Southern Culture On the Skids is making their Summer stop at "The Port 'O Call" in Kill Devil Hills tonight!! The early morning hours of the day job keep me in most nights but I do make an exception when SCOTS comes to town.
Their website has been revamped and if you bookmarked the home page before you might need to update it now. Rick shares news on the site of an upcoming album release, and offers up a free download of a song from it for signing up for the SCOTS news letter. The song. "Pig Pickin'" is fab and is playing on Comboland Radio .
Rick also informs fans that a re-issue of the "Too Much Pork For Just One Fork" album is on the way soon on both CD and MP3 downloads. Can't wait for that!!!
Of course Comboland Radio plays A TON of SCOTS every day. Why today alone you will hear 16 songs by SCOTS throughout the day!!!! ...Plus lots of other great songs from Carolina bands and artists. Listen now and listen often!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Slackmates
When I first signed on Comboland Radio almost 2 years ago one of my best friends, Jimmy Knight (drummer in a couple of bands I played in a LOOOONNNG time ago) asked me if I was playing any "Slackmates". I had to claim ignorance as I didn't know anything about them. I SHOULD have but, as has been chronicled many times with various bands, they came and went after I left the Triangle to seek my radio fame and fortune... which I am still seeking.
Old friend, former fishing buddy and guitarist extraordinaire Rod Abernethy teamed up with some of the Triangle's elite musicians to form "The Slackmates". Dave Adams, Jack Cornell, Jeff Anderson and Whit Helton recorded some of the coolest surf inspired tunes this side of Waiamea Bay. Venture-esque but not a rip-off at all. There are some great tunes on their lone (I think) CD.
It is not surprising to me that Rod would be involved in such a project. One of the aspects of his style that I have always enjoyed was his subtle incorporation of that "surf guitar" sound in his playing. I remember after the Ventures show at "The Pier" several of us hung around hoping to meet them, which we did. Rod had a guitar with him for the band members to sign (3 original members played at that gig as I recall). I hope he still has the guitar! I believe it was an SG with a hand painted front.
The Slackmates "Hot Car Girls" was released on a German label, Gee-Dee Music, which seems to concentrate on "surf" inspired artists. The cool cover art was designed by Jack Cornell. I got the CD on eBay from a seller in Germany. It took my quite a bit of time to actually find a copy but it is not impossible. Also occasionally available is a tribute to Herb Alpert, "Surfin' Senorita" on which The Slackmates surf through the "Third Man Theme". It is one of the strongest tracks on the CD.
Maybe others can post other information on this band. Did they every play gigs? Man I would to see them play now!!
Speaking of Rod his self titled solo LP from 1975 just sold on eBay last week for $147.50. It was a "still sealed" copy and still had a "Record Bar" sticker on the front. I have a mint copy of this LP (no... I ain't sellin') and a couple of cuts, "Bossa Nova Baby" and "eggplant Comes To The Party", play regularly on Comboland Radio.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Veldt, Happy Eggs, "Let Us Be Heard"
I haven't had time to write about Comboland Radio but I have made a few additions to the playlist.
The Veldt - I finally got copies of their 3 Cd's and have cuts from all in rotation. This is one of the many bands that I was unfamiliar with but really enjoyed listening too once I got the Cd's. "All Music" compares their sound to England's Dream Pop bands. Whatever. They sound good. Check them out. All of the Cd's are out of print but not too hard to find. Amazon is a good source.
The Happy Eggs - You WILL have a difficult time finding anything by one of Jamie Hoover's earliest bands. I do have a copy of the first Happy Eggs 12 inch 45 RPM single. Jamie' "You Can't Avoid Love" created an ear-worm I couldn't get rid of for a week! Both sides are cool and quite a bit different from a later Eggs EP (which I am STILL trying to find).
The dB's - The first single credited to the dB's was on Car Records, CRR 7. The A side isn't the dB's at all. It's Chris and Richard Lloyd performing Lloyd's "(I Thought) You Wanted To Know". The B side is the dB's, minus Peter Holsapple, "If And When". The later is available on "Ride The Wild Tom Tom" but to my knowledge the A side is only available on this 45. Both are now playing on Comboland Radio. I have some other solo stuff from Chris on the way.
"Let Us Be Heard" - The Radio Station at 93.1 on the dial in Winston-Salem has been many different formats through the years. It was the FM sister station of WAIR 1340-AM, a Top 40 station that competed with, but probably never beat WTOB in the ratings of the day. In the 60's and much of the 70's FM stations were barely listened to and the red-headed stepchild of nearly every radio operation that had one. By the late 70's the FM would become Z-93. The format was Top 40 for a few years before changing to Album Rock around '84 or '85. In 1986 the radio station solicited tapes from local bands, picked the best from over 400 entries (according the the liners notes) and released an LP, "Let Us Be Heard". The Bands included:
The Alka-Phonics
The Allisons
Brice Street
Bryan Smith and the Boogie Blues Band
The Carter Brothers
Dayroom Monitors
Express
Hege V
Split Decision
Voce'
Brice Street had released 2 LP's on Dolphin Records before this compilation. Hege V's debut LP would be released the following year. The Allisions tune had been included on the Comboland Tapes Godfrey Cheshire was shopping around but was not included on the "Welcome To Comboland" LP. The Alka-Phonics and the Dayroom Monitors are band I remember from that time but the other artists I know nothing about. The LP's liner notes give very little info on the bands themselves. Any info would be appreciated.
The LP is absolutely worth seeking out... but good luck!! The Allisons tune "The Love You Give", and the Hege V song "Keep On Killin' Me" are killer tunes. Most of the other tunes are solid as well.
The copy I obtained is still in the shrink wrap but opened and played. The original owner evidently really wanted to protect the cover but as for the LP the inner sleeve was gone and the LP was not in the best of shape. The Split Decision song has a bad scuffed area in the middle of the track. Lots of pops and clicks but it seems that it was played on decent equipment. With the exception of the scuffy track it cleaned up pretty well with iZotope RX. Listen for tracks on Comboland Radio.
I have decided to feature to feature the items in this article in a heavier rotation for a few weeks. I hope you enjoy them!
The Veldt - I finally got copies of their 3 Cd's and have cuts from all in rotation. This is one of the many bands that I was unfamiliar with but really enjoyed listening too once I got the Cd's. "All Music" compares their sound to England's Dream Pop bands. Whatever. They sound good. Check them out. All of the Cd's are out of print but not too hard to find. Amazon is a good source.
The Happy Eggs - You WILL have a difficult time finding anything by one of Jamie Hoover's earliest bands. I do have a copy of the first Happy Eggs 12 inch 45 RPM single. Jamie' "You Can't Avoid Love" created an ear-worm I couldn't get rid of for a week! Both sides are cool and quite a bit different from a later Eggs EP (which I am STILL trying to find).
The dB's - The first single credited to the dB's was on Car Records, CRR 7. The A side isn't the dB's at all. It's Chris and Richard Lloyd performing Lloyd's "(I Thought) You Wanted To Know". The B side is the dB's, minus Peter Holsapple, "If And When". The later is available on "Ride The Wild Tom Tom" but to my knowledge the A side is only available on this 45. Both are now playing on Comboland Radio. I have some other solo stuff from Chris on the way.
"Let Us Be Heard" - The Radio Station at 93.1 on the dial in Winston-Salem has been many different formats through the years. It was the FM sister station of WAIR 1340-AM, a Top 40 station that competed with, but probably never beat WTOB in the ratings of the day. In the 60's and much of the 70's FM stations were barely listened to and the red-headed stepchild of nearly every radio operation that had one. By the late 70's the FM would become Z-93. The format was Top 40 for a few years before changing to Album Rock around '84 or '85. In 1986 the radio station solicited tapes from local bands, picked the best from over 400 entries (according the the liners notes) and released an LP, "Let Us Be Heard". The Bands included:
The Alka-Phonics
The Allisons
Brice Street
Bryan Smith and the Boogie Blues Band
The Carter Brothers
Dayroom Monitors
Express
Hege V
Split Decision
Voce'
Brice Street had released 2 LP's on Dolphin Records before this compilation. Hege V's debut LP would be released the following year. The Allisions tune had been included on the Comboland Tapes Godfrey Cheshire was shopping around but was not included on the "Welcome To Comboland" LP. The Alka-Phonics and the Dayroom Monitors are band I remember from that time but the other artists I know nothing about. The LP's liner notes give very little info on the bands themselves. Any info would be appreciated.
The LP is absolutely worth seeking out... but good luck!! The Allisons tune "The Love You Give", and the Hege V song "Keep On Killin' Me" are killer tunes. Most of the other tunes are solid as well.
The copy I obtained is still in the shrink wrap but opened and played. The original owner evidently really wanted to protect the cover but as for the LP the inner sleeve was gone and the LP was not in the best of shape. The Split Decision song has a bad scuffed area in the middle of the track. Lots of pops and clicks but it seems that it was played on decent equipment. With the exception of the scuffy track it cleaned up pretty well with iZotope RX. Listen for tracks on Comboland Radio.
I have decided to feature to feature the items in this article in a heavier rotation for a few weeks. I hope you enjoy them!
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