Many guitarists will cop to stealing licks from famous musicians, but Steve Jones actually stole their guitars (and amps) as he learned to play.
jonderblog
homemade CD-length compilations created by Jonder and Stinky Le Pew
Saturday, May 22, 2021
The Best Of Steve Jones (Post-Pi$ToLs)
Friday, May 7, 2021
Bang Bang You're Terry Hall
Terry Hall has had an interesting career. For a man who plays no instruments, he has an extraordinary musical imagination. He first gained notice as one of The Specials' three singers. All three singers (Terry, Lynval Golding, and Neville Staple) left The Specials in 1981 and formed a new group called Fun Boy Three.
After their debut single, Fun Boy Three invited another trio (Bananarama) to sing with them, which led to hits for both groups. Terry co-wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed" with Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos, another hit for both The Go-Gos and Fun Boy Three.
Months after the release of their second album, Terry split up Fun Boy Three and formed The Colour Field, a new trio with a more sophisticated musical direction. The Colour Field was less commercially successful than Hall's previous groups, and it was followed by yet another trio, this one called Terry, Blair and Anouchka (after the names of its members).
Terry Hall finally released his first solo album in 1995, produced by Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds. Hall's cowriters were Broudie, Andy Partridge, Nick Heyward, Craig Gannon, and Damon Albarn. Today's compilation from Stinky features songs from all of Terry's groups as well as his first two solo albums.
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
The Best Of Ivan Julian, Part Two
If you were a musician or singer recording at Ivan Julian's Super Giraffe Sound studio (or NY Hed, where Ivan worked with Matt Verta-Ray), you might ask the man himself to step out from behind the boards to add some guitar (or banjo, lap steel, piano, or harmonium). And you would be rewarded with something extraordinary, even incendiary.
This set of songs spans the years 2002-2021. During these two decades, Ivan Julian engineered, produced and mastered recordings for many other artists. He performed around the world. He released his first solo album, The Naked Flame. He saw his son Austin become a musician and visual artist. And he survived a cancer diagnosis.
Ivan added his magic to records by Spike Priggen, Brandi Shearer, Edward Rogers, Haale, Capsula, and the French groups Republik and Marquis. Ivan also served with fellow punk veterans in the "supergroups" Osaka Popstar and The Fauntleroys.
TOP PHOTO: Ivan played at WFMU in 2011 for DJ Terre T with drummer Florent Barbier, guitarist Al Maddy, and bassist Avery Allen. Florent Barbier's brother Geoffray filmed the 2020 documentary You Don't Know Ivan Julian.
BOTTOM PHOTO: Nicholas Tremulis, Alejandro Escovedo, Ivan and Linda Pitmon (The Fauntleroys, 2014).
Thursday, April 29, 2021
The Best Of Ivan Julian
The Outsets, 1983 |
The Outsets were followed by Lovelies, a band led by Cynthia Sley, ex-Bush Tetras (who was married to Ivan at the time.) Lovelies made a 1988 album called Mad Orphans. Ivan and Cynthia have a son, Austin Sley Julian, who is in a band called Sediment Club.
Ivan and Cynthia in 1988 (photo from Ffanzeen) |
Ivan Julian with the late Robert Quine |
Saturday, April 17, 2021
New Jersey's Extra Finest
Jersey Week has been held over for a second week, because there's more talent in New Jersey than seven days can cover! And more than enough for a second volume of NJ's Finest.
No, I'm not talking about the boys in blue, or a cold bottle of Ballantine's brew. New Jersey's Finest are artistic types like Richard Barone and Richie Ramone. Sarah Vaughan and Ben Vaughn. The Isley Brothers and the Twisted Sisters. Connie Francis and Francis Albert Sinatra. Steely Dan and the Feelies, man. Frankie Valli and the Black Hollies. The Smithereens and the Fountains Of Ween Wayne.
The next time your lover whispers, "Kiss me where it smells funny," you don't have to take them all the way to New Jersey -- bring that olfactory aphrodisiac to the privacy of your own boudoir with this compilation of the classiest in Jersey-fied entertainment!
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Garden State Of Mind
Blog reader Drizzz had some great suggestions of songs about New Jersey. I did a bit of searching, and found a fab post from Beware Of The Blog, WFMU's late and lamented music site. DJ KBC, a former WFMU host, compiled "A Garden State Of Mind", 22 songs about the state. Fortunately, the mp3's are still hosted there.
The comment section (as well as other Jerseyfied posts on Beware Of The Blog), yielded more tunes. One commenter said that the song credited to John Linnell is not actually his, but it did not mention the real identity of the performer.
I dropped a couple of DJ KBC's selections and added others, but kept the title. This post is sort of a sequel to Stinky's compilation It's All About Jersey. Thanks again to Drizzz and to DJ KBC for this "celebration of the armpit of the nation"!
Monday, April 12, 2021
Jersey Week: The Cucumbers
One more from Stinky for NJ Week featuring The Cucumbers, a talented band inextricably associated with the Hoboken scene of the 1980's.
As Jon Pareles pointed out in the New York Times, "Most pop songs end where romance begins," but The Cucumbers "write about friction and affection within longtime couples."
Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Tom Popson made a similar point: The Cucumbers' lyrics "often exhibit a matter-of-fact acceptance of life's limitations, particularly in the area of male-female relationships.'' Cucumbers singer-songwriter Deena Shoshkes agreed: ''The rock'n'roll cliche is to write about totally letting go, self-indulgence, sex and drugs and rock'n' roll. But the subject of a lot of our songs is compromise, accepting certain things for other things.''
After Deena Shoshkes and Cucumbers cofounder Jon Fried married and became parents, they continued to make music. Deena and Alice Genese made a children's record called Over The Moon. Deena and Jon wrote most of the music for Sing SOS, a compilation of various artists for autism awareness. Participants included Marshall Crenshaw, Dar Williams, Jonatha Brooke, Ari Hest, Jackson Browne, Valerie Carter, Dan Bern, Mike Viola, Marti Jones and Don Dixon.
Jon and Deena have formed a new sextet called The Campfire Flies, and they released their first album Sparks Like Little Stars in 2019. Deena is also a solo artist, and she most recently guested on an infectious 2020 country-rock single called "Dance The Night Away" with the band Poor Man's Opera. That song, as well as several solo tracks by Deena, are interspersed with live and studio songs by The Cucumbers in Stinky's brand new Homemade Album.