Jellyfish: The Scary-Go-Round EP (Charisma 1991)

San Francisco California's Jellyfish had some minor initial commercial success. Their brand of Badfinger meets The Partridge Family and XTC pop was popular enough critically circa 1990/1991 but never really received the widespread attention it really deserved. Their debut album Bellybutton spawned five singles, one of which ("Baby's Coming Back") even reached number 62 on Billboard's Hot 200 chart. One single was released as part an EP.

That song was "Now She Knows She's Wrong". It's a power pop meets bubblegum confection with Steve McDonald of Redd Kross guesting on bass. It starts with a minor-key Partridge Family synthesized harpsichord part. It isn't long before sleigh bells ala Brian Wilson and glockenspiel join-in. And after two-minutes and thirty-five seconds the song is over. "Bedspring Kiss" is a five-minute long groovy piece of nuevo cocktail-lounge and exotica noir that references cocaine and heroin use with a bridge that sounds like a missing link from Pet Sounds. It is one of several highlights from the Bellybutton album.

The B-Sides of the Scary-Go-Round EP are nice live obscurities. There are variations between the 12" EP, CD EP & 7" EP. Each come with two live tracks per-B-Side. The CD contains "Let Em In/That Is Why" & "The King Is Half-Undressed". The former is a medley of the intro and chorus of the Wings hit single for the Summer of 1976 and segues into the Supertrampesque "That Is Why". This medley was recorded live at Bogart's and was finally issued (along with the rest of that complete 2/21/91 performance) on Omnivore Records' Live At Bogart's. The latter is a great performance of their debut single (also on Bellybutton) and was recorded at LA's The Roxy and subsequently was released (along with several other tracks from that show) on the now-ultra-rare box-set Fan Club. 

The Vinyl 12" & 7"'s tracks all come from their 2012 release of Live At Bogart's. Those tracks are the stately monster of a track "The Man I Used To Be" and "Calling Sarah" which musically sounds like the lovechild of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney. It is perhaps Jellyfish's greatest single sleeper/dark horse of a song. "She Still Loves Him" tells of an abusive relationship whilst sounding like the Badfinger backing The Beach Boys. "Baby's Coming Back" (the band's lone minor-hit) which is a tale of promises of giving up the fast life for one particular girlfriend and actively references The Partridge Family's "C'mon Get Happy" in the song's coda.

If you're a fan of the band, who've since acquired something of a substantial cult-following since their break-up in 1994, I'd recommend picking up the EP. It's a nice little slice of what made Bellybutton so great. It also shows the band in a live-context, which for a band renowned for their studio wizardry (especially on Spilt Milk) they probably doesn't get too much notice for. This is a small slice of Jellyfish's Power Pop Heaven.

Here's the video review:

Special Thanks to: Charisma Records.

The Police: Certifiable: Live In Buenos Aires (A&M Records 2008)

 For the first-half of the decade The Police were the biggest, most-popular & most commercially successful new wave band of the 1980's. Basically, they were The Beatles of the new wave/punk movement. They had as many female admirers as they did male fans and they were respected by the critical community and fellow musicians alike. They began their career with faux-punk songs and reggae-infused pop songs and over the course of eight years, twenty-singles and five albums became a more worldly and experimental pop band. Then at the peak of their career they called it a day.

Then in January of 2007, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers and Gordon Sumner (known more colloquially as "Sting") announced they would be reuniting for a world tour to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary. The tour - sponsored by Best Buy - commenced in May of 2007 and ended in August of 2008. To say it was successful would be putting it mildly; the tour earned upwards of 350 million dollars and became the third highest-grossing tour of all-time. The Police were the world's most top-earning musicians for both 2007 & 2008. The band even reunited with original Police guitarist Henry Padovani (who hadn't played with the band since 1977) joined the band for an encore when they played Paris. Thankfully, the tour was also well-documented/recorded and the band released the Best Buy exclusive Certifiable: Live In Buenos Aires (recorded live at River Plate Stadium in December of that 2007) in November of 2008. There was a home video of the performance released as well on  both DVD & Blu Ray. The DVD was packaged with the CD release of the show.

A rare four-man band shot (with Henry Padovani on the far right) at the Mont de Marsan Punk Festival, Paris, France, August 5, 1977.

There was also a nice triple-vinyl release as well. The gatefold packaging itself that houses the three vinyl discs is on the thin-side and leaves a bit to be desired. It's difficult getting the records comfortably in and out of the sleeve. You'd think that considering the amount of money generated from the tour, A&M - or whoever was ultimately responsible for packaging - would have made sure that the packaging was of a higher-quality. But surprise, surprise they did not.

 But beyond the shoddy packaging, the records and the recording itself is excellent and a must-have for any Police fan. The performances are great as well; the band has always taken liberties when it came to performing the songs live. For example the band has rarely, if ever, performed "Roxanne" the same exact way live as they did when they first recorded the "hit" studio version from Outlandos d'Amour. With age Sting's voice has slightly deepened and so, occasionally a hit version from 1980 that was in a one key is now in another or sung in a lower octave. A few songs ("Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "Voices Inside My Head") have appeared to live lives of their own and now have fairly different arrangements altogether.

Andy Summers is finally given plenty of room to stretch out and solo as much as he wants (in their heyday he was previously given a four-eight bar maximum) and the band sounds completely confident and relaxed. You'd never know this was a band that had not played together (regularly) since 1984. Sting is still a strong vocalist and is an incredibly nuanced and nimble bassist. And Stewart Copeland still sounds as vital a drummer as ever. The band has streamlined their sound but they basically still sound like The Police, and not like Sting and a pick-up backing band as some might have feared.

The nineteen-song release is a virtual greatest hits collection plus a few fan-favorites (i.e. "Hole In My Life", "When The World Is Running Down...", and "Next To You"). If you're a Police fan of any kind this will make for an interesting and very entertaining - and for the out and out Police fan - an historic listen.

Here's The Video Review!:

Special Thanks To: A&M Records & Denver Gillette.

Jerry Cole And His Spacemen: Hot Rod Dance Party (Capitol 1964 & Sundazed Music 2010)

Jerry Cole was an in-demand session musician from the 1960's Los Angeles, California scene. He was a member of what was subsequently dubbed The Wrecking Crew, who played on Phil Spector's hit records and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and SMiLE albums. He was the band-leader on the 60's variety shows Shindig! & Hullabaloo. He's been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame & the Capitol Records Legendary Performer Hall Of Fame. He also worked with Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Paul Revere & The Raiders and Frank Sinatra to name just a few. He also had a band of his own: The Spacemen, who performed regularly on the Sunset Strip and released a trio of albums on Capitol Records in 1963 & 1964.

The final release of these albums, Hot Rod Dance Party is produced by Jim Economides (Dick Dale & His Del-Tones) and was originally released in 1964 by Capitol Records. At the time, Capitol was producing surf-rock albums by the dozens, either by actual surf-rock bands, or studio-created "bands" such as The Super Stocks, The Kickstands & The Ghouls.

"MUSIC WITH A DRIVIN' BEAT THAT PUT ANY PARTY ON WHEELS"

Hot Rod Dance Party is a horn-driven, classic reverb-drenched guitar instrumental album and is very danceable (in an swinging, twisting, old-school, guitar-based way). It's Hot-Rod Music/Surf-Pop (although "Hot Rod Music" is really just surf rock with lyrics about cars and racing as opposed to waves and surfing). There aren't any particular standout tracks, truth-be-told. The material is sometimes bachelor-pad infused with hints of tiki exotica and lounge with great guitar lines courtesy Mr. Cole. At times the material falls into a sort of generic surf-pop realm, that really isn't made anymore. This being said, the recording itself is very nice (and so unmistakably Americana of the mid 60's as well). And if you're a fan of surf rock guitar playing, you'll probably love this record. One can only imagine how the surf pop vocals of The Beach Boys or Jan & Dean on top of these instrumental tracks would have potentially elevated it commercially, but I digress.

It was reissued In a limited pressing of only 1,000 copies in 2010 by the fantastic reissue label Sundazed Music based out of the Catskills in New York. Sundazed has long-since taken the mantle from Rhino Records as being the greatest vinyl reissue/authentically vintage label currently in existence. The vinyl is beautiful clear-black-marble and is a nice piece for anyone who is a fan of this sort of thing (i.e. instrumental surf pop on vinyl, auxiliary Beach Boys session musicians, etc).

Here's the video review:

Special thanks: Sundazed Music.

The Fleshtones & Los Straitjackets featuring Deke Dickerson at The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY, Friday 10/31/14

The Fleshtones - originally from Queens, now of Brooklyn - and Nashville's luchador-masked Los Straitjackets (featuring Deke Dickerson)  were the bands performing this year at Brooklyn's The Bell House Halloween show.  And there were many costumed-patrons there to celebrate the festive holiday as well. I've been a fan of both Los Straitjackets and The Fleshtones for many years and the thing that these bands share: their blends of surf and garage rock stylings with various other elements unique to the individual bands. Neither bands ever fails to deliver an entertaining performance and both make it look all too easy.  

                                     

I'd seen these two bands (along with Southern Culture on The Skids) perform last Halloween-season at Brooklyn Bowl, so I'd come to know what to expect. The Fleshtones deliver solid, dependable 60's styled R&B-infused garage rock: "Super Rock", as they've long dubbed it. And the fully-formed fourteen-song set they delivered was excellent, and I believe, took  more than a few audience-members by surprise. The band casually strolled onto the stage from the side of bar, while playing one of their Halloween standards, "Dance With The Goulman" via wireless bass & guitar. Lead singer Peter Zaremba walked around with a bucket of candy and distributed it to the crowd. The band then launched into their big should-have-been hit from the original motion picture soundtrack (and title-track) I Was A Teenage Zombie.

 The band performed songs from their newest album - their twentieth in all - Wheel Of Talent ("What You're Talking About", " Remember The Ramones" & "Veo La Luz"), as well as songs from their last few Yep Roc releases - the band's label since 2002 -  from 2008's Take A Good Look ("Feels Good To Feel"), 2005's Beachead ("Pretty Pretty Pretty") and from 2003's Do You Swing? (a cover of the Coastliners' "Alright"). Despite a fan gripe that The Fleshtones rarely venture into their wonderful and woefully-overlooked I.R.S. Records catalog of material, the band's choice of  material was satisfying.

I've yet to see a band more forthcoming in their performance without grossly overstating things than The Fleshtones. Bands half their age (their average mean-age for the band members is 50) have much to learn from these guys. Bassist Ken Fox, Drummer Bill Milhizer and Guitarist Keith Streng are still as vital as ever. They've been preaching the word since 1976 and show no signs of slowing down. If these guys are in your town, by all means check them out!

The Fleshtones, above, in mock-heroic pose. And the band in human-pyramid mode.

Before exiting the stage Fleshtones lead singer Peter Zaremba reliably informed the audience that
"only the Fleshtones know how handsome Los Straitjackets are".

Los Straitjackets performing above, in perfectly-synced surf guitar pose.

Instrumental surf rock masters Los Straitjackets are currently on tour supporting their newest album Sings The Great Instrumental Hits!!! with special guest vocalist Deke Dickerson. The album tackles instrumental hits such as "Pipeline", "Miserlou", "Popcorn" & "Theme From A Summer Place". However these songs had lyrics all along and Dickerson is here to reinstate them back to the public consciousness. Deke Dickerson is an excellent surf rock guitarist, but he is a just an okay vocalist.

So, to have one of the great modern-day surf rock bands perform with a just-okay vocalist is anti-climatic to say the least. I overheard someone behind me mumble "uh-oh, it's the show killer" when Deke, dressed like a Dracula Elvis, gamely sauntered out for his first song.

The band performed only three instrumental songs, the last being a spooky version of "Theme For Halloween", before being joined by Deke (who overall put on a pretty good performance). If you've ever seen Los Straitjackets perform and are a fan of their instrumental greatness, you can only imagine their set being tainted by a vocalist, let alone an average one. If the band are on tour without a guest vocalist, they must be seen to be believed.

 

All photography copyright: Bill Wikstrom.