THE JACK & JIM SHOW

Last night The Jack & Jim show, featuring avant maniac guitarist Eugene Chadbourne and Jimmy Carl Black, former Mother of Invention, forever the Indian of the Group, played at the Outpost in Albuquerque. Not only was it a fantastic show, but it was great catching up with an old friend.

I first met Jimmy back in the very early '80s when he was living in New Mexico. (I can't remember whether it was Taos or Albuquerque. He lived in both places back then.) I was introduced by our mutual pal Erik Ness.

During those years I interviewed Jimmy at least three times for The Santa Fe Reporter -- a general profile, a review/profile of his local band, Captain Glasspack & The Magic Mufflers, which used to play Club West, and a story about his recording sessions at Kluget Sound in Cerrillos with The Grandmothers, a band featuring Don Preston, the Fowler Bros. and other ex-Zappa folk.

Jimmy also recorded on my album in the summer of 1981. That's him drumming on "The Green Weenie" on Picnic Time For Potatoheads.

Jimmy left New Mexico for Austin, where he teamed up for awhile with Arthur Brown (as in The Crazy World of). Brown and Black made music and painted houses.

Eventually Jimmy ended up in Germany, where he still lives today. About seven or eight years ago he came to Santa Fe to play The Paramount with his German blues band Farrell & Black. My group The Charred Remains opened for them. That's the last time I'd seen him until Saturday.

Jimmy's 69 years old now. And he's suffering from leukemia. "It's a mild form of leukemia," he said matter-of-factly. I didn't know there was such a thing. But he looks good. He still knows his way around a drum set. And he's still got his signature growl of a singing voice.

It was a wonderful show. Jimmy was happy because his children and grandchildren drove up from El Paso for the concert.

I'd never seen Chadbourne before. He's even better live than on his albums. He looks like a mad scientist and plays like one too. Dr. Chadbourne and Jimmy did a few Zappa and Beefheart songs (you haven't lived until you've heard "Willie the Pimp" and "The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back" done on banjo), mutated blues, country (from Haggard to Kinky to Ernest Tubb), a DMX song about robbing a liquor store ("One More Road to Cross") done bluegrass style, a bizarre novelty tune called "Mr. Spooky," classic rock tunes such as "The Shape of Things to Come" and some original Chadbourne political commentary on songs like "Cheney's Hunting Ducks" and a wicked bosa nova nova parody, "The Girl From Al-Qaeda."

I was very happy to find that those Cerrillos Grandmothers sessions, which never saw the light of day on an American release, finally made it to CD. Jimmy put it together with some live tracks on a 2002 CD called The Eternal Question. A couple of those tunes -- the title song (originally titled "What Was Zappa Really Like?" and "The Cutester Patrol" -- have been in my head for 25 years. Pretty soon you can hear them on Terrell's Sound World.

I see by their schedule that The Jack & Jim Show rolls on to Minneapolis tonight and Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska after that.

Hope Captain Glasspack doesn't stay away so long next time.

Check out my snapshots of the show. CLICK HERE.

MORE POLITICAL SHAKE-UP

This just in:
Brian Egolf, who has been campaigning for 10 months for the Santa Fe state Senate seat currently held by Sen. John Grubesic, announced Saturday that he will instead run for the House seat currently represented by Peter Wirth — who late last week jumped into the state Senate race.

Egolf, 31, says he and Wirth — both Democrats and lawyers from Santa Fe’s east side — appeal to many of the same constituents.

“I believe that Santa Fe will be best served by having two strong progressive Democrats serving together in the legislature, not running against each other," Egolf said.

Grubesic announced earlier this month that he wouldn’t run for a second term for his District 25 seat.

Read more in toorrow's New Mexican.

eMUSIC OCTOBER

*Rise Above by The Dirty Projectors. This is not your typical tribute. True, it's a remake of songs from Black Flag's first album Damaged. But instead of a slavishly reverent recreations of this 1981 L.A. punk-rock classic , Dave Longstreth (the main force behind the DPs) filters Black Flag tunes through the Bizarro World. The first song "What I See" sounds like Morrisey fronting Ween -- except where did those African guitars come from? No, it doesn't sound much at all like Black Flag, but it's a dangerously addictive sonic treat. One complaint: No "T.V. Party."

*Damaged by Black Flag. I downloaded the tunes I didn't already have on Flag's Wasted retrospective. (And for reasons best known to music biz attorneys, the song "Rise Above" isn't available for download on eMusic. I had to resort to iTunes to get this.)

Funny, this doesn't sound at all like The Dirty Projectors.


*Now's the Time by Rosie Ledet. The biggest disappointment of this year's Thirsty Ear Festival was that Zydeco princess Rosie Ledet's set was cut short by the rain.

This album, released in 2003, is good, but it doesn't quite match the energy of Ledet's live performance -- judging from the short sample I saw.

Recommended cuts here include "Biker Boys," "Little Rosie," and a classy cover of Leo Sayer's "More Than I Can Say."

*Armchair Boogie by Michael Hurley. The recent release of Hurley's The Ancestral Swamp inspired me to get this.

Armchair goes back to 1971. It originally was released on The Youngbloods' Racoon records. Apparently Hurley is a boyhood chum Youngbloods frontman Jesse Colin Young, who produced and played on this record. Unfortunately eMusic doesn't have Hurley's other Racoon album, Hi-Fi Snock Uptown.

There's yet another version of perhaps Hurley's most recorded tune "The Werewolf" here. But my favorite song on this album is "English Nobleman," which Hurley sings in a strange British accent to poke fun at the Ruling Class. "My dignity would be besmirched if you hit me in the face with a pie," There's something so American about this. I can imagine Mark Twain singing it. But there's a universal democratic spirit at work here too. I also can imagine Benny Hill singing it.

* The Unfortunate Rake by Various Artists. Hurley's The Ancestral Swamp has versions of "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" and "Streets of Laredo," both of which spring from a British ballad of debauchery, death, regret and pride called "The Unfortunate Rake." In researching the history of these tunes I stumbled across this article by Rob Walker, which mentions this album and talks about several songs on it. Then, lo and behold, I find it waiting for me on e-Music.

However, I actually wish I wouldn't have downloaded the entire album. I enjoy some of ye olde versions of Crapshooter/Laredo/St. James Infirmary/Rake tunes, especially the title song by A.L. Lloyd. (Did you realize that unlike Little Jessie or the Laredo cowboy, the original rake was killed by VD, not a gun!) And Dave Van Ronk's "Gambler's Blues" is classic Van Ronk. However, there are just too many lame parodies of "Streets of Laredo" that wouldn't make it in Mad magazine somehow are deemed authentic folk music by the same uppity crowd that booed Bob Dylan at Newport. And guess what -- there's no actual "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" here at all. That hoodoo wagon left this station.

*St. James by Snakefarm. Actually, eMusic mislabeled this one. It's actually an album called Songs for My Funeral. St. James is an EP with only three songs. (Sometimes eMusic is downright sloppy about these things.) Whatever it's called, Walker's essay also led me here, to this 1999 album of high-tech, Soul Coughing-like trip-hoppy renditions of traditional American murder ballads and bucket-of-blood laments like "House of the Rising Sun," "Frankie & Johnny," "Black Girl" (think "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"), "Tom Dooley" -- and, yes, "St. James Infimary" and "Streets of Laredo." (But no "Dying Crapshooter's Blues." I guess that tune is considered a "modern" creation, although author Blind Willie McTell admitted he used elements from various "folk" sources to write the tune.) Singer Anna Domino sounds like a yearning ghost on these songs. I'm a sucker for these ancient/space-age, banjos 'n' samplers musical concocations. I'd put this up there with Moby's Play and the lesser-known but just as wonderful works by Clothesline Revival.


* I've Known Rivers And Other Bodies by Gary Bartz. The title song of this album is based on a poem by Langston Hughes, "A Negro Looks at Rivers." I remember loving the song back in the mid '70s when KUNM used to play it frequently -- but I never knew who did it until now. It reminded me a lot of Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan," though Bartz's vocals don't have Leon Thomas' yodel. Bartz is an alto sax man (and singer) who has played with some of the giants. He was on the first Miles Davis album I ever owned, Live Evil. This album, released in 1973, was recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

* After all these I had one track left over. (On eMusic, you can't carry over your tracks to the next month. It's use 'em or lose 'em.)

So I decided to get a little jump on a new album, 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. I downloaded the title track and will pick up the rest next week when my account refreshes. I'll say more about the album then. Right now, let's just say I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the album

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 12, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Come A Long Way by Loudon Wainwright III
Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves by The Last Mile Ramblers
Biker Boys by Rosie Ladet
Pistol Pete and The Ringo Kid by Acie Cargill
Gunslinger by John Fogerty
The Governor by Pat McDonald
Haley's Comet by Tom Russell with Dave Alvin & Katie Moffat
Bury Him Like a Prince by Ronny Elliott


In Honor of the Jim & Jack Show Coming to The Outpost on Saturday
Lonesome Cowboy Burt by Frank Zappa featuring Jimmy Carl Black
Devilish Mary by Eugene Chadbourne
Harder Than Your Husband by Frank Zappa featuring Jimmy Carl Black
The Last Word in Lonesome is Me by Eugene Chadbourne

When Two Worlds Collide by Roger Miller
Logtown Days by The Peasall Sisters
Dolores by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole

Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me by Mississippi John Hurt
Married to a Mermaid by Jacek Sulanowski & Tom Goux
Mermaid by Bobby Bare
The Emerald Outlaw by The Texas Sapphires
Bohemian Boys by John Lilly
Say a Little Prayer by Mary & Mars
Tijuana Jail Break by The Broadway Elks
Never Going Back to Nashville by Cornell Hurd
I'm Satisfied by John Sebastian & David Grisman

Drink Me by The Dolly Ranchers
Must Be the Whiskey by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
Whiskey Flats by Bone Orchard
Rainwater Bottle by Chipper Thompson
The Jewel of Abilene by Grey DeIsle
The Open Road Song by Peter Case
Farther Along by Hayseed with Emmylou Harris
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LIPS AND ZOOS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 12, 2007

What does it mean when the last two releases that I’ve really liked from The Flaming Lips aren’t albums but DVDs? Seriously — the Lips’ last album, At War With the Mystics, pretty much left me cold, while the main thing I remember from 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the gorgeous “Do You Realize?”

But I loved the band’s 2005 documentary film The Fearless Freaks, which lovingly portrayed Lips leader Wayne Coyne as the bighearted, working-class, Okie goofball we knew he was all along.

And I am truly impressed with the new Lips DVD, U.F.O.s at The Zoo: The Legendary Concert in Oklahoma City. Maybe this is a band that needs to be seen as well as heard.

First, let me disclose a prejudice. Chances are I’d be inclined to like anything shot in what is now officially known as the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden. It was one of my favorite childhood haunts back when we used to just call it the “Lincoln Park Zoo.” (Sad note: I just discovered that Judy the elephant, who had been in the zoo since 1949, died in 1997. Matilda the hippo, who had been there nearly as long, died a year later. I remember well both of these wonderful pachyderm ladies.)

But this DVD isn’t really about the zoo, or Oklahoma City for that matter. It’s about the crazy big-time rock ’n’ roll spectacle the Lips present. Descending in a huge plastic bubble that comes out of an even huger flying saucer that “lands” on the stage, Coyne is a disheveled master of ceremonies of a show that borrows heavily from classic P-Funk, Pink Floyd, and Spinal Tap.

Yet, with all the Santas and space aliens dancing around (lucky Lips fans are recruited for these roles before the show) — and, of course, the music — you never forget which band is in charge here.

And yes, besides the showmanship, the music is in fine form — even those Mystics and Yoshimi songs that didn’t excite me that much in their original forms. Coyne knows he’s playing to a home-team crowd, and he and the other Lips give it their all.

While some of their more recent material tends to sound like soundtrack pieces played live with a basic four-man band — it’s pure, high-energy rock ’n’ roll. The live version of Mystics’ “Free Radicals,” for instance, packs a much harder punch than the studio version. Singing in a strange falsetto, Coyne calls to mind Prince being probed by alien abductors. That’s also true for the crazed instrumental “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part II.” It’s an explosion of raw, crunching psychedelic noise.

The songs lean heavily toward the band’s more recent albums, including The Soft Bulletin (1999). They reach back to the mid ’90s for their first big MTV hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly.” One of my only complaints is that there is not more pre-Soft Bulletin material. “Bad Days” from Clouds Taste Metallic is still my favorite Lips song of all time, and they really ought to revive it.

One of the things I like about this DVD is that it has a link that allows you to download MP3s of any or all of the songs from the concert. I hope this commendable feature becomes a full-fledged trend — nay, a required feature — of concert DVDs in the future.

Speaking of Lips downloads, at the time of the DVD release of The Fearless Freaks, the Lips gave away (!) the movie soundtrack as MP3 downloads. You still can find that soundtrack at http://www.125hz.com/.

Like many rock-concert films, U.F.O.s at The Zoo unfortunately wastes too much time with worthless footage of fan babble. These people came all the way from Houston to see the show. How dedicated! This girl’s wearing a funny animal costume. How unique! Who cares? Get back to the show.

But, corny as it sounds, I believe the Lips really are fond of their followers. In the package behind the actual disc is a message that says, “The Flaming Lips Will Always Love You.” The proof is in the show they put on.

Another recommended DVD:

* Fancy by Les Claypool. You won’t find a bunch of fan interviews on this disc. The stage show isn’t on par with The Flaming Lips, although Claypool and his cronies do an impressive array of masks and funny hats. And unfortunately there’s no link to MP3 downloads either.

All you have is a bunch of fine tunes by the ex-Primus bass ace/frontman and his latest band. The footage was shot at various shows in various cities by Claypool fans, and the sound is some kind of fancy brew of mixing-board recordings and bootleg fan tapes.

I always liked Primus, but this band may be even more impressive. While Primus was a basic bass/guitar/drums unit, the Claypool ensemble on Fancy includes a sax (played by a man called Sherik), vibraphone, and marimba (Mike Dillon); drums by Paulo Baldi; and a sitar. Not a cheesy, ’60s-era electric sitar but a real, big old sitar played by a woman who goes by the name Gabby La La. She also plays ukulele and theremin.

Most the songs on the DVD are from Claypool side projects and solo albums, including his 2006 Of Whales and Woe, 2002’s Purple Onion, and 1996’s Highball With the Devil. I wouldn’t have minded a new take on Primus tunes like “My Name Is Mud” or “Bob’s Party Time Lounge,” but these lesser-known songs do just fine. Especially impressive is “Cosmic Highway,” a wild ride of raga rock, free jazz, and Claypool’s trademark bouncy doofus metal with electric hillbilly vocals.

Pretty darn fancy!