THE BEST OF WAZMO NARIZ Chicago's New Wave Geniuses Check Out The Checkout Girl!

THE BEST OF WAZMO NARIZ 

I was turned onto WAZMO NARIZ through a 1981 compilation: I.R.S. GREATEST HITS VOLS. 2 & 3.

Trouser Press said this about it:   This double album has its musical ups and downs, but it’s a well-assembled sampler by a label that, at the time, had a phenomenal roster. A lot of these bands have since made better records than the items included here; still, it fulfills its appointed mission skillfully, and does contain a lot of good material.

It was also my introduction to Skafish, another Chicago band that shares a lot of similarities.  Both were decidedly uncool, oddball, & original.  There wasn't a pretty boy in either band, both shared their name with the stage name of the lead singer, and both were early 80’s new wave bands.

Of WAZMO, Trouser Press journo Steven Grant wrote: Despite a wealth of talent and wild humor, Nariz fell between niches — too bizarre to be pop, too pop to be avant-garde — and the band dissolved amid financial worries & critical apathy.

But their successes certainly stirred some envy in their peers.  Their first single Tele-Tele-Telephone was picked up by STIFF Records—and was one of the label’s first UK releases.  After releasing an EP, the band caught the attention of I.R.S. Records’ founder Miles Copeland who put them on tour with his brother’s band THE POLICE.  Two songs from an appearance opening for them at Santa Monica Civic Center are included here.  

They were prolific songwriters.  None of the songs on their EP were included on their debut album.  To my knowledge, they didn’t record any cover songs.

Lead singer Wazmo Nariz (Larry Grennan) was an early host of MTV’s Cutting Edge.  Wazmo/Grennan went on to work with Stan Ridgway, and his drummer Bruce Zelesnik was a member of Ridgway’s band.  Grennan popped up in several national commercials back in the day.

Doug Stone reviewed their lone I.R.S. release: This inaugural LP spurts Bryan Ferry trilling trapped in bouncy Oingo Boingo biscuits. Skinny-tie before skinny ties made the scene (hence Nariz' trademark of two wide ties) and new wave before new wave crashed on the shore, Nariz and his Wazband are undeniably talented but strikingly odd. If you like your '80s pop off-kilter and kooky, chances are you'll dig Things Aren't Right, which sets the standard for standing apart.

A shout out is in order to (friend of the blog) ViacomClosedMeDown.  He posted the lion's share of the tracks contained here on his blog.  While I had some of the tracks on CD, I used his rips so it would have the warm crackle of vinyl throughout--except for of a couple of live YouTube videos I converted.  Check out VCMD's Wazmo post here: Down Underground

The New P0rnogr@phers Are 26 Years 0ld

I still remember the excitement of hearing "Mass Romantic" on college radio for the first time.  The New Pornographers sounded so different to my ears from other indie rock of 2000. It was a maximalist form of pop music, jam-packed with novel lyrical and melodic ideas, plus vocal arrangements that recalled groups like The Turtles. If you need a reminder of what was popular that year, check out Allmusic Loves 2000 or the Fluxblog 2000 Survey mix.

To be fair, I hadn't heard Zumpano (Carl Newman's former band), and it was a few years before I bought King James Version (Harvey Danger's remarkable 2000 album, which also featured elaborate vocal harmonies and clever lyrics).  Who but The New Pornographers could rhyme "set the scene" with "Byzantine" -- or create an irresistable chorus from the phrase, "Nobody knows the wreck of the soul the way you do"?

The liner notes to their debut announced, "We are The New Pornographers. This album is the second creation of The Blue Curtain," begging the question of what The Blue Curtain was, and what its first creation might have been.  I suspect it was Blaine Thurier's film The Low Self-Esteem Girl (which featured his bandmates Carl Newman and Dan Bejar as actors).

Dan Bejar had released Destroyer's Thief album in 1999, and Neko Case released Furnace Room Lullaby in 2000, adding to the impression that The New Pornographers was an indie supergroup, or a collective.  Dan's contributions to New Pornographers' albums gradually diminished as Destroyer flourished, and he left after 2014's Brill Bruisers.  

Neko Case has also had a successful solo career, and she collaborates with many other artists.  I'm pleased to report that Neko is still a New Pornographer and can be heard on the new album The Former Site Of.  She harmonizes beautifully with Carl Newman, but she is lead vocalist less often than she was back in the early 2000's (on songs like "Letter From An Occupant", "All For Swinging You Around" and "Mass Romantic").

John Collins was a founding New Pornographer, and he balances his work with Destroyer and other projects. Todd Fancey joined as lead guitarist in 2003, and he maintains a solo career as well as his membership as a Pornographer in good stead.  The same is true of Kathryn Calder, who joined in 2005 and also leads the group Frontperson. Wikipedia has a helpful chart of the New Pornographers' membership over the years.  Ironically, a drummer was recently fired after an arrest for child pornography.

Here's a CD-length "best of" The New Pornographers, starting with a song from the new album and working backwards to 2000.  The New Pornographers are touring North America through October 2026.  A word of advice, if you're going: I've seen Neko have audience members thrown out for recording cell phone videos.  

Buy The Former Site Of 

Buy tickets to see The New Pornographers

Elsewhere On The Blog: Neko Case's sister from another mister, Kelly Hogan

Best Of Johnny Gimble Vol. 1 BOB WILLS Merle Haggard GEORGE JONES Ray Benson

Best Of Johnny Gimble Vol. 1

Johnny Gimble was one of the most important fiddlers in Western Swing from his early days as a member of BOB WILLS & HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS to his work with the greats of country music.  On this collection, he performs with BOB WILLS, GEORGE JONES, MERLE HAGGARD, CHET ATKINS, WILLIE NELSON, & RAY BENSON & ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

He was born in Tyler Texas, and played on his first recording in Corpus Christi in 1948.  A year later, he joined BOB WILLS & HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS, & toured with them for the next decade.  He & his wife settled in Dallas & Johnny began doing television shows including THE BIG D JAMBOREE--a competitor of Nashville’s The Grand Ol’ Opry & California’s Town Hall Party.  Gimble rejoined Bob Wills in 1953 & played with him until the early ‘60s.  He hosted his own TV Show in Waco Texas JOHNNY GIMBLE & THE HOMEFOLKS which featured a young bass player named WILLIE NELSON.

After moving to Nashville in 1968, he backed the cream of country music, including Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, & Chet Atkins.  He toured with Willie Nelson from 1979-1981 & appeared in Willie’s movie Honeysuckle Rose.  He also played his old boss Bob Wills in Clint Eastwood’s Honky Tonk Man.  Merle Haggard featured Gimble's instrumental wizardry on his 1970 album, A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World (Or, My Salute to Bob Wills).

Of course he appeared on HEE HAW, but the show he appeared on the most (holding the record for most appearances at one point) was AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.  He was also a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s PRARIE HOME COMPANION radio show.

He’s a member of both the ROCK HALL OF FAME, and THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME, and was nominated 15 times for Instrumentalist Of The Year by The Country Music Association.  An interesting bit of trivia; Gimble & his wife Barbara were divorced twice and remarried twice!

DIE IDIOTEN: An Iggy Covers Album

 

It's Bandcamp Friday!  One new item that caught my eye is a single from The Art Gray Noizz Quintet with Lydia Lunch.  Together, they cover "Permafrost" by Magazine and "Mass Production" by Iggy Pop.  Here was one of the final missing pieces to complete a cover album project!

The Idiot was released in March 1977 and was followed six months later by Lust For Life.  Both albums were created during Iggy and Bowie's stay in East Berlin.  From their black and white covers to the musicians who play on both records, the two LP's are close siblings. Thus the title of this covers album, Die Idioten (The Idiots). 

I couldn't find this album online (or any other covers of "Turn Blue"), so there is a live version from Iggy's US tour with Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals.  Otherwise it's all covers, in a surprising range of interpretations in various genres, including reggae (Trippynova), mento (The Jolly Boys), rockabilly (J.D. McPherson), country (Kelly Willis, having fun with Chuck Prophet and The Gourds), plus a track from Angkor Pop, the Cambodian tribute to Iggy.  The biggest surprise to me was David Hasselhoff's version of "The Passenger".  It's modern European dance music, but the Hoff doesn't go over the top.  His vocal is faithful to the original.  Best thing he's done since his Lords Of The New Church cover!

The lyrics to these songs are among the best that Iggy has written, although some of them are problematic.  Iggy's attraction to underage girls is evident on "Sixteen" and "Tiny Girls".  Check out Eugene Robinson's article Punk Rock Pedophilia for a thoughtful examination of this issue.  

Another problematic lyric is "Visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone/It's in the whites of my eyes." Of course, the China Girl tells the song's narrator to shut his mouth.  It was Ron Asheton (not Iggy) who collected Nazi memorabilia, and it was Bowie who foolishly flirted with fascism.  

There's a fascinating new book called This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika, and the Third Reich which explores this obsession among rock musicians.  Bowie, Lennon, Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Vivian Stanshall, Eric Burdon, Lemmy, Throbbing Gristle, Sid Vicious, Siouxsie, Mark E. Smith, Bernard Sumner, Richard Jobson, Spandau Ballet, Nico, Slayer, Kanye and many others are examined in music, word and deed.  

The author, Daniel Rachel, also wrote a book about 2-Tone and the Rock Against Racism movement; and in This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll he calls out RAR for being less focused on antisemitism than other forms of racism.  I would like to have read a chapter on the white supremacist and neo-Nazi connections to noise, neo-folk, and metal, but those troubling topics are explored here, here, here and here. 

Sorry for such a long and digressive post today.  If I may suggest one item to consider for purchase on this Bandcamp Friday, it's the new release from Atlanta singer-songwriter K. Michelle Dubois.  She was a founding member of Ultrababyfat, and on her excellent solo albums she collaborates with Dan Dixon and other members of Atlanta band Dropsonic.  

Dubois' new full-length, Served On The Half Shell, is a collection of originals and covers: All Tomorrow's Parties, Truth Hits Everybody, and The Culture Bunker by Teardrop Explodes!  Michelle has a compelling voice. I frequently return to her solo albums, and always try to catch her live shows (which are too rare). 

Her new record is a great introduction to her music, as it features both new originals and remixes of older ones like All Night Glamour (which really needs to be featured on the soundtrack of the next teen vampire movie.) I previously featured K. Michelle Dubois' music here on the compilation Georgia Women of Alternative Rock (GWAR).

Buy This Ain't Rock'n'Roll from Akashic Books

Buy other Daniel Rachel books from Bookshop.org 

Buy music from K. Michelle Dubois at Bandcamp

KNOW IT? I WROTE IT! Vol. 3 BILLY SWAN Mark James JIMMY SILVA Rod Argent

KNOW IT?  I WROTE IT! Vol. 3

It’s rare that we can claim to be posting anything by popular demand, but our visitors actually requested Volume 3 of KNOW IT?  I WROTE IT!  It's chock-full of songwriters performing songs they wrote--which are often associated with another performer.

Such is the case with BILLY SWAN’s Lover Please, a song he wrote when he was in high school, & got Clyde McPhatter to record.  MARK JAMES’ version of Suspicious Minds is a faint echo in most people's memory compared to Elvis Presley’s version of the song—but it’s pretty great.  Ringo Starr took HOYT AXTON’s No No Song & ran with it, but it his version didn’t boast cameos by Cheech & Chong!  JACK TEMPCHIN handed Peaceful Easy Feeling over to The Eagles, but turns in a really nice version here.  

Handing songs over to The Monkees was in BOYCE & HART’s job description, and Vol. 3 contains the duo’s demo for Words.  GRAHAM GOULDMAN similarly supplied hits to the stars throughout the ’60s, and here he reclaims his Heart Full Of Soul in front of a live audience.  DAVE ALVIN & BUTCH HANCOCK both wrote for their respective bands before they landed solo record deals.

Longtime Beach Boys associate BRUCE JOHNSTON probably penned I Write The Songs for himself, but it’s become much more closely associated with Barry Manilow.  Several other songs fall in that category like JACKIE DeSHANNON’s When You Walk In The Room, JIMMY SILVA & THE GOATS’ Hand Of Glory, & ED BRUCE’s Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.

 

Comeback Special 2014

In this episode of Comeback Specials, we set the controls of the wayback machine to 2014.  After listening to over three dozen albums by artists who had not released anything new in a decade or more, I chose a song from each and compiled them.  Thought went into the song selection and sequencing, just as it did when I was a nerdy boyfriend trying to impress a young woman with a mixtape. It's all there except for the carefully hand lettered artist names and song titles. 

2014’s most significant comebacks were probably D’Angelo, The Pixies, Funkadelic, and (most improbably) Linda Perhacs, 44 years after her 1970 album Parallelograms.  Like Cold Fact, Red Hash and Just Another Diamond Day before it, Parallelograms was a little known LP from the early 1970’s that gained recognition and influence among a generation of listeners who weren’t even born when those albums were released to an indifferent public.  The musicians were located and informed (often to their great surprise) of their newfound online fame, as well as the new interest in seeing them perform and hearing any unreleased songs that they may have to offer to the eager ears of a world that had once passed them by.

D’Angelo, on the other hand, had withdrawn from fame after his 2000 sophomore album Voodoo.  2014’s Black Messiah was a triumphant return, but it was also his final album (the artist born Michael Archer died in 2025).  The Pixies had begun a series of reunion tours in 2004, but 2014’s Indie Cindy was their first new album of original songs since 1992. (The songs were first released as a series of three EP’s.)  

Funkadelic’s return was a sprawling triple album of 33 songs (one for each of the 33 years since their last album in 1981).  First Ya Gotta Shake The Gate included contributions (some of them posthumous) from first generation Funkateers (Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins, Cordell “Boogie” Mosson, David Spradley, DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, Eddie Hazel, Fred Wesley, Gary Shider, Jeff “Cherokee” Bunn, Jessica Cleaves, Michael Hampton, Rodney “Skeet” Curtis), plus some young folks with a strong Mothership connection (three generations of Clintons, plus Gary Shider’s son Garrett).  Guests included Sly Stone and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien.

Another sprawling comeback was created by The Rentals.  It was originally a much larger multimedia project called Songs About Time, which included music, films and photographs.  The more traditionally structured songs were condensed into the 2014 album, Lost In Alphaville.  Like The Pixies, The Rentals originally released their new music on a series of EP’s.  And coincidentally, Joey Santiago played on both projects.

Kim Shattuck had briefly replaced Kim Deal in the Pixies in 2013, but she was fired before the recording of Indie Cindy.  Proving once again that living well is the best revenge, Kim and The Muffs released an excellent album of new songs in 2014.

Other unexpected comebacks from 2014 included Curved Air (first album since 1976); The Boys (first since 1980); The Babys (first since 1981, but with a different singer); The Real Kids (first since 1983); and The Happy Refugees (first since 1984). The Electric Prunes also returned in 2014 with their first record since 1970 (a mix of new songs and old ones).  The Van Pelt will appear again on Comeback Special 2023, and The Woodentops reappear on Comeback Special 2024.

I remember buying the Chrome and D’Angelo albums when they came out in 2014, and a friend of mine was really into the Cibo Matto record.   Don’t think I heard any of the others back then, but there are some excellent songs on both of these hourlong sets.  

KNOW IT? I WROTE IT! Vol. 2 Songwriters Versions Of Their Songs CHIP TAYLOR Hal David WILLIE NELSON

KNOW IT?  I WROTE IT! Vol. 2 delivers more songs sung by the folks who wrote them.  

There are a few artists from Vol. 1 who had a couple memorable versions of their songs, like CHIP TAYLOR’s LP version of Wild Thing, and HARLAN HOWARD’s Above & Beyond—a big hit for Buck Owens.  THE CRETONES come back with the other song Linda Ronstadt covered Cost Of Love.  COWBOY JACK CLEMENT returns with a live version of his A Girl I Used To Know that I love, & TOMMY BOYCE & BOBBY HART’s demo of The Monkees Theme is pretty cool, too.  Former Kingston Trio member JOHN STEWART doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously on his own version of Daydream Believer.

RUSS BALLARD’s version of New York Groove is less glam, & more straight ahead rock.  I don’t think I realized that his old bandmate ROD ARGENT was the sole songwriter of The Zombies’ swan song Time Of The Season.  I saw Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach in concert, & couldn’t shake the feeling that, across town, someone was announcing: “Ladies & Gentlemen, please welcome Hal David & The Attractions!”  But, I don’t remember Burt singing as beautifully as he delivers This Guy's In Love With You live at The Sydney Opera House.

A little more left of center are SHEL SILVERSTEIN’s own version of A Boy Named Sue, & MICHAEL DES BARRES & HOLLY KNIGHT’s version of Obsession really doesn’t improve on Animotion’s synth-ier version, but is still interesting.  Similarly Starland Vocal Band leader BILL DANOFF’s version of his Take Me Home Country Roads (which John Denver helped with) contains a lost verse--which probably could have stayed lost.  JOHN DENVER’s earliest recording of his Leaving On A Jet Plane also makes an appearance.  

WILLIE NELSON & FARON YOUNG join forces for Hello Walls which a cash-strapped Willie offered to sell to Faron Young after Faron had a huge hit with it.  Faron loaned Willie the money he needed & made him promise to hold onto the song.  JOHNNY RIVERS was best-known for his cover versions of hits by other artists, so some folks may not realize he also wrote some great songs that include Poor Side Of Town, performed here backed by Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives. 

ROY ORBISON dropped backstage to say hi to The Everly Brothers who asked if he had any songs and he played them Claudette.  The version here is from A Black & White Night and has lots of big stars backing him.  For proof that LEE DORSEY could write a great song, look no further than the insanely catchy Workin’ In A Coal Mine.  CARL PERKINS was playing guitar for his old friend Johnny Cash when he supplied “The Man In Black” with the smash hit Daddy Sang Bass, and his version has a lot of charm.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER had several songs in The Beatles’ Hamburg setlist, and he performed a fantastic version of Anna (Go To Him) at The Bottom Line.  PAUL McCARTNEY was kind enough to give Badfinger Come & Get it, and in Peter Wolf’s wonderful book Waiting On The Moon, Peter says he was hanging with Lennon & Harry Nilsson when John knocked off Goodnight Vienna made-to-order for Ringo Starr.