Bottle Up and Go Do the Hunch!

Head on over to Ichiban to download my new vocal group compilation!

http://wfmuichiban.blogspot.com/2014/08/bottle-up-and-go-do-hunch.html

Dixy Blood Lux Lives Live at Kung Fu Necktie

It's hard to believe it's been 4 months since the Lux Lives East Coast round of shows happened. In case you missed the Facebook postings we raised almost 4,000 dollars for Best Friends Animal Society in Lux's name. If you go to my Facebook page you can read my list of thank you's and other reminiscences about the events.

 

One of the more disappointing things that emerged from the night in Philadelphia was that 2 of the recordings made of Dixy Blood's set did NOT sound that good. At least not good enough to share with the general public. One recording sounded too loud and blown out. Another recording had vocals that were way too low.  Sort of the risk you take with modern audience recordings.

 

Thankfully, the sound guy that night also recorded the show and it came out pretty brilliant. This is the way it sounded to me that night. It was a great tribute to Lux and The Cramps, and now thanks to Dixy Blood, they've allowed me to share it with you.

 

One of the great things about this recording is that this is Dixy Blood doing (mostly) Cramps songs. Not Dixy Blood trying to sound like the Cramps. Sometimes when bands pay tribute to other bands they try and copy them instead of just being themselves. A few of the highlights for me is their mind blowing rendition of Can't Hardly Stand It and their haunting version of Lonesome Town.  Oh, and Goo Goo Muck sung by Betty Lou was pretty outstanding too!

 

When the idea of this show was hatched one drunken evening in the outskirts of Philadelphia at the guitar players house, I had no idea how it was going to turn out. We had to secure a club, get DJ equipment, find other cool bands (hopefully the recording of Full Blown Cherry's set will manifest itself at some point!), etc.  But it all went like a dream. Kung Fu Necktie was a great place for the show and the people that came out were incredible.

 

Before proceeding any further, here is a little background on Dixy Blood.   Dixy Blood was formed after long running Philly band the Sickidz "retired." The Sickidz formed back in the late 70's and played many shows with The Cramps back in the day. They even had a record produced by Lux and Ivy (HIGHLY recommended if you've never heard it). Dixy Blood formed shortly after the Sickidz called it a day, fulfilling life long dream of singer Mick Cancer to form a country band. But a country band like only former members of the Sickidz could do.  I saw their 2nd or 3rd show I think? And they blew me away. It was great. Currently they are working on polishing off a full length album and recording some additional new material.

 

I met original drummer, and later guitarist Rich Lustre back in the Napster days of trading music and it's developed in to a friendship I treasure. I want to thank him and the other members of the band for being behind this thing 110 the whole way....

 

Enjoy the show!

 

Dixy_Blood_Live!

 

Dixy Blood is:

 

Vocals and Mischief: Mick "Clarence" Cancer

Guitar and Attitude: Rich Lustre

Bass and Vocals: Betty Lou Gee

Drums and Vocals: MoeJo

 

Sickidz Discography

 

Rhythm Girl    BTCP Records 1981

I Could Go to Hell for You    Big Beat 1984

On a Jones/Dogfood    Psycho Acoustic Sounds 1989

No Reason to Complain    Apex 1990

Now and Then    2003

Teenage Obsessions 1978-84 Recordings     Rave Up Records 2008

Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume 5 (remaster)

Here is the "remaster" of Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume 5!

As near as I can tell, I originally made this volume back in 2004. Or at least that's what the date stamps say on the mp3's. Also, in 2004 the Cramps released their How to Make a Monster double CD set, and some of the songs mentioned in the liner notes make an appearance here.

 A few major things were fixed; firstly the version of Heartaches by Ted Weems and his Orchestra has been fixed. The song that was on the original mix was not the correct version (or the correct band!) that appeared on the Purple Knif Show.  Also fixed is the Jack Eely version of Louie Louie. Listen to your old version and cringe at the quality of that mp3. This one is taken right from my copy of the 45. Back in 2004, I didn't have a copy...

A note regarding Oh! Susanna. As far as I can tell that track hasn't been issued on CD, So I made an mp3 from my own copy of the 45 which sounds a tad better than the original mp3. But seriously, how many of you actually listen to that song when it pops up on your ipod?

Thanks go out to Haunted George for the image for this volume. He found this photo on an old newspaper. I can only imagine it accompanied an article dealing with the horrors of Drag Racing, or Chickie Runs!

Also thanks to Adam Fitch for doing his usual bang up layout work!

And lastly thanks to WFMU and Debbie D. for hosting the LAIF's for easy downloading....

Volume 4 next, maybe?

LAIF #5 (REUPLOAD)

Psychotic Reactions with Pip!

 

 

Here's my appearance on yesterday's Psychotic Reactions. All in all a pretty good show, I think.

 

Hear my take on proper pants wearing and my altercation with a vocal group dealer at Allentown...

 

 



Psychotic_Reactions

 

(download quick, who knows how long it will be there with the media fire big brother programs that like to shut things down)

 



The Playboys - Jungle Fever

Here's a classic instrumental from 1959!  I'd heard for years this was a song The Cramps were either into, or adapted in to one of their songs. It's been on a few instrumental compilations and it sounded a bit like The Cramps, but not a hundred percent. I never put it on a Lux and Ivy's Favorites volume because I could never find anywhere they mentioned the song, etc.

So I found the actual 45 in Allentown this past year and snapped it up in a hurry.

Playing it at 33 1/3 it becomes a BIT more apparent that The Cramps used it for a song. Give a listen and see what you think.

As a side note, I've heard a few times that the labels on this particular 45 were somehow reversed and this is actually a song called Shotgun, but I don't see that since the stamp in the dead wax matches the label number of R 572.

Either way, here they both are, one at 45 and the other at 33!

Jungle_Fever at 45

Jungle_Fever at 33

Rural Blues Vol. 3 - Down Home Stomp

Back in the early 90's I was up in Portland Maine. I ended up at a local place that sold only vinyl. NO compact discs allowed! In fact, their CD section was a zip lock bag with broken CD's inside. I think its still there, but I forget the name of the place.

So I'm in there browsing around when the most fucked up distorted blues I had ever heard came chugging out of the little speaker in the store. It hit me like a freight train. What the fuck was this?! Ok, play it cool, don't go running up to the counter asking what the hell this was.  So I continue shopping around.

Then another track bursts forth and its even more mind blowing then the previous one!  Distorted vocals, killer harmonica that mimicked a train sound....jaw dropping stuff...

At the time I had been listening to a lot of what is now known as "garage punk" of that era. One band in particular that I couldn't get enough of was the Jack O' Fire. These guys were amazing.  Amazing harmonica playing lead singer, like a twisted little brother of Howlin' Wolfe himself. The rest of the band was amazing too. They covered a ton of blues tunes and also did punk rock covers but in a blues style.  Great, great fucking band.

Well the first two songs I heard that day sounded a hell of a lot like the Jack O' Fire. 

It ended up being Papa Lightfoot. 

So after a while I went up to the owner and asked what record he was playing. He showed me the record pictured above.  It was a compilation of various artists from the Imperial record label. I asked him how much it was, to which he replied; "Oh, THAT'S not for sale!"

UGH, like a punch to the gut. I wrote down the name of the record and some of the artists and after buying some stuff that WAS for sale, went on my merry way. 

That record haunted me for like 3 years. I found it at Amoeba records in SF.  It's one of my favorite records that I play all the time.  Pick up the other records in the series if you can find them. All great that I've heard anyway...

DOWN_HOME_STOMP

VPRO Interview with Lux and Ivy

Here's a cool interview someone hipped me to on Facebook (thanks Jan Kooi!). It's from around the time Stay Sick came out. It's always great hearing Lux and Ivy talk about movies and music.

VPRO_Interview