Torpedo Booking Agency has announced the first of the 69 Cats European tour dates click HERE to view them, the tour will begin in May of 2015. Check back for more dates and contact Jan at Torpedo HERE to book the band in Europe.
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The 69 Cats Booking European Tour
Torpedo Booking of Berlin, Germany has started booking the 69 Cats Spring 2015 European Tour. Contact them at the link below to get your festival or venue in on the action, the dates will fill up fast!
Click HERE for more info and to contact Torpedo Booking.
Heathen Apostles New Video Goes Live
The first Heathen Apostles video from the Without A Trace EP has gone live. The song is Before You Go and the video was directed by Billy Clift, who also did the promo video for the Heathen Apostles’ 2013 album Boot Hill Hymnal.
Heathen Apostles’ “Without A Trace” 4 Star Review
‘Without A Trace’ by Heathen Apostles
by James Carlson
Rating: 4/5 stars
September 1, 2014
If there is such a thing in the current fringe roots genre as a supergroup, it would certainly be the Los Angeles-based dark roots and alt-country band Heathen Apostles, whose participating artists include ex-members of Radio Noir (Mather Louth), The Cramps (Chopper Franklin), Kings of Nuthin’ (Thomas Lorioux), and Christian Death (Stevyn Grey) in its ranks. That is one hell of a lineup. And their collective musical output is equally impressive.
Heathen Apostles made quite an entrance on to the scene with their debut full-length album, Boot Hill Hymnal. And now, this gothic outsider country and dark roots quintet have written and released a new EP of material on Ratchet Blade Records, titled Without A Trace. This three-song release is a worthy follow-up to Boot Hill Hymnal, even though the three songs go by all too quickly at a little over ten minutes. Quite simply, this is one of those quality over quantity things.
Without A Trace opens with the EP’s title track, moving from wild Irish folk-like fiddle, a beat akin to marching drums, and punctuating strums, to somewhat of a country punk bit, all with Louth’s strong vocals. “Before You Go,” the second track, is a slower gothic country offering, with clear strumming, string picking, a beat that carries the song structure forward, subtle yet effective bass, and Louth’s voice at its most hauntingly beautiful on the EP. The Closer, “Lily of the West,” is a countrified murder ballad and arguably the best song on the release.
Read the review on Examiner.com HERE.
Preview Without A Trace HERE.
Chopper Recommends Albums on Shattered Platter
Chopper did a piece a while back for the vinyl record website Shattered Platter where he recommends lps, turntables, speakers and booze:
Scott “Chopper” Franklin (The Cramps/Wanda Jackson/ Charley Horse/The Mau Maus) gives suggestions for blues & roots music to check out.
Low Estate 16 Horsepower
All of 16 HPs records are on heavy rotation around here, but Low Estate gets the most spins. If a Faulkner reading ever needed a backing track this would get the call. You’ll think you’re listening to the Devil hisself, but when you find out singer David Eugene Edwards is actually deeply religious, you’ll be even more intrigued.
Blues Classics by Memphis Minnie
In my latest project the Heathen Apostles we are doing Black Rat Swing, and ever since pulling out and listening to this record to learn it, I haven’t been able to stop. Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey may have gotten all the accolades, but Minnie is the real deal. This is a great cross-section of her best sides from the 1920’s to the late 1940’s.
Red of Tooth and Claw Murder By Death
When I first put this record on I thought I was hearing the soundtrack to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, and later when I read the lyrics I knew I was. First Adam Turla’s amazing voice kicks you down, then Sarah Balliet’s great cello steps on your throat. Get two copies of this, you’ll wear the first one out.
Something’s Wrong/Lost Forever Scott H. Biram
This is stripped-down, one-man-band music at its best, but Time Flies is as slick as anything you’ll ever hear. SHB manages to capture both the grit and melody of Leadbelly, along with some great Hank Williams, Sr. storytelling (though a little “rougher around the edges”). He puts on a great live show, too.
Lil Son Lil Son Jackson
Some (incorrectly) call Lil Son a poor man’s Lightnin Hopkins, but this Texas blues stands on its own and also has a great swamp feel to it. On this record (1960 re-recordings of some of his earlier hard-to-find classics) he gives Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo a run for their money. It’s a recent Arhoolie re-issue, shouldn’t be hard to find.
Well, I go through turntables like crazy, so I keep a stack of them in a back room. The current one is a Technics DC Servo, next up…?
I go through JBL home speakers and a bottle or ten of Old Overholt.
CLICK THE POSTER FOR INFO
CLICK THE COVER TO PREVIEW “THE HEXED DUB”
CLICK THE COVERTO PREVIEW “THE IN BETWEEN”
CLICK THE COVER TO PREVIEW “SPAGHETTI WESTERN DUB No. 1”
CLICK THE COVER TO PREVIEW “BLOOD, TEARS AND THUNDER DUB”
CLICK THE COVER TO PREVIEW “THE SCORPION SAYS DUB” SINGLE
CLICK THE COVER TO PREVIEW “GOTHIC WESTERN HAUNT” SINGLE
CLICK COVER TO PREVIEW “BLOODGRASS VOL. 3 & 4”
CLICK COVER TO PREVIEW “THE GOODBYE FAMILY EP”
CLICK COVER TO PREVIEW “PRAYERS BEFORE THE PLAGUE”
CLICK COVER TO PREVIEW “BORN BY LIGHTNING”
CLICK COVER TO PREVIEW “DUST TO DUST”
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO “THE FALL” EP
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO “BLOODGRASS VOL. I & II” LP & CD
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘MISERY AND GIN’ EP
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘REQUIEM FOR A REMIX’
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘FIRE TO THE FUSE’
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘BOOT HILL HYMNAL’
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘SCORCHED EARTH POLICIES’
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘PROFESSIONAL SINNERS’
CLICK COVER TO LISTEN TO ‘UP JUMPED THE DEVIL’
