QUICK, TAKE ONE OF THESE

Yikes. I know, that one I just posted left an aftertaste over here too. I had to get a chaser, but quick, and I knew just where to get it. Diddy Wah saves the day again. It's Jimmy Kelly's "Little Chickie". Don't blink on this one. I'll probably only be up for another few days. (Really though...now.) It's about as raw as they come, the guitar and the sax solo in particular. Plus, the record itself is suitably crusty; it's the total package. Seriously, don't fuck around on this one.

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Listen:
Jimmy Kelly - Little Chickie mp3 at Diddy Wah

SAY WHAT YOU WILL

Right off the bat, I have to give them credit. A promo photo is circulated to get you to check a band out. Pure and simple. I took one look at that photo above, and thought "oh holy shit, I gotta hear what these guys sounded like". Before I found any audio, I ran across a fan page, which had the photo below, of the Sleaz Band in their earlier incarnation. This could go either way. Before I read more than a few words, audio was definitely in order. I found a song at this blog. Man, I don't know. I've not yet decided whether or not to go further. But, hey, the photo worked.

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Listen:
Sleaz Band - Midnight Man (streaming) at Pure Pop
There's a lot more at YouTube. You're on your own. I haven't listened to anything else.

WHAT'S WITH THE THREADS?

Yeah, tonight would be one of those I'm not even going to try to bullshit around my flakiness type of nights. A friend of mine, Pete posted "Road Runnah" by the Roadrunners, a damn fine surf instrumental, on his Facebook page, It got me on that tack, Unless I come up with some brilliant idea in the next thirty minutes, I see no reason to change course. So tonight is a surf music slack night special.

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Listen:
The Belairs - Mr. Moto mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Al Casey - Baja mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
The Fabulous Playboys - Shortnin' Bread mp3 at Antrobiotics
The Roadrunners - Road Runnah (streaming) at YouTube

¿SABES "COMPLICACIONES"?

I took one look at the video below and thought to myself, now what the hell do we have here?  Could there be two bands called the Monks? Two just nutty enough to be just my thing? Sure as shit, Los Monjes translates as "The Monks". Sucked in again. This video is one piece of work. First you'll note that it's just organ, bass and drums. Then you'll notice their attire. That's when the WTF bulb goes off. You start noticing other things. The drummer, the poorly synched drummer, is the singer, also poorly synched. In successive shots he's shown hood up, hood down, hood up, back and forth. And so on. You will note the bookmark worthiness of this. For me, it is a special moment. Weird found me tonight. If some do-gooder asks me tomorrow what I am thankful for, I'll tell them that.

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Listen: 
Los Monjes - Batman mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban This one rips.
Los Monjes - Caravan (live) mp3 (vis DivShare) at Spanish Garage
Los Monjes EP (3 songs) via Hotfile  at Cosas Mias One is a cover of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
Los Monjes - Música De Las Esferas EP at Surfadelic Go there to get it.

SO SMOOTH HIS SOCKS MATCH

Remember a few weeks ago, when I mentioned that the record store down the street was stocking Studio One vinyl? No? You don't really read this blathering do you? Didn't think so. That's cool. As long as you check these cool as shit Jackie Mittoo grooves. Mittoo was the Studio One keyboard whiz. I just picked up a Studio One LP of his and it's had me binging, breaking out the other stuff I had, and just basically reliving the whole pouring over the liner notes routine. It somehow feels better coming from an LP cover rather than some dinky booklet, but I'll take it where I can get it. If you're not familiar with Mittoo, you can get a little bit below.

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Listen:
Jackie Mittoo - Get Up and Get It mp3 at DK Presents
Jackie Mittoo - Summer Breeze mp3 at DK Presents
Jackie Mittoo - Ghetto Organ mp3 at 8106
Jackie Mittoo - Hang 'em High mp3 at Passion of the Weiss
Jackie Mittoo - Oboe mp3 at DK Presets 
Visit:

Jackie Mittoo bio at Reggae Train

Jackie Mittoo at Wikipedia

MUST NOT OVERTHINK BATMAN

I can't really be objective about Suzi Quatro. I admire her gumption. She seems to worm her way into my heart, even with her shit songs. Even when she was on Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero, I cut slack, She wasn't the first women rocker, and she isn't the toughest. But she is among those who played their gender the least. She didn't really play down her looks, nor was she overtly cheesecake. She just played bass and sang.

You have to check out the video below. Watch the whole thing because the party starts at 2:34. Just before the repeat of the chorus, at 2:41 she licks her chops and then tears into a nice fit, hair this way and that, with a pretty respectable scream to top it off, albeit lip synced. I watched it several times because it made me want to party. So what.

One thing that makes the first song down there, a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Man", so interesting is the thought that maybe she didn't record it as some sort of feminist or gender thing. Maybe she recorded it because it was a good rock 'n' roll song. (I could be wrong. I could read up on it, but so can you.) Regardless, hearing it tonight made me want to revisit my favorites of hers, and in looking for some I ran across a hot ass cover of "48 Crash" by the Gymslips, an early eighties UK band. I don't know anything about the band other than the blurb on the hosting blog, and I don't care. I want to party with that song.

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Listen:
Suzi Quatro - I Wanna Be Your Man mp3 at Cover Me
Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash mp3 at VMuzique  Foreign site, caution advised.
Suzi Quatro - Can the Can mp3 at 4Shared
Suzi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive mp3 at A.Tumblr (?)
The Gymslips - 48 Crash mp3 at Farced
The Gymslips - Love Is Not the Answer mp3 at Farced This is good too.

THIS IS WHY

I wasn't even looking for this one. In fact, Cynty and the Monkees were completely unknown to me when I ran across their 1974 cover of Barbara Acklin's "Lady, Lady, Lady". I'd never heard Acklin's original either. But, the song sure sounded familiar, which was all the more befuddling. Wait a second here. It's on Black Art, Lee Perry's label. Yep, right there, produced by Lee Perry. This shouldn't take long. I'll just take a mental inventory of the Perry stuff I've heard. No I won't. I've heard way too much. Who Sampled here we come. Oh, that's it, I was just gonna say it. Lee Perry used the riddim for his "Exit the Dragon". Okay, and done. Listen to Cynty and the Monkees' cover. It's an excellent interpretation. Or don't. Walk around like that, I don't care.

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Listen:
Cynty and the Monkees - Lady, Lady mp3 at Pixie Radio
Cyndy and the Monkees - Lady, Lady (long disco version) (streaming) at YouTube
Barbara Acklin - Lady, Lady, Lady (streaming) at YouTube
Lee Perry - Exit the Dragon (streaming) at YouTube

THE SONG ALONE

I never imagined Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" could be more powerful that it was on record. If you're not familiar with the song, it's about a lynching victim hanging from a tree. That's right, it is intense, and to hear her sing it with a sparse arrangement is an experience. I didn't think anything could top it, in terms of the unsettling feeling you get as the lyrics unfold. But I just came across a video of her singing it later in her career,. Though she doesn't hit the notes quite like she did on the original, to see her facial expressions and her pointed delivery of some of the lines gives me the chills.

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Listen:
Bilie Holiday - Strange Fruit (studio) mp3 at Wandervogel Diary
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit (live) mp3 at Internet Archive
Visit:
Billie Holiday at Wikipedia Check this one.
Strange Fruit entry at Wikipedia

THE EVEROLLIES

Most of you have heard at least some of the Everly Brothers' hits. They were at their peak in the late fifties, at least in terms of chart success. If you happen to really dig them, you know that there's plenty of later non-hits that are as good or better than their early stuff. Just a couple days ago, I ran across "I've Been Wrong Before" from 1966. Check it out. If you hear a little British Invasion thing going on, you're not the only one. It's from their LP Two Yanks In England, which was recorded in England (as your pal and mine, G. Pyle would say, "Suurprise, surprise, surprise!"). After a stint in the Marines, the brothers went back to recording in a pop world that had been turned on it's head by mop tops and what nots. So yeah, there's that going on. But what surprised me is that their uncredited backing band on the song is the Hollies. [NOTE: I have since been corrected. Online attributions seem to be relying on this portion of the liner notes: "The Hollies, Phil Everly has recalled, also played on most of the album; it has also been reported that Jimmy Page contributed some guitar as a session musician."] [Oh, bloody hell, I just found out more about these sessions, see the comments.] The vocals are all Everly, but that band is pretty damn tight. That all parties involved knew not to pollute the Everlys' trademark harmonies with additional vocals from the Hollies is a bonus. This is a really great song, from the opening Kinks-like riff, to the drum fills, their harmonies, the mix, yes, even the tambourine.  Shit. It's just one of those songs. Ignore at your own peril.

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Listen:
The Everly Brothers - I've Been Wrong Before mp3 at Newer
The Everly Brothers - Somebody Help Me (streaming) at YouTube Dig the fuzz. From the same LP
The Hollies - I've Been Wrong (streaming) at YouTube The Hollies own (original) version.
Token oddball:
Everly Brothers - Coke commercial mp3 at The Podcast Place
Visit:
Recording details of Two Yanks In England at Steve Hoffman
Liner notes for Two Yanks In England

LATENT COOL

On paper, Gene Pitney's not the type of singer that I'd ever be predisposed to liking. He didn't do anything you could describe as rockin', nothing all that twisted, nothing funky. He wasn't even really on my map, until I heard "Town Without Pity" on an oldies station. That was a long time ago, when there were radio stations that actually got to somewhat deeper tracks of the sixties; you know, as opposed to Motown and Beach Boys type stuff. Luckily, back then records like "Town Without Pity" were still plentiful at thrift stores, and the sufficiently thrashed copy I scored has been in the stash ever since.

So, here's the rundown. "Town Without Pity" was his second record, and was the title song of the film with the same name. (From what I remember, the film was good, but it's been years.) It's got this sort of sleazy noir thing going on. His first record, "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away", has him on multiple instruments, multi-tracked vocals, and it was written by him. "Mecca" is down there because I dig the ever so subtle Middle Eastern flavor, sirens somewhat wailing, and a most awesome guitar solo, even with some flute guy sticking his ass in there. "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday" was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the first song written by them to reach the top 10 in the UK, in 1964. (Pitney was also present at some of the sessions for the first Stones' LP a couple years earlier, and has a piano credit to his name). The other two songs down there were written by Pitney, and you should already be well aware of them. If not, catch the hell up.

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Listen:
Gene Pitney - Town Without Pity mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Gene Pitney - (I Wanna) Love My Life Away mp3 at Joe Troiano's Blog
Gene Pitney - Mecca mp3 at David Fulmer
Gene Pitney - That Girl Belongs to Yesterday mp3 at Jonathan Turley
Written by Gene Pitney:
The Crystals - He's A Rebel mp3 at Joe Troiano's Blog
Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou mp3 at Snuhthing Anything

TEX MEX PSYCH DUB

Seriously. How can you ignore that image?. That's Esteban Jordan. I'm shallow. Anyone that looks as baddass as that is welcome at my party. I don't give a shit what they play, or what they sound like. In this case, it matters little, because I loves me Mexican music. Norteno, conjunto, ranchero, Tex-Mex, whatever you got. And Esteban Jordan was good at it, and he wasn't shy about stretching boundaries. Hearing him reminds me of two things, being in Mexico, and the late great Rancho Grande, one of my favorite restaurants of all time. Their jukebox had a lot of this type of stuff, and the food was good (trying not to get sidetracked here...). Check these by Jordan. They're kind of like that restaurant. Not perfect, but authentic, greasy, and good.

Tex Mex psych dub

That first one below jams (though I could do without The Man Show type chorus). You gotta check his cover of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". If you're at all into reggae melodica player Augustus Pablo, ten seconds into the song, the intro becomes this thing that is not all that far removed from Pablo's stuff. I know by saying that I sound like a complete douche, but there might be one person who hears it, and that's why I said it. If you don't think Tex-Mex and reggae can coexist in some sort of musical Venn diagram, you can just, I don't know, flake off. Get yourself a crew cut baby.

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Listen:
Esteban Jordan - Las Coronelas mp3 at Let's Polka
Esteban Jordan - El Cascabel (streaming) at La Planga
Esteban Jordan - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling mp3 at To the Sublime
Video:
Tito Lavaria (ex-Plugz) with Esteban Jordan - Radio Head at YouTube From the film True Stories
Esteban Jordan - Una Estrellita lloro at YouTube
There's tons more at YouTube

EDIE WHO?

Holy jeez, this rabbit hole is too damn big. The song that started tonights "oh shit, here we go again" moment is "Baby That's Me," by girl group also rans The Cake. Reading the little blurb at Art Decade, I saw that it was co-written by Jack Nitzsche and Jackie DeShannon. Fuckin' Nitsche. Every time that dude's name comes up it turns into a diversion that lasts way past useful. I've come to terms with his most asshole-ish moments (which, when he was suffering from depression and substance abuse in the seventies were pretty ugly), so it's not that. It's just that the guy was everywhere. He put Mick Jagger and Ry Cooder together on one soundtrack, Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker on another, worked with the Stones, which of course included working with Andrew Loog Oldham, Neil Young, Phil Spector and did his own fair share of producing. Dude was Mr. Producto.

"Baby, It's Me" is from around '66, and my guess, since he co-wrote it, may have been produced by Nitsche, though the reissue liner notes allude to managers Charles Greene and Brian Stone. Regardless, just listen to it. Whoever produced it had the full Wall of Pet Sounds thing going on. There's a couple others by The Cake down there too. These girls were about as hip as it got back then, or so it seems. The liner notes from the reissue can be found here. It's a good read.

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Listen:
The Cake - Baby That's Me mp3 at Art Decade
The Cake - World of Dreams mp3 (via *DivShare) at Surfadelic
The Cake You Can Have Him mp3 (via *DivShare) at Surfadelic 
*Once you get to DivShare, click on the green Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds. When the button reappears, you're good to go.
Video:
The Cake - You Can Have Him at YouTube Smothers Brothers show
Frank Converse and The Cake - She's Leaving Home at YouTube Inna Shatner stylee
The Cake's Chelsea Lee with Tiny Tim - I Got You Babe at YouTube Backing band is The Band. From the film You Are What You Eat
Visit:
Jack Nitzsche at Wikipedia
The Cake bio (from liner notes) at Dangerous Minds

BIG IN FINLAND

The Renegades' cover of Bill Haley and the Comets' "Thirteen Women" stopped me dead in my tracks yesterday. It smokes. Already kind of a nutty song (if you've heard Haley's original, you know what I mean), the Renegades' version is a different monster altogether. Fuzz, farfisa, menacing tempo, a few requisite screams and a great guitar solo that just kind of peters out, in a fuck it sorta way. Seriously, I gotta get this record. (Norton has conveniently reissued it on a 45.) Couldn't find any mps, so these YouTube things will have to suffice. But, trust me, they'll wet your whistle.

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Watch and/or listen:
The Renegades - Thirteen Women (promo) at YouTube

The Renegades - Girls, Girls, Girls (live) at YouTube

The Renegades - Unchain My Heart (streaming) at YouTube

The Renegades - Brand New Cadillac (live) at YouTube

CHEAP DATE

Here's some oddballs, all found at Newer. I'm just linking to one mp3, the rest of them can be found at the links. I may have posted the New York Dolls' demo of "Babylon" before, but I'm too lazy to check. Actually, I'm too lazy right now to do just about anything short of getting the hell offline.

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Listen:
New York Dolls - Babylon (demo) mp3 at Newer
The Ramones - All the Way (demo) at Newer Go there to get it
The Turtles - Happy Together (vocals only) mp3 at Newer Go there to get it

SIRENS WAILING? CHECK.

Wow. I was doing this three question thing on Facebook with friends, where you give the person a band name and they tell you whether they like them or not, if they've seen them live, and their favorite song by the particular artist. I gave a long time friend the band Mudhoney, and with his answers he posted their cover of Roxy Music's "Editions of You". Me, being smarmy, commented something like "Roxy Music never sounded so good", because, I gotta be honest here, I thought of them as fancy boys, you know, all that suave nonsense. To be fair, I went back and listened to the original, which I hadn't heard in some time. Again, just being honest. Roxy Music's "Editions of You" is punk rock. You know what I mean. I'm not some idiot, so don't try to correct me. Particularly if you have pierced or tattooed anything, spiky hair, or are wearing black. I am fully aware of what punk rock is. If you don't hear it, that's your bag.

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Listen:
Roxy Music - Editions of You mp3 at The Cargo Culte

Mudhoney - Editions of You mp3 at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends

BUT YOU'RE OUT OF BEER

You've undoubtedly heard at least one of the covers of Big Joe Williams's "Baby, Please Don't Go", probably the one by Them. On the Flip-Side recently posted one by the Moonrakers, from Denver, a band I'd never heard of. Recorded in 1966, it's hopped up like Them's, but with a good ol' American garage bent, and about forty pots of coffee. Pretty noisy stuff. Definitely worth the trip. There's other versions down there. Fourteen million people have covered it, so I stopped at four.

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Listen: 
Big Joe Williams - Baby, Please Don't Go mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?)
The Moonrakers - Baby, Please Don't Go mp3 (via DivShare) at On the Flip-Side
Them - Baby, Please Don't Go mp3 at Blognoblat
Muddy Waters - Baby, Please Don't Go mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?)
Clifton Chenier - Baby, Please Don't Go mp3 at Soak.turnerkc

CLOCK ME OUT JACK

Finally. Friday. I know, this isn't the greatest pre-weekend song, but it's the one that came to mind. I don't thing I've ever heard a version of it that has had the abandon that the song really deserves. Who knows, maybe the Easybeats really cut it loose live? Bowie didn't really give it any added oomph, but he did manage to slip "feel like fucking you" into the backing vocals. Someone needs to take this song and really go nuts. I'm sure someone has had to, but I haven't heard it. If you have, by all means, pipe in.

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Listen:
The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind mp3 at Town Full of Losers
David Bowie - Friday On My Mind mp3 at A.Tumblr (?)
Richard Thompson - Friday On My Mind mp3 at Town Full of Losers

WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

I never would have guessed. A bona fide Northern Soul thumper from Toni Basil, as in "Hey Mickey, you're so fine, you blow my mind" Toni Basil. Okay, so she earned a bit of cool cred because she was once the girlfriend of Spazz Attack (whom most Hollyweirdos from back in the day will remember from Arther J and the Gold Cups, and every other old fart will remember from his forward flips in the video of Devo's "Satisfaction"). But that's a stretch, regardless the "Mickey" thing negates it. But wait! She was in Easy Rider, and she choreographed the dance sequence from Village of the Giants, which features Joy "Cool Hand Luke car wash chick" Harmon dancing in slow motion to Jack Nitzsche's "Last Race". Holy shit, it's getting crowded in here!

You can check it streaming, with much more informative text, at Derek's Daily 45, on a post with a whole mess of other goodies. But do check it out. You know, counterpoint and all the jazz.

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Listen:
Toni Basil - Breakaway mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45 1966
Toni Basil - Breakaway (streaming) at YouTube Alternate link, just in case.
Video:
Jack Nizsche - The Last Race (Village of the Giants dance sequence) at YouTube

BIG OL' SMILEY HEAD

If the nickname came today, you'd swear that Smiley Lewis got his because there wasn't a damn photo of him anywhere online where he doesn't have that big shit eating grin  But no, it was because early on he was missing two front teeth and someone thought it would be funny. You've got to hand it to him. He really didn't have a lot to smile about, at least that much.

Born Overton Amos Lemons, He hopped a train when he was in his teens and rode it all the way to the end of the line, New Orleans, where he was taken in by the Lewis family, hence the surname. His records didn't sell a lot, but covers of his songs did. Unfortunately, music publishing wasn't as it is today. At one point he was so broke, he was taking public transportation to gigs, while Fats Domino raked it in getting hits from his songs. Dave Edmunds's cover of his "I Hear You Knockin'" made it all the way to #4 on the US charts around 1971. That's where many people first heard of Lewis. Edmunds, to his credit, name-drops Lewis's name in his cover (along with Huey Smith and Chuck Berry). I know I carried that name around in my head for years before I ever heard him.

You have to check the one at Diddy Wah, "Shame, Shame, Shame". Along with Lewis, Dave Bartholomew on trumpet and Lee Allen on sax. All three are New Orleans royalty.

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Listen:
Smiley Lewis I hear You Knockin' mp3 at DJ Perro
Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knockin' mp3 at Medicine Films
Smiley Lewis - Shame, Shame, Shame mp3 at Diddy Wah Go there to get it.
Smiley Lewis - Bumpity Bump mp3 at Hearsay
Smiley Lewis - Big Mamou mp3 at Ray Carram.com

ROCKABILLY OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

You know what? Charlie Feathers, that's what. I'm totally copping out tonight. Just dig his delivery in these suckers. Dude slays me.

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Listen:
Charlie Feathers - Tongue Tied Jill mp3 at Ray Carram
Charlie Feathers - Bottle to the Baby mp3 at Ray Carram
Charlie Feathers - Wild Wild Party mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly