UVa has appointed the new President. Chuck Taylor has left WTJU, and speaking of WTJU, DJ Baconfat just sent me a link to this essay by former C-ville resident Mike Powell (unknown to me, although I liked some bands he was in, like VHS and the Babies); said essay is endorsed by Dom himself as “the motherfucking truth.” No less than one day later, the same Mike Powell gave a shout-out to the Blue Moon Diner in his Fela Kuti review on Pitchfork. Elsewhere in Cville-expatriot news, Nailgun founder John Rusher has his best-of-the-year list up on his blog (mine should appear in this space in the next few days… no, really!) I’ve also just heard that Jay Reatard has passed away. For that matter, so has Willie Mitchell, whose brilliant 1967 cover of Booker T’s “Groovin” has been a recent favorite of mine. (In addition to being an excellent song, it also provided the sample for GZA’s “Liquid Swords”)
That’s all the news and links I got this week. Leave yours in the comments, if you like.
7 responses so far ↓
1 speakertree // Jan 13, 2010 at 9:43 pm
tons of good information in this update! thanks….and yes, a major bummer about jay reatard. i was looking forward to following his wonderful music career. some great tunes he left us with.
2 nick // Jan 13, 2010 at 10:57 pm
not to get all dominic on you, but “groovin’” was written by the young rascals. but yeah, booker t. covered it and boy this willie mitchell version sounds a lot more like the latter than the former. holy crap those drums!
3 James // Jan 14, 2010 at 12:59 am
in retrospect, I feel like I’ve done a pretty big disservice to Willie Mitchell by reducing / oversimplifying his career (hugely). the NYTimes has a pretty good write-up/summary: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/arts/music/06mitchell.html?scp=1&sq=willie%20mitchell&st=cse
4 Matt // Jan 14, 2010 at 11:08 am
I have the distinct honor of being in that band that didn’t play “all that well” opening for Animal Collective at the Tokyo Rose back in college that Mike mentions in the piece. While, I love Mike and have come to even relish his habit of referencing his Virginia past with ambivalent nostalgia throughout his various writings, I have to take exception with this oversimplified description of our performance. The truth is: we played AMAZINGLY WELL given how drunk we were, which was consderably so. Gulf Coast Army forever!
5 Matt // Jan 14, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Also, Jay Reatard…that is some sad stuff. 29 years old. He was finally just breaking out. I’m no Jay Reatard expert but I really enjoyed his show at the Outback last year (or whenever that was) and also his recent Matador release.
His early band, The Reatards, also caught my ear many years ago when I found their demo in the throwaway bin at WTJU during my brief stint as a rock department volunteer in college. I still have it and listen to it from time to time for its sheer energy and freshness. It was seriously one of the best and most real punk/rock bands I’d ever heard with some seriously awesome honest and clever vocals and it amazed me that no one knew them, especially considering they had one of the gutsiest names I’ve ever encountered. It all really struck a strong ‘devil may care’ chord with me and my ‘but the devil is scary’ personality.
Anyway, I mean no offense to the now former directors of the WTJU Rock Department of ‘97-’98 back then, who I’m sure had like 30 demos from tons of crappy unknown bands to sort through the day that demo came in, but it really is too bad it took so long for Jay’s music to make it out of the throwaway bin and onto the airwaves. It was almost too late…. R.I.P. crazy party punk king of Memphis.
6 Erik // Jan 14, 2010 at 8:58 pm
I wrote a piece on Jay over at Eardrum:
http://www.eardrumnyc.com/blog/98-rip-jay-reatard-prolific-memphis-garage-rocker
7 Matt // Jan 15, 2010 at 9:32 am
Speaking of Dom, Stylus and Jay Reatard, I just stumbled into this interview Mr. Devito with Jay the Black Cat a couple years back: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/interview/jay-reatard.htm
also, there are some murmurings that his death may have actually been a homicide.
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