Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Do You Love Me by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dishonest John by The Jim Jones Revue
Open Minds Now Close by The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Rimbaud Diddley by Churchwood
Sisters of The Moon by Fleetwood Mac
Timothy by The Buoys
Linen for the Orphan by The Yawpers
Cruel Friend by Nots
I'd Kill For Her by The Black Angels
Green and Mean by Travel in Space
Claw Machine Wizard by Left Lane Cruiser
Leadfoot Down by Leadfoor Tea
Got Blood in My Rhythm by The Blues Against Youth
Betty vs. The NYPD by Jon Spencer Blued Explosion
Break a Guitar by TY Segall
Little Girl by Syndicate of Sound
Keys to the Castle / Man in a Suitcase by Thee Oh Sees
Power Child by The Night Beats
Fruit Fly by Hickoids
Another Girl by Satan's Little Helpers
Rock Out by The Chuck Norris Experiment
I Can't Give You Anything But Love by Louis Prima & Keely Smith
Ooga Booga Rock by Hipbone Slim
Stranger in Me by The Howlin' Max Messer Show
I Got You on My Mind by The Vagoos
What's My Name by Jon Langford's Four Lost Souls
After You Die by Tom Waits
Sycamore Trees by Jimmy Scott
My Prayer by The Platters
The World Spins by Julee Cruise
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Sept. 1, 2017
The Rooster crows once again! The pride of Española, that ragtag band of rounders, rowdies, and reprobates known as The Imperial Rooster is back with Volume 4 — their first full-length album since Cluckaphony four years ago.
The group has gone through a few personnel shuffles, but this record shows they’ve still got their basic chaotic, hillbilly-nuts, jug-band-riot sound full of banjos, kazoos, honking harmonicas, wild rhythms, drunken harmonies, and devilishly irreverent lyrics. In other words, it’s my kind of party.
The core of the Rooster still consists of Nat King Kong (Enrique Martinez) on vocals, harmonica, jug, and “hobophone” (a fancy kazoo-like device); Cootie Leroux (Rob Tomblinson) on vocals, guitar, and banjo; and Kohrn Sirrap (Randy Perraglio) on banjo, dobro, and guitar. The newest Roosters are Carlossus! The Count of Monte Carlos (Carlos Rodriguez) on bass and vocals and Perro De Mal (Luis Rodriguez, no relation to the Count) on drums.
The album is produced by none other than Joe Frankland, better known in underground-country circles as Slackeye Slim. Slackeye frequently played with The Rooster a couple of years ago when he was living in New Mexico. Now a Colorado resident, he also adds some lap steel, dobro, banjo, and saw on the Rooster’s tracks here. (Hey, Joe, it’s been at least a couple of years since your last album. You’re about due!)
The ImperialnRooster live at The Burger Stand 2016
The album starts off with “cluckaphonous” fanfare that almost reminds me of Beirut’s first album. But instead of trumpets, you hear kazoos, banjo, and Slackeye’s saw. That’s fitting because the song, titled “Dangerous Times,” is a faux Balkan stomp. The lyrics are a call to action against “thought police” who want to kick down your door. “We’re living in dangerous times,” the refrain goes.
Later in the album there’s a fast-paced song called “Wage Slave Revolt” — a fantasy of a revolution, burning down the mansions of the “greedy bastards” in a struggle to “protect our starving families and to take back all our land.” But the revolt doesn’t end well, as the greed-heads strike back with bomb-dropping drones. The minor-key melody sounds like some kind of centuries-old ballad that might have been sung by sentimental veterans of the Whiskey Rebellion or some other old thwarted uprising.
But speaking of whiskey, most of the songs on this album aren’t nearly as political as “Wage Slave Revolt” and “Dangerous Times.” In fact, most are geared toward good, goofy, drunken fun, with titles like “Hungover Again” (where the Roosters sing, “Nat King Kong started crackin’ jokes and we started cracking cans/Goddamn, I’m hungover again”) and “No One Likes Me” (The sad refrain: “I don’t know why nobody likes me/I swear I’m being cool, everyone wants to fight me”).
But the most powerful of the boozer tunes is “Prolly Die From Drankin’.” Nat King Kong describes the horrible liquor-soaked, liver-damaged fate of various family members, reminding me of “Dying Breed,” a stark and chilling song about a family’s substance abuse by Lonesome Bob (also recorded by Allison Moorer). However, The Imperial Rooster is employing dark humor here, turning the song into a grim joke. (“A six-pack leads to a 12-pack/And a 12-pack leads to I-don’t-know/And I-don’t-know leads to wakin’ up in a ditch.”) So you leave the song laughing, but fully aware of the pain beneath the punch lines.
Being that this is an Imperial Rooster album, there had to be a funny, bluesy devil song. After all, the very first song on their very first album, Old Good Poor Crazy Dead, was “Your Friends Think I’m the Devil,” while subsequent albums have had songs like “The Hoover Farm Exorcism” and “Anything Goes at a Rooster Show,” which talks about L. Ron Hubbard telling Satan about “inner light.” So on Volume 4, the devil gets his due on a hilarious dobro stomper called “Demons in Your Head,” which builds to a climax in which Cootie sings, “After a week when the bodies piled up I knew she had gone insane … I wish I’d never fell in love with that mama rattlesnake.”
The album ends with an acoustic waltz called “Old, Fat, and Stinky,” about a guy who matches that description. He also suffers from aching feet and impotence. He blames his wife, who lured him into a life of obesity with a ham sandwich (with chile and cheddar). Like “Prolly Die from Drankin’,” it’s funny, but funny with a bite.
You can hear and buy — don’t forget that part — Volume 4 and all Imperial Rooster music at their Bandcamp page. Also recommended:
* A Black and Tan Ball byJoe Hunter & Joe Seamons with Phil Wiggins. No, this Seattle-based group is not as nutso as The Imperial Rooster, but fiddler Hunter and banjo man Seamons (joined here by harmonica player Wiggins) are the best string-band revival group this side of the South Memphis String Band (Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimbo Mathus, and Luther Dickinson).
I knew I was going to like this album when I saw it starts off with “Do You Call That a Buddy,” a version clearly inspired by the one by Martin, Bogan, & Armstrong. It’s a funny little song about a guy plotting revenge on an ungrateful houseguest who eats all his food and tries to steal his woman.
Other highlights here are “Bad Man Ballad” (basically the murder song “Little Sadie”); a Louis Armstrong classic, “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue”; “Po’ Howard,” a tune from the Lead Belly songbook; and the jazzy “Do Nuthin’ Til You Hear From Me,” a Duke Ellington ballad that works just fine as an acoustic number.
Enjoy some videos:
Here is an early version of "Smilin' Ed" by The Imperial Rooster
An even earlier version of "Prolly Die from Drinkin'" (featuring original Rooster lineup)
The world is a carousel of color, wonderful, wonderful color ... and it's a rainbow of sound right here on The Big Enchilada. Sit back and absorb them all.
On this night in 1928, The Threepenny Opera by composer Kurt Weill and playwright Bertolt Brecht opened in Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.
According to a website dedicated to the work by the Kurt Weill Foundation, the show "transformed saccharine, old-fashioned opera and operetta forms, incorporating a sharp political perspective and the sound of 1920s Berlin dance bands and cabaret. Weill's acid harmonies and Brecht's biting texts created a revolutionary new musical theater ..."
As Brecht said in 1956:
When The Threepenny Opera was originally staged in Germany in 1928 it had strong political and aesthetic impact. Among its successful results were: 1. The fact that young proletarians suddenly came to the theatre, in some cases for the first time, and then quite often came back. 2. The fact that the top stratum of the bourgeoisie was made to laugh at its own absurdity. Having once laughed at certain attitudes, it would never again be possible for these particular representatives of the bourgeoisie to adopt them.
Another thing The Threepenny Opera had going for it: a bunch of great song that still resonate today.
Here are a few of those performed by some folks who weren't around for the original show.
Let's start with Nina Simone performing a song called "Pirate Jenny." It's about a cleaning lady who has some pretty intense revenge fanatasies.
Tom Waits' music has obviously been influenced by Brecht and Weill. He actually covered a Threepenny tune, "What Keeps Mankind Alive."
Of course the most popular song from the show is "Mack the Knife." It's been covered by many of the greats of American music. And also by Dee Snider. But seriously, I get a kick out this version. (And that's Lee Rocker of The Stray Cats on standup bass!)
Indeed, "Mack" is such a big one, it deserves a double shot. Here is The Doors doing it to introduce another Brecht -Weill song, "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)"
Once again it's birthday time for America's greatest cartoonist Robert Crumb. The old boy turns 74 today.
As most of you know, in addition to his talents as a visual artist, Crumb also is a musician. His main love is old 1920s-30s jazz and blues.
With his string band The Cheap Suit Serenaders, which first came together in San Francisco in the late '60s, Crumb captured the crazy energy of those old sounds -- which also informed his vision behind his best cartoons.
So happy birthday one more time, Mr. Crumb and many more.
Here are a bunch of his songs on YouTube.
This one is called "I Had But 50 Cents."
Regular readers know I love the following song, "I'll See You in My Dreams" (See HERE and HERE.) Crumb and the boys do it justice.
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This is about a girl who lives down by the firehouse.
This is a crazy little instrumental called "The Cuckoo Waltz." Enjoy the visuals.
This one is relatively recent (2013). Instead of The Cheap Suit Serenaders, this is The East River String Band,
Sunday, August 27, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Saboteur Blues by Gogol Bordello
The Static God by Thee Oh Sees
The Ladder by Travel in Space
Dancing Fool by Butthole Surfers
The Future is Now (and it Stinks) by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Shiver by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
These Tears by The Howlin' Max Messer Show
Today I Learned to Drink by Dengue Fever
Freedom by Ty Segall
Little Mama by Suicide Generation
She Doesn't Laugh at My Jokes by Jonathan Richman
Eye by Audio Kings of the Third World
Lately by Left Lane Cruiser
Midnight Jungle by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
A Dirtier Job by The Blues Against Youth
Mon Nom by The Yawpers
Cranked Up Real High by The Grannies
Volare by The Drifting Mines
Triggs Beach by Molting Vultures
Go-Go Girls by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Trippin' by The Ghost Wolves
Medicine by Black Angels
One Day I Will Kill You by Deadbolt
Puddin' Truck by NRBQ
Violence by Nots
Bitch Slap Attack by Lovestruck
No Cops by The Night Beats
Hooky Wooky by Lou Reed
Candlelight by Mystery Lights
Love Your Money by Lolita #18
Squatting in Heaven by Black Lips
Frankie Baby by Mojo JuJu
Fear and Beer by The Mekons
Motivation by Benjamin Booker
Love Train by The Holmes Brothers CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, August 25, 2017 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
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Lucifer and the Fallen Angels by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Amos Moses by Jerry Reed
Her Hair is a Mess by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Genitalia of a Fool by Cornell Hurd featuring Justin Trevino
Write Your Own Songs by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
I Can Get Over You by Miss Leslie
Til the Well Runs Dry by Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones
George's Playhouse Boogie by Maddox Brothers & Rose
Blind Man's Penis by John Trubee (Ramsey Kearney vocals)
Florida by The War and Treaty
Smilin' Ed by The Imperial Rooster
Since She Started to Ride by Jonathan Richman
Highway Patrol by Junior Brown
So Many Curves by Jonny Barber & The Rhythm Razors
Johnny Law by Wayne Hancock
They Call Me Country by DM Bob & The Deficits
You're Gettin' a Good Girl by Caolina Cotton
Walkin' After Midnight by Cyndi Lauper
Henry, O My Henry by Hillstomp
Fun All Night by Banditos
Everyone is Guilty #2 by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Drunk on Jesus by Reverend Deadeye
Ghost of Th' Rails by The Goddamn Gallows
God's Mercy by The Yawpers
Botched Execution by Shovels and Ropes
St. Louis Blues by Pokey LaFarge
Drinkin; Thing by Gary Stewart
Take Me by Jesse Dayton & Brennan Leigh
Golden Days by Boris McCutcheon
Days of 49 by Steve Young
Beaten and Broken by Mini Mekons & Robbie Fulks
Desert by The Whiskey Charmers
Same God by The Calamity Cubes CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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