I looked at the temperature gauge from the safety of the van A/C and outside it was 104°F/40°C. It’s the opposite of living in Sweden where you go from building to building to get out of the cold, craving the heat, here you’re trying to get out of the heat for the cold. That beautiful moment when the chill of the restaurant hits you, but the consequences are that once inside, you can get cold, in Sweden, once inside, you get too hot, you can’t win, move to Portugal.

We left Austin for a three-and-a-half-hour drive to Dallas, our plan was to drop off our bags at our respective homes and get to the soundcheck, then eat and be back for the gig. All was well (not counting the heat) and the venue was a classic hundred-year-old fraternity meeting hall with lotsa wood everywhere. Soundcheck was short, having done two gigs already and our friend engineer Kevin was doing the sound, so he knew how we should sound. So off to dinner, we were going Ramen, but when we got there, the restaurant was just too hot inside. We splintered into different takeaway camps and ate at the studio.

The gig was well attended with an enthusiastic crowd who seemed to be happy with the four-band bill of the Ottoman Turks, Buttercup, The Deathray Davies and Salim. It’s just three shows, sadly, just when you’re getting started, you have to stop.

Yesterday I managed to get to Waterloo Records in Austin where I found a lot of cool albums, I always do. I had about an hour in there and managed to fill a couple of bags, The Archive needs to be fed (see below). If I start listening to them, I’ll be here till doomsday, oh, wait a minute.

Music today was Crow – Music (1969), unabashed late sixties catchy blues pop with horns, the song Evil Woman was covered by Black Sabbath on the first album although not included on the US release. It reached number 19 by Crow in the US charts. Ike & Tina Turner recorded it as Evil Man on Come Together in 1970. UK metal monsters Saxon covered it on Inspirations, their covers album from 2021. Then there’s the Jazz Sabbath version, the Urge Overkill version in collaboration with Killdozer. Few remember the original band, who may not have aged so well…Thoughts?

Music Of The Daze