Rocket From The Crypt - Luck Is The New 13

I wasn’t planning to write another entry on a John Reis band so soon after doing one on Hot Snakes, but then the man himself went and released All Systems Go 3, a posthumous collection of 20 8-track recordings from the Rocket From The Crypt archives. Since it’s all I’ve been listening to for the past week, and Rocket releases are always criminally under-promoted, I feel sonically compelled to dip my metaphorical goose-feather quill of amateur music journalism into the ink of strained descriptive adjectives and generally just to write a bit about the greatest rock & roll band of all time oh how I love thee let me count the ways ladies and gentlemans are you ready to party right now do you have your dancing shoes on come on give it up for the band…

Most people have heard “On a Rope”. Some might even remember seeing the band play it to a captive studio audience on Top of The Pops while Dennis “fucking” Pennis gurned at the side of the stage. This was my first experience of the San Diego thumpers in a “live” context and, though it took me another 5 years to pick up an album by them, I never forgot the performance. I was convinced that they’d played the show dressed as Elvis impersonators. It turned out that the mirrorball shirts and Brylcreem quiffs were standard attire. Matching threads were just one of the many weapons of Rocket’s multi-pronged rock ‘n’ roll attack.

Put simply, no band makes me feel as happy as Rocket From The Crypt. No band put out albums and 7-inches of such fucking amazing quality over such a long period while continuing to play between 400 and 500 gigs per year (approximately). No band comes close.

My favourite Rocket songs all have a similar euphoric quality. They take influence from pretty much every genre of great guitar based music you can name, spread a layer of horns on for extra danceability and filter the whole thing through the energy and genuine passion of punk rock. Somewhere in the mix there's usually a chorus that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck if they’re not raised already.

The songs on All Systems Go 3 have the same raw edge as those on the band’s final studio album, Live From Camp X-Ray, although they were written and recorded several years prior. It’s also worth remembering that these were the songs Rocket were discarding while writing material for their 1998 self-titled release and 2001’s Group Sounds. I uploaded “Luck Is The New 13” because, although there are no horns in evidence, it gives a feel for the band in general; the guitars sound huge and the chorus is huger. Really, that’s all you need to know to love them.

Rocket From The Crypt played their final show on October 31^st 2005.

I’m not sure of the UK release date for ASG3, but I do know you can get imports in various places including Crash Records in Leeds. It might not be the best pick for an introduction to the band though. You’d be better going with RFTC, which is a good mix of joyous rock & roll and fire-breathing punk rock. Actually, just buy them both. Then buy everything else.

Muxtape is still fucked, but here’s the MegaUpload link and 2 YouTube videos.

Mp3 - Rocket From The Crypt - Luck Is The New 13

YouTube - the puppy lovin' video for "On A Rope"

I wish I was here

Mr Hudson & The Library - One Specific Thing

I got halfway through writing a blurb for a Primal Scream song before deciding I wanted to hear the new album first, so I picked up the next thing I saw on my (newly re-alphabetised) CD shelf. In case you were wondering, it was safely tucked between Motörhead and the Murder City Devils, and since it’s far too sunny outside to be writing about speed-gobbling hard rockers or bespectacled borderline goth-punks, it’s quite lucky that I landed on Mr Hudson & The Library’s A Tale of Two Cities instead.

I first saw Mr Hudson supporting Amy Winehouse in Liverpool. It was December, it was freezing cold, and I could have cared less about an opening act I’d heard nothing about. I’d read their name on the way in, hadn’t recognised it and was basically hoping they wouldn’t play for too long. The band wandered on and I wasn’t particularly encouraged by the look of the singer; a sparkle-studded belt buckle telling us he was “Mr. H” and a trilby tilted at an angle that could only be described as jaunty. But then they started playing “One Specific Thing” and I stopped being a judgemental bell-end and became a fan instead.

The song starts with guitar, piano and steel drum all picking out the same little riff, pricking up your ears for just a few seconds before the drums and bass kick in and you realise that the little riff isn’t little at all, that it sounds completely huge and amazing with a beat behind it. It’s sort of ska sounding; danceable, irresistible like the horns in “A Message to You Rudy”. Live, the whole crowd started nodding along. You could literally see the band making friends within moments of starting to play.

Everything becomes swirly and indistinct as Mr Hudson calls percussionist/backing singer Joy Joseph by name to sing the chorus. The riff disappears, the drums drop out, then come back in as everything builds to a climax, keeping the same beat, reminding you that the stomping, lurching hook from the beginning is going to come back at just the right moment. And then it does, all the swirl and noise and skipping piano and vocals disappear and it’s just brilliant. For the last 10 seconds it’s back to guitar, piano, steel drum, stomping along, then stopping dead and waiting for your reaction. Live, this was the cue for a crowd full of impatient Amy Winehouse fans to give Mr Hudson and co. an enormous roar of applause. The rest of their set was brilliant, the band obviously having the time of their lives. It was great to see them win over a crowd so completely.

Amy Winehouse was amazing that night, one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen, which was made better by the little band I’d never heard of and still listen to whenever it’s sunny.To be honest, the song is not quite as good on record as it is live, but still well worth listening to, and I defy anyone to hear the first minute or so without wanting to dance at least a little bit.

Mp3 - Mr Hudson & The Library - One Specific Thing

YouTube - Mr Hudson being ace on Jools Holland

Live performance of "One Specific Thing"

PS - Muxtape is down due to "problems with the RIAA", which sounds pretty ominous. Hopefully it will reappear but for now it's just the above link if you want to hear the song...

Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing

On the wall above my desk are a load of posters, pictures, and magazine cut-outs of people from music. The only thing that really links them is that they’re all my heroes; the people I would probably be too scared to talk to if I ever met them. A lot of them will probably make appearances on this blog at some point. Bo Diddley is up there, and since he passed away on June 2^nd 2008 I have been listening to him more than ever.

I could have put up any of a dozen Bo Diddley tracks but I picked “Pretty Thing” because it’s everything I love about him. The drums and maracas, the chug, the rhythm, that famous Bo Diddley shave-and-a-haircut beat thumping away. It’s tribal, no cymbals required. Then Bo’s guitar digging in with the rhythm, almost like more percussion. What his strum hand is doing is far more important than his fret hand, and when he lets it go around a minute in, there’s nothing better. As I sit typing this I’m listening to the awesome chug of “Pretty Thing” on repeat.

Like Rick Froberg of Hot Snakes, Bo is another underrated lyricist. His words are so simple you might just let them drift past with a lot of other traditional rock ‘n’ roll stuff. But the best thing about them is that they’re fun, really fun. He trades insults with his band in “Say Man”, pretends to be a cowboy in “Gun Slinger” and claims to have ‘a cobra snake for a necktie’ in “Who Do You Love”, casting himself as the ultimate badass motherfucker. Fun is way undervalued in rock, and when it’s combined with the lowdown tubthumpery of Bo’s music, it becomes irresistible.

Bo Diddley was an entertainer; he knew how to blow people away, especially on stage. His live Beach Party record is a perfect example. As far as I know this is only available on vinyl and pretty hard to get hold of, so I’m going to throw the mp3s up for anyone who wants it. The deadpan delivery of the “Roadrunner” story followed by the blinding version of the song at the end of the show puts the crowd in the palm of Bo’s hand. It’s one of the best live albums ever made and it’s free! Get it, get it, get it. Most of the stuff he released is worth buying, but if you pick one go for Bo Diddley Is A Gunslinger.

The mp3s:
Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing
Bo Diddley's Beach Party (Live Album)

If I wanted to convince people that Bo Diddley is the King, I should just have put the link to this video at the top of the post. Anyone who dances like that deserves a place in the hall of fame!

More:

Immense version of "Roadrunner" - Check out the dance moves in the audience!

Short clip of the chug

Old old TV Footage

P.S. - Click the Muxtape link at the top for streaming action...

Hot Snakes - If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit

I will never forget the bus ride home from Leeds where I first heard this song. I was 16, at college, and working at KFC part-time. Being able to spend my hard-earned till-bitch wages on punk rock records in Out of Step every weekend just about made it worth smelling like chicken grease 24/7. The day I bought Hot Snakes’ Automatic Midnight, put it in my CD player, pressed play and heard “If Credit’s What Matters I’ll Take Credit” I fell in love with the band forever. There’s no warning; no clicks, no hiss, feedback, nothing. You press play and are immediately hit with one of the greatest riffs ever to be wrangled from a lifeless lump of wood. The guitars on this album (all played by John Reis) are immense. There’s no bass, and while there’s organ on there, I have no idea how they got this song to sound so huge. You get about 15 seconds of wind tunnel guitar destruction, and then Rick Froberg’s vocals come in. He has the ultimate throat shredding voice and without disappearing too far up my own arse, his phrasing is fantastic. The lyrics, the way words are repeated and stressed is extremely simple but incredibly rhythmic. I want to say it’s like rapping but that’s not right, really. You need to hear it.

And Christ, I haven’t even said how great the drumming is. Jason Kourkonis is a monster, my favourite drummer of all time, and he’s probably amazing in the sack, too. I make a lot of mixtapes/CDs, and when I do one for someone else, “If Credit’s What Matters…” is the first place I turn to for a ballbag-crushing opening song. Everything about it is designed to grab you by the bowtie and not let go for 2 minutes and 32 seconds, by which point, I’m usually reaching over to skip it back to the beginning. I must have listened to this song 10 times on that bus ride back from Leeds.

The only thing wrong with this band is they will ruin you, ruin you, for anything else in this vein. It’s like all those post hardcore dudes that claim to be influenced by Refused. None of them are even remotely as good. Hot Snakes are in a league of their own.

I quit the KFC job after a few months, but I still listen to this record 7 years later. The sad thing is I don’t get that bus ride revelation with a new album anymore; all I’ve got is an ipod and so I have to wait until I get home for the first listen. On the other hand I don’t have to suspend an ipod in mid air so it plays without skipping. Every cloud…

If you like this song, you should pick up Automatic Midnight. The whole album is as good except it’s half an hour longer. Here’s some live You Tube videos and a great interview where John Reis and Rick Froberg talk about the band. All three of these songs are on the record…

The mp3: Hot Snakes - If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit (MegaUpload link)

YouTube: Interview with John Reis and Rick Froberg
"If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit"
"No Hands"
"Salton City"

P.S. - Aswell as the MegaUpload link, I've set up a Muxtape that will collect the first 12 songs I post up here, so if you just want to stream this bad boy, click here:

Muxtape Link

The First Post

I have far too much free time on my hands.

Loose Women is only on for an hour a day, which leaves 6 non-sleeping hours that need to be productively filled, and anyway, you can only enjoy Colleen Nolan’s saucy innuendoes so many times before it becomes difficult to muster an er…never mind. What you don’t know can’t harm you. With this in mind, I have decided to give something back to the information superhighway that has given me so much. Yes, I am starting a blog. Please roll your eyes back into the neutral position. I won’t be providing the sardonic voiceover for my personal life. Instead I will be firing out highly biased, ill-informed, spittle-flecked discourse about music, the idea being that every now and then I’ll post a song and some blurb about why you might want to check it out. This will hopefully give me a chance to flex my writing muscles, and help keep me off Facebook. I invented this idea and I call it the “mp3 blog”. I’m hoping it will take off.

I’ll be focusing my questionable energies on things that I think are great instead of kicking the crap out of bands I dislike. If you think I’m going stay up past 9 thinking up creative ways to say the new Pigeon Detectives single makes me want to dropkick a kitten then I’ll have to disappoint. I’ll get onto the bad ones when I’ve done all the ace ones. Really, the only thing worth saying is that if you like music, there will be some here every now and then… maybe stuff you will think is good.

I’ll try to keep tabs on local stuff too, and will be getting in touch with various Pontefract scene gurus to sound out what is hot and what is not (hot). If there are any local musician types reading this…well for one thing I’ll be amazed. It’s just you and me, pal. But yeah, please to send mp3s/myspace addresses/gig dates/whatever to gripperblog@hotmail.co.uk if you would like me to write something about your band. Please. I need something to do.

First mp3 to follow… stay tuned to this frequency.

P.S. I swear I would never ever dropkick a kitten.