ART INTO DUST

Hatfield and the North promo poster

2012-01-24T16:52:00.001-08:00

Been busy with me scanner....how tasty is this?

Pete McCabe's new album Homeward

2012-01-16T07:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.petemccabe.com/index.html

The Legendary Pete MCCabe of The Man Who Ate The Plant fame has a brand new album out now on Discofair Recordings.

A Message From Todd Dillingham:
Disco Fair proudly announces Pete McCabe's album Homeward is officially released today! featuring Wim Oudijk,Bob Wilson (A Band Called Mithras),Pete from The Big I Am,and a host of other great musicians...theres even some todd on it ....a must have purchase by this genius......you can order the cd direct from the website or if you want downloads go to www.petemccabe.com ...highly recommended by myself..

Dark Ocean Colors - My Barbara Closed The Doors

2012-01-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

Janine Cooper Ayres and her tour with Let's Active

2011-12-20T19:58:00.001-08:00

Janine, who's fantastic artwork was the subject of a post earlier this year served as touring bass player in Mitch Easter's legendary Let's Active in the autumn of 1986, both as part of a month long headlining tour and then as support on the REM tour that followed. She has been kind enough to share various memories of those times, as well as some wonderful photographs. Mitch has also chipped in with his own thoughts on the subject of her time with the band....so let's get active here....

Janine: “I first met Mitch back in '85 when I travelled out to North Carolina from northern California for an audition to play bass. I was immediately surprised to see how ‘down to earth’ he was. He was a genuine, quirky, funny person who was gracious and even a little shy and soft spoken. He welcomed me into his studio and made me feel at home. I took out my cheat sheet and we played several of his amazing songs in a small rehearsal room that was part of Drive In Studios. I didn't get that audition. The gig was given to someone who lived closer and was more available to tour.
So I went back to my day job working at Guitar Player Magazine as their Office Administrator. I was disappointed, but I also felt as though I'd won the jackpot for just having the opportunity to jam with Mitch Easter!!
I moved to L.A. about six months or so later and went to see Let's Active play at a club in Hollywood. It was at that time that I let Mitch know that I was still available and I asked him to keep me in mind for future touring. I think it was a month or so after that that he called me and asked if I could do a tour of several college towns! He sent me more cassettes with more songs to learn and I did my best to memorise them. A few weeks later I was on a plane heading for Winston-Salem. I was 24 years old at the time. It was an incredibly exciting time! After a few days of rehearsing, we packed up and headed out on the road. There were seven of us in one van, another van carried the equipment and there were seven personalities too, all quite different with different moods and opinions, etc. But, we all coexisted fairly well, considering. It was a time before cell phones and texting, which was probably a good thing.
Mitch and Angie both loved to look for deals and bargains (me too), whether they were guitars, cars or vintage clothes. So we made some fun pit stops along the way during our four week tour. They even bought a car at one point.

Our very first show was in Collegeville, Minn. Here's an excerpt from my journal. "First show - DISASTER! I knew I was going to make mistakes but this was ridiculous…" I was humbled from that point on!
As the tour continued through Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee I became more familiar with the songs, but still made too many mistakes in my opinion. Sometimes I recovered before Mitch caught on, but other times he would give me a look. I made some pretty bad flubs, especially when I had to re-tune the "E" string down to a "D", but fortunately Mitch was pretty forgiving.
At some point late in that tour Jefferson Holt, R.E.M.'s manager called Mitch and asked if Let's Active could open for R.E.M. during their 1986 Pageantry tour. I was so lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Mitch asked if I could come back out to tour again and I of course said yes.
Soon we were on the road for a month in support of R.E.M. and the release of their 1986 album, "Life’s Rich Pageant".
Our first show was at the University of Virginia. In my journal I wrote: "First show went very well. My bass sounded great! I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be. Played to crowd of about 5,000 people."
The following night we played in Washington D.C. and I wrote: "Another good show. Sound was fine. Pete Buck and Mike Mills came up on stage for ‘Hush’ during our encore!!!"

A few nights later we played in Williamsburg, Virginia.
"Good show! Positive response from crowd. Buck and Mills came up for ‘Back of a Car’. Played to 11,000 people". I had never played in front of an audience that size before. It was outrageous!
The guys from R.E.M. were so incredibly kind to us. In fact, as we continued down south a bunch of us stayed at Peter Buck’s house in Athens one night. He gave everybody a bed or a couch to sleep on in his large old beautiful house. You hear about ‘southern hospitality’, and I can tell you it’s for real.
We continued to Jacksonville, Orlando and then Miami before finishing our tour in Atlanta Georgia at the Fox Theater. It was sad to see it end. I wish I could say that the whole experience of touring with Let’s Active and R.E.M. was pure fun, but it wasn’t. At times it was frightening! Other times, stressful! I was sort of thrown into a scenario of performing with some amazingly talented people and I didn’t always feel worthy! I enjoyed playing with Eric Marshall and Angie Carlson but it was Mitch who impressed me the most. From his singing and songwriting accomplishments to performing, composing and producing and arranging in the studio he's done for so many other bands. He’s never received the recognition he deserves, but I think some day he will. In my opinion, he’s one of the most talented artists out there. He's also one of my favourite humans, and the tour with R.E.M. is one of my favourite memories. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to tour with him and his band back in 1986. It was one of the highlights of my musical career, for sure! Why didn't I stay on with Let's Active after that tour? I think that part of the reason was that I was engaged to be married. If only I had known then that my fiancée was not of sound mind and body, I may very well have asked Mitch if I could stay in North Carolina! We never did get married.”

Mitch: “The R.E.M. tour in '86 was the last one we did with them, but it was fun, as always. They are such a classy bunch, including every single crew member, and of course we were treated royally and got to play some very groovy venues, like the famous Fox Theater in Atlanta, as well as a few, for us, mega places. When I think of this tour, of course I think of the fabulous Janine Cooper! I wish she'd been in the band the whole time, well, assuming she wasn't bored to tears, because she was a delightful person! I really loved her, and mind you I say this to indicate my high regard for her. As opposed to the impressive effect she had on a good portion of the R.E.M. operation... when I picture a typical situation of Janine arriving for soundcheck or whatever, I see at least 5 or 6 R.E.M. guys going into full-on Tex Avery "wolf" mode, you know, eyeballs falling out on springs, tongues crashing to the floor etc. Oh my! She was really expert at dealing with the poor boys with kindness and good cheer, but I can also imagine how she might've actually been frightened by so much sheer, er, enthusiasm. She really Had the Power! Well, she is very pretty and combined with her sunny demeanour it certainly is a winning combination.

She was a talented player with these sort of excellent "traditional values" as a musician, by which I mean she had a very sensible Fender Precision Bass, and she was aware of the Heritage involved in being a proper rock bassist. She had worked at the offices of Guitar Player Magazine, so doubtless she also got a constant dose of Guitar Dude input as well. Anyway, she dutifully learned my ridiculous busy bass parts, the likes of which I think may have been somewhat different from the sort thing she'd done before. Really, I think if we had been able to keep playing with her we might've been able to regain some of our dwindling appeal- she probably was the most "right" person we could've had on bass, post-Faye. I'm not 1000% sure why we didn't continue with her, actually. The later LA with Angie and Eric was a different animal from the original band and no doubt there was some idea of having people who all lived close by, so we could easily rehearse, etc. but I have to say that I still really, really regret not going to more effort to keep doing something with Janine. Ack, I'm making myself really sad here! Well, I see some reminders every day, I have a painting of hers and some of those notable refrigerator magnets she made of Jesus greeting the Space Aliens, etc. Ha!”
/jandm.jpeg">

Thanks to both Janine and Mitch for their insights.

http://www.j9art.com/

Ashley Cooke -Dererro- Pulco

2011-11-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

I will freely admit that for much of the nineties, besides the obvious greats of XTC, Robyn Hitchcock and Sensible, the fast majority of bands and artists I was well into were American. It seemed to these ears that the unending flow of quality, interesting melodic guitar music from over the pond easily trumped the fashion conscious brit pop/anthematic, rip off my older siblings record collection, bands that these green isles had to offer on the most part. Its an interesting phenomena in music that even though bands often create music totally independent of other contemporary music there can be something in the water of the time that means there are other bands also creating music of a similar ilk. From the outside it can seem like a movement though when delved into more closely it turns out to be a coincidence. As the decade approached its end one such movement sprang into life in Britain. Melodic gravitas progressive popsike of stunning beauty and grace made by bands like Super Furry Animals, Orange, Octopus, Supernaturals, Silverheel, Lilac Time and The Chrysanthemums was all a joy to behold. And the two I loved the most had to be Straw and the fabulous Derrero. Championed by both John Peel and Mark and Lard it seemed for a while, especially around the time of their radio hit Radar Intruder, that Ashley Cooke, Andy Fung, Dave Hirst and Mary Wycherley who made up the mighty Derrero came so damn close to breaking on through to a more widespread popularity.

Over three albums and three e.ps Derrero grew to be glorious with their gorgeous melodies, wonderful production and seductive harmonies, culminating in the superb swansong Comb The Breaks before drifting apart. They are a band I have never tired of and a few weeks ago I stumbled across Ashley Cooke’s home recording project of these last few years Pulco. Pulco’s half dozen or so albums are a R. Stevie Mooresque eclectic mixture of experimentation, poems, documented sounds and, thankfully for us, songs that show his considerable talents with melodies and words remain undaunted by the intervening years.

Theres a lot of good stuff to be investigated in Pulco. By pure serendipity it turns out that Derrero recent played a reunion show and with the plan to make all their many fine works and some much antisipated unreleased rarities available by the excellenceof Bandcamp to be heralded by a second more organised Derrero concert, now seems the time for Art Into Dust to celebrate all of this excellence. Ashley’s a fine fellow indeed and together we concocted to tell the story in words and pictures of the much loved Dererro once and for all. As ever I have elected to let Ashley tell you in his own words. So let us begin.

In Brighton with the original bass player

Ashley: Neither of my parents make music or play instruments but there was always interesting music in the house. I remember being drawn to records that they had by Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Geno Washington & Peddlers and the harmonies of song writers like The Everly Brothers & John Denver.
They also had comedy records by Peter Sellers and those weird covers albums with some bloke playing the Hammond Organ to demonstrate stereo. I was drawn to odd bits of music like that. I loved record sleeves as a kid (still do) and liked looking at the pictures on gatefold albums. Bonney M’s Oceans of fantasy was my favourite. It opens out twice so there are 4 sides to the picture. Classic times !!
My Dad bought a little tape player for loading games on to a home computer that we had, but I was more fascinated by the idea of recording myself and my guitar. It was really weird to hear my own voice for the first time. Eventually I learnt to use a second tape machine as a way of multi tracking recordings The final step in my conversion to a lifetime love of home recording came when I acquired my first 4 track. It changed my world forever.
I was taught to play the guitar in Primary school by a local musician. It got me out of maths for one hour a week but I just loved it and played all the time. I wrote bags of songs that were all crap but I cherished them and pretended to release my own albums and play gigs in the house. I played my first gig at Primary school and got paid a Mars bar! Later on I used to do proper gigs in Secondary school. I remember that we put a scratch band together to support Dr Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations in our sixth form. We were rubbish but I got my first taste of what a band can sound like through a full PA. I didn't really have a regular band before going off to art college in Falmouth. As well as playing in school though friends used to come over on the weekend and we would record hour after hour of Brian May inspired rock Jams. Those were that days! I remember building drums from ice cream tubs. Still have those tapes – very weird.

Newport 1996
Dave, Andy, Mary and I met in Falmouth but we didn't form Derrero until after we graduated and left. This is the part of the band history that is most misinterpreted. Andy was in a band called Big Chief that had just lost their guitarist and bassist. I remember that Dave was driving me along Wood lane in this great gold Capri that he owned. Andy stopped us and mentioned about the band situation. Dave and I jumped at the chance to join. There was another member of the band called Rob who was a lot older than us and was kind of the band leader. We spent two years travelling all over Cornwall in a knackered camper van playing in pubs and clubs. Textbook apprenticeship I guess. Mary was Andy's girlfriend at the time and she sometimes sang in other Falmouth bands.

Newport 1996
After we graduated from Falmouth Andy Mary and I moved to Brighton for a year and started Derrero . The first week there we sat in the front room of our flat and put our tunes on the table. The plan was to start getting gigs like crazy and get signed - like you do. The first ever Derrero gig was at the Free Butt pub in 1995. Dave had gone back to Kent to work for his parents and another college friend of ours, Stacey Harvey, played bass. Brighton was interesting at the time because it was full of ex Falmouth artists like Pete Fowler and Rob Ramsden. Jo Nery the actress was there. She has since gone on to be in Ideal with Johnny Vegas. The Brighton year was a lot of fun and we worked hard to get gigs. We played loads of shitty London pubs with noise limiters that cut the power off when ever you struck a snare drum.

One gig was in this pub in Basingstoke. The Landlord was ex military and a bit if an odd ball. We had only played about three songs when he told us to pack up and go home because we didn't sound like our demo tape ' where is the girl singer' he complained. We were pissed off because we had hired a van and travelled a long way so we asked the audience if they wanted us to continue and they were with us so we carried on. At the end of the night the landlord gave us the money and wondered if we wanted to book another gig!!! When Mary got a place on a Film & Animation degree course in Newport Gwent Andy wanted to go with her and I didn't want to break the band so I went along too. Stacey opted to stay in Brighton and our old pal Dave decided to re join our merry gang and that was how we ended up in Wales

After a disastrous Christmas playing some money making gigs in Cornwall we headed back to our new home in Newport. Our van died on the way and it took us eleven hours to make the four hour journey. To begin with the plan was to be playing regular gigs in South Wales within six months and be part of the scene which we did. We ran Derrero as a business for a while to get funding to buy another van. Building on the funding idea we also bagged another £200 from the Princes Trust and recorded a demo at Cardiff's Big Noise studio in early 1996.

Later in the year, Big Noise owner Greg Haver was at one of our Newport gigs to see Flyscreen who he was producing at the time. He was interested in starting a label and agreed to record more Derrero tunes. We were so well rehearsed in those days that we laid down the backings for seventeen songs in one day. It was rough and ready but that was the way we sounded at the time – all gung ho energy. We had never really recorded with this band either so it was all new territory. The vocals were put down after Xmas in early 1997 and all of a sudden we had an album.It must be noted for the record too that Le Pub owner Kieran put out the Dipstick/Tiny Shoes single for us at the same time. We used the Bignoise versions of these songs although producer Rich Jackson was supposed to do the session but was unavailable.Le Pub was our main haunt and was the last place that I played with the group in 2002. A lot of the songs on the first album dated back to the Brighton days and were quite old, this is the case with many bands first albums I guess. Dipstick was originally written in a country style version at half the speed! We played it as a 'Breeders version' in rehearsal one day for a laugh and Greg came bursting in wondering what the tune was!!
We had a lot of fun with the vocals on that album. Riddle & Bend had stuff sung down traffic cones and there was a lot of screaming. The album seemed to do quite well – I don't really recall much but our gigs certainly picked up once it came out

Greg’s business partner, Ceri worked for the Super Furry’s stage crew and his girlfriend worked for Ankst who managed them and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci etc so we were able to get support slots with them all. We Played in Coppers Field Cardiff with the Fall and a million dates in London. A stand out moment I guess had to be getting the first Peel session.

Small pocket was recorded quickly after the first album came out and was fresh with new songs. We took more time to record each song and produce things a bit more. It is still my favourite set of tunes. Super Furry Animals stored their gear at the studio and we were able to borrow bits and bobs for our sessions. I think that we were all taken a back by how much the band had grown musically in a year. It gained us a new level of respect too. With this in mind we cracked on and began recording the second album.

Radar Intruder was one of those songs that didn't feel like it would be much good until it was recorded and then we all knew it was good. We were moving forward doing what we dreamed off. Doing more Peel stuff on the back of that record was amazing. People started to respect what we were doing more.
Recording at Maida Vale was funny too as the Beeb was still quite old fashioned then. We got there early expecting to do a full days recording but once the tape op had loaded the machine at about 10 am we saw no one until the engineer arrived after lunch. With a fag in mouth he recorded us till about 5 then announced it was time for the pub before mixing. The whole thing wrapped up at about midnight.

In 1998 we did our longest string of gigs supporting Catatonia. The shows were all sold out. In fact 98 & 99 were busy years. We toured with Granddaddy, Sebadoh and Gorkys again. I also did a string of teaching workshops with valleys poet Patrick Jones. We had all moved over to Cardiff as well by this time so we spent a good of time in the studio practising and playing at being a ‘proper band’!
There can be a general sound that surrounds bands that live and work in the same city or area. I think that because a lot of the bands rehearsed in the same place in Cardiff then ideas possibly got passed through the walls!!
Granddaddy's first album opened up the door for raw room sounding drums on records but we were into Teenage Fanclub, Beck, Ween, Bonzo's, Big Star, Elliot Smith. Good harmonies and interesting production. Our Welsh contemporaries were also a strong influence on how to operate as a band. You learn a lot by working with bands that are more successful that you!

This and other live shots mostly Clwb Ifor Bach and the Barfly in Cardiff some where around 1999 to 2001

Andy and I wrote songs separately and then brought them to the band. Occasionally either one of us might suggest a tweak here and there but we respected what the other person brought in and keep them mostly intact.
Harmony was important cause we loved the Beach Boys and because we both wanted to be singing!!! It happened naturally but it was a bit of a trademark too. When it came to recording however everyone had an input into sounds and overdubs. Many a time Dave would shout his approval of a particular part from the sofa where he was on the play station!!!
The second album was quite frustrating for us because it took a long time for it to be released. The Big Noise studio building had been compulsory purchased and demolished by the WDA as part of Cardiff City centre's development programme and until they coughed up the compensation there was no budget to release the album. A lot of the songs on the album had been written around the time of Small Pocket Machine but were recorded at different times in different locations so I can appreciate where folk’s reading of the disjointed feel to the album comes from.By the time it did come out we already had another albums worth of new material ready that we were more interested in playing. Those tunes were only ever recorded on my 4 track and I have since lost the tapes!!!! There were some great songs there. I like to think that that material could have made an amazing third Bignoise album that had the label survived would have built on the achievements of Fixation and pushed the band into new territory but it was never meant to be. As fate would have it the whole WDA thing effectively killed off Bignoise and regrettably for everyone we parted company with Greg & Ceri.

Photo by Emma Ross

In 2000 Greg was asked to record the live sound for a film, Beautiful Mistake that Welsh director Marc Evans was making with John Cale. It became a bit of a job for the boys as I ended up playing in three bands. Was fun though. I didn't talk much to Cale because he wasn't actually on set that much!! The bands practiced his songs then he came along and sort of joined in!! Was a bit weird.
After the end of Bignoise we wondered how we could get another album out with all the new material that we had been stock piling. We had just recorded our third Peel session and felt excited about what we could do next on record but at the same time we also felt a little washed up. I guess we had realised that no one was gonna hand us success on a plate. We found ourselves in Maida Vale doing Peel again but yet we were unsigned!
Ankst suggested that we approach Melys to help us make an album. Melys had their own label and studio in North Wales. They were keen on the project and gave us twelve days to record it in. The experience was brilliant. We had this big master schedule of how to record the songs that would allow us to do a song a day. It was like a military exercise. Nothing was gonna get missed out. Gez Jones engineered it and provided production where it was needed. He was a massive support to us and helped to bring out the best in the music. Comb The Breaks is the truest representation of how we wanted to sound on record. We were also exploring new ideas with rhythm loops and keyboard sounds. We returned to studio Sylem one more time to add brass to the final track and remix a few things.

Photo by Emma Ross
Comb The Breaks was recorded in the summer of 2001 but before it was released the following year my son was born and I decided that it was time for me to leave. Sion, my brother in law played a few dates with the band but I effectively broke up the group. I still feel really bad about that 'cause we should have been out promoting Comb instead of splitting up but in another way things felt a little like they were coming to an end too and it was probably the right time to move on.

I started to be Pulco from then on and worked on music as and when I had time. Dave lived on in Cardiff for a few years working for Ankst Management before returning to Kent where he now has a studio and plays in Picturebox. Andy went to Cardiff Uni to do his MA in Fine Art and started a new band called Cymbient. His current project is called No Thee No Ess. Mary became a full time photographer and still lives in Cardiff.
During 1998 we spent some time recording at a studio up in the Brecon Beacons. I began to write a few songs there that I knew wouldn't work with the band so when we came home I borrowed a 4- track and started to record them just for something to do in between gigs. I was interested in exploring odd sounds and approaches that didn't sound like a band. That was where Pulco started from and it is still based on the same need today! I love the autonomy of home recording and I never worry about whether or not the tunes can be played live. Pulco music documents my life and all the stuff that goes on around me. I love to use loops, found sounds and odd instruments. I've said in the past that Pulco music is like a chunk of time wrapped around a good tune. I am currently working on my eighth album and am signed to a label in Nottingham called Folkwit Records.

Pulco was asked to play at Gwyl SWIGEN in Cardiff back in October.Andy Fung was also booked to play with his current band No Thee No Ess. We thought that it would be fun to play some Derrero songs and before long Dave said he would come and join in too. We had a total blast playing again.
Because we all live four or five hours away from each other we didn't get a chance to rehearse either. We got together an hour before we played and ran the songs through. It sounded great. Easier than it used to be some how. The plan now is to make all those Derrero albums and EP's available again online and put out some unreleased material too. We will do a full gig next year to launch this.
I can't see that Derrero will get back together fully though cause none of us have the time now and our lives have changed too much in the last ten years. However we are like brothers still and you never know!!

Derrero Discography.

Derrero – Derrero A1 Dipstick A2 Tiny Shoes A3 Cockroach A4 Spine A5 Chevy Chase A6 Stupidword Song A7 Last One B1 Vice B2 Cheeky Chops B3 Bake Slab B4 Chaos B5 Riddle And Bend B6 Chunder Drum B7 Guppy

Derrero - small pocket machine ep 1: Stoned Rider, 2: Guppy, 3: Captain's Log, 4: Find Something New

Derrero - Fixation with Long Journeys (2000) 1. Floaters 2. Unstraightforwardtune 3. Radar Intruder 4. Lasso 5. Mono Man 6. Mudskipper 7. Zephyr 8. Pets / Coppice 9. Fixation with Long Journeys 10. Suntan 11. State Messages 12. Weightlessness 13. Out to Lunch 14. Step from the Basket

Derrero - radar intruder 1. Radar Intruder 2. Wiped the Floor 3. Anemones 4. Surk

Derrero - unstraightforwardtune 1. Unstraightforwardtune 2. Bazooka 3. Caboose 4. Ice 5. Parasol
Derrero: Comb The Breaks 1. Intro 2. Horizon 3. Old Grey Skies 4. Comb The Breaks 5. Ripple Of Strength 6. Lean On Me Comfort 7. Damn I'm Gonna Tear It Up 8. All Time Roy 9. Sound At 10. The Rate It Fades 11. Zero Return 12. Dust Brings Depth 13. Sandbar 14. Telescopic Sights

A list of their PEEL SESSIONS
Maida Vale 05/01/1999
Floaters
Out To Lunch
Monoman
Casket

Maida Vale 17/11/1999
Pets/Cappice
Fixation With Long Journeys
Lasoe
State Messages

Clwb, Cardiff 25/10/2000
Floaters
Sound At The Rate It Fades
Vine In Mind
Aerial Angle
Radar Intruder
Unstraightforwardtune
Out To Lunch

Maida Vale 21/02/2001
Sound At The Rate It Fades
Dusk Brings Depth
Lean On Me Comfort
Old Grey Skies

pulco Sketchbook season promo notes
Making home recordings on cheap tape players and 4–Tracks since his youth, Ash Cooke aka Pulco has a love of all things lo-fi.
Initially making his mark in Welsh group Derrero, Ash has continued to quietly release albums under the Pulco banner for the best part of ten years in amongst the chaos and busyness of his regular life.
During his time in Derrero the band released 3 critically acclaimed albums and toured with the likes of Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, Sebadoh and Granddaddy as well as collaborating on the film ‘Beautiful Mistake’ with John Cale. The band also recorded 3 sessions for the legendary John Peel.
In recent years Ash has been content to shun the big stages for the comfort of his wardrobe studio only venturing out to play live when there’s something new to say. Assembling musical bits and pieces together using a hand held recorder and Dictaphone, Pulco songs feature cheap keyboards, toy instruments, iPhone apps and just about anything else that Ash can lay his hands on to add something interesting into the mix. Poems, field recordings and interruptions by the kids are common place. It is music for music’s sake with no pomp or ceremony!
Pulco music has been described as left-field folk with a sketchbook feel, collecting thoughts and random events that have the child-like innocence of someone exploring the world with fresh eyes.
"Ashley Cooke is a rarity. In years to come, experts in eclectic cultural references will mention the name Pulco with great fondness" - Plastik Magazine
Sketchbook Season is a free to download EP and released by Folkwit Records in November 2011.

Here are some links that you might find of interest

www.pulco.bandcamp.com

www.folkwit.com

www.pulco.tumblr.com

www.youtube.com/user/pulcokid

http://www.andyfung.co.uk/news.html

The Onoma/Two label presents... TODD AID

2011-11-12T19:14:00.000-08:00

Todd Dillingham

A message from the excellent Terry Burrows.

As some of you may know, our dear friend and collaborator Todd Dillingham is currently undergoing some heavy duty cancer surgery in Florida.To help him with his medical expenses, we're offering two download albums from our Bandcamp.com site, which we launched last week. The albums are Yukio Yung's "Goodbye Pork Pie Brain/Hello Pulsing Vein"

and Chrysanthemums' "The Baby's Head".

Todd made guest appearances on both of these albums. They originally appeared in the late 1990s variously on vinyl and CD issued by record labels in Germany, and this is the first time they have been available online. Individual tracks are priced at .99 GBP or for 6.99 GBP you can get the complete album. ALL OF THE INCOME, ONCE ONLINE FEES HAVE BEEN DEDUCTED, WILL GO TO TODD - WHICH SHOULD BE SOMETHING LIKE 6 GBP/ALBUM.For those of you who don't know Bandcamp.com, it's hugely preferable to iTunes as a download site. You can listen to streamed versions of the *complete* songs (not just 30-second clips), and downloads are of much higher sound quality (mp3s are 320Kb rather than 192Kb,or you can have lossless FLACs). Paying is very straightforward – click on "Buy Now" and pay using Bandcamp's secure system using the likes of PayPal, Visa or Mastercard.So we invite you to take a listen to what we (and Todd) were doing at the end of the last century.And, of course, any contributions to Todd Aid! will be gratefully received.Thanks for your time.Onoma Research

http://onomaresearch.bandcamp.com/

Wim Oudijk Tree

2011-11-12T04:34:00.000-08:00

The mighty Wim has his new record out soon. It's an epic concept album that fans of Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson will dig. As with his last record I have been enlisted on the cover design front, this time based on the amazing art of my good friend Marc Lacey. Above is the advertisement I put together for Wim for it's forthcoming release on Discofair. This is the third album on the label I've been fortunate to design the cover art for.

PETE MCCABE MAGIC BOX 2011 REMIX

2011-11-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Barefoot Jerry bits and pieces

2011-10-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

.

.

These three fab rarities above are from the archive of Sean Colvard and below screen grabs from a french TV show.

http://barefootjerry.com/

Scot Sax's new band Queen Electric and the return of Wanderlust

2011-10-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

Fantastic news, the superb Scot Sax (see my old interview here) is pretty active at the moment. Firstly Wanderlust one of the finest bands of their time have reformed, have played live and are looking to do a new album which is bound to be sensational. Talking of sensational Scot has also got a new combo Queen Electric with Phil D'agostino and Mike Pietrusko and their debut release available both via Kool Kat and here
http://queenelectric.bandcamp.com/album/queen-electric
and boy and boy it's a mighty fine listen from start to finish, being a winning combination of McCartnesque melodies and blazing gravitas guitar pop with touches of glam and Jellyfish cleverness. Scot's songwriting shines as ever. I highly recommend you investigate and then invest in this great new band almost instantly.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/queen-electric/127269757283076

Bucketfull Of Brains 78-79-Double Sized Issue

2011-10-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

.
The latest Bucketfull is upon us and it is a double sized issue with quite a stella line up along the lines of:
THE BASEBALL PROJECT, PHIL OCHS, DOG AGE, MATT PIUCCI, DAN STUART & THE SLUMMERS, BAND OF OUTSIDERS, THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES, MADAM, JASON McNIFF, JON LANGFORD, PAUL COLLINS, THE HOT KNIVES,and DENNIS DIKEN of THE SMITHEREENS and also comes with a free cd. That's quite something, I think you'll agree. Go to this fine place to find out more and purchase this esteemed publication
http://bucketfullofbrains.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-magazine-free-cd-oh-yeah.html

My own contribution is an interview with our beloved Norwegian Psychpop Heroes Dog Age on the occassion of their latest wonderful platter On The Garish Isles. Twenty years on and they remain as damn fine a band as you could ever hope to treat your music loving mind to.....
.

.

Dog Age recreate the US Bikini laws of 1922

Coming Soon....

2011-09-02T15:48:00.001-07:00

Chop Love Carry Fire

2011-08-04T10:38:00.001-07:00

.
The release of the superb self titled Chop Love Carry Fire six track e.p. marks the long overdue return of the always brilliant Jeremy Toback to centre stage nearly a decade on from his last album, Another True Fiction. You can read all about those fertile times in my post here. The new e.p. is as sensational as you could wish for, Jeremy showing right away that his talent shines as brightly as ever.
Jeremy has always been a musical force in terms of experimenting and pushing the music that extra mile, (as opposed to many of his contemporaries who seem content with just being singer songwriters and adding suitable backing) so the news that his partner in crime for the new combo is none other than drummer supreme, the mighty Butch Norton legendary co-founder of Eels is special to say the least. If ever two musicians were on the same creative page then it's Jeremy and Butch. Both looking to having musical adventures and coming up with something unique and special. Which they certainly have. Joining them on this first outing is guitarist and good friend Joel Graves but now that Joel has to concentrate on his own band Everest once more multi-intrumentalist Billy Mohler (Jimmy Chamberlin Experience, Macy Gray) has joined Jeremy and Butch for the next phase of their ongoing musical adventures. Time is ripe to have a quick word with these two fine gentlemen and get the latest lowdown.
.

.
So what decided you that it was time to return to making music after all these years?
.
Jeremy: "I gave giving up music the post grad try, but little by little it snuck back into my life. Renee & Jeremy, my family music duo, was the first step back, and then a couple years ago I tried an electro rock thing (ONS) that felt safe cause it was more donning a mask than risking my own artistic identity. Then, a little over a year ago, I played some solo songs at a barely announced show in NYC, and felt such a powerful connection & reawakening that I knew I had to pick up the thread of THIS music again, and throw down!"
.

.
So how did you and the mighty Butch get together?
Jeremy: "Butch and I became friends at Lollapalooza in '97 when I was playing 2nd stage and Eels were headlining. Then a few years ago we reconnected as the rhythm section for this amazing LA poet, Rich Ferguson (the record's called "Where I Come From," and it's super dope & worth tracking down http://www.richrant.com/), and there was something very simple and right about playing together. We stayed in touch, and when it became clear that this new music/band wanted a drummer, Butch was the only guy I spoke to."

Butch: "Jeremy's account of how we met and our subsequent combining of forces is correct. I was asked to come in and check out what he and Joel Graves were concocting. It was an immediate connection, for me, of sound, music, and good vibes. We did some gigs and then recorded this EP. It has all happened VERY fast. The ideas just flow and everything that we jam on turns out to be "gold". We have so much material that it's hard to keep all the ideas in order. I feel like I did when I was a teenager, I can just be me and let it "all hang out", I can't wait for people to see us perform live because this is the most infectious stuff I've ever done. The Jeremy and Butch combination seems very natural. There's no bullshit here and what were exploring is growing every time we convene. It's not contrived, it's purely us.
Our newest spark of light, Billy Mohler (guitar scientist), is astonishing and we're just starting to scratch the surface with his contributions. it's very exciting.
The operative word here is definitely "FUN"."
.

.
Obviously Eels are one of the greats here at Art Into Dust and the day it was announced that Butch had departed them was a grey day indeed but what had the man been up to between then and now?
Butch: "Those were some amazing years playing a part in e's massive world of wonder. I left after the Shootenanny record and went on tour with Tracy Chapman for her "Let It Rain" album. I also worked with Rufus Wainwright, Tracy Bonham, among many others and four years ago was asked to join forces with alt/country/blues/rock icon Lucinda Wiliiams. We just recorded her latest album, "Blessed" at Capitol Records with Don Was producing and I'm currently out on tour with her promoting her new album. We will be coming over your way early next year. I've recently, and finally, put up my own website http://www.butchnorton.com/so a lot more info and history on what I've been doing is there for your viewing and listening pleasure."
.

.
Jeremy, lyrically you seem to be a man will a passionate mission but what is this mission?
.
Jeremy: "The mission is to hit it with words that sound good in the music, and then layer a message/vibration that moves emotionally, & even offers the possibility of transcendance. Politics, mysticism, and the interpersonal blur into each other intentionally to create the overall sense that macro is micro and visa versa, that authentic power is within as well as without us. The aim is to take the rock shamanism of Hendrix or Morrison, plug into that freedom, that surrender of the ego to the collective, and do it without drugs. Future plans are to take CLCF on the road! This music is meant to be experienced live. We'll be playing in the western states through the end of this year, and begin working on the next recordings as well. And then we'll start touring nationally and internationally in 2K12; UK here we come!"

http://www.choplovecarryfire.com/

Chop Love Carry Fire - "Want Nothing"

2011-08-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Art of Janine Cooper Ayres

2011-07-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

.
Recently while doing research for another article I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Janine Cooper Ayres’ site http://www.j9art.com/ and I was immediately captivated by her wonderful artwork on display there. The vibrant warmth and playful humanity of her work reached out of the screen and held my interest effortlessly. Her elegant and natural talent is driven by an adventurous creative spirit and beautifully organic abilities and the results are delightful, often surprising and always a pleasure for both the eyes and the heart. Though she has developed an unmistakable and thoroughly charming style of her own Janine will also at times branch out, consider possibilities and alternative artist strategies to challenge herself to create something that amply explores what can be achieved when you put your enquiring mind to it. First and foremost her art, like much of the music I rave about on here, is creativity for creativity’s sake and as such perfect for inclusion here on Art Into Dust.

.
Oh I did I mention that Janine was also a touring bass player and occasional keyboard player in Let’s Active back in 1986, specifically before and during the second national tour supporting R.E.M. and later on a member of the excellent Downy Mildew? So that also makes her a perfect candidate for my "musicians who also paint series" that have appeared here on occasion. Janine’s also really smashing to talk with; keen minded, down to earth, modest, thoughtful and passionate about life and art. To know her is to bring a smile to your face. So let’s get going and find out what makes her tick shall we?
.

So how did you start on your creative adventure?
Janine: "I began drawing and painting when I was pretty young - about seven or eight years old. I was given a 'paint by numbers' kit of a cat and I was hooked from that point on. I have three older sisters, all of which are creative in different ways. Seeing them express themselves made me want to do the same. My parents had insisted that we all take piano lessons, which I, of course, thought was a bore at the time. I wish I could go back and really take in those lessons again. By the time I graduated from high school in northern California I knew that I just wanted to be an artist and a musician."

Hollywood Sighting
But you did not choose to follow the art college route. Why was that?

Janine: "I was concerned about losing my own creative voice and didn't want to get too caught up in learning how to draw and paint like someone else, or too realistically. I didn't go to art school for that very reason. I was afraid I'd lose touch with my individual style. I was also concerned about the possibility that my instructors might stamp out my fire and inspiration with their constant critiquing. I've heard stories of art schools and how judgmental they can be. So, I'm self taught or for the most part. In 1986 I moved to L.A. to pursue a career in the arts and like most other creative individuals who lived in the City Of Angels I found work in the film industry. At about the same time I had my first solo art exhibit. It was at the Leammle movie theatre in Santa Monica. They had these large walls and somehow I convinced the manager to allow me to hang my artwork on one of them in the lobby. The exhibit was up for about six months and I sold about fifteen paintings all together. It was quite a thrill to see an empty space between paintings on the wall when I came in to check every week or so. That meant that I'd sold a painting. "

Domesticated Sphynx

Ann

Happy Ram

"I started my professional art career working at Roger Cormans' movie studio near Venice Beach. I worked for free for two days and then was hired as a 'scenic artist' at $75.00 a day. Corman was King of the "B" movies and he'd make one every three or four months as opposed to one every year or so like most production companies. It was near home and I'd ride my bike to work. When things slowed down I heard about another movie that was 'crewing up' and worked on that one for a while (I think it was Charlton Heston's last movie). I went on to work on the Oliver Stone movie "The Doors". I was hired to recreate Jim Morrison's sketches, so I'd go on to the roof of the apartment where he used to live on Venice Beach and try to summon his spirit! After that project I had found the confidence to go the production office of my favourite show at the time, The Wonder Years. I introduced myself to the Art Director and before long I was the on-call scenic artist/set decorator and this lasted for three years."

And you kept up working on your own stuff during all this?

Janine: "I continued to create my own art on the side, not only because I enjoyed it, but because I needed the money to pay my rent. When things got tight I somehow always found somebody willing to buy a painting. I was mainly painting abstracts and space art at that time. Over the past thirty years I've sold an estimated 200 paintings. I don't have an agent and I usually sell my art for very reasonable prices. I believe that art should be available for everyone, not just the wealthy. More recently I've joined a few Art Guilds. It's a great way to find venues to exhibit and also a place to meet other creative people. It's always fun to dust off my art and take it out into public. There are usually a wide range of reactions. Some people love it and others are disturbed by it! A few nights ago while eating dinner my husband wanted to watch the movie, Frida (about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo). I'd seen it before but wanted to see it again too. But, then I remembered how much pain she lived with for much of her life. I don't know if you know what happened to her, a trolley car accident, a metal pole going right through her pelvic area and out the back of her. And I was reminded how art transports us and enables us to go to another place while painting. The act of creating is a natural painkiller. It's definitely been that for me. But more emotional pain than physical.

Bird In Hand

Jumping Horse

So what is your medium of choice when it comes to your wonderful paintings?

Janine: "My favourite mediums are acrylic on canvas and oils too, although I tend to make a mess whenever I paint with oils. I've also begun painting 'pet portraits' recently which is a lot of fun since I love animals and enjoy working with others to co-create a painting that I would've otherwise not have painted on my own."

"The portrait of Otis was sent to a couple back east as a wedding gift."

"Noche (means 'night' in Spanish) was commissioned by a couple in Venice (beach) who rescued a black cat from a shelter who loved to prowl around at night, so I called it Noche @ Noche."

Maddie
"I love animals. I love how they become friends and family and get into your heart and you love them just as if they were human. Powerful connections. I've had dreams where I've been visited by departed pets which makes me believe that they have souls too... Anyway, don't mean to get too metaphysical here.I've also recently begun working on the computer, manipulating my characters in a collage sort of way. (This new endeavour is heavily inspired by an amazing fellow artist named Mick Dillingham.)" Janine has put together a youtube video (with music composed by her) of this new endeavour, E.T, Chic that you can check out in the post dierectly below this one.

.
Janine: "I thought I'd pass on these two photos, images of ways that I was able to actually make money using my artistic abilities. This first photo is of "Animal Planet" a live animal show at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. I worked alongside about fifteen other scenic artists and carpenters and welders too. It was a hefty project. We did most of the painting in a set shop in Glendale, then everything was moved to the stage. That's where a smaller group of us worked nights for about a month doing touch ups to the areas that were affected by the bolts and nails that were used to put the facades up. It was quite a challenge, as were so many of the jobs I had during the ten years I worked as a professional scenic artist in the film industry. I also worked for Disney and on numerous TV shows and movies. In the end, I was really burnt out by it! It's a long day - sometimes 12 or 14 hours on your feet, going up and down ladders, working on scaffolding or up high on genie lifts. At its best, it's invigorating; at its worst, it's miserable! Finally, one day I threw out all of my paint clothes (almost all my clothes were paint clothes!) and I vowed never to go back to doing it. It was almost like an abusive relationship or something! Now, I work a normal day job (although I'm hoping to get back into something more creative) and I still rent and sell my artwork to the studios from time to time. In fact, with the fall television season quickly approaching I need to get the word out that I have paintings that are a little bit "different" available to buy or lease."

"This second image is from the TV show "According to Jim" with Jim Belushi. The art director rented ten of my paintings and bought several art magnets and t-shirts from me. I made nearly a $1,000, which was a real kick!! So, it can be done. There is money to be made in art. These days it's getting more competitive with more talented and savvy artists out there. If you're not comfortable with the marketing aspect of promoting your art, then chances are the opportunities out there will go to the artist who is. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but in a way, it's do or die. Die an unknown, impoverished artist or learn the art of marketing and get by - or perhaps even get rich."

ojai

Emma Leah

copycat

blue trees

abcat

j9wine

I see you’ve also kept your musical side going with a series of albums of educational music for children.
Janine: "About five years ago I asked myself the simple question of 'How many Presidents' names could I remember?' I'm embarrassed to say that I couldn't get past three of them! So, I printed out the list, picked up my guitar and wrote a song that would help me to remember them. After I wrote that song I decided to do a whole CD of songs about the Presidents and then a second CD came through about American History and a third and fourth! It's been an interesting experience not to mention I feel as though I may be helping a few students out there learn a little easier. I'm not getting rich with it, but it's been great fun."
http://www.j9art.com/

A big thank you to Janine for letting me share a few of her many wonderful paintings here

Band Of E.T.s
Now be so kind as to scroll down and have a look at her new video below. If not for me then for the little green men.

E.T. Chic_0002.wmv

2011-07-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Segel All Attractions on Kickstarter

2011-07-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

.
CVB's Jonathan Segel thought that Honey would be the last rock album he would do, which seemed a damn shame because alongside the untouchable Storytelling, Honey was the very best of his long and distinguished career so far. But now after the runaway success of his Kickstarter Storytelling Deluxe project a few months ago he has announced that he will indeed be doing another song based album All Attractions in the same way, and from the samples already posted it's going to be another mighty affair. He's nearly there pledge wise so go check out whats happening and maybe get behind the final push behind the great man's latest musical endeavour.
.

.
JES; "After "Honey", my last record, I really wasn't going to make another rock record. But ultimately I couldn't help myself, and wrote some songs that I think are gonna be great - once we get them all recorded and mixed and whatnot. So the whole thing is actually nearly all recorded now. Now comes the hard part: mixing, mastering, putting it all together and getting it to the people that want to hear it. The whole process of doing this stuff, (especially that last part) is getting so weird that I thought this would be the best way.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jsegel/jonathan-segel-all-attractions

Philip Price, The Maggies, Winterpills -Bandcamp Bonanza

2011-06-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

.
All sorts of magic happening over at Bandcamp at this very moment with Philip Price..not only can you download the complete back catalogue of his albums (and every single one it a must have) for various small prices or free but theres also the ongoing remastering project of all the various unreleased and rare music he has done over the years. Starting up with two Unreleased albums by The Maggies. Oh yes indeed. So head over here and have a good old gander for yourselves my gentle ones.
http://bandcamp.com/tag/winterpills?artist=3757319254

Philip Price is obviously one of the finest song writers ever to grace the planet....from the fabulous Maggies, through some drop dead beautiful solo albums and on into his most high profile combo Winterpills he has never once failed to delight and amaze with the sheer quaility of his work. You can read a superb and detailed interview I conducted with the excellent man himself with him right about here.
.

.
As these older albums are remixed and mastered, track by track, the songs will go up here. This eventually will be a 9-song album.
This was the last collection of recordings the 3-piece version of the band did before Adrian O'Carolan joined the band later in 1997. Recorded partly in Keene, NH in the house Philip shared with friend and photographer Michael Moore in 1995 (who documented much of the band during this time period and after), finished down in Philip's new hometown of Northampton, MA in 1996, it was originally to be titled "Sex Diary", after a song that never made it onto the album. (That song will be included here as a bonus track when the full album is remixed and uploaded).

Like the other Maggies projects of this time, a little less than half these songs made it onto the 'real' releases; some never did, and therein lies they're charm. They never received the full studio treatment, and never will.
.

Eventually, this will be an 11-song album.
This is the second project by the original lineup of The Maggies, and sought to significantly sonically expand upon the "Tulip" EP of previously in the year. Adding to their increasing ambition and activity in New Hampshire and New England, the band also faced a name change issue: they had received a legal threat on the band's original name of 'Tulip' and were forced to make a change. Briefly, the band was Iris, until yet ANOTHER legal challenge came down; eventually they settled on The Maggies, simply because they liked the way it sounded (although later they realized people would assume they were some kind of traditional Irish band...)

The album was recorded at Philip's house using a jerry-rigged and rickety 6-track method; this led to significant generational loss in their attempt to load up the tracks with sounds. All that has been corrected in the new remixes.

Game Theory Promotional Lyric Book scans

2011-06-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

Front cover
.
Being the true music lover that I surely am, it will come as no suprise to you that I fell under the spell of Scott Miller's unmistakable and unique variation of that thing called genius many, many moons ago. Led to the band by the Mitch Easter production credits on the back of their albums , it wasn't long till I was utterly smitten by them very nearly as much as I was by Let's Active. Heres my scans of the legendary and rare Game Theory promotional lyric booklet made at the time. Click and double click and all that fandango to see the pages full size my dears.
.

.

.

.

.

. Hey there's Mitch!

.

.

All the photos are by Robert Toren. To see more go to his rather fab site here:
http://www.davis80smusic.com/index.htm

Wayne Moss with Michael Nesmith

2011-06-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

.

.
Two amazing pictures of two musical giants, Wayne Moss and Michael Nesmith, together during Nesmith's legendary Nashville sessions with Felton Jarvis at the RCA studios in the late sixties at which the idea of Area Code was first born. Nine tracks were recorded: Propinquity (I‘ve Just Begun To Care), Don’t Wait For Me, Hollywood, The Crippled Lion, Some Of Shelly’s Blues, How Insensitive, Good Clean Fun, Listen To The Band and St. Matthew. Though only a few were to make it onto Monkees albums at the time the rest have since appeared as bonus tracks on the Rhino re-issues and Missing Links cds and are amongst the finest music you are ever likely to hear.
Photos from the collection of Tony Frost.

Jake Thackray supporting the M.C.5

2011-04-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

Midsummer Madness indeed....now that's a concert I'd have been up for!! I presume Jake just blew them off the stage.

Art Into Dust Merchandise

2011-04-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

I have unreluctantly and with little thought to the consequences decided in my finite wisdom to start offering a range of exclusive Art Into Dust merchandise for sale to my multitude of readers who wish to support all the triffically hard work, due dilligence, sideways glances and at times irrational puncuation that myself and my often unreliable team of 37 glove puppets bring on an almost weekly basis to this blog. Also I am trying to finance a long cherished project that if it comes to fruition will add a extra dimension to the Art Into Dust experience above and beyond our third wildest dreams. I mean to build a time machine and use it to travel back in time armed only with an handy dandy old i pod a goodly friend has gifted me of late in the hope of getting not so famous historical characters to listen to and give their considered opinions on some of our favourite albums of the last forty years or so. Ever imagined what Martin Van Buren the eighth president of the United States would think of Daryll Ann's Happy Traum or László József Bíró inventor of the biro considers to be the best track on Game Theory's sprawling masterwork Lolita Nation? Well if all goes according to plan then these and many other pressing questions will soon be answered in this very place you are at this very moment softly caressing with your eyes. The bad news is having drawn up inextensive plans for a time machine I have worked out that the whole thing is going to cost in the region of £35. 7 shillings and sixpence, quite a lot I am sure you will agree but with you my unflattering reader's generous help a target I am all but certain can be reached before Mickelmas Eve next year at the earliest. A cherished dream worth reaching to the very heavens themselves then. And on top of that you lot get some, if I say so myself some rather collectable, groovy to the max and faintly useful rememberbelia to clutter up your already under cluttered lives.

If buying stuff just aint your bag of spanners than alternatively you can also pledge money so I can purchase a tin of furniture polish at some point. Details of my Pledge pledge have been embroidered on a hankchief and hidden somewhere in Warwickshire if you wish more details.

The Art Into Dust Red Elastic Band (not the same as the red lazzy bands postmen drop in the street on a daily basis..honest) Can be used to keep three or four cd's together in one place (though for added security we recommend a second Art Into Dust Red Elastic Band also be deployed cross ways)

Price only 15p plus £1.o1p p&p

The Art Into Dust Paper Clip. Printed up so many lists of all the great albums you must buy now you have read about them here that you worry that when you take them outdoors to run to you nearest record emporium that the wind might catch the various sheets of A4 and make them slightly awkward to carry to a moment or two? Well worry not more with Art Into Dust Paper Clip keeping them neatly together no matter what the slight gustage that hardly noticable moment or two will be banished from your life forever. And it matches the Art Into Dust Elastic Band for you above and beyond accessorisers out there. Price only 15p plus £1.05 p&p. (or £5.80 if you which it sent priority mail)

Sick and tired of watching vaguely entertaining crap on telly when you should be listening to every utterance Michael Penn has ever released. Well with the Art Into Dust Slightly Broken Television Set that just isn't going to be a problem no more I promise you. Yes take the choice out of you weakwilled hands forever, send your flat screen multi channeled time waster away and replace it with the only TV set you'll ever really need. Oh yes as my nan would say, "this will see you out." Get it today for the never to be repeated price of a glancing blow from a swan's beak plus £10.02 p&p. I repeat the never to be repeated price of......

The Art Into Dust Tea Bag Interactive Experience. Not an actual tea bag for sale, that would be preposterous like selling lipstick to a duck (do not go anywhere near the "put it on my bill" punchline here) but instead for only 75p plus a stamped addressed envelope of your choice, the very next time I have a cup of tea I will with little thought or care write down on a non discript scrap of paper my thoughts on said cup of tea in nine words or less, place it in your envelope and then forget to post it for a weeks and then when you enquire as to where it is, at first say "I'm sure I sent it last week it must have got lost in the post or something" and then sheepishly come across it a few days later and pop it in the post the next day or the day after. An experience not to be missed I am sure you'll agree.

The Art Into Dust Telepathic Traffic Cone (again not just one I have found near a big hole down the road..honest) is not just a traffic cone (that would be so boring) but a traffic cone that knows everything you are thinking. Unfortunately being a traffic cone it has no way of communicating so you will have to take that on faith alone and my solemn word that it really does know what you are thinking.

Price £3.62 plus an atlas dreamt up by a mongoose named Dave or Colin or at a pinch Betty p&p.

Worried that if you get shrunk down to a sub atomic level in some freakish science experiment that you would then be too microscopic to read your seventeenth favourite blog anymore? Thought so but now with Art Into Dust Quark Interface Thingy you will be able to catch up on all the latest strangeness and charm that Art Into Dust has to offer in a formatted size even the most powerful electron microscopes in the world would have trouble reading. Price 1p plus 1p p&p.

Exclusive offer for our United States Of American readers only. I actually own London Bridge, I know it is hard to believe but I really really do honest guvner, it was left to me in the will of the pearly queen of london for my services to cockney sparrows and apples and pears gorloverducks. I am willing to sell this legendary london landmark for only £35, oooo (buyer collects) .

The Art Into Dust Hadron Collider is a fully working twice the size replica of the Hadron Collider that can only enhance your understanding of the true origins of all the bands and artists written about here. If you are truly serious in understanding where it all began then The Art Into Hadron Collider is a vital tool in this quest for musical enlightenment. First there was the big bang and then billions of years later Hatfield and The North put out two very fine albums on Virgin Records before splitting up. I can say with the mearest hint of hesitation or doubt I would not have realised the enormity of their back history if I had not had a fully working twice the size replica of the Hadron Collider conviently to hand. Be quick though I only have five left. Price, £7.35 plus thirty four billion pound p&p.

I thank you in advance for the oncoming deluge.

The Wim Oudijkhestra

2011-04-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

We always wondered how Dutch Master Wim Oudijk was able to do all that brilliant orchestral stuff seemingly single handed. Now this exclusive peak inside Wim's World reveals his secret.

Special thanks to Wim for all the genius help he's been with brother Todd.

Buddha Kitten in the Hall of Legends

2011-03-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

Dropkick -free music

2011-03-25T07:10:00.001-07:00

.
Dropkick are a rather excellent Scottish band that produce winning and melodically memorable power pop with an alt country flavour, so a bit Teenage Fanclub mixed with the Jayhawks. They were formed at school in a small town in Angus in 1995 by brothers Andrew and Alastair Taylor. Dropkick has released seven albums and one EP on their own label called Taylored Records since their debut self-titled album in 2001. In 2008 and 2009, a further two albums were released on Swedish label Sound Asleep Records. I heartily recommend you check them out at your earliest convenience, especially now that they have made a whole lot of unreleased music available over at their website.
http://www.dropkickmusic.co.uk/music.htm
.
Firstly there is an unreleased album from last year which is well worth grabbing.
Unreleased album 2010
1. Annabelle 2. Turn Around 3. St Leonards 4. Nowhere Land 5. Won't You Talk To Me 6. Waste Of My Time 7. Why Don't You 8. In Their Shoes 9. Can't Clear My Head 10. Gone

.
Secondly there is a stunning alternative version of their last critically acclaimed album Abelay Hotel (early versions recorded at Red Eye Studio 2008) 1. Don't Dream Of California 2. Won't You Talk To Me 3. In Tune 4. Rain Down 5. I Won't Rise 6. Watch 7. Picking It Apart 8. Too Much To Say 9. Time To Let It Go
.
And on top of this already embarrassment of goodies there are another forty unreleased and live tracks. The downloading is fast, I think you could grab the lot in under ten minutes and then once you have acquainted yourself with how good this band really are you can become a fan in time for their upcoming latest effort.
.

http://www.dropkickmusic.co.uk/

Monks of Doom head off on tour

2011-03-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

Bucketfull Of Brains 77

2011-03-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of Bucketfull is upon us with Dwight Twilley on the cover , Roseanne Cash, Paul Collins and Chris Wilson lurking about inside, plus loads of other good stuff besides. As ever you can grab it over at the links to your right.

This time round I have contributed two interviews with a pair of gentlemen who have both produced albums of such excellence that they are guaranteed to be in my top ten of 2011.

..
First up is Jelle Palusma who I haven't spoken to since the break up of the legendary Daryll Ann, but now with the release of his third album the sensational Up On The Roof I thought it time to play catch up with the great man and find out just what he has been up to between then and now.
,

.
http://www.jpaulusma.com/
.

Next up I sat down with Bob Wilson the fine fellow and impressive creative mind behind A Band Called Mithras who's debut album clean knocked my socks off from the very first listen. Bob is a major talent methinks and worthy of your immeadiate attention.

.
http://www.abandcalledmithras.com/fr_home.cfm

Barefoot Jerry Pickin' at the Dilly Banner Story

2011-03-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of years or so Wayne Moss has been performing most Sunday evenings at the Piccadilly Cafe in Madison, just down the road from his Cinderella Sound Studios. Each week he invites various guest musicians to play along and in the past he's had various Barefoot Jerry/Area Code friends such as Weldon Myrick and Charlie McCoy drop in. But then a couple of weeks ago this message turned up on his facebook page.
"This Sunday, Buzz Cason will be the special guest at Pickin' @ the Dilly, in the back room of the Madison Piccadilly. Mac Gayden is coming to pick with Buzz and Wayne. Come out and join us from 5-7PM. Hope to see you there!"
.

On stage Wayne, Buzz and Mac
So just like that the historical reunion of the two remaining original members of the legendary Barefoot Jerry on stage for the first time in who knows how many years. I wish I had been there. And let's not forget Buzz Cason who's own involvement in Wayne's long and illustrious career is documented in my early post here:
http://artintodust.blogspot.com/2010/06/barefoot-jerry-history-and-critical.html
.

Wayne and Mac

Buzz Wayne and Mac
Well being in London rather than Nashville I could not be there that evening but seeing the pictures from that legendary evening that Wayne posted on his facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/#!/waynemossguitar came with a most thrilling and unexpected surprise for myself. There on the wall behind them was a banner and smack dead centre of it was a piece of artwork that I recognised. A few years back I sent for the Barefoot Jerry Live At The Exit Inn CD from Wayne, (if you have not yet purchased this wonderful album yet then I suggest you do so right away). I sent him a thanks email at the time and just for the fun of it I put together my version of a front cover for it, a collarge taken from various Jerry album covers, because i thought the actual cover used was a bit boring and generic to be honest. Like i said i did it for a bit of fun. Well now all these years later and there it is in all it's glory on the banner behind Wayne and Mac. I felt suitably chuffed to bits. Wayne probably didn't recall just who he got the art from so i dropped a comment on his page saying how honoured and surprised I was. Wayne kindly replied.
.

Wayne and Connie Moss
Mick,
we will go over this afternoon and get a good shot of the banner and send it to you. We had a good time when Mac came to the Dilly a couple of weeks back. He came along with Buzz Cason. Buzz is the one who hired me to work with The Casuals all those many years ago.
Pickin'@theDilly is a gig I've had for going on 3 years now. It's in the back room (banquet room) of the Piccadilly Cafeteria, in Madison Square Shopping Center, here in Madison. We play for 2 hours every Sunday evening from 5-7PM. We have a drummer, guitar player and me every week. Each Sunday, we have a different guest or guests, playing a variety of music. We always start with some gospel tunes. Then we move on to a combination of Barefoot Jerry and Area Code 615 songs, special guest's songs, original songs and whatever we feel like playing. With the nuclear plants in Japan in trouble, we will no doubt play Hiroshima Hole this Sunday. The guests range from members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, to lesser known, talented professional musicians. It's always a lot of fun and is always different each week. The banner stays up 24/7. We have had lots of comments and compliments on your art work. The banner is 9 feet long and 3 feet tall.
Best,
Wayne
.

Photo by Connie Upshaw Moss
And here it is. Oh yes indeed.

Jonathan Segel Storytelling Remastered Kickstarter Project

2011-03-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

.
In a real and proper world Jonathan Segel's first solo album, 1988's Storytelling would be hailed as the masterpiece it so obviously is rather than the cult treasure held to the heart of those few music lovers savy enough to know of its exsistence. In a world were musical merit was all he would be performing this staggering slab of creativity in its entirety at the Royal Festival Hall as part of someone's Meltdown Festival. Long out of print the thrilling news just in is that Jes has dug out the master tapes and has remastered them, brought together all the tracks from the vinyl, CD and cassette releases and is preparing a limited edition double CD for the very reasonable price of $25 via Kickerstarter
.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1629274839/storytelling-remastered
.

.
Over to the man himself for more details:
"This is a project I have wanted to do for ages, people have asked about Storytelling for years. Recently I was wading through boxes in the garage and came across some of the bits of the original art, like the films for the CD covers, and started the idea of making a new cover. I got a new photo of the original painting (my brother has it) and re-scanned the original photos used for the jacket - including the alternate to the b&w photos that had the text over them. I used both on the inside of the new CD wallet.Very happy to have Myles Boisen master the project, it sounds amazing. The original mastering was done by George Horn at Fantasy (first time I was ever at Fantasy!) and he was very into the 3-5khz sound, I was wondering about that hi-hat prominence! We now have way more bass! (sorta wish I'd mixed the guitars higher originally, but the mixes are incredible as they are - David Gibson, who was the lead engineer wrote a book on spatial mixing sometime after this album...)

.
Initially released at the end of 1988 on Pitch-A-Tent (the band's label) through Rough Trade, Jonathan and Camper Van Beethoven separated in early 1989 (for about a decade) and then Rough Trade went bankrupt in 1990. The album came out on vinyl, cassette and CD, though none contained the entire thing. Out of print ever since, we went back to the original mixes before their original late 80s spiky mastering and had the great Myles Boisen remaster the entire kit and kaboodle. This will be a limited release of 100 double-CDs (ok, I'll sign and number them) containing all the songs from all versions, plus."
..

A bit of history from JES. "After David took over CVB I had no outlet in the band so I was doing this side project, that became Storytelling, me and Chris and Victor rehearsed a whole bunch of it in '88 and in April I recorded a couple of sessions at a studio in Santa Cruz. And then we worked on Camper's stuff and toured and toured and toured. We came back in the August and I finished doing all the overdubs in about a week and a half. David Immergluck, Chris, Victor and Greg all played on the record. Andrew Norton helped me a lot, acting as producer when I was recording and it was finished before the fall when we did more touring for Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. We spent the whole of October and into November touring and then started recording demos for Key Lime Pie. Storytelling had just come out then, at the very end of 1988. Then i was asked to leave CVB.

Meanwhile we were supposed to do some touring behind Storytelling and the Monks of Doom record that had just come out The Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company. Jackson had set up a week of shows on the East Coast in April. I moved out of Santa Cruz immediately after being kicked out the band, up to San Francisco because I had no reason to be there any longer. I came back down occasionally to rehearse with the Monks for these shows on the East Coast. We were supposed to do shows on the West Coast after that but that never happened because they got too much into Campers stuff.

.

.

Superb aural evidence of this tour can be found over at the internet archive. Go there and download this gem now.
Jonathan Segel with the Monks of Doom Live at 23 East Cabaret on 1989-04-11 (April 11, 1989)
Jonathan Segel -gtr, 12 string gtr, mandoli, vocals David Immergluck - gtr, vocals Graham Connah - Keyboards Victor Krummenacher -bass Chris Pedersen-drums
01. Thinksong-->Turnaround

02. Find

03. Fluid Intuition

04. Your Own Story

05. Grain of Sand

06. Now I Know

07. Daring Time-->Travel On-->Thinksong-->I Was Thinking of You

http://www.archive.org/details/jsegel1989-04-11.flac

.

Original cd back cover

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1629274839/storytelling-remastered

Dog Age On The Garish Isles

2011-02-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

.
The brand new album by the fabulous Dog Age is out now and like everything they do it is a brilliant pocketful of psychpop daisies that you really have to have. (Oh and I did the front cover art.)
UPDATE: Hope you all enjoy it! Contact ketil@vme.no for information about how to order it. Cheers! Jørn, Dog Age
.

A Band Called Mithras

2011-01-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

a sensational new band to knock your socks off..see below

2011-01-09T14:56:00.001-08:00

Todd Dillingham Songcycle 2011

2010-12-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

.
Todd's new album is nearly upon us and it promises to be one of his best. Limited to just 300 copies its bound to be an instant collector's item. Go to the link below for details on how to order.
http://songcycle2011.webs.com/apps/blog/
.

.
Also Pete McPartland's own combo the excellent The Big I Am have their album ready to go.
.

http://thebigiam.webplus.net/page6.html

Bucketfull of Brains 76

2010-11-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

.
The latest Bucketfull is out now...Chuck Prophet, Howard Gleb, Terry Edwards and loads more beezer fun besides...and my contribution The Posies, interviewed pre gig down at the Garage in Highbury a few weeks back. We talked about their excellent new album Blood Candy and about their long career and all manner of stuff. Check out the links over there >>>>>> to grab hold of your copy as soon as is humanly possible.
.

.
The Posies are back stateside now touring with Brendan Benson, both on the same bill and as his backing band. Nice. For more details of this excellent pairing check out this very fine Brendan Benson fan blog right here http://brendanbenson.wordpress.com/

UPDATE

It appears you can now purchase recordings of the whole Benson tour for $50 here!!
http://brendanbensonlive.com/

camper van beethoven

2010-09-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Barefoot Jerry rare things

2010-09-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the Mexican version of the first album...my oh my
.

.

Barefoot Jerry on 78. this rare promo item is made up to look like a 78 and it plays at that speed. It was produced for sending out to radio stations as a thanks for supporting Boogie Woogie and was made in this form to remind people that the tune is from the 40's. the flip side is blank but has been etched signed by Charlie McCoy and seven members of Jerry.

Broken Promise Keeper

2010-08-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

.
Back in mid 1980s Rob Stuart, a student at the University of North Carolina, inspired by the burgeoning music scene exploding out of Athens and led by REM, traded in a boom box at a local pawn shop and bought his first guitar which he diligently set about learning to play. He was working at the Subway sandwich shop in Chapel Hill when a fellow co-worker mention that his band One Plus Two needed a new bass player to replace Eric Peterson (who was later in the final line up of the DB’s).
.

So Rob pawned his guitar in, got himself a bass and joined the band. Holden Richards was the songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of One Plus Two and they were signed to Homestead Records and in 86 put out their only album Once In A Blue Moon.

.

.

It’s a pretty good album of jangley guitar pop in the Let’s Active style though obviously not in the same league, vocally a tad tentative and the production is a bit weak. So a good rather than great album but one on which Rob contributed his first published song "Can’t Go Back". One Plus Two played a lot of support slots for bands like The Replacements, The DB’s. The Hoodoo Gurus, Beat Rodeo, Let’s Active. 10,000 Maniacs, Rain Parade, Swimming Pool Q’s and the Three O’Clock when Jason Falkner was in that band. They played a headline shoe with Guadalcanal Diary in support. It was an heady and exciting time that came to an end in 86 when the band broke up. Richards went on to form the excellent Swarmis while Rob, after graduating college moved to Decatur near Atlanta with his future wife, got married, started a family and got a proper (and rather successful) job. Still bitten by the music bug he tried to hook up with various bands to continue music as a hobby but came up blank in finding anyone like minded enough to work with. Inspired by the golden age of Power Pop that sprang up in the 90’s he continued writing songs and eventually bought himself some home recording equipment to indulge his creative urges when he had time.
.

.
In 2007 while driving home from work one night listening to NPR he was intrigued by the announcement of the second annual RPM challenge. The idea was to record a whole album in just one month, there was no prizes to be had, this was not a competition but just a way of inspiring artists and bands to focus themselves and get something done. Rob rose to the challenge and that February he sat up every night, often to well past midnight recording his new songs in the power pop style he was such a big fan of. Songs Of Hypocrisy And Hippos was the result and it was released on I Tunes and self released CDR under the excellent name of Broken Promise Keeper.
.

.

The Avocado Age Of Radio followed a year later but it was with Ice Cold Pop released in 2009 where everything fell into place. While the previous albums had lots of great songs and playing, the production was not polished enough to really do them full justice. On Ice Cold Pop he nailed the production and as a result the Power Pop internet scene went crazy in its appreciation of this classic release. The album lodged itself firmly in all the top ten lists and suddenly Broken Promise Keeper were a name to be reckoned with.

.
Now I love a bit of Power Pop myself, every since the days of Jellyfish and Beagle kick started the genre back into life in the early nineties, but I’ll admit that only the cream of the multitude of pop bands that have sprung up since then will hold my interest for long. Power Pop is such a seductive musical form that a lot of bands can sound better than they actually are, the guitars and harmonies and all those tricks can mask a fundamental weakness of material at first. I discard such albums quickly enough, being power pop is not enough on its own to justify a place in my collection. My first hearing of Ice Cold Pop was all it took to convince me that this time the lavish praise heaped upon this fine album had not been in anyway misplaced.

.

.
Rob Stuart obviously loves Power Pop and that is a good thing but more importantly he has the talent and the chops to take it that vital step further. Power Pop bottom line is all about the songs and his songs are as great as the very best of them, witty, smart, melodic and imbued with pretty twists of melody. Hooks are also vital and Rob has that knack in spades. Great classic honey tinged pop voice, and playing the majority of the instruments he has that ability like Jason Falkner and Roger Klug to light up like a band rather than like a Mike Oldfield. And though he is unashamedly and purposefully power pop there is enough individuality in the playing and lyrically to, after a few listens, make him sound unmistakably Broken Promise Keeper first and foremost.

.
A few weeks after I first discovered the treasure that is Ice Cold Pop for myself out of the blue I had an email from Rob who had stumbled across Art Into Dust and having had some fun times here. He wanted to know if he could send me a copy of his next record when it was finished. Well you can guess my surprise and pleasure when he went on to explain exactly who he was. So a few days ago Poptimized dropped through my letterbox and here we are. Broken Promise Keeper’s forth album is effortlessly as great as you would hope and expect. This is classy and beautifully rendered power pop stuff, a bit Greenbury Woods or The Semantics here, a touch Vandalias there. A whisper of Jason Falkner on some of the sublime middle eights and sophisticate word playfulness reminiscent of Roger Klug but mostly an individualistic take on the classic power pop template. On thing that stands out is the superb bass playing through out, melodic, inventive and clever in many ways it is often the musical heart of the band and it gives a unique flavour to proceedings. Rob handles all the other instruments with masterful aplomb, with a bit of lead guitar help from Mark Tornstenson on four of the eleven tracks and old One Plus Two band mate Bob Cook laying down some fine keyboards on another two. As with Ice Cold Pop this album is a bit of a tour de force masterclass in the full and rich gambit of power pop glory. It is too early to say it might be even better than its predecessor but it is certainly its equal so far to my ears and the pruduction is his best yet. The song writing is consistently excellent throughout, like The Pillbugs Mark Mikel, Rob seems to have a endless invention for melody line and hooks. If you already have Ice Cold Pop then getting hold of Poptimized as soon as possible is an obviously smart move . If Broken Promise Keeper are a new name to you but you are up for top flight Power Pop of the highest order then you can do not better than start here. A quick word with the man himself seems in order.
.

.
So it must have been great times playing gigs with all those legendary bands back in the day.

Rob. "The "North Carolina/Athens" scene back in the mid 80s was a lot of fun and everyone felt like they were really part of something that was about to explode. While it never really did on a national scale, I'm amazed that today a lot of those bands are so well remembered and even influential. I just wish I had better appreciated getting to be on the same bill with folks like Alex Chilton or Paul Westerberg, but I was in my early 20s and was more interested in getting another beer."
.

Rob. "Funny but true story, one of One Plus Two's more memorable gigs was at the legendary 40 Watt in Athens where we'd landed an opening spot back in October 1984. Athens had a more established scene than the NC Triangle area of Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham, so it was like we were on a pilgrimage. Once we got there, we found out the band after us was Buzz of Delight (featuring Matthew Sweet on bass) and the headliner was Oh OK - it was the final show for a band that featured Lynda Stipe on vocals. So naturally her brother and the rest of REM were in the crowd along with all the Athens scenesters. At that time, our opening number began with our drummer, who came out alone and started a big beat, then I'd come out and add bass, and then Susan and Holden would come jump in with guitars and vocals. So the place is packed and I'm nervous as hell but go out when I'm supposed to, start to play and... nothing. No sound. As I panic, this cute girl at the front of the crowd starts laughing at me. I'm sweating, Mary Clyde the drummer's giving me the stink eye, the crowd's starting to wonder, and finally Matthew Sweet jumps onstage, reaches behind me, and - turns on the amp. It was loud in the club but I'm pretty sure I heard him mutter "dumbass" as he jumped offstage. But it worked out OK - we played a good show. And the pretty girl who laughed at me has been my wife for 22 years and counting."
.

The response to the last album must have come as a pleasant surprise, being a big powerpop fan yourself it must be surreal to now find yourself up there with the best of them?

Rob. "I'm continually surprised people seem to like my songs because I can't possibly take this too seriously - I am way too old now to have any aspirations of "making it" in the music business. But to get to be part of Art Into Dust or to have somebody take the time to review my stuff positively is "making it" in my book. I'd be recording these songs anyway, but to know a few folks out there like what I'm doing - what more can you ask for?"
.

So tell us about the new album, how it all went and what you feel about it?

Rob. "This one took me a lot longer as I really wanted to take the production up to the next level. The tunes were written over the course of about a year but each song came together pretty quickly. I spent a lot more time trying to learn from those much better than me when it comes to mixing. I've still got a long way to go but I enjoy the production side as much as the writing, so that will be a fun journey. I'm pretty happy about how "Poptimized" sounds, it's definitely punchier than my previous stuff. I didn't realize it until the album was done and somebody else pointed it out to me that there's sort of a thread about maturing relationships. It starts out all about the looks and the excitement, then goes into keeping it fresh thru the ups and downs, and ends looking back and happy to do it all over. If anybody else gets that out of the album, well, that makes me sound like a better songwriter than I am because it' wasn't planned that way."

.
Obviously you now what these mighty fine albums. Well head over to Rob's site here:
http://www.brokenpromisekeeper.com/

.
Ooh we just have time to squeeze this in before tea.

.

.

1. The Beatles, of course - anything from their mid period

2. Boston - I know, it's not powerpop, it's an overplayed AOR machine, but I completely get Tom Scholz overdubbing guitars on guitars in a home studio - and unless you're completely jaded you have to agree that "More Than a Feeling" is a great song

.

.

3. Trip Shakespeare - these guys (and girl) were just amazing and I'm glad I got to see them at their peak, as they were both fun and totally rocking - "The Crane" or "Bachelorette" are just perfect

4. Judybats - another band that was, on a good night, just incredible
.

.

5. Jellyfish - like The Beatles, an obvious choice but so influential - another band I'm glad to have seen; their Atlanta stop on the "Spilt Milk" tour was literally the best show ever in my book

6. Dada - OK, maybe they weren't technically a powerpop band but were a huge inspiration for me in that they really rocked hard, complete with guitar hero theatrics, but in a very catchy way

7. REM - again, not powerpop in the traditional sense but just so unique sounding - their high-energy shows around the Southeast in the early 80s must have inspired more bands than anybody since The Beatles - Mike Mills in particular is really somebody I look up to as a bass player and for his spot-on backing vocals
.

8. The Who - another no brainer; the way Townsend could package such a feeling of aggression about to blow is almost scary, but the songs were also catchy as hell

.

.

9. Fountains of Wayne - I am a huge sucker for a sense of humor that rocks and these guys pull it off time after time

10. Hoodoo Gurus - while their stuff can be all over the place musically, when they do a powerpop song, they do it right - in my book, it's hard to top "Bittersweet" or "Come Anytime"

the new bucketfull of brains: summer of 2010

2010-07-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

.
The new issue of Bucketfull of Brains is out now. This time round I have two really excellent interviews with a couple of very talented gentlemen, John Common and Salim Nourallah to entertain you. John talks in detail about his career so far while Salim continues his story, going into his solo career, having already talked us through his early days here on this very blog.
There lots more terrific reading as ever in the magazine and I recommend you check out all the bucketfull links over to the right.
.

.
Salim Nourallah and John Common: two artists out standing in their fields (did you see what i did there?)

Jason Falkner contributes track to R.Stevie Moore tribute

2010-07-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Download RSM Tribute Album Vol.2 "New Wave Moon’s
Jason Falkner, Todd Dillingham, Martin Newell, Yukio Yung and Eric Matthews have all contributed tracks to the latest R. Stevie Moore Tribute album available for free download here:
http://sickoftheradio.com/2010/07/rsm-tribute-album-vol2-wave-moons/

VOLUME TWO - "New Wave Moons" (79:30)RELEASE DATE: Monday July 19, 2010
1. Play Myself Some Music-Jason Falkner (3:52)
2. First-Hand/Caffeine Boy – W. Bisig (3:37)
3. Everyone but Everyone, Boy - Branson Pickle (5:21)
4. Human Race – The PityFucks (live) (3:09)
5. Traded My Heart for Your Parts - More Gendel (4:21)
6. I Wanna Hit You - Charles De Goal (2:08)
7. Showing Shadows/That Long Walk to the Barn 6AM – Dr. Tim’s Banana Paradise (5:38)
8. Another Day Slips Away - Roger Ferguson (4:10)
9. She’s Dead - Scott Michael Gilliam (3:10)
10. Norway – Yukio Yung (2:52)
11. Sperm Concern – Martin Newell (3:05)
12. The New Phonographers – The Bran Flakes (3:00)
13. Who Killed Davey Moore? – Jeffrey Lewis (0:56)
14. I Hope That You Remember- Echo Orbiter (2:43)
15. Everything - Griffin Sisters (2:24)
16. This Wednesday/New Girl - Otto Reverse (3:38)
17. Naked – Terry Folger (1:58)
18. New Wave – The New Magic Raincoats (3:43)
19. 1-2-3 Mud – Deluxin’ (2:06)
20. Benefit of the Doubt – Amy Annelle (5:08)
21. Alecia – HIFIKLUB (2:35)
22. Moons – Todd Dillingham with Debstar and Jazzy Crabb(6:05)
23. To Old To Fall In Love-Eric Matthews (3:40)

Barefoot Jerry: A history and critical review

2010-06-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

.
Between 1970 and ’77 Barefoot Jerry, a Nashville based band drawn from the finest young session player elite of Music Town USA, recorded and released six albums, the first three of which are unsung masterpieces of progressive country rock that, in my opinion, no other band or artist has come close to equalling. Great songs, beautiful vocals, unbelievable playing and epic detailed productions, all of such majesty and depth that in the many years since I first heard them in the early seventies my love of Barefoot Jerry has never wavered or lessened or grown stale. Back in their day the band suffered from preconceptions from both sides. The rock audience dismissed them as a country band while the straight country audience found them too weird and adventurous for their tastes. The country audience might have had a point; the rock audience really did not. It didn’t help that the band hardly played live in those early days, members were either too busy with session work or easily lured away to more lucrative assignments. None of this is relevant in the long run because there are a ton of highly rated bands and artists who had little in the way of commercial success when they existed but are now highly lauded in the history of rock music. Not so Barefoot Jerry. I always assumed that the band would have been rediscovered many years ago and those first three albums embraced for the masterpieces they are, with a ten page retrospective in Mojo, prestige reissues on Rhino and in vogue musicians banging on about their genius and influence and queuing up outside Wayne Moss’s Cinderella Sound studios to record their albums.
.

Cinderella Sound Studios.

But unbelievably still to this day they remain nothing more than a much cherished memory to those lucky enough to have lived in Nashville and surrounding areas at the time and witness their many concerts over those years. But to the few thousand music lovers across the globe fortunate enough to have stumbled across their albums like I had, they are the greatest band that no one had ever heard of. A band of undisputed importance and genius who deserve so much more that the silence and ignorance that has been their lot up to now. The one constant through out Barefoot Jerry’s many line up changes was Wayne Moss. He produces all the albums brilliantly, plays some amazing innovative music, I would argue that even in the midst of such high calibre world class players as graced the band during their time he stands out as the finest. He wrote many of their best songs, even on their weakest album Keys To The Country his contributions are still superb. Without him there would be no Barefoot Jerry, he is both the head and heart of the band, no so much the leader but the shepherd to the dozen or so players that passed through its ranks in those few short years.
.

.
The Session Years.
Bradley Wayne Moss was born in Charleston, West Virginia on February 9th 1938 where his love of music started at the tender age of eight when he borrowed a guitar from a family friend and found himself fascinated with learning to play it. A year later he bought his own instrument for $6 from a local pawnshop and started listening with keen ears to records by Flatt and Scruggs. He had a friend who played a banjo and together they learnt to play songs like Foggy Mountain Breakdown and other from the Flatt and Scruggs cannon. Chet Atkins was another early influence and hero to the aspiring young guitarist.
.

In 1956 he wrote his first song "Starry Eyes" which was recorded by harmony group The Hilltopers and was playing guitar with the Echo Valley Boys. He's first credited as playing guitar and engineering a 1959 collection of cowboy hoe-downs for Leon Payne At the age of 21 he relocated to Nashville where he played guitar in R&B groups before joining Brenda Lee’s backing band the newly christened Young Casuals (originally just The Casuals) for the next couple of years.

The Young Casuals (Wayne Moss 2nd right)

Within twelve months or so of his arrival in Nashville Moss had opened his own small studio Cinderella Sound in a converted two car garage in Madison a suburb of Nashville perched between two lakes which he continues to own and operate to this day. Cinderella Sound is where all the Barefoot Jerry albums were recorded and is in itself a key element to the band’s amazing sound. Moss got his first break as a session player when A Team pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins liking what he heard from the talented young guitarist started hiring him for sessions. The A Team were the premier Nashville session team of the time which included R.Stevie Moore’s father, and owner of Monument Records, along with Fred Foster, Bob Moore. At one such session another player said to Moss that if he ever got a record contract he would want Moss to play lead guitar on the recording. That guy was Tommy Roe and true to his word he brought him in to record his debut single Sheila which turned out to be the first of many number one singles that Moss was to play on over the next few years. He named his daughter Sheila in tribute to this early success. In the early sixties Moss recorded a solo twelve-string album released an instrumental single and played on countless sessions. He is responsible for the iconic guitar riff on Roy Orbison’s "Pretty Woman" and on which fellow West Virginian and future Jerry member multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy played sax.

.

Charlie McCoy

McCoy, amongst many other things, was responsible for introducing The Nashville Number System. By substituting numbers for chord letters musicians could work out an entire song on a single sheet of paper, while hearing a demo of any tune for the first time. This innovative method quickly spread among the other session players in Nashville and soon became the standard method of music notation in Nashville to this day.

A Team guitarist Harold Bradley recalls those early days:
"The A Team was still memorising all the stuff. One day we had a substitute; we had Wayne Moss. I looked over and Wayne had a little bitty small pad and he was writing and Charlie McCoy was over there working with him. I went over and said, ‘What are you guys doing?’ They said, "Well, we’re writing this down.’ Charlie had studied at the University Of Miami and what they were doing was writing down the number system. I walked away thinking, "Well what’s this?’ because we were used to memorising it. But I found out when I became a session leader myself that it saved you fifteen minutes a session if you could do these charts beforehand."

.

The Muscle Shoals team

.
But as the years passed and the studio work continued to flow in Moss started to think about doing music of his own. Meanwhile in Alabama keyboard player David Briggs, bassist, Norbert Putnam, and drummer, Jerry Carrigan were working out at a new studio called Muscle Shoals. Elvis Presley’s producer Felton Jarvis had already brought them up to the RCA studios in Nashville on occasion during ’65 because he wanted young musicians with more of an edge than the current Nashville A Team. These three were also tiring of perennial sideman gigs and over the next couple of years they headed for Nashville where they soon met up with Wayne Moss and discussed forming a band. But Moss and local Nashville drummer Kenneth Buttrey had commitments to Pat Campbell And Her Escorts, playing the clubs, though it was still fairly straight country music, so the plans got put on the shelf.
.

Charlie McCoy came down to see the Escorts one night, liked what he saw and joined. As the band grew more adventurous Pat Campbell decided to move on to other ventures and they became McCoy’s band, recording one single Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow released on Monument in 1964. Then Moss left to concentrate on his session and studio work, and in his place a fresh faced teenager named Mac Gayden joined their ranks. Gayden along with Moss, Briggs, Buttery and McCoy were amongst the many musicians who recorded sessions for Spar a local budget label that specialised in covers of Nashville and other hits. Often these Nashville covers would have the same players as the originals. Gayden was friends with Buzz Cason who had been in The Casuals back in the fifties and had just started up a small Nashville based soul and R N’B label Rising Sons distributed by Monument.
.

Gayden, a big fan of such music, heard Robert Knight singing with his vocal group The Fairlanes one night at Vanderbilt University and was blown away, so he brought him to the attention of Cason who he knew was looking for talent for his new label. Cason was equally impressed and brought Gayden on board to help him write material for Knight and play on the sessions (along with Kenny Buttrey and Norbert Putnam). Together they came up with Everlasting Love, which went on to spend 11 weeks in the charts in the fall of 1967 and in the UK went on to be a number one for The Love Affair. Gayden and Cason wrote many more soul and R N’B singles over the next couple of years.
.

.
Area Code 615
As yet though these young Nashville session men were growing in dexterity but were still playing it straight. But all that was to change in the spring of 1966 when Bob Dylan decided to uproot from New York and take a walk-in the country. His chosen accomplices for the resultant "Blonde On Blonde" were to include Wayne Moss, McCoy and Buttrey. Between sessions with Dylan these three would sit around and play together, the germ of Area Code 615 was starting to grow. More importantly as he had done with the Beatles a couple of years before Dylan turned them on to the creative benefits of a nice smoke. Dylan's presence was to change many of the attitudes prevalent in Nashville studios at the time.
Moss said about the experience. 'I noticed that recording with Dylan was more relaxing and more enjoyable than the usual country things we did. When he came to town we were green as far as the dope culture went. For one, Dylan looked very strange to us, we were still what you'd call rednecks and he changed a lot of heads. He also altered a lot of the studio techniques we were familiar with, the new projects that began to spring up in Nashville didn't and couldn't have happened before. Dylan liked our sound I guess. He stuck with Buttrey and McCoy for his next few albums overdubbing them for all the cute little things they could do. All of a sudden it seemed like Nashville was fashionable. One of the things I would like to thank Dylan for is putting the players names on albums, that didn't happen before he got here."
Moss played mostly guitar and a bit of organ on "Blonde On Blonde" and, all the takes were as live as possible though they worked up "Sad Eyed Lady" for eighteen hours to get the feel Dylan required. For Rainy Day Women #12 with it’s famous "Everybody Must Get Stoned" Chorus Dylan wanted the players to get a little drunk before recording it.
"It’s not fake." Said Moss. "We were all loaded."
Yet Moss views the Dylan period as an eminently fruitful one artistically but of very little subsequent commercial use, they were still merely glorified sidemen playing somebody else's music.
.
In May of 1968, after completion on the filming for the Monkees’ film Head, Mike Nesmith headed down south to record some songs of the next Monkees album, (a proposed double album with each side given over to each of the four members). He was to work with Elvis producer Felton Jarvis at the RCA Victor studios in Nashville and they were set on using the cream of the young Nashville session players. Nine songs were recorded in all: Propinquity (I‘ve Just Begun To Care), Don’t Wait For Me, Hollywood, The Crippled Lion, Some Of Shelly’s Blues, How Insensitive, Good Clean Fun, Listen To The Band and St. Matthew. But the double album idea was dropped and only three of the tracks appeared on later albums, though the rest saw the light of day on the Monkees Missing Links albums. A whole bunch of Nashville’s finest, Wayne Moss, Charlie McCoy, Mac Gayden, David Briggs, Nobert Putnam, Kenny Buttrey, and Weldon Myrick were hired and then promptly left alone in the studio to amuse themselves while Nesmith went off to write lyrics.
Moss. "In between cuts we'd sit around and jam, playing stuff like "Lady Madonna" adding dirty lyrics, just cutting them instrumentally. Eventually we had some rough tapes, which we played to producer Elliot Mazer. He dug it and suggested that a group of us stick together. For a while we backed up other singers again, Joan Baez, Jake Holmes, Ken Lauber and Al Kooper."
They played the Fillmore a few times backing up Linda Ronstadt and she later came to Nashville to record her album Silk Purse at Cinderella and Barefoot Jerry played a few local support sets for her.
.

.
Moss. "Eventually a bunch of us decided to form our own band. We added Buddy Spicher on fiddle from Ray Price's band and Bobby Thompson on banjo and all sorts of stringed instruments. Bobby is one of the few country musicians who can really adapt to any style. His background is pure country, gigs with Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys, straight bluegrass, but he became a part of Area Code 615 and stayed with us right through, to Watchin' T.V. Some Nashville bands like Slewfoot Five, Grady Martin and the Bradley Brothers, Owen and Harold, had an instrumental flavour but Area Code could do it better. Everyone else was playing by the book union wise; it was still all Chet Atkins stuff, nothing too original. Mazer took the tapes to Polydor and they said, "Let's go with it." They thought we could be huge."
.

Charlie McCoy and Bobby Thompson on the Hee Haw TV show

Mazer was an up and coming producer at the time and recalls:
"I did a few projects at Wayne Moss' Cinderella Sound. Wayne let me engineer and I let him play bass. That room was a two-car garage and it sounded great. The Area Code 615 projects were done there. They had a great drum cage that Kenny Buttrey and Wayne built. Kenny was the kind of drummer that ate engineers alive if they did not get a good drum sound and a good earphone mix. That experience taught me a lot about recording."

.
A few months before flutist Edwin Hubbard did a project at Woodland Sound Studios using the various musicians who were soon to be called Area Code 615. It was an album of instrumental covers to be released under the name Captain Milk. A single was released on Tetragrammaton from the project, Hey Jude backed with The Impossible Dream though the album itself was shelved and remains unreleased. The idea of a collection of instrumental covers mixing old and more contemporary songs became the blueprint the new combo was looking for. Musically the band wanted to combine the best country playing with an R&B rhythm section something never tried before. When Mazer returned with cash from the label they entered Cinderella Sound with him and over the course of the next five days recorded the first S/T album released in 1969.
.

The band set about mixing older traditional material done in an innovative progressive country style a few originals and various Dylan and Beatles covers, including another run at Hey Jude but this time without the straight restraints set on them during the Captain Milk project. The playing through out is a breathtaking tour de force and the album met much in the way of critical acclaim though very little in the way of commercial success.
.

.
Area Code played on the Johnny Cash show and also, at the Fillmore West where they supported Country Joe and the Fish and The Sons of Champlin.

.

.
Moss. 'If you look at the cover of Trip In The Country you'll see us all outside the Fillmore. We were backing up Herbert Hunter, a fine black Nashville singer, and we played an instrumental set. Graham really got the audience primed for us too, which was kinda neat because visually people didn't know what to make of us. I guess we all had short hair. McCoy was wearing dress pants and a windbreaker and I had on a pair of white sneakers, we all had the cowboy shirts. I think it was refreshing for them 'cause they gave us a fantastic reception and we were thrilled, not having played outside home too much and certainly not in front of so many people. Afterwards Bill Champlin came up to us and told us, "Hey man, Graham don't ever work the audiences like that, he usually doesn't have a good word to say for the bands who play here.'
In the two years of their existence this was the only Area Code gig they played.
.

.
Moss: 'We weren't dedicated enough to devote our lives to playing live. I didn't mind too much at the time although that lack of road dedication has been the undoing of a lot of our later Barefoot set-ups. By the time we cut "Trip In The Country" a year later their attitude changed. We were nominated for a Grammy on the debut but Blood, Sweat And Tears got it which was fair because they'd sold an awful lot of copies of "Spinning Wheel" and no one had even heard of us.If we had won it I think a lot of people would have been shocked but it was a great honour to get that close. The second album is all originals except for the bluegrass Katy Hill which we adapted to our sound. Most of the other stuff is self-explanatory, like "The Devil Weed And Me". At the end of that we had "Ding Dong The Code Is Dead" 'cause Polydor were disenchanted with our lack of success and we said goodbye. I think we could have probably done a lot of things we didn’t do and made our way to the top real fast. It takes a dedication on the part of everyone involved and we didn’t really have that. We had it from a musical standpoint as far as making records were concerned but not in the standpoint of devoting your life to something. It was a hard decision for a lot of the guys to make, so it just sort of laid there and nothing much came of it.'

All the players involved continued to be much sort after session musicians so with no real success for their own albums it was inevitable that they would soon enough be torn apart. Area Code left behind two influential albums of stunning mostly instrumental music and for British music fans of a certain age the memory of Stone Fox Chase, which was the iconic theme to the Old Grey Whistle Test.
.

.
In ’69 Moss, Buttrey and Gayden became the nucleus of the house band for Nashville’s Sound Stage 7 label (Monument’s R N’B imprint) under session leader Bob Wilson taking the name The Music City Four. Monument’s Fred Foster had at first been dubious about the idea. It was Wayne Moss’ innovative bass line on Joe Simon’s The Chokin’ Kind that convinced him otherwise. When he heard the master he told the label "I think you need to remix it, the bass is way too hot." They asked him to trust him on this one and released it the way it was. The single went to number one of the R N’B charts and became the labels biggest success.

At the start of 1970 Steve Miller riding high on the success of his Brave New World album but with his band falling apart around his ears headed up to Nashville with some half finished tapes. He booked into Cinderella where, in between dates on the road with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead, he completed the album with Charlie McCoy, Buddy Spicher and Wayne Moss. Number 5, released July 1970, was his greatest success to date. Over three days in the March of 1970 Tom Rapp along with his then wife Elizabeth recorded the forth and considered by most people best Pearls Before Swine album, the wonderful Use Of Ashes at Woodland Studios in Nashville. The band used were McCoy, Putnam, Gayden, Spicher, Buttrey and Briggs and the results are just beautiful. The cross-pollination of bluegrass and rock these players were experiencing on these sessions was filtering through into the music they were soon to create.
.

.
Barefoot Jerry

.
As the dust settled a core trio of Moss, Gayden, Buttrey and local doctor and keyboard player John Harris took to jamming together at Gayden's shack in the mountains. When they got the munchies they'd come down the hill to Barefoot Jerry's Grocery, that being the local store run by a grand old gentleman with an ear for a fiddle hoe-down and a campfire tale.
.

John Harris happened to have a friend at Capitol, Michael Sunday, who he had done a lot of session work for out in California. He was not in the executive class but able to voice some influence. Sunday listened to a 46 minute tape that these four cut straight off and liked what he heard. On it they'd worked up the chord patterns to four songs That's O.K. He'll Be Your Brother Some Day, The Minstrel Is Free At Last, Hospitality Song and Blood Is Not The Answer.

The legend begins.

Moss. " We sat round and jammed awhile and ended up with this 46 minute tape of stuff. We just started playing, trying hard to listen to each other on the earphones, didn’t have no engineer we just turned the tape on. We played for an hour and a half but the tape ran out after 46 minutes. It was a lot of fun to do, we were completely free and uninhibited. It didn’t matter, there wasn’t a producer there telling us to change this or shorten that or do anything, we were completely free. There were no boundaries we had to stay within like there was on the standard country sessions we were used to doing. I think we created a lot of beautiful things. It remained to be seen if anyone was interested in picking us up. And Michael Sunday said let me play this tape to one of his bosses at capitol and see what he thinks. And this guy liked it enough that he came to Nashville and sat down with us and listen to the tape again, along with Hospitality Song and a couple of others we had been working on since then and he was real impressed and said. "Hey that sounds good to me man and when you get the album finished just send it to us." It seemed like a no strings attached kinda relationship, which was really good. We went crazy cutting the greatest album the world had ever heard, giving very little thought to every having to play it live with just four guys. The smallest amount of pieces on one of the songs was eighteen and some of them rose as high as forty two. This was done an eight track machine so we doubled a lot of things."
.

.
On January 19th 1971 the four entered Cinderella Studios with Moss in the production chair and over the next few months recorded their first masterpiece Southern Delight. It is an astonishing work, a tour de force of playing and production. Of the ten songs the lion share of the lead vocals and song writing credits go to Mac Gayden. Three are co written with John Harris: the friendly country opener The Hospitality Song (on which Charlie McCoy and Bobby Thompson dropped in to play their part), then the storming anthem, Blood Is Not The Answer that closes side one so dramatically. Thirdly the epic multi-layered twisting gem that is The Minstrel Is Free At Last (which he was later to redo for the second Skyboat album.) Two are written with his brother Joe, who also helped engineer the album, Proud To Be A Red Neck and the exquisite love song Come To Me Tonight. The latter opens with a gorgeous shimmering piano solo from Harris and spin tingling lead vocal harmonies, the result on painstaking overdubbing on an epic level that was to become one of the band’s trade mark sounds on the next album. Finishing Touches, with some sterling work from Buttrey, is his only sole song writing credit. But besides these contributions Gayden brought something else magical and unique to proceedings when he introduced his unique and pioneering slide wah guitar sound. Moss contributes two charming songs, the blissful Smokies and the first of his characteristic dope related tunes Quit While You’re Ahead (A Song Of Sensible Compromise). The album closes with a traditional song Nobody Knows before the only track credited to all four members That’s Okay He’ll Be Your Brother Someday, progressive country rock of such effortless class and dexterity that only these musicians could attempt and achieve it so gloriously. Of all of their albums Southern Delight is the one that could have broken them into the rock music scene if only they had toured it and played the right national venues. As it was they only played a handful of local gigs and little more.
.

.
Barefoot Jerry played their first gig at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and went down a storm though Moss admits they were quite terrified of the experience.

Moss. "The first few times we ever performed live it was just sheer terror on our part. The audience seemed to receive us real well, there was fifteen hundred people there in knoxville in a place were you could only fit about nine hundred normally. It was just wall to wall and we though maybe we ain’t crazy after all, maybe this stuff really is good."

Around this time Elliot Mazer, Norbert Putnam and David Briggs (I should point out here that Briggs is not the same David Briggs who produced Neil Young and Spirit amongst others) from Area Code had got together and built Quadrafonic Studios in a two storey Victorian era house. Mazer: "We wanted to build a slightly bigger room that gave us a lot of control but still sounded tight and fat like Cinderella." Hear that Neil Young was in Nashville to appear on the Johnny Cash Show, he invited him to a dinner party at the new studio. Young had some new material to record and well aware of his work on the Area Code albums asked Mazer if he could get them into the studio the very next day to back him on some sessions. Buttrey was the only one not busy and he brought John Harris with him, while Mazor arranged for other local musicians. Most of the tracks recorded over the next few days ended up on Harvest; Buttery also ended up as Young’s new drummer, though he did not last long before returning to session work.
.

.
Moss: 'Buttrey quit the day Capitol gave us a whole lot of new equipment. He was followed by Mac and so the label didn't have the band they'd signed. We were also disillusioned with their abilities to sell the record but the band just didn't want to tour. It isn't solely a matter of musical unity, you must have the same goals and too many of the guys wanted to stay home with their families.'
Gayden signed to Polydor and in 1973 recorded Macgavok Gayden an introspective and obscure sounding collection with Kenny Buttrey on drums which promptly got him dropped by the label before putting together his new band Skyboat and putting out two excellent albums, Skyboat and Hymn To The Seeker on ABC while doing session work for the likes of JJ Cale, Pearls Before Swine and Loudon Wainwright III.
.

.
Wayne Moss's perspective on Gayden a few years later is respectful if amused:
'Mac is as changeable as the weather. He's real diet conscious, one minute he'll be on a starvation routine, next time I see him he's getting fat again. He's into transcendental meditation at present and I'm a yoga freak so we have some odd things in common but he never seems certain of what to do. He can be a great R'n'B guitarist or a fine slide player and in the same way that he doesn't ever stay still he has to fire his bands twice a year. One time he'll tell you it has to be bluegrass or else he says that jazz is the only way. It's hard to appreciate how great his talent is because he gets confused and yet he's basically down to earth. At the moment he's experimenting with an ion machine which is supposed to change the vibes in the atmosphere so that you can get the band and the audience on the same wavelength; he says that this contraption guarantees a good mood for all. Maybe we ought to invest in one."

.

.
The loss of half their members did not deter them for long, Moss took over the lead guitar stool vacated by Gayden while still playing all the bass and they added Russ Hicks on steel guitar and Kenny Malone on drums. They set about the recording of their second album in the May of ’72, again at Cinderella, this time with Harris joining Moss in the producing role. Hicks was to remain a constant along side Moss for the duration, his incredible steel guitar playing becoming one of the defining elements to that classic Barefoot Jerry sound.

Originally from West Virginia Russ Hicks switched from playing lead guitar to steel guitar after hearing Nashville legend Buddy Emmons in the early sixties. When his Gibson ElectraHarp got destroyed in a fire at a local club Hicks naturally decided on a long cherished Emmons steel guitar as a replacement. A chance meeting with Weldon Myrick at the Emmons factory the day he went to pick up his new instrument was to send him in the direction of Nashville. Myrick had just quit Connie Smith’s touring band He told Hicks to head down to Nashville and audition for Smith and he got the job. Hicks later replaced Buddy Emmons himself in Ray Price’s band (which also featured Area Coder Buddy Spicher). By the time a year later when he left the band there was enough session work coming his way to justify staying in Nashville. Charlie McCoy was his main connection after he did a Kitty Wells session with him and McCoy found out he was a fellow West Virginian and started putting work his way. Malone was raised in Denver and served in the Navy Band in Washington DC eventually becoming head of the percussion department at the Armed Forces School Of Music. He arrived in Nashville in 1970 and looked up an old student Ron Oats who introduced him to the likes of Bobby Thompson, Jim Colvard and Bobby Dyson. They did a lot of little demos sessions together for various artists over the next few months and then he did his first master session with Carl Perkins. After that the session work started flowing in.
You would think with the loss of their main songwriter and vocalist the band would have struggled. With no discernible lead vocalist and half the line up gone following up such a brilliant debut would have been hard enough anyway, but the arrival of the second album, just called Barefoot Jerry, released on Warner Brothers said otherwise. If anything the album is the definitive Barefoot Jerry album, a blissful master class in recording and playing that really no one has touched before or since. It’s an album that first and foremost plays by its own rules, impossible to categorise but is an eclectic whole to be savoured from start to finish. From shinning virtuosity heights to shimmering spine tingling depths it is an adventure in musical genius. If the loss of such a brilliant drummer as Buttrey seemed tragic, the arrival of Malone if anything took things to a whole new level. His playing is astonishing, melodic and inventive in ways not seen before. Listening to his work on Message is always a jaw dropping treat. John Harris contributes two stunning instrumentals the majestic Castle Rock and Ebenezer that open and close the album beautifully. Russ Hicks playing is masterful and inventive throughout, flick off a blistering crescendo here or a serene stone rippled ocean of liquid swell there. His punchy and twisting tune Snuff Queen is played by all with such friendly aplomb that it just knocks your socks clean off every time.
.

But it is Wayne Moss who is at the heart of the matter here. His guitar playing is confidently understated, yet multi-layered and wickedly complex at times and along with his intelligent bass playing serves as the very substance of the album. Even after all these years I still find something new and wonderfully surprising from his work herein. It is as if all the players here are so impossibly talented that they have no reason to be flash or to grand stand or show off. Instead its pure musicianship stripped of ego or even playing for playing sake, every note is there to serve the creativity spirit at it’s most profound. The production too is bent to this purpose and is an endless and joyful adventure in sound, for me this has always been hands down the best production job ever. Not only brimming with detail, endless depths and musical instruments recorded with such striking clarity but graced with unmistakable warmth and humanity. The band pull all the creative stops out for a stunning rendition of Bobby and Eileen Thompson’s In God We Trust and the only traditional cover here Little Maggie (already done as an instrumental by Area Code) is rendered perfectly with some stunning vocals and concise and confident playing. Moss steps up to the song writing plate and delivers up a clutch of some of his finest songs. From the sardonic but humble swagger of One Woman, the laid back, witty and barefooted Message, the gentle climbing majesty of Friends (co-written with Harris) with its searing steel lightning strikes and the cool and clever instrumental of Fish N’ Tits, Moss delivered the goods. Warm (co-written with Hicks and Malone) is a laid back thing of real beauty as is his last song the tender Ain’t It Nice In Here. Both will bring goose bumps to your skin with their intimate melodies and playing. Possibly the most striking aspect of the album though are the vocals from Moss and Hicks produced so exquisitely, so clear and warm through out, they grab your heart and ears and never let go. The short sleeve note on the cover said it all. 'The recording level of this LP was high and can best be appreciated in the same manner.'

Moss: 'You can hear the Goodlettsville String Sextet, our simulated strings ensemble and the Hendersonville Horns on this one (fuzz guitar, blunt fiddle, harmonica, steel, melodica all re-dubbed.) We still had the live problem. There was still a lot of interest from former Code members in what we were doing except in the part of it which said you had to get out on the road and play for the people. That was the problem, why go out on the road when there was sixty, eighty thousand a year they could make without having to leave Davison County. But they liked what we were doing, would sit around and listen to it and though we were heading in a good direction and that sort of encouragement kept the band alive. But it was still impossible for the public to know who they were seeing when they turned up to one of our gigs. Although the flavour was the same, the faces changed so fast it confused everyone. When we appear in Nashville it's always good music but you never know who you're going to see. Until "You Can't Get Off With Your Shoes On" the most jobs we played with one unit was seven and that's not enough. You have to play a lot to sound real tight and stay loose at the same time.'
.

.
By the time they set about recording for the third album Watching TV, their first for Monument, the band were going through changes. Moss and Hicks remained constants. John Harris finding his commitment to both band and his actual profession as a medical doctor problematic left during the recording. Kenny Malone was to follow.
.

.
Moss: 'The problem is that we did lose guys because they were offered enormous sums to quit. That's why Buttrey left for Neil Young and Jimmy Buffett. With John Harris it was different. He's a doctor and only plays sessions in between running his clinic. We tried out a whole raft of drummers because we'd always had real heavy guys laying it down. When we auditioned Si Edwards, who was only a young guy, we were amazed. He knew all the licks, the right dynamics, when to be loud, when to go soft. He said, "Where do you wanna start?" so we took it from Hospitality Song and he had it down. All we could say was "Welcome to the band." When you shut your eyes and listen, Si was Buttrey, Malone and him all rolled into one.'
With the idea of putting together a functioning live band Fred Newell was brought in on bass. Newell from Illinois originally and newly arrived in Nashville was picked up by Charlie McCoy soon enough and it was McCoy who recommended him to Moss and Hicks along with another new Nashville arrival Buddy Skipper on keyboards. Dave Doran was also added as lead guitarist, though on the sessions all three new Barefoots played various instruments as was needed.
.

.
Moss: 'Dave got a little impatient although he is a tremendous guitarist and an awfully good lead singer and gave us immense inspiration. Afterwards he went on the road with Melanie, which is the story of a lot of our bands - they can earn so much money as sidemen, more than with the band. During that time we went from four to five to six to seven members before coming back down to six. '
This line up is capture for posterity from a live radio broadcast of the time recorded at the Exit Inn and released a few years ago. Moss, Hicks and Doran share lead vocal duties throughout and it is a wonderful and unique document of the band in concert. But when it came to the album Moss was looking for real direction in the vocal department.
Moss: 'A lot of that change was due to Terry Dearmore our new vocalist. We decided that we needed a lead singer even if he couldn't play. We were known for our musical abilities but not our singing talents. I don't fantasise myself to be a singer at all - a songwriter maybe -and we had a lot of insecurities about our live singing because we were used to backing up. Terry solved that problem and took up the bass after Fred Newell left.'
.

.
Originally from Oklahoma City Dearmore had been in Jubal alongside Dennis Linde. That band had recorded just one album in 1972 and had just been dropped by Atlantic and split soon after. Moss had helped out in the recording of that album. Texan songwriter Linde had arrived in Nashville back in ’69 and was soon writing hits for the likes of Roger Miller and Roy Drusky. On the back of this success he got to record his first album Linde Manor in 1970 though his second album recorded a year later Surface Noise remains unreleased. After the short lived Jubal things turned around when his song "Burnin’ Love" became Elvis last ever number one hit and from that he was signed to Elektra. His self-titled third album released in ’73 has his former Jubal bandmates on half of it. The other half, including his own version of "Burnin’ Love" was recorded at Cinderella with the second line up of Barefoot Jerry along for the ride. Dearmore dropped by Cinderella one day during the sessions for Watchin’ TV on Moss’s behest to and eventually ended up singing lead vocals on four tracks and joining the band. Bobby Thompson also got involved not just playing but co-writing three songs with Moss, "Funny Looking Eyes", "Violets and Daffodils" and "Mother’s Nature’s Way Of Saying High". Watchin’ TV even with the line up in transition is another perfect album. Side one opens in classic barefoot style with a prime slice of Wayne Moss’ easy philosophising Watchin’ TV (With The Radio On) and another of his wry dope songs, Funny Looking Eyes. New boys Newell and Skipper’s contribution the instrumental Pig Snoots And Nehi Red brings the picking on from Bobby Thompson banjo, while the band dance in dexterity around him.
.

A classic bass line leads into Russ Hick’s swaggering gem Hay Queen chockfull of effortless twist and turns before Hicks and Skipper’s Two Mile Pike closes the side. A monumental multifaceted instrumental work out, highlighted by a blazing guitar solo from Doran the can be witness performing it live in the studio in the documentary film Heartworn Highway. Side one is the band at their progressive country best but it is side two where they take us once more to such glorious heights.
.

.

Opening with a shimmering laid back version of the western swing standard Faded Love that sets the pace Moss then delivers up four of his most beautiful songs yet. There’s the gentle social commentary of There Must Be A Better Way (co-written with Dave Doran), the fuzzy quiet romance of If There Was Only Time For Love and the cascading elegance of his and Bobby Thompson’s Violets And Daffodils to curl round you mind before the side closes with the epic classic Mother Nature’s Way Of Saying High. It is music of profound beauty drowning in melodies of ethereal grace and subtle power. The production is magnificent and the playing and vocals passionate and measured to perfection.
.

.
By the time Watchin’ TV came out in ’74 Doran had been replaced by Jim Colvard. Colvard originally from Minnesota was playing guitar in local talent shows at the age of six. After moving to Nashville he became a regular member of the Ralph Emery TV show and recorded four albums as part of the Nashville Guitar Group for Monument. He was a seasoned session pro playing for the likes of Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson and Charlie McCoy. He was a stunning guitar player. Dearmore took over bass from the departed Newell and St. Louis born Warren Hartman who had arrived in Nashville the year before replaced Skipper on keyboards. and the band entered Cinderella with Moss in the producer’s chair and set about recording their forth album "You Can’t Get off With Your Shoes On."
.

The actual Barefoot Jerry

.
Moss: ' Our Namesake is an old gentleman that lives up in the foothills of the Smokie Mountains and he has an old run down grocery store, I guess he’s had it for a lot of years. He’s got a little steno pad on which he keeps track of all the sales he makes. You ask for a pack of gum and he’ll right it down, "one pack of gum-five cents". He grows tomatoes out back and he sells them in the store. His wife lives with him, in the same building there. He plays a fiddle, plays a lot of hoe-downs and things, tells a lot of funny stories and limericks. He knows a bunch of tales about those mountains up there, all the folk law and he’ll lay some of that on ya. The stores kinda doubles as his living room so its real homey and on occasion we’ve gone up there and sat around and got the guitars out and played some hoedowns with him. He was in a world unto himself and seemed unaffected by the jet age. That kinda signifies what the band are about, into a lot of nature trips, being laid back and being yourself and being happy. The title song of the forth album sums up Barefoot Jerry's philosophy, the man and the band. Most of the songs we come up with ourselves are on a positive note, we try to be uplifting and have something refreshing to say, hopefully. We attempt to write about current issues as well, from a social rather than a political point of view.'We try to show everybody our instrumental abilities, we like and instrumental or two or three on each album. With each line up we’re keeping a lot of the same roots. Like with songs such as Tommy Dorsey's "Boogie Woogie" (also featured on McCoy's "The Nashville Hit Man") which was in the country charts for twenty two weeks. I guess that song’s from the early forties. We’re trying to cover a range of years in what we do, some of the old blue grass things we do like Faded Love are that old but we try to make them identifiable as Barefoot Jerry. We try to mix it up and still have a direction to it and a seamless flavour for both the old and new songs. I hope we succeed".
.

.
This line up of Barefoot Jerry also recorded a later single Makin’ It Better (written by Marc Phillips and Tim Townley) and did sessions as a unit with Capricorn artist Johnny Wright.
Moss: 'Every time we landed that kind of job we got a little tighter but you didn't get the gratification in the studio that you find from playing for people in a club or for twenty thousand at a picnic all screamin' and hollerin' at yer. Not that doing records are a pain in the neck because they’re not, they are fun to do. But you wonder sometimes at the conclusion of a song you’ve just recorded if it’s the way it ought to be or if you’re the only one that’s going to like it that way and so on. And you find these things out when you play them live. The reaction you get to it inspires you to write other songs. One night at the Vanderbilt we had two big trash cans full of the silk flowers we used on the Can’t Get Off cover shot in front of the stage. We told the audience if they wanted a souvenir of the album to come up and help themselves and they did. Then a bit later we did Only Time For Love and all these flowers come flying back up on the stage and everybody was singing along. It makes you wanna go and write another song for them.

All the members in that line up really enjoy playing live, they enjoyed the vibes they got from the audience and respond accordingly on their individual instruments. It inspired them and makes them play better. We don't lay a lot of heavy messages on the people; rather we try and indicate what they might be missing. A lot of folks miss out on nature. The tremendous progressive strides we've made are killing the countryside. The mass transit of highways is eliminating the fields with folks taking the speed limits to the level where you couldn't enjoy the scenery if your life depended on it. Slowin' Down is about that.'
.

.
The album opens with Terry Dearmore’s Ali Baba, a song perfectly written in Barefoot progressive style and played with real panache a shinning and confident opener. Next up the strange choice of the inclusion of Charlie McCoy’s recording of Boogie Woogie (the various members of Jerry had been constant fixtures on the harmonica maestro’s various instrumental solo albums the last few years). Not only is it played by the earlier Watchin’ TV line up but, because it is from McCoy’s album the backing is mixed down somewhat and in consequence doesn’t sound quite right on the album. Things pick up again with Moss’ two songs Slowin’ Down and You Can’t Get Off With Your Shoes On, both classic Barefoot Jerry tracks played beautifully. As is Russ Hick’s West Side Of Mississippi though the song itself is not his best. Side two kick’s off with The Measure Of You Worth, written by Dearemore and Hartman it is another classy slice of progressive country. This is followed by a stunningly played but somewhat out of place cover of the Little Richard hit Lucille and Hick’s Hero Frodo, a beautiful melodic piece but the Lord Of The Rings lyrics are not really at home here. Hartman’s Sinkin’ In The Sea sounds more like a Bill Payne Little Feat song than anything suitable for Jerry and a weak one at that. But the album closes in style with the fuzzy, dreamy instrumental Cades Cove written by Moss and Hicks. The album is excellent both in playing and production (though the production is at times workman like compared to what had come before) but a bit piecemeal overall, some of it is not quite Barefoot Jerryish enough. Put together Ali Baba, Slowin’ Down, You Can’t Get Off With You Shoes On, The Measure Of Your Worth and Cades Cove add up to a classic side of Barefoot Jerry, the rest though is not quite up to scratch for one reason or other. It was definitely their most popular effort to date but with Monument not knowing how to promote them properly it was destined to fail.
Moss: "Many groups play country music but with us it is different. Country music we know because we have all worked in Nashville for years but we originally come from all over and we brought with us our rock and blues influences. What we play is what we love most."
.

Mitchell In Nashville with some of the players

.
In ‘75 French singer Eddy Mitchell (called by some the French Elvis) who’s flagging career had recently picked up with a compilation of his old hits flew out to Nashville to meet up with Charlie McCoy. In just one day they recorded an album at Cinderella with the cream of Nashville players including Moss, Colvard, Buttrey, Spicher, Thompson and Hicks. Rocking In Nashville went to number one in France and led to a Barefoot Jerry line up of Moss, Hicks, Colvard, Buttrey Spicher, David Briggs and guitarist Dale Sellers accompanying Charlie McCoy and Billy Swan to Paris in 1975 to play at the Olympia for 31 straight dates. There’s a video of a live French TV appearance in existence from that time performing You Can’t Get Off With Your Shoes On as well and another with Charlie McCoy and two backing Mitchell himself.
.

Moss and Mitchell in Paris

.
Also that year saw the release of the impossibly rare double album radio promo Anthology Vol. 1 which mixed album tracks with an interview with Wayne Moss.
In ’76 Monument got hold of the first two albums and re-released them as the double Grocery. As ever though the label unsure how to promoted the band chose to use obscure artwork and missed the opportunity to enlighten potential listeners to the genius contained within with any sort of sleeve notes.
.

Back in the States their reputation remained pretty much a local phenomenon and Colvard returned to session dates for the likes of Pearls Before Swine, Dennis Linde and John Hartford to be replaced by Barry Chance. Chance was the son of Floyd "Lightin’" Chance one of the founders of the original A Team and twenty years the staff bassist at the Grand Ole Opry so Nashville and music was in the guitarists blood. Steve Davis replaced Hartman. Chance was a real find, Davis not so much. Keys To The Country, the fifth album, was laid down in sixteen days at Cinderella with Moss producing and was their most straight ahead country picking album by far. By Jerry standards it’s weak with a lot of obvious covers and Davis’s gospel tinged song My God (Is Alright By Me) is the low point. There are a few real highlights though. Dearmore’s charming Tonite’s The Nite I Do being one and the covers of Mac Gayden’s Appalacian Fever and Bill Monroe’s Uncle Penn working particularly well. Moss’s Woes Of The Road is good stuff while his other contribution the beautiful You Can’t Say It All is the jewel here. By Barefoot Jerry's own standards it falls far short of its predecessors as Moss will readily admit. As it was the band seemed to be following the familiar trajectory of most of their contemporaries, delivering up their finest and most experimental albums at the start of the decade and then growing gradually less vital by the middle of the decade.
.

.
But if Keys To The Country seemed like the beginning of the end, the end itself turned out to be something unexpectedly glorious.
Dearmore found that his rent was better paid doing national jingles and keeping up his night-time job as a Nashville D.J. and departed, replaced by ex roadie Michael McBride on bass, Davis also left. Banjo player Buddy Blackmon, who had only arrived in Nashville a couple of years before was good friends and mentored by Bobby Thompson and McCoy, also joined and best of all Charlie McCoy finally took off his shoes and joined the Barefoot boys. The new line up seemed to totally revitalise the band and in February of ’77 the band convened at Cinderella with Moss once more producing to record Barefootin’ their sixth and as it turned out final album. The flaws of the previous two albums are absent here and every target aimed for is hit dead centre. The sprit of the band shine through every jubilant moment. The album opens with a cover of Robert Parker’s Barefootin’ sung with style by Charlie McCoy and blazed through with a guitar solo from Chance who delivers up the goods through out the album as do all the players. Where Keys To The Country often sounded like covers with Barefoot Jerry playing on them, the few covers on this album once more sound like Barefoot Jerry plain and simple. Two superb Hicks songs next, I Ain’t Getting No Touching is classic sardonic Hicks, where as Keep On Funkin’ sung by Chance is brilliantly delivered progressive country at it’s most buoyant. Ex member Warren Harman’s song Sentimental Man is, unlike his Sinkin’ In The Sea from two albums before, perfect Jerry material. The side closes with Charlie McCoy singing another classy cover Dixie Dancer. If side one is the confident and classy commercial sound they had been striving for on the previous two albums, side two is on another level entirely harking back to the genius days of the first three albums. Moss’ Hiroshima Hole is classic old style Jerry and his most epic and impassioned work. In 1975 the Tennessee Valley Authority began construction on the Hartville Nuclear Plant (though it was never completed and shut down in 1984) Moss spat his outrage at this monstrous blight on nature into a song.

.

.
Moss in an interview at the time done with Max Bell for the small British music magazine Darkstar said at the time.
"I'd like to do Hiroshima Hole live. The Hartsville nuclear plant is the biggest in the world. They cool reactors using my drinking water; if it leaks we all get cancer and if terrorists seized it they could level one third of Tennessee. I took a lot of care with that song, forty parts for acoustic guitar and six electrics, that's why we can't do it live.'

Diana written by and sung by McBride is a charming love song imbued with a quiet intimacy that sits well here. The unmistakable steel guitar of Hick’s leads us into Moss’s last and most direct social drug song "Tokin’ Ticket" (co-written with Chance). Moss was actively involved in the legal battle to prevent the Mexican authorities spraying the grass crops with the poisonous chemical, Paraquat.
Moss said at the time. 'That's a deadly poison, kills you pretty fast. There are several lawsuits aimed at reforming the marijuana laws. The main stumbling block is that there's no unity or sense to them. If you live in the right state you're fine but with some Federal laws you can get fifteen years for the same offence. Since we cut that song Mississippi and New York came through pro-changing the laws. We do of course play "Tokin' Ticket" live. We don't get offered a lot of gigs outside the state or Davidson County, sometimes a Buddy Spicher Fourth of July date at his farm will turn up. But the companies bite their nails over our dope songs and just want us to stick to ballads or the social comment which I refuse to take notice of. I think they should exploit all aspects of the group but Monument were never into publicity. They couldn't sell Roy Orbison or Billy Swan he had to go to France to collect his gold records for "I Can Help". Subsequently the papers never give us coverage. Rolling Stone won't touch us and we've done no TV in two years. There's too much business and not enough music in American rock companies. Unless you have an aggressive image or an aggressive label .you stay put. It only makes us more determined to stick with the group now. I won't do any more session work but I have to make a living producing and engineering though I'd rather work solely with the band.'
Moss’s delightful "Heading for the Hills" is a cantering love song for the joys of nature and then the album closes with the Hicks and Blackmon instrumental Highland Grass highlighting the stone cold fact that when it came to playing nobody could really touch the dextrous grace of Barefoot Jerry. Barefootin’ is a wonderful album all round and a fitting swansong to this most unique and special band.
.

.
The information on the band’s live performance history is sparse to say the least. Locally they played the Exit Inn quite a few times and at Volunteer State Community College, National Guard Armoury, and at Vanderbilt with Dan Fogleberg on the same bill (the photo on the back of You Can’t Get Off is taken at that show.) Most famously was the Barefoot In The Park free show in Centennial Park where the audience came barefooted.
Moss talking about the last line up said at the time: 'In the studio we try not to hurry because we're striving for artistic excellence. We get the budget, turn up with the album and don't run up big bills. Live we try to be up-tempo because most of the audience are wrecked so anything too sophisticated tends to get lost. We keep it earthy and toe-tapping, half straight Charlie McCoy, then five or six of mine and some other Jerry material.' He's delighted to see their audience get laid back. In his own words the band are 'usually half on our ass when we play live."
And that surely was what it was all about in the end, to get religiously high with Barefoot Jerry.
As Wayne puts it, "It's just music for the body and the soul."
.

Wayne live last year.
.
Post Script.
As to the end of Barefoot Jerry things get a little vague. I know that they played another 30 shows with Eddie Mitchell in Paris sometime in 79 but after that is anyone’s guess. Moss continues to own and operate Cinderella Sounds, never advertising, all done by word of mouth. A few years back he put up a Barefoot Jerry site. http://barefootjerry.com/

In 2001 Moss, McCoy and Hicks were invited to Japan to be part of an Area Code 615 tribute tour back by a nine piece Japanese band. Barefoot tracks "Fish N’ Tits", If There Were Only Time For Love", "You Can’t Get Off with Your Shoes On." and "Two Mile Pike" were performed amongst the Area Code stuff. A live CD of this tour is available via the site along with the Barefoot Jerry Exit Inn archive release.
.

Live 2009
.

On June 8th 2008 Barefoot Jerry played a storming set at the annual Goose On The Lake Festival with Moss and I’m not sure who else and they returned for the 2009 festival too with Russ Hicks and Terry Dearmore. Starting this year Moss has taken to playing relaxed solo "Barefoot Jerry" sets with guests at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Madison ever Sunday at noon. Guests so far have included Weldon Myrick, Buddy Spicher and Billy Swan. You can buy all three Barefoot Jerry CD’s from his site along with the before mentioned Live At The Exit Inn which really is a fantastic release.

.
Later Photos
.

Wayne behind the desk at Cinderella

.

Moss and Hicks at Cinderella
.

Moss on Stage

.

A Reunion photo

.
The Albums
.

Southern Delight

.

Southern Delight advertisment
.

Barefoot Jerry S/T
.

.
Grocery: First two albums reissued on Monument in 1976
.

Watchin' TV
.

You Can't Get Off With Your Shoes On
.

Keys To The Country
.

Barefootin'
.

Barefoot Jerry Live: Mother Nature’s Way; Snuff Queen; Friends In High Places; Smokies; Faded Love; Little Maggie; Two-Mile Pike; Pig Snoots And Nehi Red; There Must Be A Better Way; Quit While Your Ahead; I’m Proud To Be A Redneck; One Woman; Message; Watchin' TV (recorded live at Exit Inn in 1973. Distributed through B.J. website only)

.
The Singles.

Jeremy Toback returns

2010-05-17T03:56:00.000-07:00

photo by James Minchin

Fantastic news people, the mighty Jeremy Toback has returned to making solo music. Heres his latest words on the subject.

"Just played my first JT live solo tunes in many moons in NYC and the fire is lit to play more more +turn the new songs that are gathering into recording this summer ..."

check out his new site, where theres a couple of new tunes to hear and join his facebook and stand by for the return of one of the true greats.

http://jeremytoback.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeremy-Toback/46852567020

David Lowery's tour diary Fall of 86

2010-05-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

.
I recently found an old SF magazine called Puncture (issue 13) from early 1987 and within it's very pages was David Lowery's tour diary for the previous fall with our beloved Camper Van Beethoven. I'm assuming it is after the REM tour but I havent been able to exactly match it up to anything over at the Internet Archive. I do believe David changed the names of the various support acts to protect both the innocent and the guilty and there's some wonderful tall stories rearing their welcome heads. It's such a fun read that I thought to share it here.
.

.
Day 1, SAN FRANCISCO: The tour got off to a shaky start, but I think everything's okay now. When we arrived to pick up Jackson, our road manager, he told us he couldn't go, but not to worry because he'd gotten his uncle Les to replace him. Jackson said we'd find Les at the Mar Vista Country Club. He'd been camped out there since being fired from his job and then kicked out by his wife Imelda. So we drove up to the country club. Imelda was chasing Les round the parking lot with a five-iron, screaming she was going to kill him. We maneuvered the van between them, pulled Les inside, and took off, but not before Imelda had managed to break two windows. Now, a short while later, we are in high spirits driving northward on Highway 5. Les is teaching us how to make martinis.
.
Day 2, EUGENE, OREGON: We played our first show tonight. Everything went well, even though we had apparently driven off this morning without Greg, our guitarist. Fortunately he managed to hitch a ride and got here half an hour before show time.
.

.
Day 6, BOISE, IDAHO: At a truck stop outside of Boise, Lenny (our soundman) incorrectly identified a poisonous mushroom as the mildly psychedelic Liberty Cap. The entire road crew and half of The Whitespots (our opening band) are in the hospital tonight having their stomachs pumped. The only person left to run our sound was Les, and he kept turning us down (or even off) so he could talk to the waitresses.
.

.
Day 8, LARAMIE, WYOMING: Yesterday was a complete disaster. First, Fritz (our light-man), who was already kind of unbalanced learned that his girlfriend had left him. He spent the evening screaming in Lapland Finnish dialect about, we can only assume, his ex-girlfriend. Only when Les sedated him with a quarter bottle of Darvon would he sit behind the lightboard. Even then he was four songs behind us by the end of the show. As if this weren't enough, after the show Les took us down to the bar at the American Legion -- his old friend Hank Ferguson is commander of the Laramie post. The locals had forgiven us our appearance and were being downright friendly until the three male dancers for The Whitespots began doing interpretive dances to Elvis Presley songs on the jukebox. Mistaking this for disrespect for the King, the locals took them outside and bloodied their noses. Les and Hank intervened too late. Even Les' promises of golfing in Florida couldn't dissuade the dancers from taking the next Greyhound back to San Francisco. This morning Les and I got up early and went to Hank's house. Les has worked out a deal to take some antique rifles to Hank's brother-in-law, a gun collector, in Moose
Jaw, Saskatchewan. Les explained that since the rifles are so valuable we must take
extraordinary measures to keep them from being stolen. When we returned to the motel, the others were still asleep, and Les decided to conceal the rifles inside a speaker cabinet belonging to The Whitespots. Les asked me not to tell The Whitespots about the rifles because "they'll get nervous driving around with something so valuable in their van."
.

.
Day 12, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: Les has asked us to go without per diems for a few days to prevent any cash flow problems. Apparently we haven't been making as much as we expected, and Les says he needs more money for "promotional expenses."
.
Day 13, VANCOUVER, BC: The Canadian border guards have arrested all The Whitespots on suspicion of smuggling and terrorism. They are accused of trying to smuggle automatic weapons to the ONF (October 19 Faction), a neo-Nazi group based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Les thinks The Whitespots must have found the antique rifles and traded them for Uzi machine guns. We are also under arrest.
.

.
Day 14: Les has persuaded the guards of our innocence, and we have been released. The Whitespots are still in custody, however. The Canadians claim "Whitespots" refers to the band's secret neo-Nazi political philosophy, although none of The Whitespots has confessed to being a neo-Nazi yet. Les says we should leave them to fend for themselves, since they abused our hospitality for their own narrow political interests.
.
Day 17, CALGARY, ALBERTA: I called our record company, hoping they could find us a new opening band. They have suggested a band called Big Naked. Apparently the leader of the group is a famous underground rock critic, and he won't write a piece on us unless we let his band come on tour with us.
.

.
Day 18, EDMONTON, ALBERTA: Tonight we are playing the Ambassador Hotel. Then we have a week off. I feel fine, personally, but some of the band and crew look like they could use
a vacation, especially Fritz, who has discovered his ex-girlfriend is now dating a lesbian folksinger. His lightshows, which are usually gloomy anyway, have now degenerated into the turning on and off of a single 40-watt blacklight. Even more disturbing is his adoption of his ancestors' belief in the existence of elves. Les has decided that during the week off he will drive one of the vans down to Moose Jaw and straighten things out with the gun collector "before things get out of hand."
.

.
Day 24: During our week off we went to visit the gigantic Edmonton Mall. Chris Molla, our steel guitarist, got lost and wandered into the plains. Fortunately he was found and cared for by a group of Hutterites, a religious sect that refuses to use modern conveniences like electricity and automobiles. Unfortunately he has adopted their beliefs. Chris now refuses to ride in the van, and we must either leave him behind or cancel the next few shows so he can be deprogrammed.
.
Day 25, SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN: Les has found a temporary solution to the Chris Molla problem. Last night after Chris fell asleep Les carried him out to the van and locked him in a drum case. But some problems still remain. Chris refuses to play electric guitar, and will not allow his acoustic guitar to be miked or amplified in any way. We have decided that Big Naked will be our opening act for the rest of the tour. They will meet us in Winnipeg in two days.
.

.
Day 27, WINNIPEG, MANITOBA: Victor is concerned that the mysterious holes we found in our van after Les' trip to Moose Jaw are bullet holes. Les says Victor is just paranoid from hanging around Fritz too much. He thinks we should send Fritz home, but I'm not sure things are that serious yet, although last night Fritz did drive the van off the road twice -- the first time to avoid a band of wood-elves, then again when he saw a UFO in the middle of the freeway.
Big Naked have joined the tour. They seem like nice guys, with the possible exception of band leader Michael Albino, who is sort of strange, but probably well-intentioned. Yesterday when I introduced myself he told me he only accepted our invitation because he felt sorry for the audience, having to listen to our "pathetic drivel night after night and never getting the chance to hear Big Naked, a band courageous enough to sing about death, destruction, and the rape of the human spirit by the oppressive conventions of society."
.

.
Day 29, RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA: Les has bought a slightly restored Porsche 911. He has also cancelled our per diems for the next week. I am beginning to suspect that Les may be embezzling money from us. The Porsche is actually a blessing of sorts, because it keeps Les -- and more importantly Ruby, the truckstop waitress Les has invited to tour with us -- out of our hair.
.
Day 31, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: The Deadhead members of the crew threatened to quit if we didn't get rid of this Big Naked group. They complain that Big Naked's lyrics are violent and the music gives them "bad vibes." Victor pacified them by explaining that Michael Albino is a music critic and is probably making a statement of some,-sort, though Victor wasn't sure exactly what.
.

.
Day 35, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: We are now down to a five-piece. Chris Molla, still refusing to play electric guitar, had taken to wandering through the audience as he played, so that at least some of them could hear him. Unfortunately the bouncers at the club last night thought he was some kind of weirdo and threw him out. We haven't seen him since. Another strange thing happened tonight: Big Naked didn't play because Michael Albino disappeared. He'd been seen earlier in the evening getting into the back of a van with three guys who were dressed up like soldiers or something.
.
Day 38, DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Michael Albino is still missing, and today when we showed up at the club there was a letter for us. It read: "Dear Camper Van Beethoven. You have five days to deliver the goods, or you will never see Mr. Albino again. Sincerely, The ONF." The letter was postmarked Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I showed it to Les, but he said it was just a prank, and neither the neo-Nazis or his gun collector brother-in-law could have anything to do with Michael's disappearance. It is my belief that Albino has actually been kidnapped by the ONF. I called Homo-stud Records, Big Naked's label, to explain my suspicions; they told me it was probably a publicity stunt, and that if I happen to see him I am to tell him to phone Homostud immediately so they can arrange a promotional campaign based on his disappearance.
The remaining members of Big Naked have decided to continue performing, with Lenny (our soundman) as singer. The only problem with this is that none of them can remember the lyrics to Big Naked songs. In the meantime Lenny is singing from a book of Richard Brautigan poems.
.

.
Day 40, COLUMBUS, OHIO: Our show here was canceled at the last minute, but Les got us a gig as Tiny Tim's backing band at a club across town. I had Les take pictures of us together, because I don't think anyone will believe this story without proof.
.

.
Day 42, NEW YORK CITY: We played CBGB's last night to a packed house, but we only made $40 because there were 352 people on the guest list. This morning I got a call from our agency, Indentured Bookings, saying we'd got "a real creepy letter with an ear in it." By the time I got down there they were all too stoned to remember what they'd done with it. We have a few days off. Les, Ruby the waitress, and the road crew are going to Atlantic City -- Ruby has a friend there and Les is going to help him buy some property in the Bronx.
.

.
Day 45: Indentured Bookings called again. They found the letter and the ear. The ear appararently belongs to Michael Albino. I decided it was time to take this matter to the police. I went to Indentured to get the ear, but someone from Homostud Records had already picked it up and taken it to a press conference.
.

.
Day 50, BOSTON, MASS.: Our show at the Rat Cellar was canceled. There was a bomb threat -- and the police found a real bomb. They think a disgruntled band planted it because the club is run by the Mafia and has a reputation for not paying groups that play here.
I overheard the road crew talking about going to the Bronx to help Les burn down a building. Alarmed, I asked Les what was going on. It turns out this building is on the property recently purchased by Ruby's Atlantic City friend, and according to Les it is both common and legal to demolish a building in the Bronx by burning it down, as long as the building is burned,between the hours of two and six a.m.
.

.
Day 59, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA: Seven of our last eight shows have been canceled due to bomb threats. We are nearly out of money, and Les says we may have to sell one of the vans. But he has kindly offered to let someone ride in his Porsche with him and Ruby.
It is now obvious to everyone (except Les) that the bombings are the work of the group that abducted Michael Albino. So when we heard today that he had been released, we were overjoyed. Apparently his abductors let him go when they found out he is the great-grandson of Benito Mussolini. Both Greg and Fritz are no longer with us. Greg quit the band in Norfolk, Virginia, and got a job at a 7-11. Fritz saw a statue of a giant peach outside of Columbia and became convinced it was a secret wood-elf shrine. He could not be persuaded to get back in the van, and so we left him there.
.
Day 63, JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FLORIDA: Four days without a bomb threat. Things were beginning to look up. Then we get to Jacksonville Beach and Les' wife is waiting here for us. She shoots Les. When the police show up they arrest the entire crew and impound our equipment and van. They claim the crew and van were involved in an arson for profit scheme in New York. In the ensuing chaos Ruby splits with the Porsche and what is left of our money.
Les is expected to recover, but is in FBI custody on arson charges. Needless to say this is the end of the tour. Victor and Jonathan are taking it the hardest. Les had promised them he would teach them golf once we got to Florida. They spent most of the morning at the Jacksonville Beach Country Club trying to get someone to take them golfing. Eventually they were told to leave or they would be arrested. Chrispy, our drummer, has found a job as an exotic male dancer. He says he can probably get me a job at the same place. But I think I'll wait and see if I can sell this tour diary to SPIN magazine, although when I called the editor he wasn't very encouraging. Apparently they have some really important stuff coming up: there's a story on Michael Albino's ear, and Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins have written a piece about how they like to hang out at Ceiling Fan World in San Diego.
David Lowery
.

For more excellent musings from the great man check out: http://davidclowery.wordpress.com/
.

Salim Nourallah A Constellation Of Talent

2010-04-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

.
A few weeks ago I was trying to find out some stuff about the excellent (and, alas it seems long forgotten) british band Straw from the late nineties and eventually stumbled upon a fan run myspace dedicated to their unreleased second album Keepsakes http://www.myspace.com/strawkeepsakes There wasn't a lot going on there to be honest, 62 friends and a couple of comments put up but my eyes fell upon the name of one of those commenters, Salim Nourallah. Salim it seems is a big Straw fan and in fact would love to track down the members of Straw with a view to getting Keepsakes officially released (the album leaked onto the net many years ago).
.

.
But for me seeing him there was something altogether more thrilling because from the moment I first found a promo cdr of stuff by the Nourallah Brothers many years ago now, I have simply loved everything the Texas based songwriter and producer has done. Blissfully melodic gravitas pop of such grace and wonder that anything with his name on is a guarantee of greatness. I got in touch with him and found him to be a delightfully warm and down to earth fellow and a great music lover. We decided it was time to do something together for Bucketfull Of Brains focusing specifically on his solo career of the last few years and at the same time because he had looked at and enjoyed this place we wanted to do something for Art Into Dust as well. Simple enough because I had found over the years two albums by The Moon Festival his band from the nineties and rated them highly. So what follows next is part one of our interview covering the early years and then later part two will be found in print in Bucketfull. Okay over to the man himself. Born in Illinois Salim Nourallah was raised in El Paso, Texas where his family moved when he was just three.
.

.
Salim. "My earliest vivid memory is of seeing Johnny Cash dressed all in black standing in the boxcar of a train singing and playing guitar. It left quite an impression on me, I must’ve been only four or five at the time. Later as my interest in music grew there were many nights spent holding an AM radio to my ear under the sheets of my bed. I remember calling a radio station over and over again to request Elton John’s Rocket Man. And asking our Mom to put the White Album on over and over again because my younger brother Faris and I were too young to work the turntable, then singing along loudly to Rocky Raccoon and Bungalow Bill.
.

.
I don’t know when or if I ever actually decided I could do it myself, I just started hearing these melodies in my head and I wanted to find a way to get them out. Having the Beatles as heroes was actually quite daunting because they were so good it was depressing to hear how bad I was in comparison, The first song I ever finished was called She’s Mine, it was my teenage attempt at being Paddy McAloon from Prefab Sprout. Other early songs I remember were I Hate Rock’n’Roll which included the mission statement: "We're rippin' through twenty years of noise, drugs and sex", Everything About Her which was an early Beatles skiffle influenced tune and Only When I Dream, a 50s style Everly Brothers type ballad. Our first band was called the Crying Dymes. My brother Faris’ girlfriend, Gretchen Clapp, had a sister named Heidi who was dating a musician. His name was Bobby Schneider and he was one cool dude. He had devilish charm and a quick wit, kind of mysterious and world weary, never really revealed too much. We instantly hit it off because he was a rebel and we were aspiring rebels The sisters got us all together and Bobby started coming over and jamming in the front bedroom of our red brick house on Constellation. He played keyboards, Faris played drums and I did my best to try to play guitar and sing. I bought a cherry red Rickenbacker like Paul Weller had on the back of the first Jam record. We spent a few months working on songs without a bass player. We eventually made a 4-track cassette demo with my schoolmate Jack Thompson filling on bass. Jack was a giant with huge hands who told me at he figured he was one of the world’s top five bassists. Pretty funny…The downfall of the Dymes was we couldn’t find a bass player and there was nowhere to even play original music in El Paso had we landed one. So we decided to all move to Austin and keep playing together but when Bobby returned from a trip to Germany that summer of ‘87 I'd up and changed the plan on him. I decided to move myself and Faris to Denton not Austin and this moronic decision plagued me for years after. Bobby moved on to eventually find success as Bob Schneider, King of Austin, while we spent the next five years languishing in obscurity in Denton (a place we both hated.)
.

.

.
When we first got to Denton my brother was hell bent on finding band members. He started going out almost every night. Fry Street, The Flying Tomato, Doctor Smith's (an old Pizza Hut that had been converted in to a bizarre nightclub). He came home late one really excited. "I think I've found our first band member! He's a bass player, his name is Brian Lux and he looks exactly like Paul Simonon from the Clash!!" Sure enough Brian really did. I couldn't believe it. He had copped every single one of his moves too, it was freakish. He'd obviously spent half his lifetime in front of a full-length mirror perfecting every nuance of Simonon's slithery groove So there he was in our living room above the leasing office bobbing and weaving jerking and jumping, bass guitar slung almost down to his ankles. The band was called Heathen Town. We never played a single show, just made a horrible demo tape at Inside Track, Denton, and then promptly disbanded when Lux stole all our gear in the middle of the night and skipped town to be a cadet at Texas A & M.
.

.
The Moon Festival was born shortly thereafter with me moving to bass, Faris on guitar and Heathen Town drummer Rich Holden. Rich played only at our first show and then was sacked for Chris Adams. We recruited a young guitarist from El Paso named James Swenson who moved up to Denton just to be in the band. After only eight shows with us poor James was sacked for the good looking, lean, long-haired Tommy Roberts who I had poached from a Spinal Tap-esque band I saw at Doctor Smith’s called Mexican Chicken. Adams was then sacked a few months down the road when a local indie label, Dragon St. Records, approached us and said "If you get Shallow Reign’s Brad Robertson in your band we’ll sign you." Brad’s first show was Cadillac Jack’s in Addison in March of ’91.

The Moon Festival on a Mission. photo by John Hethorn

And so the definitive MF line-up was born very much under the influence of the Church, who I was heavily into at the time…the name was even lifted from a Kilbey song I dug called My Birthday, The Moon Festival.
.

.
The curse of the Moon Festival ran from January 1990 to January 1999 – a long time...all in all it was a bit like Spinal Tap without the hits. We did crack the CMJ top 75 with our debut Shrine but that was about it. A total of six different drummers sat behind the kit for us in those nine years! By the time of Sugar Pill, our best and last record, we had undergone a complete musical transformation into a Kinksy retro-pop trio.
.

.
We played our last show at the Satellite Lounge in Ft. Worth for $45 and then Faris quit in January of ‘99. I played the three remaining commitments by myself with an acoustic guitar. I was ill equipped to do that kind of thing back then. It was a baptism by fire…terrifying to have gone all those years with a band protecting you and then go out on stage by yourself. It’s funny to look back on it now because I love playing solo acoustic shows now. I actually thrive on it.
.

.
Faris rightfully recognised that recording on our own was where it was at and not continuing the beleaguered battleaxe of a band we’d been in for all those years with nary an ounce of success! The two of us set about recording on 8 track in a converted garage that I christened Pleasantry Lane with a nod and a wink to the studio the fab four made famous. We were working kinda like the Beatles did on the White Album – by the end, mostly separately. Faris would work on his songs when he knew I wouldn't be around then I'd show up and do mine. There was no teamwork and no camaraderie, just a lot of tension. It was pretty obvious it was over between us. It had stopped being fun, it was a drag.
.

.
The Nourallah Brothers album came out a couple of years after and by that time Faris had moved to Portland. Most of the tracks we recorded at those sessions are on the 28 song double disc re-issue of Nourallah Brothers from a few years back.
.
.
(The Daydreamers are a made up band..it's Salim really)
.
After my brother and I went our separate ways I quit playing music for a bit. My friend Paul Averitt encouraged me to start playing some acoustic shows. He’s the best harmony singer I’ve ever been around and we got into doing these power pop numbers with harmonies running throughout. His enthusiasm was pivotal in getting my confidence back to be in a band again. We played a few duo shows under the Glory Brothers moniker.
.

The Happiness Factor. Photo By Jayme Nourallah

.
Some of my songs plus covers like Misery by the Beatles and Sunny Afternoon by the Kinks. Around the same time I became friends with a guy named John Jay Myers who also happened to be a crazy Keith Moon styled high-energy drummer. We formed the band The Happiness Factor around this trio. It was a solid unit and felt like a "real" band based on friendships. I’d always wanted to be in a band like that.

The Happiness Factor. Photo by Jayme Nourallah

When my brother moved back from Portland in the Spring of 2000 we were briefly on better terms and I asked him to join. He played our first show gripped by stage fright and never showed up for our second show. Although I was mad about it at the time, it was the right thing to have happened. The band’s chemistry revolved around me, John and Paul. Faris was the odd man out and he knew it. He does appear on some of the debut though. Steve Duncan joined on right after Faris bowed out and we finished Self-Improvement? The Happiness Factor was a great rock’n’roll band I very fondly remember. When the band had run its course I knew I was done playing that kind of music. I couldn’t possibly form a better band so what would be the point trying? Going solo and playing "softer" music made perfect sense to me…
.

Salim and Faris in 2003
.
To be continued in the upcoming Bucketfull...in which our hero talks in detail about the following solo albums and everything else we could think of. Every album is a gem and theres not a single note out of place on any of them. Wonderful, passionate, classy and human you really must not rest until you have the whole set.
.

.
Polaroid (Western Vinyl)
.

.
A Way to Your Heart E.P. (Paisley Pop).
.

.
Beautiful Noise (Western Vinyl/Tapete Records)
.

.
Snowing In My Heart (Tapete Records)
.

.
Ciphers From Snowing is available as a free download over at NoiseTrade
.

.
Constellation
.

.
Pleasantry Lane is a live album....I haven't heard it yet but it's bound to be pretty damn fine.
.

.
Constellation appeared that it might be his last album. He just could not afford to take the time away from his production jobs to do anything.....then his good friend Alex Denzin of the superb Damnwells told him about the pledge scheme (see his blog for more details)
now theres a whole slew of archive releases in the works and a brand new album on the horizon...oh yes....
.

.
Here's some linkage.
http://www.salimnourallah.com/
.
http://www.myspace.com/salim
.
http://www.nourallahbrothers.com/history.html
.
http://salimnourallah.blogspot.com/
.
the blog is a wonderful place....very entertaining, lots to read and see.
.
Heres some of the man's recent production jobs.
.

.
How fine and acclaimed is John Lefler's album in pop circles? Co-produced by Salim.
.

.
Salim's been playing on the last few albums by Rhett, the latest he produces and Jon Brion is all over it too. What are you waiting for?
http://www.rhettmiller.com/
.

.
another great album another great production
http://www.buttercult.com/
.

.
Salim's wife Jayme did the beautiful sleeve to this album as well as all her husband's solo albums. A highly regarded artist and photographer in her own right. Here are some examples of here charming and elegant work.
.

.

.

.

.

see more of these delights at...
.
http://jaymenourallahart.com/home.html
.

Dan And Matt Wilson Live Minneapolis 2010

2010-04-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

.

.
Matt and brother Dan Wilson got together recently to play three acoustic shows together in Minneapolis and Chicago. With a set list spanning their careers the gigs must have been quite something to behold. The first of the three was professionally recorded by Brad Kern and it is now available to purchase as a download at their site.
.

.
this is what they played:
.
Reception (Trip Shakespeare)
Never You Mind (Semisonic)
Hello Stranger (Dan)
Unlucky Lady (Trip Shakespeare)
Alone (Twilight Hours)
Landing (Matt)
Chemistry (Semisonic)
Anyone (new one they co-wrote)
Made to Last (Semisonic)
Drummer Like Me (Trip Shakespeare)
Free Life (Dan solo)
Travel Plans (Matt)
Lips Service (Elvis Costello)
Closing Time (Semisonic)
Hello Stranger (Dan)
Two Wheeler, Four Wheeler (Trip Shakespeare)
Turtledove (Trip Shakespeare)
Toolmaster of Brainerd (Trip Shakespeare)
Hello Caller (Matt)
All Kinds of Beautiful (Dan)
Don't Worry Baby (Beach Boys)
.
Quite a setlist I am sure you'd agree. Go here to grab this slice of magic now.
http://www.danandmattwilson.com/
.

PHOTOS BY STACY SCHWARTZ..see the rest of the set here:

http://www.citypages.com/slideshow/dan-and-matt-wilsons-first-duo-show-29544725/1/

Bucketfull Of Brains 74

2010-03-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

The new Bucketfull Of Brains is out next week with lots of good stuff as ever. This time round I am chuffed to bits to mention that my excellent interview with Jason Falkner is finally here for you all to enjoy. Both Jason and I really put our all into the article, lots of questions flying to him and all the right answers flying back. You really don't want to miss this one and i suggest you check out the links to the right and grab yourself some fine reading from the magazine that I am proud to have contributed to these last two decades.

Michael Penn Mr.Hollywood Jr 1947 painting

2010-02-16T16:05:00.000-08:00

.
Michael Penn has been getting active on his facebook page recently, you should get over there and check it out. Recently he posted up this:
"Several people have asked me to post the original artwork for Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947. As some of you may know, there is a long and strange story behind this painting. I will leave that for another time...but for those with an interest, here it is..

Now this sparked a memory in me and I went and dug out an old radio interview he did and found the story behind the painting. Here in his own (transcribed) words is said tale

.
"I’d written these songs that all took place in 1947 and I was working on the record and, I guess it was round summertime of ‘94, I went to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Swapmeet and out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the greatest things I’d ever seen. On this little guy's stand there was this painting. It was the oddest painting I’d ever seen and the central figure in the painting was a kid who was wearing a sash across his chest that said Mr. Hollywood Jr, 1947. So now not only did I know exactly what the album was going to be called, I also thought I had the album cover. So I bought the painting for fifty bucks and then normally when you buy a painting at a swap meet you don’t think twice about using it but this thing came with a fucking dossier attached to it. The artist’s name was completely legible and there was a little plaque at the bottom of the frame that had the name of the subject of the painting. So I dutifully went onto to google and searched around and tracked down the artist and there was a gallery that had his work for sale and stuff. I wrote an email to the gallery that got returned, wrote another e mail to the gallery and that got returned saying mailbox full. So I called up the gallery, got no answer. This went on for months and I was absolutely set on using this painting. I was so frustrated I couldn’t get a hold of the guy. I finally found out this artist had had a show in another state several years ago so I called that gallery and was informed that this artist had passed away like just a week before. I finally talked to his next of kin, which involved another hunt, another search, trying to get her name, which finally led to the L.A. coroners office and I spoke to her. She was really into the idea but the whole estate was in disarray and it wasn’t able to happen and that was kind of a drag…"

.
Here's Michael with the mighty Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the Paul Thomas Anderson directed video for Try
.

And heres the eventual cover to the album which was later reissued on Sony with a bonus disc of his kcrw session of the time.

Yes Wembley 1977

2010-02-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

Rooting around in a draw yesterday I found my six (count 'em) tickets for Yes at Wembley in 1977. Oh indeed I went every goddamn night, I was nineteen and Yes were my favourite band bar non in those days. It helped that I had shit hot seats every night..first, second and third row and I got to say I loved every minute of it. I had only seen them twice before at QPR and the Reading Festival and had been counting the endless days waiting for a new tour. Wakeman was back in the band and boy did they play up a storm. I look back now and see that Going For The One was the beginning of the end. Awaken is really the only bit of true classic Yes on the album in my opinion, but at the time I still wanted it all to be great. By the end of that decade it was all over for me........but back in 77 it was still utterly wonderous.

Join me next time when I'll tell you how I got Trevor Horn to leave the band with a few choice expletives in Lewisham

Jason Falkner I'm OK, You're OK released in US

2010-02-06T21:01:00.000-08:00

The last album by Jason Falkner is released next week in the U.S. on Cobraside. As well as sporting new cover art the CD has a couple of differences and the Vinyl has two new bonus tracks.
.
THIS TIME- New Version
NYC
THE KNEW-Remix
STEPHANIE TELLS ME
HURRICANE
ANONDAH
KOMPLICATED MAN
RUNAWAY
SAY IT'S TRUE
THIS LIFE OF MINE
+ on the vinyl
GIMMI GIMMI [BONUS TRACK] recorded 2006
FEELING MUCH BETTER [BONUS TRACK] recorded 2006
.
.

the cd is now available from kool kat

Semisonic Great Divide a quick word with Dan Wilson

2010-01-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

John Munson and Matt Wilson’s new venture The Twilight Hours (click this link to buy this glory) and their sensational new album Stereo Night have made me come over all Trip Shakepearean again and through that a bit Semisonicky.
.

.
I have always really love Semisonic, particularly their first two albums and it was through my adoration of them that I finally discovered their previous band Trip Shakespeare who I really, really love. The second album Feeling Strangely Fine is one of the albums I reviewed for Mojo back during my brief period of writing for them. When I met them at their first London gig (at the 100 club) they were so happy to meet me because they had been really worried how the British press would be and my review, the first one they saw, was glowing. And for the first and only time I got a quote up on an advertising poster stuck up round town for the album.
.

the mojo review
.
They were really nice guys deserving of the success Closing Time had finally brought to them and really enthusiastic when I talked about my love for Trip Shakespeare. Both Dan and John later got my address from Mojo and Dan sent me a rare live trips promo and John then sent me a live mixing board of trips he dug up. I was very touched. I did try to do an email interview but they were so busy at the time. Quite a time later (in April of 1999), Dan did get around to answering a few questions about the bands debut album Great Divide but then life moved on and it never got used. I found it in a draw a few days ago and had quite forgotten about it. Definately worth a post I thought upon seeing it again.
.

.
Dan Wilson April 1999:

"My favourite tracks on Great Divide are The Prize, Down In Flames and 'Temptation. I think these have the most soul. "Across the Great Divide" sounds really good to my ears. My favourite songs are probably "Falling" and "Down in Flames. I think there was a heavy soulful vibe to a lot of the lyrics that we as a band underplayed. I think this is my main problem with the finished album We under emphasised the lyrics and the messages of the songs. When choosing between the vocals and a big cloud of noise loops and interesting sonic ideas we chose the sonic stuff every time. And unfortunately, this stuff was not what Paul Fox the producer found most appealing about the band anyway. So there was a strange conflict in the conception of the album. Paul is a really fun, interesting, interested guy. He was great at launching into stuff with very little plan, but he didn't like to do this. Paul has great ears and especially when dealing with bass and drums he could get the grooves to really pop. But when it came to the tones of the instruments, he and I actually had many long arguments that unfortunately didn't get us anywhere -- we didn't find the common ground I was hoping for. I think he thought a lot of my ideas for how the guitars should sound were unprofessional. I don't mind it if a sound has an amateurish quality, if it sounds like something is breaking. Paul’s response was

"Not with my name on it, you don't!"
It happened quite a few times that I or John or Jake would suggest something and Paul and Ed would say,

"You can't do that on a real album."
I think we wanted more of a combination of great and terrible sounds and Paul and Ed only wanted the great ones. In the end the album turned out quite well, despite my misgivings. We left off Wishing Well which we’d previously done on the Pleasure e.p. We did an even slower, heavier version with Paul that sounded to me very out of place on Great Divide. Paul thought leaving it off was a mistake. We also did a version of Making A Plan which didn’t make the cut and which I haven’t listened to for awhile, it was quite rockin’. Now I realise we’ve done a version of Making A Plan for each of our albums (there was a very spacey one recorded for Feeling Strangely Fine) and it never has come out as yet."

Dan has a new live double album out now. I haven't heard it yet but its bound to be a real treat.

http://www.danwilsonmusic.com/

A letter from Dan...I wonder where he heard about Todd from?

Photos: Dawn Landes Higher Ground, Burlington, Vermont 13th October 2009

2009-12-29T09:28:00.000-08:00

We've got a lot of time for the rather excellent music of Dawn Landes here at Art Into Dust and since she played in Burlington a few weeks back Sareet was there with her trusty camera to grab some photos.......

.

.

.

.

Dawn and Carbon

With Carbon Leaf and Steve Kellogg etc

Photos By Sareet Rosenstein

Her rather excellent new album is just out.
http://www.dawnlandes.com/

John Common

2009-12-23T18:43:00.001-08:00

.
I've been totally smitten with the fine and wonderful music of Denver's own John Common since discovering his pair of truly superb solo albums earlier this year. In fact along with Jeff Litman I would have to rate Mr Common as my best new find of the year trickling away from us even as I type. The news that his third album Beautiful Empty will be upon us early in the new year utterly warms me to the cockles of my heart. As a Xmas treat John has put up a free to download sampler of six tracks, four from the first two albums and one a piece from his former band Rainville's pair of albums.
.

.

Okay here's how to get this sampler:

http://johncommon.bandcamp.com/album/gift

This EP is a gift to say thanks for all of your support. Please share these tracks with your friends! These songs are all taken from our four last records:
1) "In A Bookstore" from Good To Be Born
2) "LGM" from Why Birds Fly
3) "Other Side Of Town" from Good To Be Born
4) "Flesh Wound" from Why Birds Fly
5) "How 'Bout You?" from The Longest Street In America
6) "Pass That Bottle Down" from Collecting Empties
Hope you enjoy them. John
.

And heres where to go to to buy the first two albums once you have also become totally smitten by the man's amazing talent.
http://johncommon.com/
.

.
Good To Be Born
Smart, introspective songs and lush, layered arrangements combine with artful production choices and inspired performances on this debut record from Denver-based songwriter/musician/singer John Common. A classic "head phone album" from start to finish, 'Good To Be Born' is this former Rainville frontman's exploration into startling new territory with strong roots but no boundaries.
.

.
Why Birds Fly
Why Birds Fly is a 13-song collection of scratched films and charred photos that chronicle how things come together and then fall apart. Call it the dark "disc two" from the Good To Be Born sessions. This record shows Common as an artist at ease with quiet acoustic numbers, wordless sound landscapes and fully-orchestrated rock stunners. Wrapped in radio static and shot out into space, Why Birds Fly is both a great question and a troubling answer.

Cerebral Corps with Gary Lucy and Kathi Kritzer - Sheena Easton's Ghost

2009-12-11T07:01:00.001-08:00

wowser indeed

Cerebral Corps with Fast Freddy and Kathi Kritzer - Side Effects

2009-12-11T07:00:00.001-08:00

wowser

Roger Klug More Help For Your Nerves review and interview

2009-11-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

Roger Klug More Help For The Nerves Mental Giant

Back in the late nineties Cincinnati’s own Roger Klug got us to sit up and take notice with a pair of stunning albums of clever, inventive kick bottom power pop that showcased the man’s abundant creative talents and left us panting for more. Ten years later and the panting is over and half way through the opening witty ditty Tinnitus is clear that the man never really went away. The second track Dump Me Hard kicks in with all the classic Klug hallmarks, we know and love. Classic pop melodies, swooping choruses, blazing playing and addictive hooks aplenty are at the heart of it and around this solid foundation dances the reasons that elevate him into the ranks of real genius. His lyrics are razor sharp, smart arsed and literate but never cold like some clever buggers tend to be. The playing, as ever nearly all done by the man himself, is wild and confidently adventurous, you never know where it’s going till it’s been there. Just as About Time settles into its perfectly pitched languid pop lament it hammers down a brutal guitar riff before sliding into shit hot country picking that give Barefoot Jerry a run for their money. Confounding expectations in a way that thrills and amuses in equal measures is a constant feature of this beautiful and rich album. Epic and sardonic, intimate and relaxed, Roger takes it all in his laid back stride. Whether it’s flicking off cascading riffs like only the likes of Jason Falkner usually attempts or pulling a melodic pop treat from his sleeves, the man is up for every challenge he sets himself with a down to earth mastery few can touch. And boy does he know how to rock. On top of all this wealth comes the other constant, the stunning guitar work that punches through and anoints throughout. Klug is without doubt one of the truly great lead guitar players in the world. If he could do nothing else he would be a legend in my books. Fortunately he does do everything else to the same breathtaking standard and More Help For Your Nerves shows that while he was away the talent remained as captivating as it ever was.

We thought to catch up with the man at his long home and find up whats going down since last we spoke. It’s been awhile since the last album..so what have you been up to?
RK: Yeah, it has been a while. That seems to be the headline: Man Wakes From Coma And Releases New Album! Let’s see…a couple of babies arrived on the scene, so I had to move the studio out of the house. I’m now in what was, at one time, the longest building in the world; it’s something ridiculous like a half-mile long. So that took a couple of weeks to move the gear, the instruments, the circus animals…what else…dum dum dum…played a lot of low-key gigs around the Cincinnati area; there are a lot of great musicians here, why that is, I’ve no idea. I recorded commercials for sports teams, fast food restaurants and loan sharks. Played banjo, balalaika and wah-wah guitar with the Kentucky Symphony. Watched babies grow into toddlers and then full-fledged human beings. Mostly avoided working on a new album: I think subconsciously I was avoiding finishing it, because then I would have had to find out if it was any good.
,

How did you approach the new album?
Very gingerly: "Come here, little album, I don’t want to scare you away; come into my arms, won’t you…" Hmmm…I did have it in the back of my mind that this would be a very guitar-oriented album, versus a lot of piano or strings or what-have-you, although those orchestral instruments always find a way of creeping into the mix. Other than that, it was just whatever songs were swimming around in my head at the time; it always starts with the germ of a song. I had a few things recorded but not much finished. I was kind of suffering from what Andy Partridge seems to be going through at the moment…boredom with music, lack of confidence, lack of desire…like there was no reason to write another song or put something out into the marketplace. Luckily I snapped out of it and finished up the tracks I had and even wrote some new ones. Maybe it was musical depression or burn-out or writer’s block…but once I got going again, about a year ago, there was no stopping and my head was very clear about what I needed to do to reach the finish line. I’m really stoked about it now, and glad I hung in there to see it through. What did Steve Miller say? "You’ve got to go through Hell before you get to Heaven." This is the second time this year I’ve quoted Steve Miller; what in Hades is happening to me?

You've been playing live again.
It’s great to be out playing loud guitar again; not something I sit around the house doing by myself, it’s definitely more of a social thing. And as much as I love working in the studio, there’s a kind of living-in-a-vacuum quality to it, whereas live you get immediate feedback from the audience, the band, your amp, ha ha…and there’s no hitting Rewind, or Undo; you play it once and it’s gone forever (or else on YouTube tomorrow night!). I like that; I keep threatening my next album will be cut live to 2-track, just like a jazz session. Maybe I’ll get smart and take my own advice someday.

http://www.mentalgiant.com/

Bucketfull Of Brains 73 out now

2009-11-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

Bucketfull Of Brains 73 is finally upon us. It features Lucky Soul, The Drones, John Wesley Harding. Achievements In Sound, Rob Symmons, Roky Erickson, Peter Holsapple, Big Star, along with all the usual stuff. As always a great read from cover to cover.

My contribution this issue is one I'm really thrilled with. Achievements In Sound is the band monika used by none other that Gino Nave who back in the nineties was one third of Red Letter Day, a band who released one of the very best power pop records of that decade and then seemingly vanished. That was until a couple of years ago when Gino returned to music with Achievements In Sound and what joy his two albums so far have brought. Beautiful, melodic sound craft of the highest order and playing to match. Essentual stuff for any true pop fan out there. And there's a third outing on the horizon even as we speak. Gino was a really great interview subject and for the first time anywhere we get the long overdue lowdown on the unknown history Red Letter Day and all he has been up to since. And what a lovely bloke!

Here's Gino
and here's the covers of his albums..

My gosh this is such a stunning, wonderful listen

as is this....if you love that McCartney, Emitt Rhodes type of melodic pop and the Jellyfish vibe of Red Letter Day then you so need these beauties....right lets cut to the links

http://www.myspace.com/achievementsinsound

http://www.achievementsinsound.com/

http://bucketfullofbrains.blogspot.com/

The Winterpills and Grant Lee Phillips live at Higher Ground Photos

2009-11-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

We love, love, love The Winterpills (from Northampton, Massachusetts) here at Art Into Dust and have for years considered Philip Price to be one of the most heart stoppingly brilliant tunesmiths around. His songs are things of great depth and beauty and he has a honey drenched voice that sounds like falling in love for the first time. The last week or so a three piece line up (Philip Price: singing, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards, Dennis Crommett: electric guitar, singing and Flora Reed: singing, keyboards) of The Winterpills have been touring the east coast of the states alongside the legendary Grant Lee Phillips, who I am sure you already know is another man blessed with a superb voice and considerable song writing skills of his own. Together they are a bit of a dream concert line up, and as and added bonus Grant, who is performing solo, has been playing along with The Winterpills and they in return have been backing him up on some of his set. On November 15th they played Higher Ground in South Burlington Vermont. By Odin's beard and tutu I wish I could have been there for such a magical evening. But I'm stuck here in London. Luckily Sareet was there with her camera and so here are some lovely photos to enjoy.
Also check out a fine set of videos of Grant with the Winterpills live in New York the week before here:
http://only-good-music.blogspot.com/2009/11/grant-lee-phillips-drom-new-york-2009.html

Grant Lee Philip Price

Grant Flora Philip
.

Philip
.

Grant Flora Philip
.

Grant and Philip
.

The Winterpills with Grant

.

I think you get the idea who is who by now....

.

Dennis

.

Philip Flora
.

Philip and Flora
.

Photos by Sareet Rosenstein

http://www.winterpills.com/

http://www.myspace.com/winterpills

http://www.grantleephillips.com/