Giddy-Up Santa

And...we're back with more hall decking and boughs of holly. Better than a fruitcake, but maybe not as good as cheeseball. Hey, we try.

Headin' for the Western part of Country and Western today, courtesy of Leon McAuliffe and Eddie Hazelwood.

For our bonus re-posts we're gonna go all Beatnik Elf on your Holly Jollies with a veritable hep-ster's paradise of finger-poppin' Yuletide swing, daddy-o. Patsy Raye, Babs Gonzales, Donny Burns, and Edd "Kookie" Byrnes all step to the mic with some be-bop Xmas love. Santa's in the cafe, rockin' the black beret!

Swinging at the North Pole!

Leon McAuliffe and His Western Swing Band: A Cowboy's Christmas Song (mp3)


Eddie Hazelwood: Blue Shadows On a White Christmas Tree (mp3)

Bonus Stocking Stuffers!

Patsy Raye: Beatnik's Wish (mp3)

Babs Gonzalez: Be-Bop Santa Claus (mp3)

Danny Burns: Cool Yule (mp3)

Edd Kookie Byrnes" Yulesville (mp3)

Please support your local, independent Egg Nog manufacturers.

Gimme Santa Gimme

Three days in!!! We've made it thus far...So here's another round of Holiday joy for y'all! Remember, these are daily, and you never know what you're gonna get-Country, Trash, Blues, Garage, Soul, R'n'B, and who the hell can guess what else. Our goal is to make the Holiday season less painful, and provide an alternative to whatever crap you're hearing at the Gap or Starbuck's or whatnot. There are many imitators, but no one beats The Mountain, and that's a guldurned fact (cheeky bastards, aint we?)!

Today's lineup features a sexy little muted go-go number from French chanteuse (and secret Mountain girlfried) Claudine Longet. Following that we've got everyone's favorite Japanese girl-band, Shonen Knife, taking us to a celestial Yuletide. Finally a naughty little ditty about greed and what we will and will not give up for Santa from the Alter Egos.

Going Country again for today's Re-posts (well, hell, that is what we're originally known for...). And how can we go wrong with Pee Wee King, Brenda Lee, and the almighty Loretta Lynn? We can't. So have a ho...down with ol' Saint Nick!

Miss the Mistletoe and You!


Claudine Longet: I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You (mp3)

Shonen Knife: Space Christmas (mp3)

The Alter Egos: (Gimme Gimme) I've Been Good (mp3)

Bonus Stocking Stuffers


Loretta Lynn: To Heck With Ole Santa Claus (mp3)

Pee Wee King: Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus (mp3)

Brenda Lee: I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus (mp3)

Please support your local, independent Ho (ho ho).

Down On Santa

Welcome back to day two of our Holiday blow-out. Remember, we're going daily with this thing (barring too much egg nog), so keep stopping back, y'all.

We've got a couple of Mountain favorites spreading the Yuletide joy today. Last year's Best Album of the Year feller, Hayes Carll twangs his way through a family gathering at Yuletime. And Jim Mize (who we'll hear more from later) takes a slow-burner to to the ends of the earth (Mississippi) for a tale of Christmas spent alone and dreaming.

Our bonus tracks, coming once again from our first "season", ramp up the trash with a couple of classics from the original snot-nosed garage punks The Wailers and The Sonics. Y'all already know these tunes, but they're so goddamn good that it's worth a re-visit.

Naughty or Nice??!!??


Hayes Carll: Grateful For Xmas (mp3)

Jim Mize: Christmas In Mississippi (mp3)

Bonus Stocking Stuffers

The Sonics: Don't Believe In Christmas (mp3)

The Wailers: Christmas Spirit (mp3)

Please support your local, independent gift-wrapping booth.

Cool Cool Christmas

Yup. It's that time again. Time for our World Renowned Daily (daily!) Holiday Extravaganza! Every day from now 'til the end of the year we're gonna hit you with a barrage of Yuletide tastiness. No traditional or wanky Xmas tunes from this here little corner of the Season. We're serving up heaping platters of the finest in Trash/Soul/Country/Blues Xmas joy (or sadness, as the case often may be)! You're guaranteed at least two (though often 2-5) daily (Daily!) nog-knockin' Christmas tunes never previously posted to this site for the duration of the year! Hold on to your fake white beards, kids!

Not sure what this is all about? Take a journey through our the last 5 years or so of our previous November/December posts to see what y'all have been missing.

But wait! There's more! In addition to the "new" tunes, we're gonna add a daily (daily!) bonus re-posting of some our fave raves from years past! Requests are accepted, of course.

But wait! There's even more! We're gonna continue with some regular posting throughout the next month or so! That means you'll still get a healthy dose of Deep Blues Fridays, hot new and old vinyl discoveries, and the finest musical reporting you've come to expect from The Mountain! Those posts will be two-fers, with the "regular" posts and the Xmas tunes a the end. More bang for your buck! Oh indeed, it's the Season for giving, and we're gonna give 'til it hurts!

We're gonna kick off the year with a few swingin' shouters, Santa rockin' the old-school Rhythm and Blues. All the hep cats and kittens will be wailing this Christmas to the hot sounds of Bobby and Boobie, The Debonaires, and Toni Stante!

For the bonus tracks, we're gonna reach all the way back to our very first Xmas post for a little Hillbilly Holiday love from Hank Snow and Tex Ritter. Oh, yes.

Bop, Santa Bop!


Bobby and Boobie: Cool, Cool Christmas (mp3)

Debonaires: Crazy Santa Claus (mp3)

Toni Stante: Donde Esta Santa Claus (mp3)

Bonus Stocking Stuffers

Hank Snow: Reindeer Boogie (mp3)

Tex Ritter: Christmas Carols By The Old Corral (mp3)

Please support your local, independent stringed lites manufacturers.

Reasons To Quit

This is our last post before Thanksgiving (or, Thursday, for our fans abroad). Regular visitors will know what comes next, but for the newer folks, here's what happens: We begin our World-Renowned Daily (Daily!) Holiday posts! Goody gumdrops! This year we're doing it with a whole slew of twists, so stay tuned! If you're not sure what this is all about, check out our previous years' November/December posts, or come back on Friday for the full skinny! We're here for you, especially for you.

Now. For this post, we had to figger out exactly what we're thankful for. We're thankful for a new Bassholes record, but a retrospective of that band doesn't seem very "festive". So we'll wait on that. We're also thankful that the legendary Chris Knox is slowly recovering, and that his "famous" friends have gathered to record a tribute record to him (to help defray medical costs). But that deserves a separate post as well. We're thankful that all the Deep Blues Fest folks have been so generous in giving their time towards answering silly interview questions from us, but this aint a Friday, so those are going to come later. And we're thankful that James Hand has a new record out.

But today we're really thankful for Phosphorescent, his entire catalogue, and most particularly his newest record, "To Willie".

Prior to "To Willie", Matthew Houck has taken his musical persona, Phosphorescent, to a land of crest-capped, moon-washed oceans, waves washing the beach on an Autumnal night of stars and heaven dipping it's toe. Each record a surging, ethereal thing, full of hymn-praised ebbs and flows, Houck's warm, drawled and imperfect voice a whisper and a swelling chorus. Each album feels as if a piece, a muttered and flowing gospel to the smallness of life and circumstance.

With his latest record, "To Willie", Phosphorescent pared things down a bit, and gave us a collection of clay-baked Country tunes. Oh, and they're all Willie Nelson songs. And, apparently, Willie approves.

Many have covered Nelson's songs over the years (he did start out as a songwriter, after all), but few have transformed those songs quite the way Phosphorescent does. The tunes allow Houck to fully explore the Country'n'Western star long bubbling as underpinnings to his previous records, but still retain his unique persona. The fiddles and banjos and pedal steel guitars and the tightly structured three and half minute verse/chorus/verse nature of Nelson's writing push Phosphorescent to into a new territory, where he thrives.

Of course, there's always song selection, and the choices Houck makes seem tailor-fit. "Reasons To Quit", "Pick Up The Tempo", "I Gotta Get Drunk", and "The Party's Over" could have been written specifically for Phosphorescent, ruminations and late-nite regret.

It's hard to call a "covers" record a masterpiece, but this is no "covers" record. Phosphorescent makes these songs his own, forging the "olden times" with the new, the past with the future. It's a stunning transformation, both of Houck's own style and template, and Nelson's eternal grace and observation. What "To Willie" really does is miraculous. It makes you forget, for a time, the originals and becomes a new-created thing, posterity be damned.

The first song below is taken from the vinyl version of "To Willie". The rest are tracks culled from his previous records, "Pride", "Aw Come Aw Wry", and "A Hundred Times Or More". They're all worth you're time.



Phosphorescent: Reasons To Quit (mp3)

Phosphorescent: Cocaine Lights (mp3)

Phosphorescent: South (Of America) (mp3)

Phosphorescent: Last Of The Hand-Me-Downs (mp3)


Phosphorescent: Sunday Morning Coming Down (mp3)

Please support your local, independent Honky Tonk stars.

Six By Six West

Hey, anyone wanna sponsor us at South By Southwest? Just askin'.

Been a little while since our world famous Six Pack series (6 killer tracks culled from our extensive collection of vinyl), so here we go again. And, there's something about a B-Side...

But first, of course, we wanna bring your attention to another matter, and we'll make it worth your while.

The Deep Blues Festival is holding it's annual Deep Blues Film Festival this January, and it's turning into a Film and Music Fest. Why should you care, outside of the great films and bands that will playing? Well, this might be your only chance this coming year to hear some of the best damn music and check out some great films.

Can't make the Fest this January? Money's tight all over, we fully understand. So here's your chance to help keep the Deep Blues alive and safe from corporate take-over! For a measly $20 you can become a member of the Deep Blues Festival society! Chris, the founder, promises plenty of exclusive perks including exclusive mp3's, which alone would pay for your membership tenfold. But don't take our word for it, check out their site and all the previously highlighted links above, particularly this one. And, here's the paypal link to make your contribution.

But, wait, there's more. We're gonna try to do our part to make this worthwhile for y'all. Remember that image we put up on our last post? Keep that in mind when deciding on whether to purchase a Deep Blues Festival membership. And save your receipts, cuz we're gonna have an important announcement before Thanksgiving, and everything's gonna tie together with special bonuses from us truly if you have a Deep Blues Festival membership. Yup.

(And, as ever, a reminder that we have no financial stake in the Fest. We're just a true believer tryin' to do our part).

Now, then, the tunes guaranteed to rock your two-step pogoin' heart!

The following Six Pack 'o' tastiness has a special feature. They're all B-Sides, whether from 7"'s or full-length LP's. There's somethin' about a B-Side. They never make it onto greatest hits collection. Occasionally you'll see them pop up on an odds'n'sods collection if they've been attached to a single. But the glory of grabbing old LP's is that the songs relegated to the "other" side are often cast into the realm of obscurity. 'Course, in this age of "completism", that may change. And, really, none of these records probably qualify, but it was fun to ramble for a moment.

So what do we have for y'all today?

Kicking things off is Kris Kristofferson and an ode to the road, booze, and leaving ("If you aint bombed in Birmingham, then you aint one of us, we don't really give a damn.") taken from his record "Jesus Was A Capricorn". Next, an organ-drenched blues ramble from the next great band you're gonna be tellin' the kids about, Rise Up Howlin' Werewolf. From their Xmas Lights Plugged In 7". The Condo Fucks are actually another band, and one you probably know very well. Special no-prize to whoever guesses, without the help of the google.

Halfway through, we're treated to a bit of jittery sleaze courtesy of The Useless Eaters and their 7" "Agoraphobic". Naturally we'd follow that up with a Johnny Paycheck drinking song, courtesy of his record "Take This Job and Shove It". Yeah, that record. And finally, South Filthy take us down the road a fur piece, into the sun and the kudzu. Not sure how many copies of their 2009 release, Undertakin' Daddy are left, but, you know, it Jeffrey Evans, Jack Oblivian, Walter Daniels, and a host of other rawk gods on it. So, there you are.

The following songs are not in any kind "best to worst" order, so you should check 'em all out. Goes without saying, I guess.


Kris Kristofferson: Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight (mp3)

Rise Up Howlin' Werewolf: You Can See The Hearse Outside (mp3)

Condo Fucks: So Easy Baby (mp3)

Useless Eaters: Information Freak (mp3)

Johnny Paycheck: Georgia In A Jug (mp3)

South Filthy: Goin' Down South (mp3)

Please enjoy the Rock and the Roll at your favorite local, independent music hall.

Lookin' For A Thrill

Hey, folks! Musical extravaganza today, featuring a band we've been dancing around over the last 10 months, and some bonus tunes to rev y'all up for the weekend.

But first, check out this image:



More on that next week.

Next, some cool news for the weekend, for those who are in the Chicago vicinity. The Saturday (November 14th) our lord and master, dirty-R'n'B god Andre Williams. will be premiering his brand new...book, "Sweets" at Phyllis' Musical Inn! According to Norton Records (who are releasing the book), "Andre will read, rally, and respond to questions from the peanut gallery, followed by an all-Andre DJ blast with John “Mr Wiggles” Phillips." Oh my. We'll be there, along with some special guests. And it gets better. Once that's over, we'll be motoring over to Duke's Hideaway for a late night sleaze-blues set by Mississippi Gabe Carter and Uncle Walt Carter (no relation). Damn, it's gonna be a swell night, and it's possible inebriation will occur. Anyone in Chicago should make this a priority engagement!

Phew.

With that out of the way, we'd like to draw you're attention to one of the best damn bands in the land, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives.

As we've said earlier this is a post that's been simmering for awhile now. We have not been able to stop listening to their record, Spills and Thrills (the original pressing) since the beginning of the year, and it may very well be our best record of the year. Yeah, it's that good.

John Paul Keith hails from mean streets of Memphis, Tennessee, and was, once upon a time, and for a brief period, the guitarist for the V-Roys. You can find his biographical info here.

What matters is how his current incarnation, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives sound.

Imagine, if you will, the world's greatest Country bar band channeling the ghost of Buddy Holly, throwing it into the garbage can, shaking and stirring with equal measure trash, Bakersfield, and hiccuped Crickets southern soul. Filter it through a strainer of sugarcane fields and street grime, add a dash Hollies-mania to the level, and top with a healthy dose of bourbon.

John Paul Keith, his very self, is a lyricist and guitarist of timeless brilliance, shiny twangster and gutter-snipe troubadour of love, hope, lust and loss. Each song is a blistering, 3-minute how-do-ya-do of rock bliss and dos-i-do hayride, chased by the mystery train straight off the tracks. Your midnight mover and early morning shot glass served sweet and sour, dirty dish-rag included.

Oh, and "Lookin' For A Thrill" is the best song of the year. Yep.

We'll have much more to say about this record at year's end, obviously, but beat the rush and check it out now. You deserve it.

The John Paul Keith tracks are ripped from vinyl, and come from the Spills and Thrills LP and the "Knoxville Town" 7". The bonus tunes are from CD. Sorry about that.

John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives: Lookin' For A Thrill (mp3)

John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives: Memphis Girls (mp3)

John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives: Smoke In A Bottle (mp3)

Bonus tracks

Andre Williams: Bacon Fat (mp3)

Mississippi Gabe Carter: Big Fat Woman (mp3)

Please support you local, independent Telecaster-slinger.

Yellow Bubbles

Hooh, doggy, we got us a good 'un today. Yep, it's Deep Blues Friday. And we have an World-Premier Exclusive a the bottom! Hold on to your wigs.

But first, in keeping with our inspiration, The Deep Blues Festival, we'd like to draw your attention to the upcoming Deep Blues Film Festival. It's going to run from January 23rd-January 30th, and it's got a killer list of films already in the can: - "Can't Take It With You", "The Hand Of Fatima", "The Folksinger", "It Came From Detroit", and "Wayne County Rambling". More info on the films and the Fest can be found at the Myspace Page. If you're planning to be in the Minneapolis area, or have the time, it's well worth checking out.

Now then.

We can't even pretend to be objective when it comes to Pure Country Gold. They're one of our favorite bands, a two-man (drums, guitar, vocals) force of raw nature, all desperation and booze-fueled rock'n'fuckin'roll.

We finally got to see 'em play live at last summer's Deep Blues Fest, and they exceeded every expectation, a sweaty barrel-house blast of amped-up sound and wail.

We wrote about 'em way back when. Here's part of what we said:

"Pure Country Gold is pure trash. Tasty, nasty and loud. And sleazy. Sleazy like the barroom floor at last call, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here, and who're you gonna pick up to take home for a quick rut just to say your weekend wasn't a total waste, burning sensation be damned...Yeah, it's that good. ...It's complete (glorious, sonic) junk masquerading with a name designed to confuse. But, they've got that sensibility, if you know what we mean...Imagine some urban cowboy wandering into a local jukejoint only to be faced with this glorious racket, shit-amped guitars through busted speakers, some guy hollerin' wounded goat over the bluescowpunk mess. Feller would probably crap his Lee's...Hyper-amped, garage-fuelled, amphetamine muckity muck."

'Course, that barely covers the band and their sound. But, we figger, why listen to us blather on, when you can hear direct from the band?

Singer and guitar fucker Patrick Foss (aka Petey, aka Pure Cunt) was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

A Big Rock Candy Mountain Interview With Pure Country Gold
(In which we learn the value of bubbles)


Big Rock Candy Mountain: Who is Pure Country Gold and how did you come to be?

Patrick Foss: Patrick & Jake or Petey & Beefjake or Pure Cunt & Tree Gold. We'll answer to any of those names. One night we were both drinking in a bar called Club 21 and decided to start playing together.

BRCM: Where did the name Pure Country Gold come from, and how pure are you?

PF: The name came out of my desire to pick something happy and hippie sounding. I like to think we play feel-good music and thought the band-name should put warm and happy images into people's heads. Sunflowers & sunshine are the images that popped in my head and I felt that that aesthetic was the antithesis to the Jack Daniel's t-shirt and devil-doll rawk stuff which I find kinda dumb. We never considered that having the word 'country' in our name would confuse people, but sometimes we don't think things through too good. Pure? Uh...probably not so much.

BRCM: Are you a Blues band with Punk roots, a Punk band with Blues roots, none of the above, all of the above, or something else entirely?

PF: I've never thought of us as a "blues" band, but there's definitely a strong blues and R&B influence. Punk and blues music is how we learned to play our instruments so those influences inform how we perform the songs I write. I think we play rock & roll, but that doesn't mean anything anymore so I'll just let the journalist-types like you decide what we play.

BRCM: Who are your influences, if any? What infernal sounds inform the Pure Country Gold aesthetic?

PF: 50's and 60's rock and pop are heavy influences on my songwriting, as is later power-pop and punk rock. I'm a huge nerdy Beatles fan. Discovering Crypt Records sometime in the mid-90's was pretty big for me. I also love early hardcore and Greg Ginn is probably my favorite guitar player. Jake and I are also the world's only 2-piece Bad Brains tribute band if that says anything about us.

BRCM: Whiskey or beer?

PF: Beer. Mostly Vodka for me, but I don't discriminate too much.

BRCM: Yellow Bubbles. Discuss.

PF: We were in a bar on tour and I ordered a Pabst and the bartender said they didn't have Pabst, so I tried Hamm's, Olympia, Rainier, etc and they didn't have none of those either. Finally I asked for anything yellow with bubbles in it. Some drunk at the bar was amused by that and said he was gonna write a song called 'Yellow Bubbles'. I think I yelled back at him, "Not if I write it first! I'll see you on the pop-charts motherfucker!"
I don't remember what beer I ended up being served, but it had yellow bubbles in it. Anyway, I ended up writing a silly pop song about domestic beer and the apocalypse. I'm proudest of the line "have a magic moment sometimes" which is a backronym for Hamm's that I made up. Anyway, Big Legal Mess still has some of the 7 inchers lying around so people need to buy them puppies up! They’re on yellow-gold vinyl!

BRCM: Has there ever been a situation where one of you had to play a solo gig due to, ahem, unforeseen circumstances? If so, how did that work out, and what important lessons about life did you learn?

PF: Just about everybody who was at the Deep Blues Fest 08 knows this story, but we've never told our side. We were at the Holiday Inn lounge with many other DBF performers and I wanted some tequila. When I asked how much the Patron cost the bartender told me $4. That's really fucking cheap and probably a mistake, so I ordered 15 shots! I drank 2 or 3 of em, gave away several and left Jake with the rest when I headed up to my room to go to bed.
At some point Jake went outside and sat down to make a phone call and fell asleep. The hotel security couldn't roust him so they called the cops. The next morning I get a call from our buddy Jay to inform me that Jake's in the drunk-tank. We were slotted to play at noon and I got the call around 10:30. Jay and I drove into St Paul, tracked down the detox center and found out there was no way Jake was making the gig.
There was nothing else we could do so we headed towards Lake Elmo to the festival and I jotted down a list of songs I thought I could pull off solo. All I was thinking was that I needed to pull something off because we needed to get paid! We arrived at the festival at a quarter to noon and I set up on stage. I played 8 or so songs and it went great - I wrote those songs alone on my acoustic so there was no reason they wouldn't work this time. Thankfully Chris was kind enough to make room for us the next day so we were able to get a set in with the whole band.
Life lesson? For me: don't leave your already-drunk drummer in the bar with 4 or 5 shots of tequila in front of him when you have a gig at noon the next day. For Jake: don't drunk-dial your friends outside of hotels in Ramsey County, MN.


BRCM: Louder, Faster or Out of Control?

PF: Out of control.

BRCM: As a duo, how does your dynamic work? Do you find yourselves limited or freed by the drum 'n' guitar format? And how do you get so damned loud? Is there a volume above 11?

PF: I write song ideas on my acoustic at home and then bring Jake and some amplification in to flesh things out. We're definitely limited, but I think the limitation is a good thing - it's a fun challenge to make things work with just the two of us. Maybe someday we'll run out of ideas and we'll add instruments or members to open things up, but I think we'll be ok for a while with the setup we have now. I've always been a pretty "busy" guitar player and combined with Jake's bombastic drumming I think it works out well. Yes, we're loud too, but because Jake's a loud fucking drummer and I turn up to be heard!

BRCM:You're based out of Portland, Oregon, a city known for a great music scene. How does the band fit into the city? Where are the best clubs to play? Is beer at Club 21 still just a buck on Wednesday night?

PF: Everyone says how Portland has this great scene but I don't really see it. There’s no unified Portland scene at all - it's all fractured and cliquey like everywhere else. There are too many venues and bands here and everyone just goes to see their friends' bands play and ignore everything else. That being said, we have many great friends in many great bands and we play lots of great shows with our friends. I love that, but I don't feel that we're part of any greater Portland music scene and I don't think any of our friends do either. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining - we really love playing in this town and have played with many bands of many genres at many venues - but all this talk of a Portland scene doesn't really make sense to me.
There are some great venues here - the Kenton Club, the East End and Slabtown treat us well and we love playing those places. Club 21 is not really a club - meaning there are no bands or strippers there - but we spend lots of time there drinking even though beer is no longer a buck on Wednesday nights. As much as we love the place, it's a pretty shitty bar and I love to imagine that people may someday go in there just because of that song we wrote about it, but think it sucks and leave and never come back.

BRCM: Your favorite t-shirt?

PF: Probably my shirt that says "I'd rather be over the hill than under it", but I don't wear the shirt for the statement so much as because it's comfy and blue. I like blue.

BRCM: Obligatory Deep Blues Festival question: How did you come to play at the Fest, and what are your best memories of the Fest

PF: Jay Martin (aka DJ Hwy 7) is a close friend of ours and is friends with Chris Johnson and Rick Saunders and many other folks involved with the Deep Blues community. He recommended us and Chris contacted us to play the 2nd fest in 2008. We had a great time, met some great folks and Chris invited us to play again at the DBF09. Chris has a great thing going with this fest and I hope he can continue to build it to what it deserves to be. We’re certainly proud to have been a part of it!
There were many great bands at the fest last year, but I think Chooglin’ was my fave (ed note: Chooglin' did indeed kick much ass). My best memory of DBF09 though is hanging out with Jay on Thursday afternoon before the fest. He was so drunk by 3pm that he passed out and missed the whole Thursday night show. Maybe that's a silly thing to choose as a highlight, but I'd never seen him so drunk before and he made me laugh a lot.

BRCM: God or Satan?

PF: Satan

BRCM: In a perfect world, Pure Country Gold has the number one single in the world. How do you celebrate?

PF: With drugs and girls I'm guessin.

BRCM: What's next for the band? Rumor has it you've completed a new record and are shopping it. Anything you can tell us about the album? Tour in the works?

PF: New record is done and yes, we're talking to labels now. We're real proud of this record - I think it sounds great, has a good variety of tunes and represents our live sound well. We have plans to tour the US and Europe in 2010. We'd love that record out before we hit the road so we're concentrating on that first, but we'll hit the road regardless. We promise.

Thanks, Patrick.

Now, for that promised World Premiere Exclusive. The following track, "I'm The End" is a song from the aforementioned, upcoming new record from Pure Country Gold, "Tough Tuesday". The band were kind enough to share the record with us, and we can testify, hallelujah, that the album is a prime slab of pounding rawk, full of piss'n'vinegar, primal shout'n'howl. Tell your local record label to release this record now.

The other two tunes are from their 7"'s "Yellow Bubbles" and "Setting Sun".

Rock over America, rock over Portland!

Pure Country Gold: I'm The End (mp3)

Pure Country Gold: Yellow Bubbles (mp3)

Pure Country Gold: Setting Sun (mp3)

Please support your local, independent K-Tel distribution center.

Crash The Party

Damn Yankees! Ah well, fingers crossed. Two games to go. Go Phillies!

Glad I got that off my chest.

It's always a good year when god's favorite sock-hop destruction-ists The A-Bones grace us with a new record. When it's been over 13 years, it's a cause for twitterpated revelry!

Formed by Billy Miller and Miriam Linna (who also are the guiding forces behind the essential Norton Records), The A-Bones are a swinging, shimmying, stompin' stew of sax-skronkin' sin and sleaze. Taking the tropes of 50's teen dance euphoria, mixing in the danger of black sunglasses, devil-driven rock'n'billy, and opening up the garage doors onto suburban streets, The A-Bones recognize the similarity of the sock hop and the strip club, barely controlled sex urge grunting yeah, baby yeah. It's milkshake-shakin' rumble, tribal poundin', guitar frenzy, finger poppin' rebellion, with the needle on the record, and go,caveman,go.

On some deserted stretch of highway outside of Anytown, USA, a 1956 Chevy Belair lies smoking and crumpled, the front end smashed against a telephone pole. There's glass everywhere, like diamonds in the moonlight. Inside the car are two bloodied corpses, teenage lovers fresh from the prom, caught by tragedy in a death grip of love and lust, the end of the world in a tux and gown. The radio (AM, of course) still plays in rhythm to the spinning wheels, and the band crackling out of the tinny speakers is The A-Bones.

The A-Bones' new record, Not Now!, is out now on Norton (and some guy named Ira Kaplan plays on the record, too. You might have heard of him). It's well worth your time. Honest. You'll be rockin'n'boppin the night away.



The A-Bones: Shallow Grave (mp3)

The A-Bones: Daddy Wants A Cold Beer (mp3)

The A-Bones: Shanty Tramp (mp3)

The A-Bones: Monkey's Uncle (mp3)

The A-Bones: Hully Gully (mp3)


Please support your local, independent corsage shop.