various artists - Mojo Presents: Glam Nuggets (15 Wham Bam Rarities From The Boogie Children!)

If you know glam, you probably have heard a good number, if not all, of these. If you're more the "Bowie is glam, right?" type, that's totally fine; this is a good place to start.

There are, of course, Bowie-adjacent songs present, with contributions from Mick Ronson and Dana Gillespie's performance of "Andy Warhol". There's also a trio of clear proto-punk cuts: the umpteenth appearance of "Personality Crisis" is most welcome, while reminding folks of or introducing them to the (Hammersmith) Gorillas and Hollywood Brats is a must. Any talk of the era must include Sparks and Suzi Quatro, both of whom chime in with classic cuts.

The most fun part, as is the case with any good Mojo comp, is the trainspottery, the archeology. This is filled out with the one-and-dones, the mostly overlooked, the barely remembered. Despite coming out on big indies or major labels in the UK on initial release, it's fallen to labels like 7Ts, RPM, What's Your Rupture?, and Just Add Water to recover these classics that have gone missing in action. Brett Smiley's "Space Ace", a B-side from a single 45 release in 1974, would have NEVER hit my radar without first appearing on Grapefruit's "Oh! You Pretty Things" collection. JAW is the reason I heard Shakane for the first time; their "Gang Man" shows up here. And while the RAH Band continue to release music, more than 50 years after their first drop, there's zero chance I would have dove far enough into their catalog to dig out "The Crunch".

Oh, and there's a song from the Damned here, but not the one you are expecting.

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various artists - Mojo Presents: 1-2-3-4! (The Roots Of The Ramones)

It's coming up on 30 years since the Ramones broke up; we're in the sixth decade of having them on the planet. What a pivot point. Everything that came before was garage rock or proto punk or beat. Everything that came after was punk, the new wave. Knowing what we know now about the interpersonal politics of the band, it's amazing to me that we got more than a couple of singles, much less 22 years of turning a 33rpm world up to 45.

Like most Mojo giveaways from this period, "1-2-3-4!" is pretty well curated, snagging 15 tracks of predecessors and contemporaries. As fellow music psychos, you probably have a number of these tracks already. If you're here reading this blog, you don't need me to tell you that Television, the Shangri-Las, and Love are fucking incredible. Placing Ronnie Spector singing a Joey composition and adding a track from Leslie West's pre-Mountain garage back are nice touches. Does T.Rex fit here for me? I dunno, but maybe you have some insight. It's all led off with a Ramones rarity: the Stones' "Street Fighting Man", performed with ex-Heartbreaker Walter Lure.

Good art doesn't need to be groundbreaking or proficient. It also needs to have heart, be authentic; talent is always a plus, but that's all subjective. And, subjectively, the Ramones distilled their influences and surrounding into something truly great. And this is still a good way to hear what contributed to that greatness.

Discogs

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various artists - Good Vibrations: A Record Shop, A Label, A Film Soundtrack

It's a quiet Sunday, the first weekend of April, here in the PNW, a bit rainy and grey. A wonderful day for laundry, the Criterion Channel, and a bit of light blogging. We're back in the saddle again, picking up where we left off with this, the soundtrack to a documentary about one of the all-time great shops/labels/institutions, Belfast's Good Vibrations. And while I've not seen the doc, this is one I couldn't leave behind on the Central Coast last winter when it crossed my path at $7.

Is it nitpicky to ask why Protex isn't here? Yeah, it is, but "Don't Ring Me Up" was G.V.'s sixth release. Its absence seems a bit pointed. But I can't find any fault with what was compiled here. A mix of Good Vibrations releases ("Teenage Kicks", "Big Time", "Just Another Teenage Rebel"), inspirations (Bert Jansch, Bowie, Niney The Observer, the Shangri-Las), and contemporaries (S.L.F., the Saints, Suicide) make for a really great record of what made the shop so special in its relatively short life.

Discogs

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various artists - Total Blam Blam! (A Brilliant Batch Of Bowie-Inspired Rockers)

This is the platonic ideal of any dollar bin purchase. There were zero expectations going into this one. Hell, I didn't recognize a single name amongst the 16 bands appearing herein. This seems more like an unsigned band comp than it does a "Bowie-inspired" collection. And viewed through that prism (listened to through those headphones?), this is pretty good. I wouldn't be bummed out at all to encounter any of these folks as the second of four bands on a Thursday night.

Not that I'm out on Thursday nights, listening to garage rock or punk glam along with 30-50 other locals.

Anyway, this is a much better comp than I would have expected from the likes of Classic Rock Magazine, the Mojo for boomers who nod sagely when they hear a band from their youth sold their catalog to Hipgnosis.

(I'm just mad that Maximum Rock 'n' Roll hasn't been in print in years.)

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Trash! The Roots Of Punk!

From the ridiculous(ly bad) to the tragic to the sublime: here's yet another killer Mojo comp. This one's chock full of proto-punk, pub rock, glam, and even a smooch of space rock and motorik. The Iggster is on the cover. The Dolls lead things off. There's not a dud in the entire bunch.

But who am I telling? You know what you're getting when you visit Primitive Offerings, my previous post notwithstanding.

Discogs

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Paul Williams - Phantom Of The Paradise

Bup bup bup bup bup bup bup. That's the trenchant insight that comes at quarter til one in the morning. I have the first John Mulaney special streaming in the background; no necessarily the inspiration I was looking for, although I appreciate the chuckles that are sure to come.

I re-watched "Phantom Of The Paradise" the other night and remembered, "Hey! I own a copy of that! Let's write about that!" Paul Williams was always Little Enos from "Smokey and the Bandit II" to me, the guy who wrote all the good Muppets songs and stood about four foot nothing. It wouldn't be until Scream Factory released their Collector's Edition in 2014 that I would even recognize it as a thing; maybe I confused it with "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera", both of which I was both overexposed to and underwhelmed by in my youth.

(Sidebar: when I was a kid, I lived near Virginia Tech in southwestern Virginia. All of my extended family lived in the metro Atlanta area. So I'd end up in the back of my mom's 1982 Mazda 626 an awful lot, heading down I-81 with three tapes in the center console: Basia's "Time and Tide", Barbra Streisand's "Memories", and "Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber". You want to know why I glommed onto noise? There are exhibits A, B, and C. Cruising through the Appalachians, hearing the same Broadway shit over and over and over again. Merzbow was a fucking relief.)

(Second sidebar: I have mixed feelings about KISS. Gene Simmons can go screw, and everything they did, the Ramones did better. But "Detroit Rock City" is a jam, and "I Was Made For Loving You" is a great disco cut.)

Back to "Paradise". It's a horror/musical, a black comedy without any of the theatre kid campiness that comes along with "Rocky Horror". It was independently funded by Edward Pressman, the heir to the Pressman Toy Company, and directed by Brian De Palma in his follow up to "Sisters". The songs were written by Paul Williams and performed by the cast: long-time De Palma collaborator William Finlay, Jessica Harper (in her debut role), longtime L.A. jazzman Raymond Louis Kennedy, and Williams himself. These songs totally slap. It's a mix of mid-70s pop, glam/shock rock, Beach Boys homage, and doo wop. It was nominated for Best Original Score at the 1974 Academy Awards, and rightfully so. It's a really cool soundtrack. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is Ben Folds' Fear Of Pop project. Williams would move on create the music for "Bugsy Malone", another outstanding 70s cult film that's due for rediscovery.

This rip comes from a copy of the 2001 Japanese CD reissue that I found for $10 in a store north of me. I would have gladly paid twice as much. There also exists an extended version of the soundtrack and score, released in 2015 on bootleg cassette by a Canadian label. If you're sitting on a copy you're willing to part with, holler at your boy. Because that's the only way I'll be able to cop one until I get to start making my own reissues.

Discogs

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Shudder To Think - Your Choice Live 021

What do you think the high muckity mucks at Epic Records heard in Shudder To Think when they signed them in 1993/1994? What about this arty post-hardcore band said, "It's the next Nirvana!"?

None of this is to denigrate the beloved DC quartet. I really love StT, especially "Pony Express Record". I just like putting myself into the shoes of an early 90s A&R and trying to figure how a band like this, so distinctive in their mix of mid-80s proto emo, glam, 60s psychedelica, and bubblegum pop, would work on a larger stage. It hurt my head hearing "Hit Liquor" and "X-French Tee Shirt" on HFS in 1994; both singles really stood out in a landscape of Live, Veruca Salt, Oasis, and Weezer. Of course I loved it; I was a 16-year-old virgin who stayed home on Fridays taping songs off the radio. But their signing, even with the continued work that Craig Wedren does on soundtracks 26 years later, still strikes me as a wild, wonderful swing.

It's interesting to me, listening to Shudder to Think on YouTube while writing, that the next band to appear was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Has the algorithm gotten so strong as to be able to make the sonic comparison between Nathan Larson's and Nick Zinner's guitar work? Is there a thru line that I've just missed until today?

"Your Choice Live 021" was the only recorded output from the StT lineup of Wedren, Nathan Larson, Stuart Hill, and Mike Russell. Larson had joined a few months prior to this recording from Swiz,  and following this tour and their departure from Dischord, Adam Wade would replace Russell and join on drums from Jawbox. This is a great sounding document of Shudder to Think's catalog from the Dischord days, mixing tracks from 1991's "Funeral at the Movies" and 1992's "Get Your Goat". And it's inexpensive! You can probably snag one for less than $10 on a good day.

Discogs

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 5 - 1970-1979

PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images

We've reached the end of our Boot Power adventure with today's post of Volume 5. By now, you've found a boot's full of new bands to dive further into. My mission is complete.

Standout tracks here? Well, I'm partial to the punk tracks on the comp: Menace, Sham 69, Slaughter & the Dogs, those guys playing "Government Action". I'd never heard the Sensational Alex Harvey Band until downloading this. Now "Next" is a go-to record when making a glam tape. I also think I've mentioned it before; if you haven't checked out the (Hammersmith) Gorillas, do it now.

I'll admit to some real sadness when I come across an awesome blog with dead links. It's doubly bad when I consider a blog like Crazee Kids Sound, where I was aware of it in its heyday, but didn't dive in until they were defunct. So many cool comps and rarities, now lost to time. Enjoy it while you have it, I suppose.

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 4 - 1970-1979

One of the fun things about the "Boot Power" series is how many awesome songs one discovers over the course of 100+ tracks. When would I have heard the Gorillas, or Protex, or the Sensational Alex Harvey Band? Possibly: my enthusiasm for seeking out music I don't know anything about hasn't waned as I've gotten older. I'm not sure, however, if I'd come across a track like Supernaut's "The Kids Are Out Tonight" if I would have been able to put it in a similar context that this curation provides.

That said, my favorite here is, and will always be, Cock Sparrer's "Trouble On The Terraces". Recorded in the same sessions that produced their self-titled 1978 debut, but not released until 14 years later, "Trouble..." is a perfect football anthem, as well as a great example of how pub rock transitioned into punk in 1976 and 1977. It's hard to believe that "Cock Sparrer" only came out in Spain, and wouldn't come out in England until it was released as "True Grit" in 1987. An OG pressing is rarer than hen's teeth, so, you know, now you know what to get me for my birthday.

As with the other collections in the series, there's some real cheeze amongst the rockers. That's fine, because they make a track like "Tired Guy of the Road" by Blood Chains really pop. Speaking of: don't let corny-ass band names sway you from listening. Some of the best cuts across the series come from bands like Giggles and Bilbo Baggins.

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 3 - 1970-1979

There's a part of me that counts "Boot Power Vol. 3" as the weakest of the four volumes I've heard. I suppose that should tell you something about the quality of the whole series, because there are wall-to-wall rippers here. Maybe it's the sequencing; it just doesn't flow for me. But, damn, if that's the worst thing I can think to say...

The one-offs here really make this comp. I'd never heard Darren Burn before downloading this, but "Quick Joey Small" is just a killer song from a child singer who really didn't make any other records. Bilbo Baggins is easily my favorite Tolkien-inspired glam band of 1974. The Rebels featured Gaz from Angelic Upstarts, and have a fantastic proto-Oi! cut in "All Hate". The best of all of these is Hector's 1974 track, "Bye Bye Bad Days". Label mates of Elton John, they only released two singles as a band before they disappeared in 1976. This is the one that I find myself singing all the time. It's an ear worm in all the best ways.

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 2 - 1970-1979

Photo by Daniel Meadows

It took seeing Giuda to be open to listening to glam and pub rock; it took "Boot Power" to fall in love.

"Boot Power", ostensibly, is a series of comps curated by the blog Crazee Kids Sound from 2008 to 2010. I'm not sure if Volume 1 was ever posted, despite the appearance of a cover in the "Boot Power" video. Volumes 2 through 5, however, represent one of the best collections of 70s terrace rock that I've ever heard. It's remarkable to me how listenable these tracks are. For every Bowie or Cock Sparrer track, there is a Slade deep cut, or a track like "Always Plenty of Women" by Heavy Metal Kids that I've never encountered. Is it a key difference between the music industries in the UK and US that these songs were big hits in England, but rarely tracked here? I dunno; I wasn't alive for most of it.

So I'm going to post each of the four volumes I have over the next four weeks. The original links on Crazee Kids Sound are dead (old Megaupload links), and I think these are definitely worth keeping alive and available. I'm leaving the Skrewdriver songs in each comp intact (for now); I feel like it's dishonest to remove the Chiswick-era recordings, especially since "All Skrewed Up" stands as a great proto-Oi! record that is a key part of this story. Yet I'll can't ignore that within five years, they had transformed into the leading neo-Nazi/RAC band in the land.

Yeah, come back each Friday, and I'll throw up a new volume. Enjoy.

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