Pitchers and Catchers Report

Aaaaah, the most magical phrase in the English language. Pitchers and catchers report. The start of Spring Training. "Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor." When the promise of the green blanket of summer beckons, and a World Series is ours for the taking. Hot dogs and slightly cold beer. Crackerjacks, peanuts, and a walk-off home run. Bases loaded, 2 outs, 2 strikes, 3 balls, Mark Prior versus Albert Pujols. Wrigley frickin' Field. Thousands of fans drunkenly channelling Harry Caray on "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". TV's ok. Radio's better. Being there in the ballpark? Perfect. God, I love baseball. And this is definately the Cubs years. Definately. Without a doubt. I'm pretty sure. Maybe. Errr...

Hey, congrats, Red Sox fans. It's our turn now.

So. Two dandy tunes about Baseball.

The Guided By Voices (see, I do listen to indie pop once in a while) tune is one of those perfect Bob Pollard moments. Just Bob on acoustic guitar conjuring lost snatches of time. Me and my dad driving home, after watching Willie Stargell hit 2 home runs to beat the Reds at Three Rivers Stadium.

The Marah tune is kind of an adult version of the same theme. And they talked Phillies' announcing great Harry Kalas into doing the intro. This is from Marah's first album, Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight", a finer slab of gritty Philly country punk soul you're not likely to find.

Guided By Voices: Look It's Baseball (mp3)

Marah: Rain Delay (mp3)

If you have enough dough after buying baseball tickets, and enjoy the bands, please consider buying from yr local independent rekkid store, or direct from the artist. If not, please sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame as loud as you can in public places. Make your co-workers join you.

Back In the Saddle Again

Problems fixed!!! Welcome to the new and improved Big Rock Candy Mountain.

I wanted to do a post about the fantastic Toe-Rag Studios in London, England. Naturally, the essential Fire of Love scooped me on the mention. Not the first time he's done that. The dirty no good so and so. No matter. One can never have enough Toe-Rag.

As I was going through my collection looking for tracks, I was astounded by just how many of my favorite rekkids and cd's had been recorded at Toe-Rag. Obviously the studio has gained a bit of notoriety of late due to a certain husband/sister/wife/brother duo who recorded their last platter there. But it's been the homebase of Thee esteemed Billy Childish, Holly Golightly, The Kaisers, and others of their ilk since it's inception in 1992, birthed by one Liam Watson, formerly of Armitage Shanks.

What makes Toe-Rag special, in addition to the acts it attracts, is it's overall philosophy of recording. From their website (linked above): >"Toe-Rag is a predominately analogue based recording studio....acoustically designed and custom built throughout. The living room is approximately 17ft x 14ft with 11ft high ceilings. The control room is approximately 14ft x 9ft also with 11 ft high ceilings."

What does that mean? I dunno, really, except that, like vinyl vs. cd, the sound comes out warmer, more human, more live sounding.

Most of the bands recording there deserve their own posts, and Mr. Childish has been long overdue. So for today, I pulled a few tracks from Sympathy For the Record Industry's collection Sympathetic Sounds of Toe-Rag. The sound is 50's trash rock filtered through a haze of blues'n'garage, and oh so very British. Enjoy.

Gustav Temple and the Blades: Puddings and Pies (mp3)

Ludella Black: I've Just Seen a Face(mp3)

The Masonics: Ooh Poo Pa Doo(mp3)

(right click, save target as...no more yousendits!!!!)

If yr budget allows, and you enjoy the music, please consider buying direct from Sympathy For the Record Industry, or from yr local independent retailer. If yr budget does not allow, please say nice things about the bands to yr friends.

Queen of the Truckstop

It's that time again. The engines are revving and the wheels are turning. Truckin' Thursday. Hooray.

A little cowpunk ditty for y'all courtesy of the Cowslingers.


Cowslingers: Queen of the Truckstop (mp3)

(yousendit file...click on target...download from site)

Sorry to still be using yousendits....Server maintenance is crawling along at a snail's pace, but we're getting there. I promise. Help is on the way. We'll just call this last week the trials and tribulations of an idiot. That sounds good. Thanks for sticking with us.

Please support the bands you enjoy by shopping direct or from yr local independent establishments.

Obsession in Sepia


We here at the Mountain apologise for the delay in new posts. We bit the proverbial bullet and have subscribed to an online server so that we may provide you with the best possible downloading experience. Unfortunately, we have no idea what we're doing. Sad. But true. Currently we are trolling through countless tutorials. As soon as the lightbulb goes on, joy and dancing will be rampant.

We also are having trouble acknowledging that it wasn't the Pittsburgh Steelers hoisting the trophy on Sunday.

Opinions? Advice? Hate the "new" look of Big Rock Candy Mountain? Let me know.

Thanks for stopping by. My home is yours.

Stepped Out For a Smoke


Ch Ch Changes. The Mountain will be undergoing some renovations over the weekend, in an attempt to make your enjoyment of our quality product even better. Files will be a little screwy and you may experience odd colour combinations that will make your head hurt. We aint the brightest ants at the picnic here, dontcha know. But come Monday, I think we'll all be a little happier.

In the meantime, please visit the sites under my links. I've added some new ones, and will be adding more. They're good places, every one, and would enjoy your attention.

For your weekend enjoyment, a little drunken ditty by Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies.

Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies: Show Me the Way to Go Home (mp3)

(yousendit file...click on target...download from site)

Please support yr local independent businesses.

Mother Trucker


Be part of the in crowd. Take trucking lessons and head out on the open road. All the cool and rockin' kids dig truckers. It's true. Just look at the hats.

Yep. It's that time again.

You'd think I'd consider renaming this blog, what with all the fawning I do over a certain gruff old carney barker I keep referring to. Well, we like to be real predictable here at the Mountain. And since I posted covers of his songs yesterday, why not post The Man himself. Doing a trucking song. Written by Red Sovine. It's a tune about a truck driver who's...not all there.

As a bonus, and because I've been horribly lax in posting female artists, we have a little truckin' ditty by Miss Norma Jean (no, not the one you're thinking of). She aint exactly a country legend, as those things go, but quite a few legends aren't legends. Rockabilly daughter riding shotgun, we'll call it. What more do you need?

Tom Waits: Big Joe and Phantom 309 (mp3)

Norma Jean: Truck Driving Woman (mp3)

(yousendit files...click on target...download from site)

Please feel free to purchase all yr truckstop favorites locally. And independently. It's better for you.

There Aint No Devil, Just God When He's Drunk


Voices, I think the topic was. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins has got one. A more likely candidate than Mr. Johnson to have sold his soul, 'cept he probably wasn't at any crossroads. Stands to reason he was in some jukejoint, and the demon's name was Henry.

Screamin' Jay is spooky. Real spooky. During his shows,the man was carried onstage in a coffin.
"I Put a Spell On You" still stands as one of the eeriest songs of obsession and evil I can imagine. And it was a hit, and enduring classic. Deserves to be.

Hawkins wanted to be an Opera singer(obsessed, as he was, by Paul Robeson), but the dark lord must have had other plans.

It seems only natural, in retrospect, that Hawkins would have a go at some Tom Waits tunes. Why not? Both men featured in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train. They're both of questionable mental stability. They have those...funny voices. And they're both obsessions of mine.

Jay does Tom

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Heart Attack and Vine (mp3)

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Whistling Past the Graveyard (mp3)

And an Old One

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Baptize Me In Wine (mp3)

(yousendit files...click on target...download from site)

If Screamin' Jay Hawkins or Tom Waits figure in yr budget, please consider buying from your local independent record store. Some (noncomplete) guides can be found here and here.

Converting to the Preached


I'm rather keen on singers with what you'd call unconventional voices. Awright, to be fair, voices of folks who really can't sing in the way pop radio has made us accustomed. Usual suspects like Tom Waits (Captain Beefheart, Howlin'Wolf), Leonard Cohen, and Shane MacGowan along with the likes of Richard Buckner, Mark Eitzel, Johnny Dowd, Joel RL Phelps, Billy Childish...well, you get the idea. The usual suspects here at the Mountain. It's not that they can't sing, per se, but the buckets they carry their tunes in have a different kind of water in them. Yep.

Tom House is one such feller. Discovered him via his Checkered Past release, "This White Man's Burden". At first listen, you'd swear he wandered out of some run-down shanty hidden in the West Virginia hills. Turns out he's currently a Nashvillian, and a much-published author. But, still, and perhaps because of his status as a writer before a musician, his closest contemporary I can spot is Breece D'J Pancake. Both share a sense of place and person usually unrecorded. A sense of the forgotten, a land of barren dreams and the unrequited love of a god never seen.

House's voice yips and yelps, the instruments (banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar) shamble after, keeping up and falling by the wayside. It'll break yr heart and save yr life. He shoulda been born in Appalachia. Then Harry Smith could have discovered him years before he was born. Which seems to be where he lives.


Tom House: Slipping and Drinking (mp3)

Tom House: I Only Know (You're What I'm Needing) (mp3)

(yousendit files (for the time being)...click on target...download from site)

Lookin' At The World Through A Windshield


Truckin' Thursday at BigRockCandyMountain. It's not just a brand name, it's a way of life. Or something.

Lost my shirt last nite. No, really. I can't find my shirt. While I wish that was as debauched as it sounds, it isn't remotely. But a long nite, nevertheless, and so we have a proportionately short post. Didn't want to leave my legions of fans without their weekly all true thrilling truckin' tales fix. Awkward sentences, as ever, are free.

Double dose today. An old classic from Del Reeves, and an updated version of the song by Son Volt. Yes, that's Son Volt doing a truckin' song. Rejoice, ye No Depressioners. Jay Farrar sounds downright happy on this 'un.

For optimal visibility, replace wipers after year's use

Del Reeves: Looking At the World Through a Windshield (mp3)

Son Volt: Looking At the World Through a Windshield (mp3)

(yousendit files...click on target...download from site)

If you feel compelled to purchase music by Del Reeves or Son Volt, please consider buying locally from an independent, if they haven't been run out of town by a chain. Or buy directly from the artist(s) themselves.

Bottle Up And Go


Twenty-four seven. We listen to the the worst to bring you the best.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that I'm gonna rant about the genius that is Fat Possum. Until they start puttin' out manufactured crap, which is highly unlikely, I will continue to bow, grovel and slobber at their feet. In an age where bland, by-the-numbers guitar slingers are foisted upon us by music execs in Beverly Hills, Fat Possum remains a breath of fresh air as old as the mud along the banks of the Mississippi. Whatever that is. I don't care how well someone can mimic note-for-note (mr. lang? hello?), Blues was never really about that, was it? I'm no Robert Palmer (the writer, not the singer), but I know what blues I like. And I like it Possum-style.

In a roster that's overful of (now) legends (R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Black Keys, T-Model Ford, Bob Log, etc.), it's easy to lose sight of some of the more minor artists on the label. Paul "Wine" Jones, Robert Belfour, Cedell Davis, Elmo Williams. And Robert Cage. Oh my, yes. Like Elmo Williams and Scott Dunbar, whom he originally styled himself after, Cage is a "grunter" (his words). Imagine Lightnin' Hopkins and Howlin' Wolf smashed together, given a shitty amp which bends and distorts every note when turned up to 11, and told to hump that geetar into overdrive...right to the cliff and keep going. That'd be a start. And his voice is just haunted. Haunted by sex and menace, that is. Cage was a diesel mechanic. Make of that what you will.

Rawk. On yr back porch.

Robert Cage: Get Outta Here (mp3)

Robert Cage: Bundle Up and Go (mp3)

(yousendit files...click on target. download from site.)

I refuse to link to certain large, oppressive online retailers. I also refuse to acknowledge the slightly elitist idea that music is only for the wealthy. If you have some spare cash after you've paid yr rent, mortgage, bills, student loans, bar tab, etc., and like the music of Robert Cage, you can purchase his music direct from Fat Possum's shop or support yr local independent record store. Some directories can be found here (unfortunately sponsored by Sony)and here.