The Dream Palace, New Orleans’ most cosmic music club, has been sold by owners Alan and Deborah Langhoff and under the management of new owner Jack Maheu, famed jazz clarinetist, will now function as a traditional jazz club to be known as the Tin Roof Café.
"We’re flying-not dying," explains Deborah Langhoff. "We sold the building. It’s been 20-odd years and as you remember, when Alan bought the building, it was derelict and had not been used for 10 years and that neighborhood was pretty boring. Now this whole scene has sprung up around it and the building’s worth a lot of money.
"Alan found the building and it had damage from Hurricane Betsy. There was a big pool of water in the center of the floor from the leaks and that’s why nobody had bought the building. So Alan bought it and went to his parents and said, ‘We decided to buy a commercial building on Frenchmen Street.’ His dad said, ‘Frenchmen Street?! What address on Frenchmen Street?’ And Alan said, ‘534 Frenchmen Street.’ His dad said, ‘534 Frenchmen Street! You crazy son-of-a-bitch! That building was falling down 50 years ago when I was living there!’
"What had happened was that Alan’s dad and mother and his Aunt Olivia and her family had spent the Depression renting rooms on the second floor of the Dream Palace. When the Depression was over, his dad said he’d never go back to Frenchmen Street."
Among the reasons for the current sale of the building are Alan’s burgeoning computer-consultation business and the Langhoffs’ desire to spend more time with their children. "What we enjoy about this are the special events and parties-the opportunities to see friends from the past 20 years gather-rather than the day-in and day-out music business," Deborah says. "So what we’re hoping to do is take the Dream Palace image and all the memorabilia so that we can make it a moveable venue."
The fantastic ceiling mural, painted by artist Rain Webb in 1977 and entitled "Cosmic Oasis," will remain in place. According to Deborah: "The new owners can’t touch the mural for eight years-they can’t even clean it-and once they’re in, I think they’ll appreciate the landmark nature of the mural."
The Krewe of Kosmic Debris, founded by Alan in 1977, will continue to roll (or walk and/or stagger) from 534 Frenchmen Street on Mardi Gras. Alan has other ambitions, as well: "We’ll produce Dream Palace parties and I’d also like to see the growth of the record label. We have one record out. We have another compilation that’s just about to go to bed and then we plan to move towards producing albums for individual artists.
"Really, the kids keep you young-dealing with these young bands keeps you from being an old fogey. It’s really like we’re going mobile. We’re looking for venues-some stuff we might do at clubs and other stuff might be more like guerrilla action: somebody backs up the trucks and we use the garage!"
Daydream Believer
You read it here first: Daydreams & Curry’s Water is the Best Local Rock CD of 2000. Comprised of multi-instrumentalist Greg Wiz, guitarist Dasher, guitarist Dave Rosser and bassist Donald Ramsey, D&C is unlike any New Orleans band you’ve ever heard before. For one thing, Wiz writes pop songs as intelligent, witty and catchy as the compositions of the late Kurt Cobain.
Wiz, short for "Wieczorek," and Dasher, whose last name is "Egger," met in Baltimore (home of H.L. Mencken, The Greatest Writer of All Time) and migrated to New Orleans in 1995. As Wiz recalls, "We picked New Orleans because we knew it was a place where a lot of music was going on and it was a pretty cheap place to live and we figured it would be a good place to get an act together.
"We’ve lived in a house on Tchoupitoulas Street since we moved here and if you remember all the construction that was going onit was kind of hard to handle when you woke up and found six-foot ditches in front of your front door and the water was always shut off. That inspired ‘Hide The Fool,’ dreaming of a place far away."
"Hide The Fool" is the perfect rock anthem, commencing with a desire "to live on the Torremalenos beach, swimming through the blue Mediterranean." Then comes the chorus, the sort of rousing diatribe guaranteed to appeal to down-trodden teens, post-teens and pissed-off ancients: "Don’t take no shit from this world/From the crazy avenues, walk on/Hide the fool away, hide the fool away!" And, next-right where your typical rock band would insert a high velocity guitar ride-comes a beautiful clarinet solo by guest artist Ben Schenck.
I love this song. Sometimes when I’m crossing the Causeway, I play it over and over again. It’s the ideal remedy when some rich asshole in a BMW is tailgating you, flashing his bright lights because he’s in a hurry to get back to his gated community. Or, to quote yet another D&C song ("The Chase"): "I go outside to kill my dinner/Then I crawl back into the cage/I lick the cage til I’m hungry/Then I crawl, back into the chase." That’s the story of my life!
Oblivious
In the world of Death Metal, Houma’s Acid Bath were mega-stars, selling over 75,000 records. But when the group’s bassist died in an automobile accident, the band subdivided into two new entities: Goatwhore and the Agents of Oblivion, whose members include vocalist Dax Riggs and guitarist Mike Sanchez, infamous for his decrepit cowboy hat. Rotten Records will release the Agents’ latest CD this month. In an abrupt detour from metallicism, the band’s latest work bears the influences of David Bowie, Deep Purple and Bauhaus. Does this mean that the Agents will commence wearing tons of mascara and singing about vampires in outer space?
Duke of Earl
Earl Palmer, born in New Orleans on October 25, 1924 and heralded as "The Most Recorded Drummer In History," will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s new Sideman Category on March 6 at ceremonies to be held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Other notable Sideman inductees include drummer Hal Blaine, bassist James Jamison, saxophonist King Curtis and Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore. Sayeth California resident Earl: "I’m never from anywhere but New Orleans. It’s the most unique city in the world and I’m proud to be from there. There ain’t nothing like home people. People from New Orleans are their own Chamber of Commerce."
Dirty Ballet
Here’s something that has never happened before: a contemporary dance company collaborating with a New Orleans brass band as high culture meets street culture. To kick off its 2000 season, the New Orleans Ballet Association will present the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts on Saturday, January 22, with live music performed by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The program will also include "Sets and Chasers," a ballet by resident choreographer Kevin Ward, danced to music from a 1940 live recording of Duke Ellington’s orchestra in concert at a ballroom dance in Fargo, North Dakota, complete with the original static from the local radio station.
Grow Up
The Orchard, which has as its motto "A Place To Grow," is currently the largest supplier of music to the Internet stores (in case you’ve been lost in the jungle or elsewhere lately, the Internet is well on its way to rendering record stores obsolete). Richard Gottehrer, CEO of the company, and Scott Cohen, The Orchard’s president, will both be speaking at this month’s IAJE Conference. If you’ve got a CD, The Orchard wants you. According to Gottehrer: "This deal is open to everyone, there’s no value judgment and no discrimination. We’re equally as interested in the artist that sells five copies as the one who sells 5,000." For the pertinent details, click your mouse to theorchard.com.
Roganomics
Davis Rogan, loved and hated as DJ Davis, returns to this column once again because, love or hate him, he’s funny. Davis says he’s running for the New Orleans City Council, which desperately needs more musicians and fewer politicians. Meanwhile, in the unlikely event voters don’t elect him, Davis is planning to start a new band, to be called Elvis Marsalis.
My Ten
I was going to concoct a Top Ten list of my favorite non-Louisiana CD releases of the past year but it got nowhere because I have too much trouble telling one year from the next. As well as my bleary mind can recall, the following artists were never far from my ears during the past months: Brigitte Bardot, Les Nubians, Kahimi Karie (the Japanese Madonna), Portishead, Zap Mama (sounding like an Africanized Bjork), Earnestine Rundless, Traci Lords, Julie London, Igor Kitty (a non-Louisiana band now that lead singer Misty has fled for Chicago), Dinah Washington, Fiona Apple hey, they’re all women! That’s because I can’t take any singers seriously if they come equipped with a penis.
