Give That Kid A Smack mix

Rock! Roll! Drugs! Girls! Underpants! It's another volume of the most mongerous mongerosity in all of mongerdom. This one ranges a little wider than previous entries, starting with the Tom-Waits-in-Nawlins chug of Royal Fingerbowl and ending on the hyper Dolls-gone-hair-metal of the Nastys, and in between it veers drunkenly between glam, power pop, hard rock, and rootsy Americana. Special thanks to the Look What The Twat Dragged In blog for introducing me to the Sand Rubies, whose "Fuk 'Em" is quickly becoming a personal anthem (even though I'm philosophically opposed to misspellings of song titles). Remember to turn this one up loud.

Give That Kid A Smack

1. Royal Fingerbowl Bad Apples
2. The Compulsions Big, Fat, Sexy Mama
3. The Glossary Save Your Money For The Weekend
4. Cobra Verde Underpants
5. S'cool Girls Put Up Or Shut Up
6. Like A Martyr And By Coffee I Mean Drugs
7. The Respectables Charged By The Minute
8. The Heats Let's All Smoke
9. Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle Too Sober To Sleep
10. The Sand Rubies Fuk 'Em
11. The Liquor Giants Awful Good
12. The Mekons (w/ Neko Case) Last Night On Earth
13. The DomNicks Busted
14. Green Up All Night
15. The Crybabys Swallow Me Up
16. The Glands When I Laugh
17. Doug Gillard The Temperament Twist
18. Free Energy Dark Trance
19. Parallax Project I Hate Girls
20. The Nastys Bad Doctor

12 Songs by Link Wray

How bad-ass was Link Wray? His song "Rumble" was banned from radio play in the 50s for inciting teen violence - and it was an instrumental! That particular piece of rock history was also honorably footnoted for inventing the power chord and inspiring Pete Townshend to pick up his first guitar. A run of ripping instros followed "Rumble", and although most people associate Link Wray with that era, the man's most enduring work may have been waxed in the '70s. On a series of (mostly ignored) albums in that decade, Link pursued a much deeper, more personal sound, influenced equally by Dylan, the Stones, and a wealth of American blues, folk, and country. Link's guitar playing could still be as aggressive as ever, but he could also tap into new layers of subtlety. Most surprising of all, the one-time instrumentalist had found a soulful vocal style that sure as hell didn't sound like it was emanating from a man with only one lung. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that bit about only having one lung. Bad. Ass. Anyway, this is a compilation of tracks from a few of those '70s albums, ending with his downright spectacular cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" from 1979's Bullshot.

12 Songs by Link Wray

1. Backwoods Preacher Man
2. La De Da
3. Southern Lady
4. Black River Swamp
5. Take Me Home Jesus
6. Crowbar
7. Juke Box Mama
8. Fallin' Rain
9. God Out West
10. Fire and Brimstone
11. It Was A Bad Scene
12. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

track #1 and 11 from The Link Wray Rumble (1974)
track #2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 from Link Wray (1971)
track #3 from Stuck In Gear (1975)
track #12 from Bullshot (1979)