http://www.alibi.com Music from the Alibi en-us http://www.alibi.com/rss PHP webmonkeys@alibi.com http://alibi.com/index.php?story=28316&scn=music If Austin, Texas, has two things going for it, it's barbecue and live music. Here in Albuquerque, The County Line (9600 Tramway NE) has long served as an outpost for Austin's mesquite-smoked meats. But that's only half of the equation. To get the true flavor of a Texas barbecue in your craw, you need electric guitars ringing in your ears. This summer, the County Line Music Series is emphasizing rock and roll in the Texas tradition: American stories told with soul and a little twang. You can hear that breed of honest-to-goodness music live on Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. as The County Line imports a different artist every week until August. The concerts are sponsored by your pals here at the Alibi , along with Giant Convenience Stores and KRST. On July 2, we'll get Stoney LaRue, who hails from New Braunfels, Texas—geographically and sonically halfway between San Antonio and Austin. Then on July 9, there's The Band Of Heathens (Austin); and July 23 is Micky and the Motorcars (Austin). The concerts are free, but y'all are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food item to be donated to Roadrunner Food Bank. And you'd be wise to bring enough cash for a plate of ribs and a beer—though Shiner will have to substitute for Lone Star. For directions and other useful information, visit the County Line website at countyline.com or call 856-7477. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:56:49 -0600 alibi.com - 2009-07-02 - record 28316 http://alibi.com/index.php?story=28383&scn=music One of the blessings we’ve gotten from Michael Jackson is the archive of filmed, documented milestones. Looking back, it can be considered the most public “progress report” of any entertainer in the last 45 years. They are everywhere: YouTube, Facebook (who hasn’t seen the "Jackson 5ive" cartoon opening sequence?), the Sullivan stuff, the “Ben” song, you name it. Yet two of his arguably most compelling milestones (and innovations) in his captured life have seemingly missed the big cut of the conversation since his passing. That’s a shame, because without factoring in the two videos below the arc, the entirety of the sweep of his genius is incomplete. Here are my two top Michael Jackson (and by extension, Jackson Five) captured moments, along with one of his most famous (the Motown 25 th Anniversary “Billie Jean” sequence), and finally, a very recent addition that demonstrates fully just how influential the man and his family were. [See this week’s “HIStory” opinion column for a reflection on Jackson’s more personal influence.] Miss Black America Pageant—August 1968 [photo] The best way I can describe this gloriously ragged capture of the Jackson Five’s first nationwide telecast performance is “undistilled.” The band is just the Jacksons, not sessions pros. A couple of crap amps, a microphone for the rest of the Jacksons that doesn’t seem to work well and a very young Michael fronting. A number of things to watch for. One, since they had not “broken out” yet, the crowd basically doesn’t know what to make of it. It is not nearly the Jackson Five Mania response we’ve been conditioned to see. Second, of course, is Michael, who almost seems older here than in their debut Ed Sullivan appearance to come. The song, the super-funky Isley Brothers hit “It’s Your Thing,” likely contributes. The technical flaws make this a tough watch, but it’s worth waiting for the end. Check the crowd response when Michael does his thing away from the band, with a couple of double snare pop hip thrusts straight at the crowd. There’s an audible gasp that is scintillating. It’s the first coast-to-coast Michael “hit.” Michael’s “crowd management” mastery is on full display. He has to work it twice, but finally gets a solid call and response thing going near the end. It’s a “chitlin’ circuit” raggedy-ass delicious piece of archival footage. “Soul Train”—1974 [photo] By the time of “Dancing Machine,” a lot of the national television dates had been reduced to daytime shows like Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, and not primetime extravaganzas. Additionally, the J5 was doing world tours and had a big Vegas run in 1974 coming. Even though it did fairly well, “Dancing Machine” turned out to be the group’s first hit as a unit in a while. And it would be a bit before the next. It’s an interesting time that it seemed not many paid attention to, likely because the clothing, the dance steps, everything, seemed a bit musty. Even by ’74 heart-of-disco standards. However, this “Soul Train” segment, a Saturday morning staple for any black American household, is significant. And not just because whenever the Jackson Five was on, it was a big effen deal. It was about what he did during it: The Robot. It’s hard to imagine there was a time in the country when there was no Robot, but when Michael busted this, it set off a bomb in African-American youth culture. Within seemingly weeks, it was everywhere. Watch closely at the end of the Robot bit. His eyes blank, floating, and then he snaps back to the microphone with a wicked twinkle in his eye, like, “How you like that?!” Michael is in complete control here in a studio, lip-synched setting, especially when he steps forward into the audience, à la the Miss Black America Pageant. It lights off a nifty crowd reaction, working it out ’70s style with the group. Motown 25 th Anniversary Show, “Billie Jean”—1983 [photo] And while we’re talking about “Thriller,” why not indulge in Michael, circa 1983, at the Motown 25 th anniversary network special and his now infamous “Billie Jean” performance featuring The Moonwalk. Tell me you don’t see bits from the Miss Black America Pageant and the “Soul Train” bit in his moves now. It’s all connected. EriAm Sisters—2009 [photo] Finally, if any more proof be needed that Michael Jackson (and the Jackson Five) have left an indelible print on pop culture, it all became clear earlier in June when three young girls walked on stage for the season opening episode of “America’s Got Talent” and broke out this performance of “I Want You Back.” I happened on it channel surfing and was blown away. These kids, 11, 14 and 15, are talented, adorable and as the headline in their hometown newspaper in the Seattle area asks, are they the next Jackson Five? For any family singing group from now until forever, that will be the question. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:07:13 -0600 alibi.com - 2009-07-01 - record 28383 http://alibi.com/index.php?story=28303&scn=music What is Gregg Turner doing in Santa Fe? That was the driving question that convinced us to give the Angry Samoans co-founder a call. Turner and his fellow Los Angeles-based Samoans helped usher in the first wave of punk during the late ’70s. Now he's a math teacher at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas. Turner moved to the City Different in 1993 to take a job at the College of Santa Fe. He still resides in the tourist haven today. "I think everybody who lives in Santa Fe looks back and wonders, What's going on? How did I get here?" Turner speculates. "At the same time, when I visit my parents in Los Angeles now, it takes me 30 minutes or an hour to go five miles on the highways there. I don't miss that at all." From his earliest days of record collecting, Turner's been a garage rock fan. He managed to track down two similarly infatuated musicians and together, they form what's now three-fourths of The Blood Drained Cows. The band has been around since 1997, playing early garage in the mold of Lou Reed and the Kinks. Ex-Roky Erickson and the Aliens electric autoharp player Billy Angel joined the project after he impressed Turner with his vacuum-playing skills at a Cows gig in 2000. That adds another dimension to garage rock, which is a genre Turner admits has been rehashed by group after group since its creation four-plus decades ago. Turner's sense of humor also helps keep the band's aura feeling unfamiliar. Song titles like "Hantavirus Deer Mouse Blues" and "Digging Up My Date" are anything but pretentious. Turner spoke frankly about his cold feelings toward the Santa Fe music scene, the cliché of rock 'n' roll and an Angry Samoan confederate band. Your band's bio paints an unflattering picture of the sonic landscape in Santa Fe ... Oh, we're hyperbolic. There are all these old R&B retreads playing the same tired tune. I've learned to hate rhythm and blues and blues just by living in Santa Fe. It's unfair to the genre because the original black guys that did it were great. But these white guy improvisations of it ... it's just beyond annoying. What are your feelings on rock ’n' roll in general these days? I think rock ’n' roll is a cliché that's pretty much worn-out. Maybe it's time to throw the blanket over the whole thing. On the other hand, I'm having a lot of fun doing this. I just hope people are more interested in terms of the kind of stuff we're doing. What makes The Blood Drained Cows different from other garage bands? I think we bring a certain wry sense of humor that makes it a little bit less pretentious and a little more catchy to people. I think we're an interesting type of amalgam of those influences, plus a little Jonathan Richman sprinkled into it. Talk about playing with Billy Angel. Billy is our secret weapon. For anybody who hasn't seen Billy play, I think they're going to have a treat at this show. He plays the electric autoharp and he wears it on his vest. He strums it with a butter knife. He can get sounds that are very beautiful and harp-like, and at the same time, he can sound like Lou Reed and Jimi Hendrix. He's probably the most exciting thing to watch when we play. None of us are probably as charismatic as he is. Does Billy live in Santa Fe? No, he lives in Marin County in California. Every time we play somewhere, I have to fly him out. But it's worth it. Do your students know about your music career? Some do, but only if they browse the Internet. I don't try to advertise it because I need all their concentration I can get on the math. Do the Angry Samoans still exist in some form or another? The Angry Samoans are still playing around, but it's a confederate band. One of the members [Mike Saunders] has been playing since 1997 and he took the name. Are you angry about the confederate band? I'm not thrilled. I've considered suing him, but to do that with all the legal fees is just a huge expense. I just feel bad that people who think they're seeing what we once were are seeing a third-rate version. What's your pitch for folks to come to The Cows show in Albuquerque? We're trying to be slightly different, but at the same time, we're playing a genre that I think is pretty engaging for people to participate in. We're looking for people not just to watch and see if they like it, but to feel like they can be a part of it, and feel like it's something that they can feel involved in. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:53:00 -0600 alibi.com - 2009-07-01 - record 28303 http://alibi.com/index.php?story=28315&scn=music Torture Victim and Sandia Man serve up of a hot, salted pit of headbanging on Friday, July 3, at the Launchpad. $5 ensures your neck will be good and warmed up for watching the weekend’s fireworks. 21+, doors open at 8 p.m. (Laura Marrich) Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:53:00 -0600 alibi.com - 2009-07-01 - record 28315 35.0846580 -106.6548260 http://alibi.com/index.php?story=28314&scn=music A new NOFX record is always a pleasant surprise since it means the band is still kicking after 25 years of hard skating and boozing. If you're waiting for the band to transform itself into a totally different beast after a quarter of a century, you'll have to keep waiting. There are a couple of Chuck Berry-style riffs on "We Called It America" and some rockabilly undertones on "Blasphemy (The Victimless Crime)." Other than that, Coaster is nearly indistinguishable from the other 10 LPs that preceded it. That's not necessarily a bad thing. The band still goes hard and refuses to wussify. That should keep folks still on the NOFX train onboard. (SM) Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:53:00 -0600 alibi.com - 2009-07-01 - record 28314