Steppingstones (Part 3)

Here's a third set of Steppingstones.  This series is a companion to Nuggetized (punk covers of Lenny Kaye's seminal collection of garage rock and psychedelic artyfacts), and a stepchild of the ongoing Punks Got Soul cover song series.  There's overlap among the three series -- but whatcha gonna do about it?

The inspiration for Steppingstones was a disastrous press conference where a drunk and boorish John Lydon claimed that the Sex Pistols never played cover songs.  Marc Bell (aka Marky Ramone) immediately responded, "Stepping Stone!"  Henry Rollins was there too; he kept quiet, but he knew from his SOA days that "Stepping Stone" was adopted as an anthem of the DC hardcore scene by kids who had learned it from the R&R Swindle soundtrack.  

Steppingstones #3 digs a bit further into the bubblegum and glam rock years, as well as landmark early 70's records from Alice Cooper, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Brian Eno and the Modern Lovers that inspired the first decade of UK punk.  Stretching a bit this time to include The Scientists (from Down Under) and The Forgotten Rebels (from Canada).  

I hope that you can forgive the presence of Paul Francis Gadd (his prison name) and separate the undeniable art from the irredeemable artist.  His appeal for release was denied in 2025, and rightly so. 

As with previous volumes, the original songs (on vol. 3.1) are generally longer than the punk versions (on vol. 3.2).  So there's a bonus track on 3.2 of T. Rex jamming with The Damned on a live version of "Bang A Gong".  The original recording bangs on for over 12 minutes, so I made a few crude edits in Audacity to reduce the length without sacrificing Rat Scabies' glorious drum solo.  

Speaking of The Damned, they have recently released Not Like Everybody Else, a covers album which serves as a tribute both to the late Brian James and to the music that inspired the band.  Rat Scabies, Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Paul Gray are touring this year to promote the record.  I saw them in concert last spring, and they've still got it!  Dave is in great voice, and the Captain is still an idiot savant, firing off brilliant solos while bouncing around as loony as ever.  Paul is a master of that Rickenbacker tone (like Lemmy and Bruce Foxton before him), and Professor Scabies beats his drumkit until it begs for mercy.  (SPOILER: no mercy granted.)  The tour is no "filthy lucre" cash grab, it's a celebration of fifty fuckin' years of mindless, directionless energy paired with magnificent showmanship.

James Intveld Live At WMNF Tampa's Heatwave 2002! Rockabilly!

James Intveld Live At WMNF Tampa's Heatwave 2002

James Intveld roared off the line by writing My Heart Is Achin’ For You--the song his band The Rockin’ Shadows recorded for Art Fein Presents The Best Of L.A. Rockabilly compilation.  It’s since been covered by many artists including Sonny Burgess & Dave Alvin.  

Intveld famously supplied all of Johnny Depp’s vocals in the John Waters film CRY BABY.  He also supplied Rosie Flores’ with her hit; Crying Over You (& supplied bass guitar & harmony vocals). Rosie wrote a track on rockabilly cult legend Wanda Jackson’s Heart Trouble album; Woman Walk Out The Door which was recorded with Rosie Flores, James Intveld, Lee Rocker, & Dave Alvin backing.  Intveld also wrote & played on a Gospel song on the same album Walk With Me.

Musically, he's a triple-threat--equally in demand as a writer, player, & singer.  He filled Dave Alvin's guitar slot in The Blasters for two years.

Intveld's a staple on compilation albums.  He contributed songs to Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, & Peter LaFarge tribute albums, & his Somewhere Down The Road (from his second album) was featured on Volume 2 of the A Town South Of Bakersfield compilations.

Intveld’s first solo album was on Germany’s Bear Family Records who focus mainly on the finest of box sets.  He played most of the instruments on it, & did the same on his second album on Molenaart Records—a US label that was started expressly for James.  He later re-released his debut on it in the states.

With matinee-idol good-looks and proximity to Hollywood, it was only a matter of time before he was put in front of the camera, & he's directed & acted in Hollywood movies with Sean Penn, Viggo Mortensen, Willam Dafoe, Billy Bob Thorton, River Phoenix & David Carradine. 

I’ve met James a couple times, and he’s always pleasant, unassuming, & down-to-earth.  From his music one gets the feeling he’s deeply spiritual, & he gives off what Los Angelenos might call “good vibes.”

It’s rare that JOKONKY has something to offer that’s ONLY available on our blog, but this may be the case with Live At WMNF Tampa's Heatwave 2002.  If another version is out there, it’s probably been recorded off the radio, & the source of this recording is the radio station’s soundboard.  I seduced a comely radio personality who shared a CD of this broadcast with me (upon learning I was a big fan of Intveld’s).  You could say I scored twice.

So settle in and crank up these live versions of songs from his albums, & if you enjoy them buy his records.

 

Buy Off The Bar

Here comes another Richard Dutch musical-soccer/football special!
Buy Off The Bar consisted of Michel, Marcel, Paul, and Loetje. 
The band emerged from the squatter's world of Amsterdam, but contrary to some, they did not have a militant musical punk style. 
Neither did they conform to the leather-heavy guitar rockers of those days. Their main inspiration was John Peel. 
So when they thought they were good enough, they made John Peel an offer he could not refuse. 
At this point, I might say that they put a dead animal's head in his bed, but they are such nice people that the offer was one John Peel simply could not refuse.
They offered to paint his house for free. So they did, and the first of the four Peel Sessions was a fact.

Their first release was a tape "Billy At The Bar", and a split 7” with Golden Strings. 
On their first album "It’s Up To Billy" there is a song Guitar Maffia and I’ll quote a few lines: 
Guitar Maffia of Amsterdamn, they feel important ‘cause they play in a band 
Imitating poses of Hendrix, Flower Power in 1986 
Oh what a mess we can do it better 
oh oh what a mess we don’t need any leather…… 
And that’s the true spirit “we have the fun, they have the fame” 
During their career they toured the UK a lot. It resulted in them obtaining a demo from The Buzzcocks of their unfinished song In The Back, which was promptly done by Buy Off The Bar for their 2nd Peel Session. This being the first and only Peel Session they officially released. And The Buzzcocks released their version of In The Back much later, in the 2000s.
Thus, which is the cover? 
Anyway this is a brilliant version.
Buy Off The Bar did a few other covers. The best thing they did was keeping them On Stage and Off The Records. 
From various live performances I have selected The Fall- That Man, TV Personalities – Part Time Punks, The Tights – Cracked. The latter being included on a compilation album "Pluralism D". 
Evolving in the next years, their second and last album bears influences of Bog Shed, and other great UK indie bands. 
Early 90s they quit. 
Paul, Michel and Loetje, I have no real idea how life went for them. As for 'Cil: there grew a career in DJing and writing, mostly about Ajax, the legendary footballclub from the Dutch Capital. A club where the great Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luis Suarez, Swart, Seedorf, Bergkamp, van der Sar, Vertongen, etc., etc., had a career. 

We ('Cil and I) joked about football. Then Ajax and (my team) PSV were at the same height. 'Cil said that PSV had all the money, to which I replied:

'Ajax can buy players but it takes PSV to make a team.' Or something like that, it was over 30 years ago.

Anyway, at time of writing Ajax keeps losing to PSV.

Cheers 'Cil.

What Rhymes With Oranger?

Who or what was Oranger?  A band from San Francisco formed in the late 90’s by former Overwhelming Colorfast members Mike Drake, Matt Harris (bass), and Jim Lindsay (drums).  Mike Drake (Oranger singer and guitarist) formed the record label Amazing Grease with Scott Kannberg from Pavement.  When Alan McGee started his Poptones label, he released Oranger's second album, The Quiet Vibrationland.  The band played regularly at the annual Noise Pop festival in SF, and toured with Pavement and REM.  Such are their bona fides.

Oranger released four albums (five if you count From The Ashes Of Electric Elves, which appeared as a bonus disc with some editions of Shutdown The Sun).  Their full length debut was Doorway To Norway (1998), and their final album was New Comes And Goes (2005).

Back in the Original Blog Era (O.B.E.), music labels and publicists realized that sending out a few mp3’s was a cheap promotional tool.  I downloaded “Radiowave” and fell in love with it.  Eventually I acquired most of the band's catalog, and compiled a mix of my favorites which I'm sharing here today.  (I ripped Oranger's cover version of “Porpoise Song” from a 7” single.)

Oranger appeared on several tribute albums (Bread, Bruce Haack, Kris Kristofferson, Pavement) and a videogame soundtrack. After the band broke up, Mike and Matt formed Hot Fog, a “New NWOBHM” band.  Mike, Jim and Matt collaborated during COVID on some cover songs, digitally released as the EP Please Leave Our Mind - Covers Under Lockdown. Matt Harris died in 2021. 

I recently discovered that in 2023, Mike Drake released under the Oranger name a solid collection of solo recordings titled Everyone Says You're Lots of Fun.  I also found (on Amazon Music) a digital double album called The Vanishing Eye. Also available now on Bandcamp is a recording of Oranger performing their live score to the 1929 film "Man With A Movie Camera".  

If you've read this far, you've probably gathered that the members of Oranger were multitalented musicians who probably spent a lot of time listening to Something/Anything and Smile.  Some fans of early Oranger may have felt they strayed too far from psychedelic pop with New Comes And Goes, but for me it is their best set of songs, with the satisfying punch of a more muscular sound.

ELSEWHERE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE: my collection of "Porpoise Song" covers, posted at Chez Nathan Nothin.

THE PALADINS’ BEST VOL. 2 - Rockabilly/Blues Masters!

THE PALADINS’ BEST VOL. 2:

As I wrote when I posted Vol.1, THE PALADINS started in San Diego, and played Los Angeles a lot starting in the mid-to-late-80s.

After signing with Alligator Records for their second album (produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos) they got sponsorship by Miller Genuine Draft, which allows them to tour Europe & Australia.  Some of the live cuts on Vol. 2 come from a show in The Netherlands, and some come from their home club; San Diego’s Belly Up Tavern.  This installment pulls heavily from compositions that were on their first three albums.  If response warrants it, I could easily do a Vol. 3.  

Guitarist/bandleader Dave Gonzallez started spending time on side projects The Hacienda Brothers (with Chris Gaffney) and Stone River Boys in 2004, and now owns a studio in Austin where he lives & records with his wife. SUSANNA VAN TASSEL.  They recorded two albums as duo that go for big bucks.

Bassist Thomas Yearsley was married to blues artist Candye Kane for a while, and after they split, he got clipped by a train trying unsuccessfully to save their dog, Swango, from being struck!  Read about it here: https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/sep/01/blurt1/

Volume 1 is here: 

https://jonderblog.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Paladins

Cover photo by Dave Van Hout.

Bernard Fowler - In Good Company

It’s funny how sometimes you think you ‘found’ a new artist, only to discover afterwards that you’ve ‘known’ him for quite a few years, but somehow his name never registered…
In this case I got intrigued in Bernard Fowler after reading reviews of his 2019 solo album ‘Inside Out’, a fascinating spoken-word album featuring only Stones covers, which gave familiar songs quite a different twist.
I listened to the whole album and was very impressed, this guy knew what he was doing!

Since then I have been paying more attention to Mr. Fowler and although he released only 3 solo albums, he has been appearing as a guest vocalist on loads of albums, including several in my own collection; Sly & Robbie’s 'Language Barrier', Material’s 'One Down', Jazz Passengers' 'In Love', James Blood Ulmer’s 'America - Do You Remember The Love?', and many more…
Plus he has been working as a backup vocalist with the Rolling Stones for a very long time, both in the studio and on stage!
Here’s a brief overview of his career so far.
He started singing in 1975 with the group The Total Eclipse for the album 'A Great Combination'.
In the early 1980s he provided vocals for several Celluloid Records and Bill Laswell projects, incl. Herbie Hancock’s 'Future Shock' hit album. During the later 80s and 90s he was a popular vocal gun for hire, besides the earlier mentioned albums and bands he also worked with Tackhead, Little Axe, Yoko Ono, Bootsy Collins, Philip Glass, etc.
The Stones connection started in 1985 where he contributed vocals to Mick Jagger’s solo ’She’s The Boss’ and 4 years later for the band’s ’Steel Wheels’. Besides those he also appeared on albums by Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts…
In 2006 Fowler finally released a solo funk/rock/pop/soul album ‘Friends With Privileges’, which was followed by ‘The Bura’ in 2015, featuring a mix of reggae, blues, rock and more…
Despite such an impressive resume no compilation has ever been released, consequently this seemed like an excellent opportunity for Jokonky to correct this lack and hopefully introduce his work to our regular visitors and beyond.
Considering the huge number of artists/groups he has worked with, the most appropriate name for this (double disc!) compilation seemed ‘In Good Company’.

 

Disc 1 includes Fowler with:

Material / Beside / B-Side / Taxi Gang / Sly & Robbie Band / Jonas Hellborg / Philip Glass / Ryuichi Sakamoto / The Strange Parcels / Ronnie Wood / Stevie Salas / Jazz Passengers 

 

Disc 2 features him with:

Tack>Head / The Uptown Horns / Bomb The Bass / Herb Alpert / Doug Wimbish / Paul Rose / The Boneshakers / The Chess Project / George Lynch & Jeff Pilson + a few tracks from his solo albums

The Grifters Guide To The Galaxy

 

The first half of the Nineties was a period when I wasn't paying close attention to new music.  I was busy getting married, buying a house, finishing a degree and starting a family.

"Alternative" FM radio wasn't bad, and it was easier to listen to the radio than buy records and read music magazines.  As a result, I was mostly oblivious to Britpop, No Depression, post rock, noise rock, shoegaze, low-fi, the Medway scene, Elephant 6, and trip hop.  Labels like Drag City, AmRep, Kill Rock Stars and Warp.

I got into some of the bands after they broke up.  One of my favorites from this period is The Grifters.  Since I didn't follow them from the beginning, I tend to prefer their later, more structured and less noisy songs. 

Grifters songs have a Stonesy swagger.  They may seem sloppy at first, but (as I discovered when I attended a reunion show), they had a fantastic rhythm section, and they were one of those "loose but tight" bands.  They came out of Memphis around the same time that Pavement, GBV and Archers Of Loaf were gaining notice, so they all got lumped into that "low fi" scene.  There's also a psychedelic influence in The Grifters' music (which becomes more pronounced in later songs like "Spaced Out" and "Parting Shot").

Covered With Flies

A HUNDRED BONUS POINTS to the first eagle-eared reader who can answer me these questions three:

Which song namechecks Joe South?

Which song namechecks Colorblind James?

Which song borrows a lyric from Lynyrd Skynyrd (and which Skynyrd song did the Grifters borrow from)?