SHIT LIST DEPOT

It was just a video that a friend of mine posted on social media, a video of Sinéad O’Connor of all people. Now I'm totally ambivalent when it comes to O'Conner. She's always been that skinny lady with a shaved head that had one semi-hit years ago. That's all I knew. But the friend that had posted it, she's got excellent taste, has been around cool shit since the late seventies. I ended up sleeping on her kitchen floor for two months back when I moved to New York a few years later. We've been friends ever since. I knew there was a reason she'd tagged me on the post. Then I saw that it was a cover of L7's "Shit List" and she was mentioning that I'd put it on a mix for her years ago. Wait. Stop. Sinéad O’Connor covering L7? I clicked immediately, not knowing what to expect.

The surprise? O’Connor's version was awesome. Just about as hard as L7's original, but with a much bigger band. L7 is a four piece, two guitars, bass and drums. O'Connor's fronting a band with a full string section, horn section, four background singers and a conductor. If you think that would mellow the song, you're wrong. I mean, the thing starts out with a guy on violin doing this feedbacking thing that sounds exactly like a guitar. Then the horns come in and it's a symphonic blast from there on. About a third of the way through it I'm thinking that it sounds like a James Bond theme. Then, correcting myself, thinking it sounds as if someone hired L7 to do a James Bond theme. When it was over I headed back to my friends post to thank her and noticed that her introductory sentence that I hadn't seen made the same comparison, that it sounded like L7 doing a Bond theme. What did I say about her having excellent taste?

After watching O'Connor's version, you guessed it, I just had to get an L7 fix. And, boy, did I get a fix. I forgot how good they were live, just good ol' fashioned grungy rock 'n' roll. Nothing overtly cerebral. Here's the feature song, both  L7's original and O'Connor's version, along with some L7 videos from over the years. One word of warning. The clip from Natural Born Killers that uses the song as it's soundtrack is really violent. Woody Harrelson and Juliet Lewis as total ass kicking psychopaths. The story for the movie was written by Quentin Tarantino and it was directed by Oliver Stone. That's a recipe for violence if there ever was one. I still think it would make a good Bond theme.

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Listen:
L7 - Shit List mp3 at Tumblr 1992
L7 - Shit List (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
Sinéad O’Connor - Shit List (live) at YouTube Melbourne International Arts Festival, Sydney, 2010
L7 - Shit List (live) at YouTube Rockapalast, Essen, Germany 1996
L7 - Shit List (live) at YouTube Hellfest, Clisson, France 2015
Natural Born Killers - Clip with "Shit List" at YouTube 1994
Entire sets:
L7 - (live, Rockpalast) at YouTube Essen, Germany 1996
L7 - (live, Hellfest) at YouTube Clisson, France 2015

I NEED SOME MORE EBO ROOM

Today is a special day. Not because it's Friday. Not because it's a three day weekend. No, today is a special day because, after having posted Ebo Taylor's stuff several times in the eleven years that have passed since I first heard him, I finally pried open my moth-ridden wallet and and paid hotspot cash for his Love and Death LP. It's good, good enough that I'll risk pissing off some of you loyal lurkers by reposting a few of his things.

Taylor had a long career in Ghana. He was 75 years old when he recorded Love and Death, his first internationally available release. Live dates followed and another new LP at the age of 82. There are a lot of things I hate about globalization, but when it comes to music I'm A-OK with someone rescued from obscurity.

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Listen:
Ebo Taylor - Ayesama mp3 at Bama Love Soul 
Ebo Taylor - Victory mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Ebo Taylor - Mizin mp3 at Mixtape Riot

Ebo Taylor - Twer Nyame mp3 at J-Bird

STURDY BANQUET TABLES. RESPECT.

I gotta ask, do you know who the World Famous Supreme Team is? No? Then they're liars because they must not be world famous. But there was a time when they were better known. I first heard of them when Malcolm McLaren copped their shit on his "Buffalo Gals" and later on his Duck Rock LP (including sampling people calling in to their radio show, "All that scratch' is makin me itch." "Two much of that Snow White"). They were DJs with a radio show on WHBI-FM in Newark NJ, an early source for rap, well before it was referred to as hip hop.

So McLaren heard them early, borrowed their stuff, along with music from the Caribbean and Africa, and threw together Duck Rock in 1983. That LP still sounds fresh today but it was primarily Trevor Horn that put things together while McLaren rubbed his palms together. Long story short, that's where I know the World Famous Supreme Team from, along with turntablist DST, an early scratcher. The latter would end up on Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" another early WTFer.

Here's some clips of the World Famous Supreme Team's radio show, a combined hour in the Time Tunnel, straight back to 1982. Found on posts at Beware of the Blog from 2008.

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Listen:
World Famous Supreme Team Anniversary Show mp3 at Beware of the Blog 46 minutes
World Famous Supreme Team - Show Excerpt mp3 at Beware of the Blog 14 minutes
Video:
World's Famous Supreme Team - Hey DJ at YouTube 1984
Malcolm McLaren - Buffalo Gals at YouTube 1983

IT'S TUESDAY, KOGAR BECKONS.

Kogar the Swinging Ape is up to his ol' game again. I blinked and all of a sudden there are six new Tassel Twirlers, so named because there what you'd hear in jiggle clubs of yore. I can't get enough of these. Despite the fact that I don't go to strip clubs. Who wants to go see someone bump and grind to "Cherry Pie"? They probably play something else these days. Something with Auto-Tune. Blech.

Kogar is about the old school Pall Mall scented, Hamms swilling, wing tip attired flat tops. These are the soundtrack to your grandpa's night out, back when he wasn't your grandpa. Hell, you may have been conceived after one of his nights out.

Kogar seems to have an endless supply of these because he's put together several compilations over the years, all with non-hit wonders. Here's a few from 2012 and link to all of the Tassel Twirler Tuesdays, starting with the new ones and going back to 2012.

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Listen:
The Knight Beats - Naughty Rooster mp3 at Boss Radio 66
Eddie Atwood and his Goodies - Hot Saki mp3 at Boss Radio 66
Woody & Dave - Shut-Ups mp3 at Boss Radio 66
The whole shootin' match:
Tassel Twirler Tuesdays at Boss Radio 66 Dozens of bumper and grinders.

THE DRUMMER'S DRUMMER (SLIGHT RETURN)

That's my friend Paul in the photo above. When the photo was taken he had been surfing for over forty years and playing drums for close to fifty years. I've known him for at least thirty years and he's been like a big brother. At one time he was my brothers roommate and the only non-family member to have a key to my Mom's house. A real bro, and not in the casual frat boy use. A good man. He died this past Tuesday from brain cancer. He was in his late sixties. That photo above was  taken in the last year. Late sixties, with brain cancer, with only months to live and he had that casual "I know what I'm doing" longboard stance. That's old school style.

Paul was the one who turned me onto Elvin Jones.  I mentioned it in a post a few years back and because I've been listening to Jones for the past several days it seemed like a good thing to post. Here's the original post.:

A few years ago I ran into a friend of mind, a drummer who has played for, I don't know, something like four decades. I brought up Ginger Baker's latest LP (at the time), Why? (a phenomenal LP by the way). My friend started bringing up drummers that he really dug, among them Elvin Jones, who he went off about in particular. He told me how an early drum teacher he had told him to get Jones's LP The Ultimate Elvin Jones. At the time I knew the name, but had never really isolated his playing when I listened to records he was on. Once I did though, shit howdy, it was another name added to the list. Here's a couple that he plays on and the LP my friend recommended. Man, that one is a total gas.

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Listen:
John Coltrane - The Drum Thing mp3 at Drummer World Elvin Jones on drums
Joe Lovano and Dave Holland - Cymbalism mp3 at Drummer World Elvin Jones on drums
Elvin Jones - The Ultimate Elvin Jones (full LP, streaming) at YouTube

TELL YOUR DAD HE'S WRONG.

I'm probably late to the party but what's new, right? A video of an L.A. punk band. of girls aged 10-16. has gone viral. (Never thought I'd say that, not in 2021). They're good, not good for their age, just good. The song had me looking at other things by them and guess what? They're good. And they make you think.

The song, "Racist Sexist Boy" has been posted by Rolling Stone, NPR, NBC, Variety, the Washington Post,...it's everywhere. It begins with an introduction.   "A little while before we went into lock down, a boy in my class came up to me and said that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people. After I told him that I was Chinese, he backed away from me. Eloise and I wrote this song based on that experience" "So this is about him and all those other racist sexist boys in this world. One, two, three, four..." and in they dig.

I've read a few posts about this song and one thing that seems to escape some of these writers is that this is a teachable moment. I'll do the honors. Attention all you racist sexist boys of the world. Guess what? You can disagree with your parents. That doesn't make you bad. That means you are growing up. You're in a different generation than your parents. It's gonna happen. Let it.

Okay, that's taken care of. Now, the other two cool things about this band. One is that they cover Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl". There's a new torch being passed. When I was their age, the torch was Chuck Berry. Now it's Bikini Kill. Hell yeah, it's all good.

The other cool thing is, man, just think how cool it would be to be in their shoes. They're not even in high school and they're already a thing. They've gotta be having the times of their lives. Good for them. Being as good as they are, bet you dollars for donuts they'll be legends in twenty years.

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Listen:
Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl mp3 at Tully Craft Reference material.
Video:
The Linda Lindas - Racist Sexist Boy at LA Public Library's Twitter
TEENtastic Tuesdays: AAPI Heritage Month Kick-off with The Linda Lindas at YouTube Entire show
The Linda Lindas - Rebel Girl at YouTube

SO, WHAT'S ONE MORE CLICK?

Robert Walter recorded some covers that were posted on Aquarium Drunkard a week ago. It's the third time he's done it, feeding them some covers a handful at a time. Who's Robert Walter you ask? As they taught me to say in public speaking class years ago, I'm glad you asked that question. Robert Walter is a keyboard player, leader of 20th Congress and founding member of the Greyboy Allstars. Still doesn't register eh? I probably only know of him because he was in San Diego when the Greyboy Allstars started. I was lucky enough to be clued in by a neighbor of mine who was among a group of semi-regulars at the Green Circle, a bar that they they had a weekly gig at. It was an ear opening experience at the time. They shifted between boogaloo and soul jazz type stuff with just enough funkiness that it was tight, dance-able and the polar opposite of the post-grunge scene up the street at the Casbah (that spawned Rocket From the Crypt among others). It was some stealthly hip shit. They didn't try half as hard to be cool, content in their jams. It made an impression on me. My neighbor and her friends were med students and I've always associated that scene as a little smarter and more inclusive. It wasn't about chain wallets and tattoos. It was about grooves.

So, anyway, on this post at Aquarium Drunkard, Walter covers Melle Mel and the Furious Five's "White Lines" and Liquid Liquid's "Caver' (the rhythm source for "White Lines"), a Jackie Mittoo song, an Eddie Harris song, Rammellzee & K-Rob's "Beat Bop" (the record that Jean-Michel Basquiat did the cover for before exploding the art world), and "Quiet Village" the Les Baxter song made famous by Martin Denny, one of the biggest names in exotica. So, here you have hip hop, no wave, reggae, jazz and exotica. Good for a cocktail party. (Aquarium Drunkard blocks links from scrounges like me. Just go there to get them. Right click on the titles to save.)

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Listen:
Robert Walter - The Lagniappe Sessions (Third Session) at Aquarium Drunkard
Video:
The Greyboy Allstars at YouTube A bunch live videos and the first LP, West Coast Boogaloo, streaming.

NICE TRY LADY

I ran into another great mix by the person who did the one I posted on Saturday, a guy who calls himself Mr. Fab, which is why I refer to him as the guy who did the mix I posted on Saturday. This mix is titled Voodoo Dance Doll though that only loosely applies, It doesn't matter, it's good stuff. The Pyramids doing a Don and Dewey cover? Dig the one by the Dave Clark Five "Chaquita", it sounds like the Rumblers. Dick Dale is in there along with Eartha Kitt. It's a real salad bowl.

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Listen:
Dave Clark Five - Chaquita mp3 at Internet Archive
Mel Taylor and the Magics - Drums A Go Go mp3 at Internet Archive
Sandy Nelson - Casbah mp3 at Internet Archive
The whole thing:
Lowbrow Vol.2, Voodoo Dance Doll at Internet Archive In the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files"

NO ELVIS, BEATLES OR ROLLING STONES IN 1971

Man, this is just what I need. A bunch of Germans toying with shit. Krautrock was supposed to have been a derogatory term when it was first used (early seventies) but the alternative term, Kosmische Musik, while probably more accurate, offends me. It translates to "Cosmic Music". Yuck. Why not just call it "Weird Shit". Whatever you want to call it, it's different and it was made by a bunch of people that knew there was little hope of a hit record.

Here's a couple long ones by NEU!, seen above just chillin'. One is from their first LP and the other from their second. Just so you fans of Can, Cluster and Kraftwerk don't feel left out, an hour long BBC documentary about Krautrock is down there too.

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Listen:
NEU! - Hallogallo mp3 at Plain or Pan
NEU! - Für Immer mp3 at Plain or Pan
Documentary:
Krautrock – The Rebirth of Germany at YouTube 2009, 58 minutes

COOL MIX. PAIR IT WITH CHEAP BEER.

Stop the mother lovin' press. I just ran into a very cool compilation with a song list that makes sense to some people (me) but might have others scratching their heads. Check these juxtapositions: Scatman Crothers and Los Saicos. In the same mix. And Rusty Warren. And De Maskers. That's only four of them. There's a bunch more, and commercials for b-movies and skin flicks. This is post wing-tips, pre-hippie, barfly, jiggle club, and frat party all rolled into one. Good stuff Maynard. You people who dig honking sax should check the Sil Austin cut. Starting at 1:43 the sax player blows his fool head off.

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Listen:
Sil Austin - Fallout mp3 at Internet Archive
Los Saicos - Demolicion mp3 at Internet Archive
Scatman Crothers  - Transfusion mp3 at Internet Archive
De Maskers - The Saint mp3 at Internet Archive
The whole thing:
Lowbrow Vol.1, Sweet Beat mix at Internet Archive In the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files"

HERE'S SOME LIGHTWEIGHT SHIT.

Hey, it's mid-May. Everybody here is thawing out, summer is right around the corner. Yee haw. It's high time for some lightweight reggae tunage. Yeah. that's right, softy night, I'm pre-summer reggae-tinged softy man.

The first two are by Hollie Cook, daughter of a drummer. The third is by Air, as fiddled with by Adrian Sherwood (On-U Sound). None of them are all that heavy, though the Air/Sherwood thing is pretty trippy. If you're familiar with both, you should check it out. By the way, I'm barefoot.

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Listen:
Holly Cook - Milk and Honey mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Holly Cook - Body Beat mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Air - How Does It Make You Feel? (Adrian Sherwood version) mp3 at Mixtape Riot
NOTE: If the mp3 links are disabled, go there to get them.

TEAM FUNDRAISER

I ran into a set by James Chance and the Contortions, that was going to be it, with a little intro, cut and paste and done. But it was a good news bad news type of thing. I've been listening to him for years and as is the situation with a lot of musicians I like, I rarely feel the need to look up what they did last week. But figuring it was time to get caught up, I did a search to see what Chance has been up to in the recent past. Not good. During the covid year he's had health problems causing him to cut a European tour short. Then he lost his father and his mother had to be put into a memory care facility. This put a strain on finances. Then his girlfriend, Judy Taylor, having had health issues of her own, passed away in October. A GoFundMe page was set up for both but is being kept up to help Chance with medical expenses and a possible retirement.



If you don't know who James Chance is, I'm sorry, you'll have to look into it elsewhere. There's lots online. Let's just say that even at the tail end of the seventies punk thing he was a mind fuck. Here's a thing I wrote earlier about seeing him live in NY in 1986.:

"In 1986, I learned more about James Chance in one short moment than I had after listening to his music, or reading about him in articles written during (and about) the early No Wave scene. It was at a small performance space in lower Manhattan, a word-of-mouth show in a tiny room, with no bar or club-like trappings. During one of his patently manic sax solos, the microphone stand was knocked to the ground. Most performers, even the most humble, might shoot a dirty look at the person who knocked it over. Some would keep playing and wait for someone else to upright the stand. At the very least, they might pick it up themselves. Not James Chance. He got down and continued the solo, lying on his side. On the floor.

It wasn't at all a daring or dangerous move, nor was it something that required talent. What it did require was a different way of of reacting, without a predisposition to do what was reasonable or expected. Click...Now I get James Chance." One of those.

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Listen:
The Contortions - I Can't Stand Myself (streaming) at YouTube 1978
James Chance and the Contortions - Melt Yourself Down (streaming) at Soundcloud 2016
The first LP:
The Contortions - Buy LP (via Mediafire) at Swan Fungus Full LP in a zip. Click on "MediaFire Download Link" right above the song listing. Note: Not recently tested. Proceed with caution.
Video:
James Chance and the Contortions - Melt Yourself Down at YouTube 2016
James Chance - Live on French TV at YouTube 1980
James Chance and The Contortions - Live at Trans Pecos at YouTube 2015
Visit:
James Chance GoFundMe page
James Chance - Interviewed by Glenn O'Brien at Purple 2011

THE PARTY COMMENCED.

A random click on an old post from 2015. I saw that I'd used the photo above, as I have several times in the past. The photo speaks to me. It says abandon all hope of getting anything done, clock out, it's party time. Excellent. All the prodding I needed.

I didn't recognize the songs that I'd posted with the photo. Once I listened to them, I remembered the feeling I had the first time I heard it. Liberated. It's nuts, free jazz would be the closest description. Whatever it is, it works. A private pressing racket from the seventies, posted at Beware of the Blog back in 2008.

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Listen:
Your Exotic Prince - Concert for My Lady mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your Exotic Prince - Drums In Passion mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your Exotic Prince - Four more mp3s at Beware of the Blog

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 55

So, I just ran into an article at the Guardian about the fiftieth anniversary of Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. It was the first really big blaxploitation flick and one of the earliest successful independent films. Citizen Kane, it is not. But it's success opened the doors for other blaxploitation and independent films. Slight detour: In searching for the film online I was ran into a video of a band called Burnt Sugar Arkestra, and if you're familiar with Sun Ra, you'll know why I had to give that one a shot. Anyone using the term "arkestra" in their band name is somehow tuned into Space Brother #1. I was not disappointed.

So this here's the movie, the article, a podcast about the movie and the theme song, which is a totally worthwhile seven minute groove. When you're done with all that, check Burnt Sugar or cool your heels and watch one of the many blaxploitation films at YouTube.

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Listen:
Melvin Van Peebles - Sweetback's Theme mp3 at Oz Good
The Feature presentation:
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song at YouTube
The article:
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song at 50 at The Guardian
The Podcast:
Criterion Reflections – Episode 50 – Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song at Crterioncast
Further flaking:
Blaxploitation films at YouTube
Burnt Sugar Arkestra - Live at YouTube This one turns into a racket.
Burnt Sugar - Multiple live videos at their site

HEY DAD, CAN I BORROW THE KEYS?

I had just closed the front door and was headed down the street to the store. I started thinking about the last song I heard before leaving, "Action Packed" by Ronnie Dee (Ronnie Dawson). I'd heard it a bunch of times but this time it was a giggle fest. It had never really been anything but a second tier rockabilly song, but this time I found it hilarious. Dawson was about nineteen when he recorded it, but it sounds as though he's fourteen. I mean, look at that photo above. And he's got attitude, approaching chest beating. Let's say you're a hot babe in 1959. A guy with a peroxide flat top whose voice hasn't even cracked yet, singing "If you chicks are timid, you just better turn back, 'cause when I take a ride in my car it's gotta be action packed. Hear me, action packed, yeah!" Right, dude's got a learner's permit. In Dawson's defense, he did do the original version of "Rockin' Bones", a song the Cramps covered. That does not lessen the giggle factor.

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Listen:
Ronnie Dawson - Action Packed mp3 at Rocky 52 1958
Ronnie Dawson - Rockin' Bones mp3 at Rocky 52 1959
Ronnie Dawson - Who's Been Here? mp3 at Rocky 52 1961
Ronnie Dawson - Rockin' Dog mp3 at Rocky 52 1994
Video:
Ronnie Dawson - Sucker For a Cheap Guitar at YouTube 1997, Nick Curran on guitar