Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 09:47:54 -0700 
      From: Jens Alfke (jens@MOOSEYARD.COM) 
      Subject: Paladins explained for Limeys


Steven Hipkiss understandably asks:
>  I'm new on the list so I apologise if this has been answered before,
>but who are the Paladins? Seen nothing of them in the English music
>press (NME & MM), but that isn't suprising

The Paladins are a roots-blues-rock band from LA. Similar to the Blasters
or Stevie Ray Vaughan. This is absolutely retro music, a slavish
re-enactment of the 1950s, there is nothing 4wArD about them at all. My
guess is Ivo got most wasted at a bar in LA where they were playing,
blacked out, and woke up the next morning in a dumpster clutching a
contract signing them to a multi-album deal with 4AD.

Couldn't Ivo have moved somewhere sensible like, say, Central Asia,
instead of LA? At least then when he started signing local traditionalist
bands we'd get to hear some bitchen throat-singin' and ugul-pickin' along
the lines of Huun Hur Tu (get "60 Horses In My Herd", it's great stuff.
How the hell do they get their vocal cords to do that?)

My question is: does the signing of the Paladins now automatically make
the Blasters, Los Lobos, Lone Justice, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc.
thislisty? Decamp for pure-impure while you can... ;-)



      Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 10:09:04 +0500 
      From: Dmitri Bender (db@MARK-ITT.RU) 
      Subject: 4AD and The Paladins relations - look, it's pure fun.


So, I happened to know a guy who knows someone from The Paladins - guess
you'll be interested to see what he's written to me yesterday.

      ---------- Forwarded message ----------
      Date: Tue, 1 Oct 96 20:25:31 -0000
      From: troutcat@snet.net

         I was interested to read that you heard that The Paladins were "the
      worst band signed to 4AD EVER."  I didn't know it when I wrote to you
      last time, but yes, it's the same band. Actually, this is pretty funny.
      I met one of those guys in August during a visit to San Diego.  A friend
      of mine who was in The Beat Farmers asked their bass player, Thomas, what
      was new.  Thomas replied that the Paladins had signed a deal with an
      English alternative label.  The band could not really understand why the
      label - with which they seemed to have nothing in common musically -
      wanted to sign them, but the label guys insisted that they LOVED the band
      and really wanted them.  So, they signed.  After reading what you had
      heard from your 4AD mailing list, I learned that he was talking about
      4AD!  Sounds like the guys in the band are not the only ones confused
      about what the Paladins are doing on the label.
      Oh well, like Lincoln said, you can please some of the people all of the
      time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't
      please all of the people all of the time. I agree with you and Horace
      that nothing's beautiful from every point of view.  It's all music to me
      - 15 years ago I was happily drumming in a band called Radio Reptiles
      that sounded like The Who murdering Captain Beefheart songs, something
      very, very different from what the Bandidos are doing.
      ---------

      well, for crying out loud - that was 4AD who approached the band. duh.


      Dmitri


Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 11:38:53 -0800 
      From: Jeff Keibel (redshift@INTERLOG.COM) 
      Subject: Pre-4AD Paladins album info


You're familiar with Charlemagne? King of France? Holy Roman Emperor?
Well, the king kept an entourage of 12 legendary knights, called
"paladins," who were to be "determined advocates of a noble cause,"
namely, the advancement of the big guy and his territory. The Paladins
from San Diego answer to no man, but they are certainly determined,
playing some 200 road dates a year, and their cause is surely noble --
they deliver sweaty roadhouse blues, expressed in roots-rock songs about
girls and cars, the eternal verities of American pop music.

Singer and guitarist Dave Gonzalez, who has often been compared to
Stevie Ray Vaughan, formed the band in the '70s with his high school
pal, stand-up and electric bass player Tom Yearsley. Primarily a
rockabilly outfit in their early days, the Paladins' exuberant live
shows quickly gained them a loyal following in Southern California. As
they expanded their range of styles to include the blues, swing and R&B,
the Paladins began collaborating with L.A. artists like the Blasters, X
and Los Lobos, as well as with Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
For Ticket Home, Gonzalez and Yearsley have added drummer Jeff Donavan,
formerly of the Dwight Yoakam band, to the mix.

>From the Stevie Ray-style "One Step" to the rootsy title track to the
tender "Comfort You," Ticket Home is the work of seasoned vets who've
retained the energy of young pups.

from Grooves
(c) Time Life Inc.

Jeff Keibel
Scarborough, ON
CANADA
redshift@interlog.com