Tag: music

This is just plain sad: Bryan Harvey

From Phast Phreddie, via my friend Julie DuBrow:

Dear Friends,

This morning my brother, who works in the Richmond, Virginia area, called and asked me if I knew Bryan Harvey.

I was familiar with The House of Freaks when the group was based in LA, and Gutterball with Steve Wynn; and I ran into Bryan and his wife from time to time when I was down in the Richmond area visiting my brother and/or Stephen McCarthy (of The Long Ryders, who has played in several bands with Bryan since they both moved back to Richmond in the late eighties). Twice I saw Harvey dressed as Presley when he sang in the band Fat Elvis–with McCarthy (it may have been Fat Elvis’ only two shows).

My brother told me that he had just read in the paper that Bryan and his family were found dead in their home.

the rest of the story, as far as we have it

Jelly Roll was a gentlemen

From the CD set I’m listening to, Jelly Roll talks about a colleague from back in the day. Keep in mind this is an older gentleman talking in 1938.

Tony happened to be one of these gentlemens that a lot of people called a lady or a sissy or something like that, but he was very good and very much admired.

Q: Was he a fairy?

I guess he was either a ferry or a steamboat, one or the other. What you pay a nickel for, I guess. Tony was a great favorite in Chicago, also. He was no doubt the outstanding favorite in the city of Chicago.

[…]

I won a contest over Tony Jackson that threw me in first line. I never believed that the contest was given to the right party even though I was the winner. I always though Tony Jackson should have had the emblem as the winner.

Interesting discussion of drugs after this bit, too.

Tony Jackson Was The Favorite/Dope, Crown, And Opium (MP3, 3.1M)

New Year’s Song

This song was written by my best L.A. friend, Greg Franco. It’s about a New Year’s Eve party I attended, which was I think 1992-3. It was one of Greg’s “radio show” parties where we had a DJ setup and people did shifts as the DJ while backannouncing songs radio style.

Like most of the gathering then it was an emotional evening. We all had too much to drink and most of us were unhappy about the poverty, stupidity, and anomie of our lives as 20-something failures in the big city. We listened to underground music and old soul and Tim Buckley and hugged each other and guzzled cheap beer and bourbon. Most of us stayed up all night.

I have a very clear memory of dawn in that apartment in the Valley. Everything was grey, from the sky to the carpet, and it was cold. I had a mild alcohol headache and the cramps you get from sleeping on a too-small sofa. Someone was still spinning records quietly and I could hear Nick Drake’s “Time Has Told Me” from the next room. Dawn lasted for about three days. It’s one of those frozen moments I can look at any time.

Greg’s song captures that night and morning perfectly, I think.

Ferdinand – 31 (.mp3)

Volcano Suns – The Bright Orange Years

By request from jeffholland and others will enjoy it too. Post Mission of Burma band with similar sound. They fall right between post-punk and grunge, in that mid to late 1980s group that included Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum before they went pop, Otto’s Chemical Lounge, etc.

The Bright Orange Years (dir of MP3s).

You know, I just realized why I fucking hate emo music so much. It’s this stuff, ruined. Emo is what happens when you try to do Zen Arcade or Made to be Broken and you’re a mallpunk with no soul.