Pittsburgh deejay on WZUM radio back in those early 60s days when playlists hadn’t yet exerted their stranglehold on what got played over the ether. So,


instead of the current chartbound sounds and British Invasion goodies, Metrovich simply played exactly what he liked, running from The Sonics Psycho to the pseudo-Little Richard rock’n’roll of Little Ike to cuts with wondrous titles like ‘Mama Ubangi Bangi’, ‘Snacky Poo’ or ‘Oo-Ma-Liddi’ by artists Wikipedia doesn’t know ever existed, including Wild Child Gipson, Shane Kai Ray and The Ban-Lons. With an obvious preference for bizarre instrumentals and nonsense songs, Metrovich unearthed total obscurities, usually recorded in glorious lo- fi, and frequently boasting a distinctly ’50s novelty-rock’n’roll flavour. Over fifty of these delights appear here back to back with the bonus of a couple of radio spots for added period flavour. Devotees of the Cruisin’ albums will find this a particularly welcome blast.


Johnny Black


VARIOUS ARTISTS Sounds Of She Pet Records CD Petrecords@hotmail.com This is a great trippy-hippy, flowered-up femme fest! There’s a bunch of stuff that serious aficionados will be familiar with from the likes of Marcia Strassman, Sally Eaton, Caroline Hestor, The Ravelles and Barbara Keith. There are far more obscurities you are more unlikely to have come across however like The Enchanted Forest’s ‘The Word Is Love’ (“get, get up, get up and dance with a flower”!), Morningstarr, Teina, Ellen Margulies, Bunches ‘A Good, The Sugartownes and Kathy Gregory to name but a few. There’s also the odd surprise such as the adenoid Keefe Sisters who produce a lilting soft psyche beauty in ‘Love Knows’ from their album of otherwise


country music. The presiding sound is of course, very West Coast soft pop and as a collection works wonderfully. The usual Pet Records attention to liner notes applies. Buy with confidence. Paul Martin


VARIOUS ARTISTS Still Dead! The Grim Reaper’s Jukebox Ace CD www.acerecords.com The second volume in Aces “death disc” series focuses on late ’50s/early ’60s US pre-invasion teen pop. The inclusion of acknowledged classics of the genre, such as The Shangri-La’s ‘Leader Of The Pack’ and The Whyte Boots’ ‘Nightmare’ only highlight the gulf in class between these classics and the less inspired also-rans like


Little Caesar and The Cadets, who comprise the bulk of the


compilation. A collection of songs about teen deaths might appeal to lovers of so-bad-


it’s-good kitsch, and the artwork and Brian Nevill’s liners are interesting, but the trouble is that there are only so many cheesy, sentimental, cash-in production- line death tunes most well adjusted humans can take in one listening. In most cases there is no song behind the schlock. If the Reaper had any taste he would have condemned many of these artists to the awful fate of listening to their own 45s for eternity. Mainly of interest to die hard (ouch!) fans of early ’60s pop. Phil Suggitt


GENE VINCENT Born To Be ARollin’ Stone: The Challenge Sessions 1966-68 Rev-Ola CD www.revola.co.uk


Potent as the image admittedly was, there was considerably more to the Richard III of rock’n’roll than the limp, the leathers, the leg irons and the


haunted physiognomy. The common perception is


that Gene Vincent was a spent force following the awful road crash in Chippenham in 1960, which did for Eddie Cochran. However, on the evidence of the tracks Gene recorded for the LA-based Challenge label in the mid to late ’60s, his spirit hadn’t been broken just yet. Gene jumps upon chiming folk-rockers like the title track, ‘Love Is A Bird’ and the great ‘Hurtin’ For You Baby’ with characteristic vigour, while ‘Ain’t That Too Much’ finds him utilising that brilliant signature motif – the orgiastic hyperventilating of a man engaged in the vinegar strokes. Fate should have been kinder


to Gene: as this proves, he was always the real deal. Marco Rossi


JOHN BERBERIAN & THE ROCK EAST ENSEMBLE Middle Eastern Rock Rev-Ola CD www.revola.co.uk


Listening to this 1969 Verve Forecast session in the immediate afterglow of Barack Hussein Obama’s historic election victory, one can but hope


that the new US president can reconcile and unite across the great divides half as well as John Berberian managed to on this heavyweight opus. Don’t be put off by the kitsch


name or the mondo packaging with its whiff of exotic Arab-sploitation, for this is truly the real deal. Berberian was born and bred in New York, but is of Armenian extraction. A master of the oud, the fretless, pear- shaped Middle-Eastern stringed instrument, he here lets rip on seven tracks of deep improvised jazz-rooted free-flowing freak- outs! With Joe Beck on guitar, trading licks and providing ballast, this lies roughly halfway between the deeply ethnocentric world jazz of Ahmed Abdul-Malik and the acid-tinged journeying of early Pat Martino, midway between the Kasbah and the lava lamp, and remains vital and mesmeric to this day! Hugh Dellar


LES BLOUSONS NOIRS 1961-1962 Born Bad CD www.myspace/bornbadrecords


This combo played French garage punk before it was officially invented. Nobody told these boys that French ’60s pop should be


BUY THE SHINDIG! ANNUAL


at www.shindig-magazine.com


polite and restrained. As the liner notes point out, the sound is so primitive it sounds like they bought their instruments in the morning and recorded in the afternoon. Info about the band is limited to their first names, deduced from a sleeve autographed for a fan. Both the band’s EPs are included,


(the budget was so small they used the same photo for both covers, with a different colour background!) and both feature cardboard- sounding drums, sloppy guitars, raw vocals (mostly in French) and crappy production. Les Blousons Noirs have much in common with the minimalist mayhem of such mid- 60s luminaries as Los Saicos and The Shaggs, who they pre-date by several years. Depending on your mood, such primal sounds can be excruciating or, (like the four


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