john zorn

ray reed made a cd!

well, i'll be damned. turns out ray reed, gtrist-vocalist with the b.t.a. band, released a cd last year on austin-based dialtone records (i'd link to the site, but his disc, inexplicably, doesn't appear there). even sumter bruton at record town doesn't have a copy yet. if i can lay hands on one, i'll pen a review for _somebody_ (since only the austin chronicle appears to have written it up, so far). ray's by far the most legit blues thang in town, and i'm proud to have stood onstage with him (and bassist quincy brown, r.i.p.) when i briefly subbed with them on second gtr back in 2002-2003.

ADDENDUM: it looks like the label might be out of business. shit. but i emailed his niece miss kim, and she said she'd try and get me one.

letterman apologizes to bill hicks' mom

...and shows the bits that were edited from the show in 1993.

my big sis

...(shown in the first vid performing with the lark recorder trio -- she's the one in the middle, duh) has the same b-day as jimmy carl black, the indian of the group (r.i.p., shown in the second vid performing with the mothers of invention -- he's the drummer with the real long hair). and this year it falls on super bowl sunday. yahoo!

jeff ferrell

the dumpster-diving tcu prof and empire of scrounge scribe got some ink in wednesday's dallas morning news. there's a vid clip, too.

sun ra

some vid from '68.





here scribes from rolling stone and the village voice attempt to untangle some of the knots in his confusing discography.

kosmik radiation radio tribute to RON

have to listen to see if they used the long version of "future now" with the slow section. online until february 11th.

sardoodledom

i just think this is funny...also like the way he strategizes.

feedtime

speaking of noisy shit from orstralia, here's feedtime, always spelled with a lowercase "f." "a lugubrious fury of sonic distress" indeed. now on myspace too.

blacks 'n' jews

soon and very soon, josh alan's album blacks 'n' jews, unavailable for 10 years, will be obtainable via itunes. hooray for digital downloads!

bad brains documentary teaser

...is here. myspace thingy is here.

big avant event in houston, 2.15.2009

from nameless sound:

Maggie Nicols (UK) – voice
Fred Frith (UK/San Francisco) - guitar
Susan Alcorn (Baltimore) – pedal steel guitar

Sunday, February 15 2009
8pm
at Diverse Works
1117 East Freeway

$13 admission
$10 students
Everyone under 18 gets in for free.

For information, call 713-928-5653
or go to www.namelesssound.org

This concert is part of Nameless Sound's Andrew Mark Ladd Memorial Concert Series.

With a background in jazz, dance, and theater, Maggie Nicols became an early pioneer in the European free improvisation scene when she joined John Stevens' Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the late 1960's. The Scottish-born performer would soon develop into one of the most unique and innovative vocalists in avant-garde music. Nicols is an artist of distinct individuality. Her agile and wordless improvisations are countered by the devilish sense of humor that she displays when she ad-libs speech into her pieces. Maggie Nicols is an active teacher and leader of workshops that fuse her experiences in music, improvisation, theater, yoga, and activism. Though she is a veteran (she began her career in the early 60's) and is recognized as the pioneer in her field, Nicols has only ever performed a few times in the United States. For more information on Maggie Nicols, go to www.maggienicols.com.

A wide ranging talent and prolific artist, Fred Frith first gained attention in the early 1970's as guitarist for the pioneering English avant-garde rock band Henry Cow. Frith has distinguished himself as a guitar player, composer, improvisor, and collaborator. His versatility brings different approaches to his instrument depending on a particular playing situation (i.e., the prepared 'table-top' approach or the conventional guitar approach). The range of his collaborators gives an indication as to the scope of his talent and style. A short list of Frith's partners includes: Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill, Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno, Zeena Parkins, Tom Cora and John Zorn (Frith was the bass player in Naked City). Fred Frith is currently a professor of composition, contemporary performance, and improvisation at Mills College in Oakland. For more information on Fred Frith, go to www.fredfrith.com.

Perhaps the world's premiere avant-gardist on her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country and western swing music. Well-known among steel players for her virtuosity and authenticity in a traditional context, Susan Alcorn first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands. Soon she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of modern classical music (Olivier Messiaen and Krystof Penderecki), avant-garde jazz (John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman), and world music (Indian ragas, South American songs, and gamelan orchestra). As a composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience, while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression. Alcorn recently moved to Baltimore from Houston. For more information on Susan Alcorn, go to www.susanalcorn.com.

bruce pavitt and jon poneman of sub pop records

sterling morrison interview

...from 1980. posted on arthur.

and here's another:

after the death of mlk

from the wfmu blog, here's a found tape of a priest recounting his impressions of the days after the assassination. strong stuff.

bill hicks bio

there a new book out (just in the u.k. so far) about bill hicks, the smartest, funniest comedian of the post-pryor generation (and a texan, too, goddammit), penned by his friend/producer kevin booth. looks like a goodun. thanks to jeff liles for the coat-pull.

thurston moore on free jazz

from the beastie boys' grand royal 'zine.

glenn branca, 1978

fz on snl, 1976

i saw him do this, with don pardo, at one of the academy of music "zappa in ny" shows.

bye-bye, chelsea hotel?

the gentrification/yuppification of manhattan has left the city unrecognizable from the one i remember from the late '70s. last time i was there, the preponderance of foreign accents aside, it seemed more like an outdoor mall in dallas than, um, noo yawk city. now it appears that longtime residents of the chelsea hotel are about to get the boot from the hotel's new management. "the last outpost of bohemia" deserves better.

the poetry of ewan mcteagle

tony slug interviews happy tom

well now. here's a 1998 int my dutch punk-rock pal tony slug did with happy tom of turbonegro for carbon 14 #14.

ADDENDUM: the barman made me aware that you can't read the blog i linked to above unless you're zoe's myspace friend and logged into myspace. feh. anyway, sluggy's got a blog of his own you can read. if he reads this, maybe he'll even post the happy tom int there. ya think?

sonic youth

in between working on the indian casino records story, which has become like a scab i keep picking on, i've been reading a bio of sonic youth that frum sent me along with his epiphone. besides reviewing their 2002 album murray street for the paper, i never really paid much attention to these guys because they weren't on the shortlist of stuff i missed which uncle johnny bargas gave me when i got out of the air force. i can see now that's going to be a temporary condition.

"defeat suffering by loving and forgiving"

here's a vid by wfaa producer doug burgess of texas death row photog john holbrook.

jazzactuel

found a copy of jazzactuel, a compilation, curated by byron coley and thurston moore, of selections from the 50-odd albums released by the french label byg actuel between 1969 and 1971. most of the titles are by expatriate american musos and the label definitely ranks up there with esp-disk, impulse, and blue note in terms of documenting the '60s avant-garde.

wizarded

budding renaissance guy steve steward gots a new art and whatever blog.

german squatters kidnap talking loaf of bread

i don't make this stuff up, i swear.

watt's wake for RON

the 1.18.2009 ron asheton tribute edition of the watt from pedro show is online now.

flea in faces reunion?

that's what is says here. makes about as much sense to me as having stanley clarke play for the new barbarians. if ronnie lane was here, he'd be turning in his grave. my choice: tommy stinson. what's that? he's already in guns 'n' roses? who's that?

wildflowers

tonight, while intermittently working on a cover story for the fw weekly, i downloaded wildflowers: the new york loft jazz sessions complete from amazon. it's five lp's/three cd's worth of performances recorded in a single weekend at sam rivers' studio rivbea in 1976, perversely released at the time on disco-and-kiss label casablanca and reissued by knitting factory in 2000. lately, '60s and '70s free jazz is sounding really satisfying to me. plus, i can get lost in it while i write.

my statistically insignificant ballot

...in the village voice pazz and jop poll is here.

r.i.p. david "fathead" newman

oh no. david "fathead" newman, dallas-born tenor saxman, has left the planet, aged 75. here he is (on the left) going head-to-head with tina brooks on "birth of a band" with ray charles in brazil, 1963.

japanese cat cafes

i swear i'm not making this up. in japan, they actually have places where stressed-out salarymen (and women) who can't keep pets in their tee-tiny apartments pay to hang out and interact with cats. now, i'm a cat guy, myself, but i swear i'd never, um, pay for it.

"the truth about the death penalty" @ smu next thursday

from john holbrook:

This is a reminder to please attend my next lecture/exhibition entitled, ‘The Truth About the Death Penalty’ at Southern Methodist University. The event will include three speakers including abolitionist Delia Perez Meyer and Amnesty International Chair Dr. Rick Halperin. An informal debate will follow the lectures and exhibit. WFAA Channel 8 News will be doing a piece for broadcast in Dallas . The exhibit and lectures will be in the McCord Auditorium which is on the third floor of the Dallas Hall (306 Dallas Hall) at SMU. The event is on Thursday, January 29, 2009 and starts at 7:00 p.m. The event is being sponsored by Amnesty International, Dallas Peace Center .

For directions to the location, please access the following map:

http://smu.edu/maps/flash/default.asp?b=1

For parking information, click on the ‘Visitor Parking’ section on the lower left hand side of that page.

hydromatics - "city slang" in stockholm, 2007

from a forthcoming dvd.

the last word on RON?

the smiling folks at crawdaddy! sure took their sweet ass time running a valedictory tribute to ron asheton, but it's a goodun. here's an int from an '86 dutch doco:



and another from 2008:

inauguration day

the up - "just like an aborigine"

the hound on the stooges

from last halloween, their 41st anniversary. interesting link here.

this land is your land

pete seeger sang the original words to "this land is your land" on the steps of the lincoln memorial today. i'll bet somewhere, fraf is smiling. say hello to woody for us, pal.

in search of captain zero

i'm not an aficionado of surfer culcha per se (altho i _did_ watch and enjoy in god's hand at my middle dtr's behest), but steve steward pulled my coat to allan c. weisbecker's in search of captain zero, which he sez is one of his favorite books, so of course i _had_ to read it (devoured it in an afternoon, in fact).

it's an autobiographical tale about surfer/journo/ex-drug smuggler and native lawn guylander weisbecker's journey through mexico and central america in search of a missing bud (stopping to surf the beaches along the way, of course) -- a spiritual journey in the manner of heart of darkness or zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. i can see how this cat influenced steve's prose style (in the same way as i still occasionally find myself emulating nik cohn), and he hooked me in with this sentence in his prologue:

To a nine-year-old boy with an active imagination and whose adventuring had been limited to the writings of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson, Montauk's towering, saw-toothed crags, desolate rock-strewn shores and densely impenetrable woods seemed preternaturally wild and remote, an untamed territory where fearsome beasts surely lurked.

good writing is where you find it. if he can surf as well as he can write, he must be one graceful bastard on the water.

thanks, steve!

bertha coolidge @ lola's tonight -- free!

that's right, bertha coolidge -- aden bubeck, joey carter, paul metzger and rich stitzel -- reconvene tonight at lola's, where the fw weekly said they played the best show of 2008. they don't get together that often, since rich lives in chicago and aden's often on the road with miranda lambert, but there's been talk of a new recording, and joey and paul have even been writing new toonage. check 'em out!





(i, sadly, will not be there, as my sweetie's surgery appointment in arlington is at 7am monday. plan to spend the next week nursing her through her convalescence, cooking enormous meals of protein, and procrastinating on a cover story i'm on the hook for with the weekly.)

happy berfday damo suzuki

again, thanks to ash for the coat-pull. here's damo with keiji haino and tatsuya yoshida.

the wangcaster

this is just wrong. (i'll bet it has a really _ballsy_ tone.) thanks to ash adams for the coat-pull.

gonzalez bros. win!

from aaron gonzalez:

Apparently, Luis Lopes "Humanization 4tet" album was voted Best Portuguese Jazz Album of 2008 in the magazine jazz.pt! I haven't seen it yet, and as my Portuguese is spotty at best, I have not navigated the website very far, but here goes the link for you guys: http://www.jazz.pt.

Hooray! Just in time for the booking of our American tour! More on that soon!

congrats to aaron and stefan, who played bass and drums on the rec.

mott the hoople reunion

with all the original members. two shows at the hammersmith odeon in london. so sayeth ian hunter. theae guys were big faves of my no 'count lawn guyland crew. saw 'em at the uris theater in manhattan, 1973, and brain capers remains a fave at mi casa. there's a shitload of performance vid on youtube, but none that you can embed, but there is this snippet of documentary that gives you some of the flavor.

christopher blay @ gallery 414

photog christopher blay gots a show running january 24-february 22 at gallery 414. microaudiotellarevolution: from the trc to the prc is an installation rooted in the artist's "experience with the concepts of revolution, conflict, and technology." reception is 6-9pm on saturday, january 24th.

darth vato throws in the towel

they've still got a bunch of shows booked, but darth vato is playing their last one april 25th, on more or less their seventh anniversary as a performing entity. bassplayer, expat so. cal punker and fw weekly scribe steve steward has his say about it here. i watched 'em grow up from a collegiate annoyance to one of the fort's most popular live attractions, and from alpha to omega, the thing i've always liked about 'em was steve and frontman kerry dean's sincerity, which is in ample evidence in steve's post. vaya con dios.

fuck the rock and roll hall of shame

silly me. i thought after being nominated seven years running, the stooges would be a shoo-in for induction to the rock and roll hall of fame this year (balloting was completed before RON's death). now the i-94 bar reports that raw power gtrist james williamson, long disappeared into the bowels of corporate america, was even willing to sub for RON in the event. losers. but the stooges _always_ win.

the prisoner @ amc

that's right, the entahr series, all 17 episodes. watch it here. r.i.p. patrick mcgoohan.

Going Back To the Well

I went out the other night for beers with the Italian kid at the Showdown. Christ, I hadn't been in that place in forever, but 30 years ago, when Stuart Bell and I were living on the ground floor of Harry Harris' mother's old house at the corner of Collinwood and Sanguinet (demolished years ago to make way for yuppie townhouses), we'd check every Saturday morning to see if any drunks from the Showdown had driven through the hedges on the Sanguinet side of the yard during the night.

We were talking (as George Harrison would say) about sanctuaries and the getting of knowledge. Back when he was unemployed and living in Pittsburgh, the Italian kid's favorite spot was the library. He dug the quiet of the big, imposing space, and being surrounded by people who were searching for knowledge, even if he didn't particularly want to interact with them at the time. (Probably the church fulfilled the same function for his grandmother.) I told him I used to go to the downtown library a lot when I worked in the neighborhood. You'd always see homeless people there in the winter, staying out of the cold, and folks who couldn't afford computers using the internet. (I like the democracy of the library.)

When I was freshly out of work a few years ago, I used to go to the old Black Dog on Throckmorton when it opened, once a week, with enough quarters to feed the meter for two hours (until happy hour started) and enough folding money to buy four beers. Bars that have been around for a few decades are great refuges -- time stands still there. Nothing ever changes. In the cool, dark, and quiet of the afternoon Dog, I was able to forget (for a little while at least) my anxieties over prospects that might or might not work out, bills I had to pay, and the specter of Failure that loomed large over my shoulder at all other times. Invariably, I'd start shooting the shit with the bartender and wind up getting about half of my drinks comped. When the happy hour crowd showed up, I'd leave.

When you're young, the place you go for shelter and solitude is your room. Back when I was a youngster, that's where I developed an affinity for language, sitting in my room with the door closed with stacks of comic books and later, rock mags. But at a certain point -- probably around the onset of puberty -- you start wanting a public space to be alone in.

It's always interesting for me when I practice with Stoogeaphilia, listening to the band boys (who are 10 to 20 years younger than me) talking about music. It makes me realize how circumscribed my own knowledge and taste in music are. Back when I was acquiring the culture, nascent fans got most of their information from radio (and magazines, if they were readers). For the generation that came of age in the '80s, the Italian kid said it was MTV. (The guys in Stoogeaphilia are exceptions to this, because they're all readers.)

For the kids that are in their 20s now, the internet made the entire history of recorded sound and every bit of information that's ever been generated about it fingertip-accessible without visiting the library or anywhere else in particular. As a result, when the Stoogeband started playing on Magnolia Street for younger crowds than we generally got at the Black Dog and the Wreck Room, I noticed I had to do less explaining. The kids around my kids' ages already knew the music, which the 30somethings on West 7th didn't always (beyond a couple of songs). In the past year, I've actually had three conversations with random people at Stoogeshows about Glenn Branca, which seems really weird in the context of playing in a proto-punk coverband from Fort Worth.

Technology doesn't just alter the way we acquire and process information, it changes our relationship with the world. Every day at the market, I see people walking around with their cellphones (with text messaging, email, internet access, etc.), totally oblivious to their immediate environment and the people in it. James Lassen's series of small paintings entitled The Cellphone Users captures this dynamic well. (Also note that the signature pose for photographic portraits in the 21st century is from 18 inches away, arm extended.)

All kinds of social norms change with the advent of new technology. When I was growing up, if you heard someone talking to him or herself in public, you assumed they were crazy. No longer. Once when I worked in the Stockyards, I was going to lunch with a coworker at the Stockyards Hotel when we passed a woman walking back and forth in front of the hotel with a suitcase on wheels. When I remarked that she seemed rather odd, my coworker said, "Nah, she's just talking on her phone." When I went to use the restroom after lunch, I found five hotel employees trying to coax the woman -- who'd apparently gone into the men's room and taken off all her clothes -- to get dressed and come out. But I digress.

Thirty years ago, I worked for a man who, although he was kind of an asshole, said something prescient: "People aren't going out anymore; they're going in." That's truer now than it ever was; as a society we've become quiet inward and isolated, interacting in virtual "communities" with like-minded folks in a way that precludes dialog with anyone else. Targeted marketing based on internet usage patterns has contributed to this. From a music geek's perspective, this means that the newest generation of listeners has, for the most part, lost interest in "the romance of the artifact." Who needs it when you can carry your entire music collection around with you in your iPod?

Nowadays, I think people carry their sanctuaries around with them -- all "their stuff," from their music to their "friends" to more information than any one library could hold -- encoded digitally and fingertip-accessible in their pocket. But where, then, are the sacred spaces of today?

happy berfday don van vliet

fraf's memorial/celebration of life

CHAD MORGAN PERCY - CADILLAC FRAF

MEMORIAL & CELEBRATION

Memorial Service-Saturday, Jan 24, 11am at St Stephens Presbyterian Church, 2700 McPherson Ave.,Ft Worth, TX

Celebration of Life-Saturday, Jan 24, 2:30pm until??? at LOLA's Saloon, 2736 W. 6th St., Ft Worth,TX

We hope to see you all there at either or both events. Love to you all! K P

Also, we are trying to gather Fraf pictures for a video montage for the Celebration. If you have pics on your computer in .jpg format, please e-mail to Melissa Kirkendall at melissa@highlandmyst.net or stargazer00001@hotmail.com or to me, KP, at kp1erful1@yahoo.com. If these have friends in them, please make sure we know who everyone is in the pic. Thanks in advance. We WILL celebrate!

more rolling stone rekkid reviews

and while we're at it, here's st. lester on captain beefheart's mirror man, lenny kaye on hendrix's the cry of love and the mc5's high time, john mendelsohn on who's next, simon frith on the small faces' the autumn stone, tony glover on the velvet underground's live at max's kansas city, and ed ward on the firesign theater's don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers. this is the shit i used to read instead of the books i was supposed to be reading for high school, and i'm astonished that i even remember some of the grafs today.

no idea festival in the fort?

muso-impresario aaron gonzalez is hosting the dallas event for this year's no idea festival, an internationally-known festival of creative improvised music featuring artists from all over the united states as well as mexico and europe. lineup includes annette krebs (gtr-electronics) from berlin, jason kahn (percussion-electronics) from zurich, chris cogburn (percussion) from austin, and tatsuya nakatani (percussion) from pennsylvania, plus aaron (bass), his brother stefan gonzalez (drums), and dad dennis gonzalez (trumpet). the event's set for tuesday, 2.24.2009, but there's a catch -- the original venue in dallas fell through, so aaron's currently seeking a spot in fort worth. any takers?

my spiel in the fw weekly

reviews i penned of new restaurant buttons and the gunslingers' cd no more invention are in this week's fw weekly.

be seeing you, number 6

that's right, patrick mcgoohan died tuesday, aged 80. interesting factoid: he was born in new york.

lester bangs on alice cooper's "killer"

from rolling stone. return with us now to the days when record reviews were longer than 300 words. and were really sayin' something. the first place yr humble chronicler o' events, as a 14-yr-old snotnose, ever read the word "angst." and "hubris."

miles' "he loved him madly"

here's the last third of miles davis' 32-minute tribute to duke ellington from get up with it. just 'cause.

the credit crunch

...all bowie's fault?

fraf's obit

from the star-t.

r.i.p. ab from joe's garage

abbou greig, 74, owner of legendary fort worth metal dive joe's garage, was shot to death last night. his assailants remain at large.

fraf's memorial/celebration of life

from k.p., fraf's mom:

Chad Morgan Percy (Cadillac Fraf) May 5, 1972 - January 10, 2009

As all of you may know by now, Chad/Fraf has taken his last journey on this earth. He is still living on through his organ/tissue donations to LifeGift. I have learned so many things I did not know about him. Some he probably would not want me to know. Still wonderful to me, though.

I know now what a joy, frustration, enigma, clown, philosopher (and too many other things to name), he has been to so many people besides me! I am still amazed each day by the messages, phone calls and e-mails I'm getting. These things may have taken all of you just a minute to send, but will mean a lifetime of joy for me.

I have set up a memorial service for him on January 24, 11 am at St Stephen Presbyterian Church, 2700 McPherson Ave. Fort Worth. We will also be having a "Celebration of Life" party later that afternoon or early evening. Have not set the location as yet. Once he said "Mom, if I go before you, Just prop me up in a corner and have a party". That's exactly what we will do!

I send all my love to all of you out there for being there for me and my family. You are what has gotten me through this sad time.

nervebreakers sxsw show lineups

from t. tex edwards:

LINE-UP's FOR AUSTIN SHOWS, MARCH 20 & 21...
(Friday's line-up at the big BAR-B-Q includes NERVEBREAKERS, T.TEX EDWARDS & OUT ON PAROLE, THE TRANSGRESSORS, AMAZING HANCOCK BROTHERS & MORE)...
(Saturday at ANTONE'S RECORD SHOP)...Freddie Steady's 9TH ANNUAL FRONTIER A GO GO ROCK & ROLL HOOTENANNY
LOVE TRUCKER - 8 PM
NERVEBREAKERS - 7 PM
KENNY & THE KASUALS - 6 PM
MAGIC CHRISTIAN - 5 PM
THE FREDDIE STEADY 5 - 4 PMW/ JENNY WOLFE
THE UGLY BEATS - 3 PM
EVE & THE EXILES - 2 PM
RICK BROUSSARD - 1 PM
MITCH JACOBS BAND - 12 PM
PAMELA RICHARDSON - 11 AM
* Our MC will be Beatle Bob*

me-thinks and rivercrest yacht club @ the fairmount this saturday

acapella

i got a promo pitch for a cd by sonos, a group of singers who "came from the collegiate acapella circuit, a flourishing community of about 15,000 groups in the u.s." this resonated, since my niece is a member of partial credit at rensselaer polytechnic institute in troy, new york (where we usedta go when i was a student at the state university in albany because they had the only jack in the box in the albany-troy-schenectady area; i _think_ i once saw zappa at the rpi fieldhouse). here they are singing a silly meatloaf song. guess which one is my niece.

consultants.

my dutch pal tony slug's got a brand new band: consultants. maybe i've been watching too many episodes of the office, but their concept seems brilliant. "if you combine con and insult, you get consult." the sound is detroit-fueled punk rockaroll.

suspense

so far it's been a pretty shitty year. mourning the deaths of two men i loved and respected. awaiting the resolution of various family situations. getting ready to go underground for awhile after my sweetie has surgery next week, but plan to attend fraf's memorial on the 24th.

pitching stories to some rags. looking forward to stooge prac thursday, and a surprise 60th b-day party for the man that brought me here on february 7th. playing the ridglea on february 28th. need to find time for a couple of other musical projects. going to sxsw for the fw weekly. going to ohio for my sister-in-law's 50th b-day this summer.

trying to get out of this funk. got to pull my head out of my ass and do some work. only way i know how.

charlie haden

ornette's and keith jarrett's titanic bassist also leads his own groups. first vid's with quartet west. the pianist is allen broadbent.



second is with the liberation music orchestra playing barber's "adagio" in 2003, on the not in our name tour. (bye-bye, bush and cheney.) the arranger/conductor is carla bley.



last is from letterman last year, playing his son josh's song "spiritual" from rambling boy, the country album (grew up singing on his parents' c&w radio show) he made with josh and triplet sisters petra (whose who and bill frisell recs i like real much), rachel, and tanya (who's married to jack black; go fig). is it my imagination, or does josh look like philip seymour hoffman? johnny cash also covered this.

suiciety on myspace

there are a few bands called suiciety out there...one's from new jersey, another from canada. the one from fort worth existed from 1988 to 1993 and included linc campbell (mockingbird cartel) on gtr/vox, frank cervantez (stumptone, sub oslo) on gtr, and miguel veliz (sub oslo, ex-sourvein, ex-blood of the sun, ex-graves at sea) on bass/vox.

bob seger system - "lucifer"

ok, just one...

bob seger & the last heard

don't laugh. hearing iggy talk about early '60s michigan rawk got me thinking about the early seger, which was quite a different animal from his "night moves" and later (money-making) incarnation. dig his first local hit, "east side story," with some unfortunate latter-day pics.



here's bob as highway 61 revisited-era dylan: "persecution smith."



before "kick out the jams," before "i wanna be your dog," there was "heavy music."



i donwanna bore ya, but if you haven't heard the bob seger system's "2 + 2 = ?" (great 'nam-era protest song), "ramblin' gamblin' man" (the song i requested every day for the entahr summer of '72 from the clueless oldies station in my lawn guyland town, without success), and "lucifer," check 'em out on youtube.

iggy remembers ron

from detroit dj's deminski and doyle via rolling stone.

new darrin kobetich cd @ cdbaby

you can now cop darrin's new cd, the end of one enchanted evening, via cd baby. fans of fahey, kottke, hedges, et al. and hot acoustic picking in general take note.

rueffer brothers update

...from that fiddlin' man reggie rueffer:

Howdy!

Reggie Rueffer here, doing shameless promotion!

I want to remind or inform you that I am appearing every Wednesday night at Pearl’s Dancehall and Saloon in beautiful Ft. Worth, Texas.

This Wednesday the 14th will be with Tommy Hooker, next Wednesday with brother Chad, as they alternate Wednesdays.

There are also dance lessons before the show, starting at 7.

This Friday night Pearl’s will feature Chad Rueffer and his Nameless Wonders (we are still working on that one—it will no longer be the Insiders).

Come see us at 9 this Friday the 16th.

And if anyone happens to be in Houston Saturday the 17th, I will be appearing with Charley Pride at the Stafford Center.

I hope you are having a brilliant 2009! And I hope to see you soon.

RR

P.S., Chad’s new CD Be Where You Are Now is set for release Friday February 27th. We will throw a CD release party at…you guessed it, Pearl’s!

yeti - "interstellar biplane" @ rubber gloves, denton, april 1999

stooges - "1970" @ goose lake

tales of the ol' south @ iloveftw.com

some (i think) funny bullshit i penned about the ol' south pancake house is online now at iloveftw.com.

wow, esp-disk is back

the pioneering '60s avant-garde label is back in business. who'd a thunk it?

danny fields on ron asheton

from the houndblog. thanks to the barman for the coat-pull.

further fraf

aaron gonzalez penned these heartfelt words in tribute to fraf:

I just got word that Chad Percy, also known as Caddilac Fraf, has passed away. Don't know all the details, but I do know it was a result of the head injury he had recently sustained in his scooter accident, for which he had been in the hospital some time now. He will be missed by many. He was known as a quintessential part of the Fort Worth musical community, often playing impromptu sets at the end of many a punk, rock, jazz, country, noise, or other kind of show with his own brand of freewheeling punk-folk jams, often accompanied by various friends, be they offkey drunks, or seasoned musicians. Anyone who encountered him knew he was a genuine soul, very no nonsense, freethinking, a kind person who would always be there for those he loved. I didn't know him as well as some, but I had hung out with him enough to be moved and saddened by the loss of a good person who had been around me since I first started playing shows, and had always shared a kind word, a stimulating notion, or a poignant musical experience. I just looked at his myspace page. In the "about me" section, it simply said "livin'". Thanks to all those whose lives he touched, he still will be for quite a long time......
Goodbye, friend. You are loved.

bye fraf

my sweetie posted this on myspace and it says everything i don't have words to say right now.

new boris rec w/michio kurihara

from aquarius records:

BORIS WITH MICHIO KURIHARA "Cloud Chamber" (Pedal) cd 21.00
By itself, the name "Boris" on a new release creates a not-inconsiderable level of excitement amongst the heaviness-heads and Japanophiles 'round these parts. Add "with Michio Kurihara" to the cover and, well, the excitement, it's off the hook. You know what we mean, 'cause chances are, if you're reading this, you're already a Boris fan. And probably also are familiar with guitarist Kurihara from his 2006 collaboration with Boris, on the very wonderful Rainbow (he also guested on the more recent Smile, as well).
While Rainbow was a fairly song-oriented affair, with many moods and plenty of melodiousness, THIS new get-together is one for those of you into HUGE squalls of amps on 11, heavy duty GUITAR FREAK OUT. You won't really notice much in the way of, like, vocals on here. Or drums, for that matter. It's all about the motorpsycho guitar(s), which can sometimes sound more like airplane engines here (with, maybe, Neil Young flying the plane). Like we said, a guitar freakout. Not a stretch, of course, for Boris, who have albums with names like Feedbacker and Amplifier Worship, after all. And teamed up again with noted psychedelic axemaster Kurihara (White Heaven, Ghost) we're not surprised at all that they went for such a heavy, freeform guitar-centric sound. One that should be of instant appeal to anyone who's personal guitar gods are folks like Caspar Brotzmann, Keiji Haino, or China's Li Jianhong. Or, well, let's put it this way - at its mellowest, we could compare this to Nadja and/or SUNNO)))... the clouds in this Cloud Chamber are big but not exactly fluffy.
There's but two tracks here, both of lengthy, "side-long" duration (18:53 and 17:30). The first, "Cloud Chamber I", begins with deep pulsations of subtle sub-bass, building and building, joined by skree, skullflowering into psychedelic sheets of drone, culminating with what comes close to sheer white noise at the end. Even at its grinding-est, though, delicate feedback trails caress one's ears amidst the din. "Cloud Chamber II" simply starts off grindingly distorted, fuzzing and buzzing with divebomb attacks. But then proceeds to get even heavier - louder - and noisier!! By not much more than three minutes in, it sounds like something (everything!) in the recording studio is beginning to vibrate and collapse, you can imagine sparks shooting from the amplifiers, cabinets toppling, walls shaking, brains melting. And of course they just keep upping the ante on this destructo-, distorto- delic assault. A thing of literally devastating beauty... which physically reaches a peak at about the 13 minute mark, a point where it could easily be mistaken for the extreme electronic likes of Masonna, then suddenly quieting into blissed-out ambience for the final four minutes of this track. Sweet.
And this limited edition (1500 copies) Japanese import is packaged nicely, with some nice, stylishly subtle "advanced" design that, well, makes it look like a Japanese import.

history at our disposal/matthew and the arrogant sea @ the chat room, 1.24.2009

that's right. them. and them. there.

mike watt riffs on ron asheton

from the l.a. times. hadn't really found time to cry for uncle ronnie up till now.

spectreman

when i was in colorado in the winter of '79-'80, we used to watch this shit all the time.

that 1 guy @ the longhorn, 4.18.2009

yep, that's what his website says.

lisa's fried chicken @ iloveftw.com

a spiel i penned on lisa's fried chicken is online now at iloveftw.com.

nervebreakers @ sxsw update

from barry kooda:

T. Tex Edwards & The Nervebreakers will be performing at a free afternoon/early evening party our pals, The Transgressors are hosting on Friday, March 20 (SXSW week). It will be at a friend of theirs’ property (an old Texaco station with big concrete lot) on I-35 right by the former location of the Crazy Lady titty bar. A multi-generation Bar-B-Q expert will have a stand on location & free kegs from Live Oak brewery will be available. The Transgressors & others will also perform.

The Nervebreakers will be performing a 30 minute set inside Antone's Records in Austin on Saturday afternoon March 21, a free show during SXSW week (at Freddie Krc's Steadyboy Extravaganza!).

stoogeaphilia @ the ridglea, 2.28.2009

Our pals in ADDNERIM graciously invited us to play with them at the RIDGLEA THEATER on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH. All ages -- show starts at 8pm, $7 for over 21 and $10 for under. We're playing second, after MERKIN and before PROPHETS OF RAGE, RIVERCREST YACHT CLUB, and the headliners.


This one's for RON ASHETON, 1948-2009. Goodnight, Uncle Ronnie. Much love and many thanks.

here come the vultures

seems an "acquaintance" of RON's was found trying to remove gtrs and memorabilia from the late stooge's home the day after he was found dead. a shame.

loco gringos @ dallas observer music blog

here's jeff liles on the loco gringos, a formative influence on the mighty me-thinks, who open for the reformed gringos (minus frontman tom foote aka pepe, r.i.p.) at the lakewood bar & grill in dallas this sat'day, january 10th.

ron asheton @ rollingstone.com

in the vid clips here, RON talks about brian jones, the beatles, nirvana, and meeting jfk.

oh, and btw...

...if you read this blog and don't own a copy of funhouse, in the name of gawd, go out and find a copy NOW. you owe it to yourself.

ron asheton in arthur mag

this includes a 2003 interview with RON and his brother scott.

ron asheton @ allmusic.com

all music guide scribe mark deming penned a nice tribute to RON here.

rsj @ a history of dallas music

an appreciation i wrote of ronald shannon jackson (portions of which previously ran in the fw weekly and the jazz by the boulevard website) is online now at a history of dallas music. i may do a follow-up for the weekly.

my spiel in the fw weekly

some blather i wrote about the year 2008 in local music and a review of ex-heartbreaker walter lure's new live album are in this week's fw weekly.

Requiem for a Stooge

Ron Asheton changed my life forever when I turned on the TV the summer when I was 13 and saw the Stooges playing at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. The cameras focused on the shirtless guy in the elbow-length silver gloves doing his audience-walking bit, but the guy I was watching was the kid behind the Stratocaster in the sunglasses and the Ed Roth T-shirt, who made it _sound_ as lethal as it needed to for Iggy's act to be something other than a topic for snide commentary by the TV sports guys that NBC had providing the play-by-play. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview him, to meet him in person and hear him play _those songs_ (in 2000 at SXSW and in 2002 in his hometown of Ann Arbor). I'm especially glad that he got a nice "victory lap" the last five years, which will culminate in the Stooges' probable induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. I hope he checked out with a horror movie on the tube and a smile on his face. Goodnight, Uncle Ronnie. Much love and many thanks.

r.i.p. ron asheton

OH FUCK. my buddy geoff from philly just called. RON's gone. found him on the couch, looked like he'd been gone a coupla days. no signs of foul play. the music's over.

nervebreakers @ sxsw?

a myspace bull from ex-bandmember barry kooda indicates that the nervebreakers -- the band that brought me to texas, as my sweetie says -- might be playing in austin during sxsw. as the fwweekly is giving me a pass to go there, this might be a perfect storm. hot dog!

died pretty cd review @ fwweekly.com

a review i penned of the aztec records reish of died's pretty's free dirt is online now. (it was in the paper that ran last wednesday.)

alex cline on mitch mitchell

what i said.

gil mantera's party dream @ lola's stockyards, 2.21.2009

imagine if professional juice and nathan brown's vans collided on the expressway to yr skull. we watched a vid of these guys at stoogeprac and they reminded me of ny niece's b-f the wrestler, who's also from ohio. willie's picnic was one thing, but are the stockyards ready for this?

a power stronger than itself

here's an excerpt from trombonist george lewis' history of the aacm, from point of departure.

art ensemble of chicago

Signal To Noise

Wow. A music magazine pubbed in Houston that specializes in improvised and experimental music. Current ish includes a cover story on Chicago prog oddballs Cheer-Accident, Delmark Records/Jazz Record Mart impresario Bob Koester (who recorded the best late Chicago blues _and_ the early AACM as well as serving as mentor to Uberfans like Fort Worth's own Wes Race and Dallas' Tim Schuller, jazzcrit Howard Mandel, Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer, and Nessa Records founder Chuck Nessa), Bad Brains frontman HR, and a San Fran muso-chef who hosts intimate dinner concerts. Beyond that, they review records, CDs, MP3s, and DVDs, including columns on electronic music, metal, jazz, modern rock, reissues, and singles. Puts me in mind of the old Musician mag -- like, who knew Nessa was still in operation? They've also got a blog. Thanks to Cari 'n' Mike for my Barnes & Noble bucks. (I also picked up a coffee table book about the 'oo.)

an unintended consequence of the current economic downturn

a new golden age of skateboarding?

ruth underwood

...nee komanoff, was a student at juilliard who became a fan of the mothers of invention when they had a regular gig at the garrick theater in greenwich village. she first played with fz on uncle meat and was an important component in the band from '72 to '76 (from overnite sensation through one size fits all). in '93, when fz was dying, he invited her to his house so he could sample some of her work on vibes and marimba. she agreed and, after practicing 14 hours (she hadn't picked up a mallet since '77), she spent four days playing and hanging out with frank. a nice way to say goodbye. there's a good int you can't embed here.

fz stockholm 1973

further sam rivers

i saw sam rivers open for mingus at stony brook in '76 or '77, leading a trio with bob stewart on tuba and bobby battle on drums. rivers started out the set on piano before moving to flute, then soprano sax, finishing up on tenor. he played all four instruments on the two albs of duets he recorded for improvising artists with dave holland. i also had an album on black saint where the trio with stewart and battle was joined by mingus' ex-pianist don pullen.

rivers was born in oklahoma, 1923; his parents were both musicians. he played in herb pomeroy's boston big band in the '50s and by the '60s was part of a circle of beantown musos that included jaki byard and tony williams. tony got him in miles davis' band for one tour of japan, then he played with andrew hill and cecil taylor and recorded for blue note before settling in new york and opening studio rivbea on bond street with his wife, beatrice. the place became a nexus for the "loft jazz" scene, when the outcats couldn't get booked to play in clubs. made more recs for impulse, including crystals with a big band and sizzle with an electric combo, a direction he'd pursue until he went with dizzy gillespie for four years in the '80s.

these days he lives in orlando and leads two bands: a big band staffed with teachers and cats who make their living playing in the bands at disney and universal, and a trio of multi-instrumentalists -- bassplayer doubles on bass clarinet and drums, while the drummer also plays tenor, bass, and piano. he's still performing and recording forward-looking music. not bad for a gentleman 85 years of age.

happy new year

túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.