Month: August 2007

INTRODUCING….THE NOW-DEFUNCT BRISTOLS

Hello yeah, it’s been awhile. I’d like to turn you onto an extant combo from the UK called THE BRISTOLS. Sure, I’d heard of them as well and always figured they were one of many HEADCOATS knockoffs playing marginal if catchy garage rock. (I believed this beause a Headcoat, one Bruce Brand, was also a Bristol). It was only when I was turned onto lead singer Fabienne Delsol’s excellent solo spy-girl surfbeat record from this past year, “No Time For Sorrows” that I decided to dig further, and hot dog, this is probably my favorite no-longer-new band of the hour. Here, don’t let me tell you about them, let’s hear what their label has to say:

Fabienne Delsol & Liam Watson’s garage supergroup featuring amongst its ranks Bruce Brand (Milkshakes/Headcoats), Owen Thomas (Graham Coxon Band/Cee Bee Beaumont), Parsley (The Adventures of Parsley / Dutronc / Dee Rangers), and the glorious vocal talents of Miss Fabienne Delsol.

They released two full length albums on Damaged Goods and three singles.They released their first single on Hangman’s Daughter in 1994 followed by a split single with Japans Thee Michelle Gun Elephant a year later on Vinyl Japan. Then they released two singles and albums on Damaged Goods before calling it a day in 2003.

After the split Fabienne Delsol has gone solo and released one album so far, ‘No Time For Sorrows’ (produced by Liam Watson at Toe Rag) and is currently working on her follow up due for release in 2007.

THE BRISTOLS’ music is exuberant, simple as hell, fuzzed-out and stripped-down girl pop, the kind that makes a ye ye fan like myself swoon. Check out these two killers from their back catalog, and then order yourself up the new compilation of their stuff that recently came out.

Play or Download THE BRISTOLS – “The Way I Feel About You”
Play or Download THE BRISTOLS – “Questions I Can’t Answer”

True West – Hollywood Holiday Revisited CD (Atavistic)

True West always lurked a bit in the background during the early ’80s heyday of the Paisley Underground scene, though guitar fiends gravitated to their twin leads and rural Television vibe. This expando reissue/remaster of the band’s album and a half (“Hollywood Holiday” EP, “Drifters” LP and unreleased Verlaine-produced demos) reveals an angst-ridden act that in retrospect sounds a lot closer to post-punk than garage, with thick, tribal drum patterns and distant howls in the mix. The songwriting is hit and miss, too often showcasing a sparkling hook wrapped in droning verses, but the title track and cover of “Lucifer Sam” are efficient, sinister gems. With Drifters, the band moved farther from the retro realm into artsy guitar pop, rangy yet precise. The package includes reminiscences from guitarist Russ Tolman and a history from Bay Area psych scholar Jud Cost.

Delirious

I’ve got this camera click, click, clickin’ in my head.
—ELVIS COSTELLO,
“I’m Not Angry”

Although it doesn’t appear until the end credits, Elvis Costello’s classic 1977 spitfire anthem serves as one of the best movie theme songs—theme in every sense of the word—of recent years. Jealousy, voyeurism, paranoia, acceptance, rejection, denial, the potential for violence, the recognition that it’s all so damn unfunny that it becomes funny—Costello’s song has it all, and so does the fine film to which it’s now been wed.

Director and writer Tom DiCillo’s Delirious, which had a special screening last night in Manhattan at the Angelika, works effectively on so many different levels that it gives new meaning to the term cross-genre. At once a comedic and dramatic Midnight Cowboyish character study of downtrodden friendship, it’s also a love story, a meditation on fame (those who have it vs. those who want it), and a potential stalker flick. Despite its vastly disparate characters, shifts in tone, and wildly divergent plot lines, the movie hangs together remarkably well. Its debts to Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver aside, Delirious is the best movie about wanting to be famous since that other great Scorsese paean to obsessive behavior, 1983’s The King of Comedy. (Both Scorsese films starred Robert De Niro, who receives mention several times in Delirious.)

“Sometimes I see too much,” says Steve Buscemi’s Les Gallantine (even his name is a worthy successor to Rupert Pupkin and Travis Bickle) to Michael Pitt’s Toby Grace. What he doesn’t see is how his chosen profession—that of paparazzi—with each click of his shutter takes something away from his subjects. He proudly displays on his apartment wall two long-range photos of Elvis Costello (who effectively appears as himself in the movie) as if they were big-game trophies.

Following last night’s screening, Tom DiCillo spoke about the making of Delirious, which he spent the last six years bringing to fruition. He couldn’t say enough good things about his star Steve Buscemi, who delivers what might well be the best performance of his career (right up there with his starring role in DiCillo’s 1995 indie classic, Living in Oblivion).

One thing DiCillo couldn’t stress enough about his new film and whether or not it succeeds: “Tell your friends about it.” Indeed, in a movie marketplace where big-name films boast advertising budgets larger than what it cost DiCillo to make his movie (he had to reduce his budget from five million dollars down to three million), word of mouth is more important than ever.

DiCillo told The New York Times last week: “‘Look at the movies people are watching…. They’re about nothing. You invest nothing.'”

Not so with Delirious.

U.K. Jones –Let Me Tell Ya / And The Rains Came Down (The Mike Berry Story Part 1)

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Mike Berry recently. I had to hook up with him as I kept noticing his name on so many great “lostâ€Â singles (Ning, The One Hit Wonders, Small Wonder , UK Jones, Boneshaker, Biggles etc…). Mike Berry is not the same Berry as the “Are you being servedâ€Â/ Tribute to Buddy Holly guy, nor is there any relation to Dave Berry or Chuck for that matter…Mike was a radio DJ, publisher (Sparta Florida and Apple– he signed Badfinger to Apple publishing), songwriter, producer , singer and overall music biz mover and shaker. For a Beatles overview of his career check out: https://triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/beatles/wordsofwisdom.shtml
Mike is currently working as Executive Producer on a series of programmes on UK labels for Capital Radio. Over the next installments, I’ll be uncovering some of these lesser known gems, starting with:

U.K. Jones –Let Me Tell Ya / And The Rains Came Down – Deram DM 231 (1969 UK)

Let Me Tell Ya has been referred to elsewhere as being the first ever Glam number and although it features handclaps and HEYs, this single is so much more than that. It’s a riotous performance with the same exuberance as found on Mike’s One Hit Wonders CBS single (Hey Hey Jump Now/ Goodbye). The tune is simply the mother of all hooks, the gang-show vocals give it a Frat Rock/Party feel and the driving beat hurtles along relentlessly. The key change at the end is a great touch –perfect and all so simple.
And The Rains Came Down is also really special and is like nothing else I’ve ever heard . It has this HUGE Gold Star drum sound, a wonderful upbeat bubblegum chorus and very LOUD thunder and rain effects.

Mike Berry: A lot of these singles were recorded quickly at the end of sessions. It was my release at the end of the sessions, to get the session men or band members and say “let’s do this, let’s do thatâ€Â in the hope that something might happen. When I did the U.K. Jones single, it was while I was doing sound-alike records for a label called Reditunes. It was recorded at R.G. Jones in Morden. We were experimenting, trying to get the sounds that the Americans were getting. The influence of R.G. Jones was unbelievable as he taught me a lot in how to get those sounds. The name U.K. Jones came about because we recorded at R.G. Jones and I’m from the UK –it’s as simple as that!

Click in title for edits of Let Me Tell Ya & And The Rains Came Down


Time Off Well Spent

Hmm, looks like my new job has been keeping me from posting. But a lovely 2-week vacation to “Old Europe” has given me a chance to actually read some books.

First of all, I have come to completely and utterly adore the writing and general tender-tough pose of Anthony Bourdain. So I spent the last couple of weeks tearing through Kitchen Confidential, The Nasty Bits and A Cook’s Tour. I have to say that I probably enjoyed the writing most in The Nasty Bits–it’s a more recent compilation–but KC is a really, really cool book. I’ll throw some quotes in here later, but for one thing, his books make me want to see farflung places and things. And they make me glad that he’s out there representing us Americans.

But the more earth-shattering event was that I’ve finally read Phillip Roth. My friend Peter has been haranguing me for months to do so, and the appearance of Everyman on the shelf of the WH Smith in the Eurostar Terminal in London seemed to be all the harbinger I needed. I don’t know where or when I had decided that my life was rich enough without Mr. Roth’s writings, but god was I wrong. Full of bleak, funny, sexy, spot-on observations, it’s a tiny little morsel of a book that has more life in its scant 150 pages than most “great” novels have in three times the length.

Radio Play: Will Topping The Charts Make You Bigger Than Elvis?

Every true life rock ‘n’ roll television melodrama has the same scene: the unknown artist/band gives their freshly cut 45rpm single to the local disc jockey. He spins it on his top 40 radio show…and a star is born. This legend has been passed down through the generations of wannabe popstars like an ancient family recipe. The ingredients may differ, but in the end you get the same glorious results: radio play equals fame and fortune.

But does this Top of the Charts fairytale still apply today in the sardonic post new millennium world we call "today"? Can a band in our current music scene walk into a radio station with a CD single in their hot little hands, impress and wow the DJ with their enthusiasm and chutzpa, obtain the magic and golden FM radio spins and then ride the wave of success all the way to Graceland? Well, then, I guess the real question would be, "Do you believe in fairytales?"

Unfortunately, the music industry, like the entire Earth, has become so overpopulated and so oversaturated with artists, music, CDs, and radio stations/shows of all kinds, that the chance of your own personal radio fairytale coming true is probably slim to none. But, don’t give up on your favorite audio media outlet. Radio may not catapult you to instant superstardom but it certainly can help to push you down the path to success.

The following are a few tips that will help you to make your own music fairytale and get your music heard throughout the airwaves:

1.) Get Out Of Major Market The Top 40 Station Mentality—There was a day when getting played on a big city Top 40 radio station was like winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Bands that were chosen for play were handpicked by the voices of the airwaves whose ears were finely tuned to pick out the next new rising star. Today, things are a little different. Radio has become a huge corporation with three major conglomerates owning most of the stations in the United States. Sadly, Disc jockeys are no longer the innovators their predecessors were. Station management hands down a playlist (made exclusively of artists signed to mostly major labels) and the voices you hear on your radio are just that…talking heads animating a script. It’s nearly impossible for an unknown band to break into mainstream large metropolis radio and a waste of your time and money to send packages blindly to a medium that will more than likely reject you again and again.

2.) The Specialty Show Is Your Ticket In—Still determined to get played on that hot radio station with 10 million listeners and a celebrity DJ? Well, there is a backdoor that you may be able to slip through. It’s the specialty show. Many huge stations feature a weekly show structured just to highlight the little guy…to showcase unsigned artists from that station’s area and sometimes beyond. These shows are always worth sending your press package to, as they tend to base their playlist on your music and your credentials on not on the typical corporate artist roster. This is where you just might wow that innovative disc jockey and garner play on some of America’s biggest stations.

3.) College Radio Still Rocks—One area of radio that has stayed unaffected by the huge corporate retooling is the college/university station. Unlike companies/labels deciding what the listening audience thinks is cool or hip, college radio DJs and program directors are still setting their own cutting edges, breaking new artists, and finding the hot fresh stars of tomorrow hiding in their local clubs, coffee houses and garages. It’s always beneficial for unsigned artists to send as many CDs (or email as many MP3s, if the station will accept that medium) to as many college stations as you can find. You will find stations to play you and people will be listening. This could lead to new fans, tour possibilities, and will definitely look fantastic on the radio page of your website or EPK. Whether or not it will actually make you a rockstar, it will sure make you feel like one.

4.) The Unlimited World Of Independent Radio—Back in the early days of radio, indie stations were limited to audio pirates in their basements stealing airwaves from unsuspecting Top 40 giants. Now, thanks to the internet, satellites, cell phones, iPods and cable TV, independent stations outnumber their AM/FM constituents in the thousands and new ones are created every day. Since doing a search of indie radio stations online has been known to cause a brain embolism in some, know that you will probably never be able to solicit them all in one lifetime and just relax and enjoy sending music to whomever you can, as you will probably garner hoards of airplay. Furthermore, your wallet will grow to love you as most of these stations will allow you to submit MP3s online.

It’s true that the legendary story of the unknown band that got one single played on the radio and became superstars within a month is probably as outdated as the 8-Track tape. But that doesn’t mean that the process of artists soliciting music for radio play has become archaic. Radio remains, to this day, one of the best ways for musicians to promote their music and their projects in their area….and now, thanks to terrific technological advancements, nationally and worldwide. The repetition of your single in the ears of even the most jaded radio listener, may lead to: CD and merchandise sales, gigging opportunities in your city and others, visits to your website, posts to your fan club forums, potential press and even maybe industry attention. So, don’t stop sending those CDs, and emailing those MP3s because the next person who hears your song on the radio might just be the one who leads, either directly or indirectly, to your much sought record deal. And who knows? You might just wind up becoming bigger than Elvis.

Sheena Metal is a radio host, producer, promoter, music supervisor, consultant, columnist, journalist and musician. Her syndicated radio program, Music Highway Radio, airs on over 2,400 affiliates to more than 126 million listeners. Her musicians’ assistance program, Music Highway, boasts over 10,000 members. She currently promotes numerous live shows weekly in the Los Angeles Area, where she resides. For more info: https://www.sheena-metal.com.

What is my problem?

I have no excuse for my poor posting frequency.

Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records and subject of 24 Hour Party People, just died.

On Monday morning (8/13), I leave on a cruise that will stop off in the Bahamas and Key West. My birthday is the 15th. B-day on a cruise. Look for a blow-by-blow of this experience in the next issue of Chunklet.

Yes, The Wire is the greatest TV show ever. I’ve had two run-ins with The Wire today. Sadly, I was reading a Pitchfork interview with Patton Oswalt, and he gave major props to the show. Check out his latest album; it’s the tits. Do not check out his music recommendations, as they fall into the standard alt-comedian fare (TV on the Radio, the Alarm Clocks reissue…one of the worst 60’s psych interests ever, and well, I forgot). He does make fun of the “I don’t own a TV/TV is garbage/TV is bad for societyâ€Â people – something I can always get behind. Patton also gives props to Tom Scharpling’s Best Show on WFMU, though I doubt he’d speak to me for over five minutes, even after finding out that I spent ‘01 to ‘06 contributing to the show.

So next week is going to be thin. The computer rooms/libraries on cruise ships can be a real hassle.

A quick guide to cruise writing:

Klosterman: Boring (I might actually read IV)
David Foster Wallace: Great

Stumblebunny –Tonite

Stumblebunny -4 track EP –Slip-Shod Records (1977 US)

Tonite is simply a top draw Power Pop tune. While less glossy than the later Mercury version produced by Richard Gottehrer, it’s a fine rockin’ performance and sounds like The Raspberries or Dwight Twilley if they had recorded for Titan (well to these ears anyway…)

Click on title for a full version of Tonite

Good Writing Writ Large

There is a problem with writers. If what a writer wrote was published and sold many, many copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold a medium number of copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold very few copies, the writer thought he was great. If what the writer wrote never was published and he didn’t have enough the money to publish it himself, then he thought he was truly great. The truth, however, was there was very little greatness. It was almost nonexistent, invisible. But you could be sure that the worst writers had the most confidence, the least self-doubt.

— CHARLES BUKOWSKI,
Women

François Camoin made a similar observation in a Writers at Work workshop in Park City back in 1988, noting that those fledgling writers who sweated and stuttered and apologized as they handed in their work were, as a rule, better writers than those who proudly and unflinchingly proclaimed their word-processed scribbles as masterpieces.

Over the years, I’ve discovered the same to be true. The best writers treat writing the way a truly devout person treats religion: something practiced, not boasted about; lived, not preached.