Flamin' Groovies - "Shake Some Action" (LP, Philips - 1976 ~ French original pressing)

You know, taking breaks from something you REALLY love, doesn't mean necessarily you won't be interested anymore. Something like this, happened to both of us here at WTS the previous months. I've started a new blog the previous year exclusively dedicated to my fave basketball team and as the games were getting tougher and the attention on this bigger, I naturally turned my head more into it (the back to back European Championship title didn't help things either but you know, I'm not complaining at all!). Same thing for JP. He had found a place (a 'sonic-masonic temple' in fact as I like to call it, I'm teasing you bro, he-he!) to share his knowledge and passion on all things technical that I'm not able to understand and get right and as a result of all these was more or less, this site to have fewer posts as it used to had...
But we're back! We sit our lazy ass down once again for a double shot of WAX love and some mo' cool things for your listening pleasure, starting with this!
Perfect timing's everything in life, right?! I had in my mind to 'reply' to my friend Gyro and his great recent  Flamin' Groovies posts on Twilight Zone with something 'rare', but JP and without knowing it gave me something even better! A European (French) pressing of the 'Shake Some Action' masterpiece!! "Big deal" some might say, "who needs another SSA post"? Well, everyone! As my buddy mailed me:

This French pressing sounds different from the US or Canada LP I've heard (and also different from CD). They are quite muddy. Not as bad as LAMF UK, but too much bass and not much highs.The French version solves this issue.

Boom! The basterd was right once again!! I've had it in two supposedly different CD versions previously (mind you, the one a Jap) and never ( I mean, NEVER!) heard before this POP jewel sounding SOOOOO good and fresh! I was totally aware of the good job Philips did back then with the single (who handled Sire releases in Europe and picked mysteriously on the amazing Capitol 'version 2' take for the single - a BRILLIANT MOVE!) but not for the long play!!! Do I need to say more?

PS: Stay tuned and check constantly for re-ups...

Various Artists - "Shakin' Fit!" (CD, Candy Records - 1992)

Well, when was the last time this space honored the last word of its name?
Quite long back right? I was checking up to see what to offer and I discovered that somehow "Shakin' Fit!" slipped my attention. OK, three years back I had through these pages the first (vinyl and with less tracks) incarnation ("Whip It On'Em"), but here's the 'full' version, the one most people knows. Actually this CD gathers the first two vinyl volumes of the three these series had but I can't remember their names right now and Crypt's website doesn't have them now listed to make everyone's life easier. This is probably my fave of all these millions official/semi-official and bootleg comps about Rhythm & Soul. Great sound, great packaging and great song selection! And you know, some of these gems have been introduced to the younger generations by the Detroit Cobras' movement for the salvation of Black America's VERY IMPORTANT rhythm tradition! It's not the 'rare' factor that makes this CD such a COOL accumulation, but the SWEAT! You can actually smell a thousand people's body fluids (or more!) dancing to the sounds of Mickey Lee Lane's "Hey Sa-Lo-Ney", Don & Dewey's frenetic "Heartattack", Don Gardner's twangy ass-shaker "My Baby Likes to Boogaloo" or David Jones "Boss with the Hot Sauce" (you can do no wrong with a song having a title like this!). The Nuggets equivalent for 60s Rhythm & Soul!

The Nerves - "One Way Ticket" (CD, Alive - 2008)

Name your favorite power pop band quickly. Come on, you don't need to think about it, just drop the name your mind's database finds first.
Flamin' Groovies? OK, an obvious choice, but what I need is something less obvious, so drop another...
Badfinger? Mmmm, I'm sure you can do better, too boogie to fit in don't you think?
Cheap Trick? Way cool, but those hard rock twists they got sometimes... don't know.
The Raspberries? Wimpy and campy, you know...
Big Star? Now, you're talking man, but... a bit dark for a springtime post... Remind me about them when the winter is setting in, OK?
Dwight Twilley? Oh great! Wait a minute... I'm not in the mood to make a vinyl rip now man. I know I'm a lazy bastard but since Jean Philippe came to pic, my mind's have cool down about it so...
The Nerves? BINGO! I thought you never gonna tell it man! You know, I must admit I'm cheating a little here cause that's what I had in my mind from the first moment but I thought it was easily for someone knowing my taste which is probably my fave powerpop group, man! The words 'seminal', 'trademark', 'irresistible', 'ultimate' are synonymous with the Nerves short lived existence. What you get here's everything! The beyond any critic classic 7'' EP, the embryonic Paul Collin's Beat diamonds ("Walking Out on Love", "Working Too Hard", "You Won't Be Happy"), bonus studio material, live and demos. More or less the varia Nerves output. I adore Paul Collins Beat's first two and all Plimsouls works equally but let this be the subject of another time's case. After this, you have really no excuse to cite "Hangin' on the Telephone" as a Blondie tune...

Jeff Dahl - "All Trashed Up" (CD, Triple X - 1999)

A true Underground hero for how long, three decades now? I'm only having good words about Jeff Dahl, in everything got involved through years passing! He managed to have a pure rock & roll career without selling out his punk rock ethos not a single time, he had putting out fanzines (Sonic Iguana especially, belongs to the better ones ever printed, up there with Ugly Things, Sniffin' Glue or Kicks), released records to amazing artists through his own label Ultra Under (Freddy Lynxx, Gunfire Dance, Jacobites) and who knows what else am I forgetting now?
I remember asking him for an interview some years back, sending him the questions and after a month of no reply and without getting back at him, I received an email asking me if he ever answered my questions... I was amazed! And you know,  they were lots of 'heroes' that said me they 're gonna give me an interview but never replied, not caring for the love and time I have put into these questions... NOT Jeff though! Saying all this, there's no way for such a cool person to not having a CV of ass-kicking and purely honest (at least) records .
A three chord wonder in the very close meaning of the title! Check out if there's still around somewhere (my friend Mr. Rambler from SOTD had posted them both quite back) the sadly never re-printed and an only  for the fan club release of  Glamfag volumes/tributes for instance (only 500 pressed). A very basic, almost childish approach on 70s glam numbers by Suzi Quatro, Alice Cooper, New York Dolls, David Bowie and Sweet among others well known and not, that somehow and due to Jeff passion's re-birthed with a Dead Boys/Heartbreakers prism and a know for the first time freshness!
This one's for sure in my top-5 Jeff Dahl list and perhaps, the last one I ever enjoyed from start to finish. In "All Trashed Up" Jeff for the first time gives us more of the glam element of his sound, without of course dumping the well known Thunder-esque guitar styling.The album features as well Mr. Michael Brooks, guitar slinger supremo of the Beat Angels (great band!) on some tunes and you know what this means... A full twin attack blazing and bastardizing Mott and Dolls, New York powerpop in the vein of the early Boyfriends and Ramones with the usual Heartbreakers/Dead Boys feel. If Jeff had in mind to make a variation of the glam Bowie produced period of Lou Reed, he failed entirely...Thank God, he-he!!!

Iggy & the Stooges - "Unrough Powder: The Trueborn Raw Power Mixes" (WAXEP001)

Well, well, well... Is there anything about "Raw Power" that hasn't been said or written yet, especially after all those previous years re-mixes, re-masters and re-issues? Quite honestly, no. I just deleted a 3000 words piece cause it had nothing utterly new to tell... Lester Bangs did it first and it sucked too some times. Come on, feel free to abuse me for the previous line but the best thing ever wrote (and it sums perfectly the punk rock attitude) was this Troggs appreciation (RIP Reg Presley) on Who put the Bomp... I hate the 'Funhouse' review!
Include ourselves of course to the above, cause if you can recall almost two years back to this day, we have tried to give you some of our postures on the subject by posting the rare original UK CBS vinyl. So?
So, we had absolutely nothing to discover hither, at least the we way did with "L.A.M.F."  and we knew that from the very start. It was however the natural next step for us to try something with "Raw Power". I mean, the similarities with "L.A.M.F." are spotless. A hugely influential rock & roll record, a blurry history/mythology, a long lasting 'bad production' debate, a 'Revisited' like attempt (Iggy's 1997 remix) and the most important thing, is 'the other' fave ever record for the Bobcat Twins (JP must own 20 different issues)!
What we also knew was that CBS was no Track at all. There were/are many bad pressed or bad transferred "Raw Power" editions around through the years (the first ever CD edition is a very good example) but if you're looking for secretly different mixes to be found somewhere, I'm sorry no such thing here (with the only known exception of "Search & Destroy" of the UK press). Actually what we had on our hands and deserved to be used for WAX-ing was the "Original Bowie mix" in some pleasant pressings, "Iggy's remix" which btw lead us to some arguments with JP (a VERY infrequent situation - I like it, he hate it) and the often bootlegged "Original Raw Power Mixes" again by Iggy, which in most cases were barely audible but never altogether compiled. Bomp's "Rough Power" had 'em all of course if you want to object, but this WEIRD reverb/echo storm throughout the songs presence, destroyed everything and makes us STRONGLY believe now that 'some hand' added these ridiculous and totally extraneous effects just to sound 'different'. Don't get us wrong, WE LOVE Bomp and you know it well BUT this is clearly some cook kind of thing.
There was no motivation for us to deal actually with the first two well known foresaid mixes and it's easily understood the reason why of this. All of them are in print now and most of the 'different' pressings have been posted on internet many times before. If we had to touch our hands somewhere there was only one path for us to cross. The one of the 'Original Mixes'.
So why an EP this time? Cause after countless conversations my buddy convinced me he was right. Quality over quantity as he wrote me! The often recycled WABX radio broadcast has a crappy sound in all cases/releases and any thought on using it, abandoned immediately. There's no need to represent something's not worth a shit (and it ain't won't worth a shit!). On the other hand what through the ages surfaced as what was Iggy's original essay that annoyed all the jerks at MainMan, were only four songs (Search & Destroy, Hard To Beat, Raw Power and Shake Appeal). We couldn't do much except to find the best ones. And that's what we did. Look no further, these are actually the best sounding survivors, scattered in four different and very hard to find now bootlegs plus the rare as hell "Search & Destroy" version of the UK press, for the first time all gathered in one!
We found A LOT entertaining the way we created the covers with this 'hostile to Bowie' approach. After all we're not his biggest fans, he-he... We sure like what he did at times, and as you perhaps, we both grew with his mix, that's what we learned to like and love but hey, this is an Iggy and the Stooges 'release', dedicated to the most furious rock & roll ever commited to tape, so a hate note and a sour feel it is incumbent upon, right? RIGHT!!!
And, oh! One more thing... The 'badly produced/recorded Ashetons' steam engine or the 'visionary' Bowie mix are in questioning with these tapes...Hear for yourself, and let us know!

"It wasn't about production and it wasn't about being popular. It was about this gut-level expression, almost like a soul singer. And it's no accident that it comes from Detroit". 

Rod Firestone, 

Rubber City Rebels