Leather Face

Any opinions or thoughts?
I saw them live in a club in 86 and it remains one of the best concerts i've ever seen.Their albums Still Standing and Lost and Found are classics.
It's become very hard to get their stuff on cd so i've had to resort to downloads which i don't like to do.
It's a shame that they broke up and never got the attention they deserved.
Anyone else a fan?

Rocketdog2000

They were awesome in their prime, and still pretty good after that, too. I agree that Still Standing and Lost And Found are classics. Their cover of "19th Nervous Breakdown" smokes the original. Warner Hodges just blazes on guitar.

They did break up for awhile, and Jason Ringenberg put out a country solo album. In the mid 90's they got back together and put out to reunion albums - A Blazing Grace in 1995, and Clear Impetuous Morning in 1996 on Mammoth records. They also did a live album Midnight Roads and Stages Seen in 1998. All were pretty good, but I believe, are out of print now.

Too bad they never hit quite as big as their contemporaries in the Georgia Satellites.

atlantamoi

Yeah, GREAT band. There is no doubt these guys were one of the few bands to make me realize that country music could be cool (unfortunately, we had just come through that Urban Cowboy crap and I didn't know any better back then).

Their first couple of albums are sweet. Saw 'em perform live a couple of times in 1984-1985 and then again in Austin in '96 during SXSW. Ran into the band that night at an all-night diner and had the nads (drunk nads) to go and sit at their booth and talk to them. Not sure if they dug that, but it was fun.

nodeerforamonth

Fantastic band!

This is one of the most intense live performances I have seen any band do ever:

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9unLB8lNCJ8&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9unLB8lNCJ8&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

nodeerforamonth

The Wildhearts have also covered a couple of their songs. Ginger (the singer) has even cowritten or written some songs with/for Jason.

Ginger from the Wildhearts teamed up with the Scorchers last year to do a couple shows billed as "Ginger & The Scorchers". Would love to get a copy of a recording of that!!!

atlantamoi

That video was from 1998? That's hilarious because it's still pretty damn great and well over a decade past their prime. I'd love to see a vid of "Help! There's a Fire" That's my fave tune from them. Hearing "White Lies" makes me yearn for that time right before hair metal became big. It would have been cool if things had gone in Jason's direction instead.

We should start a thread of nothing but these great 80's bands that were doing alternative country looong before Uncle Tupelo or Wilco were known.
Stuff like Beat Farmers, Long Ryders, Rank & File, etc.

edit... I went ahead and started a new thread as to not ruin your Jason one!

[email protected]

I remember the Satellites and Jason & the Scorchers playing a double bill together at the Paradise in Boston, must have been back around '85.

Always loves J&TS - saw them several times, the last one being a 2001 New Year's Ev show in Nashville as they celebrated their 20th anniversary. They were still just as great as when they started out!

n.phelge

Followed them during the late 80's when I was going to school in Knoxville - I even saw the video for Absolutely Sweet Marie on MTV once. Heard that drummer Perry Baggs needed a kidney transplant, and they had a reunion show at the Exit/In in the summer to raise some cash for him - the Nashville newspaper listed it as one of the best shows of the year last week.

Tarantino

Who?

= J

reverie

I remember an ad in some music magazine for "Clear Impetuous Morning" that really intrigued me before I'd ever hear of them. Basically the ad was trying to figure out what to call their style of music ("Psychobilly? Punkabilly?..." etc.). I went and picked it up and really landed up liking it. It is still the only one I've got though. Hard to find anything reasonably priced.

atlantamoi

Wow, you are right. Didn't realize their material was a bit expensive. I have "Essential" that is the debut EP, the album "Lost and Found" and a few extras. Without a doubt their best work:



Apparently there is another compilation that includes the EP and "Lost and Found" w/out any extras, but Allmusic showed that being hard to find as well.

Rocketdog2000

You can at least get Still Standing, for pretty cheap. There's a couple available on e-bay for less than $6.00.

nodeerforamonth

Here's some of that Ginger & The Scorchers I was talking about.

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6KcOYTRJc_Y&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6KcOYTRJc_Y&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

creekdipper

Awesome band. Have their entire catalog on CD/vinyl (except Reckless Country Soul and Wildfires & Misses).

Enjoyed some of their 90's output, but for me the big three to have are Lost & Found, Still Standing, & Thunder & Fire from the 80's. That's probably heresy to some people (for leaving off Fervor), but those were the 3 albums that introduced me to J & S.

I believe there was a plan to re-release all of their 80's stuff, but the plan got stalled after Still Standing (I think). Maybe there was another one released, but not all of it. Also, the re-release of Still Standing has a highly-edited version of the opening cut "Golden Ball & Chain", removing much of Warner Hodge's blazing guitar solo for some inexplicable reason. Still well worth it.

I made a J & S cassette compilation from the albums back around 1990. Still play it in the car these days (although it's getting mighty worn).

Never got to see them live (we live about 100 miles from Knoxville, which was a shame since we could have caught them for $6 in a club. It was a Tuesday, I think, and I had to teach school the next day). We DID get to hear them live in Asheville. Came out of a fantastic Richard Thompson concert and heard J & S playing in a club across the street. It was so loud that you could just sit outside the club & enjoy the music (maybe more than being inside). They had incredible energy to go with the decibels.

So many memorable songs that hold up well today. Check them out if you love guitar-driven, quirky rock in the Webb Wilder mode. Hard to categorize J & S, though, or compare them to other alt-country/cowpunk bands. Great lyrics & hooks, crunching guitar, & Jason's trademark hiccoughing singing style combine to create an original sound that's infectious & hard to forget.

Thanks for the Youtube links!!