Johnny Domino is a band from the UK that uses this page to foist their musical tastes on the general populace and to engage in cliquey musical one-upmanship amongst themselves...
It's a question of perception. If you watch telly and a reference is
made to the eighties you will get archive footage of city traders in
red braces sitting in wine bars braying into their brick sized mobile
phones, greed is good wasn't it all superficial and shit? Well I'm here
to tell you it wasn't...not musically anyway. The '80's was the last
time major label bands had control over their music and image. Duran
Duran, Spandau, Haircut 100 all looked ridiculous but because they chose
to look ridiculous. Bands were able to develop and refine their sounds
over a number of albums. Punk swept the boards clean and allowed art
school chancers like Human League and Soft Cell to bring minimalist
electronic music to the top of the charts. Songwriters with genuine and
sometimes embarrasing passion like Weller and Kevin Rowlands could have
number one singles.....yes there was still shit in the charts and the
creative fires had burned out of the mainstream by the end of the decade
(compare Simple Minds early 80's output with the bombast they peddled
by the end) but for a time the charts were...great.
Which brings
me round to this weeks post, they looked silly...check, they had a
background in punk...check, they got THEIR music made on THEIR terms
into the charts...check....THE TEARDROP EXPLODES. Both of these tracks
are from their 'difficult' second album 'Wilder'. I think it is a
psychedelic masterpiece, it unravelled the band and unhinged Julian
Cope, his excellent book 'Head-On' tells the tales of drug addled
madness of recording in Wales and a disastrous US tour. 'Tiny Children'
is so naked in it's emotional honesty and simplicity, it reminds me a
little of The Beatles 'Julia' in the way it connects to childhood. It's
like a lullaby. This was a SINGLE!
The Teardrop Explodes- Tiny Children
The Teardrop Explodes- Passionate Friend
'Passionate
Friend' was a hit but does anybody remember it?. 'Passionate Friend'
finds Julian Cope gloriously and optimistically English in his vocals,
where Ian Mac had studied cool, Julian was boundlessly enthusiastic.
This tune sounds like The Turtles on happy pills with sitar guitars,
trumpet fanfares and ba, ba, ba's. It is absolutely one of the most hook
laden singles of all time and along with X.T.C.'s Senses Working
Overtime goes to show that great guitar pop was alive and well in the
80's.
I got into Minutemen fairly late in life, but I think they're a great
example of how the US concept of punk can be way more interesting than
it's UK counterpart. Just look at the SST roster from the early-mid 80s -
Black Flag, Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Sonic Youth and Minutemen. All
completely stylistically different but all punk in the real sense -
doing it for themselves and embracing all aspects of a musical
"alternative" to the mainstream. It was more about how you carried
yourself than how you sounded and these artists shared a set of ideals
and a way of working that bound them together more than a homogenous
sound.
Minutemen - Viet Nam
Minutemen
didn't sound punk and they certainly didn't look the part (see lead
singer D.Boon above), but they were more punk than many other bands,
living the DIY ethic in all aspects of their day-to-day dealings,
releasing 12 records in five years both on SST and their own New
Alliance label. They took the energy and idealism of punk and fused it
with a more expansive musical vision and a committed political ideology -
you can see that they took a lot of their cues from Talking Heads, Wire
and the Pop Group.
Minutemen - One Reporter's Opinion
In
1984 they released "Double Nickels On The Dime", an amazing double
album (45 songs) recorded over a pair of two-day sessions. It was in
some ways the result of healthy competition between them and Husker Du,
who'd just released "Zen Arcade". "Double Nickels..." takes in funk,
punk, folk music, everything in between. There are also covers of songs
by Van Halen and, here, Steely Dan.
Minutemen - Doctor Wu
D.Boon died in a motoring accident in December 1985.
For
a start I know very little about Sebadoh. I know they are an American
band of the alternative variety and their singer is Lou Barlow....yes?
To me this song is a masterclass in how to arrange a great sounding,
dynamic rock song. Everything here sounds right. The distorted bass, the
succinct drum fills, the layers of clean and fuzzy guitars and the way
the vocals float over the whole melodic mess.
I love the way the
tambourine motors the second verse and very economical solo section. The
drop out sections and the build-up to the final instrumental verse.
It's all there, the ingredients to make you punch the rewind button to
hear it again and again. Pure joy. Buy Sebadoh- The Sebadoh
So Domino Rally has been going for 5 months now. And I'm the lucky
person that gets to do the first Meat Puppets post! I don't think it'll
be the last - Oxbow was even talking about a Meat Puppets week... To put
it mildly they have been a massive influence on most of Johnny Domino.
One
of my favourite bands of all time is the Velvet Underground - each of
their albums is totally different from the previous one. And the Meat
Puppets first three albums are possibly even more varied. They go from
the "rabid-glove-puppets-ripping-apart-a-small-stuffed-animal" stylings
of "In A Car" EP and the "Meat Puppets" LP (both recorded in 1981)...
Meat Puppets – Dolphin Field
...
to the druggy not-quite-country of "Meat Puppets II" (recorded 1983).
This is the album that includes the three tracks used in the Nirvana
Unplugged set, but those versions stripped all the rough edges off and
made them (psychological voyeurism aside) much less interesting
recordings. "Split Myself In Two" is the opening track and it starts off
like something from the first album before shifting into a hardcore
hoedown. The chorus starts off like a traditional country tune - "Oh,
Mary-Lou won't you tell me what to do..." - before it heads off
somewhere altogether more interesting - "I've got a dollar on the corner
and a laser in my shoe / If I don't get an answer gonna split myself in
two...". This song has one of my favourite guitar solos EVER - it's
punk meets country via the Grateful Dead.
Meat Puppets - Split Myself In Two
From
here they progressed to the psychedelic masterpiece of "Up On The Sun"
(recorded 1985). The title track is a beautiful song, Curt Kirkwood
playing some new form of psychedelic funk guitar and the rhythm section
of Cris Kirkwood and Derrick Bostrom one of the best ever recorded,
after being raggedy-ass on their previous outings. The vocals might be
sound a bit rough around the edges but they're truly soulful - the
chorus gets me every time.
Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
All
three albums are wildly different from each other but still
recognisably the same band. It's a real musical and artistic progression
and, to be honest, I've never got much further into their career other
than their stunning first three albums. But I'm sure Jim (our
still-silent partner in Blogging) will show me the error of my ways at
some point in the near future.
I have been flicking though my much neglected copy of tvbo Dean Friedman
(a gift from co- workers when I left a job at a not very cool record
shop), Some of it strikes me as really AWFUL, but there are songs on it
that I suddenly just can’t stop listening to.
Sometimes, ‘route
one’ is the best way to get the emotional message across. Dumb can be
good. Picture the scene - our hero is alone in his flat in the middle of
the afternoon, he lies there in four day old underwear with the
curtains drawn. Numerous empty takeaway food and drink containers and
snapshot photos litter the floor. She has gone and you could say he is
taking it a little hard...
Dean Friedman - Woman of Mine
It’s
amazing how the human spirit will eventually recover from what seem to
be of the lowest of lows. Anything could trigger the upturn of mood; a
phone call from a friend, a walk in the park, a cheese sandwich, the
sound of an electric piano, a talking piece of furniture, anything!...
Dean Friedman - Rocking Chair
Friedman’s
unmistakable voice gets to me in a good way. His song ideas are quirky
(sometimes just weird an crap) so he was never really that successful in
the great scheme of things. He was kind of weird looking too.
However a look at his web site
reveals a guy who is still doing still doing interesting stuff - check
out the flash animation “Four More Years’ and the comic story ‘Earl the
Squirrel’. I might go ands see him when he tours later this year. He’s
doing his own thing creatively, and he’s got an audience. Respect to the
Friedman! He is a spiritual brother of the Domino.
The ‘very best of’ album I have is not currently available, but this cd has it all on
The continuing story of April March and the genius that is Tim Hensley.
April March - Voodoo Doll
April March - Kooky
The
vocals and lyrics are ace and April March is obviously a hip lady - but
who's the creepy bloke she's duetting with on "Kooky"?
That's Tim Hensley, at that time going by the name Vic Hazelnut, who wrote and arranged the songs.
That
was in 1992. At that time I was totally obsessed with Daniel Clowes
amazing comic, 'Eightball'. Truth be told, I'm still obsessed with it.
Great artwork, twisted stories - you probably know that this is where
"Ghost World" started and Clowes co-wrote the screenplay for the film.
In the first 10 issues the main story was "Like A Velvet Glove Cast In
Iron", the story of a guy called Clay who was looking for his wife.
Along his travels, amongst other things, Clay joined a Manson-cult; was
attacked and left for dead by the police; befriended the lovely Tina
(above); looked after Laura, a dog without eyes, ears or a mouth who was
fed by syringe. Eventually Clay stumbled across a 'gentleman's club'
where he saw a snuff movie starring (ta-daahh!) his wife. It was hardly
"Peanuts".
When the story finished, Clowes announced that he was
selling the soundtrack album (for a comic...). And guess who was doing
the creepy vocals?
Victor Banana - Slumber, Precious (from "Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron" OST)
Yep,
Tim Hensley is Victor Banana. He uses the same band and April March
even does some of the vocals on the album. Hensley is perfect for this -
the hipster 50's style with a deranged edge, like a decomposing crooner
that's been dug up.
At the time Ox and I were sending some early
Johnny Domino demo tapes around and decided to send one to Jenkins
Peabody, the label that had released the "Velvet Glove" soundtrack. We
wrote this long letter saying what a genius we thought Hensley was,
which made it quite embarrassing when he wrote back - Jenkins Peabody
was his own label.
He was cool and said some nice things about our
stuff, and, as we'd sent our latest demo, he returned the favour with
his latest CD. Anagram fans will approve of the new moniker under which
he released the incredible "Refrains" CD in 1995. I love the way that
these songs use the sounds of Easy Listening and 50s and 60s pop while
still creating something really "other". Lyrics about onions, teen
runaways (why ARE the vocals on "Teen Hobo" like that?), shoulder pain;
songs that sounds like Pixies-pastiches and inappropriate bursts of foul
language, I will let you discover for yourself.
Neil Smythe - Onions Make Me Weep Neil Smythe - Teen Hobo Neil Smythe - I Wanna Be A Dummy Neil Smythe - Peace, It's A Gasser Neil Smythe - My Shoulder
Having said that, a quick glance at the Jenkins Peabody site shows that Tim is now going by the name TOM Hensley...
Oxbow
Well, I am very keen on this bizzare and original artist. The
arrangements and playing on these tunes is just great. However, it could
give you nightmares if you go to bed on it!
Scumbalina
it's almost been a year since this post was made, but I've stumbled upon
it several times in my victor banana/tim hensley/vic hazelnut/neil
smythe hunt. I've seriously been looking for his music for YEARS. I'm 20
years old and read like a velvet glove cast in iron when I was 16.
SHortly after, I found out about the soundtrack and I've been looking
for a copy ever since. My search for that is finally over! I found a
used copy of the cd version {though I'd prefer lp, I'm not going to get
picky about this} on GEMM for $20 {$10 shipping because it's coming from
australia}. I couldnt be happier!
But I still cant seem to find
much else music by this guy. I've been able to find Refrains and the
compilation "place of general happiness", with one track of his. I want
to know more aboutthis mystery man! and dammit, I want more of his
music!
thanks for making this great post, it's aided me in my hunt.
Anonymous
Oh my! VICTOR BANANA's got another amazing LP entitled "Split" on
Splat-Co. Records from 1989. Perhaps marginally less twisted (although
that's certainly debatable), it was a fave of Dr. Demento for a while -
but don't let that stop you from finding it. Dan Clowes did all the
artwork for that one, too. It's fairly hard to find - although it does
pop up for cheap now and again around Southern California. Long live
Jenkins Peabody!
3GT
Wow, how wonderful to discover a tiny Victor Banana enclave -- great
band, great songwriter! I'll just chime in to the folks here who
appreciate same that Tim and Tom Hensley are in fact two different guys;
Tom's Tim's dad and has a musical career of his own. It's a pity Tim
no longer puts his unique genius out there for others to hear! stevedomino
fantastic to get some more comments here - thanks a lot!
anonymous
- i had heard about the "Split" LP, but i haven't been able to find it
online. thanks for the info - if anybody is planning a trip to Southern
California anytime soon, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!!
3gt - many thanks for the extra information about Tim and Tom. it is such a shame that Tim doesn't record any more.
maybe we could start a petition?
Anonymous
Not sure if anyone's still reading these comments . . . but I just now
stumbled across a guy who's "trading" professionally-transferred CDRs of
VICTOR BANANA's "Spilt" LP! Here's the link:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ironybread/
I've got the LP, but I'm tempted to get the CD too, if only to load onto my I-Pod.
stevedomino
anonymous - you are a LEGEND! i've already put in a request, so there
may be another hensley related post coming soon. thanks for the tip-off!
Scumbalina
it's almost been a year since this post was made, but I've stumbled upon
it several times in my victor banana/tim hensley/vic hazelnut/neil
smythe hunt. I've seriously been looking for his music for YEARS. I'm 20
years old and read like a velvet glove cast in iron when I was 16.
SHortly after, I found out about the soundtrack and I've been looking
for a copy ever since. My search for that is finally over! I found a
used copy of the cd version {though I'd prefer lp, I'm not going to get
picky about this} on GEMM for $20 {$10 shipping because it's coming from
australia}. I couldnt be happier!
But I still cant seem to find
much else music by this guy. I've been able to find Refrains and the
compilation "place of general happiness", with one track of his. I want
to know more aboutthis mystery man! and dammit, I want more of his
music!
thanks for making this great post, it's aided me in my hunt.
Farm Inmate
The truly obsessed may wish to know that Tim Hensley has recently
uploaded TWO vintage Victor Banana videos on Youtube.com -- these are
done by the SPLIT album band. One is a song not included on the SPLIT
album. The video quality is excellent and weird, just as you'd expect.
It is 1988. I am on the dancefloor of The Sugarhouse, Lancaster
University's Student Union nightclub. It is a Thursday night, Indie
night...of course. There are three of us dancing to McCarthy, we
are the only people dancing but we are 'in the know', we are 'cool'.
We are the Crucial Three....bagsy I'm not Pete Wylie.
At university friendships are often forged through music. A
common interest in non-metal guitar based music released on
small labels defined my closest friendships at university. If that
sounds shallow that's because we were! Brothers in Mozzer quiffs
and DM's, footsoldiers in the Indie Wars of the late '80's. McCarthy
really fitted the bill, they were obscure, they were political and
they were....really ace. I cannot tell a lie, my younger brother
introduced me to McCarthy, when I got back from my first term he
had 'I am a wallet' their debut album. It's a real 'strawberry
switchblade' if the vicious revolutionary lyrics took some time to
digest you could always understand their sweet guitar pop and
often delicate music.
McCarthy- Should The Bible Be Banned
I saw McCarthy play live at Manchester Uni, they were brilliant, I
knew all the songs and all the lyrics. I even wrote to their lead
singer, Malcolm Eden asking if they could play in Lancaster naively
believing that all they had to do was jump in their van and turn up
to play at The Sugarhouse unannounced (these were the days
when I still believed bands lived like The Monkees or The Beatles in 'Help').
Of course McCarthy did not trigger the fall of Western capitalism but they remind me of a time when ideas and music were important and most importantly a lot of fun.
Just look at that picture - a tribal rain dance in space. I think that says everything you need to know about this track!
There's
a Doctor on synth (Dr. Patrick Gleeson, no less), sending stabs of
noise over the top of a looped groove of synthesised tones and Herbie
Hancock plays a bizarre solo on a ring modulated Rhodes piano. The mix
of traditional jazz sounds and futuristic textures are what that picture
is about - the future is now, yet the music still harks back to
afro-funk rhythms on each track on the album.
The album sounds like it was recorded tomorrow, but it was recorded in 1973.
The
Herbie Hancock sextet was known as the "Mwandishi" band because of the
Swahili names each band member was given. They recorded two albums for
Warner before releasing "Sextant" on Columbia in 1973. The music
recorded is obviously influenced by the experiences many of the band
members had working on Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" sessions.
"Bitches..." was miles' attempt to "get to the young kids" by
incorporating elements of rock and funk to create a new type of jazz,
and the members of the Mwandishi band tried to bend this for their own
aims.
The Mwandishi band was legendarily unsuccessful in their
day. Their tour of Europe in 1971 was renowned for the fact that the
band never slept, travelling ludicrous distances to make a gig. They
travelled together in a van with a PA system, drums, amplifiers and the
keyboard rig (including a huge ARP synthesiser). There are tales of the
band playing at festivals for 4 hours - and then starting the second
song. Herbie Hancock complained that he noticed that his friends would
play everybody else's records other than his.
"My intention at
the time was to play music to be listened to with undivided attention;
but how many people have the time to approach music that way?"
So Herbie Hancock released the incredible "Headhunters" album, ultra-funky and enormously successful.
Herbie
Hancock is still going strong doing some great stuff, looking amazing
for his age, still pushing himself to do something interesting. But for
some reason the brief period of the Mwandishi band, from 1970 to 1973,
gets short shrift, especially if you look at his biography.
Try to find the time to listen to this properly - it will repay your patience a thousand times!
Oh to be in the UK in the 80's. A time when you could turn on the
telly and be entertained by a man fom the North playing a ukelele
wearing a paper mache head. It was a simple time, a time of right and
wrong, 'fantastic' or 'bobbins'.
Frank Sidebottom - Anarchy In The UK
Frank really gets to the heart of what Anarchy is here. Especially on the bit about his mum. Grrr!
Frank Sidebottom - Popular Medley
*adopts
Jimmy Saville voice* - there may be a prize (of some sort, not thought
it through yet) for the person who can correctly identify all of the
songs in this medley. Artist and CORRECT song title, please - entries in
the comment box.
Frank was great at medleys like this one from
his "... salutes the magic of Freddie Mercury And Queen" single. No
prizes for this, just enjoy Little Frank's guitar playing - magic. Frank Sidebottom - Everybody (Loves to) Sing Queen
I
don't trust people that don't like Queen, same as I think twice about
having conversations with people that don't like The Beatles - like
people that shave off their sideburns, I just don't understand them.
This
is a totally bonkers album. It is 1974 and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is
experimenting with synthesisers (an ARP 2600 and a Mini Moog)and eating
far too much K F C for his own good - as immortalised in the opening
song. Check out frying sizzle at the start, along with some other
seriously bizarre sounds he has thrown into this great track.
Kentucky Skank - The Upsetters
Another highlight for me is the following pop gem, ( originally done by the Chi-Lites, fact fans!) with a tight, soulful sound.
We Are Neighbours - David Isaacs
This
morning on of our neighbours woke us up with Madonna’s ‘Papa Don’t
Preach’ at 5 am. Maybe I should point my speakers out of my window and
enter into the ‘sound clash’ spirit. I would probably choose this album
to pump out in his direction across the neighbourhood. The bass would
carry brilliantly and the freakish nature of the songs and production
would be sufficiently irritating to drive my foe to distraction.
Alternatively, I could go round and beat him senseless with his shit record collection.
Ok. No tunes today, but as some of you asked for it here is the page of lyrics by Out To Lunch, who I used to illustrate the post from Monday. I hope they bring you as much joy as they have done to the members of Johnny Domino over the years.
Johnny Domino - New Pink Shirt Johnny Domino - Forever In Blue Jeans (Neil Diamond cover)
Johnny Domino - New Pink Shirt Johnny Domino - Forever In Blue Jeans (Neil Diamond cover) Johnny
Domino has just released a free download album called "The Best Of The
Shithouse Masters" - these two tracks are taken from it. The album has
22 tracks; over 77 minutes of lo-fi pop and a couple of cheeky cover
versions.
The
Shithouse Masters is the name we give to the 100+ songs Johnny Domino
recorded between 1993 and 1998. The 22 tracks available to download are
what I think are the best songs from that period.
I love these
recordings. I'm really proud of the songs and the quality of the sounds
we managed to get out a humble 4-track cassette machine. The limitations
imposed by only having 4 tracks to record on, the dodgy equipment we
had and the fact that most of the time it was just Ox and myself made us
really think about what was necessary to the songs - the way of working
has really informed the way we record today, I think.
I'd love to know what people think of these songs.
By
the way, the image above is taken from a fantastically bad book Oxbow
bought for me called "Rock Talk" by Julian Colbeck. The next page in the
book is a sheet of lyrics by Out To Lunch (permanent residents of the
"where-are-they-now" file) - if you're really good (or if I get enough
requests in the comments box), I'll post the page.
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