TIME TO CHECK IN AGAIN.

It seems like yesterday, the last time I posted Fela's "Expensive Shit". In actuality it's been nine years. That mp3 link has been dead for some time. Good enough excuse to post some of his stuff again. You regulars know I'm nuts about Fela, so I can't resist. If you're not familiar with Fela, a thumbnail snagged from an earlier post:

He spent some time in the US in the late 60's, where he was inspired by the Black Panthers and the Black Power movement. Soon after, he was deported and returned to Nigeria, bringing with him a new direction. He created his own compound that included a commune, a disco and a recording studio, took 27 wives and proclaimed his independence from the Nigerian state, which ultimately landed him on the government's shit list. A flagrant pothead, in 1974 Nigerian police planted a joint in his home to have an excuse to drag his ass in for a time-out. He ate the joint, thereby destroying the evidence. As if a scene from a Pink Panther movie, they brought him in anyway, to wait for the joint to pass. In the interim, he acquired a stool from another inmate, presented the joint-free duty, and was later released. Thumbing his nose at the authorities, he wrote a song about the incident, naming it, poignantly, "Expensive Shit". 

So, here's the deal, if you don't know Fela's music, you should. Read up on him, its Afro-beat at it's finest. Most of these are long (the longest is 31:00), going through many changes keeping things interesting., the rhythm keeps you locked in. It's all about letting the groove take over. If you are familiar with Fela and dig him, you know that his catalog is pretty vast so a few more should be welcomed. Besides "Expensive Shit", I tried to pick the others at random. I've posted his stuff too many times and I'm too lazy to go backwards and survey old posts to see if any of these are repeats.

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Listen:
Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit mp3 at Internet Archive
Fela Kuti - Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense mp3 at Internet Archive
Fela Kuti - Unknown Soldier (Pts 1 & 2) mp3 at Internet Archive
Fela Kuti - Roforofo  mp3 at Internet Archive
Fela Kuti - He Miss Road mp3 at Internet Archive

YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS FUZZ.

Spy music is rad. The best thing about secret agent/spy/James Bond themes is that the songs are generally so good it doesn't really matter who's doing them, they usually come out okay. The era in which spy music was popular (roughly late fifties through the late sixties) was also about the time that cash-in records were popular. Any group of capable studio musicians could piece together an ersatz compilation of a dozen or so songs that were already recognizable to the tightwads that didn't want to shell out for the OG versions. Apply that process to instrumentals and you have the whole Ventures, Billy Strange, Al Caiola, Hugo Montenegro clusterfuck.

Todays featured carpetbagger is Reg Guest and his combo The Reg Guest Syndicate. I gotta say, he does a bang-up job. It's big sound, orchestration and all the trimmings. There's a few Guest originals in there too. "Underworld" is a good one, albeit borrowing a riddim from "Green Onions". But, ho-ly shit, does the instrumentation make up for it. The unrelenting extreme fuzz on the guitar sets the mood on the whole thing. It's Steve Cropper playing Davie Allan's rig, turned up to 11 with Paul Burlison dropping the amp. Alas, this was the Reg Guest Syndicate's sole release. I'm guessing that he (Guest) went back to faceless studio work. Anyway, I tip my hat to the under-valued yet more than competent person of any trade. Why can't it be the same for some no-name band leader?

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Listen:
The Reg Guest Syndicate - Underworld mp3 at Internet Archive
The Reg Guest Syndicate - James Bond Theme mp3 at Internet Archive
The Reg Guest Syndicate - Man From U.N.C.L.E. mp3 at Internet Archive
The Reg Guest Syndicate - Thunderball mp3 at Internet Archive

HOPE THEY AREN'T WHAT THEY MIGHT BE

It's not often that I click on a record because I like the cover and the music happens to back it up. That's the case for these guys. I'm not even going to tempt fate by looking for a bio or anything about their background. If they can sound kind of like a mix of At The Drive-In and the Dead Kennedys, even if it's just this record, I'm okay with that. I hope it's authentic, not, you know, the guys all in varying black, dark grey, and olive drab clothing, stern mugs with too much attention to grooming. Them there are whatcha might call poseurs.

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Listen:
Auxes - I Can't Pause It mp3 at Internet Archive
Auxes - Tit For Tat mp3 at Internet Archive
Auxes - Does It Matter mp3 at Internet Archive
Auxes - Paranoia mp3 at Internet Archive

I AM 18 AND I'M KING OF THE ALLEY

Remember the kids that I mentioned a few days ago on the Black Sabbath post? They reminded me of a few Flamin' Groovies things I've been meaning to post, "Teenage Head" in particular. If you're not familiar with the song, it's not about fellatio (blow jobs for you illiterates). The opening lyrics: "I'm a monster, got a revved up teenage head. Teenage monster, California born and bred. Half a boy and half a man, I'm half at sea and half on land, oh my. Bye, bye." Never mind the fact that the singer was no longer a teenager, this is an JD anthem for the ages, particularly if you are California born and bred. In the presence of the these two kids, who party, ride skateboards, chase skirts and, if they're drunk enough, fight each other, I was reminded of that first verse of "Teenage Head" which in turn reminded me of an interesting LP that has the 1986 version of the Groovies recorded live in a studio in Australia. It's one of the few places you're going to hear the same version of the Groovies play both "Teenage Head" from their earlier 1971 incarnation (often described as an American version of the Stones) and "Shake Some Action", from the later 1976 incarnation (sounding more like the Beatles) in a studio setting.. Of course the later recording is from a decade later but that's kind of why I like it. It's a tad grittier both in performance and in the mix. Cyril Jordan sounds like Paul Westerberg on "Shake Some Action", a little worn having been recorded at the end of an Australian tour. I'm digging both of these later versions because I've heard the originals so many times they've lost a little of their punch.

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Listen:
Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head (1971) mp3 at Internet Archive
Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head (1986) mp3 at Internet Archive
Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (1976) mp3 at Margauxville
Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (1986) mp3 at Internet Archive

WHEN HALEY WAS HILLBILLY

Last night, from out of nowhere the jazz station played Bill Haley and the Saddlemen's "Rock This Joint" followed by Otis Blackwell's "Daddy Rolling Stone", neither of which would really qualify as jazz. I did not ask questions. I was digging them. Cool too, it was on a regular FM radio station. That would have been a nice surprise had I been out somewhere with my transistor radio with me. I still keep one with me sometimes around the neighborhood, like a walk to the pier or something. Hearing it like that would have been good, had I been on the pier with my transistor radio. It was good enough to know that it was still possible to hear stuff like that on regular airwaves on a fifteen dollar radio with two AA batteries and telescoping antenna. On a radio that you didn't have to subscribe to, doesn't cost anything, does not take your info and cannot track you. You give up a lot for convenience if your phone is you music source. You never would have got around to looking for, let alone listening to, Bill Haley and the Saddlemen or Otis Blackwell on your phone. I don't think the new i-Phones can handle anything that doesn't have Auto-Tune. Fuck, unplug for a minute. Don't give away the game. Rant on.

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Listen:
Bill Haley and the Saddlemen - Rock The Joint (streaming) at YouTube
Bill Haley and ths Saddleman - Rocket 88 mp3 at Rocky 52
Otis Blackwell - Daddy Rolling Stone mp3 at Rocky 52

DEEP COOL

I keep forgetting to post this. "Arabia" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. For you non-jazz people, this is a good one to snag because it has a little bit of everything. Drums from an all time skin beater, and horns absolutely going off. It's nine minutes long, long enough that you can get into it, let it digest, ferment or whatever, and then listen to it again. One thing I like about this mp3 is it's flaw. Right before the music starts, a couple spoken syllables in a woman's voice. It sounds like she's saying "buddify". For whatever reason it's the damn je ne sais quoi of this, for me anyway. It reminds me of editing fuck ups in the days of cassettes. Following any other song on a mix, the two syllables shock you into a transition. In other words, this would do well in a mix right after a completely different type of music. As the song advances the tune sounds as exotic as it's title, kinda. Another cool thing is that there are multiple solos, it's nine minutes long after all. For you jazz people, it's a 1961 Rudy Van Gelder recording with Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard....Fuck. I just noticed that I posted this song about four months ago. Oh well, too late now. There's a couple other Rudy Van Gelder joints down there to make up for it. Dig it.

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Listen:
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Arabia mp3 at Internet Archive
Dexter Gordon - Coppin' the Haven mp3 at Internet Archive
Lee Morgan - Filet of Soul mp3 at Internet Archive
Hank Mobley - Beverly mp3 at Internet Archive

FU-HUCK. THAT GUITAR TONE.

True confessions: I've never owned a Black Sabbath LP. When I was growing up, my brother had Black Sabbath Vol. 4. Besides that and the occasional playing of Sabbath on FM radio and at keg parties and such, I figured that if I really did want to hunker down and listen to a bunch of Sabbath, they were popular enough that their records would never go out of print. That's pretty much true, their music has never been all that hard to find. But their heyday was long ago, in the early seventies.

The other night I was out in the alley and a guy on a skateboard at the end of the alley was blasting "War Pigs". I could only see his silhouette until he got closer. I recognized him when the light hit on him. He was the friend of the kid that lives in the apartment in back. Both are eighteen years old, at the prime beer drinking, pot smoking, skirt chasing age. They do all three. They also get into all sorts of mischief and fuck ups. They crack me up. A few months ago they had a bullhorn and were walking around the neighborhood saying ridiculous things with a total deadpan delivery over the bullhorn. Imagine walking down the street and hearing, from a half block away someone you couldn't even see, say over a bullhorn "I just shit myself". I happened to hear it from my kitchen window and almost shit myself laughing. When these kids aren't getting fucked and up falling off their skateboards, they're beating each other up (a few weeks ago, a black eye, bloody noses and a trip to the ER for the instigator, all among friends). They're goofy in a good way. They always spill their guts to me because I'm simpatico. I would have made a terrible parent. Anyway, this kid, eighteen years old, was blasting music that was over fifty years old. That's the thing that got me. Would I have been listening to music that was fifty years old when I was eighteen?  Hell no. That's how bad current music is. Here's three fifty year old classics, all from Sabbath's second LP.

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Listen:
Black Sabbath - War Pigs mp3 at Internet Archive
Black Sabbath - Paranoid mp3 at Internet Archive
Black Sabbath - Iron Man mp3 at Internet Archive

SO HOT SHE NEEDS TWO GUNS

There's one thing about Blaxploitation film soundtracks. You can't just listen to one song and then go listen to something else. I don't know if it's the drum breaks, the wah-wah, congas, horns or what but I always have to hear a few cuts in a row. Just to let myself sink into it. Then I don't want to leave. These got me started and I'm just now binging on a couple compilations in the living room. I know that once I start watching one of the movies (link below) I'm not coming back.

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Listen:
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Pate - Shaft In Africa mp3 at Internet Archive
Gene Page - Blacula mp3 at Internet Archive
Willie Hutch - Theme From Foxy Brown mp3 at Internet Archive
Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead mp3 at Internet Archive
Dennis Coffey - Theme From Black Belt Jones mp3 at Internet Archive
Curtis Mayfield - Pusher Man mp3 at Internet Archive
Watch:
Blaxploitation flicks at YouTube Tons of them. Tip: Jim Kelly.

GAL COSTA, REST IN PEACE

On the way home tonight I heard that Gal Costa died yesterday. I really love her music. Every thing below was posted back in June and it's not about her in particular but there's a few of her songs. Given the circumstances I've no reservations about re-posting it. Plus I'm lazy.

I have a new next door neighbor, a Brazilian. There's a lot of Brazilians in my neighborhood. Let me tell you, they know how to have a good time. Several years ago when there were other Brazilians living in my complex, it was when Brazil won the World Cup. They went absolutely ape shit. I put on some Brazilian music as a soundtrack to the spectacle in the courtyard and they barged in my apartment and were jumping up and down on my couch. That vision had me hearing music in my head the for last 24 hours. Os Mutantes, bossa nova, Gal Costa, the whole damn Gilberto family, all the Brazilian stuff I was familiar with. Then, on the way home from the beach today I walked by a house that had bossa nova playing, floating out the screen door. That settled it. When I got home I went looking for some bossa nova that I didn't have, something new to me. I found it, a great mix, but shit. Turns out the first hour of the mix was bossa nova and the second hour was anything goes including douchebags. It's indelibly tainted, it includes a song by Mike Love, king of all popular music douchebags. I cannot, in good conscience, pass that on. I feel tainted just mentioning his name. So, what the fuck, here's a few Brazilian things

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Listen:
Gal Costa - Vou Recomecar mp3 at Super Sonido
Gal Costa - Relance mp3 at Super Sonido
Gal Costa - Acauã mp3 at Super Sonido Wait for the freakout.
Gal Costa - Pontos de Luz mp3 at Super Sonido
Gal Costa & Gilberto Gil - Sebastiania mp3 at Super Sonido Freakout endings seem to be a trend.
Jorge Ben - Mais Que Nada mp3 ('65) at Guizzz Orleans
Os Mutantes - Dom Quixotet mp3 at Archive.org

GANG OF BURMA GUN SYNDICATE

A lot of people will tell you that music sucked in the eighties. That's really true, that is if you're talking about popular music. But, if you were living back then (maybe you were), would you have been listening to popular music? Probably not, not if you're on this blog. What the masses like rarely has anything to do with quality, it's all about the marketing, the push by the record companies and, especially back then, how much screen time the band gets. Back then it was all MTV all the time. (Believe it, they used to actually play music videos.) Anyway, my friends and I weren't paying attention to MTV or mainstream music rags like Rolling Stone. We were in the clubs, record stores and parties. I can't tell you how much music I was turned on to in living rooms with loud stereos. None of that streaming "you might also like" bullshit. More like "you might also spill beer on this". Here's a handful from back then. These were played a lot on drinking nights. Most nights were drinking nights.

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Listen:
Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over mp3 at Internet Archive
Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver mp3 at Internet Archive
Gang of Four - To Hell With Poverty mp3 at Internet Archive
Gun Club - Sex Beat mp3 at Internet Archive

MEANWILE, IN A BACK ROOM ON MICHIGAN AVE

You know Chess Records. You should. I'd guess that most music freaks can probably name a half dozen blues or rock 'n' roll artists that recorded for Chess. The biggees being Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Koko Taylor, Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and so on. Chess did put out some oddballs, some of which have only been reissued in box sets or other compilations. These are three random ones from a box set. The first one is not only the sole 45 that Billy Curley Barrix did for Chess, it's also the only rockabilly song Barrix had released. Starting with his next record a few years later, dude went country. The Clifton Chenier cut is interesting because it's early (around '59) and it's not zydeco, it's blues. Not to worry, his accordion is in there, just there as a guitar or piano would be. It doesn't maintain the boogie like his zydeco sound. But the accordion makes the song regardless. The Billy Miranda cut is down there for two reasons. One is that it sounds like some cross between Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Hasil Adkins. The other reason it's down there is because it's rare these days for me to want to reach through my speakers and slap the singer at the other end upside the head. This Miranda guy is a hysterical whiner.

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Listen:
Billy Curley Barrix - Cool Off Baby mp3 at Internet Archive
Clifton Chenier - My Soul mp3 at Internet Archive
Billy Miranda - Go Ahead mp3 at Internet Archive

IS THIS THE SEARS CATALOG AUDITION?

Yeah, I've been watching the World Series and feeling lazy. Last night I went on a Booker T and the MGs binge and it hasn't subsided. Besides being the house band at Stax, their discography as their own band is an aural rabbit hole. Here's a random selection. "Hip Hug Her"'s my jam.

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Listen:
Booker T & the MGs - Hip Hug-Her mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T & the MGs - Hang 'em High mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T & the MGs - Soul Limbo mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T & the MGs - The Exodus Song mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T & the MGs - Born Under A Bad Sign mp3 at Internet Archive