Another Music Pick

This one is old and obscure: The Pleasure Barons’ Live in Las Vegas.

The other day in the car, I heard “Take a Letter Maria,” and started to get excited, but then I realized--not surprisingly, given that it’s 2005, not 1993, and I was tuned to the Red State Capital City oldies station, not some weird college radio down at the left end of the dial--that I was listening to the pallid R.B. Greaves original, not the kick-ass cover that Country Dick Montana belts out with the Pleasure Barons. Then I got disappointed. Then I got excited that I could go home and listen to the Pleasure Barons. Then I got home and couldn’t find the Pleasure Barons, so I decided at least I could write about the Pleasure Barons.

The Pleasure Barons were an early-90s, Southern California, punk/rockabilly supergroup that rocked out lounge music for about a year. Put Country Dick Montana, Mojo Nixon, Dave Alvin*, John Doe, Rosie Flores, and Katy Moffat together with a bunch of 60s and 70s covers and Mojo originals (like “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child,” to name just one classic), and you can’t help but achieve musical magic--or perhaps a more accurate term would be musical mayhem (ok, John, Rosie, and Katy aren’t on the album, but they were crucial to the tour).

S and I saw them at Slim’s in San Francisco around 1994. Slim’s was one of our favorite places to see music--small enough to be up close and personal with the bands, big enough for loudness and dancing to really happen. And the Pleasure Barons, well, let’s just say it was one of the best shows we ever saw anywhere, largely because they were having so much fun up on stage in their suits, ties and party dresses, drinking martinis, blasting Tom Jones covers, and getting down with Mojo’s mania, that the entire audience just felt obligated to have as much fun as could possibly be had out on the dance floor.

Buy it here (get it quick--Hightone says it’s out of stock and Amazon only has four copies). Stream it here.

* Someday I’ll write about Dave Alvin. You think I love Carly Simon and Wilco? Wait till you hear how I feel about Dave Alvin.