Strike up the band -- strike up lots of bands! -- it's another pulverizing episode of The Big Enchilada Podcast on Radio Mutation. This month you'll hear new songs by the likes of Reverend Beat-Man, Archie & The Bunkers, The Hollywood Sinners; some the acts I saw recently at South by Southwest, including The Hickoids, The Ghost Wolves, Nobunny and Count Vaseline -- plus plenty more.
And, for the first time in years, The Big Enchilada is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and gimme a good rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks.
Sunday, March 25, 2018 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
Back from the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
Dead in a Motel Room by Hickoids
Whettin' My Knife by The Ghost Wolves
Because of You by The Goon Mat & Lord Bernardo
Stop it Baby by Roy Loney & The A-Bones
Fiesta Nuclear by Hollywood Sinners
The Traveler by Archie & The Bunkers
The Good Bastards by The Bonnevilles
End of My Rope by The Sloths
Anything That Moves by The Dwarves
Mike D's Coke by Ty Segall
Lizard Man by Mean Motor Scooter
Pablo Picasso by The Rockin' Guys
Human Obscene by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Signal by Boss Hog
In Glass by Nots
You Can't Hide by The Electric Mess
Future Gods of Rock by Pocket FishRMen
El Toro de Goro by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Town of Horseheads by Count Vaseline
Sister Midnight by Iggy Pop
Love Ain't Strange (Everything Else Is) by The Nightbeats
Comet by Baronen & Satan
Sunshine Don't Make the Sun by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
I've Really Got the Blues by Jackie Shane
She Put a Seed in My Ear by Holy Wave
The Devil in the Dancehall by Harvey McLaughlin
The Sights and Sounds of De Los Muertos/ Get Up by De Los Muertos
Something Don't Up by Sir Bald Diddley & His Wig-Outs
A Clown Gave You a Baby by John Wesley Coleman III
Cold Studded Stunner by Trouble Boys
Falling Star by The Velquins
Metanoia by Churchwood
I Thought He Was Dead by Jon Langford's Four Lost Soul CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, March 23, 2018 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
Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry
See Willy Fly By by The Waco Brothers
Driftwood 40-23 by The Hickoids
Crazy Date by T-Tex Edwards
Be Real by Freda & The Firedogs
Little White Trash Boy by The Starkweathers
Parting Words by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Like a Rolling Stone by Flatt & Scruggs
(Background Music: Dirt Road #24 by Clothesline Revival)
I Don't Give a Shit by Shinyribs
Harbor Lights by Jerry Lee Lewis
Take Me Back to Tulsa by Merle Haggard
Old Man from the Mountain by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugener Chadbourne
I Heard You Been Layin' My Old Lady by New Riders of the Purple Sage
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on the Skids
Austin Pickers by Gary P. Nunn
They'll Never Play My Songs in Nashville by Jonathan Parker
Country My Ass by Dale Watson
(Background Music: Downtown Wagon by Clothesline Revival)
Billy the Kid & Geronimo by Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
That's All it Took by Gram Parsons
Riverboat Dishwashing Song by The Tillers
Cheap Mike by Del McCoury
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson
You'll Lose a Good Thing by Dad Horse Experience
Corrina Corrina by Tex Rubinowitz & Bob Newscaster
(Background Music: Snakebite Magicians by Clothesline Revival)
Marie Mouri by The Dead Brothers
Another Night to Cry by Eilen Jewell
Defrost Your Heart by Charlie Feathers
I Threw Away the Key by Zane Campbell
Yup by David Rawlings
Crossing Muddy Waters by John Hiatt
Sam Stone by Swamp Dogg CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page
Want to keep this hoedown going after I sign off at midnight? Check out The Big Enchilada Podcast Hillbilly Episode Archive where there are hours of shows where I play music like you hear on the SF Opry.
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican March 23, 2018
I just got back from the South by Southwest music festival in Austin. People are correct when they say that the festival has grown way too big, the traffic is impossible, and the parking is even worse. But despite all this, I managed to see a lot of good music.
Here are some of my favorites.
[Note: The videos embedded are not from this year's SXSW, except maybe the one for Nobunny. However that one was posted a few days before I saw Nobunny, so it's obviously not the same gig.]
* The Ghost Wolves at the 720 Club: Barely a year ago, I’d never heard of this Austin-based band. But after seeing them tear up this Red River Street dive with their unique brand of punk/blues/garage sounds, I feel like an overzealous cult member bent on spreading the word. Singer-guitarist Carley Wolf and her husband, drummer Jonathan Wolf, rock wild. Their lyrics and song titles seem to seethe with anger. And yet, somehow, listening to them only makes me grin. Indeed, I was grinning like a fool at the 720. But the cool thing was that Carley was grinning even more. The lady has an infectious smile that serves to fortify her monster guitar playing. And she doesn’t even need all six strings to make her magic. On the last several songs, Carley played an electric guitar with only one string — the low E string, I think. Pure primitive power.
* Nobunny at Hotel Vegas. I saw Wolves and I saw bunnies. If he were more famous, singer-guitarist Justin Champlin would do for shopping mall Easter bunnies what John Wayne Gacy did for clowns. And he should be more famous. Behind that ratty rabbit mask is a master of irresistible, hooky pop-punk songs.
* Shinyribs at The Dogwood. I was a huge fan of The Gourds, perhaps the greatest group to come out of Austin during the great alt-country scare of the late ’90s. I’m not sure what happened to them, but singer Kevin Russell has carried on with a new band, Shinyribs, and done quite well. In 2016, they released a fine New Orleans-flavored album called I Got Your Medicine (the band's fourth since 2010). Just recently, Shinyribs was named Best Austin Band by The Austin Chronicle.
Backed by a band that includes a sax and trumpet and two female backup singers, Russell, dressed in a loud yellow suit, did a medley of tunes including “Hey Pocky Way” and “Shotgun Willie.” At other points in the show, he started singing “Helter Skelter” during an unrelated number. And at least a couple of times, he made incongruous references to Roky Erickson’s “Cold Night for Alligators.”
*Count Vaseline at Hotel Vegas. Born Stefan Murphy, Vaseline is an Irish guy with a Beatle Bob hairdo who adopts the onstage persona of a deranged man standing on a soapbox and demanding that his crackpot warnings be heard. He started off slow. A growling guitar and ominous drums created the atmosphere as the Count went into a Jim Morrison-style vamp like some beatnik shaman. There is more than a little Mark E. Smith, the late frontman of The Fall, in Vaseline’s heady stew. He sounded like he was trying to stave off doomsday by prodding the audience to dance. Count Vaseline’s SXSW performance was much different than his recent release, Tales From the Megaplex, which is far poppier. I like that record, especially his Velvet-esque song called “Hail, Hail, John Cale” (“Lou Reed died wishing he could be John Cale ...”). But I like the weird live version of the Count even more.
* Yamantaka // Sonic Titan at Hotel Vegas. This was my major music discovery at SXSW 2018. It’s an avant-garde experimental noise group from Canada that calls its style “Noh-Wave” — a sly reference to Noh theater, a Japanese musical theater that’s been around since the 14th century. The band has two female singers, one of whom plays guitar, the other playing percussion instruments, including a large round drum and cymbals. Yamantaka did one number with serious Native American overtones. My first thought was that it sounded like Yoko Ono had produced a powwow record.
* The Waco Brothers at the Yard Dog Gallery. I’ve been going to see this band, led by Jon Langford of The Mekons, play the annual Bloodshot Records party during SXSW for more than 20 years now. I guess you could call it a ritual — a Dionysian ritual, where the frenzy becomes enlightenment — or something like that. The shows have all been high-energy, irreverent, frequently chaotic, and almost always inspiring.
This year, they played their classic songs — “See Willy Fly By,” “Red Brick Wall,” and “Plenty Tough, Union Made,” including some of their most inspired covers like George Jones’ “White Lightnin’,” Johnny Cash’s “Big River,” and Neil Young’s “Revolution Blues.” My favorite moment came after their performance of “Walking on Hell’s Roof.” In the middle of the song, Langford announced a fiddle solo from Jean Cook. However, her microphone wasn’t working, so the solo went unheard. You could tell this irked Langford. So, after the song was done and the mike problem was solved, the band decided to play that part again so Cook could have her solo heard. It was short but amazing.
* The Hickoids at Voodoo Doughnuts. This cowpunk/scuzz-country outfit is another band I make a point of seeing every time I go to SXSW. I’m pretty sure this set is the first time I’ve ever seen them during daylight hours — so now I can attest that it’s not the dark of night that makes The Hickoids maniacal. Singer Jeff Smith had an extra-long microphone cable and he used that to go out into the audience and harass — in the nicest possible way — law-abiding doughnut customers, getting in their faces, singing directly to individuals, and even going out onto Sixth Street and menacing passersby. He dragged at least one stranger into the shop, and he even sat on my lap for a few seconds.
History.com calls it "history's first rock concert." The poster called it "The most terrible ball of them all."
Alan Freed
The fire marshal called Alan Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball a threat to public safety and, with the help of the Cleveland police, shut it down shortly after it started.
Helped along by massive ticket counterfeiting and possibly by overbooking on the part of the event’s sponsors, an estimated 20,000-25,000 fans turned out for an event being held in an arena with a capacity of only 10,000. Less than an hour into the show, the massive overflow crowd broke through the gates that were keeping them outside, and police quickly moved in to stop the show almost as soon as it began.
This show did not have the star power of DJ Freed's later rock 'n' roll package shows. But it was a pretty amazing line-up of R&B acts. So in honor of that ill-fated ball, which took place -- or would have taken place -- 66 years ago this week here are a bunch of songs from those stars of the Coronation Ball.
The most famous name on the bill was The Dominos, a group led by Billy Ward and which included future soul star Jackie Wilson. The Dominos were best known for their hit "60 Minute Man" but I've always loved this bizarre little tune called "The Bells."
Tiny Grimes & The Rockin' Highlanders were known for wearing kilts onstage. I think this live jazzy Grimes clip is from a few years before
Danny Cobb's "My Isabella" was full of bongo fury
Varetta Dillard cried "Mercy, Mr. Percy"! (Enlightened lyric of the day: "I don't care if you hit me / Long as you don't quit me ...")
Finally, Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams reportedly was the only act who actually got to play a song at the Moondog Coronation Ball before it got halted by the law. Maybe it was this one.
