I am not a professional writer
just a fan who enjoys music & would like to share my thoughts w/ you.
So if you see any typos or ill grammer I apologize. I do try to do research
and will quote where I received my information.
Mostly these are my thoughts & reviews on the following artist.
The Alley Cats
My first experience w/ The Alley Cats was from "Urgh! The Music Wars" movie watching them perform "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore." If you are not familiar w/ the movie it's a collection of punk/new wave bands. I ended up searching for the only 2 Alley Cats vinyls released. I recently found out they are from Los Angeles, CA. This punk rock trio consist of husband and wife team Randy Stodola on guitar and vocals, Dianne Chai on bass and vocals, along w/ drummer John McCarthy. They were a cross between bands X and The Cramps. Randy Stodola w/ his Dylanesque lyrics reminded me if Dylan went punk this would be how he would sound. In 1978 they were signed to Dangerhouse Records which they released their first single "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore"/"Give Me a Little Pain" and in 1980 "Too Much Junk".
Releasing only 2 albums on the Time Coast Records label "Nightmare City" in 1981 and "Escape From Planet Earth" in 1982. Then in '85 they formed The Zarkons releasing 2 more albums "Riders In The Long Black Parade", drummer John McCarthy's last album. By 1988 they added 2 more musicians female vocalist Rente and drummer Terry Cooley releasing "Between the Idea & the Reality…Falls the Shadow".
Any corrections or responses on The Alley Cats send to evenspot@yahoo.com
title subject “The Alley Cats”.
Dangerhouse EP
EP: 1978
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
Give Me A Little Pain
EP: 1980
Too Much Junk
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore/Give Me A Little Pain
Too Much Junk Signed to Dangerhouse Label The Alley Cats released 2 EPs. These songs will later appear on their debut Album "Nightmare City". Dangerhouse will re-release these in a compilation CDs in the 90's.
I never heard these versions so I don't know how similar they are to the album cuts.
Nightmare City
1981
Side A:
1. Nightmare City
2. Night Along The Blvd
3. One More Chance to Survive
4. King of the Street Fights
5. Today
Side B:
1. Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
2. Too Much Junk
3. Give Me a little Pain
4. Black Haired Girl
5. When The World Was Old
Nightmare City
Debut album released on Time Coast Label, distributed by Faulty Records. Produced by Randy Stodola. You have the release of their earlier EP tracks "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore", "Give Me A Little Pain" and "Too Much Junk."A very fast paced record. They do slow it down a bit w/ "King of The Street Fights" which brought me to Randy Stodola's Dylanesque technique. This is the only album released on CD.
Escape From The Planet Earth
1982
Side A:
1. Escape From The Planet Earth
2. It Only Hurts The First Time
3. Breath Of The Barfly
4. Bitter Fruit
5. Waiting For The Buzz
Side B:
1. Night Of The Living Dead
2. Naked Souls
3. The Hotel
4. After The Funeral
5. Just An Alley Cat
Escape From The Planet Earth
Produced by Randy Stodola with the Time Coast logo on the lyric sheet it reads" A Berle Company Production." This vinyl was released on the MCA Records label.
I love the guitar intro on "Escape From Planet Earth" and Stodola lyrics sounds like some 50's Sci-Fi movie.
...bound together by doomsday chains
little monkey creatures run through this twisted plain
chasing the messiah that never came
drenched in the sorrow of this evil rain...
This album is just as good as Nightmare City with many good tracks like "It Only Hurts The First Time", "Breath of The Barfly". This LP comes w/ a pull out sleeve of lyrics on both sides including the cover art which by Yumi Chai the same last name as bassist Dianne.
[ Hailing from Los Angeles, The Zarkons were led by Randy Stodola (vocals/guitar) and Dianne Chai (vocals/bass) with John McCarthy (drums). Formerly known as The Alley Cats (check their 1st album), this punk trio were a mainstay of the early L.A. punk scene. The name change along with an image and musical style change perhaps came from the fact that there were so many other "cats" bands around at the time (Stray Cats, Polecats, Rockats) and they were looking to differentiate themselves from that rockabilly sound that the other "cats" were making. They first released "Riders in The Long Black Parade" in 1985 and by the second album McCarthy was gone and Terry Cooley replaced him in the drum seat. Also added at this point was Freda Rente (vocals/bass). ]
Riders in The Long Black Parade
1985
Side A:
1- Screams In The Night
2 - Live Free Or Die
3 - I'm Lovesick Of The World
4 - Queen Of The Jungle
Side B:
5 - White Rabbit
6 - Darkness Synkopation
7 - I Got A Hole In Me
8 - Schizo-Phrenia
Riders in The Long Black Parade On a removable label stuck to the front cover reads the following...
"The fine folks at our record company wanted us to let you know that
we used to the ALLEY CATS. Great. But what theydidn't want us to
tell you is that before that we used to be midgets and before that some
of us were giraffes and before that I was a little cockroach 'til a fat
lady sat on me. Squish, squish.
Sincerly yours,
Randy Stodola
P.S. The point is that everybody used to be somebody else but nobody
is who they think they are anyway, so big deal, eh!
Still a trio this is the last recording w/ drummer John McCarthy. This sort of takes after their "Escape From Planet Earth" album. Dianne Chai covers Jefferson Airplane "White Rabbit." The only other song that I like on this album is the following track "Darkness Synkopation." I can't expalin it but Zarkons seem to be missing something The Alley Cats had in their music.
Between The Idea & The Reality
1988
Side A:
1. Heart Full of Soul
2. Just Who We Are?
3. Rodeo Rider
4. Miasma of Illusion
5. The Hunchback in the Park
Side B:
1. Shoot the Moon
2. Among the Ruins
3. The Dark Horse
4. In the Realm of the Zarkons
Between The Idea & The Reality...Falls the Shadow This title is from T.S. Elliot poem "The Hollow Men".
The Zarkons add vocals Rente and new drummer Terry Cooley.
There are 4 tunes I like from this album,
"Heart Full of Soul", "Shoot The Moon", "Among The Ruins" and "In The Realm of The Zarkons".
Starting out w/ cover "Heart Full of Soul" w/ sax is sung by Stodola. Rente vocals has changed this style to almost a sort of dance music. Randy Stodola puts Dylan Thomas poem "The Hunchback In The Park" to music.Dianne only sings lead on one song "Among The Ruins" as Rente sings lead on 2 tracks and teams w/ Randy on 2 more. Interesting to note that on their 2nd album as The Zarkons they perform "In The Realm of The Zarkons" just like on their 2nd LP Escape From Planet Earth as The Alley Cats they release "Just An Alley Cat" a sort of intro to the band's name.
Urgh! A Music War
1989
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
Urgh! A Music War This is a great album and movie of the Punk Scene. This movie introduced me to The Alley Cats in which they performed on stage "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore" which hooked me in right away.
Wall of Voodoo was another band I came to enjoy after this movie.
The album is out of print now but the DVD is available. The movie includes the following bands...
Police/Wall of Voodoo/ Toyah Wilcox/John Cooper Clarke/Orchestral Manouvers In the Dark/Chelsea/Oingo Boingo/Echo & the Bunnymen/Jools Holland/XTC/ Klaus Nomi/Athletico Spizz 80/GoGo's/Dead Kennedys/Steel Pulse/Gary Numan/Joan Jett/Magazine/Surf Punks/Members/Au Pairs/the Cramps/Invisible Sex/Pere Ubu/Devo/The Alley Cats/John Otway/Gang of Four/999/Fleshtones/ X / Skafish/ UB40
You can find this at amazon.com
Dangerhouse, Vol. 1
compilation
1991
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
Dangerhouse, Vol. 2
compilation
1993
Give Me A Little Pain!
Too Much Junk
Dangerhouse, Vol. 1, (compilation) Compilation released by Dangerhouse in the early 90's.
They include the 2 EPs The Alley Cats put out in '78 & '80.
1991 - Dangerhouse, Vol. 1 (compilation) Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
Dangerhouse, Vol. 2 (compilation) 1993 - Dangerhouse, Vol. 2: (compilation) Give Me A Little Pain! / Too Much Junk
Live From the Masque, Vol. 2:
(compilation)
We We Can Can Do Do What What
1996
One More Chance To Survive
Jailhouse Rock
Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
Live From the Masque, Vol. 2:
We We Can Can Do Do What What (compilation) Releasing 3 tracks: One More Chance To Survive, Nothing Means Nothing Anymore, and cover track they perform a lot "Jailhouse Rock." This last track you can see them perform on the "Live At The Whisky" DVD.
1979 - 82
2007
1. Nightmare City
2. Today
3. Night of the Living Dead
4. Breath of a Barfly
5. It Only Hurts the First Time
6. When the World Was Old
7. Bitter Fruit
8. The Hotel
9. Waiting for the Buzz
10. Just an Alley Cat
Videos included are for these songs:
It Only Hurts The First Time
Night Of The Living Dead (twice)
Today
Just An Alley Cat
[The CD portion of this package contains ten songs, most of which I believe came from their Nightmare City LP. While the music on here was a bit more accessible than their first two singles, it really isn't that big of a leap in sound, thus the music still has packs a pretty good punch and really sounds like a natural evolution from those early singles, while still retaining enough of that sound to appeal to fans of those singles. I was really surprised by how enjoyable I found the songs on here, I was half expecting this stuff to be really tame and instead I feel like I just unearthed a buried treasure. Why this stuff never became a lot more popular back when it was released is a mystery to me, it is just different enough to be "cool" and just accessible enough that it would have fit in alongside the more popular "new wave" acts of the time.
What you won't find on here is the Dangerhouse records single ("Nothing Means Nothing Anymore/Gimme a Little Pain", nor the Time Coast follow up ("Too Much Junk"), why the latter single was omitted is a mystery to me, it was on the same label as this stuff. Perhaps there will be a follow up collection someday that contains the rest of The Alley Cats material.
The bonus DVD contains five promotional type videos of "It Only Hurts the First Time", "Today", Night of the Living Dead" (two versions), and "Escape from the Planet Earth". The footage for all of these videos came from the same source so they tend to look pretty much the same but the quality is excellent and it was really cool to see some early footage of this band to go along with the already great CD.]
If you like to read the full review please go here
Live At The Whisky DVD 1979
2011
1. Today
2. Under My Thumb
3. Just An Alley Cat
4. Licorice Cats
5. King Of The Streets
6. Black Hair Girl
7. Nightmare City
8. Too Much Junk
9. The Hardest Thing I know
10. Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
11. Jailhouse Rock
12. Summertime Blues
13. Night Along The Blvd.
Live At The Whisky - DVDrecorded from 1979
This rare performance recorded at The Whisky in L.A is about a 45 minute concert back in 1979. The film isn't top notch but it's viewable w/ a little distortion top of the screen. This doesn't interfere w/ the performance. It fits w/ the punk scene and the audio is good enough. They cover a number of tracks from their 1981 album "Nightmare City" and even a few tracks from 1982 "Escape From Planet Earth." Also a cover of Stones "Under My Thumb" and a few unreleased songs.
The Alley Cats consist of 3 members, Randy Stodola on guitar and vocals, Dianne Chai on bass and vocals, and John McCarthy on drums. Randy w/ his Dylan lyrics as well as vocals and Dianne vocals are just as beautiful as her bass playing. McCarthy fills this trio w/ some hard hitting drums. The performance is excellent as they switch vocals and seem to please the crowd. This is rare and glad I purchased it. I think The Alley Cats are one of those bands that should of gotten more press than they deserve.
You can purchase this at http://www.timecoastmusic.com or amazon.com
