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Crazy Boys / Train Song. The Clams
Boston's Rum Bar Records releases a 7" single as predecessor to an album commemorating the work of Minneapolis - St. Paul 1980s punkrock band The Clams. It seems like, from reading a little on the internet, the band never went anywhere, really. Most likely, in 1985 or something the band would not have gone anywhere with me at the time as well. What did I know at the time? Now I'm of a certain age, to call it euphemistically, I'm far better at recognising a good punkrock song when I hear one. Chuck Berry, better Keith Richard, as he was known then, is all over Crazy Boys, the a-side. The all girl band, Cindy Lawson, Patty Jansen, Karen Cusack, Roxie Terry, really rock out, combining The Ramones with the Stones in a great way. No doubt Crazy Boys is The Clams' signature song, as Train Song, the b-side, is far more one dimensional. Definitely bad ass but not super special. Crazy Boys with all the fine licks is. It's never too late for a nice introduction. Watch out for that album, folks.
Boy, am I glad that I was not the one having to pack everything in Blues Weiser's video in aluminium foil! The effect is great though, as you can see for yourself on You Tube. Pure psychedelic, as the colours get to play on foil and band alike. Spain's Blues Weiser, Jozz, Bobysan and Michael, is on track to release it's third album, 'Obey The Booze'. The single Impact Of Aviation has been released to announce it. An instrumental song soaring in loud fuzz sounds, but not without inner dynamics making it quite good to listen to. Parts, rock, psychedelia and Smashing Pumpkins kind of grunge. The guitar moving between dark, endlessly revolving and deep sounds and lighter, fuzzed solo notes. Behind it the drums go full out when necessary, filling up the whole space behind the guitar and fuzzed bass. There's a musical storm cooking when Blues Weiser wants it to. Just like it can withhold the storm and let it lie down. Don't be fooled by silence at one point. At that moment you're only in the eye of the hurricane. Impact Of Aviation is played home in style.
More punkrock from Germany and more specifically Hamburg's Glitterhouse Records, that slowly but surely is becoming a strength in modern punkrock from Germany. Of course it's called postpunk nowadays, but don't get fooled here. Der Wände is a band from Berlin, a trio, drums, bass and guitar and on its way to release it's second album, called 'Die Wände'. With Die Trick the band releases a short statement showing what it is about. Clocking under two minutes, it is all over should you not pay attention. Due to the energy shared with the cosmos, it's almost impossible not to pay attention. With tough, yet playful drums, a bass with a distorted sound that plays its rounds around the chords of Die Trick, it leaves the room for the guitar to play its 1980s (post)punk chords and riffs. The effect on the guitar gives Die Trick its signature sound. Nothing is overdone. All that happens here is in service of the song. (Post)punk with a lot of taste Die Trick is.
Jenn Vix returns to this blog with her new single. It features A Flock of Seagulls' drummer Ali Score, including in the video. The collaboration in no that strange, considering the music on You Are A Star. It is a deep dive into the mid 1980s when bands like A Flock Of Seagulls, Tears for Fears and China Crisis scored their big hits. Like with those bands the synthesizer plays a huge role in You Are A Star. Thick carpets of synth sounds are rolled out as if it never went out of fashion after 1985. The other side of the song is the heavy guitar sound weaving in between the solid drumming that keeps it all together and the cloudlike synths. They come and go, like a sped-up film of clouds in the sky. Over it all Jenn Vix sings with her deeper register, giving You Are A Star an element of mystery and solidness. Just like with many songs from the mid-80s, I have a liking and loathing attitude. It seems like the former is winning here.
Another new name to the blog. White Wall is a beautiful singer-songwriter song. It is kept small, without leaving out extra instruments. Especially Mockzo's alto-violin receives a big role, whether plucked or bowed. Her voice receives a centre spot, mixed in the middle, up front, demanding attention to her lyrics. Miriam Mockzo's lives in The Netherlands, but is of German-Polish-Silezian, now Slask in Poland, descent. Her family's history is a small part of the huge history and exodus of Germans from Eastern Europe in the final months of the Second World War. Walter Kempinski gives such a personal account in his great novel 'All Or Nothing', to tip a book for a change. White Wall is a song that bring to mind the work of Irish-Dutch singer-songwriter Jane Willow. Both sing the kind of songs that come close to their listeners, in a way like Miriam Moczko sings: "pull me closer". Musically she achieves just that. The modest setting draws a listener nearer, as this is the only way to enjoy White Wall. Once there, the beauty of her song washes over you, without an escape option.
With single number five Wet Leg manages to surprise some more. As with all the other songs the duo takes snippets from the past decades in pop and rock, almost indiscriminately. What fits, fits. You can bring your own musical insights to Angelica's music, work out what all went into the song for yourself and probably arrive at different conclusions than I would. The light-hearted, emptier verses, lead to full rocking interludes, and psychedelic bridges in the best Donna Blue style. When Wet Leg rocks, it rocks in Angelica. The song will turn festivals upside down and give the audience a pause to catch its breath, before going all out in a wild frenzied pogo once again. The dynamics of Angelica are fantastic without forgetting the stuff that make up a good song: a melody and sing-a-long lyrics. It's all in here and probably I forget a little as well. With Angelica Wet leg has presented my favourite of the five songs into its career. Four more weeks and the album is there. Based on the singles this ought to be a very special occasion.
The debut cassette (!) of Beth Torrence is out for two weeks, so I found reading up the release in New Zealand's Flying Nun Records' newsletter. Beth Torrence is 17 and presents herself in an extremely modest way. She's a singer-songwriter and that is what we get. An acoustic guitar, her voice, with some overdubs and a cello that gives the song, with the enormously long title, the calm accents it deserves, without for a second taking the attention away from Beth Torrence herself. The song is about uncertainty. How to express feelings to someone you love? "If it was easy, I would have told you by now", she sings. Things some people learn later in life, while others never do. It all has to do with trusting the other enough to open yourself. Let's move to ... lyrically, for me, is reminding me of a period long ago by now, but not unreachable, as it touches on memories. Together with the music, it makes for pleasant listening.
There are many versions of this song, including a wedding party version sung by two couples for a couple who are all divorced for years, sad to say. The famous hit single is by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood. Miss Georgia Peach releases a new version together with Ruyter Suys of Nashville Pussy. The song gets the 'pepper sprout' in the-you-know-wheres. First because of the vocal treatment of the two ladies, making it an all female song in 2022. Second because of the rolling rhythm of the guitars. Add a little Chuck Berry lead guitar licks and Jackson becomes a true rock and roll song. Jackson was a hit in 1967 and what still sticks out today is the feminist quality the song has. It's the man running off with his tail between his legs and a strong woman standing her own. With the man doubting it all the way. The rolling rock underscores the strength of the woman who lets the man make a fool of himself. "Goodbye, that's all she wrote". I've loved this song for as long as I can remember and keep doing so in this new rock and roll version.
Lavalu's name in daily life is Mariëlle Woltring, born in Cleveland, living in Arnhem. Oozing is the single from her upcoming album 'Earthbound'. Like Norwegian Susanna and fellow Dutch singer-songwriter Roos Meijer, Lavalu hovers between classical music and pop. All instruments used in this song can be found in a classical orchestra. The way they are used is far removed from more traditional music. Oozing is a pop song though. Because of the melody and in part because of the beat, produced without percussion instruments. The beat is present in the blind spots of Oozing, as if mixed out but almost hearable through the bleeding into the other microphones. The effect is a song that works on a few levels. The most important one is that it so interesting to listen to and bond with it. Oozing has the same effect on me as e.g. 'Eleanore Rigby' of The Beatles has. Despite the fact that Oozing is more serious and melancholy, it also has that element of breaking out of all pop bounds, stretching what can be pop music. As I wrote, it works and is of great beauty as well.
Will the song ever explode? That was the question that kept pushing itself into my brain while I was enjoying Vera Ellen's new single. An electric guitar playing very bare chords, power chords even, without the power, while Vera Ellen sings over it with a wavering voice. Between them, guitar and voice, create a special atmosphere that makes the song stronger and stronger. Vera Ellen overdubs her voice, creating even some more tension into the mix. "I threw your flowers into the rubbish for the first time", are the first words shared with us in Stuck W Me and its sets the scene quite well, as this is a song not so much of breaking up as of getting rid of someone who has become totally unwanted. And here is where the undercooled accompaniment of the electric guitar becomes the anti-theses of the lyrics. All is in wait for the giant explosion of emotions and anger. Do they come? Go out and listen for your self. Stuck W Me is an impressive song as you will find out.
Wout de Natris
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