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James Leg is Coming to Cleveland (and Other Cities, Too)

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Solitary Pleasure is ingrained with James Leg’s extensive knowledge of the rock and roll canon and the album displays his passion and originality to full effect. Granted, Leg’s gargled-with-goat vocal style could be an acquired taste, but it’s also a quality instrument that, like his keyboard work, will prove powerful, yet supple and dextrous over the course of the album. Imagine Tom Waits doing Bobby “Blue” Bland covers.
– DEEP BLUES

“Long live rock and soul and pianos and devil horns.”
– POPMATTERS

If you’ve been reading NTSIB for a while, you know that I freaking love James Leg (a.k.a. John Wesley Myers of the Black Diamond Heavies) and that his album, Solitary Pleasure, is probably my favorite album of 2011. If not, here’s a little memory refresher.

I already have two James Leg shows under my belt this year, and I’m excited for a third. Sitting down at the keys, Leg generates more energy on stage than most of his more mobile counterparts, leg flailing to the beat and hair flying in his face as he pushes his foghorn howl through the microphone to blast you out and then settle down in the center of your pelvis. But he doesn’t stop there, setting that pelvis to sway, shake and grind as he makes his trusty Fender Rhodes talk like a guitar and growl like a junkyard Rottweiler. The man puts so much effort into making you move your ass that he’s usually sweated through his shirt by the 2nd or 3rd song.

James Leg will be turning Cleveland’s Now That’s Class into a sweatbox on December 5th at 9 PM for $5 a head. Openers will be northeastern Ohio bands White Buffalo Woman and the Buffalo Ryders, as apparently, buffalo are the new indie band animal of choice. Please grab your free copy of the sleazy-in-all-the-best-ways “Do How You Wanna” below and join me on the 5th.

 

James Leg – Do How You Wanna

 

And if you don’t live in the CLE, do what you can to catch James Leg at one of the stops below.

Dec 01: Nashville, TN @ The 5 Spot w/ Blackfaces (members of Immortal Lee County Killers, Soledad Brothers and Be Your Own Pet) and D.Watusi
Dec 02: Huntington, WV @ The V Club
Dec 03: Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
Dec 04: Cincinnati, OH @ Junkers Tavern
Dec 05: Cleveland, OH @ Now Thats Class
Dec 06: Detroit, MI @ PJ’s Lager House
Dec 07: Ft. Wayne, IN @ The Brass Rail w/ Left Lane Cruiser
Dec 08: Lafayette, IN @ Lafayette Brewing Co.
Dec 09: Chicago, IL @ Morseland
Dec 10: Columbia, MO @ The Bridge
Dec 11: St Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
Dec 12: TBA
Dec 13: Kansas City, MO @ Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club
Dec 15: Omaha, NE @ O’Leaver’s Pub
Dec 16: Bayport, MN (Minneapolis) @ Bayport BBQ w/ Molly Gene’s One Whoaman Band
Dec 17: Bayport, MN (Minneapolis) @ Bayport BBQ w/ Molly Gene’s One Whoaman Band
Dec 18: Green Bay, WI @ Phatheads
Dec 19: Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Dec 20: Dubuque, IA @ Off Minor

[West Coast March 2012 tour dates to be announced soon]

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I Will Be Your Light Inside the Dark: New London Fire, The Dirt The Blood The Faith

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Periodically people ask me what kind of music I like. My default answer is “big drums and dirty bass lines,” but now that I’ve spent some (more) time listening to current offerings in the field of country/Americana I have to add “fiddle and pedal steel.” The Dirt The Blood The Faith, the third and latest (out on vinyl as of yesterday, also available on iTunes!) record from New London Fire, combines all four of my favorite elements.

I’m especially fond of the thudding at the heart of Until the Light Goes Out On Me (turn it up, it’ll rattle your bones in the best possible way), the sweet shimmer of high silvery sound that floats through Arizona, The Jungle, and Ain’t Wagin’ War, and the low, aggressive thrum that slowly expands to a roar in title track The Dirt The Blood The Faith.

New London Fire are: David Debiak, Jon Lam, and D. James Goodwin and they are, collectively, from both Asbury Park, NJ and Woodstock, NY. (D. James Goodwin also produced the record, in his studio in Woodstock.) It’s worth noting here that New London Fire has not always been an Americana band; they actually started out closer to the Britpop end of the spectrum. I did a quick skim through their back catalog, and I can tell you that while this record is technically a whole new direction, it doesn’t sound like that much of a bizarre left turn. It’s more a possibly abrupt but still logical evolution of form.

Old NLF fans, if you’re puzzled and/or concerned, be at ease. They’ve swapped out some instruments but the carefully crafted melodies and sing-along choruses are still there. Those of you who are new to their charms and are now squinting at your screens thinking Britpop??: this record is good. It’s more western than country, it has solid pop-rock underpinnings, and you should put it on and crank it up.

As evidence, I present two videos. The first one is for their first single, The Other Side of Town:

 

And the second, made in the studio, is for Rise:

 

 

Their other big upcoming project is collaborating with New York Times reporter and novelist Bassey Etim to produce a soundtrack for Etim’s multi-platform novel The God Project which will feature hip-hop infused remixes of songs from The Dirt The Blood The Faith. They are all going to be hitting the road together this winter. I’ll keep you posted as events develop!

Or, for more immediate news bulletins, you can subscribe to them on Facebook and Twitter.

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Rebirth of the Cool: …Baby, One More Time

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It’s been too long since we’ve had a Rebirth post, but I’m sure some of you have taken a look at the title and are already wincing in anticipation of this one. Let’s get the difficult part out of the way now.

 

 

I know, I know… Back in the early 2000s, while I was accumulating a collection of “Ring of Fire” covers, my boyfriend at the time, in his perverse nature, took to collecting “…Baby, One More Time” covers.

Hey, we’ve all made bad choices in partners, okay?

But there was one stand-out gem in this perplexing collection, that being the complete piss-take version by Mr. Bungle.

 

 

Speaking of perverse, I found this version by Frank’s progeny, Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa, over at Cover Me and actually find it… kind of… sexy… (This may have something to do with the fact that I wore out Dweezil’s My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama album when I was a teenager.)

 

 

Thus concludes this episode of Unfortunate Confession Theater.

 

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Classic Moments in Jubilee Showcase: Church before Church

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Music doesn’t have boundaries. We impose things like genre, or let a marketing department impose a genre and then just go along with it, and then say short-sighted things like, “I love all music… except country/hip hop/hated-genre-of-the-moment.”

Music does have power. Songs can speak and speak to us. Songs can move and move us. Songs can embolden us.

 

 

I don’t go to church – I don’t hold beliefs that draw me in that direction – but I am as vulnerable to a good gospel song as any devout worshipper. The clap of hands, the boom of a voice raised in full heart, the rhythm that stomps or the held note that draws a thread tight from the soul… it encompasses the best of what music can do.

From the early ’60s through the early ’80s, Sid Ordower (a Jewish man who felt the power of gospel) brought that boundary-less power into the homes of Chicago television viewers with a show called Jubilee Showcase. Sunday mornings, viewers could sit down and experience powerful performances from gospel stars like James Cleveland, Andrae Crouch, the Soul Stirrers, the Staple Singers and more and still have time to get to church. The show not only shared the music of the brightest stars in the gospel firmament, but also launched careers of fledling artists.

A new DVD, Classic Moments in Jubilee Showcase, brings this wonderful show out of the past and out beyond Chicago. The disc contains four full episodes picked from thoughout the show’s timeline. From early black-and-white footage of the Staple Singers (with the ever-lovely Mavis Staple opening up those spectacular pipes) and the Soul Stirrers (the group from which Sam Cooke launched, though Cooke does not appear in this DVD) to later performances of Jessy Dixon, Inez Andrews, another appearance from the Soul Stirrers and a whole program of gospel mega-star Andrae Crouch, this DVD displays the range of gospel music, from high church hymns to stomping spirituals. The highlight of the collection for me is when the Soul Stirrers perform “Oh, What a Meeting” with powerful lead vocals from Willie Rogers. (I don’t have a clip to share, but you can hear a different recording of the song here and see what the performance looked like it all its technicolor glory below.)

 

 

The disc extras contain short, but often illumnating, documentarian bios of Ordower and some of the featured artists. And if you become as interested in the history of the show and its creator, Sid Ordower, you can look forward to a documentary of the show. Producer of the upcoming documentary, Steven Ordower says:

“Currently in development, Jubilee, is a documentary film featuring rare performances from a local Emmy award winning Chicago gospel music television show that aired from 1963-1984, called ‘Jubilee Showcase,’ the brainchild of civil rights activist and producer, Sid Ordower. Jubilee will feature exclusive footage – never before seen by a national audience – from many of gospel’s greatest singers. Ordower’s history as a participant in the struggle for equal rights will be interwoven with the historic performances from his show. This approach is intended to contextualize gospel music within the civil rights movement specifically, and the African- American experience in general. This documentary will consist of contemporary interviews, still photography, originally shot footage, and archive clips from what some have described as ‘the greatest single collection of gospel music in the world.’”

For more information on the DVD, including ordering information and to see some of the informational clips about the artists appearing on the DVD, visit the site:

Jubilee Showcase Official Website

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Saturday Matinee: Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks the World

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Featuring interviews with everyone from the inventor of the pedal to Buddy Guy to a lot of dudes you haven’t even heard about since hair metal went out of fashion the first time, this great documentary tracks the life and wide-reaching influence of the Cry Baby Wah-Wah guitar effect pedal, one of the most singular and iconic sounds of modern music, from its conception to the present time.

 

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Jimmy Dunlop on Vimeo.

 

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks the World Official Website

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Ships Sail Past My Heart: Rhubarb Whiskey, Cautionary Tales

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Photo by Flip Cassidy

Rhubarb Whiskey are Boylamayka Sazerac (Oakland Wine Drinkers Union, Subincision; vocals, guitar, upright bass, mandolin, metal chain, railroad spike on accordion case) Emchy (Vagabondage, Oakland Wine Drinkers Union; vocal, accordion, clapping, musical saw mallet on spice jar) and Sizzle La Fey (The Sweet Trade; fiddle, mandolin, whiskey bottle). They are from San Francisco, and Cautionary Tales is their first full length release.

It is aptly named, as it is jammed full of blood- and whiskey-soaked tales, such as Banks of the Ohio and Birch Bones, both of which are far too bouncy to be called murder ballads. Murder gavottes, maybe, or murder hooligan’s jigs.1

There’s also Bears in the Lot, which is an extremely entertaining meditation on the perils of losing bets and drinking in Alaska, and Whiskey Neat which is mainly about the joys of drinking whiskey, pretty girls and narrowly avoided bar fights. But my favorite song, the one I have been listening to somewhat, er, obsessively, is We All Come to the Same Place.

It’s a song about chosen family; for me, it’s the song I would (will probably) put at the end of a mixtape for a new friend, or lover, to say: this is sound of my ravens rising and soaring over the frozen lake, wing to wing, and my swallows, descending after a long journey home; this is the song of the travelers lantern always kept burning on my porch, for loved ones, and because I, too, often take flight, and need the light in the distance to call me home; these are my people, this is my tribe, and we are the wandering, traveling kind.

Here is a live version, recorded at the Starry Plough in Berekeley, CA:

 

http://youtu.be/WxZbrDLfa6k

 

And if after reading all of that, you would like a strong drink, Rhubarb Whiskey can help you out there as well, for the name of the band refers to an actual drink.

For those of you who have ever tasted raw rhubarb2 and are now thinking Rhubarb and whiskey? Together? But I like having tastebuds!, know that I had the same concern, and inquired how it was possible to drink such a thing and not expire of acute bitterness. It turns out there is a secret ingredient.

Not so secret anymore, though, since below you will find the Official Recipe for Rhubarb Whiskey, courtesy of (and created by) Emchy:

Official Recipe
Rhubarb Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup peeled and chopped rhubarb
Boil 1 cup of water, add 1 cup sugar, stir until sugar is completely dissolved, add 1 cup coarsely chopped and peeled rhubarb, lower water to a simmer, let simmer covered for one hour. Put into glass mason jar to cool and then refrigerate. Let sit at least one hour (a full day is better for flavor).

Once your rhubarb simple syrup is cool, add one part syrup to two parts rye whiskey (brand of your choice but don’t go too high end, that insults the whiskey and brings bad luck — we suggest Beam Rye or Makers if you need to get a little fancy). 1-3 ice cubes recommended. Now put on your favorite murder ballads album, drink up, and be careful — it goes down a little too easy.

1 The Hooligan’s Jig was a set dance I encountered at ceilidhs put on by the Cecilian Society at the University of Glasgow, while I was there. It’s not so much a set dance as it an endurance test. Basically you line up two rows of couples and then spend 10 (or more) diizzying minutes running through sets that involve swinging your partner, trading partners, and swinging some more. It’s tremendous fun, especially if you’re dancing with a large group of people who treat ceilidh dancing as a contact sport.

2 My grandmother had rhubarb growing in her backyard – wild or planted, I don’t know, but it was mixed in with asparagus – and I took a nibble of a stalk one afternoon, expecting it to be sweet, like rhubarb pie. It wasn’t; in fact it is still in among the top five unhappy food surprises I have ever had.

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King Mob: Make the Black Sun Rise

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I get a little nervous when I see the term “supergroup” thrown out. It’s been used so often in recent years that it’s become synonymous with “disappointment”. So, when I opened my e-mail and started reading about a “supergroup” caled King Mob, I was ready to delete and move on… until I saw the name Glen Matlock1. Then there was mention of Martin Chambers of the Pretenders. Alright, I’ll listen to that.

 

 

Hell, I’ll listen to that twice (actually, I lost count of the number of times I listened to it).

Rounding out King Mob are Chris Spedding, best known as a versatile session guitarist who has worked with Roxy Music, Harry Nilsson, Brian Eno, Tom Waits and on and on; Stephen W. Parsons (a.k.a. Snips), who was in the Sharks with Spedding and has composed music for films; Sixteen, a young guitarist who also has a psychosurf outfit called One Fathom Down.

King Mob’s album, Force 9, is out now, and if you’re living in the right place, you can get a free download of “Selene, Selene” (if you’re in the U.S., you’re S.O.L.). If you’re living in the right place, you can also see the band performing live at 229 the Venue in London this Thursday, November 17 (tickets available here).

If you’re not living in the right place, well, here’s another video as a consolation.

 

 

King Mob Official Website

King Mob @ Facebook

1 You know that band the Sex Pistols, yeah? You know that guy Sid Vicious, yeah? Well, before and after Sid, there was Glen.

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Give: Daniel Knox and John Atwood

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NTSIB friend and Couch by Couchwest (the internet-based answer to South by Southwest for the lazy and the poor) alumnus Daniel Knox and photographer John Atwood could use your help.

Atwood writes:

Songwriter/composer Daniel Knox and I were recently selected by the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation to be artists in residence this fall at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center in Watermill, NY.

Through the course of the residency, Daniel will expand, develop, and complete a long-form piece of music written and arranged for piano, voice, horns, strings, and percussion, based on my photography.

The residency will culminate in a premiere performance of the final piece alongside an exhibition of the integral photographs at the 92YTribeca, New York, NY on 26 January 2012.

Your support will “help cover production expenses for the exhibition: framing, printing, and equipment rental, accompanying musicians, publicity materials and costs.”

Atwood’s photographs have graced the covers of Knox’s Disaster and Evryman for Himself albums, and this further step in their collaboration is an exciting one. Check out the Kickstarter video below, then visit the site to see how you can help.

 

 

John Atwood @ Flickr

Daniel Knox Official Website

 

Daniel Knox – Disaster from Daniel Knox on Vimeo.

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Saturday Matinee: The Future is Unwritten

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Apologies for the absence, my babies. I’ve been battling the flu from hell the past couple of weeks, but I’m ready to get back on top of things. So, here’s a tribute to the NTSIB patron saint, Joe Strummer, from filmmaker Julien Temple.

After watching this, I highly and enthusiastically recommend getting a hold of Dick Rude’s wonderful documentary of Joe’s last tour, Let’s Rock Again!. And if you’re in the mood for the absurd, Alex Cox’s Straight to Hell Returns is free to view on Hulu.

 

Joe Strummer – The Future Is Unwritten (Documental) from hardcorepunkarg7 on Vimeo.