The BGN News Archive

Hi friends, we're back!!!

Mojo Nixon died last week. He died in his sleep after his show on the Outlaw Country Cruise. He was so wired up in everything we’ve ever seen and heard that it seems impossible that his energy could dim, never mind stop. Mojo started his career around 1986. His sharp and half-unhinged putdown songs fit snuggly into the crazed Rockabilly genre. “Elvis is Everywhere,”“Don Henley Must Die” and “Debbie Gibson Has My Love Child” were the hits but all his songs fit the same mold.

Just the titles are entertaining:“Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin”, “Jesus at McDonalds” (sounds like “Roadrunner” ), “Perry Mason of Love,”“Put a Sex Machine in the White House,”“You Can Dress Them Up (But You Can’t Take Em Out)” and “My Free Will Just Ain’t Willin.’”

That acerbic wit punctured a lot of balloons. We need that now more than ever. He was doing live shows here and there and died in his sleep after his show on the Outlaw Country Cruise. This video shows one of his live shows. Here’s his obituary in the NY Times, it includes the story of Don Henley joining him on stage for "Don Henley Must Die."

Carl Biancucci has joined Dave Harrison's new band The False Positives. Pete Cassani (guitar) has also joined the lineup on guitar. You can check out the new line up at the next False Positives show February 24 at the Square Root.

Stiff Little Fingers will be at the Paradise on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. They've made their live show a must-see for many people throughout the years. We saw them in at the Brighton Music Hall in August 2017 Here’s rough live video of them doing “Alternative Ulster” at that gig .

Joanie Lindstrom has been to London more than a few times. This latest time she visited Birmingham and Dover along with London. She got to see shows with 999 and Sex Gang Children and Flatworms (from US). She hits plenty of record stores and restaurants. Don't you know it was London Cocktail Week so that was a drink a day for 10 days, just the vicissitudes of traveling!
Click to read Joanie's London/Birmingham/Dover Vacation.

BOOKS.....

Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA 1975-1983 by Jen Larson came out in January 2023. It’s organized by section of the country....We were hoping to see some local act in the Northeast section and there was one – The Phantoms.

The Phantoms were formed in 1976 and around for a few years. They played the usual venues of the day and in their own basement, they called Club 1, in Allston. House shows way back then, talk about cool!! Lead singer and guitar player Micky Metts was a big presence on the scene.

Here’s a 45 minute YouTube music vid of a 1981 Phantoms doing Wagon Loopy. Then there’s three songs on this YouTube video It looks like it’s been around a long time, but check out their band webpage. Leave it to Micky to still have some web presence to document their story.

But back to that book! The other east coast groups they mention are Jayne County, Helen Wheels, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Plasmatics, Bush Tetras, Pulsallama and more. Larson covers a lot of names you know but then takes a deeper dive and you get local groups like The Phantoms that you don’t know and are worth getting up to speed on.

Here’s the book on Bookshop.org, a site that supports local bookstores.

You can read Larson's more indepth story on Mickey here on Disappearing Media

VIDEOS.....

Drew Stone scored Ian MacKaye for his NYHC Chronicles. You learn a lot in the two-hour talk. Ian was fixated on music from a very early age. He took piano lessons when he was eleven. He loved the Beatles, Stones and Joplin. Queen/Thin Lizzy in 1977 was the first show he saw live.

At the very beginning MacKaye didn’t like punk but at one point he gave it a close listening and saw the worth of the music. Seeing the Cramps gave him the desire to start a band. Surprisingly, the full out vocalizations of Joe Cocker were an influence.

MacKaye has a great memory, and you get loads of stories on the early Minor Threat shows. He talks in detail about the recording of the first two classic EPs. Drew asks Ian about his shows in Boston. Ian is very sharp and the stories come pouring out. Ian will not play a show unless it’s All Ages. He’s someone to admire.

Later they bring in Glen Friedman whose photo book Just a Minor Threat: The Minor Threat Photographs of Glen E. Friedman was just published last year.

Speedfossil have a new video for their song “Sweetheart," with Linda Bean Pardee as the hard to get sweetheart. Garret Vandermolen is frustrated but the tables are turned and later Pardee can’t get him to put down the book he’s reading titled The Distracted Mind (that book put to rest the idea of multitasking). They restrict the colors in the vid by all dressing in red and black and then adding whites to the set.

The song is poppy and bouncy and Speedfossil know how to navigate that territory big time. It was recorded with David Minehan at Woolly Mammoth Sound.

We’ve heard a lot of Rob Moss lately because he’s releasing a song a month with his band Rob Moss and the Skin Tight Skin. Those songs have some well-known musicians playing on them, and some of them local. This week he was on Joel Gaustin's podcast. Rob talks a lot about his early Washington DC days. Some of the groups he was in like Artificial Peace have had material rereleased lately. He also wrote the mystery novel, Descending Memphis, which of course includes rock'n'roll in the 50s.

There’s also a point where they talk about the similarity of pasting flyers in the 80s vs digital posting today.

Gene Loves Jezebel have been active since 1980. The two lead members, Aston brothers, have been feuding for decades. Now there are two versions of the group. This video for the song “Serpent Queen” is from the Jay Aston led group. The animation is suitably dark and creepy for this goth song.

Gene Loves Jezebel will be on tour this summer with The Alarm and will be at the House of Blues on May 29. Tickets

This song is from the album X-Love Death Sorrow. The group does some interesting covers like: Another Girl, Another Planet (The Only Ones), “A Girl Like You” (Edwyn Collins), “Broken English” (Marianne Faithfull) and “The Light Pours Out of Me” (Magazine).

RADIO......

Congrats to WRPS (Rockland Public Schools) on their 50th Anniversary. We love listening to WRPS every day now. It has excellent song choices with lots of local music. Every day at noon they do an hour of local rock.

They had a scholarship drive fundraiser at the Rockland High School with the Dogmatics playing live and the Dogumentary screened .

The station is a big plus for the South Shore rock community.

Last Tuesday (2/6) Skybar, on his Rising Show, had a telephone interview with WiMP! (on Rum Bar Records) from Rockford, IL. WiMP! are formed from some members of Mono in Stereo which is also on Rum Bar Records. Skybar quizzes them on how the album was made. Turns out it was recorded in their basement studio. There’s not a lot of straight up punk like their Black Sheep album on Rum Bar.

Below we have the interview and music part of the Rising Show.

This past Tuesday (2/13) Garret Vandermolen of Speedfossil was Skybar’s guest. Garret talks about Speedfossil and the latest single “Sweetheart” (video above) that includes Linda Pardee. He played “Magic Trick” which is such a meaningful song.

He also explained how he ended up in The Plimsouls with Tony Kaczynski. That’s a story we wanted to know. Even better this version of The Plimsouls will record an album!

Garret has the record label Sound Cove that will have groups like Glowbox, Fireking and even The Plimsouls in its roster.

You can hear the Garret Vandermolen intereview below

Listen on Tuesday at 8pm at 91.5 FM or after that go to the WMFO schedule page Hit the Rising show on 8 to 10 pm on Tuesday, then hit the ‘archive’ button.

Let’s get some gems from Ron’s Monday Late Risers Club show (2/5). The first song that got our attention was “Girl Like You” which is a cover of the Troggs tune, done by an Australian group from Perth called The Pleasants. Gee, you don’t hear Troggs covers like you used to anymore!

It starts off very raw and garage like then in the chorus they add a cheesy organ riff and then the song sounds like the Flying Lizards doing “Money” from 1979 .

We say it all the time: “Google It.” It’s obvious it should be a song. Virvon Varvom from St. Paul, Minnesota get a quirky punk tune out of it. Back in the day we would have loved this jokey and observant ditty and would have played it like crazy.

Sex Mex from San Antonio are one of the few punk acts that successfully uses a synth these days. In “Cold, Not Cute” they also use the old doo wop chord progression. They get away with it all – easy!

On Monday (2/12) Ron played two songs from GOAT, a Jesus Lizard Tribute Album on Wax Donut Records. Right now only two songs are released but there are 10 songs total. To check out the album go to the Wax Donut Record page on Bandcamp.

Another good batch of listening was the five song set Ron did of songs from Thesaurus Vol.7. This is a 30 cut unreleased album of rock/punk material from France 1978 to 1986. Here are lots of cool punk songs that you have probably never heard or known about. Hear the album on Bandcamp. We leave you with DECHARGE playing “Cauchemar Erotico Mystique (“Come to the Erotic Mystique”).”

To hear Ron’s Monday LRC show go to the WMBR archive page hit the LRC show for Monday 2/6 and 2/13.

PODCASTS.........

Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico had Emily Doran and Andy Excuse of Hammered Saint on the show. Emily lived near Albany and didn’t get to Boston until 2009. She was in The Gala in 2019. Andy grew up in northeast Connecticut and got into punk in the mid-eighties.

Both Emily and Andy both were involved Heavy Leather Topless Dance Party that turned into the Heavy Leather Horror Show and moved to Salem. They had five shows but sadly it no longer exists.

Andy started Hammered Saint and asked Emily to join and then later Curt Florczak joined being the last piece of the puzzle.

At the moment they have a growing number of recorded originals and will release a song a month this year. They've been on a short hiatus from live gigs but will soon be back to the clubs. Those live shows made their early reputation!!

Hammered Saint will be playing with Diablogato, Shang Hi Los at Faces, Malden on Friday April 5.

The latest podcast on Blowing Smoke is about The Dogmatics. Steev has director Rudi Childs who is responsible for The Dogmatics, A Dogumentary. Also on the show is original member Jerry Lehane and the newest member James Young. They talk a lot about the Film Festival in LA where the film won the Best Punk Rock Documentary. They have a lot of stories about how they got there and where they camped out for the week. The Dogmatics have so many years of rock and roll stories and these days they are adding more. Steev brings up the point, and we agree, that the band is as vital and meaningful today as they were back in the 80s.

The film will be shown at Arlington’s Regent Theater on March 15 with the band playing on stage live after.

The Elastic Glam Breakfast show last week (2/9) was packed with new songs. We liked “American Eagle” by The Voltz, “Owned” by Tell, “Pretty Vicious” by The Strutz, “Moneyman” by Rich Kid Express and the glitter punk, as Sethyspice called it, of The Poison Boys doing “Knocked Down.”

Elastic Glam ran a poll for their version of the Grammys…it’s The Glammys. The vote was between Velvet Insane with “Boogie Star” or Foreign Films with “Cosmic Lover.” “Cosmic Lover” won, and they played that in this week’s (2/16) show and that is a killer glam tune.

This week they also played Marc Valentine’s “Strange Weather” that we featured too. That sounded poppy sweet in the lineup. “Star Studded Sham” by Hello from 1975 was another glam goodie that got by us in the day. They also picked out a Nick Gilder song “You Really Rock Me” from 1978. The show always has a seamless transition of new and old that is all marked with good taste.

Getting it Out Podcast has an interview with Jonathan Anastas of DYS. The talk was all about the DYS Brotherhood reissue. Jonathan said that 40 years ago no one thought the records would have a shelf life. The album was released on Al Barile’s umbrella Xclaim. The first pressing of Brotherhood of 1,000 LPs have sold out and another batch is in the works.

He talked about the cover. Dickie Barrett did it. They asked for a picture about ‘brotherhood’ and Dickie drew four monks.

To see what versions of the Brotherhood album are available check out the Bridge Nine website

NEW MUSIC/CDs......

Taken By Vultures have written songs about Zuul, the demon from Ghostbusters, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and John Larroquette. Now they take on “Dr. Klaw” Brooklyn's famous underground lobster roll dealer. “He’s not above the law/ He makes a bomb ass lobster roll.”

Like all their efforts it is done up in forceful punk/metal music. Hearing this makes us believe getting a good lobster roll is worth getting worked up about.

“Look Cool” from Still Animals (St. Louis, Missouri) is a nice hunk of garage rock in the sixties style with some punk sensibilities. It’s all built on a simple chord crunch. The group just rides it. The recording is as raw as the group sound. This is just a single but with an album to follow.

Leatherman are from Melbourne, Australia. They are not the usual unruly punk that we've come to expect from Down Under. They have both heavy metal and power pop in their self-description on Bandcamp and the crazy thing is that both apply. Think Thin Lizzy.

“Telephone” cobbles together 70 power pop with Blondie like vocals and a Thin Lizzy tandem guitar break. It’s sort of crazy and sort of wonderful.

Now, The Pingers with the Pink Mitzi album, that’s what we expect from Australia! OMG this is hilarious and so un-PC. It’s puerile, profane, lewd and obscene. Maybe, just 'offensive' would cover it.

Let’s look at a few songs:

“Let’s Get a Bag” – the title is most of the lyrics. They want to “Fuck, ya let’s snort nose beers motherfuckers.”

“Drinkin’” – Three fourths of the lyrics are “Let’s go fucking drinkin’.”

“Suck My Fist” – Three fourths of the lyrics are “Cyclist, suck my fist.” You might not like this if you are a cyclist.

“Stop Telling Me What To Do” – over half the lyrics are “Fuck you, stop telling me what to do.”

You get the idea. The music is good punk. We’re disgusted that we liked it so much and played it over and over. We’re better than this. Now.... one more listen.

Sirius Voltage from Portugal have a long list of influences on their Bandcamp page and they all seem true from The Sonics to Hanoi Rocks. They just released their debut single “For Your Dreams.” The main chord riff in the song seems like Spirit’s “Line on You” riff but truncated. It’s a very tasty chunk of garage that only takes 2:10.

Well Valentine Day just passed. Canyons and Locusts released the single “Love Goes Down The Drain.” Not everyone is blissed out on love! It’s short and (not) sweet.

Dream of a Man in a Top Hat continue dropping singles. The latest is “The Laughing Kind.” This one has a wonderful post punk guitar sound. It washes over the whole production at times. It works with the lyrics that mention “laughing” and a “joke” but there is also words ‘darkness”, “jet black” and “alabaster fog” that cast an ominous cloud over everything. We kept playing it because we loved its overall sound and the dub like drums.

Where's the radio station that will play things like this in rotation? We pine for those days of WFNX and WBCN when we get in this mood.

Here's some good shows coming up .....

February 23, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents Glowbox, The Midnight Callers (NJ) at The C-Note, Hull

February 24, 2024 (Saturday) Das Damen, Thalia Zedek Band, Sleepyhead, Clamb at O'Brien's

February 24, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg Dan presents Jennifer Tefft and the Strange, The False Positives, Happy Little Clouds, Video Release at The Square Root

February 24, 2024 (Saturday) Dark Electro-Alt Night with Robert Bushinsky, Lucretia's Daggers, Red Glare, Neponset Monastery at Ralph's in Worcester

February 25, 2024 (Sunday) LøbøHømbre, Pint Killers, The Hagglers, Shuriken at The Midway for a 3PM matinee show

February 25, 2024 (Sunday) Loretta, Johnnie & The Foodmasters, Lupo Citta, Freak at The Cambridge Community Center 6PM show! FB page

March 1, 2024 (Friday) The opening of the new Koto LOWELL!! Rockin Bob Punk Band, TJ Welsh & The Wasted, COB. at the new Koto Lowell (76 Merrimack st, Lowell, MA,) FB page.

March 1, 2024 (Friday) TREE, Inverter, Old North End, Samara at The Shaksheen Pub, Manchester, NH

March 2, 2024 (Saturday) Tj Welch & The Wasted, Hold Fast,| The McGunks,| State Of The Union for a 3PM Matinee at The Midway

March 2, 2024 (Saturday) Negative FX, Wrecking Crew. Wound Man, Savage Heads, Please Die, Eye Witness at The Middle East Down - all ages 1PM matinee show

March 3, 2024 (Sunday) Martin/Morell/Fredette, Girl With A Hawk, I Want A Cat at The Midway - 3PM Matinee

March 3, 2024 (Sunday) Protex, Crimps, Mystery Girl at Deep Cuts- Music at 7PM $20

March 8, 2024 (Friday) Thru It All, One Fall, Nicoteens, at Deep Cuts Medford

March 8, 2024 (Friday) Color Killer and Dirty Walter and the Smelltones at Koto - ALL AGES and FREE

March 9, 2024 (Saturday) The Long Wait, Chrome Over Brass, Catching Hell, Chumhuffer at The Middle East Up

March 9, 2024 (Saturday) Actor|Observer, Loud Sounds, Semaphore at The Palladium Worcester Tickets

March 10, 2024 (Sunday) Stubborn Hearts, Dave Strong, Divorce Cake, Vivra Vera at The Midway - 3PM matinee

March 13, 2024 (Wednesday) The Drowns, Michael Kane & The Morning Afters at Deep Cuts Medford

March 15, 2024 (Friday) The Dogmatics: A Dogumentary showing and The Dogmatics playing live at The Regent Theater (Tickets!) FB page.

March 16, 2024 (Saturday) Ravagers, The Black Cheers, Loretta at O'Brien's

March 16, 2024 (Saturday) Jerry’s Got Jokes, High & Dry, The Martians, Dear Maryanne at The Midway

March 16, 2024 (Saturday) Kids Like You and Me presents: Johnnie & The Foodmasters Party! Boston's wildest, weirdest oldies cover band is throwing a party at The Lilypad. Special guests - Electric Street Queens and Jarsch - 7-10PM FB page

March 16, 2024 (Saturday) Junkyard's 35th Anniversary Tour also on the bill Casket Rats at Koto Lowell (76 Merrimack St)

March 20, 2024 (Wednesday) Chinese Telephones, Constant Insult, Cigarette Camp & Blame It On Whitman at Faces Malden

March 21, 2024 (Thursday) Bootleg Dan presents Marc Valentine, Girl with a Hawk, The Stigmatics at The Music Room in Yarmouth

March 21, 2024 (Thursday) Barrence Whitfield & The Savages and Tiger Bomb at SPACE, 538 Congress St. Portland, ME - FB page

March 22, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents Marc Valentine, The Chelsea Curve, Little Billy Lost, Special Guest DJ Sherman at The Burren

March 22, 2024 (Friday) Hammered Saint, The Fake Boys, Deacon Bill, WLKRZ at Koto Lowell

March 23, 2024 (Saturday) Teen Mortgage, Death Lens, Zip-Tie Handcuffs at Deep Cuts Medford

March 23, 2024 (Saturday) 13th annual fund raising event for The Joe Zippo Fund & Scholarship with Mephiskapheles, Mamadou, The Riki Rocksteady All-Stars and DJ sets by Breaux Silcio of Residency Records at Salem Old Town Hall - FB page.

March 24, 2024 (Sunday) Teen Mortgage, Death Lens, Zip Tie Handcuffs at Deep Cuts Medford. Music at 8PM

March 24, 2024 (Sunday) Matt Burns Memorial Show at Worthen Attic, Lowell, MA- Larry Newman, Frank Rowe, Spike, Captain Easychord, Captain and Schlemiel, Kenne Highland's Air Force, Classic Ruins, The Reverand Joseph Fagan and his Deacons

March 25, 2024 (Monday) Tripsitter, Today Junior, Big Brute at The Silhouette

March 29, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg Dan presents Satch Kerans Band with Hasbro and Fandango (both from NYC) at The Square Root

March 29, 2024 (Saturday) Kate Clover, Brad Marino at The Middle east Up

April 3, 2024 (Wednesday) The Koffin Kats and The Queers at Sonia - 7:30PM All ages show! FB page

April 5, 2024 (Friday) Hammered Saint, Diablogato, Shang Hi Los at Faces, Malden - FB page.

April 6, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg Dan BD Blast!! with Densityblackcat (NYC), The False Positives, Hi-End, Stop Calling Frank, DJ Sherman spinning at The Warehouse XI in Union Square Somerville (right by the Jungle)

April 6, 2024 (Saturday) Huck 2 and Island of Alaska at The Jungle Somerville.

April 13, 2024 (Saturday) Children of the Flaming Wheel, Electric Street Queens, Orange Whip, Christian Kids -8PM at The Midway FB page

April 14, 2024 (Sunday) Martin/Morell/Fredette with Mike Weidenfeller and John Hovorka at The Midway - 3PM matinee show

April 15, 2024 (Monday) Rockin Bob Punk Band, Some Kind of Nightmare, Super Beef at Koto Salem.

April 16, 2024 (Sunday) Plymouth Punk Rock Market Returns to Weymouth at Barrel House Z - Noon - 4PM. FB page.

April 19, 2024 (Friday) Quattracenta, Thalia Zedek Band, Rip Room - at The Midway - 9:30 show.

April 20, 2024 (Saturday) Hard in the Head II with The F.U.'s, Cuidado, The Modern faces, Couch Sex, at the Gerry 5 VFA Marblehead, MA

April 20, 2024 (Saturday) The Long Wait, Sonic Bomb, Tj Welch And The Wasted at Thirsty First Lowell

April 27, 2024 (Saturday) The Crank-Tones at The Midway for a 3PM Matinee

May 4, 2024 (Saturday) The Lights Out, Gretchen Shae & The Middle Eight, Brain K & The Parkway at Faces Malden

May 5, 2024 (Sunday) The Chisel, Home Front at The Middle East All Ages 7PM doors. ,

May 11, 2024 (Saturday) Johnny Plankton & TSMS, Hands Of Spite, FastTracks, Richard Mirsky & A.M.P at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

May 16, 2024 (Thursday) The Dead Boys, Nervous Eaters, The Plimsouls at Sonia this is a 7PM show.

May 16, 2024 (Thursday) Helmet and Cro-Mags at The Middle East All Ages 6PM doors. FB page

May 18, 2024 (Saturday) DnA's Evolution, Trading Tombstones. The Spackles, The Mighty Suicide Squirrels at The Midway for a 3 PM matinee

May 18, 2024 (Saturday) Joan Jett covers night with Andrea Gillis & Friends, CE Skidmore & Friends, Brooke Feinberg & Friends At faces malden

June 1, 2024 (Saturday) The Wynotts, The Black Cheers, Spillers at New World Tavern Plymouth.

CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.com Send us your gig listings, your anything else you've got!! You want your CD reviewed?? Contact us for that too.