Thursday, July 14, 2011

26 soundtracks: Border Radio

Border Radio the first feature film from Alison Anders (Food, Gas and Lodging) the plot (from Wiki)
      … in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind. 



The film starts LA punk stalwarts Chris D. (of The Flesh Eaters and The Divine Horsemen) and John Doe (of X and now has a very nice solo career going)
 Along with an appearance by Dave Alvin (of the Blasters and who also has a Solo career)… so it’s should be no surprise that the music used in the film is largely drawn from the participants. I have to admit that I was already a big fan of several of the bands, and a couple of the songs used in the film.  The music is largely in that Cowpunk, dusty, C&W mode. The title track is a Balsters song as covered by Tony Kinman of The Dils and pioneering Cowpunkers Rank’n’File. The Green on Red track, Sixteen Ways, is one of those overlooked LA punk classics and I am a sucker for the Divine Horsemen, who are the third of my holy trinity of LA/ Southwest Cowpunk bands (Rank’n’File and Blood on the Saddle are the other two). The rest of the tracks didn’t really stand out to me, but fit the mood and film and sit well with the rest of the tracks. I am not sure if the record is in print, but the film has been issued on DVD by Criterion and is nicely packaged. I hope that if they are going to up grade it to Bluray (which I don’t think is really going to make it look any better) that they add a download of the soundtrack to the package. If you can find a copy of the LP and you like that rootsy, cowpunk, alt country sound I would say pick it up.

The Tonys – Border Radio
Dave Alvin – La Frontera I
The Lazy Cowgirl,– Drugs
Dave Alvin – Burning Guitar
Dave Alvin – Mi Vida Loca
Dave Alvin & John Doe – Little Honey
Divine Horsemen – Mother's Worry
Green On Red – Sixteen Ways
Dave Alvin – La Frontera II
Chris D. – Lilly White Hands
Dave Alvin – Driving To Mexico
Dave Alvin – Mi Vida Loca

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