Music Review: The Muffs, Whoop Dee Doo

By Noreen Sobczyk

The Muffs have released Whoop Dee Doo, their first album in a decade, and for one musical moment all is right with the world. Long time friends and bandmates Kim Shattuck (guitars, vocals, organ), Roy McDonald (drums, percussion), and Ronnie Barnett (bass, vocals) bring excellent musicianship and songwriting as well as a spirit of fun every time, so it’s no surprise that Whoop Dee Doo follows suit. Six albums into their career, what band hasn’t released a clunker or put a bit of filler on a couple of albums? The Muffs, that’s who. The Muffs move in, kick your ass, and move out in under four minutes.

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Music Review: Cabaret Voltaire, #7885 (Electropunk to Technopop 1978 – 1985)

By Noreen Sobczyk

#7885 (Electropunk to Technopop 1978 – 1985) continues the fruitful relationship between Cabaret Voltaire and Mute and includes revamped reissues of CDs and DVDs in box set form. These releases were initially broken into time periods, which for Cabaret Voltaire makes a whole lot of sense, because essentially you’re dealing with strikingly different sounds. #7885 is a distilled version of many creative ventures placing the entire era of the band together on one release for the first time.

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Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets—Various Artists

By Noreen Sobczyk

This eighty-track British compilation (save for a scant few Australian tracks), includes many songs making their first appearance on CD. Also included are a handful of previously unissued tunes (that were lingering about on reel to reel), from groups such as A Wild Uncertainty, Tony Rivers & The Castaways, The Thoughts, The Trekkas, and The Knave. The Looking Back compilation also boasts appearances by future rock stars such as Yes’s Steve Howe when he was in The In Crowd; AC/DC’s Bon Scott as member of The Valentines; and even Motorhead’s Lemmy (Kilmister) in his early combo The Rockin’ Vickers.

The discs serve as a good option for lovers of sixties British music unwilling to pay collector 7″ vinyl prices. Sure, there are Mod purists who will only spin these songs in clubs on vinyl, but for those of us content just to have the music, or to put on a CD at a party and let it roll without the fuss of compiling the tracks—this is a gem. There are only a few few songs that might prompt one to skip forward to the next offering, but none go so far as to risk clearing the dance floor.

If you’re a casual listener looking for an introduction to Mod music, this may not be your bag, but in researching a larger and earlier box set from Universal Music Archives titled The In Crowd, I found it selling at over $100 for used copies. That said, the tracks included herein may not boast names recognizable to the casual listener, but it doesn’t take an archivist to recognize this little set is worth the price of admission.

Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets was released by Cherry Red on November 21, 2011 and is available to order from their website.

Killer Instinct: Ten Psychotics With Style

Idea by Matt Keeley
With Contributions By . . .

Everyone knows that psychos in movies are good at one thing: killing. But honestly, that’s unfair. So many of these “homicidal maniacs” as some might call them have other interests. After all, are YOU just one thing? It’s time we set the record straight and give credit where it’s due, so here’s Popshifter‘s list of top multi-faceted murderers in alphabetical order because we don’t want to play favorites and take chances incurring their wrath!

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Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Hawk

By Noreen Sobczyk

Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell are well-known artists, each in their own right, coming from The Screaming Trees and Belle and Sebastian respectively. On their three collaborations thus far, the duo often resembles the lazy, hazy ease of bands such as Mazzy Star or The Cowboy Junkies.

While the Campbell/Lanegan collaborations are often gorgeous, Hawk proves that this formula might have worked best in one concentrated dose—perhaps as one release—instead of being portioned out repeatedly over multiple efforts.
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Concrete Blonde, Bloodletting 20th Anniversary Edition

By Noreen Sobczyk

Did you ever notice that Johnette Napolitano rarely, if ever, gets mentioned in those Top Women of Rock lists? Even if Concrete Blonde never had a good song on any album besides Bloodletting (which, rest assured they did), this album alone is enough to put her in the Top 20. Napolitano has the swagger, songwriting talent, and the vocal ability to assure her space as, perhaps not the Queen of Rock, but as a high-ranking member of the royal court.

On Bloodletting, Napolitano shows her vulnerability, desires, and strengths in spades on classic songs like the dysfunctional love song “Joey” (the band’s biggest commercial success); “Tomorrow Wendy” (a cover of the heartbreaking Andy Prieboy song about a friend dying from AIDS); and “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song);” one of the best vampire songs ever written, arguably second only to Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”
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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Dirty Shirt Rock ‘N’ Roll: The First Ten Years

By Noreen Sobczyk

Jon Spencer is a man of many faces. He is a crazed preacher proselytizing the electric gospel. He is a musical ringmaster with Tourette’s Syndrome repeatedly proclaiming, “the blues is number one.” He is the majestic mumbling Boomhauer of rock and roll. He and the Blues Explosion are here for one reason: to save rock and roll. And they do it repeatedly, as though it simply flows from their veins; as if they were born to do it. If you’ve ever seen them live, you know two things for certain: they take no prisoners and they are not fucking around.
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The T.A.M.I. Show, Collector’s Edition DVD

By Noreen Sobczyk

Perhaps you’ve seen some incarnation of this historic program via bootlegs, but this is the first time The T.A.M.I. Show (Teenage Awards Music International) has seen an official release. Little Steven has been quoted as saying “It’s the greatest rock movie you’ve never seen.” That may be debatable, but The T.A.M.I. Show sure is a treasure.
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Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, I Learned The Hard Way

By Noreen Sobczyk

Every music lover has undoubtedly been asked the same question at some point: “So what kind of music do you like?” It’s one of those tricky questions that sometimes results in a snarky answer, such as “the kind with melody and rhythm.”
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Everybody Was In The French Resistance. . . Now!, Fixin’ The Charts Volume One

By Noreen Sobczyk

When I first heard that Dyan Valdes (The Blood Arm) and Eddie Argos (Art Brut) were recording an album together, I was excited.

Argos always has plenty of humor and clever turns of phrase in his musical arsenal to fight the musical blahs. His antics with faux glam band Glam Chops even made Christmas music more enjoyable. So when I read Fixin’ the Charts was an album of answer songs I thought, “Well, that’s clever.”
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