We hear it all the time when people bring up 80's teen movies Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, blah, blah, blah. It’s like John Hughes (R.I.P.) was the only guy making teen movies with modern rock soundtracks. no offense cause I like many of his films but for me the teen 80's movie was a much more exciting experience beyond Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds.
Starting with the 80's Romeo and Juliet aka Randy and Julie in the awesome battle of skinny tie preppy new wave valleys against the hardcore hair dyed Punk Rock kids of North Hollywood...I am talking about 1983's Valley Girl. Featuring an 80's hottie (Deborah Foreman) and a pre-jerk off bad movie making Nicholas Cage this flick still holds up well as entertainment and a good look at kids and the horrible (down right disturbing!) clothes they wore of yore. While not much on sex and drugs, although we do get a E.G. Daily breast shot, this film had some fun moments and a soundtrack that bordered between some great 80's New Wave stuff (Josie Cotton, Bonnie Hayes, and Psychedelic Furs) and a bit of the downtown rock music that wasn't punk by any means (Pat Travers, Payolas, and the awesome The Plimsouls) just not the polished modern rock of say...The Knack, although I must lament that this soundtrack includes one of my personal top 5 most annoying songs Ever "Melt With You" by Modern English.
Next up is a movie that I CANNOT believe has gone unseen and underexposed for so many years! I am talking about the 1981 awesome film Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains...okay you may all scratch your heads with that dumb "What movie?" look on your pathetic mugs (I guess some of you had parents that did not let their child watch the BEST SHOW EVER...USA's Night Flight). Starring Diane Lane (and an remarkable hair style that I am shocked no one has copied), Laura Dern, members of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Tubes (Fee Waybill in a hilarious prediction of what most bloated rockers of the late 70's early 80's would end up as...), and Ray Winestone.
The movie follows three dead end girls as they form a band and get put on a tour with two bands, one on their way up another on the downward spiral to Spinal Tap-ville. While it's kinda funny and a tad farfetched to see how the girls manipulate their way to being the top billed band via media tactics instead of talent (hmmm that sounds all too familiar) but the Joan Jett-esque way Diane Lane plays it (sexy and tough with just a hint of trashy) kinda makes you wish the Runaways movie was never made. Secondly the music kicks ass!!! There isn't much info out there about it and I am sure the re-release has came and went on a large scale, but I know the movie is available on Amazon from Rhino, but pick it up for incredible Sex-Pistols styled punk anthems like "Professionals" by both The Stains and The Looters, Waste of Time by The Stains, and "Conned Again" by The Looters written by musician Barry Ford who plays the bus driver Lawnboy. Also check out the comical opening song “I Slept in an Arcade" by Black Randy and the Metrosquad!!!
And finally just for poops and giggles I am putting up two albums by groups that were a part of some terrific soundtracks from this time as well. I will start with the Smithereens enduring album from 1986 Especially For You. While without any movie this album holds up there if you were a fan of The Replacements or R.E.M. at that time, also note it was produced by Don Dixon who worked with R.E.M. on Murmur and Reckoning. The song "Blood and Roses" was used in the out of print and memorable film Dangerously Close. If you can find a bootleg of this movie I highly suggest it, this is a really smart teen film right up there with River's Edge, WHAT? Geez didn't you people watch anything that didn't have Molly Ringwald in it? So enjoy this album as you certainly won't hear stuff as honest as this these days. And if you've got the currency word is The Smithereens will play at your house party, beat that Kid 'N Play! http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LL0VJ7WA
And for our final band that was featured in an 80's teen movie I present to you The Rave Ups. Okay so at the beginning I know I cracked on Pretty in Pink but it was to prove a point. So to round it out and show no disrespect for Mr. Hughes or Ms. Ringwald I pick the album Town and Country from 1985 by The Rave Ups. In the scene where the chick brings her guy to the club to meet her friends and her guy friend the dorky one is being...blah, blah, blah. Anyway the band playing in the club is a LA via Pennsylvania band known as The Rave Ups and they played some appealing worthy rock music with a bit of twang to it, think The almighty Blasters more than say rockabilly type stuff. So here it is and as always...enjoy. http://rapidshare.com/files/142317163/PVAc0059.rar
Oh yeah this files is from another blog since i can't seem to find my file of this album and there is a password. The password for this file is PVAcblog. Sorry 'bout that.
Riddle me this...What do Billy Joel, G.Loveand the Special Sauce, Santogold, and early hardcore band Underdog have in common? The answer is Chuck Treece (born June 30, 1964) the multi-instrument playing, skateboarding, father of two who planted his roots in Philly to become not only a well rounded musician but a well rounded person all together. Disproving myths in the early 80's that blacks don't skate and to play rock music you had to grow dreads or look like a "rawker" Chuck Treece has been a person throughout my life that I have full respect for in the path he has laid. Plain and simple: Chuck Treece is a musician (and a damn good one!) NOT a rock star.
Starting in the early 80's with his band Mcshred/Mcrad Chuck came to my attention not through music but as a professional skateboarder popping up on the cover of Thrasher Magazine in 1984's May issue with a Layback Slide photographed by none other than the great Glen E. Friedman (if you don't know who this guy is please go perform oral on a hot curling iron RIGHT NOW!!!). Later I first heard Mcshred on the Thrasher Magazine Skate Rock Vol.4 performing an early version of the song Mcshred and Taz (also two of the best songs on this album) and went back to get vol. 2 of the Thrasher Skate Rock series to hear, as Mcrad, the songs Prevent This Tragedy and Tomorrow Headlines alongside songs by well known punk bands like T.S.O.L, Big Boys, The Faction, And Free Beer (feat. former pro skater Tommy Guerrero). On a side note one early Saturday morning while sleeping at a friend’s house we were awoken by Santa Cruz pro skater Greg Agulair if it was cool to skate the backyard half-pipe and of course we said yes. Along with Greg were two companions one a female and the other was CHUCK FU*&ING TREECE!!! I was so excited but of course my friends at the time didn't really know who he was...later on that same friend's punk band covered Mcrad's Weakness in 1993!!!
Then in 1988 when then Skateboard giant Powell-Peralta released the epic video Public Domain to introduce the world to guys like Ray Barbee, Chet Thomas, and Steve Siaz the music for the legendary song Weakness blasts through the TV speakers along with a newly amped up version of the song Mcshred. Ushering in a sound dubbed Skate Rock, a more melodic hybrid of punk and hardcore, Mcrad did a lot better with this style than most core punk/hardcore bands who changed their sound in the late 80's. (Gang Green and Dag Nasty are two that come to mind and let's not forget the last album by SS Decontrol!!!!)
While Mcrad's first album (Absence of Sanity) was released in 1987 or, 1988 depending on when your record store finally ordered the damn thing, was somewhat of an underground classic Chuck Treece began forging a solid reputation as a go to man for artists as varied as Billy Joel, Yes! that's his bass line on the hit song River of Dreams, The Goats, State Property, King Britt, Ben Arnold, Philly's Stiffed on their 2003 ep Sex Sells (feat. the vocals of the soon to be awesome Santogold aka Santi White), and playing on the G.Love and the Special Sauce Classic 1997's Yeah, It's That Easy (He received credit for the song Slipped Away (Ballad of Lauretha Vaird). Releasing two later albums by Mcrad 2007's FDR and a split with The Frontside 5 in 2009 Chuck is not just a studio musician but a man who still makes his own music.
Still skateboarding after all these years (he's that old dude you kiddies see at FDR in Philly!!!) Chuck Treece got married and is a proud father able to support his family doin what makes him happy and not losing the reasons he started all this at the core. Two get an idea of how awesome Chuck Treece is pick up both albums from Mcrad "Absence of Sanity" and "FDR" as well as the classic first Underdog album from 1989 "The Vanishing Point". For a broader idea of Chuck Treece's skill look for his lone solo album so far "Dreamin'" from 1991.
I recently got the chance to ask Chuck Treece a few questions just to see what the man is up to, his friendship w/ Ray Barbee and skateboarding and he was great enough to take the time to respond so here's a quick few words with Chuck Treece along with some albums the man likes, a video of Ray Barbee, MIKE WATT!!!, and Chuck Treece jamming, and some Mcrad treats for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!!!
1. 5 albums that would sum up your musical influences? (More if needed)
BAD BRAINS-ROIR SESSIONS
BAND OF GYPSIES LIVE
JIMI HENDRIX ELECTRIC LADY LAND
CLASH GIVE EM ENOUGH ROPE
CLINT EASTWOOD and GENERAL SAINT any selection from them
BOB MARLEY UPRISING
2. Your first intro to hardcore/punk music?
First intro into punk rock was listening to all kinds of music at an early age...punk rock embraces all styles of music...most of the bands I look up to started out a blues bands...that means they were understanding and connecting their dreams to a sense of rock and roll...the energy can always be aggressive or not so aggressive which embraces the youthful or more mature events in music...
3. You were actually a sponsored skateboarder at one point correct? Any sponsors now?
yep I have been sponsored since my senior year in high school 82..i am sponsored by robot guts,6 kids skateboards, bull and bear, ace trucks, projects sk8.FDR SK8 PARK and ALTER ST.
4. 5 albums you would have loved to be a part of? (Like bitches brew, double nickels on a dime, etc.)
ALL BLACK SABBATH RECORDS. and PINK FLOYD....
5. in a way you helped create one of the longest standing bands/names that started skate rock/punk being you were involved in the early thrasher tape series and the inclusion of weakness in public domain a song that has lasted nearly 20 years any interesting tales of that time in your life?
MY main goal with Mcrad was to take what I learned from my musical family also my family and friends in skateboarding. I wanted give that era and time the best anthem I could...I didn’t know what I was doing I was doing at that time, what I knew how to do was to live my rolling on 4 wheels and singing a melody in my mind..Philadelphia streets created weakness, i was the vessel for it....MCRAD was the place for that song and the movement for skateboarding to be created from....sounds all over the place but that’s how we did things at that time...Mcrad was just one side on how many great times we had in skateboarding and we are still have great times...
6. What made you change the band name from Mcshred to Mcrad?
mcshred came about w my friends who I skated with...Dicken Greene, Dave and Jason franks...Mcrad and mcshred were thought up by Greg from Husker Du while they were in Philly...it was another all over the place moment..People start talking and bringing positive energy to conversation and good ideals are created...we were so pumped...that happened at Jeff Jenkins house in west Philly...Jeff was a good friend and a great promoter of shows and radio at Drexel univ..WKDU
7. What are your kids listening too? And what of it drives you nuts?
My kids listen to music...all types of music...they also play music and love music for their own satisfaction...I love listening to young ears...it keeps me vibrant.
8. Do your kids know how cool dad REALLY is?
I think my kids see me as dad...they have a respect for whatever I do, however I am dad to them and I have to support my family as dad/chuck and I am happy with that...soon I will by grandpa and still young at heart on my skateboard and music....
9. Albums that make a good skate session?
albums that make a good skate session albums that are good for skate sessions are left up to the people in that session...I used to sk8 to reggae all the time and most skaters didn’t get it..Now everyone listens to reggae...I think skateboarding sessions create music when yer listening to music...so many great records that I have listened to skating Tom Groholski’s ramp...from joy division to Metallica...great times
10. What hip hop do you like?
hip hop with a great story and great music...right now I have been working with FREDDY FOX...I have been re learning what hip hop is....it’s seems like hip hop loves to be music more than just being hip hop....
11. This one is a tad lame but project of your own you are proud of and a collaborative/sideman project you are proud of?
I am proud of all my collab’s...I learn from all music and people inside of music...then I learn from family and such. All makes it worthwhile...I am in a great respect for a positive life thru collab’n in the arts...
12. Favorite skate video (and public domain is not an option! lol)
Fav sk8 video would be that crazy vid that Spike Jonze was involved with...thing blow’n up and all...real good things for kids and people to check...so many good videos..Stacy Peralta is still the most interesting when it comes to sk8 videos...he changed skateboarding forever...
13. Considering you guys are friends now and everything has Ray Barbee ever thanked you for making his first part in a skate video so dope by making the weakness/mcshred song? LOL!!! But how cool is that? You both were so to speak on the rise and it was your songs that introduced him to the skate world?
Ray Barbee has always shown gratitude and good times for all in skateboarding...we have BLK TOP and his tours together...so stoked that I know Ray...he’s a good person...
14. And of course what do you have coming up next? Where can we hear more chuck treece? Any thank you's?
NEVER ENDING DOMINANT FORCE is the next MCRAD/TREECE LP...it’s a new lp with a bunch of songs and recording thru the years...my love for what I call creative creation...it’s my only religion...skateboarding has kept me so close to music and I feel blessed to have my first knee scrape at 13 turn into the biggest event in my life..
I RIDE A SKATEBOARD......
13 TO 46
And moving forward...
Thanx and big ups to Buddah at ROBOT GUTS...we are striving to look after the art side of skateboarding/life for all types of people who like life. It is the most art that skateboarding will see.
Treece/Buddah ROBUT GUTS SF/PHL. TREECE/MCRAD/CHADWICK ST PRODUCTIONS/MEDIA BUREAU/BULL n BEAR PHL 2010 till done.
I'm keeping it short and simple. Clutch and Big Business are two great American bands that are fun and heavy. Here are two of the best from each band. Enjoy.
Well I ended up with damn virus and had to shut it down for a minute to get my computer back. And dammit if it don't feel good. Speaking of feelin' good i've got three beautiful albums worth of feel good music. First we'll start with a new album I heard straight from France. Yup I said it too...I don't really like many artists from (trying to avoid being a bigot here...) France!!! But this guy has more soul that all of detroit circa 68! Ladies and gentlemen Mr. Day from Lyon,France of the French jazz combo Metropolitan Jazz Affair, the main singer in The Dynamics, known for his Electro-Soul records released on indie label Rotax, as well as his superb featurings on productions by Boozoo Bajou, Patchworks and Mr President !. Mr. Day has been releasing a few singles starting with Soul On Wax (Favorite Recordings 2007) since 2007. Here is the first full length Small Fry featuring a more flushed out version of the aformentioned Soul On Wax. This will keep you groovin' through the warm Summer days like there is an oil slick under your feet. I dare you to not bounce your booty to the smashing "Get you point over". While the Curtis Mayfield influence is pretty obvious there's an abundance of great soul musings here including a down ass sexy soul rendition of the T.Rex classic "Bang-A-Gong". With styles ranging from Marvin Gaye to OhioPlayers to a song that wouldh've been at home on a Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson album. (Album closer "Both Sides") If this doesn't get you feeling good...check your pulse. You're probably dead!
Next is two classics that will fit right along with Mr. Day for your listening pleasure. Starting with 1993's Plantation Lullabies from songstress extrodinare Meshell Ndegeocello (Maverick 1993). This funky journey was nominated for three grammys and still holds it's weight over the entire so called neo-soul movement of that era. Free your mind and your ass WILL follow indeed.
And the final album of the funky three belongs to one Mr. Beck Hansen and the 1999 Grammy nominated album "Midnight Vultures". Starting with great opener "Sexx Laws" Beck takes on an ambitious audio andventure of funky sweaty sexx that would make 80's Prince and David Bowie (Modern Love singing, YoungAmericans Bowie...not Scary Monsters Bowie. Not much to say about it Beck puts it down and that is all ye need know.
"Let's burn the White House, but let's build a Green House.." - Wavy Gravy
Okay I am going to make this quick and simple. These people made great music. And all these people made great live albums that shoud be heard should be heard and supported. Enjoy.
A must hear is Ray Charles joining Aretha on stage for Spirit in the Dark. But basically she crushed the stage in a front of a mostly hippie/rock oriented audience with a combo of originals and covers proving at the time she was at the top of her game and worthy of the title Queen of Soul.
Earth,Wind, and Fire were studio masters when the released this astounding live set. Every song grooves so powerful you wonder if they were having fun or had something to prove...not even Parleiment mad a live album like this.
I am gonna keep this very simple. Kice ...of course is serious on the mic!!! Hailing from New Jersey the first solo artist signed to Mr. Len's (of Company Flow) Smacks label dropped two insane albums of hip hop. If you have the Murs 3:16 movie Walk Like A Man and its soundtrack then you have heard his song "Miracles". Kice...of course dropped My Experience in 2005 and blew me away with his flow, rhymes, and beat selection. Not a moment of my time was wasted on this album with standout tracks like "My Style" (my personal favorite!!!), Cruise, and opener "From The Inside" Kice...of course can't loose!!! This is a total classic!!! Listen and learn.
Also I decided to let y'all sukafaces hear the second album from Kice...of course the 2008 release Passion of Kice. Still bringing the grown ass man's hip hop on this one Kice...of course proved that My Experience wasn't a fluke in any way, shape, or form. Standouts on this album for me were "Legend", "Music Is My High", and "neM (Men Backwards)" but every cut is worth its weight in gold. So next time you see a flyer with this brother on the bill go see him. If you see a single or hear about a new release I’d advise you to go and get it with the quickness cause these days dudes like Kice...of course are coming and going due to the lack of interest in an artist who can say words like integrity and mean it!!! If you like dudes like Rasco or Krondon then your gonna become a huge fan of Kice...of course. Enjoy!!!
Awww The Bay Area a stretch of land going from San Francisco, Vallejo, Oakland, Richmond, and surrounding area heading south to Palo Alto, Fremont, San Jose, and yeah we can even give Morgan Hill and Gilroy some love as the cut of line. Home to some of the most diverse and serious Hip Hop music ever.
Check the resume. The upper West Coast of Hip hop is home to some of the most supreme that have blessed the mic and altered the game. Del the Funky Homosapien and the whole Hieroglyphics crew (Souls of Mischief, Casual, Pep Love, etc.), Too Short, Living Legends (Murs, Grouch, Eligh, Asop (not Aesop Rock!!!), Luckyiam., Sunspot Jonez, Bicasso, etc.), Digital Underground, E-40, Mac Mall, Mac Dre (R.I.P.), Quannum (although they began from more up North in Davis, Ca they still made their music mark in areas like SF and Oakland.), the list goes on forever. Where do you think Snoop got most of his lingo from like fasheezy/fashizzle?
So to highlight a bit of the Bay Area flavor I thought these four albums would give an idea of the wide range that goes on out here. Starting with a pioneer, a legend I am talking about the one and only Todd Shaw aka Too Short and his first major label debut, remember this is the later home to Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake, Jive Records 1987's "Born to Mack".
Hot of the success of his final underground album,1986's Raw, Uncut, and X-Rated, Jive Records signed what was at the time the nastiest man one man rapper (ONE MAN...they were called 2 Live CREW!!!! not one man crew!!!) with his use of profanity and sex. While almost primitive sounding it was one of the first West Coast albums to really showcase that bump of the Roland 808 drum machine that would later become the main ingredient in many rap albums to follow. Seriously forget Freaky Tales and go straight to Dope Fiend Beat to REALLY get yo Bay Area on!!! With its slow and deep bass sound you could almost see the seeds of Screw Music beginning to bubble under the surface. While lyrically not Too Short's best album this album bridges the gap between a young boy that just is talking nasty into a mic and the grown ass man that was teaching us pimpin' back when a certain dogg was just a puppy.
Oakland California is the home to many thought processes amongst them is the Black Panther of Hip Hop known as Paris. Released in 1990 “The Devil Made Me Do It” on Tommy Boy Records was the final nail in the coffin of what was known as Militant Rap pioneered by Public Enemy. Minus Professor Griff's “Pawns In the Game” no other album that didn't have Chuck D or a song written by Ice Cube or Ice T scared the establishment the way this one did. The title track being banned from MTV was no real shocker but the fact it didn't stop the album from reaching in the Billboard 200 topping at number 41 said something.
If Public Enemy was the Dead Kennedy’s in terms of political issues and using satire (geez listen to 911 is a joke again!!!) then Paris was The Exploited, about a subtle as a using a sledgehammer to the face to prove a point. While he spoke of things that effected black youth in a broader way than say N.W.A. which was more accessible to everyone, his Black Nationalist ideology was a tad hard to take serious. Later his style would be lampooned by movies like CB4 and Fear of a Black Hat. Paris was a precursor to rappers like Dead Prez and Immortal Technique that would come and give the powers that be and ourselves the firm bitch slap we need every now and then. His second album Sleeping with the Enemy from 1992 and its Bush Sr. assassination implying cover that WOULD NEVER HAVE MADE IT OFF THE PRESS THESE DAYS!!!! insured Paris would never have another major label release again although he still makes some decent records still. That entire aside The Devil Made Me Do It is a great window into a time period when a young man not only said fuck the police but fuck the government! Preach brother!
Everyone knows the song "I Got Five On It" from Oakland California duo the Luniz. If you don't than you need to pull your head out of your ass and hop to it cause with it's Club Nouveau sampling " Why You Treat Me So Bad" beat and infectious hook it will get you off yo ass even if you're not high. But many of y'all slept on Luniz second album 1997's Lunitik Muzik. While a big departure from the Bay sound prevailent on the first time out this one went as far as to squash beefs (Funkin' Ova Nuthin' feat Too Short), add humor (My Babby Mamma, 20 Blunts A Day), do Weird Al type parodies (Is It Kool?, Handcuff Yo Hoes), but in the middle of the East Coast/West Coast virus have a cameo from a East Coast Hip Hop artist,the funk doctor himself, Redman (Hypnotize). Nuff said.
And what would the bay be without a little something different than the usual burger and fries? We're talking about the land of Hieroglyphics and another crew that changed Bay Area Hip Hop, or at least your perception of what the Yay was like. I am talking about Mystik Journeymen from the collective Living Legends. In 1999 the duo of BFAP aka Sunspot Jonez and PSC aka Luckyiam.psc aka Luckyiam released an album (Black Sands Ov Eternia) that wasn't just two dudes rapping about how dope they were but rather a critique and journey through what it was like to be a young struggling artist at the height of the P-Diddy-glitzy skullduggery going on at the time. At the time this album was a blessing, gaining the Mysik Journeymen and Living Legends as a whole a larger audience, but later a curse as no album by the duo was as well crafted and caused many to wonder if the group peaked, even though solo project from both Sunspot Jonez and Luckyiam have all been top notch. Black Sands Ov Eternia also contained a song that would plague the Living Legends live sets for YEARS!!! The great posse cut "Mercury Rising". It is a perfect intro into the world of the Living Legends but if you've been in the know for a while you as sick of hearing it as they probably are of playing it...well maybe.
Elsewhere you'll find great tracks about faith in ones self, self reflection and the everyday things humans think about when at a crossroads in life. And these two chose the right paths indeed. If you think Kanye West is deep then you have the personality of a roof shingle and this isn't the album for you.
This blog was created to display classic music long forgotten and stuff that may be a little difficult to find these days along with select new bands that I feel are worth supporting. Although I may talk about an artist and their music I might post a live show from them instead of an album or both who knows...
If you own copyrights to any of the music posted here please send me notice and i will remove it.
If there is something you were looking for or wondering about please feel free to ask...but that doesn't mean i will post it.
Also folks don't forget to support the artist by coming to the shows and purchasing merchandise and other great albums...
Well besides spending countless hours listening to and searching for new bands and old ones that slipped through my fingers (I once spent 8 hours in a record store and was late for my dinner date!!) I go to shows, movies, read, and think of ways we can eliminate the legions of talent less shrubs that plague our world through stupid paparazzi tactics...
