WORLD OF HURT received a favorable review on AintItCool.com!

I’m not even gonna front, but I am really geeking out right now! 

Thanks for the great write-up, Ambush Bug!

- JEP

I had planned to post the review of Booker T. Jones’ new album, Potato Hole, last month, on the week it debuted, but I never got around to finishing the write-up.  I apologize for the delay, but I figured that the damage was minimal, since a webcomic/blog that pays homage to a three-decade old film genre isn’t necessarily dedicated to the most timely observations of pop culture, anyway.

For those of you who may not know, Booker T. Jones gained his fame during the 1960s as part of the in-house rhythm section for Memphis, Tennessee-based soul music label Stax Records.  The rhythm section included Jones on the organ, Steve Cropper on guitar, Lewie Steinberg on bass, and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums.  Collectively, they became the original lineup of “Booker T. & The MGs.”  However, like their house band counterparts at Motown, The Funk Brothers, Booker T. & the MGs not only recorded with the R&B luminaries from their respective labels, but they defined the very sound of their label.  Stax recording artists, and future Rock & Roll Hall of Famers like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Johnnie Taylor, Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers all sweated in out in the studio with Booker T. & The MGs.*

Booker T. & the MGs’ also recorded their own songs, and as a group, they scored success with songs like “Time Is Tight,” and “Soul Limbo,” but their most famous hit was undoubtedly “Green Onions.”   Recorded in 1962, “Green Onions” is an evocative, jazzy, acoustic track that manages to be urbane and soulful at the same time.  In “Green Onions,” Booker T.’s cool organ riffs and Alan Jackson, Jr.’s steady, simple snare prowl through your speakers like a down-home version of Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme,” punctuated by twangy, bluesy yelps from Steve Cropper’s guitar.  ”Green Onions” was one of the first ringtones I downloaded, and when I gave my Mom her choice of song, she hand-picked “Green Onions” to be the ringtone I hear when she calls me.  (Hi, Mom!)

As a Booker T. fan, I was pleasantly surprised to discover several months ago that Jones would be releasing a new CD this year, but I was  intrigued to learn that contemporary Southern rockers, Drive-By Truckers**, would be backing up Jones and producing the new album, as well.  (Oh, some guy named Neil Young was also playing on the album.)  I’ve had the pleasure of seeing two live performances by the Drive-By Truckers and a solo performance by DBT founding member, Patterson Hood at Columbia, South Carolina’s New Brookland Tavern.  The collaboration seemed like an odd grouping, so I was curious to hear how the album would sound.

The entire album is instrumental, but that’s OK with me, since it’s my impression that Booker T. plays the organ with the inflections and sensibilities of a vocalist, anyway.  Booker T.’s organ music floats and weaves among the guitars and percussion, like an ethereal presence, sometimes high and brassy, sometimes gutteral and churchy, and often elegant.  The first song, “Pound It Out,” sets the tone of the album, and you know from the first notes that The Truckers are in the house, and they’ve come to play.  However, Booker T. is right behind them, and he’s brought his “A” game, too.  To me, this is the song on the album that came closest to feeling like “The Drive-By Truckers featuring Booker T.,” but I didn’t mind, because it’s the hardest rocking song on the album.  The most soulful tune on the album is “Warped Sister,” with Booker T.’s fingers sliding and slurring over the keys like a jukejoint singer just starting to feel his moonshine buzz.  The song rocks along at a nice clip with some fuzzy, snarly guitar work thrown in for good measure.  However, the next cut, “Get Behind The Mule,” is the sinister, bluesy counterpoint to “Warped Sister.”  It’s the same singer, later in the night, singing a dark, measured, conspiratorial tale of pain and loss for the last few patrons in the place, all to a shuffling, steady beat.  Although these were my two favorite songs, the most anticipated cut off the album for most people was Booker T.’s rendition of the 2003 Outkast hit, “Hey Ya!”  The only thing I can say about the head-boppin’ cover is that Booker T., DBT, and Young not only bring the energy, but they bring the only thing that was missing from the Grammy Award-winning crowd pleaser (and the only thing that could replace Andre 3000’s inimitable vocal delivery of lines like “Shake it like a Polaroid PIC-chah!”).  That missing element:  cowbell.  And you can never go wrong with cowbell.  Ever.  The final track “Space City” is a spare, simple tune that feels like it could have been improvised by Booker T.  In this selection, the organ is flat-out church.  It starts off soft and low, like a music director riffing on the organ while the collection plate is being passed around and the preacher delivers the offertory prayer.  Then the song builds in intensity with some beautiful musical flourishes from Booker T., just like that preacher trying to get a few more dollars into the plate, before he dials it back down in the final third, returning to the musical phrasing and themes that started the song. 

My verdict: Potato Hole is a little more laid-back Muscle Shoals than sweaty Memphis rhythm and blues.  If you’re a Drive-By Truckers’ fan, odds are good that you’ll enjoy this album, but if you dig the musical acumen of Booker T. you won’t be disappointed either.  It’s not a party album, but it does make nice driving music.

- JEP

*  The Stax Records 50th Anniversary compilation is a tremendous resource for the history of the label and would make a great addition to anyone’s record collection.

** Coincidentally, the Drive-By Truckers recorded a song called “A World Of Hurt.”  No relation.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a wonderful Father’s Day!

I went to HeroesCon in Charlotte this past Saturday and had a great time.  I didn’t have a table, I just wandered around, saw the sights, and planned my strategy for next year.  I did reconnect with some old friends and I also got to see some folks that I had been looking forward to meeting in person, including Rodbuddah of Planet Griffin and my arch nemesis, John Aston of OldeTowneComix.  They’re even cooler in person than online.  I even met a couple guys at John’s booth who were familiar with WORLD OF HURT.  That really made my day!   Thanks!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Swain and Dwight (”Mr. Clark”) of SideBarNation.com, to whom I proved my old-school geek bonafides by reciting the opening stanza of the old Godzilla cartoon and waxing rhapsodic about Garcia-Lopez.   I added them to the “Links” menu under a new category for “Podcasts,” so do yourself a favor and check them out.

Finally, I scored some new art supplies, including screentone, so I look forward to incorporating that into the strip soon.

- JEP

As I mentioned on Monday’s post, this past weekend I attended HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Last year at HeroesCon 2008, one of my personal highlights was meeting artist Jim Rugg.  (Unfortunately, Rugg was not on the 2009 roster of attendees.)  Jim Rugg is a talented illustrator, gifted cartoonist, and all-around nice guy.  His main claim to fame is Street Angel, a comic series published by Slave Labor Graphics about a skateboarding, samurai sword-wielding, kung-fu fightin’ street urchin who dispenses justice to the odd assortment of meglomaniacal, rogue geologists; luchador mask-wearing Incan gods; basketball-playing ninjas; and time-displaced pirates who terrorize her city of Wilkesborough.  However, the series also introduced an ally for Street Angel whom Rugg and his writing collaborator, Brian Maruca, have subsequently spun off on his own:  Afrodisiac.

Set during the 1970s, the Afrodisiac stories feature Alan Diesler, aka Afrodisiac, a Black pimp who not only runs a stable of Wilkesborough’s finest prostitutes, but who also acts as the city’s last line of defense against some of its more bizarre menaces.  His nemeses include a softball-playing Count Dracula, who siphons the blood of Afrodisiac’s hookers in order to increase his rec league stats; a mind-controlling computer named Megapute; and the advance scout for an all-female army of Venusian invaders (an adventure which brings Afrodisiac into direct confrontation with his old tag-team wrestling partner, President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon).

If this all sounds like some sort of pop culture fever dream, then welcome to the world of Afrodisiac!  Rugg and Maruca intentionally create a convoluted, and conflicting, backstory for Afrodisiac, and that, combined with the grab-bag of absurd scenarios, would appear to work against Afrodisiac’s favor to make the stories impenetrable and far too cute for their own good.  However, the short stories are dense, fun, action-packed reads that don’t require any prior knowledge of Afrodisiac’s exploits.

Also to their credit, Rugg and Maruca don’t mock the Blaxploitation genre.  Given Afrodisiac’s occupation as a pimp, his double-entendre name, massive ‘fro, and the bizarre, over-the-top situations Rugg and Maruca place him in, one might expect yet another jokey, one-note Blaxploitation parody.  While the creators do have fun with the concept, they always play the character and the events absolutely straight.  Afrodisiac is a man facing impossible situations with steely resolve and righteous fury.  The overall look and style of the Afrodisiac short stories successfully evoke the feel of a Blaxploitation film and the creators’ ear for authentic sounding dialogue is pitch perfect. If some mad scientist spliced together the brains of  Jack Hill and Jack Kirby, the result would be Afrodisiac.  When I spoke to Jim Rugg at HeroesCon in 2008, his depth of knowledge and genuine appreciation of Blaxploitation was immediately apparent.  He effortlessly riffed on the little-seen film, Candy-Tangerine Man, and hipped me to author Chester Himes, whose novel “Cotton Comes To Harlem” was adapted into the proto-Blaxploitation film of the same name in 1970.

To date,  Afrodisiac’s longest story was his debut in Street Angel, which showed the reader Afrodisiac’s ultimate fate in the present as a old man who still has a way with the ladies.  However, the longest story featuring the character in his prime was an 18-page, limited edition, black & white ashcan that Rugg sold (and sold out of) at HeroesCon 2008.  I was lucky enough to snag one of those editions from the artist himself.  I was impressed by the craft, wit and style that was present within those pages.  I was gobsmacked by the book’s fidelity to the genre and the wild, anything-goes adventure that seamlessly moved from smoky, backroom craps games to James Bondian, sci-fi death traps  It was a real inspiration to me, and helped me realize what I wanted WORLD OF HURT to be.  Besides those issues, Afrodisiac has only appeared in a handful of short, full-color stories , each between five to eight pages in length. (Cleverly, the full-color strips are colored like ’70s era comics.  And, yes, I will steal Rugg’s coloring style if I ever do WORLD OF HURT in color.)  Afrodisiac’s next appearance seems to be an homage to the giant monster movies of the 1950s.  Rugg also has a fairly extensive gallery of illustrations and mock covers featuring Afrodisiac which can be found on his website.  The Afrodisiac tales definitely need to be compiled into a single edition.  It would be essential reading for any fan of Blaxploitation or comic book storytelling, in general.

AFRODISIAC LINKS:

Jim Rugg’s Website

Afrodisiac Vs. Dracula

Afrodisiac Vs. The Venusian Invasion Vs. Richard M. Nixon

- JEP