New In 2022

" Except Dylan, of course ;-) "

Oh no, he's definitely no exception....

Neil Young and The Promise of the Real - Live (August)

@bdp24 - hey, man - thanks for that rundown. The Donuts sounds vaguely familiar as I used to be a regular denizen of the Mab from when they started doing punk gigs in '76 till around '79 and the atmosphere started getting more 'aggressive'. This woman I hung out with was really good friends with Danny Mihm, who was drumming with the Groovies at the time, so I'd see him at a lot of parties. 

I loved the Plimsouls, and another from around that time I was keen on were the Bongos....

I can't believe you said Cornell Hurd - Kevin McCaffrey, who used to manage Cornell Hurd and his Mondo Hotpants Orchestra, is a really good friend of mine; he hired me on to be assistant buyer at the Banana Records chain... We email back and forth all the time.  Did you know Kevin? 

@larsman: Small world! I remember Kevin’s name, but can’t picture his face (I’m sure we’ve met, but the 70’s are somewhat of a blur ;-). Donut’s guitarist Paul Skelton was in Hurd’s Mondo Hotpants Orchestra, whom I first saw live at De Anza College in Cupertino. I have all TMHO 45’s and LP’s, and most of Cornell’s CD’s recorded since his relocation to Austin in the late-70’s.

The last time I was in Austin my traveling companion (Kim Winn, formerly a member of TMHO) got up on stage with Cornell at The Broken Spoke and sang a song (Merle Haggard, George Jones, Hank Williams, or Johnny Cash? I don’t remember). I’ve known Kim since 1959, and played with him in numerous bands, the first in 1968. Skelton was playing his old Telecaster, sounding better than ever. For the Dave Alvin fans reading this: Cornell's female drummer left the band to join Alvin's band The Guilty Women.

I never played with Cornell, but was in a band with Cornell’s younger brother Drew, a Jump Blues/Swing band named The South Bay Blues Band (changed to The South Bay Revue after we added a black female vocalist to share the front of the stage with Drew). Drew was of course also a member of The Mondo Hotpants orchestra off-and-on over the years. A giant pothead ;-), and 78 collector.

I saw The Plimsouls live a lot, one of my favorite L.A. bands (along with The Beat, Los Lobos, The Blasters, The Long Ryders, and The Continental Drifters). The last time I saw The Plimsouls live was in the mid-80’s, at a small place on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City named The Garage. My gal (a huge Plimsouls/Peter Case fan) and I got there in time to hear the opening act---whose name I had never before heard---start their set. They began their opening song, and she and I looked at each with mouths agape---they were fantastic! It was Los Lobos, who had not yet recorded their debut English language album. There’s no better place for live music outside of Austin than Los Angeles!

Oops, above I meant to say The South Bay Swing Band, not Blues Band. Tenor and baritone saxes, acoustic piano (try lugging one of those around in a van ;-), one guitar (a fat-bodied Gibson), electric bass, 4-pc drumset, and singer(s). Fun band! We gigged mostly from San Francisco down to Monterey.