Tag: Black Oak Arkansas

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Music Record Reviews

In the Land of the Snowblind, Joecephus is King

Trapped in the house with icicles glittering all through my window, the slick street throwing sunbeams back in my face, the day’s listening material practically screams out to be played: Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre’s Snowblind in the Rising Sun. As the early days of the pandemic taught us, being housebound is the absolute best time to get your choogle on. And this is the group to do it with.

The success this group’s had with staging all-star charity tribute albums (Heirs of the Dog: A Tribute to Nazareth, Five Minutes To Live: A Tribute To Johnny Cash, and Mutants Of The Monster: A Tribute to Black Oak Arkansas) might cause casual listeners to forget that they’ve put six albums out over more than a dozen years’ time, all crammed with quality originals. They not only know their way around a riff, they can forge it into a song. And that’s exactly what they do on their latest outing, released last fall.

There could be no better album kickoff than “Voices,” a boogie riff that won’t stop, except when it does, allowing singer Joey Killingsworth to toss out “All by myself, always the same/Stare into the the lie, it’s always a game,” as one verse goes, perhaps making sure we know the “voices in my head” are nothing to worry about.

A spirit of rollicking, rocking fun permeates every minute of this album, even when the chords are laden with doom. And the plainspoken, everyman voice of Killingworth underscores the good times, placing the group squarely in the Mid-South with a refreshing lack of affectation that’s all too rare in this genre.

As for what kind of fun they’re celebrating, the band is quite up front about what makes for their good times, tagging themselves as “country rock,” “hard rock,” and “stoner rock.” And the lyrics pull no punches when it comes to calling out their favorite substances. “Summer of ’93” seems to make references to “windowpane,” and one can assume that someone took a heavy trip thirty odd years ago; the title track sings of being “snowblind in the House of the Rising Sun, on the lam and on the run,” suggesting the involvement of snow-like contraband; and “The Border” offers some sage advice to a galloping beat that recalls the early days of cow punk: “Don’t take weed across the border, or you might get patted down.” Quick on its heels comes “Nothing to Lose,” an ode to “a wake and bake morning, come on stop snoring, get your ass in here and get out of bed/Pack yourself a bong, come on sing along, follow ‘long to the words in my head.”

And yet there’s a more serious side to these voices in Killingsworth’s head: “Life falls apart in the blink of an eye,” he sings on “Life of the Party,” which alternates between a nervous, scratchy riff and a thunderous power-chord chorus. “Company Man” is a portrait of a man who “wants to go out on the town” with a sardonic twist that skewers anyone that “lives for the company” even as twin guitars in perfect Allman Brothers-like harmony kick in with an intoxicating hook. “Cities will crumble, burn to the ground” goes the opening line of “Bleed the Day” which combines a Black Sabbath mood with a Metallica-like crunch. And “Change the Channel” celebrates our ability to snap out of an apocalyptic rut, with Gerald Stephens’ John Lord-like organ wailing through the intro.

One thing that the many excellent records of 2022 prove, from the Subteens to the Drip Edges to HEELS, is that Memphis rocks, and this offering from Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre is Exhibit A. The pounding chords and solos of this album are irresistible, and sure to knock any case of blindness right out of you.

Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre open for The Supersuckers at the Hi Tone Cafe, Saturday, February 4, 8 p.m.

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Black Oak Arkansas tribute Mutant of the Monster

Guest artists assembled for Mutants of the Monster, a tribute to Memphis wildman Jim Dandy and his band Black Oak Arkansas, are a heady mix of alt-country, Southern sleaze, and West Coast punk. The 17-track recording finds a clutch of Memphis performers and longtime members of BOA playing with and appearing alongside legacy outlaw Shooter Jennings, J.D. Pinkus from the Butthole Surfers, Greg Ginn from Black Flag, Jello Biafra from Dead Kennedys, Eddie Spaghetti from the Supersuckers, and Blaine Cartwright and Ruyter Suys from Nashville Pussy.

How did project organizer Joey Killingsworth, who plays locally in bands like Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre and Super Witch, pull together such an eclectic roster? “I worked under the premise that the answer’s always ‘no’ if you don’t ask,” Killingsworth says. So he asked, and more often than not the answer was, “yes.”

Tribute album assembles a roll call of musical legends.

“Shooter was promoting it,” says Killingsworth, giving organizational credit to project partner Dik LeDoux. “I really wanted to work with Greg Ginn, and he said yes. Then the more folks we asked, the easier it became to get people on board.”

BOA only had one minor hit — a cover of LaVern Baker’s “Jim Dandy.” But the band sold out arenas, with groups like Black Sabbath and ELP in the opening slot. They are best known for the onstage washboard-humping antics of frontman Jim Dandy, who was famously a role model for Van Halen’s David Lee Roth, but Killingsworth saw Mutants of the Monster as an opportunity to also pay tribute to the group’s primary guitar slinger, Ricky Reynolds, and its ever-evolving roster of hotshot pickers.

“Jim’s the face of the operation and a great front man, but those guitar players were on a whole other level,” Killingsworth says.

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Jim Dandy Christmas

CREDIT: Ward Boult

Imagine, if you will, an alternative reality where Black Oak Arkansas (BOA) frontman and washboard virtuoso Jim Dandy is Santa Claus, streaking through the winter sky in a red-leather duster festooned with raccoon tails, bringing joy to all mankind and nasty Southern guitar jams to all the good little boys and girls of Memphis. If that’s your kind of rock-and-roll fantasy, the next best thing might be a visit to Murphy’s Irish Pub Sunday, December 21st for IATSE Local #69’s 10th Annual Holiday Bash, benefiting the Church Health Center.

Everybody knows it’s the people working behind the curtain who make Peter Pan fly and Tinkerbell sparkle. This year, the stage technicians’ union hopes to make holiday magic of a different kind with a concert by BOA stalwarts Dandy and his longtime partner in rock, guitarist Rickie Lee.

Ward Boult

Jim Dandy and Rickie Lee

Dandy’s story is classic rock. He was born James Mangrum, but his father sometimes called him “Dandy,” a nickname derived from the Lavern Baker hit song “Go Jim Dandy Go!” Years later, Elvis Presley contacted Dandy to ask why the outrageous, raspy-voiced singer didn’t perform a cover version of his namesake song, and the rest is history. In 1973, BOA’s version of “Go Jim Dandy Go!” spent 15 weeks at number one, and shortly thereafter the group was on tour with Black Sabbath.

The IATSE #69 benefit also features a raffle for Memphis Grizzlies tickets and supporting performances by the Electrick Nobody, the Candy Company, and Raymond’s Last Day.

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Bo Jack Inducted into International Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

CREDIT: Chris Davis

Joey Killingsworth, who plays guitar and sings in contemporary Memphis bands like Super Witch, Grendel Crane, and the George Jonestown Massacre, understands the importance of legacy. Last Thursday, his dad, Bo Jack Killingsworth, a guitar slinger and keyboard pounder who played alongside early Memphis rock artists like Eddie Bond and Charlie Feathers, was inducted into the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, TN, and Joey played at his side.

“Everybody started chanting, “Bo Jack, Bo Jack,” he says, recalling the night.

Saturday evening the younger Killingsworth was busy honoring another group of Memphis area players with a completely different sound. He and a clutch of area musicians gathered at the Mighty Aw Poots studio in Cordova to record “Jim Dandy to the Rescue,” the last track for a Black Oak Arkansas (BOA) tribute project that has attracted contributors like Shooter Jennings, Black Flag’s Greg Ginn, Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers, and Jimbo Mathus. West Coast Punk legend Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys will provide lead vocals for “Jim Dandy.”

Chris Davis

Joey Killingsworth (right)

Killingsworth gets excited when he talks about BOA and its legendary frontman Jim Dandy, the washboard-scratching wildman who shared stages with bands like the Rolling Stones, the Who, King Crimson, and Alice Cooper, and whose onstage antics inspired Van Halen’s David Lee Roth. “They toured with Black Sabbath,” Killingsworth says, as he sets up to record. “Kiss opened for them!”

Killingsworth is just one of several area musicians who has played in current iterations of BOA who are joining forces for the Bastard Sons of Black Oak Arkansas Guitar Festival 2014, Friday, August 15th, at the Stage Stop. The festival showcases the bands Electrick Nobody, Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre, Oliveria and Lost Cauze, each of which includes at least one member who has played with BOA in recent years.

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Hatchett and Harleys on Saturday

Saturday, June 7th, there’s a benefit for Big Brothers and Sisters of North Mississippi at Southern Thunder Harley Davidson. It’s a southern rock blowout. You might think you were at a freaking Byhalia Blowout back in the day with bands like Tullie Brae, Nuttin Fancy, Dead Soldiers, 714, Black Oak Arkansas, and, of course, Hatchett. If Skrillex had three guitarists, I’d probably like him. But watch this video for the bass player’s dance moves. They made my day. I’m going to go practice the bass-dance moves so I can do them in sync at the show.

 

Hatchett and Harleys on Saturday

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Music Music Features

Jim Dandy & Skinny Pimp: Together at Last

Over Thanksgiving weekend 2006, local conceptual hip-hop faves Lord T & Eloise assembled what they called a “Memphis Legends” concert, featuring themselves, Neighborhood Texture Jam, Memphis rap legend Al Kapone, and DJ unit Feelharmonic Orchestra. It would be a gross understatement to say that the self-proclaimed “Aristocrunk” outfit has outdone itself for this year’s followup concert, scheduled for Newby’s Saturday, November 24th.

A simple glance at the talent is enough to raise some eyebrows: Lord T & Eloise headlining a bill that will include local rap pioneer Skinny Pimp, Southern rock enigma Black Oak Arkansas, and up-and-coming rapper Kaz. Perhaps readers need a second to let that sentence sink in.

“Even though we were private-school kids, my friends and I absorbed a lot of rap in the early ’90s, and I loved what Skinny Pimp and Al Kapone were doing back then,” says Lord T, who donned his signature 18th-century powdered wig for the duration of our discussion … at 2:30 in the afternoon. “The music industry didn’t have an ear for Southern rap back then, so the real groundbreakers like Al Kapone and Skinny Pimp went totally overlooked,” he continues.

Known to append “Kingpin” to his moniker, Skinny Pimp began circulating mixtapes in the late ’80s. He was also an early collaborator with DJ Paul and Juicy J who were nurturing a little project of their own called Three 6 Mafia.

Though Allmusic.com lists 2000’s Controversy as the debut album by Skinny Pimp and 211, the rapper made his first significant local impact in the early ’90s with the Kingpin Skinny Pimp and 211 Vol. 1. cassette release. It was on these tapes that Skinny Pimp and his contemporaries showcased what critics would later refer to as “horror rap,” and there’s no doubt that they had a massive impact on the future “crunk” movement.

Skinny Pimp’s nascent version of the genre was marked by stark minimalism and XXX-rated, hyper-violent lyrics. Upon hearing this tape as a senior in high school, I remember it being the only instance in which a form of music made me think I really don’t want my parents to find this tape. Part of the impact came from the sonic makeup. The rudimentary pounding of the drum machine and creepy simplicity of the cheap keyboards gave the recordings a chilling quality.

“I used to buy up the local rap section at Cat’s on Union, and the Skinny Pimp and Al Kapone tapes were my favorites. It was so exciting and surprising to realize that it was Memphis,” says Lord T.

If your frame of reference for Memphis hip-hop history is limited to Three 6 Mafia or the Hustle and Flow soundtrack, do yourself a favor by checking out Skinny Pimp’s set Saturday night.

(Note: Skinny Pimp’s CD releases from the past few years are obtainable and worth it — depending on one’s capacity for sometimes over-the-top subject matter — but the early cassettes are next to impossible to locate, and sometimes command high prices on eBay.)

Black Oak Arkansas rocking the same lineup as Skinny Pimp is something that supports the adage “Only in Memphis.” Though they never achieved the success of fellow Southern-rock bands like the Marshall Tucker Band or the Allman Brothers Band, frontman Jim Dandy Mangrum and Black Oak Arkansas were at it first with an unparalleled raw, primal stomp. They have recently enjoyed a prosperous chapter in their almost four-decade existence, with Rhino Handmade‘s reissue of their classic 1973 live set Raunch ‘N’ Roll, several high-profile overseas festival appearances, and an upcoming album of new material on the SPV label.

“We’re big fans of Black Oak Arkansas, and they created a visual style of hard rock that would be copied for years. It opened the floodgates,” says Eloise. “We tried to put together an evening of great performances,” adds Lord T.