Sunday, March 4, 2018

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.

4 comments:

espen e said...

Damn. Just back from a week in NYC. Seems we went a month early.

Tom G. said...

Did you get to see anyone when you were there?

espen e said...

Well, after The Fall cancelled last weeks scheduled NY gig a month or so ago (prewarning Mark E's recent demise), Malian shredder (ha-ha) Vieux Farka TourĂ© (son of late great Ali Farka TourĂ©) was the only might-like-to-see on my pre-trip research list. Turned out he was playing a venue just around the corner from our hotel, so it was kind of hard to find an excuse not to go, even though we’d been on our feet all day and were (happily, mind you) battling the combined gravitational pull of the King size bed and a fine bottle of red wine. Spo-Dee-O-Dee. Out we went.

So? Yeah, Music To Watch Camels By. Good stuff. Although, as the groove gradually drifted from a bluesy Saharan billow to more up-beat and dance friendly, latin-flavored waters, we decided we’d had our money’s worth. Out we went. Spo-Dee-O-Dee. King size and wine.

(Vieux+Ali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SExQ1EuzKM)

espen

Tom G. said...

Ooh! That would have been great to see the Fall. I gotta be honest, Mark E Smith was one of those guys who looked like he didn't have a lot of years left. Though that just based on a couple decades of him looking more and more beat up.

Not to make light of his death, or anyone's, I've always pondered who would last the longest: Keith Richards or Jerry Lee Lewis. Little Richard's still alive too! I just hope that Keith Richard outlasts Jagger.

As for "shredder" (ha-ha back) I do dig his shit, but I can definitely see the draw of the Spo-Dee-O-Dee factor, and the king size. Sometimes leaving a show satiated before it's over feels liberating.