Monday, June 30, 2025
Purple Hearts - The Jimmy Pursey & Paul Weller Demos (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.2)
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Cute Lepers - WFMU, East Orange NJ, 07-09-11 (Radio Broadcast, Bootleg)
I was dusting off my back-up HDDs this morning and stumbled upon this awesome radio broadcast of The Cute Lepers from 2011 on WFMU. I admit it, I love the Briefs, but the Cute Lepers were everything I like about punk rock. With one foot in early 80s power pop and the other one in the late 70s British mod revival. Imagine the early Rezillos singles, the Boys' first two albums with a good dose of The Chords and a retarded reverence for Johnny Thunders. Sound quality is excellent and so is the performance! Can't remember where I found it to give credit, my apologies in advance to the original uploader.
Thursday, June 19, 2025
The Taxi Boys - Taxi Boys (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.1)
The poor sales of the Real Kids’ first LP prompted Felice to become a roadie for the Ramones, but soon after returned to Boston and formed the Taxi Boys (the name was obviously taken from an old Real Kids song), whose two EPs continued the Real Kids' tradition of the highly energetic 60s influenced garage rock 'n' roll, only a little poppier production wise. Felice and the gang (half former Real Kids members and half future ones) are in fine form on both. The Taxi Boys dates from 1980 to 1981, and the last thing they released was in 1982, but by then they had returned to the Real Kids name again. After all, all these songs were written as Kids songs, according to John Felice.
Gathered here are all their recordings as Taxi Boys of course and if you need a few pointers to go on, there's still plenty of Eddie Cochran guitars and Heartbreakers-esque melodies, only this time filtered through the Shoes or the Flamin Groovies from the late 70s point of view.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
The Sonics - Live & Home Recordings, 1964 (White Trash Soul 60s Punk No.1)
Monday, May 26, 2025
The Cannibals - Pure Trash (White Trash Soul R&B Series No.16)
A few days ago, I read online that Mike Spenser of the Count Bishops and the Cannibals is in poor health. I've made several posts about him and his bands in the early days of this blog. I guess it's time to restore some things, at least for the younger ones.
Mike Spenser grew up in Brooklyn and became an important figure in the British garage punk scene in the 80s. He played with The Cannibals, ran club nights, a record label and hosted radio shows. Before that, he had experienced far more than many of his peers, for instance he witnessed the original Rolling Stones and hung out with the New York Dolls. He was friends with Joe Strummer from the 101ers days and helped form The Clash by turning down Mick Jones to be the singer in his new band. Hell, even McLaren courted him for fronting the Sex Pistols!
The Cannibals are exactly what their name says. The most primitive thing to come out of England in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, and they were the founders of ‘trash'. The term was coined one day when the Cannibals—many of whom later formed the Inmates—were riding in his old van. They decided they needed a name for their music. They weren't punk in the conventional sense, but they certainly embodied the punk ethos. They were musicians steeped in the traditions of rock 'n' roll, R&B, and garage punk. Then Mike said, "We're trash, pure and simple."
This is an assortment of songs from every period of their career, showcasing a range of their lineups and releases. Some of these songs are rare, while others are more widely available. As with all the compilaltions I share, this one was created for my own joy at first. This is not wimpy stuff mate - it's all raw, raging real rock 'n' roll with lots of ripping guitars, tons of fuzz, and mostly screaming vocals.
Get well soon Mike!
Saturday, May 24, 2025
The (Four) Shells - Whiplash, Their Singles (White Trash Soul Greasy R&B 2)
One of the more obscure records from Chi-Town is "Whiplash" b/w "When I’m Blue" by the Shells on Jerry Butler's short-lived Conlo imprint. Not much is known about the Chicago-based Shells (they probably had roots in St. Louis), except that they had another Jerry Butler-produced single on Volt/Stax in 1966 as The Four Shells, "Hot Dog (My Baby's Comin' Home)" b/w "Reputation" and their members were brothers Charles and James Calvin, plus Willie Exon and Billy Harper. This infectious, driving first 45 was full of 100% pure party songs and are also two of the few soul tunes that gets played outside the (northern) soul scene because of The Cramps' appreciation and the lo-fi garagey recording with the distorted guitar bends (the opening licks on "Whiplash" sounded like it was taken from a 1964 Pretty Things session, and its inclusion in iconic compilations like "Shakin' Fit","Born Bad, Vol 7" etc). The Volt sides are equally great danceable numbers but the Southern Soul horns have taken guitar's place as leading force and instruments. Of the bands that I wish they had done more.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Icky Renrut - The Icky Renrut Sessions (White Trash Soul R&B Series No.15)
Icky Renrut, a not-so-well-guarded pseudonym of the ever hustler string-puller Ike Turner and his raw 50's R&B St. Louis recordings of the Kings Of Rhythm are some of the hardest and wildest that Ikey and his whammy-bar guitar ever put on wax, an essential black rock'n'rollercoaster drive! Captured to tape long before Tina came on the scene, loud and aggressive as hell, it really is indescribably hard. I mean, "Jack Rabbit" is a Richard Penniman-entrenched banger with a truly unreal insanity that has to be heard to be believed! Turner released two singles on the Stevens label (No. 104 and No. 107) under the anagram "Icky Renrut" because he was still under contract with Sun for a few months and he didn't want to cause friction with Sam Phillips, and both rockers feature singer Jimmy Thomas.
The legendary instrumental "Prancin'" with staccato outbursts, bends over the fretboard, ultra-fast finger vibrato and smooth chords was shelved until 1961 when Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm re-recorded it as "Prancing" with a horn section for Sue Records. Here's the original from 1959. "The Rooster" reveals that Turner had his ear pressed to the radio whenever Duane Eddy or Link Wray came on, and "Hey Hey" was another Little Richard-esque stormer! And you know what? I LIKE IKE! I know he was a lousy person in real life, but when it comes to music, he's really on par with Johnny Otis and Muddy Waters for me. And oh, Jimi Hendrix was just another guitarist compared to him, actually there is no comparison to Ike Turner with the many guitar "gods" of yours.
AUTHENTIC 50s PUNK!
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Various Artists - Two Siders (White Trash Soul R&B Series No.14)
45s are the midwives of rock'n'roll. I mean, Sam Phillips didn't need to wait until Elvis had a dozen songs to start the mayhem, did he? There was no need for every small label in the world to have a big budget to release the music that mattered, or for some artists to wait for someone to record them and release their work. DIY and punk rock before punk rock even existed. Thank god for those round 7-inch fetish objects!
There are some singles (that's what they were called in ancient times) where you really couldn't decide whether the A-side was the right choice over the B-side. And there were a lot of them, some even still waiting for someone to dig them up and discover something new. So I decided to make (what else?) a compilation of a handful of my favourite 45 rpms that contain some of the rawest, most brutal and soulful rhythms ever recorded on both sides. Again, dancing was my main goal, after all, it always has been. If the music doesn't move your ass, your legs and what's between them, why bother?
Well, here you'll find Baby Huey & The Babysitters' early garage punk movers, Lousiana Red's Blues boppers during his time with Laurie, Big Al Downing at his poundingnest rock'n'rollingnest, soulful screamers by Bobby Parker, Carl Lester & The Showstoppers' Mod Club anthems and Mercy Baby (drummer of Frankie Lee Sims) with Frankie Lee himself on guitar doing the boogie! Young Jessie, Long John Hunter, Phil Flowers, Ace Holder, Lazy Lester, Bad Smitty, The Kavetts, Lil' Ray and many more are on board, thirty four (count 'em!) frolic swirlers from the best possible sources and loudest rips.
Enjoy your weekend lads and lasses!
Monday, May 12, 2025
Muddy Waters - Messin' With The Man / Muddy Waters Twist (White Trash Soul R&B Series No.12)
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Baby Jean - If You Wanna, The Singles (White Trash Soul R&B Series No.11)
The problem with artists who don't have many releases in their arsenal is that information about their lives and careers is minimal to non-existent. Such is the case with Baby Jean Hamilton, sister of Chicago-based singer Small Paul Hamilton. The two-sider "If You Wanna/Oh Johnny" from 1962 on Stacy has become a soul rockin' dance classic over the years, and deservedly so. There's another pair of gritty R&B dance numbers on Picadilly and that was that. Such as same...
About me
Garage Punk Pounders, Soul Stompers, Greasy R&B, Funky Sizzlers and Mod Freakbeat fuzzters (mostly)! Grown Up Wrong in the 90s, hooked with the grooves of Acid Jazz and Madchester's Rave scene. A lot of Indie Pop jangles too. Reverend in the Church of Venerated Saint Johnny Thunders. In love with shakin' maracas, tambourines and wailin' farfizas. Little Richard was the King & Queen of Rock'n'Roll. The first Punk Rocker was a gay blackman from Macon, GA. FUCK YOU! Subvert normality, Kill All Hippies. Antifascist/antiracist/antisocial/anti-stupid.
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Funky16Status!9 months ago
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Missing Pics7 years ago
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Jazz-Soul Groove Part Four9 years ago
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