DIG, ON MULTIPLE FRONTS, MAN

Up until the release of his "Rockit", my only impression of Herbie Hancock had been his LP Head Hunters, found under the arms of some of the more technically minded musicians in high school. In other words, the jazz dudes who I had no time for. I wouldn't have, and didn't, give it half a chance. No interest whatsoever. It was the guitar-only diet back then. Fast forward roughly ten years: mind blown. His video of "Rockit" was in regular rotation on MTV and when you consider the year, it's easy to see why I took notice. It might seem tame now, but the robotics, as primitive as they were, were freaky. Not only that, it featured scratching by Grandmixer DST (who also do his thing on Malcom McLaren's Duck Rock LP). For the time it was WTF when they used to actually spell it out. What the fuck.

Years later and less threatened by jazz, I realized that to dismiss Hancock is a mistake. He did lots of cool shit. That brings us to Fat Albert's Rotunda, his eighth album released in 1969. Originally intended as a soundtrack to Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, an animated TV special based on a character created by a pre-bust Bill Cosby (before we knew he was a bad egg).

The LP is an awesome mix of jazz, funk and soul. If you lived in that era, you'll hear a TV show soundtrack, but you might hear it differently without visuals or dialog. It's pretty fucking tight. If you haven't heard TV shows with music like this as a soundtrack, you'll hear an awesome mix of jazz, funk and soul, that's pretty fucking tight. Maybe I should say that again.

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

Listen:

Herbie Hancock - Wiggle-Waggle mp3 at Internet Archive
Herbie Hancock - Fat Albert Rotunda mp3 at Internet Archive
Herbie Hancock - Lil' Brother mp3 at Internet Archive

THERE'S A MINGUS AMONG US

How do you end up going from the Liverpool Five to Charles Mingus in a handful of songs? Shit like that happens to me all the time. After looking into the Liverpool Five the other day, I saw that they did a cover of "The Snake", the song that was a hit for Al Wilson. The song was written by Oscar Brown Jr. who also recorded the original version. After going back to Brown's version, I went and looked at his bio (which for some odd reason I'd never done before) where I saw that he had also written "The Work Song". Sheeiit, I love both of those songs, just about every version I've heard of either of them. I knew that Brown had recorded it but not that he written it. So it was off to check for any other odd version. I ended up finding an entirely different "Work Song" by Charles Mingus. It's live and it's very cool, all smoky and after hours 'n' shit. After that, I was off to Mingusland. And done.

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

Listen:

Liverpool Five - The Snake (streaming) at YouTube
Al Wilson - The Snake mp3 at Margauxville
Oscar Brown Jr. - The Snake (streaming) at YouTube
Oscar Brown Jr. - Work Song mp3 at Soul Garage
Charles Mingus - Work Song mp3 at Amazon S3 (?)

Charles Mingus - Work Song (streaming) at YouTube (in case the link above goes dead)
Charles Mingus - Mingus at the Bohemia LP (streaming) at YouTube Six song playlist

THEY'RE SO BRITISH THEY LEFT

Oh, brother. I don't know about you, but when I see an LP by a band called the Liverpool Five I'm already thinking it's some sort of cash in, trying to capitalize on the success of the Beatles. When you see that the LP contains covers of "I Can Only Give You Everything" and "My Generation", you think it's going to be the worst. You expect nothing.

The Liverpool Five weren't from Liverpool, they were actually from London. Sounding suspect. They found their audience in Asia and then relocated to the U.S. where there was a distinct shortage of English mop top bands. It's sounding less promising by the minute, eh?  Guess what? They aren't half bad. Forget the back story and the sucky name, just use your ears on this one.

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

Listen:
Liverpool Five - I Can Only Give You Everything mp3 at Internet Archive
Liverpool Five - My Generation mp3 at Internet Archive

SABOTAGE DEPOT

I was in the mood to see someone scream but good, really let it out. The first thing that came to mind was the Beastie Boys doing "Sabotage" on Letterman. Man, there's one scream by Ad-Rock near the beginning that's just awesome, really sets the tone, but the one near the end is all-time. I'm not going to tell you exactly where because I think you need to invest yourself in the song to get the full effect.

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

Listen:
Beastie Boys - Sabotage mp3 at Internet Archive
Video:
Beastie Boys - Sabotage at YouTube Official video, by Spike Jonze
Visit:
Sabotage - Song entry at Wikipedia

BUT WHEN THEY DO

Well my opinion of Jay Z and Beyonce just went up a couple notches. Yeah, I'm sure they're talented and all that, they seem to be from the clips I've seen. Just not my bag. But that's not why they gained a little over here. It's because the commercial for their upcoming tour together doesn't feature their music, but Marcia Aitkem's cover of "I'm Still In Love With You". Nice selection, not sure what the connection might be though. Is it some sort of kiss and make up tour? Who the fuck cares. Good song choice.

 

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

Listen:
Alton Ellis - I'm Still In Love With You mp3 at Stop Okay Go The original
Marcia Aitken - I'm Still In Love With You (streaming) at YouTube Cover
Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking (streaming) at YouTube Same riddim
Trinity - Three Piece Suit (streaming) at YouTube DJ version over Aitken's version

HEY, YOU IN FRONT. WHAT'S WITH THE SHOES?

A friend of mine recently posted a video of a band called the Wild Angels, a corny name and a band I've never heard of. You never know where these things are going to lead so I checked it out. Sounded kinda sorta like Dave Edmunds type stuff, rockabilly informed, but not straight up rockabilly. That would explain the abundance of sideburns. The video was okay, not earth shattering, The corny backing vocals were a put off, but not enough to at least give these guys a look-see. It turns out that they backed Gene Vincent for an England tour in 1969. It was time to do some digging.

What I was able to find was three passable covers, "Brand New Cadillac", "I Fought the Law," and "My Way", the source material being Vince Taylor, the Bobby Fuller Four and Eddie Cochran respectively. Not bad choices. They hold up as some sort of pit stop between the original versions and later covers by the Clash ("Brand New Cadillac", "I Fought the Law,") and the Real Kids ("My Way"), though the guitar sound on the Wild Angels' "I Fought the Law" blows. No punch. Regardless, here's the fruits of todays wild goose chase.

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

Listen:
The Wild Angels- Brand New Cadillac mp3 at Rocky 52 1972
The Clash - Brand New Cadillac (streaming) at YouTube 1979
Vince Taylor - Brand New Cadillac mp3 at ATumblr (?) 1959
The Wild Angels - I Fought the Law mp3 at Rocky 52 1973
The Clash - I Fought the Law mp3 at Quiet Color 1979
Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought the Law mp3 at Rocky 52 1966
The Wild Angels - My Way mp3 at Rocky 52 1973
The Real Kinds - My Way (streaming) at YouTube 1977
Eddie Cochran - My Way (streaming) at YouTube 1959
Video:
The Wild Angels - Jo Jo Anne at YouTube

I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU ANYMORE

This isn't to dis Dan Auerbach or his song "Malibu Man". It's a slinky chunk of string laden seventies type soul and it stands on it's own as digable. But, and there's always a but, when you compare it to the first Black Keys, yeesh! It makes you long for your teenage guitar-only diet. The "broke ass shit" sound of the first LP after listening to "Malibu Man" is like chasing Koolaid with whiskey.

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

Listen:
Dan Auerbach - Malibu Man mp3 at Soul Donuts 2017
The Black Keys - Heavy Soul mp3 at SB Dave 2002
The Black Keys - She Said, She Said mp3 at Hear Ya Beatles cover, 2002
The Black Keys - Brooklyn Bound mp3 at Hey Lisa 2002
The Black Keys - I'll Be Your Man mp3 at Susie Bright 2002

LIFE IN THE 99 CENT BIN

If you;re into album cover art, you no doubt know who Roger Dean is. Even if you don't know the name, you've probably seen his work. Probably the most famous example is the album cover for Yes's Fragile. Even though I've always hated Yes as a band, and I'm not all that into trippy fantasy album covers, I have to admit that his style is very fluid, and he's good at what he does, though it's not my bag. After seeing the Yes LP cover and taking notice, it was easy to spot other work he did. Take for instance, the two album covers he did for Osibisa. They must have been in the very first thrift store I ever went to, and there's no doubt they were in the last one I was in. All over the place. I had no inclination to buy one of the albums, because I didn't like Yes and I figured it would likely be music that sounded like them. But then, after years of seeing their records in thrift stores and used record stores, I began to wonder why there were so many Osibisa LPs, yet no one I knew had heard them, and I'd never seen anything written about them. Still, even after downloads and YouTube appeared, I wasn't curious enough about their sound to even do a random search, still thinking that they were something like Yes.

About a year ago I was in a record store and saw one of their LPs and something clicked, I realized why their records were dumped everywhere. They were probably bought by people that actually liked Yes and thought that because the cover art was very similar, they'd probably like Osibisa too. And they probably got rid of them en masse because they didn't sound like Yes. So, after years of seeing Osibisa records, I took the 99 cent bin challenge. Turns out they're a band from Ghana, and nothing like Yes. Maybe like an African version Fela meets Tower of Power or Malo or some shit like that. Different anyway. For 99 cents I got an entirely listenable LP, I solved a mystery, and a lesson in marketing.
 

Speaking of marketing, their third album would have been a instant snap. The guy who did that cover was Mati Klarwein, who also did Santana's Abraxas and Mile Davis's Bitches Brew. If I'd have seen that freaky thing (detail above), I wouldn't have hesitated. Shit looks twisted.

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

Listen:
Osibisa - Survival/Move On mp3 at Internet Archive
Osibisa - Ghana Expo at Internet Archive Kicks in at 2:56

STRATS BEFORE MOSTRITES

Nokie Edwards died yesterday. He was one of the guys that had to be in the Ventures for the Ventures to be the Ventures. Ask any decent guitarist, particularly the more technically obsessed. They'll know, The conversation will go something like this "Oh man, he was one of those guys, Mostrite guitars, blah, blah, blah, instrumental band, blah, blah, blah, surf music, blah, not really surf music, blah blah, earlier than that, blah, blah, some boring, but a lot that was really good, blah, blah, really clean, sometimes too clean, blah, blah, shouldn't have recorded that Go-Gos song, the black spot on their career, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, Nokie Edwards was the straight shit."

All I really need to know about Nokie Edwards came from guitarists I know, and nearly all of them would spout something like that today. A few years ago, I did a post about my first exposure to the Ventures and if you're not already bored shitless, you can read it here. The music links may be dead, but there's a handful below to hold you over.

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

Listen:
The Ventures - Pipeline mp3 at Drummer World
The Ventures - He Never Came Back mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Ventures - Diamond Head mp3 at Internet Archive
The Ventures - Here Come the Judge mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People The V-men get funky
The Marksmen - Scratch (streaming) at YouTube Pre-Ventures Nokie
The Marksmen - Night Run (streaming) at YouTube Pre-Ventures Nokie
Here's a mix:
Long Summer Venture - 35 song Ventures mix at The Basement Rug

YOU ALL DECIDED "BEARDS" AT THE SAME TIME?

Photo: Jim McGuire

It might be because of Dave Dudley's "Two Six Packs Away" that I kind of include country and western beer drinking music as an extension of trucker music. You gotta know it was on the juke boxes at all the truck stops all over the damn place. And Dudley also did "Six Days on the Road", hence a link. But the weird thing is, when I hear beer drinking type country that sounds like trucker music, I always envision the subject of the song at their local bar, just down the road, not a truck stop. That's where you'll find him between hauls. You're not going to get home and then go out to a truck stop. You're going to hook up with your buddies at the bar. And drink. Beer.

Dudley is, to me, the big daddy, the Chuck Berry of this type of music. Check him out in that photo above. The regal regular. Full on "don't fuck with me, kid" face. Think about that badass the next time you encounter some hipster douche thinking he's hot shit with his overpriced PBR.

Here's a mixed bag of drinking songs. The must-listen is "Two Six Packs Away". Dudley sounds drunk.

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

Listen:
Dave Dudley - Two Six Packs Away mp3 at Rocky 52
Dave Dudley - Six Days on the Road mp3 at J.Yuenger
Hank Thompson - Six pack to Go (streaming) at YouTube
Ray Sunders - Beer Drinkin' Music mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Bond - You Can Tell the Man Who Boozes By the Company He Chooses mp3 at Internet Archive

THE SATURDAY NIGHT COP OUT

Sonic Youth covering The Fall. Kinda gotta post a link. I doubt that I'll remember where I saw it. It's three Fall covers and a Kinks cover, from a Peel Session in 1988, and three unrelated live cuts from 1990, just for the hell of it. Okay then.

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

Listen:
Sonic Youth - White Kross mp3 at Sonic Youth Live, Irvine CA 1990
Sonic Youth - Eric's Trip mp3 at Sonic Youth Live, Irvine CA 1990
Sonic Youth - Cinderella's Big Score mp3 at Sonic Youth Live, Irvine CA 1990
Peel Session:
Sonic Youth :: Peel Session, October 1988 (The Fall Covers) at Aquarium Drunkard

YEAH, NOT CONVINCED.

I've never really come to terms with the Trashmen. If all they had done was "Surfin' Bird" and then just crapped out, I'd be fine like that. For all I knew that was what happened. For years all I knew was that song. Then my brother got a reissue of their LP, and it was kind of disappointing, Their vocal numbers, outside of "Surfin' Bird", were corny as fuck. "Surfin' Bird" was at least crazy. Their instrumentals were good enough, as good as surf music from Minnesota can be I guess.

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

Listen:
The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird mp3 at Internet Archive
The Trashmen - Malaguena mp3 at Internet Archive
The Trashmen - Miserlou mp3 at Internet Archive
The Trashmen - King Of The Surf mp3 at Internet Archive Awful

SONG THE THRIFT STORE TAUGHT ME

Martin Denny and band.

A couple nights ago some friends were over, and we were talking about the record selection at a local antique mall. Pretty varied stuff, very little classic rock and crap like that, stuff that you see everywhere. It's more like a slightly beat up Bud Shank, maybe Harry Belafonte, Wayne Cochran. It reminded me that I have a record stashed there that I check on every time I go there. An autographed Korla Pandit LP, in pretty good shape, but a little too pricey. That's why I've been sitting on the fence. Pandit's music is okay, I just like the idea that he existed, albeit with a made up backstory.

Korla Pandit. The nut.

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

Listen:
Dick Dale and the Del-Tones - Miserlou mp3 at Rocky 52 1962
Korla Pandit – Misirlou mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens 1958
Enoch Light – Misirlou mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens 1959
Martin Denny – Misirlou mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens 1960
Video:
Korla Pandit - Misirlou at YouTube

MAYBE WE'RE COMING ON TOO STRONG.

Here's a band I never would have listened to had it not been for a listening station at a Tower Records, roughly twenty years ago. It wasn't the album above, it was the one after it, with no band photo, so I knew nothing about the band. All the lyrics were in Spanish, so I didn't know anything about them at all. I was looking for something different to listen to and it fit that requirement. It's contemporary tropical or some such shit. Actually a weird mix of Latin, disco, funk, synth-whatever with a little Parliament and Prince thrown in there.

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

Listen:
Los Amigos Invisibles - G-String mp3 at Aurgasm
Los Amigos Invisibles - Ponerte en Quatro mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Los Amigos Invisibles - All Day Today mp3 at Solid Golderger
Los Amigos Invisibles - Funk Nuevo mp3 at Box.net
Los Amigos Invisibles - Una Disco Llena mp3 at Solid Golderger
Video:
Los Amigos Invisibles - Cuchi Cuchi at YouTube
Los Amigos Invisibles - Sexy at YouTube

THE FORTY YEAR IDEA

Holy shit, ESG is playing a fortieth anniversary show in NY. Forty years! Now I know that their first records were decades ago, but I've always thought of them as eternally twenty something. The ladies are likely in their sixties now. But you know what? If I was in NY I'd be going. Hell yeah. They own their thing. The stripped down sound.  I was always wondering how they decided to go that route, because their sound really was unique at the time. Today I found out what their intent was. In the blurb about the fortieth anniversary show that was in The New Yorker, the quote from singer Renee Scroggins from a 2013 interview. "When James Brown took it to the bridge, he cut all the horns. It was just that giant bass and the drums, and letting it rip for that instant. So I said 'Man, if you could just take a song and make it just the bridge, wouldn't that be hot!'" Fucking brilliant. That explains everything.

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

Listen:
ESG - Moody mp3 at Ozgood
ESG - UFO (streaming) at YouTube
ESG - Dance to the Beat of My Moody mp3 at Different Kitchen
ESG - Insane (bass mix) mp3 at Pod Pod Pod (?)
ESG - Erase You (streaming) at YouTube This one is the shit.

SONG THE DILS TAUGHT ME

When you think of the Everly Brothers, you might think of one of their many songs that end up on oldies compilations or the soundtrack from an old Happy Days rerun. I'd heard them from those sources enough that I was in no hurry to actually buy their product. That changed when I saw the Dils, of all bands, do a cover of "Cathy's Clown". The Dils were one of the most politically charged, and tight, West Coast punk bands of the first wave. It was at a San Francisco gig and they were without their regular drummer, John Silvers, for a night so they enlisted the drummer from the Nuns, and Dil-ified a bunch of covers. When they played the Everlys' cover, it surprisingly played to one of their strengths I'd never noticed before, namely their harmonies, the almost Johnny Cash low voice of bassist Tony Kinman and the higher slightly nasally voice of guitarist Chip Kinman. It worked. That sent me back to San Diego with another band on the want list. I had everything by the Dils up to that point, and they never recorded "Cathy's Clown" so I bought a two LP compilation of the Everly Brothers and became a total freak of how their voices worked together. I owe that to the Dils.

If you've never heard the Dils, just take a look at the video below of them, in Houston around the same I saw them. See if you can figure out how a band like that would turn someone onto the Everly Brothers. I'm still scratching my head about that one.

This was just supposed to be a short thing directing you to Time Goes By, an Australian site for seniors. Peter Tibbles handles the music side of things over there and he does a great job. Understated and humble, he possesses the wide ranging musical knowledge that keeps me going back, despite not being part of their demographic. Oh shit. I guess if I go there I'm part of some demographic. Weird.

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

Listen:
The Everly Brothers - Cathy's Clown mp3 at Rocky 52
The Everly Brothers - Keep A Lovin Me mp3 at Rocky 52 Very early, 1955
The Everly Brothers - Be Bop A Lula mp3 at Rocky 52
The Everly Brothers - Eight more songs and profile at Time Goes By
Video:
The Dils - Live in Houston 1979 at YouTube Not the Everlys