Good grief, the Neats aren’t on Hype Machine?
I’ve been a loyal listener to Hype Machine for some time, and I was shocked that Hype Machine hasn’t captured anyone blogging about the Neats reissues on Ace of Hearts!
So here’s a tune, “Saturn,” listen up:
The album is the Neats, “The Ace of Hearts Years”; you can’t get in on Amazon, but you can order it from Ace of Hearts — see http://www.aceofheartsrecords.com/order.html
The Neats are one of the great mysteries of Boston Rock. They went from clean-cut jangle-pop kids . . .
To greasy-long-haired Gun Club-esque excess . . .
Hard to believe it’s the same people, especially Eric Martin — it’s almost like the bone structure in his face changed as the Neats became monsters of big rock.
Nowadays, the lead singer Eric Martin plays around town with his band the Illyrians, and his haircut and image have reverted to the cleanliness of the early years.
They’ll be playing the Orpheum in Boston on New Year’s Eve with the Lyres and Buffalo Tom.
But in my heart, I know that the best of the Neats was the later stuff. God, they rocked.
Why is there no Northern Soul dance party in Boston?
Why is Boston so late to the resurgence of Northern Soul — or just awesome DJ-powered 60s soul parties, occasionally powered by bands?
New York has a couple of major deals:
The Subway Soul Club: http://www.myspace.com/subwaysoulclub
And Deep Deeper: http://www.myspace.com/digdeepernyc
We have a couple of bands that are in the neighborhood: The World’s Greatest Sinners and Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents - but WGS seems a little over to rockin’ R&B, and Jenny Dee to the girl group sound (but still, more secretly rocking than soulful — I love the cover of “Shake Some Action,” but I think they need to dig in a different part of the oldies bin).
Maybe Jenny Dee’s upcoming gigs at the Lizard Lounge will start to break this open.
The Vivs (25-Sep-2009, Church, Boston)
Based on the recommendation of a friend, I caught the Vivs at the Church of Boston. Man, that club is just too clean, nothing like its former self, which shall not be named for fear of arousing the ghosts of gigs past.
Dave Minehan opened; sorry, but I’ve had enough of that over these many years.
The Vivs were pretty darn great. The personnel is ex-Edith, ex-Tribe, ex-Scatterfield, all worthy but under-recorded bands from Boston in the late 80s/early 90s, with Tribe being the one that could have / should have broken out. The big personality of the Vivs is Karen Harris, formerly of Edith. Her voice has an uncanny touch of Amy Rigby (caught by the Globe’s reviewer: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_reviews/articles/2009/09/21/the_vivs_mouth_to_mouth/), and her visual appearance has some swagger that evoked, oh . . ., maybe a young Melissa Etheridge, without the rawk cliches? Harris is small and in great shape, and she has to control the stage with personality, which she can do. Really, I was kind of floored, and developed an instant crush. I hope I never see her in the grocery market or the laundrymat, you know what I’m saying (this is what I’m saying)?
The other thing about this band is that Harris has the lyrics, and I would advise you to acquire the album and study them (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thevivs), ‘cos they’re printed in a CD insert — kind of old school, y’know? Based on the crowd reaction, the big songs would seem to be the openers on the CD, “Waking Up” and “Eiffel Tower,” but take it from me, the best songs are “Falling off the Wagon” and “Take it on the Chin.”
John Powhida Show / Nash Kato (2-Aug-2009, Toad, Cambridge, Mass.)
Dropped in at Toad Sunday night (2-Aug-2009) to see the first installment of an August residency by John Powhida (of John Powhida International Airport, and, before that, the Rudds). His special guest was Nash Kato, who had been one of the two leads of Urge Overkill.
Powhida played guitar, and had a bass player and sax player; he ran beats on a small Yamaha keyboard. The set was largely re-arranged Rudds songs (from the first album: “Downtown Freddie Brown”; “Rock World”; “Oh, Delila”) — for the most part, the rearrangements were cheeky and good. Powhida was in incredible voice. He said that upcoming episodes would have two versions of his International Airport, and then at the end, he claimed, a Rudds reunion.
Nash Kato came on. He was gaunt as ever but looked healthy. He played a twelve string, pretty roughly: He apologized for his strained guitar playing claiming he had been at a “kibbutz in Connecticut” for two months, without guitar, iPod, etc. Sounds like a dry-out, but who knows. He had some trouble remembering his songs, but, as it happened, Powhida knew them all, and helped out: Kato seemed very grateful. Kato kept referring to Powhida as “John Rudd,” which was either obtuse or cute, I’m not sure which; Powhida got him back later in the show by calling him Nash Urge. The high point of the songs where they both played was a cover of Todd Rundgren’s “Couldn’t I Just Tell You,” which was basically Powhida’s version: Nash couldn’t really keep up.
My Five-Star songs from “Have a Nice Decade”
I happen to own the Rhino set “Have a Nice Decade” — and I have religiously added star ratings to all of the songs when I’ve listened to then on my music player.
And now I shall reveal the 12 songs that have received my “five star” rating. To wit:
- Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together”
- Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain”
- Earth Wind & Fire, “Shining Star”
- Linda Rondstadt, “You’re No Good”
- Marvin Gaye, “Got to Give it Up”
- The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, “Jackie Blue” [so shoot me!]
- Peter Frampton, “Do You Feel Like We Do” [ditto]
- Rod Stewart, “Maggie May”
- Rufus, “Tell Me Something Good”
- The Spinners, “I’ll Be Around”
- The Staple Singers, “I’ll Take You There”
- Todd Rundgren, “Hello, It’s Me”
Any questions?
10-May: Pariah Beat at the Cantab
Last night I dropped in at the Cantab to check out the Killer Abs and Triple Thick — both fun bands. But both were pretty much upstaged by Pariah Beat, late of Vermont, now apparently based in Jamaica Plain.
They play a thick stew of Cajun + honky tonk + rock. I suppose if I had to pick one band that this group is channeling, it would be the Mekons (e.g., “Honky Tonkin’” / “So Good it Hurts” era). Why? Well, they had fiddle and squeezebox; punk guitar; a lovely woman (playing acoustic bass); and what sounded like radical/progressive lyrics. It was a party, maybe with a purpose. The exuberance of the band also recalled Brave Combo, and they had a nice polka in there (though the audience had no idea how to polka). On their web page they mention Django as an influence, and integrating a bit more of those gypsy strings would be killer. Indeed, there is probably a bit of room to turn down the guitar for a song or two, and get additionally a bit of a Stephane Grapelli thing going on the fiddle. Yet another group they recalled was Les Têtes Raides — I would love to see Pariah Beat busking acoustically.
. . . Tunes at the Pariah Beat MySpace page.
Song the Rudds / John Powhida should cover…
I think the Rudds need an anthem. Ideally, one with handclaps. Something to close the set pre-encore. Here’s my nomination:
Eddie and the Hot Rods, “Do Anything You Want to Do” (from “Life on the Line”: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fzfqxqt5ldke).
Features:
- Very simple/direct inspiring lyrics that are fun.
- Bodacious bass line.
- Nice range for the vocal; obvious opportunity for female backing vocal (but not done by E&theHR’s).
- Handclaps.
- Just obscure enough that Brett Milano might have a hard time remembering who did it.
It’s a great rocker, and in that late 70s mode that the Rudds do so well. With some tweaks it could have been a Cheap Trick song. About the only thing I could complain about is that it doesn’t have a very good ending, at least on record.
McCain and his future running mate
This is wrong
Proposal for pronunciation of the word “naughty”
I hereby propose that the word “naughty” be henceforth pronounced: “nafty.”