The Road to Humiliating Youtube Apologies

(This also was posted on my political blog)

Ever since the day when both Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale were trying to ride on Bruce Springsteen's coattails, candidates have been using rock 'n' roll to try to carry their messages. Sometimes it backfires, as it did when former Talking Head David Byrne sued ex-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for using his song "Road to Nowhere" in his doomed Senate campaign last year.

Wow, Tom Petty could mop up if he sued every politician who played "I Won't Back Down" at a political rally. (Are you listening Bill Richardson and Tom Udall?)

Actually, I liked it better when politicians still considered rock 'n' roll to be evil.

This video by Crist wasn't done out of the kindness of his heart. It's part of a settlement of a law suit by Byrne.



Here's the song. (Confession, I don't know whether it's authorized. But nobody's yanked it off YouTube yet.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 10, 2011
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
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead by Warren Zevon
Love Propaganda by Audio Kings of the Third World
Glam Racket bv The Fall
Grieving Man Blues by The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies
Spy Boy by Graceland
Reel Rock Party by Nick Curran and the Lowlifes
I've Got the Devil Inside by Rev. Beat-Man
Box-o-Wine by Dirtbag Surfers
Jack (Pepsi) by TAD

Booty City by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Three Hairs and You're Mine by King Khan & The Shrines
The World (Is Going Up In Flames)b y Charles Bradley
Ode to Billy Joe by Joe Tex
Your Thing Is A Drag by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Living For the City by The Dirtbombs
Whistle Bait by Barrence Whitfield & the Savages
Farmer John by Don & Dewey
The Dozens by Eddie "One String" Jones

Philosophy by The Manxx
Short Term Memory Lane by J.J. & The Real Jerks
U Bug Me by Modey Lemon
Sugar Snap Brain by Kilimanjaro Yak Attack
(We're a) Bad Trip by Mondo Topless
Fed Up With You by Candy Snatchers
Lee, Bob & Lula by LoveStruck
Supersize it by Half Japanese
Mambo del Pachuco by Don Tosti y Sus Conjunto

Kaiser by Gibby Haynes & His Problem
Jump, Jive & Harmonize by The Plimsouls
Fix These Blues by Heavy Trash
Zulu King by Cannibal & the Headhunters
What I Know by Grinderman
I Made A Vow by The Robins
Minor Blues by Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
I'm Goin' To Live The Life I Sing About In My Song by Mahalia Jackson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

eMusic April

* Louie Bluie Film Soundtrack by Howard Armstrong. About 30 years ago, my pal Alec turned me on to a fun little LP called Martin, Bogan & Armstrong. It was an old African-American string band recorded in the early '70s.

It wasn't "blues," there there were some bluesy tunes there. It wasn't "jug band." These guys were playing mainly pop and jazz tunes of bygone eras. The players were old guys but all excellent musician -- and they were full of Hell. They'd been playing together in various combinations since the '30s under names such as The Tennessee Chocolate Drops and The Four Keys.

For instance, they start out with a straight version of the  uptight WASPy frat  song "Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" (which before, I'd only heard performed by The Lettermen!) before they slip into a parody that was popular in the '20s ("She's the sweetheart of six other guys.") But my favorite MB&A song was "Do You Call That Buddy," which has a line that stuck with me for years: "If I had a million doughnuts, durn his soul, I wouldn't even give him a doughnut hole."

Just a few years ago I found Martin, Bogan & Armstrong on CD, as part of a twofer with a subsequent album That Old Gang of Mine. But even more recently I discovered a documentary called Louie Bluie made in the mid '80s directed by Terry Zwigoff, who is more famous for Crumb. The title character of Louie turns out to be fiddler/mandolinist Howard Armstrong. Also featured here is guitarist, singer Ted Bogan -- who catches continual unmerciful ribbing from Armstrong throughout the film.

The film tells the story of Armstrong (who got the nickname of "Louie Bluie" from a tipsy mortician's daughter) To quote Roger Ebert, "The movie is loose and disjointed, and makes little effort to be a documentary about anything. Mostly, it just follows Armstrong around as he plays music with Bogan, visits his Tennessee childhood home, and philosophizes on music, love and life." And I love it.

This soundtrack album on Arhoolie captures some of the greatest moments of the film, as well as some that didn't make the final cut. There's a delightfully filthy version of "Darktown Strutter's Ball." There's blues, gospel and jazz tunes. Also, a German waltz and a Polish tune. Yes, Armstrong, as he explains in the movie, was fluent in several languages, including Italian and a little Chinese. This, he said, helped him get gigs when he moved to Chicago.

Included on this album are some old songs originally released on 78rmp records, including some with Yank Rachell, who appears in the movie. A couple of these feature Sleepy John Estes on vocals.

Armstrong died in 2003 at the age of 94.

* Unentitled by Slim Cessna's Auto Club. This band often is billed as a "country gothic" band. Led by Cessna, who shares vocal duties with sidekick Jay Munly, the Auto Club often takes the guise as sinners in the hands of an angry God.

But on this album, which some critics are saying is the group's most accessible, so many songs are so upbeat and happy sounding, I really don't think the "gothic" label does them justice.

True, they've that 16 Horsepower banjo apocalypse vibe going full force on the first song, "Three Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro" a harrowing tale that deals with bloodhounds being set loose on some hapless target, perhaps an escaped prisoner.

However, the very next song takes off with an eye-opening, frantic, almost '90s ska-like beat. The music is fierce and thundering and not very "country." Then  the following song "Thy Will Done" gets back to the banjo with an almost raga-like melody and some otherworldly whistle instrument I've yet to identify. The only thing this one lacks is Tuvan throat singers.

That old time religion is a major theme with the Auto Club. The 7-minute "Hallelujah Anyway" is a twisted tale of an arranged wedding. But even better is the closing song, "United Brethren," an emotional song of a preacher losing his congregation to another church -- just as his great-grandfather had experienced. It's not a problem most of us will ever face, but as Munly pleads, "Lord have mercy upon us ..." in his lonesome tenor with just an autoharp behind him, only the the most hard-hearted heathen would be unmoved.

* The Swan Silvertones 1946-1951. And speaking of spiritual crisis, the song "A Mother's Cry" on this album starts out with "Oh this world is in confusion .." -- and the listener isn't confused at all. It's the story of a mother whose son is fighting overseas. I would guess Korea.

Yes, those post WWII years covered by this album were confusing times indeed and, probably not coincidentally, great years for Black gospel music as well.

Take  "Jesus is God's Atomic Bomb," another tune in this collection. The Silvertones sing, "Oh have you heard about the blast in Japan/How it killed so many people and scorched the land." But it gets scarier. "Oh it can kill your natural body, but the Lord can kill your soul ...'

Yikes! World in confusion indeed.

The Swan Silvertones was an a capella group led by the great Claude Jeter, a former coal miner from Kentucky who wrote many of the songs here, including the ones I mentioned. This album captured their years at King Records. They weren't as raw sounding as The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. They didn't have the irresistible personality of Sister Rosetta Tharpe or the sweet grace of Mahalia Jackson. But the Silvertones were solid and credible. And even now, a respite for confusing times.

* The tracks I didn't get last month from Hannibalism! by The Mighty Hannibal. This is not your average obscure lost '60s soul-shouter compilation. This album contains the greatest anti-war song of the Vietnam era that you've never heard. Written and recorded in 1966, "Hymn #5" is a first-person tale of a scared soldier. It's a minor-key moan that sounds like one of the spookiest minor-key gospel songs you can imagine.

"I'm waaaaayyyy over here, crawling' in these trench holes, covered with blood. But one thing that I know, (chorus comes in) There's no tomorrow, there's no tomorrow ..."


There's a sequel that came four years later -- following a stint in prison by Hannibal  for tax evasion -- another soldier's-eye-view of the war. It's good, but not a fraction as jolting as "Hymn #5."

I love Hannibal's early dance '60s tunes like "Jerkin' the Dog" (Settle down, Beavis!) and "Fishin' Pole." But I find his religious cautionary tales extremely fascinating. The moral of "The Truth Shall Make You Free" basically is that Jesus can help you kick heroin. Hardly original, but Hannibal sings with wild conviction. He was an addict for some years in the '60s. "There's nothin' I wouldn't do when I needed a fix/ I met the mother of my children goin', turning tricks," Hannibal testifies. And  its dark psychedelic/Blaxplotation guitar touches and the "Pappa Was a Rollin' Stone" bass line make you wonder why the song and the singer didn't become better known.

Even wilder is the final song, "Party Life." What can you say about a song that starts out "There was a pimp by my house the other day ..." Next thing you know, said pimp has taken the singer's daughter and she ends up in a hospital in Kentucky in such bad mental condition she doesn't even recognize her own dad. Seriously, people, keep those pimps away from your home!

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 8, 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
Tex-Mex Mile by The Gourds
Heavy Breathin' by Cornell Hurd
Hallelujah Anyway by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Callin' In Twisted by The Rev. Horton Heat
Party Dolls and Wine by Eddie Spaghetti
Window Up Above by The Blasters
Roadside Attractions by Marcia Ball
I Miss My Boyfriend by Folk Uke with Shooter Jennings

Six Days on the Road by Taj Mahall
Don't Push Me Too Far by Deke Dekerson
Hambone by Rayburn Anthony
Devil's Right Hand by The Highwaymen
Honky Tonkers Don't Cry by Dale Watson
Treat Her Right by The Riptones
Sparkling Brown Eyes by Webb Pierce
There Stands the Glass by Gal Holiday
Darktown Strutter's Ball by Howard Armstrong

Footprints in the Snow by Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys
Are You Washed in the Blood by Red Allen
Don't Make Me Go To Bed and I'll Be Good by Mac Wiseman
Tragic Romance by The Stanley Brothers
1952 Vincent Black Lightning by Del McCroury Band
Love and Wealth by Earl Scruggs
Salty Dog Blues by Curley Seckler
Lonesome and Dry as a Bone by Joe Diffie
Gosh I Miss You All the Time by Jim & Jesse
Steamboat Whistle Blues by John Hartford

Whiskey Flats by E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier
Cross My Heart by Martin Zellar
Where's Eddie? by Drive-By Truckers
(Now And Then) There's A Fool Such As I by John Doe & The Sadies
Never Could Walk the Line by Eric Hisaw
Presently In The Past by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
Old Rub Alcohol Blues by Doc Boggs
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Stayin' Revived

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 8, 2011

No, it wasn’t just a fad. The most recent “soul revival” began erupting some time after the beginning of the new century. As I’ve said before, at any given time in the past few decades there has probably always been some kind of soul music revival going on somewhere.

And as far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing.

Sharon Jones has come as close to mainstream success as any independent artist can achieve these days. She and her label mates at Daptone Records keep cranking out exciting music. Bettye LaVette is now getting the recognition she deserved in the late ’60s.

Meanwhile, the likes of Lee Fields, Charles Walker and The Dynamites, Wiley and The Checkmates, J.C. Brooks and The Uptown Sound, and The Diplomats of Solid Sound — not to mention soul crazies like King Khan and The Shrines — roam the planet.

The cool thing, especially with some of the younger warriors in this movement (if you can call it that), is that the best of them aren’t out to merely re-create those glorious Stax/Volt days of yore. You’ll hear the energy of punk rock, the rawness of gutbucket blues, and all sorts of stray influences that keep the sound vital and refreshing.

Here are some recent rock ’n’ soul-drenched CDs that have had me in a cold sweat lately:

* Scandalous by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. This highly anticipated album by the Austin band is the follow-up to the group’s acclaimed 2009 debut, Tell ’Em What Your Name Is. In a recent interview with The Boston Globe, the producer of the album, Jim Eno (also the drummer of Spoon), said he consciously emphasized The Honeybears’ punk influence.

Indeed, several songs sound more like hard rock than sweet soul. “Jesus Took My Hand,” for instance, sounds less like gospel than Black Keys-style minimalist blues-rock. The same is true with “You Been Lyin’,” on which Lewis is backed by a Dallas gospel group called The Relatives.

“The Ballad of Jimmy Tanks,” dominated by the guitars of Zach Ernst and Lewis, sounds like a pumped-up take on some long-lost, primal Junior Kimbrough song. And speaking of blues, it would appear that Lewis and the band had Mississippi in mind on the song “Messin’.” This one owes a lot to Elmore James and John Lee Hooker.

There is a cover song on the album — a passionate take on “Since I Met You Baby.” This song, written by Texas bluesman Ivory Joe Hunter, has been passed back and forth between blues, country, and rock artists for decades. Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Freddy Fender, Sam Cooke, and even Bobby Vee have taken their turn with this classic. The Honeybears do a slow, swaying take on the tune as Black Joe shouts the lyrics.

But don’t think this band has forgotten its soul roots. “Booty City” gives the Honeybear horn section and everyone else in the band a good workout. “Livin’ in the Jungle,” driven by the horns and a scratchy guitar hook, could be a funky cross between “Gimme Shelter” (the Merry Clayton version of the Stones song) and the Guns N’ Roses hit with a similar name.

Hands down, my favorite song here is the hilarious “Mustang Ranch,” a tale about young Black Joe getting his “ham glazed” during a visit to a legal whorehouse in Nevada. Not only is the story funny, but it’s probably the rockingest track on the whole record.

Unfortunately, when I bought this CD (yes, I’m a critic who frequently buys music!), I didn’t pick up the deluxe edition, which contains four extra songs, including a hard-rocking version of Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down.” Oh well, that’s why God created downloading.

Check out www.blackjoelewis.com. There you’ll find a link to iTunes, which sells several tracks by Lewis at the South by Southwest Festival last month.

* No Time for Dreaming by Charles Bradley. Although Bradley is more than twice Black Joe Lewis’ age, Lewis has recorded more records than Bradley. Bradley is in his 60s, and this is his first album. He’s knocked around for years from New York to Maine to Alaska to California and back, playing gigs in local bands but mainly earning his living as a cook.

So he’s a late bloomer, but I like this flower. His voice is rough and gritty and more than a little world-weary. His band is a tight little group that seems to be well-versed in the records of Otis Redding and Al Green.

The album starts off with a terse little apoc-soul-liptic tune called “The World Is Going Up in Flames.” A bass line that almost suggests reggae throbs as stuttering horns punctuate Bradley’s growls and moans.

This and the song “Why Is It So Hard,” which starts out with the musical question, “Why is it so hard to make it in America?” might suggest a modern take on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. (There’s also “Trouble in the Land,” a barely-over-a-minute instrumental that sounds a little like Hugh Masekela’s “Grazin’ in the Grass” — except for the police siren in the background.)

Most of the songs, however, don’t deal with sociopolitical issues. Bradley is usually pleading with lovers in doomed love affairs. And there’s plenty of autobiography here, too. In fact, the climax of No Time is “Heartache and Pain,” which tells the story of Bradley’s brother being shot and killed by a family member.

“I woke up this morning, my mama she was crying/ So I looked out my window/Police lights were flashing/People were screaming so I ran out to the street/A friend grabbed my shoulders and said these words to me/‘Life is full of sorrow. So I have to tell you this/Your brother is gone.’”

He shouts about heartaches and pain, and you believe him.

Blog Bonus:

Here's The Relatives playing with Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears last month at SXSW

Grammys Shelve Native American and Other Awards

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 7, 2011

In what will undoubtedly be seen as a blow to American Indian musicians in New Mexico, the Recording Academy announced Wednesday that there will no longer be a Grammy Award for Native American music.

Robert Mirabal

The move is part of a major consolidation of Grammy categories announced in Los Angeles. Instead of the 109 categories awarded this year, next year there will be only 78 categories.

“It ups the game in terms of what it takes to receive a Grammy and preserves the great esteem (in) which it’s held in the creative community, which is the most important element,” Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“This is really disappointing,” said Harlan McKosato of Albuquerque in a telephone interview Wednesday. McKosato, who writes a column on Indian issues for The New Mexican but is best known for hosting the syndicated radio show Native America Calling, has served on the committee that screens entries for the Native American Grammy.

“The Native American category was always in peril,” McKosato said. A major problem was that sometimes there were barely enough entries in a year to qualify, he said. (The minimum was 25 albums.) Only “traditional” Native music was eligible, so Indian rock, blues or jazz bands didn’t qualify, McKosato said.

Also disappointed at the news was Claude Stephenson, the state folklorist and a member of the state Music Commission.

“We were trying to get them to create more categories,” Stephenson said.

The Native American music category was introduced to the Grammys in 2001. In the past 11 years, several albums by New Mexico artists and recordings at New Mexico events won the Grammy for best Native American recording.

Robert Mirabal of Taos Pueblo won in 2008 for his album Totemic Flute Chants. Black Eagle, a Jemez Pueblo drum group, won in 2004 for its album Flying Free.

In 2001 and this year, the Native American Grammy went to various-artist albums recorded live at the annual Gathering of Nations PowWow in Albuquerque.

Black Eagle of Jemez Pueblo

Albums by Native American musicians can still be nominated, but they would compete in a newly created category called “Regional Roots Music,” which also will include traditional Hawaiian and Cajun/zydeco albums — two other categories that were deleted.

Some of the other categories that will disappear are Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel, Traditional Gospel Album, Tejano, Norteño, Children’s Spoken Word, Chamber Music, Classical Crossover and Latin Jazz. There will no longer be separate categories for best male and female singers in pop, country or R&B.

“All categories will remain, they’ll just be found in different genres,” Portnow told the Los Angeles Times. “The message isn’t about cutting, it’s about changing the way we present the awards. We welcome all artists who make music in the Grammy process, it’s just going to look a little different.”

The Times said the changes “ “implicitly acknowledge a widespread complaint by industry observers and casual fans that the number of categories had become bloated and unwieldy.”

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 3, 2011
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
Mustang Ranch by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Chicken Baby by The Monsters
No Reason to Complain by The Alarm Clocks
Snake Pit by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Love by Country Joe & The Fish
Survive or Die by Nekromantix
Your Haunted Head by Concrete Blonde
Pumpin' For the Man by Ween

Run Run Run by Velvet Underground
Ballad Of The Fogbound Pinhead by Thee Headcoats
Powder Keg by The Fall
Theme From Cheers by Titus Andronicus
Step Aside by Sleater-Kinney
Desdemona by John's Children
Matador by Pinata Protest
Do You Know What I Idi Amin by Chuck E. Weiss with Tom Waits

Wogs Will Walk by Cornershop
Shuffling Spectre by Dan Melchior und Das Menace
One Night of Sin by Simon Stokes
I Can't Hide by The Fleshtones
Monster Blues by Dex Romweber
You Gotta Work by Nathaniel Meyer
Psycho Daisies by The Hentchmen
Loose by Buick MacKane
Pucker Up Buttercup by Paul "Wine" Jones

Brand New memory by Exene Cervenka
Crawdad Hole by Big Jack Johnson
Why Is It So Hard by Charles Bradley
Mama Don't Like My Man by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Johnny Mathis' Feet by American Music Club
Love Letters Straight From Your Heart by Kitty Lester
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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A Song That Crossed Enemy Lines

UPDATED

 "The krauts ain't following ya too good on 'Lili Marlene'
tonight, Joe. Think somethin' happened to their tenor?"
Cartoon by Bill Mauldin

Here's a little tune I just stumbled upon while looking for something else on YouTube. I remember this melody chiefly as the song they used to play while all the kids skipped out to do square dances during every end-of-the-year May Festival at Nichols Hills Elementary School in the '60s .

But the history of this tune called "Lili Marleen" runs much deeper than that. The lyrics originally were written during World War One by a German soldier. But by 1939 it had been made into a song and was recorded by a German pop singer named Lale Anderson.

It was a hit and was broadcast over Radio Belgade for the benefit of German soldiers. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels got sick of it and, like the Nazi he was, ordered the station to stop playing the record.. But apparently there were so many requests for it from Axis troops all over Europe, Herr Goebbels relented, and Radio Belgrade began using it as its sign-off song every night.

But it's not just the Germans who loved it. It quickly became popular with British soldiers fighting in North Africa . Versions came out in different languages , English, French, Italian, Spanish, probably others.

The lyrics speak of a young soldier on sentry duty, pining for his faraway sweetheart, Lili Marleen. That's a feeling that cuts across all cultures, even on battlefields.

Here's some versions of the song. First here's Lale Anderson, singing it in 1939



Here's German New Wave queen Nina Hagen dueting with Greek singer Nana Mouskouri.



And here's one from the early '90s from an Estonian band called Vennaskond.



And here's a version by Polish rocker Kazik Staszewski



And yes, it has been done in English. (Thanks, Randy!) Here's Marlene Dietrich




(This post was updated 12-5-16 to replace a video that had vanished and to add Zuch Kazik's and Marlene Dietrich's versions. Then it was updated 6-18-20 to replace a bunch of vanished videos.)

For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 1, 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
Back from the Shadows Again by The Firesign Theatre
Stupid Texas Song by Austin Lounge Lizards
The Weakest Man by Drive-By Truckers
What's Goin' On With Grandpa by The Possum Posse
That's Why I Ride by Gal Holiday
Big Mamou by Waylon Jennings
Lover Please by Kinky Friedman
She's Gone Away by The Blasters
Piss Up a Rope by Ween

Anything Goes at a Rooster Show (Rooster Anthem) by The Imperial Rooster
Reefer Load by Scott H. Biram
Monkey Rag by Asylum Street Spankers
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadows by The Hickoids
The Unballed Ballad Of The New Folksinger by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Each Night I Try by Robbie Fulks

Hogs On The Highway by Bad Livers

I Hate These Songs by Dale Watson

APRIL FOOLS SET 
Foolin' Around by Buck Owens

A Such Such As i by Marti Brom

I'd Rather Be Your Fool Johnny Paycheck

100 Percent Fool by The Derailers

The Fool by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers

Fool About You by Ronnie Dawson

Fool About You by Sleepy LaBeef
Honey You Had Me Fooled by The Defibulators
Fool For You by Joe Swank & The Zen Pirates
Doin' What Comes Easy to a Fool by Junior Brown
Fool I Am by Pat Fergusson

Break This Fool by The Texas Saphires
Genitalia of a Fool by Cornell Hurd
That Kind of Fool by Jerry Lee Lewis & Keith Richards
Big Fool by Ronnie Self
Jealous Fool by Jimmy Breedlove
Life of a Fool by Paul Burch
Fools Fall in Love by Butch Hancock
Married Man's A Fool by Ry Cooder
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

New Peter Case Rarities Collection Coming

It's a compilation of outtakes, demos, etc. It's called The Case Files, and it's coming May 10.

According to the press release there's even a collaboration with Stan Ridgway. The collection covers his solo career, 1985-2010.

Can't wait? Here's one of the songs, "Round Trip Stranger Blues." (Click to listen, right click to download)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: What I Did on My Spring Break

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 1, 2011

I had to attend to some (happy) family matters in Austin, Texas, last week. But even if music wasn’t the prime purpose of this little vacation, you just don’t go to the Live Music Capital of the World without catching some shows.

I was there during the week immediately following the South by Southwest Festival. The whole town seemed to be kind of hung over, but there were still plenty of good shows from which to choose (without the crazy crowds and impossible parking you find during SXSW). Here’s what I heard:

* Dale Watson at The Broken Spoke: Seeing Watson at the Spoke is pretty much the full-on Texas honky-tonk experience. This place is an authentic musical institution in Austin. A sign on the building outside said the joint has been open for 46 years. Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, and Willie Nelson have graced its stage.

I almost didn’t recognize Watson when I first walked in. His jet-black pompadour has turned to a rich silver since the last time I saw him. (He’s not even 50 yet.) But his music hasn’t changed a lick. If he looks older, his stamina onstage is as strong as ever. Watson played more than three hours without taking a break.

He and his band, The Lone Stars, which includes a steel guitar, fiddle, and a stand-up bass, play pure, raw, unadorned beer-drinkin’ honky-tonk. Watson’s voice has a lot of Hag in it, as well as a touch of Waylon.
Watson mostly performed his own tunes.

There were plenty of recent ones, such as “Hey Brown Bottle,” an ode to Lone Star beer. He did a song called “Big Daddy,” about a shoeshine man who was doing business in the Broken Spoke that night. Watson frequently plugged him on stage: “Get a shoeshine, a boot-shine, anything but moonshine.”

He also played some older songs in his repertoire such as “Truck Stop in La Grange,” in which he included a part of the ZZ Top boogie classic of similar name. In fact, Watson included a whole mess of covers of country classics like “Silver Wings,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and Jim Ed Brown’s “Pop a Top.”

A little sociological phenomenon I observed at the Spoke: It was ladies’ night at the club, and the place was full of cute college-age girls dancing with old guys who looked like Hank Hill and his friends. I asked my daughter, an Austin resident, about this. She said it’s because the old redneck guys know how to dance. “The young guys don’t know what they’re missing,” she said. Being an old guy myself, I probably shouldn’t tell them.

*  Ralph White, John Schooley & Walter Daniels at Beer Land: Schooley normally is a one-man band, a wild blues stomper who records on Voodoo Rhythm Records. That’s what I was expecting to see last week at this free show. White, who was a founding member of The Bad Livers, recently played Santa Fe, opening for Scott H. Biram at Corazón. I caught Biram there but arrived too late to see White. I figured he must like playing on bills with these crazy one-man band types.

But instead, at the Beer Land show, Schooley was part of an acoustical trio. He played slide (mostly on a resonator guitar) and a little banjo with White (who sings and plays fiddle and banjo) and harmonica player/singer Daniels. Though I would have loved to have seen Schooley in his usual hands-on-guitar/feet-on-drums mode, I wasn’t disappointed with this team-up.

Basically, the trio played mournful, spooky old mountain songs, country blues, and proto-bluegrass, sometimes veering off into John Fahey territory. They covered tunes by Muddy Waters, Dock Boggs, and R.L. Burnside and even took a shot at Charlie Walker’s honky-tonk classic “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down.”

The opening acts here were also worth noting. There was Wes Coleman, a singer/guitarist backed only by a drummer, whose melodious melodies reminded me a little of the old band House of Freaks. And there was an extremely fun little scuzzgrass band called Dad Jim, whose frontman Robert Allan Caldwell is related to the famous Caldwell brothers of the Marshall Tucker Band. Besides its rowdy version of “Ya’ll Come,” the thing I liked most about Dad Jim is the fact that the band had a black dog that made itself comfortable onstage throughout the set.

* Exene Cervenka at The Mohawk: Cervenka kicked off her tour for her new album, The Excitement of Maybe, in Austin last week. As anyone who has followed her knows, Cervenka solo is far more low-key than her work with the band that made her famous, X. In fact, on her own, she sounds closer to The Knitters, that X offshoot folk group of which she was part.

I appreciated her Austin show more than I did her new album. The record is quite enjoyable, with some nice tracks with Dave Alvin on guitar and Maggie Bjorklund on dreamy steel. But her stage sound was more stripped-down than that of the album.

Cervenka’s band was a hearty little ensemble with Austin guitar stud Will Sexton and, on the last couple of tunes, banjo picker Gretchen Phillips. But my favorite part of the band was the drummer, whose name I didn’t get. She used a washtub as a bass drum. She’s no Buddy Rich, but she banged that tub with spirit.

And, oh yeah, Exene sings her guts out.

My favorite songs she did were the upbeat “I’ll Admit It Now” (which works better without the horn section on the studio version) and the wistful, countryish “Dirty Snow,” both from the new album, as well as one of the songs she did with Phillips, “I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again” — an old folk song performed by The Maddox Brothers and Rose.

The First Song I Ever Sang My Grandson

My version probably sounded closer to Johnny Cash's than any of these.

Whatever, the lad seemed to like it.



UPDATE:

Just stumbled on this forgotten gem

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 27 2011
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
What a Wonderful World by Joey Ramone
Dyin' For It by Mudhoney
Livin' in the Jungle by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
It's No Secret by Jefferson Airplane
Pearl City by The Fall
Somebody In My Home by John Schooley & His One Man Band
Dimples by The Animals
Pink Slip by The Unband

Ain't it a Shame by Nobunny
Nightcrawler by The Candy Snatchers
That's My Girl by The Monks
My Confusion by The Elite
Ashes by The Pussywarmers
Sheila Na-Gig by P.J. Harvey
Evil by Grinderman
Do The Sway by The Virgos
(Hot Pastrami with) Mashed Potatoes by Joe Dee & The Starliters
Shrunken Head by Deadbolt

Your Salvation by Sons of Hercules
Floor Length Hair by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds
Omega Todd by Kilimanjaro Yak Attack
Haywire Hodaddy by The Hodads
Hodad Makin' the Scene with a Sixpack by The Silly Surfers
Piss Off (What a Loser) by Miho Wada
Heartattack and Vine by Lydia Lunch
I'll Be Gone by Kazik
Fish In The Jailhouse by Tom Waits

Take My Hand Precious Lord by Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
One Kind Favor by Canned Heat
Wolf's at the Door by Howlin' Wolf
Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You by Muddy Waters
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? by Phil Alvin
The Lonesome Road by Snooks Eaglin
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Gotcher Brand New Big Enchilada RIGHT HERE!

I'm a grandfather now but I can rock just like a young whippersnapper. A couple of slugs of Geritol and I'm as good as new. Here's some rockin' tunes for the young at heart and old of fart. As Popeye says, "You've got to save your youth for your old age." This episode includes tons of the usual garage/punk/pyschobilly/R&B/ trash rock that I love so well. And we end with a freeform set that's an ode to grandfatherhood. Someday my grandson will hear this. Hopefully he won't be too disturbed.

Play it here:



DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE| SUBSCRIBE TO ALL | FACEBOOK | ITUNES

Here's the playlist

(Background Music: No Tienes Mi Querer by The Rollings)
Don't Let me Down by The Pornostuntman
The Heist by Gotham City Mashers
Baby I Grind by Les Sexareenos
Spook Factor by Memphis Morticians
No Great Shakes by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
I Need Your Lovin' by Wolfman Jack & The Wolfpack
Good Time by The Mighty Hannibal

(Background Music: Sweet Georgia Brown by Cab Calloway)
Floor Length Hair by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Cheetah Eyes by Clone Defects
Walking Through My Dreams by The Big Bopper
Boogiehut by The Get Lost
Red River St. by The Kill Spectors
The Monkey by The Great Gaylord
Eres Casado by Al Hurricane

(Background Music: Old Folks Boogie by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band)
Granddaddy's Rockin' by Mac Curtis
Rock 'n' Roll Grandpap by Don Rader
Dirty Old Man by Thee Headcoatees
I Am My Own Grandpa by Asylum Street Spankers
Silver Threads Among the Gold by Jerry Lee Lewis
Grandpa's Boogie by Grandpa Jones
Look at Granny Run by Howard Tate
(Background Music: Sloop John B by Joseph Spence)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 20, 2011
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
You Give Me Nothing To Go On by The Fleshtones
Leave The Capitol by The Fall
I'm Cryin' by The Animals
Dream On (Little Dreamer) by Hunx And His Punx
The Shape of Things to Come by The Ramones
Too Much Monkey Business by The Yardbirds
Old Man of The Mountain by Phil Alvin
Bad Boy by Larry Williams
Cry Cry Cry (In The U.S.A.) by The Scrams
The Boo Boo Song by King Coleman

Wart Hog by Lolita #18
Hong Kong by Jerry Lee Lewis
Treat Her Right by Los Straightjackets with Mark Lindsay
Night of the Queerwolf by The Spook Lights
Brain Dead by The Sons of Hercules
Master Sold My Baby by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Jump Jive and Harmonize by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Surf Pigs by Kim Fowley and Mars Bonfire
Wiggle It Baby by Crook, Jr.
Lam Tung Wai by Chaweewan Dumnern

Transcontinental Hustle by Gogol Bordello
Cantina by Pinata Protest
I Had A Dream by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
God is a Bullet by Concrete Blonde
The Old Man Down the Road John Fogerty
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson
Don't Save it Too Long by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends

Eddie Are You Kidding? by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Infected by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Come Back Bird by Manby's Head
Not to Touch the Earth by The Doors
She's So Satisfyin' by Purple Merkins
I Just Want to See His Face by The Rolling Stones
Will the Circle Be Unbroken by The Staples Singers
Don't You Ever Let Nobody Drag Yo Spirit Down by Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir with Wilson Pickett & Erib Bibb
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Because There's No Santa Fe Opry Tonight ...

Due to this being the last night of the state Legislature, I won't be doing The Santa Fe Opry tonight. Tom Adler will be sitting in.

Next week I'll be down in Texas, so Laurell Reynolds will bring you the SFO Opry.

I will be doing Terrell's Sound World as usual this week and next.

But since I'll be missing the Opry, I won't be able to do a tribute to the late Ferlin Husky who died this week. So enjoy this classic.


Also, let me give you a pretty country song by Santa Fe's own Billy Kaundart. I posted it on this blog a few years ago, but it's a timeless joy. Remember ... Billy Kaundart!

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Songs of a Preacher Man

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 18, 2011


A preacher in a small Southern town has a double life. He goes astray and his life and the lives of everyone around him suffer for it. Tragedy follows. (“The reverend had his wife done in by a guy I knew in high school.”)

This is the theme of a couple of Patterson Hood songs on Go-Go Boots, the latest album by the Drive-By Truckers. It’s a story he told before in “The Wig He Made Her Wear” on the Truckers’ previous work, The Big To-Do. “Wig” is based on the true story of Mary Winkler, who was found guilty of voluntary man slaughter for killing her allegedly abusive husband, the Rev. Matthew Winkler, in 2006, at the couple’s home in Tennessee.

The spiritual offsprings of that twisted tale are the new album’s title song and “The Fireplace Poker.” These are apparently fictional accounts inspired by the 1988 murder-for-hire case in which Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, wife of the Rev. Charles Sennett, was stabbed and beaten in her home on Coon Dog Cemetery Road (I’m not making that up!) in Colbert County, Alabama.

The reverend committed suicide, authorities say, soon after being identified as a suspect. One of the contract killers, John Forrest Parker, was executed last year. “This was a wild case,” former Colbert County Sheriff Buddy Aldridge told an Alabama newspaper at the time.

The Sennett-murder songs are delightfully disturbing. In “Go-Go Boots,” there is a slow and bluesy setup in which Hood introduces the Cadillac-driving preacher, his mistress Missy, whose sexy footwear apparently did for this preacher what Mary Winkler’s wig and other accessories did for her late husband. And then there’s the son, driving his Camaro and working crappy jobs, the rage building inside as rumors about his mother’s death start to swirl.

The murder is only hinted at in “Go-Go Boots”: “He met these guys who didn’t mind getting dirty/He was a pillar and his alibi was sturdy.”

But the lyrics of “The Fireplace Poker” read almost like a police detective’s field notes. It’s a meandering epic sung matter-of-factly by Hood over a tense, sturdy beat. In the song, the preacher’s wife is stabbed and left for dead by the hired killer. But it’s the preacher who finishes the job with 15 whacks of a fireplace poker.

Also, in the song, the official story of the preacher’s suicide is questioned. The preacher’s son brings him home, apparently from questioning at the police station. Hood asks, “Was he alone when he died?/ Don’t call the son for questioning, that bullet was deserved./ Better call it suicide. Justice has been served.’”

In a video on the Truckers’ website, Hood explains that he’s fascinated when “people in positions of authority ... whether it’s a preacher or policeman, you know, people who are supposed to be standing up for the morally upright things, commit horrific crimes.” He says that he has an unfinished book and an unfinished screenplay based on the murder that inspired these tunes.

“In another life I might have been one of those people that write, you know, noir books or something, or direct noir movies,” Hood says in the video. “But instead I play in a noir band.”

“Go-Go Boots” and “The Fireplace Poker” weigh in at nearly 14 minutes. They’re like a movie within the album, but they’re not the only tracks that back up Hood’s contention that the Truckers are a noir band.

While the music here isn’t quite as rocked out as in most of DBT’s previous albums — there are lots of sweet soul grooves and a couple of honky-tonkers — the stories told are some of the most intense since The Dirty South, their 2004 album, which is still my favorite.

There’s the gripping “Used to Be a Cop,” a seven-minute Hood tale of a former officer who sounds like a walking powder keg. He’s a guy who was beaten by his father, grazed by a bullet in the line of duty, and divorced by a wife who thought he was crazy for all his fidgeting and pacing.

His car was repossessed, and he carries deep resentment about having to pay for a house, “but that bitch lives in it now.” Police work was the only thing he was good at, but he lost his badge because of “my temper and the shakes.” Mike Cooley’s guitar snarls and boils, and you keep thinking some atrocity is awaiting in the next verse.

“Ray’s Automatic Weapon” is another Hood song. This one is about a Vietnam veteran, not a criminal. The narrator is haunted by recurring nightmares and has a gnawing fear that something crazy might happen. Or maybe it already did. He begs his war buddy Ray to take back the gun he left with the narrator 40 years ago. “The things that I’ve been shooting at are getting all too real.”

Not all the songs here are blood and guts. The baritone-voiced Cooley sings “The Weakest Man,” an upbeat country tune you could easily imagine Conway Twitty singing. Cooley’s “Pulaski” is a sweet, cautionary tale of a small-town Tennessee girl who longs for the nightlife of Los Angeles. She comes to an unspecified tragic end.

Eddie Hinton

And there’s not one, but two songs written by the late soul man Eddie Hinton. My favorite is “Where’s Eddie?” an emotional ballad co- written by funky Donnie Fritts and sung by bass player Shonna Tucker.

Go-Go Boots doesn’t hold together quite as well as last year’s The Big To-Do. My initial impression is that there’s more filler on Boots. But don’t worry. You’ll get your money’s worth on the songs I mentioned. I can’t think of many other bands these days that provide this much meat per platter.

BLOG BONUS

Here's the interview with Patterson Hood I mentioned above:


The Go-Go Boots Episodes - Episode 1 - Drive-By Truckers from Drive-By Truckers on Vimeo.

Grandpa Boogie

A song for a wonderful morning.

For Molly, Dan and Gideon Kilgore Brake.

(Nothing to see here, just listen!)

The Present Day Jug Band Refuses to Die

A good tune to kickstart your Tuesday.


There's more HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 13, 2011
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
Rats in My Kitchen by The Fleshtones
Alleys of Your Mind by The Dirtbombs
That's the Bag I'm In by The Fabs
I Want to Be Your Pussy Cat by Lightning Beat-Man
I Don't Know by The Del Moroccos
I Need Your Lovin' by Wolfman Jack & The Wolfpack
Jail La La by The Dum Dum Girls
Sweet Skinny Jenny by Esquerita
Bip Bop Bip by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Baby I Grind by Les Sexerinos
Love of My Life by Ruben & The Jets

Busload of Faith by Lou Reed
Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cooke & The Gaylads
The Crusher by The Novas
Rock-N Bones by Elroy  Deitzel
Miniskirt Blues by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Bend Over I'll Drive by The Cramps
Circus Freak by The Electric Prunes
Jesus Never Lived on Mars by Eddie Spaghetti


St. Pat's Set 

Sally Mac Lennane by The Pogues
The Likes of You Again by Flogging Molly
 Whiskey in a Jar by The Dubliners
The Rocky Road to Dublin by The Young Dubliners
Livin' in America by Black 47
Captain Kelly's Kitchen by The Dropkick Murpheys 
The Body of an American by Shane MacGowan & The Popes
The Rising of the Moon by The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem

I Will Stand at Your Grave by Sinead O'Connor
Almost a God by Movie Star Junkies
Ask the Angels by Patti Smith
Freedom by J. Mascis & The Fog
Puss in Boots by New York Dolls
Waitin' For Waits by Richie Cole
Innocent When You Dream by Tom Waits

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 11, 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
Walk Right In by Gus Cannon
Scrap Collectin' Man by Crankshaft & The Geargrinders
Graveyard Shift by Scott H. Biram
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live by The Del Lords
Pictures of Lily by The Hickoids
Teardrops by The Sixtyniners
Gone to Seed by The Riptones
Foolin' Around by Buck Owens
I'm Gonna Take You Home and Make You Like Me by Robbie Fulks

Three  Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Gravy Shake by The Defibulators
I Like Drinking by The Gourds
The Ballad of Lightnin' Bill Jaspar by The Imperial Rooster
The Ballad of Lynann  by Two Ton Strap 
A) Enlightenment, B) Endarkenment (Hint There is No C) by Ray Wylie Hubbard 
Blaze Foley's 113th Wet Dream by Gurf Morlix
The Hurrier I Go The Behinder I Get by The Last Mile Ramblers 
Tiptoe Through The Tulips With Me by Eddie Peabody

I Used to Be a Cop by The Drive-By Truckers
Ramona by Jerry J. Nixon
You're Bound to Look Like A Monkey by Hank Penny

Chopped by The Watzloves

Le Pistolet by Mama Rosin
My Screamin' Screamin' Mimi by Ray Campi
My Pretty Quadroon by Jerry Lee Lewis 
Kiss an Angel Good Morning by Charlie Pride

When the Gates Swing Open by The Rev. Johnny L. Jones
Cold And Blind by Possessed By Paul James
Belshazzar by Johnny Cash
Dark Day by Silver Leaf Quartet 
Reunion in Heaven by Flatt & Scruggs 
Sayonara Yuichi & the Hilltone Boys
Going Where The Lonely Go by Merle Haggard


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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: New Fleshtones and Dirtbombs

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 11, 2011

On their new album, Brooklyn Sound Solution, those old masters known as The Fleshtones don’t do much but have a great time. No major statement, no great artistic insight, no over- all point. And those who love this basic, unaffected ’60s rock ’n’ soul-drenched guitar rock will have a great time listening to it. It’s scheduled for release on Tuesday.

On this album, the band, fronted by founding members Keith Streng and Peter Zaremba, is joined by Lenny Kaye, guitarist for The Patti Smith Group and compiler of the influential Nuggets collection of 1960s garage-band classics. (Kaye is less known for being the author of a book about crooners, You Call It Madness.) He fits in seamlessly.

I could spend a couple of paragraphs informing the uninitiated about this seminal New York band (which claims to be the only band to debut at CBGB — in 1976 — that never broke up and never had an inactive year). But you can find out about the group for yourselves on the Fleshtones’ bio documentary Pardon Us for Living but the Graveyard Is Full, available in its entirety online HERE.

What sets BSS apart from other Fleshtones albums is that nearly all the songs are instrumentals, covers, or both.

My favorite tunes here are a couple of cranked-up blues covers. There’s the signature tune of Bo Diddley sideman Billy Boy Arnold, “I Wish You Would” (probably best-known for its cover by The Yardbirds). The Fleshtones play it with a fuzzy bass line that can’t help but make you think of The Doors’ “Break on Through.” They could easily make a medley of the two songs.

Even better is “Rats in My Kitchen,” a song originally done by Sleepy John Estes. Estes recorded this for Sun Records in the ’50s. He did it as a slow blues. The Fleshtones transform it into a pounding, menacing song of horror. “You know I came home late last night/Somewhere ’bout half past 10/They stared at me with mean red eyes/I had to go right back out again.”

My only complaint about BSS is that there are too many instrumentals. Are Streng and Zaremba trying to conserve their vocal chords or what? Don’t get me wrong, I like all the songs. Their instrumental cover of “Day Tripper” rocks, and the Kaye composition “Lost in Xandu” sounds like a forgotten surf classic from a parallel universe.

And I’ve always loved the cool, jazzy opening song, “Comin’ Home Baby,” which was done in 1962 by Mel Tormé. Now granted, neither Zaremba nor Streng can sing like the Velvet Fog, but this song would sound even better as a vocal number.

That quibble aside, it’s great just knowing that The Fleshtones are still out there keeping the sound they call “super rock” alive.

Not recommended:

* Party Store by The Dirtbombs. It had been rumored for at least a couple of years that The Dirtbombs’ next project was going to be an album of bubble-gum covers. Head Dirtbomb Mick Collins had even talked about that possibility in interviews .

But while I was hearing, in the jukebox of my mind, Collins growling “Yummy yummy yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy” — with the group’s powerful two-bass, two drummers lineup behind him — The Dirtbombs threw a curveball.

The new album consists of covers of what several writers have called “classic Detroit techno” songs.

Well, burst that gum bubble!

For someone like me who couldn’t tell a classic Detroit techno band from a classic Cincinnati bagpipe ensemble, this is a huge “huh?”

But I’m a Dirtbombs fan, and one of the things I love about the group is its willingness to experiment with various sounds.

Mick Collins
 (with The Gories last summer)

Plus, I’m curious. I’ve always associated Detroit with Motown, Mitch Ryder, MC5, and the great neo-garage bands that arose there in the ’90s — groups like The White Stripes and Collins’ first band, The Gories.

But I have to say, this little experiment has left me disappointed. How many other punk bands could cover Lou Rawls, The Bee Gees, and Yoko Ono as this Motor City primitive garage/punk/soul outfit did on its 2006 compilation If You Don’t Already Have a Look?

Party Store starts off strong with a song called “Cosmic Cars.” This might have begun as a techno tune when done in the early ’80s by Cybotron. But here it’s pure Dirtbomb rock ’n’ roll. (They do another Cybotron song here, “Alleys of Your Mind,” which is also one of the best on the album.) But by the second tack, “Sharivari,” 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.

If you can make it through the 21-minute “Bug in the Bass Bin” (the first six minutes or so consist of engine noises), you’re a better Dirtbombs fan than I am.

The Dirtbombs aren’t the first to attempt a fusion of techno and garage or punk or whatever you want to call it. Just a few months ago in this column I reviewed a weird little album called Two-Headed Demon by a one-man band from Switzerland, a guy who calls himself Urban Junior.

UJ’s “Swiss-spankin-electro-trash-garage-boogie-disco-blues-punk,” as he calls it, sounds looser, trashier, and closer to the punk spirit than the stuff on Party Store. And it probably helps that none of the tracks on Two-Headed Demon are more three minutes.

But The Dirtbombs rarely stay in one place. Their next album is bound to be different. Maybe they’ll even give us some bubble gum.

Blog Bonus! Here's a classic Fleshtones video by M. Henry Jones from the late '70s.

Scott H. Biram Tonight at Corazon

Scott H. Biram, one-man band, hillbilly screamer, Bloodshot recording artist and all around wild man, is playing tonight at Corazon.

The show starts at 9 p.m., with Ralph White (former member of The Bad Livers!) opening.

I've reviewed two of his three Bloodshot albums. You can find those reviews HERE and HERE

Better yet, here's a live radio show Birham did, courtesy of the Live Music Archive. Enjoy and hope to see you at the Corazon tonight.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 6, 2011
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
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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eMusic March

* First Blood by 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 Store by 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 Bands that 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.