Rock Garden Tour

Rock Garden Tour 60: New American Gardener

 
This week's Rock Garden Tour podcast features a whole lot of me, Flowerman. If you listened to the show last Sunday night on SDPB Radio you would have heard a whole lot of me, Flowerman, but with free range rock and roll mixed in there. Unfortunately, we can't include all of that music in the podcast. Its what they would call "illegal." So, in this week's podcast, you get a whole lot of me, Flowerman. I interview a former geranium sales person. I chat with the Coach. I impersonate the muscle head army guy from Avatar. And I rant for a good while about tree faces. What more can you ask for? Enjoy this week's Rock Garden Tour podcast and as always, keep it rural.

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Kidney Bean Theft In Ipswich South Dakota

On last Thursday night's Rock Garden Tour on KCFS we talked herbal legends, some of the most popular ones, like the one about the kid that goes to Ipswich South Dakota on spring break and ends up naked in a bathtub full of ice without any kidney beans. I'd tell you more but its just easier if you wait for the podcast. In addition to the legends, we jammed some most righteous free range rock and roll. Take a look at the playlist and keep it rural.

John Lee Hooker - Roll 'n' Roll*

Hurray For The Riff Raff - Slow Walk*

Surfer Blood - Catholic Pagan

Serge Gainsbourg - Le Claqueur De Doigts*

The Whitefield Brothers - Safari Strut*

Bruce Springsteen - Jesse James

Blitzen Trapper - Big Black Bird

Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf*

Magnetic Fields - We Are Having A Hootenanny*

Exploding Seaguls - Johnny Runs For Paregoric

Devo - Gut Feeling

Beach Fossils - Desert Sand*

The Stingrays - Exceptions

Art Objects - Hard Objects

Rock Garden Tour Family Band - Hip Hip Murdo (Live In Deadwood, SD)

Hanoi Janes - Skeleton Girl

The Mountain Goats - Pure Sound

The National - Fake Empire

Tonic - Flowerman

* Instant herbal legends, these tunes are so good that I'm not sure they even exist

The Revolution Will Not Be iPadded.

“Local music” is one of those euphemisms, like “farm-raised salmon” and “retirement community,” that sensible people learn to distrust. The other night I was at the Sauce Bar in Minneapolis and I watched carefully as after-hours Office look-alikes partied onward as the bar transitioned from background music to live bands. I predicted to a friend: “Two songs. No more.” Sure enough, by the crunchy guitar growl of the third song, the wingtips and stiff blouses exited the scene. No hard feelings here, they almost seemed to say as they left. It’s just, well, you know, this is “local” music.

Now, there certainly is an element of Darwinism that plays into mainstream perceptions of “local music.” Let’s just say I have seen an inordinate number of cat-themed punk rock bands and power trios dedicate songs to trousers. Who am I kidding, I’ve played in them. In these instances, the road less traveled is—as Seinfeld said—less traveled for a reason.
But, often, you have a local music scene that—thanks to a music industry in the tank—is often more creative, engaging, and relevant than what you will hear from the DJ, the jukebox or the cover band. I know this may sound like the kind of argument that is recycled every 4-6 years, but let me give you some specifics.

Last Friday night I rolled into downtown Sioux Falls around 6 p.m. Note: I did not intentionally seek out music. But, it found me—a whole sonic spectrum. At Touch of Europe, I struck up a conversation with one of the jazz musicians who moonlights in Queen City’s own alt-country rockers Snakebeard. Then he handed me a business card and told me he was a professional “luthier,” which is a fancy word for stringed instrument repairman. I spied another local musician in the band, the talented keyboardist for Sioux Falls-based funk and blues hybrid Solution. It may be a scene where everyone plays in everyone else’s band in dimly lit root-cellars, but the collective musical output is ill-proportionately diverse and electric.

Walking down the street back to the car, I passed by a piano troubadour inside some smoky bar on Phillips—the air was frigid but the warm glaze of the chords was like an artificial space heater. At Latitude 44, another Sioux Falls piano balladeer—Janae Sturma—played a score of originals and clever covers to an intimate and deeply appreciate crowd. As the train rumbled past as she closed her set, however, one couldn’t help but wonder how many people were filling out song requests at some oily karaoke bar instead of filling her tip jar. It’s not for the musician’s sake that I lament this fact; most have long ago given up on this gig making any money.

No, it’s for the audiences who miss out on a genuine, original, even sometimes powerful music experience.
Past midnight, we retired to Monk’s House of Ale Repute, where a member of We All Have Hooks for Hands told me about sleeping in a rest stop for four days while on tour on the East Coast. He wasn’t in the least bit fazed. This is part of the “business.” And musicians won’t complain. They love the gigs. Even if the bar does date your check for a month later. But, there really is quite a significant music scene right under the nose of a lot of people, not just in Sioux Falls, but in a lot of communities across the Tavern Belt and beyond. And it’s really worth listening to.

Of course, we ended the night by listening to Hall and Oates’ “Rich Girl” three times on repeat in the car. But, that’s because the song is less than three minutes long, and because no one cooks up a blue-eyed soul hook like Daryl Hall and John Oates. Not even in the Queen City. Maybe Rowena.

The revolution will not be iPadded.

Cousin Christopher writes about rock and roll for the Rock Garden Tour. He also plays keyboard in the family band.

Rock Garden Tour 59: The Bird Is This Week's Topic

 
Less talk, more witty banter about birdwatching. Thanks to our favorite painter Liz Heeren (you might know her as Letwan from Pest Control) for letting us use this image in today's post. You can see more of Liz's work at www.lizheeren.com. This week's Rock Garden Tour podcast darts around like a rare and glorious muted hornbill, hovering over topics such as the Surfin' Bird, the Indigo Bunting tragedy of Norway Center, mutant bird feeder stalkers, and a heart warming story from News about a blind man that builds blue bird houses for the Army Corp. Of Engineers. I'd tell you more but I've already said too much. Enjoy this week's Rock Garden Tour and as always, keep it rural. 

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What's The Dilly Bean?

Until somebody comes out with a website called YouTuber where gardeners can upload content that is specific to the potato and other vegetables, I'm going to have to continue to post stuff at YouTube. In this clip Flowerman does an impression of that meat head from Avatar. Keep it rural.

I spilt coffee on my crotch, while passing through Java, SD.

If you tuned in to KCFS 94.5 at 7:55 last night, you probably heard the sound of a radio producer spilling coffee on his crotch area. Not the best way to kick off a 2 hour broadcast, but we made do by sharing some useful tips, skills and step by step instructions for the new American gardener. We also jammed some most righteous free range rock and roll. Take a look at the playlist from last night's show and keep it rural.

Simon & Garfunkel - 59th Street Bridge Song

The Whitefield Brothers - Safari Strut*

Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf*

The Soft Pack - C'Mon

Jeff Mangum - Sign The Dotted Line

Neko Case - I'm An Animal

Basia Bulat - Gold Rush*

The Replacements - Tommy Gets His Tonils Out

The Band Of Blacky Ranchette - Mope-A-Long Rides Again

The Mickey Finn - Garden Of My Mind**

Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes*

Beach House - Walk In The House*

Say Hi - Maurine

We All Have Hooks For Hands - Made Up Of Tiny Lights*

The Gourds - Country Love

Lifter Puller - Sherman City**

The Mountain Goats - This Year

Headlights - Secrets

Tonic - Flowerman

* Newish tunes that kick like a rented mule.

** Older tunes that kick like a rented mule.

Resiliency, my friends...

The Revolution Was Stunned: Quick, The Seedy Seeds to the Rescue

Any proficient rock gardener knows even though the soil is buried under 10,000 leagues of snow, you should not stop preparing for the thawing season. Whether that means combing the racks of a local record store for the perfect anthem to the sun’s return or whetting your trusty till, preparation for the spring cannot lapse solely because the winter has defeated your will to live (and it probably has by now if you’re within frequency of this show’s broadcast).

Resiliency, my friends, is what you need. Certainly, local druggists may carry chemical cocktails or high-powered heat lamps you can stare into for hours a day. But this seems expensive or time-consuming or a bit eccentric for the rock gardener. No, friends, resiliency actually comes to us in the form of a Cincinnati-based band called The Seedy Seeds.

The band’s name conjures up some misfit Sesame Street character who never saw the light of day, but the music is anything but puerile. On 2009’s "Count the Days," TSS fly across the wintry void like banjo-strapped superheros, spreading polyphonic cheer and gyrating, glitchy folk wisdom that sounds like the kind of music Pete Seeger would play had he traded licks with a supercomputer containing the algorithm to Joan Osborne’s soul. There is a simplicity about their sound that can come only from a musician approaching their instrument after a long void, or doing so for the first time. In TSS’s case, it is the latter. They formed the band as an experiment in which they’d learn to play instruments they owned but didn’t yet know how to play. The pleasing result is in old-fashioned, collective jouissance.

Opener “Winter 04” is actually a tidy foyer, hinting at the marriage between electro-footing and backwoodsy Appalachian folk that carries throughout the album. The seatbelts really come off, however, on “The Push,” which rockets up your spine like a the sudden, isolating recollection that you really are still, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, a decent, human being. It’s like an old friend calling, or better yet, showing up at your door. With more of your friends. Do NOT listen to this song before sleep. You will stay awake for at least an hour. It’s that good.

Rock gardeners may be most interested in “My Roots Go Down,” a quasi-hymnal that turns into a boot-stomping disco. I loathe to do this, but for all you Avatar fans who found the intersection of spirituality and electromagnetic science in the Navi’s big old tree will find a similar meshing of synthetic and organic worlds when female vocalist Margaret cantors “My roots go down to the earth” over a fuzzy sea of gospel-shouting exigency.

It’s a mesmerizing tonic for winter blues that TSS has concocted. Although it likely holds up just as well in May or August. The winter will stay with us for a while. In a few weeks that futile groundhog will emerge to sub-zero temperatures and return to his subterranean hideaway. But, at least, with TSS, you know have some fortification—in addition to antifreeze and heavy anti-depressants.

The rural revolution goes down to the earth.

Cousin Christopher writes about music and plays the keys for the Rock Garden Tour Family Band.

Rock Garden Tour 58: And The Vegetables Are...

 
Its in your hands now. We did our part. We spent an hour talking about vegetables, more or less. We sang about them. We performed some haiku poetry about them. The rest is up to you. Take a listen to the podcast, vote for your favorite vegetable and as always, keep it rural.

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Rock Garden Tour 57: Happy New Seed Catalog

 
This week's Rock Garden Tour podcast features some witty banter about seed catalogs. I talked to local seed catalog authority Scott Gibson. I interviewed my Mom. I even worked in a sea monkey reference. Enjoy the podcast and as always, keep it rural.

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Vote! Vegetable! Vote! Future!

Last night we named the top 7 nominables for Veggie Of The Year 2009. Intenisty. That is what we set out to do, the rest is up to you. Take a look at the list, think on it for a spell, and then cast a vote down there in the comments section beneath this post. Vote multiple times if you like. Speak your mind. Challenge Oil Can's belief that mesquite beef jerky should be considered a vegetable. The nominables are:

Snow Pea: All we are saying is give peas a chance.

Jicama: Jicama sun...buh, duh, duh, duh...Jicama sun...its all right.

Baby Carrot

Squash: Squarsh yer troubles dude.

Potato: The potato is what freedom is all about.

Mesquite Beef Jerky

Asparagus: Your asparagus is as good as mine.

 
In addition to some witty banter about vegetables, last night's show featured some most righteous free range rock and roll. Here's the playlist if you're interested. Keep it rural.

Oscar Brand - Fair And Free Elections (1800)

Harper Simon - Cactus Flower Rag

Jonquil - Whistle Low

Built To Spill - Planting Seeds

Neko Case - I'm An Animal

Oscar Brand - I've Got A Ballot (1948)

The Birds [UK] - No Good Without You

Radiohead - Vegetable

Neutral Milk Hotel - King Of Carrot Flowers Part I

Steve Martin - Clawhammer Medley

Judee Sill - There's A Rugged Road*

Langhorne Slim - Back To The Wild

The Band Of Blacky Ranchette - Getting It Made

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Them Old Days Are Gone

The Elois - By My Side

The Clash - Capital Radio Two

The Mountain Goats - Seeds

Headlights - Secrets

Tonic - Flowerman

* Best song that I've heard in 2010, though it was recorded in the 70's.