TS: Lone Justice or Cruzados or Drivin' & Cryin' or Green On Red or Del Fuegos or Jason & The Scorchers or Long Ryders or Bodeans?

HS

of these, though, the debut BoDeans album is the best. throw in gun club and i'd still think the same.

the del lords WERE better than the del fuegos (though that might not be saying much). Their records suffered from Springsteen-itis but their early live shows around NYC were good as faux roots-rock gets.

"what about the Del Lords? are they better than the Del Fuegos?"

i was gonna put del lords in there too, and maybe the del vikings and del shannon and del tha funkee homosapien, but i didn't want to go overboard.

awww. maybe i'm just a big meanie! why can't i let go?
i'm still smarting about that one star hayzie fantayzee review in 1981!

didn't gwen stefani start singing for no doubt when she was 15? how much younger was maria when she started singing pro?

I like the first LJ rekkid. Maybe because I had a crush on Maria McKee after seeing the "Ways to be Wicked" video, which prompted me to buy the album even though I'd never bought anything twangy before, so LJ represented a broadening of my palette (come to think of it, I also hadn't bought much by girl singers to that point, so score another for Maria). But there's about 5 songs on there I still like a lot.

I liked the Del-Lords' first album too at the time, but I have to admit that when I heard a track from it sometime last year the corniness was a little hard to take. Still like "I Play the Drums," though.

yes, cuz they are better than all the rest combined. probably.

Gypsy, you forgot to mention you liked hearing her praise the kind of guy who's "not afraid to stick it in"! Or was that me that liked that?

Yeah, that didn't escape my notice. Weird thing is that Tom Petty wrote that song. I guess he likes guys who aren't afraid to stick it in too...

Gwen's brother Eric started the band No Doubt with his friend John Spence in 1987, and asked the always effervescent Gwen to join on as co-vocalist with Spence. Tony Kanal joined the group a little later, and the trio began to gain popularity by playing at local parties.

But the party was over when Spence committed suicide in 1987, which left Gwen to move up the ranks to lead vocalist. The show must go on, and it did, as No Doubt continued to perform in local gigs. In the meantime, Gwen had graduated high school, and followed up her studies at Cal State Fullerton College.

The Del Lords were pretty good, too - sort of right in between Springsteen and Robert Gordon (somewhat underrated himself).

Cruzados? Eh. But the first Plugz album, Electrify Me, is fucking mind-roasting. I still listen to it at least once a month - I gave a copy to Henry Rollins once, hoping he'd reissue it on CD through Infinite Zero.

Well, the Del Fuegos were from Boston (if you'll allow me a little regional commentary of my own). There's a reason Jason and the Scorchers "got" country...

On record, not live. Saw both, had most of their records. Del Fuegos were a good to great live band - much harder, swinging and aggressive than their recorded material let on. Del Lords were always solidly mediocre but had a couple songs you could actually remember like the previously mentioned, "I Play the Drums" and "Judas Kiss."

Of REM, Dan Stuart said that they jammed with 'em on occasion, "but you're looking at a band that got more produced and more pop on every album and a guy who was deliberately very non-concrete about his sexuality".

He reserved most of his bile for Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, though. "Oh god, I hate that guy. He's just some rich Jew boy from Scranton Pensylvania who goes through his phonebook and gets people to make his records for him!"

Oh, and the Del Lords also ruled.

**He's just some rich Jew boy from Scranton Pensylvania**

Now I REALLY don't like this asshole. "Hey, man, I'm a authentic roots rocker, not some fag or jew poser." DESTROY!

Of course, between comments like these and firing three-fifths of his band to make ends meet, we get to the nub of why Dan Stuart was effectively ostracised frm the US music industry.

I still say they're worth investigating.

Keeping it real?? Suppose Stipe HAD come out of the closet in 1986, would Dan Stuart have been cheering him on? Hah. And his knee-jerk antisemitism re:Howe Gelb is pathetic. Stuart could've stuck to evaluating their music and stayed out of trouble. So fuck him.

But hey, even bigoted jerks can make good music. We're all sinners in the eyes of the lord, etc.

I remember seeing the Long Ryders cover "Public Image," and the singer almost broke his head doing a stage-dive on a sparse audience.

Both the "Del" bands were good live.

the replacements kinda sorta fit in the scene, too. they certainly had some common ground. they covered x, rem and tom petty on "the shit hits the fans," as well as the carter family (a song they probably learned from alex chilton). they toured with steve earle. and they wrote a handful of fine straight-up country tunes themselves.

my two favorite albums that were totally of the scene were the knitters album and the danny and dusty album (a one-off all-star band featuring guys from the long ryders, green on red and the dream syndicate). everyone else had lots of great songs but almost no great albums.

oh, and i'd count dwight yoakam's first album, too, if he counts, though maybe the fact that he was clearly headed for nashville itself (instead of just dreaming of the nashville of the mind, like everybody else) disqualifies him.

i could be completely wrong about this, but somewhere in the back of my mind i got it that dan stuart was gay himself. which would make his comments about stipe come across completely opposite from how they're being interpreted here. he's not criticizing him for being gay. he's criticizing him for being in the closet. it may be a pointless and unnecessary thing to say, but i'm not so sure it's evil.

calling howe gelb a "rich jew boy" is offensive. and if you don't think half the non-jews in rock (and probably a third of the jews) haven't said something exactly like this to someone somewhere while drunk in some bar at some point in their lives, well, you're probably wrong.

well the 1st big single was written (co-written?) by Tom Petty and had that Benmont Tench organ sound so it had a lot of reasons to stick out.

my response was a tad self-righteous, admittedly, I've used bigoted terminology before when I WASN'T drunk but Stuart said this shit in an interview and that's different whether he was stoned, drunk, withdrawing or whatever. And while every human being is prejudiced, I find it hard to believe that such a high per centage of musicians would castigate their peers in this way. I mean, when one jew calls another "jew boy" it's sorta like "nigga" you know what I'm saying? Stuart just sounds like a bitter fuck.
And this idea that Michael Stipe disguised his sexuality to sell more records strikes me as absurd. The thousands of people who bought REM albums in the 80s -- and probably most of the millions who did in the early 90s -- weren't viewing him as a sex symbol. I mean, the guy's never been exactly MACHO. I don't think his coming out would've been a big shock to the majority of fans. Now George Michael, that was another story...

http://guitarbands.de

Nevermind the asshole comments, this is pretty fucken lame as well.

Jason and the Scorchers rule

It's funny it actually took me a long time to figure this out because I was in high school in Nashville during their heyday, and they were all over the college radio station I listened to and played at local clubs constantly.

Anybody here ever hear Web Wilder? Cause he's definitely in this group though he didn't even achieve the bit of recognition the bands in the title of this thread got.

i used to own a treat her right album that wasn't horrible. but they came a little later then the rest of these guys. (i think.)

I think they had a lot of female fans who thought they were hott in the '80s, actually.

Heheh, I totally recall that on the D&D album.

Ditto above... A sizable minority of REM's early (female and gay male) fans most definitely considered Stipe a sex symbol in the arty downcast boy-poet vein. (I saw em in '83 at Queens College)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_wRJVTVx3Bc

ten bucks sez i start buying old del fuegos and long ryders albums when i see them cheap at the store from now on. it had to happen.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mbquA796WJQ

i used to associate it with that stuff for some reason. i guess it's just college rock.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7itLeZg85Ac

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XysaT44Ez5U

anyone hear about that documentary on dexter that the people who did the athens movie are putting out? i guess it's kinda sad or something.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=82iQofVyRY8&mode=related&search=

of all those people in that list, I basically say none of them--lone justice always seemed sort of ok, and the rest all have a few good songs. but "long ryders" is a lame-ass name, plus isn't that sid griffin? interesting time for gram parsons worship back then, in its early stages. the very very first jason and (the nashville) scorchers records were all right, just as i probably can only listen to the very first, still somewhat evocative mysterioso lo-fi r.e.m ep. to me they were kind of unfocussed, thrashing, half-way good mix of, wow, "radical" idea!, "punk" and "country." a good time for gram parsons worship. i just never thought they were really all that good. if the new york dolls (saw this depressing doc last night about arthur kane's last daze) made the world safe for the new york dolls, the scorchers opened the door to stuff like br-549 15 years later.

as somebody, probably chuck, said above, the blasters were a lot better, and ditto the mekons on their best stuff. los lobos. old 97's did the jangle and the distance just fine on one or two albums. the gun club, as skott says above, i also liked ok, they were more like from the swamp and a lot of the people in the TS are drugstore cowboys--a good era for gram parsons and byrds worship, i love them myself, but these days i think maybe critics might be giving more props to gene clark, jackie deshannon, even lee hazlewood, and dillard and clark and for god's sake, when you're talking about country-rock/rock don't forget skip spence, as originators of post-byrds/parsons/punk/roots/americana thing that people used to think maybe was all gram? so that's an interesting list of bands to start the thread.

but the video... ay, caramba...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Eb_znrTEGpQ

unreal.

Anybody remember the Silos?

Silos' Cuba is fantastic. I still own three copies and would probably buy another copy if I happened upon it. Supposedly there's a mix of the s/t album that's very different. Wish Rupe had hung around...

rupe went on to play with gutterball, who i seem to have mentioned on this thread five years ago and who i don't think anyone else cares about.

i liked cuba a lot, though i haven't listened in years. also good: walter salas-humara's first solo album, lagartija, and quite a bit of stuff by the vulgar boatmen. the silos got decidedly spotty post-cuba. last i checked, they still very much existed.

Still play s/t and Cuba from time to time. They were great live back in the day. IIRC they did some rain sounds over the intro to Tennessee Fire that was all kinds of great.

Has anyone mentioned Danny and Dusty -- a one-off bar band with Steve Wynn, Dan Stuart, Chris Cacavas and bunch of fellow travelers? Their record, Lost Weekend, is a hoot.

Chuck Prophet's first couple of solo records are also worth considering -- his duets with Stephanie Finch have a nice Gram-Emmylou vibe.

The Silos Cuba is indeed great. But their best song came later, on the Susan Across The Ocean album. It's a cover of a song called Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around. If you haven't heard it, you're in for a treat.

http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Across-Ocean-Silos/dp/B000000FDI

cover of a song called Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around

by michael hall of the wild seeds, who almost certainly fit on this thread themselves.

His version is more ironic. The Silos turn it into an anthem

I was among the ~75 people who saw The Silos, Vulgar Boatmen and Michael Hall do that song at Metro in...'96? One of the better moments of my concert going. Great show!

The Vulgar Boatmen still put on a great show. There's a documentary on them about to come out, I believe.

Yes, it's called Drive Somewhere. It can be downloaded here.

I can't say enough good things about The Vulgar Boatmen. I never had the pleasure of seeing them live, but they are one of the few bands that does not have a bad song.

This is easily Jason & The Scorchers for me. Their new album has at least 4 cuts that'd go on their career anthology.

xpost

Living in Chicago, I've been fortunate enough to have seen the Vulgar Boatmen, geez, at least 15 times. Another standout was at Beat Kitchen in ~1992 when I first saw them do "Roadrunner". The place was going nuts! One of my favorite shows.

First time I saw them was at Marquette University, around the time of "You and Your Sister". The bill was, Vulgar Boatmen, Blake Babies and Die Kreuzen (?!). I've still got the flyer for that show somewhere...

Nice! Was Robert Ray playing with them too?

And...yes, the new Jason & The Scorchers record is excellent. I love Better Than This.

man Drivin & Cryin used to Rock the Dock in Jackson, MS on the reg. Blind Melon was really big, too IIRC (but maybe a year or two later? I think this might have even been before Bee girl fame). I think those might have been my first rock shows that weren't like 3-Dog Night and Steppenwolf doing the oldies circuit at the Mid-South fair with my parents a mere 200 yards away.

The Silos record with the bird on the cover is the first thing I can remember buying purely b/c I read a couple of great reviews of it (I believe in Spin and Rolling Stone), and I do remember liking that song "Picture of Helen" a lot. They had a brief moment where they had a ton of buzz if I remember right.

> Was Robert Ray playing with them too?

He may have been with them for the Silos/Michael Hall show, but that could be revisionist history. Does the Gainesville version of the band still play?

Thanks for that movie link, I'm looking forward to watching it. Always thought the Boatmen would make a good documentary subject.

All about Green on Red. Like Kevn Kinney solo more than Drivin' and Cryin'. Maria McKee both ways.

don't think i really need beat rodeo in my life.

really enjoyed that rank & file album a couple of weeks ago though. long gone dead still rules.

listening now to the eieio album from 1986. *land of opportunity*. so far i dig it more than beat rodeo. some decent guitar action on the first track.

plus, they've got guitars all over the place. over here. over there. everywhere. good solos. good country/southern twang. good riffs. sounds like they liked the byrds AND badfinger AND southern/country rock.

sounds good to me!

singing kinda sucks though. a commmon problem with a lot of the new wave cow bands.

and the production isn't total don dixon blah (he didn't produce it), but its still got that 80's living in a box feel. but not TOO bad or anything. (not the band living in a box. just that canned 80's thing.)

singing kinda sucks though. a commmon problem with a lot of the new wave cow bands.

Yes. Those singers all tried way too hard. It's as if every line of every song ends with three exclamation points.

fly me!!!
courageous!!!

drivin and cryin (the band name) used to crack me up in high school
who would admit to being in a band called DRIVIN AND CRYIN

I like how the Flesheaters guy simultaneously screamed and crooned every line. But they were at the punky end, much more like Gun Club. Someone gave me a Tail Gators cassette of Tore Up that I quite liked, but never felt the need to replace it when it got smooshed. They seemed to be at the bar-band end of the scene.

This summarizes everything that was problematic about the bands in the thread title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88cewhasU74

maybe i should blame mitch easter as well as don dixon for that uptight box sound but i love mitch and i would feel horrible saying anything bad about him. all these bands should have recorded their albums wherever the hell hardcore punk bands recorded their albums. they needed more ragged liveliness. a more live feel. but they all loved the byrds and stacked harmonies and shit which was usually their week spot to begin with. they shoulda just spent all their time on the guitars.

listened to some of an EP by a band called Lifeboat from 1985. not great. definite R.E.M./DBs thing going on with a dash of u.k. new wave a la echo and the bunnymen? or someone like that. boston band i think?

(so anyway they don't really belong here except for the jangle angle.)

jeezus i totally forgot about the bongos song numbers with wings! its like a fuckin' proust cookie! swear i haven't heard it since 1983 or 1984 and i know every second of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbzYn48qJxU

Boston had a mess of bands doing this, like the Del Fuegos, a little more east coast, less cowboy. Neighborhoods, Rubber Rodeo, Dogmatics, Scruffy the Cat, Blackjacks. They'd get a bit local commercial radio airplay and they had videos on the short lived Boston UHF music video channel, in a way that the hardcore bands, or even Mission of Burma never did. There was a bit of spillover. I think I saw Dogmatics and the Queers play an all-ages show together.

wow barbarella! by the bongos. total memory lane. i really need a copy of the remix now. always loved that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhstSCfMyoE

sorry i'm straying...

i get so much of that 80's boston indie stuff cuzza where i am.

everyone should have just had richard gottehrer do their records. he gave everything a little i want candy punch.

Scruffy The Cat got some MTV airplay for "My Baby" something something. I remember their distinguishing characteristic being a banjo player.

Were the Neats part of that same Boston scene?

yah, they were.

OK, I thought so. I saw them open for R.E.M. in 1985, and wasn't into it, but I heard a record or two which was a lot better.

neats were on ace of hearts. boston label.

the neats always make me think of the neighborhoods. same label. same kinda thing.

I used to like the Neats' first EP, Monkey's Head In The Corner Of The Room (that had "Do The Things" on it, right?); just noticed yesterday that I mentioned them in the first review I ever got paid to write, of Bad Religion's Into the Unknown.

Rob Sheffield write a pretty hilarious thing in Radio On once about all the "next Cars" bands out of Boston in the early '80s; not sure if the Neats made that list or not.

really enjoyed that rank & file album a couple of weeks ago though. long gone dead still rules.

I kind of hated this album when I bought it a couple years ago! Wrote why here:

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

Have had way more luck with the first two Jason & the Scorchers albums (well, the 12-inch EP Fervor and Lost And Found). Still on the fence about the Beat Farmers' Tales Of The New West, which I probably wouldn't have hung on to if it didn't at least have the courtesy to be really short. Totally swear by Danny & Dusty's Lost Weekend and the Long Ryders' State of Our Union, though.

"...Sheffield wrote..."

Think I got the Neats' first album, too, at the time (did that have "Six"? I'm not even sure how I remember these titles, haven't heard the records since the mid '80s), but I didn't like it as much. Maybe it was just too much of a neat thing.

I liked the Neats and saw them at the old 930 Club. I don't think of them alongside the 80s alt-country bands though. More pop but in a Hoboken way not a Cars new wave way.

Just realized that in a more questionable music period in my life, I saw at least three of the thread title bands open for U2 ...

Got the forthcoming Silos, but haven't made it that far in the promoyard. Apparently there's a film about the Vulgar Boatmen, according to Ann Powers' twitterfeed (she's in Tuscaloosa, but unscathed). A number of Mitch Easter's 80s productions (incl Murmur,I think) were done in his parents' attached garage, next to the Purina Dog Chow. But what was everybody else's excuse? Not that familiar with Green On Red, although some fun live stuff, and Chuck Prophet has that arguments over fun vs. "meaning" split the band. I'd say fun vs. "meaning" vs. actual meaning is a signif undertow in his solo albums, which can be slack and pretentious simultaneously (like he's trying to be Tom Petty trying to be Dylan)--but when he's on he's on. "She was unwanted in 17 states"! Go tell it, Mr Prophet. And if you can find Dreaming Waylon's Dream ,that's some kind of inspired country power pop. Good live set posted on NPR, too.

Oh, and I drove by the Easters' house, back in the day--the garage was more like a barely walled-in carport!

(In Winston-Salem, NC)

Chuck Prophet has *said* arguments etc

So, turns out the Neats were #19 on Sheffield's Next Cars list. (Defined as "the best New Wave haircut bands who emerged from Boston between 1978 and 1984": "All these bands had great fey local radio hits; none ever broke out except Til Tuesday....Some of them didn't even have keyboard players! But they all made their mark as the Next Cars.") As a public service (even though most were obviously not the sort of farmer bands this thread was originally created for) here is the list:

1. November Group
2. Sex Execs
3. Berlin Airlift
4. Private Lightning
5. 'Til Tuesday
6. Adventure Set
7. The Buddy System
8. Boys Life
9. The Atlantics
10. (Dissplin) Ad-X
11. Someone and the Somebodies
12. Native Tongue
13. The Models
14. Mission of Burma
15. Poland's Angry Workers
16. Nervous Eaters
17. The Outlets
18. The Fools
19. The Neats
20. The Rings
21. Chain Link Fence
22. Men & Volts
23. Human Sexual Response
24. The Stompers
25. Robert Ellis Orral
26. Jon Buther Axis
27. The New Models ("unless they're the same band as #13")
28. The Proletariat
29. The Rhythm Method
30. Wild Kingdom
31. Push Push
32. The Schemers
33. The Neighborhoods
34. The Blackjacks
35. The Lines
36. Lou Miami and the Cosmetix
37. Face to Face

----

I personally currently own albums by Native Tongue, Mission Of Burma (their debut EP and 45, on CD), the Fools (four by them I think!), and Human Sexual Response. In my distant past I wrote good things about Men & Volts and the Proletariat, so I must have liked them once too.

i LOVE this lou miami video. his records were cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw_u6InmNmU

love this song too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd6uUq4Tj0c

Wasn't "cowpunk" coined by a Boston reviewer? Local examples including, maybe, The Last Roundup, or something like that ( with Amy McMahon, later Amy Rigby)? And the Lazy Cowgirls--? Isn't Robert Ellis Orral now a Nashville songwriter, and hasn't he been covered by Lady Antebellum or somebody similar, and don't two of his sons now record as JEFF (caps in orig) The (Something or other)? I could look it up.

. November Group - i'm a fan
2. Sex Execs - can't remember
3. Berlin Airlift - album i have is pretty good
4. Private Lightning - dunno
5. 'Til Tuesday - fan
6. Adventure Set - um...
7. The Buddy System - um...
8. Boys Life - not a fan
9. The Atlantics - dig them. really like their album
10. (Dissplin) Ad-X - um...
11. Someone and the Somebodies - uh...
12. Native Tongue - pretty good
13. The Models - i'm a fan
14. Mission of Burma - like the hits
15. Poland's Angry Workers - uh...
16. Nervous Eaters - fan, but not of their one big studio album
17. The Outlets - uh...
18. The Fools - awesome
19. The Neats - okay
20. The Rings - dunno
21. Chain Link Fence - not my kinda thing
22. Men & Volts - no thanks
23. Human Sexual Response - love them
24. The Stompers - okay, not great
25. Robert Ellis Orral - some good tracks on his albums
26. Jon Buther Axis - cool
27. The New Models ("unless they're the same band as #13") - dug them a little
28. The Proletariat - punk rock
29. The Rhythm Method - not bad
30. Wild Kingdom - dunno...
31. Push Push - dunno...
32. The Schemers - um...
33. The Neighborhoods - okay
34. The Blackjacks - probably better live
35. The Lines - funny
36. Lou Miami and the Cosmetix - cool
37. Face to Face - couple songs i dig

-

xp Lazy Cowgirls weren't cowpunk from Boston, though! They were (girl-less) garage/hard rock/metal punk from L.A., kind of Stoogey or at least quasi-Stoogey.

And yeah, I think Robert Ellis Orral has written hit country stuff, though I'm not seeing his byline on either Antebellum CD. (Surprised to see they write almost all of their own stuff.). Apparently Orral also had a Top 40 duet with Carlene Carter in 1983, called "I Couldn't Say No."

There's lots of bands on that Next Cars list that I've never even heard of, or ever seen a record by.

I get the Sex-Execs mixed up with Exude, who did the Lauper parody "Boys Just Want To Have Sex." (No idea where they were from.)

Proletariat were (if my old reviews are to believed) sort of prog punk actually. Rush-core.
Men & Volts were theoretically Beefheartish, iirc. Or maybe Col. Bruce Hamptonish, at least.

that lou miami video is like if stiv bators and marc almond had a baby together and then that baby grew up and made a video.

Proletariat did my favorite fake-British accent US/HC song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9aErrvpE9s

This Christgau review inspired me to pay $1 for Native Tongue's LP, and it was worth every penny, though I'm still not sure they really sound that much like Wire:

Yowl [Modern Method, 1983]
What can it mean when all I'm sure of after playing an album a dozen times is that the band likes Wire a lot? But in the end I give them considerable credit for keeping their taut drone on my turntable long past the point when I've sent umpteen similar bands to the warehouse. Which reminds me that in today's permeable musical atmosphere it's conceivable they've never even heard Wire, just Wire's ideas. And actually, I'm also sure they feel "Hoodwinked," the lead cut that kept me coming back after six or seven spins. I bet I even know why they feel hoodwinked. But not because they helped me figure it out. Recommended to rabid formalists and rabid Pink Flag fans. B

i have soma holiday by the proletariat right over in the P section of my rock rack at the store here. i think i'll play it.

new man were another one that should have made rob's list. but maybe they were actually a western mass band. i think they were.

Man, if "cowpunk" was a term that was created in Boston, that totally explains how when I started a band in a different city in 1988, and told the guys "Let's make this a cowpunk punk" they were totally o_O.

Have had way more luck with the first two Jason & the Scorchers albums (well, the 12-inch EP Fervor and Lost And Found). Still on the fence about the Beat Farmers' Tales Of The New West, which I probably wouldn't have hung on to if it didn't at least have the courtesy to be really short. Totally swear by Danny & Dusty's Lost Weekend and the Long Ryders' State of Our Union, though.

Yeah, that early Jason & The Scorchers stuff, compiled on "Are You Ready For The Country - Essential Vol. 1", is frickin' fantastic. It pulls equally from punk and country and Jason's voice is really endearing. I'm with you on the Long Ryders as well, there's a great 2cd anthology that captures them in all their glory.

that proletariat album sure is cool. reminds me of wire and rudimentary peni at the same time. which is a recipe for success if you ask me.

From Green on Red, love Gas Food Lodging and a bootleg from Bochum, West Germany, with covers, conversation, and great playing. Love Prophet's The Hurting Business and a bunch of his other songs, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br8n2JBc67o

Favorite couple of any: "The Dairy Queen where it all went down/Is a halfway house called Homeward Bound."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3giNf6B-NIA

Really enjoying the Long Ryders anthology this afternoon. Anyone heard the live reunion show from 04?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhGJdMv0114

Fucking kickarse band

last night in santa ana: knitters, blasters, x, los lobos. a benefit for phil alvin, who looked great and sounded pretty damn great considering what he's been thru in the past year. emceed by the not-mentioned-anywhere-in-this-thread big sandy. three decades later, the blasters are still a damn good live band, and even better when dave alvin is roaming all over the stage playing lead guitar and, perhaps more important, marking his territory. the knitters were alright but they were trying a bit too hard to rock it up. i think they sound better when they don't rock. much as i love the only knitter who plays an electric instrument, i kept wanting him to turn it down. they were sloppy and endearing anyway. x were x, doing exactly what they've never really stopped doing, john and exene hamming it up and billy zoom standing way off stage right smiling as if trying a little too hard to hide his apparent disdain for the rest of the band. in front of them, the oldiest, motliest mosh pit i have ever seen. los lobos -- the grateful dead of this scene - were short two members, david hidalgo and conrad lozano, but had lotsa guests on accordion, harmonica, guitar and whatnot, and though they devolved into a bit of a random bar-band jam session by the end, their spirit was very much intact and i was very glad for their presence.

all that was missing was dwight yoakam.

Great to know; hope it turns up on YouTube, like so much of this stuff does from time to time. Doe's Keeper is the best of his solo albums I've heard: two marriages, three daughters, four continuing musical partnerships with women (well, two of 'em are Exene, in the contexts of X and the Knitters), times an unexpectedly happy life-love partnership (at least ca. 2011) have really taught him stuff.

Tex & The Horesheads!!!

So, I found a dollar copy of Life's So Cool from 1985. Really wanted to like it, too -- to the extent that I'll probably hang onto it even though it's probably not good enough to hang on to. If this album is any indication, they had total dearth of memorable tunes, Texicala Jones was a dud of a singer, and their music either didn't kick very hard or they needed a more hands-on producer than John Doe to bring the kick (and/or tunes) out. Curious if the earlier stuff is better (or if they had just used up all their decent material by the time this album came out); probably would still investigate if I saw their 1984 debut in a dollar bin, but my hopes are definitely not what they used to be.

hope it turns up on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Mbm7nQ5Qo

thanks!

chuck, are you a flesheaters fan? speaking of bands you try and like cuz people like them so much but you can't really get down with them. in my case anyway. i think it was the voice more than anything else. (been years since i actually heard them though. maybe i'd dig it more now? tried when i was a teen...)

The Flesh Eaters song you've got to hear is "Tightrope on Fire." I haven't heard it in years and don't know how to describe it but...

It's kind of like - it goes as far as early Springsteen goes. Except it's punk rock. It takes punk rock and it goes as far as early Springsteen goes.

Here it is. Just totally screamin' and great songwriting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZ58gIx7k4

Just found this guy who's more recent, but kind of belongs here I think. Even beyond a pretty solid Bowie cover (!) the stuff I've checked on Spotify so far is pretty intriguing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN4_jssER78

I kinda feel like the Lazy Cowgirls belong in this thread - they started out straightforward punk rock, but got more and more roots-rock as they went on - had acoustic guitars on their last album, I'm Goin' Out and Get Hurt Tonight. And main man Pat Todd was one of the great working class lyricists of L.A. rock.

I forget which thread had all the Lone Justice talk in terms of them being a great/overblown 'real music' hope circa 1986 and all (and how ridiculous it looks now). Anyway this story about an archival release from 1983 digs enjoyably deep, and a second part to come:

http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/our-country/lone-justice-album-fresh-cowpunk-30-years-later-103815697.html

A fair amount of gilding lilies in terms of memories, I suspect, but hey (I kinda like McKee's attitude versus everyone else's -- especially Hedgecock saying that country is the "indigenous" music of Los Angeles, which, like, think about it, dude).

The voice McKee did have was that of a young Dolly Parton, reincarnated while she still walked the earth and transmuted into the slender body of an 18-year-old Beverly Hills girl. Parton herself came down to one of the group’s earliest club shows and offered her seal of approval — something she repeated 30 years later when she contributed an endorsement for the new album’s liner notes, calling McKee “the greatest girl singer any band could ever have.” Of the night Dolly came down, McKee says, “I remember it was on the evening news when it happened. That’s how unusual it was. And there was nobody there, but she was there, in the front, yelling and screaming at me!”

Here it is; Past Critics' Darlings Re-evaluated as Duds?

Yeah, love that Parton story. And thanks for finding that!

Thanks for all these updates! Don't think I've prev. linked my 2001 cosmic cowgirl round-up, wich talks about McKee's Hollywood background, incl. big bro Bryan MacLean's influence: his own music for Love and after, also he got her into Broadway albums---think those who expected a New Traditionalist/alt-country Joan of Arc had no idea: http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-05-01/music/alias-in-wonderland/

Overdid the McCaslin though. The Mckee song "Panic Beach" I describe in there got the Dixie Chicks foresisters so excited about young unknown Natalie Maines, when Daddy Lloyd played them her audition tape.

We should mention (a) McKee scored a #1 hit in England with "Show Me Heaven" and (b) I hear McKee in Neko Case, and not to McKee's credit.

re(b): how so?

Neko Case also a big-voiced artist whose marketing has little bearing on what she is: Lone Justice-style slick rock.

Belters both. Neko could do "Wheels."

Meanwhile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrLph5vW7BU

Belters both, yeah, and pop elements, but their broody, restless, sometimes woolgathering lyrics tend go against the grain of "slick-rock" per se---increasingly so on the post-LJ albums I've heard (which, in the piece, have me thinking of Ziggy Bowie) def on several Case albums, incl The Virginian, Furnace Room Lullabym and The Worse Things Get.

Thanks for the Green On Red.

Thread revival reminded me a piece I wrote a few years ago on the positioning and marketing of these mid eighties bands.

I saw Lone Justice twice, both times opening for U2. The first time, in early 1985, they were booed before they even started playing. Even a raging cover of "Fortunate Son" didn't lessen the boos.

The second time was in 1987, around the time "Shelter" was a near-hit. They just got polite applause.

I thought their first record was OK, but McKee's Life Is Sweet towers over everything else they/she did (with the possible exception of "Non-Religious Building" on High Dive, easily the most effective and/or hilarious Who pastiche of the last 25 years).

Robbie Robertson didn't do poor Maria any favors in the last minute of this video. It's a tough watch...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4KP9PNSUME4

Yeah, on Rolling Reissue, Tarfumes and I were talking about the hazards of opening for young U2 and their multiplying multitudes (Pylon's Randy Bewlay: "It was like touring with Jesus Christ").

The weird thing is, supposedly the Red Rockers -- who opened for them the night before -- were warmly received. wrt Lone Justice, I suspect the Chicago crowd thought this "country music" was strictly cornballsville, hence the booing.

But why did they give Pylon so much trouble, at several shows? Zealous converts to B.O.N.O., mebbe.

Pretty sure even REM got a rough time on a U2 led bill in 1985

well, yeah. The hair!

That doesn't sound right? R.E.M. sort of swore off opening for big bands after they toured with the Police around '83.

Pretty sure R.E.M. opened for U2 in Europe in '85, though.

And now that I remember it, I saw the BoDeans open for U2 in 1987 also. They weren't booed. They should have been.

I saw Lone Justice open for U2 on the Joshua Tree tour in East Rutherford. They seemed good but the sound was godawful.

Next time I saw them, the Pixies opened, a few months before they broke up. Last time it was Interpol, who are not a daytime stadium show band.

This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes 1983--blasting their club set in a good li'l studio. No stereo-typical 80s glitz; like the booklet says, "quick and dirty," never blurry, though a few of the originals could use more well-thought-out trad lifts/folk process, a la "Soap Soup And Salvation," which makes well-timed use of "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder" without getting mawkish; good speedy, confident cover of "Jackson" too. "This Is World Is Not My Home" goes from Carter Family/Woody G. rumination to poignant-with-a-beat "Soap"-style convocation to whooo, ready to meet them angels with sum white line fever (this would be the punkabilly or cowpunk, I take it).

Oh yeah, and Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy turns out to be surprisingly lively-- not because of Phil's health probs, but mine: I was bored dead by a box of BBB several years ago. Phil's in fine voice, Dave sings okay, and of course plays his ass off, but only to enhance the material, as well he might. Gene Taylor tickles the ivories, and---although guests like LJ's Don Heffington also keep the rhythm section reet---can't help wishing they'd gotten Bazz and Bateman (who have often been live Blasters with Phil) back in there. But making it a full-fledged Blasters album---suggested title: Broonzy--- might bring back a lot of bad blood, which even seemed like it might bubble up in a couple moments of P&D's recent and v. brotherly Fresh Air interview. Common Ground AKA Truce, eh? I'll take it.

Lone Justice or Cruzados or Drivin' & Cryin' or Green On Red or Del Fuegos or Jason & The Scorchers or Long Ryders or Bodeans?

Alex, What is Mitchell Froom?

I love this thread. Probably the best of the lot is the first Maria McKee (Can't Pull The Wool Down, Drinkin' In My Sunday Dress), and the Essential Vol. 1 Jason mentioned upthread, though I'll admit to a fondness for the Del Fu-e-gos Slash debut. Just recently decided Gas, Food, Lodging is vastly overrated, and a get re-acquainted with Drivin'n'Cryin didn't turn out so well either.

I'm most likely to listen to those weird Latin Playboys records these days anyway.

Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy

i've seen phil and dave play this stuff live twice this year. full-band electric set at sxsw was loose and fun if not great. mostly what i remember, from my perch pretty close to the stage, was that phil looked 90 years old but sounded 30 years old. that voice of his is protected by the good lord. in los angeles a couple weeks ago, at one of gary calamar's mimosa music brunches in north hollywood, they played acoustic, just the two of them, and it was fantastic. i'm pretty sure it was the first time i've ever seen dave play an acoustic live (mostly a national steel) -- he's good at it, needless to say -- and certainly the first time i've seen either of them before noon. dave sang more than i expected (and more than i probably would've liked) but the years have been kind to his voice, too. there's more voice there than there used to be. the songs worked great in that setting. also, not surprisingly, the alvins have no idea what mimosas are.

Yes...Latin Playboys records are great. Mustard from the 2nd album could be a hit.

also, not surprisingly, the alvins have no idea what mimosas are.

I kinda love this detail.

Two Green on Red items:

http://blurtonline.com/feature/college-rock-chronicles-pt-4-green-red/

“I was in a band that got thrown on the bill with these ‘Paisley dudes,’” recalls Prophet, of his initial encounter with the band. “My first impression was they looked like guys who should be operating the rides at a carnival. They played and it blew my mind! It was chaotic as hell, but really entertaining and musical, and the songs were there.”

Also, have had this as a bootleg on vinyl since high school, just found the video recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixKJq3F4lXo

Dan Stuart was only in his mid 20s during the GOE mid 80s peak?

He seems a lot older

Actually a lot of these people seem older than the Husker Du/Replacements/Minutemen crowd, even if they really werent at all.

GOR = Green on Red

Word from Chuck P.:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
CUT ALONG DOTTED LINE

Hello Trolls, haters, lovers and players,

It’s a party and we’ll cry if we want to. As you have no doubt heard by now Yep Roc will be releasing our new LP, Night Surfer, on CD, cassette and (yes, yes, yes… vinyl too!). RELEASE DATE: September 23rd, 2014.

To celebrate, we’re throwing a private little get-together happy hour party in San Francisco for the insiders who subscribe to this newsletter.

Here’s the deal: The first 50 people to sign up will be our guests at a secret location in San Francisco. Free drinks on us, people! We’ll also have some guitars and drums on hand so who knows? We might even be nudged into playing some music. Hope you can be there when the deal goes down. Next Wednesday Sept. 24th 5-7 PM. Here’s the sign up link: http://tinyurl.com/mkyhjwb

Until then, you can stream our new "jamming, occasionally neurotic" album at Esquire Magazine: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/chuck-prophet-night-surfer

And in other news: For those of you spread out around the globe, John Murry and I will be on Radio Valencia live. Spinning tales and LP’s and taking calls too. You can call the studio line and listen along to the uncomfortable silence of dead air as the DJ tries to figure out how to get you on air. HERE: 415-962-7979

Seriously, John Murry and I will be opening the lines to our souls on the show. Literally. You can just pick up the phone and call. We’ll be there for you. Whatever is wrong in your life, we will attempt to fix. We will also make fun of you if you call and are utterly disinteresting. There's no greater sin than being a tacky bore. It ruins every dinner party. Look, we just wanna talk, dig? We come in peace. Call us for assistance or spiritual guidance or to attack us or try to win an argument (or start one between us). Or just to tell an entertaining story. Goddammit, talk to us! On the air! Okay? Here are the deets: Sunday night, sept 21. Show is from 10 til midnight. Special thanks to our host Jim Granato for inviting us down to the new Radio Valencia Studio in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District. It’s gonna be good: http://radiovalencia.fm/waxcracklepop/

In other news our Newcastle show is still very much on. Note the cluster-lunch of gigs below. It’s our little attempt to re-create a Black Flag van tour circa 1983. How are we doing so far?

Always,

-CP

Oops sorry, here's the gigs of which Prophet speaks:

http://chuckprophet.com/gigs/

I forgot that I used to have a Maria McKee solo record. maybe even two of them? I think they were good.

You Gotta Sin to Get Saved is really really good.

seconded

From Nashville, not LA, but def adding to the tiny, out-behind-the-barn cowpunk pantheon: Jason & The Scorchers roll through Irving Plaza, live for local radio and recording for King Biscuit Flour or Flower Hour's syndicated source of so much liberated goodness. '84, "we just signed with EMI-American," fresh 'n' fuzztone-branded, slamming back and forth in the cattle car, with every song I can recall, except "Both Sides of the Line." Not too fast or slow, only 41'21 seconds, though intense enough that I had to take a short break halfway through, which is rare. Only prob: Jason's vocals are so wholesome, he sometimes makes zingers and sexual sour grapes come across like light breakfast materials, but doesn't misplace the caffeine, and certainly nails the stood-up "how could this happen to Meeee?!" of Kid D.'s "Absolutey Sweet Marie."
http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1975

I'm really enjoying this Scorchers show ... I can't believe I remember all those goofy lyrics. Seeing them in 1982 was a life lesson. This is a much more faithful representation of their strengths than any of the studio recordings.

Dan Stuart's testimony, reviewed on Amazon by Chuck Prophet (and others):

http://www.amazon.com/Deliverance-Marlowe-Billings-Memoir-Stuart/dp/0957171722/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421286640&sr=8-2&keywords=dan+stuart

Green on Red, Raleigh '85:
Same source as the Jason & Scorchers set posted above, though not as consistent: they're having occasional mic problems, as they eventually mention, though it's most noticeable early on, although the playing is pretty straight-ahead. Only prob: almost an hour of mostly mid-tempo, and Stonesiness can slip into Pettyness, though I realize most people wouldn't mention TP in a negative sense. Vibier levels do open wider in "Down By The River" and "Sea of Cortez," back to back in the middle; ditto the locomotive finale, "Fading Away." Also good "Hair of the Dog" and others. Works better when the keyboards get more room, but some quite pertinent pickin' too. H'mmm, wonder what GOR Spotify might have? Oh yeah, the link!
http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2202

Speaking of the Scorchers, Warren Hodges is playing lead (for sure) with Drivin N Cryin om MusicCityRoots.com's livestream right now, also audio-only (cool on headphones) at http://www.hippieradio945.com/ Click on Listen live (or check podcast on musiccityroots. com tomorrow or soon)

MusicCityRoots.com's *livestream,* I meant to say

Livestream, dammit!

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150420/d1/7b/1d/a7/4b3c76837d2a808b5f172bf0_280x280.jpg

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150420/32/f5/7e/92/27743e1e9f936cd97e11061a_280x280.jpg

THE TEXTONES’ FIRST TWO ALBUMS
— MIDNIGHT MISSION AND CEDAR CREEK —
TO BE REISSUED IN EXPANDED EDITIONS
BY OMNIVORE RECORDINGS ON MAY 26
Carla Olson’s ’80s band combined punk, power pop and Texas roots.
Albums feature guest appearances by Gene Clark, Ry Cooder,
Ian McLagan, and Howie Epstein,
plus co-write with former Textones member Kathy Valentine.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Taking the early ’80s L.A. club scene by storm, the Textones were respected by those in the know for both their song craft and musicianship, as well as for their groundbreaking hybrid of new wave and what would one day become known as Americana. On May 26, 2015, Omnivore Recordings will reissue expanded editions of the band’s first two albums, Midnight Mission and Cedar Creek.
The Textones released an EP in the U.K. and a single in the U.S. But it was after singer/guitarist Carla Olson brought in guitarist George Callins, multi-instrumentalist Tom Junior Morgan, bassist Joe Read, and former Dwight Twilley Band member Phil Seymour on drums to the lineup that the magic truly happened.
Signing to Danny Goldberg’s Gold Mountain label, the Textones’ debut album, Midnight Mission, encompassed everything they’d done, and took it a step further. Produced by Barry Goldberg and Brad Gilderman, and featuring contributions from Gene Clark, Ry Cooder, and Don Henley, Midnight Mission was a mix of rock, blues, and country that captured the band’s live energy. After Olson appeared in Bob Dylan’s “Sweeheart Like You” video, he offered up an unreleased song, “Clean Cut Kid,” which blended perfectly with the band’s originals.
This reissue features five bonus tracks — three songs recorded for the film Sylvester, as well as a two previously unissued live cuts from their performance on Rock of the 80’s, recorded in 1984 at the Palace in Hollywood.
Robert Hilburn wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “ Olson, a lanky singer and songwriter moves about the stage with the sensual confidence of Tom Petty ... Midnight Mission is a refreshing blend of American rock purity and clear eyes commentary ...”
Echoed Mikal Gilmore in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner: “ A roaring and thoughtful delight. Workingman populism and Rolling Stones-style rave-ups ... Like Bruce Springsteen, Olson took an unsparing look at the dissolution of the American Dream and newly resolved. Listening to her, so did I.”

It would be three years before the Textones followed up their acclaimed debut, Midnight Mission. But, it was well worth the wait.
Cedar Creek appeared in 1987 on a new label, Enigma Records, and Carla Olson, George Callins, Joe Read, and Tom Junior Morgan were joined by new drummer Rick Hemmert.
Produced this time by Michael Stone and the band, Cedar Creek features nine originals, including a co-write with original Textone (and Go-Go’s member) Kathy Valentine, who left the group in 1981 to find fame with the Go-Go’s. And, much like its predecessor, legendary contributors like future Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famers Ian McLagan and Howie Epstein make appearances.
John Fogerty said of the song “No Love in You” (three versions of which are included amongst the two reissues): “ Not only is ‘No Love in You’ my favorite song of 1984 but I always look forward to driving somewhere so I can listen to it four or five times.”
In addition to the original album the oft-bootlegged 1987 performance from the Catalyst in Santa Cruz gets an official release. The blistering eight-track set features songs from both of the band’s albums. According to Olson in the new liner notes, “I don’t wag my tail much about this, but the Catalyst show is one of the best examples of how well I can sing when it all works. It’s some of the best singing I’ve ever done.”
Olson is excited to have this music out there once again: “ As the sticker on the original release of Cedar Creek announced, ‘Rock With Roots, the great Rolling Stones album the Stones never recorded.’ That kind of high praise was unexpected, especially in light of the similar response Midnight Mission received and its middling commercial success. It further stated, ‘Take a pinch of Austin, Texas, a dash of L.A., mix in commanding vocals and crackling guitars and you've got the perfect recipe for a classic album.’ We were ahead of our time or just didn’t get the breaks needed? An artist never knows. What I do know is that when the Textones played together we created a musical fabric never far from our many influences and diverse backgrounds and that the connection we felt between us was one of the joy of entertaining and the hopefulness of our music. We are glad the music is being made available again especially with the live set that we've added to Cedar Creek. We were one hell of a rock ’n’ roll band.”
Midnight Mission track listing:
1. Standing in the Line
2. Hands of the Working Man
3. No Love in You
4. Running
5. Number One Is to Survive
6. Midnight Mission
7. Upset Me
8. Luck Don’t Last Forever
9. Clean Cut Kid
10. See the Light
Bonus Tracks
11. It’s Okay
12. Just a Matter of Time
13. Number One Is to Survive (Alternate Version)
14. Running(Live)
15. No Love in You (Live)
Cedar Creek track listing:
1. Not Afraid
2. Every Angel in Heaven
3. Another Soul Searcher
4. One Love
5. Austin
6. Gotta Get Back Home
7. You Can Run
8. Cedar Creek
9. We Can Laugh About It
Bonus Live Set Recored at the Catalyst, Santa Cruz, Ca, 11/20/1987:
10. Gotta Get Back Home
11. Not Afraid
12. No Love in You
13. You Can Run
14. Austin
15. Upset Me
16. Every Angel in Heaven
17. Standing in the Line

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150420/0d/bd/74/0f/fd07dcdd78f4f241c6169dd1_280x234.jpg

Not quite the right thread, but what is? (Can't put everything on Rolling Reissues.)

It fits here, but I bet most ILMers know of Carla Olson from her duet album with Gene Clark.

In other news, it turns out The Reivers, a rootsy 80s band that fits this thread to a T, has gotten back together and released a new record a year or two back.

Still haven't checked out The Reivers, must do that.
Meanwhile:

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150429/5d/40/77/88/6c0765cb3a48497ac107d5f2_280x280.jpg

THE DREAM SYNDICATE’S ICONIC DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
BACK IN PRINT WITH UNHEARD BONUS TRACKS FROM REHEARSAL
COMING JUNE 16 ON OMNIVORE RECORDINGS
Remastered expanded reissue contains liner notes from band’s peers —
members of Rain Parade, Long Ryders, Green on Red,
Divine Weeks, and Sonic Youth

The Dream Syndicate
http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150429/6d/51/17/ee/9552ea119b006f8fa8f917d6_280x261.jpg
(photo by Edward Colver)

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Dream Syndicate’s debut album, The Days of Wine and Roses, has long been considered the cornerstone album of L.A.’s early ’80s Paisley Underground scene, from which the band emerged. However, it was more influential than that: along with R.E.M.’s Murmur and the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime, the release is often considered one of the cornerstone albums of ’80s indie-rock. In a way it is the missing link between the ’60s-influenced R.E.M. and the post-punk Minutemen. Later period bands such as the Pixies and Nirvana were formed out of the sonic ashes that the original Syndicate lineup left behind.
The original lineup of Steve Wynn, Karl Precoda, Kendra Smith, and Dennis Duck took seminal ’60s rock — most obviously the Velvet Underground along with Buffalo Springfield and the Rolling Stones — and filtered it through the more modern sounds of the Fall and L.A. punk bands Flesh Eaters, Gun Club, et al. In fact, it was flesh eating front man Chris D. who produced The Days of Wine and Roses and got it released on Slash Records, one of the premier L.A. labels of the punk rock era.
Strangely, despite its seminal status, The Days of Wine and Roses has been out of print for the better part of a decade or so. With the rebirth of the band as a live/touring unit over the past two years, Omnivore Recordings has seen fit to remaster this gem, releasing it June 16, 2015.
Calling on the band’s long time archivist Pat Thomas (previously producer of reissues of four other titles from the Dream Syndicate), the previous “bonus tracks” from the 2001 Rhino CD have been replaced with a slew of never-before-heard songs and/or recordings that capture the first year of the classic lineup of Wynn/Precoda/Smith/Duck in all their low-fi glory. These are rehearsal tapes that capture a pair of songs that later turned up on the Medicine Show. Longtime fans have often wondered what it would have sounded like had Kendra Smith stayed in the band for its second full-length album. Now the band’s followers will know: these versions don’t possess the ’70s FM rock sound that Medicine Show had. Instead, they sound like Television’s Marque Moon LP. The four other bonus tracks included in this new version are four original, vintage Dream Syndicate songs that nobody outside the band has ever heard, including a nearly 10-minute Kraut-rock-inspired jam!
The booklet has been revamped as well with new notes that describe the source of the vintage recordings along with fresh testimonies from their peers — members of the Rain Parade, the Long Ryders, Green on Red, Divine Weeks, and Sonic Youth — as well as former Rhino VP of A&R Gary Stewart, and music journalists Chris Morris and Byron Coley.

This is a reissue that is essential for both long time fans who’ve already collected it all before —and the new kids on the block who will soon discover the soundtrack of ’80s college radio for the first time.
According to annotator Byron Coley: “The record still sounds fresh to me. They really captured the sound of a universe expanding. And that is no common thing.”
Track Listing:
Tell Me When It’s Over
Definitely Clean
That’s What You Always Say
Then She Remembers
Halloween 

When You Smile 

Until Lately 

Too Little, Too Late* 

The Days Of Wine And Roses 

Previously Unissued 
Bonus Rehearsal Recordings: 

Is It Rolling, Bob?

A Reason

Still Holding On To You
Armed With An Empty Gun
Like Mary

Outside The Dream Syndicate

Oops, left out the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTx6MFk9Pak&feature=youtu.be

first listening to that reissue: never have bought Wynn as front man for the most part: seems most effective when he sets up an okay ominous verbal intro, then steps aside for Precoda's swarms (and his own rhythm guitar gouges pretty good too). Sure wish Kendra Smith got to sing more than one song. The rehearsal tapes sound good, esp. since Wynn's voice is off to the side, and my fave of them is the strictly instrumental "Outside The Dream Syndicate," 10:43 and already well under way along when track starts.

"along"? sorry

Long Ryders, Stache's, Columbus OH, 4-2-84:
Good sound, though kinda monotonous at first, but they crank up the jangly cowpunk in the second half, starting with "Final Wild Son," about "a friend of ours who's in trouble," a guy from Memphis, who isn't worried about dead legends cos he's livin' his, and the devil won't take his soul; he'll smoke it up before he goes. They close with "The Rains Came" "(adding lyrics:"Augie Meyer is our friend" and "Haven't seen Doug Sahm since he left this town"), "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White," "You're Gonna Miss Me," and "Jumping In The Night." Not a medley.
http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2271 There's an '85 Stanford show on here too; I haven't listened yet.

x-post--Loved that first Dream Syndicate album when it first came out

Initially, I like about half of this---16 tracks---but those are strong, and others may grow on me. Wasn't expecting such intense, on point instrumentalism: truly electric fedora.

CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS’ TWO-CD COMPILATION
DRIFTED: IN THE BEGINNING & BEYOND
COMING ON OMNIVORE RECORDINGS ON JULY 17
The group, known for dual citizenship in L.A. and New Orleans,
featured Vicki Peterson (Bangles), Susan Cowsill (The Cowsills),
Peter Holsapple (The dB’s) and others.
Continental Drifters (photo by Greg Allen)
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Born in Los Angeles in the early 1990s via a residency of jam sessions at a Hollywood dive club called in Raji’s, then relocating to New Orleans, the Continental Drifters lasted about a decade, ending when Hurricane Katrina demolished their homes and the band members scattered.
Key members included Vicki Peterson (Bangles), Susan Cowsill (The Cowsills), Peter Holsapple (The dB’s, R.E.M.), and many others — including the only member who has been with them from the beginning, Mark Walton (Giant Sand, The Dream Syndicate). However, there were also several singer/songwriters (Carlo Nuccio, Gary Eaton, Ray Ganucheau) who shine as brightly as their slightly more famous bandmates. That’s the magic that we’ve captured on Disc One of this set with the band’s earliest recordings — many previously unissued, others that only appeared briefly on a German-only album.
On July 17, 2015, Omnivore Recordings will issue the 2-CD Continental Drifters compilation Drifted: In The Beginning & Beyond.
The best possible comparison is that the Continental Drifters had a similar vibe to the classic roots combo Delaney & Bonnie & Friends — more of a “collective” than a band — in which there were several distinctly original lead singers, blistering sidemen instrumentalists and an inspiring blend of both original and seminal cover songs with a Southern-fried, blue-eyed soul approach that couldn’t be beat.
Disc Two, an incredible treat for the band’s hardcore fans as well as fans of classic roots music in general, was culled from live sets, tribute albums (Gram Parsons, The Hollies) and the rare 2001 European only EP Listen, Listen, their valentine to Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, as well as other unheard treasures.
According to Peter Holsapple, “I believe that this was a band who were the very illustration of a shattering live experience, the embodiment of a force majeure, a family-style drinking society of impavid proportions, and purveyors of some of sweetest harmony songs of its decade. Having Omnivore work its magic on a Drifters’ record is a testimony to the sonic worth of that record; I'm really happy that fans will be able to experience the music in this way, after all this time. Sounded great then, sounds great now!”
Susan Cowsill comments, “I love that we are an old enough band that people consider things we’ve done in the even further past as some kind of importance. We didn’t see that coming way back in the early days! How cool is it to be 2015 and have a Continental Drifters release. I've often thought that our band is, was and always will be timeless. Glad others think so too! Can’t wait for the release, wonder if I can get the band to autograph it?”
Vicki Peterson adds, “Playing in the Continental Drifters rescued my musical soul. This collection captures the early moments when I first fell in mad love with the band.”
Drifted: In The Beginning & Beyond (re)-introduces the Continental Drifters, explores their influence and magnitude, and fills in the gaps of their expansive career. Informative notes from Scott Schinder help tell the story with interviews from band members. It is a trip well worth taking.

DISC ONE:

1.Who We Are, Where We Live 
(Early Version)* 


2.Side Steppin’ the Fire 


3.The Mississippi

4.Match Made in Heaven

5.Karen A (Demo)* 


6.The Rain Song (Early Version)* 


7.Dallas (Alternate Mix)* 


8.Here I Am 


9.Mr. Everything (Alternate Mix)* 


10. No One Cares 


11. Green (Demo)* 


12. I Didn’t Want to Lie 


13. Invisible Boyfriend 


14. New York (Demo)* 


15. Let It Ride

DISC TWO:

1. You Don’t Miss Your Water (Live)*

2. Crescent City (Live)*


3. A Song for You


4. Tighter, Tighter (Demo)*

5. I Can’t Let Go


6. Some of Shelley’s Blues (Campfire Mix)*

7. When You Dance I Can Really Love

8. Turn Back the Hands of Time (Live)*


9. Farmer’s Daughter (Live)*

10. Dedicated to the One I Love (Live)*

11. At the End of the Day (Live)*

12. Listen, Listen


13. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

14. The Poor Ditching Boy

15. You’re Gonna Need Somebody

16. I’m a Dreamer


17. Matty Groves


18. Meet on the Ledge (Studio Version)

* previously unissued

oh yeah, and the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7PahihOaXg&feature=youtu.be

that was an amazing live band. how is the demo of Tighter, Tighter?

Like the other demos here, sounds fine, performance and recording-wise, but the chorus keeps heading toward "Piece of My Heart" distractingly derivative, like some other tracks. Although I prob wouldn't mind it in the middle of a show---some of these live covers are amazing, especially "When You Dance" (damn, if you're gonna do an electric Neil Young song, that's how to do it, son!)

Oh yeah, did we mention this vinyl collection, out in March on Plowboy Records? Personally selected by the band, or at least Kevin Kinney. And these guys are in the thread title, after all.

http://plowboyreco✧✧✧.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/drivin-n-cryin-best-of-songs-510x✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧

Oh, sorry for trying to show the cover with all the songs listed, just because you put in on the site and in the press release, Plowboy! The nerve of me! Let's try this big ol' batch of words (actual release was this month)

ROCK LEGENDS DRIVIN’ N’ CRYIN’ DELIVER VINYL-ONLY LP DRAWN FROM INNOVATIVE EP SERIES

plowboy Records to release vinyl collection on May 12. ATLANTA, GA. — “We do what we do because we’re still just kids in the treehouse having fun,” Kevn Kinney says of Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, the band that he’s led through 30 years of ups and downs and more than a dozen albums’ worth of transcendent rock ’n’ roll. “I’m a Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ fan, and I make these records to give myself something to listen to, in the same way that people who make moonshine make it because they like to drink it.”

Over the past three decades, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ has maintained an unpredictable yet reliably iconoclastic musical course, while commanding the loyalty of a fiercely devoted fan base that continues to pack the band’s live shows, particularly in and around the group’s home base of Atlanta.

The audacious combination of blazing, infectious rock ’n’ roll and thoughtful introspection that’s always characterized Drivin’ N’ Cryin’s recorded output is prominent throughout the band’s new vinyl release, Best of Songs. The ten-song LP, housed in a sleeve whose cover art replicates the vibe of a well-worn ’70s-vintage K-tel greatest-hits album, collects the cream of the quartet of indie EPs — Songs From the Laundromat; Songs About Cars, Space and the Ramones; Songs From the Psychedelic Time Clock; and Songs for the Turntable — that the band released between June 2012 and January 2014. Street date for the collection is May 12, 2015.

Recorded in various studios in Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville, the EP series allowed the band — singer-guitarist Kinney plus co-founding bassist Tim Nielsen, guitarist Sadler Vaden and drummer Dave V. Johnson — to release a large amount of music in a relatively short period of time, avoiding much of the stresses that often accompany album-making.

“I just don’t have the patience anymore to spend two years making an album,” Kinney asserts. “The last Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ album, (Whatever Happened To) The Great American ubble Factory, was kind of an autobiographical thesis/rock opera about working-class America that took a couple of years to write. When we were done with that, I decided that it would be more fun to do a series of five- or six-song EPs that we could offer every five or six months, like a magazine subscription.

“Another reason I wanted to do a series of EPs,” he continues, “was that I wanted to deconstruct Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, and try to explain who we are and where we came from. So Songs From the Laundromat was kind of looking back to our early days on the Southern kudzu circuit. Songs About Cars, Space and the Ramones was based on our early roots in punk. Songs From the Psychedelic Time Clock was our tribute to our psychedelic roots. And Songs for the Turntable is who we are today, and what happens when you put all those influences together. No major label would have let me do that.”

The impetus to compile highlights from the EPs into album form arrived when old friend Cheetah Chrome—a punk icon for his seminal work with the Dead Boys and Rocket from the Tombs, and currently creative and A&R director of rising Nashville indie Plowboy Records—approached Kinney about recording for the label.

“Cheetah asked me if I wanted to make a Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ album,” Kinney recalls, “and I said that I didn’t think I had it in me to make another album at that moment. But I’d always wanted to make a greatest-hits album from the EPs. I had originally hoped that people would make their own albums out of their favorite songs on the EPs, and this is my version of that.”

Despite the material’s unconventional birth cycle, est of Songs makes for a remarkably cohesive listen, from the riffy, raucous rock of “Dirty,” “Hot Wheels” and “Space Eyes” to the thoughtful introspection of “Strangers,” “Turn” and “Roll Away the Song.” Elsewhere, Kinney’s knack for exploring his own deep and abiding relationship with rock ’n’ roll drives “R.E.M.” and “The Little Record Store Just Around the Corner,” which vividly capture youthful fandom’s sense of discovery and inspiration.

“I had so much fun doing every one of these songs,” Kinney states. “When you’ve got the pressure of making an album, it can start to feel like work, but we cut these songs fast and kept it fun. And on just about every album, you wind up with an albatross, that one song that doesn’t work or doesn’t fit or is just a throwaway, but we didn’t have that on the EPs.”

The combination of punchy electric rock ’n’ roll and gentler roots-pop has been a consistent thread in Drivin’ N’ Cryin’s recorded output since the band released its debut LP Scarred ut Smarter on the independent 688 label in 1986. Since then, the band — named in honor of Kinney’s penchant for mixing upbeat rockers (i.e. drivin’ songs) and bittersweet ballads (cryin’ songs) — has recorded albums for labels large and small, gaining national attention for such breakout tunes as the country-inflected “Straight to Hell” (from 1989’s Mystery Road) and the surging electric anthem “ ly Me Courageous” (the title track of the band’s 1991 album), while retaining the devotion of their longtime loyalists. Meanwhile, Kinney launched an enduring parallel solo career with 1990’s acoustic MacDougal lues, collaborating with the likes of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, the Allman Brothers Band’s Warren Haynes and all-star alt-rock outfit the Golden Palominos along the way.

“Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ hasn’t had a major label paying for us to make records since 1994,” Kinney notes. “We’ve been totally independent and investing in ourselves for the last 20 years of our career. That can be frustrating in some ways, but the upside is that we have free reign to do what we want to do, because we’re not part of the system. We get to live in our own world and it’s fine.”

saw susan cowsill at a local library recently. she was complaining of a cold but what a voice. she mentioned that continental drifters set from a couple posts up. i learned that vicki peterson is married to one of her brothers. also that she recorded a couple of singles for warner bros in the 70s, one of which had the first-issued version of "mohammad's radio" as the b-side. jackson browne gave her the zevon demo and suggested she cover it. susan cowsill fun facts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni-VAxik7iw

Wow, thanks guys! Never heard of that. She has a lot of interesting comments in the compilation notes. Think she was already performing with Vicki Peterson as the Psycho Sisters when they met the Continental Drifters, and they finally put out an album under that name last year or so. She also did a solo album a few years ago, which was okay, but so far I like her better as a team player, like here (caffeinated review from 2013 follows)
The Hobart Brothers & Lil Sis Hobart--At Least We Have Each Other Jon Dee Graham, Freedy Johnston, and Susan Cowsill pool their songs about buildings, food, dirt, jobs, women, men, spare tires of several kinds, jobs, pavement, waking up, jobs, dreams (maybe), jobs, spare sounds, fuller ones too (I prefer the former here, for the coffee break vibe, but both work), and jobs. Not really so many (or so remarkable) jobs, but more than we usually hear songs about; songs that beat plain ol' complaints, anyway. Susan Cowsill was the youngest member of her brothers'/mother's/manager dad's group The Cowsills, real-life basis of the Partridge Family. She does not sound waify here: fairly tough and flexible voice, something of a potentially upsetting, born-for/to-trouble spark. Freedy Johnston's reedy, and observant enough to bend with the ornery wind; Graham's one gravelly, articulate Austin cracker. Johnston, whose stoically idiosyncratic practicality has so far led to at least one great solo album, Can You Fly (not even a rhetorical question), sometimes breaks out a bit of power pop here. It's in the soda pop pulled from a rusty icebed by a gas station, probably in Texas and/or the Great Plains, while the sun keeps the beat---they keep enough shade, enough cool to try and work out "the difference between beaten and beat," also Beat. This album is rec'd to these individual artists' fans, ditto those who enjoy the community-minded best of James McMurtry, Warren Zevon, John Doe, Dave Alvin, Eliza Gilkyson, like that y'all.

Also, most of the Continental Drifters core moved from LA to NOLA, and eventually some (most? all?) of them encountered or were affected by Katrina in various ways; one of Susan's brothers didn't survive it.Also this from 2013 Nashville Scene ballot notes:
The dB's--"She Won't Drive In The Rain Anymore": Very good contemporary country jangle-ballad, one of the highlights on a very good reunion album (aren't many of those). The true story, as told by Holsapple to http://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com
"It's about my wife evacuating New Orleans during Katrina. I was on the road with Hootie [and the Blowfish]; my wife had taken my daughter and my baby son and my daughter's best friend on a train to Birmingham to buy a vehicle up there. She knew the hurricane was coming, and she did all the things you're supposed to do. We didn't think too much about it — we certainly didn't realize it was going to be a 100-year storm. But when she got to Birmingham to get the car, it was very evident there was no turning back, so she drove literally across the storm path to get to her grandmother's in Little Rock."
Peter goes on to explain the reunion theme in the lyrics. He says his wife "took a day to re-group and then started driving back and she dropped my daughter's best friend off with her mom in Memphis. And then [my wife took] Miranda, my daughter with Susan Cowsill, to where Susan and her husband were living at the time. Then she made a beeline to where Hootie was playing next, which was Baltimore. She got there 15 minutes before we went on. It had been this incredible, tortuous time, unable to get in touch with anybody. Meanwhile, I'm in this sort of suspended state of touring because I need the money, and I can't really stop. Where am I gonna go, what am I gonna do? When I saw her, it was the first time in weeks, she and my son pulled up and I was overjoyed just to get to see her. We didn't really talk very much because we didn't really know what to say; it was all just so overwhelming."

Vicki is married to John Cowsill, who plays drums with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston in a "Beach Boys" group. I saw him play with Bob Cowsill, who performs regularly at a club in Los Angeles as The Cowsills. They do 60s/70s covers, with their own hits thrown in.

Speaking of Drivin' 'N' Cryin', as I did also upthread when they played Music City Roots' livestream with xpost Jason and The Scorchers' guitarist Warren Hodges, the latter will return to MCR tonight, touring behind his latest solo alb, Gunslinger. See here for more info on him, then see the previous MCR page for link to said livestream, or scroll to the bottom of the MCR homepage for audio-only, simulcast on Nashville's Hippie Radio. This show, also incl. Webb Wilder and his Beatnecks, among others, starts at 7 Central. Here's Warren:
http://musiccityroots.com/artist/warner-hodges/

Whew. So Warren & band just played AC/DC's "Got Mine The Hard Way," finishing with the Scorchers' shudderbilly version of "Country Road, Take Me Home," which sounds right at home thisaway. Whole show should be in MCR archive pretty soon.

Sweet! More energy, more variety of sources, it sez here---out 9/18
http://nodepression.com/article/dave-and-phil-alvin-make-lost-time

Jason and the Scorchers are playing a Nashville benefit tonight, with Warren Hodges' other employer, Dan Baird (orig. of Georgia Satellites), xpost Webb Wilder & the Beatnecks, and other weirdos---can livestream or audio-only from here, 7-9 Central:
http://musiccityroots.com/blog/for-the-benefit-of-mr-womack/
The show will be archived at this site, probably (most of 'em are)...

As expected, Phil Alvin & Dave Alvin's Lost Time sports Phil's soulful stylish vocals--also his poppin' blues harp, sounds like his crisp rhythm guitar too---and Dave's dynamic leads, but seems like some of the songs, or at least the lyrics, often spotlit, are not that engaging. Do like the bit where Rosa Parks tells the Montgomery judge to have a seat on the back of the bus, "Sit down baby," and take a load off, gonna be ridin' a while, it seems, goes with Dave's current sly, warm, actually smoothed-out baritone, like he's finally found the right cough syrup. Xgau for one thinks he's also finally found his voice, but I get tired of it here and on Eleven Eleven, despite its good songs (some people, incl. xgau,think it's his best solo album, and maybe I'm in the minority).
Also a bit frustrated by the way an intriguing, uptempo (what I think of as a bluesy bluegrass cadence) variant of "House of The Rising Sun" gradually looses emotional impact via Dave's lead vocal. Still, it's worth checking out (hope somebody else, like Phil, takes a shot at this approach.)
Phil does sing lead on most tracks, and they sing well together' maybe the xpost previous reunion, Common Ground was more consistently involving because they were so excited finally to be getting though another album without killing each other.
Spotify has these P & D albums, each one's solo sets, and a big ol' Blasters stash. Sure glad they got this 'un, well-described by xgau:
Phil Alvin: Un "Sung Stories" [Slash, 1986]
He loves a good lyric, and if he can't write them or order them up, he has only to ransack his record collection for oldies that are just strange enough. Mixing country blues with Cab Calloway, Peetie Wheatstraw's murderous "Gangster's Blues" with a supremely mournful country song called "Collins Cave," he goes for narrative and gets it. The arrangements range from very spare to orchestral, and never mind Tower of Power--Alvin goes to Sun Ra when he wants Ellingtonia, Dirty Dozen when he wants polyphony. The only exception to all this smart stuff is a perfectly OK "Daddy Rollin' Stone." I hope it breaks AOR, I bet it won't, and I wish he didn't have to bother. A-
An Alvin expected/pressured by the Slash/Warner denim suits to "break" commercial radio---those were the days!
I like the uneven 1994 follow-up, County Fair, a lot more than the 'gau does. Doesn't state his objections, just slaps an icon on it.

County Fair 2000, that is (and I should say that I actually prefer Dave's earlier, more erratic vox--def the minority report, prob).

No more speedy typing on tiny screens

I hope it breaks AOR, I bet it won't

genuinely confused by this xgau comment on phil alvin's debut solo. who would he have been betting against? was there anyone alive in 1986 who expected AOR to play phil alvin?

Well maybe! It wasn't that long after what seems to have been the peak of commercial efforts (as far as they were willing to go, collectively anyway):
Hard Line [Slash, 1985]
Non Fiction imagined a world in which the American music the Blasters love remained the common tongue of ordinary guys, guys whose connection to their cultural history helped them understand where they were--not in control, but at least conscious. The follow-up attempts to reach those ordinary guys with producers and stereo and more drums and no horns and a John Cougar Mellencamp song, and also with the kind of fancy stuff that comes naturally--accordion here, acoustic version there, Jordanaires all over the place, and the Jubilee Train Singers on a fiercely joyous remake of "Samson and Delilah," which with its ancient threat to tear this building down is good reason not to fret about philosophical retreat. As are "Dark Night," about a race murder, and "Common Man," about some president or other, their two most pointedly political tracks ever. What's softened is the bits of the writing--where Non Fiction nailed specifics (plastic seats, repentant husband wiping ashes off the bed), here Dave Alvin settles (or works) for a level of generalization suitable to pop. Guess he's decided that sometimes ordinary guys don't want things spelled out so fine. He may be right. A
The producer even replaced Bill Bateman with Stan Lynch! On some tracks. More gory details here:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/hard-line-mw0000838669 But yeah, it still turned out pretty well, seemed like. Although I haven't listened in a long time; might seem dated now. Dunno how well it sold, but haven't noticed any of its tracks on 80s hit comps.

hard line was a good record! but, john mellencamp song notwithstanding, it was never in any danger of getting played on the radio. and, yeah, that "samson and delilah" is fantastic.

RELATED:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/may/16/paisley-underground-history-80s-los-angeles-psychedelia?CMP=share_btn_fb

Dan Stuart (guitar and vocals, Green on Red): I moved to LA around 1980 after getting busted for a smash and grab of a guitar and amp from a music store in Tucson. The rest of the Serfers came later and our first gig was opening for X at a ballroom on Sunset. I was so nervous that I kept squeezing this zit on my face all week and by the time we played it was like Mount Vesuvius. I don't remember if we were still the Serfers at that time, we changed our name at the suggestion of Belinda Carlisle who was the secretary for this booking agent but really ran the office. She didn't like all the Orange County punk bands at the time and thought that people would think we actually were surf Nazis or something. I said fine, call us Green on Red which was the title of a tune I had just written. That was the first of many dubious decisions to come.

Good to see that about the Paisley Underground saga, which reminds me to check out this new onslaught of testifyin' (Doe's got a new album, too)--from Amazon:
Under the Big Black Sun explores the nascent Los Angeles punk rock movement and its evolution to hardcore punk as it's never been told before. Authors John Doe and Tom DeSavia have woven together an enthralling story of the legendary West Coast scene from 1977-1982 by enlisting the voices of people who were there. The book shares chapter-length tales from the authors along with personal essays from famous (and infamous) players in the scene. Additional authors include: Exene Cervenka (X), Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Mike Watt (The Minutemen), Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey (Go-Go's), Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters), Robert Lopez (The Zeros, El Vez), Jack Grisham (T.S.O.L.), Teresa Covarrubias (The Brat), as well as scenesters and journalists Pleasant Gehman, Kristine McKenna, and Chris Morris. Through interstitial commentary, John Doe "narrates" this journey through the land of film noir sunshine, Hollywood back alleys, and suburban sprawl, the place where he met his artistic counterparts Exene, DJ Bonebrake, and Billy Zoom and formed X, the band that became synonymous with, and in many ways defined, L.A. punk.

Focusing on punk's evolutionary years, Under the Big Black Sun shares stories of friendship and love, ambition and feuds, grandiose dreams and cultural rage, all combined with the tattered, glossy sheen of pop culture weirdness that epitomized the operations of Hollywood's underbelly. Readers will travel to the clubs that defined the scene, as well as to the street corners, empty lots, apartment complexes, and squats that served as de facto salons for the musicians, artists, and fringe players that hashed out what would become punk rock in Los Angeles.

L.A. punk was born from rock 'n' roll, from country and blues and Latin music, the true next step in the evolution of rock 'n' roll music. It was born of art, culture, political, and economic frustration. It spoke of a Los Angeles that existed when regionalism still reigned in the USA. It sounded like Los Angeles.

For the first time, the stories and photos from this now-fabled era are presented from those on the front lines. Stories that most have never heard about the art that was born under the big black sun.

Ooh, must get.

It's not great

Some ok stories but badly edited

Long Ryders tuoring eastern US... saw em about 30 years ago, remember they covered "Public Image."

http://www.ticketfly.com/event/1344331-long-ryders-jersey-city/

http://www.thelongryders.com/The-Long-Ryders-Tour-Dates.html

no fans left alive, eh?

Oh yeah, just not likely to get to see 'em on this round---but I liked most of this show, as I said upthread---dunno if it's still posted, but if so, can download it, and the same source may have more sets by now:

Long Ryders, Stache's, Columbus OH, 4-2-84:
Good sound, though kinda monotonous at first, but they crank up the jangly cowpunk in the second half, starting with "Final Wild Son," about "a friend of ours who's in trouble," a guy from Memphis, who isn't worried about dead legends cos he's livin' his, and the devil won't take his soul; he'll smoke it up before he goes. They close with "The Rains Came" "(adding lyrics:"Augie Meyer is our friend" and "Haven't seen Doug Sahm since he left this town"), "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White," "You're Gonna Miss Me," and "Jumping In The Night." Not a medley.
http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2271 There's an '85 Stanford show on here too; I haven't listened yet.

― dow, Tuesday, May 12, 2015

lydia loveless belongs on this thread. don't believe she's been mentioned yet, unless she's grandfathered in via the most other folks on Bloodshot rule proposed by someone upthread in 2005. i'm guessing if i polled everyone around me at the troubadour last night, somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of 'em had at least one long ryders, dwight yoakam or jason & the scorchers show under their belt. i assume closer to 100 percent had either a replacements or p westerberg ticket stub in their bedroom. also, she's great. had never quite noticed before how strong her voice is. live lineup: guitar guitar guitar bass drums. one guitar sometime moving to pedal steel. telecasters preferred, duh. (ok, her's was a G&L, but same thing.) she kicking all of them offstage for three solo songs including a (very good) cover of j bieber's "sorry." them returning to the stage and almost, but not quite, persuading me to buy a trucker hat.

Lots of good stuff about her here: Thread for Lydia Loveless, Country-Rock Lady I Enjoy

Also some on Rolling Country 2016, and she did pretty well in recently posted Nashville Scene national poll of reviewers, though Real ranges further afield than expected.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/20850074/17th-annual-country-music-critics-poll

There's a Drivin n Cryin' doc on Amazon Prime called Scarred But Smarter, interesting. Hootie is a huge fan

Oh cool. I'll watch that today (and then click over to Netflix for the Sharon Jones thing. I need lengthy distractions from real life.)

I hadn't heard of Drivin n Cryin' when I played Kevn Kinney's MacDougal Blues on my college radio show. Polished sounding record, but plenty of good songs.

Lots of good stuff about her here

bookmarked. thank you.

this on that thread, from you...

kind of like Petty and Heartbreakers with a better Petty

...reminds me that, yeah, there's a lot of petty-ness in her presentation. and some neko case in that voice. and a little bit of leatherwoods in her songwriting sometimes. it's basically classic rock a decade or two later. real took a while to hit me but i really love it now.

including a (very good) cover of j bieber's "sorry."

except Petty would never stoop to such shenanigans

I know we're all poptimists now but boy oh boy I sure wish the "ironic cover song" would die already

it's the "rappin' granny" of indie rock

One 80s band not mentioned that kinda fits here is The Brandos which were a pretty twangy power pop band that liked the whole bola tie thing.

I sure wish the "ironic cover song" would die already

what makes you think lydia's cover was ironic?

I can only assume it was, given her influences seem to be firmly rooted in the rockist heartland alt country thing. Even if it wasn't ironic, the cover was likely met with that nervous knowing laughter from the crowd, and some cheers of recognition and "oh wow isn't that a ballsy move" and exchanged glances of "is she really...?!" and it's something I've seen a thousand times and never fails to bum me out. It's a cheap tactical move that, pre-poptimism, was viewed as such (see: the groans that greeted Fountains of Wayne's cover of "Hit Me Baby One More Time")

Don't mind me I'm old and cranky

I like all the Lydia Loveless I've heard in passing, especially the one album that has 'machine' in the title...

having witnessed it three days ago, i can assure you it didn't seem ironic and there was neither nervous laughter nor cheers of recognition nor exchanged glances anywhere around me. it was a straight, sober performance of a song that, both melodically and emotionally, fit in quite well with the rest of her set. if she had covered it on her most recent album, it wouldn't have seemed weird at all. also, it's a good song. she's never been shy about doing covers. she's four years older than bieber. i assume his music is part of her environment, same as it would be part of any 26-year-old's environment, and i assume she heard it and thought to herself, "damn, that's a good song."

i'm old and cranky too.

Fair enough. Didn't really consider how close in age they are. Sorta like how I'm finally getting over being surprised by hip garage-punk bands of twentysomethings citing Blink 182 as a legit musical influence

now listening, on the radio, on LA's no-longer-quite-classic-rock KLOS: dwight yoakam, on jonesy's jukebox, talking at length about the blasters, the carter family, the palomino club, the dissonant harmonies of x, etc., while jonesy plays music by dwight, x, etc., between talking segments. if you are in la at this exact minute and you are on this thread you should turn on your radio.

I am and I am, but I'm at work.

a really overproduced Bodeans song came on my ipod tonight, 'you don't get much'. which would have fit in nicely on any late 90s Mellencamp record.

can't believe the Sidewinders haven't been mentioned. Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall kills.

Re popside of Lydia Loveless, she's also mentioned independent-minded Robyn as an inspiration, and LL is the onlu artist on Bloodshot (so far/prob forever) to release remixes. Still sounds not too many light years from the Bloodshot side o' town, and none of her records fall too far from the family tree of this thread.

Speaking of which, I finally got around to Chuck Prophet's 2017 Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins. He's checking in, noting that '16 was a bad year for rock 'n' roll deathwise, right from the beginning, but him and the boys carried on; later, only actually kinda slow and blue one has them finding an offnight situation, the moneyman's iffy, the doorman's insistent, "the bartender's out in the middle of the street with his pants around his neck....but we got up played and sang and tried to make it rain." Sounds moderately satisfied, although Prophet's not saying he follows the Lord's Example in "Jesus Was A Social Drinker, " but he can appreciate it, so "C'mon, wash me in the water, and I'll wash you."
Mostly it's stomp and jangle, a little bit of Radio Shack "vintage" synth, most noticable, though still blending in, on the deadication to Alan Vega, doin' it with one foot on the altar, one foot on the grave (lively, though maybe a little too long).
Also like the one where he recalls how him and his lost brother used to dress up like astronauts to trick-or-treat--this right before he explains again that all the sweet things he means to tell you are "Coming Out In Code."
He's been watching the news, he knows about the guy who's a jangle-stomping "Killing Machine," having walked into a store and bought a gun, no prob, and there's store girl, takin' a smoke break---also the real life case of "Alex Nieto," shot dead by cops: they thought the taser, which he wore for his job and pointed at them during a confused argument, was a gun. Should they have handled it quite like that uh-well-ah
Fave so far is the one where he dreams about being Connie Britton, brushing her hair everyday, and driving her pink Caddy "up above the clouds, 'til the Trumpets sound, and then I might come down." Bunch of others too, I don't like 'em all, but they're all here:
https://chuckprophet.bandcamp.com/album/bobby-fuller-died-for-your-sins-2

http://yeproc.11spot.com/media/catalog/product/cache/12/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/a/davealvinandphilalvin_hardtravelin_cover_sm.jpg

Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin continue their reunion with a four-song EP. Originally released on vinyl for Record Store Day 2017, this limited edition CD includes “Hard Travelin’” (Woody Guthrie), “Mean Ole Frisco” (Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, “California Desert Blues” (Lane Hardin) and “Kansas City Blues” (Jim Jackson).

This CD is available exclusively from the Yep Roc store and at Dave Alvin live shows while supplies last. Amazon's got the ltd. ed. vinyl for $29.99, Yep Roc lists CD for $9.00. Hadn't heard about this EP.

Which reminds me, recently posted this on the Blasters thread:

yeah so in my experience, Phil is exactly like the close-up portrait (executed in the spirit of the bold urban realist painter George Bellows)on the cover of the Blasters' s/t debut: kind of a rugged moonscape, except heated up, a little flushed, but not too, just a workin' man, with a ripplin' range of big white teeth in the spotlight, eyes closed, into it---live, he's also bobbing around, eyes still closed or tending to be, always seemed, in sound & visual, like something like an orbiting human jukebox of hot songs from several genres, a songster, as they used to say, making his moeny on the road in the great tradition---"Just think of your records as callin' cards, son," the suits started saying way back---so Al Jolson, one of the first if not the first of the record stars, quit recording for a while---reminds me, Will Friedwald, who specializes in writing about American singers, once mentioned in passing,"It was a given in his heyday that Johnnie Ray was a missing link between Jolson and Elvis"---hadn't thought of those two in the same chain, but listened to some Jolson (he came back to recording, got past "Mammy"), and yeah.
Thinking of Phil in more of a direct line to and from Jimmie Rodgers, who was country as in Asheville-before-Nashville: music halls, incl. minstrel at first---he sang or at least posed in blackface, later recorded with Louis Armstrong, frequently had the jazz-blues-country-Tin-Pan-Alley thing going on, vaudeville-wise, and Phil can seem like rockin' vaudeville, and of course there's Rodgers' "Never No Mo' Blues," on The Blasters, and another version on a comp I can't locate at the moment, but even more made me wonder about what if JR lived on into the 50s, the way he adapted to trends, though the take I'm thinking of wasn't exactly rockabilly in the usual sense (reminding myself now that Elvis did rework "Blue Moon of Kentucky").
Another one of the more obvious examples would be the cover of "Old Man of the Mountain," the Cab Calloway song, with Sun Ra and His Arkestra rolling along in the moonlight, no prob---on Phil's amazing Un "Sung" Stories. But really all the time, yeah go see the Blasters.

If this doesn't show, it's the cover of Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore's From Downey To Lubbock, out June 1:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91EFdBbX9lL._SL1400_.jpg

Oops, should've incl

DOWNEY TO LUBBOCK was born by immaculate inspiration from live shows Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore performed together in 2017. Just the two of them were swapping songs and cutting up, each with a guitar and a heart full of soul, musicians who ve been on the road their entire adult lives. The result is an album of blues, rock and folk inspired tunes that both of their fans will enjoy. The album contains 12 songs - 10 covers and two originals - and is destined to be a classic Americana album from two Americana legends. (on Yep Roc)

More blues than I expected, more than I've heard from Jimmie Dale for sure, but his voice and feel fit just fine---"I'm old Flatlander from the high plains," he sez in title-track opener, which is redundant--who would listen to this album without knowing the bio basics? Pretty sure most all their fans are old fans--but still it's a good capsule description of his sound and sensibility. Dig the way they find musical payoffs in the steady march through "You don't believe I love you look at the fool I been you don't believe I love you look at the hole I'm in" and keep going "back to my same ol' used to be," and now sounding pretty proud of himself/sassy with the wry--it is a jug band blues after all: "Stealin' Stealin" by Memphis Jug Band's Wiil Shade.
Even more oops factor in the even ever-more-timely "Get Together" (candidly precarious hopefulness of the verses coming through more clearly to me than on the Youngbloods' verses, so chorus more urgent and troubled too), and "Deportee--Plane Wreck At Los Gatos." Best Dave solos prob on "KC Moan," about which he quotes Jimmie Dale,"There is a time for more Blue Cheer and less Blue Cheer, and this is a time for more." Also good outward bound picking on "Walk On." Only a couple of geezer-snoozers, I think.
Whole thing's here:
https://davealvin.bandcamp.com/album/downey-to-lubbock

Youngbloods' "version," I meant, not "verses."(The song was written by Chet Powers AKA Dino Valente, later of Quicksilver Messenger Service.)

The Long Ryders Return With Help From Dr. Dre: Listen to New Song 'Greenville'

(the song is a little tom petty-ish and a little every single band in the title of this thread.)

Oh yeah, still need to check that album, thanks for the reminder.
Still coming out of a bronchial wet blanket, got braced by this lil palette cleanser, all 17 minutes and 57 seconds of, it CD and vinyl EP. Marvin E., who also worked with the Ramones, sure knows how to load that milk wagon sound----double Maria here, her and Ryan there, him up front, Rolling Thunderite David Mansfield's fiddle and steel over yonder, shotgun of Dave H.'s bass, Don W.'s drums, co-writes, solo, and their greatest cover making its debut---the only track that needs turning up, but so worth it. Etzioni provides succinct, pertinent notes on all songs.

First-ever collection of the earliest, original Lone Justice’s demos.

“Maria & I woodshedded for almost a year before we were ready to take the music we had uncovered out into the clubs. This is the original line-up of Lone Justice.”
—Ryan Hedgecock

Musician and producer Marvin Etzioni first saw Maria McKee and Ryan Hedgecock in a club in 1982, playing George Jones and Hank Williams covers. He convinced them they needed original material. After working and writing, the band added Dave Harrington (bass) and Don Willens (drums), the band worked up material with Etzioni and cut 5 of the 6 tracks at the famed Record Plant. An earlier session provides the 6th track.

The Western Tapes: 1983 exhibits the genesis of this highly-influential band. While the original demo version of “Drugstore Cowboy” has appeared on various compilations, the remainder of the other tracks from the sessions have remained in the can. Two of the tracks appear in their earliest demo form and wound up landing on the classic 1988 Lone Justice debut, “Working Late” and “Don’t Toss Us Away” (written by Maria’s half-brother, Bryan MacLean of the classic band, Love) which would eventually become a Top 5 smash for Country superstar Patty Loveless.

Released in conjunction with the band, the 12″ and CD EP were mastered by Bernie Grundman (who also cut the 45 RPM lacquers). It’s a look into where they started and foretells where they would go.

As Etzioni (who would later join the band) says in his liner notes: “With countless hours together, it was a fun and innocent time. I believed we were creating a 21st century country band.”

They created much, much more.

CD EP / 12″ EP TRACK LIST:
WORKING LATE
DON’T TOSS US AWAY
I SEE IT
THE TRAIN
DRUGSTORE COWBOY*
HOW LONESOME LIFE HAS BEEN
All tracks previously unissued except *
12″ EP does not include a download card
Cat: OV-305

Someone posted their debut on a fb group, and one of the commenters talked about how LJ had this burgeoning following in LA and Dolly Parton was coming to see them, but when Iovine got hold of them, suddenly it was "Maria McKee and the Heartbreakers," which wasn't what they sounded like/wanted to sound like.

McKee talks about early LJ days/dealing with record company weasels here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwSGS9xxaI0

Thanks! We hadden nog geen maatschapij dammit---not that she didn't already project theatricality, and if it had to be Heartbreakers and Big 80s blare by suits' decree also (whose idea was it to bring in Little Steven as producer?), LJ handled it well enough, for the most part. Don't sleep on her solo albums tho.
Speaking of Unchained 1983, more from way upthread, finally legit 5 years ago:

This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes 1983----blasting their club set in a good li'l studio. No stereo-typical 80s glitz; like the booklet says, "quick and dirty," never blurry, though a few of the originals could use more well-thought-out trad lifts/folk process, a la "Soap Soup And Salvation," which makes well-timed use of "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder" without getting mawkish; good speedy, confident cover of "Jackson" too. "This Is World Is Not My Home" goes from Carter Family/Woody G. rumination to poignant-with-a-beat "Soap"-style convocation to whooo, ready to meet them angels with sum white line fever (this would be the punkabilly or cowpunk, I take it).

12 tracks of prime Lone Justice recorded in 1983 with 9 previously unissued performances!
It can be difficult to capture the live power of a band on a studio recording. Thankfully, Lone Justice (Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni, and Don Heffington) went into Suite 16 Studios in December of 1983 and laid down much of the set list they were packing Los Angeles area clubs with.

Recorded direct to 2-track tape by engineer David Vaught and with no overdubs, those twelve tracks can finally be heard in their entirety as This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983. As Billboard’s Chris Morris writes in his liner notes, the release “offers the best representation of the band in its infancy—hot, full of piss and vinegar, and ready to take on the world.”

Nine of these twelve tracks are previously unissued, and include originals (including “Soap, Soup And Salvation”, which would appear on their Geffen debut two years later) to the covers they made their own in concert (Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s “Jackson” and “Nothing Can Stop My Loving You,” written by George Jones and Roger Miller.)

Available on CD and LP (with the first pressing on translucent red vinyl), in addition to Morris’ liners, the package contains an essay from the band’s Ryan Hedgecock, as well as a remembrance of David Vaught from Marvin Etzioni and a loving endorsement from Dolly Parton. With unseen photos and memorabilia, this collection is what Lone Justice fans have been waiting for. This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983 takes us back to a time when music had an energy that was hard to contain. Thanks to that studio in Van Nuys, CA, and this release, Justice has been served!

CD / LP / DIGITAL TRACK LIST:
NOTHING CAN STOP ME LOVING YOU
JACKSON
SOAP, SOUP AND SALVATION
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
DUSTBOWL DEPRESSION TIME
RATTLESNAKE MAMA*
VIGILANTE
WORKING MAN’S BLUES*
CACTUS ROSE
WHEN LOVE COMES HOME TO STAY
COTTON BELT
THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME*
All tracks previously unissued except *
LP includes download card.
Cat: OV-77

Artist: Jason Ringenberg
Album Title: Stand Tall
Release Date: February 7, 2019
Album synopsis:
The history of popular music is filled with stories of nature inspiring great works. This happens to be the case for Americana music legend Jason Ringenberg’s latest album, Stand Tall, which was conceived in one of the most awe-inspiring places on earth.

Stand Tall was literally inspired by trees--and, as the title suggests, very big ones at that. The album was penned in June 2017 while Ringenberg was commissioned as the artist in residence at Sequoia National Park in northern California. There, the National Park Service provided him with the unique opportunity to occupy a remote mountain cabin for a full uninterrupted months’ time, in order to write and work on his music.

“I found that spending so much time alone in that primal wilderness did wonders for my songwriting,” said Ringenberg, and indeed, this is reflected on Stand Tall, a record filled with characters on a mission. Ringenberg’s point-of-view subjects bounce from time period to time period, ranging from John the Baptist (“John the Baptist was a Real Humdinger”) to John Muir (“John Muir Stood Here”) to a disillusioned Confederate conscript (I’m Walking Home”)--and even his own personal experiences, in particular opening for the Ramones on a string of Texas dates in 1982 (“God Bless the Ramones”).
"Ringenberg, like fellow Nashville resident Jim Lauderdale, should be now be considered icons of determination with careers that have gone through ups and downs but now care only to make the kind of music that they feel in their souls. Both are decent men doing the very best they can to make the world a better place (musically at least). Take a bow and stand tall Jason.”--Stephen Rapid, Lonesome Highway

"Ringenberg has a strong knack for stories and word play, and presents it all honestly, (with a grin or two along the way). Ringenberg remains one of our living legends and it’s great to hear from him again.”--Jim Hynes, Making a Scene
"This is a collection that adds to the legacy, never mind anything else. Jason Ringenberg is still scorching. And you best believe that here everything – and not just the trees – is standing tall."--Hugh Deneal, Maximum Volume

hearing Lone Justice with less 80s production is pretty exciting prospect

news from Chuck Prophet:

Folks,

We’ve got tour dates all over creation with the Mighty Mission Express starting today at the Huichica Music Festival in Sonoma, CA. I’ll get to those in a hot minute.

But first, in other news…

THE RUBINOOS

Over the past months I produced a new RUBINOOS [rhymes with two canoes] LP "FROM HOME” for Yep Roc Records. I probably saw the Rubinoos like 20 times in high school. Although I’m not a power pop bubblegum nerd or whatever, I loved how they were true to their school. Be it Spaghetti Western soundtrack music or the Archies, The Beach Boys, The DeFranco Family, or the Jackson 5, they knew what they loved. And wore it on their sleeves. Rubinoos AF.

After those first couple LP’s, The Rubinoos took the hero's journey and it wasn’t all glorious. Sure they opened 56 shows for Elvis Costello during the Armed Forces tour. Appeared on American Bandstand. Made the pages of Tiger Beat. But before too long Tommy and Jon moved to LA, and Donno and Al took other gigs.

Jon went on to appear as the Doo Wop singing/pizza delivery boy on a number of Sitcoms. Tommy eventually got a Tux and the Real Fake Book and played his share of society gigs. Tommy and Jon did ghost vocal sessions with Kim Fowley for drag queen records. [Or "Fowl Kimley" as Jon calls him.] There were new records with session drummers. Along the way they sang the demo for the Revenge of the Nerds theme song and it was so good ended up in the movie which just further confused people.

But now they're back. Getting all the original guys back together to make this new record was a big deal to me.

And you can read about this new record and hear the premiere and watch the video for their new single "Do You Remember” over at Billboard Magazine. Bring Pop back to the common man!

LINK: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8511493/the-rubinoos-do-you-remember

Or jump straight to this video starring Salvadoran dancing sensation Aranivah.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re88FR9rxKc

BETTER CALL UP THE PLUMBER!

Be with us on June 29th at The City Winery NYC to celebrate beloved New York icon Garland Jeffrey, who is doing his last shows. The sexiest man in Scandinavia! The poet laureate of Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn! is retiring from the stage. Stephie and I will be guesting on a song or two. Also on the bill, David Johansen and more. Some tickets still left for the early show. What can I tell you about our old friend Garland? (People get a kick out of hearing he was Lou Reed’s college roommate. Who swept the floor? With who?)

THEY GAVE DUDE A BEEPER

Oh, and another thing. File under: "They gave the Dude a beeper”. Yessir, they gave me a radio show on the Gimme Country Network. I’m spinning lots of 50’s, 60's country. Nashville cats, Wrecking Crew side streets, yodeling cowboys, honky-tonkers, swampers, truckers, rockabilly cats and more. You name it. All that stuff, that funk, that sweet, that funky stuff [Say what].

MORE HERE: https://www.gimmecountry.com/#/radio

Onwards,

Right on. I'm super into Green on Red's Gas Food Lodging LP rn

I saw Dan Stuart (Green on Red frontman) solo earlier this week in a bar for about 10 people. Looking like a retiree, and talked about being out of the music world for about 15 years. Still magnetic.

For the encore, he asked if anyone wanted to hear any Green on Red, and someone said "Time Ain't Nothin'." And he played the most beautiful and slow and mellow version of it.

Listened to Gas Food Lodging on my way home from that show. It really feels like it fits alongside Nebraska, in capturing a early-80s recession helplessness and poverty. But capping it off with a cover of "We Shall Overcome" keeps it from being pitch black all the way through.

This song was powerful too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3jWVaya9E

Yeah I totally get Nebraska vibes from the album too. Or, like I was thinking a few days ago, maybe residing somewhere between ditch-era Neil and the Gun Club. But Stuart on, say, "Sixteen Ways" or even "Illustrated Crawling" off their first EP, lays it on so thick and goes so over-the-top with the hard-luck desperation that it almost anticipates early Pixies or something

Like if Nebraska is sort of the gold standard of "dark roots rock" then "Sixteen Ways"/"Illustrated Crawling" pushes it a step further into grotesquerie and absurdity, and then, like "Nimrod's Son" or "The Holiday Song" takes it a step beyond that

From latest Chuck Prophet newsletter:
First off, in case it got past you, I filmed a travel show for Southwest Air and Luck Reunion. A kind of Anthony Bourdain styled show where you can ride shotgun with me and Aaron Lee Tasjan through the backstreets of San Francisco. The Luck Reunion team are brilliant. This ain't some insidious internet trash. There are real production values. I think you'll enjoy it.

https://southwest.fm/sites-and-sounds/episode-3/

Now that I've got some portion of your attention, I’ve got gigs coming up, and without you there it wouldn't quite seem right. For now though, allow me to fire up this Trader Joe’s Candle, dim the lights and put on this Miles Davis record ["Lift To The Scaffold” - my go-to Miles jam]. Oh the sweetness of doing nothing! yadda yadda Well, I’ve got my own reasons to feel a little bit hopeful. Such as my new record coming down the pike. Soon we'll have a release date and everything. And if that isn't a better tomorrow, for ourselves, and the children of the world, I don’t know what is.

I also look forward to going out and playing the gigs mentioned above, some SOLO, and some with the Steph and the boys. (Check out my crazy asterisk and pound sign system below. I'm patenting the app as we speak.) I'll even be taking songs off the new album out for a spin.
And then there's my great good fortune to be playing some gigs with the mighty Mission Express. The greatest lineup I’ve ever played with out there on the hillbilly highway. And I'm still managing to get lost in it. Not lost lost. Chet Baker lost. Lost in the music.

GIGSVILLE: Get up to the minute details on live shows here: http://chuckprophet.com/gigs/
-----------------------------------------------------------

1/9/2020 LOS ANGELES CA HOTEL CAFE***
1/17/2020 HOUSTON TX THE HEIGHTS THEATER#
1/18/2020 DALLAS TX THE KESSLER THEATER#
1/19/2020 OKLAHOMA CITY OK THE BLUE DOOR*
1/22/2020 EASTON MD STOLZ LISTENING ROOM*
1/23/2020 BALTIMORE MD CREATIVE ALLIANCE AT THE PATTERSON*
1/24/2020 STATEN ISLAND NY HEFFERNAN’S HOUSE CONCERT*
1/25/2020 MONTCLAIR NJ OUTPOST IN THE BURBS*
1/26/2020 WASHINGTON DC THREE DOG SOUND HOUSE CONCERT*
1/28/2020 COLUMBUS OH NATALIE’S GRANDVIEW*
1/29/2020 PITTSBURGH PA CLUB CAFE*
1/30/2020 HARRISBURG PA NOTE WINE BAR*
1/31/2020 SELLERSVILLE PA SELLERSVILLE THEATER*
2/1/2020 VIENNA VA JAMMIN JAVA*
2/28/2020 DENVER CO SWALLOW HILL/DANIELS HALL*
2/29/2020 FORT COLLINS CO MAGIC RAT*
3/13/2020 AUSTIN TX CONTINENTAL CLUB**
3/14/2020 AUSTIN TX CONTINENTAL CLUB**

CHUCK PROPHET SOLO*
CHUCK PROPHET SOLO - CO-BILL WITH JOSH ROUSE #
CHUCK PROPHET SOLO - SUPPORT TO JESSE MALIN ***
CHUCK PROPHET & THE MISSION EXPRESS **

Update from guess who (no, not The Guess Who):

You heard it here first (unless you didn't). I’ve got a new record coming out on May 15 called “The Land That Time Forgot.” On Yep Roc Records. In fact, today’s the day we’re releasing the first single,“Marathon," complete with a swanky video directed by Darrell Flowers and edited by Lauren Tabak which features some fancy footwork from me and Stephie as we trade punches.

Watch/stream "Marathon," and pre-order the album here: https://ffm.to/landtimeforgot

What can I tell you? I can tell you this:

I wasn’t too pleased to learn that Jason Isbell is releasing his new record the very same day as mine.

So I sent a message to Jason and said, “I think it’s only fair that you change your release date.”

He replied and got straight to the point: “Chuck, you know I can’t do that.”

So I said, “You know Jason, I don’t know how this makes me feel. Actually I DO know how it makes me feel. It makes me feel like Amy Klobuchar. I mean I’m in the running and everything but I feel like people treat me as if I’m the person that runs the concession stand at a Little League game. I’m a serious artist, Jason!"

(As you can see, we're on a first-name basis.)

Well, he calmed me down and reasoned, “Chuck, at least we will get people to the polls. I mean the record stores. And once they get in there they can vote however they like. It's their country. Or their record collection as the case might be. Maybe they buy Jason Isbell, maybe they buy Chuck Klobuchar.”

That hurt a little, I won't lie.

But on reflection I thought it sounded pretty reasonable. And reminded myself that Jason is younger and better looking and he probably knows a thing or three.

[DISCLAIMER: This interchange is as I recall it. Jason may not remember it this way. But it definitely happened.]

So, what about this new record? Rock ‘n’ roll has always been about hope and despair, falling apart and picking up the pieces, romance and heartbreak, whistling past the graveyard with a bad moon rising. And San Francisco is all of those things. A place of new beginnings and reinventing yourself married just lately to a bottomless pit of greed filled with robots with ironic haircuts.

When it came to recording, we were priced out of our home turf and ended up in a studio a few miles from the Vermont border where I could hear myself think – which was pretty f*cking scary! Recording with some rock and roll royalty who dressed like lumberjacks in a big old mansion that’s on the National Historic Register.

Musically speaking, this is a radical departure for me. I usually lean on the Rockpile by way of Highway 61 template more than Alison Krauss. But this record has a lot of acoustic energy. It’s a folk record even, in spots. All that with a heaping scoop of Stephanie Finch jump, jiving and harmonizing her way down that old fair lane.

klipschutz and I had a lot of lunches and arguments. You don't want to know how sausage is made, I assume (though it's actually kind of fascinating, but whatever). So what can I say about the first single "Marathon"? It’s seems kind of nostalgic. But it’s not. Once you get past the krautrock bassline and The Everly Brothers acoustics and the relentless groove of The Mission Express, it’s a song about Depression era dances with roots in the Salem Witch Trials and the anxiety of anyone today who’s short on rent again. The gig economy. Reality shows. Exploitation. Dance marathons of the Great Depression were the first reality shows. And like Pro Wrestling, blurred the line between theatre and reality. Okay, I’ll spare you any more MFA gibberish, I gotta run. I got the Discovery Channel on and Naked and Afraid is up next.

Again, watch/stream "Marathon," and pre-order the album here: https://ffm.to/landtimeforgot

(Get up to the minute details on live shows here:
http://chuckprophet.com/gigs/)

he's got a couple of 2020 releases added to his bandcamp now: Strings In The Temple is a live one-off from 2013, a performance of 2012's Temple Beautiful, with the added backing of string octet (scored and conducted by Brad Jones) in our hometown of San Francisco.

We had one chance to get it right. And this film is a document of the twists and turns in the road that brought us to that one-night-only sold-out performance at the Great American Music Hall (Itself a former bordello and a deco SF institution).

The songs performed that night include characters like Willie Mays, martyred supervisor Harvey Milk, Cain & Abel porn kings Jim & Artie Mitchell, mythic oddball "Red Man," preacher/Svengali Jim Jones, politician-turned assassin Dan White, and Emperor Norton...[ yeah, the film's on youtube, I think---but this is enough for me. Most of the songs seem too soft---sentimental and soft on Chuck, over- and underworked, with lots of detailed imagery and Deep turns of phrase that go nowhere much, even when some of the historical "references" are explained in his bandcamp comments. Although the one from POV of Emperor Norton kind of works,in a John Calean way, and "I Felt Like Jesus" is def. Chuck, also Caleian, but here not impending doom so much as the catchy concise pop goes the violets of vio-oh-lence-mode of Chuck and Cale.
Maybe a couple of other exceptions, but overall if you liked the songs already, you'll prob like them even better with these strings, and even if you don't like 'em, strings still help, so mission accomplished either way.
https://chuckprophet.bandcamp.com/album/strings-in-the-temple-live-with-orchestra-at-the-great-american-music-hall

The latest 2020 release is all-new The Land That Time Forgot, and the sound is more mild-mannered than expected for post-Temple presentations---I was expecting something more like 2017's Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins, talked about upthread and still on bandcamp---but, given that, most of it works better than Temple. even in perhaps delib contrast w rock references---this would make a nice single, kind of like Randy Newman with a better voice:
If Bukowski was good looking
And Napoleon was tall
If Joan of Arc just took her meds
She’d be a movie star
If up was down and down was up
Imagine where we’d be
The New York Dolls would still be here
And music would be free

And I’d be high
As high as Johnny Thunders
In the land that time forgot
High as Johnny Thunders

...And if families stayed together
I’d have a window seat
And all the children of the world
Would have enough to eat
If heartbreak was a virtue
Man, I’d be so virtuous
To get back in your pants
I might hijack a city bus

And I’d be high...

Ditto the lonesome kids who "cranked Metallica" and partied:

Nilli said, “I had a body once
Willie, you have no idea
I could make a grown man bark all night
Anytime, anywhere”
Willie said, “I had a lion’s mane,
Now I sing at the top of my lungs
Till the neighbors get the broomsticks out
And the cops all sing along”

They’d be singing
Love me like I wanna be loved

"Paying My Respects To The Train" could be a bonus track for Buffalo Springfield's Last Time Around, and "Nixonland" has a suitably ominous vibe, though no Neilian guitar waves, still:Just last night I fantasized I was in a time machine
Walking hand in hand with my sister there
Along the San Clemente beach

My fourth grade class took a field trip once
To pay tribute to the man
Did I ever tell you that I was born
In the heart of Nixonland?
But then it gets to some bits of Nixoncana which you might find familiar, maybe from Rick Pearlstein's book---eventually another glimpse from the narrator's own early takes, maybe:
He had a wife and two daughters too
They were with him right up until the end
Holed up like four refugees
High on a cliff over NixonlandMake up your own Neil solos!

"Meet Me At The Roundabout" is kind of early Springsteen turning into Alex Chilton, when it gets to this part:
You took me to a Catholic priest
And I took you to a whore
You took the breath right out of me
Against your kitchen door
We’ve got no obligations
No one to impress
Go on and ask me anything
The answer will be yes

"Womankind" seems Bruce Randy Chilton as hell:
Man made that, man made this
He made the blow-up doll
He made the iron fist
But he didn’t make the wind
And he didn’t make the rain
Or the cold sunshine
On a winter’s day

Meet me down by the powerlines...
Man made this, and man made that
He made the parking lot
He made the pork pie hat
But you carried a child
And you taught it to live
While they short you every hour
For the time you put in

Meet me down by the powerlines

---and a crucial verse in "Waving Goodbye" also seems Chiltonesque in some ways. Still others---well anyway, it won me over, for the most part:
https://chuckprophet.bandcamp.com/album/the-land-that-time-forgot

https://chuckprophet.bandcamp.com/album/the-land-that-time-forgot

Lone Justice and Jason & the Scorchers, I remember them, or rather know of them -
Jimmy Guterman (RIP) was an enormous fan and something he wrote in the mid-'90s (long after they took a shot with a major label) became my introduction to them. I found out later that he wrote gushing reviews for at least one of their debut records for Rolling Stone back in the day, and given his tastes, it's no surprise that he would love them - he was an enormous roots music fan, especially country music, and his favorites leaned heavily in that direction.

Fervor (the later pressing that adds "Absolutely Sweet Marie") and Lost & Found are excellent, fine cowpunk tracing the path from Gram Parsons to alt-country, and Lone Justice's pre-Geffen recordings are nearly as good. (Their meat-and-potatoes debut LP is still enjoyable, but everything they did for Geffen feels compromised, a calculated attempt at mainstream success.)

You might like some of those this-century-released collections of very early, live and studio Lone Justice tracks, finally legit, as discussed upthread. Some of the Maria Ronstadt & The Heartbreakers-type productions were later remastered with Big 80s blare toned down to an extent, on The Millenium Collection for inst, and they always had the songs and skills.

from Rolling Reissues 2020:

I also received the first two The Primevals albums directly from LTM. The reissues were from 2015, but I was not aware of them until recently. RIYL The Gun Club, Cramps, Crazy Horse, Eleventh Dream Day.I wrote about Sound Hole (1986) herehttps://fastnbulbous.com/between-the-cracks-1986-compendium/

--fastnbulbous

Thanks dow! Omnivore's a great label, so while it's a surprise that quite a bit of this early material has gotten a legitimate release, it's not a surprise that it's coming from them. I still have bootlegs but they sound atrocious - they sound like nth-generation cassette dubs that have been heavily processed with noise reduction. Almost impossible to enjoy, so it's pretty awesome that I can start replacing them.

Comments from Nashville Scene ballot (re hacked-in Imaginary Categories):
In the middle of this our life, Maria McKee comes to a clearing and plunges fearlessly into thickets of imagery, following her Beatrice not into Afterworlds, so much as La Vita Nuova ---she to whom the term “Pre-Raphaelite” has long been among the many applied, so you can also call some of these blossoms Pre-R glam or art folk rock, though sometimes it’s just her tirelessly faithful piano, maybe with upright bass, or poised orchestral sojourns---and her voice is in great shape for answering all calls and seeking more. Almost as exhausting as it is astonishing to listen to all the way through with no bathroom breaks, nevertheless it always pulls me right around the rim ov void, along the path of Passion. While she sings and plays and conducts it, I’m a believer, pert near--no time or space to think otherwise, in my case.

Yeah, that one has been talked about a (small) bit at Lone Justice/Maria McKee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAMmrCCaAoo

bears repeating: this song still rules ^

listening to the 83 Lone Justice demos mentioned upthread, real fun stuff they were a scrappy cowpunk band

I'll cue up the McKee album.

No dedicated Long Ryders thread?

RIP Tom Stevens :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBg_MsAHSzg

Latest Chuck Prophet newsletter: on the bill of the first new Mountain Stage show in quite a while (because covid), which started airing/streaming yesterday, check site and stations https://www.mountainstage.org/radio/Pages/Radio-Affiliates.aspx Links to pay-per-view concerts coming up later this month:https://www.stageit.com/chuck_prophet_the_mission_express/mid_season_replacement_show_uk/95798 and https://www.stageit.com/chuck_prophet_the_mission_express/mid_season_replacement_show_us/95799, also a lot of other other recent items & linkshttp://chuckprophet.com/

RIP to Lone Justice drummer Don Heffington. I think he had a distinguished career as a session man, did he not?

Pulled out the 'Gas Food Lodging/Green on Red ep' CD for 3x spins in the past couple of days. It is interesting how different the band sound is on the EP to the LP. The s/t EP very much has a 60s garage psych sound and the second one is cold tapping the stones w/dylan's organ sound. Dan Sturt's voice also kinda reminds me a bit of Bonnie Prince Billy.

Yeah, Prophet mentioned somewhere that they had some major disagreements about musical directions.

xpost from Lone Justice/Maria McKee:

2021 is a trip. I learned that the LJ/MM's long time drummer passed away via Van Dyke Parks' twitter:

R.I.P. blessed Percussionist Don Heffington (12/20/‘50-3/24/‘21).
R.I.P. old Saddle Buddy. pic.twitter.com/JF0cO6ehWt
— Van Dyke Parks (@thevandykeparks) March 24, 2021

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, March 24, 2021 7:39 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh man! The impression that I got from booklets w LJ reissues and prev. unreleased on Omnivore was that he was pretty involved in working up a lot of arrangements, when the suits didn't get in the way; also, as wiki sez: Don Heffington was an American drummer, percussionist, and songwriter. He is known for his solo albums, his work with Lone Justice, and his extensive touring and session work with artists such as Lowell George, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Barry Goldberg, Big Kettle Drum, and Victoria Williams. Much more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Heffington

---dow

(If I didn't get it all in here, 2020 was quite a year for prev. unreleased etc. Dave Alvin & friends, as noted on his own thread)(and/or the Blasters' thread, hard to keep 'em all lined up)

This mind-melting curation of early live recordings by The Dream Syndicate is testimony from a witness: Los Angeles writer Matthew Specktor. He has created three live albums that carry you from the band’s first show, through “The Days of Wine and Roses,” and into a full live preview of “The Medicine Show.”

Download it from this page, which also incl. Specktor's notes (would like to read his forthcoming memoir, Always Crashing In The Same Car);
https://saveyourface.posthaven.com/the-dream-syndicate-live-1982-1983

True or False: all these bands were influenced by the Stray Cats

I say True

(not The Dream Syndicate though, thanks for that)

Somebody yelled out "Gun Club!" way back at the beginning of this here thread.

THE GUN CLUB’S 1981 PUNK-BLUES CLASSIC DEBUT FIRE OF LOVE RETURNS WITH DELUXE DOUBLE-VINYL AND DOUBLE-CD REISSUES VIA BLIXA SOUNDS
Both the LP and CD Editions Come with 10 bonus tracks and the Previously Unreleased Live At Club 88 – March 6, 1981

Street date July 23, 2021

LOS ANGELES, CA. (Tuesday June 1, 2021) — With a howling and unholy mix of punk rock and the blues, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club exploded upon the L.A. club scene in the early ’80s. They recorded their classic debut, 1981’s Fire Of Love, for the local Slash/Ruby Records label. And now that legendary album has been unearthed and brought back to life as a deluxe two-CD and two-LP set.

Both the double-CD and double-vinyl editions contain a digitally remastered version of the original 11-track album, produced by fellow L.A. scenesters Chris D. of The Flesh Eaters and The Plugz’s Tito Larriva. The CD version will include 10 previously unreleased four-track demos and alternate versions, while the LP will include a download card for the digital version of the 10 bonus tracks.
Both the CD and the vinyl versions will include a second disc, the previously unreleased Live At Club 88 – March 6, 1981, a concert recording capturing the band’s incendiary live set at the legendary West L.A. dive bar.

The double-vinyl version will be released as a two-LP set packaged in a gatefold cover with extensive liner notes by drummer Terry Graham and remembrances from producer Tito Larriva and co-producer Chris D., as well as rare photos and ephemera. The CD version will include a booklet with liner notes, photos and ephemera.
Born on June 27, 1958, Jeffrey Lee Pierce grew up in the East Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, California, before moving with his family to the San Fernando Valley, where he attended Granada Hills High School. Back then his main passion was acting. Eventually, his interest veered to music, but he held on to his love of drama and would later inject it into his music and performances. He’d been toying with guitar since the age of 10, and by his late teens and early 20s, he’d formed a few bands and wrote about reggae for Slash magazine under the pen name Ranking Señor Lea.
It was in Creeping Ritual, a band Pierce formed with guitarist Brian Tristan, in which Pierce found his footing. He’d discovered the Delta blues from the record collections of Canned Heat singer Bob Hite and L.A. scenester Phast Phreddie Patterson, and decided to make them his own. Although his first bassist and drummer bailed, the band — rechristened The Gun Club by Circle Jerks’ singer and Pierce’s one-time roommate Keith Morris — became a reality with the addition of the fully formed rhythm section of bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham. They had already played together in punk band The Bags and could hold down a solid foundation for Pierce and Tristan — now known as Kid Congo Powers — to improvise over. “He was injecting blues into the heart of punk rock, struggling to give life into something new and brilliant even if it was old and obvious at the same time,” Graham says of Pierce, in the book More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk.

Fire of Love captures the Gun Club at their rawest on such originals as the unforgettable album-opener “Sex Beat,” the addictive “She’s Live Heroin to Me” and the psychobilly stomp of “For The Love Of Ivy,” an ode to Cramps guitarist and future Kid Congo bandmate Poison Ivy Rorschach. The band also delved into their influences on the set, digging up Tommy Johnson’s “Cool Drink Of Water” and Robert Johnson’s “Preaching The Blues” and jolting them back with jumper cables via Pierce’s new arrangements and “Elvis from Hell” howl.
As Graham writes in the liner notes, “I couldn’t be more thrilled to know Fire Of Love has given so many a nice kick in the ass…I not only loved fighting off the Devil while a member of Gun Club, but I’m proud of what we did on Fire Of Love with Chris and Tito as our guides. And if this music continues to irk the purists, I couldn’t be more proud. Jeff, you were one hell of a great musician, but you knew that.”
The Gun Club went on to record several other albums — including 1982’s Miami (reissued by Blixa Sounds in 2020) — before Pierce’s death in 1996, yet Fire Of Love is their finest hour.

CD TRACK LISTING
DISC 1
1. SEX BEAT
2. PREACHING THE BLUES
3. PROMISE ME
4. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
5. FOR THE LOVE OF IVY
6. FREE SPIRIT
7. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY
8. JACK ON FIRE
9. BLACK TRAIN
10. COOL DRINK OF WATER
11. GOODBYE JOHNNY
BONUS TRACKS
12. BAD INDIAN (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
13. COOL DRINK OF WATER (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
14. FIRE OF LOVE (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
15. FOR THE LOVE OF IVY (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
16. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
17. FIRE OF LOVE (4 TRACK DEMO)
18. DEVIL IN THE WOODS (4 TRACK DEMO)
19. GOODBYE JOHNNY (4 TRACK DEMO)
20. PREACHING THE BLUES (4 TRACK DEMO)
21. WATERMELON MAN (4 TRACK DEMO)
DISC 2 / LIVE AT CLUB 88 – MARCH 6, 1981
1. DEVIL IN THE WOODS
2. BAD INDIAN
3. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
4. PREACHING THE BLUES
5. KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
6. JACK ON FIRE
7. RAILROAD BILL
8. FIRE OF LOVE
9. SEX BEAT
10. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY

LP TRACK LISTING
LP1
SIDE A
1. SEX BEAT
2. PREACHING THE BLUES
3. PROMISE ME
4. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
5. FOR THE LOVE OF IVY
6. FREE SPIRIT
SIDE B
1. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY
2. JACK ON FIRE
3. BLACK TRAIN
4. COOL DRINK OF WATER
5. GOODBYE JOHNNY
LP2 / LIVE AT CLUB 88 – MARCH 6, 1981
SIDE C
1. DEVIL IN THE WOODS
2. BAD INDIAN
3. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
4. PREACHING THE BLUES
5. KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
SIDE D
1. JACK ON FIRE
2. RAILROAD BILL
3. FIRE OF LOVE
4. SEX BEAT
5. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY

Fire Of Love trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7kwkoRyI5w
for more information please contact william at blixa.com

A new version of the Cruzados is putting out an album in August:

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Cruzados, L.A.’s forceful rock band of the 1980s, make a phoenix-like return this summer with the release of She’s Automatic, the group’s first set of recordings in more than three decades.

The new release, featuring 11 songs written or co-written by Tony Marsico, the bassist and co-writer for the Cruzados and a member of the band’s punk-era precursor the Plugz, will be issued on CD on August 13, 2021 on Marsico’s imprint Scamco; an LP edition will follow in the fall. The album will also be available on select digital and streaming platforms.

The album is a live, hot, no-nonsense collection of hard-hitting rockers on which Marsico is joined by the members of his ’80s L.A. contemporaries Little Caesar. The set’s glittering group of guest musicians includes a host of noted L.A. punk vets, including John Doe (X), Dave Alvin (the Blasters), David Hidalgo and Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), and Melanie Vannem (the Muffs, the Pandoras).

The Cruzados attracted national attention in the ’80s with their stormy, Latin-inflected brand of post-punk hard rock. Signed to Clive Davis’ Arista Records, the quartet issued two albums, Cruzados (1985) and After Dark (1987). They also made a high-profile screen appearance in the 1989 cult classic Road House. However, familiar rock ’n’ roll pressures capsized the band in 1991; guitarist Marshall Rohner died in 2005, and drummer Chalo “Charlie” Quintana died in 2018.

In the intervening years, Marsico worked on the debut album by Plugz and Cruzados singer-guitarist Tito Larriva’s band Tarantula, today based in Austin. He also carved out a notable career as a top session musician and touring sideman with such artists as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Roger Daltrey, Marianne Faithfull, and Willie Nelson. The bassist’s studio and road stories are collected in two books, Late Nights With Bob Dylan (2009) and I’m Just Here for the Gig! (2020).

With the onset of the pandemic in 2020 and the enforced solitude that followed, Marsico began to contemplate a new project under the Cruzados handle.

“Being penned up with the pandemic at home for a year, I started questioning my mortality,” he says. “I felt like I got shortchanged with the Cruzados. We never got to put out a third album, due to a lot of crazy circumstances that cropped up. I wanted to do the band justice and go out on a high note. That was my goal, and to pay tribute to Chalo and Marshall.”

Material for a new Cruzados release came quickly. “I wrote a batch of new songs during the pandemic at home,” Marsico recalls. “I had a lot of frustration and anger that I had to get out of me. Before I knew it I had an album. There wasn’t any big plan. I just felt motivated to do something more constructive than sit around being miserable about the state of the world.”

Songs co-written with former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Rick Vito (“Long Black Car”) and veteran blues keyboardist Barry Goldberg (“Son of the Blues”) were also brought to the table. “I’d always wanted to get those out, because we’d never properly released them,” Marsico says.

It didn’t take long for Marsico to decide on the right musicians to carry on the Cruzados’ legacy in the studio: He turned to singer Ron Young and guitarists Loren Molinare and Mark Tremalgia of Little Caesar, who were also active on the L.A. scene in the late ’80s as a Geffen Records act. The core lineup was completed by drummer Ron Klonel, who has collaborated with Little Caesar in recent years.

“The Little Caesar guys were Chalo’s best friends — they were pals from back in the day,” Marsico says. “I had to find the best guy to be the lead singer. My tastes have changed a little — the influences are blues and rock ’n’ roll. I knew that Ron Young from Little Caesar loved blues, and we got to talking and we hit it off with the same style of music. I knew that he could pull this off and get behind it.

“Loren Molinare was in the great ’70s L.A. band the Dogs, of course, and I loved the Dogs, and Mark Tremaglia is an excellent slide guitarist I’ve been working with for a couple of years now. Rob Klonel is a great, solid rock ‘n’ roll drummer. It was really important for me to get someone who hit ’em hard like Chalo. They were a perfect combination of guys, and they had a lot of enthusiasm.”

With Bruce Witkin engineering and producing, the new Cruzados set up shop at Unison Studios in L.A.

Marsico recalls, “We did it old style — we just set up in a room all together, like we used to do records before they started putting everybody in isolation booths and all that crap. We got the band together and rehearsed, and we went into the studio a week later. Before we knew it, we had the album. All live, no click tracks. We all played in our own little area, with our masks on. Set up, play, cut the songs, boom. It felt great to rock with a bunch of like-minded guys. With our special guests, half of them came to the studio, and half recorded their parts at home.”

She’s Automatic is both a forceful continuation of the Cruzados’ sound and an ardent homage to the work they began more than three decades ago. Marsico says, “I didn’t like the way the Cruzados went out. We were really great friends. It was never a band that was at odds with one another. Yes, there were problems that tore us apart, but we were like family. Why not do it now? Life’s too short, man. You’ve only got so much time you can rock ’n’ roll.”

The Cruzados are currently booking dates for a 2022 European tour.

No Tito Larriva? I'm not interested. But others may be. Loads of guests, anyway.

Larriva facts I forgot about or didn’t know: was in movies Roadhouse & Dusk till Dawn; plus David Byrne’s True Stories . Also produced a Gun Club album

Front man/vocalist Tito Larriva would go on to form his own band "Tito and Tarantula" where original Cruzados guitarist Steve Hufsteter would join him as part of his touring band

Man, I loved the Plugz,back when they used to show up on New Wave Theatre, where I first encountered several groups on this and related threads--wiki: New Wave Theatre was a television program broadcast locally in the Los Angeles area on UHF channel 18 and eventually on the USA Network as part of the late night variety show Night Flight during the early 1980s...It was noted for showcasing rising punk and new wave acts, including Bad Religion, Fear, the Dead Kennedys, 45 Grave, The Angry Samoans and The Circle Jerks...he format was extremely loose, owing partly to the desire to maintain the raw energy of the live performances and partly to the limited production budget. The program was presented in a format dubbed "live taped", in which the action was shot live and the video was then interspliced with video clips, photos, and graphics of everything from an exploding atomic bomb to a woman wringing a chicken's neck.
The Plugz were one of the first, if not the first, DIY L.A. punk bands. But I also remember being frustrated by the Cruzados albums, on Arista, although they were on some show, maybe Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, and very hot, with a Link Wray-style guitarist who I think left pretty soon. I couldn't emjoy Tito & Tarantula in From Dusk To Dawn because it was such a bad movie, but Desperado would have to be better, and its soundtrack looks pretty promising.

So, since we've got Gun Club and Dream Syndicate on here (Thread Police don't talk about me when I'm gone):

Savage Republic

Meteora

Mobilization Recordings

20 May 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LOWuMFaXSE

Savage Republic will release their album Meteora out May 20 in North America via Mobilization Recordings.

Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980’s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves as art-post punk-industrial pioneers. Throughout the 1980s, their five albums combined with their legendary live performances blurred and distorted the boundaries of post-punk, industrial, and soundtrack music – all wrapped up beautifully in Bruce Licher’s innovative graphic design.

After 1989, the Republic went quiet. 13 years passed before they would briefly resurface for a US reunion tour in support of the reissue of their five studio albums and related singles on CD. Thom Fuhrmann, Ethan Port, and Greg Grunke revived the band in 2005, and in 2006 they added drummer extraordinaire Alan Waddington to the fold. This lineup released the full length 1938 LP on Neurot Recordings (2007) and a pounding tribal cover of The Cure’s “Hanging Garden” on a compilation CD included in the French magazine Fear Drop #14 (2008).

In 2009, Savage Republic decided to raise their game. With the departure of Greg Grunke, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Kerry Dowling joined the band and they’ve never looked back since! The current four-piece line up (Thom Fuhrmann, Ethan Port, Kerry Dowling, and Alan Waddington) has taken the band’s discography to a whole new level with their bombastic live performances. Touring Europe regularly, they have created a live set that never lets the audience catch a breath – four musicians in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s playing with the passion and energy of bands 1/3 their ages.

This longest running lineup of the band have released the full length albums Varvakios (2012) and Aegean (2014), and singles “1938”/”Taranto” – on Italian label “A Silent Place” (2009), “God and Guns”/”Tranquilo” (2018), and “1938”/”Siam” (2019) – recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio during their Midwest Trek tour and capturing more of the raw energy this lineup unleashes in the live setting.

Meteora features some of Savage Republic's best work yet. Self-recorded in a secret cavernous location, their mix of tribal textures, political anthems and Morricone-esque surf instrumentals once again transport the listener to faraway lands at turns both haunting and beautiful. One of many highlights of Meteora is the pandemic inspired piece “Unprecedented” (gifted to the band by Wire’s Graham Lewis) that is sure to become a staple in their set list. This longest-lasting lineup of Savage Republic have infused all the power of their legendary live performances into a cinematic sonic dreamscape.

Over the decades, Savage Republic has performed with or collaborated with similar like-minded artists including Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedomoon, Einstürzende Neubauten, Flipper, David Yow, Camper Van Beethoven, The Dream Syndicate, Psi-Com, 100 Flowers, Kommunity FK, Christian Death, Sonic Youth, Live Skull, members of Big Black, The Minutemen, Fugazi, the Buzzcocks, and Graham Lewis of Wire.

If you have any questions, contact caroline at clarioncallmedia.com.

Maybe the Paisley Underground thread would work too.

Search and Destroy: Paisley Underground

Some really nasty behind the scenes business with the BoDeans from a few years ago I recently learned about via a friend's blog.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2018/06/11/bodeans-kurt-neumann-stepdaughter-accuse-former-band-member-sam-llanas-molestation/362436002/

Holy crap

FWIW Omnivore has a "back to school" sale that ends today - 50% off everything except pre-orders and new releases, so now's a good time to scoop up all of those Lone Justice reissues.

Have we mentioned the Bottle Rockets here? Def. indie, their own kind of border music, despite and during this one major label shot---From Real Gone Music:

We just have one new release for you this week, but it’s a good ‘un! Bottle Rockets leader Brian Henneman worked as Uncle Tupelo’s guitar tech for a couple of years before forming an alt-country band that rivalled his former bosses. Released in Atlantic in 1997, 24 Hours a Day represented The Bottle Rockets’ chance at the big time; it’s their sole major label release, and they pulled out all the stops for this one, hiring former Blackheart and Del Lord Eric “Roscoe” Ambel to produce and revisiting “Indianapolis,” the song that got Henneman a record deal back in the early ‘90s. Alas, the record failed to break through commercially; but there will always be a place in our hearts for this kind of hard-driving, honest, tuneful rock and roll, best exemplified by “Perfect Far Away” and “When I Was Dumb.” For its LP debut, we’re pressing this underappreciated classic in coke bottle (natch) clear vinyl housed inside an album jacket with inner sleeve…limited to 1000 copies!

24 Hours a Day [Atlantic, 1997]
Like Wilco, only not so generically or formalistically, this is a rock band. They love Lynyrd Skynyrd; they love the Ramones. Their country leanings merely ground their commitment to content--Brian Henneman's savory sense of character and place, the every-word-counts delivery that lends his singing its specific gravity. Going for simple, they pay a price in detail this time out. But the likes of "Smokin' 100's Alone" and "Perfect Far Away" would be pretty damn rough for Nashville. And "Indianapolis" is the sequel all us "1000 Dollar Car" fans were waiting for even if it was written first. A-

Although the first one I heard might make a better gateway--

xgau again:

The Brooklyn Side [ESD, 1994]
More raucous and pointed than such fellow Midwestern alternacountry-rockers as the Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, and Blood Oranges, these citizens of Festus, Missouri will hit you where you live when they lay out other people's pains and foibles--the welfare mom on Saturday night, the Sunday sports abuser, the constable with his radar gun, the local Dinosaur Jr. fan. They also speak plain truth when they criticize their car. And if they seem to relive cliches when they confess their many romantic errors, how do you think cliches get that way? (Including this one.) A-

Never had any of their albums myself, but they were pretty big with the Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Jayhawks loving crowd in college, which makes sense since they were from not terribly far away.

Glad those bands' fans liked 'em, though actual sound/taste on record more like proto-Drive By Truckers, also kinda Great Plains (and later OH band Two Cow Garage).

Oh yeah, wasn't meant to connect them to those others necessarily, just kind of always filed them away in that whole group even if sonically they weren't that close.

I still have a CD of The Brooklyn Side (in a box in the basement where my CDs live these days). Good album iirc, tho I haven't listened to it in forever. "Welfare Music" is one I remember.

"RADAR GUN"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpqTcGbn9r4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLMJl-ry314

“WESTERN EDGE - THE 80s” CONCERT PAYS TRIBUTE TO A GROUNDBREAKING DECADE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ROOTS MUSIC

Los Angeles, September 2024--The country rock of LA from the 1960s and 1970s is oft-heralded and celebrated while the decade of the 1980s that brought us highly influential “cowpunk” and “roots rock” bands in Southern California often takes a back seat.

Western Edge - the ‘80s is putting early work of Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Los Lobos, X, The Blasters and Rosie Flores front and center as well as the brief but groundbreaking work of Desert Rose Band, Lone Justice, Rank and File, The Long Ryders, The Beat Farmers and The Rave-Ups.

The event is inspired by the Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit celebrating all decades of LA country rock but this event is not connected with the Hall.

The special concert is October 20 at 8pm at The Zebulon Cafe Concert in L.A.’s Frogtown neighborhood. Tickets are available at zebulon.la.

Celebrating and paying tribute to these artists is a who’s who of country and roots music artists from the Los Angeles music community ranging from international superstar singer-songwriter and producer Shooter Jennings to up and coming acts like Leroy from the North and The Doohickeys.

The night is led by musical director and guitarist Chris Masterson of The Mastersons and The Wallflowers. The all-star house band features violinist/keyboardist Eleanor Whitmore (the Mastersons/The Whitmore Sisters), guitarist/pedal steel player John Schreffler Jr. (Shooter Jennings/Tanya Tucker), bassist Bonnie Whitmore (The Whitmore Sisters) and drummer Mark Stepro (The Wallflowers/Butch Walker).

The overflowing special guest list also includes: The Mastersons, Pearl Aday & Jim Wilson, Dustbowl Revival, Dead Rock West, Chris Pierce, Garrison Starr, Manda Mosher, John Surge, Grant Langston, Johnny Marfa, Nocona and Nancy Sanchez. With more to be announced.

The master of ceremonies is famed music executive and producer Bill Bentley currently a DJ on Sirius XM’s Cowpunks to Nowpunks radio show.

The promoters for the show are active in the LA roots community - Twang City, Hardscrabble Productions, Liz Garo of Stepping Stone Productions and Grand Ole Country Bunker. The event is the brainchild of Surge, who in addition to being a performer is a promoter with Twang City.

According to Surge his inspiration for the night was twofold: “I have an absolute passion for this era of music that influenced me to record songs by the Beat Farmers and Chip and Tony Kinman on two recent albums,” he explained. “And, frankly, I’ve spoken with many twenty- and thirty-somethings in the LA community who have no idea who many of the acts are or their legacy. This is a way to bring together all the generations in the community and celebrate a key element of the city’s country DNA.”

###

Press contact: Kim at kgmusicpress dot com | https://kgmusicpress.com/

I can see Chris and Eleanor of The Mastersons anchoring that, given their own albums, work w Steve Earle & The Dukes, also Eleanor and Bonnie's Whitmore Sisters album.