Here's another mixed bag of last minute holiday downloads. The quick lowdown on these:
Nathaniel Mayer is, well, Eli "Paperboy" Reed lite. The ladies probably dig him as some sort of dreamy soul dude version of Chris
Issacs (he, in his Herb
Ritts meets Roy Orbison
thang). Personally, I like my guy soul singers with a little more grunt, but he does have a good voice. The next one, by
El Vez, is a surprisingly good rockabilly song, easy on the usual El
Vez shtick.
The Dirtbombs cut is of interest, if for no other reason, because, it's uncharacteristically mellow. Same goes for
Rocket From the Crypt, although I'd put in on anyways to give props to my homeboys, in my opinion one of the best bands ever to come out of San Diego (really, their
rockin' stuff is way better). The
John Lennon song should be familiar to everyone (I really dig the "War is over, if you want it" background vocals).
The Ramones cut
woulda been better it it was on one of the first three albums,
if'n you know what I mean. But, hey, it's the
Ramones. Ooh, ooh, the
Jimmy McGriff cut is way cool, in a smokey lounge sorta way. (The dude could take a shit on a Hammond B3 and I'd probably dig it).
Pee Wee Dynamite's in there for a little international
flava, but really, when you think
afro-funk, do you ever think of Christmas? Threw in
Gary Walker's take-off of the James Brown classic, I guess to represent all of those bands back in the sixties that would cover a song, right after the original came out, because either they actually thought they could do a better job or because they figured that people loved the song so much that they would buy it twice (
ala the Raiders and "Louie Louie"),
The Busy Boys are in here because I love the sparse
DIY sound of early rap, when small labels popped up out of nowhere, and total unknowns had their own crews.
The Marquees cut is straight out of the Cadets' ("Stranded in the Jungle") playbook. As much as I appreciate the smooth
doowop, I really like the slightly more colorful oddball stuff. Finally, what Christmas would be Christmas without Link
Wray? Leave it to
Billy Childish to
throwdown with some yuletide grease..
On that note, I'll now retire to getting the shit done that I've been putting off for weeks. Happy Holidays to all of you knuckleheads.
