Go-Geters sweet out of Sweden

When Big Sandy pointed out Peter of the Swedish rock-a-billy trio The Go-Getters, I knew he was not there to merely be a tourist. For years I hoped to see his combo and checked the internet. Sure enow, there was an upcoming show at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.

They were not the headlining act. But they were the one that I made the most effort to hear and see. I was not disappointed.

Afterwards, when I spoke with him, he told that the EU had not made the radio in Europe better for diversity but worse for the home bands like his. An odd thing, but not too unlike what has happened in the USA. If commercial radio was truly free in its boasting about how adventurous it is, The Go-Getters would have been spun on it by now.

California Surf Music Culture at the Autry

Once upon a time rock instrumental music was heard on Los Angeles radio. The Chantays, Pyramids, Johnny Fortune, Dick Dale could actually be heard and have to utter a word of romantic love, or being saved from a dung heap by some benevolent girl. The waves, hotrods, and pretty girl were and remain a part of the instrumental surf music and Lloyd Davis of Longboard Ranch is a testament to the longevity of surf music.

Once upon a time he played bass for Bob Dalley's Surf Raiders. Now his second lead and rhythm for Longboard Ranch a find surf band that also respects England's The Shadows who recorded the famous instrumental Apache in 1960.

It has bee proven to me more than thrice, that once people hear good rock instrumental surf or just rock instrumentals like The Shadows or Jams Wilsey, they cotton to it! Radio, if you interested in giving people what they want, then surf music is one of those essentials. Otherwise the exodus to the internet will continue and commercial radio refugees increase.

Long Live Laika and the Cosmonauts

It was on the great show Surfwave that Laika and the Cosmonauts were heard in Los Angeles. The year was about 1990. As the radio show ended the august sounds of Fade-A-Way were heard but there was no back announcement.

By next week host, Jim Dunfrund, had been besieged with requests about this mystery melody. After some checking he told us that it was "Laika and the Cosmonauts from Finland...". Laika, as you may recall, was the name of the dog sent into space by the Russians in the 1950s.

The Warehouse on Santa Monica had one man that favored rock instrumentals, it was he that sold me my first CD of the Cosmonauts. What I next needed was a CD player. Surfwave was THE show that got me buying them before I even had a player! I listened to the show from 1979-2003 and still lament its loss. But the host found greener pastures in San Francisco.

It took me years to see them since I worked evenings. Finally seeing them in Hollywood at the Knitting Factory then again during their farewell tour at the Bordello with Big Sandy. They signed my records and allowed me to take pictures. Sorry they were not played more. They like another European act, told me that the EU has not bettered radio coverage for European bands.

I hope what followed their demise is better for them. Musically it remains worse for us.

Billy on Hollywood Hilly

Anyone that knows the history of rock-a-billy "White man's blues" according to some, know of the great respect it has long had in Canada, Europe, or Asia (Japan). This continues to this very day.

Sweden's Go-Getters are one of the premier practitioners of this form of music. With the establishment of the EU one would imagine a better programming of radio. Their drummer and leader told me this is not the case. In fact it has gotten harder for Peter and the boys to get airplay at home since the EU was established!

It remains a vitals, fun, and vigorous style of music yet country and rock radio shun it or regard it as an 'oldies' idiom. Psychobilly, rooted in the Cramps and maybe, for pace The Ramrods and their take on Ghost Riders in the Sky (by Stan Jones), cab be more topical than most commercial music other than rap or hip hop.

Jeff Beck at Nokia

Some may bristle at the thought of Jeff Beck being as skilled as Hendrix, but I am not among them. Between the Clapton and Hendrix explosions it was Jeff Beck while still in the Yardbirds and Hendrix was well enough of aware of him to ask Chas Chandler if he could meet him in 1966.

Not as overt musically as Hendrix, be as adroit, he was doing as a Yardbirds what Hendrix would later do but could not as a sideman on the Chitlin' circuit. Unfortunately Jimi is not here in the flesh.

Jeff Beck remains a musical adventurer and that seeking to break the sound barrier again led him to the instrumentals.

Robert Williams: art hero

The first time I recall seeing the art of Robert Williams Lyndon Johnson was President.
It was in a magazine about custom cars and drag racing during its height in So. Cal: the 1960s. His work with Ed Roth is immortal!

During those years I was very much taken with stock cars, drag racing, skate and surfboarding, and even custom bikes and off road riding before they became as institutionalized as they are now.

Leaders among that culture visually were men like Robert Williams, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, or Robert Crumb...But the monstrosities of Williams had me so stoked, I attempted a number of copies for my grammar school sketch book.

He's reaching new heights now as a sculpture and is showing at the CSUN art gallery. Be there or be normal!

Here he is seen with storyboard artist and old mate Paul Power at the gallery today.