Tuesday, October 31, 2006

la musica ed il video per uno spaventoso halloween il giorno... zombi rocknroll!!


happy halloween again! got a minute? here are links to video (below) & a few songs you've maybe never heard... rockabilly ain't the stray cats, & video (plus psychedelics & heavy metal) killed the radio star & rocknroll, period! this stuff, tho, to me embodies adrenalinized, greasy, wild rocknroll music, & in the spirit of the special day, here you can listen to & download crazy halloween tunes, to create a fun, rocking, out of this world spookfest soundtrack! http://thehound.net/19891028/ , http://thehound.net/19901027/ , http://thehound.net/19931030/ ...
how about some video? here are links to my most favorite videos by the ultra-photogenic cramps, the band that lives halloween all year long... it's hepped-up, gross & cool fun - don't watch unless you like zombie-monster sci-fi sleazybilly stuff, & if you do, you've probably seen all of these already! god bless youtube. these videos used to be so very hard to find! ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kpYUuHMhkg (garbageman) , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQcSiq--F0I & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3h315SyLmw (human fly & teenage werewolf - unused footage from urgh! a music war!) , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ4QLFl01g (tear it up from urgh! this part of the movie warped & moved the lives of nerds & misfits everywhere! at least it did mine!), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFxqJs9PdKI (interview w/hilarious bollywood footage used later in movie "ghost world" - lux is hilariously spacy-deadpan & very cool)... I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST! this is super funny & pretty tasteless (i guess)... if you like that kinfa thing, it'll make you laugh out loud!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGToQt1EylY (creature from the black leather lagoon) ... here are some more non-cramps halloweeny videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONKzJS1T_XM (screamin' jay hawkins - i put a spell on you!) , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdiCLpRgvEw (the mummies - justine!) , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRM3LO2ZCac (screamin' lord sutch - jack the ripper)... well, that's enough for now. there is so much more, so watch now, cause the recording & movie industries are cracking down... aaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Monday, October 30, 2006

happy all hallows eve, all sts' day, dia de los muertos, plus a bunch of pontificating & psalm-singing no one cares about, including me...


bako has the #1 haunted house in the nation! go to http://www.chamberofchills.com/home.html for specs (thru 10/31/06)... show starts nightly at 7 pm...( i just looked at pix, & it looks way too scary for me, & i am a long-time horror movie freak, my favorites listed at bottom. doesn't seem "appropriate for all ages," to these eyes!! however, parents should decide for themselves. if i had little, medium sized, or just impressionable ones, they'd definitely not be going!)
happy birthday to blib! :) for halloween, we were haystack calhoun & the great moolah this past weekend, with friends in monterey. haystack's beard & moolah's red wig bit the dust, but it was fun enough... happy trick or treat & nighttime merry making to all who read this... & kind remembrance of those loved ones & seas of souls who've left before us. i love halloween's whistling in & laughing at the dark, followed by the colorful ceremony & reverence of all saints day & dia de los muertos. but can you fathom there are still some (here locally, A LOT more than some, sad to say) who think halloween is "the devil's birthday"??? that's what they actually call it! children in my classes, parroting their parents, say it. where does this fear come from? halloween, an "evil" celebration? in my view, evil is people who interpret their sacred texts for oppressive & violent purposes. evil is those who hurt fellow humans (& animals, which opens up another can of worms all together). evil are those who let their little ones dress up in "pimp" & "ho" costumes. (or maybe that's just stupidity... there have been articles recently about the sexing up of little girls' halloween costumes... yeccchhh!!! what can "adults" & manufacturers be thinking to encourage this mindset in children? i don't even wanna think about it. that certainly would make me think evil thoughts, like going out & slapping the crap out of someone.)
dressing up like "evil" to poke fun at superstitions & fears... to me, that's admirable! to show courage, to live bravely in the face of impending death, the death that is built into all of us, is the way to go. a definition: "Ignorance coupled with fear produces what is referred to as evil. "
boo!
these are my 13 favorite halloween movies:
terrifying (no children allowed!): 1. zombi; 2. texas chainsaw massacre (the original)
funny-gory (again, no kids!): 3. bad taste; 4. sean of the dead.
comedy-horror (ok for kids): 5. young frankenstein; 6. the addams family.
classics: 7. bride of frankenstein; 8. dr jekyll & mr hyde (1932); 9. the mummy.
psychological horror: 10. island of lost souls; 11. night of the hunter; 12) targets.
campy: 13. the abominable dr phibes
music: the cramps, the groovie ghoulies, screamin' jay hawkins, screamin' lord sutch, plus born bad and halloween rock & roll compilations galore. it's halloweeeeen!!!! wheeeee!!!!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

jenna jenna jenna won't you come along with me jenna jenna wooo jenna jenna


i tried adding this pic to the below post, but it wouldn't go. blogger's funny like that sometimes. so here are jenna & i at the jerry lee lewis show last week down south. whatta kick! (too bad her "bakersfield" sweatshirt logo is obscured, tho.) it's funny how small the rockabilly & primitive R&R enthusiast subgroup is, no matter where you go. it can feel friendly and familiar, despite the dress code insisted upon by some! ferinstance, i saw that evening a fellow who was at the don't knock the rock gun club movie show back in june as well as a few musicians from green bay wi's rockin 50s fest back in 02 & several popular rockabilly musicians lots of folks know & like as well as friends of art fein's whom i've only read about on his site. (art took the photo.) now i can attach faces... tomorrow it's back to the city by the bay for school, where blib & i will stay with smitty, ex rso bassist, ex sometime model (one time he described in rhapsodic detail a photo shoot he did for playboy with some gorgeous babe), & early-retired schwab millionairo, now gardener of lombard street... john has a samurai kind of job these days, nourishing the famous plantlife while chasing off tourists & bikers who show bad driving etiquette along the crookedest road in the world... happy weekend to all who read this!

Friday, October 13, 2006

jerry lee lewis, stories of lennon & dylan

(ok, i just got an email asking for more show details, so i'm fattening this post...) these are photos by young jenna from yesterday's record release mini-show in hollywd by the one & only jerry lee lewis, promoting his new CD, "last man standing," featuring tons of guest artists ( http://www.amazon.com/Last-Man-Standing-Jerry-Lewis/dp/B000GRUQYW ) ... the record is full of energy; jenna enthused, "he sounds just like he used to!!" the thumping thumping bass, wild-abandon guitar, & shagging tempo of the mall-piazza packed show reminded me of the fabulous "don't knock the rock" video i seem to write about now & then (it's fantastic! look for it & get a copy!)... the killer did a 20-min set: two chuck berries, two of his, all pulsing-rocking. he stood up & smashed the keyboard with his foot & plonked it with his butt, but that was it for wild dramatics: jerry lee's been rode hard & hung up wet, not like the flaming wildman little richard still is... JLL has arthritis now, & so stuck to 3-4 of his never-fail thrill-to-the-bone piano tricks. i sympathized, having somewhat-arthritic thumbs from the tiny bit of key pounding i've done. jerry lee is one inimitably talented & tough mother to have assaulted the ivories all these years & still have such strength & dexterity, even if he isn't a wailing-wild good ole boy anymore... afterward at mel's, jenna & i had fries & onion rings while art fein ate off our plate (he had his own order, but does this) & told nonstop stories about the brown derby, cobb salads, working at variety, capitol, with the blasters, the cramps, hanging out with john lennon & yoko as well as bob dylan, phil spector, the fella's known & knows lots of famous folks... jenna was refreshing company & talked excitedly about the rousing music of the 50s in a way i've only heard art express, in a way i've always felt, too. she was a wonderful traveling companion. :)

Monday, October 09, 2006

"the greatest true psychobilly"...a backhand-slap of a compliment: remembering the earliest "dusk devils"

my sister wrote to exene & original sinners to say "thank you for putting my sister's band on your site." i figured they were recognizing the band of me & the guys playing rockabilly cover songs since late 2002. however, the o-sinners' reply indicates otherwise!
in 01-02, songs began pouring out of my craw like rainwater over a dirty gutter... nearly all were about old relationships (train wrecks, hostage situations, near murder/suicides). like many songwriters must, or how in the world would they move forward?, i felt i had good melodies & lyrics. i pried open my wallet, purchased the 2nd-tier tascam tape portastudio & started laying down tracks. problem is, i'd never sung before & was seriously rusty on piano. at that time, i was on the heels of having played bass in a hessian-type band, but that was it - no ivory stomping since the high-as-a-kite country beau days, when i'd forge out buck owens, rodney crowell, highway 101 by ear in the wee am hours on his bartender roommate's bitchin' yamaha cp-80...
slowly, very slowly, i would work out the crudest of guitar parts. it took hours & hours to play one little crappy sounding line!! i have this beat-up kay, so beat up, even phil alvin wouldn't play it... i had no amps: everything went straight into the portastudio. no effects: i'd sing into a trash can, even, to try to get some kind of different sound. most of the singing, i'd double the vocals w/a tight harmony to fill the sound up, like buck & don or louvin bros manque... the signals were always too high or low. my timing would go off constantly cause it was so hard to hear what i was doing. i used drum tracks off a keyboard my father was sweet enough to buy me, since my earlier efforts with chopsticks to make "drums" were too bad even for me to abide. with each track addition, there would be degradation of another. it was a mess, but it was mine.
so many people were doing this kind of thing in the earlier net years, pretending to be a band, but working solo at home, trying to get their music out there. i certainly didn't feel unique, but it was certainly fun & exciting, too: i felt like a low-rent, nobody, distaff ed wood. but productive!! creating!! no matter how rotten the track, if it recorded, i'd usually roll with it, mostly out of fatigue & determination. this was when i'd just started a local underground paper & my total attitude was, just do it. don't look it too closely or you'll balk. make something, do something, or SHUT UP!!!
i took my crude but heartfelt love, loss, revenge songs, made a tape called "the dusk devils," & gave it to many people. i'd give them out, then run. maybe SOMEONE would hear the songs, through all the mess. the cover was a photoshop i made of me, me (me as twins), & my husband being choked by a young andre the giant. johnny fire in fl ended up recording one of the songs professionally - "my heart remembers when." recently, i pulled out the old recordings to see if any of them were salvagable for another music project i sort of have... i decided NO WAY!!! i was happy to realize, tho, like brian p has said, my playing has improved since back then, so i guess i need to tell him "thank you" since he was right. i used to scoff when he'd say it. those old recordings were not only emotionally naked in sentiment, but REALLY REALLY RAW (read: bad) in many ways!! i don't think i could or would ever perform them, but i like my lyrics & melodies, & i like my pretty, rottenly made songs, their stubborn horribleness & grit & yet how some parts ring out like lovely truths & how does that happen, anyway? there just must be a god.
these are the recordings that the original sinners & exene liked. :)
here's the letter angie, my younger sissy who had a birthday yesterday, got. thank you, ang, for sending the thank you note. i never would've thought to do so, & so never would've known that exene & her band liked my first songs, my earliest music. :)

"No thank her, Angie, This is Jason from Sinners. Please tell her for me that I'm in love with that terrible tape recording they gave us in Bakersfield when they opened for us years back. ["We" didn't because there was no band, but I'm glad to think he remembers it that way.] I still have it and it doesn't leave our truck often. The over driven bass, the screeching squirps of the recorder, the synthesizer drums, and through it all the most beautiful songs. It's a complete disaster. I consider it one of the greatest true psychobilly recordings I've ever heard. True love, Jason Edge"

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

the killer awoke before dawn... he put his boots on...

i always thought it'd be cool to put jerry lee lewis's mug on a shirt w/those doors lines, since they're sinister & so is the killer, tho one is hotly & one is coolly so, like the difference between robt mitchum (hot) & charles laughton (cool), but both musical acts headed by magnetic, egotistical, manly SOB types... (i have a fever. bear with me.)
JLL'll play a little show at the virgin megastore, hollywood/ highland in socal, thurs oct 12 at (i think) 6:30 pm to promote a "new" LP...i hope to be there with my boots on, tho if this flu doesn't pass, i might die with 'em on instead. i wrote about it a yr or more ago, but the coolest video ever is "don't knock the rock," a bbc granada tv show from '63 featuring JLL, little richard, the animals, gene vincent... it is breathtaking, one of those musical deals that makes the listener want to go wild, jump out the window, make a break for it. i saw it when i was an ostrich teen & it nearly made me come to life (tho unfortunately it took the advent of partying to do it). i saw JLL many yrs back with bo diddley (lots of fun) and little richard (always the best, but did a set so short, our friends went for cerveza & the king-queen was done when they returned)... the killer at that time decidedly lacked oomph, but he could still run those keys, as i bet he still can. maybe i could partly follow a geriatric jerry lee, get some playing ideas! (doubt it.) ...oh, i gotta let the dogs in... just got home & they look so pitiful out there, in the drizzle... then to bed for something resembling death, sweet sleep, i hope. (pic is of great double LP - corny, raunchy, gritty, sort of horrible in its egotism & slop yet oh so cool stuff...)

Sunday, October 01, 2006

the painter man: may he rest in peace

this am i got home from a trip where i visited wonderful sister b & my old friend donna & was told that our dear friend dennis died last night at around 11 pm. dennis had been to prison several times, said his middle name used to be "failure to appear" because of the length & nature of his rap sheet, lived on top of the silver fox bar for a while, but in the past 10 yrs had completely turned his life around. his new middle name, he said, was "willing to go to any length," & he lived that way. he had been reunited with family. he backed up his words with action. he was well-loved & respected in the local fellowship. he was hard-working, a jokester, a friend, someone who always had a funny, kind word for all, a guy head to toe sincere. "has anybody told you they loved you today?" was his most common greeting to men & women alike, accompanied by a cheshire-like grin & a hug. he always sat by the door at the oildale sunday morning spiritual meeting, &, in what surprised me in such a gruff-seeming guy, would loudly sing perfect harmony during "happy birthday." when i helmed the local roundup last spring, we asked him to lead the saturday night speaker mtg & a woman at this morning's mtg remembered, "he showed up wearing his shades & a flashy purple jacket & i thought, 'is that dennis, or dr johnny fever?' he cleaned up real nice."
dennis's dear buddy jimmy called brian & gave him the news last night at 11 pm as he drove up to fresno, where the accident had happened. jimmy was on his way up to bring home dennis's friend kathleen, who was on dennis's painting crew, saw the accident happen, saw dennis draw his last breath at the hospital (the story is so moving & full of so many "coincidences," but kathleen is the one to tell it, not me). when i got the news this am, through my tears i asked brian what jimmy & kathleen were doing now & he said, matter-of-factly, "they're on their way to the meeting." so in the truck we got & off we went, too.
dennis told kathleen, when his own father was dying & he was there every step of the way, "this is what we do." meaning that we take action, do the next indicated step, do the right thing, even & maybe especially even when it's tough.
dennis, dear friend, dear "painter man," as brian called you, we miss you already. you walked it like you talked it, died doing what you loved, surrounded by family & friends who loved & admired you. from a hopeless & incomprehensibly demoralized drunk, you had become a happy, productive, successful member of society who helped so many to find hope & have the courage to keep trying. we should all leave this earth & be fortunate enough to have lived like dennis did.