Stism - Coping wth Society - Reloaded

I don't know a whole lot about this New York band who have a 77 punk sound not far from the sound of The Sex Pistols or fellow New Yorkers The Dead Boys but this album is a largely unknown gem.

Allmusic guide wrote: When punk rock took the music world by storm in the late '70s, punk bands ranged from angry socio-political agitators like the Sex Pistols, Sham 69, the Dead Kennedys and the Clash to bands with fun, goofy lyrics such as the Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers and the Dickies. Twenty years later, punk bands still ran the gamut -- some were angrily political, while others just wanted to have fun. Stisism, an East Coast punk band, favored the fun and the humorous on Coping with Society, which first came out on Intensive Scare and was reissued by Man's Ruin in early 1999. Recalling the Pistols, the Buzzcocks and others, Stisism brings a lot of exuberance and bratty aggression to this engaging album. The Pistols have had a heavy influence on Stisism, although their influence is musical more than lyrical. The singing and playing is Pistols-influenced, but lyrically, Stisism has a lot more in common with Stiff Little Fingers and the Ramones. Nutty humor is exactly what you can expect on "It's Not My Fault You Left Your Hair at Home, Dude," "Formaldehyde Baby," "Mr. Slawson and the Teenage Dolls" and other items. Drawing on Peggy Lee's "I'm a Woman" and the Muddy Waters hit "Mannish Boy," the catchy "Bacon Man" starts off as a stop-and-start blues tune before turning into fast, hyper punk. Coping With Society is an album that punk lovers should definitely be aware of. ~ Alex Henderson.

Alex Henderson may have listened to this album but I doubt he's ever listened to Stiff Little Fingers or read their lyrics. This album contains a punked up cover of the Beach Boys' song Vegetables. A few of the songs of this album appear on Stisism's my space page.

Get Stisism - Coping With Society

Kick yourself if you didn't grab it last time round then hurry up and get it this time around.

The Datsuns/The Randoms sometime recently

A few posts back I wrote a review of The Datsuns show I attended at San Francisco Bath House in Wellington and stated The Datsuns play for too long and support band The Randoms clearly sounded influenced by The Pixies and Fugazi. As I was underwhelmed by both bands, this post is nothing but an excuse to put up some photos from the show.







Above: The Randoms

Below: The Datsuns

The Holder Uppers

Lets travel back in time to six months ago. I made a Clawhammer post, the reward all bloggers want was offered up on a plate. A simple comment. This album is their major label "sellout" and interestingly the head of Epitaph records was the producer even though the band had jumped ship from his label. Clawhammer didn't change their sound at all and this Captain Beefheart ain't really major label stuff. Hell, it definitely didn't fit the Epitaph whoah-whoah pop punk mould either. This post is scant because it's a week till Christmas and there's still gift shopping to do.

Merry Christmas

Tolaku - Summer band

Tolaku was a Taiwanese band that have taken the Japanese approximation of the English word "Truck" as their band name. The music of Tolaku was desribed to me as silly pop punk way back at the start of this decade. I ended up buying this album to check them out. I'm not sure about the silly part or even the punk part but there's definitely an alternative happy pop element bubbling under here.

I went to see this band when I finally worked out how I could get to the venues in Taipei but when I arrived where the band was playing I was told the show had sold out. Disappointing for me anyway as it was the first Taiwanese band I would have seen that played original material instead of the standard Bon Jovi and Coldplay covers. The album's worth lending your ears to in exchange for a small portion of your life.

The picture above is the back cover of the CD.

Nar.

NZ Melodic punk split CD

Auckland melodic punk band Fifth Threat have featured in this blog before as have the now Brisbane based kiwi groupNot OK. Not OK have a folk punk lean not unlike Aussie Celtic punkers The Go Set or a restrained Dropkick Murphys. For me Not OK are the better sounding band here as Fifth Threat's drum sound is a little overpowering. This is an advance download. A physical product is in the works due for release hopefully some time soon

You know what to do.

The Cramps - A Date With Elvis

THE CRAMPS “A Date With Elvis”, 1986

“A Date with Elvis” is an inquisitive record. Three song titles beg answers for questions while rock and rolling along. “How Far Can Too Far Go?” is THE CRAMPS letting us know that they’re going to be the ones to find out and let us know. “What’s Inside a Girl?” showcase both the band’s psychobilly swamp rock rhythm section and surf guitar. Throughout the album the sleaze is poured on abundantly but the cake is taken when THE CRAMPS inquire “Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?” People Ain’t No Good” is an infectious dizzingly stomping heavy bass rocker with devilish female backing vocals that assist Lux Interior in menacingly spitting out his disdain for the human race. “Kizmiaz” features the assistance of Poison Ivy’s vocals and this mellow moment on the album sounds like a smutty version of THE CARPENTERS. “Corn-fed Dames” blows the psychorockabilly wind on the thick. Shut the door…you born in a barn? The ideas and sounds on this album definitely contain the hallmark stamp of the twisted deranged minds of THE CRAMPS.


Peacedogman.com has a full overview of The Cramps discography.

Been a while

It has been a while since my post because I've been fairly busy with work-related courses and life's been too hectic to find time for a blog post. There was a plan for a Datsuns show review but that can be condensed into a sentence. Support band, The Randoms sounded like a mix of Fugazi and The Pixies while The Datsuns played a few good songs and took way too much time with a lot of only OK songs that made my feet hurt and feel like leaving. I

Here's another re-up

Last time I wrote

Now for something completely different. While I was living in Taichung, Taiwan I lived not too far from a Live House which was an underground music venue that not many foreigners frequented. After watching a Japanese ska-punkers Double Negative and glam metal influenced rockers Trashbox a woman with a keyboard, a microphone and an anime painting, played. She stood out because her music was different from the four on floor rock band format and she was a small woman with a fantastic voice. After seeing Ryoko Mizoguchi play I got her to sign my CD. It's the first time I've ever done this but I had to get the female singer from Japanese hip-hop group Poplar translate for me. I really wanted to know the artist's English name and also wanted her to know I really liked her music.

Here's a snippet of an online English review I found

Mizoguchi's mini-album 1, 2 no 3 de is short, but then my five foot two inch tall mother always told me that the best things come in small packages, and after listening to this record over and over for the past few days I'm starting to think she may have been right all along. Armed mainly with a piano and a voice pitched somewhere between Kate Bush and Cerys Matthews, Mizoguchi has crafted a collection of songs that burrow themselves deeply within your subconscious, then keep bringing you back to them even when you know you ought to be listening to other things.

Friends of mine say she reminds them of Bjork.


Here.