THUG FOR LIFE

I want to be challenged musically and culturally. That was just one of many cool things about getting into punk rock way back when. It it really wasn't all that different from the feeling I got when I was learning to surf. It was "What's this all about? Let's try this." And so on. So, I listen to jazz. Yeah. I don't know shit about it. But that's what I'm getting at. I don't want to listen to stuff I already know about, not all the time anyway. I like getting put in front of something that I don't find objectionable, but still don't fully understand. Jazz works for that.

Today, or what remains of it, is International Jazz Day. In 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designated April 30 as the day "to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe." I'll buy. Here's some random links to jazz stuff. Three links to lengthy informative posts with ten songs each by John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Blakey. And another link to "A Beginners Guide to Free Jazz" with another thirteen songs.

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Listen:
Sun Ra - Angels and Demons at Play mp3 at Destination: Out
Sonny Rollins - I'm an Old Cow Hand (From the Rio Grande) mp3 at Time Goes By
The Ornette Coleman Trio - European Echoes mp3 at Art Decade
The goods:
Ten By John Coltrane at Rubber City Review
Ten With Art Blakey at Rubber City Review
Ten By Miles Davis at Rubber City Review
A Beginners Guide to Free Jazz at Destination Out

THE DUDE FROM DEMON

A friend posted a Marc Bolan video today, a cover of Jody Reynolds's "Endless Sleep". Blech. I like TRex and Bolan as much as the next guy, but the dude can sure kill the vibe sometimes. I had to run to Reynold's version to detox. I needed that feel. It's funny, thinking about the Gun Club's cover of Reynolds's "Fire of Love", I don't recall recoiling from that. They retain the vibe. Bolan just does his boogie thing all over his cover. Ack!

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Listen:
Jody Reynolds - Fire of Love mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People Al Casey (Wrecking Crew) on guitar, Max Roach on drums!
Jody Reynolds - Endless Sleep mp3 at Rocky 52
Jody Reynolds - Beulah Lee mp3 at Rockabilly Hall
The Gun Club - Fire of Love (steaming) at YouTube
Video:
Marc Bolan - Endless Sleep at YouTube

HATE IT WHEN I BLINK

Bikini Kill, reunion tour? It kinda is but it isn't. It doesn't feel like it. It seems like they've just been waiting for their songs to be needed again. You know as well as I do, shit like this is needed. The whole thing, including the DIY. Back in the day they were playing to hundreds. Now they're playing to thousands. Needed.

A whole lot has been written about them in the past few days. The first show was last night. Rather then regurgitate, here's a couple songs and the stuff I perused. If you don't know Bikini Kill, you should probably do some preliminary wiki type shit.

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Listen:
Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl mp3 at Tully Craft
Bikini Kill - Double Bare Ya (live) mp3 at Adding Machine
Bikini Kill - Strawberry Julius mp3 at Tiscali (?)
Visit:
Bikini Kill played their first show in over 20 years (setlist, videos) at Brooklyn Vegan
How Bikini Kill Got Back Together at Pitchfork

THE SONG TITLE THAT ATE MY NIGHT

Those sneaky Skatalites. They renamed "Comin' Home Baby" as "Christine Keiler". As you would imagine, my first question was "Who the hell is Christine Keiler and why does she rate?" Through the magic of the internut I know now that she was tabloid fodder in the UK back in the sixties and parts of her story are woven into Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up. For you Yardbird nuts, that's the film that shows the Beck/Page era Yardbirds playing "Train Kept A Rollin'" in a club. Beck rams his guitar into a shorting out amp and then breaks the damn thing. It's going to be one of those nights, I can already tell.

Nice try there Skatalites, misspelling her last name. You won't get sued by the "Comin' Home Baby" writer, and you won't get sued by the Keeler lady. But your record will get noticed in the UK. Just what I'd expect from an LP that begins with a song called "Lee Oswald".

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Listen:
The Skatalites - Christine Keiler mp3 at Pixie Radio
Mel Torme - Comin' Home Baby mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
The Yardbirds - Train Kept A Rollin' (from Blow Up) at YouTube
Visit:
Blow Up - The Christine Keeler connection at Seen and Heard At the Movies

AIN'T I'M A DOG

It just occurred to me that there have been a disproportionate amount of black and white images in recent posts, so I figured that I'd find a really nice looking color photo. Why Brigitte Bardot came to mind instead of a waterfall I have no clue. But I'm sticking to that image because A) The waterfall doesn't have any records out, and B) I'd be a liar if I said that I've never thought of Bardot for something other than her music. Be that what it may, bow wow.

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Listen:
Brigitte Bardot - Je Danse Donc Je Suis mp3 at Le Mellotron
Brigitte Bardot - Oh Qu'il Est Vilain mp3 at Surreptitious Music
Ronnie Self - Ain't I'm A Dog mp3 at Rocky-52.net

THE TREEHUGGER SUPER HIT

There was a Motown 60th anniversary special on last night. I don't normally watch that sort of thing because they're usually just corny fluff. What the hell, I let it roll. I gotta say, in the short amount of time I was watching there were moments. John Legend did Marvin Gaye's "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and it was very faithful to the original, same arrangement, full band with all accoutrements and so on. Then I realized that it was a timely choice being the eve of Earth Day. Okay, so today's Earth Day. A no brainer is in order.

Gaye's original is down there along with an oddball cover I came across by Eddie Vedder with the backing of the Strokes and it's actually a decent take. A few other things down there because what the fuck. "What's Going On" is godhead.

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Listen:
Marvin Gaye - Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology) mp3 at Michael Axx (?)
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On mp3 at Muzik World
Marvin Gaye - Got to Give It Up mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Marvin Gaye - Can I Get A Witness mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Eddie Vedder with the Strokes - Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology) mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Rolling Stones - Can I Get A Witness (streaming) at YouTube

REEDER, S.Q.REEDER.

If you aren't familiar with the guy above, with the piled high hair, you'd be tempted to think he was ripping off Little Richard. You'd be wrong. Esquerita was a contemporary of Richard's and they first met before either had made it big. One of them would, make it big, the other was just a little too wild. Per The Hound (Jim Marshall), a guy who knows more about these things than you or I put together, "S.Q. [Esquerita] taught him his thundering piano style, this would be the key element in Little Richard's development of the style that would take him to the top of the charts." That tells you which one made it big. Esquerita was too out there to make a dent.  

Today, a nice surprise, an email from Norton Records that contained a link to a free download, a biography and discography of Esquirita, 48 pages. Haven't read it yet, but it's likely the most thorough Esquerita guide there is. I never thought I'd see anything lengthier then The Hound's awesome post. Between that, and the Esquerita re-issues and unreleased records put out by Norton, I considered myself set. This is some awesome icing. Put together by Big Beat magazine (per Norton "alias the French Esquerita Fan Club"). Dig it.

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Listen:
Esquerita - Good Golly Annie Mae mp3 at Rockabilly Hall
Esquerita - The Rock Around mp3 at Rockabilly Hall
Esquerita - Hole In My Heart mp3 at Rocky 52
Esquerita - Rockin' the Joint mp3 at Rocky 52
Esquerita - Crazy Crazy Feeling mp3 at Rocky 52
The book:
Esquerita! The True, the False and Some Mysteries! at Big Beat
Visit:
Esquerita - Bio at The Hound Blog

Buy:
Esquerita LPs at Norton Records

POCKETS WAYNE, POCKETS.

Fuck, do I dig hard songs with horns. There's something about adding horns, or even a lone sax, to a hard hitting song that's almost daring you to gripe about it. It's like they're saying "You came for the loud guitars, we choose to give you this", a particularly good attitude when it's coming from a band that isn't known for horns. And when you think of the MC5, you don't normally think about horns. That's right where they get you. This mind blowing chunk of horns comes right about the three and a half minute mark, and continues for the rest of the song, about two minutes. But those horns send it.

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Listen:
MC5 - Skunk (Sonicly Speaking) mp3 at For the Sake of the Song
MC5 - More songs on this post Scroll to the bottom
Visit:
MC5 - Large high resolution band shot From the same session as the photo above. Tape it on your locker.

BIG WEDNESDAY

Big Bopper

Big Jay McNeely

Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Williams

Big John Patton

Big Mama Thornton

Big Maybelle

I gotta say, I was surprised when I started rounding up the artists that used "Big" as a prefix to their name. Not surprised at the quantity, but surprised that the short list I could come up with without much effort contained more than its share of all-timers. Most are rhythm and blues artists with one jazz "Big" (Big John Patton) and one blues (Big Joe Williams). Even the Big Bopper laid off the "Hello baby" schtick long enough to boogie. Hey, this "Big" thing is an admittedly weak thread, but check the goods. It's some pretty good shit.

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Listen:
Big Bopper - Bopper's Boogie Woogie mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Big Jay McNeely - Nervous Man Nervous mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Joe Turner - Shake Rattle and Roll mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Williams - Baby Please Don't Go at Internet Archive
Big John Patton - Hot Sauce mp3 at Groove Addict
Big Mama Thornton - Wade in the Water mp3 at Joshua Vorbis (?)
Big Maybelle - Ocean of Tears mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People

1977. ROB FROM GHANA. KILLIN' IT.

Hey, here's a quick one that will turn into a rabbit hole for those of you who get off on funky African grooves from the seventies. This guy, Rob, that's his name, is not the easiest person to find online if you search by his stage name. But, if you search for Funky Rob Way, you'll find a shitload of stuff. I did that last night and am still digging through it all.

I don't even know how I ended up on the Bandcamp blog post that had a clip. I do know that Rob Roy Reindorf is now on the list. Funky Rob Way, what everybody seems to refer to the album above as, has recently been reissued. I'm buying in. Stop the presses. Your favorite tightwad is actually going to pry his dusty wallet from his pocket.

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Listen:

Rob - Funky Rob Way LP (streaming) at BandCamp Buy it there if so inclined. Good bio too.

Rob - Funky Rob Way LP (streaming) at YouTube In case the link above goes bad.

AIN'T NO BRUBECK I KNOW

I've never listened to these three reggae versions of "Take Five" back to back, so you're stuck with them. The first of the three is Val Bennett's "The Russians Are Coming", which is just a cover renamed, a scrappy attempt to skirt publishing royalties. Yeah, you know, fooled everybody. The next, also by Bennett, was found with the title "Blow Mr. Hornsman Part 2". My guess is that it's a version B-side. Whatever. It's a little more out there. The third is attributed to King Tubby even though he doesn't play a damn instrument. This is about where I start thinking about what a huge mess record keeping must have been in the sixties and seventies Jamaican music biz. With a shitload of independent labels, a bunch of studios, musicians often on multiple labels, repeatedly used riddims, versions, dubs, and DJ versions, many with different names. Shit, who could keep up with all of that?

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Listen:
Val Bennett - The Russians Are Coming mp3 at Aurgasm
Val Bennett - Blow Mr. Hornsman Pt 2 mp3 at Beware of the Blog
King Tubby - Take Five mp3 (streaming) at YouTube
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five (streaming) at YouTube

THE STOOGES EXCUSE

Hey, it's Friday. I really don't feel like running around looking for something. The first thing that came to mind was the Stooges and when I checked the links on old posts I found that most were dead. I couldn't let that go. The Stooges need to be represented here and although I know many of you have their essential stuff (the first three LPs), some of you rug biters don't have a clue. No sense trying to figure out how some young hipster would respond to the Stooges, particularly because I don't care for hipsters of any age. Let's just say that the first three Stooges LPs, The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power, are about as essential as it gets. Iggy's old now, and really hasn't been vital in a long time, blah, blah, blah. Shit, just take it from me, get those LPs.

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Listen:
From The Stooges
The Stooges - 1969 mp3 at Olcos (?)
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Stooges - No Fun mp3 at Olcos (?)
The Stooges - Real Cool Time mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Stooges - Not Right mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Stooges - Little Doll mp3 at ATumblr (?)
From Fun House
The Stooges - Down On the Street mp3 at Olcos (?)
The Stooges - Dirt mp3 at Quit Mumbling
The Stooges - 1970 at ATumblr (?)
From Raw Power
Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy mp3 at Olcos (?)
Iggy and the Stooges - Gimme Danger mp3  at Olcos (?)
Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power mp3 at Olcos (?)
Iggy and the Stooges - Death Trip mp3 at ATumblr (?)

THIS HERE IS THE SHIT

A while back the jazz station played an old interview with Art Pepper, about his 1957 LP Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. Let's see how good my memory is. I could have it all fouled up. If I remember correctly the Rhythm Section was Miles Davis's just sacked rhythm section, the recording date arranged by Pepper's wife without his knowledge and he just found out the night before. He'd never met the players and hadn't played in weeks. When he retrieved his sax the reed was bone dry and splitting. He was just off smack. I think I remember that it was after a stint in either rehab, the hospital or jail. Nevertheless, what was achieved at the session rivals anything Keith Richards was able to do coming off smack. When I heard the LP all I could think of was what inherent feel Pepper must have had to be able to do that cold. The LP is, I'm told, a West Coast meets East Coast classic, and I'm not one to argue particularly because I'm only just learning to hear the difference between East Coast and West Coast. Whether my memory is accurate or not, it provided me an Exile On Main St. type association, a vibe, where all of the crappy circumstances aren't enough to blunt what is going on. Some magic shit.

Here's a few things to warm you up, a couple not from that LP, and a link to the whole album at YouTube. Do check the thing at Rubber City Review, an excellent profile with ten cuts (a few are below). Dig his cover of "Caravan" from 1977. Just insane.

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Listen:
Art Pepper - Caravan mp3 at Rubber City Review
Art Pepper - 'Round Midnight mp3 at Space Age Pop
Art Pepper - Straight Life mp3 at Rubber City Review From Meets the Rhythm Section
Art Pepper - Birks Works mp3 at Rubber City Review Ditto
Art Pepper - More songs and excellent profile at Rubber City Review
The LP:
Art Pepper - Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (streaming) at YouTube

THIRTEEN YEARS BEFORE METAL MACHINE MUSIC

I wasn't looking for this, but that's usually how it starts. After my brother, Snail, commented on a post a couple days ago, I started thinking about all of the records that he brought home to the boys room. The early, and I mean early (age 10-13), stellar choices he made were often dead on. He was the first to bring home Bill Haley, Eddie Cochran, Black Sabbath, and the Who. B-lister choices were good too. Cactus, Jo Jo Gunne, Status Quo, stuff like that. And the garage sale finds? The Fabulous Wailers, Bud Shank's soundtrack to the surf movie Barefoot Adventure, and Screamin' Lord Sutch, heavy friends and all. So I was all set on doing some sort of "Snail Gold" post. I thought I'd try looking for Screamin' Lord Sutch and just get the nut cases out of the way ASAP. Detour! While looking for Sutch shit I ended up running across a pre-Velvets Lou Reed cut from 1962, a demo unreleased until 2000.

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Listen:
Lou Reed - Your Love mp3 at A Terrible Blogger Is Born
Visit:
Lou Reed- All Tomorrows Dance Parties at Norton Buy it tightwad.

THE MYSTO FAVORITE

The longer it goes the more obsessed I get. The very first song I posted twelve years ago was the Ardells' "Stronger Than Dirt", an instrumental that could easily pass as the Sonics. That kind of crunch. It really smokes. It's been twelve years and I still not able to find anything but a paragraph long bio. To make things worse, the only photo of the label I've been able to find was missing the record labels name. Screwy. Even weirder is that the original mp3 link is still working twelve years later. That never happens. Give it a listen. It smokes, it crunches and it passes for the Sonics..

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Listen:
The Ardells - Stronger Than Dirt mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People

KID BROTHER AS SELECTER

I was talking music with a friend of mine today and mentioned that my younger brother had posted a Mott the Hoople thing on Facebook a couple days ago and how it had sent me right back to the boys room. The boys room, our shared bedroom, was rock 'n' roll ground zero for my brothers and I, all through our teens until we came of age and moved out. When we did leave home, we did so with our own part of the record collection that had grown over the years with surprisingly little overlapping. Having little duplication, it was a little daunting having to decide what part of the other brothers' collections to go out and buy for ourselves. Think about that, two thirds of the vinyl that you've had access to, gone the day you move out of the house.

One LP that was almost immediately purchased by both my twin brother and I was Mott the Hoople's Mott. We all had our own bands in the boys room and Mott the Hoople was my one of my younger brother's. The other two of us couldn't be without it. It's remained a favorite ever since and every time I listen to it I think of my bros. So, you can imagine the horror of finding out my friend who I'd been talking music with today was not familiar with Mott the Hoople. He's half my age so it really isn't all that surprising. But it made me think that I'd better post Mott the Hoople stuff to pass the torch handed to me by my thirteen year old brother.

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Listen:
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes mp3 at ATumblr
Mott the Hoople - All the Way From Memphis mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Mott the Hoople - Honaloochie Boogie mp3 at Egloos (?)
Mott the Hoople - Barking Up the Wrong Tree mp3 at Rockabilly Bash Total oddball, full rockabilly. Goofy dialog ends at :58
Video:
Mott the Hoople - Under Review (documentary) at YouTube 1:21 minutes

GUNS OF BRIXTON DEPOT

Once chance viewing of the Clash's "Guns of Brixton" and I had the song going in my head for two days. Damn good song it is, the first Paul Simonon wrote for the band, off their clusterfuck of a third LP, London Calling. I remember being as jacked up at that song as I was bewildered by "Train In Vain", the latter because it was so un-Clash-like. There were a couple reasons why "Guns of Brixton" stood out. One, the first verse: "When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?" Whew, badass or what? Reminiscent of rude boy era reggae. I'm not about gun culture, but, really, how many of us that go apeshit for "Johnny Too Bad" have ever walked around with a ratchet [knife] in their waist? You don't have to live it to recognize the baddass quality of it. 

Speaking of reggae, the second reason I dig that particular song is that it's the closest the Clash ever really got to reggae. Sure, they did a cover of Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves", the Maytals' "Pressure Drop" and Willie Williams's "Armageddon Time" and made a gallant attempt with their own "White Man (In Hammersmith Palais)", but "Guns of Brixton" had that stand your ground feel.

I went looking for an mp3 of it, to no avail, but came across some other stuff and I'm not about to let my scavenging go to waste.

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Listen:
The Clash - Guns of Brixton (streaming) YouTube
The Clash - Guns of Brixton (live) mp3 at Review Stalker
The Clash - Return to Brixton (streaming) at YouTube Version
The Slickers - Johnny Too Bad mp3 at Snuthing Anything
Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves mp3 at Snuthing Anything
Willie Williams - Armagideon Time (streaming) at YouTube
Covers:
Jimmy Cliff - Guns of Brixton (streaming) at YouTube
Nouvelle Vague - Guns Of Brixton mp3 at Ze Happy World according to UU
Calexico - Guns of Brixton mp3 at Turntable Kitchen Go there to get it
Arcade Fire - Guns of Brixton at Turntable Kitchen Ditto. But this one sucks.

LOVE ON THE ROCKS

The trailer for the new Jim Jarmusch zombie flick is out. He's a great director of many great films, blah, blah, blah. More important, he turned me onto Mulatu Astatke. It was in the soundtrack of his film Broken Flowers. That was Ethio-jazz. If he can do that, I'm waiting to see what he can do with Love's "Seven and Seven Is". It's in the soundtrack of the trailer so  it's likely to be featured in the film. Many of us know the song like the back of our hand, great fuckin' song, you know. But how many fans of zombie shit have heard Love? Remember what Pulp Fiction did for Dick Dale, and for surf music in general? Let's see if, five years from now,  "Seven and Seven Is" will be played between innings.

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Listen:
Love - Seven and Seven Is (streaming) at YouTube
Love - My Little Red Book mp3 at Internet Archive
Love - Can't Explain (mono mix) mp3 at Art Decade