Playlist for 7.3.26: Knock 'Em Out

 

Had a blast on last week's pre-Fourth of July Zero Hour with lots of 45s and new music from Jon Spencer, Les Robots, and the Questions. Hope your holiday was filled with fun and relaxation. If you are in Milwaukee, maybe I will see you this Saturday at the Puddler's Hall Block Party!

Listen right here.

Ramma Lamma "Zero Hour theme" from Zero Hour theme on Self

The Neckbones "Radio" from Pay the Rent on Zee Bin Records

Gino and the Goons "Hello Josephine" from Hello Josephine on Giveaway

The Delusionaires "The Worm Whispers" from The Scrump/The Worm Whispers on Hidden Volume

Jon Spencer "Knock 'Em Out" from Songs of Personal Loss and Protest on Shove Records (Jon Spencer Solo)

The Happy Thoughts "Sweet Dirty Love" from The Happy Thoughts on Hozac

Tommy James & The Shondells "Baby Baby I Can't Take It No More" on Roulette

M Ward "Never Had Nobody Like You (feat. Zooey Deschanel)" from Hold Time on Merge Records

The Mad Lads "Sugar, Sugar" from Sugar, Sugar on Volt

Velvet Crush "Weird Summer" from Teenage Symphonies to God on 550 Music - Epic

Bobby Fuller Four "Love's Made a Fool of You" on Mustang

The Everly Brothers "Bird Dog" on Cadence

The Nightriders "With Friends Like You, Who Needs Friends" from Back From the Grave, Vol. 8 on Crypt

Guitar Wolf "100m Girl" from More Jet on Guitar Wolf RECORDS

Laundry Bats "Church of Bad" from Hangin On A String on Hozac

Ramma Lamma "Used to Be a Tiger" from Hello Lady/Used To Be A Tiger on Jukebox Records

Thee Headcaotees "Melvin" from Girlsville re-release on Damaged Goods

King Automatic "L'augmentation" from Playing 6 Garage and Sixties Hits! - EP on Slovenly Recordings

Los Young Beats "Gloria" from Los Nuggetz - 60's Punk, Pop and Psychedelic from Latin America on RockBeat Records

Terry Lee & The Poor Boys "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" from Highway 64 Revisited - EP on Norton Records

Goodnight Loving "The Land of 1000 Bars" from Crooked Lake on Dusty Medical Records

Couch Flambeau "Summer Vacation" from Ghostride (Eddy's Version) on Self-Released

Indonesian Junk "C'mon and Love Me" from A Life of Crimes on Indonesian Junk/Rum Bar

Offend Your Friends "Fake Work Fridays" from Almost Didn't Make It on New Standard Recordings

1910 Fruitgum Company "Sticky Sticky" on Buddah Records

Rufus Thomas "I Think I Made a Boo Boo" on Stax

Les Robots "Elektro Returns" from Elektro Returns - Single on Soundflat Records

Bobby Freeman "C'mon and Swim, Pt. 2" on Trip

The Seeds "Pushin' Too Hard" on GNP Crescendo

The Isley Brothers "Freedom" on T-Neck

Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs "Lil' Red Riding Hood" on MGM

Oblivians "Woke Up In a Police Car" from Desperation on In The Red

Carl Perkins "Her Love Rubbed Off" on Norton

The Questions "Howling Bowl" from Best Answer on Soundflat

Sweet "Ballroom Blitz" on Capitol

Gary "US" Bonds "Seven Day Weekend" on LeGrand

Solomon Burke "Party People" on Atlantic

Booker T & The M.G.'s "Lawn Party" from Stax Instrumentals on Stax

Joe Tex "Chicken Crazy" on Dial

Big Sambo & The House Wreckers "The Rains Came" on Eric

John Prine "So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) [feat. Connie Smith]" from In Spite Of Ourselves on Oh Boy Records

Patti and the Lovelites "Love Bandit" on Cotillion

The Shangri-La's "Remember Walking in the Sand" on Eric

Young Fresh Fellows "Let the Good Times Crawl" from I Think This Is on Yep Roc Records

Paul Revere & The Raiders "Good Thing" on Columbia

Hickoids "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me, Kill Me" from Hairy Chafin' Ape Suit on Saustex Media

The Pogues "When the Ship Comes In" from Pogue Mahone (Remastered) on Rhino

Stupidity "World Shut Your Mouth" from Beyond Stupidity on Wicked Cool Records

King Salami and the Cumberland Three "Itch!" from 16 Knockout Hits! on Damaged Goods Records

Barrence Whitfield & The Savages "I'll Be Gone" from Glory on Folc Records

Hank Ballard & The Midnighters "Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go" on King

The Limboos "Rockin'" from Space Mambo on Penniman Records distributed by Altafonte

Hadacol "What I'm Doin' Wrong" from All in Your Head on Slewfoot

Ben Vaughn Combo "I Dig Your Wig" from The Many Moods Of the Ben Vaughn Combo on Restless

Ike & Tina "It's Gonna Work out Fine" from It's Gonna Work Out Fine on Sue

Southern Culture On The Skids "Smiley Yeah Yeah Yeah" from Mojo Box on Yep Roc

Rufus Thomas "Can Your Monkey Do the Dog?" on Stax

Sam Cooke "A Change Is Gonna Come" on RCA

Playlist for 6.26.26: Pineapple Mama

Back this week after a week off, with new releases from King Salami & the Cumberland Three, Guitar Wolf, The Limiñanas, The Bobby Lees and a live interview with Neil Socol of Couch Flambeau. 

Saw a life-affirming show by The Fleshtones last week and was blown away to learn that the Hickoids are heading to Milwaukee for the first time in decades on July 31 at Shank Hall!

Listen to the show right here.

Ramma Lamma "Zero Hour theme" from Zero Hour theme on Self

Spanking Charlene "Find Me Out" from Find Me Out on Slacker Music

Stupidity "Stupidity" from Beyond Stupidity on Wicked Cool Records

Nick Waterhouse "I Had Some Money (But I Spent It)" from Never Twice on Innovative Leisure

The Babalooneys "Overcast" from Goin' For It on Hi-Tide Recordings

Guitar Wolf "Kung Fu Bikini" from More Jet on Goner

Jaguar 777 "'68 Bullet" from Jaguar 777 on Eleventh Hour Recording Company

The Limiñanas "Salvation" from Live at Beaubourg on Berreto Music

The Pogues "Do You Believe in Magic? (Poguetry in Motion EP Sessions Rough Mix)" from Rum Sodomy & The Lash (40th Anniversary Edition) on Rhino

The Crystals "Another Country - Another World" from The Best of Crystals on Abkco

Sam Cooke "Having a Party (Live at the Harlem Square Club, Miami, FL, 01/1963)" from One Night Stand! Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 on RCA/Legacy

Redd Kross "I’ll Meet You Halfway" from Teen Babes From Monsanto on Merge Records

Bad Sports "Would You Wait for Me Too" from Scion/AV Garage: Cheap Time/Bad Sports on Scion/AV Garage

Holly and the Nice Lions "(Do The) Black Hole" from Dolores on Gbufo / Certified Pr

The Undertones "Here Comes the Summer" from The Undertones on BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd.

THE BOBBY LEES "Red Hot" from New Self on Epitaph

The Fleshtones "I Remember The Ramones" from Wheel of Talent on Yep Roc Records

The Drip Edges "Everything's Gonna Have to Be Alright" from Kicking the Tires on the Clown Car - EP on 8042596 Records DK2

Couch Flambeau "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" from Ghostride on It's Only A Record

Couch Flambeau "Waffle Head"

Couch Flambeau "Gidget Surfs to Hawaii"

Couch Flambeau "Neil's Woman" from Ghostride (Eddy's Version)

Couch Flambeau "Yee Haw!"

The Pleasure Barons "Games People Play (Live)" from Live In Las Vegas on Shout!

Coco Hames "I Don’t Wanna Go" from Coco Hames on Merge Records

Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery "Somethin' to Brag About" from Somethin' to Brag About on Capitol

Damnations TX "Kansas" from Half Mad Moon on Sire

Roger Miller "Dang Me" from Golden Hits on Mercury Nashville

The Meat Purveyors "Liquor Store" from Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse! on Bloodshot Records

Papa Lightfoot "When the Saints Go Marchin' in'" from Legendary Masters Series: Vol 2, Rural Blues on Imperial

Hoodoo Gurus "The Generation Gap" from Electric Soup: The Singles Collection on BMG

Brinsley Schwarz "One More Day" from Silver Pistol on Parlophone UK

Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass Kickin Team "(I Wanna Be) The Drummer For The Gap Band" from Yeah Wooooo - Single on Doublenaught Records

The James Hunter Six "Particular" from Off The Fence on Easy Eye Sound

The James Hunter Six "Don't Let Pride Take You For a Ride" from Whatever It Takes on Daptone

The LeRoi Brothers "Are You with Me Baby (Say Yeah)" from Check This Action on Jungle Records

King Salami and the Cumberland Three "Pineapple Mama" from 16 Knockout Hits! on Damaged Goods Records

MFC Chicken "Blackout Drunk" from Goin' Chicken Crazy on Dirty Water Records

Lazy Slim Jim "Wine Head Baby" from Cheap Old Wine and Whiskey on Koko Mojo

Rev. Tom Frost "Hey, Brother, Pour the Wine" from Mysteries & Manners on Rev. Tom Frost

The Cumberland Five "I'm Just a Stranger Here" from Satan Get Back! on Ace

Vic Chesnutt "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia" from Star Power! on Pravda Records

Briks "It's Your Choice" from She Was So Bad: Unissued Sixties Garage Acetates, Volume 2 on Norton

The Parting Gifts "Strange Disposition" from Strychnine Dandelions on In the Red

Laundry Bats "Nightmare" from Hangin on a String on Hozac

Mekons "Surrender (Version)" from Horrorble (Mekons vs Tony Maimone In Dub Conference) on Fire Records

They Might Be Giants "In the Dead Mall" from The World Is to Dig on Idlewild Recordings

Movie Movie "First Love (Never Dies)" from Coming Attractions - EP on Topsy-Turvy

Playlist for 6.12.26: One Step Beyond

The latest show featured two new releases from Slovenly courtesy of King Automatic and JC Thomaz and the Missing Slippers. Also new was As The World Falls Apart from the Minneapolis-based Fret Rattles, and a new song, "Carolina" from Stupidity. 

Caught the amazing Avengers show last week at X-Ray! Also, an insane announcement this week that Repo Man is being shown at the Oriental Theater on Aug. 9 with director Alex Cox in attendance and a performance by the Circle Jerks. Fun times in Brew City.

Listen to the archived show here.

Ramma Lamma "Zero Hour theme" from Zero Hour theme on Self

The Fleshtones "Roofarama" from Wheel of Talent on Yep Roc Records

GOONS! "Driving Wheel" from Never Go Back on Hi-Tide Recordings

The Untamed Youth "Mace Has Got a Hot Rod Dart" from Youth Runs Wild! on Norton Records

The Dustaphonics "You Gonna Wreck My Life" from Party Girl on Dirty Water Records

J.C.Thomaz and the Missing Slippers "Cheat R Bad" from JC Thomaz and the Missing Slippers on Slovenly Recordings

Turnstyles "The Snake" from Cut You Off on Black and Wyatt Records

The Replacements "I Wanna Be Loved" from Unsuitable for Airplay - the Lost KFAI Concert on Twin/Tone

Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders "Wreckless Crazy" from After The Dolls - EP on Heavy Medication Records

Dean Kohler & Mad Wax "Ticket to Rock" from The MCA Demos on Self-Released

Cheryle Thompson "Black Night" from 29 Little Bangers on Ace

Impala "Wild Night at the Bloody Bucket" from El Rancho Reverbo on Icehouse Records

Fret Rattles "Wake up Now!" from As the World Falls Apart on Fret Rattles Recordings

Leathers "Sick" from Sick - Single on Kmrecords

The William Loveday Intention "Sex and Flys" from Sex and Flys - Single on Damaged Goods Records

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds "Our Other World" from Gorilla Rose on In The Red

Quick Romance "Brian Jones's Hair" from Brian Jones's Hair - Single on Damaged Goods Records

The Rubs "Why Did Your Love Run Out?" from Impossible Dream on Hozac

Fox Face "(You're Gonna) Wish You Were Dead" from Spoil + Destroy on Dirtnap Records

Heather The Jerk "I'm On My Way" from Scroll If You Love Devil on 5549252 Records DK

Ramma Lamma "Street Trash" from Ice Cream on Certified PR

Couch Flambeau "The World" from Ghostride (Eddy's Version) on Self-Released

Carl Mann "Ain't Got No Home" from The Legendary Sun Performers on Charly

Otis Redding "Let Me Come on Home" from Otis! on Rhino

Shirley & Lee "Rock All Night" from Backbeat: The World's Best Rock 'n' Roll Drummer on Ace

Dale Hawkins "On Account of You" from Daredevil on Norton Records/Dale Hawkins Records

Messer Chups "Girls in Orbit" from Taste the Blood of Guitaracula on MuSick Recordings

The Kavaliers "Get Your Feet Off Of Me" from Party, Party, Party on Arf! Arf!

Paul Revere & The Raiders "Melody for an Unknown Girl" from Midnight Ride on Columbia/Legacy

Freakwater "Lorraine" from Springtime on Thrill Jockey

The Land Rovers "Black Smoke Against a Blue Sky" from Truck Drivin' Son-Of-A-Gun on Diplomat

Larry Thornton "Honky Tonk Queen" from Oldies and Goodies: Country and Western Vol. 4 on Crown

Jimmy Strickland "Gonna Buy Me a Record That Crys" from One More Record Please on Bear Family

The Morells "Double Crossin' Liquor" from The Morells on Stewfoot Records

Gary U.S. Bonds "No More Homework" from 30 Original Greatest Hits on LeGrand

Bobby Marchan "Help Yourself" from Get Down With It The Soul Sides 1963-67

Swamp Dogg "If I Die Tomorrow (I've Lived Tonight)" from Total Destruction to Your Mind on Alive

Don Gardener & Dee Dee Ford "I Need Your Lovin'" from A Dirty Shame OST on New Line Cinema

Zorton and The Cannibals "Gotta Get You Outta My Head" from Unfavourable Offerings - EP on Badgerow Records

King Automatic "One Step Beyond" from Playing 6 Garage and Sixties Hits! - EP on Slovenly Recordings

Midnight Woolf "Natural Man" from I'll Be a Dog on Folc Records

Stupidity "Carolina" from Beyond Stupidity on Wicked Cool Records

Wolfwolf "The Bloody Kiss" from The Bloody Kiss - Single on Rookie Records

Dead Moon "Demona" from What a Way to See the Old Girl Go on Voodoo Doughnut Recordings

Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass Kickin Team "Day By Day" from Yeah Wooooo - Single on Doublenaught Records

David Lowery "I Wrote a Song Called Take the Skinheads Bowling" from Fathers, Sons and Brothers on Cooking Vinyl Limited

TV Sound "Summer As It Does" from TV Sound Record Club - EP on Killing Horse Records

Elvis Costello & The Attractions "The Beat" from This Year's Model on Columbia

Sloan "Congratulations" from Based on the Best Seller on Yep Roc Records

Jim and the French Vanilla "Lonely Man" from Afraid of the House on Dirtnap Records

Legendary Shack Shakers "Curse of the Cajun Queen" from After You've Gone on Legendary Shack Shakers

Harvey McLaughlin "A Bag Of Shrunken Heads" from Peña on Saustex Records & Entertainment, LLC

John Paul Keith "Dry County" from The Man That Time Forgot on Big Legal Mess Records

Harlan T. Bobo "Bottle and Hotel" from Too Much Love (Bonus Track Version) on Goner

Andre Williams "Going Down to Tijuana" from Movin On

Big Sandy "Silent Partner" from Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to Chris Gaffney on Yep Roc Records

Playlist for 6.5.26: Bad Tattoo

Bringing back posting my Zero Hour playlists on this here blog. I missed it. And if you missed the news elsewhere, there's a new Paperback Zero zine you can purchase. The debut issue is a tribute to mystery novelist Dashiell Hammett. 

New music this week from Terry Anderson & the Olympic Ass Kickin' Team, back with a cool EP, and Souled American, who are headed to Milwaukee at X-Ray on June 14.

Listen to the archived show here.

 

 

Ramma Lamma "Zero Hour theme" from Zero Hour theme on Self
Slade "Get Down And Get With It" from Get Yer Boots On: The Best Of Slade
The Insomniacs "Jump and Dance" from Jump and Dance on Estrus

 

Barrence Whitfield & The Savages "Let's Go to Mars" from Soul Flowers of Titan on Bloodshot Records
Gus Jenkins "Jealous Of You Baby" from It's a Man Down There on Koko Mojo Records
Rex Garvin & The Mighty Cravers "I Told You Before" on Scatt
MFC Chicken "Study Hall" from It's MFC Chicken Time! on Dirty Water Records
Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Is" from Because You're Mine on Sunset Blvd.
GOONS! "Land of a Thousand Crimes" from Never Go Back on Hi-Tide Recordings
Willie Mitchell "Up Hard" on Hi
Rufus Thomas "Turn Your Damper Down" on Stax
The James Hunter Six "Ain't That A Trip (feat. Van Morrison)" from Off The Fence on Easy Eye Sound

 

Push Kings "Jenny G." from Push Kings on Push Kings
The Mayflies USA "Someday You'll Say Good-bye" from Summertown on Yep Roc Records
The Greenberry Woods "Very Good Year" from It's All Good, Sugar... on Big Stir Records
Cindy Lawson "Dream Baby" from New Tricks on Cindy Lawson
Tommy Keene "Tomorrow's Gone Tonight" from In the Late Bright on Second Motion
Mary Weiss "Tell Me What You Want Me to Do" from Dangerous Game on Norton Records

 

The Reckless Hearts "Before the Summer is Gone" from Get Up and Run on Off the Hip
Xposed 4heads "Light It Up (Live)" from Live at Lest We Forget 2022 - EP on Internal Combustion
Tenement "Crop Circle Nation" from Predatory Headlights on Don Giovanni Records
VIDEO SEX PRIEST "Bundy" from BUNDY - Single on White Falcon Records
Chuck Berry "Promised Land" on Chess

 

The A-Bones "All Night Long" from Stock Footage: Music From the Films of Roger Corman on WorryBird
Mad Mike and the Maniacs "The Hunch" from Mad Mike Monsters Vol. 3 on Norton Records
James Intveld "Let's Go Sexin'" from A Dirty Shame OST on New Line Records
Cool Jerks "Certified Fool" from Cleaned a Lot of Plates In Memphis on Sympathy For The Record Industry
The Real Kids "I'd Rather Go to Jail (Live)" from She's Got Everything (Live) - Single on Norton Records Inc.

 

Don & Dewey "Jungle Hop" on Speciality
The Babalooneys "Rovin' With Norma" from Goin' For It on Hi-Tide Recordings
The Surfmen "Bamboo" from The Sound of Tiki on Bear Family
The Sabres "Take up the Slack Daddy-O" from The Red Hot Sounds of the Sabres Wild North Carolina Rock & Roll! - EP on Norton Records
The Dootz "I'm the Dootz" on Sky
The Martinets "The Good Times to Come" from Rock and Roll Will Probably Never Die on MuSick Recordings
Doug Van Beck Trio "A Whole Lotta Surfin'" on Judi

 

Luna "Rhythm King" from Penthouse on Elektra 0591
Yo La Tengo "Sinatra Drive Breakdown (Bunker Session)" from The Bunker Sessions - EP on Matador
Souled American "Born Free" from Sanctions on Jealous Butcher Records

 

Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kickin Team "Bad Tattoo" from Yeah Wooooo - Single on Doublenaught Records
The Beach Boys "Little Honda" on Capitol
Miss Georgia Peach "A Little South of Saksatoon" from The Hockey Song EP on Rum Bar
Curtis Potter "Dumb Dumb" on Dot
Ruby Boots "Infatuation" from Don't Talk About It on Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd.
Roger Miller "I've Been a Long Time Leavin' (But I'll Be a Long Time Gone) [Single Version]" on Smash

 

Kenny Roby "Vampire Song (Whatcha Gonna Do?)" from The Reservoir on Royal Potato Family
Jimbo Mathus "Rock & Roll Trash" from Dark Night of the Soul on Fat Possum
Eddie Floyd "Big Bird" on Stax
Tyler Keith "I Should've Known it Would End Like This" from I Confess on Black & Wyatt Records
Waylon Jennings "Brand New Goodbye Song" from Nashville Rebel

When the Flamin' Groovies Came to Milwaukee

 

Happy 2026 - anything happen since the last time I posted?

I wrote this article for Urban Milwaukee in advance of the Flamin’ Groovies’ Milwaukee date on its 2014 U.S. Tour, which also took them to New Orleans, Austin, Dallas, Memphis, and elsewhere. Miriam Linna of Norton Records was kind enough to include a quote about her love of the band.

In 2017, the Groovies put out a new album, Fantastic Plastic, their first with new material in more than two decades. The subsequent years have seen new archival releases, including 2024’s Liberation Hall- released Let It Rock: Live From The San Francisco Civic Center 1980, which I gave some spins to on Zero Hour. The documentary mentioned in the article, The Incredible Flamin’ Groovies Movie, still hasn’t been released.

Nearly five decades after they first began, the Flamin’ Groovies, who play next week Saturday, at Northern Lights Theater, are finally making it to Milwaukee.

The band’s long, strange trip from San Francisco circa 1965 to Brew City is not one that can be explained by a GPS. It is one marked with typical and not-so-typical destinations and detours for rock ‘n’ roll musicians: lots of lineup changes, hopefulness, drugs, disgust, delight, numerous record labels, bitter breakups, and several no-doubt, oft-covered, true blue classics: “Teenage Head,” “Slow Death,” “You Tore Me Down” and “Shake Some Action.”

The late music historian and Bomp Records honcho Greg Shaw described the Flamin’ Groovies in down-and-out yet heroic terms for an article he wrote about the band – a decade into its existence – for the spring 1975 issue of his celebrated magazine Who Put the Bomp!

“The Flamin’ Groovies have endured perhaps more hardships and disappointments than any of their fellow survivors, been screwed so many times by managers and record companies that it became a way of life, and been without a recording contract for so long that some of their best friends aren’t even sure if they are still together. … When the Flamin’ Groovies finally emerge, I can’t think of any band in the world with greater potential to create real mania and show the world what a rock & roll band should be.”

Shaw’s article, “The Return of the The Flamin’ Groovies: America’s Coolest Teenage Band is More Alive Than Ever,” ended in true believer style: “They’re gonna make it this time.”

A few years before Shaw, whose first release on Bomp was a 45 of the Groovies’ “You Tore Me Down”/”Him or Me,” pounded out his proclamation, the band had undergone what would be its biggest transformation in 1971– the departure of original lead singer Roy Loney and entrance of Chris Wilson. With Loney and the songs he wrote with guitarist Cyril Jordan, such as “Headin’ for the Texas Border” and “High Flyin’ Baby,” the Flamin’ Groovies had made their name – or perhaps sullied it in some quarters – over three albums with wild-ass, R&B-based rock-n-roll that had bad intentions, loud guitars and heartwarming lines like “When ya’ see me/better turn your tail and run, ‘cause I’m angry and I’ll mess you up for fun.”

With Wilson on board, the band began to shift its focus to a more pop-oriented sound that took its cues from the Byrds, Beatles and others, but it would be five more years before the Flamin’ Groovies would put out another full-length album. In 1976, the Dave Edmunds-produced Shake Some Action began a run of three albums on Sire Records. The new Groovies songwriting team of Wilson and Jordan would substantially add to the band’s legacy, but once again “making it” wasn’t in the cards, and by 1981, Wilson was out of the band.

By that point, Wilson said in a phone interview with me, he and Jordan “couldn’t stand the sight of each other.”

“We were totally fed up,” he says. “I didn’t want to see anybody for years. I didn’t want to play music anymore. I was so pissed off and frustrated with the whole thing. I did give up for a couple of years.

“Ten years of living out of each other’s suitcases and have no flipping success, you know, it was really hard.”

Wilson moved to London and eventually joined another band (The Barracudas), while The Flamin’ Groovies would continue on for another decade, performing on and off. They put out their last studio album in 1992 and disbanded shortly afterward.

The seeds of the current reunion go back to 2008 when Loney and Jordan teamed to do some live shows with members of The A-Bones and Yo La Tengo that took them to London. There they met up with Wilson, who had hoped to enlist them both for a solo album he was doing. Wilson explains their shared agreement to put the past behind them this way: “I went down to a show to see them, and we all just went, aw f*#k, here we are.”

A-Bones drummer Miriam Linna, who runs Brooklyn-based Norton Records with husband and bandmate Billy Miller, is a Flamin’ Groovies expert and hardcore fan. She published a Flamin’ Groovies fanzine in the 1970s, and Norton has released several Flamin’ Groovies live albums, singles and rarities compilations. She offered her assessment of the dual appeal of the long-running band.

“Throughout many lineup variations over the years, the only constant has been Cyril Jordan. Without Cyril, there could not be a Flamin’ Groovies,” Linna tells me. “That said, neither can there be a true Groovies without one of the two lead singers – original and never-to-be-trumped main man Roy Loney of “Teenage Head” and “Flamingo” fame, and Chris Wilson of “Shake Some Action” fame.

“For many fans, for many years, the twain never met – in fact it was impossible that the twain could meet,” Linna goes on. “It was understood that Roy represented the original real rock ‘n’ roll-based band, and Chris represented the Shake Some Action era, which was unfortunately relegated to power pop status, a phrase that still gives me the willies. No one ever touched the hem of the Teenage Head garment, on the terms that the Loney-Jordan godhead established, and the same goes with the Wilson-fronted SSA lineup – they are simply unbeatable.”

Last year, Wilson and Jordan, along with original bassist George Alexander and new drummer Victor Penalosa did shows as the Flamin’ Groovies in Japan and Australia and a few dates around the United States. In November, Wilson and Jordan released the digital-only single “End of the World,” which was the first song they had written together in 32 years.

Writing with Jordan was like “falling off a log” – no trouble at all, Wilson says: “We’re constantly making each other laugh. Cyril’s a couple of years older than me, but we grew up in that period in America in the late ‘50s and ‘60s where everything was so cool and so funny. We’re actually mean, crotchety old bastards now. We always have had the same sense of humor and we finish each other’s sentences. He was like my brother. His mum was like my mum; she took care of me for 10 years. I lived pretty much with Cyril and his family. We’re old mates.”

Wilson says the band just finished recording two more songs in San Francisco that he co-wrote with Jordan, including “Like a Hurricane,” a song that they wrote for Merry Clayton, who was recently featured in the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom.

The Flamin’ Groovies hope to put out a full-length album of new material, Wilson says, but the band might first put out a few more songs as digital downloads.

“I try not to get involved with all that,” he says. “It’s enough for me to actually play and sing. I hate the business end of it because I really don’t understand it anymore – if I ever did.”

A documentary about the band, The Incredible Flamin’ Groovies Movie, is currently being filmed by William Tyler Smith and Kurt Feldhun. Information about it can be found at here.

“Get your tickets now,” Wilson said. “It’s going to be very funny. Very cinéma vérité.”

Linna said it is great to have to the Flamin’ Groovies back in all its versions. Alexander and Jordan joined Loney and past Groovies Mike Wilhelm and James Ferrell for Wilson’s recent solo album, It’s Flamin’ Groovy!

“The fact that both tag teams have reunited to serve up the majesty of the band whose fan club I ran as a teenager, is unbelievable,” she says. “The huge benefit of George Alexander coming to the fore on bass has resulted in the joyous, unchanged onstage guitar/bass bond that is transcendent. I’ll always love the music of the Flamin’ Groovies – always.”

 

The Mad Bomber Story Revisited: Director Bert I. Gordon & Exploitation Promoter Jerry Gross Connect to Blow Minds

 

NOTE: This essay first appeared in Severin’s 2024 Blu-ray release of The Mad Bomber, which belongs in each and every home!

In his autobiography, The Amazing Colossal Worlds of Mr. B.IG., Bert I. Gordon describes how The Mad Bomber was his ticket to acceptance into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the director category. It was no doubt a proud moment for the man from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who got his Hollywood start two decades earlier as an assistant on the 1952-53 western series Cowboy G-Men, starring Russell Hayden and Jackie Coogan. Acceptance from the mainstream was rare for a filmmaker best known for his monster movies featuring massive creatures. Gordon might only ring a bell for some people through his movies’ many appearances on Mystery Science Theater 3000, a record eight in all, two more than Roger Corman.

But Gordon had reached a personal career high point in 1972 after working with Orson Welles, also a native of Kenosha, on the currently hard-to-see Necromancy. A photo from the set shows the two men smiling broadly at each other, and Gordon writes of enjoying many “fine dinners and interesting conversations.” Meanwhile, in interviews, co-star Pamela Franklin describes a much less friendly relationship with Welles during filming of the movie, which also existed as The Witching, a version that included nude inserts featuring Brinke Stevens filmed a decade later.

Starting the ‘70s with the silly but kind of fun, kind of adventurous X-rated sex romp How to Succeed with Sex, his first movie after the Hays Code officially fell in 1968, Gordon didn’t seem to need to be introduced to sleaze by legendary exploitation promoter Jerry Gross for The Mad Bomber. Gordon writes in his autobiography that Gross (he avoids using his actual name) came to him with an idea for Gordon to write, produce, and direct what became The Mad Bomber with Chuck Connors and Vince Edwards. Gordon would also serve as cinematographer for the movie, which was based on a story by novelist Marc Behm. As part of the agreement, Gordon, Connors, and Edwards would work for scale, but the four of them would split the distribution profits 25 percent each. According to an undated news brief in the Hollywood Reporter during this time (per the American Film Institute), shooting for The Mad Bomber was to begin in April 1972.

Connors and Edwards both came to The Mad Bomber after their respective hugely successful television shows, “The Rifleman” and “Ben Casey,” were in the rear-view mirror. Edwards was in a few post-Ben Casey movies in the late ‘60s, including The Devil’s Brigade in 1968, but he did many television movies in the years before and after The Mad Bomber. During the ‘60s, Edwards also continued his music career and recorded six music albums while performing around the country. In 1973, Edwards directed his first and only television movie, “Maneater,” a cool riff on The Most Dangerous Game starring Ben Gazzara and Sheree North that appeared on ABC in December. He divorced his second wife, English actress Linda Foster, in 1972. Connors had a busier movie career after The Rifleman ended, starring in westerns like Ride Beyond Vengeance, Enzo Castellari’s Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, and the Proud and the Dammed. He also was briefly featured in another western TV show, the Larry Cohen-created “Branded.” He divorced his second wife, Indian actress Kamala Devi, in 1972. Besides going through divorces at the same time, Connors and Edwards also were in 1957’s The Hired Gun together, but both played a secondary role to star/producer Rory Calhoun. Meanwhile, Connors might have fallen out of the arms of Devi, but he would soon hold Leonid Brezhnev tightly in June 1973, lifting the then-Soviet leader into the air in a bear hug. The two met at a party hosted by Richard Nixon for Brezhnev at the now decommissioned Marine Corps El Toro Air Station in Orange County, California. Connors presented Brezhnev with two matching Colt. 45s, just like the ones used by “The Rifleman.”

Producer and distributor Jerry Gross helped to bless the world with the unforgettable likes of I Drink Your Blood, I Eat Your Skin, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Teenage Mother, Zombie, The Cheerleaders, and many more, with newspaper ads featuring the magic words “Jerry Gross Presents” promising sex, violence, and more. The ambitions of Gross and his Cinemation Industries were increasing in 1972. An article appeared in The New York Times in February announcing Cinemation planned to release 16 to 20 movies in 1972, “comparing favorably” with major film companies and with Gross touting their recent profits. Cinemation’s biggest 1972 release was the X-rated Fritz the Cat in April. In Jan. 1973, A.H. Weiler of the Times reported Cinemation was planning a sequel to Fritz the Cat after it “grossed in excess of $10 million,” according to Gross and producer Steve Krantz. The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat would be released in June 1974 and not involve director Ralph Bakshi or R. Crumb, who had killed off Fritz in a comic strip (with an ice-pick to the skull) to voice his disgust with the original film. It also didn’t involve Cinemation; American International Pictures would ultimately distribute the sequel, which received mostly negative reviews. Gross would distribute and promote 56 films during a 25-year career, according to his obituary published in Variety on Dec. 5, 2002.

Just as she had done since her husband’s first movie, King Dinosaur, Flora Gordon (née Lang, a name would return to later) served on the crew (as production coordinator) for The Mad Bomber. For a time, it was Bert and Flora against creatures big and small as they worked together on visual and special effects in low-budget movies like Attack of the Puppet People, The Spider, and Village of the Giants. After The Mad Bomber, Flora would only work on one more movie with Bert, 1976’s The Food of the Goods, before they divorced in 1979. That year she would also help form the Directors Guild of America’s Women’s Committee, which played an essential role in advancing women’s opportunities to direct in Hollywood. Flora, who died in 2016 at 90, also served as a production manager on Dogs (on which she also was assistant director) and The Great Smokey Roadblock, and she was a unit production manager for four seasons on “Dynasty.”

After premiering as The Mad Bomber, the movie also did business as Confessions of a Dirty Cop, Detective Geronimo, just Geronimo, and finally in September 1973 it was re-released as The Police Connection. Across its various names, the movie played on double bills with movies like The Daredevil, a stock car racing movie set in the South, Don Sharp’s The Death Wheelers (doing business as Maniacs on Wheels), Skyjacked, and Pretty Maids All in a Row. At a Troy, New York, drive-in it even played on a double bill with Teenage Mother. Interestingly, several newspapers articles in spring 1973 indicate that another movie was changing its name to The Police Connection: Badge 373, starring Robert Duvall. The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph even called it the “new and final title.” The Mad Bomber had a few taglines: “It Will Blow Your Mind,” and as The Police Connection, the wonderfully insane: “In Handcuffs or a Paper Bag, They Don’t Care How They Bring Them in!” For Detective Geronimo, dots were connected fully: “Where French Connection and Dirty Harry Stop, Geronimo Begins.”

A monumental year for movies, 1973 stands tall in the ‘70s and looms large across movie history. The year brought us The Exorcist, Mean Streets, The Last Detail, Coffy, and many more all-timers. In April alone, the month The Mad Bomber premiered on the 4^th, a Wednesday (the same day the World Trade Center opened in NYC), theaters and drive-ins hosted The Candy Snatchers, Theatre of Blood, The Baby, Soylent Green, and Sisters, to name just a few. Two members of The Mad Bomber cast also appeared in Soylent Green: Connors and Faith Quabius, who plays George Fromley’s (Neville Brand) first victim, Martha, in The Mad Bomber. These would be Quabius’s only two movie roles, but she and Connors obviously hit it off. They got hitched in 1977 – and divorced in 1980.

In January 1973, Mary Murphy reported in the L.A. Times in her “Movie Call Sheet” column that Bert I. Gordon would next be working on Scarface Al Capone as part of a two-picture deal with the notorious Philip Yordan, who helped in an uncredited role on The Mad Bomber. Meanwhile, according to Gordon’s autobiography, The Mad Bomber did “exceptionally well” at the box office in the United States and beyond, but he, Connors, and Edwards never saw a cent from Gross and Cinemation, which filed for bankruptcy in 1975. Variety reported in April 1973 that a sequel to the movie called Stake Out was being considered. An earlier article by the Copley News Service, published in October 1972, indicates ambitions for The Mad Bomber were even higher. The article (“Star Denies Nags Stirred Home Rift”) features an interview with Edwards, discussing his on again/off again divorce with Foster. He denies gambling on horses caused their marriage issues and describes his belief that “the man should be the head of the house.” Edwards also talks about The Mad Bomber and his role as an “Indian-Italian policeman, Geronimo Minelli.” The article says the movie will be the first of six (!) flicks about the “ethnically interesting cop who may become hero of a television series.” Says Edwards about his character: “He’s like Ben Casey in many ways. He’s a good cop obsessed with the law. And he’s a tough cop, real tough, manically tough.”

Quentin Tarantino singles out Neville Brand for praise in his brief mention about The Mad Bomber in Cinema Speculation in the chapter about The Getaway as he describes why he doesn’t like Al Lettieri in the Peckinpah movie. He calls George Fromley “one sick son of a bitch” but believes Brand gives the most enjoyable performance in The Mad Bomber, one that connects to the audience despite him playing a “grotesque bad guy.” By comparison, Tarantino says Lettieri’s performance causes audiences to disengage from the movie. Indeed, Brand is outstanding – and all in as a photography hobbyist/husband/ police harassment victim/serial rapist. His death scene, as Fromley masturbates delightedly to sexy, arty photographs of his wife, is impossible to forget – in a movie filled with explosions, rapes, frequent nudity, and intense violence. Connors is less believable in his role as the anal-retentive maniac Willaim Dorn. In his various “manners” confrontations, he plays Dorn like a bully more than someone unhinged or unpredictable and lets his tiny glasses do a lot of the work. Edwards is better, if a little too sleepy, except when he’s threatening to blow out Fromley’s brains or yelling at his partner for eating shelled pistachios on a stakeout.

In his 1985 book, The B-Directors: A Biographical Directory, genre and experimental movie expert W. Winston Wheeler concludes his entry on Gordon with this analysis: “Gordon persists, but he does not succeed.” And it’s true that in a career that covered seven decades, Gordon, who died at 100 in 2023, never stop persisting. But The Mad Bomber shows that Gordon should have taken more chances like he did with this movie, and maybe he would have liked to do just that. His daughter Patricia said in an interview with me celebrating the life of Gordon for Wisconsin Public Radio that Gordon’s best screenplay was for a “subtle” unpublished anti-war movie.

 

Ramblin' Fever: The Playlist Pounder

 

I entered my heavy Hag phase when Merle Haggard’s career-spanning box set came out in 1996, Down Every Road: 1962-1994. I even remember where I first heard about the box: on the late, great Carol Taylor’s “Defenestration 89.5”freeform radio show on WHRV in Norfolk, Virginia (sadly the show ended soon after that, and Taylor was dead of cancer at 32 later that year). Before buying the box, I think I had only had bought a couple of Haggard’s budget-line greatest hits collections and some random late ‘80s and early ‘90s efforts, all on cassette.

“Ramblin’ Fever” (the title track for his 1977 MCA debut) became a quick favorite for me on the box. The opening drums and guitar revs up into something funky and lowdown and grabs you right off: turn up the volume, roll down the windows—we’re getting out of here. The first line is a simple but timeless-sounding declaration: “My hat don’t hang on the same nail for too long.” It sounds like something Hank Williams might have written 30 years earlier, or words from a cowboy hundred years before that (ironic because the next line is “My ears can’t stand to hear the same old song”). We learn that the narrator sure has this fever bad. It’s uncurable. It’s “in his blood,” and “it can’t be measured be degrees.” No woman will tie him down, and he’ll never be too old to ramble. Haggard sings, “I want to die along the highway and rot away like some old high-line pole.” Imagine coming to that line and feeling it, the miles it would take.

I love the way Haggard sings “pretty lady” when he offers these lines: “There’s times I’d like to bed down on a sofa/And let some pretty lady rub my back/And spend the early morning drinking coffee/ And talkin’ about when I’ll be coming back.” I was just rewatching Paul Newman in Harper, and there’s a part that almost plays out similarly to what Haggard describes when a battered Newman as Lew Harper returns home to his wife played by Janet Leigh, who is divorcing him, who is trying to stop loving him, and convinces her to give him another chance, to spend the night, but Harper slinks away again the in the morning as she’s making him bacon and eggs.

In November 1976, news came that Haggard and his wife of 11 years, country music singer Bonnie Owens, were divorcing. In the same archived newspaper where I read about the Haggard-Owens split, there was also an article from Utah’s death row about Gary Gilmore hoping to get married to 21-year-old Nicole Barrett before his date with the firing squad, a relationship “destined to achieve melodramatic status.” A few weeks earlier in November, the Associated Press reported that Haggard had canceled shows in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno and had gone missing. Utah police had been trying to locate him, and their search had become more intensified after they received an anonymous call that “Haggard’s body could be found in a Nevada gully.” But manager Fuzzy Owen told the reporter Haggard was OK and “somewhere between Arizona and Los Angeles.” “He’s be under quite a strain,” Owen said.

After the divorce, Bonnie Owens continued to perform in Haggard’s band into the early ‘80s. She even served as a bridesmaid for Leona Williams, another country musician, when Williams and Haggard married in 1978. “Ramblin’ Fever” was only one of two songs Haggard wrote on Ramblin’ Fever, which marked his switch from Capitol to MCA, motivated in part by Haggard’s desire to cross over to new audiences. The other song, “I Think It’s Gone Forever,” was a co-write with Williams. They divorced in 1983. Here’s a great live version of “Ramblin’ Fever” recorded in the Netherlands in 1978. Watch, it almost seems like Owens is smiling when he sings those lines about the pretty lady and back rubbing.

View the entire playlist for the Dec. 5 Zero Hour (scroll to the correct date) and listen to the archived audio.