Paul M. Davis» music | Paul M. Davis

Mule Train – Be On Your Way

Paul M. Davis — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:08:05 +0000

Mule Train was an aggressive indie rock-cum-cowpunk outfit I formed in 2004 upon returning to Santa Cruz with Kevin Rainsberry on drums and Esteban “Cody” Perez on bass. Later, Cooper McBean joined us on lead guitar. The band released one full-length–Be On Your Way–which is still available for purchase via CDBaby and iTunes.

Unlike many bands that have merged the folk, country and ’70s punk (to tepid results), Mule Train took its inspiration from a more problematic pairing of western swing and millenial post-punk such as the Murder City Devils, and it took us a while to find a way to amalgamate those sort of influences into a cohesive sound.

In time, the country elements began to recede–except for the galloping two-step rhythms, which we played at nearly blast-beat speed–and our latent indie-rock sensibilities began to creep into the music more.

We did a bit of touring, all on the West Coast, including a Pacific Northwest tour that ended in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Yreka, CA with a VW bus with a busted transmission (story to come!) Mostly, though, we confined ourselves to the Bay Area.

As all bands do nowadays, we went on “hiatus” as opposed to breaking up when I moved to Chicago in 2006. I wouldn’t hold your breath for a reunion, though murmurings do kick up on the Facebooks and the Twitters from time to time. There was probably 7 or 8 songs we never got a chance to record, which were really a leap forward from the hesitant first steps documented on Be On Your Way. (Kidding! It’s great. Buy it–I only have 350 copies sitting in the trunk of my car.)

Be On Your Way got some incredibly kind notices in the press:

“This three piece from Santa Cruz, California has been gaining quite a following and for good reason: Mule Train is one of the best folk-punk bands in recent history.” -Zero Magazine
“This gripping folk-punk trio manages to do-si-do its way around its punk rock superego…seething with down-home aggression, Mule Train’s twangy music demands instant affirmation.” -Metro Santa Cruz
“Cool, fuzzy, twangy cow punk…two step rockabilly beats and edgy vocals. Good time whiskey punk I say!” - Punk Planet #66 (disclaimer: these past two reviews came prior to my employment by PP and MSC) “Folk-rock with a punk voice, somewhat like the mellower moments of FILTHY THIEVING BASTARDS. Kind of a dirty South feel to it. Either way, it’s great!” - AMP Magazine

I’m not going to post a full album download since the album is still out there in the world of commerce, but here are a handful of downloads:

Weapons [mp3] Bottom of the Stack [mp3] Rock ‘n’ Roll [mp3] Carryin’ On [mp3]

And an additional song from the Someday Coming Round compilation:

Dead to Rights (also known in other incarnations as the Alien-referencing “Facehugger”) [mp3]

We also played an acoustic set on Central Coast radio station KPIG:

Mule Train live on KPIG [zip download]

Someday Coming Round: Deviant Twang Revisited

Paul M. Davis — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:32:14 +0000

The second in the deviant twang compilation series, released sometime around 2005 (if my failing memory serves me correctly.) On the whole, this one is much more cohesive–if less ostensibly “twang-y”–and likely the last compilation I’ll ever put together, grace willing. It’s striking how anachronistic a CD-R comp seems a mere four years later, but for as much as putting these together was a pain in the ass (burning hundreds of copies off with every computer conceivably available, silkscreening covers one by one, affixing CD labels,) there’s a lot more charm to the process than dumping a zip folder up on Megaupload. So, here’s a zip file of tracks. Progress!

Someday Coming Round: Deviant Twang Revisited (zip file)

Track List:

Mule Train – Dead to Rights
The Devil Makes Three – Bangor Mash
Clampitt, Gaddis and Buck – Wayward Brother
Dusty Rhodes and the River Band – Fire in the Sky
The Jewgrass Boys – Jim McCann
Boaz Vilozny – Not in this Town
Power of County – Preacher Man
Emily Herring – Doc Bronner
The Juanita Family and Friends – Song of Mihitabel
the Strangers – Outskirts of the City at the Edge of a Desert
The Younger Brothers – Easy Son
Kids on the Couch – God
Steven Griswold – Needle and Twine
The Jesus Chords – When the Man is Getting You Down
Rum and Rebellion – San Luis Waltz
Meg Woodruff – Sunshine

This one got a fair amount of press given its provenance, including a feature in the Metro Santa Cruz (once again, before I began contributing, but not my long.) For posterity, press clips below:

“It’s the kind of album that reaffirms your faith in country music and makes doing this radio show possible.” - Silverfish in the Kitchen Radio

“It’s rare to find a compilation worth listening to, where only a couple of tracks stand out against a dozen other B-sides. It’s even more difficult to find a decent country music compilation, a genre so vilified because of mainstream vapidness and patriotism. Someday Coming Round is an ideal primer for those who can’t get past Travis Tritt, and even for those who don’t have Bocephus’s entire discography…Do yourself a favor and get this comp, and then do yourself a bigger favor and buy the respective records of all the bands on this comp.” - Punk Planet # 72

“The phrase “deviant twang” sums up the very essence of this sampler’s sound—it’s a little bit honky-tonk, a little bit rock ’n’ roll and whole lotta dirty. Alongside some of our already established favorites, such as “Dead to Rights” from Mule Train and “Bangor Mash” from fellow local deviants The Devil Makes Three, Someday Coming Round brings us some of the greatest sounds from up and down the West Coast.” - Good Times Santa Cruz

Also, credit where it’s due, the cover was designed by myself and the emitable Daniel Strong, and printed (by printed I mean photocopied and colored in with Sharpies when the silkscreen didn’t register right) by the two of us over beer, Vicodin, and marathon sessions of Six Feet Under DVD’s.

Someday Coming Down: A Deviant Twang Sampler

Paul M. Davis — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:00:48 +0000

The second compilation I organized, Someday Coming Down: A Deviant Twang Sampler, was released in 2004 and focused largely on underground country, folk, and cowpunk from the West Coast. It featured the Devil Makes Three, the Diamond Star Halos (featuring Emily Jane White), Two Gallants, and tons more bands. Even though it was largely put together while I brefly lived in Southern California, the kind folks at the Metro Santa Cruz (where I later became a contributor) called it “one of the most important compilation albums for the young local scene in years.”

Someday Coming Down: A Deviant Twang Sampler (zip file)

Track List:

The Devil Makes Three – Ain’t Nobody’s Business
The Chop-Tops – Hey Baby
The Puffin’ Billies – Bhune the Sheepherder
Mule Train – Bait & Switch
Boaz Vilzony – Working Man
The Diamond Star Haloes – Red, White and Blue
Ten Gallon – White Freightliner
Hobo Jazz- Rocking Chair
The Waiting Man – Driving Nails in My Coffin
Two Gallants – Cocaine Blues
Blackstrap – St. James Infirmary Blues
The Blue Lady Quintet – Porcelain
Ladytown - Easy Come, Easy Go
Brown Recluse – Desire
Muleskinner Jones – Pretty Polly
Steven Griswold Trucking Project – Drink it Away
The Younger Brothers – Mid November

Paul M. Davis – No Shoes, No Shirt, No Skinny Ties

Paul M. Davis — Sat, 05 Jul 2003 02:14:00 +0000

The closest thing I’ve done to a proper solo full-length—at least to date—No Shoes, No Shirt, No Skinny Ties is a largely acoustic album I recorded in 2003 while living in Crestline, CA. A number of these songs later turned up on the Mule Train CD, though many of them work better acoustically, at least in retrospect. I had quite the chip on my shoulder while writing these songs, so there’s plenty of fun rants about hipsters, mid-‘20s ennui, and my formulation of Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst as faux-twang carpetbaggers. This coming from someone whose primary country influence was Pavement. ANYWAYS, I still stand by all these positions, except when I don’t.

Download Paul M. Davis – No Shoes, No Shirt, No Skinny Ties (zip file)

Track List:

1. Done My Time
2. Six Shooters
3. Troubles and Games
4. Fuck Me Morose
5. Bait and Switch
6. Bottom of the Stack
7. Drinking in the Park
8. Alkaline
9. Whiskey Coma
10. Mason-Dixon Line (Saporito Mix)
11. Falling Star
12. Be On Your Way

Guest vocal appearances by Carrie Sieh and Aaron Ulrich

Lonesome Brothers: Live at the Poet and Patriot

Paul M. Davis — Sun, 03 Nov 2002 01:24:00 +0000

Boaz Vilozny is the best songwriter to ever give up music in favor of organic chemistry. His songs are terribly, painfully, brilliant. For years, he and I played together intermittently as the Lonesome Brothers. There’s a demo tape in my possession that we made way back in 1998, and if I can find a tape deck in the next decade, I’ll post it here. In the interim, a handful of tracks that we played live at the Poet and Patriot in Santa Cruz, in an incarnation of the band that included Pete Bernhard and Cooper McBean of the Devil Makes Three on bass and drums, respectively. Since we practiced approximately three times before this show, I’m only posting the songs we played sans major mistakes to avoid any DMCA takedown notices from friends. Boaz has a few new songs up on Indaba music, check ‘em out.

Lonesome Brothers – Live at the Poet and Patriot Nov 2, 2002 (zip file)

Tracks:

California’s No Place for Cowboys
Be On Your Way
Waiting All Night

Tastes Like Burning Compilation

Paul M. Davis — Sun, 11 Aug 2002 18:58:37 +0000

Ah, the heady days of 2002. At the time, my nutrition primarily came from Budweiser and vodka and day-old bagels. Out of personal torpor and an antsiness that defines both of our personalities, my good friend Pete Bernhard and I organized Tastes Like Burning, our first CD-R comp of indie, punk and folk bands from the Santa Cruz local scene along with a number of like-minded folks from other West Coast areas.

Few of these bands exist anymore, though a handful do. The obvious historical quirk is the inclusion of a couple demos by our friends-of-a friend in The Thermals, who have gone on to a well-deserved measure of success (including releasing one of 2007′s most critically acclaimed albums). There are some great nuggets in here by musicians who’ve gone on to bigger things (such as Pete, with the Devil Makes Three) as well fantastic songwriters and bands that deserve a bit more historical re-estimation (including great Santa Cruz indie popsters Sin in Space, brilliant songwriter Boaz Vilozny who gave up music for organic chemistry, and Sweatitout, an amalgam of ’80s metal and the Cars that would have made Brooklynite hipsters swoon if they’d formed on the other coast.)

The other day, this blogger Steve, who runs the great Cover Freak blog and had ordered the other two CD-R comps I put together (Someday Coming Down and Someday Coming Round), sent me an email asking if I had any copies of this comp left. Unfortunately, I only have a couple copies kicking around the apartment anymore, both of which are slowly submitting to the decreptitude that awaits CD-R’s and home-silkscreened covers. His email inspired me to rip the tracks and archive them while I still could, scan the art, and post it all online for posterity.

Download Tastes Like Burning .zip file

The track listing and links to the current musical projects of the bands and musicians involved:

01> marker – road to nowhere (current projects unknown) 02> depth charge revolt – socrates diminished 03> the thermals – goddamn the light 04> sin in space – fly by night 05> pete bernhard – revenge (Pete is now in The Devil Makes Three) 06> boaz vilozny – waiting all night 07> paul m. davis – alkaline 08> the automatones – nobodys hero (current projects unknown) 09> sweat it out – takin forever (current project: The Gibbs) 10> audio crush – in love with misery (Joe Clement’s current band: Crucial Unicorn) 11> the spooks – rollin dice with jesus christ (current projects unknown) 12> the shakes – six fifty (The one document of me and Pete’s short-lived goober garage-punk outfit) 13> the thermals – it’s time to lose 14> ill lit – beating the daylights out of my nightlife 15> paul m. davis – bottom of the stack 16> zirkles unit – love inside 17> the roots of orchis – please call 874-2420

For more about Santa Cruz independent culture and DIY history, check out the awesome SCUM wiki.

Insert cover art by Koak.

Jam Her Like Jelly

Paul M. Davis — Mon, 05 Nov 2001 02:34:00 +0000

Perhaps the greatest musical project in the history of post-Sinatra pop-rock music, Jam Her Like Jelly was an artistic collaboration between Aaron “Stout” Thompson and myself, with occasional input from Rain Kernytsky. Taking its name from an E-40 song (“Carlos Rossi”, to be precise), Jam Her Like Jelly was the product of Stout and I ingesting whatever intoxicants were at hand (other than marijuana, which we hated,) and ad-libbing with Acid Pro, a prehistoric drum machine, assorted musical instruments, and our own vocal stylings. We touched upon some notable musical genres, including reggae, gay bar techno, noise-rock and Civil War-era marches. The veritable music of the spheres resulted when we turned our focus on a number of recurring lyrical obsessions, including: making fun of stoners, complaining about coffee shop customers, Stout’s patriotism, and gay club music.

For the uninitiated this may be less amusing than annoying, so tread warily, or cut through the chaff and download the greatest product of this collaboration, “Patriot”. [mp3 download]

For the less faint of heart, full download after the jump:

Download The Compleat Jam Her Like Jelly (zip file)

Tracks in the download:

I Like Weed
Marijuana
Don’t Put That Sausage In Yr Mouth, Mrs. Niederlander
Club
Bruce or Betty
Patriot

Vienen – Silent Partner

Paul M. Davis — Sat, 05 May 2001 01:47:00 +0000

So it’s 2001, I still haven’t gotten over the X-Files ending, so I named a musical project after an episode title. With that geeky admission out of the way, this is a full-length that I recorded of electronic indie rock, or at least that was the intention: with some separation, I can see there’s plenty of long-dormant goth influences creeping out here. A very small handful of people contend that this is the best thing I ever recorded, at least among the very small handful of people who actually heard this. I still like it a lot, with a few caveats, one of those being the vocal effects, which were over the top and mostly a result of my lack of confidence in my singing voice at the time. Also notable in that it includes the only song I’ve ever written about sex—awful, terrible sex at that. Downloads after the jump!

Download Vienen – Silent Partner (zip file)

Track List:

1. Patience
2. A Rope To Cling
3. Daguerreotype
4. Trout
5. Song About Fucking
6. Alkaline
7. Desperation
8. Whiskey Coma
9. Silent Partner
10. Geistschiffe

Tunguskaone

Paul M. Davis — Wed, 02 Feb 2000 01:17:00 +0000

Sort of a proto-mashup project, before the mashup was born (or at least before I was aware of it.) This one’s held up rather well: a mixture of samples, loops and live instruments, and tons of shit that amused me at the time (and continues to amuse me.) Features Whitley Strieber talking about abductions over some goth shit, Green Day riffs mixed with samples of drunk rednecks hollering about buttsecks, a mashup of Weezer and Eazy-E, R.E.M. guitar lines over jungle beats, a Battlestar Galactica ‘79 sample, and other fun stuff. Ahead of its time, I tell ya! I believe this was originally burned on a 2x CD burner on a 333 mhz HP Pavilion. I didn’t eat decently for weeks—perhaps months–after buying that.

Download Tunguskaone (zip file)

Track list:

1. Statement of Purpose
2. Motherfucker
3. Impala
4. Tuskegee
5. See ‘Em Coming
6. Comin’ Up
7. Metal Up Your Ass
8. Mathematix
9. Looming