Comp Time

Been off work for a bit, sick as a dog – only just now pulling out of it. As a way of testing how together I’m actually feeling, I wrote reviews of a few new-ish compilation CDs that I’ve been digging on lately. I’m happy to see they all came out relatively coherent, but if you feel any of em still smack of fever dream, do let me know and I’ll rethink my plan to return to work tomorrow.

1. VARIOUS ARTISTS – Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1976 – 1983 (Strut Records, 2008) – Yes I realize this blog may paint me as some sort of hairy heavyweight doom rocker type. But really I’m nothing but an ass shakin’ pansy who loves disco and glittering lights as much as I do WINO’s new solo CD. Recently blogged about this man’s moustache, but dammit if his music ain’t worth some attention too. There was a time a decade or so ago when I was searching hi/lo for every August Darnell (aka KID CREOLE) project I could find – boy, were there alot of em. This one documents his early days with glistening examples from all his greatest achievements: DR. BUZZARD’S ORIGINAL SAVANNAH BAND, GICHY DAN’S BEACHWOOD NO. 9 (where’s that long promised reissue?), DON ARMANDO’S SECOND AVE. RHUMBA BAND, THE AURAL EXCITERS, CRISTINA, and of course KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS. Along the way James Chance, Pat Place, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and Walter Steding all lob in choice bits of skronky noise, Sue Who and Taana Gardner out-Brooklyn Rosie Perez in the whiny sass department, and Cory Daye and Lourdes Cotto earn my votes as Ruling Disco Diva Queens forevermore. What can never be denied was the KID’s talent for penning great lyrics that were goofily silly as often as they were pointedly biting. And only Arthur Russell ever thought to confuse the dance by inserting so many loopy sonic non sequiturs into the basic 4-4 disco formula. If this don’t make you wanna hustle, I don’t know what will.

2. VARIOUS ARTISTS – Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story (Ace Records, 2008) – Only ever been to Memphis once, and all I really remember was checking out Beale Street with this attractive Spanish gal from the youth hostel who was unavailable since she was “getting over Cristóbal”. Baaah. But I do remember listening to ALEX CHILTON’s Lost Decade cassette – which corralled stray cuts by Alex with forgotten tracks by outsider Memphians Alex had produced in the 70’s – over and over on my shitty car stereo down highways/byways all over the city and beyond in the beautiful Tennessee countryside. That comp made a great case for the true genius of Alex laying well outside the confines of his more renowned contribution to BIG STAR. It remains for me the best way to get acquainted to this gentleman’s singular talent and the unique social landscape that nourished it.

But along comes this Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story compilation that expands exponentially on the original Lost Decade concept, busting beyond Alex to sample much of what came out of Memphis’ Ardent Studios dating back to 1960. What’s trippy is how a studio sitting smack dab in this Southern cradle of country, rock’n'roll, and soul produced so much English sounding pop/rock throughout it’s heyday. At times it’s positively uncanny: THE AVENGERS sound like an early Joe Meek production, SID SELVIDGE like a haunting PROCOL HARUM outtake, and more than one of these bands like something Keith Relf coulda fronted and pretended were THE YARDBIRDS. The second disc is made up of lots of BIG STAR alt versions that don’t really sound too alt to me; anybody else wanna admit to thinking BS are just a tad overrated? Me I’m more interested in odd, peripheral acts like ROCK CITY, THE HOT DOGS, and Tulsa’s amazing CARGOE, who even Jody Stephens conceded could best BIG STAR live. But taken in total this smashes all preconceived notions about Memphis and its musical legacy, which I guess means somebody put this set together right.

3. VARIOUS ARTISTS – Bold Beginnings: An Incomplete Collection of Louisville Punk 1978 – 1983 (Noise Pollution, 2007) And here I thought the Louisville underground began and ended with Tara Key’s ANTIETAM . . . this collection proves just how wrong I was. Starting with the dissonant, minor key howls/wails of NO FUN, you get to pay witness to everybody from THE ENDTABLES (sizable midwestern chunkstyle riffs fronted by a neat David Thomas clone) to the BABYLON DANCE BAND (totally cool, post-punk WIRE bass churn) to THE MONSTERS (FLIPPEResque 1/2 speed noise nod) and on to MALIGNANT GROWTH (fullblown MINOR THREAT-aware HC punk). The CRIME-like BLINDER gets points for Best Song Title (“This Isn’t My Mother’s Car”), YOUR FOOD and awesome named SKULL OF GLEE allow arty dudes to herk and jerk with the best of em, and THE DICKBRAINS take limey worship to new, uncharted Appalachian heights. Only STRICT-9 are a bit forgettable but HEY petty quibbles don’t matter, since soooo much of this is top rank stuff. You only wish your shitty city had this much crazy punker madness still to exhume.

By The Time I Get To Arizona

Spring has finally arrived here in Londontown, and with it comes warmer weather, sunnier skies, drier air. Heck if I shut my eyes tight enough, I can almost imagine I’m back in the American Southwest, soaking up the heat like a scaly lizard belly up in the hot sand. At such times I’m drawn to sounds born in deserts I grew up criss-crossing on long drives back and forth between California and Texas: the original ALICE COOPER group, MEAT PUPPETS, and perennial faves GIANT SAND. Lately though, it’s Tucson’s once mighty NAKED PREY that have captivated me most.

1st-generation GREEN ON RED connections (NP singer Van Christian was the original GOR drummer) meant NAKED PREY would forever be pigeonholed as Gram Parsons revivalists retooled for the 80’s college rock set. But NP were tougher, darker, & stranger than any Cosmic American Music tag suggested. The chord progressions these guys favored were often minor key, consistently harsh, and willfully monochromatic, refusing to provide the kinda cozy solace more genteel jangle rock types demanded. David K. Seger’s gtr was Neil Young by way of paint-peeling Metallic KO, and woulda been completely foreign to your average pansyass new waver. Hell I imagine it probably ruffled the feathers of any number of trad HC punkers around at the time, too. Tom Larkin’s drumming wasn’t flashy but always got the job done, no matter what his state of inebriation. And Van’s voice! Oh shit. If his mullet didn’t scare away all the good-looking gals, his strangled singing sure as shit woulda freaked the hell out of the rest of them. No, NP weren’t paisley underground dwellers, nohow. If I had to compare em to anybody I’d say they sounded like a roadrage-fueled highway collision between THE PONTIAC BROTHERS and THE SEA HAGS, stripped of all glam trappings such a pileup might imply.

In the 80’s, they put out three great LPs, each improving and building on the last (Naked Prey on Down There, Under the Blue Marlin and 40 Miles From Nowhere on Frontier). None of these have seen CD reissues, but all are worth hearing. They then discovered a European fanbase, switched to Fundamental Records, and released a gnarly live EP (Live in Tucson) along with the full-length Kill the Messenger LP that I’m ashamed to say I’ve not actually heard yet. But come the 90’s, the metal began flaking.

David Seger left and his departure was a major loss, indeed – even Van has since acknowledged this. Sure alotta of what made NAKED PREY compelling was Van’s jaundiced worldview and desperate howl which continued on until the very end, perhaps in even more refined form as the years past. But with the metal solos gone, so was some of what made them so uniquely great.

I saw em live in the mid-90’s at Austin’s SXSW music festival, with enlisted support of a couple soon-to-be CALEXICO heads. These younger fellas gave the proceedings a decidedly more folky, less feral sound, even when Van shredded his vocal cords to intend otherwise. While such manners mighta suited Howe Gelb in his GIANT SAND to a T, here it only undercut the misanthropic power that we’d all come to expect from NAKED PREY. Their final CD (And Then I Shot Everyone) is a charred but still glowing coal of record, but I can’t help thinking how much more powerful it might’ve sounded with some of David’s deformed gtr ripping new earholes in my head.

Screw the conjecturing: if you ever wanted to dig GREEN ON RED but found their records less than compelling, then you owe it to yourself to take a bite out of NAKED PREY. You’ll be spittin’ blood for weeks, I tell ya.

NAKED PREY – “Little Lucy” (Naked Prey, Down There/Enigma Records, 1984)
NAKED PREY – “The Carnival” (40 Miles From Nowhere, Frontier Records, 1987)
NAKED PREY – “Love Me To Death” (And Then I Shot Everyone, Epiphany!, 1995)

(H)ELP

March/April 2009 issue of Less Lee & Megashaun’s Popshifter webzine is now live, wherein love’s given up for Lux Interior (RIP), Berlin’s beautiful Gudrun Gut, as well as smells of every size shape n color.

But whatever you do, don’t click away until you read my bit about EMERSON LAKE & PALMER here – there’s a nickel says it’ll help all you aging prog apologists save some well-earned cash at at your local chain record store as we dip further into inevitable worldwide depression.