Formed in London in 1963 by singer Phil May and guitarist Dick Taylor, The Pretty Things played raw R&B that shook up the English music scene. In addition to being musical pioneers, The Pretty Things were among the first of the Brit bands to experiment with LSD (they recorded a song of the same name) and the first to be arrested for drugs.

Sounding like an American garage band with a punk attitude, the Things were the least celebrated of the bands on the scene at the time, which included The Rolling Stones, The Animals, and The Yardbirds. It wasn’t until the late 60s / early 70s that group had both commercial and critical success with Parachute (1970 Rolling Stone Album of The Year) and concept album SF Sorrow. David Bowie covered two of their tunes for his Pin Ups album. Phil May left the group in 1976, but the band continued with shifting personel.He later rejoined the group and he and Taylor continue to perform till this day with various sidemen.
 

 
In this video from 1966 (a pristine master copy), The Pretty Things exude an effortless cool that makes Mick Jagger’s tar baby shtick seem absolutely vaudevillian.

 
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. The original line-up of The Pop Group are reforming for 4 dates and perhaps more this September! I’m sure it’s too much to ask for them to make it to the States, although I did once see Mark Stewart+Maffia play to about 50 people here in Los Angeles. Say the fellas themselves:

There was a lot left undone,....we were so young and volatile….Let’s face it, things are probably even MORE fucked now than they were in the early 80’s…..and WE are even more fucked off!

 
The Pop Group Reform (Clashmusic.com)
 
Previously on DM : The Pop Group are Beyond Good and Evil

 
Jimmy Skafish broke punk in Chicago in 1976 during an audition night at the now-defunct B’Ginnings nightclub in Schaumburg.  Wearing an old ladies one-piece bathing suit and a purple page boy haircut, Skafish sprinkled the crowd with holy water while spewing bilious, fury-driven songs that terrified the entirely unsuspecting crowd.  It was the first of countless performances at which the audience would literally desire to kill the outrageous singer, but it was also the birth of punk in Chicago. ~ Bob Kurson
 
The band known as Skafish was, in essence, lead singer, composer and conceptualist, Jim Skafish. An eccentric genius with a nose the size of a suburban carport, Jim’s music defied easy categorization, sounding at times like a demented lounge singer or Zappa on helium, his music fused punk’s rawness with jazz experimentation, melodic pop and the blues. The sound was innovative and the lyrics were painfully autobiographical, describing child abuse, alienation and rejection. Over six feet 3 inches tall and with tits, Jim, looked like a transsexual who decided to bail on the process before the surgeon had finished the job. He was, by his own admission, a freak. And he should have been a superstar.

I used to strip down to an old lady’s one-piece bathing suit with a babushka and then do the fucking ‘Sign of the Cross,’ . I would wear tube tops and diapers onstage, and one time in Europe I wore a baby’s bonnet with pee-stained underwear.

His debut album, Skafish, was the first record released by Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. label.Though Skafish toured Europe with The Police, XTC, UB-40, Squeeze, English Beat, and U-2, playing anywhere from 8,000 seat arenas to 45,000 seat stadiums on a daily basis, the band never managed to become a commercial success. I.R.S didn’t even bother releasing the their second album. Jim quickly faded from view -  ahead of his time, misunderstood, and ignored.

A recent video of Skafish performing Disgracing The Family Name.

 
For those of us who had an opportunity to see Skafish perform, as I did in 1977 at CBGB, his talent and stage show were indelible. As was his album. The good news, for those who are curious and those who are fans, is that Skafish has released a compilation of his best songs titled What’s This? 1976 - 1979. If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Jim’s music, now would be a good time to start. And as it was over 3 decades ago, it’s still ahead of its time.

 
Musician and artist, Loke Wilson says, “My own music video. I made the music as well, the song and lyrics. I also play all instruments. Me as 17 years old in the beginning. For the record, the synth you see here is only for decoration, i don`t use it in the song. For more info, visit my homepage: www.lokewilson.com.”
 
Thanks, Ercilia Medeiros!

 

 
Imagine José Mojica Marins directing Can’t Stop The Music after snorting the remains of Bob Fosse and Federico Fellini and you may conjure up the demented disco fever that is The Apple. Billed as a “funky fantasy that will rock your world”, this 1980 schlock fest is Xanadu for cokeheads, bouncing a deluge of dance scenes off the viewer’s retinas like a hailstorm of mirrorballs.

In an attempt to replicate the cult success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Apple takes every rock star as Messiah/Satan cliche and tosses them into a pot of boiling Spandex, gold Lurex, and black Lycra. Add a pinch of amyl nitrate, stir in a rusty cock ring, and some Manic Panic hair dye and you’ve got one of the most insanely inspired spectacles since John Travolta slathered on the KY in Staying Alive.
 

 
I’ve been a Rolling Stones nut for practically my entire life, and have dozens and dozens of hours of Stones bootlegs, but for whatever reason this awesome live take of Lady Jane, performed during their fourth appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967, seems to have slipped right past me. YouTube has been very kind to Rolling Stones fans!

Dig Brian Jones on dulcimer as a cheeky Mick Jagger sings of being an Elizabethan-era kept man. After Jones died, they dropped this song from their stage repertoire. Lady Jane, taken from Aftermath, was a 2-sided single, sharing the A-side with Mother’s Little Helper. The Italian picture sleeve is seen above.
 

 
If you’re like me, your atheism has been challenged by the sheer force of certain metaphysically oriented artforms. One of those forms for me is African-American gospel music. One of the greats of that genre, the Grammy-winning Rev. Walter Hawkins, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer. Hawkins had plenty of Billboard chart success leading his Love Center Choir. Significantly, he’ll also be remembered as head of an Oakland, CA church that wholly embraced and was supported by folks like disco singer, drag queen and gay icon Sylvester.

Hawkins’ initial success came as part of his brother’s group the Edwin Hawkins Singers, which had a crossover hit with 1967’s “Oh Happy Day.” According to Joshua Gamson’s The Fabulous Sylvester, the Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco:

Hawkins was one of those who left church, but as he grew older he started looking for a way to bring together “all those young people who I knew could not survive in a traditional church setting.”

One of those was the young Sylvester James, who was a well-known child gospel singer in his LA hometown before running away and eventually moving to San Francisco. By the time he’d arrived at Hawkins’ Bible study group-turned-church the Love Center, Sylvester had already done a short stint with local psychedelic drag performance group The Cockettes and performed with the then-unknown Pointer Sisters. When he tells the anecdote about Love Center members’ jaded acceptance of a prostitute into their ranks, Gamson notes: “They took the same attitude to Sylvester. His strangeness, when it was even noticed, was beloved.” In fact, the Love Center Choir would appear on numerous mid-‘80s Sylvester tunes, including “Call Me” and his cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City.”

When Sylvester died of complications from AIDS in 1988 at age 41, his memorial service was held at the Love Center. According to J. Matthew Cobb of Prayzehymm Online, the gospel industry and the black church in general has a lot of work to do with regards to its gay membership. 

Hats off to Reverend Hawkins. 
 

 
Get: Walter Hawkins and the Love Center Choir: Love Alive - 25th Anniversary Reunion, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 [CD]
 
Get: Sylvester - Mutual Attraction [CD]

 
Heartbreaking news has come out of the death at 54 yesterday of the well-loved reggae singer, songwriter, producer and promoter Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott. Born and raised in the ghetto in Kingston, Jamaica, Minott spent his teen years in the city’s sound system scene and recording for Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s legendary Studio One label. The albums he released at this time, like Live Loving, Ghetto-ology and Roots Lovers—along with singles like “Herbman Hustling” and “Rub a Dub Sound Style”—laid the groundwork for the gritty, soulful dancehall sound that reggae would work into for the next 20 years.

Minott was best known for breaking with Jamaica’s soul-singer tradition, which saw many crooners brandishing a refined style that aped American artists. Sugar was sweet, but not slick. Minott would eventually leave Studio One to start his Black Roots label and Youthman Promotion sound system in order to help out young singers also coming out in Kingston’s ghettos. He’s responsible for early recording or performances of legends like Ranking Joe, Barry Brown, Tenor Saw, Little John, Tony Tuff, Barrington Levy, Horace Andy, Nitty Gritty, Junior Reid, Yami Bolo, Daddy Freddy and Garnett Silk.

You’ll see evidence of his popularity below, as Minott can’t get through his first tune at his first Reggae Sunsplash in 1983 without the crowd demanding he pull up and bring it again.
 

 
But you got the best of Sugar in his element, singing with the youths in the dancehall—or in this case, Maxfield Park in Kingston, where his Youthman Promotions sound regularly performed:
 

 
Dolly Parton’s heartbreaking Daddy Come and Get Me, a 1970 performance on The Porter Wagoner Show. Truly this woman is an all-American treasure. When most people think of Dolly Parton, they think of the hair and the boobs and the plastic surgery, but she’s one of the most talented performers who has ever lived. This performance is amazing.
 

 
Orchid Removal points us to this lovely and unexpected steel band cover of the subtle and melodic Alberto Balsalm by the venerable Aphex Twin as performed by members of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.