Whoa, WFMU’s Debbie D and company have gone bonkers over at the Rock ‘n’ Soul Ichiban site.
There are photos of Phil Spector, circa 1958, looking remarkably sedate. A picture of Tennessee Ernie Ford standing atop a pile of coal, advertising “Sixteen Tons.” A portrait of burlesque star Coco Barr brandishing a pair of pistols.
And, of course, there’s music galore: The Collins Kids, performing on the U.S. Air Force’s Country Music Time show. Big Star. Dexter Romweber. “The Patio Twist.” And an incredible live stream of “obscure ’50s and ’60s rock ‘n’ soul.” I’m listening to Huey Smith and the Clowns right now!
In other WFMU news, the Trashmen will be performing at the Record Fair, slated for Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion on October 23rd, 24th and 25th!
They hate CDs, but apparently they like the Interwebs okay. The mad geniuses and longtime Stomp supporters at Norton Records (label co-owner Miriam Linna moderated a memorable oral history with Question Mark at the 2009 Ponderosa Stomp Conference) have launched a new podcast to feed your ears, beaming out straight across the cyber-spaceways from their Brooklyn-based Sputnik.
Norton house band the A-Bones will also be striking out soon for the mystic East, with five dates scheduled (starting this Friday) in Japan, sharing bills with the 5,6,7,8′s and Jackie & the Cedrics.
Mystic Knight of the Mau Mau and recent Lincoln Center debutant Mike Hurtt is also dusting off his suitcase to play gigs in Portland, OR and Spain with soul legend and 2004 Ponderosa Stomp headliner Gino Washington.
Play the video below to see Gino ride his pony with Hurtt’s Party Stompers in Detroit earlier this summer.
Were you able to hoof your way to New York last month when Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan of the San Francisco-based face-meltingly fantastic rock group the Flamin Groovies — backed by the ever-capable A-Bones — reprised their appearance at the 8th annual Ponderosa Stomp with a pair of gigs at Maxwell’s and Southpaw? The concerts marked the first time the Groovies got onstage together in the NYC environs since 1971!
I missed the shows, but I dug this crash course in the Groovies’ history, via this post on A-Bones/Norton Records co-founder Miriam Linna‘s blog, Kicksville 66.
Linna begins, “In Ohio days of yesteryear, the common denominator was, more than the Stooges or the 5 (MC and DC), the Flamin’ Groovies. I’ve tried to nail down the reasons why, and can’t. Other than to think that there was something in their sound and style that made us feel like one of them. Over other combos that we dug to pieces, there was a sense of joy and good humor to the hard ass blasts which made them front liners for the defense. But you know that. If you’ve managed to tread water through the world’s longest sentences and have made it thus far, you KNOW THAT. For a band that sprang from the bayside bowels of San Francisco at the height of the British Invasion to persist for one decade at the same magnamity, let alone four, is something worth perpetual notice. In the 70′s, you just couldn’t trust anyone without the Groovies in their personal stash. This was understood. Flamingo and Teenage Head were absolute staples in any hard driving collection, and when Supersnazz and Sneakers were found alongside the others in any given home habitat, you knew you were in the presence of a fellow genius.”
Her words are riveting, and she’s right. Go here for the rest of the story.
Whoa, WFMU’s Debbie D and company have gone bonkers over at the Rock ‘n’ Soul Ichiban site. 
Were you able to hoof your way to New York last month when 
