Friday, April 06, 2007

EGGS-ESTENTIALISM



Here is the official New Mexico Easter egg on display at the White House during this holy season. All states have an egg for the collection organized by (I kid you not) the American Egg Board.


The egg, created by artist Sharon Locke, looks like it has a little Mudhead in there. But here's what Wonkette had to say about it:

There’s a little Bill Richardson inside this egg, drinking an entire pitcher of margaritas. Good work, New Mexico!

Meanwhile, my old partner in crime at the New Mexican Capitol Bureau Ben Neary, (now working for the Associated Press in Wyoming), reveals that the Wyoming egg was created by some college kid from Illinois whose mother works for the Egg Board. CLICK HERE.

UPDATE: To add more insult to injury to the great state of Wyoming, in the web version of a Washington Post story that quotes Ben, when you run your mouse over the photo it says "Montana State Easter Egg."

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: FALL FORWARD

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 6, 2007

Spring is here. It’s time for The Fall.

Thirty years on the road and Mark E. Smith, on The Fall’s new album, Reformation Post TLC, is still cranking out his crazy brand of rant ’n’ roll, shouting his incomprehensible, half-comical lyrics over steady, driving beats; bubbly, fizzly synth noises; and ever-tasty, irresistible, garage-band guitar riffs.

It’s a formula tried-and-true and one from which the former dockworker from Manchester, England, rarely strays. But dagnabbit, the darn thing still works.

A little background on this album. Last year, just a few dates into an American tour, all of Smith’s sidemen — except his wife and keyboardist Elena Poulou — walked out on him. (“They went home because of my violent and abusive behavior,” Smith told Maximum Rock’n’ Roll in an interview last year. It’s not clear if he was being facetious.) The Fall’s latest record company, Narnack, recruited a trio of Americans to take the place of the absent Brits. It’s this group that recorded Reformation Post TLC.

The new boys — guitarist Tim Presley, bassist Rob Barbato, and drummer Orpheo McCord — might not share Smith’s Manchester working-class roots, but they seem to have caught on to the basic Fall sound.

More than a decade ago, in reviewing some Fall album or another, I wrote, “I doubt if all the CIA’s computers could crack the garbled ranting of Mark E. Smith.” In recent years I’ve been leaning toward a conspiracy-theory explanation for The Fall’s appeal to its scattered cult.

The band is actually sending coded messages to some alien/Lovecraftian sleeper cell. Some isolated Smith yelp in conjunction with some post-Standells guitar hook causes some shift in brain chemistry in some isolated listener, and next thing you know some unwitting Fall fan in Dalhart, Texas, is making a 4 a.m. drive to the Tucumcari airport to pick up a crate of something unspeakable delivered on a secret flight from Bohemian Grove.

I hope I’m safe now that I’ve spilled that secret.

Or maybe people like me like The Fall because it’s good, stripped-down rock and because Smith’s crackpot/shaman lyrics open up the imagination.

There are a few departures from normal Fall fare on Reformation. Poulou handles the vocals on “The Wright Stuff,” reciting the lyrics in her lovely Greek accent as a snaky Farfisa organ riff slithers behind her.

Smith tries a turn at country music (ploughing the same ground as The Mekons on “Lost Highway” and “Sweet Dreams”), singing with a Bizarro World cover of Merle Haggard’s “White Line Fever.” (It’s not the first time The Fall has gone country. Back in the ’80s the band recorded a fine little hillbilly tune called “Pinball Machine.”) Here the Haggard song seems to be a setup for the next track on the album, “Insult Song,” which starts off with Smith, in some wino/pirate voice, grumbling, “White line fever/I got it off the children of Captain Beefheart/They’d been locked in the forest for many years/They could not help it/They were retards from the Los Angeles district” and repeating "White line fever" several times through the mysterious spoken-word song.

The one major misstep here is “Das Boat.” Unfortunately, at 10 and a half minutes, it’s the longest song on the album. It’s mainly a dull synthesizer drone with percussion that sounds like someone hitting a desk with a ruler and chimplike chants of “eee eee eee eee” by Smith and Poulou. The following track, “The Bad Stuff,” works better even though it sounds as if it might be a collage of studio outtakes. It starts off with spooky guitar twanging but soon goes into a hopped-up, classic-Fall, instrumental workout, with indecipherable Fall-jabber popping up here and there.

(Belated correction: in my past couple of reviews of The Fall, I mentioned a July 1981 gig at what used to be the old El Paseo Theater in downtown Santa Fe. I mistakenly called it The Gold Bar, but after some e-mail correspondence from Stefan Cooke (who has an excellent Fall Web site), I dug out the original clip of my review of that show in the Santa Fe Reporter and discovered the theater was operating under the name of Paseo de la Luz. )

Also recommended:
* I Walk My Murderous Intentions Home
by King Automatic. This is a one-man garage band from France. Mr. Automatic (his real name is Jay something) plays guitar, drums, harmonica, and Farfisa organ. Until I checked the Web site, I thought it was a full band. (A guy named Julien plays sax on a couple of tracks here.)

King Automatic sounds like one of those proud, unsung ’60s bands you find on compilations like the Pebbles series. But he also has a fine sense of noir. The title cut and a reggae-tinged tune called “Here Comes the Terror” could be from a soundtrack of some warped foreign cop show. And there’s an instrumental tribute to Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti-Western themes called “A Few Dollars Less.”

*Garage Punk Vol. 1: 20 Years of Uncontrolled Live Shows and Ultra Rare Records by The Monsters. Here’s an aptly titled, double-disc record by the Swiss band led by Voodoo Rhythm Records high priest Rev. Beat Man. It’s a self described “no-fi” collection from “one of the trashyest, loudest, ... bands you’ll ever see!” On one of the live cuts (“Dead End Street”) Beat Man proclaims the music to be a cross between death metal and rockabilly. Throw in some Stooges, Cramps, and a little Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and that’s a good start.

If you can get past the no-fi, there’s some real oughta-be classics here. “Nightmares” and “Blues for Joe” are timeless garage glory. “Searchin’” is downright ferocious. And the cover of Rick Nelson’s “Lonesome Town” is touching and hilarious at the same time.

Anyone who believes that “Psychotic Reaction” ought to be the national anthem should check out The Monsters. While the sound quality definitely lives up to Beat Man’s “trash” aesthetic, this group indeed is monstrous.

Learn more about The Monsters, King Automatic and other trash-rock avatars at the Voodoo Rhythm site.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: HERE'S TO GOOD FRIENDS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 5, 2007


“Good friends having dinner together — no special purpose.”

That was the notation that lobbyist and former Albuquerque Mayor Ken Schultz made on a required 2002 expense report filed with the Secretary of State’s office.

Schultz reported he spent $141.95 on June 4, 2001, for a dinner with then-Attorney General Patricia Madrid “and spouses.”

What that document doesn’t say is that during the time he was dining with the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Schultz was neck deep in a criminal scheme to skim millions of dollars from the Bernalillo County Metro Courthouse.

That wasn’t disclosed until last week when the U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed a plea agreement. Schultz pleaded guilty to federal counts of conspiracy and mail fraud and admitted his role in transferring payoffs from one of his lobbying clients.

“I participated as go-between in a conspiracy and scheme to defraud the state of New Mexico ...,” the former mayor and one-time car dealer said in his plea agreement. He has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of former state Sen. Manny Aragon, D-Albuquerque, and others indicted by a federal grand jury.

Schultz’s client, architect Marc Schiff, also pleaded guilty in the case. Aragon, former court administrator Toby Martinez and two others face multiple charges in what prosecutors say was a $4.2 million rip-off of public money.

Madrid said Wednesday that she recalled having dinner with the Schultzes but doesn’t remember exactly where. “It was probably Yanni’s or some other Albuquerque restaurant,” she said.

Madrid doesn’t dispute Schultz’s “good friends” description. “I have been friendly with him,” she said. “I like his wife very much.”

The former attorney general, who last fall narrowly lost her bid to replace U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., in Congress, said she’s saddened by Schultz’s involvement in the scandal.

Six months after the dinner with Madrid and her husband, Schultz attended another gathering at an unspecified Albuquerque restaurant that also made its way into government documents. But this one allegedly did have a “special purpose” beyond “good friends having dinner together.”

“On or about Dec. 5, 2001, the defendant Manny Aragon met Marc Schiff, Ken Schultz, the defendant Toby Martinez and the defendant Raul Parra at a restaurant in Albuquerque,” the indictment says.

In Schiff’s plea agreement, the architect describes such a restaurant meeting. “The purpose of the meeting was to make a final payment of $30,000 to Aragon,” Schiff said. “Prior to the meeting, I had given Schultz $30,000 which Schultz passed to Aragon at the table.”

More good friendliness: Picking up the dinner check isn’t the only time Schultz has given Madrid something of value.

According to his lobbyist reports, Schultz donated $1,000 to her 2002 re-election campaign and, in 2005, contributed $3,000 to Madrid’s political action committee, Justice For America, to help pay for a “woman’s forum.” And, according to federal records, Schultz gave $500 to Madrid’s Congressional campaign.

“I can’t remember Ken Schultz ever requesting anything from my office,” Madrid said.

Aragon also contributed $250 to her Congressional campaign. “I don’t remember that, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Madrid said. “Manny and I graduated from law school at the same time.”

However, Madrid isn’t joining Gov. Bill Richardson, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and her successor, Attorney General Gary King, in giving campaign contributions from the courthouse-scam defendants to charity.

“How much did the governor get?” she asked me Thursday. “What I got is pretty minimal compared to him.”

According to Schultz’s lobbyist reports, he contributed about $15,000 to Richardson’s two gubernatorial campaigns — $10,000 of which was a contribution last year from one of his clients, Gandy Marley Inc., which owns a hazardous-waste site in Southern New Mexico.

Richardson also received $35,000 from others implicated in the courthouse scandal.

Schultz’s lobbyist reports show he has contributed to dozens of state politicians. He has given more than $70,000 to campaigns, though much of it was from clients including Gandy Marley and Comcast Cablevision of New Mexico. Schultz also loaned Richardson a motor home during the 2002 campaign.

He even gave money to Madrid’s 2002 opponent in the attorney general’s race, Republican Rob Perry — though Perry only got $250. (Similarly, although he gave King money — $500 in 2004 and $250 in 2006 — Schultz also contributed to King’s opponents in both those races. According to federal records and Schultz’s lobbyist reports, he provided $1,750 to U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce in 2004 and $500 to Republican attorney general candidate Jim Bibb last year.)

Schultz’s reports list another $27,000 in other lobbyist expenses since 2001, including meals, gifts and knick-knacks for lawmakers, sponsorships of golf tournaments and other events, and the purchase of tickets to fundraisers.

The Legislature this year passed a bill putting limits on gifts to state officials. However, the state Senate voted against a bill to limit campaign contributions.

COURTHOUSE SCANDAL LINKS
My Stories
* My first-day story
* Party reactions
* Where'd all that money go?
* Tainted Cash

Court Documents
* The Indictment
* Schultz Plea
* Schiff Plea
* Guara Plea

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

MORE ON THE COURTHOUSE SCAM


My story in today's New Mexican about state politicos giving contributions from Manny Aragon and other figures in the courthouse scandal giving their "tainted" money to charity can be found HERE.

Turns out my figures here for former Albuquerque Mayor Ken Schultz -- who has pled guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy, admitting he was a "go-between" in the skim operation -- are drastically low. Looks like Followthemoney.org isn't as reliable as the lobbyist reports on the Secretary of State's Web site.

I can't believe I just said something positive about the Secretary of State's Web site.

UPDATE: Sure enough, it looks like I jinxed myself in offering any encouraging word about the Secretary of State's Web site. For the last couple of hours I've tried getting into the lobbyist reports.

Guess what ...

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

THE SHAVER SHOOTING

I just now learned about the Billy Joe Shaver shooting.

According to Billy's lawyer, he shot a guy in the check outside a joint called Papa Joe's Texas Saloon on Interstate 35, 89 miles north of Austin. The lawyer says it was self defense.

He was jailed only briefly, then did a free show at Waterloo Records Tuesday night.

Here's the initial story by Michael Corcoran in the Austin Statesman HERE, plus a follow up HERE. And HERE is the affidavit for arrest warrant.

Oh lord, Billy!

DOWN TIME FOR LEGISLATURE BLOG

Some of you have noticed that there's one less pretty picture of me on this page. Because the session and the special session are officially over, I've taken down the cool link/ad on this site.

I'll keep the link with the list of other personal links on the right-side column in case anyone needs to check anything from the 2007 sessions, but I won't be actively blogging there until the next session (or, Lord help us, special session.)

That means that this site will once again be my place for stray political posts in addition ot my weekly Roundhouse Roundup column.

A LITTLE VICTORY IN THE DIGITAL MUSIC WARS

One of the major music corporations has decided to quit putting copy protection code in digital music it sells.

from All About Jazz:

Music group EMI yesterday scrapped copy protection on all its digital tracks in a move that was immediately hailed by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs as “the next big step forward in the digital music revolution”.

For the first time, downloads by artists including Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Joss Stone purchased from any online music store will be playable on any digital music player, including the market-leading iPod, with no restrictions on their use.

Music group EMI yesterday scrapped copy protection on all its digital tracks in a move that was immediately hailed by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs as “the next big step forward in the digital music revolution”.

For the first time, downloads by artists including Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Joss Stone purchased from any online music store will be playable on any digital music player, including the market-leading iPod, with no restrictions on their use.

Until now, owners of digital music players have been restricted to buying downloads from certain stores, depending on the make of their device and the sort of copy protection it could handle.

Now owners of devices other than the iPod can buy songs from the iTunes music store, and the tracks will be available with higher quality sound. Conversely, iPod owners will be able to choose from a wider range of stores.

Monday, April 02, 2007

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 1, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Radar Love by Golden Earring
Mad Daddy by The Cramps
Reformation by The Fall
You Treat Me by by Ju Jus
Don't Try It by The Devil Dogs
How Do You Catch a Girl by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Inside Looking Out by The Animals
Money by Richard Thompson

Assembly of Dog by Hundred Year Flood
Club Mekon by The Mekons
Walk Idiot Walk by The Hives
I Can Hear the Grass Grow by The Move
Break It One More Time by Mary Weiss
When I'm Skinny by Spanking Charlene
Money Won't Change You by James Brown

Dr. Funkenstein by Parliament
Superman Lover by Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Topless a Go Go by The Rockets Combo
Native Girl by The Native Boys
The Jungle by Diablito

Stool Pigeon by The Soul Deacons
Green Light by The Detroit Cobras
Step Aside by Sleater-Kinney
Ocean of Noise by Arcade Fire
Gypsy Hop by Ron Romanovsky
Here Comes The Terror by King Automatic
House Where Nobody Lives by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, March 31, 2007

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 30, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
In the Jailhouse Now by Steve Earle & The V-Roys
Crazed Country Rebel by Hank Williams III
If Walls Could Talk by The Bottle Rockets
Poor Little Critter on the Road by Trailer Bride
Bullet of Redemption by Graham Parker
Always the Same by The Watzloves
Cottonseed by Drive By Truckers
When I Stop Dreaming by Charlie Louvin with Elvis Costello
Pig Ankle Strut by Cannon's Jug Stompers

Come On by Hundred Year Flood
Time Heals by The Gear Daddies
License to Drive Me Crazy by Jack McMahon
Ain't Got No Sweet Thing by Ponty Bone
Come and Take It by Brent Hoodenpyle & The Loners
Harper Valley PTA by Syd Straw & The Skeletons
I'm Sending Daffydills by Maddox Brothers & Rose

Truth and Darkness by Round Mountain
Lean on Me by Michael Hurley
Long Haired Country Boy by Charlie Daniels
The Running Side of Me by Dean Miller
Husbands and Wives by Roger Miller
Engine Engine Number Nine by Southern Culture on the Skids
I'll Sail My Ship Alone by Johnny Bush
My Blue Eyed Jane by Bob Dylan

I'm Tired of Pretending by Hank Thompson
Pistol Packin' Mama by John Prine & Mac Wiseman
I Walk Alone by John Egenes
Rose Petal Ear by Califone
Candy in the Window by Mary Cutrufello
Girls by Eleni Mandell
The Wilderness by Peter Case
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Friday, March 30, 2007

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: ROUND MOUNTAIN, ANGEL, ROMANOVSKY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 30, 2007


Here are some recent CDs by folks from around these parts:
* Truth and Darkness by Round Mountain. The brothers Rothschild show that Round Mountain’s strange and wonderful self-titled first album was no fluke.

The first notable musical project by Char and Robby Rothschild was the band Lizard House, a local favorite back in the early ’90s. In 2004 the brothers regrouped as Round Mountain, playing a whole museum exhibit’s worth of musical instruments from around the world — stringed instruments, horns, percussion.

On the new album the brothers, joined by veteran Santa Fe bassist Jon Gagan, continue mixing all sorts of sounds. You’ll hear traces of reggae, bluegrass, Balkan, and African music and other subtle influences you probably won’t consciously recognize.

Sometimes you don’t even realize that a song is taking off into different realms. “I Won’t Lose Sight of You,” for instance, starts out as a banjo tune, but before you know it, a saz (a Turkish lute) joins in. And there’s some Middle Eastern drumming by Robby. And some kind of flute.

The title song starts off with a sweet bagpipe-like drone (Celtic? Balkan? I dunno) before going into a melody that reminds me of something hippie/hobo Michael Hurley might have written.

As with the first album, songs are mostly somber and meditative, a mood that Round Mountain does well. Sometimes I wish the band would cut loose with a good, crazy stomper. (They come close with the reggae-fried “Candle in the Willow Tree.”)

The CD-release parties for Truth and Darkness are 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 30, and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at the Armory for the Arts, 1950 Old Pecos Trail. Tickets are $10. For more information, call 984-1370.

* Amor, Dolor y Pasión by Angel Espinoza. This is how I like Angel best — nice and traditional. The music brings back memories of listening to Spanish-language radio as a kid, not understanding most of the words (my Spanish is still pretty bad) but being completely taken in by the seductive rhythms and the exotic, yet familiar, sounds.

This album — recorded in Mexico and San Antonio — has a real old-fashioned feel. Angel is backed here by instruments that include a prominent accordion (Rudy Cortez and Alex De Leon share the honors here), bajo sexto (a 12-string guitar), and horns and strings on some songs like “Pues a Poco No” and “Si Quieres.”

Angel’s voice is the centerpiece, as well it should be. (She won female vocalist of the year at the New Mexico Hispano Music Awards in January.)

Checking out Angel’s Web site, I see she has recorded a song for Gov. Bill Richardson. It’s more country western than norteño (there’s a steel guitar, and it’s in English). While not quite as cool as the one she did for Río Arriba political boss Emilio Naranjo a few years ago, it’s worth hearing. Find it

* It’s a Boy! A Circus Opera composed by Ron Romanovsky & Betty Katz Sperlich and Pittsburgh to Paris by Ron Romanovsky.

OK, I’ve always been a sucker for circus operas. True, that tag sounds a little crazy, but it’s a pretty apt description of the performance piece It’s a Boy! It was recorded live at Santa Fe Playhouse in 2005.

It’s operatic in that there are dramatic roles sung by various local musicians (Busy McCarroll, Peter Williams, Greg Harris, Nacha Mendez, and Charles Tichenor). And the music — provided by Romanovsky on accordion and guitar, Elena Sopoci on violin and viola, and Williams on electric guitar and string bass — sounds like a stripped-down circus band.

The subject matter is bound to make male listeners squirm. It’s basically a propaganda piece against circumcision. It’s handled with humor, however, with songs like “Cleaner Wiener” and “Locker Room Blues.”

And the music is a real treat. Romanovsky and Sopoci bring elements of French sidewalk café and Gypsy music into their circus sound, while Williams sounds like a monster when he comes in with his electric guitar.

Romanovsky is one of this town’s most interesting musicians. He’s got a Russian name, but he plays French music in New Mexico.

My favorite songs on the solo record are the French/Gypsy-flavored ones. (The instrumental “Birth Theme” from It’s a Boy! is on this CD, too.) Though there’s nothing wrong with Romanovsky’s voice, the best songs here are instrumentals — “Fellini’s Caravan” (which also is on his Je m’appelle Dadou album) and “Gypsy Hop.”

But I do appreciate Romanovsky’s humor. “Burro Alley Tango” is about finding a little piece of Paris in downtown Santa Fe, namely Café Paris, where Romanovsky entertained regularly for six years (“You will not find one single burro/ But you’ll find music and romance”).

In “The Gay in Paree” Romanovsky sings about feeling “butch” every time he goes to France even though he was taunted as a “sissy” as a lad (“I’m confused/I don’t know what to cruise”). He even pays tribute to KBAC-FM 98.1 radio personality Honey Harris with “Honey in the Morning.”

You can find these albums on CD Baby at HERE and HERE.

Ron Romanovsky is having a CD release party 8 pm Saturday at The Silver Starlight Lounge, Rainbow Vision at 500 Rodeo Road. Tickets are $10 at the door. For more information call 428-7781

Flash Flood: This is shaping up to be a great weekend for local bands. In addition to the Round Mountain and Romanovsky shows, Hundred Year Flood — a band we have to share with Austin, Texas — is returning to Santa Fe Friday, March 30, for a gig at Santa Fe Brewing Company. Goshen opens the show, which starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door.HUNDRED YEAR FLOOD 7-1-06

If you can’t make that, Hundred Year Flood also is appearing at the Mine Shaft Tavern in Madrid at 9 p.m. Saturday, March 31.

According to John Treadwell of Frogville Records, the Flood is going back to Texas until June after these gigs. Treadwell said he’s thinking of holding the annual Frogfest in June this year instead of August. Last year’s fest at the Brewing Company was a fantastic exposition of (mainly) local musicians, though it was criminally underattended. A lot of people whine that there’s no local music scene. If half of them had showed up, the joint would have been packed.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Come for the Shame, Stay for the Scandal

  Earlier this week I saw Mississippi bluesman Cedrick Burnside play at the Tumbleroot here in Santa Fe. As I suspected, Burnsi...