09.07.09 Arrogance @ 40 • Performance Part 2
Continuing where we left off. . . Arrogance celebrates their 40th Anniversary with their reunion performance March 21, 2009 at The Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC. Also of note is an opening comment from Parke Puterbaugh, former Senior Editor of Rolling Stone Magazine. Coming Soon (well. . . eventually) is Part 3 with a reunion of the original 1970's era Arrogance and an encore performance of Arrogance as their alter ego Dogbreath, along with some friends!
07.19.09 HOLSAPPLE / STAMEY Performance NASHVILLE July 11, 2009
"By the time All Things Must Pass came, it was like being constipated for years, then finally you were allowed to go” George Harrison. I'm kinda that way with video. Backlogged and trying to find time to get all this video edited. I mean I'm backlogged as far back as February 2007! But it's better to have the footage to work with, even if it's late, rather than never to have shot it. The OAK Team and Arrogance oh, and The Hanging Chad / Jump Rabits and The Spongetones are coming. . . and reunions from Doc Holliday and the dB's . . . and HD updates on PKM. . . and updating the Rough Cuts to be not so rough and in HD. . . and this Web site needs a little spring cleaning. . . (where's my Scotch!). Sorry for all delays (really. . . where's my Scotch!!). Meanwhile, Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey played Nashville in support of their new CD HERE AND NOW, and were kind enough to let me shoot their performance. And what a great performance - songs from the dB's, Mavericks, solo and new stuff, all performed brilliantly! Also check out the outtakes/bonus video for a tour of Peter's Cigfiddle and some wonderful covers.
05.12.09 Arrogance @ 40 • Performance Part 1
Well, it’s been a while. Sorry it's been so long, but I have been shooting a lot of stuff! In fact I am backlogged with video to finish. The Arrogance @ 40 performances from last March 21st is just the start of a number of videos I will try (and I mean, really, really try!) to get out. On this video look for interviews and LIVE performances from Arrogance, Dave Adams from Glass Moon, Debra DeMilo from The Fabulous Knobs, Parthenon Huxley, and Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey from the dB's. There will be at least two more parts to the performance, and if I’m lucky, one or two additional segments from rehearsals. As for other videos. . . I am working on finishing music videos for The OAK Team and The Spongetones, and I have more performances coming from Doc Holiday shot in Warner-Robins, GA and the Jump Rabbits shot in NYC, as well as a ton of other interviews with folks like Mitch Easter, Gerald Duncan, Kenny Soule, Godfrey Cheshire, Bruce Brookshire, Kitty Moses and others. So look for a new music video coming next and then more Arrogance -- including a fantastic performance from the Original Arrogance who haven't played together since the 1970's! It was a wonderful evening!!
Also, according to Don Dixon's MySpace Blog, he is (semi?) retiring from performing LIVE. So if you can get to The Evening Muse in Charlotte, NC on Friday, May 15, you can see The Hanging Chads who consist of Don Dixon (Arrogance), Jamie Hoover (The Spongetones), Bill Lloyd (Foster & Lloyd / The Long Players) and Robert Crenshaw (Marshall Crenshaw). See'em while they're still breathin' !!
Speaking of Bill Lloyd and The Long Players, check out their Web site for some great performances I have been honored to work on. Included are songs from a couple of Spongetones, which you can see below. Look for more performances from TLP guests such as Marshall Crenshaw, Adrian Belew (Frank Zappa), Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie), Joey Molland (Badfinger), Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick), Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites) and tons of other stars, at www.thelongplayers.com.
09.20.08 Rough Cuts Now in HD!
I have been drowning in regular work (if you want to call what I do “regular”) and so I have not been able to get to the next Rough Cut. To make up for this, click on the Rough Cut links to the left of this page and you will find that the video and audio quality has greatly improved. And if you click on the link below the video, it will take you to a page that will offer you HD online. It’s amazing and looks fantastic! Check it out!! Because of my workload I have not been able to get to any of the Arrogance reunions this year. But I had the pleasure of hanging with Don Dixon Friday night in Nashville (and breakfast this morning) as he was a guest musician with the Long Players at a charity performance. I wasn’t allowed to shoot my usually video, but I did shoot some HD home videos and a few photos - something I may be able to incorporate somewhere within the site. You may have heard the Long Players featured on NPR. The group is lead by my old buddy Bill Lloyd. Bill is formerly of the Country Pop duo, Foster & Lloyd. It was because of Bill and partner Radney Foster that I directed my first Nashville music video in 1987. Bill was one of the few music types in 1987 Nashville who knew of the Comobland artists and my music videos. It’s a long story that I’ll detail sometime soon on the Cowpunk page of this site. Bill and Don are also seen playing together in the 2004 group The Hanging Chads, who’s pictures you can see here.
09.06.08 Rough Cut No. 7 The Spongetones / ABC World News Now / Arrogance
As I start to dig through all of my RTC footage I couldn’t help putting together a “making of” clip on The Spongetones WORLD NEWS POLKA. Special thanks to Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish for spending time with me and talking about The Spongetones, Don Dixon, the dB’s and a lot of the other RTC alumni. And extra special thanks to David Bandfield, Associate Director of ABC World News Now for letting me hang at ABC and giving his time for his interview (at 4am!!). I’m not sure what will be next in Rough Cut land - possibly my trip to Macon, GA with Doc Holliday from last November. Bruce Brookshire went from a hell raisin’ Southern Rocker to a mild mannered preacher – but can still Rock! And don’t forget Arrogance is playing the Koka Booth Amphitheatre / Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame Benefit Show, September 20 at 3:00 pm. Speaking of Arrogance, they have finally joined the 21st century and now have an official MySpace page. So “Friend” them HERE and HERE as well as Scot Davison's MySpace HERE where you can enjoy a great German version of Velvet Elvis, retitled as Plastic Elvis.
08.29.08 The Spongetones / ABC World News Now - Music Video
So, how many months has it been since my last update? I really didn't expect it to be this long. Life can get a hold of you that way. I shot a lot of video, mostly from this time last year, which I am finally getting to. So look for some fun stuff coming. First is a music video I was commissioned to create with The Spongetones. I hadn't worked with the band since SHE GOES OUT WITH EVERYBODY in 1983, but we've kept up with each other all these years. ABC World News Now has been playing The Spongetones SKINNY for a few years and they asked the band to create a song for their weekly Friday credits. The band was kind enough to ask me to join in on the fun and so I came buy the Hooverama Studios in Charlotte with my camera and shot them Rockin' a performance music video. This is the first Comboland music video I have created since 1984. It's nice to see the band and I still have the touch! (Yet none of us will admit to being members of AARP.) You can still see the video play on ABC World News Now every Friday morning around 3:25am with the credits, although it's been playing for many months and it's schedule may be over soon, so Tivo it next Friday morning while you can! Meanwhile, I still have tons of material to go through, so look for more clips coming your way soon. Let me and The Spongetones know if you like this clip. You can write to me here, or The Spongetones at: http://www.spongetones.com
08.27.08 Comboland Radio
No, it’s not me - although I wish I had thought of it! Comboland Radio is the brainchild of Mike Smith, radio professional and North Carolina 80’s music scene fan who has created a terrific Internet Radio Station. Check it out! Click HERE to listen to the 24/7 show. You can also check out the Web site HERE. And the MySpace page HERE. Or check out the RTC ARTISTS LINKS page. Great Job Mike!
12.15.07 Peter Holsapple / RTC Christmas Music / Allan Handelman • PETER HOLSAPPLE • Peter played a rare solo gig at a small club / restaurant in East Nashville last Friday. Peter was also kind enough to let me shoot his show for inclusion in the RTC documentary. Standout tracks were AMPLIPHIER, LONELY IS AS LONELY DOES and HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. You can listen to Peter's Christmas song on the RTC MySpace page. I thought, since everyone is running around doing last minute shopping (like me!!), I would offer some great Christmas tracks from some of the RTC artists. You can find the music player at the RTC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/returntocomboland or you can open the player in the background right now by clicking here. • Here's a rundown of the music: Peter Holsapple (the dB's) HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. This dB's holiday classic was recorded live last Friday (12.13.07) at The Family Wash in Nashville. Arrogance THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS / THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY (Medley). Two tracks from the vinyl only limited edition release of the 1981 45 RPM record. The Spongetones IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR / THE LITTLE WIPED-OUT DRUMMER BOY (Medley). Two tracks from The Spongetones MERSEY CHRISTMAS CD. [available at www.spongetones.com] The Accelerators BLUE CHRISTMAS . Offered as a promotional only Christmas present from Dolphin Records as a 12" vinyl release in 1984. The Spongetones CHRISTMAS BOY. A third track from The Spongetones MERSEY CHRISTMAS CD. [available at www.spongetones.com] The dB's HOLIDAY SPIRIT / FELIX NAVIDAD (Medley). Two tracks from the dB's & Friends CHRISTMAS TIME CD. [available at www.thedbs.com] • ALLAN HANDELMAN SHOW • A special THANK-YOU to Allan Handelman for inviting me on his show Friday (12.07.07). It seems that the phones were swamped before we started. It's great to know there are still a lot of fans who care about the artists featured in the RTC project! Thanks for your calls!!
12.01.07 RTC Rough Cut No.6 - David Enloe / The Fabulous Knobs (2007) • With the recent death of David Enloe of The Fabulous Knobs, I thought I would offer a tribute to David with comments from his peers for ROUGH CUT No.6. Remembrances and insights are from Peter Holsapple (the dB's), Rod Abernethy (Arrogance / Glass Moon), Jamie Hoover (The Spongetones), Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Terry Anderson (The Fabulous Knobs), Jack Cornell (The Fabulous Knobs), Dave Adams (The Fabulous Knobs / Glass Moon), Debra DeMilo (The Fabulous Knobs), PeeWee Watson (PKM). Also included is a very rare look at The Fabulous Knobs in the studio recording DARE TO LIVE (1982).
11.23.07 Rough Cut No.5 - Nantucket / PKM (2007) • Wow, what a trip! I shot some wonderful interviews and bits of "where are they now," and thought I would share some more Rough Cuts starting with Nantucket and PKM in Rough Cut No.5. While in Raleigh last week, Nantucket happened to be playing the Lincoln Theater. The band was kind enough to let me shoot the entire show as well as shooting some fun (and quick!) back stage interviews with Mike Uzzell and Tommy Redd. As you may know, PKM was a spin-off of Nantucket and so Mike and Tommy talked about the power trio. I also had a chance to catch-up with PeeWee Watson of PKM at Harry's Guitar Shop in Raleigh. Look for a great performance of the Nantucket hit HEARTBREAKER, plus PKM's IT DON'T TAKE MUCH as well a first look at PKM's AMERICA LOVES FOOTBALL. • RETURN TO COMBOLAND ON THE ROAD • I've had a great time catching up with some wonderful folks while shooting the RTC documentary. Tony Madejczyk and his family was kind enough to put me up while Tony and I ran around North Carolina chasing down some of the Comboland artitsts. Here's diary of who we had a chance to videotape on this trip. • WEDNESDAY 11.14 (Charlotte) Jamie Hoover at his recording studio to talk about The Spongetones. • THURSDAY 11.15 (Raleigh) PeeWee Watson at Harry's Guitar shop for an interview about PKM. Rod Abernethy at his recording studio for an interview about Arrogance. • FRIDAY 11.16 (Raleigh, Durham) Gerald Duncan at his home for an interview about The Accelerators. Laurie Wolf for an interview about Barney's Army (Laurie was the producer and voice of Barney). Dave Adams on the carousel at Pullen Park for an interview about Glass Moon. Man Bites Dog Theater to shoot Laurie Wolf performing in her latest play. • SATURDAY 11.17 (Raleigh) Terry Anderson of The Fabulous Knobs and a quick interview about David Enloe. Tommy Redd and Mike Uzzel of Nantucket for an interview about PKM. Nantucket performance at Lincoln Theater. • SUNDAY 11.18 (Durham, Winston-Salem) Peter Holsapple interview about the dB's. Debra DeMilo interview about The Fabulous Knobs. • This has been a pretty full schedule! Everyone was warm and wonderful. Shooting this documentary has been like a family reunion for me. • DAVID ENLOE • David Enloe of The Fabulous Knobs has been very sick with Hepitius C for a number of years. He has also had an alcohol problem. Between the two, his liver has become extremely damaged and so he is in a hospital in Raleigh. When I first saw him on Thursday he was highly medicated and barely talking. By Saturday he was chipper and joking with me, quoting Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." It was nice to see David come around, but he is still very, very ill and very weak. I hope through the miracles of modern medicine and the power of prayer, he can survive this so that the rumors David joked about become just that. It was also great to see David surrounded by his many friends and family. For a daily update on David and his condition, please read Terry Anderson's blog at http://whassupta.blogspot.com/ Terry has been a close friend of David's since High School and has been checking on him every day.
11.13.07 Return To Comboland is On The Road! • NECK TIE PARTY (1981) •What's the old saying about the best laid plans? Well I tried, I really tried to get Neck Tie Party transferred, but the gear was described to me as 3P0'd (translated: the wires were all pulled out). I'll try again next week. • RTC DOCUMENTARY • Meanwhile I have been on the road. Friday I shot an interview in Nashville with Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites who talked about The Fabulous Knobs. Saturday I was in Knoxville shooting performances of The Olympic Ass-Kicking Team and interviews with Terry Anderson and Jack Cornell of The Fabulous Knobs. And Sunday I was in Warner-Robins, Georgia shooting an interview with Bruce Brookshire of Doc Holliday, as well as his Sunday service at his church, Grace Fellowship. I'm back on the road Wednesday through Sunday, first in Charlotte and then Raleigh / Durham shooting tons of other interviews. I'll let you know who they are after I know I've got them on tape! • DAVID ENLOE • On a sad note. While in Raleigh I hope to visit David Enloe of The Fabulous Knobs. He is very ill with liver disease. I would suggest you read Terry Anderson's blog about David (you may have to scroll through the page to find his comments - he's made a few). Here's the address : http://whassupta.blogspot.com/ I'll offer my thoughts after I've had a visit. • ALLAN HANDELMAN • And Allan Handelman has asked me back on his radio show to talk about the RTC project since it's now in production. I'm not sure when the show will be, but it should be soon. I'll post the info as soon as I have it. To hear Allan's show, check out his Web site for radio stations and online feeds at: http://www.ifitrocks.com/ • So with all of this travel and production going on, I will not be able to post any videos until I return, which I hope will be Neck Tie Party and some more Rough Cuts. Stay Tuned!
11.03.07 PKM - DOIN' MICKEY'S MONKEY (1984) • PKM still gets the most fan mail and so to keep the masses happy, here's another track from that great night at The Attic in Greenville. DOIN' MICKEY'S MONKEY is one of my favorite performances from the PKM concert. Originally a 1963 Holland-Dozier-Holland hit for Smokey Robinson, Mother's Finest revamped the song in 1977 with some added CUSTARD PIE from Led Zeppelin. Nantucket toured with Mother's Finest before PKM spun-off as a power trio. PKM remembered the song during the sound check for The Attic show and since a second encore was needed, they threw in this great cover of a cover. Turn it up! Play it loud!! • ROUGH CUTS • I will be at Patrick Sullivan's in Knoxville, Saturday, November 10th shooting interviews and performance of The Olympic Ass-Kicking Team. Terry Anderson and Jack Cornell from The Fabulous Knobs are the cornerstones of the group. If you are in the neighborhood, drop by and see a great show - and say hello too! Look for a Fabulous Knobs ROUGH CUT soon after the shoot.
10.28.07 ROUGH CUTS Improved and other Delights • ROUGH CUTS • Between family business and being on the road, I have not had a chance to add anything to the clip collection. If you watch the ROUGH CUT clips on this Web site (on the left side of this page), you'll find that they are improved. I have loaded them on to MySpaceTV and found that they are cleaner and load faster. PRESS PLAY and then look in the lower right hand corner of the controls, you'll see a BUTTON WITH A BOX IN IT - second to last button on the right - click that button and it sharpens the video to the cleanest I've seen on the Web. If the video looks distored that means you clicked the buttons out of order. Don't panic. Click the BOX button again and it corrects the distortion and sharpens the video. It's certainly not as crisp as the HD that I could show you if this was broadcast, but it's pretty darn good. I'll upload all of the ROUGH CUTS to both MySpace and YouTube from here on. And will link the RTC Web site to MySpace. • WEB SITE • I'm working on updating some of the RTC Web site pages too, so if you look around, you may see some changes. I'm almost done with the Comboland page and have a nice bit of video that will give you a laugh. • RTC DOCUMENTARY • I have also been shooting some interviews for the documentary and will post them in the upcoming ROUGH CUTS. • I caught up with WQDR's Rockin' Ron Philips in Ashville recently. We talked about WQRD, Barney's Army, Arrogance, PKM, Luky Owens & Revolver, Glass Moon, and The Fabulous Knobs . • I also had a chance to interview manager and founder of CMC, Bill Cain, who now lives in the Philippians, but happened to be in Nashville the other week. We talked about Nantucket, PKM, Doc Holliday, Glass Moon and CMC. • I have more interviews coming up, so look for more ROUGH CUTS soon.
10.17.07 RTC Rough Cut No.4 - The Spongetones (2007) October 6, 2007 was a special day in Charlotte, NC. The Spongetones were given a magnificent tribute by their musical peers and witnessed by a full house. Don Dixon, Mitch Easter and others were in attendance and performing. After the show, The Spongetones were kind enough to continue to talk to me at Hooverama studios until the early hours of the morning. This posting of Rough Cuts offers a small sample of the show and comments from The Spongetones. The most amazing thing about The Spongetones - besides the fact that their first album, Beat Music (1983) still puts a smile on my face and gets me on my feet - is that the original line-up of Jamie Hoover, Pat Walters, Steve Stoekel and Rob Thorne have continued as a great band for over 25 years. The evening's tribute was well deserved and a lot of fun. You should have been there!
10.03.07 RTC Rough Cut No.3 - Arrogance (2007) is now posted. Here is another sneak peek at what the Return To Comboland documentary might look like. Since these are Rough Cuts, they are incomplete and offer only samples of interviews, music and memorabilia. Any or all of these clips may or may not be used in the final documentary (if the documentary is every completed!). • Scott Davison and Robert Kirkland of Arrogance were kind enough to chat with me at Robert's house last February. You'll also find a sample of the Arrogance music video "Uh-Oh" which was shot in 1983 (this was not one of my videos) and was produced to promote the Arrogance 5'11" album. Instead the song was released on Robert's solo album, Kick The Future, which was released in 1984. The final Arrogance album, 5'11" along with bonus tracks, was not released until a few years ago. • I normally post clips on weekends, but I will be at The Spongetones Tribute show in Charlotte on Saturday. So I thought I had better post Rough Cuts No.3 now rather than later. If you have any thoughts on the Rough Cuts clips, please post them on YouTube or email me. All comments cheerfully deleted. . . err. . . a. . . accepted.
09.30.07 RTC Rough Cut No.2 - The Accelerators (2007) is now posted. Here is a sneak peek of what's involved in the Return To Comboland documentary. Driving around Raleigh during a rare snowy February day, Tony Madejczyk and I are guided by PeeWee Watson of PKM to meet with Dick Hodgin, former manager of The Accelerators. Dick offers a great description of what it was like to show up for the first time at The Pier in 1982 and play warm-up to Arrogance at the height of their power. These RTC Rough Cuts offer an incomplete sample of the documentary. Incomplete in that each artist's story would normally include numerous interviews and lots of archives. In this case the archives are limited and the interviews deal with one or two aspects of the featured artists. • A note about the video quality. These clips are shot in High Definition and look fantastic! Now, compress the video and then upload it to YouTube to have YouTube compress it again, and what is delivered to your computer looks awful. I will start posting these clips with some of the competing Video Portals and will let you know where they are so you can compare quality to YouTube. • THE SPONGETONES TRIBUTE In case you didn't know, The Spongetones are having a Tribute concert in Charlotte, NC on Saturday, October 6 th. Don Dixon and Mitch Easter will be two of the many folks playing that night, along with The Spongetones. If all goes well, I will be there with camera in hand! If you would like more information on the show, check out their MySpace site. • RTC WEB SITE UPDATES There are numerous updates throughout this site and more to come.
09.01.07 PKM - I DON'T KNOW (1984) is now posted on YouTube. I will have it added to the PKM page soon. Hands down, PKM gets the most fan mail. And so here comes another PKM song. I DON'T KNOW was another fave rave request from the fans. A great original from a great Power Trio. And as for YOUTUBE. . . When I first started posting these videos, I figured that I would have a few folks that remembered these bands or general fans from the Raleigh area. There are now over 50,000 views of the RTC videos and I have been receiving fan mail from around the world. So the music and the bands still hold an audience!!
08.26.07 Arrogance LIVE At The Pier - Part 1 and Part 2 is now posted. I thought I would post the rest of the Arrogance LIVE At The Pier show. What you are seeing is the final set of the evening. The actual set runs like this: The Fabulous Knobs MAKE IT STICK / Arrogance LIVE At The Pier - PART 1 - BLUE SUEDE SHOES, MR. CUSTER / Arrogance LIVE At The Pier - PART 2 - LITTLE LATIN LUPE LU, GLORIA, PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON. • This was the Arrogance encore set and instead of Arrogance showing up, The Knobs performed MAKE IT STICK - and then Arrogance came on stage. You can also see Terry Anderson and Jack Cornel of The Knobs singing the final song with Arrogance in Part 2 and you can hear Don Dixon make a reference to The Knobs in Part 1. • Since the quality of the original YouTube posting of Arrogance LIVE is not as good as this version, I will be deleting the old version in a few weeks.
08.19.07 Ears - HUH? WHAT! (1977) is now posted on YouTube: click here to see it. Okay, so the music is, well, dire - or at lease an acquired taste. But that was the idea in the 70's NYC Punk scene - be original at any cost. Although being original and commercial or even listenable, is a different story. This was my very fist music video, dating back to 1977, using my band Ears, as the victum of this video. The concept to Ears was to have fun and be somewhat outrageous (being in tune was not a consideration!). Frank Zappa liked the band and the concept to the point where he introduced Ears on stage one night at Max's Kansas City - so there was something there. Please read the details on the YouTube page. I will update the RTC Web site with a detail page soon. Also note that my old pal Tony Madejczyk was running camera for this performance. We started working together in New York in 1975. And the hat I'm wearing for this performance is the same hat Dave Adams is wearing in the Glass Moon video TELEGRAM SONG (1982). From this video in 1977 I was able to talk my way into my first concept music video with The Fabulous Knobs PLEASE YOU NO MORE (1981).
08.12.07 PKM - LONG NIGHT (1984) is now posted. For a band that didn't have a hit, LONG NIGHT was a hit! And for that matter so were a lot of other PKM original songs. This may (or may not) be the last of the posted songs from this concert. I have been receiving a lot of email asking if this concert will be released as a DVD. We're trying to figure it out!