TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 9, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Dudley by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gloria by Patti Smith
What's Mine is Yours by Sleater-Kinney
Breaking the Rules by The Fall
Sometimes the Devil Sneaks in My Head by The Immortal Lee County Killers
Where's Your Boyfriend At by The Yayhoos
Honeychain by Throwing Muses

The Barren Fields by Hundred Year Flood
This Life by The Grabs
Black JuJu by Alice Cooper
Home by Iggy Pop
Hometeam Crowd by Loudon Wainwright III
Come Out and Play by Richard Cheese

Troubled Friends by Gogol Bordello
Pretty Thing by Nightlosers
On Wings of Love by The Red Elvises
Pain by Kazik
Kamarage by Kultur Shock with Carla Kihlstedt
Ya Habibi, Ya Ghaybine by 3 Mustaphas 3

The Wand by The Flaming Lips
Thursday Night Crowd by Mbconn
Babe, I Got You Bad by Nick Cave
Shame by P.J. Harvey
Junk is Still King by Gary Heffern
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

HUNDRED YEAR FLOOD!

The Blue Angel CD release party for Hundred Year Flood was just a blast from start to finish.

I'd just seen them last month for their short set at South by Southwest at the New Mexico Music Showcase, and that was a good one.

But it was nothing like playing a decent-length set for a hometown crowd ("Seventh is a heaven, nine is a cloud/It's great to be part of the home team crowd ..." -- Loudon Wainwright III)


The Blue Angel album is really growing on me and the songs from it -- many of which the band has been playing in their live shows for awhile now, were strong, especially the title song, "Don't Go," and the show-stopping "The Barren Fields."

I also heard some tunes I'd never heard before.

There's the freshly written "Ain't Gonna Fight in a Rich Man's War" (the title's similar to a Steve Earle song, but this one's funkier), one called "If I Were the President of the U.S.A." (Bill Palmer spells out a platform I could endorse) and a really cool Mexican- style polka with Felecia on accordian and Bill singing praises to Mexican food. (Hey, Palmer, you think you're the only one to write a song about enchiladas?)


I've also got to mention the venue -- The Santa Fe Brewing Company. I haven't been to this location since it was Wolf Canyon (is that the right name) years ago. I was impressed. The atmosphere is informal and friendly. The food was good (I had the Ruben sandwich, Helen had athe Greek wrap and Anton ate a hamburger bigger than his head) and reasonably priced. The stage and the dance floor work well as did the sound system.

The management is very music friendly. There are photos of local musicians -- Bonnie Hearne, Alex Maryol, George Adello to name some -- on the walls. I hope this place will be successful.

Bill gave a plug for Frogfest in mid August, which I'm assuming will be at the Brewing Company. Besides the Frogville acts (HYF, Goshen, Joe West, Boris McCutcheon, ThaMuseMeant, etc.) there might be some extremely worthwhile national acts. I was out of town last year for Frogfest. I can't let that happen again this year.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 7, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
What Am I Living For? by Van Morison
Gravity's Gone by The Drive-By Truckers
There Are Strange Things Happening Everday by Cornell Hurd
I Keep Thinking of You by Sir Douglas Quintet
Cowboy Boots by The Backsliders
Dirty Knife by Neko Case
Shake the Chandelier by The Gourds

Champion Dog by Hundred Year Flood
Beautiful Weapon by Curt Kirkwood
The Coach's Wife by The Dashboard Saviors
Align Yourself by The Bottle Rockets
Cheap Motels by Southern Culture on the Skids
Starman by Jessi Colter
Gettin' Drunk by The Yayhoos
Honeychild by Susan Cowsill
I can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You by Mark Weber

Arizona by Alejandro Escovedo
En Esta Momento by Cordero
Next Time a Diamond Won't Cut it by Andy Hersey
Oh No Hank by Jon Langford
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
The Only Trouble With Me by Merle Haggard
Who At My Door is Standing by Johnny Cash
Traveling Song by A. Paul Ortega

Iowa City by Eleni Mandell
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Wild Life Out West by Raising Cane
I've Always Been a Rambler by Ralph Stanley
Meant to Be That Way by Danny Santos
Butcher Boy by ThaMuseMeant
Epitath (Black and Blue) by Kris Kristofferson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: YAHOO FOR THE YAYHOOS!

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 7, 2006

The Yayhoos are loud, irreverent, a little crazy, and a lot of fun. And in case anyone’s forgotten, those qualities are the basic building blocks of rock ’n’ roll. Their new album, Put the Hammer Down, is a boozy, sometimes bluesy, guitar-crazed testament to the gospel of good timing.

“Gettin’ drunk, gettin’ naked, gettin’ laid, and gettin’ out,” is the refrain of one of the songs here. That pretty much sums up the spirit of Put the Hammer Down.

The band has an impressive résumé. It consists of singer Dan Baird (formerly of the Georgia Satellites); guitarist Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (who has played with Joan Jett, The Del-Lords, and for the past several years, Steve Earle); drummer Terry Anderson (The Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team); and bassist Keith Christopher (another ex-Georgia Satellite, who’s also played with Billy Joe Shaver, Paul Westerberg, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and others.)

As in their first effort, Fear Not the Obvious, The Yayhoos sing of a world where it’s always Saturday night, the girls are all pretty, and the beer is cheap and plentiful. It starts off with “Where’s Your Boyfriend At,” a celebration of adulterous potential. I’m not sure why the instrumental bridge alludes to the “Batman” theme.

“Would It Kill You” has some fun with domestic discord. “Would it kill you to take that noose off my neck/Would it kill you to stop acting like a wreck?”

There’s even a song here (“Everything/Anything”) that introduces the boys in the band: “My name is Roscoe, and I am the boss/Without me the Minnow would be lost ... My name is Dan, I talk loud and a lot/Without me this band wouldn’t rock.” This track would be the obvious choice for a theme if The Yayhoos got their own weekly sitcom.

While most of the songs are original, The Yayhoos do a couple of inspired covers — The O’Jays’ “Love Train,” which features various Yayhoos trading vocals, and an especially exhilarating version of the B-52s’ “Roam.”

Also noted

*Sex, Fashion and Money by The Grabs. Eleni Mandell has a voice that can make men melt. Her heartbreaking, sultry alto, as heard on her solo albums (I have Afternoon and Country for True Lovers, produced by ex-Santa Fe guitarman Tony Gilkyson), will give you good dreams. And her version of “Muriel” on a Tom Waits tribute album a few years ago is stunningly gorgeous.


The Grabs is an Eleni side project. It’s a garage-y little rock quartet featuring guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards — with Mandell’s voice out front.

One could almost compare her voice to that of Neko Case, who breaks out of her country restraints and rocks as a member of The New Pornographers.

Except, while I probably like Eleni’s voice more than I do Neko’s (is that a gasp I hear out there in Reader Land?), the Grabs ain’t no New Pornographers.

It’s not a bad effort. Mandell says it was a lot of fun to record, and I believe her. Still, I don’t think this musical backdrop is the best forum for Mandell’s voice. But there are a couple of high points worth mentioning.

“Movie Star” is a put-down of some slick third-rate Steve McQueen who tries to put the moves on the singer at a party, (“Then you asked for my number, or you ordered me to give it.”) It’s got a guitar hook right out of “Then He Kissed Me” and a refrain with ba-ba-ba-ba-ba background vocals that take me back to the late ’60s, when bands like The Association roamed the earth. And the faux doo-wop of “Hope Is for the Hopeful” is a little hokey but ultimately irresistible.

As for the best-written song, that’s got to be Mandell’s “This Life,” where a forbidden crush has the singer fantasizing about reincarnation. “Last life you were my teacher/Next life you’ll be my double feature.”

So check out The Grabs. But not until you hear Mandell’s other albums mentioned above.

*The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese. Remember Bill Murray as Nick the Lounge Singer, who belted out happy-hour versions of songs like the Star Wars theme and “You Gotta Serve Somebody” on Saturday Night Live back in the ’70s?

Remember Pat Boone’s In a Metal Mood (I liked Tiny Tim’s version of “Stairway to Heaven” better) or Paul Anka’s Rock Swings (should have been called “Smells Like Middle-Aged Spirit”)? Then you’ve got the basic idea of Richard Cheese.

Cheese does lounge and big-band versions of songs like “Rape Me” (OK, he does Nirvana better than Anka), “Baby Got Back,” (it’s a big-butt bossa nova!) “Gin and Juice” (give me The Gourds!) and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.”

It’s fun for awhile. In fact, hearing Mr. Cheese croon profanity after profanity in Slipknot’s “People Equals S**t” is nothing short of hilarious.

But the concept gets old quickly. You wouldn’t really want to sit down and listen from start to finish.


Down in The Flood: Hundred Year Flood returns to Santa Fe on Saturday, April 8, with a CD-release party for their excellent new album, Blue Angel, which I’ve been playing a lot lately on my radio shows and which Rob DeWalt reviews in this week’s Pasa Tempos.

The show opens with the Texas Sapphires, a country group that last month was named “Best New Austin Band” at the annual Austin Chronicle Music Awards.

The party starts at 9 p.m. at the Santa Fe Brewing Company Pub & Grill (27 Fire Place, on Frontage Road off I-25 south of the city).

$10 gets you in the door. For another $5, they’ll throw in a copy of Blue Angel.For more information, check out the Brewing Company's Web site or call Santa Fe Brewing Company at 424-3333.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: POLLS, INFORMED AND UNINFORMED

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 7, 2006

Poll results released by Geno Zamora’s campaign for New Mexico attorney general show that 44 percent of 400 likely Democratic primary-election voters contacted during the last week of February preferred candidate Gary King. Zamora was the choice of 9 percent, while 8 percent liked Lem Martinez, and a whopping 39 percent were undecided.

But wait. That’s only the first round.

Zamora’s next set of poll numbers — obtained “after comprehensive information on all three candidates is presented” to the same 400 Democrats — has Zamora pulling ahead significantly, leading King 33 percent to 24 percent, with Martinez lagging behind with 19 percent.

As Gomer Pyle used to say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”

So what is this “comprehensive information” that so boosts Zamora (and Martinez) and so deflates King? What could the pollsters have said to cause poll participants to give Zamora an extra 24 points and cause nearly half of King supporters to flee?

Did they claim that Gary King shot a man in Reno just to watch him die?

Nothing like that, the Zamora camp says.

But they won’t say exactly what mysterious “information” was used in the poll conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Bennett, Petts & Blumenthal firm, which is described as having a statistical margin of error of 4.9 percent.

Although Zamora himself told me early Wednesday afternoon that he had no problem with releasing the information used in conducting the poll, later in the day campaign spokesman Allan Oliver refused to hand it over.

“I hope you understand that the poll is a part of our strategy,” Oliver said.
I understand.

In general, Oliver said, the “information” consisted of the pollsters “progressively going through each of the candidates’ experience.”

There also was “information on each of the issues.”

Oliver said the information was “even handed.”

But when asked if he could categorically say that there was no negative information given about King or Martinez, Oliver wouldn’t answer with a simple yes or no.

“We talked about all their experience,” he said. “I wouldn’t characterize it as positive or negative. I don’t want to characterize it either way.”

I understand.

Pushing too hard? Oliver insisted that this was not a “push poll.”

And maybe that’s right.

While that term is bandied about a lot, according to the Wikipedia, “True push polls tend to be very short, with only a handful of questions, so as to make as many calls as possible. The data obtained is discarded rather than analyzed.”

The example they cite is the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary where a telephone pollster asked GOP voters, “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” McCain lost that primary to George W. Bush.

However, the Wikipedia article says, “The term is also sometimes used incorrectly to refer to legitimate polls which test political messages, some of which may be negative.”

Sounds like “strategy.”

King responds: Contacted Wednesday, King shrugged off Zamora’s poll results.

“I’ve had a pollster tell me that they can get me any answer they want if they just ask the right questions,” he said.

The “uninformed” poll results obtained by Bennett, Petts & Blumenthal are consistent with his own poll numbers, King said.

But King said the “informed” poll results “probably indicate that if I sat on my hands and didn’t do anything, it would be possible for an opponent to close in. I’m not going to let that happen.”

See the Zamora poll results on Joe Monahan’s blog.

UPDATE: Due to some kind of human snafu at The New Mexican, this column did not appear in Thursday's paper as it usually does. It should be in Friday's paper. (Keep your fingers crossed.)

I changed the date of publication at the top of the post.

On Thursday, I spoke with Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff, who told me that Zamora’s poll doesn’t sound like push polling.

“It sounds like aggressive message testing,” he said.

Of the “information” the poll-takers gave, Sanderoff said, “If it was equally balanced between negative and positive information about the candidates, there’s no reason for (the numbers) to have changed that much.”

REMEMBERING MAGOCSI

Theresa "Tink" Gomez e-mailed some photos of Alex Magosci today. She said I could post them here, so here's a few:

Alex with Tink











Alex with The Rev. Horton Heat











Alex with Carlos Ortiz and a Cowgirl waiter











And I found a couple of mine that are a little better than the ones I posted last night. Both are from the infamous trip to South by Southwest in 1995 :



An Austin horseback cop tells Alex and Sandy he won't have any Junk on his streets.














Junk finally plays SXSW. Their opening act was Irma Thomas.

ALEX MAGOCSI 1964-2006

(Alex is the one in the center of this photo, taken at the first Thirsty Ear Festival, 1999)

I just found out over the weekend that Alex Magocsi -- a former co-worker, a fellow music freak and a friend -- died last week.

I had to write his obit today. I'll post that below.

Before that, though, let me share a few personal memories.

I got to know Alex through The New Mexican. We had similar tastes in music. I was a fan of his band Junk, which featured Alex on drums and his girlfriend Sandy on guitar and vocals. I used to catch them playing at weird "underground" venues like "Waggy World" off Baca Street and "The Junkyard," which was the converted mechanic shop off Siler Road, which also served as Alex's residence in those years. Once he hired me to be the bouncer for a Junk show at the Junkyard. I earned a 6-pack of beer and didn't have to crack any skulls the whole night.

In March 1995 I went to South by Southwest with Alex and Sandy. Or at least part of the way. Their old school bus, which I dubbed "The Junk Heap," broke down in Clovis. I ditched them, catching a ride to Lubbock, where I got on a plane. But they showed up a couple of days later and I documented their frustrating efforts to play on the streets for festival- goers.

They finally secured a spot right off Sixth Street, a block or so from where Irma Thomas was doing a free concert. The second Irma stopped, Alex and Sandy started up. The show was a triumph, at least until the Austin cops shut them down. But for the four or five songs they played, they made $200 in tips and cassette-tape sales.

The trip back to Santa Fe was hellish though. The Junk Heap broke down again near some little Texas Podunk, where we stayed for hours until it got fixed.

The next year Alex moved back to Texas for awhile. During that time he started an online magazine called Re:Verb. This was the first place where I was ever published on the Web. Re:Verb ran Terrell's Tune-up in a slightly altered form. (The logo above is my old Re:Verb logo.)

All Alex's friends know that the last five years or so were terrible ones for Alec. He called me one morning three years ago to tell me that his friend Howie Epstein had ODed. It was then that I realized Alex was in bad shape.

I saw him about a year after that. He came into the Capitol news room babbling that Johnny Cash had died as the result of some conspiracy. Alex said and that he'd gotten "too close to the truth" and was scared for his own safety.

I was scared for him too. But not because of any Nashville conspiracy.

Today when writing his obit, I recall telling him, "Dammit Alex straighten up, because I don't want to have to write your damned obit." Actually I'm not sure whether I really told him that or if I just thought of telling him that.

It doesn't matter.

God damn it, Alex.

(Here's a post about Alex in The Dallas Observer blog)

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 4, 2006


Alex Magocsi, local music writer, Web publisher and one-time leader of what he called "Santa Fe's most dysfunctional band" has died.

Magocsi's body was found March 27, which according to a database was his 42nd birthday, in his car in Tesuque on property where he had planned to move this month.

The cause of death has not been determined, Sheriff Greg Solano said Monday.

“The (Office of the Medical Investigator) felt he died of a medical condition brought on by years of drug abuse,” Solano said. The OMI is waiting for toxicology reports before making a final determination, the sheriff said.

There was no evidence Magocsi had abused drugs immediately before he died, Solano said, and no evidence of foul play. He apparently died a few days before his body was found, Solano said.

Tanya Kern, who had agreed to rent a mobile home to Magocsi — and who discovered his body in his 1986 Cadillac on her land — said Monday she was “traumatized” by Magocsi’s death.

“He was trying so hard to start over and get back on his feet,” she said. “He’d been so happy and was so excited about moving here.”

Kern had given Magocsi permission to sleep in his car on her property. Previously, he’d been living in a motel, she said.

Magocsi, a Texas native, was music editor for the weekly Dallas Observer before moving to Santa Fe in the early 1990s. He worked for The New Mexican, first as a dispatcher, later as an assistant editor and columnist for the newspaper’s weekly magazine, Pasatiempo. He was responsible for a column called “Dr. Dis” and a later column called “30-Second Notes.”

But his real love was music. He was a drummer who, along with a girlfriend, started a group called Junk.

Magocsi proudly touted Junk as “Santa Fe’s most dysfunctional band.” Junk’s problems keeping a bass player were so comical, Magocsi once created a handbill advertising for a new bassist and listing all the past ones and the reason they left.

He returned to Texas in the mid-1990s. There he created an Internet music-and-pop-culture magazine called Re:Verb. After a short stint in Dallas, he returned to Santa Fe, where he again worked for The New Mexican (until about five years ago) and started a new band, a short-lived country/punk band called Lucy Falcon.

Magocsi moved to New York in 2001 to take care of his ailing father, a friend, Brian Combs, recalled Monday. His father died shortly after his son’s arrival. “He never really got over his father’s death,” Combs said. It was the start of a dark period in Magocsi’s life, one marked by increasing alcohol and drug abuse, friends say.

After returning to Santa Fe, Magocsi befriended Howie Epstein, the former bass player for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who died of a drug overdose in 2003.

Magocsi said he and Epstein had started a local band tentatively called The Bottomfeeders. Epstein died before the band ever played in public.

Combs said in recent months, Magocsi had begun reaching out to old friends he hadn’t seen in years.

Kern said her mother, Mansi Kern, had rented a Tesuque house to Magocsi several years ago. “He was excited to be moving back here,” Tanya Kern said.

Kern’s property is on a road called Avenida de la Melodia. “I guess that was appropriate,” Tanya Kern said.

“Like my mother said, ‘Alex died in his favorite place.’"

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 2, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Remember by John Lennon
Everything/Anything by The Yayhoos
Dogfood by Iggy Pop
Big Damn Roach by The Immoral Lee County Killers
Eagleeye by P.W. Long & Reelfoot
Ding Dong by Johnny Dowd
Fake Blood by Mission of Burma
Bonnie Brae by The Twilight Singers

Poland Hasn't Died Yet by Kazik
From the Archive of Polish Jazz by Kult
What a Wonderful World by Nick Cave & Shane MacGowan
Another Glass of Wine to Give Succor to My Ailing Existence by Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
Lookin' Good Polka by The Polkaholics
From Black to Purple by Mbconn
New Orleans Fuzz by David Thomas & Two Pale Boys

Waila Set
Song From Way Back by The American Indians
Little Wild Pony by El Conjunto Murrietta
Ten in One by Crow Hang
Cholla Polka by Mike Enis & Company
A Minor Cumbia by Santa Rosa Band
Lizard Dance Polka by Los Papagos Molinas
Waila by Jam Band D
El Gallo by Elvin Kelly & Los Reyes

Lowdown by My Morning Jacket
Sex, Fashion and Money by The Grabs
I Slapped My Wife in the Face by Big Jack Johnson
When She Was My Girl by The Persuassions
Streets of Fire by The New Pornographers
Patriot's Heart by American Music Club
Green Eyes by Mark Eitzel
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TIME OF THE SEASON

The sheriff spills the beans (or spills something) about President Bush coming to Santa Fe next week.


Read all about it HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 31, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Soba Song by 3 Mustaphas 3
Middle Man by The Bottle Rockets
Easy On Yourself by Drive-By Truckers
Who Were You Thinking Of by The Sir Douglas Quintet
Matadora by Cordero
Silver City Waltz by Bayou Seco
Blue Angel by Hundred Year Flood
Nashville Radio by John Langford

Oh Carolina by Raising Cane
Star Witness by Neko Case
Back Street Affair by Van Morrison
Large Marge by Bob Cheevers
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on The Skids
Just Squeeze Me by Janis Martin
Kung Fu Cowboy by Alan Vega
Brain Damage by The Austin Lounge Lizards


Buck Owens Tribute Set
All songs by Buck unless otherwise noted
Excuse Me (I Think I Have a Heartache)
Only You (Can Break My Heart)
Big Game Hunter by Cornell Hurd
Together Again
Play Together Again Again by Buck & Emmylou Harris
Before You Go by Doyle Holly
Beer Can Hill by Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Bob Teague & Buck
Big in Vegas
Don't Let Her Know by Ray Charles
You Ain't Gonna Have Ol' Buck to Kick Around No More

Tiger Whitehead by Johnny Cash
Mercenary Song by Steve Earle
Girl Who Never Smiled by Eric Hisaw
Gather the Family 'Round by Ed Pettersen
That Loving You Feeling Again by Roy Orbison & Emmylou Harris
The Show Goes On by Kris Kristofferson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list