Back in the early 90's my weirdo friends had wacky bands like Sarcastic Orgasm and made crazy mix tapes of bizarre, often prickly music spiced with the best novelty songs. T. Valentines's Hello Lucille...Are You A Lesbian? is a standout example of the latter. I also remember around this time finding out about this odd, obscure band - purportedly from Texas (but the word on the web is they were actually disgruntled session guys from L.A.) - called Jon Wayne. Perhaps the song Mr. Egyptian was on one of those mix tapes. In any case, they sounded like a fall-apart punk band playing country music out of tune, with a drunk, demented singer who sounded like he had a plate in his head. The southern drawl and odd mannerisms might have been affected , but nevertheless something about the whole train-wreck affair smelled authentic. You can probably still find their Texas Funeral album in the dollar bin. That's where I found my copy back in the day. I swear I had hipped my friend Dean to this then too, but he has no recollection of it now. Oh well, you can't blame him. Nonetheless I feel it stands the test of time. Here's one of them user-made videos from youtube so you can hear the masterpiece Mr. Egyptian:
Now after all these years, again thanks to youtube, I've actually seen the band on stage - well this video has some live bits, and some music video, including one for Mr. Egytpian:
Obviously Jon Wayne was deeply influential:
And I can't resist offering an example of some rocking prickly music:
4 comments:
video was made by Jens & Jim Spring.
Yo Thatch! Happy 2010! I assume you mean the Pussy Galore video, not the Jon Wayne one. Was it you who turned me on to Jon Wayne?
SqD:
I like it!
And special thanx for the PG video--it makes me want to rummage through the closet and find my old Pussy Galore T-shirt.
And humongoid thanks for coming over on New Year's Day--you and H. need to come over again!
--Ivan
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