The Blue Hearts

I mentioned these guys before, and linked to a cover of their stuff from the movie Linda Linda Linda.

I'm not sure I've talked about them before.

I wish I'd heard of them earlier, but I have to admit I don't think I did prior to 2005 or 2006. I stumbled across the movie Linda Linda Linda, discovered The Blue Hearts, and then had friends (and a great Japanese teacher, Kimura-sensei) lend me their stuff.

I wish I'd known about them much earlier. I'd have loved them when I was in high school and college, when I was discovering bands like Naive and digging deeper and deeper into punk's roots.

Once I discovered this band, I got turned on to The High-Lows, and later onto Cro-Magnons, both successor bands to The Blue Hearts. Neither band really grabbed me as much as the original did, but they're good, too.

Here is a quick selection of standout tracks of theirs:

Owaranai Uta


Linda Linda


Train Train


Here is a good, full, live set. That YouTube user has a number of full set videos.

Paranmaum - Linda Linda (The Blue Hearts cover)

This is one of my favorite fake bands.

Fake band?

Not a band. It's the band in a movie. It's actors playing - check Bae Doona on vocals, and Girls #15 Aki Maeda on drums - but it's really good.

In this case it's Paranmaum ("Blue Hearts" in Korean, I'm told) covering The Blue Hearts "Linda Linda." It's from the movie Linda Linda Linda, which is extremely watchable. I could follow along even when I caught about 10% of the Japanese. And it has a dream sequence featuring The Ramones.



If you keep going they go into Owaranai Uta over the credits. Yeah, you just caught the payoff. Still worth watching the whole movie.

Shonen Knife & CJ Ramone - Blitzkreig Bop

I love The Ramones. I loved CJ Ramone, and in fact when I finally got to see The Ramones it was CJ on bass at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park (motto at the time: post-apocalypse charm, pre-apocalypse parking!)

I also deeply love Shonen Knife (少年ナイフ), another band it took me forever to get to see. Finally saw them live at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ.

Here they are together, slamming through Blitzkreig Bop.



If you check CJ's channel, there is a video of them doing a song called Scattergun together as well.

Johnny Thunders - You Can't Put Arms Around a Memory

He's right, you can't. Don't try.

Warren Zevon's birthday

Warren Zevon would have been 70 today. I'm sorry he didn't get there. I'm pretty much sad he didn't get there every time I hear one of his songs - he was unique even in a field full of personalities.

Happy Birthday Warren. I hear your shit is fucked up, though.

Joey Ramone & Holly Beth Vincent: I Got You Babe

I hadn't heard this before, but my friend Ed told me about it today. I like this version.

Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio

Wall of Voodoo is a band largely known for one song - this one. They're a lot deeper than that, though. Still, "Mexican Radio" is painfully catchy, memorable, and has a weird video.



Periodically I just need to hear Mexican Radio.