PHANTASTIC PHRONT COVERS PT. 2

You can find loads of old Rob Hoeke records, but most of them will be by his boogie-woogie combo. His R&B Group records - the ones you need - are a bit scarcer but still not too hard to find; at least I come across this one, 1967's Save Our Souls, every now and then. You probably know their brilliant Sonics-style piano stomper Margio, which has been comped countless times; this LP is right from that era and mixes similar garage stuff (like the great Let's Get Out Of Here, clocking in at 1:26!) with cool attempts at Blonde On Blonde-style Dylan (Lights Have Been Changed), melodic folk rock (Drinking On My Bed, another hit) and oh, also some boogie. Singer on most R&B Group cuts wasn't actually Rob Hoeke himself but bass player Willem Schoone, a tall blonde guy who looked like a Dutch Brian Jones (and is now known around these parts for having been in loads of "famous" local cover bands like Shoreline).

OH WHAT A GIVEAWAY

There's this great little internet record store that I stumbled across some time ago; it only carries 7 inch records, mostly of the Dutch/ German "Schlager" sort, but every time I check it out I find a great treasure hidden inbetween; the Tits, Blitzz, Fallouts (Dutch 60s version), Yardbirds, and last week this gem by the Subterraneans, all at 1 or 2 Euros each.

The Subterraneans were 2 ex-members of legendary (and sadly unrecorded) 60's proto-punks the Kick; they were one of the first Dutch bands to move away from electric Beat to acoustic pre-war blues inspired sounds. Flipside Explain All This Stuff To Me is my pick of the two tracks.

O.K., as I'm in an altruistic mood today I'm going to give you the name of the record store... It's http://www.-----svinyl.nl/ (insert the first name of the drummer for Dutch punk legends The Vernon Walters)!

NOT THE SIMPLE MINDS SONG

I have a sneaking suspicion all the DC/Dischord-related records I've been scooping up at the local 2ndhand record store lately (Deadline, Dain Bramage, Rain etc.) are actually the very same copies I offloaded at that place some 15 years ago... But then who can explain this find? I've never owned a copy of the Alive and Kicking comp. EP, and god knows I've been looking for it back in my DC-obsessed days. It's worth it's weight in gold alone for the presence of the greatest Gray Matter track ever, Walk The Line; an earlier version than the one on their own record, more primitive and with Jeff Turner doing some great almost Darby-like screaming.
The rest ain't no great shakes, although I'll post Marginal Man's re-recording of er, Marginal Man, because it sounds better than the one on their first LP. Oh yeah, and Mission Impossible's I Can Only Try, for being the world's first recording featuring Dave Grohl!

P.S.: I'm proud to say I once got this very Gray Matter song on Dutch national radio, when a band I was in in the 90's was invited to play some favourites on air. Of course, the other guys forgot to take CD's with them, so it was my party. (Since you asked: this track is also on the Gray Matter CD) (Since you asked pt. 2: the other stuff played was Johnny Burnette's Train Kept a-Rollin', some old K-era Beck song and the Louvin Brothers' When I Stop Dreaming - during which our very hip record plugger started laughing, thought it was a great joke)