BillsBlog Song Of The Day

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Balloon Man (1988) +  April Playlist Time to close out April and here's a track that feels like a perfect closer. Just a simple surrealist jolly jangle of joy but it leaves me with this strange tinge of sadness and feeling slightly disturbed. It reminds me of walking down the street on a beautiful day and seeing that random thing happen that gets in the head but isn't really processed until after the fact because it gets lost in the shuffle of the day. Mr. Hitchcock was previously in The Soft Boys who I will most likely get to in the near future - Wading Through A Ventilator and Sandra's Having Her Brain Out are both personal faves. Apparently he had written this tune for The Bangles in line with Walk Like An Egyptian and I could totally see that. But that's not how it worked out. This is the wonder we get to enjoy. [Click on the colorful link below the video for the full April playlist]    Ok. Roll end credits on April... Onto t...

Manowar - Fight Until We Die (2002) Here's a power metal headsmasher of epic proportion. It's fast. It's crazy. It's perfect performance and production. Manowar had been around a good 20 years at this point and the energy level is still outrageous.  "Sons of demons I command you fly right up from hell into the sky..."    

Hank The Knife & The Jets - Ghost Town (1975) There was a bear in the front yard today. That was interesting. That has nothing to do with this song. It's Hank The Knife, back to the Netherlands we go. But we're not going to Ghost Town because Hank told us not to. This is very reminiscent of Morricone's 70s spaghetti western soundtracks (they also have a song called Ennio on this album). It's great. It's spooky. It's not about bears.  For further bear related information I have you covered here... https://billsblogsongoftheday.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-royal-guardsmen-bears-1967-january_31.html        

The Radiators From Space - Television Screen (1977) Here's "Ireland's first punk band" with their blazing first single from 77.  I've noticed songs about television were pretty common with the bands of this era. Whether it be hating TV, expressing a sarcastic love and obsession with shows, thoughts on advertising, effect on society, taking a nap, or just cutting our heads off to stick in the TV set, the tube sure inspired a lot of material. Below the video, I posted my spotify playlist TV Punks On TV if you'd like some further listening.   TV Punks On TV https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zMkrZMhrTustikfPkcUE2?si=0cc3c74314034d8d  

Cindy & Bert - Der Hund Von Baskerville (1971) Cindy & Bert, a German vocal duo (and married couple) mainly played breezy tunes akin to say, Sonny & Cher. Apparently they were quite successful with a number of pop hits on the German charts through the 70s. This here though - it's a bit of a mind boggle. We have our happy couple covering Sabbath's 1970 hit Paranoid, in the German language, but they changed the lyrics to something concerning Arthur Conan Doyle's crime novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (published 1902) which is a story of Sherlock Holmes investigating an allegedly demonic dog.  What ties together Black Sabbath and Sherlock Holmes? Truly nothing I can think of. For additional confusion we get this performance with Bert and Cindy in front of a spooky foggy castle backdrop. It has a similar look to a Hammer horror film. Bert looks a bit disinterested or perhaps high or perhaps undead. The crowd seemingly has no idea how to dance to this ...

Trio - Drei Mann Im Doppelbett (1983) Sometimes it's nice to enjoy some simplicity. Take a minimalist beat, a chopping fuzzed out guitar, a couple catchy synth riffs. Add one line which translates to "three men in a double bed" and some sweet whistling... Boom, Classic. *Trio was best known for their 1981 worldwide hit "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha" which became popular again in the US in 1997 because of its use in a Volkswagen commercial. That's when I became familiar with the band and I bought the cassette pictured on the video here. Check out that album art. Wowsers.     

Triumphs - Surfside Date (1964) Here we go. Milwaukee surf punk from the mid 60s. Not a lot of oceans around those parts. I suppose you could hang out on Lake Michigan. It doesn't really seem like the surfing is what our vocalist is looking for here. "After the usual razamataz, I'll take you home and all of that jazz..." I used to have the Norton re-release on 45 back when I had stuff. Totally bonkers energy all around including two full blast sax solos. And it clocks in at under two minutes. Pairs nicely with The Trashmen's Surfin Bird (from Minneapolis, also 1964) if you want to have an Upper Midwest surf party.     

The Bluestars - Social End Product (1966) We're sticking with the garage today, this time from New Zealand, and it's another all time banger. This song is wound tight. Bashing drums, a killer riff, seething vocals. Reminiscent of The Rolling Stones " Satifsfaction " (1965) in the beat and delivery, but taken up a notch. A precursor to the sounds and subject matter that would be popularized a decade later in the Epic Era of Punk.  "Sssssss... Social end product."    

The Savages - The World Ain't Round It's Square (1966) Here's a chaotic garage basher from... Bermuda. It's not exactly what I think of as the island sound.  It's dissonant. Aggressive. The rhythm section sounds like it's rolling down a hill with the vocals falling off a cliff. And strangely it appears to be a live performance (or perhaps the crowd sound was added in post? Not sure). Regardless, it's a blast.  

Fr æbbblarnir - Rebellion Of The Dwarfs (1982) Today we're going on over to Iceland for this fun little folk punker. The verses roughly follow the cadence of Elton Motello's Jet Boy, Jet Girl and the chorus is crazy catchy. Other than that, I have no idea what's going on here. I don't even know how to pronounce the band's name. If you do, let me know. If you don't, that's fine, you can be confused like me. It's still a good time.    

Tiny Tim - The Other Side (1968) Hey Stoner. It's Monday. Let's get weird. Here's Tiny Tim (best known for Tiptoe Through The Tulips) with his 1968 psychedelic masterpiece about apocalyptic global warming. "The ice caps are melting The tide is rushing in All the world is drowning To wash away the sin "    

Gruppo Sportivo - I Shot My Manager (1977) "Hi boys and girls. We're Sportivo. We're going to sing about money."  Today we're going back to late 70s Holland for this satiric gem teaching us the 6 golden rules for playing the blues and giving us a little financial advice as well. The comparable band that comes to mind is The B-52s, both forming in 1976, but it's unlikely either band would have known of each other at this time. (The Rock Lobster single wasn't released until 78.)  The interaction between the vocalists here is perfectly silly. I keep laughing every time I hit replay with that opening line quoted above. There is the brief Marley / Clapton moment in the middle of the song but it's the escalating series of terrible advice that really cracks me up.  Even guitarist / vocalist Hans Vandenburg has a hard time keeping it together by the final chorus.  I don't want to spoil the 6 golden rules so I'll just get it started, "1. Lose a le...

The Surftones - Cecilia Ann (1988)  Today we're going to check out a classic surf rock instrumental and dig a little bit into its history. I first heard the Pixies cover of Cecilia Ann as the opener to their 1990 album Bossanova. I knew it was a cover but I hadn't heard the original. Years later I came across the compilation Surf Legends (And Rumors) - Rockin' Instrumentals 1961-1964  at a used record store. I saw Cecilia Ann by The Surftones was the first track listed and it was filled with songs I already knew by The Rumblers (Boss) and The Revels (Church Key) amongst others, so I bought it on the spot. Because of the album subtitle (1961-1964) I had every reason to believe Cecilia Ann had been released in that time frame and assumed this was the original that the Pixies had covered. A couple days ago I was going through my surf playlists to find listings for release dates and kept seeing 1988 for this song, which I figured was wrong. I kept searching and then I came ...

Herman Brood & His Wild Romance - R & Roll Junkie (1978) Wow. Here's something I had somehow never heard before until I was foolin' around looking for something to play last night. With a little research I realized I had come across a legend. Herman Brood. The "greatest and only Dutch rock 'n' roll star". It's pure rock n roll with that late 70s punk energy. Reminiscent of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, partially because of the substances involved, but that's not what makes this great. His tunes all have this crazy passion in the performance with instrumentation including Brood on piano, a horn section and female backup vocalists to fill out the production. And his vocals are mesmerizing. Sadly in 2001, he jumped off the roof of a Hilton leaving a note that translates to:  "I don’t feel like it anymore, maybe I'll see you all again some day. Have a nice party."   Knowing that makes the lyrics here somewhat chilling. Anyway, I'm not h...

Pretty Maids - Night Danger (1984) I've been pinging and ponging all day long trying to find myself a song. There's been so many in my queue, I wasn't sure what to do. Now I've narrowed it down to just a few. It's time to play shuffle roulette and what you hear is what we get... NIGHT DANGER!   Addendum Danish heavy metal band formed in 1981 Song used in classic Italian horror flick Demons (1985) Check out the album art... what? This song slays 

Automatics - Walking With The Radio On (Recorded 1978) [Released 2000] Here's a quick blast of punk n roll, from that epic era of punk, one that never quite got its shine until much later. The story goes they put out a single in the UK ( When The Tanks Roll Over Poland Again ) that achieved a fair amount of success. They recorded a full length for Island Records but before it was released there was a shake-up in management and the new dude wanted to put his resources into some band called U2. As a result the Automatics were dropped, the album shelved, and the band members dissipated into other bands and occupations. Vocalist David Philp moved on to L.A. ... Years later, in the mid 90s some superfans in Japan came across the Automatics online and the album was released by Base Records. Philp rebooted the band and continued to make new music. That's as far as my research has taken me. Plus I'm not really one to tell other people's stories, it just seems like some exposit...

Laika & The Cosmonauts - Turquoise (1997) The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day to listen to some 90s Finnish surf. Laika & The Cosmonauts were one the many great surf revival bands from that era (I should be getting to some of the others soon enough) and this is one of my absolute favorites. A dreamy trip around an exotic scale with perfectly pristine guitar and a production to match.  Historical note: On November 3rd, 1957, Laika was the space dog launched by the Soviets on Sputnik 2. She was the first animal to orbit the Earth. There was no plan for her to return. I'll leave it at that.  

Antler Joe & The Accidents - Words (1981) Well, ya see, Antler Joe here, he doesn't much care for words. In fact he disliked them enough to write a song about it. I imagine he could have just played guitar or something, but then we wouldn't have this classic piece of lo-fi contrarian punk rock. It also pairs really well with the following track on the EP, Dogshit . That's all I got. Typing all these letters sequentially to try to communicate some kind of meaning is really starting to piss me off. Out. "Words - they don't do much / Words - can fuck you up / Words - can get you dead / Words, words, words all in my head."    

Missing Persons - Walking In L.A. (1982) Well looks like we survived yesterday's road trip with Psycotic Pineapple so let's go for a walk around L.A. with Missing Persons. What could possibly go wrong? This is quintessential new wave right here. If I were to summarize the genre in 10 songs this would be on that list for sure. Love that synth line, fuzzed out quitar, and Dale Bozzio's classic quirky vocal performance with drummer and husband Terry Bozzio's lyrics... "I don't know, could've been a lame jogger maybe Or someone just about to do the freeway strangler, baby Shopping cart pusher, maybe someone groovy One thing's for sure, he isn't starring in the movies   "Walkin' in L.A. Nobody walks in L.A."         

Psycotic Pineapple - Hang On For Your Life (1980) Hey there Smasher. No time for platitudes today. We're just gonna hop in the car and go for a ride.  

Eric Carmen - That's Rock N Roll (1975) Today is the 100th day of 2026. That means this is my 100th post. That's 100 songs by 100 bands and artists. So let's all get down get with it with Eric Carmen (of Raspberries fame) for this sweet little 3 chord 70s rock n roller. Stop by tomorrow as we continue on with the unknown of another song for another unknown day.

The Cure - I'm Cold (1977) Happy birthday Matt! The Big five zero.  I was thinking about all the wild stuff we listened to in those late teenage / early 20s years. I could easily compile an hour plus mix of music we shared and maybe I'll do that, but for now I'm going with an early Cure demo. No synths here. Lots of shredding (courtesy of lead guitarist Porl Thompson) and resembles something like MC5 but still comes through with a sound that would fit on the worn out cassette copy of Boys Don't Cry that was in constant rotation. I hadn't heard this one until a couple years ago on the Three Imaginary Boys deluxe edition. Check it out and party onward. And for everybody else, check it out too. It's a damn fine tune.   

Chuck Willis -   Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes (1958) Chuck, Part 3 "Why are you only posting songs by dudes named Chuck?" you may be asking, "What's the relevance?"  I would reply "I don't know. There is no relevance." Regardless, I'm having a great time with this one and it gives a positive resolve on the trilogy. I am aware there's one very well known Chuck with a ton of foundational rock n roll classics covered by everyone from Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones to obscure garage bands, but I'm thinking I'll probably be saving his tunes for a wildcard in the future.   

Chuck Wells - Down And Out (1965) Chuck, Part 2... Today we're going with some old outlaw country with a big baritone voice and a wild story to tell. This is truly down and out.    

Chuck Cirino - Chopping Mall Main Title (1986) Tonight we've got a great synth track from the score to the incredibly wacky B horror gem Chopping Mall, a movie about killer robots (Killbots) attacking a group of teenagers who try to have a late night party at a mall. Mr. Cirino scored a bunch a low budget flicks during the 80s and 90s. This one is my favorite but I highly recommend his other works as well.     

The Replacements - Bastards Of Young (1985) Hey, Happy Easter! I was thinking about topical themes for the holiday: bunnies, eggs, hiding things, chocolates, JC, resurrection, spring, etc... And there are plenty of great songs around all of these subjects for sure but that's not where I'm at today. For the sake of both you and me, I'm not going to cram in any of those ideas just to pretend that it's what I feel like listening to right now. Instead let's pong and not ping. ...And I went to post this and the power went out. It's back now. Anyway, here's a true classic of Minneapolis rock. I was going to share the video because it's a lowkey favorite of mine, but it has too much dead air so we're going audio only. Enjoy!    

The Firemen - Jocko Bozo (1979) So back in the day I used to live in this tiny apartment unit 2C with a couple good buddies of mine at the time and a rotating cast of other characters. Despite whatever chaos we were getting ourselves into on any given day we all shared an absolute love for music and constantly seeking out something different. We didn't have smartphones with music apps, we didn't even have an internet connection in the place, but between all of us, we had an endless flow of physical media - CDs, LPs, cassettes - and the means to play them throughout each room. We were also constantly making our own music, which the neighbor next door didn't always love and he let it be known by knocking on the wall and calling the cops but in retrospect, I think he just wanted to be invited to the party. Anyway, one of my buddies had the Devotees compilation on vinyl. It's a collection of assorted bands covering Devo at the prompting of L.A. based radio station KROQ, p...

Agony Bag - Rabies Is A Killer (1980) Wow. I woke up, started drinking my morning coffee, tried watching the news, got bored, then I checked out my recommendations on Spotify. This song came up and it instantly won the battle for song of the day vs every other song ever made.  I had never heard of Agony Bag (sounds like a 2010s emo band name) so I started doing some research. They were formed in 1976 by members of the 70s occult psych band Black Widow. They're from Leicester, UK. This was their only released single. It doesn't much matter if I explain it here, anyone can look up the info pretty easily. Point being, after a bit of reading I clicked on the video and I'm mesmerized, confused, and just love when I find something old that's new to me. Influences seem to include Alice Cooper, Kiss, Rocky Horror, general punk aesthetic, uppers, booze, manic energy, moronic joy, and possibly actual rabies. In other words, it's theatrical rock and that's exactly my ki...

SpizzEnergi - Where's Captain Kirk? (1979) Hey. We got folks going over to the moon. They're about to do a translunar injection. Sweet. Maybe some rich weirdo freaks can go live there when they're done destroying this planet with all the rockets down here. Eh, Just kidding. Everything's fine. Here's a song about  Star Trek. A brilliant indie new wave sci-fi punker with so many transitions and instrumentation it's a bit head spinning. And it's a wacky good time! SPOILER: He IS Captain Kirk. Note: This is the 2nd song I've posted related to Star Trek. Even though I said I'm not that much a fan of the franchise, maybe I do like things tangentially related to Star Trek. Maybe I am Trekkie adjacent. I doubt it though.          

White Sister - April (1986) Yes, April is finally here and we begin the month with the day for Fools. White Sister gets us started with this under the radar heavy metal banger.  The track appears in the April Fool's themed supernatural slasher Killer Party (also from 1986). After a sequence of a funeral gone wrong, which turns out to be a movie at a drive-in, our lady watching the movie gets chased by zombies while the boys in the band are rocking out in the concessions building. Then "Gotcha", the whole thing is actually a music video that our actual character is watching on TV. Film within a film within a music video within a film. Whew, what a wild way to start a crazy movie...  "April! April, why do you play the fool!?"