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