Some FEATURED ARTISTS on this week’s Stronger Than Dirt (Saturday, February 14, 8-10pm) include Love, Osmonds, Sparks, Hollywood Brats, Celia and the Mutations (Stranglers), Avengers, Plastic Bertrand, Lush, Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, lots of new music as well as the weekly Dusty Diamond.
COVER ART OF THE WEEK: The Hollywood Brats were perhaps the British version of the New York Dolls, an early 70s band that played Stones-y rock and roll clad in flamboyant clothing and wearing make-up. They included Casino Steel (real name Stein Groven), Norwegian keyboardist who would later join The Boys. They never achieved any commercial success and recorded but one album, a brilliant untitled LP in 1973 that their record company refused to release. In 1975, Mercury released it in Norway as “Grown Up Wrong” after the band had already called it quits. It has been reissued numerous times as a self-titled album, including this one on Get Back Records. The front cover features a photograph of the band by Gered Mankowitz. (Click on image to enlarge)
DUSTY DIAMOND OF THE WEEK (a vintage gem from the STD vaults): Volt were a French electro punk band based in Paris that included among others, Lili Zeller of earlier garage punk bands The Splash Four and The No-Talents. Active in the mid 00’s they released a couple EPs and one album. “Testbild” is a rhythmic, throbbing synth heavy pounder with Zeller sharing vocals with fellow Splash Four alumnus Jacques-Olivier Ansellem. It appeared in 2004 on a s/t EP on In the Red Records and was included on a 2007 s/t album, also on In the Red. Listen to it here:
Promo art from Love’s 1967 “Forever Changes” album on Elektra Records. Design by William S. Harvey and illustration by Bob Pepper.