BLACKLIGHT CHAMELEONS - A Field Guide to... Blacklight Chameleons (2003)

 Wasting no time from the breakup of the Mad Violets in late 1984, guitarist and now vocalist Dino Sorbello grabbed Andrea Mathews on drums from the recently broken up Outta Place, and added Noreen Lewis on bass and located Bill Ebauer for keyboards in a Village Voice ad. After a quick gig or two at the Dive they set about recording their first self-titled Ep (released on Voxx Records March 1985) which continues to sell to this very day. An article in Vanity Fair magazine in June 1985 about the big 60s style resurgence featured a two-page color photo by Mary Ellen Mark, and some copy about the band. So instead of a press kit, the band showed the mag around town to score some prestigious gigs. By 1986 the group had new drummers, bassists, and finally decided to add a lead singer, former Ford model Sharon Middendorf. They were featured in a High Times cover story about the “Minds Eye” shows happening at the old Tramps Club (where Joey Ramone, after seeing them, was quoted as as saying:” I was transported...”).
Spring of 1987 saw the release of ‘Inner Mission’ (USA: NBC Records, Europe: Semaphore Records). Two tours each to Florida and California, a fair amount of US airplay on college stations, and quite a lot of airplay in Europe, especially Greece(!?) let a lot of folks hear their brand of psychedelically inflected 60s pop originals. A few months after playing the Mind Circus event at Temple Universty in Philadelphia during spring 1988, the group was disbanded by Dino after certain members failed to commit for the next tour. Now you can hear all the previous vinyl-only releases along with a couple of previously unreleased studio and live rehearsal cuts combined on a brand new CD release from Tripwave! Records entitled  ‘A Field Guide To Blacklight Chameleons’ (TWR 002).  www.tripwave.com

Buy it here!

GLEN MATLOCK - I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol

Glen Matlock was a founding member of the Sex Pistols and co-wrote most of their iconic songs. His story of the Pistols' rise to global infamy is an honest, insightful account of a group of intelligent malcontents, determined to change the music business and to attack hypocrisy and stale conventions in society at large. Glen brilliantly captures the flavour of seventies Britain and reveals the complexities and personality clashes that made the Pistols so explosive at that time. Also includes true tales of the Pistols reunion tours of 1996 and 2002. Never mind the other bollocks-filled books about the Sex Pistols, here's the truth.

Buy it here!

Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and The 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound

“One of the most exhilarating and important rock ’n’ roll stories ever told.”—Julian Cope

The trailblazing 13th Floor Elevators released the first “psychedelic” rock album in America, transforming culture throughout the 1960s and beyond. The Elevators followed their own spiritual cosmic agenda, to change society by finding a new path to enlightenment. Their battles with repressive authorities in Texas and their escape to San Francisco’s embryonic counterculture are legendary.

When the Elevators returned to Texas, the band became subject to investigation by Austin police. Lead singer Roky Erickson was forced into a real-life enactment of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and was put away in a maximum-security unit for the criminally insane for years. Tommy Hall, their Svengali lyricist, lived in a cave. Guitarist Stacy Sutherland was imprisoned. The drummer was involuntarily subjected to electric shock treatments, and the bassist was drafted into the Vietnam War.

This fascinating biography breaks decades of silence of band members and addresses a huge cult following of Elevators fans in the United States and Europe. The group is revered as a formative influence on Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Primal Scream, R.E.M, and Z.Z. Top.

Roky Erickson is the subject of a heralded recent documentary feature, You’re Gonna Miss Me; a box set of remastered Elevators CDs with liner notes by author Paul Drummond will be issued in fall 2007.

Buy it!

V/A - Welcome Back To The Eighties Colours (2013)

Quando, quasi cinque anni fa, iniziai a scrivere quello che sarebbe diventato “Eighties Colours. Garage, beat e psichedelia nell’Italia degli anni Ottanta” non avrei mai immaginato ciò che è poi realmente accaduto. L’uscita del libro ha avuto l’effetto di risvegliare il fuoco 

che covava sotto la cenere, di riaccendere l’interesse verso una stagione creativa che evidentemente, come usano dire gli inglesi, era gone but not forgotten… Durante le serate di presentazione di “Eighties Colours” su e giù per la Penisola si respirava ancora una volta il desiderio di stare assieme, l’elettrizzante sentirsi parte di una piccola comunità di carbonari, la gioia di ritrovarsi con amici vecchi e nuovi per condividere un happening underground. Esattamente come accadeva venti/venticinque anni prima nei club sotterranei di tutta Italia. Nel frattempo alcuni gruppi avevano ripreso da un po’ la loro traiettoria artistica suonando dal vivo e pubblicando dischi (spesso bellissimi), altri hanno incrociato il loro ritorno con l’uscita del libro, altri ancora si sono incredibilmente rimessi assieme dopo lustri di inattività: tutti sono stati felicemente investiti dal vortice di entusiasmo ricreatosi attorno alla fertile stagione neo-Sixties italiana. “Welcome Back To The Eighties Colours” vuole essere la celebrazione di questo momento di grazia. Sin dal titolo è evidente il legame ideale, il fil rouge, con il movimento underground che prese il “la” proprio con la leggendaria compilation pubblicata da Claudio Sorge nel 1985 per la sua Electric Eye. Il disco che tenete in mano, nato da un’idea del vulcanico Lodovico Ellena, non è una semplice rilettura nostalgica del passato, ma la fotografia di cosa sta ancora oggi accadendo nel rigoglioso sottobosco tricolore che trasuda di suoni garage, beat e psichedelici. È allo stesso tempo un tributo incrociato, un’esplosione di creatività, una cascata di note, canzoni e buone vibrazioni. I colori degli anni Ottanta continuano a esplodere: welcome back!

Roberto Calabrò, Settembre 2012.

Tracklist:

1. BEPPE CANAVERO & GIOVANNI CRAVERO (from OUT OF TIME) vs Birdmen Of Alkatraz - Song For The Convict Charlie
2. NO STRANGE vs Eazycon - Talpa dell’Infinito (“Mole of Infinity)
3. EFFERVESCENT ELEPHANTS vs Strange Flowers - December
4. DARIO ANTONETTI (from KRYPTASTHESIE) vs Vegetable Men - Juri Gagarin Meets An Angel In The Sky
5. OPERAZIONE TUONO (feat. VALERIO IMPULSIVE YOUTH) vs Sick Rose - Do You Live In A Jail?
6. AMERIGO VERARDI & UMBERTO PALAZZO (from ALLISON RUN) vs The Views - Allie Flan (“Patty Flan)
7. TECHNICOLOUR DREAM vs Paul Chain Violet Theatre - Luxury
8. POLVERE DI PINGUINO vs Boohoos - The Hoo
9. TRIP HILL vs Leanan Sidhe - The Music of Erich Zann
10. LIARS vs Pikes In Panic - Little By Little
11. I BARBIERI vs Gli Avvoltoi - Puoi girare il mondo con chi vuoi
12. DOUBLE DECK FIVE vs No Strange - L’Universo
13. THE ACT vs Lager - Atomic Generation
14. EAZYCON vs Effervescent Elephants - L’Appeso (“Three O’ Clock)
15. STRANGE FLOWERS vs The Liars - Cold Girl
16. SLEEVES vs Out Of Time - One More Chance
17. LAGER vs The Act - Able and Enroled
18. VEGETABLE MEN vs Allison Run - Smooth Dog
19. LODOVICO ELLENA vs Steeplejack - (On The Road To) Sunshine Poppy Fields 

Buy it!

"EIGHTIES COLOURS. Garage, beat e psichedelia nell'Italia degli anni Ottanta"

Un atto d'amore nei confronti di quei gruppi e di quelle etichette che con la loro musica hanno segnato indelebilmente i miei 17 anni. E la cui storia non è mai stata raccontata. Finora.

1985-2010: proprio quest'anno si celebra il venticinquennale dell'uscita di "Eighties Colours", la compilation-manifesto realizzata da Claudio Sorge per la sua pioneristica Electric Eye che nell'85 diede il via alla scena.

Da allora e per i cinque anni successivi, da nord a sud, fu tutto un pullulare di gruppi che decisero di guardare indietro, agli anni Sessanta, come inesauribile fonte di ispirazione. Parallelamente a quello che stava succedendo negli Stati Uniti, ma anche in Europa (soprattutto in Scandinavia), anche l'Italia visse il suo rinascimento neo-Sixties.

Gruppi come Sick Rose, Not Moving, No-Strange, Gli Avvoltoi, Pikes In Panic, Magic Potion, Peter Sellers & The Hollywood Party (e so di fare un torto a tutti gli altri che qui non menziono...) portarono una ventata di energia e un'esplosione di colori in un panorama underground fino a quel momento dominato dal grigio della new wave e del dark.

Mentre del punk e della new wave italiana si è parlato e si continua (giustamente) a parlare ancora oggi, sulla scena neoSixties (e non semplicemente neopsichedelica, come erroneamente si scriveva all'epoca, essendo i suoni e le tendenze degli anni Sessanta interamente declinati nelle varie forme: garage, beat, psichedelia) è calata una cappa d'oblio.
Che spero finalmente di stracciare con questo libro, che è molto di più di un semplice libro: è un atto d'amore.

Un volume di grande formato (17x24 cm)- 240 pagine a colori - che, per la prima volta, passa in rassegna tutti i gruppi garage, beat e neopsichedelici italiani e descrive accuratamente tutti i loro dischi.

Il racconto di quegli anni irripetibili e indimenticabili è reso attuale e vibrante dalla viva voce dei protagonisti (oltre 40 interviste raccolte nell’arco di due anni) e da un apparato fotografico/iconografico senza precedenti.
Il volume è inoltre arricchito dalla discografia completa su quel periodo, con tutti i dischi neoSixties italiani (45 giri, Ep, Lp) pubblicati tra il 1985 e il 1990.  Roberto Calabrò.

HATCHAM SOCIAL - Cutting Up the Present Leaks Out the Future (2014)

London four piece, Hatcham Social are set to release their new album on Tim Burgess O Genesis label on the 3rd of February 2014.

'Cutting Up The Present Leaks Out The Future', the follow up to last year s About Girls album, is the band s third long player and without doubt their most accomplished set of songs to date. Recorded and self produced in their own studio in Wales, the new album features ten stunning tracks including recent download More Power To Live and forthcoming single Lion With A Laser Gun which is accompanied by a video by founding member of The Jesus and Mary Chain and award winning director Douglas Hart.

Formed a few years ago by siblings Toby Kidd (vocals, guitar) and Finn Kidd (drums, vocals) they initially made their name with a string of catchy and collectable sevens onlabels such as Loog, Waks and Fierce Panda prior to the release of 2009 s debut album You Dig The Tunnel, I ll Hide The Soil . The Hatcham line up was bolstered by the addition of David Claxton (guitar) and Riley Difford (bass) and they released their aforementioned second album About Girls which saw them deliver a more punkier and dynamic sound. The last eighteen months has seen them host their own club night, produce a host of other bands, launch a cassette label and tour the UK and Europe as support and backing band to Tim Burgess on his year long solo tour.

2014 will see Hatcham Social return in their own right and to coincide with the release of Cutting Up The Present Leaks Out The Future' they will set off on extensive UK and European tours. More dates will be announced in the very near future.

Tracklist:

1. ketamine Queen

2. All That I Can See Is A Gun

3. Confessions Of An English Opium Smoker

4. To The Moon (Is This The Way Man Will Survive)

5. Spirit of 45

6. More Power To Live

7. Lion With A Laser Gun

8. All In The Moscow

9. Stay True To Your Family

10. Don't Go To Sleep

 Buy this CD here!

  

Buy this Vinyl here: