CRIME, Johnny Strike Interview (Maximum Rock'n'Roll #264 - May 2005)

 

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The Jim Jones Revue - "B-Sides & Rarities" (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.12)

 

When did you last hear a real rock 'n' roll band? Since the Devil Dogs split up? Or was it back in the 'Soulseller' era of the Hellacopters? After the Jim Jones Revue broke up, Nick Curran and the Lowlifes were the only ones who could keep the fire burning. I mean, I can't think of anyone else since Nick's untimely death. Don't get me wrong, I love The Righteous Mind and the All Stars and Jim Jones seems to be the only guy around doing this ramalama bamalama loo thoroughly, but as much as I like the post-Revue bands, they don't have the manic '50s rock 'n' roll energy of Jerry Lee Lewis amplified through the MC5 with Gerry Roslie on vocals sound, that Revue had. 

The Revue was a rock'n'roll intelligentsia full of fundamentalism. It was a group of punk rock jihadists who managed the considerable feat of being both serious and tongue-in-cheek and who drank diesel and poured out smoke. Little Richard's leather-clad gospel evangelists and Johnny Thunders' mourners. Imagine Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs with velvet waistcoats and sideburns doing funerals. The Jim Jones Revue was a stark reminder of just how dangerous rock 'n' roll used to be. 

This compilation brings together all of Revue's b-sides, as well as a few other rarities and it's as hot and dry as a desert wind.

Rocket From The Crypt - "Scream, Dracula, Scream! - White Trash Soul Edition"

 

Fact is a lot is written already by me about the '90s, but that's the era I grew up in - be kind (or fuck off). Now that I have enough distance to draw reliable conclusions, I believe it really was a fantastic time to be a young prick! There were so many incredible bands and records around floating almost every week, If you had been there, there would be no way you could have forgotten it. As that impartial judge called time has shown, many of these have stood the test of time and are now rightly considered just as essential as their '60s and '70s predecessors. Right? Right!

Punk rock was no exception to this. A healthy underground scene existed globally that put to shame the bands under that tag that did make it commercially. OK, "Dookie" was fantastic record, and Rancid did well too, either by rejecting Madonna's offers or by releasing "And Out Comes the Wolves" but I couldn't stand bands like NOFX and I still can't stand them. After gaining momentum, Epitaph was no different to the majors in terms of what it was putting out. The last great band to come out of Bad Religion's CEO label was The Humpers, but the crowd and the establishment needed caricatures, not a rock 'n' roll band with a name like that and that junkie Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers feel and attitude.

To this day, amazing and most importantly, genre-defining groups are still under most people's radars. When I talk about gangs like The Stitches, The Infections, The Rip-Offs, The Devil Dogs, Teengenerate, Bladder Bladder Bladder, Dimestore Haloes, The Riffs, New Bomb Turks or Chinese Takeaway, only a handful of people are willing to rant along. And when I mention names like Mudhoney or Rocket From The Crypt, I usually get a "that's not punk" reply. You morons! Mark Arm and Co. were more garage punk than your Fuzztones and RFTC were the reincarnation of the first three Saints albums.

This leads us to the main subject of this post, which is the unsurpassed punk rock mayhem of "Scream, Dracula, Scream!" By the time this record was released, I was already a fan and had acquired "Circa Now". This Stax-abilly sound was right up my alley and it was epitomised by a band with greasy pompadours. Man, you just can't get cooler than this! Named after the infamous '70s black horror b-movie "Scream, Blacula, Scream!" and featuring the band's name and record title in the font of (San Francisco’s First and Only Rock 'n' Roll Band) Crime, you knew instantly what you were holding. The liner notes on the CD couldn't make it clearer: Our desire is to Rock 'n' Roll. Punk is dead.

In the midst of the '90s highly commercialized "punk", RFTC rejected their father in favour of their grandfather and kept the rock 'n' roll torch burning. Much to my surprise, 'On a Rope' dared to breach the charts. For a moment, I thought there was hope for humanity, there wasn't, let it all burn. These San Diego motherfuckers mixed rock'n'roll guitars on the same channel with horns in order to blow your ears and speakers and they succeeded. From start to finish, this album is the hottest garage punk and '50s R&B since when Bailey and Kuepper were still on good terms and would get shitfaced before heading into the studio.

Rocket from the Crypt released three singles from "Scream, Dracula, Scream!", all with great b-sides that deserve to be heard. There's even a cool Real Kids cover among them! I don't understand why such a high point of '90s punk/rock 'n' roll hasn't received an expanded reissue yet, which is why I decided to do it myself. Here's the complete classic release, including all the songs missing.

Sex Pistols - Ever Get The Feeling You’ve Been Cheated? (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.11)

 

Why am I posting this? To be honest, I'm not sure. I suppose everyone should already be aware of the Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren's influence on pop culture. They weren't playing anything new and they didn't play it necessarily better than The Who or the Small Faces. But punk rock went public with these Brit snots, and it was clear to everyone. I was captivated by the Sex Pistols long before I had heard of The Sonics or The Ramones. It was just a picture of Paul Cook wearing the iconic "I HATE PINK FLOYD" t-shirt that first caught my eye. I mean, I REALLY hated Pink Floyd when I was young, there was a time at school that almost everyone around me had "The Wall" patches on their denim jackets. I still do hate 'em, actually, except for the Syd years - but that's another story. All these Pistols recordings remind me of my younger self, who was completely captivated by Rotten's snarl, Jones' fierce guitar assault (which I later discovered he had stolen from Johnny Thunders, who in turn had stolen it from Chuck Berry) and the savage railroad backbeat of Cook and Matlock, who were doing their best to keep the train on tracks. And poor Sid... Oh mate, I love him! I don't care if he wasn't able to play a few notes, he was such a figure! I still think of him as a great punk vocalist, he did an excellent job with these Eddie Cochran songs and I wish he had recorded more with Jerry Nolan and the rest of the New York City wild bunch, properly. (There are lots of no-fi bootlegs that support this opinion).

Pistols were probably everything a young lad always wanted from a rock 'n' roll band: Anger, confusion, a sheer force with a bratty desire to piss everyone off! The Neanderthal iconoclasts and the street preachers. I don't care if this band/project was originally created in a fashion boutique (or not), because it worked perfectly as a cultural strength. And it still works, which makes me think that I'm right about what I'm thinking and typing right now to you. I don't care if John Lydon was always a Tory cunt, beacuse he's the Dr Jekyll of this story. The Mr Hyde persona of Johnny Rotten, who spontaneously begins to take control without filtering his words, is what's left of him worth. Even ol' Neil sang about it by juxtaposing Elvis, who had just recently deceased with Johnny Rotten who was 'born' right after. 

Once again, I haven't put together the kind of compilation most people might be expecting. In any case, the Pistols haven't left behind a massive body of work, despite the countless compilations that exist. However, I chose the ones that I definitely consider to be their best. Believe it or not, the first time I heard "Never Mind the Bollocks", I wasn't hooked by 'Anarchy in the UK' or 'God Save the Queen', but by 'Bodies' ('Screaming bloody fucking mess!'). To this very day my fave Pistols song along with 'New York'. The opening harsh guitar noise is just a feint and it has an inhuman roar. As the first chord begins to fade, Rotten bursts: "She was a girl from Birmingham, she just had an abortion" and a short while later, there is another fake stop/start, during which he loses completely his temper: "FUCK this and FUCK that, FUCK it all and FUCK the fucking brat!". In terms of fierceness, performance and delivery, there's no other song that comes any close in rock'n'roll history. 

Did I say 'New York'? The aim of this rambling, immature and bigoted diatribe was therefore clear: a direct attack on the New York Dolls, implying that they were American middle-class kids trying to imitate British monsters like the Rolling Stones. The response given by Johnny Thunders on 'London Boys' (with Jones and Cook playing in) was, of course, just as delightful! I've included a rough demo recording of 'Belsen Was a Gas', which captures the rare event of Sid Vicious playing a whole song without interruption. As it turns out, he wasn't that bad on bass after all! There are also a fair number of songs from the 'Swindle' era, which I found to be underrated, such as the eponymous one, with the amazing vocal delivery by Edward Tudor-Pole, backed by hooligan Chelsea FC like chants (by Cook and Jones?). The blasphemous lyrics ("Hiya boys, I'm the chosen one, can't you fucking see? I'm a jealous god and I want everything and I love you with a knife") are 100% in the Sex Pistols habit. Other highlights include the fantastic rendition of the traditional seafaring and hilarious drinking song 'Friggin’ in the Riggin', the glam-punk thugness of 'Black Leather' from the Ex-Pistols period, and the lost Jones/Cook power pop jewel 'Lonely Boy'. I don't want to bore you with further details, but the whole thing I've cooked up is a mixture of rough mixes, outtakes, remastered tracks and original well-known takes, all put together as a lethal cocktail.

Choo Choo Train - "Supersonic Pure Pop Sounds" (WTS Popkid No.10)

 

The American pop tradition was and still is protected by Ric Menck, its original flame keeper. Best known as the drummer for the cult power pop band Velvet Crush, Ric has also released countless singles under various names, including indie pop darlings The Springfields and Choo Choo Train, for legendary labels such as Sarah and The Subway Organisation. Along with his long-time partner in crime, Paul Chastain, he is the quintessential manufacturer of modern US pop nuggets. I mean, whenever a copy of Ugly Things magazine lands on my doorstep, I read Ric's column first. He's the one who first got me into Big Star, and he's the one who made me think differently about 60s psychedelic pop. Before I'd even heard it, I used to hate this genre, thinking it was just hippie nonsense. What a moron I was! So, as you probably imagined Ric's a very important figure to me, just like Greg Prevost or Bobby Gillespie.

Menck formed Choo Choo Train with Chastain in the late '80s and with a tiny budget (a $500 loan from a good friend) they recorded most of these compilation's songs. These tunes are now highly regarded (and rightly so) as a cornerstone of late '80s Powerpop and Indie Pop! I can still clearly remember the first time I heard 'Briar Rose', I was completely floored... It was half "Pet Sounds"-era Beach Boys and half 'Sally Cinnamon'-era Stone Roses! Future generations of Lenny Kayes will be amazed when they compile it. 

If someone were to ask me why I created this compilation when similar ones are already available officially, I would simply say that the reason is that they don't include everything! I put together this collection as a love letter to the Menck/Chastain songwriting partnership and I believe it contains all the material that this underrated yet astonishing duo released under that name (including singles, b-sides, EPs, stray or flexi tracks etc). The sleeve was also designed using elements from their singles artwork and fanzine pieces about them.

Listening to the songs in the chronological order they were released is a constant exploration of pop culture. Monsters from the '60s coexist with their '70s and '80s counterparts. Syd Barrett with Alex Chilton, Brian Wilson with Paul Collins, and the Left Banke with New Order! Man, there's also a live rendition of an Iggy Pop track from his still underrated "Party" album! 

Anyway, if you're into Anglophile, tambourine-heavy, Byrdsian psychedelic pop with ringing guitars and sugary harmonies, here's your fix.