Modcast #154: Give A Dog A Bone

Welcome to Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World. Got a great show lined up for you this week. Some well known things here, but a few more obscure itmes that you might not be familiar with as well. I think you'll dig it.

Morning Benders -- Dammit Anna
Foxboro Hot Tubs -- Highway 1
Naz Nomad & The Nightmares -- (Do You Know)I Know
Mornin Wood -- Beth Olive
Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames -- Bend A Little
Manfred Mann -- She
Eddie's Crowd -- Take It Easy Baby
Purple Hearts -- Gun of Life
The Jolt -- Mr. Radio Man
Sham 69 -- Give A Dog A Bone
Oppenheimer -- Look Up


Purple Hearts -- Millions Like Us



Manfred Mann - Ha! ha! Said the Clown (1967)

RIP Ripchord?

If you get all teary eyed yearning for hard and fast power pop then get yourself a clean hanky to dry those eyes. Here's a power pop band that is really good. That means they shred. They tear it up. Get it? Right, then. By the way, you might have to get on down to your local nudie bar to see them on tour. Ahhh, crap. Wait. You can't see them because apparently they're not together anymore. So, you'll have to come up with your own excuse to get down to your the local strip club. Sorry.

Ripchord was a Brtipop band through and through, with all the requisite retro influences from The Kinks to the The Undertonesto Blur to The Kaiser Chiefs. Overall the band's sound is sharp with ringing guitars, catchy melodies, and clever lyrics. Even some ba-ba-ba-bas. The songs bounce ... no they jump up and down, and at times seem to crash into each other not unlike a friendly mosh pit. Through it all were some pretty damn jaunty melodies speeded up and taken to the next level of intensity, but without losing their innocence. That's what kept the Ripchord's power pop from bursting into out and out punk rock. Along with some cool keyboards, hummable lyrics and a lack of safety pins and barbed wire.

Everyone should find something to like with Ricpchord. If nothing else you gotta like a band that took an insult like "the Beatles on speed" and embraces it through and through. For the record, my new favorite song is the Ripchord's "Lock Up Your Daughters". So what if I'm a little johnny-come-lately.

Ripchord -- My Precious Valentine

Ripchord interview


Ripchord -- Lock Up Your Daughters

Pete Townsend opens up on Quadrophenia and being a mod

When I first started listening to The Who in the early 80s it was Pete Townsend that was most Mods favorite. Keith Moon looked like a mod, but Pete to me was the one who always sounded like a mod. And yet, I don't think he very often has ever confirmed that he considered himself one -- during the sixties or ever. Until now.

I was a mod. No question about it.

There's a really great and lengthy interview with him from last summer in Brighton Magazine, about the new stage musical version of Quadrophenia.

Quadrophenia was originally released in the U.K. on October 26, 1973. It reached the #2 position being held out of the top spot by David Bowie's Pinups. In the U.S. Quadrophenia was released on November 3, 1973. Again it only reached #2 in the Billboard charts being beaten out of first place by Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Regardless, Quadrophenia looms large not just in rock and roll, but specifically in the history of the mod movement. It was a rock opera, which the band never performed in its entirety until some 20 or more years after it was written. It was turned into a film during the first punk era and helped to launch the mod revival. And, it's been a sort of how to manual for countless young mods wondering about what to wear, what to ride and what pills to pop. So, it's interesting that at long last it's getting the full stage treatment.

Here then are a few intersting quotes from Mr. Townsend.

I was a mod. No question about it. The other three guys in The Who were not. My best friend at art college Nick Bartlett and his older brother Tim were the sharpest mods I came across, I hung out with them as much as I could. The thing is that anyone could be a mod. You didn"t need to be working class. I once hung out with a group of mods in Brighton with a girl, and we slept under the pier and chased rockers. The rest of the band had gone home. I wanted to feel a part of something, I always have. The mods allowed me that. When I went our clubbing in Soho, dancing I came across some of the Faces of the day. Phil the Greek, Julie Driscoll, Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Micky Tenner, Sandie Sargent and, of course, the Small Faces themselves. I was always close to the greatest Face of them all, Peter Meaden, and if The Who hadn"t got in the way I would have embraced the mod movement far more deeply. But my position on the stage allowed me a good view of what was going on. I became someone who gave a voice to some of those mods. But I was a part of what was happening. When LSD hit London I moved on, like so many others.

...

I want the show to entertain, of course, but a grander mission is to see it connect with the audience as well. Good rock music, as we now call my kind of pop, must be functional, it has to do something more than just entertain.

...

One thing is certain, in my original book Jimmy did not die at the end of the story, but I have no idea what happened to him. Any sequel will have to make a huge and arrogant leap to decide what happens to him and I hope it doesn"t spoil our individual fantasies about what Jimmy might have done when he got off that rock in the rain.

Quadrophenia Trailer

Couple Delivers Pop That's Not On The Radio

Last year I highlighted one of my fave power pop bands, Kuala Lumpur's Couple, with the warning that you should never ever search Google for "Malaysia Couple". I'm happy to report that things are starting to improve. At least that search now returns Couple's Myspace page in the top spot. Maybe this means they're getting more --and much deserved-- recognition. For a band that's been around since '96, and reportedly does about 90 live shows a year, it's about time. Let's hope the new album brings even more attention.

Speaking of which, I've been trading e-mail with the band's lead singer and super self-promoter Aidil about the new LP, Pop Tak Masuk Radio. (You can see what I wrote about their previous albums here.) My favorite songs on this new disk are "Lagu Cinta Untukmu" -- a very modern power pop number that wouldn't be out of place on a Weezer album; "Semua Tak Boleh" is a tour de force of power pop with it's Who like opening riff and a guitar attack the Hives would be proud of; and the rather sober, rootsy sounding "Mencari Malaysia".
Where the band's past albums were sung in English for the most part, this new album is all in Malaysian. But that doesn't matter because the music itself speaks volumes. The album is packed with all the elements of a great power pop disk -- ringing guitars, crashing drums, catchy hooks and hummable melodies. But, I did wonder and so shot a few quick questions to Aidil which he nicely answered. And, for all of us English speaking hicks he also sent me a run down of each of the songs, what they're about and how they translate into English.

I'm curious why on your last album you did so many songs in English, and then for this one didn't do any in English.
- Actually I just wanted to do an EP of Malay songs at first. I originally found it hard to write in Malay, so to challenge myself I decided to try and write more Malay ones (since I usually write only 2-3 Malay songs a year). But after 2 months, I realised that I've written about 14-15 Malay songs already, so I thought why not just make an album, right?

I'm assuming the songs are all sung in Malaysian, correct?
- Yup, it's all sung in the Malay language, which is also the national language of Malaysia.

What has been the reaction you've received from Americans?
- If we're talking about this new album, I'd have to say I still don't know, cause I haven't started promoting it to Americans yet... I'm hoping we can get the ball rolling with a little help from your website, hehhe.

How is your music received in Malaysia? Is power pop very popular there?
- We're kind of a 'best kept secret' kind of band here, because we're quite popular with the youth crowd, specifically high school kids and university/college students. We don't get much airplay at all, but somehow most of our songs made it into the kids' MP3 players and mobile phones (to the extent that we're probably the only band in the country that can get the crowd to sing along to every single we play at our gigs, which happens at gigs with as little as 50-100 people as well as festivals with a crowd of 5000-15000 people). The mainstream still ignores us, but everytime we play mainstream type shows or alongside mainstream artists, we usually get way better crowd reception than they do (the power of the internet, I guess, hehe). As for power pop, I think we're the only power pop band here. The kids just respond to the songs, I guess, without much thought to the kind of genre we do.

Any plans on coming here to tour the new album?
- We're still trying to get a label in the US to release the new album, so I don't really know yet, but this March we'll very probably be going to the UK to play some shows organised by Malaysian university students there, so hopefully we'll get to play some more shows there too.


Pop Tak Masuk Radio
Radio (Radio) - it's about this unique predicament of ours here in Malaysia whereby the radio stations seem to just refuse to play any of our songs (even if the songs have spread like wildfire amongst the kids + they all can sing along to them). So it's kind of a thank you song to our fans for helping spread the word, and a no thank you song to the radio stations, hehe.
Lagu Cinta Untukmu (Love Song For You) - it's about wanting to write a love song for our loved one so that we can express our feelings better.
Semua Tak Boleh (Can't Do Anything) - on the surface it's a commentary on the Malaysian government's penchant for censorship, but actually it's also a cynical take on the unfortunately very normal Malaysian attitude of one-upmanship, which usually means you'll never do anything right as there will always be people who'll think what you're doing is wrong.
Goyang (Shake) - just a fun song about shaking your ass at gigs
Cari Ganti (No Substitute) - about not wanting to find any substitute for your better half
Bayangkan (Imagine) - basically a song telling someone we fancy to imagine what it'd be like if we got together
Gila Bayang (Smitten) - another love song, the title says it all! Hehe
Whoa Oh Sayang (Whoa Oh Honey) - sweet and sappy lyrics about how that someone brightens up our lives
Hey Kawan-Kawan (Hey Friends) - the one-line lyrics basically translates into "Hey friends, let's tear shit up!", repeated over and over
Mencari Malaysia (Finding Malaysia) - Malaysia has a unique history in which it was at first predominantly occupied by the Malay people and the indigenous people of the land. Then the British colonised it and brought in the Indians and Chinese to work the rubber estates and tin mines. When we got our independence, everyone got their citizenship (including the migrant workers), but not without the bargain that the Malays get some special rights (since it's basically 'their' country and the others are immigrants). All this has resulted in some deep seated racial prejudice in which almost everything here (especially politics) is divided along racial lines. This song is about trying to overcome all that, and for the current and future generations to finally accept that they might be immigrants 2 or 3 generations ago, but they are Malaysians now and they have played their part in the process of nation building, so it's high time that we start looking at each other as brothers and sisters already.

So there it is, a fairly complete description of the songs, hehe. All of them are originals which I wrote myself, no covers. As for the album title, Pop Tak Masuk Radio roughly translates as "Pop That's Not On The Radio".

Couple -- Lagu Cinta Untukmu

Couple -- Semua Tak Boleh

A good Omen is when last year's good stuff is also this year's good stuff

Here it is nearly the end of the first month of the second decade of the 21st century, and I'm still stumbling across last year's releases and becoming enamored of sounds from yesteryear. In this instance, it's the sound of last year, and the sound of 20 years prior to that, and the sound of 20+ years before that.

The Omens are a garage band that is reviving the last garage revival of 1984, which was in turn reviving a garage sound from the mid sixties. And they are one of the best such garage rock bands currently playing that I've heard. In a word scathing. Another word, blistering. Another word, frenetic. How many words is going to take to make you sit up and take notice?

I'd like to say I've followed their career long and hard, but it would be a lie. I've followed it since I stumbled across their recent relase Send Black Flowers just around Christmas. The album evokes the sounds of the 80s garage revival with screeching vocals, swirling organs, and an overall punkiness that turns the regurgitated sixties R&B into a thrashed out sort of rock and roll. Here you will find all of the garage rock you can stand, complete with brash echoes of The Fuzztones, The Gravedigger V, and The Moorlocks. This is guitar driven garage rock the way it was meant to be. Welcome back.

The Omens -- Look Away

Modcast #153: Doin' The iMod Shuffle II

Welcome to Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World. If you're a slave to shuffle like I am then you know that every once in a while your ipod or whatever digital player you're listening too, serves up a one in a million string of absolutely great songs that even though they they have little in common, at that moment, in that space, in your head, it's the perfect mix. For me this usually happens when I'm walking the dog, just as it did last week. I rushed home and wrote down the list and this week's show featurs those eleven songs just as they came up on my ipod -- and I'm calling it the iMod shuffle. So, here's your chance to peek behind the curtain as it were and see what's on my ipod.

The Rolling Stones -- As Tears Go By
Deee-Lite -- Groove Is In The Heart
The Bangles -- Going Down To Liverpool
The Beat -- Best Friend
The Go-Gos -- Lust To Love
Hammerbox -- When 3 Is 2
Oingo Boingo -- Only A Lad
Squeeze -- Pulling Mussles From (The Shell)
The Kinks -- Set Me Free
Paul Weller -- Science
The Four Tops -- Fool On The Hill

Hammerbox -- Somewhere Under The Moon


The Bangles -- I'm In Line

New Modest Proposal live track from their reunion show

Here is a brand new unreleased track from Modest Proposal, recorded live at their reunion show in November. You might say this is the band's theme song, since it is titled "Modest Proposal".

Lead singer Neal Augentstein e-mailed me that:

It's the song "Modest Proposal" -- one of the first songs the band wrote in 1983, which was recorded and used on our first few cassette demo tapes, but was never (and still hasn't) been released on vinyl or CD. We stopped playing it fairly early on. Was last played live circa 1984.

This version was the song that opened our 25 year reunion show at Comet Ping Pong. This was recorded off the mixing board.

Nice way to open the show with a song about Jam shoes, scooters, and being a mod.

Modest Proposal -- Modest Proposal

And here's some cool photos from that show proving that Modest Proposal have what it takes to be rock stars.

The Cute Lepers Get Smart

Regular lurkers will know that I'm a huge fan of the '79 sound, and no one has reprised it better of late than Seattle's own The Cute Lepers.



Their latest album has just arrived in the states, titled Smart Accessories. It's just that. Smart. And tight. And, well, excellent. I would say run, don't walk, to your local platter seller and pick up your own copy.

Not to be lazy or trite, but if you like The Buzzcocks, The Undertones, Blondie, The Damned, Generation X, or more contemporary bands like The Briefs (previous band of lead singer Steve E. Nix, and bassist Stevie Kicks) then you will love, absolutely love, The Cute Lepers. Guaranteed or your money back (in general circulation).

The Cute Lepers -- Some Hits Hurt

The Cute Lepers -- So Screwed Up