Show #115 January 25, 2013

Tonight it's all for Rosemarie!

Rosemarie- Superchunk Majesty Shredding 
Insane- Rollercoaster Rollercoaster 
Waiting For The Drums- The Bye Bye Blackbirds We Need The Rain 
Comic Book Heroes- The Tearjerkers Fool 7" 
Catch Me- Cherry Twister Cherry Twister 
In The Street- Big Star The Ardent Studio Sessions (1972-1973) 
You're So Damn Hot- OK Go OK Go 
Don't Wait Up For Me- The Beat The Beat 
^Moneytalks- AC/DC The Razor's Edge 
Red Dragon Tattoo- Fountains Of Wayne Utopia Parkway 
Remember Tonight- The Shivvers Til The Word Gets Out 
She- Starz Attention Shoppers! 
I'm Not Sure- The Chords This Is What They Want
Introduction to Girls- Breakup Society James At 35 
*Money Talks- Hates 30 Years of Hate 1978-2008 
*Money Talks- Shane Champagne S/T 10" EP
*Money Talks- Penetration Dont Dictate 7" 
*Money Talks- The Kinks Money Talks 
*Money Talks- Soul Asylum Say What You Will...Everything Can Happen
Didn´t Tell The Man- Radio Birdman More Fun! 
Kick Their Teeth Out- The Greatest Liar The Girl With The Chesnut Eyes 
Come Along- The Adicts Smart Alex  
When I Look In Your Eyes- The Romantics The Romantics 
A Girl Like You- 20/20 Look Out! 
Sandwich Time for the Smaller Children- LMNOP Elemen Opee Elpee 
>Money Talks- The Penguins The Cool Cool Penguins 
Fall Awake- Velvet Crush Stereo Blues 
Flipside Rock- Rob Tyner with Eddie And The Hot Rods Life On The Line 
I'm In Love (With Not Being In Love With You)- The Yum Yums ...Play Good Music 
Your Girl, My Girl- Screams Screams 
I'm All Right- Fast Cars Coming, Ready or Not! 
Money Down- Raspberries Side 3 

^Power Pop Peak:  #23 Billboard 12/8/90

*Songs Called "Money Talks"

>Power Pop Prototype:  1958

For good reason, I've always been wary of groups with the word "band" in their name.   The first artists that come to mind are either lite pop (Starland Vocal Band, Little River Band, Climax Blues Band) or southern rock (Allman Brothers Band, Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker Band)- not really my kind of music.  Calling your group "The [insert name here] Band" has always struck me as a little uninspired.  Why not just go with your own name.  Do the sidemen in "The Joe Blow Band" feel any more enfranchised than if they were just playing with "Joe Blow?"   It's a known fact that the clock started ticking on Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour's musical partnership as soon as their record company forced them to change from Oister (granted a TERRIBLE name) to The Dwight Twilley Band in 1974.  Seymour felt the name downplayed his contribution and he was absolutely right!

Shane-Champagne Band

There are other exceptions to my "no groups with 'band' in their name" rule like The Chocolate Watchband, Jim Carrol Band, The Greg Kihn Band, Tom Robinson Band and from my hometown of Boston, Shane-Champagne Band.  I first heard them on Boston powerhouse rock station WBCN so they seemed like a BIG deal.  Like most of the Boston groups I loved back then, Shane-Champagne Band were not punk, owing more to Buddy Holly than to The Stooges.  They were a straight up Boston rock and roll band, though granted they seemed more commercial minded than The Real Kids or DMZ. 

It still amazes me to think about it but in 1977 when I was 13 year old I got to see Shane-Champagne Band.... for free.... in Kingston, Mass.  I never found out who was responsible for booking the entertainment for the Class of 1977's prom but they did an amazing thing bringing Shane-Champagne to the Kingsbury Club.  (Despite the name, it's a tennis club and NOT a rock and roll club.)  

Five years later I was to graduate high school inside the steamy environs of the Kingsbury Club when the outdoor ceremony on the Duxbury High School football field was rained out.  By then I could not wait to get the hell out of town but back in eighth grade I was completely enthralled with high school.  Such innocence... such naivete... but come on they had Shane-Champagne Band play their freakin' prom!  

In my 8th Grade home room there was a kid named Mike Klein who sat a row over from me.  We used to talk about music a lot because years earlier he was one of the few people I knew who admitted to liking Kiss.  In 7th Grade Mike was the only person who didn't mock my binder with the painstakingly applied stickers from Kiss' Rock & Roll Over on the front.  (Man what a waste!  Why oh why did I think ANY of my classmates would find that cool?!?) Anyway, one day Mike tells me that his mom is on the high school prom hospitality committee and Shane-Champagne Band was the entertainment.  Not only that, but she needed two volunteers to serve punch that night and did I want to join him!  We wore white button down shirts and black bow ties we bought at the Duxbury 5 and Dime.  Mike's mom gave us red carnation boutonnieres and we were good to go.  

On prom night we got there early to help with setup and got to see the band's sound check which was incredibly cool.  Once the prom started Mike and I were worried about somebody spiking the punch and us getting blamed for it- how were a couple of 8th Graders going to stop anything?  I'm happy to say that while every second person made a joke about spiked punch no one tried, which was a big relief.  Shane-Champagne Band were awesome, they made quite a racquet!  (cuz it's a tennis club, get it... HA!)  Just great rock and roll songs interspersed with the requisite ballads for

slow dancing.  From behind my punch station it looked like a straight up rock show, not a prom.  By 1980 the group had dropped "band" from their name and moved in a more commercial direction.  It seemed like Shane Champagne were trying to jump on The Police's bandwagon as their self-titled 10" EP includes a couple of reggae-pop songs, one of them "Shadow World" which I liked okay and got some airplay on WBCN.  "Money Talks" from tonight's SacroSet comes from this record.

Speaking of money talking, before I close out this post I've got to mention "Angus Bucks."   After several years of ignoring the band, Cousin Rich and I jumped back onto the AC/DC train big time in the late 80's- seeing the band three times on the Blow Up Your Video Tour in 1988 and at least once on The Razor's Edge Tour in 1990.  It's was on the latter tour that during the performance of tonight's Power Pop Peak, "Moneytalks," the skies rained down thousands of Angus Bucks on the crowd.  

Economy unstable?  Try moving to an Angus-based currency!

Unfortunately Cousin Rich and I were not seated on the floor so we missed our chance to get our own Angus Bucks.  The good news is that every copy of the initial release of AC/DC Live (which documents that tour and is an amazing record) included an Angus Buck- so for all you know I got mine at the show.  The funny thing is that on e-bay each Angus Buck now sells for about $6 so they would've made for a solid investment.  This isn't the only example of the Angus Buck's value either.  Check this out from Wikipedia:

"Coinciding with The Razors Edge tour, the Soviet Union disintegrated.  As a token of thanks for his youthful followers, Boris Yeltsin arranged for AC/DC to add Moscow to the tour. The venue had to be relocated numerous times due to high demand, eventually settling on an airfield. Due to the volatile political and economic climate, the Russian ruble was suffering from severe inflation. For an extremely short period of time, Angus Bucks dropped on the crowd had more value than the ruble itself and were actually used for regular monetary transactions."

Don't know if it's true but I WANT to believe!

Download tonight's show below (if the download stops just pause and un-pause)
Hour 1
Hour 2