eMUSIC MAY

Funny thing about this month's list: I compile this one album at a time and save the post as a draft until all my downloads are done and I'm finished for the month. But once last week, I accidently published it instead of saving it as a draft. So for several hours and early version of this was on my blog . Thankfully a blog reader pointed it out to me. (See comments)

So here's the finished product, my allotted 90 downloads from eMusic this month:


* The Life of Riley by The A-Bones.
Like I said in last month's eMusic list, I've been on a real Norton Records kick lately. This is the band of Norton honchos Billy Miller and Miriam Linna . Pure '60s-informed rock 'n'soul.

*Vintage Voola by Esquerita. Here's another mutant Norton artist who looks like Little Richard on angel dust. eMusic's Dan Epstein explains it best: "A one-eyed, six-and-a-half-foot transvestite who taught Little Richard how to play piano (and copied Richard’s mile-high pompadour in return), the late Esquerita was simply too `out there' for mass consumption during the Eisenhower era." There's some crazy stuff here, but I'd still argue that Little Richard was even crazier and he did somehow make it in the Eisenhower years.

* Grinderman . In case you haven't heard, this is none other than Nick Cave, stripped down and raging, rocking harder than he's rocked since his days with The Birthday Party.

For a complete review, stay tuned for an upcoming Terrell's Tune-up.

For now, suffice it to say this is one of my favorite albums so far this year.


*LSD (Leary Stokes Duets) by Timothy Leary & Simon Stokes. Stokes is an unsung, obscure rocker who is responsible for one of my favorite albums of this century so far, the bitchen biker-rock masterpiece Honky. (You can find that HERE, but you have to scroll down some.) I'm not sure who this Leary guy is. (Just kidding, just kidding.) This album reminds me a lot of the other collaboration between Stokes and a counterculture ero of yore, The Radical, which Stokes produced for American Indian activist (and former New Mexico politician) Russell Means. It's a lot more polished and less raw than Honky, so I don't recommend it as highly. But it's still a lot of fun. How could Tim Leary ranting about "100 Naked Kangaroos in Blue Canoes" not be fun? But come on Simon, how about a new solo album?


*Rock En Espanol Vol. 1 by Los Straightjackets. The masked men of Memphis are joined here by three great Chicano rockers, Big Sandy, Little Wille G of Thee Midnighters and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos. This is how I imagine a Tijuana rock club sounding in 1965.


* Your Favorite Band Live at the Great American Music Hall by The Red Elvises. The one time I got to see these guys live, I was with an old friend I hadn't seen in nearly 20 years so we talked all the way through it (I love you, Janet!) and somehow I've missed them every time they've come to New Mexico. But I do like their music and even though their Soviets-can-surf schtick is kinda campy, they're a lot of fun. I'd love to see a battle of the bands between the Red Elvises and Gogol Bordello.


*Three Hairs And You're Mine by King Khan & His Shrines. Dang, I thought I had a pretty good idea what's on eMusic, but I discover new stuff all the time. Just this month I learned that my favorite record label with a Swiss bank account, Voodoo Rhythm is represented here. They've even got that rockin' Santa Fe commie Jerry J. Nixon! But I was most excited to find Canadian soul maniac King Khan, who was one of my favorite artists featured on the Voodoo Rhythm DVD.