the only crime i ever did was play some rock-n-roll!

i feel very lucky to be the middle-aged punked rocker i am. i look around and what do i see? not a whole lot musically these days. maybe it's because not a whole lot really shakes my boat. i find myself buying up cds of vinyl i already have, or filling up a bands old cataloge.
i gobble up all the new stuff posted on all the mp3 blogs i frequent, but in the end it is like panning for gold. only a few nuggets in a lot of dirt. bands like the decemberists, billy harvey, bloc party, the motel beds and the scientists catch my ear, not much else, (and will they be around a year from now? i hope so!).

we live in such disposable times, and nothing seems to stick to this old hide.
i mean no harm to none involved, it's just that no single thing is rockin' anyone's boat it seems. no big thing. no next big thing on the near horizon either. kinda like the dog days on the horse lattitudes. where are the new beatles? i really don't see coldplay filling those shoes, too formulamatic, they just have no edge, fuck the hype. . . (there is not even a 'trouble' on the new record. nothing is sticking.)

but i do have vast resourses of my own to pick from, (thank dog i don't rely on the radio!).
yesterday i needed to make a necessity run for much needed supplies and grabbed some old cds for the trip, (reno is not big by any means, but a ride to sparks is still an adventure. long and hot and dusty . . . . and did i say hot?), and so being a long hot summer it was of a bit of importance to find something that reminded me of summer . . .

i picked up the cds of little feat's 'feats don't fail me now' and the strangler's 1st, 'IV rattus norvegicus'. i stuck in the strangler's cd and was again brought back to the summer 1977, (i think my fave summer of all time, it was the music, and the whole punk thingy going).
the stranglers were not like all the other punk crap filtering from that silly island at all. these guys were punk w/out even trying . . . dark, forboding and wild music, unlike the punk rantings about the dole. on the 1st and best lp, these guys were writing songs about being a rat on the beaches and in the sewers, and making it sing-along. it was like the summer of love, in the midst of flower power and hearing the doors doing 'the end', something so different and yet very compelling, and scary as shit. funny, cos it seems they got together thru the melody maker ad list. weird how things fall together. . .
'peaches' is the ultimate beach tune for watchers and lookers on a hot cocoa-butter laden day in front of the surf, seen from the eyes of a rat.
and 'get a grip (on yourself)' kinda sums up playing in a rock outfit. being sorta married to 4 or 5 guys you really don't like for less than government wages whilst holding down a day job digging holes then filling them back up again. (how i miss that dearly!).

well, that is my summation yer honor. i now need to bring the missus to the hospital. she goes under the knife today. she's all twitchy and i am nervous as hell. . . updates to follow!

some summer strangler tunes to hang onto the beach to! from the 1st lp(by way of yousendit!):
the stranglers - peaches
the stranglers - get a grip (on yourself)

(. . . i'll fill in the gaps at a later date, if ever . . . other than that, yer on yer own. . . i'm headed to the hospital, see ya'll in a few days.)