Joe Firstman seems like he’s been around a while , with several releases to his credit. He also did some late night TV work. So he certainly must have some type of fan base he’s peddling this borderline schtick to. I’m as big a fan as anybody to the slap-dash unwashed approach. Love the ‘mats, Camper Van Beethoven, Stooges even. I could even be kind and say one or two songs were OK. But all too often over the course of the record it’s a dissonant unmusical experience. There must be some sort of an audience that loves this stuff. Personally I won’t be digging into his back catalog anytime soon. This guy makes Joe Walsh sound good.

Elizabeth Wight’s secret takes a while to become clear -it would’ve helped if she was blonde. Wight’s secret is she is the epitome of a Californian girl. It’s been a coupla hour since Bret Jensen and I concluded our interview and that’s what stays with me most.Bret is going to the show tonight (at The Danger Halloween Party tonight 3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave,, Bushwick, Brooklyn, 10pm) and will be writing a full length profile soon. Consider this my first thoughts.

Elizabeth is the lead singer for the excellent dance rock band Love Grenades in town for CMJ. But she is an odd girl. A frequenter of LA’s  rocks clubs and dance clubs from the age of fourteeen (“A street kid”), emancipated from her parents at the age of fifteen and  a mind bloggling age to be on your own. And I mean on your own. She worked to support herself. Elizabeth calls the clubs her Churches but I’m thinking they were more like her home. Eliazbeth began her career singing for Gram Parsons cover bands and local punk bands till she took matters into her own hands and wrote and played five demo songs in her bedroom.  She is signed to Modus Vivandi (a very good dance label), and has a terrific EP Tigers In the Fire I am sure you’ve read about in Rock NYC many times. She is currently  recording her new album with various producers none of whom I know.

Given what I know of her life I’d have expected somebody harder, more cynical. If your parents let you down when you’re a teen, when they lift the structures of childhood, it could lead you to anarcy and at the least it could lead you to a serious break of emotional faith. If those whose job it is to do so don’t hold your trust sacred how can you believe in anybody else might do so? But the woman seems to wear the mantle of her back story with ease and a smile. Where her guard could be up  she seems to shrug it off and where somebody else, certainly most people in the biz on the East Coast, might make a practise of not being forthcoming,  everything about Wight is as open as  her wide, frankly and franly attractive smile and it is strange, it’s not what we’ve bought into.

On stage and on record Wight comes across as a red hot, dead cool, maneating femme fatale, in person she is a quintessential laid back member of the LA music scene. Calming, guileless, never happier than with a forty ounce beer and miles of sand and sea. She doesn’t have a bad word for anyone with the possible exception of Britney Spears.

The music isn’t quite what it appears to be either, the rough and tumble ribaldry of “Tigers In the Fire” (“I can screw anyone that’s  nice then walk away”) is  actually a break up song with Elizabeth putting on a brave face while her life falls apart. What she has to say about this is fascinating and I hope Brett decides to pull the quotes when he writes the profile.

Equally fascinating  is Elizabeth’s  description of how she writes songs. She starts with a drum pattern,with Beats Per Minutes, adds a bass line, and puts the”pretty things” on top. Wight writes the lyric last though my claim that that’s somewhat clinical is rebuffed. “I write poetry. I think I’m a romantic.”

Elizabeth has had a cold since she got here and has been sneezing regularly so the boys of New York haven’t had a taste of the big orange -poor New York boys. Wight is, to put it bluntly, a little knock out, and any New York  guy who wouldn’t trade off the flu for hooking up with Miss. Wight would probably prefer Sam Sparro’s company.

She has met many people during the past week,  including Chris Stein and Debbie Harry who signed all her vinyl Blondie albums, Love Grenades is something of a Blondie circa “Call Me” for the 2010s. She also met  Mark Ronson who should really work with this very gifted woman. Either way  you’ll be hearing a lot more about Love Grenades, from me, from Bret Jensen next week, and from the pop universe when her first album drops.

Chrissie Hynde is a Goddess.

Lets start there. Everything else is just filler.


Chrissie Hynde lead singer front woman head engineer visionary songstress activist HERO was born in 1951. Shes old. She kicks ass.

Long ago I fell in love with the Pretenders by ear only. Back then I didn’t hate women singers at all. I’m pretty sure the reason I hate most now is because I hold them to her standard. I believe the first song I heard was Tattooed Love Boys. How hot. Here was a girl not begging for a boy to want her but standing on level ground, ha ha and too bad… loved that attitude. From the time I heard that I decided I wanted to be her. Pete Farndon? James Honeyman Scott? yyyeeeeeeeeeeeowza. That girl had it all -intelligent with the most amazing and captivating vocal range Id ever encountered. At this point I didn’t even know she held a guitar.

I picked up the vinyl. Shes gorgeous…. I didn’t quite know if I should hate her or love her but at this point I was more entranced with the music. Joan Jett rode a tandem at the time too, but she always seemed a bit trashy. Latex fetish girl I mentioned before. Chrissie was above it. She carried with her the air of intelligence and strength, Joan walked around with sex toys and a bondage mask with a cheesy snarl. Go home honey,the Runaways are callin’.


The history of Chrissie and the Pretenders is a predictable one. Art School Girl goes to UK, freelances for the New Musical Express,  gets involved in punk scene jumps band to band longs for her own, creates her own makes a demo crowd goes wild.. a little drama here and there but onward we go.

The Pretenders first release contained the annoying wang of Brass in Pocket, helped them make some money I suppose but I hated that song. I do believe MTV killed that song for me with the smarmy “Special” menu pointing by the boys. But the rest of the album was my life’s blood Precious being another that I belted out at full volume to the concern of my parents. 1980 my dears, I was 14, oh God…


A few years ago they did a remaster re release thing that included Cuban Slide. I love that song now.. love love love it.

Pretenders II, now they’re shining. This to me is one of my top 5 albums of all time. How do you go from “Bad Boys Get Spanked ” to “I Go To Sleep” and not miss a beat AND retain credibility? A feat impossible but a range intoxicating. Day After Day still chokes me up.

Now I can go through the rest of their discography for you showing how amazingly diverse and talented Chrissie is but reading it wont do jack for you go grab some of their songs go purchase Pirate Radio but listen. There is enough diversity in her works to never bore. I can tell you she and Ray Davies had a kid that she married that Simple Minds guy, that she married a Brazilian I think but I also think they split. I can tell you her and Martin Chambers the only non suicide committing Pretender still tour….

I can tell you that I saw her just 3 years ago for the first time at the Waterbury Palace. My rocker pal Peggy had to literally push me out of my row to the stage cuz I was a deer in the headlights. I couldn’t move. Hilarious now but it was so amazing that I never ever want to see her again. I was front row center right in front of her as she performed (with Chambers) every song I ever wanted to hear. It was flawless, she was personable, she was class…..pure class with a bad ass stance. What an amazing woman. What an inspiration to girls and women to be strong, be sexy, be tough, be soft, be intelligent, be proud, be diligent, be unbending, be yourself.

As Iman mentioned Chrissie is a vegetarian with a fist for animal rights. Active in PETA and all the while not seeming fanatical. Although I aspired as a young teen to be her, my reason for turning away from the carnivore world was not her sway but my own. Learning what I did about the industry and the cruelties involved in mass production of flesh for consumption, I found that was not the way for me. I too am active with the causes of humanity and animal rights. Life rights as Id like to refer to it. Respect comes with intelligence and I consider myself intelligent albeit a bit silly at times. As a higher life form it becomes our responsibility to protect those without the intelligence or voice to do so for themselves. I try not to preach but rather spread information and let people decide for themselves.


In 2007 Chrissie as a joint venture opened a vegan restaurant in Akron Ohio The VegiTerannian, cute. I wish her success. Really that’s funny she is a success, on her own.

Long Live Chrissie…….I adore you.