Postscript: Johnny Foreigner's "Stop Talking About Ghosts"

While we ended up having enough restraint to edit the final version of yesterday's album review down from well over 1,200 words, there is still more we need to say concerning Johnny Foreigner's recent goings-on. Namely, that the Birmingham, England-based quartet issued Monday a digital single for the tune "Stop Talking About Ghosts," which includes some epic b-sides. The song is a central cut on the foursome's magnificent new collection You Can Do Better, which we unreservedly recommend. Chief among the b-sides -- in case you didn't see us raving on Facebook -- is Johnny Foreigner's scorching rendition of Swedish legends The Wannadies' rager "Hit." We've told this backstory here many times, we're sure, but it bears repeating. In early 1997, we were minding our business in Amsterdam when we were overtaken by a rainy day, and we spent that day inside doing whatever while watching MTV Europe. MTV Europe had in rotation at the time the video for The Wannadies' "Hit," and it blew us away (and, goddamnit, the clip is now region blocked for America -- THANKS OBAMA). Once we saw the video, we felt like we had little choice but to sit right in the basement bar we'd taken refuge in to see how many more times we could see the video again before passing out. It was that good. And the process, sitting and watching MTV, waiting for video to cycle around again, was a replay of a cherished experience from our youth, when we'd sit and sit and wait for a certain classic Van Halen clip, or maybe Rainbow's "All Night Long," to come back around.

So it was a brilliant day, that day in Amsterdam, and one made all the more brilliant by "Hit." The Wannadies never really cracked America, despite making some inroads with their "You And Me Song," which was prominently featured on the "Romeo + Juliette" soundtrack. And because the band never gained a footing here, they have always sort of just been "our" band, in a way not dissimilar to how Johnny Foreigner is sort of (OK, totally is) "our band." The fact that the Birmingham, England-based noise-pop giants chose to cover "Hit" is the very definition of serendipity, and one that makes us very happy. And it certainly makes the value proposition of the "Stop Talking About Ghosts" single that much greater. As if the music itself wasn't inducement enough, however, all money raised from the sale of the single goes to the Cavell Nurses Trust, which offers emergency financial support to nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants in the UK. So, while you could be a deadbeat and just grab these three awesome songs -- oh, right, there's also a ridiculously heavy reimagining of the Vs. Everything track "Vs. You" -- for free, well, don't do that. Instead, help Johnny Foreigner and its label Alcopop! support this very worthy cause. Stream all three tracks via the embed below, and click through to purchase and support Cavell. You can do it. For more information about "Stop Talking About Ghosts," read fronter Alexei Berrow's song-for-song breakdown of You Can Do Better right here. And in the event you are in need of some light reading, Johnny Foreigner has just published all the words to the new record right here.

Indie Rock Ranger Holiday Spectacular: Freezepop, Sidewalk Driver, Parks, Animal Talk, Harris Hawk | 14 Dec. | Middle East

Maybe, like us, you spend your commutes to and from work car-bound and following pre-schoolers' orders to dial between the two all-Christmas music stations presently on the FM spectrum in Boston, and the idea of more Christmas music makes you want to hit yourself in the head with a hammer. Fortunately, the ideas "holiday" and "music" can be separated, shaken up like a snow globe, and put back together in just a different enough way that you are no longer doomed to Karen Carpenter crooning on both 96.1 and 106.7 at once. Shake them right, wait for the faux snow to settle, and you just might find yourself at Indie Rock Ranger's Holiday Spectacular this Saturday at the Middle East Down. The evening is an auditory five-course meal of homegrown Boston rock and pop from the acts Animal Talk, Freezepop, Harris Hawk, Parks and Sidewalk Driver.

But wu-wu-wu-wait there's more. Did you miss your chance to get yourself down to Plymouth this past weekend for The Ash Gray Proclamation's Toys For Tots benefit show? If you did, and even if you didn't, Anngelle Wood's Holiday Toy Drive to benefit the DCF Kids Fund is happening during the Holiday Spectacular as well. If you've got a little extra scratch to spread around to help make the holiday better for a kid getting through a tough situation, pick up a new, unwrapped toy on the way to the show and toss it at host con most and exemplary human Richard Bouchard, who will surely wonder why people are throwing toys at him (SHHHHHH! let's let it be a surprise!). Ms. Wood wisely points out that toys are great, but there are older foster kids out there who might get a smile out of a gift card, electronics, games, art supplies, music, videos, books, clothing, hats, gloves, scarves, stuff like that. Cash is always good, too. Another way to get your money into the worthy hands of DCF is to buy a print of the awesome show poster situated atop this blog post. That'd look good all framed up in the rec room, right? Get one for $10 at the show, and that money goes to DCF courtesy of the good people behind Daykamp Creative.

So what about these rock and roll bands playing? Do they make good rock and roll music? They do! The line-up is tilted toward dance-rock acts that will surely have the joint jumping. But we're particularly interested in the openers, the relatively new hard rockers Harris Hawk, whose sound draws heavily from like-minded bands working between, say, '76 and '86. On their epic jam "Sweetness," Harris Hawk come across like mid-'70s Heart riffing on Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," which we think we can all agree is a good thing. But it's the song that leads into that one that first fired our imagination. "Intermissionary" is an atmospheric interlude that functions a lot like Van Halen's "Intruder" on 1982's Diver Down, building tension that is released with the commencement of the ensuing track. We'd be totally stoked if Harris Hawk jammed out on "Intermissionary" for 10 minutes during their set Saturday. Find out if they do just that: buy tickets, buy a gift for the toy drive, and get over to the club when doors open at 8PM Saturday. You can do this.

That Was The Show That Was: Frightened Rabbit | Middle East

For the first time out of several that we've seen the band perform, Frightened Rabbit Sunday night appeared, well, a little frightened. And band fronter Scott Hutchison seemed almost willing to concede the performance a failure from the onset. What the Selkirk, Scotland-based quartet didn't count on was the fact that the young crowd was ready to love anything it did, even the occasionally tentative or forced. All was forgiven by the grateful crowd even before Mr. Hutchison began offering apologies. Which brings us to an adage of ours that we'll explain later: they can't all be flaming gong nights.

At issue Sunday night was the fact that the foursome, according to Mr. Hutchison, had too much to drink in New York the prior evening and accidentally left a substantial amount of its stage gear there, including guitar pedals, MIDI pedals, cables and we think the organ the band has been using recently to perform our favorite FR song, "The Twist." Much of the equipment apparently belonged to newest member Andy Monaghan, who (incidentally or coincidentally) was very hard to hear in the house mix from our perch several bodies back from the opposite side of the stage.

So, yeah, "flaming gong nights." That's a reference to what in our opinion is the greatest live performance clip ever filmed, namely Van Halen's 1981 Oakland show that climaxed with this amazing version of "Unchained." During the finale, drummer Alex Van Halen figuratively takes the show to 11 by standing up, grabbing a torch and lighting a giant gong on fire. We'll say that again: he stands up, grabs a torch, and lights a giant gong on fire. Then he smashes the hell out of the gong, sits down and smashes his crash cymbals, and it's complete mayhem. That, in our opinion, is the apex of live musical performance. Of course not every show can be bananas like that, and that is OK.

So while Frightened Rabbit did exhibit last night signs of being off their game -- despite having cobbled together a sufficient amount of stage gear from touring mates Spinto Band and The Swims -- it is hard to flop with such exceptional material. And so fans called out praise between songs as the lads tuned; young co-eds dreamily gazed at Mr. Hutchison and sang along to his solo ballad "Poke;" tousle-haired young men gesticulated their teenage angst toward the low ceiling while chanting out "you're the shit and I'm knee-deep in it" along with their hero. Truly the Frightened Rabbit phenomenon continues to propagate unchecked, and last night's stymied performance did nothing to derail it. Drummer Grant Hutchison put an exclamation point on the evening -- and the band's apparent frustrations -- as he bashed out the exultant, obliterating tattoo that ends the sublime shouter "Square 9" and closed out the show. Grant did so with such ferocity that we half-worried as he lurched up from his kit that he was heading to the fans in the front row to continue administering beatings. Which, in a way, is pretty damn close to a flaming gong.

We posted the remainder of Frightened Rabbit's tour dates here in the foot of the review of the band's new live record Liver! Lung! FR!, which is being released by Fat Cat today; the band returns to Boston in January. Below we've posted our admittedly fuzzy memory of last night's set list, and under that are a couple live MP3s being offered here by the web site of Glaswegian nightclub The Mill, where Frightened Rabbit played Sept. 25.

The Modern Leper
Fast Blood
Old, Old Fashioned
I Feel Better
Good Arms Versus Bad Arms
Poke
My Backwards Walk
The Greys
Square 9

Frightened Rabbit -- "The Modern Leper" -- Live At The Mill, Glasgow, Scotland
Frightened Rabbit -- "I Feel Better" -- Live At The Mill, Glasgow, Scotland
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[buy Frightened Rabbit music from Newbury Comics here, EMusic here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:
FR Live At TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

These Were Our Jams, When We Were 10 Or So

We weren't always an indie rocker. It didn't really kick in until 1990 or so. Above are selections that randomly float in our heads when we're not thinking of anything in particular, and most of them are a result of obsessive MTV viewing and FM radio listening in the early 1980s. The above little doohickey was created at ThisIsMyJam.com, where you can go and create your very own time capsule.

Clicky Clicky Hardcorner: Before They Were Indie Rockers

The impending release of Julie Ocean's shiny debut Long Gone And Nearly There, as well as the hardcore-referencing Philly sports blog Choketown that our friend TymMac has started contributing to, has gotten us thinking about writing some posts about indie rockers and the hardcore bands from whence they came. You may recall that one of Julie Ocean's members formerly served time in the stunning D.C. hardcore act Swiz, whose No Punches Pulled release is as forthright and powerful a hardcore record as they come. Along the same lines, we recall years ago being amazed to learn that one of the fellows from (erstwhile?) Philly indie band-about-town Lenola once played guitar in one of New Jersey's finest straightedge bands, Turning Point. We once traded several Van Halen and Judas Priest vinyl albums for about as many hardcore records. And while we likely came out on the short end of the deal, our copy of Turning Point's It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn pressed to clear vinyl is a cherished possession. We were too lazy to rip the album, but EMusic did the heavy lifting for us by selling the band's Discography. There are a couple choice tunes below from Swiz and Turning Point. Look for our review of the Julie Ocean record in a couple weeks.

Swiz -- "Ghost" -- No Punches Pulled
Swiz -- "Toon" -- No Punches Pulled
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[buy No Punches Pulled from Jade Tree here]

Turning Point -- "Shadow Of Lies" -- Discography
Turning Point -- "Guidance" -- Discography
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[buy Turning Point's Discography from Jade Tree here]

Come On Dave, Gimme A Break.

Pop metal legends Van Halen announced its first tour with original fronter David Lee Roth in 22 years today. Please allow us to revert to our ten-year-old selves for one night. Well, and our 33-year-old selves too, apparently. To quote our Feb. 1, 2007 email to fellow participants of Bus Of Rock III: ""'Unchained' Live, with flaming gong action at the end. Holy sh*t this is awesome. The band was never this good again. This is the highlight. FLAMING F*CKING GONG."