Sunday, September 29, 2019 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
Along Came Jones by The Coasters
Glad Rag Ball by Daddy Long Legs
Who Controls the Weather by Alien Space Kitchen
Alien Space Kitchen interview
One More Time by The Dildonts
Let it Come Down by Alien Space Kitchen
I Won't by The Replacements
Barely Getting By by Imperial Wax
60 Minute Man by Jerry Lee Lewis
This Year's Girl by Elvis Costello
Two Dollar Elvis by Left Lane Cruiser
The Coffee Song by Stan Ridgway
Hard Times by Jimmy "Duck"Holmes
Snake Farm by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Thee Olde Trip to Jerusalem by The Mekons
Child of Mercy by The Yawpers
No Blame by Sex Hogs 2
Automatic by Los Pepes
Risking My Heart by Råttanson
Schoolbus by The Toy Trucks
The Beast is You by The Electric Mess
A Lonely Song by Daniel Johnston
Facestabber by Thee Oh Sees
Thick Skin by The Mystery Lights
Love by Sleater-Kinney
Silver Spring by Fleetwood Mac CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican September 27, 2019
Faithful readers of my music screeds should certainly realize that probably 99 percent of my record reviews are favorable. Ripping into bad music by chirpy little pop stars or stinky old classic rockers years beyond their prime doesn’t bring me much joy. But more importantly, I’d much rather tell people about great music they might not be familiar with.
But there’s one big exception. That’s when some singer or band who I absolutely love releases a record that disappoints me — music that’s so unworthy of musicians who are capable of so much more. That’s when I dip my proverbial pen into the metaphorical poison ink.
You only hurt the ones you love.
So after intense deliberation and heavy sadness, I have decided to blast The Center Won’t Hold, the new album by one of my top favorite bands of the past couple of decades,Sleater-Kinney.
In case the above verbiage seems somewhat familiar to fans of this group, that’s because I was riffing on the announcement in July by longtime Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss that she was leaving the trio. “The band is heading in a new direction and it is time for me to move on,” she wrote on social media soon after S-K had finished recording The Center Won’t Hold.
A “new direction.” That’s an understatement for the ages.
Quick historical note: Sleater-Kinney first rose from the smoldering ashes of the great Riot Grrrl scare in Olympia, Washington, in the early 1990s. But there was something special about them. It didn’t take long for S-K to slip the surly bonds of the basic girl-punk sound.
Besides Weiss’ mighty drums, there was the scorching two-guitar attack of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein (also of Portlandia fame). There was Tucker’s hopped-up banshee wail (the group’s greatest weapon). And they only seemed to get better with every new album.
One of the best shows I've ever seen ...
They took a hiatus that lasted a decade or so shortly after releasing their 2005 album The Woods. I missed them dearly in their absence but their 2015 comeback album, No Cities to Love, was nothing short of amazing. (And their concert in Albuquerque in the spring of that year was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.)
That’s one of the main things that saddens me so about the gloopy mess that is this latest record.
For reasons best known to Corin, Carrie, and Janet (if indeed the latter was part of this decision), they called in Annie Clark, better known among indie-rock circles (whatever that means these days) as St. Vincent. A lot of people, including many whose musical tastes I respect (my own beloved children among them), like her music. But I find it overly precious and boring and much of it soaked in synthy uselessness.
That’s fine. St. Annie can do what she wants. I just wish she hadn’t brought those dubious qualities to Sleater-Kinney’s new album. (Some may call me a stodgy old dinosaur, but I don’t give a flying darn.)
The dearly departed Weiss does play on the new album, but her normal power is diluted severely by synthesized beats. Also, the wild guitars of Tucker and Brownstein take a backseat to the electronic gizmos.
Seriously, had you played me this album without telling me who it was, I would not have guessed it was Sleater-Kinney.
The title song, which starts the album, is cruelly deceptive. It starts out slowly with clanking percussion and a synthesized bass line. The vocals — I think it’s Tucker — seem detached to the rest of the musical backdrop. Then about two-thirds of the way into the song, the old Sleater-Kinney seems to come back to life for the final minute of the track.
But it’s just a tease. By the next number, “Hurry on Home,” the new, artsy, synth-pop S-K is back and, for the most part, here to stay.
I have to admit there are a couple of tunes I actually like. “Bad Dance” comes dangerously close to rock ‘n’ roll. “And if the world is ending now/then let’s dance, the bad dance/we’ve been rehearsing our whole lives,” Brownstein sings. It’s definitely the sexiest song on the album. “Come over here and show me/that you crave a little more/Let me defang you/and defile you on the floor …”
And despite the fact that it’s just as synthy as the worst songs on the album and doesn’t really sound like the Sleater-Kinney I revere, the upbeat “Love” is so catchy it’s addictive. It sounds almost faux-’80s New Wave, maybe The Go-Gos high on pep pills and hair spray. And, somewhat ironically, it’s about S-K’s early history, even dropping the names of some of their early albums.
“Heard you in my headphones/Slipped you my address/Call the doctor/Dig me out of this mess/Tuned it down to C/Turned the amp to ten/A basement of our own/A mission to begin ...”
I’m glad the brave women of Sleater-Kinney no longer have to sleep in their van, as they sing about in “Love.” But I sure hope they turn the amp back to 10 and return to the basic sound that brought us to them in the first place.
It was 199 years go today, Sept. 26, 1820, that Daniel Boone died.
No, he didn't die blazing a trail through unexplored territory or killed in battle by Indians pissed off about him blazing trails through their land or mauled to death by a mother raccoon who though his hat was her baby.
He died at his son's home in in Missouri at the age of 85.
Daniel Boone was a hunter, fur trapper and trailblazing American frontiersman whose name is synonymous with the exploration and settlement of Kentucky. Crossing the Appalachian Mountains and traveling through the Cumberland Gap, Boone helped carve the Wilderness Road from Virginia to Kentucky and established the Boonesboro settlement. He fought in the French and Indian War and escaped the wrath of Native Americans many times over.
And I like this little tidbit: "At the age of 78, Boone volunteered for the War of 1812 but was denied admission into the armed forces."
The whole "living legend" concept has been overdone and cheapened during the past few decades, but if anyone actually qualified for title, Daniel Boone was it. This was largely due to a writer named John Filson, who mythologized his days as a frontiersman.
And yes, there have been songs about him.
Here's one I bet every kid who grew up in the (19)60s will recognize, the theme song of the television show about him that starred America's favorite coonskin hat model Fess Parker, (who in the previous decade starred in and sang the theme song for the Davy Crockett tv show.
Singer Ken Carson released this strange ditty on 78 in 1955
And also in the mid '50s, country singer George Hamilton IV did this nifty tribute
Sunday, September 22, 2019 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
Hulkster's in House by Hulk Hogan
Timothy by The Buoys
World of Freaks by Harry Perry
I Sing Them by Ty Segall
Face Stabber by Thee Oh Sees
Judy in Disguise with Glasses by Jello Biafra & The Raunch 'n' Soul All-Stars
Choctaw Bingo by James McMurtry
Mr. Jones by Talking Heads
Interstate City by Dave Alvin
American Wedding by Gogol Bordello
Turncoat by Imperial Wax
Drunk Guy on the Train by Deadbolt
Kazik Staszewski set
Clap Hands
12 Groszy
Maciek
In the Neighborhood
Innocent When You Dream (Polish Space Druid Mix)
Trouble in Mind by Jimmie Dale Gilmore with Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Angels Fear to Tread by Ed Pettersen
A. on Horseback by Charlie Pickett
Ley it Come Down by Alien Space Kitchen
79 Cents (The Meow Song) by Eilen Jewell
Robots of Rayleen by Xoe Fitzgerald
I'll Fly Away by Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Twenty nine years ago today, the great nation of Liechtenstein -- a knee-high-to-a-grasshopper landlocked country bordered by Switzerland and Austria -- joined the United Nations.
This calls for celebration!
Let's start with the dwarf nation's national anthem. This tune sounds hauntingly familiar. I think I know some of the lyrics: "The king is Donald Duck / He drives a garbage truck ..."
Polka is very popular in Liechtenstein
Searching YouTube for "Liechtenstein music," I found this, Let's call it Liechtenpalooza!
According to Wikipedia, which is always right, one of Liechtenstein's major stars is Al Walser, who was born in Switzerland and now lives in L.A. Al was nominated for a Grammy a few years ago and apparently showed up to the awards ceremony in a spacesuit. (This song doesn't actually start until about 3 minutes in.
