Why Radio Sucks Now
The horrible state of commercial radio never ceases to amaze me.
I had a small change to my work situation so, now, instead of spending time in a car with my satellite radio, I’m working indoors. I don’t yet have a portable adaptor for my satellite receiver, so lately I’ve been listening to a lot of government radio. Specifically, the local “active rock” station. Their playlist seems to consist mainly of a mix of old Pearl Jam, old Black Sabbath, old Motley Crue, and way too much Nickleback and bands who sound like Nickleback.
I mention this (yet again) by way of transitioning to today’s post. Granted it was a long time ago, but when I was growing up, commercial radio was
the source for new music. And they actually played new music. During that weird period between early 1970’s freeform FM and the homogenization of your FM dial, there was a time when radio stations would actually play things you hadn't heard 10,000 times.
One of the artists introduced to my expanding taste was Robert Gordon. Rockabilly music and the guy playing it immediately enthralled me. He looked like the Stray Cats, but
before the Stray Cats. Gordon’s voice sounded like the old Elvis records my dad listened to, but he had found a plugged-in Scotty Moore in the form of Chris Spedding.
The album that introduced me to Gordon was
Rock Billy Boogie, which he released on RCA in 1979. There was no rockabilly revival fad and Gordon wasn't following trends; just a guy making the music he loved.
Rock Billy Boogie.mp3 Black Slacks.mp3 Labels: rockabilly
A Shower with Norman Bates
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I read earlier that today is the 50th anniversary of the release of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and I thought it might be appropriate to make mention of that before I go shower.
Psycho is now, of course, considered a classic, but I was surprised to learn that it opened to not-so-great reviews: “There is not an abundance of subtlety or the lately familiar Hitchcock bent toward significant and colorful scenery in this obviously low-budget job,” Bosley Crowther wrote in a June 17, 1960,
New York Times review.
Like now, though, even bad reviews didn’t keep the public away; the film broke box office records all over the world and would ultimately become Hitchcock’s most successful movie.
Some random Psycho trivia:
Anthony Perkins was paid $40,000 for his role, which is exactly the same amount of money that Marion Crane embezzles.
Marion’s white 1957 Ford sedan is the same car (owned by Universal) that the Cleaver family drove on “Leave It to Beaver”
Psycho was the first American film ever to show a toilet flushing on screen.
In the murder scene in the shower, there are only two split second frames of the knife actually touching the body.
And some random music about Norman Bates:
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ Utopians
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ Bright Light Fever
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ The Tailgators
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ from a German electronica collection titled
Cyberworld IIA Shower with Norman Bates.mp3 ~ Etienne & Moi
Labels: "alternative", electronic, movies, rockabilly
‘I’m Crazy ‘bout You Baby, But Baby You’re Crazy’
Holy shit.
If you guys aren’t yet aware of Nick Curran, I need you to sit up and listen to what I’m about to lay on ya.
Like so much of the newest / oldest / coolest stuff I hear these days, Nick Curran came to my attention via
Little Steven’s Underground Garage. As soon as “Baby You Crazy” blasted through my speakers, I was hooked by the guitars, the horns, and the boogie-woogie piano, all of it distorted and all of it sounding like it was 100-percent lifted from 1950’s jump blues via the Cramps via the Ramones with T-Bone Walker sitting in for Johnny. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn the song was coming from some crusty half-century-old vinyl.
“Baby You Crazy” – and for that matter, the entirety of Curran’s latest album,
Reform School Girls – is just so ridiculously good I don’t even know where to start. It transcends boogie-woogie or rock-a-billy and becomes Little Richard reborn in the body of a 32-year-old white guitar player from Maine (I know Little Richard is still alive, but just stay with me on this). I downloaded
Reform School Girls from
eMusic and – seriously – this is the first time in I don’t know how long that I listened to a CD, played it again, then played it
again. And it’s still in my CD player waiting for another spin.
Just listen to this.
Baby You Crazy.mp3 Labels: psychobilly, rockabilly
Free Cigarettes for Drunken Minors
Yesterday, while I was looking for info about the Living Deadbeats, I noticed one of their MySpace “friends” was a fellow Vancouver-based band called Free Cigarettes for Drunken Minors. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a sucker for a cool band name, so I had to see what was going on there.
What I found was guitarist Kara Beaner and banjo player Dirty Swagger, who together play what they call a “rotten brand of country punk.” They’ve also described themselves as “the Eurythmics of the drunk rawk scene.”
What you get is an acoustic duo that has been together since the mid-90’s, entertaining the masses with tastefully twangy tunes such as “Hard Luck Motherfucker,” “Whiskey Demons,” and today’s selection, “Hangover.”
You can also get more information about Free Cigarettes for Drunken Minors from their
MySpace page. (Taken out of context, that sentence sounds like either the worst or the funniest PSA ever.)
Hangover.mp3 Labels: alt.country, punk, rockabilly
Bad Housewife
A little less than a couple of months ago –
if you’ll recall – I posted about a blues guitarist named Popa Chubby. As almost an afterthought, I also mentioned Galea, who sings on one of the tracks I posted.
After I had heard about and posted about Popa Chubby, I continued investigating and tracked down some music by the lovely Miss Galea. I can’t tell you much about her, other than I learned that – in addition to handling occasional bass and vocal duties for Popa – she is also his wife. And, a few years ago – 2005, to be exact – Galea gathered ‘round the boys, including her husband, and recorded
Diary of a Bad Housewife.
Diary is chock-full of country / rockabilly / blues tastiness, much like you’d expect from the bride of Chubby. Galea’s voice reminds me of the old time country singers: Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, that sort of style. There is no Carrie Underwood here.
Alongside her original material, Galea picked a range of covers, which show off her range of influences: Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, and Willy DeVille are just a couple of the artists to whom tribute gets paid. One interesting cover is “Brand New Key,” the early 70s hit by pop singer Melanie. Galea countries it up and the song is titled “Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)” after a parody by British country act The Wurzels (“I’ve got a brand new combine harvester...”), but she sticks with Melanie’s original lyrics. Anyway, it’s an interesting take on a song I haven’t heard in a long time. “Truck Drivin’ Man” is one of Galea’s original songs that I think will show you what she’s all about.
Brand New Key (Combine Harvester).mp3 Truck Drivin’ Man.mp3 Labels: blues, country music, rockabilly
'How'd a White Boy Get the Blues?'
Is it too early in the day to star drinking whiskey? ‘Cause dammit that’s what Popa Chubby makes me want to do.
Popa Chubby (more on the name in a bit) plays the kind of raunchy blues / rock-a-billy / old-school country that you want to hear in a bar, not sitting on the couch in your living room at 10 in the morning. Last year he released his 19th album,
Vicious Country, a disk that not only showed off his talent on the guitar, but also paid tribute to the legendary music that has influenced him along the way. The album, while not attracting much mainstream attention, continued to build on the legend that is Chubby.
Ted Horowitz came out of the Bronx, raised on Clapton, Hendrix, and the Stones. By the time he was in his early 20’s, he had found his love for the blues, but had also found his way into occasional work with Richard Hell. Ted’s first big break was winning a national blues talent search sponsored by KLON, a public radio station in Long Beach, Calif.
I’ve found two versions as to how Ted Horowitz became Popa Chubby. The first comes from something Chubby himself said. He was jamming one night with Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic, he says, and, “He was singing a song called ‘Popa Chubby’ and he pointed at me.”
“Popa Chubby basically means to get excited. The core of my music is about excitement. I think music should make people feel alive.”
The other version – unsourced, I might add, but on the Popa Chubby Wiki page – claims the name is a variation of the term “pop a chubby.” My guess is that, as usual, the truth is somewhere between the two versions.
Popa Chubby’s 20th album,
The Fight Is On, is due out March 22. If you can’t find it your local big box retailer (haha!), you can order it from the
Popa Chubby website. In the meantime, here are a couple of things from the
Vicious Country LP. The woman on vocals is Galea, Chubby’s sometime bass player and longtime collaborator.
Break Me Down.mp3Satan is Real / Straight to Hell (Hank III cover).mp3Harper Valley P.T.A. (Jeannie C. Riley cover).mp3Labels: alt.country, blues, covers, rockabilly
'Click, Click, Bang, Bang'
I have had an old song from Miss Derringer on my iPod forever it seems like. I love the band’s combination of blues, country, 60’s girl-group, and noir. There’s something that gets me every time I hear that kind of dark music sung in a voice as smooth as Liz McGrath’s.
A little earlier this year, Miss Derringer released their third disk,
Winter Hill. The album is based on the
true story of an Irish gang war in Boston. The 1960’s setting for the album’s tale lends itself perfectly to the lead single, “Click, Click, Bang, Bang.” That song – and a lot of the others on the album – combines the rock-a-billy of the Detroit Cobras with the pop of early Blondie, bands who also draw / drew big time from 60’s groups.
While still steeped in darkness,
Winter Hill is, musically anyway, a lighter album than its predecessor, 2006’s
Lullabies. There’s nothing remotely like the latter’s title track; despite its subject matter, the new album seems altogether much more upbeat.
Click, Click, Bang, Bang.mp3 Labels: new stuff, rockabilly
Rockin' by Hisself
I’ve been in the mood lately to listen to rockabilly, and in addition to the classic stuff, I’ve also been listening a lot to my generation’s premier practitioner, Brian Setzer.
A disk I’ve had on the shelf a long time and never gave a proper listen to is Setzer’s 1998 solo album,
Rockin’ By Myself. I think the disk was recorded in 1993 during a show in Japan. I do know it was a Japan-only release, although the copy I have is lettered in Russian.
Setzer recorded this performance a couple of years after he started the Brian Setzer Orchestra, but this is a stripped down show: Just Brian on guitar, accompanied on a couple of songs by his brother, Gary. No band, no garnish. Setzer’s underrated talent as a rock guitarist is really on display here. Not the flash typical of some early-90s rock guitarists, but a technical skill that rarely surfaces on his studio recordings. Just listen to him tear it up on “Mystery Train” and “Be-bop-a-lula.”
Since this was technically an official release, I’ll just sample a few things and leave it to you to track down and listen to the whole disk. The tracks I picked are pretty representative of the album; there were a lot of oldies and a couple of Stray Cat songs.
Runaway Boys.mp3 Be-bop-a-lula.mp3 Rebelene.mp3 Summertime Blues.mp3 Mystery Train.mp3 Labels: covers, live albums, oldies, rockabilly
'Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up'
Like every year for the past 20 or so years, I did not get to attend South by Southwest this year. I’ve read plenty enough to know that I missed several great performances. Maybe someday....
In the meantime, I’m drafting in the slipstream of the music media, picking up tidbits here and there. One such nugget is Austin’s The Strange Boys. I checked around a little before starting this post and found that a few blogs were singing their praises before this year’s SXSW appearance.
Rolling Stone, back in December, called The Strange Boys their
“new favorite band” after catching a show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge.
In their latest issue (the one with Lil Wayne on the cover),
Rolling Stone again mentions The Strange Boys, this time as one of the breakout bands at this year’s SXSW. I can’t find the article online, and damned if I haven’t already passed my issue on, but the praise for the Strange Boys was enough to make me want to give them a listen.
The Strange Boys, lead by singer/guitarist Ryan Sambol, refer to themselves as an “R&B” band. At first I’m thinking, oh great, more pansy white soul singers. Totally wrong. The Strange Boys are R&B in the same sense that The Who used to refer to themselves as Maximum R&B. I have no idea what type of guitar Sambol plays, but it sounds so much like Pete Townshend’s old Rickenbacker, I’d almost swear The Strange Boys are coming out of 1960’s England rather than modern day Texas. I keep expecting to hear the line, "I'm the face baby, is that clear?".
The music has a classic feel to it without sounding dated or like a tribute act. Sambol’s twangy, slurred, distorted voice veers from sounding kinda-like-Paul Westerberg to kinda-like-Tom Petty. The band (Matt Hammer, drums; Philip Sambol, bass; and Greg Enlow, guitar) make a sound that draws from early Who, early Stones, early Beatles... well, you get the picture, I think.
The album,
The Strange Boys... and Girls Club, is available from In the Red Records. Click over to The Strange Boys’
MySpace for the link and more info about the band. Definitely worth your time.
Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up.mp3 Probation Blues.mp3 Labels: "alternative", indie, RnB, rock, rockabilly
You need some Speedball Baby
Again from the “I’m a sucker for a cool band name” file comes Speedball Baby.
Formed in New York in the early 90s, Speedball Baby combines psychobilly and grit with street poetry for a sound best described as “the dark blues of the messed up and clueless.” Speedball Baby’s actual bio lies buried somewhere in a New York City walk up; the only remaining clues are as off-kilter and unpredictable as the band’s music. “Speedball Baby...(fuse) the primordial slurp of rockabilly with a broken-homegrown hybrid of gospel testimony and punk mayhem. They harness hysteria – pounding out a thrown drink conniption fit as exuberant as a St. Vitas dance.”
In a 2001 interview with NYC’s
OffOffOff.com, guitarist Matt Verta-Ray described his first meeting with singer and songwriter Ron Ward: “I heard Ron do these spontaneous monologues, almost like poetry – I wouldn't say beat poetry, but it was definitely inspired by Burroughs,” he said. “It was very abrasive and not very musical at that time.”
Verta-Ray and Ward recruited bass player Ali Smith and drummer Dave Roy, before independently releasing two EPs in the mid-1990s. Speedball Baby recorded one album for MCA records then decided the corporate music world was not to their liking. They returned to an independent label, where they remain. Several musicians, including Jon Spencer, have contributed to the Speedball Baby legend, with Ward and Verta-Ray being the only constants.
Today’s music comes from a collection of the Speedball Baby EPs I recently got hold of. As far as I can tell, these were released during the mid-to-late 1990s.
Annie Anytime.mp3 Don’t Turn Blue (Tonight).mp3 Speedball Baby.mp3 Milking Stool Blues.mp3 T.B. Sheets.mp3Labels: psychobilly, punk, rockabilly
Havana 3am
The other day I found something very cool that heretofore I had not known existed. (Really, how often do you see the word “heretofore” in the common blog?)
I had always considered myself a pretty knowledgeable fan of the Clash, but I did not know that after the Clash split, Paul Simonon started a band called Havana 3am. Named after a 1950’s album by Perez Prado, the Cuban “King of Mambo,” Havana 3am consisted of Simonon on bass; Gary Myrick on guitar; Nigel Dixon from the British band Whirlwind on lead vocals; and Travis Williams, a drummer they found through a newspaper ad.
Havana 3am recorded a self-titled album in Japan in 1991. Following Dixon's death in April 1993, and the departure of Simonon, who resumed a career in art, Gary Myrick put out one more album with different line-up, but by 1996, the band had called it quits.
The band’s
Wiki entry describes Havana 3am as rockabilly with a heavy Latin influence. I think some reviewers make that call based on the horns in some of the songs or simply on the band's name. Havana 3am is not to be confused with salsa or merengue. Rather, it’s similar to the Clash’s forays into roots rock, with a twist of spaghetti Western for atmosphere. The horns merely add a touch of
spice, if you will.
Along with not knowing Paul Simonon did this project after the Clash, I wasn’t aware either that post-Havana 3am, he returned to art, which he had been doing before joining the Clash. In 2008, after an eight-year break, Simonon began
exhibiting paintings again with a show at Thomas Williams Fine Art in London, where Lily Allen reportedly bought one of his paintings for £23,500.
Reach the Rock.mp3 Death in the Afternoon.mp3Labels: punk, rockabilly, the Clash
Devil Doll: Sexin' Up Your Music
If there’s one thing we can always use, it’s more sex in our rock ‘n’ roll. And if the erstwhile Colleen Duffy has her way, we’ll have it.
Duffy, who performs professionally as Devil Doll, has been a fixture in the rockabilly world for more than a decade, touring with bands such as Social Distortion and The Cramps.
Devil Doll got her start doing improvisational Elvis imitations for friends in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. That changed once she heard Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll.” Colleen decided the world of music “had not heard the truth since Joan Jett and Johnny Cash, and hadn't blushed since Mae West,” so she picked up a guitar and starting making her own music. That evolved into her fronting a few local bands, a five-year stint as host of WRUW’s “Rockability” radio show, and her participation in the founding of Hep Cat Records.
Before leaving Ohio for NYC in 2005, Devil Doll released her debut album,
Queen of Pain. The album is – if there is such a thing – torch music for punks. The disk ranges from sultry jazz ballads such as “Bourbon In Your Eyes” to upbeat swing numbers like “Liquor Store.” Regardless of the tempo, Devil Doll’s songs all have a femme fatale feel to them; you’re not sure if she’ll still be at your table when you get back from the men’s. But if she is there, watch your back.
Tonight’s music is from Devil Doll’s debut, the previously mentioned
Queen of Pain, which she released in 2003. You can get this album and her latest,
The Return of Eve, from
CD Baby.
You are the Best Thing.mp3 Liquor Store.mp3Labels: alt.jazz, rockabilly
“A Strange Blend of 40 Years Passed and 15 Minutes Ago”
Here’s something a little crazy: More than 40 years after breaking up, a band reunites and records their first full-length album.
Mike and the Ravens are proud of the fact that they still field their original lineup. They’re even prouder of the fact that they predate the Beatles. So why haven’t you heard of these guys? In September 1962, Ravens Steve Blodgett (rhythm guitar), Brian Lyford (bass), and Peter Young (drums) broke into Stowe, Vermont’s Community Church. They proceeded to play a rock ‘n’ album over the steeple PA system. The sounds of the “devil’s music” was heard eight miles away, according to police reports. The trio was jailed for this act, effectively splitting up the band.
It wasn’t until this century that rock historian Will Shade tracked down all five original Ravens (singer Mike Brassard and lead guitarist Bo Blodgett round out the band) while researching Vermont’s early rock ‘n’ roll scene. Encouraged by the renewed interest, the Ravens decided to get together and see if the old spark was still there. Once the rust was off, they decided to finally record an album. “I think the band wanted to prove something to ourselves,” Brassard said. “We wanted this to be the album we never had the chance to make. But most importantly, we wanted those young guys we used to be to dig it.”
The Ravens are quick to say they’re not “grandpa rock” or out to cash in as a nostalgia act.
Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions put those notions to rest right away. The disk opens with the garage rock classic “Roller, Roller, Rollerland!” penned by Stephen Blodgett as an ode to New York’s legendary roller skating rink and live show venue. The band keeps up the pace throughout the album’s 12 tracks, riding the line between rockabilly and garage, sounding every bit as good as bands who could be their grandkids.
Eddie Shaw, bass player for classic garage act The Monks, counts himself as a fan of Mike and the Ravens. “(They) play rock like rockers should,” he said. “And it’s not just old rehashed memorabilia. It’s a strange blend of 40 years passed and 15 minutes ago.”
Roller, Roller, Rollerland!.mp3 (I Be) Rockin’ with Mrs. Benoit.mp3 Get more information about Mike and the Ravens at their
MySpace. You also can check out Mike and the Ravens’ original singles at their
1962 MySpace.
Labels: garage rock, new stuff, rockabilly
I had a small change to my work situation so, now, instead of spending time in a car with my satellite radio, I’m working indoors. I don’t yet have a portable adaptor for my satellite receiver, so lately I’ve been listening to a lot of government radio. Specifically, the local “active rock” station. Their playlist seems to consist mainly of a mix of old Pearl Jam, old Black Sabbath, old Motley Crue, and way too much Nickleback and bands who sound like Nickleback. 
The album that introduced me to Gordon was Rock Billy Boogie, which he released on RCA in 1979. There was no rockabilly revival fad and Gordon wasn't following trends; just a guy making the music he loved. 
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