Friday, May 27, 2022

 I first became aware of Walker Brigade through their Big Stir singles, one of which is a fun cover of “I’m Tired” from Blazing Saddles. Another is “No,” a Grammy Award first ballot listee. The B-sides, respectively “Tower” and “Fallout,” are great, and a reminder that good post-punk continues to be made.



The band was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.


Andrea Weiss: How did the band form?


Mark Fletcher: Tracy recorded some demos of her original songs and starting a band with her just seemed like a good idea. I ran into Jeff at a party and told him what we were working on. We all knew each other, so it just came together very quickly. We tried a couple other drummers before we invited Craig. He and I had been playing in a bar band, so we were already pretty familiar with each other’s playing. Our repertoire in the beginning was mostly covers--Buzzcocks, Ultravox!, Soft Boys, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire, Penetration, etc.


Craig Tyrka: Mark and I were playing in another band and he asked me if I would be interested in a project he was starting with some friends doing originals. When I heard originals based on late 70's, mostly British punk I was interested. I met them at Tracy's house. We practiced in her living room. I had to put a sheet over my drums so the neighbors wouldn't hear us. We clicked and here we are.



Andrea: Who are your influences?


Mark: Mission of Burma, Jefferson Airplane, Wire, the Who, Tom Lehrer.


Jeff Charreaux:  As far as guitar goes, I like how Mick Ronson really added to songs to make it more rock than singer-songwriter music. Bernard Butler did that in Suede, too.


Craig: I was into drummers, of course, so in college I loved the jazz greats. I got into Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, who I shared a stage with, long story.  I really got into Fusion rock, Billy Cobham, Mahivishnu Orchestra, etc. Bill Bruford and Phil Collins were big influences. I had to move away from drummers only and starting seeing the band as a working unit. I'm into any band that has a certain energy and does something that I don't think I can.


Tracy Walker: The Stooges, The Rolling Stones, early Roxy Music, The Kinks, Cheap Trick, Television, The Pretenders, Protomartyr, Christine Amphlett of the Divinyls (my favorite front person probably of all time).



Andrea: I hear a lot of X in your sound, which is great. Would you say they are an influence? 


Jeff: We all admire X, to varying degrees. I love their lyrics. Technically, people hear a similarity because our vocal harmonies are sort of upside-down. Like a saxophone and trumpet. Beatles harmonies are in thirds and fifths, which double up the notes already in the guitar chords. Inverted, like horn parts, they become sixths and fourths. We don’t have three singers, and Tracy and I have to cut through the din. We practice loud, so that’s the only way I can harmonize with Tracy and both be heard. In a way, it’s good because our sound can’t really evolve too much. We’ve gotten more experimental in writing the songs, adding things like KraĆ¼trock and Shangri-La’s-inspired narratives. But working the songs out at practice from our bedroom demos ends up sounding like us, because of the so-called, “angular” harmonies. That’s my X apologia, at least. 


Tracy: As a kid, I was obsessed with Under the Big Black Sun and Wild Gift, and entranced by Exene’s image. She also imprinted herself on many singers who came after her, and I listened to all of them, too. I don’t purposefully emulate Exene, but she’s imprinted herself in my consciousness and other singers, as well, so I guess it happens spontaneously. Also her “jagged” harmony style naturally cuts through loud music, and our music is loud, so I go there instinctively to be heard.



Andrea: That loud, fast, rough sound is great. Do you feel like you're carrying on a type of punk that, sadly, isn’t heard a lot today?


Craig: Exactly. We say what we have to in about three minutes. Right now most commercial music is Urban and Rap. Rock is alive in the clubs mostly (and action movies), from what I see anyway.


Jeff: Yes! Mark had the concept of the band with Tracy to play the kind of great, semi-lost songs from when every band sounded unique in the post-punk era. Back then, in England, no one would ever form a band to sound similar to anyone else. We’ve all stuck to that approach in our previous endeavors. To succeed or fail on our own merits. We want our songs to be what we’d want to hear but don’t exist yet.



Andrea: Your lyrics seem to deal with vexing problems and frustration. Or do you think you deal with other things besides that?


Jeff: Life is mostly vexing problems and frustrations, if you are trying to live on your own terms and also keep your self-respect. That’s what “Don’t Sell Out (for Free)” addresses. If you don’t fight to retain your creative freedom, or at least get paid up-front for it, you end up having nothing but regrets when your product doesn’t resonate with anyone, even yourself.


Tracy: Sure, that seems accurate, also mystical/spiritual experience, the Apocalypse, corporatism, sex--it certainly does run a gamut.


Mark: As far as I can tell, the lyrics seem to be based on very personal experiences. Songwriting as psychotherapy.



Andrea: Though there are many women who play power pop, there still aren’t enough. What would you say to women who want to play power pop?


Mark: Before 1977 the Who defined power pop. After that, it was the Buzzcocks, at least in my opinion. Why more women don’t play that kind of music is beyond me. I’ve been thinking of becoming a music teacher and introducing my students to Live at Leeds and A Different Kind of Tension. And for the more adventurous kids, Bless Its Pointed Little Head.


Tracy: The 90s was the golden age of women playing hard, “uncomfortable” music in major venues. It was a veritable smorgasbord of female one-off’s, from L7 to Bikini Kill, Geraldine Fibbers, Sleater-Kinney and P.J. Harvey. They were heirs to the Slits, X-Ray Spex, the Pretenders, Pylon, Patti Smith, The Raincoats. It was an incredible time for authentic and complex female voices, but like all good things, it came to an end. They paved paradise and put up a picture of Kim Kardashian. I know Chrissie Hynde was a huge fan of the Stooges. I would tell other women who want to play Who-style power pop, buy the Stooges catalog and use it as an inspiration. There’s a great mix of male and female energy in their music, toughness and vulnerability, intellect and instinct, and the chords are straightforward and became a template for so many others, why not you? We need you!



Andrea: Your covers are inspiring, especially “I Wanna Destroy You” and “Rock and Roll Toilet.” Do you listen to a lot of Robyn Hitchcock?


Jeff: Mark proposed those songs on the first mix-tape CD he gave Tracy and me. “I Wanna Destroy You” was on the first demo we recorded so we could get shows. That must’ve helped us get our first Big Stir Live bookings. From the very first beat, “I Wanna Destroy You” kicks off on a fourth-interval harmony, which is the “X harmony” thing, but with male voices. It makes the chorus a bit ominous but still catchy. “Rock and Roll Toilet” is from a live show. Rex has been asking to release it, but we had our own songs and other covers that were recorded in a proper recording studio, like the Wire song. But that might be sloppier.


Tracy: Robyn Hitchcock is one of my favorite songwriters. There’s a lot of withering satire and psychological insight in his songs, and he manages to be very catchy.



Andrea: Do you plan to tour?


Jeff: The early reception to our album is looking like it can be viable. My ideal is to play Glastonbury, but that might be a way off. 

 Walker Brigade

If Only

Big Stir Records


On this wonderful album from this LA postpunk band, the first four songs set the tone musically: rocking, melodic, heavy, with an awful lot of great noise, feedback, and generally cool sonics.


After that, it’s off and rolling, hitting peaks with “What Is Wrong With Me” and “Sand In My Joints,” with lyrics about difficult situations, told forcefully and fiercely.


There are bonus tracks, too, including alternate mixes of songs like “No,” which was on the first ballot for the Grammys, and some great covers, like a full-throated version of the Soft Boys' “I Wanna Destroy You” and Robyn Hitchcock’s “Rock and Roll Toilet.”


It's one of the best albums of the year, and a reminder that this is what postpunk and punk really are like. This kind of music really isn’t made anymore, and it should be, as it’s a lot more alive than today’s indie rock, and a lot more rocking, too.


Andrea Weiss


Spygenius

 

Son Of The Morning, Go Man Go! single

Big Stir


The wonderful, dreamy psychedelia of this song also owes a lot to college rock. It’s very gentle, and yes, a good song to wake up to. So if you’re looking for something to think to, or dream, this is the song. And watch for their album Jobbernowl out next month.


Andrea Weiss

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

 Frontperson

Parade

Oscar St. Records


Frontperson, who are Kathryn Calder and Mark Andrew Hamilton from Woodpigeon, have released a delightful followup to 2018’s Frontrunner, one that equals the best of Calder’s other band, The New Pornographers.


The duo still tackles vexing and frustrating situations, mostly relationships, with insight and droll, wry, and dry humor, the best kinds, to ultra-melodic synth pop, with a lot of guitars, too. That Hamilton is out is another good twist, as there always is a need for out relationship songs that take on their complexities, while not necessarily universalizing them.


Fans of TNP will enjoy this album, as Parade does resemble TNP’s most recent album, 2019’s In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights. So will Woodpigeon’s fans and people who just want to hear good synth pop with rock and a bit of folk mixed in.


Andrea Weiss

Saturday, May 21, 2022

 I first heard Nick Piunti last year, on the single “One Of The Boys.” It's feminist power pop in the way the lost classic “Shelly’s Boyfriend” by Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo was, but more rock, and a lot of fun to listen to.


Now that song is on Heart Inside Your Head, the latest album from Nick and his band the Complicated Men, which is one of the best albums I’ve heard all year, a rush from start to finish.


Nick was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.


Andrea Weiss: How did the band form?


Nick Piunti: I recorded four solo albums, beginning in 2013, with some great musicians, but missed having a band that was available for more shows and regular rehearsals. I was going to do a solo show when I was approached by Jeff Hupp to ask if I needed a bassist. He brought along Ron Vensko to play drums, we had one rehearsal and it clicked. Later we were joined by Kevin Darnell on keys, for a short time Ryan Allen on guitar, and now Joe Daksiewicz is our other guitarist.



AW: Who are your influences?


NP: Melodic, catchy rock/pop songs. Starting from the 60’s until now. Earliest influences were The Monkees, The Beatles, and a ton of songs that were played on CKLW and WKNR, AM radio stations.



AW: You’re from Detroit. Who from that city has influenced you?


NP: Well the first song I ever sang live was Alice Cooper’s "Be My Lover." So that’s one. Iggy of course, Mitch Ryder, I’m a fan or early Seger. And Seger’s backing band Julia was also very influential. They were kind of like a Michigan Badfinger. Great singers, too. Julia’s drummer, Randy Meyers, produced our first singles when we were just kids. Ted Nugent’s first album with Derek St. Holmes on vocals was a big record for 15-year-old me. Derek went to the same high school as I did and rehearsed across the street from me. The Knack knocked me out (Doug Fieger was from Detroit). Marshall Crenshaw was a big influence, as well. The Romantics were cool, White Stripes, Eminem. And I didn’t even mention Motown yet!



AW: I like how heartfelt your lyrics are. Is it your aim to make an emotional connection with the audience?


NP: Lyrics have always been important to me. Sometimes they come easy, other times it’s hard work, but it’s worth it. I get turned off by songs when lyrics are an afterthought, or lazy. And though my lyrics are personal, I’d like to think that the audience can relate and make them their own as well.



AW: “One Of The Boys” is feminist, which is great. Do you hope people will be inspired by that?


NP: I was raised by a single mom when none of my friends had divorced parents. I had the greatest respect for my mom and I learned early on how to see the world from both a male and female perspective. And now that I’m a father to three women, there’s no way not to be at least a part-time feminist. The song was written for my daughter as a reminder to stand up for herself when it comes to relationships.



AW: I also hear a bit of Fountains Of Wayne in your music. Would you say they’re an influence?


NP: Absolutely! Some of my favorite records. And my wife’s, as well. She got to play tambourine along to "Hey Julie" at one of their shows.



AW: Do you have any plans to tour?


NP: We play the Detroit area often, but would love to get out of town for some selected shows. We all have careers outside of making music, but we’re a  pretty tight rocking band that would love to perform more than we do. We’ve had a lot of requests from a lot of places, we just need to make it happen.



AW: What would you tell someone first starting out in music?


NP: I would tell them that music is something you can enjoy for the rest of your life. I would say learn to write your own songs. Play your instrument as much as you can. Find other musicians to play with that you can learn from and push yourself to get better at your craft. For me, songwriting was my strength, but I’ve always been a good rhythm guitarist and I learned how to use my voice to be a pretty good vocalist. Nothing really came that easy for me musically but I loved it so much and I’ve worked really hard at it.

 Nick Piunti & the Complicated Men

Heart Inside Your Head

Jem Records


The latest album by this band is one of the best of the year for its sincere, heartfelt lyrics that approach anthems. Almost all are about persevering, in one way or the other, in romance and life, and even when the lyrics are sad, Nick, by his singing, assures everyone that things will be okay.


The best track on the album is “One Of The Boys,” which is feminist. Women are to be treated with respect and kindness, not as one of the guys or a doormat. At a time when women’s rights are under attack, this is a very welcome message.


The music to all these songs is direct, clear, tough, and sturdy indie power pop. It’s a lot of fun to listen to, as it’s fast and crunchy. You won’t be sorry if you pick this up and give it a chance. You’ll be rewarded with a great album that is a real pick-me-up if you’re feeling down.


Andrea Weiss

 Tony Valentino

Dirty Water single

Big Stir


Tony Valentino was the guitarist for the Standells, famous for the song “Dirty Water,” on which Tony played the famous guitar riff. if you’ve never heard the song, go listen. It’s classic garage rock, and you may have heard it and not known what it was or who did it.


The song originally came out in 1966, and Valentino has done a new version, which is very faithful to the original, has the famous riff sounding better than ever, and while it’s a tongue in cheek tribute to Boston, all the sports teams there use it for their official anthem now. The dirty water they refer to is the Charles River, which was very polluted in 1966.


I always liked this song. It still sounds great, and with today’s recording techniques the mix is clear and cleaned up somewhat, but there is still a lot of grit, as there should be. So if you want to hear a fun and great song, this is it. What’re you wanting for?


Andrea Weiss

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

 The Bablers

You Are The One For Me

Big Stir Records


This is is for anyone who needs a pick-me-up if they’re having a bad day. Fun, happy pop/rock, leaning on the rock side, a blissed out love song--what more could you want if things are going wrong for you on any given day? Pick it up, put it on, and dance around the room to this great song.

Andrea Weiss


Sunday, May 8, 2022

 Johnathan Pushkar and Friends

No Way Home video

Jem Records


Fans of stop motion animation, Legos, and Spider Man will like this video and song. Johnathan Pushkar, Ian Ash, and Laurier Lachance are the vocalists and musicians on this track about love gone wrong, but in the video they play Spider Men, vanquishing villains, all as Legos.


The song and clip are cute in a good way and very charming. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and Legos are a lot better now than when I was playing with them as a kid, when they were a new toy. Now they’re for grown ups, as well. The song is, too, and nothing is old here either. What is here is a great clip to great, folky power pop, and, as I say, an awful lot of fun to watch.


Andrea Weiss

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Choker

Walker Brigade

Big Stir


The first single from their upcoming album, If Only, out May 27 on Big Stir, is reminiscent of X at their best, and if, like me, you love X, you’ll love this single. It's post punk, and there isn’t enough good post punk around, so this is welcome.


I strongly recommended this song for the intertwined male and female voices of Tracy Walker and Jeff Charreaux, its rolling, rocking music, and the glee-filled lyrics. If you like this and want more, pick up the album the end of the month.

Andrea Weiss

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

 I’ve been a fan of Jim Basnight for a while now, and his music never disappoints. It’s always good and a lot of fun to listen to. His latest singles are no exception, so check them out. You’ll be glad you did.


Jim was kind enough to answer a few questions about them.


Andrea Weiss:What is "Hello Mary Jane" about? I remember you saying it was a pot reference?


Jim Basnight: I wrote "HMJ" with the late Ben Rabinowitz. Ben and I met when he was around 13-14 and I was 16-17 in 1973-74. We met hanging around at record stores in a neighborhood in Seattle adjacent to the University of Washington called "The U-District." It was where a lot of the Seattle counter-culture was based in the 1960's and it still carried that trait then and for many years into the 80's and even the very early 90's. Ben and I shared a love for current music of the day, notably David Bowie and his guitarist at that time, Mick Ronson, plus two New York bands: Lou Reed, who also worked with Ronson on his Transformer album, and the Velvet Underground, and New York Dolls and their lead guitarist, Johnny Thunders.


When the Dolls did an in-store at a U-District record store in 1974, Thunders heard Ben play and told him that he wanted Ben to form a band with him. A friend of Ben's named Lee Lumsden and Ben's brother Dan had a self-mimeographed fanzine called The District Diary, which became Chatterbox, after the Dolls song, in 1975. We all contributed to it, including other long-time friends of mine from the neighborhood, Ben primarily with his incredibly good artwork. Ben and I were friends for many years. As both of our lives went in different directions, we always stayed in touch and consistently made attempts to collaborate artistically. "Hello Mary Jane" was one of those collaborations. I don't know if it was about marijuana. As I mentioned in my recent press kit for the single:


"Does it relate to cannabis, children’s shoes with tie over hasps, a peanut butter and molasses taffy or a secret obsession with females of that name? How would I know?"

 

I would add that Ben and I were smoking pot a little when we wrote it. But it's also a name bandied about in rock and roll often. Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane," Rick James' "Mary Jane" and the lyrics (below) to the 1968 Top 25 bubblegum hit "Quick Joey Small," by Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, come to mind, but I'm sure there's a lot more:


"Sweet Mary Jane was goin' insane

When she heard of Joey's jail break

But she knew all the while 'cause

She sent him a file

Baked inside a fudge cake"


It was a pop song that we believed could be a lot of things to a lot of folks, would be danceable, catchy, and possibly a little irreverent. It was a lot of fun to write it with Ben and it's been a ton of fun to play for many years in nearly all my bands.



AW: "My Vision Of You" is a bitter relationship song. Was there meant to be a contrast between a happy song and a sad one?"


JB: I think there was a bit of reasoning in picking it as the flip side of "Hello Mary Jane." One is rockin' and loose and one is poppy and tight. Both have good feels and grooves. That's the common denominator which made them go together well.


"MVOY" was written with Mike Czekaj, another longtime friend and musical collaborator. I met Mike on the East Coast when I lived there, when I was living in NYC. Soon after we did some gigs and he backed me on a recording session with producer Genya Ravan, I moved back to Seattle. But we stayed in touch. When Mike moved to LA to play in the Fuzztones, I had already been there for around a year when the version of the Moberlys I formed in Seattle (the band which played on most of the tracks on Seattle-NY-LA, Toby Keil on bass, Glenn Oyabe on guitar, and Dave Drewry on drums) moved down the coast to LA. Very soon after we reconnected in LA, we started writing songs together. "MVOY" is one of many songs we wrote over the years. Like "HMJ" it's a tried-and-true live number in my shows in the Jim Basnight Band.


It is bittersweet, but the point of the song from my perspective is, "Our love was so good that even though we're not together, it's still real to me." There is hope, of another chance implied and there is also positive value in the old expression, "It's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all."



AW: One song is punky and the other is more pop. Was that meant to be a contrast too?


JB: It was. This is very perceptive of you. I wouldn't call "HMJ" punky. To me it's more garage-rocky, in a Kinky, Bolanesque way. But I think it sounds unique, like my best stuff usually does. You do a great job of listening, at least to my tunes. Thanks!!



AW: What are the backstories for these two songs?


JB: I think I covered that, but I'll add a little more info. For "MVOY" the song has evolved as a live piece into less of a hugely layered vocal piece and more of a tight and groovy somewhat Beatlesque pop number. For "HMJ," the Rockinghams re-did it, with a slightly shorter arrangement.


For the new single version on the Pop Top (2022 Remaster), the original version of the song was edited to be a bit shorter again and the sounds were brilliantly enhanced by Garey Shelton's keen ears. I think both tunes were greatly enhanced by Shelton's work.



AW: Do you intend to tour behind them?


JB: I do. I'm looking to travel to the East Coast in late summer and continue to Europe, before returning to the Seattle. I'll be releasing more details as they firm up. I'm also looking to release a third single from the Pop Top album.


I'm seriously considering including "Stop The Words" in that release, as it was chosen as part of Little Steven's Underground Garage's "Coolest Song In The World" ongoing series. The flipside is more up-in-the-air, but I'm close to deciding.


The first single, "Opportunity Knocks" and "Still A Part of Me," was very well received, getting a lot of great plays and reviews around the net and around the world.

 Jim Basnight

Hello Mary Jane/My Vision of You

Power Popaholic


This latest single from Pop Top is more of the really good, really punky power pop Jim’s known for. This kind of pop is a lot of fun to listen to.


“Hello Mary Jane” is punky feminist, as the main character likes Mary Jane for more than her looks. He knows he's got to treat her with respect and kindness. “My Vision of You” is sadder, a break-up song, but it never gets weepy or melodramatic.


In short, there is a lot here, and worth your time to listen. Pick up Pop Top, the album, too. It’s great.


Andrea Weiss