Guess I Turned Out a Punk...

Can't remember anyone ever asking me about the Lost Kids in an interview before. Hell...I don't think anyone's asked me about that band outside of this interview. Good times with Damian. Dig it.

So You Want Me To Throw Out Your Demo CD?

The folks in the Grammy world gave me an inspiring writing prompt and the end result is something that's nice to have in writing after using the message as a verbal crutch for years in response to randos calling the office trying to get "signed." Enjoy.


https://www.grammypro.com/nashville/blogs/how-pitch-indie-label

Lies the Killers Told Me...

Excerpted from The Killers: Days & Ages available now from Omnibus Press.

The Earliest Known Press About Death...

My current obsession has been old zines from Detroit and Michigan. Ballroom Blitz always seems to be a cut above the rest, but I still found myself surprised when Mike McDowell's Classics Revisited column in the March 1977 issue #19 included this little blurb about Death.

In underground punk collecting world, it was always presented that NO ONE knew anything about this band while they were together. The A Band Called Death documentary seems to echo this assumption as well. So to see it reviewed, within months of its release, feels special. The fact that McDowell 100% gets where the record is coming from is just a bonus. Nevermind that it erroneously attributes the label to Frank Freed in Chicago...this just goes to show you that some folks were hip to Death at the moment. Keep on rockin'.

When I Was Young and Booty Shakin Shit...

Pretty old interview excerpt where I talk so slow it sounds like I've never spoken before. Also, I'm twenty years old here and my face is fat.

Billboard ran a blurb asking me of my favorite album covers and here's what they printed...

http://www.billboard.com/articles/magazine/6480586/third-man-records-ben-blackwell-favorite-vinyl-art

Apparently the "Tasty" album cover was too racy so they only ran that online and then asked me to include two more choices (I included the Sonic Youth and Liars titles because I couldn't come up with two more Detroit titles that I loved)

Here's the album art they outright would not acknowledge and my write-up

Shortcut - Booty Shakin' Shit

Kid Rock’s hype-man Joe C (RIP) with his hands on the backsides of two local Detroit strippers. Apparently this was investigated as child pornography because authorities thought Joe C, who suffered from dwarfism, was actually a child.

Additionally, the LP version of this title, which was never officially released, does not have the golden scratch-off underwear.

The Earliest Known Press About the Gories...

Was written by a member of the Gories. According to Mick, the last line in this article is something he really said. Enjoy.

Hits From Cass Records

Here's some things I've been listening to for the past ten years. I couldn't find digital versions of Sagger or Hot Machines and am now wondering how in the hell I even mastered those records. Anyway, this was commissioned by the UFO Factory in Detroit for their CD jukebox. Everything here was released by Cass Records. I might be a little proud, but am trying not to let that go to my head.

Broken Dreams of eBay Auctions Lost...

Bids Price VERY VERY RARE! Vintage Detroit Pistions Belt Buckle 1969! (Reserve Not Met) Your max bid: $22.00 3 $15.49 + $4.98 shipping VOYAGER 1980's Michigan Private Hard Rock unplayed 45 HEAR! Your max bid: $111.00 4 $113.50 + $3.85 shipping GORDON NEWTON- DETROIT ARTIST CASS CORRIDOR Your max bid: $800.00 The seller relisted this item. -- $2,500.00 Buy It Now or best offer Calculate The Five Kinetics/ Snow Children Lp. Rare 60's Rock. VG... Your max bid: $300.00 The seller relisted this item. -- $1,500.00 Buy It Now or best offer + $4.00 shipping RICK COLE - I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU - UNIVERSAL SOUND Detroi... Your max bid: $44.00 3 $45.00 + $3.40 shipping RARE GARAGE PSYCH ROCK-DELTRON RECORDS-JAYHAWKERS-DAWN OF... Your max bid: $22.22 16 $22.72 + $3.00 shipping Michigan Psych Fuzz 45 Bob Goodsite Faze I Sound Patte... Your max bid: $88.88 6 $89.88 + $4.00 shipping (Mikes) Mijal & White Rare Detroit Garage Psych On Zatop Your max bid: $22.00 7 $94.00 + $4.00 shipping
1. My Detroit News belt buckle broke last week. I've been searching for a suitable replacement. Wonder what the reserve was on this one. 2. My compulsion of buying Michigan records has somehow dipped in to unknown metal 45's. This sounded better than most. 3. Art for walls. I bought a piece from the same Newton series (inspired by athletes in the Summer Olympics...1988?) last year for less than half my offer here. Still denied. It'd be nice to turn a pair into a diptych. 4. I usually don't go for garage LPs (too hit-or-miss) but the Upper Peninsula's Five Kinetics have a lively one here, especially their cover of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators' "You're Gonna Miss Me" 5. Universal Sound is a Detroit-area label. I will buy just about anything on U/S if it's cheap enough. I knew absolutely nothing about this record (didn't even search out sound clips) and apparently it is considered somewhat desirable by others. 6. This thing went unsold for at least three consecutive 7-day "Buy-it-Now" offers for $10. It was on my watch list the entire time. I cannot explain why I would just let it sit there for such an affordable price. Still dying for a copy of the Deltrons "I Found My Baby in Bad Axe" on the same label. Lost two last year and it still hurts. 7. Sound Patterns, like Universal Sound, is a Detroit-area label that I always am keen on exploring. Goodsite is good fuzz. I've seen this around before, but I'm fairly certain all copies are promo-styled black and white labels. Of all the Sound Patterns label variations, I believe this is the only release with the boring black-and-white label. 8. This record turns up fairly frequently and Archer invoices show at least 1000 copies being pressed...presumably 500 with blue labels and 500 with gold, although the gold labels are far more scarce. Price has been all over the place on this one...Popsike shows as low as $39 back in '09 while as high as $198 back in '11 (an auction I believe I was the second-highest bidder on). Furthermore, take a look at all the copies that show up on Popsike...they're almost always BEAT. Why are almost ALL of the blue label pressings ring-worn within an inch of being usable? Was there something in the ink that made these wear exceptionally easy? Were these played like crazy...this hit as high as #3 on a local chart in February '73, but did that actually translate to sales? Or wear? Sometimes a record is just a record. Other times it's an invitation to countless unanswerable questions. Those are the records that captivate me.

Collage, Collage, Collage

Do yourself a favor and support an up-and-coming art zine...

http://xraybookco.com/kutuup/

Blast From the Past: Thoughts From 2001...

In the midst of some late night Googling, I managed to find a list I wrote at the end of 2001. Remember Yahoo Groups? Neither did I, but all that shit is still live and searchable.

Top 3 Albums
1. Rondelles "Shined Nickels and Loose Change"
2. King Brothers "s/t"
3. The Screws "Shake Your Monkey"
(of course the White Stripes, Von Bondies, Detroit Cobras and Clone Defects, but I wanted a non-Detroit list)
(I haven't listened to Rondelles, King Brothers or Von Bondies in over ten years. Screws held up on a listen within the past six months. Stripes, Cobras and Defects are all still classic)

Top 3 Shows
1. White Stripes anywhere (East Coast, West Coast, Craig Kilborn, DIA, Letterman Soundcheck)
2. Deniz Tek, Scott Morgan, Ron Asheton (finally heard Stooges songs performed by people who know what they're doing)
3. Mooney Suzuki w/ Soledad Brothers @ Magic Stick (oh yeah, it rocked)
(I played drums for the Mooney Suzuki at the Magic Stick show...it was fun, one night only)

Top 4 45's
1. Hentchmen "Teenage Letter" D-wrEcked-hiT
2. White Stripes "Party of Special Things to Do" Sub Pop
3. The A-Frames "Plastica" SS Records
4. Happy Supply "Camera Song" Popsick Records
(I wholeheartedly stand by this list, I just might re-arrange the order today)

Top 4 Albums I'm Waiting for in 2002 (and've already heard in 2001)
1. Mooney Suzuki "Electric Sweat"
2. The Go "Free Electricity"
3. Soledad Brothers "Steal Your Soul and Beg Your Spirit to Move"
4. Brendan Benson "Lapalco"
("Free Electricity" never came out and I managed to get the Soledad album name incorrect)

Best Bands I Just Heard About This Year
1. DNA
2. The Last Poets
3. Fabulous Counts
(What a great year. Wow.) 

Best T-Shirts of 2001
1. A suitcase full of unworn "Detroit Tigers 1984 Champs" in 6 different styles, at a flea market
2. Carrie from the Von Bondies giving me a Gories t-shirt
3. "Another One Bites the Dust" from the Detroit Lions 1980's season
4. Faded blue "Detroit College" ringer with a cool "DCB" logo, I'm thinking Detroit College of Business
(Any one of these would be a list topper in the past ten years. T-shirts are drying up.)

Best New Cities
1. Wallace, Idaho: with the Stardust Motel and a pawn shop that specializes in stuffed polar bears and bitching leather jackets
2. Nottingham, England: our show was the best of the tour, the city was beautiful, and went dancing with scads of beautiful girls, got sad, wrote about it
3. Detroit, the new Seattle
(The Detroit comment actually made me laugh out loud. That one's got legs.)

Predictions for 2002:
-NWA declares bankruptcy, MC Ren living on the streets

-Disgruntled NYC scenester bombs the Magic Stick in Detroit, eliminating any and all local bands

-NME staff personally fellates the Strokes and prints the pics to prove it
(I thought it was hilarious that NWA was both an airline and a rap group. Surely someone else made the correlation earlier and better than I)

In terms of a digital footprint, I'm actually quite impressed by how little I'm embarrassed by this list. I was nineteen years old and the idea of a blog was still unrealized. Let's hope I feel the same way about everything written here in another thirteen years.

Digital Digging for YouTube Gold When the Curtain Calls for You

 The original name for this "place" was intended to be Rain on Tin, after the Sonic Youth song of the same titling. That name was already taken. It seems to be a dead link in the Blogger world, but I'm glad it was unavailable back in 2006.

The name in the address bar here comes from an EP by Jonathan Fire Eater. They're a band that years later still has some odd hold over me. Flamed out by the time I'd just become musically conversant on my own, they manage to maintain an existence in a vacuum.

YouTube existed for years before any evidence of their live performances ever showed up there. And when they did...all was underwhelming. But this video above, recorded at the Globe in Milwaukee on November 14th, 1996, is exactly what my mind imagined as the potential for this band.

The music starts perfectly at 1:49 with Paul Maroon attacking his guitar in a manner unseen from him before or since. Each subsequent band member enters the stage and the musical fray one at a time...a simple yet tension-building technique that always serves the larger good. The drum beat on this song, "When the Curtain Calls for You" is one of my favorite to ape whenever I sit behind a kit...so to SEE it played here, without two sticks on the snare (as I had always envisioned) is that weird sort of revelation that seems to happen less and less in this digital age.

Just hearing songs from Wolf Songs For Lambs in a quasi-embryonic state, seemingly before they were committed to tape...for me it feels almost obtrusively voyeuristic as that album is pantheon to me. Doesn't mean I won't listen and doesn't mean that it's wrong.  And the tangential between song ramblings by lead singer Stewart Lupton? Both tantalizing and cringe-worthy.

The Kills have covered Fire Eater's "The Search for Cherry Red" and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs folks personally told me that as they found their footing in NYC, they were directly inspired by strides taken by this band that's considered. Jonathan Fire Eater is a band who's immediate importance was almost non-existent but who's influence continues to be felt more than fifteen years after their implosion. And for me, it's still inspiring today, in little bits like this that show up every once in awhile. And that keeps me happy and continually searching.

"If you've got a spare half a million..."

A little over a year of satellite radio service and it's proven to have introduced me to quite a few records that I otherwise would have probably paid no mind to. The Cayucas album is in heavy rotation at the Blackwell house (being a particular favorite of Violet's) and I don't absolutely hate Foxygen either.

One of the most pleasant surprises has been Courtney Barnett. I feel like I first heard "Avant Gardener" about six months ago on Sirius and my immediate reaction was that I was surprised to hear something that belied a sort of substance on the XMU channel. I heard it a couple more times and painted a picture in my mind...Courtney was some sort of exhibitionist tart, "fake", too good to be true... just all kinds of things that would make me not like her. Almost as if I didn't want to even give her a chance.

I bought the vinyl of The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, listened once, didn't hate it, and filed away. A last-minute in-store in Nashville was enough to bring me out to investigate further. I found the simplicity and bare-bones feeling of her songs performed without additional accompaniment was far more intriguing than the full-band backing on the recordings.

It all came to a head with the last song she played, a yet-to-be-released song called "Depreston." Courtney explained that Preston is a neighborhood in Melbourne and the song is about the task of trying to find a place to live. The structure of the song almost feels a bit off, like each verse is missing a line, that's it's still in progress. That lends a certain beauty to it, in addition to the poignant observational lyrics, with just enough winking wit to keep you paying attention.

The final lines, sung about a house, repeated, repeated, repeated, burrowed into my head.

If you've got a

spare half a million

you could knock it down

and start rebuilding

Maybe it's because that's exactly what seems to be happening in my neighborhood in East Nashville. Maybe it's the ever-so-percpible lilt of an Australian accent that renders "half" as "hoff." Maybe it's through some sort of quirk in the cosmos that Barnett seems to inhabit and mean every single word she sings. I don't know. I just know that over a month later and this song has not left my head for more than a day. I can't remember a new song that I so quickly learned all the words to. 

Funny thing is for an unreleased song Courtney seems to be playing this thing every damn opportunity she gets. Having delved through at least half-a-dozen different performances, I feel like the one embedded above, has a little magic that seems missing from the others. Here's hoping you enjoy it half as much as I have.

A Contemporary Record of Rock and Roll...

The camera was kept just far away enough so you can't see the shit-eating grin on my face. Talking about records at a museum and people paid to listen. Wow.

Motor City's Yearning #8

Random Jam-doms...

Any info I can share on this record is pretty much contained on the label. The band is called Off Whidte Larey, the record was pressed at Archer Record Pressing in Detroit in 1988. Beyond that, I can tell you that the song "Extended Brain Vacation" is compelling for some reason that cannot be contained in words. So just listen.

When You Least Expect It...

Life-changing records show up when you least expect it, from unlikely sources. That's a theme that only partially threads this story. In addition…headphones are necessary.

The Dirtbombs were on tour in May of 2002 and it was trying. The van was too small, the advance promotion was nonexistent and our lone excitement (a day off scheduled in Groningen) instead turned into a day in Slagelse, Denmark with a broken down van where one band member literally shit his pants.

In the middle of all of this, we played a show at the Loppen club in Christiania. I was surprised by the fact that Christiania claimed itself independent from the rest of Denmark, that drugs were openly sold on Pusher Street, and that I'd never heard the word "pastoralism" until Mick Collins and I took a vaguely romantic walk around the nearby lake.

Before the show, the Dirtbombs found ourselves in conversation with a bunch of kids. They were clearly excited by the fact that we were from Detroit. "Have you ever been to Fred Smith's grave?" they asked. None of us had. "If we lived in Detroit, we would go there every day."

I forget any further conversation, but at the end of it they gave me a copy of a self-released single of their band, Dollhouse, called "Shangri-La Tiger." The cover was a confusing collage, it was on red vinyl and hand-numbered. (#51 of 500)

I was intrigued and mentally noted that I needed to give this record due attention upon arriving home.

As we emptied out the van to check in to our flights at Heathrow a few weeks later I mistakenly left my LP case…where the single was living snugly. It would be another two months before a lazy tour manager finally shipped it back to me. I'd almost forgotten about it.

Embarassingly, I'd never really listened to music on headphones before. No one really told me I should until Malissa and even after she did, it took awhile before I found a suitably cool pair from the 70s that made me look like I should be directing airplane traffic.

It was late at night when I put the record on. No one else was home. The opening groove is hypnotic, a drumbeat that envelops on top of itself. As the rest of the instrumentation kicks in the MC5 influence is clear, but avoids becoming a pastiche. It motors, it motors, it motors. Good little number. Enjoyable. As one of the first things I'd listened to on headphones, this beast definitely lent itself to that form of delivery.

Towards the end there's a little breakdown, things get quiet, chill and then without warning, the record FUCKING EXPLODES! A bomb detonates in the distance, space junk crashes in my front yard, glass windows liquify, my blood begins to run backwards screaming and my teeth grow baby teeth of their own.

It is, nearly twelve years later, still one of my most favorite moments I've lived while listening to a record. Later consultation with the band revealed they literally "turned on every pedal in the studio at the same time" to accomplish that affect. Bravo.

The best part about all of this is simple…records given to bands while on tour are 99.999% of the time absolute garbage. Not only did Dollhouse manage to transcend this fact of life, they managed to absolutely obliterate 99% of the records I've ever explicitly bought on my own.

#51 lived a long time on my jukebox. It currently has a little bit of heat warp from the great house fire of '08, but as I've just listened to it five straight times (each with increasing volume) it has lost none of the sheer bombast that made me first fall in love with it so long ago.

The World's Most Important Swimmers

Nine Albums My Infant Daughter Enjoyed This Year and One She Hated

Fatherhood has provided me with the greatest excuse to share the things I love. Below is a list, roughly in popular/frequency order, of the albums my daughter Violet has enjoyed most in her first eight months. I don't know what exactly they signify (if anything) but listening to music with her is second only to "making her laugh" for favorite activity that was new to me in 2013.

1. Nick Drake Pink Moon (both the first full song and album she ever heard)

2. Medico Doktor Vibes Liter Thru Dorker Vibes

3. Total Control Henge Beat

4. Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy

5. Bob Dylan Bringing it all Back Home

6. Duane Pitre Bridges

7. The Dirtbombs Party Store (pitched down minus six so it's nice and chilled out)

8. Peter Walker Has Anybody Seen Our Freedoms?

9. Ella Jenkins Jambo

And one she hated:

Sun Ra The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra (Can't say I really disagree with her on this one)

Things You Should Be Listening To...

First off, the eagerly-anticipated (by me at least) debut LP from Detroit's Growwing Pains. For some reason deep in my ever-expanding gut, I feel this thing getting huge. The jams are solid with guest spots by folks like Chris Campbell (Terrible Twos), Hunter Muldoon (the Muldoons) and Nathan Jerde (The Ponys). I don't think I've liked a band from Detroit this much since Tyvek first popped its nerdy head.

http://urinalcakerecords.com/growwingpains/

Also in the Urinal Cake stable (a label so able it's got legs like Betty Grabel) is Feelings. This seems to be the first legit band by dear friend (and the unofficial mayor of Woodbridge) Dave Buick since the Go. That's saying something. The tunes amply display the holy reverence applied to all things Nirvana by the brothers Mueller, with significant bits and beats of Clean-liness. This may or may not have been recorded using my drums, some of which used to be Ben Swank's drums.

"Missing Time" starts off like I'd think the song would be annoying, but ends up earworming itself into my consciousness. A good sign.

http://urinalcakerecords.com/feelings/

Other things floating around you should check out...

The Pampers s/t (In the Red Records) - I thought this was a bunch of kids in their early twenties. The pic on the insert seems to display otherwise. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a sleight. Regardless, this is a solid aggressive rock band like a cross between the more-accessible parts of the Oh Sees and the less-forgettable stuff of A-Frames.
Below is a stream of a song off one of their out-of-print singles. If you're into vinyl speculation, I'd track down BOTH of their Jackshack singles and wait about six months to rake in the cash on eBay.



I guess this came out almost a year ago, but with rumors of an impending live LP, there's no better time to remind all about the absolute perfection achieved by the Victims from Australia. The Sleeping Dogs Lie LP (or CD if you're my grandpa) is worth whatever you have to pay for it on Discogs. I promise.



The Medico Doktor Vibes LP Liter Thru Dorker Vibes has been an absolute head-crusher and has been bought by no less than three employees at Third Man. I can't think of a release other than anything by Ty Segall that gets that much love around these parts. 100 copies of this were pressed in 1979 in South Central Los Angeles. Think of it as DIY Guyanese electro psych. A one-of-a-kind vision if there ever was one. First 500 copies of the repress are gone, more expected in December. Mark your calendar if you're not already on-board.




I'm a little behind-the-curve on this one, but "Carpet Rash" by Total Control has been in my head once a week for the past ten months. Sometimes it feels like this song will never end and a lot of times I wish it didn't



And even further behind on jams are the wonderfully rich outtakes and alternate mixes of Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. There aren't too many other records I'd declare perfect, but usually anniversary reissues of these titles leave much to be desired. Not so with Ladies. My recent listenings have been nigh-religious experiences. Everything on the two discs of bonus material is earth-shatteringly eye-opening. Here's the one track that almost made me cry.


The upcoming live album by the Gories ain't no slouch either. But you already knew that. Required listening for gourmands the world over.

My Fat Face Talking About Records...

Why didn't these guys warn me that my double-chin would take up the entire screen?

My goal here was to try and not talk about records that I talked about in my Dust & Grooves profile. I didn't manage that, but I still think this came out interestingly. They noticeably cut the part where I talk about the hypothetical possibility of whether or not I, as a record collector, would perform homosexual acts for rare records. I guess the answer to that question will be saved for braver souls. Enjoy.