Some Record Reviews For Mongrel Zine 10 that wouldn't fit...

The Fine Print Standing Out CD 2010 self released


4 piece combo from London Ontario who borrow heavily from the early Kinks, Zombies and early Romantics (1st LP) to bring this finely blended mixture of influences to the boiling point on the dance floor. Tunes that’ll get your feet movin’ and put a silly grin on your face as these guys can recreate these tunes live complete with the many harmony vocals that really make the songs. They’ve put the pop and hook, and even little snippets of songs that you know you’ve heard before, but just can’t remember where into the garage punk and made some truly fine songs on this, their debut CD. And this is only a short sampler of the full length and single expected soon.

addendum....Still no sign of the full length or the single, but a limited edition cassette was released on Record Store Day and sold on that day only. So if you didn't get a copy, they're all gone!



Million Sellers Mighty Good 7” EP BamaLama Records 2010
Nashville trio that play fast and furious rock’n’roll based on late 50’s riffs that give these 4 songs a slight rockabilly feel to them. Meant for late night beer bashes, these songs could get just about anyone up and dancing after a few drinks as it’s almost impossible not to like these tunes! This is the first release by the folks at BamaLama Records in Toronto and comes on a goldish/yellow transparent vinyl.

addendum...BamaLama Records now has way cool Tshirts of which i'm the proud owner of one.

Both of the above reviews were intended for Mongrel Zine #10 but somehow got missed. And you can pick up a copy of Mongrel Zine at Grooves Records here in London. Latest ish has the first part of The Zellots story in it.

Here's The Zellots playing in front of Flamingos Hair Salon, London Ontario. Aug 1980. Pic from the What Wave archives.

Boy From Nowhere Reunion Gig....3/25/11

First off, most of you probably have no clue who Boy From Nowhere was/is. There was a song by DMZ called Boy From Nowhere on one of the first punk rock compilation records out of Boston around 1976. DMZ were led by Monoman and morphed into The Lyres a coupla years after this record came out, but DMZ were one of the first bands to actually get it. It being that 70's punk came from 60's punk and 50's rock'n'roll...loud guitars, snotty vocals, in your face attitude etc...

Well Boy From Nowhere took that name from the above song and were the first band in London Ontario to actually play a mixture of 60's punk, 70's punk and toss some blues tunes in between the punkers to catch their breath. They came out of another London band called The Hippies (Nuclear Disaster/How You Gonna Live 7" on Kampf Records) who kinda evolved into The Blood Brothers (only 2 gigs, late 1984) and from there settled on the name Boy From Nowhere.
They played all of the usual clubs around London (Call The Office, Victoria Tavern, Bullwinkles, Brunswick, Key West, Civitan, Langarth Bar and Grill and others) back in their prime, that being early 85 to about 88 or so...they morphed into B5 Blues sometime after that...and members went on to Young Fast And Scientific, Evil Hoodoos and various other short lived combos. But let's get back to the subject at hand, that being Boy From Nowhere as here's a promo type shot from somewhere...anyone know?

Standing L to R is Lindsay Young guitar, Henry Cox drums, Brian Young bass, all of whom were in The Hippies and Blood Brothers and sitting and scratching is vocalist Jon Traut from some farm north of London.
Live they were always a lot of fun, covering everyone from The Dictators to The Flamin' Groovies, to the Standells, to Radio Birdman, to Elvis Presley to The Kinks, to The Yardbirds and pretty well everything in between. They were strictly a cover band and that suited them just fine. 
Here they are covering The MC5's Ramblin' Rose from a cassette we released many years ago called Live In London (how fucking original can you get?)...

http://chrwradio.com/lma/1987/What%20Wave%20-%20Live%20In%20London/The%20Boy%20From%20Nowhere%20-%20Ramblin'%20Rose.mp3

Most of the home recordings (for some reason, these guys did everything themselves as they learned a lesson when they were The Hippies) were more blues oriented. Here they are from another cassette we released way back when called Wave From The Grave (artist Dave Clarke takes credit for the name of this one) doing a cover of Mr Slim Harpo's Dynamite...

http://chrwradio.com/lma/1986/What%20Wave%20-%20Wave%20From%20The%20Grave/Boy%20From%20Nowhere%20-%20Dynamite.mp3

And finally the last thing we released by them, this time a cover of The Yardbirds Heart Full Of Soul....

http://chrwradio.com/lma/1996/What%20Wave%20-%20London%20Crawling/Boy%20From%20Nowhere%20-%20Heart%20Full%20Of%20Soul.mp3

This was on the last cassette that we released called London Crawling (again, Dave Clarke gets credit for the name) and this one was more of an overview of some of the cooler bands from London as the issue of What Wave  this came with, was a history of the local indy combos from London. We tried many times to get the Boy From Nowhere on vinyl (ie the It Came From Canada compilation LP's that OG Records put out) but never succeeded as they were happy doing what they were doing. But in 2004 we finally got them on vinyl as they were on the Action Records compilation called Thee Cave Comes Alive LP...a compilation of the more 60's punk oriented bands that were on the What Wave compilation tapes. And this version of Heart Full Of Soul was on this LP.

http://webspace.webring.com/people/vt/theecave/WHATWAVE/WHATWAVE.htm

It only took us 20 years, but it was worth the wait. Anyways, here's some more pics of Boy From Nowhere in action back in their prime.

 This one looks like it might be from Bullwinkles, a long extinct (and stinky) club here in London Ontario. They played this club a fair bit judging by the number of live recordings we did here. Some of the other bands that played this club back in the day include Plan 9, Chesterfield Kings, Vipers, The Cheepskates, Band 19, Raunch Hands, DOA, Forgotten Rebels, Deja Voodoo, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Purple Toads to name a few.

This one is from Langarth Bar and Grill as we had a couple of basement parties there. The bass that Brian is playing is my old Vox Constellation Mark 4 that he was trying out that night. We had Boy From Nowhere play there at least twice...and oddly we never had noise complaints from the neighbours.

                                  
                                    
Another shot of a show at Langarth Bar and Grill as Boy From Nowhere are joined by a couple of Legend Killers, Earle Rutherford (second from left) and Bryan Macdonald (far right, he was in B5 Blues and the reunited Boy From Nowhere). It looks like this must have been some super jam session as there's another guitar player hidden behind Earle.

Another promo shot from somewhere....any guesses? Maybe The Albatross in Centralia Ontario?

The Boy From Nowhere did a reunion show at The Orange Hall here in London about 5 or 6 years ago, anyone got any pictures from that gig? I remember it being a lot of fun but we had to leave early as we had brought our youngest, Roxanne to that show and she was burnt out before the band finished.

Ok, so on to the reunion show at The Town and Country here in London on 3/25/11...think i was in this place well over 30 years ago, but nothing prepared me for this inside of this place. There was free parking right in front of the club on the street as well as free parking behind. You walk in and are instantly transformed onto another planet. From the front door, there's a small hall, laundramat off to the left (guess that's in case you have a drink accident), pool tavbles and pinball off to the right, then a really long bar and the entrance to the rear room. This is where the bands play  and there's a slightly elevated seating area off to the left with literally tons of tables and chairs. Almost perfect line of sight no matter where you plant  yourself. Way off to the right at the rear of the place is a slightly risen stage with wood fencing in front with saddles mounted on top. Dunno the purpose of the saddles, but as you can see in the picture below, Jon tried out the saddle. There's also a decent sized standup bar between the dance floor and the stage where you can plant your drink while your feet take you on a journey around the dance floor. Great setup! Not only that, but they had this amazing pizza for only $2.50 a slice! Musta weighed near a  pound as my slice was loaded with pepperoni, shrooms and some kinda sausage that gave me great farts the next day...or maybe it was the 50 i was testing.
Boy From Nowhere started with a bang as they whipped out a killer version of DMZ's (there's that name again, stands for Dig My Zipper) Lift Up Your Hood. From there they did what musta been almost their entire lifespans repertoire as they covered The Yardbirds (Heart Full Of Soul, Rack My Mind, Train Kept A Rollin'), Standells (Sometimes Good Guys), Guess Who (It's My Pride), Teenage Head (Top Down and Picture My Face), Radio Birdman (Aloha Steve and Danno, Hand Of Law), Kinks (Victoria, I Need You), Dictators (Minnesota Strip, What It Is), Elvis (Hunk Of Burning Love), Flamin' Groovies (Teenage Head, Slow Death) and a kick ass version of Heart Of The City to celebrate Nick Lowe's birthday. If Nick was there he would have been smiling!

Jon Traut riding the saddle at the reunion gig 3/25/11 at The Town and Country here in London Ontario.

Yep, Jon's got his glasses on and can't find his drink in this one, Lindsay and Henry are trying to help out while Bryan laughs at the rest of them.

Yep, a great night was had by all in attendance, the band musta played almost 2 hours!! And they finished the show with a dual guitar attack of The Flamin' Groovies Slow Death that blew my mind!! Let's do it all again in another coupla years!!

Top 10 of 2010

It's about time we tossed up this Top 10 list as it was compiled a coupla months back. Lazy, busy and all of the other excuses that you can think of....so here we go, in no particular order, as it really doesn't matter if you're number 1 or number 10 on this list, to paraphrase Teenage Head, fuck the rest, this is the best...or at least the best that we crossed paths with from 2010...

The Walnut Kids....Can't Stand 'Em 7" on Going Gaga Records. Ya, we played the shit outta this one on RadioWW this year and deservedly so. These guys toss in powerpop licks, garage noises, punk sounds and mix it all together with a batch of hooks that just don't let go! A near perfect hunk of vinyl! Disappointment of the year for me was The Walnut Kids cancelling their Dec show at Call The Office opening for Glen Matlock...car trouble they said. More likely Mr. Matlock sabotaging them cause they were stealing his show! We did get to see The Walnut Kids once this past summer opening for Paul Collins at the sadly defunct Moon Over Marin, but the sound didn't do this band justice. They'll be back and i'll have my dancing shoes on!

Mother's Children....That's Who...on Going Gaga Records...Yep, another one on Going Gaga Records, that fine label outta Ottawa which is where Mother's Children call home. First listen i wasn't that impressed with this longplayer, but man, it sure grew on me the second and every spin since! The only comparison that comes to mind is The Real Kids, back when they were in their prime and some of their records involved that repeated listen to get it. And when i got this record, those songs got stuck in my noggin' every listen! They've also got a really cool single that came out before this LP that is essential!

Sonic Avenues...s/t...on Going Gaga Records...In hockey terms, this would be a hat trick for the folks at Going Gaga Records but for Sonic Avenues this is their first longplayer and it rocks from beginning to end! Non-stop power pop of the finest blend as these guys shed their total 60's sound and move towards the late 70's era with only the finest 60's influences remaining! Got to see these guys in London this past spring and they sound even better live! Watch out for the Pointed Sticks!

Nick Curran....Reform School Girl....Eclecto Groove Records...I found this one in the CHRW toss out bin and it looked kind of interesting with the tattooed blonde and the tough looking guitar player on the front cover. Figgered it'd be some kinda modern rbilly or major label sigh co billy. But NO!!!! Nothing prepared me for this onslaught of primal late 50's rock'n'roll, rhythm and blues, and total screaming attack on the senses! This is the real deal jack! If our hero Lux was alive, this would put a shit eating grin on his face! It's that FUCKING good!! And it only gets better every listen!

catl...With The Lord For Cowards You Will Find No Place...Folk Brand Records. Our favourite fucked blues duo outta Toronto return as a 3 piece and sound even better than their first LP! The newly added keyboards and extra vocals create an almost Memphis blues sound to give this combo even more depth! And get Jim Diamond involved and you know everything is gonna turn out right audio wise. Final track 'Workin' Man's Soul' just slays me everytime i hear it!!

Angry Dragons...s/t 7" EP ...Transistor 66 Records....Garage punk with girls singing and playing, Darren Merinuk artwork, pink vinyl...what more can you ask for!!! My all time fave Winnipeg combo!!

Marvelous Beauhunks...Do Not Resuscitate...self released CD...Recorded way back in the early 90's and finally released on a CD for all of us that didn't catch the MB's the first time around, and to coincide with a 10 year reunion this past year. Way cool mix of powerpop, mod and garage sounds in which the songs are well put together and exude hooks and energy! A real treat and i really don't know how we missed these guys back in the day!! Repeated listens of this one have certainly made up for that oversight!

Rock'n'Roll Monkey and The Robots...Do What The Bees Do....Rock'n'Roll Monkey Records...This is one of those releases that sneaks up on you and grabs you and doesn't let go. An instant party CD that'll get you up and dancing before you even know what's hit you! And this is at least the 3rd release from this mystery band!

The Fine Print...s/t....self released. Local combo that caught me by surprise with their perfect sonic blend of Kinks, Zombies and Yardbirds type sounds. Lotsa tight harmonies that bring out the powerpop elements of these songs and these guys can recreate this sound live!! Catch them if you can!

Instead of a 10th release, there were some live shows we caught this past year that should be mentioned. The first and foremost was The Fleshtones at This Ain't Hollywood this past August. These guys rocked out like they were 18 again and we all ate it up and danced a storm! Easily the best live band in the world!!!

And some of us waited over 30 years to finally see Paul Collins Beat here in London this past August. Throw an army of powerpop bands on the bill; Mother's Children, Walnut Kids, The 905's and Oily Birds and you've got a show that many of us are still talking about!

And another stacked show that blew me away was The White Wires, Sonic Avenues, Rocket Reducers and Lonesome Ghost back in March.

And the show that caught me by total surprise, The Baketones at The Black Shire Pub in late August. These guys were total cavemen on stage as they destroyed equipment and each other all the while delivering a pounding garage stomp from beyond....they had opened for The Fleshtones a coupla days prior to playing here so they may have picked up a few tricks!  A band you gotta see!

And now back to your regular programming....

Radio What Wave Playlist...Dec 30/2010 Cedar Lounge Special Part 2

This is the second installment of the Cedar Lounge Special and aired on Thursday Dec 30th in the usual time slot of 7 to 8:30PM...Part 3 will be aired thursday Jan 6/2011 7 to 8:30PM.

This is taken facing north, from the south side of King St. A little to the right is Talbot St. This was the door that you entered and paid your $2 cover. When you first walked in there was sort of an alcove that had vertical members (like 2 x 4's in an unfinished basement) that you could see all around the club and decide if you want to pay your cover or not. Many kids took one look and never came back again...their loss. This photo was taken on 8/15/80 the day after a Forgotten Rebels show and their was graffitti on several buildings downtown, obviously the punks did that!




1. The Spies...Underground...from their only 7" and they came from Windsor Ontario. Played the Cedar several times, renamed themselves The Nelsons and played a few times towards the end of The Cedar Lounge.



2. The Secrets...I'll Cry Tomorrow....Toronto based, and features 3 members of the original Viletones and a Diode. This and the next tune were taken from the OPM CD Teenage Rampage. These guys were a step out of time with the punk and new wave that was happening in the late 70's and preferred to play early 60's rock'n'roll, definitely garage like and they still sound REALLY good to these ears.



3. The Secrets....All The Words...2 great songs, classic buildup, memorable hooks, and they shoulda been contenders! They played 2/14/79 to 2/17/79 at the Cedar.

The Scenics playing live at Call The Office in London Ontario.

4. The Scenics...O Boy...from the Last Pogo CD, think it came free if you pre-ordered Treat Me Like Dirt book. Another band that was a step out of time, too arty for the punks, yet too punky for the artsies! Make sense? Not to me either, but these guys were one of the first Toronto bands to jump on the DIY bandwagon, recording themselves, playing out live and trying out new things. In their lifetime, they releaesed an LP, a 7" and appeared on The Last Pogo complilation LP.



5. The Scenics...Do The Wait...taken from the Sunshine World CD. There's that break near the end of the song, right after they sing 'Do The Wait' that is almost unnerving...done intentionally of course, these guys have tricks up their sleeves and you gotta listen close sometimes to pick them all out. If they only came from NYC or London....

Another shot of The Scenics playing at Call The Office...that's Andy in the center.

6. The Scenics...Waiting For My Man...from the How Does It Feel To Be Loved CD. These guys are currently going through all of their old tapes and releasing them as downloads on their website. There's some gems there... As a piece of trivia, Andy, guitarist/vocalist owned a record store here in London back in the early to mid 80's. Located at the SE corner of Clarence and Queen the building is long gone. There's also an interview that we did with Andy that appeared in an early edition of Mongrel Zine.



7. Arson...Pretty Girls...this was unreleased at the time and appears on the compilation Smash The State Volume 1 put out by Frank Manley to accompany his book of the same title. Arson were from Toronto and released a 7" and appeared on at least one compilation during their time. They also appeared at least twice at the Cedar Lounge.



8. Arson...We Gotta Get Out Of This Place...the Animals song and from the compliation LP No Pedestrians. They appeared at The Cedar 9/16/78 to 9/9/78 and 11/21/79 to 11/24/79.

This photo is from the Oct/Nov 1978 issue of Bomp Fanzine...there's also a great article on the Toronto scene by Ralph Alfonso in that ish.

9. The B-Girsl...Who Says Girls Can't Rock...from the OPM CD of the same name. An all girl new wave/powerpop band that later featured Marcy Saddy from London on drums. Another one of those bands that coulda and shoulda gone far...opening for The Clash, hanging out in NYC and LA, pictured in the cool rock'n'roll mags of the time like Cream, Who Put The Bomp and Rock Scene. Bassist Cynthia was the girlfriend of Dead Boy Stiv Bators.

Another page from the same ish of Bomp Fanzine.

10. The B-Girsl..B-Side...from their only output of the time, a 7" on Bomp Records. An LP was rumoured to be coming out on Bomp but never materialized...in the meantime The Go-Go's got their LP out and had major mainstream success.



11. The B-Girls...Jealousy...also from the above CD. One time the B-Girls were advertised as appearing at The Cedar, but they couldn't make it, or were late or something. Opening up was NFG, who dressed up entirely in drag and claimed they were the B-Girls...so maybe The B-Girls are responsible for the way those guys dressed after that show!



12. The Mods...Reign Of Terror...from the OPM CD Twenty 2 Months...another band that coulda and shoulda they appeared at least 3 times at the Cedar Lounge...2/21/79 to 2/24/79, 5/9/79 to 5/12/79 and then renamed The News on 10/31/79 to 11/3/79. There were too many bands with the name The Mods back then so they figured a name change was due. Think they went back to The Mods after a short time.



13. The Mods...Step Out Tonight...from their 7", this is the song that shoulda broke these guys out!

David Quinton talking to some future lawyers at a talk at the University of Western Ontario Law School early 2010.


14. David Quinton...Make Up Your Mind...from the CD Bombs and Lullabies. David was the drummer of The Mods and was handpicked by Dead Boy Stiv Bators to be his drummer when Stiv cut his solo powerpop record on Bomp Records. David also played in a late version of The Dead Boys, helping out Stiv. He's presently a big wig lawyer in Toronto, dealing with huge entertainment people but still LOVES to talk about his days playing in bands. He did a talk at the Law School here at the University recently and mentioned playing at The Cedar, playing with Stiv Bators, meeting Greg Shaw and all of the other influential people of the time period. He has some great stories, so if you ever get a chance to hear David talk, don't miss it!



15. The Forgotten Rebels...I Think Of Her...recorded live at The Cedar Lounge and is from the CD Forgotten Rebels on OPM Records. The Rebels played The Cedar many many times and always put on an entertaining show!

The Forgotten Rebels playing in a farmer's field somewhere outside of Goderich Ontario...7/4/81. It rained that day which put a stop to the show for awhile. Also on the bill were The Demics, Zellots and Fictions.

16. The Forgotten Rebels...Surfin' On Heroin...from their This Ain't Hollywood LP on Star Records. One of those songs that The Rebels and bassist Chris Houston will always be remembered for.

17. The Forgotten Rebels...Elvis Is Dead...from the above CD, and again live at The Cedar. Probably recorded in Aug 1980.



18. The Forgotten Rebels...You're A Rebel Too...from the In Love With The System LP on Star Records. Bought this right after seeing the Rebels in Aug 1980 and played the shit out of this one. Lead singer Mike still gets a band together every once in awhile and plays out as The Forgotten Rebels and the kids still dig it!



19. The Fast...Wet'n'Wild..from the Fast For Sale LP...3 NYC brothers form a band in the very early 70's, pre-dating the NYDolls even. They play their own crazy version of bubblegum meets glam meets theatre...way ahead of the curve, these guys didn't fit in with any scene. As far as i can figure, they only played one night at the Cedar Lounge, 11/4/78.



20. The Fast...Kids Just Wanna Dance...from the Munster Records CD, The Best Of The Fast: 1976-1984. A highly recommended CD!!



21. Joe King Carrasco and The Crowns...Houston El Mover...from his Island LP. Joe released lots of records back in the day, toured constantly, appeared on American Bandstand and put on amazing shows and obviously was based in Texas. He only played one night at The Cedar, 7/24/79 with The Zellots. I was a schmuck and didn't go in cause the cover was an astromical $5 (in those days, cover was usually $1 or $2) and had no idea who Joe Carrasco was. Joe later came back to Fryfogles (club on Dundas St where the Library presently is) and it was supposedly a really wild show according to legend. Fryfogles was another influential club and we'll do a Radio WW special on it in the near future!



22. The Standing Waves...Integrating Circuits...from a 7" they released, again based in Texas and this combo had a bit of that Sir Douglas meets new wave sound. The beauty of The Cedar Lounge, is you could almost always be guaranteed to see/hear a cool band and there were lots of surprises like The Standing Waves.



23. Psychedelic Furs....Pulse...from their first LP and they made one appearance at The Cedar, 10/6/80. Another show i'm still kicking myself for missing, but think i had an exam or something the next day...The Zellots covered this song in their live show.



24. Fingerprintz...Close Circuit Connection...from their self titled LP, some of these guys went on to form the commercially successful The Silencers. 10/16/80 to 10/18/80 at The Cedar.



25. Chris Spedding...Hurt By Love...from the Hurt LP, Chris made several stops in London over the years, and 1/2/81 at The Cedar Lounge.

Certain General playing at The Embassy Hotel 1/1/83...that's mMarcy Saddy on the drums and is also the only picture I have of her in the band. There's more pics from this show on the Radio WW page on facebook.

26. Certain General...B2C2...from their Holiday Of Love EP from 1982. It was the summer of 1981 and drummer Marcy Saddy brought her latest band, NYC based Certain General to play Rose and Doug's wedding at The Cedar Lounge. The band decided to stay here for awhile playing club shows at The Cedar and Fryfogles and supposedly rehearsing. They put on some amazing shows, one of the first bands of that era that i saw that started to touch on psychedlia and surf sounds and if i remember correctly, would bring lit candles to the stage to enhance the vibes of their show. They came back a year or 2 later and played at The Embassy Hotel, i'll try and dig out my pics from that show.



Thanx for all the call-ins, emails, kudos etc etc....on next week's show, we'll continue this special and probably start the show with some more Certain General.

The west wall of The Cedar Lounge, picture taken sometime in the summer of 1980.



The show is archived at:

http://chrwradio.com/archive/

Thursday at 7PM.



Happy New Year!