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They are a mysterious explosion of comedy, kitsch, experimental theater, neo-Beat poetry, phat bass lines, and pop culture run amok — backed by a supertight band navigating a turbulent sea of funk, hip-hop, metal, blues, tango, and whatever else floated by. Funny and outrageous. They are insightful, often-poignant storytellers, celebrating hustlers, street people, burnouts, and even the occasional dental hygienist with love on her mind. Not only that, they are snazzy dressers — in a riot-at-the-Goodwill-store kind of way.
Hands down, The Gluey Brothers are the most original band to ever call Santa Fe their home. The two frontmen, King Hummus (Logan Richards) and MC Tahina (Jim Goulden) disappeared around the turn of the century, ending up in California, where they continued the path of The Gluey.
But they’re back. (Actually Tahina has been living in Santa Fe for the last year or so, though Hummus remains in Los Angeles.) They’ve got a cool new DVD, Rio Vista: Visuals, Volume One, which features Gluey music videos, footage from live performances from 1994 to 2005, a documentary, an interview, and assorted weirdness.
The DVD captures a big chunk of the old Gluey magic. There’s the Brothers’ 1998 national-television debut on Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular (a short-lived FX network series and that’s no BS.) They do a seven-minute version of their signature tune and classic show opener, “Gluey Brothers Creep.”
One of my favorite Gluey Santa Fe songs is here — a 2000 live performance of “Piñon Lurker,” a high-charged guitar boogie about a guy you shouldn’t make eye contact with if you see him walking down Agua Fría.
The DVD wouldn’t be complete without “Coffee Shop Tribute,” which features some of the Brothers’ funniest, if most obscure, trivia references: “I saw Reuben Kincaid with a shoddy perm” is one of my favorite lines in contemporary music. Unfortunately, the song is abbreviated, coupled with a snatch of “Freedom Rap.”
Mark Sommerville created a surreal Flash cartoon for “Stabbing Trilogy (in Five Parts).” My favorite part is the talking-catfish segment. Lots of Gluey tunes would make great cartoons, so I hope to see more of these.
In putting this together, Sean “Momma Bates” Browning reached way back in the Gluey archives. There are versions of “Donut Quota” and “Hash House Line” from the boys’ second performance (in Van Nuys, California, 1992), when it was just Hummus and Tahina with a drum machine.
The initial version of Rio Vista: Visuals, Volume One is a limited-edition run. Each copy is numbered and hand-signed.
Steve Terrell- The Santa Fe New Mexican - August 8, 2008
