Category Archive

By Max Conroy

I’ve been attending rock shows consistently for the past twenty years and have seen a lot of great bands, the Stones a few times, Chuck Berry, the Pixies a few times, Tom Waits, the Ramones, The Stooges; trying to list them or rate all the shows would be futile, but I can safely say that last night’s Dexateens show at the Crofoot Ballroom was one of the best show I’ve ever seen.  I can only imagine what seeing them in Tuscaloosa, headlining, would be like.  They are the closest thing to rock and roll perfection there is: technical proficiency, great songwriting, swinging swagger, shit loads of chemistry, great records, it’s all there in spades.

The Crofoot seems like a decent place to see a show, even if it is way the hell out in Pontiac: decent sound, $3 Pabst, not so surly staff.  The Dexateens opened for the Drive-By Truckers, who are riding high on the acclaim of their most recent record Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.  It’s kind of an iffy thing to go to a show specifically to see the opening act because sometimes it’s obvious that no one there has heard of the band and could care less how well they play or what they sound like and also the opener’s set is usually short.  But the Dexateens have history with the Truckers and played a plentiful set, consisting of songs off of their last three albums.  I don’t typically jock musicians if I see them hanging around by the merch table after shows out of courtesy to them.  They’re people like you and me and probably appreciate adoration, but I don’t want to be ‘that guy’, the annoying fucker looking to suck as much blood from these people as possible to obtain fodder for their blog. 

But for me the Dexateens are different.  Their music blows me away and I respect the situation they’re in, playing music for the sake of the music, not for the pussy, not for the drugs, not for the fame, certainly not for the money but because they have to do this.  So after their blistering set, I raided the merch table, picked up their tour CD, a CD that’s one member, Elliott McPherson’s acoustic take on Kiss’ Destroyer album, a shirt, and Hardwire Healing, their only record I didn’t have on vinyl.  The dude working the table who apparently works at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA, offered to have the band sign it and gave it to their bass player Matt Patton who passed it around to the rest of the band.  I spoke with Patton for awhile, trying not to sound like a teenage girl confronting their favorite teen mag idol.  We did a shot of Jack, which I usually steer clear of because a whiff of it can make me aggressive, bordering on violent, and grooved to the Truckers’ cover of Alice Cooper’s 18.  I must say that he is positively one of the most gracious people I’ve ever met.  I also spoke with their guitarist and vocalist John Smith briefly who seemed real nice and happy to have some fans in the tundra.  Patton said that pretty much the only way they’re able to travel this far north is because of the Truckers letting them open for them and that they all have day jobs.  It’s truly a bummer that they aren’t getting rich off their shows and records, but that’s the way it is, so let’s pray to God that they can keep it up!

Oh yeah, I also snuck my digital camera into the show.  I apologize for the quality of the footage, as I had the camera held at chest level for fear of a roided up bouncer confronting me and smashing it or my face or worse yet kicking me out of the show.  Also, the sound is a bit muddy as it’s a cheap Casio digital camera.

Country Roads, Happy Easter, and Sally Lives On

by Cousin Geoff:

I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend.  I spent mine in northern Michigan, all day out in the woods on snowshoes, shot some guns, found the best walking stick ever off a downed oak branch, and spent time with family.  I also gave away one of my dogs.  Sally the hound, gone, too much for me and my wife now with baby Ella.  Despite her bad behavior (constant nervous energy, getting up on the couch, in the garbage, that old coon-hound howl at all the wrong times) I was sad to see ol’ Sally go.  We’ve had a lot of good times in the past four years, but she’s just an up north dog, and not an Ypsilanti dog, and that’s just the truth.  My other dog Zoe we’re keeping, but she’s feeling down and out because Sally was her constant companion.  A sad story, but they are afterall, just dogs. 

Driving home today, I heard Toots and The Maytals sing Country Road on XM, and I realized that a good song is a good song, and a good friend is a good friend, even if it ain’t nothing but a hound dog.  Ann Arbor’s The RFD Boys (been meaning to write about these guys for a long time, and I will eventually) do a great version of this, more true to John Denver’s original, and very different than Toots and The Maytals, but still the same song. 

The RFD Boys version:

Toots version:

It’s Easter and I missed church today but I haven’t been in forever anyway.  So I’ll make up for it by including a few Jesus songs in this sermon.  More proof that a good song is a good song - Jesus is a Soul Man.  One of the Cousins’ favorites is the version by the Pathway Quartet - I compared it to the Otis Williams version in a previous post. 

As for Sally, I think she’ll be happy up north.  For some reason the Harry McClintock, Hallelujah I’m a Bum song pops in my head.   Hallelujah, I’m a bum.  Hallelujah, bum again.  HalleluJAH, give us a handout, to revive us again.  Well, as Bunny Wailer says, Time Will Tell.  Good luck Sally, may Jesus and St. Patrick lead you down a good Country Road to help you be Reborn.  Maybe there’s hope for you afterall.  Then again, maybe Elvis was right. 

By Max Conroy:

This kind of blew me away.  For all you music geeks/bitches that haven’t utilized YouTube, you’re missing out.  This is a brilliant case where the seemingly obscure character turns out to have a community of people who have taken the time to upload what they have.  I thought for sure there’d be very little information about Jimmy McCulloch out there; the only hope is that he played with some big names.  There’s no information on Allmusic.com about him other than several brief mentions in the Stone the Crows and Thunderclap Newman bios.  I looked him up on YouTube and a number of interesting hits popped up.  There’s a retrospective that includes about every picture of him that could possibly have existed and some live footage playing Heartbreaker(ironic since he died of a heart attack as a result of a heroin OD), the last song he ever recorded with the band The Dukes.  There’s also an interview he did in Chicago during a Wings tour in 1976.  The interviewer mentions an injury to Jimmy’s hand.  He apparently broke it during rehearsals for the tour, wrestling with David Cassidy, which delayed the tour for several weeks. 

On YouTube, it’s interesting to look at the comments for the videos.  For one of the promotional videos for Something in the Air, a YouTube member reminisces drinking with Speedy Keen at a local wine bar, presumably in the UK.  The user who published the interview and some other McCulloch stuff’s handle is WinoJunko76, ironically a Wings song on Wings at the Speed of Sound about substance abuse.  This guy’s obviously a fan and the person you need to send a message to for any info or video on the subject of Jimmy McCulloch.  One time I saw an Awesome Color video, a band whose members are from Ann Arbor that now reside in Brooklyn, and emailed the person who posted it, he emailed back, I sent him $10 and he sent me a DVD of the entire performance.  That’s an awesome tool, man. 

Back to Jimmy.  There’s also footage of him performing another anti-drug song with Wings called Medicine Jar.  There’s also a video of him getting nailed in the face with a cake immediately after walking backstage after a Wings show on his birthday; Ringo eventually stumbles in and acts the fool.  One of my favorites so far is his doom, damned blues-rocker Too Many Miles with White Line.  There’s even apparently the only live recording of Thunderclap Newman on here (according to the poster); it’s only the song, which is great, no video.  There are also tons of videos of him playing with Wings (if you’re into that) and Stone the Crows. 

So I guess there is a lot of info out there about this guy.  I’m pretty sure that videos are commonly taken off YouTube, so sorry if some of these links don’t work anymore, but you guys really need to check out YouTube if you’re trying to research something that you think wouldn’t be out there.

The Free Press had a great documentary video posted on it’s website a few weeks ago about Aretha Franklin’s song Respect, on it’s 40th anniversary.  I forgot to post it then, but I’m sure some of you haven’t seen it yet.  It’s great.  It talks about how Aretha put her spin on Otis Redding’s original version.  Ann Arbor’s the Rationals also did a version.

The power of the song, song musically and lyrically, is what captured listeners then and still now today, speaking not only on the behalf of women, but also African-Americans.

We’ve got both versions in our store.

The wife and I made the trip downtown to go see the original group perform during Winter Blast last Friday. As with many people, I am a huge fan and looked forward to this show as soon as it was announced. When you are going to see an “oldies” act you sometimes worry that it will not be as electric as a more current act. This is defiantly not the case with the Mysterians. ? is as energetic a performer as any 16 year old. One of the highlights for me was them doing Sally Go Round the Roses. If you have not heard, ? had a devastating fire that destroyed his home and took the life of his dogs. Unfortunately he had no insurance and is living out of a camper. Due to the fire touring around to help ? out, so catch them if you can. This Video tells the sad story of the fire.

Cousin Justin

Josh found a video on the history of Northern Soul. Check this out.