of buttsteaks & boston

Hello all, Roadkill here at exactly 1 p.m. on a Monday in Baltimore, which means they're testing the air raid siren at the courthouse while some of us try to work through lunch. The horn is a particularly blaring return to reality as I sit here still basking in the glow of fires, literal and figurative, that were stoked this past weekend in Boston.  

Originally, an extended cast of characters planned to converge at TT the Bear's, a sweaty dive in Cambridge where the afore-mentioned Scruffy the Cat was to reunite after a 20+ year hiatus. But people in bands lead complicated lives and the shows were unceremoniously scuttled. The Fitz's stepped into this void and a small hoard of thankful college friends and spouses descended for some ambling walks, food & drink, and terrible fireside singing.  Along the way, cocktails were had, friends reconnected and, quite possibly, a septum was deviated. 

I bring this up in an ostensibly musical forum because of the degree to which music has been the surgical glue that stuck so many of us together so many years ago and that keeps giving us excuses to meet up in one city or another. At the heart of it is the friendships.  I mean, nobody ever went to a Buttsteak show (or a two-drummer rehearsal at 303) for quality songsmanship. It was about camaraderie and beer, in roughly that order. Sure, it would have been nice if Scruffy took the stage this past weekend but, sitting around the fire pit in Lexington, I think we all realized it wasn't really about them after all.

Dan, stoking the fires.

Buttsteak, summer '09, part 1: We were fans of Camper van...

Ah, Buttsteak!  The band, that is-- the actual Buttsteak.  With the sloppy cover song thing?  You know, with the Haggises Five and all that?  The ramshackle "organization" managed to get through no fewer than four major incarnations back in the JHU days but in our brains they've all sorta melded into The One.  And, sleeper cells that we are, the promise of old friends and stoopid rock songs and cold beer and bad dancing still manages to intermittently call us forward into action, and backward into silliness.  The signal's got enough  power that it was a no-brainer that, come the 20th reunion of the class of '89, we'd naturally all get back together and get our rock trousers on.  And indeed, that whole affair was a hoot.  So.  Much.  Fun.

But this isn't about the gig.  Even if the Hopkins show hadn't gone down, it would have been worth it just to have five of us get together for the practices down in Baltimore, and then to get joined by Hani in the stretch.  Like putting on an old, comfortable pair of cut-off camouflage pants in need of a washing, and a shirt with a sausage on it.

But this also isn't about the practices either.  It's about the idea that we get together a couple months after the '09 gig to at long last lay down some decent recordings of the band.  Not surprisingly, we'd never gotten our act together to do such a thing back in the day.  And this take was also incomplete, but we made do--- Hani had to head back overseas, so the sloppy and half-baked keyboards you hear are my fault (and I couldn't come close to bringing the Shalabi mojo).  Back in Boston, we managed to dub Fitz in.  Soooo at least it's an approximation.

And there's a big bunch to post.  First up, two unsung classics by Santa Cruz, CA's Camper van Beethoven, old mainstays...  "Skinheads" goes way back to the Scott Scummit/ Whiskey Sin and Moral Corruption days and, I dunno, maybe before I was on board, and enviously watching those yahoos in the lovely D.U. basement.  "Sweethearts" I believe we added in the post-Fitz era.  It's missing the string parts and whistling but I could listen to Todd play those guitar bits just about forever.

Take the Skinheads Bowling:


Sweethearts:


Four out of six, spring '09:

Hani's thoughts on the matter:

Fitz, winter '09 actually looking up lyrics!! Go internets!

Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 5: Drug Test

Hey gang.  Hope you're enjoying our little backslide from autumn back into summer.  Also hope it doesn't last long.   Irregahdless, here's the last of the finished Hoot mixes for you.  It might not be to everyone's tastes, noisy lil' devil that it is, but it should provide some audio (and perhaps video) evidence that we managed to skronk it up a bit at March's throwdown, which is to say that we briefly flew the alternative- indie flag and let loose a tad of feedback as well.  This was thanks in no small part to Dillo's destructification of a couple guitar leads.  Never had I heard such a spectacular strangulation of my Telecaster, which is used to a more sedate, twangy, roots-rocking existence.  Happily this song provided one of those moments when you're playing a song and have to force yourself to keep going, because what's taking place right in front of you is so goddarned entertaining that you're almost inclined to just stop and listen.  Anyway, this is all above and beyond the fact that he flew up from Chapel Hill with his own home-crafted prosciutto.   A true Renaissance man! 

Hopefully you'll also be able to stream or (probably) download some of the video we had from the run-through, prior to all the "beautification" and other studio wizardry.  If nothing else, I think it gives an indication of the degree to which we were flying by the seat of our collective pants, if you pay attention to the confused, determined and surprised looks all around.  And hooray for the seasonal plumage and accoutrements!

We've got a couple more of these Hoot songs in the can, or partially so, and they'll hopefully see the light of day before long, once we work out the transcontinental file sharing and electronic recording situation so that Paul B can work his magic.  Might slide into something completely different next week.  We'll see.

jk

Drug Test:

Dillo- Guitar; Paul B- Guitar; JK- Bass, etc; Road- Drums

Drug Test in-progress video:

Filmed by Roggie

Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 4: Jockey Full of Bourbon

As things start getting autumnal in parts northeast, we here at RK-BS Industries continue, like a fine PBS Frontline documentary, to address the events of this past spring.  So here's a funky(ish) number for you from the March combo, Day 1, when we were fresh and saucy.  Just in case anyone was under the impression that your Merry Band of Hooters limited ourselves to slop-rock and a Beatles cover, well, take a spin on "Jockey Full of Bourbon".  I believe it was a cover that was broached independently by Dillo and Roger, and therefore proof that great minds do think alike. 

For those not familiar with the song, "Jockey Full of Bourbon" is yet another classic sprung from the carnival mind of the great Tom Waits, off of his landmark "Rain Dogs" LP from '85.  The original is indeed a distillation of that particular Waits-ian era: barking vocals, chugging rhythms, a stinging and echo-laden guitar line, bubbling organ, a baritone sax, tons of percussion, something that sounds like a whip cracking, and lyric references to busted $2 pistols, Cuban jail, a Slingerland ride (cymbal, that is), stepping on the devil's tail and, it goes without saying, bourbon, birds and a house on fire.

We slowed it down a bit and tried to play up the Afro-Cuban feel.  Double secret extra credit goes to Mr. Bonanos, who absolutely sealed the deal by nailing his parts on the inimitable Wurlitzer 200a electronic piano. Maybe next time we lay on a horn section!  Now accepting applications....


Roggie: vocs and gtr; Paul B: Wurlitzer; Paul C: Bass; JK: gtr, percussion; Road: Drums

Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 3: Sail On

Keeping it brief, we're pushing onward through the last-minute mixing tweaks and we're into the middle third of the group recordings from this past March.  I think it's fair to say that this here number would've been the Song Voted Most Fun to Play by the participants of Hoot '11.  Songs like this are your purest, basic hootenanny fodder and, what with all the Lionel Ritchie visions dancing through one's head, it's hard not to get your goof on.  It's kinda funny that such a country pop hit would've sprung from such a smooth funky beast as the Commodores but I suppose that being Alabama boys, it was in their blood.  Credit also to the Supersuckers, who play a nice version that inspired this one in no small part. 

Sail On:


Bonanos: Wurlitzer; Cardillo: Bass; Evitts: Drums; Sorkin: lead guitar, vocals; Keating: Rhythm guitar, steel, vocals

let's go to the videotape

After more than a year, rumor has it that video footage of the 2010 Buttsteak reunion show has been smuggled out of Charm City and made its way up the coast. Experts are examining the files and, hopefully, scrubbing out the embarrassing and/or off-key, but that won't leave us with much. Perhaps there will be an un-redacted Assange-like release? 

Better yet, perhaps there's a way to post older material that Oken edited down a few years ago.  Whaddya say, boys?

Harpswell Hootenanny 2011, Part 2-- Dylan and the Band

A couple years ago, I was taking a coffee break from my professorly duties in North Grafton, and was over at the Newbury Comics store in Shrewsbury, MA.  I bought a copy of Bob Dylan's just released official Bootleg Series Vol. 5 release of  the "Rolling Thunder Revue, Live 1975".  Popped it into the car's CD player, waited out those first delicious, silent, anticipatory moments, and then got flat-out walloped by the first cut, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You".  Nearly plowed into several cars in the "Stah Mahket" lot, I did!  It's a totally different beast from the crooning, laid-back "Nashville Skyline" original--  an amped-up, rip-roarin' version, supplying that good ol' "Ya Ya Ya!!!  Rock Rock Rock!!" adrenaline charge in spades.  In the back of my mind I thought "Hmmmm.... Maybe we can rip this off someday?....".   Well, that day is here!  Or, I should say, it was here at the end of March.  "Tonight..." was the first song we recorded from this March's Harpswell Hootenanny and, after not being sure if the organization was really going to gel, we looked around when we'd finished a run-through and breathed a collective "Hell yeah-- Something just happened there!"

And what better to pair that with than a classic from the "Basement Tapes" sessions of Bob and the Band?  We ran through this version on  Sunday, after Roggie had already decamped for home and we'd devolved into 3-chord garage slop-rockers.  After sometimes getting bogged down, as will happen, with take after take of some long and/or tricky and/or demanding song or other, there's nothing like a good dollop of rock n' roll to clear the old pipes and put a charge back in your ticker.wo

May have some more pics for your viewing pleasure, and perhaps a video or two.  For now, git on out there and enjoy some fine long weekend action!

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You:

Paul B- Wurlitzer; Rog- lead gtr/ harmony voc; Dillo- bass; Road- drums; JK- rhythm gtr, voc, pedal steel, organ

Odds and Ends:

Paul B and Dillo- guitars; Road- drums; JK- bass, keys, voc