Ohhhh, it's Monday. . . again. How was your weekend, boys and girls? Did you have fun? Did you commit various unmentionable felonies that involved grand larceny of some poor girl/guy's unmentionables? Of course you didn't. You're respectable people. I, on the other hand, did horrible things, including, but not limited to, robbing a liquor store with the ghost of Bob Ross. Ok, so there wasn't actually a robbery committed, but we did drink a ridiculous amount. Oh, and it wasn't really Bob Ross, cause he's dead. It was a guy dressed up as the famous PBS painter of "happy little trees."
Anyway, let's get to this week's music. But first, a pointless (not really) story with a clever segue into information about this week's geniuses.
Mississippi. Yep, you read that correctly. It's a state for which I have a great deal of affection. You might be asking yourself, "what is this guy on about now?" Mississippi is a state where I spent quite a bit of time. I went to college there. I made some amazing friends there, friends with whom I still get together and, on occasion, see great bands like The Black Keys (saw them about a month ago with two of my best friends. they both live in mississippi still.) or Kings of Leon. I had the great fortune to fall ridiculously in love there, with a woman from there. Conversely, I had the great MISfortune of the inevitable heartache that follows.
But, when it comes to the relevance to The Steam Engine and the musical content, Mississippi is also where I truly started to love music, more importantly, the history of music. You may or may not know a lot about the Delta/Hill Country blues, but they were born in Mississippi. You probably know the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil for the ability to play the blues, but you may not know that it happened at "The Crossroads." According to the legend, Johnson went to the crossroads near Dockery Plantation, between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi where the devil tuned his guitar and, in the spirt of Faust, Johnson was given the ability to play the blues. As I traveled Mississippi, I learned about all the great musicians that came from this southern state. People mostly know about Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and, to some extent, B.B. King, but they are only a few. Bluesmen like
Charlie Patton,
Elmore James,
Son House (The White Stripes do an amazing cover of the Son House classic
Death Letter and, to me, this is Jack White at his finest. he kills it around the four minute mark),
R. L. Burnside and one of my all time favorites,
Junior Kimbrough were all born in Mississippi (Black Keys fans, whether knowingly or not, are fans of Kimbrough. The "
Chulahoma" album is comprised solely of Junior Kimbrough covers.).
In many ways, the blues has been the birth of music. Somehow, it all comes back to these old blues players. Have any doubts? Who do you think influenced Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton and countless other guitar greats (tell me you don't see the influence in
Rocco DeLuca)? So saying that Mississippi has a rich musical history would) be stating the obvious, but it doesn't stop there. There are still great musicians who call Mississippi home and I'm going to tell you about a few.
In the spirit of stripped down, raw, blues infused music richly reminiscent of bands like The Black Keys, The White Stripes, The Kills and even John Spencer Blues Explosion, Bass Drum of Death hits you square in the jaw with the same kind of in your face energy that you see with Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Oxford, Mississippi natives John Barrett and Colin Sneed follow in the footsteps of great duos like The Black Keys, The White Stipes,
Death From Above 1979 and others, and like these bands, pack so much sound and so much musicianship into a two piece that when you hear them, you'd think there was a full band involved in what you're hearing, but that's not the case. It's just two guys from a college town (University of Mississippi) that play great music. I'm guessing that most people that never even heard of these guys, but that's why I'm here. I'm letting you know so you can listen, buy the music and tell other people about this little band from Mississippi that bypasses souther charm to slap you in the face. You can hear them
HERE before you buy it using the link to the left or you can buy it
HERE.
R. Cole Furlow. That name will mean absolutely nothing to about 99% of people who read this. That's ok. He is the mad scientist behind a great band called Dead Gaze. Dead Gaze, from Jackson, Mississippi, is a band that makes fuzzy psychedelic music that just sticks with you. The vocals are full of distortion and the music is think and bogged down think, like summer fog. I wish I could tell you more about Dead Gaze, but the truth is that I really can't. This is how they're described by their distributor: "
Pour a bucket of swamp water on some intricately crafted garage-psyche jams and listen through a tin can telephone. This is Dead Gaze the handle of Mississippi's favorite son Cole Furlow. These two jams will melt your mind and your heart and leave you begging for a mercy fuck" Aside from their MySpace page, I really can't find any other biographical information at all. I do know this: you can preorder their newest release
HERE or stream some madness
HERE.
So, that's it for this week. As always, let us know what you think by leaving comments or feel free to send me
hate mail. I will even go as far as giving you a number to call and leave me uncensored voice mail or text messages. 662.854.0157
In the meantime, you can always keep up with what I'm listening to over at
One Word Titles.
I hope you have a good week, and if not, at least you've got a good reason to drink a lot this weekend.
Chris
ASAP. Carl is one fine songwriter, an unbelievable guitarist and one of the nicest guys I've had the chance to talk with.
