blogging kp!

some of my travels with random musings & silliness mixed in

The Farmers ~ Fulmination June 18, 2009

cd cover... The Farmers... Fulmination

cd cover... The Farmers... Fulmination

 

Anyone who knows me… knows… I shamelessly LUV The Farmers. They are my favorite band ever (the band formerly known as the Beat Farmers). I have been the shameless fan that I am since the early 90s… if you include the time some of the band members spent in The Penetrators… since high school.

I have travelled with them and to see them. I have attended weddings and funerals with them. Lord knows I have drank copious amounts of alcohol with them. I have even been a back up kazoo player! I am super honored to count them among my friends.

They are releasing a new CD this week… FULMINATION… hooray!!!

Website:     www.thefarmersmusic.com

Myspace:   www.myspace.com/thefarmersmusic

 

Happy Boy Video  (from a private party in Cabo San Lucas) 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51890256

East County Woman Video  (from the Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA):

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=57646813

Below is an article about them and the new cd….

And as Country Dick used to say…. Pay Up Cheaters! …. buy the cd (or any of the Beat Farmer cds) and enjoy!

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THE FARMERS: Free gig tonight at Casbah

Listening to new albums while eating breakfast can sometimes be risky, as I discovered with “Fulmination,” the new, dozen-song release by San Diego roots-rock pioneers The Farmers (formerly the Beat Farmers).

Barely 40 seconds into the Mariachi-tinged “Mexicali Nights,” a very deep-voiced man began a recitation that nearly caused me to choke on my bowl of Organic Hemp Plus Granola. The same voice is readily audible on “East County Woman,” “The Invaders” and the rip-roaring garage-rock classic-to-be “Aw Man, C’mon!”

Could this be the ghost of Country Dick Montana, the Beat Farmers’ legendary leader and founder, who died in 1995 while performing on stage in Whistler, Canada? Or, perhaps, some archival recording that had been deftly spliced into this new Farmers’ song by top San Diego album producer Sven-Erik Seaholm?

A call to Farmers’ bassist Chris Sullivan set me straight, although only after part of my breakfast had become lodged somewhere between my throat and my nasal passages.

“It’s (new Farmers’ singer) Corbin Turner,” Sullivan told me. “He doesn’t try to do Country Dick, but at times you hear Country Dick channel through him. When that happens, Jerry (Raney, singer-guitarist) and I look at each other, and go `Wow.’ It’s kind of spooky.”

The enormous void left by Country Dick, who launched the Beat Farmers here in 1983, is unlikely to ever be filled by any man or mutant. Nor, for that matter, are the voids left by guitarist-singer Buddy Blue (who passed away three years ago) and bassist Rolle Love, who left the band in the aftermath of the Farmers’ 2005 album, “Loaded.” (Drummer Joel Kmak, Country Dick’s replacement, is still on board.)

That leaves the very able Raney in the driver’s seat of this perpetually earthy musical vehicle, which still sounds revved up and ready to go. One of the most engaging albums by any San Diego band in recent years, “Fulmination” benefits from Seaholm’s sharp, no-nonsense production and the revamped quartet’s ability to salute and extend the musical traditions established by Montana and the band’s original lineup more than 25 years ago.

The Farmers perform a free CD release show tonight 6/18/09 at the Casbah, with special guest Murrugun the Mystic. Here’s betting the band will have no problem fulminating, in the best possible way, from start to finish.

Link to the article as it appears on SignOnSanDiego:   http://www.signonsandiego.com/entertainment/street/2009/06/the_farmers_free_cd_release_gi.html

 

3 Responses to “The Farmers ~ Fulmination”

  1. Bèr Wilbers Says:

    Great to see another Beat Farmers afficionado. I once interviewed Country Dick for the newspaper I was working for after the release of Van Go, a name that will appeal to any Dutchman. We sat in the famous American Hotel in Amsterdam just a few blocks away from the Van Gogh Museum. I was quite impressed the first time I saw the guy. All black, from his boots to his hat and about 2 metres high and about the same width. From his room we had a nice view on The Bulldog, one of Amsterdam’s most known coffeeshops, those places where they indeed also serve coffee,and I pointed at it, asking: “Have you already been there?” His answer was hilarious: “Wow man, great! I tasted their whole menu!” After this we did a great interview. So I was pretty shocked when I heard about his demise and later also of Buddy Blue’s death. Thought it meant the end of the band and only a few days ago, because of the release of Fulmination, I found out that they went on as The Farmers. So I’ll have to get Loaded too. Hope to see these guys back in Holland some time, ’cause they really were one of the best acts I ever saw, together with another in the USA completely underrated California band from the early 70’s: Redwing, who had sold out venues over here.

    • zigana Says:

      Hello,
      I am soooooooooo totally behind in replying to you, I apologize.

      Fulmination is a great cd (cd? I remember saying album!).

      I don’t think the guys would be opposed to playing in Europe, but they need gigs/dates, etc. Starting over again (sortof) and trying to be the Farmers and not the Beat Farmers is a bit difficult. Don’t read anything into that… they embrace and love their history, fans et al. but it is also time to be the band they have become not the band they were… I hope that makes sense.

      They are every bit as great now as they were then and the new band members add a whole new “flavor”.
      I hope you get to see them live someday in the future.

      If you search for The Farmers within myspace videos, you can see some stuff I posted from various gigs.

      PS: I love NL and AMS… spent two weeks there with a dozen or so of my EU friends and had a great time! I can see the Van Gogh museum in my head now. Have some gluwhein for me (it’s hard to find the good stuff in the States!)

      • Bèr Wilbers Says:

        Hope someone will be able to organize a decent tour for them over here. But to give you a small reminder of Europe, I’ll give you one advice: don’t try to buy glühwein (literally translated from German it means the wine that makes you glow), but make it yourself. It’s a piece of cake, though this expression is somewhat strange in this context. You just need a bottle of not overly expensive red wine, that isn’t very dry. I guess in the USA a bottle of cheap Zinfandel will do well. Put it in a pan. Add 1 stick of cinnamon broken into pieces, 5 cloves and peel a lemon and an orange en put the parts also in the wine. Heat it, but don’t bring it to the boil, or you’ll get a non-alcoholic glühwein, which isn’t much fun. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Strain it in a siff and get pleasantly drunk with your friends. (In this case you may need a couple more bottles.)
        Have fun and cheers!


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