Cover Songs blurb for OX Magazine

What is your opinion on cover songs?
Do you like or dislike them?
Does it depend on what is covered?
Are there songs that should not be covered?
Is there a difference between covering a song live, and covering it as a recording?
Do you know any cover songs that are brilliant, or shitty?
What about bands that only play cover songs?


I like cover songs. Well, I like to play them, and record them, but I would rather play my own stuff given the choice.  I have recorded about 30 songs written by other bands. I do it because I love the songs. No other reason. I have also recorded about 200 songs I wrote, so I give myself a pass for playing music by people I admire. Some of whom I am blessed to know. I don't think any of the songs I have covered are anywhere near as good as the originals, but I hope their authors will accept my humble homage.

There are a number of cover songs that I have heard that are really so great that they deserve a co-write.   For example, it is a given that Hendrix totally kills All Along the Watchtower. The studio version of Stiff Little Fingers Johnny Was still completely amazes me, it is so fucking good. I had seen the Clash play Pressure Drop and Brand New Cadillac and those were so great. Exciting.

Some of my favorite bands play a fuckload of covers. I love The Ramones and their versions of so many songs just rule earth. Let's Dance, California Sun, Needles and Pins, Palisades Park. Surfin' Bird. The list just goes on and on.

The Cramps covered stuff by bands I had never heard when I was younger. Talk about turning-on a generation.I cassette recorded them off of the radio- the Rodney Bingenheimer show in Pasadena. Lux brought in these great records. Blew my mind. I can't recall any other band having this kind of effect on me..

The Dickies are probably my favorite band when it comes to inventive, creative, and just triumphant cover songs. Paranoid, Gigantor, The Banana Splits Theme, Hair, She, and Nights in White Satin. These cover songs are so much a part of my life, that I cry when I recall the times in my life where these songs became literally stitched into my being.

Liner Notes EF How to make a Monster

Anyone who tells you that the nineties were great  is a fucking liar. Next to the seventies, the nineties suck factor in rock nearly superseded it. No lie. Pablum was served, and it may of have been Fleetwood Mac, or the Eagles. No, they aren't suddenly cool in retrospect. They suck, and they always sucked.

Personally, bored to death by most of the shitty stuff that kept being slopped out, it was only because of Sympathy, Man's Ruin, and Sub-Pop that I didn't jump off of Suicide Bridge. I was hanging out at the last years of Flipside Mag, at that time Todd, Al, Cake, Pooch, and Gus were pretty much running the room, and I would drop in and pick up some vinyl and review it. That is how I crashed into  the first music I would hear by Electric Frankenstein.

I managed to wee them with three different singers, Scott Miller, Rik L. Rik, and of course, that gravel and howl of Steve Miller. Electric Frankenstein were one of the few bands that weren't on any of the rosters mentioned. Which made them something of an anomaly. In fact, that whole RAFR movement was the last great explosion in rock. The last of the great Golden Age of 20th Century Rock and Roll.

Sit back, fire up, and dig it. There is no going home.

White Flag/ Adolescents correspondence re. Runaways Comp. August 2010

Runaways comp

Hi Lauren and WF,

meet one another :). Lauren is compiling a Runaways comp and is interested in
White Flag for the comp.

whiteflagmail@aol.com	Sat, Aug 28, 2010, 2:54 AM
to me

Hi  We'd love to o something, we have a wonderful live pro recording of a  
version of Cherry Bomb but I am sure that's taken, let me know the  
what's and  who else will be on it and what songs are taken

b

PSH

The Adolescents formed in 1979. The band was formed by Steve Soto and myself. I named the band and designed the logos (there are two) before we had played a single show. Frank Agnew soon joined., and was followed by Peter Pan and JOD. This lineup was soon overhauled when Pan broke his arm and RA was brought in to play drums. JOD and RA hated each other, and JODS was tossed out. RA went to guitar and CR became the drummer. This line up lasted long enough to record an album, and lasted approximately 5 months, at which point I threw RA out for failing to show up to a headlining gig with a fucking guitar.

The next lineup recorded an EP. Although RA is on the cover, he did not play on the record. An astute opportunist, he showed up uninvited

In 1986 the Adolescents played a couple of shows and began preparing for the album ¨Brats in Battalions." CR was fired, by me, for failing to show up for a rehearsal with a fucking drum kit. Replaced with Sandy Hansen, a fantastic drummer. DC toured Brats, but didn play a note on the album. Rikk did some, but the guitar work was mostly done by Alfie Agnew.

In 1988 I left to finish school. Steve Soto and RA released the album ¨Balboa Fun Zone" which was a flop, and that was it until 1991. In 1991 I compiled all of my live cassettes and put together Live 1981 & 1986 using tracks with RA and CR only to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the debut album. No other reason. 

At the 20 year point, 2001, CR lasted two shows and was replaced by Derek O'brien. An EP and then ÖC Confidential was recorded and released. RA slept through the recording. Guitar parts were played by Steve Soto and Frank Agnew. RA was fired, for the third and final time. FA, jr. joined as a touring member, lasting about three months. 

This band has had to many members for me to go through all of the personell changes. However, the most significant loss was the death of my friend and partner Steve Soto. At his funeral every member of the rADOLESCENTS told me how they respected Steve. Then two weeks later they showed their respect by stealing his songs and presenting them as their own.

So letś recap 

Statistics

Adolescents as a band have existed since late 1979. That was 40 YEARS AGO!

Adolescents have released 9 studio albums. 

Start with me- 

Tony Reflex 

Number of LP Studio records EIGHT

Wrote 95 SONGS

Number of years in the band- 39, tho a silent member for 40.

All tours except two
Co founded and named ADOLESCENTS

Steve Soto

Number of LP Studio records NINE

wrote 95 SONGS

Number of years in the band 39 

All tours
Co founded ADOLESCENTS

Now, compare to the rADOLESCENTS, 

J - 

Number of LP Studio records- ZERO- . 

Wrote ZERO SONGS

Time in the band 3 months.

Zero tours

D

Number of LP Records- ZERO

Wrote ZERO SONGS

Time in band- 16 months

Two tours

Jr.- 

Number of LP Records- ZERO- 

Wrote- ONE SONG

Time in the band 3 months.

One tour 

C

Number of LP Studio records- ONE- 

Wrote- TWO Songs, one of which was co-written by me and stolen 

Time in band- 16 months

Zero tours

R

Number of Records- TWO

Wrote 16 SONGS, half of which are Balboa Fun Zone. 

Time in band- 6 months up to 1982, about 3 years

3 tours

It is Totally Personal

Lately I have been told on the facebooks that I am fronting a cover band. Not true. The  Adolescents play mostly original material. There are nine albums full of material to choose from. Unfortunately, the interwebs allows for all kinds of stupid to be magnified, including mine. 

In the interim of a decade made inane by the Misinformation Highway, I will continue to try my best to define myself and my world, with little regard for the misinformation posted by the unknowing. 

For example, before sending me a fuck you Tony post, the current owner of the Doll Hut implied that I front a cover band. Of course I blocked him. I don't have time for drama. However, I can't really blame him, after all, his bar has never invited me to play, and has a hard on for tribute bands like rADOLESCENTS. That means those knuckleheads are feeding him a line of bullshit, and he simply doesn't know because he wasn't there. 

In any event, let me define terms. 

There is a huge difference between a cover band, and a tribute band. A tribute band plays material of one particular band. They generally play it very well, and it fills a void for people who want to relive some sort of nostalgia factor. In the old days we would call this SHA_NA_NA. 

Some of the bands often try to not only sound like the band, but look like them.  I think most noticeably bands like Wild Child, a DOORS tribute band that was fronted by a Jim Morrison look alike. There are tons of these bands, tributes to all sorts of punk and classic rock bands. Hell´s Belles tribute to AC/DC or Cheap Chick come to mind. These are bands that generally love the material they play, and stay focused on it. In an age of historic inaccuracies and  creating an anachronistic void , however,  for the fan who has no true reference to the past. 

In the 21st Century that is called fake news, but even that bullshit term negates the true nature of the misinformation.

Then there are bands like FLAG and rADOLESCENTS, which are simply tribute bands composed of former members. These bands provide a snapshot into the past, generally covering one specific window of time. They are generally fun, and provide a release of energy- generally to appease the fan who wasn there the first time- whether because of age- or more likely- because they were too lame to see the real deal because they were busy being jocks, or gearhead, a Republikkkan, or whatever.

While tribute bands take on one specific persona of the band,  cover bands take on any personality they choose.  They don discriminate. They will play anyone´ś songs. Many of these bands end up in lounges and bars, taking requests for tips. Although these bands generally suck, the punk rock versions of this sub-genre can be pretty fun. Steve Sot played in alot of these bands; BLACK DIAMOND RIDERS, MANIC HISPANIC, FLOCK OF GOO GOO, and PUNK ROCK KARAOKE. 

Then, of course, are the bands that hold their name and move on, sometimes writing new material, usually not. DEAD KENNEDYS,  999, ANGELIC UPSTARTS, FLIPPER, BLACK FLAG, VANDALS, ADOLESCENTS, FEAR, etc ...... and every band you loved from 1953 to now and is still playing.... we all fall under that blanket. We play the old, some of us play the new. 

I walk on a fine line. I have friends that play in all of these kinds of bands. It is not my intention to draw any parallels, or to dismiss any of the bands. However, it has become necessary for me to stop my silence on the matter of the rADOLESCENTS in order to present my insights. My desire is simply to have people insult me in a way that they don't come off looking so foolish. 

Unlike FLAG, in which the core of the band actually played and recorded the songs, 3/5 of the rADOLESCENTS played on none of the records. Not a single fucking note.

My problem with the rADOLESCENTS is totally personal. 

Within the Means I Suppose

Unbelievably, I have been without an adequate way to blog in so long, that I was convinced until recently that my sole source of written expression would be limited to blips on Instagramps and mini- blurgs on the Facebooks.

So here I am. In all of my exuberant defiance and delight.

No idea where the next topics will take me, or where they are going to go, but rest assured I will get around to discussing the bands, and more importantly for me- where I am right now in life and stuff- and where I am planning on going.

Eventually I will figure out how to feed this thing the information and the graphics I have, but for the time being I suppose it has to wait. This is an old blog of mine, with some stuff that was written in 2010 or so. 

This blogspot was once only a blog of music. My daughter and I would share our favorite songs. We had about 215 posts up! I eventually took it down because Google had some issues with copy-written material. We embedded videos and to remove each one and realign the pages was dumb. Lol. Why bother?

Post Script:
I realized all of the 2014 and 2015 posts were done on a beta platform. While I can access these through preview, it will require screen shots to re-present these older posts through that sometime when I am motivated to revisit the past.

The Adolescents on the Andy Dick Show

I got an invite through my friend German to do the Andy Dick show, His cousin Nicola works in the booking (I am assuming it is the booking, but the job appears to be more complicated than simply arranging guests) and thought I would be a nice fit to discuss autism and the current situation as it exists for my family. In a case of unintentional genius, or probable miscue- I misunderstood and thought that Nicola wanted me to bring the whole band. Over the course of the next two days I worked on figuring out what we needed to do to have a live set for the show, and when it was all said and done, we managed to actually pull off playing 4 songs streamed on a live internet show.

To the casual observer, of which I freely admit to being, Andy Dick is a comedian that has hit rough times in his professional and personal lives. He has been living in a modified shed, working a sobriety situation, and trying to maintain a professional career that has been sidelined in recent years by behavior that has annoyed, infuriated, and offended a number of people.  If your bread and water is built on a professional life where making and maintaining professional connections is critical, you can quickly find yourself without any bread, and dumped into the water. It's a rough trade.

Now, as always, differentiating between the reality tv bullshit, from the reality of life bullshit is oft times a blurry, fuzzy mess. The determination of truth (understanding, comprehension, whatever you want to call it) for someone like me is always a series of code, miscues and misunderstanding, and total confusion. I am naive, I over-think things, and I have a core belief in the good that exists in every human being. Placing me into a room full of comedians and actors can be a quandary of confusion for me. At my core I lack some of the fundamentals of what is called Theory of Mind- the theory postulated by Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, he is related to the comedian Sascha Baron Cohen; they are cousins) which essentially means that I have difficulty code breaking the intentions of others. It is common among people with autism and Asperger's syndrome. It is also a trait I recognize in myself. It is also one that gets me into the most difficult of social situations and awkwardness.

I have believe that at the root of most comedy is a serious dose of anger fueled at the core by optimism- the inner belief that things can and will get better- and that comedy is essentially the last cry of the marginalized and disenfranchised part of the human soul. At the root of it all is a very bitter pill, and bitter pills are either hard to swallow, or the vestige of something better to come.

Comedians, however, are a mystery to me- I mean, I really do like to laugh- but actors and comedians can code switch in ways that are foreign to my understanding. I simply lack the wiring to crack the codes that they navigate so quickly and dynamically. For a person like me, to drop into a situations generated and fueled by a myriad of talented comedians is like dropping an egg from a very tall building. If it is cushioned, prepared, and adjusted for impact, it might just weather the fall and fail to crack completely. I was ill prepared, but I was there with five of my friends, and an interested ally- and they were all there to help me share- at least for a moment, what happened to my son (see theebrandenburgs.blogpot for more on that.) In any event, to appear on a live, off the cuff, sketch-talk show.

I realized almost immediately that we were going to be missing part of the necessary tools for a live performance. The vocals were feeding directly into a board so that they were heard through the internet channel- but there was no monitor or p.a. for the vocals. The staff of the show were working to find something to help, but we assured them it would be OK, and that we can make it work. For anyone reading this who doesn't already know,  Rule #1 is to treat people with respect and dignity, and rule #2 is to always assume that people are trying their best to help, and so, refer to rule #1. The bottom line, rule #3, everyone has the desire for a successful outcome and are working with you, not against you.  The crew was great, and it felt great. When it came to the rock, we delivered what we knew how to do. We may not be a culturally significant act like Lady Gaga, but we are veteranos, and we can rock your ass off in a garage with a single microphone and 40 of your pals just as easily as we can with a serious stage production and 5000 of your closest chicken mcbuddies.

In any event, I left the show yesterday believing a few things. I realized that comedians, much like musicians, have to work a club circuit that is fueled by the selling of booze, and for comedians that means they have to have a position on the use of alcohol- just like musicians do. It is a drag to realize this is a core requirement, especially if alcohol can't be one of your vitamins. That means that you have to, essentially, dance uncomfortably around a room that has temptation, desire, and relief in every corner. If you are able to dance through it comfortably, you still have the core philosophical and existential dichotomy- the knowledge that you rely on alcohol for your bread, countered by the knowledge   that you are pushing poison to others through performance, advertising, or whatever. The clincher is that if you indulge you may as well kiss your meager gains goodbye- and that is a drag. Alcohol cannot be a part of my life, and yet, like food, it has to be.

I also left the show yesterday with the conviction that relationships are critical to our collective strength, and that without that collective strength, we are individually doomed to make the same mistakes again, and again. We have to be able to call out our friends- even if they are our bosses- and we have to be able to do it in direct, non-confrontational, but caring ways. That doesn't mean that they will respond- but it does mean that we should be able to do so without fear of reprisal or retaliation. This is not to snitch on one another, but it is to console, support, and remember who we are and why we are here, there, or anywhere.