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

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

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

Were the Neats part of that same Boston scene?

yah, they were.

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

neats were on ace of hearts. boston label.

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

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

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

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

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

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

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

"...Sheffield wrote..."

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

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

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

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

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

(In Winston-Salem, NC)

Chuck Prophet has *said* arguments etc

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

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

----

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

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

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

love this song too:

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

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

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

-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fucking kickarse band

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

all that was missing was dwight yoakam.

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

Tex & The Horesheads!!!

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

hope it turns up on YouTube

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

thanks!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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