BLOGOCIDE: THE CAT STRIKES BACK

In the great cat-and-mouse game known as the digital music revolution, the cat struck back last week.

As The Guardian (UK) reported:

In what critics are calling "musicblogocide 2010", Google has deleted at least six popular music blogs that it claims violated copyright law. These sites, hosted by Google's Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites – and years of archives – were wiped from the internet.

The law being invoked here is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The blogs in question are Pop Tarts, Masala, I Rock Cleveland, To Die By Your Side, It's a Rap and Living Ears.

Of those, Samuel Axon on Mashable wrote, "Each was dedicated to introducing music fans to new songs and genres they might not otherwise experience, usually from obscure and independent artists."

The Guardian says:

Although such sites once operated on the internet's fringes, almost exclusively posting songs without permission, many blogs are now wined, dined and even paid (via advertising) by record labels. After the success of blog-buzzy acts such as Arcade Fire, Lily Allen and Vampire Weekend, entire PR firms are dedicated to courting armchair DJs and amateur critics.

A Los Angeles Weekly story, published a week ago appears that the assault started slowly, with individual blog posts -- not entire blogs -- disappearing. Weekly writer Jeff Weiss noted:

U.K.-based Web-scouring copyright detective Web Sheriff will soon open its first U.S. office, no doubt spurred by its success in policing the Web for unauthorized mp3 leaks. Music bloggers are bracing themselves for a new round of scrutiny, and are taking measures to prevent the RIAA from working its way into their music blogs.

Google's response on Wednesday:

“When we receive multiple DMCA complaints about the same blog, and have no indication that the offending content is being used in an authorized manner, we will remove the blog.”

Yesterday there was an update that said:

We looked into this issue further and identified one case where a blogger did not receive notification of any DMCA complaints before their blog was removed. We're sorry about this.

We've contacted the blog owner and restored their blog, effective immediately ... We know the DMCA process can be difficult to navigate, and we're working on ways to make this process as smooth as possible.

Smooth move, Google.

The ball is in the mice's court.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: SUN RA's COSMIC GRIT

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 12, 2010

In the eyes of many jazz critics and jazz fans, there is "serious" music (jazz) and there is lowbrow unwashed pop music, which is to be disdained or perhaps tolerated in a condescending way.

Of course, a lot of actual jazz musicians don't quite feel that way. Miles Davis dug Hendrix and Sly. Sonny Rollins recorded with The Rolling Stones. Even back in the early days, Louis Armstrong recorded with country-music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers. And Herman Poole "Sonny" Blount, better known in this solar system as Sun Ra (1914-1993), not only played cosmic jazz but also dabbled in doo-wop and R & B in the 1950s and a little funky soul in the '60s and '70s. And danged if Ra didn't make that sound cosmic too!

Norton Records recently released three CDs of his material. Interplanetary Melodies and The Second Stop Is Jupiter feature recordings from the mid-1950s, while Rocket Ship Rock spans the late '50s through early '70s. Some of these songs appeared, mostly in different versions, on earlier Sun Ra lations like The Singles (1996) and Spaceship Lullaby (2003).

Ra's relationship with R & B goes back to the late 1940s. His first recordings were with R & B wild man Wynonie Harris. Back in 1954, Ra, then living in Chicago, became fascinated with R & B vocal groups. According to John F. Szwed's 1998 biography Space Is the Place: The Loves and Times of Sun Ra, Ra grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, listening to gospel quartets, so writing music for doo-wop groups came naturally to him.

Among those who appear on Interplanetary and Jupiter are The Qualities, The Crystals (not the girl group Phil Spector made famous), and, most appropriately for Sun Ra, The Cosmic Rays. But The Cosmic Rays weren't as otherworldly as The Nu Sounds, who performed on songs like "Spaceship Lullaby" and the drum-heavy "Africa."

One of the truest delights on the first two albums is Juanita Rogers, who sang a couple of heartbreakers called "Teenager's Letter of Promises" and "I'm So Glad You Love Me." Interplanetary has little Juanita singing the first song a cappella (under the title "Love Letters Full of Promises"). This is immediately followed by the full-blown version featuring a spoken introduction — with heavy reverb — by a guy named Lynn Hollings, saying, "Yes, teenagers do sometimes keep their promises. Meet Little Juanita, a teenager with the soul of an angel and the recipient of a love letter full of promises."

My favorite of these three albums is Rocket Ship Rock, simply because the music is at least a couple of notches crazier than it is on the other albums. Credit this to a singer called Yochanan, an R & B shouter who made Little Richard sound like a certified public accountant by comparison.

According to Szwed's book, by the mid-1950s, Ra had a way of attracting top-notch musicians, as well as some outright weirdos:

"The band was also a magnet for the strange, drawing all sorts of people off the streets for rehearsals and performances. One of the most bizarre of those who turned up was Yochanan ... [who] had many stage names, including the Man from Outer Space, the Man from Mars, and the Muck Muck Man, and declared himself a descendant of the Sun. Dressed in turban, sandals, and red, orange, and yellow 'Asiatic' robes, he was always quick to hold forth to anyone on his private philosophy. And when he performed, he was unpredictable and crude, often working bawdy material into the last song he sang at club appearances."

In other words, my kind of entertainer.

The Man from Mars is featured on the first nine tracks of Rocket Ship Rock. His shining moment is the down-and-gritty "Hot Skillet Mama." There are two versions on the CD, one of which was the flip side of the single "Muck Muck," which also appears in two versions here. But even nuttier than Yochanan's contributions is the song "I Am Gonna Unmask the Batman." There are two versions. A short one (under four minutes) is sung by Chicago blues guitarist Lacy Gibson, who at the time was Ra's brother-in-law. A horn riff suggests the "Batman Theme" from the Adam West television show. This is an extended version of a single released by Ra in 1974. And then there's a sprawling seven-minute lo-fi version that sounds like a rehearsal.

This wasn't Sun Ra's first encounter with the caped crusader. In 1966, he played organ on what Szwed called a "children's album" — but I call a "cash-in" record — titled Batman & Robin, released during the height of popularity for the TV series. It's jazzy, kinda cheesy, mostly instrumental rock — with song titles referring to the Dynamic Duo and the villains they fought. The band was called The Sensational Guitars of Dan & Dale, and musicians include Al Kooper and members of The Blues Project. It's actually available —
in glorious mono! — for download on Amazon and iTunes.



These Norton CDs show that while Sun Ra had his head in the cosmos, his feet were firmly planted in the soil and grit of this crazy planet.

Radio Ra: Hear selections from these new Sun Ra collections — plus a little taste of that crazy Batman record — on Terrell's Sound World, free-form weirdo radio, 10 p.m. Sunday. And don't forget The Santa Fe Opry, the country music Nashville does not want you to hear, same time on Friday, both on KSFR-FM 101.1.

HEY MISTER, THAT'S ME ON THE JUKEBOX

Nothing like using the title of a James Taylor song to plug the fact that The Big Enchilada is now part of the official GaragePunk Jukebox!

The latest 20 shows from podcasters all over the world are there. Hours of entertainment right on your computer. The newest show will always be on top, so the latest Big Enchilada currently is number seven there, right between Rock 'n' Roll Rampage and The Mal Thursday Show.

So check out the jukebox. Won't even cost you a quarter.

UPDATE: Feb. 11, 2010 _ There were some technical difficulties for a few days there -- and problems my feed apparently caused at least one of the GaragePunk music players to crash. But it seems to be working again.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February 7, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Wish I Was in New Orleans by Tom Waits
Wild Injuns by The Neville Brothers
The Great Joe Bob by Terry Allen
In New Orleans by C.W. Stoneking
I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say by Jelly Roll Morton
Goin' to New Orleans by Bobby Davis & The Rhythm Rockers
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
When the Saints Go Marching In by Jerry Lee Lewis

Mamma's Fried Potatoes by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Zydeco Tonight by Felix y Los Gatos
Muck Muck by Yochanan with Sun Ra
Flight of the Batman by The Sensational Guitars of Dan & Dale
Smash Crash by The Fleshtones
Cruisin' for a Bruisin' by Rev. Horton Heat
Don't Save it Too Long by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends
I See the Light by Reverend Beat-Man

LUX INTERIOR TRIBUTE
All songs by The Cramps except where noted

You Got Good Taste
What's Behind the Mask
Miniskirt Blues by The Flower Children
All Women Are Bad
The Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads
Garbageman
The Mad Daddy
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson with The Cramps
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? by The Rockin' Guys

Big Black Witchcraft Rock
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns
Strolling after Dark by The Shades
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
Booze Party by 3 Aces and a Joker
Psychotic Reaction
Bend Over I'll Drive
Rock-N-Bones by Elroy Dietzel
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

eMusic February

* Slipping And Sliding by Big Al Downing. He was an Okie kid who idolized Fats Domino, a country boy who loved rock 'n' roll. He won a talent contest on Coffeyville. Kansas radio station singing "Blueberry Hill." One of the listeners was a white singer named Bobby Poe who hired Downing, still a teenager, to play piano and sing in his band The Poe Cats. The Poe Cats were hired as the backup band for a young rockabilly gal from Oklahoma, Wanda Jackson and in 1957 backed her on her biggest song "Let's Have a Party."

It was one of the first integrated rock 'n' roll bands and it wasn't easy on Downing. In 2003, he told No Depression, “I remember once when we were in Butte, Montana ... There were no blacks anywhere in the town. They put a blanket over my head and we went into the hotel. Once we got to the show, people were hurling food and other things at me on the stage and we had to go back to the dressing room.”

But besides his work with Jackson, Downing, with the Poe Cats cut lots of tunes on their own and that's what's on this collection. Domino's influence is apparent on several of the tracks, as is Little Richard's. Los Lobos fans will recognize "Georgia Slop." Basically this album is full of every I love about early rock 'n' roll. Big Al is one of the great under-recognized heroes of the era.

* Hill Country Revue: Live at Bonnaroo by North Mississippi Allstars. This live set from the 2004 festival in Tennessee is a gathering of the Dickinson (Luther, Cody and daddy Jim) and the Burnside (R.L., his sons Garry and Duwayne, and his grandson Cody) families plus some friends like Othar Turner's Rising Star Fife & Drum Band (featuring the grandchildren of the late fife master), Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and others.

What they produced was a magic mix of blues, Southern rock and some Dixie-fried psychedelia. "Psychedelic Sex Machine" is just loads of fun. But Jim Dickinson's version of "Down in Mississippi" (written by J.B. Lenoir, but a signature song of the elder Dickinson) might be the mightiest version he ever did.

* The Essential Carl Smith 1950-1956. This honky tonk giant toured with Hank Williams, who got him his first appearance on the Grand Old Opry in 1950. He married June Carter before Johnny Cash did (Carlene Carter is his daughter). And when he died last month, The Nashville Tennessean in his obit used an old quote from Waylon Jennings: "From the minute he came out, I wanted to look like him, tried to comb my hair like him and learned every song he ever recorded."

This collection of 20 songs from 1950 to 1956 makes you realize what Waylon was talking about. You can hear Hank's influence in songs like "Trademark" (which was co-written by Porter Wagoner) and "Are You Teasing Me" (a Louvin Brothers song). Meanwhile songs like "Go Boy Go" and "Back Up Buddy" ("back up, buddy, don't you come any closer/I know you want her, but the answer is `No, sir' ...") sound as if they were recorded right on the border of honky tonk and rockabilly.
Plus:

* Most of The Sheik Said Shake by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers. Allright! Voodoo Rhythm last month quietly added a bunch of albums to eMusic including some relatively new ones (The Pussywarmers, The Movie Star Junkies and the latest from King Automatic and The Guilty Hearts).

This is Hipbone Slim's third Voodoo Rhythm album, released a couple of years ago. Like his previous albums is dangerous sounding British psychobilly.

So far I don't hear anything quite as snarling as the title song of Snake Pit or as catchy as "What Do You Look Like," Sir Bald Diddley's duet with Holly Golightly on Have Knees, Will Tremble.

Still, it's irresistible. I'll definitely pick up the rest of this album when my account refreshes next week.

And (speaking of the rest of an album) ...

* The remaining four tracks from tracks from No Requests Tonight by The Devil Dogs, which I didn't get last month. It's good and rocking, though my favorite track on the album still is the cover of Sonny Bono's "Laugh at Me."

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 5, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
That's What She Said Last Night by Billy Joe Shaver
Barn Dance Rag by Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Ramblers
Fiddlin' Around by Johnny Gimble with Jason Roberts
Over the Cliff by Jon Langford
Evil Clutches by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
I Remember by Shelley King
Downhome Country Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard
I'm Building a (?) on the Moon y Weldon Rogers
Love's Gonna Get You by Ethyl & The Regulars
Crazy Suzy by Ron Haydock & The Boppers

Rockin' Granny by Nancy Apple
Tied Up by Cordell Jackson
Drinkin' Wine Spo Dee O Dee by Malcom Yelvington
Liquor, Beer & Wine by The Reverend Horton Heat
Boy Next Door by Fantic Flattops
Rainy Day Blues by Willie Nelson
Nine Pound Hammer by Last Mile Ramblers
Rockin' Granny by Nancy Apple
Tied Up by Cordell Jackson
Drinkin' Wine Spo Dee O Dee by Malcom Yelvington
Liquor, Beer & Wine by The Reverend Horton Heat
Boy Next Door by Fantic Flattops
Rainy Day Blues by Willie Nelson
Nine Pound Hammer by Last Mile Ramblers
Side by Side Doublewides by The Hickoids

JUG BAND SET
Garden of Joy by Maria Muldaur
Cocaine Habbit Blues by The Memphis Jug Band
Selling the Jelly by The Noah Lewis Jug Band
Ol' Corn Likker by The Carolina Chocolate Drops
Beedle Um Bum by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
Jesus Walking on the Water by Asylum Street Spankers
Vamps of 28 by Whistler's Jug Band
Jug Band Music by Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band

Big Railroad Blues by Cannon's Jug Stompers
Shiek of Araby by Martin, Bogan & The Armstrongs
I Love Onions by Susan Christie
Bill Wilson by The Birmingham Jug Band
Patent Medicine by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
Bootlegger's Blues by The South Memphis String Band
I've Got Blood in My Eyes For You by The Memphis Sheiks
Shake Hands and Tell Me Goodbye by Maria Muldaur
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

REMEMBERING LUX

That's what I'll be doing Sunday night on Terrell's Sound World on KSFR, 101.1 FM.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the passing of Erick Lee Purkhiser, aka Lux Interior, the voice of The Cramps.

I'll play lots of songs by The Cramps and original versions of the songs Lux and Ivy loved so well. Sound World starts at 10 p.m. Mountain Time. The Lux tribute will start at the 11th Hour.

Speaking of radio specials, don't miss my big jug-band set tonight on The Santa Fe Opry, same time, same channel.

Until then, enjoy this video:

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: JUGS OF LOVE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 5, 2010


I've said it before, I'll say it again: jug-band music was the original punk rock. It's been said that punk rock, in its early days, was the most democratic kind of music, because you didn't have to know how to play your instrument to be in a band.

But with a jug band, you don't even need to have a real instrument. Antiquated household appliances like the washtub and washboard serve as your rhythm section. You could become a virtuoso on kindergarten percussion instruments and kazoo. And, of course, there's the jug, which is cheaper and much easier to transport than a tuba.

And jug-band music refuses to die. The genre's direct influence can be heard on the recent South Memphis String Band album Home Sweet Home (reviewed here a few weeks ago), featuring Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimbo Mathus, and Luther Dickinson — though they didn't use a jug. And it lives in Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy and the Asylum Street Spankers' latest album, God's Favorite Band, which is one of the group's best.

History in a jug: Nobody knows who was the first person to blow into a jug to provide the bass part in a band. According to Don Kent's liner notes for the excellent jug-band compilation Ruckus Juice & Chittlins, by the year 1900, there was a group called the Cy Anderson Jug Band playing in the streets of Louisville, Kentucky. And by 1913, a banjo player named Earl McDonald had a steady gig for his jug band at the Kentucky Derby.

The jug-band virus spread south to Birmingham, north to Chicago and Cincinnati, and to Memphis, where it gave birth to influential groups like The Memphis Jug Band and Cannon's Jug Stompers.

Jug-band fever faded after the '30s. But it reared its head again during the folk revival of the 1960s. One of the prime movers was an outfit called The Even Dozen Jug Band, which never got famous during its short lifetime, even though its alumni include The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian; mandolin great David Grisman; guitarist Stefan Grossman; Steve Katz, an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears; and Muldaur, then Maria D'Amato. She became best known in the mainstream for her early '70s hit "Midnight at the Oasis," but she first got a taste of national fame with jug-band music.

I just met a girl named Maria: She later joined what became the most important of the jug-band revival groups, Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band (which included singer/guitarist Geoff Muldaur, who would become her husband). Kweskin, whose band appeared on several national television variety shows, spawned a number of other jug bands around the country.

There was loads of talent in Kweskin's group, but, especially for the boys, Maria D'Amato Muldaur was the star. Try to listen to her version of Mississippi John Hurt's "Richland Woman" without falling in lust.

Garden of Joy is a glorious return to jug-band music for Muldaur. Even Dozen buddies Sebastian and Grisman are here, as is fellow Kweskin vet Fritz Richmond, who poots forth on jug on "Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul." There are other notable guest stars, too. None other than Taj Mahal plays banjo and guitar on several cuts.

And then there's Dan Hicks. He shows up for a snazzy duet on the medley of the sexy "Life's Too Short" and the silly "When Elephants Roost in Bamboo Trees." Plus Muldaur sings a couple of songs from Hicks' latest album, Tangled Tales — "The Diplomat" and "Let It Simmer." She was always a wonderful interpreter of Hicks. "Walkin' One and Only" was a highlight of her first solo album, while she got the title of her second album, Waitress in a Donut Shop, from Hicks' song "Sweetheart."

While jug-band music is a joyful and nostalgic sound, there's an edge to Garden of Joy, which is subtitled Good Time Music for Hard Times. The last two songs on the album emphasize the hard times. These are the Depression-era tunes "Bank Failure Blues" and "The Panic Is On." She has updated the lyrics of the latter. "Obama's in the White House sayin' 'Yes we can'/I know he's gonna come up with a real good plan."

Meanwhile, back in heaven: One of the best tunes on Garden of Joy is "He Calls That Religion." This old Mississippi Sheiks tune calls out greedy, lecherous preachers ("He calls that religion, but you know he's going to Hell when he dies").

This song would fit in perfectly on the new Asylum Street Spankers album. God's Favorite Band is a raucous live record full of classic gospel tunes — "Down By the Riverside," "Wade in the Water," and Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," for instance. And singer Christina Marrs, while no Maria Muldaur, belts out "Each Day" and "By and By" with brass and bravado.

It's also got some left-field gospel, such as Violent Femmes' "Jesus Walking on the Water," and the ultra-goofy original tune "Volkswagen Thing," in which singer/washboard man Wammo claims God drives the vehicle of the title.

But for me, the highlight on this set is "It Ain't Necessarily So." This song is from Porgy and Bess and perhaps best known from Cab Calloway's version. My first real concert memory is hearing Calloway singing that during a half-time show at a Harlem Globetrotters game. It twisted my head off! I didn't know anyone was allowed to sing things like "The things that you're liable to read in the Bible, it ain't necessarily so" and poke fun at biblical stories in public — at least not at a basketball game in Oklahoma!

It's not shocking that the Spankers would do a song like this. But ending an album full of gospel songs with it is delightfully subversive in itself.

Fill that jug: I'm going to do a lengthy jug-band set Friday night on The Santa Fe Opry, on KSFR-FM 101.1 and streaming live at ksfr.org. My show starts at 10 p.m., and the jug-band set will start at 11 p.m.

And check out my new Big Enchilada podcast. The last set is made up of some of my favorite jug-band tunes.

PSYCHOBILLY DESTINATION!

Johnny Pink's doing his darnedest to put Santa Fe on the a psychobilly destination map. This Sunday he's bringing a Texas trio called The Hotrod Hillbillies to The Underground (or, as we oldtimers call it, Evangelos' basement.)

I probably can't make it, mainly because it would be psychologically devastating for me to miss doing Terrell's Sound World two weeks in a row (last week I took off to catch Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band at the Brewing Company.)

But I tell you what ... If you want to skip Sound World to go hear the Hotrod Hillbillies, that'll be an excused absence.

That show starts at 9 pm and the tickets are a mere $5.

Speaking of the Reverend Peyton (I commented on Twitter that in recent months I've seen Rev. Horton Heat, Rev. Beat-Man and now Rev. Peyton. Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, you're next!), check out my photos HERE and if you want to hear some his tunes, scroll down a little and check this blog post.

BRAND NEW BIG ENCHILADA PODCAST: WELCOME TO MY MIND!

Howdy podlubbers and welcome to my mind!

This month The Big Enchilada presents a big blast of crazy rock, soul and psychobilly. You'll hear a couple of great New Mexico bands, Felix y Los Gatos and The Blood-Drained Cows. Plus a great musical image to keep you warm in the February cold from 1950s beauties June Wilkinson & Mamie Van Doren. Then we take a sharp turn straight into the Old Weird America with a set of authentic American jug band music. It all makes sense in my mind. Welcome to my mind!

CLICK HERE to download the podcast. (To save it, right click on the link and select "Save Target As.")

Or better yet, stop messing around and CLICK HERE to subscribe to my podcasts and HERE to directly subscribe on iTunes.

You can play it here:



The official Big Enchilada Web Site with my podcast jukebox and all the shows is HERE.

Here's the play list:
(Background Music: Fish Taco by Surficide)

Plenque by Felix y Los Gatos

The Flesh Remover by The Sworn Liars

Voodoo BBQ by Big John Bates

Woodpecker Rock by Nat Couty

Bobby Booshay by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

Bikini With No Top on Top by June Wilkinson & Mamie Van Doren

(Background Music: Tipi Tipi Tin by Baby Gaby)

Chupacabra Rock 'n' Roll by The Blood Drained Cows

Your Miserable Life by Movie Star Junkies

Crazy in the Head by Three Bad Jacks

Serial Killer by Hayride to Hell

Your Cousin's on Cops by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

Jug Band Jump by Delbert Barker.

(Background Music: The Memphis Shake by The Dixieland Jug Blowers)

He Calls That Religion by Maria Muldaur

She's in the Graveyard Now by Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band

Viola Lee Blues by Cannon's Jug Stompers

The Old Folks Started It by Minnie Wallace

Insane Crazy Blues by Memphis Jug Band

How Lew Sin Ate by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band.

(Background Music: Welcome to My Mind by Duggie Ward)