IS DRUM FACE A THING?

Years ago in San Francisco I was urged by a friend of mine to walk to a nearby jazz club where Art Blakey was playing. The hook was that you could watch from the sidewalk by looking through an open window. Being a card carrying tightwad, that was all I needed to hear. So, my first jazz show was Art Blakey. This was decades ago and I had no idea how legendary Blakey was. The one thing I remember vividly was Blakey's habit of playing with his mouth wide open, what I guess could be referred to as drum face. The music was great, though I have to admit it would be years before I bought a Art Blakey record. I had not yet crossed the jazz line. Now, looking back, I'm so glad I got to see him play.

Here's a 1958 concert from right after "Moanin'" was released. There's a couple random things down there too. The real goods are over at Rubber City Review.

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Listen:
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' mp3 at Time Goes By
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - Cubano Chant mp3 at Tumblr
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - The Drum Thunder Suite mp3 at Tumblr
Ten With Art Blakey at Rubber City Review This is a great post.

LET'S JUST THROW EVERYTHING IN

I'd forgotten about Waxidermy until I saw a link to one of their posts from 2006. What the hell, it'd been a while. It was about The Bayan Mongol Variety Group from Mongolia. It's thought by the host to be from the late sixties. Whenever it was recorded, it's nuts. It's got every trick in the bag, sounding in different parts like a spaghetti western theme, psych, ska and cop show soundtrack (Quinn Martin shit). Fuzz, some primitive synth-sounding thing, horns, repetitive bass line, this thing is four minutes and forty eight seconds of not knowing what's around the corner.

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Listen:
The Bayan Mongol Variety Group - [title unknown] mp3 at Waxidermy If the mp3 link here doesn't work, go there to get it.

BONUS ROUND

Here's a good one you can pull with your record geek friends, assuming they're geek enough to know record labels. Ask them to name someone who has recorded for Sun Records and Chess. They'll likely puff out their chest and say "Howlin' Wolf". That's when you get them with the follow up question. Who recorded for Sun, Chess and Studio One? This will throw them off. If they're strictly into roots type music, blues, r&b, rockabilly, soul, they may not know Studio One. Studio One was a Jamaican label, owned by Coxsone Dodd, and had a long track record starting with rhythm and blues tinged boogie, then ska, rock steady and reggae. They were like the Stax of Jamaica, the dominant reggae label. The answer, if you haven't guessed by that publicity photo above, is Rosco Gordon. Anyway, whether they know reggae and Studio One or not, you've likely won yourself a bet. You will note the absence of the Studio One single below. It's such an oddball that I wasn't able to find it on YouTube. It really isn't as good as his older stuff, recorded likely in the eighties when both Dodd and Gordon were living in New York. But it does exist because I have a copy.

Really though, you need to dig the stuff he recorded at Sun (much of it licensed to other labels). If you have paper route money laying around spring for Let's Get High - The Man About Music From Memphis. It's 54 cuts of raw filthy r&b. Dirty, honking. (Under twenty bucks online.) Just check "Decorate the Counter" and "Booted" before you take your bath.

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Listen:
Rosco Gordon - Rosco's Boogie mp3 at Rocky 52 1951
Rosco Gordon - Booted mp3 at Internet Archive 1952
Rosco Gordon - Decorate the Counter mp3 at Internet Archive 1952
Rosco Gordon - No More Doggin' (streaming) at YouTube 1952
Rosco Gordon - Shoobie Doobie mp3 at Rocky 52 1956
Rosco Gordon - Just A Little Bit mp3 at Rocky 52 1964

LIGHTNING ROUND

Quick, name five women who recorded at Sun Records. Pass? Oh, wait, we have an egghead-abilly over here. Okay hotshot, name a woman who recorded at Sun who also had a brother who recorded at Sun. Oh, you're good. Watch it or you'll get a crease in your cuffed Levis. Now, name a song that both brother and sister recorded separate versions of. Bonus question: Name a man, a brother who had a sister and both had recorded different versions of the same song at Sun and who also happens to be the greatest first generation rocker still among us. (Answers below.)

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Listen:
Patsy Holcomb - I Wanna Rock mp3 at Internet Archive
Jean Chapel - Welcome to the Club mp3 at Internet Archive
Charlotte Smith - I Just Discovered Boys mp3 at Internet Archive
Barbara Pittman - I Need a Man mp3 at Internet Archive
Linda Gail Lewis - C.C. Rider mp3 at Internet Archive
Jerry Lee Lewis - C.C. Rider (streaming) at YouTube
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire mp3 at Bousculade

THE FOURTEEN MINUTE SOUNDTRACK

I was just listening to this at a high volume while making dinner and putzing around. It starts out kind of quiet and then,,,changes. I'm not going to ruin it for you. Pick an activity that will last about fourteen minutes without interruption, let it rip. It's like having a soundtrack in real time. Turn it up. Start moving.

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Listen:
Mythic Sunship - Resolution (streaming) at YouTube

HERE HERE'S GLEN GLENN

It's been ages since I've had a smoke and cup of coffee at the same time. I can't smoke in my apartment complex and can't smoke in a coffee shop. That used to be one of my favorite ways to relax, A smoke, coffee and a book or magazine. I was thinking about that today, and then thought about the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes. I was on that tack when I remembered Glen Glenn's "One Cup of Coffee and a Cigarette". It occurred to me that he was one of the rockabilly cats that slipped through the cracks here. I don't remember if I've posted him before. I'm too lazy to do the full bio thing. No apologies. Because: coffee and cigarettes.

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Listen:
Glen Glenn - Blue Jeans and a Boys Shirt mp3 at Rockabilly Hall
Glen Glenn - One Cup of Coffee and a Cigarette mp3 at Rockabilly Hall
Glen Glenn - If I Had Me a Woman mp3 at Rockabilly Hall
Visit:
Coffee and Cigarettes - Trailer at YouTube
Glen Glenn - Long bio at Deke Dickerson

THEY CALL HIM THE SWINGING APE

If you haunt Boss Radio 66 (formerly Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban), or Kogar's Jungle Juice, you've no doubt run across one of Kogar's mixes. They're always good, no stinkers, and always have a lot bands that you've never heard of. The best way to describe his selections might not ring familiar with some of you who've never haunted thrift stores, swap meets and garage sales for random 45s. If you don't look for records in places like those you're missing out. Granted, with sites like Ebay and Discogs, the golden age of thrifting is gone, there are still some that slip through, particularly the type that go through the Kogar filter. I suspect he buys records like a lot of people with collections of obscure non-hit wonders. Look at the band name, the song name and sorta guess at the year. When at least one or two of those variables rank as favorable, you might have a cheap keeper that you may never see again. In short, with a Kogar mix, he's done the thrift store safari for you.

Kogar's latest mix, Any Way You Wanta Do the Doy, consists of songs that had been posted over the past year. It's got soul shouters, instrumentals and classic B-list frat rock, all sounding like sixties releases, some possibly late fifties. There are a few names you'll recognize (Ike and Tina Turner, Thee Midnighters, Art Neville, etc.) and a lot that you won't.

A note about the downloads: They're at hosted on Mega and despite appearances, you don't have to sign up. You got enough shit on your phone as it is. The first link is to the mix, a zip with 32 separate mp3s. The other is a link to the individual songs as they were originally posted in case you want to cherry pick. I wouldn't. Snag the mix.

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Listen:
Any Way You Wanta Do the Do! - 32 song mix (via Mega) at Boss Radio 66
Movers and Groovers - Individual posts with single songs from the above mix at Radio 66

YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN A COVER VERSION

We've all learned of songs from covers and most of us have gone on back to hear the originals. Everybody has made a mix tape (or playlist) consisting of all covers. What I like to do is make mixes of originals of songs that I first heard as covers. But you can't mix the covers in, it ruins it. Because if it's all originals of songs you first heard as covers, there's something a little off. It's like reliving an alternate version of your life. Or something like that.

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Listen:
Erma Franklin - Piece Of My Heart mp3 at Internet Archive Covered by Janis Joplin
Betty Everett - You're No Good mp3 at Internet Archive Covered by Linda Ronstadt
Gloria Jones - Tainted Love mp3 at Internet Archive Covered by Soft Cell
The Velvettes = He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' mp3 at Internet Archive Covered by Bananarama
The Contours - First I Look At The Purse mp3 at Internet Archive Covered by the J.Geils Band
Marvin Gaye - Can I Get A Witness mp3 at Internet Archive Covered by the Rolling Stones

CANDYMOUTH GOLD

I've heard my share of dirty songs, but this is one I'd never heard. The Clovers, who I knew from "Love Potion Number Nine", were a doo wop group with a few other hits under their belt. They were pretty successful, successful enough to convince Atlantic Records honcho Ahmet Ertegun to let them record their own song. Thus, "Rotten Cocksuckers Ball". The song went nowhere primarily because it was pressed nowhere. That is, until it was bootlegged roughly twenty years later. But as far as dirty songs recorded by major artists go it rivals Jackie Wilson and LaVern Baker's "You Better Think Twice (Version X)". Both pretty much make the Stones' "Cocksucker Blues" sound like childs play.

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Listen:
The Clovers - Rotten Cocksuckers Ball mp3 at Internet Archive
Jackie Wilson and LaVern Baker - Better Think Twice (Version X) mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Rolling Stones- Cocksucker Blues (streaming) at YouTube
Bonus Clovers:
The Clovers - Love Potion Number Nine (streaming) at YouTube
The Clovers - One Mint Julep mp3 at Internet Archive

POST-LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 5

It was to be just a couple from X. The first one "Hungry Wolf" is my jam. I remember when I first moved to NYC, I was staying with friends on Sullivan St. They said it was okay if I smoked if I blew the smoke out the window, which overlooked the street. I remember one of the few times I was alone in the apartment, putting on the second X LP, the one with "Hungry Wold", and cranking it. Right as I lit up, the opening chords blasted forth. I sat there, surveying the street and having my smoke and thinking, "What now?" That was a thousand years ago and the song still takes me to that exact moment.

Then, not even looking for it, I ran into The Unheard Music, a 1986 documentary about the band, The full movie is at YouTube and it's on X's page there, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon. If you haven't seen it and have any interest in the early-ish L.A. punk scene, you should check it out.

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Listen:
X - Hungry Wolf mp3 at Internet Archive
X - Blue Spark mp3 at Internet Archive
Visit:
X - The Band - X's channel at YouTube

ONE DEMERIT: RUNNING PROMO SHOT

If you're a regular here, you know by now my propensity toward distractions and weak excuses for not giving you any usable info. It's the whole shopping bag tonight. I was poking around at the long dormant Art Decade and ran into Gang of Four's "Love Like Anthrax". Remembering what a great abrasive guitarist Andy Gill was, I nosedived through a few other songs and landed on a live video from a reunion tour, I'm guessing (it's from 2010). Two things hit me. One was what a great live band they were. The 2010 performance was over twenty five years after I'd seen them and this set is just as riveting. The other thing that hit me, reminded me, how many types of music they mix up. Funk, no wave, punk and, at times, crazy feedback. The first song on the live thing, "Return the Gift" is like a no wave band covering Roxy Music. (There are parts that sound like a deconstructed "Editions of You".) I got that far in and realized that, naw, I'm backing away from the keyboard. I'm going to go in the other room and break something, just for the hell of it.

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Listen:
Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax mp3 at Art Decade 1979
Gang of Four - Ether mp3 at Tumblr 1979
Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It mp3 at Tumblr 1979
Gang of Four - Not Great Men mp3 at AVC 1979
Gang of Four - Damage Goods mp3 at Boebis 1979
Gang of Four - Return the Gift mp3 at Tumblr 1979
Gang of Four - Guns Before Butter mp3 at Tumblr 1979
Gang of Four - He'd Send the Army mp3 at Tumblr 1981
Gang of Four - Is This Love mp3 at Internet Archive 1983

HOWLIN' WILLIE WOLF DIXON

Willie Dixon wrote a fuckload of songs and Howlin' Wolf sang a lot of them. Here's six that have been covered a zillion times. If you haven't heard any of them you are missing something fundamental. I am not lying.

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Listen:
Howlin' Wolf - Evil mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Back Door Man mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Spoonful mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Down In The Bottom mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Wang Dang Doodle mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - The Red Rooster mp3 at Internet Archive

THE WTF LOCATION SHOT, JAMAICA EDITION

It's not often you hear a distorted guitar intro on a Studio One record. Leave it to Jackie Mittoo (above) to make a record that is just barely reggae. I don't want to ruin this song by saying that sound-wise it sounds like it could have been recorded by a third wave ska band...shit, forget what I just said. That's degrading. Just think of as Mittoo with the production values of Guitar Wolf, who once complained that it was hard to make records with engineers that wouldn't let the VU meters go into the red. It terms of distortion, this has gotta be the rawest Studio One record I've ever heard. It's metal. There's a good reggae mix down there too, because I ran into it and if I don't post it right away I'll forget. Just being honest.

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Listen:
Jackie Mittoo - Killer Diller mp3 at Groove Addict
The mix:

Introducing DJ Pork Chops - Reggae mix at Internet Archive Note: Once there, in the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files". 24 songs, all good, one hour long. Song list posted.