May 23, 2006

Sunburn

HEADLINE - California: A stupid caucasian man went to the beach on Saturday and burned the hell out of his pale skin. The sky was overcast; what can I say in my defense? I think it might be congenital.

Of late, the lack of posts is disturbing. We’re hemorrhaging readers like a gut-shot public library. Maybe someone’s got some new ideas that would inspire me to write.

Anyway, from Thursday through Monday I’ll be vacationing in beautiful New York City. Friends of the Toe Stubber who live in the world’s greatest city should call or email so that we can all get together. Just don’t slap me on the back, goddammit.

Rick at 10:34 am

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May 16, 2006

Chumpy: 2004 - 2006

It pains me to announce the passing of one of the dearest members of the Toe Stubber family.

Chumpy the opossum gently unwrapped her weird, muscular tail from this mortal coil on May 12, 2006. We received this message from Balb Kubrox:

Chumpy died on Friday, around noon. I don’t know why. She was weak and sagging in the morning, and a few hours later she died in my bed.

I can’t tell you how glad I am that you put her pictures and sounds up on your site. It’s so good, and comforting, that other people could see her, and see how strange and funny and loved she was. I am very grateful for that.

I’ve buried her in the backyard, in the garden. I miss her very, very much.

She was certainly a beautiful marsupial. Condolences can be left in the comments, or donations may be made to the National Opossum Society. Rest in Peace, possum.

Rick at 7:57 pm

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May 10, 2006

Tautology

The first time the Tight Bros From Way Back When rocked me was through the courtesy of “Joltin’ Lowell” Abellon. Seems some band from Olympia, Washington was touring through L.A. and Mr. Indie Rock had heard all sorts of favorable buzz using scattershot terms like “MC5” & “AC/DC” and even though those are two of the laziest references in the rock critics’ dictionary, we figured it would be worth going down to the Smell and checking ‘em out.

They blew the crowd away. The Tight Bros had perfected that raveup get-the-kids-on-their-feet transcendental rock ‘n’ roll vibe that nearly everyone in a band hopes to find. (Unfortunately for wannabe stars, such skills are fucking rare.) The songs have catchy hooks and flashy guitars and crashy drums. Vocalist Jared’s airy, high-register screech made dirty fists pump the sky and had sweaty people shouting along without words. In between songs, they were regular, low-key, comical dudes – saving up their stage powers for the next blast of rock. Months later when they played Al’s Bar, the same thing happened. That’s how I knew it wasn’t a fluke.

Read the reviews of the Tight Bros’ output and you come upon a lot of laughably clueless reviews totally missing the point by labeling them a typical gang of hardass violent sound hooligans. Gimme a break. Even if this were true, it would just suck all the poetry out of their loud, stinky group catharsis ritual. The Bros are/were a gang of partying punk nerds – that’s what made them cool, not their willingness to beat you up or lacerate your eardrums. They lasted ‘til 2003, but their first album Runnin’ Thru My Bones is my favorite, a hi-energy classic in the vein of High Time or Pure Mania.

Later Jared formed the band Big Business where he does his falsetto growl thing and plays big-ass bass with another guy banging drums. They’re “heavy” in a sort of Melvins/Godflesh kinda way, but fun, and I like them. Big Business has an album called Head For the Shallow. Guitarist Quitty is now in a band called The Light Year that seems to have an early-1970s prog-pop-psyche thing happening (sorry, dudes – I’m terrible at describing music).

The band apparently got their name from a conversation on this underground tape (scroll down the page to the King Diamond cover). The best band ever on the Kill Rock Stars label, the Tight Bros left behind a debut single (and a split 7” with the Champs), two LPs, a hilarious fan Q & A and a few lighthearted interviews. Plus a trail of satisfied partygoers, spirits raised up just a cunt-hair higher than before.
————————————————————————————From the LP Runnin’ Thru My Bones:
Tight Bros From Way Back When – “Rip It Up”
Tight Bros From Way Back When – “Gimme Luv”
Tight Bros From Way Back When – “So Sneaky”
Tight Bros From Way Back When – “That’s a Promise”

From the second LP Lend You a Hand:
Tight Bros From Way Back When – “Make It a Habit”
Tight Bros From Way Back When – “Lend You a Hand”

Rick at 11:06 pm

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May 6, 2006

Catch Up

To blog, perchance to dream. Oh, there are such grand plans afoot. A foot, get it? But in the meantime, instead of sweating out another big research-sodden post and taking another four days to do it, I figure maybe we should play catchup on a few of our friends from previous entries…

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Goblin are back with a new album called Back to the Goblin 2005 (I guess it got delayed) and they have a MySpace page where you can order it. Sounds great so far.

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Our favorite Nihonjin naturalist, Onoching, has recorded guitar tracks on Nikki Corvette & the Stingrays’ upcoming all-star album Back to Detroit, due out this summer.

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At one point it occurred to me that in my post about the Hookers, I never told the story of how their fans fucked up my toe.

See, Lexington’s baddest were performing at the now-defunct Al’s Bar in downtown L.A., and an excited crowd had gathered in front of the tiny stage. Smoke machines started spewing and the band launched the first song. Immediately, some crewcut meathead lifted up one of the metal tables, swung it through the air and slammed it forcefully against the hard floor. The edge of the formica tabletop sank through my thin canvas sneaker with enough violence to pop open the tip of my middle left toe like a blood-filled grape. I hobbled off the dance floor in shock and hopped to the filthy men’s room to rinse my gaping, broken toe in the fecal sink basin. I later wished that I’d accepted my large buddy Dave’s offer to pound the perpetrator into mulch – but due to my dazed magnanimity, that drunken fuck will probably never know what he did.I blame all that Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw bullshit for making me a cripple for 10 weeks. Thanks a lot, Satan.

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Daniel Johnston’s movie came out, but I still haven’t seen it. He played at Amoeba Records the other night, and it was a very nice time in spite of some literal shakiness. That’s Daniel in the blurry photo. Hey, gimme some slack; I didn’t want to be a dick with the flash camera.

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In my ramblings about the King Khan & BBQ Show, I missed Mark Sultan’s BBQ solo record on Bomp entitled Tie Your Noose. It has a couple of the same songs on it (different versions, though) and overall, a slightly more rockabilly flavor, and I think I like it even better! More info here.

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Does anyone recall Chumpy the opossum? Balb Kubrox rescued another beautiful marsupial: Timmy, pictured at right, and here and here.

After his family was killed by cats, Timmy the baby possum was caught breaking in to someone’s kitchen at a Los Angeles-area apartment complex. He’s now grown big and solid and is three times Chumpy’s weight. He has huge balls.

This is the sound he makes when he’s feeling most aggressive:
Timmy’s Explosive Growls (mp3)

Balb Kubrox wishes it to be known that Tim is only bitey and growly like that when someone reaches into his bed. Otherwise, he’s a total opussy.

And here’s photo documentation of Opo, a new graphic tribute to possumry. (Possumry = new word.)

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Finally, remember Warwick of “Let’s Get the Party Going” non-fame? Well, lo and behold, Toestubber Central received an email from none other than singer Warwick Rose! The missive included loads of detailed information that was fairly wasted on a musical dilettante such as myself:

Hi, and thanks for the nice review… I moved to Los Angeles in the late 70s from North London… “Let’s Get the Party Going” was the last track I recorded in London with Nicki Chin/Mike Chapman and Pete Coleman… The drummer John was from the Rubettes (“I Can Do It” plus other hits) and the band Smokey (Chinnichap) did the high harmonies… Adam Sieff, my good friend (Sony Jazz U.K.) also played the lead guitar parts in unison with me as we had run out of tracks and only had one track left for the lead guitar part that we wanted double tracked. Everything else I overdubbed… The song was released on Mickie Most’ RAK label… his brother Dave Most was promoting the song and went on vacation for 2 weeks just as airplay was really picking up… I think if he had not gone on vacation at such a critical time for the record, it would have been a hit… such is life…

I am presently recording many songs that I have written with the intent of releasing them in the near future… drummer is my friend, the fantastic Bruce Gary (Albert Collins, The Knack, Jack Bruce, etc.)... also assisting is Irv Kramer who played with Ray Charles on Ray’s last release… If I can be of help in any way for U.K. rock history research, let me know… Kindest Regards, Warwick Rose

I ended up speaking to Warwick by telephone for an hour, and he’s a really nice guy. What are the odds? He also informed me that the flipside to the “Let’s Get…” single was a song called “How Does It Feel” (not the Creation song). Now I wanna check out Warwick’s incredibly scarce RoRo LP. The first song below was used in a 2001 movie called The Painting. The second, an antiwar country dirge, contains the fine fiddle playing of 1970s Dylan collaborator Scarlet Rivera.

Warwick Rose – “Save Love”
Warwick Rose – “(For Ya) Bombs and Ya Bullets”

Rick at 12:42 am

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