CD Review: The Crazy Squeeze

The 13 songs on The Crazy Squeeze self-titled debut CD (Vinyl Dog) are pure and rowdy rock ‘n’ roll  This L.A. band blasts its way through  a blend of glam and punk, alternatively drawing inspiration from Eddie and the Hot Rods, the New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople and the Boys.

Boozy rockers like Little Girl, All Lies and Outta My Head are on tap here from start to finish. Younger Girl and C’mon and Dance bring to mind the buoyant pop sounds of ‘60s AM radio hits. Every song on this CD is a winner, right down to covers of the Boys' Terminal Love and Cock Sparrer’s I Need a Witness For great glampunk songs with swagger & personality, check out The Crazy Squeeze.

The lineup: Johnny Witmer (Stitches, guitars/vocals), Frankie Delmane (ex-Teenage Frames, guitar/vocals) Johnny Sleeper (ex-Superbees, drums/vocals)  Bass on the album provided by Chris B – the current live band features Dat Ngo on bass.

The Crazy Squeeze is also available on vinyl from Wanda Records (Germany) and Vinyl Dog (U.S.)

Order CD here

Film Review - Jobriath A.D.

Jobriath album cover, Times Square billboard, 1973

 

Jobriath A.D.

Music Documentary

Written and Directed by Kieran Turner
Narrated by Henry Rollins

Screened at Cinefamily’s “Don’t Knock the Rock Festival”

L.A., August 9, 2012

Kieran Turner’s documentary Jobriath, A.D. gives us a long-overdue glimpse into the life of one of rock 'n' roll’s most enigmatic characters. Jobriath, aka Bruce Wayne Campbell  aka Cole Berlin, went from through  many chameleon-like career changes in his 36 years,. from musical theater star to glam rock also-ran to cabaret singer.  Like Klaus Nomi, Jobriath was gay in an era when mainstream culture only accepted gay rock stars who hid or downplayed their sexual orientation.  Unlike Nomi, who was a vocalist/performance artist, Jobriath was an accomplished musician and songwriter. He was an adolescent piano prodigy who dropped out of college, joined the military, went AWOL, joined the L.A. cast of Hair, performed with hippie-rock band Pidgeon, spent time in a mental institution –and then things really got interesting.

Regardless of your musical (or sexual) preference, Jobriath A.D. has elements that will capture the interest of most viewers. It’s a story of an artist way before his time, the victim of an over-the-top publicity campaign, an unsophisticated public and a fickle press. Even in photos from a recording session with some of his Hair cast members, Jobriath emitted a cool, charismatic androgyny, long before any of the glam rock trapping appeared. His talent was undeniable, as he churned out song after song. As writer and activist Jim Fouratt, one of the film’s interviewees, notes, “He was one of those people who had talent that transcended his sexual orientation..”  Jobriath kept an extremely low profile about his real-life sexuality, despite his pronouncements to the press about being a “true fairy.”

Campbell gave himself the name Jobriath, a contraction of Job and Goliath, shortly before playing Woof in the stage version of Hair. He soon attracted the attention of Jerry Brandt, a flashy (one associate described him as “reptilian”) but successful music impresario. Brandt and Jobriath had a symbiotic relationship; they both wanted fame and fortune, to be “like Colonel Parker and Elvis.” Interviews with Brandt form the core of the documentary. He comes across like a high-end version of the satin-jacketed rock manager Bill Murray portrayed on Saturday Night Live.  By the end of the film, though, it becomes clear that he wasn't Jobriath's manager just for the potential money and gold records. He obviously revered his client's talent. The seemingly bottomless promo budget for Jobriath’s first album fueled a 50-foor square billboard in Times Square, full-page ads in major magazines and ads on London’s bus fleet.

Brandt got Jobriath booked on the pop variety show The Midnight Special, where he performed on the same bill with Gladys Knight and Spooky Tooth. Jobriath’s performance confused most people who watched it that night. They simply ignored him and continued listening to the Doobie Brothers. Despite a few glowing reviews, the music press portrayed him in as a flash-in-the-pan imitation of Bowie, Bolan, et al.

Despite a mixed critical reaction to the album and near zero attention from record-buyers, Brandt and Jobriath forged ahead with new projects, which included  planning a performance at the Paris Opera House. The spectacle, which would put even Lady Gaga to shame, involved King Kong and a replica of the Empire State Building that turns into a large penis – and this was in 1974! The concert never materialized, but  animator Benjamin Nielsen envisions how the project may have turned out in one of  Jobriath A.D.'s cartoon sequences. By the time Jobriath’s second album, Creatures of the Street ,was released in 1974, the marketing campaign had run out of steam, and Jobriath retreated to pyramid apartment on top of the Chelsea Hotel. He reinvented himself as cabaret singer Cole Berlin, and gained a following at piano bars in Manhattan. Jobriath died of AIDs in 1983, one of the first rock musicians to succumb to the disease.

Turner includes interviews with people from the pre-glam part of Jobriath’s life, including his brother, Hair castmate Gloria Jones and the play’s producer, Michael Butler. Other interviewees run the gamut from Jayne County, another trailblazer for the LGBT music community, to Joe Elliot (Def Leppard did a version of Heartbeat on one of their covers albums), Ann Magnuson, Jake Shears of Scissors Sisters, Will Sheff of Okkervil River and Marc Almond. So that’s quite a range of performers who credit Jobriath as a musical influence.  

Director Kieran Turner’s fully-rounded effort doesn’t gloss over any facet of this story or take too long on any one part of this complicated saga; his timing with the material is spot-on.  Turner’s research for the film turned up several gems, including interview footage of Brandt and Jobriath from the Los Angeles. NBC affiliate.  This documentary connects all the obscure Jobriath info floating around the Internet  and elsewhere and fits the puzzle pieces together. Jobriath A.D.  pays homage to a man who broke ground for gay people in rock music, the man some music scribes refer to as “America’s Bowie” 

Jobriath A.D. Official Site

Music Review: Prima Donna: Bless This Mess

Prima Donna, a five-piece band from L.A, has rattled venues in Southern California and beyond since 2004. They've already put down their brash hybrid of punk and glitter rock with a who’s who of famous and infamous punk bands. The group opened for Green Day on the band’s 2009-2010 European tour, and the band’s singer/guitarist, Kevin Preston, performs with the Foxboro Hot Tubs, a Green Day side project. Prior to that, their onstage cohorts in rock ‘n’ roll crime included Texas Terri, Glen Matlock & the Philistines, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and plenty of local SoCal punk bands.

Their first album on Acetate Records, After Hours, introduced their modern take on glitter rock to a wider audience. The band’s second release on the label, Bless This Mess, revs things up a few notches with the help of engineer Chris Dugan’s (Green Day, Iggy Pop) faultless production.

The 12 songs on Bless This Mess have a cleaner, and more mainstream appeal than Prima Donna’s previous efforts, but the songwriting and rock bravado are as sharp as ever. The catchy album opener “Sociopath,” the confident, strutting bop of “Maxine,” and the "Jeepster" era T. Rex undercurrent of the single “Feral Children” are enough to reel in even the most jaded listener. But there are nine more impressive tunes on the CD, and Prima Donna delivers the kind of unapologetic rock energy on it that is missing from most up-and-coming bands touted by the mainstream rock press.

Preston has old-school rock charisma and is quite the frontman in concert. Guitarist Erik Arcane, bass player “Lights Out” Levine and drummer David S. Field provide a non-stop, rock ‘n’ roll party sound derived from influential rockers of the past like the Ramones and Mott the Hoople. Aaron Minton’s sax playing gives the band that something extra, that bit of musical swagger and spice that sets them apart from the handful of young glam punk bands on the scene today. It’s like combining Johnny Thunders’ descendents on guitar (Preston, Arcane) with X-Ray Spex. The foot-stomping “Miss Avenue,” with its sax intro and rollicking piano interlude, defy listeners to stand still.

“Broken” is the album’s most distinctive cut. It wraps ‘60s Brit Invasion pop with the band’s glam influences. It really demonstrates how their sound has evolved.

It looks like 2012 will be a busy year for Prima Donna. They’ve already received a write-up in the Huffington Post for their performance at London’s KerPUNK Festival. They were filmed for a Corona Beer commercial, and their European tour is in full swing in February and March, with a U.S. tour to follow.

Bless this Mess is scheduled for release on Valentine’s Day. If you’re a fan of straight-on, raunchy rock ‘n’ roll, and are tired of scouring iTunes and your old vinyl collection for retro faves, you’ll appreciate Prima Donna’s music. And if you’re a young fan who wants to sample your generation’s version of hipster-free, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll, look no further than Bless This Mess.

Read more:

http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-prima-donna-bless-this/

Club Romper Stomper Brings Wild Rock 'N' Roll Back to the L.A. Club Scene

 From the Masque and other punk rock clubs in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the hair metal Sunset Strip scene , L.A. has always been home to many lively and influential music clubs. Some, like the Masque and Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco, have made it into rock history books while others are highlighted only in former patrons’ memories (and on their Facebook pages). The Los Angeles club scene circa 2011 may not have the flash and finesse of years past, but a handful of local musicians and promoters are striving to recharge the current L.A. club scene. Asia Muka, the creator of Hollywood’s Club Romper Stomper, is one of them.

A monthly celebration of the crème de la crème of the L.A. rock scene, Romper Stomper features true rock and roll bands that carry on the tradition of garage, mod, punk and glitter bands from the past. Romper Stomper performers have included the Ruby Friedman Orchestra, Vicky and the Vengents and the Woolly Bandits. Asia is devoted to introducing nitty-gritty rock and roll to a wider audience. “I want to do my part in spreading the message of inspiration through the power of music. I know that may sound a ‘lil hippie hippie shake,but it is something I feel strongly about… A few times when I was working with some 20 year olds, I made them a compilation CD. A wild mix of stuff from the 1920's up until the 70's punk era, including soul, mod, etc.  Anyway, these kids had no idea this music existed and were completely blown away.  It was truly a musical mind opener for them...and me!"

Romper Stomper made its debut in May 2010 at the Sunset Bar and Grill in Hollywood with headliners the Hitz out of West Covina. Says Asia, “I really liked their energy and wanted other people to know about them. I kind of took a huge gamble and did not book any other bands! I gave the whole night to The Hitz!  And promoted the hell out of the show (as i do every show).  I was really surprised that for a Friday night we had a great crowd!”

 

Legendary KROQ  DJ Rodney Bingenheimer  has co-hosted several Romper Stomper events, including a recent show with local glam faves Prima Donna and the female-fronted punk of Barb Wire Dolls (a band that recently relocated to L.A. from Greece.) Asia elaborates on her association with Rodney. ” I met Rodney when I was working on the Runaways movie. (Asia was a costumer for the film.)  I have always admired Rodney for taking a stand in the RNR world.  Once we became good friends, I talked him into letting me organize a night in honor of him,, including bands the he is currently playing on his show.  He does his show every Sunday at Midnight until 3am on KROQ. And that is a hard hour! But I think if more kids took Mondays off from school then they could be injected with some serious musical knowledge , something they may need as they are searching for direction in this chaotic world.”

 Romper Stomper shows have lots of visual and auditory stimulation above and beyond live bands. The club’s walls serve as a screen for clips of T-Rex and other glam and punk bands. There’s a dance floor full of 20something kids imitating the original Rodney’s English Disco vibe and a DJ spinning a mixture of garage, glam and punk tunes. “I try to create an "experience" when doing these shows, Asia notes, “and make it well known that it's perfectly okay to live the life you believe in.  There are a lot of things happening in L.A., you just have to search for them.  But when I can't find them I create them!

The next Club Romper Stomper is Friday April 8^th at the Sunset Bar and Grill with the Crazy Squeeze, Vicky and The Vengents and the Black Mambas.

Book Review: Lick Me: How I Became Cherry Vanilla by Cherry Vanilla

Although not as well-known as her more mainstream contemporaries Pamela Des Barres and Cynthia Plaster Caster, Cherry Vanilla (born Kathleen Anne Dorritie) was arguably the most brazen and the most cerebral groupie of the swinging late ‘60s/’70s. Based on her chapter in Pamela Des Barres’ groupie round-up, Let’s Spend The Night Together, Chicago Review Press offered Cherry her own book contract and the result is Lick Me: How I Became Cherry Vanilla (by Way of the Copacabana, Madison Avenue, the Fillmore East, Andy Warhol, David Bowie and the Police) This raunchy and refreshingly honest memoir takes readers on a wild ride through two decades of hedonistic New York, from hippie happenings in Central Park to the punk clubs of Manhattan.

Groupie, though, was only part of Cherry’s job description. She worked for a Madison Avenue ad agency while barely out of high school, traveling the country on business trips as one of the first female radio/TV ad execs in the business. Folks in the real-life “Mad Men” days were every bit as horny and adventurous as rock stars, according to Cherry’s accounts of LSD use and “whipped cream parties” at Fire Island getaways.

It wasn’t long before Cherry took advantage of the burgeoning Lower Manhattan club scene, working as a DJ and mingling with models, actors, royalty and the Andy Warhol crowd. She starred in Warhol’s play Pork, appearing nude onstage in the British production. In between acting and DJing, she had flings with musicians Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson, Burton Cummings of the Guess Who, and Shawn Phillips, who wrote two songs about her. Cherry’s most famous conquest, though, was David Bowie.

As his publicist and a major behind the scenes presence at MainMan Productions, the infamous glam-rock artist management company, she was instrumental in bringing Bowie and his music to the States. She was friends and business associates with him, first and foremost. However, when he finally suggested, “Come on, let’s go to bed,” Cherry followed through, despite having bandages on her thighs to cover carbuncles from bug bites. A potentially embarrassing situation became a fun, romantic romp.

Cherry in 2010

Cherry was Bowie’s PR person til MainMan was disbanded in 1974. Undaunted, Cherry entered the next phase of her career-as a solo artist for RCA records. She toured England with then unknown back-up musicians - Stewart Copeland and Sting - from a band called the Police. Her outrageous stage persona garnered her some scathing reviews in England, but her two albums, Bad Girl and Venus d’ Vinyl, have retained a cult following to this day. After she was dropped from RCA Records, Cherry hit hard times, and was even homeless for awhile. Now she lives in Hollywood and works for the composer Vangelis, still feisty as ever at 67.

Cherry Vanilla’s exploits are fun-and somewhat exhausting (in a good way) to read. Was there anything this woman didn’t do? Groupie, poet, publicist, journalist, fashion icon, Warhol protégé and actress, ad agency exec and sexual provocateur, it’s surprising that Cherry Vanilla’s story fits into a mere 288-page book! The memoir isn’t all fun and titillation, however, as Cherry frankly discusses her battles with OCD, near disasters with bad drugs and bad men (including one harrowing encounter with a creepy sadist), abortions and sexual addiction.

Lick Me is a rollicking visit back to the days when the whole creative “counterculture” seemed to coalesce into a few miles in Manhattan (and London). It’s a great memory-jogger for kids who came of age reading Creem and watching the 1980 Floor Show on the Midnight Special.

Cherry Vanilla Official Website

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-lick-me-how-i/#ixzz1D98ZX4YC

The Crazy Squeeze - Glam & Punk Rock from the Heart of Hollywood

The members of Hollywood glam-punk band The Crazy Squeeze logged time with Teenage Frames (Frankie Delmane, guitar/vocals/keyboards), the Stitches (Johnny Witmer, guitar/vocals), Superbees, ( Johnny Sleeper, drums/vocals) and Richmond Sluts (Chris Beltran, bass). Judging by that resumé, you know the band has the chops to deliver some badass rock.  From the crunchy chords that begin All Lies to the catchy power-pop melody of With A Girl Like That, every song is an upbeat slice of sleazy, '70s glam rock influences and gritty punk. A fun live band that will keep you moving on the club floor, Crazy Squeeze’s sound is part Slade, part Dolls and all attitude. The band’s currently in the studio recording their debut CD.

The Crazy Squeeze plays The Redwood Bar in downtown L.A. on November 20th with The Red Roses and The Commotion.

http://www.myspace.com/thecrazysqueeze

http://www.facebook.com/thecrazysqueeze
 
Single available from Rapid Pulse Records

Through The Looking Glass: Brett Smiley's Long, Strange Journey

This is a repost of phone interviews I conducted with Brett Smiley and Nina Antonia in  February 2005, shortly before the publication of Nina's book, The Prettiest Star. 




Through The Looking Glass:
Brett Smiley's Long, Strange Journey

Glam rocker Brett Smiley recorded his sole album Breathlessly Brett in 1973. Smiley was touted as a wunderkind by his producer, the legendary Andrew Loog Oldham. After the single "Va Va Va Voom" proved a minor success on the UK charts, Smiley and the unreleased album disappeared til author Nina Antonia and music historian Phil King unearthed the long forgotten gem in 2003. The album, now available from RPM Records has received somewhat of an underground buzz, being played on KXLU and Indie1031 in Los Angeles, London's Resonance FM and WFMU in New Jersey. I recently interviewed Antonia and Smiley about those heady glam days of the early '70s, and their collaboration on the book The Prettiest Star, Smiley's bio/glam memoir.

Interview with Nina Antonia 2/16/05

Author Nina Antonia is a child of glam. Raised in London, in a dysfunctional household, she grew up in the early '70s Glam boys like the New York Dolls and Brett Smiley left an indelible impression on her. Antonia eventually forged a career as a music journalist, penning biographies of Johnny Thunders, the New York Dolls and Peter Perret of the UK phenomenon the Only Ones. Her latest undertaking is The Prettiest Star, a bio of "junkglam" rocker Brett Smiley. I spoke with Nina about meeting Brett, the idea behind "The Prettiest Star" and glam rock in general.

For The Prettiest Star, Antonia wanted to employ a more personal, emotional approach to the subject than her previous biographies. "The last book I wrote, in 1998,"Antonia says, "was the New York Dolls biography. After I wrote that book I wanted to keep writing about the music experience and my heroes, but I wanted to write about it in a less biographical way and The Prettiest Star is actually like split screen, juxtaposing between my life and Brett's life. It's really about searching for a lost pop idol."

Antonia wanted to approach the book in a more emotional way than most music bios, which tend to detail only the most glamorous and debauched images of fame. "It doesn't explain why people become fans of things and ways that it might become a problem I had a very dysfunctional family so music gave me as it did for thousands of people another dimension. But I just wanted to explore that. I don't know what it's like in the States, but over here the pop or the rock experience is male dominated. You don't have as many women talking about why they got into music hundreds of books testifying why men got into the rock scene. We have books written about the rock experience by guys but we really don't have any by women, so I wanted to try and do that." The road to The Prettiest Star was not an easy one. "I ambled along trying to find things out about Brett from 1974 onwards and, eventually, I sort of gave up. It seemed too difficult, especially long distance. Then Antonia went to a gallery opening for a Marc Bolan photo exhibit. "I met a guy, Danny, who was well versed in glam. I hadn't asked anybody about Brett Smiley and he said a friend of mine got in touch with him through the Internet and I was really shocked." Danny's friend was Phil King, who helped compile the Glitterbest and Glitter From the Litterbin glam collections. (King also played bass in Lush and Jesus and Mary Chain.) "Between the two of us we worked on getting in touch with Brett and getting the CD Breathlessly Brett out. I called Brett one night and we just got to talking. I told him that I had his single as a teen-ager and his picture on the wall.

"It took me about 3 years to finish the book." Says Antonia. " I'm not interested in superstars. I'm interested different aspects of the popular music experience other than the typical mainstream. I wanted to explore the glam days and make them live again. So it was like a journey into the past for him and for me."

"The crux of the book deals with stardom, music and its effect not only on the performer, but on the fan. When I was 14 and saw him on the show you think people on TV are having this fantastic life and he looked particularly glamorous. So you daydream they sort of live on the stars and you live on earth, so I liked writing about that. Just the daydream about wanting to be a star. The thing the crux when I was Brett was on the Russell Harty Show (a talk show in England that featured an eclectic variety of guests) you think, "what a fantastic life." It looks glamorous. They live in the stars and you live on earth. It's about that and it's also about. the daydream about wanting to be a star. What happened to him was far from starry, but it was a nice fantasy."

I mention that I know many teenage kids today who seemed consumed by images of the 1960s and 1970s and eschew the current MTV culture crammed in their faces. "It's a search for free space," Antonia comments, "It's not sponsored by this or taken over by that. It's freer . You take an active part It's not homogenized, not something you can find in a shopping mall. It's important to young people to be unique in some way."

The first half of the book deals with childhood and Brett's life up to the making of Breathlessly Brett. "They were difficult years for both of us in completely different ways. What Brett and I both shared even though we were growing up millions of miles away was the desire for escape and transformation through music." The Prettiest Star, Antonia adds, is also about how you perceive stardom. It's looking through the looking glass and what do you find?"

Interview With Brett Smiley 2/17/05

Brett Smiley was involved in show biz practically from birth. A precocious child, he made his onstage debut as a tot. The youngest of four children, Brett insisted on singing in a local revue his sisters and brother were in, "I went up to the woman who was directing it and said 'I wanna sing" and stole the show from my sisters and brother." Some of his fondest memories are of his move to New York and debut on the Broadway stage as a child star in Oliver!

" I spent 4-5 years in Lionel Bart's "Oliver" on Broadway and in the touring company. "My sister (actress Brenda Smiley, who stared on Broadway with Jerry Orbach in "Scuba Duba.") was here in New York, studying acting and saw in the trades they needed boys who could sing. I was very young and they were concerned about my age, but I could sing and was really cute." Smiley was still new to the show and observing from the sidelines when the cast of Oliver was on the Ed Sullivan Show-- the same night as the Beatles "We were on the elevator about a dozen kids with long hair and scrappy clothes, except for me, I was still observing. We were all talking about who had long hair first." While on tour with "Oliver", Smiley and some of the other cast members put together a band called the Bedbugs. (One of Smiley's castmates, Davey Jones, left to join the Monkees.) "Growing up in the theatre, it's a different sensibility I didn't much like the idea of acting at that time. It was sex, drugs and rock n roll." He moved to California in the summer of love. The girls in California were much more open about sexuality than (the ones in) New York at that time. I was amazed at the difference between New York and California." While in California, Brett cut school to play guitar with his friends. While there, he encountered Russ Gibb, a. promoter looking for bands to produce. "He heard me play and really liked me."

Gibb represented the band Sky, Doug (The Knack) Fieger's first band. "Doug and I are friends now," says Smiley. "Doug kept announcing he was quitting," Smiley recalls, "He was a prima donna. We all were prima donnas, c'mon." Brett got his big break when Gibb finally let Fieger leave Sky. "Russ Gibb said, 'OK, quit the band.' They were going to England and he took me along. I said, 'How am I going to learn, I don't even play bass!' I went to England with Sky and Russ Gibb, who eventually took me back to Detroit." Smiley met Andrew Loog Oldham in Detroit when Oldham was producing records for Motown. "I sang my songs and played him my demo tapes. Andrew said, 'I want to record you.' In keeping with the spirit of the times, alcohol and drugs flowed freely "I was doing a lot of drinking and a lot of drugs. I could handle it then." It took three years to record the album. "It took a lot of perseverance on my part. I'd been to Seattle and L.A. I was always trying to get something going." The deal Oldham secured for Smiley was bigger than the recordbreaking deal Jerry Brandt had gotten for New York art rocker Jobriath. Today, Oldham and Smiley are on good terms; they even recorded some songs in New York in 1986. "I spoke to him last week," Smiley says, "He is a DJ on Sirius radio. He's not much into recording anymore and is writing books."

As if the delayed recording of  Breathlessly Brett wasn't enough, its release was soon in jeopardy. "I started not trusting Andrew, he started not trusting the label. Bands usually get to go out and do something first before that conflict comes up. Then I split to Los Angeles and I kept wanting to know what's the delay? There was a lot of disillusionment. I believe drugs had a lot to do with it, not just my use but Andrews' and everybody else's use." When Columbia Records decided to focus their attention on a band called Ace who had the nondescript hit song "How Long," Breathlessly Brett was shelved.

In the "lost" years that followed, Smiley went to hell and back. The whirlwind of drugs and drinking took their toll. Eventually, Smiley was admitted to UCLA Neuropsychiatry Center "Iggy Pop had gone there so it was ok," Smiley jokes. After years of drug use and jail time in Florida , Smiley found out he had HIV. Smiley's long-time girlfriend, B movie actress Cheryl Smith ("someone who I think about to this day," Smiley says), died of complications due to hepatitis in 2002. Smiley had survivor guilt. "I questioned it. I did as many drugs and drank as much as she did….. I'm very lucky to be alive." What was the rehab process like? "Rehab? I've been given 30 years of rehab," Smiley says. "When I got clean and stayed clean it was about living outside of rehab. Anybody can stay clean in rehab or jail."

Working on The Prettiest Star with Antonia forced Smiley to confront some painful memories. "I worked with Nina on the book for a couple years. She'd call me every few weekends and we'd talk over the phone. I went England three times last year and we met up. Actually, the best interview was when went out to a café. There was a lot of noise in the background, but it was where I was able to open up to her the most. I read what she got out of it, and in my opinion it was the best interview of all."

It's been a long, sometimes treacherous journey, but Brett Smiley is a survivor and is now doing quite well. He lives in Brooklyn, and is studying to be an acting teacher, and has recently played live shows on the East Coast and in London. A new song," Our Lady of the Barren Trees" will appear on a UK compilation CD later this year.

And he's grown his hair long again. "Everybody's got such groomed hair now. I've got to be different.," he laughs. And what are Smiley's future plans? "I'm crossing the bridges as I get to them," he says.

Blue Ash-No More, No Less CD Review

The Blue Ash story is one of rock’s best kept secrets. Formed in Youngstown, Ohio in 1969, Blue Ash were a powerpop outfit in the same vein as Cleveland’s Raspberries, albeit with a harder edge. Of course, the term “powerpop” hadn’t been coined yet; then it simply meant good pop music. Blue Ash and the Raspberries played on the same bill often back in Ohio. The band’s name is taken from a real town in Ohio, though none of the members were born or raised there. Four long haired guys done up all nice, in striped jackets and white ankle boots, Blue Ash countered the disheveled hippie look favored by Midwestern rock bands at that time.

Mercury Records won a bidding war, signed them, and the underground classic No More No Less hit the shelves in 1973. Collector’s Choice recently rescued the album, out of print for over 30 years, from obscurity with a CD edition. Even a cursory listen of No More, No Less makes one wonder why the album wasn’t all over the airwaves in ‘73.

“Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her?)” is a crossbreed between garage rock and frilly power pop that served as a precursor to bands like the Nerves and the Plimsouls. (The Records included it as a bonus track on one of their albums). Singer Jim Kendzor alternates between effortless, uptempo delivery and emotive wailing to make the tune something special. The song has a timeless quality that surely sounded as good crackling though a transistor radio as it does streaming through an iPod. Where were these guys when the radio audience at large was force fed a steady diet of Lobo, Helen Reddy and Cher doing cheesy story-songs like "Dark Lady"?

“Dusty Old Fairgrounds” a previously unrecorded Dylan song when Blue Ash adapted it for No More, No Less. For a Dylan song performed by Blue Ash, it sure sounds like the Who! Drummer Dave Evans exudes Keith Moon frenzy on this one. You could slip it right at the end of Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy without disrupting the flow. “Just Another Game” has country pop undertones more reminiscent of the The Byrds than any of Blue Ash’s power pop brethren. The catchy "Plain to See" has one of those choruses that gets stuck in your head, with a pop sensibility that captures the essence of bouncy and melodic Brit pop bands from the Searchers to Freddie and the Dreamers. Likewise, the wistful lyrics of “I Remember a Time” wrapped in a bright, sugary base of smooth harmony vocals and jangly guitar.

Blue Ash had the (mis)fortune of being signed to Mercury by Paul Nelson shortly after the stiletto heeled appearance of the New York Dolls on the same label. Blue Ash toured around the States, opening for iconic acts like Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and Iggy and the Stooges to support the album. No More, No Less made many critics’ Top 10 lists for 1973. Chicago Sun Times writer Bob Greene championed them in his column a few times and named them the best American band of the 1970s. Bass guitarist Frank Secich begins the reissue’s liner notes by mentioning Greene’s penchant for the band. None of the buzz impressed Mercury, and they dropped the band shortly thereafter. After a few singles and another album on Playboy Records, followed, but soon that label folded.

The band continued to write and record until 1979, many of the songs contained on the Not Lame compilation Around…Again covers the band’s 10 year history. Blue Ash called it quits at decade’s end with over 200 songs written and/or recorded. A sidenote- Blue Ash bass player Frank Secich played on fellow Ohioan Stiv Bator’s solo album Disconnected and also contributed a solo song to a Stiv Bators tribute album out of Italy. Luckily, Blue Ash are back together, currently playing shows in Ohio and Pennsylvania. They even have their own blog and MySpace. The reissued No More, No Less is selling briskly on Amazon.com, proving that it’s never too late to pick up where you left off.

Prima Donna-After Hours CD Review

In the early 70s, glam rock reigned because the guys were really cute, had long hair and sang about sex in a fun, non-threatening way. Some bands were racy, some were fun, & some were both, but they were always flashy and full of life. Glam rock encapsulated all the things that parents at that time hated about rock ‘n’ roll and tied it all together in a brazen, androgynous wink at ya way.

It's good to know some youngins’ are bringing sex and sass back into rock and roll. Take L.A.’s Prima Donna, for example. This quintet punks up old school glam ala early 70s Stones and Dolls. Their songs have a street smart vibe while retaining the glam influence, like an untrippy T-Rex.

After Hours, Prima Donna’s first release for Acetate Records, is 28 minutes of sleazy fun straight from the fave section of Star Groupie magazine. Frontman Kevin Preston preens and “owws” with the best of ‘em. And all the salient points of the rock lifestyle are addressed in songs like “I Don’t Want You To Love Me “(I don’t want you to love me/I don’t want you to care/I just want you to like it/when I lick you there”), the S & M lite of "Crucify", the “she’s a bitch” dis "Double Crosser", and the “I’m a bad boy’ boasts of "Stray Doll." Aaron Minton’s sax and keyboards distinguish the band from their peers, in the same way the sax parts made X-Ray Spex stand out during the first wave of punk.


Prima Donna have played shows around Southern California since 2004, opening for the likes of Glenn Matlock and the Philistines. They’ve also toured with Texas Terri and and recently played at Wild Weekend Power Pop Fest in Austin. All that and they’re not even in their mid 20s! In contrast, some young Hollywood based glampunkers, like the Sc’oolgirls and Chelsea Doll, who were all over the scene a few years ago, have dropped out of sight. No young band does glampunk as convincingly as Prima Donna. Fads come and go, but talent will out. And these boys have the chops to back up their bravado.