New York Dolls still rock

The summer of 2009 has definitely been the time for former heroes to get on the road and wow a new audience but it is not always about the artists who have been away for years. Sometimes an older artist or act finds a new lease of life and manages to stay on the road for a period of years. What their shows lose in the novelty excitement of their first shows back, gain in the experience and comfort that comes from playing regularly and getting a partnership together again. This is a good way to describe many of the acts performing this summer but one of the best ones under this banner is definitely the New York Dolls. They may be close to their fortieth year together but they are still more than capable of putting on a show, even though they may be down to two original members. David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain are more than capable of putting on a show and anyone who has the pleasure of seeing the boys on their current tour will be more than satisfied.
They may have developed their own sound from bands like MC5 and The Stooges but the New York Dolls had a far wider influence than just on punk bands. Yes, their impact on the New York New Wave and punk scene is well documented with even acts like Blondie taking a lot from the band but there have been a number of big names artists professing their love who you may not think of as big Dolls fans. Morrissey, formerly of The Smiths and now a solo artist of much fame, was such a big fan that he was president of the fan club. It doesn’t get much bigger than that and Morrissey played a huge role in the bands reformation in 2004. Another really big fan of the band is Michael Stipe from R.E.M. Yes, the man who crooned “that’s me in the corner” on ‘Losing My Religion’ has regularly stated his love of the New York Dolls, even if the influence does not come shining through in his own bands music.
Johnny Thunders managed to carve out a career after the band went their separate ways and the maverick guitarist and front-man was one of the most recognisable heroes of the punk legend. Tracks like ‘You Cant Put Your Arms Around A Memory’ or ‘One Track Mind’ stand the test of time and are as much a blue print for punk rock as anything by The Ramones or the Sex Pistols. As well as touring the Sex Pistols and The Clash, Thunders later worked with Steve Jones and Paul Cook on his ‘So Alone’ album, putting him firmly at the heart of all things punk on both sides of the Atlantic. There will always be a level of debate and discussion over which brand of punk rock was better but Thunders was one of the boys that managed to straddle both sides convincingly.
In the end, Johnny Thunders went the same way as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix and Sid Vicious in the fact that his death is still shrouded in mystery. He may be missing from the New York Doll’s current tour and new found popularity but his legacy lives on and still managing to influence new generations of fans.

Music player currently out of order

Sorry about this, but the music player on the site is currently out of order, but it should be back VERY soon. Lots of new things on it including a few preview tracks from the awesome new Teasers album. When the player is back we promise it will be updated more frequently with a broader range of tracks and there are even plans for a BathroomWall Podcast, but for now, if you want a rock n' roll podcast playing loads of cool tracks you have never heard then check out The Rock & Roll Geek Indiecast which is the more music companion to the greatest rock podcast on-line - The Rock & Roll Geek Show yeah, I know were are biased as we do the T-shirts for them, but that doesn't stop the former Exodus and American Heartbreak and current Jetboy bass player, Michael Butler being the most entertaining podcaster out there. Interviews with some great stars (this week he chats to New York Doll Sylvain Sylvain) gig reviews, live bootlegs, fantastic music, great rock talk and with over 350 episodes in the bag, you know to last like that it has to be good.

Dozens of new T-shirts now available

Right, time for a new concerted effort to regularly foist my ramblings on the world…. Feel free to moan and complain and generally hurl insults when the BathroomBlog once again goes weeks and weeks without an update.

First then, let’s get the business out the way… There are dozens of new T-shirts on the site as well as a few more paintings.

Of the T-shirts, I must acknowledge that several have been kicking around for a while but somehow weren’t listed. There are a few still to come that fall into this category, but the 50 or so missing ones are now up. The biggest surprise here was the Michael Hutchence T-shirt. We had been asked a few times about the late INXS star and had been working on a design for a while, but when we finally released it, the response was phenomenal. I really hadn’t appreciated quite how strong the feel was for Hutchence.

Next up was that we for some bizarre reason were missing designs for 2 of the biggest icons in music history. Kurt Cobain and Freddie Mercury. Both were missing because we were struggling to come up with suitable designs. While Kurt Cobain needed to be simple – which I hope we achieved – Freddie Mercury was always going to a tricky one. We wanted to avoid the clichés so easily associated with the great man. Those Live Aid and Works era live poses – all yellow leather jacket and arm in the air were just too obvious. And even those Queen fans that got into the band because of those performances will acknowledge that Queen’s greatest work was in the 70s and that was the era we wanted to honour. Again, hopefully you feel we have done the great man justice.

Next up we have the pioneering bluesmen shirts - John Lee Hooker, http://www.bathroomwall.co.uk/store/bb-king-tshirt-p-591.html, Bo Diddley, Lead Belly, Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson.

My personal favourite on the new listings are in the Rock Star Academy. David’s Fancy Dress Emporium honours David Bowie’s amazing talent for image reinvention, while Sid’s Music School celebrates that punk ethic of anyone being able to grab an instrument and jumping on stage with no talent required. But it is the Led Zeppelin ‘Starship’ that I really love the best.

Led Zeppelin and David Bowie are also both represented in the new lyric T-shirts with Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog and David Bowie’s Life On Mars now available along with:
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London
Genesis – Ripples
Genesis - A Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Tom Waits – Tom Traibert’s Blues
REM – Everybody Hurts
The Pogues – Fairytale of New York
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Madness - House of Fun
Boomtown Rats - I Don’t Like Mondays
Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Patti Smith - Gloria
Adam & the Ants - Prince Charming

In a similar vain, we are now producing movie quote T-shirts. Back To The Future, Silence of the Lambs, The Godfather, Blues Brothers, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, School of Rock and Spinal Tap.

The brand new T-shirt listings are
Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and of course Guitar Hero 3)
Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Johnny Ramone (The Ramones)
Joey Ramone (The Ramones)
Chris Rea
Debbie Harry (Blondie)
Brian Johnson (AC/DC)
Duff MacKagan (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded)
Herman Li (Dragon Force)
Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)
Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
Rod Stewart
Keith Flint (Prodigy)
Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks)
Lowell George (Little Feat)
Neil Young
Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr Big and loads of other stuff)
Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction, Satellite Party, Porno for Pyros, Lollapalooza)
Brandon Flowers (The Killers)

Then we have T-shirts for artists we already have designs for. In some cases this is because they were so popular, others because feedback suggested the existing designs were a bit Marmite (for our non-UK readers, that means they were either loved or hated) so we wanted to give you a choice. The new designs are now available for:

James Hetfield (Metallica)
Bon Scott (AC/DC)
Joe Strummer (The Clash)
Slash (Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit and Velvet Revolver)
Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers)
Bob Dylan
Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day)

Finally we listed the next batch of our Catalogue Number T-shirts with New York Dolls’ debut, Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run and The Ramones’ Rocket To Russia.


So, that is the business updates done, so log on next time for less plugging and more general ramblings about. Take care and keep rockin’