Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I fell down a little on these "previews." S'ok...the last one was very long, since it included three of the most storied bands from Tucson. This one...well...it includes bands that I have never seen play. That makes for short previews, dunnit?

The Hecklers: Never saw them, but the great Al Perry was a member of this Cowpunk/Thrashabilly band.

The Knockout Pills: Gerard Schumacher has been in several Tucson bands, including the much loved Lonely Trojans, The Weird Lovemakers and even a short stint in the Sidewinders. He has never been the "leader" in those bands, but it is difficult to imagine them without his manic energy and showmanship. The Knockout Pills are the latest band to try to harness Schumacher's Aussie energy. They have been playing for about four years now, and have an album, 1+1=Ate, that will be released early next month.

Since the statute of limitations has probably expired, I can tell you this story. Back in, I think, 1996 or 1997, Rob Ferrier invited me to do a shift with him on Radio Limbo, a, um, non-approved radio station run out of a variety of locations here in Tucson. One time, we were in a garage. We are in the middle of the shift, and the garage door opens. A really loud garage door. Must have been great for the listeners. Anyway, who gets out of the car but Gerard. It was all very strange. He talked to us for a minute, then went inside.

Well, I thought it was interesting, anyway.

Gerard stopped a Lonely Trojans show once because I was being hastled by a drunk. He said "Don't bother Ted, he's cool." Once in a while, someone thinks so.

I was hoping for Gerrard to get together with Chris "The Sloppy Guitarist" Morrison for a Loney Trojans reuinion. No dice.

La Cerca: A band I have never seen play. However, Cia Romano has an entry for them on her Tucson Underground site, complete with pictures that I am probably not allowed to clip for this site.

Molehill Orkestrah: A rather eccelctic band that mixes middle eastern, klezmer, gypsy, spanish, well, any sort of music that they feel like. I haven't seen them play, but Emilie Marchand of The Fashionistas tells me they are pretty good. She might be biased since Molehill's Mona Chambers is a member of Emilie's band too.

Less Pain Forever: I couldn't figure out why I haven't heard of them. Turns out they are from Phoenix, so screw 'em.


The latest issue of Harp includes a short article by former Tucsonan Fred Mills on this weekend's festivities. Of course, I can't find the article online. It seems that what's online is last month's issue. Go figure.

Mills included in his article a rumor that Linda Ronstadt will play. Will there be a reunion of the original Stone Poneys? While they are at it, what about The Lewallen Brothers, The Dearly Beloved or The Sot Weed Factor? The Poneys sort of pre-date Club Congress, although they did play a café called The Cup.

The online section does include a 10 Spot column with Frank Black. The column features the same ten questions asked to a new artist each month. The last one is always "Neko Case or Nico." Being that most of these guys are Alt-Country or Americana or whatever (you know, one step above Shoegazer), they usually give the "right" answer: Neko Case.

Black said, "What's a Neko Case?"


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

I'm one of those "non-traditional" students. That's easier than saying I was too lazy to graduate college the first time around.

I'm taking Physics 216, Electricity and Magnetism. It's been fascinating so far. Physics 210, as cool as it was, was based on concepts that were pretty firmly in place by the 1700s. This stuff, however, was mostly found out in the 19th Century.

Some of it more recent. The instructor talked about how Coloumb's Law says nothing about how electrical forces are actually transmitted. Next thing you know, he hits the projector and throws up a picture of Albert Einstein.

Then he described the "electric field." Apparently, all objects that have a charge have an electric field. Okay, easy enough. This field cannot be directly percieved through our normal senses. Yeah, I can deal with that. This field exists and can act even when there are no particles between the charged particle and the particle it is acting on. Eh?

It also has the potential to act on all objects, no matter how distant. But we were told that that will not make calculations a mess.

So, is this thing for real? Evidently, from what the instructor said, more real than matter itself. Geez. Being made of matter, I think I should be insulted. This thing exists even though there is nothing there. This whole concept is barely a eighty years old and was suggested by a guy whose thought process is still unfathomable. I'm supposed to grasp this?

We expect mechanical forces to be transmitted through contact. Clint Dempsey moves the ball by contacting it with his foot, for example. When Sir Isaac Newton saw a conflict between this and the way gravity worked (also something that generates a field), he basically said, "hey, I'm not even going there, just check out the formulae." Of course, he said it in Latin so he sounded very smart.

Then he said not to think about it too much, and gave us the units that we use to measure this field. But if there is nothing there...never mind.

This heavy concept is being thrown at us, and it is the second day of class.


Note to all of you astrology goons out there: this is barely proof of it. The strength is inversely proportional to distance, so far off objects don't generate a lot of force. The field generated by, say, the Al-Giedi (the brightest star in Capricornus, my "sign"), 100 light years away, is negligible compared to the field generated by my car radio, which isn't even working.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Just a note for those of you that know me from the Young Democrats. I ran across some news about former Mississippi Young Democrats President Rep. Dirk Dedeaux. He lives in Hancock County, which is the next county east of Louisiana. He had to be abandon his home along with everybody else:

Rep. Dirk Dedeaux, D-Gulfport, left his mobile home in northern Hancock County for Jackson on Sunday with his wife, his two children and his mother.

"All the people who went through Camille have some very harrowing stories about that last hurricane," Dedeaux said in a telephone interview from a grocery store in Jackson. "So we're taking it very seriously. I'm afraid that not enough people are taking it seriously."

Note that hurricane Camille happened in 1969, before Dirk was born, but its infamy even effects him.

Dirk is a great guy. I remember him always smoking cigars at YD meetings because he claimed he couldn't smoke them back home for fear of being called "too big." Keep him in your prayers, along with everybody else.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

It's time to pull out that old Tragically Hip album, because, well...you know.


Tom and I were in New Orleans in 1995 for the Young Democrats of America Convention. That year, we were almost hit by, I think, Hurricane Erin (at first I thought it was the more infamous Hurricane Opal, then I looked it up and realized that that was much later. Memories can be so unreliable.) The storm changed direction and didn't hit us directly. It just turned out to be a heck of a lot of rain.

Two events had to be cancelled though. Tom and I were staying in the overflow hotel, so we had to go out to get to the convention. They had sandbags piled up in front of the doors. The doorman said, in his best "yat," "nothing to worry about, just a hurricane."


At the 1996 Democratic convention, Mike McHale, who was a lawyer from Lake Charles and the president of the Young Democrats of Lousiana, handed me a button that said "New Orleans 2000." McHale said, "We want to host the 2000 Democratic Convention, since y'all had such a good time at the YDA convention last year..." I reminded him about not only the hurricane, but the fact that I got mugged. He said "Don't worry, we've got all that fixed..."


Some of you may have heard that that was the convention where I nearly started a riot. The woman that made the comment to me that caused the trouble, ironically, was named Erin.


I watched them put people in the SuperDome on the Weather Channel. Funny, they had the field roped off. What for? People sleeping on the field will do more damage than 300 pound people grinding into each other? Football people are weird.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

I hear a lot of smack about people like me that like soccer. We keep getting told that it is boring. Funny thing, I hear this from sports commentators that love golf.

Yes, sometimes it is boring. The first half of yesterday's New England Revolution - DC United game for example. Dull as dishwater. Second half was a nailbiter though, with Taylor Twellman scoring in the very last minute of stoppage time.

But there are more subtle things that fans like me appreciate. The culture and structure of the game allow for certain moments that I really love.

For example, yesterday's contest between FC Dallas and Chivas USA. I make fun of Chivas an awful lot. For one thing, I don't like the Mexican team that they are affiliated with. For another, they walked into the league acting as though they were going to show us yanquis how to play, then, they totally sucked.

They have been getting better as of late. In yesterday's game, Chivas spent most of the game even with Dallas, the second best team in the league. Chivas smelled a rare victory, and Dallas did not want to be embarassed in their new home field. Because of this, tensions were very high, with frequent fouls and a bizarre injury to Dallas 'keeper Jeff Cassar.

I'm not sure what exactly happened, but it looked as though Chivas player Douglas Sequiera stepped on a grounded Dallas player. Eddie Johnson ran to confront him, and the two almost came to blows. Referee Terry Vaughn gave them both yellow cards for the wonderfully named offense of "Bringing the Game into Disrepute." (I've never gotten a card for that one, although anyone who sees me play would think I deserve one.)

At the end of the game, commentators John Harkes and Rob Stone continued to talk about the game while the camera still recorded the goings on on the field. Johnson removed his jersey, and handed it to Sequeira. Sequeira reciprocated.

This is a traditional gesture that says, "I respect you as a player." It means, I wanted to take you apart in the game, but the game is over. I'll beat you next time. It goes far beyond the rather automatic "good game" handshake that we do in high school sports.

A bit of a small thing, but it's these sorts of things that make me love the game.


They don't do it in women's soccer, but it would help ratings.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Okay...not really a debate because I am the only one that cares.

Erik Trevino has some pics up from our YD adventures in San Francisco. Tom Reade posted them on his blog with captions. His caption reads: "Lexi's boots were made for walking..."

Trouble is, they are MY boots. I think so, anyway.

I clearly remember looking to my side just in time to see Erik snap the photo and look up at me with a grin.

Maybe we can get some foresnsics guy to look at the picture to see the distinctive stains...more Pima than Pinal.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia

Fourth in my ongoing, and well read (by Natalie Luna, anyway) series on the bands that are playing at the Club Congress 20th Anniversary.

Friends of Dean Martin(ez): The Friends of Dean Martin were founded by Bill Elm as a sort of side project from Giant Sand. At various points the band included Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino, as well as current Jonathan Richman sideman Tom Larkins. At some point, Dean Martin himself sobered up long enough to threaten a lawsuit, so the name was changed to the Friends of Dean Martinez. Since he's gone now, it looks like they will be playing as the Friends of Dean Martin. No word on whether Sen. Dean Martin (R-Phoenix) plans on any legal action.

John Convertino and Joey Burns were fired from the band and Elm decided to move the whole outfit to Austin. This threw the two of them more into their own side project, then called Spoke.

Bill Elm went to St. Gregory High School with me, graduating the year after I did. He was the only guy at my high school to be into Charlie Sexton.

Giant Sand: This band was formed by Howe Gelb way way back in 1979 as the Giant Sandworms, which I think is a Dune reference. The original band consisted of Rainer Ptacek, Billy "Billy Sed" Sedylmayr and Dave Seeger, but was broken up and one syllable was dropped from the name.

The breakup was in part percipitated by Billy Sed's ongoing drug problems. Interestingly, Sed is the son of Pima Savings founder Floyd Sedylmayr and the nephew of former Tucson City Councilman Roger "Steeeeeeeeve Kerr" Sedylmayr.

Over the next few years, Giant Sand's sound was entirely determined by whatever Howe Gelb's interests were at the moment. This means that some albums were not that great, but they were never boring. Although line-ups were pretty stable from album to album, the next twenty years had plenty of changes. The during that time, the band included the wonderfully named Winston Watson, part time Go-Gos member Paula Jean Brown, Green on Red's Chris Cacavas, Future Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino, Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm and Naked Prey drummer Tom Larkins.

The current Giant Sand line-up is a group of musicians from Denmark. Yes, Denmark.

My first encounter with the Giant Sandworms was back in 1980. I stayed up late to watch a show they had on KGUN called the Rock and Roll Picture Show, it was a locally produced program that showed music videos. I think I managed to catch J. Giles Band and Loverboy, it was a while ago, I can't remember. Anyway, between the big national bands was a video made by the Giant Sandworms. I thought, cool...Tucson guys. Of course, it didn't take much to get on a local show, but I was ten. Believe it or not, in those days, local media supported local music. KWFM (anyone remember them?) put locals in their rotation and even put out a couple of local music albums.

Giant Sand has an international reputation in alternative music circles, and has for a long time. We even had a woman in KAMP from Manchester, England that was a fan before she came out here. I remember a Poi Dog Pondering show where Giant Sand opened. The lead singer of Poi Dog Pondering noted that he was happy that he got to play in Tucson on the same stage as Howe Gelb.

Their 1988 song "Love Like a Train" off of the album The Love Songs (John Convertino is credited as "Drum Thug" on that one) is still my favorite. Howe forgot the lyrics and his distortion pedal picked up a local radio station. He left these in the recording. Now, Howe refuses to play the song in concert because he can't get the same effects.

Gila Bend: I think I saw one of Gila Bend's first shows. They were supposed to play the U of A mall and got cancelled because of an impromptu protest by Muslim students angry about the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. There was no band booked in the Student Union Cellar, so they were allowed to come down and play. They called their show the "We Don't Give A Damn Set." That line-up, if I remember right, included a woman. I never saw her play with them again

Gila Bend didn't come out of the same place as most of the other bands in town. Lead singer Loren Dircks was more into county and heavy metal rather than punk. I don't think that any of them ran with the same crowd that the other big local bands did. But Dircks's strong songwriting and manic guitar playing won quickly won fans. They were my favorite for a long time.

I used to talk to Loren about Johnny Horton and said that a more "thrashabilly" treatment of his song "Jim Bridger" would be excellent. Then, one day I get a call from Tim Anderson (an early member of The Fells and my boss at KAMP) to tell me that Loren was going to do a cover of "Jim Bridger" that night for my brother and I. "Bridger" became a crowd favorite, and Gila Bend ended up adding a bunch of other Horton songs to the set. Bassist Jim Blackhall prevented Dircks from doing a cover of "Whispering Pines" and "Comanche," however.

Drummers for Gila Bend included everyone's favorite, Marx Loeb, as well as There's Something About Mary "star" Tom Larkins. Loren Dircks still sits in with various bands in town, including Calexico and Al Perry. He also occasionally plays in the more country flavored band Dumplin' with Blackhall and former Gila Bend drummer Bart Blue.

Green On Red: Green On Red started as The Pedestrians, which then became The Serfers. The original line up included Van Christian. The band decided to pack up and find their fortune in San Francisco. Christian stayed behind and formed Naked Prey. The Serfers had a sort of psychadellic-garage sound, and Green on Red maintained this but then moved into a more folksy direction, much like the Dream Syndicate, who they worked with occasionally.

They acquired a guitarist, Chuck Prophet IV, who has one of the best rock names ever, and toured Europe. Green on Red ended up being a heck of a lot more popular in Europe than here, which is a Tucson musical tradition.

Greyhound Soul: I first saw Joey Peña play in a band called Johnny Law (along with guitarist Adrian Schumacher, brother of Gerard Schumacher of the Knockout Pills and Lonely Trojans.) Peña formed Greyhound Soul back in 1993, and it has been going strong ever since. They have been called the "greatest bar band in Tucson." That is pretty faint praise, and a bit unfair. These guys have toured Europe, for a note on their popularity there, see above. Peña's often raspy but powerful voice adds much to the strong songwriting.

Oh yes, Joey has a "reputation with the ladies." I didn't say a good one though.



Hasta la vista. Do zobaczenia.

I'm back in school this semester. Yesterday I walked into a political science class. Believe it or not, I don't like taking political science.

Anyhow, I walk in, and it turns out the instructor is Mayor George Miller. He said, "Hi, Ted," when I walked in. Note to all of you other politicos who haven't figured out if I'm "Todd" or "Tim," (this means you, Janice Brunson) Mayor Miller has never, ever, gotten it wrong, and he's in his eighties.

Yes, I still call him "Mayor."


It isn't always a good thing to know your instructor from before though. Last semester, I had a class taught by Alex Kimmelman. My mother and brother have both worked with Alex on anthropological and historical projects. So Alex says to me, "I expect big things from you..." Great, just what I need to hear. Evidently, I met these expectations, since I got an "A" in the class.

Here's an observation I've had during my time as a Pima College student. There's a perception that community college students are somehow not as sophisticated and intelligent as regular university students. "I Is a Community College Student" went the old bumper sticker. But you pick out the lazy, hardly show up on time, whiny, corner-cutting slob in the back of the room, I will guarantee you that it is a U of A student who is taking the class for "easy transfer" credit.

I went to the first day of Physics 216 today. I was happy to see it was the same book as last semester. I'm still smarting from having to buy a new book for calculus because of some pissing contest between the math departments of Downtown and West campuses. The instructor seems to be really into it. By Tuesday, I'll have Coulomb's Law down.

Check the second item in the Weekly's Police Dispatch. After my experience with the financial aid people at downtown campus, I can totally see where this guy is coming from.

Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

The third in the ongoing series of previews of the bands playing at Club Congress's 20th Anniversary.

Dog and Pony Show: Short lived band that spawned Creosote and also included one member of the Friends of Dean Martinez.

Doo Rag: Odd ball duo that included Bob Log III. They had a sound that reminded me of the more frenetic songs by Wall of Voodoo. They had a national following, boosted by the chum that they sold at shows that included tooth brushes and various other kinds of toys. This stuff was found in the houses of all of my hipper friends.

One fan of the band in its heyday was fellow traveller Beck, and they had opened up for fellow eccentrics Ween.

I dragged Juan Camacho to one of their shows. He couldn't stand them.

The Drakes: Gene Ruley felt artistically stiffled by the River Roses and Phantom Limbs, both folk-rock inspired quartets. So, he formed the Drakes, a folk-rock inspired qunitet.

The Drakes had some measure of success. They had one single played on KFMA, back in the days when it was actually a local station and not KRQ with a different playlist. The line-up included former Bullhorn frontman Tom Stauffer, who writes for the Star now.

Earl's Family Bombers: Their slogan was "Drunk Since Noon." They were loud, obnoxious and their lyrics never rose above the puerile "were drunk and where's the women" level.

They were beautiful.

One of their early shows was in the Student Union Cellar, which with the new corporate shopping mall theme of that building, I'm sure no longer exists. It was rather easy for them to get booked, since Paula Needer, the woman that did such things, shared an office with Earl's guitarist Roger Shaide, who was the music director of KAMP. The "Eat to the Beat" shows in the cellar went from 11 AM to 1PM and the band was worried that they wouldn't be able to wake up on time. So, Ricky DiLeo and crew snuck in late the night before, brought their sleeping bags and slept on the stage. They set the alarm clock for 11. When it rang, they woke up and played in their pajamas.

They opened for the Dead Milkmen at Mudbuggs (it's where the Rock is now.) One of the band members, probably Nate Bentley, found a set of half a dozen U of A marching band uniforms from the 1940's. They wore them on stage.

Their most memorable song was "Another Sh*tty Morning." This was helpfully released on a 7" single.

I think Todd Pearson was a member too, he's been in just about every other band in town, so why not?

Four Killer Flats: An alt-country band that isn't full of itself! Or wasn't. I thought I just hadn't caught any of their shows for a while, turns out they broke up a year and a half ago. This is what happens when you don't keep up. I thought that this band would surely get some level of national success. Wasn't to be though. Their reunion will definitely be worth checking out.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

Diego Maradona has resurfaced once again as a talkshow host. The show has only been on for a couple of weeks but has already attracted international attention because of his justification of the infamous "Hand of God" goal in 1986 against England.

I say "international attention" because the BBC (which they broadcast locally on KUAZ) has played this not only as some little sports or human interest story, but actually made the story into a capsule headline that they read every half an hour. They aren't still bitter, are they?

He's admitted to the cheating before on several occasions. Now he's saying that it's okay because the British "stole" the Falkland Islands. Of course, British occupation of the islands predates Argentine independence, but never mind that.

Maradona said that this wasn't a calculated move, but:

I had to do it with my hand…I’m short, shorty and the English goal keeper (Peter) Shilton was 1.86 (meters) tall. No way could I out jump him with my head…that’s why I touched the ball with my left fist.

So, no calculation, but he was able to measure Shilton's height to three significant figures.

This was also the first time I've seen Maradona admit that even his teammates knew he'd cheated on the goal:

None of them came to embrace me and celebrate. I begged them, please come, I wanted them to pretend. But they were rather shy and slow in coming and when they did so, they seemed to be saying “we’re cheating”

The English are still a bit miffed about this incident, as evidenced by the prominence that this story was given on the BBC. They always forget, however, that Maradona scored another goal only minutes later after dribbling around five English players. Yeah, Maradona cheated, but the English were also outplayed by the Argentines.

The English like to think that since they invented the game, they must naturally be considered the best. It was this sort of arrogance that led to their underperformance at just about every World Cup, 'cept 1966. It was what led to their defeat at the hands of a bunch of letter carriers and day laborers that represented the USA in 1950. I wonder if this attitude is what leads them to still gripe about the "Hand of God."


Beleive it or not, my occasional posts about soccer have led a page called Laola! to link to me.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Second in an ongoing series of posts about bands that will be reuniting for Club Congress's 20th Anniversary.

Chango Malo: I've never been to one of their shows, but I've heard good things about them. They have a sound similar to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the much missed Pollo Elastico.

Chick Cashman: His backup band was called the Countrypolitans. This probably led some to believe that he might be an alt-country act of some sort. This probably didn't prepare audiences for the strippers and cross-dressing. He played garage and surf guitar music. Odd, given his saxophonist Jeff "Mr. Tidypaws" Grubick is married to Deb Dale, who's father is named Dick Dale. Not that Dick Dale, but still.

Chris Burroughs & the Nationals: Burroughs is a local singer-songwriter. I can never get into this sort of thing. I'm sure he is very talented though.

Cosmic Boogie Tribe: Effin' awesome! These guys rocked. I knew a couple of them in high school. Think Fishbone or 24-7 Spyz. This will be the first show they have played at Club Congress since a show I saw in 1991, when lead singer Dave Lewis decided to climb around on the lighting, an action which got them banned. It was probably for the best, since their audiences tended to be a bit younger. Their best shows I saw were at all-ages clubs like Runes and DPC. I always enjoyed their cover of "Pablo Picasso" even though it wasn't one of their more high energy numbers.

Creosote: I get confused, because I thought Tammy Allen's band was called Creosote. Wait, Agave. It's late.



Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Elizabeth Rogers called me and my brother "weird" on her blog. This is a bit like being called carnivorous by Jean-Bédel Bokassa.

I kid of course.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

I figured I'd maybe tell y'all about my memories of some of the bands that are reuniting labor day weekend at the Club Congress 20th Anniversary.

I'll go in alphabetical order, if I do five at a time I should be done on time, accounting for those days when I blow off updating this blog.

Al Foul & the Shakes: What, I saw them play last week. The only trouble I had was that Al forgot the lyrics to "Cocaine Blues." This would be like José Carreras forgetting an aria from Carmen. I mean, Al, you are playing rockabilly...

I really like them though.

Al Perry & the Cattle: Yeah, we have this thing going on here about men named "Al" fronting rockabilly bands.

Al's appearance on the scene pre-dates Club Congress, it even pre-dates Nino's. His first album with the Cattle was released in 1982, and he has become a well known figure nationally among both rockabilly and "alt-country" musicians. Al even had a cameo in the movie The Quick and the Dead. I'm happy to count him as a friend.

I first saw the Cattle when I was in high school. I fell in love with them for two reasons: one was a song that they had called "4WDORV", the other was I really loved watching the drummer, Julia Mueller (I was 17...it is okay). She's recently moved to Montana. I don't know if she will be comming back for the show.

Al played on Friday, I missed the show though. Lately, he has been playing backed up by the his Cattle bassist, Dave Rhoades, and members of Calexico. They call it "Alexico." I thought a better name would be Cattlexico, but nobody asks me.

By the way, if you ever plan on discussing music with Mr. Perry, you'd better know who Link Wray is. Or else, he'll tell me later what a complete moron you are.

Band of Blacky Ranchette: This band started off as the Giant Sandworm's country incarnation. As the Giant Sandworms lost syllables and members, The Band of Blacky Ranchette developed a life of its own, but only played occasionally. After the death of Rainer Ptacek, it was said that Blacky Ranchette would never play again, but they released an album two years ago with Jon Rauhaus and Neko Case.

I only managed to catch them once, way back in 1991. I hung out with former Phantom Limbs drummer and then aspiring cartoonist (Hardy Har Comix!) Howie Salmon. Howe Gelb was in a mood that night. I introduced myself to him, and he blew me off. Salmon told me the same thing happened to him, and he'd known him for years. Gelb turned out to be a great guy in the end though. That show, by the way, featured Gila Bend and Allen, Tammy Allen's band then based in Phoenix. During the show, Tammy Allen announced that they were about to cover a Patsy Cline song, which prompted an amusing agument between her and Gila Bend leader Loren Dierks, who declared that she "better not do our Patsy song."

Bob Log III: How the hell do I explain this guy? Just check out his website.

Broken Horse: The opened some shows I saw; better than thorazine to kill those moods. They moved to San Francisco to hit it big and haven't been heard from since. There is now a band in the U.K. called Broken Horse.



Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Anyone remember Burger King's Subservient Chicken campaign? Believe it or not, it is still up and running.

Following on the heels of that campaign, they have come up with a new one: a band called Coq Roq. The band comes complete with a website. No word on whether or not there will be an album, but you can download MP3s. The lead singer is named Fowl Mouth. Get it? Fowl...

Here is the funny part: SliPKnot is suing them, claiming that the band is based on them.

So, which is worse for your street cred: having a band that looks like yours hawking deep-fried food, or getting your staff of corporate lawyers to sue over trademark infringement?


I can see their problem. SliPKnot is, after all, the first band ever to dress funny and wear masks, right? They invented that.


Yes, one of the slogans on the site is "Groupies Love the Coq." I did not make that up for my title. It is not my fault.

NB - They have apparently removed this from the site. It was there...really!


There is a number, 1-888-ROQ-RANT, that you can call and Mr. Mouth will "review" a song for you. You are supposed to play part of the song, and they will text you back with a review. I tried to have it review The Fall's "Touch Sensitive" and Jon Rauhouse's "The World is Waiting for a Sunrise."

The world is waiting for a sunrise, and I'm waiting for the reply.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.