Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses: Junky Star
2010
Lost Highway Records
Format I Own it on; Vinyl
Track listing: 1. The Poet 2.The Wandering 3. Strange Feelin' In The Air 4. Junky Star 5. Depression 6. Hallelujah 7. Yesterday's Blues 8. Direction Of The Wind 9. Lay My Head On The Rail 10. Hard Worn Trail 11. Self-Righteous Wall 12. All Choked Up Again
Just the other day, I was checking my mailbox and there was a notice in there stating I had a box that was too big to fit in the mailbox...The office was closed so I couldn't pick it up, but I wondered all night what it could be...
...Could it be the box of balonies I ordered? Naww...I just put in that order last night...There's no way it's here already...
I know! Maybe it's a new puppy! Or...
...Maybe "Ninja" magazine is doing a special double-sized issue this month! Maybe it's an issue packed so full of throwing-star tutorials that it couldn't possibly fit into an average mailbox...
The real answer was even better than any of those imagined scenarios...The next day I was able to finally find out what the package was...My friend Joe sent me a beautiful vinyl copy of Ryan Bingham's "Junky Star." Joe's one of my faqvorite people on Earth...Here's a photo of me, Joe and a bunch of my other favorite people...This was taken in the early 90's...
This was taken in the early 90's...
Here's a picture of us rocking out in the late 90's...
Anyway, thank you very much, Joe!
The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was the plastic sleeve had a cool logo for some place called "Sweets Records."
Man! I want to go to Sweets Records and Tapes! If they still sell tapes, then this could be the coolest place ever! I looked them up online but couldn't find a single mention...Oh well, their logo is great...I seriously contemplated using the sleeve for one of my Sweet records...Just to see how sweet something could be...
But I decided not to, since my copy of "Desolation Boulevard" has a cool "Licorice Pizza" sticker on it that I don't want to cover up...
So I think I'll keep the sleeve on the Ryan Bingham record...
...I was looking at the track listing and noticed it was a three-sided vinyl record...I love three sided records! I wonder what was on side 4...Was it blank?
No...It turns out it has a bad-ass etching of the airplane on the album cover! Today is Sunday afternoon...I try to always keep Sunday open, so I can always have at least one day devoted entirely to watching monster movies, drinking a few beers and listening to records...I decided to start with "Junky Star" and a Sierra Nevada...
Looking at Ryan's picture on the back, you totally don't expect him to sound like he does...
Look at him...Young, good-lookin' kid in a Han Solo suit, right? But he has a croaky voice that sounds like he's been smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey for the last 40 years...Which is a good attribute when you're doing this kind of music...
I really love the songs like "The Poet" and "Lay My Head On the Rails," where everything is so stripped down...Just some lovely acoustic guitar and some gravelly vocals detailing dive bars, dusty highways and unexpected murders...I also like "Direction Of The Wind" where it sounds like he's taking on Bob Dylan circa "Bringing It All Back Home." Very happy I got a chance to check this out..I'm already contemplating which album of his I'm going to check out next...
Also in the box was a mix CD!
I'm always so damn excited to get mix CD's...I try not to look at the track listing before I play it for the first time...I like the element of surprise! It really is a lost art these days and God bless the people who keep the practice alive...I think I'm gonna save this to listen to tomorrow at work...
Man, what a nice way to spend a Sunday...You can join me and listen to "The Poet" by Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses...Actually, I don't see any dead horses in this video...It only appears to be Ryan Bingham...He does have a dog, but it's alive...Anyway, enjoy...
Awesome review Jamin! I'm glad you like it! You are so right about this being a sunday afternoon record! A lot of beer has got drank listening to this out in the garage on a warm, sunny sunday afternoon! I really like the songs Junky Star and Depression. His other albums are equally as good. Mescalito would probably be my next choice. I'm not sure where the sleeve came from. I just stole it off of one of my other albums. I love the pictures! I can see a crease in the wall and the red paint smeared so that picture must have been after I got thrown through the wall?Lol! I hope you like your mix cd!
ReplyDeleteOh my God, I never noticed the crease in the wall and the paint! That makes the picture so much better...Those paintings on the wall still crack me up...Particularly the one where the guy is swinging the baseball bat, but he's only holding it with the bottom of his fingertips...And it looks like he's hitting a silhouetted man who is reacting in pain by flailing all his limbs...The comedy and drama masks always bugged me too because one of them only had a half-finished mouth...I remember being so frustrated with this that I filled in the rest of the mouth with an inkpen just to ease my mind...
ReplyDeleteAREE YOU REEADY FOR A DEEEEAAAAAALLLLL...KEEP YOUR MONEY IN YOUR WAAWWWWEEEEEET!
ReplyDeleteLOL!! You liked the extra track on your mixed cd I take it. I wanted to tell you to I heard Where Is My Mind on the radio station I listen to. Can you believe The Pixies on a local station?
ReplyDeleteMan, where did you get that commercial? It's the best ever...I think over the course of last Friday night we probably listened to it 20 times...I'm totally sampling it on our new album...That's insane there's a local station that plays Pixies...Where was that station when I lived there?! Why was I stuck listening to Bad Company all day?!?! Whhhhyyyyyy?!!!!! Great mixed CD...I've listened to it several times...Oh, I listened to Dexa Teens too...I couldn't find the song you told me to listen to, so I listened to "Neil Armstrong" instead...It was cool..The singer sounded exactly like Patterson Hood...I gotta send you some stuff...I've been slacking...I'll do that this weekend...
ReplyDeleteThat's Brandon Jackson doing that commercial! I will try to get more for you to hear. He even did one with the Dukes Of Hazzard theme song! They play them on the West Branch classic country station. Go to youtube and put in Dexateens Trail and it is on the top of the list. I've been listening to China Drum. Do you remember them? Watch the video for their song Barrier. I swear you had it taped on those old videos you had that we used to watch all the time. Can't wait to hear some stuff from you.
DeleteOh my God! That's Brandon?!?!! I give him mad props for that one! Funniest thing I heard all year! I totally remember China Drum. I was just thinking about them actually...A couple months ago, Jens and I were drinking beers and trying to remember all the old 90's bands we used to listen to...We ended up listening to everything from Hum to Funeral Oration...We couldn't find Combine though...I'm very happy we did that because it helped me remember how great Seaweed were...I immediately went out to the record store and found a used copy of "Spanaway" for two bucks and have listening to it ever since. But yea, I remember this China Drum video and the Cd with all the geese on the cover...I remember watching the video and thinking the people dancing at the beginning was so damn funny...Oh yea! I found the Dexateens video this time. It is a kickass song...I think I actually found it last time but I was confused by the M&M"s in the title and I started playing it and there was no music for a long time so I figured it wasn't what I was looking for...But I let it play longer this time and reached the song...I liked it better than the ones I listened to last time!
ReplyDeleteJust listened to the Dexateens "Same As it Used to Be" song and that one was pretty awesome too...
ReplyDeleteSeaweed! Hell yeah! Crush Us All is bad ass! Check out their album Four. Its really good too! The song Kid Candy is really good! That China Drum album is called Goosefair. Its an awesome album and you can find it for a penny on amazon. Remember the extra song on there was a cover of Wuthering Heights? That's a bad ass tune too! I tried to look up Combine too and couldn't find it. Hum is still one of my favorite bands! Remember Bruce the cassette of You'd Prefer An Astronaut and I told him everyone in the band were gay and he gave me the tape? Lol!
DeleteHey check out the band Centaur. Its the singer from Hum's band. It's really good!
ReplyDeleteSorry it took me so long to respond...I've been sick w/ the flu since Sunday but a bit better today..., I have actually heard Centaur before. I like them very much. I still love Hum. "Downward is Heavenward" is one of my favorites...I wish they'd put out a new record or something...I totally forgot about the Bruce Hum-tape thing...I've been cracking up all week over that...It's so gullible...He had to have known you were playing him but there was no way to google it and be sure back then, so in my mind he was better safe than sorry and gave the tape to you...I don't have the "four" album but I do listen to "Kid Candy" on youtube all the time...I remembered it form the video back in the day. It's such a great song!
ReplyDelete- Jamin
Sweets Records and tapes was in Arvada Colorado.
ReplyDelete