Redd Kross: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY 5/4/2017: Beneath The Valley Of The Teen Babes From Monsanto Tour

Hawthorne California's Redd Kross have been on tour this Spring, celebrating the reissue of their classic Teen Babes From Monsanto album. The band is one of the key figures from the late 70's LA punk scene (their first show was opening up for a Keith Morris-fronted Black Flag) who later morphed into a trashy, glammy, power pop, alt-rock outfit. After returning after a nearly ten-year hiatus with their Researching The Blues album in 2012, Kross have been going strong ever since.

The band graced Bowery Ballroom last week and put on an enthusiastic, ninety-minute, twenty-song set. The band had a new drummer (Roy McDonald was unavailable for the tour) in the form of Melvins drummer Dale Crover and touring lead guitarist Jason Shapiro (Robert Hecker, is a teacher and can't just up and tour anymore). The McDonald brothers, Jeff and Steve had a great on-stage rapport, with Steve providing a lot of funny anecdotes. The band were very well-rehearsed (except for one song, "It Won't Be Long", where there was a discrepancy over key and necessitated a few false starts).

The band played plenty of their loved singles; "Switchblade Sister", "Annie's Gone", "Jimmy's Fantasy" and "Lady In The Front Row". Plus a few deeper cuts; "Annette's Got The Hits", "Peach Kelli Pop" and "Neurotica". But the real treat was the band performing the entire Teen Babes all-covers album (ahem, "Rock And Roll Retrospective") in its' seven-song entirety (it's a short album). Hearing them perform "Ann" by The Stooges, "Saviour Machine" by David Bowie and "Citadel" by The Rolling Stones was a very nice treat for hardcore-fans, of which I am one.

They put on a great show with a very-well considered setlist. If you have to opportunity to see the band, by all means do.

The Psychedelic Furs and Robyn Hitchcock at House Of Blues, Houston, TX 4/2/2017

I've been a fan of The Psychedelic Furs and Robyn Hitchcock for a very long time. Both artists share a psychedelic influence and come from the late 70's UK punk movement. Robyn's old band, The Soft Boys, opened for the Furs in 1980 and Robyn has covered "The Ghost In You" since the late 80's. So, despite some obvious stylistic differences, they are most certainly peers.

This is my third time seeing Robyn in the past sixteen months, and he's finally come around to embrace his legacy. He's performed "Balloon Man" and "Madonna Of The Wasps" at all of these shows, songs he'd snubbed in the past in lieu of then-recent compositions. He apologized that night for having a case of the flu, but his performance was seemingly unaffected by any such ailments. His playing was as nimble as ever and his voice was in fine form. Classics like "Heaven", "I'm Only You" and "Queen Of Eyes" all got airings as did newer classics like "I Pray When I'm Drunk",  "Saturday Groovers" and "Mad Shelly's Letterbox".

It was a little strange seeing Robyn open for anyone, but, given his slot and his flu, after twelve songs he departed the stage. He didn't even hang out at the merch table greeting fans, which has become a post-show ritual for Hitchcock as of late. Hell, there wasn't even any merchandise of his at the merch table.

I'd only ever seen the Furs once before, about ten years ago. They were good then. They were even better this time. Singer Richard Butler and bassist/brother Tim Butler are backed by lead guitarist Rich Good (ex-The Pleased), longtime sideman saxman Mars Williams (ex-The Waitresses), keyboardist Amanda Kramer (ex-Informantion Society) and drummer Paul Garisto (ex-Iggy Pop). They were a very capable band who were far more engaging than I'd anticipated.

They opened with the bonafide classic post punk single "Dumb Waiters". Sadly, they didn't perform anything from their classic self-titled debut album, but they did a bunch from it's equally classic follow-up Talk Talk Talk ("So Run Down", "Pretty In Pink", "No Tears" and "Mr. Jones") and few from Forever Now ("Love My Way" and "President Gas") plus later singles ("House", "Heaven", "The Ghost In You" and "Heartbreak Beat").

All in all it was fantastic show at a fantastic venue.

The Beach Boys: Becoming The Beach Boys: The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions (Omnivore Recordings/2016)

Before the Beach Boys signed for Capitol in Spring of 1962, they recorded for the independent label Candix. The band, still in their teens recorded with producer Hite Morgan. These sessions yielded the "Surfin'" single (and it's rare B-Side "Luau"), and early versions of "Surfin' Safari" and "Surfer Girl". Also recorded was the bands "Barbie" single (which they recorded under the name Kenny And The Cadets). The band was still in its' beginning stages and Brian Wilson had only just begun to write songs. The band were also fairly rudimentary on their instruments.

This is definitely something that is nearly exclusively for hardcore Beach Boys fans. This is a nice piece for fans as it collects all their early material in one place. It's a Record Store Day release and comes in yellow, red or blue in a limited number of 3,000 copies.

Here's The Video Review:


Thanks to Dave Rerecich.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The Upper Crust: Bowery Electric, New York, NY (3/19/2016) Retroactive Review.

Boston, MA's The Upper Crust put on quite possibly one of the most fun shows you can possibly attend. Allmusic aptly describes The Upper Crust as "AC/DC meets The Buzzcocks at a theater showing of This Is Spinal Tap", so I shan't attempt to better that, since it's so right on the money. They dress in 18th century attire; wigs, pancake make-up, songs about being affluent and the like.

The song titles alone simply don't do justice to material; "Little Lord Fauntleroy", "Tell Mother I'm Home", "Come Hither Fair Youth", "Eureka, I Found Love" and "We're Finished With Finishing School" are just some of the titles from this fantastic live band.

Here's a plethora of photos and videos that I took at the show from stage right. Because they're taking up an obscene amount of space on my phone...so here you are. 'Twas a great show.

Photos by Bill Wikstrom.