DIE IDIOTEN: An Iggy Covers Album

 

It's Bandcamp Friday!  One new item that caught my eye is a single from The Art Gray Noizz Quintet with Lydia Lunch.  Together, they cover "Permafrost" by Magazine and "Mass Production" by Iggy Pop.  Here was one of the final missing pieces to complete a cover album project!

The Idiot was released in March 1977 and was followed six months later by Lust For Life.  Both albums were created during Iggy and Bowie's stay in East Berlin.  From their black and white covers to the musicians who play on both records, the two LP's are close siblings. Thus the title of this covers album, Die Idioten (The Idiots). 

I couldn't find this album online (or any other covers of "Turn Blue"), so there is a live version from Iggy's US tour with Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals.  Otherwise it's all covers, in a surprising range of interpretations in various genres, including reggae (Trippynova), mento (The Jolly Boys), rockabilly (J.D. McPherson), country (Kelly Willis, having fun with Chuck Prophet and The Gourds), plus a track from Angkor Pop, the Cambodian tribute to Iggy.  The biggest surprise to me was David Hasselhoff's version of "The Passenger".  It's modern European dance music, but the Hoff doesn't go over the top.  His vocal is faithful to the original.  Best thing he's done since his Lords Of The New Church cover!

The lyrics to these songs are among the best that Iggy has written, although some of them are problematic.  Iggy's attraction to underage girls is evident on "Sixteen" and "Tiny Girls".  Check out Eugene Robinson's article Punk Rock Pedophilia for a thoughtful examination of this issue.  

Another problematic lyric is "Visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone/It's in the whites of my eyes." Of course, the China Girl tells the song's narrator to shut his mouth.  It was Ron Asheton (not Iggy) who collected Nazi memorabilia, and it was Bowie who foolishly flirted with fascism.  

There's a fascinating new book called This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika, and the Third Reich which explores this obsession among rock musicians.  Bowie, Lennon, Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Vivian Stanshall, Eric Burdon, Lemmy, Throbbing Gristle, Sid Vicious, Siouxsie, Mark E. Smith, Bernard Sumner, Richard Jobson, Spandau Ballet, Nico, Slayer, Kanye and many others are examined in music, word and deed.  

The author, Daniel Rachel, also wrote a book about 2-Tone and the Rock Against Racism movement; and in This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll he calls out RAR for being less focused on antisemitism than other forms of racism.  I would like to have read a chapter on the white supremacist and neo-Nazi connections to noise, neo-folk, and metal, but those troubling topics are explored here, here, here and here. 

Sorry for such a long and digressive post today.  If I may suggest one item to consider for purchase on this Bandcamp Friday, it's the new release from Atlanta singer-songwriter K. Michelle Dubois.  She was a founding member of Ultrababyfat, and on her excellent solo albums she collaborates with Dan Dixon and other members of Atlanta band Dropsonic.  

Dubois' new full-length, Served On The Half Shell, is a collection of originals and covers: All Tomorrow's Parties, Truth Hits Everybody, and The Culture Bunker by Teardrop Explodes!  Michelle has a compelling voice. I frequently return to her solo albums, and always try to catch her live shows (which are too rare). 

Her new record is a great introduction to her music, as it features both new originals and remixes of older ones like All Night Glamour (which really needs to be featured on the soundtrack of the next teen vampire movie.) I previously featured K. Michelle Dubois' music here on the compilation Georgia Women of Alternative Rock (GWAR).

Buy This Ain't Rock'n'Roll from Akashic Books

Buy other Daniel Rachel books from Bookshop.org 

Buy music from K. Michelle Dubois at Bandcamp

The New York Dolls, Simon & Garfunkel, and die Kreuzen walk into a bar...

 

Taking a brief respite from the triple song titles, here are a few collections of cover songs.

The first is a set of Simon & Garfunkel covers.  Some are respectful, others irreverent.  The well-known remakes by The Lemonheads and The Bangles are not included.  "Scarborough Fair" is included (despite the fact that Simon took credit for a song that he neither wrote nor arranged).  You get a funky "Scarborough Fair" by The Coolies (the Atlanta band that made an album of S&G covers, each in a different musical style).  

Speaking of irreverence, the image of Paul and Artie is borrowed from the artist Mark Reynolds.  

Next up is a collection of New York Dolls covers.  It includes all of the original compositions from the debut album and Too Much Too Soon, plus a couple of songs from the Red Patent Leather era.  The Sweet Relief organization is currently raising funds for David Johansen's care.  You can donate here.

In his book Mutations, Sam McPheeters calls the 1984 debut album by die Kreuzen "a wormhole into an obscene universe."  It's hard to explain the impact of this record on hardcore punk.  Maximum Rock & Roll was reduced to repeating the words "This is fucking great" over and over as their review of the record.  Having remade hardcore, die Kreuzen left it behind and did their own damn thing for three albums. Some say they anticipated grunge.  20 years after the wormhole was opened, a tribute album called Lean Into It was released.  Another 20 years have passed.  Here it is... again...  this time with 8 more songs.

Guest Spots: Kelly Hogan

Kelly Hogan started her singing career in Atlanta.  Her band The Jody Grind was beloved in their hometown. The band ended tragically, and far too soon. 

Not long after Kelly's first solo album was released (in 1996) she left Atlanta for Chicago, where she soon fell in with the Bloodshot Records crew.  On Beneath The Country Underdog (her second solo album), she was backed by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts.  A third album followed in 2001.

Kelly contributed lead and backing vocals to a variety of projects.  It was the golden age of alt-country (or Americana, if you prefer), and tribute albums were also popular.  Kelly appeared on tributes to Wanda Jackson, Joe South, Bob Wills, The Knitters, the Nashville soundtrack, and the recently deceased Kris Kristofferson.  Kelly has collaborated with Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, Robbie Fulks, The Sadies, and others.  She has sung backup with Mavis Staples, The Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, Amy Ray, Jakob Dylan, Poi Dog Pondering and many others.

A decade passed before Kelly Hogan released another solo album, maybe because she was so dang busy.  She has performed children's songs as a member of the Wee Hairy Beasties, trad. arr. with the Love Hall Tryst, and vocal pop (think the Fifth Dimension or the Free Design) with the Flat Five.  Kelly can sing just about anything, but it's in country music that her full vocal and emotional range really shines: her voice can be sassy, sexy, silly or supremely sad and lonesome.

I'm not the only fan who wishes there were more Kelly Hogan solo records.  You could make an entire album of Kelly's songs that have appeared on Bloodshot samplers, tribute albums, and her duets with John Wesley Harding, Nora O'Connor, Alejandro Escovedo, Scott Ligon, and Rex Hobart.  That's what I've done here. Only one of the two dozen songs here is from a Kelly Hogan album, and that's only because it was impossible to resist "Wild Mountain Berries" (originally recorded by Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty).    

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG: Guest Spots from Lisa Kekaula, Hollie Cook, Cassandra Wilson, and others.

Georgia Women of Alternative Rock (GWAR)

 

Apologies to Stinky, blog readers, and my fellow Georgians. Georgia Week was supposed to be more than what was posted here. Stinky contributed great compilations and graphics. I had big ideas but failed to follow through. Lost the plot. Mea culpa.

At some point there may be another Georgia Week. Meanwhile, here's the only set of songs I managed to complete (aside from the cover songs). 

Today's compilation starts off with Athens pioneers The B-52's, Pylon, Oh-OK, and the Bar B-Q Killers. It includes bands from the 90's like The Jody Grind, Insane Jane, Marcy, Magnapop, and Ultrababyfat, as well as an early song from Michelle Malone (pictured at left as Malodorous Ungerus).

There are a few metal bands (Jucifer, Kylesa, and Royal Thunder) and some current names you may know (Mattiel, the Coathangers). 

Buffi Aguero (of the Subsonics and Tiger! Tiger!), Anna Kramer (of Shantih Shantih), K. Michelle Dubois (Luigi, Ultrababyfat), Thayer Sarrano, Erica Strout (of the mighty Motherfucker) and Sienna Chandler of Monsoon are major musical talents deserving greater acclaim. 

Jucifer has a fascinating new album called Nazm, which their Bandcamp page describes as "Bedouin rock" and "heavy Chaoui". Stephanie from the Coathangers has a new project called NRCSSST with Dan Dixon (who also produced K. Michelle Dubois' newly released album, The Fever Returns.)

Georgia Week: Stevie and the Tombstones

The blog's been too quiet for too long, but Stinky and I have been working behind the scenes on Georgia Week. We discovered that we both lived in Atlanta around the same time, and share fond (if fuzzy) memories of local bands and musicians. One of our mutual favorites is The Tombstones, an Atlanta institution fronted by Stevie Tombstone, who still performs as Stevie T. (or did until the coronavirus put a stop to live music).

Back when I first started sparkin' with the woman who would become my wife, she introduced me to the 1988 mini-LP Preachin', Prayin', Guitar Playin' -- the Tombstones' only release during their lifetime. There's a posthumous CD called Twang From The Grave, a digital monument to the Tombstones. Stiv Bators was a Tombstones fan, and Stiv's version of "Nobody" appeared on his Last Race CD.

Georgia Week will feature artists new and old. It's a significant state in the history of popular music. Some of the first country music was recorded at Atlanta radio station WSB, including Georgia natives Fiddlin' John Carson and the Skillet Lickers. Rev. Thomas Dorsey pioneered gospel music after turning away from secular music (like another Georgia native, rock & roll founding father Little Richard). Ma Rainey, the Mother Of The Blues, began her career in Georgia. Ray Charles is widely considered the progenitor of soul music. Athens, GA played a central role in what is sometimes called college rock, and Atlanta is a mecca for hip hop. I could go on.

Georgia has been in the news frequently in the past few months, sometimes for  good reasons and other times not. I've lived more than half my life here, and have seen some musicians rise to international fame while others (often just as talented and deserving) have struggled to break out of the local scene. There will be some of both here in the next week or so.

A Christmas Present From Atlanta's Past

Sister Ruby Records was an Atlanta label from the early 1990's, loosely associated with the late great Eat More Records store (RIP Craig Freireich). The label focused on local artists, and issued three Christmas comps that still find their way into my CD player every year.

Participants who went on to greater success include Shawn Mullins, Michelle Malone, Kelly Hogan (a lovely "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree" with the late Gregory Dean Smalley on guitar), the late Benjamin Smoke (aka Opal Foxx), and a blowsy combo from the far side of Lake Hartwell who were about to make the #1 album of 1995.

If you knew the ATL scene in the 80's and 90's, you will recognize veterans like Amy Pike, Anne Richmond Boston, Kristen Hall, Ray Dafrico, Tommy Rivers, and several folks who arose phoenix-like from the crack pipe crucible of The Coolies. You may remember bands like Big Fish Ensemble, The Vidalias, Engine, and The Doll Squad.

There are fine versions of Christmas tunes written by Mel Torme, José Feliciano, Buck Owens, Pete Townshend, Greg Lake, Steve Earle, The Ramones, Alex Chilton, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Joni Mitchell; the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song; and (my favorite) Uncle Green's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", with a lovely little segue into "Space Oddity".  Here they are -- olden, golden, and emboldened to tackle these holiday chestnuts, as well as creating a few original Christmas songs.