PRE-PINK FLAG

A version of the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner" that's over five minutes long by Wire? Well, blow me down. If you're into Wire, you're wasting time reading this filler text.  You might just be curious, and if that's the case, it's a quick download, so have at it. Demo quality, yes, but what do you want?  I didn't even know this sucker existed until a half an hour ago. There's another link below to the Pink Flag album with sixteen bonus tracks. Ditto my ignorance of that one.

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Listen:
Wire - 1976 Demos at Ghost Capitol  14 mp3s in one download file. One song preview streaming.
Wire - Pink Flag at (La) Luna 1995 Japanese reissue with 16 bonus tracks

WHO? WHAT STATION?

For you hard core hillbilly and country freaks, Lefty Frizzell needs no introduction. But, the rest of you country dabblers and retro nuts may not have ventured much past Hank Senior. Suck it up, due diligence is in order.  Listen to a few of these and try not to be moved.

I ran into a post about Frizzell on Deke Dickerson's blog, and although his post is just a cut and paste of liner notes, you should check his place out. He does write other posts and, as one of my fiend heroes, he can write about the San Fernando Valley, or a lost triple necked guitar and still get my attention. While you're at it, dig Dickerson's Muleskinner Blues for an elementary education in effing.

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Listen:
Lefty Frizzell - Confused mp3 at Rocky-52 
Lefty Frizzell - Always Late With Your Kisses mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
Lefty Frizzell - Long Black Veil mp3 at Rocky-52
Lefty Frizzell - She's Gone Gone Gone mp3 at Rocky-52
Deke Dickerson - Muleskinner Blues mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Visit:
Lefty Frizzell at Musings of a Muleskinner

I, JAZZ PLEBIAN

I don't know much about jazz, but this mix of Miles Davis, from 1956-1965, sure got me on a good night. It kept me busy for the duration. No surprise there. For some reason, what little jazz I have usually gets played while I'm picking things up around this God forsaken place. But it works for that, so if that's the way jazz creeps into my life, so be it.

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Listen:
Miles Davis - October 2012 SFJAZZ Hotplate Mix at Village Dance Radio Nine songs, with short introduction at the beginning. Streaming or download

BUDGET A HUNK OF TIME

Derek's Daily 45 is one you should check out. This Derek guy posts a 45, "almost" daily, and they're usually good, always interesting. Like one of those good old fashioned "what the hell" thrift store crap shoots.  There's links below to a couple that created movement here.  "Mental High" gets to me in a weird way, and I know better than to try and figure out why. These are just two of many, so go over there and graze.  

Another nice thing is that he has them streaming so you can just listen to them there.  If you want something to take home, they're all available as downloads, via DivShare, which is a bit of a hassle, but it's pretty quick once you get used to it.  (Ready? To get the DivShare link, click on the "Share" button on the streaming player. It'll reveal another couple options, one of which is "Download", click on that and you'll go to DivShare, click on the green "Download" button there, and wait for fifteen seconds until the "Download" button reappears.)

Because all of the songs are posted on streaming players, you can play a whole mess of songs at once. This is a bonus. Just scroll down and click play on each player.  It sounds like one crazy, chaotic mess, like it's about to explode. It is awesome.

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Listen:
Tony Clarke - Hurricane mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45 
Herman George - Mental High mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45

NO, YOU'RE THE MAN.

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Listen: 
James Brown - Funky President mp3 at Beware of the Blog

SIX BY THREE

Maybe the Sugarman 3 can help you concentrate while you vote. Actually, they just happened to be handy, and funky, and I'm lazy. But they hit the spot for me tonight. Give one a shot.

 

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Listen:
Sugarman 3 - Rudy's Intervention mp3 at Magnet
Sugarman 3 - Funky So-and-So mp3 at DK Presents
Sugarman 3 - Pure Cane mp3 at Ear It Now
Sugarman 3 - Down To It mp3 at Ear It Now
Sugarman 3 - Soul Donkey mp3 at If There Is Hell Below
Sugarman 3 with Lee Fields - Stand Up mp3 at One Track Mind
Visit:
Daptone Records
Sugarman 3 at Wikipedia

PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE

While vacationing, he traveled with the family dog strapped to the roof of his car. In college, along with his chums, he chased after a student, tackled him, and cut his hair off. Because the kid had the audacity to be different. Those two incidents show a lack of character and judgement. And that's just the beginning. How is it possible that anyone would trust him to look after their pet, or their kids, let alone their country?

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Listen:

Steinski - Mitt vs The Truth mp3 at Beware of the Blog

VISIT THE SOUL CLUB

Over thirty mixes are neatly tucked away at Funky 16 Corners. I did not know that. Even as often as I visit over there, I never happened to click on the Funky 16 Corners Soul Club link. He (Larry Grogan) has posted them as regular posts before, but here they're all on one page. The sheer amount, not to mention the breadth of styles, is almost good shit overload. I'm not kidding. Soul, funk, jazz, blues, reggae and everything in between. Some are guests mixes, but if the guests are DJ friends of Larry Grogan, I'm all in.

The image above is for an all reggae guest mix by DJ Prestige. Top notch shit, I'll tell ya. (Scroll to the bottom of the Soul Club page for the link.). I just picked that one because it happens to be the one I'm listening to. I've listened to a few others. All have been solid, informed, and they've all flowed well. These are good DJ sets, fine jams for the entire family. You'd do yourself well to check them out. 

The Funky 16 Corners Soul Club - 30 plus mixes (description above), mp3 format, fast downloads (roughly a minute).

A recent post of a damn fine song:

Betty Harris - Mojo Hannah mp3 at Funky 16 Corners Go there to get it. If you don't dig it, I don't know you.

OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO

Holy shit. They grow up so fast. Someone shared this photo and I had to post it for all of you old farts. Before punk, alternative, grunge, and bullshit, there was rock 'n' roll. It's true. I read it on Wikipedia.

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Listen:

The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose mp3 at Town Full of Losers
The Hearbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Event Magic
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog mp3 at Olcros
The Stooges - 1970 (Take 4) mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
The Stooges - See That Cat (TV Eye alt. take) mp3 at Boogie Woogie 

MAINTAINING COOL

As if there wasn't enough that sucked about Sandy, the warehouse of Norton Records flooded. And I don't mean that with any sort of smart ass tone. It was bad. Yes, other people lost everything, people died.  There are things that suck, and things that really suck. And there was a lot about this storm that really, really sucked. A flooded record warehouse may seem trivial. Where it lands on the suck-o-meter depends on who you are. You could sit in your easy chair, detached, and think that none of this will affect you. Try thinking that when the time comes to get a vinyl copy of the first Sonics LP to play on your cushy little dry turntable.

It's high time to donate; to someone, something, or some organization that can help someone feeling the sting. The Red Cross might be a place to start. The Norton folks could use volunteers to clean up their mess (see links below). And Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban's server took a dump, so them too. This is a triage situation for everybody. Let's all just help somebody. Roll up your sleeves and get out your wallets. We're all in this together.

American Red Cross
Norton Records Emergency Update at Nortonville Contact info for Norton volunteers
Norton Records Warehouse Takes Massive Hit from Sandy at Village Voice
Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban - Server donations

STEALTH LATIN WEIRDNESS

It doesn't matter how much you like music. None of us will hear every excellent record ever recorded. They'll be there, for all time, just waiting for you to discover them, one by one. Excellence is boring. Sometimes you need that extra thing that excellence lacks. Not sure what it is, but it's a common thread running through much of the really interesting stuff, be it music, art, film, or just standing around not being excellent.

That's what drew me to these two songs. The first one, by Anibal Valesquez, sounds like some sort of a Latin Legendary Stardust Cowboy. He's just yelping and making weird noises and stuff. It's a good thing I can't understand the lyrics, what few there are, because if they were meaningful, it would just ruin the whole thing.  The other song is a cover of Led Zep's "Moby Dick", by Los Commandos. It's either got that certain something, or it's lacking a certain something else. One thing is certain, you'll be reminded how hard it is to pull off a long boring drum part. So now you really have to hear it.

Both of these are at Super Sonido, a perfect hang out if you like interesting unfamiliar Latin stuff that you may never come across elsewhere. I get lost over there.

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Listen:
Anibal Valesquez - Descarga Loca mp3 at Super Sonido plus seven others 
Los Commandos - Moby Dick mp3 at Super Sonido plus two other songs

LARRY'S COOL

Some of you, might know Dave "Baby" Cortez by his one big hit, "The Happy Organ". That's all I knew five years ago when I started this quixotic mess.  It was before I heard "Hurricane" which had been posted by Funky 16 Corners, a blog run by a humble super knowledgeable soul selector named Larry Grogan. The song was revelation enough for me to post a link and Funky 16 Corners has been a regular haunt of mine ever since. I was reminded of this when he re-upped the song recently.  All the memories of wet feet and fumbled text came flooding back.  

So, what of Dave Cortez?  He was the first guy to score a hit with the organ as lead instrument, and he could get down, much more than "The Happy Organ" would have you believe. Take a listen to some of the songs below, particularly "Hurricane" (love that bass!) and "Happy Soul," which at first listen sounds a lot like a funky rip off of Archie Bell and the Drells "Tighten Up", but let it roll.  The breaks, bass, the freaky guitar and Cortez's organ will have you doing the dishes.

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Listen:
Dave Cortez mp3 - Hurricane at Funky 16 Corners
Dave Cortez - Happy Soul mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Dave Cortez - Rinky Dink mp3 at Archive.org
Dave Cortez - Summertime mp3 at Archive.org
Visit:
Dave "Baby" Cortez at Wikipedia 
Funky 16 Corners

CUMBIA 101

How many cumbia records do you have? Okay smart ass, how many good cumbia records..., wait, let's just cut to the chase. How many cumbia collections do you have, compiled by people who know vintage cumbia? Whatever. I'm not here to get into a cumbia pissing match. Just wanted to point you towards two good mixes that you ought to check out. Listening to these suckers actually motivated me to do the dishes. Yes, really.  

The first one I sampled was at Musica del Alma, and is comprised of cumbia records scored by Slim Jenkins when he was in Colombia earlier this year. Seeing as how I know nothing about cumbias, and I don't plan on traveling to Colombia any time soon, it was a no brainer.  The other one is ¡Guepa Caramba!, a seventeen song mix at Nerdtorious, and is equally badass.

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Listen:
Cumbia Costeña by DJ Slim Jenkins at Musica Del Alma 15 song mix 
¡Guepa Caramba! by Alex LaRotta at Nerdtorious 17 song mix

LET'S KNOCK THIS ONE OUT

You know what's cool? Creedence covering Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly".  Ir's a perfect song for them to cover, for a bunch of reasons. John Fogerty wrote the hits, you know that. At the pace they churned out LPs, they had to pad them with something, and they did that with covers. Most of the covers were interpreted well; the framework is there, but there are deviations that put an indelible Creedence stamp on them. That's all you can really ask of a cover. Being that most weren't recorded with designs on the charts, they could be more about Creedence the band, and less hit machine or songwriting. It's not just this one, almost all of their covers were hot shit. This one is early, from their second LP, Bayou Country. Consider that "Good Golly Miss Molly" is on the same LP as the hit "Proud Mary". That's a pretty gnarly contrast. 

The Adios Lounge just posted the above video of a 1970 live set. (Good Golly Miss Molly is at 34:15). You should just watch if from the Adios Lounge, because he's annotated the set with comments from Fogerty about each song. It's a good post.

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Listen:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at http://n1.vmuzike (?)
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at Music KA81 (?)
Video:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Live, Royal Albert Hall, 1970 at YouTube 12 song live set
Visit:
Creedence Clearwater Revival timeline at Riders on the Storm

DUDE, STICK TO SOUP CANS

An hour of the Velvets filmed by Warhol sounds enticing doesn't it? That's what I thought.  Most of you total Velvet Underground fiends have probably already seen this one, and if you're not one of them, it might be boring as hell.  If you walk away from this learning anything, you'll know that Andy Warhol is one hack cameraman. It's as if he just discovered the zoom lens on his camera. In his defense, it was intended as a backdrop film for their live shows, so that might explain the two bit camera work. Regardless, it's worth a glance for historical purposes, or an hour viewing if you've got a high threshold. If you're looking for some listenable Velvet's stuff, check the older Velvets posts here (scroll down).

Visit:
The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony In Sound - Full story behind the film at a Nico fan site

THIS, WITHOUT SHAVING

Have you recovered from your first round of Halloween hijinks?  When I was leaving the grocery store today there was a twenty something kid in the parking lot puking his brains out by the back of a car, while his friends were waiting for him to finish the job. One of his friends consoled him, "Get it all out, we still have another night to go." Ahh, I remember those days. When I looked at shiny puddle of what looked like anti-freeze (you're  gonna have to fill me in, is Mountain Dew a mixer?), it dawned on me that I'd run into a couple other Halloween cuts a couple days ago that I probably would have heard back when puking was just a minor inconvenience. The rather sedate "Halloween" by Sonic Youth, and the Dream Syndicate's song of the same name.  You'll want to check out the Dream Syndicate take, particularly if you've ever wondered what it would sound like if Neil Young and Robert Quine played the same guitar.  The lead guitarist, Karl Precoda, was only with the Dream Syndicate for their first EP and album, and, with all due respect to Paul Cutler, those are their vital releases. That stuff doesn't pop up very often, so that's the reason I'm including the non-Halloween "When You Smile", from the first EP. If you're a glutton for Halloween mixes, there's also a link down there to six more. They're untested, so just check out the song lists to see if they're up your alley.

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Listen: 
Sonic Youth - Halloween mp3 at Electric Adolescence
The Dream Syndicate - Halloween mp3 (via Box.net) at Fuzzy Logic At Box.net, the "Download" button is at the top right. The song has a long fade in, so don't think that it's a bad file.
The Dream Syndicate - When You Smile mp3 at Aquarium Drunkard Direct linking disabled, go there to get it. 
The Mixes: 
An Electric Adolescence Guide to Halloween at Electric Adolescence Six more Halloween mixes.

TEENAGE WEREWOLF

I was going to stop all this nonsense of posting Halloween mixes, figuring that if I've reached the saturation point, I probably wasn't alone. That was before I ran into this one, which isn't technically a Halloween mix. That said, it'll do nicely to feel gaps you didn't know existed. It's at Aquarium Drunkard and it's a one-off radio show that was hosted by Lux Interior in 1984. Yeah.  You can imagine what kind of stuff is on it.  If you're familiar with the series of Lux and Ivy's Favorites (linked below), it's like the best of all of those, with the Interior as the legitimate selector. To round things out, there's a few from the Cramps. Tip: "Let's Get Fucked Up" works for many holidays.

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The mix:
Lux Interior and The Purple Knif show at Aquarium Drunkard 25 songs with commentary. You'll want this.
A few multi-purpose holiday songs:
The Cramps - Let's Get Fucked Up mp3 at 8106 
The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck mp3 at Soundbites 
The Cramps - Confessions of a Psycho-Cat mp3 at Review Stalker
The Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf mp3 at The Mad Makerel
The Cramps - Surfin' Dead mp3 at Indie Shuffle
The Cramps - Human Fly mp3 at Review Stalker
More:
Cramps Forever - The most recent of several Cramps posts here
More of Lux and Ivy's Favorites - Links to 16 mixes
Erick Purkhiser (Lux Interior) photo at Novocaine Lipstic Uncropped mid-sixties photo booth photo

YEAR ROUND FUN

Holy hell, when it comes to mixes, the damn Halloween well never dries.  After eighteen of them, you'd think that there'd be some amount of satiation over here. Nope. Because Halloween mixes, in contrast to mixes for other holidays, usually have keepers good for the whole year. Really, if the tunes on a Halloween mix are primarily older songs, let's say late fifties to mid-sixties, it's usually a better mix that a non-topical mix covering the same era. At least part of the reason is because the artists already have to be a little weird, creepy or off the wall. Either that, or they're willing to taint what could be a serious music career with some goofy-ass novelty songs, and artistic desperation is always rife with something slightly off.  Regardless, a lot of the songs are instrumentals anyway, albeit with a scream or ghoulish laugh here and there.

So here's four mixes all from Grey Haus, and they look to be good enough to keep the creep ball rolling.  I sampled Volume 7, based on the inclusion of Screaming Lord Sutch's "All Black and Hairy", and it ruled.  So I'm going to be tied up for a bit.  You should be too.

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The mixes:
Trick or Treat, Volume 8 at Grey Haus 34 song mix (via MediaFire)
Trick or Treat, Volume 7 at Grey Haus 25 song mix (via MediaFire)
Trick or Treat, Volume 5 & 6 at Grey Haus 55 songs total (via MediaFire)

MUSIC FOR SWINGING CREEPS

Talk about back from the dead!  After posting the seventeen Bloody Halloween Mixes from Spread the Good Word last night, this morning I found a comment on the post from the host, the apparently undead Reverend Tom Frost, alerting me to a hidden link to an eighteenth mix. This one is his best yet, and the kicker is that it's got two of his songs on it. If you're familiar with his music, you know he's no slouch (if you're not, there's links to his music below).  Here's a video he did for one of his songs, "The Naked Witch," which will also be on his next long player. It's badass. Look it up.



Some of you might recognize the opening footage in the video, that of shimmying kids, lifted from the film Village of the Giants. In the film, the soundtrack is actually Jack Nitsche's "The Last Race", (which was also used by Quentin Tarantino in Deathproof), so it gave me an excuse to throw that song down there. And what kind of sorry ass would I be if I didn't seize the seasonal opportunity to post the Sonic's "The Witch" for the umpteenth time?

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The mix:
Bloody Halloween Mix 18 at Spread the Good Word 27 songs 
What not:
Frankie Stein and His Ghouls - Monster Motion mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The Sonics - The Witch mp3 at Ryan Bosetti
Jack Nitzsche - The Last Race mp3 at MarkMizzles.WhyPrime
Reverend Tom Frost's stuff:
Reverend Tom Frost - A Bloody Life (streaming) at YouTube
Reverend Tom Frost - Dust to Dust (streaming) at YouTube
Reverend Tom Frost - More samples of his music at Rev. Tom Frost
Visit:
Reverend Tom Frost - Official site

THE BLOODY HALLOWEEN MIXES

Just weeks ago, we were lamenting the demise of Reverend Tom Frost's Spread the Good Word. But all is not lost, at least in the way of his Bloody Halloween Mixes. True to his word, as he said in his last post, he is leaving some mixes up for the time being. But don't sleep.  His Halloween mixes are about as good as they come, particularly if you like your tunes vintage. (Dude likes his Bernard Herrmann.) But they won't be online forever. He's not updating things over there so these may well be gone next Halloween. If you're planning a party, or just want to get your ghoul on, this is the place to start. Just don't take the whole bowl. Leave some for the other kids.

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Listen (song lists at each link):
Bloody Halloween mix 17
Bloody Halloween mix 16
Bloody Halloween mix 15
Bloody Halloween mix 14
Bloody Halloween mix 13
Bloody Halloween mix 12
Bloody Halloween mix 11
Bloody Halloween mix 10
Bloody Halloween mix 9
Bloody Halloween mix 8
Bloody Halloween mix 7
Bloody Halloween mix 6
Bloody Halloween mix 5
Bloody Halloween mix 4
Bloody Halloween mix 3
Bloody Halloween mix 2
Bloody Halloween mix 1