Remembering Rod McKuen in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
—Ed.

When the ancient Greeks coined the word bathos, I’m pretty sure they had Rod McKuen in mind. America’s most popular–and worst–poet of the 1960s, McKuen produced books of poetry the way Virginia opossums make babies, each and every one of them catering to the tastes of a reading public deeply suspicious of the filthy beatnik likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

But on 1959’s Beatsville Mckuen does a remarkable thing–he goes from schmaltz to shtick. While he serves up plenty of his trademark mawk along the way, McKuen–who’s obviously using Kerouac’s spontaneous bop prosody as a model-comes on like Maynard G. Krebs on a Benzedrine inhaler high, and I’ll be damned if his tongue-in-cheek observations on subterranean pads and co-existence bagel shops aren’t hilarious.

McKuen’s point varies–sometimes he’s your standard real gone Daddy-O who considers business suits and underarm deodorants a total drag; at others he’s the wistful black beret wannabe who moans, “I try to be a good beatnik but it’s hard/I don’t dig turtle neck sweaters/I can’t grow a beard/And I catch cold in sandals.”

Backed by some tastefully tasteless musical accompaniment–including a metronome and some really hep finger snaps–McKuen had me at “Every time I got torn up on sneaky Pete or high on Thunderbird wine/I wind up hitching rides to Sausalito.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Some Might Say” this week, Oasis have re-released their seminal single on limited-edition, pearl coloured, numbered, 7” vinyl. They’ve also released a brand-new visualiser for the track. Order vinyl here.

The release of “Some Might Say” was monumental in Oasis’ journey. As the first single released from the indomitable (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and the band’s first ever number one in the UK Singles Chart, it marked a remarkable beginning to their second album. It was met with widespread critical and commercial acclaim at the time of release, also entering the top ten in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and Sweden.

(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, also celebrating its 30th anniversary this October, went on to become a cultural phenomenon, elevating Oasis to massive heights on the global stage. It spawned countless era-defining moments, with “Some Might Say” the starting gun to it all.

The single arrived only eight months after the band’s prodigious debut album, Definitely Maybe. In the short intervening period, Oasis were able to capitalise on their initial success, and bring it to new places through the development of their sound. The huge, stadium fillers heard across (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? are beloved by fans around the world with the album having sold over 25 million copies worldwide.

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Celebrating Jacques Dutronc, born on this day in 1943. —Ed.

Who says the French can’t rock? I do, mon ami, I do. They can write like mad motherfuckers, as anybody’s who’s ever read Arthur Rimbaud or Louis-Ferdinand Celine or Alfred Jarry knows, and I would never impugn their oral skills (“The French they are a funny race; they fight with their feet and fuck with their face”) but rock? As in roll? Don’t make me le har har har.

But if the French can’t rock per se—and I know there are exceptions such as Les Négresses Vertes, whom I saw once in Philly and got hit in the head with a filled water bottle—they can do something every bit as interesting, it’s just I don’t have a word for it. It’s what Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot do on “Bonnie and Clyde” and Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin do on “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus” and Francoise Hardy does on “Il Vaut Mieux Une Petite Maison Dans Les Nuages” (my rough translation: “I Live in a Small House with Ted Nugent”) and it’s cool as shit. Chanson modifié? Whatever you label it, it beats most rock by a hasty French retreat.

And thanks to my Dutch pal Martijn, I have a new name to add to my list of superchic French pop-toners. Martijn suggested I give the coolly named Jacques Dutronc a listen, so I did, and I’m sold like the Eiffel Tower for 10 Euros to a rube. Dutronc may look like Le Lurch de la France on the cover of his self-titled 1966 debut—either the most arrogant or least imaginative l’homme in the world, Dutronc’s following six LPs were self-titled as well—and he’s wearing a shirt so bright green I suspect it’s a product of photosynthesis, but the rad hair says it all. This man is all French, and he means business.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

My troubles are many, they’re as deep as a well. / I can swear there ain’t no heaven but I pray there ain’t no hell. / Swear there ain’t no heaven and pray there ain’t no hell, / but I’ll never know by living, only my dying will tell, / only my dying will tell, yeah, only my dying will tell. / And when I die and when I’m gone, / there’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on.

Yep, the fools of April continue to do their thing. Still, all in all, I’m thanking my lucky stars to have a healthy family and cool friends. Last week I was too stressed and exhausted to cut a cool radio show. This week I can’t seem to recall last week.

On Easter, my 89 year old mom came to visit. I’m happy to report that she’s doing really well. They call her “the energizer bunny.” Indeed, she asked a continuous amount of questions. I took her to a hippest restaurant in Silver Lake and a Jewish deli in the valley.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | This 1993 album has only been out on vinyl in South Korea, and that release squeezed this 55-minute-plus record on to a single disc, which is just plain getting away with (ahem) murder!

So fans of this band have been screaming (sorry, can’t resist) blue murder for the release of Nothin’ but Trouble in proper 2-LP fashion, which we have pressed in blue with black cat swirl vinyl in honor of the unfortunate feline in the clutches of the little menace on the front cover.

This is another one of those great, early ‘90s metal albums that got lost in the grunge shuffle, and it’s more melodic than most; band leader and songwriter John Sykes (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, Tygers of Pan Tang) knew what he was doing. Also boasts appearances from our old friend Kelly Keeling of Baton Rouge fame, and the venerable Carmen Appice on drums.

“We All Fall Down” was the single, but don’t miss their great cover of the Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park!” Mastered for vinyl by Mike Milchner of Sonic Vision, and housed inside a gatefold jacket with lyrics.

Celebrating Chris Mars in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.

Minneapolis indie rock heroes The Replacements went from snot-nosed “let’s get drunk and puke on the ceiling then fall down on stage” punks to power pop legends on the strength of the deceptively effortless songcraft of Paul Westerberg, and Westerberg reached his peak on 1984’s audaciously titled Let It Be. Taking on the Beatles takes cojones, especially from a guy who once sang, “I hate music/It’s got too many notes.”

Let It Be hardly marked the end of their “too shitfaced to play” ethos, but it was, as Westerberg would note, “the first time I had songs that we arranged, rather than just banging out riffs and giving them titles.” “I Will Dare” is a bona fide slice of pop genius; “Unsatisfied” is “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” with more heart and more soul than the jaded Mick Jagger could summon up if you tossed him into a pile of cocaine and supermodels and let him stew until unhappy. But Westerberg hadn’t lost touch with his inner punk; songs like “Gary’s Got a Boner” and “We’re Comin’ Out” would have been right at home on 1982’s puke punk classic Stink.

Let It Be is the sound of a punk growing up just to learn that growing up isn’t all that much fun. But grow up you must, as John Mellencamp could have told Paul Westerberg if he’d been willing to listen. “Everything drags and drags,” sings Westerberg on the doleful coming of age tune “Sixteen Blue”; “It’s a boring state/A boring wait, I know.” You try to call your girl and all you get is her answering machine and what does that mean? It can’t be good. And what can you really expect from the future? “Everything you dream of/Is right in front of you,” sings Westerberg, “And everything is a lie.”

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I recently spoke with Berlin based artist Annika Henderson about her wonderful new album Abyss, her early years in Bristol, a little bit about Tricky, and her process.

From the press release: British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson, better known as Anika, has created her new, third album Abyss out of the frustration, anger, and confusion she feels from existing in our contemporary world. Notably heavier than her previous releases, the 10-track Abyss feels raw, urgent, and fuelled by strong emotions.

“There’s so much going on in the world, and you have to sit there and watch it through a screen that you’ve allowed into your home, like a vampire who had been preying at your door, then immediately digest it, have an opinion, and publicly comment on it,” Anika says.

“The state of the world just feels like an abyss right now.” With this new album, she wants to create a place where people can feel safe to be themselves, and to unite in their diversity. “Abyss is like a call to action,” she says. “To come and figure it out together.”

Abyss was recorded live to tape at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin (where the likes of Depeche Mode and David Bowie also recorded) in just a few days. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Anika stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album.

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Children of the Damned, heed my warning: Iron Maiden offers terrifying proof of why it’s a bad idea to mess with the Dark One. No, bassist and chief songwriter Steve Harris didn’t find himself scuttling around the studio ceiling during Iron Maiden’s recording of 1982’s landmark The Number of the Beast, nor did lead singer Bruce Dickinson get raped by a succubus with the body of Scarlett Johansson and the face of Gene Simmons. And no one in the band was fatally impaled by a flying mic stand while they were laying down “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”

It was worse! Lights reportedly turned themselves on and off in the studio! Equipment, which fails all the time, inexplicably failed! And what was producer Martin Birch’s punishment for meddling in the dark arts? He was involved in a traffic accident involving a mini-bus sardined with real live nuns. Papal penguin punishers! Who probably had to be restrained from ruler-whipping him to death! And the cost of repairs? £666! And he didn’t have collision insurance!

That’s some scary shit, and totally true, but it was worth it—The Number of the Beast is revered as a classic in the heavy metal genre, and no doubt there are lots of fifty-somethings out there who owe their very survival to it because how else would they have gotten through their awful teen years? Their parents sucked, school sucked, the pot was shitty, they were never going to get laid (it was a mathematical impossibility), but at least they had “Hallowed Be Thy Name”!

And it’s still saving lives today. The joke was on Satan! The album is a lifeline, and not a one-way ticket to suicide and the Pit, no matter how many little Christian idiots saw fit to burn it or beat it to death with hammers (they were afraid the fumes would drive them insane!).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | While the Grateful Dead recently broke the record for the most Top 40 albums on the Billboard 200, the band will release for the first time an official greatest hits compilation.

Out June 13th, Gratest Hits arrives in celebration of the band’s 60th anniversary, and brings together some of the many songs that continue to unite generations—from “Truckin’” to “Touch of Grey,” “Friend of the Devil” and more. Available via Rhino on 1CD, 1LP black vinyl, digital and a retail exclusive tangerine-colored vinyl variant, Gratest Hits features studio recordings that span the best of such beloved and enduring albums as Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, From The Mars Hotel, Shakedown Street, Terrapin Station, and In The Dark.

Additionally, in honor of the band’s diamond 60th Anniversary, the Grateful Dead will be releasing a sweeping 60-CD collection called Enjoying The Ride on May 30th. Exclusive to Dead.net, and limited to 6,000 individually numbered copies, the boxed set maps an epic cross-country road trip along the “Heady Highway,” with stops at storied venues where the music, the moment and the magic of the Grateful Dead reliably converged.

Traversing 25 years of legendary live performances, the expansive compendium spotlights defining shows from 1969 to 1994, at 20 venues that consistently inspired the band to new heights—Winterland, Frost Amphitheatre, Madison Square Garden, and Hampton Coliseum, among them. Across 450+ tracks, 60+ hours of music and 20+ shows, virtually all of the music is previously unreleased, as Enjoying The Ride journeys through eras of constant evolution, and serves as a thrilling testament to that endlessly adventurous spirit.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | New West Records has partnered with the Clifford Antone Foundation to bring you a four-LP, 41-track box set celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary Austin nightclub Antone’s, packed with the rich history and enduring spirit of a club that helped put the live music capital of the world on the map.

Set for release on August 22, Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues, chronicles the development of Antone’s and its trailblazing music across three full-length albums (each capturing a unique element of the club’s history) and a special bonus 45. The set also features a meticulously updated hardcover edition of Picture the Blues from Susan Antone (the sister and close collaborator of legendary late Antone’s founder Clifford Antone) with rare and unseen photographs, and a new definitive Antone’s history written by revered Texas music historian Joe Nick Patoski with fresh interviews.

Out today are two advance tracks from the set’s opening double LP, The Last Real Texas Blues Album, which includes 18 songs of new material from artists integral to the history of Antone’s —Jimmie Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Charlie Sexton, Ruthie Foster, Doyle Bramhall II, Bobby Rush, Derek O’Brien, C.J. Chenier + Muddy Waters’ guitarist John Primer and son Big Bill Morganfield—as well as its next generation leaders, Kam Franklin, Eve Monsees, McKinley James and more.

Kam Franklin pays homage to a true Texas trailblazer with her interpretation of Barbara Lynn’s “You’ll Lose A Good Thing,” and Antone’s staple Doyle Bramhall II honors the great Eddie Taylor, with “Bad Boy.”

Remembering David Thomas. —Ed.

1896 saw the premier of literary bomb-thrower Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu Roi, with its anti-hero Pere Ubu. The play promptly caused a riot, and Jarry—who once said “One can show one’s contempt for the cruelty and stupidity of the world by making of one’s life a poem of incoherence and absurdity” was undoubtably pleased. His goal—to the extent that he had one—was to see the hidebound and the conventional art of his time dead and buried. “Art,” he said, “is a stuffed crocodile.”

No one has ever accused Cleveland’s Pere Ubu of being a stuffed crocodile. The band that would make a virtue of clang and clamor rocketed from the tomb of the Mistake on the Lake’s Rocket from the Tombs, a promising band that collapsed over the usual creative differences.

Tombs’ members split into factions—David “Crocus Behemoth” Thomas and a collection of new players here, Stiv Bator and Company’s Dead Boys (originally Frankenstein) over there. (A third band, Friction, which was fronted by Rocket linchpin Peter Laughner, would collapse without recording an album after he rocketed his way into his own tomb at the ripe old age of 24, the result of booze and drugs.) Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys couldn’t have been more different. The latter band fit comfortably into the Heartbreakers and Richard Hell and the Voidoids mold; Pere Ubu followed their namesake straight into the revolutionary absurd.

Thomas’ notion was to create a clamorous and fractured sound, and to do so he enlisted an initially reluctant Alan Ravenstine, whose synthesizers, atonal saxophone, and innovative tape manipulation techniques spelled the difference between Pere Ubu and its contemporaries. The result was the band’s 1978 debut The Modern Dance—arguably the most innovative LP to emerge from the post-punk era.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The dance floor’s never been the same since The B-52’s set out from Athens, Georgia, on its way to becoming the world’s greatest party band. Now, their early run of classic releases, all featuring newly remastered audio, will be collected in The Warner and Reprise Years. Two versions will be available: a 9LP set—pressed on a rainbow of colored vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies, exclusively through Rhino.com—and an 8CD edition. Pre-order HERE.

Arriving June 20 in celebration of Pride Month, the vinyl collection showcases the band’s kaleidoscopic catalog in full color: The B-52’s (yellow), Wild Planet (red), Mesopotamia (blue), Party Mix! (green), Whammy! (smokey), Bouncing Off the Satellites (pink), Cosmic Thing (orange), and Good Stuff (purple), issued as a 2LP.

Spanning 1979 to 1992, the albums collected here chart the creative and commercial evolution of the B-52’s—an era that saw the band sell over 20 million records worldwide. Five of the eight albums in the set have been certified Gold or higher by the RIAA, including Cosmic Thing (4x Platinum), their self-titled debut (Platinum), Wild Planet, Whammy!, and the GRAMMY®-nominated Good Stuff (Gold).

The collection also highlights some of their best-known songs, including “Rock Lobster,” “Private Idaho,” “Mesopotamia,” “Legal Tender,” “Channel Z,” and “Good Stuff.” Cosmic Thing—produced by Don Was and Nile Rodgers—remains the group’s biggest commercial success, powered by the back-to-back hits “Love Shack” (3x Platinum) and “Roam” (Gold). At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, the band won Best Group Video and Best Art Direction for “Love Shack.” GRAMMY® nods followed for “Love Shack” and “Roam.”

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Based in Brighton and also Croydon, England, indie pop specialists Jetstream Pony have recently released their second full-length on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Spinout Nuggets in the UK and Shelflife Records in the USA. Exuding nary a hint of the tentative, Bowerbirds and Blue Things collects 12 solid songs with occasional bursts of excellence that reflect the member’s prior service in some of the heavier hitters in the whole indie pop shebang.

Named after a retired racing greyhound, Jetstream Pony’s lineup features Beth Arzy (The Luxembourg Signal, Trembling Blue Stars, Aberdeen, The Fireworks, Lightning in a Twilight Hour) on vocals and tambourine, Shaun Charman (The Wedding Present, The Popguns, The Fireworks) on guitars and vocals, Kerry Boettcher (Turbocat) on bass and vocals, Mark Matthews (The Dentists, Coax, The Echo Heights, The Treasures of Mexico) on additional guitar,s and Tom Levesley on drums.

After three 7-inch singles and a 12-inch EP came Jetstream Pony’s self-titled first album in May 2020. The mini-album “Misplaced Words” arrived the following year, with an intermittent sprinkling of activity documented on a few short-players since, including a lathe cut 7-inch issued late last year that paired Bowerbirds and Blue Things track “Captain Palisade” with a non-album flip.

The new record’s opener “Sit and Wonder” is a splendid dose of chime pop with a sturdy foundation as Arzy’s vocal is dream-pop breathy with a hint of melancholy. The following cut “Frustration Can Cause Accidents” hits even harder with Levesley giving the toms a workout as Charman lends backing and Arzy’s singing inspires thoughts of The Primitives.

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