7919 - WILLIE ALEXANDER & THE CONFESSIONS - A GIRL LIKE YOU (1982)

WILLIE ALEXANDER & THE CONFESSIONS
''A GIRL LIKE YOU''
1982
33:00

1 A Girl Like You 03:57
2 Oh Daddy Oh 03:22
3 Great Balls Of Fire (Otis Blackwell, Jack Hammer) 01:52
4 The Only Time 03:02
5 Up Till Now 02:32
6 Video Games 04:10
7 G.N.D 03:31
8 (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay (Steve Cropper, Otis Redding) 02:56
9 Bite The Bullet 04:27
10 Hey Carlos (Billie Montgomery) 03:05
Tracks By Alexander, Except As Indicated

John Dunton-Downer - Tenor Saxophone
Willie Alexander - Vocals, Drums, Pianos
Matthew Mackenzie - Guitars
Walter Powers - Bass Guitar, Mini-Synthesizer
Lord Manuel - Atari 400 On 6, Synthesizer On 9
Ted St. Pierre - Bass Guitar On 5, 6
Billie Montgomery - Vocals On 6, 10

REVIEW
by Joe Viglione
Electro Acoustic Studios moved from the ambience of Boston's theater district (the drag queens would reportedly have knife fights outside this space across from where the famous Coconut Grove fire happened), the facility where the previous Solo Loco masterpiece was etched, way up to Bethel, ME, a studio in transition changing dramatically the sound of an artist in transition. If Solo Loco was vindication, the artist in complete control after losing his band and MCA contract, A Girl Like You is a trip deeper into the mind of this creative artist, further into the insightful ramblings of Willie Loco's psyche while he was assembling his new group. Commercial music this is not, though it reunites Alexander with Walter Powers, who was with the singer/songwriter when they performed in the Velvet Underground. Alexander downplays that part of his career, though he should be proud of it now; the tragedy was that the Velvets didn't pull a Doobie Brothers, allowing Willie Alexander's material to shift the course of the group the way Michael MacDonald gave that institution a new direction. Alexander is the beatnik to Lou Reed's street poet. Where Alexander gave us the wonderfully eerie "Video Games" on this 1982 disc, Reed countered with "My Red Joystick" in 1984, with Alexander drawing from his Kerouac obsessions and Reed coming from the school of Delmore Schwartz; it's too bad Reed and Alexander didn't team up and push the manager Sesnick out the door, the pairing would have been pure magic. And at the very least they could have played together at the arcade. John Dunton-Downer adds bizarre tenor saxophone, and the brilliant guitar work is from the late Matthew MacKenzie. The odd thing here is that when the Boom Boom Band and Willie Alexander went their separate ways, there was still a third album due on the MCA contract. Matthew MacKenzie fronted the Boom Boom Band and tracked tapes with producer Craig Leon while Leon produced four sides with solo Alexander as well. The shame of it is that they should have brought MacKenzie into the original Boom Boom Band to keep the peace, and much of this could have been the third MCA album. "Dock of the Bay" is fun, but it doesn't have the manic intensity of "Be Bop a Lula" from Solo Loco, or the effect the live Boom Boom rendition of "All I Have to Do Is Dream" had on audiences. "Great Balls of Fire," on the other hand, delivers what Loco's fans expect in a more subdued fashion. A Girl Like You works best when it plays exotic rock; "Bite the Bullet" is underground techno that is the antithesis of the Human League. Dedicated to Thelonious Monk, A Girl Like You is another reason why the great Genya Ravan will make comments like, "I think Willie is the best thing since sliced bread." "The Only Time" is Alexander's reinvention of the blues, while "Oh, Daddy, Oh" would've played relentless on Maynard G. Krebs' transistor had the song been around during the Dobie Gillis era. New Rose labelmates the Troggs caused a stir with A Girl Like You and Alexander takes the concept a step further. Not his most accessible album, but an important link in his deep and valuable catalog.

BIOGRAPHY WIKIPEDIA

7821 - WILLIE ALEXANDER AND THE BOOM BOOM BAND - DOG BAR YACHT CLUB (2005)

WILLIE ALEXANDER AND THE BOOM BOOM BAND
''DOG BAR YACHT CLUB''
2005
57:30

1 - Gravely Hill 4:26
2 - Hey Kid 3:37
3 - At The Post Office 5:28
4 - Fred Buck's Footsteps 6:10
5 - Zho Killed Deanna 4:33
6 - High Tide Heroes 3:29
7 - Oceans Condo III 4:45
8 - Oh Daddy Oh 3:42
9 - Telephone Sex 4:02
10 - Ogalala 4:25
11 - Aaww 3:07
12 - Mystery Training 3:22
13 - So Innocent 5:47
Tracks By Alexander, Except 1 (Charles Olson), 2 (?), 3, 4, 6, 12 (With Billy Loosigian), 9 (With Paul Lenart)

REVIEW
by Joe Viglione
When Willie "Loco" Alexander & the Boom Boom Band split after 1979's Meanwhile...Back in the States on MCA, Alexander immediately picked up the slack by having a Boston area power trio, the Neighborhoods, back him up on-stage while he began recording the first of his many releases on the European New Rose label. The original Boom Boom Band reunited 23 years later, only to go into the studio owned by the Neighborhoods' guitarist/vocalist David Minehan. The results are phenomenally great, only proving that had the rock & roll minefields not existed to stand in this juggernaut's way, Willie Alexander & the Boom Boom Band would have emerged as Boston's answer to the Rolling Stones, and then some. While there is new material here, the band doesn't shy away from recovering some of the music Alexander released after the split. "Oh Daddy Oh" from 1982's A Girl Like You album gets a driving new finish, while "Ogalala," originally issued on 1997's Persistence of Memory Orchestra CD, has a new perspective that gives Alexander the platform to go "loco," the stuff that made this group so irresistible in the first place. "Who Killed Deanna" from 1999's East Main Street Suite is one of the album's highlights -- the "Som-Som-Somerville" hook is haunting inside a true murder mystery that happened on the outskirts of Boston. That album also featured a track entitled "Ocean Condo II," which was a reworking of the original "Ocean Condo" from 1988's The Dragons Are Still Out, reprised here with Billy Loosigian's amazing guitar work as "Ocean Condo III," of course. The band also rocks out "AAWW" -- which some of the fans decipher as "All American Woman Wife" -- the flip of a 45 that was originally intensified by the band from the live Autre Chose album in 1982. It's a tasty way for the devoted to see how this material would've played out had the Boom Boom Band stayed together. Even the underground classic "Telephone Sex" from 1984's Taxi-Stand Diane EP finds itself resurrected here to good effect. Keep in mind that this group began by picking up the material Alexander was releasing on the independent Garage label in the mid-'70s, so one also gets the vibe that the group is truly going back to its roots and reinventing stuff that Willie did separately. A cover of scenester Emily XYZ's "Hey Kid" gives the band a different "new wave" feel, while Alexander and Loosigian combine to write four new tunes, including the interesting "Mystery Training," which dips into Willie's jazzier influences. The Boom Booms deliver close to 60 minutes of triumph, an album that is among their finest studio work to date, equal to the superb (and still missing in action) Craig Leon-produced demos from Dimension Studios in 1977 that landed them their deal with MCA. Dog Bar Yacht Club is no fluke; in performance Willie Alexander & the Boom Boom Band play this material flawlessly and with the fury they had when they reigned as the kings of the Boston scene.

BIOGRAPHY
by John Bush
Although relatively unknown outside Boston, Willie "Loco" Alexander is familiar to rock trivia experts as the answer to the brain-teaser: Who took Lou Reed's place in the Velvet Underground? He was born in Philadelphia in 1943, but emigrated to Boston in the '60s, where he formed the folk duo Baba & Willie Loco. Alexander founded the Lost in 1964, one of Boston's most popular garage bands of the period, and recorded for Capitol during the mid-'60s. By 1967, he was playing in Glass Menagerie with Doug Yule (who joined the Velvets one year later, replacing John Cale); in 1970, Alexander was invited to join one of the most influential bands of the '60s after its leader departed. He played keyboards and sang until Yule and the rest of the skeleton crew called it quits in 1972, after the album Squeeze.

Alexander recorded three solo singles beginning in 1975, and formed the punk-oriented Boom Boom Band the following year. The group recorded two albums for MCA, but broke up in 1978. He released Solo Loco in 1982, and then formed the Confessions, who also recorded two albums, A Girl Like You and Autre Chose. Alexander continued in his solo status throughout the '80s, but formed the Persistence of Memory Orchestra in 1991. Several best-of compilations are available, detailing his solo and group work.