Sunday, September 28, 2008

"put on your pretty red dress, let's go see about this mess..."

...we change the lyrics on that particular hank ballard song cause i sing it, so i say (growl/scream), "i'll put on my pretty red dress..." tonight i realized during set up we weren't gonna be playing to a genre crowd, so i went home & put away my rockabilly outfit & put on the pretty red dress i found at "my favorite store" (that always means the thrift store, no matter which one it may be). when i found it many months back, i was so happy, realizing, "this is my pretty red dress!!" i never wear red, but there were about 10 women tonight wearing it, so that was nice, i kinda fit in, & if you can have a one-night-only color-specific zeitgeist, i guess it was RED!!
am very sick right now, so my writing is very repetitive. will check it later... hope i never again have to play all night long while so so sick. just kept using horrid throat spray & sore throat lozenges all night, & pounding monster drinks, & keeping the best attitude i could. i mean, if rick can play drums w/a cast on his leg, i can play while deathly ill. the show must go on! and it did! :)
what was nice tonight was seeing friends like jani, mark, carol & phil's & mark's families, & a sizeable, pretty good crowd & people whom i could tell don't know "this kind" of music reacting in many cases w/great enthusiasm! we sold a few cds, met a cool guy who said he has a line on an upright bass for kram, played every dang song in our repertoire (except one, which i forgot). phil's & mark's songs went over great! we were really rocking in many spots, despite my ill health. and a few of my new songs got big applause ("mexican blanket" & "bride of frankenstein"), which was delightful. :) it was nice to dedicate "love my baby" to b, & go out at break & visit the doggy dears, which b brought, & do some halloween songs, & to while in the swim of things, disoriented, swooning as if tipsy, sick out my gourd, look over & see mark's & phil's friendly faces, look back & see rick grinning away w/that blasted devil hat on, & feel like a team... then we got some dough & i tipped the men cause i'm just so grateful for them, grateful to do this at all, grateful grateful grateful.
i don't know where i'm going at this pt, just sick sick sick yet happy. and if mark's reading this & it's past 3 am, i say GO TO BED!!!!!
thank you to every one of you who came out tonight to hear the dusk devils. :) we now are on itunes (link at right) & have several upcoming shows (listed at top). the next local's halloween (FRIDAY NIGHT!!! 10/31!!!!) at narducci's, 10 pm. get your costumes ready!!! woohoo!!!
as edward r murrow used to say, good night, & good luck.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

the greatest band, right from the u.s.a.: blasters pic-o-rama

-> buon giorno! johnb is always collecting blasters pix for their hugely popular myspace (www.myspace.com/theblasters - i got to start it way back when!), so here are a bunch. send him yours, if you have any! some of these are from our collezione, some from the net, some sent by past-blasters drummer, movie star-handsome surfer jerome. to view pix full size, click on "view all slides," then the one you like, then "view full size." if you next right-click, you can save pic.
-> we dusk devils have a show coming up here in backwardsfield next sat., sept. 27. & two after that in smellay & san diego!! & halloween at narducci's! see the flyers below!! :) :) :) (hope you enjoy the pictures...)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

bassman does it again -- amended & prolonginated version

gee whiz! i posted the bottom flyer, then got on mark's myspace... & the guy'd made another one! so here it tis:
and here is the 1st version. take your pick! print teether one! or not! :) you can hire mark to make flyers & graphics for you, too: www.myspace.com/markallenpowell
jani & i had so much bucketloads of fun at the fair tonight, the great kern county fair, which didn't look like doodoo this yr because i did it in the right order & will go to the LA co fair NEXT. we walked & talked, ate ourselves silly, that is ambulated, ruminated, & masticated, stayed long enough to see some lovely midway neon... the only thing i did wrong was once again forget to turn on my cell ph, so didn't get to hook up w/the fabulous hickersons (that is, philbert & family), but i imagine & hope they had a great time at the fair, the county fair, what an american, american thing, what a wonderful thing, the fair, the smell of hay & corn dogs & cinnamon rolls & the animal pens & sizzling meat & fried sugared dough & the sweat & swirl of wonderful yelling laughing whooping giddy humanity all around. i wrote about the fair so many times when i had my little paper, & here, too, on this blog!, so will not go on & on here. but ah - the fair... just listen to the song "county fair" - that about gets it. :) ... life is nice right now, w/music, a meaningful-seeming job that looks headed toward increased involvement of students w/reading & true engagement, & friends, & thoughtful caring partner in b, & the steps, & solemn, handsome charlie rich music so sad & gorgeous, and and and and and... wishing you well, should you be reading this, no matter who you be. really. luceat lux vestra, ab ovo usque ad mala :) :) :)

Sunday, September 07, 2008

cheese & crackers.

- what a weekend. was supposed to practice w/manuel down south, & got another music offer, too. flattered, i knew in my heart i must not do the latter. but since i have somewhat eroded boundaries lately, i waffled & worried about what to do. well, last sec manuel called to cancel; his bassist got a fill-in w/cannibal & the headhunters. i felt like the lord was stepping in on my behalf, & stayed in backwardsfield.
- today was mostly relieved from idle hands/mind by girlfriends in the program, w/whom i got to hang out; saw my wonderful sponsor speak; came home to a big bomb dropped. it was a bomb that has needed to drop, however, & tho horrified & sad, i was thankful for it.
- the paxtons picked me a song yrs ago: “my eyes say no, but i push right over.” being in that kinda situation is maybe fun to imagine, but it's scary in real life! i have had sufficient ballast to prevent actual capsize, but i don't sing that song anymore! some might say god beat the devil this time, or “it's LOVE that won, & ol' left hand HATE is down for the count!” (night of the hunter) the problem is, that sucker gets back up.
- three people in the committee of my mind need to be evicted: the little wimp that wants everyone to like her; the nerd that assumes no one ever would; & the egomaniac that loves flattery, caves to it, & insincerely coaxes it on, to everyone’s detriment.
- tonight i wrote a song about it all, but no one’ll ever hear it. in fact, i wonder how some people can bear to sing their very personal songs of heartache, guilt, suffering, & pain. for me, that’s like dying over & over! so i’m sticking to the innocuous, fun, rockin’ songs we do. they’re more soulful than the sad ones, to me, because they bring happiness. (dickens quote in pat’s house: “no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”) i must be useful or i am nothing. that's how i feel at this moment, anyhow.
- did i mention i got the new job i (think i) wanted? found out friday, but haven’t really been able to enjoy the realization. i’m librarian now at a middle school where kids desperately need comfort & books. 13 women (but never no man in town) now come to the house weekly to work steps. bomb dropped, now i’ll get back to my life, back to the person i know i should be. tonight, i'm sad people are hurt, but grateful to get back on the straight & narrow. music is enough wildness for me. the rest just will not be.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

sufferin' succotash!!!! pipes of rusted gold sing away the bachelorette blues

p.s. (pre-script): read below about us dusk devils on the radio free bakersfield podcast this week!!
- today, day one of my bachelorette half-wk, the normally well-behaved (tho hyper) border collie chucked his toy hedgehog into the toilet & later peed on a guy's camp chair while the guy sat in it -- OUTSIDE the dog park (if the peeing had happened inside, all would have chuckled & blown it off). the other dog, not at all a neurotic brainiac, has been stat today - fat, dumb, & happy. :) my "noble savage" notion that the less-smart have it easier is reinforced -- it chaps my hide, yet too often seems to ring true, like that mars & venus doodoo...
- but in the wonderful vein, tonight i found an astounding singer!!! everyone in LA & true lovers of R&B rockabilly world-wide must know of her (i continue to be totally unhip): what a voice!! i post here in case you haven't heard her, or the others... for here she is, w/two others i just love:
- www.myspace.com/lilgizzelle -- GOOD LORD!!! LISTEN TO THIS GIRL (she's 22) SING!!!! her other myspace profile suggests her to be a normal young woman who likes normal young woman things (what i imagine they like, anyhow)... but blessed w/the voice of big mama thornton!!! i almost want to put my head in the oven, hearing her sing, to invert the motive of art fein's comment in this month's page o'his. what a gift this powerful sprite possesses!!
- www.myspace.com/sharonjonesandthedapkings -- by now, every music lover on earth knows about her, the female james brown (thank you, luann, for turning me on to her), this former prison guard who worked hard hard & long & now, in midlife, is huge thx to amy winehouse, who used sharon's band (but not sharon) for her "back to black" LP, indirectly drawing the public eye to sharon (i think AH is awesome, too, her billie-holliday-ronettes-russ-meyer-rockabilly-switchblade-sister-60s-soul image, her amazing songwriting & smoky vocals, tho her songs are so steeped in the addict lifestyle, it's painful for me to listen too closely -- what a talent, tho!!)
- www.myspace.com/candyekaneband -- the toughest girl alive just got home from south africa. what a sparkle she has, what chi, what chutzpah, & what a voice, from velvety to growl to all in between...
- neurotic genius dog, realizing his "dad's" still not here, is now on a barking tirade. meanwhile, texas bubba dog is sitting, smiling at me & drooling gently. dad? what dad? time to stop typing. (ps - i don't really have the blues. i just like alliteration.) :)

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

ddevils on radio free bakersfield (reincarnated)

when i had my little underground paper here in backwardsfield, jeff b (i think tim rosen was involved, too, at one pt) had a real underground radio station by the above name that ran under the wire & even got raided a few times!! the name's been reincarnated online by whorehay [sp] of the spahn ranch boys, but whorehay only plays roots/punk music (western, rockabilly, boogie, surf, cowpunk, proto rocknroll, garage, the like) - & it being a podcast, the new RFB doesn't have to worry about being busted. jorge is playing the dusk devils on this week's show. check out the old band picture on the link! :) one of the current devils commented, "he must not know how handsomer the band is now" - no offense intended to the old guys, i'm sure! :)
we're on this episode with the mummies AND eddie angel!! wow!!! a big gracias to whorehay!! be good!! :) http://radiofreebakersfield.com/bands.htm