{"product_id":"blood-sucking-maniacs-self-titled-album-cd","title":"BLOOD SUCKING MANIACS - Blood Sucking Maniacs - CD [APR 24]","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCD - \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eDeluxe gatefold single-CD edition features replica LP artwork and an 8pp. insert.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e• A collaborative project with family and friends including \u003cstrong\u003eJo Harvey\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eBukka\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eBale\u003c\/strong\u003e, and \u003cstrong\u003eCalder Allen\u003c\/strong\u003e, as well as \u003cstrong\u003eLloyd Maines\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eCharlie Sexton\u003c\/strong\u003e, this is the first new music from \u003cstrong\u003eTerry Allen\u003c\/strong\u003e since \u003cem\u003eJust Like Moby Dick\u003c\/em\u003e (2020).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a child—this would have been sometime in the mid-1970s—\u003cstrong\u003eTerry\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eJo Harvey Allen\u003c\/strong\u003e’s son \u003cstrong\u003eBale\u003c\/strong\u003e assembled in the front yard of their Fresno home a curious device, an elaborate congeries of crucifixes and mirrors suspended in deadfall. It was, the fledgling artist patiently explained to his bemused parents, a vampire trap.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHalf a century later, \u003cem\u003eBlood Sucking Maniacs\u003c\/em\u003e, the record by the eponymous Allen family band, resembles, in its own manner—that is, unwieldy and convoluted, ardent and hammy, slightly deranged—a vampire trap in both construction and intent. A bricolage of potent symbols and spare parts, wary of the eternal, at once affectionate and defensive, vulnerable and dangerous, fiercely protective of past and future wounds. In other words, a family—or a mechanism for one specific family to write (and interpret) itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese maniacs, ten kin, span five generations and 121 years. In order of descending seniority: \u003cstrong\u003ePauline Allen\u003c\/strong\u003e, Terry’s hellraising, barrelhouse piano-playing mother, who died in 1984 but joins the party through a transmission from beyond the grave; \u003cstrong\u003eJo Harvey\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eTerry\u003c\/strong\u003e, the matriarch and patriarch, who, separately and together, inhabit myriad artistic endeavours; \u003cstrong\u003eBukka\u003c\/strong\u003e, their firstborn, an accomplished songwriter and studio and touring musician; \u003cstrong\u003eBale\u003c\/strong\u003e, their younger son, an equally accomplished visual artist, gallerist, and drummer; their three grandsons, \u003cstrong\u003eSled\u003c\/strong\u003e (a drummer, entrepreneur, and fisherman; see the “some like to fish” lyric in theme song “\u003cem\u003eBlood Sucking Maniacs\u003c\/em\u003e”) and \u003cstrong\u003eCalder\u003c\/strong\u003e (another songwriter, musician, and fisherman), Bale’s two boys, and Bukka’s son \u003cstrong\u003eKru\u003c\/strong\u003e (a piano-playing football star); their granddaughter-in-law Sophie (music industry executive and mother), and finally, Sled and Sophie’s baby boy, \u003cstrong\u003eLucky Marlo\u003c\/strong\u003e, Terry and Jo Harvey’s first great-grandchild, whose fetal heartbeat opens and closes the record with the actual (ultra)sound of coursing Allen blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTerry has designated four additional official Maniacs, surrogate family members adopted into the Allen family fold: \u003cstrong\u003eRichard Bowden\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eLloyd Maines\u003c\/strong\u003e (credited as the “Blood Brothers”), the benevolent bedrock of the Panhandle Mystery Band since the first day of recording Lubbock (on everything) in the summer of 1978, and real-life brothers \u003cstrong\u003eCharlie Sexton\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eWill Sexton\u003c\/strong\u003e (the “Bastard Children”), who, between them, have collaborated with the Allens and just about anybody else you can imagine. Though their bloodlines are, genetically speaking, different, these maniacs have drunk deeply of Allen blood, and their sympathetic playing elevates these recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe songs collected herein are miscellaneous and multiplex, comprising heartrending ballads and arch in-jokes on a spectrum from sublime to unabashedly sentimental, mordant to doting. These contradictory qualities, too, are redolent of family. The unifying principle here is not so much blood harmony as blood entropy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAppropriately, Terry and Jo Harvey contribute the greatest number of pieces to Blood Sucking Maniacs—five each, if you include their joint rendering, tender and succinct, of the blues standard “\u003cem\u003eIt Hurts Me Too\u003c\/em\u003e,” here titled “\u003cem\u003eWhen Things Go Wrong\u003c\/em\u003e” (because “the struggle of love,” of relationships, “is the important part,” as Terry told me). Jo Harvey wrote “\u003cem\u003eLet It All In\u003c\/em\u003e” with their dear departed friend \u003cstrong\u003eSusanna Clark\u003c\/strong\u003e, a songwriter and artist whose paintings grace the covers of classic albums by \u003cstrong\u003eWillie Nelson\u003c\/strong\u003e and her husband (and Terry’s fellow Rockin’ Taco), Guy. One hundred toasts with “one hundred sangrias” culminate in this wise counsel of renewal: “Don’t shut out no snakes \/ They might wind up friends \/ It’s all worth the wonder \/ Worth going insane again.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe concert staple “\u003cem\u003eShuck Some Corn\u003c\/em\u003e,” Jo Harvey’s most beloved poem, here appended as a coda to Bukka’s “\u003cem\u003eThese Four Rocks\u003c\/em\u003e,” manages to encompass both metaphysical riddle and randy joke, playfully prodding the mystery of identity as subsumed and redeemed by family, by blood. (What is left after you “gobble and gnaw \/ and suck it raw”? “A secret.”) “\u003cem\u003eDown to the River\u003c\/em\u003e,” Jo Harvey’s moving duet with Terry, a paean to their love of, and through, travel and the record’s spiritual centerpiece, contains its most singular and breathtaking image. We are suddenly transported to the Bay of Bengal, “Where bonfires reflect the slow dark oxen \/ Where a hundred blue sails draw against the dawn.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the past few years Calder, under Charlie and Bukka’s mentorship, has emerged as a formidable young presence among Austin songwriters. His three songs here demonstrate a distinctively earnest and mindful style that recalls his uncle Bukka’s deliberate approach to songwriting, epitomised by “\u003cem\u003eThese Four Rocks\u003c\/em\u003e.” On one of their countless drives between Fresno and Lubbock, the Allens pocketed four small stones from the side of a road through the Mojave Desert, outside Needles. They claimed them as family totems of togetherness, one for each of them, eventually tattooing them on their hands as a quadrangle of dots.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe writing and recording process, which took place mostly at Terry and Jo Harvey’s Santa Fe home and a local studio, the Kitchen Sink, was, according to Jo Harvey, “the most joyous time of all of us working together,” a culminating project for these inveterate family collaborators. “You could hear music coming from all over the house … Calder was learning piano from \u003cstrong\u003eKru\u003c\/strong\u003e, Kru was learning accordion from Bukka—everyone was learning new licks and just having so much fun.” Such joy was not without logistical challenges. “Getting everybody together was like herding cockroaches,” Terry reported. Sled’s poem “\u003cem\u003eSanta Fe\u003c\/em\u003e”and Calder’s “\u003cem\u003eArroyo Nights\u003c\/em\u003e” invite us behind the adobe walls of the Allens’ home for such a gathering, fuelled by Topo Chico, tequila, Malbec, and black coffee, suffused with the heady aroma of pork pozole and green chile chicken enchiladas, and the raucous sound of Texan voices raised in laughter and song.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePauline appears as an inscrutable but benign specter, with her first-ever appearance on record, in two fragments captured on cassette tape by Terry at her home in Amarillo in the 1970s. The second, W.C. Handy’s foundational “\u003cem\u003eSt. Louis Blues\u003c\/em\u003e,” was her favourite song, which Terry incorporated into his family epic, DUGOUT, as leitmotif. (Kru’s piano improvisations conjure his great-grandmother’s insouciant virtuosity on the instrument.) “\u003cem\u003eRed Leg Boy\u003c\/em\u003e,” another artifact of DUGOUT, invokes Terry’s father Sled, a wrestling and music promoter and professional ballplayer. Sled’s namesake, his great-grandson, introduces the song, just as he did as a four-year-old on Terry’s 1999 record Salivation, though a couple of octaves lower this time. On the chorus, four generations call out to their forebear from a fifth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It’s all one thing,” Terry has often said, when confronted by confused critics, of his multidisciplinary practice, which embraces music, art, writing, and theatre. The same formula applies to the Allens’ conception of art and family—it’s all one thing, or it can be.Notwithstanding the popular misconceptions about the romantic life of the hermitic artist and his hermetic art, family need not be an inconvenience or impediment to sidestep on the path to artistic fulfilment or career success (whatever those two absurd, abstract metrics might mean). Art and family need not present separate or parallel conditions and experiences but can, as in “\u003cem\u003eBloodlines\u003c\/em\u003e,” the reprised title track of Terry’s 1983 album, flow together in confluence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRIYL:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e Terry Allen, Calder Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, David Byrne, Bill Callahan, Guy Clark, Bob Dylan, The Flatlanders, Randy Newman, John Prine, Silver Jews\/Purple Mountains, Townes Van Zandt., Kurt Vile, Wilco.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Heartbeat (Lucky Marlo Allen) \/ Barrelhouse (Pauline Allen)\u003cbr\u003e2. Blood Sucking Maniacs \u003cbr\u003e3. Bloodlines\u003cbr\u003e4. Peaches and Sap\u003cbr\u003e5. A Pogo Is a Logo\u003cbr\u003e6. Dirt Road\u003cbr\u003e7. Down to the River\u003cbr\u003e8. Kru Jam\u003cbr\u003e9. Just Pray\u003cbr\u003e10. Let It All In\u003cbr\u003e11. Little Baby Boy\u003cbr\u003e12. Mahalabalapurem-poppa-oo-maumau\u003cbr\u003e13. Blues (Pauline Allen)\u003cbr\u003e14. No Rush to Fly\u003cbr\u003e15. Red Leg Boy\u003cbr\u003e16. Santa Fe\u003cbr\u003e17. Arroyo Nights\u003cbr\u003e18. These Four Rocks \/ Shuck Some Corn (Jo Harvey Allen)\u003cbr\u003e19. When Things Go Wrong\u003cbr\u003e20. Kru Jam 2\u003cbr\u003e21. Where We Belong\u003cbr\u003e22. Family Tree \/ Heartbeat (Lucky Marlo Allen)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBLOOD SUCKING MANIACS are …\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Allen Family\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePauline Allen: piano\u003cbr\u003eTerry Allen: keyboard, piano, vocals\u003cbr\u003eJo Harvey Allen: vocals\u003cbr\u003eBukka Allen: keyboards, accordion, B-3 organ, vocals\u003cbr\u003eKru Allen: piano, accordion, vocals\u003cbr\u003eBale Allen: drums, vocals\u003cbr\u003eSled Allen: drums, vocals\u003cbr\u003eSophie Allen: Session Momma\u003cbr\u003eLucky Marlo Allen: heartbeat\u003cbr\u003eCalder Allen: guitars, vocals\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlood Brothers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLloyd Maines: steel guitar, dobro\u003cbr\u003eRichard Bowden: violin, mandolin\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBastard Children\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharlie Sexton: guitars\u003cbr\u003eWill Sexton: guitars, bass\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdditional Maniacs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBarbara FG: bass, vocals\u003cbr\u003eJohn Michael Schoepf: bass\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paradise Of Bachelors","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57390367310169,"sku":null,"price":16.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/Blood_Sucking_Maniacs_-_self-titled_album_-_CD_-_2026.jpg?v=1772112100","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/blood-sucking-maniacs-self-titled-album-cd","provider":"Spindizzy","version":"1.0","type":"link"}