#hozac books

[weneverlearn]

The Bangles debut album, All Over the Place, has remained an absolute favorite of mine since it first came out in 1984. Stayed a big fan, though never got to see them live until at City Winery (NYC) in 2014 around when the great early days comp, Ladies and Gentlemen... The Bangles, came out, and they focused on their more garagey early stuff. Great show!

(Though I still wonder how he hell I missed them at Cleveland Music Hall with Hoodoo Gurus opening in like 1986. The Bangles were pals with that great Aussie act, and sang backup on the Gurus' 1987 U.S. hit, "Good Times", and can be seen in the video).

The Bangles, 1984

At the top there is a good new catching up interview with singer/guitarist Susanna Hoffs, who just released her first novel. And in case you missed it, here's an interview I did with Bangles guitarist, Vicki Peterson, back in 2018. She recently played guitar with another early fave, the Dream Syndicate, on a European tour. If that would be a surprise to you, you'll get the connection in the interview.

And keep an eye out for the upcoming biography of the Bangles, on Hozac Books.

[littlequeenies]

This past Christmas we decided to buy two book from two peiple we trully admire: Pattie Boyd and Bebe Buell!!

Both books show never-seen photographs and we got them with signed editions, this is really cool!!

These two women are really special to us, both were really strong and made the difference in their youth days but also nowadays both are very special and spiritual, they are not just a pretty face...

Well, if you love them and respect them, you can buy their books!! both are great gems!

[daggerzine]

Punk Under the Sun: 80’s Punk and New Wave in South Florida (Hozac Books, 220 pages, by Joey Seeman and Chris Potash)

The Hozac label has really been on a roll lately with their book publishing side (and that’s not even getting into the terrific records they’ve been releasing as well). This one on the South Florida scene of the 80s is just one of many fantastic ones they've recently published.

This one, put together by Floridians Joey Seeman and Chris Potash, does just what it says, tackles the punk and new wave scenes in the Sunshine State back in the 80’s.  At 220 pages they’ve got it all covered beginning with the bands including ones like The Eat, The Cichlids, Screaming Sneakers, The Kids (featuring a pre-fame Johnny Depp), The Reactions (featuring Joey Maya whose own book I’m reading right now), Charlie Pickett & the Eggs and plenty more. It was a really active and fertile scene, albeit one that didn’t get a lot of attention, mostly because of its location (having moved to this area a little over a year ago I see the serious lack of touring bands that make it down this way).

They also go into the clubs and back during that era the man on the scene was Richard Shelter who booked clubs in Miami like Flynns, The Cameo Theatre, and 27 Birds, among others so it certainly didn’t seem like there was a lack of clubs (and indeed during those 80’s Shelter did bring a lot of big names down this way including the Gun Club, Black Flag, etc).

There is an absolute ton of band pics, flyers, monthly club schedules, etc and they talk to all of the major players on the scene (including Rob Elba who had been in the Ex-Conz and Holy Terrors, among others…...these days Rob does the great podcast called That Record Got Me High).

As far as I can tell this book is the final word on the South Florida scene and these two have really done their homework. For a terrific tome on one of the lesser-known scenes in the USA then dive into this pronto.

www.hozacrecords.com

[wildwaxshows]

Cancelled

Mo., 1.4.2024, 19:00 Uhr: GENTILESKY (IT) – MS Hedi, Hamburg

GENTILESKY

A Sardinian/Istanbul post punk supergroup? Say no more! Hozac Records (and Books!) digs up another gem in the punk wilds. Gentilesky. The label rarely steers you wrong, and it has become even more chary with its music picks as a bigger chunk of its efforts seem directed toward rarity reissues and book publishing. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have time to put out a self-titled garage rock strummer, straight outta authoritarian Turkey. Tighter than nails, and with an irascibly bleak swagger, this indefinably irresistible female-fronted Sardinian/Istanbul supergroup with members of The Rippers, Love Boat, Maggot Madness, Haywire Desire and Poster-iti is just what your witch’s doctor ordered. Lightning-fast bass-blast rhythms intertwined with uncontrollable surges of anguished vocals from one Yaprak Kirdok, one of the best new vocalists you haven’t heard yet. Sounds of regional UK compilation cuts from ’79-80 seep in, and a blistering byproduct of invigorating post-punk cultural complexity pours back out, showering you with cuts of paranoid precision and an ever-growing intensity that seems to loom behind each passing track. …

[destroythesentence]

Michael Goldberg is the Featured Writer at Rock's Backpages

Michael Goldberg is the Featured Writer at Rock’s Backpages

t This week the very cool music journalism website, Rock’s Backpages, has me on the “cover” as the weeks “Featured Writer.” They highlight some of my articles, which are archived there, including an excerpt from my new book, “Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey” (HoZac Books), titled: “Watching the Avengers Absolutely Crush the Pistols.” There’s also a profile of Chris…

[boredout305]

I Don’t Fit In by Paul Collins

I Don’t Fit In by Paul Collins

Paul Collins was the drummer of The Nerves and founder of The Beat. To this day, The Nerves have yet to receive proper recognition for their groundbreaking work.  

           I’m from Los Angeles. When I graduated high school in 2000, power pop was starting to hit a serious revival. A number of local bands in the area were inspired by The Nerves and Collins’ later band The Beat—the biggest group at the time was likely The Exploding Hearts out of Portland, Oregon. There were two records seemingly everyone in L.A. wanted: The Nerves’ Self-titled EP (1976) and Jack Lee’s first solo album (1981). Both were hard to come by and expensive when you found them. Jack Lee was a mystery—a man missing in action. Lee was a talented songwriter who hadn’t released a record in a long time.

           I Don’t Fit In flushes out the story of The Nerves, The Breakaways (Collins’ short-lived band with Peter Case), Jack Lee and The Beat. In regards to The Nerves, they should be recognized in the same manner The Buzzcocks are in the UK for the latter’s pioneering work with their independent label, New Hormones. The Nerves seemingly beat everyone on the West Coast to the punch by self-releasing their debut EP. Before SST broke ground creating a US touring infrastructure, The Nerves did it back in ’77. For a band that had trouble getting arrested, their self-confidence and innovative thinking was impressive. Collins lucidly recalls the struggles and occasional moments of success The Nerves experienced in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the time of writing, I Don’t Fit In is the definitive story of The Nerves.

           With his chapters on The Beat, Collins captures the late ‘70s/early ‘80s major label excesses and some of the same scummy details Fredric Dannen highlighted in Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business (1991). There was a brief moment where money showered on Collins, powerhouses like Bill Graham got involved, and a revered debut LP was cut. And then the shit hit the fan, The Beat were dropped by CBS, and the struggle continued. The stories of drugs and groupies aren’t altogether very interesting; the subsequent struggles Collins and Steve Huff encountered trying to rebuild The Beats’ momentum are. The shortest section of the book—where I can only speculate that Collins suffered a nervous breakdown (you’ve got to be in a bad place to light your houseboat on fire)—is one of the best chapters. Being a musician is pretty fucked, especially in America as you age. You likely lack health insurance and have been through the ringer a dozen times. Paul Collins lived it and his openness in the book is admirable.  

           So what about Jack Lee? Collins leads me to believe that Lee’s manic episodes spawned a lot of The Nerves’ unorthodox thinking. You have to be a little out there in the mid-‘70s to think you could not only cut a record yourself, but tour the country with no support in custom-made Yves Saint Laurent suits. Of course, Jack Lee is a songwriting genius—revisit his catalog if it’s been a while—and I had no idea the influence Lee had on Collins.

           The Nerves were comprised of three exceptional songwriters who, at least until the early 1980s, were ahead of their time. And as personal aside, Jack Lee’s story of Jeffrey Lee Pierce handing Blondie a tape with “Hanging on the Telephone” is the manner in which Blondie first heard the song. I had a couple of people confirm that story over the years.

           Pick up a copy of I Don’t Fit In and tell Todd Novak over there at HoZac Books that Ryan Leach sent you. -Ryan Leach, HoZac Books.

[moritan0717]

the white label promo presentation society : 100 flip albums you ought to know by sal maida , mitchell cohen & friends (HoZac books) 1959年〜1981年にリリースされたアルバムの中から失敗作100枚をピックアップしてレビューを掲載しているペーパーバック。380ページ余りの大作です。 失敗作と言いながら、表紙を見ればお分かりの通り誰もが知っているアルバムばかりです。3rd Editionですが、500部限定だそうです。 #hozacbooks #thewhitelabelpromopreservationsociety #salmaida #mitchellcohen https://www.instagram.com/p/CZCvqG7v56a/?utm_medium=tumblr

[power-chords]

These arrived in the mail yesterday! Very exciting. The first is a vintage Etsy find, what looks to be a handbook on early British rock ‘n’ roll in the wake of the Beatles and the British Invasion. The second is a Hozac Books & Records* publication that just came out, about some clubs I’ve loved and been to myself, and many more I’ve only ever heard about in raucous anecdotes.

*You should check out their catalog and support them, they’re amazing. An indie publisher that specializes in old and obscure treasures.

[rolloroberson]

One of the most heartbreakingly honest vocal performances you’ll ever hear by Chris Bell. It gave birth to indie rock. Alex Chilton on backing vocals.

You and Your Sister

There Was A Light: The Cosmic History of Chris Bell & the Rise of Big Star  By Rich Tupica HoZac Books

[weneverlearn]

Mascara scarred: Razor Boys add another notch to gutter glam’s streaked history

Razor Boys, 1978

In the tradition of record collectors forever digging for yet another cult-y sub-genre to decode, allow us here at We Never Learn HQ to pull out the ol' shovel and dig into "Revisionist Post-New York Dolls Gutter Glam of the End of the 1970s"

The New York Dolls spent most of 1972-74 defining proto-punk gutter glam rock, while also making it cool to be stupid sloppy (unlike that era’s British glam rock) and revel in your sleaziest tendencies. But the Stooges did that too a couple years earlier, refining it with Raw Power in 1973, which ends up being a perfect statement of sleazy gutter glam, so maybe the Dolls did do it first, by like a few months or something? Anyway, the sheer sonic scuzz of the early Stooges beat everyone to the punk punch, and so it was that punch particularly that predominated underground r'n'r evolution for a few years. Punk happened, and the Dolls drifted into the ether. Except for their makeup and clothing choices. 

So while the general punk esthetic filtered it's way through all new rock from 1974 on, the Dolls' garish template, not to mention Kiss' concurrent foofy ways -- really, seriously, not to mention, because I loathe to give Kiss any more ink of any kind, and fuck those guys. Yeah, they have like 7 really fun tunes, but Jesus, Gene Simmons?! Enough already!! But there you have it, it's kinda undeniable -- those two NYC bands convinced up'n'comer bands who appreciated the pro-anti-muscial ability angle, but still liked tasty licks that their future was wrapped in spandex and mascara.

Razor Boys, 1980

With the Dolls neatly forgotten in the mainstream, Kiss became the face of the ridiculous cartoon pop that metal would soon become, but the little girly boys understood. Bands as big as Aerosmith and Van Halen, or as underground as the Imperial Dogs, Teenage Head, the Shit Dogs, and DMZ knew from whence their hairdo tips and trashy riffs came. Throw in a little of the innocent love of a fine vintage guitar hook and three-minute tunes -- rather than the stadium pomp, Led Zep posing that most hair metal of the ‘80s eventually took on -- and there's a neat little pocket there of non-pretentious, makeup-splattered, ripped jeans/silky shirt bands that peppered the otherwise non-glam end of the '70s rock underground.  Well we won't go too deep here, but basically, the daddies of this presumed genre would seem to be the Hollywood Brats whose followers will place them even keel with the Dolls. Uh, no, 'cause their songwriting just ain't as memorable. But their recordings -- neatly gathered on Sick on You (Cherry Red, 2016) and in the bio, Sick on You: The Disastrous Story of the Hollywood Brats, the Greatest Band You’ve Never Heard Of (Blue Rider Press, 2016) -- and the slow-burn, historical revisionist appraisal casts them as influential enough. 

By the mid-80s, these makeup streaks seeped into the wrinkles outside of the general underground punk gaze, as bands like Dogs D’Amour, Smack, and mostly Hanoi Rocks retained a semblance of street cred given their obvious Dolls affinity and ragged musical strutting. 

And that side street is where Razor Boys inadvertently stomped around, unbeknownst to, well, almost anybody except their fanbase in hometown Atlanta. In their brief existence, they only released one single, and it’s comped here for the first time with other unreleased recordings, circa 1978, out now on HoZac Records.

While forming, I doubt this forgotten crew thought of themselves as anything more or less than a good time party rock'n'roll band in no need of a critical genre distillation. But time's critical distillations winnow bands like this down through the years into something of a proto-punk shouldabeen. To wit the liner notes and brief interview with leader Ronnie Razor, where he proudly states they were about the only punk-like thing going for miles. He worked up the band around 1976, after soaking up the usual Alice Cooper and Slade funster-snot stuff, and even got to see the Stooges and Dolls a few times. His voice and the crunchy riffs drop his band right into the nascent hard rock / punk rock drag races that were unwittingly going on and wouldn't really be settled until the mid-80s, where the pretty mascara and the politicized macho split off completely.  

The Razor Boys' songwriting here does rival the Hollywood Brats; and thanks to the teen-sleazy topics and flailing drum roll/guitar sting cock fights, things really get nasty as it goes along, slicing a bloody line right into the "Here are 3 chords, go form a band" history book chapter. The liner notes’ claim that Razor Boys played with R.E.M. seem strange, since R.E.M. formed in 1980, and the band Razor Boys stopped in 1979. But boozy memories and faded timelines are all part of the winnowing. Not saying if this album had come out in 1978 it would've "changed everything," but it's one hell of a sharp-booted footnote. 

For me, the raggedly silly gutter glam band of my winnow window was a tough Cleveland combo called the High Plains Drifters. Dragging their half-empty bottle of Jack around the early time slots at Cleveland punk shows circa 1985, they had one excellent self-released single, maybe a cassette (?), but otherwise disappeared. 

There was also Sweet Pain, a Ms. Breck-indebted gang who aimed for Van Halen-like fame over Dead Boys-y cred, and missed both marks by a lot, but were a fun time live. They dished up one self-titled LP (Combat, 1985). 

But it would follow that every mid-sized town had one of these: a band of 4-5 guys, probably the second band for most of them, weened on Kiss but welcomed by the local DIY pr punk dive because they couldn't get a gig at the clubs that might actually pay because they couldn't exactly replicate Kiss covers -- and thank god for that! Then one of them figured out maybe they could play "well" enough and joined some sad attempt at stardumb; the others got yelled at by their parents, never liked how mascara melts down into your eyes anyway, and took some job; and the singer thought he could write a movie script or get a gig in the rag industry and moved to NYC or L.A. 

Life winnows on...

[littlequeenies]

Beautiful Bebe Buell in the 1970s, from her upcoming book "Rebel Soul".

From https://www.instagram.com/hozacrecords/

[daggerzine]

Pull Down The Shades- Garage Fanzine 1984- 86 (Tales from the New Zealand music underground by Richard Langston- Hozac Books)

I had only heard of Garage zine from New Zealand, but had never seen a copy (I remember reading a review of it in Patrick Amory’s TOO FUN TOO HUGE zine). The first NZ music zine I knew about was Alley Oop (and only had a few copies of that zine, which seemed like the logical successor to Garage, but done by a different person).

This gent Richard Langston had his finger on the pulse of his home country back in those mid-80’s.  All of  the NZ heavies are written about here: The Clean (lots of cov of them), The Chills, The Bats, etc., but other non-NZ bands as well like The Cramps, 13th Floor Elevators, Jesus & Mary Chain, Alex Chilton etc.

The writing is top notch and plenty of cool (rare) pics in this as well. There really was something in the NZ water back then, or it sure seemed like it anyway.

Anyway if you’re a zine geek like me then this book is absolutely essential and if you just wanna bone up on your knowledge of some brilliant bands from NZ (I’m learning quite a lot) and beyond then this is for you as well.

www.hozacrecords.com

[still-single]

a new HEATHEN DISCO for you (ep. #227, Sept. 27th 2020)

New show. Bunch of house and disco records came in at the 11th hour, which changed things. The show is good, you should really listen to it more often.

Link to play it in Mixcloud.

Tracklist below:

Bataille – We Who Seek Vengeance / Corpses (Bataille, Army of Bad Luck, 2017) Wax Chattels – Spanner & Implements (Clot, Flying Nun/Captured Tracks, 2020) Rema-Rema – Feedback Song/Rema-Rema (live) (Wheel in Small Doses Extended Versions, Le Coq Musique, 2020) Gray – Dan Asher (Shades of…, Ubiquity, 2019) MJ Guider – Quiet Time (Sour Cherry Bell, Kranky, 2020)

Mac Blackout – Wandering Shapes (Love Profess, Trouble in Mind, 2020)

Cheater Slicks – Crackin’ Up (Walk into the Sea, Dead Canary, 2011) The Archaeas – Witch (The Archaeas, Goner, 2020) Melenas – Los Alemanos (Dias Raros, Trouble in Mind, 2020) Mick Trouble – He’s Frank (It’s the Mick Trouble LP, Emotional Response, 2019) En Attendant Ana – Enter My Body (Lilith) (Juillet, Trouble in Mind, 2020) Come Holy Spirit – Gracias a la Vida (Undiscovered Land, Water Wing, 2020)

DOTS – Amel (Dust on the Stylus, Eargasmic, 2020)

Alastair Galbraith – I’m Brave, I’m Scared (Seconds Mark III, A Colourful Storm, 2020) Evelyn King – Love Come Down (Get Loose, RCA, 1983) Montel Palmer – This Fkn Machine (QUA?, Planet Rescue, 2018) Bad Boy Bill – Jack it All Night Long (12” single, DJ International, 1986) Sleep D – Central (Rebel Force, Incienso, 2019) Dexter Wansel – You Can Be What You Wanna Be (Life on Mars, Philadelphia International, 1976) Mark Imperial and Dennis Ramirez – Rock This House (House Cult Drums Mix) (12” single, House Nation, 1987) Sault – I Just Wanna Dance (Untitled [Rise Up], Forever Living Originals, 2020)

Kelly Lee Owens – Arpeggi (Inner Song, Smalltown Supersound, 2020)

Socrates Drank the Conium – Flying and Dreaming (7” single, Anazitisi, 1971) Parish Hall – My Eyes Are Getting Heavy (Fantasy/Craft, 1970/2020) Clear Blue Sky – Tool of My Trade (Clear Blue Sky, Vertigo, 1970) Chris Darrow – Beware of Time (Artist Proof, Fantasy, 1972) Chris Harwood – Never Knew What Love Was (Nice to Meet Miss Christine, Birth, 1970) Badfinger – No Matter What (No Dice, Apple, 1970)

Renegade Connection – Karate Kicking Superstars (Renegade Connection EP, The Sound of Silence, 2020)

Fairport Convention – Chelsea Morning (Fairport Convention, Cotillion, 1968) The Shifters – Australia (7” single, Captured Tracks, 2020) Tolouse Low Tracks – Local Vers (Asimiad EP, SD, 2011) 2 Tuff Team – Get Rugged (Don’t Mind If I Dance EP, Checker Board, 1989) Book of Love – Boy (extended mix) (Boy EP, Sire, 1985) Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes – Where Are All My Friends (To Be True, Philadelphia International, 1975) Assagai – Irin Ajolawa (Assagai, Vertigo, 1970) Gordon Haskell – Sitting by the Fire (It Is and It Isn’t, ATCO, 1971)

Musica Transonic – Unseen (Musica Transonic, Black Editions, 2020)

Adulkt Life – Stevie K (Book of Curses, What’s Your Rupture?, 2020) La Flavour – Mandolay (12” single, Sweet City, 1979) Stereolab – Jenny Ondioline (Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements, Duophonic, 1993) Whirlywirld – Moto (Complete Studio Works 1978-80, Hozac, 2020)

[destroythesentence]

Rolling Stone Online Publishes Goldberg Book Excerpt on How Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" Became a Hit

Rolling Stone Online Publishes Goldberg Book Excerpt on How Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” Became a Hit

Today, Thursday, May 19, 2022, Rolling Stone Online published an extensive excerpt from my new book, “Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey” (HoZac Books). The 4000-word excerpt details how Chris Isaak said he wrote the song, how guitarist Jimmy Wilsey came up with the intro riff and other electric guitar parts and how David Lynch and manager/producer Erik Jacobsen…

[slovenlyrecordings]

TOMORROW (Sunday) from 11am-11pm CST Memorial Day Meltdown, a massive online rock'n'roll clusterfucksplosion, with over 50 artists from Goner Records, Slovenly Recordings, HoZac Records and Burger Records.

Just added: Xenu & the Thetans (Mexico City) and ANMLS (Santiago de Chile)

All happening at: www.sofa-king-fest.com

There's a donation jar in case you can throw your favorite outta-work band some much-needed cash!

big thanks to Ping Pong Booking & PR and Sofa King Fest

[boredout305]

The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Ought to Know

Sal Maida, Mitchell Cohen and a handful of contributors (including Wreckless Eric and Lenny Kaye) have compiled a list of 100 records that got short shrift for one reason or another. The book covers LPs cut between 1959 and 1981. Each record gets a two-to-three-page writeup.

The White Label Promo Preservation Society is likely what you’d expect. Seminal-yet-well-known records like Captain Beefheart’s Safe as Milk are covered—and rightfully so, as it didn’t sell many copies by 1967 standards. Where the book excels is in shedding light on obscure albums like The Remains’ eponymous debut and overlooked LPs by well-known artists such as Fats Domino (Fats Is Back) and the Beau Brummel (Triangle). The inclusion of Pearls Before Swine’s One Nation Underground (1967) shows how much thought went into this book. Tom Rapp’s masterpiece is easy to overlook, yet I put the album in the same league as anything the Velvet Underground cut.

The book is by no means definitive—the authors know such a task would be impossible—and I would’ve put The Red Krayola’s The Parable of Arable Land (1967), The Index’s Black Label Album (1967), Philamore Lincoln’s The North Wind Blew South (1970) and Kreag Caffey’s 1972 self-titled debut (damn—that’s going out on a limb) on the list. Nevertheless, The White Label Promo Preservation Society is exhaustive and a must-have for people just getting into underground records and seasoned veterans. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few records covered in this book that I was benighted to and immediately checked out. Highly recommended. -Ryan Leach, HoZac Books.