Check out some new heavy, fuzzy synthfunk from one of our awesome discoveries of last year, Phantom Tails.
You can listen to and purchase the album, The Armageddon Experience, here, and if you’re in the Twin Cities, you can see them live on the following dates:
Jan 12 @ Hell’s Kitchen w/Fort Wilson Riot & Hevy Syrup
Jan 20 @ Turf Club w/ Sleeping in the Aviary
Feb 10 @ Triple Rock w/ SexCat & Umami
Musically, one of my favorite things about 2011 was getting into Ohio’s own beautiful chamber folk rock group, the Ridges. Their evocative music still makes me happy when I hear it, and I’m even happier that this talented crew was able to realize a great ambition when they travelled to Rock Island, Illinois to record at the Horseshack, home of titanic music site Daytrotter.
Their Daytrotter session debuted yesterday, and it is gorgeous. Everything that made me love their EP is present, fine-tuned and featured gloriously, from the sometimes winsome, sometimes seasick strings to Victor Rasgaitis’ plaintive vocals. The cast for this recording consisted of: Victor Rasgaitis (Vocals and Guitar), Johnny Barton (Percussion and Vocals), Talor Smith (Cello and Vocals), Allie Levin (Cello), Sarah Edgerton (Viola and Violin), Lauretta Werner (Violin), Chris Damm (Accordion) and Nathan Zangmeister (Bass and Vocals).
To get this gorgeous session, head here very quickly and download swiftly, then listen slowly. Then when you are so enamored by what you hear that you want more, make way to the Ridges’ Bandcamp site and grab their EP.
Heartfelt kudos and congratulations to Vic and the band. You done good, kids.
Even after writing the date again and again, I somehow forgot that yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the death of NTSIB patron saint Joe Strummer. As I said to a friend, some days it seems like more, some days it seems like a lot less.
Here’s some treats I gathered in remembrance: extra interview footage from Dick Rude’s great documentary Let’s Rock Again!, the great (and cranky) Bo Diddley talking about his opening slot for the Clash in 1979 and, via boingboing, the 1942 New Year’s resolutions list of one of Joe’s heroes, Woody Guthrie (you can easily imagine a very similar list coming from Joe himself).
The album cover, with it’s eye-searing blue-on-red pattern of a repeated image of the group, is a lesson in bad design, but the vinyl platter inside was a masterclass on making music to appeal across divisions. This best of Coasters’ album from my mother’s collection is one of the small group of things that reside in the overlap of the Venn diagram representing me, my mother and my father. And it’s one of those rare things that can make my notoriously cranky father act a little goofy, as he dances through the house, singing along and pointing his fingers in the air.
“Yakety Yak”, probably the Coasters’ best-known song, was always my least favorite due to over-saturation, having heard it on the local oldies station (WMJI, Majic 105.7… back when it still played oldies. Remember those days, Cleveland kids?) a million times and seen it depicted in several cartoons of the time. But one of my favorites on that best of album was “Searchin'”, with it’s sliding rhythm. A great song to do the Stroll to.
Written by the legendary songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the song was released on Atco Records in 1957.
The Coasters had a knack for recording songs with catchy, instantly-likeable rhythms. (Though the song was slowed down in their live performance of it on censorship-loving Steve Allen’s show.)
Fun fact: The Beatles covered “Searchin'” in their audition for Decca Records in 1962. Their cover was pretty terrible. They should have taken a cue from Bill Lee Riley, who covered the song in ’57 for Sun Records.
There was also a creditable rendition by the Hollies in 1963.
In 1965, the Spencer Davis Group laid down a surprisingly soulful version of “Searchin'” with a little more hipsway in the mix.
In the mid-’90s, Man of a Thousand Bands, Mick Collins, covered “Searchin'” with his band Blacktop, adding his signature loud, fuzzed-out, chainsaw guitar sound. (Collins also covered the Coasters “The Idol with the Golden Head” with the Gories, making me like him even more than I already did.)
(Note: I have no idea where the visuals are from in this video. It’s just what was available.)
Block out some time for this one, kids.
As I said when I shared a repository of Joy Division bootlegs over on the NTSIB G+ page, when I first heard “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, it was like the world cracked open. And Joy Division’s music still resonates deep inside.
Our friend Michelle Evans has another report from Nashville for us, this time with the diversely-talented and widely- and highly-regarded Rick Steff.
Rick Steff, to me, is one of the best things about Lucero, so I jumped at the chance to speak with him at Mercy Lounge in Nashville. We discussed life in Lucero, his incredible career as a journeyman, and, last but certainly not least, his daddy. (Turns out, his father and my grandfather may have played together with the Ringling Bros. Circus.) Long ago dubbed by yours truly as “The Nicest Man Alive,” Rick is as talented as he is nice. I think you’ll agree.
What have you been working on recently?
Well, I do a lot of records. I’ve been on more than a couple hundred records. Most recently, the records I’ve done outside of Lucero, that I think are of certain note, are the Amy LaVere record, Stranger Me, that’s on Thirty Tigers. John Stubblefield also performed on it, and it’s just a really unique record by a really unique artist that we’ve had out on the road with us before. Her back-up band, at that time, was Paul Taylor, who’s worked with John and went to school with John, and Steve Selvidge, who played with Lucero during Brian Venable’s tenure away, and he’s now in The Hold Steady, who are all friends of ours. They aren’t the guys on this record, but that’s kinda where she comes from. The record was produced by Craig Selby, who did the Arcade Fire record, The Suburbs, that won Grammy of the Year this year, so yeah, Stranger Me is a real great record. It was kinda put together last minute, so we kinda built this record from scratch, so I’m real excited about that.
I’m always working on different projects. Last year, it was Huey Lewis and The News.
Did you, really? I love that.
Yeah, I did the Huey Lewis and The News reunion record, which was really awesome. He was hilarious. Huey was recovering. He had had a stint put in his heart.
It all kinda started in the previous year. I had done this record and movie with a guy named Klaus Voormann, who was the guy that drew the Revolver cover for The Beatles and was the bass player on John Lennon records and George Harrison records. He’s really one of the guys who discovered the Beatles. Anyway, he was 70, and he was going around the country reuniting with all these people he had worked with throughout the years and making a movie. So he came to Memphis to do a track with Bonnie Bramlett, and I played on that. We hit it off, and ultimately I got to play on the tune that he cut with McCartney and Ringo, so that was really cool, and it’s in the movie as well, which is called A Sideman’s Journey. It’s Klaus Voormann and friends, and it’s really just a movie about people who do what I do. Journeymen.
So back to Huey. The cool part is, he was getting his surgery done, and I loaned him the film to watch while he was in the hospital, and I got a voicemail from him – still have it on my computer – “Rick Steff. Huey Lewis. Big fan of your work. Just wanted to call and tell you that I love that you were in that movie.†So I’ve got a voicemail from Huey Lewis thanking me for a movie I was in. It’s, like, really surrealistic shit which doesn’t really happen to me. So, yeah. It was awesome. So, ya know, sometimes you get to do stuff that’s really cool.
So you really keep busy.
Yeah, and that’s not all! [laughs]
Oh! [laughs] Do tell!
Just got through working with a young girl, who’s record I’ll finish next week, called Alex da Ponte, from a band called Yeah, Arturo, and I’m really excited about that. I think she’s gonna be someone to watch. She’s really good.
So yeah, that’s all. I just try to play on… Well, sometimes you play on things for money, and sometimes you play on things for art, and usually the things that you like playing on the most aren’t the most lucrative, but that’s the way it is. But me, I’m just glad to be able to do some of everything.
I don’t think we can do an interview without mentioning your dad, Dick Steff, and his legacy.
Oh, yeah, well Dad, ya know, played on all these great records: Isaac Hayes’ Shaft, Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, Rufus Thomas’ Do the Funky Chicken, Elvis’ Complete American Sound Studios Sessions, which was the “Suspicious Minds”/”Kentucky Rain”/”In the Ghetto” time period. I would go with him to sessions, and I just wanted to be Dad. I just wanted to do what he did.
There’s a gentleman here playing horns for Lucero who studied under your father, correct?
Yup, Scott Thompson. He did our most recent record and played live with us, and he was one of Dad’s main students and worked with him for a long time. He plays probably closer to my dad than anyone else I know. It’s wonderful. It’s a personal thing that’s also nice for me.
Jim Spake also studied under dad. Dad taught Jazz Theory and things like that at Memphis State, now the University of Memphis, so if you were a music major in the ’60s and ’70s, you kinda almost had to take something from him if you were a jazzer, and most horn players tend to be jazzers to some degree.
So it’s incredible. I mean, these are people my mom knows and loves.
As a fan of things in general, and as a fan of you, and as a fan of Lucero, I think it’s really awesome to see you being a fan.
Oh, I’m a super-fan! Are you kidding? I am a super-fan. I have never worked with a songwriter who I respect as much as Ben Nichols in my life. Ever, in my career. I have never worked with a band I am more comfortable playing with, both musically and the integrity of the people involved in this band. So, yeah, I’m an uber-fan, all the way.
How did you first start with Lucero?
Oh, that’s an interesting story. Again, doing journeyman kind of stuff. A guitar player I worked with a lot is a mutual friend of John’s, named David Cousar, who worked on Amy LaVere’s record. John was helping coordinate a session for this poet friend of ours named City Mouse. I didn’t know him at the time, but it was a spoken word thing, and he wanted an accordion, upright, acoustic guitar, and drums, so David Cousar, John Stubblefield, Roy Berry, and I played the backing track at a guy named Chris Scott’s studio. So we did this record, and I hit it off with Roy and John, and they were toying with the idea of having some keyboards, because there had been keyboards on the records in the past, before I came. So we tried it, and I didn’t leave. We just hit it off, and it was awesome, and I felt very lucky. It came exactly through a journeyman type of situation.
When someone you’re an uber-fan of, like Ben Nichols, says how much integrity and talent you bring to Lucero, how does that make you feel?
I’m glad he feels that way, but I’m very not… I don’t know. It’s wonderful. I’m glad he feels that way. I’m honored. I’m totally honored that he likes what I bring to the table, but I’m the lucky one out of this deal, as far as I’m concerned.
Aw, hell yeah, this is a cool event, kiddies. On December 7, 2011, at 9 PM EST, Saving Country Music will be streaming the Black Diamond Heavies’ set from the 2009 Deep Blues Festival. BDH performed at the very first DBF, and not only does the 2009 set feature core members John Wesley Myers (a.k.a. James Leg, who will be playing live in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 5 at Now That’s Class) and Van Campbell, but it also includes a reunion with original BDH member Mark “Porkchop” Holder and support from guru/roadie extraordinaire U.S. Justin and BDH buddy Andy Jody (whose long and illustrious resume includes Pearlene, James Leg’s solo album and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, to barely scratch the surface).
Be sure to trek on over to Saving Country Music ahead of time and download the live player plug-in beforehand so you’ll be ready when the fun gets going. And stock up on whiskey. It will be fucking awesome, I assure you.
NTSIB’s good friend Michelle Evans checks in with road report on Austin Lucas. Midwestern Ohio NOTE: Austin is playing Zanesfield TONIGHT. More details below.
I was able to catch up with Bloomington, Indiana musician Austin Lucas this past weekend before his set at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville, where he and his back-up band for the past couple of weeks, Glossary, opened for alt-country Tennessee rockers Lucero. It was a line-up made in heaven, for which people from all over the country drove and flew in. We talked about what it was like for him touring with Glossary, his European fan base, and what’s ahead.
You can catch him with his family band in Zanesfield, Ohio this Friday, November 25th at 7 p.m. at the Mad River Theater Works Studio, and/or next Friday, December 2nd at The Bishop with Murder by Death in Bloomington, IN. I don’t recommend missing these shows; he won’t be touring the U.S. again till next year.
How’s it been touring with Glossary?
Amazing. It’s like being on tour with five stand-up comedians. We just laugh a lot, and I mean a lot. Usually, I laugh a lot on tour, but it’s not often I go on tour with a band that’s been together 15 years and really knows each other and really gets along and also has so much camaraderie between them, and they’re dynamic is really good. They’re all really funny people and all really sweet people. Fitting in with them could’ve been really daunting, ya know, like a 6th wheel, but in this case, the 6th wheel runs real smoothly. It was the most natural tour experience I’ve had with another band.
How long have you been on tour with them now?
Two weeks. It was a short little tour.
How did y’all mesh musically, like with them playing your songs?
For me, great. In my way of thinking, really great. A lot of people at the shows were like, “Holy shit, I wish they were your band all the time.†At least the people who said anything to me felt that way. I’m sure there were people who thought, “He didn’t play any of his old songs,†or “He didn’t play very much acoustic,†but that happens.
Now, Todd Beene was with you that entire time, correct?
Yeah, of course. He was with Lucero up until our tour and then with us, and now these two shows with both of us. He prioritized Glossary and Austin Lucas. It was very sweet of him.
What’s ahead?
A lot of resting. I’m going home. I don’t have any dates, really, until I go to Mexico and then Europe, so I don’t have anything going on till then. I’m going to write songs, get in the studio maybe around January, something like that. We’ll see.
And you’re bigger in Europe, right?
Definitely.
How does Europe generally treat you? Like what are your favorite spots?
Finland’s my most favorite place to play in the world, without a doubt. Finland, the UK, and Germany are my three biggest markets, and in the UK, it’s really the south where I do well, like in London, Brighton, and pretty well in Leeds, but I haven’t really broke in the west and the north as well. In Europe, I sell out quite a few venues. At least I have on my other tours.
Which folks do you or have you toured in Europe with? Anyone we would know?
In the past, usually, I’ve packaged up, like with Chuck Ragan, Mike Hale, and Josh Small. Also Drag the River and Cory Branan. The last tour was with Digger Barnes. He’s a German guy, and he was Chuck’s bassist for a while. He was originally my bass player in my band Austin Lucas and The Pressmen, my back-up musicians. Then he met Chuck, and he played with us on Bristle Ridge and was on the first several tours. He’s awesome. He’s amazing, and he’s got his own solo stuff. We did a tour together last year.
So who’s playing with you on this upcoming European tour?
I’m just going to bring my back-up band, The Bold Party. We don’t have anybody supporting. It’ll be the first tour I’ve done over there in a long time where I wasn’t packaged up and ensured that the music quality was really good every night. There aren’t a lot of acts over that that play what we play or Americana or alt-country or whatever, so we’ll see. Should be a great time no matter what.
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.â€
– 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.
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]
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.
