Friday, July 14, 2006

The Treasure Of Another Man's Trash.....Junkpile Jimmy's 'Alberhill' dbl LP



I'm a tad upset this morning, feelin pangs of nostalgia & a bit wistful for the green, green grass of home. See, I got this letter from my cousin Nell, Nell Young down in Arp, Tennessee. We don't communicate alot, but when we do, I realize how much I miss her company & sense of humor. You'd have to have one w/a name like that! Folk've teased her for it since almost forever, & then that movie 'Nell' come along about 10 or so yrs back & everybody started talkin to her like she was some retarded cabin girl. "I swear to fuckin Christ sake" she told me once, "if another shitbag come's up to me rockin back 'n forth sayin 'tain da wain', I will open up his belly w/my knife & show him his lunch!" Lucky for her, that movie weren't no good & after a spell in the theaters, went straight to bein on airplanes.
But what in particular touched me in this letter was her mentionin Memphis. We used to love to go down there & see bands, buy records, chow down on bbq....damn! Them was fun times. I'm happy to share her letter w/y'all. She ain't missed a beat & by the sounds of it, may have even "discovered" some new talent. It's like that some times.

Dear Cousin Roland:

It's been a while. Hope them Yankee doodle dandy's are treatin you well in Philadelphia. Warren Treftz told me you was writin for a blog up there. I went & had a peek at it. I liked what I seen but it sure don't look like you get much feedback. Maybe them folks up there are to high-falutin for computer readin. It's probably all Myspace pictures or whatever the new thing is. Hard for me to keep up. Arp ain't no Williamsburg, NY. Sure, you got your share of beards & truckers hats, but these fellas are real truckers & no ways they ever paid 5$ for cup a coffee in their lives! You remember Ferlin Marquard? The poor fella that paints them pictures w/pig shit? Well, some skinny art woman from up them done came down & bought up a bunch of his stuff & is lookin to make him a big shot artist! Now I have seen it all.What has come of this world?
So, have you been feedin yourself on them cheesesteaks? Are they any count? I bet they can't touch the pork sandwich at Little Pigs, not by a mile! And you know it. Which was why I was writing you in the 1st place. I just got back from Memphis this past weekend. No reason for the trip, me 'n Hoot just needed to get outta town for a spell. We pampered ourselves, stayin downtown at the Peabody, goin swimmin in their pool that looks like it was built for Tiberius & havin massages, that sorta thing. It was fun. Went over to Goner Records on Saturday & picked up some stuff, one thing in particular I thought you might like was this double lp by a dude that call's himself Junkpile Jimmy. It's called 'Alberhill' & the clerk there says he put it out himself on something called Cartel Ilustre. Where to start? Well, it sure looks like something you'd buy, with the paste-on covers (both front 'n back), hand decorated label's & the music's pretty down 'n dirty too. Have you heard of him? If not, then come wallow in the mud cousin! It sure has got all the rapier hillbilly charms one would associate w/this neck've the woods & I would've sworn he was local, but seems that he's outta California. Wasn't there some band called Doo Rag from out that way few yrs back? I never much cared for them-too affected-but Jukebox Jimmy has tore a page outta their book-King Louie's too-and super charged it w/a load of fixin's that takes it somewhere outside porchville & into a canyon of fuzz overload & reverb. It's got crud-caked blues holler galore but as you dig deeper into the contents, it's layers are many. There's elongated tracks recallin riffs from 'Pink Flag' that get banged out over 'over till it feels like the paint is pealin off the walls. Then a mind meld between that Blues Control tape & Randy Holden's 'Population 2' lp. From there it staggers down some mysterious chasm & the racket that echo's back sounds like mutated, backwoods prog/metal gobble ala Heavy The World plowing though the Dock Boggs songbook. And, how about when that T Rex song gets scalped or when on side 4 he punk's out a cover of The Shirker's 'Drunk & Disorderly' that is so standup you might mistake it for the real thing? It's a handful this record. You'll need all your arms to hug it! There's 3 inserts w/info, lyrics & artwork included too.One claims that this was done from July 1998-April 2003. Recorded in all sort's den's & dive's, it's pretty damn fluid & like the bbq plate at Leonards, there's a lil somethin for everybody. I know how much you love a good yarn & Junkpile Jimmy can spin'em till the cows come home. It doesn't have no email or web address but you can reach out to 14016 Temescal Canyon Rd., Corona, Ca 92883 if you want to say hello. Or go to Goner at http://www.goner-records.com/
Next time your down that way you oughta drop in. Be sure to tell Zac or Eric Nell Young said 'how do'.
Alright now, you take care Cousin Roland. Be speakin at ya soon.

Best Wishes,

Cousin Nell

1 comment:

Bryan said...

d'you write the spam comments, too? that would be the real master stroke.

christ, you do don't you...