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#

A visit to Boston, 9/07: Lyres, My Own Worst Enemy, JoJo Laine

I really needed to get away this past weekend (9/15-16/07), and figured to take a quick run up to Boston, using the opportunity to visit a 30-year pal, Joe Viglione (aka The Count). It was certainly event-filled.

After a decent supper at a buffet restaurant filled with families zoned out on carbs, we headed off to Club Bohemia at the Cantab Lounge, in Cambridge. Mickey Bliss runs the shows at the Lounge, and this particular evening was hosted by another one of my oldest friends, Nancy Neon (affectionately known as NanSuzy to me). We used to hang out almost nightly at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s in the day.

At the Cantab, Nancy introduced me to a few people, including Joey Boy, of the band Red Invasion. He was DJ-ing that night, pulling up some new sounds and some old classics, like Televisions “See No Evil” and the Pistol’s “No Feeling”. I look forward to checking out his band.

I was too late to see the opening act, Corolla Deville, but got there just in time for another band I didn’t know, MY OWN WORST ENEMY(MOWE). Sharing the lead are partners Sue and Steve on guitars, and AJ on drums (yep, no bass). The camaraderie between Sue and Steve is obvious, and they play off each other well. The songs are spirited, and well written with sharp melody lines and biting lyrics. Sue stomps her foot for emphasis every once in a while, and it sure does look like they’re having fun up there. Definitely an indie sound (yeah, I know that’s a cliché term, but they possess what made it important in the first place), going along with other quirky college radio friendly intones like the Pixies, the Neighborhoods, and Salem 66 (though not as quirky). Less morose than most indie bands of the style, they tend towards uptempos and less dissonance. They did a great cover of Patti Smith’s “Redendo Beach”, to which I danced with Nancy…nothing like dancing to a song about suicide. I’m glad I got to see them, and hope I get to see MOWE on a New York stage.

Next up was the classic Boston band, LYRES, fronted by Jeff “Monoman” Conolly on vox and Vox, and tambourine, while being backed by the standard guitar/bass/drum set-up. I’ve seen Lyres a few times now in New York, including during the garage revival hey-day of the ‘80s and at a Cave-Stomp around the Fin-de-Siecle. I also may have seen them once at the Rat, but I’m not sure. But this show was pure classic Lyres, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to see them play this night.

It’s amusing to me that Jeff has his set list on a two-sided sheet of paper with a list of the songs he plays, and then he picks and chooses (see on my photo page, the link below). And his picks were, of course, great as always. These garage-tinged songs included a cover of the Stoic’s “Enough of What I Need” (though for me it’s more a cover of the Mystic Eyes, which I find to be the definitive version).

[ffoto: Nancy and Sue] During this tune, while I was taking pictures, Nancy and I caught eyes as we both sang along. It was a cool moment. To me, Lyres are more than just a collection of old vinyl (or CDs), they epitomize a sound and a certain style and sound, as do the Chesterfield Kings with a bluesy garage and the A-Bones with rockabilly garage (in fact, I kept looking around, almost expecting to see Billy and Miriam).

Joe and I left after Lyres, which turned out to be fine as the last band, Lady Kensington & the Beatlords, were a no-show.

Soon as I got back to Joe’s place, my head hit the couch and I was out.

[In ffoto left to right: Larry, Doug, Ernie, Joe] The next day, Sunday, Joe drove us up to Salem, where we made an appearance at a local Boston music-related radio show on WMWM-FM, at Salem State College. We got there toward the end of the show, and the DJ, Ernie Lang, included me into the show, along with his pals Doug Mascott and Larry Oak (who gave me his CD, “Tuesday’s At Al’s”), along with Joe, of course. They started off by challenging me, asking who I thought was going to win the game that night, the Red Sox or the Yankees. I pleaded by fifth by saying something that was approved, but actually makes no sense: “I go with the team that has the best opening band.” We all shot the breeze, discussing Boston bands from the ‘70s and ‘80s, a topic inspired in part by local “scene-ster” Brent Milano’s recent book “The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock and Roll”, which some like for its content and others don’t for its omissions. I haven’t read it. As I have a lot of Beantown bands I like, from Willie Alexander to Dogmatics to Boys Life to City Thrills, to name just a few (all of which I’ve seen), it was easy to keep up with the topic.

Oh, and the Yankees won that night.

Before heading back to Boston, Joe drove us to St. Mary’s Cemetery to pay our respects to the late, great, JOJO LAINE (nee Joanne Patrie). She was the ex-wife of Brit phenom Denny Laine, a lover of Rolling Stones’ (etc.) producer Jimmy Miller (among others), a legend all her own in New England, and a good friend of Joe’s.

Back in Boston, Joe taught me how to add pictures to this blog, and I’m certainly grateful to him for that. And soon after that, I was on my way back to New York, with fresh CDs in my bag, photos in my camera, and stories to tell.

All the rest of the photos: http://community.webshots.com/user/ffranzos2006v1