Songs That KROQ Forgot #1

SONGS THAT KROQ FORGOT:

Back in the late '70s and early '80s, if you were a fan of New Wave, Post-Punk, Power Pop, and Synthpop and you lived in Southern California, your radio station of choice was probably KROQ (106.7 FM). Back in the day, KROQ didn't follow trends like they do now - they set them!  KROQ would play singles, album cuts, b-sides and anything else that suited their fancy.  And they didn't just play stuff that was released in the U.S.!  They would also play import singles and album cuts and were responsible for many bands gaining attention from the American labels in the first place.

When KROQ would jump on a song, they'd play it in medium to heavy rotation for a certain amount of time and then it would disappear from their playlists entirely.  As the '80s became the '90s (and when KROQ went from great to ghastly), there were hundreds and thousands of songs that KROQ once supported heavily that seemingly evaporated into thin air and would never make an appearance on their 'flashback' playlists. The once-great radio station had moved on like many of us do...

But what about those lost songs?  The ones yo used to love so much... What about the memories they conjure up when you hear them again after decades of being hidden away in the darkened recesses of your mind?  

Do they remind you of stolen kisses with a long-lost sweetheart?  

Do they remind you of driving to McDonalds during lunch hour in your senior year?  

Do they remind you of driving up PCH along the beach and playing these songs as loud as possible?

Do they remind you of life-long friendships?  Long lost loved ones?

Well, they should because they are the soundtrack of your life.

I am here to remind you of those songs you loved (or loathed) back then... the songs that ushered in a music revolution that was already becoming a little stale by the time MTV became popular.  These songs once made a difference in our lives.  Like Johnny Mann, they made us 'stand up and cheer'.  The truth of the matter is, they STILL mean something.  They are the heartbeat of a generation that is now closer to retirement age than they are their high school heyday.  These songs made it a lot easier to get through the day and that is all that matters.  Let them take you back to a time when your heart was still full love and your youth was still...er.. young!

P.S.  Some of the bands are still remembered while others are unjustly forgotten... but these gems from the late '70s and early '80s are still as wonderful as ever.  They are the SONGS THAT KROQ FORGOT!

PART ONE:

BRIAN BRIGGS/"See You On The Other Side"

 (some used to call this "Goodbye Frankie")

ICEHOUSE/"We Can Get Together"

PAT WILSON/"Bop Girl"

(yes, that is a 15 year old Nicole Kidman co-starring in this video!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDNupK1RkdY

THE DICKIES/"(I'm Stuck In A Pagoda With) Tricia Toyota"

DEPECHE MODE/"Get The Balance Right"

MENTAL AS ANYTHING/"If You Leave Me..."

XTC/"Helicopter"

KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS/"Stool Pigeon"

SQUEEZE/"In Quintessence"

WIDE BOY AWAKE/"Chicken Outlaw"

SPAZ Reviews DOG TRUMPET's Medicated Spirits!

DOG TRUMPET

MEDICATED SPIRITS

BUY at IMPORTCDS.COM

BUY at DEEPDISCOUNT.COM

For a quick rundown on Dog Trumpet, please see my earlier post about them HERE.

         For over 35 years, Reg Mombassa and Peter O'Doherty have been creating some of the most distinctive music in Australian history.  While they were two-fifths of Australian legends Mental As Anything from 1976 to 2000, they were crucial to that band's success. Martin Plaza (guitar and vocals) and Greedy Smith (keyboards and vocals) may have been in the spotlight a bit more, but Reg's slide guitar and Peter's inventive bass playing helped to create and fuel the Mental's unique sound.  The fact that Reg and Peter wrote plenty of songs for the band only solidified their standing as two of Australia's premiere talents.  When The Mentals went on hiatus at the end of the '80s, Reg and Peter formed Dog Trumpet. Their debut album, Two Heads One Brain (1991), continued in the Mentals tradition of expertly produced Roots Rook/Pop.  The Mentals got back on track in the mid '90s but that didn't stop Dog Trumpet from releasing their next album, Suitcase, in 1996.  Reg and Pete left Mental As Anything in 2000 in order to focus on Dog Trumpet and their art projects.  The duo released three more albums from 2002 to 2010 (Dog Trumpet, Antisocial Tendencies and River Of Flowers), all of which were gloriously unique and inspiring. 

Now, three years on from River Of Flowers, Reg and Peter have released their masterpiece - Medicated Spirits.

While it's not entirely different from their last few albums, the duo have come up with their finest batch of songs to date and released in as a double album... on two CDs! It doesn't get much better than this, to be honest.  19 songs and every one of them a gem. Reg and Peter don't just write Pop songs - they paint aural pictures that they fill in with different shades, colors and genres. But with that being said, the tracks are still very earthy and warm. The charm in Dog Trumpet's music is that there is such beauty in their simplicity.  Dog Trumpet sound like no one else and that is a rarity in this day and age. The album is awash with acoustic instruments and delicious harmonies that offer up an almost magical feel to each track. This isn't music created to shift units - it is music that connects with the listener on many different levels.  Shifting units is just a plus. Fans of Alt-Country, Pop, Rock 'n' Roll, Blues and Folk would do themselves a favor by clicking on one of the links above and buying Medicated Spirits immediately

Highlights: 

     The album's opener, the instrumental "Elizabethan", is similar in spirit and style to some of Paul McCartney's early '70s instrumental pieces on the McCartney album. Yes, it's that good.  

     "Speed Of Light" kicks things up a notch with it's heavy fuzz bass and Psychedelic Folk groove. Peter's affinity for Psych-influenced melodies is immediately apparent here.  

     Reg's "Made In The World" is a catchy Blues/Folk ditty with a keen Pop sense to it  You will find yourself singing this track to yourself and your friends for weeks afterwards (and MY friends can verify because that's just what I've been doing since I first played the album!)

      "Bored Wife" has been one of my favorite Dog Trumpet songs since it appeared on an EP two decades ago.  They've re-recorded it for this project and it has lost none of it's emotive power in this new updated version.  It is touching and melancholic, although a bit more raw and loose.  

     "Ray Davies And The Kinks" sounds nothing like Ray Davies and The Kinks although the lyrics paint a glorious picture of a road trip listening to Ray and the boys, and that is just as fun.  More Muswell Hillbillies than Kinda Kinks, its a track that will earn repeated listenings on your next road trip.  Who needs Ray when you have Reg?

     "Methylated Spirit" has a wonderful hook that is accented by some fantastic harmony vocals that sound almost other-worldly. 

     "What Falls Away" is a splendid Pop song from top to bottom.  Again, the backing vocals really help make the song the perfectly constructed recording that it is. 

     "Camel Rock" features fantastic lead vocals by band member Bernie Hayes, a performance that now has me trying to track down his two solo albums. Hayes gave a stellar vocal performance on "Bloomsbury Birds" from their album Antisocial Tendencies as well.  

     "Broke In Many Parts", "Tell Me" and "Moon And Star" have some of the prettiest melodies that Peter has written.

     While they don't sound like old Mentals recordings, songs like "Telegraph Pole" and "Arriving At The End" wouldn't sound out of place on their albums Get Wet and Espresso Bongo. 

     I could go on and talk about every single track on the album, but my goal here is to inspire you to run out and buy Medicated Spirits, not to bore you with my personal love affair with this double disc delight.  Dog Trumpet have recorded the best album of their career thus far as well as one of the best albums of the year.  Not bad for a couple of fellas who've been doing this for nearly 40 years... not bad at all!

Peace, love and puppies,
Stephen SPAZ Schnee

10 Reasons Why You Should Be Excited About A NEW Album From DOG TRUMPET!

DOG TRUMPET 

Is

REG MOMBASSA

and 

PETER O'DOHERTY

Dog Trumpet has a NEW double (2CD) album due on August 12th, 2013. It is called Medicated Spirits. You can purchase it through their website HERE. 

Why should you care?  

Here are 10 very valid reasons:

• Because Dog Trumpet features two enormously talented singer/songwriters who also happen to be two of Australia's finest artists. 

• Reg did the artwork for PiL's Greatest Hits album!

• For 20+ years, Reg and Peter used to be members of one of Australia's finest Pop combos, MENTAL AS ANYTHING. 

•  Mental As Anything did THIS song (btw, that's Reg on slide guitar and Peter on bass):

• Reg and Peter are brothers. 

• Reg Mombassa is one of the coolest names in Rock. But alas, it is not his real name.  I reckon those who have known him since he was a wee lad probably still call him Chris O'Doherty.  

• Peter O'Doherty is NOT Pete Doherty, the drug addicted dickhead from The Libertines and Babyshambles.  Peter O'Doherty is the melodically-gifted basshead from Dog Trumpet. And formerly of Mental As Anything. 

• Dog Trumpet has already released five albums:

Two Heads One Brain (1991)

Suitcase (1996)

Dog Trumpet (2002)

Antisocial Tendencies (2007)

River Of Flowers (2010)

• Their 2013 release, Medicated Spirits, is a double album (on two CDs). Not many bands have enough quality material for one album, let alone a double.

• Dog Trumpet has released some amazing material in their 20+ year career.  Including songs such as these: 

So, what are you waiting for?  Time to head over to www.dogtrumpet.com and order Medicated Spirits.

You can purchase it through their website HERE. 

RECORD STORE DAY: 10 (More) Albums That Changed My Life, Part Three

10 (More) Albums That Changed My Life

Part Three

By Stephen SPAZ Schnee

     Music strikes a chord in me... pun only partially intended. No matter what my mood is, music is such an important part of my day to day activities.  From work to play and back again, music is always playing somewhere around me.  I can't escape it and I would not even try.  I don't care if it's something I love or despise, my day to day listening experience only enhances my knowledge and understanding of this truly amazing art form.

     Some of my favorite people erroneously say that I 'know everything' about music.  While I am humbled by that assertion, I don't believe that at all... because I am constantly learning something new with everything that is being played around me. I might hear something new in a song that I missed before, I might hear something that I know I never want to hear again and I might hear something that I can't live without.  But the important thing is that I'm listening, searching and being moved by the music  I will never 'know everything' because, once I think that I know it all, I will stop learning... and I certainly don't ever want that to happen!

     The albums that changed my life may not be the best albums in the respective bands' catalog, but they are albums that reached deep inside me and stayed there.  Whether I heard them being played in a record shop or read about them somewhere, I discovered these albums when they were first released and I've held them close ever since.  The albums listed here are no less important than the ones in my previous lists.  I've just decided to break the lists up to make it easier for readers to take them in and, hopefully, check them out.

     Here are 10 albums that never fail to take me back to a certain period in my life. They may not have sold millions of copies but they had an enormous impact on me. And they are albums I will cherish until my dying day….
     I’ve listed them in alphabetical order by band because, to be honest, I can never say that one of them had more of an impact on me than the other. They are all equally important. And I've refrained from explaining WHY they mean so much to me. Those reasons are ones that only I would understand... (and I'm sure that your choices are made based on similar situations and circumstances).

ANY TROUBLE/Where Are All The Nice Girls?

BUZZCOCKS/Singles Going Steady

FINGERPRINTZ/Distinguishing Marks

THE JAM/This Is The Modern World

THE LAMBRETTAS/Beat Boys In The Jet Age

NICK LOWE/Pure Pop For Now People (AKA Jesus Of Cool)

(This is an alternate version of the song that appears on the album)

MENTAL AS ANYTHING/If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?

THE PLIMSOULS/Zero Hour EP

SHOES/Tongue Twister

THE UNDERTONES/The Undertones

MENTAL AS ANYTHING/Tents Up Review

Three decades after they released their debut album, MENTAL AS ANYTHING are still around, thank goodness. Even the most mundane Mentals track is better than half the stuff out there... not that there are many mundane Mentals tracks to begin with!

Just out is their BRAND NEW album, Tents Up, and here's what I had to say about it on All Music Guide!

" On August 16th, 1977, Elvis Presley died. On that same day, in Australia, Mental As Anything played their first gig. So, here it is, 32 years later and the Mentals are still touring and releasing new music, but things have changed. At the beginning of the millennium, bassist Peter O’Doherty and guitarist Reg Mombassa left the band, the first Mentals line-up change in over two decades.
Following 2001’s uneven Beetroot Stains album, drummer Dave Twohill was ousted from the band and vocalist/guitarist Martin Plaza and keyboardist/vocalist Greedy Smith remained the Mentals’ only original members. Their next release, Roadcase in 2002, suffered the same unfocused fate as the previous year’s album.
The band began to slowly recover by issuing Plucked in 2005, an album of acoustic renditions of their past hits, and they continued to tour. Now, seven years after their last real studio album, the band returns with Tents Up, an album that may not return them to their glory days (’81-’85), but is certainly their best album since 1995’s Liar Liar Pants On Fire.
Martin and Greedy remain masters of the pop song, able to knock out wonderful melodies and make it sound so damn easy. While there doesn’t seem to be a bonafide modern Top 40 chart hit on the album, that’s only because the band are sticking to their guns and recording a Mental As Anything album and, for the first time in a decade, aren’t trying to mess with the formula. “Moaning Lisa”, “Covered In Women”, “Lazy”, “She Could’ve Been Mine”, “Blues Guys” and “Karaoke Hostess” are all worthy additions to the band’s vast catalog.
On the band’s two previous studio albums, ‘new’ recruit David ‘Duck’ Barraclough was allowed to contribute songs and, while he was obviously talented, his style didn’t fit the typical Mentals sound. On Tents Up, his contributions (“I Know You Will” and “Easy”) fit quite nicely into the Mentals mix and are also standouts on the album.
While the band are not as musically playful as they were on albums like Cats & Dogs and Creatures Of Leisure, they make up for it lyrically with plenty of witty moments that hold up over repeated listens (“Loving you is like a rodeo/Bucking hard all the time”). Old mate Reg turns up to play guitar on a few tracks, sounding as great as ever (he’s now in Dog Trumpet with O’Doherty, his brother).
I must admit that, on first listen, the album sounded a bit too safe, but it really opens up after a few spins and takes the listener for a fun ride. Welcome back, Mental As Anything!"

Stephen SPAZ Schnee

MENTAL AS ANYTHING celebrates 30th Anniversary with TWO releases!

My passionate love for MENTAL AS ANYTHING stretches back nearly 30 years. I was aware of the band when they released their debut in 1979 but didn't get a chance to hear them for nearly a year or so when an import version of that debut album, Get Wet, finally made it into my hands thanks to those fine folks at Aron's Records in Hollywood (unfortunately, Aron's no longer exists).

A few years later, their American debut album, If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?, made it into the shops and other U.S. fans were able to feast on the Mentals' unique and easily accessible sound. In fact, KROQ picked up on a few songs including "I Didn't Mean To Be Mean", "Too Many Times" and, of course, "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?" This American album was a collection of sorts, featuring many of the tracks from their Aussie album Cats & Dogs plus some singles and a few remixed versions of choice tracks from Get Wet.

The Mentals sound was (and is) a mix of Squeeze-like pop songwriting smarts, a Nick Lowe/Rockpile roots-rock foundation and a healthy dose of pure Australian humor and atmosphere.

While the band never quite caught on in the U.S., they continued releasing great albums in Australia, keeping the same five man line up for over 21 years! But the band did eventually lose original members Peter O'Doherty (bass/vocals), Reg Mombassa (guitar/vocals) and David "Bird" Twohill (drums). Now, the Mentals continue to tour and record with original members Martin Plaza (guitar/vocals) and Greedy Smith (keyboards/vocals), who were the main vocalists and hit songwriters. Though the original band is not intact anymore, the Mentals still have much to offer... and TWO releases are heading to a store near YOU!

The first, Essential As Anything, is a CD/DVD combo featuring 20+ bona-fide hits on the CD PLUS 30+ amazingly cool videos on the DVD! While the title is a slight misnomer (EVERY Mental song is an essential addition to your collection), it is a great introduction to a worthy band that you might have missed the first time around... or maybe you just want to take a trip down memory lane?!!!

The second release, Tents Up, is a brand NEW album! Now, I have not heard anything from this album (no pun intended), but both Martin and Greedy remain supreme songwriters and I'm sure that it will be nothing less than wonderful! I'll certainly be reviewing this album once I get my grubby little hands on it (and, to be honest, I don't even have Essential As Anything yet, but I know every song backwards, forwards and inside out! I'm anxious to own all those videos, though, since I spend hours on youtube watching and rewatching them!)

So, although I only meant to add a quick little mention of these two import releases, I can never write something about this band and NOT go a little overboard. So, keep an eye out for more Mentals info as it comes in!

Peace, my music-loving brothahs and sistahs!

Stephen SPAZ Schnee