Tag Archives: John Petkovic

Flashlite #528

Sara RomweberToday’s show kicks off with the new single for John Petkovic (Cobra Verde) and Pat Carney (Black Keys), together as Sad Planets. We also introduce the new releases from Motorpsycho and Specials who reunited after many years. We introduce Low Life from Sydney Australia and Katla from Iceland. Shagg is a new quartet from Cleveland and we also hear one of their songs recorded live. Sara Romweber, drummer of Let’s Active, Snatches of Pink and Dex Romweber Duo passed away at the age of 55 on March 4th, and today’s show is dedicated to her memory.

Nikki Hill – Take The Ride (It Don’t Matter);
Sad Planets – Not of This World;
Specials – Breaking Point;
Specials – Ghost Town;
Sunwatchers – New Dad Blues;
Motorpsycho – Psychotzar;
Katla – I Will Hunt You.;
Outrageous Cherry – Last Nice Guy In Detroit;
Coldcock – I Wanna Be Rich;
Low Life – Lust Forevermore;
Shagg – Switchblade Baby;
Shagg (Live in CLE);
Dex Romweber Duo – Jungle Drums;
Snatches of Pink – Thing of the Past;
Let’s Active – Ring True;
The Lemonheads – Magnet;
NRBQ – Magnet.

Flashlite #520

Tena Rak, Å ećerWelcome to the first ‘regular’ edition of The Little Lighthouse in 2019. Today we play a tune from the new ESC Life album, out soon on Ill In The Head records in North America. ESC Life come from Croatia, and so does Tena Rak. She used to play drums in Vlasta Popić, but that band no longer plays together. So we check out her solo act dubbed Å ećer and quartet Mi Nerve with three other ladies, Ivana PuÅ¡nik , Tea Ovničević, and Ivana Ljubičić. Back in the USA, Terry Six and Louie Bankston (ex Exploding Hearts) are back with an excellent new album together. Eugene Chadbourne teamed up with The Sunwatchers and recorded an album tribute to Minutemen, Doug Sahm and Henry Flyn. Paisley Underground legends Bangles, Three O’Clock, Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade made a record together covering each other’s songs. It’s almost a follow up to the legendary Rainy Day album. John Petković and Dave James of Death of Samantha have a new synth pop duet, Metrolight and we check out one of the songs recorded live in Cleveland recently. Holly Golightly has a new English solo album out and lots of folks included it on their lists of best albums last year. Yes, it’s that good. Outrageous Cherry are back with their final album entitled Meet You In The Shadows completed before the passing of founding lead guitarist Larry Ray.

Calibro 35 – Pragma;
ESC Life – Song of the Weak;
Terry and Louie – (I’m) Looking For A Heart;
Exploding Hearts – Thorns In Roses;
Thee Melomen – Freight Train
Bad Sports – Ode to Power;
Vlasta Popić – Trziste;
Å ećer – Zalogaj;
Mi Nerve – Moji planeti;
Texas Tornados & Sir Doug – Give Back The Key To My Heart;
Eugene Chadbourne & Sunwatchers – Give Back the Key to My Heart;
Eugene Chadbourne & Sunwatchers – Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing;
Minutemen – Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing;
Outrageous Cherry – Self-Made Monster;
Outrageous Cherry – Complicate Me;
Holly Golightly – Love (Can’t You Hear Me);
Holly Golightly – Time Will Tell;
Brian Olive – It’s A Lie;
The Three O’Clock – Jet Fighter;
The Bangles – Jet Fighter;
Metrolight – Molecules (Live in CLE).

Sweet Apple – The Golden Age of Glitter (Tee Pee), Doug Gillard – Parade On (Nine Mile) and Death of Samantha – If Memory Serves Us Well (St. Valentine)

Sweet Apple and Doug Gillard reviewWhen Mick Jagger was in his late forties he recorded Primitive Cool and Steel Wheels. Certainly not the highest point of his career. But, it seems that the generation of musicians who are in their late forties these days are growing up a bit slower, putting better and better records as the time goes by. Examples are many – Nick Saloman from Bevis Frond, Matthew Smith from Outrageous Cherry, Rich Hopkins… The heroes of this story, Doug Gillard and John Petkovic are in that group.

Gillard and Petkovic started back in the eighties in a band called Death of Samantha. After several underground records and an extensive touring schedule across the USA in a van, the band morphed into Cobra Verde. Then, in the nineties, Robert Pollard hired the entire band to be the new line up of Guided By Voices. Gillard then stayed with Pollard and Petkovic split with a new line-up of Cobra Verde.

Petkovic’s latest project is Sweet Apple. The first album in 2010, Love and Desparation was a rocking record, but the latest one Golden Age of Glitter shines even brighter. There are no fillers on this one. The record also features a multiple help from some super talented musicians J Mascis, Mark Lanegan, Rachel Haden and Pollard who reunited with Petkovic on several tunes (pun intended – one tune he helped with is actually called Reunion). As one author wrote about the record, it plays like an exercise in enlightened revisionism, describing Petkovic’s desire to revisit some of the long lost musical genres of the seventies. But a really disarming thing about this record is the song writing talent and enthusiasm that Petkovic clearly put into the album. You can trust me on that one – I had a rare opportunity to see the album being built up from the first set of vague guitar riffs, recording and struggle to find an appropriate cover – to the first vinyl press testing.

Gillard also had a record recently. It’s called Parade On. He is well known as one of the finest guitarists in alternative rock (whatever it is), mainly from his tenure in Guided By Voices. But even the big fans of GBV can’t name too many of the songs Gillard has written, other than one of their biggest hits I Am A Tree. On Parade On, his song writing talent absolutely shines. In a private conversation with Gillard, he confessed that he attempted to make an easy listening record. And indeed, Parade On can stand next to any Paddy McAloon’s work, but with a bit harder edge, especially instrumentally.

There are two things in common to the new records of Gillard and Petkovic. One – they are probably the greatest and the most consistent albums they’ve ever written. The two songwriters defy their age with enthusiasm for rocking and rolling, sounding more youthful than ever. Two – the records also came out while their original band Death of Samantha reunited and rerecorded their early tunes on a really cool live record called If Memory Serves Us Well. Certainly, Gillard and Petkovic are at the very peak of their careers as songwriters and performers. Perhaps one way to achieve an even greater artistic peak would be to start writing new music together. You read it here first!

Flashlite #269

Dex Romweber DuoDoug Gillard has a new record out called Parade On and we check out the new single. His old band-mate from Death of Samantha, John Petkovic and his new band with J Mascis, Sweet Apple, finally have their long-awaited second record out, and we check out one track from it. Holly Golightly and her Brokeoffs are back with another LP, All Her Fault. Luther Dickinson of The North Mississippi Allstars also has a new record called Rock’n’roll Blues. Dex Romweber from Flat Duo Jets returned with Images 13 plus there’s a recent reissue of the back catalogue on Third Man Records. We introduce three new names. Little Murders from Australia and Lydia Loveless from Columbus. Muck and The Mires come from Boston.

I will be playing a DJ set at Blue Arrow Records on Sunday at 5pm, just before the Alejandro Escovedo show at The Beachland Ballroom. Come join us, Alejandro will be there too. See you there.

Swell Maps – Midget Submarines;
Alejandro Escovedo – Real As An Animal;
Muck And The Mires – Three Steps Closer;
Mozes And The Firstborn – Time’s a Headache;
Doug Gillard – Ready For Death;
Sweet Apple – I Surrender;
Nick Lowe – Raining Raining;
Haden Triplets – Raining;
Holly Golighthly And The Brokeoffs – Slc;
Luther Dickinson – Mojo, Mojo;
North Mississippi Allstars – Live in CLE;
Flat Duo Jets – Go Go Harlem Baby;
Dex Romweber Duo – Roll On;
Fabulous Thunderbirds – The Monkey;
Leadfinger – It’s Much Better;
Little Murders – White Train;
Lydia Loveless – Verlaine Shot Rimbaud.

Flashlite #259

CaseworkerToday we have have nice balance between very young and older bands. From the old guard, we have The Fleshtones with their new album Leave of Talent. Koja and Disciplin A Kitchme are back with a brand new single and a new line up that includes a harmonica. Legendary punk band from San Pedro The Last are also back with their new full length album Danger which has been announced several times in the past seven years and now it’s finally out. It contains some of the older tunes that were planned for their unreleased album Look Again in 1980. In our last show we had John Petkovic with Sweet Apple and Dave Swanson with a live recording with his Rainy Day Saints. Both of them used to be in Death of Samantha. That band (without Swanson, but with the original bass player David James), reunited for several shows in the past two years and now they put out a double lp with entitled If Memory Serves Us Well which is a recording of their band practice before hitting the concert halls. New bands today are Cretin Stompers from Memphis (via Brooklyn) and Caseworker, lead by a nice couple Eimer and Conor Devlin, kind of a mellow California band like Mellow Drunk or American Music Club. Speaking of them, we have two news: Mark Eitzel recorded an album in Ray Davies’ Konk Studios in North London and their original producer, drummer and guitar player Tom Mallon passed away. We pay a special tribute to him today. And finally, we have two very young bands from the Cincinnati/Covington/Newport area – The Yugos and The Debauchees. Dan Stuart from Green on Red gave them some really generous compliments – so we check them out.

American Music Club – Bad Liquor;
Cretin Stompers – Eye Of The Storm;
The Fleshtones – Roofarama;
The Split Squad – Tinker Tailor (Live in CLE);
Terry Reid – Tinker Tailor;
Bobby Blue Bland – I’ll Take Care Of You;
Mellow Drunk – A Different Color On My Door;
Caseworker – Notes From The Summer…;
Death of Samantha – Conviction;
The Last – Difference;
The Yugos – Dream Away;
The Debauchees – I’ve Got Energy;
The Slummers – Bowery Boy;
Mark Eitzel – Oh Mercy;
Thin White Rope – They’re Hanging Me Tonight;
American Music Club – Electric Light;
Disciplin A Kitchme – Samo disciplina.

1. Sweet Apple – Love And Desperation

Sweet Apple - Love And DesperationSweet Apple is a side band for John Petkovic of Cobra Verde, J Mascis of Dinosaur JR and Dave Sweetapple of Witch. It happened in a bitter moment when the trio of these rock’n’roll greats desperately needed a break not only from the music that they worked on in their original bands, but also a break from the situations in life that at the time seemed to choke them. Sometimes the best cure is to run away which a pack of friends, experience something new and return as a richer person. This is exactly what this pack did. A weaker person would cut his wrists, but these three people poored their hearts into a rocker that bursts with energy and desire for life. Casual atmosphere in the record creation allowed J to switch over to drums, totaling only three solos on the entire record. Still, there’s plenty of brilliant guitar work on the record courtesy of Tim Parnin of Cobra Verde and John on his purple Gretch (which he used in the songwriting process). Nothing is forced here, songs are charged with energy, crispy riffs are everywhere only to slow down on Dead Moon which stands out as a dark reminder that a man needs light to live, even if that light comes from a stage light show.