Tag Archives: Harp Explosion

Flashlite #709

Pridjevi

Yugo rock update today. We check out new music from Dino Santaleza and his project Pridjevi. Sajzerbiterlemon from Belgrade have a new album together and Detroit Groove Gang puts out a new single. Marko Artukovic continues to keep cranking out good music online. Igor Djeke from Harp Explosion and Discpipln A Kitchme joined forces with Fat Zed for a new project: Deadrail. We also check out a bunch of new bands: from Belgrade Kpax! and Crna Zuc, from Zagreb Tidal Pull and from Bosnjaci Ukleti Dukat. Older songs are mostly from new vinyl reissues from Jugoton and Bind Dog Records.

Luna – Nestvarne stvari;
Kpax! – Nas trenutak;
Crna Zuc – Izgažena Buducnost;
Elektricni Orgazam – Svaka nova noc;
Dah – Idem prema suncu;
Tidal Pull – Dezen (Ljetna pjesma za nesretan rodjendan);
Detroit Groove Gang – Farewell My Friend;
Haustor – Radnicka klasa odlazi u raj;
Idoli – Glavna ptica;
Deadrail – Ghost;
Sajzerbiterlemon – Strepnja;
La Strada – Pesak i sunce;
Indexi – Blago;
Pridjevi – Viva;
Ukleti Dukat – Kada budes iso preko;
Angel’s Breath – Crv;”
Via Talas – Brodovi;
Xajka – Meka Masina;
Marko Artukovic – Da li je to kraj;
Boban Petrovic – Perlica;
Disciplina Kicme – Vaspitanje.

Flashlite #687

In today’s bluesy roots episode we check out the new music from the legendary Tav Falco, Cruzados, Cowbell, Tinsley Ellis and introduce Devils and Blues Against Youth – both from Italy. Across the Adriatic sea, we check out Mary May and Harp Explosion from Croatia.

Bill Janovitz – Mean Old;
Cruzados – She’s Automatic;
The Devils – Devils Whistle Don’t Sing;
John Mayall with Mike Campbell – Chills and Thrills;
Johnny Burnette – The Train Kept A Rollin’;
Tav Falco – Train Kept A Rollin;
Tav Falco – The House Of The Rising Sun;
Cowbell – Garage Flowers;
Cowbell – Tallulah;
Ilana Katz – Time To Go;
Mary May – Don’t Call Me Baby;
Harp Explosion – Streets;
Tarbox Ramblers – Million Miles From Nowhere;
Tinsley Ellis – Slow Train To Hell;
Blues Against Youth – Oblivion.

Flashlite #618

Sarah Harmer

Today we have some very interesting comebacks from two greatest rock’n’roll scenes in the world. True Sons of Thunder, a Memphis super-garage-group is back with the new record, and so are the legendary trio from Detroit, Demolition Doll Rods. Mr. Quintron and Miss Pussycat from New Orleans also have a new record and so does the super-trio Fuzz with Ty Segall, Charles Moothart and Chad Ubovich. We also check out new singles for Outacontroller, Gyasi and Harp Explosion. We introduce Tyler Keith and The Apostles for the first time at the show. Great archival material is also out, by Red Lights (a Jeffrey Lee Pierce band) and the lost album by The Last.

Dead Moon – Fire in the Western World;
Outtacotroller – Loose Lips;
True Sons of Thunder – Killin’ It;
True Sons of Thunder – Crawlin;
Wolfmanhattan Project – Braid of Smoke;
Danny and The Darleans (Live in CLE);
Demolition Doll Rods – Bitch Kickin’;
Quintron and Miss Pussycat – Teenagers Don’t Know Shit;
A Burning Bus – Irrational front;
Tyler Keith & The Apostles – Vaya Con Dios;
Tyler Keith & The Apostles – Fire In The Western World;
Harp Explosion – It’s gonna be a long night;
The Schizophonics – Show Me Your Eyes;
Hayvanlar Alemi – Referendum Day;
Fuzz – Nothing People;
Gyasi – Walk On;
Gyasi – Colorful;
Red Lights – Kisses for my president;
The Last – The Other Side;
The Last – Difference.

Flashlite #542

Dagger Moth

Redd Kross are back with the new single. In Australia, we bring you Monnone Alone for the first time and City of Cool return with a new album too. Over in Italy, Sara Ardizzoni, better known as Dagger Moth released a new cover of Grant Hart’s song Morning Star. Peter Perrett from The Only Ones is back with the new record. Not only do we play the newest single by David Nance, we also play one of his live in Cleveland tracks. Over in the old Yugolands, Igor Djeke of Disciplin A Kitchme has a new tune as Harp Explosion and legendary punk album by Ex-Cess is reissued on Ill In The Head Records.

Guided By Voices – Cool Jewels and Aprons;
Redd Kross – Beyond the Door;
Monnone Alone – The Dystopian Days of Yore;
Datura4 – The City of Lights;
Grant Hart – Morning Star;
Dagger Moth – Morning Star;
City of Cool – I Wanna Be Your Dog;
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog;
David Nance (Live in CLE);
David Nance – Meanwhile;
Peter Perrett – Walking in Berlin;
The Beatles – She Said She Said;
John Lennon – Well Well Well;
Sad Planets – Bad Cells;
Automatic City – Gas o Line;
Harp Explosion – We are among you;
Ex-Cess – One vole da liče na dečake.

Flashlite #470

Juliana HatfieldJuliana Hatfield has a new single, and Zerodent from Perth, Australia, have a new recording that we check out in this episode. We also check out the new digital single from Igor Djeke’s Harp Explosion. Suzi Quatro, Andy Scott of The Sweet and Don Powell from Slade have a new project together with a record full of cover versions. We also check out the new stuff from Lowest of The Low, lead by Ron Hawkins. We also listen to the live music from Uranium Club and Hy Maya. Hy Maya is an old Cleveland band, with live recordings recently unearthed by the Smog Veil Records. Today’s show is dedicated to Mark E. Smith from Fall, who recently passed away at the age of 60.

Charlie Feathers – Jungle Fever;
Juliana Hatfield – A Little More Love;
Lowest of The Low – Powerlines;
The Dreaming Spires – The Road Less Travelled;
The On and Ons – No Good for Yourself;
Paraf – Kada Se Oglasi;
Zerodent – Stay in;
The Fall – L.A.;
The Fall – Telephone Thing;
Uranium Club – Operation Pt. 1 & Pt. 2;
Hy Maya – Hydrogen Hover;
Johnny Jenkins – I Walk On Gilded Splinters;
Quatro, Scott & Powell – I Walk On Gilded Splinters;
Harp Explosion – Brand New Organ.

The Return of Improvization – Three Great Records from

Soldiers of Fortune - Early RisersSoldiers of Fortune – Early Risers
Improvization in rock music is not an easy thing to do well. Making records has become a serious art business over the years. Careful songwriting, big concepts, thoughtful producers, long practicing, multi-tracks and overdubbing are as important as an electric guitar in rock music. In fact, one could say that the record making process has become a high art, developing in parallel together with the development of rock music. What happens when a performer comes in to wipe that all away? The year of 2015 will perhaps be remembered as a year in which several important albums developed in a completely opposite way than what a book of rock would prescribe.

Arrival of the musical troupe called Endless Boogie on the New York rock’n’roll scene about ten years ago was an important event. The concept was simple: taking instruments into hands of capable musicians and creating a deconstructed boogie that is limited only by the closing times in a bar or physical lengths of a CD or LP. The name was taken appropriately from Johnny Lee Hooker’s album from 1971. The group had put out several albums since then and became a staple of New York live scene. Younger musicians from New York pop bands like Oneida, Interpol and Chavez were sitting in the audience. Over the years, they belonged to a collective of bands that made pop records, backed up by the indie rock press, pretty much creating a new mainstream within the college rock scene. It’s gotta be boring as it sounds…

I don’t know for sure, but I bet Brad Truax, Kid Millions, Barry London, Matt Sweeney together with the help of Jesper Eklow of Endless Boogie wanted a more exciting approach to rock’n’roll when they decided to form Soldiers of Fortune, an ad-hoc improvisational anti-band that has been recording their album called Early Risers over the years, following a concept very similar to the one used by Endless Boogie, only with shorter tunes. Their attitude is hopelessly anti. They don’t want to promote, replay or revisit anything on Early Risers. In the end, the listener gets a uniquely formed diamond that should find a place in any respectable record collection.

Kim Fowley – Detroit Invasion
Kim Fowley - Detroit InvasionRock improvisation hasn’t started with Endless Boogie though. Their fellow New Yorkers, Suicide, employed this type of songwriting since their inception in the late sixties. Kim Fowley, wrote some of his songs in a stream of consciousness fashion since day one. Ben Vaughn had separate albums with Alan Vega and Kim Fowley in the nineties bringing their approach to songwriting to new levels of greatness with the Cubist Blues and King of Saturday Night projects.

Kim Fowley met with Detroit musicians in 1997 and made his legendary Michigan Babylon album. The band had a great time and they reunited in 2012 for two more shows. They also congregated to the studio and had another recording session that resulted in an album called Detriot Invasion that came out this year. It is entirely improvised and it’s incredible how the band and Kim managed to capture an incredibly coherent madness out of the whole deal.

The record is not just a great improvisational rock record, it’s also a struggle with death. Kim Fowley had a surgery in 2012 and went to Detroit one day after he was discharged from the hospital. He passed away this year in February and the rest of the band helped to put this record out only two months after the sad event.

Disciplin A Kitchme – Opet
Disciplin A Kitchme - OpetKoja from Belgrade’s band Disciplin A Kitchme (also known as Disciplina Kičme) has been writing simple rock songs with seemingly endless arsenal of improvised riffs for years. His lyrics are usually one short observation or an impression that often repeats until the song is over. The rest of the tune is his heavy bass riffage, one or two drum sets and horns that are added with a great deal of improvisation and feel for rocking.

This year he is back with a new record called Opet. The new addition to the sound is Igor Đeke from Harp Explosion who not only perfectly fits Koja’s vision, he also successfully emulates famous horn passages of the 80s Disciplina, courtesy of legendary trumpet player Zerkman. So it’s new and old at the same time. Certainly, that sort of sound is more than welcome in the new line up.

Difference between Koja’s results and what we heard this year on Fowley’s and SOF albums is that Koja would come back to his improvised tunes on his live shows. His other project called Fank+LastiÅ¡ has an even freer form. Still boogie, jams and good quality stream of consciousness unexpectedly, but clearly marked great albums of 2015.

Flashlite #293

Igor DjekeIn today’s episode, we have some news from my ol’ hometurf. We found out some info about the new harmonica player in Disciplin A Kitchme. His name is Igor, he lives in Vinkovci and has his own one man band called Harp Explosion. Check out his new spectacular album on bandcamp. Further down south, in Rijeka, we have My Buddy Moose. After their great album called Shine Shine, the new one is announced with the new single My People. We check out some new names today: The Gotobens from Pittsburgh and Joy from San Diego. Plus new music from King Tuff and Sid Griffin, who used to be with The Long Ryders. And Nikki Sudden’s tapes from the late nineties surfaced as a new album called Fred Beethoven. Sounds really great!

Nikki Sudden – Johnny B. Goode (Version #2 with Terry Miles);
King Tuff – Headbanger;
Lonnie Mack – Wham (Blues Alphabet);
Disciplina Kicme – Samo disciplina;
Harp Explosion – (Thee One Man band – 5 Years Later ) – Howl, Howl;
My Buddy Moose – My People;
My Buddy Moose – Better Rock’n’Roll;
Nels Cline – Impossible Germany (Live in Akron);
Long Ryders – 10-5-60;
Sid Griffin – Circle Bar;
The Gotobeds – Secs Tape;
Pink Floyd – The Nile Song;
Joy – Confusion.