Archie and the Bunkers
Play the Damned EP
scum stats: my copy on black, apparently there’s a limited quantity on black with red and yellow splatter
If middle fingers on the front cover didn’t piss me off or have me rolling my eyes, then that’s saying something.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for younger folks playing rock and roll. The drums/organ, big brother/little brother duo of Archie and the Bunkers are good. Their heads seem on straight, they’re influenced by all the right shit from the past. And I honestly think that if they keep at it, they will make something GREAT.
As for Damned covers, they dug a little below the surface, ignoring the obvious covers like “New Rose” or “Neat Neat Neat” and I have to give ‘em credit for that. I never spent much time with the Damned, really just a little bit with the first album. So besides the lead-off track, these songs are all kinda fresh to me.
I think the band is still figuring things out and I predict in another year, two tops, they will put out a masterpiece. Until then, this record (and the rest of their increasingly-expanding catalog) serve as moderate placeholders.
In my never-ending quest to keep you weirdos engaged, post in the comments about your favorite releases where one artist covers exclusively another artist. Don’t just LIST something, convince me as to why it is important. Can be Pussy Galore doing Exile, Sonic Youth doing the Fall, Dylan (or Willie) doing Sinatra, whatever. Maybe turn me on to something I’m unaware of? Anyway, most enlightening comment (as determined by me) gets an original Sub Pop pressing of the White Stripes covering the songs of Captain Beefheart. See the connection there? Deadline is a week from today, so get your shit in here already.
DonTazeMeBro, oh you conveyed well enough the majesty of the show – I was just passing along that there were some good areas in the crowd, too :) I can’t remember the last show I was at that I was still thinking/talking about it days after it went down. Maybe the Stones in ’89, but that was probably because it was my first show.
padawanguru agree, the show was off the fucking hook, the venue is just amazing quite possibly the best of that size i have ever been too. Glad to hear the crowd around you was feeling it and like minded individuals. I hope I conveyed that in my last post, that regardless of some of the people around us the show was fantastic. Carla is something to watch honestly I can’t believe the drum set survived.
Jack – I’m a huge fan and always will be. My boyfriend surprised me by taking me to both of your stores over the past 2 years in Nashville and Detroit and truly worship your talent and music. We are coming to see you in Shreveport after seeing you here in Dallas, TX. This may be his last show as he is a cardiac patient and almost past in 2016. Nothing stops him from living and we thoroughly enjoy your music. I don’t expect anything but just want you to know that in this time of political/ societal unrest that we appreciate you and everything you do to encourage the younger members of society to live and flourish regardless of what we experience daily. Love to all!
@ Neil Focht – Sold! I’ve got to find a copy of that. Thank you for sharing!!!
*the album up for giveaway, I haven’t had a chance to hear the album you actually hold. I know you hold many amazing albums though that I’m sure will not grace my new AT turntable lol
I actually think the album you hold is my favorite honestly. I didn’t even know who Captain Beefheart was until I heard that album and found out it was all covers. So they achieved the true goal of a cover album in my opinion: to cover songs in a way that your fans who haven’t heard the original versions of the songs just think they are new great songs by your band, or if they have heard the real deal, your spin on it is so unique and true to your style (not a carbon copy) that it’s appreciated again for its musical quality and the tribute aspect. BUT for the sake of this contest I’m going to talk about some subpop stuff in my neck of the woods seeing as this album is a merger between my favorite Detroit stuff and my favorite PNW homestate label, I guess you can throw in The Go ‘Whatcha Doin’ because it’s subpop and if you heard it and didn’t know who it was you’d think it was a long lost Stooges album lol, I did, I heard it in millennium records in Portland playing and bought their only copy right off their turntable. Anyway, I am going to talk about Nirvanas third album ‘Incesticide’, the only nirvana album I own on vinyl so far. I could go on and on about the history of the late 80s/early 90s PNW music scene, but I think most people know Kurt and crew spent $600 to record ‘Bleach’, a Melvins inspired, not for everyone, hard punk/unique album, then take a break, record ‘Nevermind’ and things blow up bigger than they could imagine faster than they could handle and other bands, Mudhoney etc stayed with SubPop and turned down offers from Geffen etc on principle. Kurt never was able to forgive himself for this move, always clinging to his memories of the beginning and his idea of real punk rock while hanging out with Calvin Johnson in Olympia, WA (I mean that’s where they spread his ashes) it’s a creative wonderland, the birthplace of record companies like K, KillRockStars, etc, compilations that got put out of this small capital city/college town that just breeds great music. Olympia is where most “grunge” bands were born, not Seattle, subpop would hear these comps and sign the bands and then if they wanted to ride the big wave they’d sign with big labels. Off track again.. so Kurt blew his load on nevermind, it was produced by Butch Vig, who did such a great job that it turned out sounding poppy, popular, and the word nirvana kept using to stay away from stereotype: “New Wave/Punk”. Kurt wanted more than anything to hand his punk rock credibility back and to show that regardless of what label he was on he was still that guy that was “pure” and attempted to do this until it eventually killed him inside, I mean along with Courtney *puke Love and heroine of course.. but Incesticide WAS A COVER ALBUM. I saw an interview by some guy in Quebec after nevermind a while back and it stuck with me, the question was asked “I heard you decided not to record with Butch Vig and the album is a lot different than Nevermind, what do you think this will do for all of your new fans?” Kurt replied smiling, “I think we’re going to lose a lot of fans!”. He wanted to exit center stage and literally put out an album like bleach again that would establish his credibility again and get the “fake fans” off his case and it worked a little bit, with reviews like: “Nobody really wants a Hatful of Hollow-type assortment of Peel/Goodier sessions, b-sides, demos and obscurities(covers) in the place of a proper studio album,". So what do they do on Incesticide? Why is it the ONLY piece of their music not available on Apple Music? Because other than about 4 songs that he wrote during the bleach era (one of which was a “new wave” cover of a song on Nevermind “New Wave Polly”) were covers! The Vaselines (Kurt’s favorite punk rock band on subpop) and even Devo lol! Around the same time The Melvins and Nirvana put out another great cover album together a lot of people don’t know about on some small record company called Communion RC, “Here she comes now/Venus in Furs” covering TVU obviously, and it was pressed in over 30 different colors, absolutely great 7” and super rare. And like Incesticide only really truly available on tangible media/vinyl to listen to. So I think they used Incesticide which is again my favorite album of theirs to try to get back to where they were, obviously it didn’t work, they took a break (bad period that would lead to Kurt’s death eventually), then ‘In Utero’ a classic studio album for Geffen with new “new wave” material with same style as Nevermind and then done. So for me this period in PNW music history (I’m actually headed to the SubPop 30th anniversary party beginning tomorrow and to see Mudhoney at the original KEXP studio then to see Jack in Portland on Saturday) was great. SubPop is just great and artists like Nirvana who had their humble beginnings their used it as a nest then flew out to be big and famous, and in this case, they used a partial cover album to piss fans of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” off and try to return to that great music environment. Looking forward to dragging my little bro all around the PNW this weekend starting at SubPop and ending at TMRs own Jack White right here in the home of it all. Love it when Detroit and Seattle work together. Have a good one all.
Earlier this year I made a trip to Memphis, TN where I took in as much as one can over a long weekend. My take home souvenir was McLemore Avenue by Booker T. & the M.G.‘s (thanks Goner Records)! The Stax sound covering the Fab Four – how can you go wrong or get any better!? Visually the album cover of McLemore Avenue brings you to Memphis the same way Abby Road took you to London. The same can be said for the sound of the album as well. Booker T.’s organ landscapes so many of these songs in only the way he can. “Are you kidding me” was a common response upon on my initial listen. STEVE CROPPER INTERPRETING GEORGE HARRISON! Just listen to “Come Together”: the volume will be increased, your head will move and goose bumps may appear. The Memphis Group also hits on the medley theme found on side two of Abby Road by melding their choice of songs into medley’s, but placement is on side one of McLemore Avenue. Oh yeah, one of the highlights of this album is that it’s MOSTLY instrumental. Something about one great band covering the best of all time without lyrics allows the listener reinterpret a song they thought they knew. The only lyrics on the entire album are those for the ages, so listen and enjoy!!
Mick Harvey has released 4 full albums of Serge Gainsbourg covers. Do I really need to convince you as to why that’s important?
I have a feeling I’ll be telling my grandchildren about the time Mr. White and his band rocked the Armory to its very foundation. What a phenomenal performance! @DonTazeMeBro, the crowd in our area was exceptional and we had a great time from beginning to end!
still in defence of Condor Gruppe; they have a krauty westernvibe thing going on with lots of other influences from rock to dub to eastern/Turkish and they make it all their own. Members of this band were also part of Creature With The Atom Brain( with Aldo Struyf)just to say they are a band of extraordinary musicians with a very good taste in music.This is how they describe their music:like a little child that pulls his balloon back to earth, and continues walking around,exploring. That is Condor Gruppe music…