emusic June

* Humpty Dumpty LSD by The Butthole Surfers. Here they are, in all their Butthole splendor.

This is a 2002 collection of Surfer rarities and obscurities, culled from long-forgotten compilations and dusty recording studio shelves.

Most of the tracks here should remind Butthole Surfer fans why we love them in the first place. Crazy noise, psychedelic guitars, industrial strength percussion. It's New Year's Eve in the Nuthouse. They're coming to take you away, ha ha!

"One Hundred Million People Dead" is a living nightmare with a funky bass line. "I Love You Peggy" probably sent Peggy running. "I Hate My Job" is raw punk-rock and probably makes both Sid Vicious and Johnny Paycheck smile from Beyond. The opening piano chords banging in "Hetero Skeleton" recalls Frank Zappa's "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny."

Listen close and you can hear Daniel Johnston on "All Day," though he's buried in the thick mix. And there's a 13th Floor Elevators Cover, "Earthquake," that originally appeared on a Roky Erikson tribute album, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye.

* Psychotic Beat! by Thee Vicars. After listening to The Butthole Surfers, Thee Vicars doesn't really sound all that psychotic.

But this is a pretty decent little British garage band. You can easily detect their influences -- The Kinks and The Standells among them. And singer Mike Whitaker sounds like The Troggs' Reg Presley with a sinus condition.

Here's something cool: Thee Vicars are playing the Eysines Goes Soul Festival this month in France with The Standells, The Zombies and Charles Walker & The Dynamites. My kinda show!

* Dangerous Magical Noise by The Dirtbombs. This is the third album from Detroit's premier rock 'n' soul band. It kicks off with a high-charged tune called "Start the Party" ... and the party never ends. To use my podcast pal Michael Kaiser's favorite word, every one of these tunes is a pounder.

Highlights here include "Motor City Baby," (which has a little T Rex in it), "I'm Through With White Girls," and "Stuck in Thee Garage," a nod at being pigeonholed in the genre game.

Displaying the group's wide array of influences, this version of Dangerous Magical Noise includes a cover of a Robin Hitchcock song ("Executioner of Love") and a Brian Eno tune, "King's Lead."

Just about all the reviews of this album I've read stresses that coming right after the soul-soaked Ultraglide in Black, (the first Dirtbombs album I ever heard), this was supposed to be a hard rocker. But the thing is I find such such distinctions useless. Frontman Mick Collins has soul in his voice that comes through on just about every song. But he's rocker at heart -- and that was true on Ultraglide as well.

PLUS:

*13 songs from (Not)Your Standard Spike Jones Collection. Sometimes the only music that makes any sense to me at all is that of Spike Jones. I was hooked as soon as I heard the first pistol fired in "Cocktails for Two."

With perfect comic timing (and impeccable musicianship) Jones skewered the classics as well as the hot hits of his era. Descriptions of his stage shows sounds like Vaudeville gone berserk -- jugglers, midgets, honking horns, bells, whistles, farting trombones, crazy homemade instruments (a toilet seat with strings), and usually a beautiful blonde playing harp.

Jones became famous for his anti-Hitler song "Def Fuhrer's Face" back in 1942. One of the tracks I downloaded here was directed toward another member of the Axis -- "You're a Sap, Mr. Jap." (Yes, politically incorrect, but hey, we were at war and they did bomb us ...)

I downloaded a few cockeyed cowboy songs here like "Dodging a Gal From Dodge City," "Barstool Cowboy, " and "Big Bad Bill" (from the Badlands), And there's a fine little polka full of slide whistles and horn honks, called "City Slicker Polka."

But I think my favorites here are American chestnuts like "Hi Neighbor" and "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye." Jones makes them even chestnuttier.

This is a gigantic collection - 88 songs. I already had a bunch of them from the Rhino box set that was released in the '90s. But there's still plenty I don't have, so this'll be a musical well on eMusic I'll be drawing from in months to come.

* "Billy Richardson's Last Ride" by Grandpa Jones. I just wish I'd found this before I wrote that column suggesting theme songs for our governor's presidential campaign.

Memories of Paolo Soleri Amphitheater

The first time I went there was for my high school baccalaureate service in 1971. I was a amazed by the architecture. It seemed like a theater The Flintstones would frequent.

I first met Roger Miller there, backstage after a Michael Martin Murphey concert in the summer of 1980. Murphey had called Roger out on stage to do a couple of songs. Roger was barely able to strum one chord before the rain started pouring down and the show had to be called off.

That's where I interviewed B.B. King. Several others too, but I remember B.B. most of all because he was, and still is, the nicest "big star" I've ever interviewed.

That's where Frank Zappa dedicated an entire show to Paul Bardake, who at the time was attorney general of New Mexico. I called Bardake the next day and learned that his dad was Zappa's high school English teacher -- one of the few teachers Zappa actually got along with.

That's where I was stiffed for an interview with the late reggae star Peter Tosh after waiting several hours there one afternoon in the summer of 1981. (I finally had to leave because I'd booked studio time in Albuquerque. I was in the middle of recording Picnic Time for Potatoheads.)

I've seen a lot of great music there: Santana, Elvis Costello, Robert Cray, John Prine, David Bromberg, Jerry Jeff Walker, David Byrne, several Native Roots & Rhythms shows. I haven't been there in a couple of years, but last summer I dropped off my son there to see Atmosphere.

And now they're going to tear it down.

A news release from Santa Fe Indian School (that I've only seen on Facebook, thanks, Rima!) says:

"The decision was not made lightly," said Everett Chavez, SFIS superintendent. "Thousands of people have been a part of the Paolo Soleri’s history, but unfortunately we cannot support it any longer."

Chavez cited safety and annual maintenance costs as the primary reasons for closing the amphitheatre housed on the SFIS campus. The SFIS utilizes the amphitheatre only twice a year to host its annual 8th grade promotion and 12th grade senior graduation events. It is used less frequently for other entertainment events primarily because of competition from other concert venues and local casinos. He also called elements that go along with some Paolo Soleri events "unsavory" and not in keeping with the school’s mission as an educational institution."

All I can say is that it's a goddamn shame.

A goddamn shame.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 6, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Thunder in the Sky by The Dirtbombs
It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out by Concrete Blonde
Love is All Around by Husker Du
Hitchhiking by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds
Comb Your Hair by LoveStruck
Scream by Los Peyotes
Flea Market Rock by The Scrams
Eve of Destruction by The Dickies
Police Call by Drywall
Let It Rain by Pierced Arrows

New Old Blue Car by Peter Case
Feeling Strange by The Plimsouls
Falling Back On Me by Muck & The Mires
Fire on the Moon by The Bell Rays
Fever by The Monsters 2:34
Wrestling With Satan by Lightning Beatman
Dig That Grave! by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Bongo Beatin' Beatnik by Joe Hall & The Corvettes
You Broke My Mood Ring by Rootboy Slim & The Sex Change Band

Hello Happiness by Johnny Dowd
Sports Car by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Nightride by Legendary Shack Shakers
i Love You Peggy by Butthole Surfers
Keep in Touch by The Canadian Rogues
Mountain Oysters by Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis with The Bill Doggett Trio
Rockin' is Our Bizness by The Treniers
Muck Muck (Alternate Take) by Yochanan
I'm a Demon by Roky Erikson

Universes Collide by Gogol Bordello
King of the New York Streets by Dion
Hi Neighbor by Spike Jones
In a Holler Over There by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Oh Me Oh My by Pretty Rebel
Grindin' Man by Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
Good Old World by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 4, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Guacamole by Freddy Fender with Augie Meyers
Moonshine Guy/Releasing Celtic Prisoners by Jason & The Scorchers
Friday & Saturday Night by Wayne Hancock
Boss of the Blues by Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women
Bobwire Betty by Ronnie Dawson
Gonna Catch a Wild One by Kris Hollis Key
Roly Poly The Last Mile Ramblers
Word to the Wise by Bill Kirchen with Dan Hicks
Pal-Yat-Chi by Spike Jones with Homer & Jethro

House Rent Jump by Peter Case
Parallel Bars by Robbie Fulks
Saturday Night Fish Fry by Asleep at the Wheel
Invitation to the Blues by Cornell Hurd
If One Won't Another Will The Carter Family
Come Back When You're Younger by Old Dogs
Party by The Collins Kids
Pink Burrito by R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders

Ft. Wayne Zoo by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
The Hills of Hell by Legendary Shack Shakers
Clarksdale by Alex Maryol
Cootie Catcher by Clothesline Revival
Done Got Old by Richard Johnston
Big River by The Waco Brothers
Two Left Feet by Holly Golighty & The Brokeoffs
Steeplechase Bound by Al Duvall

My Pretty Quadroon by Jerry Lee Lewis
Me and Billy the Kid by Joe Ely
Downhome Country Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Three Times Seven by Doc and Merle Watson
Rio Grande by Felix y Los Gatos
My Walking Stick by Leon Redbone
Red River Valley by Johnny Bond
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

PETER CASE WIGS OUT

I've been enjoying the new Peter Case album Wig the past few days. It's good rocking blues slop and Case sounds like he's having more fun on a record than he has in years.

I'll be reviewing it in the near future, but I wanted to let everyone know that Case will be playing in Los Alamos on July 2 at the Ski Hill.

Also, the nice folks at Yep Roc sent out the code for this handy dandy player below with some of the songs from Wig for you to enjoy, gentle readers. Happy Friday.