Medictation - Warm Places LP - Orange Vinyl (/100)

Dead Broke (2016)

2016 has kind of been a shit year, taking away so many artists I respect.  And as bad as it has been, when Dickie Hammond passed away in 2015, I felt a profound loss.  This was a man whose music has had such an impact on me directly and had also influenced so many bands that I love.  It was a sad, sad day for punk rock.  Warm Places is the last record that Dickie was part of.

Also featuring member of The Sainte Catherines, Medictation is a roaring tribute to Dickie that is simply spectacular.  Dickie Hammond's guitar work is so distinct.  Whether you go through HDQ or Leatherface or Doctor Bison, you can always hear the way Dickie's guitar influences those band.  It's so powerful, but beautiful at the same time.  Medictation, for the most part, tends to stay closer to the Leatherface playbook.  Though, definitely more in line with the quieter moments of albums like The Last and Minx.

The vocals are appropriately raspy and wonderful.  Aside from an odd turn on "Stalingrad," where the super low, spoken word type vocals actually remind me a little of some of those goofy old Dandy Warhols songs.  Not that this song is a goof, but it stands in contrast so sharply with the rest of the album.  Still, this record is great.  It's a definite highlight in 2016 and we sure could use some of those.

Medictation - Warm Places:

https://deadbrokerekerds.bandcamp.com/album/warm-places

The Jones - Gravity Blues LP - Blue Splatter Vinyl

Boss Tuneage (2015, Reissue)

It took me a little while to realize that this album had actually been released on vinyl, but I couldn't begin to tell you how thrilled I was to discover that it was.  The Jones is arguably the most under appreciated band to feature Dickie Hammond.  I'm not sure if it just got lost in the shuffle and not enough people heard it, but whenever I read anything about the great albums that Dickie was a part of, I never heard this mentioned.

It's a bit of a shame as aside from Leatherface, The Jones could be my favorite thing that Dickie ever did.  Just give the opening track "Monotone" about forty-five seconds.  With its searing guitar riff in the verse, the slowed down, hook filled chorus and impassioned vocals from Golly (also from HDQ like Dickie), you'd be hard pressed to find a more impressive song in Dickie's arsenal.  But it's not the only one.  The album is nearly perfect in execution with song after song of incredibly dynamic guitar work.  It's kind of crazy to me that more people don't know and love this album.

For this vinyl reissue the fine folks at Boss Tuneage have also tacked on two 7"s that preceded the Jones full length.  The Stokoe 7" and Fatty Jones 7" both featured Dickie and Golly, but each had a different cast of characters supporting them on other instruments.  Fidelity wise, the three Stokoe songs stand out a bit from the rest, but as far as song quality goes, they are every bit as good.  

Again, I couldn't be more excited to finally have these songs on vinyl.  Maybe The Jones isn't quite as well known as Leatherface, HDQ or even Doctor Bison; but they should be.  Every song on here is incredible and this is absolutely a record you should go out of your way to pick up if you don't already own it.

The Jones - Gravity Blues:

https://bosstuneagerecords.bandcamp.com/album/gravity-blues

Dickie Hammond - 1965 - 2015

Photo by @AlanRappa

I've been sitting with the news that Dickie Hammond died for a few days now.  I've posted about it briefly on Twitter and I also re-tweeted a few little articles about it, but in general it's been something that I've just been thinking about a lot.  Considering I've never met him, it's amazing the profound influence he's had on my life.  I only had the pleasure of seeing him play with Leatherface one time and for reasons I'm not sure of, I didn't say hello to him.

Leatherface has been one of my top tier favorite bands since I first heard them.  I admittedly got into them kind of backwards and perhaps a bit later than some other folks.  I am pretty sure the first time I had heard them was in 1995 or 1996 when I purchased the Do The Right Thing CD single at Flipside records in New Jersey.  I had really gotten into the band Broccoli and was told that Leatherface would be right up my alley as they were sort of the grandfathers of that sound.

Ever since that moment I have simply been obsessed.  I tracked down every record of theirs I could find, including a great many of them on a trip to England in 1997 that consisted almost exclusively of trips to record shops.  I paid $110 for a copy of Mush on Vinyl in the earlier days of eBay (Outbidding Billy of Dillinger Four it turned out).  I flew to England to see Leatherface, Snuff and Wat Tyler play a show to memorialize Andy Crighton.  

Leatherface stayed at my apartment when I was in college for a night after a show in New York City. This and the Andy gig were both Dickie-less versions of the band, but rest assured, Dickie was always there in spirit as the band raced through so many of the genuine classics that he helped craft.  

Listening to Leatherface not only made me love that band, but it really shaped the way I looked at music and specifically punk rock.  While the sounds that poured out of their records were fierce and blistering with energy, they had humanity in them.  Soul, if you will.  These were not a bunch of angry punks shouting, these were artists crafting magnificent and beautiful songs.  To this day, if I read a review comparing any band to Leatherface, I always go and take a listen.  I've discovered so many bands this way and the number of bands I listen to that were influenced by Leatherface is almost impossible to count.

I also don't want to pigeonhole him with Leatherface.  I have records by HDQ, Doctor Bison, The Jones and Stokoe that all benefit from this man's mastery of the guitar.  Everything he touched turned to gold, but Leatherface is always the one that spoke to me the most.

Dickie Hammond is one of the greatest guitar players I have ever heard.  The world is a sadder place without him.  I feel so awful for the people that actually knew him, were friends with him and shared stories with him.  Their loss eclipses mine by a mile.  What I can say is it's depressing to think that I will never hear any new sounds emanating from his guitar.  It's a real bummer, but I take solace in how much joy this man has brought me over the years.  How many perfect records he was a part of.  How he set me down a path that would help me discover so many bands and meet so many people that I consider friends.  I didn't know him and he didn't know me, but despite that, I will never forget Dickie Hammond.