WAITS ODDBALLERS ALERT

In the interest of giving you Tom Waits fiends a heads up for every oddball I run across, here's one from 1980, when he guested on an album by jazz saxophonist Richie Cole, called Hollywood Madness. (I know the image above is a bit misleading, but for all practical purposes, this is a Tom Waits recording, as he's the vocalist). There's a few weird things going on here, one of which is Tom Waits singing about Tom Waits. Sure, he's written a bunch of songs relating personal experiences, that's what Tom Waits does. But in this sucker he name checks himself. He also does a pretty comical scat thing, and a rambling spoken word outro. The whole thing sounds like something from a musical, due in no small part to the background vocals by the Manhattan Transfer, not to mention Waits sounding almost as buoyant as Louis Armstrong. The whole thing is entirely lighthearted which, for Waits, is weird.

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Listen:

Tom Waits with Richie Cole, Eddie Jefferson & the Manhattan Transfer - Waitin' on Waits mp3 (8/9/2012: NOTE: Music link has been disabled. Sorry.) at Ballistic Wax
Further listening:
Four more recent Waits songs at In All Caps

HEAH YOU GO

Here's a crawl gone haywire. Junior Wells, and a horn heavy song called "Up In Heah" which you may not run into again seeing as how the poster bought it in a slop box of 45's unsleeved and in need of cleaning (living up to the name of his blog, Junk Shop Juke Box). Because it was a bit of an oddball, a scratched to shit oddball, I thought I'd post it with a few other cuts. Then I ran into Welsey Willis' ode to Wells, appropriately titled "Junior Wells." (If you're not familiar with Wesley Willis, I encourage you to check this post about the one man music and art machine.) So, what the hell.

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Listen:
Juniior Wells - Up In Heah mp3 at Junk Shop Juke Box
Junior Wells - Ships On the Ocean mp3 at Art Decade This one is wicked.
Junior Wells - Come On In This House mp3 at Loyal Blues
Wesley Willis - Junior Wells mp3 at DerekErdman
Semi-related:
Wesley Willis' Eternal Joy Ride Earlier post about Wesley Willis

BONE UP PUNK

If you don't have room for Earl Scruggs, today would be a good day to bug off. He passed away yesterday and it would be a mistake not to stop for a minute and consider his influence on modern picking methods. Credited as one of the first, if not the very first, to play in the three finger picking style, it made me go all soft when I read how it was that he came up with it (lifted from his official site):

"He and his brother had been into an argument and Earl went into his room and closed the door. He was playing a tune on the banjo titled "Ruben." He was subconsciously picking when he suddenly realized he was using three fingers rather than the usual two-- the thumb, index and middle finger. He had been trying to play with three fingers and had not been able to do so. His brother said Earl came running out of the room yelling, 'I've got it! I've got it! I can play with three fingers!'"

That particular incident really hit home, because that's something right out of my brother's playbook, not because he was a three finger picker (which, when I think about it, he may have attempted), but because that's something he'd do after we would have a run-in. He'd grab his guitar and go into another room. (Thanks for indulging. Come back soon.) So, I guess thanks are in order for Horace Scruggs, the official pisser off-er of the father of three finger picking.

One of the advantages of listening to music for a long time is that you learn to appreciate music that's not necessarily your chosen bag, if it's done well. Scruggs played well, archetypically well. Even if you don't plan on putting these into a mix of whatever crap it is that you listen too, you really ought to pause for a few minutes of elder awe.

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Listen:
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown mp3 at JohnHartford.org
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Salty Dog Blues mp3 at JohnHartford.org
Earl Scruggs - Honky Tonk Women mp3 at Cover Me
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Orange Blossom Special mp3 at Aural States
Visit:
Earl Scruggs official site
Earl Scruggs at Wikipedia

CRACK YOUR KNUCKLES

Every once in a while I run into something that's kind of a pain in the ass to download, but worth it, once you get over the hurdle of a few extra clicks. That's the case for Jamo Thomas' "Arrest Me" and, especially, the flip, the mighty fine instrumental "Jamo's Soul," posted recently on Derek's Daily 45. Jamo Thomas is responsible for that Northern Soul fiend meat, "I Spy For the FBI," and this was apparently the follow-up 45, released in 1966. I'd never heard these, and they're perfect in the event when you need an ass wagger or two for a mix. Both are highly recommended.

A short guide to pain in the ass downloading at DivShare (You might as well get used to the instructions below, because there's a lot of good stuff on Derek's site, as well as many others that use DivShare.):

From the linked song titles below: Click on the green "Download" button there, wait for the 15 second timer to run down and when the "Download" button reappears, click on that.

From the links on the post at Derek's Daily 45: Click on "Share" on the streaming player, it will turn into a green "Download" button. Click on that and it will take you to DivShare. Click on the green "Download" button there, wait for the 15 second timer to run down and when the "Download" button reappears, click on that.

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Give it a go:
Jamo Thomas - Arrest Me mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45
Jamo Thomas - Jamo's Soul mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45
Jamo Thomas - I Spy For the FBI (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Jamo Thomas at Wikipedia
You might also like:
The Mighty Hannibal

JULIE D WILL PROBABLY DIG THIS

You're probably scratching your head, wondering why Cheap Trick is being posted, and no, they're not a band I generally listen to. Their schtick always seemed to bother me. The two goofy looking members and two heartthrob member combination threw me for a loop from day one. I've always wondered what their level of fame would be if they all looked like a regular rock band. For whatever reason, while I had no doubt about their talent, the unfortunate timing of their ascent (coinciding with the rise of punk rock) meant they were one of those bands I couldn't really identify with.

That all said, I had to post a link to this, because it's a completely re-recorded version of their second album, In Color, originally released in 1977. This version, which has never been officially released, was recorded in 1998 and produced by Steve Albini. Yes, Steve Albini. If you don't recognize the name, you better start reading your liner notes. Besides his own bands (Shellac, Rapeman, etc.), he's engineered or produced over a thousand albums, including works by Nirvana, the Breeders, Helmet, the Stooges, Pixies, the Fleshtones, Jawbreaker, Superchunk, and Veruca Salt. So, yeah, he's done some stuff with considerable punch. He likes to record bands playing together live in the studio, rather than cut and paste separate tracks later. And one of the things that he does right, that most rock 'n' roll producers fuck up, is to keep vocals low in the mix. For that alone, he's A-OK in my book.

About the reason for re-recording the whole album, here's a blurb from guitarist Rick Nielsen (from a site called Brave Words): "We haven't made any plans for it, but we didn't record it for a joke. We didn't go at it trying to come up with crazy new arrangements, but sonically we never liked In Color. The songs were good, but sonically it's wimpy and we're not wimpy. We left before it got mixed and were told 'We'll fix it in the mix' by our record company (back then) and our ex-manager. Well, they went the other way." Get it while you can, because there's no doubt that it won't be posted for long.

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Cheap Trick - In Color at Xtrmntr The whole thing, posted as individual mp3s. Go there to get them. I'm too chickenshit to post links to the songs here.

Visit:
Steve Albini at Wikipedia

WHAT YEARS IS IT?

Know what I like about the Flamin' Groovies? Some of their stuff is almost impossible to date. I heard "Road House" today, from their LP Flamingo. In different parts, it's got the pace of '77 era punk rock, a lot of mid-seventies era guitar licks, and an drum heavy ending that lasts about half the length of the song. I'm not saying anything about the release date. In the event that you've never heard it, it it's better that way. (After you hear it, there's a link to the Wikipedia entry for the album below. The date's there.). I'm not saying that it's some sort of earth shattering masterpiece, it's just that I like it's timeless sort of quality. You might be able to narrow it down to a decade, but that's about it. There's a few others down there just to round things out.

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Listen:
Flamin' Groovies - Road House mp3 at Cows Are Just Food
Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Flamin' Groovies - Whiskey Woman mp3 at DJNoDJ
The Flamin' Groovies - Have You Seen My Baby mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
The Flamin Groovies - Shake Some Action (non-LP version) at Beware of the Blog
Visit:
Flamin' Groovies Flamingo at Wikipedia

TAKE TWO OF THESE

Man, it seemed like the invasion of bland music today. As if all the bad things about music were hitting all at once, in some sort of concentrated bland ray gun. By the time I got home, I felt like listening to something a little tweaked....no, not necessarily tweaked; original, different, unrestrained. Not some pop music, or rock 'n' roll, jazz or blues, or spoken word; or anything at all. I needed everything all at the same time. Good ol' Captain Beefheart delivered me a mental snot rocket. Several of them.

The first four below are from Trout Mask Replica, an album that always ends up on the assorted "Best Albums of All time" type lists. The songs were lifted from a nifty post at My Dad's Records, a blog in which the host digitizes and reviews his dad's record collection. If you don't know the LP, or forget what it was like hearing it for the first time, the post is a worthy read. The writer seems confounded, and is so honestly, which put a smile on my face because I remember that exact feeling when I first heard it.

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From Trout Mask Replica:
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Frownland at My Dad's Records
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band- Moonlight On Vermont at My Dad's Records
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Orange Claw Hammer at My Dad's Records
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band- Sugar 'N Spikes at My Dad's Records
Other assorted Beefheart odds and ends:
Captain Beefheart - Diddy Wah Diddy mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?)
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Candle Mambo mp3 at Said the Gramophone
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Owed T'Alex mp3 at Said the Gramophone
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Where There's Woman mp3 at Avant Avant
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Observatory Crest at Art Decade
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Hard Workin' Man mp3 at Cows Are Just Food
Visit:
Captain Beefheart Is Not Even Here - 1970 cover story from Rolling Stone
Trout Mask Replica at Wikipedia

I CALL THIS "PARKING LOT CHICK"

The photo above is totally unrelated to the songs below. That's because of the two bands posted below, one of them is the Detroit Night Riders, a group I was unable to find a photo of. The other band is the Kingsmen, and they are nowhere near as interesting to look at as a photo of a teenager trying their hardest to look like a badass. "Yeah, I hang out in a convenience store parking lot. So what?!" "Of course I know it's not lit! I'll light it when I'm ready." "Shut up, you don't even have a cigarette." And so on. I don't remember where I found the photo online. (Might have been Square America, from back in the day.) But I like it, I think because the whole thing has attitude. And it's so America.

So, to enjoy the two songs below, and the sites that host them, you're going to have to give up your DivShare phobia. Yes, you do have to go through a little more hassle, but it's worth it. (Skip the rest of this paragraph if you're already familiar with DivShare navigation.) For the uninitiated, you click on the song title at the end of the post, or on the little DivShare logo if there's an embedded player (you'll see what I mean). Either of these will take you to DivShare, possibly encountering an annoying pop-up along the way (just click it closed). Click on "Download," and wait for the 15 second timer to run down, and viola! It's really only two extra clicks and, in the case of these two songs, well worth the added elbow grease.

"Getting Funky" by the Detroit Night Riders is just plain awesome. It's one of those weird instrumentals that sound like the whole band is drunk, dead tired, and engaged in that one final push before last call. Highly recommended. "Haunted Castle," by the Kingsmen, is of note because it's just a little off, just enough. That, and that the 2;50 length of it seems three times longer. It's a little repetitive, it almost sounds like the Seeds doing the Velvet Underground.

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Listen:
The Detroit Night Riders - Getting Funky mp3 (via DivShare) at The Devils Music
The Kingsmen - Haunted Castle mp3 (via DivShare) at Junk Shop Juke Box
Bookmark these for lots more:
The Devils Music
Junk Shop Juke Box

OI DUDE...

Hadn't heard this one in a while, and, I gotta say, when I did it put me smack dab back in my late teens, pouring through NY Rocker, looking for the ad to mail order straight legged black jeans from Trash & Vaudeville (really, hard to imagine but back then it was the only place you could find them). I was still living at home, had a $75 Honda 90 for transport, and in it, that is punk rock, deep. It changed the way I looked at things going forward, and I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that really is its legacy. Not the music, not the spiked hair and not the straight legged black jeans. Mark Perry knew that, way back then. He was the editor [sic] of Sniffin' Glue, one of the UK's earliest punk zines, and lead singer of Alternative TV.

I don't remember if Killed By Death, the hosting blog of these golden oldies, disables direct linking or not. But you'll probably want to go there anyways. That site is chocked full of early punk goodies; some you'll know well, some worthy obscurities, and a hell of a lot that probably shouldn't have ever been released. But that's part of it. Anyone could do it, and anybody did.

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Listen:
Alternative TV - How Much Longer mp3 at Killed By Death
Alternative TV - You Bastard mp3 at Killed By Death
More (a couple Cali-centric searches):
Dangerhouse Records posts at Killed By Death The Avengers, X, the Deadbeats, the Weirdos and the Randoms
Slash Records posts at Killed By Death The Germs and the Plugz
Visit:
Alternative TV, aka ATV, at Wikipedia
Sniffin' Glue at Wikipedia

THERE YOU ARE AGAIN

I first time I heard Fanny Franklin, it was on stuff by Orgone, a duly funky outfit from the L.A. area. A short time little later she popped up on Dennis Coffey's latest (which is really about the best endorsement a singer could ask for). A couple months later, I was walking home from the beach and I ran into Orgone, playing a mid-summer street fair that was just about three blocks from where I sit right now. And today she left a message that she was trying to get the word out about her solo stuff. I figured I'd better pass the word, because the way things are going, the next time I run into her might be outside my back door.

A rather easy comparison would be to call her a west coast Sharon Jones, but that would be selling her short. While there are similarities in trajectories, her thing seems a little more laid back and not quite so, well, dead on. Not that it's a bad thing. Just different. West coast different, if that makes any sense. Though I couldn't find any downloads of her solo stuff, you can hear it at Soundcloud, and she's got stuff on iTunes as well. For now, here's her with Orgone, and with Coffey.

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Listen:
Orgone featuring Fanny Franklin - Do Your Thing mp3 at Seattle Subsonic
Dennis Coffey, featuring Fanny Franklin - Don't Knock My Love, Pt 1 mp3 at American Athlete
Orgone - Who Knows Who mp3 at Ear It Now
Video:
Orgone - Doing Me Wrong (Live on KEXP) at YouTube
Visit:
Fanny Franklin official site
Fanny Franklin at Soundcloud
Fanny Franklin at Facebook

DAD, WHY DO YOU WATCH HEE HAW?

I've been meaning to point you towards a few posts over at the Adios Lounge. They're the perfect introduction to the whole spectrum of Bakersfield sounding stuff, and the Bakersfield sound proper. He covers it all, from Buck Owens and Don Rich to the Byrds, Clarence White, Flying Burrito Brothers, and so on, all with the insights of someone who knows the genre well.

Here's a couple that I happened to like, but there's lots more, and videos, at the posts linked to below. Check the Byrds cut, an instrumental featuring Clarence White. It's exhausting. It's a somewhat muddy live recording, but his playing cuts right through it. Check the posts too. There's some overlapping (due to repeated tags) but there's a whole lot of music and know how.

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Listen:
The Byrds - Nashville West (live) mp3 at The Adios Lounge Featuring Clarence White
Buck Owens - Second Fiddle mp3 at The Adios Lounge Don Rich on fiddle
Bone up on Bakersfield:
Don Rich at The Adios Lounge
Buck Owens at The Adios Lounge
Merle Haggard at The Adios Lounge
The Flying Burrito Brothers at The Adios Lounge
Clarence White at The Adios Lounge
The Bakersfield Sound at The Adios Lounge

I DO THE LOOP EVERY FRIDAY

There used to be a practice in my neck of the woods, a tour of sorts, referred to as "the loop," in which a group of people would hit every bar within a few mile radius on foot, starting at one end of the loop, and ending a few hours later at the last bar. Back then there were about a dozen bars or so. Needless to say, you'd be pretty pickled by the end. (I doubt if the loop is still a Friday night activity because there's probably about twenty bars on the route today.) I bring that up, because that's what it's like sometimes when I land on a post and start looking around for more related stuff.

Here is the play-by-play of todays fuck around, because it centers around the Gentrys, a band that isn't nearly as interesting as the blogs that host their music. It began with a chance encounter with the Avantis' original version of "Keep On Dancing," a 1966 hit for the Gentrys, that was posted on Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban. (Note to Ichibaners: I know I've been leaning on your stuff a lot lately. Let me know if you want me to scale it back. No backtalk, I swear.) The Gentry's version is somewhat notable for actually being the same song twice, with a drum fill in between. That's about as wild as studio editing got back then. I'll take the Avantis' version. The song was posted there by Jukebox Mafia, who has a blog of their own, another regular destination I so dig. In the comments part of the post, someone mentioned the Gentrys' version of "Cinnamon Girl," which was a minor hit before Neil Young's version, and I remembered being impressed with it (from an old budget priced Sun comp). Released on a post-Sam Phillips Sun Records in 1970, it was one of the last dying gasps of a hit for the then Shelby Singleton owned label. So I went digging, and I run into stuff at The Devil's Music, Probe is Turning-On the People, and Beware of the Blog, three other habitual haunts. I've mentioned all of these guys before, they're all top notch, and they're all part of my loop. There's several others, but I believe I've reached my quota of blathering for the night.

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Listen:
The Avantis - Keep On Dancing mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The Gentrys - Keep On Dancing mp3 at 4Shared
The Gentrys - Cinnamon Girl (via DivShare) at The Devil's Music (Nice, loud rip. Worth the pop-up annoyance.)
The Gentrys - Cinnamon Girl mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
The Gentrys - Brown Paper Sack mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Video:
The Gentrys - Keep On Dancing at YouTube
Visit:
The Gentrys at Wikipedia

IT'S CHEAP AND YOU GET A LOT

This could have lead into dissertations on either of the two subject matters, Mexican food or instrumentals. But let's see if we can keep it short. It all started with the usual meandering, landed on Jukebox Mafia, and their latest post, "Tacos" by the Royaltones, featuring a young Dennis Coffey. It reminded me of the backlog of instrumentals that I've been meaning to mention, and it also made me think of Mexican food in general. I love Mexican food. I pretty much grew up on it, in every variety. I'll stop right there. That's a topic that I had better not get started on. There's a few Mexican food links below if you're in the mood.

The greatest inside gatefold cover ever: ZZ Top's Tres Hombres (detail)

About the instrumentals: Following the one mentioned above, there's a handful from Diddy Wah, who always posts oddball ones (go there for more). Then there's the latest Tassle Twirler Tuesday post, from Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban, and a big ass mix of instrumentals on another post over there. The mix has stuff from Ritchie Blackmore (presumably early), the T-Bones, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Jerry Cole, Hal Blaine, Al Casey and a whole lot of other people I ain't ever heard of.

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Listen:
The Royaltones - Tacos mp3 at Jukebox Mafia
The Roosters - Chicken Hop at Diddy Wah
Ken Kash Quintet - Vicious Vodka mp3 at Diddy Wah
Bobby Peterson Quartet - The Hunch mp3 at Diddy Wah
Hal Blaine - Gear Stripper mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The mix:
Instro Inferno, Vol. 0, Intermission at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 29 song mix
Video:
Dick Dale - Taco Wagon (live, in KEXP studio) at YouTube
The grub:
L.A. Taco - Nice site, makes me hungry
Robertos - San Diego's ubiquitous taco shop chain
Mybertos -San Diego taco shop locator

WE CALL IT ROCK

Small world, I'll tell you. I was randomly clicking like there's no tomorrow and I end up on a blog called Flowering Toilet that had a clip of the Velvet Monkeys on a public access station in Arlington, VA, from 1981. The Velvet Monkeys were a Don Fleming band, and he's a guy who I've always liked, after seeing him in Gumball some years ago. So, I'm wanting to post the video (particularly for Julie D, my ol' DJ pal who's probably the only person who knows about my "Fleming bands are always worth checking out" bent), and in looking for a song to post, I find, conveniently, the same song as the video. The recorded version is way better (do get it), but I like the video because it reminds me, not just what was good about Fleming's band, but how we used to get off on videos like this, because back then they were hard to come by. (There's a long running show in San Diego, on public access, called "Yourself Presents," that this reminds me of. That show is awesome because it's too normal to be weird, and too weird to be normal. I will do a post about them sometime, because, believe me, there's a lot to be said.)

Anyway, I find the mp3 at Magnet, and there's an interview with Fleming, and he says that he was in an early band called the Stroke Band. I thought for a moment, why do I know that name? Then I remembered I had a 45 by the Stroke Band. It was given to me years ago by Bruce Joyner, then the singer for the Unknowns, and Flemings' former band mate in the Stroke Band. So here's the goods. There's a ton more mp3s in the Fleming Discography at his site, Instant Mayhem. I like the ones below for different reasons. The first two are rockin' ditties. I've never been able to figure out if "We Call It Rock" was meant as some sort of tongue in cheek thing, or what. That's about as far as my thought process gets, then it's off to air guitar around the house-land. The cover of "Strawberry Fields Forever" down there, by Gumball, is most awesome; and check out the Stroke Band song, and tell me it wouldn't make a great Cramps cover.

One more thing, before you go. The video below is the Backbeat Band, who did the music for the movie Backbeat. The band consists of Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum), Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Don Fleming (then in Gumball), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), and Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters). Fleming, on the far right of the stage, solos in both songs, and it is the same sloppy banging that made me like him way back at the start of all this.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Velvet Monkeys - Everything Is Right mp3 at Magnet
The Velvet Monkeys - We Call It Rock mp3 at Instant Mayhem
Gumball - Strawberry Fields Forever mp3 at Instant Mayhem
The Stroke Band - Spaced mp3 at Instant Mayhem
The Backbeat Band - Twist and Shout (streaming) at YouTube
The Velvet Monkeys - The Velvet Monkeys Theme (demo) mp3 at Instant Mayhem
Visit:
Don Fleming interview at Magnet
Don Fleming interview at Guitar International
Don Fleming's Instant Mayhem
Velvet Monkeys at MySpace
Velvet Monkeys at Wikipedia

NEVERMIND THE PUN FREE POST TITLE

The Mystery Suggester sent one my way today and it was received with mixed thoughts, one of which was "where the fuck did the time go?" It was a video by Hollie Cook, the daughter of former Sex Pistol Paul Cook and former Belle Star Jennie Matthias. Okay, I knew she was in the last incarnation of the Slits, but had no idea she'd done solo stuff. (Before you start spouting off about me being out of the loop, it should be obvious if you poke around this dump that I've no clue where the loop is.) There were thoughts of "she's easy on the eyes, so she must suck," but she's got that association with the Pistols, the Belle Stars and the Slits, so there's something of a pedigree going on. (Belle Stars, there's another band that seemed okay when they came out,...) And she's also in the Rotten Hill Gang, who ain't so bad. So, anyway, her solo stuff is of the somewhat tame, reggae-lite variety, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing. In fact, her music reminds me of Special AKA more than anyone else. Really, "Body Beat" sounds like an outtake from the Special AKA In the Studio LP. You know what? I've spent way too much time lately over thinking things. What the fuck, just toss it on the "keep an eye on them" stack and be done with it.

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Listen:
Hollie Cook (featuring Horseman) - Body Beat mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Hollie Cook - Shadow Kissing mp3 at Sound Bites
Hollie Cook - Milk and Honey at Mixtape Riot
Hollie Cook (featuring Horseman) - Cry mp3 at Rollo & Grady
The Shoes (featuring Hollie Cook) - Baby mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Rotten Hill Gang - BBQ (streaming) at Mojophenia
Video:
Hollie Cook - Body Beat (live) at YouTube
Hollie Cook - Walking In the Sand at YouTube
Rotten Hill Gang - BBQ at YouTube
Semi related:
Other reggae related posts

FOR A FEW VERSIONS MORE

Reverend Tom Frost, of Spread the Good Word, has posted another mix. This one is "A Bloody Western Mix," and, as per usual, it's a good mix of a few familiar names and a whole lot of unfamiliar ones. That's his forte. A good mix will teach you something, it'll present new names. And that's something that the Reverend does well. I lap this shit up.

You probably want a few single songs too, right? Here's Hugh Montenegro's cover of Ennio Morricone's "Hang 'em High," and let's just say it sounds as if Up With People were doing it, which is to say that every ounce of sinister, dangerous bad shit has been wrung out of it. Morricone must have hated Montenego, what with his sanitized knockoffs of Morricone's brilliant mood setting scores. Any of you old farts remember that sense of disgust you felt when punk rock was watered down as "new wave" in the late seventies? That's Morricone encountering Montenegro.

I couldn't find Morriconne's version of "Hang 'em High, but here's three versions of 'For a Few Dollars More," Morricone's, Montenegro's and one by the Golden Palominos. Back in the eighties, the Golden Palomino's version seemed to be the shit. Their attempt to bring up to date the music of Morricone seemed sincere, and current. That was then, but guess what? This is now and it's almost comical how many "cutting edge" (then) clichés the song exhibits. But, it sure had the interesting line up (read up). Back then, I thought it sounded as tough as the original, but it has since drifted into Montenegro-land. That's what demonstrates Morriconne's genius. His version of "For a Few Dollars More" never sounds dated.

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Listen:
Hugh Montenegro - Hang 'em High mp3 at Basement Rug
Hugh Montenegro - For a Few Dollars More mp3 at Basement Rug
Ennio Morricone - For a Few Dollars More mp3 at music.ka81 (?)
The Golden Palominos - For a Few Dollars More mp3 at 4Shared
The mix:

A Bloody Western Mix, Part 6 at Spread the Good Word 29 songs, some from movies and some just western themed: With Marcello Giombini, Johnny Burnette, Billy Strange, Jack Nitzche, Duane Eddy, Joe Maphis and of course, Ennio Morricone. And a bunch of others.

Visit:
Ennio Morricone at Wikipedia
The Golden Palominos at Wikipedia

JOE GIBBS ELECTRICAL REPAIR

Classic reggae story: Joe Gibbs, an electrical repair guy, decides to sell records in the shop as a side thing. He notices the growing success of sound systems, buys himself a two track reel to reel, and starts recording bands in the shop. He starts a label and stops fixing TVs. He releases hit after hit. This was very similar to fellow electrical egg head Coxsone Dodd's early days. And Duke Reid's start was just a variation. He was a former cop turned liquor store owner, who sold records on the side, started a label...and so on. Why hasn't there been a feature film made about this era?

Here's a few Joe Gibbs productions. Everybody raves about Culture's "Two Sevens Clash," but the synth strings at the beginning have always bugged me. They're totally unnecessary, cheesy and, worst of all, they date the song. There, I said it. The rest of his stuff, at least the relatively small percentage of his vast discography that I've heard, is solid. He gave us Marcia Aitkens' cover of Alton Ellis' "I'm Still In Love With You," the backing tracks of which were used in Trinity's "Three Piece Suit," and Althea and Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking," all three stone cold classics. (What synth strings?)

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Listen:
Marcia Aitken w/Trinity - I'm Still In Love With You mp3 at Planet Mondo (7 minute mix!)
Trinity - Three Piece Suit mp3 at 4shared.com
Althea & Donna- Uptown Top Ranking mp3 at Nate Frog
Naggo Morris & Trinity - Su Su Pon Rasta/Stop Su Su Pon the Dread mp3 at For the Sake of the Song
Dennis Brown - Money In My Pocket mp3 at 4shared.com
Marcia Aitken And Trinity - My Man/Blouse And Skirt mp3 at 4shared.com
Culture - Two Sevens Clash mp3 at Leave You Wanting Less
Three more Joe Gibbs productions at For the Sake of the Song
Visit:
Joe Gibbs at Wikipedia

HIGHLY ILLOGICAL

Random clicks are on blog rolls are always iffy. Most of the time they lead to another ho-hum blog. But every once in a while they lead to something that turns into a slight detour, and you run into stuff that stops and makes you think, "Criminey, guess I'm out of that loop." That's precisely what just happened. There was a site on a blog called Brown Brown Bag. What the hell, I clicked on it. It appears to be dormant, the last post was a year ago. Poked around and ran into a Beastie Boys thing that I didn't know existed. It's something called "Aglio E Olio," and it's some oddballs that resemble hardcore, depending on just how hard your core is. Recorded in '95, if you didn't know that, I think you'd have a hard time putting a time stamp on it. One song, "Believe Me" sounds like a few different bands in spots: Flipper, the Germs, later era Black Flag, and the stop-snd-start-again sounds like they lifted it from "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies.

The whole thing is downloadable as a single download at Brown Brown Bag. But, before I hassled with that, I figured a test run was in order. So I tracked down "Believe Me," the song mentioned above. I also ran into what was listed as an Aglio E Olio b-side, a cover of "Light My Fire" with a women singer. Very loungy. The singer sounds Japanese, so maybe it's one of those Cibo Matto gals. I found that on Beastie Mixes, a site that should keep you total Beastie fiends totally busy. Totally. There's four thousand Beastie Boy remixes, some presumably made by bedroom DJs, but bonus points for the very democratic approach. 4,062 remixes, plus bootlegs, rare stuff, live shows. Yeah. I just bookmarked it to deal with later.

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Listen:
Beastie Boys - Believe Me mp3 at Sisters In Death Slow download, but worth it
Beastie Boys - Light My Fire mp3 at BeastieMixes
Album download:
Beastie Boys - Aglio E Olio (via Mediafire) at Brown Brown Bag
The site for gluttons:
BeasiteMixes.com Remixes, bootlegs, live stuff, rarities...tons of stuff.

DO YOU REALLY NEED FOUR?

An old friend passed away this morning. There's too much to write about him to get started now. There are a few songs that I associate with him. "Wild Weekend" by the Rockin' Rebels is one, and "California Über Alles" by the Dead Kennedys is another. Pretty different songs, you'd probably agree. He was that type of guy. So here's the two of them. You'll have to go through a couple hoops to download "Wild Weekend," but, really, the payoff is the Dead Kennedys' stuff. There's a few different versions of "California Über Alles;" from an early demo, to the 45 version, LP version and a remix. Now before you start turning up your nose at the thought of a remix of that song, give it a listen. I'm always suspect of remixes of anything close to punk rock, but this one has some kind of punch. It would work well at your next eviction party.

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Listen:

Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles (Demo) mp3 at Mustard Relics
Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles (45) mp3 at Mustard Relics
Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles (LP) mp3 (via Box.net) at Rose Quartz Click on "Download" button in the top right corner
Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles (Emynd’s FUCK IT UP Party Break) mp3 at Fmly
Dead Kennedys - 2 more songs & demo at Mustard Relics
The Rockin' Rebels - Wild Weekend at 4Shared Click on gray "Download Now" button, in the lower left. Then wait 20 seconds for the orange timer to count down until "Download file now" link appears. That wasn't so hard was it?

WADDYA CALL 'EMS

I tell you, this is one well that never runs dry. In addition to Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban's Tassel Twirler Tuesdays, in which they feature jiggle club tunage once a week (courtesy of Kogar the Swinging Ape), today they posted a mix, thereby relieving me of my duty of scrounging up a bunch of stuff for you to dig into. Here's a link to last Tuesdays Tassel Twirler, and another to the 33 song mix they just posted (below).

While we're on the subject of Tassel Twirlers, I've mentioned a couple of times my distaste for the alternate term "titty shakers," not because of it's crassness, but because it's not all that clever. Well, it seems the official ruling over at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban is that they don't like the term either. They have, in the past, referred to them as "rock 'n' soul shakers" and "tassle twirlers." In todays post, they concede to the commonly used term "titty shaker" but do so by censoring the "T" word. Also just today I ran into this nicely worded line at Art Decade: "I believe this kind of jam is what is known in record nerd parlance as a 'titty-shaker'" (You do say, my man.) So, here's a challenge to you wordsmiths, who also happen to like strip club music of the fifties and sixties: come up with a better term. None others seem to have stuck

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Listen:
J.C.Davis - The Splib Part 2 mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The mix:
T***y Shakers [sic] Volume 1 mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 33 song mix!

WHAT YEAR IS IT ANYWAY?

Last night I was digging around on funk blogs and ran into one that had a few mixes, one of which was mostly reggae. Alas, the link was dead, but there was one song I was reminded about, so I went on a dig. It's a cover of "Whole Lotta Love," by the Dynamics; a reggae inflected version, with just a touch of dub. Not really what you'd call straight up reggae, but for a contemporary band, it's pretty sweet, especially for a band from France that's three quarters white dudes. The second song below "Bring Me Up" is a little more roots, it would fit nicely in a mix with Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown. Apparently the Dynamics like their covers, because there's also versions of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" and Madonna's "Music" floating around. (The White Stripes cover reminded me of one by Alice Russell and Nostalgia 77, so that's down there too. More on Russell later, but, man, does she have some pipes!) Listening to a few other Dynamics songs, it's apparent that they dig seventies soul too. I like that, the fact that they're sort of a seventies soul/reggae hybrid, because, lest we forget, there were more than a few bands like that out of Jamaica in the seventies.

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Visit:
The Dynamics - Whole Lotta Love mp3 at Radio Milwaukee
The Dynamics - Bring Me Up mp3 at Hilly Dilly
The Dynamics - Music mp3 at Cover Me
The Dynamics - Seven Nation Army mp3 at Town Full of Losers
The Dynamics - Miracles mp3 at Hilly Dilly
Alice Russell and Nostalgia 77 - Seven Nation Army mp3 at 365 Days of Music
Visit:
The Dynamics at Favorite Recordings
The Dynamics at Facebook