Caught on the In Between Playlist 12-08-08

"We’ve been waiting so long, for someone to come along…" Death 'Politicians In My Eye'

I’ve lived in Vermont for 4 and a half years and during that time I’ve seen a ton of great shows. The bigger – The Decemberists, DeVotchka, Jason Isbell, Ryan Adams, Dr. Dog, Against Me!, Feist at the Flynn, Old Crow Medicine Show, Wilco, Gogol Bordello, etc—and the smaller—In Memory of Pluto, Lowell Thompson, the Radio Bean birthdays, Honky Tonk Tuesdays, The Husbands AKA, Barbacoa, etc—but no show has been more hyped up than the Rough Francis shows over the weekend of 12/6. They came out of nowhere, but immediately it was all the talk around town. Their unique story helped to fuel the fire and the mystery kept it going strong. The story goes a bit like this…

Back in 1974, the brothers Hackney (David, Daryl, & Bobby Sr.) were a rock n roll band playing in their grandmother’s garage in Detroit. They went by the name Death and released a self-recorded demo that gained a lot of ground and attention around the punk, r&b, Motown, and rock’n’roll crowds of Detroit. Eventually the demo found its way to Clive Davis who was at Columbia Records at the time. He offered them a record contract with the stipulation that they had to change their name. They wouldn’t budge on the name and thus he didn’t offer them the contract. Eventually Death split up and Daryl and Bobby Sr. made their way to Vermont and have been playing roots reggae music ever since with the band Lambs Bread International. It seemed that, like many bands over the years, Death had seen their day and would soon be lost and forgotten.

And for the most part they were, until one of this generations Hackneys was out at a party in California and heard the demo being played. He called his dad and told him that the demo had started being played in some underground parties and clubs and was picking up a cult following. Needless to say, Bobby Sr. was shocked. Fast forward a couple months and Drag City Records will finally be releasing the album in Feb ’09 and Rough Francis set up 3 shows over 6 days playing the demo in its entirety.

I caught all three shows and all were excellent, but the standout was definitely the very first show at 242 Main on Friday. The show at the Monkey House on Saturday was cool due to the fact that I was standing up front next to Bobby Hackney Sr. as he watched his sons play the songs that he had written over 30 years ago in their grandmother’s garage. According to Bobby Jr., Rough Francis will be staying together as a band and will be writing some of their own music, but I’m sure they’ll keep some Death tunes in their live sets. They are a band to keep on your radar, so if you see that they are playing around town, get off your couch and go check them out.

In honor of these shows, I started off the show (after the intro surf rock version of California Sun by Dick Dale) with two of the Death songs that came from their original demo—Keep on Knockin and Politicians in My Eye. These mp3s are around the Net, so look for them and get yourself a copy. They’re great tunes and they’ll get you pumped up to get what Bobby Jr. calls “the best record I’ve heard in my entire life” when it comes out in Feb.

I kept the punk going for the rest of that set with the Descendents tune Suburban Home, The Buzzcocks Ever Fallen In Love?, and finally Television’s Venus from their incredible album Marque Moon.

For the next set I played some music that would be very hard to classify. I started off the set with Washington Bullets by The Clash which I believe is on their triple album, Sandinista!. Following that I played a song from the Diplo produced mix-tape, Top Ranking, featuring Santogold and Movado called L.E.S. Artistes which has one of the most catchy melodies I’ve heard in awhile. Diplo is a great DJ/producer who has put out a bunch of great mix-tapes and as well as did most of the beats to M.I.A.’s phenomenal album, Arular. Next up was Parade by Pretty Girls Make Graves. They can be hit and miss, but I really like their Elan Vital album that this song comes from. It’s mostly punk-ish music, but this one has a slower beat to it and also a great melody. This set finished up with Vampire Weekend’s The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance off of their excellent self-titled album that came out over the last couple years. These guys get a lot of flack from people, probably b/c of the amount of attention they got from the press this year, but I’m a big fan b/c of their obvious Paul Simon influence.

Ted Hawkins dominated the next set with Watch Your Step and If You Love Me, two fantastic tunes off of his album, Watch Your Step. Next we we jumped into a little of the legendary Sam Cooke next with Bring It On Home To Me and then finished off the show with Donovan’s Colours, a song all about my favorite time of the day—morning.

1. California Sun – Dick Dale – Unknown Territory
2. Keep on Knockin – Death – Demo
3. Politicians in My Eye – Death – Demo
4. Suburban Home – Descendents – Milo Goes To College
5. Ever Fallen In Love? – The Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady
6. Venus – Television – Marquee Moon
7. Washington Bullets – The Clash – The Clash On Broadway
8. L.E.S. Artistes (feat. Movado) – Santogold – Top Ranking
9. Parade – Pretty Girls Make Graves – Elan Vital
10. The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance – Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
11. Watch Your Step – Ted Hawkins – Watch Your Step
12. If You Love Me – Ted Hawkins – Watch Your Step
13. Bring It On Home To Me – Sam Cooke – Greatest Hits
14. Colours – Donovan – Donovan’s Greatest Hits