Range And Basin: Sonoran Roots, R&B, And Hard Rock 1966-1978

Range and Basin: another set of songs from the Grand Canyon State, or spiritually rooted there, a follow up to our Old Gold: Sonoran Country, Garage Blues, Pop, Soul and Avant-Garde from Arizona 1951-1971 mix from last year. Sunbaked soul, psych, country, garage, and folk, some culled from the archives of historian John “Johnny D” Dixon.

Range And Basin: Sonoran Roots, R&B, and Hard Rock 1966-1978 (49 min.)

tracklisting after the jump....

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Tony Owens :: I Got Soul

Turn those lights way down. I Got Soul, by New Orleans’ Tony Owens. A gritty, no frills, southern soul monster from the late 60s and early 70s, this collection (released by Grapevine Records) has had me reaching for little else than old soul and r&b sides of late. Check the title track, and if you dig it, beg, borrow or steal the whole . . .

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Parquet Courts :: Sunbathing Animal

Because of the type of music they play – proudly traditional alternative rock ‘n’ roll that finds its genesis in The Velvet Underground and stumbles forward from there – and because they do it well and in a way that’s altogether fresh, Parquet Courts were doomed from the start to be over-discussed and misunderstood. On Light Up Gold, their breakthrough second release, the Brooklyn quartet shot from the canon, positioning themselves as heirs to their genre’s great riches. Hearing it . . .

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Dead Notes #8 :: Alligator (5/18/68 Santa Clara, CA)

Welcome to Dead Notes #8 where we find our steadfast pranksters in the pivotal years of 1967 and 1968. Long gone are the proto-psychedelic fuzzy garage jams, replaced with long, exploratory suites awash in subtle instrumental and explosive feedback passages as the band weaves from one song into the next. Deep into the recording of their way-over-budget ‘thick air’ opus, Anthem of the Sun, (which finally sees it’s release in the second half of the year) they enlist of help of their old friend, later renowned lyricist, Robert Hunter. Hunter, living remotely in New Mexico and loaded on LSD, crafts a beautiful, allegorical dig at the riffraff who had recently flocked to San Francisco, aptly entitling it “Alligator”. For his efforts he is handsomely paid $250, which he then blows on a used car as he skips town for the Northwest and a job restringing beads on necklaces. Thankfully, the car breaks down and he instead wanders back to his friends in San Francisco. In turn, “Alligator” becomes a big-teethed, bugged-eyed second set monster as the band morphs into an aggressive 7-day-a-week touring machine.

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Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist

In his new book, Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist, author Steve Lowenthal cites a review of John Fahey’s performance at Hunter College in New York by the Village Voice’s Paul Nelson in 1975:

“His guitar-playing is a deliberate mixture of psychology, order, mythology, poetry, and genre–all very exact, with . . .

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Bry Webb :: Free Will

Once and future Constantines frontman Bry Webb opens his second solo record with a song called “Fletcher.” Like many of the best songs Webb wrote for his old band, it’s a song of defiance and a testament to individual will, and it’s buttressed by the kinds of ready-made credos that turned Constantines songs into statements of purpose: “What I need I carry with me,” he sings at one point, later adding, “Tell . . .

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The Rock*A*Teens :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

“In that they were ‘arguably’ the best American rock ’n roll band of the ’90s, it is safe to say that the Rock*A*Teens were also the most underrated American rock ’n roll band of the ’90s.” - Dan Bejar, Destroyer

Rock*A*Teens fans have had a lot to be thankful for of late. First up was the announcement their label, Merge, had plans to reissue the band's fifth and final LP, Sweet Bird Of Youth on vinyl for the first time...but the real kicker was the news that a tour was on the horizon - their first in a dozen years. Which brings us here. This coming weekend finds the band gigging in their native Atlanta (June 6 & 7 at the Earl) with one of our favorite locals supporting - Carnivores. As such, we asked Carnivores' Philip Frobos to sit down with Rock*A*Teens' Chris Lopez at Argosy in east Atlanta. Their conversation after the jump...

The Rock*A*Teens :: Don't Destroy This Night

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Kip Anderson :: Without A Woman / Clarence Carter :: Soul Deep

The early 60s saw Kip Anderson as both a soul singer and a disc jockey. Born in South Carolina, Kip found little success with his inaugural singles and fell back on a career as a radio dj, something he was good at but nowhere close to where his voice needed to be. He slowly got back in the game with a string of hits that leveled out around 1966 when this song was released. In the years of his upward climb to success, Kip made his . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

SIRIUS 343: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ T Rex - Explosive Mouth ++ Parquet Courts - You've Got Me Wonderin' Now ++ David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging ++ Iggy Pop - Dum Dum Boys ++ The Damned - New Rose ++ New York Dolls - Looking For A Kiss ++ Modern Vices - Pleasure Gun ++ Trailer Trash Tracys - Candy Girl (Demo) ++ Twin . . .

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David Thomas Broughton :: The Complete Guide To Insufficiency

There  should  be a myth around David Thomas Broughton. There should be mystique. Something sinister. Darkness that spirals around his heart and mind. There  could  be a man with serious troubles, the kind of man who asks the same questions and makes the same statements over and over, to no one in particular; a man who "struggles with the nightshade in [his] blood."

Perhaps that there is no such darkness or myth surrounding David Thomas Broughton is paradoxically confounding and relieving. In fact, he seems downright . . .

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Kingsley Bloom :: Hymn & Hawberry

Sunset’s closer to eight o’clock now and it's muggier every damn day. Pretty soon it will be too hot in the house to think about anything other than the katydids bellowing outside the bedroom window. Kingsley Bloom’s “Hymn & Hawberry” is music for when the box fan dies. Brantley Jones’ hoarse tenor curls effortlessly with Ruby Kendrick’s youthful harmony. Imagine Skip Spence singing alongside Melanie. Together their voices breeze through the nearly fossilized summer air pressed against the screened-in front porch. Guitars rumble and clap. A late-night thunderstorm is on the move. Then . . .

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David T. Walker :: Lay Lady Lay / Plum Happy (1970)

In the hands of David T. Walker, "Lay Lady Lay," a cornerstone of Dylan's Nashville Skyline, slides into a jazzy, languid, space residing somewhere just shy of early 70s porn groove and after-midnight lounge. I use neither descriptor as pejorative. Found on the Tulsa-born session guitarists 1970 solo joint, Plum Happy, the track, while devoid of the original's intent, works on the same level as contemporary George Benson's become a member or log in.

Sharon Van Etten :: Are We There

"You told me the day / that you show me your face / we'd be in trouble for a long time. / I can't wait / 'til we're afraid / of nothing." This is how Sharon Van Etten opens her fourth album - with people who are afraid of revealing themselves. When Van Etten sings later in the song that her counterpart responds to her with a meek "wait shit out," she replies "you're a little late. / I need you / to be afraid of nothing."

It's a brilliant set of lines. On the one hand, Van Etten seems . . .

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Jerry David DeCicca :: Understanding Land

On the back of Jerry David DeCicca’s Understanding Land, his first solo record after fronting folk combo The Black Swans for a decade, the songwriter describes a hike with Massachusetts naturalist Michael Metivier. While walking, Metivier explained the way trees are ripped from the ground during storms, and the way the holes left behind foster new plant life. The idea stuck with DeCicca, informing the songs he wrote following a tour of Portugal and Spain. Staying at a friend’s flat in London, he hung mics from the clothesline and birdcage in her living room and began sorting through a few years' worth of notebooks. Those resulting songs became the foundation of Understanding Land an album centered around the idea of “rebirth.”

“I feel like it’s a pretty positive record,” DeCicca says from New Braunfels, Texas. Following a period of storms, which included the loss of Swans bandmate Noel Sayre, DeCicca took comfort in the idea of seasons and growth.

The album’s closing song, the beatific “Bloom Again,” punctuates the LP’s hopefulness, “So I stood like a tree/though nature’s bitter schemes/and I waited my turn/to bloom again.” The song was inspired by the Roy Orbison documentary The Big O in Britain, which DeCicca watched in London.

“He had that line ‘I just stood like a tree, and I just bloomed again,’” DeCicca says of Orbison’s reflection on the renewed interest in his music. “He’d gone through these seasons, but he hadn’t really changed, he just waited for it to be his time again. You don’t need to do anything. The world is going to change and grow around you, but nature is going to take its course.”

DeCicca intended the tracks recorded in London to be demos, but they quickly took on a life beyond his plans. Passed on to bass player Andy Hammil, it became apparent that the loose nature of the recordings had potential. “It just kind of grew from there,” DeCicca says. Hammil and DeCicca added drums, vibes, and strings. “Before I knew it, I started thinking of this as a ‘record’.” Contributions from DeCicca’s allies Will “Bonnie Prince Billy” Oldham, Kelly Deal, and Spooner Oldham followed, fleshing out DeCicca’s bare bones recordings.

continue reading after the jump. . .

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Country Funk :: Volume II 1967-1974

It's a rare thing when a sequel matches the intensity of the original. But like Gator to White Lightning, Light in the Attic's newly announced Country Funk Volume II 1967-1974 not only equals the grit and stride of the label's 2012 collection, it actually expands and broadens the genre's definitions. In our 2012 Year in Review, we stated that the artists . . .

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