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)


In terms of savagery and frenzy, they were the closest thing ever to Little Richard, just a little more amped up (ok, VERY!). The Sonics were white trash souls like you and me, absolutely and madly in love with R&B and rock'n'roll. Punks like the Parypa brothers, Gerrie Roslie, Bob Bennett and Rob Lind paved the way for anti-racist behaviour, not Elvis. Roaring guitars, pounding drums and fevered howls trying to imitate their black idols invented punk rock in the garages of their fathers around the world, not Malcolm McLaren. And dad Parypa recorded almost every Sonics rehearsal in the early 60s, including, of course, these ones. The live recordings are captured by a man in Seattle named Doug Patterson, who owned an Ampex tape machine and frequently wrote on tape the Teen Time shows on KTNT-AM Tacoma Radio to collect songs for his own teenage garage band. Fandom indeed! Since these recordings were made before the release of their debut single "The Witch", the focus is on covers and instros and the audio is definitely good for AM radio broadcasts that are six decades old.


This homemade product/selection comes from Norton's "Savage Young Sonics" and "Busy Body!!! Live in Tacoma, 1964". If you don't already have these, head over and buy the vinyl — it contains some of the rawest punk rock ever recorded!