Dear Friends,
Graduation was such a wonderful moment. I am a proud dad. It was fun to see TQ so happy on that stage and I found myself feeling all the love.
The rest of yesterday was pretty much bullshit.
I was seriously thinking about finding a new career. There was almost nothing redeeming about it other than a few places where I saw students doing their best to give me a little grace. For the rest of the entitled little mfers, I could have just as easily lit a match and burned the classroom down.
All I could think of at one point was how terrible they must make their parents feel on a regular basis. That is, if the parents have a clue as to who their children really are. There is no way that some of them know what monsters their kids are for eight hours a day.
*****
Okay, not entirely, but it sure felt good to vent.
*****
One of my students, the one I have mentioned in the past who can speak pretty good English when he thinks I am not listening to him to talk with his friends was sitting there drawing tiny dicks instead of doing his math. I may have to use the picture at some point.
It’s too soon for even me to find it truly funny at the moment. As soon as I started asking him about it, the English was very broken again. There are so many things I would do differently with this kid, given the chance, but at least he knows that I am on to his act. Unfortunately, mom is oblivious and just knows enough English to say, “Okay, thank you.”
He probably went home last night and drew some more dicks. Someday he will watch Super Bad and realize his people are out there. I had his brother last year and he played a similar game, but without the dick drawing.
*****
The little vapers got three days of in school detention. To see them walk back into the classroom at the end of the day is just galling. The two girls who were vaping are sofa king smug. I hope they enjoy missing out on the field trip next week.
That’s terrible, I know, but karma is a swift and nasty bitch. They both have bigger helpings coming their way soon enough, too. Middle school will be humbling for them and sadly, they both will probably have babies of their own before they are adults. They aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are.
But I wish them well. Maybe they’ll learn to twirl something.
*****
For fans of The Damned, there was a time when the Naz Nomad and the Nightmares record, Give Daddy the Knife Cindy, was kind of like Rat Scabies’ beloved Holy Grail. It was so hard to find on vinyl. People kind of whispered about it because it might not have even been real.
I’m trying to remember who told me about it first. Probably Billy G., but it might have been Markus. I can’t really remember, and it doesn’t matter. What matters is for years, I would check in the Damned section of the record store and in the Ns to see if I could finally find my copy. Eventually, Big Bear Records put it out on CD, and I finally got one of my own, before I eventually did find a vinyl copy about a decade or more ago.
The record itself is pretty neat. It’s made to look like it is the soundtrack to an old B movie. The whole thing is very swinging 60s by look and the songs are almost all covers of early garage rock hits. It’s basically a version of The Damned without Captain Sensible who was off making his own side project go with his hit song, “Wot.”
Naz Nomad and the Nightmares never really took off, which is a shame, but maybe not. If they had, The Damned may have ceased to exist. Dave Vanian’s love for garage rock managed to find its way into subsequent Damned releases anyway and the rest is history.
When I finally heard it, I thought it was pretty darn cool. You can tell it is Vanian (AKA Naz Nomad) singing, but beyond that, it only sounds like The Damned here and there. Most of the recording sounds like a really confident garage band busting through some hits.
‘Nobody But Me” by the Human Beinz is fun and gets things moving right away. Vanian is in good voice, too, on this rocker. “Action Woman” is also a lot of fun and Rat Scabies, AKA Nick Detroit, kind of takes the lead on it while Roman Jugg (AKA Sphinx Svenson) does some tasty guitar licks. Bryn Merrick plays bass on the record under the pseudonym, Buddy Lee Junior, too.
Jugg also did the keyboards. We got to see him play keyboards for The Damned during one of their Celebrity Theater shows in the last 80s. He was an interesting dude on stage, for sure. I wonder what he’s up to now? Vanian sounds a little off on “The Wind Blows Your Hair,” but Jugg’s keyboard work is top notch.
“Kicks” by Paul Revere and the Raiders gets a good working over, too. Give Daddy the Knife Cindy is just a fun record. If you don’t take it too seriously and if you’re a fan of the psychedelic garage stuff, you’ll dig it. If you don’t care for that genre, though, and aren’t a fan of The Damned, it probably won’t do too much for you.
They have recently re-released this record, too, so you can find it without paying an arm and a leg. Discogs typically has them.
“Cold Turkey” is just okay. It’s not the John Lennon song by the same name, though. “She Lied” reminds me a lot of the old Phoenix band, Van Buren Wheels, for some reason. I bet my old buddy Vince loved this one. I miss him a lot.
“I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” by the Electric Prunes has long been a favorite of mine and Naz Nomad and the Nightmares more than do it justice. This might be my favorite track on Give Daddy the Knife Cindy. They don’t stray too far from the original, but it’s still great and stands up on its own.
Kim Fowley’s “The Trip” is up next and it’s a bit of a snoozer but the band cranks out “I Can’t Stand this Love, Goodbye’ by The Others and then romps through “I Can Only Give You Everything” by The Seeds. That guitar riff is so damn good. Instant ear worm.
The last two songs, “(Do You Know) I Know” and “Just Call Me Sky” are both originals. The former is a great tribute to the 60s garage sound and the latter is a wonderful bit of faux psychedelic rock fun. These two are a bit on the short side, but they get my head bobbing and my pulse throbbing.
But I’m a sucker for The Damned and it is very clear these guys had a ton of fun with it. That’s the way it is supposed to be.
*****
See you tomorrow.
I blame AI.
Just gotta tell ya that your recent Breeders write up took me down a rabbit hole of awesome old music that I hadn’t heard in quite some time. I listened to Pod which later led to some Breeders radio on Spotify which led to me hearing some old faves- Lucious Jackson and Catherine Wheel. Great stuff! Thanks for that!
Happy Friday my friend!