http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 10 Feb 2004 21:52:03 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/10/215203.php Scott ChaffinI've been sitting on this last piece of found musica for too long, so I'll just knock it out here for you while I sit and listen to it. I found this one on my desk when I got back from Minneapolis a week or two ago, a present from The Wife. I finally got to listen to it on my drive back from Austin last week. It's really hard for me to say just how much I like this album, and how much I dig Opie Hendrix. There's really nothing wrong with it that I can find (except for one slow song that I just can't abide). I'm already on record as saying that Opie's nothing short of a Texas musical genius, and this CD just makes me believe that even more. He's an awesome guitarist, and I love to hear him wail. So, let me just kind of take this track-by-track, if you don't mind. But really...you should just trust me on this one and go buy it right frikkin' now. You will not make a mistake by snagging Smashed Hits at the same time, my friends. 1) A 30 second intro that cracks you up...2) Can't Even Yodel - a nice little "saloon by the train station & a broken heart" song about drinking, sorta shuffly and blue. Good pedal steel guitar here, and some superb fiddling, too. I want to hear this one out under the stars. And Opie does a passable yodel in there, too.3) Little Party - heh...a good "caught you in the middle of doing wrong" in classic Ft. Worth Stockyards country music style. I can just see the hats twirling the rhinestone jeans around in a sweet, well-practiced two-step. Lopes along beautifully, has a good honky-tonk piano plinking along in there, and the chorus a great sing-along (the dog is the only one who agrees with me.)4) Golfing & Gravy - a folky, fun little thing, full of aphorisms and metaphors, strung along with what I've come to consider a typical Opie style -- bright notes peeking out, kinda poppy, but fun -- a real toe-tapper & head-knodder. Great line: "gotta keep singin, even when no one's dancin..."5) Beautiful & True - slow love song -- UGH! But wait...there's a nice accordion, and a cool San Angelo mex-tex sound back there. It's got a name, but I can't recall it. Sounds like Family Dance Night at the VFW in Brady...6) You & Me - good "we're both a couple of drunks, so let's get drunk, get together, and have some fun" song. 7) Suddenly Susan - a whole 45 seconds of noodling on the guitar. Whatever, Opie.8) Mr. Blue - this is the kind of song that makes Opie a madcap musical genius. It's a dang 1954 doo-wop song, complete with pedal steel guitar and falsetto backing vocals. Hilarious. "Call me Mr. Blue/wah-wah-oooooh." You just hafta grin.9) Texas Love - starts out like slow Bob Wills tribute, then kicks into a shit-kickin' mandolin-pickin' stomp, then drops back to Bob. Opie and the band jam through all the gears on this one, and it's weirdly beautiful.10) My Favorite Waitress (aka, Big Boobies) - every damn radio station in the land should be playing this one at least once an hour. If you don't grin and jump around and sing along at the top of your voice with this one, you're clinically dead. You gotta love the chorus: She's got big boobies Likes dirty movies She can suck a golf ball through a garden hose Shaves her beaver I'll never leave her Just get her wasted and it's anything goes. An instant classic, my friends...mix tape fodder for generations yet to come. 11) Two Swinging Doors - slow song -- the only punch-out song on the whole disc. It's good country blues, but it ain't my style.12) You Don't Care (Slight Return) - this was on Smashed Hits, and it really is a slight return. I'm glad he re-issued it or re-did it or whatever it is. I love this song, mucho. Adding a tee-tiny bit of surf-y guitar in there jazzes me, too. Great line: "Someone slipped me cocaine/Must have been in that powder I was sniffing" Yeah, it's a dope song, which goes agains my grain, but it's a funny song. I've had women who busted me down enough to gobble up a pile of reds, I reckon.12) Shoulda Known Better - the Ghost of Waylon Jennings haunts this song. It's uncanny, and it's awesome. I kept hitting the re-do button on the CD player and listened to this about 10 times in a row. Opie brings in a guest lead vocal on this one, one Capt. Mike Bly to play guitar and sing along with him. The song's one of those "fish out of water" deals, with crazy drunks covered in weird tattoos and stinking of cheap perfume: "when she smiled, she was pretty/in that scary kind of way". Waking up in the car with a grotesquely swollen head, police tappin on the window -- aw, hell, just buy it and listen to it. This song is worth the price of admission alone. If I'd known then, what I know now I'd have never learned what I know now Hehehehehe. Gorgeous.14. Things Gotta Change - another durn style-change: Texas blues, with a by-God organ snakin around in the background. It feels like I've been listening to this song for a hundred years in a thousand smoky bars with a million cold beers in my hand, and it always just pole-axes me how gorgeous the blues can be. I get all wrapped up in the Texas honky-tonk stuff, and rightly so, but I will never stop loving the blues shouters. Not never. 15) It's My Life - ack...slow song. Opie! Son! Put this at the beginning of the album. It's bluesy - girlfriend done left him, and he's all angsty, and getting drunk & misty. Blech. Purty, but not for me, bud.16) If I Had A Girl Like You (I'd Shoot Myself) - this is such a classic punky Americana midwesterner song, and it rocks your lame ass. Very 'Mats circa 1992, which could quite easily be where it came from. I swear I've heard this song before, but it's not even listed as a song, and there aren't any credits. Officially, it doesn't exist, but my gosh! it's a great rocker. I just wanna pogo around and play air guitar and be a big scowling screaming punk when this one's on. If anyone knows the provenance of this song, let me know. There you go. What I dearly love about this CD is the fact that it covers a lot of great styles that I enjoy, and Opie does it with typical Opie flair. I wish to hell that more people knew Opie Hendrix and the Texas Tallboys. I've seen him several times, but it ain't enough. He's one guy I'll stop down for and make an effort to catch when he comes to town. When I miss a Dallas show, I'm always sad, because I know I missed a good show. And in my books, Opie is one of the good guys when it comes to musicians. I genuinely like the guy, and I don't say that about many musicians I meet. Go buy it and support independent Texas music, and support a truly great guy. It makes me sick to my stomach that Houston gets to claim the Opester & the Tallboys. You swampy sonuvaguns better go support him -- there will be no [crosses fingers] Camus quoting. You might get a Hendrix replay and walking on the bar while playing the guitar, but not Camus. Music12618@blogcritics.org Tue, 10 Feb 2004 21:52:03 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/10/110903.php Scott ChaffinFor the independent Texas Music lover on your Christmas list, the good news is that there is a plethora ("would you say I have a plethora of them?") of great choices out there. The one I'm going to pick out for you here is not necessarily my favorite -- I couldn't make that choice with a gun to my head. But it's by far the one I'm the most happy about. It's the Thrift Store Cowboys new one, The Great American Desert. I've been knowing these lop-eared pups for something like two years, when they showed up at one of the music festivals, packed into a durn U-Haul moving van. About 20 kids from Lubbock piled out of that van, and promptly started charming the hell out of a bunch of hot, dusty, boozed-up rednecks. Somewhere amidst that gaggle of piercings and belly shirts and wacky hair-dos were six raw but awesome musicians who, when their turn came, proceeded to just tear up the stage. Their energy was, of course, youthful, and that came through in their songs, and it infected most everybody who was there. Everything they did was original, and best of all, everything they did was good. Not just well-played good (which it was well-played, don't misunderstand) -- well-written...well-arranged...whatever you music types call it. "Good" was good enough for me. So I bought their first CD and pretty much burned through it over the last two years. It hasn't left the visor CD holder in that truck for that two years, and there's not another CD I can say that about.Well, The Wife pops in last Friday with a throw-off question - "Oh, by the way...I've got the Thrift Store Cowboys new CD. Wanna hear it?" Ummm....HELL YES!!! So she drags it out of her car, and I immediately start listening to it. Weird fact #1: I know all these songs. Nothing sounds new -- but DING! I've seen them play live probably 10 times in the last couple of years, and they've been working these into their sets and sharpening them up before they went into the studio. Probably the best way to pick what songs you want to put down on vinyl (plastic?) for posteritiy -- work it out in front of real, live audiences; see what they like; see what you like playing; makes sense to me. Un-weird Fact #1: the album surpasses my wildest hopes for the band. I feared the sophomore jinx, and that didn't happen here. TSC have really done an awesome job on this. There are minor quibbles I have with it, like the mixing -- I think it sounds kind of muddy and low, but I've been playing it on a damn PC or a stock truck CD player AND I've been listening to it with some abused 43 year old ears. But, the bottom line here is that they've captured the essence of not just their sound, but their Texas roots, most importantly their West Texas roots. Colt's pickin' and Amanda's fiddlin' are just plain soulful -- it's great late-night, driving-down-a-dark-highway, blanket-of-stars, coyote-howlin', Marfa-lights spooky country rock -- does that make sense to anyone? If it does, then you know what I mean.So, anyway -- go get the CD. It's available at the utterly invaluable LoneStarMusic.com, and they have samples of all the songs on the album for that doofy Windows Media Player. They also carry TSC's first album, so get that, too, if you ain't got it already. To entice you even further, provided you've read this far, I'm hosting a full MP3 version of one of the songs off the CD, "Pictures", over at the Tiny Bidness website (no one wants to go camping in December, so I've got oodles of bandwidth to burn.) I'll leave it up for a while, as long as the traffic doesn't burn down the server. And I got full permission from the band to put this up, too, so don't be busting my chops. Just get the album, babies. Of course, no album can compare with seeing these yootful Texicans live (not IMnotsoHO). They really rock it all out live. So get out there and go see them -- you won't regret it. You'll be knocked out, I promise. And you'll be supporting independent music, something you want to do anyway, right? For those in the Dallas area, they're playing Dec. 19th at the All-Good Cafe, down in that Deep Ellum. I imagine that I shall make that show. Say the secret word (crawdad), and I'll stand ye to a Shiner (Bock, not Light). Music10831@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Dec 2003 11:09:03 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/08/27/211051.php Scott ChaffinToday's the anniversary of the death of Stevie Ray Vaughn 13 years ago in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin. Stevie is, in this man's opinion, the greatest blues guitarists ever.* Mike Rhyner, today on the Ticket, made a good point about Stevie, something to the effect that he was probably the last to genuinely channel Jimi Hendrix, and damn if I don't agree with that. I still get goosebumps when I catch one of his songs on the radio. I hardly ever play any of his CDs, just because it seems like I've always got something newer or more pressing to listen to. But they are in the truck for those times I need me some SRV. I've never heard anyone like him, not before and not since. Picture from Celebrity 8x10sHere's an excellent fan site, with a page on Stevie's guitars that I'm eating up right now.Dean Esmay was good enough to point me to this release, which I'd never heard of: In Session, with Stevie and Albert King jamming live in the studio. So, someday soon, I'll have me some new Stevie to listen to. YEEHAW!* That's an argument that could go on forever. Feel free to start one. Music7896@blogcritics.org Wed, 27 Aug 2003 21:10:51 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/08/12/143035.php Scott ChaffinSo let me see if I can, here on Monday evening, recall everything that happened this weekend at Raz. Last we chatted about music instead of how damn tired I am, we had successfully pulled off singer-songwriter night. Since this is a pretty random blog, and I'm a pretty random guy, I'm just gonna see if I can give you a decent flavor of Friday through last night.Friday, 4:45pm: I roll down to the campground after a little nappy-poo, and my BBQ guy asks me did I forget to pay my electric bill. This is nothing new -- we blow fuses all the time. Unh-uh. Not this time. We boiled out another transformer, this one a 25Kva transformer. Last year, we boiled out a 15Kva. So, praise be to Texas-New Mexico Power, they had a 37½Kva transformer waiting for me this year. Now I don't understand electricity at all, but the guys who do tell me that this is pretty big. 90 minutes later, after scrambling like crazy to get the sound board and PA on a clean circuit and the show back up and running, TxNM has the new transformer up on the pole, connected, and we're back in business. Seems our ambient temperature of 110° was just a bit too much for what we were trying to do. By way of comparison, the first year they did this festival here, they did it with two externsion cords running out of the bath-house. Safe to say we're growing. Saturday, 11:15am: I roll down the hill to check on things, since the sky is black as night off to the northwest. A few folks are standing around, having roused themselves from their drunken slumber to order up breakfast tacos and coffee. As we are standing there discussing whether that is thunder we hear, a 70mph wind blows a blinding cloud of river-valley red sand over the ridge line and into the campground. Two tents immediately go tumbling into the barbed wire fence, and then into the river. The gate area, a 10x20 metal pole awning setup pulls up out of the ground, breaks it's guy ropes, and does a Wizard of Oz over the ridge, into the trees and on top of somebody's little gazebo. 30 seconds later, we get about 3 inches of rain dumped on us in about 30 minutes. I spend that half-hour holding another metal-poled awning that is protecting about $1MM in sound gear. Water is rushing down the hill and over my feet, I'm soaked to the bone, and I'm watching dollar bills and hours of prep work float by on their way down to the Brazos. Plus, lightening is crackling all around. I'm figuring, if I die right now, maybe the portajon guy will forgive my wife the debt out of a sense of tragedy. When the big weather is over, we've got three more collapsed tents, and four new lakes on the campground (that are still drying out.) The good news is that it sure did keep the dust down for the rest of the weekend, and it cooled it off so damn much I was shivering while I was standing there. The bad news it seems to have knocked my satellite out, so no Rangers for TFG.Saturday, 7:30pm: a conversation: The Wife: Hey, is that Billy Joe Shaver? TFG: (looking at the back of a brown cowboy hat) I don't know...let's go see. TW: Can we do that? TFG: Whose land is The Man standing on? [couple of minutes later] TFG: Billy Joe? Welcome to our place, this is my wife, blah blah blah - thanks for coming down and being a part of our festival. BJS: Pleased to meetcha, blah blah blah - happy to do it, thanks for having me, purty place you have here. [couple of more minutes later] TW: Man, he's just so nice. And he is. Just a helluva guy. He signed autographs for an hour after the show -- didn't care what it was he signed, he was just kind enough to do it for about 200 people. Then he just left. "See yall next year." I can only hope.Sunday, 4:00am: Holy effin' crap! How did it get so late? Where are the cops? They're usually here at midnight on the nose to shut the music down! Raz just wrapped up 30 minutes ago. I've gotta get some sleep.Saturday, 9:30pm: My BBQ man pulls me to the side and shows me his newly-delivered stash of pure Texas moonshine. Well, hell yeah!, I took a slash. Smooth...very smooth. And another slash to top it off.Friday, midnight: Davin James is absolutely positively blowing me away. This cat has got a future. Wearing green boots with big inlaid dice on them, playing some beautifully warped fusion of today's Texas music sound and 70s Marshall Tucker/Waylon Jennings/Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was simply awesome. I'm a full-bore convert. I want mutton-chop sideburns and some bell-bottom jeans. And a Flying Vee guitar. Sunday, 10am: Bleary-eyed, three generic ibuprofens sloshing around in a pot of coffee inside my severely abused body, I roll down the hill to see what's happening. A group of hard-cores surround a cooler in golf carts and lawn chairs. They've been picking and singing all night long. How do people do that? Hell, yes, I want a breakfast burrito, but I'm too late. Mountains of trash. Dumpster's already full. Pile it on, brother...fill up the trucks. After that I just kind of wander around gathering trash in as many piles as I can. I found 8 shoes, and not a one matched another. Probably twenty busted camp chairs. Two broke-down tents. One broke-down awning. No broke-down cars or anything of value. Friday 12:45am: TW: Honey, can you help me get this golf cart unstuck? TFG: Sure. [we walk over to cart; I get in front to push it off the ridge it's hung on; she jumps in and stabs it] TFG: Reverse, reverse! Stop! Ow! Crazy @#$&in'...OWWWW!!! I would call it an accident if she hadn't swung a hard-right 180 and hit me again coming back down the hill. Then she drove off without a word, and hid the golf cart in a grove of trees. One knee is mangled, and the other one just hurts. In her defense, she was a bit tipsy, having finished off a half-gallon of te-kill-ya and about 400 of those little airline wines. And she was severely apologetic the next morning as I moaned and groaned about the house and woke her up to a tremendous hangover. [ed. note - some parts of this narrative may be enhanced, but ed. has one sore-ass knee, that's for sure]Random Thoughts: Best New To TFG Band: Cosmic Dust Devils -- first I'd heard 'em, and I like 'em a lot. I wanna go see them play next time they're up this way. Best Lack of Change: Frank was almost adopted by three different women until their husbands put their foot down. I've taken to calling him our spare dog -- around in case one of the other ones break down. Most Energetic Band: no contest -- Thrift Store Cowboys. Plus, they say their new CD is gonna be out at the end of the month. Plus, they dedicated Lights of the Prison to me and Cindy -- a song about how pretty the city looks from the prison. These guys still give me goosebumps when I think about the talent they've got. Best New Band Lineup: Jay Johnson's young guns have gelled, and they're really tight. Go see them. Best New Food Item: corny dogs -- man, those things are great. Since I never go to the State Fair any more, I never get to eat 'em, so I'd forgotten how good they are hot out of the grease. Best Hayseed Moment: when someone threw a tarp in their truck bed, filled it with water, then hung up a pre-printed banner over it that said Redneck Jacuzzi. And people got in it. And stayed in it. A pre-printed banner! Scoreboard: Beers drank - 58 Belts of brown liquor - 7 Belts of clear liquor - 3 (2 of moonshine) Belts of Texas Tea (a concoction that sneaks up on you) - 2 :-( Smirnoff Ices drank - 1 (nasty, nasty stuff, that) Packs of Marlboro Mediums - 20½ Pots of coffee - 6 Chopped beef sammiches - 2½ Corny dogs - 3½ (Frank just walked up and chomped off half of one while I was holding it) Breakfast burritos - 5 Hours of sleep - 24 (that was as of Sunday night, whereafter I clocked a solid ten hours) Sunday, 7:00pm: Sitting around after all the sound gear is packed, all the trailers are pulled out, all the trash is piled up. Just sitting on the stage, listening to Willie Nelson on someone's car CD, drinking beer and telling lies and complaining about how our old, tired bodies can't take this kind of crap any more. And then starting to plan for the permanent roof stage, the new electrical work, the possible headliners for next year, maybe even doing a fall two-nighter. Yeah, we're gonna do it again next year -- bigger, better, and bolder, baby. How could we not? But I'm not straying in front of any golf carts driven by my lovely bride.PS There are more posts, including pictures, on all of this tomfoolery over at The Fat Guy, if you're interested. Music7530@blogcritics.org Tue, 12 Aug 2003 14:30:35 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/02/27/193038.php Scott ChaffinHere's a lovely little five-piece out of Houston, Texas for your listening pleasure. They're called F.Co., and you pronounce that "eff koh". Or at least they do. The band has been together since 1999, and was started up by Thomas Watts and Ryan Mucha. They've got at least one award under their belt already: KIKK-FM (R.I.P.) named them Texas Most Wanted Band in 2002. I have no idea what that means, but it's gotta be something pretty good if it's from the late, much-lamented KIKK. KIKK was a huge loss to Houston and Texas radio, and it was one of the few highlights of my frequent bidness trips to the Bayou City. Now that it's gone, I mostly end up listening to the Mexican radio stations and one old-school R&B station when I can dial it in.Back to F.Co. A couple of weeks, my darling wife threw their new CD, King of Texas, at me. Literally -- I almost lost an eye. Don't worry, everything's fine. That weekend, I followed my usual routine of putting it in the CD player and driving around with it playing. My first thought was "Hey! These boys are damn good!" You wouldn't believe some of the stuff that comes floating over the transom at TexasGigs HQ, but this one really stood out. They've got a real, down-home Texas-y sound immediately appealed to me. I don't want to use the term basic, but there wasn't a lot of flashy frippery to get in the way of the good music. Plenty of energy, too -- I like that in a young band. They've got a couple of slow songs on the CD that I didn't immediately care for. I was in a mood for some good ol' honky-tonk stuff, and they dealt it out pretty good. The title track is a hilarious send up of a typical Texas honky-tonk Saturday night, where no matter what your daily grind is, every man is, in some small way, The King of Texas. We're chock full of self-esteem that way...practically have it running out of our ears. Another feature of this CD is some really good road songs: Roads are a River, 400 Miles, and North to Buffalo. That last is one of those slow songs that didn't immediately grab me, but it'd make a good late-night tear-jerker when you're out on the road and not in The Great Republic. Probably my favorite song on the thing is 18 Wheels of Beer. It's one of those chugging, blue-collar, workin' man songs about driving a beer truck for a living. Heh. I bet this song is one of their set closers, or encore numbers. Whatever, it's one of those must-have sing-along songs that every true Texas honky-tonker loves. (Big Secret: they've got a hidden track on here that's a feedback-drenched surfpunkabilly version of 18 Wheels that sounds like they played it while the Devil himself was poking them in the ass with his pitchfork.) Probably my second favorite is All This Catching Up, which is really a warning about re-hashing and reminiscing with your pards while the little lady is in earshot. And of course Longest Song is great, too - another road song with gratuitous tobacco chewing & spitting.Over all, I highly recommend F.Co. They're young, they're talented, they're close to their roots. I can't wait to see 'em live...I'm so dieing to do the Skinny Wirskye Hayseed Dance to 18 Wheels of Beer. I give The King of Texas, and F.Co four Shiners out of five. The Fat Guy says check 'em out when they come to your town. Click Me and Buy Me! Support Independent Music!Sorry there's no Amazon, Eric -- I'm just too far ahead of the curve, as usual. Music3493@blogcritics.org Thu, 27 Feb 2003 19:30:38 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/10/18/024309.php Scott ChaffinBow Down Before The Master!I can't think of a single guitarist I've ever known in my life that didn't do the duckwalk given half a chance. And I've never known a single guitarist that didn't give all the credit to Chuck Berry. The first time I heard a full Chuck Berry album was in the summer of 1974. I was 14, and Big Bad Love was in the air. I'd heard the Stones, of course. Hearing that Chuck Berry album front-to-back meant I never quite thought as much of Mick and Keith as I did before. My teenage crush couldn't understand why I wanted to just sit and stare at the speakers instead of French Kissing. Roll Over Beethoven was a sledge-hammer to my noggin, though, and I wasn't doing anything until I'd heard everything I could. Twice. I'm gonna write a little letter, gonna mail it to my local DJ. It's a rockin' rhythm record I want my jockey to play. Roll Over Beethoven, I gotta hear it again today.You know, my temperature's risin' and the jukebox blows a fuse. My heart's beatin' rhythm and my soul keeps on singin' the blues. Roll Over Beethoven and tell Tschaikowsky the news.I got the rockin' pneumonia, I need a shot of rhythm and blues. I think I'm rollin' arthiritis sittin' down by the rhythm review. Roll Over Beethoven rockin' in two by two.Well, if you feel you like it go get your lover, then reel and rock it. Roll it over and move on up just a trifle further and reel and rock it, roll it over, Roll Over Beethoven rockin' in two by two.Well, early in the mornin' I'm a-givin' you a warnin' don't you step on my blue suede shoes. Hey diddle diddle, I am playin' my fiddle, ain't got nothin' to lose. Roll Over Beethoven and tell Tschaikowsky the news.You know she wiggles like a glow worm, dance like a spinnin' top. She got a crazy partner, oughta see 'em reel and rock. Long as she got a dime the music will never stop.Roll Over Beethoven, Roll Over Beethoven, Roll Over Beethoven, Roll Over Beethoven, Roll Over Beethoven and dig these rhythm and blues. Music1365@blogcritics.org Fri, 18 Oct 2002 02:43:09 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/30/114611.php Scott ChaffinHappy Birthday, Killer! Jerry Lee Lewis is 67 today. The original rock and roll wildman set the bar high, and I'm not sure anyone has approached it yet. His music is still as strong and primeval as it ever was. I've got a Greatest Hits CD here that I chunk in the truck occaisonally, and I still marvel that a piano player can make that much damn music. "Just point me to the piano and give me my money. In fifteen minutes I'll have 'em SHAKIN', SHOUTIN', SHIVERIN', and SHACKIN'" You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain Too much love drives a man insane You broke my will, but what a thrill Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire I laughed at love 'cause I thought it was funnyYou came along and moved me honey I've changed my mind, your love is fine Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire Kiss me baby, woo feels good Hold me baby, wellllll I want to love you like a lover should Your fine, so kindI want to tell the world that your mine mine mine mine I chew my nails and I twiddle my thumbsI'm real nervous, but it sure is fun Come on baby, drive my crazy Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!! Music992@blogcritics.org Mon, 30 Sep 2002 11:46:11 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/27/112159.php Scott ChaffinAll right, All Right, ALL RIGHT! One of my Top of the Pops Bayou City musicians, Opie Hendrix, gets the full article treatment in the Houston Press. He was a blues slinger then. Not anymore. "I got sick of playing mediocre, half-assed blues for drunken audiences," Hendrix says. "There are legends out there -- and then there are cats like me. I mean hey, I like to consider myself a picker or whatever, but sometimes you gotta quit kidding yourself and say, 'Look, I could spend my whole life trying to bend that note in two, but Stevie Ray Vaughan wannabes are coming age 14 now." After releasing an EP in this blues-rock vein, Hendrix released the alt-country Smashed Hits in 2000, from which KPFT DJ Roark Smith has been heavily spinning the rollicking rocker "Yellowhammer." "We didn't know Smashed Hits was gonna do what it did," Hendrix says. "It was just an example of 'Goddammit, I turned 30, I'm gonna make a record, and I'm gonna make it my way.' And some weird things happened. I didn't get any Grammy nominations or anything like that, but I did get some radio play." Hendrix is hoping to build on the small success of Smashed Hits with San Jacinto. First, about that title. Is Hendrix a Texas history buff? "Dude, if you wanna know the God's honest truth, I named it that just 'cause it sounded so ZZ Top," he admits. "You know? Degüello, Fandango, San Jacinto..." And there's a bit of extreme Top-style songwriting on the album, too, though Hendrix is even more leeringly crass (in a good way) than the tiny aged combo from the land of the bluebonnets. Here's a sample of lyrics from "My Favorite Waitress": "She's got big boobies / likes dirty movies / she can suck a golf ball through a garden hose / shaves her beaver / I'll never leave her / just get her wasted and it's anything goes." There's plenty more in the article, like his bio, his band, his colloborations, etc., so go read it. Keep your eyes peeled for Opie down there in Houston. He plays at Rudyard's (aka Rudz) a lot, like Saturday, Oct. 5, so take the time and go spend an evening with a crazy-fun guy. Support Independent Music! Music948@blogcritics.org Fri, 27 Sep 2002 11:21:59 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/25/105025.php Scott ChaffinIf all yall New York Intelligentsia ever, ever, ever get the urge to loosen the ties, take off the specs, rake out the hair gel, and put down the WSJ, I highly recommend that you make the time to take in The Hangdogs at The Rodeo Bar, right there in your fine city. I met them a week or two ago, and they are fine young men playing some good music. They're your hometown boys -- support them, for Pete's sake! If the Good Lord ever sees fit to punish me for loving life too much here in Texas and sends me up to the bitter cold of the City That Never Sleeps, you will find me holding down a barstool at the Rodeo Bar, I bet. Forgot to mention this the first time around, but make sure you read their Hangdoggerel. It's very funny "life on the road" musings, with that sarcastic NYC wit you love so much. Music: Country and Americana838@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 Sep 2002 10:50:25 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/07/093437.php Scott ChaffinToday is the birthday of Charles Hardin Holly, known as Buddy to his friends. Here is the beginning of the Texas guitar slinger tradition that begat such luminaries as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Billy Gibbons and about 50,000,000 other cats from this great Republic (some of whom I am proud to call friends), and not a few from elsewhere in our land. All stand, and salute the town of Lubbock sometime today. For the rockers, this will be sometime around 2 or 3 PM, after kicking the groopies out and knocking back a bloody mary or a beer. We salute you, too, for keeping the music alive. 466@blogcritics.org Sat, 7 Sep 2002 09:34:37 EDT