That's true - I obviously mean those bluesrock bands. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!! Do you know Judge Bone, a finnish blues guy? He made one record with only his guitar (mostly electric) and drums, and this is also "unplugged" in the sense of "stripped of unnecessary shit".

But there's one more unplugged gig on MTV that I like: The first REM Unplugged Session, because their songs were reduced to the core, which i think is a good thing. Bands that write good songs but make too much fuss arranging them, reduced to the heart of their songs, I guess this is the original thought behind "unplugged".

And if you still use distortion to annoy the audience ... HARR HARR HARR!

Disagree on the blues thing. Sure, I like dirty old acoustic blues, but nothing beats shit like Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Hound Dog Taylor, Lightnin' Slim, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and, of course, Bo Diddley. Those are my favorite blues rock grandpas. ;) Doc Sanchez said:

That sounds interesting... The Mountain Goats, my favourite singer/songwriter band used to play with just an acoustic guitar and bass, but on their recent tours they use drums, electric guitars and so on, and all the old songs sound much better that way...
I like "unplugged", when the bands are forced to rearrange their music because of the limitations, and I guess it would be the same thing with these acoustic guitarists - rearranging their songs, use their fantasy, look over their horizon... But when I look at blues, the old blues musicians with only their voice and guitar are much better than these blues rock grandpas...

That sounds interesting... The Mountain Goats, my favourite singer/songwriter band used to play with just an acoustic guitar and bass, but on their recent tours they use drums, electric guitars and so on, and all the old songs sound much better that way...

I like "unplugged", when the bands are forced to rearrange their music because of the limitations, and I guess it would be the same thing with these acoustic guitarists - rearranging their songs, use their fantasy, look over their horizon...

But when I look at blues, the old blues musicians with only their voice and guitar are much better than these blues rock grandpas...

I always thought it was boring. If you ask me, instead of bands playing "unplugged," we should make some of these dime-a-dozen singer/songwriter dweebs plug their shit in and make 'em use overdrive pedals and stuff. Now that would be interesting. PLUGGED!

Hi all!

In a few days we'll be doing some sort of "unplugged" gig as the Cyco Sanchez Blues Trio, and already I've organized some unplugged gigs for local punk and hardcore bands a few years ago.

Since we're doing it again now, I've been thinking about the concept of "unplugged" recently, with pretty contradictory results. On the one hand, there's the saying of the great John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats: "The whole thing about playing an acoustic guitar is not to unplug; it's to get raw and draw blood." On the other hand, there are loads and loads of stale MTV Unplugged Sessions (except, maybe, for Nirvana, and definitely except for The Cure, which just was fun).

So we decided not to unplug, but to use acoustic guitars, play our songs in different arrangements (poaching through different not-so-cool styles like indie pop, reggae, bluesrock etc.), but still use our overdrives and stuff.

I realized that we couldn't just do an unplugged gig, but that we had give the whole thing an irconic twist (apart from just having fun trying out new styles), which seems kind of strange to me, for I dearly love my acoustic guitar, but calling it "unplugged" seems odd.

So now I was wondering what you all think about this whole "unplugged" thing? Cool? Not cool? Both? Depending on who does it, where and why?

Cheers, Doc Sanchez

duuu geilä siiääch....merci...thats what i waiting 4....feathered apple!!!

Hey everybody,
I don't know if anyone posted it already, but there is a blog called the swisstape blog with live bootlegs from the 80's and early 90's of shows in switzerland with bands like the miracle workers (yahoo!), chesterfield kings, Ramones, Screamin Jay Hawkins etc. I don't know who runs this blog wether who recorded, but I like it alot, bootlegs have such a particular charm...
http://swisstapes.blogspot.com/

Re: Motorhead. Apparently they offered Flag an opening spot on a mid 80's tour with a caveat that they had to kick back something like $15K of their earnings for "PA use". Rock biz BS.

yep; that was it!!!!!..... i had the 45 back in 1989.... Lost a whole box of Juke box singles to movers. They also got my Hitchcock movie collection & some classic Punk mags! Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

The one that was actually on the radio? Art of Noize featuring Duane Eddy. Attrocious.

ratoonie said:

thanx for the reply....yea it was pretty sci-fi*.....who did that weird version of Peter Gunn??

Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

Sorry about your album getting ripped off. That just happened to me recently.

Anyway...yeah, the Raybeats. I have a copy of Guitar Beat from 1981. I bought it because the store owner put a description on the wrapper saying "a Ventures for the 80s". One of the guys from Los Straightjackets was in it, but he wrote the only good song on it, "Calhoun Surf", everything else was trying to sound 80s meets sci-fi or something....The jacket looked cool. A lot of surf bands between 1980-1986 were pretty bad I thought except Jon and the NIghtriders. Remember the Halibuts? ugh.

ratoonie said:

Does anyone remember the Raybeats???? my album got ripped off.........back in 1984...... it may have been an Import... it was Dark blue...

I've been trying to get him to sign up here at the Hideout for a while now, guess it might be worth another shot. Stink Magnetic have released some great shit over the years. Leo M Francis said:

If y'all is surf fans wod about TAPEMAN / The TAPEMEN / GHOST of TAPEMAN from New Zealand.

Been releasing stuff on Stink Magnetic and Kato records for almost 10 years I guess. Really wild stuff! My fave for sure.

The one that was actually on the radio? Art of Noize featuring Duane Eddy. Attrocious. ratoonie said:

thanx for the reply....yea it was pretty sci-fi*.....who did that weird version of Peter Gunn??

Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

Sorry about your album getting ripped off. That just happened to me recently.

Anyway...yeah, the Raybeats. I have a copy of Guitar Beat from 1981. I bought it because the store owner put a description on the wrapper saying "a Ventures for the 80s". One of the guys from Los Straightjackets was in it, but he wrote the only good song on it, "Calhoun Surf", everything else was trying to sound 80s meets sci-fi or something....The jacket looked cool. A lot of surf bands between 1980-1986 were pretty bad I thought except Jon and the NIghtriders. Remember the Halibuts? ugh.

ratoonie said:

Does anyone remember the Raybeats???? my album got ripped off.........back in 1984...... it may have been an Import... it was Dark blue...

thanx for the reply....yea it was pretty sci-fi*.....who did that weird version of Peter Gunn?? Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

Sorry about your album getting ripped off. That just happened to me recently.

Anyway...yeah, the Raybeats. I have a copy of Guitar Beat from 1981. I bought it because the store owner put a description on the wrapper saying "a Ventures for the 80s". One of the guys from Los Straightjackets was in it, but he wrote the only good song on it, "Calhoun Surf", everything else was trying to sound 80s meets sci-fi or something....The jacket looked cool. A lot of surf bands between 1980-1986 were pretty bad I thought except Jon and the NIghtriders. Remember the Halibuts? ugh.

ratoonie said:

Does anyone remember the Raybeats???? my album got ripped off.........back in 1984...... it may have been an Import... it was Dark blue...

Sorry about your album getting ripped off. That just happened to me recently. Anyway...yeah, the Raybeats. I have a copy of Guitar Beat from 1981. I bought it because the store owner put a description on the wrapper saying "a Ventures for the 80s". One of the guys from Los Straightjackets was in it, but he wrote the only good song on it, "Calhoun Surf", everything else was trying to sound 80s meets sci-fi or something....The jacket looked cool. A lot of surf bands between 1980-1986 were pretty bad I thought except Jon and the NIghtriders. Remember the Halibuts? ugh. ratoonie said:

Does anyone remember the Raybeats???? my album got ripped off.........back in 1984...... it may have been an Import... it was Dark blue...

Does anyone remember the Raybeats???? my album got ripped off.........back in 1984...... it may have been an Import... it was Dark blue...

I prefer my Silvertone 1484. The amp is from the 1960s and breaks up real nice. I went to Nashville some months back and on the way back I found her in a Cleveland guitar shop. Ever since I got her, my Fender Twin has been all by her lonesome.

I wish I was getting mine in time for Thursday's Reverend Beat Man, Thee Cormans, Haunted George and Vooduo show cuz i knows the ladies would be all over me if I was sporting this fine shirt. That would totally save me on the cost of roofies, duct tape and rope.

But alas, I will have to wait a bit longer on this lonely shore for the mighty Way Past Cool shirt to arrive from the British Empire. When it does, I am sure that the neighbor's will be saying, "Hey, great shirt!" instead of "Why aren't you wearing any pants?" That, my friends, would be a welcome change!

This is such a great song. It's the son of Dean Martin on top of it too. Jamie said:

This is a cool one!

WOW! That Punk Zine archive is something else and all the early issues. Thanks for posting that. kopper said:

I know Gearhead reviews new stuff, but I think they only review stuff they like. In other words, if they don't like it, they just won't review it. That bothers me to no end. I wanna read the negative reviews as well as the positive, so I know what to avoid as well as what to look for.

I used to do a 'zine with some local folks here in St. Louis called Head in a Milk Bottle... this was back in the early 2000s. It had originally existed in the mid-1980s and we brought it back to life, but then it only lasted two issues. The third issue was finished, but was never printed. I'm hoping to put this all online eventually. The editor/publisher was Bob Thurmond of the Snake Alley podcast... and I'm still waiting for Bob to get me all the files from that 3rd issue so I can put it online. Bob's a nice guy and everything, but there's a reason why is nickname is "Slack."

ChinMusic was a pretty cool 'zine that combined baseball and punk rock (some garage stuff, too). Then there was Motorcycho which is about garage punk and motorbikes. Then there was Multiball, which combined punk rock and pinball! And I don't think anyone's mentioned John Holmstrom's PUNK magazine. John's putting out a "Best of PUNK" book that looks like it'll be worth having.

Does anyone remember a 'zine called Probe? I think it was around mostly during the '90s, but was pretty great. Featured pics of nekkid people and punk rock. I only have one or two issues, but they were kinda doing what Horizontal Action did later.

Also, check this out: Punk Zine Archive

Marty Shane, Pacifiction Records said:

There's a very small free subcultural zine in upstate NY called Outsider, they feature all kinds of punk including garage, psychobilly etc. and also focus on hot rods and tattoos.
http://www.myspace.com/outsiderzine What I'd be interested in knowing is which zines review new garage punk releases. It seems to me that some publications like Ugly Things focus only on established groups from the original 60's era or 80's revival bands while others like Lost in Tyme review stuff by current underground bands as well.

I know Gearhead reviews new stuff, but I think they only review stuff they like. In other words, if they don't like it, they just won't review it. That bothers me to no end. I wanna read the negative reviews as well as the positive, so I know what to avoid as well as what to look for.

I used to do a 'zine with some local folks here in St. Louis called Head in a Milk Bottle... this was back in the early 2000s. It had originally existed in the mid-1980s and we brought it back to life, but then it only lasted two issues. The third issue was finished, but was never printed. I'm hoping to put this all online eventually. The editor/publisher was Bob Thurmond of the Snake Alley podcast... and I'm still waiting for Bob to get me all the files from that 3rd issue so I can put it online. Bob's a nice guy and everything, but there's a reason why is nickname is "Slack."

ChinMusic was a pretty cool 'zine that combined baseball and punk rock (some garage stuff, too). Then there was Motorcycho which is about garage punk and motorbikes. Then there was Multiball, which combined punk rock and pinball! And I don't think anyone's mentioned John Holmstrom's PUNK magazine. John's putting out a "Best of PUNK" book that looks like it'll be worth having.

Does anyone remember a 'zine called Probe? I think it was around mostly during the '90s, but was pretty great. Featured pics of nekkid people and punk rock. I only have one or two issues, but they were kinda doing what Horizontal Action did later.

Also, check this out: Punk Zine Archive

Marty Shane, Pacifiction Records said:

There's a very small free subcultural zine in upstate NY called Outsider, they feature all kinds of punk including garage, psychobilly etc. and also focus on hot rods and tattoos.
http://www.myspace.com/outsiderzine What I'd be interested in knowing is which zines review new garage punk releases. It seems to me that some publications like Ugly Things focus only on established groups from the original 60's era or 80's revival bands while others like Lost in Tyme review stuff by current underground bands as well.

Unless the band had a top 30 hit and was on one of the major network shows (shews?), you're right, there really isn't a whole lot out there. I'm really surprised at what DOES eventually come up.

Aquarium Drunkard ran a post today on Wayne Cochrane. Wayne has always intrigued me over the years and his internet legend grows day by day. 

I have quite a collection of live shots of various bands I've seen over the years. Please feel free to look at my photo page.

Glad you liked that idea:) kopper said:

MikeL said:

I'm waiting for a political candidate to use "I Wanna Destroy You" by the Soft Boys in a campaign commercial.

Shit, what a great idea! Makes me want to run for office if for no other reason than THAT! Haha...

Nice!