Customer Reviews

Welcome to My Job

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This is an overview of Cub Koda's career- from his first garage band, the Del Tinos, to Brownsville Station, to his later solo work. Cub was at heart a real roots rocker as shown on this comp. His style was an amalgam of Bo Didley, blues ,garage, surf and some wild r&b. His only hit was "Smoking in the Boy's Room" with Brownsville Station in the seventies, but actually I liked his other stuff better. His solo work was raw and primitive and he could play any style with authenticity. If you covet this type of music , played with unbridled enthusiasm, I would heartily recommend it. I am sorry to hear of Cub's untimely passing last week. I will miss his column in "Discoveries". The roots rock music community has lost one of it's most avid supporters....Cub Koda will be sorely missed.

This set encompasses Cub's non-Brownsville Station solo work from 1963-1993. Best known for the hit "Smokin' in the Boys Room" Koda's solo work proved to be just as interesting. The set contains 6 unissued tracks and much material which is out of print and rare. The material is in a variety of styles. Koda's guitar chops are spotlighted in the great intrumentals like Chuck Berry's "Guitar Boogie" , Bo Diddley's "Mumblin' Guitar" and Link Wray's "Ace of Spades". Cub was also adept at slide guitar as evidenced by "Highway 49" backed by the Houserockers and acoustic blues in "Olds 98 Blues." The unissued opener "Love Is A Damn Good Feelin'" is a rocker in the ZZ Top mold while "King of Surf" illustrates Koda's surf influences. Rockabilly influences like "Two Handed Love Affair" and Koda's first single from 1963 "Go! Go! Go!" are also included. "Welcome To My Job" is well worth picking up for roots rock enthusiasts and those interested in Koda's solo work and influences.

This is just another album by a fantastic musician, cut short in his prime. I was fortunate enough to see Cub back in 1985 at a small club in Burlington, Connecticut and he put on a performance that will forever live in my mind and in all of those who were there to witness the show. You might think of Jimi Hendrix when it comes to playing with his teeth and behind his back, but Jimi must have been mentored by Cub because their was no one and will probably never be another musician with the talent to handle a guitar as Cub Koda. He could actually dance with his guitar and man could he pick. Its unfortunate that he passed away so young, but when we saw him in 85 you could see the Rock n Roll lifestyle taking a toll on him. If you want to hear good old American Rock n Roll, buy this album.

A great overview of the Cubmasters post Brownsville work. I knew Cub for the last 20 years of his life, and can say with no hesitation, that no one..NO ONE..lived, ate, slept, and breathed music like he did...a veritable walking encyclopedia of rock n roll! I miss him a lot...thankfully we still have his music. Pound it out in a straight line!!!!

this is just great. the guitar playing from the cub koda and the points stuff is amazing. i think that is the greatest guitar player that ever lived.
rock
and
roll.

WELCOME TO MY JOB-THE CUB KODA COLLECTION: The first time I caught the late, great, and never sedate singer/guitarist/composer/music historian/journalist CUB KODA, "MR. SMOKIN' IN THE BOYS ROOM" to you casual music fans, I was a bleary-eyed teenager, fighting to stay up during MIDNIGHT SPECIAL long enough to see BROWNSVILLE STATION rip through their latest hit. I distinctly recall CUB, in his outrageous glam duds and oversized specs (hey, I wore 'em too--the specs that is) introduce his band something like this: "Hi. We're BROWNSVILLE STATION. Now there ain't too much else to watch on TV this late at night besides us, but if you wanna flip around a little bit and see what's playin' on the other stations, go right ahead. We'll wait!..." And wait Cub did, arms folded, smirk across his face, for what seemed like an eternity in that pre-MTV age of long attention spans. Then he confidently resumed, saying, "See? Told ya!"...and BS launched into a volcanic KINGS OF THE PARTY, proving of course, that they really were. The man had it all...warped fashion sense, CHUCK BERRY meets HOWLIN' WOLF chops, and especially a sense of humor...which never hurt NOBODY NO HOW in the music bidness.

As I stumbled blindly into adult-hood, I was fortunate enough to catch CUB KODA in person (the very best way, by the way) at a rundown seaside shack of a beach club prone to hosting highly suspect lineups of IRON BUTTERFLY and BADFINGER. To this day, it's the only joint I've ever seen that sold cans of el cheap-o beer one can at a time, from a long low grocery store cooler that formerly housed NUTTY BUDDIES and CREAM-CICLES. A cashier who looked amazingly like LUCY's soulmate ETHEL MERTZ was planted at the end, chain-smokin' LUCKY STRIKES and readin' dog-eared dime store novels. Did this set-up bother CUB KODA? Not on yer fat stack o' 8-tracks, bubba! Instead of a volley of Brownsville "oldies," the Cubmaster was both competent and confident enough to take a few dozen NARRAGANSETT-suckin' half-wits on a musical mind-meld through down 'n dirty blooze, heavenly noggin' knockers, and rockabilly boogie. The sweat-saturated evenin' climaxed, natch, with that all-time juvey delinquent ode to cancer sticks which need not even be named here. Hell, ETHEL even glanced up from her literature for THAT encore. A better night of ear-cleansing debauchery and soul-scratchin' salvation I have not experienced since. All this genuine entertainment for a measly ten bucks, which roughly translated to four hours of sackin' provisions at the local GULP 'N GO in the late 70s...and might I say, worth every red cent.

I also maintain fond memories of THE CUB KODA CRAZY SHOW, which he presided over Saturday nights on New England's premiere oldies station WCGY, cherry-picking the very best obscure sides of rockabilly, doo-wop and RNB to share with his rabid listeners, interspersed with the funniest jive deejay patter this side of PETER "WOOFA GOOFA" WOLF.

CUB KODA worked long and he worked hard for that one tenth of one percent of cult fandom that trickled his way. After BROWNSVILLE bit the dust, he pumped out gritty solo albums of every conceivable genre short of RAP and OPERA. A prolific witer, he penned music columns for GOLDMINE magazine, authored a lengthy series of record reviews for the ALL MUSIC GUIDE website, co-wrote BLUES FOR DUMMIES, and whipped out funky album liner notes for everyone from SPIKE JONES to FREDDY CANNON to SLIM HARPO. Somehow, he also found time to amass one of vinyl records' most impressive private collections of his twang-bangin' heroes, as well as gig often with late blooze legend HOUND DOG TAYLOR's band THE HOUSEROCKERS.

CUB KODA has long since gone to that "great greasy gig in the sky" himself, and I miss him like I miss my first grammar school girlfriend...all 72 freckle-faced, near-sighted, gum-snappin' pounds of her. She left me without so much as a rusty skate key...but CUB left me a rock & roll legacy.


God bless ya, CUB.


...So! How's WELCOME TO MY JOB, the finely tuned compilation of CUB's solo years? It's a salacious grab-bag of fun-lovin', roots rockin' originals covering seemingly every conceivable musical style short of RAP, DISCO, and OPERA. These heat-sinkers are intermingled with cool-arse covers of CUB's pioneering idols like BO DIDDLEY, JUNIOR PARKER, and LINK WRAY, plus the meatiest version of MOON MARTIN's CADILLAC WALK ever committed to record. And for you completistists, there's a smattering of rare pre-BROWNSVILLE solo slabs including a surf ditty, a ROY ORBISON obscurity, and a starkly executed ROBERT JOHNSON warhorse...even then, CUB KODA was both dues payin' AND versatile. The man expertly carried on the well-tread tradition of "guts, grit, and an axe to grind" initiated by fellow DETROIT ROCK CITY denizons MITCH RYDER, THE MC5, and ALICE COOPER. Welcome to his job...his music...his life.

You didn't really think I was gonna put him down NOW, did ya?

RATING: FIVE GROWLS