Friday, December 28, 2007

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BEST OF 2007

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 28, 2007


This past year wasn’t a bad one for music. Not a landmark year, but there was a lot of good stuff — if you know where to look for it.

I realize my best-album list is full of old favorites — Nick Cave, Bettye LaVette, The Fall, The White Stripes, Peter Case, The Band’s Levon Helm. What can I say? I’m becoming an oldster and somewhat predictable in my tastes. But the truth is, some of these artists released their most vital work in years, and they need to be recognized for it.

Here are lists of my favorites in 2007.

Best albums

1) Super Taranta! by Gogol Bordello. If The Pogues were Ukrainian, if The Clash had been raised in a Gypsy caravan, and if Brave Combo had a New York snarl, then they might be Gogol Bordello. Super Taranta! is a lusty, vodka-fueled stomp that not only has the band’s trademark Gypsy craziness but also delves into dub reggae and Italian music.

2) The Scene of the Crime by Bettye LaVette. With her slightly raspy voice and impeccable taste in material, Bettye is on fire. She’s backed here by The Drive-By Truckers, which sounds like Muscle Shoals: The Next Generation. The Truckers’ contribution makes for a harder-edged sound than heard on previous LaVette efforts, but the band never overwhelms her. In fact, these guys seem to inspire her.

3) Grinderman by Grinderman. Rock ’n’ roll supposedly is a young man’s game — traditionally, some of the best of it is created by horny, sexually frustrated young guys. But with his latest band Grinderman, Nick Cave proves that horny, sexually frustrated middle-aged men can rock, too. Cave rocks harder here than he has since his 1980s band The Birthday Party. But the middle-aged Cave of Grinderman seems even more dangerous than the bellowing junkie of his old group.

4) Miracle of Five by Eleni Mandell. Mandell has just about the sexiest voice in showbiz today. This album drives home this point. This is contemporary torch music with subtle touches of film noir. It makes great background music for reading Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald or even James Ellroy.

5) Icky Thump by The White Stripes. Jack and Meg return to their basic guitar/drum attack. Jack plays his guitar like a maniac and warbles like the reincarnation of Marc Bolan hopped up on trucker crank. Meg is playing drums less like Moe Tucker and more like The Mighty Thor.

6) Dirt Farmer by Levon Helm. A throat-cancer survivor, Helm has nursed his vocal cords back to health, and his new solo album shows him in fine form. The voice that brought us “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is back. And the material here is worthy of that voice.

7) Favourite Worst Nightmare by The Arctic Monkeys. This one sneaked up on me. I started out prejudiced against this young band of Brits because a couple of years ago they were the hot new gonna-conquer-the-world buzz band. But toward the end of the year I realized that I was enjoying this, their sophomore effort, more than almost anything else released this year.

8) Rise Above by Dirty Projectors. Here’s one of the strangest new albums I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a remake of songs from Black Flag’s 1981 punk rock classic Damaged. But instead of slavishly reverent recreations, Dave Longstreth (the main Projector) filters Black Flag tunes through his own private universe. It doesn’t sound close to what normal mortals consider punk rock — except when Longstreth’s voice turns from a creepy croon to a grating scream during otherwise pretty musical passages.


9) Reformation Post TLC by The Fall. Thirty years on the road and Mark E. Smith is still cranking out his crazy brand of rant ’n’ roll, shouting his incomprehensible, half-comical lyrics over steady, driving beats; bubbly, fizzly synth noises; and ever-tasty, irresistible, garage-band guitar riffs. It’s a tried-and-true formula and one from which the former dockworker from Manchester, England, rarely strays. But dagnabbit, the darn thing still works.


10) Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John by Peter Case. This album — which is almost all acoustic and is named for late Tennessee bluesman John Estes — harks back in spirit to Case’s early solo albums. It’s good to know that troubadours as vital as Case are still among us.

Honorable mention

1) Thirteen Cities by Richmond Fontaine
2) 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
3) Wagonmaster by Porter Wagoner
4) Dangerous Game by Mary Weiss
5) Push Comes to Shove by John Hammond

Best reissues

1) I Hate CDs: Norton Records 45 RPM Singles Collection Vol. 1 by various artists
2) Lullabys, Legends and Lies by Bobby Bare
3) Stand in the Fire by Warren Zevon4) Pardon Me, I’ve Got Someone to Kill by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
5) Hentch-Forth.Five by The Hentchmen
Best Music DVDS1) The Best of The Johnny Cash TV Show
2) Voodoo Rhythm: The Gospel of Primitive Rock ’n’ Roll
3) Fancy (Les Claypool live)
4) UFOs at the Zoo (Flaming Lips live)
5) Bloodied but Unbowed: Bloodshot Records’ Life in the Trenches

Thursday, December 27, 2007

R.I.P. BEN ALTAMIRANO


State Senate President Pro-Tem Ben Altamirano, who was elected to the state Senate in 1970 (when I was a senior in high school!) died the his home in Silver City. He was 77.

The Associated Press had no details of his death Thursday night.

I'll miss Ben. He was always a gentleman who treated people with respect.

Gov. Richardson released a statement about the senator:

"I am deeply saddened by the passing of a great New Mexican and my dear friend, Benny Altamirano," Governor Bill Richardson said. "Benny was a true statesman whosesoft-spoken demeanor and love for the state of New Mexico helped earn him the respect of everyone who crossed his path. Benny will be dearly missed. Barbara and Isend our condolences to Benny's wife, Nina, and his entire family."

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 27, 2007


’Twas the day after Christmas, and few creatures were stirring at the Roundhouse. Is it just the usual post-holiday, pre-Legislature lull? Or has everyone gone to Iowa to help Bill Richardson’s campaign?

Richardson apparently was around the Capitol at least for a short time Wednesday morning. He did an interview with Russ Mitchell on CBS News’ The Early Show, and the backdrop looked like the Capitol television studio.

But he wasn’t there long. According to his campaign schedule, Richardson had a “presidential job interview” in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at 12:30 p.m.


And it’s not certain when he’ll be back. The Iowa caucuses are just one week from today, with the New Hampshire primary only five days after that.

That gives the gov just one week to write his State of the State address, which traditionally kicks off the annual session of the state Legislature — and comes only four days before the Nevada primary.

Downplaying expectations: His campaign e-mail pitches are breathlessly upbeat about Richardson’s chances in Iowa. “I wish you could see this!” said one missive last week. “You just wouldn’t believe what’s going on here in Iowa. ... I can hear the crowd shouting, ‘We want Bill! We want Bill!’ ”

But Richardson seemed in recent interviews to be downplaying expectations for Iowa, where, according to Real Clear Politics, his average poll number is just above 6 percent — a distant fourth place behind Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

For months, Richardson has said his goal is to be in the top three in Iowa. That’s still the case, but on Wednesday, he told CBS’ Mitchell that a fourth place finish there wouldn’t kill his chances. “It slows it down a little bit,” the governor allowed.

“But I’m continuing on to New Hampshire,” he said. “I feel I need to be in the top three there. Nevada, a Western state, which should be good for me — top three. And then we head into the Feb. 5 primaries, which contain California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma — states where I will do well.”
RICHARDSON SPEAKS
However, according to the polls, Richardson isn’t doing much better in New Hampshire. Real Clear Politics has his average at 7 percent in recent polls there. And in California, most recent polls show Richardson in the low single digits.

In Nevada, his poll average is only 5.7 percent, again a distant fourth.

Richardson didn’t mention the Jan. 26 South Carolina primary, where he’s running in fifth place with a poll average of 1.8 percent.

“You know, I’m going to win this thing,” Richardson said Wednesday on CBS. “You watch this. You watch. You guys better start covering me because I’m going to win and then you’re going to be, ‘Oh, geez, where did this guy come from?’ ”

(UPDATE: I just came across a fresh poll in Oklahoma, one of the states Richardson mentioned. According to The Tulsa World, he's pulling 4 percent in the Sooner State.)

Cheating and yelling: Richardson hasn’t just been talking about boring stuff like caucuses and primaries to CBS lately. Recently, he and all the other presidential candidates were asked by anchorwoman Katie Couric about their attitudes on infidelity and losing their tempers.

Couric didn’t, however, ask the candidates if they’d lost their temper during infidelity.

She asked Richardson, “Many people say they don’t feel comfortable supporting someone who’s not remained faithful to their spouse. Why should they?”

The governor replied, “Well, I think this is ... if you’re — if you’re not faithful to your wife, you’re not faithful to the country, to your ideals. You’re not faithful to the spirit in which Americans trust their political leaders. And they expect them to ... have a sense of honor.

“Nobody’s perfect,” Richardson continued. “I’ve been married to Barbara for 35 years. We’ve had our differences, our difficulties, but we’ve stayed together. But I think being faithful is ... an essential component of any relationship. It’s whether a voter can trust you to ... be thinking about the common good as opposed to personal ambition or anything else.”

Couric then asked whether Richardson thinks infidelity is reason enough not to vote for someone.

“I don’t think so,” he said, “I think that, you know, infidelity is ... a serious problem in any marriage. But, you know, everybody sins. And it’s whether you’re forgiven, whether you forgive yourself, whether you have faith in God. You know, perfection ... is something that politicians, they should not stand themselves for perfection. Nobody’s perfect. "

When asked when the last time he lost his temper was, Richardson said, “I lost my temper last night when I was bone tired and I couldn’t find the bathroom light. I’d flown in from New Mexico. And I was in the hotel. And I couldn’t find the bathroom light, and I got mad and lost my temper.

“But thankfully, it was just with myself,” he said. “That was the last time I lost my temper. But I do that frequently. You know, I’m somebody that sometimes needs to cool down my fuses.”

“What happens when you lose your temper?” Couric asked.

“Well ... I just get — a little bit of an inner rage. I never — well, sometimes I take it out on people. But it — but it ends quickly. It’s because I demand a lot from myself, and I expect others to. But that’s a little side of me that I’d like to control a little bit.”

According to a transcript of the interview, Richardson added, “Praise others a little more. Thank people more. But in the end, sometimes I lose my temper and — and — and yell a little bit.”

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

KUNM YEAR-END WRAP-UP

I meant to plug this earlier.

I was part of a panel of reporters, along with Trip Jennings of the Albuquerque Journal and Jim Williams and Steve Shadley of KUNM, talking about 2007's top stories in New Mexico.

We recorded it last week. It will be broadcast at 8 a.m. Thursday morning on KUNM, 89.9 FM.

FAIRYTALE OF SHANE


Lots of cool people were born on Christmas. Jesus, Cab Calloway and Shane MacGowan.

Yes, the former frontman of The Pogues (and whatever happened to The Popes?) and the writer of one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Fairytale of New York" just celebrated his 50th birthday. (Thanks to Frank for pointing this out.)

Some people seem shocked that Shane made it to 50. But come on, Keith Richards is past 60 and Jerry Lee Lewis is in his 70s.

Personally, I'm just surprised that Shane is younger than me.

Happy birthday, blessed drunkard! I'm a day late, but I bet you're still celebrating.

Monday, December 24, 2007

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 23, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM

THE STEVE TERRELL CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Silent Night by Bad Religion
Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy by Buck Owens
Egg Nog by the Rockin' Guys
Santa On the Roof by The Rev. Horton Heat
Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope by Sonic Youth
Christmas is Just Another Day by Johnny Dowd
Be-Bop Santa Claus by Be-Bop Santa Claus
Gloria by Elastica
Even Squeaky Fromme Loves Christmas by Rev. Glen Armstrong
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Beatlemas

Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year by James Brown
Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto by Snoop Doggie Dogg
It's Christmastime (Part 1) by James Brown

Christmas Boogie by Canned Heat & The Chipmunks
Santa Claus Boogie by Hasil Adkins
Don't Believe in Christmas by The Sonics
Christmas in Jail by The Soul Deacons

THE CHRISTMAS RAT Do You Hear What I Hear? by Imagene Peise
Ao Tumhen Chand Pe by Asha Bhosle
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by BeauSoleil
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl
Mele Kalikimaka by Petty Booka
Deck the Halls by The Klezmonauts
Green Chili Christmas by Robert Mirabal
Christmas Time is Coming (A Street Carol) by Stormy Weather

Happy the Christmas Clown by Conway Twitty & Twitty Bird
Your Christmas Whiskey by Minus Five
Oh Holy Night by Brian Wilson
It Being Nearly Christmas Eve by Jack Clift
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon
Silent Night/What Christmas Means by Dion
Star of Wonder by The Roches
Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Sunday, December 23, 2007

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS VIDEO!

Here's a worthwhile video for a worthwhile charitable program, the Art Street project at Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless. What s the program? Watch the video.

Fellow New Mexico blogger and a true compassionate conservative Mario Burgos says his company Mudhouse Advertising, will give $1 for every unique visitor that views the video between now and the end of the year.

So click away. If you've got a blog or Web site, post it.

Merry Christmas.


Saturday, December 22, 2007

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

ALERT: Apparently the 90.7 signal isn't working. But 101.1 FM is.

Friday, December 21, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Now 101.1 FM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Oxycontin Blues by Steve Earle
Big Ol' White Boys by Terry Allen
Bongo Ride by Jon Rauhouse
Cowboy Logic by Michael Martin Murphey
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Livc? by Tim O'Brien
Got Me a Woman by Levon Helm
Jole Louise by Daniel Lanois
Lonely Christmas Call by George Jones

Hey Sexy by Robbie Fulks
When the Whiskey Turns to Tears by Cornell Hurd
The Outcast by Dave Van Ronk with Tom Russell
East Side Boys by Martin Zellar
Lou's Got the Flu by Roger Miller
Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keen
$500 Car by Ed Pettersen
Heroes and Villains by Geraint Watkins
Blue Christmas Lights by Chris & Herb

Old Man From the Mountain by The Gourds
Dark Holler by David Bromberg
Walk You Home by Marlee MacLeod
Maybe Mexico by Jerry Jeff Walker
$87 and a Guilty Conscious That Gets Worse the Longer I Go by Richmond Fontaine
Six Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
I'll Be Home For Christmas by The Old 97s

Boxcar by Neil Young
We Never Touch at All by Merle Haggard
Your Great Journey by The Handsome Family
Invitation to Your Party by Jerry Lee Lewis
Can Man Christmas by Joe West
Fare Thee Well Sweet Malley by Robin Williamson
Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends by Joan Osbourne
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Friday, December 21, 2007

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: ROCK'S GLORIOUS UNDERBELLY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 21, 2007


If you’re looking for a grand tour of rock ’n’ roll’s glorious underbelly, you shouldn’t miss I Hate CDs: Norton Records 45 RPM Singles Collection Vol. 1.

This compilation — 45 tracks in all — sums up what Norton records is all about — crazy R & B, reckless rockabilly, garage-band snot, immortal punk rock. This music is raw, rowdy, and sometimes raunchy as it thumbs its metaphorical nose at any precious, prissy, pretentious, and self-important airs that rock all too often acquires.

Norton Records, which specializes in primitive rock, was founded in the 1980s by Billy Miller and Miriam Linna. As shown on this compilation, the label happily plays with fire.

This is the devil’s music, the evil jungle sounds the preachers and the White Citizens’ Council originally warned us about — dangerous-sounding stuff that leads to juvenile delinquency, sex, miscegenation, and eventually to an eternity in hell. Much of the material is from the ’50s and ’60s, but it’s far too unrefined for oldies radio. Not that its lyrics are obscene; most of the artists here don’t need to use dirty words to sound outright filthy.

True to the name of the compilation, I Hate CDs isn’t available on compact disc. But you can download any or all tracks at iTunes, Amazon.com, and eMusic.

There are some impressive names on I Hate CDs, some that you might even recognize. There are a couple of Ramones rarities — demos of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” and “Judy Is a Punk.” Question Mark and The Mysterians have a tune here as does rockabilly great Dale Hawkins (most famous for “Susie Q”), guitar killer Link Wray (who does an instrumental called “Vendetta”), and a young Doug Sahm, who sings “Slow Down” with a band called The Pharaohs (but I don’t think these are Sam the Sham’s boys).

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (who comes from “Lubbock by way of Mars,” according to his own hype) provides the title song to the collection. (“The Ledge” is a high school chum of Joe Ely, who speaks his name with the highest praise. But I’m still waiting for a Flatlanders cover of an LSC song.)

There’s a good, scary Screamin’ Jay Hawkins song I’d never heard before called “I Hear Voices.” What I like best about this tune— besides Jay’s sceamin’ of course — is the weird soprano voice that accompanies him at the end of the track.

Raspy-voiced soul man Andre Williams provides one of the few philosophical discussions. “The Monkey Speaks His Mind” is about someone objecting to the notion of man coming from the apes. Of course, the one objecting is an ape. “No monkey ever deserted his wife, starved his babies, and ruined their life.”

R & B icon Don Covay — called Don “Pretty Boy” Covay here — has a raucous little ode to wife swapping on this collection called “Switchin’ in the Kitchen.” And for fans of Kill Bill and those Vonage commercials, the Japanese girl punks The 5.6.7.8’s (known for their cover of the Rock-a-Teens’ “Woo Hoo”) do a fierce version of “The Harlem Shuffle.”

Big Star, the ’70s band led by Alex Chilton, provides one of the album’s poppier moments, a song called “September Gurls.”

Several mainstays of Norton (“the label with the able stable,” as they call themselves) are represented on this compilation. There’s Esquerita, a 6-foot-6-inch, one-eyed, pompadoured transvestite, who, according to legend, taught Little Richard to play piano. Hasil Adkins, the late wild man of West Virginia, sings one of his fine-feathered chicken songs, “Chicken Shake.” (A few years ago, Norton released an entire Adkins album of this curious subgenre. It’s called Poultry in Motion.) There’s Mary Weiss, former singer of The Shangri-Las, whose wonderful “comeback” album Dangerous Games was released on Norton earlier this year. A “bonus song” from that album, a cover of “A Certain Guy,” is on this collection.

And the Norton house band, The A-Bones (featuring Miller and Linna), have a couple of tracks here. “Stop It Baby” features former Flamin’ Groovies singer Roy Loney, and “New Spark” has unsung rockabilly hero Johnny Powers.

Of course, the real fun is discovering the truly obscure artists. Who the heck is Stud Cole? Apparently this Stud’s a rockabilly who never got his due. His contribution here, “The Witch” (not The Sonics’ hit by the same name), makes me want more.

Bunker Hill just might be the craziest soul man you’ve never heard of; he does a rollicking tune called “The Girl Can’t Dance,” which features Link Wray on guitar. “The Limp” by the Incredible Kings is how I imagined all cool, swingin’ parties would sound back when I was a kid.

“Puddy Cat” by Wade Curtiss and the Rhythm Rockers is a goofy, so-weird-it’s-beautiful parody of The Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird” — as if that trash-rock classic needed a parody. Instead of the refrain “papa oom mow mow” of the original song, Curtiss sings “mamma meow mow.”

Speaking of surfing, you’ve got to hear “Surfside Date” by The Triumphs. Not having any liner notes, I don’t know if this was recorded in the ’60s or last month. Whatever the case might be, surf music rarely sounded as primordial.

And if Hasil Adkins didn’t satisfy your hunger for chicken songs, there’s an even crazier tune called “Chicken” by an unknown shouter named Jack Starr.

If you’re an audiophile, beware. Some tracks definitely are lo-fi. Of course, if you’re that much of an audiophile purist you probably wouldn’t like this primitive stuff anyway.

Don't forget to check out the cool drag race-style audio promo over at Norton's MySpace page.

The Steve Terrell Christmas Special: A Santa Fe tradition. Hear Snoop Doggy Dogg, The Pogues, James Brown, Joan Jett, The Trashmen, and Roger Miller sing the songs we love this season at 10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, on KSFR-FM 101.1.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

THE TRIB'S LOSS IS OUR GAIN


Here's a little shop talk:

The New Mexican has taken advantage of the Albuquerque Tribune's situation by hiring two of its reporters.

I'm especially pleased that we've hired Kate Nash to help out at the Capitol Bureau. She's done this for years for the Trib and that other Albuquerque paper and knows as much, if not not more, than I do about where the bones are buried at the Roundhouse.

We've also hired Sue Vorenberg, who covers science and health for the Trib. She'll cover science, technology and energy for the New Mexican, and will cover health while Diana Del Mauro remains on maternity leave.

Both Kate and Sue will start in January.

We've been short-handed at The New Mexican. In recent weeks we've lost my bureau partner Dave Miles, Andy Lenderman and Wendy Brown. Things are looking up.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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