Today 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.
Oblivians 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.
Two of the greatest 80s college rock bands are back with new albums and we check those out in this show. Sonic Youth with The Eternal and Lemonheads with Varshons. Varshons is completely consisted of covers and one leaked out before the album is actually out; Leonard Cohen’s That’s No Way to Say Goodbye. It’s a duet between Evan Dando and Liv Tyler. This is also a good chance to remind ourselves on how great Cohen is, so we check out two more songs that he wrote: So Long Marianne and First We Take Manhattan. Jack Oblivian has a new album too with his latest band The Tennessee Tearjerkers and it’s called The Disco Outlaw.
Sonic Youth – Teen Age Riot;
Sonic Youth – Antenna;
Demon’s Claws – Mental Revenge;
The Rolling Stones – Poison Ivy;
Oblivians – Happy Blues;
Jack-O & The Tennessee Tearjerkers – Honey I’m Too Old For You;
Jack-O & The Tennessee Tearjerkers – Make Your Mind Up;
Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles – Stop And Think It Over;
The Krayolas – Matter of Time;
Dancing Hoods – Reputation;
Cobra Verde – So Long Marianne;
Lemonheads and Liv Tyler – Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye;
Leonard Cohen – Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye;
Warren Zevon – First We Take Manhattan;
Runaways – Secrets.
Podcasting from Cleveland, Ohio. Broadcasting on Radio Kragujevac, every Sunday from 4-5pm (Central European Time). Streaming on Rock XS every Thursday at Midnight (Eastern European Time).