Teenage Fanclub: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY (10/15/2016)

Scotland's Teenage Fanclub have just released their tenth studio album, Here. Their tour stopped at New York's Bowery Ballroom and I eagerly attended the show. It was my sixth time seeing TFC and second time seeing them at Bowery Ballroom. I'd first seen the band in 1993 at CBGB's. Their sound has changed considerably since then - with each album the band seems to ditch the Big Star/Jesus And Mary Chain influence more and more and they've become closer to being Crosby, Stills & Nashesque.

Norman Blake, Gerard Love & Raymond McGinley still deliver the goods. The band were in good form and their twenty-song set contained plenty of old favorites (including "Star Sign", "The Concept", "Radio" and "About You"). The band started the set off appropriately enough with "Start Again" and closed with their epic debut single "Everything Flows". In between the band played newish and genuinely new material (including the fine new single "I'm In Love").

The subtlety of the band's material is a something of a strength unto-itself, and the understatedness of the songs reveal themselves over-time. Which, if you're unfamiliar with, may not reveal themselves immediately, especially in a live setting. Thankfully for me, I knew all of these songs very well and wasn't clinging to a hope that the band was going to break out into a loud medley of material from their Bandwagonesque album. I was however disappointed that they didn't play "What You Do To Me", "Hang On" and even "Sparky's Dream", but I'll get over this some day.

The Oysters: Green Eggs And Ham (Taang! Records/1985)

The Oysters are a band that came to my attention via an entry in The Trouser Press Record Guide (1991 edition). It basically said that if Paul Westerberg had increased his drinking and Bob Stinson remained in the band, this is what The Replacements would sort of sound like. The Oysters were a band from Boston, MA and were signed to the TAANG! label (who released record by Gang Green, The Lemonheads and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones). In fact, Dickey Barret from the Bosstones is responsible for the cover art for Green Eggs And Ham. The band only released this one album and a single (Mine Caroline also on TAANG!) before breaking up.

Lead singer and guitarist Richard McKenzie sounds like a decidedly off-key Paul Westerberg. “Make It All Up To To” sounds like a mash up of The Replacements “Mr. Whirly” and “Never Been To College”. Other highlights include “Ballantine Stomp”, “On Special”, “Headhunter” and “Reeperbahn”. While the band does have their own sound, they certainly channel The Replacements more than anyone else. Highly recommended for fans of The Replacements and fans of boozy garage rock.  

Here's the video review:

Junior Senior: D-D-Don't Don't Stop The Beat (Crunchy Frog Records/2002)

Junior Senior were a Danish duo consisting of Jesper Mortensen (Junior) and Jeppe Laursen (Senior). Ostensibly they were an indie/dance pop band. However their sound is an happy amalgamation of garage rock, breakbeat, B-52's kitsch pop, electronic music, mid 60's Rolling Stones, rockabilly and surf guitar lines, ecstasy-influenced dance pop and sprinkles of hip hop. But more than all that, their music is unabashedly lively, uninhibitedly gleeful and unpretentiously fun. The album was rightfully perceived as a breath of fresh air when it was released as it sounded – purely based on attitude alone - nothing like anything else at the time.

The band's debut album D-D-Don't Don't Stop The Beat was universally acclaimed upon it's 2002 (or depending on the market, 2003) release. I first became aware of the band when I heard their classic “Move Your Feet” single on the radio on July 4th 2003. I thought it was some new wave dance classic that had somehow escaped me and I was only just hearing it for the first time. Not surprisingly it was a universal hit that Summer (a top 40 hit in a dozen countries, peaking at #3 on the UK singles chart and #45 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart). “Rhythm Bandits”, which is possibly my favorite track on the album, was also a top 20 hit in the UK. The third single, “Shake Your Coconuts” appeared in the films Loony Tunes: Back In Action, She's The Man and Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen.

The humorously references several American pop musicians on “White Trash” nearly as much as they reference themselves on “Go Junior, Go Senior” and “C' Mon”. And they make it abundantly clear on tracks like “Chicks And Dicks” that Junior, is straight and “nasty and small”. While Senior is gay and “handsome and tall”. Junior sounds like Michael Jackson singing “Rock With You” on “Move Your Feet” sounds like Wham's “Club Tropicana” played at twice the normal speed.

The vinyl release only came out in two markets; Denmark and the UK. The Danish version of “Shake Me Baby” is an entirely different recording with different lyrics and is titled “Just Shake It Brother”. It also has alternate mixes of “Boy Meets Girl” and the American version of the album contains the single version of “Rhythm Bandits” (which again, also vary on various other editions as well). And the cover art image is flipped on various versions and the UK vinyl version has a cover unique unto itself.

If you're going to have a party where people may be inclined to dance via their own uninhibited natures or perhaps doses of MDMA or large quantities of alcohol. Combined with a good sound system and the volume turned up a ways, this is the album for you. Most very highly recommended.  

Here's the video review:

Too Much Joy: Dr. Seuss Is Dead EP (1994/Joybuzzer)

Too Much Joy was a punky power pop quartet with a sense of humor. Lead singer Tim Quirk wrote wonderfully witty lyrics and was able to touch upon young adulthood as well as the best in the field. The band had the unique ability to sound loose while in fact being a rather tight outfit thanks to the crack rhythm section of bassist Sandy Smallens and drummer Tommy Vinton.  They had an-almost MTV hit with "That's A Lie" (a rap-to-rock cover of the LL Cool J song) and a few hit singles on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in "Donna Everywhere" and "Crush Story" (the latter of which deserved to be significantly more well-known than it ultimately became). 

                                    TMJ relaxing on the set of the "That's A Lie" music video


Too Much Joy was dropped by Giant in the Autumn of 1993 after the Forever In Your Face Tour and this was released during the big dry-period following the 1992 album Mutiny and preceding ...finally in 1996. This was issued by the official TMJ fanclub newsletter Joybuzzer in the Summer of 1994. It was offered to both new-subscribers and renewing-members, which was a pretty sweet deal. Joybuzzer was run by Clive Young and was all-around excellent zine.
 
"Just Around The Bend" sounds like a great lost early 90's TMJ single. "Never Work" is good but isn't done much justice by the soundcheck recording. "Hey Merlin" has cool would-be psychedelic lyrics but suffers from a clumsy arrangement (or perhaps that was just the performance). "Outtakes" for this EP are "Death Ray Machine" (later on Gods & Sods) and the great "Sunroof" (a Gods & Sods download-only bonus track via eMusic).

This blue 7" vinyl EP (at 33 1/3RPM) is pretty rare. It was a limited pressing of 500 or 1,000 copies. It was mastered directly from DAT to vinyl. Only "Hey Merlin" has since appeared in a digital format on Gods & Sods, but all three-tracks are available for a very inexpensive download from toomuchjoy.com. If you can find this nifty release, by all means, pick it up.


Here's the video review:

 Special thanks to: Clive Young of Pro Sound News and Joybuzzer Zine.

Check out: maplikemine.blogspot.com