Category: Chesterfield Kings

Gary’s Nineteen Nineties

Still in a most list-ful mood, but this round-up certainly wasn’t a very easy one to compile, I’ll have everyone know. The pickin’s were extremely, uh, thin, to say the very least.

Nevertheless (or should I say Nevermind)…..

Number One: Mark Johnson – 12 in a room (1992)
Powerful pop most firmly rooted within the Brill Building anteroom.

Two: Cowsills – Global (1998)
America’s once-and-forever First Family of Song leave no Partridge unspurned.

Three: Brian Wilson – Sweet Insanity (1991)
Just to make sure the Nineties weren’t ALL Pet Sounds re-issues.

Four: Dave Rave Group – Valentino’s Pirates (1992)
Wherein the former Soviet Union signs its first Western act, then promptly dissolves.

Five: Johnny Cash – American Recordings (1994)
Rick Rubin produces a Johnny we thought only Sam Phillips could.

Six: Tiny Tim – Rock (1993)
Includes possibly definitive readings of “Eve of Destructionâ€Â and “Rebel Yell,â€Â I kid you not.

Seven: Puffy – Jet CD (1998)
Oh-so-effortlessly crosses ABBA, Sabbath, and Who’s Next …and all by way of Jellyfish.

Eight: Monkees – Justus (1996)
Those Prefabs go out on a very high note (which, I’ll have you know, they played ALL BY THEMSELVES).

Nine: Shane Faubert – San Blass (1993)
Former head Cheepskate most definitely goes for baroque.

Ten: NRBQ – You Gotta Be Loose (1998)
Proof very positive: The greatest live r-n-r band In The World.

Eleven: Evaporators – I Gotta Rash (1998)
Before Ali G, Baba Booey, and most definitely Tenacious D.

Twelve: Neil Young – Arc (1991)
Truly too cool – not to mention loud – for (many) words.

Thirteen: Go-Nuts – The World’s Greatest Super Hero Snak Rock And Gorilla Entertainment Revue (1997)
For once, the title says it all.

Fourteen: High Llamas – Gideon Gaye (1994)
More than filling that cavernous sonic gap between SMiLE and the XTC reunion.

Fifteen: Blue Shadows – Lucky To Me (1995)
Hank Williams visits The Cavern by way of Big Pink.

Sixteen: Mojo Nixon – Gadzooks!!! (1997)
Includes “Bring Me The Head of David Geffenâ€Â …and then some.

Seventeen: James Richard Oliver –
The Mud, The Blood and The Beer (1998)
alt. Country with a capital “Oh!â€Â

Eighteen: Chesterfield Kings –
Surfin’ Rampage (1997)
Upstate New York’s finest give their Stones cloning a rest whilst hanging all ten.

Nineteen: Jandek – Twelfth Apostle (1993)
So many Jandek albums; so little space.

More Required Viewing !!!

    There was a time,

believe you me,
long ago and far, far away,
when all the best boots were Beatle,
trebly white Vox six-strings cooly matched your best gurl’s plastic mini,
and the words “Garage Band” had not yet become just another registered Apple trademark.

Well, it isn’t only those Hives who care to dwell to this day in such defiantly monophonic, tight-legged times:  
Coz, believe it or knot, those otherwise empty Eighties and Nineties were positively littered as well with Levi and Rickenbacker-clad mopheads singing and playing up wholly frug-worthy storms for all who would listen

…whilst, alas, the vast majority of mankind were told to dig Hall and Oates or even that Fred MacMurray of “rock and roll” [sic!!] instead, I must most sadly recall.

But if you’d really like to hear and see what all the fuzz SHOULD’VE been about back then
(not to mention trace the socio-musical routes of either White Stripe straight on down),
simply take the next eighty-odd minutes to sit and spin with Purple Cactus/Dionysus’
utterly woofer-rattling Knights Of Fuzz DVD + ROM.

Yep, it’s all here, now, and forevermore:
Classic, cutting clips full of wholly-living-colour Cynics, Fuzztones, and tons more Untamed Youth
including vintage (1983!) Cheepskates,
their upstate New York brethren The Chesterfield Kings
(always the out-of-their-headed Stones to the C-skates comparatively tamed Fabulous Four);
why, even K of F mastermind Timothy Gassen dons his very own psilocybin-dipped Marshmallow Overcoat for not one but – count ‘em! — two vibe-riddled vids.

Lo, lest we neither forget Toronto’s towering 10 Commandments
featuring our sweet James Lord on Crampy-indeed lead vox
…..and Speaking of O Canada,
Montreal’s groovy Gruesomes are more than fully represented via their Monkees-on-methamphetamine “Hey!”
(very personally speaking, one of my fave pure pop clips OF ALL TIME).

But that’s still not it !!

Besides all this anarchic archival footage also comes hours more read-only memory content, including 300-plus pages of Tim’s criminally out-of-print Knights Of Fuzz encyclopedia-lysergic, twenty-six full ‘n’ frantic audio clips, and tons upon anti-trendy tons of additional articles, photos, reviews and data galore both old and retro-new!   

You can get completely fuzzed up right now if you’d like,
by dragging it into the virtual garage for your fully day-glo all-media preview.

But I heartily recommend taking the whole paisley plunge
by grabbing the real thing
right here
right now.

So!
Ready?  Steady?

Then GO Already !!!