North Fork Sound Top 20 May 10th ‘09

1. Angel Corpus Christi: Me And My Beretta
2. Bell XI: Amelia
3. Lady Ann: Informer
4. Lou Reed: What’s Good
5. The English Beat: Save It For Later
6. Kevin Teare: Fairwell Fair Cruelty
7. The Kinks: Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy
8. Commander Cody: Seven Eleven
9. Mark Bingham: The Earth Cracks
10. Gavin Bryars: The Sinking Of The Titanic (Hymn II)
11. Home: Fancy Lady Hollywood Child
12. The Heptones: Cool Rasta
13. The Soundtrack Of Our Lives: Babel On
14. Doug Sahm: Just Groove Me
15. Jimi Hendrix: Like A Rolling Stone (live)
16. Bettye LaVette w/the Drive-By Truckers: They Call It Love
17. Doo Rag: Chunked & Muddled
18. Bo Diddley: Do What I Say
19. Radio Birdman: You’re Gonna Miss Me
20. Seasick Steve: Thunderbird

NoFoSo Alb o’ The Week:
New York Dolls: Cause I Sez So (Atco Records)

The Guilty Pleasure:
Anita Ward: Ring My Bell (T.K. Records)

Last Week’s Listener Thumbs-Ups:
Ray Davies: Yours Truly Confused, N10
Lonnie Mack: Baby What’s Wrong
Symaryp: Skinhead Girl
Wizzard: See My Baby Jive
The Kinks: Come Dancing
Frankie Miller: It’s All Over
Eric Heatherly: Judging Beauty
Elvis Presley: Big Boss Man (alt take 2)
Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hey Joe
Hoodoo Gurus: Bittersweet
Backyard Babies: Babylon
Graham Parker: High Horse
Muddy Waters: Caldonia
Kasabian: Club Foot
Jill Sobule: Mexican Pharmacy
The Hellacopters: (Gotta Get Some Action) Now
The Hellacopters: In The Sign Of The Octopus
T. Valentine: Hello Lucille, Are You A Lesbian?
The Rolling Stones: Not Fade Away
Errol Dunkley: You’re Gonna Need Me
Suicide: Cheree
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do
Sinead O’Connor: Jerusalem
Mick Farren: Mona (A Fragment)
Spiritualized: Broken Heart
Chuck Berry: Memphis Tennessee
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3: TLC
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing
Gene Vincent: Baby Blue
Finn’s Motel: Concord Village Optimist Club
Chumbawamba: Give The Anarchist A Cigarette
Albert Lee: Good Times
Veneice Stark: I Still Love You
Cracker: Low
Doug Powell: The Uninvisible Man
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson: Motor Head Baby
Kris Kristofferson: The Show Goes On
Lambchop: National Talk Like A Pirate Day
T. Rex: Ride A White Swan
Mark Bingham: It Never Goes Away
Medicine Head: Rising Sun
MX-80: Don’t Hate The French
The Pretty Things: Cries From The Midnight Circus
RL Burnside: Stole My Check
Pete Wingfield: 18 With A Bullet
Danbert Nobacon & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts: Rock ‘n’ Roll Holy Wars

Angel Corpus Christi
Phoenix, AZ
photo: ht
scanned from a lenticular 3-D print

Angel Corpus Christi tops the pack this week with a track deemed too 'heavy' (content-wise) to put on the US album. So what did we do? We made it the first single in the UK!

"So if you see me comin', you better step aside
A lot of kids didn't and a lot of kids died.
Don't be reaching for your knife it won't do you any good
Look, whatcha gonna do...stab a bullet?
And I can get by your metal detector,
Don't mess with me and my Beretta"

Her recent homage to Lou Reed called, (what else?) 'Louie Louie' is well worth checking out. Go here, look around...

Lady Ann

The best single to come out of Jamaica in 1982, was 'Informer' by Lady Ann. Produced by Joe Gibbs, it features a killer bass line and a hook that simply chanted the word "Murderer". I used to have the 7", the 12" and the album. Somehow I've ended up with just an mp3. My advice? Never move. You lose stuff.

The (English) Beat are back in full effect at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, May 16th. See you there.

There's a brand new Commander Cody album called 'Dopers Drunks and Everyday Losers' (Blind Pig Records). It's highly enjoyable.

And finally, Sara Hickman wrote to tell me Stephen Bruton finally lost his battle with throat cancer yesterday. This is desperately sad news. Anyone tuning in to North Fork Sound over the last couple of years will know he was a favourite here and I'm sure Nofoso regulars Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton and Jimmie Dale Gilmore would agree his presence in their lives made a huge difference, both personally and professionally. My condolences to his family and all his fans.

A few notes about this week's charters...

Bruce Anderson's 'The Inherent Beauty of Hopelessness' arrived in the mail while I was away. No record company listed, hardly any credits and impossible to find online. It's not listed on the MX-80 site or available at iTunes or Amazon. It is, however, as good as anything I've heard this decade. I thought of editing it down into sections for airplay, but in the end just couldn't bring myself to cut anything. It's a long piece (40' 28") so when it comes on, do yourself a favour; stop what you're doing and let it take you over. You'll thank me later.

Stephen Bruton's 'Fading Man' is another sublime work reminiscent of The Band at their very best. I've been a fan of Stephen's since his last album showed up, unsolicited, courtesy ace promo-dude and southern gent, Jeff Cook. Since then, all his solo albums and his Austin 'super' group, The Resentments have been playlisted regularly here.

Black Joe Lewis was an impulse buy one afternoon at the awful Borders in Riverhead. I'd never heard of him but it looked good and it was on Lost Highway. Turns out the album's fantastic, and this is the second of many tracks we're going to feature over the coming weeks.

I've no idea who The Third Degree are and don't really care. I saw this in the 7" new releases section at Sister Ray in Soho (London) and, since we were the first internet station - IN THE WORLD - to play Duffy's 'Mercy', I thought maybe we'd be the first internet station based in the US to play their version of the song. It's pretty good.

I remember Charlie Gillett playing TG Sheppard's 'Trying To Beat The Morning Home' back in the mid 70's on his Honky Tonk radio show and it just might have been the first country single I ever bought. When I heard a friend was working with TG now and that his new album contained duets with the likes of George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Delbert McClinton and others, well...it's a no-brainer, really.

Johnny Throttle is good ol' punk-rock done proper, like it was '75/'76. Drums, bass, guitar, voice. Featuring the irrepressible Afonso (late of The Parkinsons) on 'voice', Tom Phobic and I caught them in a crummy dive just off New Bond Street and we had a blast. I was worried I'm getting too old for this. Apparently I'm not.

Also, while in London, I wanted to meet Rupert Orton, one of the guys behind NoFoSo fave The Jim Jones Revue, so I stumbled into the sticky heat-trap that is the 100 Club during a Bob Log III show to find Rupert was promoting the show for Not The Same Old Blues Crap. Between mixing the sound and collecting the money, he told me that after the JJR establish a foothold in Italy and the Benelux territories (having already made solid impressions in France, Spain, Scandinavia and the UK), there will be a short US tour taking in Boston, NYC, Philly, DC and hopefully a few other places. ALL my friends who've seen the band rate 'em highly, so this is something to look forward to. Meanwhile one-man-band, Bob Log III is hysterical. He drank nearly a bottle's worth of tequila shots during his set, played one song with a girl sitting on each leg and played filthy, raw slide blues to a hugely appreciative audience.

Bob Log III
100 Club, London April 8th '09
photo: ht