The Best Of THE CARPETBAGGERS - Sin Now... Pray Later!

THE CARPETBAGGERS were a Twin Cities area three piece made up of two guitarists and a stand-up bassist--like their biggest influence JOHNNY CASH & THE TENNESEE TWO.  They’re an Appalachian echo of a time when drums weren’t allowed on The Grand Ole Opry, and their minimalist "classic country" approach would suit the single dashboard speaker of a late fifties roadster just fine.

They were prolific & prodigious songwriters.  On the first two albums, acoustic guitarist John Magnuson wrote the bulk of their material, with bassist Rich Copley also contributing.  By their third album Sin Now... Pray Later, electric guitarist Mike Crabtree stepped up.  (Of Mike, The Star-Tribune said: “Crabtree’s humble, single-note guitar playing creates warm country melodies with a subtle rockabilly feel”).  They all sang, & their voices blend together as if they were brothers.

Their songs range from downright depressing; Absent Without Leaving, to laugh-out-loud funny; My Jeannie’s In A Bottle, to surprisingly dark; Always A Pallbearer (Never A Corpse).  We're talking Leon Payne dark.  Songs by Roy Drusky, Bobby Lee Trammell, Marvin Rainwater, and Bill Anderson were scattered imperceptibly among the band’s own compositions.

Their first album was on Clean Records in 1992, their second was on Twin-Tone, and they went on to Hightone Records for their final album in 1996.  For a few years there, you were safe buying ANYTHING released on the Hightone label.  

The band did three tours with Son Volt and shared the stage with such notables as Los Lobos, Alison Krauss, The Jayhawks, and The Gear Daddies.

John Magnuson still records, and keeps a busy performing schedule.  Nowadays, there’s an Austin band called The Carpetbaggers—proof that you can’t keep a good name down.

I loved the band from day one, but my appreciation has only deepened.  I find it to be unparalleled driving music, so I go back to their catalogue regularly.  I’ve probably listened to this "best of" at least 60 times since I put it together twenty years ago—two or three times a year at least—which is why I decided to post it.  

 

Listen To The Radio

Growing up, I remember the radio in our house almost always being on and my Mom happily singing along from time to time with the songs she liked. In other words, the sound of the radio was an important part of my life’s background, great when my favourite songs were played, but more often lesser tunes caused me to either ignore them or grind my teeth in frustration.
Then there were the songs that (according to classmates) weren’t cool to like, but still sounded kind of neat, confusing times…
And of course deejays talking too much instead of just playing music, or ruining tracks by refusing to keep their mouth shut during the start / finish of a record, irritating.
Whether good or bad, most of us probably have similar radio-related memories; listening to your favorite station/deejay/radio-play/etc., taping songs of the radio, following sports, etc.
Over the years there have been loads of collections (vinyl/tape/cd) of songs played on the radio, either from a particular station (Radio Caroline/Veronica/etc.) or by a specific deejay (John Peel, etc.).
Here on Jokonky too, we posted a few radio collections as well:

New Wave On My Radio in 1982
BEST OF 2 METER SESSIES
Dutch Pirate Stations and Nederbeat 
Downstairs Dan Made Me A New Wave Fan

But I recently realized that there hasn't been any collection of songs ABOUT the radio... 
A quick search confirmed this, no vinyl, CD, or blog post anywhere, weird!
Therefore it seemed like a perfect opportunity for Jokonky to fill this gap...
For this first compilation, I focused on a mix of lesser-known songs, but who knows what the future will bring!

I also managed to sneak in 2 covers of well-known Mexico-related radio songs as well as 2 Dutch bands...

Some songs urge you to listen or turn on the radio, others the opposite!

Bad news, suicide, lovers, girls, and spirits are all subject matter here for that wireless contraption...

Never mind, without much further ado, altogether now:

Ha, ho

I found myself these days in total sensuality

Her radio and stereo, yes, all the same to me

One thing is clear, say we all know what we hear

The airwaves don't lie

I listen to the radio, its better than a stereo

We listen to the radio, radio stereo

 

Music That My Kids Enjoy

 

Last month I took a road trip with my son to see a concert.  I started taking him to shows when he was 12 or 13. We bonded over bands like QOTSA, Wye Oak, The Joy Formidable, Bully, A Place To Bury Strangers, and some of his favorite metal bands (Mastodon, Deftones, High On Fire, and Red Fang).  We saw Acrassicauda (the Iranian band featured in the documentary "Heavy Metal In Baghdad").  We once saw a couple exchange wedding vows onstage at an iwrestledabearonce concert.

My son turns 30 this year.  I feel fortunate that he and his wife live nearby, and that we get together fairly often.  We don't talk about music as much as we used to, so I encouraged him to play some of his favorites during our road trip.  I compiled a playlist of his selections, which I'm sharing today.  Each of these two mixes is an hour long.

Some of these songs date back to his high school years (class of 2014). I can hear the influence of bands like Dinosaur Jr., MBV, Pavement, Pixies, Nirvana, the Breeders, and the Jesus Lizard. 

We also listened to some newer music that he's into. It was interesting to learn from my son that there is a shoegaze revival going on now, and that a lot of the young shoegaze artists are based in Philadelphia.  There are also several of his local favorites from Atlanta (Sword II, Thousandaire, and Whores.) He seems to like a lot of bands with female singers, and I do too.

I have also taken my 25 year old daughter to shows.  We've seen Gorillaz, Animal Collective, Machinegirl, Perturbator and Tropical Fuck Storm.  Her tastes are a bit more esoteric, and I don't always grasp the appeal of the music that she plays for me.  But she did introduce me to Bambara and the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.  "March On For Pax Romana" might be my favorite new song of 2025.

I've tried not to push my own tastes on my kids. I think the only CD's my son ever borrowed from me were Loveless and The Low End Theory.  I'll never forget when he asked his parents if we had ever heard of The Cure. We ended up going to see The Cure together (when they toured with 65daysofstatic). And just recently, my daughter asked me about the Cocteau Twins.  

I also included one song that my wife loves (Charly Bliss' version of "Steal My Sunshine" from AV Undercover).  Hope you find something to enjoy in these two mixes. If you're seeking reassurance that it's not just "the olds" who appreciate guitar-driven indie rock, you'll find it here. And I hope you have fun this weekend.  My kids and I are going to see Ovlov!  I can't get enough of their song "Strokes", and I really hope they play it.

POWDERFINGER'S BEST

POWDERFINGER burned their name across the Australian music landscape, clocking up 5 number 1 albums, 18 ARIA awards, 3 APRA awards and sales of more than 2.5 million albums. 

Their 18 ARIA awards put them behind only SILVERCHAIR, who they toured with for nine weeks on 2007’s Across The Great Divide Tour.  The two bands only united onstage at three of the tour’s 34 shows.

Once their line-up had solidified in 1992, they self-released The Blue EP, but someone stole the majority of the small run—today, they bring top dollar on eBay.  The band signed to Polydor in 1993 and played the prestigious BIG DAY OUT for the first time in 1994.  They finally hit the charts with Pick You Up in 1996 a song that lead singer Bernard Fanning said had a big influence on their direction (which is included on this compilation).  Their album stayed in the top ten for ten weeks and they toured with their idols YOU AM I (who Jonder may have turned me onto).

From there, their career was highlight after highlight.  They helped CROWDED HOUSE say farewell to the world at The Sydney Opera House playing to more than 100,000 people.

They were asked by filmmaker Gregor Jordan to write a track for his upcoming film, Two Hands, starring Bryan Brown and a young upstart named Heath Ledger. These Days was born (also included here).  At this point, Heath Ledger and Powderfinger became household names in Australia.

POWDERFINGER also had a song on the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 Soundtrack, but they never achieved the widespread success in The States that they enjoyed in Australia.

They toured the U.S. with COLDPLAY which exposed more rock fans to their brand of rock & roll—but after an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, 9-11 happened, and cost them their momentum.

The group disbanded in 2010 after 21 years together, chosing their hometown of Brisbane to play their last show.  Lead singer BERNARD FANNING records as a solo artist, and guitarist IAN HAUG replaced Marty Willson-Piper in THE CHURCH.

Roger Béchirian - Engineer/Mixer/Producer

One of the fun things (for me, at least) about reading music/design books is gaining more insight into the entire process of recording music, from start to finish. And along the way, discovering new / forgotten artists and groups as well!
Although Barney Bubbles’ Wild World lacks a list of all the sleeves he designed or was involved in, it still showed me a few names I had never heard of…
One of those was Roger Béchirian, for whom Barney had come with a wonderful cover design based on Alex Steinweiss’ sleeves from the 1950s.
This graced a promo album called The Art of Roger Béchirian Vol. 1, released by F-Beat in 1982, which apparently was given away as a special Christmas present that year!
It contained 35 ‘snippets’ of songs on which Roger had a part in…
A quick search revealed that Roger is a well-known producer who has worked with several key artists that keep popping up here on Jokonky, plus quite a few obscure ones!
The liner notes of the album read as follows: 

Welcome to the art of Roger Bechirian, a track-by-track guided tour through his career as producer of countless commercial successes and musically satisfying moments. All the artistes represented on this record have benefitted from Roger's deft hand at the controls, as on hits by Lene Lovich, The Undertones, The Photos, The Rumour, Squeeze, a.o.
Side two contains a varied selection of Roger's work, demonstrating his ability to produce top results over a wide and diverse range of musical styles: Elvis Costello, The dB’s, Dirty Looks, The Blues Band, Shakin’ Pyramids, a.o.
We trust that you will enjoy listening to this brief sampling of Roger's work. We would like to thank all the record companies involved for the loan of these snippets. 

Yup, 15 different record companies were involved in this project!

Unnecessary to say that this album was never re-released in any form...

A bit of background, Roger was born in India but moved with his family to England when he was ten. He started developing his skills by editing music recorded from the TV! After taking college classes in electronics, he began working at a four-track recording studio in 1972.
Roger met Stiff Records founders Jake Rivera and Dave Robinson in 1974 and began mixing songs for the label. He slowly evolved into a producer, but also performed as a musician, being a member of Blanket of Secrecy!

As I began working on this project, I decided to stick to just one song of each artist/group in order to give a better overview of Roger’s work.
This enabled me to include some later songs as well, from after 1982.
The resulting compilation includes 24 songs ranging from 1979 to 1987, focusing on singles releases only.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, Roger is still active as a producer and a fun interviewee, check it out here. He has some great stories to tell about his work with Elvis, Nick, Dave, The Monkees, and even The Sex Pistols!

DOPPLENAMER Volume 3: Pere Ubu Edition!

Happy Halloween, everybody!  Several more blog friends have shared festive music for this spooky season.  Pee-Pee Soaked Heckhole has arisen from its heckish slumber! One Buck Guy resurrected his Horror Film Soundtrack mix, and added a bonus track!  Ape Mummy has The Mummies battling The Wolfmen!  Khayem has a kreepy kool komp!  Groovy Library is still in the Samhain spirit!  And our pal Viacom at Down Underground has dug up the diabolical Danzig!

Stinky first proposed the DOPPLENAMER idea many months ago.  I was immediately excited by the concept, but found it more difficult than expected to come up with my own list of Dopplenamers.  That was until I remembered that PERE UBU has a long list of songs with titles that were borrowed from other songs (as well as titles from film and literature).

Prior to the release of the Lady From Shanghai album in 2013, David Thomas announced that Pere Ubu's new record would "fix the problem" of dance music.  I sometimes wonder if he intended to "fix" other songs when he borrowed their titles.  Maybe he was just making mischief.  His Dopplenamers were certainly more than a coincidence, judging by the sheer number of them that have been gathered here today. 

There are only a few cover songs in Pere Ubu's discography, which is surprising when you consider that Ubu existed for almost half a century (starting in 1975, with a hiatus between 1982 and 1987, and ending upon the death of David Thomas earlier this year). Ubu recorded The Osmonds' Crazy Horses and The Beach Boys' Surfer Girl, and there were a few live covers (like Pushin Too Hard and Kick Out The Jams).  David sang Sloop John B with The Pedestrians, and Strychnine with Rocket From The Tombs. Just a handful, unless you count the RFTT songs as covers.

Anyway, Stinky put a lot of time and thought into the Dopplenamer concept, and got some grief from a few readers.  How about some encouragement to keep the Dopplenamers coming?

ELSEHWERE ON THE BLOG:  more Halloween music!

 

DOPPLENAMER Vol. 1 & 2 - Like Doppelgangers--But With Songs!

DOPPLENAMER Volumes 1 & 2

I came up with DOPPLENAMER to describe songs that share their title with an earlier (often much better) song.  

Casual visitors to the blog know that I love cover versions.  Local radio was behind the times in my home town, so when I was a teenager, I'd often buy albums without knowing much about the contents.  I'd look for names I knew like producer Mike Chapman to improve my chances of finding something worth listening to.

In the case of a two-way tie, if I had to decide which album I was going to buy, and which one I'd put back, I usually bought the LP that had a cover song that I liked on it.  I figured that I liked at least one song on it.  And if the band and I agreed on one song’s merits, I figured I was more likely to enjoy the songs that the band wrote--we were simpatico.

On occasion, I’ve been swayed by a dopplenamer because I failed to read the fine print.  One that comes to mind is THE RUMOUR album with their original song Tired Of Waiting on it.  Did it not occur to them that people would assume it was a cover of THE KINKS' classic track?  Or is that what they were hoping for?

That track may not wind up on a future volume—because it’s not a great song—but it’s a world-class dopplenamer.  

That’s the challenge with the some concepts—after all a successful compilation should warrant repeated listenings.  The World’s Worst Covers isn’t likely to get played twice (but that didn’t stop me from compiling that series--I just haven’t shared it!)  

So here are tunes that aren't exactly original as far as the song title is concerned, that are actually great songs.  Maybe it's not a bad thing that you can't copyright a title.

Volume 1 features great songs, in their own right, that share a name with another (often better-known) song.  

Carlene Carter's Every Little Thing and Laura Brannigan's Gloria bear no resemblance to the songs by The Beatles & Them--nor does Joe Grushecky's I Can't Control Myself have anything to do with The Troggs' catalogue.  

Styx's massive hit Lady may have gone unnoticed by The Little River Band, & who knows; Bowie's Ashes To Ashes may have escaped the notice of Faith No More.  Talk Talk seem to have named themselves after the song by The Music Machine, but (if that's the case) that didn't stop them from recording a dopplenamer--as did The Psychedelic Furs:

Volume 2's Breakdown by The Alan Parsons Project may not make me forget that Tom Petty has a song with the same name, but it pulls me in anyway.  So does Blondie’s Call Me, Romeo Void’s Wrap It Up, and so on.  And Volume 2 has a pretty good flow, if I can be permitted to say so.

Don't be the last person on your block to have the first two volumes of Dopplenamers (anywhere), compliments of JOKONKY.