GARAGE NEWS FLASH: The legendary 1966 Iowa garage band GONN, inductees into the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, featured on the “Nuggets” box set with their first record “Blackout of Gretely” and on the Sundazed “Loudest Band in Town” Beat Rocket LP, to name a few, are reuniting for a show at OFF BROADWAY in St. Louis on Saturday, January 5th, 2008. This will be the band’s first live show since their appearance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland back in 2005. GONN 2008 still features ALL ORIGINAL MEMBERS: Gerry Gabel, Craig Moore, Rex Garrett, Larry LaMaster, Dave Johnson. The group members are driving & flying in from all over the US to do this one-night show. Also appearing are The Nevermores and The Vultures, two of the St. Louis area’s best current generation of garage/punk/rock’n'roll bands. Tickets are only $10 and will be limited due to club capacity. As of this posting it is not known if advance tickets will be available or at the door only. More details can be found soon at www.myspace.com/gonn66, or at www.offbroadwaystl.com. You may also write to youngernow@ameritech.net with any specific questions. SPREAD THE WORD!
Check out Craig Moore from Gonn appearing live on stage with both The Geargrinders (top) and The Nevermores (bottom) at the recent Show-Me Blowout garage fest in St. Louis from Bill Streeter’s Lo-Fi Saint Louis video blog:
Billy Morrison of Camp Freddy Radio on Indie 103.1 in L.A. did a short phone interview with me during his show this past Saturday night and you can hear it here (MP3). For more of a background on Billy Morrison, check out the entry on him on Wikipedia.
Those of you that caught the last episode of Savage Kick heard Billy’s comments about GaragePunk.com from his show the week before (scroll down the page a few posts to get access to that file).
One of my Myspace friends just tipped me off about this:
Go to VBS.tv (which I’ve never seen before but appears to be similar to Blip.tv) and check out the show Soft Focus. Ian Svenonious of Nation of Ulysses and The Make-Up interviews some pretty cool people. This week it’s Billy Childish (part 2 of 5).
By the way, lately I’ve been seriously considering growing a handlebar mustache like Billy’s, but I think it would clash with my shaggy hair. Thoughts?
…a 1962 Dodge Dart Wagon, like this one (yeah, if anyone sees another one of these buried in the Missouri mud somewhere, by all means LET ME KNOW!).
Don’t get me wrong, I love my Barracuda, but if I had a chance to get a ‘62 Dart wagon, I’d jump at it. Just look at it. That grill is one of the most unique ever put on a car, and the combination of that and the ultra-cool early ’60s Mopar wagon (Valiants and Furys are cool, too… we had a ‘63 Fury Wagon when I was a kid) is what makes this one the ultimate car in my mind. I might even consider swap for one if the condition of said car was comparable to that of my own.
Going to the in-laws for the Turkey-Day feast. Can’t wait! I’m starving. Meanwhile, I posted the latest episode of Savage Kick on the GaragePunk Podcast this morning. Enjoy!
This show has nothing to do with turkey, but goddamn that Schlafly Pumpkin Ale is good shit. So grab a cold one, hit the mute on the hockey game on the boob tube, unbutton your trousers and kick back to the relaxing boogie-woogie sounds of The Underdogs, The Rooks, The Mummies, The New Bomb Turks, The Scientists, The Midways, The Sound Explosion, The Original Sins, Man or Astro-Man?, Left Arm, Dead Moon, Big Black, Forbidden Tigers, Functional Blackouts, and plenty more silly trash.
It’s a slow afternoon at work today, so I’m bored and decide to try and find out what other Jeff Kopps are out there making the world a better place, including some Web URLs with my name in ‘em. This is kinda fun… your mileage may vary, though.
In case you missed it, this past week we officially released LEFT ARM’s new CD Dissatisoul on my resurrected record label, TIRC Records. You can get a copy of the CD for just $6 postage paid from the band, or download it for a suggested donation from the TIRC Records online store (visit that page for more info). Oh, and if it helps, it rocks quite hard… so get it!
The insanity just never ends here at TIRC Exitprises! The company made an official statement this past Monday during a press conference called by company CEGO (Chief Executive Goof-Off) Harvey Floorbanger that they would be “GIVING AWAY FOR FREE” downloadable copies of its latest release on its struggling “TIRC Records” subsidiary. Dissatisoul from local St. Louis “garage-punk” (ahem) HEAVYWEIGHTS Left Arm is being released on the company website for a “recommended” “donation” of anywhere from three to five bucks. But who do they think they’re kiddin’? Any thrifty Beatle Bob out there in consumer la-la land knows that music is just out there (everywhere) for THE TAKING, so why not just put down that hoagie, grab it, and run like a jackal? And indeed, you CAN! Actually, there’s no need to even RUN (nor try to stealthily sneak it inside your favorite smoking jacket). No siree, Bob. No shame, a-tall! Just go to the online store and, with trusty mouse in hand, click the LEFT ARM CD cover and download away!! I mean, LOOK AROUND… No one’s going to see you do it from the privacy of your PC there. It’s just like downloading kiddie porn!! Now, any of you out there from more distinguished, cultured upbringings who may encounter feelings of guilt after doing so MAY, if you so desire, of course, return to the scene of the crime and pay a few bucks for it, but that’s only if you feel REAL GUILTY. Because obviously if there’s no guilt, there’s no CRIME! Oh yes there’s Trouble, right here in River City… That starts with “T” and that rhymes with “C” and that stands for CRAZY!!
By the way, hard copies of the CD are for sale at the band’s website for six bucks postage paid, for you weirdos who insist on having something to hold in your hands and look at and then sell to the local used record store when you run outta cigarette money in a few months.
Tommy Smelfiger
Minister of Propaganda
TIRC Exitprises
Hey, in case ya missed it, episode #44 of Savage Kick was posted this mornin’ (I swiped the art from the tray card of Crime’s San Francisco’s STILL Doomed CD, by the way)… I tried a little bit more of an excited ’60s top-40 disc jockey approach to my vocal delivery this time. That’s what I get for pokin’ around on the Rock Radio Scrapbook site, which has some really cool air checks of old disc jockeys. That’s one of the fun things about doing a podcast. I can try different things depending on what mood I’m in at the time. I think my favorite of these was back on episode #8 when I dug up the hardboiled slang. Maybe I’ll do another one of those soon.
