Warning: Purchase of this t-shirt might lead people to believe that you have a clue

I just had a customer, a female in her early 20's, who was wearing a
t-shirt with Deborah Harry pictured on the front. I said to her "that's a cool Debbie Harry shirt." She somewhat rudely responded "I have no idea who you're talking about, but that's a picture of Blondie on my shirt." I laughed and said "yeah, she's the singer for Blondie." She muttered something to her friend along the lines of "huh? that guy is confusing me" before wandering away.

Hmmmm...this may be a wild guess, but I'll bet she shops at Hot Topic.

A Gathering of Promises

In the mist of sassafras
Many things will come to pass
And the smoke shall rise again
To the place above where it began

When I was in 6th grade, I was at a friend’s house and we were looking through his family’s record cabinet. It was mostly full of kiddie records, with some of his parents’ old stuff mixed in. I came across a single entitled Hot Smoke and Sassafras, credited to a group called The Bubble Puppy. I started laughing and asked “Who did this belong to?” “Oh, I bought that when I was a little kid at a garage sale. I thought it was a children’s record, maybe a song about a puppy or something. I don’t remember what it sounds like, but I remember that I didn’t like it.” After much bugging on my part, he reluctantly agreed to play the single. The song opened with a burst of feedback, followed with an acid rock guitar riff and some fast drum fills. Then it all slowed down, and some of the fruitiest hippie-dippy lyrics I’d ever heard were sung (for years, I thought the first line was “Hey Mister Sassafras”). Then the guitar riff and drums kicked back in, a pattern that was followed for the two remaining choruses. By the time the single ended, I was rolling on the floor laughing. “The feedback at the beginning,” I exclaimed, “it sounded like they were killing a cow or something!” Annoyed, my friend quickly put the single away. Later that day, I brought up the fact that he had owed me fifty cents for over a week. He didn’t have the money, so I suggested “Why don’t you just give me that Bubble Puppy single instead?” He looked at me like I was nuts, went to the record cabinet, and handed me the single.

Time will bring the fire and flame
As surely as it brought the rain
But in the gardens of the moon
Time is held within the silver spoon

A year or so later, I started listening to a Sunday morning radio show on KAZY called Psychedelic Sunday. You can pretty much guess what the focus was – old rock n’ roll from the 1960’s with a big emphasis on psychedelic tunes. I would usually miss the beginning, as I’d be at early church services with my family. One Sunday, when we didn’t go to church, I caught the show from the beginning. “This is Psychedelic Sunday!” the deejay announced, and a familiar burst of guitar feedback kicked in – it was Hot Smoke and Sassafras by The Bubble Puppy! After getting the chance to tune in for the beginning of the show a few more times, I learned that the deejay used that song every week for his introduction. Around the same time, I told some friends at school about the tune and how funny it was. They all started bringing cassette tapes for me to make copies. Pretty soon, references to The Bubble Puppy became a bit of a running joke with all of us. I did a little bit of research, and found out that the Bubble Puppy was from Texas and that Hot Smoke and Sassafras had been a top 20 hit in 1969. I later learned that International Artists, the label that released the single, was home to several other Texas psychedelic weirdo bands including the 13th Floor Elevators and the Red Krayola. I wonder what the old hippies in The Bubble Puppy would have thought if they knew that they had become a strange running joke to a bunch of smartass junior high kids in Colorado?

If you're happy where you are
Then you need not look too far
If you've found your place at last
Then you need not use the looking glass

Flash forward many years, and I’m browsing at a CD store in Seattle with my soon-to-be wife. In the B section, I see a name that catches me by surprise…oh no, it couldn’t be…its The Bubble Puppy! It was a reissue of their lone album, A Gathering of Promises, on the somewhat dodgy Collectables label. Collectables was reissuing a bunch of old stuff from the International Artists label, and I dutifully snatched up several of the discs. Unfortunately, the quality of the CD’s was pretty bad. The Bubble Puppy was by far the worst – it sounded like the tape they used was speeding up and slowing down when they transferred it to disc. Not long afterwards, much better quality vinyl reissues started showing up. I managed to find the 13th Floor Elevators and the Red Krayola, but the Bubble Puppy eluded me. Regardless, I got rid of the lousy CD, happy that I still had my old single. A few more years passed, and I’m back in Denver and browsing the vinyl at Black and Read in Arvada. I hadn’t thought about The Bubble Puppy in years, and I think you can guess what I found…yep, a vinyl reissue of their album. I bought it, of course, and the clerk looked at it and muttered “good lord” as he rang me up.

In this age of too much useless information (and long, pointless blog entries), there is a website devoted to pretty much everything you can think of. A week or so ago, an old friend sent me a link to the official Bubble Puppy website. Yeah, he was one of the smartass junior high kids who used to joke about Hot Smoke and Sassafras with me. Embarrassingly enough, I had to admit to him that I had already found that website. And that I had read pretty much every word of The Bubble Puppy’s story.

Crushin’

On the drive in to work this morning, I was tuned into Radio 1190 – the commercial free AM station out of Boulder. The deejay announced “This is a request I got yesterday, but I couldn’t find the record at the station and had to bring a copy from home. Here is The Twist by the Fat Boys.” What’s funny is that I heard the same deejay play this tune a few weeks ago during the station’s pledge drive – she was looking through the station’s hip-hop singles drawer, and she said that the cover was so funny that she decided to play it. So, my question is, why did the deejay need to bring the record from home? I think she helped herself to the station’s copy after playing it a few weeks ago. Then again, who can blame her? I know I’d have a hard time not taking that one home, especially now that we’re apparently experiencing a Fat Boys revival here in D-town.

Prior to this flurry of activity, the only other time I’d heard this version of The Twist was when I was home for Christmas during my first year of college. I was having some cold brews at the much missed Paddy Boots on Broadway (a particularly classy joint with boots hanging all over the place) with my friends Eric and Jeremy. We were pretty much the only people in the place, and no music had been playing, when all of a sudden The Twist came blaring out of the jukebox speakers. Well, I’m pretty sure it was The Twist – it may have been the Fat Boys version of Wipeout. Whatever it was, it scared the crap out of me.

I made it over to Benders on Friday to catch local faves the Breezy Porticos. Their set was good, and heavy on new material. They also played a cover of Harry Nilsson’s Me and My Arrow, cementing their reputation as Denver’s leading purveyors of wimp rock – huzzah! The Breezies were warming up for The Eames Era, a lively pop band from Baton Rouge. They reminded me of 90’s Sub Poppers Velocity Girl – a band I hadn’t thought about in years. I really enjoyed them, and I picked up their CD Double Dutch, which reinforces my comparison. Not necessarily a bad thing!

Repulsion

The li’l woman and I made a rare trip up to Boulder on Friday to catch Dinosaur Jr. I’ve never been a huge fan, but I do like them and even saw them once before during their “major label” era. They have the original lineup together for this tour, and I was glad we went – they put on a pretty good show. J. Mascis, always a pretty odd looking guy, looks even stranger nowadays as his long hair is almost all white. What was kind of funny was how the people who were up front kept complaining that they couldn’t hear the vocals. J. and bassist Lou Barlow both pointed out that the vocals were coming out of the PA speakers hanging to the sides, and these people were standing in front of huge guitar stacks (three for the guitar, two for the bass), so they shouldn’t really expect to hear any vocals! Warming up was a metal band from Montreal called Priestess. Not really my thing, but they were good at what they did – they even had a drum solo! What cracked me up was that they looked like typical metal dudes, and probably wanted people to think that they’re badass. But let’s face facts – these guys are from Canada, so my guess is that they’re all really polite. You’re not fooling anyone guys!

On Saturday I made it over to Bender’s Tavern to catch the Boss Martians, a power pop band from Seattle. I saw them quite a few times over the years when I was living there, but back then they were doing a totally different thing – they were a mostly instrumental surf band. At some point, leader Evan got out of his retro bag and started writing pop tunes, and I did see them once before after they’d made this transformation. Still, that was a few years ago, and they’ve really improved since I last saw them. Their performance was full of energy, and the songs were a lot of fun. I think the keyboardist is the only other original member, I recognized the bassist who was an old acquaintance from punk band The Valentine Killers. The opening band was Sans Sobriety, a local act with t-shirts that promised “150% Metal, Punk, and Hardcore.” After a few seconds, I was 200% sure I wasn’t going to enjoy them, and promptly headed to the bar to wait out their set.

If you dig rock documentaries I highly recommend New York Doll, which just came out on DVD. It’s the story of Arthur “Killer” Kane, who was the bassist in the short lived (but incredibly influential) New York Dolls. In the years since they had broken up Kane lived in an alcoholic daze in Los Angeles, and even survived a strange suicide attempt. Hitting rock bottom, he converted to Mormonism and found peace, eventually working for the church in their family records library. Despite his new sober and very quiet life, every day he wished that he could reunite with the Dolls. This chance came when Morrissey extended an invite for the three surviving members to reunite for a performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Fellow church members took up a collection for Arthur to get his bass out of the pawn shop, and he traveled to New York for rehearsals. The show in London is triumphant, and the look on Arthur’s face during the performance footage is priceless – equal parts shock and surprise, with a fair bit of stage fright mixed in. The man is finally living his dream, and when you get down to it that’s what New York Doll is really about – that even your wildest dreams can sometimes come true. Sadly, Arthur Kane passed away from leukemia less than a month after the concert. It’s a moving tale, and if you aren’t touched after watching this film then you’d better have your heart checked – it may not be working properly.

Damn, I wish I still had that old drum set...

Check this out - I guess all of the best bands now form via Craig's List.

(Thanks for sending this Paul!)

Get Good or Stay Bad

A few more days, and a few more shows:

The Cops - I had read some decent reviews of this Seattle band, so I caught them last Wednesday at the Larimer Lounge. I must admit that part of my interest was due to the fact that their new CD was produced by Kurt Bloch, a guy responsible for a lot of incredible music and an acquaintance from my Seattle days. I actually managed to get into this show without paying - no, I'm not so hip that I can just breeze into any club here in D-town. I think the doorman had just left his post when I arrived, so I lucked out. Considering that the last three times I've been to the Larimer they'd bumped up the admission a couple of bucks from what was listed on the website, I really didn't feel too bad about it. One of the reviews I had read compared The Cops to The Jam and Richard Hell (this is even quoted on a sticker that's on the front of their new CD), but I didn't really hear that in their music. I would describe them more as an Americanized take on the first Clash and Stiff Little Fingers albums, complete with some of the dub elements. Not overly original stuff, but they put on a very energetic and enjoyable show. I ended up buying a CD, seeing as I was so flush with cash from not paying the cover. Ha!

Chrome - I caught these space rockers the next night at the Bluebird. I'm not overly familiar with their music, although I do have a few CD's and have seen some shows in the past. Nowadays, I think the Chrome name is used to promote guitarist Helios Creed's music; I’ve seen him play under his own name and as Chrome. Regardless, I did recognize of few of the older Chrome tunes, and I thought it was a cool show. It actually made me a bit dizzy at times! I'm not sure if it was the flashing lights, the films projected on the band, the volume, or that evening's beer special that caused the dizziness. Maybe it was a combination of these elements. A local group, New Ancient Astronauts, opened the show. I think they were trying for a space rock thing similar to Chrome, but they veered a bit too close to heavy metal at times for me to be totally won over. But they didn't annoy me either, which is a blessing in its own regard.

Spoon - This was a free show I saw last night, put on by Jack Daniels. I received an email voucher to attend, so I decided to give it a try. I really don't know any of Spoon's music, but I did see them open for Guided By Voices many years ago and remembered liking them then. A much bigger crowd this time than the last time I attended a free Jack Daniels show, but the Gothic still wasn't packed. This was good thing, as there were some real jackasses in attendance! I guess you should expect that from the type of event where scantily clad women toss free t-shirts from the stage. The warm-up act was really dull, some local hippie trio. When Spoon came on, I was a bit annoyed as I was behind a group who wouldn't quit talking and kept giving each other high-fives. So I worked my way up by the side of the stage, and found a really good spot. I gotta say, Spoon put on a really great show – cool tunes, and good stage presence to boot. I might hafta check out one of their CD’s soon.

While in line at the bar last night, I noticed a guy in front of me was giving me a funny look. Eventually, he pointed at my shirt and asked “Are those guys still together?” I was wearing a Flop t-shirt that must be nearly fourteen years old, as I bought it right before they put out their first album in 1992. I must’ve seen those guys play dozens of times in Seattle; they were big favorites of mine. “No” I answered, “they broke up a long time ago.” “Oh, that’s too bad…I had one of their albums back in the 90’s, they were really great!” responded the stranger. Yes, yes they were…sigh…come to think of it, Kurt Bloch produced a couple of their albums as well!

It’s a Weird World

After the fiasco I described last time at the Larimer Lounge, I decided I wasn't going to see the Willowz there the following night and was going to catch 45 Grave at the Bluebird instead. And that show was…cancelled, no doubt due to the snowstorm. Since then, however, spring feels like it has arrived. After what's felt like a dry spell for live music, things are starting to pick up. Here's the latest rundown:

Blowfly - I'm not sure why I was compelled to catch "the original dirty rapper," I was kind of surprised to see him in the club listings. I decided to give it a try, and overall it was pretty fun. The man himself hit the stage in what could be best described as a masked wrester costume, backed by a 3 piece band. The band was pretty good, alternating between a classic soul groove and more revved up punk numbers. If you're not familiar with Blowfly, let's just say that the majority of his songs deal with the female anatomy - definitely not for the politically correct! When he ended the set, audience members rushed up to help him down from the stage. He had taken off his mask, and he looked like a kindly old grandfather - he's got to be at least 60. I saw several people give the man a hug; it was actually kind of sweet.

Japan Night - This was a lineup of sixJapanese bands at the Bluebird. I wasn't really familiar with anyone who was playing, but bands from Japan are always fun to watch (if not overly original music-wise). Six bands were a bit much for one night, here's what I can recall:

Rodeo Carburetor - The music started a little earlier than advertised, so they had already started when I arrived. An energetic rock trio, what I saw was pretty good

The Emeralds - Another rock n' roll trio, but not nearly as revved up. I thought it was funny how they came out, tuned up their instruments, and then all put on leather jackets before starting their set - the jackets were then removed after the first song. The singer also put on a pair of sunglasses, which he removed in a dramatic fashion halfway through the first song. I think the drummer yelled "Hello Denver!" more times than all of the other bands I've seen in this town combined. Pretty decent, overall.

Stance Punks - Pretty standard punk rock, with a singer that jumped around constantly - he spent as much time in the air as he did on the ground. Their bassist looked like an Asian Dee Dee Ramone. Not too original, but still pretty cool. A friend of mine yelled "you're very adequate!"

Pe'z - After seeing three rock bands, it was kind of strange to see a jazz group. They sounded similar to Herb Alpert, but with a rock drummer (to my ears, at least, but I really don't know anything about jazz). Not really my thing, but I enjoyed them for what they were.

Ellegarden - Ugh, these guys didn't do anything for me. Boring emo rock, it sounded like something they'd play on ads for The OC (I've never seen the show, just the commercials!). They band played well, and the singer had a decent voice, but they just about put me to sleep. Is this the kind of influence our pop culture is having on other countries now? How sad.

TsuShiMaMiRe - A female trio, these ladies were far and away the highlight of the evening. They had the chirpy-happy pop thing down that you'd expect from a Japanese girl group, but at times veered into a much hasher sound (I joked that they were channeling their inner Babes in Toyland). A blast to watch (especially the bassist, who hopped and skipped around like an excited child), with great songs to boot, I'd go see this group again in a heartbeat - they provided a perfect ending to a fun night out.

So, after a night of six Japanese bands, what did I catch next? More Japanese bands!

Gito Gito Hustler - Another Japanese all girl band, who I caught less than a week later at the 15th Street Tavern. Pretty standard poppy punk tunes, but played with that infectious spirit that always characterizes the best Japanese bands. The members were ultra cute, and had cheat sheets of English phrases to say between songs! Too funny - when the drummer ran out of things to say, she held up her pint glass and exclaimed "this is beer!" to great applause. Warming up was another partially Japanese band (they had an American drummer), The Spanks, who played pretty average punk tunes. They did have one funny tune, We Love Wok n' Roll. They were a damn sight better than locals Fuckin' Orange, who opened with a set of crappy metal that went on for way too long.

Soledad Brothers - I caught these guys the next night. As usual, a great set from this bluesy Detroit garage band. In the past I've seen them as a duo, then a trio, and nowadays they're playing as a four piece. A real energetic performance this time (especially drummer Ben Swank, who's a kick to watch), maybe the best I've ever seen them play. I've seen these guys close to ten times, and I realized that I had never actually bought one of their records. So I picked up their latest after the show, The Hardest Walk. It's good - it has a bit of an early 70's Stones vibe. The Soledads were opening for the Heartless Bastards. They were okay, but they didn't do a whole lot for me. The woman who sang had a terrific voice, but she was so uptight (she yelled at the soundman a few times) that it kind of put some people off. I would have rather seen the Soledad Brothers play a little longer!

The Orangu-Tones with Burlesque As It Was - We caught this last Saturday, and it was pretty fun. Local garage rockers the Orangu-Tones provided the backing music for a two hour old fashioned burlesque show. So you had rock and roll, and half naked girls. Not a bad combo! The show dragged a bit in spots when the guys would be waiting for a costume change, but that's a minor complaint seeing how much fun the whole evening was. This was in the newly renovated Oriental Theater, which is just a few minutes from our house. A very cool venue, hopefully they'll be more shows there in the near future.

Sunday morning at work was a bit harsh - what with the time change, and the zoo's extended summer hours starting, I felt pretty worn out by the end of the day. As a matter of fact, I still do!