Fact 4 – THE DWARVES have recorded for visionary independent labels including Sympathy For The Record Industry, Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords, Sub Pop, Bomp!, Amphetamine Reptile, Man’s Ruin, Recess, Theologian, Glitterhouse, Burning Heart, White Jazz, High Voltage, No Balls, Zodiac Killer, MVD, Midnight, Reptilian, Riotstyle, Burger and Greedy Worldwide. Some of them even paid royalties.
Throughout the whole of January RPM Online are giving you a Dwarves fact and video every day of the Motherfuckin Month – Seeing as they’ve just reissued all their albums on vinyl with extras it seemed only fair.
Were starting with the handsome Blag The Ripper and his alter ego Ralph Champagne and the lounge banger ‘Lolita Goodbye’ Buy the album Here
Fact 1 – THE DWARVES play music that crosses all rock genres including hardcore, garage, punk, surf, noise, death metal, experimental, industrial, hip/hop, grunge and good old-fashioned pop. Even their modesty is legendary.
Blag Dahlia- ‘Introducing Ralph Champagne’ (MVD Records)
He’s a naughty boy is that Blag Dahlia, Blag The Ripper or Ralph Champagne. With a cheeky smile and probably a packet of sweets, Blag goes lounge with this latest offering. Whilst it was released in late 2022 I wanted to save my review and use it as part of my January homage to the Dwarves and all things Dwarve. I cooked Christmas dinner with Ralph on as the go-to lift music or Shopping Mall tunage if you like. I was going to baste the bird with beer or Jager and then I’d have blamed Blag it would seem like the right thing to do.
Drop the needle at the top and Blags dulcet tones break through like a cheeky schoolboy as ‘It’s Over’ fills the air with a cheeky smile but its ‘Contraband’ that sent me all in from the softly spoken verses to that insanely catchy countrified singalong chorus.
Hell ‘Lolita Goodbye’ is classic Blag – Americana, outlaw country, ’70s pop, it’s genius. you could play it in front of your gran and she’d never know. Written in lockdown Blag the crooner hit the jackpot as he runs through the gentle fields of ‘Summer Rain’ with his Roger Whittaker whistle and gentle breezy vocals much like the outlaw country of ‘Don’t Tread On Me’. ‘Elementry Love Song’ is that 70s pop song the kind you’d hear at the Diner before the Fonz walks in.
He signs off with the balladeering of ‘Shes All Mine’ with its cheeky lyrics and chorus to die for – of course we saw it coming its Blag The Ripper the filthy swine. Gift it to someone who hasn’t got a clue or just simply play it on the school run Blag rocks even when hes not Rockin’ Welcome to the fold Ralph you are most welcome.
It’s been a busy few weeks for those who love their flicks with a heavy dose of music relevance. well, its no secret that we love our rock docs and our biopic movies especially when they’re about subjects that we hold dear. When we saw a glut of watchable music-related movies we just had to pick up the popcorn and sit back and wait for the action. This roundup is of four movies that have just been released or are about to hit the high street on DVD and we begin with punk Rock n Roll Royalty none other than Stiv Bator. We’d interviewed the maker and reviewed the soundtrack so it would be rude not to give our take on the much-anticipated movie ‘Stiv’: No Compromise, No Regrets.
Stiv: No Compromise, No Regrets (Weinerworld)
Now I know there are a lot of opinions (sure everyone has one) but we have to agree that any Stiv movie no matter where you stand on how good it is is better than NO movie about Stiv right?
Sure it would have been nice had The Likes of Brian James, Michael Monroe or Cheetah included but they have to agree and signed off their involvement and they didn’t so should the film not be made? does it fall without their inclusion? Hell no – on with the show kids. there were plenty of pivitol people who did agree and thats what makes ‘Stiv’ a really well-researched movie and the inclusion of some decent footage I’d not seen before made it a must see.
Sure there is other footage out there that might have worked well and it might not have taken too much to get it included but thats for nerds to bicker over and that’s the beauty of debate. This is one man’s movie and that’s it, I might have done it differently as would the next big Stiv fan but the general consensus is that it’s a good movie and one that is clearly done with much love and respect, oh, and the soundtrack isn’t too shabby either (lets not mention the lack of lords songs, etc etc this wasn’t a bottomless money pit of a project).
whilst time plays tricks with the memory and the old grey matter might not be what it used to be there are a few things I noticed when watching this movie back. One, Stiv as funny engaging and likable as he might be – he always put Stiv first second and third when entering a music project. He’d use the bands as a vehicle for Stiv and when it was time to move on he would (the wanderers, Dead Boys, Lords).
Maybe there could have been a little more in-depth look at his time in Dead Boys and the timeline could have been clearer but that’s nitpicking because I also appreciate this film in order to appeal to a wider audience has to fit into a certain length restraint otherwise it would be volume 1 volume two etc. I love the talking heads all speaking fondly of the guy and his contribution to music especially tales from the likes of Dave Tregunna and the punk and post-punk scene Stiv was a rare talent, his legacy is a back catalogue of quite exceptional music from the solo stuff he was working on just before he died through the Bomp stuff and The Dead Boys ’77 punk. Stivv had the midas touch and didn’t make any bad records (not in my eyes anyway) we can argue about the more experimental side of the Lords as they developed from the Punk Rock and Roll of the first album through the more experimental poppier ‘Is Nothing Sacred’ and then the rock of ‘Methods’.
Stiv is a really enjoyable rounded movie of one of Rocks real characters whos talent is understated and often misunderstood it looks great on the TV and I’m grateful it’s been made. It took quite a while but now it’s here embrace it. there is extra footage, in fact, there are twenty minutes of extras. to please everyone I guess a movie would need to be about four hours long with another three hours of bonus material. Lets not split hairs over what’s not here let’s celebrate what is here. thanks, Danny and Chip Baker films for Stiv now go pick up a copy asap.
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