Thursday, May 30, 2019

DON'T ASH ON YOUR SUIT HOOK!

Again, a stretch of black and white images for several posts. To break it up, a color photo, the first cool one I happened to come across. John Lee Hooker, and a couple songs you should know like the back of your hand.

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Listen:
John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom mp3 at Cbast2 (?)
John Lee Hooker - Baby, Please Don't Go mp3
at ATumblr (?)

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

IT'S STONER ROCK SOMEWHERE

If you know anything about Mulatu Astatqé, you know that he is a central figure in Ethio-jazz, which is, as one would expect, an Ethiopian form of jazz. But that isn't really that accurate. While there may be some sort of structure or other technical reasons why his music is referred to as any kind of jazz maybe because of his musical education or the sort off folks he rubbed elbows with (like Duke Ellington), make no mistake, his music is nothing like Miles Davis or John Coltrane or any other Western jazz musician. It's weird, though not unsettling. It's other worldly. Hell, it's Ethiopian, that's enough to make it interesting.



If you dig the samples below, you ought to pick up the Éthiopiques compilation of his stuff. The full title is Éthiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969–1974. You'll need it. Should a record store stock it (not likely), you might pass right by it because little of the text on the cover is in English. But it's worth checking out, His music is not really anything that has a reference point, in fact other Ethio-jazz releases are more often described with references to his music. In other words, what Chuck Berry is to rock 'n' roll, Astatqé is to Ethio-jazz. He's the portal.

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Listen:
Mulatu Astatqé - Yekermo Sew mp3 at Oh Color Me In
Mulatu Astatqé - Yegelle Tezeta mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Mulatu Astatqé – Éthiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974 (Full Album) (streaming) at YouTube

Monday, May 27, 2019

BLURRY PHOTOS MEAN ROCK OUT

Oh man, this hits the spot. New to me, Dr. Chan. "Wicked and Wasted" was my introduction. I needed me some random raunchy shit and they delivered. If you're on the fence, wait. There's trumpet, way in the background but a nice touch nonetheless. That hooked me enough to gamble on a second. The video for "YANnnnK$$$ (Life i$ Not Fun)" sucked me right in too. It's primitive, like it was made by stoned tenth graders, all the stupid shit, requisite bird flipping, choppy home movie like editing. I like every shitty second of it. Two for two.

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Listen:
Dr. Chan - Wicked and Wasted mp3 at Still In Rock
Video:
Dr. Chan - YANnnnK$$$ (Life i$ Not Fun) at YouTube
Visit:
Dr. Chan at Bandcamp

Saturday, May 25, 2019

LOUB DYLREED

All credit here for this pairing goes to Probe is Turning-On the People. A demo of the Velvet Underground sounding like Dylan, and an alternate take of Dylan doing "Desolation Row" sounding like the Velvet Underground. Both songs were recorded in July, 1965 in New York City. Oh yeah, you know they were watching each other. Ever so close to worlds colliding.

Poke around over at the Probe. There's a lot of great esoteric music. These were posted in 2011 and he'd already been posting for a few years then. Dude must have a record huge collection. You'll see.

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Listen:
Velvet Underground - Prominent Men (demo) mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People Session 338
Bob Dylan - Desolation Row (alternate take) mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People

Thursday, May 23, 2019

DIDN'T GET THE POCKETS MEMO

Daptone just released their 100th single. I'd forgotten about the early days of the label, so I started near or at the beginning. The Sugarman 3. I got as far as them and that's as far as I'm going tonight. A couple hours of looking back and I got no further than one band, but I know a lot more than I did. I ran into a great profile of Neal Sugarman, the band's leader, sax player and co-founder of Daptone. In the middle of that profile, a link to a video of Sugarman's high school band, Boys Life. Oh, man, did he he ever bloom late. The early thing is interesting in its simplicity. They're earnest, I'll give them that much. Mindblowing though that Sugarman would go on to play behind Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Steve Cropper and Al Green, not to mention half of the acts on Daptone (Lee Fields, Sharon Jones, etc.).

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Listen:
Sugarman 3 - Chicken Half mp3 at Rubber City Review
Sugarman 3 with Naomi Davis - Promised Land mp3 at Solid Goldstein
Sugarman 3 with Lee Fields - Stand Up mp3 at Le Mellotron
Sugarman 3 - Rudy's Intervention mp3 at Magnet
Sugarman 3 - Soul Donkey mp3
at The Frump

Video:
Boys Life (Boston Good Day Show) w/Sugarman on sax
at YouTube 1981
Visit:
Daptone’s Neal Sugarman On The Sweet Return Of The Sugarman 3 at Village Voice 2012

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

SUN RA PARTY TONIGHT! ALRIGHT!

If you're not into jazz, I understand completely. I was pretty much a hold out for years. You can thank all the latter day smooth jazz for my avoidance. Over time the good shit crept in. Brubeck, Coltrane, you know both coasts, Miles, Charlie Parker, blah blah blah. The typical beginner shit. Sun Ra came into my peripheral space via a cover of his "Rocket Number Nine" by NRBQ, It was unlike everything else on their first LP, so I had to find out who this character Sun Ra was. Holy shit, talk about a fruitful hunt. It's still paying dividends.


This morning I turned on the jazz station and there was a song that sounded a lot like Sun Ra. It was Sun Ra. I about lost my shit. That's the way to start a day. To top it off, it was the middle of an hour of Sun Ra. On FM airwaves. In the morning. Seriously. Turns out it's his birthday today. That reminded me of a Sun Ra docu-live thing Aquarium Drunkard posted recently. So, here you go.

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Listen:
Sun Ra - Angels and Demons at Play mp3 at Destination Out
Sun Ra - the Sun Man Speaks mp3 at Now You're at Songblague 
Sun Ra - Door to the Cosmos mp3 at I'm Waking Up to... 
Sun Ra and the Myth Science Arkestra - Eve mp3 at Now You're at Songblague
Sun Ra and his Astro-Solar Infinity Arkestra -To Natures God mp3 at Avant Avant
Sun Ra and his Astro-Solar Infinity Arkestra - Lemuria mp3 at Avant Avant
Sun Ra - Omnisonicism mp3 at Lost Tones 15 plus minutes that gets progressively further out there 
Sun Ra - Intensity mp3 at Lost Tones
Spoken word:
Sun Ra - Live, 1976 at WXPN at  UBU Web 26 cuts, spoken word with musical accompaniment

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

THEY ALL LAUGHED AT HASIL

From July 13, 2018, Facebook: "Hey, hope everyone is doing well. Drink plenty of water and start a band. Also fuck off." I never tire of this guy, Wayne Thornton. Known to many as no one, he is A-OK in my book. My kind of spitball. He's recorded a shitload and most, if not all, is available as "name your price" downloads at his BandCamp page. (There was a lot at the Free Music Archive as well, but the links are dead.) Folks, this is the is about as raw as it gets. Guitar, drums, vocals and zero fucks given. Brass tacks.

Thornton and the Heavy Hands, his wife.


The unfortunate thing is he'll never be noticed in a sea of pretenders. Part of his authenticity is that he doesn't play the game. Which is why I'll post his stuff repeatedly. It is the only way.

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Sunday, May 19, 2019

BAND YOU SHOULD KNOW #357

How in the hell have I not posted Mission of Burma before? Shit almighty, "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" is a song that gets heavier with age. If you don't know the song, check the YouTube link below. It has the lyrics.

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Listen:
Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver mp3 at The RSL Weblog
Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
(streaming) at YouTube With lyrics

Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song mp3 at Central Village
Mission of Burma - Party! mp3
at Stereogum
Mission of Burma - Fame and Fortune mp3
at Lethargy
Mission of Burma - Donna Sumeria mp3
at Zed Equals Zee

Thursday, May 16, 2019

NOW, BILL, ABOUT THAT TITLE...

Been a while since I actually took the time to make a mix for the car. I have enough that I've made over the years that the surprises when listening are few and far between. I'm always mixing different types of music and I've found that the songs I'm pleasantly surprised by are the obscure instrumentals, the type you might not remember a few months after making the mix, when you'll actually have to look at the playlist to remind yourself who did this mighty fine version of this or that. So that's what these are. Putting in the folder as segues, for when you need to throw a curve.

NOTE: All of these are from Groove Addict. If you decide to explore over there, a few hints: Only the old posts, roughly pre-2015, have mp3 downloads, the newer posts are all YouTube. The most important thing: should you decide to download any of the full LPs, beware of the album links on the older posts. Some of the old LP zip links (usually "link" or "zippy") have been hijacked and unless you have good virus protection, you may get stung. Don't let that scare you, there's a lot of good music there if you just keep your guard up.

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Listen:
Wild Bill Davis - C.C. Rider mp3 at Groove Addict
Johnny Guitar Watson - Summertime mp3
at Groove Addict
Big John Patton - Amanda mp3
at Groove Addict
James Brown - Funky Soul mp3
at Groove Addict

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

OUR MOTOWN

Driving today with a compilation of Dangerhouse singles blasting away, I was reminded what a great fucking label it was. They only released about thirteen or fourteen seven inchers, one compilation (that was on one side of a picture disc twelve inch) and one proper LP, Black Randy and the Metro Squad's Pass the Angel Dust, I Think I'm Bowie. What's so special about the label is that they put out seminal records by seminal bands. All but a couple of the discs are the best that any of the bands ever recorded, and just about all of them were released early, 1977 - 1979. In their discography, the first Avengers 45, the first X, second Dils, first Bags, first Alleycats, second Weirdos,...you get the picture: seminal. And it was a strictly DIY label. Some of the recordings were done in hotel rooms, the sleeves were folded paper, their distribution through mostly independent record stores. It is the label that best represents the early L.A. punk scene (though the Avengers were from San Francisco and Howard Werth, the odd non-punk release, was from the UK). The only questionable release, aside from Werth's, was from 2013 (!) an LP by a someone named Sienna Nanini, a release that someone in the comments on YouTube referred to as ABDL, which a search revealed means "Adult Baby/Diaper Lover". Yikes! Not my bag at all, and that's all I have to say about that.

So here's a mess of Dangerhouse stuff. The two mp3s down there are my two favorite, but there are others at Killed By Death (linked below). Another link with the story behind the label, and a complete discography, including the few reissues there have been, at Discogs. If you want to read up, I suggest We Got the Neutron Bomb by Brendan Mullen (owner of the Masque, an underground club active back then) and Marc Spitz. It's an oral history in chronological snippets by many of the main players.

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Listen:
The Weirdos - Solitary Confinement mp3 at Killed By Death
The Dils - Class War mp3 at Killed By Death
More Dangerhouse releases at Killed By Death
Still more Dangerhouse releases at Killed By Death  Click on "Older posts" if you really want Rhino 36
Visit:
Dangerhouse discography at Discogs
The Dangerhouse story, part 1 at Break My Face
The Dangerhouse story, part 2 at Break My Face
Frontier Records at Bandcamp Releases by Black Randy, Red Cross, Weirdos and Middle Class and Dangerhouse compilations

Sunday, May 12, 2019

IT'S MOTHERS DAY SOMEWHERE

When I was trying to think of songs for Mothers Day, before I went the random route, the first one that came to mind was "Sonny's Lettah" by Linton Kwesi Johnson. I second guessed myself and went with something else and I shouldn't have. It isn't a Mothers Day song, but a recited letter, from a jailed son to his mother. When I was thinking about the song today I realized that, while it is a song with social commentary, it's also about the unique bond between a son and his mother. Hey, it made me think of writing a letter to my Mom but she's no longer here.

Johnson doesn't sing or toast. He recites. His timing is what makes it. The pauses, the pace, and all that meter and such.

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Listen:
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Sonny's Lettah (Anti-sus Poem) (streaming) at YouTube With lyrics.
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Fite Dem Back mp3
at ATumblr (?)
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Bass Culture mp3
at Arkao666 (?)
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Making History (live) mp3
at Pixie Radio

Saturday, May 11, 2019

RESPECT YOUR MOM STONER

Totally blanking on ideas, I decided to just look for any song or band name with "mom" in it, what with Mother's Day and all that. The second name with "mom" in it was a band called "Respect Your Mom". Not so quick. This could go south. The first name I passed was "Say Hi To Your Mom". That sounded kind of creepy so I passed, and I had my guard up. Then I saw the song title. Perfect. It was a lucky click. This song ain't half bad, in an L7 way. So who the hell are these guys? According to their short bio at Jarmendo Music "Respect Your Mom is an experimental grunge band, formed in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2008 The atmosphere at RYM's concerts various and psychodelic. The sounds which are thrown up from their tools — groans of orgasms." Not my translation.

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Listen:
Respect Your Mom - Stoner mp3 at Jarmendo Music

Friday, May 10, 2019

FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS

Hell, the Sadies are so baddass. It's as if the Flying Burrito Brothers stayed together and stayed alive long enough to weave through punk rock, grunge, retro shit, alt-shit and everything else and figured they had the right idea all along. So, years down the road, their chops are sharper, the picking more dexterous. It's country, rock 'n' roll, surf and spaghetti western soundtrack all rolled into one. If you dig this stuff you ought to skip one of those candy ass fancy beers, grab a couple standard grade tall boys and spend the other five bucks on Best of The Sadies on their Bandcamp page. How the fuck these guys aren't huge I don't know.


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Listen:
The Sadies - The Double Wide mp3 at Groover's Paradise
The Sadies – The Horseshoe-Mossback
at Beat Surrender
John Doe with the Sadies - It Just Dawned On Me mp3
at The Adios Lounge
The Sadies – Part One mp3
at Beat Surrender
Neil Young with the Sadies - This Wheels on Fire mp3
at the Adios Lounge
The Sadies – Taller Than The Pines mp3
at Beat Surrender

Newer Vids:
The Sadies - Through Strange Eyes (Live) at YouTube
The Sadies - Live on 'The Neighbors Dog' at YouTube Very cool guitar starting at 1:25

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

THE MISSING LINK

Here's a couple oddballs of interest, if only to a certain breed of fiend. If you know Link Wray and Kip Tyler then, yeah, you'll dig these. Maybe only as oddities, from some weird annex in their discographies. They still happen. Strange Link Wray sightings. Wray is the guitar player on the Moon Men's "Some Kinda Nut" and I only caught it by the writing credit. "Wray, Sr." His dad wrote it. That's some proto-Murray Wilson shit right there. But there's no mistaking who's playing. It is classic Wray. I did find some info at Discogs that backed up my suspicions. The other one down there would have flown right past me had I not stopped and read the tiny text. The label credits "Jimmy O'Neill with Kipper and the Exciters", the text below says "great piece of Kip Tyler craziness!", so my guess is that Tyler is Kipper. The music is good and raucous. Unfortunately it's marred by Jimmy O'Neill, whom I'd bet dollars for donuts is a radio DJ. The lyrics are corny. Crappy. But Tyler and his damn Exciters make a nice racket.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
The Moon Men - Some Kinda Nut mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Jimmy O'Neill with Kipper and the Exciters - Twistin' Train mp3
at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

SCREW THE ROTATION

Well you lucky fuckin' rodents. I've had visitors the last three nights and I'm fresh out of blab. I just feel like watching a ballgame. So, you get these badass sides by Dennis Brown without the normal pissing in the wind. But really, these are good, mid-era, later than that photo above. That's a cool shot of him though, so baby-faced, still getting his sea legs and already burnin'... Fuck, rambling again  I'm out.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Dennis Brown - Revolution mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Dennis Brown - Money In My Pocket at Mr. Suave

Monday, May 6, 2019

STEP IN WOLF SHIT

Here's a tip for you. If you run across a song here that you dig enough to download, don't put it off. Case in point: "Sookie Sookie" by Steppenwolf. I've posted it a bunch of times, and I've posted other covers of it (the original is by Don Covay). I wanted to hear it and my record is buried somewhere so I figured that I'd just listen to it via a link here. Wouldn't you just know it, every damn link to "Sookie Sookie", by Steppenwolf and all the others, dead. Ain't no thing to me, because I have the record. But you, should you like it, will have to dig elsewhere. And you should because Steppenwolf's version is where rock meets Booket T and the MGs. That's what it sounds like, like someone fed Cropper acid and told Booker T to make like Jon Lord with the Leslie.

 
Dig the video above. Performing on the short lived Playboy After Dark series. The performance itself is good and you're in the thick of it, then a quick segment of a baddass drummer at 1:35. At the 1:53 mark, someone flicks the freak switch on. Dancers go from bad, ill informed and exaggerated to just plain fucking weird.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Steppenwolf - Sookie Sookie (streaming) at YouTube
Steppenwolf - The Pusher mp3
at Omalley's Cycle Shed (?)
Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride mp3
at The Riddell Family (?)
Steppenwolf - Born to Be Wild mp3
at TSM Promusician (?)

Saturday, May 4, 2019

HIS YOU GEEKS

What's this crap about Star Wars Day? "May the Fourth Be With You", really. I don't think so. Dave fucking Brubeck owns this day. "Take Five" utilizes a 5/4 time signature, and has since 1959. I don't know how 5/4 became Dave Brubeck Day. For all I know it could have been a couple jazz stoners just waking from their extended 4/20 bliss. Doesn't matter. Here it's Brubeck day. Fuck that franchise nonsense.

Here's the original by the Dave Brubeck Quartet and a couple covers. The one by Carmen McRae is a vocal version (who knew?) and she's backed on it by Brubeck's mob. The other version is by Jimmy Johnson, a blues dude, but you can almost hear a surf version if there was some reverb on it. If only.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 
Listen:
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five mp3 at Time Goes By
Carmen McRae - Take Five mp3 at Time Goes By Backed by the Brubeck Quartet
Jimmy Johnson - Take Five mp3 at Time Goes By

Friday, May 3, 2019

ODE TO A WINDBREAKER PATCH

A found poem. Recited by Dennis Hopper, kiped here for Dave Dudley. For icing, two of my favorites from Dudley, one of which is like the "Johnny B. Goode" of trucker music. It's Friday.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Dennis Hopper - Heineken? [for Dave Dudley] mp3 at Lynchnet
Dave Dudley - Two Six Packs Away mp3 at Rocky 52
Dave Dudley - Six Days on the Road mp3
at J.Yuenger

Thursday, May 2, 2019

CHEAP GUITAR? CHECK. CHEAP AMP? CHECK.

It's not everyday that you come across unfamiliar recordings of someone whose entire output seemed to be well documented. Hound Dog Taylor didn't have a large discography. A handful of singles, two studio LPs released during his lifetime, a live album released shortly after his passing and a few others released later that consisted of unreleased stuff, compilations and more live stuff. I'm by no means a Hound Dog Taylor freak enough to have heard everything he recorded, but I am someone who knows something share-able when he runs across it, and if you are a Hound Dog Taylor freak this is something you might not have known about. A live recording that may or may not have been recorded in a radio station studio. It's labeled ABC Radio Australia and consists of twelve songs, five of them unnamed instrumentals. This might be one of the live things that Alligator Records released, I don't know. Not freak enough.

If you're unfamiliar with Taylor you should know that he played one of the cheapest electric guitars on the market (at the time) a Teisco del Rey. Coupled with a cheap Sears and Roebuck amp, you have the makings of a raw sound, the type of sound that Jack White tried to emulate with some of his cheap guitar shenanigans. Like the first couple of Black Keys LPs. But Taylor was the real deal. I seriously doubt that Jack White or Dan Auerbach would chop off one of their extra fingers when they were drunk. Taylor did. On his picking hand. The fret hand still had all six fingers he was born with. He wasn't so drunk that he didn't realize that an extra finger on that hand would be useful.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Hound Dog Taylor - ABC Radio Australia at Internet Archive (March 14th 1975) 12 songs. In the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files"