TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 2, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Mama Get The Hammer by Barrence Whitfield
Record Junky by The Monsters
Si tu dois Partir by Tony Truant & The Fleshtones
First Date (Are You Coming On To Me) by The Fleshtones
I Like it Like That by The Dave Clark 5
The Midnight Creep by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Sick by Boss Hog
Pigeon Eater by Rocket From the Crypt
Dope Fiend Boogie by The Cramps
A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond by Captain Beefheart

Clash City Rockers by The Clash
Blank Generation by Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Video Killed the Radio Star by Lolita No. 18
Not That Social by The Von Bondies
Can't Seem to Make You Mine by The Seeds
Cyclone Boy by Brimstone Howl
Somewhere Far Away by Dead Moon
Spanish Moon by The Chesterfield Kings
Hoy Hoy by Flat Duo Jets
The Stripper by David Rose

Do Your Funky Thing by Larry Ellis & The Black Hammer
Hot Pants Road by Ravi Harris & The Prophets
Can You Feel It? by The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker
I Found Out by Nathaniel Mayer
Night Time is the Right Time by Bettye Lavette, Andre Williams & Nathaniel Mayer
Jon E's Mood by Jon E. Edwards

Humble Me by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
DapWalk by Ernie Holmes & Top Notes Inc.
Gossip, Gossip by Diamond Joe
Ooh Ah ee by Vern Blair Debate
The Monkey by The Great Gaylord
King Cobra by The Budos Band
Double Cross by Sugarman Three
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SERENADING THE TEXAS HISPANIC VOTE

Perhaps frustrated that Gov. Bill Richardson has declined to endorse either candidate (at least so far), the Obama and Clinton campaigns have resorted to this to woo the Hispanic vote in Texas. (Thanks to Molly) :

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eMUSIC MARCH

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever downloaded by monthly allotment from e-Music for a month before the month actually began. (My account actually refreshes in the middle of the month. Now I'm going to have to wait until March 17 to start downloading again and already there's a bunch of stuff I've got my eyes on.)

*Get in the Groove by Various Artists. Here's the deal: This might just be the coolest album I've ever downloaded from eMusic.

It was recorded live at the 50th birthday party of Billy Miller, head honcho of Norton Records, where the musical guests included Bettye LaVette, Andre Williams, Nathaniel Mayer, Barrence Whitfield, Lonnie Youngblood, the Mighty Hannibal, King Coleman and The Great Gaylord, with Rudy Ray Moore -- yes, Dolomite himself! -- as the emcee.

Some of these guys are real codgers. Mayer sounds like Howlin' Wolf with a sore throat. But everyone involved just oozes with the crazy spirit of old-time R&B. And it never lets up. The high point has to be the raucous version of Ray Charles' "Night Time is the Right Time," performed here by Lavette, Williams and Mayer. These three might be senior citizens but they're having more fun than a bunch of horny teenagers.

One word of caution: eMusic has some of the credits screwed up. It's Whitfield who sings "Mama Get The Hammer" (and Hannibal who sings "Good Time.")

* The Funky 16 Corners by Various Artists, This is a powerful collection of obscure funksters from the '60s and '70s. It's not to be confused with one of my favorite music blogs of the same name, but it's the same kind of great music. Both the album and the blog are named after a crazed song by The Highlighters, an Indianapolis band, which is included here. Chances are you haven't heard of the artists here --Ebony Rhythm Band, The Soul Vibrations, Spider Harrison, etc. But if you love hardcore late '60s/early '70s funk and Blaxploitation soundtrack music, check it out.

One of my favorite cuts here is "The Kick" a funky War-on Drugs fight song/dance craze that never got off the ground. Then there's the proto-rap "What About You (In the World Today)" by Co-Real Artists. Not as militant or as intense as The Last Poets, but good fun.

* Take a Good Look by The Fleshtones: Yes, they’re “retro.” Yes, they’ve been plowing a lot of the same ground since they first took the stage at CBGBs in New York’s Bowery more than 30 years ago. But The Fleshtones attack their music with such strength, confidence, energy, and rock ’n’ roll joy that such reservations seem uptight and prissy.

What I'm trying to say is this a dang fine album. You might have already read my full review, but if not CLICK HERE.

I'm also very happy I stumbled across Allo Brooklyn, Ici Montmartre a five-song EP from 2006 by Tony Truant & The Fleshtones. Mr. Truant is a Frenchman, formerly with a band called The Dogs, who had a track on last year's Fleshtones tribute album, Vindicated! (which I need to find.) He fits right in with Peter and Keith and the boys. There's a cover of The Fleshtones' "The Girl From Baltimore" and a French version of Dylan's “If You Gotta Go, Go Now." I don't understand the words, but I understand this music.

* Two Headed Cow by The Flat Duo Jets A decade before the world heard of The White Stripes or The Black Keys, there was a loud, rowdy, blues-screamin’ duo from North Carolina called the Flat Duo Jets. With Dexter Romweber on guitar and vocals and Chris “Crow” Smith on drums, FDJ stripped rock ’n’ roll down to its basics. This CD is a companion to a recent documentary of the same name. It’s a live show from 1986, but it sounds like it could have been made in 1956 or last week. (And yes, if you have the feeling you've read this before, I reviewed this in the same recent Terrell's Tune-up where I reviewed The Fleshtones. CLICK HERE.)

* RIP by Rocket From the Crypt. Remember the "San Diego Sound"? I don't either. But for about 14 minutes back in the mid '90s, when "The Next Seattle" became the late 20th Century version of "The New Dylan," some civic boosters were pushing Tijuana's neighbor to the north for that dubious honor. Their best argument was Rocket From the Crypt.

Alas, RFTC is no more. They broke up on Halloween 2005 immediately following one last gig in their hometown. Fortunately they recorded the show and finally (in fact just last week) they released it in the form of this album.

The music is timeless and unrelenting rock 'n' roll and, as far as I'm concerned, sounds better than any of the studio stuff I've heard from RFTC.

PLUS

* Smithsonian Folkways Sampler: A Sound Legacy--60 Years of Folkways Records and 20 Years of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings . This is a far-flung collection of blues singers. calypso bands, Woody & Leadbelly, world field recordings, Watergate criminals and, yes, tree frogs. And it was FREE!

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 29, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Red Red Robin by Rosie Flores
Dirty on Yo Mama by James Luther Dickinson
Tobacco Road by Southern Culture on the Skids
Girlfriend Stole My Alien by DM Bob & Country Jem
Imbibing My Prescriptions by Kev Russell's Junker
Jack of Diamonds by P.W. Long
Back Street Affair by Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh
We Live For Love by Donna Beasley

Wreck of the Old 97 by Hank Thompson
Take Me to the Fires by The Waco Brothers
Five Brothers by Marty Robbins
I Got Stripes by Johnny Cash
Satellite Radio by Steve Earle
Waxahachie Drag Race by Ronnie Dawson
I Fall to Pieces by Michael Nesmith
It's Hard Trying to Walk the Line by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Handsome Molly by The Santa Fe All Stars

On and On by Jon Nolan
Ride the Cotton Pony by Tammy Faye Starlite
I Might Have Been a Lawyer (But I Couldn't Pass the Bar) by Arty Hill & The Long Gone Daddies
Summertime Down South by Dale Hawkins
West Texas Wine by Dave Insley
Hurricane Party by James McMurty
Itty Bitty Everything by Flat Duo Jets
Crawdad Song by The Meat Purveyors

Coal Tattoo by Kathy Mattea
Rosie the Riveter by Suzy Boggus
Flying Time by Marlee MacLeod
Dancing on the Ashes by Robbie Fulks
Evergreen by Richmond Fontaine
If I Kiss You by Lynn Anderson
Hillbilly Heartaches by Don Rigsby
Permanently Lonely by Willie Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots
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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: FUZZ & FLESH

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 29, 2008

Yes, they’re “retro.” Yes, they’ve been plowing a lot of the same ground since they first took the stage at CBGB in New York’s Bowery more than 30 years ago. And no, I’m not the first in criticdom to compare “First Date (Are You Coming On to Me?)” with the music of the Dave Clark Five.

But The Fleshtones, on their new album, Take a Good Look, attack their music with such strength, confidence, energy, and rock ’n’ roll joy that such reservations seem uptight and prissy.

Besides, I love the Dave Clark Five, so if “First Date” evokes fond memories of the DC5 version of “I Like It Like That,” it’s nothing but a plus. It makes me glad all over.

If you can’t name any hits by The Fleshtones, that’s because they never had any. Though mainstream success has eluded the members of this New York band for decades, their history is impressive.

Starting out in Queens in the mid-1970s, singer, harmonica blower, and keyboard man Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng took Nuggets-era fuzz tone and the Farfisa organ — which by that point in history had been missing in action for years and presumed dead — played it with punk-snot intensity, and created a signature sound they called “Super Rock.”

The Fleshtones lineup has stayed fairly steady all these years. Drummer Bill Milhizer has been with the group since 1980, while bassist Ken Fox joined in 1990. Though they’ve never been on the Billboard charts, The Fleshtones are the subject of a recent book, Sweat: The Story of The Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band.

Take a Good Look is full of songs that will fit naturally into The Fleshtones’ Super Rock repertoire. “Shiney Hiney” is raw defiance. “Ruby’s Old Time” is hot fun in the summertime. “Never Grew Up” is a pounding ode to extended adolescence.

Perhaps taking a cue from The Hives, “Jet Set Fleshtones” is a self-referential jewel. Built on an easy soul groove with a rumbling, fuzzy bass line, the song is an anthem for a traveling band.

“Going Back to School,” a nice plug for continuing education, reminds me a little of James Brown’s “Don’t Be a Drop Out.” However, The Fleshtones have the weird ability to take a socially responsible stance and make it sound menacing:

“When I go back to school/All the students gonna look at me /They’re
gonna wonder what I’m doing there/I got a lot to learn, so I don’t
care.”

Somehow you get the feeling that if these guys really went back to school, they’d still be juvenile delinquents.

Likewise, “Love Yourself” might sound like pop-psych pablum in the hands of lesser mortals. But this band makes self-respect sound tough and bitchin’.

One track shows a slight detour from the basic Fleshtones sound. “This Time Josephine” features a prominent acoustic guitar with Zaremba’s Farfisa-supplied Texy-Mexy fills (think The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer”). The song has an early-’70s Kinks feel to it.

But the most impressive tune is the title song, which ends the album. It’s an organ-dominated “talking song” that sounds like a mutant grandson of The Standells' Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White.” It’s a protest song against “a time when ugliness rules”; gentrification; “hipster overspill”; and some “tattoo-covered, goatee-, sock-hat-wearin’ ” jerk who’s trying to move in on the singer’s girlfriend. The song ends with Zaremba screaming as the band plays on.

This is a short album by modern standards — just over a half-hour. But it packs a super punch.

Also recommended:
* Two Headed Cow by Flat Duo Jets. A decade before the world heard of The White Stripes or The Black Keys, there was a loud, rowdy, blues-screamin’ duo from North Carolina called the Flat Duo Jets. With Dexter Romweber on guitar and vocals and Chris “Crow” Smith on drums, FDJ stripped rock ’n’ roll down to its basics.

The band broke up before the end of the last century, but just last year it was the subject of a documentary. This CD, released earlier this month, is a companion to that film. It’s a live show from 1986, but it sounds like it couln made in 1956 or last week.

“These are the damnedest people,” an unidentified announcer says in introducing the group. “You’ll have more sound coming off this stage than for any two people you’ll ever see in your life.”

Romweber and Smith immediately set out to prove him right. Kicking off the show with “Hoy Hoy,” a rockabilly workout originally done by The Collins Kids, the Jets set a dangerous energy level. (I have to say, however, I like the original much better. Take a look at the video below.)

Lots of songs here are familiar. The FDJ put a toughness into “Frog Went a Courtin’” that Burl Ives never imagined. And while Romweber is no match for Link Wray, this version of “Rawhide” is a spirited workout.

The group even pays tribute to the pride of Raton, The Fireballs, with a crazy, hopped-up rendition of the older group’s instrumental hit “Torquay.” The Jets prove they can do it slow and purdy too. “Burning Bridges” is a nice country ballad that finishes the set.

I didn’t pay much mind to this group when they were around. But this record makes me miss them.

Blog bonus:

Now dig those crazy Collins Kids!