(((echo magic)))

This has been a busy, busy time. So much on the horizon, and so much water under the bridge. The defrosting of winter has brought about many film sound collaborations, the completion of my master’s degree, a new studio, and two new records. Family Band had our first LP out at the end of April, Miller Path. Hiss Golden Messenger finished a record of live radio performances, called Root Work

Family Band: “Diamonds” from Miller Path

HGM: “From a Lincoln Continental / Boogie Re-interpolated” from Root Work

There will some more updates about the other business, but for now dig this Holga shot of the pig

Hi, I am in the middle of blogski redux, more soon!

Directions for best results: double click to unzip the sleep.zip file. Drag and drop the sleep folder onto the word PLAYLISTS on the left column of your iTunes. Enjoy.

Do you know how much I love Waylon Jennings? In every genre of music there is a defining group of musicians who invent a style, a beat, a rhythm, a groove. In reggae you have the Sly and Robbie school, and you’ve got the Carlton and Aston Barrett combo. In Krautrock there’s the Klaus Dinger beat and the Neu! shuffle, or you have the Germanic Africanisms of Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay. Each band has their own particular rhythmic subtleties and when you get really into the specifics of each genre, you fall in love with how different crews can put their signature on any tune, cover or not. And the more you get into it, the more you realize that nobody can do it better than the way these guys do it. Because they invented it.

Waylon Jennings is no exception to this rule. I fell in love with the peculiar rhythms and grooves of Waylon’s band even before I heard the most appropriate name ever for it: “The Honky Stomp,” as coined by drummer extraordinaire John Hofer, who can muster up just about the best imitation of the “Stomp” I have heard.

So what are the ingredients of “The Honky Stomp”? The feel is so unabashedly straight that it is somehow the funkiest thing you’ve heard. At the foundation of the whole thing is the simplest stripped down kick and snare drum dumbshit beat, Richie Albright is hitting the kick drum on all four. And the drums are always loud in the mix with a ticking hi-hat on the offbeats. Locked in there along with them is a bouncing fifths bass groove that never steps off the chord root, not even for a second. Two notes is all you need- you’d be a pussy to play three. The glue that binds it all together is the ever present phased out sticky icky guitar played by the man himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if Waylon had a phaser permanently installed in his guitar because he never turns it off. It is the perfect final ingredient to fuel that mid seventies quaalude and whiskey haze. Riding high on top of it all is a far off strummed cowboy chord acoustic guitar and of course Ralph Mooney’s insanely brilliant pedal steel, also usually phased out.

If you haven’t heard Waylon’s prime era Honky Stomp records, you really should to check them out. Just pull them right out of the dollar bin and take a listen. I’m talking about “Lonesome On’ry and Mean”, “Honky Tonk Heroes”, “This Time”, “Ramblin’ Man” and my personal all time favorite, “Dreaming My Dreams”, produced by Jack Clement.

On offer here is a new gem I found recently, “Are you Ready for the Country” from 1976, toward the end of the prime Honky Stomp era. But he has still got it here. Waylon’s Neil Young cover is straightened out so much it sounds like a Kraftwerk record for a second, but then you add in the wah-wah clavinet and it gets all Burning Spear somehow too. Rad. The other favorite on this is Waylon’s self depreciating “So Good Woman”. Its the laziest groove ever with far out My Bloody Valentine synth middle sections and a rambling Wurlitzer to boot. Amazing.

ZZ Top – TV Dinners

I like the enchiladas and the teriyaki too. I even like the chicken if the sauce is not too blue.

Occasionally, when yo tengo hambre, I find myself thinking of this triumphant gatefold, courtesy of the “Top”. You have to be careful about separating your stems and seeds in this one. You might end up with a severe case of los munchies.