Grandpa Boogie

A song for a wonderful morning.

For Molly, Dan and Gideon Kilgore Brake.

(Nothing to see here, just listen!)

The Present Day Jug Band Refuses to Die

A good tune to kickstart your Tuesday.


There's more HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 13, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org


OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Rats in My Kitchen by The Fleshtones
Alleys of Your Mind by The Dirtbombs
That's the Bag I'm In by The Fabs
I Want to Be Your Pussy Cat by Lightning Beat-Man
I Don't Know by The Del Moroccos
I Need Your Lovin' by Wolfman Jack & The Wolfpack
Jail La La by The Dum Dum Girls
Sweet Skinny Jenny by Esquerita
Bip Bop Bip by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Baby I Grind by Les Sexerinos
Love of My Life by Ruben & The Jets

Busload of Faith by Lou Reed
Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cooke & The Gaylads
The Crusher by The Novas
Rock-N Bones by Elroy  Deitzel
Miniskirt Blues by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Bend Over I'll Drive by The Cramps
Circus Freak by The Electric Prunes
Jesus Never Lived on Mars by Eddie Spaghetti


St. Pat's Set 

Sally Mac Lennane by The Pogues
The Likes of You Again by Flogging Molly
 Whiskey in a Jar by The Dubliners
The Rocky Road to Dublin by The Young Dubliners
Livin' in America by Black 47
Captain Kelly's Kitchen by The Dropkick Murpheys 
The Body of an American by Shane MacGowan & The Popes
The Rising of the Moon by The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem

I Will Stand at Your Grave by Sinead O'Connor
Almost a God by Movie Star Junkies
Ask the Angels by Patti Smith
Freedom by J. Mascis & The Fog
Puss in Boots by New York Dolls
Waitin' For Waits by Richie Cole
Innocent When You Dream by Tom Waits

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 11, 2011
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
Walk Right In by Gus Cannon
Scrap Collectin' Man by Crankshaft & The Geargrinders
Graveyard Shift by Scott H. Biram
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live by The Del Lords
Pictures of Lily by The Hickoids
Teardrops by The Sixtyniners
Gone to Seed by The Riptones
Foolin' Around by Buck Owens
I'm Gonna Take You Home and Make You Like Me by Robbie Fulks

Three  Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Gravy Shake by The Defibulators
I Like Drinking by The Gourds
The Ballad of Lightnin' Bill Jaspar by The Imperial Rooster
The Ballad of Lynann  by Two Ton Strap 
A) Enlightenment, B) Endarkenment (Hint There is No C) by Ray Wylie Hubbard 
Blaze Foley's 113th Wet Dream by Gurf Morlix
The Hurrier I Go The Behinder I Get by The Last Mile Ramblers 
Tiptoe Through The Tulips With Me by Eddie Peabody

I Used to Be a Cop by The Drive-By Truckers
Ramona by Jerry J. Nixon
You're Bound to Look Like A Monkey by Hank Penny

Chopped by The Watzloves

Le Pistolet by Mama Rosin
My Screamin' Screamin' Mimi by Ray Campi
My Pretty Quadroon by Jerry Lee Lewis 
Kiss an Angel Good Morning by Charlie Pride

When the Gates Swing Open by The Rev. Johnny L. Jones
Cold And Blind by Possessed By Paul James
Belshazzar by Johnny Cash
Dark Day by Silver Leaf Quartet 
Reunion in Heaven by Flatt & Scruggs 
Sayonara Yuichi & the Hilltone Boys
Going Where The Lonely Go by Merle Haggard


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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: New Fleshtones and Dirtbombs

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 11, 2011

On their new album, Brooklyn Sound Solution, those old masters known as The Fleshtones don’t do much but have a great time. No major statement, no great artistic insight, no over- all point. And those who love this basic, unaffected ’60s rock ’n’ soul-drenched guitar rock will have a great time listening to it. It’s scheduled for release on Tuesday.

On this album, the band, fronted by founding members Keith Streng and Peter Zaremba, is joined by Lenny Kaye, guitarist for The Patti Smith Group and compiler of the influential Nuggets collection of 1960s garage-band classics. (Kaye is less known for being the author of a book about crooners, You Call It Madness.) He fits in seamlessly.

I could spend a couple of paragraphs informing the uninitiated about this seminal New York band (which claims to be the only band to debut at CBGB — in 1976 — that never broke up and never had an inactive year). But you can find out about the group for yourselves on the Fleshtones’ bio documentary Pardon Us for Living but the Graveyard Is Full, available in its entirety online HERE.

What sets BSS apart from other Fleshtones albums is that nearly all the songs are instrumentals, covers, or both.

My favorite tunes here are a couple of cranked-up blues covers. There’s the signature tune of Bo Diddley sideman Billy Boy Arnold, “I Wish You Would” (probably best-known for its cover by The Yardbirds). The Fleshtones play it with a fuzzy bass line that can’t help but make you think of The Doors’ “Break on Through.” They could easily make a medley of the two songs.

Even better is “Rats in My Kitchen,” a song originally done by Sleepy John Estes. Estes recorded this for Sun Records in the ’50s. He did it as a slow blues. The Fleshtones transform it into a pounding, menacing song of horror. “You know I came home late last night/Somewhere ’bout half past 10/They stared at me with mean red eyes/I had to go right back out again.”

My only complaint about BSS is that there are too many instrumentals. Are Streng and Zaremba trying to conserve their vocal chords or what? Don’t get me wrong, I like all the songs. Their instrumental cover of “Day Tripper” rocks, and the Kaye composition “Lost in Xandu” sounds like a forgotten surf classic from a parallel universe.

And I’ve always loved the cool, jazzy opening song, “Comin’ Home Baby,” which was done in 1962 by Mel Tormé. Now granted, neither Zaremba nor Streng can sing like the Velvet Fog, but this song would sound even better as a vocal number.

That quibble aside, it’s great just knowing that The Fleshtones are still out there keeping the sound they call “super rock” alive.

Not recommended:

* Party Store by The Dirtbombs. It had been rumored for at least a couple of years that The Dirtbombs’ next project was going to be an album of bubble-gum covers. Head Dirtbomb Mick Collins had even talked about that possibility in interviews .

But while I was hearing, in the jukebox of my mind, Collins growling “Yummy yummy yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy” — with the group’s powerful two-bass, two drummers lineup behind him — The Dirtbombs threw a curveball.

The new album consists of covers of what several writers have called “classic Detroit techno” songs.

Well, burst that gum bubble!

For someone like me who couldn’t tell a classic Detroit techno band from a classic Cincinnati bagpipe ensemble, this is a huge “huh?”

But I’m a Dirtbombs fan, and one of the things I love about the group is its willingness to experiment with various sounds.

Mick Collins
 (with The Gories last summer)

Plus, I’m curious. I’ve always associated Detroit with Motown, Mitch Ryder, MC5, and the great neo-garage bands that arose there in the ’90s — groups like The White Stripes and Collins’ first band, The Gories.

But I have to say, this little experiment has left me disappointed. How many other punk bands could cover Lou Rawls, The Bee Gees, and Yoko Ono as this Motor City primitive garage/punk/soul outfit did on its 2006 compilation If You Don’t Already Have a Look?

Party Store starts off strong with a song called “Cosmic Cars.” This might have begun as a techno tune when done in the early ’80s by Cybotron. But here it’s pure Dirtbomb rock ’n’ roll. (They do another Cybotron song here, “Alleys of Your Mind,” which is also one of the best on the album.) But by the second tack, “Sharivari,” the disco drums kick in. And they’re there for most of the rest of the record. Come on, Mick, if you’re going in that direction, at least give us a few Village People covers.

If you can make it through the 21-minute “Bug in the Bass Bin” (the first six minutes or so consist of engine noises), you’re a better Dirtbombs fan than I am.

The Dirtbombs aren’t the first to attempt a fusion of techno and garage or punk or whatever you want to call it. Just a few months ago in this column I reviewed a weird little album called Two-Headed Demon by a one-man band from Switzerland, a guy who calls himself Urban Junior.

UJ’s “Swiss-spankin-electro-trash-garage-boogie-disco-blues-punk,” as he calls it, sounds looser, trashier, and closer to the punk spirit than the stuff on Party Store. And it probably helps that none of the tracks on Two-Headed Demon are more three minutes.

But The Dirtbombs rarely stay in one place. Their next album is bound to be different. Maybe they’ll even give us some bubble gum.

Blog Bonus! Here's a classic Fleshtones video by M. Henry Jones from the late '70s.

Scott H. Biram Tonight at Corazon

Scott H. Biram, one-man band, hillbilly screamer, Bloodshot recording artist and all around wild man, is playing tonight at Corazon.

The show starts at 9 p.m., with Ralph White (former member of The Bad Livers!) opening.

I've reviewed two of his three Bloodshot albums. You can find those reviews HERE and HERE

Better yet, here's a live radio show Birham did, courtesy of the Live Music Archive. Enjoy and hope to see you at the Corazon tonight.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 6, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org


OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Wanderer by Dion & The Belmonts
Necrophiliac in Love by The Blood-Drained Cows
I Wish You Would by The Fleshtones
Second Cousin by The Flamin' Groovies
Take A Chance On Me by The Mighty Hannibal 
Time Bomb High School by The Reigning Sound 
Traitor by The Jackets 
Omaha by Moby Grape 
Goat Throat by The Scrams 
Bless You by The Devil Dogs
Clown's Tears by Sherman Rubin & The Undie Dogs

Return of the Mantis by The Hydes
Rock 'n' Roll by The Velvet Underground
Alverez  by Davila 666
Blinding Sun by Mudhoney
Talk the Talk by Titty Bingo 
Little Latin Lupe Lu by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
All in the Game by Tommy Edwards 

Baby Dragon by Old Time Relijun
Rasa Senthuh  by Arrington de Dionyso
Le Redresseur De Torts by King Automatic  
White Jam by Captain Beefheart
Oh No/Orange County Lumber Truck by Frank Zappa 
Secret Code by The Dirtbombs 
Flyin' High by Country Joe & The Fish
Someone Else's Brain by Nobunny  
Domino by The Cramps 
Best Napkin I Ever Had by The Black Lips 

Down for Death by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
The Curse of Milhaven by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 
Ashes by The Pussywarmers 
Why Did You Get Mad at Me? by Lightnin' Hopkins
America The Beautiful by Ray Charles

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eMusic March

* First Blood by Nobunny. I downloaded this in anticipation of Nobunny's show in Santa Fe last month. And then, old fart that I am, I was too pooped after a busy day of covering the state Legislature, so I missed the damned show. At least I still have the album.

But enough of my pathetic excuses. ...

Nobunny is a crazy dude, real name Justin Champlin, who prances around the stage in a ratty-looking fuzzy rabbit mask. He  looks like a wino who mugged the Easter Bunny.

His music is peppy pop punk, a slightly sweetened Ramones with some echoes of T-Rex, especially on the song "Breath." His sound also reminds me a little of that of Hunx & His Punx (who I saw open for Kid Congo Powers in New York last summer.)

* Party Store by The Dirtbombs. Here's a curveball -- The Dirtbombs, that Motor City primitive garage/punk/ soul outfit led by the mighty Mick Collins do an entire album of what several writers have called "classic Detroit techno" songs.

For someone like me who couldn't tell a classic Detroit techno band from a classic Cincinnati bagpipe ensemble, this is a big "huh"? But I'm a Dirtbombs fan and one of the things I like about the group is their willingness to experiment in various sounds.

But I have to say, this little experiment has left me disappointed.

The album starts off strong with a song called "Cosmic Cars." This might have started out as a techno tune when done in the early 80s by Cybotron. But here it's pure Dirtbomb rock 'n' roll. (The DBombs do another Cybotron song here, "Alleys of Your Mind," which also is one of the best on Party Shop.)

But by the second tack, "Sharaveri" the disco drums kick in. And they're there for most of the rest of the record. Come on, Mick, if you're going in that direction, at least give us a few Village People covers!

* The 17 tracks on  Battle of the Jug Bands that I didn't get last time. This probably is a great example of a show that would have been a lot more fun to be at than to hear later.

The Battle of the Jug Bands is an annual event that takes place in Minneapolis every weekend after the Superbowl. This album is from the 2000 show. I'm not sure whether they've released any since then.

A main problem is that the recording quality isn't all that great. And while I'm no jug purist, too many of the groups here seem don't even come close to a real jugband. Much of this album is goofy pseudo old-timey sounds, like third rate Asylum Street Spankers.

Don't get me wrong, there's some cool little tunes here. "Hot Corn" by Ammon Hennessy is one of those. "Deep Fried Gators" by Sloppy Joe is a delight, as is their Jimi Hendrix parody "Purple Hay." My favorite line there is " 'scuse me while I kiss this cow."

But one of the problems here is that there's too many "wacky" covers or parodies of rock or pop tunes. The "jug" covers of "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Up on Cripple Creek" are pretty useless.  (I previously downloaded previously "Kung Fu Fighting" by Girls on Top, which is kind of cool  and "Sweet Virginia" by Hoakim Yoakim & The Eggwhites, which falls flat.)

* A bunch of garage punk singles from Scion A/V. : Black Lips, Nobunny, not to mention Kid Congo Powers and Hunx & His Punx. I'd already picked up a few tunes by The Pierced Arrows, The Dirtbombs, Davilla 666, etc.  from the Scion website when they were offered for free there. (There's still lots of free stuff here, so check it out.)

I'm not really sure why Scion has decided to be the corporate benefactor of garage music these days. They've produced festivals and shows around the country (including the Kid Congo/Hunx show I mentioned above) and produced this cool little documentary I blogged about a few months ago.

So is Scion trying to co-opt the "garage scene"? Oh, who cares? I tend to think it's some young person in the marketing department with good taste who's somehow convince his or her bosses that this is a good promotion tool. I say enjoy it while the ride lasts. The company has made some great bands available to a lot of people who might not have heard it otherwise.

* Four songs from Hannibalism! by The Mighty Hannibal. This has been on my "Saved" list forever. It's about time I download this collection of sweet soul sounds from the Mighty one. More on this next month.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 4, 2011
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
Git it, Beau Jocque! by Beau Jocque & The Zydeco Hi-Rollers
Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand by Waylon Jennings
Stop, Look and Listen by Patsy Cline
Hookie Junk by The Gourds 
Chauffeur by Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Low Down Dog by Sleepy LaBeef 
Mrs. Cooper's Tea Party by Margaret Lewis 
Hornin' Zeese by Al Duvall 

Whiskey by Scott H. Biram
Baboon Boogie by Jimmy Murphy  
Something Else by Eddie Cochran
Lucky Old Sun by Jerry Lee Lewis 
Oh Babe by Big Al Downing 
The Weakest Man by Drive-By Truckers
Your Heart Oughta Be Broken by Yuichi & the Hilltone Boys  
Five Minutes to Live by Johnny Cash 
Pie-Ella by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers 
Sitting on Top of The World by The Great Recession Orchestra

Struttin' That Thing by Cripple Clarence Lofton
Sugar Babe by Dock Boggs 
Her Name Was Hula Lou by The Carolina Tar Heels
Daniel in the Lion's Den by Bessie Jones & Georgia Sea Island Singers
Are You Washed in the Blood by Ernest Stoneman & His Dixie Mountaneers
My Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bill Cox
I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die by Miles & Bob Pratcher  
Dying Crap Shooter Blues by Blind Willie McTell 
Bye Bye Policeman by Jim Jackson
To the Work by Alfred G. Karnes 

Fucking Sailors in China Town by Peter Stampfel & The Worm All Stars
James Alley by David Johansen & The Harry Smiths
The Seeds Of My Destruction by Cornell Hurd  
Lookin' for Someone to Kill by Kell Robertson 
Dirty On Yo, Mama by James Luther Dickinson 
My Rosemarie by Stan Ridgway
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Good Enough For Me

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 4, 2011


Remember the good old days when the phrase “alternative rock” conjured up crazy visions of Gibby Haynes blasting a shotgun from the stage of a Butthole Surfers show as film clips of gruesome medical procedures played in the background — instead of now, when the term all too often means some wimp whining because his puppy has the sniffles?

There’s still some healthy weirdness out there in the outer fringes of rock’ n’ roll. One such practitioner is a guy called Arrington De Dionyso, whose old band Old Time Relijun sailed stormy musical oceans where few other sailors were brave enough to venture.

Arrington’s still around — he’s supposed to be releasing a new album this month. As for Old Time Relijun, the group’s first album, long out of print, was rereleased last year by the Northern Spy label with all sorts of bonus tracks.

Hearing Songbook, Vol. 1 for the first time might seem like stumbling onto some bizarre group of hopped-up tribesmen from deep within a jungle in a country whose name you can’t even pronounce. Actually, the group was from Olympia, Washington. It had a stand-up bassist and a drummer who sometimes played accordion — and De Dionyso, who sang and played guitar, sax, clarinet, and jew’s-harp.

A few months ago, making a stray reference to this band in this column, I said De Dionyso sounded like “Roy Orbison on angel dust.” I’ll stand by that quip. You’ll also hear echoes of the good Captain Beefheart as well as of avant-garde jazz avatars like Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. And there’s a definite no-wave influence in Relijun. De Dionyso’s sax takes a (James) Chance. And being that the band was from Washington state, there’s probably a little Twin Peaks mushroom madness in the mix as well.

And don’t forget weirdo-rock pilgrims Pere Ubu. There’s a song here called “Ubu’s Theme” — which features accordion and what sounds like a bass clarinet. Less than a minute long, it seems like a snatch from the soundtrack of a French murder mystery. But even more Ubu-like is the following song, “Baby Dragon,” on which De Dionyso sings in a David Thomas-like warble.

Other times, De Dionyso sounds as if he’s attempting Tuvan throat singing, sounding like a sinister version of Popeye. And sometimes he employs a strange and hilarious falsetto, for example, on the song “Qiyamat,” on which he sounds like a nightmarish cartoon character.

Most tracks here are only two or three minutes, which suit OTR best. But there’s a handful of six-minute (or thereabouts) excursions on which the group gets to stretch out. “Qiyamat” is one of these. And so is “Fig,” though it’s not as interesting as most of the group’s material (hint: There’s a drum solo). By far the best long song here is “Manticore/Lion Tamer.” It’s actually a medley of two songs, early versions of both being among the bonus tracks. The reason the medley works so well is that, except for a few moments in the middle, in which a twangy guitar riff is repeated to the point of frustration, it rocks from start to finish.

I realize that this music is too nuts for most. But Old Time Relijun was good enough for me.

Arrington unleashed: Although Old Time Relijun is no longer an ongoing concern, De Dionyso is still twisting heads off. On his 2009 album, Malaikat dan Singa, he sings in the Indonesian language (the album’s name — which is now the name of De Dionyso’s backing band — means “Angels and Lions”). As strange as the concept seems, this is no intellectual exercise. This music rocks! (After all, he says he recorded the album n Indonesian “to impress a girl.”)

You can listen to (and download) several live versions of Malaikat at WFMU’s Free Music Archives. The first song, “Kedalaman Air,” might remind you of a Bizarro World version of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” with a downright vicious, crunching guitar.

Then there’s “Mani Malaikat,” a couple of minutes shorter than the album version, but just as ominous.

The set ends with a 15-minute radio interview of De Dionyso. (He talks like a regular American guy, not the screaming voodoo shaman of his performances.)

On this site you also can find other radio performances by De Dionyso, including some (mostly) instrumental meditations in which he’s backed by upright-bass player Gene Janas.

In fact, De Dionyso is all over the internet. There are lots of YouTube videos of him, and at the K Records website, there’s a streaming version of him performing “Hot Head” as a tribute to the late Beefheart. Slide over to www.krecs.com/arrington, and you’ll find an 11-minute live video of De Dionyso and the Malaikat dan Singa band. But more important, streaming at the site are four songs from the upcoming Malaikat album, Suara Naga.

“Kerasukan” has De Dionyso angrily chanting over a farting electronic pulse. (Maybe he’s saying, “Turn that thing off!”) Drums and sax later add to the chaos.

“Baru Limunan” is the singer at his most urgent. He pleads, threatens, and warbles as the steady, pounding bass and drums suggest some race against time.

“Aku Di Penjara” reminds me of Polish rocker Kazik Staszewski when he does his version of hip-hop. “Bianglala” features a repeated bass line that sounds like a dub-reggae take of “Anarchy in the U.K.”

I don’t understand a word De Dionyso is singing, but it’s still a Relijous experience.

Here's one of the Malaikat videos.