Cheekface seem to simultaneously belong to the indie rock crowd and adjacent to much of it. Every review inevitably mentions They Might Be Giants, but it’s not so much sonically as they seem to exist in a space within themselves.
Indie blogs cover them but they still feel like a cult band. Lyrically, they surely have similarities to Yard Act, Wet Leg and Dry Cleaning, but they’re quite frankly too…. American.
If they existed in a different time and space, they surely would fit the anti folk scene of New York City circa 2000. I see similarities to the Bay Area punk scene but you know they’re not …loud.
On Allmusic, they’re a nonentity. I am not sure of a band that has more press coverage and monthly streams that has no attention from that website. It seems there’s garage bands that sell a total of 20 albums that have Allmusic reviews but not Cheekface.
Cheekface would be brethren with artists like Dead Milkmen and Atom & his Package but they don’t seem especially puerile or trying to be offensive. Though maybe the band would tell me otherwise (there’s enough sprinkling of profanity to prevent them being my kids’ favorite band)
One artist from the past that comes to mind for me might be Ben Folds.
Self aware but maybe having too much fun to be an indie fave. A little too weird for the mainstream but with enough hooks that a leftfield hit isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Maybe the Recommended If You Like for Cheekface is RIYL: Cheekface.
They seem quite prolific. Middle Spoon is album number five, released thirteen months after Its Sorted. That makes five albums in six years, not including tons of B-sides (generally collected on EPs) and non album tracks (including covers like Ballad of Big Nothing, Ana Ng and What’s so Funny about Peace, Love and Understanding).
I don’t think this album is as good as the two that immediately precede it. That said, I don’t think it’s a drop off on quality either, and if you are experiencing the band for the first time, this is as good place as any to start.
There of course no way to listen to all the music. Though we certainly seem closer to that goal with Amazon and various streaming platforms and helpful “Listen to an album a day” blogs and whatever.
My go to for recommendations have been the British magazines like Uncut and Mojo.
If I can’t listen to every album, maybe I can use their staff and the recommendations. Similarly, Light in the Attic Records has become a favorite of Uncut, and me too, releasing a lot of obscure albums that deserve attention.
Now, they may not be so obscure but it’s an amazing list of unique artists -the Monks, Michael Hurley, Rodriguez, Betty Davis, Jim Sullivan, Karen Dalton, the Louvin Brothers and many more.
It is also the home of introducing Shin Joong-Hyun to a bigger audience.
Shin is known as the “Godfather of Korean guitar”, the man who brought rock n roll to Korea, and a prominent figure in 1960s and 70s Psychedelia. More about his life later, but in the conversation about his skill, I have read references to Hendrix, the 13th Floor Elevators and Jefferson Airplane.
The truth is when I hear Shin’s music that I don’t really think about such things. In the way music that sometimes transcends language, I can’t put my finger on what I am hearing but I know I like it.
Of course, some of his music recalls American garage rock and psychedelia, he also has songs that to my ear not that much different than Chinese pop music, but I find if no less powerful.
In 2011, Light in the Attic released Beautiful Rivers and Mountains- an all killer no filler 14 track double disc anthology of his work from 1958 to 1974. This was followed by the release of From Where to Where- 7 more songs from the 1970s. (There is also a Korean five disc nine hour career anthology that seems impossible to find to purchase but is available on streaming)
The simplest description of Shin’s career is this: his first album was in 1959 at the age of 21. In 1964. His band And4 (the first rock band in South Korea) released their debut album. In the late sixties, he achieved popularity as a producer, songwriter and guitarist for others, and established his psychedelic soul sound. In 1974 and 1975, he was at his height fronting the band Shin Yung Jun and Yup Juns releasing Vol 1 and Vol 2.
But the defining moment in Shin’s career was happening too.
In 1972, South Korean President Park Chung Hee (who was then establishing his military dictatorship) asked Shin to write a song praising Park. Shin refused and instead wrote a ten minute song praising South Korea called “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains”.
Park forced Shin to cut off his long hair (which was banned) and the police confiscated his guitars.
Things got worse in 1975, Shin was imprisoned for giving a pot plant to a friend of Park’s son (despite Marijuana not being illegal in South Korea at the time). After prison and torture, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital and finally released but banned from performing until 1979 when Park was assassinated.
Mostly retired since, his music enjoyed a comeback in the 1990s.
In 2010, he became only the sixth guitarist to get his own Fender Custom Shop Tribute Series guitar (Beck, Clapton, Van Halen, SRV, Malmsteen).
As a long time rock music fan, it’s interesting to find someone who had a career that parallels say a Clapton or Page, but also was a producer and a pioneer. I have to say its fascinating as most Americans don’t have a glimpse into
There’s probably two paths to Matt Berry’s music. One is that you are a fan of the actor and heard he made music, so you checked it out. Or maybe you were like me, you heard a fantastic song and went to look to see who performed it and did a double or triple take. Surely not that Matt Berry of numerous TV comedy roles.
But with apologies to Billy Bob Thornton, Berry is a fantastic actor and musician. While not particularly a parody or comedy artist like Flight of the Conchords, there is a certain chameleonic element about him like Ween or Zappa.
My exposure to Berry began with his third album- his breakout 2009s prog rock tribute Witchazel. 2025s Heard Noises is album number eight. I have to admit that my knowledge of Berry doesn’t run much deeper than that one album.
Still, Heard Noises has grabbed me more than most of his other stuff
Yes, eighth albums in the catalogue don’t get rave reviews but critics seem to be pretty favorable to this one, and most agree it is one of his most accessible.
At times, it feels like one of those 90s Britpop albums that wanted to be Scott Walker. Some times, it could be Neosoul or it could be modern day Rod McKuen. Is it Psych? Is it Folk? Is it an obscure circa 1973 album you picked up at Goodwill?
It’s possible that it’s all of these.
Songs build slowly and creep up on you. As will this album which may not surprise the initial listener but holds together amazingly well for repeat listening. Even surely when the joke goes over the top like the duet with Kitty Liv “I Gotta Limit”. The lyrics are ridiculous but it convincingly gives you enough to sell you that it’s not that much crazier than Lee and Nancy.
“I Entered as I Came” which features actress Natasha Lyonne seems like a misstep in the way that say the Moody Blues would have added a cringy track on their ambitious 1970s records. Wait, is the fact this feels like a throw away track mean it’s not good, or is this a 3D chess move that this album needs a song like this. Dang. I just blew my mind.
In any case, if this isn’t Berry’s best album, it surely is near the top, and if you are hesitant at first, repeat listening will win you over
The Pogues had a tremendous effect on rock. Take the traditional Irish sounds of the Chieftans and mix with the punk of the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. As much as America loves Irish tradition now, it is no surprise they basically created a new genre.
Of course there are plenty of bands who were Irish rockers prior to the Pogues ascending to college rock stardom (Thin Lizzy, U2, Hothouse Flowers, to name a few) and even some brief moments in the buzz bins of the 90s (House of Pain, Black 47), but the true flagbearers of Celtic Punk seem to be the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. I am not a fan of the former but via television and sporting events, they have likely eclipsed the Pogues in popularity. I am, however, a big fan of the latter. Interesting note: they are fronted by former metal vocalist Dave King ( of 80s band Fastway featuring Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead) - a band that has grown a decent following now threatened by King’s unfortunate health.
There are of course, a dozen more just bubbling under. I know some by sound but most only by name. At the top of that second tier list is Canadian band The Mahomes. But there’s also Belfast Food, Flatfoot 56, Skels, The Tossers, the Real McKenzies, the Rumjacks the Porters, the Blaggards, the Killigans and In Search of a Rose.
A quick google search shows that I am barely scratching the surface. I also am leaving our bands like the Young Dubliners who aren’t really punk but might appeal to the same audience, or bands who aren’t Irish who do similarly mix punk and ethnic music like Gogol Bordello (or perhaps, I could just name the entire folk punk scene)
I haven’t found any of these particular strand of punk bands that I have loved as much as the Pogues (or at least Flogging Molly) until I came across Sir Reg on one of the streaming services.
Funny enough, they are mostly a bunch of Swedes backing an Irish singer. They’ve released six albums since they made their recording debut in 2010.
That self titled debut is pretty solid - catching similarities to Flogging Molly- rowdy sing alongs- The Pogues as if they grew up on Social Distortion and 90s Epitaph Records bands. Their most recent album is 2022s Kings of Sweet Feck All. The band remains active.
For fans of that next generation of Pogues inspired bands, check out the debut LP to start (for a great undiscovered album), then explore the discography.
One of my favorite bands of all time is Franz Ferdinand. Like many bands, the success of their first album has overshadowed everything they have done. Even more so as it was such a big hit. There was the band on the 2005 Grammys in one of the most eclectic openings - on stage with Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani & Eve and Los Lonely Boys. There surely was no where to go but down.
I think of Franz in similar terms to the Strokes though that band came out with a debut three years earlier. Yet while the Strokes had that splashy kickoff, the online music community seems to still wildly embrace them. You will find intense cult audiences for all of their albums even their least successful ones. Even Julian Casablancas’s spinoff band, the Voidz which generally has been ignored by most of the media is treated online with the kind of blind reverence usually reserved for acts like Sonic Youth, Kendrick Lamar or Sleater- Kinney.
That doesn’t seem to happen to Franz Ferdinand who I don’t think has made a bad record. In many ways, I think I prefer their second record, which in retrospect is the bridge from that debut to a more electronic dance sound. The third album 2009s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is a continuation of that sound but the excitement of a new album was waning.
That said, I quite like album 4 and 5- 2013s Right Words Right Thoughts Right Actions- a surprisingly solid album for a band that far into their career and 2018s fan dividing Always Ascending.
2025s The Human Fear suffers from being rather nondescript. It is as a beginning to end listen quite good.
But Franz really haven’t changed the template in recent years. This was a band who had so much personality on those early albums (even doing a spinoff album as FFS teaming with Sparks). It’s the problem Always Ascending had but even more so
Hooked contains the lyric that gives the album its title and it has the sexy swagger of that second album. Similar to the ironic pomp of Pulp or the Dandy Warhols, it’s great but so are the “album tracks” like Night or Day that would never see radio airplay but are solidly constructed, which are probably better than the expected (but still enjoyable) fare like “Build it Up”
(I was clearly wrong or (maybe the band was wrong) as I looked at Wikipedia and the first single is “Audacious” the album opener, which has some elements of a radio single but generally hits my ears at an album track and “Build it Up” was the second single.
To my ears there are more obvious singles. Maybe such things don’t matter these days anyway. But songs like “Cats” and “Hooked” will surely find their way to playlists)
I wrote this in November 2024, just now getting to post it
I hang out at online music forums where people seem to go to a dozen (and often dozens) of concerts a year. I maybe make three or four but I also know there are two extremes and while I am not a frequent flier, I have probably seen more live performances than most people.
There are the limitations of time and money among other factors, and to say that’s something new would be false. They have always been there.
In any case, the bands I have seen more than once number not much more than a handful- Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Brian Setzer, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Beck - possibly more but not many more.
At the top of the list by a mile is Reverend Horton Heat. I have seen the following opening acts for him - ska punk band Voodoo Glow Skulls, the rockabilly/psychobilly Bottletones, neotraditional country act BR-549, rockabilly/swing/punk band Amazing (Royal) Crowns, blues/outlaw country one man band Scott H Biram and Jerry Lee Lewis acolyte piano player Jason D Williams
It’s a testament to where Horton Heat fits in that he can be dropped anywhere in the timeline to those Sam Phillips Sun Records days to the 90s/00s Epitaph/ Timebomb / Hellcat Records Warped Tour scene.
It also probably means that his “road warrior” schedule is so intense that there doesn’t seem to be a night he and band aren’t playing somewhere.
That Road Warrior mindset might be why he got called out for complaining online during Covid but surely he had some opposition to not doing what he did night after night.
It also explains why the third from the last concert I saw was also Horton Heat.
The last time I saw him he was touring the new at that time album (March 2023) Roots of the Rev (volume 1). He ostensibly is still touring that release in 2024 he released a single that pairs him with Jason D Williams and Dale Watson.
Heat has had Williams opening for him on this tour, and the night before the show I saw, the two had just played at the legendary Surf Ballroom- sight of the last concert of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper.
(There is also a live from Houston album released in August 2023 that is technically the newest album. As a RYM reviewer writes- it’s from a 2009 performance opening for Motörhead. Released by Cleopatra Records which means it will likely be repackaged and re-released repeatedly and they have a reputation for dubious quality. This particular album doesn’t sound bad but it certainly isn’t an outstanding piece either).
So Heat is still touring the Roots of the Rev Vol. 1. He says there is a new album coming in 2025. Three songs get played off the new album including Twenty Flight Rock- the song that introduced longtime bassist Jimbo Wallace to Heat and promoter him to replace the previous band member when Heat heard Jimbo played it.
Heat and Jimbo have been together for 30 years now and their playful fighting/banter is a lot of the enjoyment of seeing Heat - Jane’s Addiction and Garth Brooks serial killer conspiracy jokes along the way.
It’s a real testament that Heat has so much banter and though it was only last year I saw them -didn’t feel repetitive.
They did “Rockin Bones” and talked about their relationship with early regional rockabilly star Ronnie Dawson as well as Willie Nelson’s “Three Days”. Not on the Roots album, the band closed the night as they have at least in recent years with a cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”
Heat's setlist has been pretty static with the setlist a “Best Of “. What it tells you is how long a career Heat has and how he’s managed to really put together an amazing set of singles. His first seven albums are represented here spanning from his buzzworthy Sub Pop albums to the Swing revival to the speedy punk sounds of 2000s Spend A Night in the Box and 2002s Lucky Seven. He then skips the two mid 2000s albums to play off his two more recent albums for punk label Victory- 2014s Rev and 2018s Whole New Life.
So, no deep cuts but a nice primer and reminder of a strong 30+ recorded career.
Musically though, Heat shreds on guitar. The Motörhead influence comes out live. Jimbo’s standup bass is always a thing to behold. The banter with crowd and each other is fantastic too. He’s been doing it awhile (almost 40 years now) but are seemingly better every time out.
Setlist: Big Sky/Big Little Baby Five-O Ford
Let Me Teach You How to Eat
Three Days
Psychobilly Freakout
Big Red Rocket of Love
Twenty Flight Rock
Jimbo Song
In Your Wildest Dreams
It's Martini Time
Whole New Life
400 Bucks
Galaxy 500
Encore:
Rockin Bones
Bales of Cocaine
Ace of Spades
Looking back, I spent a lot of time listening to Rocket from the Crypt in the 1990s.
Though he retired that band in 2005, John Reis has stayed plenty busy since.
He came back into my radar in 2015 when he teamed up with Minneapolis punks The Blind Shake for the appropriately named Modern Surf Classics. Even as Reis has been busy with multiple bands, I have been most impressed with his solo career which kicked off with 2022s Ride the Wild Night. A mix of Nuggets garage rock meeting Classic Ramones style punk, it’s as good as anything RFTC had done.
2023s All of this Awaits You follows most of the same piece with some jarring topics- Harbor Freight tools, bananas and sandwich condiments.
It shouldn’t be surprising that 2025s Time to Let You Down is more of the same.
While new listeners may rank these three newest Reis albums in any order, I do find the third the weakest of the three. That said, it also rocks harder than the previous discs.
Modern listeners will probably make a playlist of their favorite songs anyway which is fine when their are catchy number here like Boomer Rang.
Released eight months after his last album, it was preceded by single Fed to The Dogs which has Iggyish raw power. If you like classic punk with more goofiness than politics like the Dickies or the Didjits, it’s right here.
If you were of a certain age in the 90s, you might have been a fan of EBM or Industrial or industrial dance or any variation on the term.
It once felt like the future of music and yet still seems like an underappreciated genre.
With the benefit of hindsight, it seems overlooked with the glaring exception of Nine Inch Nails, one of the most loved rock bands of the time and maybe Ministry who for a time hit mainstream.
There are of course bands that flirted with big time success- KMFDM, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and Skinny Puppy to name a few.
It’s not that Industrial went away, it’s influence on Metal is apparent in the next generation of bands like Marilyn Manson, Rammstein and Fear Factory.
But here’s the thing, while Industrial and EBM may feel fringe. Turn on the radio for 20 minutes and its influence is there - in sound, in iconography, and in fashion. Industrial, like Punk, seems like it is somehow stuck in time. I find myself online talking to industrial music fans and though it even slips my mind from time to time, I really do enjoy the genre.
What I have learned is that industrial fans seem to be the nicest people in the world. Yes, ironically, they may dress like nihilists out of a Philip K Dick story, but they seem so much less toxic than many fandoms.
Which takes me back 30 years. EBM has always been on the margins. Maybe not so if you lived in a large city, but finding likewise folks was a real hunt. I always joked my hometown wasn’t big enough to be able to differentiate between punks, goths, rivetheads, hippies, drama club kids and ravers because it was so so small that it only had enough room for “us vs them”. Even the metal heads and the punks hung out together in my small town.
And I am glad that I did find someone who was into the culture heavily. That could tell me about something deeper than the Wax Trax bands. I think you could only find a real scene in large towns like Chicago. Now, likely I would have done well myself. I did see a lot of industrial and EBM bands in the 90s - a truly enviable amount.
Still nothing beats connecting with a human being over music and hearing things for the first time .
It was the first time I had heard Ryuchi Sakamoto and Yellow Magic Orchestra. It was also the first time I heard Danish musician Klaus Larson who was making music as Laether Strip and also as Klute. He was but one musician that were on the Cleopatra and Metropolis record labels- labels that focused on electro industrial music at the time.
I have since lost contact with him but in that “small world coincidence” ran into him ten years after we had lost touch.
I really haven’t thought of Laether Strip either until I started frequenting Industrial music websites again. He has been incredibly prolific.
It’s challenging for artists to get listens, so I am not surprised that he has went tribute heavy.
There are seven albums of all covers titled "An Appreciation"- hitting New Wave, Goth, Punk and NDW influences. Then there's his seemingly infinite tribute albums- Skinny Puppy, Soft Cell, Godflesh, Ministry, Curve, Depeche Mode and countless others. Besides those cover albums, remix albums and more EPs than I can count, I put him at roughly 26 (and again, I may have this number too low) studio albums of original material as Laether Strip since he started 1990.
An incredibly neverending catalog of songs.
In 2025, he has two new albums- one of new material ( Fucking Perfect) and one a song by song cover of the Cure’s Pornography (A Tribute to the Cure). Both have been fairly well received in genre circles.
Klute (now renamed Klutae because of a similar named band) went on a slight hiatus but their next album - their 6th has been announced. I have heard good things about those records as well.
Like gangster rap, a lot of industrial EBM is stuck in some of the 90s tropes, in this case, there’s a lot of in-your-face hyper sexuality and blasphemous shock. The last Klutae album for example, being called Queer for Satan.
Still, par for the course for genre listeners. Fucking Perfect isn’t an album that will garner a big audience or be held more regarded than the 90s albums. But it’s still quite good for a record in its genre.
One of the good things about the internet is the ability to talk music with absolute strangers and I do that and I find where I do that most is with groups that talk about the alt country and Americana genres.
You always get in trouble trying to classify and categorize but I will do my best by saying there’s definitely two threads that run through these seemingly interchangeable names.
One thread stems from the late 1980s and is country infused with rock influences and popularized by Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams. The other main thread is probably best known for a 90s heyday of bands like Wilco and Whiskeytown who fused traditional Country and Beatlesque pop.
If you look at the state of affairs for Americana these days, there are so many streams flowing into the big River. I don’t know that most artists under the umbrella could be just pinned down to one specific influence- most are a combination of two or more
Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson may be the biggest faces of the genre, and they definitely pull from many places, and Americana groups draw a multitude of fans from across musical history that is pretty cross pollinated in the way “Alternative” became a catch all term in the 90s.
Prior to Steve and Lucinda, there were Cowpunk bands in the 80s that sound like the name describes like Jason and the Scorchers. There’s Outlaw Country which derives from Waylon and Willie and the 1976 Wanted! the Outlaws compilation albums. There’s Cosmic Country which is based off the 70s sounds of Gram Parsons, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills and Nash, which is something that is still a bit different than the jam bands that root off from the Grateful Dead.
A lot of these bands have bluegrass influences. Then you have neotraditional country acts like Charlie Crockett who make music like the last 50 years never existed.
More modern flavors are Red Dirt music- the type of music that you hear on any given episode of Yellowstone and is crossing over into more mainstream country.
Then there’s the newly dubbed Stomp and Holler stuff that comes out of folk, that brings the college rock sounds into Americana and has brought some big radio hits in recent years via bands like The Hand and the Heart, Nathaniel Ratliff and the Night Sweats and the Lumineers.
In short, if you throw out an idea like Americana, you get this huge group of people who when you compare two listeners may not have a ton in common but are drawn to similar sounds. I didn’t even find a place for artists like the Flatlanders and Ray Wylie Hubbard who represent a genre of storytellers or old time music revivalists like Carolina Chocolate Drops and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Which is a long way around to say that one of my favorite recent finds is Caleb Caudle. Caudle is definitely under that Americana umbrella but I can’t quite pin him down.
He wouldn’t be out of place playing with Isbell or Earle, but there’s definitely that Gram Parson influence and some John Prine thrown in too.
There’s some gentle moments which tends to me have an impression of him as a peaceful folkie, but the edge in songs like the single “Knee Deep Blues” shows he’s much more layered than that- almost touching on goth country.
Songs like “Where we left off” are gentle ballads. “Hollywood Ending” feels like a Prine song.
Sweet Critters is something like somewhere between his sixth and ninth album (there’s some self released material that is reflected in the discrepancy) and in this case, produced by frequent collaborator John Paul White formerly of the Civil Wars.
Paste magazine had it on their long list of best Americana albums of 2024.
While I was just introduced to Caudle’s music, it seems like he’s an artist that has a lot of good material ahead of him. He invokes thoughts of Isbell times, Earle others, and even crossover successes like the aforementioned Civil Wars. There are really no bad songs with “River of Fire” “The Brim” and “The Garage” some of the best songs of the year.
The last remaining New York Doll, David Johansen has passed.
It’s possible that I bought my first Dolls album on the buzz around them as punk godfathers, though it’s also possible that I had seen snippets of them on punk documentaries.
By the 1990s, their biggest fan, Morrissey ruled over alternative rock. Half a world away and an entire sound away, Guns N Roses copied their style, sound and appetite for destruction. How could one band influence two such different artists.
I remember vividly buying 1985s Night of the Living Dolls. Though the band only released two albums. I suppose a “greatest hits” is still a starting point for the novice listener.
I would soon go on a mission to buy anything with the band’s name on it. Years later and unexpectedly, I would run into friends who shared my obsession.
The roots of the New York Dolls seem pretty clear. A charismatic singer paired with an equally charismatic lead guitarist. It was Jagger and Richards to the next level.
You could argue if they were punk, but they undeniably planted the roots of punk, and as far as rock, they were the template for every glam rock band in the 80s who got it from either directly or through middle-men like Hanoi Rocks.
The other element was that they ironically or unironically drew from early 1960s Girl Groups- adding harmony and humor to the subway train guitars.
In his posthumously released autobiography, Killer Kane lays out the influence and legacy often stolen by bands like KISS, Aerosmith, and Motley Crue. In an unfortunate story, Blackie Lawless would build off his relationship with Kane in the mid-1970s to go on to his own success later in the band WASP, though not carrying Kane along to the fame.
I doubt there are many bands that I have listened to more than the Dolls and I am not sure why that is. The songs that cement their legacy were largely written before Johnny Thunders turned 20. Yet there was something magic that no one else has quite captured.
I recently watched 2011s doc Looking Good On Television which doesn’t add a ton in the way of content (there’s footage of an early interview with the band) but worth it for all the footage of the band performing.
By the time I got into the Dolls, Johansen had surprisingly become a big star with his Buster Poindexter persona (appearing in one of my favorite movies, Scrooged)
I picked up his second record, 1979s Mick Ronson produced “In Style”. It is a product of its time but holds pretty well. It reminds me a bit of Ian Hunter’s solo albums of the same era (and Ian guests on one track).
Those first two solo records are largely cowritten with former Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain. Sandwiched between those albums is 1978s David Johansen Group Live - a rarity that got wide release in the 90s. It’s an interesting mix of his new direction with some interesting covers (Build Me Up Buttercup, The Supremes’ “Love Child) and a few Dolls songs (with Sylvain guesting on guitar throughout and Thunders dropping in at the end for “Babylon”)
It’s an amazingly fun record that seems to capture a hometown crowd in love with David. He namedrops Elvis Costello, Blondie and The Ramones in his between song banter.
Johansen would end up with four solo records but his most successful album is the 1982 live record Live It Up. There may not have been much interest in his solo career, but his live performances were where things were at. Recorded live over two nights in Boston in 1982, it’s much the same recipe as the 1978 album. In fact, side by side, it pales in comparison to David Johansen Group Live (which again wasn’t really available at the time) but it stands up well on its own.
It also probably is a foreshadowing of Buster Poindexter. Poindexter seems like a character that could only come out of 1980s America and born out of New York City and Saturday Night Live. It would make Johansen simultaneously a cult hero who helped create punk and a one hit pop wonder. Wiki says if only made it to 45 on the pop charts but it feels like it made a more distinct impression on culture.
The 2004 New York Dolls reunion was so improbable but sure enough they would make three more records. A list of stars flowed through the new line up- Steve Conte, Gary Powell of the Libertines, Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Frank Infante of Blondie, Kenny Aaronson and Earl Slick.
I was never impressed with the second iteration of the Dolls, nor with Johansen’s early 2000 band the Harry Smiths. But perhaps there’s not a scenario where I can elevate anything to the reputation of those two Dolls records. I cannot fault someone who elevated the blues legend Hubert Sumlin back into the spotlight or gave Kane his final hurrah in the reunited Dolls.
Book Review: Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story: Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation by Daniel Rachel
This book does what it says on the cover, which is tell the 2 Tone Records story. In many ways, the story of the Specials is entwined with that. Related bands like Madness and the (English) Beat were involved and tangentially important.
I think by staying true to the concept, the book is better for it. The book won a lot of awards for music writing and deservedly so.
Author Daniel Rachel seems to have interviewed everyone involved and when conflicting stories pop up, he will tell all of those involved's versions.
Which makes this a great music book regardless if you are a diehard fan or a novice. What amazes me is how short the heyday of 2 Tone was. May 1979 was the release of Gangsters and June 1981 was the release of Ghost Town (with Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple leaving subsequently to form Fun Boy Three).
Even as an American music fan, I see these are wildly different eras. The Specials formed in 1977 amidst punk, unemployment, National Front tensions, Rock Against Racism and heavy unemployment. At the end, New Wave has taken over and the Falklands War is on the horizon.
The rise of the band is lightning fast and the idea of 2 Tone surely seems ahead of its time. Sure I can think of many artists who had record labels- Beatles, Stones, Zappa but the idea of a boutique label launching new artists (with major label backing) and a similar sound and vision is the kind of thing that didn’t really take off until the 90s.
That said, it’s a blessing and a curse. The Beat and Madness saw the allure of more money and publicity and went elsewhere. The Bodysnatchers and The Selecter made great singles but would not survive band infighting. UB40 would do something similar but end up charting a non-2 Tone path altogether as agreed upon by all parties involved. Meanwhile, complicating things was the fact that it was part of a bigger label Chrysalis who had their own motivation and profit goals.
Rachel makes sure Jerry Dammers is able to tell his point of view. An oversimplified characterization might otherwise fall into place. Dammers was a task manager who perhaps worked the band too hard. His principles put art over money and sought to avoid the hypocrisy he felt affected Joe Strummer and the punks.
On the other hand, one should remember this was a nine person group with Dammers, Hall, Staple, Golding and Roddy Byers all would be more than capable of fronting a band on their own.
Also the slim construct of what “the 2Tone sound” is becomes both a blessing and a curse. Decades later, it means the label is still much venerated. However, it also was so slim of a description, that the label was unable to expand its catalog and grow that much.
It’s probably not surprising that Dammers wanted to change his sound for the second Specials album. What is surprising is that the new influence on him was something he heard in America- and that was Muzak.
While it was not a huge commercial success and was part of a rollercoaster ride to the band breaking up, I do think More Specials holds up. Even more so, as the band fell apart, the band recorded “Ghost Town”. As much as it’s a low point in the story, the song is truly timeless.
Similarly the “third” album In the Studio by the band now dubbed The Special AKA was a boondoggle. Of course, in retrospect, Jerry had to essentially restart the band in an incredibly short time frame, and his new band members much less experienced than the previous group. Yet again, he succeeded by creating one single “Free Nelson Mandela” that is truly transcendent.
Another major chapter of the band’s life that goes horribly wrong is the 1981 documentary Dance Craze. In this case, a missed opportunity maybe to tell more of the story and a document that faded quickly into obscurity (like so much of the 2 Tone Story- time has rewarded that narrow focus- but it was also a barrier to sales and growth) but has recently been rediscovered, re-released in 2023 and instantly caused a huge buzz.
This is a great book at telling the story of a special moment in time. How a bunch of extremely talented artists worked together to create something unique while having to deal with the issues of the day and issues of the industry - sexism, racism, music label problems and infighting.
I remember the first time I heard Marianne Faithful. To be fair, I am not sure she was obscure but unfortunately her role as Mick Jagger’s girlfriend and muse have overshadowed her music career.
Teenage me was obsessed with U2 and the ubiquitous Columbia House music club. That I bought the 1987 compilation The Island Records Story 1962-1987 should be no surprise. That it was a bit “pearls before swine” also isn’t too surprising.
Nearly 40 years later, it makes absolute sense to me but at the time it seemed rather odd. Not that it didn’t have enough to satisfy- I always loved Frankie’s “Relax” and Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star” - new wave essentials. Sparks were weird but accesssible. Bob Marley of course, and two classic rockers- “All Right Now” by Free and “Do Anything You Want to Do” by Eddie and the Hot Rods- with some added Robert Palmer.
It seems like such a random grab bag if you have no context.
It was the first place I heard Julian Cope and “World Shut Your Mouth” had surprisingly ensconced Cope in the pantheon of artists the cool high school kids adored like The Cure, the Psychedelic Furs and Depeche Mode.
This may have been the first place I heard Tom Waits and probably the first I heard those earworms of Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop” and Desmond Dekker’s “Israelites”. I was less impressed with Steve Winwood’s contributions which weren’t as Radio friendly as his then contemporary hits- as he was represented by Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and 1981s “Night Train”
What’s funny is I thought this large group of quite diverse artists were quite obscure. Fairport Convention, Jimmy Cliff, Grace Jones, Sly and Robbie, Black Uhuru and Jim Capaldi are much more recognizable to me now decades later. Similarly, Amazulu, Third World, and British pop soul stars the Christians make more sense with knowledge that they are included here.
The standout discovery here though may have been Broken English by Marianne Faithfull. It wasn’t punk as I knew it (angry and fast bands like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones) or new wave (keyboard heavy in a way you would want to dance to it like bands like Depeche Mode and New Order)
Still it was (and remains) undeniable. I was too old for 1980 but it a perfect example of that time frame where poetry met experimentalism. That it did not chart on the US Top 100 is both surprising and not surprising to me. It is of course both punk and new wave, just not recognizable to me as a MTV watching teenager of the later 80s.
Faithfull is more prolific than I remember. As younger artists showed appreciation- her albums became star studded affairs. 2002s Kissin Time features Beck, Billy Corgan, Blur and Pulp. 2005s Before the Posion was an even bigger splash. Released on the Anti-label, PJ Harvey and Nick Cave produced and wrote most of the songs. 2008s Easy Come Easy Go and 2011s Horses and High Heels were produced by Hal Willner and brought back most of her recent collaborators and more like Lou Reed, Keith Richards and Cat Power. Her last three studio albums in 2014, 2018 and 2021 were produced and collaborated with British musician Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey) and Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis.
There are again a multitude of famous names on these last three albums- Cave, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Steve Earle, Ed Harcourt, Anna Calvi and the Clash’s Mick Jones.
If Faithful had died in the 1980s or early 90s, her reputation would probably be built on her 60s singles and Broken English - at least in the US.
Instead she became known to a whole new notice. In 1997, she shared vocals on Metallica’s “The Memory Remains”. It reached 28 on the US Billboard chart- to date, the band’s third highest placing on the charts. It was in constant rotation on MTV.
It is to my mind, a perfect song too- matching latter era Metallica’s more concise and traditional song structure with Faithfull’s charismatic and hypnotic presence.
Her 21st Century albums starting with Before the Poison were well received critically and artistically were as vital as anything that was being released in same spaces. That she started as a pop star who like Nico and Francoise Hardy, became a cool cult icon with great influence is a great postscript.
On March 6, 2025, legendary punk guitarist Brian James passed away.
The original four piece of the Damned are truly one of those iconic groups. One of the few where every member stands out and would dominate the personality of any other band. Dave Vanian, the vampiric former gravedigger out front, the goofy beret and sunglasses wearing bassist Captain Sensible, the bonzo drummer Rat Scabies and Brian James driving it along at a million miles an hour on guitar.
The video for “New Rose” may be rock’s most epic moment.
James is well loved so much that every time he would reunite with the band it was a big deal as if it was the Fan Four, but he only really played on the first two albums.
But what records they are. Damned Damned Damned may be perfect- somehow catching lightning in the bottle by the efforts (or lack of efforts, possibly) of producer Nick Lowe. It’s pretty much all killer, no filler- the band sounding like they are falling out of your speakers.
Everyone knows New Rose and Neat Neat Neat but there are songs too like See Her Tonite and So Messed Up that are among punks finest.
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason famously produced the disappointing second album Music for Pleasure which was largely written by James (Syd Barrett was the band’s first choice of producer). That said, Stretcher Case Baby, Sick of Being Sick, and Problem Child are songs from those sessions that could have fit on the debut.
The band broke up though it was short lived. They never stopped for long and were an amazing live band when I saw them a couple of time in the 90s. But Sensible moved to guitar and numerous lineup changes would occur.
James would form a bit of a supergroup with Dead Boys vocalist Stiv Bators.
Lords of the New Church would have some success on the mid 1980s though in retrospect their goth rock sound was perhaps too early to truly have the success they could have. Though they didn’t write their biggest hit “Russian Roulette” (written by Tony James of Generation X and Terry Chimes of the Clash), most everything else was credited to James and Bators.
In the 90s, I searched the bins for Damned cutouts which were numerable. 1989s Final Damnation was seventeen live songs - the first half with James as part of a reunion. It shows how great the live band sounded. 1994s The Sessions of the Damned is a compilation of BBC and Peel songs and is a good overview of the bands material with James on the early stuff. I would recommend both albums heavily to fans of the Damned.
