Welcome to the ramblings of a man who really should have grown out of listening to "that sort of music" a long, long time ago...A place to share thoughts and photographs on music and related paraphernalia.
Showing posts with label The Stompin' Riffraffs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Stompin' Riffraffs. Show all posts
Well, 2021 has been another great year for new music despite the obvious and ongoing hardships of the pandemic as is evident in the four superb Retrosonic Podcast new release specials that we've put out this year. Listed below are twenty of our favourite albums of 2021, so please do click on the highlighted links to investigate these fantastic bands and records further. You can hear tracks from most of the featured albums in Retrosonic Podcasts Episode 42 "The After-Party After The Party From Hell", Episode 43 "Kiss Me I'm Vaccinated", Episode 44 "Sonic Love" and Episode 45 "Waking Up The Band". I hope you find something you like from this wonderful selection!
You can subscribe to Retrosonic Podcast for free at Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Mixcloud, Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud. Our favourite Singles, Reissues and Books of 2021 are coming soon.
It was great news to see that The Stompin' Riff Raffs were playing a gig in Tokyo while I was there and the chance to see them in a small basement club in Shimokitazawa was too good an opportunity to pass up. After all they do rank up there among the best live acts I've ever seen and any band that can make a theremin sexy has got my vote! I first saw them play at last year's Hipsville Weekender where the enthusiastic organizers Mr A, Alex and Ade can be relied on to scour all corners of the planet to bring us unbelievably good Garage Rock bands. I've been introduced to bands from Mexico such as Los Sustos, the fabulous Autoramas from Brazil, Messer Chups from Russia and The Jackets from Switzerland to name a few. But they really surpassed themselves with The Stompin' Riff Raffs. Getting them over from Japan can't have been easy and the band were hit by technical problems on the day which unfortunately put paid to Miku's keyboards. However the young Tokyo based band continued to put in a stunningly energetic performance, Miku endearing herself to the crowd by still going through the motions of playing her broken keyboard just in case it miraculously burst in life!
Miku of The Stompin' Riff Raffs at Club Three Tokyo
Rie of The Stompin' Riff Raffs at Club Three Tokyo
So, back to the present and I'm down the front at Club Three eagerly awaiting my second experience of The Stompin' Riff Raffs. They burst onto the stage and crash straight into the Surf-Psych instrumental "Parabellum". Three girls and a guy. The girls dressed identically in sparkling 1930's style flapper dresses and Green Hornet face masks. Miku plays her theremin as though it were a guitar, twisting ear-bustingly weird yet wonderful noises from it. Drummer Saori is all smiles behind her kit and super-cool bassist Rie looks great while adding harmonies and backing vocals. Singer and guitarist Nao is a truly charismatic front-man as he throws everything into his performance. The Sonics' "The Witch" gets a good Stompin' and "Surfside Date" sounds amazing. There are elements of Link Wray, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Cramps and the Ramones in their quick-fire no pause for breath approach. One of my highlights of the night is the penultimate killer track "Horror Show", which you can hear in Episode 22 of Retrosonic Podcast here.
Saori of The Stompin' Riff Raffs at Club Three Tokyo
Nao of The Stompin' Riff Raffs at Club Three Tokyo
The band are all smiles and their enthusiasm is infection as the crowd go wild, there's a real sense of fun and abandonment with The Stompin' Riff Raffs. The set draws to a crazed end with another theremin-led instrumental "Ghost Train" during which all hell breaks loose on stage and everything falls apart in glorious chaos! What a show and what a band! My only complaint was that due to time restraints there was no encore so I didn't get to hear my favourite track "Linda" but I was more than satisfied. Let's hope they come back to the U.K. again very soon. You can check out more 'up close and personal' videos of the band at the Club Three Shimokitazawa and Hipsville 2016 over at our Retro Man Blog YouTube channel here. Here's a little taster...
For more info on The Stompin' Riff Raffs check out their official Facebook page here.
Lemmy, Copenhagen 1987 photographed by Paul Slattery
In Episode 21 of Retrosonic Podcast, Steve & Adam are joined by Rock Photographer Paul Slattery to spin and chat about a mix of oldies, new releases and exclusive tracks. Paul explains how Lemmy influenced his choice of career in music photography and he picks his favourite Motörhead track. One of Paul's photos graces the cover of the brand new single from Billy Childish & CTMF so we give that a play and talk about Paul's work with Billy over the years. Staying in the Medway there's the debut single from Graham Day's new outfit The Senior Service and we're still recovering from our sold-out launch party with the band at the Half Moon Putney. Of course we can't avoid the untimely death of David Bowie and we pick a Mod classic from his time with The Lower Third. Along the way we chat about some upcoming gigs by some influential and legendary British R'n'B bands The Pretty Things and The Downliners Sect plus there's the long-awaited return of The Long Ryders. There's a cracking new track from The Rezillos and a classic from That Petrol Emotion. We go all International with The Stompin' Riff Raffs and The Mayflowers from Japan, there's some raw R'n'B from the Loire Valley and Sharpers and an exclusive unreleased track from Brazil's brilliant Autoramas! Oh, and there's a brand new slice of Psycho Rock 'n' Roll from Dick Venom & The Terrortones! Here's the play-list, if you liked the music we played we'd really be pleased if you could take the time to click on the highlighted links to check out more information on the featured bands.
You can now download and/or listen to the episode free of charge from our Retrosonic Podcast Soundcloud site here, subscribe at iTunes or stream at Mixcloud. Otherwise just check this out...
