I'm as guilty as anyone. When someone mentions Sun Records or the studio itself my first association is rockabilly, followed by blues and hillbilly. And it is always the male artists I think Barbara Pittman (above) would be the only female Sun artist that would immediately come to mind. But there were a lot of women recorded at Sun, enough for a six CD set. All shapes and sizes. Here's four of them.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
So, I run into a cut by Mulatu Astatke that I've never posted. I had to make sure and while searching, I ran across a Hank Jacobs song I'd posted. (I had mentioned in the post that his "Heide" had a similar vibe to Astatke's music). After listening to Jacob's cut, I decided to post it again. Standard pattern here. Also standard pattern, falling into a two day rabbit hole. Net gain: About a half dozen songs and two blogs that I didn't know existed. More on that net gain in the coming days. For now, dig these. The other Astatke song down there with the Heliocentrics was rabbit hole shake.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Every once in a while I remember a song that I'd once liked a lot and then somehow managed to forgot about for a long period of time. I can see how that can happen. I stop listening to them so I don't get sick of them; out of ear, out of mind. Not a problem if I remember the title of the song or the artist, but there was a song I'd been wanting to revisit and couldn't remember anything but the basic tune and and that it had heavy bass. It was driving me nuts. Finally I ran into it today while looking for something else. It's by Karolina, a singer from Tel Aviv. A nice solid pre-summer jam..
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
I will go no further, not tonight. I ran into a live show of Ray Charles, France 1961. It's a no brainer. Full band and everything, it's awesome. Plus the establishing shots of the French audience. France, 1961: Total style. Cool music, cool audience, cool era, cool two hours. And the bonus, four absolute essentials below. Damn he was great.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Since the pandemic has eased, the jazz radio station has returned to live DJs. That's good news and bad news. They've changed their line up. Some of my favorite shows are gone, some are at different hours. There's now a show on every night for three hours with the unfortunate name "Bohemia After Dark". The thought is nice but it's so corny it's almost funny. The DJ for that show refers to herself as "jazz kitty". Also a bit corny. She plays word jazz at some point just about every night. Corny? This is up in the air. While word jazz can be corny, when are you ever going to hear it on an FM radio station? This leads to my point. There are a few corny things about this show but the amount of good, oddball, interesting, wild and varied music that she plays far outweighs any amount of associated corn. Enough so that I have to fess up to a DJ crush. It would be a cool record party. This leads to Mingus. Something she might play. I'm in a crazy ass jazz mood anyway.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
I saw Bo Diddly once, when he opened for the Clash. That should tell you how long ago it was. At the time, I was probably of the same mind as the Clash. I mean, it's Bo Diddley, a living legend! What could go wrong? A pick up backing band, that's what. No Duchess, no Jerome bringing it home. Just a bunch of hacks that think an easy gig is going up on stage and playing the chunk-a-chunk-chunk, chunk chunk thing for an hour. I was underwhelmed.
In the ensuing years I listed to Bo Diddley stuff from throughout his career and came to the conclusion that he made his best music during his first ten years and that after that, it's a mine field. That said, he did enough in that first ten years or so to keep you busy for a while. The first three below are lesser known non-hits, but of personal interest because they've been covered by bands you may be familiar with. "Before You Accuse Me" was covered by Creedence, "Diddy Wah Diddy" was covered by both Captain Beefheart and 8 Eyed Spy (Lydia Lunch). "Road Runner" was covered by the Zeros.
I thought I'd look for an oddball to include and found one with a rabbit hole attached. "Surf, Sink, or Swim", yeah, you guessed it, from the 1963 cash-in LP, Surfin' With Bo Diddley. First off, what a load of crap. Bo Diddley probably never touched a surfboard in his life. That's okay, surfing isn't a prerequisite for playing music. "Surf, Sink, or Swim" is a great instrumental. Surf music, it is not. I went to Discogs and came away, well, annoyed. Though credited to Bo Diddley, only four of the songs on Surfin' With Bo Diddley actually have Bo Diddley on them. Here's the kicker, by some accounts the other eight songs are by the Megatons. By other accounts they were actually recorded by Billy Lee Riley and his band, including "Surf, Sink, or Swim" on which Bo Diddley was supposedly overdubbed. What the fuck? On Diddley's record it says that he wrote it. Who to believe? I was tempted to do a full blown investigation into this matter but then it occurred to me: I don't think Fuzzgate was ever fully resolved.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Well I'll be dipped it shit. Here's a guy I forgot all about, super picker Billy Strings. I'd run into a video of him posted on YouTube a couple years ago (see it below) and didn't know anything about him. Today, lurking at the Internet Archive, I ran into a handful of songs by a "Billy Strings". The name sounded vaguely familiar, but the image that was with it did not. It was of a guy with medium length hair and, contrary to the video below (where he looks like a dust bowl era farmer), at the post he's wearing a tie-dye T-shirt. Then I clicked on a song. Absolutely, same dude. There's no mistaking his top-tier old timey pickin'. He has a good voice too, and his delivery in right on the money. Thankfully the tie- dye hasn't infected him.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
First off, let me apologize for the Bob Dylan stuff posted yesterday. Yeesh. I listened to them again and, yeah, my first assessment was correct. They're lame. To get back on normal footing, back to good ol' manic rock 'n' roll. Some of these were hits, some weren't, but that shouldn't make a difference. Chances are you weren't listening to music in the fifties. I was really digging that Chuck Berry song last night, probably because I've heard the others a million times. Regardless, they're all awesome. I'd consider them all essential. Git.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Here's a handful of Dylan curiosities. They're from a 1970 session that he did with George Harrison. While there were versions of Dylan standards recorded, these are covers. I'm not sure if they were intended to be released on a proper album; the fact that they sat on a shelf for fifty years kind of tells you that they weren't quite up to snuff. But, hey, Dylan, with one of the scraggliest voices in the biz, singing songs that were hits by the velvet throated Sam Cooke and the Everly Brothers? Curiosity got to me. These are probably keepers for Dylan freaks but throwaways for anybody else. To be honest, they're kinda lame.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Once the propaganda is exposed on a large scale inside Russia, the fucker above is toast. The information war must take over, I know Anonymous was on the case, I remember hearing that. Hacking a TV station. Then there's that news producer that held up the sign behind the news anchor. Brave people. We need more of that, an underground onslaught.
L7's "Shit List" isn't nearly damning enough in regards to fuckface, but it made a nice soundtrack while crafting that image.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Stop the presses. I got nothing tonight but a link to an LP many of you probably already have. I don't care, it also serves as a heads up that the hosting blog, Primitive Offerings, has more cool shit. But this one is essential. Black Monk Time by the Monks is oddball garage at it's finest. And by oddball I don't mean bad, they just ignored the norms and, with encouragement from their manager, let it fly. It being the freak flag. Do I have to explain everything? Shit.
Anyway, like I said, Black Monk Time is an essential LP, Primitive Offerings posted the whole LP in a zip (MediaFire, no pop-ups), blah, blah, blah. I've posted their stuff a bunch in the past, scroll down the page linked here. There's bound to be some links that are still good. Scavenge elsewhere if you must.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Fuck, I don't know what to think about this one. I ran into an action figure of the Circle Jerks' "skank kid" mascot. They've got a lot of mileage out of that guy. The way they've used the drawing for marketing over the last [gulp!] forty years can seem like it grows against the grain of punk rock, particularly when you consider the era of DIY punk it was created in.
The "skank kid" was drawn by Shawn Kerri, someone I was friends with back in the day. Apparently, after having done the artwork, the Circle Jerks' agent claimed it was property of the band and threatened to sue her. She got sick of the back and forth so she just signed the rights over to Keith Morris, the Cirle Jerks' singer. That was way back at the dawn of the eighties and although it's been used many times since then, this is the first time I can think of that the character itself, sans Circle Jerks product, was the merchandise. Besides it seeming like an un-punk thing to do (in my book it does cross the line), it kinda goes with Morris's pattern of milking his involvement in the L.A. punks scene for everything he can. There might be a good reason for him to be in every L.A. punk documentary that's ever been made, but that doesn't mean I don't fast forward when he comes on the screen.
I may be being overly harsh, but here's another thing. Shawn Kerri at some point in the past few decades had an accident. She fell down some stairs and hit her head, suffering short term memory loss. There were rumors (and still are) that she died. The last update I've heard was in 2004. She was still alive then with some cognitive difficulties, as described by Carl Schneider who tracked her down while making a documentary about Marc Rude. If Morris still owns the rights to this "skank kid" and is the one who licensed it, and if Shawn Kerri is still with us, maybe he can kick some of the profits her way. It'd be cool if he did.
For all of you who skipped the paragraphs above, can't say I blame you. Here's the cover the Circle Jerks did of Garland Jeffrey's "Wild In the Streets". Yes, it was a cover.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Oh jeez. I think I pegged it. Six years ago, in a post about a Dutch band called the Waistcoats, I said "You might check out the songs below and, despite them being good, later forget all about them.". Guess what, I forgot all about them. The Waistcoats entire recorded output is barely a blip on the radar, so that might be why I feel compelled to post them again. Also because so little was written about them, not that I can fill in the blanks. I did manage to find reviews of a couple of their records. They've been referred to as garage punk, mod, beat, surf and Mersey beat. That might be why I like them, because they don't fully fall into any of those genres. It doesn't matter. The shit, of what I've heard, is good. And, yeah, totally memorable.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Last night I was getting ready to cook dinner (chicken tacos) and thought I'd put on some Pharoah Sanders. I like to listen intently to disorienting music while doing chores and slow or speed up my movements to match the tempo of the song. It sounds ridiculous but it makes you feel like you're in a movie and whatever you're listening to is part of a well curated soundtrack. You think I jest, but try it.
By the time I was done with dinner it was time for the biggee, Village of the Pharoahs. Holy shit, that LP is amazing. More so with the volume up and the lights out. Take it on step further? Move around while it's dark and the volume is up. Now, if you really want to disorient yourself, lights out, volume up, moving around while supporting half your weight from a pull up bar. What's the deal, you ask? If you concentrate on what you're listening to instead of what you're doing, the process can make you feel like you're floating in space. I'm sure all of that would be enhanced by being high. So I've been told.
Here's a couple warm up tunes to listen to while you're making dinner and then the main attraction, Village of the Pharoahs. The title cut (parts 1-3) alone sent me to the record store the first time I heard it.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
This is one of those things where I run into a song and think "I'll have to remember to post this". That happens all the time. Every once in a while I'll actually remember to post the song. Tonight's not like that. I did not know that there was a studio version of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion doing a two cover medley of the Beastie Boys' "She's On It" and Link Wray's "Jack the Ripper". I'd posted a live version six years ago thinking it was just a one time thing. It was not. Here's both versions and the rest of the live set.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Back in 2001, 9/11 to be exact, a couple hours after the World Trade Center was hit but before it was known who was responsible, I was stunned. I remember walking to work from the bus stop wondering if it was Russia and if this was "the big one". I mentally prepared for what may come and a song popped into my head. It was "Life During Wartime" by the Talking Heads. It spells out clearly that priorities change when the shit hits the fan. "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, I ain't got time for that now,..." We were spared that fate, but that song pretty much sums up what Ukraine is going through.
I've been a little obsessed with what is going on in Ukraine. It's hard not to be. Though twice today when I asked friends if they've been following what is going on they responded "I'm trying not too. Wrong answer. It is imperative that we all pay attention and do what we can. I honestly feel a little frivolous involving music at all at this point. And "Life During Wartime" is part of the reason.
Besides the song and live video of it, there are a few other links. One
is Global Citizen's YouTube channel where Volodymyr Zelenskyy's morning
briefings, public announcements, words of encouragement, and pleas will
be posted. Another is a documentary that Netflix has posted for free
viewing, Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, about the 2004 uprising that began as a student protest. And fuck Putin.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
I don't know about you but Ukraine has been in my mind constantly for the past week and a half. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amazes me, really. I think the rest of the world thought he'd just throw up his hands and let Putin waltz in and take over. He has shown what leadership and bravery can do. The Ukrainian people are no doubt inspired by him, and the rest of the world is in turn inspired by the conviction of the Ukrainian people. Step back and think about it for a minute. Zelenskyy, like Trump, came into office as a non-politician, with no experience running a country, not even close. Perhaps Putin put too much stock in thinking they, Zelenskyy and Trump, would be alike. That is to say, in Trump's case, a coward. Trump famously got a deferment from the draft by having a doctor write a note that said he had "bone spurs" in his foot. He didn't have the guts to even claim to be a conscientious objector, move out of the country or refuse to register for the draft altogether. He had daddy pay a doctor to make it go away. Can you imagine him in Zelenskyy's position a week ago? Russia would be trampling all over him before he finished trying to point the blame at someone else. Nope, the two are not alike, not in the least.
When the shit started to hit the fan, the U.S. offered to fly Zelenskyy out. Zelenskyy responded, "I don't need a ride, I need ammunition." For the past week, Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have consistently shown their mettle and resolve and it is inspiring. In the first few days, for whatever reason, a song by the Pretenders came to mind, but not their version. It was one done by a school choir at a school in New York. The teacher that leads the chorus posted a bunch of videos of his student singing various songs several years ago and they got a lot of attention. While just about every one I've watched has tugged at the ol' heart strings (kids feeling the music does that to me), the cover of the Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You" almost brought me to tears. For a few reasons. One is the teacher who has inspired these kids. The second is the kids themselves who are really into it. The one thing that really gets me is the song itself. Though I was familiar with the Pretenders' version, I guess I never really listened to it. In the hands of the PS22 Chorus, it becomes an all time classic, part of the American Songbook. It's that good, lyrics, tempo, key change, the whole package. Chrissy Hinde wrote a simple direct classic that could be heard as a love song, a friend song, an anti-bullying song or, as I heard it this week, a song of support. Zelenskyy is the man. Fuck Putin.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
If you want your kids to remember Harry Nilsson, show them The Point, a feature length animated film. I remember seeing it at a very young age and remembering it was a Harry Nilsson thing. I didn't remember a lick of the story, but I remembered that name. It must have been at least ten years that I carried that name around with me before I bought any of his records. So, there's something to be said about it, There aren't many cases when I had to remember a name to check out long before I did. Of course, now you can say a song title and your gizmo will find it for you. So fucking lame. Enjoy the film!
Another unexpected detour. I was watching the news (BBC on PBS) to see what happened today in Ukraine (respect). Someone has to take him out. Maybe one of the oligarchs that got their yacht seized will be pissed enough to hire the neighborhood heavy. I don't give a shit if it sounds corny, my heart goes out to the people of Ukraine, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy? I'm in awe, particularly when you compare his bravery to our ex-president "Bone Spurs".
So with that shit running around in my head, I decided to check out Radiodiffusion Internasioonaal Annexe to look for some Ukrainian music. They didn't have that, so I road tested their last few posts. One was Sharifa Fadel, an Egyptian singer. It had an odd cover so of course I clicked, totally unprepared for the seven seconds of crazed fuzz at the beginning. The guitarist had my attention. The last line of the post said "Although he is not credited, that fuzz guitar is most likely Omar Khorshid" Hello, rabbit hole.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Just a brief one, pun intended. I had a need for something a little raunchy and had been meaning to post the Briefs again. Throwing in the Didjits as well. Both are from the nineties, way after the initial punk era. That might explain the spikey hair and goofy sunglasses. I gotta say, whenever I see bands trying a little too hard to look punk or edgy, I always think about the stealth attack of Middle Class' Sears-worthy plain clothes and their proto-hardcore blast. (That's Middle Class, below)
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Here's a few last minute New Orleans based tunes to finish off Mardi Gras, aimed specifically at the party hounds that won't stop until Fat Tuesday turns into hangover Wednesday. The big question? How many Nevilles were there anyway?
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
