The AC-30 is a super loud amp. Most people don't think the combo versions have enough power cause they have them on the floor pointing at their ankles, if you elevate them you'll notice that your ears start to hurt. They also pump out the high frequencies so they tend to cut through really well in a band situation. A bit about wattage: Don't let the wattage on the back panel of an amp fool you either. On some amps there are two wattage's shown, one is how powerful the output of the amp is and the other is the power consumption. Don't let the power consumption fool you into thinking how loud your amp will be. I've seen guitar shop retail retards get this one wrong. If the wattage rating is printed near a voltage/hertz rating say: 110V-120V 30Hz-40Hz 180 watts, then it relates to how much power your amp consumes or for a real world example; how hot your amp gets. if you compare an AC-30 to say a solid state 30 watt you will notice a huge difference. This comes down to how the output wattage rating is worked out. Solid state amp wattage is usually worked out via RMS (root mean square), remember that one from school? boring shit really. It's not really the true output wattage at all. If you see a wattage with RMS after it you can do some very rough math to work out loud it will be in real world terms. So say you are looking at buying a 100 watt Marshall Valvestate amp (please don't, they're a bit shit eh) you can work roughly what a quarter of that will be, so 25 and that about how many watts it is. Suddenly the AC-30 looking more powerful and it is. You can use this simple non-scientific method for most solid state amps to find out how loud it will really be. If your looking at getting an AC30 and putting it through a quad then your gonna have a very loud setup. Don't look for the amp to provide any output valve distortion/overdrive cause you won't be able to stand anywhere near it and it will drive any people watching you play out the door! Freddi was right when he mentioned the type of speaker you use, this has a very big impact on the tone your going to get. Another thing to watch is matching the ohm's for the amp and speaker cab. You can do all sorts of expensive damage to you valve amp by miss-matching these. I've seen burnt out output transformers, brunt out tubes and melted circuit boards. As far as I'm aware Mesa-Boogies are the only amps designed for deliberate miss-matching of the ohms.

What about some Kraut Rock stuff like Can?

Sun Ra? Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd?

Laika and the Cosmonauts. Space-surf!

Do you like the Silver Apples? This one's my favorite. Makes me high as a kite every time I hear it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDk-PGRMMw4&feature=related

This might be the wrong forum to post this on, but it sounds to me like you need some Hawkwind in your life. 'Warrior on the Edge of Time' is a fabulous LP, as are 'In Search of Space', 'Doremi Fasol Latido' and 'Space Ritual'. Fuck it, John Rotten was/is a huge Hawkwind fan so they appealed to at least one 'punk'...

Ventures in Space album!

shoot, there's this Boredoms track that does exactly that for me. other dimensions ya say? hang on to your hat cousin, because mr square is about to meet mr cube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC2vqPHUw7s

Norton and Sundazed put out the most readily available stuff but you should probably look at websites like Bomp and Ugly Things to see what else is out there.

In Seattle, you can go to Singles Going Steady.

I really feel sick that I didn't appreciate KROQ like I should have. I did listen to KRLA (my favorite was Humble Harve. He'd finish his night with Blues Theme and that was back in 1980) but I also listened to KRTH. Between 1979 and 1984, I thought they were pretty great. In fact they used local LA charts from the sixties rather than Billboard charts in determining what they'd play. So you got the Standells, Seeds, Love, and THEM. In LA, the Shadows of Knight did NOT exist. I remember KPFK for blues stuff. But fool that I am, I also listened to KLOS and KMET. The only upside to that was getting to hear all the early Stones and Who albums in their entirety. And KMET had the Dr. Demento show. Mike said:

In Los Angeles we had KRLA as Sectmaniac pointed out. It was an oldies station but nothing like what you'd consider oldies radio now days, at least in the 70's & 80's. All of the DJs had knowledge of the music and were there when these bands were playing and putting out records and they seemed to have a say in what they played, especially in the evenings when they'd take requests and dedications. Art Laboe used to do a lunch time thing in the early 80's where he'd take one act and go through the history of the artist and play tracks etc. Does the mainstream "oldies stations' even play songs like '60 Minute Man' 'Pledging My love' 'Hully Gully' 'Big Boy Pete' 'Corrido Rock' or 'Slow Down' anymore.
But growing up I think Rodney Bingenheimer on KROQ had the biggest influence on my musical tastes. When I was 14 his show was on for 4 hours each Saturday and Sunday night 8-12. Cutting his teeth in the 60's, Rodney would play stuff like Love, the Leaves, Standells, Seeds, Chocolate Watch Band, etc etc, but he'd also play the latest Black Flag demo, then the Crawdaddys, followed by the Exploited and then maybe a Crowd song right after. He'd have the Ventures or Surfaries in studio and then Frankie & Anette, then the next week X, or Blondie, or Stiv Bators. His show is just a shadow of its former self hidden away on Monday morning from 12-1am or something. Back then, even outside of Rodney's show, you'd never know what they would play next during the day. You may hear some Missing Persons song follwed by a Fear track.
Another good station here in the late 70's early 80's was KNAC before they went metal (although they did set the standard for 80's metal radio), lot's of Punk and "new music" as they called it. They'd interview bands from the Cheifs, to Rhino 39, to the Adolescents etc etc.
Then there was listener supported KPFK that had Bo Clifford on late Saturday nights playing lots of underground stuff followed by 12 O'Clock Rock with Andrea Enthal. She even had Chris D. of the Flesheaters sit in for her sometimes. He would play an amazing selection of music too.

Now today's LA Radio is pretty much irrelevant in my opinion. The only salvation is college radio . KXLU has various decent programs, but I mainly listen to Stella's show "Stray Pop" which she has been doing for damn near 30 years I think and the Reverend Dan's "Music For Nimrods" show. that follows Stray Pop, but they are on Midnight to 6 am Sunday morning, so who really get's to listen? KCSN also has a decent oldies show where you'll hear some obscure early R&B. the only thing I listen to on KPFK anymore is Rhapsody In Black where you'll here some good blues and pre-RnR Rhythm & Blues.

With all that said, it's internet radio and the podcasts here that is where it's all at for me now, though I do find myself listening to WFMU a lot now via their iPhone application.

Sad to say but I know people who'd be estatic that Scrawl are playing again.

and the Cheater Slicks (esp. since they're from Columbus)! FREDDI said:

Both them! Don Howland and Jeffrey Evans?!
..It's reunions time!
Imagine could see '68 Comeback,and Bassholes too in the same show!!

Both them! Don Howland and Jeffrey Evans?!
..It's reunions time!
Imagine could see '68 Comeback,and Bassholes too in the same show!!

That's right... the Gibson Brothers. First show in 18 years! Check this out for more info.

Fuck lo-fi. It's over rated. What the hell is so great about sounding like you recorded over the phone into an answering machine? I love the Mummies and Supercharger just as much as anybody but each new release sounded worse than the one before it. While I don't like BIG drums, I can't stand drums that sound like they're being recorded through the floorboards either. People think that the Kingsmen are lo-fi but it's the same damn equipment that the Raiders recorded on. It's a matter of mic placement and how loud the intake is. A little bit of over modulation wouldn't hurt the Wicked Cool records but sounding like the Brentwoods (the playing is fine...I'm talking about fidelity) would just suck. OCEAN PALACE said:

he deffo got some mint bands on his label, the woggles are pretty dam quaility and like you say the chesterfield kings.
and i might be wrong but i think the len price 3 also on his label? i like them also. but there is still something a bit odd, like they not exactly lo-fi,
all sound pretty clean. not a bad thing perhaps for some but i dunno id like it abit dirtier...



MikeL said:

Doing it the corporate way can also mean things are done more efficiently, and the product reaches a wider audience. Just as long as Renegade Nation doesn't turn into the Goldman Sachs of garage rock, I'm happy.

The kind of corporate approach I meant was that everything has to be run by him first including whatever you record in a studio. As if he doesn't trust a band's judgement on what is a good song and what is bad. Lots of bands do record awful things, but you'd think that what got you on Steven's label in the first place was that you had a sense of quality. Boss Martians just landed on the label and this is the first time that Evan Foster hasn't had 100 % control over what songs get on the album. Granted, it is Wicked Cool's money but still, we hated it when Don Kirshner did it but it's OK for Steven? Most of the labels turn down a whole entire album (Estrus for instance) before they'd make you lose a song. Not that they wouldn't turn down an entire album because they hated one song, I'm just saying that most indie labels let bands have quality control. The only record labels that are like Goldman Sachs are labels like Jive, Number one records that are going to implode and lose in the long run. I wish independents could do things a bit more efficently but I do prefer bands having 100% over context. MikeL said:

Doing it the corporate way can also mean things are done more efficiently, and the product reaches a wider audience. Just as long as Renegade Nation doesn't turn into the Goldman Sachs of garage rock, I'm happy:)


Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

My belief (by the way, belief is a possession, believe is a verb) is that Little Steven gets a lot of people who would never had been a fan of garage rock into becoming a believer.

While a found out this month that he does take a bit of a corporate (nazi?) approach to his label and song lists (all songs recorded by bands on Wicked Cool have to be approved before being released and hosts of the sattalite shows like Manfred from the Woggles HAVE to play songs that are approved by Steven), the people who work for him and the bands are still happy, unlike people who work for Universal or Clear(?).

While I don't care for the corporate approach, if the bands don't mind, it's all good.

Doing it the corporate way can also mean things are done more efficiently, and the product reaches a wider audience. Just as long as Renegade Nation doesn't turn into the Goldman Sachs of garage rock, I'm happy:) Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

My belief (by the way, belief is a possession, believe is a verb) is that Little Steven gets a lot of people who would never had been a fan of garage rock into becoming a believer.

While a found out this month that he does take a bit of a corporate (nazi?) approach to his label and song lists (all songs recorded by bands on Wicked Cool have to be approved before being released and hosts of the sattalite shows like Manfred from the Woggles HAVE to play songs that are approved by Steven), the people who work for him and the bands are still happy, unlike people who work for Universal or Clear(?).

While I don't care for the corporate approach, if the bands don't mind, it's all good.

My belief (by the way, belief is a possession, believe is a verb) is that Little Steven gets a lot of people who would never had been a fan of garage rock into becoming a believer.

While a found out this month that he does take a bit of a corporate (nazi?) approach to his label and song lists (all songs recorded by bands on Wicked Cool have to be approved before being released and hosts of the sattalite shows like Manfred from the Woggles HAVE to play songs that are approved by Steven), the people who work for him and the bands are still happy, unlike people who work for Universal or Clear(?).

While I don't care for the corporate approach, if the bands don't mind, it's all good.

I believe you meant to write "gotcha," right? And quite honestly, I don't care if the vast majority of garage rock fans don't like Springsteen. While I still like him, I've always felt he's extremely overrated and way too much of a sacred cow to critics. However, I do like what Little Steven does for garage rock, even if it's not pure enough for some people, so that's what I'm really getting at in this discussion. And he does play bands that are revered by the purists, so at least he's doing something right. todd a williams said:

gotha mike; i'll try not to like the chesterfield kings or the cynics.
i stand by my assertion; if you think prized springsteen tix are appropriate for the vast majority of garage rock fans then you are onto something i am not aware of.

MikeL said:

Nobody invited you to the concert anyway. And if Little Steven is so out of touch, then that means you can't listen to anything he plays, including bands that you like. If you're a fan of the Chesterfield Kings, then you can't like them anymore because they're on his label. And you can't like the Cynics anymore either, since he liked them enough to play them on his radio show in the early days (Before he and Gregg had their school yard spat).

todd a williams said:

the last thing i need is some springstein tix. man, that little steven is outta touch!

gotha mike; i'll try not to like the chesterfield kings or the cynics. i stand by my assertion; if you think prized springsteen tix are appropriate for the vast majority of garage rock fans then you are onto something i am not aware of. MikeL said:

Nobody invited you to the concert anyway. And if Little Steven is so out of touch, then that means you can't listen to anything he plays, including bands that you like. If you're a fan of the Chesterfield Kings, then you can't like them anymore because they're on his label. And you can't like the Cynics anymore either, since he liked them enough to play them on his radio show in the early days (Before he and Gregg had their school yard spat).

todd a williams said:

the last thing i need is some springstein tix. man, that little steven is outta touch!

Nobody invited you to the concert anyway. And if Little Steven is so out of touch, then that means you can't listen to anything he plays, including bands that you like. If you're a fan of the Chesterfield Kings, then you can't like them anymore because they're on his label. And you can't like the Cynics anymore either, since he liked them enough to play them on his radio show in the early days (Before he and Gregg had their school yard spat). todd a williams said:

the last thing i need is some springstein tix. man, that little steven is outta touch!

the last thing i need is some springstein tix. man, that little steven is outta touch!

I think Greg Shaw commisioned a lot of his contributers to his magazine to do some of the gonzo styled ramblings that appeared on the back of the early pebbles. or he just used a lot of psuedonyms.

SSSWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTT!!!