DAN Hicks and the Hot Licks were on the cover of Rolling Stone twice. In 1973 – the second time – Hicks told the music magazine, “I am gonna be makin’ a slow comeback.”
He’s finally getting around to it now.
Hicks, who turns 59 next month, is best known for his hit “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away,” which he penned in 1963.
But he’s picking up new fans with his album, “Beatin’ the Heat,” which boasts guest appearances by Tom Waits (Hicks covers “The Piano Has Been Drinking” on the album), Elvis Costello, Brian Setzer, Rickie Lee Jones and Bette Midler.
“I just had casual acquaintances with them,” Hicks says. “I just approached these people. I was so surprised Costello was able to make time for it. You never know what people are going to say.”
Hicks, who hails from the San Francisco Bay area, says his favorite new song to play is “I Got a Capo on My Brain.”
“It’s funny. It’s quirky. It’s fun to do,” he says. “Some songs are more work – and it’s harder to play and sing at the same time. But with ‘Capo’ you can just stand there and play it.”
By the way, he’s not talking about mob bosses. A capo is that little bar that clips onto a guitar neck to make it shorter, thereby changing the key. Hicks hits his first lick tomorrow night at the new, smoke-free Village Underground (130 W. Third St., at Sixth Avenue).
TONIGHT: The crazy bluesy rapper Everlast is sold out at the Bowery Ballroom, so it’s time for the PATH train – and the Buzzcocks.
“Orgasm Addict,” might be the only Buzzcocks song pop music fans know, but there were other great beauties, like “Boredom,” “What Do I Get?” and “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t Of).”
Led by Pete Shelley, the band, which formed in Manchester, England in 1976, pounded into the grunge ’90s, opening for Nirvana.
Now the new century is here, and the on-again, off-again punks play an intimate show at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St., Hoboken, [201] 798-0406) tonight, then Friday and Saturday at the Bowery Ballroom (6 Delancey St., at Bowery, [212] 533-2111).
THURSDAY: The Sadies, who have backed up the raunchy soul singer Andre Williams, are cut from the same cloth as Toronto’s famous country pickers the Good Brothers. But these Sadies splice in some cow-punk and monster rock into the mix, as evidenced by their new album “Pure Diamond Gold.”
The Sadies, along with the bluesy-garage rockers The Broke Revue, the Knoxville Girls and Douce Gimlet take control of Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston St., at Essex Street, [212] 260-4700).
FRIDAY: Tonight, it’s a three-club hop: Richard Barone, the leader of the Bongos, an ’80s-relic pop punk band, beats his newer pop music at the Cutting Room (19 W. 24th St., at Fifth Avenue, [212] 691-1900). Local pop outfit the Green Rooftops will lend their groovy ’60s lounge feel to the night.
For another side of midnight, head to the Lakeside Lounge (169 Ave. B at 10th Street, [212] 529-8463) for the Church Keys, described as “the most alcohol-addled surf/garage/R&B/rockabilly band there ever was,” by the Lounge’s Jim Marshall. With “hits” such as “Who Drank My Beer When I Was in the Rear,” it sounds like a must-drive-by.
Then there’s Brownies (169 Ave. A, at 10th Street, [212]420-8392), which has Caustic Resin, an Idaho band on a psychedelic trance-guitar-trip.
SATURDAY: If you just can’t wait for next week’s Loser’s Lounge tribute to Neil Diamond, check out New York’s own Rogue’s March at the Cutting Room where singer Joe Hurley will celebrate his birthday – and his return to the night life after throat surgery.
After the set, a bunch of losers will be pulled on stage to create a little chaos – with some torch song covers and the bon-bon threat of Ricky Martin tribute. Hurley promises to do his annual Johnny Cash set.
