Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Still wasted but now with focus!

This photo was taken a few months back during my trip to Corpus Christi. I include it now because I like the photo, and I'm having a bit of deja vu relating to that period of my life again. And let's not forget Freddy, who loomed large over popular radio when I was a tot. My folks were way into him, and it saddens me that he would never make it in pop music today. His big songs were Wasted Days and Wasted Nights and (I'll be there) Before the Last Teardrop Falls for those of you that might be unfamiliar. His brand of Tex-Mex rock and roll meshed perfectly with that of Doug Sahm when they teamed up for The Texas Tornadoes. I saw him on an endless-loop type infomercial for a Classic-Country cd set on cable at Kara's grandma Judy's place in Claremore, Oklahoma last night so it all ties together somehow.

I basically drove the nearly six-hundred mile round trip to drop her off for about three weeks to help her granny run her gift-basket shop during this busy holiday season. That and the fact that we are both losing our minds due to our nebulous realtionship made this "vacation" necessary . It's hard for me to decide how much to comment on about this so I'll err on the side of caution and just say we'll see what happens. No need to bore you, my imagined audience, with such matters. This ain't no EMO-journal. I did get to listen to some great music on the trip back including a bunch of great, random punk I downloaded off of various Mp3 blogs, and some Sir Douglass Quintet cds, and pretty much the whole Reigning Sound discography in order. Greg Cartwright never ceases to amaze me. He'll fool you with some song you think is kind of a throwaway, and then on a subsequent listening it kicks you in the head with its kickassitude!

I'll probably be posting more regularly as I have much more time on my hands now. And if you happen to pass Buford's Fun and Nut Company in Sherman, Texas (right on I-75 North) stop in and pick me up a post-card. (There was a mildly disturbing mural featuring a "mad hatter" type character out front and the whole thing made me ruminate over the thought process involved in such a venture. "Well, people love FUN and people love NUTS, right?")

Link Wray R.I.P.

The originals are quickly leaving us

As I come to consciousness this morning I am listening to Joe Belock's excellent THREE CHORD MONTE radio show on WFMU via the world-wide-web. The music he's playing is the inspiration for this post. He's doing a well-deserved tribute to the father of the power-chord, and perhaps the father of all raw, aggressive electric guitar-playing as well...LINK WRAY. He was buried on November 18th in Copenhagen, Denmark to little fanfare per his request, and most likely due at least in part to the obliviousness of most critics and fans of popular music. Hell, CNN didn't pick up on it until he had been in the ground for 4 days!!!...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/21/obit.wray.ap/index.html

I won't go into detail about this great loss( even if he was only 76 years old for pete's sake!). I will say that Link was influencing my life path before I was even aware of him though. It's common knowledge that Link was the inspiration for Pete Townshend to pick up a guitar, and The Who were in competition only with Van Halen for the title of my favorite band as a kid. Neil Young was also quoted as saying that if he could go back in time to see any band it would be Link Wray and his Raymen. It was inevitable that I was later drawn to the punk rock that Link hinted at with his deceptively simple, beautifully distorted guitar work, and attitude. It's hard to imagine a world in which Mr. Wray never existed, and I don't even want to try. I regret that I just missed getting to see him at last year. I guess I thought he'd be around forever. With that in mind here's the part where I put the link to the second petition to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that I've posted( The first being Doug Sahm/Sir Douglass Quintet)...

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?linkwray&851

If you have ever enjoyed a "dirty" guitar tone or believe in any kind of justice take a minute to sign the petition. And then proceed to poke pencil holes through the speaker-cones of every guitar amp that you are in proximity to...

Shake the hand of the man with a hand full of LOVE...

...The one and only Jimmy Carter!

Well, now I've done it. I managed to get my little blog here listed amongst many other blogs that in general seem to kick-ass, especially in comparison to this 'un. Kopper, of Garagepunk.com fame has turned that site into a blog with the requisite large number of links(one of which leads this way). Don't fret though, he still manages the Herculean task of doing a radio show, running a garagepunk and related forum, and probably a bunch of other projects that he's either too modest or busy to gab about. I need some of his focus and energy. It's time to step up to the plate. I'd feel that I had more to offer if I only knew how to post an Mp3 on my site( hint..hint!). I have tried to find out for myself but as I am mostly HTML illiterate I haven't found anything that spells it out well enough. And Blogger.coms own podcast/audio section won't let me register, so for now I will just have to try to dazzle you with bullshit, so here goes...

"This isn't the real America" is the title of a suprising article by former president Jimmy Carter in the most recent LA times. It was suprising to me at least, as it closely echoed my own feelings about the general direction our country has taken, especially in regards to the war. Carter was the first president that I was conciously aware of being in office and his presence was felt strongly even in pop culture at the time. He was a colorful character, with the whole peanut-farmer, big-toothed smile, and drunken brother thing. My Dad still proudly displays his lone surviving can of Billy Beer in his hunting room. I think Jimmy gets a bad rap today, though it's no surprise, just look what they've done to Clinton's image. Check it out, it's a short read and it might give you some glimmer of hope for American politics.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-carter14nov14,0,7164514.story

On a side note the title of the photo and text posts from today are a line from a song called "Jimmy Carter" by the sadly defunct "insurgent country" band Blue Mountain. If you like what is known as Alt-Country, Americana, Ya'llternative, Cowpunk, etc. etc. pick up some of their stuff. I can't recommend the album Dog Days enough, but they are all above average.

It's finally getting cold here, and I'm excited about it. I like cold weather, and snow more than I should for someone that calls the Lone Star state his home. One day I may migrate further North but I would either have to become an expert Mexican-style chef or convince some Amigos to go with me. Yes, I live for Mexican food. Speaking of Tex-Mex, this Friday, November 18th has been declared ( unofficially I assume) Doug Sahm Day in Dallas. What this means other than the fact that Shawn Sahm & His Tex Mex Experience featuring Augie Miers with special guest Eleven Hundred Springs will be playing at The Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum, I don't know. Shawn is the son of Doug( R.I.P. ), Augie was in some of Doug's bands, and 1100 Springs are as close to old-school country as you can get as well as owing a great musical debt to Doug(this in common with any band that has a twang and is any good) , so the show should be great.

Men of a thousand faces, and as many talents...

 

Paul Slavens and Lon Chaney

I'm slowly emerging from my zombie-like haze and it feels very nice. I've been getting out and socializing more and more, like last nights trip to The Dallas museum of Art, and a couple of other spots. Mark Sharon (who happens to have been my college roommate) and I went to the DMA for a showing of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME starring Lon Chaney, but with the added bonus of having a live soundtrack performed by a group of local musicians. This film was originally silent and the new score written by the versatile Paul Slavens made the already amazing even more so. Paul played piano, and did some vocal sound-effects I believe while backed by a "super-group" of primarily Denton-related musicians that are mostly known for their work in various punk/rock/indie/experimentalish bands that I have seen many times over the years. Bands represented include Baboon, Mission Giant, Ten Hands, The Dooms U.K., March Arc, Brutal Juice, The Banes, and others I might be unaware of. The added touch of a talented female vocalist that employed the subtle use of an effects processor along with other analog keyboards, and equipment complimented the piano and rock-oriented instrumentation. I'd love to see this kind of thing catch on.

Lon Chaney has always been somewhat of a hero to me and this might be his masterpiece. I had never actually seen the film but I knew the stories of Chaney suffering the 40-pound hump strapped to his back while performing his own death-defying stunts. Sure he's an amazing stuntman, and special effects make-up artist but you don't hear much about his acting ability. He somehow managed to take what could be a very one-dimensional cartoon of a character and make him multi-faceted, and likeable despite his gruesome appearance. He actually gets you to empathise with the deformed, and surreal hunchback primarily through the use of body language and facial expression. I don't think I could ever watch this again without some type of musical accompaniment and that would still never come close to the soundtrack I heard last night.

I was coerced into going to The Tom Tom Noodle house in the West Village, which is a part of town I usually avoid like the plague for a late meal after the show. The lure was 1$ sushi and we missed the mark by a couple of hours but still managed to avoid doing the dishes in lieu of payment. Though it was chilly on the patio the warm sake and excellent food worked together to keep us happy. I had an amazing dish that is supposedly the most popular dish in Malaysia called Beef Rendang. It was basically a curried-beef dish served over a large portion of jasmine rice and garnished with bits of mango. I highly recommend it. I even managed to run by Stout on Greenville Avenue to catch a few songs by my friend Jeff Hill's band The Sutcliffe's. Jeff was rocking the key-tar(keyboard worn like a guitar), vocals, harmonica, washboard, and Fisher-Price xylophone in fine form. I slept eventually...

Mimus...

...Latest victim of "art" filters.

Mimus is one of the first, if not the first character that my best friend and I created together. Colin and I met when we were just about to enter junior high. We bonded over a love of rock and roll, comic books, movies, and general lunacy. We both had older brothers that were quite influential to our interests but when we got together those interests grew exponentially. We were both aspiring artists of roughly the same ability, but Colin was also quickly becoming an accomplished guitar-player. Even before we began to create our own comics we were in the habit of creating characters for as yet unnamed projects. I remember many a conversation that began, "We could have a guy that...", and went on to describe some unusual character. The concepts discussed were often visual in nature so it's only natural that we both gravitated to being cartoonists. Ironically the first project we ever worked on together was a "film" entitled THE BATTLE OF ZENON, which was named by Scott Franzke, who along with his brother Bobby, Colin and myself comprised the film crew. We never got further than the creation of a miniature set which was comprised of dirt, and Star Wars toys painted to reflect battle scars all placed on a card table.

Colin and I progressed as artists, and unintentionally as writers as well. Encouraged by local small-press publishers, and cartoonists we met at The Dallas Fantasy Fair we created Milk Vampire Babies which was a magazine sized, and fairly ambitious project for a couple of teenagers. The final product, which was put together with help from my brother Andy under the Permanent Press imprint, was a bit rough but the experience gained was indispensable. Next we did the mini-comic MIMUS which got published by Starhead Graphics in Seattle. Starhead was a small-press comics label that was started by a couple of guys that used to live in Dallas, and I've since forgotten how we hooked up with them. As cool as that seems now we decided that we could easily self-publish our own stuff in exisiting formats we became familiar with through the mini-comics scene and so Permenant Press was reborn. We got reviewed in a few related publications and began to get orders from all over the country to our amazement. This was by no means a lot of interest but to us it was the coolest thing in the world.

Colin and I started doing more comics on our own, as opposed to as a team, but we continued to record our silly, and sometimes disturbing music under the name THE SONS OF GRAVITY. The name is laughable now, but to my addled teenage mind it was perfectly appropriate. As time went by Colin went away to college at The University of North Texas in Denton, while I stayed at home to complete my senior year in high school before going to North Texas after two years of community college. We rarely spoke during this period, and by the time we met again we had changed in unexpected ways. I had grown up a bit and become invloved in a serious, but ill-fated relationship, all the while partying with old high school friends. Colin had immersed himself in bohemian college life with all that comes with it. Without going into too much detail, Colin had a mysterious, life-changing experience that would permanently alter his behavior and life. It was years before we had a "normal" conversation but we eventually began to speak farily regularly.

Recently Colin has been putting together a new mini-comic called PERMANENT PRESS PRESENTS, which showcases many of our characters in new stories, some old sketchbook pages, and other loosely related comics. He has asked me to contribute but up until now I have been extremely lazy about producing artwork. The reasons for this are numerous but I am attempting to break the cycle. It's not much, but the drawing of Mimus is one sketch on a page I'm working on of our old characters. This is just the beginning.

These guys are cooler than we'll ever be. 

GANG OF FOUR!

If you've been living under a rock for awhile you may not have heard that the incredible Gang of Four are back together and playing shows, in addition to putting out a new record of re-recorded versions of their classics. To this you might say, "Yeah, and...?", and I would in turn reply with the order, "Go see them play live immediately!". Seriously, if you have any kind of appreciation for live music, do yourself a big favor and check 'em out if you can. I dragged Bob along to the show, and even though he was unfamiliar with the songs, he enjoyed it quite a bit, and that says a lot. You know, the kind of show where after the first few notes, or beats of a new song the venue is littered with groups of friends giving each other the "Dude, it's this one!" look.

I'm going to rip-off some other reviewer of this particular tour and say that Andy Gill prowled the stage like a panther, or some sh*t, and was the first to take the stage, staring with a convincingly menacing look into the crowd. He did this as he played the first few jagged notes to one of their best songs. You'll have to take my word for that as I can't for the life of me remember which one it was. I CAN say that it's on Entertainment, and if you like I can try to recall which ones I'm sure it wasn't. That's easy because nearly all the songs they played where from that album, which is rightfully considered to be their best work, with Solid Gold right behind it.

Aside from being really tight, really rocking, really punk, and really funky these elder statemen of punk( sorry, I hate that phrase too...forget it ever happened.) were suprisingly hip, and energetic too. Vocalist John King prowled the stage like...uh, ran all over the place, did a lot of "hands in the air" disco contortions, did the crouching-froggy sideways leaping thing, and generally sang his ass off while often glaring over the upturned lights under each microphone. This dramatic lighting was among many of the effective elements forming the minimal aesthetic of the stage presentation that would go un-noticed if you didn't really pay attention. In an odd, couple of psychic moments Bob and I each got flashes of both Bauhaus, and Cheap Trick which surprises me in more ways than I can describe. And since they are so integral to the sound of the band I have to mention bass-player Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were cool too...

Drawing with a dried-up Sharpie kinda sucks! 

Zee moment of truth...

Who knew that the hardest part of the whole "seat-of-my-pants" recording project I've been yammering about would be deciding which mix to use?....And it's dri-ving me cray-zee! Matt sent me two final mixes to choose from, and in the simplest terms one of them is kind of rough, and the other is a bit overblown. I was ready to go with the latter until I played it for my friend Bob and he preferred the stripped-down version. I'm usually all for a less is more aesthetic when it comes to music and many other things but somehow this case is different. Maybe it's because I can't really look at the song objectively any more, who knows? I'm sure you've had the experience of being so close to a project that you can't get back far enough to look at it, well that's what I'm going through here. So what did I go and do? I sent both versions of the song to 5 friends and/or relatives to get their opinions. This accomplishes two things: I get to show off, or perhaps show how truly stupid I can be, as well as getting the feedback I need from a group whose opinons on music I respect.

It's going to be really interesting to see what kind of a response I get. Not only from the folks I've mentioned but from other friends, family, and fellow contributors to this project. I can't wait to see my parents faces when they hear this thing. My Dad listens to light alternative or something on the radio, while my Mother is into horrible young country, Celine Dion and other mind-rot. They won't really have a context to judge this in so it could go in any direction. Most likely they will smile, and nod with some sort of vaguely positive, obligatory response. I'm looking forward to hearing what my nephew has to say. Jonathan is a very cool fifteen year old with good taste in music. He's also an aspiring musician amongst many other talents.

The best thing is that I'm finally starting to feel like I'm using my creativity again. In addition to the music thing I've been slowly getting back into working on my more natural aptitude; drawing. I've been completing a two-page story I did most of a few years back for a comic my old friend Colin is putting together. Colin is an extremely talented artist and guitar-player, as well as being very influential to me in my youth, which I'm almost completely in favor of. It's like a Garagepunk forum dork-out month around here but I wanted to mention that the image above is what I drew today to label the excellent cd I recieved from rontokyo a few months back. Yeah, I'm kinda slow...

Soon these worlds collide!

I've just returned from Mecca...

...no not actually the holy land but a holy land amongst Dallas' diners, The Mecca. It's been around for at least 20 years (I'm guessing), and despite the fact that it's basically in the neighborhood I grew up in I've somehow avoided it until now. It's in a cool, two-story building on a slightly disreputable street known as a good place to run into ladies of the night, Harry Hines Blvd. It's your typical diner/greasy spoon, maybe a bit cleaner but with great food and a decent ambience, if you will. I had the stuffed bell pepper, with whipped potatoes, green beans almondine, rolls, cornbread and iced tea...TASTY!

In other culturally significant news it seems that THE ROCKENING will be held in Memphis this year, rather than New Orleans for obvious reasons. Here' the scoop via Eric Oblivian on the Goner board:

at the risk of blowing scott's thing... (it's now SCOTT'S THING!), here's what he's working on (THIS MAY CHANGE, and BANDS ARE NOT PLAYING IN THIS ORDER necessarily... )

Thursday Oct 27 @ Buccaneer TearJerkers ,River City Tanlines ,Dutch Masters ,Die Rotzz, Redondo Beat Friday Oct 28 @ Hi Tone King Louie One Man Band, Carbonas,Tough & Lovely, Jenny Jeans ,Live Fast Die Saturday Oct 29 @ Hi Tone Quintron, King Khan & BBQ Show ,Black Lips, Kajun SS

maybe after parties, goner instores tba. stay tuna.

And for those of you keeping score at home I should be able to post an Mp3 of my song for the UNDER THE COVERS comp. by early this week. (Anybody know how to?...e-mail me PLEASE!) Matt's too busy to finish the mixing right now. Coincidentally, Sundazed Records has just released a 45 rpm/7- inch single featuring songs by the 1960's incarnation of West Texas' own Sparkles and wouldn't you know it but the song I'm covering (HIPSVILLE 29 B.C) is on the sucker. I gots to get it...

Relevant picture won't work...Gratuitous Dobbsheads for you!! 

Losin' It

...is the title of a cheesy, "coming-of-age" movie from the early-eighties that starred Shelly Long, and Tom Cruise before they were very well known. For some reason certain scenes from this film have been etched on my brain. The plot involves a small group of high school buddies that make a trip to Tijuana to lose their virginity. They somehow run into Long's character and one of the guys actually ends up "losin' it" to her instead of the obligatory hooker. Various memories include a rather racy song performed by the dj guy at a strip club/whorehouse that cleverly uses the word "Tijuana" in place of the phrase "Do you wanna?"(as in "Tijuana take your mother to the gang bang? Yes you do, it's been a long time since she had a screw..") and a scene in which some thugs have hoisted one of the kids into the air with a crane at a junkyard, and while preparing to fry his genitals with a blowtorch exclaims, "You are huugge!!" in an exaggerated Mexican accent(this was in response to the fact that said teen had stuffed his pants). It's one of those movies I'm not sure if I'd enjoy today, but I sure loved it as a youngster. The title also describes my current mental state pretty accurately.

Matt and I got the drums recorded last weekend but we haven't had a chance to do the final mix. He's got his wifes' whole family from Houston at his place right now to wait out Hurricane Rita. We had to haul all his recording equipment over to a friends place to use his drum kit. I managed to bang out the rhythm without too much trouble, and I'm anxious to see what it sounds like with the other tracks. There was one casualty in the form of Matt's monitor. He clipped the corner of the driveway when we pulled in after the recording and the base of his clear, plastic Mac monitor was broken. This was slightly ironic as Matt had stated earlier that Mac products are quite durable. I still think the Mac cult is mostly an image/ aesthetic thing. They make some cool stuff but the cultists are usually a bit snobbish in my opinion. That doesn't mean I wouldn't mind having one of those I-Pod Nanos though...

Under-rated Geniuses of Rock and Roll!

"Things Are Getting Better"

Things ARE getting better, and that is also the name of a song on the Kinks, self-titled first album.I've got a Kinks sticker on my car that I made at work( I do that kind of thing for a living so it looks berry professional, thank you!), so you could say they are one of my top five bands. I feel like a bit of a poseur about it though as I only have like three of their albums. This is something I plan to remedy just as soon as the finances permit though. Despite the lack of Davies-penned albums in my collection I feel that I am entitled to display his bands logo on my vehicle. The only other stickers presently on my car are an "anti-Bush" sticker a friend made, and a Riverboat Gamblers sticker. I have two of the three Gamblaz' albums and I have seen them a gazillion times so I feel fine about that one, and I want the world to know that I hate GWB so that's great too. I'm at that crucial point in stickering ones car where I might start to become one of those guys with a lot of stickers on their (insert car synonym here). I'm trying to keep it minimal you see.

I've really been getting into other peoples blogs as of late and it makes me feel that mine is little more than an online diary. So be it, besides I really only look at mp3 blogs, and I shamelessly download a ton of great music off of them. There are actually too many to realistically see them all(or list them), and there are very few that I can say that I read with any amount of retension of information. I have recently run into a little trouble, however. At first I was playing Russian Roulette with the mp3's I would download, burning them to disc without so much as one listening in many cases. This was done based on band name/song title/ and style, and I had great initial results. There's not much that can go wrong when you have The Wipers, The Big Boys, The Angry Samoans and other relatively well-established artists to work with. It was when I began to get cocky, and/or greedy that I set myself up for a WHOLE lot of song-skipping. It's fun to have a mystery cd to some extent but those little slabs-o-digital fun aren't free, and I guess I'll have to start being a bit more selective.

This Sunday Matt Louis and I really are going to finish up the recording project. Last Sunday got cancelled as the fellow with the drum kit was holed-up watching what I consider to be the equivalent of watching paint dry, The Dallas Cowboys. YECHHHH!!!