Friday, April 30, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 29, 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
Born Bred Corn Fed by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson with The Cramps
Drinking Champagne by Willie Nelson
Been Down Too Long by Scott H. Biram
Husbands and Wives by Bill Kirchen with Chris O'Connell
Loser by The Hormonauts
Hillbilly Jive with a Boogie Beat by Reece Shipley & The Rainbow Valley Boys
Nothin' But A Nuthin' by Jimmy Stewart & His Nighthawks
Ring of Fire by Mingo Saldivar

Done Gone by Ray Condo & His Ricochets
Alimony by Bobby Bare
Invitation to the Blues by Cornell Hurd
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose by Little Dickens
Down in the Bayou by The Watzloves
Daddy's Moonshine Still by Dolly Parton
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights by The Texas Tornados
Hogtied Over You by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
Hot Rod by The Collins Kids
Slick Chick Boogie by Maston Music Makers

Good Fearing People by Tha Legendary Shack Shakers
Whoop and Holler by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In by Mojo Nixon
All the Way to Jericho by The Gourds
Dem Bones by The Strange
Fire's Still Burnin' by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Canada Dry by Ethyl & The Regulars
Funky Tonk by Moby Grape

Days of Wine and Roses by Jason & The Scorchers
The Late Love Of Mine by Porter Wagoner
Better Than This by by Jason & The Scorchers
Another Year by The Sadies
Summer Wages by David Bromberg
Down in The Willow Gardens by The Everly Brothers
Slowly by Webb Pierce
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: FOWLEY'S GOLDEN GARBAGE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 30, 2010


Here’s a short film review. The Runaways is basically an R-rated after-school special.

By far the most interesting aspect of this movie, which concerns the rise and fall of the underappreciated band that gave the world Joan Jett, is the villain of the story, Kim Fowley, portrayed by Michael Shannon. And even more interesting is how the real-life Fowley, instead of responding with threats of defamation suits, has thoroughly embraced Shannon’s portrayal of him as an abusive, exploitative eccentric. This shouldn’t be surprising, though. After all, Fowley has described himself as a jerk, a genius, and a pig.

The genius and the jerkiness can be heard on the recent two-disc compilations by Norton Records. The first volume is called One Man’s Garbage, and the second is Another Man’s Gold. The discs are sold separately, and both are subtitled Lost Treasures From the Vaults, 1959-1969.

Flashback: I once met Fowley at a South by Southwest Festival in the mid-’90s. He was walking around the Austin Convention Center wearing a psychedelic coat of many colors and was in the company of a sexy young songbird he claimed was “the next Janis Joplin.” I don’t remember how our conversation started, but Fowley was pitching this singer to me so intently you would have thought I was a major record-company exec. Some film crew from God knows where approached us, so naturally he addressed his pitch to the camera. Fowley ranted, and the next Janis Joplin slinked around looking lovely. I just held up the singer’s tape with a stern expression, nodding my head, as if I were the muscle in the entourage. What I’d give to have that footage now! I eventually listened to the singer’s cassette. Alas, Fowley’s sweet young companion was not the next Janis Joplin.

Present tense: Although Fowley is most famous as a producer — besides The Runaways, he has worked for artists ranging from The Germs to Helen Reddy — he was also a performer. America first heard him on a goofy 1960 novelty tune called “Alley Oop,” credited to a “band” called The Hollywood Argyles.

You’ll find The Argyles here doing a tune called “Long Hair, Unsquare Dude Called Jack,” not “Alley Oop.” These are compilations of true obscurities. There’s no Helen Reddy either. Instead there’s a barrel of mostly unknown groups that Fowley produced and/or performed with — The Patterns, The Players, The Renegades, The Rituals, U.S. Rockets, Donny and The Outcasts, and more.
These records are full of novelty songs, parodies, answer songs, teenage melodrama, Mad magazine-worthy hipster lingo, surf instrumentals, and some unabashed doo-wop. They can stand proud beside other Norton collections like the Mad Mike Monsters and I Hate CDs series.

But what distinguishes Garbage and Gold is the Fowley touch. Permeating the tracks are Fowley’s self-deprecating, anything-for-money, Hollywood-in-the-’60s sensibility. On so many of these songs, it’s easy to imagine Fowley and his cronies laughing at the dumb humor — intentional and otherwise — of the lyrics while at the same time praying that he’s got another “Alley Oop” megahit on his hands.

Some of the tunes are easily recognizable echoes of teen hits of the day. “Big Fat Alaskan” by Donnie and The Outcasts is an apparent answer to Jerry Woodard’s “Long Tall Texan.” “Surfer’s Rule” by The Rituals is a rewrite of “Johnny B. Goode,” while “The Rebel” by The Players alludes to The Shangri-Las’ saga “The Leader of the Pack,” though it also has elements drawn from Don and Dewey’s “Big Boy Pete” and an Archie comics character, Big Moose.

Speaking of The Players, this Fowley ensemble didn’t just do songs. The group’s records were demented little skits that featured a narrator who would put Jack Webb to shame. “Memories of a High School Bride” is a weird morality play that must have been a lot of fun to record.

And there’s some piggishness here too. Check out “Surf Pig” by Fowley and Mars Bonfire — the composer of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.”

Fowley takes a stab at protest songs with “Big Sur, Bear Mountain, Ciro’s, Flip Side, Protest Song,” which was released under his own name. Fowley drawls, “I protest against the songs I’ve been hearing on everyone’s radio. ... I protest against the kids who want to flip their lids instead of thinkin’ where it’s really at. ... I protest against things that are never going to happen, and I really don’t like things that I do.” He’s not really protesting. He’s basically just sneering at everyone, including himself.

That’s even more evident on “The Worst Record Ever Made.” Here Fowley talks over a girl group called Althea & The Memories. Elsewhere in the collection this group sings sweet straight-faced doo-wop ditties like “Daddy Said” and “Dedication.” But on “Worst Record,” they do a call-and-response over a “Louie Louie” riff while Fowley rants “Hey surfers are you listening to me? ... Do you think there’s ever been a dance called ‘The Wheelchair’? ... Do you know how hard it is to yell in a microphone for two and a half minutes? It’s pretty hard. It shows how desperate we are. It shows you how desperate you are to be listening to all this.”

At one point during the song, Fowley ponders, “I wonder if they’ll still be doing this when they’re 74 years old.” Fowley’s 70 now. I bet he’ll still be doing it in four years.

These CDs can be found at the Norton Records site. And you can download them for real cheap at Amie Street.

For a recent Fowley interview and some Fowley music, check out the Mal Thursday podcast in the GaragePunk Hideout.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

THE DAY ZAPPA SOCKED IT TO THE HARPER VALLEY PTA

Ah, remember "Porn Rock"? Weren't the '80s fabulous?

Mother Frank is outnumbered here on a 1986 Los Angeles local TV show. But he holds his own quite well against a Pat Boone wannabe, the frumpiest PTA lady central casting could find and the host Roberta Weintraub, who does quite an impressive spoken-word interpretation of Prince's "Darling Nikki." in Part 1.

Watch 'em all. Zappa's truth goes marching on. Let freedom ring!







Wednesday, April 28, 2010

WHY I HATE THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: REASON 9,348

First they came for the child pornographers and I didn't say anything ...
Then they came for my MP3s ...

Here's something posted on the blog of Christian Engström, a Swedish member of the European Parliament -- and , yo ho ho, he's a leader of the Pirate Party (!), which is dedicated to reforming copyright and patent laws. (it's the third largest political party in Sweden.)

"Child pornography is great,” the speaker at the podium declared enthusiastically. ”It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites”.

The venue was a seminar organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm on May 27, 2007, under the title ”Sweden — A Safe Haven for Pirates?”. The speaker was Johan Schlüter from the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, a lobby organization for the music and film industry associations ...

"One day we will have a giant filter that we develop ... We continuously monitor the child porn on the net, to show the politicians that filtering works. Child porn is an issue they understand,” Johan Schlüter said with a grin, his whole being radiating pride and enthusiasm from the podium.


Lovely. A symbiotic (or is it "semi-bionic") relationship among kiddie porn producers, music biz scum and cheesy politicians.

Keep your eye on all these creeps.

(Thanks and a tip of the hat to Vic Milan.)

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

HELP YOURSELF TO A FRESH BIG ENCHILADA (PODCAST)

THE BIG ENCHILADA



Howdy, friends and neighbors. This month the Big Enchilada goes hillbilly nuts. Time to check into the Sunshine Motel, where I've stashed all sorts of rockabilly, hard-core honky tonk and other crazy country sounds.

There's lots of local talent from New Mexico like Mose McCormack, Kell Robertson and Kris Hollis Key, plus the likes of The Ex Husbands, Bloodshot Bill, Flat Duo Jets, The Corn Sisters and Miss Tammy Faye Starlite. Plus there's all sorts of hillbilly heroes from the days of yore -- Rose Maddox, Jess Willard, Roy Hall, Tani Allen and so many more. Like my KSFR radio show, The Santa Fe Opy, this is the country music Nashville does NOT want you to hear!

You can play it here:




DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE



(Background Music: El Rancho Grande by The Tune Wranglers)
I'm Just a Honky by The Ex-Husbands
Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor by Jess Willard
Pepper Hot Baby by Bloodshot Bill
Frog Went a Courtin' by Flat Duo Jets
Wild, Wild Young Men by Rose Maddox
God Has Lodged a Tenant in My Uterus by Miss Tammy Faye Starlite
Oh These Troubled Times by The Corn Sisters

(Background Music: Silver City Two-Step by Bayou Seco)
Battle of Love by Mose McCormack
Blazing Trailer of Love by Neil Mooney
Rockabilly Hop by Bill Moss
Trucker From Tennessee by Link Davis
Who Put the Turtle in Myrtle's Girdle? by The Western Melody Makers
Cheater's World by Amy Allison & The Maudlins

(Background Music: Sweet Georgia Brown by Johnny Gimble)
She Devil by Kris Hollis Key
Liver Lover by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Dirty Boogie by Roy Hall & His Cohutta Mountain Boys
Down and Out by Chuck Wells
When Hillbilly Willie Met Kitty From the City by Tani Allen & His Tennessee Pals
Star Motel Blues by Kell Robertson
Catch Me a Possum by The Watzloves


If you like this stuff, check out some of my previous country episodes at www.bigenchilada.podcast.com including Episodes 16, 10, 8 and 2.

Friday, April 23, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 23, 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
Deisel Smoke, Dangerous Curves by The Last Mile Ramblers
Snake Dance Boogie by Roy Hogsed
Huntsville by Merle Haggard
Bang Bang Bang by Big Al Anderson
The Blues Come Around by Sleepy LaBeef
Miss Maggie Rose by Mike Cullison
You Shake Me Up by Andy Anderson
I'm Not in Love (Just Involved) by Hank Penny
Rocky Byways The Austin Lounge Lizards
Hold That Critter Down by Sons of the Pioneers

Dead Gun byThe Strange
It's the Law by Bob Log III
Sugar Baby by Tha Legendary Shack Shakers
Twang Town Blues by Jason & The Scorchers
Dead Love Rag by Mama Rosin
Death Blues by The Dead Brothers
The Talking Hot Pants Blues by The Hickoids
God Has Lodged a Tenant in My Uterus by Tammy Faye Starlite
Hepcat Baby by Eddy Arnold

My Primitive Joy by Michael Tarbox
Little Red Corvette by The Gear Daddies
A Bad Year for Love by Cornell Hurd
Who Is She by Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers
You Can't Catch Me by Ray Campi
Snatch It and Grab It by Deke Dekerson
Hog Wild Too by Pee Wee King
Cherry Wine by Charlie Feathers
Cowbell Polka by Spade Cooley

Ditty Wah Ditty by Ry Cooder with Earl "Fatha" Hines
Blow Yo' Whistle Freight Train by The Delmore Brothers
Don't Judge Your Neighbor by Roy Acuff
Lead Me On by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
Say It's Not You by George Jones with Keith Richards
Mississippi by Bob Dylan
Swing Low Sweet Chariot by Ralph Stanley
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, April 22, 2010

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: AFTER THE VAMPIRES FLEE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 23, 2010


This is music for the closing credits — when the stake his been driven through the vampire’s heart, when the last zombie’s head has been blown off, when the sun is rising and the ghosts all fade.

I’m talking about True Love Cast Out All Evil, the new album by Roky Erickson, his most recent comeback album (the first in 15 years or so). Recorded with the Austin band Okkervil River, this record is a sweet statement from a battered soul, a musical chronicle of triumph over mental illness and years in the psychic wilderness.

That’s the good news. The bad news for those of us who love Erickson for his crazed psychedelic rockers is that there aren’t nearly enough crazed psychedelic rockers here and too many gentle reflective ballads. True Love Cast Out All Evil might be seen as proof of the truth in the old Tom Waits line, “If I exorcise my demons, well, my angels might leave too.”

Back in the mid-’60s, the Texas-born howler was the singer and frontman for The 13th Floor Elevators. Although the group only had one actual hit, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” which it performed on American Bandstand, 13th Floor was influential far beyond that. The group is credited with being the first to use the word “psychedelic” to describe its sound.

And Erickson was the true psychedelic ranger, taking hallucinogens like they were Lay’s potato chips. In 1969, he got busted for marijuana in Texas, which at the time had some of the nation’s most Draconian drug laws. He pleaded insanity to avoid prison and spent three years in a state forensic hospital, where he was treated with electroshock therapy.

By most accounts, including his own, Erickson came out crazier than when he went in. But as seen in the 2005 documentary You’re Gonna Miss Me, his mental health began to improve when his younger brother intervened. Erickson has been performing now for several years. And, according to the liner notes of the new CD, he bought a house and car and is living with his first ex-wife and his son — from whom he had been estranged for years and who is now his road manager.

Much of True Love Cast Out All Evil deals with Erickson’s years in hell.

In fact, the first song, “Devotional Number One” is a below-lo-fi tape of a tune he wrote in Rusk State Hospital. This is one of several on this album that were written during his stay there. It’s a sweet melody about Jesus meeting Moses, with Erickson singing in a near falsetto. By the time he earnestly sings my favorite line in the song (“Jesus is not a hallucinogenic mushroom”), you begin hearing the slow creep of (recently overdubbed) keyboards and ambient cacophony taking you into the present.

This is followed by a short gospel-flavored tune, “Ain’t Blues Too Sad,” in which he sings, “Electricity hammered me through my head/Until nothing at all is backward instead.”

Such references to time in jails or mental hospitals are woven throughout the album’s lyrics. On “Be and Bring Me Home,” he sings, “They said I might need their dirty prison/But I love the way you don’t give me time,” he sings.

The saddest one of these is another one he wrote while actually at Rusk, "Please Judge." It appeared in a more genteel version on Erickson’s previous comeback album, All That May Do My Rhyme. The new version has a weird Sparklehorsey arrangement. It sounds as if it were recorded in a wind tunnel with Erickson’s vocals accompanied, in the first verses, only by electric piano. Gradually you start hearing noises from a thunderstorm, electronic feedback, and random noises that ebb and flow.
ROKY STRAPS IT ON
There are a couple of decent rockers here. “Goodbye Sweet Dreams” is a terse minor-key tune with images — a pentagram, a clock striking midnight — that make it sound like an outtake from Erickson’s greatest album, The Evil One. I’m not the first to compare this song to something by Fleetwood Mac. It’s easy to envision a crazy Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo in it.

Even more powerful is “John Lawman.” You know it’s going to be a classic Roky song when it starts off with “I kill people all day long, I sing my song.”

The trouble is, there are just not enough songs like these. From this point, the album simply loses steam. “John Lawman” is followed by the title song, which is pretty but plodding. And that’s the case with the four remaining songs.

Another “field recording” from Rusk, “God Is Everywhere,” puts the album to bed. But many listeners will be asleep before they get there.

I don’t know whether Erickson wanted a relatively mellow album or Okkervil River talked him into one. But he’s past 60, he’s been through a lot, and he deserves to make whatever kind of music he wants. As “John Lawman” — not to mention his shows in recent years with his road band, The Explosives — demonstrates, Roky can still rock.

Now that the comeback album is out of the way, maybe Roky will cut loose on the next one.

Recommended:
* Manby’s Head. If you’ve recently listened to Terrell’s Sound World (10 p.m. Sundays on KSFR-FM 101.1) or heard my latest Big Enchilada podcast, you’ve heard a cool garage band from Taos called Manby’s Head.

The group’s guitarist, Peter Greenberg actually has a fancy pedigree, having played in such bands as The Lyres and, most impressive to me, Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. He joined up with guitarist Michael Mooney, bass player Paul Reid, and drummer Eric Whitlock.

The group is named for Arthur Rochford Manby, a British immigrant and Taos huckster who, at least according to legend, was murdered and decapitated in his Taos home in 1929.

The band has released a six-song EP of bitchen originals, my favorite being “Licking the Frog,” plus a cover of “Come Back Bird,” an obscurity by a ’60s Texas band called Chevelle V.

You can find it for sale at www.myspace.com/manby39shead.

Or better yet, buy it from the band at its Santa Fe debut gig. The group is playing with the rollicking Santa Fe band Monkeyshines down under in The Underground (the basement of Evangelo’s, 200 W. San Francisco St., 982-9014), at 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 25. The cover charge is $5.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, March 24, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell E...