YOUR NERD MERIT BADGE AWAITS

Yet another reason posts have been slow in coming: after 3,882 posts, I've posted just about all the bands I like that I was able to share useful information about (or at least an oddball factoid or two) or mp3s or video of. I think it's come to the time that I give you the straight dope, heavy on my own admittedly subjective opinions. It already feels better. "Subjective", I like the sound of that, That means I can still think Jethro Tull sucks just because I hate the poofy bloomers Ian Anderson wore onstage. Notice, that's without any regard at all to the quality of their music. I hate golf too.

Without a cute segue, here's something I ran across. It's for those of you who like, or at least respect, the work of the Beastie Boys. You real Beastie fiends can take a pass because you probably have that big ass coffee table book about them. I'm sure that's a good read, I've never bought it even when I've found a cheapo used copy because the fucking book is too big. My coffee table is too small. It would have been better as multiple smaller volumes. Which brings me to Grand Royal, their short lived magazine from the early nineties.

What would a Beastie Boys related magazine be like? There's some music related stuff as you'd expect but it's also Bruce Lee, Evel Knievel, the Dalai Lama, Dolemite and the Harlem Globetrotters. The nerd out factor. I still have a few old copies but they're stored somewhere. The Internet Archive has three issues (of the six published) that you ought to bookmark. There's also a link to their second album from 1989, Paul's Boutique. It's the one I keep going back to. A product of wine, weed and a collaboration with producers the Dust Brothers, it was a complete departure from Licensed To Ill, their only holdover ingredient was the slippery cockiness of twenty-somethings who are pretty certain that their shit don't stink. I'm sure theirs does sometimes, but Grand Royal certainly did not.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989) at Internet Archive Full LP in 15 cuts
Read:
Grand Royal #1 (1993) at Internet Archive Bruce Lee (cover), George Clinton, Kiss Alive IV,  Joey Buttafuoco's Back To School Wear For '93
Grand Royal #2 (1996) at Internet Archive Lee Perry (cover), Mud Honey, Thurston Moore, the 1983 NBA All-Star game, Dolemite and more.
Grand Royal #3 (1996) at Internet Archive Moog Synthesizers (cover), Evel Kneivel, Dalai Lama, Money Mark

SOAK YOUR SKULL WITH SUN RA

I was all set to post about something entirely different but while taking a short break I did a search for Sun Ra, just for the hell of it. Right away, bam!, I ran into an article about a new documentary (at Vogue's site of all places). So it was back into the Sun Ra rabbit hole again. Rather than subject you to my babbling, I'll just throw a bunch of Sun Ra stuff at you. Below you'll find links to the new documentary, another older documentary, a few articles (Vogue's thing, a profile at Downbeat, another at New Yorker) and a few random cuts. The tipping point that prevented me from blowing things off as I've been wont to do the past few months was a new link to Space Is the Place, the feature length film Sun Ra did in 1974. To bump up the WTF factor it is suggested that you tailgate with the bong before that one. A six minute preview is directly below, suitable for the milk and cookies crowd.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

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 - Music From the World Tomorrow mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Sun Ra - There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) mp3 at Melting Pot
Sun Ra - Rocket Number Nine (streaming) at YouTube Six minute version
Watch:
Space Is the Place - Feature film at YouTube
Sun Ra - Do the Impossible (documentary) at PBS
Sun Ra - Joyful Noise (documentary) at Afroland TV
Read:
A New Film Shows Sun Ra Is Still Ahead of His Time at Vogue
Sun Ra: Orbiting the Sun at Downbeat
How Sun Ra Taught Us to Believe the Impossible at New Yorker

MORE OF THIS ROCK STARS

 

ANTE UP GREEN DAY

 

FUCK ICE THEATER

I didn't go looking for this because I didn't know it existed. If it doesn't get posted tonight, it could be be gone tomorrow. (It was just posted a day ago.) A two hour documentary on the Sonics. Yeah. If you've been here long enough, you know that this is right up my alley. I hate saying shit like "If you don't know who the Sonics are..." From here on, if there's a band posted that you don't know, go do a web search. I'm just going to assume that most of you are familiar with essential bands, and the Sonics are essential. I tried to round up some mp3s but could only find a couple. That tells me they're good at protecting their shit, which also means that documentary might be gone tomorrow, So, with out further rambling here's a few songs.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Sonics - Psycho (streaming) at YouTube

The Sonics - Strychnine (streaming) at YouTube
The Sonics - The Witch (streaming) at YouTube
The Sonics - Boss Hoss (streaming) at YouTube 
The Sonics - Do You Love Me mp3 at Tumblr
The Sonics - Walkin' the Dog mp3 at Tumblr

FUCK ICE

It's been a while since I've posted and I have a half-assed explanation. I've been distracted. I'm not sure how many of you pay attention to the news, but it's hard to miss how fucked up Donald Trump and his administration have made things, not just in the U.S but all over the world. I really want to keep this blog music related, but avoiding mentioning current events is hard when it's a shit show of this magnitude. So, you're going to get hybrid posts until things get closer to normal. It may be a while.

As you've probably guessed, I do not like Donald Trump, I didn't vote for him and I don't respect anything about him. I am the Anti-Trump. He reminds me of the rich pussy in high school that pays the football bruiser to kick the shit out of his perceived enemies. He's tried it on the international stage and was an embarrassment to his country. He's going after his political foes with bogus charges that are more often then not thrown out of court. He's blown Venezuelan boats out of the water under the pretense that they were drug running. The list goes on. And then there's ICE. The thousands of poorly vetted quick hires with fantasies of playing Call Of Duty in real life.known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Killing America citizens that any honest person could see did not pose a reasonable threat. This country is ready to implode. And I just happen to be reading Citizen Tom Paine a biographical novel by Howard Fast (library sale, yesterday, $1). If you are not familiar with Thomas Paine, look him up. Read Common Sense. That shit worked.

Thomas Paine

Now that the jazz portion of our show is over, here's some completely unrelated instrumentals by Steve Cropper, Pops Staples, and Albert King playing together. All three were on Stax Records at the time. The cool thing is hearing them trade off licks in the same song and trying to ID who's who. In "Tupelo" there's name checks before solos so you can cheat if you must. If you're into Stax or obsess about guitarists' signature styles it's a fun test.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Steve Cropper, Pops Staples, and Albert King - Big Bird mp3 at Archive.org
Steve Cropper, Pops Staples, and Albert King - Don't Turn Your Heater Down mp3 at Archive.org
Steve Cropper, Pops Staples, and Albert King - Opus De Soul mp3 at Archive.org
Steve Cropper, Pops Staples, and Albert King - Homer's Theme mp3 at Archive.org
Steve Cropper, Pops Staples, and Albert King - Tupelo mp3 at Archive.org