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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When You Smile 

Until Lately 

Too Little, Too Late* 

The Days Of Wine And Roses 

Previously Unissued 
Bonus Rehearsal Recordings: 

Is It Rolling, Bob?

A Reason

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

Outside The Dream Syndicate

Oops, left out the trailer

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

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

"along"? sorry

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

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

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

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

DISC ONE:

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


2.Side Steppin’ the Fire 


3.The Mississippi

4.Match Made in Heaven

5.Karen A (Demo)* 


6.The Rain Song (Early Version)* 


7.Dallas (Alternate Mix)* 


8.Here I Am 


9.Mr. Everything (Alternate Mix)* 


10. No One Cares 


11. Green (Demo)* 


12. I Didn’t Want to Lie 


13. Invisible Boyfriend 


14. New York (Demo)* 


15. Let It Ride

DISC TWO:

1. You Don’t Miss Your Water (Live)*

2. Crescent City (Live)*


3. A Song for You


4. Tighter, Tighter (Demo)*

5. I Can’t Let Go


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

7. When You Dance I Can Really Love

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


9. Farmer’s Daughter (Live)*

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

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

12. Listen, Listen


13. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

14. The Poor Ditching Boy

15. You’re Gonna Need Somebody

16. I’m a Dreamer


17. Matty Groves


18. Meet on the Ledge (Studio Version)

* previously unissued

oh yeah, and the trailer:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No more speedy typing on tiny screens

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

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

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

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

RELATED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ooh, must get.

It's not great

Some ok stories but badly edited

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

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

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

no fans left alive, eh?

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

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

― dow, Tuesday, May 12, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lots of good stuff about her here

bookmarked. thank you.

this on that thread, from you...

kind of like Petty and Heartbreakers with a better Petty

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

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

except Petty would never stoop to such shenanigans

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

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

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

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

what makes you think lydia's cover was ironic?

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

Don't mind me I'm old and cranky

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

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

i'm old and cranky too.

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

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