Click right here to view the 2nd show in thegazz.com’s new LocalMusic videocasts of live music in area clubs. This one features the hip, no bulls!$t rockabilly of the Twistin’ Tarantulas, who performed recently at the Empty Glass. A cooler use of an upright bass cannot be found. Plus those are some way-out tattoos around the lead singer’s neck.

COMING UP:
Stay tuned for these upcoming LocalMusic videocasts on thegazz.com:

Show No. 3: Motley Crue: The LocalMusic videocrew hung out with the crowd waiting to get in to see the raunch’n'roll at Motley Crue’s recent Civic Center show

Show No. 4: The Bark O’ Loungers. Enter the well-dressed confines of the Vandalia Lounge in Charleston as LocalMusic checks in on Michael Lipton’s latest musical endeavor,

PREVIOUS SHOWS:
Show No. 1: Click here to see the debut LocalMusic videocast, featuring Fairweather Fan, Ten Carp Lie and Vintage Tone at Charleston’s Sound Factory in February.

CRITICAL NOTES:
We finally got some lights to go with our videocam, so starting with show 3, we’ll be throwing a little more light on the subject. Send your feedback, constructive criticism, destructive rants (take your medication first) and suggestions for LocalMusic programs to us through a blog comment OR click on ‘Contact’ at the top right of this page.

THE CD: “Voice of the Spirit: The Gospel of the South” (Dualtone Records)
PERFORMERS: Several

Nashville producer John Carter Cash, son of the late Johnny Cash and June Carter, put together this tribute to Southern Gospel music. It features Mac Wiseman, Johnny Cash, Mavis Staples, Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Ronnie and Del McCoury, Rodney Crowell, John Cowan, Tony Rice, Earl Scruggs, Vince Gill, The Fisk Jubilee Singers and others, on separate tracks, singing a wide variety of vintage gospel songs.

“Voice” starts off with Wiseman singing the Alfred Brumley song, “By the Side of the Road.” The bluegrass legend’s voice gets warmer with age. Cash includes one of his father’s final recordings, “Unclouded Day.” The timeless lyric and stark accompaniment are the perfect accompaniment for Cash’s weary yet still vital, singing.

Banjo master Earl Scruggs is also a killer guitar player, and presents a simply beautiful “If I Be Lifted Up,” played in the what sounds like the “Carter Scratch” style, created by Mother Maybelle Carter.

Which leads us to another Carter Family gem, “Diamonds in the Rough,” done here by Laura Cash and Larry Gatlin. They trade verses, and Cash plays some nice fiddle.

Each track is different, presenting a wide spectrum of Southern sounds. This is another one of those pleasant surprises that comes in the mail. What is it about a gospel melody that is so moving? “Listen to the tiny voice inside,” producer Cash writes in his liner notes. Indeed.

THE CD: “Never Trust A Hippy” (Fat Wreck Chords)
PERFORMER: NOFX

Punk rockers NOFX made their feelings re: hippies known on the song “Always Hate Hippies.” So, it comes as no surprise that they take a shot at them on their 6-song EP “Never Trust A Hippy” (That’s the preferred misspelling of hippie, right? ed.) Some background on the band is in order, since there are only six songs.

NOFX (Fat Mike, bass/singer; Eric Melvin, guitar/sings; El Hefe guitar/trumpet/sings; Smelly, drums) formed in L.A. in 1983 (wow) and toured the country for beer money, sleeping on people’s floors. Their steady rise in popularity, some might have thought, culminated around the mid-’90’s, when punk “broke” and the band shared the limelight with fellow Epitaph acts like the Offspring and Rancid. (Just don’t mention MTV or Green Day.) Their epic “Punk In Drublic” was released around this time, with their anthem “Linoleum” being sung by kids nationwide, including El-Doochay.

Never short on socio-political commentary (see “The Bag” on “White Trash, Two Heebs, and a Bean”), they got even more political with the new millineum, when Fat Mike formed PunkVoter.com to rally punks and dissatisfied citizens to defeat President Bush. Then, for a long time, nothing happened.

Until now.

“Hippy” is more of the same NOFX — f*#^ed up, funny, and fast. With some food for thought. “Seeing Double at the Triple Rock” and “The Marxist Brothers” open things up and serve as a nice encapsulation of the band’s music and message. “Triple Rock” is vintage NOFX: Melvin shredding; Fatty running his fat mouth; and Smelly’s drum fills that, by now, every fan knows and loves. Fat Mike and Melvin combine for some of the best vocal harmonics in the history of punk. And that’s saying something, becuz I’m the foremost authority on punk journalism. I won a Peabody Award. The lyric hilarity is proudly on display, with Fatty singing How much more art can we take? I’ll let you know when the medication wears off.

“The Marxist Brothers” is a reggae-flavored track with sleepy rock choruses. Insert witty commentary: So the next time I visit the third world/I won’t have to fly second class/The people’s revolution/is gonna be a podcast. Proves my point nicely, no? “Golden Boys” is a catchy power-punk song. Fat Mike screams in his patented voice Go, go, golden boys/you got your war toys/lookin’ straight on/and with your eyes of blue/we’ll do the old war two/one for me, and one for you. Mike sings on the outro: millions of boys lay dead. Not too subtle.

“You’re Wrong” is something of a treasure in the NOFX library: an acoustic protest song. More lyrics, please: You’re wrong about the virtues of Christianity/and you’re wrong if you agree with Sean Hannity/and if you think that pride is about nationality. . . you’re wrong. “Everything in Moderation (Especially Moderation)” gets back to the punk, with a line that sums up where NOFX stands after two decades of putting out: When your band has been a band longer than the Ramones/and the critics coin you the punk Rolling Stones/That’s when you know this is for life.

“I’m Going to Hell For This One” is an appropriate title for the closer, with Fatty pointing out what he feels is the crass commercialisation of our lord and savior: Jesus Christ is coming back/He wants to kick Mel Gibson’s ass/superstar, the passion of/he wants his money, not your love. . . He’s not the fragile/white child hippy/he looks and acts/more like an indignant Ice-T. So, you can see where he’s going with the song title. “Scare tactics,” “love,” and “BMI royalties” are among the themes this song deals with. Pretty deep.

The band, by the way, is not anti-Christian. They’re just against ignorant people in general. NOFX uses their music to effect positive social and personal change. Right on, brother. A band that tries to turn people on to Eric Schlosser, Howard Zinn, and Noam Chomsky is alright in my book. If I had a book. They’re expensive, and full of words.
Are you still reading this? Go out and buy this CD — DO IT! GO NOW!!!!!

THE CD: “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (Domino)
PERFORMER: Arctic Monkeys
WEBSITE: Click here.
SUGGESTED TRACKS: “Fake Tales of San Francisco”, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”, “Riot Van”, “Mardy Bum”

The Arctic Monkeys continue retro Brit-pop’s recent winning streak with their debut album, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.” They join the likes of Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs, bands who stormed stores and stations in the last few years with tongue-in-cheek, ’80s-fueled tunes about sex, dancing and misanthropy.

The Monkeys fall on the harder side of the sound spectrum, but keep the pop structure. As many layers of rock form one mountain, they build a song on several energized riffs instead of punk power-chords. Yet they are fast, loud and really annoyed with the rest of us.

In his heavy northern England patois (brush up on your British slang), singer Alex Turner barks about bar fights, jerk bouncers, getting home and other nightlife trials of 19- and 20-year-olds (in the U.S., add two years). He’s wonderfully rude and abrupt, such as in “Dancing Shoes,” when he demands: “Get on your dancing shoes/You sexy little swine.” Even the softer songs hit like nails; the smokey-lounge traipse of “Riot Van” backs a tale of drunken teens sassing and fighting cops.

Turner can get astoundingly wordy at times, but can also create a scene with one line. In “Fake Tales of San Francisco,” a funky indictment of poseur bands, we feel the misery and see the silliness with a simple lyric: “Yeah, but his bird thinks it’s amazing, though, so all that’s left/Is the proof that love’s not only blind but deaf.”

The Monkeys can be specific to a fault. “Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured” is about trying to get a bunch of drunken people into a cab, not a particularly exciting topic (nor familiar to the car-owning youth of America). In the same vein, “The View From the Afternoon” refers to a girl finding text messages from her drunken boyfriend on her cell phone: “When she’s pressed the star after she’s pressed unlock/And there’s verse and chapter sat in her inbox.” It’s hard to see this reference as timeless.

But the Monkeys don’t claim to be poets. They are chroniclers and instigators of the rowdiness that makes youth worth while. It certainly isn’t the money.

Available at all local record stores.

–by Morgan Kelly