After fighting writer’s block for four years, Drive-By Truckers singer/guitarist Mike Cooley is now back to work. English Oceans (ATO) is Cooley’s return to full-on songwriting—splitting the tracklist right down the middle after letting bandmate Patterson Hood steer the ship for the two albums prior—and is a return to form for the group as a whole. While DBT has never been a band to slack on the road or in the studio, English Oceans has the vigor and exuberance that made it one of America’s best rock groups. Cooley, Hood, bassist Matt Patton and multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Drive-By Truckers feature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SP7gfvX4Ko
Gonzalez: As is the norm these days, I was turned on to this band by a friend who was posting videos on Facebook. He came up playing in bands in NYC and had played on a bill with this band, Street The Beat, who were mainly buskers in downtown Manhattan in the ’80s.
Street The Beat was a group of Latino ex-gang members from the South Bronx who would not have sounded out of place playing The Cavern in Liverpool circa 1963. They sang three-part harmony, had a left-handed guitarist and a drummer who absolutely kills it on a set consisting of two cardboard boxes and a tambourine on a stand.
My eternal gratitude goes to the guy who hit record on his VCR 20 years ago, capturing this episode of the cable access show Hispanic Horizons. All four members, wearing jean jackets with “STREET THE BEAT” bedazzled on the backs, launch into possibly the catchiest song ever written, with vocal harmonies that the Hollies would envy. It’s head bobbing and jangly as all get out (there are two 12-string guitars involved)—sheer aural happiness!
There’s plenty of footage of STB busking some Beatles tunes to huge crowds. How amazing it would’ve been to happen upon Street The Beat doing a “Twist And Shout”/”La Bamba ” medley on Bleecker Street in 1984!
Here’s another great tune from that show as well that features some street dancers busting some sweet moves to another Mersey via the East River tune, “Crazy Boy.”
