Music

Frontier Circus lassos box of singles

Frontier Circus (from left) Frontier Dan, Victor El Valiente, Daredevil Dave, Lightnin'Lou, Justice
Williams
Frontier Circus (from left) Frontier Dan, Victor El Valiente, Daredevil Dave, Lightnin'Lou, Justice Williams

Frontier Circus Record Release Party

Special guest: Marvin Berry

8 p.m. Saturday

Admission: $7

Whitewater Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock

(501) 375-8400

http://whitewaterta…">whitewatertavern.com

Gonzo "psycho-western" quintet The Frontier Circus has rounded up a passel of disparate and inspired cover songs for its latest, Made in Japan, and the packaging is just as unique as the music.

Made in Japan is actually a boxed set of eight songs on four colored-vinyl singles (aka 45s) and is being loosed upon the world, like 2011's A Little Bit Psycho, A Little Bit Western, on Little Rock's own Max Recordings and the band's Ironic label.

The Frontier Circus is celebrating the release of the box -- which was crafted by "design wrangler" Jess Setzler and recorded live (minus an overdub here and there) at Little Rock's Fellowship Hall over the course of, oh, three hours or so -- with a Saturday show at Whitewater Tavern.

Fans can buy copies of the boxed set, of which there are only 100, for $35 at the show. It will also be available at Been Around Records, 1216 S. University Ave., Little Rock; Arkansas CD and Record Exchange, 4212 MacArthur Drive, North Little Rock; and at maxrecordings.com.

Don't have a record player? There's a code with each box that allows buyers to download the set.

"This is certainly a team effort," says Circus ringleader Frontier Dan, adding with a laugh, "It's not a great idea financially, but we all think it's pretty terrific."

The idea to put out a box of singles came to him after buying and restoring a jukebox for his house.

"I wanted some of my own records on it," he says, so he and the rest of the band -- guitarist Victor El Valiente, guitarist Justice Williams, bassist Lightnin' Lou and drummer Daredevil Dave, with help from Frontier Dan's brother, Oleo Magneto -- assembled a mishmash of cover songs that sync nicely with the Frontier Circus vibe, which is something akin to music fans geeking out over obscure records and trading inside jokes.

Among the songs are cracked and giddy covers of George Jones' "The Window Up Above," Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," Bobby Lee Trammel's rockabilly raver "Arkansas Twist" and, of course, Buck Owens' "Made in Japan."

A pair of Skeeter Davis songs -- "Lost to a Geisha Girl" and "Everybody Wants a Cowboy" -- appear, along with a hilariously twisted take on Jonathan Richman's "Pablo Picasso," listed here as "Pablo Picasso Never Got Called Red Neckerson," the title being a tip of the ol' sombrero to former Circus member Red Neckerson.

"I've been doing that song in bands since 1989," Frontier Dan says. Over the years it has morphed into something entirely different from the original's deadpan vocals and R-rated chorus, transforming into a slinky groove with Dan's eerie theremin adding texture and the band incorporating parts of Sun Ra's "Travel the Spaceways," Funkadelic's "The Mothership" and The Coup's "We Are the Ones."

"We play a lot of festivals," Dan says, "and people really like the sound of [that song]. Justice, along with Victor and Dave and Lou, have a really great groove."

Of course, no Frontier Circus collection would be complete without a nod to Frontier Dan's hero, Lou Reed. With Daredevil Dave's funky drums, Lightnin' Lou's slippery re-creation of the unmistakable bass line of the original, a spacey sax from Dan and a theremin and guitar-fueled feedback bed beneath it all, the group nails a satisfying version of "Walk on the Wild Side."

Among the other 45 rpm singles, however, "Wild Side" is actually pressed at 33 1/3.

"There's this great dub sound at the end of it," Dan says. "It's almost 5 1/2 minutes long and we didn't want to cut it. At 33 1/3, I can't put it on my jukebox, but that just makes it more special."

Style on 03/03/2015

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