detroit nickel bag

Sometimes the good shit rolls right on by. Streaming ticker tape and all manner of sweet things stashed in the glove compartment.

You don't catch up with it until much later. When it's burned out. Jacked up on bricks in a vacant lot; nose down in a ditch with its hood popped open and the tire iron buried deep in the skull of an insurance agent four and one quarter miles from the scene.

That's pretty much how it was with me and The Gories. A three piece first operating out of Detroit back in '86. Two dapper dudes and a chick on drums. Then the record got set straight, see. For The Sake of the Song. The scales fell from my eyes; my ears got hip.

I could see from just a single glance in the bathroom mirror that close to two decades had slipped on by. The skinny kid got replaced. Some time between the champagne reception and the divorce. The cutting of all that fucking tiered cake. Too busy with the repayments and his girfriend counting calories.

What a shitty deal. The King of bum raps.

Still. I console myself that I still have all my teeth. Right there in the beer glass; warmed up in the window.

▼ THE GORIES: CHARM BAG from "House Rockin'" LP (New Rose) 1989 (US)

step we gaily...

francis bacon and our william
delight in a public display of their new found sobriety.
photograph by john minihan, london, 1989.

"Interlude: conversations at Hotel Rif and ‘Prelude #2′ from six preludes for piano, performed by Bennett Lerner. Curated by Claudia Gould and Stephen Frailey."

Sadly missing, are the sounds of seagulls outside my window as I prepared this post. Their call punctuated "The Garden" very nicely, I thought.
▼ PAUL BOWLES: INTERLUDE / PRELUDE #2 from "The Voices Of Paul Bowles" Cassette (Tellus) 1989 (Morocco)

▼ PAUL BOWLES: THE GARDEN from "The Voices Of Paul Bowles" Cassette (Tellus) 1989 (Morocco)

PLANET BOWLES

spam again

mo and family. photograph by daniel peebles.

No, not unsolicited electronic mail.

While Lou got busy serenading needles and necking brandy alexanders in royal company with messieurs David Bowie and James Osterburg, Maureen Tucker was struggling just to put food on the table.

In the aftermath of the Velvet Underground's implosion, Mo relocated to Texas and juggled a job at Wal-Mart in between feeding and raising her children and working to find time just to dip her toe back into the stream. The resulting "Playin' Possum" did not materialize until 1981, recorded in her family living room - "between diaper changes" - over an especially strenuous six month period. She played all instruments, painstakingly overdubbing each and every one. As one might expect, the emphasis resided within her own very unique sense of rythym; a Bo Diddley hybrid quite unlike anything else produced by her former bandmates in pursuit of solo status and acclaim, something more honest lurking perhaps only in rural or suburban backwaters with a Norman Petty heart.

pos•sum |ˌpɒsəm|
noun
1 informal an opossum.
2 a tree-dwelling Australasian marsupial that typically has a prehensile tail.
• Four families, esp. Petauridae: many species, including the ringtails.

PHRASES
play possum 1 pretend to be asleep or unconscious when threatened (in imitation of an opossum’s behavior). 2 feign ignorance.

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: shortening of opossum.

If one is searching for a role model, one could do a whole lot worse.

This song can be found on 1989's "Life in Exile After Abdication", a slightly more polished affair featuring contributions by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. Guitar is provided by Jed Fair, with additional percussion from Hank Beckmeyer, Kate Messer, Kim Gordon, and M.C. Kostek. A joyous thrash of complaint.

The second selction, "Chase", is altogether more familiar and dangerous, with congas contributed by Kate Messer; cymbal by Jed Fair; drums by Maureen herself; and guitar by Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore.

Tell 'em, Mo! I defy anybody not to get a bonafide piebald kick out of this.

This an album to be savoured over and over again in fleeting moments of reckless abandonment.

▼ MAUREEN TUCKER: SPAM AGAIN from "Life In Exile After Abdication" LP (Fifty Skidillion Watt Records) 1989 (US)

▼ MAUREEN TUCKER: CHASE from "Life In Exile After Abdication" LP (Fifty Skidillion Watt Records) 1989 (US)

PURCHASE LIFE IN EXILE AFTER ABDICATION

doctor doolittle

design by vaughn oliver; photography by simon larbalestier.

Recorded at Downtown Recorders, Boston, Massachusetts. Mixed at Carriage House Studios, Stamford, Connecticut.

Black Francis: guitar, vocals; Kim Deal: bass, vocals; Joey Santiago: guitar; David Lovering: drums.

▼ PIXIES: I BLEED from "Doolittle" LP (4AD) 1989 (US)

PURCHASE DOOLITTLE

angels' wings are icing over

"'Cause he's always living back in Dixon -
circa 1949 -
And we're all sitting at the fountain,
at the five and dime.
'Cause he's living in some B-movie
The lines they are so clearly drawn.
In black and white life is so easy
And we're all coming along on this one.

'Cause he's on a secret mission,
Headquarters just radioed in,
He left his baby at the dancehall
While the band plays on some sweet song.
And on a mission over China
The lady opens up her arms -
The flowers bloom where you haved placed them
And the lady smiles, just like mom.

Angels' wings are icing over
McDonnell-Douglas olive drab,
They bear the names of our sweethearts,
And the captain smiles, as we crash.
'Cause in the mind of Ronald Reagan
Wheels they turn and gears they grind,
Buildings collapse in slow motion
And trains collide, everything is fine..."

David Lowery: rhythm guitar, vocals; Victor Krummenacher: bass;
Greg Lisher: guitar; Chris Pedersen: drums.

A small town taste of California Redlands' Camper Van Beethoven prior to their demise in 1990; and their only album not to feature founding member, Jonathan Segel.

Written by Camper Van Beethoven. Produced by Dennis Herring.

"Don't take the third step, that's just the sad lovers' waltz."

▼ CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN: SWEETHEARTS from "Key Lime Pie" LP (Virgin) 1989 (US)

PURCHASE A SLICE OF KEY LIME PIE
MORE CVB: "ANOTHER SUCKY NIGHT" @ POETRY IS FOR ASSHOLES

tito puente

puente's star on the hollywood walk of fame, february 2006.

From his 99th studio album, apparently. Who's counting ?

"Tito Puente, Sr., (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr., was an influential Latin jazz and mambo musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as 'El Rey' (the King) of the timbales and 'The King of Latin Music'. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions that helped keep his career going for 50 years."

▼ TITO PUENTE: ODE TO CACHAUO from "Goza Mi Timbal" CD (Concord) 1989 (US)

TITO PLENTY