In preparation for my friends 30th birthday this weekend (we’re renting Wrestlemania @ our local bar) I was cleaning off the camera. I realized I’ve taken a lot of pictures from shows but never managed to post ‘em. So here they are.

Pine Box Boys from Dave’s Aqua Lounge

Nervous Turkey from Skippers Smokehouse

Mofro from Skippers Smokehouse

Lucero from The State Theater

Lucero - Old Sad Songs (seemed topical…one of the best 1 minute songs ever)

Heller; in his book, Catch 22, puts forth this scenario:

a U.S. Army Air Forces bombardier who wishes to be excused from combat flight duty. In order to be excused from such duty, he must submit an official medical diagnosis from his squadron’s flight surgeon, demonstrating that he is unfit because he is insane. According to Army regulations, any sane person would naturally not want to fly combat missions because they are so dangerous. By requesting permission not to fly combat missions, on the grounds of insanity, the bombardier demonstrates that he is in fact sane and therefore is fit to fly. Conversely, any flyer who wished to fly on combat runs implicitly demonstrated that he was insane and was unfit to fly and ought to be excused, and to be excused this person would only need to submit a request.

I am sort of in the same boat with Amie Street…I want Amie Street’s business model to succeed so I need to tell people about them but by doing so I may be making the price of the songs I want increase so I should keep quiet thus doing my part to lower traffic to Amie Street and aiding in the failure of the business model.

What’s a boy to do?

I have decided to tell y’all.

Amie Street is a legal digital music distribution service where; “All songs are initially free to download and rise in price based on popularity, up to $0.98. All songs are DRM-free mp3s.”

I’ve pulled a couple of old Cult albums (Dreamtime and Ceremony) off it for free and for a dollar and change I bought both Love and Rockets best-of album and their self-titled. They recently added “the entire catalogs of Beggars Group (XL, Rough Trade, 4AD), Matador Records and Polyvinyl Recording Co. — more than 15,000 songs.”

So check it out and increase the prices of the shit I wanna get.

The Cult - Go West
The Cult - Wild Hearted Son

Love and Rockets - Mirror People
Love and Rockets - Bound For Hell

Sometimes I think Dan Auerbach has the Midas Touch. From The Black Keys to Radio Moscow, everything Dan is involved in is an instant classic in the Autopsy IV household, and Patrick Sweany is no different. Patrick is a blues guitarist from Massillon, Ohio, who first gained prominence on the festival circuit as an acoustic blues guitarist back in the late 90’s. However, a lot has changed since then. Sure, Patrick is, at his core, still a blues guitarist, but it’s the soul and 50’s-era rock and roll elements he has added since signing with Nine Mile Records that really set Patrick apart from the rest of the pack.

Every Hour Is A Dollar Gone, released in June 2007, is Patrick’s follow-up to his 2006 Nine Mile debut, C’mon C’mere. It was produced by Dan Auerbach and Paul Hamman, who was also responsible for Grand Funk Railroad and James Gang classics. Largely recorded live, the cd has that retro-blues rock sound that Black Keys fans know and love, but also features songs that would more easily fit under the umbrella of Motown soul, with the switch between styles as easy for the listener as it appears to be for Patrick.

To put it simply, this cd rocks and will be the first entry on my 2008 Essential Listening list.

Patrick Sweany - Be Your Man
Patrick Sweany - After Awhile
Patrick Sweany - Wednesday Night

Patrick Sweany’s Official Site, Patrick Sweany on myspace, Buy Every Hour Is A Dollar Gone

The Butthole Surfers were a very popular band amongst the skaters on my junior high school bus. I imagine that I wrote the Butthole Surfers name on a folder or two before I had ever actually heard them. It was that weird time all kids go through, I was building my identity and saw that the skaters liked the Butthole Surfers, so since I was a skater, obviously I was gonna like the Butthole Surfers….actually hearing them was mere red tape. It would be a couple of years before I had my own money and could actually purchase a Butthole Surfers cassette. Locust Abortion Technician. Side 1, Song 1: “Sweat Loaf”. I was equal parts horrified and head over heels in love. Over the years I have grown to appreciate this album more and more, but at 16 much of it proved to be too inaccessible for my innocent ears and the tape eventually found it’s way to the back of my cassette drawer. The Surfers and I would cross paths in a friend’s car on occasion, but it wasn’t until the early/mid-nineties before they would play much of a part in my musical world again.

In 1992, Gibby Haynes teamed up with Ministry to record the megahit “Jesus Built My Hotrod”. Being heavily into the industrial club scene by then, I heard this song all the time. Clubs, cars, hell, it even broke into mainstream radio. Then came the 1993 release of Independent Worm Saloon and the single, “Who Was In My Room Last Night”. According to Wikipedia, “Who Was In My Room Last Night” was a mainstream success, but by then my stereo was only used to play cassettes and cd’s. It was in those same industrial clubs that I was introduced to this new, more palatable version of the Butthole Surfers. To say I was in love with this album would be quite the understatement, but it just didn’t carry over, and by the time Electriclarryland came out I had moved on. Flash forward to 2001 with the release of Weird Revolution.

It was the golden age of P2P. Napster had just shuttered it’s service and Kazzaa was the go-to piracy app. One day, across my search results runs Weird Revolution by none other than The Butthole Surfers. Out of sheer curiosity alone I download it. What I was greeted by was this phenomenal electronics-meets-rock-meets-the bizarreness of Gibby Haynes. Still heavily into the industrial scene, the electronics made this immediately accessible to me….the guitars were just an added bonus. I loved it. Accordingly, looking back, Pitchfork hated it, which just goes to show; we’ve pretty much been on seperate musical planes from day one. Nonetheless, much like Independent Worm Saloon, my love for Weird Revolution didn’t carry over and I’ve never heard Humpty Dumpty LSD or the other cd they released, but the other night I was digging through my back room looking for a motherboard manual when I came across my Weird Revolution cd and it made me feel all giddy inside. I took it to the car and it’s pretty much been playing nonstop, then I swung through the record store the other night and bought Independent Worm Saloon, so I decided to type up a few words on the band and post some mp3’s.

Hope y’all enjoy.

Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod

Butthole Surfers - Sweat Loaf

Butthole Surfers - Who Was In My Room Last Night?

Butthole Surfers - The Shame of Life
Butthole Surfers - Intelligent Guy
Butthole Surfers - Get Down

This has been getting some blog love today and I thought I’d mention it.

On December 1 in Athens, Patterson Hood took part in “Under the Covers 2″. “Underneath The Covers 2″ was a benefit for AIDS Athens, with several Athens bands covering their heroes’ stuff. Patterson Hood did selections from Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town. You can hear/download the entire set (mp3 or flac) over on Sloan Simpson’s totally awesome site Southern Shelter.

Patterson Hood - Darkness on the Edge of Town

Normally, unless I specifically went to a show to see the opening act, I do not write about them. Normally, seeing an opener that I’ve never even heard of doesn’t leave much of an impression. However, judging from the undivided attention the crowd at theOrpheum was giving them, I think I speak for most of the venue when I say the Pine Hill Haints aren’t your normal band.I missed the beginning of the Pine Hill Haints show due to the wife feeling ill and walked in in the middle of a stirring rendition of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”. The first thing I noticed was the contraption that serves as a Bass; a washtub with a nylon rope coming out of the center that is attached to a broomstick. It looks odd, but it was more than adequate. The drummer’s kit is a single snare which he was playing with steel brushes. The bassist and drummer were rounded out by a guitar-playing singer and a girl who played everything from Mandolin to washboard, and even a handsaw at one point. The band plays a self-described style called Appalachian Ghost Music, a style whose name comes from the fact that they are playing a brand of music that they feel is dead in the modern world. As their set unraveled, the crowd stood motionless as if they were indeed staring at ghosts.

I’ve never seen an O’Death show, but I imagine the Pine Hill Haints pull of a similar vibe. For all the talk of ghost and haunting I’ve done, I don’t want you to get the impression that this was some ethereal belly-button lint picking show. For such a minimal stage setup, these guys beat the hell out of it. Jumpin’, hollerin’, and singin ‘, while a crowd who had never heard them before danced and nodded in approval. Matter of fact, the crowd liked them so much that it requested, and was granted, an encore. Everyone I spoke to after the show was utterly impressed.

If these guys come to your neck of the woods, you should go check it out, it’s a damned good time. Then, as so many others did, buy a copy of their debut disc, Ghost Dance. Taking it’s name from the Native American dance of the same name, the band does lose a little of it’s awe-factor in translation from the live show, but it’s still a wonderful effort nonetheless.

The Pine Hill Haints - Catfish Angels
The Pine Hill Haints - Spirit of 1812
The Pine Hill Haints - When You Fall

The Pine Hill Haints on myspace, Buy Ghost Dance

When I started ninebullets.net I had these naive fantasies of sprinkling local Florida bands into my daily musical ramblings, and thus giving them an even larger audience outside of the local area. After a few months of working on the site, I started sending out emails. I quickly learned that, by and large, the Tampa/St. Pete based bands are arrogant and lazy. There are a few exceptions, but as a rule it was like beating your head against a wall. They bitch about the scene not supporting them, but then can’t even be bothered to reply to a few emails. Ultimately, I just gave up and began ignoring them like the rest of the area. Oddly enough, however, the Florida bands outside of our little Tampa Bay area have been far more receptive to my inquiries, which has resulted in some pieces on ninebullets, and me getting to hear some really awesome bands that I probably never would have heard otherwise.

The Nine Volts have applied an amazing amount of effort into getting me a cd. When I originally contacted them, they were in the process of recording their new EP and asked if I would mind waiting. I told them I had nothing but time and whiskey bottles. Over the coming months they even managed to email me from time to time just to let me know they had not forgotten and were still working on the cd. This was all way above the call of duty in my opinion but it was nice to see a band act in an organized manner and apply a little effort.

The Nine Volts are James Mitchell and Conrad Wilson. They come from the Space Coast area that is Cape Canaveral, Florida. After playing in numerous successful local indie (author: ick) acts, the two decided to build on their common love of the Americana/roots rock sound and formed The Nine Volts. After honing their act on stage, they entered the studio to record an eponymous five song EP. IMO, the standout track on the EP is “B. Jolene”. Sounding like The Drive-By Truckers, stuck right between the Southern Rock Opera sound and the Decoration Day song writing. “All From Here” features an acoustic guitar and a banjo taking the top of the mix, with a spoken word delivery laid beneath that, for some reason, reminds me of being 16 again. The opening track “Broken Chains” immediately makes me think Roger Hoover (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) could have done it.

Seeing as how this thing is a mere 5 songs I am only gonna post two. The entire EP is available at Nine Volts shows and on iTunes. Check it out. Support the little guys.

The Nine Volts - B. Jolene
The Nine Volts - River

The Nine Volts Official Site, The Nine Volts on MySpace, Buy their debut EP

Doing the piece on Cunninlynguists got me to thinking about Goodie Mob and Outkast. I’ve heard rumors (confirmed via Wikipedia so much as Wiki can confirm anything) of Goodie Mob reuniting with Cee-lo for a new cd but what became of Outkast. IMO, they lost their mojo after Stankonia continued to fade with Speakerboxxx/Love Below and became utterly forgettable after Idlewild. Last I had heard, 10 the Hard Way, was supposed to have came out this year which would have satisfied their contractual obligations and I assumed Outkast would then die a much needed death until the eventual reunion tour/album. So what happened? I set out to ask Google and found my answers via 2 site (here and here):

One album remains on Outkast’s LaFace contract. It was originally planned as a ten-track release called 10 The Hard Way; shortly after Idlewild dropped, the duo confirmed the album is still in the works, though both have begun new projects without releasing any new information on the album. In a recent interview with the L.A. Times, OutKast confirmed that “10 The Hard Way” was still going to come out, but said they would keep it ‘under wraps’ until the album’s release, still possibly two years away.

and

While you’re waiting for info, here’s something new from the duo courtesy of Spine Magazine. “Da Art of Storytellin’ Part 4” feature’s Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius and will appear on DJ Drama’s Gangsta Grillz: The Album, out next week.

DJ Drama (feat. Outkast and Marsha Ambrosius) - Da Art of Storytellin’ Part 4
Outkast (with Goodie Mob) - Git Up Git Out

It was around this time last year that I first mentioned Cunninlynguists here on ninebullets, awarding them my “Best Hip Hop of 2006″ award. Today they will release their fourth album, quite possibly the best hiphop cd of 2007, Dirty Acres. Ditching the concept album approach of A Piece of Strange, Kno, Deacon and Natti have made an album that takes this particular listener back to Goodie Mob, circa Still Standing. The throwback feel of this cd may be a stumbling block for some people, but I am not one of them. I don’t subscribe to the theory that a release must push the boundaries of its particular genre to have merit. There is nothing wrong with just making a great album with strong tracks from beginning to end, and that is exactly what Dirty Acres is, 13 tracks (2 interludes) of Southern-infused hip hop. Unlike most hip hop you hear on the radio, this album really doesn’t feel like it was created for the club. Eschewing hooks and chants for lazy beats and thoughtful lyrics, this cd is far better suited for afternoon drives with no destination than getting crunk. Perhaps, with the current state of hip hop, making an album that will stand the test of time, instead of an album that sells the newest vodka, is innovation in and of itself.

Cunninlynguists - Valley of Death
Cunninlynguists - K.K.K.Y.
Cunninlynguists - Mexico

Cunninlynguists Official Site, Buy Dirty Acres

I went down to our local Saturday market this morning to pick up some vegetables for dinner. There was a classic bluegrass string band providing the entertainment, so I decided to grab me and the dog a hot dog and watch them for a little while. On the walk back home, I decided it was time to sit down and type something up about the Hackensaw Boys.

The Hackensaw Boys are a string band from Charlottesville, North Carolina Virginia. They started polishing their chops on the streets, much like that string band I saw this morning. After six years of playing and touring on their own, they signed with Nettwerk Records and released the album, Love What You Do. While loved by critics and newcomers, some old time fans found their debut to be too tame and polished for their liking, and it seems that the band took those observations to heart when they sat down to record their newest album, aptly titled Look Out.

The current Hackensaw lineup is Jesse Fiske on bass, accordion, harmonica and guitar; Jimmy Stelling on banjo and fiddle; Robert Bullington on mandolin and guitar; Ferd Moyse on fiddle and bass; Ward Harrison on guitar and Justin Neuhardt on charismo, spoon and saw; and former Hackensaw Boy/current Modest Mouse Tom Peloso also contributing to two songs. With Look Out, they have established themselves as a Bluegrass/Sting band to rival label mates Old Crow Medicine Show. Bringing a sound that could be described as Old Crow meets the Avett Brothers, The Hackensaw Boys are making old-time music with a rock and roll attitude. It was really difficult for me to choose only three songs for this posting, the album is just that good. Essential Listening to be sure, but Look Out could also be called essential buying. Furthermore, by all web accounts, they are not a band to be missed should they come to your neck of the woods.

Check it out.

The Hackensaw Boys - Oh, Girl
The Hackensaw Boys - Radio
The Hackensaw Boys - Sally Ann

You can also check out It Burns When I Pee Episode #5 which features an interview with Ward and also features some Hackensaw Boys songs.

The Hackensaw Boys Official Site, The Hackensaw Boys on myspace, Buy Look Out