The Ramones did more than their fair share of bubblegum covers when starting out and also recorded a couple of classics (Indian Giver, Little Bit O'Soul) and a lot of decent 80s garage bands threw in a bublegum song or two into their set.  There's a lot of good stuff out there whether or not it's by studio musicians.  Sometimes it's the song, not the singer that should be listened to.

I love The Ramones, The Go-Gos, The JAMC, all having bubblegum elements.

Absolutely love bubblegum music and all the one hit wonders that were basically studio musicians doing one offs for songwriters (Archies, Cuff Links, etc.).  Also like novelty songs that cross musical barriers like "Martian Hop" or "Snoopy vs the Red Baron".  Nothing wrong with music that goes "pop!".

Yes. I do enjoy bubblegum music. However, most of the bubblegum I dig is the Twee sound from the 90's. 

Does anyone here have the balls to admit they like bubblegum music?  I do like the classic bands, such as 1910 Fruitgum Company and Ohio Express, along with the Monkees and the Bay City Rollers. I also like bands that have elements of bubblegum, or who were clearly influenced by bubblegum, or who have recorded songs that have hints of bubblegum to them, such as the Ramones, KISS, Cheap Trick, the Cars, the Go Gos, and Manda and the Marbles.

I'm bringing this up because of my earlier post about the "Archie Meets KISS" comic book series, and because bubblegum has some of its roots in garage rock, so I thought it would be an interesting question for this place.

I never look at bands sites. I love bandcamp and soundcloud though. I find them to be the best for checking out stuff.

Sorry kopper, realized my typo too late to edit.

Jersey City Mods said:

  But as Kooper suggests, a good website with music, photos, info, etc is what will eventually get us to shell out bucks for records and shows.

I'm a booking agent and I look at every bands FB. I don't decide to book them based on how many fans they have but the feature "how many people are talking about this band" does help me gauge general interest by others. If a band has 300+ people talking about them, then they're probably worth a decent guarantee.

If only 3 people are talking about a band, that's fine too. Lots of great bands are unknown. If they sound good, I'll still book them and give them a chance and pair them up with locals that have a decent fanbase. 

I prefer when a band sends me a band website and a soundcloud or bandcamp or reverbnation. The reason being, sometimes sites are difficult to navigate and the first thing I want to do is get that music playing and then read over their bio and all that stuff. 

As fans in search of new music, having a network of friends whose taste we trust often leads to FB recommendations that can be pretty on target.  When our FB friends "like" something, we'll give it a glance. It is useful in that sense.  But as Kooper suggests, a good website with music, photos, info, etc is what will eventually get us to shell out bucks for records and shows.

I'm confused by the entire 'Like' thing. Simply because a post, video, or whatever, has a number of 'Likes' has no real bearing on whether or not people have actually listened to it. Simply clicking the box has always seemed a dismissive activity. Certainly I am just as guilty, but giving up on something you enjoy doing because it doesn't get checks seems really defeatist. 

Like most other makers or shakers, the effort that goes into making a show, thinking about a show, getting the right tracks (or even when I was in a band), was massive. Everyone wants to get some respect for the work they do, but I'm not sure Facebook gains anyone that respect. Make a strong site, update it frequently, advertis your music by playing the best shows you can, and make friends in the scene. Facebook is neat and the future of friendships, but nothing is going to make a person listen like putting out the best work you can as often as you can. 

I think that - not to derail the conversation - Kaiser was also having other issues, though. I don't know too much about it or claim to even know the man or his rationale, but I seem to recall a few facebook messages before he went silent indicating other issues. 

kopper said:

Agreed, Mardy. The whole "like" thing is completely overblown/overrated has gone out of control. It was because Michael Kaiser's RadiOblivion podcast wasn't getting enough "likes" here on the Hideout that he decided to stop doing it and ditch the site entirely (I believe he also deleted his Facebook account, for what it's worth). He specifically told me that he stopped doing his show because not enough people here "liked" it. Amazing.

The problem is that Facebook is the primary channel to advertise...speaking of my country, Italy, almost every bar or music venue is now making advertise only trough Fb, ignoring other ways even for example paper fliers or similar.

If you're not in Fb you can't even see the pages so for many people being out of Fb is like being without the possibility to know what's going on around the local music scene.

And you know that when you start to use Fb you'll come submerged by the "I like" way of life so is normal that all the things start to being judged by the "likes" that they have.

Anyway is good to have a personal website for every band so people can search you on Google but, sad but true, the fu...ng "likes" count.

...and he had the Blasters on three times! (this interview segment was from a 1983 appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHKABcSKWA

"Go there". You do know what that means in England , now , don't you? Of course you do.

 I've only recenty gained any appreciation for The Airplane....Along with The Cheer , I was always a bigger fan of The Grape , Country Joe , and Valenti - Free Quicksilver , as the best known SF bands go....It is amazing how cool - headed Clark could be ....Who could forget The Elevators on Bandstand? 

 Dick Clark : Who's the head of the group ?

Tommy Hall: We're ALL heads.

THAT'S TRUE , BUT DID'NT YOU HAVE TO BE UP THERE IN THE CHARTS TO GET ON "TOP OF THE POPS"? PIL , FR'INSTANCE , MAY HAVE CHARTED IN THE UK AND/OR ON THE CONTINENT , BUT , CERTAINLY , NOT HERE.....Another aforementioned example , did Butch Patrick's early 70's record even get out of the starting gate? I have his "Eddie and The Monsters" 45 , it's amusing.
 
James Porter said:

Ah, I believe Top Of The Pops was the UK's answer to Bandstand! Not the other way round...

(Dick Clark's show came first.)
 
Rinjo Njori said:

Dick Clark was a friend of Rock N Roll. He might have been associated to the "Man", but even bands like PiL got a shot at our answer to Top of the Pops! One of the good guys even if the style wasn't always related to my pallate. 

JUST TO CLARIFY , i MEANT THE AMERICAN BANDSTAND (70'S) THEME SONG. JAMES AND I BOTH SAW BUTCH PATRICK SING ROCK ON AB.
 
John Battles said:

That WAS a classic R'n'R TV moment , when PIL appeared on"Bandstand". Bizarro World stuff.

IF AND WHEN YOU WATCH THE GREAT BLUE CHEER CLIP ( I HAVE A DECENT COPY ON VIDEO , BUT IT'S NOT THIS GOOD.), YOU'LL NOTICE SOMEONE SAYS NOTHING EVER PHASED DICK CLARK .    NOT TRUE. DICKIE PETERSON TOLD ME THAT HE AND BLUE CHEER'S THEN -  MANAGER , GUT   (PREVIOUSLY WITH ANOTHER GROUP CALLED THE HELL'S ANGELS.) WERE BACKSTAGE DURING THIS SAME PERFORMANCE , SMOKING A BOWL OF HASH , WHEN DICK CLARK WALKED IN ON THEM. "IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT GIVE ROCK'N'ROLL A BAD NAME !!", SAID CLARK. "THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH " , REPLIED DICKIE. IT IS IRONIC THAT CORNELIUS AND CLARK DIED WITHIN SUCH A SHORT TIME OF EACH OTHER. I'LL ADMIT , THO' , I LEANED MORE TOWARD "BANDSTAND" THAN "SOUL TRAIN "WHEN I WAS A KID (I WOULD PAY TO HAVE A COPY OF THAT  INTRO MUSIC ON A 45- WA WA WA WAA WAAAA....), THO' MY GRANDMA LOVED IT.

*LOL* Yeah --- I've often wanted to access the Peabody time machine and place myself somewhere in the 60's (SF '67 would do fine, thanks) where the music and clothing suit my personal tastes. Woman out of time...

Well, prolly a tad earlier in that decade would be ideal, but still, Mr. Clark gave a lot of Americans a glimpse and a listen to music like no one else. Best part of the Airplane clip? Slick's answer to Clark's question: Why San Fran?

James Porter said:

Hey, I wouldn't mind "going there," myself. And staying there for a while. Grace was a hottie.

Back then.
 
melissa scott said:

I just had to post this link of one of my faves from Bandstand. Can't get enough of the 'relaxed' stage poses. And Grace's BOOTS (yeah, I had to go there).

Usually around here the bars are pretty strict.  Lots of em won't let you play unless you're 21 or over. I planning on calling around some of them for exceptions, but since it's legally tied in with their license, very few tend to leave any wiggle room.

Would love to see a "Beatles Anthology" type production, taking as many hours as necessary to cover the subject with interviews, clips and roundtable discussions.  The problem is, who would have final say as to what gets included and what is cut?  How about a collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Bill Kelly?  Ah, if only we'd won the Powerball...

Hey, we're Bob & Marti but go by Jersey City Mods on most public access sites because we don't want potential employers or prosecution attorneys Googling things that could be used against us.  Neither of us are musicians but we met as college radio hosts, collaborating on a show called The Groovy Cellar from 81-84.  We used to live for record shopping and shows, stopping by Midnight Records in NYC before going to the original Cavestomps at the Dive. I wish we'd been a little more social and less intimidated by the bands then, but we still managed to have a great time. Lived in Philly for awhile and met a number of great bands there.  Now we're back in the NYC area, still looking for exciting, new-to-us music.  See ya at the shows, we'll be at the bar.

As drummer with the Beachnuts (Iconoclastic Life, Nature's Company), I've been involved with garage punk music for awhile. I'm still in touch with all the original band members: lead singer Lowell Stanley; bass guitarist, Clyde Snyder; rythym guitarist Bill Ross (later toured in a warm up band for Bruce Springsteen); and lead guitarist Keith MacGregor. All great musicians. Stay tuned for new Beachnuts recordings...I can hear Lowell warming up now! We'll let everyone know when we're back playing again for our reunion gig.

Wow, I somehow missed this on Monday... the über-cool blog BOING BOING plugged "We Love Trash"!!

http://boingboing.net/2012/04/16/we-love-trash-the-best-of-the.html

Hi Ben,

The recently announced teardrop reissues by Vox look promising. 

I opted for a VOX teardrop copy from the sixties, a '67 KAPA Minstrel.  American body, neck by Hofner, pickups by Harmony.  Includes a whammy.  Great looking and playing guitar for the money.  They show up occasionally on eBay;  that's where I got mine for around $300.

Andras

THEE DIRTYBEATS 100% maximum vintage garage
http://theedirtybeats.com

I just got a VOX Teardrop guitar from a guy who says it is a reissue. I got it pretty cheap and I know nothing about these guitars. Does anyone know what it might be worth? I tried to search and found nothing except a mention that they only reissued 100 in 2007. This one came from an estate sale but I find it hard to believe it is one of 100. Did they reissue in the 80's or anything? It actually says VOX on the headstock and looks legit. What do you guys think?

Ha, at least it wasn't the Mail. That could give a seriousely scary view of a country on the brink of apocalypse. If you read the Telegraph you just start imagining that people in Britain are a bit like boring Republicans.

Tim said:

So no I'm not embarrassed by Mumford and Sons but I am embarrassed by David Camoron and the fact that people overseas read the torygraph! lol

I'm not a huge Mumford & Sons fan though I do quite like them. Though of course they aren't 'legendary', like the Beatles, Stones, Who and Bowie etc, but they are hugely popular in the UK amongst a very wide spectrum of people from teenie bopping festival goers(and their parents!) to people who would class themselves as proper music fans. I quite like the fact that they have been successful with a style of music not often heard in the main stream. They have also gained very good reputation for their live performances.

Personally I don't remember being "bemusement" at them playing at the White House or hearing any comments of the sort. I did however wonder if they got to say the f word in front of a room full of such important people dressed all posh!

So no I'm not embarrassed by Mumford and Sons but I am embarrassed by David Camoron and the fact that people overseas read the torygraph! lol