The Spazzys and Marky Ramone: Live, 2004

(Image taken from RamonetotheBone)

Hey come check out my top ten Spazzys videos over at The Big Takeover!!


Yesterday, we talked about the return of Australia's queens of pop-punk, The Spazzys' (see HERE) . Today, we're going to re-present to you a bootleg of the band playing in Sydney with Marky Ramone back in 2004. Marky's role in this show, aside from drumming, was to introduce all of the songs with this unbelievable stage banter which sounds somewhere between Paul Stanley and Wayne Newton - "We're gonna get some sun in California now" - and  thereby validates an iron rule of showbusiness, "Never let the drummer talk". All the rest of the music is provided by the Spazzys, with usual drummer Allly taking most of the lead vocals. Almost the entire set list consists of Ramones classics done with good spunk but the two exceptions, a take on Joey Ramone's version of "It's a Wonderful World" and the Spazzys own, very fitting, "I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone" really makes this a fascinating document .



Spazzys- Spazzys TV from agostino soldati on Vimeo.

(All great stuff here - but to see the Marky/Spazzys clip, skip to 9:37) 


 For lots more Spazzys on MRML go HERE!

 (photo courtesy of i94bar.com)

Let us know what you think of this Spazzys-Ramones alliance in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find a link for either an MP3 or a .Flac version of the show).

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Ally Spazzy solo

The Spazzys: Dumb is Forever (2011)

After one of those soul-crushing legal battles that are a part of rock lore (i.e. Springsteen's forced inactivity in the mid-70's) The Spazzys have re-emerged with a newly released, Japanese-only, album titled Dumb is Forever. Definitely more of a power-pop (Cheap Trick division) album than a pop-punk one, this is still an ass-kicking, name-taking record. While a certain bitterness pervades the album ("Divorce",  "Dissolution Was the Only Solution, "Love = Pain") these rippling, melodic songs (check out the Fastbacks-like "Best Waves Ever") just exude a steely undaunted sound. Since these songs were actually recorded years ago, maybe we can now hope for a quick, rocking follow-up with international distribution. (For lots more Spazzys on MRML go HERE!)





Let us know what you think of this new Spazzys stuff in the COMMENTS section!

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Ally Spazzy solo

The Spazzys: Aloha! Go Bananas

And so the Spazzys (see here) story ends with a cliffhanger. Not long after the release of Aloha Go Bananas a seismic schism split band and their record label, Fur Records. Though their second album was finished, it's lain in limbo while the lawyers grow fat and the twins teach little kids how to trash their instruments via a program called Kiddie Rock.


For the album the Spazzy women refused to stand pat. While the the rockers, like album-opener "Zombie Girl" are thicker and heavier, the pop songs, like "Shake and Twist" and "You Left My Heart in the Garage" are all dolled up with layered vocals.




There are a few singles that overlap with the album (and even a more recent one called "I Want a Divorce" which even though they only pressed five hundred copies in Japan still got the lawyers all riled up). This interview from September 2009 claims the release of their old new album Dumb is Forever is imminent. To be continued...



Aloha Go Bananas (plus bonus tracks)

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys and Marky Ramone: Live

The Spazzys sure make for odd back-up. The oddness of that video (see here) of them with Chris Bailey is that it looks (and sounds) a bit like a set-piece from a seventies variety show, it's like the Spazzys get to play Pink Lady to Chris Bailey's Jeff.

(That line-up is fucking gob-smacking - BJ with Bear in tow, Hef plus six centerfolds, Cheap Trick not doing "I Want You To Want Me' and a hot tub - is it any wonder viewers like me were ruined for life?)

Then there's this 2004 concert from Sydney with Marky Ramone. Marky's role in all of this, aside from playing the drums, was to introduce all of the songs with this sub-Vegas stage banter which sounds somewhere between Paul Stanley and Wayne Newton - "We're gonna get some sun in California now" - and to thereby prove the validity of the iron rule, "Never Let the Drummer Talk". All the rest of the music is provided by the Spazzys, with usual drummer Allly taking some lead vocals. Almost the entire set list consists of Ramones classic done with good spunk but the two exceptions, a take on Joey Ramone's version of "It's a Wonderful World" and the Spazzys own, very fiting "I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone", make it odd in the best sense.

(both photos courtesy of i94bar.com)

The Spazzys and Marky Ramone Live (.flac*)

I Just Want Something To Do
California Sun
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
I Don’t Care
I Wanna Be Sedated
Rockaway Beach
Rock’n’Roll High School
The KKK Took My Baby Away
It’s A Wonderful World
Chinese Rocks
Pinhead
Blitzkrieg Bop
I Wanna Cut My Hair like Marky Ramone

* all tracks claim to be by Einstürzende Neubauten, which was too funny to fix.

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: My Boyfriend's Back

Covering the Angels and the Riverdales on one little record shows just how good the Spazzys' (see more here) taste is. Their version of "My Boyfriend's Back" while fuzzed-up and rocked-out is ultimately pretty faithful, right down the hand-claps and the hey-la's.



The Riverdales cover, "I Don't Wanna Go to the Party" is fittingly Ramones-ish but adds a bit of the spunk occasionally lacking in that section of Ben Weasel's catalog.


My Boyfriends' Back 7"


(A fascinating video of the Spazzys backing up Saints' leader Chris Bailey on the same song. Odd.)

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: Hey Hey Baby

Ramonesaphillia is not as disabling as most overwhelming influences. Bands from the Undertones to the Mr. T Experience to the Queers to the Spazzys (see here) can steal Ramones-isms at will, chuck in their own lyrical and musical peculiarities and instead of sounding derivative it's fucking exhilarating. And there's lots of stolen exhilaration on this little record. The Spazzys' song-writing, good from the get-go, is now in full force. Just listen to the glorious blast of pop that is "Hey Hey Baby"and try not to sing along, either to the dopey lyrics or those joyous Beach Boys backing whoo-hoos. (And enjoy or be creeped out by Marky Ramone's guest appearance in the video.)



Ramonesaphilliacs live or die by their fidelity to Bob Dylan's dictum that to achieve greatness artists need to go back and dig deeply into what works originally influenced their influences. By establishing that any late fifties to mid sixties three minute rock n' roll single was a primal source the Ramones made such historical research fun and easy. The Spazzys establish their star pupil credentials by being both reverential and gonzo in their cover of the Everly Brothers "By Bye Love" and then laying down another first-class original Blitzkrieg Bopper, "Let's Keep Going to the Show" .


Hey Hey Baby 7"

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.

The Spazzys: I Met Her at the 7-11

In interviews Hellcat Records punk-metal band Civet {hey check out my review here} imply that there's been a dearth of tough all-girl rock n' roll bands since the Runaways. The Spazzys lay waste to such a self-serving claim. It's not that the Spazzys (who are from Melbourne, Australia) feign a macho-girl stance, as some of their competitors might, they just know how to dig all the best trash from the ruins of rock n' roll. At first appearance, it looks like the went through the Ramones garbage as obsessively as A.J. Weberman dug through Dylan's. To whit, check out out their T-shirts (two out of three), identical surnames (twins Kat and Lucy plus Ally all go by the name Spazzy) and song titles ("I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone").


The current fate of the Spazzys, meshed in some godforsaken legal limo, is so dire that their Wikipedia sounds as it was translated from Swahili, their MySpace remains static and their website in on Angelfire (no, really). So, here at MRML we're left to take a scattered look at their discography, starting with the I Met Her at the 7-11 e.p. It's five Ramones meets Go-Go's songs in ten minutes and there's not a clunker among them. From the first strains of "Surf'n Bird" (an original) the Ramones chug is ever-present but the melodies, the vocal arrangement and the lyrics prove them to be a band unto themselves. Just listen to the Beatles-quoting tale of unrequited love in the international pop underground, "Paco Doesn't Love Me", and you'll know that great rock n' roll doesn't give a shit about gender.


I Met Her at the 7-11 e.p.

Supporting the band is currently next to impossible. If that changes (or if someone credible informs me that these posts would in any way harm the band) then I will update this.