Leather Coat and also Alex Snouffer and Jerry Handley. 

The clip I managed to see was luckily, somehow, saved on Reel to Reel and, despite its length and rather poor sound, was a sight for these sore eyes. The camera pans to someone, who on first viewing I thought was Grant Gibbs, Beefheart’s manager in the early days, although it may possibly have been someone complete different. This someone looks completely oblivious to the interview and is just nodding his head to what sounded suspiciously like Dropout Boogie (old non-circulating dubbed version). Then the camera is on-stage and the band are performing “Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do.”

It ain’t long, or in sync, but take what you can get.
 

 
This is an excerpt from a longer piece. You can watch the entire BBC report from May 19th,1968 here.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.30.2012
02:40 pm
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Miriam Linna: ‘Obsessions from the flipside of Kicksville’
01.29.2012
04:47 pm
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“A weed is a plant out of place.”
― Jim Thompson, “The Killer Inside Me”

As a teenage renegade straight out of the rock and roll heartland of Ohio, Miriam Linna was the drummer in the “Cramps first lineup which played forty-odd dates over an eight month period from the first show on All Saints Night 1976 through July 13, 1977, the date of the NYC blackout.”

I was lucky enough to see The Cramps open for The Ramones at CBGB in April of 1977. The original lineup, Miriam, Bryan, Lux and Ivy, were always my favorite configuration of that great band. They really had it goin’ on. Their look, their intensity and mad energy was alchemical; an exhilarating voodoo that could spook an audience while simultaneously sending them into the throes of rock and roll ecstasy. They got under your skin and fucked around with your spleen.

The Cramps opened up a door that led to a mother lode of forgotten bands and singers that had been residing in the shadows, left behind by deejays, music critics, record labels - the mole-like gatekeepers of pop culture. While radios spewed their acrid breath, Cramp acolytes like myself followed Lux and his bandmates, lurching steadily ahead like the freshly exhumed living dead in Val Lewton’s I Walked with a Zombie, into the heart of rock’s dark and tangled jungle, excavating and unearthing lost vinyl treasures and musical artifacts that contained real magic.

The Cramps, and the second wave of garage bands that followed in their wake, were as much musical anthropologists as they were rock and rollers. Like punk pioneers Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie and The Dictators, The Cramps were on a mission from god to revive the roots of rock at a time when what was being called rock and roll was mass-marketed product that had about as much in common with Little Richard and Gene Vincent as Lana Del Ray does with The Del- Vikings.

From her early days in New York’s downtown music scene to archivist of all that is hep, Miriam Linna was, is and always has been a rock fanatic . She, along with the fabulous Billy Miller, created one of the coolest record stores and record labels on the planet, Norton Records, and her love for the distilled, cut-to-the-chase, blunt energy and gutbucket prose of pulp novels led her to start her own publishing company Kicks Books.

Having published work by Nick Tosches, Sun Ra, Andre Williams, Eddie Rocco and with upcoming titles from Harlan Ellison and Kim Fowley, Linna is bringing the same passion and intelligence she brought to Norton Records and Kicks magazine (with Miller) to the world of book publishing and, as usual, she’s doing it in her no-bullshit way.


Dangerous Minds:  From playing drums with The Cramps to being a co-founder of Norton Records and now a publisher of books by Sun Ra and Andre Williams, you’ve forged a path of being a champion for music and literature that might have gone undiscovered without your help. What first inspired you to explore the world of outsider art and obscure rock and roll?

Miriam Linna:  I don’t consider the music, movies, or books that make my life worthwhile “outsider art”. Actually, I’m repelled by what the expression represents and have no association whatsoever with anyone who is involved with it. Like most people, I like what I like. On top of that, I’m curious, obsessive and refuse to be told what to do and how to do it.

DM:  In spite of all the talk of the publishing business dying and the emergence of electronic books, there seems to be a movement toward a return to books you can hold in your hands kind of like the resurgence of interest in vinyl records. Would you agree?

ML:  There is no charm in digital anything.

DM: I like the format of your books. The fact they fit in your pocket is like old style pulp paperbacks. What prompted that design decision?

ML:  I’ve always considered “hip pocket paperbacks” the perfect book format. I like paper, I love books. I’m a nut for Signet- style “talls” and find a slim, unique book capable of causing all sorts of visceral reactions extremely appealing.


DM:  How did you come upon the poetry of Sun Ra?

ML:  Music historian and Sun Ra archivist Michael Anderson contacted us when he discovered a large cache of Sonny Blount dictations and recordings on tape. Norton records had issued three albums of early Sun Ra music, and followed with three spoken word albums culled from these newly discovered recordings. I transcribed the audio, plus several additional tapes’ worth of lost poetic dictation. This material trashed my horizontal with its consistency—here was a cohesive collection of poetic writings—pretty much all attitudinal science fiction with a serious political bent.  Afro-futurism at its earliest and most intentional. 

DM: Given your involvement with Norton Records, you’ve obviously grown to know Andre Williams over the years. Did he bring you his novel and short stories?

ML:  Andre had no novel or short stories until he went into rehab a couple of years ago. He called me when he went in (not of his own volition), saying he was going to bust out. I told him if he did that, he would not live to see the end of the year. We started talking and he said if he was going to stay he needed something to do, that he was going stir-crazy. We got around to talking about him writing, and I suggested he write some fiction. This was a new concept for him, but I knew already from his brilliant plot-rich song lyrics that he was a class-A storyteller. Over the several weeks of his rehabilitation, Andre and I spoke at least every two or three days via collect phone calls, with him faxing in drafts and outlines. Right off the bat, I was shocked by the fact that he was writing from the first person vantage point of a fifteen year old girl named Sweets, a kid who gets in trouble, becomes a prostitute, a madam, a drug runner, and everything in between.  Andre’s storyline was part fever dream, part wishful thinking (loaded with cocaine and sex), part autobiography. I promised him that if he could stick with it and finish a short novel, that I would publish it.

DM: Nick Tosches wrote one of my favorite rock books, “Unsung Heroes Of Rock and Roll.” You recently published his “Save The Last Dance for Satan.” When did you and Nick meet?

ML:  I’ve known Nick for many years. He wrote the intro to “Sweets,” and he and Andre read together at the book launch at St Mark’s Church here in New York.

DM: You published “The Great Lost Photographs Of Eddie Rocco” in 1997 and it has since become a collector’s item. Any plans for a second edition?

ML:  Plans, yes. Something definite - not at the moment.

DM: Where do you see the business of music heading? It’s getting harder and harder for bands to exist when their art is so easily downloaded for free on the Internet. Do you ever despair for the future of rock?

ML: I’m not worried. Real music will always be made by real people for real people. Real records will be made so long as they can be manufactured. Should the day come when all manufacturing ceases, well, we have countless great existing shellac and PVC discs of various sizes spinning at various speeds to discover and thrill to. And if they stop making phonographs, then they will become a commodity, but those who need them will be able to maintain them. Maybe some enterprising individual can reinvent the wind-up pre-electricity phonograph for when the power grids go down and even the download monsters and children of the damned Internet can wallow in silence while the analogue minions crank up wax by candlelight. Now there’s an Escape From New York for you!

DM: Are you still playing music?

ML: I play drums in my long time band the A-Bones and my not-so-long-time band the Figures of Light.

DM: What’s in the pipeline for Kicks Books?

ML: Harlan Ellison’s “Pulling A Train” and “Getting In The Wind”... Kim Fowley’s “Lord Of Garbage”... Andre Williams’ sequel “Streets”... and in a larger book format “I Fought The Law (The Authorized Biography of Bobby Fuller)” by Randy Fuller and myself… and eventually my “Bad Seed Bible.”

You can follow Miriam on her ultra-groovy blog Kicksville66, where the writing is fast and furious. You can also visit Norton Records Records website “where the loud sound abounds.”

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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01.29.2012
04:47 pm
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The last band to start a riot: The Jesus and Mary Chain, interview & live 1985
01.28.2012
01:23 pm
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J&MC RIOT!
The North Poly student body & friends clarify their stance, 15 March 1985.
 
By the spring of 1985, The Jesus and Mary Chain had become the Western world’s most intriguing new band. With punk a tired memory and the charts full of “Ghostbusters” and “Say Say Say,” there was very little dynamism in pop music and very little out there to excite anyone.

Enter singer Jim and guitarist William, the spotty Reid brothers from the Glasgow suburb of East Kilbride, accompanied by bassist Douglas Hart and drummer Bobby Gillespie (who would go on to sing for Primal Scream). Signed by fellow Scot Alan McGee to his fabled Creation Records after he heard one of their sound checks, The J&MC had both a widely reported drug bust under their belts and their first single “Upside Down” firmly entrenched in the UK indie chart by the time they hit the stage at the Polytechnic of North London in the spring of 1985.

The college itself was embroiled in unrest the previous year over the lectures of National Front fascist Patrick Harrington, which engendered a threat from the Secretary of State for Education to shut the place down. So the place was in a hot mood in general.

Finally, chaotic rock noise had made it into the charts, and these geezers had a TV spot on their hands on which to sport their unique brand of soft-spoken post-punk arrogance. Now, would the crowd come through in response to their speed-drenched 20-minute headline set?
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Piano duo perform lovely cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Just Like Honey’

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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01.28.2012
01:23 pm
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Alice Cooper performs ‘Black Juju’ at Midsummer Rock Festival 1970
01.28.2012
12:46 am
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Alice Cooper performs “Black Juju” during the Midsummer Rock Festival on June 13, 1970 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cooper claims Pink Floyd as an early influence on his music and it certainly can be seen in this video, which has never been officially released on VHS or DVD.

At the 4 minute mark watch as Cooper gets hit by an upside-down pineapple cake.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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01.28.2012
12:46 am
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A young Jon Stewart in mosh pit at Dead Kennedys show
01.27.2012
06:41 pm
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The Daily Show’s future host Jon Stewart (then known as William and Mary student Jon Leibowitz) snapped in the mosh pit at a Dead Kennedys/Front Line show in Richmond, Virginia sometime in the early 1980s.

Fantastic!

Via Filthy Pit/Henry Baum!

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.27.2012
06:41 pm
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8-Bit version of Slint’s ‘Good Morning, Captain’
01.27.2012
06:31 pm
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If you’re a fan of Slint, you’re either going to love or hate this 8-bit version of ” Good Morning, Captain.”

The Nintendo-style version of the Spiderland album cover is a nice touch, too.

YouTuber methodairmoshpit admits, “I’m a nerd with too much time on my hands.”
 

 
Thank you Jeff Albers!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.27.2012
06:31 pm
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Atom Heart Mother: Pink Floyd live in Saint Tropez, 1970
01.27.2012
04:01 pm
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1970 Pink Floyd set from French television program, Pop 2. The band was shot live at the “Saint Tropez Festival de Musique” on August 8th, 1970.

Le set list:
Atom Heart Mother
The Embryo
Green is the Colour
Careful with that Axe, Eugene
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Nick Mason is really, really amazing in this set. He’s on fire here.
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.27.2012
04:01 pm
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An hour of Leonard Cohen performing live in Austin in 1988
01.27.2012
05:03 am
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Leonard Cohen’s new album Old Ideas is being released next Tuesday. The critical reception has been ecstatic. Which thrills me because I have loved Cohen from the moment I heard “Suzanne” when I was 15 years old. He’s been a massive influence on my own music. My debt to him is deep.

Here’s something to hold you Cohen fans over until Old Ideas release: a brilliant performance by Mr. Cohen on Austin City Limits from 1988.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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01.27.2012
05:03 am
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Beatbox champ does killer version of MGMT’s ‘Kids’
01.26.2012
06:32 pm
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Did the world really need a cover of MGMT’s “Kids?” I say yes…as long as it’s this damned groovy.

From the debut album Future Loops by Britain’s Radio 1 Beatbox Champion THePETEBOX.

The track was recorded live in one take.

Future Loops will be released on April 12.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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01.26.2012
06:32 pm
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