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Andy Prieboy: A Sampler
Jun. 18th, 2009 09:35 amSince sovay asked—Andy Prieboy, multi-instrumentalist and former lead singer of Wall of Voodoo (he replaced Stan Ridgway), is probably "best"-known (if at all) as the author of "Tomorrow, Wendy", covered to great effect by Concrete Blonde. Over the years, however, he's written many more, equally great songs...so here are some of them, absolutely free of charge.;) If they attract enough of your attention to make you want to seek out his CDs, then good on ya, and good luck: Cat's the very definition of a one-man cult object. Still...
We'll start with “Loving the Highway Man” (http://www.box.net/shared/6k2625mecl), from ...Upon MY Wicked Son, another cover-spawner (it was done by Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, on their album Western Wall). But Prieboy’s own version is…different, for obvious reasons, and I find both equally necessary.
Then there's “Send in the Drugs” (http://www.box.net/shared/phj10nlf4f). It's an obscurity in an already-pretty-obscure ouevre, a subsidiary track on his Montezuma was a Man of Faith E.P., which I once found for three bucks in a discard bin at Sam the Record Man’s. It’s built around a sample of an old (possibly Cajun) man singing something utterly unintelligible, which Prieboy himself says he can’t identify anymore. Slacker culture at its catchiest, much like black mold.
“That was the Voice” (http://www.box.net/shared/j2qf7zuyfm) was also built around a sample; in this case, it’s from Hitler's Inferno, which a former friend of mine had on vinyl (it contains such Nazis-are-the-craziest-peoples! “hits” as the Nuremberg trial war criminals all pleading “not guilty”, and jolly marching tunes like “When the Black S.S. and the Brown S.A. March Away” [“And still, these murderers sang!”]). This is an absolute tour de force, in which Prieboy conflates his own mistaken gay-bashing by some local prick with injustices “from Tienamen Square to Romania, to the jails in South America, South Africa’s kangaroo courts and between my house and the liquor store!” Hubris, perhaps--but it's hubris you can dance too, and feel bad doing so.
In Sins of my Fathers' “Build a Better Garden” (http://www.box.net/shared/z6zyn2ufj8), meanwhile, Andy’s basically the Devil, helpfully/charmingly telling Adam and Eve how best to ruin everything for everybody else, in order to get back at God for evicting them from Eden: Control food distribution, start selling sex, etc. I particularly like the fade-out, during which he just suddenly starts listing off global wars in rough order of occurrence: “There’s the First Messanean, the Second Messanean…”
And here’s the one my friend Jason Taniguchi always puts on mixes for people who don’t know any Andy Prieboy at all: “New York Debut of an L.A. Artist (Jazz Crowd)” (http://www.box.net/shared/968kexlcjh), which is a demented sound collage of snarky comments probably Overheard in New York by Andy on some friend’s behalf (or maybe even his own), never forgiven, then eventually immortalized in song: “L.A. artists? We eat ‘em for breakfast! What do they know? Where’d all the dip go?”
Finally, we'll close with my own personal favorite—the one I’m going to name a Cornish sisters story after, eventually—“Montezuma Was a Man of Faith” itself (http://www.box.net/shared/vmx08zojhd), which has a serious skeleton cantina Tex-Mex stomp to it, all Viva Calaca! swagga. Bleak, sweet, and not bad history either, for something with only three verses.
And now...happy Thursday, all. I'm going to go work on those columns I've owed FearZone since roughly forever.
Amended to add: Oh yeah, and I might as well throw in this, too, since I have it--"Maybe That's Not Her Head" (http://www.box.net/shared/8p8gctbgo8), a highly representative bit of cabaret/operetta nonsense from the same guy who wrote the acclaimed theatrical musical drama White Trash Wins Lottery...ie, Prieboy. Thus reinforcing my general impression that whatever he's doing these days, he really should be doing more of it.
We'll start with “Loving the Highway Man” (http://www.box.net/shared/6k2625mecl), from ...Upon MY Wicked Son, another cover-spawner (it was done by Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, on their album Western Wall). But Prieboy’s own version is…different, for obvious reasons, and I find both equally necessary.
Then there's “Send in the Drugs” (http://www.box.net/shared/phj10nlf4f). It's an obscurity in an already-pretty-obscure ouevre, a subsidiary track on his Montezuma was a Man of Faith E.P., which I once found for three bucks in a discard bin at Sam the Record Man’s. It’s built around a sample of an old (possibly Cajun) man singing something utterly unintelligible, which Prieboy himself says he can’t identify anymore. Slacker culture at its catchiest, much like black mold.
“That was the Voice” (http://www.box.net/shared/j2qf7zuyfm) was also built around a sample; in this case, it’s from Hitler's Inferno, which a former friend of mine had on vinyl (it contains such Nazis-are-the-craziest-peoples! “hits” as the Nuremberg trial war criminals all pleading “not guilty”, and jolly marching tunes like “When the Black S.S. and the Brown S.A. March Away” [“And still, these murderers sang!”]). This is an absolute tour de force, in which Prieboy conflates his own mistaken gay-bashing by some local prick with injustices “from Tienamen Square to Romania, to the jails in South America, South Africa’s kangaroo courts and between my house and the liquor store!” Hubris, perhaps--but it's hubris you can dance too, and feel bad doing so.
In Sins of my Fathers' “Build a Better Garden” (http://www.box.net/shared/z6zyn2ufj8), meanwhile, Andy’s basically the Devil, helpfully/charmingly telling Adam and Eve how best to ruin everything for everybody else, in order to get back at God for evicting them from Eden: Control food distribution, start selling sex, etc. I particularly like the fade-out, during which he just suddenly starts listing off global wars in rough order of occurrence: “There’s the First Messanean, the Second Messanean…”
And here’s the one my friend Jason Taniguchi always puts on mixes for people who don’t know any Andy Prieboy at all: “New York Debut of an L.A. Artist (Jazz Crowd)” (http://www.box.net/shared/968kexlcjh), which is a demented sound collage of snarky comments probably Overheard in New York by Andy on some friend’s behalf (or maybe even his own), never forgiven, then eventually immortalized in song: “L.A. artists? We eat ‘em for breakfast! What do they know? Where’d all the dip go?”
Finally, we'll close with my own personal favorite—the one I’m going to name a Cornish sisters story after, eventually—“Montezuma Was a Man of Faith” itself (http://www.box.net/shared/vmx08zojhd), which has a serious skeleton cantina Tex-Mex stomp to it, all Viva Calaca! swagga. Bleak, sweet, and not bad history either, for something with only three verses.
And now...happy Thursday, all. I'm going to go work on those columns I've owed FearZone since roughly forever.
Amended to add: Oh yeah, and I might as well throw in this, too, since I have it--"Maybe That's Not Her Head" (http://www.box.net/shared/8p8gctbgo8), a highly representative bit of cabaret/operetta nonsense from the same guy who wrote the acclaimed theatrical musical drama White Trash Wins Lottery...ie, Prieboy. Thus reinforcing my general impression that whatever he's doing these days, he really should be doing more of it.
