I was visiting my best friend (from highschool and beyond) Anastasia and we got talking about all the cassette tapes we used to exchange between us and with other friends. Through them we discovered some artists that became later favourites and broadened each other's musical horizons - I'd record garage rock for her and she'd do the same for me with obscure indie bands. It was the only way to share music from our collections, since back then there were no MP3's and internet file sharing. Even then though, record companies were worried about piracy and added stickers to their LP's saying that "home taping is killing music" - when in truth it was the opposite: the more tapes I wrote, the more my friends would discover new groups and eventually buy their records. Stupid record companies! My own cassette collection perished for lack of space - a sad prelude to the tragic saga of the Great Vinyl Purge of 2004. But Anastasia kept hers and these are some of them - including tapes from the radio show she used to co-host on Rodon FM (Mystiries Istories) and also some of my compilations. If I had my Delmonas CD back in the 90's, some tracks would probably have found their way into the one I named Kostas and the Happy Hipsters Live! At The Christmas Ball 1963 (maybe the song "Heard About Him") or Attack Of The Flying Saucer (probably "Lie Detector"). Now we still sometimes write and exchange CD compilations but somehow they feel less personal, less handmade than those old cassettes or maybe the music just doesn't hit as hard as before - we're so saturated with it there's little room for life-changing new discoveries. OK, back to the Delmonas, the brainchild of a certain Mr. Billy Childish. 
According to his wikipedia page, Billy Childish "is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist". I could add that he personifies the whole English garage scene and may possibly be the most prolific rock musician ever, as he's personally responsible for something like a 100 albums, released by a dozen different groups. One of the first was the rockabilly-influenced Milkshakes. A few of their EP's were released as the Milkboilers, who were actually the Milkshakes acting as a backing band for their respective girlfriends on vocals. For their first LP, they were renamed to The Delmonas - allegedly "taking their name from the word for a decorative handbag favored by women in the Klaipeda region of Lithuania". Probably a hoax - any Klaipedean visitors of the blog are kindly requested to verify the above allegation. Anyway, the Delmonas continued to make records, backed by the Milkshakes or by Childish's new group Thee Mighty Caesars. As TMC's were replaced by Thee Headcoats, the Delmonas morphed into the Headcoatees with the addition of new girlfriend Holly Golightly. We'll get back to them on another post. Now, all these don't sound very promising: They sound like the proverbial director casting his sexy yet talentless lover as the leading lady of his latest vanity project. Well, guess again: Liberated from the boys' need to act tough, they became a much more enjoyable proposition - tough Bo Diddley beat and Cramps riffs softened by Nancy Sinatra sass and Beatles-like harmonies. "Do the Uncle Willy" is a U.S. compilation of material either unreleased or previously only available in the U.K. It opens with the rave-up of "I Feel Alright" (almost a rewrite of "The Train Kept-A-Rolling"), followed by the breezy garage-pop of "Heard About Him" - imagine the Shangri-La's backed by The Yardbirds. "Carn't Sit Down" and Don and Dewey's '59 evergreen "Farmer John" are hi-energy Rock n' Roll, with lots of screaming a la Sonics. "I Feel Like Giving In" and "I Did Him Wrong" are near-perfect garage pop with groovy Zombies-like organ. Had they been released in the mid-60's they could have been hits like today's golden oldies. Basically every song on the record sounds like it came from the mid-60's Nuggets compilation. "Uncle Willy" and "I’ve Got Everything I Need" have that Chuck Berry/Rolling Stones feel while "Dangerous Charms" is more Bo Diddley. "Black Ludella" and "Jealousy" are driving garage rockers and "Lie Detector" is R&B instead of the punk of the familiar Headcoats version. On "That Boy Of Mine" they sound like a female version of the early Beatles, while the slow "Delmona, The Temptress Of Love" closes the CD with an oriental exotica flavour. If these were guys singing, they'd get 4*, but I'm always more generous around girls, so I'm giving them 5 - a perfect score! Enjoy their music, and if you're ever in Klaipeda get a Delmona handbag and mail me a photo of it...
According to his wikipedia page, Billy Childish "is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist". I could add that he personifies the whole English garage scene and may possibly be the most prolific rock musician ever, as he's personally responsible for something like a 100 albums, released by a dozen different groups. One of the first was the rockabilly-influenced Milkshakes. A few of their EP's were released as the Milkboilers, who were actually the Milkshakes acting as a backing band for their respective girlfriends on vocals. For their first LP, they were renamed to The Delmonas - allegedly "taking their name from the word for a decorative handbag favored by women in the Klaipeda region of Lithuania". Probably a hoax - any Klaipedean visitors of the blog are kindly requested to verify the above allegation. Anyway, the Delmonas continued to make records, backed by the Milkshakes or by Childish's new group Thee Mighty Caesars. As TMC's were replaced by Thee Headcoats, the Delmonas morphed into the Headcoatees with the addition of new girlfriend Holly Golightly. We'll get back to them on another post. Now, all these don't sound very promising: They sound like the proverbial director casting his sexy yet talentless lover as the leading lady of his latest vanity project. Well, guess again: Liberated from the boys' need to act tough, they became a much more enjoyable proposition - tough Bo Diddley beat and Cramps riffs softened by Nancy Sinatra sass and Beatles-like harmonies. "Do the Uncle Willy" is a U.S. compilation of material either unreleased or previously only available in the U.K. It opens with the rave-up of "I Feel Alright" (almost a rewrite of "The Train Kept-A-Rolling"), followed by the breezy garage-pop of "Heard About Him" - imagine the Shangri-La's backed by The Yardbirds. "Carn't Sit Down" and Don and Dewey's '59 evergreen "Farmer John" are hi-energy Rock n' Roll, with lots of screaming a la Sonics. "I Feel Like Giving In" and "I Did Him Wrong" are near-perfect garage pop with groovy Zombies-like organ. Had they been released in the mid-60's they could have been hits like today's golden oldies. Basically every song on the record sounds like it came from the mid-60's Nuggets compilation. "Uncle Willy" and "I’ve Got Everything I Need" have that Chuck Berry/Rolling Stones feel while "Dangerous Charms" is more Bo Diddley. "Black Ludella" and "Jealousy" are driving garage rockers and "Lie Detector" is R&B instead of the punk of the familiar Headcoats version. On "That Boy Of Mine" they sound like a female version of the early Beatles, while the slow "Delmona, The Temptress Of Love" closes the CD with an oriental exotica flavour. If these were guys singing, they'd get 4*, but I'm always more generous around girls, so I'm giving them 5 - a perfect score! Enjoy their music, and if you're ever in Klaipeda get a Delmona handbag and mail me a photo of it...
***** for Heard About Him, Black Ludella, I Did Him Wrong
**** for I Feel Alright, Farmer John, Carn’t Sit Down, I Feel Like Giving In, Jealousy, Lie Detector
*** for Uncle Willy, Dangerous Charms, I’ve Got Everything I Need, That Boy Of Mine, Delmona The Temptress Of Love
http://revolutiorock011.blogspot.gr/2014/12/the-delmonas.html
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