Friday, November 08, 2013

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, Nov. 8, 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Pinetree Boogey by Legendary Shack Shakers
Lovers' Spat by Lydia Loveless
You Was For Real by Doug Sahm
Trailer Mama by The Bottle Rockets
No Help Wanted by Dale Watson
One Day After Pay Day by Buck Griffin
There Stands the Glass by Van Morrison
Mama Hated Diesels by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
Animal Hoedown by Harry Hayward

JFK and That Terrible Day by Bill Kushner
Lee Harvey by T. Tex Edwards
What a Day for a Daydream by Candye Kane
Jesus in the Waiting Room by The Goddamn Gallows
Hard to Be Humble by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Cocaine Cowboy by Terry Allen
Greasy Love by Pearls Mahone
Honky Tonk Man by Johnny Horton
Can't Go to Heaven by The Dirt Daubers
St. James Infirmary by Dave Van Ronk

I Ain't Got Nobody by Merle Haggard
Bob Wills Medley by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugene Chadbourne 
O'Reilly at the Bar by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Rockabilly Blues by Johnny Cash
Catch 'em Young, Treat 'em Rough and Tell 'em Nothin' by Hank Penny
Men Like Me Can Fly by James Hand
Wreck on the Highway by The Waco Brothers
I Remember Her Still by Devil in the Woodpile

The Way I Feel by ThaMuseMeant
Boss of the blues by Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women
When You Get to the Bottom by Robbie Fulks
Come Fly Away by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Naked Light of Day by Butch Hancock
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: The Night Beats' Psychedelia For the Now Generation

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Nov. 8, 2013

Somewhere, in the cosmic region that lies along the border of psychedelic music and garage rock — a border where crossings are frequent and uncontrollable — lives a trio known as The Night Beats, who just released their second studio album, Sonic Bloom.

Actually they’re from Seattle, but two of the three members — singer and guitarist Danny Lee Blackwell and drummer James Traeger — are originally from Texas.

I’d like to think they were raised on a steady musical diet of The 13th Floor Elevators, those psychedelic pioneers originally from Texas. That influence is definitely there. Psychedelia is the band’s bread and butter.

This is a good time in rock ’n’ roll for musical journeys to the center of the mind. The Night Beats are part of a movement that includes bands like The Black Angels, a Texas crew considered the premier lysergic rangers of this era (Blackwell is part of a trippy side band, The UFO Club, with Christian Bland of The Black Angels), and Holy Wave, a band from El Paso.

The epicenter of this musical phenomenon is the capital of Texas, home of the Austin Psych Fest, which for the past six years has showcased such groups, old and new. (The festival started a record label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society, which released Sonic Bloom.) The sound of these newer psychedelic cowboys is different from that of the jam-band movement that sprang up in the 1990s. For one thing, there’s more debt owed to Roky Erickson than Jerry Garcia. And there’s more of a footing in punk rock.

But listening to this album, I’m realizing The Night Beats’ sound has several discernible DNA strands in addition to psychedelia. I’m hearing bits of T. Rex (there’s some Marc Bolan in Blackwell’s vocals) as well as The Velvet Underground. And yes, there are echoes of 1960s soul music. After all, the band is named after a classic Sam Cooke album (though, truthfully, The Night Beats don’t sound much like Cooke).

The first song on the album, “Love Ain’t Strange,” starts out with a discordant guitar attack reminiscent of the avant-garde ’90s group Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. But it only lasts a few seconds. Tarek Wegner’s bass starts throbbing, and the band settles into a more laid-back groove that’s just short of funky.

The title song is heavy on Electric Prunes-style reverb, while the melody of “Playing Dead” may remind you of a snazzier version of The 13th Floor Elevators’ “Earthquake.” The “Louie Louie” chords of “Real Change” expose the group’s garage roots, as does the nasty “Tobacco Road” guitar on “As You Want.” Mean- while, “Satisfy Your Mind,” with its slide guitar and tinkling piano, is a nod to boozy blues rock.

For the most part, The Night Beats seem intent on avoiding overt hippie-dippy, love-bead nostalgia. But there’s one big exception on Sonic Bloom. You can almost imagine the band turning on the black lights and lava lamps for “Catch a Ride to Sonic Bloom,” a five-minute saga that starts off slow and droning (with a sitar) but speeds up a little and starts getting a little more interesting about two minutes into the song. Toward the end it slows down again into feedback rumble, with what sounds like an autoharp, a music box, a ticking clock, and the return of the sitar.

The very next song, “The Seven Poison Wonders,” is a much better use of five minutes. Hey, fellow old-timers, listen to the funky chords of this tune and try not to think of “Plastic Fantastic Lover” by Jefferson Airplane or The Beatles’ “Taxman.” I’m not sure whether Blackwell is doing all the guitars here — it sounds like he’s having a duel with himself.

“At the Gates,” my candidate for best song on the album, is a just-under-three-minute workout, where The Night Beats let their R & B influence shine. Fortified with a piano and honking sax, this track borrows heavily from an ancient, obscure, percussion-heavy rock ’n’ roll instrumental called “Drums a-Go-Go” by The Hollywood Persuaders. (It’s on Volume 1 of the sleaze-o-riffic Las Vegas Grind series released by Crypt Records years ago, and also on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack album.)

Another one of the best songs is “Rat King,” the shortest track on the album — two minutes, 13 seconds packed full of raunchy, squalling guitar.

The album ends with a seven-minute epic, “The New World.” The Night Beats stretch out here and, once again, Blackwell’s guitar impresses without being overly flashy. But it goes on too long for no apparent reason. All in all, the shorter songs on Sonic Bloom pack way more punch.

I just hope The Night Beats concentrate on moving listeners’ feet and shaking their rumps as well as expanding our minds. Check out http://tinyurl.com/nightbeatssonicbloom. If you want to listen to or download some live-on-the-radio Night Beats, check out the Free Music Archive, where the song listed as “Poison in Your Veins” is actually “The Seven Poison Wonders.”

Also recommended:

* Moon Sick by Thee Oh Sees. Back in May, I declared Thee Oh Sees’ Floating Coffin as my likely choice for album of the year. Months have passed, and I still feel that way. And yippee! They’re playing in Albuquerque Sunday.

This four-song EP consists of outtakes from the sessions for Floating Coffin. “Born in a Graveyard” starts off with a beeping computer right out of Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio.” It sounds as if there might be some sort of anthem buried inside, though I can’t make out the lyrics. “Sewer Fire” is one of the band’s harder-edged tunes.

But most impressive is “Humans Be Swayed,” which starts off with slow droning, then bursts into a frantic, choppy rocker.

These three songs would have fit in fine on Floating Coffin. Then there’s the last song, “Candy Clocks.” It isn’t bad. It’s basically an airy-fairy folk-rock tune — maybe a folk-rock parody — with what sounds like a harpsichord and a “la-la-la” refrain.

While I’m not crazy about “Candy Clocks,” I continue to be amazed and infatuated by Thee Oh Sees.

Thee Oh Sees' Launch Pad show is at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, at The Launchpad (618 Central Ave. S.W., 505-764-8887; $12 for the 21-and-over show).

And hey kids, there's lots of Oh Sees recordings, both live and studio, are available at The Free Music Archive.

Video Time!





And some Oh Sees:

Monday, November 04, 2013

Geek Culture Bards Coming to Jean Cocteau Saturday

The comical music duo called Paul & Storm, whose best-known song, "Write Like the Wind" is about Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin will be playing on Martin's home turf, the Jean Cocteau Cinema, this Saturday night.

Paul Sabourin and Greg “Storm” DiCostanzo have been playing music together for about 20 years. Much of it lampoons or celebrates the world of Geekdom.

"A lot of our music is kinda nerdy, much like we are kinda nerdy, which led us to found a variety show called w00tstock along with Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage," their website says. (It was at a w00tstock show in San Diego where Paul & Storm met George R.R. Martin. The results weren't pretty.)

The concert is Saturday, November 9, at 7 pm and tickets are $15, available in advance at the Jean Cocteau website or at the theater. Tickets also will be sold at the door.

Here is Storm & Paul's ode to the owner of the Jean Cocteau.

Thee Oh Sees Play Albuquerque Sunday



CORRECTED 
One of my very favorite 21st Century bands, Thee Oh Sees are playing at The Launch Pad in Albuquerque Sunday night. (Not Low Spirits, which the post originally said.)

Opening for the band are The Blind Shakes and OBN IIIs (neither of whom I know anything about.) Tickets are $12

Here's my review of their most recent album Floating Coffin and below are a couple of videos

This one is from last year's Pitchfork Festival.



And this one was taken at Low Spirits in March 2012, which was right before or right after I saw them in Austin.




Sunday, November 03, 2013

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


Terrell's Sound World Facebook BannerSunday, Nov. 3, 2013 
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(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Keep it Simple Stupid by King Khan
Slipping Away by Mudhoney
The Fella With a Happy Heart by Dot Wiggin Band
Spanish Rose by Cheater Slicks
Arrested Adolescent by Figures of Light
Rat King by The Night Beats
Sonic Reducer by The Dead Boys
Your Love is Too Strong by The Gaunga Dyns
If I Had a Hammer by Wolfmoon

Candy Sue by Daddy Long Legs
I Want You to Have My Baby by T. Valentine & Daddy Long Legs
I Don't Want One by Steel Wool
Mi Auto Puedes Manejar by Los Tijuana Five
Step Aside by Sleater-Kinney
Sewer Fire by Thee Oh Sees 
Four O'Clocker by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Average Guy by Lou Reed
White Heat by Chuck Sledge
Sand Surfin' by The Four Dimensions

BEE GEES tribute
You Don't Know What It's Like by La La Brooks
Massachusetts by Die Zorros
I Started a Joke by The Dirtbombs
I've Got to Get a Message to You by Swamp Dogg 
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Al Green
Stayin' Alive by Robyn Hitchcock

Don't Pretend You Didn't Know by Dinosaur Jr
Guess I'm Falling in Love by The A-Bones
Row Row Row by Willie Gable
Magic Touch by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Please Don't Send Him Back to Me by Sandra Phillips
Tiger Phone Card by Dengue Fever 
I'm Sad About It by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Need Your Love So Bad by Little Willie John
A Shell of a Woman by Doris Allen
The Departed by Iggy & The Stooges
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, November 01, 2013

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, Nov. 1, 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Satellite of Love by DM Bob & The Deficits
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on the Skids
Stay Here and Drink by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugene Chadbourne 
Big Time Annie's Square by Merle Haggard
Thirty Dollar Room by Dave Alvin
Rock Island Line by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Polka de Nalgas by The Imperial Rooster
Outlaw by Split Lip Rayfield
Gas Girl by The Bottle Rockets
Come Back When You're Younger by The Old Dogs

Caves of Burgundy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Detroit City by John Doe & The Sadies
After the Fire is Gone by Willie Nelson with Tina Rose
I'll Trade You Money for Wine by Robbie Fulks
Nashville Radio by Jon Langford
Pick Me Up on Your Way Down by Augie Meyers
Even the Devil Cannot Kill by Angry Johnny

The Fields Have Turned Brown by David Bromberg
Truckin' Queen (I Got My Nightgown On) by Dale Watson
Busy Body Boogie by The Carlisles
Standin' on the Outside by Hank Thompson
Kiss Me Like Crazy by Rose Maddox
She's All I Got by George Jones
Hillbilly Jive with a Boogie Beat by Reece Shipley & His Rainbow Valley Boys
Kissing You Goodbye by Waylon Jennings
Best to Be Alone by Wayne Hancock
A Tragedy in Dallas by James Dotson
Toot Toot Tootsie by The Hoosier Hotshots

House of Earth by Lucinda Williams
Woodpecker by The Handsome Family
Candy in the Window by Mary Cutrofello
The Long Way Home by Hot Club of Cowtown
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: A BLAST FROM LA LA LAND

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Nov. 1 , 2013

You might not be familiar with the name La La Brooks, but you’ve probably heard her sing. As a member of the Phil Spector-produced girl group The Crystals, a teen-age Brooks sang lead on the 1963 hits “Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.”

Like many performers of that era, Brooks faded into obscurity. She had some other music gigs. She did backup vocals for The Neville Brothers, Isaac Hayes, and Bobby Womack, and she collaborated with her then-husband, jazz drummer Idris Muhammad.

But she’s stayed well below the radar for decades. She did a solo album in the mid-’90s, but it was only released in Europe, where she and her family were living at the time.

Now Brooks is back with a tasty album on Norton Records called All or Nothing, featuring a feisty little band led by Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs and The Gories and Matt Verta-Ray of Madder Rose and Heavy Trash. Collins produced the album, while Verta-Ray served as recording engineer.

The first single Norton is releasing from the album is “What’s Mine Is Yours,” written by the crazy garage/doo-wop duo King Khan & BBQ (Arish Khan and Mark Sultan). It has a catchy melody and lyrics like “Pretty baby, give me a chance/You can’t go out with that hole in your pants/I just want to mend your heart for you.” This is the type of song The Crystals might have recorded back in their day.

The tracklist is peppered with tunes by Collins and Verta-Ray, including a version of “Crazy for You,” which was on The Dirtbombs’ recent bubblegum album, Ooey Gooey, Chewy Ka-blooey. I like La La’s version better. The title song is a Small Faces tunes, while the most recognizable song is “To Love Somebody,” which just might be the best Bee Gees cover since The Dirtbombs did “I Started a Joke.”

Another highlight is “I Broke That Promise,” written by Willy DeVille. It has a sad, pretty melody with folk-rock guitars and a spoken-word passage in Spanish. Even prettier is “You Gave Me Love,” written by Brooks. It’s a slow, solemn tune with an old-fashioned roller-rink organ.

My current album favorite is “Mind Made Up,” which Brooks co-wrote with Collins and Verta-Ray. Here, she and the band get bluesy and funky. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one on some future Mavis Staples record.

All or Nothing reminds me of another Norton Records project a few years ago starring a talented but nearly forgotten singer of a venerated ’60s girl group. I’m talking about Dangerous Game by Mary Weiss of The Shangri-Las.

Like Brooks on All or Nothing, Weiss was backed by younger indie rockers; she was assisted by The Reigning Sound, whose leader Greg Cartwright served as producer.

Call it the Norton treatment, call it magic. What I love about both these albums is that the producers and backing musicians clearly appreciate and respect the singers — their history and their strengths. The music might sound a little retro, but there is no hint of self-consciousness or cutesy nostalgia.

And, unlike, say, Jack White’s contribution to Wanda Jackson’s The Party Ain’t Over, which he produced a couple of years ago, there is no attempt to do a modern makeover. Both All or Nothing and Dangerous Games are full of good, honest music with an abundance of sweet soul.

Also recommended:


* Wolfmoon (self-titled) and Too Many People in One Bed by Sandra Phillips. These artifacts-from-the-Swamp-Dogg archives (newly released by Alive/Natural Sound) are excellent, if not essential, snapshots of Southern soul music in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Both are produced by Jerry Williams Jr., aka Swamp Dogg, who wrote or co-wrote most of the songs.

And the albums include liner notes from Mr. Dogg that are just as entertaining as the music on the CDs — maybe even more so.

In the liner notes for the Wolfmoon album, recorded in 1969, Swamp Dogg wrote, “What can I say about Wolfmoon that hasn’t already been said about Idi Amin? He’s a treacherous, lying, two-faced song thief with possible cannibal tendencies. With all that said, he was and still may be one of the greatest singers and entertainers that I’ve ever known in my career.”

He is much kinder to Phillips.

In the notes for her 1979 album, Swamp Dogg wrote that he signed Phillips not only because he appreciated her voice and her work ethic, but also because Doris Duke — not the tobacco heiress but a female singer he’d previously produced — “had gone crazy, missing gigs, avoiding my phone calls, and getting the Buick Estate Wagon that I’d bought for her shot up by some nigger that she had appointed as her manager. … I booked Sandra throughout the Midwest, pretending she was Doris. … I encouraged Sandra to talk to DJs on the phone periodically as a promo ploy, and one DJ in Kansas ended up wanting to marry her.”

Getting back to Wolfmoon, whose real name is Tyrone Thomas, Swamp Dogg might be exaggerating slightly by saying he is a great singer. He’s got a slightly gruff voice without a lot of range, though he gets the job done. Many of his album’s tracks have gospel or spiritual themes and/or social commentary. One of the best is “If He Walked Today,” written by Swamp Dogg. It’s about Jesus. “If he walked today on the streets of Harlem, what would he say?”

There are a handful of versions of well-known songs like “Proud Mary” and “If I Had a Hammer.” The best of these is the eight-minute-plus rendition of “People Get Ready,” which opens and closes with a funky/psychedelic instrumental and a spoken-word interlude featuring Swamp Dogg in the middle.

Swamp Dogg in New Orleans last month
Phillips is an expressive singer who shines on songs such as “To the Other Woman (I’m the Other Woman),” which was previously recorded by Duke.

Many of the songs here are about unhealthy relationships and romantic rivalries and have an underlying touch of humor. These include numbers like the upbeat “Please Don’t Send Him Back to Me,” “If You Get Him (He Was Never Mine),” and “Now That I’m Gone (When Are You Leaving?).” She also does a punchy version of The Supremes’ hit “Someday We’ll Be Together,” which is tougher and more down-home than the original.

Because of business reasons, Wolfmoon didn’t get released until 1973 (by a tiny label named Fungus). The Phillips album didn’t get released until now, because the record company it was intended for went bankrupt.

Would Phillips and Wolfmoon have become big soul stars had the gods of the Music Biz been more kind? Maybe not. Phillips was no Aretha, and Wolfmoon was no Al Green. But they were talented, and every one of the songs on these albums are enjoyable, so give them a listen. Check out www.alive-totalenergy.com and take a gander at other Swamp Dogg-produced albums by the likes of Irma Thomas and Doris Duke while you’re there.

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...