Iggy Pop - A Million In Prizes: The Anthology

YOURZ

This review is late.  This is the first review of the entire year that wasn't ready to go on the dot at 12:01 AM.  But I have a good excuse and I have to tell you all.  Mine and YourZ truly went to see the Gorillaz last night.  It was, in short, the best large venue live show I've ever seen.  But enough of that, lets get to Mr Osterberg.

He is made of a better cut of the same material Keith Richards is made from.  If the world went pear-shaped tomorrow, he would emerge from the rubble relatively unscathed and ready to rock.  The word 'iconic' really doesn't cut it when it comes to Iggy.  He is so much more.  What he did on Countdown live on national television inspired a generation of punks.  Mine has linked it so check it out.

As you would expect, this collection contains all the hits, including his turn at Cole Porter with Debbie Harry, Well Did You Evah.  But the big surprise for me are some of the tracks I'd not heard before.  Skull Rings, for instance, is an awesome rock song and Iggy sounds as fresh and full on as ever.  About the only complaint I have about this selection is that it doesn't included Loco Mosquito or Dog Food, personal favourites.  And his version of China Girl is different but better, no offence to Bowie, of course.  Iggy Pop for Emperor of the World!

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

Legend.  I remember going to see Henry Rollins in his spoken word tour one year, and he told a story about trying to outlast Iggy at some music festival in Scandinavia sometime.  He said even after months of training, weightlifting, hard cardio, a strict diet, Iggy wiped the floor with him.  "Nobody out-Iggs the Igg."

I've sen him live once, and he really is an amazing performer.  I also remember him performing I'm Bored to a bemused teenage audience on Countdown - when was that? Late 70s, early 80s sometime.  His version of Real Wild Child has been the theme song for the Aussie TV music show rage that's been on - forever.  He's influenced so many people, so many bands - the man is, as I said, a legend.  Rock Royalty.  All hail Iggy.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information go to: http://www.iggypop.com/

Pretenders - Pretenders

MINE

In the same way as the pouty sneer of Debbie Harry told the teenage me girls could legitimately front a rock band, the spiky sneer of Chrissie Hynde told me you didn't have to be a blonde to do it.  But for some reason I ended up with Parellel Lines on vinyl and not Pretenders - probably due to teenage budgetary restrictions more than anything else.

I missed out on seeing the band when they toured Australia in early 1984, when she and Jim Kerr from Simple Minds first got together at the Narara music festival, as I was overseas at the time.  But I remember seeing them in 1986 at the Brisbane Festival Hall, a massive venue, I think supported by Do Re Mi in what would have been a meeting of angular-faced brunettes!  Pretenders were electrifying, despite the relatively early hour for a concert - mid-afternoon, as I recall, due to the at-the-time laws about having people leaving a venue late at night.  Ah, Queensland in the 80s - it truly was another country.

We only got this CD a short time ago, and I've really enjoyed having it around.  We have Learning to Crawl on vinyl (two copies, I think) and I'm also looking forward to hearing that again shortly.  Yes, we finally did it - bought a turntable!  Anyway, I love Chrissy's trademark voice, those choppy, jangly guitar sounds - I love this album, raw and untried as they were.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

In 1980, thanks to the wonderful music show Countdown, I was first introduced to the Pretenders by way of their first hit in Australia, Brass In Pocket.  The video featured a suitably attired Chrissy Hynde as a waitress in a grimy cafe and looking all kohl-eyed and sexy.  It was fuel for a punk lad's fire.

It wasn't until a couple of years later, when I was earning my own money, that I went and got Pretenders and the imaginatively-titled followup, Pretenders II.  Both albums became some of my favourites, particularly when cruising around in my old Chevy.  In fact, it kind of became a battle of the Chrissys as I was also a big fan of The Divinyls around the same time.  Both Chrissy Hynde and Chrissie Amphlett were two women who not only looked suitably punk and sexy at the same time, but could hold their own in a rock band. 

There's a lot to like about this album.  The cover of The Kinks Stop Your Sobbing is better than the original, in my opinion.  And tracks like Precious, Kid, Private Life and Mystery Achievement (all personal favorites) not only proved Hynde could write great songs but added a more dynamic feminine perspective to the mostly male-dominated punk scene.  But best of all, Pretenders still sounds as good today as it did when it first came out.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information go to http://www.thepretenders.com/

Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons - The Very Best of

YOURZ

Jo Jo Zep, along with a few other Aussie bands, were a big favourite when I was in my last couple of years of high school.  Not favoured enough to buy anything of theirs, mind you (couldn't have my Kiss, Cheap Trick, AC/DC and Cold Chisel friends knowing I also liked them - damn peer group pressure!)  But they were regularly featured on Countdown and other Aussie rock shows at the time and also big hits at local Blue Light Discos.

The thing I liked about them was not only were they writing great, catchy, ska-tinged songs (at least for the first few big singles) but they were quality musicians and part of a larger group of Australian musicians and songwriters who were setting new standards (this does include Chisel, who had the incredilbe songwriting talents of Don Walker).

Tracks like Hit & Run, Shape I'm In and Puppet On A String were not only infectious, but great to dance to as well, back when I did actually shake my tail feather.  These were like our answer to all the great British punk and ska music being made at the time but without the crap clothes and spittle.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

I just realised there's yet another way I'm like Lisa Simpson - I love the saxophone (or as her dad would say, the sax-a-ma-phone).  And the sound of Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons is centred around frontman Joe Camilleri's saxophone stylings.  I've seen the band, way back when in Melbourne, maybe even on a double bill with Paul Kelly and the Dots - but my memory of the early 80s is getting a bit sketchy in parts these days.  (YourZ sez: must have been either 80 or 81 as the band were kaput after that).

Listening to the album (which isn't the one pictured but has most of the same songs on it) I just felt, well, 20 again.  The band's sound moves from vaguely 50s doo-wop through a more rockabilly style - and my favourite song, Taxi Mary, has a real Latin beat.

I also loved Camilleri's follow-up band the Black Sorrows and listening to this CD has just made me more hungry for our household to finally bite the bullet and get a real live turntable - so I can listen to the original Zep album I had - Screaming Targets - and to the three or more Black Sorrows albums that are gathering dust.

By the way, I differ from Lisa in that I'm not an 8-year-old yellow vegetarian cartoon character with a brother and sister who likes to play the blues.  Otherwise, we're pretty close.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.joecamilleri.com.au/

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - 1984 - 1989

MINE

Pretentious? Moi?  That was my thought when I pulled out Lloyd Cole for the first time in... a long time.  Its literary and intellectual references show just how seriously I was taking myself in 1984, when Rattlesnakes came out.  Smug in my perusal of Simone de Beauvoir and Norman Mailer, knowledgeable about Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint in On The Waterfront, you have to excuse me - I was only 22 and fresh out of rejecting university life because it was too insular, not real or gritty enough.

These days I can laugh at that serious young insect that I was.  And I can still enjoy these gorgeous, jangly tunes, albeit with some giggling at the drum-machine beats.  Favourite song would have to be Lost Weekend which I managed, some years ago, to enjoy at a hotel in Amsterdam.  Watching competetive wall-climbing on a coin-operated TV and putting the vodka on the windowsill (it was Christmas) to keep it cold.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

The first memory that pops into my head when I hear the name Lloyd Cole & The Commotions is of Molly Meldrum banging on about them on the iconic Australian music show, Countdown.  For me, this wasn't necessarily a good thing for my relationship with this band as Molly and I have never really had the same tastes, thankfully.

But the more I heard of this band, the more I liked.  So I got Rattlesnakes, their first album, on black plastic.  I remember listening to quite a bit for a while and dragging it out occasionally after that but I have to admit, I've not listened to it much since.  I know Mine is a fan of this kind of literate, jangly indie-pop.  While I still kind of get it and enjoy some of the lyrical references (yeah, Lloyd does have a way with words), my tastes have moved quite away from this kind of sound.

Good, but not great.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

For more information: http://www.lloydcole.com/

Linda Ronstadt - The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt

YOURZ

Oh boy, does hearing some of the tracks on this take me back.  I wish I could say it's with fond memories but it plain isn't.  In fact, I have distinct memories of my brother and I groaning when, for what seemed like the millionth week in a row, Blue Bayou ended our Sunday night Countdown session as the number one song for the week.  Just hearing it now makes me twitch like an epileptic at a strobe convention - we wanted rock, damn it!

As Mine is such a big fan and I value my testicles highly (though for some reason, no insurance company will value them as highly as I do) I won't say another word in case it's disparaging.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

MINE

Linda and I go way, way back.  Simple Dreams was one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money, because I loved Blue Bayou.  Not that I knew what a bayou was at age 15, but I played that album to death, for years.  It features two songs written by Warren Zevon (whom I hope we'll review one day) and harmonies from one Dolly Parton, of all people.

The year afterwards I sang one of her earlier songs - You're No Good, the first on this album - in the school play.  And in a strange coincidence, one of my friends recently posted a shot of herself in costume for that play on Facebook (hi, Kathy!)

I think the best thing about Linda, for me, is that she generally sings in a register I can reach.  I can sing, kind of, but my range is less than an octave, so folky-country music generally suits me the best.  This album's now destined for the kitchen, so I can sing along to my heart's content.  But I'll be skipping those mushy love-song duets she also did, because they set my teeth on edge.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP gonna take away that hurtin' inside

For more information: http://ronstadt-linda.com/

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Jukebox Dury

MINE

Yes, I know the CD to the side doesn't match the title we've got - but rest assured, all the songs on Jukebox Dury are on the album pictured.  Thank goodness. This is yet another best-of CD and one that has some damn fine songs on it.  Lots are actually on my gymPod, because it's nice to have a smile on your face while you're sweating and panting and wishing you could die right now and end the pain.

But I can't wait, I can't WAIT until the Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll movie comes out.  Featuring Andy Serkis (Gollum to the LOTR nerds) in the lead role, it promises to be a fabulous inside peek into the life of this larger-than-life muso.  It's no wonder that an all-about-the-lyrics girl like myself loves this band. From namechecking Noel Coward and Einstein in There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards to the beautiful zen-like statements in You'll See Glimpses (Every living thing will be another friend) and of course the round-the-world in a song of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Dury is just a delight as a songwriter.  The tunes don't suck, either.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (Reasons to be cheerful/ one, two, THREE)

YOURZ

I remember years ago, watching Countdown, the iconic Australian music show that used to be on ABC every Sunday night at 6pm.  Every kid in Australia watched it because if they didn't, they wouldn't have anything to talk about the next day.  Repeated offences would most likely result in said offender being ostracised for the rest of their youth.

Anyway, my siblings and I were happily watching Countdown when the clip for Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick came on.  I loved the song partly because Dury was so naughty and cheeky and partly because the music was brilliant.

There's a part in the clip where Dury wags the microphone while singing 'hit me' and while I'm sure my younger siblings had no idea what he was inferring (I'm not sure they could have even spelt 'fellatio'), I knew exactly what was going on.  It was about this time my mother walked into the room, saw what we were watching and hit the roof.  There was no doubting she also knew what he was miming.  To cut a long story short, it took a lot of cajoling before we could watch Countdown again (at least, with her blessings).

Jukebox Dury includes this track as well as the superbness that is Reasons To Be Cheerful, Sweet Gene Vincent and of course, the generations-defining anthem, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, all of which serve to remind me of how good Dury was and how sad it is he's no longer with us.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP and hit me, hit me, HIT ME!

For more information: http://www.iandury.co.uk/