Ken Burns Hates Mexicans

Image of the Day

Hogwild Records. San Antonio, Texas. 2009

Image of the Day

Schematic of a Fender amp.

Song of the Day

In celebration of this first week of Rocktober, I'll be sharing a couple of my favorite cover songs. What's interesting about a well done cover is the new rendition's ability to make you re-listen, and thus reappraise, a once familiar song. Not just in musical terms, but in cultural ones. Today's Song of the Day: Manic Hispanic's version of "Before the Next Teardrop Falls."

Check it out...a Southern California Chicano band doing a Freddy Fender song in a punk rock style? And not only that, but referencing in the cover's structure and delivery the infamous Sid Vicious version of Frank Sinatra's "My Way," itself a subversive cover song? And layer on top of that the fact that Fender's 1974 song was a #1 hit on country radio and propelled the Secret Chicano -- Fender's real name was Baldemar Huerta and he hailed from San Benito, Texas -- to gringo country music stardom, selling over a million copies? Even more badass.  YouTube link to the song here. Or click below to play it on your player. Happy Rocktober...

Manic Hispanic's Before the Next Teardrop Falls

Video of the Day

Among the artists up for inclusion in this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is Bon Jovi. In honor of that nomination I'm posting one of my favorite videos of all time...

Hear This!

Really liking Las Robertas, a band straight outta Costa Rica. Yeah, that Costa Rica. The Central American country. Unsure exactly how the band crossed over to the States, avoiding not only the sometimes limiting and reductive rock and español label, but landing straight onto the pages of uber hip indie music blogs (Gorilla vs. Bear entry here), and ultra hip alt labels (go here).

But I'll save that inquiry for another day. All I know is I so wanna make a music video for them.

For now, enjoy the warm and fuzzy stylings of Las Robertas at their MySpace page. Their new LP comes out October 12 on Art Fag Recordings -- CD, vinyl, and, not surprisingly, in trendy "limited edition cassette." Hipster culture, it seems, knows no borders. Ni modo. Las Robertas are pretty badass. Facebook page here. And for an inside baseball, navel-gazing analysis of what the band means in contemporary hipsterdom go here.

Image of the Day

From my ongoing "Rock Fans" photo series. Took this one in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Video of the Day

From the infamous 1981 cult movie classic Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains. Herny Rollins played this tune on his KCRW radio show tonight in honor of  L.A. 70s era Punk Rock pioneer Brendan Mullen, obit here. Black Randy and the Metro Sqaud...

Video of the Day

What to say about the Zeros?: part of the American contingent of mad Punk Rock inventors; band members going on to fold spindle and recreate pop music for decades; and, of course, Brown Like Me.

The Zeros 30th Aniversary Tour Trailer

Video of the Day

Blue Means Go is a new fave band of mine. And not just because they are straight outta San Antonio.

Girl in a Coma fans will recognize singer Carly Garza from back in the day when she used to sing a duet with GIAC impersonating a French/German/or Polish foreign exchange student with appropriate fake accent.

Carly's always had an amazing voice but when the band's drummer recently quit and Garza stepped in to provide the beat AND keep up with the lead vocals, Blue Means Go became something special and way interesting. 

Jim Caroll - R.I.P.

Jim Caroll died. Here's a post I wrote on the very badass rocker last year:

Driving around L.A. listening to Indie 103.1, a local treasure if there ever was one, and stumbled across a fave song I haven't heard to in a long time, Jim Carroll's People Who Died, from his 1980 album Catholic Boy. Carroll was the writer/punk rocker who wrote the Basketball Diaries, an autobiography about growing up in New York in the 60s and 70s as a High School basketball star and heroin addict. It was later made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. As you can guess, I recommend the book and not the film. From a Jim Carroll website:

Lynn Hirschberg, describing a Jim Carroll Band concert in 1980, before the release of Catholic Boy, reported overhearing a Oui photographer remark,"You're watching the Dylan of the 80s, you know. . . . Seeing Jim Carroll now . . . is like witnessing history.

Indeed, Jim Carroll expressed the Bomb-fear anticipation, the optimistic nihilism and glittering darkness of the 1980s that we who were there felt even if we couldn't communicate it ourselves. When JohnLennon was assassinated in front of the Dakota in December 1980, "People Who Died" was one of the most-requested songs on FM radio, just after Lennon's own "Imagine." Steven Spielberg chose "People Who Died" to play during the opening scene of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. "People Who Died" tapped a mainline. It was a hit even before it was released, and, as Newsweek's Barbara Graustark noted, it "propelled [Carroll] from underground status . . . to national attention as a contender for the title of rock's new poet laureate."

I don't know about the "Dylan of the 80s" line, but the rest is pretty accurate. To see the band play it live go here. Enjoy.