Flaming Pablum

Ladies Love Cool Jones

I spotted the above photo on Tumblr earlier this week, and felt the need to pass it on here. I have no idea what year this shot was taken, but if I had to guess, I'd say sometime in the mid-`80s. This is, of course, the inimitable LL Cool J and posse perched at the entrance of the Jones Diner, which formerly held court on the corner of Great Jones and Lafayette Streets. Don't bother looking for it now, it's long gone .... along with LL Cool J's credibility in the wake of this laughable gaffe.

I was always a sucker for the Jones Diner. I frequently wax rhapsodic about the soon-to-close Pizza Box on Bleecker Street, but I do remember ducking into the Jones Diner on several occasions after several rack-worrying sorties through Tower Records on East 4th and Broadway (also gone, but you knew that). It was great for a dish of fried eggs and bacon or a burger. Probably not the healthiest grub in the world, but hey ... we were young.

The Jones Diner also plays a central -- if dubious -- role in the 1992 video of "Two Princes" by the all-but-forgotten Spin Doctors. I'm not going to lie: While I hated much of the hippy-dippy jam band scene that the Spin Doctors were spawned from (largely thanks to Wetlands), I found them hugely less offensive than, say, fucking Blues Traveller or Phish or (insert your favorite here). Lyrical claptrap aside, I actually didn't mind "Two Princes," but that might just be because its video featured the Jones Diner.

Below is another shot of the place from several years earlier (find out more about that pic here, for whatever that's worth). My bloggy buddy EV Grieve penned a nice piece on the place back in 2009 that's surely worth a read.

Today, the spot where the Jones Diner stood is vacant. There's a big construction project underway there, yes, but it seems to be stalled (not that I'm in a great rush to see it completed, mind you). That all said, it pains me that the Jones Diner's no longer there.

Kraut It Out Loud

Astoria, Queens’ Kraut were arguably the first proper hardcore band to have a video played on MTV (a fact that armed their purist detractors at certain later points). I’d initially warmed to the band via the inclusion of “Last Chance” on ROIR’s New York Thrash compilation cassette, but upon seeing the endearingly crude, low-budget visuals for “All Twisted,” I immediately snapped up their debut LP, An Adjustment to Society and became a rabid fan of theirs.

I’ve written about them a few times here (notably here), but I’ll always defend Kraut. They may have gotten relegated to b-list antecedent status  in the wake of their more well-known NYHC peers like the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law et al, but I have nothing but fond memories of blasting both of the band’s LPs (including their more user-friendly Whetting the Scythe). I found a great blog post a little while ago penned by someone who’d chased down the sculpture of David brandishing the severed head of Goliath that appears on the cover of Whetting the Scythe, but I can’t for the life of me track it down now, alas.

In any case, imagine my joy upon discovering the clip below of a live Kraut show, filmed in Los Angeles circa 1985. Even if you’re not an especially huge fan of Kraut’s particular blend of hardcore, it’s an interesting glimpse back into the since-vanished golden age of the genre. Elder punks will enjoy the cameo by storied Sex Pistols guitarist and Kraut-comrade Steve Jones (he played a few parts of the Adjustment LP).

Turn the calendar back to 1985, put your boots back on and enjoy a bit of vintage hardcore punk, New York City style.

 

Stuff You Might Have Missed

It’s been completely crazy couple weeks, hasn’t it? Hell, it’s been a completely crazy friggin’ year, if we’re being honest. In any case, beyond being plagued with technical problems stemming from my increasingly obsolete iMac, I’ve also been spotting lots of little things worth mentioning around the `Net that -- while cool –- maybe didn’t warrant their own posts. As such, I’ve culled them all together here in one sprawling, kickass compilation. Do enjoy.

I’ve had low expectations about the forthcoming Iggy & the Stooges album (given how shite The Weirdness was), but advance word on Ready to Die has been pretty positive (despite the ill-timed cover art, which I speculated about here). In any case, Ig and the gents blessed an elite smattering of lucky listeners to a live run-through of the album (with some oldies chucked in for good measure) for an NPR taping of Soundcheck just recently. Watch the gig here. The NPR guys also fail to understand the late Ron Asheton’s role in the band (suggesting that Mike Watt was filling in for him, when – in reality – Mike Watt initially filled in for the late Dave Alexander). Blah blah blah…

Post-punk scribe extraordinaire Simon Reynolds writes with great, sweeping aplomb about Brian Eno’s storied tenure in the mean streets of New York City during the explosive reign of terror that was NO WAVE.

The Quietus exhumes Neil Young’s ambitious-but-cripplingly-flawed cinematic opus, “Human Highways,” which featured some amazing footage of DEVO (including their notorious collaboration with Neil).

Finally, a "historically inaccurate" video depiction of the inspiration behind KISS's 1976 power-ballad-minus-the-power, "Beth."

Because the world demanded it, enjoy This Music Leaves Stains, a Tumblr lovingly devoted with fanged exclusivity to The Misfits.

Did you see "Room 237"? If you didn't, you really should. But taking that a step further, check out Scouting New York's meticulously detailed breakdown of Stanley Kubrick's bizarre depiction of Manhattan in the otherwise-abortive "Eyes Wide Shut."

I'm frequently banging on (pardon the pun) about my favorite disbanded ensemble Cop Shoot Cop, and routinely raise the question of the whereabouts of "low-end" bassist Jack Natz. Tod's in Firewater, Phil's in SWANS, Jim Coleman's doing soundtracks, Dave's doing children's books and Steve's a Texan lawyer, but the last I'd heard about Natz was that he was lending his services to The Unsane and Lubricated Goat, but that was some time ago. Well, it seems that Phil added a link somewhat recently to the official Cop Shoot Cop page, and it turns out Natz (now back to Nantz, but still keeping Jack instead of Chris, which he went by circa his days in the Undead) is based in Red Hook, Brooklyn and promoting his art. He's actually got a show coming up in May. Check his site out here.

Fellow RatCage Records alumnus Adam "MCA" Yauch of the Beastie Boys is having a Brooklyn park re-named in tribute to the fallen iconoclastic rapper.

As I've pointed out before, I've never given much of a damn about Billy Joel, but my colleague Bob Egan recently posted a characteristically meticulous breakdown of Joel's video for "My Life," which features some great images of since-transformed Hell's Kitchen. Check it out here.

On a whim, I've joined GoodReads, so if you want to compare book notes, hit me up here. While we're chatting social media, you can also find my ridiculous Tumblr, Get Back to Work (filled with piles of suitably silly images) right here. Enjoy.

Lastly, here are the great Billy Duffy of the Cult and Johnny Marr of the Smiths having a bash through The Clash's rendering of "I Fought the Law." Crank it.

East Village Angst

A public service message on Second Avenue

Strummer in the City

Spotted on Lafayette Street...

It reads...

"Greed, It Ain't Goin' Anywhere - OCCUPY JOE STRUMMER"

Yes, it's a Strummer quote, but that's not Joe in the picture. What's the story here? Anyone?

More of What Was That Now Isn't

Further continuing on from these posts....

The Mars Bar on Second Avenue

Florent on Ganesvoort Street

Nino's Pizza on St. Marks Place on Avenue A

Hospital Productions (all Black Metal music, all the time) on East Third Street

Footlights Records on East 12th Street

Bleecker Bob's on West Third Street

More & More Things That Are Not There

Continuing on from this post....

Second Coming Records on Sullivan Street

Street art on Ludlow Street

My little Charlotte in the Time Cafe on Lafayette Street

Myself and my friend Dave (of the GinGoblins) in the interior of the Cedar Tavern

Rocks In Your Head on Prince Street in SoHo

The Stoned Crow

Myself being a pathetic fanboy at The Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street

Andy Warhol on Union Square

More to come....

 

Computers Don't Blunder

See that spinning thing to the left? Can you name another symbol or insignia ... with the possible exception of, maybe, the friggin' SWASTIKA ... that inspires more blind, frothy-mouthed rage? As I recently lamented on this post, I'm having serious computer issues, as my long-suffering iMac is finding it more and more difficult to pull its weight. As such, there's something of a backlog of posts that have been in the on-deck circle here, but bringing them to fruition has been difficult, given the current (and growing) limitations of my hardware. 

With all this in mind, I thank you for your continued patience and interest while these things are sorted out. In the interim, please to enjoy this bracing bit of entirely appropriate Scottish Luddite angst!

Third Avenue Puzzle

The explanation is probably strikingly banal, but I was at Five Napkin Burger on East 14th Street with my kids on Monday afternoon (they really wanted to try the sliders), and while I was looking out the window onto the grotty splendor of that particularly busy stretch of Third Avenue, I spied a sign I’ve frequently wondered about (see below).

At first glance, I’ve always assumed that the billboard-sized sign simply predated the taller building that stands in front of it, and the construction of the latter closed off the remainder of the sign from view, leaving only the cryptic letters “TML ets DNA” in view. But that doesn’t add up, as I can’t for the life of me think of any words that end in “TML” or “DNA.”

I posed the question to my kids, who were surprisingly as immediately fascinated by it as I was (Oliver likes anything to do with letters or numbers). Is it an anagram? Some fractured Latin? Some antiquated code?

What does "TML ets DNA” mean? Anyone?

You Knew This One Was Coming, Right?