Rolling Country 2006 Thread

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (2098 of them)

Yep, George, I do like Detroit Disciples! (See upthread, circa Feb 2).

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:51 (twenty years ago)

But Roy! Tellus about SXSW!

― don, Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:58 (twenty years ago)

I agree, it made me immediately think of Michael Pare in the Eddie & the Cruisers movies. (There were two of them and the sequel was really really awful!) But Detroit Disciples overcome most of the bowling alley and roadhouse stodge with the actually great songs. It's obvious they mean it in the sincerest manner and that counts on some things, this being one of them. I can listen to it a lot easier than I can Yep Roc's roots-rock-with-paprika-and-other-spicy-weirdnesses CDs these days.

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Tuesday, 21 March 2006 18:05 (twenty years ago)

All kinds of thoughts swimming in my aching head about SXSW but I have 1000 words on these here Nina Simone reissues due in like 2 hours, so it'll have to wait--mostly. Of the 60 odd bands I caught I didn't see all that much country-ish that knocked me out. Biggest thrill was a full set by Roky Erickson (the resurrection is as real as anyone could hope for and something I never thought I'd see). Also: total funk tightness from Sharon Jones and an 8 piece version of Margot and the Nuclear So and So's and a very very rocking Willie Nile show, pick-up bass player and drummer not withstanding. But could someone explain the appeal of What Made Milwaukee Famous? They're like an even more faceless Emerson Drive (if that's even possible) with bogus hipster pretentions. Somebody must have thrown a lot of money at Esquire to get them on the Saturday finale at Stubb's.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 18:38 (twenty years ago)

Somebody should write a song

Well, obv. Woody did, but so did the Hag; if I recall correctly, it goes "The illegal immigrant is making America grow."

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 18:52 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of Kid Rock, people (me) tend to forget how great Devil Without a Cause is. Was thinking about him because I recently borrowed Rage Against the Machine's Los Angeles from the library and basically felt sad listening to it, how these guys seemed to have the moves, the noise, the dance, the energy, but ended up dry-as-dull-dust, the splash of music not even there as a mist or a droplet - though the album went platinum, so someone heard something. And it clobbered Kid Rock in Pazz & Jop, though the Kid went 9 times platinum so what does he care? Anyway, Rage seemed to just be short of someone like a Kid Rock to find them tunes and emotion and humor. But Kid has been a mystery to me since then, mainly because I stopped following after that boring second album, but the little I've heard after that left me puzzled. So, any more thoughts, especially his would-be country escapades, but not restricted to those? It seems to me that though Rage needed someone like him, he also needed something like Rage, some rhythm and noise to put his nonlegit voice in full effect.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

(xpost illegales songs)Don't know the Hag's; also, was thinking about Woody's "Deportee" and maybe "Plane Wreck At Los Gatos," if that's even the right title, but I don't know the words to either, well enough to know if they fit the condemnation-exploitation I was preaching about. Roky's revival was also mentioned in Parales' SXSW report,linked from the SXSW thread--that is really amazing. xpost Yep Roc spices, Shack Shakers' Pandelrium is mostly pretty solid, and although they're not (yet?) as accomplished as Gogol Bordello, I was comparing favorably even before I saow the Gogol link on the Shack Shakers site (and G.B. does tour the South fairly often, for that.) But also, if I could've figured out how to squeeze this into the forthcoming review, I would've added that my personal faves are the country-est, like "No Such Thing,"("Is that a bone in my leg? No, there's no such thing") and (country with rolling horizons)"Nelly Bell." Which could be a real obit set to music, and reminds me of a plainer "For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite," at least some of the words of which came from an old circus poster, Lennon said. Also the one on prev. Cockadoodledont, about Wilkes's neighbor, who gets drunk and sits on his horse in the front yard everyday. Man and steed are old, and don't race no more, but not falling down, not in the song, anyway.

― don, Tuesday, 21 March 2006 19:42 (twenty years ago)

don't know if anyone else caught Billy Joe Shaver at SXSW but I'd never seen him live before and it was a real treat, equal parts hammy and heartbreaking, a sly, salacious old polecat who did an unbelievable song about "faxing" all night long with a girl from Kinko's that also compared cellphones to dick size and lamented that nowadays the ladies all wanted the "cowboy troy model." thought i'd die laughing. did almost all his classics ("old chunk of coal," "honky tonk heroes," "georgia on a fast train") and proved he could still hold a crowd with his latest "live forever."

also saw Rosanne Cash and The Little Willies (feat. Norah Jones) do an instore - Rosanne only did five songs and forgot a line or two from "Tennessee Flattop Box" but that was fine by me cause the other four she did were all from Black Cadillac and personally I'm loving that album.

oh yeah, and I caught Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands twice too, once right before Billy Joe - she threw out a bunch of free swag during "All I Need is Money" and I helped myself to a beer cozy.

― Josh Love (screamapillar), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 19:59 (twenty years ago)

I got to see the Rosanne set at Stubb's, first time I'd ever seen her with a full-on band, and I was surprised at how well she does chunky and loose rock, maybe it was the drummer (no idea who) or Larry Campbell holding forth on rhythm guitar so that her hubby could just play without atmospherizing as he tends to. I hope she's touring this band.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 20:14 (twenty years ago)

Ha, Frank, I can't even remember which "boring second album" by Kid Rock you mean! "Amercian Badass*? *Cocky*? There have been so many rip-off stop-gaps (most recently the live one, which I like just fine this week), I have trouble remembering which were the official ones. (Plus, *Devil Without a Cause* was something like his fourth; he actually had hinted at going the redneck route with *Early Morning Stoned Pimp* before that.) Anyway. All the ones since have had music I enjoy on them (more "music" than "songs"), and they're all pretty much been completely forgettable, and I assume I'll say the same thing about *'Live' Trucker* in two years, and I really don't mind for some reason. It's like the guy has taken a clue from his coked-out '70s country and rock heroes and settled on just being a dependable journeyman; I seriously doubt he has any interest in making an album as great as *Devil Without a Cause* again. And I disagree about him needing his own Rage Against the Machine. The Rage-style stuff on *Devil* (including, uh, the song with "rage" in the title) was the album's worst stuff, and the Twisted Brown Trucker Band have "the moves, the noise, the dance, the energy" at LEAST as much as Rage ever did to my ears, plus they've got a sense of fun and sense of humor and, hell, sense of funk that I never heard in Rage, so they *don't* end up dry as dust. (Though it's very possible I just never listened to Rage enough, or their vocalist got in the way of me hearing their music, like what happens to me with hip-hop so often.) I mean, Twisted Brown Trucker are more a hard rock boogie band than a complex Zep-style metal band I guess (I *assume* that's what people hear Rage as; am I wrong?), but that doesn't bug me. The first song on the live CD, "Son of Detroit," boogies quite funkerociously to my ears, and it's fun how they end with the Gap Band's "Outstanding". Oddly, the song that holds up worst for me on this CD (compared to its studio version) is "Only God Knows Why," which I think was my single of the year in Pazz and Jop the year it came out -- then again, maybe it's just that there's been such a huge and unexpected deluge of great Southern rock since then that it doesn't sound so special anymore, who knows. And I still kind of like "Picture," whether Sheryl or Alison or Gretchen are duetting on it, and I know you don't, Frank (not sure why, though.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 March 2006 23:40 (twenty years ago)

(I mean, I've talked about this on other threads plenty, gotten in arguments with Miccio about it and stuff. And I totally understand why people feel let down by the guy; he *did* pretty much turn into a hack, lost his sense of punchlines as much as the Beasties ever did, and so on. But I feel like his band has kept his head above water somehow, and some day I'll handpick a great CD-R out of his post-*Devil albums, and 10 years from now maybe some smart whippersnapper will argue convincingly that *Devil* wasn't even his best after all. Anyway, here's what I wrote about his last one, for whatever it's worth:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0350,eddy,49290,22.html

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 March 2006 23:54 (twenty years ago)

Two other small thoughts in his favor:

1) There are definitely good arguments available for moving from Limp Bizkit type music to Lynyrd Skynyrd type music (or even from Rage Against the Machine type music to Bad Company type music). (For example, here's one: melodies are *good* things.)

2) He makes better albums now than Eminem does (which I wouldn't have predicted.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 01:14 (twenty years ago)

And I gotta say I really love how he identifies so much with Bob Seger, since in some ways (local Detroit City fame years before he exploded nationally, etc) their careers do have certain parallels. Though of course if Kid had done it right he would have put out his *Live Bullet* tribute *before* *Devil Without a Cause*. Still, it should be noted that, in hindsight, *Stranger in Town* doesn't seem near the artistic dropoff from *Night Moves* it was once seen as, and maybe someday it'll make just as much sense to the same about *Cocky* in relation to *Devil.* And Seger's '80s hackwork could be distilled into a great CD-R, too.

And by the way, speaking of *Cocky* (and Iraqis) the last line of this great RJ Smith review from late 2001 now seems eerily prescient; I wonder if Kid read it and took it to heart?

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0151,smith,30841,22.html

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 01:38 (twenty years ago)

(Okay, maybe not a great CD-R, but a RESPECTABLE one. For the late works of Bob S and Bob R both.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 01:59 (twenty years ago)

More thoughts on new Brox: It's their best record since 24 Hours A Day, which is probably their best record over all, and it comes up with compelling answers to the eternal question "What would Neil do?" They've had guitar crush before, but not with the gravity of the opener "Better Than Broken" and they've never been quite this universally dark (Zoysia, I've since learned, is a strain of creeping grass, and a metaphor for how the suburbs are destiny and not a pretty one), though any record with a song that celebrates the individualism of sobriety (the one dud to my ears) won't be confused with Tonight's the Night. But there's aesthetic coherence here, not greasy or gritty or trashy really, just a diamond hard chiseling of who the Bottle Rockets are, even if, on the best acoustic number, they claim they're not from where they're from. I don't think it's too much to say there's something existential going on here--and it rocks too.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 04:46 (twenty years ago)

Am watching Nashville Star right now, predicting I'll be checking out after thirty minutes. Gretchen is the guest music star and I'm overworked on the redneck shtick which is the theme of the show, straight down to the hack slob/fool Larry the Cable Guy. Show us your buttcrack, hey? It was old and odious when Dan Aykroyd did it on SNL.

So everyone is talking 'bout how redneck revolution means rocking and they can get fucked as far as I'm concerned. Being a redneck is coincidental, poxy fules.

The sound is noticebably off in this epidsode. It's reverberant, shrill and the crash makes it difficult to decipher what Cowboy Troy is going on about. Troy is up, he's so up it seems he's taken a pill, maybe one too many. He's talking too fast and a Prilosec logo, the drug for curbing heartburn acid reflux, is flashing next to his face and if there's someone who looks like a bigger fool tonight, you're going to have to go a long way to find him or her.

Rock, rock, rock, redneck rock is the mantra for tonight, adds Wy. Let's all rock through the show. It's so irritating my teeth are rattling.

Last week was fair. This week the meat wagon's being driven over the cliff. Were the ratings bad?

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 06:25 (twenty years ago)

i watched the first hour
the voices arent v. good, arent even v. good bar band good, and the two i like i didnt know how they did.

only one id like to fuck, too, which is why i msotly watched last year

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 06:27 (twenty years ago)

The sound continues to be bad. The vocals, which were good last week, are obscured by the crash in the hall which tells me the PA is too loud and there aren't enough bodies in the hall to soak it up. Troy's mike made him mostly incoherent.

Gretchen did her second song, Politically Uncorrect or something, and the fiddles and Telecaster were way too loud and I like loud instruments. But the Tele player was just a goon hack with a shaved head and the fiddles, eh. And you know I'm sick of Gretchen who appears to have lost weight which tells me she's taking pills on the advice of her management. Plus, they were phoning it in because they had the look of people who expected the audience to go wild every night while playing it, which is what the studio audience did.

One girl came on -- Torres -- and she looked great and her jeans were spray painted on, but the song was boring and everyone fawned over her because she was HOTT.

Another of my big objections is that none of the contestants show any human superciliousness or enmity, both of which are necessary qualities in pop rock and dealing with any audience live. It stands to reason the guy who did the Big & Rich cover OK, after being drubbed by Anastacia the dick for two weeks running, would have snarled back at her. But no, all the contestants, when fed shit, ask for more. Good character traits for working in cubicles at corporate America USA, maybe convincing to sheep watching on TV, not so good for anything else.

Quote of night: "I love to have a great time." Wow, pearls before swine.

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 07:12 (twenty years ago)

the weird thing, is that with the big and rich song, there has to be a swagger, same with the messina, and well no swagger at all, they care too deeply to be loose with the material,

and well, lets not talk about the guy who did the charlie daniels, the desperation and exhaustion and sadness and esmaculation and all of it hiding behind this played out masculinity...its a hard song to sing, and he was so safe, people shouldnt play broken hearted drinking songs until theyve had enough time to be well be broken hearted and drunk--last week the same thing happened with tequilla, unless you actually have spent time on a bender, the lavisoucness just doesnt slither out...

and cowboy troy is just awkard, he doesnt know where to go and what to say...

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 08:13 (twenty years ago)

> Brox: best record since 24 Hours A Day, which is probably their best record over all<

Really? *Blue Sky* is the only album by them that's ever really clicked for me, and that one only half way; I mean, I liked "Baggage Claim" just fine, but despite their trappings they always seemed to wind up on the wrong side of the alt-country vs. southern rock divide to my ears. Haven't listened to the new one yet, though. And perhaps I should listen to their old ones more (though outside of *Blue Sky,* none are around here anymore.) (I was thinking I liked some almost pub-metal/Count Bishops song they did in the mid/late '90s with "rural route" in the title, but I'm not finding it on AMG; maybe I'm confusing them with somebody. Either way, I always wished their guitars were louder, a la the Cactus Brothers.)

ps. I never knew Bottle Rockets' nickname was "the Brox" til now. But I figured it out!

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 12:08 (twenty years ago)

"Rural Route" is on their first album, which could be out of print for all I know. I'm not sure what you mean about the alt-country vs. southern rock divide though. Maybe not enough r&b in their sound? If that's the case, then you might like that sobriety tune on the new record--first Bottle Rocket song with female back up vocals? But "Baggage Claim" always struck me as stilted--I have no beef with Bread but that's not why I listen to this band. I think you'll like the guitars on the new one.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 13:14 (twenty years ago)

Not enough rock in their sound is more what I mean, Roy. "Kinda rock for an alt-country band" is nice, but not enough. But yeah, I'll check out the new one, and I can see how some funk or soul might help matters too. (And though "Baggage Claim" is the track that sticks in my head from the last album, I'm not claiming that was necessary its best cut. Don't think I've played that CD since the year it came out.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 13:52 (twenty years ago)

It's a mark of my taste that I tend to get interested when (especially) Chuck mentions on this thread that something "doesn't have enough rock in it". I can't really stomach the rock, or the rock end of country.

There's no reason whatsoever you should be interested in this fact.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 14:14 (twenty years ago)

Don, as far as I know, "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" is the correct title of the Woody song that people tend to refer to as "Deportee." The plane crashed by the South Bay, the newscaster described the victims as "just deportees," that's what inspired the song. (I wouldn't be surprised if there were several songs called "Deportee," but I doubt that they'd be by Guthrie.)

Xhuxk, I was thinking that "Devil" was Kid's first. I think American Badass is the one I was calling his second. And of course I don't necessarily believe it needs to be Rage-type guys who back him up. Just someone to lay down some fire. My impression (and this may be very wrong, since I haven't listened to nearly enough of it) is that his singing nowadays is trying to be straight-up legitimate, whereas I think he needs something to provide him cover so that he can do what he does best, which is to do some variation on sing-talking. As I said, this could be all wrong, including my opinion on what he does best.

"Picture" felt like slow, dead sentimentality pinned to the near calm sky. But I've not heard it more than 3 or 4 times, and not recently.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 16:11 (twenty years ago)

(I listened to the Rage Against the Machine because I was impressed with how Flyleaf seemed to be finding the dance in Rage and Nirvana and using it to lift a live-wire wailer to the spotlight, where she pours her melodic-harmonic heart out in the higher registers, and roar with the wolves in the lower. But I wouldn't claim that Flyleaf are close to country, so if I need to say more I'll take it to the teenpop thread.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

did nathalie merchant do a cover of ...los gatos?

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 16:24 (twenty years ago)

Maybe Flyleaf belong on the metal thread, too, Frank! (Girlie says they're sending me the album, but I haven't seen it yet. And oh yeah, I'm going to call you about your review of it later today.)

Turns out I goofed; there's no Kid Rock LP called *American Bad Ass*. Shows what I know. That was the single off *The History of Rock,* which was mainly sort of an odds-and-sods early years comp, duh:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0027,eddy,16173,22.html

"Picture"'s beautiful-loser bullshit actually sounds fairly lush and billowing and good-humored to my ears, not dead or draggy at all.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 16:32 (twenty years ago)

And oh yeah, I'd say his "legitimate singing" attempts (which I often enjoy, often more than his rapping attempts) are still more the exception in Kid's repertoire than the rule. (And I love where RJ says Kid raps better than George Jones and sings better than Jay-Z.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 16:34 (twenty years ago)

Not enough rock in their sound is more what I mean

That totally baffles me, which only means I'm all the more interested to hear your take on the new record!

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Has Gina Villalobos been mentioned yet? I just heard her new record "Miles Away," and a lot of it kicks, not unlike Miranda or Gretchen, but with a scratchy still wide-open voice. "Somebody Save Me" would sound great on country radio.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 19:07 (twenty years ago)

>That totally baffles me<

A couple songs into the new one, I'd classify them more as "loud folk music" (or, in Chris Cook's great old Pearl Jam formulation, "loud mush") than as a rock band. The guitar blur is there; the rocking from drums and bass is not. Basically, they sound like an alt-country band with louder guitars. I'm gonna shelve them for a little bit; will come back to it some other time. Hope that's not too baffling!

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

They sound weak-kneed, somehow. (Actually, who they were making me think of wasn't Pearl Jam at all. More like an alt-countrified late Soul Asylum, maybe. And I wish Soul Asylum were more rock, too!)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

The Soul Asylum comparison is interesting--something I never thought about before, but, yeah, I can kinda hear that, especially on the first track.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)

xpost yeah, I realized as soon as I'd posted, that I'd listed two dif titles for the same Guthrie song. Anthony, I don't know if Natalie's recorded "Los Gatos (AKA Deportee)," but Dolly Parton did a good version of it, although involved some 80s synthesised strings, as I recall: the wrong flavor of cheese,for me(though many peoples like it). Natalie was good on the Mermaid Avenue albums (surprising me, as did all the other performers, except Corey Harris, who's usually good). So maybe she should record this too; very timely. I guess Woody might say we really need Industrial Workers of the World to sign everybody up, and make sure they don't have to flee to the land of the carpetbaggers to try and make a living wage (good luck). There were at least two versions of "Picture" that got some airplay (also maybe CMT played the version from that Kid Rock/Hank Jr. Crossroads I sent you on VHS, xxhux). Dif duet partners, presumably cos Sheryl's people didn't want her own product crowded by the single. One of these may've been worse than the other (and may've been heard more by Frank than by xxhux or whomever)

― don, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 19:37 (twenty years ago)

Side note on Deportees: Woody wrote the lyrics, but there was no melody till Martin Hoffman, a cohort of Judy Collins, put it to music in the late '50s. A few years after that, Hoffman killed himself.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 19:46 (twenty years ago)

I only know "Deportee" from the Byrds' version on "Ballad of Easy Rider," isn't it?

I like the Shawn Camp record OK...Nashville in its second Billy Swan, or Roy A. Loney, phase, perhaps? A rockabilly record from 1979? anyway, someone (they left the byline off the online version, and the print Scene don't make it up on the ridge here on Wednesdays) did an interesting piece on it today. turns out the guy wrote half of Josh Turner's latest record, so he's not lacking for rockabilly boots or panties, I suppose (and there's something by me in same issue on Jamey Johnson):

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Music/2006/03/23/Swingin_/index.shtml

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 01:16 (twenty years ago)

I only know "Deportee" from the Mofungo version on *Messenger Dogs of the Gods*! (I am such a secret Lower East Side bohemian it's not funny anymore.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 01:20 (twenty years ago)

i dont know who mofungo is

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 23 March 2006 01:24 (twenty years ago)

The Scene Is Now-connected second-generation NY no wave band of a commie persuasion. Frank could tell you more than I can about them. Not to be confused with: ""mofongo," a fried plantain concoction which Julio introduced on Sanford and Son."

http://bomplist.xnet2.com/0204/msg03130.html

However, interestingly enough:

http://home.sprynet.com/~galligan/sietsema.htm

― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 01:33 (twenty years ago)

lindsey & kathy, 4-song teen-pop country bubblegum rock EP by two teen florida sisters said on their cdbaby page to also be former child actors on a PBS kids' show called "the huggabug club" not to mention daughters of a pro baseball player i never heard of: first song is yet another "walmart parking lot" song, different than chris cagle's and probably closer spiritually to shannon brown's "cornfed"; in this one, you get things-frank-would-(probably accurately)-call-lies like "no one's complaining about nothing changing here" and stuff about how the local paper only has a page or two which is enough for the news in such a small town and there's only one button on the radio dial which of course plays country so it's "kinda like livin' in the past," okay, the usual myth, but who the hell said songs were supposed to be honest anyway? sound is like a fast early tom petty tune or something, though maybe somebody can figure out a more accurate '80s pop-rock referent for the guitar parts. second song is about a breakup the singer wishes didn't happen, very nice, and helped out what i believe to be a bassline from the doobie brothers' "listen to the music." third song is more bluegrass/folk trad, and the place the sisters' sibling harmonies most shine. and the last song is maybe the most interesting -- not country at all, way more like lisa lisa losing herself in emotion or deniece williams hearing it for the boy in the mid '80s. updated '60s girl group, in other words; in fact, the updating might be accidental. and it works; people who've listened to that *one kiss leads to another* box more than me should figure out what REAL girl group singer it sounds like.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

oops, lindsey & KRISTY, not Kathy:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/lindseykristy

And it's a picture disc!

― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 19:38 (twenty years ago)

Niedenfuer was a pitcher for the Dodgers and Twins. I'm sure I have a couple of his baseball cards at my mom's house.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 23 March 2006 19:56 (twenty years ago)

But I hear as much Amazulu as Lisa Lisa in that last song, and little to no '60s girl-group referent, I'm afraid.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:13 (twenty years ago)

Wow, you could be right, seeing as how I have no idea whether I've heard Amazulu, Joseph. (Would that make this the first Amazulu-influenced country track in history? I checked AMG, and Amazulu has a very weird haircut!) As for the girl-group thing, all I can say is that I thought "this sounds like a '60s girl group song" BEFORE I thought "this sounds like an '80s Lisa Lisa update of a '60s girl group song." I'm sure it's there; maybe eventually I'll think of a way to more precisely explain where I hear it. (Unlike Frank and some other folks on this thread, I'm not great at explaining what singing voices are doing.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 00:27 (twenty years ago)

RIP Cindy Walker. She was 87 years old. Willie's tribute to her this year is good and timely. "You Don't Know Me" is a desert island song, in more ways than one.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Friday, 24 March 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

from metal thead:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/kathyx

Kathy X, *Ready for Anything*: minimalist clippity-clop semi-hopped-up rockabilly rhythm from two not-so-young guys who keep their mouths shut provides frame for a not-so-young woman to both rant in endearingly tuneful semi-hiccuped british accent and steal noisy link wray twangs in short songs about cat fights and demon possession, plus one joan jett cover. energetic, in a way closer to girlschool than the stray cats. i like "love they neighbor," "i love rock'n'roll," "ready for anything," "let the devil in," "bitch like you," "black box" (for starters.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

(band is based in berlin, and their record label is in warsaw, apparently. drummer has a pretty impressive resume', judging from the cdbaby page--wonder if he worked with all those rock'n'roll immortals on oldies tours, or what. and i know, "i love rock'n'roll" is technically an arrows cover, not a joan jett cover.) (just like "tainted love" is gloria jones and "bette davis eyes" is jackie deshannon, right.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 16:23 (twenty years ago)

First off, pay your respects:

RIP BUCK OWENS

second off, i just got back from princeton record exchange, where i unloaded somewhere between 15 and 20 huge boxes of CDs I don't need. on the way there and back i decided that dale watson's *whiskey and god,* which even has a funky country rap song about a transvestite not to mention a song about a woman with the impossible dimensions 38-21-34, is probably my favorite '06 country album so far unless maybe if carrie underwood counts. also, i bought/traded for these (mostly but not all country) CDs, which i am listing in descending order of how much i predict i will wind up liking them. if you know something about them that i don't, feel free to predict otherwise, but realize first that i cheated a little bit by listening to parts of maybe half of them on the way home. (also, the prices listed are the sticker prices; since i traded in CDs, they're actually cost me less):

1. toby keith *honky tonky university* 2005 $3.99 (i never heard "big blue note" before, and i like its sing-talking but was surprised to find out its music apparently contains no big blue notes. also i'm realizing i much prefer funny toby to sincere toby, which means, outside of the three hits, my favorite track so far is "just the guy to do it," where he picks a fight with a knucklehead in a bar. also i'm sad to learn the album does not contain toby's current billboard c&w hit with the intriguing drinking title, which i have still yet to hear.)
2. akon *trouble* 2003 $2.99 (not country)
3. status quo *heavy traffic* 2002 $3.99 (not country, but probably boogie)
4. *texas bohemia: polka-waltzes-schottisches: the texas bohemian moravian-german bands* (tritonkt german import compilation) 1994 $3.99
5. lee ann womack *lee ann womack* 1997 $1.99 (autograhed by her on the CD cover!)
6. carlene carter *i fell in love* 1990 $2.99 (title track sounds familiar, so i guess maybe it was a hit? it also sounds like a nick lowe song, though he apparently didn't write it)
7. smegma *ism* 1993 $1.99 (not country, and i may well wind up hating it, i dunno)
8. kaci brown *instigator* 2005 $1.99 (who is she? she looks young. and i'm assuming she's country because that's where three copies of her CD were filed, and i think i heard of her before, possibly either in billboard or on one of these rolling country threads.)
9. cock robin *after here through midland* 1987 $3.99 (not country, but with harmonies anyway. i've long wondered what their deal was. maybe joe mccombs can explain them to me. who was their audience? i've long wondered if maybe they were like a lesser version of quarterflash or something, but the guy's voice on the couple tracks i listened to sounds british or aussie--maybe more like dream academy or icicle works, whatever that means.)
10. sweethearts of the rodeo *beautiful lies* 1996 $4.99 (on sugar hill records, but didn't they have country chart hits earlier? i've never heard an album by them before; bought this because "midnight girl in a sunset town" has long been my favorite song on the k-tel dance country CD i mention upthread. the songs i heard on this so far are not bad, but also nowhere near that good. they do cover "muleskinner blues," though - -that's a jimmie rodgers classic, right? but why the hell would somebody want to skin a mule, anyway?)
11. jamey johnson *jamey johnson* 2006 $3.99 (i could wind up liking this more than this placement suggests, but "the dollar," which i'd never heard before, disappointed me on first hearing after all the compliments it's received on this thread and even from christgau. seemed sappy. the cat's in the cradle with the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon when you coming home dad i don't know when, we'll get together then son etc.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 25 March 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

The Status Quo album is fair and a lot better than the mostly toothless things preceding it for a great many years. It's very poppy and catchy but there is a little boogie chug to it. Nothing like the early to mid-70's but not without some merit. They're in the same place as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in terms of toughness. They look denim but it's middle-aged and upscale. There is some country to it, too, since Rossi has been incorporating it in his writing for a good long while.

The live DVD of 'em doing their modern show really kills though. The band just shreds when the two Telecasters get going on the stomping parts. But they don't do that so much on the contemporary records.

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Sunday, 26 March 2006 00:02 (twenty years ago)

Chuck, Toby Keith releases albums too quickly for your own good! His new one *White Trash With Money* hits on April 11. That's the one with "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" (which I likewise haven't heard).

Cock Robin, I lump in with sophistipop of the period like Prefab Sprout, Danny Wilson, Blow Monkeys, and Style Council. And indeed, Dream Academy. I'm partial to that kind of stuff but then again I've never been accused of rocking too hard.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, 26 March 2006 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 1998 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.