Acid Eaters: I was looking forward to hearing it....

Acid Eaters......what would be their penultimate album. The Ramones, covering mostly garage punk, mostly Nuggets era stuff, with some bigger name bands' cuts thrown in. A few tunes were from before the psychedelic era, but it was all the type of stuff that they covered well. They usually put at least one cover on each album, and they were always tight and spirited, as good as or better than the original.

It was disappointing. The songs sounded rushed, uninspired.

I started the Acid Eaters playlist by assembling the tunes they had covered on their other albums. After that, I added covers by the Jam and the Clash and carried on from there. To be included, a song had to be a cover by a punk, new wave or - at least at some point - “underground” band. It had to be a cut from a proper album or maybe the b-side of a single. No tunes from tribute albums or projects like the original album, the Band's Moondog Matinee, half of Rundgren's Faithful, or albums like Through the Looking Glass. I also tried to keep covers cut for soundtracks out of the mix...but I know a couple got in, and I'm leaving them there. Classic rock artists like Tom Petty or Aerosmith, while worthy acid eaters, were not included, nor were artists who generally do not write their own music. While most of the songs are from the 1960s, there are some from the 1950s and 1970s that made the mix.

Postscript: I know that REM and U2 don't qualify as underground, but they were once college rock, getting little airplay on AOR FM. There are a few groups whose inclusion may be questionable, but we can discuss those later.

Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram

Comments

Sucking Since the '70s

The Rolling Stones released Tattoo You on this day in 1981. It was their last good album. Their last great album was probably Exile , maybe Some Girls . Sandwiched between the two, Emotional Rescue is almost as good. It wasn't even really recorded as an album. Its core is mostly comprised of outtakes stretching back to 1972. The band needed a new album to tour, but the Twins weren't getting along, so associate producer, Chris Kimsey, went through the archives and found the best bits for the band to finish off in 1980-81. "Little T&A" comes from a basic track cut during the Emotional Rescue sessions. "Start Me Up" originated during the Some Girls . The band worked on "Hang Fire" during both. It's a bit like Physical Graffiti, except that most of that album's tracks were new, whereas most of Tattoo consists of outtakes. It's a bit like Odds & Sods except that the tunes were worked on ...

Yes, There's Gas in the Car

In 1970 the police raided the house of Owsley Stanley - famed financial backer of Blue Cheer, architect of the dread "Wall of Sound" and LSD producer of renown. It was the third bust of note. The first, in December of 1967 found him with millions of dollars of acid. He was released on bail. Three years later, in Jnnuary, 1970, he was arrested along with the Grateful Dead in New Orleans - as related in " Truckin ". This last arrest resulted in the revocation of his bail and he spent the next two years in prison. On his release, Stanley returns to the Dead - a band that he initially bankrolled - to run sound for them again, but all is not the same. He's no longer the player he was. The road crew has emerged as a power center. He builds the Wall of Sound but the band goes on hiatus in 1974. The Wall is dismantled and Owsley never works with them again. The whole arc of his time with the Dead inspired Steely Dan's " Kid Charlemagne " - working in his...

George Jones Jones

The Possum would have turned 90 today. To mark the day, I'll suggest a live album, Back in the Saddle (Live: 1979) . It is an interesting LP. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on it. George seems to be playing at Gilley's in Houston....as Mickey gets several mentions. It says "1979", but that may not be right. Lorrie Morgan is in the band, singing backup and the Tammy parts, but he wasn't with George until 1981-83. In 1979, however, she was married to Jones Boy Ron Gaddis, so the date could be accurate. George introduces " He Stopped Loving Her Today " as a song he always likes to play when he's in Houston, The audience responds with enthusiasm and recognition, but George cut that one in 1979 and didn't release it until 1980. It is not a concert, per se, because the audience fades in at the beginning of most songs and then fades out at the end. The recordings seem to be genuinely live, though. There is some feedback that creeps...

NRBQ

Here's wishing Joey Spampinato a happy birthday. His old band, NRBQ, should've been a presence on the airwaves. Instead they showed up mostly on the college radio and NPR affiliates left of the dial. While the band had friends and admirers in high places - Keith Richards, Bonnie Rait, REM, the Simpson's, Dr. Demento, Captain Lou - they never managed a mainstream breakthrough. In part, perhaps, it was of their own making. They could play, play anything: and they did. Their first album, in 1969, includes covers of Sun Ra , " Hey Baby ", Eddie Cochran - that last, one of the best ever. With three songwriters contributing equally, they may've been too eclectic and radio didn't know what to do with them. The debut also included a song of Joey's - " You Can't Hide " - which points the way to the the band's power pop of their late '70's - early '80's heyday. In fact the band would return to the song on 1980's " Tidd...

Linda Pop

Happy 75th birthday to Linda Ronstadt. She doesn't have the same alt-country cred as Emmylou, but she deserved it. She didn't have that direct link to Gram, but she probably did the best job of pulling off his mix of rock, country and soul. Maybe our ilk holds the Eagles against her. Maybe it's because there was nothing "alt" about her. Growing up, her music was everywhere, whether it was Dad's country station - WMAQ, or my aunt's pop station - WOKY. Her last two "rock" albums - Mad Love and Get Closer - ventured away from the country. Perhaps too established to be new wave or power pop, she put some punchy covers by the Cretones and Billy Thermal and Elvis Costello. While her earlier cover of "Allison" featured the anodyne west coast production values of the time, two of the three covers on Mad Love hold their own. Even her oldies covers are primarily British Invasion era pop of the type favored by the skinny tie set. Over the pas...

Cookin', Steamin', Workin', and Relaxin' With the Miles Davis Quintet

Sixty five years ago, on October 26, the Miles Davis Quintet assembled for a recording session that yielded most of the Cookin' and Relaxin' albums and a tune apiece that appeared on the Workin' and Steamin' discs. The other tracks on those albums were recorded in a one day session earlier that year. Four quality albums, not bad for two days of work.

Богатирські ворота (The Great Gate of Kyiv)

On May 9th, we caught a show by Shakey Horse at the Witch's House in Haunchyville, WI. Posted below is a soundboard recording of an excerpt from their arrangement of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". Unfortunately, the mellotron part is inaudible (maybe unlistenable). The band's tron player, Tommy, had his amp turned up so high that they cut his volume in the mix.

Rust Never Sleeps

What's the best concert film? That's a tough one. It depends. Many would say Stop Making Sense , it's a good performance, but it is edited together from three separate shows. Others would say The Last Waltz , but the running order of the show has been altered, probably timed to give viewers a bathroom break during Neil Diamond's segment. Consider, however, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Rust Never Sleeps, filmed this week (10-22) in 1978 at the Cow Palace. It is a single show. Neil has some sort of concept in mind. the Jawas from Star Wars manage the stage. There are some gigantic trunks that Neil climbs around on. I guess he is a child, or maybe an action figure to fit in with the Jawas. The title was suggested by one of the guys from Devo. We get a flashback to Woodstock. It seems to be uncut. Note that there are some slow parts as Neil washes the spit out of his harmonica by sloshing it around in a bucket of water. It sounds like the bucket is miked. It's Nei...

Happenings Some Years Time Ago: Then There Were Four

After defining the Yardbirds' sound for a year and a half through several groundbreaking, singles and one masterpiece of an album, Jeff Beck boarded a plane in Corpus Christi, Texas on this date in 1966, leaving the Yardbirds midway through a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Tour. As the band finished recording Roger the Engineer in June, original bassist Paul Samwell Smith left the band. Jimmy Page was brought in first as a replacement on bass and later - after rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja shifted to bass - as co-lead guitarist. The band toured the US and then returned to London in the fall, where they recorded three songs. The first, " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago " (with John Paul Jones on bass) had been started a few months earlier. It is a frenetic bit of freakbeat, featuring the eastern motifs, distortion, and feedback fans had come to expect of Beck. Page's playing is distinctive. Released late in October, it didn't do well on the charts. The flip side, ...

Birthday Greetings, Bottle of Wine

John referred to some of Paul's songs as "granny music", music hall influenced pieces that would fit in on the a vaudeville stage....jaunty, tap dancing, tux-and-top hat stuff. For years this contibuted to the perception that Paul wrote the light stuff while John was the rocker. Maybe so, but "Helter Skelter" is as wild as "Revolution" and some of John's work could be pretty sappy. Looking at his output from the '70's we see that Paul wrote quite a few rockers and power pop gems that cohere together nicely....or nastily, if you prefer. Not that there is anything wrong with "Granny Music". The man turns 80 today after all. Sir Paul, happy birthday to you.

Search This Blog