Here is the second volume of prison songs, a collection of field recordings made by Alan Lomax during his visit to Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Farm state prison in 1947 and on February 9, 1948. The songs collected on Volume 1 were originally released by the Tradition label as Negro Work Songs. Volume 2 features songs that didn’t make the cut for the original Negro Work Songs release, though one shouldn’t let this fact persuade them from giving this a listen. The songs on Vol. 2 have somewhat of a harsher quality to them, which may be why they were excluded from the original release, yet the heartfelt soul of prisoner’s . As with the first volume, there are also tracks featuring Lomax interviewing various prisoners on a variety of subjects, although this volume contains several more than the first.

“For those who may not know, the worksong tradition was a practice carried over from Africa, which manifested first in slave plantations and then in the prison work gang. John Lomax, together with his son Alan, began recording these songs in Southern penitentiaries in 1933. In 1947, and again in 1948, Alan returned to Parchman Farm to gather in the songs we have here. So charged with passion are they that claims of a declining tradition make very odd reading. Yet, when I listen to the Lomaxes earlier collections, I have to agree. Pre-war, the ages of the singers was lower and the melodies were richer and more plentiful. Where the present material wins out is in the march of technology. Pre-war equipment was too limited to record the convicts while they worked. Instead, most of the material was gathered after hours, with the singers worn out from performing the very songs the Lomaxes were trying to capture. By 1947, however, the first modern tape recorder was on the market. With this device it was possible to preserve the sound of negro worksong in full flight.”In and out” was a common pattern in Southern penal institutions. It developed from a system of race relations and social attitudes moulded in slavery days and dragged into the twentieth century like a feudal relic. The penitentiary was an important element in the suppression of the negro population. Along with lynch law, the Klan and a system of injudiciously administered floggings, the threat of a spell in the pen kept a potentially unruly black populace in a state of servility. The prisons held their share of hard cases, but for most of the inmates, sentences were short, sharp, frequent and brutal, and they were usually meted for trifling misdemeanours.

Impressions of a high turnover of prisoners are supported by these two CDs. Volume 1 is exclusively from Lomax’s 1947 recordings and features protagonists with such colourful nicknames as Bama, Tangle Eye, 22, and Hard Hair. Volume 2 is mostly from Lomax’s return trip in 1948, by which time additional singers seem to have found their way into the pen. They include Dobie Red, Curry Childress, and 88. The impression is strengthened when one reads John Lomax’s reminiscences of collecting songs in Parchman Farm before World War 11. Of the singers he mentions, only Dobie Red and Tangle Eye were in the pen between 1947 and 1948.

So influential was Murderers’ Home that the name Parchman Farm has become synonymous with axe wielding convicts roaring ferocious choruses. However, the institution embraced much more than group worksongs and some of this is reflected in the programming. Axe and hoe songs predominate, but there are one or two solo work songs, several field hollers, including Bama’s superb Stackerlee, and a couple of blues. There is also an interview, split over two tracks, during which Bama talks about song leading and about his lot as a three time loser caught in the web of the Mississippi penal system. “In and out, in and out, for the last eighteen years.” It fades, heart-rendingly, into a mournful holler by another long time prisoner, Tangle Eye http://allmusicnews.wordpress.com

Listening to the lyrics and how they were sung, I form the opinion that the songs were far more about making it through the can than they were about synchronising work. In all these verses you will not find the slightest iota of fantasy or escapism. If there were any would-be lottery winners in Parchman Farm or Angola they do not show up here. Instead the songs are vested with stark reality and sweat. They are the channelling of rage and resentment against the iniquity and brutality and rank injustice of a penal system which was nothing more than the legitimised extension of plantation slavery. All folksongs involve catharsis but, inside the pen, song was the only voice which allowed prisoners to kick against the system. Shared songs did more than alleviate the work, they alleviated the misery.” – Fred McCormick

“These songs belong to the musical tradition which Africans brought to the New World, but they are also as American as the Mississippi River. They were born out of the very rock and earth of this country, as black hands broke the soil, moved, reformed it, and rivers of stinging sweat poured upon the land under the blazing heat of Southern skies, and are mounted upon the passion that this struggle with nature brought forth. They tell us the story of the slave gang, the sharecropper system, the lawless work camp, the chain gang, the pen.” – Alan Lomax

Year of Release: 1958/Reissue 1997
Label: Tradition/Rounder
Genre: Field Recording, Folk, Blues

Track List:
1. Don’cha Hear Poor Mother Calling
2. John Henry
3. Strongest Man I Ever Saw
4. Well, I Wonder
5. Lies
6. I’m Goin’ Home
7. More Lies
8. O’ Berta
9. Disability Boogie Woogie
10. O Rose
11. Hollers
12. Stewball
13. Fox Chase
14. Katy Left Memphis
15. About Prison Singers
16. Rosie
17. High Rollin’ Sergeant
18. Garbage Man
19. When I Went to Leland
20. Prodigal Son
21. I’m Goin’ to Memphis
22. (Untitled) – (hidden track)

Over at Nothin’ Sez Somethin’ I’ve been cramming Legendary Pink Dots down my visitors earholes, so I’ll spare you all that pleasure, you can go get’em if you want’em. Another band that is also up in the Nothin’ aether with LPD is Phallus Dei (the schlong of God). Phallus Dei is a German/Dutch industrial band dealing dark Gothick romanticism on the one hand with a trashy fascination for sex & violence on the other. Gotta love it.

Phallus Dei began as a musickal projeckt of Oliver St. Lingam (another holy prick) in 1988. Taking his projeckt name from the historic 1969 album by krautrock Amon D l II , St. Lingam released the tapes Pigfuck & Per Crucem Ad Lucem on the Unclean label. PD then signed with Dark Vinyl & released the ground-breaking industrial release Pontifex Maximus in 1991.

Following a successful European tour with Italian industrial musick giants Sigillum S, PhallusDei expanded to a three piece unit with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Mk. E & drummer, multi-instrumentalist Richard van Kruysdijk. With the additional help of Joris Huijbregts (who had previously played with Richard v. K. in the band Lament), the band recorded their follow-up album Cyberflesh. The sound of the group had progressed greatly on Cyberflesh, forming a more matured, guitar-laden sound. Phallus Dei had found a great balance http://ligamusic.com between electronics & guitar, never allowing the abrasive riffs to overshadow their strong beats or experimental vocal styles.

On Cyberflesh, Phallus Dei are: Oliver St. Lingam – vocals & sequencing; Mk. E – guitar, acoustic guitar, flute, bass, & keyboards; Joris Huijbregts – bass, keyboards, accordion, & sequencing; & Richard van Kruysdijk – drums, percussion, synthesizer, keyboards, guitar, & sequencing. Written, arranged, produced & performed by Phallus Dei.

Year of Release: 1993
Label: Paragoric PA 02
Genre: Electronic Industrial, Electro, Gothick Ambient

Track List:
1. Egg (Prologue)
2. She Suffers (& Makes Suffer)
3. Dieu (voice – Salvador Dal )
4. Live on Joy (voice – Klaus Kinski)
5. Tortured Heroine (additional lyrics by Adi Newton)
6. Existence
7. Confessio (additional lyrics by Charles Manson)
8. Man’s Son
9. Cyberflesh (voice – Salvador Dal )
10. La Mort (voice – Henry Lee Lucas & Kenneth Bianchi)
11. Clothed in Flesh
12. Live to Tell
13. Taphtatharath (Epilogue)

Really the main reason I posted this was so I could write ‘Tikki tikki tembo no sa rembo chari bari ruchi pip peri pembo’. I always wanted to do that. Also I am a big fan of Lance Hahn (Lance passed away on Sunday, October 21, 2007, due to complications from kidney disease). I’ve seen both Cringer & J Church many times at Gilman St. & other Bay Area venues & parties. There are mixed feeling about this release, but Cringer was a true voice of their time & place when this came out. The Bay Area anarchist punk scene was just exploding at this time. Lance had taken over the vocal duties from Gardner who was now concentrating on bass. Derek Imose, from Hawaii was playing drums. Lance was now singing his own lyrics, bringing a much more personal delivery of his mix of political, personal, & sometimes impressionistic songs.

Cringer started in Hawaii in 1984 with Lance Hahn, Ed Tarantino, Gardner Maxam & David Carr. Lance & Ed had previously been in the straight edge/skatecore band, Scarred For Life. David had been in several different bands including the Vacuum & Devil Dog. Gardner had been in Hawaii’s first hardcore band, the Sharx. This line-up played several times live on KTUH & recorded three demo tapes: a split with Scarred For Life, We Are All AOK & The Vinegar Tasters. They relocated to Los Angeles in 1986. The group got their major debut with a track from an early demo appearing on the Mystic Records compilation, We Got Party. Hooking up with Vinyl Communications in Chula Vista, this line-up recorded their first 7″, Perversion Is Their Destiny.

David & Ed split soon after the 7″ was recorded. Francis Sippin from Free Will joined on vocals for a short period of time. Simon Barry, who had previously played in the UK anarcho band Flowers In The Dustbin, joined on guitar. This line-up recorded the second 7″, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones as well as tracks for the Exclusion compilation on Nabate, Metal Gives Us A Headache on Hippycore & “Cottleston Pie” for The Thing That Ate Floyd on Lookout.

Derrick Imose from Hawaii joined & Simon eventually split. Nigel Wong joined & the group recorded their first album, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo.

Year of Release: 1990
Label: Vinyl Communications VC-12
Genre: Punk

Tracklist:

Side Yin:
A Song about Hawaii
Russia
Sunday
Peace and Harmony
The Dumb Song
Anti Climax
El Salvador
Berlin Wall
Walk In Closet

Side Yang:
Two Friends
Just the Same
This Town
Take Back the Night (revisited)
Carmen
Sentient
Funk Song
Zen Hana Hou

The Louisiana Hayride was a radio broadcast from the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday helped launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American country music, names that included Hank Williams, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, & Johnny Horton. Elvis first debuted “That’s All Right Mama” on October 16, 1954. He stayed with the Hayride for a year before moving on to sign with RCA Records & Colonel Tom Parker. The next big name to hang his star on the Hayride door was Johnny Horton. He remained a member of the Hayride until his death. On November 5, 1960, Horton was killed instantly in a head-on collision with a drunk driver on Highway 79 at Milano, Texas while he was returning home from a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin.

In November 1977, Levi Dexter & his band, The Rockats, made their debut at the Royal College of Art, within the shadow of The Royal Albert Hall. Johnny Thunders jammmed at the end of their set. The headliner band that night was the reggae band Steel Pulse. On December 26, 1977, Levi & the Rockats closed the “Boxing Day Relapse” concert at The Music Machine in London with Siouxie & the Banshees & Adam & the Ants, establishing them as the first neo-Rockabilly band to emerge from the burgeoning London punk scene. In March 1978, Levi records “Evil Minded Mama”, a duet with Jayne County & The Electric Chairs. They toured England, Scotland, & Wales together on the first ever Ted/Punk Tour. By May 1978 Levi had relocated to the U.S. to get an ‘American Perspective’, moving first to Los Angeles where they were welcomed by bands like X. On November 10th 1978, Levi & the Rockats made their U.S. debut at Max’s Kansas City in New York opening for The Cramps.

On July 14, 1979, Levi & the Roackats, a neo-Rockabilly band from England, newly transplanted to Los Angeles, became the first rock performers to play The Louisiana Hayride since Elvis Presley played there nearly 25 years before. This is the live recording of that historic show.

Levi & the Rockats are: Levi Dexter – vocals; Eddie Dibbles – guitar; Guy Hemmer – rhythm guitar; Smut Smiff – bass; & Dean Thomas – drums. The Rockats were the last act ever introduced by legendary emcee Frank Page, who had emceed the Hayride for over 30 years & who had introduced Presley in 1954. His introduction is the opening track.

Year of Release: 1981
Label: Posh Boy PBS-162
Genre: Rockabilly

Tracklist:

Side A -
Introduction by Mr. Frank Page
Rock-a-Billy Idol
She Ain’t No Angel
Tired & Sleepy
Lonesome Saturday Night
Side B -
Room to Rock
Crazy Baby
Love this Kat
Other Side of Midnight
Note from the South.

To many the late Wesley Willis will never be considered anything other than a novelty act, his music often reserved for when they need a quick laugh, rarely taking the time to reflect upon the meaning behind his bizarre lyrics. However, his music is important to me for much more personal reasons. My mother, like Willis, is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. It can be very difficult to understand those who have schizophrenia and the depth of the conflict that they must deal with. Wesley Willis is one of the few examples that we have of a person diagnosed with Schizophrenia, who was able to make a career as a successful musician, and share the inner turmoil that he constantly faced with the world. Willis’ created music as way of dealing with his encounters with demons, which occurred mainly on the CTA bus lines in Chicago. Willis coined the term “Warhellride” to describe these frequent encounters. His approach to music was simple and crude, often dealing with obscene subject matter, and frequently sporadic in nature.

The majority of Willis’ musical output featured only Willis accompanied by his Technics KN keyboard. Willis didn’t actually play any of the notes heard on his solo work, instead he simply used the one-note autochord feature on his keyboard. A variety of different programs were utilized, although the bulk of his solo material consist of the same program being used extensively, with only slight variations in the key or tempo of the song. As a result, much of the music on his albums sounds very repetitive. Fortunately the repetiveness is made more tolerable by his outrageous lyrics and vocal delivery.

His lyrics http://ligamusic.com also usually follow a general pattern, although to classify Willis’s lyrics according to any conventional rhyme scheme or meter proves difficult. Lyrics generally began with a verse: a four-line spoken stanza, usually consisting of statements about the subject of the song. This was followed by the chorus, which was simply the subject of the song sung anywhere from three to six times in a non-professional, “drunk anthem” type style. Then another verse and another chorus, followed by an instrumental bridge section, where Willis, who had taken to heart the advice he had heard that the ideal song length for radio play is two minutes and 50 seconds would push the “fill” button repeatedly on his keyboard, usually triggering accompanying sound effects. The song ended with another verse, a chorus, and the words “Rock over London! Rock on Chicago,” a catchphrase from an hour-long WXRT radio show. It was often followed by a company or product’s name and slogan. Each song would end with a different slogan. If performed live, “Chicago” would be replaced with whatever city Willis was performing in.

On a few occasions Willis collaborated with other musicians, with The Wesley Willis Fiasco being the most well known collaborative effort. The style of music was much different from Willis’ previous solo material, as the Fiasco concentrated on more of a punk style. The band consisted of Willis on vocals, Pat Barnard on (Lead Guitar), Dale Meiners (Rhythm Guitar), Dave Nooks (Bass) and Brendan Murphy (Drums). They released only one studio album, Spookydisharmoniousconflicthellride (a reference to Willis’s description of his schizophrenic episodes). The Fiasco toured with many bands, most notably Rocket from the Crypt, Lordz of Brooklyn, and Sublime. They also released a much sought after and hard to find 7″ vinyl split with Sublime, as well as a split with Chicago’s The Frogs

Due to conflicts between the Fiasco band’s shows and Willis’s solo keyboard shows, the band broke up while on tour in Ohio in 1997. Willis stated that the demons in his head worsened during the tour, causing him to constantly yell at the band. After the break up Willis went on to release a number of solo albums. On August 21, 2003, Willis died at the age of 40 in Prospect Heights, Illinois due to complications from chronic myelogenous.

The details of the life Willis lived are perhaps more interesting than the music he was able to produce, as I would assume would be the case for many who live with a powerful psychological disorder such as Schizophrenia. In life Willis was not only known for his music, but for his larger than life personality as well. He would often headbutt fans and random people that he met, which resulted in a large callus on his forehead, which can be seen in almost every photo of him in existence. He was also known for attending hundreds of concerts, where he sold the majority of his CDs face to face. At the time of his death, he had recorded over 1,000 songs but his total life savings were less than $200. Having sold out hundreds of venues across the country, the question still remains where all of his money went. Although Wesley is gone now, and his money remains missing, his legacy and music still remain for all to enjoy. Rock on Chicago… Wheaties, Breakfast of Champions!

Year of Release: 1992
Label: Urban Legends
Genre: Punk, Outsider Music

Music blog News http://allmusicnews.wordpress.com

Track List:
1. Get On The Bus
2. I’m Doing It Well On The Side Of The Rea
3. Pop That Pussy
4. Casper The Homosexual Friendly Ghost
5. I Can’t Drive
6. He’s Doing Time In Jail
7. Bar Is Closed, The
8. Jesus Is The Answer
9. Blood, Guts & Fire Trucks
10. She Loves Me Truly
11. Drink That Whiskey
12. Steve Albini
13. Steve Albini (reprise)
14. I’m Sorry That I Got Fat

Download: The Wesley Willis Fiasco – Spookydisharmoniousconflicthellride
Download Size: 96MB

This is the first of a series of promo albums released for Record Store Day that I will be posting over the next few days. These Arms are Snakes is a post-hardcore band hailing from Seattle, while the members of post-rock group Russian Circles are natives of Chicago. Both bands are signed to Suicide Squeeze records, and are touring together at the present moment. This split EP was originally released to celebrate their European tour in November 2008, with only 1,000 copies being pressed on 12″ black vinyl. 500 copies were sold on tour and 500 were available on Sargent House’s webstore. It was reissued once again for Record Store Day, again limited to 1,000 pressings, only this time on 12″ clear vinyl.

Year of Release: 2008/Reissued in 2009
Label: Sargent House
Genres: Post-Hardcore, Post-Rock, Math Rock
Bitrate: 260VBR