That’s the question members of popular rock music discussion blog Rock Town Hall are set to tackle. Rather than simply providing an opportunity to simply cast votes for a favorite song, with or without explanation, the Hall has been sanctioned by the International Rockolympic Committee to conduct a week-long playoff series, beginning on Wednesday, August 17. Initial details follow. Please hold your votes, but feel free to add analyses of the divisional match-ups and other related comments as we anticipate the start of this historic showdown!
Mockcarr and I are about to form our umpteenth band together, in which we’re planning to focus on simple 60s beat music. One of the finalists for the set list is “Come On,” by Australian combo The Atlantics. I’m sure you’d be appalled that men of such exquisite taste would dare attempt to recreate something that veers so closely to the “garage” flavor. But that just begs the question: why exactly is it bad form for old geezers to play music like this? And a corollary question is: what forms of rock are okay — or decidedly not okay — for geezers to play in public?
For your pleasure, may I invite you to turn on with Eric Burdon and the Animals. Following are some tracks from the band’s 1966 to 1968 period. You may recall we discussed this period last week. I’ll spare you the studio version of my personal favorite, “San Franciscan Nights,” and if you don’t think “Sky Pilot” is one of the coolest “acid rock” songs ever we may have to part ways, baby.
As you listen to these tracks, think about the whole concept of Eric Burdon getting tuned in, think about an age in which Angry, Young Eric could begin to feel like he belonged, man. I mean, just a couple of years earlier he had to get outta that place. Check out the video that opens this thread and tell me you’re not witnessing the transformation at work. These songs must have begun the process of lifting a tremendous weight off Angry, Young Eric.
East Coast fans of The Flamin’ Groovies take note: Magic Christian, a band featuring the Groovies’ Cyril Jordan along with Blondie drummer extraordinaire Clem Burke and Plimsouls’ lead guitarist (on bass!) Eddie Munoz, may be coming to a small club your way (click here for tour dates). The secret weapon in this super-duper rock-action combo is stealth vocalist Paul Kopf. Outside the San Francisco area, where Paul has long been a dedicated scene-maker, readers may be going, Huh? But this guy’s the real deal, complete with a rocking voice, great hair, cool slacks, and percussion-shaking chops. Most importantly, the guy’s got balls, which is key to fronting the band’s energetic, riff-heavy, mid-’60s mix of tunes, which are just what you’d hope to hear from a band of this pedigree.
Paul recently answered some questions for Rock Town Hall before the band launches its East Coast tour on Friday, September 5, at Johnny Brenda’s (Girard and Frankford), with The Donuts, Beretta76, and Parallax Project. The Donuts feature Townsman cdm, who’s asking local Townspeople to come out early and catch his band’s set, at 9:00 pm. Judging by the enthusiasm of Paul in our chat and what I know about the spirited set of local openers, this should be a show worth catching from bottom to top of the bill.
Rock Town Hall, Paul Kopf. Paul Kopf, Rock Town Hall.
RTH: Can you tell our readers a little about your background, Paul? You’ve got a history organizing San Francisco music festivals and the like, right? Have you played in other bands, I’m sure. Are you from the Bay area?
Paul Kopf: Was in a couple of band’s growing up in SF, none of particular note, though one band, The Heebee Jeebeez, seem to have made some sort of impression on a few people. A few times on the road this year I’ve been approached by people who say they liked that band. Why? I can’t figure out… Left that band when one of the guys went nuts and wouldn’t show up for a showcase in LA for some labels, who we were interested in us, and decided, after a few SF scenesters recommended I do so, to get into putting on shows with bands that I like and who I felt didn’t have a forum anymore to play their music. Also this was in the late 1990s, when ALL festivals seemed to be geared to alternative music audiences. I felt like there were no festivals left, at least in the SF Bay Area, that appealed to Power Pop-, Beatles-, Stones-based music fans. So I did the Baypop Festival for a few years and got a chance to meet some of my musical idols, including my good buddy and partner in crime, Cyril Jordan. I was right in that Baypop was somewhat successful and had some AMAZING shows, but in the end I lost a lot of money and I really missed performing. But Magic Christian did come out of it as I met Alec Palao, MC’s original bass player, and I as said earlier, Cyril.
RTH: How did Magic Christian came about? Some of the original participants turned over, but their replacements are even cooler.
Paul Kopf: As I said band came out of Baypop Fest. What happened was, I hired Cyril and Alec to put together a band and back the original Beau Brummels for a Baypop show I did. After that Baypop was over I decided I missed singing and performing and wanted to do my own CD. So I hired Cyril to produce it, Got Alec and Prairie Prince, who’s good friend’s with my buddy, Roger, to play on it. We found out that recording together was such a blast and we sounded so good together that it just turned from my record to Magic Christian, which Cyril christened us. As time went by and after we played a few times live and we were getting a lot of offers to tour and play, Alec and Prairie couldn’t commit to the opportunities coming our way. You see Prairie plays with Todd Rundgren, The Starship, The New Cars, and of course The Tubes, among others, and Alec is always busy with putting out all those wonderful reissues he does for Rhino and Big Beat and such. So we had to make the hard decision of replacing them or else we could never play live and tour, which is what Cyril and I really dig doing. Frankly we like to ROCK OUT LIVE, and it’s a big part of why the two of us are musicians in the first place. So we had to get some new guys like us. Luckily I called up my good friend, Eddie Munoz of The Plimsouls, who we did a few gigs with in the past and asked him if he could recommend anybody to play bass for us, and he said “Yeah..Me!!!” which just blew our heads!! I mean Eddie’s a GREAT guitar player, man. The Plimsouls ROCK!! Cyril and I never thought of him being a bass guy!! But he did, as it turns, have an extensive background playing bass for Adam Ant and Dave Vanian‘s (The Damned) solo tours. So we got together and it worked. We then were lucky enough to have this old friend of Cyril’s offer us a gig to play his 50th birhday party. We told him we’d love to but no skins, man. He said he has this friend named Clem who might do it with us if he liked he tunes. We sent him a CD. He liked it. Him and Eddie were, as it turns out good friends, and in fact were in The Plimsouls together. It just fell right into place and we haven’t looked back.
I had a few free minutes this afternoon, so I swung by the trusty Goodwill to see what kind of dusty old vinyl I could score. I found a couple of old Paul Revere & the Raiders 45s I’d never heard before, and plunked down 50 cents. Score! The extent to which I enjoyed these singles got me thinking about this silly band, and I headed out into the wilds of the InterWeb to explore a bit. I found the following video, which further made me realize how much I prefer Mark Lindsay’s message to Arthur Lee’s. Talk about Winner Rock!
Here are the Revere numbers I found in the 45 bin today — all of which totally kick Love’s pathetic, two-steps-removed-from-Skip-Spence, bong-water-stain-in-the-Oriental-rug asses. The first, “Leslie”, is a foot-stompin’ ode to, uh, Mark Lindsay’s maid (check out the spoken word bits in the outro). The second, “The Great Airplane Strike”, is about as good a Stones raver this side of the actual Rolling Stones. And the last thrifty track, “Ups and Downs”, coincidentally, features a bullfighter trumpet section!
Come on, Mod — are you with me? Up Raiders! Down Love!
This interview and post is dedicated to Mr. Mod and Mr. Ismine, whose Italian ties precede them this summer! Enjoy Italy to its fullest, whenever you are able to visit it, my friends!
AN INTERVIEW WITH MARCO FASOLO
of the band JENNIFER GENTLE
Catch them live: TUESDAY AUGUST 28TH @ The Vacuum (Philadelphia PA)
2nd and Tilghman {Google Map!}
wsg/ The Soft People, The Dodos & Birds of Maya
Please enjoy the following email interview with Marco Fasolo of Padova, Italy’s fantastic psych-rock band Jennifer Gentle!
