LaMonica pleaded ignorance and quickly changed the name to its current moniker, one he hopes to use for future fund-raising events. He also deviated from the original low-brow conceptual art experiment in few other notable ways: While the Good/Bad version hosts such beloved members of Slobberbone, centro-matic, and Cornhole, the Curtain Club version reads like a who's-who of downtown shellac, a roster sure to please the Fraternity Row crowd: the Nixons, Doosu, Radish, Buck Jones, and Caulk, among others.
The musicians still only get one day to rehearse (Monday), though the four groups of four musicians were teamed up into color-coded "bands" a week in advance; indeed, the makeup of each band has already been advertised (for instance, the Green Band will feature Ben Kweller of Radish, Ricky Wolking of the Nixons, and Pete Thomas of Slow Roosevelt). Good/Bad's Lottery spawned some interesting full-time acts, namely La Cheenies. We can only pray the Dallas contingent won't be so inclined--imagine, a One Ton-Last Beat supergroup!
"I'm not real happy with people stealing stuff, but I think it's been worked out," says Chris Weber, the Good/Bad member in charge of organizing the Rock Lottery. "As long as the name has been changed, then there's no problem." Good/Bad honcho Martin Iles isn't so easily placated. "The whole situation is pathetic and dishonest," he says. "I just hope it's not representative of the whole modus operandi for the Curtain Club. [LaMonica] is staging a watered-down, retarded version of the original. It's the Deep Ellum theme park pushing the bounds of mediocrity. They should be proud."
Sam Paulos, a co-owner of the Curtain Club, knew little of the upcoming event, but remembered LaMonica mentioning a Rock Lottery in Denton and talking about bringing the concept to the Dallas club. "I don't know if he specifically cited Good/Bad," Paulos says. As for LaMonica? Well, he says, "I knew I wanted to do a charity event, and I knew vaguely of a lottery that had happened in Denton. It seemed like a good idea. I wasn't trying to step on anybody's toes."
Deep Ellum Jam Sessions takes place August 13 at the Curtain Club.
--Christina Rees
Scene, heard
Last time I wrote about a record by Will Smokey Logg--which would have been about, oh, six years ago--I mentioned something about how the blues are dead, even frat boys would be bored, blahblahblah; after all, I do hate everything. So it's nice to report that Logg's most recent record wasn't a, well, log. Ghosts of the Totems, released late last year, is a rather nasty piece of work, what Sixty-Six might have sounded like if Bill Longhorse (now appearing in a Movie Channel ad on a television near you, and he sho' is purdy) sounded more like Billy Gibbons. Some of it's standard barrelhouse blues, some is funkier-than-thou ("Sawed-Off Shotgun" kicks its own ass), and all of it beats anything Bugs Henderson has done in a while, bless his heart. Logg says some music from the album may make it into a film he just completed shooting in Weatherford--Blood is Thicker, in which Logg plays a Klansman, and congratulations on that! He's also on the Nick Cave trip these days, having completed three novels (he says one is titled Lament of the Blood Centipedes, which should make for light summer reading) and his very own screenplay, a frothy romantic comedy (isn't it?) titled Kingdom Into Desolation. Logg & The Flamethrowers perform August 15 at the Hole in the Wall...
Speaking of reissues, David Dennard has released a second disc in his Legends of the Big "D" Jamboree series, following his well-received Gene Vincent-does-Dallas disc of a few months ago. This time, the corpse being dug up and handled with care is Johnny Dollar, among the lesser-known local rockabilly heroes of the 1950s. Mr. Action Packed contains Dollar's revved-up rendition of a few songs made famous by Ronnie Dawson (including the Blond Bomber's signature songs "Action Packed" and "Rockin' Bones"), in addition to live renditions of "Jailhouse Rock" and "Great Balls of Fire" performed live on the Sportatorium stage. For a full review, see next week's Out Here; till then, just buy it.
--R.W.
Send Street Beat your 30-year-old records to rwilonsky@dallasobserver.com.
