Dixieland: Hey, it still sucks

I could tell you about last weekend, about the double slice of “mushroom” pizza I bought from a sidewalk vendor in Old Sacramento and scarfed. I could tell you about the spectral whisper I heard hissing from an alley an hour later, which I followed, only to be frightened out of my wits by the ghosts of Bix Beiderbecke and Bunny Berrigan, warning me to “best oil yo’self up” with High John the Conqueror Root Oil for protection against crossed-up conditions—or else. And I could tell you about the brigade of 97-year-old flappers doing the parasol dance, who began chasing me down Front Street like a pack of feral dogs and, once I began to elude them, released their dentures to fly out of their mouths and continue in hot pursuit, nipping at my heels while an army of disembodied clarinets mockingly squealed a funeral dirge.

But that would be, as my dad used to put it, “bullshitting.”

You see, after a run-in with a sadistic dentist as a teen, his office full of clown paintings he’d painted himself, who played loud Dixieland jazz as he gleefully drilled, I’m all Monty Python and the Holy Grail when it comes to the Jazz Jubilee: “Run away! Run away!” So I’ll do a few mea culpas for some recent mistakes instead.

First, Frantic Records’ new releases: I’d mentioned that in addition to the boffo New Breed compilation (The New Breed Wants You!) that Frantic impresario Joey D had put together, he’d done a Marauders comp. Incorrect! Actually it was a various-artists comp, titled So Cold!!! Unearthed Mid-60s Sacramento Garage, which contains 30 tracks. He’s also got a few other compilations forthcoming; these include two local titles, Capital’s Gone Rockin’: Early Sacramento Rockers 1957-1966 and Luv’s So Free: Late 60s Sacramento Psych, plus a Yuba City/Marysville set titled Up From the Grave: North Valley Garage and Psych 1965-1969, and a not-yet-titled Stockton-Modesto comp. You’ll be able to buy Frantic releases at Russ Solomon’s new record store, R5.

At a Snobs show, ran into Matt McCord, who pointed out that he had co-produced the new Richard March CD, Levee Road, with March. It’s understandable that a guy who’d like to produce more local bands might want to get some recognition for doing good work, and McCord’s a good guy, too.

And, finally, Jake Mann will celebrate the release of his new Crossbill Records CD, Daytime Ghost, at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, 129 E. Street in Davis, on Friday, June 1; the 10 p.m. show, with Agent Ribbons, has a $2 cover. The new record is a real smart-rock charmer, the kind of road-trip soundtrack that deepens and gets better with repeated playing. Beginning with his former band the Zim-Zims, Mann has come across as the perfect NorCal analogue to some of greater New York’s finer post-Velvet combos, both as a narrative songwriter and as a guitar-wielding texturalist. Here he’s provided a cornucopia of sonic film footage. Ever see that haunting video of someone’s motorcycle trip to Prypiat, near Chernobyl? Daytime Ghost would provide a perfect complement to that.

One fan got mad when I wrote that Mann’s audience showed up at a Fox & Goose gig wearing custom-made Jake Mann shirts. No disrespect. That kind of sincere fan devotion is sweet.