MEANWHILE, IN THE DEN

Ever notice how nobody says airplane anymore? They always say plane. No panache at all. So I hear someone say airplane today, and for some odd reason, Mr. Airplane Man came to mind, probably because I never hear the word anywhere else these days. If you've never heard them, Mr, Airplane Man is two women, guitar and drums, and a right racket, Here's a few, Listen to the guitar on the first four, it's pretty crunchy stuff, and not all that far removed from the Stooges on that first one, "Up In My Room". Their quieter stuff is good too. Check the video, As my friend Dena would say, they're peckin'.

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

Listen:
My Airplane Man - Up In the Room mp3 at Gimme Tinnitus
Mr. Airplane Man - Shakin' Around mp3 at Newer
Mr. Airplane Man - Wait For Your Love mp3 at X818
Mr, Airplane Man - Hey DJ (live) mp3 at Boston Rock Live
Video:
Mr. Airplane Man -  Jesus On the Machine at YouTube

YOUR PASSPORT TO JAZZ

I got kind of freaked out a couple of hours ago. After watching a live video of the reformed Stooges (semi-recent stuff with Mike Watt on bass and James Williamson on guitar), I was thinking about doing yet another Stooges thing. Then I started thinking that they were like Chuck Berry to many of us, that familiar. almost too familiar. Here's where it gets hairy. I thought "Oh shit, there are probably kids out there, coming off like musical know-it-alls in their particular crowds, that don't have the slightest idea who Chuck Berry is." I had to calm myself, and that meant backtracking to my state prior to that perilous thought. So, Stooges it was.

I'm glad I did, because otherwise I wouldn't have revisited "Funhouse", the song from the album of the same name. A couple minutes into it it occurred to me that it's essentially loud, jerky, funky, jazz. You should check it out again, especially those of you who like the Stooges, but won't set a foot near jazz, What the fuck are you afraid of anyway? Some of it is crazier than anything from your safe harbor collection, Listen to that song, "Funhouse", particularly Ron Asheton's guitar, and keep in mind that he was a John Coltrane fiend, Steve McKay's sax is also worth isolating. After that, check that Eric Dolphy cut. They don't sound anything alike, but there is something that connects them. It's that "I know what I'm playing, I hope you know what you're playing. Meet you back here in a minute" thing.

If you don't even know the Stooges, for God's sake, would you catch up already? There's a couple of their popular favorites down there, and a lot more in older posts.

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

Listen:

The Stooges - Funhouse mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Eric Dolphy - Mandrake mp3 at Pixieradio
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog mp3 at Mustard Relics
Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power (mono) mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Visit:
Earlier Stooges posts Scroll down

MIX MEAT

Here's some shake from the last week or so. Just stuff that I ran across that hit the spot. Some have been posted before, but even those are of the "I forgot how good this was" variety: Chow down,

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

Listen:

Kenny and the Kasuals - Journet to Tyme mp3 at Beware of the Blog

The Saints - I'm Stranded (1976) mp3 at Inside Pulse Dig the scratches

The Other Half - Mr. Pharmacist mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Gross National Product - Little Girl mp3 at 60s Garage Bands Guitar freakout at the end

The Rock Shop - State of Your Mind mp3 at Office Naps

The Romancers - Love's the Thing mp3 at Office Naps

The Gories - My Baby Says Unh! mp3 at Beware of the Blog

WATT'S HIS NAME

Oh no, I'm not stepping a foot towards this black hole. Too deep, not tonight. The black hole in question is Mike Watt, or rather his output over the years. There's just too much to do a comprehensive overview. I'm not a full on fiend of Watt, which isn't to say I don't dig his work. It's just that my high regard for him is tainted by a long list of non-musical reasons, all based on general impressions. First and foremost, he seems like a regular guy. If he didn't, the whole thing would go bust. He's also hardworking, always playing with this person or that, and, from what I've seen in interviews, he's a good conversationalist, coming off as genuine, humble, and excitable, the type of guy you could imagine having a beer with.

The thing I like most about Mike Watt is that you just know that, at every milestone in his post-Minuteman career, he's paused to think about the late D,Boon, his childhood friend and band mate in the Minutemen. At least that's the type of guy he seems to be. The two met as kids, they were thirteen, when D, Boon fell out of a tree, right when Watt happened to be walking by. I forget all the details, but that's how they met. They discovered punk rock together, started a band together, the Reactionaries, and then the Minutemen, Then, in 1985, Boon was killed in a traffic accident. These guys were tight, like brothers. It had to hurt. Yet, Watt continued, and still does, to grind away.

Watt started another band, firehouse, and after that did some solo stuff and a lot of collaborating (a big part of any black hole), There was the band with Thurston Moore and Ron Asheton, another with Nels Cline and two drummers. There was the Ball-Hog or Tugboat LP with one hell of a cast, members of Black Flag, the Germs, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Parliament, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., the Screamers, and that's only about half of them (check the entry at Wikipedia). The collaboration that got me thinking about Watt a couple of days ago was a TV appearance from the Jon Stewart show, in 1995. The song was "Big Train", written by Chip and Tony Kinman, two ex-Dils, Assembled to play the song, Eddie Vedder on rhythm guitar, ex-Germ Pat Smear on lead guitar (slide of all things), and ex-Nirvana Dave Grohl on drums, Of course all these guys were in other subsequent bands, I'm just mentioning the early ones for some historical context. I think the song is from the Kinman's Blackbird period, several years after the Dils. (Those Kinmans are another black hole.) I almost forgot to mention that Watt was a latter day member of the Stooges, and might still be off and on. I don't know, I don't keep track of these things.

Here's a mess of stuff, beginning with the Reactionaries, Watt and Boon's pre-Minutemen band. There's a few Minutemen cuts, and some solo stuff. The live cuts aren't the best quality, but included because of the telling choices in covers. If you want to know the story of the Minutemen, there's a link to the documentary We Jam Econo. There's another documentary about Watt, Eyegifts From Minnesota, And to get an idea of what winds his watch, and hear him shooting the shit with on air guests. check out his radio show.  

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

Listen:
The Reactionaries - Cheap False Teeth mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Brigate Rose mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Video Madonna mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Innuendo mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Four more mp3s at Corn Dogs

Minutemen - Fortunate Son mp3 at Corn Dogs Creedence cover

Minutemen - Corona mp3 at Internet Archive

Minutemen - Party With Me Punker mp3 at We Got Power

Mike Watt and the Pair of Pliers mp3 at Corn Dogs Blackbird cover
Mike Watt - Liars Beware (live) mp3 at Corn Dogs Richard Hell cover

Mike Watt - She Don't Know Why I'm Here (live) mp3 at Corn Dogs The Last cover

The Crew of the Flying Saucer - The Little Drummer Boys (streaming) at Groove Shark With Nels Cline and two drummers

Video:

We Jam Econo - Minutemen documentary at YouTube

Eyegifts From Minnesota - Mike Watt documentary at YouTube

Mike Watt - Big Train at YouTube From the Jon Stewart Show 1995, with Pat Smear, Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder

Visit:
CornDogs.org - Mike Watt fan site with tons of stuff
Mike Watt's Hoot Page
Mike Watts Tour Diary - From the 2011 Stooges European tour (with James Williamson)
The Watt from Pedro Show - Mike Watt's online radio show. A regular salad bowl.

The Watt from Pedro Show - Past shows

I Stand for Language, I Speak for Truth, I Shout for History at The Adios Lounge Excellent post about the Minutemen

HOLD YOUR HOOKA, GIVE ME BOURBON

Here's some phoney Middle Eastern flavored jams. Not at all authentic, more like a bachelor pad exotica version.. There's all sorts of stuff going on in songs like these. Sometimes it's just the title, sometimes a little finger cymbal craziness, tabla, or snake charmer type shit. I'm sure there's something technical that's Middle Eastern, maybe the scales or whatever, I don't care. It just makes me want to break out the old pointy-toed slippers and dust off the turban.

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

Listen:
The Glenrays - Egyptian Nightmare mp3 at Office Naps

The Johnny Lewis Trio and Millie, Snake Hips mp3 at Office Naps
The Lombardo Twins and Combo - Arabian Drums mp3 at Office Naps
The Merits - Arabian Jerk mp3 at Office Naps
Jack La Forge - The Cleopatra Kick mp3 at Office Naps
The Embers and Joe Mack Lackey - Alexandria mp3 at Office Naps

A mix:

Office Naps Middle Eastern Mix at Office Naps Once there, right click on mix title, Roughly 30 songs

THE CRAZY GIRLFRIEND

I don't like to think of Lydia Lunch as a brand, which is why I only follow her intermittently.  I don't know, she could be a Henry Rollins, as in a "You want to know what I think? Sure. And you'll give me money to let it rip, okay, let's go" type deal. She began her thing as the singer of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, then solo, Eight Eyed Spy, spoken word, books, and, if I remember correctly, a handful of films. In other words she's been all over the place in the last few decades. The damn buffet is right there, but I'm not going near it. Why? It's like this, although Henry Rollins can be entertaining, and he does have relatable insights, sometimes I wonder if I know too much, I'd almost rather know him as the singer of Black Flag and that's it. I don't want to know Henry Rollins, the brand, In other words, I'm trying my damnedest to avoid thinking of Lydia Lunch as a brand.

But, I dig her. Not really sure why, it might just be that she is one of the very few people that can pull off the I don't give a shit attitude for decades, or at least seem to, Again, could just be the brand, Regardless, I was pleased as punch to run into this thing below. A video where she throws it all out there, publicly inviting Louis C,K, to do all sorts of nasty things. Here's what I dig about it, other than the fact that she's held up well over the years. It might occur to you, as it did me, that the Louis C,K, that she is all hot about, is his character in his TV show, not necessarily the real life C.K. Acknowledging that the two C,K,s are closely related, it still begs the question, what if this video is just another movie role, a "project"? Occam says: "Who cares?!!"

For any of you unfamiliar with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, here's about where they exist. You know the band Wire, right? In particular, their first LP, Pink Flag, It's entirely listenable minimalist punk, some would say post-punk, Whatever, it's punchy and, like I said, entirely listenable, to the point of awesomeness.. Okay, so you have them on one side on the room, right? On the other side of the room you have Yoko Ono, whose shrieking-era music is about as abrasive vocally as it gets. Nails on a chalkboard, I believe, is how it is most often described, Okay, so she's on the other side of the room. Somewhere in between the two is Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Just exactly where in between depends on your taste and your preference for abrasive stuff. I happen to dig them.

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

Listen:
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Burning Rubber mp3 at You Better Shut Up and Listen
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Orphans mp3 at Cold Crush
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Baby Doll mp3 at Dusted
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Woke Up Dreaming mp3 at Warped Reality

DITCH THOSE WING TIPS

Bob Crewe died a few weeks ago, He's the guy wrote one "Music To Watch Girls By", a sixties bachelor anthem with one of the best song titles ever. He wrote a lot of other hits too, but, yeah, for reasons you can well imagine, that's the one that stuck.

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

Listen:
Bob Crewe Generation - Music To Watch Girls By mp3 at Radio George
Bob Crewe Generation - Barbarella (opening theme) at YouTube
Leonard Nimoy  - Music To Watch Space Girls By mp3 at Clayton Counts
Living Marimbas - Music To Watch Girls By mp3 at Beware of the Blog 
 

NICE TRY KIDS

That's the High Numbers up there, roughly fifty years ago, the real deal. I'll get to them in the minute. I just wanted to point out that it is not the 45s. Have you heard of the 45s? Oh, brother. Don't know anything about them, but it's gonna take quite a bit to stop these eyes from rolling. They're chops are decent. Unfortunately, they wear their hearts on their sleeves, or rather, the medals on their jackets, just a little too obviously. It might be just the one video I've seen, so some slack may be be in order, but, man, this one goes way past homage, to the point of being a ripoff. Check out both of the videos below. The first is Kit Lambert's excellent footage of the Who, then performing as the High Numbers, in a small club '64-ish, doing Jessie Hill's "Ooh Poo Pah Doo". A great video that won't be online long, (It keeps being taken down. If so, just do a search, it'll pop up somewhere.). The second video is the 45s trying to cop the vibe, doing the same song, and like Lambert's footage, shot in a small club, shot in black and white, and interspersed with shots of the dancers. The appearance of scooters near the beginning of that footage, and the aforementioned medals being worn on the bands jackets, that just smacks of a half-assed nod to mod, particularly when you hear them. They're just a rock band with an informed choice of covers.Speaking of covers, Jessie Hill's original is the pre-game.

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

Listen:
Jessie Hill - Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Pt 1 mp3 (via DivShare) at Junk Shop Juke Box
Jessie Hill - Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Pt 2 mp3 (via DivShare) at Junk Shop Juke Box
The 45's - Four songs (streaming) at Whiter Trash Soul
Video:
The High Numbers - Ooh Poo Pah Doo (live) at YouTube Exhibit A
The 45s - Ooh Poo Pah Doo (live) at YouTube Exhibit B

MULTITASKING'S OVERRATED

These will get you out of your chair. Did me. Don't know anything about these guys and, I'll be honest here, right now they're competing with an old black and white Brigitte Bardot flick on TV. It's in French, so, you know, gotta pay attention to the subtitles.

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

Listen:
Diplomats of Solid Sound - Plenty Nasty mp3 at Ear Hole
Diplomats of Solid Sound - Lights Out mp3 at Daily Rind
Diplomats of Solid Sound - B-A-B-Y mp3 at Ear Hole 

ANYONE CAN MAKE A RECORD

Back in the late seventies, when the punk scene in L.A. was just getting off the ground, like other scenes that were springing up it was predominantly guitar based bands. Some may have had a sax here or some keyboards there, but it was all but written that a band be centered around the standard guitar-bass-drums foundation. This coming from a movement that was about tossing out the old way of doing things and starting from scratch, With the benefit of hindsight, from a musical standpoint it seems almost reactionary. Louder, faster, tough lyrics, yeah, yeah, but that's not exactly turning things upside down. That might be the reason why the Screamers, despite having never officially released a single record, have proven to be one of the most significant bands of that era. They consisted of two keyboards, a drummer and a vocalist. Not a single stringed instrument, Before you go spouting off, consider that this was before synth based bands really existed, and before industrial music was a definable movement.

Rather than rehash what I wrote a few years ago (you can read that here). I'll cut to the quick, The late Tomata Du Plenty was the lead singer of the Screamers. From the violent unfamiliar sound of the Screamers, and Du Plenty's intense stage presence, one could easily be intimidated by him from afar. But if you knew him as many, many people did, you know what an incredibly gracious person he was face to face, I was lucky enough to had a bunch of interactions with him back then. The man was totally disarming.

There's a documentary being made about Du Plenty, and I hope it covers him as a person, his being, as much as it does his music and various other works (acting, painting). Because first and foremost, that, to me, was what made him special, the standout member of a standout band.

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

Listen:
The Screamers - Punish Or Be Damned (demo) mp3 at HoboFM
The Screamers - 122 Hours of Fear (streaming) at Avant Avant
Video:
The Screamers - Punish or Be Damned (live) at YouTube
The Screamers - In A Better World (live) at YouTube
The Screamers at Network Awesome Eight live videos, in succession
The Screamers - Tons more at YouTube
Population 1 - Trailer/movie site Expanded two DVD edition for sale, bonus disc with 40 minutes of the Screamers
Visit:
The Life and Times of Tomata Du Plenty - Kickstarter Campign (Relax, it's funded.)
The Screamers - Unofficial site Very comprehensive
The Screamers - Profile at Beware of the Blog
The Screamers - Profile at Perfect Sound Forever 

SPREAD THIS ON YOUR SKULL

Porfi Jimenez is not someone familiar to many. You'd probably have to be more than a casual Latin music dabbler to know him, which most of us are not. That's why I still go digging through old posts at Musica del Alma. They're not dabblers over their, they're fiends of the highest order. Jimenez stuck out because of "Coro", a pounding three and a half minute jam, dyn-o-mite Latin funk that sounds like the theme to some seventies cop show, if the cop show was from Venezuela. Blazing horns, guitar freak out, with a conga and bass heavy rhythm that just doesn't let up.

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

Listen:
Porfi Jimenez y su Orquesta - Coro mp3 at Musica del Alma
Porfi Jimenez y su Orquesta - Echate Pa Ca mp3 at Musica del Alma
Porfi Jimenez y su Orquesta- Mi Consentida mp3 at Musica del Alma
Visit:
Musica del Alma

MOVIE NIGHT, OR NOT

A quick one here for that small group of people who dig X, but have never seen the movie The Unheard Music. It's worth seeing, and even though it's been tucked away on YouTube for a while, I guarantee it won't be online for long, So make hay while the sun shines sucka. If the video's gone by the time you read this, wallow in audio.

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

Listen:

X - We're Desperate mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it

X - Adult Books mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it

NO SHIT, HE DID MORE THAN ONE.

Yeah, I know you. You're like the rest of us who like to pat ourselves on the back because we know the original version of a song that someone later covered in a radically different way. You're not like that? Let's take Ted Taylor's "Ramblin' Rose" as an example. I can hear you, "Ooh, ooh, that's an easy one, that's the song that MC5 covered". Very clever.  Now name one more Ted Taylor song. See what I mean? We've got to get over ourselves. We really don't know shit.

That all came to mind when I ran into another fine cut by Taylor at Diddy Wah, "I Don't Care". I realized that I knew none of Taylor's other work, so I did so preliminary digging. You know what I found out? Nearly everything I heard by Taylor was top shelf "How come this guy's just a footnote?" quality. Humbled again.

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

Listen:
Ted Taylor - I Don't Care mp3 at Diddy Wah Go there to get it.
Ted Taylor - Somebody's Always Trying mp3 at Soul Garage
Ted Taylor - Top Of the World mp3 at Soul Garage
Ted Taylor - Ramblin' Rose mp3 (via Box.com) at If There Is a Hell Below 1966. Note: At Box.com, click on the "Download" button in the top right
MC5 - Ramblin' Rose mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Ted Taylor - 16 more cuts (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Ted Taylor at Wkipedia  

OCCAM'S CLIP JOINT

There is calamity in the blogosphere. Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks has grown a beard. Actually. I only saw it mentioned on one blog. When it all comes down to it though, other than the beau going cheek to cheek with him, this should be of no particular interest to anyone. But look around you. We're all a bunch of superficial creeps. Just hearing about said beard  made you stop for a split second and think something. I'd like to think that rather than modeling it after some singer/songwriter salt of the earth stuff, or any deference to hipster clichés, or trying to make a statement of any kind, it is simply hair, whiskers. Not shaving. That is it. So what if it's not your bag?

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

Listen:
The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love mp3 at Absageagentur (?)
The Buzzcocks - Something's Gone Wrong Again mp3 at X818
The Buzzcocks -  Oh Shit, and What Do I Get mp3s at Killed By Death Go there to get them.

CUT IT UP OCCAM

The less I know about Elastica the better. I like to think of them as just a band who had songs catchy enough to listen to more than once. Like a Top 40 song on AM radio used to. Oh, but the nitpickers will go off at length (or would back when they first appeared} about how the lead singer, Justine Frischmann, was from a family that was loaded, how they ripped off Wire and the Stranglers, and various things like that. But taken at the simplest level, they were a mixed gender third rate Buzzcocks/Wire hybrid, with a lot more style visually than any of the bands they were derivative of. And, yeah, they were hot, that too. They rarely smiled, they were skinny, and they wore boots. Of course they were going to get their fifteen minutes (or five years in their case). But you know what? Nineteen years later, they still sound good. I don't care about that other stuff. I don't have to have strong opinions or join any debate. I'm just going to reach over here and turn it up. I'm like that. I'm a wild man. I use two paper towels to dry one hand.

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

Listen:
Elastica - Connection mp3 at Le Champ de Patate
Elastica - Stutter mp3 at I Hate Wheat
Elastica - Waking Up mp3 at Aural States
Elastica - All Nighter mp3 at Terribly Happy
Elastica - How He Wrote Elastica Man mp3 (via Box.net) at The Vinyl Villian
Elastica - Nothing Stays The Same (Donna's Home Demo) mp3 (via Box.net) at The Vinyl Villian
Elastica - Miami Nice (Home Recording) mp3 (via Box.net) at The Vinyl Villian
Elastica - KB mp3 (via Box.net) at The Vinyl Villian
Elastica - Operate (Live Version) mp3 (via Box.net) at The Vinyl Villian
Elastica - Generator mp3 (via Box.net) at The Vinyl Villian

I THROW MY HANDS UP. I DON'T CARE.

I'm not going to try to convince you rap and hip hop haters to loosen the hell up. We just listen to music differently. No big thing, your loss, and all of that. But one or two of you might dig these jams. It's some early rap, with an ESG chaser, because that's what I've been listening to for the past couple hours. Some of these you may have heard, but I bet it's been sometime since you really listened to them. Start with Kraftwerk fan Africa Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force, followed by the polished and repetitive, but still infectious, beat of Gramdmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message". Next up is JJ Fad, genderless sass, with a beat. The sparseness of that one made me think of ESG, who really aren't rap, or no wave, or post punk, all of which they're sometimes lumped with, They're a whole different ball game. No one sounds like ESG.

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

Listen:
Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force - Looking For the Perfect Beat mp3 at Plugged Not Thugged
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message mp3 at ATumbr
JJ Fad - Supersonic mp3 at ATumblr The good stuff starts at :25
ESG - Erase You mp3 at DJ or No DJ
ESG - Moody mp3 at Loft and Lost
ESG- It's Alright mp3 at DJ or No DJ

FUNK IF I KNOW

Oh yeah, a bunch of funky odds and ends. The songs below were tucked away on a post at DK Presents, which has been dormant since 2011. Culled from what they're calling 20 Lost Funk Gems. Although they're not all what you'd probably consider straight up funk, they are funky and most of them are alien to me, so yeah, I'm on it. Gotta learn something today.

The band above is Rasputin's Stash, a bunch of Chicago area studio guys. I read somewhere that Beck sampled their song "Mr. Cool", which means absolutely nothing. The intro is a crack up, particularly at the end when the guy mutters "Oh, d'yeahhh". And, I'll tell you, this guy Mr. Cool thinks he's some pretty hot shit, but "no jive, gimme five"? I cry bullshit on that, There are holes in his resume, not the least of which is claiming to be the first man on the moon,...in a satellite. But, the horns, the organ, and the fuzz, make up for the implausibilities. It is a funky hoot. The best of the lot though is the Sahara All Stars' "Take Your Soul", an insanely thick seven minute groove that you don't want to end. Serious,

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

Listen:
Rasputin's Stash - Mr. Cool mp3 at DK Presents
The Sahara All Stars - Take Your Soul mp3 at DK Presents
Mutiny - Lump mp3 at DK Presents
Exit 9 - Jive Man mp3 at DK Presents
Sixteen more at DK Presents

NOT QUITE AS FAB FOUR

Do young people listen to the Beatles anymore? Hell, for people my age they're so ingrained that it's hard to imagine even younger kids not knowing who they are, or their impact on music. I don't know, maybe they think of Nirvana in the same sort of way, who knows? Today I saw a kid about fifteen with a shaved head and Docs, trying to look his toughest in a Black Flag T-shirt. That's teddy boy shit right there, not in a musical way but in a "it's not over until I say it's over" sort of way. At least that kid showed some sort of consistency in style and attitude. I doubt seriously if he would have felt as dangerous if he was wearing a Knack T-shirt.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Beatles. Just goofing off, today I ran into "Have You Heard the Word" by the Fut. That was a record that was rumored to have been the Beatles, enough so that it ended up on Beatles bootlegs, and apparently had Yoko so fooled she tried to copyright it after John Lennon's death. (You can read the the whole story about it over at Bedazzled.). That got me thinking about other Beatles sound alikes. The only one that came to mind was Klaatu, There was a big fuss when that one came out. At the time no one wanted to believe that the Beatles were kaput, so freaks tried to wring clues out of it. I'm sure there are tons of other recordings from back then that were rumored to be the Beatles, but I couldn't think of any. All I could siphon was a couple that were obvious nods to the Beatles without trying to fool anyone. So there's one from the Rutles, a chuckle worthy parody, and one from the Red Walls, who evidently couldn't come up with a sound all their own. It's all good. The Beatles aren't sacred or anything. I mean, it's not like they're Nirvana.

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

Listen:
The Fut - Have You Heard the Word? mp3 at Bedazzled Go there to get it, right click on the song title.
Klaatu - Sub Rosa Subway mp3 at Kempa
The Rutles - Joe Public mp3 at Beware of the Blog Very cool
The Red Walls - Thank You mp3 at DServer "If you don't belong, scram!"

GET THAT GUY FROM DETROIT

Yeah, I know. You'd be right in thinking that the Royaltones were like so many other bands of the late fifties, lacking in pizzazz or any overt wildness. Look at them, just another group of spit-shined clowns. But, see that guy with the guitar? That's Dennis Coffey. He would go on to play on the Temptations' "Psychedelic Shack", Edwin Starr's "War" and the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing", along with a bunch of other late sixties and early seventies stuff that you've heard a thousand times. He also did his own solo stuff, and had a huge hit with "Scorpio". That sucker landed him on Soul Train.

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

Listen:
The Royaltones - Seesaw mp3 at Diddy Wah
Coffey session work:
The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack mp3 at La Viie en Robe
The Temptations - Ball of Confusion mp3 at FishHeads
Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing mp3 at Parasoul 
Solo:
Dennis Coffey - Scorpio mp3 at EricMGrant.EJFlavors
Video:
The Royaltones - Poor Boy at YouTube From American Bandstand

ROCK STAR

Cosimo Matassa died today. Most of you probably don't know who he is, because the people who do know who he us don't show up here. Rather than visit a digital shit hole that writes about how the "I stubbed my toe today, and by the way, here's Gene Vincent" they go to places that more closely match their musical eggheadedness. That is, if they don't host their own place online. But here's the deal, Cosimo Matassa is a name you should know. Matassa was there at the inception of rock 'n' roll, when rhythm and blues got legs. In a modest studio behind a record shop, he recorded some of the most influential sides of early rock 'n' roll and New Orleans R&B. Listen to the songs below, and keep in mind that it's just a random sampling. I had to stop at a few because there's no good place to quit, there's hundreds and hundreds of them. Check out the Cosimo Code site and you'll see what I mean. Trust me, this is a cool rabbit hole.

Update 9/15/2014: Funky 16 Corners posted a twenty two song Cosimo Matassa mix. Go there to get it.

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

Listen:
Roy Brown - Good Rockin' Tonight mp3 at Rocky 52
Professor Longhair - Mardis Gras In New Orleans mp3 at Shimmy She Wobble
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti mp3 at Neverest
Guitar Slim - The Things I Used To Do mp3 at DJ Perro
Big Bo and the Arrows - Big Bo's Twist mp3 at Craft Reunion
Barbara Lynn - Oh Baby! (We Got A Good Thing Goin') mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Smiley Lewis - I Hear You Knockin' mp3 at DJ Perro
Poka-A-Dot Slim - Trick Bag (streaming) at YouTube 
Matassa mix:
Cosimo Matassa: The Master - 22 song mix at Funky 16 Corners
Visit:
The Cosimo Code
Cosimo Matassa - Profile at Know LA
Cosimo Matassa at Wikipedia

JUST BE YOU

The Replacements were on TV late last night. Of course I missed it, but I pretty much knew it would be online in no time. So I checked it out today and, after viewing it, got the warm and fuzzies. That I will cop to. My most partying years were spent with the Replacements as part of the soundtrack, during their most partying years, and my circle of friends back then (and still today), included several transplants from the Midwest. It was just a big fucking beer brat gala over here.

The Replacements were the perfect band for the time. They looked sloppy and played like they didn't give a shit. That's not to say that they weren't good musicians. They were, but more then anything, after throwing everything else out, they were the Replacements. They seemed to have adopted the same salvation as everyday Joes. What hustlers, scholars, and jocks see as the losers conciliation, and others see beyond judgement, "Well you can't be that, just be the best [subject's name] there is." The Replacements weren't the best band, or the loudest, most wasted, or most brilliant. But, on any given night, they were the best damn Replacements in all the land. Hell yeah to that.

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

Listen:

The Replacements - Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out mp3 at ATumblr (?)

The Replacements - Tossin' and Turnin'mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
The Replacements - Black Diamond (live) mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Replacements - 2oth Century Boy mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
The Replacements - Beer For Breakfast mp3 at Review Stalker
The Replacements - Alex Chilton mp3 at Flux Blog
The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait (alternate take) mp3 at ATumblr (?)

Live stuff:

The Replacements Live Archive Project A shitload of live stuff. NOTE: The files are stored at File Factory. You do NOT have to sign up. Just close all of the pop-ups as they appear and scroll down to the slow download button on the bottom right.

Video:
The Replacements - Live in 1981, at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis, 25 songs in six videos at TwinTone This is good.

Visit:

The Replacements - Official site

The Replacements at Wikipedia

Color Me Impressed - Documentary site.