OAK Team's New Vinyl Release

I just ordered Terry Anderson and The Olympic Ass-Kickin Team's new vinyl
release!! It is a limited edition, only 250 will be made. I ordered 2.
That leaves 248 for the rest of you. It has a new Christmas tune and
some remixed tunes from "National Champions" with horns added! Order
yours today so you can have it by Christmas! You can get it from Doublenaught Records website. Don't forget the OAK's are playing Christmas night at the Pour House

Records!

I like albums. I'm talking about 12 inch, black (mostly), 33 1/3, LP's. I still have almost every LP I ever bought. Current count.. well.... I haven't taken inventory recently but it's more than 3500. That number is still growing, but at a much slower rate now since the only new vinyl release are "special" and usually expensive. I do hit up some used record outlets occasionally, and eBay.

My albums used to reside in my house. Alas, most of them are in a (climate controlled!) storage facility 20 miles away. I visit them when I can. I had to retrieve the Christmas decorations from that facility a couple of weeks ago and decided to look through them and pick out a few to bring home. I have about 75 or so at the house, primarily the LP's that I digitized for Comboland Radio. I opened the box with the D's. The Doors - L.A. Woman... Man I remember buying that LP! ...From Nits Nats etc in the Henderson Mall.

Owned by Cheryl and Phillip Hawkins Nits Nats was an old school mom and pop store, as many were in the 60's and 70's. In Henderson, NC, before Nits Nats you bought records from Roses or Eckerds. Or downtown there was a place that also sold sewing machines and vacuum cleaners, Henderson Music Company I believe. Nits Nats was that first cool place for music and I bought a TON of records there. I hung around the store a bunch too. I even met my first wife there. There were times when I was looking for something to do I would just go and see what they had... what was new. There was a time I probably knew their inventory as well as they did!

Each mom and pop record store had it own personality, many times mirroring the personality of the owner. Some were cluttered and seemed unorganized, but the proprietor knew where everything was! This was especially true of any store that sold used records. Man I LOVED the Record Hole! In the early days of The Record Bar those stores had a bit of personality and were fun to shop in. With the shift to CD's the stores seemed to loose that personality. I was a regular at the CD Superstore locations in the Triangle and Triad, and later at Planet Music in Virginia Beach. Good stores but a more sterile feel. Of course some would say CD's have sort of a sterile feel as well.

Alright... back to current time... for a second. While I was in the box of D's I noticed the dB's LP's I had. Man.... I remember buying them too! I bought both "Repercussions" and "Stands For deciBels" at New World Records in Charlotte. It was my shop of choice while I lived in Charlotte. They always had a great selections of imports and hard to locate items. Those are still two of my all time favorite records. When I got home I put "Repercussions" on the turntable. I have the CD's, MP3,s, I hear the songs on Comboland Radio. But something about putting the record on and sitting down to listen to it gave me a different perspective. I was hearing the album, not the songs. I now remembered why I liked it so much.



When I listened to CD's I usually had a remote control nearby and I would skip songs that didn't hit me at first. With MP3's it is even easier to skip through songs. With LP's I, and I'll bet most others, were less apt to skip over a song thereby listening to the complete LP. During the heyday of the LP we also had more time, and fewer distractions! I guess MP3's are perfect for this fast paced distraction filled society we are all a part of. I'm not sure they are good for the music industry, especially local musicians. I hope I'm wrong.

Back to the dB's! I got an email from their website alerting me to a couple of videos that were unearthed and placed on You-Tube. Check them out! Also check out their website.






By the way.... Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Lickin Team is getting ready for their annual Christmas night gig, again this year the the Pour House in Raleigh. It's a great excuse to get away from the family for awhile. Just tell them you need some air and will be back in 4 or 5 hours.

If you haven't been listening to Comboland Radio lately you are missing some great new songs from Jamie Hoover and Steve Stoeckel from the Spongetones, Luego from the Triangle that Peter Holsapple is playing with, and a band whose material has disappeared from sight very shortly after it was made available, Animal. All are great so listen in!! Just go to Comboland Radio and click on one of the players.

Playlist Update

Finally!!!

The playlist update is in tomorrow on Comboland Radio.

New music from:

The Spongetones Present Jamie & Steve
Birds And Arrows
The Old Ceremony
Luego
The Dex Romweber Duo
Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies
The Dynamite Brothers
Medusa Stone
Animal
Spaceship Days

Also some new catalog tracks show start to filter in over the weekend from:
Distrails
The Flood
Bryan Shumate
Medusa Stone
Dexter Romweber/Flat Duo Jets
Sex Police

Just more reasons to listen to Comboland Radio!

Playlist Update and BIG Show in Winston

A BIG playlist update for Comboland Radio is in the works for early next week. It will include tunes from the new "Spongetones Present Jamie and Steve" "English Afterthoughts" CD, Luego, a few from the quickly out of print Animal EP's (somebody needs to help these guys get these songs BACK out... there are some great tunes here that couldn't have available for more than 3 months or so), Birds and Arrows, Dexter Romweber, Dynamite Brothers and a few more. I can't promise these will make it in this weekend, or that all of them will make in at the same time. But sometime next week expect to hear some new tunes on Comboland Radio!

If you are close by the Triad head to The Garage tomorrow (Sat. Nov. 14th) for "The Rock On The Road Tour". It kicks off at 8p. the lineup is strong:

The Smith Bros. (from Columbus, Ohio)
The Anderson Council (from New Brunskwick, NJ)
The Saving Graces (from Winston-Salem, NC)
Stratocruiser (from Raleigh, NC)
easybake (from Winston-Salem, NC)
The Othermothers (from Greensboro, NC)

With the exception of the out of state bands, and easybake (who I had not been aware of... until now!), the others receive regular airplay on Comboland Radio.

Don says "Play It Moose!"

I have received permission from Don Dixon to play an unreleased song of his I found on an old tape in my collection. It is called "Silent Night". It was originally recorded for the "Romantic Depressive" album but was culled out during the sequencing process. Don responded;

"hey MOOSE

please play "Silent Night"...i want to hear it...i think i have a version of BONNIE singing it, too!"
October 16, 2009 12:14 PM



So I'm sticking "Silent Night" in active rotation this week. There are SO many arcane rules involving streaming music on the Internet. Honestly... you would not believe many of them, and few of them are beneficial to the artists and writers but are intended to be. For example I can't play requests. The thought being you might figure out a way to record that song as I am playing it and then not buy it. Another is I can't tell you when I am going to play a song because you might record it. There are many others. So I can't say exactly when you can listen for the Dixon tune today but trust me, it is coming up in the schedule 2 or 3 times a day for the next few weeks. And if you happen to be listening between noon and 6 EDT today (10/20), say almost halfway between, you just may hear this song. I do think you'll enjoy it.... especially if you are a fan of Don's music. He also informed me that an additional date has been added to his and Marti's tour schedule. Check out his Myspace page for the latest.

Other new adds include the
Matt Barrett tunes I just located, cuts from Athenaeum's "Radiance" and "The Green CD", SCOTS cuts from the OOP "Liquored Up and Lacquered Down" and "The First Album". I am processing the 3 "Sex Police" Cd's and the Superchunk EP released in April so cuts from those will filter in this week.

If I am missing anything feel free to let me know. And tell everyone you know about Comboland Radio.

Rare Finds And A Dixon Song Unearthed

Very little time for Comboland Radio updates in the past few weeks. Sorry about that. I'm gonna try to get some playlist changes done this weekend. Although I DO have some new old material.

Matt Barrett has written a couple of my favorite songs. One is "Six-Pack" which was recently covered by Don Dixon and the Jump-Rabbits. Matt's original version from his "Ruse" EP is great. I play both versions on Comboland Radio. Another one from the same EP "My Baby's M-M-Making Me Dance is killer! Early on in the development of Comboland Radio Matt sent me some additional material transfered from cassette. Some of the tunes were decent transfers, a few were not... phase and tape head alignment issues. I can correct a lot of noise issues with computer aided restoration, of which I use several different products. However some issues can't be overcome. I have an "Allisons" cassette with similar issues. Doing an eBay search recently I searched Matt's name and a couple of copies of the "Ruse" EP showed up... not that unusual... but a copy of his self released single "Nothing At All To Write Home About/Is This It?" also showed up. Now THAT is a bit unusual. It is in mint condition and didn't cost too much either. I'll get it in the playlist very soon.



I also FINALLY got a copy of the SCOTS "Liquored Up and Lacquered Down" CD. It is not available for download so if you want it you have to track down a used CD. This one is not terribly difficult to track down but has been out of print for some time, suffering the same fate as all of the Connells material as it too is on the TV Tunes label. Sometimes folks selling the OOP stuff want huge bucks for it. Some of it is truly rare and in demand. Sometimes patience is necessary. In fact there is currently a copy of this CD on eBay for a starting bid of $5.

Speaking of Southern Culture On The Skids I've had the "First Album" sitting around waiting to be transfered into the digital domain for some time. That time is now. I have a couple of early SCOTS tracks from the Comboland tapes in the playlist but they don't come up all that often. Newer fans be warned.... this stuff is a bit different than what you are used to hearing!! I really like the direction Rick has taken the band through the years. But I also like this early LP. This is the band I remember seeing in the mid-80's. Now this is a tough LP to find these days, but not totally impossible. Listen for some tracks to filter in this weekend.

I was digging through a box of CD's... boxed sets I have stored up in a closet because I don't have anyplace to display them. In this box of boxed sets I found a cassette, "Don Dixon, The Album", dated 1994 or 5. Harry Simmons was Don's manager at the time and an old bud. He sent me things to listen to from time to time knowing I was a fan and always had an opinion. This was a pre-release cassette, recorded straight off the board, great quality, one used in the "tinkering with the songs/sequence" phase of putting an album together. So here I am in 2009 looking at the sequence trying to remember what CD this was... oh yeah. "Romantic Depressive". Came out on Sugar Hill in 1995. So I'm checking the sequence on the CD against the one on on the cassette. A couple of tunes swapped positions in the order... wait a minute.... "Silent Night"? That one is not on the CD anywhere. It ain't no Christmas tune either! Looks like it got replaced by "What You Saw" on the CD featuring Anton Fier from "The Lounge Lizards", "The Golden Palominos" et al playing drums. WOW I have unearthed a "lost" Dixon cut!! I cleaned it up a bit from the cassette dub and it sounds pretty good. The song itself is quite good! I prefer it to a couple of tunes that made it onto the CD. But this is an area where everyone has a different opinion. I am positive Dixon had a "sound" in mind for the CD at the time and this one just didn't fit. So Dixon.... can I play it? What do you think Harry?

Listen for "Silent Night" to possibly air on Comboland Radio soon!... or not!

arrogance @ 40 - The Birthday Bash

I wish I knew how many times I have seen Arrogance play. Fifty? A hundred? I really don't know. I saw them at The Town Hall, The Cat's Cradle (old one), on the campus of both UNC and NC State, Rumors in Atlanta, The Bears Den, places I now can't remember. I probably saw them at The Pier in Raleigh more than any other place. I usually stood in the same place, close to the front of the stage but not right up front, audience right, near the sound and light boards. There were a group of us that went to every show. Arrogance manager Harry Simmons, a friend since elementary school, got us "on the list" at the door nearly every show. His younger brother A.T. "Bud" ran lights, which is one of the reasons we stood to that side... so we could harass him during the show. In the bands final couple of years my friend Cliff Atchison ran sound. That made it even more fun with two people to torture during the show.

There are images in my mind of that place that are so much clearer now. Images I had misplaced in my brain until Saturday Night at The Cat's Cradle (new one). Arrogance was playing a couple of tunes from "Suddenly". They were nailing them too! And for a few minutes I was back at The Pier. It flashed in my brain with such clarity... neat but a bit eerie too. As I was the faithful DD I had not had anything to either enhance or dull my senses. They were playing that good.



This was the arrogance @ 40 Birthday show. All of the different musical styles they covered were represented during the show. They didn't follow in exact chronological order, but close. Dixon was the narrator during the show recounting their surroundings, different venues, setting a mood for what you were about to hear. As has been the case with the Cradle shows in recent years the started with the more acoustic stuff. Joining the band onstage for the first time in many years was percussionist Ogie Shaw. Ogie played on the first arrogance LP "Give Us A Break". He got a warm reception for the crowd on several occasions. It was a real treat to hear these songs live with Ogie. They sounded so much more familiar.. more authentic. He did a fine job too!




Rod then played two songs from his solo LP, "Bossa Nova Baby", and "Eggplant Comes To The Party", the latter I had totally forgotten about. It's an instrumental that used to be a part of his solo set before he joined Arrogance. I have got to dig his solo album out and digitize that one!



Next up was the original arrogance with Mike Greer and Jim Glasgow. Those of you who were at the March show at The Carolina Theatre got a chance to hear this lineup. These guys took us through what was the early days of their new band, with some rousing covers of songs they probably jammed to as they started to find their way. Then they moved to some early arrogance originals... "Black Death", and a song they had never tried to perform on stage, "Nights Of Dreams". This is a song that was supposed to be on an early arrogance album but was later released on Mike Greer's "Between Two Worlds" LP. The Original arrogance can still rock it!

After a quick break electric Arrogance rocked it for a while! Then all 8 Arrogance members in attendance took the stage one more time for a final sendoff. As I eluded to earlier this was a great performance! and a long one too! They started playing just after 8:45p, took 2 short...really!...breaks and finally walked off the stage at 12:25p. What a night!




I have noticed in past shows at The Cradle that many of the "acoustic" fans leave after that portion of the show is over. I don't think quite as many folks left this time. I did hear some rumbling when they were playing some of the covers. A number of folks went outside and said "I'll come back in when they start playing Arrogance songs again". Man! I thought they were great! And in the context of the show they were trying to do they fit. Plus you got to hear comical lyric replacement from Robert such as... during "Sunshine Of Your Love" replacing the words "To give you my dawn surprise" with "and giving my dog some wine". Man was I laughing! Covers were many times a part of an Arrogance show. Barrett Strong's "Money" kicks of "Lively". Have we forgotten about "The Dogbreath Blues Band"? Their old surf medley rocked!!! I enjoyed the "covers" section of the original arrogance set. It reminded me of how nearly every band I have ever been got started, by trying to find some common ground so you can start making some noise.



I really enjoyed the vibe of this show. It's a similar vibe at the other "Cradle" show of recent years. The band is relaxed on stage and enjoying themselves. The audience is full of the bands old friends and that seems to energize them a bit. It is just a fun night, a night you wish you had more of.



A rumor was floating around about this being the "swan song" performance of the band. I found that hard to believe and confirmed with Scott that it wasn't. However he did point out that none of them are getting any younger. There have been some health scares over the years. You just never know. As I mentioned in an earlier blog we should all make an effort to see any of our favorite bands/musicians from back in the day when they decide to play. No one can make all of the shows but go to the ones you can. Those bands from Comboland still make the best music in the world.

Listen to ALL of the Comboland bands, old and new, on Comboland Radio!