Nancy Neon's Notes: September 2018

Text by Nancy Neon / FFanzeen, 2018

Images from the Internet
 

Live Review: The Legendary Cazbats

Club Bohemia, Cantab Lounge, Cambridge, MA

August 25, 2018, 8 pm

After my hiatus from rock 'n' roll, I was excited about seeing the Legendary Cazbats. I also wanted to bid a fond farewell to Micky Bliss, host of Club Bohemia, held at the Cantab since 2007. Before 2007, Club Bohemia had a home at the Kirkland Cafe for 14 years. It is fitting that I would say my goodbyes while seeing drummer, Daniel McCarthy play as I did my first night at Club Bohemia back in November 2000. That night, the bill was the Lyres, the Classic Ruins with Billy Borgioli, and the Downbeat 5, with McCarthy providing Jerry Nolan-esque drums. It is also noteworthy that McCarthy played on Borgioli's last recording, Boston Cream {2010} and was the last on to play live music with Borgioli before Billy’s passing on June 27, 2015.

The line-up of the Legendary Cazbats is Chris Yeager on vocals and guitar, Bob Roos on guitar, Matt Robinson on bass, and Daniel McCarthy on drums. The band set the fierce garage punk tone with "Same All Over" by the Rogues/Squires. The Chocolate Watch Band's "Are You Gonna Be There {At the Love In}" amped up the intensity. I recognized "Move" by the State Of Mind as a great Venusians' cover from their 1990 recording Garage Dazed. The performance is classic garage-punk-snotty-snarl. The band lightened the mood with Bobby Freeman's "C'mon and Swim."

The Legendary Cazbats run the musical and emotional gamut, switching it up again with the wistful romanticism of the Choir's "In Love's Shadow." A personal favorite of mine was the band's MC5-style rendition of "I Can Only Give You Everything." The Cazbats made the Count V's "Psychotic Reaction" their own by opening it up as a runaway, accelerated punk version. These guys reined it in on a beautiful version of the Gants' "Smoke Rings." Yeager and company show their love of Chicago blues on the Willie Dixon composition, "Spoonful," first recorded by Howlin’ Wolf in 1960, and then popularized in the later ‘60s by Cream. The Cazbats finish on the upswing with a pristine delivery of shimmering jangle rock, The Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star."

DVD Review:

All You Need is Fuzz: 30 Years in a Garage Band

Directed by Timothy Gassen, 2018

The Marshmallow Overcoat was an important part of the garage punk movement of the ‘80s. Timothy Gassen, under his alter ego Randy Love, formed the band in 1986. The film is one hour and 29 minutes long, including many interviews with group members, music videos, live shows, studio work, and rehearsals leading up to their final show in 2008.

The band's influences include the Chocolate Watch Band, the Doors, the Beatles, the Byrds, Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Electric Prunes and bands that would be considered contemporary with Overcoat, such as the Fuzztones and the Miracle Workers. The band incorporated traditional garage rock elements of a Farfisa organ, 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, and Vox amps. Sartorially speaking, they took up the ‘60s affinity for paisley shirts, Prince Valiant haircuts, and Chelsea boots.

After a decade of spreading their paisley-drenched neo-psychedelia, the band took a hiatus between 1996 and 2000.They reformed and continued to record through 2011. Their sustaining influence on more contemporary garage rock is due to their being so prolific. They have nine full albums as well as singles and EPs. They have also received exposure via garage rock compilations in Europe; also they earned a following through a European tour in their heyday. In addition to their recording on Skyclad, Music Maniac in Germany, and Psyche Out in France, Timothy Gassen released a 30 song, two-album set in 2013 on colored vinyl: Marshmallow Overcoat-The Very Best Of. Gassen also has DJ'ed as Randy Love and is the author of the popular Knights of Fuzz book and DVD series.

Poetry:

Song For Dylan
Florid in the doorway
Blowing Bobby's horn
Told him I'm the one
Who took his crown
From the thorns
Hes buying me champagne
At the Metropole
Met him at the Mardi Gras
The fortune teller of my soul
The child is the father of the man
You gotta stumble before you can stand
The seventh mother said to the seventh son
Among the lucky you're the chosen one
He's Billy The Kid
He's Jean Harlow
Got a fake beard
Blue eyes like Rimbaud
On Highway 61
He tracked my heart
Playing dust bowl ballads
On a borrowed guitar# 


Cornflower Blue
Mercury is sleepless
He gave his Red Wings
To a folk singer
At the HMV
Little sister is heading downtown
What will she pawn
She says she's the one
But only you cut through
Cornflower Blue
There is no one else
Who does what you do
There is no one else
Who always cuts through
Daddy's in the alley singin'  the blues
Mama's readin' Jitterbug Perfume
Junior's talkin' Bible at the Exchange
Met him in Saigon
He says he's the one
But only you cut through
Cornflower Blue#