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Rad turtable

VINTAGE RETRO SPACE AGE DYN DOME LID 8 TRACK RECORD PLAYER RADIO via ebay

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Devo drummer Alan Myers of the new wave punk music group Devo, pictured in 1979, dead of brain cancer after career of whipping it good.

Percussionist played on the band’s most successful albums.

Alan Myers, whose quirky and askew drumming goosed the hits of Devo, died of brain cancer.

He was 58.

Myers joined Devo in 1976, before their classic major label debut, “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” He worked with the band on all their major albums, becoming their best-known stickman.

Myers became Devo’s third drummer when he joined the band in 1976. Known for his precision on the kit, his playing featured on Devo’s first seven albums, including 1978’s Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and 1980’s Freedom of Choice, which included the single “Whip It.” He left the band in 1986 over a lack of creative fulfillment as the group increasingly used electronic drums, according to the 2003 book We Are Devo! .

After leaving Devo, Myers worked as an electrical contractor in Los Angeles, and since 2005 had played improvisational music with his wife, Christine Myers, in the group Skyline Electric. He had also performed with his daughter, Laena Geronimo, in the experimental ensemble Swahili Blonde.

Myers’ former bandmate Gerald Casale praised the drummer on Twitter as news of his death spread. The Devo founder called Myers ”the most incredible drummer I had the privilege to play with for 10 years. Losing him was like losing an arm.”

In subsequent tweets, Casale wrote, “I begged him not to quit Devo. He could not tolerate being replaced by the Fairlight and autocratic machine music. I agreed … Alan, you were the best – a human metronome and then some.”

Drummer Josh Freese, who played in Devo from 1996-2012, has cited Myers as one of his major influences. “An underrated/brilliant drummer,” Freese tweeted. “Such an honor playing his parts w/Devo. Godspeed Human Metronome.”

Skyline Electric will perform a tribute to Myers this Friday, June 28th, at the Human Resources gallery in Chinatown in L.A.

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The Cowboy, The Chieftain and The Sun Dog

One of the great things about picking for vinyl is that you discover music and musicians that you otherwise might not find through the traditional channels or with new music services like Spotify, Grooveshark or LastFm...

A search for "Dan Del Santo" doesn't yield much and unless you live in Austin, TX (which I happen to) you probably wouldn't hear him on the radio, either.  Without picking this record, I might never have heard Del Santo's amazing music or discovered his interesting life story.  

Dan Del Santo was born in New York in 1951.  His love for music can be traced to his parents: Del Santo's father was a singing cowboy and his mother a blues aficionado.  (7)  Del Santo moved to Austin, TX in 1974 after he had visited for Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic and fallen in love with the Texas town.  (3)  In Ausitn, he became a fixture of the outlaw country scene and not only played outlaw country and bluegrass, but lived it.  

On White Feather's In the Coop, Del Santo plays country and bluegrass, but his musical interests were varied as his talents were wide ranging and after cutting this album he formed the group Professors of Pleasure, pivoting to jazz and blues.  (1)  Mike Mordecai, a jazz trombonist and collaborator said that Del Santo's music during this phase was " jazzy, bluesy, stream of consciousness stuff that just blew me away".  (3)

After an appearance on Austin City limits in 1979, Del Santo's began to gravitate to playing music inspired by African, Caribbean and Reggae inspired music which he dubbed  "world beat" and popularized it on a show of the same name airing on Austin's KUT public radio.  Del Santo also immersed himself in the lifestyle of his new musical tastes, wearing dramatic African clothing and smoking copious amounts of ganja.  Between 1983 and 1985 Del Santo and his group wond Best Performing Band at the Austin Musc Awards and in the following years won awards for having top singles and top albums of the year.  (7)

Despite these awards, hosting a popular radio show and being on the 1989 lineup for South by Southwest (although only in it's 3rd year), Del Santo struggled financially and with a wife and 3 kids to support, turned to selling pot on the side.  (1) (2) In 1992, after a divorce from his wife and a turbulent year, his world came crashing down when he was arrested for trying to sell 2 tons of marijuana to two men in Virginia.(3) Increasingly paranoid and afraid of spending the rest of his life in prison, he skipped town and fled to Mexico where he eventually settled in the town of Oaxaca (3)  That same year the Austin Chronicle named him "Best Outlaw" and while the Austin American Statesman encouraged Del Santo to turn himself in, the Chronicle countered with "Run, Dan, Run".  (4)  

Del Santo continued to play music with a new band he formed called Perros del Sol and towards the end of his life, called himself "the Blues Demon" and played local restaurants. (5) 

Stan Gotlieb, an expatriate blogger who lives in Oaxaca, Mexico, and became a fan and friend of Del Santo's said this of his Oaxaca playing days, "Dan was a great guitarist, with a wonderful sense of timing. His voice, very distinctive, deep and soft, was not his strongest suit, but it served.  He was generous with other musicians who dropped in to play with him, and sometimes vacated the stage to give them a chance to do their own thing. I never saw him lose his temper, or be less than gracious to anyone."  (6).  

Gotlieb recounts Del Santo's difficulties in relocating to a town where his fame didn't follow him and describes Del Santo struggling to keep a band together (because musicians came and went), having to do his own promotion by leafleting the town's tourists by day and playing and mingling at night.  (6) 

On October 12, 2001 Del Santo died of internal bleeding brought about by his frequent use of pain killers, which he used to self medicate severe back pain he developed after two car accidents.  (3)  Dan Del Santo released six albums for such labels as Pleasure, Rounder and Flying Fish and was featured on the Elektra compilation Ten From Texas in 1984. (7) We will never know what success might have eventually found a musician of Del Santo's caliber if fate had kept him in the "Music Capital of the World", but at least we have his music as a testament to his talent and innovation.  Del Santo was inducted into the Austin Music Award's hall of fame in 2002.  

(1)  http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/AMDB/Profile?oid=oid:420157

(2)  http://www.the-faces.com/lane/articles/data/19890210AusAmSt.htm

(3)  Corcoran, Michael.  "World music man was DJ, bandleader, fugitive." Austin American Statesman 17 October 2001.

(4)  http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Awards/BestOfAustin?Award=88851

(5)  http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dan-del-santo-mn0000561274/biography

(6)  http://www.narconews.com/gotlieb1.html

(7)  Jasinski, Laurie E. Handbook of Texas Music.  Texas A&M University Press, Feb 22, 2012

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Score! Picked up this Toots album in Toronto this weekend at a great record store, Grasshopper Records in Brockton Village! Not that I should be shopping for more records... http://www.thegridto.com/city/places/hows-business-grasshopper-records/

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Saw this giant letter in an art gallery in Toronto....

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This beautiful blues piano album from Willard McDaniel is spinning on my turntable right now… Good stuff! Makes me feel like I am in a softly lit, smoky club!

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Any other Jethro Tull fans out there? Listening to their 1968 debut album This Was. How many bands can blend such a bluesy sound with the pan flute?! Gotta love it!

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Last week I stumbled upon Dennis Coffey’s 1976 album Finger Lickin Good.  Initially, I pulled this record out of the 8,000 record stash because I thought the cover was epic and I was just going to add it to my Instagram feed of interesting/funny album art.  I brought the record home, put it on the turntable an discovered that it was a pretty decent disco instrumental guitar album (although Disco is my least favorite genre) and I decided to dig deeper.  

It turns out that Dennis Coffey doesn’t just have amazing taste in choosing his album covers, but he is also an accomplished funk/soul musician.  Coffey played on numerous landmark Mowtown records as a studio musician, bringing a distinctive, rock guitar driven sound to these recordings and finally broke thru individually in 1971 when he recorded and sold a million copies of his instrumental single “Scorpio”, putting him all the way up to #6 on the Billboard Charts.  His success on the charts lead him to be the first white artists to perform on Soul Train. (1)  

Yes, Coffey is not black, something which came as a great surprise to me after seeing the album cover and listening to the record.  However, Coffey has some real street/Motown cred, from throwing down some serious funk for The Temptations to his work on the sound track for the cult classic film Black Belt Jones.  Coffey’s work has even been sampled by Public Enemy, LL Cool J and The Beasty Boys (2).  Coffey recently gained notoriety in the 2012 documentary “Searching For Sugarman” for being cited one of the guys who discovered folk legend Sixto Rodriguez in Detroit where Sixto was playing a gig in a smoke filled, decrepit bar  named The Sewer (1)

Coffey’s album also boasts creativity in it’s song titles.  They include::

“If you can’t dance to this, you got no business havin-feet” and “El Tigre”

As mentioned previously, I am not a disco fan, but I enjoyed Coffey’s rendition of Fame by David Bowie on this album and “I’ve got a real good feeling” which has a little more funk on the track.  On Fame, Coffey showcases his ingenious use of the wah wah pedal to make his guitar sing some of the refrains of the songs, Peter Frampton style.  I will try to track down some real funk from Coffey and post it to the blog.  

(1)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Coffey

(2)  http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dennis-coffey-mn0000244254

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Some awesome Beatle's photos that were inside a pretty beat up album I dug up from the 8,000 record stash..

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As promised, Dennis Coffey - Scorpio, with Bob Babbitt

Enjoy!

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Just dug up Pink Floyd's 5th album, Meddle. The video above is to one of the best songs on the album, Fearless. This is the album before Dark Side of the Moon and to me is Pink Floyd really finding themselves on a very focused, melodic and cohesive effort. The entire B side of this album is dedicated to their epic song Echoes, which really crystalizes the entire soundscape of what we come to associate with Pink Floyd.

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Subterranean Homesick Blues

I love this song and love this "music video".  Notice the Rabbi talking to someone next to the trash bags, unaware that he is part of the video.  Also amazed by how young Dylan looks here!  This record sounds really really great!