Frances Farmer Gals

The Frances Farmer Gals were a band my dear old friend Jeri-Ann formed when she moved out west. She sent me a demo tape and I thought some of you that knew her would like to hear it. She sang and played bass. There was a club called The X-Ray that she played at often and I have included a live tape from a night The Gals played. I particularly love the Matthew Hein cut.




Here we are at one of my legendary birthday parties. I'm sorry if I appear to be boasting, but I am just stating a fact. It was. 'Party of the Year' was a phrase I heard others use to describe the debauchery many times. Yes, that is Chet in the background and yes, most of the pictures from that night were creatively framed. Jeri-Ann was one of the most generous and loving people I have ever known. She will forever be dearly missed.


Here she is with her beautiful boy, Nikki Bo.

Axe did rock, tape didn't roll...

Hello babies, long time no see. I just got back from celebrating the 30th anniversary of Unnatural Axe and I have learned some hard lessons. First and most important, if you haven't used your equipment in awhile - take it out and play around with it a bit before you go out and attempt to use it in public. This applies to many things, but in this case I am talking about my camcorder. I decided to dust off my wide angle lens to shoot the second night of Axe celebration at Church and then I decided that I didn't like the fisheye effect and removed the offending lens, not realizing that I left a section of it on my camera which made it impossible to focus on anything for the rest of the night. So I now present the brief warm-up I did before I screwed up. It's historical is my story and I'm sticking to it. Miss Chain being presented by Richie to Willie with iconic personas passing by is a precious sight and I can only hang my head in abject shame that I missed the tableau of Cheeta Chrome paying Willie homage and then presenting his impossibly blond curly headed tyke to Willie as if to the Pope for a blessing. I'll always remember that, it was almost like watching animated stained glass, the scene was so darkly vibrant. It was a good night. Can't wait for their 50th.

"Twas the Night Before Axemas

And all through the lands,
The old punks are getting ready,
To hear their favorite bands...

No Cantone's, no Rat, Jumpin' Jack Flash or Inn Square,
No Storyville or Underground and Streets is not there,
No Channel, no Club, no Mavericks, no Space...

Where will we all go?
Looks like Church is the first place...



Great interview from the venerated Boston Groupie News.

More Beachmasters...on Metrowave

Well, I guess I'd better put this up before it's too late. Summer is slipping away. Full disclaimer: I managed these beachbums for a time and ended up no worse for wear just a little richer and very tired of finding sand in every nook and cranny. However, the many royal blue WD40 sized cans of beer I consumed at The Boston Beach Club have foamed and washed away the memory of everyone's Beachmaster name. Some input would be good here 'cause I really don't feel like researching this right now. I just wanna surf. But first, here's The Beachmasters, live from Hawaii on Metrowave from 1985.

The Piranha Brothers

Here's a tape that was sent to me by a bright young fellow I have run into on MySpace. I'm hoping that JJ will grace us with some of his undoubtedly fond memories of the The Piranaha Brothers. Turn it up now and rock your Sunday Brunch.

Aaaaand, JJ writes in;

As for the Piranha Brothers, they were a garage band from Quincy circa early/mid 80's that consisted of three brothers Mark (Stig) on guitar, Paul (Magoo) on bass and Gerard (Jeebs) on drums. Jimmy O'Halloran (Peter & Paul's older brother) rounded the quartet out on guitar.

They, like most of the bands I was in during that vintage, did most of their shows opening up for The Dogmatics, Last Stand, Del Fuegos, etc.

These days Stig & Jeebs are in the Swindells while Jimmy O plays bass for the reunion Dogmatics shows and Magoo is pretty much retired.

MacPodcast

DitchBoarding (whitetrash wakeboarding) Trick Guide



Things are a little slow around here, so I've decided to dig deep down into my archives and see what I could come up with and I found some tapes that friends had made for me years and years ago and well, they're all podcasts to me now. This was from a tape I got from Bob MacKenzie, a name well known in drumming circles. I knew him best during his time with the Mighty Ions, Beachmasters and Underachievers. He's really worked with just about everyone. He also writes and sings and was lucky enough to marry the loverly Cilla, who fronted the Underachievers.

So here's a big shot of Beachmasters to start you off and some other choice cuts from Mackie's collection. Maybe this'll help jumpstart the sun this week. Whatever you do, don't surf alone...

Late Risers Club with Greg Reibman

And a chunk of Needles and Pins with Plastic Jim.