TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, June 6, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Birdhouse in Your Soul by They Might Be Giants
Lightning's Girl by Nancy Sinatra
Youth Against Fascism by Sonic Youth
Heart Full of Soul by The Yardbirds
I Think of Demons by Roky Erickson
Tele Novella by Cellophane Typewriters
Silver Naked Ladies by Paul Westerberg
Mudflap Girl by Timbuk 3

Fake Blood by Mission of Burma
Right of Way by The Von Bondies
Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine by Country Joe & The Fish
The Day Industry Decided to Stop by The Three Johns
Strobe Light by The B52s
Ignoreland by R.E.M.
Sweethearts by Camper Van Beethoven

Cash by Patti Smith
Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life by Prince
Careless Eithiopians by Toots & The Maytals with Keith Ricahrds
At the Border Guy by Joe Strummer
Hollyweird by Wolfboy & The Fantods
Jhumka Gira Re by Asha Bhosle

Phil and Jerry by Mylab
Only You by Portishead
Riff Blues by Skip Martin
Two Thousand Places by The Polyphonic Spree
I Wanted To by Richard Thompson
Low Ambition by Lambchop
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

A WEEKEND WITH THE HATCHET-WIELDING JEWS

I had a good time Friday and Saturday night playing my tacky tunes with Gregg Turner (and on Friday, Lenny Hoffman). Got to see some old friends and meet a couple of new ones, which, besides making a joyful noise, is the chief reason I still do this kind of thing these days.

Friday's Aztec Cafe show was officially opened with a genuine Hassidic rabbi (Gregg, Lenny, remind me of his name!) who blessed the macaroons that we passed out to the audience.

My major accomplishment during my set was performing the late Rolf Cahn's "Special Love" for the first time in public. Before we started, the rabbi asked if I knew any Jewish songs, so I guess Rolf's tune will have to do in that category. Although I've loved the song since Rolf gave me the cassette tape 20-plus years ago -- and through the years I've frequently found myself singing the line "You can loaf with some oaf on the shore by the sea," I only learned the song last week. I got a weird urge that I must learn the song -- maybe a message from Rolf in the Great Beyond -- Tuesday night at work writing my election stories. So I went home and learned it and I don't think I blew any of the lyrics at the Aztec. I believe every Santa Fe musician should do at least one Rolf Cahn song.

I didn't realize until I got there that Saturday's gig at Twister's, an antique clothing store, was a fashion show! Believe it or not, I've never done a fashion show gig before. I guess I was modeling my Big Ugly Guys T-shirt and my Albuquerque Isotopes cap. Turner modeled a lovely pair of shorts.

Twisters set up a stage in back of their store facing the alley, where the Second Street Brewery sold beer and Back Road Pizza sold food. If it would have had about 500 more people and The Waco Brothers, it would have reminded me of the great Bloodshot Records parties at the Yard Dog Gallery during South by Southwest in Austin.

The highlight of my set was a two-or-three year old kid wearing a Pinocchio T-shirt and a painted-on mustache who got on the stage with me, dancing and hopping around.

Finaly, there's no Santa Fe Opry play list, at least not yet. Sean Conlon of The Graveyard Shift substituted for me Friday so I could play at the Aztec. If he sends me a list, I'll post it. I'll be doing Sound World as usual Sunday night.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: PATTI'S STILL TRAMPIN'

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican, June 4, 2004

Patti Smith is pushing 60, but her new album Trampin’ shows her rocking as hard as ever.

In fact Trampin’ is an outright call to celebration in the face of adversity, to “be a jubilee” as the first song says, to let the doves multiply even though the hawks are circling.

The song “My Blakean Year” (with a melody and beat that will remind old fans of “Dancing Barefoot”) espouses a similar creed: “Throw off your stupid cloak/Embrace all that you fear/for joy shall conquer all despair/ in my Blakean year.”

Some of the tunes rock downright ferociously, such as “Stride of the Mind” -- a mystical mishmash of lyrics set to a thumping garage rock tune -- and a couple of trademark Smithean epics here -- “Gandhi” and “Radio Baghdad” -- both long, (nine minute and 12 minute respectively) freewheeling , politically charged inspired diatribes that start off slow but build up into monster guitar frenzies.

(Political side trip: The war in Iraq is starting to inspire some musicians, Besides Smith’s raging indictment, there’s “That’s the News,” by Merle Haggard; a sad and beautiful tune called “Baghdad” by songwriter Ed Pettersen; The Beatie Boys’ “In a World Gone Mad”; Spearhead’s “Bomb Da World,“ not to mention the entire Rock Against Bush CD featuring punk bands like The Offspring, NoFX, Pennywise, etc. Nothing has the strong anthem potential of Country Joe & The Fish’s “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” or Pete Seeger’s “Knee Deep in the Big Muddy” has emerged.)

There are a couple of slow, pretty numbers here like “Peaceable Kingdom” and “Trespass.”

And surprisingly, one of the strongest, most memorable tracks here is the title song, an old spiritual, gone here with Smith’s daughter Jesse on piano. “I’m trampin’, trampin’, tryin’ to make Heaven my home,” Smith sings in a weary but unaffected voice.
While nobody honestly can claim that Patti Smith is mainstream, she’s no longer on the cutting edge of rock ’n’ roll as she was during her wild ride of the mid to late 70s.

But who cares? She’s created her own sound, her own style that nobody’s ever pulled off imitating. And she’s always been true to her visions. The uninitiated might not hear the call, but Smith fans should celebrate Trampin’.

Also Recommended:

*Onoffon by Mission of Burma.
When most of us hear the name “Roger Miller,” we think of the hillbilly hipster who used to live in Tesuque who was responsible for “King of the Road” and “Dang Me.” But there’s a whole generation of old punk rockers from Boston who know Roger Miller as the guitarist, singer and main songwriter of a short-lived but influential band from the early ‘80s, Mission of Burma.

Mission only did one studio album before breaking up about 20 years ago. But now they’re back, three out of four original members intact. (Miller, bassist Clint Conley and drummer Peter Prescott, both of whom also sing and write songs.)

O.K., MOB was one bandwagon I didn’t jump on back in the day. So I’m approaching Onoffon with fresh ears, unencumbered by whether or not the band sounds as good as they did during their golden era.

And I like what I hear.

With Miller’s dense feedback-drenched guitar roaring over meandering but sometimes catchy melodies this record reminds me somewhat of Husker Du (who arose in faraway Minnesota after MOB’s demise). And I hear just a little bit of another Massachusetts band that came along later, Dinosaur Jr.

But neither comparison does justice to the band.
There are so many joys on this record. The opening song “The Setup” sets the frantic tone of the album with Miller shouting over the glorious din. The rhythmic noise rock of “Fever Moon” sounds like punk and metal had a baby and they named it Bo Diddley. And “Max Ernst’s Dream” is an apparent followup to a very early MOB song.

Basically this makes me want to go back and discover Mission of Burma’s first album Vs. and other early work.

*Ruby Satellite System by Cellophane Typewriters. This is the new band of Santa Fe’s Zelda Salazar, who used to call his group The Occult Morphinas.

I don’t care what he calls it, this probably is Salazar’s best album yet. It’s full of big psychedelic guitars, crunching riffs colored by Kevin Zoernig’s keyboards.

The first song “Belladonna” is an exuberant tune even though he’s singing to a pill-freak girl who’s “barely alive” and “full of fear.“ It shows traces of Eastern music -- filtered through ’60s garage psychedelia, to be sure.

“The Prize” has even more brutal lyrics about a druggo friend who he envisions getting “brutalized, victimized and sodomized for your prize”

One of the most moving songs is “Evil Star,” a child’s bitter rebuke to a bad father.

Salazar doesn’t gig much, but he’s pretty prolific with the recordings. And he just keeps getting better.

(Last I checked, the Cellophane Typewriters’ web site wasn’t working. For more info try e-mailing ctmusic@yahoo.com or writing Iron Lady Music, 369 Montezuma St., Box 129, Santa Fe, N.M. 87501.)

*Hear songs from all the above albums on Terrell’s Sound World, 10 p.m. Sunday , KSFR, 90. 7 FM. And don’t forget The Santa Fe Opry, country music as God intended it to sound, Fridays, same time, same channel. Sean Conlon will be filling in for me tonight while I do my gig at the Aztec Cafe.

FOr details on that gig, scroll down until you see the poster of Gregg Turner and me.

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But I do dig Monti Rock III.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: PRIMARY MOP-UP

One of the real eye-openers during the recent primary season in Santa Fe was the sheer amount of money being raised by a couple of the candidates — tens of thousands of dollars all for a part-time position that pays a modest per diem.

Peter Wirth raised more than $101,000 according to his most recent report filed last week. If that’s not a local record, someone please let me know. Some of his critics grumbled that he was “buying” the election. And indeed he won the House District 47 race in a landslide.

But over in Senate District 25, Sen. Roman Maes reported raising more than $70,000, more than all his three opponents’ totals put together. But Maes came in second to John Grubesic, who raised less than one-sixth of Maes’ total.

So how much did the candidates pay for each vote?

Using the total amount of money the candidates reported raising as of last week (the final campaign finance reports aren’t due until July), assuming all that money got spent, and dividing the number of votes they received, according to unofficial results, here’s how it broke down:

Grubesic got the most bang for the buck. Each of the 2,928 votes he got cost $3.87.

That’s a stark contrast to Maes, who paid about $27.60 for each vote he got. And that doesn’t even include the $9,000 that Gov. Bill Richardson’s PAC paid for mail-outs and automated phone calls.

Maes’ votes cost less than those of Wirth’s. For his race, Wirth paid $31.83 per vote.

Down in House District 45, which was a low-key, low-budget race, Rep. Jim Trujillo, who handily beat challenger Robert Ochoa, paid $9.33 per vote.

Local government blues: A word to aspiring politicians. Local government positions in Santa Fe are rarely springboards to state office. At least not in recent years. My editor reminded me that a couple of guys named Bruce King and Ben Lujan started out on the Santa Fe County Commission.

But that was a long time ago. Two candidates from local government bodies got turned down by voters in legislative races Tuesday.

City Councilor Carol Robertson Lopez, who ran for the District 47 House seat, came in a distant second behind Wirth. Wirth had 65 percent of the vote in the four-candidate race, compared with 21 percent for Lopez.

Ochoa, who served on the Santa Fe school board for eight years, lost to Trujillo by a 70-30 margin.

The only Santa Fe local officials to go on to state offices in the last decade or so are senators Nancy Rodriguez — a former county commissioner, and Phil Griego, a former city councilor. Both senators won their unopposed primaries Tuesday.

Don’t forget the GOP: Democrats outnumber Republicans in Santa Fe by about 3 to 1, but several Republican legislative candidates will be on the ballot. Wirth will face Gregg Bemis in District 47, while Griego will be up against Republican Al Lopez in Senate District 39.

In Senate District 25 Grubesic has a Republican opponent in Bob Mallin. Also on the ballot is Green Party primary winner Rick Lass. Lass probably would have gotten more traction running against the more conservative Democrat Maes than Grubesic, who was endorsed by several progressive political groups.

Making good on his word: One opponent Grubesic doesn’t have to worry about is Robb Hirsch, who had been gathering petition signatures to get on the November ballot as an independent.

Hirsch on Wednesday did what he said he’d do if Grubesic won the primary. He officially ended his campaign and threw his support to the Democrat.

"The outcome of this election is a testament to the wonderful people who turned out to vote yesterday and who single-handedly defied the status quo power politics, overcame the special interest money game and put their confidence behind someone with new blood and integrity," he said in an e-mail press release.

Hirsch said he’ll devote his energy to a group he and his wife founded called Independent New Mexicans for Kerry.

He’s given up his campaign, but not his web site.