THE SONICS: THIS IS THE SONICS

THIS IS THE SONICS: Garage rock legends release first new material in 50 years and play explosive gig at London's Forum.

This Is The Sonics is the new album by garage rock legends The Sonics. It's the band's first album of new material in almost 50 years. I knew I'd like this one before I heard it because I don't think it's possible for a band of The Sonics' calibre to make a bad album. Their first two LPs, Here Are The Sonics (1965) and Boom (1966) are among some of the greatest albums of the 60s and their music has influenced a string of bands from The Cramps to The White Stripes. Of the new material, "Bad Betty" and "Sugaree" are the stand-out tracks on a powerful and energizing record.

I bought the album on CD as soon as it came out in the UK. I would have pre-ordered the vinyl but there was an extra $20 shipping cost from the US. I'd already heard the album online via Spotify. People always ask why buy it if you can hear it online for free, but to me an album is more than just the music. It's the cover art, the liner notes on the sleeve or in the little booklet, the label on the record or the design of the compact disc. In short, I buy an album because I like to own the physical object. One thing that excited me about this album is that it's the first one I've bought that didn't come in a jewel case - not even digipak style - a proper card slip case just like a little LP! I love this style of packaging because not only is it better for the environment because it doesn't use plastic, it's also so much easier to store and there's no fiddling with getting booklets in and out, and the look and feel (and the smell of card sleeves) is so much nicer than an awkward piece of plastic.

If you want my opinion in a nutshell, I'd say This Is The Sonics is one of the best new releases in a long time, of any genre, and it's certainly refreshing to hear a new album of real rock and roll songs. I'd also just like to say, if there are any kids reading this who are hesitant about listening to an album by an apparent 'bunch of old guys', you really need to get over yourself. These guys are the original legends of garage rock, age doesn't make any difference whatsoever (well, other than confirming legendary status), and they're making music better than anything I've heard from any other band, young or old. A lot of reviews I've read have focused on the age thing throughout, but to be honest I really don't care and I'll leave it at that.

The album opens with a rockin' cover of Ray Charles' "I Don't Need No Doctor". Usually I always prefer the original to any cover, but with this one I think I like The Sonics' version better. The album certainly has some great 60s rock and roll vibes, with a couple more covers including "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover" (Bo Diddley, 1962) and "Leaving Here" (Eddie Holland, 1963), a track that's been covered by many artists - notably Motörhead - but I heard the Jimmy Hanna version first. The Sonics have managed to bring these classics right up to date, turning them into current garage rock hits while retaining the brilliant vibe of the 60s.

Of the rest of the tracks on the album, the single "Bad Betty" along with "Sugaree" and "Spend The Night" are my favorites. The whole album has a great energy; its an uplifting, energizing, feel-good record. When I first heard the album I said it made me want to play it real loud and dance all night, so fast-forward to a perfectly-timed UK tour which coincided with my 18th birthday treat and you have a cute little fulfillment-of-a-dream moment.

The Sonics, The Forum London 30-07-2015

I got into The Sonics because of The Cramps - somehow I manage to work them into everything I write. The Cramps covered "Strychnine" on Songs The Lord Taught Us and of course Lux and Ivy had mentioned The Sonics a couple times in interviews, so when I saw a Sonics CD in a charity shop I bought immediately because I knew I'd like it, and it didn't disappoint. I gotta thank whoever donated that CD to charity because they're the reason I ended up seeing The Sonics on tour a few months ago. They played The Forum, London on July 30th, and I cannot remember the setlist for the life of me. I was too busy having a good time to take notes! There's no point standing around analyzing everything that's happening just so that you can write about it later. My blog is just a collection of odd things that I write about as and when I have time; it certainly doesn't have a structure and I don't set out to do something with the thought of writing about it later. Anyway, the show was amazing, full of energy and extra special because The Forum was the first venue they played when The Sonics came to the UK for the first time in 2008. During the opening acts there was hardly anyone there, but by the time The Sonics came on the place was packed and buzzing. I also loved the fact that there were literally no phones or cameras being waved around except for the occasional quick photo, which made for a much better atmosphere. I think if you're constantly taking pictures you'll forget to enjoy the moment.

I want to give a special mention to Dusty Watson first, because in most of the stuff I've read he's only referred to as "drummer Dusty Watson" and nothing else. At the risk of sounding like a crazy fan-girl, I wanted to say that he's totally awesome and deserves way more credit than I've seen him get. He's played with Lita Ford and Davie Allan, who happen to be two of my favourite guitarists, and he's brilliant to watch live. Sometimes you forget about the drummer but not with this guy - he's kinda like the centrepiece of the band, if you know what I mean. I wasn't around to see the original Sonics line-up, but I don't think having new members has taken anything away as far as the music goes - or the 'image' for that matter. Sometimes when bands have new members they're not as good as they were before, but I think both Freddie Dennis (bass, vocals, formerly of The Kingsmen) and Dusty are fantastic musicians who fit right in with The Sonics.

Larry Parypa was awe-inspiring on guitar, and Jerry Roslie's famous howl sounded just as raw and powerful as 50 years ago. Rob Lind (saxophone and harmonica) came across as the guy who really got the crowd going, and a pretty good salesman too - I ended up buying a shirt because he mentioned them between songs. I also got a Sonics Boom LP and it was so funny trying to explain to the merch guy which record I wanted - we ended up pointing and doing the left a bit, up a bit, vinyl not CD! thing because neither of us could hear anything. It's on Norton Records too, so of course I got in the car afterwards and said to my dad, "Look it's on Norton with liner notes by Miriam Linna!" and of course he had no idea what I was talking about. "Psycho" was the last song before the encore and the one everyone was waiting for. I have no idea how to use my camera for video so I gave it to my dad and ended up with this minute and a half of awesomeness:

Like I said, completely forgot the setlist, but I remember they ended with "The Witch". You could feel the build up to the last song, everybody knew what it was gonna be, and as soon as that iconic intro kicked in the whole place went wild. A brilliant end to a perfect night, the only criticism I could possibly have is that it was over too soon!

Without a doubt, The Sonics are legends, and with an amazing new album and tour, they definitely live up to the status they've achieved. It seems like they've picked up exactly where they left off, and yet their music today sounds just as fresh and explosive as any of the newer bands around, bands who will almost certainly have been influenced by The Sonics themselves.

Bus Thoughts ~ The Detroit Cobras and Modern Music

Usually I fall asleep for the whole of the bus journey but today I did not because I was thinking. I thought enough thoughts to fill a blog post I think. Do I like any modern music? By modern I mean post-80s sort of stuff. Stuff from bands who are around today and didn't start in the 70s (or before). If someone had asked me that a couple weeks ago I would have said no. I find modern music generally pretty awful because these days anyone with minimal talent and good auto-tune can become a huge star as long as they look the part, while talented musicians are often overlooked because they don't look 'right' or fit a certain 'pop-star' image. One of the things I like most about rock and roll is that it's one of the only genres which is still relatively indiscriminate about looks or age - fans don't really care what you're wearing or how old you are, so long as you play some good music. Of course having a certain image is important, but it's not the only thing that matters in rock and roll (unlike the way the pop industry is headed). Anyway, I listened to some not-so-old things recently and I kinda liked them.

There are a couple of things to mention, firstly Black Honey - finally a current British band that I actually like! I think I found them through Antonia Marsh / Girls Only on instagram. I'd been following them for a while but I only checked the tour dates the day after they played a show near me. Oh well, maybe next time. My favorite track at the moment is "Corrine", their latest single, because the vocal kind of reminds me of Mather Louth (Heathen Apostles). Also, they're an actual band and they play proper instruments, which is always good, and their image and style is great too - they just look really cool without looking like they tried too hard. I also really love the cover art - it has a perfect vintage look which I think goes really well with the music.

Also, this morning on the radio I heard a song called "Silly Boys Breaking Hearts" by local 16 year old singer songwriter Yazzy Chamberlain. I don't know much about her and I've only heard the song once but my first impression was that it was a pretty good track, good vocal, reminiscent of older acoustic music, and from the song it sounds like this girl has talent and probably some good musical influences too - one to watch out for in the future.

That kinda brings me onto The Detroit Cobras, because when I hear a new song on the radio with a female vocalist I automatically want it to remind me of Rachel Nagy, who has an amazing, soulful voice and I think Yazzy had that quality too. I have to admit I've discovered the Detroit Cobras shamefully late, and I'm really surprised they didn't crop up sooner because they've done some brilliant versions of a lot of songs I already knew. I've had "Shout Bama Lama" (originally an Otis Redding song) on repeat for days - definitely keeps me awake on the bus and it's something that I think I could dance to, even though I very rarely dance. The original is great but the Cobras' version is harder, faster, more exciting and really drives it home. They've brought the song right up to date, making it a credible current hit without losing any of the 60s vibe, something that incidentally can also be said of the 60s covers on The Sonics' last album.
It's great to hear a female vocalist with a really good voice sing something like "Shout Bama Lama" or "Stupidity", which of course were originally sung by men, because I think it gives the songs a completely new angle and an immediate unique edge. Their spin on "Boss With The Hot Sauce" (Davis & Jones and The Fenders), renamed "Boss Lady", is a great example, and one of my favorites has to be "Down In Louisiana", a cover of Polka Dot Slim's "A Thing You Gotta Face" from 1964. Their original song "Hot Dog" is so good that you wouldn't know it wasn't a cover, and it also has some of the best suggestive lyrics I've heard since The Cramps. It's also nice to see a female-fronted band that works really well - Rachel comes across as an absolute powerhouse and with Mary on guitar, it's a winning combination.

I think it's rare to find a good band influenced by the music of the 50s or 60s who didn't begin their career in the 70s but have retained that element in their music. There are lots of (well maybe 'lots' is an exaggeration, a few) bands, The Cramps being a very good example, who started out in the 70s and continued making good music that was influenced by the 50s / 60s, and stuck to that throughout, but I think it's rare to find someone outside of that immediate time frame who actually does it really well. That's why I love The Detroit Cobras, does that make any sense at all or am I just rambling?

Lastly, I wanted to mention Jesse Jo Stark. Her new video for "Silver Kiss" has been up on YouTube for a while and recently it's been another song I've had on repeat. It reminds me of something I'm really familiar with but I can't think what it is at the moment. If I remember, I'll let you know (if anybody is still reading this). Another classic rock and roll vocal, raw and powerful, really catchy tune too, you definitely need to listen to this one:

Random footnote on the importance of radio: I don't like most of the music that radio stations play these days, but I do think that radio is still really important not only for new music, but because they need to keep playing old songs otherwise new generations won't hear them. The sort of stuff that they wouldn't find online but might hear if somebody plays it on the radio, so that older songs can continue influencing new generations.

CRAMPS FIENDS ONLY

I wrote most of this at 1 o'clock in the morning so it might be slightly incoherent... I was watching that BBC four documentary on mods and rockers and it got me thinking about what kinds of groups or tribes there are around today and if I belong to any sort of group. The closest thing I could come up with was Cramps fans. I'll try to explain what I mean. I think with the Cramps there's a definite sort of culture that stands apart from everything else and is so much more than just liking the music from a particular band. When someone says they like the Cramps I instantly feel like we've got a lot in common. I think there's a definite sense of camaraderie that I haven't felt with any other group of fans and I think it says a lot about a band to be able to unite people in that way.

To be honest I haven't met an unpleasant Cramps fan yet, I think they're the nicest people and I'm glad to be part of that community. I suppose in a way I'm like a first generation fan i.e. I didn't hear of The Cramps from my parents, like those punk kids you see on instagram wearing Cramps shirts from birth, or kids who've been lucky enough to have their dads playing Cramps records all their lives. In fact, my parents really dislike The Cramps - they think the music is awful and everything looks like a monster. I just bought a Cramps shirt with Lux on the front and my mum has nicknamed it "the Frankenstein shirt" but somehow I think Lux would be cool with that... Anyway, I guess I had to discover them myself and I'm glad I got accepted into this little online community sorta thing by people who I suppose are the 'original fans', if you know what I mean, and actually bothered to talk to me and add me on Facebook and maybe even think I'm something sorta resembling what people might call 'cool'. So thank you, because most bands' fans don't do that.

Another thing I love is the fact that the "you've got good taste" thing is thrown around so often as a little in-joke that nobody else gets. Seriously, a guy said that to me when I was buying a Cramps record and sometimes it's little things like that which make your day... It's also a very true statement; I mean, anyone who likes The Cramps generally has pretty good taste. And can I just add that you guys (I'm assuming anyone still reading this is a fan of The Cramps) are probably some of the most generous people I've ever met. Never in my life have I been offered anything. Ever. And then suddenly I meet all these really cool people with really cool stories and who offer to send me stuff - most of which I can't accept because of US to UK shipping costs WHICH SUCKS - but I really appreciate it anyway. And when I first started using instagram properly, three different people gave me download codes for Cramps albums out of nowhere and for no other reason than just being nice because they could see that I really liked The Cramps which made me really really happy! I also got some really nice birthday messages from people online too.

"What's inside a girl? Mostly Strongbow ;)"
Favorite birthday Cramps reference, thanks Carl

Since this has kinda turned into a thank you post, I just wanted to mention a couple of really great guys who I'm really grateful for. Colin, who does the Lux Lives events in Glasgow and is a really friendly, amazing person, and Kogar, who of course put together all 17 volumes of the Lux and Ivy's Favorites compilations without which I probably wouldn't have discovered half of it. Oh and also the people who run the Facebook and Yahoo groups. As for me, I run stay-sick-turn-blue.tumblr.com. I figured there were enough Cramps-related Facebook pages and personally I prefer tumblr anyway, but the blog also has an instagram account. Just my two cents - I'm British I will never use that phrase again it sounds so weird - I guess because I'd like more of my generation to know who The Cramps are.

PATTI SMITH: HORSES

I know I haven't posted in ages, I've been really busy first with exams and college, then I went on holiday and now I'm off to London after only being home three days. I have to pack in a bit, so I'll keep this short. I wanted to write about Patti Smith and poetry, but I don't know where to start. Patti's Horses was my holiday album and I listened to the same few songs continuously because I had no internet so I could only choose a couple of songs to listen to offline, but the thing with Patti Smith is that you can listen to the same songs over and over and each time you'll hear something different in them. (The songs were "Gloria", "Land", "Kimberly" and "Redondo Beach" from Horses and also "Frederick" from Wave because I really liked the live version up on Spotify at the moment).

The iconic cover of Horses, shot by Robert Mapplethorpe.

I guess I wanted to listen to Patti Smith in the first place because I caught the end of her Glastonbury set on TV. The last song was "My Generation" which completely shocked my parents, particularly when she pulled the strings off her guitar at the end. They thought she was disgusting, I thought she was brilliant. The simple fact that she was still doing what she's always done with the same energy and attitude inspired me beyond anything else. Of course I'd heard of Patti Smith before (CBGBs, "Because the Night" etc.) but I hadn't properly listened to her music yet. Shameful, I know.

So I listened to Horses. I always like to listen to an artist's first album before anything else because it reflects them as they were when they first started out, which usually tends to be more authentic (although Patti has remained authentic and true to herself throughout her career). I listened to Horses and I adored it. I can genuinely say that it changed my outlook on life. As I've mentioned here before, I've always loved writing, and also reading and literature. I fell in love with Virginia Woolf and Christina Rossetti in school. By Year 9 I was reading Mrs Dalloway and became obsessed with the English classics. Books were my first love, even before records and rock and roll. If you don't see it already, my point is that before I heard Horses it didn't occur to me that poetry and rock music could exist together, in one form. It sounds stupid now, but I guess I had drifted away from reading to focus on exams when I first got into music, and became obsessed with that instead because it's much easier to listen to music while revising than it is to read books. Recently I've been reading more, I started with Arthur Rimbaud's The Drunken Boat which has now become my favorite poem. Reading Rimbaud is also thanks to Patti; the poet's name is cleverly inserted in the lyrics of "Land" so on a whim I thought I'd check out his work... and now I'm hooked on that too.

I seriously have to go pack now, so my final thought is this, which I noted down yesterday after I woke up at 6:30am, drank three cups of coffee and listened to the song "Maria": One of the reasons I love Patti Smith is because her writing has remained so strong; the lyrics still mean something, evoke something, tell stories - beautiful and passionate.

Intro & Blondie's Ghosts Of Download Album

Hello. I'm actually going to start writing stuff here. I set up this blog because I've always liked writing and because I wanted to share my excitement about great rock and roll from any era with whoever happens to come across this. Rock and roll is not only about the music; it's a lifestyle, an attitude, a way of thinking and of living. The music is a part of that. I might be 17, but I know what I like and what I don't. I have no interest in being spoon-fed chart music. What I like is music made with real instruments by people who are doing it for the right reasons; not for the money or because they want to get famous, but because they really love doing it. I like songs that have real energy, that are about real things, songs that don't just sound like someone thought, well this sounds like a hit so I'm gonna write a hit, but wrote it because that was what they wanted to write.

"Rock and roll is an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's a way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock and roll, or a movie can be rock and roll. It's a way of living your life." – Lester Bangs

I think I'll use this blog to write mostly about old stuff from the 50s to the 70s, but there might be a few new things too. It'll be informal because I don't know anything technical about music, but then again neither do most people I talk to. I think it's the human element that makes something great, and how people relate to it, rather than how you describe it technically. I've set up a few other pages on here, including the Featured Album page so you can read about great albums, and also the Journal section where I'll post a list of the live shows I've seen plus photos.

I thought I'd start with a short review of one of my favorite albums, Blondie's Ghosts Of Download, which came out just under a year ago.

Blondie – Ghosts Of Download (2014)

Blondie's most recent studio album, entitled Ghosts Of Download, is truly wonderful. The title itself, along with artwork by J. H. Williams III, evokes a 'spirits in the circuits' kind of image in an increasingly digital world, so it seems appropriate that much of the album was done on computer. Combined with Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, the new material forms the Blondie 4(0)-Ever package in celebration of the band's 40th anniversary, which looks particularly beautiful on colored vinyl.

One of the strongest tracks on the album is "Rave". Reminiscent of classic Blondie tracks such as "Heart Of Glass", "Rave" could easily have been a hit had it been released as a single. The song showcases Debbie Harry's outstanding vocal and features Miss Guy of the Toilet Boys. "Winter" is another highlight on this eclectic album, and would also have made a great single. Ghosts Of Download displays the best of contemporary music from Blondie, with collaborations from a variety of artists including Beth Ditto, Systema Solar and Los Rakas, proving once again that Blondie are a band who span genres and generations.