Drive Somewhere: The Saga of the Vulgar Boatmen

http://drivevulgarboatmen.com/

Now this is a roc doc I can get excited about. Has anyone here seen it? I guess one can order it for ten paypal dollars on the above site, which I just might do.

can't believe this band had enough of a following to warrant a documentary (not a knock, just surprise). cool.

Dale sure has written some great songs over the years... I think I liked them more when they were called Right To Left but still classic all the way.

OK, just ordered this.

I have this. The Boatmen are one of my alltime favorite bands. The music is obviously great. The live footage with Robert Ray is absolutely spectacular, especially Heartbeat. But as a rock doc, let's just say the director is not exactly DA Pennrbaker.

This article about them from Perfect Sound Forever is an old favorite: http://www.furious.com/perfect/vulgarboatmen.html. Really like the discussion of influences and nostalgia.

Here's Dale talking about Buddy Holly's Apartment Tapes on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2003/11/07/1496872/buddy-hollys-little-known-encore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yWElrMei80

Arrgh. Remove the 's'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yWElrMei80

can't believe this band had enough of a following to warrant a documentary (not a knock, just surprise). cool.

― akm, Saturday, March 23, 2013 10:41 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

silkworm got one! anything can happen!

This got lost in the mail and finally arrived this weekend. I thought it was pretty good, learned various details I was not quite aware of, such as Robert growing up in Memphis and seeing Elvis when he was young and the Seymour Stein snafu. Actually interested to read some of Robert's film writing.

Robert Ray is no spring chicken. I think he was in his mid 40s when You and Your Sister Came Out.

Great lineup in Chicago tonight -- Vulgar Boatmen, Walter Salas-Humara and Mysteries of Life!

Nice!

Twenty-five years since I first saw em and the Vulgar Boatmen still throw down harder than bands 1/2 their age. Love the way Matt Speake casually shreds. Freda Love-Smith from Blake Babies and Mysteries of Life played drums. Walter joined 'em for a ripping versions of All Falls Away, You Look Like Sheila and Michael Hall's Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around. Just fantastic all around. One of the best shows I've seen by them.

Cool. Wondering what was the name of that um, supergroup, with Walter and Michael Hall again.

Think it was some kind of dog breed, Retrievers, Setters, something.

Man I wish they would play in NY.

Me too. Just saw The Feelies so why not The VBs as well.

Michael Hall's Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around

The Silos cover of this is seriously one of my alltime favorite songs ever.

> Cool. Wondering what was the name of that um, supergroup, with Walter and Michael Hall again.

The Setters w/ Alejandro Escovedo.

> Man I wish they would play in NY.

Pretty sure they don't play outside of Indianapolis/Bloomington/Chicago. If you like Chicago in February, come see their annual show at Schubas.

I read a funny comment by a guy who was asked if he wanted to play bass with them. He said something like, "Sure, but we gotta practice." Apparently they don't practice, so that nixed him.

I think I even saw The Setters perform once. Let's put it this way, they gave Little Village a run for their money.

Little Village! Notoriously illin', appropriately for a rootsupergroup whose name apparently came from a Sonny Boy Williamson (or was it H. Wolf) studio eruption. How was the album?

xgau liked Walter's new solo album pretty well in last week's column
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/robert-christgau-expert-witness-leland-sundries

Sorry I was making an inside baseball joke about an underwhelming rootsie "supergroup."

Yeah got that, LV album was underwhelming too, right?

That's my recollection. One theory was that they keep their best songs for their solo projects.

Wide Awake is SO GOOD. Unfortunately, the cheapest copy I can find in the UK is £65. Someone is selling one on Amazon for £250. So.

And thanks for the link to the Silos cover of Let's Take Some Drugs. Sublime.

I lost my CD of it but still have the case in hopes that it'll magically appear one day. Been like ten years now. : (

I still have my Wide Awake CD. I must have played it 10000 times since I bought it in 2004 or so.

Still love this band.

Twenty-five years since I first saw em and the Vulgar Boatmen still throw down harder than bands 1/2 their age. Love the way Matt Speake casually shreds. Freda Love-Smith from Blake Babies and Mysteries of Life played drums. Walter joined 'em for a ripping versions of All Falls Away, You Look Like Sheila and Michael Hall's Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around. Just fantastic all around. One of the best shows I've seen by them.

― john. a resident of chicago., Thursday, July 28, 2016 1:49 AM

Still love this band.
Ditto. Particularly love You and Your Sister.

I've been obsessed with "Drive Somewhere" in the last few days but it's the only song I've heard by them; what else should I listen to?

If you are obsessing over Drive Somewhere then I'd wager you'll love all of You and Your Sister. They've got that groove running throughout the album.

I guess if you want just to check out 1 or 2 more songs then try "Change the World All Around" or "Mary Jane."

Cool, thank you!

I've been meaning to seek out You and Your Sister -- it's in good company on someone's top ten in the Spin guide, though I forget whose.

Oh, it's Ann Powers. At #7, and followed by Barbara Manning and Jane Siberry :)

Thanks for the You and Your Sister recommendation! I really like it.

Cool!

Lily go check this out immediately:

http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/right_to_left

I seem to get an Error! or Loading... message but no sound.

you might have to download the MP3s to listen

Oh, okay. Actually it didn't work on my phone for some reason but is working on my laptop.

for the unaware: Right To Left was Dale Lawrence and Shadow Myers from the Gizmos along with Matt Speake and Eric Baade, active in the mid-to-late 80s

their only listed Discogs release is here:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Black-Brittle-Frisbee/release/3668588

But they also have a fantastic 6-song studio demo that I can YSI I guess? and on that, all songs are credited to Lawrence/Ray.

Only Lawrence and Myers made the transition into the Vulgar Boatmen once Lawrence started working with the Florida band (Robert Ray, Walter Salas-Humara, Cory Crane, etc)

I have gotten my housemate hooked on "Drive Somewhere" and he's walking around the house whistling it.

Belated thanks for that Right To Left show, sleeve. It took me a while to get around to listening to it, but I liked it.

The Boatmen show was so good! "You and Your Sister" in particular sounded amazing. And they played "Fallen Down," which made me very happy as I wasn't expecting that one at all, somehow.

Thank you again for putting me in touch with your friends, sleeve! I was very shy and awkward and made the rookie mistake of showing up sober to the show, but they were very nice to me in spite of that. And I got to meet Dale. 100% worth getting on a flight to Chicago on Saturday and going back on Sunday.

so glad to hear it! Lesley is the best.

Took the Germantown Road today though not as far as Collierville.

They're playing tonight in Indianapolis; I'm sorry to be missing it.

Every couple of months I get hooked on a different Boatmen song and have to listen to it all the time for a while. Currently it's "Shake."

I've been warming up for the annual Schubas show this weekend. Please Panic hasn't had enough spins the past...decade (or two, guh) but it's so great. Especially loving "There's a Family" but the whole thing's fantastic.

"You Don't Love Me Yet" is such a great song.

Michael Hall's Let's Take Some Drugs and Drive Around

The Silos cover of this is seriously one of my alltime favorite songs ever.

I should have read this thread more carefully because I only just got around to listening to this song and I love it.

Am also working my way through some of the later stuff by the Gizmos. "The Midwest Can Be Alright" is so catchy!

all time fave/anthem among my crew, yes. "Heartbeat" and "Crime" are also dearly loved

I am briefly in this video, shot around 1989 (this is the pre-VB band Right To Left, after the Gizmos and The Satellites)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WrEmJYTFWQ

Whoa...never heard that song before. Sounds great! Bootleg of Right to Left without the voice over available here: https://musicalfamilytree.com/band/right_to_left

The Boatmen are playing here with the Silos and the Waco Brothers on July 8 at Fitzgeralds btw. Looking forward to it!

Oh, how cool!

I'm mad at myself because I'm flying to Europe a few days after that show, and if I'd thought ahead I could have planned a stop in Chicago.

Re: "Heartbeat," I think I like the Gizmos version better than the VB one.

It always cracks me up that the Boatmen have a song called "Heartbeat" and a song that steals the riff from the Buddy Holly song "Heartbeat" on the same album.

xxp yeah that's a great show, and here is the 6-track studio recording that was released as a cassette (Dale gives the OK to share in the comments on that MFT link)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c11ely65ugj2v3w/AAA1k_w30L2xrJGMhvHCNEnca?dl=0

2 tracks from that tape are on the "Black Brittle Frisbee" compilation LP which you can still find cheap, recommended (also featuring some great stuff from Paul Mahern's post-Zero Boys band The Datura Seeds)

Wow, this all looks amazing. What a treasure trove.

I'm absurdly pleased by the spelling of "Katy" (rather than "Katie") on that cassette because that's my actual name.

Thanks sleeve!

Would totally go to that FitzGerald's show (a 10-minute walk away) but I'm out of town.

xp I really really love that tape, happy to share!

That intro to "When Company Comes" is about as R.E.M.-like as I've heard Dale sound. Really nice.

I've never seen the movie btw. The site's dead and it's not streaming anywhere that I've found. Would pay good money to watch it.

This thread revival is sending me down the rabbit hole today. Love that this is in black & white.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g818gATn_Gw

...and I see that the FitzGerald's show is sold out. I've walked into some variation of this lineup at least a dozen times before! Bummed.

I'm currently doing a two-week Europe trip where I try to catch up with every friend I've failed to stay in contact with over the past six to eight years, and the line "Katie's making amends, making a ring around all of her friends" has been running through my mind since day one.

We drove down to Bloomington tonight for their first show here in like 12 years and holy shit was it worth it! Incredible versions of “Allison Says” and “You Don’t Love Me Yet”, but also someone from the opening band (Gentleman Caller) joined them for an insane version of the Stones’ “Sway” and the encore was a three song Gizmos set incl “The Midwest Can Be Alright”! Dale sweated through his shirt and the front row was a dance party. One of the best shows I’ve seen of theirs.

We drove down to Bloomington tonight for their first show here in like 12 years and holy shit was it worth it! Incredible versions of “Allison Says” and “You Don’t Love Me Yet”, but also someone from the opening band (Gentleman Caller) joined them for an insane version of the Stones’ “Sway” and the encore was a three song Gizmos set incl “The Midwest Can Be Alright”! Dale sweated through his shirt and the front row was a dance party. One of the best shows I’ve seen of theirs.

Wow. One post for each set of Vulgar Boatmen.

Gah that sounds amazing. I never really considered flying to Bloomington for a Vulgar Boatmen show, though I've gone to Chicago twice to see them, but this makes me wish I had.

all my Bton friends were totally psyched abt this, people drove from Columbus, etc

ex-Gizmo Tim Carroll also did an early set at some other venue so it was a big night out

"sway" holy shit that sounds awesome

Ditto

Wait, what, there is some kind of Silos sort of show tonight at the Mercury Lounge?

Walter Salas-Humara and friends John P. Strohm, Amy Allison, Pete Galub and Konrad Meissner

Oh it was yesterday. Oh well.

Tickets are on sale for the Schubas show! It's January 6th.

I'm flying into Chicago tomorrow to go to the Schubas show. If you're going to the show and want to meet up, lmk!

Saw 'em tonight at Old Town School of Folk Music, opening for the dB's. Janas Hoyt was there to sing backup on a few songs, Vess Ruhtenberg played bass, and a new violinist played what Dale said was her second show w/ the band. They did another great version of "Alison Says" and closed with Debbie Gibson's "Only in My Dreams". Great set. Left before the dB's came on b/c it wasn't going to be half as good as the Boatmen were.

Schuba's show will be in February next year.

Wow

Nice! And good to know about Schubas. Do you know when in February?

Dale didn't say and nothing announced on the Schuba's site just yet.

Have nothing to add except to (re)state that the album Drive Somewhere is still one of my favorite comps ever.

do all of y'all have my Right To Left rip? the pre-Boatmen all-Indiana lineup

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/5n9az0xieipdh0fz0dbo5/ADp_SOUQ6djjM9hJ0-HR9P0?rlkey=4jex84o0z7d1zccc5nhlav5xk&dl=0

and for vinyl folks, this is still dirt cheap:

https://www.discogs.com/release/3668588-Various-Black-Brittle-Frisbee

(two tracks from the S/T tape linked above)

(which is STILL not on Discogs, and I am too lazy/uneducated to add it)

https://i.imgur.com/Qjgse46.jpeg

sorry here's a much better resolution pic that I just took

https://i.imgur.com/5d0ma00.jpeg

(actual track order is different than shown on tape)

released in 1988, I am pretty sure, I was there man #losingmyedge

grabbing this again b/c it's not on this computer. thanks, sleeve!

<3

fwiw Dale did OK sharing that on an informal basis

Saw that Robert Ray co-wrote a book about All the President's Men that came out last year. According to the entry in my library's, he's 81 years old now!

er, entry in my library's *collection*

!!

The Schubas show is February 15th, which is perfect for me as it lines up with the start of my school district's one-week February break. I've gone the past three years and I wasn't sure I wanted to do it a fourth year in a row, but getting to stay a bit longer in Chicago might make the difference.

I saw Vess play with a bunch of groups when I was in Bloomington.

Always thought this was a really cool tune. Cool guitars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRuBDinUjss

Hmm, do the Schubas shows sell out? I've never seen them ...

I don't know if they sell out, but you should go! They're great!

Tickets purchased! Have a bad feeling I might be interfering with a surprise birthday party for me, but time will tell.