20 YEARS STRONG

I missed just about everything else because of work, but I was excited to see Public Enemy at the Santa Fe Muzik Fest tonight.

They brought the noise! It was a wonderful, energetic show. i'm not even a huge hip-hop fan, but this is an example of a group making music so sublime that it truly transcends genre. Crazy, chaotic funk, sometimes angry, sometimes celebratory. Timeless and funky, an urban apocalyptic -- out at the Downs at Santa Fe.

Several times during the show Chuck D mentioned that this year is Public Enemy's 20th anniversary.

What a coincidence -- Friday, August 10 was my 20th anniversary for working at The New Mexican. Yep, I started there in 1987, same year Public Enemy was born. That;s so profound I don't know what to say.

Check out my photos of Friday's show on my FLICKR site.

RICHARDSON AT LOGO "GAY ISSUES" DEBATE

My story on Gov. Bill Richardson's "homosexuality-is-a-choice" gaffe at last night's debate sponsored by the Logo Network and The Human Rights Campaign can be found HERE.

Other video clips of Richardson at the debate can be found HERE. (and if you click around you'll find the other candidates too.)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LET US NOW PRAISE PETER CASE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 10, 2007

Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John not only is Peter Case’s first album of new material in five years, it’s his strongest work in a lot more years than that.

This album — which is almost all acoustic and is named for the late Tennessee bluesman John Estes — harks back in spirit to Case’s early solo albums. You hear echoes of The Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (which on most days I think is his greatest album) and even Sings Like Hell, his early ’90s collection of old folk songs and blues. Case sounds fresh and confident. He’s got a lot to say and feels an urgency to tell these stories.

Sleepy John is a pleasure from the first song, the Brit-folky “Every 24 Hours,” a duet with Richard Thompson, who backs him on acoustic guitar and vocals. Producer Ian Brennan fortunately doesn’t let Case get upstaged by his guest stars (who include Merle Haggard’s steel guitarist Norm Hamlet on the final song, “That Soul Twist”).

The best way to listen to Sleepy John is while reading his recently published As Far As You Can Get Without a Passport, the first installment of Case’s autobiography, which deals with his busking days on the streets of San Francisco in the mid-’70s. Throughout his career Case has recalled and mythologized this cheap hotel/cheaper wine period of his life in his songs, but somehow it never sounds old.

On “The Open Road Song” he sings of his deep-rooted romance with the ramblin’ life. As a child with his father he spies a ragged man on the street. “Son, that man’s a bum,” his dad says. But the boy is fascinated. “I looked again and saw the rapt expression/’neath the floppy hat he tipped back with his thumb/The aura of a world’s ragtime adventure/I said ‘When I grow up I want to be a bum.’”

And yet that romantic notion of life on the road doesn’t cloud his sense of reality. Case, with Carlos Guitarlos harmonizing on the chorus, takes an unflinching view of the other side of bumhood on “Underneath the Stars,” describing the death of a homeless woman in a park near his home.

Although Case has never been known as a topical songwriter, one of the finest songs on this album is ripped from recent headlines. “Million Dollars Bail” is obviously based on Phil Spector’s murder trial. The singer is angry about the special justice for the rich and famous that the Spector case represents. “Every one is talking ’bout the night he spent in jail/Today he’s free out walking on a million dollars bail.”

Wisely, Case doesn’t dwell on the details of the case. He uses it as a springboard to explore deeper truths. In fact, he turns to the hope of some kind of old-fashioned divine justice. “Eternity is longer than one night inside a box/And if you’re heading toward the jailhouse, now’s the time to pick the locks/ But there’s a sentence passed on every soul, someday we all must die/ And the question’s not who pulled the switch, it’s how you lived and why.”

It’s good to know that troubadours as vital as Case are still among us.

Also recommended
* Noble Creatures by The Gourds. Austin, Texas’, finest are still sounding mighty fine. On this album the band seems as if it’s trying to expand its happy go-lucky funky back-roads sound. There’s a horn section on the opening song, “How Will You Shine,” giving it an almost poppy feeling.

Of course the lyrics don’t sound like any Top-10 teen tune: “Jammin’ on the old cartoons with the swagger of the immune/Sleeping like a fat raccoon, diabetic on a honeymoon.”

On the next tune, “Kicks in the Sun,” a roller-rinky organ (played by accordion man Claude Bernard) dominates, aiming toward the Blood of the Ram garage-rock vibe the band took a couple of albums ago.

But there’s no mistaking this for anything but a Gourds album. “Red Letter Day” is solid roadhouse honky-tonk, with a couple of unexpected chord changes thrown in, while the banjo-driven “Flavor on the Tongue” showcases the group’s fondness for bluegrass.

“Cranky Mulatto,” which has been part of the band’s stage repertoire for years, is a good-time Cajun stomp with swampy apocalyptic lyrics like “Heaven’s radio makes a sound like a brown banjo/Opossum sittin’ in the limbs/Devil’s gonna wait for him.” Likewise the rocking “All in the Pack” is firmly rooted in the bayou.

And speaking of swampy, the song, “Spivey” is such pure Creedence/Tony Joe White swamp rock you might suspect it’s being played by Polk Salad Annie’s no-count brothers.

The band also knows how to sound sweet, soulful, and downright purdy. “Steeple Full of Swallows” (another road-tested tune) and “Promenade” are slow and emotional ballads.

Unfortunately, nothing on this album reaches the sublime level of Gourds’ tunes like “Burn the Honeysuckle”) from their last album Heavy Ornamentals) or “Ants on the Melon,” (probably my favorite Gourds song of all time.) Still it’s a Gourds record, and that’s always enough to brighten a day.

* Catch Me a Possum by The Watzloves. This is a crazed, hopped-up Euro version of country and Cajun music led by German singer, accordion player, and circus-poster artist Silky Toss (aka Silky Watzlove, aka Silke Thoss) and her boyfriend, Louisiana expatriate DM Bob, who plays drums, guitar, and sax. According to the album cover, “In real life she’s a badass truck driver and owns a fish fry and a hot-dog stand.” Lurking in the background is slide guitarist/trombonist Jakobus. It might not be “authentic,” but by the ghost of Clifton Chenier, it works!

It’s hard to find any country rock lately halfway as infectious as “Always the Same,” a duet with Silky and Bob. Only a European could get away with singing “Let’s go out tonight and get something to bite.”

NOTE: In the print version of this I said DM Bob was Silky's husband. I just doublechecked and the Voodoo Rhythm site says he's her boyfriend.

eMUSIC AUGUST

* A Hard Night's Day by The New York Dolls. I downloaded this right after watching the DVD of New York Doll, a bittersweet documentary about the death of bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane, shortly after the 2004 Dolls reunion.

(Quick movie review: I loved it. Kane, who left the music world soon after the Dolls broke up in the '70s, lived for years in bitter alcoholic poverty. He found solace as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, working for the LDS Family History Library in Los Angeles. He is a damaged but endearing figure who grabs your heart. I also came away admiring the Mormons in his life. They are completely supportive and non judgemental of Kane's dream of reuniting with the Dolls. No "Devil's music" gibberish. They even raise money to get his bass out of hock. Director Greg Whiteley himself is a Mormon, which could explain this sympathetic treatment of the church, but the Mormons he interviews seem sincere in their love and support of Kane's crazy rock 'n' roll dream.)

This album consists of demos of some of The Dolls' greatest tunes -- "Personality Crisis," "Bad Girl," "Vietnamese Baby," "Jet Boy," "Pills," "Trash," "Give Her a Great Big Kiss." The sound quality is good and the energy is amazing.

*Gang War by Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer. I stumbled across this album last weekend while searching for an outlandish version of "These Boots Are Made for Walking" to play on my tribute to Lee Hazlewood on Terrell's Sound World.

It's a 1979 marvel Team-Up of these former New York Dolls/MC 5 icons. Kramer had just gotten out of prison and Thunders was pretty far along the Lost Highway, evident from his bitter misogynistic rant in the intro of "Ten Commandments of Love." But it's a fun listen, even if the "Endless Party" they sing about had its toll.


*NY No Wave by Various Artists. Artists here include James Chance (aka James White & The Blacks, The Contortions), Teenage Jesus & The Jerks (plus solo Lydia Lunch), Lizzy Mercier Descloux (aka Rosa Yemen), Suicide, Mars, Art/Neto (featuring Arto Lindsey.)

This is loud abrasive, sometimes even hostile sounding music, or "anti-music" as some have called it. Sometimes rays of humor shine through, though these are almost always very subtle.

This album inspired me to rent the movie Kill Your Idols, a documentary about the No Wave era that makes a good companion to this album. (You can see this month how my eMusic and Netflix accounts feed off each other.) Funny thing is, some of the icons of No-Wave come off sounding like a bunch of crotchety conservatives. "Kids these days, they don't know nuthin' ..." Fun little doc though with some bitchen footage of Lydia, Suicide, Sonic Youth and even Gogol Bordello.

*Super Taranta! by Gogol Bordello . Speaking of Gogol Bordello ...

If Shane MacGowan was a Ukrainian, if The Clash was raised in a gypsy caravan ...

Fans of Gogol's previous works won't be disappointed. Leader Eugene Hutz, a Ukrainian immigrant to the U.S. not only is a crazed performer but a good songwriter as well.

"American Wedding" is a sardonic look at a culture he finds to be repressed. "Supertheory of Supereverything" can be seen as an Eastern European take on "It Ain't Necessarily So," (which opened a whole new world of skepticism to me when I heard Cab Calloway sing it as a child.)


*The Budos Band II . This is an 11-piece band from Staten Island, N.Y. that blends African pop with soul, funk and just a spooky touch of crime jazz.

The horns and percussion dominates, but organist Mike Deller's slinky sound also stands out.

One caution: I think some of the song titles might be mixed up. I've read reviews that say "His Girl" is a remake of "My Girl." However the song labeled "Mas O Menos" sounds just like a minor key "My Girl." In fact, upon further investigation, all but the very last track appear to be scrambled. Hope eMusic fixes this soon.

Good news: The final track, "The Proposition" was FREE when I downloaded it. Last I checked, it's not but "Chicago Falcon" is, although it's mislabeled. It's actually "Deep in the Sand." Whatever you call it, it's worth trying out.


* A bunch of tracks I didn't already have from Funkadelic's first three albums (Funkadelic, Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow and Maggot Brain.) I was putting together and burning a P-Funk compilation for a friend, which set me off on one of my recurring George Clinton kicks. Then I stumble across an e-Music feature spotlight called "A User's Guide to Funkadelic." (Guess what e-Music marketing folks -- these damned things work!)

I'm sure it's weird music biz contractual stuff, but eMusic has plenty of Funkadelic albums and a handful of George Clinton titles (I downloaded a live Clinton album last month) -- but no Parliament.

These early tracks emphasize the psychedelic half of the Funkadelic equation. This was the prime era for guitarist Eddie "Maggot Brain" Hazel, who was a lot like Jimi Hendrix but crazier. Among my downloads here are three 9-10-minute acidic epics --"Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" the song "Free Your Mind ... And Your Ass Will Follow," "Wars of Armageddon" and an alternate take on the immortal title song of Maggot Brain. The latter is not quite as developed as the "official" version, but Eddie Hazel still takes you to some strange places. There's what sounds like a kalimba solo towards the end of the track.

Plus:

I found a couple of good freebie albums this month:

* Funk/Soul Revival: Classic Tracks & the New Breed . I'm not sure there are actually any "classics" here. These nine tracks are by fairly obscure acts old and new. There's one from The Budos Band, "Chicago Falcon," (which seems to be correctly labeled here unlike the one on eMusic's version of Budos Band II.) There's also one by Clarence Reid, who some of you might recognize as the secret identity of Blowfly. "Funky Party," unlike any other Blowfly song you've ever heard, is completely clean. Not even a hand job! He does shamelessly lift several hooks from Isaac Hayes' Shaft theme. Lots of fun on this album.

* Congo by Various artists . This is a compilation of songs by Congolese bands. No big revelations here, but good solid African band music.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: FAMILIAR PLAYERS ON RICHARDSON DONOR LIST

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 9, 2007

Last year when Gov. Bill Richardson was running for re-election, he took some criticism for collecting contributions from several controversial companies doing business with the state and/or trying to influence legislation in New Mexico.

These included contributions to his re-election campaign as well as donations — both money and corporate-jet rides — to the Democratic Governors Association, which Richardson chaired for two years and frequently used to arrange and pay for out-of-state travel.

Some of those companies, or at least important people who work for them, are showing up in Richardson’s presidential campaign finance reports.

Advance America, the nation’s largest payday loan company, which operates at least 10 offices in New Mexico, loaned its jet to the DGA for at least seven trips in 2005 and 2006. These trips had a total reported value of nearly $20,000. The company, which was fighting tougher payday loan restrictions in this state, also donated $10,000 to the DGA last year and $1,750 to Richardson’s re-election.

This year, William Webster, chief executive officer of Advance America, donated $4,600 to Richardson’s presidential campaign, the maximum amount allowed by federal law. (Individuals are allowed to contribute a maximum of $2,300 for use in the presidential primary season and $2,300 for use in the general election.) Richardson is the only presidential candidate to receive contributions from Advance America employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Last year, the Florida-based GEO Group — which operates private prisons in New Mexico — contributed more than $40,00 to Richardson’s re-election, plus another $8,000 to Richardson's running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. The company and its board chairman George Zoley kicked in another $15,000 for Richardson’s January inauguration.

According to The Institute of Money in State Politics, Richardson received more money from GEO than did any other politician nationwide running for state office in 2006.

GEO also has contributed to the governor’s presidential run. The company’s political action gave Richardson $5,000. GEO employees have kicked in another $9,000, including $1,000 from chief operating officer Wayne Calabrese.

But Richardson isn’t the only presidential contender to get cash from the private prison company. According to a midyear report filed this week by GEO’s Political Action Committee, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York also got $5,000 from the PAC.

Then there’s UST, which stands for United States Tobacco, a company that specializes in “smokeless” tobacco and manufactures Skoal and Copenhagen snuff.

The company donated its jet to the DGA for Richardson’s out-of-state trips during his tenure as chairman. Last year, UST contributed at least $25,000 plus $8,874 for “in-kind travel” to Richardson’s re-election. The company has lobbied the Legislature to change the way smokeless tobacco is taxed in the state.

Murray Kessler, who listed his occupation as an executive with UST, gave Richardson $1,000 for his presidential run.

But that’s it. So far UST seems to prefer Democratic rival U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who as received $22,000 from UST employees.

In fact, Richardson isn’t doing very well at all with tobacco money, smokeless or otherwise.

Kessler’s is Richardson’s only listed contribution from a tobacco company employee. Dodd is leading the smoke pack with more than $45,000 in money from tobacco company employees.

Love them lobbyists: Although former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois have attacked Clinton for refusing to reject contributions from lobbyists, Richardson has gone on record defending her, telling The Politico the issue was “overblown.”

According to the CRP, Richardson is fourth among Democrats for contributions from lobbyists.

He’s received $67,400 from those who list lobbyist as their occupation. Clinton is way out in front with more than $413,00, though Richardson also trails Joe Biden and Dodd in this area.

But the ones making the attacks aren’t entirely pure. Obama has accepted about $60,000 from lobbyists, while Edwards has received more than $10,000 according to the CRP.

Ponying up for the boss: Of course no company has been more loyal to Richardson than his own — New Mexico’s state government.

Wonkette, that rascally D.C. “politics for people with dirty minds” blog, made this comment Tuesday on a Washington Post story about campaign contribution “bundling.”

“Yes, as the candidates’ lust for cash grows all-consuming, more and more pressure is being put on big donors to become ‘bundlers,’ a polite term for someone who strong-arms people whom they employ or otherwise hold power over to cough up cash for candidates they probably don’t like. It works even better if the candidate is your boss — Bill Richardson has convinced 274 employees of the New Mexico state government to pony up!”

According to the CRP, Richardson has raised at least $244,730 from state workers. (The Associated Press had that number at more than $270,000 even before the most recent campaign finance report.)

Of course, Richardson campaign and the Governor’s Office spokesmen insist there’s no pressure on state employees to contribute to Richardson. And state employees I’ve talked to said there’s no pressure to contribute. And I assume if I asked them, they’d say there’s no pressure to tell nosey journalists there’s no pressure.

Indeed, nobody has been fired for contributing to any other candidate. Of course, there’s no record of any employee of any state office under the governor contributing to any other candidate.