Cleveland Still Rocks

  After Thanksgiving weekend as I drove back to west Michigan, I heard an awesome song 'Melted Rainbow'  on Impact 89 the MSU college radio station.  It was by a two-piece Cleveland band Mr. Gnome.  The band members are Nicole Barille and Sam Meister.   They are kind of like a Bizarro World White Stripes.  They are an actual married couple where the husband is the drummer and the wife is the guitarist/vocalist and is extremely talented.
Here is a link to their new album released in November.  Give a listen to 'Melted Rainbow' the first track 

                                 

  The city of Cleveland was an appropriate place for the site of the Rock Hall of Fame as local  DJ Allen Freed, who coined the term Rock 'n' Roll, also launched a lot of early artists on his Moondog Show back in the 50's.  Although the intention of the Hall of Fame was noble, it almost immediately seemed to have lost the rebel spirit of the music genre and began chosing its inductees instead on a basis of record sales.  For example, The Stooges were snubbed by the Hall until 2010 (17 years after first being eligible) although they did perform Madonna's 'Ray of Light' two years earlier when she was inducted  in 2008.  Madonna choosing them to back her up, was about the only Rock n Roll moment of her career.

  Anyway, Mr. Gnome is just the latest innovative band in Cleveland's unbroken succession of trail-blazing underexposed bands.  Here are a couple more songs starting with Pere Ubu's Beach Boys, a song that my mp3 player (set on random) once picked as I was approaching St. Louis (home of the blues) 16 hours into  a 24 drive home from Santa Fe, NM.

   Lead singer David Thomas and Guitarist Peter Laughner from Pere Ubu were initially in another Cleveland band Rockets from the Tombs.  Two other members of Rockets,  Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz went on to form the Dead Boys with Stiv Bators(who made a guest appearance at Rockets from the Tombs last show).

    Stiv Bators went on to form the Lords of the New Church, after the Dead Boys broke up, in the early 80's.  Here is their song 'Open Your Eyes'.

  Tragically Mr. Bators died in 1990 when he was struck by a taxi in Paris.  About a year later I was on my way to work at 5:30 AM when I was the first car stopped at a railroad crossing for a slow moving train.  When the train was about halfway through a boxcar rolled by that was tagged with three words 'Long Live Stiv'.   I'm pretty sure that very few people seeing the traveling epitaph knew to whom those words were referring.  When I got to work I told my friend Tom about the rolling tribute, being a long-time Dead Boys fan,  he covered his heart with his hat and bowed his head.

Happy Everly After

  This afternoon I heard on a local classic rock station Nazareth's caterwauling version of 'Love Hurts'.  I never thought much of the song until I heard Kim Deal (Pixies) and Robert Pollard's(Guided by Voices) version recorded for the soundtrack of C M Talkington's 1994 movie 'Love and a .45'

    Next up is 'That Great Love Sound' from the Raveonettes debut full-length album. It contains their trademark catchy blend of noisy guitars and two-part vocal harmonies.  Also the video is pretty damn amusing.

  

  Lastly is Luna doing a mellow cover of the guns n roses "Sweet Child O'Mine'

  The connection between the songs in this post is the long lasting influence of the Everly Brothers.  Song 1 was originally recorded by the Phil and Don Everly.  In song 2 the Raveonettes employ the vocalizing techniques that made the Everlys famous.  The third was written by Axl Rose for his then girlfriend  Erin Everly daughter of Don Everly.