Douglas Wayne Sahm. November 6, 1941 - November 18, 1999

"You just can't live in Texas
if you don't have a lot of soul", from
Crossroads by Sir Douglas himself.

Sir Douglas Quintet. 

A man obsessed!

That's how I usually feel about music. Sometimes I wonder if it's healthy, as it's distracting me from other activities I should be persuing. I read about music on websites, and in the occasional magazine or paper. I watch pretty much any movie about even a half-way decent musician. I will admit to watching ANY VH1 Behind the Music story on ANYBODY, because they're always entertaining. I even participate in discussions at GARAGEPUNK.COM with others sharing my condition, with the added twist of sharing an interest in a music that is in danger of being largely forgotten. The music of choice for people on that site is varied but includes blues, early r&B, soul, jazz, early/primitive rock and roll, rockabilly, power pop, instrumental, swamp, old country, punk, and a genre which is quickly becoming a "catch-all" for anything with loud guitars, and a drummer, garage. This includes the stuff that is almost always referred to as garage rock that pretty much started with The Sonics, and is now being popularized by bands like The Hives, and The White Stripes. It also may or may not contain the following: Surf, Psych.(psychedelic), Hard Rock, and pine nuts(?). I'm sure I forgot something, but you get the idea.

With that out of the way I can talk about my personal taste. I pretty much like all of the above with the addition of some folky stuff, some wimpy/indie/college rock stuff, and the occasional forray into the worlds of funk, hip-hop and experimental sludge. Diverse or schizo? Who cares? It wouldn't be unusual for me to start a day off listening to Doug Sahm, then The Kinks, maybe some Devo, over to The Mummies, some Curtis Mayfield, a dash of Fairport Convention with a side of The Knights of the New Crusade, some old blues guy or maybe some Reigning Sound, a heaping helping of Haggard(Merle that is), and wash it all down with a nice cup of Drums and Tuba. It's hard for me to imagine how people get stuck in their little musical ruts, only listening to a tiny section of the broad spectrum available. I guess most people listen to music passively, as opposed to actively.

I've been obsessing over a song by the late, great Doug Sahm called TEXAS RANGER MAN, off of the album "Texas Rock for Country Rollers". I originally heard the song as performed by local boys The Loco Gringos back in high school. There is little doubt in my mind that this particular version was a large part of the inspiration for Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit", which I've heard enough for two lifetimes. The Sahm version blew me away the first time I heard it, as it still does. The guy creates a mood with shimmering guitar, great lyrics, and a delivery that was obviously the product of some kind of intoxicant. I can't find an mp3 or I would have you listen to it right now. Doug passed away a few years back but will not soon be forgotten because of records by himself or with The Sir Douglas Quintet, The Texas Tornadoes, and others. There is a petition to have him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so try to hear some Sahm and help a brother out. Here's the link:

http://www.dougsahmday.com/

Marker drawing by Daniel Johnston. 

On fethtivals...

I forgot to mention in my last post that I loathe the word festival, at least in relation to anything that's happened or will happen during my lifetime. Rennaissance Fairs, Film Fests, and some pagan rituals are generally excluded but I think that the word gets thrown around a bit much. There aren't very many fun, or interesting words that describe a bunch of people getting together because of a common, specialized interest to eat, drink, and buy or look at crap and other like-minded freaks. Convention-Boring, with negative conotations. Conference-Boring, and more boring. Happening-doesn't really apply usually. I'm getting drowsy just thinking about it. I think it' s best to stick with fairly vague titles that roll off the tongue at least when applied to these events relating to pop culture. Names like CAVESTOMP, THE PONDEROSA STOMP( I'm sensing a theme here), FRY STREET FAIR(not real relevant but I'm making a point), and MONSTER'S DAY OUT seem to work. Names like THE DALLAS FANTASY FAIR, THE SCI-FI EXPO, and WIZARDS ARE FOXY don't and they make me ashamed for everyone.

We actually did a big event about 5 years ago at Exposition Park called FRINGE MEDIA 2000. Yes, the name is cheesy but it's not so much about what is says as what it doesn't. There were vendor tables and mostly obscure independent/underground movies, and beer during the day and at night there were bands and a lot more beer-drinking. It would have been an even greater success if we didn't screw up in scheduling it on the opening day of the state fair of Texas. Parking was at a premium and the area get's very crowded. We did have Lloyd Kaufman, of Troma Films there, and he was a lot of fun. Other guests of note included Austin cartoonist Mack White, infamous film-maker Joe Christ and we had a no-show in the case of B-movie starlet Debbie Rochon. Bands included The Staggers, The Cockouts, and The Necrotonz. The Deadites were supposed to play but they got in fight amongst themselves just before hitting the stage. One of the guys hit his buddy in the head with a tire iron or something which got him a ride in an ambulance. Despite the large investment we actually made a profit. This was put back into our next event.

The following links provide a buttload of information about Outsider Music. The second one is just about Daniel Johnston, who is one of the more high-profile Outsider Artists/Musicians: http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id757/pg1/

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id2098/pg1/

...Believe it or not I do read more stuff than just Disinfo, it's just coincidental.

R. Stevie Moore. The Daddy of home-recording. 

Outsider Music Festival Thingy

I've got this idea to do an event featuring Outsider Musicians from across the country. For those unfamiliar, Outsider music is, like it's cousin in the art world(Outsider Art) music that is made by the untrained, unrestrained and sometimes untalented with a strong desire to create music of some kind. This is often done as a labor of love with no intentions of ever being heard by the outside world. For these reasons and others, this music is often better than and almost always more "interesting" than it's parrallel in mainstream music. These artists can, often despite their own limitations and/or mental illnesses, achieve various levels of success, sometimes being able to make a living off the fruits of their labor.

You may already be familiar with some fairly well-known outsider musicians like Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis, Hasil Adkins, Mr. Quintron and Ms. Pussycat, R. Stevie Moore, and The Shaggs. But the list doesn't end there, in fact part of the beauty of this type of music is that there seems to be an almost bottomless well, or pit depending on your taste of material. If you are interested in the subject you could do much worse than to find the book "Songs in the Key of Z: The curious Universe of Outsider Music" with it's accompanying CD by Irwin Chusid. Mr. Chusid is also a long-time member of the staff of dj's at WFMU of New Jersey, which in my opinion is the best radio station of all time. Here are links to the book, the cd, and the radio station on-line:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006NSX1/qid=1112042135/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-8146106-3456921?v=glance&s=music

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1556523726/ref=pd_ecs_b_m_a/102-8146106-3456921?v=glance&s=books&n=

http://www.wfmu.org/

I'm about to start figuring out who I can get to give me money to put this thing together. More on this, Outsider Art, and more than my fingers can stand to type later...

Happy Chocolate Jesus Day!

Alright, Alright!! I stole that from some page I saw yesterday, but it's funny, no? I'm getting all cyber-fancy and put some pictures up in here. I still don't know enough to figure out how to move 'em around, but maybe later. As there will be no children or very religious people at my folks house today we will be celebrating with copious amounts of good food and each others company. I've included a photo from the place we are happy to have moved away from.

Junk in Studio at our old place. 

No, it's not me, It's the late, great Dr. Gene Scott!

This man was a genius. Now I'm not ususally one for people that make big bucks ripping off the public, but he deserved nearly every penny he got. For one thing he was as entertaining as watching the best trainwreck of a reality show mixed with a David Lynch film. Just add his revisionist attitude toward organized religion and you've got a great nights entertainment. I was transfixed by his seemingly endless collections of hats including a sombrero, a nazi helmet with iron cross on top, and many more. If nothing else he was as far as I know the only "televangelist" that not only smoked cigars on air, but also cussed up a storm. Check it out:

http://wittenburgdoor.com/godstuff/genescott.html

I guess I'm at it again...

I don't know why I feel compelled to do this, but "Hey, all the kids are doing it, right?" This will take the place of my myspace blog as I cancelled it, and both my friendster, and myspace accounts to avoid problems which were arising. (I may let the cat out of the bag at a later date) I guess I feel like keeping a journal and it makes it somehow more interesting with an imaginary audience in mind.

If I keep it up I want to start posting drawings, and photos I have created. I will no doubt also throw in plenty-o-links to keep you guessing. For those of you that don't know me, I'm REAL into music. I love art, comics, movies, food, trying to be good to my body, bike riding, snowboarding when I can and skateboarding when I feel like hurting myself( I'm 32), hanging out with my girlfriend Kara, drawing, painting, playing guitar, and a bunch of other stuff too. It just seems that music has been an ongoing obsession that isn't going away.

I'll elaborate on the above topics and more as I go on. Nice to meet you!