la dimension de trastos

Sunday, March 20, 2011

NO HATRED WILL BE TOLERATED

It's been quite a couple months, eh? Severe weather, revolutions, earthquake, tsunami, nuclear disaster, and now what looks like may become another war. Know what? It's high time for the Staple Singers. It took me a while (years) to warm up to the Staples. When I finally did, there was no ignoring their unique role in the lineage of soul. They somehow managed to get gospel influenced music on AM radio. That's a feat in itself. But the gospel thing is only a part of it. Their funky relaxed grooves make you move, or at least do some swaying of some sort. (Come to think of it, reggae seems to have the same effect.) And that Pop Staples guitar! It's total understated swamp guitar, a sort of stealth "Polk Salad Annie." On top of all that, you have the vocals. They're understated as well. almost Isaac Hayes like in their laid back-ness. And they are beautiful, not sexpot beautiful, more like tree beautiful. Mavis Staples' in particular. But the backing vocals are just as important, and key to the Staples sound.

The first two down there you should know. Those were the big hits. "Masters of War" is a Dylan cover. "Samson & Delilah" was covered by the Blasters. The title track from their 1959 LP, "Uncloudy Day," has some really cool guitar by Pops. Then there's a Buffalo Springfield cover down there, and after that, a Talking Heads cover (which sounds very 80's, but is cool nonetheless). (They also covered the Talking Heads "Life During Wartime," but I couldn't find an mp3. You can hear it streaming here.) The last song, "Wade In the Water," is an audio only thing at YouTube, which I wouldn't ordinarily post, but it's an early Staples cut, and it smokes. Way more gospel than their later stuff.

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

Saturday, March 19, 2011

FORGET THE HITS

Stop. I know what you're thinking. Forget all about the Edgar Winter hits (all two of them). Hear me out on this one, because if you don't listen now, you might not ever hear it again. Edgar Winter released some top shelf funky-ass R&B in the band that preceded the hits, Edgar Winter's White Trash. I mean it. I know his career has been spotty, with some embarrassingly bad stuff that no one should be subjected to. (If you've ever heard the rap version of "Frankenstein," you know what I'm talking about.) But, if you haven't heard anything from either of the first two White Trash LPs, you're missing what he was best at.

The seven piece White Trash, all relative unknowns with the exception of Winter, did their own version of funky R & B, with distorted wah-wah, incredibly deep bass, and some perfectly placed horns. By no means purist, but funky as all get out. The band included one Jerry LaCroix, a fantastically gifted soul shouter from Winter's hometown Beaumont, Texas. It was undoubtedly the presence of LaCroix's Sam to Winter's Dave that prompted Winter to stretch his own pipes a little.

"Give it Everything You Got" has it all. The swapping of vocals, the aforementioned wah-wah, and the bass (so deep, it may be a fuzz bass), the horns, the screams, everything. I wish I could hear it again for the first time. Seriously, I think I would be awe struck.

The other two are from the second White Trash LP, the two record live album, Roadwork. "Cool Fool," is just as tight as the first one, with Winter singing lead, and "I Can't Turn You Loose," the Otis cover, has LaCroix singing lead. Give 'em a shot, they may change your perception of Edgar Winter, and make you forget "Frankenstein."

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

Edgar Winter's White Trash - Give It Everything You Got mp3 at Giant Panther
Edgar Winter's White Trash - Cool Fool mp3 (via DivShare) at Your Sister's Record Rack
Edgar Winter's White Trash - I Can't Turn You Loose mp3 (via DivShare) at Your Sister's Record Rack

Friday, March 18, 2011

THE STRYCHNINE'S ON ME GUYS

There are a handful of people that first sucked me into the can of worms that is music bloggery. The two biggees were a couple of folks who unknowingly tugged at my tired ass rock and roll heart stings, and convinced me that true believers still tangled. Every few days I could visit their space, and it was like my brother bringing home a thrift store score. That was roughly four or five years ago, and they're still my first two clicks when I start prowling.

These guys just kill it, consistently. This here is a bookmark alert. (If you don't bookmark them, there will always be links here in the "Get Lost" list.) Here they are: DJ Diddy Wah's Diddy Wah (an Australian ex-pat in the UK), and the Reverend Tom Frost's Spread the Good Word (from South of Hell, France).

Reverend Frost used to post a little more regularly, but he's now doing complete mixes, every few weeks. If you're leery of committing to a whole mix download, you shouldn't be. Trust me on this, there's nary a stinker in the bunch. He's also a musician, and there's a link below to a post with an mp3 of his two man project, the Bloody Tomahawks (as seen above), doing a cover of the Cramps' "Garbageman." If you dig that, there's a link or two to other places with samples (Facebook, etc.). It's good stuff.

Diddy Wah hits it just about every post. Usually just a song or two, but always worthy. A sampling is down below, but you really should just go there. The dude's been on a roll lately. His mixes are also dyn-o-mite.

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

The Mar-Keys - The Dribble mp3 at Diddy Wah
Irma Thomas - Break-A-Way mp3 at Diddy Wah
Jody Reynolds - Endless Sleep mp3 at Diddy Wah
Ernie Fields - Teen Flip mp3 at Diddy Wah
Diddy Wah's mixes
Diddy Wah's home page (bookmark this!)

The B loody Tomahawks- Garbageman mp3 can be found at Spread the Good Word

Spread the Good Word - A Bloody Evil Party Mix, Part 3: Go there for Rev. Frost's latest mix, 26 tunes with the Tielman Brothers, Vince Taylor, Howlin' Wolf, Gene Vincent, Sandy Nelson, Jody Reynolds, and a few other familiar names; mixed a whole bunch of bands I've never heard of.

Reverend Tom Frost's music site
Spread the Good Word's home page (bookmark this!)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

MOPS, MONKS, MONKEES, MOTT, GORIES

Yes Mops fans, we heard you loud and clear. You wanted more Mops. It's Mops mania. Crazy about the Mops. Hooked on Mops. Sweatin' to the Mops. Now, that's what I call Mops! Did a little more digging for stuff about them, and started thinking about other bands that had self-referential song titles. The first that came to mind were the Monkees' "(Hey, Hey) We're the Monkees," and then the Monks' "Monk Time," and Mott the Hoople's "The Ballad of Mott the Hoople." Do you see a pattern? All of those names start with "Mo". Of course, that doesn't mean shit, because the next one I thought of was the Gories' "Hey, Hey, We're the Gories." Pledge break!:

So I found a video, a clip from a Japanese movie, that has the Mops playing from the back of of a flat bed truck, ala Jerry Lee. One of the thing that sets this off in a weird way from the git-go is that the truck is parked at about a fifteen degree incline. It's a neat song, kind of reminded me of Captain Beefheart, for no particular reason.

So here's the Mops song that started a frenzy, some other Mops links, and four from the self-referential song title tangent. All unrelated killer, no unrelated filler.

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

The Mops - I'm A Mops mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Mops - Lengthy bio, by Julian Cope, at JapRockSampler
The Mops - Goiken Muyou (Iijanaika) at Crawdaddy.com
Japanese Psychedelic Music at Psych.org

The Monkees - (Hey, Hey) We're the Monkees mp3 at Lexington Rescue 1
The Monks - Monk Time mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
Mott the Hoople - The Ballad of Mott the Hoople mp3 at Plain or Pan
The Gories - Hey Hey We're the Gories mp3 at Black Out Musique

Monday, March 14, 2011

HELP WORLD CITIZENS

It shakes me to my bones to think of what the earthquake and tsunami victims must be going through. This sort of thing should be humbling to anyone and everyone. I really have nothing to add, so I'll just post a bunch of Japanese music. This is just a sprinkling, but hopefully enough that a few of you will look into the agencies helping the victims (a list of agencies at the Huffington Post can be found here.)

I left out a few bands that I was thinking about posting, because I couldn't find any mp3s (Buffalo Daughter, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, Jackie & the Cedrics, etc) and I left out Guitar Wolf, because I posted a whole thing about him (here) a while back (and the links are still good!). Hands down, my favorites below are the older ones (the single song artists interspersed below). If I was you, I'd start with fuzz: the Dynamites, the Mops, and Bunny. They're just some wild shit. Really, if I'd have found them first, I'd have stopped right there. Then there's the surf bands: Terry & the Blue Jeans, and Jimmy Takeuchi and the Exciters. After that, you can just dabble around. There's something for everyone.

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

Saturday, March 12, 2011

WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY?

If you've ever seen Repo Man, you might remember the scene when Emilio Estevez's character Otto is in a bar, and the Circle Jerks are on stage doing a acoustic faux-lounge version of "When the Shit Hits the Fan." As an aside, he mutters "I can believe I used to like this band." That's exactly what I thought, not long after ZZ Top's fourth LP. You'd never guess it now, but back before the buffoonery, ZZ Top were actually a tight blues rock band with no bells, no whistles, and no ridiculous outfits.

They came along at a perfect time for a young male teenager. I remember humming "Just Got Paid Today" after cashing my first three digit paycheck; and swilling my first beers to "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers." Just about every band in the blues rock obsessed beach area party scene that I grew up in, knew that if the energy was lagging after one too many Allman Brothers songs, you played some ZZ Top. Everything was just fine. Then came Fandango, their fourth album. "Tush" got airplay. They were starting to blow up, and in the era of huge tour extravaganzas, they did it big. "That Little Ol' Band From Texas" (which is what they referred to themselves as) went on a stadium tour, complete with a stage in the shape of the state of Texas, and live animals, including a longhorn steer, a bison, two vultures and two rattlesnakes (the animal budget alone was $140K). To add more distress, this was when they started dressing alike (albeit, they were suits by Nudie). But the single most disturbing part of this whole "we'll do whatever it takes" fiasco, was those goddamned choreographed moves.

You can't coast on one gatefold sleeve forever.

I pretty much stopped listening to anything new by ZZ Top after that. I tested the water a little here and there, but in 1979, they all but told their old fan base to fuck off and die. In came the matching long ass beards and the spinning guitars, and the weird non-guitar shit started creeping into their music. And then, they did the unthinkable. Riding high, from catering to the lowest common denominator (MTV), they got the brilliant idea to enhance their earlier albums, to make them sound more 80's. It was the textbook definition of FUBAR. The original unfucked-with versions were not released on CD until 2006, at which time I started to consider giving them a pass. But, until they are up there, unchoreographed, without synthesizers, effects, animals, ridiculous outfits, or any sort of gimmicks, I'll still be saying "I can't believe I used to like these guys"

Here's a few from Billy Gibbon's earlier band, the Moving Sidewalks, and some cuts from the early ZZ Top albums, when they really were "That Little Ol' Band From Texas." And there's some covers too; by Motorhead, and Queens of the Stone Age (the latter on a rarities mix).

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

Moving Sidewalks - Pluto - Sept. 31st mp3 at Merry Swankster
Moving Sidewalks - Every Night A New Surprise mp3 at Soylent Cream (Note: Fade-out cut short)
Moving Sidewalks - Flashback mp3 (via Box.net) at DailyBowBow
ZZ Top - Brown Sugar mp3 at SnapDrive.net
ZZ Top - Just Got Paid mp3 at TheSixman.com
ZZ Top - Francine (FUBAR version) mp3 at FileDen
ZZ Top - La Grange mp3 at MilwaukeeBay.com
ZZ Top - Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers mp3 at SoberMusicians.com (No, really.)
ZZ Top - Heard It On the X mp3 at DIYMedia.net
ZZ Top - Tush mp3 at Tracy Designs
Covers:
Motorhead - Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers mp3 at Heavy-Music.ru
Boula Matari Missie Tintin- Tush mp3 at BoulaMatari.org
The Queens of the Stone Age - Rarities Collection Vol 3 (zip, via MediaFire ) at Metal Bastard Goes Soft (Includes cover of ZZ Top's "Precious and Grace." Go there for complete song list.)
Oddball:
Lord Riffenstein - Tush ("No guitars with vocal") mp3 at LordRiffenstein What is this? Karaoke for guitar?

Friday, March 11, 2011

UP (YOURS) WITH PEOPLE!

Photo: Square America

Too old and tired to go out and get nutty on a Friday night? We have an app for that. I ran across a medley of Velvet Underground songs that pops up from time to time. The first time I heard it, it prompted a mix of WTF mild amusement, and purist annoyance. So, of course, I had to subject you to it. If you want to get it out of your head right away, follow it up with the "Guess I'm Falling In Love" instrumental version as a chaser, loud. It's the only known remedy.

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

The symptom:
Mike Flowers Pop - Velvet Underground Medley mp3 at 8106 ("No para puristas"? No shit.)
The remedy:
The Velvet Underground - Guess I'm Falling In Love (instrumental) mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Earlier VU post:
The Velvet Underground Grab Bag (Note: From a year ago, so some mp3 links may be dead)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

IF I HAD A HAT, I'D TIP IT

You might have seen my gush fest the other day, the one about the supa-fine Versions Galore. For the past several days, while continuing to dig through the massive amount of stuff there, another thing hit me, which might explain why I think the host, Leopold, has such a good thing going. The breadth of material he posts would be worthy if they were covers or not. I mean, anyone who posts the Dirtbombs and Judy Mowatt is someone who passes the Trastos litmus test. And, by posting another funky Hendrix cover (this time pour moi), he definitely knows how to incite a link. This time, I'll lay off his bandwidth and just encourage, no implore you to bookmark the sucker.

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

Saravah Soul - Fire mp3 at Versions Galore
Versions Galore - Bookmark this one to return to his latest.
Here's another cover of Fire, by the Goddard High School Stage Band, that's funky in a marching band sorta way:
Goddard High School Stage Band - Fire mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

REGGAE VOCAL GROUP #104

I think I've blabbed enough in the last several days to spare you another episode of eye rolling. So here's a bunch from the Heptones. As much as you'd like me to take my intrusive ass out of here, a few notes about some of the selections below are still warranted. First off about "Book of Rules": as far as reggae goes, it's essential. So good, that I'll go as far as saying that no mp3, no ear buds, and no computer speakers can truly do the song justice. As great as the two versions below are, it's one of those songs that begs for bass. Booming bass. The two versions below are slightly different. The first sounds like the original mix. The second is a semi-pasteurized version, with strings and other unneeded embellishments (subtle as they are). My guess is that it's the work of UK's Trojan Records, who had a habit of fucking with JA versions (just a guess).

"Ain't That Bad" (in the middle of that pack down there) is an very early cut, nice and raw (the Heptones formed in '62 or '63). The last two are later (70's) and were produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry. Listen to them, they're thick. Head Heptone Leroy Sibbles really dug Perry, enough that the Heptones rerecorded some of their earlier stuff at Perry's Black Ark studio, after they had already been hits on Studio One. Ordinarily kinda odd, but made even more unusual because Sibbles was such a fixture at Studio One, as bass player, arranger, talent scout, and as a singer. Enough so, he once challenged reggae historian Lloyd Bradley to name a Studio One song that he wasn't connected to in some capacity. Bradley named song after song, and was unable to do so. I'll stop right here. Now dig yourself a groove or two.

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

The Heptones - Book of Rules mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?)

The Heptones - Book of Rules (w/strings) mp3 at Town Full of Losers
The Heptones - Only Sixteen mp3 at Rasta Geeks
The Heptones - Fatty Fatty mp3 at Nintendo Planet Video
The Heptones - Our Day Will Come mp3 at DanielJohnsonWrites
The Heptones - Ain't That Bad mp3 at OCF.Berkley.edu
The Heptones - Pretty Loo mp3 at MBrownI
The Heptones - Hypocrite mp3 at Ear It Now
The Heptones - Crying Over You mp3 at Passion of the Weiss
The Heptones - Mr. President mp3 at Passion of the Weiss

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

IT'S PARTY TIME

Earlier this evening when I was driving south, I had one of those moments; the sort that isn't really deja vu, but makes you think of as different time. It was about an hour before the sun went down, and being that it was a sunny day and the sun was low, the shadows were long. I flashed back to all of the drives to L.A. (going north) in the early evening, to make it up there in time for one show or another. That trip down memory lane traveled past the Whiskey, the Masque, Tommy's, Turner's Liquor, Power Burger, that shop on Sunset that had a hologram in the window, Pinks, and other landmarks, ultimately landing me at a house on Detroit Street.

The unassuming supermarket in the photo above was the unofficial libation supplier of the nearby Detroit Street house. (Photo: Hilda Daniel)

That particular house was where my brother lived for a short time, and it had among it's tenants and visitors, a pretty significant portion of L.A.'s punk rock shake. By that I mean, not the major players, but tuned in, even after the much heralded first wave. I only made it to the house a few times, but every visit was memorable. (It was a party house par excellence, at least when I was there.) The one particular moment that entered my drive time dulled brain was standing in the entryway of the house, near one of my brother's room mates who had just returned from a party somewhere, slouched on the couch and more than a little tipsy. She was semi-singing and semi-shouting the lyrics to 45 Graves "Concerned Citizen," "You are not my friend!" It was, in my mind, an archetypal L.A. early 80s moment, and I've thought about it every time I've heard 45 Grave since. So, this is for K (who out of courtesy, will not be more positively identified) and the other Detroit Streeters.

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

45 Grave - Concerned Citizen mp3 at Mustard Relics
45 Grave - Evil mp3 at Mustard Relics
45 Grave - 45 Grave mp3 at Mustard Relics
45 Grave - Black Cross mp3 at AliceBag.com
Bonus pain in the ass to download link:

Darker Scratcher - Full LP in zip format at Fantasmi Macchina (Right after where it says "Get it here" click on link that says "LAFMS") The first 45 Grave recording "Riboflavin Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Poly-Unsaturated Blood" was on this fine LAFMS compilation. The whole LP, which also features the Boyd Rice and Daniel Miller's "Cleanliness and Order" is entirely worthwhile and very different from the punk stuff of the time. LAFMS was the Los Angeles Free Music Society, which leaned towards the experimental.

Los Angeles Free Music Society home page

Monday, March 7, 2011

ATTN: PARTY PLANNING COMMITTEE

Don't get me started about New Orleans. I love that city. Within hours of my first arrival (on my only visit), my brother scored a Little Richard 78, and it just got better after that. There was a contingent of San Diegans that all happened to be going the same year, and we all had common friends in a couple that lived there, Harold and Holly. They lived right in the thick of it, both literally and figuratively. It was a great few days, I'll leave it at that.

Ever since then, my soft spot for New Orleans music has grown. Here's a random sampling. Not all are Mardi Gras related, but all have that feeling, that certain vibe that only one region can produce. Have fun; don't be stupid. Best advice I ever got.

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

Professor Longhair - Tipitina mp3 (via Box.net) at Carnival Saloon
Ernie K-Doe - A Certain Girl mp3 at MBrownI.com
Dr. John, the Night Tripper - Mama Roux mp3 at Home of the Groove
Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Sont Pas Sale mp3 at Let's Polka
Eddie Bo - Check Mr. Popeye mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Feet Can't Fail Me Now mp3 at Home of the Groove
Professor Longhair - Going To Mardi Gras mp3 at Carnival Saloon
The Wild Magnolias - Handa Wanda mp3 at Vibrations Music
Lee Dorsey - Tears, Tears and More Tears mp3 at Home of the Groove
Sugar Boy Crawford and his Cane Cutters - Jock-A-Mo at Carnival Saloon
Fats Domino - Walkin' To New Orleans mp3 at Carnival Saloon
Bill Sinigal and the Skyliners - Second Line, Part I mp3 at Home of the Groove
The Meters - Hey Pocky-A-Way mp3 at Carnival Saloon
Dejan's Olympia Brass Band - Ain't My Fault mp3 at Carnival Saloon
Bonus:
Ernie K-Doe - WWOZ radio show mp3 at Beware of the Blog Over an hour of Mr. "Mother In Law" spinning wax and testifying on the air.
Neat images:
The Mistick Krew of Comus - 1873 Designs For Parade Costumes at Twisted Vingtage

Sunday, March 6, 2011

COVER ORGY

Cover version blogs are like cover versions. Some pretty much suck, and some do a bang up job. It's a pain staking task, collecting a bunch of covers, so what's the point of doing that for either a mediocre song, or mediocre cover versions? Some of the cover blogs, when they do pick a good song, seem to pick versions that are either less interesting than the original, or just flat out copy it. Again, what's the point in that? To prove that you were able to find cover versions of the song? To prove you have a healthy sized record collection? I don't get it (but, then again, they didn't ask me). Rare is the cover music blog that manages to pick good songs as topics, and manages to follow through with interesting covers of widely varying origins.

Today I ran into a cover blog that does a good job of finding some good shit. My first tip that it would be better than most was the name of it, Versions Galore, which happens to be the name of an early U Roy LP, and if you know me, I like my U Roy. Of course, the versions in U Roy's title refers to a different kind of version, but it makes for a great cover blog title. (That is, if the blog in question is trying to attract U Roy fiends; which, if is the case, this time actually worked.)

Where was I? Oh yeah, covers. As far as I can figure, there are a few reasons to do covers. An obvious one is that you really love the song, or artist, so it's some sort of tribute. And then there are bands that can't really write, so they pad their repertoire out of neccessity. Some, particularly in the fifties and sixties, put out tamer versions hoping to gain airplay on stations unwilling to play anything slightly wild (ala Pat Boone covering Little Richard). And some bands with a wide reaching or particularly fervent following might cover a semi-obscure song, oft times released on a small independent label, to reach a bigger audience (like the Kingsmen getting a massive hit out of Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie").

So, about Versions Galore: when I landed on their homepage, right there was a cover by the Dirtbombs (one bonus point for posting the Dirtbombs, and another for referring to them as "garage rock messiahs"). So, I was off to the mother lovin' races. I ended up running into quite a few worthy posts. How many covers of the Meters' Sissy Strut do you need? How's about twenty two? Including one from a Polish funk band, accurately described as sounding like a "70's cop car chase scene." That's another thing, this guy isn't just posting rock related stuff. He's really digging to come up with some of these.

Here's a handful of songs, but definitely go there if these wet your whistle. The first one below, an afro funk cover of "Crosstown Traffic," is what sold me. I gotta say, Versions Galore is the best designed, most varied, and best all around cover version blog that I've run across. Plus, the guy writes with a little punch.

NOTE: Versions Galore, the hosting blog, is calling it quits and has removed all music from his blog. (9/26/2012).

Saturday, March 5, 2011

YOU GOTTA COP TO PEREZ

You've got the list, right? The one with all the movies every well rounded young adult should see, if for no other reason than to have a point of reference when someone mentions them? If you don't have the list, La Dolce Vita is on there, along with about a half dozen other Fellini flicks. I saw it when I was a young adult, and it was my introduction to a musician every well rounded young adult should hear, if for no other reason than to have a point of reference when someone mentions them. That's a whole other list. (You know how this works, hipsters weren't invented yesterday.) I'm not talking about Nino Rota, who did a lot of Fellini's film scores. As you may have guessed from the photo above, I'm talking about the swanky Cuban, Perez Prado.

Prado's "Patricia" appears a couple times in the film, notably during a party scene, when a lady at a party starts to strip, in the middle of the party. Just before she gets down to business, one of the attendees says "Patriiicia, Patriiiicia!" As tame as the scene seems now, it was pretty decadent for the time. For some reason, I really wanted that song. For a few years, I had a song title in the back of my head, but no artist to go along with it. (This was before the interwebs.) Then, out of nowhere, an old fart radio station appeared in San Diego. If you were around these parts back in the eighties, you know the station I speak of, good ol' KPOP. The station played music from another era, primarily the forties and fifties, but it wasn't an oldies station in the classic mold. Because, instead of Elvis and his lot, KPOP played Glen Miller, the Ink Spots, Patti Page, Sinatra, and others like that, among them, Perez Prado.

The cool thing about the station was (besides unknowingly turning a younger audience onto records that were probably hipper than shit in their parents day), they had a semi-reliable playlist, meaning that you wouldn't hear Perez Prado just once. If you tuned in regularly, you were likely to hear "Patricia" and "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" several times a week. (On AM radio no less. I miss that station.) So it was, that Perez Prado was embedded in the post-punk, pre-grunge, group of San Diego music scene barflies. So, here's a few from KPOP's playlist; and some from later, funkier and every bit as cool. Huuh!

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

KPOP mainstays:
Perez Prado - Patricia mp3 at TropicalGlen
Perez Prado - Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White mp3 at IHS55
Perez Prado - Mambo No. 5 mp3 at Bailey Beach Boy
Funkier 70s stuff:
Perez Prado - San Luis Blues mp3 at Soul Sides
Perez Prado - Tequila mp3 at Soul Sides
Perez Prado - Circle mp3 at 45 Giri a Porta Portese

RARE BEATLES STUFF

Sometimes I just have to scrape my jaw off the floor. Yesterday, I was reminded why I love the the internet. For all of it's commercial annoyances, it is a great equalizer. By that I mean, it's the one place that just about anyone can put their stuff out there, and the whole world (with a few exceptions) can see it. This allows fiends of any particular field to collect, cut, paste, annotate, and upload sites about just about anything; and, if the subject happens to be a popular one with a lot of like minded visitors, no matter how extensive the site is, it's never really finished.

Last night, I ran into a Beatles site that is so extensive, I doubt that I will ever get through it all. I spent a couple hours browsing through it, and haven't even come close to scratching the surface. Before I go any further, let me say that I'm not particularly a Beatle fiend. I acknowledge their exceptional talent, but they don't rock my boat like a lot of other bands. That said, I can appreciate those people who consider it their life's work to dissect every bit of Beatle information to create a complete picture. The site I ran into yesterday is the ultimate Beatles time suck.

The navigation is rather chaotic. There are a lot of photos that lead to audio files of unreleased alternate versions, newsreels, or other pages with oddball stuff. You say you want a virtual tour of a street in Hamburg, with all of the clubs and hangouts that Beatles frequented? This guy has you covered. How about letters that Stu Sutcliffe's girlfriend (and early Beatles photographer) Astrid Kirchneer wrote to Stu's mother? Are you starting to get the picture? This dude is a fiend with a capital F.

There's one page with photo of a recording session, that has McCartney's daughter Heather sitting on the floor. This prompts a discussion, not only speculating which studio it was, but what particular date. It's a complete and total minutia overload. Music wise, different songs and eras get different treatment. There are short clips of the earliest recordings (we're talking pre-Beatles 50's stuff) all the way through complete alternate versions of George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass." The page for Sgt. Pepper's has a 6 part "Making of.." documentary, another with over 4o galleries of photos taken during the sessions, and another with isolated instrument tracks.

My best advise for sifting through this amazing collection is to just start clicking away, on anything and everything. But, if you run into something you want to find again, you had better bookmark it, because it may be impossible to retrace your steps.

The Beatles Source Home Page
The Savage Young Beatles: Extensive photo collection, from 1957 to 1963 (Ringo playing guitar?)
The Ultimate Acetate Collection: Just what it says. More outtakes and demos than you can shake a stick at.
The Concert Files: Recordings and clips from concerts from 1963 to 1966
TV appearances: Listings with screen shots of TV appearances from 1963 to 1970

Earlier Beatles related posts:
Wu-Tang vs The Beatles
The Beatles' Christmas Records

Thursday, March 3, 2011

WHEN WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME?

Have you ever kept running across a band that seems to pop up everywhere? Every time you hear something that they've done, you move them up on the "check out these guys when you get a chance" list? You know the type; they haven't really made a misstep, and collaborate with a bunch of people that you already have a favorable impression of? The Sadies are one of those bands. Let's start at one of most interesting things about them. They've backed both Neil Young and Andre Williams. I mean, c'mon, how many bands would even have the opportunity, let alone lap it up? That right there is pretty impressive. (Any other band would consider it enough to back up John Doe and Neko Case.) A spot check of their discography reveals a band who can do "Search and Destroy," surf music, and the Bakersfield sound justice. Not many bands can play that tiny middle slice, between country pickin' and surf music. Could they be too well versed? It would be unfortunate if they went down as a five star house band. But, when you add it all up, you know why I'm paying attention? Because, my brother would have loved these guys. They're tight, and I bet they have awesome record collections.

Just watch it. This is top shelf stuff.

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

Individual songs:
Neko Case with Sadies - Home mp3 (via Box.net) at The Adios Lounge
Neil Young with the Sadies - This Wheels on Fire mp3 (via Box.net) at the Adios Lounge
Gord Downie with the Sadies - Search and Destroy mp3 at Chromewaves
Andre Williams with the Sadies - Hey Truckers mp3 at Ricotta Park
Andre Williams with the Sadies - Shake A Tail Feather mp3 at Bloodshot Records
John Doe with the Sadies - It Just Dawned On Me mp3 (via Box.net) at The Adios Lounge
The Sadies - The Horshoe-Mossback mp3 (and four more) at Beat Surrender
The Sadies - I Wasn't Born To Follow mp3 (via Box.net) at Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Sadies - What's Left Behind mp3 (via Box.net) at The Adios Lounge
The Sadies - The Double Wide mp3 (via Box.net) at Groover's Paradise
Random oddball LP:
Andre Williams with the Sadies - Red Dirt LP download at Revenant Glint
Read:
The Notorious Good Brothers at The Adios Lounge (More mp3s!)
The Sadies at Wikipedia
The Sadies official site

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

AND BECAUSE HE'S COOL AS SHIT

Because I can't bear the thought of waking up and seeing Weller on my computer screen, here's an emergency nudge from ol' Mr. Dependable. And to commemorate this brainstorm, here's a link to three of his songs.

So get some Johnny Cash at Beat Surrender. You'll have to go there to download them. I do believe I've leeched enough of his links for a night. The songs are "Ain't No Graves," "The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore," and "Country Boy." They're from Cash's privately recorded stash, released as Johnny Cash Bootleg Volume One: Personal File.

Johnny Cash post at Beat Surrender

DUDE, FIRE YOUR BARBER

My interest in Paul Weller made it halfway through side two of the Jam's second album. But I know Weller freaks, and how their appetite can be insatiable; and like anyone who really likes a particular artist, how tough it is for them to be objective. One night a few years ago, I spent the better part of the evening chewing the fat with a buddy of mine about the perils of coddling artists that you've liked for a long time; how hard it becomes to call a spade a spade. It's been a while since we've hung out, so I'm not sure if this is even something that he would be into, but I'm posting this for him, because he's the first person I thought of. Despite our differences in taste (the night we met, it was an extended Bruce Springsteen debate), we share a lot of common ground.

Here's the stuff Weller did at a live KCRW session. The full download link has an interview as well as artwork.

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

Paul Weller - Out of the Sinking mp3 at Beat Surrender
Paul Weller - All On a Misty Morning mp3 at Beat Surrender
Paul Weller - Andromeda mp3 at Beat Surrender
Paul Weller - No Tears To Cry mp3 at Beat Surrender
Paul Weller - All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You) mp3 at Beat Surrender
Paul Weller - Time of the Season mp3 at Beat Surrender
Paul Weller - Pretty Flamingo mp3 at Beat Surrender

Paul Weller - Live at KCRW - Full session with interview and artwork
Thank Beat Surrender