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I have all the ingredients for a successful road trip except money, a driver’s license, a car and a place to go to. But I know I’ll be listening to some kick-ass music. I have this mental list of bands that are going to be played in a car that I’ll undoubtedly give some whimsical name, like Lucille. Lucille and I will cruise the highways with nothing but the trusty old road in front and behind us. Meeting kooky characters on our way to God-knows-where. All the while listening to all the songs I imagined driving to.

Like Jack Nicholson’s character in As Good As It Gets I’ll have a CD for every occasion. For instance, The Black Keys will be playing on my way to buy crappy road trip food and the Kings Of Leon accompany me on my way to that crappy road trip fleabag motel. Hoowee, I can’t wait! I know that the reality of it could never be as great as I imagine. Public roadside bathrooms. Ew. And there’s a fine line between kooky character and mental hospital escapee. I can hold on to my shiny, happy ideas a little while longer, because the only thing I can do to a car right now is turn it into a big metal killing machine. So for the safety of, well, everyone, I’ll dream of that trip from the comfort of my home for now.

The latest addition to Tam’s ever growing Official Future Roadtrip Soundtrack is the band Two Gallants. The moment I heard them I could see myself passing long fields of wavy grain. And not just because they have a song called “Waves Of Grain”. Their tortured lyrics and the singer’s raw voice make me wish for the freedom of the open road. So join me on my imaginary journey and listen to Two Gallants’ “Las Cruces Jail”. Or buy or stream their latest excellent album What The Toll Tells over at Saddle Creek.

This’ll be the last of my unofficial London Calling preview posts, since we’ve only got two more days to go! But before I get to this week’s New Band, I have to do a little whining about the most devastating of line-up changes. The mighty Black Wire, one of my most beloved bands, has cancelled their appearance on Friday night. Frankly, I’m hurt. I have bought all of their releases since the very first 7″ (because I figured any song called “Attack! Attack! Attack!” just had to be cool), and have supported them ever since. I thought their debut full-length album couldn’t possibly live up to their great singles, but I’ve never been more wrong. Plus, I’m the only person I know that put it on their “Best of 2005″ list. And yet, despite my undying devotion, they’ve snubbed me. Sigh. I just want them to know that I still love them, though this will take me a little while to get over.

Luckily, there’s still plenty to get all excited about this weekend. The last of the newer bands that I’m really looking forward to is the slightly odd Larrikin Love. I don’t know much of their music yet, but I know enough to be excited. They’ve got some ska and reggae in them, and a little Libertines. So far, my favorite is “Happy As Annie”, which sounds a bit like an indie-Madness with some sweet banjo action. Their previously released singles are all limited-as-hell (as far as I know), but you can buy the tracks from their Transgressive release from the label’s newish Digital Store. (Also, on a semi-unrelated note, be sure to get yourself the Transgressive Singles Collection: Vol 1, due for release in the UK on April 17th, so you can check out some of the great stuff most have us have had to miss out on.)

Anyway, be sure to check out Larrikin Love if you’re at the Paradiso this weekend, or listen to a few of their songs at, shockingly enough, their myspace page. (Their official site doesn’t have much on it yet, but you can have a look at their tour schedule and see if they’re coming to a theater near you.)

Does anybody else remember the girl duo Mel & Kim?? I wonder, because whenever I mention them people seem to choose not to hear me. Maybe because they were fans back then and would rather forget that chapter in their lives. Maybe because I keep randomly bringing them up when we were in the middle of a pleasant talk about rising taxes and pandemics, or whatever the grown-ups talk about these days.

I personally don’t think there was anything to be embarrassed about if you happened to tap your feet a little too enthusiastically whenever one of their songs came up. I loved the Appleby sisters and I certainly wasn’t alone in this. They had all the ingredients for Pop Greatness, if only they had more time. Sadly, their success came to a tragic end with the untimely death of Mel.

Mel & Kim were a hot British girl group in the late eighties. The singing sisters had hits like “Respectable” and “Showing Out”. The tunes were catchy, the choreography was superb and the outfits were a mix of street and high fasion. In other words, they were the complete female pop group package. If you want to see them in all their Poptastic glory check out the “Respectable” video.

Okay then, back to talking about bird flu and mortgage rates.

I’ve been watching a lot of old movies this week and my favorites are always 50s musicals, especially ones that star Gene Kelly. He is most definitely the greatest of those classic movie stars. He’s classy, smooth, and ever so dreamy. Plus, he’s from Pittsburgh, my old hometown, and that makes him even cooler, obviously.

Singin’ In The Rain has my very favorite old musical song, “Good Morning”. Remember how Ally McBeal had a theme song to get herself in the right frame of mind? I use “Good Morning” in a similar way. You know those mornings where you wake up and actually consider breaking your own arm just so you could get out of whatever you have to do that day? It might be that class you hate, or some appointment you can’t put off any longer but you just know will be torture, or maybe just the thought of yet another day at the damn office. On those kind of days, I stick on “Good Morning” and let it force me into a good mood. I’ve done it for years and it never fails. It’s so cheerful, kind of like Care Bears on ecstasy, how could you possibly stay grumpy?

   Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor - Good Morning

The Research are sweet like sugar only wishes to be. Showing a vast range of influences, they move between a fifties teenybopper inspired sound and eighties synth pop, but it all sounds super cute. So if you want to check out their yummy tunes, grab a spoon and have a taste. They’ll soon have you floating on a cotton candy cloud. I like their songs a lot, but sometimes the sweetness gets a bit overwhelming and I have to quickly switch to something a bit less friendly, like a snuff movie.

You can find them on myspace and their official site.

I think “Ebony And Ivory” may be the most Poptastic song ever; I can’t believe I didn’t choose this to introduce Poptastic Day a few weeks ago! The Brady Bunch? Geez, what was I thinking?

“Ebony And Ivory” is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. It’s a great singing-along song - so catchy and everybody knows the words - but it’s also, well … ridiculous. Did Stevie and Sir Paul really think they were making some bold anti-racism statement with this song? Did they think it would change the world and the way the races interact? Though, I did hear that on the day it came out, blacks and whites all over the world just started randomly hugging each other in the street. Finally, we’re all living in perfect harmony.

And, dude, what is up with the way they sing “PYA-NO” in the chorus?

   Stevie Wonder & Paul McCartney - Ebony And Ivory

Otis Redding has been one of my favorite singers of all time since high school. I know that high school comes up a lot, but I guess that’s where my music taste started to take shape. Ehm, I also listened to Ace Of Base back then.

The song that’s been haunting me these last few days is called “Hard To Handle”. Actually I lied, it’s not the song, but the line “Pretty little thing let me light your candle, cuz momma I’m sure hard to handle now, yes I am” that was stuck in my head while I accidentally stole a candy bar yesterday. It’s a long story. Oh, no it’s not: I went out for groceries and I forgot to pay for my candy bar. Now I’m wanted in four different countries for candy thievery.

Anyway, back to the song. I hear The Black Crowes covered it, but I can’t imagine the singer saying that kind of stuff to Kate Hudson. Mr.Redding on the other hand, probably said it all the time when he saw a fine looking woman. Hm-hm.

   Otis Redding - Hard To Handle

Alright, fine - The Long Blondes aren’t really new, but I reckon they count for New Band Day since they are yet to release a full-length album. Again, I’m stretching our own rules but these gals are worth it. We haven’t been lucky enough to see them live yet, but I bet they’ll be one of the highlights of London Calling in a few weeks.

The Long Blondes have released a series of very impressive singles, each one just leaving us wanting more. They’re talented and hot, so what more is there to say? Go (right now!) and listen to their music or check out their videos on their official site or at their myspace page.

If anyone knows when or if they’ll be working on an album, please let us know. You’ll be making a couple of music geeks very happy indeed.

I am so excited that I get to do Poptastic Day this week, because man oh man I got me a beaut to share. I expect to be patted on the back vigorously after this one. I was just a little kid in the eighties so I remember that decade only vaguely. But the music and the videos especially made a big impact on me back then. I remember that Sledge Hammer blew my little kiddy mind and Thriller scared me so much I sat behind my mother everytime it came on. Now I do that whenever I see Michael Jackson. Har har. But my very, very favorite video was the Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora duet “When The Rain Begins To Fall” from 1988. Hey don’t you judge me, I was 7! And here it is! If you’ve never seen it before I just want to say you’re welcome, Grasshopper. If you have seen this before: I’m sorry, it’s back.

Apparently the video is part of a movie called Voyage Of The Rock Aliens. I can’t wait to see it if the video is any indication of what the rest of the film is like. It is set in the future and the theme is forbidden love. There is also a not so subtle black versus white theme running, but the main theme is the naughty romance between Jermaine and the lovely Pia. I love the fact that it never even occurred to them that there might not be shoulder pads in the future. On no, on the contrary, they were bigger! It starts with Jermaine and his posse hanging out on the beach wearing their leathers, as they watch the white gang approach. I have to admit that something about it puzzles me: Jermaine says “Here they come” when he sees them, so you’d assume they know each other, but then all the leader of the other gang wants to know is whether there’s a “bar in this scumbucket town”. As an answer to this very common question, Jermaine bursts into a song about sand and sea. As expected, he woos the leader’s girlfriend(?) with his lyrical genius. It’s really not Jermaine’s fault that he gets so hung up on Pia’s delicate beauty. After all, the scumbucket town seems to only be inhabited by Jermaine and his all-male posse. The fight scenes are the best. Jermaine wins every time, but for the greater good, Pia rides away with the gang in white on his big, white motorcycle … with tassels. Mmm manly. I wonder where Pia is now. Is her hair still that big? More importantly, does she still have those fabulous shades??

It’s been a busy and kind of tedious week; I haven’t had a single fond memory pass through my head or heard a song I had forgotten about. In fact, I’ve barely heard any music this week at all except for Johnny Cash. He was about the only thing I felt like listening to. I even had a dream about him a few nights ago. (He was baking stuff in a tiny oven and I suggested he just buy a bigger oven. Seriously.)

My need for Johnny Cash this week was not related to Walk The Line. I thought it was a wonderful movie, and it’s been a long time since someone deserved an Oscar as much as Reese Witherspoon did, but it’s not responsible for my love of Johnny Cash’s music. Nor am I one of those people who can pompously claim that they’ve been listening to him since they were eight years old. No, I listened to New Kids On The Block when I was eight, like most little girls. I got into Johnny Cash a few years ago and, no matter how much of his (or anyone else’s) music I hear, At Folsom Prison is still one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s hardly an original choice, but there are very few albums that are so exciting and alive. You can feel every second of it deep in your stomach; it’ll never, ever get boring.

The track I’ve been listening to all week is “Cocaine Blues”, possibly the most thrilling three minutes on any album. The three seconds at the end of every verse, when the band stops, feel like the whole world stops. And when they come back in, you suddenly feel your blood pumping and it’s a huge adrenaline rush. Each verse is more exciting than the last, and when Johnny Cash’s voice starts giving out, it just gets better. I hope you like it as much as I do.

   Johnny Cash - Cocaine Blues (At Folsom Prison)

Who says good things have to last long? Not me, and neither do The Beautiful New Born Children (The BNBC). Their songs are short, their album looks like it’s gonna be short. I don’t get the chance to get bored with them even though they picked one sound and ran with it. And the sound is mostly very much like The Stooges. Though they claim they don’t own a single Stooges album on their myspace page. I have to admit that “Papermill” sounds more like the lost This Is It track, but the rest sounds very Stoogesque.

They make up for their lack of diversity and originality by being elated and jubilant like only a beautiful newborn band can be. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with celebrating the time that bands used to sing about how they hoped to die before they got old, which is what The BNBC do. Loudly. I doubt their upcoming album Hey People will cause a big stir in the music world, but they sure know how to have fun with a capital f … so Fun. If you’re looking for a band of the hour, day, or week, if you want an instant pick-me-up, or if you have the sudden urge for a twenty minute pogo session, The BNBC are exactly what you’re looking for. Check them out on their official site.

When we first started 100b, we had no idea what we wanted to do here, which left us with a slightly useless taste in our mouths. Over time, we’ve gained a little focus and we’ve been really enjoying our theme days. And just when we thought 100b couldn’t get any better, we’ve decided that it’s time to introduce Poptastic Day! We promise it’ll be as fun as it sounds.

Poptastic Day is about musical cheesiness, guilty pleasures, and songs that are so bad they’re good. But most of all, it’s about knowing that Pop is not a dirty word and that we must all do the goofy dance from time to time. Poptastic Day will never bring you a song that is officially considered “good music” (no Beatles, no Ramones, no Arcade Fire) and nothing that’s ever recieved a good review.

So, to start us off, I’ve chosen two songs that are the most Poptastic things I could think of. Not one, but two (yes, TWO!) helpings of TV spinoff goodness. DANG, we sure are good to you all.

Like I said a couple weeks ago, I’ve always been a Brady Bunch girl. I love that crazy family as much now as I did when I was 10. So you can imagine my delight when I found out there was a Best Of out on CD. The Brady Bunch (really just the Brady kids) released their first album in the winter of 1970, to try and compete with America’s newest oversized family, The Partridge Family. The Partridges had just begun their first season on TV and had already started racking up the hits. As cheesy as The Partridges may seem, the Bradys attempts to compete are even sillier. At least David Cassidy could sing. But I still have a fuzzy place in my heart for those Bradys, and this was by far their best attempt at being Poptastic.

   The Brady Bunch - It’s A Sunshine Day

The Monkees were another show I watched when I was little, but this one was on before school, while I ate breakfast. (My Little Pony was on right after it.) They’re the first music I remember loving. My family still jokes about how I played my Monkees tape over and over until they were all ready to eat the cassette, just to make it stop. Even though I’m all growed up now, I still fight the desire to listen to them all day long.

Even though they too sprang to life via their own TV show, The Monkees are a little more complicated than the Brady Bunch. Sure, they were a manufactured group, but it’s not exactly true that they were talentless puppets like so many people like to believe. Micky Dolenz and Davey Jones were picked for their acting experience; Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith for their musical skill. The show’s creators hoped that the boys would all learn from each other. They toured and proved that they most definitely could play their own music and, despite a massive battle, The Monkees were eventually “allowed” to record songs they wrote themselves. The whole story is, of course, not that simple, but my point is that The Monkees may have come together in an artifical way, but they genuinely wanted to make good pop music.

   The Monkees - You Just May Be The One

There’s always something disturbing about seeing an established actor or actress do something other than act. I imagine it’s almost like catching your dad in women’s clothes: it’s not what you expected and though it seems to make your dad happy, it doesn’t look right either. Combine that with The Curse Of The Singing Actor and they really never stood a chance in the harsh music world. The Curse has consistently worked against nearly every actor that has tried to “dabble in music”. There are some examples of actors and actresses who have some success in the music industry, but for every actor that “made it” there are a hundred who crashed and burned. That’s all part of The Curse.

Northern Exposure was one of my favorite tv-shows in the nineties. John Corbett played Chris the DJ, a sensitive, but super-manly man. Since then he has played many similar roles, but I never tire of watching him act. So when I learned that he was recording a CD, I got scared. Out of morbid curiosity - the same that makes me want to watch Mariah “act” in Glitter and listen to William Shatner’s “dramatic readings” of popular songs on his CD Has Been, which is actually so bad it’s good - I listened to some of The John Corbett Band’s songs on their site. Oh, how I wish I hadn’t. His music of choice is that horrible New Country music, made popular by Garth Brooks and the like. We here at 100b try to not make it a habit to tell the world why exactly some band sucks. But I’m sorry John, that sound will linger in my brain and come back when I least expect it, like an embarrassing memory, which is what this musical stint should be. I’m all for creative diversity, but his talents clearly lie elsewhere. I would’ve been the first to celebrate him if he had turned out to be a gifted musician but, sadly, The Curse has struck again.

The Soledad Brothers have a special place in our hearts. They may not be on the cutting edge of any new music scenes, but they make good, solid bluesy-garage-rock. So we’re looking forward to their upcoming CD The Hardest Walk, out on March 6th. Ever since I heard about the new album, I kept hearing the chorus from “Cage That Tiger” (on their last release Voice of Treason) everywhere I went. It popped into my head while I was out shopping yesterday and again this morning while I was brushing my teeth. Check out some of their new songs on their myspace page. I like to share my insanity, so here’s the song that’s been haunting me for the past few days.

   Soledad Brothers - Cage That Tiger

In celebration of the Paradiso’s awesome line-up for this spring’s London Calling festival, some of our upcoming New Band Day entries will probably feature bands that’ll be playing there. This week, I’ve decided to cheat on New Band Day and bring you a band that isn’t exactly spanking new. Rules are for suckers.

The Young Knives have been around for a little while and I’m sure they’ve already been blogged about like crazy. But I don’t care because they’re damn good and I like ‘em. As it turns out, I actually knew about them before I knew that I knew about them - I had “Weekends And Bleak Days” on a mix ages ago but when their last single came out, I didn’t make the connection. I saw the video for “The Decision” once and thought it was odd but it definitely caught my attention. Then I saw it a few more times (such is the nature of MTV) and by the end of the day, I loved them. They’re so good that Transgressive signed them for the label’s first non-single releases (man, do I hate those Transgressive guys… ok, so I’m jealous), and The Futureheads are just a few of their many fans. They actually remind me a bit of The Futureheads - not in their sound exactly, but in a shared English sensibility. Or something.

Anyway, The Young Knives have a new single out this week, “Here Comes The Rumour Mill”. If you’re still waiting for the delivery of said single (some of us have to order these things from other countries and then wait for them like second-class citizens), you can check out the video here, or check out some of The Young Knives’ other songs and videos. Enjoy, and join in the wait for the debut album ’cause we reckon it’ll be worth it.

It is indeed New Band Day, but I’ll get on that later. For now, I had to post this, because it just may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Ever.

What a waster

The Sun today launches a campaign to get Pete locked up and off the streets.

Some will try to see a funny side in his latest comedy of errors. But the joke has worn thin. The reality is seedy and sad.

So far the legal system has been letting him do what he likes.

But it’s time to lock him up, give him counselling, offer him help.

Pete promises to be a great musician — but behind closed doors he suffers terrible depression and mental health issues.

He is prone to bursting into tears at any moment.

The constant arrests are a cry for help.

Pete MUST get a prison sentence before he dies or causes a major traffic accident.

I’d love to take credit for finding this ridiculous story, but it actually came from No Rock And Roll Fun so I offer my thanks to them (and I hope I’ve credited them properly). Go there to check out their take on it, or check out the full story at The Sun Online.

I had hoped never to blog about Pete Doherty, not because I have anything against him - his business is his business, and I’m not sure why his problems should be my business - but because there are thousands of blog posts out there already if you need a fix. Unless Babyshambles releases another single as fabulous as “Fuck Forever”, I promise this’ll be my one and only Pete Doherty post.