There’s a whole pile of vets blowing through town in the next month, and it’s back to school time. So grab your notebooks and some fake i.d. and get ready to watch some punk pioneers throw it down. Sit down, shut up and learn. Or stay home and shave the baby.
Cheetah Chrome, ex-Dead Boy and Rocket from the Tombs, will be playing with Toronto’s premiere punk cover band (originals too, yo) The Screwed (and hopefully continuing to entertain and enlighten his Facebook friends with his steady rotation of vintage band videos, and rants against TV mental case Glen Beck.)
They’ll be playing This Ain’t Hollywood, the new bar in the Hammer (named with a tip o’ the hate to Mickey de Sadist who lent them the Forgotten Rebels‘ title) run by DJ and all-round dude Lou Molinaro) on Friday, September 25th. The next night the distinguished gang drives down the Gardner to Toronto to play some more at The Cadillac Lounge. Need lunch, much?
On October 2nd at Sneaky Dees in Toronto, New York Junk (with home-grown gal Cynthia Ross of the B-Girls) share the bill with Walter Lure (ex-Heartbreakers) jamming (are we allowed to say that yet?) with Teenage Head’s Gord Lewis and Steve Mahon. Walter wrote and sang half of the Heartbreakers’ tunes with the late and legendary Johnny Thunders, and formed the band Waldo (who at least a couple of bloggers likening it to what The Heartbreakers could’ve sounded like had they been able to continue) with a revolving door of players, an uncanny amount of whom died along the way “…but of natural causes these days….though…what’s natural about death anyway?” mused Walter in an interview last year.
And not only did Walter survive the Heartbreakers and continue on with this own band The Waldos — their excellent first album produced by The Dictators Adny Shernoff (we’re not worthy!) — but he also went on to a comfortable day job as a Wall Street stockfuckingbroker! Which, when you think about it, isn’t such a leap. We assume the awesome Walter wears his trademark yellow tie (and maybe the jacket with the dollar signs) at both jobs. Walter Lure, Gordie Lewis, Steve Mahon, you gotta go. It’ll be guitarded!
September 78 at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto
Gord Lewis of Teenage Head has kept busy since the (apparent) break-up of Teenage Head following singer Frankie Venom‘s untimely death last October. This Ain’t Hollywood features regular Gord Lewis Songbook nights at the club, and Gord’s played a few gigs with Blue Coupe, the super-group kinda thing featuring Blue Oyster Cult‘s Joe and Albert Bouchard and Alice Cooper‘s Dennis Dunaway. We’re hoping to catch an interview with Teenage Head road manager Rob Gronfors this fall.
Handbill courtesy Imants Krumins
The Scenics hit the road in October, timed to the release of Sunshine World, their remastered collection of tunes originally recorded in 1977/1978. While they’re revamping their website (listed on the right) you can check out a half-dozen songs at their MySpace place at http://www.myspace.com/scenicsmusic. They’ll play a number of gigs equal to one beer short of a six-pack, at the Toronto’s El Mocambo on October 13th; Ottawa, the 14th, Montreal the 15th, Call the Office in London on the 17th, and then finishing it at This Ain’t Hollywood in Hamilton, October 18th.
Meanwhile The Scenics singer/writer Ramesh Andy Meyers will premiere his new radio show Allowed Sound on Saturday, September 26, 7 – 9pm, doing a show like FM radio used to be, eclectic: Talking Heads, Bill Frisell, Hank Williams, Pere Ubu, etc. Don’t touch that dial.
Ramesh Andy Meyers with assistant Noah Webster in their studios on Salt Spring Island.
