Hooverville

Far-out Fibrillation with Franz on Friday

Ah Fong — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:14:19 +0000

Franz Nicolay, the eccentric and entertaining former Hold Steady ( he must be fed up of that) member is in Glasgow this coming Friday. A gig not to be missed

Sleepy’s marchin’ on…Stateside!

Ah Fong — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:58:10 +0000

So it’s not too often you hear of a Scottish artist embarking on a US tour these days. There are exceptions, like yer SXSW when (mainly) shite indie bands get a grant to be chased by Vic Galloway who gets some licence fee money to be a cock on a different continent than usual

However the good ole boys in the southern US are in for a treat, as the King of the Clyde Delta Blues has gambled like rain man and been the wheels merchant for an out of town heist crew on enough occasions to score a ticket for his spiritual home. Aided and abetted by Slate Dump (a fine fellow if ever there was one) Sleepy Eyes Nelson is embarking on his week long tri state tour ‘Covered in Blues’ this coming Saturday. If you’re in Mississippi, Tennessee or West Virginia, check out the dates on the poster below.
Y’all know us at Hooverville are confirmed fans of our man, but isn’t it great to see him head to the states and realise an ambition? Hopefully he’ll not only enjoy himself but pick up a few fans and contacts to further his popularity. It seems to have been a good year for Sleepy, with plenty of cool gig bookings, and I don’t think it’ll jinx the situation to say he’s getting up a head of steam. I was thinking ‘maybe he’ll even get some arts funding for SXSW’ but that’s probably a non starter. He doesn’t have that carefully scruffy mid length wankers hair cut you seem to need and would probably give a good right hook to the fat jester when he asks ‘So why you called Sleepy Eyes? Actually….that interview could be a youtube sensation. Let’s start a campaign!

The day Sleepy Eyes Nelson and James Apollo made me leave the house twice in one day.

Ah Fong — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:49:09 +0000

I used to go to plenty of gigs back in the day. Not every night, maybe 5 or 6 a month. Averaged that is, less in winter and more in summer. But lately (meaning past few years) my monthly average must be about 0.3. Mainly due to work commitments but also due to a loathing of crowds in general and gig crowds in particular. You know the ones, The Talker, The Big Fucking Rucksack, The Overexcited Student, The Complete Arsehole etc etc… But even misanthropy can be usurped by the lure of guys like Sleepy & James and I found myself attending 2 gigs in one night. I was almost like an overexcited student…

Firstly at Stereo to see Sleepy Eyes Nelson. If you’ve been to Hooverville before you know I’m a fan of Nelson’s simple, straight talking Clyde Delta Blues. Among Glasgow’s heavily oversubscribed and under qualified music scene Sleepy Eyes is a beacon for all rational, dignified and cool as fuck music fans like what I am. It was certainly going to be a test for him as he had to follow a very fresh faced band who among many, many other things were VERY LOUD. A lesser bluesman may have balked at this, but our hero took it all in his stride after sinking his 8th, or maybe 14th, beer. The few times I’ve been in stereo the sound has been terrific and Sleepy Eyes benefited from it tonight as his solitary guitar really filled the room. I won’t bullshit you, the crowd wasn’t huge. But they all enjoyed his set especially You Don’t Steal From Me and Dying Rodent Blues, and he sold quite a few Cd’s which I take to be a sign of his increasing popularity. Sleepy’s marchin’ on, baby.

So from Stereo to The Bay to see James Apollo. It’s nigh on five years since i first ran into James and I always make sure to catch him when he’s in town (‘cept that one time i was on holiday) He’s got a certain je ne sais quoi about him, has James. A rakish and likable young fella, he has been slowly gathering pace over the last few years with ace reviews in the press and invites to radio stations galore. What has James got that the others don’t? Style, baby. And vision. Anyone can do songs about heartbreak and loneliness but James Apollo wraps them in a dramatic, cinematic fur coat. His live show has always been entertaining and tonight was no exception. The sound was a little muddy but he held strong for the likes of Happiness and Call Off The Violins, and the closer of Bad Old Buzzard was excellent.

So two gigs in one night, and two different crowds. When I got home my wife asked if i enjoyed myself. I said Yes. Yes I did. Thanks Sleepy, James.

get it right up ye, Drop.io

Ah Fong — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:57:37 +0000

as you can see, we use drop.io for our filehosting here. its quick, simple and pretty cheap.
but now they’ve been bought out by the whores at facebook. good for them! but i wouldn’t mind having my premium account fee returned. some how i think that will be a drop too far.
i’ll be shifting the files over to a new host soon. if you have any suggestions, let me know

More from the Reverend

Ah Fong — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 11:22:55 +0000

So Reverend Dan got wind of our post about his excellent show ‘Music For Nimrods’ (on KXLU radio) and decided to do a tribute to Scotland!

After threatening to play McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre for a full hour he let loose some amazing vintage Scottish tracks from the likes of Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rezillos, Johnny and the self abusers, The Valves and more! That’s right, in one 40 minute set a Los Angelean DJ played more credible Scottish music than our own commercial stations play in a month…

The Tartan tribute starts at around 1hr in!

The Walkmen

Ah Fong — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 11:13:51 +0000

One of my favourite gigs ever was The Walkmen’s first (I think) Glasgow gig at King Tuts in 2004. If i remember rightly they were lumped in with the post Strokes shit tsunami of the time, usually enough to put me off but The Walkmen had a lure I couldn’t deny. ‘The Rat’ was doing the rounds on MTV2 and that channel XFM used to do, and on the strength of that i bought the album Bows+Arrows, and 2 briefs for the Tuts gig. The two very last tickets available, how’s that for luck? The gig was a belter, and i can still see Hamilton Leithouser atop the monitors bellowing ‘yooooo got a nerve…’

They have a new album coming out, Lisbon, and it sounds terrific. Check ‘Angela Surf City’ below, and ‘The Rat’ in lo-fi b&w serenity.

The Walkmen play the Academy with The Black Keys on October 28

Reverend Dan’s Music For Nimrods

Ah Fong — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:29:34 +0000

A few posts below is a piece about Pete Myers AKA The Mad Daddy. Whilst i was researching it I came across a reference to Music For Nimrods, hosted by a character called Reverend Dan. Not sure why, but my interest was piqued enough to make the effort to tune in. His three hour show goes out on the Los Angeles station KXLU at 3am on Saturday (which after a few weeks of missing the first hour i realised is 11AM Glasgow time) so i had to rouse early and take my place hunched over the PC in my underwear. Not for the first time i hear you say, but let’s press on; The Reverend’s show fucking rocked. He was spinning The Blasters, The Cramps, Lou Reed and The Nerves, all the good shit you never hear on radio (bar one show of course) AND he sounds like those crazy DJs you only see in films. The kind that can grate, but on the whole are fucking awesome. Anyways thanks to VLC player not only am I now able to record the show auto-magically but i can save it and share with you bums. Here’s the show from August 28th, check back often for updates, bitchez

Music For Nimrods 28 August

I was born a snake handler, and I’ll die a snake handler..

Ah Fong — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:06:00 +0000

Standing on the corner, Wearing my shades…..

Ah Fong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:01:09 +0000

It was quite a few years ago when I first heard of the mad daddy, aka Pete Myers. it was a wee boxout in Uncut magazine, probably between articles about Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd. Or the Who and the Stones. or, well you get the idea. A diamond in the rough is essentially what I mean.

Pete Myers was a DJ in the late 1950s, and broadcast on WHK in Cleveland. He created a persona for himself, The Mad Daddy, a good natured ghoul with his own far out rhyming patter.

The Mad Daddy show was one wild ride, with Daddy riffing his way through sound effects, distortion and the craziest music of the day. Daddy played the kind of Rock n Roll seldom heard by white ears and this helped him tap into the Ohioan teenage psyche. His off the cuff riffs and rhymes and advertising ad libs are what I think of when I think of American Rock n Roll Radio. Crazy shit done at 100mph, and with a real enthusiasm that few in the UK seem to have done (As far as I know anyway) And Pete was pretty mad away from the studio too, whilst on a contractually enforced 2 week sabbatical he was worried that Cleveland’s throttle jammers and mellow muffins may lose interest, so he arranged a publicity stunt; parachuting into a harbour full of Jello whilst dressed as Zorro, flinging records out on his descent. Lets forget the costume, records and dessertification of a working harbour were kyboshed by the authorities, Pete actually did the jump. His first ever! Mad? you better believe it…

Like all the best stories, this one has a tragic ending. Pete got the chance of going out on a New York station, and jumped at it. However those east coast morons just didn’t get Daddy, and the gig was cancelled after one show. The Mad Daddy flitted about a few other stations after that, and even transmogrified back into plain old Pete, but it seems he became depressed and disillusioned by his New York experience. Pete Myers committed suicide on October 4th 1968.

So long, Daddy. Let me pay a small salute by airing his 2nd last show on WHK ( I think), and lastly how about The Cramps own tribute. Lux Interior was one of Oobladi’s most fervent Mad Minions

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Indulge me…

Ah Fong — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:14:04 +0000

Back in the day i fancied myself as something of an artistic, sensitive sort. Always one to seek out the left field music, books and film was I. Don’t call me mainstream, Mabel. I was like a young Melvyn Bragg, or do I mean Billy? Whatever, i used to haunt a video rental shop (remember them?) on Great Western Road looking for independent and art house films. Preferably with explicitly vile sex scenes, it being the days before the internet… A film I recently remembered watching was Buffalo 66, with Christina Ricci and Vincent Gallo (who also made it)

Buffalo 66 was a cool film, a guy out of prison abducts a girl and has her pretend to be his wife for the benefit of his family, but lo and behold a real romantic frisson develops. I couldn’t actually remember the plot of the film and had to look it up. But I’ve never forgotten the tapdancing Ricci….