Here's something you might be interested in.
Rock and Roll Part 3 the album was released in 2010 but Skid Roper would like me to have a listen anyway. This was in my message folder a couple of weeks ago:
Hey Dave, did you ever listen to my Ceedee? If not, I'll send you one. It's actually pretty good, he said immodestly.
He’s right. It is good. But it helps to know a little about Skid in order to get at where he’s coming from. First of all, he’s been an inventive sideman for years for dozens of locals and he can make music with almost anything – spoons, some sandpaper, two handfuls of dirt. He is equally at home making interesting fill noises, singing in a most disquieting manner, and carving out killer guitar riffs all over the fretboard which is right where they belong.
Second, the album cover art shows Roper holding a double neck Mosrite. Excellent! I take this as a dead giveaway that there will be surf music on this record. These old guitars are good for that sharp hollow twang that surfheads craved back in the 1960s when surf rock was new. It is what I expected to hear but no - Skid has a more raw and naked guitar sound on this album.
There are 13 tracks and all of them are Skid’s except one, and all of them are eclectic and strange and wonderful in the way of Roper himself. Part 3 is a tour of faux country, eager guitar-sounding stuff, Johnny Rivers-like riff-driven beatnik poetry, Bahamian junkanoo, and more stuff that is probably Skid’s invention alone.
It comes together on Part 3 with the help of Joel Kmak, Chip McClendon, Joyce Rooks, Johnny Viau, Steelbone Cook, and even Mojo Nixon, who plays bongos. I had it on in the Jeep (the only place I listen to music anymore) and I actually got lost as a result of the weirdness but could have cared less. Skid's music has that effect on a person, like hanging out at the tropical fish store after a big fattie and a tallboy.
The last time I saw Roper perform was in 2011 at the Adams Avenue Street Fest outside Rosie O’Grady’s. He was wearing a real ten-gallon hat and such and he was sweating his ass off in the afternoon heat. He was bending some vintage amp-guitar combination into submission and as I watched, I was reminded of the Spirit Club (now Brick By Brick) where I first saw Skid perform and I thought not so much about how much time had passed but really how much had changed for the Skid machine.
Skid Roper is Richard Banke. He was born in National City and turns 58 this year. In 1985, he released a debut album with his musical partner Neill McMillan, otherwise know as Mojo Nixon. Skid played washboard and other stuff, as he puts it. Mojo played guitar, sang, and stomped the floor like it was on fire. The standout cut from Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper was “Jesus at McDonald’s”:
I saw Jesus at McDonald’s at midnight / Said he wasn’t doin’ alright / Said he didn’t feel so fine / Said he was ‘bout to loose his mind.
In their day Mojo and Skid were the funniest duo alive (anybody remember the words to “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin”?) and their humor seemed to catapult Country Dick of the Beat Farmers to new depths of comic depravity of his own. Such was the climate in the 1980s at the Spring Valley Inn or the Spirit or at Bodie’s when it was still on University Avenue.
Skid and Mojo parted in 1989. Skid would go on to put out three solo albums in the years to come.
"It took over ten years to finish this," he writes of Rock and Roll Part 3 "because I could only afford a few hours a month [in the recording studio] and sometimes a couple of years would go by without any progress. That’s show biz!"
Roper writes that another collection of original music is forthcoming. He doesn’t say when, but he does say it should be some time this year.
"The next collection of original songs is all acoustic. Stay tuned!"
We will, Skid. We will. [link text][1]
[1]: http:// www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/skid-roper/
Rock and Roll Part 3 the album was released in 2010 but Skid Roper would like me to have a listen anyway. This was in my message folder a couple of weeks ago:
Hey Dave, did you ever listen to my Ceedee? If not, I'll send you one. It's actually pretty good, he said immodestly.
He’s right. It is good. But it helps to know a little about Skid in order to get at where he’s coming from. First of all, he’s been an inventive sideman for years for dozens of locals and he can make music with almost anything – spoons, some sandpaper, two handfuls of dirt. He is equally at home making interesting fill noises, singing in a most disquieting manner, and carving out killer guitar riffs all over the fretboard which is right where they belong.
Second, the album cover art shows Roper holding a double neck Mosrite. Excellent! I take this as a dead giveaway that there will be surf music on this record. These old guitars are good for that sharp hollow twang that surfheads craved back in the 1960s when surf rock was new. It is what I expected to hear but no - Skid has a more raw and naked guitar sound on this album.
There are 13 tracks and all of them are Skid’s except one, and all of them are eclectic and strange and wonderful in the way of Roper himself. Part 3 is a tour of faux country, eager guitar-sounding stuff, Johnny Rivers-like riff-driven beatnik poetry, Bahamian junkanoo, and more stuff that is probably Skid’s invention alone.
It comes together on Part 3 with the help of Joel Kmak, Chip McClendon, Joyce Rooks, Johnny Viau, Steelbone Cook, and even Mojo Nixon, who plays bongos. I had it on in the Jeep (the only place I listen to music anymore) and I actually got lost as a result of the weirdness but could have cared less. Skid's music has that effect on a person, like hanging out at the tropical fish store after a big fattie and a tallboy.
The last time I saw Roper perform was in 2011 at the Adams Avenue Street Fest outside Rosie O’Grady’s. He was wearing a real ten-gallon hat and such and he was sweating his ass off in the afternoon heat. He was bending some vintage amp-guitar combination into submission and as I watched, I was reminded of the Spirit Club (now Brick By Brick) where I first saw Skid perform and I thought not so much about how much time had passed but really how much had changed for the Skid machine.
Skid Roper is Richard Banke. He was born in National City and turns 58 this year. In 1985, he released a debut album with his musical partner Neill McMillan, otherwise know as Mojo Nixon. Skid played washboard and other stuff, as he puts it. Mojo played guitar, sang, and stomped the floor like it was on fire. The standout cut from Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper was “Jesus at McDonald’s”:
I saw Jesus at McDonald’s at midnight / Said he wasn’t doin’ alright / Said he didn’t feel so fine / Said he was ‘bout to loose his mind.
In their day Mojo and Skid were the funniest duo alive (anybody remember the words to “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin”?) and their humor seemed to catapult Country Dick of the Beat Farmers to new depths of comic depravity of his own. Such was the climate in the 1980s at the Spring Valley Inn or the Spirit or at Bodie’s when it was still on University Avenue.
Skid and Mojo parted in 1989. Skid would go on to put out three solo albums in the years to come.
"It took over ten years to finish this," he writes of Rock and Roll Part 3 "because I could only afford a few hours a month [in the recording studio] and sometimes a couple of years would go by without any progress. That’s show biz!"
Roper writes that another collection of original music is forthcoming. He doesn’t say when, but he does say it should be some time this year.
"The next collection of original songs is all acoustic. Stay tuned!"
We will, Skid. We will. [link text][1]
[1]: http:// www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/skid-roper/