Six Word Sunday

Stayed up all night with Irene.

New Wave for the New Week #133

When it comes to just plain goofy fun, it's tough to beat the group of loonies who called themselves Tenpole Tudor.  Though often lumped in with the Punk bands of the era, they demonstrated over the course of two utterly astounding albums a remarkable ability to move nimbly from punky slam to country twang to rockabilly rumble to tender ballad and back again.  They also demonstrated a steadfast reliance on the most silly side of British humor (it was not without insight that a friend of mine described Tenpole Tudor as the Punk Rock Monty Python!)

Edward Tudor-Pole first came to the attention of the general public via his appearance in the Sex Pistols' film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and its soundtrack.  At the time, Malcolm McLaren was touting Eddie as the new Pistols lead singer, replacing Johnny Rotten.  Tudor-Pole's eccentric mannerisms and unmistakeably wobbly vocals made his contributions ("Who Killed Bambi?," "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle," and a nearly unrecognizable "Rock Around The Clock") memorable indeed; plans to install him in Johnny's stead were scrapped when The Sex Pistols finally blew apart.

Rechiristening himself as Eddie Tenpole, he found a group of like-minded musicians and presented the music world with Tenpole Tudor.  After their 1980 debut single, "Real Fun," found some traction, they released the first of their two full-length LPs in early 1981.  Eddie, Old Bob, Dick And Gary is a fantastic record from start to finish.  Its weakest tracks are saved by Eddie's vocal acrobatics, but when it hits the mark, it's jaw-droppingly good stuff.  Tenpole Tudor hit the UK charts with a number of tracks from the album, including "3 Bells In A Row," "Swords Of A Thousand Men," and their finest moment, "Wunderbar."  

Later that same year, Tenpole Tudor released a second album, Let The Four Winds Blow.  While not as consistent as its predecessors, this album has a few stunners within its grooves as well, especially the lead single, "Throwing My Baby Out With The Bathwater."  By this time, as the cover art for Four Winds shows, the band had taken to appearing in full suits of armor, and their lovable looniness had begun to pigeonhole them as something of a novelty act.  Before falling into that trap, Tenpole Tudor split up.

Eddie went back to calling himself  Tudor-Pole (or, sometimes, Eddie Tenpole Tudor), and split his time between acting and playing music of various styles - most notably, Cajun, Jazz and Swing music.  In 2009, he reformed his band, slightly renamed as Ten Pole Tudor, for a new album, Made It This Far.

The two 1981 albums are well worth searching for.  For those not inclined to spend hours hunched over used record bins in full search mode, a nifty two-disc compilation exists called Swords Of A Thousand Men. In the meantime, please enjoy this week's NW4NW offerings - three great clips from Tenpole Tudor, including "Wunderbar," "Swords Of A Thousand Men," and "Throwing My Baby Out With The Bathwater:"

Six Word Sunday

Where have all my editors gone?

Six Word Sunday

She's perfect, but I am not.

New Wave for the New Week #132

It's been somewhat fascinating in recent years to see so many bands from the Punk/New Wave era being the focus of renewed interest, often reforming and hitting the road to play before both new fans and those who were there way back when. 

Such is the case the Maso sisters, Caron and Michele, who, together with backing band Kip Brown, John Gerlach, Jeff Fair and Steve Sicular, were known collectively as The Little Girls.  The Little Girls became local favorites in the early 80's San Fernando Valley scene, and thanks to airplay on LA's KROQ had two regional New Wave hits, "The Earthquake Song" and "How To Pick Up Girls," both of which appeared on their 1983 EP Thank Heaven! ("The Earthquake Song" had already been available in an earlier form on the second Rodney On The ROQ compilation LP from 1981).

Treading similar musical waters as Josie Cotton and Nikki Corvette, The Little Girls' version of '60s-girl-group-inspired New Wave bubblegum was made extra-sugary thanks to the sisters' goofily amateurish yet somehow endearing attempts at choreography in their stage act.  Pantomiming the lyrics as they sung them, they had a routine for each song; decked out in outfits that might have been found at Pat Benatar's yard sale and backed by musicians dressed like extras in every early '80s movie you can name, they were undeniably of their time.  But the songs were catchy, the music was great, and if The Little Girls didn't put a smile on your face, then you had no sense of fun.

By 1985 their time had passed and the Maso sisters went on with their lives.  In 2004, The Little Girls reunited for a one-off show in Santa Monica, CA, which sold out in one night.  Realizing there were a fair number of folks who fondly remembered them, the Masos set about assembling and reissuing whatever material they could.  First up was 2006's No More Vinyl, which combined all of the tracks from Thank Heaven! with unreleased material they had recorded in 1984/85 in hopes of landing a full album deal.  Around the same time, they also reissued a collection of very early demos (circa 1981) under the title The Polodor-Cooper Sessions.  The following year, Ramo Records issued a 4-track 7-inch of the 1984/85 demos called The Clear Album, including their excellent cover of The Dave Clark Five's "Any Way You Want It" and the shoulda-been-hit "I Really Wanna Be With You."

All of those reissues are still available, but completists will want the recently issued pair of CDs on the Masos' own ValleyPOP Records.  Thank Heaven For Valleypop expands on No More Vinyl with additional tracks, while Today...And Yesterday gathers more unreleased gems from the sisters' more recent studio demos (circa 2006) as well some nifty surprises from the '80s including an interview with KROQ's Rodney Bingenheimer.  Recommended stuff, guaranteed to keep you in a good mood all day!

For this week's NW4NW entry, here are both of The Little Girls' early hits, "The Earthquake Song" and "How To Pick Up Girls." Enjoy!

Six Word Sunday

Overslept yesterday. Underslept today. Can't win.

New Wave for the New Week #131

London's The Doll were another of those blink-and-you-missed-them bands that seemed to crop up like weeds in the immediate aftermath of the first wave of Punk Rock.  Sounding a bit like The Rezillos on overdrive, The Doll first came to public awareness with their appearance on the Beggar's Banquet Records 1977 compilation Streets.  Their contribution, "Trash," stood out among those of other soon-to-be-bigger name bands like Slaughter & The Dogs, The Members and The Lurkers.

Liking what they heard, Beggar's Banquet soon issued The Doll's first single, "Don't Tango On My Heart," with "Trash" on the flipside. It was a scorching piece of vinyl, but the band was more heavily focused on live performance, and it would be a year until The Doll would be on record shelves again.

Their return to the record racks also saw them reach the height of their fame. "Desire Me," released in 1979, made the UK Top 30 and landed The Doll an appearance on Top Of The Pops.  This in turn spurred a brief media infatuation with frontwoman Marion Valentine.  The attention being focused solely on her ticked off the rest of the band, who decided to abandon her.  It would be another year before she would be back in the recording studio with a new set of band members to record the first full-length Doll LP, Listen To The Silence, and the lead single "Cinderella With A Husky Voice."  Unfortunately, both quickly sank without a trace, as did two follow-up singles.  By the end of 1980, The Doll was done, and would probably have been relegated to status as a footnote to Punk Rock history had Cherry Red Records not reissued Listen To The Silence earlier this year as a two-disc set including the early singles and assorted unreleased material.  It's well worth picking up.

For this week's NW4NW entry, here are audio clips of both sides of The Doll's incredible debut single, "Trash" and "Don't Tango On My Heart."  Enjoy!

Six Word Sunday

Good week: demons held at bay.

Oppressive Heat, They Might Be Giants, and That Guy

When I heard that They Might Giants were kicking off their tour in support of their fantastic new album Join Us right here in Lancaster, PA, at The Chameleon, it was simply a given that I would be there.  This was the third time I've seen the two Johns. First time was in 1986 in Richmond, VA, at a nifty little club called Rockitz; second time was here at The Chameleon in 1996, so I was five years overdue this time around.

Here in the Northeast we've been having an ungodly heatwave, coupled with oppressive humidity which combine to make it feel like we're breaking three digits on the thermometer daily; yesterday was no different.  This made waiting for the doors to open - normally an enjoyable process where you get to meet some folks in line, maybe see old friends who haven't been in town since the last show, etc. - a chore to be despised.  The Chameleon's entrance leads into a small cattle-chute area where, depending on whether you already have your ticket or not, you are herded through mazes to either the ticket booth/will-call window or the main door.  This area fills up fast, and then the lines trail out the door and down the block.  Fairly typical club stuff.

On this night, however, the heat and humidity and crowd of people sent the temperature in the cattle-chute area soaring.  We were all quickly drenched with sweat and the place developed a mild high school gym locker room aroma.  Not too worry, though - it was about 5:45 and doors were announced as opening at 6:00.  Right....

6:00 came and people were still piling in.  6:05....6:10....6:15...now people began grumbling.  At 6:20 someone pounded on the club door, which opened just a crack.  When someone yelled "When are you letting us in?!?" the meek reply was only, "Soon," as the door slammed shut again.  They finally let us in just before 6:30, and it was good that they did. Had they waited much longer, they may have seriously had a riot on their hands - people were NOT happy.

Thankfully, the club was air conditioned, and at first felt about 20 degrees cooler.  A couple cold beers helped as well, and the space in front of the stage began to fill.  Before long, the body heat from the growing crowd overtook the A/C, and once again The Chameleon lived up to and beyond the nickname friends and I had given it years ago: The Sweatbox.

All was made right again, however, when TMBG hit the stage and launched into "Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head," which not only is one of their classics, but also turned out to be a bit of foreshadowing, as we were actually treated to a puppet show by John & John in the guise of The Avatars of They, two goofy green sock puppets who "covered" TMBG's "Spoiler Alert" (from the new album).

Their set was fantastic, and was a well-balanced diet of material from the new album (including their first-time performance of "When Will You Die?") and fan favorites spanning their 25+ year career ("Doctor Worm," "We're The Replacements," "Birdhouse In Your Soul," etc.)  Flansburgh and Linnell were hilarious as usual in their between-song patter, in turns complaining about the "oppressive lack of oxygen" in the club, musing about appearing on the Jimmy Fallon show with Fran Liebowitz, and wondering aloud whether the crowd would just be randomly screaming at anything they said.  The band sounded great, with only a few missteps here and there (but again, it was the first show of the tour - cut them some slack!).  Marty Beller on drums, who John Flansburgh repeatedly introduced early on, was excellent; Danny Weinkauf and Dan Miller alternated various instruments as did Linnell and Flansburgh, with everyone taking their turn at keyboards ("We're sort of like Genesis - everyone plays keyboards," noted John Linnell).

It seems that every show you go to has a character I have come to refer to as "That Guy."  That Guy is usually there by himself, or maybe one friend.  That Guy is also exponentially drunker than anyone else in the club, but he is not an innocuous drunk.  No, That Guy is an asshole, yet usually oblivious to the fact that he is ruining other people's good times.  Last night, That Guy showed up about two-thirds of the way through the show.  I felt someone bump into me heavily, turned and saw a ratty looking guy with grungy hair, bad tattoos, and a marked inability to stand up straight.  He positioned himself just behind me, and proceeded to randomly yell out song lyrics, curse words, and assorted "yeahs" and "rock ons."  Carrying his beer bottle like a torch and swaying like a madman, he yelled at the band (who mockingly dismissed him) and knocked into anyone around him.  As is usually the case with That Guy, it was only a matter of time before he made his big move.

It came the moment TMBG finished their main set and left the stage.  Suddenly, That Guy threw himself bodily toward the stage, bowling over two young women and yanking a live microphone down on top of himself and others.  Immediately, he was swarmed by people nearest him while others yelled for club security.  Despite having three or four people now holding him, he lunged at the stage again, appearing to try to pull the keyboards down as well.  By now, a very large bouncer was making his way toward the action.  Not to be deterred, That Guy made a final push and grabbed his prize: the set list that John Linnell had been using which was on the keyboard.  In that same moment, the bouncer cinched him into a half-nelson and dragged him out of the crowd to a round of applause.  A moment later, the bouncer returned, and was greeted with more applause, which he shrugged off with a "just doing my job" look on his face.  The applause grew louder when a roadie walked on stage and, with a triumphant flourish, produced the retrieved set list and taped it back onto the keyboard.

The band did three encores, including an outstanding run-through of "Istanbul Not Constantinople," and even noted that That Guy was going to "have one hell of a night ahead of him.  We may not be in New York, but we're from New York," Flansburgh smiled.

All in all, a fantastic show.  Check out our Facebook page later today to see more pics from the show. Head over to Amazon.com via the link below and pick up the new album. If you get a chance to see them on this tour, go - you'll be glad you did.  And let me know if you run into That Guy.

New Wave for the New Week #130

This coming Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight will mark the 30th anniversary of the launch of MTV.  Over the course of three decades, MTV went from a cable television novelty playing music videos 24 hours a day (in stereo! - remember when they would simulcast on cable FM radio?  Hell, do you remember cable FM radio??) to a pop-culture powerhouse that reshaped the music industry to a sad back-of-the-dial reality-show wasteland bearing little if any resemblance to its original intent, and making the "M" ("Music" in "Music Television") utterly meaningless.

In 1981, though, it was a different world.  The very concept of a music video was often scoffed at, and the technology and production values were embryonic at best.  Additionally, MTV did not have a huge warehouse of clips to show when they started out.  Their early playlists, as a result, were a fascinating mish-mash of the well known and the unknown, as a review of the videos shown on MTV's first broadcast day shows. There was The Who, Styx, and Rod Stewart; but there was also Robin Lane & The Chartbusters, Ph.D., and one still unheralded band whose sole contribution to the music video world remains a personal favorite.  Scan down the list to the 40th video played that first day, and there, tucked between REO Speedwagon and Juice Newton, you'll find Pittsburgh, PA's The Silencers.

The Silencers were wholly a product of the era, from their skinny ties and sharkskin jackets to their wrap-around slit sunglasses to their farfisa-driven power-pop with just enough wackiness to keep them out of mundane bar-band territory.  They began playing live in and around their native Pittsburgh in 1978/79, and were good enough to land a record deal with CBS.  Their debut LP, Rock And Roll Enforcers, was issued through the subsidiary Precision label, and the band made a video clip to promote the album.

Their clip differed from most in that they did not make a video for a specific song.  Instead, their clip was a mini-movie clocking in at almost six minutes, featuring a collage of abbreviated edits of three key tracks: "The Peter Gunn Theme," "Remote Control" and "Illlegal."  Their original purpose in creating the clip was to pitch CBS about turning the entire album into a movie, but CBS dismissed that idea and began sending the existing clip out to any outlet that would play it.

The video stayed in MTV's regular rotation for the balance of 1981 before fading away. The album sold well in and around Pittsburgh, with singles like "Shiver And Shake" and the stunning "Head On Collision" seeing local airplay.  A second album, Romanic, followed soon after.  While both records showed a solidly talented band, there just wasn't enough there to make them stand out on a national or international stage.  Rock And Roll Enforcers is the one to get if you must make a choice between the two; it is more consistent and somewhat easier to track down.

In honor of MTV's upcoming anniversary, here in it's entirety is the three-song clip from The Silencers, including their straightforward take on "The Peter Gunn Theme," the clip-clopping "Remote Control," and the simply fantastic "Illegal," which is one of those songs that I'll never understand why no one has yet covered.  Enjoy!