Dance Alone

During the last years I often thought most of the best albums of the year will be released from August until October. Now by Shari Vari is one of those that will be in the list of my favorite albums from this year. Shari Vari is the common project of Baltimore born Sophia Kennedy and Helena Ratka. Both living in Hamburg and their gloomy, catchy and groovy sound is filled with ingredients from the last decades. It seems like Psychobilly, Suicide, Art of Noise, Anne Clark and Gun Club went together into an experimental Techno-Club filled with tribal beats.
 

Spent The Night With ... Cheena

A few weeks ago I located Cheena's first record and from the first listening I was excited by this sound. These songs took me back to times decades ago when New York brought us bands like New York Dolls. It sounds like 70's-inspired punk rock with a lot of glam in it. Most of the songs were fast, enthusiastic and pure with a great rhythm section. I've never been there but I think this music would be similar to the CBGB's sound of the late 70's. Sometimes they add a slide-guitar to their sound or have a country-blues-rock influence in their sound. In another way they remind me a lot of the early Gun Club. I listen to this record since a few days and have to say that it doesn't get boring.

Cheena - Cry For Help
Cheena - Fever
Cheena - Tarzan
Cheena - Liberated Animals
Cheena - M.E.
Cheena - Electric Snoopy

Amazing Snakeheads on Saturday

I am really not a huge fan of blues or blues rock but sometimes a band appears in this genre that makes me think about this genre different. Last year The Amazing Snakeheads realeased their first record Amphetamine Ballads and I looked forward to see them live. But suddenly they split without any reason. So it is one more band/album that disappeared in the high tight of new releases. I grabbed out this records recently and I am still exalted about what I've heard. Classic songs in a very slow tempo with a dominant bass and sharp guitars. Added with a voice directly from hell. Learned and trained by the spirit of The Cramps , Gun Club and the Stray Cats they made an outstanding record. Maybe this will be a classic in a few years.

The Amazing Snakeheads - Here It Comes Again
The Amazing Snakeheads - Flatlining

Watermelon Man

Back in 1982: One of the most intensive records in this year was the second record from The Gun Club. The band was formed by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, former head of the Blondie fan club in Los Angeles. Joining him was Brian Tristan, who was later renamed Kid Congo Powers during his stint with The Cramps, Don Snowden, who was at the time a music critic for the Los Angeles Times, and Brad Dunning, now a prominent designer and writer. 

The Gun Club merged the contemporary genre of punk rock with the more traditional genres of blues, rockabilly and country music. When I heard this record for the first time I couldn't believe the sound. Young crazy Americans playing traditional Rhythm' and Blues, cover some traditional tunes as well as CCR's swamp rock 'Run through the jungle'. 

In fact Debbie Harry appears as a backing singer on various tracks on the album under the pseudonym "D.H. Laurence Jr.". If I want listen to some raw, mean and true sound I pick out one of them records. Pure joy for me. I remember well to watch the Gun Club live in the early 90s. Seldom listened to a show that was that emotional (as special guest appeared an unknown band called Dinosaur jr. - which impressed me as well). The location was not too big and that time it was possible to go upstairs to the bar section to get a drink or play pool. I sat at the bar with a drink while a Japanese lady joined me. We had a small and niche conversation about useless things until Mr. Pierce arrived and talking jealous to me, what the hell I'm doing with his girlfriend. Me fool didn't checked that I was talking with his engagement and the bass player of the band.

In 1996, Pierce died from a brain hemorrhage at the age of thirty-seven. Pierce was HIV positive, while also suffering from cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis, at the time of his death.

Gun Club - Watermelon Man

The curse of the Pharaoh

90 years ago the English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun an Egyptian pharaoh. Carter was employed by Lord Carnarvon to supervise the excavations in the Kings Valley. After several time his excavation group found the steps to the tomb of  Tutankhamun. After breaking the seals of the burial chamber he surprised what he saw. Later he wrote this words:

At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the rooms emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold.

It was sensational, because most of the tombs were robbed in former times. And now the mystery begins - it is known as the curse of the pharaoh.


At the day, they opened the burial chamber Horard Carters bird was bitten by a cobra. For the Egyptian workers a bird is a lucky symbol and a cobra was the symbol of the pharaoh. A couple of month later Lord Carnarvon was stung by a mosquito in Cairo. While using a razorblade for shaving he cut the stitch and first got infected and later he got pneumonia. In his febrile delirium he shouted many times 'A bird is scratching my face' and then he died. Exactly at the time he died all the lights went out in Cairo and his dog far away in England started to howl and fell dead to the ground.

Nice story but I don't believe in any kind of curses. So have a nice weekend and enjoy everything. Cheers
Gun Club - Run through the jungle