Do You Remember The Members?

it is almost 40 years ago when a new fresh sound slopped from London to every part of the world. They called it punk, three-chord music and traditional (hippie) ears blamed it to a non inspirational music played by some rotten guys. It was hard in this time to explain the majority why I love this kind of music. Based on the best of British pub rock, reggae and traditional rhythm and blues lots of bands forced the speed of the music. One of the first bands playing this kind of music were The Members. You might know a lot of songs by them and probably forget to remember them. A few days ago I got the notice that they released a retrospective of their Virgin years starting from their first At The Chelsea Nightclub to their hit singles and added with BBC and Peel sessions. This made me going to my vinyl to grab out their early records and listen to. And I have to say they that their sound didn't lost it's fascination during the decades. Probably they were one of the first bands that brought reggae sound into rock music. It is an underrated band who had a massive influence to the bands that came after them. PubCall it sentimental but I still stick to this music after all the years. Pure fun.

The Members - Solitary Confinement
The Members - Sound Of The Suburbs
The Members - Offshore Banking Business

Negative Thoughts

Thank god it's Friday and working week almost over. I don't want to start moaning but working these days is difficult. On the one hand there is the worst corporate merger that happened to my business life because there were no plans to manage the things that have to be done. On the other hand there are a lot of new adjustments from Brussels that should be implemented this year. But now it's weekend and I will support my team early in the evening hoping they are playing better than on this disaster last week.

Today's song is from the Montreal based punk rock/electric punk band Duchess Says. They describe their sound 'moog rock'. If you can't imagine their sound think of a deep played bass, synths, guitar, drums and female vocals. This song is a six-minute trance like built that erupts in deeply satisfying crash of all instruments/vocals.

Beat Your Heart Out

You might know that my team plays in the second league yet. And it is hard to join the new rhythm of the match day. Normally they used to play at Saturday/Sunday afternoon now they changed into starting after lunchtime. Following them in the stadium or on TV in the pub next door means to change your other dates to different times. And after watching them winning against the championship leader yesterday and celebrating the victory I had a hard day at hard at office and now I am glad being at home, listen to some music and finishing the day. Today's song is an old one from back in 2003 played by The Distillers. It was the band of the Australian born punk singer and guitarist Brodie Dalle and it one of those songs which were forgotten during the last years. A classic punk song with fast guitars, serrating riffs and drifty drums. Dalle's voice makes this song a bit of a classic. A hidden gem.

Tommy Ramone 1952 - 2014

Just I have received that another member of The Ramones died. I don't have to tell what this band meant for the change in music in the 1970s. The way they shortened their songs into classical two minute format added with speed and told us to play the songs loud again. Tommy Ramone had Hungarian roots and his given name was Tamás Eldérly and worked after his career as a producer. He has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer and was in a hospice receiving treatment when he died yesterday. I think it'ts time for me to listen  to their songs again.

RIP Tommy. Gabba gabba hey

The Ramones - Chinese Rock
The Ramones - Rockaway Beach

Inflammable Material - First Records That Impressed Me Much # 1

While I have written my series '40 records in 40 years' if I have bumped over and over again into the debut albums of artists that for me are unforgettable and also even today worth are to be heard (again). So I decided to start a new series about those records. Therefore, I will continue in irregular distances this series - unless, nobody would like to read this.

In 1979 Stiff Little Fingers a Belfast based punk-band release Inflammable Material - and the name was program. It stands in the classical tradition of the Clash, the Lurkers or the Ruts. The tracks are raw, however, partially a little bit haltingly produced, look by the teamwork of two guitars more full than some other album of this time. As with almost every classical punk group is the song material of a little bit different goodness: Classical single tracks with catchy tune quality like Suspect Device, Barbed Wire Love or Alternative Ulster"are mixed with rather average material. Their lyrics were mostly in the tradition of this time like 'Here we are nowhere - nowhere left to go'. They got more politically in songs like White Noise when the sung about the hostility to foreigners in the UK or Alternative Ulster, stamped by her North-Irish descent. Of course they learned by The Clash to put a reggae song on your record. And they did it - the covered Bob Marley's Johnny Was. However, differently than other punk bands they do not play reggae with the means of a punk group, no they take tempo out, adapt the title, however, to an almost classical rock song which is marked by the teamwork of both guitars. Not softly and melodically like with Wishbone Ash, but rough and roughly and with an irresistible drive. The intro is White Noise more than one minute to built up dynamic and it takes seven minutes more until they come to an end. It's a monolith.

Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device
Stiff Little Fingers - White Noise
Stiff Little Fingers - Johnny Was
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster