Would make a good xmas present.. oh yeah, and the record too.

In time honoured rock n roll tradition the Lime Spiders never came close to the perfection of the title track of Slave Girl which is total a classic right from the opening rattling chains.

Last of my mini Austalian fix.

Sticking “down under” my favourite upside down people’s band ever are this glorious post psych-punk-blues specimen. Ok, maybe they did owe a debt to The Birthday Party- but i will never give up trying to convert the unbeliever here.

Maybe if i was conformably content i’d never have been able to appreciate this soundtrack to tearing out and devouring one’s own organs – you win some you lose some.

More aussies and definitely a big Birdman influence here.

This was one of my total favourites when i was about 20.. and they were awesome for a while – they got a bit overtly political, although clever with it, as they went on.

Burn My Eye 4 track ep (1977) plus More Fun & Ring Of Truth eps (1978)

I cant put my finger on it in words (is that possible anyway?) what made Radio Birdman so much better than most other rock n roll bands of that, or any other era?

duuugh… If they’d been from New York or London rather than Sydney Australia they would surely be widely recognized (although that should never be used as a yardstick of worth)  like The Clash and The Ramones. Groups who never set out to do anything but their own thing and then created a music that although very representative of it’s time, still has enduring popular appeal.

Bollocks, i sound like a fuckin journalist… it’s good shit right!

If you has any doubt them aussies were freakin well out in the 60’s i think this might just put ya straight.

(all individual mp3s)

01 The Dark Ages – Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day 02 Running Jumping Standing Still – Little Girl 03 Ramrods – Get Back 04 The Easybeats – Friday On My Mind 05 Peter Tilbrook – All Mine To Play With 06 The Birds – Magic Words 07 Creatures – Ugly Thing 08 Gift Of Love – Take A Trip 09 The Allusions – I Gotta Move 10 Blue Stars (New Zealand) – Social End Product 11 Peter Nelson & The Castaways – Down In The Mine 12 The Pleazers – Hurtin’ All Over 13 Missing Links – You’re Driving Me Insane 14 The Jet Set – What Did The Man Say 15 Wild Colonials – Get The Picture 16 Derek’s Accent – Ain’t Got No Feeling 17 Atlantics – Come On 18 Machine Gun Kelly’s Rejects – I’m Going Back 19 The Allusions – Gypsy Woman 20 The Mystrys – Witch Girl 21 Wright Of Wave – Dollar Song 22 Wild Cherries – I’m Your Kingpin 23 Larry’s Rebels – Flying Scotsman 24 Jeff St John & The Id – Sunaroid ‘67   25 Easybeats – Goin’ Out of My Mind 26 Purple Hearts – Long Legged Baby 27 The Others – Why Can’t She Be Mine 28 The Tikki’s – I’m Lonely 29 Birds – Dust In My Pants 30 The Throb – Black

Greetings all.
The Yuletide is upon us, and to get things going I’m going to bring back last years Christmas post/track, followed on Monday with something new for the holiday season. I would have been more proactive but I suffered through a root canal this morning.
I hope you dig the track and I’ll see you all next week.
Peace
Larry

Originally posted December 2008

Bob Seger (top left) & the Last Heard

Listen – Sock It To Me Santa – MP3

Greetings all.
I hope all is well on your end.
Today I bring you the very first Iron Leg Christmas post (hopefully the first of many).
Though this blog has a much smaller audience than Funky16Corners, I’m having a tremendous amount of fun working on it. Though soul and funk are the main focus of my collectors mania, my musical interests – accumulated over all my 45 years – are much broader.
As I’ve related in this space a bunch of times, during the mid-80’s I was pretty deeply involved in the garage/mod bag, both as an active (fanzines, bands) and passive (fan, collector) participant. It is the music I was digging through during that period (and before and after) that I cover here at Iron Leg.
One of the positive aspects of doing a music blog is that it kind of forces you to go back into your crates and dig, rediscovering and more importantly re-appreciating music that may not currently occupy the center stage. In that respect, Iron Leg definitely fits the bill.
If you’re a Funky16Corners reader, you’ll already know that I’ve never been a big collector of holiday music. Certainly someone that consumes music as voraciously as I do is bound to grab a couple of Christmas sides, but it has never been my focus.
I was originally going to post something quiet and meditative for Christmas, on account of that’s the kind of mood I find myself in these days.
However…
The bygone 60’s punk that still dwells within took over and I decided that we would all be better served with something from the kick-ass side of the menu.
In service of that notion, I bring you one of the punkiest Christmas records this side of the Sonics, Bob Seger & the Last Heard’s ‘Sock It To Me Santa’.
I’ve touched briefly on the dynamic pre-Night Moves career of Seger before (and will go even more in depth in the future). I don’t have the original 45 of this number (I ripped it from a 20 year old Euro bootleg of his Cameo 45s, but for those of you interested in the early Last Heard sides there are a few of them (including ‘Sock It To Me Santa’ on the recent Cameo-Parkway boxed set, which I believe is available via iTunes).
Here we see the 1966 model Seger, in which later pretensions to arena-rock-osity were preceded by just a touch of that Detroit suburban whiteboy James Brown wannabee-ism, which by the way predates a similar (though not Yuletide) sonic assault a year later by his fellow Motorcity rocker Mitch Ryder.
That all said, I ride for early Seger up through his Capitol years and ‘Sock It To Me Santa’ is a fine example.
I hope you dig it.
I have two more Iron Leg podcasts in the bag, as well as a large supply of individual bangers, so stick around kids. I won’t be posting again til up and around New Years Eve, so you all have yourselves an excellent holiday.
Peace
Larry

“Fuck the White Stripes, long live The Sonics!” steht zu dieser Veranstaltung auf der Homepage der Astra Stube geschrieben. War ja klar, dass ich da hellhörig werde. Die Party-Reihe TEENAGE KICKS zieht unter der Eisenbahnbrücke ein und macht ordentlich Radau mit primitivem 60s Punk, groovigem Soul und wilder Surfmusik. Dazu hat man sich The C-Types eingeladen, die beim schönen Label Hazelwood Vinyl Plastics unter Vertrag sind (u.a. auch Mardi Gras B.B., King Khan). Dort hat man ja ein Fabel für ausgefallenes. Und in der Tat lassen sich die Vier C-Typen auch net so richtig einordnen. Ist das nun Surf? Tango mit Gitarre? – Naja man sollte sich’s anhören. Der Eintritt ist übrigens frei, da kann man ja eigentlich nix falsch machen… Los geht’s um 22.30 Uhr.

http://www.myspace.com/thectypes

The Standells

Listen -The Standells – Little Sally Tease – MP3

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end as another week comes to a close.
The daylight savings time thing has come to an end, and this year (as opposed to all those in the past that I can still remember with any clarity) it doesn’t seem to be causing me any trouble. Usually I find my self dragging my ass around for at least a week as I pull myself into synch with the clock.
I’m putting this post up a little early since the fam and I are hitting the road for a couple of days of R&R.
The tune I bring you today has been a favorite since back in the garage revival days of yore. Back then, next to the Chocolate Watchband, the Standells loomed over the mid-60s like some kind of garage punk colossus, having created several anthemic tunes and having the added benefit of having recorded for a major label and having their moving image captured on film a number of times.
Though for most garage heads the go-to Standells numbers are ‘Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White’ and the Nuggets-y ‘Dirty Water’, my faves by the LA combo have always been lesser known killers like ‘Why Did You Hurt Me’ and today’s selection, their ramped up cover of Don and the Goodtimes PNW classic ‘Little Sally Tease’.
Originally waxed by D&the GTs, then later covered by the Kingsmen, ‘Little Sally Tease’ is one of those stompers that seems as if it were created in the lab of a mop-topped mad scientist attempting to formulate the perfect garage punk record, having exhumed and stitched together pounding drums, throbbing combo organ, fuzz guitar and snotty adolescent girl trouble lyrics of the first order.
The original version of the song is no small potatoes, but the Standells took it into the studio and beat it like a rented mule until every single drop of snot and bad attitude was placed on display like a hood ornament on their own high powered muscle car. Things get off to a strong start with heavy bass and witch doctor drums, but it isn’t until the chorus, shredded guitar solo and combo organ workout that things reach a truly explosive climax.
‘Little Sally Tease’ is a cut on the 1966 LP ‘Dirty Water’ which may pack more garage punk power than any full length in the history of the genre. Alongside the title cut, ‘..Good Guys’, ‘Medication’, ‘Little Sally Tease’ and ‘Why Did You Hurt Me’, you also get slamming covers of ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’ and ‘Hey Joe’, as well as the cover photo of the Standells looking positively badass.
It’s just that heavy.
As your physician I recommend you get this on a CD (or patch the MP3 thingy into the car radio) and drive around with the stereo at full blast and the windows wide open. No sense in hiding the fact that you’re a fuzz addled freak from the rest of the neighborhood, is there? Hmmmm?
Dig it and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for the second half of the the 5th anniversary celebration.

i fuckin’ swear i am only dealing the pure shit here brothers and sisters.. in this case the totally unadulterated defining album of 60’s psychedelia… how it was actually meant to sound… what a fuckin’ high for nowt!

Even the shitty mp3 version of this presented here is gonna out power virgin vinyl of the fucked about stereo version originally released in ‘66.  Comparably obsessive nutters will find themselves parting with too many £E$’s to get this one on vinyl to replace it.

i think this lot is about the world’s greatest current enbodiment of the spirit of rock n roll.

Can i say any more than that!

Best frontman going.. catch them live if you know what’s good for you.

Greetings all.
This is a relatively unprecedented mid-week post, bringing back last year’s Halloween tune. This is in my humble opinion the greatest slice of Halloween garage punk ever created, and it was a throwaway for a movie soundtrack. Ain’t that a bitch?
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Friday with something groovy (and new).
Peace
Larry

Originally posted 10/30/2008

Little Tibia & the Fibias

Listen – Little Tibia & the Fibias – The Mummy – MP3

Greetings all.

I wasn’t planning on posting again this week, but I got my hands on something cool and couldn’t let Halloween pass without posting it.

I’ve been a fan of Rankin & Bass’s ‘Mad Monster Party’ since I was a kid, when it was an annual event of sorts on Channel 5 in NYC.

Back in the day, when I was hanging out on the pageboy, fuzztone, granny glasses scene, I began to notice on part of that movie in particular (and if you scope out the picture above, you’ll know why).

Right there, in the middle of ‘Mad Monster Party’, was a smoking number by what I consider to be the greatest ‘fake’ band of all time, Little Tibia and the Fibias.

When I say “fake band” I refer only to the fact that the band was created especially for the movie (and the fact that the ‘band’ we’re referring to is in fact an animated/reanimated group of skeletal punks). There’s obviously a real band making the music. Unfortunately – aside from vague, unsourced rumors that Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers may have been involved – the identity of the real life performers has been buried in the sands of time.

That, my friends, is a goddamn shame, because as will be demonstrated when you extract the ones and zeros from the interwebs, ‘The Mummy’ is a wild ass-kicker of the first order.

You get the pounding drums, the combo organ, and a vocal that sounds like the singers were good and drunk.

And the words!

“Mad mummy dance!

He’s in a trance!

All wrapped up in himself tonight!

It’s the mummy!’

Oh, hell yes!

If this was a real 45, recorded by a “real” band, people would be kicking each other to death trying to get their hands on a copy. As it stands, the only place this was ever released was on the soundtrack to ‘Mad Monster Party’. ‘The Mummy’ is so good that I’ve often considered taking it and having a dub plate made to DJ with.

For now, just download, pop the song on the MP3 delivery system of your choice, and let it rip.

Happy Halloween.

Peace

Larry

Buy Mad Monster Party DVD at Amazon.com

Buy Mad Monster Party Soundtrack at Amazon.com

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too…

The Almighty Defenders: David Waldman, Divulgação

Bandas de garage sempre tiveram sua afeição por fantasias. De Music Machine e The Monks até Mummies, Knights of the New Crusade, The Spits e algumas bandas de Billy Childish, o gênero atesta como gosta de tematizar seu visual. O Almighty Defenders, banda que reúne King Khan & The BBQ Show e Black Lips, entra nessa categoria. Vestidos de cantores gospel, eles lançaram seu debut ao final de setembro pela Vice Records, após longa espera desde o anúncio de formação da banda, no blog do Black Lips.

Não só na fantasia, também na sonoridade eles adotaram incorporaram tema da música religiosa americana. As músicas são uma mistura de gospel e soul com a sujeira de garage que caracteriza os projetos dos integrantes. O melhor signo para este tipo de som está na primeira música divulgada do grupo, Bow Down and Die, uma canção de amor com letras seculares no formato gospel.

Um ponto interessante do disco é como ele revela um verdadeiro projeto co-autoral, no qual as peculiaridades de cada banda são muito reconhecíveis em um trabalho inédito para ambas. Por exemplo, All My Loving e Cone of Light, estão na chave do King Khan & The BBQ Show, com vocais carregados soul e doo wop, enquanto The Ghost With the Most e 30 Second Air Blast são mais blues e country, marcas mais típicas do Black Lips.

The Almighty Defenders: David Waldman, Divulgação

Com essa equação de estilos e sonoridades, o Almighty Defenders realiza, finalmente, aquilo que interessa à música gospel. Ora, é justamente este um estilo feito para o louvor, marcado por uma alegria transcendente que “ilumina” seus ouvintes. E não se trata de uma elevação como propõe a breguice do U2, mas algo mais criativo, buscado nas fórmulas da raiz da música popular, não nas fórmulas da linguagem de massa.

No entanto, se reconhecermos quão intensas são as performances dessas bandas, ambas não deixam de ser pregadoras a um público específico em seus shows, com a diferença de que a violência com que a platéia reage pode mascarar o contágio de alegria – nada que inesperado em bandas de garage punk, por outro lado.

Archive footage of teenage delinquents and spastic dancing set to motorik punk thrash – it will cure whatever is wrong with youse.

01. Mike Rep & The Quotas – Mama Was a Schitzo, Daddy Was a Vegetable Man 7” Sverige Age, 2002 (originally recorded 1975/76)

02. Haunted George – Shotgun In My Mouth 7” SSLD

03. Anna & The Psychomen – Wild Mama 7” lo-fi 2003

04. Bassholes & April March – Moody 7” Sympathy 2008)

05. Spiders – Why Don’t You Love Me 7” Sundazed (originally recorded 1965/66 garage band featuring a youthful Alice Cooper)

06. Chain Gang – My Fly 7” kapitalist 1978

07. The Fe Fi Fo Fums – Electrofize Me 7” boom boom 2004

08. Cows – Chow 7” treehouse 1988

09. Roy Loney & The A Bones – Boy Meets Bone 7” Norton 2003

BAIXAR DISCO

Escutem essa fezes!

Listen -The Bad Seeds – King of the Soap Box – MP3

Greetings all.

I hope everyone has had themselves a nice week and is preparing for an even nicer weekend.
Here in NJ, if we want “nice” it’ll have to be indoors since we appear to be in the middle of an extended monsoon.
That said, listening to fine vintage music is always a great indoor activity, guaranteed to make you forget that the rain is preventing you from ogling the fall foliage or picking apples (maybe it’s better you stay indoors after all??).
The tune I bring you today is the flipside of a track that was featured in an Iron Leg Digital Trip mix a while back.
I can’t tell you much about the Bad Seeds, other than this set of pips hailed from Kentucky, as opposed to the more famous Texas group from the 60s (or the much later Nick Cave backing band, but I don’t suspect you thought it was them anyway). I’ve also seen a reference that this 45 was actually recorded in New York City, but I cannot confirm it.
The tune I feature today is the jingly-jangly ‘King of the Soap Box’. Featuring some excellent production (from someone named Mersey*) and a vocalist who sounds a LOT like Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels, ‘King of the Soap Box’ is a bit of period-specific, sub-Dylan protest/folk rock. I mention the production because unlike hundreds of other similar records, the Bad Seeds 45 sounds like it was actually recorded in a fancy, high-falutin’ studio, as opposed to a converted chicken coop in Dust Fart, Texas. There are folks out there who would attempt to convince you that such an attribute is a negative thing, praising the Dust Fart “sound” as the ne plus ultra of all things garage, but as someone who enjoys listening to music for reasons other than “authenticity” (i.e. the excuse a lot of heads use when they are confronted with records suffering from a wide variety of technical limitations), I really dig the booming snare drums and chiming guitars on ‘King of the Soap Box’.
I wish I knew more about the band, but I don’t. If you do, drop me a line.
I hope you dig the jangle and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*Interestingly enough, Robert Mersey spent the majority of his time producing and arranging decidedly middle-of-the-road fare by the likes of Bobby Vinton, Patti Page, Andy Williams and Doris Day. How he ended up twisting the knobs on this one I do not know.

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for news on another guest mix.

Post numbero uno in an occasional series highlighting brilliant contemporary post-blues-garage-punk one-man-bandship.

BAIXAR DISCO

Dando inicio a uma série de coletâneas feitas pelos colaboradores deste blog, preparei uma coletânea que captura toda a selvageria e ruídos das bandas de garage 60’s.

Pois então, como disse antes, daqui pra frente iremos postar algumas coletâneas com os gêneros de musicas tratados aqui neste blog: beat, garage, mod, rock steady, ska, soul, R&B, etc.

The Devil Has A Fuzz trata-se de uma coletânea só com bandas que exageram na guitarra fuzz, que reverenciam aquele ruído bem saturado. Ruido este, que os técnicos de som tentavam evitar a todo custo nos anos 60. Como nome já sugere, a coletânea reúne as bandas que fazem o som mais infernal e cheio de fuzz possível.