Sidewinders...

A long time ago I listened to "new wave" music. I dyed my hair silly colors. I wore relatively silly looking clothes. I put lots of band pins on my shirts. I had lots of Echo & The Bunnymen, Madness, Specials and Sex Pistols posters on the walls of my room. I got a fake ID and went to DC area clubs and drank Whiskey sours (don't ask why, just let it be) and danced like a spastic 17 year old. It was around this time of my life that I started listening to a band called The Sidewinders. These guys were kind of "off genre" for me when I started listening to them. They were decidedly more melodic and songwriterly than alot of the punk rock I was listening to and not as dance oriented as a lot of the ska and new wave I was pogoing about to. I think in a lot of ways (and hindsight is 20/20) these guys were the first flagstone in my appreciation of the alt-country/indie rock style. Not that The Sidewinders are particularly country. They hailed from Arizona and got lumped in with this really weird "desert rock" sub genre. I guess their music has a certain southerwestern flavor but nothing like, say, Calexico. They put out 2 very good pop rock albums and then broke up. The singer and guitarist went on to from The Sand Rubies (more desert references) who stuck me as a kind of bloated guitar heavy version of The Sidewinders. The guitarist Rich Hopkins went on to form a band called The Luminarios but frankly I'd stopped paying attention at that point. So today I give you The Sidewinders. One song from each album and one song from an acoustic only EP. I've got a soft spot for this stuff. I really think it stands the test of time, as I still put on Auntie Ramos Pool Hall every now and then. The albums are still in print and can bought HERE

From the Sidewinders first album Witchdoctor:

Witchdoctor

From the 2nd album Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall (I recommend this album highly):

We Don't Do That Anymore

From a Sidewinders EP an acoustic version of "We Don't Do That..":

We Don Do That Anymore (Acoustic Version)