On a warm summer afternoon, Glenn Brooks, Jason Staczek, Mark Oppfelt and Scott Boggan listened to music accompanied by Thomas Kemper Weizenberry, a raspberry flavored wheat beer.

Urban Turban Urban Turban (the review)
Scott had not heard this CD before; the rest of us had.

Rollin' and Tumblin'
SThey do "Folsom Prison Blues"?
JI think that's one of the best cuts on the CD.
GIt's amazing. It's pretty darn straight too.
SAnd "Knock on Wood"? Is that the Eddie Floyd tune?
GNope, same title but it's by J. Finneran, whoever that is. Great tune though.
JThat one is not straight at all!
SHey, wait, it's not Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison." The liner notes say it's by someone named Johnny Chash! And McKinley Morghansfield wrote "Hoochie Coochie Man."
GSwedish spellchecker?
MYeah, that's how they spell it in Sweden. Billy Kwan says "Mind Your Manners."
GThere goes the hurdy-gurdy. Sort of a medieval Farfisa.

Knock on Wood
G "I know what it feels to be dead..." Doesn't it sound like "She said, she said"? Maybe it's the sitar.
M"And it's making me feel like I never been born."
SThese guys are not serious!
JIt's hard to say.
GI think this is some kind of genius, no question about it.
JI'd sign up to go see these guys in a heartbeat if they came to town.
SThis has a little of that Flash and the Pan sound.
GYeah, that ominous half-spoken slightly foreign voice. "Walkin', just walkin' in the rain...."
SThey probably don't know what they're singing.
JAll phonetic. This one sounds really good loud. You feel like you're right there in some Middle East marketplace.

Voodoo Child
GThe intros to the songs are so out of left field. Even after you've heard the CD a couple of times, they can still take you by surprise.
JYeah, like "Voodoo Child" with a polka fiddle intro.
S"Voodoo Child"!? No way!
JYeah, hear? There's a little guitar.
MAre you sure that's a guitar? It might be the krummhorn.
SI would never get "Voodoo Child" out if this. Have you heard the new Hendrix Blues CD?
MWhat's the name of it?
SIt's just called Blues. I heard a friend's copy. It's pretty nice. I may have to pick it up.
MAny unreleased stuff?
SYeah, some unreleased stuff, a remix of "Voodoo Child" as a matter of fact. It's really good.

Wang Dang Doodle
GMaking the connection between Hendrix and Swedish folk music is a remarkable contribution.
SThere's a Captain Beefheart feel here, circa Clear Spot, with that horn chart there.
GYeah and that growly voice. There's a lot of Beefheart here. But there's a lot of blues in Beefheart.
SAbsolutely. He was a Howlin' Wolf man.
MHis voice reminds me also of the guy with the Guess Who...
SBurton Cummings?
MThat's it. He's got that edge to his voice.
GNot the greatest harp playing in the world.
JI think it would be safe to call it squawking. That cut goes on too long.
GYeah, you get they idea, and then...
JThen it goes on "all night long."

Let's Work Together
GThis is my favorite cut. That ukulele or whatever it is, playing a riff in some completely unrelated key. But it works so well.
JBaksheesh blues played on Middle Eastern instruments by a Swedish duo.
SBut does it express the blues gestalt?
GWell, those Swedes can be pretty damn melancholy.
SThis is the song Canned Heat did. But who was Wilbert Harrison?
GHe was an R'n'B guy. This was his big hit. These guys change the melody so it's more ominous that the original. More interesting too, I think.

Punklira
JThis is their original cut.
SUh-huh. They should stick to covers. Let's hear that Johnny Chash song.

Folsom Prison Blues
GThere's that lonesome Swedish train whistle.
MThe Stockholm Express. Here it comes....
GI think he sings it an octave lower than Johnny.
SApproaching Leonard Cohen territory. Oh, I like this one, this is very nice.
all"...just to watch him die."
SAn oddly celebratory feeling.
GProbably as excited as a Swede ever gets. Just had a really good cup of coffee.
SOr a bolus of lutefisk.
GThink back on Little Axe. These guys are not just taking a formula and applying it, they're re-creating this music in a unique fashion.
SBecause they're playing. Little Axe was programming.

Hoochie Coochie Man
JSeems like they decided to do this one pretty straight.
GThey've got that slow triplet feel.
SI like the guitar.
GThat little stutter step at the end of each phrase makes the lines fall not quite where you expect them to.
SOh, yeah, even if it is fairly straight, it's still wacky enough to be its own thing.
GPretty abrasive guitar.
SAnd that whole bevy of weird string instruments in the background carrying the rhythm.
GIt should be a weird sounding song. Magical, slightly threatening.