Thursday, April 30, 2009

teen artists @ gallery 414, may 2-17

nod and smile, an exhibit of the modern art museum of fort worth's teen artist project, will be at gallery 414, 414 templeton (a block east of university off west 5th street) from may 2nd through may 17th. a reception for the artists will be held this saturday from 6-9pm. otherwise, you can view the exhibit weekends from noon till 5pm, or weekdays by calling 817-336-6595 for an appointment.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

hmmm...

the star-t just reported that all fwisd schools will be closed until at least may 8th due to swine flu concerns. interesting.

the first music i remember

this little ditty was a #1 hit in the year of my genesis (1957). when we were little, my big sis would demand to hear it by repeatedly saying "roundroundround!" to our mother until she gave in and played it _yet again_. my sister would be mortified to know that i still remember this.

Dennis Gonzalez/Joao Paulo - "Scapegrace"


Portuguese label Cleanfeed continues its ongoing documentation of Dallas trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez's musical journey with this stunning album of duets he recorded with pianist-composer Joao Paulo Esteves da Silva during a trip to Portugal in 2007. For these recordings, Gonzalez dispensed with the electronic effects he sometimes employs with Yells At Eels, and the pure sounds of his Bb cornet and C trumpet flow into the harmonically rich, dancing chords of Paulo's piano to create a music of simple, pastoral beauty. There are moments of tension and dissonance as well, as in the trumpeter's "Tolleymore," one of three compositions he contributed to the nine-song set. The sound's spareness reveals the lyricism of Gonzalez's lines, and he and the pianist intertwine their extemporizations with exceptional empathy. Overall, the net effect is something akin to a classic '70s ECM session, but with a wash of Iberian warmth in place of Manfred Eicher's Teutonic austerity. The title, by the way, is defined as "an incorrigible rascal" in Merriam-Webster -- a humorous touch from Joao Paulo.

Here's a video of the two musicians playing a concert in the square of the village of Torres Vedras, which reminds me of something out of the film Cinema Paradiso.

how it spreads

the magical ash adams sends this profound clue, along with a link to bacon flavored lip balm.


coincidentally, this past weekend at the market, i had three customers ask for something called baconnaise, which was apparently featured on oprah. what on earth made somebody think _that_ was a good idea?

today

...my sweetie and i both woke up under the weather. since i have the day off, i'm going to spend a good part it sleeping in the hopes that i'll be feeling better in time for the yanari/PFF(F)T! extravaganza at lola's 6th street, which commences at 10pm tonight. the lineup includes mark cook, bob fisher, matt hembree, matt hickey, terry horn, and jon teague along with yr humble chronicler o' events, plus (hopefully) some ringers including high school students and teachers, a graffiti artist, and perhaps even billy wilson on theremin.

here's a pic of an infection-conscious pig i stole from t.tex edwards (who stole it from somebody named lou):


and here's a pic of hembree as he appeared with skin and bones drum cult last sat'day:

high school art

terry horn sends:

There's a good art exhibit of high school artists going on tonight at the Billingsley Field House behind Farrington Field at the intersection of University and Lancaster from 6pm to 8pm.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

at the red house

two thoughts occurred to me while watching this: 1) this has to be the most bizarre tv commercial of all time. and 2) north carolina must be one weird place.

over/under 'mats

i'm pretty sure that the matt hickey responsible for this list of overrated and underrated replacements songs isn't the same one that keeps posting goddamn pictures of roy wood on my myspace page. but you never know.

harry partch instruments

terry horn sent me this link to a page where you can play harry partch instruments, hear the maverick composer-instrument builder explain each one, and hear examples of them being played. fascinating stuff.

Monday, April 27, 2009

"you're so mechanical, man"

ever hear the one about the robot marimba player?

fairport convention

this week, all i wanna listen to is an ancient comp of these brit folk-rockers i have on vinyl, and coltrane's blue train. the last band i was in before i left new york for texas usedta play "sloth" from their full house alb, for some reason.



apropos of nothing, here's a cover by some irish duo of my fave richard thompson song ever.

sonic youth playeth house of blues in dallas

...on july 15th. it's a $25.50-$35 ticket, so i dunno. but they go on sale this weekend.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

my bloody valentine in dallas

frank cervantez said they were the loudest band he'd ever heard -- measured at 126 dB. i was home writing about suiciety.





nik cohn

here's a candygram from the gods: a vid of nik cohn, _the_ idol of my misspent yoof (where writers are concerned), doing readings from his classic awopbopaloobop alopbamboom (for my money, the best book about rock ever written, carducci notwithstanding) accompanied by two french guys and being interviewed en anglais by a third one. do yourself a favor, kid: buy it and read it. (this is the edition to seek out, not the deballed and defanged revised edition.) if you know me, ask me nicely and i'll lend you my copy.

Suiciety: An Oral History

(Photo courtesy of Frank Cervantez)

Suiciety was a heavy rock band from Fort Worth, Texas, that existed from 1988 to 1993. (There was also a Suiciety from New Jersey that existed from 1987 to 1994, and apparently another from Detroit.) They straddled the gulf between metal and punk, recorded a demo tape in 1991, released a 7-inch (“Unlearn”/“Empty”) on Oakland, California-based Repercussion Records in 1993, made a couple of short tours, and broke up around the end of that year.

Responding to a post about the band on the Unsavory Palindrome blog, a Fort Worth fan wrote, “It seemed that a tension followed them around. Whether it was Miguel throwing down his bass in disgust or Augie heaving a floor tom across the room, they always provided an outburst.”

The original lineup consisted of three friends from Paschal High School: Frank Cervantez, guitar; Augustine Rodriguez III, drums; and Miguel Veliz, bass/vocals.

Miguel Veliz: “After I saw the 1983 US Festival on Showtime when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I knew I wanted to play music. Ozzy and Van Halen did it to me. I saved up money and bought my first guitar right after fifth grade, but didn't really learn much for a couple of years. I learned more in the first year and a half of Suiciety than I learned the first five years I had a guitar.

“I met Frank when we were about 15. I was dating his cousin, who introduced us, and we hit it off immediately. We were into some of the same music -- Sabbath, Metallica, Zeppelin, Ozzy, Slayer, Venom -- and I turned him to a lot of punk rock and hardcore bands (D.R.I., Misfits, Cryptic Slaughter, the Accused, etc.). He was already a really good guitar player, but I was still playing ‘Smoke on the Water’ with one-finger ‘chords.’ He showed me some stuff and we decided to start a band.

“We tried to play with another friend of ours who had just bought a drum kit, but that didn’t work out. Frank jammed with Augie at a party, then later introduced him to me. It turned out [Augie’s] aunt lived across the street from me and we had met before when we were younger.”

Augie Rodriguez: “I dropped out of school in ’88. I’ve always known Frank. He was the kind of guy that always stood out. I noticed he had a Voivod shirt, and he noticed that I had a Nuclear Assault shirt. He had a B.C. Rich guitar and a Peavey Rage amp – affordable gear for people that bought clothes at Trader’s Village. I was the guy that played in the school band but couldn’t afford my own drum kit, but I knew a buddy who played in a father and son band, just the two of them, so we started banging out the kind of music you liked if you came from central Fort Worth – old Zeppelin and Sabbath.

“He introduced me to a guy he was in school with named Mikey, who turned out to be this guy I knew named Miguel who lived across the street from my aunt’s house. I had no idea that he was a real genius in an eggshell, waiting to be hatched. I didn’t know that he drew and wrote lyrics about death and played. We turned [Miguel] into a bass player. He had a knockoff Les Paul and wanted to be like Spike Cassidy in D.R.I. I wasn’t there, but I heard there were some fists thrown. We got him on an Ibanez Flying V bass.”

Miguel Veliz: “Augie was great, perfect for what we wanted to do, heavy hardcore thrash. Then it was decided that I would move over to bass and we had a three-piece band. This was about 1989. We named ourselves Just-Us. Terrible, I know. We practiced every time we could, at either my parents’ house or Augie’s mother’s house. We did mostly covers and we had two, maybe three originals.”

Augie Rodriguez: “Miguel had long hair back when if you went to a punk show and you didn’t have the Mohawk or the skin – and you weren’t white – you’d get your ass beat. He got lucky and met a drummer who was Hispanic after we’d been watching the white guys play. Our thing was to play what you want and what you know, and outdo what was on the radio. We were playing our favorites and learning. I wound up being a vegetarian in a meat eating band, wearing leather shoes and leather jackets.”

Frank Cervantez: “We played a few house parties – a lot of covers by D.R.I, Cryptic Slaughter, listening to a lot of Neurosis and starting to write originals. By 1990, we changed our name to Suiciety.”

Augie Rodriguez: “We grew up on the south side, where people were in gangs, killing each other. The name Suiciety was like society was killing itself, like a guy on a tightrope with the Klan and politics and liberalism and things like that all around.”

Frank Cervantez: “Our first official show was at Shawn’s Subs on University by TCU, on New Year’s Eve 1990. Jon Teague hooked us up with the show -- I think he was working there. He was in a band at the time called Crucified Choices with Brian Waits. They also played that night.”

Jon Teague: “I had a job at this deli on University, and Doug [Ferguson] was working there, and the guy that owned the place was cool enough to let us book that show there.”

Miguel Veliz: “We were all really nervous. We played just about every song we knew, songs by the Police, Doom, Excel, Final Conflict, the Cure and a couple of originals. That night, I barely had the nerve to sing the originals, so I let the crowd sing the cover songs. It was a blast! A lot of slam dancing, singing along, and we met many of our closest friends that night, including Linc Campbell, who we knew from another band called Lickity Split. A few weeks later, he offered to try and sing with the band, and we agreed.”

Linc Campbell: “Lickity Split was me and some guys I knew from Arlington Heights [High School]: Quincy Holloway [drums], Carey Blackwell [vox], Chris Pastore [guitar], and Daniel Jackson [bass].”

In his book Home Fire (Flapjack Press, 1993), Lickity Split frontman Blackwell chronicled the Fort Worth scene of the time:

The Agitators set got busted by the cops. The Tombstone will probably get shut down. This one cop was really cool, he told Chris and me, “If it was up to me I’d let ya’ll crazy white folks do whatever, but I’m just one man.”…

Why Am I…played, a few skinheads causing problems during their set. One skin put his beer down in the middle of the pit then backed away from it a few feet. He was just waiting for someone to knock it over so he could pound on them…

Tonight was our last show and no one seemed to take it lightly, the place was packed and we gave them everything. Everybody was into it. I’ve never sweat so much in my life. We all looked like we’d just gotten out of Chris’s swimming pool. My involvement in sunny side summer is drawing to a close, but it feels good to be going out like this.


Linc Campbell: “We broke up our senior year, and then I tried playing with [guitarist] Reagan Jobe, Chad Percy on bass, and a drummer, but there was no chemistry. It was kind of like having five dates with a girl before you realized it just wasn’t going to happen. I think the first time I saw Miguel and those guys playing, it was at a Lickity Split reunion show where I wasn’t playing. I talked to them and Reagan Jobe about jamming.”

Miguel Veliz: “After a few more shows as a trio, we did a few with Linc on vocals, including one at Paschal High School for my Music History class. Shortly after that, we acquired a second guitar player, Reagan Jobe, who we also met at our first show. That summer of 1991, we played our first show as a five piece, which also our first show at a club in Dallas.”

Augie Rodriguez: “There was some kind of drama with the principal at Paschal because I had dropped out. Slipped Disk was our first big show after Shawn’s. It was our first show outside of Fort Worth and there was a kind of scene clash that ended in a fight, but I had my dream drum set, Frank had a bigger amp. We also played at the Durutti Column and Joe’s Garage.”

Frank Cervantez: “We played a lot of punk house shows here [in Fort Worth] and in Dallas and Amarillo. We also played at Joe's Garage, Easy St. Theatre, Slipped Disk Studios, Common Ground, Mad Hatter’s, and I think the Engine Room. We played with Crucified Choices, Little Boy (Jon Teague and Chad Percy), Sleeping Body (Chad Percy, Carl Hallowell, and Jeff Leaper, all of Liberty Electric Tattooing), Voice of Reason, Burden (Eric Harris, Brian Waits, and Chad Percy), Shmu…”

Miguel Veliz: “We were lucky enough to play with some really great bands back then like Born Against, Antischism, Subvert, the Toadies, Buzzoven, Eyehategod, Rorschach, Voice of Reason, Schlong, Logical Nonsense, Sinker, Indian Summer, and Scorched Earth Policy. The audience was really young for the most part, not really a drinking crowd, mostly punk rock and metal kids, as well as your average Fort Worth music lover who loved all types of music, and a lot of family and neighborhood friends.”

Augie Rodriguez: “We had a community before we had a scene.”

Linc Campbell: “I was so stoked before we played Joe’s Garage the first time, from seeing Pantera there and other local metal bands that I really loved. I felt really let down when our performance didn’t live up to expectations. House shows were more intimate, with lots of younger kids who were into punk rock.

“Once when my parents were in Austin, we were going to practice at their house from early afternoon and just play all night long. We invited all of our friends, and it wound up being a show. My parents were supposed to be home at three o’clock the next afternoon, so the next day, we were in the process of moving back some of the furniture that we’d moved outside to make room for all the amplifiers when my parents pulled up about two hours early, wanting to know ‘What’s been going on here?’”

Frank Cervantez: “Our original music was really influenced by Neurosis: heavy, fast, moody and sometimes longer type of songs dealing with religion, politics and life. We were 17-18 years old.”

Augie Rodriguez: “It was a weird mix, the Paschal dropout and students with our Zep metal and the Arlington Heights Swiz hardcore fans.”

Linc Campbell: “Sometime in ’89 or ’90, we played a big metal show in this huge warehouse off Beach and I-30. There were all these generic ‘80s actual metal bands, and we had a couple of songs where I’d play keyboards – not really keyboards, just general noise. Afterwards, guys from other bands came up to us and told us we definitely sounded different from every other band. We all came from both sides of the metal-punk divide.”

Jon Teague: “Hearing those guys play made me realize I needed to learn how to play better! They were all great players, and you could tell there were a lot of influences at work there – basically everything from that time that I still like to go back to. There was nobody else in Fort Worth doing anything like that.”

Miguel Veliz: “We recorded the demo after we had about six or seven original tunes that we wrote as a five piece. We just found an ad for a recording studio in the back of the Star-Telegram and gave the guy a call. He had a place in Haltom City that he did country music demos at, and he had never recorded a heavy rock band. But we didn't care; we wanted to record our demo.”

Frank Cervantez: “We recorded the demo tape at S.D.S. 8-Track Studio. [Engineer] Charlie Echols mainly recorded country music from what I understand, but for some reason, he liked us.”

Augie Rodriguez: “Miguel was the footwork man. If there were some shoes, his feet were in ‘em. He knew people, and he found out about this studio in Haltom City where people cut demos. I always had a job, because that’s what you do if you’re a dropout and your dad says you’ve got to work, but the other guys sold skateboards and records so we could make that demo, just for ourselves.”

Linc Campbell: “I think we were in separate rooms or something. It felt really weird, because we were used to the live experience.”

Augie Rodriguez: “I was caged up in a room, but the other guys were plugged into the main switchboard.”

Linc Campbell: “I wish we’d done other songs. It was really raw punk hardcore, with an obvious leaning toward heavy music in general. It was different than what we matured into. Listening to the lyrics, they’re filled with general 19-year-old angst about having a beef with the world.”

Miguel Veliz: “We did all the songs we knew, including a really bad attempt at a funk song, and it was pretty decent for what it was. Within a year or so, we wouldn’t be playing any of those songs. The lyrics had more of a political edge to them and we had progressed to writing songs on a more personal level.”

Augie Rodriguez: “My cousin heard the demo tape and said, “No – that’s not you. It’s something else that you’ll find eventually.”

Miguel Veliz: “Later that year, after we recorded our demo tape, Reagan was out of the band and Linc moved on to second guitar and vocals and I started to share vocals with him.”

Linc Campbell: “At first I enjoyed the energy of a frontman, just bouncing around. When I started playing guitar, it felt like going home. When Reagan left, it wasn’t him leaving – it was the rest of us throwing him out. I only wish we’d been grown up enough to handle that differently.”

Augie Rodriguez: “I always wore black, so I got to be the guy that dropped the hatchet. Linc didn’t know. We didn’t really like his vocals, but he played a meaner guitar, complementing Frank. After that, we were like three Juans and a John.”

Miguel Veliz: “In the summer of 1992, I decided to leave the band. I was frustrated and I always had high hopes of doing more than we were realistically able to. I went on tour with Sleeping Body and then Voice of Reason as a roadie. While I was in Oakland, I met Adam [Nana] who ran a little label called Repercussion. He asked me about a band that was described as a cross between Rites of Spring and Black Sabbath in Maximumrockandroll. The band was Suiciety. I just laughed and said we weren't together anymore, but I stayed in touch with him.

“After the tours and a brief stay in Amarillo, I moved back to Fort Worth and we got the band back together. After we won some recording time at a show at Mad Hatter’s, we were able to record the 7-inch.”

Frank Cervantez: “The 7-inch was recorded at M.A.R.S. Studio, which is exactly where Spiral Diner is now on Magnolia. Our good friend Summer Semmens paid for the recording.”

Miguel Veliz: “I got back in touch with Adam at Repercussion and he decided to release whatever we recorded. The problem was that the guy who owned the studio stiffed us on the free time and made us pay for it after giving us some sob story, and we were broke, so we had to borrow money from our friend Summer to pay for it. So that fucker still owes us some studio time if he didn’t pawn all his gear for crack money.”

Augie Rodriguez: “Summer paid so we could finish these songs that took a whole night to record.”

Miguel Veliz: “Repercussion released the self-titled 7-inch with two songs ‘Unlearn’ and ‘Empty,’ with artwork by myself and a few other friends.”

The record’s sleeve and label featured artwork by Miguel, Daniel Jackson, Justin Wood, and Jon Teague, as well as lyrics in English and Spanish. The band’s sound on those two songs has the kind of heft and power that, heard close-up in a live situation, makes your viscera shudder and the ground tremble like the Earth’s come off its axis. The guitars and bass lock into the deepest, darkest riffage imaginable with an absolute singularity of purpose while Augie pummels his kit like he’s pounding coffin nails and Linc and Miguel trade vocal lines like an angry demon and his minion.

Linc Campbell: “I have absolutely no memory of recording that, just getting the record and the feeling I got from having it.”

Augie Rodriguez: “We were doing something that was positive for us and negative for our parents.”

Miguel Veliz: “Our touring experiences really only consisted of some weekend outings to Colorado and New Mexico, and all over Texas. At one point after the release of the 7-inch, we decided to tour, and I started booking a whole tour that would have taken us all over the country. It wasn't until after I had been booking it for several weeks that the others told me that for various reasons they would not be able to do the tour. So I reluctantly cancelled all the dates that had been booked. And quite honestly, I was bitter about that for a really long time.”

Augie Rodriguez: “Miguel’s ego was too big for this spot. He throws big splashes of paint that coat the world in different colors. He wrote to Maximumrockandroll. We did a ‘getting-your-feet-wet’ tour that fizzled, due to our immaturity and lack of experience. We were hurt and selfish, and there were issues with venues. We got kicked in the shins because it wasn’t meant to be.”

Jon Teague: “Miguel’s the most driven person I know when it comes to doing what he wants to do, and Frank’s the most positive person I’ve ever known.”

Augie Rodriguez: “If someone were to try to harm Frank…I’d go to jail for that man.”

Linc Campbell: “We went through a phase where we were starting to play places where you could hear everything well, and then we’d play places with stages where you needed monitors to hear and we didn’t have them. We were growing a little bit and we did a lot of things that were based on feeling and cues. In practice, you could hear it all because you were just surrounded by the sound, and then you couldn’t hear it live. We’d get pissed at each other. I was in Waco at school, and sometimes I’d come offstage after playing and just get in my car and drive back to Waco.”

Frank Cervantez: “The first tour was great -- only three shows: the Fort, Amarillo, and Albuquerque with us and friends in tow -- a 6 foot bong, Sinker from Oakland. Got lost in the mountains in New Mexico and had a great time. We did another little tour in ‘93 with Burden and about eight other friends to Amarillo and Pueblo, Colorado. Way fun and one of our best shows, in a basement!”

Linc Campbell: “We had friends in Amarillo. The guys in Sleeping Body and Voice of Reason all lived up there, and it became our home away from home.

“Once, we were supposed to play a show in Albuquerque, but it got cancelled because the guy who owned the venue went to some party or something. We wound up heading to a party about an hour from the city, up in the mountains. We listened to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic all the way up there, hearing Frank’s infectious laugh as we all cracked up at the skits between the songs. There was a stage set up, and we were getting ready to play when the generator broke. I wound up hanging out with a girl on top of our van, drinking Jim Beam, which is funny, because I don’t like whiskey. It was beautiful: lush green, not a cloud in the sky, stars everywhere.

“Towards the end, we played a show in Amarillo where there were maybe three or four hundred people in the audience – one of the biggest that we played. I remember thinking, ‘Who needs chemicals if you have a ritual like this?’”

Miguel Veliz: “At the end of the Colorado gig, there was some tension about leaving or something stupid, but we all held on to it for a little while. We were young and didn’t always handle our frustrations well.”

Linc Campbell: “Colorado was the undoing of everything.

“Before, I’d gone to L.A. for spring break with my roommates, and while we were there, we went to Tijuana and I brought back bottles and bottles of every kind of pills. We went to Amarillo and Colorado the next week and everybody was drinking, smoking, and going nuts. At one gig, I had every bottle of pills I’d bought lined up on my amplifier, and Jeff Leaper broked two whippets into a balloon, which I inhaled right before we started. As a result, I don’t remember what a lot of people said was one of our best shows.

“We went up to Pueblo and I had Augie, Brian Waits, and a girl that was with Augie in my truck, pulling the U-Haul. Augie and Brian got in some argument, and Augie wound up really wanting to beat up Brian. I told him, ‘I’ll leave you here. Stop being such a jackass!”

Augie Rodriguez: “After New Mexico, Miguel and I decided ‘Fuck this shit’ without Linc and Frank knowing. We were being unfair to each other. Then we played the Gigglesnort Hotel [Miguel’s house], which was a disappointment that hurt more than two failed tours. We were crying with our instruments at that show.”

Miguel Veliz: “Once we were back home in Fort Worth, we decided to part ways and we had our final show at the Gigglesnort Hotel in southside Fort Worth with Indian Summer and Policy of Three. Frank, Linc, and myself continued to play together as Bloodsunearth [with Frank on drums], and we remained friends with Augie, who we would still see often.”

Frank Cervantez: “Suiciety just kind of fell apart, I guess it was time. We had a good run and made some good music and most importantly made lots and lots of friends.”

Miguel Veliz: “I think we stood out for not being so punk at the punk shows and not so metal at the metal shows. We played anywhere we could with whoever would play with us. We just tried to be an honest band trying to be heard, trying to play anytime we could. We made lifelong friendships and wrote some songs that still mean the world to me today, and only Linc, Augie, Frank and myself could have written and performed those songs. I feel lucky to have been able to share that with them.”

Linc Campbell: “The way we broke up wasn’t well thought out, but then, what is when you’re 21 years old? We played a reunion show in ’98 for the tenth anniversary of Skanksgiving, which was a party that was held at Jon Teague’s mother’s house the Friday after Thanksgiving, starting in 1988. It was great – a 12 x 12 box with 40 kids inside, stage diving off the walls!”

Augie Rodriguez: “Music today is not what it was. If you weren’t there when it was a community, not a scene, you’re missing out.”

Post-Suiciety, Miguel, Augie, and Linc played together in the heavy jam band Kabuki. Miguel and Augie played together as a duo in Solomon, and Frank and Miguel went on to play together in the dub reggae band Sub Oslo. Miguel has also played in the heavy bands Sourvein, Blood of the Sun, and Graves At Sea. Frank now plays with psychedelic rockers Stumptone.

Linc played in Cadillac Fraf & The Mockingbird Cartel with Chad Percy as the band’s frontman and Woody Guthrie figure. In early 2009, Suiciety regrouped to play shows with Brian Waits’ band Garuda in Fort Worth (May 1st at Lola’s 6th Street with the Great Tyrant) and Austin (May 2nd at Lovejoy’s with Shed Alford) on the occasion of what would have been Chad’s 37th birthday.

Chad Morgan Percy – Linc’s Arlington Heights classmate who played bass and sang in Little Boy, fronted Sleeping Body, played sax in Burden and Ghostcar, traveled across America on freight trains and his thumb, worked at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, and invented his own legend -- died January 10th of injuries sustained in an accident the previous September. Of his many gifts to his friends, perhaps the greatest was a reminder that you should hold close the people and things that you love in life, because they will not be with you always.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

soft focus: mike watt

from vbs.tv.

jane jacobs


the dear little lady in the pic is jane jacobs, who envisioned "vital, healthy communities" and knew what it took to create them. she left the planet on this date, 2006.

cat. box.

i thought cats could only see in three dimensions, but augie got real interested in the screen while this was playing.

Friday, April 24, 2009

prairie fest this sat'day!

humanization 4tet @ firehouse gallery, 5.22.2009

the humanization 4tet, a stellar outfit consisting of portuguese gtrist luis lopez, tenorman rodrigo amado, aaron gonzalez on bass and stefan gonzalez on drums, be's at the firehouse gallery, 4147 meadowbrook, on friday, may 22nd. it's a metrognome collective presentation. too bad i'll be playing with the stoogeband at the moon that night.

last night

...had drinks and tempura leftovers with terry horn and talked about the upcoming yanari/PFF(F)T! extravaganza at lola's 6th street next wednesday. might have some guests, including high school students and graffiti artists. should be fun.

firehouse gallery opening pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her pics of dave dove/sonia flores/jason jackson, yells at eels, and the mashup i dubbed "yells at doves" playing at the firehouse gallery/metrognome collective reopening last sunday on her photo blog. (click on the images to make 'em big.)

this weekend @ lola's 6th street

(click on the images to make 'em big.)


Thursday, April 23, 2009

as safe as yesterday is

hickey's humble pie post got me thankin' about the pie, one of the forgotten faves of my misspent yoof. sure, they were as crass as the jeff beck group, and a step down from the small faces for pint-sized front dude steve marriott. still, i liked their uber-obscure debut alb as safe as yesterday is -- recorded before dee anthony got ahold of them, when they were still trying to be traffic -- real much when i found it back in '71. even peter frampton seemed like he was gonna be an interesting gtrist and songwriter, seven yrs before he morphed into the pink-haired monster of that alb that evabody must have owned back then but no one will admit to today.





tempura lessons learned

...from my second attempt: next time i'm gonna lay the shrimp on paper towels to dry before i dip 'em in the batter. and try dredging 'em in panko and nutritional yeast before (or after? have to research) the egg-flour-and-water mixture.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

tonight

lay on my back outside and saw the big dipper after cooking dinner for two of my fave humans on earth. life's damn good, doncha know.

my scrawl in the fw weekly

a cover story i wrote on experimental music in the fort and a review i penned of the jessica lurie ensemble's cd shop of wild dreams are in this week's fw weekly.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

document for toshinori kondo

this is my fave piece by dennis gonzalez's band yells at eels, and i got to hear them play it the other night at the re-opening of the firehouse gallery at 4147 meadowbrook. ben rogers and the metrognome collective have done a great job with the inside of the space, making it perfect for showing art or showcasing music. dennis' sons aaron and stefan are about to play a couple of dates with pianist curtis clark in dallas and austin (may 1-2), after which the boys will embark on a u.s. tour with the humanization 4tet with portuguese gtrist luis lopes and saxophonist rodrigo amado (may 22-june 8; specifics are on their myspace thingy). my sweetie's been working on a slideshow of yae, the houston trio of dave dove-sonia flores-jason jackson, and the mashup of the two which i called "yells at doves" using the original recording of this toon from 2001 as a soundtrack. hearing it the other night, was struck by how much growing these cats have done musically since then. (this versh is from club dada in dallas, 2.12.2009.)

gunslingers vid



further proof the japanese do everything better

...like making scotch.

Monday, April 20, 2009

today

...i finished the fw weekly cover story (praise ceiling cat), saw a squirrel playing in one of the flowerpots on our front porch, and almost let augie the kitten out when i neglected to close the door securely after taking the cans down to the street (big love to dre for seeing him and shooing him back inside the house).

walked to the ginger man to get a beer and a sammitch (inspahrd by ray and jon's favorable comments at the last stooge prac) and ran into paul of paul & nicole (regular wreck room habitues back when it was possible to be one). since the bar was closed and i didn't feel like waiting 20 minutes for them to open, i headed over to montgomery street cafe for a chicken fried steak instead. the waitress couldn't believe that i was old enough to remember smilin' jack in the funny pages. walked home and took a nap with midnight on my chest and the who on the dvd player.

my sweetie came home and we headed for big d to see mike watt play a show that was as much wish fulfillment for yr humble chronicler o' events as the nervebreakers at dada, boris at rubber gloves, and powertrane at the blind pig in ann arbor. got there early and spent some time knocking around lower greenville. stopped for drinks at snuffer's next door to the granada, where jay hardesty and i used to go to flirt with one of the waitresses when we got back from colorado in '80.

brian, one of the cats who works at the granada, worked at the cd warehouse where i sold my entahr rekkid collection between 2002-2004, and is on both volumes of the one hundred second dash comp. met up with liles and paul quigg of decadent dub team fame and had some righteous seafood and talk at aw shucks across the street from the granada. also met the cat that owns the webb gallery in waxahachie, which justin robertson has pulled my coat to many times and where my sweetie has been but i haven't. we'll have to make a trip out there some sunday when i have off from work.

watt actually played every song i wanted to hear -- well, nothing from contemplating the engine room, but a handful of songs from double nickels on the dime, "the red and the black," and "funhouse." the toons from the new opera sounded good, too. he looked fit and seemed to be almost exploding out of himself with enthusiasm. his missingmen set up close together enough that the titanic bassist could smack raul morales' cymbals when he took a notion to, and gtrist-singer tom watson nearly collided with the drummer at one point.

watson sings kinda like ed crawford did in fIREHOSE, and plays gtr like a cross between d. boon (the choppy riddim) and nels cline (the _outside_ moves). the versh of "little johnny jewel" they encored with was a little on the rough side, with watt goading raul to go off on the drums when watson played the song's trademark four-note ascending riff, but we wouldn't have dug it as much if it'd been as practiced as middle-slotted band the lions' rawk-moves-by-the-numbers set. those cats could really play, but their catalog of poses seemed kinda contrived next to watt and the missingmen's organic vibe. a nice (late) capper to a great weekend.

(these missingmen vids are from sweden 2006, but you get the idea.)





ADDENDUM: bought a raymond pettibon t-shirt from watt too after the show. hooray!

curtis clark trio w/aaron and stefan gonzalez

another ray liberio stooge poster

thisun's for the show _after_ next one (remember, kids: may 9th at lola's 6th, may 22nd at the moon). click on the image to make it big.

the shape of jazz to come

my jazz-loving brother-in-law sent me this wall street journal piece about ornette's ground-breaking, earth-shaking first atlantic album. thanks, mike!

r.i.p. j.g. ballard

the visionary author has died at 78.

further digital detox

by me, from iloveftw.com.

townshend on "quadrophenia"

...from the times. ol' whonose still gives the best interview of any rockarolla.

coincidentally, i woke up this morning with this song in my head, which i now realize is essentially the same as "season of the witch." duh.



Saturday, April 18, 2009

proof the japanese do everything better

digital detox week, april 20th-26th

adbusters challenges you to do the unthinkable: unplug for one week and relate to the natural world around you. um, i won't be able to, because i have a story running in the fwweekly the 22nd, but after that, it's definitely an idea i'm considering.

the jerry garcia court case

i'm speechless. she only wanted $5 million. just wait till townshend's wife gets her day in court.

kinks

t. tex also posted this kinks reappraisal from magnet. for my money, you can't go wrong with any kinks alb from '66 to '71 (approximately face to face to percy). ray davies was undoubtedly the most artful brit songwriter of the '60s, bar none (and his bro. dave weren't no slouch, either). if you haven't heard his masterworks, get busy!





syd

t. tex edwards just posted this nice brit doco on the early daze of pink floyd.

Friday, April 17, 2009

one foot in the grave

was dicking around on the intarweb and found this vid of johnny thunders sitting in with walter lure's waldos in nyc, march 1991. he'd be dead a month and change later.

my scrawl in the fw weekly

a review i penned of the new unknown instructors cd funland is an "online exclusive" on fwweekly.com, just in time for instructor mike watt's gig at dallas' granada theater next monday. yeah!

the bomber

one fingered fist has been known to bust out this old james gang song. i just wish they'd learned the "bolero"/"cast your fate to the wind" bit in the middle. who knows, maybe they'll do it at the moon tonight, when the fist joins darth vato on their victory lap with sunglasses & mushrooms. we live in hope.

trinity shakes

it ain't shakespeare in the park, but the trinity shakespeare festival brings the bard's twelfth night and romeo and juliet to tcu from june 9th to june 28th. hooray!

don't stop believin'

while i'm not a journey fan, i still have fond memories of hearing this song from when i was in korea ('82-'83), which include the sound of dan brake's cassette player clicking on and off through the floor in the barracks on the rare weekend morning when i was sleeping in. and i like the way petra haden sings it much better 'n i did steve perry. plus this vid is just odd.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

watt





hot house of omagarashid

i thought it was weird hearing this old yardbirds song over the p.a. at dada last saturday. and then i stumbled on this...

speaking of bob dylan

...his favorite songwriter is jimmy buffett, according to this int from the huffington post. hahahahaha.

"an ugly wind"

here's farren on the "teabaggers."

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

tempura tonight

...was not bad, but still needs some work. batter is a cinch: an egg, a cup of ice water (very important to keep it cold -- the colder it is, the less grease the food absorbs), and a cup of flour. next time, need to buy bigger shrimp and have them butterflied. and use more oil -- i shy away from deep fat frying, but it's really the only way to do this dish properly. still, not a bad first effort (if i do say so myself). also, need to make onion rings rather than big slices. but the veg (besides yellow onion, green pepper, yellow squash, shiitake mushrooms and broccoli) were pert damn fine, and the shrimp wasn't too shabby either. altho nowhere near the magnificent splendor of my moms'. or the tempura udon at tokyo cafe.

bing crosby and rosemary clooney

ok, hickey. i grew up listening to these two on the radio every day (before we got a tv when i was four). my parents had a couch with a spring sticking out of it, and whenever we got poked in the ass by it, my big sis and i usedta say "the bingcrosby [one word] got me." i like these clips much better than the one of der bingle singing "the little drummer boy" with bowie.



it's all over now baby blue

t.tex edwards just posted a cover of my fave-ever dylan cover (that'd be the chocolate watch band's cover of them's cover of the song in the title to this post). a nice surprise to come home from stoogeprac to.



danny kaye

for some reason hickey only knows, this song has been stuck in my head today.

john holbrook's death row pics

john holbrook sends:

Dear Family, Friends and Fellow Abolitionists,

Here is a brief update about some upcoming exhibits of my Texas death row pictures:

1. I will be exhibiting the images at the Bass Performance Hall from May 1 to May 10. This exhibit will be during the opera ‘Dead Man Walking’. You do not have to buy tickets to the opera to see the exhibit.

2. I will next be exhibiting the death row images and giving a brief lecture at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on May 6th starting at 7:00 p.m. This event will be a fund raiser for the ‘Innocence Project’ and they will be taking donations at the door.

3. I will be exhibiting the death row images in the Rotunda of the Texas State Capitol Building in Austin, Texas. This exhibit will be for approximately 8 days starting the last week of May.

In The Name Of Love,

John Holbrook




further t. tex edwards

watching t. tex edwards fronting the nervebreakers, i was reminded of my friend carl pack when he used to front the gideons. both tex and carl are guys with impeccable taste who've lived hard for a long time. i'm glad they're both still around. in the old days, tex usedta remind me of ray davies, not just because the nb's covered the kinks' "i'm not like everybody else," but because of a certain sardonic worldview that tex and ray seemed to share.

been listening to tex's cd pardon me, i've got someone to kill with out on parole, originally released by sympathy for the record industry back in '89 and reished in '07 by saustex media, the same fine label that's brought you crucial material by the hickoids and the loco gringos. it's a collection of honky-tonk murder ballads by the likes of johnny paycheck, porter wagoner, and wynn stewart, culled from fort worth expat mike buck's rekkid collection (a high recommendation in itself) and done up in the grand ole style, except for a couple of hallucinatory moments like "strangler in the night," credited to "a. de salvo" (you're probably too young to remember the boston strangler), which features an echolalic duet between overdubbed texes while the band plays a variation on santo & johnny's "sleep walk." it's an approach that's been emulated by fellow texan eccentric homer henderson (who, these days, plays with buck in austin's eve & the exiles), but tex got there first, a pioneering cowpunk with a sensahumour (and taste for the perverse) that makes this a more interesting listen than all those real _serious_ punk-'pokes like uncle tupelo.

r.i.p. jeff hyman

joey ramone checked out on this date in 2001. hard to believe three of these guys are now on the other side. but how'd he know youtube was coming?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

tomorrow

i'm doing laundry, working on a couple of stories, ops checking the new amp, taking a long walk, and cooking tempura before i go to stoogeprac. tempura batter's easy: just an egg, a cup of flour, and a cup of ice water (so whatever you're cooking doesn't absorb too much oil). my sweetie got shrimp from the market today. i'm thinking onion, pepper, broccoli, mushroom, and squash to go with. and rice, of course.

"states rights over unrestrained federal power"

but the fed wasn't oppressive under dubya, was it, rick? "as you go to tea parties?" oh my.

r.i.p. rocky hill

texas blues-psych pioneer rocky hill has left the planet, aged 62.

this sat'day in the fort

that 1 guy visits the longhorn saloon, hembree playeth with the skin and bones drum cult at lola's 6th street, and the fifth avenue jazz collective appeareth at arts fifth avenue (where else?). i, on the other hand, will be closing the market and laying dog in anticipation of yells at eels at the firehouse/metrognome on sunday and mike watt at the granada in dallas on monday.

Monday, April 13, 2009

un autre amp du jour

i got one that my "fourth dtr" from austin had and wanted to get rid of. the non-snazz aspect: it's a peavey. the more encouraging aspect: it's a 50w 2x12 tube combo. as righteous as the tone is from the h&k, for stoogesets, it tends to get buried by richard's orange. this might work better in that context. will dick around with it some while i'm off work on wednesday.

nervebreakers pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her pics of the nervebreakers, spector 45, and "men with cameras" (you know who you are!) on her photo blog. (click on 'em to make 'em big and leave her a comment, why doncha?)

throbbing gristle

from wfmu. this one's for you, hickey.

Yanari/PFF(F)T! @ Lola's 6th St., Wednesday, 4.29.2009


Mark Cook - Warr guitar, loops
Bob Fisher - sax, flute
Matt Hembree - bass
Matt Hickey - electric gopichand, synth
Terry Horn - turntables, laptop
Ken Shimamoto - guitar
Jon Teague - drums

Sunday, April 12, 2009

cymbata.blogspot.com

jazz legend ronald shannon jackson gots a blog now. check him.

film screening downtown wednesday!

this from metrognome collective:

The Metrognome Collective and qCinema have teamed up to bring you an evening of crass hilarity.


"Beastly Men With Cameras: Six Comedic Shorts" is exactly what it sounds like.


Six funny short flicks will be viewed at Four Day Weekend in Downtown Fort Worth (312 Houston St.
Fort Worth, TX 76102)

We start everything at 8pm, admission is $5, all proceeds go to benefit the Metrognome as we get ready for opening our new gallery.


Parking is free downtown after 6pm on weekdays, and there will be a bar in the theater.


No excuses? See you there!

'Hot Pussy' (David Lowery/Curtis Heath)
'Abortion Infomercial' (Curtis Heath)
'My Mom Smokes Weed' (Clay Liford)
'The Stranger' (Clay Liford)
'Booty Recall' (Yen Tan)
'Receive Bacon' (James M.
Johnston)

the fairmount goes byob this tuesday

this from the fairmount:

All -

JR and I have come to the conclusion that keeping the music playing is FAR more valuable than selling liquor. We will begin running a BYOB / MUSIC venue this Tuesday. That eliminates the taxes, TABC and other expenses that have put us in the current situation.

So.... Come drink up our liquor tonight and prepare to bring your own from now on.

Our primary goal remains presenting the best live music in Fort Worth and allowing local artists to be heard.

I hope this message brings a smile to your face...it did ours.

Thank you to all who donated to our cause. Your funds will allow us to settle our local and state accounts.
MANY, MANY THANKS for your support!!!

Cheers,
Sally & J.R.

t. tex edwards

an interesting talk with walter ray brock

...who played farfisa in the nervebreakers before barry kooda was in the band. walter remembers playing "some redneck joint" in fort worth (was there any other kind back ca. '76?) when the band was still called mr. nervous breakdown and everyone agreed after five or six songs that they weren't a good fit with the venue. walter remembers that mike haskins renamed the band the nervebreakers "so people wouldn't think it was a country thing" after flipping through his record collection and spying an album by john mayall's bluesbreakers. also talked with walter about cambodian rock, dengue fever, and how the farfisa supplanted a lot of traditional asian instruments because it would stay in tune.

we were at dada to see the nervebreakers, who kicked much ass after hot opening sets by sparrow box (featuring jerry dirkx, ex-telefones, on bass alongside ex-quad pi musos) and spector 45. the big hometown crowd and better sound mix than their austin venues prolly got their blood up (plus barry had played a gig earlier that evening with the cartwrights). hope tex's interferon treatment goes well and mike can find a label to release the new albs (face up to reality, new recordings of previously unrecorded material, and why am i so flipped?, an archival compilation of previously unreleased tracks).

'twas a gas to finally meet liles in the flesh for the first time and see a bunch of folks i hadn't seen in forever. deep ellum, while not as crowded as it was the last time i was there (five years ago), seems to be reverting to the mix of art and music spaces that it was when i first set foot there 15 years ago, which would seem to make it more hospitable to the arts community that got displaced during its yrs of full-on music ghetto-dom. my sweetie shot a bunch of pics, which in the fullness of time she'll post on her photo blog.

next sunday @ firehouse gallery, ftw

(click on image to make it big)

yeah! yeah! yeah!

some good advice from barry kooda's early-90's combo.

do-re-mi

Saturday, April 11, 2009

just got mike watt tixxx

...for his 4.20 show at the granada theater in dallas. two trips to dallas in two weeks...wtf?!?!?

from the l.a. times, here's watt on RON.

just picked up stooge posters

...and the nice girl behind the counter asked if the guy in the pic was ashton kutcher. (i almost said, "who?" before i remembered.) when i told her it was iggy, she registered not a glimmer of recognition. is punk the new music of the superannuated?

nervebreakers (barry on lead before the amp quits), antone's records, atx, 3.21.2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

i think we have a new candidate...

...for "the most excruciating sounds on earth." and this isn't even supposed to be funny. i dare you to sit all the way through it.

liles on the nervebreakers and early dallas punk

...in the observer blog, including a coupla quotes from yr humble chronicler o' events.

stoogeaphilia @ lola's, 5.9.2009

see ray turn 37 live on stage! (click on the image to make it big)

hideki ishima 2009 int

...from jrawk.com. the flower travellin' band gtrist talks about the sitarla (which he's played in place of the gtr since 1990), his improv band view, and playing from a japanese perspective. makes me sorry i got to austin too late to see ftb at sxsw. here's some vid from their new year's eve stand in toronto.



Thursday, April 09, 2009

doug sahm

i'm sure glad i got to see this cat before he left the planet -- once in austin at soap creek and once in a strip joint in abilene because it was the only room in town with a stage and a p.a. system.





mayday @ lola's 6th

(click on image to make grande)

Five Short Films @ 4 Day Weekend Next Wednesday

Q Cinema will be screening five short films starting at 8pm, next Wednesday, April 15th, at Four Day Weekend, located downtown at 312 Houston. It's a fundraiser for the Metrognome Collective, who have taken over the old Firehouse Gallery space at 4147 Meadowbrook. Admission is $5. A better Tax Day deal you cannot find.

a sweet soul is gone

tom finn shared this from yesterday's star-t:

Dennis Jack Cornwall, 62, passed from this life Friday, March 20, 2009.

Memorial service: 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9, in beautiful Skyvue Memorial Gardens. A reception will be held afterwards at Jazz Cafe. Interment: Dennis was buried Friday, March 27, in Skyvue Memorial Gardens.

Dennis was born Aug. 18, 1946, in Coos Bay, Ore. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1972. He was a medic with the 101st Airborne Division. Dennis will be remembered and loved by the many friends he made along the path of life and the Trinity River bike trails that he traveled on a regular basis. Some will remember him not only as a friend, but also as a philosopher, a hero and a guru.

Survivors: Sons, Craig A. and Christopher B. Cornwall.


(dennis always use to call my wife zoe, for some reason. peace to you, brother.)

when i was young...

...i knew people who self-identified as junkies, and were proud of it. how fucked up is that? and yes, they're all dead now.

jim crye

found out that a gtrist i know, whose band lifesize i once profiled for the fw weekly, is now teaching drafting at south hills high school, where he has a gtr club with 15 students (he's equally adept at jerry reed-style clawin' and melodic metal shredarama), and is getting certified by adobe this summer so he'll be able to teach kids a fistful of programs so they'll have marketable skills on graduation. right on!

two degrees of separation

there's a guy i work with who doesn't know any of my kids but is the crush-object for one of my oldest's friends, who doesn't realize that he has a g-f who goes to tcu nursing school with my son-in-law. proof positive that i live in a small town, which i wouldn't have any other way.

paul trynka on ron asheton

from the ex-mojo scribe and iggy biographer's blog.

portobello shuffle

...is the provisional title of a planned tribute to the deviants and pink fairies, the ladbrooke grove-squatting brit versh of the mc5/stooges and the band they evolved into after ignominiously shitcanning evil dictator mick farren. the alb will also be a testimonial to devies/fairies roadie boss goodman, who suffered a stroke in 2006. from a recent myspace bull, here are the particulars:

Former Dead Kennedy, Jello Biafra and his band have recorded what he describes as a "space jam" cover of The Deviants' 'Metamorphosis Exploration'. He is also adding a spoken word reflection of 'Deviation Street' as its introduction.

Darryl Read was in late '60s early '70s underground / proto-punk band Crushed Butler with Jesse Hector (later of Hammersmith Gorillas). Read has since collaborated with too many people to mention here, but Terry Stamp, the guitarist of another pre-punk outift from the early 1970s, Third World War, Ray Manzarek of The Doors, and Sex Pistols producer Dave Goodman are a few of them. Darryl's upping the tempo a bit and giving it the "full-out punk style DR" on a version of The Deviants' 'Somewhere To Go'.

Captain Sensible's version of 'Say You Love Me', one of his favourites off Pink Fairies 1st LP Never Never Land should be completed sometime in mid-April.

The Deviants have contributed a brand new track called 'Baby Pink'. A mournful, reflective number, Andy Colquhoun's lead guitar lends itself to Mick Farren's mysterious, but equally cryptic, stanza about the eponymous 'Baby Pink'. Deviants nucleui Mick Farren and Andy Colquhoun are joined by occasional Deviants' collaborator and ex-Motorhead drummer Phil Taylor, on drums, W.A.S.P. bassist Chris Holmes and Skylaire Alfvegren on backing vocals.

The Wilko Johnson Band, that is Wilko, (guitar & vocals), Norman Watt-Roy (bass & backing vocals), and Monti (drums & backing vocals), have now finished their contribution to the forthcoming Boss Goodman testimonial and Deviants and Pink Fairies tribute CD . They've covered the title track, 'Portobello Shuffle' and distilled it into 4 1/2 minutes of classic inimitable Wilko Johnson style rhythm and blues.
Brilliant stuff!

Paul Rudolph Deviants' guitarist 1969-70; Pink Fairies guitarist 1970-72 is currently re-recording the b-side of Pink Fairies' 1970 debut single, the legendary 'Do It!'. He says it will be a 'completely energised' version.

Brian James and Rat Scabies, founder members of the Damned, have recorded their own take on 'Teenage Rebel' from Pink Fairies debut album, Never Never Land.

If you thought the energy levels were at max on the original just wait until you cop the distortion guitar and bludgeoning drums on this re-make - The Damned, Pink Fairies, MC5 and Stooges all rolled into one and then some!

John Perry and Magic Muscle. John Perry Only Ones guitarist and fellow Magic Muscle alumni, Rod Goodway and Adrian Shaw (also ex-Hawkwind) have recorded a brilliant version of 'Half Price Drinks' off Mick Farren's 1978 solo album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money.

Personnel:
Lead Vocal - Rod Goodway
Backing Vox - Adrian Shaw and John Perry
Lead Guitars, Percussion - John Perry
Bass, Drums, Guitar - Adrian Shaw
PRODUCED BY Adrian Shaw
Mixed by Adrian Shaw & John Perry

Clark Hutchinson, perhaps best known for their 1970 album A=MH2, an innovative fusion of Eastern and Western musical styles were also heavy blues rockers par excellence. Their re-working of 'Rambling B(l)ack Transit Blues' off Deviants III bears testimony to this.

Blues afficianado, former MC5 manager, White Panther Party founder and underground cause celebre for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John Sinclair meets long time Ladbroke Grove muso and respected session drummer, George Butler (ex-Deviants, Pink Fairies,Lightning Raiders, Eno etc. etc.) and amazing slide guitarist Slim Tim Slide for 'People Call You Crazy', also from Farren's Vampires Stole My Lunch Money LP.

Nik Turner, Hawkwind saxophonist and co-founder will be blowing up a storm (a brainstorm?) on 'Uncle Harry's Last Freak Out' with premier Pink Fairies covers band Pink FA, as well as contributing sax to a version of the Deviants' 1977 reworking of 'Let's Loot The Supermarket (Again Like We Did Last Summer' by The (Unusual) Suspects.

Felix Dennis, erstwhile OZ Obscenity Trial co-defendant and now publishing magnate, and highly respected poet, has contributed a spoken poem, 'Saturday Gig' as well as live version of 'Big Boss Man' recorded live at The Mustique Blues Festival in 2001.


stuff i don't talk about

lately i've been coming to terms with my profligate substance abuse between ages 15 and 23. really, spending ten years in the air force probably saved my life -- not just quitting drugs but also cigs, and taking up running and later, biathlons (hard to believe now, hahaha). it's instructive to remember this when ppl i care about get into bad patterns of abuse -- i have to remind myself that it's always a work in progress as long as you stay on this side of the grass.

mott the hoople

...were the last band i got enamored of at the ass-end of my digging-english-bands phase (the move! slade!), before i turned my back on rockaroll for a season or two in favor of jazz and wrestling (as i've written innumerable times). it was while watching them perform at the uris theatre on broadway, with visuals by ex-bonzo roger ruskin spear, that i decided big rock shows were a sham and realized a preference for venues where i could see the performers sweat and feel the kick drum and speakers moving my clothes around that i retain to this day. that said, this clip (of a song we usedta play air gtr to at dave relethford's house) ain't half bad, even though at the time i rated ariel bender (yeah, right) as a big step down from mousy mick ralphs, whose leslie west-isms on mott were so simple that even i could play them.