OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Wanderer by Dion & The Belmonts
Necrophiliac in Love by The Blood-Drained Cows
I Wish You Would by The Fleshtones
Second Cousin by The Flamin' Groovies
Take A Chance On Me by The Mighty Hannibal Time Bomb High School by The Reigning Sound
Traitor by The Jackets Omaha by Moby Grape Goat Throat by The Scrams Bless You by The Devil Dogs
Clown's Tears by Sherman Rubin & The Undie Dogs
Return of the Mantis by The Hydes
Rock 'n' Roll by The Velvet Underground
Alverez by Davila 666
Blinding Sun by Mudhoney
Talk the Talk by Titty Bingo Little Latin Lupe Lu by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels All in the Game by Tommy Edwards
Baby Dragon by Old Time Relijun Rasa Senthuh by Arrington de Dionyso
Le Redresseur De Torts by King Automatic White Jam by Captain Beefheart Oh No/Orange County Lumber Truck by Frank Zappa Secret Code by The Dirtbombs Flyin' High by Country Joe & The Fish
Someone Else's Brain by Nobunny Domino by The Cramps
Best Napkin I Ever Had by The Black Lips
Down for Death by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels The Curse of Milhaven by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Ashes by The Pussywarmers Why Did You Get Mad at Me? by Lightnin' Hopkins
America The Beautiful by Ray Charles
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* First Bloodby 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 Storeby 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 Bandsthat 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.
Friday, March 4, 2011
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
Git it, Beau Jocque! by Beau Jocque & The Zydeco Hi-Rollers
Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand by Waylon Jennings Stop, Look and Listen by Patsy Cline
Hookie Junk by The Gourds Chauffeur by Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Low Down Dog by Sleepy LaBeef Mrs. Cooper's Tea Party by Margaret Lewis
Hornin' Zeese by Al Duvall
Whiskey by Scott H. Biram
Baboon Boogieby Jimmy Murphy Something Else by Eddie Cochran Lucky Old Sun by Jerry Lee Lewis
Oh Babe by Big Al Downing The Weakest Man by Drive-By Truckers
Your Heart Oughta Be Broken by Yuichi & the Hilltone Boys Five Minutes to Live by Johnny Cash
Pie-Ella by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers Sitting on Top of The World by The Great Recession Orchestra
Struttin' That Thing by Cripple Clarence Lofton Sugar Babe by Dock Boggs Her Name Was Hula Lou by The Carolina Tar Heels
Daniel in the Lion's Den by Bessie Jones & Georgia Sea Island Singers Are You Washed in the Blood by Ernest Stoneman & His Dixie Mountaneers My Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bill Cox
I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die by Miles & Bob Pratcher Dying Crap Shooter Blues by Blind Willie McTell Bye Bye Policeman by Jim Jackson To the Work by Alfred G. Karnes
Fucking Sailors in China Town by Peter Stampfel & The Worm All Stars James Alley by David Johansen & The Harry Smiths
The Seeds Of My Destruction by Cornell Hurd Lookin' for Someone to Kill by Kell Robertson
Dirty On Yo, Mama by James Luther Dickinson My Rosemarie by Stan Ridgway
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 4, 2011
Remember the good old days when the phrase “alternative rock” conjured up crazy visions of Gibby Haynes blasting a shotgun from the stage of a Butthole Surfers show as film clips of gruesome medical procedures played in the background — instead of now, when the term all too often means some wimp whining because his puppy has the sniffles?
There’s still some healthy weirdness out there in the outer fringes of rock’ n’ roll. One such practitioner is a guy called Arrington De Dionyso, whose old band Old Time Relijun sailed stormy musical oceans where few other sailors were brave enough to venture.
Arrington’s still around — he’s supposed to be releasing a new album this month. As for Old Time Relijun, the group’s first album, long out of print, was rereleased last year by the Northern Spy label with all sorts of bonus tracks.
Hearing Songbook, Vol. 1 for the first time might seem like stumbling onto some bizarre group of hopped-up tribesmen from deep within a jungle in a country whose name you can’t even pronounce. Actually, the group was from Olympia, Washington. It had a stand-up bassist and a drummer who sometimes played accordion — and De Dionyso, who sang and played guitar, sax, clarinet, and jew’s-harp.
A few months ago, making a stray reference to this band in this column, I said De Dionyso sounded like “Roy Orbison on angel dust.” I’ll stand by that quip. You’ll also hear echoes of the good Captain Beefheart as well as of avant-garde jazz avatars like Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. And there’s a definite no-wave influence in Relijun. De Dionyso’s sax takes a (James) Chance. And being that the band was from Washington state, there’s probably a little Twin Peaks mushroom madness in the mix as well.
And don’t forget weirdo-rock pilgrims Pere Ubu. There’s a song here called “Ubu’s Theme” — which features accordion and what sounds like a bass clarinet. Less than a minute long, it seems like a snatch from the soundtrack of a French murder mystery. But even more Ubu-like is the following song, “Baby Dragon,” on which De Dionyso sings in a David Thomas-like warble.
Other times, De Dionyso sounds as if he’s attempting Tuvan throat singing, sounding like a sinister version of Popeye. And sometimes he employs a strange and hilarious falsetto, for example, on the song “Qiyamat,” on which he sounds like a nightmarish cartoon character.
Most tracks here are only two or three minutes, which suit OTR best. But there’s a handful of six-minute (or thereabouts) excursions on which the group gets to stretch out. “Qiyamat” is one of these. And so is “Fig,” though it’s not as interesting as most of the group’s material (hint: There’s a drum solo). By far the best long song here is “Manticore/Lion Tamer.” It’s actually a medley of two songs, early versions of both being among the bonus tracks. The reason the medley works so well is that, except for a few moments in the middle, in which a twangy guitar riff is repeated to the point of frustration, it rocks from start to finish.
I realize that this music is too nuts for most. But Old Time Relijun was good enough for me.
Arrington unleashed: Although Old Time Relijun is no longer an ongoing concern, De Dionyso is still twisting heads off. On his 2009 album, Malaikat dan Singa, he sings in the Indonesian language (the album’s name — which is now the name of De Dionyso’s backing band — means “Angels and Lions”). As strange as the concept seems, this is no intellectual exercise. This music rocks! (After all, he says he recorded the album n Indonesian “to impress a girl.”)
You can listen to (and download) several live versions of Malaikat at WFMU’s Free Music Archives. The first song, “Kedalaman Air,” might remind you of a Bizarro World version of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” with a downright vicious, crunching guitar.
Then there’s “Mani Malaikat,” a couple of minutes shorter than the album version, but just as ominous.
The set ends with a 15-minute radio interview of De Dionyso. (He talks like a regular American guy, not the screaming voodoo shaman of his performances.)
On this site you also can find other radio performances by De Dionyso, including some (mostly) instrumental meditations in which he’s backed by upright-bass player Gene Janas.
In fact, De Dionyso is all over the internet. There are lots of YouTube videos of him, and at the K Records website, there’s a streaming version of him performing “Hot Head” as a tribute to the late Beefheart. Slide over to www.krecs.com/arrington, and you’ll find an 11-minute live video of De Dionyso and the Malaikat dan Singa band. But more important, streaming at the site are four songs from the upcoming Malaikat album, Suara Naga.
“Kerasukan” has De Dionyso angrily chanting over a farting electronic pulse. (Maybe he’s saying, “Turn that thing off!”) Drums and sax later add to the chaos.
“Baru Limunan” is the singer at his most urgent. He pleads, threatens, and warbles as the steady, pounding bass and drums suggest some race against time.
“Aku Di Penjara” reminds me of Polish rocker Kazik Staszewski when he does his version of hip-hop. “Bianglala” features a repeated bass line that sounds like a dub-reggae take of “Anarchy in the U.K.”
I don’t understand a word De Dionyso is singing, but it’s still a Relijous experience.
Scott H. Biram, one-man band, hillbilly screamer, Bloodshot recording artist and all around wild man, is playing tonight at Corazon.
