Serene Dominic

Special for the Republic | azcentral.com

I know if you've spent any substantial time on social media, you've already been crowd-funded and crowd-sourced to death but here's one that I promise will be worthwhile, and a smile will be your only perk at any dollar level.

When local musician Kevin Pate, bassist for the Beat Angels, Greyhound Soul, Busted Hearts, Box of Cherries, Reluctant Messiahs, Gentlemen After Dark, the Dynoglides and countless other bands, died of cirrhosis of the liver in a Yuma hospital last March, it was at the end of a hardscrabble few years. Kevin found himself in prison for resuming a drug habit he was only able to shake the last time he was in prison.

Whenever he talked about his stint on the inside, it was matter-of-factly, as though it wasn't the worst thing that could happen to a guy. And that is largely due to the fact that he had access to a lot of musical instruments there. One time in a recording studio, he nonchalantly sat behind the studio's baby grand and played impeccable boogie woogie and ragtime. After I told him I didn't know he could play piano so well, he just nodded and said, "I learned how to play in prison."

Bassist Jason Smith, late of The Earps and now living in Cox County, Kentucky, and playing in the Moonshine Millionaires, organized what is probably the best ready-made charity to do in Kevin Pate's memory. He has organized a YouCaring.com fundraiser to purchase and donate a quality electric bass guitar to an Arizona prison for use in Jail Guitar Doors Foundation's music rehabilitation program.

"The first band I ever saw when I moved to Phoenix in 1996 was the Beat Angels," said Smith in a memorial podcast taped last March just days before Pate died. "Kevin was out of the band at that point. He was having chemical problems, I guess you could say. I did get to see them later when he overcame those problems and rejoined. When I saw the Beat Angels, I was blown away. One of those monumental moments in my musical career. Whatever path I was going down, they put me on another one, a better one. I'd been writing to Kevin since he'd been in prison. He never said he had health problems, only said that he was going to be in prison for a few years."

Anyone looking to repay a spiritual debt to this great musician and sweetheart of a friend is encouraged to make a donation. At the time of this writing, with 23 days left to go, the Kevin Pate Memorial Bass Donation to Jail Guitar Doors is only $375 shy of the $1,000 needed.

https://www.youcaring.com/memorial-fundraiser/kevin-pate-memorial-bass-donation-to-jail-guitar-doors/197123

Field Tripp, "Woeful Common Terry" EP

Remember when people looked aghast at the Clash's "Sandinista!" and its sprawling six sides, wondering what to make of this excess from the only band that mattered, prompting Joe Strummer to say in its defense, "It's supposed to last a year." Ahh, 1981, those were heady times, when people had the attention spans to extend across a calendar. It's only been four-and-a-half months since Field Tripp unloaded the psychedelic splendor that was the six-song album "Les is Mormon" and now there's a four-song EP to take that album's place on the Field Tripp currency shelf.

From what we can gather, there's less power trio rocking out and more getting weird with a drum machine nearby. Dann Tripp's voice has been cited as sounding redolent of Jeff Tweedy but he's way more indecisive lyrically, which is no small part of this EP's charms. What is a would-be soulmate supposed to make of a come-on like the one found on "Generous Folks" : "Maybe move in tomorrow, maybe just leave me alone…tonight."

Tripp is joined vocally on the final track "The Award Ceremony" by Cassidy Hlgers and besides learning God doesn't have time for people who come in fourth place, we have a better come-on for the ages: "I don't like telephones but I like you."

For those of you who can't part with the cost of an EP and the expense of a night out, please note that $5 admission gets you a show and the EP free o' charge. The Field Tripp EP release show at The Rogue Bar, Saturday July 12, also features performances by Andy Warpigs, Matt Braman, Ray Reeves, Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Bad Neighbors and the Freaks Of Nature.

Details: 6 p.m., Saturday, July 12. Rogue Bar, 423 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale. $5 (Free EP with admission). 480-947-3580, theroguebar.com.

http://fieldtripp.bandcamp.com/album/woeful-common-terry