The Cramps - "My Daddy Drives A U.F.O. - The Lux-urious And Elegant Unease Of The Cramps Bootlegs Vol.2, Studio Demos" (WAXCD 006)

Well, well, well! Hell yes we‘re here, ready to present our 6th "CD" and at the same time second volume of the Cramps bootlegs in the grave look for series. Hmmm... I really don't know what else to write and add. We know words hardly matter on posts like this and your only ambition is to hear. Fair enough. So, for a second time in a row, the man behind the ripping duties is my pal Jean Philippe. And like a good gravedigger he is, he picked on the best tracks his Cramps related bootlegs vault hides, only this time concept says ‘studio stuff’ or as we like to say here at WTS HQ, ‘Coffin recorded material’. By the time this lines being written I'm not totally aware of our product and due the fatherhood obligation orders, with the one ear I’m (trying to) listen to the Ivy's snatchy guitar licks and with the other to catch a possible fight between my boys... Who told you bloggin' is an easy ‘job’ for someone to do? And you know what, this music's definitely NOT the right one for keeping two little male demons calm... Ha-ha who cares? Maybe their mother, but I prefer (or for better wish) to follow their daddy’s steps than their mom’s (you know, there’s a big gap between Motorhead and Rihanna…). As we promised this volume is going to have the studio stuff not officially lapsed through the band's shrunk hands. All selections are from a specific period, the earliest and the best. From the time Miriam Linna was banging' the traps till the day Nick Knox took her place, deeply cared with cool covers if you think yourself a connoisseur and with the best possible sound. As usual, no bootlegging on WAX CDs. Share and dance freely!  

Slade - "Get Yer Boots On: The Best Of Slade" (Shout! Factory, 2004)

Aaaahhhhh, Slade! You know what, I FUCKIN’ LOVE Slade (Miriam Linna as well)! How can someone to not? I mean, these brats had all the right elements a good ol’ party rock & roll band needs. And the word “party” doesn’t take its place in that line accidentally. This Mihaleez nick is actually a Slade-ified version of my real name which is Mihalis. I remember my English mistress (a slender 26 yo - at the time I was 14 - always to the laps with a minor slashing in the right down side tight dress woman, and her old fashioned glasses to make things even worse...gosh i loved her class) to chide me repeatedly for making this violation to the English words. “C’mun” ( I was afraid to go further by writing it CUM on!!!), “crayzee”, “luv”, “gudbuy”, “skweeze”! Haha, I still go in to do it! And forget all this glam hype crap. There was no glam here. I mean, what is glam anyway? There's nothing more stupid in the music business (leave out the ones so many years are holding many peoples luck) than to name a movement by a fashion trend! What's in common for Slade or Sweet with Queen or Elton John? Nothing against glam ‘trend’ of course, but Slade predated and outlasted the whole ‘genre’. To me they were always some kind of bubblegum AC/DC. Boogie & filthy hooligans with loud choruses (not unlike those of the football/soccer fans) and even louder guitars. From the In-Be-Tweens days (see Miriam's piece on 'em and the Stooges here), to the almost MC5-ish live document of "Slade Alive!" in 1972, and from the "this is how we do it kids" approach of "Whatever Happened to Slade" in the midst of the punk maelstrom (see the totally different image, almost oi!) to the almost 'artistic' (an' offensively word for sure to them) work of "In Flame", they knew how to raise eyebrows and shake some asses!
For some strange reason the US fans had to wait for (the) Quite Riot’s note to note metalized cover versions to get to know them well. Maybe were too Brit or maybe too loonies for them, who knows? Starting here with the Bobby Marchan/Little Richard soul & roll anthem (Get Down With It) and continuing the foot stomping journey to their own trademarks (Cum On Feel The Noize, Gudbuy T’Jane, Mama Weer All Crazee Now etc) this is perhaps the best to this day compilation of Slade’s finest/most known moments and a good starting point for the rookies. Of course there are MORE to discover from these mavericks (buy with no second thoughts the “Alive!”, “Slayed?” and “Whatever Happened to Slade?” LPs/CDs tomorrow) but for Friday/Saturday nights “Get Yer Boots On” is exactly what the title pronounced: A loud ass, crank the volume up, dressed to kill record, for kicks and chicks. Noddy Holder for President. Cum ON! 

The Ramones - "It's Alive - Audio Fidelity Limited Edition" (Warner Bros, 2009)

Yay! This is the morning (OK, noon...) of a great night out with my old pals. Not much time for all of us even though we are living in the same city. Blame the fuckin' situation down here for that... Anyway. Our day jobs kept us me and JP as well very busy all past week. Probably this will happen and the one is starting over tomorrow. Keep an eye in here cause more things are about come from the WAX side of this site. You know what is the thing with the place is called Greece the last thousands years? SUN! Right this moment I'm sitting in my balcony having my one son of the two putting out of his mothers plants all the mold (the other one's a lazy dog, sleeping with no worries in the big fat shade!) and yours truly is trying to write something for the next post. Which is in much relation with the sun, and the summer. What really amazes me the most about Jean Philippe it's the almost unrealistic timing we share! I was about to post something by da brudders and found this on my mailbox this morning by my pal:

"Off-topic: audiophile punk-rock, what the fuck?

I already confessed my deadly sin: no Ramones records in my collection until recently. But I think I'm forgiven: since I purchased "It's Alive", I gave it so many spins it's almost like I played it once every week for 2 decades. And you know (you must know) what I did next: try & finding a better sounding copy. I don't buy so-called audiophile records. They just sound baaaad to my ears, with virtually no high frequencies. I usually stick to original copies or old reissues. Recent remastered crap isn't my cup of tea either (makes my ears bleed). And I usually stay away from records with "180g" sticker, and yet I bought the one shown below. It was mastered by audiophile guru Steve Hoffman. I usually care more about who's actually playing than who's touching knobs in the studio, but all the Hoffman-mastered records I have (Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Doors) sound really good (better than originals), I mean exactly like I enjoy rock music: bold but not harsh, sweet but not dry, blablabla (and all the audiophile shit talk you can think of). Anyway, his version of "It's Alive" is really good. I'm listening to "Teenage Lobotomy" now: it feels like my head is actually IN the drums. Kick-ass sound, really! My neighbor will hate me. The CD version sounds like what you can hear when you play music directly trough a mobile phone. OK, enough audiophile shit, 1,2,3,4"

I told you before mate, you REALLY have it, haha! So, this is the official twin bro of another Ramones goodie i posted some time ago. I'm not 100% on what my my good friend wrote (a Japanese vinyl pressing i own just kills!) but as always he has a good point here! Don't know who this Steve Hoffman mister is, but for sure he did an exceptional job to one of the best LIVE albums ever pressed. The kicking-ass masterpiece of the Ramones, recorded on New Year's eve 1977 with the 28 already classics by the three milestone first Ramones LPs ("Ramones", "Leave Home", "Rocket To Russia"), with no pause and hyper-speed delivery!

Have a nice week all!

 

Radio Birdman - "Ritualism" (Crying Sun Records, 1996)

We Greeks always had a special admiration/bond for all things Aussie, especially in Rock & Roll. As I documented countless times before in here, we‘re not much (I mean arithmetically) listening to these sounds, but we‘re 100% into it. To give you an example in the midst of REM craze, Madchester rave and pre-grunge days, the Sunnyboys and the Lime Spiders were household names in every cool bar of the city. And this city had many of them. The Dubrovniks were able to pack a 1000 persons club easily, and every time you dragged yourself to some record shop asking for these names, the ‘old’ ones were telling you to ‘go find the Saints and the Birdman’! Not bad, right?  And if the Saints records' due mostly to the French New Rose label were ‘easier’ to be found, Birdman’s was a HELL of hunting and a very good reason to let these bastards rip you off! I still remember my feelings contrast from the showcase to the cashier when I first saw ‘Radios Appear’ overseas version over hanged… Anyway, it took me some years to gather finally all Radio Birdman releases but the first was this!

Yep, the ‘re-union’ live CD can carry still a special place in my heart. I’m pretty sure that for about two months this small disc rarely got out of the machine. Forget here all these greedy old men trying to mess up with their past. The performances of the songs are at least revitalizing and this time with all the weight been thrown to the roll element of their punk, which for me is an A plus! The production was recorded completely live and with no overdubs. They picked on the best material of their catalogue (yes the Birdman had shitty songs too, don’t try hide it, ‘Man with the Golden Helmet’ is probably one of the worst songs I‘ve ever heard!) electrifying themselves, their instruments and the all the people heard this! Radio Birdman for me it's a brother band to the Dictators. A punk rock gang that never been scared to mark out their love for hard rock (‘Radios Appear’ for example comes from a Blue Oyster Cult song lyric just like their name from a Stooges!). It’s impossible to describe Birdman’s importance with a few words.  I’m fortunate enough catch ‘em playing and to this day I’m wearing proudly the baseball hat with their cool logo on it! Up there with the Stooges and the MC5, the better examples of what is high energy rock & roll!

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The Cramps - "My Daddy Drives A U.F.O. - The Lux-urious And Elegant Unease Of The Cramps Bootlegs Vol.1, The Live Tapes" (WAXCD 005)

Things worked faster this time! Ok, it’s all up to my buddy’s Cramps related snugness but I have to admit, Jean Philippe showed me the way! In less than a month, tracks picked up, rips were made and cd covers blow-by-blow designed for (what else?) the next WAX ‘release’ and as you can see this thing’s planned for at least two volumes! The idea came to my head when I was preparing the Pub Rock volume and proposed my comrade to think of a Cramps boot volume as a next step. I mean, with such a vault, it’s a crime to not touch our hands on and pitch on the cream of the crap, don’t you think? And this is by a good 99%, a JPStooges sound cared project. My correlation focalized/minimized in some kind of ‘spiritual’ guidance about the way covers should look or how this project might be called or how this could or should be build, virtual not the things a rock & roll fan might be interested in. And I’m so gee-whiz for the end result!

So, the WAX team jointly decided to split this ghoulish idea in two parts. The ‘studio’ material and the ‘live tapes’. And we thought it’s better to start from the hoodoo stage rituals the Cramps got through 'round the world during their heyday (I know we are all fans, but we must admit that from the late 80s – maybe earlier, our monsters have started to transform their selves from voodoo idols to cartoons)! Detailed, carefully placed and with the 'semi-pro, my ass!' artwork approach of the WAX twins, this is the first volume of the Cramps tumulus raped material.  What we had in mind was to create something Lux might have been proud of! We know this is a rather childish urge (i can't even think to write my childish thoughts on the most venomous female ever brandished a Gretsch...) , but the Legion of the Cramped lives no matter how many years Rockin' Bones gazette is out of print. And for one time at least we cheat the cheaters (aka bootleggers) in their own game, ha! Are we the baddest motherfuckers or what?! So as usual, NO bootlegging on WAX CDs. Share and dance freely. 
Stay sick, more to come!