I’ve been a fan of Peter Case dating back to his Plimsouls days so I was excited when the folks at Yep Roc offered No Depression an exclusive B-side download of “One More Mile” from the Wig! sessions featuring Peter, DJ Bonebrake and Ron Franklin.
02 – Peter Case – One More Mile.mp3
If you’re not already familiar with Peter Case you really owe it to yourself to dig in a bit as he’s a legend. Below you’ll find a video from 1983 for my favorite Plimsouls song, “A Million Miles Away” and a streaming player where you can sample some tracks from his upcoming release Wig! (due out next Tuesday), and just for good measure here’s a download of “Look Out” from Wig! 05 Look Out!.mp3
There were two feature stories on Peter in No Depression during our print years; “Street Legal” from issue #14 March/April 1998 and “A Guitar Makes a Band” from issue #71 Sept/Oct 2007.
Here’s a bit of the bio from Wikipedia to pique your curiosity:
Case was born in Buffalo, New York. A veteran of several rock bands and the local bar scene as a teenager, Case dropped out of high school when he was fifteen (he would later earn a GED), and after several years of traveling arrived in 1973 in San Francisco, where he performed as a street musician.
During this period a documentary about the local music scene, Nightshift, directed by Bert Deivert, captured the young Case on film. In 1976, he teamed up with Jack Lee and Paul Collins in to form the early new wave band The Nerves in San Francisco. The group’s 1976 single, “Hanging on the Telephone”, was later recorded by Blondie.
When the Nerves disbanded, Case moved to Los Angeles and formed the pop-rock band The Plimsouls in 1980. The Plimsouls found a measure of success when their song “A Million Miles Away” was featured in the movie Valley Girl, but by that time the group had already broken up. Case briefly toured with Gurf Morlix, Victoria Williams (Case’s first wife), and Warren Tornado Klein as the Incredibly Strung Out Band, but their collaboration never resulted in a record.
And here’s a bit from the press release for his new album Wig! which is out next Tuesday:
A sure-as-you’re-born lifer and troubadour, Case is back to his rock roots following emergency open heart surgery last year. Inspired, heart chugging like a locomotive and free from what he calls a, ‘diminished chord mood’ post-surgery, Peter barrells through a dozen dirty riffs with the help of legendary X drummer DJ Bonebrake and guitarist and songwriter Ron Franklin.
Friends and musical compatriots not only came together to back him up on Wig! but when Case’s medical bills mounted, pals and colleagues like T Bone Burnett and performers Loudon Wainwright III, Dave Alvin, Richard Thompson, Joe Henry, Van Dyke Parks gathered with Case’s fans to stage benefit shows to help Case who was, like many musicians, without medical insurance. Reinvigorated by the prepping of the reissues of two classic albums by his early outfits The Nerves and The Plimsouls, Case is back to prove why he’s adored by everyone from Bruce Springsteen to John Prine.
