Category Archives: Power Pop

Night Train To Nowhere Electoral Dysfunction Mixcloud

The Random Revelations Night Train To Nowhere Is Waiting For You To Hop Aboard!

A Podblast Powered By Curiously Curated Ska, Soul, Reggae, Dub, Punk, Funk, Easy Listening Music & Hard Liquor.

 

Hear my 2 hrs of painstakingly picked records and some rare soundboard concert clips. Most of my shared recordings are ripped right off vinyl rarities for your listening pleasure by artists such as Gregory Isaacs, Darondo, Dead Moon, Sister Double Happiness, Andre Williams, X, Rare Essence, Van Morrison, Larry Graham, Lou Rawls and The True Believers featuring brothers Javier & Alejandro Escovedo.

 

This episode is new for November and is a nuanced nocturnal tour you’ll want to revisit all over again.

Regale In Retro Rock Blasts from The Pretenders, Billy Squier, Dave Clark Five, Chilliwack, A Flock Of Seagulls as well as new music from contemporary #IndieRock artists like Jesse Dayton & Kelley Stoltz.

For the careful listener you’ll also hear a couple previously unreleased live recordings of a couple of my old late 80’s era bands Mom & The Rolling Scabs.

 

Rotober Random Revelations Mixcloud

Gotta lil’ bored and needed to share some quarantunes with my peeps online… If yer around me in the house, you’d know I spend hours everyday regurgitatin’ through thousands of albums . For those that don’t have the pleasure of me drunkenly thumbing through the shelves and pulling out obscurities I created a digital simulation. This is an official 2 Hour Guided Missile Of a Mixtape, literaly pounds upon pounds of platters painstakingly plopped under yr Spin Doctor’s new needle. (NOTE: long before a hippie jam band in NYC used the name Spin Doctors, I was using the Spin Doctor moniker on flyers for my DJ gigs around San Francisco. I eventually gave up because you know, Little Miss Can’t Be Blecch was getting way too much MTV time, and killed my buzz).

We Begin With Members Of The Dils Cowboy Nation Covering Dave Alvin of The Blasters And End With Wanda Jackson Imitating Charlie Rich. In The Middle We Get Tales Of The Big Boys Playing With Trouble Funk & Gwar Being Banned From The Club For Life At Their Very First Show. There’s Cosmic Sounds Of The Zodiac, BT Express, Flo & Eddie, Kendra Smith, Tom T. Hall, Chuck Prophet, Nick Lowe, The Mexican Hat Dance, Stax Soul Icons & Successful Major Label Heavies Revisiting Their Punk Roots. A Rarely Heard Hip-Hop Collab Between Lil’ Jon, Jay Z & Too Short, Indie Rock Rarities From The Incredible Casuals, And Beatnik Beatch, Plus Hawaiian Islander Protest Music From Israel Kamakawiwo’ole & Michael Kahikina. Dusty Springfield vs Tony Joe White, Hank Ballard vs Kris Kristofferson, Roberta Flack vs Les McCann …So, Uh, Yeah It’s A Thing & It’s All Happening Deep Inside The Random Revelations Rotober 2020 Mix.

Anyhow the the turntablist spins sonic stories for the masses in my latest Illegal , Immoral & Fattening mix…






Tulsa Storyteller Dwight Twilley

Dwight Twilley performing on Oakland

Invoking heady mid-seventies days with late associates Leon Russell and Phil Seymour, then 65 year old Power Pop songsmith Dwight Twilley tells of the struggle getting signed by Shelter Records and making “Sincerley” his debut LP featuring the hit “On Fire” over 40 years ago.

 

 

Eventually after regaling the audience at the Starline Social Club in Oakland California with musical memories and a rare peek at his poetic process, Dwight sucks down a beer, and plays his song “Three Persons” about a thorny love triangle, in a style much like the demo was made for his Shelter Records debut.  

Down here below, we have a video towards the end of the set where Dwight invited Sarah Bethe Nelson and here band to join him on a version of “on Fire” a track he originally recorded with Phil Seymour back in 1974

 

 

 

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The Rubinoos Buzz Gets Meek With “Honey From The Honeycombs”

Here’s a boppin’ lil’ single from some unlikely suspects who’ve resurfaced onto the rock scene after decades of plugging away, perfecting their pop and dodging the dustbins of history by derailing dormancy. The new Rubinoos release “From Home” just came out on Yep Roc Records, and I shot this video clip in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, literally just blocks away from where this underrated band cut their first single for Beserkley Records in the mid-70s.

Tommy & Jon of The Rubinoos Play Live

Nearly 50 years since forming their first combo, and 42 years since appearing on American Bandstand, the Rubinoos have revitalized their classic pop sound and are making a go of it with their latest effort “From Home” on the Yep Roc label.

Taking their tried and true formula of vocal harmonizing with sweetly layered instrumental accompaniment, they teamed up with some production help at Hyde St Studios with longtime local fan Chuck Prophet and ace engineer Paul Q Kolderie (whose made some great records with everyone from The Go-Go’s and Dinosaur Jr to The Pixies, Radiohead and more). The results are finally garnering them their first serious 21st century press attention since getting embroiled in a lawsuit with Dr Luke and Avril Lavigne over their all too apparent uncredited copycatting of the 70’s era Rubinoos single “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” about a decade ago.

The new song featured here, co-written with Chuck Prophet, pays tribute to the late Honey Lantree, a UK hairdresser who went on to become an iconic female drummer for the Honeycombs, a 60’s pop band produced by eccentric UK production wunderkind Joe Meek.

Despite having begun their career during the Nixon era when bubblegum rock was not yet a retro sound, and prevailing thru a decades long run with all the tawdry travails of show biz, the Rubinoos overall are actually in great shape and spirits, and seem way healthier (and far more talented) than many bands I know half their age.

To familiarize yourself with this amazing band and their past glories, you can visit a playlist on Spotify that will fill in all the blanks

Here’s to the mighty Rubinoos who I hope can provide us much needed inspiration for kids of all ages!

Jonathan Richman recently posted his story of meeting the band in 1974 and how they became the defacto Modern Lovers on the west coast after he moved out here from New England. https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_rubinoos_by_jonathan_richman/

Here’s a link to an INTERVIEW with The Rubinoos and PRODUCER/CO-WRITER CHUCK PROPHET : http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2019/07/the-rubinoos-and-chuck-prophet-the-tvd-interview-premiere-phaedra/

The Rubinoos upcoming shows:

November 1 – The Chapel – San Francisco, CA
November 3 – Harlow’s – Sacramento, CA
November 17 – Bootleg Bar – Los Angeles, CA
December 9 – White Eagle – Portland, OR
December 11 – Sunset Tavern – Seattle, WA

The Rubinoos – Do You Remember (Aranivah Dance Edit)…

The Rubinoos vs Dance Culture By Aranivah. NYC’s Salvadoran scenester salvation puts the polka in the dots and shimmies some boom boom into the boom box as she interprets The Rubinoos new single off their upcoming don’t call it a comeback LP “From Home” via Yep Roc Records

Listen + pre-order this power pop maestro piece here: https://lnk.to/fromhome

The Rubinoos – Do You Remember is track from their forthcoming Yep Roc debut album co-produced by fellow Yep Roc recording artist Chuck Prophet

“Love Me From A Distance” with Jane Wiedlin’s Elettrodomestico

Love Me From A Distance” a live version of a song from the Elettrodomestico album If You’re a Boy or a Girl.

Shortly before the Hemlock Tavern shut down for good in San Francisco, I was privileged enough to attend an evening’s show where Jane Wiedlin (formerly of the Go-Go’s) was giving her latest musical project a chance to test it’s club rock legs. Featuring her latest songwriting collaborator, Pietro Straccia on guitar, plus some local pedigreed rockers like Dawn Richardson of 4 Non-Blondes on percussion and and longtime Tom Waits’ guitarist Joe Gore playing bass, they put a great intimate show in a tiny sweaty club that has since been torn down.

Jane Wiedlin is still an energetic vital musical force and her talented backing band Elettrodomestico is living proof she’s still got it going on decades after the music industry certified her platinum!

@LilMikeSF Media Maker Myriorama