UPDATE 6-19 8pm I just got word that the Joey Allcorn show at the Cowgirl is cancelled. Oh well, watch the videos anyway!
I just learned that honky tonk singer Joey Allcorn is going to play The Cowgirl tomorrow night, 8 p.m.
And it says on the Cowgirl website there's NO COVER!
I've played him many times on the Santa Fe Opry and hope to see him at the Cowgirl Tuesday.
Check out the videos below (and dig those tacky Tikis! The bar's called the Kreepytiki.)
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, June 17, 2012 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(at)ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Sunday You Need Love by The Oblivians
The Beast by Roky Erikson & The Resurrectionists
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell by Iggy & The Stooges
10,000 Beers Ago by Dicky B. Hardy
The Young Psychotics by Tav Falco
Living Wreck by Mudhoney
Runaway Daughter by The Electric Mess
Little Angel by Johnny Otis
Adios Mexico by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Texas Tornados
Ruby Red by The Copper Gamins
Bored and Lonely by French Inhales
En Tu Corazon by Gatos Salvajes
It's Alright by Hound Dog Taylor
Go Go Go by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Snatch It Back And Hold It by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Orange Claw Hammer by Captain Beefheart
Family Fun Night by Figures of Light
How I Wrote Elastic Man by The Fall
The Sky is a Poisonous Garden by Concrete Blonde
River of Blood by The Black Angels
Dance Like a Monkey by New York Dolls
Black Shiny Beast by Buick MacKane
Eat Me by Pussy Galore
Vagina by Busy McCarroll
Sheila Na Gig by P.J. Harvey
Having a Party by The Mekons
Pappa Won't Leave You Henry by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Raised Right Men by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Friday, June 15, 2012
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, June 15, 2012 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Harper Valley PTA by Syd Straw & The Skeletons
My Wife Thinks You're Dead by Junior Brown
Whatcha Gonna Do Now by Tommy Collins
Mule in the Corn by NRBQ
So Long I'm Gone by Andy Anderson
Rooster Blues by James Luther Dickinson
Pig Fork by The Imperial Rooster
Euphoria by Holy Modal Rounders
Ice Man by Filthy McNasty
Hippie in My House by Rachel Harrington
Wedding Of Hillbilly Lili Marlene by June Carter with Homer & Jethro
Mad Cowboy Love by Bayou Seco
Don'tcha Lie to Me by Scott H. Biram
Cracklins by The Gourds
Cussin' in Tounges by Legendary Shack Shakers
Helluva Weekend by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers
Gas Station Woman by Phil Ochs
Lazarus by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Just Like a Monkey by South Memphis String Band
Skunk Ape by The Misery Jackals
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Pesky J. Nixon
Evil Eye by Dead Man's Tree
Get Outta My Way by The Dirt Daubers
Dollar Dress by The Waco Brothers
Alcohol of Fame by The Wood Brothers
Cowboy Peyton Place by Doug Sahm
Walk Away from the Wine by Cornell Hurd
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live by Ry Cooder
Out of the Blue by Giant Giant Sand
The Round by Hank 3
Charlie's Last Stand by Loudon Wainwright III
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 Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, June 14, 2012
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Figures of Light Shine Again
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 15, 2012
I really liked Figures of Light’s debut album, Smash Hits, when I first heard it a few years ago. But I was afraid this group might be a flash — maybe ”flicker” is a better word — in the pan. After all, singer Wheeler Winston Dixon and guitarist Michael Downey had taken a lengthy break from the music business before they even made that album.
But I’m glad to say I was wrong. Figures of Light are back again with a new album called Drop Dead, and like their first, it’s blasting, primitive, raw two-or-three-chord rock ’n’ roll. Some call it “proto-punk,” but I think it might even be more proto than that.
Dixon and Downey are aided once again by The A-Bones’ rhythm section (drummer Miriam Linna and Marcus “The Carcass” Natale on bass). And this time out, Mick Collins (of The Gories and The Dirt-bombs) plays guitar. He also produced the album.
A quick history of the Figures: The original group was from New York City, influenced by The Velvet Underground and other pre-punk, post-garage acts of that era. At their first concert in 1970, the group destroyed 15 television sets onstage at Rutgers University (though I just read an article that says the real number might be as high as 27 sets).
An early poster for Figures of Light described their show as “a rock ’n’ roll violence sonata.”
They released their first and only single, “It’s Lame” (backed with “I Jes Wanna Go to Bed”) in 1972. They pressed only 100 copies of the 45. It received little if any airplay outside of New York, and Figures of Light never got anywhere as big as The Velvets or the New York Dolls or even The Dictators. They broke up, smashing their last TV well before the great punk-rock scare of the late ’70s.
We can account for at least two of those original 100 records. One, according to British rock critic David Solomons, was broken in half by Don Imus when the band tried to get him to play it during a remote broadcast in New York shortly after its release.
But more important, another copy was found at a swap meet a few years ago by Linna and her husband, Billy Miller, who owns Norton Records. Impressed and inspired, Linna tracked down Dixon, now a film-studies professor at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln. (Film is his first love and his first medium.)
Dixon talked to Downey for the first time in 25 years or so, and next thing you know, Figures of Light were shining again.
After all those decades, Figures of Light returned to the studio (with guitar help from Matt Verta-Ray, who plays with Jon Spencer in Heavy Trash). They recorded a bunch of new tracks and combined that with the original “It’s Lame “ and “I Jes Wanna Go to Bed” plus some live songs (including the near-six-minute “Ritual TV Smashing Finale”). Thus, Smash Hits came to be. That was 2008 — 36 years after their first recording.
Back to the present: One thing that amazes me about Figures of Light is how similar they sound to their 1972 recordings. Dixon’s voice sounds exactly as it did 40 years ago. They recorded Drop Dead last summer in Brooklyn, taking a mere two days to crank out 20 songs. Fifteen made it to the album. I guess they’re saving the others for the box set.
Speaking of boxes, "My Box Rocks” pulls a listener right back to Light world. It’s a swaggering boast of a song. I’m not really sure what it’s about, but who cares. By the end of the song it’s hard not to sing along, proclaiming “My box rocks!”
But that’s just an appetizer for some of the meatier tracks here. “Black Plague Blues” is a primitive thumper about the disease that wiped out as many as 200 million people in the 14th century. This is an old song. No, it doesn’t go back to the 14th century, but the Figures did play it at their first 1970 show. The track contains Collins’ best guitar solo here. I heard the tune several times before I learned that the solo is a backward recording.
Another standout is “Family Fun Night,” which might be this band’s answer to the Ramones’ “We’re a Happy Family.” Dixon repeats the refrain, “Every night is family fun night” like an insane jingle for some really crappy corporate pizza joint.
But the verses tell a different story. “Big brother hates everything on his plate. ... All through dinner he spews out hate, it’s family fun night. ... Mom shovels down food, she weighs 253. ... Later we’ll watch our separate TVs, it’s family fun night.”
A couple of songs on Drop Dead make me laugh every time I hear them. One is “You’re Just Another Macaroon,” a put-down of an egotistical jerk, perhaps a celebrity, from a former fan with a melody that could almost be a country song. The title and refrain introduced me to an insult I’d never heard before. I don’t think I’ve ever called anyone a “macaroon.”
Then there’s “Mellow the Fuck Out.” The message is simple: “You got to mellow, you got to mellow, you got to mellow the fuck out,” Dixon sings/chants as the band plays an urgent garage-rock backdrop behind him. We never learn what the subject of the song is doing to deserve such advice. A friend freaking out on drugs? A bouncer at a bar dealing with an unruly customer? You can imagine umpteen scenarios where the words might apply.
I could get corny here and say The Figures of Light are a beacon in the fog of overproduced, overcalculated, overhyped modern rock. The truth is, Dixon and Downey are just a couple of hip old coots (about my age) who rock harder than most self-styled punks half their age and sound like they’re having twice as much fun doing it.
Keep shining, Figures of Light.
Blog Bonus: It's lame!
June 15, 2012
I really liked Figures of Light’s debut album, Smash Hits, when I first heard it a few years ago. But I was afraid this group might be a flash — maybe ”flicker” is a better word — in the pan. After all, singer Wheeler Winston Dixon and guitarist Michael Downey had taken a lengthy break from the music business before they even made that album.
 |
| Hey Hey we're the Figures! |
Dixon and Downey are aided once again by The A-Bones’ rhythm section (drummer Miriam Linna and Marcus “The Carcass” Natale on bass). And this time out, Mick Collins (of The Gories and The Dirt-bombs) plays guitar. He also produced the album.
A quick history of the Figures: The original group was from New York City, influenced by The Velvet Underground and other pre-punk, post-garage acts of that era. At their first concert in 1970, the group destroyed 15 television sets onstage at Rutgers University (though I just read an article that says the real number might be as high as 27 sets).
An early poster for Figures of Light described their show as “a rock ’n’ roll violence sonata.”
They released their first and only single, “It’s Lame” (backed with “I Jes Wanna Go to Bed”) in 1972. They pressed only 100 copies of the 45. It received little if any airplay outside of New York, and Figures of Light never got anywhere as big as The Velvets or the New York Dolls or even The Dictators. They broke up, smashing their last TV well before the great punk-rock scare of the late ’70s.
We can account for at least two of those original 100 records. One, according to British rock critic David Solomons, was broken in half by Don Imus when the band tried to get him to play it during a remote broadcast in New York shortly after its release.
But more important, another copy was found at a swap meet a few years ago by Linna and her husband, Billy Miller, who owns Norton Records. Impressed and inspired, Linna tracked down Dixon, now a film-studies professor at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln. (Film is his first love and his first medium.)
Dixon talked to Downey for the first time in 25 years or so, and next thing you know, Figures of Light were shining again.
After all those decades, Figures of Light returned to the studio (with guitar help from Matt Verta-Ray, who plays with Jon Spencer in Heavy Trash). They recorded a bunch of new tracks and combined that with the original “It’s Lame “ and “I Jes Wanna Go to Bed” plus some live songs (including the near-six-minute “Ritual TV Smashing Finale”). Thus, Smash Hits came to be. That was 2008 — 36 years after their first recording.
Back to the present: One thing that amazes me about Figures of Light is how similar they sound to their 1972 recordings. Dixon’s voice sounds exactly as it did 40 years ago. They recorded Drop Dead last summer in Brooklyn, taking a mere two days to crank out 20 songs. Fifteen made it to the album. I guess they’re saving the others for the box set.
Speaking of boxes, "My Box Rocks” pulls a listener right back to Light world. It’s a swaggering boast of a song. I’m not really sure what it’s about, but who cares. By the end of the song it’s hard not to sing along, proclaiming “My box rocks!”
But that’s just an appetizer for some of the meatier tracks here. “Black Plague Blues” is a primitive thumper about the disease that wiped out as many as 200 million people in the 14th century. This is an old song. No, it doesn’t go back to the 14th century, but the Figures did play it at their first 1970 show. The track contains Collins’ best guitar solo here. I heard the tune several times before I learned that the solo is a backward recording.
Another standout is “Family Fun Night,” which might be this band’s answer to the Ramones’ “We’re a Happy Family.” Dixon repeats the refrain, “Every night is family fun night” like an insane jingle for some really crappy corporate pizza joint.
But the verses tell a different story. “Big brother hates everything on his plate. ... All through dinner he spews out hate, it’s family fun night. ... Mom shovels down food, she weighs 253. ... Later we’ll watch our separate TVs, it’s family fun night.”
 |
| Mick Collins with The Gories, New York 2010 |
A couple of songs on Drop Dead make me laugh every time I hear them. One is “You’re Just Another Macaroon,” a put-down of an egotistical jerk, perhaps a celebrity, from a former fan with a melody that could almost be a country song. The title and refrain introduced me to an insult I’d never heard before. I don’t think I’ve ever called anyone a “macaroon.”
Then there’s “Mellow the Fuck Out.” The message is simple: “You got to mellow, you got to mellow, you got to mellow the fuck out,” Dixon sings/chants as the band plays an urgent garage-rock backdrop behind him. We never learn what the subject of the song is doing to deserve such advice. A friend freaking out on drugs? A bouncer at a bar dealing with an unruly customer? You can imagine umpteen scenarios where the words might apply.
The Figures of Light get almost pretty on “With a Girl Like That.” The guitars hint at Byrds-like folk rock, but it’s actually easier to imagine The Rolling Stones doing this song on one of their early albums.
I could get corny here and say The Figures of Light are a beacon in the fog of overproduced, overcalculated, overhyped modern rock. The truth is, Dixon and Downey are just a couple of hip old coots (about my age) who rock harder than most self-styled punks half their age and sound like they’re having twice as much fun doing it.
Keep shining, Figures of Light.
Blog Bonus: It's lame!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, June 10, 2012 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(at)ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Janet by The Saterelles
Sonic Reducer by The Dead Boys
Blank Generation by Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Down the Drain by The Escatones
Candy Can't Wait by The Dirty Novels
Here Comes Pappa by T-Model Ford
Alice by Figures of Light
Take Me Away by Willis Earl Beal
Dixie Iron Fist by Legendary Shack Shakers
Lipstick Vogue by Elivs Costello & The Attractions
Being by The Angry Dead Pirates
Psilocybic Mind by Marshmallow Overcoat
Wasted Time by The Grannies
Save My Soul From Hell by Rev. Beat-Man & The Un-Believers
Turn that TV Off by Boris the Sprinkler
The Trough by The Molting Vultures
Sweet Little Hi-Fi by Pussy Galore
Son of Sam by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Ballad To The Son Of Sam by The Consumers
Can't Stop ... Gotta Rock! by Los #3 Dinners
That Old Black Magic by Spike Jones & His City Slickers
Shortnin' Bread by The Cramps
Oh Lord by Snake Island
Hey Rockabilly by Die Zorros
Texting by Bottle Service
What You Deserve by Thee Witch Hazel Martinis
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog by The Rockin' Guys
Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground
Talking at the Same Time by Tom Waits
Gone Again by Patti Smith
Amphetamines and Coffee by Afghan Whigs
Curtain Falls by Bobby Darin
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Albums Named for Unappetizing Food
O.K., I'll admit this is a pretty dumb idea. It came to me yesterday after I ran into my friend Dan during my afternoon walk along the ...
-
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican January 14, 2011 Junior Kimbrough is dead. R.L. Burnside is dead. Paul “Wi... -
Remember these guys? I'm not sure how I missed this when it first was unleashed a few weeks ago, but Adult Swim — the irrevere... -
Sunday, May 15, 2022 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM Em...