PARTY HARD

Happy idiots on the loose night! As someone who hasn't been into going nuts on New Years Eve for several years, stepping back, I gotta wonder. Does the celebration really have a purpose, other than as an excuse to get fucked up? Really. Whatever, we get a free holiday out of it.

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

Listen:
Lightnin' Hopkins - Happy New Year mp3 at Daily Grind
Lightnin' Hopkins - Uncle Stan, the Hip Hit Record Man mp3 at Diddy Wah
Extra:
High resolution version of photo above at Past Blues

SHE'S ALIVE! ALIVE!

You may have seen this already, but if you're a Aretha Franklin freak and haven't seen it, put your phone away and take a few minutes to remind yourself that the Queen of Soul is still very much alive. This was filmed at the Kennedy Center Honors, on December 6. The honors are given to "those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture". Aretha Franklin wasn't the honoree, though she was in 1994. On this particular night, one of the honorees was singer songwriter Carole King. On her own and with her late writing partner Gerry Goffin, King has written tons of songs you know well. Franklin comes out to sing King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", sitting down at the piano and letting go with one of the best performances of any singer, of any age, I've seen all year. It's not good for a seventy three year old woman, this is an outstanding performance for a singer of any age, gender or genre. Check out Carol King, she goes absolutely bananas. And she wrote the song.

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

Listen:
Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady (alternate mix) mp3 at Plain or Pan
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools mp3 at Russ Strathdee
Video:
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools at YouTube 1968

CACOPHONY IN THE DOLLAR BIN

Every once in a while one of these pops up. A self released monster of chaos. Just batshit crazy "what were they hoping to achieve?" private pressings that pretty much defy everything. I'd recently run across a post at Roots and Culture about Your Exotic Prince's Speak Up LP. There were a couple songs and one of them, "Concert For My Lady" was one such song, out there enough that I looked for more. Leave it to Beware of the Blog. In an old post from 2008, just sitting there, the whole LP, all six songs.

Continuing our private pressing mini WTF-fest, here's a couple from our ol' buddy Luie Luie. I highly recommend his "Lord What a Wonderful World". Get past the one minute intro and you'll be rewarded with...sheesh, I don't know. Just what the hell is this stuff?

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

Listen:
Your Exotic Prince - Concert for My Lady mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your Exotic Prince - Drums In Passion mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your Exotic Prince - Four more mp3s at Beware of the Blog
Luie Luie - Lord What a Wonderful World mp3 at Waxidermy
Luie Luie - Lost mp3 at Super Sonido
Luie Luie bio, photos and sample clips at Companion Records
(NOTE: For instructions on how to do the Touchy, listen to sample of "Touch Me With All Your Heart")

NONE OF THIS "MOMENT OF SILENCE" MALARKEY

Lemmy died today. I never thought I'd say that. We may not see another like him, a dyed in the wool rocker who never, ever, did things any other way than his own. Any man who cannot be tamed, in any occupation, is admirable. He embodied that for decades. Reason enough to pause. Loudly.

Roughly ten or fifteen years ago I ran into a guy I hadn't seen for a while. He'd been on tour with Motörhead, as the guitar tech. The guy had been in a punk band, and I had no idea that he was technically qualified to be a guitar tech, but I never got around to asking him how he got the job. I was more interested in getting a first hand account of what Lemmy was like. This tech had been around him on a daily basis for weeks. He told me that Lemmy's diet consisted of red meat, hard liquor, cigarettes and women, without any deviation to speak of. Lemmy would have already been in his fifties, and he'd been doing it for decades. He added that Lemmy was not as imposing as one would expect, and was pretty much a nice guy in general. And funny. That to me was the surprising part.

About a year or so ago, another first hand encounter was related to me. I was in a friend's record store when he showed me a photo of himself, with his daughter and Lemmy.  He said that he'd recently been to Europe and was a few people behind Lemmy in line to board a plane. He introduced himself and asked if he could get a photo, and Lemmy obliged. Despite his imposing looks, his daughter, who didn't know who he was, came away thinking he was a nice likable older guy. Later that night in their hotel room, the concert that Lemmy was traveling to was televised live on TV. The daughter was in disbelief that it was the same person. Browse through YouTube, you'll see what you need to substantiate both accounts of the type of guy he was.

If you have no idea who Lemmy is, there's all sorts of stuff online. Right now I'm not at all in the mood for biographical details. At this moment, I need to hear "Ace of Spades". Loud.

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

Listen:
Motörhead - Ace of Spades mp3 at Robert McAdams (?)
Another side:
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Lemmy - Eve Of Destruction (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
Motörhead - Stage Fright 2005 (Full Concert) at YouTube
Lemmy - Documentary trailer at YouTube
Visit:
Lemmy Kilmister quotes at Good Reads
Lemmy at Wikipedia His Wiki page addresses him by first name only. Elvis doesn't even get that treatment.

THIS TOTALLY WORKS

Everything stops for this one. I didn't even know it existed, Mitch Ryder backed by Booker T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns. Hell yeah. A whole LP over at Groove Addict, The Detroit-Memphis Experiment. So, I'll be tied up. But check the one cut below, "Liberty" and see if it's your bag. Maybe a few of you will be hitting their foreheads like I am. Of course! Why hadn't I imagined this combination? Probably because it would have sounded too good to be possible. Still, having not not heard of it, I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. Added bonus? Revisiting "Sock it to Me" just slayed me. From start to finish, that sucker does not let up.

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

Listen:
Mitch Ryder = Liberty mp3 at Groove Addict
Album:
Mitch Ryder = The Detroit-Memphis Experiment (zip) at Groove Merchant
Earlier stuff:
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Little Latin Lupe Lu mp3 at Bruce Ellithorpe (?)
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Sock it to Me mp3 at ATumblr (?)

CHANCE ENCOUNTER ROCK

Luke and the Apostles are a band that I may never have heard had I not just clicked on a random link. My life would have surely gone on if I had never heard the song, but as it is their "Been Burnt" will now live forever in my dump of oddball "why did I download this again?" songs that get played every two years. Not to diminish it's appeal. It's a garage type ditty, ample snot and all that. But, what really made me take notice was "Not Far Off", released three years later. Bam! A hard rock guitar freakout, accurately described at YouTube as '70s stoner rock. I'll blast that one at full volume the next time the hippies that live behind me have one of their all too frequent love-ins.

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

Listen:

Luke and the Apostles - Been Burnt mp3 at Your Mother Should know
NOTE: If the link to the song is disabled, go to the page and scroll halfway down. The bands are in alphabetical order.
Luke and the Apostles - Not Far Off (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Luke and the Apostles - Profile at Garage Underground

THE BAROMETRIC CHAMBER

Enough Christmas music, time to get back on track. Just easing back into it, because technically it's still a day off. To be honest, I've done too much running around the past few days to expend a bunch of energy rocking my fool head off. El Chicano will do just fine tonight. Their "Viva Tirado" sounds like Booker T getting high with Carlos Santana. Something like that. It's been posted before, but the link went dead, so here's a new link, and one to the original by Gerald Wilson. Then there's a cover of "Coming Home Baby" from the same 1970 LP. One song I hadn't revisited was "Tell Her She's Lovely", a hit for them in '73. It's as badass as a lazy jam can get. You can fall into the groove, or you can dismiss it as Latin yacht rock, I don't care. It hits the spot, that's all I care about.

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

Listen:
El Chicano - Viva Tirado mp3 at Groove Addict
Gerald Wilson - Viva Tirado mp3 at Musica del Alma
El Chicano - Coming Home Baby mp3 at Groove Addict
El Chicano - Tell Her She's Lovely (streaming) at YouTube

WHO NEEDS A BREATHALYZER?

If you happen to have a guest at your holiday party in a questionable state of sobriety, here's what you do. Have them sing "Here Comes Santa Claus". If they sound like Joseph Spence singing "Here Comes Santa Clause, and they are not Joseph Spence, take their keys. Because only Joseph Spence can get away with singing like Joseph Spence. He made a career out of his unique delivery. I dig it.

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

Listen:
Joseph Spence - Santa Claus is Coming to Town mp3 at Now That's What I call BS
More Joseph Spence (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Joseph Spence at Wikipedia

THE CURE HAS BEEN FOUND

Because nothing says Christmas like a bunch of dudes in lucha libre masks twanging all over your seasonal favorites, here's a couple by those reliable dudes in said lucha libre masks, Los Straitjackets. If for no other reason than as respite from those clowns posted yesterday. At least Los Straitjackets have come up with something to combat guitar face.

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

Listen:
Los Straitjackets - God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman mp3 at Now That's What I Call BS
Los Straitjackets - Marshmallow World mp3 at Indie Rock Cafe
Los Straitjackets - Here Comes Santa Claus mp3 at Dennis Moody

CELLO FACE: NO.

If I haven't already expressed my distaste for overly dramatic rock star posturing, let me do that now. I hate it. It's distracting and it's phony. Far and away, the best bands I've ever seen perform have been musicians that just get up there and play, particularly those able to create a chemistry that can't be bought, plugged in, or obscured with some asinine fog machine. Guitar face is a symptom of posturing. A little is okay, but that exaggerated stuff? No. Do you know what's worse? Cello face.

There is a version of "Little Drummer Boy", by a band called Apocalyptica that I've linked to in the past, but just revisited. I have to be objective. The song is intense, ridiculously so. I have to give them that. But I just can't get past their look. I'll leave it at that. No, wait. They look ridiculous. I'm trying desperately to think of a one word description that is not profane. Okay, now I'll leave it that. Check this tune and then, if you dare, do an image search, or check out some videos. Take stock of your reaction. Punk rockers, I'll meet you back here.

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

Listen:
Apocalyptica - Little Drummer Boy mp3 at Cover Me

SMITH WINS THIS ONE

In a matter of a few clicks it went from Big Daddy Cane to Jimmy Smith. After that it was all over the place. First, browsing through early hip hop Christmas stuff at Electric Adolescence, there was Kane, Roxanne Shante, and MC Shan's "Cold Chillin’ Christmas", I have no idea if that is the real Roxanne or not. It could be Ray's Famous Roxanne or the Original Ray's Roxanne. I don't know. The song is early rap so it's got it's share of corn, but it samples Booker T and the MG's "Hip Hug Her", pretty effectively for the period. So, detour.

It made me want to go look for some more MG's stuff, and that's how I ran into a couple Christmas songs by them, "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". That in turn made me want to hear Jimmy Smith's versions of the same two songs. Looking for those, I ran into his version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", a swinging take if ever there was one. And that's how you end up with this raggedy ass mish mash.

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

Listen:
Jimmy Smith - Jingle Bells mp3 at Panic Stream
Jimmy Smith - Santa Claus is Coming to Town mp3 at Review Stalker
Jimmy Smith - God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman mp3 at Panic Stream
This started it:
Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, and MC Shan – Cold Chillin’ Christmas mp3 at Electric Adolescence
Booker T and the MGs - Hip Hug Her mp3 at Self Starter Foundation
Booker T and the MGs - Time Is Tight mp3 at LZ Center
Booker T and the MGs - Hang 'em High mp3 at LZ Center
Booker T and the MGs - Jingle Bells mp3 at The Rising Storm
Booker T and the MGs - Santa Claus is Coming to Town mp3 at The Rising Storm

THIS MISTLETOE IS DEFECTIVE

Had to. It has become a seasonal tradition. The annual posting of the Sonics' counterpoints, "Don't Believe in Christmas" and "Santa Claus". Highly recommended. Before heading to a mall, or any other yuletide trap, blast these. If you have to do a lot of running around, slip on that sourpuss face. They'll get out of your way.

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

Listen:
The Sonics - Santa Claus mp3 at The Decibel Tolls
The Sonics - Don't Believe In Christmas mp3 at Scratch Bomb

UFC? FEH.

It's probably not a cool thing to post a mug shot of the Godfather to accompany a post with some of his Christmas themed songs. But none of us is perfect. So, say James Brown did some things that landed him on the naughty list. Now take that one step further and imagine Krampus coming after him. Krampus vs the GFOS. Can you imagine the full on brawl that would be? I'd sure as hell pay per view that.

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

Listen:
James Brown - Funky Christmas mp3 at SB Dave
James Brown - Go Power At Christmas Time mp3 at The Sound of Indie
James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto mp3 at The Mob Third Coast
James Brown - Let's Unite the World at Christmas mp3 at Panic Stream
James Brown - Please Come Home For Christmas at Panic Stream

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

After hearing the Wailers' cover of Freddie King's "San-Ho-Zay" yesterday, I went looking for King's original and was only able to find it at YouTube. Fine, fair enough. I did happen to run across a version that's from the soundtrack to "Innermost Limits of Pure Fun". The film, by George Greenough, is pure seventies, the stoner surf flick that set the bar. Likewise, the soundtrack is pure seventies, and also stoner.

The big surprise is something else entirely. While the song is still "San-Ho-Zay", the reason for liking this version surpasses the reasons for the other versions combined. Any version. Because my faith in the future of music has been restored. It is the young guitarist at the top of this post, a girl named Kara, playing "San-Ho-Zay". After playing the main licks several times, she takes a lead, and then goes into a rhythm thing. She's all of nine years old. Her look at the end of it is priceless, a mix of pride for getting the good parts down, and embarrassment for kind of stumbling towards the end. Hoping against hope that she stuck with it, I clicked on the uploader's name to see if young guitarist Kara kept soldiering on. Apparently the uploader, one Guitarslinger32269, is a guitar teacher because there are tons of videos of students of all ages playing this song or that. I didn't sample many of them because I wanted to first see if this particular student kept with it. Watch the end of that video first video below and you'll see why. That look. Guess what? She did stick with it. There's another video of her playing another Freddie King song, "Hideaway", posted earlier this year, a year after the other clip. She got better, and a little more confident. This girl is going places, I tell you. She's got heart, determination, and stick-with-it-ness. I like that in a future guitar hero. Quote Guitarlinger32269, "This young lady has awesome potential, and is truly special". Here, here, my man Guitarslinger 33269! Here, here!

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

Listen:
Freddie King - San-Ho-Zay (streaming) at YouTube
The Farm - San-Ho-Zay mp3 at Aguarium Drunkard Go there to get it and a few other songs.
Watch:
Kara - San-Ho-Zay at YouTube April 2014
Kara - Hideaway at YouTube March 2015 
12/20/15: This just in: Kara's teacher let me know that she does another Freddie King song, uploaded just yesterday:
Kara - The Stumble at YouTube December 20, 2015
Visit:
Guitarslinger 32269's student guitarists at YouTube The teacher's channel

THE DRUMMER IS DEFINITELY OUT OF HIS TREE

Back when I first heard the Wailers, I couldn't really be bothered by bands or records that weren't smokin' hot. That's still the case, but what has changed is what I consider smokin' hot. Music no longer has to have guitar heroics or rock concert posturing. Somewhere around punk rock, I began to loathe rock stars and the associated adulation thrown in their direction. It became more about the band dynamic, between band members and between band and audience. That's a long way to describe why I was midly impressed with the Wailers then, and apeshit about them now.

The Wailers were nothing if not a sturdy band, equal parts rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues. They got little national attention but were wildly popular in the Northwest. In a regional scene with it's own sound, there was no shortage of sturdy bands, but the Wailers, along with the Sonics led the pack.

I've posted Wailers stuff a few times, but I just ran into a couple songs I hadn't, plus a high resolution version of the photo above. A couple things I need to point you towards. One is "I Idolize You" with guest vocalist Gail Harris. She's fifteen years old on that, and she wails. That's not an intended pun. I just can't think of a better word to describe what she does to her teenage larynx. The other thing you need to check out is the first hand account of a Wailers vs Sonics Battle of the Bands show that occurred back in the day by someone who was in his teens at the time but still remembered the feeling and the details in 2011 when the piece was written. It's by Frank Gutch, a true believer who also happens to be the person whose enthusiastic proselytizing from behind the counter of his record store made me reconsider the Wailers decades ago. Just one thing of many I'm indebted to him for.

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

Listen:
The Wailers – Mau Mau mp3 at Diddy Wah
The Wailers – Beat Guitar mp3 at Diddy Wah
The Wailers with Gail Harris - I Idolize You (streaming) at YouTube
The Wailers - San-Ho-Zay (streaming) at YouTube
The Wailers - Out of Our Tree mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Wailers - Mashi mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Visit:
The Sonics vs the Wailers - Battle of the Bands! by Frank Gutch Jr. at Indie Musicology
Rock and Reprise - Frank Gutch's blog
Pin-up:
High resolution copy of the image above at Ace Records 

JOHNNY WHO?

Groove Addict continues to slay me. Nowhere else would you find multiple posts with Larry Williams and Johnny Watson stuff. There's a link to them below, and they're all pretty good, mid-late sixties stuff, mp3s and LP downloads. Still, at the end of the day, I'm partial to early Larry Williams, so I'm sticking with those. Right rockers, among them two songs the Beatles covered ("Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Slow Down") and one the Stones covered "She Said Yeah"). Yee haw.

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

Listen:
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Larry Williams - She Said Yeah mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Larry Williams - Dizzy Miss Lizzie mp3 at Joe Troiano's Blog
Larry Williams - Short Fat Annie mp3 at The New LoFi
At Groove Merchant:
The Larry Williams Show (with Johnny Watson) - Two mp3s and LP at Groove Addict
Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Larry Williams - The Best of the Okeh Years - Four mp3s and an LP at Groove Addict
Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Larry Williams - Two For the Price of One - One mp3 and an LP at Groove Addict
Pin up:
High resolution version of above photo at Ace Records

YOU CAN SHAKE OTHER STUFF TOO

It isn't often that you run into Exile-era Stones clips that aren't concert footage, so, what the hell. Check the clip linked below. It's them doing "Shake Your Hips" from the German TV show Beat Club, what appears to be a rehearsal, or maybe just a promo film. To compare and contrast, there's the original too, from Slim Harpo. As things happen, while looking for an image I ran into a high resolution of that baddass one above. That was it. Fuck the Stones, it's Slim Harpo's night.

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

Listen:
Slim Harpo - Shake Your Hips mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Slim Harpo - Baby, Scratch My Back  mp3 at LZ Center
Slim Harpo - I'm A King Bee mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Slim Harpo - I Got Love If You Want It mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban

Video:

The Rolling Stones - Shake Your Hips (Beat Club) at YouTube Followed by "Tumbling Dice"

Pin up:
Slim Harpo at Ace Records High resolution copy of above image.

IT IS, BY ANY NAME.

If you've been hanging around here for a while, you might have noticed instrumentals all over the place. I dig 'em. So forgive me if I already pointed you towards Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban's weekly series, aptly named "Instrumental 45 of the Week".  I probably have at some point. But, this week it's a cover of the Rumblers' "Boss" and I ain't gonna pass that up. The Rumbler's version itself is a cover of the Strangers "Caterpillar Crawl". The one Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban just posted is by Billy Vaughn "and his Orchestra", despite the orchestra consisting of only guitar, bass, sax and drums. Around these parts we call them bands. But it's a worthy take. All three are pretty badass, something like Link Wray lightening up a tad, with a sax player getting his licks in. I'm a little partial to the Rumblers version because the sax has a good honk to it. Revelation of the day? Dick Dale played it live and it wasn't the best thing I've ever heard.

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

Listen:
Billy Vaughn - Boss mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 1964
The Rumblers - Boss mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 1963
The Strangers - Caterpillar Crawl mp3 at Rockin' Dog 1959 The source
Dick Dale - Caterpillar Crawl (live) at YouTube 2011 Follows it with "Rumble". Okay then.
Visit:
Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban's Instrumental of the Week series

DJANGO. ON THE RADIO. PLUG WORTHY.

Yesterday I was out back just chillin', as they say, digging on the weather which was unseasonably warm, slight breeze, birds chirping and all that shit. I took a break from what I was reading and succumbed to a lack of proper sleep, listening to the jazz station as I semi-dozed. The show that was airing was a big band show, but it typically veers from straight big band stuff and yesterday was no exception. Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea" came on and it hit the spot. I like the song, but at that particular moment with no distractions I succumbed and decided that it is a really great song. I'm pretty much ambivalent about Bobby Darin, but that song at that particular moment was impossible to ignore.

A few hours later, I'm in the kitchen cooking tacos listening to the same station. It happened to be a show that featured guitar jazz, and the DJ played Django Reinhardt's version of "Beyond the Sea" ("La Mer"). I'd no clue that Darin's version wasn't the original. Maybe I should have. Reinhardt's version, with Stephane Grappelli on violin, is from the forties. I'd never heard it before. Let me tell you people, it is an insanely beautiful song, goosebump type beautiful. In our parlance, absolutely the shit.

Different song, but way cool.

A plug is due here: Jazz 88 plays a lot of good stuff on weekends. If I'm lazy I just leave it on for hours. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the show Jazz West Coast, airing 3:00 - 5:00 Pacific time with the king of deadpan old school cool, Phil Dinsen. Believe me, once you get used to his dry subtle humor, you'll be looking forward to the back announcing for guaranteed chuckles. Plus, where else are you going to hear Bud Shank and Ken Nordine?

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

Listen:
Bobby Darin - Beyond the Sea mp3 at ATumblr (?) That mini-yelp at 2:04 always slays me.
Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grappelli - La Mer (Beyond the Sea) mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Django Reinhardt - The Sunshine of Your Smile mp3 at Pasumansky (?)
Visit:
Jazz 88 (streaming live) at Jazz 88
Jazz 88 program schedule at Jazz 88
Jazz 88 playlist archive at Jazz 88

FOLLOW YOUR SKULL DAD

If you listen to varied music but in familiar genres all the time, sometimes it's good to hit the reset button and try to get back to that unfamiliar spot, listen to something you've never heard from an artist you've never heard of, from some unidentified foreign country. Just let go and see what happens. Maybe that has no appeal to you. Hell, I don't care. I like unfamiliar music, the more foreign the better. I can't get enough of it.

The songs below are all from a mix at Hearsay, a insanely cool mix I might add, called "Meditation: Intangible/Bodega Pop 1959-1980". Twenty three cuts of what the fuck is this?  Actually, there may be a recognizable name or two, but, shit, does this stuff fit together well. Let's go to Ethiopia, no wait, Latin America! What was that? Turn here, turn here, it's New Orleans stupid. Seriously, it's like that. The mix will take you places you've never been to. That's a good thing, stupid.

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

Listen:
Akalé Wubé – Nètsanèt mp3 at Hearsay (1972)
Lucho Bermúdez y Su Orquesta – Fiesta De Negritos mp3 at Hearsay (1980)
Los Destellos – La Ardillita mp3 at Hearsay (1967)
Brentford All-Stars – Greedy G (Get on the Good Foot) mp3 at Hearsay (1974) JB cover on Studio One (!)
The Mix:
Meditation: Intangible/Bodega Pop 1959-1980 at Hearsay 23 songs, as a mix or individually

MEET THESE GUYS

Some random guy in Yardbeat. Not Bobby Ellis. He plays trumpet.

Well, whaddya know? Not half bad ska from a band I never heard of. Yardbeat, a semi-current outfit out of Jamaica. There's hardly anything about them online, so you've got what I could find. Two songs, a dated looking web page, and a live video from 2013, showing them without any visual flash whatsoever. Total street clothes. You could see them at the hardware store, or Best Buy. But they sound great, the sax solo in the video is super baddass. If you're at all skeptical of current ska, and I'm with you on that, you should know that trumpet demigod Bobby Ellis played with them at some point, and if you're at all skeptical of current ska, you probably know who he is.

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

Listen:
Yardbeat – Fortune Teller mp3 at Midwestern Housewives
Yardbeat – Intruder mp3 at Midwestern Housewives Go there to get it.
Video:
Yardbeat - Wild Honey at YouTube
Visit:
Yardbeat - Homepage On Tripod. Wait, Tripod still exists?

BIRTH OF THEIR COOL

I just posted these a few months ago, but I'm reposting them because I ran into that sleeve above for NRBQ's early (if  not first) 45, "C'mon Everybody" b/w "Rocket Number Nine". In that sleeve is the answer to a question that has haunted me for decades. What was NRBQ's critical ground zero? When was it that they won the hearts of music critics? Because, really, great as they are as a band, do they really merit their rep? I gotta say, if you were a music writer it would be hard to ignore a band that released an Eddie Cochran cover on the A side of a single, and a cover of Sun Ra on the B side. On a major label, in 1969. How are you going to beat that? Shit, they got my attention by including it on their first album when I bought it decades later. I didn't even know who Sun Ra was.

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

Listen:
NRBQ - Rocket Number Nine mp3 (via *MediaFire) at The Devil's Music

*MediaFire: Click the green "Download" button on the top right. A pop-up will open, trying to fool you into downloading something else. Close it, it's not the download and may be harmful (your anti-pop up radar may automatically minimize it.). The downlload dialog box should be waiting behind it.

Sun Ra - Rocket Number Nine (streaming) at YouTube Six minute version
Sun Ra - Rocket Number Nine (streaming) at YouTube two and a half minutes

CHESS TOO? HOW MANY WERE THERE?

I shouldn't be surprised. Andre Williams recorded for a half million labels, so of course he would have recorded for Chess at some point. Dude got around. Dig "Cadillac Jack". Trademark Williams, a little story that's more monologue with accompaniment than singing. Come to think of it, I don't know if I've ever heard him really sing, really belt one out, hitting notes all over the place. Did he ever really stretch out? This is a good one though. Hit the old links if you want more

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

Listen:
Andre Williams - Cadillac Jack mp3 at Groove Addict
Visit:
Older Andre Williams Posts Scroll down this page for more songs and a documentary.

HE DID WHAT?

If you look hard enough you can find a remix of just about anything and, let's be honest here, most remixes suck. You can imagine the original artist hearing a remix of their song, rolling their eyes thinking "Why the fuck would they do this?" I'm not even an original artist and I think that all the time. Remixers, and anyone taking advantage of any technological advances, should be reminded of your Granny's cautionary advice: just because you can doesn't mean you should. (Think about that next time you follow your GPS into a bog.) 

What I really can't understand out is why someone would remix a song and take out, or greatly diminish, the very part of the song that gives it its oomph. Todays reminder is from DJ Spooky who chose to remix Public Enemy's "By the Time I Get To Arizona". The meat of the song is a sample of Mandrill's  "Two Sisters of Mystery", a massive riff of fuzz, wah-wah, bass and clavinet. A whopper. You could freestyle Henny Youngman jokes over it and it would still sound badass. A insanely good choice by someone in the Public Enemy camp. And DJ Spooky took it out. Think you could do better? DJ Spooky did, and he was wrong.

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

Listen:
Public Enemy - By the Time I Get to Arizona mp3 at Skydaddy
Public Enemy - By the Time I Get to Arizona (DJ Spooky remix) mp3 at DJ Spooky
Mandrill - Two Sisters of Mystery (streaming) at YouTube
Public Enemy - By the Time I Get to Arizona (isolated vocal) mp3 at Herbie
Video:
Public Enemy - By the Time I get to Arizona at YouTube

BOND DEPOT. JAMES BOND DEPOT.

Need a mess of covers of different songs from James Bond films? Why the hell not, right? Even the shitty versions are usually passable. Cover Me posted a shitload of them, including some insanely cool ones. For my money, the Ray Barretto and John Zorn covers of the James Bond Theme are the best of the lot. But you ought to browse through the others, it's an eclectic cross section, Deadbolt, Radiohead, Magazine, Count Basie and so on. For those of you too lazy go elsewhere, there's a couple ticklers below, including two by John Barry, the OG. If you really can't get enough, there's a ten hour thing of Henry Mancini's version repeated over and over at YouTube. Ten hours. How does someone even upload that shit? 

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

Listen:
John Barry Orchestra - James Bond Theme mp3 at ATumblr (?)
John Barry Orchestra - On Her Majesty's Secret Service mp3 at Like A Blockbuster
Skatalites - James Bond Theme mp3 at You're Soaking In It
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Goldfinger mp3 at Boogaloo Time
Tommy McCook - Goldfinger (streaming) at YouTube
Henry Mancini - James Bond Theme (streaming) at YouTube Ten damn hours.
The collections at Cover Me:
24 covers of James Bond Themes at Cover Me Ray Barretto, Deadbolt, John Zorn, etc.
12 covers of James Bond Themes at Cover Me Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, Radiohead, Count Basie, Magazine, etc.

THIS HIPPIE GETS A PASS

Fifty years ago on Thanksgiving day, Arlo Guthrie arrived at Alice's Restaurant and an incident happened that would change his fate and be immortalized in a song he wrote and released a year or two later. Since it's been years since I've listened to it in its entirety, today I bit. I forgot what an entertaining song it is. It's actually more like a monologue with guitar, and not really about the restaurant, but about the butterfly effect of littering and how that got him out of the draft. It's eighteen minutes long, and entertaining enough that it was stretched out for a feature length movie. 

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

Listen:
Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant mp3 at Svana (?)
Visit:
50 things about Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on its 50th anniversary at Boston Globe

'MON BACK, YOU'RE IN THE MUD.

Because sometimes you need a little blue collar, gotta get home, the road's a drag, check out that chick, old school, political correctness be damned, give me another beer and a couple of the little white pills type of music, here's some songs that are about as real as they get. Good ol' American trucker music. Fire up a Pall Mall. The road will wait.

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

Listen:
Dick Curless - Chick Inspector mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Dave Dudley - Two Six Packs Away mp3 at Rocky 52
Dave Dudley - Six Days on the Road mp3 at J.Yuenger
Red Sovine - I'm A Truck mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Eleven more trucker tunes at Beware of the Blog

WAS IST GROUPIES?

It might be hard for any kid these days to appreciate how certifiably out there early synth-based records seemed when they first appeared in the early seventies. They turned the ear of just about everybody, with little hint of the defensive us versus them attitude that rockers nowadays would probably exhibit. It was more "Weird! Bring it on!" That's how Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" crept onto the charts, even in the U.S. (#25 in 1975), which is kind of unbelievable given its drone like sparseness. 

How accepted was it? At the time I was a diehard guitar based rock fiend, nevertheless I distinctly remember driving down the freeway in my '61 Falcon station wagon when "Autobahn" came on my newly installed FM radio. I turned it up and imagined myself hauling ass on the Autobahn, the famed highway in Germany where there are no speed limits, never mind the fact that my beloved Falcon had a hard time going over 60 MPH. Just a few years later their LP The Man Machine was released, and that, coupled with Bowie and Iggy Pop's ersatz endorsement of the band (by way of Heroes and The Idiot) was all it took to whip up Kraftwerkmania with my group of friends. Despite the fact that we were in the thick of punk rock, a recreation of the cover photo of The Man Machine begged to be done, thus this hastily posed just for the fuck of it shot. It was 1978 and there were only a few shows a month worth going to, so it was no doubt taken on a slow night.

Here's a handful of miscellaneous very early synth type stuff. I was going to try to sort through all of this and find a coherent thread, but fuck it, finding the links to begin with was work enough. The first one down there, Dick Hyman's "The Minotaur" was the first electronic song to chart in the U.S. in 1969. Gershon Kingsley released his "Popcorn" in 1969, and it became a massive hit when it was covered by Hot Butter in 1971. (Don't miss the ten hour version of that below. That's right, ten fucking hours of "Popcorn".)  After that a couple versions of Kraftwerk's "Autobaun", the single edit and the 22 minute LP version. Then their "Trans Europe Express", from 1977, which commemorates their cavorting with Bowie and Iggy with name drops for each. After that "The Robots", from The Man Machine. Being the third in a trio of well received milestone LPs, consider it their Exile on Main St. Yeah, sure, that's the ticket. And you gotta have Africa Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock". (It's like the Scarface poster for hipster geeks.) The unlikely samples of "Trans Europe Express" (along with some Yellow Magic Orchestra) turned rap on it's head in 1982.

Lemmchen Primary School keepin' it real (video below)

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

Listen:
Dick Hyman - The Minotaur (streaming) at YouTube
Gershon Kingsley - Popcorn mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Hot Butter - Popcorn (streaming) at Youtube Ten hours long. Ten. Hours.
Kraftwerk - Autobahn (3:33) mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Kraftwerk - Autobahn (22:37) (streaming) at YouTube
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express mp3 at Zero (?)
Kraftwerk - The Robots mp3 at Brain Magazine
Africa Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock mp3 at ATumblr
The Action Packed Kraftwerk Good Time Video Hour
Kraftwerk - Köln II (live in TV studio) at YouTube 1971 Long hair! Overalls! Guitars! The horror!
Kraftwerk - Three more early videos at Beware of the Blog
Kraftwerk - Showroom Dummies at YouTube Rare footage of Kraftwerk dancing at 2:17
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity (French TV 1978) at YouTube
Kraftwerk - Live, Lattitude Festival UK 2013 at YouTube 
Lemmchen Primary School - The Robots at YouTube Cover by kids in cardboard robot costumes. Keeping the torch lit.