Man or Astroman?

I hope this blog doesn't turn into an Oh-the-good-old-days kinda thing, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Man or Astroman? this weekend at The Earl's 15th Anniversary.  Which makes me think of one of the first times I saw them play INVASION OF THE DRAGONMEN, mid-90s, probably at The Point.
 

Much like my Go Go Gorilla moment with the Hate Bombs, MoAM? nailed my noggin with a cultural reference that solidified my fandom for good.  It took a few seconds for it register, but I recognized the samples from a Power Records Spiderman read-n-listen comicbook-n-record that I used to listen to on my Winnie the Pooh record player incessantly.  It's at 1:40 into the clip below.



 I own 18 MoAM? 7" singles.  I counted.  Here's the poster for the show, done by awesome guy Jordon Gum.

Q: What's wrong with you? A: Wavy Gravy

Back in the summer of 1989 (feel free to stop reading if you hate blogs posts that start this way), I worked in Yellowstone National Park, waiting tables at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Lodge.   It was that summer that a cassette tape changed my musical taste... forever.   

Living amid a hive a college students, free time was spent drinking and smoking pot, or road-tipping to Idaho/Jackson Hole/Canada to drink and smoke pot, or occasionally hiking.  There were three guys from Minnesota (one from Bemidji, I remember b/c of his speech impediment), who had a home-recorded cassette called WAVY GRAVY.  It was only recently that I realized the title had less to do with the '60s psychedelic icon than with Cleveland DJ The Mad Daddy.  I could describe it to you note for note, but his guy's already done it, "There are, broadly speaking, two types of people in the world. Those who realise that the Wavy Gravy compilations are the greatest albums in the history of mankind; and those who suffer from unsightly genital warts. Which are you?"

I probably listened to that cassette 120 times in 120 (late) nights that summer.  Not every night, but some nights 3 times in a row.  By mid-summer, it took every fiber in our gaggle of stoners to not quote it verbatim every time we'd play it for someone new.  We were annoying college students.

I got my own copy of this precious gold, but it never rang quite as true after that summer.  A couple years later-- about the time I realized that the music I really loved was this thing called Garage Rock-- I saw The Hate Bombs at the Star Bar and their encore was "Go Go Gorilla".  It was probably pretty close to when this was taped:

I never knew my favorite track from the summer of '89 wasn't just an novelty/obscurity, but a Garage rock classic!  I've since become instantly enamored with any band who covers it.  Clearly there was no better track to use in the climactic scene of Stomp! Shout! Scream!

[For the record, the Shandells' track is actually called "Gorilla."  "Go Go Gorilla" is by the Ideals and more of a doo-wop classic.]

2 Girl Garage bands

As much as I love pretty-much every 3-chord garage rock band, you put a couple of girls in the band and I'll love it even more.  This is not surprising, consider... you know... that movie I made.

The Like

Picked up their CD at Criminal this week.  The cover caught my eye, and since it was at the listening station, I listened.  Good fuzzy guitars and Fafisa/Vox organ.  On the pop side of garage, but really good.  And of course, adorable in their '60s styling.


The Cocktail Slippers

Saw these girls at SXSW this past March.  Like the Donnas, but *somehow* hotter.  And Norwegian. Or: because they're Norwegian.  Bought a couple CDs just so I could stare at 'em up close for 30 more seconds.  They crank it up more on their first record, MASTERMIND, than the pop-ier second one ST. VALENTINES DAY MASACRE.  Their part English, part Norwegian blog.

Swamp Rats

The only band to out-Sonic The Sonics.  The Swamp Rats from Pittsburgh. Available from awesome label Get Hip Records.