LAVELLA-BLOG!

If push absolutely came to shove, and I had to pick my three favorite punk songs ever, I'd go with "Loud Fast Rules" by The Stimulators, The Misfits anthemic "Horror Business" and this lil' gem called "Solitary Confinement" by early LA punk band The Weirdos. Formed in 1976 by brothers John and Dix Denney, and originally called The Luxurious Adults (genius!) the band released precious few records in their five year period of activity before splitting in 1981, but when they did, they made it count. This track is the B-side of their Dangerhouse Records 7" We've Got The Neutron Bomb which, if any of you are still around when I kick the bucket, please place it in my casket with me. No wonder that label became legendary, with releases like this on it, how could history have played out any differently?

As far as the clip itself goes, it just showed up on You Tube one day and no one seems to know or agree what it's exact origin is. There is a voice over by a confused (and/or dissapointed) announcer about halfway through, which in this case only aids in giving it some historical context. Punk was once weird, confusing and completely outside of anything that could be considered remotely mainstream, God bless it!

Labels: Video

One of the highlites of an already great car show in Santa Cruz yesterday was Los Chilaqz, a young and almost too much fun band from LA. Notice that the first annual (I hope!) Concrete Massacre was actually held at a huge concrete facility, it never gets boring in California folks.

Labels: Video

I still say 1970 has it all over 2010... toy wise anyway! Thanks Aurora.

Labels: Video

During my recent and ongoing obsession with Aliquippa Pennsylvania's favorite son, the one and only Pistol Pete Maravich, I uncovered these gems from the early 70's. Even during the "afro mandatory" ABA era, at least the suits at Vitalis thought that Pete had the "best hair in the League." I wonder what the good folks at Afro Sheen would have to say about that?

Labels: Video

Before there was the Angry Samoans, there was VOM. Featuring two future Samoans (Greg Turner and “Metal” Mike Saunders) and rock critic Richard Meltzer on vocals, they only released one EP in 1978, but damn did they make an impression. I could go on for hours about this band (no kidding, I really could) but I’ll just say that they are probably one of the best examples of what this "crazy new thing called punk rock” was before the “rules” about virtually everything slowly fell into place. Lines like “so retarded they were genius” actually do them a disservice, so I think I’ll just settle for “genius” and leave it at that. Enjoy.

Labels: Video

Well you come to the letter “U” and you think, I could get cute with this, The Users, UXA, UXB, Urban Waste, The Unnatural Axe even, but to not post a clip of Northern Irelands finest, The Undertones, would be downright blasphemous. I don’t need to say too much about these guys, as they have rightfully established themselves as one of the all time great bands in several genres really, and despite the departure of singer Feargal Sharkey in 1983, in 1999 they reformed and are still at it. This clip falls under the “way too great not to share” category, it’s them in 1978 actually recording their most enduring song “Teenage Kicks,” which somehow never sounds dated. Have no fear blog readers, the letter “V” will be much more obscure.

Labels: Video

Among punk rocks many spin-offs and subdivisions (horror punk, funky punk and Christ-knows-what-else punk, etc.) perhaps no movement is as simultaneously obscure and awesome as Medieval Punk. Of course, when there is only ONE band in this beyond-exclusive genre, it not hard to figure out why it was obscure, but I’m here to tell you why it was also awesome. While anyone who has ever seen the 1978 Sex Pistols film The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle knows exactly who Eddie Tenpole is, the story of this band goes way beyond that of a crazy guy screaming “Who Killed Bambi” into a vacuum cleaner. Formed in 1974 while bands like The Sweet and Slade still ruled the UK charts, a young Edward Tudorpole (you can’t make something like that up folks) put together the wildly entertaining Tenpole Tudor, a bit pub, a bit pop, and although their wasn’t a word for it yet, a bit punk. Known for performing in period garb, with Eddie himself in a full chain mail suit, their unique brand of Middle Age madness is perhaps even more apparent in the video for "Wunderbar" but I couldn’t find a clean copy of it, so here is "Swords of a Thousand Men," released on Stiff Records in 1981. The old saying “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore” barely applies here, because in the case of Tenpole Tudor, they never made ‘em like this before or since!

Labels: Video

Labels: Video

Labels: Video

Look, I’ll be the first one to admit that I am prone to exaggeration. For some, it is a part of my “charm” and for others it’s a minor annoyance they put up. But I assure you that I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that this is the greatest thing I will ever post. Why? Let’s start with the fact that I first saw this clip THIRTY FOUR YEARS AGO on the long forgotten late night ABC TV show In Concert, and it’s not a stretch to say that it totally changed my life. I only saw it once, but it set off a life long… shall we say “obsession” with the band Sparks that continues to this day.

Before seeing this, I never knew that rock and roll could be so clever, both ingenious and totally ass-kicking at the same time. Even among the slew of so-called “glam rock” bands that Ron, Russell and the boys were inevitably lumped in with, they were entirely unique, and I don’t think that’s ever been better illustrated than in this footage. Clearly they had fans in high places, besides the mob of screaming teens, you see none other than Keith Moon and Ringo Starr teaming up to introduce them. In all seriousness, I remember this clip like I saw it only yesterday; no other musical performance ever made such an impact on me. Do yourself a favor and stick with it until the end, because after they do “Something for the Girl with Everything” they break into a killer version of “Talent is an Asset” that still has me jumping around like I did when I was nine years old. Enjoy.

Labels: Video

Arguably the coolest thing that ever came out of the lonely town of Perth, Western Australia, this totally genius band lead by Kim Salmon formed there in 1978 before taking off for Sydney in 1981, where they stayed until they relocated to London in 1984. They finally called it quits in 1987 after nearly a decade of kicking out some of the finest jams since… well since The MC5 first showed the world what kicking out the jams was all about. Just freakin’ killer stuff.

In the 80’s, my friend Frank Pappagallo (he of Where’s The Pope? Fame) from Adelaide, regularly sent me the latest Scientists releases in trade for American stuff like D.R.I. and Pleased Youth. I'd say I definitely got the better of that deal, but the point is, I’ve been a fan of The Scientists for over 25 years now, and I’m sometimes shocked that people that should definitely know about them still don’t. Well, if seeing them here in 1980 on an Australian TV show called Countdown doing the classic track “Last Night” doesn’t hip you to these guys, I guess nothing will.

Labels: Video

Again we fall back to the glory days of UK punk for our next entry, The Ruts. Formed in Southall, West London in 1978, their career was tragically cut short when singer Malcolm Owen died of an overdose in 1980, although they did go without him foe awhile as Ruts D.C. They did manage to release one brilliant LP called The Crack, which is easily as pivotal and important as Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, although you probably won’t be hearing Anthrax or Megadeth covering their songs anytime soon. No matter, The Ruts were hugely influential on the whole DC punk scene in the 80’s, in fact it was a young, still in Government Issue Jay Robbins that turned me on to them in the mid-80’s, sometime before Dag Nasty famously covered “Staring at the Rude Boys.” This video is for the track “Something That I Said” which is just about as perfect a song as has ever been written in any genre. It has everything, the melody, the big hook… and that’s why it still sounds great today.

Labels: Video

Ah, the letter “Q.” I knew that this would be a tough one, but lucky for us, for the past 27 years The Queers have roamed the earth in one form or another. I was hoping to unearth some early footage from the legendary ‘82-84 line-up featuring original singer Wimpy, but alas, all my searching turned up nothing before the band reformed with guitarist Joe King (Get it? Jok-ing?) at the helm in 1990. So what the hell, here is the video for perhaps their best-known song “Punk Rock Girls.” I picked this because I was actually there at the Trocadero in S.F. in 1996 when this was filmed, and I have nothing but good memories from that whole era, so there you go.

Interesting 90’s punk rock footnote: This was not the only punk video shoot that I just happened to be at. I was also at Gilman when NOFX made the video for “Stickin’ In My Eye” but pretty much all I remember was how pissed off Fat Mike was at Eric Sandin for pushing that piano off the stage, because it was a rental! In hindsight, I wonder what Mike thought he was going to do with it? I mean, he couldn’t play it, obviously he was thinking about smashing it… but I digress. I used to hang around with those guys a lot back then, in fact I actually sing on the White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean LP. Don’t believe me? Check the liner notes punky.

Labels: Video

What a simple but effective stroke of marketing genius. You can almost hear the conversation at the Serta, Inc. board meeting...

First Guy: “Well boys, we’ve got a lot of mattresses to sell.”
Second guy: “Who is the sexiest broad on earth?”
First guy: “Joey Heatherton, hands down.”
Second guy: “Let’s get her then, whatever it costs”
CEO: “Good job boys, 10% raises across the board.”

To this day, whenever I think about a mattress for any reason, I also think about Joey Heatherton. Talk about a successful advertising campaign… damn.

Labels: Video

Perhaps the greatest marriage of pure power pop and punk rock energy ever, Vancouver B.C.’s The Pointed Sticks are definitely one of my favorite bands. Although they existed for a relatively short time (1978 to 1981) they did manage to record quite a bit, and although their vinyl releases were hunted down to near extinction, in recent years everything (and more!) is available again through Sudden Death records. You can’t go wrong with anything they’ve ever done, but if you’ve never heard them before, the compilation Waiting For the Real Thing is a great place to start... and of course who could forget their performance in Dennis Hopper's cult classic Out of the Blue? If you haven't seen that, trust me it's worth checking out as well.

These guys have actually been playing again on and off since 2006, and are reportedly releasing an LP of new material in June. I normally run away from reunions of anyone from the “wheelchair and iron lung” set, but since it’s these guys, I’m actually keeping an ear out for it.

Labels: Video

I’m gonna keep this short because I’m on my way to Detroit, and besides I’m sure that most anyone reading this is already familiar with The Only Ones, and their best known jam “Another Girl, Another Planet.” This video however is a different story, I didn’t even know that it existed until very recently, so I thought I’d post it for all of “yunz “ (as they say in Pittsburgh) to enjoy.

Labels: Video

This post could also be called "Why black folks find us ridiculous, Pt.1." If it pains you to watch people that have absolutely no rhythm whatsoever then look away... for the rest of you, enjoy!

Labels: Video

I have a really cool video of The Nils from Canada that I had planned on posting for “N” but then I came across this gem from 999 (which, while technically a number, does begin with an N and was therefore deemed eligible) and I figured that I’d be doing the world (or at least the few hundred people on it that regularly read this blog) a great disservice if I didn’t post it ASAP.

Formed in London during that mythical year of 1977, 999 are definitely one of the all time greats. Today’s so-called pop punk bands owe them a great amount of gratitude, if they realize it or not. Back when bands were either very political or almost comically nihilistic, Nick Cash and the boys provided the blueprint for very listenable and melodic punk rock that still sounds great today…. So let’s take two minutes and forty-two seconds out to celebrate them here. This video is for the song “Emergency” which was their fourth single, released in June of 1978.

Labels: Video

With this post, I managed to not only stay in France, but also get back to the original punk rock era, which can only mean one thing: Métal Urbain! Compared to the rest of Europe, our beret-wearing, bicycle-ridin’ French brethren produced far fewer punk bands than other countries, but if these guys are any indication of what France was capable of, maybe you only need one great band to represent the disenfranchised masses!

Described as a cross between The Sex Pistols and Lou Reed’s infamous Metal Machine Music LP, these guys were obviously an influence on everyone from Big Black to The Jesus and Mary Chain. I have no idea why they aren’t a household name (after all, it’s not that hard to pronounce) like their peers The Clash and the aforementioned Pistols, but I for one hold them in similar esteem… perhaps more so, if only for their originality. Par excellence!

Labels: Video

About 5 years ago, a promo CD in a plain white sleeve arrived at my P.O. Box. A Band of Bees? I never heard of them, and almost didn’t play it, but eventually I did and was blown away, as I always am when I hear a bunch of hillbillies play with so much soul. So, "I had to do some investigating" as my friend Rob Tabachka would say. A little later on, an early You Tube search turned up this amazing and quite ingenious video, which only fueled the “who in the Hell are these guys” fire. Five years later, I still don’t know, but this is definitely worth a look. Just try not to groove, I dare ya!

Labels: Video