LAST CALL FOR CREEPS

Okay, tomorrow things return to normal, but as you may have guessed from the last couple weeks, Halloween is high season for slack, meaning reposts were flying all over the place. Tonight though, two new mixes, so that may satiate you regulars. One is a mix of thirty Halloween instrumentals over at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban, put together by J.R. Williams, who always does a bang up job. The other is another Bloody Halloween Mix by Reverend Tom Frost just posted this year. Dude doesn't miss a beat.

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Listen:
The Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf mp3 at Hey Cool Kid
The Cramps - Rockin' Bones mp3 at Johan Urban (?)
The Cramps - Confessions of a Psycho Cat mp3 at Review Stalker
The Mixes: 
More Halloween Instros at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 30 songs
Bloody Halloween Mix, Part 23 (streaming) at Reverend Tom Frost

MORE ON TOPIC SHIT

Post-corn Halloween rock 'n' roll. Yee haw. Turn it up.

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Listen:
Rocket From the Crypt - I Drink Blood mp3 at Xtrmntr
Rocket From the Crypt - Rise From the Dead mp3 at Xtrmntr
Video:
Rocket From the Crypt - Village People Medley/I Drink Blood at YouTube Halloween 2003, dressed as the Village People
Rocket From the Crypt - I Drink Blood, Sturdy Wrists at YouTube Halloween 2013, dressed as astronauts

SOUNDS FROM SOUTH OF HELL

Okay you party planners, you've got your work cut out for you. You've got less than a week until your Halloween shindig. If you're in need of a soundtrack to all of your hijinks, that part of your to-do list is about to be taken care of. Reverend Tom Frost, the former host of Spread the Good Word, and a damn fine musician in his own rite, is keeping the tradition alive. Every year he puts together a Halloween mix or two, and this year he's posted his twentieth. I know, one mix might just get you through a an hour or two. Fear not, all twenty mixes are online, so you're covered. If you dig oddball, raunchy, creepy, swinging, reverb drenched and rockin' sounds, you needn't go further. The Reverend's Halloween mixes are the standard by which all others are judged, (The mixes are now posted at Mixcloud, and are streaming.)

Reverend Frost is no slouch, his own music is good stuff as well. Gravelly, roots type stuff, loosely drawn from surf, rockabilly, and country, with some reverb and distortion to taste. Check the links below the mixes. It's some dynamic sounds, man.

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The mixes (song lists at each link):
NOTE: The links are at the bottom of each post, under the song listings
Bloody Halloween Mix 20 (couldn't find the list on this one)
Bloody Halloween Mix 19
Bloody Halloween Mix 18
Bloody Halloween mix 17
Bloody Halloween mix 16
Bloody Halloween mix 15
Bloody Halloween mix 14
Bloody Halloween mix 13
Bloody Halloween mix 12
Bloody Halloween mix 11
Bloody Halloween mix 10
Bloody Halloween mix 9
Bloody Halloween mix 8
Bloody Halloween mix 7
Bloody Halloween mix 6
Bloody Halloween mix 5
Bloody Halloween mix 4
Bloody Halloween mix 3
Bloody Halloween mix 2
Bloody Halloween mix 1
From the Reverend:
Reverend Tom Frost - Malaguena mp3 at Spread the Good Word
Reverend Tom Frost - A Bloody Life (streaming) at YouTube
Reverend Tom Frost - More samples of his music at Rev. Tom Frost
Visit:
Reverend Tom Frost - Official site

THE N.O. O.G.

As you no doubt know by now, Fats Domino passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Fuck. One of the original rockers. He wasn't wild or crazy just steady as steady gets. Dude was New Orleans, period. His style of playing (triplets, if you know what they are), his rhythm and blues background, his home base in New Orlean's lower Ninth Ward (where he lived until Katrina destroyed it), his partnership with songwriter Dave Bartholomew, and his work at Cosimo Matassa's studio, all of that combined for a template on which a shitload of New Orleans rhythm and blues was based.

Rather than post a bunch of his hits, here's a few from 1955-56, ripped from 78s, surprisingly clean considering the medium. They go down good.

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Listen:
Fats Domino - All By Myself mp3 at Internet Archive
Fats Domino - My Blue Heaven mp3 at Internet Archive
Fats Domino - Troubles of My Own mp3 at Internet Archive
Fats Domino - When My Dreamboat Comes Home mp3 at Internet Archive

GETTIN' JIGGY WITH IT

Can it be Halloween music if the name of the song is "Halloween"? Is it too obvious? Shit, maybe the songs below are about something other than Halloween. I'll tell you after I dissect all of them. It hasn't happened yet despite decades of listening, so don't hold your breath.

Sometimes I just like to blast off without Vincent Price for a change. Turn it up. These beat the tar out of Bobby "Boris" Picket and the goofy shit. Put it this way: If you were getting evicted and Halloween was the day of your eviction party, these would definitely be on the playlist. Not so, the "Mash".

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Listen:
Misfits - Halloween mp3 at Emotion Lotion
Dead Kennedys - Halloween mp3 at Hey Cool Kid
The Dream Syndicate - Halloween mp3 at Quit Mumbling
Mudhoney - Halloween (streaming) at YouTube Sonic Youth cover
Sonic Youth - Halloween (streaming) at YouTube

FOUND: BOOGIE MAN

Back in the pre-internet days, there was no Google, no Wikipedia, and not enough music related books or magazines to fill in the gaps. Liner notes on album covers were essential. It was, with the people I knew, mandatory. You had to connect the dots. If not all the dots, as many as possible. That's how Big Joe Turner led me to Pete Johnson.

Johnson was Turner's piano player, and he all but owned Big Joe's boogie. I heard his playing, saw his name, and sought out his shit. The first was a compilation. If I would have been at all hesitant when selecting it (I wasn't), one song title alone would have sold me. "Death Ray Boogie". Is there a cooler name for a song? Really, when I was DJing I used to play it in the middle of a set of disparate music, just hoping someone would ask what the hell I was playing (they did). I just wanted to say "Death Ray Boogie".

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Listen:
Pete Johnson - Death Ray Boogie mp3 at AMRF
Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner - Roll 'em Pete mp3 at AMRF
Pete Johnson - Foot Pedal Boogie mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockn Dog With both Lee Allen and Alvin "Red" Bryant on sax

WANTED: MORE HANDS

I'm not even going to mess around. Melting Pot has a post with four songs by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. That's him up there, loaded down per usual. You gotta hear these, it's some other worldly shit. Sun Ra type stuff. Go there to get them and listen to them in the order that they're posted. It's worth bugging out dad.

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Listen:

Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Four songs from Slightly Latin (1965) at Melting Pot

VIVA SONNY! (VERSION)

Wow. Sonny Burgess died back in July and I'm just now finding out (via the latest issue of Mojo). Considering I'm looking at music sites and blogs just about every day, I'm shocked that I hadn't heard. He was 88, but he was still active, co-hosting a radio show and, as of this past May, had live shows booked into this month. Apparently in July he took a fall and never entirely recovered. Because his death wasn't widely reported in the press, it seems apparent that his body of work has been sorely overlooked. So, even though I just posted the following blab in May, I find it necessary to push his stuff in your face again. Really, even if he had only recorded the A side of his first 45, it would still put him in the Wildman Rockers Hall of Fame. So here's the recycled text and three songs, the first two being the A and B side of his Sun debut.

Every once in a while, it occurs to me that there is someone who has slipped through the cracks, even after a couple thousand posts. That's what the bruise on my forehead tells me. Yesterday it occurred to me that there has not been one mention of Sonny Burgess, an early Sun artist who had one of the wildest rock 'n' roll records ever released. That's right. I said it. Check "We Wanna Boogie", it's just nuts. The first thing you'll note is the presence of a trumpet. Unusual for any rockabilly record, even more unusual on a Sun product. While the singing is pretty crazy, somewhere between Ray Campi and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, there are solos that need to be heard. First the piano, then the trumpet. After one more verse, a manic guitar solo with the drummer just bashing the hell out of what sounds like a kit made out of cardboard. Then one more verse of increasingly crazed vocals and after Burgess hits the last three words sounding like he's eating the microphone, the end. Two and a half minutes of absolutely abandon.

Though the band wanted to do another take, Sam Phillips insisted the first take was a keeper, later saying "...they had a sound like I've never heard. Maybe Sonny's sound was too raw; I don't know- but I'll tell you this. They were pure rock and roll." This from the man that was the first to record some of the greatest rockers of all time.

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Listen:

Sonny Burgess - We Wanna Boogie mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly
Sonny Burgess - Red Headed Woman mp3 at Rocky 52
Sonny Burgess - Itchy mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly

TOO FUCKING COOL

Mid-sixties New Zealand beat?. Wow. I wasn't looking for it, didn't know it existed. But here it is.

I don't know anything about the Breakaways. I'll deal with that part later. For now, dig on these boss covers.

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Listen:
The Breakaways - Talkin' About You mp3 at Internet Archive
The Breakaways - Farmer John mp3 at Internet Archive

OCCAM'S RAZOR ROCK

"Check this shit out! This is fuckin' sick!" Tommy Lee said that, speaking on the subject of his revolving drum kit and his fuckin' sick dream. I appropriate it here on the subject of Ricky Nelson's "My Babe" with James Burton on guitar. Check this shit out. This is fuckin' sick.

Check Nelson's phrasing, the attitude that comes out on certain lines. Two note-perfect solos from Burton, the fullness of the sound with a minimum of instruments, and the wig out at the end. This is one piece of work.

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Listen:
Ricky Nelson - My Babe mp3 at Diddy Wah
Ricky Nelson - Lonesome Town mp3 at Diddy Wah Go there to get it
Little Walter - My Babe (streaming) at YouTube The original
Awesome image:
High resolution, full frame version of above photo

STAY PISSED.

You may have seen it, the Eminem freestyle anti-Trump rant from the BET Hip Hop Awards. It's all over the place. While I agree wholeheartedly with almost every thing he says, and I dig the intensity, there's another version on YouTube, with music, that seems to flow a lot better. Here's the video of the one that aired, and a link to the version with backing tracks, Eminem's no saint, be we're eye to eye on this one.

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Listen:
Eminem - The Storm Freestyle (Donald Trump Diss) (streaming) at YouTube

LADY KICK ASS IS BACK

Earlier tonight I was reading out in the alley when out of nowhere Etta James's version of "Security" popped into my head. Hearing a decent copy of the 45 version at a high volume is total heavy metal, seriously. Super powerful; the playing, the production (Rick Hall, FAME Studio) and her voice. I have the record but all I found online were a bunch of YouTube posts, and many of them were the LP version. So it's YouTube only for that song. Oh well. It did make me keep looking. In doing so I found a another FAME era goosebump inducing song at Groove Addict, "I'm Gonna Take What He's Got", on which her vocal performance just plain fucking kicks ass. She hits 'em all.

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Listen:
Etta James - Security (streaming) at YouTube
Etta James -  I'm Gonna Take What He's Got mp3 at Groove Addict
Etta James - Seven Day Fool mp3 at Soul Garage
Etta James - At Last mp3 at Carried Away

NOT FIGHTING IT

I had it all planned out. I knew what I was going to post tonight. Then I ran into these old Tell-Tale Hearts songs and everything went out the window. I'd forgotten how great this band was.

None of these songs are from the LP pictured above. I just dig the photo.

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Listen:
The Tell-Tale Hearts - It's Not Me mp3 at Mr. Suave
The Tell-Tale Hearts - I Get Up In the Morning mp3 at Che Underground
The Tell-Tale Hearts - Smokes (live) mp3 at Che Underground 
The Tell-Tale Hearts - At the River's Edge (live) mp3 at Che Underground

IVY SINGS!

Biker flicks are not high art, particularly the ones made in the sixties. We all know that. Yeah, yeah, they were low budget, but production values weren't always to blame. It was usually corny plots, bad scripts and bad acting. When it comes to bad biker flicks, She-Devils On Wheels, had it all going on, a real cornucopia of total crap. Low budget, bad script, bad acting, boring as shit and more corn than Iowa. It was directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, who also made Two Thousand Maniacs!, Blood Feast, Monster A Go-Go, and Just for the Hell of It among many others. Quickie drive-in shit-shows that are so bad it's hard not to rubberneck.

Rubberneck I did, for two hours that I'll never get back, but I was reminded of "Get Off the Road" a song on the soundtrack, that was covered by the Cramps on A Date With Elvis. It's one of the few songs that Ivy Rorschach sings, and I think the only one that she sings lead on.

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Listen:
The Cramps - Get Off the Road mp3 (via Box.net) at Across the Kitchen Table
The Cramps - Kizmiaz (streaming) at YouTube Ivy sharing lead vocals with Lux
The Man-Eaters - Get Off the Road (streaming) at YouTube The film version
The movie:
She Devils On Wheels at YouTube Note: Audio drops out for about 4 minutes at the very beginning, but you don't miss much dialog. 

WHAT DOES GREASY SOUND LIKE?

"Greasy Drums." There is absolutely no way I am not going to click on that. I don't care who it is. The title alone, regardless of what it sounds like, is like waving tacos in my face. I'm gonna bite.

Let's back up. I came upon "Greasy Drums" by way of Brother Jack McDuff's "Screamin'". After hearing it, I realized that I'd never posted any of McDuff's stuff, so I went looking and I knew where to look. Groove Addict, the bastion of jazz, funk and soul that all falls in to the loose category of popcorn. (What is "popcorn" you might ask? Good question. Check this.) Groove Addict did not disappoint.

While perusing the McDuff tracks, "Greasy Drums", jumped into my face, a cut on an album by credited to his drummer as Joe Dukes with the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet. The quartet was McDuff, Dukes, sax man Red Holloway and a young George Benson on guitar. After locking in on "Greasy Drums", that led to another more specific tack, and it became apparent that this whole McDuff thing is going to have to be continued on a night when I have way more time.

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Listen:
Brother Jack McDuff - Screamin' mp3 at Internet Archive
Joe Dukes with the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet - Greasy Drums mp3 at Groove Addict
Brother Jack McDuff Quartet - Opus de Funk mp3 at Groove Addict
Video:
Brother Jack McDuff Quartet - Live 1964 at YouTube Hopped up dad!

TRINITY? WHERE'S THE OTHER TWO?

It's not every day that you run into a beat up Trinity 45, so here you go. Trinity is the guy who did "Three Piece Suit" which was one of the first songs (of many) to reuse the riddim from Alton Ellis's "I'm Still In Love With You". This one "Dryland Tourist" and it's accompanying version is just beat up enough to remind you it's vinyl, Jamaican vinyl at that, which can be a little dirty behind the ears.

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Listen:
Trinity - Dryland Tourist mp3 at Bass Shaka
Trinity - Dryland Tourist (Version) mp3 at Bass Shaka
Trinity - Three Piece Suit (streaming) at YouTube

YOU TELL ME

I'm still not sure if I like Subway Sect or not. I got their first two 45s years ago, and for decades that's all I'd heard from them. There was a compilation released a while back, but I'll be damned if I'm going to shell out for a band that I'm not even sure of after two 45s. So I waited. I finally ran into it just recently and after letting it roll a couple times through, I'm still not sure if I like them. I know. What does it take? A decent production for one thing. A little more oomph. A few less sweaters. You know, the priorities.

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Listen: 

Subway Sect - Ambition mp3 at Art Decade

Subway Sect - Eastern Europeans mp3 at Internet Archive

Subway Sect - We Oppose All Rock 'n' Roll mp3 at Internet Archive

The collection:

Subway Sect - 1978 Now at Internet Archive Fourteen songs