The Walkmen
One of my favourite gigs ever was The Walkmen’s first (I think) Glasgow gig at King Tuts in 2004. If i remember rightly they were lumped in with the post Strokes shit tsunami of the time, usually enough to put me off but The Walkmen had a lure I couldn’t deny. ‘The Rat’ was doing the rounds on MTV2 and that channel XFM used to do, and on the strength of that i bought the album Bows+Arrows, and 2 briefs for the Tuts gig. The two very last tickets available, how’s that for luck? The gig was a belter, and i can still see Hamilton Leithouser atop the monitors bellowing ‘yooooo got a nerve…’
They have a new album coming out, Lisbon, and it sounds terrific. Check ‘Angela Surf City’ below, and ‘The Rat’ in lo-fi b&w serenity.
The Walkmen play the Academy with The Black Keys on October 28
Reverend Dan’s Music For Nimrods
A few posts below is a piece about Pete Myers AKA The Mad Daddy. Whilst i was researching it I came across a reference to Music For Nimrods, hosted by a character called Reverend Dan. Not sure why, but my interest was piqued enough to make the effort to tune in. His three hour show goes out on the Los Angeles station KXLU at 3am on Saturday (which after a few weeks of missing the first hour i realised is 11AM Glasgow time) so i had to rouse early and take my place hunched over the PC in my underwear. Not for the first time i hear you say, but let’s press on; The Reverend’s show fucking rocked. He was spinning The Blasters, The Cramps, Lou Reed and The Nerves, all the good shit you never hear on radio (bar one show of course) AND he sounds like those crazy DJs you only see in films. The kind that can grate, but on the whole are fucking awesome. Anyways thanks to VLC player not only am I now able to record the show auto-magically but i can save it and share with you bums. Here’s the show from August 28th, check back often for updates, bitchez
Standing on the corner, Wearing my shades…..
It was quite a few years ago when I first heard of the mad daddy, aka Pete Myers. it was a wee boxout in Uncut magazine, probably between articles about Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd. Or the Who and the Stones. or, well you get the idea. A diamond in the rough is essentially what I mean.
Pete Myers was a DJ in the late 1950s, and broadcast on WHK in Cleveland. He created a persona for himself, The Mad Daddy, a good natured ghoul with his own far out rhyming patter.
The Mad Daddy show was one wild ride, with Daddy riffing his way through sound effects, distortion and the craziest music of the day. Daddy played the kind of Rock n Roll seldom heard by white ears and this helped him tap into the Ohioan teenage psyche. His off the cuff riffs and rhymes and advertising ad libs are what I think of when I think of American Rock n Roll Radio. Crazy shit done at 100mph, and with a real enthusiasm that few in the UK seem to have done (As far as I know anyway) And Pete was pretty mad away from the studio too, whilst on a contractually enforced 2 week sabbatical he was worried that Cleveland’s throttle jammers and mellow muffins may lose interest, so he arranged a publicity stunt; parachuting into a harbour full of Jello whilst dressed as Zorro, flinging records out on his descent. Lets forget the costume, records and dessertification of a working harbour were kyboshed by the authorities, Pete actually did the jump. His first ever! Mad? you better believe it…
Like all the best stories, this one has a tragic ending. Pete got the chance of going out on a New York station, and jumped at it. However those east coast morons just didn’t get Daddy, and the gig was cancelled after one show. The Mad Daddy flitted about a few other stations after that, and even transmogrified back into plain old Pete, but it seems he became depressed and disillusioned by his New York experience. Pete Myers committed suicide on October 4th 1968.
So long, Daddy. Let me pay a small salute by airing his 2nd last show on WHK ( I think), and lastly how about The Cramps own tribute. Lux Interior was one of Oobladi’s most fervent Mad Minions