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Goodbye SpinSouth, hello selloutmusic.com.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Sunfall Festival

Sunfall Festival | Trilobite

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Sellout's Steal of the Week: Bettye Lavette

I'm late to the game here... But dig---

Bettye Lavette | How Am I Different:

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For the record, S. Husky Hoskulds, you are my recording hero.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: John Coltrane

John Coltrane | Alabama:

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Walter Tore's Spontobeat.

Walter Tore is a one man band. He has written over 1 million songs. He says "God blessed me with the ability to do this and cursed me with the disability to do a cover, even one of my own." Apparently his music is strictly spontaneous---written and recorded on the spot and never played again.

Check him out at Soundclick here.
Login as "spinsouth" password="spinsouth"

Recommeded Listening:

An Execution at San Quentin This Week

I Got My Hair Cut Tonight

Where the Wild Things Are

Dylan just told me that Spike Jonze and Dave Eggars are making the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. Can't wait.

More at Variety.com.

Big Night at the WWT

Big Cats are recording in town, and Big Silver are about to release the much anticipated "Afterlife" in February. Good night of music at the WWT for sure.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Shannon Yarbrough

Over the next week, seven (7!) Max Recordings bands will play shows in Little Rock. Here's your chance to get caught up on (almost) all things Max. . .

Max Holiday Shows:
Wed 12/21-- The Chinese Girls (Downtown Music)
Wed 12/21-- The Easys (Sticky Fingerz)
Thur 12/22-- The Big Cats and Kevin Kerby (Sticky Fingerz)
Fri 12/23-- Trusty and Sugar and the Raw (Vino's)
Tue 12/27-- Boondogs (Whitewater Tavern)


Shannon Yarbrough | Unknown Brooklyn

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Also, check out the show on Shannon (and his influence on the record label) at Arkansongs.

More on Max at maxrecordings.com.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Jim Mize

So Red Chuck and I have been playing with Jim Mize for about a year and a half now. We're just about finished with his new record, but we've yet to play a gig with him. That changes Friday night, as Jim Mize and the Fence Jumpers debut at the Whitewater Tavern.

His last record featured the Oxford, MS band Blue Mountain, and resulted in praise in all kinds of national press outlets (Billboard, Guitar Player, etc). Someone said "Jim Mize writes songs from Larry Brown's south-- full of southern weirdos, infidelity, booze and violence." Someone else called him "a Southern Springsteen at the height of his powers."

Okay, so I said those things (couldn't find any of the press clips), but in any case-- I'm really glad to be involved in this new record. We recorded half of it in Mississippi with Bruce Watson, and half of it here in Little Rock. It's supposed to be out early next year.

Here's one of my favorites:

Jim Mize | Promises We Keep (advance mix):

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Note: this makes the 2nd Steal of the Week in a row that I recorded and played bass on. I promise I won't make it a habit. Next week we'll come up with something less narcissistic.

I Stand Corrected: WWJCD?

In 1993 Johnny Cash sang "Happy Birthday" to me on my 21st birthday. This was before the Rick Rubin records came out-- he was playing the Wayne Newton Theater in Branson. Not the coolest gig, and though officially of age, I was several generations younger than the busloads of retired vacationers filling the seats around me. In any case, JC managed to transcend the setting-- under normal circumstances there is nothing cool about Branson, MO, but Johnny Cash managed to be very cool.

In the same way Walk the Line is so much better than it should have been. On paper (and in the trailers) it looks like a horribile Hollywood creation. But simply put, the movie is fantastic. It's not perfect (Ms. Witherspoon doesn't do June Carter's wackiness justice, and parts of the story were a bit tidy), but its faults are easily overlooked in the face of everything it does right.

At the Branson show 12 years ago, JC sang a "new" song. He didn't introduce it-- didn't say his ex-son-in-law wrote it for him-- didn't say it was going to be on a new record.. In fact there was no mention of a new record, although the first American Recording must have been in production at that time. In any case, the song stuck with me that night. Here it is:

Johnny Cash | The Beast in Me:

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Sellout's Steal of the Week: The Easys

In honor of the Easys bold return to the internet, here's a track from the first record. All apologies to Al Green.

The Easys | Let's Not Stay Together:

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Visit the Easys online at:
theeasys.com
myspace.com/theeasys

MP3 courtesy of Loudmouth Mastering.

Localist Goes Live

This Friday. . .

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Victoria Williams

What can you say about Victoria Williams? Slightly nuts, extremely gifted, somewhere between Neil Young and Billie Holiday with more than a little Tom Waits thrown in? Close enough.

Had a hard time picking a song for this one... Thought about the heartbreaking "Century Plant" from Loose, or "Boogieman" from Swing the Statue. But here's a chance to plug another favorite Shreveport musician made good (Vic is homegirl too), drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade...

I saw them play this on Conan or Letterman or the like when the record came out, and it was obvious she was having a ball playing with Brian. Los Boondogs had a similar experience when he sat in with the band a few years back. He knew the songs better than we did and he'd never heard them. Frighteningly talented guy. Word is he's completed another solo record--this time as a singer-songwriter-- with Tucker Martine. Can't wait.

Anyhoo... here's Victoria Williams from Musings of a Creekdipper, with Brian Blade on drums:

Victoria Williams | Train Song (Demise of the Caboose)
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R.I.P. John Fowles

Writer John Fowles dies aged 79

I read The Magus in grad school and promptly made all my reading friends read it too. I still maintain that fake nazis are scarier than real nazis.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Emitt Rhodes

A few years ago I read about Emitt Rhodes in TapeOp. It seems Mr. Rhodes released a solo record in 1970 that was rumored, at the time, to be a certain Macca's debut solo record. Anyway, reading about made me curious to hear it, so I ventured out to Anthro-pop to see about ordering a Japanese import or whatever was available.

While waiting for Rod, I flipped through the "new arrivals" bin, and discovered two (2!) LPs by the man himself... Synchronicity? Divine Providence? Mere Coincidence?

Who knows. In any case, I bought both records for $10, and promptly listened to the first many many times. Then I had Red Chuck transfer the album to CD. Here, for your listening pleasure, is track one.

Emitt Rhodes | With My Face on the Floor
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More great info on Emitt Rhodes here.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: The Stroke (singular)

With all the blog craziness over new leaked Strokes songs, I present this week's Sellout Steal of the Week: THE STROKE (singular).

Billy Squire | The Stroke:
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Takes me back to Skate World, ca 1981. Those were good times.

Bonus Video

Watch the Pinter-inspired Seinfeld episode:

Or download it here:

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NOTE: Having trouble with the Quicktime? Might be time to update to 7.0 here

Congrats Harold Pinter...

The Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Harold Pinter, author of one my favorite plays, Betrayal, which in turn was the inspiration for my favorite Seinfeld episode. They both go backwards.

Related:
Buy Betrayal here
More about Harold Pinter at haroldpinter.org
Seinfeld: The Betrayal episode guide
And learn how to record a backwards guitar solo

Appropriate quote from said Seinfeld episode:
Jerry: Well, everybody's a little cranky on their birthday.
George: Oh, it's a bad day. You got everyone in your house, you're thinkin', "These are my friends?!"
Jerry: (Sarcastic) Every day is my birthday.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: T-Bone Burnett plays the Blues

From the Wim Wenders film The Soul of a Man (part of the PBS series on THE BLUES), T-Bone and company do the J.B. Lenoir song about letting the girls have girls night every once in a while... White Russians and dirty martinis all night.

T Bone Burnett | Don't Dog Your Woman
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Related:
Wim Wenders (the official site)
Sam Phillips is recording a new record right now
The Blues will be in effect in Helena this weekend. Have fun Red Chuck.

Last Night at Cajun's

To the guy in the paisley shirt doused in Polo cologne: Why?

Meet Ringo

And a song in his honor:

Lorne Greene | Ringo:

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More Big Star. . .

So there's a Big Star e-card here, but those streaming songs don't work too well on ipod.... So for your mobile listening pleasure, here are all three songs as MP3s (including "Dony" from a couple weeks ago):


Big Star | Lady Sweet:

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Big Star | Best Chance We Ever Had:

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Big Star | Dony:

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P.S. In Space comes out 9/27.

Come all without, come all within...

You've not seen nothing like the Mighty Quinn.

Sept. 21, 1992- Sept. 4, 2005

Kanye sez:

A friend who works for a major newspaper writes about two photos released over the wire today: "One AP image shows a black man and uses the following caption: "A young man walks through chest-deep waters after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday." The other photo, from Getty Images, shows two white people, with this caption: "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store." Black people loot, white people find."

Leadership in action

President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz)

FOUND

Sing, Muse, of a high school rock band. A band of once-loyal musical brothers cursed with creative differences they could not overcome. Sing of a brave young Lead Guitar Player called upon to deliver the death blow to the perputually shirtless Lead Singer. Sing, Muse, of a band of hoodlooms recruited from across the river to beat up a dedicated band leader in a McDonalds parking lot the night before the ACT.

Sing, Muse, of the glorious moment sixteen years later, when said band leader finds a note written by the lost (and linkless) drummer the next week at school.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Big Star

Surely I've told you about accosting Alex Chilton at Coop's in New Orleans. Anyway, the new Big Star record comes out 9/27. Here's the first track:

Big Star | Dony:

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Things I Know About Ian, pt. 1

I met Ian last Friday. Since then I've learned:

He's British
He's a nauturalized U.S. citizen
He's a part-time missionary
He smokes alot
He knows all the words to "The Gambler"
And all the words to "I'm Proud to be an American"
He has a criminal record
He was expelled from school with his running mate, Brian Jones
(yes THAT Brian Jones)
He doesn't believe Brian drowned ("He could swim like a fish!")

I'll check in every so often with more Ian facts as I gather them. . .

It was 40 years ago today. . .

But according to this page, it wasn't that big of a deal. . .

A Late Flooding Thaw by Gary Guinn

Full disclosure: I know this book's author. He was a favorite professor, he buys our records, and he read a sonnet in our wedding (all we got him as a gift was Moby Grape CD. Doesn't seem right in hindsight). Anyway, having heard chapter excepts over the years, I was excited to finally read the novel when it was published a few weeks back. I was not disappointed.

In fact, I was surprised to find halfway through the book that I was no longer reading "Dr. Guinn's novel," but a really great book whose authorship no longer mattered to me.

A Late Flooding Thaw is the story of Walter and Emma Bass. Walter is a sort of Jewel Bundren, if he were able to achieve escape velocity from his family. Emma, his wife, shares a certain religous ecstasy with Hazel Motes. And no matter what Randy Zurcher or the author himself may say, I think the owl in the last chapter has to be the Holy Spirit.

Save $10 and order it directly from the publisher here. Or buy it from Amazon.com. Or by it from Wordsworth in Little Rock, where Gary Guinn will be signing books on August 11th.

Sellout's Steal of the Week: Maria Taylor

Thanks to Chromewaves for the link to the Maria Taylor MP3s. No thanks, however, to Saddle Creek for generously providing mono 32 kbs files. Here to rectify the situation are the two songs in all their stereo 192 kbs MP3 glory:

Maria Taylor | Speak Easy
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Maria Taylor | Song Beneath the Song
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More on Maria here. P.S. I still hate Bright Eyes.

Chicago is South of Somewhere

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American Cities That Best Fit You:

70% Chicago

70% Philadelphia

55% Los Angeles

55% New York City

55% Washington, DC

I figured I would end up in Austin, Atlanta, or New Orleans. I like Birmingham, too. I specifically said I wanted to be in the South. But according to this useless quiz, I should be in Chicago (I even said I wanted a sunny and warm climate!).

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

I'll have two with onions and kraut

It's no secret that many Spin South posts have been inspired/influenced/ruined by a cold Fat Tire or two. Now that the kind rep from New Belgium Brewing Company just left 10 cases of Fat Tire in my living room for the upcoming Boondogs CD release show, we can expect great things this week from Spin South.

Let's begin with a link to the Dog Blog from Round Online.

An entire page dedicated to eating hot dogs makes me think of Lucky Dogs, of course.

And Lucky Dogs make me think of the supposed film adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces, which according to this article is still on hold.

Goodbye and Godspeed

Given Mike Wolf's online presence and influence, it seems appropriate to post this song here in his memory. It was written and recorded the week after he died.

FYI, Lady Crumpet has archived Mike's page here.

Boondogs | Goodbye and Godspeed:
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