August 31st, 2010
Hicks with Sticks will be a guest on KALX’s Why Baby, Why at midnight tonight. Follow the link and tune in over the airwaves or via the Internet to hear the latest from Red Meat, The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, The Whiskey Richards, The Famous, The GoldDiggers, Chop Tops, The Mission Three and Kathy Kallick. We’ll also play 2009 favorites from Bay Area Bands plus a set of music from bands that toured the Bay Area recently, were easy to miss, yet are bands you need to know (’cause they’ll be back) like the Lucky Stars, Ten Foot Tall & 80 Proof, Old Death Whisper (Damphools) and Five Deadly Venoms.
KALX DJ Meaty Paws is has his own show and is one of the rotating DJs for Why Baby Why. He’s started booking HWS onto Why Baby Why every time there’s a fifth Tuesday in a month. Our last show was at the end of June, the next will be in November, but for now tonight’s the night.
Tags: kalx
Posted in Bands, Events, Makin' Music | No Comments »
August 13th, 2010
KPIG says, "Adios, SF."
KPIG is leaving its San Francisco post at 1510 AM. In an Internet-published farewell, KPIG’s marketing main-man, Ed Monroe wrote, “…we came up short on 1510AM in SF, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.”
Ed, (facepalm) you guys didn’t try much. Advertising? Advertisers? KPIG-SF promotions? SF events? Marin/EB outreach? General schmoozing? The station produced Tim Lynch’s one lonely Saturday SF radio show. Lynch backed Bay Area bands to the hilt, and thanks for that, but his job was programming, not marketing. Oh well, it might have been a losing battle from the start since local radio is a fairly dead concept among the Digital Generation.
Corporate radio cooked its own goose in the ’90s by dumbing itself into insignificance. iPod technology drove in a few nails as did XM radio, the Internet, and services like Pandora that build personalized play-lists based on each listener’s clicks of “like.” KPIG was one of very few that survived the Great Radio Quality Purge due to a millionaire multi-station owner who happens to be a KPIG fan. (Another “thanks” for that.)
But by the turn of the century, broadcast radio as an entertainment option had become an afterthought among youth married to programming its own. The Pig’s homey, self-programming DJs couldn’t compete in a market where people think in terms of hearing what they want when they want to hear it. The plug gets pulled Sunday, August 15th.
Tags: kpig, radio
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August 5th, 2010
Stay Away Joes
New bands form and others fade away. Uphill Both Ways is one of the new bands with a smooth, sometimes rocking, sound and samples that can be heard here… The Stay Away Joes are a new rockabilly group with song samples on their MySpace page… Small Gas Engine, which has the heart of a counrty band, wants you to listen to their songs and explain to them what kind of band they are… The Mighty Slim Pickens will be taking a break following the departure of bassist Roxanne Chicoine. If anyone knows a female stand-up bassist who likes to slap it around, get in touch… Lady A and her Heel Draggers have at least one more show scheduled, but we hear that it may be followed by an extended break which would be regrettable as this band seemed to be hitting a stride… Li’l Anne and the Tune Wranglers may be on extended hiatus as well. This band emerged from the Sweet ‘n’ Lo’s and was on a roll until the departure of Danny Santos. Belle Monroe, who plays guitar with her own Brewglass Boys, stepped in to play stand-up bass and sing, but she’s one busy gal. Meanwhile, Li’l Anne, who has been at it steadily since the S & L’s, is thinking maybe she needs to take a break from the music biz… It looks like the Shut-Ins are going the way of the Bootcuts as a band that can abide and endure for decades by playing rarely. Mike Roper (uke, vox) has been devoting more time to Cheetahs on the Moon and Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, while John Poultney (guitar, vox) has become inspired to do original material. Let’s hope these boys still have a few more Riptide Xmas specials in them. Theirs is the only Hicks with Sticks-approved Xmas special on the planet.
Hobo Gobbelins
Larry Bob Roberts has been presiding over the first Tuesdays Americana shows at El Rio for about two years and presented his last one this month. Roberts’ strength was in finding bands that are somewhere on the Americana spectrum but not necessarily in country, rockabilly of any other easily identifiable niche. The Hobo Gobbelins who closed the run are a case in point, consisting of an uncertain mix of Americana, klezmer, Irish, old-tyme, Slim Cessna, sea shanty, and any other inspiration that comes in over their transom.
The 52 Week Club is the brainchild of Willie Tea (The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit) and Tom VandenAvond that challenges its members to write a song every week for a year. It’s free to join and about as simple as them picking the topic and you writing the song. The line up so far is: Week 1: The Scout, Week 2: Sandpaper, Week 3: Baked Treats, Week 4: Them Travelers, and Week 5: Basking in the Cold Concrete. You can catch up by writing one song about a scout who was sandpapering his baked treats while traveling and tanning over cold concrete.
Tags: 52 week club, hobo gobbelins, lady a and he heel draggers, larry bob roberts, Lil anne and the Tune Wranglers, mighty slim pickins, shut-ins, small gas engine, stay away joes, uphill both ways
Posted in Bands, Makin' Music, Trends | No Comments »
July 12th, 2010
Whisky Richards Debut EP
Chase Christie, braintrust for the Whisky Richards, gets to have it both ways. He wants the band to sound good and have fun, and their self-titled EP/CD does just that.
Kicking off with a country-rockin’ working man’s anthem, “Steel Drivin’ Man,” the band fires on all of its six cylinders — drums, bass, rhythm, lead guitar, harmonica and fiddle — to remind us that the workin’ man “don’t get no breakfast in bed.” Things slow down for “Kentucky Don’t You Know,” an idealized snapshot of the Bluegrass State, then they pick right back up with the easy-rollin’, self-explanatory “Hard Drinking without You,” followed by the instrumental “Curley’s Dream,” and closing with the fifth and final song, another drinkin’ tune called “Bottle Gone Dry.”
This is everything a first EP should be. It showcases the band’s bopping country side while providing space for a ballad, instrumental and opening rocker. They can be proud of this calling card.
“Hard Drinking without You” video.
Tags: chase christy, richards, whiskey, whisky
Posted in Bands, CD Review | No Comments »
June 15th, 2010
City slicker boogie is what he calls it, and that’s what the new self-titled CD from Big B and his Snakeoil Saviors delivers. With only seven tracks one wishes it might have delivered a little more since it does leave the listener a tad hungry.
The songs are mainly coves like Buck Owens‘ “Cadillac Lane” which jump-starts the CD, and all have been reworked in the band’s style. They are also songs, with the possible exception of “The Wayward Wind,” that have not been over-covered, so this CD is less of a rehash and more of a “snakeoil confection” to coin a term. Patsy Cline and others have done “The Wayward Wind” as a ballad; Big Ben and the band do it as a dance tune. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: big b, snakeoil saviors
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