1989 was the bellwether year for Albuquerque's modern music era as the Duke City's nascent music scene finally pulled free of past stylistic associations in a sudden rush of DYI mania. Bold ideas delivered via less than adequate resources. What was the origin of this unexpected surge of hip credibility upon what up until then had been the exclusive domain of plodding cover bands and big hair metal combos? No big mystery there. Like other college towns (Athens, Seattle, Austin, Chapel Hill, Tucson) Albuquerque became a mecca for above average collegiate smart asses goosestepping along with jangle rock/indie movement as it swept across America in all its lo-fi splendor. The stripped down minimalism and sad-sack pathos fit right in with “Burque's sense of desperation and almost pathological need for validation. This sloppy spirited awakening took root and just like a typical New Mexican weed, thrived under conditions that would kill off less hearty types. Albuquerque's music scene has never quite blended into any particular style. But, looking back in retrospect, the period between 1989-1999 was as close to a definitive “Duke City Sound” as we'll ever get.
What do the critics think?... “Dirt City Chronicles podcast is the best microcosmic document yet of an erratic, invigorating and ever evolving local music scene” ~ The Rocky Mountain Oyster ~ “A postcard from the edge” ~ Mogollon Rim Review ~ “Southwestern Culture on the Skids” ~ Deming Graphic ~ “A nice break from 'Burque's typically folk driven guitar-rock (with banjo)” ~ The Deseret Gazette ~ “Dirt City Chronicles, better than one stop shopping on Record Day” ~ The Lordsburg Liberal ~
Boy Howdy! A nifty compilation of well-played, tuneful tunes that thunder along with concise energy and total whimsy. it's the opportunity for newcomers to glean a sensible summary of Albuquerque's long and storied musical history without spending hours mining the internet or digging through crates searching for insanely rare vinyl ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
A Little Love (It's Alright) Lizard House Breaker 19- Ant Farmers Cracked From the Sun- Dead Leonard And you Drive your Pretty Car- Strawberry Zots Yeah- Elephant Ycrad- Allucaneat Kill- Angry Babies Lockit- Naomi Beautiful- Bellyachers Girl in the Cake- Ant Farmers Trans Am- Elephant Kids I Hate- Ant Farmers Waste of Time- Strawberry Zots Kreig (One Black Crayon) January's Little Joke Cast in Stone- Dead Leonard Take Your Time- Lizard House Colors- Lost Souls Plastic Diamond Ring- Mumble Bella- Naomi Just the Beginning- The Affections Get Me to the World on Time- Strawberry Zots Spikey Aardvark- Treadmill Brown Tablet- Ant Farmers Piano in the Woods- Lizard House
Nevermind The Bullocks, Here's Dirt City Chronicles
The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic 2012 phenomenon. It's now three years on, so we can surmise that the Mayans were either wrong or bad at math. You don't need algebra to cipher out the baker's dozen. The long measure is 13 and on the thirteenth day of the second month, let's cast aside our triskaidekaphobia. Saint Anthony of Padua has graced us and we have nothing to fear. Love and pollen are in the air. The cold north wind is the harbinger of winter, the devouring one, strong and unruly. The Zephyr by contrast is the gentlest of winds, the messenger of spring, which we now await.
For the fundamental truth is self determination of the cosmos, for dark is the suede that mows like a harvest and loud is the sound that cuts through the ghostly netherworld, fused with seductive menace, shimmering with mystery. These are the shadow lands, where ancient dramas of love, lust, beauty, and despair are enacted night after night. "the sound of someone as maddened as they are enthralled, aglow with anger and passion" A ghost world of dope addled paranoia, dissolving identity, suffocated love, sexual turmoil and oblique violence. Sounds like a typical Saturday Night in downtown 'Burque to me.... Audi 5000 ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
Significant Bummer- Partman Parthorse I Like to Die- The Drags Drink for Free- Bovine Blondie- Bring Back Dad Secret Spy- The Eyeliners Gracchi Saturday Night- The Gracchi Yeah!- Elephant Lil' Dude- Partman Parthorse Ditch Troll- Racist Cop About the Girl Next Door- The Meek Sissy Boy- Bring Back Dad Standing on the Corner- The Gracchi Postal- The Eyeliners Punk Rod- Beefcake in Chains Automatic- Scared of Chaka Think of Me- The Eyeliners Sweet- Volume Volume Trans Am- Elephant Do Pot- Racist Cop Threw it Away- The Gracchi Minneapolis- Bring Back Dad Beefcake in Chains- Beefcake in Chains Headache- The Eyeliners
Albuquerque, N.M. “Mile High and Loud as Hell” Dirt City Chronicles is a gritty, low budget repository of local music, produced by the plethora of New Mexico based musicians and beyond. So, sit back, pick the grit out your teeth and tap along to an eclectic cacophony of original music, thirty plus years in the making.
On the television series Sons of Anarchy they are portrayed as one dimensional cartoonish thugs who stumble from one disastrous criminal venture to another. Yet, I've always found the Mayans MC more intriguing than the Sons. In true Bushido fashion they march off to their deaths like ape hanger kamikaze pilots. Emotionless and stoic, they have the life expectancy of a fruit fly. A steadfast rush without any clue as to what lays ahead, fools rush in... or so they say. Do Mayans dream of electric jaguars?, fuck if I know
Episode 12, chock full of manic tension and disarming charm. Accelerating like a hard rock machine, fueled by thrash riffs, trash vocals, spaghetti western twang and go fuck yourself attitude. You'll figure it out. ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
An Empty Apartment- Swales Heart Throbbin'- Romeo Goes To Hell Vomit Rocket- Pan!c Don't Ask- Stabbed in Back Overload- Weird A Neighborhood- The Unemploid Zozobra- The Leaky Faces The Drinking Song- Arroyo Deathmatch 12 Pack Lovin'- The Rum Fits Between my Teeth- Romeo Goes To Hell Should I Buy it or Sell It- Adobe Homes Herman Melville- Levi the Poet Going to California- The Leaky Faces GIN- The Vassar Bastards Head Damage- Weird A Steam- The Leaky Faces Urban Graves for Fetal Sharks- Arroyo Deathmatch Memorial Day- Stabbed in Back Redneck- The Unemploid Blue Balls- Swales Symbols- Swales Where are You- The Leaky Faces We Love the Burning Silos- The Burning Silos
Albuquerque, N.M. “Mile High and Loud as Hell” Dirt City Chronicles is a gritty, low budget repository of local music, produced by the plethora of New Mexico based musicians and beyond. So, sit back, pick the grit out your teeth and tap along to an eclectic cacophony of original music, thirty plus years in the making.
Big bottom metal, locomotive guitar riffs and laconic drums beats, whipping up a head of steam... I miss the days when this type of music set you apart. It's practically gone now. Driven off by the legion of angst driven emo /screamo /math rock posers that flooded “Burque's music scene like a horde of rats after dark in an abandoned cheese factory
Heavy is thy name, Wino Weinrich is thy God. Crank out that I drink cheap beer and bong hit schwag all night type of music, that I smoke angel dust, drop acid and seek out mayhem type of music... that's the shit. So low, it's been real. I'm leaning fast into the twisted night. The forecast calls for doom, better bust out your iron brolly ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
Shanty- Catfish Hunter Pistol Star- SuperGiant Head On Collision- Black Maria Doghouse- Unclean Snow Plow- Space Truckers Hellucination- Tendorizor Bedford- Catfish Hunter Mountain Candy Rape- Leeches of Lore Antares- SuperGiant Ear Banger- Space Truckers End of it All- Treadmill Witness- Catfish Hunter Lady Cop- Black Maria Retribution Shot- Space Truckers Unkept- The Ground Beneath Ramble Song- The Dirty Clydes Court of Kings- Five Hundred Gateway- Winterlock Soul Crusher- Catfish Hunter The Agent- Sincerely
Wondering how the hell I got here, in this godforsaken town: In Top Gun, Goose is a smart ass. He's always cracking wise, hamming it up and he winds up being the only character killed off in the entire movie. Jimmy the Goose in Mad Max was an unrelenting wise ass, who even after suffering serious injuries in a motorbike crash, quips that it's "Nothing a year in the tropics can't fix." Shortly after which he's turned into bbq by Johnny the Boy and Toecutter. Rule of thumb: smart asses always seem to get theirs.
La frontera ya no tiene burros. no need to roll your r's when pronouncing seguro The similarities between Fast Heart Mart and Sean Lucy are uncanny. I wonder if they they've ever met? I look out my back window and all I see is trees... little trees Someone should pass along a copy of “Family Business” to Steve Earle, it's the perfect companion to Copperhead Road (a Moonshiner concert favorite) By my estimation, what separates Albuquerque's music scene from the Santa Fe and Las Cruces variety is how quickly the talent thins out. So, it would stand to reason that in the case of Las Cruces (to use a sports phrase) the bench would be thin. This compilation however disproves that notion. Top to bottom, it's all good. Lost Cruces volume two, click your heels together and you're home. Bullet- Moonshiners Violent Hands- Rawdogs Lord Lord- Everett Howl and the Wolves Way of the Buffalo- The Gold Hearted Crows Been Waiting- CW Ayon New Mexico- Desert Ratts Last Stop- Dusty Low Black Egg- The Beat Cowboys Family Business- Moonshiners I'm Not Me- Dirty Jones Rambler- Thee Calaveras I'm Drunk- Cardo Solis Drunken Disorder- Hometown Letdown Sure Enough- Sean Lucy Desert Ratt Theme- The Desert Ratts Song for Townes- Sean Lucy Hasn't Rained- Moonshiners No Way in this World- Sean Lucy Texas Women/Memphis Girl- Everett Howl and the Wolves Dead or Alive- The Beat Cowboys Willow Grove- The Gold Hearted Crows
Albuquerque, N.M. “Mile High and Loud as Hell” Dirt City Chronicles is a gritty, low budget repository of local music, produced by the plethora of New Mexico based musicians and beyond. So, sit back, pick the grit out your teeth and tap along to an eclectic cacophony of original music, thirty plus years in the making.
Parts is parts and music is just that, music. No matter, one man's music is another man's 8-bit chip tune gothic folk rock cowpunk. We live in an age of genres and if so desired, every noise in the world can be slotted into a category of choice. There's a thousand banjo pickers and fiddlers in Santa Fe/ Albuquerque (augmented by any number of chicks plucking ukuleles and mandolins) So, whatever your poison.... Americana, Outlaw, Norteño, urban country, folk punk, gothic country, bro country, nu-grass, we got you covered. ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
Ballad of Heisenberg- Los Cuates de Sinaloa Better Call Saul, the song- Junior Brown La Verdolaga- Mala Maña Townes- E. Christina Herr Abalone- The Porter Draw Amanda - Todd and the Fox Hey Joe - Pawndrive Moth - Arroyo Deathmatch Basking Sounds - AJ Woods Embers- Cattalo Cold Rain and Snow - Mary and Mars Diggin' a Grave - Sam Miller Mississippi Queen - Bud Melvin Winter Song - Manuka Piglet Little Birdie - Good Old Shoulder Many Long Ago - The Whiskey Priest Spider Walker- Javelina Locked In- The Porter Draw Moses Stuttered- Todd and the Fox My Revolver- Lowlights Myra Joyce- The Porter Draw
Albuquerque, N.M. “Mile High and Loud as Hell” Dirt City Chronicles is a gritty, low budget repository of local music, produced by the plethora of New Mexico based musicians and beyond. So, sit back, pick the grit out your teeth and tap along to an eclectic cacophony of original music, thirty plus years in the making.
Here's a bulging Christmas stocking, chock full of ear candy, ready to hang on your mantle. It's our most ambitious playlist yet. One hour and twenty eight minutes of diverse delights. An encyclopedic side dish, as New Mexican as red chile, biscochitos and tamales. Season's Greetings and Feliz Navidad, or as we like to say in New Mexico, Ala Verga!, is it gonna snow for Christmas or what? ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
Contra- The Leaky Faces Cry Baby- The Echoing Green Fragile- Lousy Robot All the best Matadors are Fascist- Arroyo Deathmatch Moot Point- Sun Dog Gingerbread- Manuka Piglet Pilots- High Desert Salt Spreader- Billy Bellmont Promise- Archabald Three in the Morning- SuperGiant Wyoming- Five Hundred Call to Rise- Stoic Frame The New New Real Real Folk Blues- Bud Melvin All the Little Towns- YaYa Boom Launch Re-entry - The Breaktone Black Xmas- Then Eats Them Christmas Without You- The Angel Babies Directions in a Bottle- Next 2 The Tracks Black Lung- The Old Main Norma Jean- Holiday Sail Ought Five Thunder- The Foxx Do Pot- Racist Cop Soda Ride- Electricoolade
Santa Fe is burned into New Mexican's collective consciousness as a cosmopolitan tourist magnet (or trap, as you wish) New Mexico's symbol of liberalism, pluralism and nepotism. A city so welcoming that on the second Tuesday in January of each odd numbered year, it plays host to the vilest, most corrupt collection of politicos this side of Baton Rouge. The New Mexico legislature.
Much has been said or written about the “city different” though often times the city's vibrant music is overlooked. The dreaded (by some) Americana genre rules Santa Fe's scene, make no mistake about it. That's not a bad thing, (as some folks in Albuquerque might have you believe) Santa Fe denizens tend to prefer banjos, upright bass and lap guitars, while in 'Burque alternative rock and experimental noise capture the most attention. But, just for the record, Albuquerque has a few Americana cards up its sequined sleeve.
The music filters out of the speakers as the audio version of all the stories written about New Mexico by authors such as Edward Abbey, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Max Evans. You can give your eyes a rest, let your ears do all the work. ~Dirt City Chronicles ~
Road to Ruin- Anthony Leon and The Chain Tim Trombone- Trilobite Nine Days and Nights- The Grave of Nobody's Darling The Past has Passed- Jenny Invert Gone for Good- The Shins Hunky Kentuckian- Trilobite Kentucky- The Grave of Nobody's Darling Summer Wine- Hazeldine Drink Me- The Dolly Ranchers Until Now- Anthony Leon and The Chain Pioneer Square- Sam Miller Lake Havasu- The Grave of Nobody's Darling Pumpkin Farmer- Trilobite Maddie Girl Slim- The Dolly Ranchers Darlin' Corey- Young Edward My Sister's Tiny Hands- Fast Heart Mart Drive- Hazeldine New Slang- Iron Horse
There's a big hard sun beating on the big people The future's so dim, you need night vision goggles just to grope your way through the sunniest of days
And you may ask yourself, How did we get here? Jealousy, hate, intolerance, impatience and an oppressing sense of impermanence Carry the water to the bottom of the ocean, motherfuckers
And while we can surmise that the Mayans miscalculated the end of civilization... rest assured they weren't off by much Oh! Dr. please help me, I'm dying.... so fill that prescription please!
Another musical missive from New Mexico, the last bastion of civilized society We all need our medicine, our poison, our fix.... drugs, food, sex, alcohol, violence, cigarettes, music..... Lucky You!, we got your vices covered ~ Dirt City Chronicles ~
Uncle Sam- Anthony Leon and The Chain Gimme Gimme- Hundred Year Flood Mayan Prophecy- Fast Heart Mart Brainless Job- Grand Canyon Hate Job- Fast Heart Mart Trustafarians- Fast Heart Mart Bottomless Hole- The Handsome Family Cold Iron- Rawdogs Bullet- The Moonshiners Sunshine- Hundred Year Flood Devil's at Reds- Anthony Leon and The Chain Pretty Dress- Bill Palmer's TV Killers Don Stone- Grand Canyon Never Win 1933- Jon Forrest Little Weightless Again- The Handsome Family Worried Man- Anthony Leon and The Chain Cheap and Sunny- Fast Heart Mart One Last Fiesta- Mary and Mars Turn a Square- Iron Horse From the Westside- Grand Canyon My Friend- The Handsome Family
The Big Empty, the garden spot of the southwest. A city so misguided that it gutted it's once quaint and distinctive downtown district and in doing so became the Southern New Mexico version of Rio Rancho. A cluster of nothingness, defined by an emptiness of essence and fine dining. Hardly ever a destination, most often it's that tangle that you have to fight through on your way elsewhere. Las Cruces.... yes write about it if you like or anything if you like, but not there, there is no there there. (my apologies to Gertrude Stein for that truncated, bastardized version of her famous quote)
For all its shortcomings, I’ve seen first-hand that now more than ever, there is a “there” in Las Cruces. The city indifferent does appears to have two redeeming qualities and one begets the other. NMSU is a low brow Ag school where the hicks from the sticks matriculate while binge drinking and bemoaning the predominance of queer folk and hippies on campus. But it also attracts its fair share of music geeks and band nerds from the lower half of the state. This has led to a surprisingly active and self sustained local music scene.
The perfect soundtrack for a night of violence, debauchery or just good clean fun. Direct from the city that always creeps, carefully selected with all the care of a Juan Valdez coffee bean, it's the Lost Cruces edition of Dirt City Chronicles. Enjoy.
Titty Baby- The Raggies Beautiful as Smoke- The Sextants All Night Long- CW Ayon Empty- Dirty Jones Wrong or Right- The Dirty Clydes Cold Iron- Rawdogs Sand Dollar Girl- The Sextants She Drank Until She Died- The Raggies Snow Plow- Space Truckers Georgia Line- Soulshine Drunken Highway- The Raggies She Thinks- The Sextants Dusty Low- Dusty Low Someday We'll Get There- Shang-a-Lang Taco Wagon- The Raggies
