Houston Music Blog

​This 1985 TV special was filmed at the Austin Opry House, and finds the two music icons sharing the stage - and a lot of laughs - for part of the proceedings in a 14-song set.

Not surprisingly, it's the tunes with both of them side-by-side at the piano, that shine. An emotional "Angel Eyes," epic "Seven Spanish Angels" and rollicking "Mountain Dew" stand out, the ebullient Charles stealing the show and a grinning Nelson all too happy to let him do it. The two also trade verses on "Georgia On My Mind," a Charles standard that Nelson included on Stardust. (Note: this reviewer's 9-year-old daughter, commenting on Willie's braids, said he "looked like a little girl with an old beard").

Oddly, the set list leans away from country for jazzier ("My Window Faces the South") and ballad fare ("There Will Never Be Another You," "Who'll Buy My Memories?", accentuated by sittin'-in guitarist Jackie King). The Family Band sounds oddly restrained and muted even during "On the Road Again" and "Whiskey River" (a set closer here).

​ Though Joey and Johnny always got more attention, it is their erstwhile, original bassist Dee Dee who many feel best embodied the ethos of punk rock. Part drug fiend, part man-child, part live-for-the-moment musical searcher, Dee Dee's influence was so great that he continued to write for the band after he'd left it.

At the start, Hey is Dee Dee Home, culled from 1992 interviews with director Lech Kowalski, a production assistant asks if he'd like coffee. Dee Dee (punk rock resplendent in a cut-off horror movie T-shirt which shows off a lean body and a multitude of tattoos) asks instead for some sort of health drink called an "Oxy Quencher." "I'm a healthy Dee!" he beams, free from the junk. So it's ironic that his death - a decade later - came via a heroin overdose.

Those looking for a straight-ahead chronological recap of the Ramones' career had best better rent the incredible End of the Century. Here, Dee Dee riffs in fascinating free-form ruminations not just on the bruddahs, but the New York punk rock scene, his on-again/off-again relationship with the similarly tragic guitarist Johnny Thunders (and how he feels Thunders ripped him off for writing credit on "Chinese Rock"), and the meaning of all his body ink.

​After many, many years, Rocks Off is beginning to realize that it's possible to have a worthwhile musical experience nowhere near a stage. Ironically, the band responsible is Drive-By Truckers, whom we've seen live more often than probably any other save Wilco, Rev. Horton Heat and a handful of old Austin favorites like the Gourds, Grand Champeen and Lil Cap'n Travis.

Our history with the Truckers goes back at least a decade, when they used to blow in from Athens, Georgia, and wreck Austin's Hole in the Wall with the barrel-chested likes of Denton's Slobberbone and Austin's Meat Purveyors. Halloween night 2000, they debuted what would become their breakthrough a few months later, Southern Rock Opera, and we remember a blood-curdling cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," some broken furniture and, in retrospect, giving thanks we made it out of there alive.

Last month, the Truckers released Live from Austin TX, an unedited-for-television CD/DVD of their inaugural appearance on PBS' s Austin City Limits. Recorded last September, the performances are first-rate - the Truckers, de facto frontman Patterson Hood in particular, are obviously a little nervous about being on the iconic series and put their shoulders to the grindstone a little harder because of it. The set list mixes several songs from DBTs' most recent album, last year's knotty Brighter than Creation's Dark, with well-worn older material like "Let There Be Rock," "Zip City" and "Marry Me."

Houstonians should have a special affinity for the Truckers, who roll into House of Blues October 30. Many of their songs ("Puttin' People on the Moon" and "Space City," to name two from the ACL set) are about Huntsville, Alabama, which is (or was) almost as big a NASA company town as Clear Lake City. But the one that really hit home with Rocks Off this time is "The Living Bubba," which has nothing whatsoever to do with NASA and everything to do with where we find ourselves as we approach the doorstep of 35.

To celebrate the release of 2008's Warpaint, the Black Crowes played the entire record straight through for a special series of shows. Already released as a 2-CD set, this DVD of one performance shows why the Crowes are such an effective live unit.

Two things immediately jump out. Singer Chris Robinson eschews his usual chattiness and whirling-dervish dancing, perhaps in an effort to put more of the attention on the new material. And new lead guitarist Luther Dickinson more than proves his worth, delivering a series of stinging solos and incredible slide work, effectively making him the star of the show.

Not surprisingly, the live versions have the same effect as their recorded counterparts. "Evergreen" is a weak, frothy singalong and "Movin' On Down the Line" overstays its welcome. But numbers like "Walk Believer Walk" and "Wounded Bird" rock with authority, and "Oh Josephine" and "There's Gold in Them Hills" remain touching high points.

While its packaging and title are fairly misleading - the cover photo of Road Trip is a contemporary concert shot, and there's nothing here covering anything past 1984's Born in the USA, this nearly three-hour, 2-DVD documentary is still a worthwhile title for the hardcore Boss lover looking to go deeper than a Rolling Stone record review.

Disc 1 is a wonderful, well-shot documentary about Springsteen's life and music from his teen years up to the massive global success of USA. It utilizes talking-head interviews with the usual suspects of rock-lit crits (Robert Christgau, Anthony DeCurtis, Patrick Humphries), as well as former bandmates and school friends, with the best reflections from former drummer Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez and early manager Richard "Tinker" West - who famously let the young Bruce and his band rehearse and crash at his surfboard factory on the Jersey shore.

Lopez's anger toward defrocked later manager Mike Appel for instigating his leaving the group prior the success of Born to Run still simmers (though Bruce could have indeed intervened if he'd wanted to). But he happily recalls recording "The E Street Shuffle," revealing that the part noises made by the band in the background weren't faked as there was a full-on tequila party going.

It's a story well-told in Beatles lore. Reeling from the Fab Four's unraveling, a bored John Lennon accepted an invitation to perform at the Toronto Rock 'n Roll Revival show in September 1969. He quickly formed an ad hoc group of friends (wife Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass, and Alan White on drums), dubbed them the Plastic Ono Band, and two days later the ensemble was learning songs in the cramped airplane quarters on the way to the show. Nervous after a three-year absence from live performing, Lennon puked backstage at the thought of facing an audience of 20,000.

This DVD - utilizing footage shot by noted rock-doc maker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, Monterey Pop) - opens with snippets from performances of rock forefathers Bo Diddley ("Bo Diddley"), Jerry Lee Lewis ("Hound Dog") and Little Richard ("Lucille"). The sex-on-fire Diddley and Richard in particular rip it up, making one wish for more footage here from them (much more was actually filmed).

Held each year between 1968 and 1970, England's Isle of Wight Festival was the premier outdoor rock party for the British counterculture. The last edition (before its recent revival) proved the largest-attended (600,000!) and best, with a lineup that included Jimi Hendrix in his last major performance, the Doors, the Who, Jethro Tull, Chicago, Sly & The Family Stone and the Moody Blues.

The Moodies were coming off a string of successes with albums like In Search of the Lost Chord, On the Threshold of a Dream and A Question of Balance with a lineup that included Justin Hayward (vocals, guitar), John Lodge (bass), Ray Thomas (flute, vocals), Graeme Edge (drums) and Mike Pinder (keyboards, vocals).

Of the group's 14-song set, this DVD features the surviving performance footage of eight numbers, with music from two additional songs accompanying crowd footage. (The full set is available on CD.) What strikes the viewer most is how much more nicely aggressive songs like "Tuesday Afternoon," "Question" and "Tortoise and the Hare" come off than their studio counterparts. Hayward looks shockingly frail and a bit nervous at least early in the set, so it's up to Thomas to deliver the open-shirted rock and roll swagger, which he does while singing "Legend of a Mind."

An increasingly prolific genre of the home-DVD market are the independent "review and criticism" releases, which focus mostly on classic-rock artists and are manna for hardcore fans. And no performer has generated more titles than Bob Dylan.

This release focuses on dissecting Dylan's least-covered but still very controversial era: the trilogy of tubthumping evangelical releases reflecting Dylan's conversion to Christianity (Slow Train Coming, Saved, Shot of Love), through efforts of a hodgepodge quality (Infidels, Knocked Out Loaded) and his arguable career nadir (Dylan and the Dead, Down in the Groove) to the simple but wonderful Traveling Wilburys and the welcome (if short-lived) "comeback" of Oh Mercy.

The "review and criticism" DVD template is followed by recruiting talking heads to tell the story. They range from music journalists (some with a Dylan specialty) like Clinton Heylin, Anthony Decurtis, and Nigel Williamson, to players, producers, and engineers on the sessions, with a unifying narrative voiceover. In this case, all expound well in Dylan's records, shows, and (purported) state of mind at the time. Coverage of The Gospel Trilogy and tours are the DVD's best.

Charles Mingus had been dead and buried for more than a decade by the time his jazz concerto, Epitaph, had its public debut on June 3, 1989 in New York City. But then again, the bassist/composer never thought any audience would ever hear it.

After Mingus's death, more than 20 individual pieces and 500 pages of score -- written over more than a 20-year-period -- were discovered. Many were smudged and barely legible, but they formed the parts of Mingus's never-finished magnum opus. After a painstaking effort spearheaded by collector Andrew Homzy, Mingus's widow Sue, and conductor Gunther Schuller to piece together, edit, reconstruct and even fill in some parts, Schuller led a 30-piece orchestra to present the work, the longest and largest written for a jazz orchestra.

Craig Hlavaty

In the early '80s, Anvil was on the verge of being Canada's leaders of metal mania. Frontman/guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner were the Toronto outfit's masterminds, writing songs like "Metal on Metal" and "Hot Child" that helped them influence a multitude of young bands coming up at the time - such as Slayer and Metallica. Anvil's massive, pounding metal was riding high.

But somewhere towards the end of the "Me" decade, the wheels seemingly fell off Anvil's wagon. A surely promising signing to their genre's influential Metal Blade label failed to bring the band that extra push. Their debut on the imprint Strength Of Steel cracked the bottom of the Billboard charts but soon faltered. The band released five more marginally received yet solid collections of metal before shuttling off to various independent labels.

Most familiar with Lips and Robb's story blame the changing metal climate at the time, or shoddy managers and promotions. Even still, the band never wavered in their brutal sonic attack and continued to record 13 albums of heavy metal material, most recently This is Thirteen. In 2005, former Anvil roadie and current Hollywood player Sacha Gervasi began filming a documentary on the band. Anvil: The Story of Anvil chronicles a few years in the life of the band, through disastrously hilarious European tours and strife-filled recording sessions.

Rocks Off sat down with Lips and Robb a few hours before a screening of the film at the Angelika Theatre at Bayou Place.

Pressed to name a classic bluesman, most people will mention B.B. King. The No. 2 slot would probably belong to the man born McKinley Morganfield (1915-1983). Through his incredible work for Chess Records in the '50s and '60s, he helped create the blueprint for electric blues before settling into elder statesmanship with the white rock icons of the day at his feet in the '70s. This DVD presents Muddy Waters and band at a 1981 Chicago blues festival.

After a rousing opener in "Mannish Boy" - where Waters growls, struts and prowls the stage like a man on fire - he then heads for a stool, delivering low-energy, rote recitations of numbers like "Baby Please Don't Go," "I'm a King Bee" and "Trouble No More" (probably familiar to many in the crowd via the Allman Brothers Band).

Vanilla Fudge

Live: When Two Worlds Collide (ABC Records)

Vanilla Fudge is best known for 1967's heavy, slow and psychedelic version of the Supremes' Motown classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On," and even diehard classic-rock fans might be skeptical about this recent concert which features only half of the Long Island-born band's classic lineup (uh-oh), a set list mostly of covers (double uh-oh), and an accompanying symphony orchestra (triple uh-oh). But pop it in the player, and what you actually get is a shockingly good show by four very vital, passionate and energetic players.

This Fudge lineup includes original members Carmine Appice (drums) and Tim Bogert (bass) along with more recent recruits Bill Pascali (keyboards), and Teddy Rondinelli (guitar). All four acquit themselves more than admirably on shared vocals, and they start things off with a hard and fast version of "Good Livin." But it's the covers - all 'Fudged Up' so they sound like completely different tunes - like "Ain't That Peculiar," "Shotgun" and "Season of the Witch," that are revelations.

NOFX

Backstage Passport DVD

www.nofx.org

Few bands in punk rock have lasted as long as the San Francisco-based NOFX. And even far fewer have stayed as relatively tight-knit a crew as Fat Mike and the boys. After 25 years of co-existence, most pop-punk bands of NOFX's ilk and age have already shuffled off the scene for child-rearing, while others lie in drug-induced early graves.

This isn't to say that NOFX hasn't had its share of drug scares, what with drummer Erik "Smelly" Sandin chasing the needle in the early '90s and the rest of the guys seemingly dabbling with the odd pill or powder at various points. Now that the whole band is over 40 and married with children, however, stereotypical balls-out rock and roll debauchery on the road is a non-issue.

Well, almost.

Skulls are very big in the world of Black Label Society. A jawboneless half-skull serves as the L.A. power-metal quartet's logo, and lead singer/guitarist Zakk Wylde's mic stand is a skull-topped length of chain. One can only imagine Wylde, also Ozzy Osbourne's lead guitarist, chose skulls becase his riffing is the definition of "face-melting." He's the sort of fellow who starts a song by yelling "Incoming!" and ends it by announcing "Limp Bizkit can suck our big motherfuckin' fat cocks." It's hard not to love the guy.

The DVD component of Skullage (the CD is the decade-old band's best-of) is split into three parts: live footage of BLS grinding it out in Europe and Detroit, and an acoustic concert in Pennsylvania, dubbed "Slightly Amped," that highlights Wylde's bluesy debt to Southern noodlers like Duane Allman and the Lynyrd Skynyrd boys. There's also five videos that use every metal cliche in the book to hilarious effect. "Stillborn," with guest vocals from Ozzy, looks like it was shot on the same soundstage as any post-1994 Nine Inch Nails video and features Wylde flicking his tongue at the camera like a snake. (Mrs. Wylde must be a very lucky woman.)

By the time of his 1995 death at the age of 47 due to complications from liver transplant surgery, Rory Gallagher was already a giant blues-rock guitar hero - albeit in pretty much every country besides the U.S. And it's a shame that these shores never cottoned to the Irishman, who in his prime certainly could have gone toe-to-toe with Clapton, Allman, and Winter.

Live in Cork shows a clearly enthused--and still potent--latter-day Gallagher playing for an appreciative hometown in 1987, a smile breaking across the baby face for much of the show. It's easy to see why fans often feel that his prolific studio recordings (especially in the '70s) never quite matched his live output (many point to his live CD/movie Irish Tour '74 as the essential listening experience).

For this show, Gallagher's deep, expressive voice and frenetic-but-controlled playing make trademark numbers "Continental Op," "Tattoo'd Lady" and a hi-energy cover of Junior Wells' signature "Messin' with the Kid" highlights. There's also much to love in his amped-up rock originals like the fiery "Follow Me" and "Shadow Play."

While the catalogues of Motown and Stax get all the attention, the "Philadelphia sound" of the '70s - headquartered at Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records - if often overlooked, and that's a pity. This concert, filmed last year for a PBS fundraiser and in conjunction with the release of the 4-CD box set of the same name, showcases many of the PI stars revisiting their classics. Producers were also blessed with an extremely appreciative crowd, and the shots of the middle-aged (and up) audience grooving to the soundtrack of their youths is actually quite endearing.

Force of Nature Eddie Levert, sweating and grunting for joy, leads the O'Jays through "I Love Music," "Use Ta Be My Girl," and "People Get Ready/Love Train." The Ice Man Jerry Butler proves minimalist stage movement and vocal inflections can still command attention with "Never Gonna Give You Up," and one-hit wonders (and white boys) Soul Survivors - or at least two of them - rip it up with a good-time "Expressway to Your Heart."

The early '80s were an interesting time in the career of Paul Simon. The past glories of hits with Simon & Garfunkel - along with his sizable solo charting - were behind. And he had yet to reinvent himself as a world music maven with 1986's fine Graceland. His 1980 album One-Trick Pony had yielded a hit with "Late in the Evening," but the semi-autobiographical film of the same name, in which Simon showcased his acting chops, was widely panned.

So this 1980 concert at Philadelphia's Tower Theater (which has already been previously released on DVD) finds Paul at the precipice. And musically, it was a good, loose place to be.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Live! (Heads Up)

http://www.mambazo.com

Though international audiences did not discover this South African vocal group until it appeared on Paul Simon's landmark 1986 album Graceland, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been active since the early '60s, when founder Joseph Shabalala started the a capella isicathamiya choir alongside friends and family back in his hometown of Ladysmith.

Since hitting the spotlight more than two decades ago, the Grammy-winning group went on to become South Africa's cultural ambassadors, touring relentlessly around the world eight months a year in addition to making new music, participating in other musicians' recordings while also being the face of the Mambazo Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization started by Shabalala in 1999.

Even the most naïve and surface Led Zeppelin listener tell you at least that they were influenced "by the blues." But this insightful and surprisingly solid documentary goes way further in delving into the sound and the performers which were in the minds (and on the home stereos) of Mssrs. Page and Plant, both in their youths and while recording some of the greatest rock music ever.

Even without the draw-you-in Zeppelin tag, Down the Tracks could serve just as well as a historical jaunt through the blues of Charley Patton and Son House through the electrifyin' of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, up to the English skiffle and folk booms. All of which took place well before the 1969 release of debut Led Zeppelin, where - according to one interviewee here - the band "pumped the blues with steroids." 

A shy and awkward Iowan prairie boy sits down in front of the camera somewhere in late 1970s New York, and out comes one of the most enigmatic and genre-confounding voices of our time. Recently released DVD Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell is less of a documentary and more of a deeply personal, posthumous tribute to Russell's life and work as one of the foremost unsung figures of '80s left-field, avant-garde pop and disco.

Russell's sound is full of soulful, strange, and faltering mantras, rhythmic and percussive electronic cello and exotic, funky beats. Filmmaker Matt Wolf introduces the viewer with an intimate portrayal of Russell's childhood by his parents, who are as instrumental to the film as featured artists Allen Ginsberg, Talking Heads, the Modern Lovers' Ernie Brooks, Philip Glass and giants of the '70s DJ and disco scene, including Larry Levan and Francois Kevorkian. 

This documentary, originally broadcast on BBC television, traces the coalition of the "underground" movement in swinging '60s London. Beginning with a groundbreaking 1965 gathering/reading of the Beat poets at the Royal Albert Hall and following with the opening of the Indica bookstore and gallery, the London Free School, the revival of the Notting Hill Carnival, and publication of the first issues of the newspaper International Times, it all culminated in "The 14-hour Technicolor Dream."

The actual happening - much more than just a concert - took place on April 29, 1967 at the Alexandra Palace, and featured scores of bands and other performers including The Pretty Things, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Pete Townshend, the Soft Machine, the Move, Alex Harvey and a pre-John Yoko Ono. Sort-of headlining was the original Pink Floyd, whose cosmic cacophony led by Syd Barrett blared from the stage just as the sun rose about 5 a.m.