Richie Booker
"Shine The Light" (SKD/Synkronized)
A less creative and adventurous artist boasting Richie's familial link to reggae legend Bob Marley might well be inclined to simply recycle the stylings of his famed brother, hoping for similar reward. But Richie's provocative and inspirational "alternative reggae" is of individually topical character, layering its technicolor, textured world party with rock and pop diversity, and intriguing studio effects. New reggae for the new age.
FROM DANCEHALLAREAZ.COM: "In addition to singing and acting (Palmetto, with Woody Harrelson), Booker produces the annual Bob Marley Caribbean Festival, where for the past 15 years, he and his family have brought together talented musicians as a fundraiser to help feed and shelter the homeless."
Recommended Tracks "Wow," "U Ain't From Around Here," "Station Revelation," "Deja Vu"
http://www.bobmarleymovement.com/
http://www.myspace.com/richiebookermarley
Randevyn
"The Randevyn Project" (Earthtone Music Group)
"I aspire to utilize my art to create positive, thought-provoking music that inspires and strengthens humanity," Randevyn says. Such life-affirming ambition abounds not only in the meaningful narratives ("This is my country," he declares in "Jena Tree." "I got a right to be here."), but no less so through equally moving, sophisticated music that often cherishes lush keyboards at its center.
And when he asks, rhetorically, "What if there are really no walls, at all?" you appreciate the wonderful ramifications -- and second that emotion.
Recommended Tracks "Jena Tree," "American Drum," "Dear Diary," "(The Dash In Between)"
http://www.randevyn.com/
http://www.myspace.com/randevyn
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
To Smear a King
To Smear a King:
Crossing swords with the power of myth
by DC Larson
It has become something of a tradition, albeit a regrettable one. As the August anniversary of Elvis Presley's 1977 death approaches, self-righteous hectors villify him as "racist."
It is a false claim, though for some one not requiring that examinable evidence ever be produced. But putting one's hands on contrary testimony is easily done.
The myth-debunking website Snopes.com (on its "Urban Legends Reference Page") details the origin of the counterfeit claim. The site cites Michael T. Bertrand's book "Race, Rock, and Elvis."
Bertrand had found that the April 1957 issue of the white-owned Sepia magazine contained the article, "How Negroes Feel About Elvis." The piece noted that, "colored opinion about the hydromatically-hipped hillbilly from Mississippi runs the gamut from caustic condemnation to ardent admiration." It offered views allegedly collected from both celebrities and "people in the street."
Snopes writes, "Presumably from the 'people in the street' came the infamous and uncredited quotation, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records."
Sepia sought input from African-American Minister Milton Perry. "I feel," Perry told the magazine, "that an overwhelming majority of people who know him speak of this boy who practices humility and a love for racial harmony. I learned that he is not too proud or important to speak to anyone and to spend time with his fans of whatever color, wherever and whenever they approach him."
It was not long, though, before the anonymous, 'people in the street' comment was being falsely attributed to the singer, himself. Again, Snopes. "The rumor grew and spread throughout 1957. It mattered not that the story came cloaked in impossible details, such as Elvis supposedly making the statement in Boston (a city he had never visited) or on Edward R. Murrow's Person To Person television program (on which Elvis never appeared)."
Unable to source the rumored comment, the website records, Jet magazine sent reporter Louie Robinson to interview Presley on the "Jailhouse Rock" set. ("The 'Pelvis' Gives His Views On Vicious anti-Negro slur" Jet, August 1, 1957)
"I never said anything like that," Presley told Robinson. "And people who know me know I wouldn't have said that."
A number of fellow musicians, whites and blacks, came to Presley's defense at the time. Notable among them was R&B singer Darlene Love, who had backed Presley with vocal group the Blossoms. "I would never think that Elvis Presley was a racist," Love was later quoted as saying in a 2002 article. "He was born in the South, and he probably grew up with that, but that doesn't mean he stayed that way." ("False Rumor Taints Elvis," Cox News Service, August 16, 2002)
(Other contradictory direct evidence exists on Charly Records's 2006 "The Million Dollar Quartet, 50th Anniversary Special Edition." In 1956, Sun Records alum Elvis joined Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash at the Memphis studio for an impromptu session. Prior to a loose, collective retelling of his then-chart hit, "Don't Be Cruel," Elvis related seeing Billy Ward and the Dominoes's recent cover performance of it. "Much better than that record of mine," Presley concedes. He describes Ward's onstage energy: "He was hittin' it, boy!" Jerry Lee responds, "Oh man, that's classic!" Performers naturally admiring a fellow performer; not a hint of color consciousness to be found.)
Myths, though, are of a seductive quality -- often for cultural reasons other than themselves. This popular legend-based anti-Elvis sentiment persists, with recent illustrations including Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" (1989) and Living Colour's "Elvis Is Dead" (1990).
(To his credit, Public Enemy's Chuck D. later expressed a more complex and nuanced opinion. He told a reporter, "As a musicologist -- and I consider myself one -- there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis, especially during his Sun sessions. As black people, we all knew that...My whole thing was the one-sidedness -- like, Elvis's status in America made it seem like nobody else counted. My heroes came before him. My heroes were probably his heroes..."Chuck D. Speaks on Elvis's Legacy," Associated Press, 8/12/02.)
As noted in an 8/11/07 New York Times op-ed ("How did Elvis get turned into a racist? ") by author Peter Guralnick, singer Mary J. Blige also cited the scurrilous myth as if it were at all based in fact.
Of course rock'n'roll existed prior to Presley's 1954 recording debut at Sun Records in Memphis. It was in some cases electrifying and wondrous in ways known only to audiences and subsequent vinyl collectors.
But the national stage appearance of Crown Electric Co. truck driver Elvis marked -- not an example of white culture appropriating something blacks had already developed but for which they were denied credit -- but the emergence of the hitherto-unrepresented working class into popular culture visibility.
In early years, Elvis did perform for segregated audiences in the pre-Civil Rights-era South. But for critics highlighting that to be fair, they need to note that segregation of public facilities was then a matter of civil law and not of performers's choosing.
Some might hold that, that being the case, performers had a moral duty to refrain entirely from public performance. But that would have made performing impossible for all musicians, black as well as white. And for many, it's as much a calling as a profession.
A Memphis, Tennessee contemporary of Presley's, Paul Burlison first earned renown as lead guitarist for Johnny Burnette and the Rock'n'Roll Trio. I interviewed him for a 2000 Goldmine article. He shared something of what the situation was like for working musicians in that time and place.
Paul was in a country band in 1951, when he caught the attention of blues man Howlin' Wolf. He began backing Wolf on the latter's radio program, though due to racial codes, Burlison's name could not be cited in group introductions.
"The reason I didn't play in the clubs with him was because of the racial thing back then," Paul told me. He recalled having to enter black clubs through back doors and said of Wolf, "It was the same with him if he came up to where we were playing. We would have liked to have [played clubs together], of course. It just wasn't permitted in those days. Not in Memphis, anyhow."
(Before his death in 2003, Paul's credits included not only rockabilly genre pioneering giants the Rock'n'Roll Trio, but international solo work and a 1990s showcase at the Smithsonian Institution.)
The "Elvis was racist" article-of-faith mantra is an offshoot of the larger fiction holding against evidence that rock'n'roll is exclusively black in origin. But Tennessee rockabilly guitar man Carl Perkins did not sound like venerated shouter Big Joe Turner, nor did the frantic storms of Jerry Lee Lewis recall the risible and urbane stylings of Fats Waller -- though all helped develop the music.
In his invaluable volume, "Unsung Heroes of Rock'n'Roll," veteran music writer Nick Tosches noted that the burgeoning sound which spread across 1950s America began in regional pockets and was of mixed parentage.
"Rock'n'roll was not created solely by blacks or whites," wrote Tosches. Earlier, after dispatching mono-racial rock'n'roll creation arguments, the author observed, "One could make just as strong a case for Jews being the central ethnic group in rock'n'roll's early history; for it was they who produced many of the best songs, cultivated much of the greatest talent, and operated the majority of the pioneering record companies."
Difficult as it would be to construct an exhaustive review of early rock'n'roll without citing Doc Pomus, Mort Schuman, Les Bihari, or Sid Nathan, it is telling that many of today's race-as-creative-qualification theorists might not even be able to identify those men, significant to the style's germination though they were.
Rock'n'roll was more than just music, it acted as a socially-unifying wing of the growing civil rights movement, uniting people on the dance floor just as others would come together in polling places. (Not to paint an overly-rosy portrait. It was not the entire solution. But it did help immeasurably to spur the phenomenon.)
It is flatly anti-creative to argue as some do that an individual or community can "steal" art from another, and that instances of blended creation be discouraged and reviled. That's how art is created. One artist inspires another, an idea is raised up, turned around, and new art is born.
Concepts like ownership, territoriality and separatism are wholly foreign to the phenomenon. (Which is not to argue that these invalid notions are still not useful for some; indeed, Mos Def founds the narrative of his 2002 "Rock and Roll" upon that very sand.)
Too, this involves a fundamental issue, that of reason versus emotion. There is evidence -- which merits intellectual regard and can convert the unsympathetic -- and there is self-righteously uncritical passion. It is the latter that animates the "Elvis was racist" lie.
That untruth is comfortable within a cultural posture that pronounces it acceptable and proper for genuine histories of oppression and appropriation to be universally assigned so as to include any specific instance or individual the speaker might select.
It is a model in which an argument's merit turns not on soundness, on actual provability, but merely on the identity and cause of the arguer; in which unfounded partisan sentiment assumes all the legitimacy of objective fact and demands respect as such.
There is a long and reprehensible history of struggling artists being denied rightful due. And both black and white musicians were so victimized, indicating that the matter is one perhaps more of business predation and of class than racial prejudice.
Critics are correct to point out that elements of white-dominated mass popular culture have at times assumed and reinvented black culture-born idioms, while paying neither due acknowledgment nor recompense. Deserving artists went unnoticed -- and that was criminal.
But such critics expose themselves as intellectually illegitimate and unethical when they seek to superimpose that tragic broad reality upon every specific target that might be tactically magnetic, without benefit of evidence. (And yes, it is ironic that while Presley's 1950's white racist detractors despised his music's multi-racial sensibility, many of his contemporary ones castigate him for the identical reason.)
Elvis was one of many talented men and women whose music helped American popular culture become representative of all the country's people. To ignore that today and instead proffer slanderous myths is an affront not only to his contributions and the prize of racial unity but to the intellectual ideals of honesty and reason.
END
(A shorter and substantially different version of this piece ran in Counterpunch, in 2007.)
Crossing swords with the power of myth
by DC Larson
It has become something of a tradition, albeit a regrettable one. As the August anniversary of Elvis Presley's 1977 death approaches, self-righteous hectors villify him as "racist."
It is a false claim, though for some one not requiring that examinable evidence ever be produced. But putting one's hands on contrary testimony is easily done.
The myth-debunking website Snopes.com (on its "Urban Legends Reference Page") details the origin of the counterfeit claim. The site cites Michael T. Bertrand's book "Race, Rock, and Elvis."
Bertrand had found that the April 1957 issue of the white-owned Sepia magazine contained the article, "How Negroes Feel About Elvis." The piece noted that, "colored opinion about the hydromatically-hipped hillbilly from Mississippi runs the gamut from caustic condemnation to ardent admiration." It offered views allegedly collected from both celebrities and "people in the street."
Snopes writes, "Presumably from the 'people in the street' came the infamous and uncredited quotation, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records."
Sepia sought input from African-American Minister Milton Perry. "I feel," Perry told the magazine, "that an overwhelming majority of people who know him speak of this boy who practices humility and a love for racial harmony. I learned that he is not too proud or important to speak to anyone and to spend time with his fans of whatever color, wherever and whenever they approach him."
It was not long, though, before the anonymous, 'people in the street' comment was being falsely attributed to the singer, himself. Again, Snopes. "The rumor grew and spread throughout 1957. It mattered not that the story came cloaked in impossible details, such as Elvis supposedly making the statement in Boston (a city he had never visited) or on Edward R. Murrow's Person To Person television program (on which Elvis never appeared)."
Unable to source the rumored comment, the website records, Jet magazine sent reporter Louie Robinson to interview Presley on the "Jailhouse Rock" set. ("The 'Pelvis' Gives His Views On Vicious anti-Negro slur" Jet, August 1, 1957)
"I never said anything like that," Presley told Robinson. "And people who know me know I wouldn't have said that."
A number of fellow musicians, whites and blacks, came to Presley's defense at the time. Notable among them was R&B singer Darlene Love, who had backed Presley with vocal group the Blossoms. "I would never think that Elvis Presley was a racist," Love was later quoted as saying in a 2002 article. "He was born in the South, and he probably grew up with that, but that doesn't mean he stayed that way." ("False Rumor Taints Elvis," Cox News Service, August 16, 2002)
(Other contradictory direct evidence exists on Charly Records's 2006 "The Million Dollar Quartet, 50th Anniversary Special Edition." In 1956, Sun Records alum Elvis joined Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash at the Memphis studio for an impromptu session. Prior to a loose, collective retelling of his then-chart hit, "Don't Be Cruel," Elvis related seeing Billy Ward and the Dominoes's recent cover performance of it. "Much better than that record of mine," Presley concedes. He describes Ward's onstage energy: "He was hittin' it, boy!" Jerry Lee responds, "Oh man, that's classic!" Performers naturally admiring a fellow performer; not a hint of color consciousness to be found.)
Myths, though, are of a seductive quality -- often for cultural reasons other than themselves. This popular legend-based anti-Elvis sentiment persists, with recent illustrations including Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" (1989) and Living Colour's "Elvis Is Dead" (1990).
(To his credit, Public Enemy's Chuck D. later expressed a more complex and nuanced opinion. He told a reporter, "As a musicologist -- and I consider myself one -- there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis, especially during his Sun sessions. As black people, we all knew that...My whole thing was the one-sidedness -- like, Elvis's status in America made it seem like nobody else counted. My heroes came before him. My heroes were probably his heroes..."Chuck D. Speaks on Elvis's Legacy," Associated Press, 8/12/02.)
As noted in an 8/11/07 New York Times op-ed ("How did Elvis get turned into a racist? ") by author Peter Guralnick, singer Mary J. Blige also cited the scurrilous myth as if it were at all based in fact.
Of course rock'n'roll existed prior to Presley's 1954 recording debut at Sun Records in Memphis. It was in some cases electrifying and wondrous in ways known only to audiences and subsequent vinyl collectors.
But the national stage appearance of Crown Electric Co. truck driver Elvis marked -- not an example of white culture appropriating something blacks had already developed but for which they were denied credit -- but the emergence of the hitherto-unrepresented working class into popular culture visibility.
In early years, Elvis did perform for segregated audiences in the pre-Civil Rights-era South. But for critics highlighting that to be fair, they need to note that segregation of public facilities was then a matter of civil law and not of performers's choosing.
Some might hold that, that being the case, performers had a moral duty to refrain entirely from public performance. But that would have made performing impossible for all musicians, black as well as white. And for many, it's as much a calling as a profession.
A Memphis, Tennessee contemporary of Presley's, Paul Burlison first earned renown as lead guitarist for Johnny Burnette and the Rock'n'Roll Trio. I interviewed him for a 2000 Goldmine article. He shared something of what the situation was like for working musicians in that time and place.
Paul was in a country band in 1951, when he caught the attention of blues man Howlin' Wolf. He began backing Wolf on the latter's radio program, though due to racial codes, Burlison's name could not be cited in group introductions.
"The reason I didn't play in the clubs with him was because of the racial thing back then," Paul told me. He recalled having to enter black clubs through back doors and said of Wolf, "It was the same with him if he came up to where we were playing. We would have liked to have [played clubs together], of course. It just wasn't permitted in those days. Not in Memphis, anyhow."
(Before his death in 2003, Paul's credits included not only rockabilly genre pioneering giants the Rock'n'Roll Trio, but international solo work and a 1990s showcase at the Smithsonian Institution.)
The "Elvis was racist" article-of-faith mantra is an offshoot of the larger fiction holding against evidence that rock'n'roll is exclusively black in origin. But Tennessee rockabilly guitar man Carl Perkins did not sound like venerated shouter Big Joe Turner, nor did the frantic storms of Jerry Lee Lewis recall the risible and urbane stylings of Fats Waller -- though all helped develop the music.
In his invaluable volume, "Unsung Heroes of Rock'n'Roll," veteran music writer Nick Tosches noted that the burgeoning sound which spread across 1950s America began in regional pockets and was of mixed parentage.
"Rock'n'roll was not created solely by blacks or whites," wrote Tosches. Earlier, after dispatching mono-racial rock'n'roll creation arguments, the author observed, "One could make just as strong a case for Jews being the central ethnic group in rock'n'roll's early history; for it was they who produced many of the best songs, cultivated much of the greatest talent, and operated the majority of the pioneering record companies."
Difficult as it would be to construct an exhaustive review of early rock'n'roll without citing Doc Pomus, Mort Schuman, Les Bihari, or Sid Nathan, it is telling that many of today's race-as-creative-qualification theorists might not even be able to identify those men, significant to the style's germination though they were.
Rock'n'roll was more than just music, it acted as a socially-unifying wing of the growing civil rights movement, uniting people on the dance floor just as others would come together in polling places. (Not to paint an overly-rosy portrait. It was not the entire solution. But it did help immeasurably to spur the phenomenon.)
It is flatly anti-creative to argue as some do that an individual or community can "steal" art from another, and that instances of blended creation be discouraged and reviled. That's how art is created. One artist inspires another, an idea is raised up, turned around, and new art is born.
Concepts like ownership, territoriality and separatism are wholly foreign to the phenomenon. (Which is not to argue that these invalid notions are still not useful for some; indeed, Mos Def founds the narrative of his 2002 "Rock and Roll" upon that very sand.)
Too, this involves a fundamental issue, that of reason versus emotion. There is evidence -- which merits intellectual regard and can convert the unsympathetic -- and there is self-righteously uncritical passion. It is the latter that animates the "Elvis was racist" lie.
That untruth is comfortable within a cultural posture that pronounces it acceptable and proper for genuine histories of oppression and appropriation to be universally assigned so as to include any specific instance or individual the speaker might select.
It is a model in which an argument's merit turns not on soundness, on actual provability, but merely on the identity and cause of the arguer; in which unfounded partisan sentiment assumes all the legitimacy of objective fact and demands respect as such.
There is a long and reprehensible history of struggling artists being denied rightful due. And both black and white musicians were so victimized, indicating that the matter is one perhaps more of business predation and of class than racial prejudice.
Critics are correct to point out that elements of white-dominated mass popular culture have at times assumed and reinvented black culture-born idioms, while paying neither due acknowledgment nor recompense. Deserving artists went unnoticed -- and that was criminal.
But such critics expose themselves as intellectually illegitimate and unethical when they seek to superimpose that tragic broad reality upon every specific target that might be tactically magnetic, without benefit of evidence. (And yes, it is ironic that while Presley's 1950's white racist detractors despised his music's multi-racial sensibility, many of his contemporary ones castigate him for the identical reason.)
Elvis was one of many talented men and women whose music helped American popular culture become representative of all the country's people. To ignore that today and instead proffer slanderous myths is an affront not only to his contributions and the prize of racial unity but to the intellectual ideals of honesty and reason.
END
(A shorter and substantially different version of this piece ran in Counterpunch, in 2007.)
CD Reviews Oct 2008
October CD Reviews (copyright 2008, DC Larson)
Bloodshot Bill
"All Messed Up" (Hog Maw)
Everlastingly shined and good-timing, pomaded hants bounce off the tumble-down, paint-peeled walls of a possessed honky tonk. Sandpaper-throated one-wild-man band Bill beats Hell out of his acoustic and urges all to depths of scandalous delirium as hillbilly trash'n'roll busts against steamy night air.
Recommended Tracks "Ice Cream," "Here I Am, Drunk Again"
http://www.bloodshotbill.com
hogmawrecords@yahoo.fr
V/A
"Revenge of the Hot Rod Zombies" (Boss Beat Records)
Psychobilly is too combustible and urgent to have ever risen from a masses-mindful industry's drawing board. (Try selling designer perfume to a rampaging zombie darkside tale.) And if it never is appreciated by everyone, so what?
Recommended Tracks "Teddy Boy Stomp" (The Chop Tops ), "Evil Never Dies" (Black Rose Phantoms )
http://www.thechoptops.com
http://www.theblackrosephantoms.com
http://www.bossbeatrecords.com
Dive Bar Stalkers
"Rock the House" (self)
What some might term "70s hard rock" -- vigorous arena dynamics and bluesy decisiveness getting down as one -- has actually never gone out of fashion in blue collar America. As long as people need to party, boogie ain't goin' nowhere.
Recommended Tracks "You Got What It Takes To Make Me Go," "Hit It On the Highway"
http://www.thedivebarstalkers.com
Old Bull
"Manifesto" (Big Blender)
The rich, warm sound is of an emotional/cultural clime unsullied by artificial corporatism - hell, it throws down a challenge to it. Real people and their lives count. Banjo, mandolin, guitars, accordian, piano, string bass and drums unite as a floor from which harmonies and humanities rise.
Recommended Tracks "Monsanto," "Dead In Your Grave"
http://www.oldbull.net
Kick 'Em Jenny
"Untamed!" (Blue Lake)
Runaway European neo-rockabilly that cleaves to scruffy US lineage. Pushed centerward by frantic cohorts, Jenny epitomizes the raunchy and hip-shaking lipsticked rocker, singing down storms and battering her acoustic with ecstatic fervor.
Recommended Tracks "Take Me Down," "Maybe You Don't Care"
http://www.myspace.com/kickem
http://www.bluelake.ch
God's Revolver
"little black horse where are you going with your dead rider?" (Exigent)
Unholy communion of metal, psycho and gothic western (with haunting prairie flute cameo). It gallops, crashes, and kicks down barn walls, ending up in a desert of rage. Daubs arresting tableaus of existential storm.
Recommended Tracks "Scratch Dealt Me a Dirty Hand," "Preacher's Flask"
http://www.myspace.com/godsrevolver
http://www.exigentrecords.com
AL HENDRIX "Monkey Bite 2007"/"Never Stop Rockin'" (Rush Publishing) Austere, magnetic styling continues the rock'n'roll hop Al began in 1957. Producer/co-writer/multi -instrumentalist Jimmy Accardi proves a fitting accomplice...HOWITZER "Turncoat" + 3 (Hazard Hill Records) Anthemic hardcore/oi punk more relevant to 2008 proletariats than anything the industry's tarted up poseurs could or would ever muster. "My brother died fightin' this bullshit war."
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/alhendrix
http://www.myspace.com/howitzercore
end
Bloodshot Bill
"All Messed Up" (Hog Maw)
Everlastingly shined and good-timing, pomaded hants bounce off the tumble-down, paint-peeled walls of a possessed honky tonk. Sandpaper-throated one-wild-man band Bill beats Hell out of his acoustic and urges all to depths of scandalous delirium as hillbilly trash'n'roll busts against steamy night air.
Recommended Tracks "Ice Cream," "Here I Am, Drunk Again"
http://www.bloodshotbill.com
hogmawrecords@yahoo.fr
V/A
"Revenge of the Hot Rod Zombies" (Boss Beat Records)
Psychobilly is too combustible and urgent to have ever risen from a masses-mindful industry's drawing board. (Try selling designer perfume to a rampaging zombie darkside tale.) And if it never is appreciated by everyone, so what?
Recommended Tracks "Teddy Boy Stomp" (The Chop Tops ), "Evil Never Dies" (Black Rose Phantoms )
http://www.thechoptops.com
http://www.theblackrosephantoms.com
http://www.bossbeatrecords.com
Dive Bar Stalkers
"Rock the House" (self)
What some might term "70s hard rock" -- vigorous arena dynamics and bluesy decisiveness getting down as one -- has actually never gone out of fashion in blue collar America. As long as people need to party, boogie ain't goin' nowhere.
Recommended Tracks "You Got What It Takes To Make Me Go," "Hit It On the Highway"
http://www.thedivebarstalkers.com
Old Bull
"Manifesto" (Big Blender)
The rich, warm sound is of an emotional/cultural clime unsullied by artificial corporatism - hell, it throws down a challenge to it. Real people and their lives count. Banjo, mandolin, guitars, accordian, piano, string bass and drums unite as a floor from which harmonies and humanities rise.
Recommended Tracks "Monsanto," "Dead In Your Grave"
http://www.oldbull.net
Kick 'Em Jenny
"Untamed!" (Blue Lake)
Runaway European neo-rockabilly that cleaves to scruffy US lineage. Pushed centerward by frantic cohorts, Jenny epitomizes the raunchy and hip-shaking lipsticked rocker, singing down storms and battering her acoustic with ecstatic fervor.
Recommended Tracks "Take Me Down," "Maybe You Don't Care"
http://www.myspace.com/kickem
http://www.bluelake.ch
God's Revolver
"little black horse where are you going with your dead rider?" (Exigent)
Unholy communion of metal, psycho and gothic western (with haunting prairie flute cameo). It gallops, crashes, and kicks down barn walls, ending up in a desert of rage. Daubs arresting tableaus of existential storm.
Recommended Tracks "Scratch Dealt Me a Dirty Hand," "Preacher's Flask"
http://www.myspace.com/godsrevolver
http://www.exigentrecords.com
AL HENDRIX "Monkey Bite 2007"/"Never Stop Rockin'" (Rush Publishing) Austere, magnetic styling continues the rock'n'roll hop Al began in 1957. Producer/co-writer/multi -instrumentalist Jimmy Accardi proves a fitting accomplice...HOWITZER "Turncoat" + 3 (Hazard Hill Records) Anthemic hardcore/oi punk more relevant to 2008 proletariats than anything the industry's tarted up poseurs could or would ever muster. "My brother died fightin' this bullshit war."
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/alhendrix
http://www.myspace.com/howitzercore
end
CD Reviews Oct 2008
October 2008 CD reviews (copyright 2008, DC Larson)
Miko Marks
"It Feels Good"
(Mirrome Records)
If calculated disingenuousness is the current Giant of contemporary, corporate radio-tailored country (Toby Keith radiates all the sincerity of Dick Cheney), constitutionally authentic Giant Killer Miko is much needed -- and appreciated. Distinctions paid to the silk-and-suede voice from New Music Weekly to Ebony to the Independent Music Awards (which pronounced her debut "Freeway Bound" 2007's Country Album of the Year) to Country Weekly have been no more than her earned due. First-chair accompanists shine, their executive labors enabling at-turns carbonated and aching articulations to roam and flower. What honest country music sounds like.
Recommended Tracks "Double Dog Cheater," "Locked and Loaded"
http://www.mikomarks.com/
http://www.mirrome.com/
Jackson United
"Harmony and Dissidence"(AcetateRecords/MVD Audio)
Up-volume punk anthems that grab, laced with politically conscious agitprop. Charged with the insistent exuberance of purpose. Yes, Clash imprints lurk. So do others. Promo lit reaches back to Stiff Little Fingers, but a fresher compatible is Australia's Living End. Foo Fighter Chris Shifflet is abetted by steady mates Scott Shifflet (Face To Face) and Doug Sangalang, with cameos by Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. (New drummer Mighty Mighty Bosstones expatriate Joe Kid joined subsequent to recording.) Tour with Flogging Molly looms.
Recommended Tracks "21st Century Fight Song," "The Land Without Law"
http://www/jacksonunited.com
http://www.myspace.com/jacksonunited
http://www.acetate.com/
http://www.mvdb2b.com/
Miko Marks
"It Feels Good"
(Mirrome Records)
If calculated disingenuousness is the current Giant of contemporary, corporate radio-tailored country (Toby Keith radiates all the sincerity of Dick Cheney), constitutionally authentic Giant Killer Miko is much needed -- and appreciated. Distinctions paid to the silk-and-suede voice from New Music Weekly to Ebony to the Independent Music Awards (which pronounced her debut "Freeway Bound" 2007's Country Album of the Year) to Country Weekly have been no more than her earned due. First-chair accompanists shine, their executive labors enabling at-turns carbonated and aching articulations to roam and flower. What honest country music sounds like.
Recommended Tracks "Double Dog Cheater," "Locked and Loaded"
http://www.mikomarks.com/
http://www.mirrome.com/
Jackson United
"Harmony and Dissidence"(AcetateRecords/MVD Audio)
Up-volume punk anthems that grab, laced with politically conscious agitprop. Charged with the insistent exuberance of purpose. Yes, Clash imprints lurk. So do others. Promo lit reaches back to Stiff Little Fingers, but a fresher compatible is Australia's Living End. Foo Fighter Chris Shifflet is abetted by steady mates Scott Shifflet (Face To Face) and Doug Sangalang, with cameos by Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. (New drummer Mighty Mighty Bosstones expatriate Joe Kid joined subsequent to recording.) Tour with Flogging Molly looms.
Recommended Tracks "21st Century Fight Song," "The Land Without Law"
http://www/jacksonunited.com
http://www.myspace.com/jacksonunited
http://www.acetate.com/
http://www.mvdb2b.com/
प्ले CD Review
Play CD review by
DC Larson
Play
"s/t" (drb)
Discs like this recall rock'n'roll's purest promise, and
why we first fell for the outrageous music. From defiance
rises optimism. It showers listeners with exuberant lilts,
cascading choruses, rainbow-streaming voices, and stunning
six-string pyrotechnics. Play cites the Who, Cheap Trick,
and the Velvets. And if they're not in that league, they're on
familiar track. Bonus points for inviting Glockenspiel into the
glorious madness.
Recommended Tracks "Entropy," "Window"
playpdx.com
myspace.com/playbandpdx
DC Larson
Play
"s/t" (drb)
Discs like this recall rock'n'roll's purest promise, and
why we first fell for the outrageous music. From defiance
rises optimism. It showers listeners with exuberant lilts,
cascading choruses, rainbow-streaming voices, and stunning
six-string pyrotechnics. Play cites the Who, Cheap Trick,
and the Velvets. And if they're not in that league, they're on
familiar track. Bonus points for inviting Glockenspiel into the
glorious madness.
Recommended Tracks "Entropy," "Window"
playpdx.com
myspace.com/playbandpdx
Paul Zone interview 2008
Paul Zone's underground
by
DC Larson
I owe Paul Zone a major apology. About 2 weeks ago, I arranged an interview with the singer/photographer. And he kept up his end of things, calling me and speaking for several minutes about his career and recent activities.
But before I could assemble it all into a time-sensitive blog entry, life got in the way (a new job, various other responsibilities). So, I am late in posting this. Better late than never, I can only hope...
I spoke with Paul by phone on a late July evening. His adopted city of L.A. had earlier suffered a 6.0 earthquake. "Right where we're going to move," the soft-spoken Zone laughed.
We compared weather stories. He'd heard news accounts of the flooding that had recently plagued my state of Iowa. It's tough all over.
He shared with me information about his now-underway photography showing at L.A.'s drkrm gallery. "Paul Zone - The New York Underground Scene 1972-1977" will run there until August 31. "It really focuses on the dark, uninspired days between Glam and Punk," he said.
Of Zone and his gallery showing, blog Art Star Press noted, "Back in the day, Paul Zone documented New York life, catching all sorts of superstars from Dee Dee Ramone to Debbie Harry, Divine, Iggy Pop, and the New York Dolls. Working as a photographer for Warhol’s Interview mag, Circus, and Rock Scene, Zone has managed to catalogue some superb scenes form the seventies."
In the 1970s and 80s, Paul was the lead voice for New York's Fast. That rock'n'roll street gang also boasted his brother guitarist/songwriter Miki (who'd co-founded Fast with singing and synthesizer-playing brother Armand).
They defied catagorization, spanning the Glam and Punk eras and interpreting both in their own inimitable way.
In the early 80s, Fast released two (now scarce) LPs, "The Fast For Sale" (Recca '80) and "Leather Boys From the Asphalt Jungle" (Recca '81). Both document Fast's amphetemine way with a fetching pop hook and Miki's tunecraft mastery and storming six-string prowess. Sadly, Miki never received the acclaim due him for those talents.
Songs to investigate include "Kids Just Wanna Dance," "Coney Island Chaos" and "It's Like Love" from the first, and "Jaguar In the Jungle," "Ride On the Wild Side" and "Ritual Sacrifice" from the second. (See videos of "Kids Just Wanna Dance" and "It's Like Love," as well as other Fast footage, on YouTube.)
Unfortunately, Fast's NYC fame never translated to big picture success. But vinyl collectors and scholars of those days know the Zone brothers's significance. (And it's an importance that endures, too. Listening today to vintage Fast recordings, one is at once struck by the material's rocketing soundness and knowledge that no contemporary band could -- or should even attempt to -- impressively cover it.)
Following their undersung triumphs as Fast, Paul and Miki relocated to Europe, finding new and heightened renown as dance club sensation Man 2 Man. (See "Hottest of the Hot" clip at youtube address, below.)
In 2008, Paul (now sadly, the lone survivor of the three Zone brothers) is recalling his singular pre-Fast efforts. He was on the NYC scene, snapping photos of celebs-to-be like the Ramones and Blondie, before the world had caught on to them.
According to its website (http://www.drkrmgallery.com/), the "drkrm gallery is an exhibition space dedicated to fine art and documentary photography, cutting edge and alternative photographic processes and the display and survey of popular cultural images." All Drkrm gallery events are free and open to the public. Prints of Paul's unique candid shots are available as posters, and prices are listed at the drkrm site.
He mentioned that the L.A. showing's opening attracted between 400 and 500 people, including the celebrities who have for decades been part of his scene.
He plans additional nationwide showings following the L.A. debut. And his photography can now also be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq4WtgG1fe.
("Paul Zone - The New York Underground Scene 1972-1977 @ drkrm.")
"I am in the process of doing a couple of book deals," he said, adding that he plans to continue with public showings before committing with a publisher.
During those pre-Fast years, besides attending countless shows and concerts with his camera ever at the ready (Paul saw Bowie debut his Ziggy Stardust character in a NY showcase concert), he also worked as photographer for journalist Lance Loud and assisted numerous NY bands as hairdresser and stylist.
He relates that Fast mini classics are today available on ITUNES, adding, "I think it's about time to get a new CD release" of the band's singular material. CDBaby.com lists a Fast "Best of" that includes numerous non-LP tracks. But that reissue collection is old, and may be hard to locate.
So, reason exists for a new Fast compilation. And interest in the 1970s NYC scene is evident not only in the attendance seen at Paul's drkrm showing, but on the big screen, too. He says that Lion's Gate Films is doing a documentary on legendary NYC rock'n'roll club/subculture haunt Max's Kansas City. "They've interviewed a lot of people for it," he says.
Including, of course, himself.
.
*** ONLINE***:
"Paul Zone -- The New York Underground Scene 1972-1977 @ Drkrm"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq4WtgG1fe
Drkrm http://www.drkrm.com/zone.html
Paul on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/man2manthefastpaulzone
Fast page http://www.geocities.com./fasthomepage/aboutfast.html
Fast "Kids Just Wanna Dance" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=+MuERBZ_L_W
Fast "It's Like Love" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cPFwvM4C_w
"Best of the Fast" http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/fastband
Man 2 Man "Hottest of the Hot" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZxDWBTsFJY
Armand Zone and Ozone http://www.youtube.com/watch?vhRZUTgyOIIY
by
DC Larson
I owe Paul Zone a major apology. About 2 weeks ago, I arranged an interview with the singer/photographer. And he kept up his end of things, calling me and speaking for several minutes about his career and recent activities.
But before I could assemble it all into a time-sensitive blog entry, life got in the way (a new job, various other responsibilities). So, I am late in posting this. Better late than never, I can only hope...
I spoke with Paul by phone on a late July evening. His adopted city of L.A. had earlier suffered a 6.0 earthquake. "Right where we're going to move," the soft-spoken Zone laughed.
We compared weather stories. He'd heard news accounts of the flooding that had recently plagued my state of Iowa. It's tough all over.
He shared with me information about his now-underway photography showing at L.A.'s drkrm gallery. "Paul Zone - The New York Underground Scene 1972-1977" will run there until August 31. "It really focuses on the dark, uninspired days between Glam and Punk," he said.
Of Zone and his gallery showing, blog Art Star Press noted, "Back in the day, Paul Zone documented New York life, catching all sorts of superstars from Dee Dee Ramone to Debbie Harry, Divine, Iggy Pop, and the New York Dolls. Working as a photographer for Warhol’s Interview mag, Circus, and Rock Scene, Zone has managed to catalogue some superb scenes form the seventies."
In the 1970s and 80s, Paul was the lead voice for New York's Fast. That rock'n'roll street gang also boasted his brother guitarist/songwriter Miki (who'd co-founded Fast with singing and synthesizer-playing brother Armand).
They defied catagorization, spanning the Glam and Punk eras and interpreting both in their own inimitable way.
In the early 80s, Fast released two (now scarce) LPs, "The Fast For Sale" (Recca '80) and "Leather Boys From the Asphalt Jungle" (Recca '81). Both document Fast's amphetemine way with a fetching pop hook and Miki's tunecraft mastery and storming six-string prowess. Sadly, Miki never received the acclaim due him for those talents.
Songs to investigate include "Kids Just Wanna Dance," "Coney Island Chaos" and "It's Like Love" from the first, and "Jaguar In the Jungle," "Ride On the Wild Side" and "Ritual Sacrifice" from the second. (See videos of "Kids Just Wanna Dance" and "It's Like Love," as well as other Fast footage, on YouTube.)
Unfortunately, Fast's NYC fame never translated to big picture success. But vinyl collectors and scholars of those days know the Zone brothers's significance. (And it's an importance that endures, too. Listening today to vintage Fast recordings, one is at once struck by the material's rocketing soundness and knowledge that no contemporary band could -- or should even attempt to -- impressively cover it.)
Following their undersung triumphs as Fast, Paul and Miki relocated to Europe, finding new and heightened renown as dance club sensation Man 2 Man. (See "Hottest of the Hot" clip at youtube address, below.)
In 2008, Paul (now sadly, the lone survivor of the three Zone brothers) is recalling his singular pre-Fast efforts. He was on the NYC scene, snapping photos of celebs-to-be like the Ramones and Blondie, before the world had caught on to them.
According to its website (http://www.drkrmgallery.com/), the "drkrm gallery is an exhibition space dedicated to fine art and documentary photography, cutting edge and alternative photographic processes and the display and survey of popular cultural images." All Drkrm gallery events are free and open to the public. Prints of Paul's unique candid shots are available as posters, and prices are listed at the drkrm site.
He mentioned that the L.A. showing's opening attracted between 400 and 500 people, including the celebrities who have for decades been part of his scene.
He plans additional nationwide showings following the L.A. debut. And his photography can now also be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq4WtgG1fe.
("Paul Zone - The New York Underground Scene 1972-1977 @ drkrm.")
"I am in the process of doing a couple of book deals," he said, adding that he plans to continue with public showings before committing with a publisher.
During those pre-Fast years, besides attending countless shows and concerts with his camera ever at the ready (Paul saw Bowie debut his Ziggy Stardust character in a NY showcase concert), he also worked as photographer for journalist Lance Loud and assisted numerous NY bands as hairdresser and stylist.
He relates that Fast mini classics are today available on ITUNES, adding, "I think it's about time to get a new CD release" of the band's singular material. CDBaby.com lists a Fast "Best of" that includes numerous non-LP tracks. But that reissue collection is old, and may be hard to locate.
So, reason exists for a new Fast compilation. And interest in the 1970s NYC scene is evident not only in the attendance seen at Paul's drkrm showing, but on the big screen, too. He says that Lion's Gate Films is doing a documentary on legendary NYC rock'n'roll club/subculture haunt Max's Kansas City. "They've interviewed a lot of people for it," he says.
Including, of course, himself.
.
*** ONLINE***:
"Paul Zone -- The New York Underground Scene 1972-1977 @ Drkrm"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq4WtgG1fe
Drkrm http://www.drkrm.com/zone.html
Paul on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/man2manthefastpaulzone
Fast page http://www.geocities.com./fasthomepage/aboutfast.html
Fast "Kids Just Wanna Dance" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=+MuERBZ_L_W
Fast "It's Like Love" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cPFwvM4C_w
"Best of the Fast" http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/fastband
Man 2 Man "Hottest of the Hot" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZxDWBTsFJY
Armand Zone and Ozone http://www.youtube.com/watch?vhRZUTgyOIIY
Scott Kempner "Saving Grace" review
Scott Kempner
"Saving Grace" (00:02:59 Records)
by
DC Larson
A photo of Scott on his 1992 "Tenement Angels" depicted the former Dictator and Del-Lord
kicked back on the fire escape outside an apartment window: playing a guitar, oblivious to grimy reality.
Apt, indeed.
Scott is a True Believer in the transformative power of rock'n'roll, a six-string apostle for whom the music is more than a mere collection of notes, chords, progressions and melodies. In the hands of the sanctified it is a vital, breathing articulation of every joy and upset that jumps in the animal night.
"Saving Grace" is an altar call. It testifies to the bloodline-consciousness and profundity of the man's faith, offering up flashes of impeccable inspirations from moments passed like a nod to Four Tops leader Levi Stubbs, a Supremes reference and the sort of upbeat, tuneful and jangly rock'n'roll that once blared from teenagers's transistor radios across America.
While the CD includes many august cohorts -- including veterans of the Del-Lords, Smithereens, legend Dion DiMucci (whom Scott has backed) and famed Motown rhythm section Mach II -- Scott impresses mightily as the disc's sole guitarist, assaying both acoustics and electrics to motivational effect.
Entering on pounding drums and pulsing bass, "The Secret Everybody Knows" blooms into rich and vivid guitared splendor. "Stolen Kisses" reminds strikingly of the hard-riffing, roots-embracing Del-Lords, its crunching guitars charging headlong through reinvented old school-type changes.
"Baby's Room" and "Heartbeat of Time" (this last co-written by Dion and Fern Carle) sweep with stirring majesty, their massive presences fortified by sinewy guitars and echoing background choruses.
New Frontier-era anthemic emotional confections are recalled by "Love Out of Time," while "Passion Red" is a slow-motion and sultry blues that invites Scott's deadly dirty soloing.
He rocks with authority. He's been to the mountaintop.
Two factors indicating rock'n'roll's health and eternal life present themselves. One is "Saving Grace." The other is the likelihood that somewhere in America tonight, a kid will fall in love with his first guitar.
Maybe on a fire escape.
"Saving Grace" (00:02:59 Records)
by
DC Larson
A photo of Scott on his 1992 "Tenement Angels" depicted the former Dictator and Del-Lord
kicked back on the fire escape outside an apartment window: playing a guitar, oblivious to grimy reality.
Apt, indeed.
Scott is a True Believer in the transformative power of rock'n'roll, a six-string apostle for whom the music is more than a mere collection of notes, chords, progressions and melodies. In the hands of the sanctified it is a vital, breathing articulation of every joy and upset that jumps in the animal night.
"Saving Grace" is an altar call. It testifies to the bloodline-consciousness and profundity of the man's faith, offering up flashes of impeccable inspirations from moments passed like a nod to Four Tops leader Levi Stubbs, a Supremes reference and the sort of upbeat, tuneful and jangly rock'n'roll that once blared from teenagers's transistor radios across America.
While the CD includes many august cohorts -- including veterans of the Del-Lords, Smithereens, legend Dion DiMucci (whom Scott has backed) and famed Motown rhythm section Mach II -- Scott impresses mightily as the disc's sole guitarist, assaying both acoustics and electrics to motivational effect.
Entering on pounding drums and pulsing bass, "The Secret Everybody Knows" blooms into rich and vivid guitared splendor. "Stolen Kisses" reminds strikingly of the hard-riffing, roots-embracing Del-Lords, its crunching guitars charging headlong through reinvented old school-type changes.
"Baby's Room" and "Heartbeat of Time" (this last co-written by Dion and Fern Carle) sweep with stirring majesty, their massive presences fortified by sinewy guitars and echoing background choruses.
New Frontier-era anthemic emotional confections are recalled by "Love Out of Time," while "Passion Red" is a slow-motion and sultry blues that invites Scott's deadly dirty soloing.
He rocks with authority. He's been to the mountaintop.
Two factors indicating rock'n'roll's health and eternal life present themselves. One is "Saving Grace." The other is the likelihood that somewhere in America tonight, a kid will fall in love with his first guitar.
Maybe on a fire escape.
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