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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

news from Chuck Prophet:

Folks,

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

But first, in other news…

THE RUBINOOS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BETTER CALL UP THE PLUMBER!

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

THEY GAVE DUDE A BEEPER

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

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

Onwards,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That hurt a little, I won't lie.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And I’d be high...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meet me down by the powerlines

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

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

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

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

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

from Rolling Reissues 2020:

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

--fastnbulbous

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

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

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

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

bears repeating: this song still rules ^

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

I'll cue up the McKee album.

No dedicated Long Ryders thread?

RIP Tom Stevens :(

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

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

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

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

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

xpost from Lone Justice/Maria McKee:

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

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

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

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

---dow

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

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

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

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

I say True

(not The Dream Syndicate though, thanks for that)

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

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

Street date July 23, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Savage Republic

Meteora

Mobilization Recordings

20 May 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe the Paisley Underground thread would work too.

Search and Destroy: Paisley Underground

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

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

Holy crap

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

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

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

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

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

xgau again:

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

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

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

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

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

"RADAR GUN"!

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

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