Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story

UPDATE: Third Man Records Cass Corridor is screening Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story on Thursday, December 19th at 7 PM.

Be there, or don't.
Get advance tickets here.

Greta Thunberg Pleads with Jesse James Dupree to Switch to Battery Electric Chainsaw Ahead of Performance at Ohio Bike Week 2024.

I love Jackyl, but that stinky Chainsaw has got to go, says the noted environmentalist.

Creative Commons/You Tube

Outspoken activist Greta Thunberg has taken it upon herself to spearhead the international cabal of rock music enthusiasts encouraging Jackyl front-man and self-anointed “Lumber Jack of Love” Jesse James Dupree to cast aside that stinky two-stroke and get hip with a new emissions-free, battery-powered chainsaw. 

 

Thunberg wishes to make it clear that she wishes for the summer concert party season to continue unabated, albeit with fewer noxious two-stroke emissions. “Like most young Swedish people, my life revolves around three things: Calling out hypocritical world leaders and gross corporate polluters, scarfing those meatballs at IKEA, and blasting some f#cking Jackyl from the tape deck in my Volvo EV. I mean, Jesse James Dupree is basically the Bob Dylan of Scandinavia.” 

 

Preferred over four-stroke models for their lighter weight and quick-revving nature, the two-stroke has been the choice of lumberjacks and musicians for decades. But the new wave of battery-powered chainsaws offers some excellent alternatives. Stihl, the brand most commonly associated with Dupree, makes several dandy battery-powered chainsaws, including the Stihl MSA 220 C-B; it’s got plenty of power and a 16-inch bar, so it won’t be too emasculating when Jesse suggestively positions the saw amidst his loins and “jams” along with the band. It’s a crowd favorite. 

 

Equally as troubling is that while now assembled in the U.S., the German company’s founder was apparently a bit of a Nazi back in the day and was arrested as such during WWII. But let’s not throw stones. 

 

Thunberg is on the record as preferring Husqvarna battery-electric chainsaws from her native Sweden for her personal arborist needs. 

 

Ohio Bike Week runs from Friday, May 24 through Saturday, June 1 in Downtown Sandusky Ohio, a suburb of the Cedar Point Amusement Park. Catch Jackyl on Thursday, May 30th on the Progressive / Firelands Auto Main Stage, Jackson St. Pier, Downtown Sandusky. Show starts at 6 PM. 

Legal Note: This is obviously satire. Get with it nerds.The part about Jackyl playing Bike Week, however, is 100% legit.

The Trailer for Stunt Rock Says Everything About the 1970s Worth Saying

Hatched in the fertile mind of English-Aussie film veteran Brian-"subtlety is probably not my middle name"-Trenchard-Smith, Stunt Rock delivers every single drop of testosterone-driven excitement the poster and trailer promise. In short, things blow up, cars crash, and mystical satanic-tinged rock is performed with all the artistic nuance of a stack of concrete blocks falling from a scaffold.

Lest you film aesthetes dismiss Stunt Rock as just another piece of celluloid schlock created to lure libidinous and thrill-hungry teens to the drive in, consider the plot as outlined in Wikipedia:

"Australian stuntman Grant Page accepts a job on an American television series and travels to Los Angeles, where he reunites with his cousin, Sorcery band member Curtis Hyde. Hyde performs with a heavy metal band called Sorcery, playing the part of The Prince of Darkness who is locked in cosmic combat with the King of the Wizards."

"Eventually Page's reckless behavior attracts the attention of newspaper reporter Lois, who is writing an article about his career-obsessed co-star Monique van de Ven, both gravitating towards the stunt-man's professional fearlessness. Later the trio attend Sorcery concerts, enjoy Hollywood parties with the band, and explore the nature of extreme living."

But for all of Stunt Rock's hubris and reckless abandon, the single most impressive aspect of the film is that it managed to get made. I'll let the film's auteur, Brian Trenchard-Smith, give you the lowdown on how a momentary, throw-away idea navigated the typical Hollywood pitfalls that have felled countless projects and managed to make it to the silver screen.

Fun Fact: Phil Hartman appears in Stunt Rock as the personal assistant to Monique van de Ven.

The Lost Footage: KISS Live at Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, May 16, 1975.

Hey kids, remember the rock group KISS? 

No, not the current pair of flaccid yentas and day-hire imposters trading under the name—I'm talking about the group born from the fertile New York streets of the 1970s. The one that unwittingly managed to blend the rust-belt bombast of Grand Funk Railroad with the street smarts of the New York Dolls and wrap the whole thing up in kabuki-themed Evel Knievel production with just the slightest touch of Alice, Iggy and Ziggy mixed in to satisfy the elitists.  

Well, that KISS only lasted for about three years, starting in 1974 with the eponymous debut album and blowing the doors off the finish line with 1977's Love Gun, their sixth long-player in under 48 months. Sure, they put out music for decades after that, but like most underdogs who actually get what they want, success forever changed them.

That of course necessitated the firing of Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, two modern-day Bowery Boys straight out of central casting whose careers would've hit a brick wall at the Lincoln Tunnel without the drive and organization of Paul and Gene. Unfortunately, the pair took 75% of the personality and all of the humor and street credibility out the door with them. 

But back in '75, they were still cocky, aggressive, and white hot. And like other bands of the era, they knew if they could take Detroit, the undisputed ground-zero for high-energy rock and roll, they could succeed anywhere. So the band and manager doubled down and decided to record a live album at Cobo Hall. 

Now, nearly fifty years later, a video artifact of that landmark gig in May of 1975 surfaces without explanation. 

There's some missed cues, the tempos sway, the guitars are slightly out of tune and are plugged directly into the amps, and I think you can hear Peter's kick pedal occasionally. In other words a perfect scenario for teen nirvana.

It's pretty great.

1:04 Let Me Go, Rock & Roll 

3:24 C'mon & Love Me  

6:57 Firehouse  

12:40 Deuce  

18:59 Rock & Roll All Nite  

24:42 Quick glimpse of the banner from the back cover of Alive!  

25:49 Black Diamond

Abandoned Detroit - The City of Neglect

Still hungry for more Detroit ruin porn? Follow along as Bob, aka Detroit Unseen, takes you on a journey documenting the spectacular ruins of Detroit and his personal recovery from drug addiction.
There's no shortage of web sites and short films documenting the rise and fall and current revival of Detroit, but the city's legacy is vast and star-crossed enough to support yet another take on the subject. It could benefit from some tighter edits, but there's a pandemic on and it's not exactly like most of us are pressed for time.

From the filmmaker: 

With Detroit you take the good with the bad, recognize the good as it comes and preserve the good that has come before. Many that enter the City of Detroit can sense the urgency of change and the spirit of reinvention. We certainly understand this, and the photos represent what we have seen along the way. The Flag of Detroit contains the two Latin slogans “Speramus Meliora” and “Resurget Cineribus” meaning “We hope for better things” and “It will rise from the ashes.” The prophetic phrases originally created in reference to the great fire of 1805, ring true more now than ever. We take these slogans to heart everyday as we go out and explore our great city.

Supercut of Two Lane Blacktop Set to Pink Floyd's "One of These Days" is Sublime.

 

Get the Criterion Collection release of Two Lane Blacktop here. 

Mark, Mel, and Don: The Rise and Fall of Grand Funk Railroad

Times Square, New York City, June 14, 1970.

Quarantine got you down? Why not check out Peter Makowski's condensed account of when three working-class yobs from Flint, Michigan, tapped into the national zeitgeist and briefly ruled the world?

Excerpted from Grand Funk Railroad: The Forgotten Story of a True American Band

"But the fact that the media played absolutely no part in Grand  Funk’s success turned out to be a major selling point to their audience. Critic/documentary maker, native of Detroit and bona fide Funk fan Michael Moore once said: 'People loved this band because some record company didn’t concoct it; image consultants didn’t choreograph it. This was a people’s band that just wanted to rock. A hard-driving, industrial rock’n’roll band that related to the average hard-working American.'

Indeed. There was a huge, ignored and uncatered-for audience in the U.S. Midwest who worked nine to five, paid their taxes and every weekend partied their brains out on a mixture of ripple wine, grass and barbiturates. While the middle classes had the privilege to protest about Vietnam, these poor bastards were actually being shipped out there to fight. This was a pissed-off generation who simply wanted to rock’n’roll. Grand Funk came to the rescue." –Peter Makowski, Classic Rock  / Louder

Now surf on over and read the complete story on LOUDER

 

John Brannon Crowd Surfing at Circle Jerks Gig in Detroit 06-06-82

With the Circle Jerks officially back in the saddle and the news that Detroit's favorite Fun Boy Three tribute band, the mighty Negative Approach, will be firing up the van and strapping on the jackboots in order to accompany Morris, Hetson, Schloss, and Associates on the majority of the dates, I figured this photo would make a timely addition to the long-dormant PDGB blogroll.

Long story long, the day started in Ann Arbor, where we stole a Rick Springfield promotional standup from the dearly missed Schoolkids Records, with every intention of giving to the Circle Jerks. We did, they played, and Keith utilized the cardboard Rick as stage prop while the crowd partook in the usual sweaty shenanigans that culminated in JB getting in some epic crowd surfing runs. NA, of course, opened the show, and now the Circle Jerks are reuniting for a tour to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Group Sex, their influential first release. Concerned the punkness needed a little extra shove to send it over the edge, they invited Negative Approach and Adolescents along for the ride. Now shaping up to be the Old Punker event of the summer, the tour dates are below. Sadly, at this point it doesn't look like the fellas will be venturing East of the Mississippi, but we're confident there are more dates to come.

Hello, Hooray: Alice Cooper Riot at Toledo Sports Arena 12.13.1973

By the time the Alice Cooper group hit Toledo in December of 1973, it was clear that change was in the air. Muscle of Love, the bands latest LP, was struggling to attain the same level of success as their previous two efforts, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies, and the band was beginning to succumb to the standard laundry list of rock star afflictions: booze, drugs, egos, money, groupies, and the strain of perpetual touring. Though the band had honed its craft grinding out the jams in its home base of Detroit and the faceless rust-belt communities in its orbit, the idea of spending December on a tightly-scheduled run through the great lakes region–with a few key southern dates thrown in for good measure–was less than appealing.

Initially, Toledo wasn't even a stop on the itinerary. Somewhere along the line booking agent Jonny Podell realized the band had a night off after its gig at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and figured a quick stop in Toledo would be an easy way monetize an otherwise off-day of the tour.

Already frustrated by growing tensions within the band, the group was less than excited about their arrival in Toledo. Later, tour manager David Libert would be quoted saying, "If the Lord ever wanted to give the world an enema, this is where he would stick the goddamn nozzle."

While accounts of the ensuing incident vary, everyone agrees on this: The Toledo crowd was geared and primed for violence right from the start. From the first note of the band's opening number, "Hello, Hooray," the crowd began pelting the band with anything withing reach. The deluge continued as the band performed "Billion Dollar Babies," and an explosive, most likely an M-80 or cherry bomb, was thrown on stage injuring roadie Larry Hitchcock. Confusion ensued, and the band left the stage eventually retreating to the Holiday Inn located across the river. Ashley Pandel, Cooper's publicist is quoted in the January 31, 1974 issue of Rolling Stone saying, "Alice felt if they continued, there could be another Altamont." The crowd reportedly dispersed after an hour or two of typically rowdy behavior while waiting in vain for the band to return to the stage.

At that point, the story goes in two directions. While the Cooper camp maintains that guitarist Michael Bruce was injured to the point of almost losing his sight in one eye, journalist Bob Greene has an entirely different take on the situation. Embedded with the group for the entirety of the "Holiday Tour '73," Greene states in his excellent and long out of print book, Billion Dollar Baby, that Bruce was in fact unharmed, and the news of Bruce being transported to a Hospital in Detroit was fabricated simply as a cover for the band's refusal to return to the stage. Greene states the the band retreated to the hotel, and by the time the decision was made to not return to the stage Alice was sharing stories and Budweisers with some uniformed Toledo police officers. By the time the entourage was preparing to leave the hotel in the morning, a story in The Blade, Toledo's long-standing news daily, reported the story just as Cooper's publicist as dictated. Meanwhile, Greene states that Bruce entered the lobby in the morning and began joking about the incident with his bandmates and crew. He continues that while they were preparing to leave, he witnessed members of Cooper's entourage call Tom Davis at The Blade, and, perpetuating the alleged deception, "confirm" that Bruce was in fact in Detroit. The next night, the group performed in front of 17,000 people in Toronto.

Well into the 1980s, Cooper would cite Toledo as his least favorite city when when questioned, although his animosity had faded by the time he returned to the city in 1986 on a double bill with Ted Nugent. In a bizarre turn of events, famously enthusiastic Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner would in 1996 declare an official, "Alice Cooper Day."

Click to view in full PDGB Expando-Matic Glory

In the forty some-odd years since the publication of Billion Dollar Baby, Greene has come under scrutiny and suffered numerous unrelated accusations; Cooper and the rest of the involved parties continue to give the book little credence.

Fun Fact #1: The Blade gave Greene and Cooper over five columns of space in it's Sunday, December 23, edition. Tom Davies, who socialized with Cooper backstage before the performance, weighs in on the then novel practice of a journalist embedding himself with a rock group (Greene's adventure predating Cameron Crowe's Eagles story in Rolling Stone by two years) while Steve Harloff weighs in on the concert's violence and the future of rock concerts in the city of Toledo. (As a side note, Harloff also awards the Rolling Stones the "Arthritic and Decrepitcy" award for their 1973 release Goats Head Soup. Keith Richards was 30 at the time. Harloff's current status is unknown.)

Fun Fact #2: The original artwork for the Billion Dollar Babies Tour Poster–subsequently altered for the "Holiday Tour '73" as seen in the Toledo Blade ad above–was created by Prairie Prince, drummer for the Tubes. Here's a full color version below:

Max capacity of Toledo Sports Arena: 8,000; Capacity required if everyone who claims they attended this concert actually did: 150,000.

Update: Here's The Coop some 35 years later being interviewed on Toledo's local cable access show "Sports Rap." Although part 1 of the interview is AWOL, no mention of the Toledo Incident is made during this segment. 

Rob Zombie’s GMC Motorhome from the Movie "31" Is for Sale.

You know what they say, kemosabe; in Hell, everybody loves popcorn.

Produced by General Motors for the 1973 to 1978 model years, the GMC motor home was at the time the only fully-finished motorhome to be produced by an American automobile manufacturer. Featuring sleek modern styling, rear air suspension, a low ride-height, front-wheel drive (courtesy GM's Unified Powerplant Package as found in the Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado), and an aluminum and fiberglass body, it was everything the competition wasn't.

Long a Hollywood favorite, the GMC Motorhome has appeared in numerous features including Stripes where it appeared in slightly reconfigured form as the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle. Additional screen appearances include Minority Report, Anchorman 2, Snake and Mongoose, and many more, not to mention dozens of television appearances.

 

Yet for all the big camper's screen time, Rob Zombie's 31 is the first time the GMC motorhome was cast in such a sinister light. Once the ne plus ultra of the motorcoach world, in 31 the 1976 model appears tired and barely functional, simply a tool to transport a bunch of carnies from town to town. 

Previously available on the used market for a fraction of their original value, remaining examples in good condition are now trading for stupid money thanks to sudden interest of otherwise well-intending folks, who, due to either pangs of nostalgia or simply just having too much time and money, pretty much ruined the vintage camper market for the rest of us. And that's where this one comes in-what better way to hit the campground than in this road-weary and graphically adorned sin-bin? Mix in a few crates of pyrotechnics and PBR en route and you're guaranteed to draw the attention of the campground hoi polloi. If this sounds like your idea of a good time, head on over to GWS Auctions to see more pictures and bid.

Necrophilia Not Funny, Alice.

Say what you will Ms. Landers, but Alice's sense of humor was not lost on a few kids from Maumee, Ohio.

John Lee Hooker in Frogtown: The Secret Session at Toledo's Sweeney Sound Engineering

Dig below the surface of Toledo's rich and diverse music history and you'll inevitably uncover vague references to  John Lee Hooker recording at Toledo's Sweeney Sound Engineering. While the bluesman's affinity for the Toledo-adjacent Hines Farm blues club is well documented, the link between Hooker and Sweeney Sound is far more tenuous.

Hooker's notoriously cavalier attitude regarding the signing of and adhering to binding contracts makes verification difficult, but Sheldon Brown, son of Detroit Based Fortune Records founder Jack Brown, has long maintained that John Lee Hooker’s first recording session was actually conducted under his father’s supervision at Toledo’s Sweeney Sound Engineering. The session, which reportedly produced the tracks “Miss Sadie Mae: Curl my Baby's Hair” and “609 Boogie,” went unreleased at the time. Additionally, David A Carson confirms the session in his exhaustive Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll. This is significant as historians have for years generally credited Hooker's late 1948 recording of "Boogie Chillen" at United Sound Systems in Detroit as his first session. These claims instead indicate that Hooker's first session was, in fact, in Toledo.

Information detailing the history of Sweeney Sound Engineering is similarly hazy, a lazy google search turning up a 1950 recording of Fred Harris & his Uptown Band. Ripped from the 1980 release, Vintage Toledo Blues 1950-1980 (TRH Records #8001), Fred Harris--not to be confused with the legendary Canadian TV host of the same name--apparently went on to form Fred Harris' Red Tops who recorded this jam in the studio at Toledo's WTOD radio station in 1957.

Given the willingness of Fortune Records founder Brown to travel to Toledo for a session, what other gems may have been committed to tape or acetate inside the walls of Sweeney Sound Engineering? Those with even cursory knowledge of the studio and or the owners/employees are encouraged to chime in in the comments.

Linkapalooza: 
The Bull- Fred Harris' Red Tops Organ Trio- New Song
Remembering Hines Farm, a legendary African-American mecca for the blues
Hines Farm Movie

Descent into The Maelstrom: Radio Birdman Documentary Nearing Completion

Born in Ann Arbor, Deniz Tek grew up in the wake of the region's prolific underground music scene  soaking up the inescapable sonic influence the Stooges, MC5, and the rest of the Rust Belt Guitar Army. So when he split town for Australia in 1972, it didn't take long for him to apply the sound and attitude of his formative years to a musical effort down under. Although Tek would ultimately be associated with numerous combos including TV Jones and New Race (with Ron Asheton from the Stooges and Dennis Thompson of the MC5), it's Radio Birdman where he made his bones. 

Considering glut of documentaries currently clogging up viewersphere, we're hoping this one finds a way to stand on its own legs and drops some genuine knowledge.
Deniz Tek's website
The Radio Birdman Story, #deniztek, #radiobirdman

Attention Music Lovers

#Toledo, #8-Track, Vanilla Fudge, Al Martino, Buck Owens, Wow and Flutter
More on Lasalle's Department Store Toledo, Ohio

Have a Funk-Filled 4th!

"They Would Pick Him Up When He Fell." Rolling Stones Visit Gibson Guitar Factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1975

Photo Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections

Keith Richards and Ron Wood tour the Gibson guitar factory July of 1975.
Like most of the small to medium sized rust belt burgs located within the inescapable gravitational pull of Detroit, auto manufacturing was a driving force in the economy of Kalamazoo, Michigan. (Until the mid-1990s, K-Zoo was home to both the Checker Motors Corporation and GM's two-million sq. foot Fisher Body stamping plant.) But, in a textbook example of the odd dichotomy and attitude that defined the rust belt, Kalamazoo was also home to Gibson Guitar Factory--i.e., "yeah, wood or metal, strings or wheels, it don't matter much to us, we MAKE shit here." Founded as the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg Co. Ltd in the early 20th century, Gibson called 225 Parsons St. home until the move of its operations to Nashville was complete in 1984. A decade earlier, the Stones came to visit.

Photo Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections

Gibson was owned by Norlin in '75, and in retrospect quality was at an all-time low. Ron Wood was still a relatively new Stone, and the band was slated to play COBO Hall on July 27 and 28. Keef was still living in 24/7 party mode.

Photo Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections

Jump on over to MLive for the rest of the photos and the complete story.
As for the old factory on Parsons St.? It's still humming, turning out some of the finest quality instruments available today as the Heritage Guitar company.
(Photos Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections)