Tag Archives: Oblivians

Flashlite #676

2021

First ‘regular’ show this year! We present the hottest in garage rock from recent weeks. The most exciting novelty is West Coat collaboration between Mike Watt and Cutthroat Brothers. They have released two new records recently. Another supergroup is Teeth of England from Memphis with Dave Sinclair behind the concept, Jack Oblivian behind the drums and Jason Rice from Faux Killas playing guitar. Strange Colours also has a new record and it’s a Toronto band lead by Andrew Moszynski who used to be with Deadly Snakes. Over in Australia we hear Power Supply from Melbourne. Over in Europe we check out Komodor from France and Roman Aul and Rosarys from Germany, who did a new record collaborating with the legendary Detroit producer Jim Diamond. From Switzerland, we check out the new tune by The Jackets. We finish the show with a little tribute to Bill Conway who used to play drums in Treat Her Right and Morphine. Conway passed away on December 19 last year.

True Sons Of Thunder – Bad Trip Pt. 1;
Strange Colours – The Setting Sun;
Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt – Been Away;
Cutthroat Brothers And Mike Watt – Out of Control;
Robbing Banks – Wasted;
Jack Oblivian – Milkshake Baby;
Teeth of England – Flying Zero;
Power Supply – The Land of the Fire.m4a’
Flaming Sideburns – Lighthouse Keeper;
Exploding Eyes – Fear;
Komodor – Give Up;
Roman and the Rosarys – Gypsy Woman;
Wilding – I’ll Keep Holding On;
Poison Boys – Little Speedway Girl;
Schizophonics – People in the Sky;
Sweet Knives – House;
The Jackets – What About You;
Morphine – Eleven O’Clock;
Treat Her Right – Everglades;
True Sons Of Thunder – Bad Trip Pt. 2.

Flashlite #370

Meegan Voss and Steve Jordan - The VerbsToday we start off with the new Jack Oblivian record. He’s back with the new band The Sheiks and the new album The Lone Ranger of Love. Bazooka is a new band from Greece. Robert Pollard has another new album and we lost the count long time ago. Also from Ohio, we check out the new music from Rocket From The Tombs. The Verbs are Steve Jordan who we know from his collaboration with Keith Richards and Meegan Voss who was with the Poptarts and they have a new cover only album. Jay Gonzales, who we know from his collaboration with Drive By Truckers and who had a nice power pop album in 2012. We listen to The Sadies live in CLE.

Los Lobos – Nachas
Jack Oblivian – Hey Killer;
Bazooka – Achristi Genia;
Spoon – Tear Me Down;
King Mud – Take A Look;
The Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man;
Robert Pollard – Long Live Instant Pandemonium;
Rocket From The Tombs – Welcome to the New Dark Ages;
Cheese Borger and The Cleveland Steamers – Cleveland;
Motorhead – Victory Or Die;
The Sadies – (Live in CLE);
The Byrds – You Showed Me;
The Verbs – You Showed Me;
Jay Gonzalez – Shenorock Lane;
Jay Gonzalez – The Will;
Holly Golightly – Slowtown;
Stooges – Dirt;
Milk Lines – Can I Stand in Your Sun.

Faux Killas – Gravy

Faux Killas - GravyJust when you think rock’n’roll is ready to be sent into history as a past musical expression that has nothing to offer to a new generation of listeners, a band like Faux Killas shows up to prove us wrong. Rock’n’roll is not dead, it just smells funny.

So here they are, four young boys from Memphis, blasting their instruments real loud, producing the catchiest new album of the season without a label, in the best tradition of Memphis rock with their eye view set for future.

The sound is heartfelt and comes straight from garage. It’s a little less wild than Oblivians, but owing equally to the underground and above the ground traditions of Memphis sound. There’s a good sense of humor (song entitled The Boogie is only minute and a half long), hard rocking blues in Leaving You will leave rock puritans full of satisfaction and let’s face it, When You Get Wild is a new generational anthem, only nobody told that yet to the generation.

The band is at the beginning of their discographic activity. The album was recorded in Summer of 2015 and available on the Faux Killas bandcamp page. It’s only available as a CD as of December 2015. They boys are doing it all on their own. I can only hope that they have enough strength and enthusiasm to continue surprising us in the years to come. Rock’n’roll is not dead, this years it smells like Gravy.

Flashlite #312

Chook RaceThis show starts of with Jonly Bonly – a new band out of Austin, lead by Jason Smith who used to be a lead guitarist in OBN IIIs. Dreamsalon from Seattle are back in our show. Exactly one year ago we introduced them with their previous album, and now the new one Soft Stab is out. John Schooley teamed up with Walter Daniels who played with many – 68 Comeback and Oblivians are just some of the names. Chook Race from Australia took those REM jangly guitars and reincarnated that lost sound on a new record About Time. Jeremy Morris from Lemon Clocks is back with another band called simply The Jeremy Band. And in the end we pay another homage to Kim Fowley.

John Paul Jones – On The Road;
The Tunes – Crowded Heart;
Jonly Bonly – Total Control;
OBN IIIs – Stick and move;
Dreamsalon – Lick;
Dreamsalon – Don’t Feel Like Walkin’;
John Schooley and Walter Daniels – All Around Man;
Magic Sam Blues Band – You Belong To Me (Blues Alphabet);
McGuinness Flint – When I’m Dead And Gone;
REM – Life and How To Live It;
Chook Race – Tables Turned;
Jeremy Bond – Home;
Radio Birdman – You’re Gonna Miss Me;
The Psykicks – Down The Drain;
Danny And The Darleans – Fleures Du Mal (Live in CLE);
Mick Collins and Danny Kroha – Welcome To The Cemetery Club;
Kim Fowley – California Gypsy Man.

The Oblivians – Desperation (In The Red)

The Oblivians - DesparationOblivians are a band from Memphis, the godfathers of the garage underground scene in that city that just broke up when they were getting to be known worldwide in the late nineties. They called it quits after a great collaboration with Quintron in 1997. The band went separate ways, Greg Cartwright established himself as one of the most important songwriters with the new band Reigning Sound, Jack Yarber became the king of the minimalist garage and Eric Friedl was busy running the famous Goner Records label and playing gutter punk with True Sons of Thunder. This year they decided to ditch their real surnames again and return to The Oblivians.

It’s like all those years of separate careers did not even happen. The new record is a classic Oblivians chaotic mix of dirt and melody. Timeless quality comes form the fact that they recorded the whole thing on scotch tape, at least that’s how it sounds like. Inputs to the record are brotherly divided up by all three of them and among the excellent originals that already threaten to become classics, there are some hilarious cover choices: Paul Butterfield Band, Andy Griffith and probably the catchiest song on the record Call The Police which brings back Quintron and Miss Pussycat and it was written by Stephanie McDee – a popular local hip hop entertainer from New Orleans who mixes rap and zydeco traditions.

A few technical notes on the vinyl release. Cover on the font is a great photograph, but it’s a low resolution digital photo blown up to the 12×12″ record cover. Inside photography is beautiful. There is no clear information on the record or on the cover where it was mastered or pressed. I can’t say much about the vinyl cut, after all, the whole record sounds like it was recorded on a scotch tape. But that sort of visual and aural lo-fi chaos is what represents The Oblivians authentically. Anything more polished would be a disaster.

Flashlite #224

Ray ManzarekToday we say last goodbye to two important rock’n’roll musicians. Ray Manzarek played keyboards in The Doors and passed away on May 20th from bile duct cancer. Trevor Bolder, bass player in David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars and Uriah Heep passed away on May 21st from pancreatic cancer. Both will be remembered for their big contributions to the world of music. We also ding some time to hear some new music. Oblivians from Memphis have a new record out called Desperation and they are back together in the studio for the first time after 15 years. Mark E. Smith continues to toil with The Fall and we sample the new album called Re-Mit. We introduce Dan Kelly, nephew of Paul Kelly, with his cover of Paul’s song Crosstown and a song in our Live in Cleveland segment.

Kim Salmon and Spencer P. Jones – Jack On Fire;
Flo and Eddie – Another Pop Star’s Life;
The Fall – No Respects rev;
The Fall – L.A.;
Oblivians – I Don’t Wanna Live Alone;
Oblivians – Call The Police;
David Bowie – Suffragette City;
David Bowie – Kooks;
Earth Quake – Mr. Security;
Dan Kelly – Crosstown;
Dan Kelly – Everything Is Amazing (Live in CLE);
Died Pretty – Crawls Away;
Nomad Planets – Devil In Between;
Turf War – Enemies;
The Doors – Soul Kitchen;
The Doors – Light My Fire.

Flashlite #194

TustaToday we say goodbye to one of my personal heros. Tusta was a singer of a great punk band KUD Idijoti who put out a series of three excellent EPs back when I was just starting to be interested in the underground rock. For me, Idijoti was one of the most exciting things that happened musically worldwide, although they were just a small local Yugoslav band. Unfortunately, cancer took Tusta’s life sometime last week and it shook me deeply. As if a family member died, although I didn’t even know him personally. Today show is for Tusta. We hear some his music and we also check out some of the new music as well. Cowbell is a duet from England. Electric Six have a new live record, and they visited Cleveland. Along, they brought a new band from San Diego called Little Hurricane, also a duet. And we saw an interesting new Cleveland band, Dead Sweaters. Plus Dick Valentine has a new solo record. And The Legs, Eric Oblivian’s old band, has their recordings from 2000 finally out on a record.

Kevin Gordon – Don’t Stop Me This Time;
KUD Idijoti – Maja;
KUD Idijoti – Lutke na koncu;
The Connection – Comes And Goes;
The Lemonheads – Pittsburgh;
Redd Kross – Dracula’s Daughters;
OFF! – Peace In Hermosa;
Natural Child – Derek’s Blues;
The Golden Boys – Dirty Fingernails;
The Legs – You Won’t Get Me;
True Sons of Thunder – Wood Shampoo;
Cowbell – Mississippi;
Tav Falco – Dateless Night (Live in CLE);
Dead Sweaters – Dangerous;
Electric Six – Hello! I See You;
Dick Valentine – The Termite Queen;
Little Hurricane – Sun Sets West;
KUD Idijoti – Prezivjeti;
KUD Idijoti – Ljudi kao ja.

Flashlite #145

Kathleen EdwardsThe first block in today’s show is dedicated to the three (fake) brothers – Eric, Greg and Jack Oblivian. We know Jack has a new album Rat City, but the other two brothers are shaking the rock’n’roll scene with new records as well. Greg’s Reigning Sound has a new digital record called Abdication For Your Love and Eric has a really exceptional new record with his band True Sons of Thunder. Their older colleague from Memphis, legendary Steve Cropper has a tribute record, dedicated to Lowman Pete Pauling of The “5” Royales fame. New Jersey singer songwriter Neal Casal is back also with the new record. Canadian lady Kathleen Edwards is a new name for us, but we really like what she’s doing.

The Mamas and Papas – Dedicated To The One I Love;
Tony Joe White – Scratch My Back;
True Sons of Thunder – Tony Joe White;
AAAA New Memphis Legs – Wild About You;
Oblivians – How Long;
Jack Oblivian – Girl with the Bruises;
Reigning Sound – Lyin’ Girl;
The 5 Royales – Dedicated To The One I Love;
Steve Cropper – Dedicated To The One I Love;
Kathleen Edwards – Sidecar;
Ana Egge – Motorcycle;
Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells A Story;
Neal Casal – I Will Weep No More;
Neal Casal – Let It All Begin;
The Masticators – With A Litte Luck;
The Action Is – My Hero;
Dave Davies – This Man He Weeps Tonight.

18. The Parting Gifts – Strychnine Dandelion

The Parting Gifts - Strychnine DandelionGreg Cartwright has grown into one of the most skilful songwriters today. This year, he put his main band Reigning Sound on a break, reunited with The Oblivians for a few shows, and formed a new band Parting Gifts with Coco Hames of The Ettes. The resulting album, Strychnine Dandelion is a rousing pile of basic rock’n’roll fury with Strange Disposition standing out as an obvious favorite.