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

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XysaT44Ez5U

anyone hear about that documentary on dexter that the people who did the athens movie are putting out? i guess it's kinda sad or something.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=82iQofVyRY8&mode=related&search=

of all those people in that list, I basically say none of them--lone justice always seemed sort of ok, and the rest all have a few good songs. but "long ryders" is a lame-ass name, plus isn't that sid griffin? interesting time for gram parsons worship back then, in its early stages. the very very first jason and (the nashville) scorchers records were all right, just as i probably can only listen to the very first, still somewhat evocative mysterioso lo-fi r.e.m ep. to me they were kind of unfocussed, thrashing, half-way good mix of, wow, "radical" idea!, "punk" and "country." a good time for gram parsons worship. i just never thought they were really all that good. if the new york dolls (saw this depressing doc last night about arthur kane's last daze) made the world safe for the new york dolls, the scorchers opened the door to stuff like br-549 15 years later.

as somebody, probably chuck, said above, the blasters were a lot better, and ditto the mekons on their best stuff. los lobos. old 97's did the jangle and the distance just fine on one or two albums. the gun club, as skott says above, i also liked ok, they were more like from the swamp and a lot of the people in the TS are drugstore cowboys--a good era for gram parsons and byrds worship, i love them myself, but these days i think maybe critics might be giving more props to gene clark, jackie deshannon, even lee hazlewood, and dillard and clark and for god's sake, when you're talking about country-rock/rock don't forget skip spence, as originators of post-byrds/parsons/punk/roots/americana thing that people used to think maybe was all gram? so that's an interesting list of bands to start the thread.

but the video... ay, caramba...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Eb_znrTEGpQ

unreal.

Anybody remember the Silos?

Silos' Cuba is fantastic. I still own three copies and would probably buy another copy if I happened upon it. Supposedly there's a mix of the s/t album that's very different. Wish Rupe had hung around...

rupe went on to play with gutterball, who i seem to have mentioned on this thread five years ago and who i don't think anyone else cares about.

i liked cuba a lot, though i haven't listened in years. also good: walter salas-humara's first solo album, lagartija, and quite a bit of stuff by the vulgar boatmen. the silos got decidedly spotty post-cuba. last i checked, they still very much existed.

Still play s/t and Cuba from time to time. They were great live back in the day. IIRC they did some rain sounds over the intro to Tennessee Fire that was all kinds of great.

Has anyone mentioned Danny and Dusty -- a one-off bar band with Steve Wynn, Dan Stuart, Chris Cacavas and bunch of fellow travelers? Their record, Lost Weekend, is a hoot.

Chuck Prophet's first couple of solo records are also worth considering -- his duets with Stephanie Finch have a nice Gram-Emmylou vibe.

The Silos Cuba is indeed great. But their best song came later, on the Susan Across The Ocean album. It's a cover of a song called Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around. If you haven't heard it, you're in for a treat.

http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Across-Ocean-Silos/dp/B000000FDI

cover of a song called Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around

by michael hall of the wild seeds, who almost certainly fit on this thread themselves.

His version is more ironic. The Silos turn it into an anthem

I was among the ~75 people who saw The Silos, Vulgar Boatmen and Michael Hall do that song at Metro in...'96? One of the better moments of my concert going. Great show!

The Vulgar Boatmen still put on a great show. There's a documentary on them about to come out, I believe.

Yes, it's called Drive Somewhere. It can be downloaded here.

I can't say enough good things about The Vulgar Boatmen. I never had the pleasure of seeing them live, but they are one of the few bands that does not have a bad song.

This is easily Jason & The Scorchers for me. Their new album has at least 4 cuts that'd go on their career anthology.

xpost

Living in Chicago, I've been fortunate enough to have seen the Vulgar Boatmen, geez, at least 15 times. Another standout was at Beat Kitchen in ~1992 when I first saw them do "Roadrunner". The place was going nuts! One of my favorite shows.

First time I saw them was at Marquette University, around the time of "You and Your Sister". The bill was, Vulgar Boatmen, Blake Babies and Die Kreuzen (?!). I've still got the flyer for that show somewhere...

Nice! Was Robert Ray playing with them too?

And...yes, the new Jason & The Scorchers record is excellent. I love Better Than This.

man Drivin & Cryin used to Rock the Dock in Jackson, MS on the reg. Blind Melon was really big, too IIRC (but maybe a year or two later? I think this might have even been before Bee girl fame). I think those might have been my first rock shows that weren't like 3-Dog Night and Steppenwolf doing the oldies circuit at the Mid-South fair with my parents a mere 200 yards away.

The Silos record with the bird on the cover is the first thing I can remember buying purely b/c I read a couple of great reviews of it (I believe in Spin and Rolling Stone), and I do remember liking that song "Picture of Helen" a lot. They had a brief moment where they had a ton of buzz if I remember right.

> Was Robert Ray playing with them too?

He may have been with them for the Silos/Michael Hall show, but that could be revisionist history. Does the Gainesville version of the band still play?

Thanks for that movie link, I'm looking forward to watching it. Always thought the Boatmen would make a good documentary subject.

All about Green on Red. Like Kevn Kinney solo more than Drivin' and Cryin'. Maria McKee both ways.

don't think i really need beat rodeo in my life.

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

listening now to the eieio album from 1986. *land of opportunity*. so far i dig it more than beat rodeo. some decent guitar action on the first track.

plus, they've got guitars all over the place. over here. over there. everywhere. good solos. good country/southern twang. good riffs. sounds like they liked the byrds AND badfinger AND southern/country rock.

sounds good to me!

singing kinda sucks though. a commmon problem with a lot of the new wave cow bands.

and the production isn't total don dixon blah (he didn't produce it), but its still got that 80's living in a box feel. but not TOO bad or anything. (not the band living in a box. just that canned 80's thing.)

singing kinda sucks though. a commmon problem with a lot of the new wave cow bands.

Yes. Those singers all tried way too hard. It's as if every line of every song ends with three exclamation points.

fly me!!!
courageous!!!

drivin and cryin (the band name) used to crack me up in high school
who would admit to being in a band called DRIVIN AND CRYIN

I like how the Flesheaters guy simultaneously screamed and crooned every line. But they were at the punky end, much more like Gun Club. Someone gave me a Tail Gators cassette of Tore Up that I quite liked, but never felt the need to replace it when it got smooshed. They seemed to be at the bar-band end of the scene.

This summarizes everything that was problematic about the bands in the thread title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88cewhasU74

maybe i should blame mitch easter as well as don dixon for that uptight box sound but i love mitch and i would feel horrible saying anything bad about him. all these bands should have recorded their albums wherever the hell hardcore punk bands recorded their albums. they needed more ragged liveliness. a more live feel. but they all loved the byrds and stacked harmonies and shit which was usually their week spot to begin with. they shoulda just spent all their time on the guitars.

listened to some of an EP by a band called Lifeboat from 1985. not great. definite R.E.M./DBs thing going on with a dash of u.k. new wave a la echo and the bunnymen? or someone like that. boston band i think?

(so anyway they don't really belong here except for the jangle angle.)

jeezus i totally forgot about the bongos song numbers with wings! its like a fuckin' proust cookie! swear i haven't heard it since 1983 or 1984 and i know every second of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbzYn48qJxU

Boston had a mess of bands doing this, like the Del Fuegos, a little more east coast, less cowboy. Neighborhoods, Rubber Rodeo, Dogmatics, Scruffy the Cat, Blackjacks. They'd get a bit local commercial radio airplay and they had videos on the short lived Boston UHF music video channel, in a way that the hardcore bands, or even Mission of Burma never did. There was a bit of spillover. I think I saw Dogmatics and the Queers play an all-ages show together.

wow barbarella! by the bongos. total memory lane. i really need a copy of the remix now. always loved that.

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

sorry i'm straying...

i get so much of that 80's boston indie stuff cuzza where i am.

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.