TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Arrington de Dionyso Comes to NM

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
March 10, 2017

Perhaps the most iconic images of folksinger Woody Guthrie are from the early 1940s, showing the celebrated Dust Bowl balladeer with a hand-painted message on his guitar: “This machine kills fascists.”

Avant-garde musician, visual artist, and all-around visionary Arrington de Dionyso doesn’t sound anything like Guthrie. But he’s channeling the spirit of the Okie bard for the current tour he’s dubbed “This Saxophone Kills Fascists.” 

And he’s bringing his show to New Mexico, including a Monday, March 13, performance at Fresh Santa Fe.

What kind of music does this Olympia, Washington, musician play? 

In a recent phone interview, de Dionyso told me he’ll be doing “protest music.” 

But it’s not going to sound like the music of Joan Baez or Pete Seeger or even Rage Against the Machine. 

Singing words that tell stories of injustice and strife in a linear, logical manner, de Dionyso said, is inadequate in a new era in which “the whole idea of objective truth can be manipulated.” Instead, he said the best way to counter this is “when you get into raw emotion connected to a spiritual place.”

He said his music on this tour is inspired by the “free jazz” movement — think Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman — of the late 1960s. It was a wild style of expressive discordant jazz that rose with the Black Liberation movement, a music that de Dionyso said became more focused on “politics and deep spiritual experiences. I’m finding that this is the most appropriate form of protest music,” he said. It’s his way to “confront the current fascist regime.”

On a personal level, part of what sparked “This Saxophone Kills Fascists” was de Dionyso’s own brush with followers of what is euphemistically known these days as the “alt-right,” which sounds so much more hip than an unpleasant label like “white nationalists.” 

Late last year he was “implicated” in the so-called Pizzagate scandal because one of his murals had been on display at Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C. — which, according to the conspiracy clowns, is the epicenter of a child sex ring involving some of the most powerful people in the nation’s capital. 

Even though that mural has long been painted over, the frothing conspiracy faithful claimed that de Dionyso’s colorful primitive art — inspired by dreams and mythology, and bursting with sexual energy — is full of symbols of pedophilia and Satanism. Some accused him of making “degenerate art” — a term the artist noted was used by the Nazi Party in Germany in its fight against modern art in the 1930s.

Arrington with the mural not loved by Pepe the Frog

“Pizzagate was a huge trigger for me,” he said. Some of the Pizzagate crusaders not only smeared him as a devil-worshipping pervert, but they also posted information about his family and pictures of his friends and in general did their best to make his life miserable.

At the height of that craziness late last year, de Dionyso posted on Facebook: “I know none of this is about me personally in even the slightest. Right now there are lines being drawn. There is a war being waged against EVERY form of free expression and I think you all know exactly what side of that line I will be standing on. Will you stand with me?”

Born in 1975 to parents who were both Methodist military chaplains, de Dionyso said his was a “100 percent non-musical” family. But it wasn’t an art-free family. His mother, he said, loved to paint and had a “folk-art style” that inspired him. Starting at the age of three or four, he began drawing pictures of dinosaurs, dragons, and wild animals his mom painted.

For de Dionyso, music came later. Beginning in junior high, when his parents moved to Spokane, he became interested in non-Western music from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. “I wanted to hear everything,” he said, which included traditional Japanese sounds, Indonesian gamelan music, and the Master Musicians of Joujouka from Morocco (who were “discovered” decades earlier by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones).

Of course, most kids his age didn’t share this musical passion. But he found a musical community in the hardcore punk rock scene. Mosh pits seemed like an ecstatic tribal ritual to him.

After moving to Olympia in the early ’90s to attend Evergreen State College, he started a band called Old Time Relijun, which began releasing its music — frequently compared with Captain Beefheart, but less bluesy — on homemade cassette tapes. This group later released nine albums on the Olympia-based-label K Records, which was a leading light back when “alternative” rock truly was alternative. Old Time Relijun lasted well into the 21st century. 

But de Dionyso took a different turn in 2009, releasing an album called Malaikat dan Singa (later the name of his backing band), on which he sang, in the Indonesian language, songs inspired by William Blake and the Zohar.

On his current tour he’ll be playing sax, bass clarinet, and an instrument of his own creation, the bromiophone, a contrabass clarinet made from PVC pipes. At most of his gigs he’ll be collaborating with local musicians. “I’ll have a drummer and maybe another saxophone player in Santa Fe,” he said.

“We have to change ourselves as artists and musicians. We have no choice. It’s a fascist takeover. But there are more of us than there are of them. We need to stop all the infighting as much as possible. All our energy needs to be put to stopping this regime,” he said.

Arrington de Dionyso in New Mexico: He's playing 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 11, in Albuquerque at CFA Downtown Studio (113 4th St., NW; $5 suggested donation); 4 p.m. Sunday, March 12, at Ennui Gallery in Taos (134 Bent St.; $5-$10 suggested donation), and 7 p.m. Monday, March 13, at Fresh Santa Fe (2855-A Cooks Road; $10). 

You can find tons of de Dionyso’s music at www.arrington.bandcamp.com. 
Also, check his visual art at www.arringtondedionyso.bigcartel.com. 

Enjoy some videos.

Here's Arrington rehearsing for the tour



Here is Malaikat dan Singa live on the radio in 2011



Gimme dat Old Time Relijun



And finally, here is a poem Arrington wrote for the tour

THIS SAXOPHONE KILLS FASCISTS
THIS SAXOPHONE GROWLS LIKE A PANTHER
THIS SAXOPHONE SCREAMS LIKE AN EAGLE
THIS SAXOPHONE CREATES IN THE FACE OF DESTRUCTION
THIS SAXOPHONE WAILS FOR THE FREEDOM OF ALL PEOPLE
THIS SAXOPHONE FLIPS THE MIDDLE FINGER
THIS SAXOPHONE IS POWERED BY THE SUN AND THE MOON
THIS SAXOPHONE REARRANGES ATOMS
THIS SAXOPHONE BRINGS DOWN THE WALLS OF JERICHO
THIS SAXOPHONE MARCHES ON WASHINGTON
THIS SAXOPHONE SOMETIMES WHISPERS
THIS SAXOPHONE SINGS WITH SEVEN VOICES
THIS SAXOPHONE SPITS FIRE IN SEVEN LANGUAGES
THIS SAXOPHONE NEUTRALIZES POISON
THIS SAXOPHONE TURNS SWORDS INTO OTHER SAXOPHONES
THIS SAXOPHONE IS A LION NOT A LAMB
THIS SAXOPHONE TURNS WATER INTO WINE
THIS SAXOPHONE TURNS OIL BACK INTO DINOSAURS
THIS SAXOPHONE IS TUNED IN TO ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN FREQUENCIES
THIS SAXOPHONE IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL REPUDIATION OF ALL HIS LIES
THIS SAXOPHONE IS A WAR CRY FOR INDESTRUCTIBLE LIFE
THIS SAXOPHONE SEPARATES A SEA OF REEDS
THIS SAXOPHONE IS THE DARLING OF THE UNDERGROUND
THIS SAXOPHONE IS THE ESOPHAGUS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
THIS SAXOPHONE BLOWS SWEET DEFIANCE
THIS SAXOPHONE IS POSSESSED BY THUNDER
THIS SAXOPHONE FLIES LIKE A FALCON AND STINGS LIKE A SCORPION
THIS SAXOPHONE IS THE SOUND BETWEEN SOUNDS
THIS SAXOPHONE FLIPS THE SWITCH
THIS SAXOPHONE IS TOTALLY LIT
THIS SAXOPHONE CURSES AND SPITS
THIS SAXOPHONE IS THE TINCTURE OF RESISTANCE
THIS SAXOPHONE IS AN EARTHQUAKE AND A MONSOON
THIS SAXOPHONE FLOWERS IN THE CRACKED PAVEMENT OF CORRUPTION
THIS SAXOPHONE'S OTHER SAXOPHONE IS A BROOMSTICK
THIS SAXOPHONE IS AN ENERGY, NOT AN INSTRUMENT

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Week My Life Was Saved by Rock 'n' Roll

Bruce Channel, third from right, with some band he met in England in 1962

Fifty five years ago this month, when I was in third grade, I got the measles. That's not a painful memory, I fact the main things I remember about it is the fact that I got to miss a week of school and that I became obsessed with my little transistor radio, which I believe I'd received as a Christmas gift a couple of months before.

No, it wasn't the radio itself, which was about the size of an iPhone, but thicker. It was the strange wild sounds that came out of it at night.

I wanted to know more about these singers who promised a mysterious, magical -- and sometimes a little dangerous world. I wanted to hear what other songs they'd sung and the musicians who'd inspired them, to find out where they came from. I might have been sick in bed with the lights out, but every night there was a party in my head coming in through that little ear plug attached to my radio

That was the week I became obsessed by rock 'n' roll.

And, as anyone familiar with this blog knows, that's an obsession that has lasted a lifetime. Well after the measles left me, the rock 'n' roll fever persisted.

A decade later when I first heard The Velvet Underground's "Rock n' Roll," about a little girl named Jenny who discovered a New York station and her life was saved by rock 'n' roll, I completely identified with her -- though I would have been eight years old and mine was an Oklahoma City station, WKY.

I don't know the exact date of my measles bout, but I  remember the song that was number one on WKY at the time. It was "Hey Baby" by Bruce Channel, who was backed up by a harmonica player named Delbert McClinton. I can't find any WKY Top 50 (yes, 50, not 40!) lists, but according to Billboard, that song was number one nationally for three weeks beginning March 10, 1962.

Here's that song, followed by a handful of others that shaped the soul of a young, measles-stricken rocker in March of 1962.



Here's another tune that was popular in March, 1962, "Let Me In" by The Sensations. I could identify with what the singer, Yvonne Baker, was saying. I could hear the music, I could hear the party. And I demanded to be let in!



Sue Thompson was already pushing 40 when she had this hit, but she still sounded cool and sexy beyond words to my young ears



Speaking of Lou Reed, this song still is my favorite "Walk on the Wild Side."



Back then I thought the Peppermint Lounge in New York had to be the coolest place in the world thanks to Joey Dee.



I still get chills when I hear this song late at night, just like the first time I heard it on my transistor radio that week in 1962. The organ solo is downright other-dimensional!



Finally, don't you be a good neighbor to her. Or I'll send you a love letter. Straight from my heart

WACKY WEDNESDAY: She Was Only a Ventriloquist's Daughter ...

What can you say about a lady whose siblings are Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff?

April Winchell is an actress, comedian, voice-over artist (the voice of Baby Herman's mom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Clarabelle Cow in recent Mickey Mouse cartoons), former radio host, and, yes, daughter of famed ventriloquist Paul Winchell.

And -- best of all for Wacky Wednesday purposes -- she's a collector and disseminator of bizarre music.

For years she's maintained a website  full of MP3s of crazy music -- Golden Throat celebrity covers, corporate pep songs, chicken songs, TV themes, commercial jingles, "terrifying Christian music," "Crazy Jew Rap," German covers of show tunes, ...

A woman after my own heart!

April's MP3 library has been online  years before YouTube was even invented. But many of these have found their way to YouTube, which make it easier to share with you here.

Here are some of my favorites from the April Winchell collection

First there's this song of faded love. It took both Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand  to sing the original, but only one Liberace to send it over the top.



If The B-52s covered "Stairway to Heaven," it would sound like The Rock Lobsters



A question I ask God every day: "What is This Thing called Amway?"



A little yodeling for Jesus by Princess Ramona



A classic Barbra stage outburst remixed ... like butter!



April says this one is "An extremely strange recording."

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 5, 2017
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Dirty Boulevard by Lou Reed
Banned in Boston by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
Love/Hate (Eat Me Alive) by The Ruiners
Stay Away Joe by Elvis Presley
Hey Sailor by The Detroit Cobras
Get Off the Road by Herschell Gordon Lewis (She Devils on Wheels)
Shadow People by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Black Feather by Lynx Lynx
Start Together by Sleater-Kinney

Baby, You're My Drug by The Monsters
The Future is Now (and it Stinks) by JJ & The Real Jerks
Bums by Dean Ween Group
La Coulevurve by Thee Verduns
I Don't Care If Tomorrow Never Comes by Meet Your Death
It's OK by Dead Moon
The Store That Cannot Be Named by Deadbolt
Livin' in Chaos by The Sonics
It's Suicide by Mark Sultan

An Extraordinary Woman by Psychedelic Aliens
Me Kple Dogbekpo by Lokomon Andre & Les Volcans
Macumba for You by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Mencerminkan Makota Kotor by Arrington de Dionyso
Less of Me by Teenage Jesus & The Jerks
An Older Lover by The Fall
Caspar the Friendly Ghost by Daniel Johnson & Jad Fair
Can't Get Enough of You Baby by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Mumbles by Jack Ross

California Tuffy by Geraldine Fibbers
I've Been Falling by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
We Come in the Sunshine by The Dirtbombs
Slow Love by Charles Bradley
To Know Him is to Love Him by Amy Winehouse
Into My Arms by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
In That Great Gettin' Up Morning by The Golden Gate Quartet
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 3, 2017
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

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum
All You Fascists by Billy Bragg & Wilco
Tupelo County Jail by The Old 97s
Take Me to the Fire by The Waco Brothers
Hard Times by Jon Langford
Eatin' Crow and Drinkin' Sand by Jesse Dayton
Make it Up to Mama by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Loser's Lounge by Ringo Starr
Cukoo Cocoon by Hazeldine
Cryin' to Cryin' Time Again by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
Play Together Again Again by Buck Owens & Emmylou Harris

Changed the Locks by Lucinda Williams
Hands on Your Hips by Shinyribs
The Ghosts of Hallelujah by The Gourds
Every Tuesday Night by Miss Leslie
Bad Girl She Used to Be by Paul Burch
I Ain't Living Long Like This by Waylon Jennings

True Religion by Scott H. Biram
You Must Have That Religion, Hallyloo by Lead Belly
What You Did to the Boy Ain't Right by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Ain't Gonna Hang Around by Southern Culture on the Skids
Sea of Tears by Eilen Jewell
Jean Arthur by Robbie Fulks
That's All it Took by Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris
Dancing With the Women at the Bar by Whiskeytown
Jambalaya by Phoebe Legere

Lost from Me by Stephanie Hatfield
When Two Worlds Collide by Roger Miller
I Never Go Around Mirrors by Lefty Frizzell
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Take Me by George Jones
What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush
My Happiness by John Prine & Fiona Prine
My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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THROWBACK THURSDAY: That True Religion

I shot this picture at Scott H. Biram's 2011 performance at Corazon in Santa Fe.

One of the real delights from Scott H. Biram's latest album, The Bad Testament, is Track 10, a crazy little gospel tune he calls "True Religion."

It's a song the dirty old one-man band from Austin, Texas been playing for years, sometimes as an a Capella medley with an old prison song "Go Down Old Hannah."

The new studio version starts with some fuzzy, slightly distorted recording of what sounds like some religious broadcast ("If the Holy Family cannot come in with the child Jesus and watch it with me, I don't watch it ...") Biram starts with the actual song.

"Oh you must have that true religion, hallelu, hallelu ... true religion and a soal converted ..."

It's catchy and infectious. Check it out on Spotify below:



But, as you probably guessed by now, Biram wasn't the first to find "True Religion." Lots of people have sung it, and no two takes are alike.

Below is a live version by another contemporary Austin musician, Shineyribs (aka Kev Russell.)



Back in 2005, Mavis Staples recorded her version for a 2005 various-artists project produced by Joe Henry.



And back in 1972, Hot Tuna -- Jefferson Airplane brothers Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady -- did a slop blues-rock version on their album Burgers featuring Papa John Creach on fiddle.



Kaukonen is listed as the songwriter in the Burgers credits. But it sounds amazing like this old Leadbelly song -- the earliest version I could find. (I'm pretty sure it's from the early '40s.)



Despite the title, I' not sure the following songs are directly related to the previous songs. There are several version of gospel choirs doing "You Must Have That True Religion." The best I heard was by Atlanta's Chorale New Creation, performed in 2008.



Finally here's a fott-stompin' version by the St. John Church of God in Christ Choir of Los Angeles. It doesn't sound much Scott H. Biram or Hot Tuna or Lead Belly. But it still sounds good to me

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy (Belated) Birthday Cindy Wilson. You ain't no Limburger!

If I could hire a house band for Wacky Wednesday, it would be The B52s, that Athens, Ga. "New Wave" group that embodied wackiness, tackiness and infectious fun.


Yesterday, Feb. 28th was the 60th birthday of Cindy Wilson, who along with Kate Pierson were the B52s' lovely and lovable female front women.

So here is a little tribute to the lady, some songs in which she sang or shared lead vocals.

I'd dance with you, Cindy!



Fish? Candy? I'll take it



This one's a lesser-known tune, sung by Cindy and Kate, about the joys of counterfeiting.