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 - Power Corruption & Lies Covered: Mojo Presents New Order;'s 1983 Masterpiece Re-Recorded

When it came time to pick this week's Mojo Monday selection, there was only one inspired choice. Friend o' the blog AJ recently began blogging again over at The Dimension of Imagination. As I told him, I was proper chuffed to see him back in the saddle after what had been an 8-month sabbatical. I think he called me a wanker. He's a proper internet bud.

He posted the 1983 New Order classic, "Power Corruption & Lies" on the same day I found this Mojo comp from 2011, covering the same-said record, plus THE BEST-SELLING 12" OF ALL TIME (TM), "Blue Monday". It was serendipity; one follows another.

The likes of Tarwater, Destroyer, and Fujiya & Miyagi perform yeoman-like work here in reproducing New Order's second record. It's worth listening to a few times, even as it inspires you to pull out that "Blue Monday" 12" for the first time in a while..As someone who was barely alive when "PCL" came out, and whose initial exposure to New Order was through a Frente! cover, I can't claim New Order had some great influence over my life. They've always been there, a living link to things that, at the time, I found more interesting. But you hope that, with age comes wisdom, and I've grown more attached to these Mancunians in recent years. I've been downloading New Order remixes and live records as they've popped on my radar, and, yeah, of course it's all great. A well-earned reputation here.

What this does remind me of is the resilient crew of bloggers, still out there writing, trying to let punk kids and bored teenagers know why a recording is worth hearing. I have a list of the folks I think are worth checking out on the right side of the page there. I stop by every day, paying a visit to see if anything cool is worth commenting on. When someone dips out for a while, it gets a bit scary, like your local coffee shop, bakery, or record store being unexpectedly closed. It's a great feeling when that disappearance ends up being temporary.  These are the little things that make getting online worthwhile. It's while I try my best to be here on Mondays and Thursdays at midnight my time. Gotta open the store, you know?

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

Click here to download.

various artists - The Infinite Zero Almanac: 1996 Sampler V

I ran out of time coming into today, so it's time for an easy write up. The fifth in the series of six Infinite Zero samplers; this one is one of the more comprehensive, coming as it did in the last year of the reissue label's existence. Most of these are available here on the ol' blog; just type in Inifnite Zero and expand your mind. I'm feeling the cover of this one most of all; the caricature of Rollins, flanked by the Def American and Infinite Zero logos, big, stronge fonts. It's a golden joy to behold.

While lacking the superior graphic design and the even-deeper record selection, it's no surprise that my early exposure to these drew me into an ongoing love of the Numero Group and Light in the Attic. I kind of got a kick out of watch the Grammy pre-broadcast show on YouTube tonight, seeing Numero's 90 Day Men set get a Grammy nom. It's great to see even the most obscure bands get beloved treatment, the expense of which makes a hell of a lot more sense then that double LP Chappel Roan release at $50 retail.

I'm all over the place tonight; forgive me, friends. I'm looking at a big record purge within the month, so my head isn't thinking about anything particular.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - The Groups Of Wrath: Songs Of The Naked City

This one was hanging out on a low shelf, all by its lonesome, when i came across it a few months ago. And the title on the spine gave me doo-wop or jazz noir vibes. So imagine my surprise to discover this was a compilation originally compiled by Marty Thau, owner of Red Star Records and NYC new wave impressiaro. Any look at the emergence of punk and new wave is going to gain my interest; the selections herein grabbed my attention:

• A pair of cuts from the New York Dolls' second LP
• Two Thau-produced Ramones demos from 1975
• The first Blondie single on Private Stock ("X Offender" b/w "In The Sun")
• One of my all-time favorite 45s - Suicide's "Cheree" b/w "I Remember"
• Two contributions each from Bloodless Pharaohs and the Fleshtones, both originally appearing on 1980's "Marty Thau Presents"
• A dynamic duo from Richard Hell & the Voidoids' 1982 LP, "Destiny Street"

There's a good chance that you're like me, and you already own a fair amount of these in their original forms, or as reissues, or part of other compilations. But it's nice to share something like this, with very distinctive curaation, and some Bob Gruen photography on the cover, with someone who hasn't discovered this era yet. I probably would have lost my mind if I had gotten this on cassette in 1991; so many groups I now find influential all gathered in one place, the same year I discovered Sonic Youth and Nirvana and Public Enemy. It's pretty cool to think about, which is why my niece is getting a copy of this in the mail in time for Thanksgiving.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - PRO-CD 95.ZERO.1

My preparation for a colonoscopy prevented me from posting this Thursday; mea culpa. Here's a Friday taster for y'all.

10 songs, five artists: you know the drill. Devo, Flipper, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Alan Vega, and Alan Watts.

This makes the second of six samplers that I've posted so far. I've also posted a dozen of the 27 releases that Infinite Zero put out in its four-year history. Should I jump off the ongoing comp theme to get some more of these out these? It's not like any of it is particularly hard to find. But it is all interesting, and, hell, it should be easier to track down Iceberg Slim's album.

Discogs

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various artists - Steal This Disc 3

In fact, I did not steal this disc. I paid a dollar ninety-nine for it mere weeks ago.

A quick one, as I prepare for a full-day training session on my Sunday. It's fascinating how the music you're introduced to at an early age shapes your entire listening existence. While I didn't own an exact copy of this in the early 90s, my early CD collection was littered with Ryko releases. The Bowie and Zappa reissue series, Hendrix's Radio One sessions and "Live at Winterland" set, "Hardcore Devo" Vols. 1 & 2, and Mission of Burma's Ace of Hearts output all populated my shelves before I graduated high school. They were mostly appointed in the distinctive green Rykodisc jewel cases, making them stand out that much more amongst the other pieces of my slowly-growing collection.

This one broadens my decidedly-narrow view from junior year. There are a trio of Beatles-adjacent tracks from Ringo, Badfinger, and Paul McCartney's brother. Rykodisc really leaned into world music with the likes of 3 Mustaphas 3 and the Oyster Band. I had no clue Jerry Jeff Walker and Evan Johns had put out records on Ryko until I snagged this; Nils Lofgren was less surprising, as was a Henry Kaiser project.

I don't know if it says more about the priorities of the music industry or the tastes of listeners that you just don't get this sort of awesome shotgunning any more. I suspect it's the former; I know that amongst my own aging group of freaks that we're even more likely to acknowledge that we want to listen to Ornette Coleman, Lack Of Interest, Wendy Carlos, and Barbara Dane, often times one right after the other.

The fold-out cover, exhibited below, is just the cherry on top of a collection that still fucking slaps.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Infinite Zero Promotional CD #1

I initially had another release planned for today; you'll get that one next Monday.

But then James Chance passed away Tuesday, June 18th, and I felt like it was a good time to share this label sampler from 30 years ago. I remember finding this in the promo bin at the first record store I worked in, just a year after it came out. But it was a revelation for me, led off by the Contortions' "Design To Kill", and followed by the likes of Devo, Gang of Four, Alan Vega, and Tom Verlaine. Hell, there's a LL Cool J track here. I'm guessing it's a result of Infinite Zero being a Rick Rubin/Henry Rollins joint venture.

RIP to a real one. There ain't many of his like left.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Mojo Presents: I ❤ NY Punk!

Clear definitions meant a lot more when I was younger. A younger Ape would say, "hey, the ain't punk!" "These bands are from New York City!" "That wasn't part of the CBGB scene!" And I wouldn't have been wrong. Bad Brains and Stimulators probably hew closer to hardcore, Television, Blondie, the Contoritions aren't your typical "three chords and a holler" types. The Real Kids (Boston), Destroy All Monsters (Detroit), and Bad Brains (D.C.) all made their names outside of NYC. The New York Dolls, Mink Deville, and Suicide were Mercer Street and Max's Kansas City players long before "Punk" was a magazine, much less a genre. 

But I've grown into more of a "let people enjoy things"-type of person in my dotage. I don't have time to quibble; I just want to listen to the Dictators, the Heartbreakers, Jayne County, Suicide. If I do have a gripe, it's that a lot of these cuts are drawn from inferior live tracks; cheers to fair amount of ROIR representation, but I wanna hear the 1977 single version of "Rip Her To Shreds", not a version broadcast on TV in 2004. I suppose that's the price you pay to get that iconic Debbie Harry photo as a cover, and a collection of real solid songs from the first wave.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - The 2 Tone Collection: A Checkered Past

This is an all-timer of a comp, a collection of every released A-side on 2 Tone, and just about every double AA-side as well. And what a set of performers and songs these are: the Specials, Madness, the Beat, the Selecter, the Bodysnatchers, Rico Rodriguez. It's clearly not full encompassing everything from the second wave of ska, but this is the sort of thing that, 30 years ago, you would have put into your younger sibling's hands so they had something great to listen to.

I did not have an older brother or sister to get this from. Truth be told, I can't even remember my first exposure to the Specials. It would have come around this time, that period of later in high school when one crosses over from mainstream radio into the underground out of curiosity or provocation or some combination of the two. But i can say there was rarely an episode of my radio show where I didn't play something off this collection. It was as intrinsic to my identity as Fugazi or Issac Hayes or Public Enemy.

So it kinda freaked me out when, at some point last year, I went to put it on my phone and I couldn't find my copy. Not ripped to digital, not present in physicality. Many of these songs were present elsewhere in my collection, but I really wanted to listen to the Bodysnatchers, having been inspired by Belle Stars' 7"s I had downloaded from a TwilightZone! post. No cobbled-together playlist would do, and I wasn't going to give in to Spotify for this. I dashed off to Discogs and, within a week, I could scratch my itch.

I had been sitting on this download for a minute, just waiting for the right moment to share some thoughts. It's springtime now, when my JA tastes always shift from dub to ska. This is a good soundtrack for this time of year, when the grey disappears from the sky and good things seem imminently possible.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Mojo Presents: Change The Beat

The subtitle here is "14 Tracks From Madonna's New York Scene", which, if it's not a good selling point for ya, then, homey, you've come to the wrong place.

Herein is a sampling of what you might find playing in the DJ booth at Danceteria, back when Ms. Ciccone was still modeling and working through demos of her first record. My pockets are a bit light and my septum a bit fragile for the sort of pharmaceutical intake these jams call for, but I'm not certain that's even necessary to appreciate the likes of ESG, Delta 5, Judy Nylon, and Funkadelic all showing up to the same party.

It's just good jams for 68 minutes. And who amongst us is having too great a life to want that?

Cool cover photo, too.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Contortions - Buy

Fuhhhhhhhhhhhh...this record is sooooooooo good. Like, "knock your dick in the dirt with the ants and cocaine" and "slap yr mommy" good. Without a doubt one of the highlights of no wave and the Downtown scene and definitely probably my favorite James Chance recording. At least for today.

Words escape me. Skronk away.

Postscript: I didn't know it when I wrote this, but the masters at Superior Viaduct just announced a vinyl reissue of "Buy" is coming in June, all for the measly cost of two sawbucks. This is a MUST own.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Gang Of Four – Solid Gold & Another Day/Another Dollar

OK, it's been a month...let's post up another one of those Infinite Zero Gang Of Four reissues. As with the "Entertainment!/Yellow EP" reissue, this one combines a full-length with a North American 12"; in this case, "Another Day/Another Dollar" combines the crucial "To Hell With Poverty" 7" with a pair of 1981-era live tracks and the B-side from the "What We All Want" 7".

At the risk of sounding like a dick, I very clearly prefer the Dave Allen era lineup to all other Go4 lineups. Maybe it's a result of anti-disco prejudice, maybe I'm just an idiot. Although "I Love A Man In Uniform" is a straight bop...

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - A Date With John Waters

As a teaser to the next Criterion Collection preview, I present to you one of the finest outings you can undertake: A Date With John Waters. I remain a huge fan of Towson's own, a man whose impeccable taste in music neatly pairs with his delightfully trashy aesthetic. His soundtracks have always been these cool collections of outsider music, whether it's been the collection of 50s rhythm & blues and rockabilly in "Pink Flamingos", the foundations of soul present in "Hairspray", or the Locust and Meatjack alongside Liberace and DJ Class in "Cecil B. Demented". It's all a young punk ever needed.

"A Date" came out a few years after John's final theatrical release, "A Dirty Shame", and, yeah, it's a fucking tragedy the man can't get $5-$10 million from a studio to knock out another film or two, his way. But if the reward for us is his published output since 2004, yearly spoken word appearances around the world, an emeritus position amongst exploitation filmmakers and a regular source of inspiration for all us perverts...well, it's a fine consolation prize for me. I could go for another curated collection of music where Dreamlanders Edith Massey and Mink Stole get slotted alongside Ike & Tina, Elton Motello, Josie Cotton, and Ray Charles. This will have to suffice.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Gang Of Four - Entertainment & Yellow EP

Look, there's no need for me to spill the veritable digital ink over recordings that have been far better lauded than the likes of this humble ape. So let this tiny blog stand as a continuation of my ongoing Infinite Zero posts, a share of something I've owned since it came out in 1995, and a reminder that, even if I lose my job in the next 24 hours (a very possible future), no matter how bad things get, no one can take away the likes of Gang Of Four from me. A stone cold classic, a must own, a reason for continued existence.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Empire - Expensive Sound

I didn't grow up in DC, per se, but what happened there musically in the 80s and 90s had an outsized influence on my taste. And like any good lil record nerd, I chased every band mentioned in an interview with Ian MacKaye or on a Jawbox flier. As a result, I have a metric fuckton of really obscure, but great, CDs in my collection that go for $5-$15 a piece on Discogs, due to lake of knowledge.

The Empire LP, "Expensive Sound", is one of those rarities, a record notable for its members' lineage and the influence it had on a few key players in the DC hardcore scene. Those members were Mark Laff and Bob Derwood Andrews, late of Generation X before that outfit turned outright into the Billy Idol show. Andrews and Laff both found themselves at odds with Idol's and bassist Tony James' goals to embrace a more mainstream sound and look for the band, and started Empire in London with Simon Bernal from experimental collective MLR.

What they turned out was a post-punk record that one could argue is proto-emo in sound. When I listen to this, I hear exactly where the fellas in Embrace were coming from musically when they made their self-titled record in 1986. That continues throughout the Dischord catalog into the 90s, with bands like Ignition, Soul Side, and 3 wearing the influence on their musical sleeves.

What I'm sharing here comes from the 2003 reissue of "Expensive Sound", expanded with seven unreleased tracks and a quartet of live cuts from 1981. Released by Northern Virginia's Poorly Packaged Products, it was followed up in 2006 with another CD of previously unissued Empire recordings; I've never seen a copy of that one in the wild. The folks at Drastic Plastic in Omaha also put out a really nice vinyl reissue a few years back that is 100% worth snagging at $15.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Gang Of Four - The Peel Sessions (Album)

The O.G. lineup of Gang Of Four (King/Gill/Allen/Burnham) made four years of perfect post-punk from 1978-1981. That's not to downplay the "Songs Of The Free"/"Hard" catalog backend featuring Sara Lee or Jon Astrop on bass, but, let's face it, I'm not whipping out that live 12" of "Is It Love" any time soon. Give me "To Hell With Poverty!" or "Armalite Rifles" or "At Home He's A Tourist" and watch me dance. I'll take the agitprop any day.

I actually turned up a copy of "The Peel Sessions" long before I ever got any of G4's studio recordings, and the rawness of these three sessions probably colored my opinion of the group moreso than most other fans. The lack of overdubs or effects really puts me in the room in a way that their studio cuts, love them as I do, just can't. It's immediate, pulsing, sexy. I tip the cap to ol' Hank Rollins for ensuring their two Warner Bros. records got a comprehensive reissue via Infinite Zero around the time I finished high school, but this was my introduction. And it was fucking good.

I'd love to hear why this, amongst many other Peel Sessions records that found their way to the States via D.E.I., hasn't been reissued in 30 years. I know there's still an appetite for hearing these recordings, and it seems like a shame that someone hasn't stepped up to make sure there's ready access to them.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Nico - Behind The Iron Curtain

I turned this one up at Goodwill over the weekend, and what a find it is. Here's latter-day Nico, backed by Manchester industrial/avant-garde band Faction, two of whom were previously bandmates in Ludus. While the cover says this was recorded in Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague in the fall of 1985, it was actually recorded in Rotterdam on the same tour, supporting Nico's penultimate studio album, "Camera Obscura". Dojo released the full set as a double LP set; a truncated version, which is what I found for a measly $3, came out on CD at the same time via Castle Communications.

I've barely dived into this yet, what with lots of folks doing Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, and me needing that Region B Blu-ray of "Climax" for $10. But I'll never miss an opportunity to do a Nico imitation, so I'll be jamming this between work calls on Monday. It's the last record of her heroin years, before she got on methadone and disembarked to her final destination of Ibiza. I think it's going to be neat.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Singles: The Great New York Singles Scene

So what we have here is a load of classic record sides from various New York independent bands of the mid- and late-70s, collected on a single cassette, courtesy of the gang at ReachOut International Records, better known to the likes of youse as ROIR. What a great label: the home to the first Bad Brains and Bush Tetras records, the Stimulators tape, Glenn Branca and Suicide and Lee "Scratch" Perry and G.G. Allin and the Raincoats and just a metric fuckton of amazing sounds from downtown when it was still a beautiful shithole where you could get an apartment for $75 a month.

They're all stone cold hits. One could slap the original 1974 cut of "Piss Factory" of Patti Smith on as side A, track 1, fart on a snare drum for the remaining 87 minutes of a C90, and it'd still be worth it. But to then follow up with a pair of Ork Records releases ("Little Johnny Jewel Pt. 1" and a pre-Voivods "Blank Generation"), and you know you're in for sheer excellence. While the remainder of the tape isn't quite as Hall of Fame as those first three, they're all an awesome sampling of pre-Koch DIY NYC. There's the John Cale-produced Model Citizens, and Theoretical Girls, featuring Glenn Branca, both presaging the No Wave scene. Invaders and the Speedies turn out a pair of power pop cuts that, had they come out of L.A. or the Midwest, would have influenced generations of tunesmiths who wanted to be something more than KISS or Cheap Trick. Even the Mumps, playing something akin to post-glam, wouldn't truly get their due for years until after vocalist Lance Loud died.

Despite the last release of this coming in the early 90s, only some of these cuts have gotten collected elsewhere; I'm thinking specifically about Numero Group's awesome "Ork Records: Complete Singles" box set from 2015. Still, with the weather turning a bit cold and a leather jacket becoming climate appropriate, this is a good way to tune into some old stuff that wouldn't otherwise be easy to track down.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Elton Motello - Jet Boy Jet Girl b/w Pogo Pogo

It's a day when many of us are reminded to recognize the things to be grateful for. I've been in the Pacific Northwest for four years today, and it hasn't already been easy to do so. But things are getting better, and this is an excellent practice. So here goes:

• I'm grateful my family and I are safe, dry, and have food to eat today.
• I'm grateful for my new job, and the possibilities it holds.
• I'm grateful that all seasons of "The Venture Bros." are up on Hulu, thus preventing me from tracking down all my various DVD sets.
• I'm grateful that almost everyone I live around share the common courtesy of masking up when they're out and about.
• I'm grateful for fake punk, in all its various, money grubbing permutations.

Here are two English studio musicians performing an English-language cover of Plastic Bertrand's "Ça Plane Pour Moi”. It is ridiculous and, if you've never heard it before, well, get ready to shake ass. I'll play this loud whilst preparing Thanksgiving for two.

Discogs

Click here to download.