TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: BREAKING OUT IN HIVES

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 6, 2004

O.K., I’ll admit that the first thing I checked on the cover of The Hives' new CD, Tyrannosaurus Hives, was whether there were any songs that have The Hives in the title. (Past examples of this little quirk are "The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime," "The Hives Declare Guerre Nucleaire," and "The Hives Introduce the Metric System in Time.")

There isn’t. And yes, lover of tradition that I am, I was a little disappointed.

But that’s the only disappointment I found on Tyrannosaurus Hives. Once again the Swedish demons have given us an album full of relentless guitar rock, charged with raw energy and lunatic rage tempered by subtle humor. If any band can claim the title of "The Ramones of the 21st Century," it’s got to be The Hives.

There are few hints of bold new musical directions on the new album. Everything you liked about Vedi Vidi Vicious -- fast, furious, short tunes (the longest here is 3 and a half minutes and four songs are two minutes or less) with simple but addictive guitar hooks and sing-along melodies.

Kicking off with "Abra Cadaver," singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist wails about someone trying to "stick a dead body inside of me."

"Love in Plaster" has a chorus that sounds like it wants to abrupt in to an apocalyptic Yardbirds rave-up. Meanwhile, I bet Joe Strummer listens to "Dead Quote Olympics" in Heaven and smiles proudly.

But my favorite cut here is the most untypical tune, the minor-key "Diabolic Scheme," which features Blaxploitation strings and a wonderfully obnoxious guitar solo. Best of all, the song is a showcase for why Almqvist is called "Howlin’."

Also Recommended:
*Pawn Shoppe Heart by The Von Bondies. Unfortunately this Detroit band is best known as the group whose singer (Jason Stollsteimer) was savagely pummeled in a barroom fight by former friend Jack White of The White Stripes.

But even though Stollsteimer came out a distant second in that highly publicized brawl, the music of the Von Bondies is in no way weak and puny.

The quartet is an equally mixed bi-gender band (with bassist Carrie Smith singing lead on one song, "Not That Social."

Like The Hives -- with whom they are frequently lumped in, along with he White Stripes, The Vines, The Strokes, etc. as part of the "garage band revival" -- the VBs play punchy, stripped-down guitar rock. They owe a lot to their mid-to-late ‘60s forbearers, as you can hear a little bit of The Count Five and (especially) Love (Arthur Lee’s band) in their sound.

And in the slow, slinky, blues-soaked "Maireed," fans of Country Joe & The Fish might even hear a little "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine." Along with The Hives’ "Diabolic Scheme," this might be the genesis of a new sub-genre: "garage noir."

*Your Lips, My Ass! By Texas Terri Bomb. I first became aware of Texas Terri a couple of years ago when she provided throaty background vocals on a couple of country (!) songs on Honky, an excellent, unjustifiably overlooked album by biker-rocker/menace-to-society Simon Stokes.

There’s not a trace country on this album, except in the rare spots where tattooed Terri’s Texas twang sneaks through her screams and ravings.

(The album starts and ends with "spoken word" tracks -- actually just (mercifully brief!) crazy ranting by Terri. "I hope my brain blows up!" she bellows at the start of the album. At the end she’s screaming "Turn it offffffffffff!!!!!! Turn it offfffffffff!!!!!"

In between is joyous punk rock, pure and simple, owing tremendous debts to Raw Power-era Stooges, early Joan Jet and the late Wendy O. Williams.

Highlights here include "Never Shut Up" (featuring Wayne Kramer of the MC5 on guitar), "Raunch City" and "I Got a Right," a high-velocity cover of an old Stooges song.

This is what punk sounded like back in the era long before anyone thought punk-rock would ever be used in automobile commercials. It might be a little too strong for those who like their punks to be a little cuddly and female singers to be a little vulnerable.

*Live in Chicago by The Three Johns. Even before The Waco Brothers, The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and all those other side bands, The Mekons’ Jon Langford always seemed to be involved in some extracurricular musical project. In the mid ‘80s there was The Three Johns.

Along with John Hyatt (note, not "Hiatt") and Philip John Brennan -- and a drum machine named Hugo -- Langford played a crazy sounding bastard-of-New-Wave sound with spaghetti-western guitar and loopy-goopy vocals.

The most ready comparison would be to The Fall. Like Mark E. Smith’s immortal ensemble, The Three Johns sound incomprehensible yet somehow dangerous, especially with the stinging guitar repeating riffs.

Most the songs are originals, such as the ominous "Death of the European" after which Langford announces the Johns actually are The Smiths. Similarly, at the end of "The Day Industry Decided To Stop," the band plays the melody of the Irish patriot song "The Foggy Dew," to which Langford drolly attributes to the then-popular Celt-rock band Big Country.

There’s a funny mutation of "Like a Virgin" (called "McDonna") and a version of T-Rex’s "20th Century Boy."

This album, never before released on CD, had been out of print for years. Langford recently re-released it on his new label, Buried Treasure.

Back in the Saddle: Steve Terrell returns to The Santa Fe Opry 10 p.m. Friday on KSFR, 90.7 FM -- now web casting. Also check out Terrell’s Sound World, this week featuring selections from the above-reviewed CDs -- same time, same station Sunday.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: VANDALS & HOODLUMS

As Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 5, 2004

Organizers of the recent appearance of Vice President Dick Cheney in Rio Rancho came under fire this week for a controversial move to keep dissenters away — requiring people they didn’t know to sign pledges of support for the Bush-Cheney ticket.


But one Santa Fe Democrat who went to the rally at Rio Rancho Middle School said he didn’t have to sign any loyalty oath.

“Nobody made me sign anything,” said Santa Fe City Councilor David Pfeffer. “That was just to keep out the people from ACT.” He was referring to America Coming Together, the anti-Bush “527” group that has been active in door-to-door canvassing in the state.

Of course Pfeffer already was known to the Bush-Cheney camp. He made headlines a few weeks ago by publicly endorsing Bush.

State Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell — never at a loss of words — described the situation from his view in a recent e-mail newsletter:

“ ... paid protesters were trying to organize to disrupt the Cheney event and very likely vandalize Rio Rancho Middle School — with motor oil, obscene graffiti or other acts of violence,” he wrote.

Describing a group of protesters who were denied entrance to the rally, Adair wrote, “The troublemakers, hecklers and vandals were in fact kept out of the Cheney event. They stood outside and showed their obscene signs, shouted the F-Word at the Vice President and anyone else who came by, poured motor oil on themselves, and generally behaved liked hoodlums.”

Courtney Hunter of ACT had a different view of the event. She said the protest was peaceful and denied that her group was involved in any plans for vandalism or acts of destruction.

She denied she is a hoodlum.

“ACT was part of a coalition of progressive groups and citizens,” she said Wednesday. “The Republicans did their best to keep ordinary citizens out of the rally. But people wanted to tell him what was going on in the country.”

One protester did pour motor oil on himself, Hunter confirmed. “He was not part of ACT.”

Pfeffer said he didn’t see any of the protesters Saturday.

“My own take is that protest is disruptive when somebody’s trying to make a speech, whether it’s Democrats wanting to protest the vice president or Republican students disrupting John Kerry. Both are disrupting free speech.”

The Libertarians are coming!

Cheney was in Rio Rancho Friday, while John Kerry and running mate John Edwards will be in Las Vegas and Gallup this weekend.

But the major parties aren’t the only ones with national candidates coming to the state.

Libertarian Michael Badnarik is coming to New Mexico next week and has scheduled not one but two appearances at Santa Fe’s Tribes Coffee House, 139 W. San Francisco Street, next Wednesday. The appearances are at noon and 6 p.m. Aug. 11.

The Libertarians have joined Bush and Kerry in airing television commercials in New Mexico. In fact, Badnarik’s commercial, called “Peace President,” is showing only in New Mexico. Badnarik has bought $65,000 worth of air time in the state, according to a written statement by the campaign.

ZOZOBRA GLOOM

Forget Bush, Kerry and the presidential race. It looks like the most divisive political battle in Santa Fe at the moment is the decision over who is going to be Fire Dancer at Zozobra.


James "Chip" Lilienthal was responsible for that role since 1970 when it was passed on to him by the original Fire Dancer Jacques Cartier. Last year Lilienthal announced he was retiring and was "passing the torch" to his daughter Katy. I interviewed Chip back in 1980 or '81 for The Santa Fe Reporter and he said back then that when he retired, he'd like one of his daughters to take his place.

However, the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which owns the rights to Zozobra, had a different idea. The club announced Tuesday that Helene Luna, a former Santa Fe resident now living in Denver, is the new Fire Dancer. The Kiwanis press release said pointedly that the role was not Lilienthal's to give away.

I wrote about it in today's Santa Fe New Mexican. CLICK HERE.

SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Tom Knoblauch, who substituted for me on the Santa Fe Opry Friday, just sent me his playlist. Tom subtitled his show "Country Music the way Goddess Intended," and dedicated it to Bonnie Hearne.

Friday, July 30, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Guest Host: Tom Knoblauch

Come On In by Patsy Cline
I Want to Be With You Always by Bill Hearne
Full Moon Night/How Can I/Lay Your Head Down Baby/Tumbleweed/Forever Young by Albert & Gage
Dark Side Of Town/Milk & Honey/Peace Call by Eliza Gilkyson
Have Mercy/Women's Prison by Loretta Lynn
Blue State of Mind/Sing to Me by Grey DeLisle
Wrecking Ball by Gillian Welch
I've Got a Tender Heart/Tell Me Twice by Eleni Mandell
Burning Down/Lonesome Wind/Blue Sky Lonely/Why Is Love Like That by Toni Price
Man Overboard by Libbi Bosworth
You Don’t Care What Happens to Me/I'd Understand Why/Exactly Like You by Hot Club of Cowtown
Heartbreak Hill/Bluebird by Emmylou Harris
I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline
World Without Tears by Lucinda Williams
Raven Dove by Dolly Parton
Tornado by Rory Block
Full Moon Night by Albert & Gage

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, August 1, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Help On The Way by The Grateful Dead
You Can't Sit Down by The Electras
A Little More For Little You by The Hives
No Regrets by The Von Bondies
Del Davis Tree Farm by Primus
You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erikson
Don't Slander Me by Lou Ann Barton

Moonlight by Bob Dylan
Shame by P.J. Harvey
Molly's Chambers by Kings of Leon
The Slim by Sugar
One Hit Wonder by Texas Terri Bomb
Death of the European by The Three Johns
The Poliitcs of Time by The Minutemen
The Godfather by Satan's Pilgrims
Champagne Time by Rithma

I Wanna Be With You by The Isley Brothers
Call My Name by Prince
Blowin' Your Mind by O.C. Smith
Lost and Paranoid by The Soul of John Black
Children of Production by Parliament
Jon E. Edwards is in Love by Jon E. Edwards

Drink to Me, Babe, Then by A.C. Newman
Are We Family by The Tragically Hip
Come by Fleetwood Mac
Requim for the Masses by The Association
Theologians by Wilco
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: HIP IS HIP

(I knew I'd forgotten something ... here's Friday's Tuneup)

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

The Tragically Hip is one of those bands that’s consistently strong, during their 20-year history. With their muscular guitar attack and the passionate vocals of Gordon Downie -- whose voice suggests Michael Stipe with more testosterone -- these Canadian road warriors virtually always satisfy.

The Hip’s new album, In Between Evolution, is a dark but inspirational work, if not quite their best. That honor belongs to Day For Night, their 1995 effort.

No song on the new one quite matches "Nautical Disaster" from Day For Night, a terrifying you-are-there account of a nightmare. But surprisingly the one on the new CD that comes closest has a seemingly light-hearted title. "Gus The Polar Bear From Central Park."

With its distorted guitar hook and plodding beat, Downie seemingly gets into the mind of a zoo animal to create an offbeat treatise on isolation and paranoia.

"What’s troubling Gus overhearing conversations/that it’s because your either them or me/when it’s either them or it’s us anything that moves and/everything you see is something to kill and eat."

The idea that the world has turned into a colder, harsher place permeates this album. There’s the ominous song "Meanstreak" creates the image of a town invaded by "strangers": ""The sssh sound of their boots/on the tops of the grass/as their hay wagon/rolled past …"

War images pop up everywhere. "Makeshift," built around what sounds like a long-lost Bachman Turner Overdrive riff, starts out "You do the combat math, I’m the war artist/You can’t take your shots back, I have to watch them miss."

"If New Orleans Is Beat" has one of the prettiest melodies the Hip have ever played, but keeps with the basic theme of a world turned wrong. "No one will give you a thing these days/They’d rather kill it or throw it away/you don’t `do’ dark American streets so/if New Orleans is beat … where’s that leave you and me?"

According to Downie, the macho, jingoistic hot-new-country star Toby Keith inspired "It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night."

"He said `We are what we lack’/and this guy’s the autodidact/Stares in to the glare of them TV lights/It can’t be Nashville every night."

The obliqueness of the words combined with the passion of the band’s playing create a foreboding mood that’s hard to shake.

More Canadian cool:

The Slow Wonder by A.C. Newman. Last year we knew him as "Carl" Newman, one of the front people -- along with Neko Case and Dan Bejar -- of The New Pornographers, those quirky and infectious rock/posters from Vancouver. (For those keeping track, their album Electric Version topped my Top 10 list last year.)
Newman’s first solo album sounds a lot what you’d imagine the third New Pornographers CD will be. Sure you miss sweet Neko’s singing, but most the other "pornographic" elements are here: snappy, hum-able melodies and addictive hooks that stick to your innards, simple guitar-based arrangements, and Newman’s rubbery voice that often slips into falsetto. There’s not a song here that wouldn’t have fit in on Electric Version.

Like the Pornographers, Newman’s album already is earning him comparisons to The Kinks, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson. I’ll add a couple of my own -- Badfinger and The Replacement’s Paul Westerberg, especially his early solo work. And the last song, "35 in the Shade" with its relentless drumbeat might remind you of The Who’s "Armenia City in the Sky."

Though The Slow Wonder is consistently satisfying, the strongest two songs are right at the beginning of the CD.

The opening song "Miracle Drug" starts out with a drum beat that might make you think you put on the Wild Tchoupitoulas CD by mistake. But when the guitars come in, and especially when Newman’s voice comes in a few seconds later, you know it’s no Mardi Gras. In a rushed, near frantic voice Newman sings, "He was tied to the bed with a miracle drug in one hand/In the other a great lost novel that, I understand, was returned with a stamp that said 'Thank you for your interest, young man.’ "

From that crazed image of rejection, suicide and craziness, Newman gives us one of his prettiest songs to date, "Drink to Me, Babe Then," a wistful song of love. The melody is sad as an acoustic guitar strums prominently (a snakey slide guitar waiting until the refrain.) The whistling solo in the middle of the song (a call-and-response with a subdued wah-wah guitar) brings an almost vaudeville or British music hall feel.

With or without the Pornographers, Newman is going to be a musical force to watch.

Also Noted:

Together We’re Heavy By The Polyphonic Spree. The robes are back. But is this a good thing?

I was initially fascinated by this group of 20-plus Texans in their shall-we-gather-at-the-river robes that made you wonder whether this was the product of some bizarre love cult, a group whose first CD, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree, inspired about two thirds of the critics who reviewed it -- including me -- to mention Up With People.

Yes, I was smitten by that album, especially the song "Follow the Day," which also captured the imaginations of Volkswagen, who used it on an t.v. commercial and the makers of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, who put it on their soundtrack.

But while I compared the first album to The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, this time out the sound is closer to bad Electric Light Orchestra and stale Moody Blues, even with former Pere Ubu member Eric Drew Feldman helping out on production.

O.K., I admit, I'm grudgingly fond of the self-help hymn "Two Thousand Places." But not much else here makes me want to put on a robe and witness for the Spree.

Maybe next album they’ll change their style to a ’70s revival band and call themselves "The Polyester Spree."

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK FINALE

More tales from the Democratic Convention
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 1, 2004

BOSTON _ Pundits and critics have complained that last week’s Democratic convention was a scripted production without a trace of spontaneity or real drama.

Indeed, Wednesday morning at the New Mexico delegation breakfast, John Pound -- a Santa Fe lawyer who headed John Kerry’s state campaign during the New Mexico Presidential Caucus season -- discussed plans for a t.v. moment that would take only a few seconds later that night -- the ritual roll call vote, when all the state delegations official cast their votes for Kerry.

At the convention, Pound was one of two New Mexicans who, during the floor sessions, was stationed in “The Tank,” a room that in Pound’s words, was in “the bowels” of the FleetCenter. His job was where his job was to keep an eye on how the delegation looked on television. He had to make sure the delegates held up the right sign at the right time, etc.

As far as Wednesday night’s roll call was concerned, New Mexico’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who was the head of the delegation, would do the talking for the delegation. The question, Pound said, was who would get to gather around the lieutenant governor when she cast the vote.

“It’s a human tendency to want to get up by the New Mexico banner to be on television,” Pound told the delegates. But he said delegation leaders were deciding on which people would get to surround Denish for that moment. He said the decision would be made on factors including ethnicity, gender and other factors, the goal being to reflect the state’s diversity.

Stand-off on Canal Street
But early Thursday evening there was a potential outburst of drama and spontaneity outside of the convention hall that few wanted to take place -- a confrontation between police and protesters.

Earlier in a week a Boston police officer walking through the so-called “Free Speech Zone,” a stark fenced-off area near the FleetCenter, told a reporter while the protests had been low-key up to that point, large numbers of “anarchists” to come to town on the last day of the convention.

“We’re calling Thursday `D-Day,” the officer said.

Indeed, Thursday saw a large influx of anti-war protesters. A few hundred marched up Canal Street to the barricades on Causeway Street near the convention center. Someone burned an double-sided effigy of Kerry and George W. Bush and police responded quickly.

Hundreds of black-clad, helmeted riot police, with chest and shin pads and ominous night sticks formed rows and pushed the protesters back a few yards. And there they stood for the next hour or so in a tense stand-off.

On the other side of the fence on Causeway Street, out of the view of the protesters -- but right in from of the media pavilion next to the convention hall -- another battalion of riot police gathered in rows. Reporters watched from the outside stairway as the officers prepared to replace their fellows on the front line.

But despite the obvious tension, on Canal Street, at the line where police stood almost nose to nose with the demonstrators, it didn’t seem that anyone really wanted violence.

A few yards back from the front line, a man with a bullhorn congratulated the demonstrators for standing up to the police and not backing down.

But none of the protesters were baiting the cops. And though the officers looked grim and Darth Vaderish in their black uniforms and helmets, beneath their visors were worried expressions of men who looked like they’d rather be almost anywhere else.

Things had gotten calm enough that reporter Amy Goodman of the left-wing radio and television show Democracy Now! was able to sit on the ground right up on the front line to tape interviews with demonstrators as police loomed above just a couple of feet away.

As protesters began drifting away, one Boston cop watching the action from about a block away on Canal Street agreed that the storm had apparently passed -- at least for Boston. In fact, according to press reports, the day ended with no serious injuries and only three protest-related arrests.

However he added ominously, “This wasn’t `D-Day.’ You know when `D-Day’ is? August 29, that’s when `D-Day’ is.”

August 29 is the day before the Republican National Convention starts in New York City. Far more protesters are expected there.

Amy, What You Gonna Do?
A few hours after the stand-off, gadfly Goodman had a confrontation with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.


She caught Richardson immediately after he had been on a panel discussion on Larry King Live to talk about Kerry’s acceptance speech.

Though Richardson normally is eager to appear on national media, this time apparently he wasn’t.

Here’s a transcript of the brief encounter, cut short by the governor, posted on the Democracy Now! website:

Goodman: Governor Richardson,-- is Kerry’s foreign policy an escalation? He’s talking about more troops in Iraq and talking about the Sharon policy. I'm Amy Goodman with Democracy Now! Radio and Television.

Richardson: No. Senator Kerry is an internationalist. He wants to operate our foreign policy with our alliances, with our allies, and not go it alone.

Goodman: But he's talking about, he's talking about more proof —
Richardson: I'm sorry. Please get that out of my way.

Assumedly the “that” Richardson referred to was Goodman’s microphone.

Salsa as Security Threat
My only bad encounter with authority at the convention was Thursday afternoon when convention security confiscated my jar of Bill Richardson salsa at the X-ray machine in front of the FleetCenter.

The New Mexico delegation was giving away the promotional salsa -- actually it’s Garduno’s restaurant salsa with a promotional label -- at its daily breakfast meetings and at the convention itself.

A delegate had given me a jar at breakfast and I’d stuffed it in my laptop case. I hadn’t thought of any possible problems in getting it through security. After all, the night before comic/commentator Mo Rocca had shown a jar of the salsa during a segment on Larry King Live.

But when the security X-ray machine at the media entrance spotted the jar in my case, an officer told me that I couldn’t take it in. They had nothing against hot sauce or even Richardson. It was the glass jar that concerned them.

He put the salsa on the ground under the machine -- along with seven or eight other jars of Richardson’s salsa.

I went back to retrieve my jar when leaving FleetCenter after Kerry’s speech. However, an officer told me that all the salsa had been emptied and thrown away.