Virtues and Graces and Laziness and Zest...Dog Days of Summer

Well, ah yes, sitting in the hammock, drinking cold beer and reading CANNERY ROW again. I fine way to spend any day. Steinbeck's description of Cannery Row in Monterey also describes the book itself, and fuck it, while we're at it, life," a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream" It is full of, "as the man once said, whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches, by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, saints and angels and martyrs and holy men, and he would have meant the same thing." So, anyway it put me in a mood. Reflective as all get out. I needed some music to ease the burden of all that struggling for purchase and to try to channel Mack and the Boys, as well as Doc. Of course, let's face it, I needed another bottle of beer for existentialism in a hammock on a sunny afternoon. What called to me, what siren of true fine debauchery, you ask?


LITTLE FEAT's first album, released in January 1971. The tracks HAMBURGER MIDNIGHT and CRACK IN YOUR DOOR did the trick. Lowell George's nasty ass slide guitar an scratchy vocals with Roy Estrada on sloppy bass and shrill backing vocals, both fresh from leaving ZAPPA and THE MOTHERS. Add Bill Paine tinkling the ivories and Richard Hayward bangin' the skins and it's blissfully obscene. The record was a complete failure, selling only 11,000 copies. They never attempted recorded anything so bizarre again. Too bad.


Next cut was LEAVE ME ALONE, some INCREDIBLE CASUALS from LIVE AT DA 'COMA: YEARBOOK '04. Steve Wood filling in on lead guitar. Uncle Chandler's snarling snearing bass line sets the tone for a light romp about failure, angst and unrealized potential and trying to have a solitary beer in peace.


On to some ROLLING STONES, from GET YER YA-YA'S OUT!, the naughty version of LIVE WITH ME, recorded 28 November 1969 at Madison Square Garden. There is an edge to these recordings, like any minute they could totally fuck it all up. Mick Taylor was more of a Pagan then he was ever given credit for. Lester Bangs said, " I have no doubt that it's the best rock concert ever put on record." Right on.

After all this I felt inspired to share with others, so headed the Hoopdy up to the WOMR studios to sit in with Dave Cole on his show, THE OLD COUNTRY BLUES BUFFET, and see if he would let me peddle some sonic snake oil to the masses. I got to the station a few minutes before the show was to start and no Dave Cole, no anyone for that matter. An open mic, a few songs about the wonders of being alive at the near end of civilization and I was off and running. As I finished my set, Dave showed up after a long ride stuck in traffic and resumed his show already in progress. Feeling that I had accomplished something of importance, a job well done, I headed off for a swim in a Wellfleet kettle pond and then back to my hammock, drinking cold beer and reading CANNERY ROW again. Ain't life grand?

Gone Casual

Well now friends, your friendly neighborhood Squid Jigger here. It is that time of year again out here in the fringes. This little way gone spit of sand that hangs in the Atlantic is over run by the migratory patterns of The Summer Dinks. And so, those of us hearty and foolish enough to call this place home head to work. Ah yes friends, the back slapping good times that is seasonal food service have begun. Be just and fear not for it is also the time of the season when THE WELLFLEET BEACHCOMBER is open for business. And that dear friends is where I will be any and every given Sunday until Labor Day. Yes, a vodka tonic in my hand and a quasi-permuted watusi in my heart as I dance with white boy abandon to the real Now Sounds of THE INCREDIBLE CASUALS.

Who the? What the? When the? Where the? Why the? How the? are the INCREDIBLE CASUALS you ask? A simple explanation:

And so, with that THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL/BLOG will be taking a small yet very essential hiatus. See you in the fall. But for now, it's Summertime:

Sex Sells and SQUIDDA Helps

Hey there Squiddies, a post to say thanks for all the support and ching-chang during WOMR's SPRING MEMBERSHIP PLEDGE DRIVE and POLKA STOMP. The set list is up and ready steady go for THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL 17 May 2009, so give it the once over. Aside from our traditional SEX SELLS show for Spring (sadly, We were unable to sell the once popular 3-Way Membership, leaving a randy couple in Wellfleet to suffice with a Family Membership)

We had local favorites SQUIDDA live in the studios at good old 494 Commercial Street. After a few technical difficulties and with the ever important aid from Operations Manager, John-Boy Braden, the show was a hit.


We raised well over $750, A SQUID JIGGER'S BALL personal best. BIG BIG BIG THANKS and BIG BIG BIG LOVE go out to FRED BOAK, Chris Smith/COASTLINE TATTOO, MIGHTY MIGHTY MIKE SAARI, WENDY SCOTT, COLIN SAMUELSON and of course, last but never ever least, Kate Greenhalgh/LEAVE IT TO WEAVER. Also, to SQUIDDA for letting loose a killer version of COME SAIL AWAY, as always they are available for Bar Mitzvahs and Sweet 16's. A bit of the SQUIDDA set will be up soon in Low Tide-a-Phonic Sound.


Until We meet again,Keep on Jiggin'.

MONDO SQUIDO!

Ciao bella, Baby's, the lastest installment of THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL on 3 May 2009 was pure vitaphonic high fidelity Mondo Squido. It was groovy.

It was a sweet ride. A wild trip into the world of the Now Generation, you dig?

All you Squid Jigger's out there making the sweet ride know the score, that one moment when you know that you are aces high. It's Mondo Squido! It's a latino tempo with an overlay of today's rock beat. It's new fangled. It's a bit funky. It's a high souled fiesta. It's Mondo Squido! It's the latest, freshest, spiciest rhythm yet concocted for all you hot-blooded Squid Jigger's and modern-day Squid Jiggerettes.

Nothing is lost in the translation. That's right Baby, the influence is a sock it to me a-go-go. it's Mondo Squido! It's basic rhythm is tribal, and it's intensity is ritualistic, pagan and voluptuous.

Although undisciplined, a rhythmic and melodic blend emerges: subtle on one level, barbaric and frenetic on the other. It's Mondo Squido!


We also went on a Love Bacchanal with Nature, baby.

Grazing in the grass under the sun shine on some velvet morning smelling the flowers and watching the frolic of sonic butterflies, while mermaids swam in the light reflected off of the oceans of the moon in our minds, can you dig it?

It's Utterly simple. It's Instant Dharma.

It's Mondo Squido!

THE SQUID JIGGER'S HOOTENANY REVIVAL and BBQ

THE BITTER and BROKEN MEN'S CHORUS has been together for 10 years, they are Tom Fettig (of Fettig Tile fame, a family business for over 50 years) on vocals and Chris Vetromile on guitar. They have been friends since High School. Both are aging punk rockers who have been in several loud and naughty bands over the years, like PHILTH SHACK, STUDLORDS, SPEEDBUGGY and OVERNITE SENSATION, but have now gone the way of aging punkers, acoustic. However, age and lack of amplification has not lessened their punk rock sensibilities. They are from Orleans.

HOBO VILLAGE are some Wellfleet local color consisting of Grateful Ted Lucas on mandolin, vocals and indoor plumbing, Chris Manulla, guitars, vocals and bivalves (deputy Shellfish Constable of Wellfleet) and Jack Ravenshield on guitar, bass and vocals and are a transcendental proto punk psychedelic folk rock trio. They have been picking and strumming across clam flats, dunes and bars in various incarnations and groups through out the outer Cape, including DIRTY PEARL, SUPERSOUL, ATOM OF LOVE and TERRADACTLE.

Mary J Martin is of course the Outer Cape's high priestess of Uke, a known piker (who owes me $20) and all around bon vivant. MJM started playing Ukulele in Nova Scotia, were she was part of J. CHALMERS DOANE'S group of young Uke players who toured eastern and central Canada eh, and Vermont, made albums and appeared on national radio and television. Sasha Von BonBon, founder and leader of the Toronto burlesque group, SCANDELLES says MJM is their "Uke Diva at large, notorious for blistering LED ZEP solos. She frequently jams with New York's UKULELE-CABARET and Boston's UKULELE NOIR. She is a STRONG believer in the ukulele's versatility in relation to karmic re-alignment. She lives in Provincetown.


Also, it's $10 dollars at the door ($8 with your WOMR member card). 3 bands, and FREE BBQ while supplies last, provided by RUSS and MARIE'S MARCONI BEACH RESTAURANT in beautiful South Wellfleet. Libations are also served, provided by Kevin and all the kind simpatico souls at THE WELLFLEET SPIRIT SHOPPE.

THE SQUID JIGGER'S HOOTENANY REVIVAL and BBQ is the 8th installment of WOMR's HELLTOWN CITY LIMITS series, produced and created by Tony Scungilli, host of WOMR's savagely popular, SQUID JIGGER'S BALL heard the whole world wide (very BIG in Korea) on Outermost Community Radio, 92.1 FM or streaming on womr.org.

Tune in to THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL on streaming WOMR or 92.1 FM on April 19th, THIS SUNDAY from 9 to Midnight for preview of coming attractions of Salvation, true and fine. And for those of you who missed it, the set list is all here, THE SQUID JIGGER'S HOOTENANY REVIVAL 19 April 2009 Also, features a few cuts by Peter Stampfel, solo and with THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS, here is a clip from a concert for the release of the documentary on THE HMR, called BOUND TO LOSE:

Also found some video footage of MJM performing at the WOMR Studio from April of 2008, during the final stop of THE UKULELE CARAVAN for a night called UKULELE LEFTOVERS:

Be just and fear not, fellow Squid Jiggers.

THE BIRDS and THE BEES

The latest installment of THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL for 5 April 2009 was a lecture series on the birds, the bees and the butterflies, the flowers, the trees, and the squiddies (an English-language idiomatic expression which refers to courtship and sex). The phrase is evocative of the metaphors and euphemisms often used to avoid speaking openly and technically about the subject. According to tradition, the birds and the bees is a metaphorical story sometimes told to children in an attempt to explain the mechanics and consequence of sexual intercourse through reference to easily observed natural events such as plant pollination. Yeah baby. Hopefully, you all learned a little something. Also, feel free to use it again. Put all your little chillen' down in front of the radio and play the set list and they will be all set. Simpatico, you dig? Again, no thanks is needed, it's a community service we aim to provide.
Spring has sprung. You feel it? A dip in your hip and that glide in your stride? In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth to spring forth. Spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born. The term is also used more generally as a metaphor for the start of better times. Yeah baby, so dig yourself and be groovy. Go out and do something nice for someone.
Also, we paid some tribute to the late LUX INTERIOR of THE CRAMPS. He passed into perverted glory in February. THE SJB chose to celebrate his achievements and have one more down low ultra twist in his honor:

And of course since we are dancing:

Happy Happy Happy SPRING everyone, enjoy it. Finest Kind. Heigh ho.
Wowie Zowie, our pal Table Top Joe gave us the heads up on this one. He also stated that "you know there's a GOD when you can freely access this stuff". Amen.

BEWARE THE IDES of MARCH (a little late) REDUX

Well now it seems that the mystery of the vanishing SJB post has been solved. It seems there was an issue with a bit of copyright infringement. Oops. All apologies to PRINCE and his Management.
So, here is what I remember was posted (minus the infringement, of course)


The entire set list for THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL 15 MARCH 2009 is just a click away, head over and give it the once over. It seems pretty self explanatory.

Also, we had given up some props to the folks over at IRON LEG for all the great and always entertaining posts. He wrote an amazing description of THE SONICS that summed up THAT band completely. It goes as follows:
If’n you aren’t hep to the Sonics, you mi amigo ought to climb out of your bomb shelter and back into the sunlight, on account of the fact that Gerry Roslie and his gang of thugs tore a hole in the Pacific Northwest during the 60s that shall not soon be mended by either time or anyone’s good intentions.

It was as if Satan himself pulled up to a mental hospital, handed out a truckload of geetars, organs and drums, plugged it all in and sat back and laughed as his creation ran amok. The Sonics were – to borrow an unfortunate but entirely apt phrase – the musical equivalent of “retard strength” – in which pure, unbridled animal energy, mixed with an electrified libido and marinated in grain alcohol is reduced to a serum, injected into Little Richard, who then went to the zoo, mated with a hyena in a swimming pool during an electrical storm then took their unholy spawn into a recording studio (during a tornado) and whipped up something very, very heavy. One of the heaviest products of this union is the song ‘Psycho’, which opens with a drummer who sounds like he’s playing with his feet, followed soon by Roslie’s howling and the rumblings of the frat band from hell. Honestly, there were moments when the Sonics made Screaming Jay Hawkins sound like Bobby Short (look it up…). It’s powerful stuff and shouldn’t be taken on an empty stomach, lest you burn a hole in your feedbag and end up attached to a series of tubes somewhere. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, because I just did.
Brilliant, and to help illustrate that point, I found this here Mondo Video a-go-go:

The SJB aloso recently got HEP to an obscure garage band from days of yore called KIT and THE OUTLAWS. They have a tune called DON'T TREAD ON ME that should be covered by almost every band, but isn't (heads up up up the Steve Woo Woo Wood).

Finest Kind, true believers, Finest Kind.

And finally last but not least, BIG BIG BIG THANKS to our buddy Tom Brogan for filling in on the old SJB, always greatly appreciated. His playlist is right here SJB 29 March 2009

Tom Brogan is also ON every Sunday from Midnight to 2AM hosting his own show, THE FUNNY THING on WOMR. Do check it out it's full of some Belly Achin' guffaws.

Mike Saari guest hosts THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL

Hey There Squiddies, Well it has been awhile now hasn't it? Yes yes yes. I took a week off from THE SJB, but thank whatever Gods will listen, the Mighty Mighty Mike Saari took the helm and kept those squid a jiggin'.

Muchas thanks goes out to him for being a dues paid up brother and fellow simpatico WOMRite and another member of the sacred keep on keepin on ethic. Dig. The set list for his set goes as follows, THE SQUID JIGGER'S BALL 1 March 2009, head over to never ever land and check it out.


Mike was joined by Wellfleet's own HOBO VILLAGE a mutant stomp cross between David Bowie, Pink Floyd and The Holy Modal Rounders. They also appeared on WOMR that following Monday morning, there is some tape of that exchange and it is right here:
HOBO VILLAGE perform NAKED IN YOUR GARDEN, WAYFARING STRANGER , SLEEP WALKING BOY and TURTLE live on WOMR

the GREENHEADS are coming...

Who the what the where the when are the GREENHEADS you ask? My goodness my little Squiddies, what gives? THE GREENHEADS are the most rock'em sock 'em powerhouse garage a-go-go trio that currently stomp the terra 'round these here sand dunes. Yeah, dig, these here GREENHEADS are the cat's pajamas, putting down some crazy cool shizzle dizzle that goes from the medulla oblongata thru the spleen and into your very soul. Wowie zowie, need proof, here is Steve Wood with that other supa-dupa local color favorite favorites, The INCREDIBLE CASUALS:


Many thanks to FRED, aces high. Keep on keepin on.