North Fork Sound Top 20 May 3rd ‘09

1. Ike Turner: Jesus Loves Me
2. The Cramps: People Ain’t No Good
3. Dean Wareham: Anesthesia
4. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers: Pablo Picasso
5. John Mooney: Drink A Little Poison (4 U Die)
6. Kris Kristofferson: The Show Goes On
7. Detroit (feat: Mitch Ryder): Long Neck Goose
8. Billy Bragg: Seven And Seven Is
9. Beverly Jones & The Prestons: Hear You Talking
10. Doug Powell: The Uninvisible Man
11. John Doe & The Sadies: Til I Get It Right
12. Ornament: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
13. Allen Toussaint: Singin’ The Blues
14. Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson: Motor Head Baby
15. Johnny Dynell & New York 88: Jam Hot (Rhumba Rock)
16. The Divinyls: Elsie
17. True Believers: Nobody’s Home
18. Pink Floyd: Interstellar Overdrive (‘Tonight Let’s All Make Love In London’ version)
19. LCD Soundsystem: Yeah (Pretentious Version)
20. Clive Chin & Lloyd Parks: Extraordinary Version

NoFoSo Alb o’ The Week:
Various Artists: Cries From The Midnight Circus/Ladbroke Grove 1967-1978 (featuring The Pretty Things, Quintessence, Mick Farren, Junior’s Eyes, Robert Calvert, Mighty Baby, The Action and more)

The Guilty Pleasure:
Abba: Does Your Mother Know

Last Week’s Listener Thumbs-Ups:
John Martyn: Certain Surprise
Jeff Onore: Twenty Years
Johnny Rivers: Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu
Jona Lewie: The Baby She’s On The Street
Sarah Gillespie: Stalkin’ Juliet
The Psychedelic Furs: The Ghost In You
New York Dolls w/Bo Diddley: Seventeen
Larry Lurex (Freddie Mercury): I Can Hear Music
The Pretty Things: Havana Bound
Lita Ford: Kiss Me Deadly
Robert Medici: She Said Drive
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Sure ‘nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do
Bo Diddley: Road Runner
Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart
Howlin’ Wolf: Little Red Rooster
Bruce Anderson: Lebanon
The Band: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (alt mix)
Joe Gibbs & The Professionals: Fashion One
John Campbell: Angel Of Sorrow
The Rolling Stones: We Love You
Johnny Thunders: You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory
TG Sheppard & Delbert McClinton: 15 Rounds With Jose Cuervo
Spike Priggen: In The Inside
Philip Glass Ensemble w/Bernard Fowler: Changing Opinion
Paul Carrack: Lesson In Love
Mick Jagger: Evening Gown
Kevin Ayres: May I
Marc V: Let Them Stare
Lo-Fidelity Allstars: Feel What I Feel
Karen Verros: You Just Gotta Know My Mind
Ernie Isley: High Wire
Grateful Dead: Till The Morning Comes
Led Zeppelin: Ramble On
Sam Cooke: Little Red Rooster
Detroit (feat: Mitch Ryder): It Ain’t Easy
Mary Gauthier: Drag Queens In Limousines
Adam & The Ants: Dog Eat Dog
Billy Bragg: There Is Power In A Union
Brinsley Schwarz: Nervous On The Road (But Can’t Stay At Home)
Jill Sobule: Nothing To Prove
Keith Gemmell: Whoo-Hoo
The High Dials: The Holy Ground
The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs: Little Tokyo
John Doe & Kathleen Edwards: A Little More Time
Eddie & The Hot Rods: It Came Out Of The Sky (live)
Family: In My Own Time
Finn’s Motel: Concord Village Optimist Club
Gene Vincent: Ain’t She Sweet
Mara Carlyle: Saw Song
Roky Erickson & The Aliens: Don’t Shake Me Lucifer
Savoy Brown: Train To Nowhere

Ike Turner: Jesus Loves Me
We like Ike. As pianist/leader of The Kings Of Rhythm, he cut what is probably the first ever rock & roll single, ‘Rocket 88’. Produced by Sam Phillips, the single was credited to Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats and released on the Chess label, reaching #1 on the R&B charts in 1951. With Anna Mae Bullock (Tina Turner) and Phil Spector, he made the greatest single of all time, ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ and continued to make great music up until his death on Dec 12, 2007. 'Jesus Loves Me' is from his last album 'Risin' With The Blues'.

Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior
N. Edgemont St, Los Angeles
photo: ht

The Cramps: People Ain't No Good
If there was any justice, The Cramps would be number 2 - at least - on all charts (including ‘classical’) every week.

Terry Tolkin, Dean Wareham 23rd St, NYC
photo: ht
scanned from a lenticular 3-D print

Dean Wareham: Anesthesia
Ornament: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Dean Wareham is just one of the artists that helped make no. 6 Records a respected indy label at college radio throughout the 90’s and now there’s a (double) cd of all its 7" 45s, ‘Speed Dating: The no. 6 Records Compendium. Founded in 1989 by Terry Tolkin, no. 6 managed to put out about 50 records during its 10 year existence and was an early champion of artists like Unrest, The Afghan Whigs, Luna, Tindersticks and Nada Surf. The label’s first album release (in 1989) was 'The Bridge - A Tribute To Neil Young' benefiting the Youngs' Bridge School cause and it featured Soul Asylum, Victoria Williams, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, the Pixies and more. A couple of years later, alt darlings Thurston Moore, Wayne Coyne, J. Mascis, Paul Leary, Kim Gordon, Nikki Sudden, Steve Albini and 19 other 6-string slashers contributed to Terry’s ‘Guitarrorists’ compilation. I brought Terry to Elektra’s a&r department where he gave us Luna, Stereolab and the Afghan Whigs and, for a while, things were looking good. But when one of the artists he signed stole his wife and the building in which he lived on 17th St. collapsed destroying all his vinyl, a very valuable movie poster collection and all the no. 6 masters and artwork, it began a streak of bad luck and gruelling times for Terry. Luckily, he's managed to fight through it and now lives on a farm in Oklahoma with a dog and a Glock.
Ornament were Marcy Mays (from Scrawl) and Greg Dulli (from the Afghan Whigs)
more pics of Terry

Billy Bragg
photo: ht

Billy Bragg: Seven And Seven Is
Apart from the odd glimpse of a wandering, fully electric Billy Bragg (with loud-speakers on antenna-like stalks growing from his shoulders) accosting people with his songs in the corridors of a New Music Seminar hotel,

the first time I saw him properly was when his manager, Peter Jenner, asked if I could come and see him open for The Smiths at NYC's Beacon Theater. I didn't know Peter well, but he's been involved in so many great things I jumped at the chance. As one half of Blackhill Enterprises, he and partner Andrew King had managed Pink Floyd, Marc Bolan, The Edgar Broughton Band, Roy Harper, The Clash, Ian Dury and had organized the free concerts in Hyde Park in the 60s and 70s. Peter had also run EMI's 'underground' label, Harvest, run the a&r dept. at Charisma Records before it was bought out by Virgin and I soon got to know an immensely interesting and entertaining fellow, whose out-of-the-box thinking, sense of fair play and advocacy for artists’ rights puts him right at the top of the good guys column (managers division). Up until then, I’d only heard a couple of Billy’s singles and they hadn’t made much of an impression. I’ve always found, however, that it’s the ‘live’ experience that sorts out the real from the fake and at this show, I finally got it. I was thinking his coarse, un-trained, yet distinctive voice might have a certain commercial appeal when, out of the blue, I found tears running down my cheeks as Billy delivered ‘There Is Power In A Union’ on behalf of the thousands of striking British miners whose jobs were about to disappear courtesy Margaret Thatcher. I looked around...he had the audience in his hands and they had him in their hearts.

Billy Bragg 'Old Clash Fan Fight Song'
Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center, NYC
October 25th 2008

Billy Bragg 'N.W.P.A.'
Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center, NYC
October 25th 2008

Everybody was entranced. It didn’t hurt either that Billy is a natural speaker who infuses his message with humour and passion. 'Til then, I’d never been very interested in politics, but the Elektra label had quite a history in that department (Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, MC5) and at the time, with people like (10,000 Maniacs’) Natalie Merchant, Rubén Blades and Jackson Browne doing their bit, it was a natural fit. Billy recorded 'Seven And Seven Is' for Elektra's 40th anniversary album, 'Rubaiyat'. Why they left it off Billy's career retrospective multi cd box sets 'Volume 1' and 'Volume 2' is anybody's guess.
more Billy Bragg photos here

John Doe
on a bus, somewhere in Germany
photo: ht

John Doe & The Sadies: Til I Get It Right

John Doe is not a slacker. As an actor, he’s appeared in 47 films and 28 tv episodes (including 'Carnivale' and 'Roswell'). As a founder member of revered Los Angeles punk band “X”, he’s released 10 albums, 2 greatest hits compilations and appeared in 5 films. As a solo artist, he’s just released his 8th album, a collaboration with The Sadies, ‘Country Club’ (YepRoc Records). As always, he delivers.

Robert Buck, John Doe
Elektra Records Grammy party, Los Angeles, CA
photo: ht

more John Doe pics here

Christina Amphlett/The Divinyls
The Ritz, NYC
photo: Eric Maché

The Divinyls: Elsie
I saw the Divinyls open for the Psychedelic Furs one afternoon at an open air gig one afternoon at Syracuse University. If you're looking for a female Iggy, Christina Amphlett's your gal. She wore a white blouse with a tartan schoolgirl’s tunic and during their epic ‘Elsie’ late in the set, she took out a lipstick and started scrawling all over her face and arms with it. She lurched around the stage in some kind of psychotic fog, grunting, practically dragging her knuckles along the floor. Then she proceeded to upend a large bucket of water over her head while growling “Open the door, Wally”. She had a feral, primitive appeal. She was beautiful. Ya had to see it, but here's a close approximation, cleaned up a bit for tv.