Tag: video

Saturday Matinee – The Electric Device Orchestra, Reverend Peyton, The Luca Giordano Band w/ Jj Thames, and Dirty Sweet

Electric Device Orchestra: Electric Toothbrush 1 / lead vocals, Electric Toothbrush 2 / bass, The Four Credit Card Machines / backing harmonies, with Typewriters 1 & 2 / percussion. [h/t Mme. Jujujive.]

Reverend Peyton (sans his Big Damn Band) in the cotton gin at Dockery Farm in the Mississippi Delta, the place where Charley Patton was raised.

Hurricane Jj Thames backed by The Luca Giordano Band at the Cafe’ De Amer in Amen, Netherlands November 2023. In 2005 Giordano left Italy for Chicago, made a name for himself backing various blues greats, and eventually returned to Europe where his trio spreads the word.
Jj Thames is nothing but amazing. Born in Motown, moved to the Delta, and has an impressive style (and resume). Apparently she had a rough time in the music business and announced her retirement in 2020.

San Diego based Dirty Sweet is/was a roots rock blues band who took their name from a lyric in T.Rex’ Bang A Gong.

A lot of disturbing history happened this week and it ain’t over yet. Interesting times indeed. I’ll be on the porch by the time I get out there. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – Hermeto Pascoal, Sugaray Rayford & The Rhythm Shakers

Known as o Bruxo (the Sorcerer), Pascoal often makes music with unconventional objects such as teapots, children’s toys, and animals, as well as keyboards, button accordions, melodica, saxophones, guitars, flutes, voices, various brass and folkloric instruments. [Wiki]

Brazilian improvisational avant-garde musician Hermeto Pascoal e Grupo play with water in Música da Lagoa, a scene from the 1985 movie Sinfonia do Alto Ribeira by Ricardo Lua.

Texas born Caron “Sugaray” Rayford grew up in starvation-level poverty. His mother struggled to raise three boys alone while battling cancer; when she died, the siblings were relieved. “She suffered and we suffered. Then, we moved in with my grandmother and our lives were a lot better. We ate every day and we were in church every day, which I loved. I grew up in gospel and soul.”

From The Rhythm Shakers‘ website:

As red hair is flailing and double bass pounding, Marlene Perez of the Rhythm Shakers closes out another show in Los Angeles. Ripping wails and howling vocals are rocketed from her torso more reminiscent of Tina Turner and Amy Winehouse than the echo dripped hiccups of the 1950’s rock and roll genre the band exists within.

Happy weekend to all, and tomorrow porch time shall commence promptly at whenever. See you then.

Gary’s in a damp parking lot and he’s getting down to business.

Couldn’t save this for the Saturday Matinee post for obvious reasons.
The video is the full album; click the forward buttons to find your favorite.
More about Gary, aka Gary Solo, aka Dr. Gary Soloman here.
[h/t Pam M. via FB.]

UPDATE:
Gary’s at No. 8 on this album cover rating site. Let’s get him to No. 1. He deserves it. https://classicovers.sprucemoose.digital/album/getting-down-to-business.html

Saturday Matinee – Fatboy Slim, Lucky Chops, Tom Mansi & the Icebreakers, and Big Monti Amundson

Not my favorite musical style, but the video amused me.
Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, specializes in big beat / techno / dj rock. In 2008 he reportedly held the Guinness World Record for most top-40 hits under different names.

Formed in 2016, Lucky Chops began as a group of subway buskers from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, New York City, and now they perform world-wide. Reminds me of New Orleans second line parades.

Tom Mansi & the Icebreakers kick rockabilly in the UK. Can’t find details about the group other than their own description: “Rock n roll blues alternative originals 3piece fronted by howling doublebass player with drums and guitar.”

Big Monti Amundson backed by Bart Kamp / bass and Henk Punter / drums. Amundson definitely has the Texas blues sound down. I hear Jimmy Vaughan / Fabulous Thunderbirds, others compare him to SRV.
(More about Amundson on WikiP, but be careful with his website – Malwarebytes flagged a trojan.)

Wrapping up what for many is a four-day weekend what with the 4th landing on a Thursday and all. Hope you still have all the fingers you started out with, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow whenever the porch wakes up.

Saturday Matinee – Joanne Shaw Taylor, Altered Five Blues Band & Ana Popovic

When she was 16, U.K. blues rocker Joanne Shaw Taylor was invited by Dave Stewart  (of the Eurythmics) to join his supergroup DUP  (Da Universal Playaz). Since then Taylor has recorded several albums and has won numerous awards, including Best Female Vocalist at the British Blues Awards two years in a row.

Award winning group from Milwaukee, Altered Five Blues Band features frontman Jeff Taylor with Jeff Schroedl / guitar, Mark Solveson / bass, Alan Arber / drums and Steve Huebler / keyboard.

Called “one helluva a guitar-player” by Bruce Springsteen and nominated for seven Blues Music Awards, Ana Popovic was added as the only female guitarist to the 2014 -2018 all-star Experience Hendrix lineup, a nationwide tour celebrating the music and legacy of Jimi Hendrix.

Tomorrow’s scheduled porch meetup may be postponed as I have important business to attend to regarding Bunkessa’s birthday. Help yourselves to whatever’s left in the cooler and I’ll see you when I get back.

Saturday Matinee – JP Soars & The Red Hots, The Bruce Katz Band, and Eric Slim Zahl & The South West Swingers

JP Soars & The Red Hots go on a roadtrip. There are exactly two Red Hots: drummer Chris Peet and Cleveland Frederick on standup bass.

The Bruce Katz Band: Bruce Katz on keyboards, Aaron Lieberman on guitar and drummer Ray Hangen.

Award winning rockers Eric Slim Zahl & The South West Swingers hail from Stavanger, Norway.  Other than a brief discography, I could find scant info about this group, and that’s a damn shame.

We’re barely past the Summer Solstice and the days are getting shorter already, but it doesn’t matter to me because my watch is set to porch time. See you tomorrow when the big hand points at something.

On the Road with Steve

Dinosaur Service, Gas Station, Highway 40, Jensen, Utah, 1971
The Big Chief Motel, Highway 80, Gila Bend, Arizona, 1973
Regal Reptile Ranch, Snakepit Operator, Highway 66, Sayre, Oklahoma, 1972
Wigwam Motel, Highway 66, Holbrook, Arizona, 1973
Motel Dinosaur, Highway 40, Vernal, Utah, 1974

“So this made him wonder which was stronger – his father’s Buick or his grandmother’s God.”

[Photos by Steve Fitch.]

Saturday Matinee – The David Gogo Band, The Atomic 44’s and Kevin Borich, John Watson & Harry Brus

Canadian singer, songwriter and bluesman David Gogo began playing guitar at the age of five; at 15 he met and was encouraged by Stevie Ray Vaughan; a year later he formed his first band. He’s won numerous awards, including three JUNOs (despite EMI spiking his solo album in the US).

Blues/roots supergroup The Atomic 44’s formed in 2020 when Eric Von Herzen (harmonica player for Walter Trout, Social Distortion, The Atomic Road Kings, Junior Watson) joined guitarist/vocalist Johnny Main (The 44’s).

Another power trio of rockers from down under: Kevin Borich / guitar, John Watson / drums & Harry Brus / bass.  [h/t John McL.]

That should be enough to fill your earbuckets for now. Happy Fathers Day to all you fathers (including those of you who don’t know yet) and we’ll have some quality porch time tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Tom Waits, Joe Louis Walker & Kid Anderson (with Tommy Harkenrider, Brent Harding & Derrick D’Mar Martin)

Tom Waits‘ Telephone Call From Istanbul was released on his album Frank’s Wild Years (1987) and was featured in the movie Big Time (1988).

Joe Louis Walker at Broadway Studios, San Francisco, December 1999. Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper, opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate of Mike Bloomfield, and that’s some serious cred.

Kid Anderson / lead guitar, Tommy Harkenrider / rhythm guitar, Brent Harding / bass and Derrick D’Mar Martin / drums at the Beatnik Bandito Emporium, Santa Ana, California, February 2020.

Nice set for St. Medarus Day. Celebrations will commence on the front porch whenever you get here. If I’m not out you’ll need to holler at the door because the doorbell doesn’t work.

D-Day 06 June 1944

The Daily Mail posted an interactive timeline of the D-Day, the Invasion of Normandy, 80 years ago today.