Sundazed is putting out a 10-song collection of rare garage rock from The Satyrs. Check the title track from their lone single below.
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There's a load of unfiltered North Carolina ‘60s garage rock from Asheville teen stompers The Satyrs coming your way in September from Sundazed! This LP features previously unissued tracks and their lone 1965 single – all bookended by two savage versions of the title track!
The contents of this “lost” tape have since been restored and are included on this LP along with the Satyrs’ 1965 originals. Two versions of “Don’t Be Surprised,” the Mark V and the Wal-Mor version, bookend this artifact of true North Carolina garage. Note: This is a different band than the Mike Doerr-led Satyrs of "Yesterday's Hero" fame who formed circa 1968 in Haddon Heights, New Jersey.
In their brief, explosive appearance on the garage rock scene, the Satyrs provide a look into Southern ‘60s rock and the rippling effects of rock ‘n’ roll in mid-century America. Tenacious in their desire to be a part of the rock ‘n’ roll revolution, the Satyrs successfully captured the essence of a '60s teenager's ephemeral desire to step into limelight, even for a brief moment.
Includes: Don’t Be Surprised (2:26) • Get Out Of That Rut (3:04) • It Won’t be Long (3:02) • Ticky Tacky (2:31) • Try Not To Cry (2:13) • To Be With You (3:02) • I Walk The Line (Johnny Cash) (2:18) • The Shortest Road To You (1:42) • Blue Blue World (3:31) • Don’t Be Surprised (45 version) (2:21)
• Killer NC Garage gold pressed in its hometown of Asheville at citizen vinyl!
• Cut by Warren Defever (his name is alive) at Third Man Mastering!
• Includes their rarer than palm hair 45 cuts plus 8 you’ve never heard!
You can pre-order a limited-run yellow vinyl copy of The Satyrs' album "Don't Be Surprised" (out September 8th) direct from Sundazed right here. Check out the title track from The Satyrs' 1965 single which appeared on the Gritty 60s Garage Punk (Beat Rocket) comp.
North Carolina's Valorie Miller wrote "Apocalachia" after learning her Swannanoa home sat adjacent to a hazardous waste site.
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The songs on Valorie Miller's upcoming album, Only The Killer Would Know, emerged after the North Carolina songwriter discovered that her acre of land in Swannanoa sat adjacent to, if not in the middle of, a hazardous waste area overseen by the government. Miller experienced health issues that led her to eventually leave the property. Only later, by talking to her former neighbors and doing her own research, did she discover it was a “superfund” site, so named because of the massive cost necessary to clean up the mess left by irresponsible corporations. Watch the video for Valorie's song "Apocalachia" below. Her album Only The Killer Would Know will be out May 6 via Blackbird Record Label/ Indie AM Gold.
“‘Apocalachia’ is not only a song on the record, it’s also an imaginary realm I inhabit when wrestling with life’s larger conundrums," she explains. "When I realized that my beloved Appalachian home was contaminated with chemicals manufactured for warfare, it seemed natural to merge the word ‘apocalypse’ with ‘Appalachia.’ While the subject seems dark to many, I’m simply writing what happens to me and exhibiting willingness to speak of subjects that most would rather avoid. No, it’s not ‘upbeat,’ but it’s real and it contains a message of hope: the earth will heal herself from wounds inflicted by humans. A whole new garden will grow, y’all!”
Over the album’s nine songs, Miller’s spare arrangements, haunting, ethereal vocals (think Mazzy Star) and riveting eco-narratives are a genre unto themselves and tell a story that in some ways is all too familiar, yet entirely original. Unraveling the true story of her beloved acre of land – and the toxicity that lay below — is what led to the album’s title.
“You hear that term in detective shows, when somebody has insider information,” she says. “With Only The Killer Would Know, the ‘killer’ refers to the people who dump that stuff in the ground. And by researching all of that, I'm the detective,” she says. “To help find the killer, or the person responsible, the investigator has to know certain details that no one else could possibly know. In this case, the information is readily available, but nobody's looking except for me. I know all of this weird stuff about that place. Meanwhile, in this entire community, practically nobody is even aware that that place is there.”
Watch the video for Valorie Miller's "Apocalachia" below. You can pre-order her forthcoming album Only The Killer Would Know right here.
While sorting through old tapes, Chris Stamey discovered an album that guitarist Sam Moss cut with Mitch Easter in 1977.
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — In Winston-Salem, N.C., guitarist Sam Moss is a legend. A superior, highly versatile musician whose advocacy for the blues and mastery of the nuances of electric blues-based soloing somewhat paralleled Mike Bloomfield’s in Chicago, Moss was an inspiring, charismatic mentor to generations of North Carolina rockers, including Let’s Active and The dB’s. He was a larger-than-life character whose club appearances astounded local audiences, yet he never released a record in his lifetime. So, producer Chris Stamey was thrilled to discover, in 2020, on the end of an old tape, forgotten masters of Blues Approved, a spectacular Stax- and Muscle Shoals-influenced solo record, made with Mitch Easter in 1977.
This “great lost” record reveals that Moss was also a soulful songwriter and singer. It has now been carefully remixed and produced for release, with a deluxe booklet featuring detailed liner notes and bio, session notes by Easter, and lots of vivid colour photos. Peter Holsapple (The dB’s) says, “Sam Moss was an inspiration to so many of us; with the release of Blues Approved, people everywhere will understand why.”
Blues Approved will be released on CD and digitally by Schoolkids Records on January 28, 2022, with a vinyl edition to follow in the summer. Pre-order a copy right here.
Moss had made the first of several trips to nearby Chapel Hill to record his own original compositions in early 1977, with old friend Easter on drums (and recording). Mitch recalls: “In my house I had a ‘studio,’ meaning a Teac 2340 four-track recorder, three or four humble microphones, and for monitoring, the home stereo system. For extra-fancy sessions, I’d rent a Tapco six-channel mixer… Sam came down with two or three guitars, his Fender Twin. I played drums and Sam played everything else. And it was a really good session! Sam wrote interesting songs that almost always had a blues angle, but he brought in a lot of elements from elsewhere. He was pleased with the results, so we met a couple more times that year and recorded an LP’s worth of songs.”
But the material then sat on the shelf, unreleased, as Moss opened a vintage guitar store, selling internationally to rock stars and other celebrities for several decades. Stamey felt that most of the material seemed fully formed on its own, despite the limited recording options then available, but for a few tracks — the openers “Rooster Blood” and “King of My Hill,” and the Stonesy “Vida Blanche” — he enlisted the help of the Uptown Horns’ leader Crispin Cioe, a veteran of Rolling Stones tours whose Southern-fried additions on sax fit the material like a glove. And once a few later covers were added to the picture, including the captivating, bluesy spin taken with “Ain’t That Peculiar” featuring “Weso” Wesolowski on harp, the record was complete.
Contemporary technology was used to reassemble the various generations of four-track tapes into first-generation sources, peeling back the layers to put the listener back in the room where it happened. The mono closing track, featuring a teenage Moss in his first band singing the Buck Owens classic “Act Naturally” in rehearsal, was too cool not to include. The CD has three additional surprises from early-’90s sessions at Turtle Tapes in Winston-Salem: the Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” an instrumental of Pomus and Shuman’s “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” and the Stones’ “Who’s Driving Your Plane?”
Says Easter, “I had a pretty good memory of this material, but when I actually heard it again, I was delighted that it really is great. Sam was always strangely unconcerned about stardom, but he was a star anyway. When you play the record, you'll see what I mean.” On July 30, 2021, the City of Winston-Salem honored Moss with a sidewalk star in the city’s Walk of Fame downtown.
Original sessions produced by Sam Moss; produced and mixed for Release by Chris Stamey (with input from Gene Holder and Mitch Easter) at Modern Recording (Chapel Hill, N.C.).
Check out the track "Rooster Blood" following the album release trailer below.
