eMUSIC OCTOBER

* Pachuco Cadaver by The Jack and Jim Show. So you didn't think it was possible to make Captain Beefheart sound even weirder?

Well take a bite out of this little tribute album by guitar mutant Eugene Chadbourne and Frank Zappa's late original Mothers drummer Jimmy Carl Black. Some tunes sound like a lost congregation of hillbilly snake handlers somehow got hold of Beefheart's songbook and turned them into insane hymns and, in some cases like "Dropout Boogie," surreal comedy routines.

Black's gruff voice is perfect for the bluesier tunes here like "Sure 'Nuff Yes I Do," and "Willie the Pimp," done here as a Delta blues with Chadbourne playing slide.

When Beefheart did "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" it was a blues growler. But here it's a pilgrimage  into the Dark Dimension, featuring the insect hum of a didgeridoo,  a jazzy basson and other instruments played by guests. Chadbourne plays banjo on this, as he does on several other tunes here, most notable, the seven-minute version of "Clear Spot" and the stompin' "Steal Softly Through Sunshine Steal Softly Through Snow."

I was lucky enough to see The Jim & Jack Show live in Albuquerque about a year before Jimmy died.  He lived in Germany the last years of his life and his trips to the states weren't that frequent.

A bunch of Jimmy's children came up from El Paso and Anthony to see the show. Both he and Chadbourne seemed to be having a great time. And they even did a couple of Beefheart songs -- "Willie the Pimp" and "The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back" .


And I never miss an opportunity to brag that when I did Picnic Time for Potatoheads in the early 80s, Jimmy Carl Black was the Indian of my group. Hear his magic drums on "The Green Weenie" HERE. (It's the second song down.)

* Rockabilly Frenzy by Various Artists. Here's 53 tracks for $5.99. You do the math. It's a great bargain, like other cool compilations on the Rock-a-Billy label available at eMusic. (I've previously picked up 50s Rockabilly Hellraisers and 1950s Rock N' Roll & Rockabilly Rare Masters. I just can't get enough.) Many of the selections seem more hardcore honky tonk than rockabilly, but who's gonna quibble?

Frenzy concentrates mostly on unknown performers, though "Corky Jones," the rockabilly alter ego of   Buck Owens, is here with his shoulda-been-a-hit "Rhythm & Booze."

Speaking of booze, this album is overflowing with songs about alcoholic beverages. There's "Set Up Antother Drink" by Carl Phillips, "Booze Party" by Three Aces and a Joker (The Cramps covered this),  "Flop Top Beer" by Buddy Meredith, "Moonshine" by Montie Jones, "I'm Drinkin' Bourbon" by Billy Starr, "Wine Wine Wine" by Bobby Osbourne, "Whiskey Women and Wilid Living" by Tommy W. Pedigo, "Moonshine Still" by Jack Holt and "Pink Elephant" by Wally Willet.

What kind of message does this send to the children? I feel almost drunk after listening to all these.

But wait, there's more ...

There's a not-bad cover of George Jones' "White Lightning" by a band called The Valley Serenaders. But that's not nearly as remarkable as "White Lightning Cherokee" by Onie Wheeler. No, it's not a politically incorrect look at Native American alcoholism. It's about a guy who gets a better thrill from kissing his Indian girlfriend than drinking his pappy's brew. But he has no intention of giving up either.

And there's not one not two but three versions of a song called "Beer Drinkin' Blues." One's by Eddie Novak, another by Rocky Bill Ford. Johnny Champion calls his song "Beer Drinkin' Daddy." All deal with a hard-drinking alcoholic whose drinking is interfering with his marriage. Ford plays it sad, while Novak seems more comical. My favorite though is Champion's. It's an upbeat song with a snazzy organ solo. He seems almost defiant about his beer drinkin'.

* Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-1935 by Various Artists. The Mekons led me to this one. On their latest album Ancient & Modern, Sally Timms sings a song called "Geeshie," a spooky, bluesy little number I said sounds as if it came from "a speakeasy near the gates of Hell." The group based this song on an obscure blues song called "Last Kind Words" by a woman named Geeshie Wiley.

When I read that, I searched for the song on eMusic and found it here in this Yazoo Records collection, along with two other Geeshie tunes, "Skinny Legs Blues." (Look out, Joe Tex, the ghost of Geeshie is looking for you!) and "Pick Poor Robin Clean," which sounds like a crazy cousin of "Salty Dog" sung with Elvie Thomas.

Wiley is fairly obscure, but she might be the best known artist on this album. There's King Soloman Hill, who has a piercing voice that might remind you of Skip James. Blind Joe Reynolds does "Outside Woman Blues," a song revived in the '60s by Cream. I know now where Canned Heat got the "Bullfrog Blues." (It's by a guy named William Harris, who does that and two other tunes here.)

And Mattie Delaney was singing "Tallahatchie River Blues" decades before Bobbie Gentry and Billy Joe were throwing stuff off the bridge.

ALSO


* The final five tracks of Fire of Love by The Gun Club. As I said last month when I downloaded the first six tracks, I came to this band decades too late.

I don't regret that. In fact it's pretty cool that I left some great musical surprises for my old age.

This was the first album by Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the boys and it just gets better after each listening.  There's some pumped up version of old Mississippi blues -- Robert Johnson's "Preaching the Blues" and a six minute wrestling match with Tommy Johnson's "Cool Drink of Water."

But Pierce's originals are powerful in their own right. "Ghost on the Highway," "Black Train" and "Good Bye Johnny" are raw and wild. Even though I'm a new initiate, it's hard to imagine rock 'n' roll without these songs.

* "Rainmaker" by Eliza Gilkyson. I stumbled across this song a few weeks ago when looking for songs by New Mexico artists for one of my Spotify playlists. Released on a 2005 Gilkyson compilation called RetroSpecto, this is one of her earliest recorded songs, released in the late '60s or early '70s under the name of Tusker, a Santa Fe band that Gilkyson fronted back when she was known as "Lisa. Along with my personal favorite group of that era, The Family Lotus, Tusker represented the best of New Mexico hippie music.

The lyrics are pure hippie-dippie wanna-be Indian: "We can dance, people, bring that rain down from the sky/We don't have to let the land go hungry or run dry/We can dance and bring Rainmaker back before we die ..." But it sure brings back great memories.

eMusic September

* Wasted Life by Stiff Little Fingers. I got to see this veteran Belfast punk band last month when I
went to Austin. It was a mighty show.

Led by Clash-inspired singer/guitarist Jake Burns, SLF has been plugging away since 1978 or so. Burns has been the group's constant since the beginning. For the past five years or so, original bassist Ali McMordie has been back with the band.

This is a 28-track, 100-minute compilation of mostly live material with some stray studio versions of various songs thrown in. Lots of the songs they did at Emo's last month -- "Tin Soldier," "Straw Dogs," and of course "Alernative Ulster" are  here, some twice. Some tunes are raw and desperate ("Forensic Evidence," "At the Edge,") while some are surprisingly poppy. Am I a heretic to say "Shake It Off" reminds me of The Partridge Family? Though it's an enjoyable listen, the album doesn't come close to matching the intensity of SLF's live show.

Here's a sad but true story: I was right up front when SLF started. A couple of songs in and the youngsters started moshing, as youngsters will. I got knocked around something fierce and at one point my upper plate got knocked loose in my mouth.

But I didn't let it happen. To lose my false teeth at a punk rock show is just too much of an ironic metaphor. I wouldn't allow myself to be part of it.

Joe Buck Yourself

* Remember the Alimony by Joe Buck and Gory Gory Hallelujah by Joe Buck Yourself.  Here's something that left me feeling stupid. I downloaded this EP by the artist known as Joe Buck Yourself (a former member of Hank III's band and Tha' Legendary Shack Shakers).

And then I downloaded the album by "Joe Buck," thinking it was the same guy in an earlier phase of his career.

Besides the name, some of the song titles --  "She's a Dick" and the feedback fury and slide guitar mayhem of "Hillbilly Thunder"-- led me to think it was that Joe Buck.

Well, I was wrong. This "Joe Buck" is not the Evil Motherfucker from Tennessee. In fact it's not a guy, it's a band, led by a singer called "Swayback Dave." And they're from San Francisco, not Tennessee.

And I found out even sooner that the basic sound of these two acts are very different. Joe Buck Yourself is a one-man band who plays harsh metallic blues riffs over his guttural voice. Kind of like a malevolent Bob Logg III.

The band Joe Buck basically is a country rock band with strong rockabilly overtones. They aren't as crazed and threatening as JBY, but they sure ain't bad.  Hell, most the songs would fit in just fine with Shooter Jennings' Southern Independent XXX compilations. And the first song, "Easy Street," reminds me of The Gear Daddies.

I'm not sure whatever happened to Swayback Dave and the boys. I hope they're making country musiuc somewhere.

* Pound Down! by The Del-Gators. Here's another band from the early part of the century. Unfortunately, I don't believe they made any albums after this -- at least none you can find on the world wide web.

The DGs were a good-time Montreal garage band with heavy R&B influences. They were fronted by a singer named Jenna Roker, who also sang in another group called The Sunday Sinners. Another Gator was a electric pianist named Cocobutter Khan, who happens to be the sister of Arish "King" Khan.

If you like The Detroit Cobras you'll probably love The Del-Gators. My favorite tune here is "Car Trouble," which also appeared on one of the Voodoo Rhythm samplers. Jenna even makes auto repair sound sexy.

Plus

* The first six tracks of Fire of Love by The Gun Club. How could I have missed out on The Gun Club all these years. I was familiar with the name, always saw the band and Jeffrey Lee Pearce listed as a punk-blues/cowpunk originator, and I've liked the song "Sex Beat" for years. (It was among the Nothin' But Trash compilation tracks I downloaded a couple of months ago. Also I heard Kid Congo Powers do a blazing live version when I saw him in New York last year.) And yet somehow ...

When writing about roots punk in my column about the new releases by DM Bob & The Deficits and The Juke Joint Pimps, I took the opportunity to take a good hard isten to The Gun Club on Spotify (which really is turning out to be the rock critic's friend). After just a couple of songs, I knew I had to repair this gaping hole in my knowledge.

I only had enough tracks last month to get these six. I'll get the rest when my account refreshes.

eMusic August

* Blind James Campbell And His Nashville Street Band. Here's another fine Arhoolie recording. Just like the title implies, Campbell and his cohorts played in the streets of Nashville. Much like Howard Armstrong's bands, (I downloaded Louie Bluie, the soundtrack to the wonderful documentary about Armstrong, a few months ago), Campbell played a wide range of music -- blues, country, gospel, jazz, old folk songs).

Campbell, who was left blind after an accident at a fertilizer plant, started the band in 1936. Arhoolie's Chris Strachwitz recorded them in 1962 and '63.

On most songs Campbell, who played guitar, mandolin and percussion, is accompanied by Beauford Clay and Bell Ray on guitar. Some songs feature a two-man horn section (George Bell on trumpet and Ralph Robinson on tuba).

Campbell doesn't have the strong personality of Howard Armstrong, but still, I can't think of a street corner in America that wouldn't be improved by having a band like this.playing on it.

But here's some bad news. It looks like I nabbed this one just in the nick of time. Sometime after I downloaded this a few weeks ago, it disappeared from eMusic. And it's not even available on Amazon. I'm not sure what the story is here.

* Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James. I'm not sure how I missed this album when it was released last year, but I'm glad I found it now. I first became a fan of this one man band (that one man's real name being being Konrad Wert) three years ago when his album, Cold and Blind came out on Voodoo Rhythm.

Wert was born and raised in an Amish-Mennonite family in Immokalee, Florida. “Paul James” is a combination of his father’s and grandfather’s names. He plays plays guitar, banjo, fiddle and percussion. And as I said in my review of that previous album, he "sounds as if he’s emerged from some primordial swamp where every shadow might be a demon. As he shouts and yelps ... you can imagine him as some sinner in the hands of an angry God."

Feed the Family probably is more accessible to a newcomer than his previous work. It's more melodic. There's some downright pretty country songs like "Shoulda Known Better" and "Texas Rose." And then there's, "The Color of My Bloody Nose,"  a nasty little break-up song that shares a special kinship with Harry Nilsson's "You're Breaking My Heart."

Still, my favorites are the stompers, the ones with the most fire and brimstone -- the opening track "Four Men from the Row," which sounds like a banjo apocalypse and the fiddle-driven title song.


For a cool interview with Konrad Wert on Outlaw Radio Chicago CLICK HERE.

Plus

* The 90 (!) or so tracks I didn't get last month from Fats Domino & The Rhythm & Blues Friends. As I noted before, this is a strange compilation featuring a bunch of Domino live tracks plus scores of great old R&B and blues tunes that have no apparent relation with Domino.

The sound quality isn't great on a few tracks here. But for less than a dime a track (if you download the whole collection), this is a true bargain-basement treasure.

There's songs from people you'll recognize -- Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner, Louis Kordan, Big Maybelle, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rufus Thomas, Lowell Fulson, Big Mama Thorton.

And there's some I'd never heard of -- Hop Dixon, Elmo Nixon, H-Bomb Ferguson, The Arabians.

Some standouts here include "Chitlin' Ball" a west-coast jump blues by King Porter; "Everything is Cool" an early rock 'n' roll obscurity by a guy simply known as "Pork Chop"; "My Rough and Ready Man," featuring some sexy scat from Annie Laurie; and "Sad Head Blues" by some sad sack  who went by the name "Mr. Sad Head."

This album provided a couple of selections for my most recent Big Enchilada podcast: "But Officer" by Sonny Knight and "Wine O Wine" by a band called The Gators.

*Six songs from Girl Happy by Elvis Presley. Girl Happy for years has been my favorite guilty-pleasure Elvis movie. But there's nothing to feel guilty about in loving this soundtrack.

A few of these songs -- "Puppet on a String," "Do the Clam" and the title tune --  I already had from the compilation Command Performances, The Essential Sixties Masters. But this is the first time I've had digital copies of under-rated, overlooked songs like "Spring Fever," "Wolf Call" and the dangerously tacky "The Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce." You know a song that starts out "Girls on the beach, they commit a sin/They don't show yards and yards of skin" is going to be a kick. The Cramps did a great version of "Do the Clam," but I'd have loved to have heard Lux Interior croon "Ft. Lauderdale."

I had the LP as a kid in the mid- 60s. Loved it then. Love it now.


* Two songs from The Early Years, 1930-1934, Volume 1 by Cab Calloway. "Happy Feet" and "Aw You Dawg" to be exact (which is a version of another song on this collection, "You Dog," which I downloaded a few years ago.) I've been gnawing away at this 3-disc collection for years. Sometimes when I have just a few tracks to get before the end of a month, I'll snach a few from this. I never get tired of Cab.

* "Psychopath of Love" by The Dusty Chaps. A fiend recently requested I play something by The Dusty Chaps on the Santa Fe Opry a few weekes ago. I found this on eMusic on a compilation called Boppin' in Canada. Turns out it was the wrong group. My friend wanted a band from Tucson from the '70s. These are Canadians  from a few decades later. Oh well, it's a cool little Cannuck-a-billy tune. These Chaps aren't as wil as Bloodshot Bill or Ray Condo, but it's a snazzy little tune.

eMusic July

* Movin' On - 30 Songs by Hank Snow. You got your Hank Williams, your Hank Thompson, your Hank Cochran, your Hank Penny ... But ranking way up there in the pantheon of country music Hanks is Clarence Eugene Snow ,,, aka Hank.

Besides his music, Snow proved you don't have to be from the South or the West to play authentic country music. Or even the U.S. He was born in Nova Scotia in 1914.

Snow didn't sing about punching cattle, but he has a great sound about jigging squid ("The Squid Jiggin' Ground," unfortunately not included here) an homage to his shipmates on the fishing boat where he worked as a cabin boy after running away from home as a teen.

He's also a link in a great chain. Ernest Tubb got him on the Grand Old Opry in 1950. A few years later Snow did the same for a young singer named Elvis Presley. Elvis did a decent version of "I'm Movin' On." But he did an even better job on another tune Snow originally sang -- "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I."

This album includes some wonderful Snow hits such as his Jimmie Rodgers tribute "Jimmie the Kid" and "I Don't Hurt Anymore," which was an early hit for Snow. It's not that well known now, but it's classic early '50s country.

One of my favorites here is an upbeat country gospel tune called "My Religion's Not Old Fashioned But It's Real Genuine." Snow delved into a little country proto World Beat with "The Rhumba Boogie." And there's a little "countrypolitan" Nashville Sound here with "Invisible Hands," which features an old fashioned roller rinky organ and background choruses.

* Skiffle - Oldies But Goodies by Various Artists. There's something goofy and contradictory about British skiffle music of the late '50s.

At its best it sounds like a logical mutation of the Memphis Jug Band or Cannon's Jug Stompers. At its worst it sounds like some real-life version of the over-earnest folkies parodied in A Mighty Wind. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to imagine any of these bands playing "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon" in British accents.

But it's guileless and it's fun. The Chas McDevitt Skiffle group sound like they're having a blast jiving their way through the song "Deep Down." And it turned a lot of people onto some great American songs -- "Stack O'Lee," "Worried Man," "House of the Rising Sun" and others. And remember, John Lennon's first band was a skiffle group.

Most Americans who know anything about skiffle are familiar with Lonnie Donegan, who had pop hits in the '50s with "Rock Island Line" and the novelty classic "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor." This collection only has one Donegan tune "The Passing Stranger." It's a slow, spooky tune, unlike most the frantic paced washboard clacking sound associated with the genre.

Instead this album focuses on soe of the less famous perpetrators of skiffle, folks like McDevitt, The Coffee Bar Skifflers and Nancy Whiskey -- (Shane McGowan fans just perked up their ears.) Born Anne Alexandra Young Wilson, this sweet voiced Scottish lass, joining up with McDevitt's group had a hit with Libby Cortton's "Freight Train." She also does a pretty cool "Greenback Dollar."

Here's Nancy and Chas in action back in 1957.



It's not on this album, but below is some more authentic English skiffle from the '50s at it's geeky cool best. And you might recognize the guitarist.





* Thunder and Lightning by Bloodshot Bill. What is this, Canadian month? Like Hank Snow, Bloodshot Bill hails from the Great White North.

Thunder and Lightning, his latest, is 14 songs, mostly originals, in which Bloodshot sings of lost loves, good and bad. Like his recent work with The Ding Dongs (with partner Mark Sultan) and Tandoori Knights (with King Khan), the recording is inspiringly lo-fi, sounding like scratchy old 45s from long- forgotten labels. In fact, it sounds as if it’s recorded in mono.  In some ways, he’s the heir to the late Ray Condo, a fellow Canuckabilly.

I just reviewed this CD in last week's Terrell's Tuneup column. Read it HERE

PLUS

* 13 songs from  Fats Domino and Rhythm & Blues Friends. This is a bizarre little collection. There are a bunch of Fats Domino songs here -- live  tracks recorded God knows when. I downloaded a bunch of them, classic Domino hits like "The Fat Man," "Blueberry Hill, "Walking to New Orleans," etc.

But mostly the 100-plus tracks are songs by a variety of R&B songers from the 40s, 50s and early '60s. I nabbed some tracks from Johnny Otis, Eddie "The Chief" Clearwater, Big Joe Turner and others. Some may indeed be Domino "friends." Who cares?

I stumbled onto this album when looking for a particular song. On their new collaboration Lousiana Sun, Voodoo Rhythm bands Mama Rosin and Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers do a song called "Voodoo Walking" that was inspired by "It's Your Voodoo Working" by Charles Sheffield. I had to get the the original. Sheffield is a little known Louisiana R&B belter who did this tune in the early '60s. He got the hoodoo in him. So I found it in this compilation.

"Voodoo Walking" appeared on my latest Big Enchilada podcast. So did  "Davey You Upset My Home" by Joe Tex. This is  is a politically incorrect novelty tune inspired by the 1950s success of the Davy Crocket television show. A woman's love for the man from Tennessee leads to domestic violence.

Then there's what I call the "Wino Suite": "Wine-O Baby" by Big Joe Turner, "Wine Wine Wine" by Floyd Dixon and "Red Red Wine" by Milt Buckner. No, it's not the Neil Diamond song. Maybe this month I'll download "Wine O Wine" by The Gators. In fact, I'll probably download all the tracks I skipped last month.

eMusic June

* Revelator by Coco Robicheaux.  Longtime and loyal fans of my Sunday night radio show, Terrell's Sound World might recall that 10 or 12 years ago, back when KSFR was having trouble with the administration of Santa Fe Community College, I did a "radio voodoo ceremony" to cast away the evil spirits that seemed to be haunting the station. It wasn't a real serious thing. I just played 30 minutes of Dr. John and songs like The Talking Heads' "Papa Legba," Junior Wells' "Hoodoo Man" and some novelty songs about Voodoo.

Whatever, it worked. It took a couple of years, but those evil spirits vanished.

I might have burned a voodoo candle that night, which in itself probably broke station rules. But I promise, I didn't sacrifice a live chicken in the studio that night.

Which leads us to Coco Robicheaux.  I learned of this guy through the HBO show Treme. He's the singer  who slit the throat of a live chicken during a performance at a troubled public radio station. I felt a certain kinship with the guy as well as the DJ  Davis McAlary, Steve Zahn's character, who got fired over the incident.

 Robicheaux doesn't actually sing much. He recites the lyrics in his deep raspy drawl over smokey jazz or blues riffs. Comparisons with Dr. John, from his Night Tripper days are inevitable. (And like the good doctor, Coco has done commercials for Popeye's Chicken.)  But I hear more Nighthawks at the Diner era TomWaits.

The album kicks off with an ominous reading of the old Chambers Brothers hit "Time Has Come Today." This is one of several here, incluidng "Fortune Teller," "Crossroads" and a beatnik  bluegrass take on "I Am a Pilgrim" featuring Coco on banjo.

But my favorite is "Memo From Turner," an old Mick Jagger song (yes, it originally was released as a Jagger solo single) from the 1970 movie Performance. Jagger's version has more punch, but Coco adds a new level of sinister to it.

I mentioned this last week, but it's worth mentioning again: Coco Robicheaux is playing the Plaza for free, August 9 as part of the Santa Fe Bandstand program.

* Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia. Had Mick, Keith, and the boys ever released a compilation called “The Rolling Stones Presents Chicago Blues Favorites,” it would have been to them what this collection is to Dengue Fever. The music here represents the basic DNA of the band.

Electric Cambodia, released last year, contains 14 Cambodian rockers from the late ’60s and early ’70s. The sound is lo-fi, because the original recordings — as well as the original artists — were destroyed by the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that ruled that country in the mid-to-late ’70s. The only surviving recordings were on old cassette tapes kept and hidden by fans.

I recently reviewed this collection in Terrell's Tune-Up, along with Cannibal Courtship, thee fine new album by Dengue Fever themselves. CLICK HERE.

Plus:

BW & Peter Greenberg in Santa Fe last year

"Built Like A Rock" and "I Love Her So" by Barrence Whitfield & The Monkey Hips. Barrence has been very prolific lately.

 Late last year he saw the re-release of his first album with The Savages in a deluxe edition including a bunch of great bonus tracks (It's an import from the Ace label but available on Amazon and I assume elsewhere at a reasonable price).

And even more bitchen he recorded a new album with original Savages Peter Greenberg and Phil Lenker. Savage Kings already has been released in Europe and it's coming out in these United States this month on Shake It Records. Watch my Terrell's Tuneup column for more on that.

Meanwhile, these tunes I downloaded were recorded with The Monkey Hips, a band he's played with in recent years. They might not be the original Savages, but they're a rocking little outfit that fits with BW's sound. My favorite moment here is near the end of  "Built Like a Rock" when Barrence shouts, "It's Clobberin' Time!" Indeed it is.

Here's a video of BW and this band doing a Screamin' Jay classic.



* 10 tracks from Nothin' But Trash . I rented the DVD of the same title from Netflix a few weeks ago. It features videos and live footage of acts like Wau y Los Arrrghs, Gun Club, Link Wray, The Monsters, The Tall Boys, the Mighty Lightning Beat-Man and a whole mess of Billy Childish-related acts -- Milkshakes, Headcoats, plus Thee Headcoatees and Sexton Ming.

Most of the bands are ones I hadn't heard of before -- The Tikitiki Bamboos, Saturn V, Squares, Bad KArma Beckons, Empress of Fur (featuring a sexy Bettye Page impersonator) and more.

Mainly they're European groups, though there's live clips of Link Wray as well as The Gun Club.  Mostly of the live videos were shot in London at various clubs and at the Wild Weekend festival in Spain .

I was very excited to find the soundtrack of the darn thing on eMusic. I nabbed 10 of the 32 tracks and I'll probably go back for more.



* The 14 tracks I didn't get last month from  The Day The Earth Met The Rocket From the Tombs.  In case you forgot, these are lo-fi live recordings by the Cleveland band that included David Thomas of Pere Ubu and Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys not to mention the late punk wild man Peter Laughner.

This has future Ubu standards like "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," "Life Stinks" and "Final Solution."

But one of the best here is an upbeat Velvet Underground rocker, "Foggy Notion."

I'm no audiophile. I can appreciate this music in spite of the poor sound quality.(Sometimes I think these tracks were from cassettes that survived the Cambodian genocide.)  But I can't help but think how powerful this band would have sounded in a decent studio.

eMUSIC MAY

* The Best Of 1954-60 by Hylo Brown & The Timberliners. He never got to be as well known as his former bandmates Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, but Frank "Hylo" Brown is a bluegrass titan.

Brown got his nickname because of his vocal range -- he could sing high or low. His first hit was a cry-in-your moonshine bluegrass waltz  "Lost to a Stranger," (included here) recorded in 1954. That got him a recording contract with Capitol Records.

Three years he hooked up with Flatt & Scruggs. Then for awhile, Hylo Brown & The Timberliners became basically a B-Squad touring unit for Flatt & Scruggs for several years.

While the high-and-lonesome is his foundation, this collection shows that he could slip the surly bonds of bluegrass. A couple of songs here, featuring The Jordanaires on background vocals, show evidence of the early "Nashville Sound." His song "Stone Wall Around Your Heart" has an electric guitar solo, though I don't think anyone would argue that it's not pure hillbilly.

My favorite tracks here are "In the Clay Beneath the Tomb," about a guy who finds the grave of his sweetheart and "Get Lost, You Wolf"  in whih a country Romeo gets his comeuppance.

* Cajun Fais Do-Do. Hitchhiking Flashback -- August 1975. I was just outside Lake Charles, La., thumbing my way to new Orleans. A beat-up old station wagon stops to give me a lift. I did a double-take. The driver looked so much like Doug Kershaw, it was frightening -- dark hair, dark eyes, long sideburns, wearing a straw cowboy hat bent to come down between the eyes and accent his long nose.

His car radio was blasting a local station playing Cajun music. I told him I liked it. He smiled and said, "This is nothing. You should have been at my house when I was growing up. Every Saturday night after dinner, the neighbors would come over. And my parents and my grandparents would go get their instruments. And they would BOOGIE!"

I bet it sounded a lot like this album. 

* No Time For Dreaming by Charles Bradley. Here's the latest album offering from the mighty Daptone label. Bradley is a late bloomer, but I like this flower. His voice is rough and gritty and more than a little world-weary. His band is a tight little group that seems to be well-versed in the records of Otis Redding and Al Green.

I reviewed this fine album in Tune-up a couple of weeks ago. You can read the whole thing HERE.


PLUS 

* Five tracks from The Day The Earth Met The Rocket From the Tombs. These are lo-fi live recordings by the classic Cleveland band that had future members of Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys as well as the late self-destructive punk icon Peter Laughner.

My initial batch of downloads include the Rocket take on "Sonic Reducer" (which later wold become the Dead Boys' best-known anthem), a cover of The Stooges' "Raw Power" and a near six-minute slow burner called "Ain't It Fun," which sounds like a lost Dead Moon treasure. (I don't think Fred and Tootie ever covered this one, but Guns 'n' Roses did.)

More on this album in next month's eMusic report.

* Six tracks from Sun Recordings by Carl Perkins. I was astonished to learn that I didn't have these rockabilly classics in any form -- except on an old cassette tape I found in a local bargain bin about 25 years ago. My favorites here are "Right String Baby (But Wrong Yo Yo)" and "Her Love Rubbed Off," which sounds even spookier than the version by The Cramps.

eMusic April

* Louie Bluie Film Soundtrack by Howard Armstrong. About 30 years ago, my pal Alec turned me on to a fun little LP called Martin, Bogan & Armstrong. It was an old African-American string band recorded in the early '70s.

It wasn't "blues," there there were some bluesy tunes there. It wasn't "jug band." These guys were playing mainly pop and jazz tunes of bygone eras. The players were old guys but all excellent musician -- and they were full of Hell. They'd been playing together in various combinations since the '30s under names such as The Tennessee Chocolate Drops and The Four Keys.

For instance, they start out with a straight version of the  uptight WASPy frat  song "Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" (which before, I'd only heard performed by The Lettermen!) before they slip into a parody that was popular in the '20s ("She's the sweetheart of six other guys.") But my favorite MB&A song was "Do You Call That Buddy," which has a line that stuck with me for years: "If I had a million doughnuts, durn his soul, I wouldn't even give him a doughnut hole."

Just a few years ago I found Martin, Bogan & Armstrong on CD, as part of a twofer with a subsequent album That Old Gang of Mine. But even more recently I discovered a documentary called Louie Bluie made in the mid '80s directed by Terry Zwigoff, who is more famous for Crumb. The title character of Louie turns out to be fiddler/mandolinist Howard Armstrong. Also featured here is guitarist, singer Ted Bogan -- who catches continual unmerciful ribbing from Armstrong throughout the film.

The film tells the story of Armstrong (who got the nickname of "Louie Bluie" from a tipsy mortician's daughter) To quote Roger Ebert, "The movie is loose and disjointed, and makes little effort to be a documentary about anything. Mostly, it just follows Armstrong around as he plays music with Bogan, visits his Tennessee childhood home, and philosophizes on music, love and life." And I love it.

This soundtrack album on Arhoolie captures some of the greatest moments of the film, as well as some that didn't make the final cut. There's a delightfully filthy version of "Darktown Strutter's Ball." There's blues, gospel and jazz tunes. Also, a German waltz and a Polish tune. Yes, Armstrong, as he explains in the movie, was fluent in several languages, including Italian and a little Chinese. This, he said, helped him get gigs when he moved to Chicago.

Included on this album are some old songs originally released on 78rmp records, including some with Yank Rachell, who appears in the movie. A couple of these feature Sleepy John Estes on vocals.

Armstrong died in 2003 at the age of 94.

* Unentitled by Slim Cessna's Auto Club. This band often is billed as a "country gothic" band. Led by Cessna, who shares vocal duties with sidekick Jay Munly, the Auto Club often takes the guise as sinners in the hands of an angry God.

But on this album, which some critics are saying is the group's most accessible, so many songs are so upbeat and happy sounding, I really don't think the "gothic" label does them justice.

True, they've that 16 Horsepower banjo apocalypse vibe going full force on the first song, "Three Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro" a harrowing tale that deals with bloodhounds being set loose on some hapless target, perhaps an escaped prisoner.

However, the very next song takes off with an eye-opening, frantic, almost '90s ska-like beat. The music is fierce and thundering and not very "country." Then  the following song "Thy Will Done" gets back to the banjo with an almost raga-like melody and some otherworldly whistle instrument I've yet to identify. The only thing this one lacks is Tuvan throat singers.

That old time religion is a major theme with the Auto Club. The 7-minute "Hallelujah Anyway" is a twisted tale of an arranged wedding. But even better is the closing song, "United Brethren," an emotional song of a preacher losing his congregation to another church -- just as his great-grandfather had experienced. It's not a problem most of us will ever face, but as Munly pleads, "Lord have mercy upon us ..." in his lonesome tenor with just an autoharp behind him, only the the most hard-hearted heathen would be unmoved.

* The Swan Silvertones 1946-1951. And speaking of spiritual crisis, the song "A Mother's Cry" on this album starts out with "Oh this world is in confusion .." -- and the listener isn't confused at all. It's the story of a mother whose son is fighting overseas. I would guess Korea.

Yes, those post WWII years covered by this album were confusing times indeed and, probably not coincidentally, great years for Black gospel music as well.

Take  "Jesus is God's Atomic Bomb," another tune in this collection. The Silvertones sing, "Oh have you heard about the blast in Japan/How it killed so many people and scorched the land." But it gets scarier. "Oh it can kill your natural body, but the Lord can kill your soul ...'

Yikes! World in confusion indeed.

The Swan Silvertones was an a capella group led by the great Claude Jeter, a former coal miner from Kentucky who wrote many of the songs here, including the ones I mentioned. This album captured their years at King Records. They weren't as raw sounding as The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. They didn't have the irresistible personality of Sister Rosetta Tharpe or the sweet grace of Mahalia Jackson. But the Silvertones were solid and credible. And even now, a respite for confusing times.

* The tracks I didn't get last month from Hannibalism! by The Mighty Hannibal. This is not your average obscure lost '60s soul-shouter compilation. This album contains the greatest anti-war song of the Vietnam era that you've never heard. Written and recorded in 1966, "Hymn #5" is a first-person tale of a scared soldier. It's a minor-key moan that sounds like one of the spookiest minor-key gospel songs you can imagine.

"I'm waaaaayyyy over here, crawling' in these trench holes, covered with blood. But one thing that I know, (chorus comes in) There's no tomorrow, there's no tomorrow ..."


There's a sequel that came four years later -- following a stint in prison by Hannibal  for tax evasion -- another soldier's-eye-view of the war. It's good, but not a fraction as jolting as "Hymn #5."

I love Hannibal's early dance '60s tunes like "Jerkin' the Dog" (Settle down, Beavis!) and "Fishin' Pole." But I find his religious cautionary tales extremely fascinating. The moral of "The Truth Shall Make You Free" basically is that Jesus can help you kick heroin. Hardly original, but Hannibal sings with wild conviction. He was an addict for some years in the '60s. "There's nothin' I wouldn't do when I needed a fix/ I met the mother of my children goin', turning tricks," Hannibal testifies. And  its dark psychedelic/Blaxplotation guitar touches and the "Pappa Was a Rollin' Stone" bass line make you wonder why the song and the singer didn't become better known.

Even wilder is the final song, "Party Life." What can you say about a song that starts out "There was a pimp by my house the other day ..." Next thing you know, said pimp has taken the singer's daughter and she ends up in a hospital in Kentucky in such bad mental condition she doesn't even recognize her own dad. Seriously, people, keep those pimps away from your home!

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.

eMusic February

* Rock N' Roll '50s Blues Essentials This is a generous helping of blues and R&B. and one of those bargains you can find on eMusic that keep me coming back.

Just one problem. Many of the tracks were mislabeled. It looks as if there are duplicates of several songs, 11 in all. It's not eMusic's fault. The same album is listed on Amazon and iTunes with the same mistakes. It's probably the fault of the digital distributor.

This points to one of the problems with the digital age. Without an actual physical product in hand, it's way too easy to spread the wrong information about an album. And with obscure tracks, who'll know but the fanatics?

Using several internet sources, I was able to identify 6 of the mislabled songs. But 5 of them still stump me. I'm not sure of the artists on any of them. They are Track 2 (It might be called "Tommy T"), Track 6, which I'm pretty sure is called "Take the Hint"; Tracks 27, 28 and 37.If anyone has a clue, please let me know.

I stumbled across this while searching for some early stuff by Guitar Shorty, who played a benefit in Santa Fe last month for our mutual friend Kenny Delgado. In this collection I found an early tune by Shorty called "Ways of a Man." It's a funny little tune about all men basically being scumbags.

Among my other favorites here are "The Hunt" by Sonny Boy Williamson, which is a humorous novelty tune about coon dogs, the two (!) Ligntnin' Hopkins rockers and Jesse Knight's "Nothing But Money." If Big Joe Turner was the Boss of the Blues, Jesse sounds like his thug enforcer.

But the compilers might have saved their best for the first here. "Get Your Clothes and Let's Go" by Crown Prince Waterford probably sounded pretty risque back in the '50s. Now it's just crazy fun. (Unfortunately this opening song is one of the mislabled tracks.)

* Calypsos From Trinidad: Politics, Intrigue and Violence in the 1930's  by Various Artists. Another great Arhoolie compilation.

What is it about calypso that can even make a song about injustice, poverty and murder sound almost ...  happy? You hear very little outrage or despair in these songs. The singers -- who have cool stage names like Growling Tiger, Roaring Lion, Tiger, Atilla the Hun and The Executor -- skewer their politicians with a wise, sly smile and wicked lyrics.

Somehow these singers pull off political protest without the self-righteousness of so many American folkies or the pre-fab poser rage of second-rate rappers.

Wouldn't it have been great if we'd had Lord Executor around here in New Mexico to sing "Treasury Scandal" during the whole Robert Vigil /Michael Montoya mess.

Of course, politicians in Trinidad often were not amused. In fact "Sedition Law" by King Radio deals with censorship of the calypso menace.

(Beware! There's lots of mislabeling on this album too. Among other thins, they took the "growling" and "Roaring" from the Tiger and the Lion. Get it together, e-Music!)



* Sanders' Truckstop by Ed Sanders. Here's further proof that I have unhealthy obsessions about music.

Back in my early years of college, I remember KUNM playing this funny faux-country song called "Jimmy Joe, The Hippybilly Boy." Sung by Ed Sanders, a founding member of The Fugs, it's about a long-haired country boy who meets a tragic end.

I'd looked for this for years but was unable to find it. I'm not sure what made me think of  "Jimmy Joe" recently, but I looked up Sanders on eMusic and lo and behold ...

I probably should have just downloaded that song. It's still funny to me. There may be a couple of others -- For instance, "The Iliad," which is the tale of the legendary shit-kicking homophobe Johnny Pissoff. And maybe "Banshee," which is about one of Satan's demon lovers.

But most of the rest of the album doesn't hold up. The hippie humor is dated and Sander's fake hick accent gets annoying. If you want to hear really funny, really warped music about rednecks and hippies, check out Twisted Tales from the Vinyl Wastelands Volume 4: Hippie in a Blunder.

In Ed's defense though, you could argue that his work was a precursor to Mojo Nixon, Angry Johnny & The Killbillies and maybe even Southern Culture on the Skids (though none of the Hemptones can pick a guitar anything like SCOTS' Rick Miller can.)

PLUS:

* The 16 tracks I didn't get last month from Soundway Records Presents The Sound of Siam : Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam from Thailand 1964 - 1975. The Soundways label never ceases to amaze me. It's best known for its compilations of amazing African rock, funk and soul. Now they've turned their ears to Asia.

There's some cross-cultural hijinx that would make 3 Mustaphas 3's heads spin. For instnace "Diew Sor Diew Caan" by Thong Huad & Kunpan basically is an Irish fiddle reel gone Siamese.

You can find direct influences from Western rock and pop in these grooves. Because none of the songs on this Soundways collection are sung in English, it's not as obvious as the Thai Beat a Go-Go collections where you find Siamese versions of songs like "Hit the Road Jack," "Lady Madonna" and Hank Williams' Kaw-Liga.

But on "Sao Lam Plearn," The Petch Phin Thong Band draws straight from "Jumping Jack Flash, " And in the middle of "Kai Tom Yum" by Kawaw Siang Thong, the melody seems to change to that of Leo Sayer's 1970s AM Radiio sap hit "More Than I Can Say." (But since Leo didn't release that song until the late '70s, Thong probably got the tune from the earlier version by Bobby Vee.)

For those who don't speak the language, the rueful laughter and dialog toward the end of "Kai Tom Yum" by Kawaw Siang Thong might sound sinister, like foreign mobsters about to commit some atrocity.

But it doesn't get anywhere as sinister as The Viking Combo Band's "Pleng Yuk Owakard" The title means "Space Age Music," but with its Dirty Dog bass, shouted lyrics, machine-gun drums and weirdo organ, it sounds like a murder after hours at a roller rink. (This song was included on Thai Beat a Go-Go Volume 1. Except there it's called "Phom Rak Khoon Tching Thing (I Really Do Love You)")


* Two songs from Battle of the Jug Bands. I'd never heard of any of these groups on this album, released in 2000. But who cares? The beauty of jug band music is that anyone with the proper spirit (and in some cases, proper spirits) can play it. The album is connected with an actual annual event, the "Battle of the Jug Bands," which takes place in Minneapolis every weekend after the Superbowl.

I picked up jug band versions of "Kung Fu Fighting" by a group called Girls on Top and the Rolling Stones classic "Sweet Virginia" -- a natural for a jug band treatment -- by Hoakim Yoakim & The Eggwhites. More on this album next month.

eMusic January

* New Hope for the Wretched/Metal Priestess by The Plasmatics. I recently rented a DVD of the late Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show interviews with "punk and New Wave" groups -- which also includes the performances of the bands and musicians, In fact, it includes the entire shows. The Rev. Rex Humbard, the world's first televangelist  was a guest on the show the night that Wendy O. Williams and the boys blew up a car in the NBC studios while performing the song "Masterplan.". The good Rev.was surprisingly mellow about the band. Less tolerant preachers would have condemned them as porn-rock demons from Hell.

And, oh yeah, they played music -- basically a metal edged punk rock -- or punk-edged metal. Undoubtedly they were more impressive live -- with all their explosives and chainsaws and Wendy wearing nothing on her breasts but band-aids, etc.-- than in the studio.

Still, The Plasmatics are a lot of fun on record.   I like "Monkey Suit," which reminds me a little of "The Electric Prunes' "Get Me to the World on Time" and "Black Leather Monster." And this album, which includes their 1980 album and a 1981 EP (Metal Priestess)  includes several live tracks, including "Sex Junkie," "Squirm" and "Masterplan," which unfortunately isn't the Tomorrow Show version.

* '50s Rockabilly Hellraisers. Here's another impressive rockabilly obscurities bargain from a mysterious re-issue label called Rock-A-Billy. Just a few months ago, I got another one from eMusic -- 1950s Rock N' Roll & Rockabilly Rare Masters.

That one had 56 tracks. Hellraisers has 70, for a mere $5.99. Sure, I already had a handful of these, but still, what a bargain!

Some of my favorites here include "Switchblade Sam" by Jeff Daniels, which tells a tale tale involving Stagger Lee and Charlie Brown (The Coasters' hero not the Peanuts character. I assume); "Boppin' Wig Wam Willie" by Ray Scott (Are these cartoonish  1950s depictions of Native Americans actually racist or innocent fun. Talk amongst yourselves); "Move Over Buddy," a space travel novelty by Billy Jack Hale a no-wonder-you-never-hear-this-on-the-radio rocker, "Quicksand Love" by Macy Skipper, which features the immortal line, "I'm like an elevator, I'm goin' down all the time." YIKES!

There also are hree tunes by Mississippi rockabilly Andy Anderson, who lived a few years in New Mexico, including "Johnny Valentine," "Tough Tough, Tough," and "You Shake Me Up."



* The 31 tracks I didn't get last month from  A Night On The Town With The Rat Pack. The sound quality's not great, but that's easily overlooked by pure entertainment quality

Back when I was a kid in the '60s, I considered music like this to be somewhat of a guilty pleasure. This was your parent's music. So here's a lesson for today's youth: Wipe your nose, junior. Your parents probably are a lot hipper than you thought.


Plus:

* Nine tracks from Cameo Parkway 1957-1967. I heard The Dovells' "You Can't Sit Down" for the first time in years in a supermarket a few days ago and I was shocked and ashamed that it wasn't in my collection. I looked it up on eMusic and found this four-disc treasure trove.

Cameo-Parkway was a Philadelphia label best known for hitmakers Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker -- neither of whom I'm particularly wild about. But they also were home to Dee Dee Sharpe and The Orlons, two acts that twisted my head off as a youngster. In fact, in the early '60s, before Motown dominated the soul-pop market, Cameo-Parkway was the true "sound of young America." (And by the mid '60s, it also was the home to ? & The Mysterians -- though I already have all three of the songs on this collection.)

The Orlons always created a musical party that sounded like a lot more fun than most parties I've ever been to. "So Much in Love" by The Tymes still is one of of the most soulful doo-wop songs I've ever heard. And Dee Dee's "Gravy on My Mashed Potatoes" sounds as if it's based on a double entendre that I still can't quite figure out.

Among the other tunes I picked up are selections by Screamin' Lord Sutch ("She's Fallen in Love With the Monster Man"), Johnny Maestro ("I'll Be True," apparently from that period between The Crests and The Brooklyn Bridge) and Don Covay ("The Popeye Waddle," apparently a dance craze that never quite caught on.) And there's a great R&B version of Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin'" by a group called Billy Abbott & The Jewels. I'll be coming back for more here.

* Three tracks from Soundway Records Presents The Sound of Siam : Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam from Thailand 1964 - 1975. I'll write in detail about this next month when I pick up the rest of the tracks. Let's just say for now that this is a step or two beyond the wild and wonderful Thai Beat a Go-Go series, two volumes of which I downloaded on eMusic years ago. And, judging from what I've heard, it's worthy of Soundway's collections of African funk and psychedelia I've loved in recent years.

And for the holidaze ...

* "Christmas in Las Vegas" and "Jingle Bells" by Richard Cheese. (Both from Silent Nightclub) and "Christmas Lights" by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire (from Christmas 1979 I'm slowly acquiring the whole album.)

eMusic December

Last month eMusic made a deal with another of the major labels -- Universal. In doing so, they lost several independent labels, including Matador and Merge.

They also changed their pricing structure. It's in dollars and sense now instead of credits. The prices also slightly increased -- 49 cents for most tracks. Plus, eMusic no longer allows you to download for free tracks you've already paid for. (So be sure to back up your digital music collection!)

That's all bad news. But the good news is a lot of the cool labels -- Norton, Crypt, In the Red, Voodoo Rhythm, Bloodshot, etc are still there. And there's still lots of good deals on albums, especially on the older stuff. And it's till cheaper than either iTunes or Amazon.

Here's what I've downloaded from eMusic in the last month:

* The Wild Man by Hasil Adkins. This was the Haze's sophomore Hunch album in the late '80s. Back in 1986, Billy Miller and Miriam Linna  decided to launch a record company to unleash this West Virginia backwoods one-man-band's early recordings --  which go back to the 1950s. That compilation, Out to Hunch was the birth of  Norton Record.  For The Wild Man, they let him loose in a studio for a fresh bunch of recordings.

And happily, the result was pure Punchy Wunchy Wickey Wackey Woo. Most of the tracks are just Adkins singing, playing guitar and playing the bass drum with his foot -- though on a few cuts he's aided, minimally, by various members of the A-Bones. Nobody gets their head cut off here, but it's still a lot of fun.

In addition to his own crazed tunes -- "Chicken Flop," "Big Red Satellite" and "Wild, Wild Friday Night" are classic -- Adkins also performs several tunes by the likes of The Carter Family, Carl Perkins, Jimmie Rodgers and Merle Haggard (a slow and heartfelt "Turning Off a Memory"). But my favorite cover here is a hunchin' take on Jumpin' Gene Simmons' Halloween classic "Haunted House."

* Live In Hollywood '91 by Lavern Baker. The first time I heard the song "Bumble Bee," performed by the under-rated British Invasion group, The Searchers, I thought it was a real bitchen song.

The first time I heard it done by LaVerne Baker, I nearly covered my head for fear of getting stung.

Baker was one of the most powerful R&B performers of the 1950s and early '60s. She's best known for her hit "Jim Dandy" and the follow-up "Jim Dandy Got Married" (I forgive her for accidentally spawning Black Oak, Arkansas), but for my money Baker's best was the song about that bumble bee (an evil bumble bee!)

Baker was on the comeback trail by the time she recorded this live album in 1991, six years before her death. Past her prime for sure, and her band lacked that first-generation R&B urgency. And yes, there's too many easy-listening standards like "That's My Desire" and "What a Difference a Day Makes Here" (though LaVern injects a lot of soul into these chestnuts). But still, it's a good listen. "Tomorrow Night," which she recorded in the '50s, (I'm most familiar with Elvis' version) is full of irresistible emotion, as is is her 1959 hit  "I Cried a Tear."

But my favorite one here has to be the grand finale, the  Lieber & Stoller novelty classic, "Saved,"
 the Salvation Army spoof, which was a title cut of a Baker album in 1961. "I used to cuss, i used to fuss/I used to cuss and fuss and boogie all night long!" she sings. Elvis did this song on his '68 "comeback special," The Band covered it on Moondog Matinee and , yes, I used to do it in my cheesy nightclub act in the '70s and '80s. But nobody did it like LaVern.



* Outta Here by The Gories. This 1992 album was the last album for this Detroit trio, whose stature and reputation continued to grow long after the group broke up. (They started doing reunion shows a couple of years ago. I saw them in New York last summer -- that's where I snapped the picture to the left.)

With Mick Collins (who later formed The Dirtbombs) and Dan Kroha on guitars and vocals and Peggy O'Neil bashing the drums, The Gories billed themselves as "punk blues. Along with their originals, they covered blues and R&B classics in their minimalist, primitive style.

One of my favorites here is "Great Big Idol With the Golden Head," which Leiber & Stoller wrote for The Coasters. They also do a tune called "Crawdad," which basically is a rewrite of Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley."

But best of all on this record is "There But For the Grace of God Go I," which came from a late '70s New York disco group called Machine. The song is a story of a couple of immigrants who try hard to protect their baby daughter. But by the time she's 16 she's running wild and ends up running away. The Gories cut it down to its basics and it sounds even more urgent the original.

You gotta give The Gories credit: They gave it their all to the very end. Though they were ready to break up by the time this was recorded, this definitely does not have the feel of some contractual obligation product or document.

PLUS

* The seven songs I didn't already have from Evol. by Sonic Youth. This was Sonic Youth back in 1986, back before hardly anyone knew them. Back before hardly anyone else was trying to sound like them. No Wave had already crested and Grunge was waiting to be born.

But still there was Sonic Youth exploring those strange darkened corridors of sound.

Highlights of Evol include "Shadow of a Doubt," which might be Kim Gordon's sexiest vocal ever; "In the Kingdom #19," in which the lyrics, which tell of a car crash, are spoken by Lee Ranaldo, reminding me of The Velvet Underground's "The Gift"; and the 7-minute excursion "Expressway to Yr Skull," that sounds like folk-rock played by Neptunians.

*Seven tracks from  A Night on the Town With the Rat Pack by Frank, Dino & Sammy.

How can you not love these guys? This might not be rock 'n' roll, but the power, swagger and humor of these monsters shares a lot of common ground with the rock beast.


I'm not sure what the circumstances of this album are -- not even when it was recorded. (As for the where -- there's references to Chicago as well as St. Louis, so you have to assume these performances were taken from more than one night on the town.)
 
There's plenty of good old-fashioned fucking around here, ("What kind of fool am I," sings Sammy as he begins his famous hit. "You're a schmuck!" Sinatra answers.) But when they get ready to rare back and sing a song, their talent is unmatched. And the Count Basie band plays on at least several of these numbers.

I spent the last of my month's allotment on songs from this album. I'll pick up the remaining 31 tracks when my account refreshes.