Show #178 September 24, 2022

Our Twin Cities extravaganza is dedicated to Angela!

 

Angel A- The Soviettes LPII

Yes, Indeed- 27 Various Yes, Indeed

I Need A Torch- Suicide Commandos Make A Record 

Johnny's No Fun Anymore- Shock Treatment s/t

Memorabilia- Musical Chairs s/t

Get To Know You- The Vandalias Yellow Pills Volume 1

25 Reasons- Red House s/t

Land Of The Free- Curtiss A I Don't Wanna Be President 7" 

^I'll Be You- The Replacements Don't Tell A Soul

Makes No Sense At All- Hüsker Dü Flip Your Wig 

Sometime To Return- Soul Asylum Hang Time 

Into You- Crash Street Kids Little Girls 

Poor Little Joey- Wilma & The Wilbers Chronic Alkie

Fang- Trip Shakespeare Teen Line no. 3 

*Lover Boy- The Jets Big Hits Of Mid-America, Vol 3

*You're Not The First One- The Commandos Big Hits Of Mid-America, Vol  3

*Foundry Joe- Swingers Big Hits Of Mid-America, Vol 3

*Where The Beat Goes On- Fingerprints Big Hits Of Mid-America, Vol 3

Back in Blackbeard- Lifter Puller Soft Rock 

Cola Shock Kids- Cozy Cola Shock Kids 

Pretty Boy- The Persian Leaps Drive Drive Delay

Only For A Moment- Private Interests Only For A Moment 

Rattle My Bones- The Suburbs Love Is The Law 

I Remember Romance- Flamin' Oh's Flamin' Oh's 

Chitter Chat- Smart Alex Bloodstains Across Minnesota - Punk Rock Rarities 1977-83 

>Surfin'Bird- The Trashmen s/t

The Butler Did It- Skogie The Butler Did It 

Action Woman- The Litter Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, Vol. 2

Jetsetter- The Boys Jetsetter E.P. 7" 

The Girl Next Door- The Mor's The Girl Next Door 

Slack- NNB Slack

 

^Power Pop Prototype:   #51 Billboard Hot 100 5/13/89

*SacroSet:  Twin/Tone Records' Big Hits of Mid-America, Volume 3

>Power Pop Prototype:  1963

It's hard to think of a musical artist I find more frustrating than The Replacements' Paul Westerberg.  For starters, he is an undisputed rock & roll genius who had a huge influence on me and others like me who came up in the 80's, rejecting mainstream AOR in favor of left of the dial college radio.  Yet, time and time again Paul Westerberg chose to tank his career rather than succeed.  That's the source of my frustration- so much talent and so many wasted opportunities.  Had it gone another way, I could see Westerberg being revered as a Minneapolis Bruce Springsteen- a timeless talent forever linked with his birthplace.  Needless to say, that's not how it went down.

 

Tommy, Bob, Chris, Paul

There's no doubt that in the late 70's Paul Westerberg loved rock & roll and wanted to be in a band.  He basically forced his way into guitarist Bob Stinson's group Dogbreath, which included Bob's 11 year old brother Tommy on bass and Chris Mars on drums.  Westerberg quickly established himself as the band's chief songwriter and within a year they went from playing covers of Aerosmith and The Nuge to scorching Westerberg originals like "Raised In The City."  An ambitious guy, Westerberg gave a demo to Peter Jesperson who managed the Oar Folkjokeopus record store and was co-founder of new independent label Twin/Tone Records.  Jesperson was immediately hooked and signed the band, eventually becoming their manager.  

 

Apparently Westerberg was so prolific in the early years that rather than buy new cassette tapes to give Jesperson, he would sometimes record new demos over old demos.  Think about that- there may be other "Johnny's Gonna Die" or "I'm In Trouble" -level songs out there that are lost forever!  It's an early indication of how Westerberg took his genius for granted.  Over the 12 years of The Replacements' run there are numerous examples of Westerberg and his bandmates sabotaging themselves at every turn.  Here are some examples taken from Bob Mehr's excellent Trouble Boys:  The True Story of The Replacements (if you're not frustrated with Westerberg after reading this book you are a far more patient person than I):

Peter Jesperson


• At the start Westerberg refused to sign a mangement contract with Jesperson, the band's biggest supporter.
• He also refused to sign a contract with Jesperson's independent label Twin/Tone, who nonetheless paid to record and release Replacements records, leading to major legal battles later on.
  
• By 1983 nearly every tour date had become a competitive drinking event between the 4 Replacements, often augmented by cocaine (which allowed more drinking) attracting a "freak show" crowd and compounding Bob Stinson's addiction issues.
  
• The Replacements would often intentionally give bad and/or (mostly "and") drunken performances, called "pussy sets," if music industry people were present or if they didn't like another band on the bill, the crowd's attitude, apparel, haircuts, etc.
• After signing to major label Sire/Warner they attempted to steal their master tapes from Twin/Tone, which they then threw in the Mississippi River.  After realizing the tapes were not masters but copies, they drove to Twin/Tone owner Paul Stark's home figuring he had their masters there.  Fortunately, his wife slammed the door in their faces.
  
• Making their national TV Debut in 1986 on Saturday Night Live, Westerberg called Bob "f***ker" on mic.  As if that wasn't enough, the band later trashed their dressing room, getting banned for life from the show.
  
  

  

  Replacements on SNL
  

  
  
• Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were notorious dicks in radio interviews.  The morning after they appeared on KROQ LA, the station made a big show of smashing their new record Pleased To Meet Me live on the air.  Tommy intentionally said "motherf***ker" on WBRU Providence, getting The Replacements banned from another station that could've helped the band.  On WXRT Chicago Westerberg cajoled the DJ into playing "Little Village" by Sonny Boy Williamson which starts with studio chatter, including the word "motherf***er" uttered twice.  The next day the XRT Music Director submitted a scathing warning about The Replacements' behavior to a national radio newsletter, helping further blackball the group with both radio programmers and their own record label's promotion team.
• Westerberg became obsessed with writing a hit song during the sessions for Don't Tell A Soul, yet after "I'll Be You" started getting significant radio airplay, he was openly hostile onstage and backstage to the new, younger audience the song attracted.
  
• In 1989 The Replacements took the opening slot on a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers tour, playing larger venues than they ever had before.  Getting a tepid response the first few shows, the band went into full "pussy set" mode, insulting the audience, Petty, The Heartbreakers, whatever city they happened to be playing and then destroying their dressing room each night.  (Petty took revenge by stealing the "rebel without a clue" line from "I'll Be You" for his huge hit "Into The Great Wide Open.")
  
• 
  On later tours with considerable record company financial support, Paul and Tommy would gamble away their tour per diem and if they didn't manage to lose it all would literally burn the money or tear it up.
• Before officially breaking up The Replacements
  Westerberg would snipe at the other members of the group in the press, often complaining about behaviors he personally instigated.

 

The above aren't random incidents it's a cycle of abhorrent behavior powered by one thing:  fear.  Here's a few quotes from Bob Mehr's Trouble Boys... about that very thing:

 

One of The Replacements' NYC managers, railing at the band:  "You're not just immature, you're scared sh**less.  You're scared of trying.  You're so afraid of failure that you won't do anything but shoot yourself in the foot!"

 

Don't Tell A Soul Producer on the conflicts recording the album:  "If [The Replacements] had been more confident, or more honest, they could've said: 'Look, we're scared sh**less.  We've run through a bunch of producers; we've already scrapped one version of this record; we're working with you now, this is a big deal for us- what can we do?' But they couldn't say that.  So they did the best they could do which was lash out."

The band's other NYC manager:  "They were based on fear.  They were afraid to do things because it would ruin them.  Or they were afraid because someone was trying to f***k them."

 

And Bob Mehr himself:  Westerberg was more inclined to sabotage himself than risk rejection.

Their fear of being called "sellouts" I find especially galling.  The Replacements' response to having their "indie cred" questioned seemed to be acting like the biggest rock star douchebags in the world -booze, cocaine, groupies, trashed green rooms/hotel rooms/tour buses, smashing vintage guitars on stage- seriously, I can't imagine Motley Crue being any worse.

 

As REM's Peter Buck says in the book about fame and success:  "Everybody wants it a little bit.  If you get up onstage even once, you must want it to certain degree.  Then it's just a matter of finding out where your lines are."

Heartbreakers keyboard player Benmont Tench, a huge Replacements fan who helped get them the Petty opening slot, described the band's attitude as "too cool for school.  But it doesn't have to be fake unless you make it fake.  I didn't understand why they would just thumb their nose at the whole experience."

Here's how I think of it:  if you want to be Fugazi, then BE Fugazi.  Ian MacKaye's band is the poster child for indie integrity and are beloved for it: self-managed, on their own indie label, didn't make music videos, booked their own tours- hell they wouldn't play anywhere that sold alcohol or wasn't all-ages!  Westerberg on the other hand made very un-Fugazi decisions every chance he could:  hiring an NYC management firm and firing Peter Jesperson a few months later, signing to a major label, and, after refusing to do music videos for years, caving and making videos for MTV. 

  

While The Replacements never had the level of success they felt entitled to, they set the stage for a band that had an even greater obsession with "indie cred" and would be massively successful:  Nirvana.  That band made all the same un-Fugazi decisions -high powered management, major label, big budget music videos- yet Kurt Cobain seemed about as happy as Paul Westerberg.  Case in point- at the 1992 MTV Video Awards the band wanted to play the unreleased song "Rape Me."  Their label, management and MTV wanted new single "Lithium," with MTV supposedly threatening to "ban" Nirvana if they didn't comply.  Kurt refused at first but after a few bars of "Rape Me," caved and started playing "Lithium," later saying he "felt like such a whore" for doing so.  We all know how this ultimately turned out.  

 

The joke of it is that at the MTV Video Awards two years later Green Day, also Replacements acolytes, supposedly got the same threat from MTV if they didn't play their current single "Basket Case."  Green Day said "screw MTV" and played the unreleased "Armatage Shanks," which is about a minute shorter and likely drove the camera crew nuts, and didn't appear to suffer any consequences from MTV.  The difference is that from Day 1 Green Day aimed to be a successful rock & roll band.  Like Westerberg and Cobain before him, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong was struggling with being called "a sell out" (especially by his orthodox punk soon to be ex-girlfriend) yet it never seemed to be an overwhelming obstacle.  While Green Day had already left their punk purist fans behind and had no desire to "be Fugazi," that still didn't mean they had to take crap from MTV.  I think this is a big reason why Green Day are still around today while Nirvana and The Replacements are long gone.

 

I saw The Replacements several times in the 80's and early 90's and the ratio of brilliant shows to "pussy sets" was about

Husker Du

50/50.  When they were good they were amazing but a "pussy set" would usually announce itself in the first 5 minutes. While I'd be laughing right along with the band bringing a hapless Barrence Whitfield onstage at The Channel in Boston for "Walk On The Wild Side" (which he didn't know) and a variety of other songs he barely knew, part of me felt I was being ripped off.  In

Soul Asylum

comparison, Minneapolis rivals Husker Du were much more consistent (a bad show more dependent on the Sound Guy's ability to capture them live than their performance) and Soul Asylum became, in my opinion, the best live band in America for a spell.

Mehr's book was incredibly aggravating, especially since I listened to a lot Westerberg music while reading it.  (Burning money?!?  Intentionally playing poorly for people who made the effort to come see you?  Who does that?!?)  Yet, every time I'd think "f**k this guy, I'm out!" a song like "Color Me Impressed" or "Answering Machine," or  "Little Mascara" would pull me back in.  And I know you can't "separate the art from the artist," the battle between Westerberg's intelligence, compassion, ego and insecurity is the essence of his music.  Still, it's a damn shame Paul Westerberg couldn't have been more on the Armstrong side of the Kurt Cobain to Billie Joe Armstrong "rock & roll success/longevity" scale.

Paul Westerberg

Click the link below to stream this week's show or to download, right click and "Save Link As:"

ALL KINDSA GIRLS #178

Show #177 April 16, 2022

For Little Misses, prissy, impossible, understood and otherwise...

 

Little Miss Prissy- Stray Cats Little Miss Prissy

Every Way I Can- Raspberries Fresh Raspberries 

My Imaginary Friend- Hoodoo Gurus Chariot Of The Gods 

Kidnapped- Sidewalk Driver My Face 

Miss Wonderful- The Saints The Monkey Puzzle 

Follow My Shadow- Urge Overkill Oui 

You Think You're The Best- The Nuns The Nuns 

I Thought You Were A Man- The Explosives Restless Natives

^Little Miss Sunshine- Tommy Roe Little Miss Sunshine 

Scenario- Dramarama Cinéma Vérité

Meet Me on the Roof- Green Day Father of All Motherfuckers 

Hot Mom- Teen Machine After School Special 

King of the School- Tsar King of the School EP 

No Force- Red Planet We Know How it Goes 

What Can I Do- Big Kid All Kidding Aside 

*Little Miss Impossible- The Dollyrots Down the Rabbit Hole 

*Little Miss Lonelyheart- The Mod Frames Still Smiling Today

*Little Miss Crazy- The Lazys Tropical Hazards 

*Little Miss Understood- Duncan Reid & The Big Heads Don't Blame Yourself 

*Little Miss Pinpoint Eyes- Menswear Nuisance 

*Little Miss Disaster- The Damned So, Who's Paranoid? 

In Quintessence- Squeeze East Side Story 

Not Gonna Be Easy- Adam Roth and His Band Of Men Down On The Shore (Original Soundtrack)

Skintite- Peter Dayton Band Love at 1st Sight 

>Little Miss Queen Of Darkness- The Kinks Face To Face 

Little Miss High School Queen- Andy Platts Skool's Out 

The End of the Game- Weezer Van Weezer 

Little Miss Intent- Piper Can't Wait

 

^Power Pop Peak:  #99 Billboard Hot 100 6/10/67

 

*SacroSet(s):  "Little Miss___" Songs

 

>Power Pop Prototype:  1966

 

So I've gotten a little OCD with my radio show lately.  Like a lot of things it's only gotten worse since COVID.  I'll innocently choose a theme for the show like tonight's "Little Miss___" songs, usually starting with a song or two.  In this case, I heard The Dollyrots "Little Miss Impossible" from their recent collection of b-sides, rarities and covers Down The Rabbit Hole.  Turns out that the song is originally by Long Island pop punk band Patent Pending, though sorry PP, I prefer the DRs version.

 

Anyway, a quick search of my iTunes library showed I already had "Little Miss Lonleyheart," "Little Miss Disaster," and "Little Miss Intent."  That's 4 songs total- not a bad start.  Next stop is my now thoroughly battered 1991-era copy of Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles for a line on a "Little Miss___" Power Pop Peak.  (As a reminder, the Power Pop Peak each ALL KINDSA GIRLS is a charting song, I try to play one "hit" every show, though as you'll see, my definition of "hit" is decidedly, uh, loose.)  

 

Now, I know what you're thinking- "Rick, you must already have thought of 1991's 'Little Miss Can't Be Wrong for the PPPeak?!?  C'mon it's SO obvious!"  You are correct of course but I had already excluded this song from consideration.  I had a visceral negative reaction to the Spin Doctors when they first came on the scene in the early 90's.  "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" isn't that bad of a song and God knows I've played worse because they fit the theme of a show (see my aforementioned OCD issue).  I now realize that the bile filling my mouth at the thought of the Spin Doctors has little to with their music and EVERYTHING to do with.... (urp)... (give me a moment)... their BEARDS!  

Nope

To be fair, I now see that only 50% of the group was bearded but in my defense you've got to admit those whispy hippie beards are a crime against humanity that we all collectively endure to this day (shudder).

So, no Spin Doctors.  Whitburn did point me to Tommy Roe's
"Little Miss Sunshine" however, which made it all the way up to the lofty height of #99 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 10, 1967 and stayed their for a staggering 1 week.  (I believe I mentioned my tendency to stretch the definition of "hit"...)

 

Then I was off to iTunes, Songfacts, Wikipedia (some one should definitely write a song called "Little Miss Disambiguation") and the lyrics sites- here's where I start getting obsessive.  My reasoning is "I'll NEVER do another (fill in the blank) theme show again, so I have to get EVERY song that fits!"  Truth be told, I always later find songs I missed that fit and it is infuriating (where the hell was "Who's Hieronymus Bosch" by The Deadbeat Poets when I was doing Show #105 or Moon Martin's "Bad Case of Loving You" for Show #146?!?)

 

While my song searching can become an all-consuming black hole, you can't argue with the results.  As I own the single, I can't believe I almost forgot Stray Cats' awesome "Little Miss Prissy." And "Little Miss Queen of Darkess" by The Kinks- what a perfect Power Pop Prototype (this feature highlights the genre's forbears).  The Lazy's are a hard rocking Sydney, Australia band who moved to Toronto- unlike us, our neighbors to the north still seem to appreciate rock & roll.  I was so taken with their "Little Miss Crazy" I actually ponied up $1.29 to play it for you people- that's how dedicated/obsessed I am!  

 

I bought a second song as well (I know!):  "Little Miss High
School Queen" by Andy Platts.  I'd never heard of him or any of the other artists on the album Skool's Out Teenage Rebellion.  After some digging (this is the type of Internet rabbit hole I often find myself down) I learned it is a compilation of "library music" (aka "production" or "stock music")- songs created for use in commercials, films, TV shows, etc.  Each song on Skool's Out has a description to help the marketing execs and some are pretty funny:

• "Bad Girl" edgy pop for girls with attitude;
• "Five Ways" super cool pop funk fusion, male vocal;
• "Angel's Lullaby" thoughtful acoustic love-ballad, female vocal;
• "Wave Your Hands" dirty underground UK garage, nude boy MC;
• "Falling Down" heartfelt indie roller coaster, male vocal;
• "Under The Stairs" spooky 2-step bubbler;
  

and tonight's selection

• "Little Miss High School Queen"  teenage skater pop-rock.
  

Now I have questions.  First, what is "nude boy MC?"  (Don't Google it- I did and results are what you'd expect.  Unless you want to Google it, then have at it.)  According to Wikipedia, library music has been around since 1927 with the advent of sound in film but wasn't made available to general public until the 1990's when the companies started dumping their LP catalogs and collectors started picking them up.  Some famous examples of library music are the themes from Monday Night Football ("Heavy Action" by Johnny Pearson) and The People's Court ("The Big One" by Alan Tew).  This music is 1oo% owned by the production company so it is much cheaper to use than traditional copyrighted music.  For the same reason, Hip Hop producers have often sampled library music, which has shown up in songs by artists like Jay-Z, Beyonce and A$AP Rocky.

 

Skool's Out came out in 2004 and "Little Miss High School Queen" is a perfect example of mid-aughts pop punk, you could easily hear it as the theme of a TV show on The WB about a teen girl who solves crimes and is also a werewolf.  British composer Andy Platts has a soul/pop band called Mama's Gun who have released 6 albums since 2009- I'd like to think "Little Miss High School Queen" financed their early demos.

 

And we're back...  So, did I have to include "Little Miss Pinpoint Eyes" tonight?  And, is The Damned's "Little Miss Disaster" 2 minutes too long?  The answers are "No" and "Yes," but that's where my theme obsessions take me.  Sometimes I think it would be better to just play Big Star or Cheap Trick again (I did get to Raspberries and Weezer tonight, so I'm not completely neglecting Power Pop royalty).  On the other hand, the "Little Miss___" theme brought me a HUGE find this week:  "Little Miss Understood" by Duncan Reid and The Big Heads.  Duncan "Kid" Reid was an original member of legendary late 70's British rock & roll band The Boys.  For largely snotty, likely pretentious reasons I've steered clear of the UK punk bands that have regrouped over the years (with the notable exception of Buzzcocks).  That said, I've been hearing Duncan Reid give the top of the hour ID on my favorite radio show, Gorilla Got Me on WMBR in Cambridge, Mass.  (It's hosted by Sara J and her knowledge of 70's glam and punk is unmatched.)  

 

Duncan Reid & The Big Heads

When "Little Miss Understood" showed up in an iTunes search I clicked but then, rather than plunk down another $1.29, I went over the Duncan Reid Bandcamp page and splurged on his 3rd and 4th albums.  They are OUTSTANDING!  Super catchy guitar-based rock and roll songs with great vocals and smart lyrics.  I've been listening to Bombs Away and Don't Blame Yourself nearly non-stop for the past week.  And how's this for cool, Duncan himself filled my order and sent a note on the back of a set list!

 

It's great seeing Boys songs like "Soda Pressing," "Brickfield Nights," "First Time" and "Terminal Love" on the set list but for me the songs I'd most like to hear live right now are Big Head originals like "Your Future Ex Wife," "Let's Skip To The Good Bit" and "C'Mon Josephine" (how could I have missed this last one for Show #170 c'mon!).

Curious that on the set list there are no asterisks in "Motherf-er," yet for the M.O.T.O. cover they list it as "Hate My F***ing Job."  Just me that's curious?  (sorry, I can't help it)

 

In any case, now you know (no doubt more than you wanted to) what goes into every episode of ALL KINDSA GIRLS.  All I can say is thanks for being here- I'm glad we're in this together!

 

Click the link below to stream tonight's show or to download, right click and "Save Link As:"

ALL KINDSA GIRLS #177

Show #176 The ALL KINDSA GIRLS CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR December 11, 2021

Dedicated to Caterina and to Angelo and Power Pop Criminals for all the great music over the years...

 

Caterina's Christmas- The Summer Suns The Last Christmas (Back To Mono) 2021 

Christmas Is Cancelled (This Year)- Farrah A Christmas Blog Gift For You 2006 

Come On Christmas- Cheap Trick A Christmas Blog Gift For You 2006 

Super Sunny Christmas- Redd Kross Another Christmas Blog Gift For You 2007 

Santa Claus- Chris Von Sneidern Dreamland With The Pop Snowflakes 2008 

Christmas (I Remember)- The Smithereens Dreamland With The Pop Snowflakes 2008 

I Guess It's Christmas- The Wellingtons Santa Claus & The Power Pop Criminals 2009 

X-Mas- Epicycle Santa Claus & The Power Pop Criminals 2009 

Power Pop Santa- Pointed Sticks The Magnificent Seven Snowmen 2010 

My Girlfriend (Forgot Me This Christmas)- The Click Five The Magnificent Seven Snowmen 2010

Waiting For Christmas- Adventures Of Jet Sleigh Bells In The Snow 2011 

Joy Is In The Giving- Lisa Mychols The Final Christmas 2012 

Christmastime in Painesville- The Deadbeat Poets The Final Christmas 2012 

California Christmas- Sketch Middle Tic Tac Mistletoe 2013 

(There's No War On Christmas) When Christmas Is In Your Heart- The Mockers Tic Tac Mistletoe 2013

Christmas Bells Are Ringing- The Connection Mas Christmas! 2014 

A Very Sorry Christmas- The New Mendicants Mas Christmas! 2014 

Do You Want To Build A Snowman- The Genuine Fakes 21st Century Santa (Christmas Special) 2015

I Must Have Been So Good- Vibeke Saugestad 21st Century Santa (Christmas Special) 2015 

Kids Come Back Again At Christmas- Sloan So Long Christmas 2016 

Wonderful Christmas- The Click Beetles So Long Christmas 2016 

December Snow- Tommy And The Rockets Very Merry Christmas 2017 

All I Want Is You for Christmas- Kimberley Rew Sad Christmas 2018 

The Christmas Fit- The Charlie Watts Riots White Christmas 2019 

Footprints In The Snow- Girlfriend Material White Christmas 2019 

Teenage Christmas- Jacobites Christmas Rockdown 2020 

Best Christmas Ever- Ronnie Spector Christmas Rockdown 2020 

Christmas Morning (Yellow Canary)- The Successful Failures The Last Christmas (Back To Mono) 2021 

Xmas Time Of The Year- Green Day The Last Christmas (Back To Mono) 2021 

I Want An Alien For Christmas- Fountains Of Wayne A Christmas Blog Gift For You 2006 

Merry Christmas Will Do- Material Issue A Christmas Blog Gift For You 2006 

Peace On You-Three Hour Tour Dreamland With The Pop Snowflakes 2008

 

16 years!  429 Power Pop Christmas songs!  22 hours and 32 minutes of Power Pop Christmas music!  This is just one facet of the legacy, the amazing gift that Angelo and his Power Pop Criminals blog have given all of us over the years.  Back in November Angelo posted that he had lost hearing in his right

ear- a diagnosis that strikes terror in the heart of any music fan, myself included (and likely you as well if you are reading this).  Yet, with just his left ear Angelo finished a multiple post rundown of David Bash (of IPO fame) year-end best of lists and, sense of humor intact, concluded with The Last Christmas (Back To MONO).  Imagine going to see every hearing specialist you can find during the day and at night putting your remaining hearing at risk to post these final compilations (all with original artwork) for us to enjoy.   It's a staggering level of commitment that is truly inspiring.  

 

I wasn't planning on doing a Christmas show this year, but when I saw Angelo's post I immedi- ately started putting tonight's episode together.  Every song in this ALL KINDSA GIRLS CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR was included on one of the PPC Christmas compilations.  I take them in order, starting with 2006's A Christmas Blog Gift For You, which originally appeared on the Power Pop Lover's blog, all the way through this year's Back To MONO.  And remember, tonight's show only covers the Christmas music on PPC. Angelo has put out dozens of Summer music, Tribute, Beatles Cover, Glam and more compilations along with 100's of posts featuring out of print Power Pop records, many unavailable without paying huge prices on ebay or Discogs.  It is an astounding legacy that has created and nurtured Power Pop fans around the world.

While it's my main source for music these days, I was late to the music downloading party.  A lifelong vinyl record buyer, I was tentative about CD's, especially as they first came out at a list price of $17.99.  Supposedly this was due to a lack of CD pressing plants in the US and prices would drop as soon as we got our plants up and running.  One should never underestimate the greed and short-sightedness of the record companies however, so of course prices remained unreasonably high even when we started making CDs in America. As new releases were no longer coming out on vinyl, I was forced to embrace the cold, pristine sound and scrunched up artwork of CDs but this embrace was half-hearted at best.  

 

On the other side of the spectrum was music file sharing- yes the songs didn't sound as good as vinyl but they were FREE.  Within a week of my friend Frank telling me about the site in late 1999 I was pigging out at the Napster trough.  I wasn't keen on people being able to download songs from my work computer- I never uploaded anything myself- but it was a small price to pay for free music.  Especially music you couldn't get anywhere else like rarities, demos, unreleased live recordings etc.  The problem was that I was lazy about things like tagging and album artwork so my iTunes library was a total mess (I'm a PC guy and had first tried using Windows Media Player but boy was it clunky!)

 

History of iTunes

For me the cost of an Internet song download had already been established when Apple launched the iTunes store in the mid-2000's.  While .99 cents a pop may have been a deal for some, it was a significant increase from the $0 for unlimited music I had been paying with Napster.  Plus, if CD packaging seemed like short shrift, the idea of paying for something devoid of any tangible material was never going to fly.

 

Once Napster was litigated out of existence (thanks a lot Metallica!) digital music dried up for me until I found the Little Hits blog in 2005.  Created by a Boston guy named Jon Harrison, Little Hits was the first .mp3 blog I discovered.  Almost every day Jon would post a new song (usually from an obscure 7" single), give you some background on the artist and, here's the important part, advocate for the song's greatness, usually by sharing how it affected him personally.  The blog leaned a little too indie rock for me, but I discovered many great bands there that I never would have heard of otherwise.  Little Hits ended in 2009 when a band told Jon that their song had been pirated by an unscrupulous ringtone (remember those?) company from a song downloaded on the site.  Virtually every .mp3 blog has some kind of message on the home page saying the music is for "sampling purposes only" but once uploaded, they no longer have any control over how it is used.

After Little Hits, the next .mp3 blog I found was Killed By Death Records.  Run by a Swedish guy named Peter, the blog started out like Little Hits, only sharing one or two songs from a particular release.  Within a year or so, however, you could find all the songs on a record plus (and this blew my mind) high resolution scans of the front and back of the record as well as the record labels and any inserts.  For the first time in my life, I had in my possession records worth hundreds of dollars on ebay!  Not just a random Napster rip from a sketchy comp CD but a recording of the actual vinyl made by someone who knew what they were doing and with all the printed materials included.  Technically I could have made my own vinyl copy from these downloaded materials.  

 

(Two quick notes about the .mp3:

• Sound quality:  Yes, even at 320kps an .mp3 does not sound anywhere near as good as a CD, let alone vinyl, but I believe I may already have mentioned- THIS WAS ALL FREE MUSIC!  I have several friends who revile the .mp3 format based on high-minded sonic principles but as someone who first fell in love with music listening on a crappy transistor radio and grew up spending WAY more money on records than on stereo equipment I'm willing to except the trade-off.
  
• Artist royalty:  Yes, artists do not receive any compensation for the songs I downloaded from .mp3 blogs.  I often did end up buying records by bands after hearing their downloads first, however, and I am providing some promotional support by blogging about the bands and playing them on my radio show.  Whenever asked, artists have always been willing to send me downloads to play.  Are these bullsh*t rationalizations on my part?  Perhaps, but they have worked for me so far.)
  

After Killed By Death Records I found other .mp3 blogs like Good bad Music for bad bad Times!, Last Days of Man on Earth and Something I Learned Today.  Like KBDR, these blogs offered individual downloads of singles or, less frequently, full albums, usually with artwork included.  Downloading a full album took some time as you needed to grab songs one at a time and often had to edit their ID3 tags (which include name, artist, album title, year, genre, etc.).  After making a huge, unorganized, unsearchable mess with my Napster downloads, I vowed that I would keep my iTunes library tight with all information and album covers in place for every song.

The next game changing music blog I found was PVAc to 44.1 khz (the title references the conversion to a common audio sampling frequency).  I noticed right off that this site did not offer individual audio files for download but zipped .rar files from a file hosting service (I think it was Rapid Share).  I was wary at first but after checking with CNET I learned that .rar files are simply zipped files that can be opened with WinRAR software.  Once I got the software (for free from CNET's download.com) the vast cornucopia of PVAc to 44.1 offerings

were available to me.  And get this, not only did Blog Kihn offer full albums with artwork in a single download from the site, in some cases he included a scan of every single page in the CD booklet!  Case in point, I downloaded every CD in Rhino Records' exceptional DIY series and got the music, the front/back covers, every page in the booklet and even the CD tray inlay- now that's a full-0n 360 degree download.  

 

Many of the original file hosting services like RapidShare, Megaupload and Sharebeast were either too greedy or too blatantly illegal and shut down, yet several still remain and the .mp3 blog community continues to thrive.  One of the great things about this community is that each blog includes a list of other recommended sites.  From PVAc to 44.1 kHz I discovered Power Pop Criminals, Power Pop Overdose, Willfully Obscure, Sons of the Dolls, Ratboy '69... and from those blogs I discovered others like Shotgun Solution, My Life's a Jigsaw, Short Sharp Kick In The Teeth and the list goes on.  For a while there I was like a famished 5 year old gorging myself on an all you can eat musical buffet- it took many months to actually listen to everything I downloaded in the early days.  It has reached a more manageable level in the last few years though my wife might take issue with this statement.  Power Pop Criminals will be greatly missed and here's hoping for a speedy recovery to Angelo's hearing loss.  In the meantime, I will continue to surf .mp3 blogs, picking up obscure records I've never heard of and playing them for you on ALL KINDSA GIRLS!

Click the link below to stream tonight's show, or to download right click and "Save Link As:"

ALL KINDSA GIRLS #176 2021 CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR