Now Hear This!

Memorial Day weekend is drawing to a close, which means summer is all but upon us, though recent temperatures around these parts would have you believing otherwise.  Still, you're going to be needing some new tunes to be blaring out of your car stereo while cruising with the top down, or bopping to poolside with your friends, or whatever it is you kids do in the summer these days.

It's a big wide Internet out there, and it's full of tunes.  Some are good, some are bad; some you can acquire legitimately, some...well, not so much.  It's enough to make your head spin! Friend, I'm here to help.  I've done the hard part - I've separated the wheat from the chaff and come up with a list of 10 more excellent musical curios for your musical curio shelf...er, iPod.  These aural treats are not presented in any particular order, and I am receiving no compensation of any kind from the artists, other than the sheer enjoyment of listening to their creations. Almost all of these are very recent, but some are not. That's just the way it is. Let's dig in!



Nikki Corvette & the Romeos
New music from Nikki Corvette is always cause for celebration, and her first single with her current backing group ranks among her best ever!  Fresh off a European tour, Nikki and her Romeos deliver two killer sides. "He's Gone" is sixties girl group heaven, straight from the Ronnette's playbook; on the flip (which coulda been an A-side itself), Nikki introduces us to her band in her classic bubblegum punk style.  Physical copies of the single are limited to 300 and going fast - get yerself over to Bandcamp and at least get the tunes!



Roomrunner
There is something very cool happening musically in Baltimore these days.  There has developed quite a collection of local bands creating some pretty incredible music.  In previous posts I've mentioned bands like The Fishnet Stalkers and Plurals.  Now let me mention Roomrunner, whose first full-length release, Ideal Cities, is out now and available on Bandcamp.  Roomrunner's nods towards the grunge forefathers, especially Nirvana, are evident immediately, but don't kid yourself: these guys can thrash as well as anyone.  The lead track, "Bait Car", comes careening at you like Big Black with a searing headache. You can either grab on and take the ride of your life or be swept up in the wake of the passing maelstrom.  Great stuff!



Ed Schrader's Music Beat
Did I mention there is something cool happening in the Baltimore music scene? Here's yet another example.  Ed Schrader pounds out the music beat on his stand-up floor tom while Devlin Rice plays bass. Together they make a lot of racket, but find all kinds of sonic layers and variety from those two instruments.  Every bit as intelligent as fellow duo They Might Be Giants, Ed and Devlin's songs lean sonically more towards Math The Band or Half Japanese.  Check out "Radio Eyes" for details:



Imelda May
Until recently, I had missed the boat on Ireland's incredible Imelda May.  A few weeks ago a friend sent me a clip of her performing her debut single "Johnny Got A Boom Boom," a wild rockabilly ride that caught my immediate attention, and another clip of her crooning "Cry Me A River" in a perfect torch-singer pout that blew me away.  I immediately sought out more, and found the wonderful "Psycho," in which Ms. May comes as close to being Wanda Jackson as anyone not named Wanda Jackson ever could.  Behold:



Yes Mistress
Out of Long Beach, Yes Mistress may be the best rawk-n-roll band with the worst band name going these days.  But oh, man are they awesome!  "Do You Think I'm Satan?" is the best of a handful of truly fantastic tunes these guys have recorded (check out their Soundcloud page for more, including the excellent "Gunna Get Arrested").  Turn it up loud enough and you'll actually hear your own head go ka-THUNK!


Yes Mistress - "Do You Think I'm Satan... by BlankTV

Hank Wood & The Hammerheads
Sleazy, scuzzy, lo-fi garage punk still has a place in this world, and Hank Wood & the Hammerheads had the market cornered for a brief moment last year with the release of their debut (and, apparently, swan song) LP, Go Home! "It's Hard On The Street" epitomizes their growling, grumbling, ear-scraping sound:



Sonic Scream
Grungy psychedelia from Hertfordshire, UK.  Sonically somewhere between Mudhoney and MX-80 Sound, with a six-song EP released this past August (Without A Sound), Sonic Scream offer fuzzy guitar riffs, chugga-chugga rhythms and stonerific lyrics, all of which would have been equally at home in 1968 as 2013.  "PowerfuzzeD" is my pick of their current litter, and not just because the D at the end is capitalized...



Gin Wigmore
The third in my current triumvirate of post-Amy Winehouse female singers who reinterpret the old and make it not only new, but entirely their own (Gemma Ray and the earlier-mentioned Imelda May being the other two), Gin Wigmore may be the most stunning of the lot.  With an incredibly sexy, bluesy snarl and a swagger beyond her 26 years, Gin has been collecting accolades for some time in her native New Zealand.  It's only recently that she's getting any attention here in the States, but with cuts like "Kill Of The Night," people should definitely take notice.



Persian Claws
Finally, Persian Claws have their self-titled debut album out - limited edition though it may be.  If you're quick enough, you can order it through their label, Musica Para Locos Records, by sending them a Facebook message. At least, that's how I got my copy (complete with autographed postcard of Dee Claw - awesomeness!), and it has basically dominated the turntable since arriving.  Spinning a sunshine-y surf-punk-a-go-go sound, Persian Claws have slowly amassed an album's worth of amazingly good music.  Was hard to pick just one sample track, but "Yours Sincerely" gives you a good idea of the fun you're in for:



TV Girl 
"She Smokes In Bed," the new single from TV Girl, is one of those songs that that wheedles it's way into your head and sticks there, insisting that you listen to it again and again.  With a chugging melody and an irresistible "ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-pa-da-da-da-da" chorus, the music washes over you in pleasant waves, vaguely reminiscent of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark at their best.  Definitely eager to hear more from this band!

New Wave for the New Week #106 BY REQUEST!

[All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries are based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests received, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! I cannot take anymore requests for this month, but please always feel free to suggest bands you might like to see featured in future NW4NW posts. You may do so either in the comments section of this post, on Twitter, or on the Facebook Fanpage.]

I was honored to receive a request for this year's NW4NW All Request Month from guitarist Amy Gore, formerly of The Gore Gore Girls and currently teamed up with Nikki Corvette, Lianna Castillo and Al King as Gorevette.  Tops on her request list? None other than her own bandmate Nikki's classic bubblegum-punk band, Nikki & The Corvettes!

Nikki & The Corvettes may have had a relatively short shelf life (roughly 4 years, from 1977-1981), but Nikki's influence has been far reaching.  Everyone from Josie Cotton to The Go-Go's to The Donnas owes her an audible debt of gratitude.  Whereas female-led rock and roll bands may not seem so unusual today, when the then-named Nikki Corvette & The Convertibles released the single "Young And Crazy" in 1978, it was almost unheard of, as she discusses in this interview clip:



With a sound that reimagined The Ramones as a '60s girl group, and with enough energy and enthusiasm to nearly bounce the needle right off the turntable, "Young And Crazy" announced the rules by which Nikki was playing:  No mopey torch songs, no dour introspection, no syrupy ballads.  Nikki was all about rock and roll and fun and cars and boys and good times.  This was music meant to be cranked out of a tinny AM car radio with the top down, the sun blazing, and as many friends crammed into the backseat as possible.  You simply are not going to be in a bad mood if Nikki Corvette has any say about it!

A second single, "Honey Bop," appeared in 1979 with the band name now somewhat simplified to Nikki & The Corvettes (try saying "Nikki Corvette & The Convertibles" five times fast), followed in 1980 by a full album on the Bomp! label.  Nikki & The Corvettes is a classic.  Not a bad song to found among it's dozen tracks, it features highlights like "He's A Mover," "Just What I Need," "Backseat Love" and "Summertime Fun" that not only keep your toes happily tapping, they stick to your brain like wonderfully gooey confections, demanding to be heard again and again.  Unfortunately, Bomp! sped up the masters when pressing the album, making Nikki's already bubbly voice sound almost cartoonish.

The single "I Gotta Move" appeared in 1981; it is notable for its flip side, which could be the Nikki Corvette theme song, "Girls Like Me" ("...were born to rock and roll...").  That, however, seemed to be the end of the road.  Nikki dropped out of the recording industry, apparently unaware of the rabid fanbase she had just waiting for something - anything - from their darling Nikki.

In 2000, Bomp! reissued Nikki & The Corvettes on CD with the recording speed corrected, the cover art changed, and all of the non-album single sides appended except, inexplicably, for "Honey Bop." The reissue only served to increase demand, and in 2001 Nikki was coaxed out of retirement for a show in LA, then another in 2002 in Minneapolis.  In 2003, her fans' long wait was rewarded, when the single "Love Me" b/w "What's On My Mind" ended a 22-year recording drought.

Shortly thereafter, a Japanese release, Nikki Corvette's Wild Record Party, appeared, containing Nikki's renditions of classics like Generation X's "Ready Steady Go," The MC5's "High School," The Saints' "Wild About You" and more.  Again the fun is dialed up to eleven, and it's as though the 20+ years since her last album never happened.  Highly recommended.

Nikki had been slowly assembling a new "official" band, and Nikki Corvette & The Stingrays made their bow in 2006 with Back To Detroit.  Kicking off with the sizzling title track, the album transports the vibe of Nikki & The Corvettes to the 21st century without sounding overly nostalgic or derivative. A second album with the Stingrays, Rebellious Love Emergency, followed in 2008.  Again, you cannot go wrong picking up either album.

Nikki was introduced to Amy Gore in 2005, and soon they began writing songs together, releasing their debut as Gorevette, Lustfully Yours, earlier this year.  On their MySpace page, they note a description of their music from Real Detroit Weekly that captures them beautifully: "Bubble-gum and hip-shakeable hooks meet ruthless, pure-firestorm guitar ecstasy."  Having been fortunate enough to see them perform live, I can confirm that description.

My great thanks, again, to Amy Gore for this request! Please enjoy the clips I've chosen below: first, an audio-only of two Nikki & The Corvettes songs circa 1980, "Girls Like Me" and "Let's Go," (the audio starts about 10 seconds in), and then the clip for Gorevette's "Lustfully Yours" from this year. Enjoy!

What A Weekend! (Part 2 - Rock 'n' Roll Girls On A Saturday Night)

(This is the second of a three-part post. Part one can be read here.)

As fantastic as Friday night's show at The Trocadero in Philly was, the weekend actually picked up steam on Saturday night. My brother and I headed to West Chester, PA, to see The Donnas with Gorevette opening (there was one other band...I'll get to them in a moment). This was the third time The Donnas came within shouting distance of Lancaster, PA in the last two and a half years, and both of the previous times they were here, plans to go see them fell through. I decided I wasn't missing them a third time. Boy am I glad I didn't!

The venue in West Chester was called The Note. It was the first time I had been there - indeed the first time I or any of my friends had ever even heard of it. Of the three places we went this weekend it was the smallest, yet this was the show that had the largest crowd. I estimated there to be about 300 - 325 people there, crammed like sardines into the long, narrow building. When you first walk in, the bar is to your right; to your left is the wall. You've got about a two-person width from that wall to the back of the bar stools (provided the two people considered are very close friends). At the far end of the bar the place widens slightly, and about four steps lead you down to the floor in front of the stage. To the left is the only access I saw to an upstairs area that I never saw. When a band is playing and the floor is packed, going up and down the stairway appears to be no easy task.

Despite the sardine-can accommodations, The Note is not an entirely uncomfortable place, and unlike many places where I have seen shows in my time, it is not in the kind of neighborhood where you take your chances getting to and from your car. We had a good chuckle at the establishment directly across the street, though: it was a barber shop in the kind of storefront that has two full-length window boxes on either side of the door, and both windows were crammed full of KISS memorabilia. Posters, LP jackets, t-shirts, mannequin heads made up like KISS - anything you could think of! So, if you're looking for the Gene Simmons haircut, I know a place...

The KISS barber shop across the street
I mentioned in Part One that first bands are often throwaway acts. The band that first took the stage at The Note Saturday night certainly followed that rule of thumb. The less said about Fatal Flaw, the better, but I feel I should try to describe how bad they were. Picture four guys who looked like they would have been far more at home at a frat party in 1992 than a Donnas show in 2010, playing light-alternative music that makes Toad The Wet Sprocket sound heavy in comparison, and you'd be picturing something better than Fatal Flaw. We couldn't figure out how they got on the bill with The Donnas; in school, The Donnas would have beaten these guys up and stolen their lunch money. They broke out every cliched rock-n-roll move you can name, from rocking the guitars back and forth in unison to the drummer twirling his sticks. My brother summed them up perfectly when he said, "These guys would get booed out of a prom!" The most positive thing I can say about Fatal Flaw is that they eventually stopped playing and left the stage.

From there, though, the evening skyrocketed! Gorevette was up next. I arrived in West Chester not knowing who Gorevette was. I will forever kick myself for not looking them up online before leaving for the show! Gorevette, it turns out, is a collaboration between Amy Gore of The Gore Gore Girls and the legendary Nikki Corvette of the classic Detroit-based bubblegum-punk band Nikki & The Corvettes. Had I realized that, I'd have shown up with a fistful of Nikki & The Corvettes records to be signed!

Amy Gore and Nikki Corvette of Gorevette
Gorevette was awesome. With Lianna Castillo on bass and Al King on drums, Amy Gore and Nikki Corvette ratcheted up the fun and energy in the club exponentially. Gore is an exceedingly talented guitarist, and Nikki Corvette bopped around the stage with her Raggedy-Ann-red hair flying, tearing through a set that included originals as well as covers of classic punk tunes like The Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get?" and The Saints' "Wild About You." Nikki also had the line of the weekend, when she told the crowd that Gorevette's CD would be available for purchase at the merchandise table, and "we'll sign it, we'll hang out, we'll drink, whatever!" What more can you ask for?

While we waited for The Donnas, I happened to overhear a conversation among the three folks directly in front of me. It seemed to be a couple and their friend. The girl asked the friend about the upstairs, and he told her that there was a bar up there, and that there was a rumor circulating that Johnny Knoxville was up there to see the show. Her eyes widened as she turned to her boyfriend and said, "I've got to get up there! Johnny Knoxville might be up there!" As she determinedly began pushing her way toward the stairway, the boyfriend deadpanned, "Oh good. Maybe if you ask him he'll stick something up his ass." OK, so maybe Nikki Corvette didn't have the line of the weekend.

The Donnas did not disappoint. For just over an hour they burned through their set. They stuck mostly to their more recent material, and that combination of punk/metal/hard rock was the perfect tonic for the crowd. Frontwoman Brett Anderson has become quite the performer over the band's sixteen year (!) history, and she worked the crowd to a fever pitch all night. At times she verged awfully close to the paint-by-numbers rock 'n' roll script (mention the town you're playing in after every other song, tell the crowd that tonight is by far the best show of the tour, do the "I wanna hear you make some noise!" routine, etc.), but there was enough of a knowing smirk behind it that you can't fault her for playing the game. And boy did the crowd respond! We all wished they would have gone longer, but this was the last night of four-stop East Coast mini-tour, and they had a 5:00 AM plane to catch.

The Donnas
Still, they came out for their encore, and this was when the "rock 'n' roll" act was completely dropped and The Donnas reverted before our eyes to the Palo Alto high school teens who decided to form a band based around their love of The Ramones and and Motley Crue. After revving the crowd up for their slightly rewritten cover of KISS's "Strutter" (hmmm...did they see the barber shop across the street?), they got through about four bars of the song when guitarist Allison Robertson's amp went silent. It was endearing to see the tough-chick swagger fall away a bit as they determined what happened. The roadie diagnosed a failed cable, hooked Allison up again, and the swagger was back in full force. Once again they launched into "Strutter," and once again, the amp went silent just as they reached the middle of the first verse. Allison could only drop her head in disbelief.

Now the swagger was completely gone, and The Donnas were suddenly four somewhat nervous girls grasping for a way to fill the time while the roadie fixed the guitar. Bassist Maya Ford told jokes, Bret Anderson giggled nervously, drummer Amy Cesari (filling in on this tour for regular drummer Torry Castellano) kept a beat going for the crowd to clap along with. They almost apologetically took their third stab at "Strutter" and this time made it all the way through. Feeling confident, it was time for one last song. They closed with "Take It Off," or at least tried to. Once again, the guitar failed! Determined to finish their set, they soldiered on with a back-up guitar, and tore the house down to close the night. It was a great, great show, technical difficulties notwithstanding.

After The Donnas were done, we made our way back to the merchandise table, where Amy Gore and Nikki Corvette were taking the time to chat with fans. I told Nikki that I wished I had brought my records for her to sign; she promised she would sign them the next time they came through the area. I picked up the Gorevette disc and a solo Nikki Corvette CD, and both Amy and Nikki were happy to sign. Got a laugh out of Amy Gore when she asked if I had put my email address on their mailing list at the table. I said I had, and then signed my name next to it, telling her, "There! Now you have my autograph, too!" They were both very friendly and great to talk with, and for as fantastic as both their set and The Donnas' set were, getting to meet Nikki Corvette and Amy Gore was the high point of the night.

Getting to meet Nikki Corvette
An hour's drive back home and another night's rest...and there was still more music ahead before the weekend would be over! Part Three will be posted tomorrow, so stay tuned...

(Visit That's What I Was Going To Say's Facebook fan page to see more pics from Saturday night's Donnas/Gorevette show. I've opted not to post the video I took Saturday night because the sound was even worse than Friday's video. If you'd like me to post it anyway, leave a comment either here or on the fan page.)