An mp3 blog featuring the best in power pop, mod, new-wave & punk!
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All the mp3s posted on here are for trial use only. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR, BUY THE CD/LP/7"/CASSETTE!!
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My computer has gone kaputt (whoever said that Macs don't crash is a liar!) so I might not be able to post this coming week. We'll see.. hopefully all goes well and I am able to keep my files intact!
Anyways, for no particular reason other than my own fancy, this week's theme (A theme, finally!) is Canadian punk bands.
1. The Diodes are one of the forefathers of Canadian punk, opening the first ever Canadian punk club, Crash and Burn in Toronto in 1977. They play pop inspired punk (personally, I can hear more new wave or power pop in The Diodes that I can punk)and are best known for their Paul Simon cover "Red Rubber Ball" as well as their 1978 single, "Tired of Waking Up Tired". A complete collection of The Diodes' Columbia/Epic recordings with the same title is available here.
2. The Forgotten Rebels are probably one of my all time favorite bands. Definitely much more punk than The Diodes, the 'Rebels play snotty, abrasive, humorous punk rock and, of course, talk a lot about your favorite punk topics - politics and sex. Their 1979 debut LP, In Love with The System is a classic but they've released many a good album over their decades of exsistence. Here are some of my favorite Forgotten Rebels tracks.
As you can see, the Forgotten Rebels are still pretty active today. They don't seem to tour much, but they do play the occasional show in Canada, mainly in or near Hamilton, ON where they're from. Their official website can be found at http://www.forgottenrebels.com. Oh and they DON'T seem to have a myspace page! Wow!
3. I decided what bands to post last week but I don't really want to post about The Modernettes anymore seeing as Lost Bands of the New Wave Era did their latest post about this Vancouver, BC band. But seeing as all the song files I currently have are the ones on my USB drive, I don't have much of a choice. The Modernettes are a great band though, so I guess it's worth mentioning them again.
An interesting fact about the Modernettes is that the band Buckcherry has had to liscence their name from Modernettes frontman John "Buck Cherry" Armstrong. But don't let this association fool you into thinking they're anything like the rather sleazy LA rock band; The Modernettes play really fun teenage pop-punk.
Here are four of six tracks from their EP, Teen City.
If you want more, check out Get It Straight, a Modernettes compilation from Sudden Death Records.
4. Speaking of Canadians, I was just informed that The Tranzmitors (whom I posted about here) now have a myspace page. Check it out at http://myspace.com/thetranzmitors
Last week, I posted about Protex and since then it's come to my attention that my post had a couple of errors in it. Firstly, Protex released FOUR singles, not three as I had mentioned. Secondly, the Protex track I posted, "Don't Ring Me Up", is the wrong version. It's the version from the John Peel sessions.
1. The Lambrettas are an late seventies band following the lead of mod revivalists, The Jam or the Who. They achieved a substantial amount of success with several single and full length releases on Elton John's Rocket Records and are among one of the more well known mod revival bands. Their best album is probably their debut, Beat Boys in the Jet Age. Here are what I think are their best singles (both are from 1980). "Da-a-ance" is probably their best known track, while "Another Day (Another Girl)" was initially titled Page 3 as it was about the half-naked girls who typically occupied Page 3 of British Tabloid, The Sun. The band had to re-title the track after the paper issued a court injunction.
Castle Music released "Da-a-ance", a rather complete Lambrettas anthology in 2002. Check it out here.
2. I actually first heard about this Irish band from another MP3 blog, Got To Have Pop. Protex (1977-1981) are a band from Belfast, Ireland who took their name from the Clash Song, "Protex Blue". However, in my opnion, the band sound little like The Clash; their strong pop melodies make them more comparable to pop punk bands like The Buzzcocks or The Undertones, or possibly to
Here are the first two of their three 7"s. The band actually recorded a full length, Strange Obsessions, but for one reason or another it was never released. However, there is a complete collection of singles & rarities, "All We Wanna Do is Rock & Roll" from FF Records (available from Canada's Scratch Records).
3. If you Google The Deadbeats, you're gonna find hundreds of different bands with that same name. This particular group of Deadbeats, however, were probably the original Deadbeats and from the looks of it, are still the best ones. The Deadbeats are a late seventies Los Angeles band who played energetic punk with goofy tongue-in-cheek lyrics. The song, "Kill the Hippies", pretty much sums it up. Bouncy, fun "art-punk", as Last Days of Man On Earth put it. Yes, I'm aware that they already wrote about this band, but I fell in love with this recording so I had to post it.
Anyways, here's the Kill The Hippies 7" along with another track from the first Dangerhouse Records compilation, so you can't say I'm totally totally ripping them off. It's a great blog too, by the way, so check it out!
Sympathy for the Record Industry also released On Parade in 1996, which seems to be new recordings from a new re-formed Deadbeats, but I haven't heard it so I can't really tell you much about it. It is available on Amazon though... and here's the link.
The King Khan & BBQ Show, The Screamers & Tranzmitors
Sorry for the lack of post last week and the themeless post this week. I've been busy with moving and starting a new job, so I haven't really had time to get into this.
Here are a couple of bands I've been digging lately though.
1. Well, King Khan & The BBQ how aren't really a band; they're just two guys (self proclaimed "blood brothers" King Khan a.k.a. Black Snake and Mark Sultan a.k.a. BBQ, both ex-Spaceshits but Sultan is also currently in the Mind Controls) playing great trashy fifties-inspired rock 'n' roll guitar. Their debut self-tiled (2005, Goner Records) is classic garage rock anddefinitely something to check out, as is their live show... or so I've heard. I'd just go to see how in the hell Sultan manages to play both guitar and drums simultaneously.
Here's a sampling from their 2006 New Year's Eve Show in Berlin:
Their S/T can be purchased from what seems to be their official homepage. However, if you're looking for tour dates, check out Mark Sultan's page which seems to be more updated. Or add them on Myspace.
Also, check out some videos from Toe Stubber here. Phew, that was a lot of links.
2. Gnatty mentioned The Screamers in a comment on my last post about keyboard bands and of course, I had to then post about them. How could I miss a band that gave up guitar for keyboard? The Screamers are a late '70s so-called "synthpunk" band who only lasted 3 years and never released any recordings, yet are hailed as one of the originators of the L.A. punk scene, along with bands such as The Weirdos or The Germs. It's not really difficult to see why, BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
Although they never released anything and obviously won't any longer (charismatic lead singer, Tomata DuPlenty passed away in 2000), you can check out a collection of their bootlegs and live performances off Xeriod/Extravertigo
3. Formed mainly from ex-New Town Animals/ex-Smugglers guys, Vancouver BC's the Tranzmitors play really fun new-wave pop. That one sentence contained pretty much all the info I have except for go buy their 7" from Deranged Records. I actually just did two seconds ago.
The only real active site for the band seems to be frontman Jeffie's Myspace page. So check that one out!
4. Not really any mp3s from me here, but since a lot of people mentioned The Valves in their comments/emails to me, figured you guys might want to check out the latest post over at Worthless Trash.
HEY! Watch out! There's another post coming up this weekend... Cheerio!
For some odd reason, I've been listening to a lot of bands with keyboards lately.
1. ? and The Mysterians were most famous for their song, "96 Tears", but few people seem to really remember the band today. They became popular in the late sixties with the release of their first full length, also titled 96 Tears, which they re-recorded in 1997. ? and The Mysterians were certainly an interesting band, which probably helped their popularity. The band named themselves after a '60s Japanese alien invasion flick, claimed they were all from Mars and lived amongst dinosaurs. Enigmatic singer Rudy Martinez, who would always wear sunglesses when performing or being interviewed, legally changed his name to ? (not "question mark" but ?); to this day he is still known as ?. Nevertheless, ? and The Mysterians' gimmicky weirdness doesn't really detract from the fact that the band are a great garage act.
If that last one sounds very very familiar it's because Smashmouth did a cover of it a little while back. Is it just me or is everything that band puts out a cover?
2. Los Reactors were an early 80s punk band from Oklahoma who play standard American punk rock, but throwing in some great garage-y keyboards into the mix. They hit it pretty big in the indie charts but never managed to managed to hit it really big. They did however release two 7"s, "Dead in the Suburbs" and "Be A Zombie", which were re-released on a compilation on Italy's Rave Up Records and then again on San Francisco's Rip Off Records. There was a slight buzz about the band a little while ago which lead to them doing a one time reunion show in 2005. This is probably due to The Briefs covering their most popular track, "Dead in the Suburbs" on their Singles Only comp.
3. The Minds are a newer act from Portland, OR. I know I posted them in my pervious post, but I managed to snag a copy of their 2003 demo, which includes a killer Adverts cover, so I'm still excited about that. According to The Seattle Stranger, "they're like Devo meets call-and-response garage punk", which pretty much sums up the band's style. The Minds aren't really doing anything at the moment, but you can check out their LP, "Plastic Girls" off Dirtnap.
1. Pure Mania! is now available on LiveJournal as a syndicated feed. That means if you GO HERE and add that to your friends, you can get the latest updates delivered right to your LJ friends page!
2. Made a spiffy banner so if you feel the need to promote, here you go!
7. The Minds - Hot New Wave punk band from Portland, OR. I guess for once I'm posting a band that's a little more new wave than punk. Mindspace (haha).
