Wails From the Crypt

Long-time readers are perhaps aware that your humble scribe has toiled, off and on since high school, in a garage band (more accurately a basement band) known under a variety of names but mostly as The Weasels.

What they may not know, however, is that having, of late, a surfeit of time on my hands, I have been engaged recently in compiling an actual CD -- to be entitled Let There Be Weasels: Greatest Hits 1973-2016 -- and that, to that end, I and some technical professionals have been restoring, to the best of our meager ability, the various home recordings and el cheapo music videos in our poorly maintained multi-media vaults.

Here's one we just sort of finished -- the official promo film for our classic 1977 or 1978 rocker "Sweet Geraldine." Now with a genuine stereo audio track!!!



BTW, in case you were wondering, the guy singing -- the song's composer Glenn Leeds -- is doing hilariously over-the-top impressions of the other guys in the band. And yes, the one with the makeup is supposed to be me.

Friday 23 Revisited

From the incredibly great Willie Nile's killler new album of Dylan covers - please enjoy his fabulous Byrds Meets the Ramones version of "Blowin' in the Wind."

You can -- and should -- order Positively Bob, which drops (as the kids say) today over at Amazon HERE.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Your Thursday Moment of Words Fail Me

Little Steven -- from his brilliant new album Soulfire -- and an astonishing remake of the classic song he gave to Southside Johnny , the barstool anthem "I Don't Want to Go Home."

Seriously, if this doesn't get to you, there's something medically wrong.

Closed for Monkey Business

Regular -- apolitical, BTW -- postings resume on the morrow.

Your Tuesday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special Beat the Devil Edition

From who the fuck knows when, although possibly 2017, please enjoy (yeah, right) The Jay Skekulow Band and...jeebus fuck, I can't go on. It's a Boston song, and it's not Boston's fault.

The Jay Sekulow band was founded by Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice and includes an all-star cast: John Elefante former lead singer of Kansas, John Schlitt of Petra, Mark Townsend of DC Talk, Dr. Steve Guthrie, Marco Pangallo, and Scott Kirkman. Together they play songs that often resonate with the work and mission of the ACLJ. All these men above are Messianic-Christians and Pro-Israel-Yisrael / Pro-Zionism / Pro-USA!!

I really don't know how to say this, er, politely, but everybody in this band who isn't that fascist shitheel Jay Sekulow -- an evil sonofabitch who made his TV bones shilling for Pat Robertson on The 700 Club -- deserves to rot in hell along with him.

Your Monday Moment of Atonal Groaning*

From the Pathe Archives, via Charlie Pierce:

Here's Marlene Dietrich, singing in Russia. This is not to be confused with singing about Russia, which I suspect will be a serious choral work in a few weeks.

BTW, apparently, Burt Bacharach was the musical director on this, which is pretty cool.

*[h/t my late Stereo Review colleague Noel Coppage, who coined that phrase to describe Dietrich's inimitable...er...vocal stylings.]

The Father of Us All

So our good pal Sal Nunziato, proprietor of the great BURNING WOOD blog mentioned the other day that Chuck Berry's posthumous album was quite wonderful.

And because I trust his taste, I sprung for the album.

Well, he was right.

Words fail me, but here's "Dutchman" -- my favorite track.



Jeebus fuck -- the cat was 90 when he wrote/recorded this. And it's the best short story I've heard this year.

BTW -- Chuck's "Too Much Monkey Business," from 1956, is the first rap record.



And anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Closed for Monkey Business

Had a long, productive but exhausting, night in the studio yesterday.

Regular extremely peppy posting resumes on the morrow.

Obviously I'm Gonna Have to Re-Read Poe's "William Wilson"

Apparently I've got a genuine doppelganger in a band in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

That guy in the center really looks like some asshole whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels.

Or else I'm somehow in a trance and moonlighting as a member of THE PLEASURE PILOTS

Those guys are actually pretty good, thank god, as this cover of Roy Montrell's New Orleans r&b classic "That Mellow Saxophone" proves.



Still -- I'm sort of freaked out by the resemblance.

[h/t WGG]

Your Tuesday Moment of My Bucket List

From 1988, please enjoy the transplendent Roseanne Cash and her hit version of John Stewart's brilliant "Runaway Train."



Still my favorite of her singles, although she's made more great records than most of us have had hot meals; how I've never gotten around to seeing her in person is beyond me.

And yes, I will concede that I hate the gated 80s drum sound on this song, but in this case it's not a deal breaker.