Music: Band Ya Oughta Know: High On Stress
Every so often we'll try bending yer ear about a band that ya oughta know about, need to know about or just might darn near improve the quality of your life.
High On Stress is our inaugural artist and not just cause their name describes our current situation. Outta Minneapolis - with lyrics that cut through the haze of a Wednesday night at the bar and make you sit up and feel like someone is commiserating with you.
"It's a cash machine advance, don't it make you wanna dance?" Go the lyrics and the music is just right. You listen harder. "Red-eyed girls - go home in fancy cars - after all night parties drinking at the hip hop bars" and then - "Half is spent before the you pay the rent - half is spent before the money is sent -- it's a cash machine advance -- don't it make you wanna dance?" Aw, c'mon now, this is good.
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Nick Leet writes these great tough songs while Mark Devaraj handles drums, and Jim Soule on bass guitar and backing vocals and Chad Wheeling on guitar and organ gloriously fill out the foursome. This is more rock than country but it's mined from that vein that we all love about good country music. Leet, a refugee on the run from North Dakota, (which he describes on one song as full of "cover bands, bad punk rock and things that I can't stand") manages the feel of alt. rock while holding onto a rather large (to these big ol' ears) classic country influence.
I hear The Replacements in there, and I hear Wilco. I hear Uncle Tupelo, I hear that Americana sound wraslin' with those indie rock influences in a cage match reffed by great big catchy choruses.
I hear the sound that plays as a pretty college girl tells you her problems with SoCo on her breath on her hundredth desperate-fun night at a bar. I hear the sound of making sense of it, when what pours out of the speakers between beers 3 and 7 is perfect and you're invincible and you understand the whole sad world.
In High On Stress I hear music for a good but serious time. Tied up in knots and keeping the tempo light. A quick look through their myspace tells you that critics have taken notice of the way their lyrics and images pop out at you like countrified U2.
Their first album, Moonlight Girls, is full-up with 'heart on sleeve and heat of the moment'. A new band with influences varied enuff and talent big enuff that it always doesn't sound like someone else, it just sounds like your favorite new song comin' on the jukebox.
Their new album Cop Light Parade is out now. Those great new songs are already out there in the ether, after being snuck to friends and on myspace. We actually got us a CD here at Southern Brand, and have 'bout worn it out. The whole thing is great but stand-out tracks include White Sugar, My White Pages, Partner in Crime and We Could Have Been Nobody. (ya can buy it at CDbaby.com by clicking here)
This here is the kind of American goodness that'll keep your toes tappin' and heart beatin' while you're reminiscing 'bout all them lost and crazy whiskey-soaked nights - real or imagined. Keep 'em flying fellas.
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Music/Livin': Sad Day at Southern Brand
Jerry Reed has passed on.
To me Jerry Reed's music has a joy and energy that's rarely been matched. And he seemed like such a fun lovin' fella, I couldn't help but smile every time I'd come across a clip of the "hairy-legged, guitar-pickin' man." To this day, I start bouncin' and kickin' and gigglin' whenever "Amos Moses" or "She got the goldmine, I got the shaft" comes on.
Mentored and urged to play more guitar in his unique finger-picking style by the great Chet Atkins, Jerry was that rare cat who could do it all and seemed to make everything seem effortless, from acting to great guitar to writing great songs, Jerry's magic came at you like it was the most natural thing in the world. A redneck renaissance man.
I remember watching him act with Burt Reynolds in W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, and get directed by Burt as a real bad guy in Gator. He was a laugh riot in The Waterboy with Adam Sandler. And he was great in a flick Dom Deluise directed where he played a cop (Hot Stuff - theme song by who else? Jerry Reed), and I loved him with Robin Williams in the comedy The Survivors as a crook.
Musically, just like with acting, he made it all look easy. From the funk-country-- (did he invent that? I think he did!) that drives When You're Hot You're Hot, to the country boogie jump of East Bound & Down (From Smokey and the Bandit where he was redneck-unforgetable as Cletus Snow - The Snowman)
He wrote Guitar Man and then played on it when it was recorded by the King, as well as U.S. Male at the same session.
Amos Moses is swamp-boggie-country-glam - I mean this cat from Alabama could do it all. The wiki entry is linked here. This man was more than just a sum of his achievements, wide and varied. He was 100 percent an American Original. Got a long way to go but a short time to get there. RIP wild man.
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Music/Livin': Been Caught Surfin’ - Checkin’ out the websites of the Country Music Legends
Waylon.Dot Com - Say it out loud. Kinda rolls off yer lips don't it? Waylon's website is real good. Seems like they dug out the ol' family album, raiding it for pictures and puttin' 'em on the website, saying: "come on in friends - this way into our lives". The galleries alone are incredible. Album Covers, Showbills, every single album Waylon ever made -- (and that's alotta albums) plus a gallery of his Backstage Passes (just about the best darn backstage passes ever made.)
The site is goooood loooookin'. It feels like it was made by yer techie redneck uncle, the one who storms into Radio Shack and doesn't wanna be bothered by them guys in the knit ties with the cross pens and - he just goes right to the transistors and the radar detectors.
The best thing about it is the 'family' feel to it. You can click over to home-style info on Shooter. You can check out every darn record cover Jessi Colter ever made (Further proof that she is the foxiest woman ever to grace country music). There's a link over to the WaylonPedia, which is like a wiki but with a beard, if you can imagine such a thing. It gets a 'lil confusing there, with links to waylonandwillie.com that actually lead to Waylon's old site-- but no worries, ya'll can figure it out. The 'Outlaw Connection' link takes you to Waylon friendly sites and in the 'Store' section you can buy a Waylon flyin' W guitar pick and bumper sticker (but not a Flyin W T-shirt -- what's goin' on with that?). The Waylon dubya is waayy cooler than the Van Halen logo (obviously Weezer thought it was great as well). But hands down, my favorite thing on the site is the shot of Waylon and Buddy Holly from one of those old photo booths. Waylon was in Buddy's second group of Crickets after the original guys left. He took Waylon under his wing and showed him the ropes. That pic is priceless.
Another outlaw's site worth it's weight in whiskey is Willie's, willienelson.com. Willie is selling live music wristbands. You can carry the whole concert he did in Monroe LA, on 10.25.07 or Huntsvillie Al from 11/01/07 in a wristband that houses a USB memory stick containing a whole Willie show. Say you go to a concert and you liked it so much you wanna take it home with ya? Well straight off the soundboard here comes the show on one of them 'lil cause-y rubber wrist bands, like Lance Armstrong or Bono wear, 'cept this money goes to the charity known as the Redheaded Stranger (a worthy cause). The wristband is full up with the show you just saw (or the show you missed--- there's a bunch of dates available on the site). Very interesting item and very weird too.
Johnnycash.com has got a little more of a commercial vibe to it. But it's nice, very nice. The merchandise is top notch. They've got a onesie with "I Crawl the Line" written on it. C'mon! That's great stuff. For those of ya'll without rugrats, a onesie is one of those tiny wraslin' outfits they make for babies. Like the ones Jerry "The King" Lawler wore, but without them Lane Bryant-style leggings. They also got Johnny Cash radio which pops up the second you get on the site. Bill Miller hosts it and does a fine job of taking you through the career of the Man in Black. It's deep in content, it's got tons of design and thought to it and my favorite part of it is the Bio section. The site keeps opening windows, which is a little inconvenient, but it's worth it for stuff like this. Just click on the 60s or the 70s and you'll dive into the most detailed description of Cash's career imaginable. The site uses real pretty fonts and the "Cash" typefaces are top notch although it's a lil bit difficult to navigate through.
George Jones? That's next week. What's that? Merle Haggard? Ol' Merle's site is under construction. But when it's read, I'm ready too.
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Music/Film: Elvis In Vegas on CMT
I got hitched in Vegas. I got hitched in Vegas by the King. I'm pretty sure it was him. He was real tall though, like 6'8.
I asked him if he ever played any ball. "No man, I always been the king".
Good enough for me.
Elvis and Vegas is real close to maybe the best match for performer and venue ever. The ironic thing is that Elvis was so obviously not a dapper Vegas cat - he was a hillbilly badass who could split your lip with a Karate chop and got buried in the backyard. Anyone wonderin' about the King's countrified-ness would do well to watch Elvis '56 which, just through photos and interviews - no videos - tells the story of the King's breakout year in 1956. It's him stealin' a kiss with a high school sweetheart, roughhousin in a half full swimming pool with his buddies, buying his first ring (the horseshoe, for good luck). Narrated by another great Southern wildcat - Levon Helm of The Band - it's a portrait of a real sweet country boy about to go poof like those fireworks Kerouac wrote about.
Frank Sinatra seemed at home in Vegas, swingin' with a deck of songs about heartache, booze and the good life but New York was really his town. The King, on the other hand, was just trying to find a place big enough to contain him. He was bigger than that ol' out-of-luck cowboy hitchin' a ride in all those postcards. Now Elvis in Vegas is like Santa at the North Pole. But there was a time when it wasn't so. Those jump suits everybody finds so damn funny were a brand new thang. He looked kinda like a crazy hillbilly super hero, like he'd just piloted a home-made spaceship that carried him and David Bowie back to earth. That suit was so fly that Evel Kenievel even co-opted it, jumping sharks and school buses in (a version of) it. And after all, if yer gonna do athletics, a high collar white polyester jumpsuit covered in rhinestones is just what you wanna wear. Remember Kurt Russell in the John Carpenter-directed Elvis TV Movie, telling his costume guy - I'm playin' Vegas man, can you make me somethin' you know.. .like a karate Gi?"
Now CMT will air a special all about Elvis in Vegas on Monday Aug 11th at 8pm (and the Blue Ray DVD will go on sale at Walmart for $10 bucks the same day). The take on it is how Elvis Presley reinvented Vegas and how it reinvented him. This thing oughta be pretty interestin' with everyone from 50 cent to The Rock to Tom Jones and Nancy Sinatra - you even got 'ol crazy-ass but very artful David Lynch - waxin' poetic on the king. I wonder if they're gonna have those flyin' Elvis's there? They got performers too. Everyone from rappers Three 6 Mafia doin' In the Ghetto to Toby Keith and Joe Perry doin' Mystery Train. And you got Chris Isaak and Brandi Carlile doin' love me tender, and you even got 'ol Celine Dion doin' Can't Help Falling In Love, which is when I'll be takin a peanut butter and banana break. But hey man, you can't have it all. I might even watch Celine, I just won't tell no one. What happens in Viva Las Vegas, stays in Viva Las Vegas. Check out the trailers for the show here.
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Music/Film: The Black Keys - Live From Abbey Road
Check out the Sundance Channel's series "Live From Abbey Road" Thursdays at 10 PM. Above is a clip of The Black Keys' episode. The show is described on the Sundance Channel site as follows: "The world's most famous recording studio is the setting for this intimate music series featuring new and established performers. Created to suggest the visual quality of a movie and the carefully engineered sound of a commercial recording, LIVE FROM ABBEY ROAD captures artists without an audience as they rehearse, discuss and perform in the closed environment of a recording studio."
They've got another series that looks good as well. "Architecture School. Focusing on an innovative studio program at Tulane University, this six-part documentary series follows a group of fourth- and fifth-year architecture students as they design and build a single-family house in a low-income neighborhood of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina." Episode 1 is airing on August 20th at 9 PM.
The Black Keys are also featured on MTV2's "The Drop" today. Now go outside, and tell the world! I'm envious of all you lucky folks who are goin' to see 'em in Toledo tonight!
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Music: Johnny Cash - One Piece At A Time
You know they built that car - the one from "One Piece At A Time." They built her for Johnny Cash. The song was written as an homage of sorts to the Detroit auto workers who built Cadillacs, but could never afford to purchase one. Wayne Kemp wrote it. He played lead guitar for George Jones and wrote a buncha great tunes, including "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised" for Johnny Paycheck. According to blogger Ted Baylis, Bruce Fitzpatrick, (standing far right in the pic) owner of Abernathy Auto Parts and Hilltop Auto Salvage in Nashville, TN, was asked by the promoters of the song to build the vehicle for international promotion. Bruce had all the different models of Cadillac mentioned in the song when it was released, and built a Cadillac using the song as a model. The car was presented to Cash in April of 1976.
We stumbled upon a video Johnny did for that thing - and well, maybe a video wasn't quite the right thing to do at that point. Starts out real cool with a performance, and then at about the 45 second mark, the home movie clips start. I don't know what 'ol Johnny was on but he's shakin' it on the hood like a gal in a Sir-Mix-Alot video. But man, he's still Johnny freakin' Cash. As for the car, they had her parked out in front of the House of Cash (check out Steve Menke's great Johnny Cash site) for a few weeks way back when, wonder where she is now.
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Livin': Helter Skeletons
We wandered across what might just be the coolest way ever to mount that 'ol five pound bass you been stalkin'. That is of course if ya ever land him. Grant, Eric and Brian over at Helter Skeletons will "skeletonize" your catch and mount it in glass with a nice mahogany shadowbox. They also have a bunch you can choose from if you're the kind of fisherman that I am, and only bring home a sunburn and a hangover.
Here's the lowdown from their site:
"Helter Skeletons Limited specializes in marine skeletal art work. We travel the globe in search of innovative art and new techniques to present the skeletons to our customers. Not only do we create skeletal mounts of our customers' fish, but we can also create a range of products and designs to meet their every need. Our work may be found in galleries, museums, logos, clothing designs, movies, tattoos, boats, and vehicle wraps. Bring us your idea and we will deliver you custom skeletal art to benefit your lifestyle or business." Continue Reading...
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Eatin'/Livin': Coop’s Favorite NYC Waterin’ Holes
The clip above is the promo for a new reality series in development by Jake Catchpole.
It's easy to get lonesome and lovesick in our nation's big bad cities. And every time I step out to New York City for a bit of big city bidness, I get a lil homesick and wind up walkin' after midnight like a ghost from a Patsy Cline song. They say you're never really in a city till you've had a drink there, but NYC is so full of uptight waterin' holes with doormen givin' you the stink eye, it's not easy for a country boy to know where to drown his sorrows.
So consider this a Southern Brand primer on a few joints that put a bit of country back in the city, in a genuine and heartfelt way. No corporate rat traps here, just rowdy people, cold beer and JD on ice. I'll name 6 joints. Good and bad. Half I tried and half I heard about and aim on visitin' next time around. Feel free to chime in buckaroos. Ready? Saddle up.
Red Rock West Saloon
457 W. 17th St., New York, NY 10011
www.redrockwestsaloon.com
On NYmag.com, Henry Tenney wrote, "When you walk into Red Rock West you think, 'I might get my ass kicked in this place' "— and went on about how it becomes a hillbilly burlesque show with dancing barmaids spitting shots into customers' mouths. And sure enough, smack dab in the middle of fancy pants Chelsea is what The New York City Bartenders & Patron Guide's says is consistently the wildest bar to make it onto nycbp.com.
Now, me, having had my shirt torn off by the bartenders in there, having had shots poured straight in my mouth there, having met quite a few darlin's there, having seen every single gal in the place - including wall street lawyers, lady cops and female Harley riders - all clog dancing on the flaming bar to the sounds of the Charlie Daniels Band, I can honestly say it's like nothing else in New York City, and like no place I (and in all likelihood, you) ever been.
All those girls that ran away from your hometown cause they were too great too be contained wind up here, as redneck bartender superheroes. Whatever you do, don't mention Coyote Ugly, unless you want a beer bottle broken over your head. They hate that corporate evil thing there. And DON'T touch the girls, the place has some mean-ass bouncers. I know about them too. Don't ask.
Doc Holiday's
Manhattan/East Village
141 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009
Alphabet City ain't no joke boy, you got about a hundred different people that look like they've completly lost their way, and they're on every corner, intermingling with all the pretty folk making the New York scene. And in the middle of all that is a bar pumping David Allen Coe and Billy Joe Shaver with that familiar aroma of dirt, sweat and Natty light. Cowboy boots and western ephemera everywhere it looks like a joint lifted straight outta Southwest Texas. You got your college kids in there lookin' to get their hurt on them $5 dollar 'all the beer you can drink' Tuesday nights. You got your $2 PBR's and at Happy Hour you got your 2 for 1. Way I figure it, that's a buck a Pabst. C'mon now New York.
Standing at the bar and by the pure country jukebox are the regulars. Ornery, down on their luck, out-for-kicks-or-thrills, outlaws lookin' for a dust-up, who could give a hoot 'bout the frat kids who find this "quaint" and "invigoratin". If yer young and fulla piss and vinegar, it's a blast. If you're older and you been around some, you can probably sense there's danger in the air. 'Cause there is. But it's worth doin'. A drink or two and then travel on, cause ain't much good gonna come out of this. Still gotta be done at least once. If you're fearless and don't mind throwin' the bones, hang out all night. You'll get a story or two outta it.
Rodeo Bar
375 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10016
www.rodeobar.com
Now I don't know nuthin' firsthand about Rodeo Bar - I think I was there one time to see Lee Rocker (fella that used to be in Stray Cats, helluva rockabilly wildman) bang the heck out a standup bass and rock the place like a real memphis hillbilly - but truth be told, I was more than a few Lone Stars into the night when I arrived or as I heard a city boy from Boston once say, ' was half in the bag, man, wicked pissed.'
But I remember tryin' to text message to Ray Ray to the rockabilly beat. I remember it was a country-ass place in the middle of the world capitol of city-ass slick. Now according to Drew Pisarra at citysearch NYC Rodeo Bar is a roots enthusiast's dream, featuring local and national honky-tonk, alt-country, bluegrass and rockabilly acts every night of the week and "real Texas BBQ". Yes, the Tex-Mex decor is fetchin'. The bar, built into a converted horse trailer, serves Lone Star and Negra Modelo in bottles. A good time, but best when a band is playin'. Which is every night at some point I guess.
Trailer Park Lounge NYC
Trailer Park Lounge
www.trailerparklounge.com
271 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
Waitresses that look like that sexy 'ol Bettie Page (or was that Patti Page?) I'm not sure if this place is celebrating us or makin' fun of us. But they got Champagne in a Can and Tator Tots. The menu also had moonpies and mac and cheese on it as well as a veggie burger (?). It's across the street from the Chelsea Hotel. Which is historic all right, but best of all it's next to Rub BBQ.
Rub BBQ
208 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
Yup across the street from Trailor Park, more or less, is some of the best BBQ in NYC. Here's tha Rub. (sorry) There's this fella, lives in Brooklyn - goes by the handle WhitetrashBBQ on blogger and he writes real good bout BBQ in NYC (and BBQ elsewhere too). He laid it down on what he calls the BBQ triangle:
"The other night me and old friend, Peter Vermaelen, and corporate chef Mark Slutsky, both of McCain Foods, went to RUB for part of our grazing through New York City's downtown barbecue triangle. What's the downtown barbecue triangle? Well, it's the triangle formed by RUB, Hill Country NY and Blue Smoke. All three are within walking distance and make a great BBQ crawl. (More on that later!) And yes, there are other BBQ triangles in NYC." Further readin' is on his blog, just click here.
Dinosaur Barbecue
www.dinosaurbarbque.com
646 W 131st St
New York, NY 10027
Now, I been in New York City a whole gaggle of times but I ain't always made it to the best BBQ joints. I've stared dumbfounded as my city friends went to town on BBQ'd eel, while I fumbled with those fiddle sticks. I've sipped cold-ass rice wine and puked on those damn Cosmos tryin' to pick up a Sara Jessica type gal (She said my boots didn't "make it for her", whatever that means). Most of the time I'm eatin' in NY, I get a hotdog, or I get an apple and a Coffee - Regular while I walk down the street. I feel like McCloud when I'm out there. But even a lost cowboy has heard about Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem. I never been there, like I said, big city friends would rather take me out to "arty shows" where some dude with only one name (usually a name like Gotan or somethin' who is actually a refugee from Missouri) has cut up a cow and called it art. Which, hell, it might be if it was smoked for 14 hours and served up with some cheddar cheese, pickle slices, raw onion and white bread. But anyway, Ray Ray lived off of the grub at the original Dinosaur BBQ up in Syracuse in the early 90's. Says he went in 170 lbs. soakin' wet, came out four years later, 205 sweatin' sauce. He still orders the "slatherin' sauce" from their site.
Well that's my take on the Southern side of NYC, if you got any tips for me, gimme a holler.
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