señor taco’s travels

Once, long ago in the land of Texas there was a band called the href="http://www.toadiesmusic.com/" title="Toadies, great rock from Fort Worth">
Toadies. The Toadies toured near and far and I was lucky enough to see
them about 10 times in the course of my time in university. I really liked
all of their music. Todd Lewis wrote songs and sang for them. The subject
matter was often dark with songs like Possum Kingdom discussing
bodies found in the Texas lake of the same name or Tyler about breaking
into the house of a girl that the narrator was in love with. When I saw them
in Nacogdoches during school I got to talk to the band a couple of times. It
was brought up once that the lyrics were really dark and Todd just said “Yeah,
I’ve got issues.”

So, many years have passed. In between the Toadies released a second album
after a long hiatus and much waiting for a followup to Pleather.
Then after a while a live album came out and that marked the end of the
Toadies.

This brings us to my latest new music acquisition, the href="http://www.burdenbrothers.us/" title="Todd + Taz == Burden Brothers">
Burden Brothers. They hail from Texas and the people I know in the band
are Todd Lewis from the Toadies and Taz Bentley, formerly the drummer for the
Rev. Horton Heat (amongst other rocakabilly outfits). It appears as though
the bass player, Corey Orr, was in Chumbawamba, intersting. To continue, this
album is very reminiscent of the Toadies thorough Todds singing and lyrics, but
because the writing includes Taz the sound is different in a good way. This
is definitely a good album and is quickly finding a place in my collection.
Now I just have to wait until I’m in Texas near where they’re playing or they
make it out to California. It will be worth it.

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders
of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple
matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the
country to greater danger.”

– Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

I was sitting at home on Saturday when dode called. He then proceeded to twist
my arm into going over toe San Francisco and meeting him and Andre at Amoeba
Music. I figured since I had just been to the Amoeba in Berkeley I’d be safe.
I was wrong, very wrong. Luckily I only walked out with 7 discs:

• Cold - Year of the Spider: mmmm, Weezer song
• Crimpshrine - The Sound of a New World Being Born
• Gas Huffer - One Inch Masters
• Hatebreed - Rise of Brutality
• Rival Schools - United by Fate
• V/A - Halloween Hootenany
• V/A - Punk Goes Acoustic

After that we went to see House of Sand and Fog. I will just say I’m
not too impressed with it. Both Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley gave good
performances, but the pacing was slow and the story was not that strong. I
just don’t see what people see in it. Oh well.

Utilizing one of my gift certificates I stopped by Amoeba Music in Berkeley and
got myself into more trouble with new to me music:

• Crimpshrine - Duct Tape Soup: one of the influential East Bay punk
  bands from the late 80’s/early 90’s. These guys are the sound that defines
  the Gilman scene of that period. No longer around this is a good thing to add
  to my music collection.
• Pennywise - From the Ashes: These SoCal hardcore rockers have had
  a good long career and with From the Ashes they return to the sound
  that I first started listening to them for. Ferocious and timely songs fill
  this album. The lyrics are good and exactly what I expect from Pennywise.
  The album also comes with a bonus DVD that has some live footage, lots of
  antics backstage and on the road, and a little about each person in the band.
  Good stuff all around.
• Primus - Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People: A new EP from
  the band that is a category all it’s own. This iteration of the band is back
  to the lineup that made them famous: Les, Ler, and Tim. The 5 songs on the
  music disc are all classic Primus. They amaze me with the sounds they can make.
  The best part of the whole thing is there is a DVD that has most of the bands
  videos. A lot of high quality stuff is on the DVD making this a must have for
  anyone that likes Primus.
• The Clash - The Essential Clash: I found myself wanting one single
  group of Clash songs that I could haul around without taking every single album
  with me. This is it. Remastered and well worth it. I’ll admit a few songs
  swapped out here or there would be better, but I’m not complaining.