The Pleasure Barons - Live In Las Vegas

It's Wednesday. You're humping your way through another soul-killing week. There is no glamour in your life... there is no life in your life. Friday night seems so far away. What's the point?

You, my friend, are in dire need of a change - a charge to get you through to the end of your miserable week. You, my desperate soul, need some Country Dick.

The Pleasure Barons were a one-off party thrown by the late Country Dick Montana, Dave Alvin and Mojo Nixon. Backed by a fierce roots band and fueled no doubt by too much liquor, they blew up Vegas one loud night in 1993. The resulting live record will save your miserable soul from the dregs you must wade through just to survive.

A combination of originals and covers, the songs rock and sleaze appropriately. Even though Mojo Nixon is, well, Mojo Nixon (shrug) and Dave Alvin takes it a just a little too seriously at times, the whole is tasty like a $5.99 buffet at the Nugget. The show actually belongs to Country Dick. This is his party and the other two are along for the ride. His cover of Take A Letter Maria, best described as "enthusiastic", is all you'll need to put a shine on your otherwise shitty, mundane existence.

Come on, live the good life.
As Country Dick says in the liner notes:
"Get on yer knees and grovel like the tapeworm you wish you were good enough to come back as and let the truth fly from yer weak, pitiful mouth - The Barons Rule!"

allmusic:

The type of entertaining, take-it-as-it-comes one-off that musicians who aren't afraid of appearing unserious excel at, the Pleasure Barons brought together three kindred souls: Mojo Nixon, Country Dick Montana, Dave Alvin, and various compatriots. Indeed; recorded in front of an audience happily along for the giddy ride, Live in Las Vegas gives the trio a chance to play around with their familiar styles in a flashy show biz way, not to mention indulging in some apt and hilarious covers. The backing band strikes the right balance between the principals' rootsy rave-ups and just enough Glitter-Gulch-glitz, and from there it all just flows from one number to the next. Nixon mostly concentrates on his own songs, delivering up the likes of "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant" and "Louisiana Lip Lock" with aplomb, but a take of "Elvis Is Everywhere" has never been more perfectly appropriate, while his freakout through Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses" even more so. Alvin has the soberest (of sorts) selection, though his take on "Gangster of Love" makes for a fierce highpoint. Perhaps unsurprisingly. in the end Montana rules the roost, his alcoholic suaveness perfectly suited for a demonstration of same. Besides penning the entertainingly combative liner notes, Montana more than anyone else probably took the ethos of partying hard to its logical extreme. He delivers mind-boggling, lyrically tweaked covers of "Take a Letter, Maria," "Who Do You Love," "Jackson," and most logically of all, "The Definitive Tom Jones Medley," which takes "It's Not Unusual," "Delilah," and "What's New Pussycat?" to a sublime level of hypercheese. Montana himself is pictured in the liner notes shaking hands with Tom Jones (aka the Creator), personally (blessing) the ceremony, and it's that kind of affectionate embrace of all that is Vegas which makes this album worth one hundred showings of Swingers.

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