Mp3s offered for previewing purposes only. Mp3s remain up for a few weeks. Please do not direct link to a track (to save me bandwidth). Any artist wishing the removal of copyrighted material please email me and it will be done so immediately.
Things are going to be quiet here for the next couple days but very noisy next week, with some VERY SPECIAL CHANGES to the site, so do check back, wot.
Its been a while since I have trawled the teeming waters of GYBO, that bootleggers paradise. A quick browse last week turned up these two gems. Not much trickery on display here, but a keen sense of musical husbandry.
The Strokes and the Chemical Brothers are mixed with just the right measures of neo and retro. The Edge makes a quiet cameo - very nice.
The second mash drops Snoop Dogg and Farrell over an unlooped chunk of the Velvet's grubby and bass-heavy "The Gift". I read somewhere recently that Snoop has become "Adult Contemporary Gangsta," with his overly slick production and with squares like Jimmy Kimmel and Dan Patrick and that guy who sold you a car last year trotting out their best Fashizzle Nizzles whenever a black person joins the conversation. But backed by the Velvets at their least-pretty, Snoop sounds convincingly menacing. (Even Pharrell sounds like his balls have finally dropped.)
I posted the unrelated "Greyhound Part 1" because it is truly dynamite and because The Blues Explosion play 3 shows at NYC's cozy CBGB; April 10,11 and 12. Check the bands site for details. On Amazon you can also pick up the Experimental Remixes Import (2000) which includes 4 bonus remixes, including one by Prince Paul.
Much has been written about the muscial DNA of the Wainwright clan. Loudon 3 is well known for his unabashedly personal and scallywag folk balladeering. His ex-wife Kate McGarrigle is a folkie. Kates sister Anne, a folkie. His sister Sloane, a folkie. As for Loudon and Kates son Rufus - people bandy around the phrase "trubadour" but strip away his ambitious arrangements and genre double-dipping, and he possesses the sentimentality of a gay folkie at heart.
And the Wainwright clan love nothing more than to sing about each other. They are a dysfunctional lot, and they use their music to very openly launder their flawed relationships. If Martha longs to understand what her father was thinking when he skipped town on his pregnant wife, or how that made her mother feel in her most private moments, she simply needs to flip on her iPod. This collective narcissism is odd and cathartic. Sometimes it can be occasionally a little much. They are like the Swiss Family Too Much Information. But the honest and personal nature of these singer/songwriters is what makes them so engrossing.
So it comes as no suprise to find Martha Wainwright continuing the family tradition. Her work is far less stylized than her brothers, less narative than her dads. If you find the Wainwright man-porridge too hot and too cold, Martha may be just right.
For an artist so expressly insecure, Martha has a very confident voice. Her songwriting approach runs closer to pop's. Not just for her sparse style but also for her openly wounded intimacy. In fact, a fair number of her songs deal with Dad.
Martha Wainwright came up with an effective way of dealing with having a singer-songwriter father who substituted looking after his family by writing about them in songs. She proved that those who live by the pen will die by the pen, and wrote a song about him called Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole. "For most of my childhood Loudon [Wainwright III] talked to me in song, which is a bit of a shitty thing to do," says Wainwright, who only started writing songs after becoming peeved at the amount of attention her brother Rufus was getting. "Especially as he always makes himself come across as funny and charming while the rest of us seem like whining victims, and we can't tell our side of the story. As a result he has a daughter who smokes and drinks too much and writes songs with titles like Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole."
Martha Wainwright's career might well be designed to irritate her family. Her first album is filled with unhinged, emotional songs that fall into what she calls the "woe is me" vein, and she requires no prompting to reveal the source of her inspiration and especially the effect her father's song I'd Rather Be Lonely had on her. "I always felt terribly sorry for the poor woman I thought it was about because of the line: 'Every time I see you cry you're just a clone of every woman I've known.' Then one time I was on tour with Loudon and he said to the crowd: 'I wrote this song about my daughter.' I had no idea. We lived together for one year in New York when I was 14 and it was a disaster, and I'd Rather Be Lonely was about that year. He really crossed the line there."
There is member of the Wainwright family, however, who is never discussed in song. That would be Michael Wainwright, older brother to Rufus and Martha. Michael is fromer charter acocuntant and current Managing Director of Boodle and Dunthorne, an upmarket UK Jewelers.
Michael moved to England manmy years ago. He is married and has 2 children and by all accounts lives a normal, emotionally steady life. This of course, makes him something of a black sheep when it comes to his family. Perhaps the other Wainwrights have granted him his space as a matter of respect and decency. Like that other Osbourne daughter who asked out of the family reality business.
But then again, in this family, maybe respect and privacy is in fact a sign that Michael has, in a way, been cast out from the family nucleus. Perhaps they find his conventionality eccentric and hard to engage. But lets not forget that a family that fights is still a family and the turbulent love of resentful people is love nontheless. For all his kin's laments, it may be Michael who is in fact the one truly lonely Wainwright.
In a never published interview, Michaels his wife discussed her husband's relationship with his family:
"Look they are always nice to me and to Micahel and with the kids. We don't see them very often. The last time was in 2001 for a Thanksgiving dinner that they all flew out for. We don't do Thanksgiving in England, so you can imagine what a dreadful ordeal it was putting together a traditional turkey meal for everyone. Michael's father and his brother and sister all came which was wonderful. But they didn't bring anything but their bad tempers. This is quite typical I would say from the few times I've met them. Michael doesn't talk about them much which I reckon is a real shame. Dinner was a bit of a fiasco. We were lucky to get through the soup course before somebody stormed out of the room. Somebody accusses somebody, and somebody complains about somebody else complaining and somebody cries. And when its over they practically race back to their guest rooms to start writing songs about it. As I said they are always civil to us, but it is very awkward I can tell you. Almost like we are invisible. We just sit there in uncomfortable silence eating down at one end of the table while all this madness goes on around us with doors banging. The children just hate it. Its very hard on them. And Michael gets very quiet. He says "pass the gravy" maybe, or "fine weather" but I can see in his eyes he can't wait for the weekend to come to end and our regular lives to start over. We are nice normal people you know. Michael may not be an artsy sort, but he loves what he does and takes pride in himself and he is very good at what he does. Somebody has to balance the checkbooks, we can't all just say what ever we feel like saying whenever we want. That's what children do. We can't all sit around thinking about the universe and feeling sorry for ourselves."
Some nice Wainwright links:
Martha recently did a tour of the UK and no one writes like the Brits:
Snow is falling on Chalk Farm Road as if released by a celestial set designer, transforming the down-at-heel leather shops and cheap Thai eateries into stage props for a monochrome musical. Flakes the size of communion wafers crash slowly onto cars, walking boots, umbrellas and the woolly hats of patrons entering the Barfly, a pub and music venue of lovingly-maintained, Withnail-era shabbiness...
In 1975, Wainwright appeared in three episodes of M*A*S*H as singing surgeon Calvin Spaulding. He was David Letterman's original musical sidekick during the comedian's short-lived morning show that predated his late-night hit. He appears in the Sandra Bullock rehab film, 28 Days (performing two of the four songs he wrote for the soundtrack), and is also seen in Jackknife and The Slugger's Wife. Recently, he's done television appearances on Ally McBeal, as well as a regular turn as "Hal Karp" on Fox's Undeclared.
The site of the excellent but cancelled Undeclared
4/07/2005 Sunset Tavern: Seattle, WA 4/12/2005 Joe's Pub: New York, NY 4/13/2005 Paradise Lounge: Boston, MA 4/14/2005 North Star Bar: Philadelphia, PA 5/23/2005 Iota: Arlington, VA
"I'm like the second plane that made the tower's face off That shit that let you know it's really not a game dawg"
Quick post.
I smoked a cigarette with Dave Chappelle on a DC street corner on a sunday morning about 7 years ago. he still hasnt done a skit about it called "White Guy Smoker" yet though.
Mos Def got cast in this summers "Hitchikers Gide to the Galaxy" which in turn has resulted in awesome things like this being posted on message boards by real life Trekkies:
Trekbean Aug 8 2004, 03:35 AM
*screams incoherently* *sob* Ford Prefect is a black rapper!! oh god. No offense to "mos def", but........how could they?? thats NOT ford prefect!! (imo)
Arthur Dent looks good.....as does trillian.....but.....but....ford!!
I don't know......I'm gonna watch it, but......these are THE BEST BOOKS OF ALL TIME!! (anyone wants to dispute that, pm me)(not to sound confrentational)(ARE YOU SAYING I'M CONFRENTATIONAL?!?!) if they make a bloody hash out of it...........grrrrrrr
GOD. A BLACK RAPPER!
The book says (and I qoute) "his hair was wiry and gingerish......" most africans don't have "gingery" hair........ is this just me? does anyone else think thats weird?? ok. I'm done now. sorry about the rant.
and....
Ford prefect was not meant to be a black rapper dude who wears large gold jewlery and has gyrating girls around him at all times! hes FORD! ....
...But what I don't get is this : Roots had a mainly black cast because the movie was about slaves. HHGTG has a white cast.
I know very little about Lindsey Buckingham, or even Fleetwood Mac for that matter. Like many people I was heavy into Rumoursat some earlier point in my life, tho I fear I overplayed that CD to the point where now if I hear "Rhiannon" I get a sudden sense of insistent agitation. Or maybe thats just my body changing.
I heard this song, or at least the lovely opening bars, years ago during a poignant sequence of a Northern Exposure episode, a show distinguished by its excellent music selections and poignant sequences. Its an e[pisode on the second season which is on DVD now I think.
The song is an ambitious art-rock opus. It plays like an 80s homage to Brian Wilson. And as it turns out, it is a tribute to Brian's borther, the late Dennis Wilson -- the "DW" in "DW Suite." (Dennis dated Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie for a time.)
It has 3 very distinct movements. I find the song to be a little overcomposed for repeated listening, and so I took the song into GarageBand and, in an act that Lindsey fans will claim sacrilegeous, created an edit comprising only the first couple of minutes. If you are making a mix tape for a hippie chick you fancy, tack this beauty on the end.
Here is the best interpretation of the song I could find.
Of note:
Many of the songs on Go Insane deal with the loss of Lindsey's father, Morris, and his brother, Greg, (who died suddenly in 1990.)
Lindsey and Stevie Knicks first became involved romantically while students at San Jose State College, where he studied Art and she majored in Speech Communications. Of course she did.
Matt Pond PA, a [sigh] "chamber-pop outfit" has released a cover of Lindsey's insane "Holiday Road" -- the theme song from National Lampoon's Vacation. You can preview it at iTune. No barking dogs on this one. Its gentle, not giant. The band also covers Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" on the same EP. Check out Matt Pond PAs site. They play Northsix in Brooklyn on the 26th of March
where you will find LB ruminating at length about being a really boring guy (his words) .
Do you think you have enough for a feature story? Can I get you anything? Are you sure everything is all right? I don't really do that much. I told you it was going to be boring. Want to play a game of pool? Croquet?
There are two kinds of crazy. There's crazy as in lacking some degree of sanity. This is crazy like Courtney Love. Then there is crazy as in possessing some degree of special madness. This is The Good Crazy.Think Crispin Glover, LRon Hubbard (-cmon you gotta love LRon, he makes Scientologists dress like sailors!-). This is George CLinton crazy.
At the time of "Dope Dogs" CLinton was nearly 60 years old, and , like a dog, I reckon a George CLinton year on this planet is probably worth 7 in human time.
But on this song you hear an energetic old mutt, with an amazingly acute sense of humor and a confident delivery. The song tackles the dual themes of substance abuse and the US war on drugs, by stepping inside the nose of a strung out, over worked drug sniffing dog.
"The premise could have easily degenerated into a Cheech and Chong skit; instead it becomes an Allen Ginsberg—like critique of the government's complicity in the hard-drug trade even as it suppresses soft-drug pleasures. As much fun as the puns ("Pick up the tracks of the trafficker and track 'em like a rabbit up the coastline/ canine controlled-substance retriever") is the tug-of-war between the pushy rhythm loop and the lazy keyboards."
To Clinton's credit, you may actually find yourself moved by our dope dog's predicament. He wins awards for his bravery, he possess a wonderful gift, he works to make the world safe and yet... POIGNANTLY.... he is a dog very much alone...
U.S. custom coast guard dope dog, nicknamed "Bust em" Like most dope sniffin' dogs, he's got a habit, trained to have to have it. Pick up the tracks of the trafficker, And track 'em like a rabbit up the coastline. Canine controlled substance retriever, Receiver of the Golden Nose Award, For leadin' 'em to the cash, cashin' in on the stash. Now he's in line for his issue of the booty Never do he do a line in the line of duty, he's a dope dog.
I'm no fan of dancehall and toasting but I really like this Sister Nancy track. Its got a very old school sound, though I think it dates to the '80s, not one of reggae's better decades. Plus, who cant relate to these lyrics?:
A me seh one thing Nancy cyaan understan one thing Nancy cyaan understan seh, wha' mek dem a talk 'bout me ambishan 'ca me seh some a dem a ax me whey me get it fram a true dem nuh know it's fram creation bam bam, ey, what a bam bam, bam bam dilla, bam bam bam bam dilla, bam bam 'ey what a bam bam, seh what a bam bam
Sister Nancy claims to be reggae's first female DJ. The Maytals had a song in the sixties called "Bam Bam," and though I'm a big fan, I haven't heard that song. I'm guessing this is an update?
Hipsters in the NYC area:
Sister Nancy headlines at Club Seho in the Lower East Side on February 12.
113 Ludlow St (between Rivington and Delancey)
The promoter: Jammyland, touts her as: "Only Woman DJ with Degree"
My pal Joey describes Club Seho as a bit thugged out: "No sneakers, no jeans, no du rags"
Little known but very true fact about moistworks: I own Pal Joey golf clubs. I got em because they were very cheap and beacuse they had kangaroos on them. They are made in New Jersey. Ahhh, the diaspora.
Rocksteady, however, I find to be the greatest music on earth, if music is about smiling and shufflin. "Ba Ba Boom" feels very fifties to me. It makes me think of Happy Days and drive-ins but with chilled Jamaicans. Potsie smoking chalice, Chachi chewing sugar cane.
The song is almost 50s: it was written for the second annual Jamaican Song Contest in 1963, and was the run-away winner. It was released in 1967, on an original rhythm played by Tommy McCook and the Supersonics, and produced by Duke Reid.
"At the time this one was a instant hit with the white youth in Southern England, the sound was arresting and electrifying, played under the right conditions it could hardly fail to make you dance. The rhythm has been much used since; one notable instance as "Treasure Dub" on the Joe Gibbs' African Dub Chapter 1 album." [link]
Methinks Southern England in the 60s must have been dull as scones for white folk to find this song "electrifying".
Everything Joe Gibbs touches turns to gold. Football, Nascar, African Dub... his is a legacy of committment, faith and winning!
My google search informs me that the great Jackie Mittoo recut this song soon after, but I haven't heard it. And Burning Spear uses the riddim in the song "No More War"tho they definitely ruffed it up. Hear a "No More War" sample here.
"Ba Ba Boom" is available on alot of compilations, but this 2CD set, The Treasure Isle Story, looks especially attractive.
Gordon's War was an early 70s Blaxploitation classic about 4 vietnam vets reutning to their Harlem neighborhood to clean up the trash. "Hot Wheels" is, as advertised, a chase theme.
You don't find many studio bands these days with names like Badder Than Evil. But they walk the walk.
-Directed by Ossie Davis -Original Music by Andy Badale aka.... Angelo Badalamenti of David Lynch fame.
This soundtrack doesn't seem to have been issued on CD yet. Best places I could find were the link above and eBay.
posted by James |
Monday, January 24, 2005
We are back online, abusing phonographs, after a little chapter called...
Moistworks vs. THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Thanks to everyone for the emails and comments. Especially the alarmed legion of french music bloggers who rallied with particular verve.
"J'ai vos fesses, hommes."
-- I got your backs men!... or does that mean "buttocks"?
Moistworks was quite the cause celebr. I was the blogger who fell down the well. I genuinely think there is no cause for alarm. Though I could be wrong. And as a British passport holder, if I am wrong, there is an awesome chance I could be flogged in a public square.
I think the real danger to music blogs is going to be when the major labels start publishing their own mp3 blogs. The blogs will pretend to be some independent kids doing their thing. Like when Budweiser put out its own fake microbrews. But you will know its big business because they will have superlame names like: "J. Bandit's Fresh Trax" or "Blogs Are Awesome!"
So I'll say this now while I still can: when you read the following sentence on this site:
"Hey, ALL the older kids in my neighborhood are down with this KILLER new rocker:Kenny Wayne, check out this fresh talent!",
then you know I've been bought.
Until that day, we will continue doing what we do here with a few modifications:
-mp3s will stay up for a much shorter time period, probably a week. -I will make attempts to clear music where possible -Now... Stone-Roses-Free!
Also, I'll archive things at some point. And update my links. Oh, and expect more of those signature typos.
Content-wise, expect the usual, with renewed focus on vintage hip-hop source material and preposterously dated Australian rock.
For today, I have reposted the mp3s from the last post before the fall:
The excellent french-lebanese styles of Clotaire K, courtesy of Tony.
Mr. Cube: 'He craves access to the "Spielberg formula" -- that is, "do the movies that will make the studio profit, then do the period piece or whatever and they'll give you the budget you need."'
Its so true: "Shadowlands" would have been a WAY better movie if there had been more scenes of dudes getting socked in the nuts and making that suprised "Oh I just got socked in the nuts!!!!" expression to the camera.
And belated thanks to Marc Pfister for identifying the mystery track I posted a while back as "Rock 4 U" by Hustlers of Culture. Everyone go buy this.
Today: the first of hopefully many future guest blogs at moistworks:
BAALBEK REPRESENT REPRESENT
The time has certainly come for the Franco-Lebanese hip-hop of Clotaire K, a French native of Lebanese-Egyptian descent from Montpelier. This first album, Lebanese (Nocturne), is a stylish mix of French and Arabic language hip-hop that synthesizes its countless influences beautifully.
'Lubnan' ("Lebanon") combines some familiar hip-hop tracks of the MC Solaar variety and moves fluidly between English, French, and Arabic from song to song and often within the same song. There's also some decent Oud playing, and even a track ('Maqam') with that most famous veteran of East-West fusion, Natacha Atlas.
The most refreshing thing about this album, and the biggest relief, is that it doesn't simply do your regular French/American hip-hop and then add a dash of middle eastern flavor in the patter of a dumbek or the occasional ululation. Instead, you get the sense that every song and sentiment is expressed in the language or musical style best suited to it. I also have to also say how brilliant some of the sampling is on this release, which mixes in everything from Oum Kalthoum, Fayrouz, and Coptic liturgies to Anwar Sadat speeches and the familiar street sounds of Lebanon.
I have been forced to removed my mp3's by my hosting service (lypha.com) because of the following letter they recieved from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Who knew the Brits had Chuck Ds back?
I have never personally received any such letters, and it was only after I inquired about my site being suspended that it was forwarded to me.
In the next week or so I shall be moving the site to a new hosting service, a move I was planning on making anyway. So check back in a week or so and we should be up and running here.
In the meantime, let me restate for the record what I have said before:
I run this site for the purpose of promoting music and bands that I feel would benefit from this exposure. I always encourage my readers to purchase material from artists and I provide links to do so, as well as links to further material on these artists. I do not maintain this site for the purpose of people obtaining music for free at the expense of the artists and publishers. I don't give a rat's ass about the rights of downloaders.
I fully support the rights of the artists that I feature on this site, and if any artist or label has a problem with a post, I encourage them to contact and the song(s) will be immediately removed.
And if these requests ultimately make it too dificult to continue this site then so be it. Fellow bloggers:
Have any of you received similar notices? If so I would be very interested to know. Cheers
I am contacting you on behalf of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and its member record companies. The IFPI is a trade association whose member companies are some 1,450 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings. Under penalty of perjury, we submit that the IFPI is authorized to act on behalf of its member companies in matters involving the infringement of their sound recordings,including enforcing their copyrights and common law rights on the Internet.
We have learned that your service is hosting infringing files on its network (see above-referenced directory). These files contain sound recordings by the artists known as Stone Roses and Public Enemy. These sound recordings are owned by some of our member companies and have not been authorized for this kind of use. We have a good faith belief thatthe above-described activity is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. We assert that the information in this notification isaccurate, based upon the data available to us. We are asking for your immediate assistance in stopping this unauthorizedactivity. Specifically, we request that you remove the infringing files from your system or that you disable access to the infringing files. In addition, please inform the site operator of the illegality of his or her conduct.
You should understand that this letter constitutes notice to you that this site operator may be liable for the infringing activity occurring on yourservice. In addition, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, if you ignore this notice, you and/or your company may also be liable for any resulting infringement.
This letter does not constitute a waiver of anyright to recover damages incurred by virtue of any such unauthorized activities, and such rights as well as claims for other relief are expressly retained.
You may contact me at
IFPI Secretariat, 54 Regent Street, London W1B 5RE, United Kingdom
or email Notices@ifpi.org to discuss this notice. We await your response.
Sincerely, Mr Paul Mitchell Internet Anti-Piracy Administrator IFPI Secretariat 54 Regent Street London W1B 5RE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 7878 7915 Fax: +44 (0)20 7878 6832 E-mail: Notices@ifpi.org Website: www.ifpi.org
=====================
We are forced to take immediate action on your account "moistwor"( moistworks.com)failing which our server will remain terminated. We have suspended your account as a first step regarding this. We hereby request you to get back to us with proper explanation and resolution regarding the issue within 24 hours failing which we will beforced to terminate this account.Please feel free to get back to us if you need any further clarification(s).
Today: the first of hopefully many future guest blogs at moistworks:
BAALBEK REPRESENT REPRESENT
The time has certainly come for the Franco-Lebanese hip-hop of Clotaire K, a French native of Lebanese-Egyptian descent from Montpelier. This first album, Lebanese (Nocturne), is a stylish mix of French and Arabic language hip-hop that synthesizes its countless influences beautifully.
'Lubnan' ("Lebanon") combines some familiar hip-hop tracks of the MC Solaar variety and moves fluidly between English, French, and Arabic from song to song and often within the same song. There's also some decent Oud playing, and even a track ('Maqam') with that most famous veteran of East-West fusion, Natacha Atlas.
The most refreshing thing about this album, and the biggest relief, is that it doesn't simply do your regular French/American hip-hop and then add a dash of middle eastern flavor in the patter of a dumbek or the occasional ululation. Instead, you get the sense that every song and sentiment is expressed in the language or musical style best suited to it. I also have to also say how brilliant some of the sampling is on this release, which mixes in everything from Oum Kalthoum, Fayrouz, and Coptic liturgies to Anwar Sadat speeches and the familiar street sounds of Lebanon.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Im testing out a new Rating System with the blog. How moist was that last post? Now you can let me know. Click on the stars icon below the posts. I think you need to quickly register when you do with Newsgator, a News Feed site, but its a harmless registration, no spam etc....
Anyway, maybe I'll scrap this in a couple weeks, but we will see. I thought it maybe a good way to gauge what people dig on the site...
Esther Williams' 1976 LP Let Me Show You is very hard to come by based on my google efforts. You can pick up the vinyl single of "Last Night Changed It All" pretty cheap as a vinyl single and also on the excellent Saint Etienne compilation The Trip.
The former "Miss Black DC" has enjoyed a long career in R&B, Pop, Gospel and Jazz. She's active these days in the DC jazz scene, with her husband Davey Yarborough, a saxman and Edu-tainer. You can listen to extended music samples and buy their albums right here.
If you are in the DC area, you can also hear Esther in The Voices of Peoples Gospel Choir on the last Sunday of every month at The Peoples Congregational Church
posted by James |
Friday, January 07, 2005
RACING AWAY Grant Lee Phillips & Horace Andy One Giant Leap 2002 [buy it]
"One Giant Leap" was an earnest multi-culti-media project undertaken a few years ago by UK director/musician Jamie Catto and producer Duncan Bridgeman. They traveled around some 25 countries recording music, images and spoken word, that sort of thing. The musicians involved are all seem deeply concerned with positivity, respect, culture, ancestry. You can tell this because they use words like "positivity", "respect", "culture" and "ancestry" an awful lot.
Projects like this often garner equally earnest and often overly-generous accolades like these pearls:
"Boundaries of nationality, time, and musical genre meld into grooves for the head, hips, and heart that need no translation."
"Gather round the modern world's campfire; the movie screen, television set, or laptop DVD player, and let this film's message wash over you in these troubled times. For "1 Giant Leap" is nothing short of an electronic drum circle, drawing the citizens of Earth together for a planet-wide cautionary pep talk." For my taste, the results are decidedly mixed, and - as is usually the case with such global throwdowns - sound often like straight london acid-jazz with a benign world music flavor.
Still there are a lot of really talented people involved here and a few of the tracks are pretty satisfying.
"Racing Away" has the fewest BPM and is prob my fav., esp. the second 3 minutes.
I think "My Culture" was a big hit in the UK, prob. because of Robbie Williams. Its pretty damn catchy in its typical Robbie Williams way. He teams on the song with Maxi Jazz, who I think is Dutch, but I'm not sure.
On his official site, Maxi describes himself as "The G.O.D. - The Grand Oral Dissaminator".
He also professes, in 3rd person, that his "...other great love, besides his faith and music, is his Ford Escort Mk 2 RS 2000. Her Buddha name is "The Orchid Room", her street name is "Biscuit".
This is a multimedia CD, and was released as a companion to a double-Grammy nominated DVD which contained 11 short films and 30 behind the scenes movies. You can pick up the DVD, which is supposed to be great stuff, over at the 1 Giant Leap official site.
And its available at netflix.
I think there was also an additional "making of" PBS documentary.
posted by James |
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
THE WEEKEND Dave Hollister feat. Redman and Erick Sermon Ride Soundtrack 1998 [buy the CD singles]
All About Dave... Dave Hollister has developed his musical landscape as a R&B gritty lover man. He serenades us with real situations that we all can relate to.
Q: But when I think of Montell, I think of good times and smiles... tell us about the peaks?
A: Well, "This is How We Do It" was definitely what launched everything. It allowed me to travel to Milan, Sevilla... there are no words to describe those cities. Simply amazing. Music has allowed me to travel through my work, and live some great experiences, like going to Australia. Have you ever had Morton Bay Bugs? They are bigger than shrimp but smaller than lobster. And the shopping...
No one here but us cassanovas keeping it very very real.
An amazon reviewer had this to say:
Dis is da best CD ever! It rules da world. Man, dis guy is phat momma! I was a lowercase G, but now I'm a big G!
I don't know what that means: Did he lose his virginity to Montell Jordan?
Check out the video for Montell's last single "Get it on Tonight" over at Launch. Its about relationships and fidelity and the modern man. Its also about buttocks, and the Buttocks Meme.
Heres a serving suggestion for "Morton Bay Bugs Montell"
posted by James |
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Put something moist in you pocket...
Own a little piece of the moistworks legend: I am selling my beloved RIO Karma mp3 player on eBay. I loved the little bastard, its an iPod killer, but now its full and I got something roomier, (an iPod).
Of course the player is jammed with 20GB of top cuts from the moistworks archives.
And peep this first class EDUTAINMENT:
It also has the entire 98 CD contents of the Arkangel Complete William Shakespeare Audio set tagged and loaded in. Because life is stage and we but PLAYAZZ Its a $400+ set in stores, but you can shower to the voice of Joseph Feinnes for free.
Its also loaded with the entire Pimsleur Comprehensive French Language Courses: French I, II and III. Thats about 45 CDs worth of lessons in the ordering of wine and the mocking of bellhops. Its about a $1000 in stores. Heres a link to French II at Barnes and Noble.
Its a great little player. Small, long battery life, a great display, playlists on the fly....
Monday, January 03, 2005
Real quickly, here are some of my fav. things from this year as far as I can remember.
I don't really buy CDs nor do I have access to peer-to-peer sites, and I spent most of this year getting further into rocksteady, soul, and old hiphop, so Im going to make this list largely a celebration of being down with OPB, or Other Peoples Blogs. Tnx to you all.
Anyhow, the moisture:
- - - - - - - - - - - -
TOP SHELF:
Komeda - "Blossom (Got To Get It Out)" Best HI NRG indyrock ever
The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike Most enjoyed album from front to back. Very spirited stuff. Esp. "Huddle Formation"
Joana Newsom - "Peach, Plum, Pear" Heartbreaking
TY - "Ha Ha" A-One UK MC
Sun Kil Moon - "Carry Me Ohio" I think this was v. late 03 actually. Mark Kozeleck (Red House Painters) and his enormous head weepier than ever.
Thomas Fehlmann - "Du Fehlst Mir" Languid and electronic. Poignant city. One of the first tracks I think I downloaded from an mp3 blog and a song a I never would have heard if not for blogs.
Madvillain and MFDoom
The Mountain Goats
RJD2
I'm not as big a fan of Kanye West as many, but versions of two of his songs were among my fav. things:
"Get Em High" from the unauthorized Ratatat Remixes Vol 1
and
"All Falls Down" (original mix) with the very superior Lauryn Hill vocal that was cut from College Dropout when Lauryn wouldn't play ball. One of earlier treasures I found over at Soul Sides this year.
RAIL:
79 Cortinaz - "Feather Egshells" Bangers and angst from Ireland
Colder - "Crazy Love"
The Avett Brothers - "At The Beach" I found this off a blog recently. Made me happy.
Quinoline Yellow - "Opentoedwellies" Dark and electronic. Best appreciated riding home over the Brooklyn bridge at night.
Igloo - "The Go Find" Ed Harcourt - "Something to Live For"
Cee-Lo - esp. "Die Trying" Jolie Holland
and:
Some things I continued not really to get in 2004:
Crunk, Dizzee Rascal, Sonic Youth, Lil Jon, Jaz-Z, Ashanti, Usher....
posted by James |
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Most of you faithful readers were probably not around for the first few months of this site, so I'm going to repost some of the early offerings over the next few days.
Before I do though, a few shout outs:
Sam Lipsyte's stellar new novel "Home Land" was recently pubblished in the US. Sam had his brain analyzed using water displacement technologies and it is about 23% heavier than that of most men. He uses his big brain to write SO clever sentences and he sprays those sentences like a tommy gun. I urge anyone looking for a fresh and bitingly funny read to pick up the book.
Also: An anonynmous mate of mine has shipped out to Liberia to do good in the region. He has started up a vivid travel blog, Delirium or da Larium? that I encourage you all to check out
Onto the music.
In the service of laziness I'll mostly cut and paste my comments for these songs from the first time around, with a few added links:
The bass is just mental. This is the B-Side from their mid '80s "nationwide hit single" Sardines. (Go-Go PR folk have always tended to outpunt their coverage when it comes to estimating success.) The Junkyard Band started as a way to keep kids from the Barry Farms housing project on the streets, and on the streets banging buckets. I first saw them some time in the late 80s on an August Saturday at DC's annual folklife festival on the mall. Apparently Reagan didn't give the Pentagon all the farmer Brown money, b/c on that humid afternoon the Federal Government was paying the band to teach puffy tourists how to do the Cabbage Patch. Maybe one of those tourists was a young Tim Allen!!!
The Washington Post has some more Junkyard tunes, which are hit and miss, as well as some history iof the band. Junkyard on Amazon, again, hit and miss.
CAT IN THE HAT Little Benny And The Masters Big City Records 1987
In the waspy DC private prep school circuit I grew up in, the three things you could count on at a house party were Ocean Pacific cord shorts, cocaine and white kids dancing to Go-Go. This songs was one of the biggest crowd pleasers. Little Benny and The Masters is such a great name. It would also be a great name for a young adult novel, especially one about a special olympics golfer with short pants but tall dreams.
Definition Of Sound had a million singles in the early 90s, all from Love and Life..., most of them irritatingly anglo and perky (like "Wear Your Love Like Heaven"), most of them listened to by euro kids who tragically believed that "black" really is just an attitute. But "Rise Like Sun" was a great sleeper. Its the first rap song my girlfriend liked, and though the vocals aren't all that strong, the instrumentals are sleepy and more soulful than most hiphop. A very earnest Amazon reviewer has the following to say:
This album will become a part of your life. Beckoning you... These words will speak to your heart... to what you know to be true and just. I bought this album in 1992. As I proceed on my lifes journey this cd beckons me to dig it out and listen. These guys have knowledge and if this album is their foundation then they have no limits! Listen, and you'll listen again. This album is a gift to the world.
These aren't really prototypical weepy white guys, especially Kid Silver who can be downright pert. You want a real weepy white guy? Go to Chip's music blog and download "Carry Me Ohio" by Sun Kil Moon. Actually, I think he has taken it down now. But trust me, its great WWG. Not Mark Eitzel types who actually cry while on stage, thats just unprofessional, but just capital-G Guys with some angst on their arm, keeping it real, keeing it weepy... Kind of like Chip, who turned me on to Kid Silver. Kid Silver was in a band called Rollerskate Skinny that kids seemed to like. I think hes from some damp, pasty foreign place like Dublin or Cleveland, but he moved to NYC a while back. Dead City Sunbeams came out on JetSet, in 1998 I think.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Sorry for the long delay, life has been so very busy. I promise the New Year will see a recommittment to all things moist.
I won't try and do a real year in review, but this has def. been the year of the music blog for me, a huge percentage of my fav. discoveries have come from my fellow bloggers.
But I'll quickly do the year that was in moistworks, re-posting some of my fav. more obscure offerings from this year. Today I'll start with:
Mashups and Remixes
Sifting through GYBO is akin to old school crate digging: theres a lot of junk out there but you keep going back because of the occasional beauties you come by. I haven't been by the boards in a long while but here are some of the gems i stumbled upon thid year:
"Lost" Download it here A very affecting collage of Paul Simon, Billie Holliday, Ella and others put togther by Tomas Diablo easliy takes top honors. I throw this baby on many mix tapes. I also recommend "Crucify The Verse"
"New York At Last" Download it here A Freddie Mercury demo remixed by Smash.
"Got Soul Vibrations" Download UK outfit Soundly Beaten takes the wind out of Eric B's sails.
"I Schaenke Dir 21 Questions" Download it here 50-Cent gets uber-poignant when backed by Zuri West. Mixed by Dj Crook Air Also check Crook's "Cold Sweat Beyonce"
"Baby, You're a Pure Man" Download it here Brat cleverly boosted the vocal track from the Beatles Athology dvd and slicked it up with some Willaim Orbit production.
"Don't Talk Remix" Download it here JoolsMF had the balls to reimagine the Beach Boys classic
"Ludakriss" Download it here The year's #1 party jam in my book. Ludacris and Kris Kross remixed by Instamatic
Much love to my DC crew, esp JJ MeshPants, Cheniers Ghost and Old One Eye.
Rock Creek Park is in DC and its not a park so much as woods. I didnt know people DID IT in Rock Creek Park after dark unless doing it means catching mice or doing murder. All Things Considered contributor Michele Norris really really wants to do it in the park after dark, ever since she was a girl. She even listens to this song while she trolls for manwhores.
Heres an excellent history of The Blackbyrds, though I have no idea why it appears in the Harvard Business School Journal. Maybe I should read the whole thing.
Donald Byrd did recruit much of the band from Howard University, where he was Professor in Ethnomusicology, and I guess Howard sounds a little like Harvard.
posted by James |
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
HOT PANTS ROAD The JBs Funky Good Time: The Anthology [buy it]
Generally, theorists such as Baudrillard have argued that the conditions of postmodernity force artists working in popular modes to depend on electronic mediums controlled by corporate capital, and imbedded within these representational fields, any resistive stance threatens to be played out as merely a compliant mode of performitivity which reifies the authority of our master signifying practices....
The creative/political stance that Chuck D articulates is analogous to Michel Foucault's conception of the "masked other"- a model I find useful for explaining and understanding the paradoxical nature of postmodern political gestures. In "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," Foucault locates power in discourse and suggests that a historically-notable event is not to be understood as "a decision, a treaty, a reign, or a battle, but the reversal of a relationship of forces, the usurpation of power, the appropriation of a vocabulary turned against those who had once used it . . . the entry of a masked 'other'", and I believe that Public Enemy's treatment of language and sampling on It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back occurs in just this sort of site. I would like to suggest that the notion of being simultaneously "masked" and "other"- the something-different which cloaks its deviance, the that-which-is-not-you which passes as that-which-is-you, the entity which can "play the game" and "work the game" simultaneously- is congruent with the consenting alternativism of the postmodern which, in the words of Linda Hutcheon, "works within the very system it hopes to subvert"
Here's guessing Todd F. Tietchen does not live on Hot Pants Road.
For some years my mate Tony and I have been preparing a thesis called: Weighting for Cube : The Hegelian Dialectic But it appears TODD has stolen our thunder.
More versions of Fight the Power (including some lousy live ones, and a nice edit off the Louder Than A Bomb remix album) over at the Shutemdown.com fan site.
The La's self-titled album is one of the great early 90s Brit Pop releases. They burn bright and burned out quicker, mostly they say, because the lead singer was an enormous cockface. This sharp live version of "Timeless Melody" comes off one of many promo releases. I think their hit single "There She Goes" is now being used on TV to pimp feminine hygeine products. If you never had this record go buy it this instant.
The Stone Roses were also very talented and arrogant. "Fools Gold" would be a great name for a feminine hygeine product. Their long-in-the-making Second Coming was unfairly reviewed in my opinion. Guitarist John Squire busted out his best Jimmy Page riffs and the album rocked out. "Tightrope" was odd-song-out on this record, and I don't think it got any airplay, but I love its rousing campfire energy, inspite of Ian "Air Rage" Brown's typically medicore pipes.
posted by James |
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
CLOCK Milla Jovovich The Divine Comedy [buy it]
Something for your girlfriend today at moistworks!
You may know Milla Jovovich as the impossibly attractive model, or as the impossibly attractive movie star, but many people don't realize that she is also an impossibly attractive musician. Her 1994 debut album The Divine Comedy was largely slept on. By all rights it should have been terrible, but it isn't only not terrible, it's an impressively polished folk-pastoral "pop tapestry." Think a Slavic Kate Bush. Milla was 15 when she wrote the lyrics, 16 when she recorded the album, but it's a grown up record and not self-absorbed in the way you would expect.
In 1998 Milla released a mail-order only, trip-hoppish, album called New Electronic Folk Music: The Peopletree Sessions.
"This recording was created in a series of late night meetings filled with conversation & song & plugged directly into the back of a computer in an apartment in the Hollywood Hills. That the raw recordings were then remixed & reinterpreted at other desktop studios in other parts of the world gives it a sense of time - you can feel, in listening the enthusiasm of a new era. Previously sold (for the last three years) through the internet, it's acquired somewhat legendary status - as much for its rarity (it has commanded $150 in online auctions)..."
You can get the 2002 re-issue here and its just $15.
The London Guardian calls the record: "So barking it's great. Ms. Jovovich has defied convention and taken the route of madness. I don't have a clue what she's going on about, but at least she's done it with style."
I haven't heard it but I just ordered it for "my girlfriend" so I'll let you know how it goes down that route of madness.
Fans were divided on the new sound, and shortly after its release Milla accused her collaborators (that would be the nefarious folk collective "The Peopletree" ) of releasing the material against her wishes. She maintained that these were were rough and preliminary demos never meant for the light of day, and that the post-production was done without her approval.
Since then, Milla has recorded number of one-offs: An interesting cover of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" on the soundtrack of muffinhead Wim Wenders' The Million Dollar Hotel, (in which she appears); and contributions to a Crystal Method album, as well as the soundtracks for Dummy and The Rules of Attraction.
There are 2 great sources for additional Milla material:
Here you will find a bunch of demos available for download, some of them are real good. Many of you may actually prefer this sparser sound over her more lush studio work. My fav. is the The 80s flavored "Beat on Ice." Milla describes it as something "I wrote on the guitar and recorded on my laptop, for fun, they're just fun ideas."
Also check out the Portishead influenced "Calm Water" and "Flashlight" and Bjorkish "Bring it On." And you might as well check out those photogallerys while you are there.
Well, my name is ROBY, i spend long time for this Site,i hope you like it, i love MILLA and everythings she's done. Love Milla Forever Thanks Roby.If you want to write me, please do it at this email:webmaster@millanews.com
Oce you sort through the site nav you will find a very comprehensive Milla radio player (which includes the "Satellite of Love" cover) as well as a number of video materials, from music videos to live performance footage.
Final day of acidjazz action from the Tribe Called Quest vaults.
Art Blakey banged the drum for some 30+ years for his Jazz Messengers band. He also contibuted to Thelonius Monk's historic 1957 group, a group that included both Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane.
Of Art, Kenny Clark said: "You see Buhaina is the only one I know who can make a press or ocean roll come out on top of the beat and keep the whole shit swinging. He never looked back. If you know a living drummer who can do it better than 'Buh,' name him and I'll kiss him here and now"
Buhaina is Blakey's Muslim name (Abdullah Ibn Buhaina ): he's often called "Bu" by his friends...
When I was a kid - actually when I was in high school - I though Thelonius Monk's name was "The Loneliest Month"
The Chambers Brothers "were arguably the first self contained, songwriting, African American rock band in America." You have heard their gritty hit song "Time Has Come" in a million movies, from Easy Rider to Girl Interrupted.
From the AMG bio: "Like their West Coast contemporaries Sly and the Family Stone, the Chambers Brothers shattered racial and musical divides to forge an incendiary fusion of funk, gospel, blues, and psychedelia.
R.A.M.P. stood for the "Roy Ayers Music Project". "Ayers along with fellow band members Edwin Birdsong and William Allen, wrote, produced and arranged the Cincinnati based group consisting of John Manuel on drums, Nate White on bass, Landy Shores on guitar and the singing duo of Sharon Matthews and Sibel Thrasher. "
Ive posted plenty of Roy Ayers here before. And I always mention this link: the Roy Ayers J-Files, a full radio show dedicated to the man and his music.
In the very early 90s I was lucky enough to see the Pharcyde live at a very small club in DC. I have a low opinion of live rap shows. A SanFran show featuring, among others: Digital Underground, Queen Latifah, Parris, Naughty By Nature managed to be a big bassheavy crap fest, tho i did get to high five Tupac. And a PE concert in Melbourne was a downright disgrace; a very high Flav couldnt keep pace with his guide vocal. But the Pharcyde were just great; lyrical and fast and tight. But not as fast and tight as the band that opened for them: a mostly white trio from Philly called The Goats. There was no DJ, no dancers, no posse; just the three MCs (MADD, Oatie and Swayzack) on a tiny platform. Their word play was dense and spitfire and red-blooded. A few months later their debut album Tricks of Shade came out. It was a political record, a little skit-heavy, and featured live musicians. They sound sounded part Beasties, part Cypress Hill, and part Black Eyed Peas (that really really small part of the Black Eyed Peas that doesn't embarrass itself.) Its a pretty solid record, but "Typical American", which I think was the single, is a standout.
The Goats are all but forgotten now. Their three? CDs are out of print, and only this place seems to sell their mp3s.
But thanks to the internet I now know that MADD is living fat in france, and Oatie has found a second career as a Biology and Physics teacher (how about it Jay-Z?). Swayzack is "MIA," and the groups musicians Pierce and EJ have a folk band. You can sample their sound over at npr.
Oatie also produced the "Swing-Hop" act Jimmy Luxury, whose songs have popped up on a bunch of soundtracks, inckluding Oceans 11.
Check out The Goats website, for some great photos, and some of raps best lyrics.
Back with even more Tribe Called Quest source works.
Grant Green A "jazz guitar genius who played on nearly 100 albums from the early 60s to the late 70s, but narrowly missed celebrity... A straight-ahead jazzman turned funk wizard, Grant is best known for his rhythmic and driving tone as a session leader and sideman for Blue Note Records."
Lucky Thompson "proved to be one of the most original and inventive saxophonists working in the post-bebop mainstream." Heres a good bio. Many many men have jammed to "Green Dolphin Street." The Cook County Jail album is perhaps a minor classic, but you would have to ask a Jazz Barney. It features George Freeman and Jimmy McGriff on organ, and moistworks number one hall-of-fame Singaporean B-TOWN ele-phunk legend O'Donel Levy on guitar. I wrote a boldly revisionist hagiohraphy of The Don once, a minor classic in its own blasphemous right. Really I did and wuill one day deliver it to the world. Until then you can see ODog play weekly at Baltimore restaurant Courtneys Place.
Minnie Riperton died very young of breast cancer. She is best known for her beautifully moving 1974 #1 hit "Lovin' You", which was a ballad to her baby daughter Maya, now a sexy star on Saturday Night Live. They say Minnie had some kind of freak range, like 5 and a half octaves. I think thats more octaves than the entire Band Aid 20 ensemble put together.
Heres AMGs bio on Funk superstars Slave. Tribe Called Quest used "Son of Slide" for the guts of "Go Ahead in the Rain."
Steve Arrington joined Slave a year after "Son of Slide" and became their lead singer for a good while. Then he found a young bass player called JESUS CHRIST and now runs his own ministry, the Amazing Love Full Gospel Church, in Kettering Ohio. "Weak at the Knees" was a pretty big cheesed out funk hit in the 80s and has turned up on a bunch of hiphop platters, notably in my ears, NWAs "Gangsta Gangsta."
Friday, November 19, 2004
INNER CITY BLUES Rueben Wilson The Sweet Life Groove Merchant 1972 [buy vinyl] also on The Further Adventures Of Funk Soul Brothers [buy it]
RUNNING AWAY Roy Ayers Lifeline 1977 available on: Best of Roy Ayers: Millennium Collection [buy it] 12" available on: Destination Motherland: The Roy Ayers Anthology [IMPORT] [buy it]
I used to work with a guy called Neil Drumming who is responsible for Entertainment Weekly's just-published 25 top rap records of alltime. You list types can get into the debate over at CBluntz. Moistworks isn't too keen on listmaking cuz it hurts me brain, and rap music is hardly an album makers game. Neil writes real good and has rap smarts and I'm pleased to see 2Pac was shut out. But it brings me little pleasure to see JayZ is on there, while Sex Packetsand One For All somehow don't make the cut . And then of course there is the DisorderliesSoundtrack.
I'm going to keep dropping some source material for the next few days. Cuz if we are giving props, they gotta be HEARTBEAT PROPS!!!!!! Maybe I'll come up with a list of 25 top samples. Probably I wont though. But suggesitons are very welcome.
We'll start with the acid-jazz vibes of my two fav. early Tribe Called Quest songs: "Youthful Expression" and "Description of a Fool".
Reuben Wilson is main man maestro of the b-3 Hammond organ. "Inner City Blues" is his silky jazz interpretation of Marvin Gaye's song by the same name, from the What's Going On album.
Hammond organ hero Reuben Wilson helped redefine the soul jazz movement in the late 60s with a string of seminal albums for Blue Note and holding down the keys for Lee Morgan, Sam Rivers, George Coleman, Roy Haynes, Donald Byrd, Melvin Sparks and the great Grant Green.
Other Wilson tidbits: he is a former professional boxer, and was dusted off by Guru for the Jazzmatazz projects during the mid 90s
I feel like I post Roy Ayers music just about once a week these days. Check the Oct. 4 and Sept. 2 posts for 2 previous Ayer's classics. The disco-jazz jam "Running Away" is one of his best known works.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
THE DARKEST LIGHT Lafayette Afro Funk Band Malik 1972 Darkest Light: The Best of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band 1999 [buy it]
THE GRUNT The JBs Food for Thought 1972 Funky Good Time: The Anthology 1999 [buy it]
Some classic Public Enemy source materials today.
The Lafayette Afro Rock Band were a bunch of soul brothers from Long Island who one day up and decided to move to Paris, to bring the old school to the old world.
Ahh to be a Long Island funk band in 70s Paris.
Moistworks presents the Lafayette Afro Rock Band phrase book:
'Sir, I am Knee Deep in Funk': Monsieur je suis genou profondement dans la trouille 'Papas got a brand new bag': Le papa a un nouveau sac 'Blow Baby, Blow!': Coup de bebe de coup 'Extra bacon': Plus de lardon sil vous plait 'Hey can i dry clean this ruby suit?': Peut I sec nettoyer un costume rouge? Check out their unlikely bio here
'Darkest Light' astonishes me.
And Darkest Light: The Best of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band gets the moistworks seal of excellence! Pick it up!
The JBs were the handsdown phattest funk outfit of all time. Their soul was gritty but tailored tighter than Robert Pants trousers. They were the horny horn power that drove the Sex Macnine in the 70s, before the slow jam and current generation of R&B producer barons stole the soul, and the machine got broke. Usher broke the sex machine! Destinys Child broke the sex machine! Ashanti's Christmas Album, YOU broke the sex machine!
Moistworks is back on board, after some server issues. It turns out my hosting service is rigorously Christian and in the end I had to agree to take down my topless Maury Chaykin photographs, but it was worth it to keep the moist side moist and its what Maury would want.
Coming back with a wimper today, as I step perilously close to smooth-jazz turf.
Im pretty sure that I would never board a Smooth Jazz Cruise unless I was ready to cross to the other otherside. I fear they are our adult contemporary ferrymen up the river Styx. And if I saw Grover Washington Jr sidle up next to me in the mens room, I would know my time had come. I would button up my tux and take his hand, knowing that heaven would hold me in satin sheets and suggestive incenses with names like "Tanzania Queen" and it would always hover between day and nightfall, a time and place they call "Winelight" in smooth jazz heaven. And were the morning sun ever to come, Grover himself would deliver fresh bottles of Rose wine product to my doorstep.
Idris Muhammad's soul is a fair bit more volcanic than Soft Money Grove's. He's an OG drum legend. Over his long career hes backed singers Betty Carter, Etta Jones and Roberta Flack, jammed with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders and Herbie Hancock. He even played for the musical Hair
Nowadays Idris just wants to "...go fishin' and smoke my Cuban cigars and drink Diet Coke. I would like to enjoy a little bit of my life, come off of the road. I've done a lot of great things in my lifetime. And I know I can play. Some guys never reach their goal of what they're trying to achieve in life, you know? My life has been quite fruitful," says Muhammad. "I'm 62 now and I've been on the road 47 years and I'm thinkin' that I don't really want die out here."
Certainly beats dying on the set of the Saturday Morning Early Show, like Grover did. But live by the adult contemporary sword, die by the adult contemporary sword.
These 2 editions of "Loran's Dance" were noteably sampled by Tribe Called Quest and The Beastie Boys respectively, and in both cases I reckon they made of with the choicest meat.
Monday, October 25, 2004
OK if anyone remembers me its Moistworks here. My blog has taken down temporarily because of incompetence on the behalf of my hosting service. Should be back up very soon. Will you still love.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Think Ive got it actually
Meanwhile, Captain Bixby forwarded me this City Beat article on the new sampling laws, which in turn steered me toward this competition called "3 Notes and Runnin." I think the contest is just about over, but the results (170 and counting) are worth checking out. Its an open call to make a 30 second track out of the 1.5 second Funkadelic sample that was at the center of the court case.
James Brown used them. Hip-hoppers stole from them. Will these women finally get their due?
...In these women's day, Brown's show was a full-fledged revue: Spots by comedians, vocal groups, Brown's backing band playing on its own, and other singers occupied the time before Danny Ray came out to introduce Soul Brother #1 -- "Are you ready for Star Time?" There was usually one featured female vocalist who'd come on before Brown and sing a few numbers; she'd also serve as a background singer for him, maybe do a duet or two, maybe cover a then-current pop hit while Brown went backstage to change into another outlandish costume. She'd make records, too -- mostly singles, mostly extraordinary, mostly overshadowed in sales and on the radio by the man who scored over 100 chart singles. Her name would appear as the artist credit; the rest of the label would say "Produced by James Brown," "Arranged by James Brown," "A James Brown Production -- The Sound of Success." You can guess whose name would appear as the writer's credit; the face pictured on the label would be his, too. ...
I'm absolutely gonna buy me James Brown's Original Funky Divas. Though it seems to already be out of print, pleanty of used copies are out there.
Vicki Anderson's real name was Myra Barnes. She changed her name for a spell to keep her pagan ways of soul secret from the Goodie Proctor set. She also went by the great alias "Momie-O." She was married to James Brown's right-hand man Bobby Byrd
If you want to preview and download single tracks from this record, you can over at WalMart.
"Message from the Soul Sisters" has been sampled many times. Heres a list.
As for "Sport"-- listen to those great lyrics:
"Shot a bad game of pool, well now they call me Sport... cause I push the ball short"
Sport is like Shaft after Tipper Gore got through with him.
Lightning Rod aka Jalal Nuriddin aka Alafia Purdim, was a founding member of the Last Poets. In the pre-dawn of Hip-Hop time, the Last Poets were the lungfish. Read about the Last Poets here. Last Poet records are a must for any fan of the old school.
Hustler's Convention features the smooth backbeats of Kool & the Gang.
I have added some donor links atop the blog. If you must download mainstream music illegally and take money away from rockstars and big music industry types, make like Robin Hood and send your savings to one of these charities.
Ive also updated my links, adding a few new blogs I'm enjoying, and a few I just never got around to linking.
posted by James |
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
ECHO BEACH Martha and the Muffins Metro Music 1979 [Re-issued 2003] [Import] [buy it]
When MSNBC announced that New Wave is Back!, moistworks didn't cover his ears and deny the words. I'm retro-forward!
Martha and the Muffins had a silly one-hit-wondery name, the kind Mo "Look at my Big Four-Eyed C**t-Face" Rocca makes wry quips about on VH1, and they had but one (very very rad) hit in 1979/80 with "Echo Beach." But they were not a one trick pony. Martha and the Muffins knocked out a string of decent albums deep into the decade.
In 1981 the band took on a new lady bassist went by the name Jocelyne Lanois. Jocelyne had a brother, called himself Daniel. Daniel's signature production sound is ALL over Martha's post "Echo Beach" catalogue. Songs like "This Is The Ice Age" sound strikingly like very early Talking Heads.
If you haven't heard heard "Echo Beach" though, its gonna curl your Fioruccis. Muffin Man Mark Gane reckons Echo Beach ain't real, its in your heart, so don't go looking for it. He also describes, on the official MatM site, the lyrics to "This is the Ice Age" thusly:
The lyrics describe what came out of my head when waking up after a vividly beautiful dream. I've always been fascinated with this period of time; its odd mammalians, the idea of the human race not dominating the world around it, the purity of landscapes untouched by cities and roads, air so sharp it might burn the lungs, (but in a pleasantly euphoric way), and filled with strange, unfathomable sounds. In a funny sort of way, this could be an account of dying and going up to heaven, (the odd mammalians being angels I suppose).
I think the period Mark refers to is the actual Ice Age, not mornings in his bed, but either way.... oddly mamallian, Ripping stuff!! -- though those "strange, unfathomable sounds" are probably just the Rhodes CHROMA Synth Martha was banging on.
The Midnight Oil version of "Echo Beach" is a live number from a 1982 Mlebourne show. Its not really that inspired but worth a listen.
If you want to find this song on CD, be careful: many of Wilson's greatest hits comps feature re-recorded versions of the song. I'm not sure who's playing that amazing sadsack sax solo. It maybe Tommy McCook? Anyone?
You can find a decent dub update of the song on The Aggrovators: Dubbing In Studio 1 right here.
Delroy is more honest with himself on "Better Must Come" which was perhaps his biggest hit. Big enough that is was adapted as an anthem by socialist Michael Manley in his successful election campaign 1972.
Cute Delroy fact:
Starting primarily singing at concerts at Boy's Town School, Delroy used to have to stand up on a 'Red Stripe' beer box in order that he might actually reach the microphone.
Heres a good bio on Reggae great Delroy Wilson at Reggaetrain.com
Its Saturday, so here's a recipe for a Rollerskating Jam:
A few notes on the bands:
Young-Holt Unlimited were a Chicago soul-R&B instrumental group. Young and Holt worked with the Ramsey Lewis Trio and were featured on two of the group's best-known singles, "The In Crowd" and "Hang On Sloopy" (both 1965) and the 1968 with the million-selling "Soulful Strut".
Philly-based Instant Funk "comprised James Carmichael (vocals), George Bell (guitar), Kim Miller (guitar), Scotty Miller (drums), Raymond Earl (bass), Dennis Richardson (keyboards), Charles Williams (percussion), Larry Davis (trumpet) and John Onderline (sax). They were ostensibly the musical vehicle for noted producer/writer Bunny Sigler, who used them for the instrumentation on his own albums and subsequently secured them a contract with T.S.O.P. Records. "
They switched to the Salsoul label in '79 and released "I Got My Mind Made Up" which was a deserving disco-funk smash.
I can't find much on The Mighty Ryeders but this amazon reviewer has got their number:
"I can't wait to get this CD because it is the Nuclear BOMB! This CD will rule in my bad chariot for a long time! I can't wait to hear the rest of the tunes! Rumor is dope!"
1978's "Evil Vibrations" is disco with an acid-jazz heartbeat.
The Grease Soudtrack is a feelgood goldmine, but Frankie Valli's title-cut really stands alone and is the only measure of soul among the showtune bonhomie. For this, give credit to Barry Gibb, who wrote the song and has enormous, soulful teeth.
God knows what Frankie was on about though. "Conventionality" is a very George Bush word. Though I suppose "orthodoxy as a consequence of being conventional" is dance-floor deadwood.
I only included a small piece of Tower of Power's "Ebony Jam" cause its all I have for some reason, and because Tower of Power is a whole lot of rich middleaged white guys and Im sure they have good lawyers. I got the breakbeat in anycase, and little of those meddling signature horns.
"The Gentle Soul" -- sheesh Captain Bixby, are you really a captain?
The Gentle Soul were a brief lived '60s duo that put out one album that plays exactly as you would expect something by a band called Gentle Soul to sound. In fact this record possesses an archetypal sound in its distilled folkiness. All you Belle and Sebastian softc**ks will looove this record.
The band - essentially the singing and songwriting duo of Rick Stanley and Pamela Polland made a single record, and it's a goodie. Combining coffeehouse folk and sunshine pop with a daub of psychedelia, The Gentle Soul recalls a time when innocence did not necessarily mean inane and soft rock did not necessarily mean softheaded. Terry Melcher's billowy production - all perfectly plucked acoustics, chiming harpsichords and trilling flutes - fully complements Stanley and Polland's close harmonies, which paint bright aural colors on songs like the woozy "Young Man Blue," the delicate "Renaissance" and the soaring "Flying Thing," written by onetime member Jackson Browne."
"Overture" doesn't really showcase the duo that well, as its an instrumental, but it does showcase a young Ry Cooder on guitar.
It also reminds me of acoustic Led Zep along the way, especially the last few seconds which really reminds me of something Led Zep, possibly "The Rain Song."
Sundazed reissued the album recently with a ton of bonus tracks, including all the groups singles.
I always liked Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" as a kid, at least until I was old enough to drink when my Thanksgiving traditions suddenly changed.
"I'm Going Home" was on the B-Side. It's quite morbid. Maybe some familys flipped the record over when grampa started yelling at the phantoms.
In 1995 Arlo released a 30th anniversatry edition of Alice's restaurant: Alice's Restaurant - The Massacree Revisited
"... a re-make of the original album released in 1967. Word for word and song for song it ends up being more than just a re-make. It is a re-statement of what was right to begin with. The record still feels good. I still like it. I thik you'll love hearing the old songs done again." Though all the other songs on this album were rerecorded in the studo, in 1995 Arlo returned to the church near Stockbridge, Massachusetts where he originally wrote Alice's Restaurant. On the 30th anniversary of the massacree, on Thanksgiving, before a live audience, in the place where it all began, he does "Alice" again with some historic footnotes added to the original, creating a return to the scene of the crime in ways that make this version of the famous record the one to stand for all time.
You can buy the 30th Anniv. Edition at Amazon (who fail to mention that its a remake) and also here.
You can stream some live Alice's Restaurant concert material here.
The chruch that Alice from the song lived in is now home to the Guthrie Center.
"Neo Soul Explosion, the Chicago-based summer concert series that rocks doors off houses and makes grown men cry, brings three of the country's most progressive and respected talents to the Canal Room. Vibraphone maestro and singer/songwriter Roy Ayers plays alongside the underappreciated Eric Roberson — whose own The Esoteric Movement... is already a classic with R&B fans in the know — while Lizz Fields, a breakout talent from Philadelphia, brings some young blood to the mix. Simply put, it's a genuine generational passing-of-the-torch between innovators of new and old soul, jazz, funk, rock, and the blues. "
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Moistworks celebrity sighting this morning: Dave Navarro looking very much like a gay Serpico
BOOGIE BACK Roy Ayers Destination Motherland: The Roy Ayers Anthology [IMPORT] [buy it]
Bobbi Humphrey was dubbed "First Lady of the Flute" cause she played the flute, was a lady, and was married Gerald Ford for a time (though technically it was before he was President.)
The tradition of the protest song goes way way back. Though generally associated with folk guitars and harmonicas, protest songs can happen with any instrument, anywhere there is social disruption in our society, anytime a story needs to be told.
On "Japser County Man," Bobbi Humphrey turns her flute into a powerful engine for justice. It's her "Hurricane". And her Rueben Hurricane Carter is David Bruce Shryock .
It's also the backbone for Ice-T's agro classic "New Jack Hustler"
If you don't have 75 euros laying around to buy the Chicago Gangster's rare Blind over You LP, you can still hear the breakbeat from "Gangster Boogie" on the Geto Boys's "Gangster of Love." Or if your like me and you found Bushwick Bill so scary growing up that you dont even want his gauze-eyed likeness in your CD shelf cause you swear you hear him scuttling about your bed at night, then you can find the sample on any one of the following Not-So-OG tracks:
Compton's Most Wanted's "Gangsta Shot Out" Kool Moe Dee's "Gangsta Boogie" Mantronix's "Gangster Boogie" Schoolly D's "Gangster Boogie" Willie D's "U Ain't No Ganksta" LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" Eric B & Rakim's "The Punisher"
"I call myself Dr. because that is someone who must be precise when they execute their job. The Wolfgang is because on the cool, I'm into classical music and my favorite artist is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Bushwickin has to do with me being a father now and producing my own next of kin. So now I'm reproductive both verbally and physically. The Barbarian is to show that I still have the mind of a lunatic and that nothing's changed as far as me coming hard-core rough and rugged. Mother Funky Stay High is a manifestation of the aftermath of chronic-izm. Dollar Bill because I'm currently currency in the United States and abroad. Finally, "stir" is on the end because when I kick shit I always manage to stir something up, whether it's the police, parents or p**sy. "
Its like a dream sequence from "Thats So Raven," Gabe Kapler guest stars.
Geto Boys tapped a more eminent soulman for their song "Trigga Happy Nigga." King Curtis was one of the hardest working tenor saxophonists around. He knocked out funky hits like the aptly titled "Memphis Soul Stew" in the 60s as King Curtis and the Noble Knights, and later as King Curtis and the Kingpins. But as a blistering session sax man, he really got around, turning tricks with the Coasters, the Shirelles, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Wilson Pickett, Lionel Hampton, Nat King Cole, Neil Sedaka, Nina Simone, Herbie Mann, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin and even appearing on John Kennon's Imagine.
That's him on The Coaster's/Leiber and Stoller's superfamous oldie "Yakety Yak," and his sound became known as "Yakety Sax".
"Yakety Sax" is even more famous to me as the "Benny Hill" Theme song.
If you live in New York, having the Benny Hill theme on your iPod can change your whole outlook on life. It really makes the homeless population come to life. What will the shambling old man get up to next? Groping a shy girl on the subway? SUCH CAPERS!
"On Saturday August 14 1971, at the height of a New York heat wave, KingCurtis was carrying an air conditioner unit into his apartment at 50W. 86th St. He found his access blocked by two men administering drugs to themselves. He asked them to move, there was a shuffle, and one of the men, later identified as Juan Montanez, stabbed King Curtis in the heart with a knife. Curtis was hurried to Roosevelt Hospital, but was dead on arrival."
All the greats turned out for the funeral. Stevie Wonder, Duane Allman and Aretha Franklin performed. Jerry Wexler delivered the eulogy.
HUNG UP ON MY BABY Isaac Hayes Double Feature : Music From The Soundtracks Of Three Tough Guys & Truck Turner [SOUNDTRACK] [buy it]
The Black Moses, The Hammer, and the Preacher Man: They've got their own kind of mean game...
Three Tough Guys directed by Duccio Tessari & Unknown Director, 1974 Paramount starring Isaac Hayes, Fred Williamson, Lino Ventura
Ex-convict and priest Father Charlie teams up with framed ex-cop Lee Stevens (Hayes) to set the record straight about a dead friend. Williamson stars as bad guy Joe Snake, responsible for framing Stevens and takes out prostitute Fay Collins (Kelly) in order to grab her secret $1,000,000 stash. Father Charlie and Stevens soon settle the score.
This great Ike Hayes instrumental was famously sampled by the Geto Boys in their Gangsta classic.
I'll post some more great soul tunes sampled by those scary Bushwick bastards in the morrow. Busy watching this debate. Why doesn't somebody ask Bush about the Spider Holes? You think those things are gonna fill themselves in?
Race over to Byron Bitchlaces asap to DLoad a couple great takes on "Mind Playin Tricks On Me": A priceless Geto Boys St Ides commercial, and a G Unit update on the song (September 1st and 4th posts)
posted by James |
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
STOP OU ENCORE Plastic Bertrand King of the Divan - Best of [IMPORT] [buy it]
Famousbelgians.net calls Plastic Bertrand "one of the most famous Belgians to this date." High praise when you consider his Belgian peers:
Django Reinhardt Liz Claiborne Herge Audrey Hepburn and of course, inventor of modern-day road asphalt Edward de Smedt.
Plastic started punk, went pop. "Ca Plane Pour Moi" was a big hit in the late 70s. It has since been covered by lots of folks, including a typically drab spoiler by (the hugely overrated) Sonic Youth.
you can download the Sonic Youth version over at saucerlike.com
1981's "Stop Oue Encore" is dynomite stuff. Was used nicely in the film "Three Kings" to help make George Clooney seem impossibly choice.
Lovely poignant tunes, from lands of the midnight sun.
I have no idea how I stumbled across the website of a Finnish chap called Mikael H. Maybe i even got it off a music blog like this, in which case props to whoever. "Sunny Day" is off his record Sounds of Siberia which just found a label: Powertool Records
you can find 4 mp3s from a yet to be released record about his experiences living in New Zealand. "Be Warm" is especially good, as is "Aeroplane".
This guy has real talent. He channels Elliot Smith, Garfunkel, some Arlo Guthrie. And who's weepier than Elliot Smith? An Elliot Smith from Finland is who. Cause no one is truly happy in Finland, the best they can shoot for is droll. Just like the Moomintroll, Finlands melancholy answer to Barney.
When it comes to all things Moomintroll and the Finnish experience, no one speaks with the direct elqouence of Wizznutzz intern Jarkko Ruutu:
In his November 6, 2003 post, Jarkko mourns the trading of Washington Wizards center Jahidi White. Be sure to check out his Flash tribute. Its as stark and unsettling as the Karelian isthmus on a midwinters night:
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Sorry for my english but I AM SAD. I was saying good man Jahidi White hes going to this place Phoenix now. And we must all be sad but no one can be as sad as I because for Finland Hanno Mottola is making us very proud for the NBA, but our hearts have a space for Jahidi most ofall, which is even why I am winzzutzz intern. Fate! and sadness. I will tell you about Moomintroll. (But in finland we spell Muumintroll.) Muumintrolls are what makes finland from going bad in dark - darkness that winter has for us each year. Tove Jansson, I hope she rests, made the Moomitroll books for 30 languages and loved by all of Europe!! All that knows the fear of nights of winter that seem they will never go. The dark is like smoke and black paint in the brain. But moomintroll makes everything allright... For they are round, and wonderfully mild! A Moomintroll is small and shy and fat, and has a Moominpappa and a Moominmamma. Moomins live in forests of Finland. They like sunshine and sleep right through the winter with no demon dreams. The snow falls and falls and falls and where they live, until their houses are like great snowballs!! But when spring comes, up they jump!!! Sometimes I spend whole week in bed in winter -- not even to wake for fish! -- imagining my excellent adventures in Moominland.
I talk long to say one thing for you. For Jahidi white is Moomintroll of NBA for all of finland. That is why. Jahidi white for me and for Finland is like Moominpappa: of course, here he is! you all know him by now. Here he is in a pensive mood!!! Hah, what laughs! What will we do without Moominpappas imperturbability--good word, what!
Good Jahidi, goodbye for now. You are a human island I know it. Also I hope in Phoenix he finds friend like Steve Blake was for. Ah, "Too-ticky" was moomoinpappas friend in books. Much addicted to bathing-houses, the seaside in every particular, in fact, and quite a philosopher in a way!!!! So I have made with my heart for all I have left in there: A TRIBUTE TO OUR FRIEND JAHIDI WHITE. More than you know. I made this in flash and with my heart so please excuse again!
And so if you would like to know more about Moomins here are some places to look at: Here and here but most of all you muist go here to Help Save the Moomintrolls on the internet!
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Al MacInnes is no doubt Australia's Moominpappa. He's my cousin and his fingers are dextrous, his buttocks pliant. His longtime collaboration with songwriter/singer Dan Warner is the stuff of legend in Melbourne. "Isle of Hop" was their record of around 7 years ago, and Im not sure how to buy a copy these days but you can email Al from his website and Im sure he'll trade you one for something special.
"Wilhelm" is easily the best song about a dog Ive ever heard. But if you don't have a dog, its just as meaningful if you pretend its about Hollywood personality Billy Bob Thornton.
More recently Dan Warner has worked with Kevin Garant, and you can preview and buy their efforts here. Their Dont Change/Elvis EP includes a tite alt-country version of the INXS classic "Don’t Change." Here is their old website.
For an adolescent, the 80s was a dangerous game. Some people I know were ravaged by it. But the storm passed over and left me miraculously untouched, save for two-pair of Ocean Pacific cord shorts in my closet. I never got into bands like the Dream Academy, the Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, the Pet Shop Boys, with their disconsolate ambient sophistication and snowwhite tans. I didnt get why they dressed that way, or what they were doing to those keyboards, or what it was they were always staring at in their videos. Now its all been mercifully lost to time. And now that I brood moodier than a sophmore goth at Einstein High, that boat has sailed and I've missed the opportunity for something woeful and golden.
But I did love Ferris Bueller in High School and felt very special when Cameron stares deeply into that Seurat painting in the chicago museum and it zooms in on that little crying girl in a most poignant fashion. The instrumental version of Dream Academy's "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" is playing during that scene. Its a beauty.
Moistfact: John Hughes' music director, Tarquin Gotch, was also manager for The Dream Academy for their first two albums, and the band turns up in a number of his films.
Thanks to google I now know whay too much about this band.
Check out the impressive life of NICK LAIRD-CLOWES:
"Born February 5, 1957, his rather remarkable story begins in earnest at the age of 13, when he ran away from his West London home to attend the Isle of Wight festival; there, Clowes was befriended by DJ Jeff Dexter, eventually becoming his assistant sound mixer at a series of free festivals as well as at the legendary Camden club the Roundhouse, where he worked on live performances from the Who, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. The teenaged Clowes also made the acquaintance of John Lennon, briefly staying at the former Beatle's Surrey mansion, and while working at RCA he managed to save enough money to buy the guitar once cradled by his idol Nick Drake on the cover of the classic Bryter Layter album. His band Alphalfa soon scored a deal with EMI, with the group's debut album boasting art direction by David Hockney; they disbanded soon after, however, and after contributing backing vocals to T. Rex's Dandy in the Underworld, he relocated to New York City. Clowes' arrival in the Big Apple coincided with the emergence of new wave, and he became a staple at landmark nightspots like CBGB and the Mudd Club. Moving back to Britain, he formed his own post-punk band, the Act, which like Alphalfa dissolved after recording one LP (1981's Too Late at 20). He next resurfaced in the Dream Academy, which in 1985 scored an international hit with the dreamy "Life in a Northern Town." After the group's subsequent efforts failed to match their early success, they disbanded, and Clowes turned to writing with Brian Wilson and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour; he also descended deeper into drug abuse, finally getting clean during a stay at a Himalayan monastery. He made his solo debut in 1995, appearing the London club the Living Room; in the audience was Creation Records honcho Alan McGee, a long-time Dream Academy fan who immediately agreed to sign Clowes to the label. Taking the name Trashmonk -- a moniker derisively applied to so-called "weekend Buddhists" -- he released his debut LP Mona Lisa Overdrive in 1999."
The best thing about writing this blog is finding things like Thomas Dolby's annecdote about meeting Michael Jackson.
*Go to TDolbs site, click "Inner Sanctum" link, then "Read Mister Dolby Remembers"
The site also has all of Dolby's great arty 8os videos ("Hyperactive" will be in MoMA someday), and more pictures of the geeked-out middle aged man than you care to see, and you can buy an autographed CD of "One of Our Submarines" on the cheap. It features the great original tune with many forgettable remixes.
Despite having a pretty average voice, and tending towards antic japery, TDolbs wrote a number of topnotch and ubermoist electronic ballads, inlcuding "Europa", "Airwaves", "One of our Submarines" and "The Flat Earth." Bless you TDolbs.
also....
Time Wastin has some excellent selections of late.
New music blog Dozer gets off to a promising start.
Oz's DIG radio online has some excellent audio and video concerts archived, including Toots at Byron Bay
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
New music blog Tuwa's Shanty just took down Bomb the Bass' "Bug Powder Dust" -- Im loving this song with its super old school rhyming scheme and moody electronica. But you can probanbly still DL the pretty nice Cee-Lo track.
Also Said The GPhone had a great white-on-white final week: especially worth a listen: Sept 13 (The Avett Brothers - "At the Beach" ) and 14th ( Ed Harcourt - "Something to Live For" & Richard Thompson - "1952 Vincent Black Lightning")
And definitely check out The Go! Team at Music for Robots, esp. that "Junior Kickstart" song which is actionCITY
posted by James |
In googling Jeff Thomas it just came to my attention that Bubblegum Machine posted "Straight Aero" a few weeks back. I haven't visited Bubblegum Machine in a while... (there are just too many of us these days...) but its my kinda site. A site dedicated to the Earnest Arts: the songs are fun and the commentary frequently entertaining, as the Jeff Thomas post proves:
"This ode to the straight laced is a top slice of major label pop psychedelia, only let down by the Red Indian rain dance instrumental breaks; breaks as jarring and disorientating as the Ted Danson cameo in Saving Private Ryan. "
STRAIGHT AERO Jeff Thomas Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets fromthe WEA Vaults [buy it]
An about face from last weeks theme. Dipping back into Captain Chad Bixbys psychedelic crates.
I wrote about Spirit when I posted their song "Taurus" on June 14. Scroll down and read about how Jimmy Page boosted the guitar riff for "Stairway to Heaven."
Spirit were a 60s/70s psych jazz-rock supergroup somewhat ahead of their day and finally beginning to get proper respect.
From my previous post:
- - - - - - - - - - - - In 1969 the band turned down an offer to open for Hendrix at Woodstock, the beginning of problems which grew as the years passed. The original band broke up in 1971, though various members reassembled to record new material throughout the 70s and 80s. In some of the latter work, Randy California performed all the parts himself, except for cameo appearances by other members. In 1995 Spirit's popularity began to rise again with the release of Live at the La Paloma and California Blues. Just prior to a release of little-known material from the 70s (The Mercury Years), Randy California was sucked into the surf off the coast of Molokai, Hawaii, and his body was lost at sea. - - - - - - - - - - - -
Check out Randy's solo career here. With names like Kaptain Kopter & The (Fabulous) Twirly Birds (1972) and Night of the Guitar-Live! (1989) its all very Spinal Tap.
I'm not sure of the history of "Green Gorilla" -- it appears on this compilation as a "remix" but I'm not sure if it was ever released previously. It reminds me alot of G Love.
"Jeff Thomas plays the straight man a few years before Jonathan Richman did it on 'Straight Aero', which is sung in a laidback Donovan style with a native American type of break."
WEST END GIRLS GO OOOH! De La Soul v. Pet Shop Boys Mixed by DJ Crook Air [go here to download]
De La Rare Last Day
OK, the best of the rest here...
An instrumental version of "Breakadawn", a couple "Ego Trippin" remixes- neither as fresh as the original but still deserving, a collaboration with the Propellerheads from a few years back, and a DJ Crook Air bootleg proving that De La Soul will still taste good even when spread thin over the milque-toast horrors of the Pet Shop Boys.
posted by James |
I may not be able to wrap up the De La Soul week cause Ive got one foot out the door and its Friday which may explain why I've listened to Blu Tang Clan 10 times today.
Mike Post composed the music that will be playing for me in heaven.
"Dreams of the Funky Towel," comes from that MTV movie Joe's Apartment that I will never see, the one about the roaches with the guy who was the poignant fat kid in Stand by Me, but who now is skinny and vigilantly unpoignant and dates models. The models eventually leave him tho, cuz when he's having sex with his lady he keeps saying: "I never had any friends like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody? "
The soundtrack is tres' hard to find. I think was only released promotionally, but I can't be sure.
"Lovely How I let My Mind Float" features great stylings from the quenchless Biz Mark. It also has this subtle little loop that took me all day to recognize as a tiny bit from a remix of the great Prince song "Let it Go." (If you can track down this Prince CD single, its a big winner. I hink the one I had had 5 or 6 remixes of "Let it Go"... they are all dynamite.)
A couple of understated ensemble numbers today; native tongues represent.
"Sh[ocking] Fe[males] MCs" is off the rare Tommy Boy Clear Lake Audiotorium promotional EP (Colored vinyl no less).
The track listing: 1. In the Woods 2. I Am I Be 3. Sh. Fe MC's 4. I Be Blowin' 5. Runnin Through the Trenches 6. Styx & Stonz
Q-Tip is in especially spitfire form here.
"How Ya Want It" is of the JBeez 1997 release Raw Deluxe. Like "Sh Fe MCs," this track features thread bare beats and production, in this case courtesy of Roc Raider (of X-Ecutioners fame). The drum loop is from Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution" which has been used dozens of times. Check them all here at the sample database, which also has a pretty definitive James Brown sample lsting worth taking a marvel at.
Mike Gee and the boys are all grown up but still at it. The Pittsburgh City Paper has an excellent update on the band:
"Anticipating overwhelmingly white audiences, the majority of the tour will take place at well-known independent music venues like Emo's in Austin, Texas, and The Middle East in Cambridge, Mass."
When I hear the words "Emo's in Austin," I reach for my revolver.
Other JBeez links:
JBeez.com has a fancy new look but no real content yet. Meanwhile you can email MikeGee. It would seem JBeez are dropping Moominscience in FInland right now.
A metroactive.com review of Raw Deluxe Excellent All Music Guide bio A older but nice interview w/ the JBeez
And Soul Sides has De La's "I Can't Call It" up right now. Also make sure to check out his excellent weeklong tribute to the all-natural breakbeat.
Also, I plug Oz radio station JJJ a bit here, but I can't encourage you all enough to dig through their show archives (you can search by artist). The audio quality is top shelf and the playlists are always creative and thorough.
The De La Soul J File is no exception. Its full of interviews, remixes and rare cuts.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Moistworks celeb sighting.
Im having a smoke outside and a black Excursion pulls up. In the window is a car service sign saying "C Anthony". Then a 6'6" young black guy with cornrows gets out in full Denver Nuggets warm up suit. On the back of the suit it says "Carmelo". A young kid says to me: "Is that Carmelo Anthony?" Smart kid. Then kid pulls crumpled brown paper lunch bag from his pocket, gets Melo's autograph. Gets Melo's girlfriends autograph. Has Proustian moment.
posted by James |
MORE THAN U KNOW De La Soul and Breezly Brewin from Prince Paul's A Prince Among Thieves [buy it]
De La Soul rarities Day One. You can't really call these 3 rare since you can now find them all on the recent Rhino release: De La Mix Tape: Remixes Rarities & Classics[buy it].
Its a worthy though frustrating compilation; Rhino left off a handful of really hard-to-find tracks and remixes, yet padded the collection with previously available regular album versions of songs like "Oodles Of O's" and "The Magic Number".
"More Than U Know" samples the Extra T's "I Like It" that I posted last week. Typical of the best De La Soul, its form is feelgood, its content much mo serious. Its like my man Matt Price: heavyweight attitude, flyweight frame. It was one of the early releases from Prince Paul's A Prince Among Thieves, the Tommy of hip-hop albums.The extra emcee is Juggaknots' Breezly Brewin. Peep this Juggaknots interview.
Superior "Stakes is High" remix is by the prolific DJ Spinna. Here's Spinna's official site. Buy 1996s stripped-down sleeper Stakes is High.
"Trouble in the Water" teams Plugs 1 to 3 with Japan's DJ Honda. DJ Honda is bakafresh! His 2 disc The Best of DJ Honda is essential listening (for Mos Defs' "Travellin' Man" alone) and an amazing value at $15. Buy it at Honda's official site.
Tomorrows moistmeats pinker, rarer.
posted by James |
Friday, September 10, 2004
DEEP GULLY Outlaw Blues Band Breakin In 1969 [buy it]
"Deep Gully" was the second and final album released by the Outlaw Blues Band during their very brief career. I could find almost no information on this group, except that they were a progressive electric blues/jazz quartet that once had this to say of conventional rock music:
"It's a 4/4 tempo that's still rocking in its chair, not as a lady, but as a wench that shook up the historical path of music."
Edna Wright is most famous for her work with the group Honey Cone, an early '70s Detroit soul trio produced by greats Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. "Oops! Here I Go Again" is out of print, but is still a popular dancefloor number with euro-DJs. Its an endearing song, with singularly trifling lyrics. Its also been sampled by De La Soul, as have all the songs I've posted since last Friday. Next week I'll detail where these samples were used, and post some De La Soul rarities and remixes.
Meantime....
Head over to the Gawker for an interview with my main bogan music journo and big wave surfer Alex Abramovich.
I was checking a number of music blogs for the first time in a long time and have enjoyed:
-Cocaine Blunts has a new home, and some great stuff up, esp. real old real good Nas rarities and Saul Williams. -Totally Fuzzy pointed me to some excellent DJ Krush -The brilliantly named Byron Bitchlaces has Geto Boys updating their ganster classic in a St Ides commercial: -"My Malt's Playin Tricks On Me," as well as a not so imaginative GUnit revival of said classic. -A song called "Folder" at Fluxblog is electro-PLIANT -Usual value at Soul Sides
For the Liner Note Writing Guy, Serge Gainsbourg'sHistoire de Melody Nelson is the stuff of dreams.
"In familiar mythic terms he's 1 part rat pack, 1 part beatnik, Chet Baker, Sinatra, a dash of Dylan, Leonard Cohen's pungent growl, Tom Waits' irrepressible inventiveness, Johnny Rotten's naughtiness, the look of an absinthe abuser. Actor, pianist, singer, raconteur, poet, filmmaker, soundtrack composer, photographer, painter, novelist but always the rascal voice of the desire dispossessed."
The French aren't sure whether to be proud or embarrassed by their Olympian pop cardsharp. He's their Quincy Jones, their Elvis, but also their Roberto Benigni, their Mark "Jacko" Jackson.
Histoire de Melody Nelson is one of his very best. Its a glam rock concept album that seems to be about a redheaded teen called Melody (sexy Jane Birkin, seen here holding felt monkey) who gets knocked of her pushbike by an older guy in a Rolls, and then they have a tangled affair, and then shes dies in a plane crash. Just another case of art imitating life.
Patrice Rushen had a string of modest radio hits in the 80s before descending into Adult Contemporary madness. Today she is a topflite muscial director for shows like the Emmys and the American Acheivement Awards, for which she composed and performed musical tributes for, among others..... Michael Landon.
If you havn't yet found the common thread that runs through the last week of postings, and if you even care, tomorrow's selections should tip you off...
posted by James |
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
OVERTIME MAN Don Covay Mercy Mercy: The Definitive Don Covay [buy it]
BOOTY BUTT Ray Charles Ray Charles Genius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection [BOX SET] [buy it]
Everybody loves that OfficeMax Ad, the one with the Andre 3000 clone doing his Johnny Stapleseed thing over the Spinners "Rubberband Man." And whats not to love? It celebrates the Pusher stereotype AND the feelgood ways of minimum wagery.
Don Covay's "Overtime Man" makes me think of that ad, and TGI Fridays and methamphetamines.
-A good All Music Guide/MSN bio on Covay here. -Don Covay battled back from a stroke to put out a new record in 2000. -Speaking of strokes, Billy Squires gives props to Covay on a 93 tribute album. -OfficeMax pitchman Eddie Steeples.
Edwin Birdsong made significant contributions to Roy Ayers' work in the '70s: singing, writing, producing. But he is mostly forgotten these days, depsite a decent solo run. "Rapper Dapper Snapper" is probably his most successful number. It's dope. It's got beats sitting heavier than Roger Thomas' mama on top of free jazz.
Even harder to find these days are The Extra T's. I don't think these guys rever put out a full record. They performed on Sunnyview records, same label that sprung Newcleus. Perhaps the worlds greatest song ever all time: "Jam On Revenge," had Extra T's song "ET Boogie" as the B-Side. That 12" has been repressed and you can buy it here.
"I Like It (Cornflakes)" displays the same great Battlestar ElectroBreakFunk stylings that made their lablemates famous.
also... Today's posting and probably all of next week's have a common thread. See if you can hear it. Moistjapes are afoot!
posted by James |
Thursday, September 02, 2004
CAN"T YOU SEE ME Roy Ayers Evolution: The Polydor Anthology [buy it]
Another quick but Supermoist slice of OG populism.
Many days I listen online at work to the Js, Australias alt. radio monster, JJJ FM. Imagine if NPR was really funny and played NWA... Plus they are 14 hours ahead so its an optimistic exercise.
Anyway, came across a truly magnificent Roy Ayers show in their archives.
Roy his-self in studio with the downlow downbelow.
If you like soul or funk or jazz or blues or fey metrosexual Australian accents or anything in between its really worth a listen.
"Can't You See Me" didn't make the show, and its not one of my fav. Roy Ayers' tracks but its sweet nonetheless and its probably the birth of Acid Jazz. But what do I know. I do know that if Roy had put a pillow over the baby's face we could have avoided all that early 90s wine bar silliness.
The Bats don't play their instruments so good, or display 3 octave range, but they also don't ape around arenas in embarrassingly choreographed pantomime like Peter Gabriel and his house band cause no one is as modest as the Bats and no band I know writes such exceptionally catchy songs. The Bats strong suit is melody; they write ethereal pub songs, with energetic jangly guitars and enchanting vocals.
As a CMJ reviewer nicely put it, The Bats have..."an innate ability to create a simultaneously remote and comforting atmosphere. "
With the Verlaines and The Chills, The Bats were the Flying Nun sound of New Zealand in the mid/late '80s. They were formed in 1982 by Robert Scott(ex-Clean), Paul Kaen, Kate Woodward and Malcolm Grant.
The band released a series of early EPs: By Night in 1984, And Here Is Music for the Fireside in 1985, and Made Up in Blue in 1986. These EPs all sound like they were recorded in a cabin in the woods on a 4-track and they are all genius. They have been re-released on a hard to find single disc: Compiletely Bats, which you should definitely buy
Fear of God was released in 1991. It was produced by Nick Sansano (He produced Sonic Youth, Public Enemy and..... Hunters and Collectors! I dont know who those first 2 bands are but anyone who's down with the Hunters is down4life in my book) and was the band's cleanest sounding studio effort by a long stretch. Nick's site is definitely worth a look.
"Boogey Man" is classic, quintessential Bats. But "The Looming Past" and "Watching The Walls" seemed to be some transcendent career moment; a new weepy white heaven. "Watching the Walls" is especially extraordinary in my opinion. Yet I'm sure Bats fans generally don't mention these songs when they have their geeky Bats discussions. Even the band ignored them when they put together their otherwise excellent Best Of... record, Thousand of Tiny Luminous Spheres .
The Bats have put quite a few records since, all of them good. But for me Fear of God was lightening in a bottle.
But word is the band has a new album just about under wraps.
In the meantime, if you want more Bats music, please buy the CDs. I suspect being New Zealand rock royalty barely pays the bills these days. It also means that if you email these guys, they'll probably write you back.
In the history of B-Boys anthems, "It's Just Begun" is the Biggity Big Bang. Jimmy Castor aka The E-Man is old school funk, OG -- AboG perhaps. "It's Just Begun" is native turf, one that Eric B and Rakim claimed some years later for their famously propulsive classic "Musical Massacre."
Here's old school for you: "It's Just Begun" is what you are hearing during the climactic break-off in the film Beat Street.
It's been a while since a was in a break-off myself. But I'm still an enthusiast. I follow the break-off column in the Wall Street Journal. Last Saturday's was a classic:
a. applejack d. brooklyn rock 4 b. headSLIDE d. boston crab 3 c. buddha d. bunny hop 5 d. elbowGLIDE m. fistGLIDE 2
RCKRS def. CREW 2 and 1
- - - - - - -
Best save the carnal funk single "Troglodyte" for the second date fellas. The spoken-word intro has been pinched a number of times. To me it's always gonna be XClan's "Fire and Earth".
Some Jimmy Castor info:
-Born in Sugar Hill, started as a doo wop singer in the '50s. -Big break came in '57 when Castor replaced Frankie Lymon in The Teenagers . -A few years later he committed himself full time to the sax, and had a successfull decade as a session musician. -Formed the Jimmy Castor Bunch 1972. It's Just Begun was their first release and "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" became a Top 10 R&B hit.
XTra moist turnout this week tnx to Sasha Frere Jones and his interview in The Gawker. For SFJ readers coming here for the first time the experience will be like a Redskin fan spilling out of the stadium after Super Bowl XXII and then being raped by Denver tailgaters.
posted by James |
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
HIP HOP DOLL Digital Underground Sex Packets (on Cassette release only) [buy it]
TIME FOR PEACE Digital Underground feat. Paris, Sway & King Tech
Quick post. Some Digital Underground, the J.V. Funk Mob, and moistworks first ballot halloffamers. If DU was before your time or you only remeber the "Humpty Dance" please do yourself a big favor and buy Sex Packets, This is an EP Release and Sons of the Por one of their greatest hits packages: Playwutchyalike and No Nose Job.
DU built their beats and mad ensemble soul around all things PFunk, but thats no reason to hate. Its like sometimes a rat sandwich is better than just a cold rat in your hand.
The first 2 tracks up here are kind of harder to come by.
"Hip Hop Doll" was available only on the cassette release of Sex Packets way back when. Its a stripped back very early DU effort. About the 3:20 mark Shock G's HipHop doll drops one of my fav. rimes:
She said "Baby I've heard all the lines; I pioneered this, I'm housing, I ain't no joke, I get raw, how you like me now, your a customer etcetera"
"Time for Peace" is a very earnest anti-violence joint, back when such joints were popular. Kind of soft you may think, till you hear the greatness that is the malapropos P-Dog aka Paris leaping on the mic and going off-season about killing cops and white devils and the President. Paris is a militant Bay Area rapper who had an acclaimed 1990 debut with The Devil Made Me Do It . MTV banned the title track. His followup album a couple years on couldn't find a distributor because of the song "Bush Killa." And His latest work, Sonic Jihad, pictures a 747 flying into the White House. Pretty sure I'm now on an FBI list somewhere for just typing those words.
"Tales of the Funky" is DU at its most lushly funkadelic. and "Freaks of the Industry" is stonecold classic -- though after about a week the lyrics will lose their novelty, at which point I would advise dubbing a new track from just the final 2 minute instrumental portion.
Make sure to check out the madness of shockg.com for live DU videos and some mp3s and a great glossary.
posted by James |
Friday, August 20, 2004
GREEDY G Brentford All-Stars Studio One Rockers: Best of Studio One [IMPORT] [buy it]
JARO Impact All Stars feat. Tommy McCook Forward The Bass: Dub From Randy's, 1972-1975 [buy it]
Some fine Jamaican instrumentals today. Starting with "Greedy G". Now you gotta know your musical Ps and Qs if your gonna be boasting a song called "Greedy G." What an outstanding name for a song. Or an MC. Or a vacuum cleaner. Or a sandwich. And The Brentford All-Stars make it stand up tall. I'm listening to this song thinking how I gotta sample it to fame, only to find out that, typically, about 10 other people already have. "I Know You Got Soul" for f**k's sake...
The Brentford All-Stars were one of Sir Coxsone Dodd's many talented house bands. They took their name from 13 Brentford Road, Kingston, Jamaica, the home of Studio One Records.
The Impact All-Stars had a line-up of legends: including Aston Barrett (bass), Carlton Barrett and Sly Dunbar (drums), Augustus Pablo (keyboards) and Skatalites leader Tommy McCook (tenor saxophone). "Jaro" is a version of Augustus Pablo's "Java." Check out this very nice Pablo tribute site.
posted by James |
Thursday, August 19, 2004
MOONBOOTS Orlando Riva Sound The Salsoul Classics 2, Vols. 3 &4 [buy it]
Orlando Riva Sound aka ORS spun off from the Salsoul label in the late 70s. "Moonboots" was their only composition that got any real play.
Saint Tropez were an all girl group from France, who kicked out proudly melancolie disco slo-jams. I'm never sure what one is meant to do to music like this, save for extremely purposeful lovemaking.
Today Moistworks has his dials set to Radio Free Fresh on Doug E Fresh dot com.
The horror rhyme "Play This Only at Night" would have been ahead of its time if not for the circa 1986 signature Sunset Strip stratocaster soloing. If you focus just on the guitar riffs, and listen to it enough, it sounds like a hamster is trying to control your thoughts. From Oh My God.
"It's On" is one of the better tracks of DougE's underrated 1995 comeback/throwback album Play. Best part about Play: No summer jams about late-term abortions!
The first is a real gem. Via Brat Productions, it combines the (the William orbit produced) All Saint's hit "Pure Shores" with an acapella of the Beatles classic "Baby, You're A Rich Man" which he cleverly lifted center channel of the "Anthology" DVD.
Second up: GYBO big dog McSleazy mashes Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" and "Triple Trouble" by the Beasties to high energy effect. Check out McSleazy's site for many more mixes.
also...
Moistworks gonna be quiet for a few days. If you get lonely, check out www.feralchildren.com
Chant Down Babylon was a Marley remix tribute project that came out about 5 years ago under the guidance of Stephen Marley, one of Bob's kids. One of his FIFTEEN kids.
"I'm Shawn Kemp, Bitch!"
And it came out with mixed results, and to mixed reception.
But I liked Guru's work on "Johnny Was". The original is just so excellent and Guru thows down some decent beats and keeps his enormous ego pride out of the way for the most part. And, except for going crazy, Lauryn Hill can do no wrong,.
The Funkstar De Luxe remix is not from the album. It is however, as extremely gay as my tastes swing. If an extremely gay man ever campaigns for President, Funkstar De Luxe will be his John Cougar Mellencamp. Funkstar can't run himself, of course. Cause he's Danish.
Disturbingly, this song was the highest charting Marley song ever, reaching #3. In 1983 "Buffalo Soldier" hit number 4. And on the fabulous holiday island of Ibiza, the song was named "Track Of The Season", "the most prestigious award within this genre".
Soul Sides is where you wanna be these days, esp. for Bizzie Boys and Ruby Johnson and JB.
posted by James |
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
BUCK WILD Experience Unlimited Livin Large [buy it]
Quick post, so DC GoGo in a pinch. EU prob. get called "mainstays" and even "stallwarts" of the DC gogo scene. Those words are too nautical for moistworks tho. Cant believe it was '89 and we were all thinking, "man gogo is finally breaking out! Thats soooo buck wild, isn't it guys?!" After the School Daze soundtrack and Salt n Pepa collaborations, EU looked poised to lead GoGo into the promised land. Well it didnt happen, unless the promised land is the cutout bin at the Mazza Gallery Disc Shop.
GoGo has long needed a decent studio album and this one is just overproduced. Esp, the beats.
So when Welcome Back Kotter needed a theme song they contacted DooWop legend Dion DiMucci and Lovin' Spoonful folk-rock front-man John Sebastian to give it a shot.
They went with John Sebastian's "Welcome Back", and it hit #1 on the charts in 1976.
I love this song and I love Gabe Kaplan, and I don't need irony's dutch courage to do so.
The Dion version never surfaced again, until a recent documentary aired it. Its short but lovely. This mp3 was recorded off the TV by a member of a Yahoo Dion web group, who, in doing so, fulfilled his life's purpose. Thanks mate.
And then theres the Mase version thats rocketted up the charts. Its a nice number, but Mase is a chump.
You can also see Mase explaining his concept for the video. Ill save you the trouble. It has nothing to do with Welcome Back Kotter, but rather starts off with Mase impersonating Mister Rogers. The rest of the video is about Mase and his sneakers and a mysterious black car, and some ladies in small shorts, with lots of kids playing in the street, stoops, hugs and high fives. All about as real as Thalia's "I Want You" video, where she leased Fat Joe and a black neighborhood from central casting for the weekend. (She might actually be performing in front of a green screen, I'm not sure.)
Nothing was cooler than Shinehead when he broke in '88. In a time when HipHop was pretty geeked out and eager to please, with prideless acts like the Fat Boys atop the throne, Shinehead was ice cold. And he sported those super dope 70s jumbo tinted specs.
Well "Gimme No Crack" is a bit silly, but its got crack and raggamuffin so fair enough.
Hes still at it, for better or worse. And he's probably overpaying his webdesigner. Check out his official site.
I can't believe I'm listening to Shalamar. I grew up up during the tail end of their career, and they represented a very foreign world, the world of Atlantic Starr and Budweiser Superfest at RFK, soul brothers with cowboy tassles and tight slacks. I thanked God everyday for keeping me safely away from this world.
Maybe its nostaliga, but these days I find something very sweet about the Shalamar pop sound.
Also, Shalamar was important to me after the tragedies of 9/11. Sure, we all listened to them during those hard first weeks for comfort and guidance. But it was Shalamar that later inspried me to submit my design for the Ground Zero Redevelopment.
- When "Caribbean Queen" proved a hit, BO released it in Africa as "African Queen" and Europe as "European Queen," with tailored lyrics for each of these markets.
But What can I say about Billy Ocean that hasnt been said more perfectly by this amazon reviewer:
"This collection is a masterpeice, it has it all for any mood you may be in. A great mix of fast paced to soft love songs by a very underated 80's artist. I bought this in the mid 90's, and to this day it is the 1st tape I always grab whenever I take my nightly run or hop in the car for a drive. My favorite song of all time is "Get Outta My Dreams (and Into My Car)", if you can't get pumped up over that song, you don't have a pulse. This song was stuck in my head when I took my driving test and 1st heard it after seeing License to Drive in 1988 and this song blew me away at the end of the movie. A great voice, a killer beat, not too loud not too soft. I also love the way the lyrics come out, you can hear every word very clearly, a trait that is clearly lost today. "
Also.... If you live in New York you just gotta see this tomorrow night here.
Ratatat gets mad representation from the audio-bloggers, and I know I'm way behind the curve on this, but their unauthorized mix tape project is John Junior Dopestein. I like my loops tighter than Chrissy's sweaters, and these tracks, esp. this Kanye one, are perfectly repetitive. Shits transmundane.
You can no longer get this CDR here. So you gotta find it yourselves.
A black pride classic from famed Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier. Lamont was one of Berry Gordy's first Motown signings, and he wrote for all the big acts, esp. The Supremes and The Four Tops.
They kind of stalled in the early 80s. BJ fact: Louis Johnson played bass on Jackos Thriller !
"Strawberry Letter 23" was their biggest hit, a slow-jammy cover of the Shuggie Otis song. Shuggie's girl wrote him love letters on strawberry perfumed paper. Heres an entertaining review of the recent greatest hits release Strawberry Letter 23: The Best of over at pop matters.
I tossed up the Sylver's song cause its them at their funkiest. It sounds to me like Salt N Pepa pinched those guitar bits toward their end for "Whatta man" or whatever that song was called. I just can't be bothered looking into it.
Quick post today. Kid 'N Play somehow secured at least 4 film deals in the 90s, and I hold them responsible for pretty much every neo-minstrel UPN comedy made in the last 5 years. Especially "Homeboys in Outer Space"
That said, if you could stomach the lightweight rythmes, Kid 'N Play made some surprisingly decent New Jack music back in the day. The Herbbie Luv Bug produced "Rollin With Kid n' Play" bites a solid beat from DC go-go,. as well as a call & response chorus.
"Kid Vs. Play" starts particularly strong. The sturdy horn loop reminds me of some JVC Force action I posted a few months back.
We love you london! I was actually born in Charing Cross hospital. It was since torn down. I moved years ago, but I still get me brain medicine from the national health.
So there is kind of tiny UK hook to todays posts.
I picked up The Six Ways To Sunday Soundtrack from a free record bin at an old job, a bin where the resident music critics would dump their more wretched freebies. I don't even remember this movie existing. I think it was a co-US/UK production that went straight to video here. I havent seen it but IMDB lists it as a "comedy" with the hilarious tagline: "There are worse crimes than killing a person." It stars Debbie Harry and Isaac Hayes and Adrien Brody.
The soundtrack is even more schizo. Basically a blend of Debbie Harry, the insane Yiddish Yodels of The Barry Sisters, and, naturally, Schoolly D. Then I notice today that the original score is by one Theodore "Teddy" Shapiro, a dude who was a year behind me at my very small DC High School.
Schoolly D's "Mr. Big Dick". Kind of speaks for itself. Originally from 1988's Smoke Some KillSchoolly remade the song for the Soundtrack. Schoolly likes the movies. He has contributed songs to Abel Ferrara films, including Bad Lieutenant. SO kind of like Queen Latifahs contribution to "Bringing Down The House", except different in every conceiveable way.
Being liked is REAL important to WIll Smith, which is why I never say to Will's face that I think hes an utter no-talent. New York Post readers this weekend all rejoiced to find a debut copy of Parade Magazine inside. Parade is that syndicated weekend magazine for old people. They put people like Edward James Olmos on the cover, and they are chockas with ads for the porcelain crap-knackery and orhtotics. There was that one time they broke stride and ran that photoessay featuring a shirtless Maury Chaykin. Or maybe I just dreamt that. Anyway, Will Smith is the kind of Black Man Parade endorses. Hes not too black. Will Smith gets his street slang a little on the belated side, like, sometime after Tim Allen is through with it. Hes on Sundays cover, announcing that he struggles with self-doubt. Check it out.
Anyway, Wills a hack, but "Miami" has always brought me great pleasure. Witness the self-doubtfully lean Huey Lewis shouting out. Shouting out cities, shouting out entire races. Aye, Robot. Aye...
If "Maimi" is infectious, "And The Beat Goes On" is disco herpes. The Whispers have been around for ever. This was their first and prob biggest hit, written in 1980 with Leon Sylvers.
I used to work at an alt weekly with a real cool guy named John Dugan. John was in his late 20s but not a day over 22 in the fashion stakes. His pants were real tight. His sneakers pointy and future-forward. John would bring in fresh CDs each week and school us in the latest hipster tunes. In return he would help himself to our food. He was a benefactor who benefited himself too. One night in 1999 I was eating a Chicken Souvlaki when John brought in this Source Material comp.
Its an Astralwerks project, riding the tails of Air's Moon Safari, presenting artists from the Parisian Source label. If you like the retro-futurism of French electronica you will prob like this record, and in fact you probably have it.
Some links:
Astralwerks Select "Source Material" from the artist drop-down for all you need to know on this compilaiton.
All these songs are available on the 5CD Studio One Musik City [Import] These CDs can be picked up seperately too.
"Sidewalk Doctor" is, for me, as good as it gets. The hook on this song is irresistible. Its Downbeat and muddy but really focussed. And just when you think the song is wrapping up, they break it apart and build it back up. I posted some Jackie Mittoo links yesterday. I know not of Brentford Rocker.
"Street Doctor" is another take on the above by Prince Francis. I know nothing of Prince Francis, nor can I find anything about him. I call him "Franchise."
"Black Up" is a song to close-out a late night set. They are putting the chairs up on the tables, you puffing cooly, and no sign still of that leggo beast Johnny Too Bad. I hear a little "Oye Como Va" going on in there somewhere.
"Sugar Belly" is William Walker. He made and played a bamboo sax. He made a name playing 'mento', a lively calypso style that was big in the late 50s early 60s.
First off, Horace Andy and "Sea of Love." Mista Andy got his start in 1970 recording for Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label. In the 80s he kicked out material in Jamaica as well as in the US on the Rough Trade label, working with Sly & Robbie among others. In the 90s he had extended collaborations with Massive Attack and Mad Professor Andy's latest album is Living In The Flood, with the title track co-written by Joe Strummer.
Next, Jackie Mittoo with "Deeper & Deeper," a wicked take on Barry White's "I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby."
My man CP over at Suburbs... just graced me with a huge stack of Studio One material, and Mister Mittoo is sitting on top of that pile on a throne. Dude sounds like hes playing organ under a fire blanket. RACK HIM! Jackie was musical director at Studio One from 65-69, he formed the Skatalites, he influenced alot of joes, was godfather to rocksteady to dancehall.
This instrumental is from the Studio One Soul import. Even better is the Studio One Scorchers import. Masterful raggedy soul instrumentals. I'll prob. post a couple from that tomorrow. Just go to Amazon, type in "Studio One," and add all results to cart.
"My Mic Sounds Nice" is by far my fav Salt-N-Pepa song, a big fish in a real small pond. Amazingly its almost 20 years old. You can't beat Grover Washington over a Go-Go beat. Moe Shorter, former manager for the Junkyard Band, claims the bucket-drum line was lifted unmolested and uncredited from a Junkyard track. Don't know whats up with S-N-P these days. I lost touch with the group in 1988 when Spinderella #1 was replaced with that real manly one.
X-Clan had a couple killer albums in the early 90s. They got stupid on Pan-Afro monasto-mysticism, West Nile royalty, 5-Percent gibber-jabber. I guess they took their philosophies pretty serious though they definitely veered into some kind of black-power minstrel zone at times. I mean cmon, those "crowns" they wore? They were cleary just cheap paper party hats with gold glitter ankhs glued on with craft paste.
Brother J is a monster lyricist though:
Come diddy-dum! Welcome to this archaeological find! At the road, witness me Before the coming of the Sun; peeking at you from the Eastern side of Plutonia Dressed in armor of Order, to meet destiny with a strong Black grip Ten hun-zu, see you in from the Zero, take 'em to the three Stand firm at the five; here's a star and a shield to support you at the nine!
SO true Brother J...
posted by James |
Thursday, June 24, 2004
I SCARE MYSELF Dan Hicks Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks (aka Original Recordings) 1969 [buy it]
"With all the fuss these days over folks like Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Asylum Street Spankers, it'd be nice if somebody -- anybody -- would mention that their whole swingband/stringband schtick was pioneered decades ago by this feller, Marin County's genius curmudgeon recluse, Dan Hicks. Who would have suspected, all those years ago when the San Francisco hippies were running around dressed in Victorian and Edwardian thrift store clothes, that Hicks actually meant it. A retro-maniac with the chops and sardonic wit to back it up, Hicks combined rootsy folk and blues along with Tin Pan Alley melodic swing, and tromped way ahead of the pack in the acoustic revival. While many of the '60s jug bands stuck to a scholarly blues booziness, Hicks hinted at a higher level of nudge-nudge, wink-wink sarcastic expression... He dropped out of sight fairly early on, but bobs back up from time to time, always with fine results." [read more...]
Dan Hicks bobs up alot in fact. Check out his site, Hicksville. Hes clearly among the more robust of his generation. Still touring and recording and running Surfdog Records, which produces work from the Butthole Surfers to Brian Setzer.
Its hard to match his old classic "I Scare Myself" to the current man. Maybe the pomade does something to his brain.
There a cool reworking of "I Scare Myself" featuring Rickie Lee Jones thats quite punched up and less chilled out. You can pick it up on this record.
"I Scare Myself," has also been covered by both Barry Reynolds and Thomas Dolby, or "T Dolbz" as I call him privately.
Sandy Bull is a bloke and is often billed as an American "psychedelic folk" pioneer. He died a few years back.
The NYTimes calls him an "Eccentric Americanist" and had this to say:
"Mr. Bull...seems a strong, silent...version of Peter Fonda's Captain America of "Easy Rider"... deeply dyed by the oppositional passions of the hippie movement, resulting in a resistance to all isms; he's never found any problem with mixing country, jazz, blues, rock and even classical etudes."
This raggedy take on "Carmina Burana" is really not suggestive of his other work. Everyone seems to say that he broke new ground with his world music experimentation, blending esp. North African and Middle Eastern sounds into his own Western ways.
posted by James |
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
He will blast off tonight He puts his life on the line ev'rytime he's in flight A man you can't trace But our love will last beyond time and space
SPACER Sheila & B Devotion Spacer(12") Carrere Records 1979 [buy it]
Skyy kicked out dance hits for Salsoul records in the lates 70s and early 80s. Their electro-funk disco was marinated in essence of slo-jam, perhaps overly so. This song cracks me up, all sexy and shit and then around the 2 minute mark the guy aint so smooth money and hes suddenly a blow addict losing his dark disturbed shit. I DONT EVER WANT TO COME DOWN!!!!!! DOWN!!!!!! DOWN!!!!!! Hey bachelors; this makes for highly charged date music, because your ladys never sure if youre gonna win her the dance trophy or just start stabbing her.
Salsoul was a big player in the cheesed out disco scene. Heres a painstaking audiography of their singles.
Sheila aka Anny Chancel was a 60s french pop princess, who became a disco queen, with "Spacer" during the last days of the 70s. She was far more popular in Europe than in the US, probably because she was a white French Chick backed by 3 effeminate yes-maam soul brothers called the "Black Devotion" in silver jumpsuits with light sabers and, well, see for yourself.
Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards produced the single and her 1980 album "King of the World." She released a remix of the song in 1998, with some additional new material, on this record.
People on the danceclub circuit call me "The Spacer" also, but for really different reasons.
Also... One day I'll clean up those my badly out of date playlists but they are kinda useless things anyway so no rush.
And check out Soul Sides for what I agree is one of KRS-one's better songs, "Outta Here" KRS-One is an EDUTAINER!!!Like Ike Austin!
Also enjoying some tracks over at Royal Music: especially an old fav. from Disposable Heroes of Hip Hoprisy and chill Handsome Boy Modeling School
posted by James |
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
WOT Captain Sensible 1982 [buy it]
OK some real challenging compositions from the beautiful 80s, plus a cool mashup I threw in cuz im listening to it right now and its pretty sweet, plus Jesus Mary Chain are 80s too so its all good.
If you lived in Europe as a kid you may prefer to hang yourself than listen to any more Captain Sensible, but he never made much of a splash here, prob because we already had "Pac Man Fever" and Weird Al and other such musical japes to strangle ourselves to. Acutally thats not that fair, Captain Sensible aka Raymond Burns is a real musician. He once helped found a real group, The Damned, one of the big brit Punk Bands, contemporaries of The Sex Pistols and Clash.
Frida is ABBA Frida. "I Know There's Something Going On" was the big single that pretty much bookmarked her solo career. Its just so magnificently and vaingloriously and atrociously 80s. It makes me think of Phil Collins and Heart and Pat Benatar and Bon Jovi and that Ace Frehley record Frehley's Comet all at once. But mostly Phil Collins because thats Phil himself on the drums (or electronic drum pads). Phil even produced the record, but Phil aint no Benny, and Buster no Bjorn. Maybe that "Something in the Air Tonight" was raw herring with onions... the signature low-tide aromas of the land of the midnight sun.... This song also makes me think of those 80s movies about chickbands in denim jackets with fringes trying to land the big gig at LA clubs with names like "The Snake Pit." Like that (Roger Vadim) remake And God Created Woman with Rebecca De Mornay and to a lesser extent the Justine Bateman vehicle Satisfaction ("One Band. One Dream. One Summer.") that had a young Liam Neeson in a break out role as a club owner "Martin Falcon". Well of course it did.
Frida fact: In 1983 Frida "rapped" an uncredited cameo on the song Adam Ant "Strip" which was banned by the BBC. Phil Collins produced.
Also, ABBA's other dame, Agnetha, has a new record.
The Jesus and Mia Chain boot teams JMC with M.I.A., a Sri Lankan born babe who has a single called "Galang" thats going off overseas. Check out M.I.A.'s site over at Showbiz Recordings
Dunproofin' is the DJ behind this one. here is his site, though it seems to be down right now. Check back later, hes got some good stuff there.
Also... I botched the luink the other day to new music blog "Sixeye". Here is the correct link, go check it out.
posted by James |
Friday, June 18, 2004
AUSTRALIA The Kinks Arthur - Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire [but it]
You may have heard "Happy Jack" from the latest Hummer commercial. DISGRACE. Read all about how Pete Townshend is a sellout. I say cut him some slack... he prob just needs the money to help him track down the real pedophiles. This is an acoustic version that came as a bonus track on the remaster of Quick One which I think was called Happy Jack in the UK.
Back to the usual UTFO bootlegs etc... next week, but Ill continue to drop in some Captain Bixby specialness from time to time.
posted by James |
Thursday, June 17, 2004
SUN Margo Guryan Take a Picture 1968 [buy it]
I love Margo - she's like the '60s songbird version of Anna Karina, the girl who was in Godard's early films - they look a lot alike. (see Margo -- see Anna)
Margo was a brilliant songwriter but didn't have much of a voice (tho i think her singing is sexy as all get-out), so for every song i think they had to triple-track her voice just to get it on tape.
Margo Guryan is the real deal Hippie Chick, a whispery knockout with a sound "present-day indie archaeologists (Tindersticks, Gentle Waves) would give their eyeteeth to capture."
Her 1968 album Take a Picture was real hard to come by. It started to get a strong Japanese following in the '90s (no suprise there) and was rereleased in 2000 on CD. If you softc**ks like these, you should snap this disc up, its a winner from start to finish.
"If poet Sylvia Plath had started a garage band instead of writing The Bell Jar, the results might have been similar." Wiseguy.
Some points of interest:
Guryan spent three weeks at the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts, where Ornette Coleman and Gary McFarland were fellow students and the teaching staff included Bill Evans, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Max Roach, and Gunther Schuller.
Her songs have been covered by a number of better known artists, including Astrud Gilberto, Jackie DeShannon, Cass Elliott, and Glenn Campbell.
25 Demos was released in 2001 and is a nice collection of demos. 25 of em. "The Hum" is the coolest. Its about the infamous 18-minute gap in the Watergate tapes.
Most awesome flashback Oz pop "S-s-single Bed" and "Some Girls" at Fluxblog
The Blackbyrds "Happy Music" and the great White Stripes/PE bootleg at Moebius Rex. These songs needed to be mashed and thank they god it was done so right-on.
And I picked up the "Candy Man [12-inch mix]" by the Mary Jane Girls somewhere. If it was from a blog then thank you my electrodance benefactor, whoever you are...
This "Good Vibrations" remix is a knockout. It's from a great double-disc that came out a few yrs ago that serves up alternate takes, demos, acapella mixes, stereo and backing remixes etc... of Beach Boys material from 1961 to 1973. As far as I know, its all Brian Wilson getting ill in the studio back in the day, and not contemporary reworkings... though this track sounds like it could easily have rolled of a first-rate bootlegger's hard drive just last week.
Beach Boys albums for sale. Definitely get a hold of "The Pet Sounds Sessions"[BOX SET] if you haven't already.
The Davie Allan instrumental is off his soundtrack for Roger Corman's 1966 biker epic The Wild Angels:
Their credo is violence... their god is hate... and they call themselves.. the Wild Angels
Starring Peter Fonda as the Hells Angels leader "Heavenly Blues" and Nancy Sinatra, as his lady. Davie Allan & the Arrows were a big surf music act in the day. Lots of fuzzed out riffs, lots of B-movie work. Check out Davie's world wide website, especially the amazing discography.
Jorma Kaukonen is a big folkly blues rock bear, most famous perhaps for Jefferson Airplane and its spinoff group Hot Tuna. He and his wife run a music camp called The Fur Peace Ranch in the Appalachian foothills, which is just what every ageing 60s blues-rock folkie should be doing.
Check out Jormas website. His diary reveals a busy touring schedule and the "thoughts" column offers up this take:
Last Thursday they ran the final episode of Friends. Now I'll admit that I probably watch too much TV, but I never got into Friends. I just had too many other really important forensic dramas to keep up with. I did watch on this night though. I knew that "Embryonic Journey" was up for being used somewhere in the final episode. I sat through the first hour of repeat snippets and then launched into the second hour, eschewing CSI. What a sacrifice. Anyway, as 2200 approached the show was winding down and they still hadn't played the song. I was starting to figure, "Oh well...' when in the final scene they played the song which continued over the credit roll. I felt a burst of pride that a song on an early Jefferson Airplane album that was written before most of the actors in the show were born was used... Not only used, but used well. I thought it really fit.
This track was originally left off the album but is restored on the recent remaster. Jorma is joined by Tom Hobson. Here is Tom Hobson's site. Tom had some fine skills himself. He died about 10 years back and was really really skinny.
The Left Banke, sheesh whatta a hippy name. A mid-60s NYC band, described as "Baroque Rock" or, less fortunately, "Baroque'n'Roll," for their quasi-classical pop sensibility. Edutaining nugget: Steve Tyler sang on a few of their early songs, tho not this one.
The Move were "the best and most important British group of the late '60s that never made a significant dent in the American market." says a bird in my ear.
"Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited" has some ELOesque arty orchestral rock going on. You can blame it on singer/songwriter Roy Wood, who went onto form ELO with Jeff Lynne.
Everything you need to know about The Move right here.
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band are called "called an average psychedelic group" (MSN); "seminal underground gems" (Amazon), and "perplexing and inscrutable" by this dedicated site.
DOnt know about you, but when that guy sings "I won't hurt you" over and over -- with that creepy heart-beat in the background -- I feel like not only would he hurt me if he could, but he would hurt me disturbingly.
posted by James |
Monday, June 14, 2004
PRELUDE The Millennium Begin 1968 [buy it]
All week I'll be dipping into 60s gold from the magic bag of my good and controversial acquaintance: Captain Chad Bixby. And we are gonna start it off with a bang:
The Breakbeat heard around the world...
"Prelude" recorded by The Millennium in 1968 may contain the earliest breakbeat put to vinyl. The Millennium formed in 1962 and were at the forefront of the "West Coast Soft Pop" or "Sunshine Pop" scene. In 1962 Kennedy was President and DJ Shadow was minus 12.
Captain Bixby's notes on The Millennium:
...one of many Columbia Records bands (also including The Ballroom and Sagittarius) under the aegis of Curt Boettcher, a mad genius LA producer in the mold of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, who (with cohort Keith Olsen) blasted out tons of this amazinly produced stuff between 1965 and 1968...(and he was openly gay i believe, which was unusual for the time - he died a few years back).
As for Spirit's "Taurus"..... ....just get to the :45 second mark of this song.
ICE, ICE JIMMY!!!
Here is what you need to know about Spirit and the world's greatest unlitigated musical crime:
Fronted by a G called "Randy California", the stepson of 60's Jazz drummer Ed (Cass) Cassidy. Randy played with Jimi Hendrix's early band Jimmy James & the Blue Flames. And it was Jimmy who gave him the nickname.
Led Zeppelin used to open for Spirit in the early days ('68, basically), and Jimmy Page has admitted in years since that he did indeed bite the Stairway to Heaven riff from Mister California. I have no idea why Spirit hasn't bit back, and licensed "Taurus" like madmen, pawning it off as "Stairway to Heaven" for untold millions.
The chord progression in "Stairway To Heaven" is also v. similar to a song by the Chocolate Watch Band, "And She's Lonely." Jimmy Page's Yardbirds played with the Chocolate Watch Band...
Read all about the dodgy practices of Led Zeppelin, those thieving magpies, right here.
More on Spirit from Google:
In 1969 the band turned down an offer to open for Hendrix at Woodstock, the beginning of problems which grew as the years passed. The original band broke up in 1971, though various members reassembled to record new material throughout the 70s and 80s. In some of the latter work, Randy California performed all the parts himself, except for cameo appearances by other members. In 1995 Spirit's popularity began to rise again with the release of Live at the La Paloma and California Blues.
Just prior to a release of little-known material from the 70s (The Mercury Years), Randy California was sucked into the surf off the coast of Molokai, Hawaii, and his body was lost at sea.
Check out the Spirt and Randy California website here.
Kings of Convenience are two Norwegian lads called Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe, and suffice to say you wont be seeing them rock any SUper Bowl halftime shows.
They are gentle but mercifully not too twee.
I think this Amazon reviewer from Israel says it best:
Imagine Norway. A distant fjord. The blue water. The chilling wind. You see a wooden cabin. You open the door and it's not a Sauna.... It's a wonderful CD playing in "repeat". Kings of convenience look so young you wonder how come they already make such great music? Where at all did they hear of Simon and Garfunkel, The Everly Brothers and Nick Drake. And who taught them to mix it all into something so fresh. Well, maybe there is something in those pickled Herring. It's not dead fish. It's magic.
It's not dead fish. It's magic. SO TRUE!!!
"SInging Softly to Me" is det bomben! If you dont like it upon your first listen then you cleary have something against all of Norway. KoC like to hang with weepy white techno guys Royksopp and make each other Norwegian baked treats and remix each others songs. Ive posted a Royksopp remix and also the greatest Royksopp song "Remind Me" which I believe has KoC's Erlend Oye singing.
Proper update later today, but for now, heres what they are playing in hell this morning. Great thing tho about this MIDI, is its the WHOLE SONG. Its fully committed. Theres even string of big Midi drum rolls towards the end.
Also, great celebrity sightings last weekend:
Teresa Heinz (Kerry), which wasnt so exciting but then....
Jeru The Damaja and his wife buying produce in the Whole Foods Market at Chelsea. Best thing was, Jeru was wearing a "Jeru The Damaja" TShirt.
And then David Byrne or someone looking very much like him, jogging on the west side bike path with his iPod. I'm pretty sure I heard strains of some "Toto IV" as he passed...
3 from a 6 string today. Moistworks swallowed by Reagenfest, longing for those simpler times, like when AIDs was swept under the carpet!!!!
Nancy Wilson is one half of HEART! Heart has a new record in the coming weeks!!!! Im betting it ROCKS!!!! Check out the heart website. Nancy is married to Cameron Crowe, that doughboy filmmaker. "Elevator Beat" was in Vanilla Sky, that movie where Tom Cruise gets punished by L Ron Hubbard for having sex with Cameron Diaz and has to wear a mask and seek counsel from Kurt Russell in a tweed sportscoat. Pick up the soundtrack here.
Will Ackerman is the founder of Windham Hill! MOISTWORKS JUMPS THE SHARK! "Anne's SOng" is from 1993s Childhood & Memory Hetres Will Ackermans site.
His records have names like: In Search of The Turtle's Navel, Conferring with the Moon, and Gently Cringing
IM POIGNANT JUST THINKING ABOUT IT
Im poignant thinking bout Al MacInnes too aka A-1 MACHINES An awesome talent. Also my cousin. This mellow insturmental had a name I think but i forgot it. You can find it on a great album he released with Dan Warner a few years ago called "Isle of Bop" or "Isle of Hop" but I dont know here you can buy it these days. Go to Al's website and check out his awesome flash cartoons and email him and ask him. Dan and Al were Melbourne fixtures back in the day and Al has lent his strings to the benefit of many fine Australian talents. AL doesnt record much of his stuff, especially unrecorded is work from his Joe Satriani and Lexington Voices days... SHAME
"Dub Driving" by Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch's go to composer. From 1997s Lost Highway.
And RZA's incredible "Ghost Dog Opening Theme" instrumental, from Jim Jarmusch's 1999 Ghost Dog, a film which underwhelmed me despite having mobsters, samurais and rappers. It must have been the pigeons. At about the 1:30 mark, this this track shifts into something pretty breathtaking. This cut can't be found on the US soundtrack. Its from the Japanese version of the film, but you can pick the import up at amazon. You can stream some more tracks from the Jap. soundtrack here.
SUPER RAPPIN Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five Enjoy Records, 1976 [buy it]
Some old old school classics for the weekend.
Vaughan Mason & Crew's stonmecold genius roller disco single "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll" hit the top five of the U.S. R&B chart in 1980 and was the title track of the group's only album. Its been sampled to death: Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Heavy D and many more. Check out album/single art here and here. You can pick up the song on a bunch of disco compilations, including this one.
As for "Super Rappin" --- NINETEEN SEVENTY SIX! It definitely falls into the "hip hop hippity hop dippity doo" school of lyricism but damn fine stuff nevertheless. Flash boasts about his Mercedes. Heres a 1976 Mercedes. Flash, maybe you should pool with Vaughan.
Gonna post later today but for now, some music I've been enjoying off other mp3 blogs, get em while they are hot:
Soul Sides Especially the Donovan Carless track and "Red Clay" and those Roots remixes,
Gramophone Awesome "Welcome Back Kotter" update by Mase. I loved the John Sebastian original. Dion was also commissioned to write the theme song but his never made it to air. Does anyone know how to get a hold of this Dion version? If so i would LOVE to know.
Kitttext "Halfcaste," amazing Thin Lizzy reggae, my fave rastafarian articulation of the black irish diaspora and a tune that I am going to sample one day for my own private purposes.
New(ish) Auz retro group Cut Copy, and post Six Finger John "Juan" Mclean
Suburbs "The Russians Are Coming (Take Five)," just great.
Dream Chimney "Barely Breaking Even" by The Universal Robot Band and "frozen jap"
Flux Scout Niblett's moody "Uptown Top Ranking" cover
Also...
Master DJ Lenlow has a nice new boot and a 60 second joint called "Magic Derelicts" that def. deserves feature treatment.
And if you liked yesterdays Satnone remixes, "beatFanatic" recomends the Saukrates "Father Time" remix. I hadn't had a chance to listen to that cut till I saw his comment. And it is indeed ill, most definitely so.
I stumbled across some VERY JUICY remixes by some bloke goes by "DJ Satnone". Here is his site. The Mobb Deep "Shook Ones" good too, but these 3 are in my ears 5 hours now. Good onya DJ Satnone for your gristley griddlefatbeats.
The original songs:
Digable Planets "9th Wonder (Blackitolism)" from their second and last and pretty damn good record, 1994s Blowout Comb. Their single "Groove Is In The Heart" "Cool Like Dat" had every cute girl you knew dragging you onto the dancefloor like the child of Gloria Gaynor, which if your 6'4" and white like me, wasn't such a good thing. Buy Blowout Combhere.
Jeru the Damaja's "Ya Playin' Yaself" from 1996s Wrath of the Math. Check Jeru's site and peep the great video here. Buy the record here.
Heiroglyphics can't really call themselves "underground" at this point... theyve been doing it for almost a decade, sold a few million rocords and worked with all name of stars. They are a Bay Area collective whose biggest name is Del the Funky Homosapien of Gorillaz and awesome Judgement Night Soundtrack and Ice Cube's cousin fame... heres the Hieroglyphics site. "The Who" was their first single off their first proper release, 1997s Third Eye Vision which you can buy here.
Most of you rap fans prob. have "Talkin All That Jazz." This is an extended cut from the original single. But best of all: here is the video. Its stylish and hilarious at the same time. Ahead of its time but stuffed full of cliches nonetheless. I love Daddy-O, for his heavyweight attitude and his flyweight frame.
"Peachfuzz" goes out to my Renaissance Niggazz, Matty P. and the whole Small Box Posse. I bought the "Peachfuzz/Gasface Refill" single in Australia because it was yellow.
Don't know where you can by Mr. Hood these days but heres the Best Of KMD
posted by James |
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Just some thoughts for the mind I take a glimpse into time watch the blimp read "The World Is Mine"
ANGIE'S NIGHTS Angie Stone vs. Nightmares On Wax vs. Bjork mixed by thebeathunters
"Angie's Nights" features the vocal from Angie Stone's "Wish I Didn't Miss You" with the Nightmares on Wax instrumental "Les Nuits" and a dash of Bjork's "Hyperballad." If the instrumental sounds familiar its because you maybe hearing a hint of the Pharcyde hit "Passin Me By." Both songs borrow from Quincy Jones' "Summer in the City" which in turn is a retake of the Lovin' Spoonful song of the same name. AT least I think thats how it all goes.
The Mad World bootleg is basically just the Gary Jules Tears for Fears cover from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, with a subtle and scratchy whickity-whick loop running behind it. Its an .m3u file which should play fine in iTunes but maybe not on all players. Donnie Darko is being rereleased as a directors cut. The other rolo bootleg is a nice mash of Nas and the Fugees. Love those Nas lyrics.
Jimmy "Bo" Horne was one of the manlier bringers of the "Miami Sound." Like me, he started as a professional disco dancer in Miami during the late 70s. But while this led to crushing disenchanment in my own life, for Jimmy Bo it was the right place at the right time, and the start of something special and smooth. Jimmy met Harry Casey and Rick Finch (of KC & the Sunshine Band) and his singing career was born. "Spank" was a big club hit, as was "Dance Across the Floor." "Spank" gets pretty heavy about halfway through, and I imagine was as good a hook-up song as disco had to offer. Gimme Some is a real solid record from front to end. Read some more about Jimmy Bo at Becky's KC & The Sunshine Band Page.
"You're Too Late" is a saucy 12" instrumental from Fantasy, circa that time when bands called "Fantasy" roamed the earth.
Quick post: Actionslacks playing this very night in Brooklyn (Northsix) and currently on an East Coast tour to support their new record Full Upright Position. Check dates and venues here. They are back in NYC at Mercury Lounge this Saturday. They are a sharp act live.
My good friend Tim Scanlin fronts Actionslacks. Originally a power/punk/pop trio from SanFrancisco; now I believe 5 members who are spread out all over the country. Tim is a damn fine songwriter. If Tim were a cricketer, commentators would praise his top-notch strike rate. I met him in Australia a dozen years ago. We ate white bread and listened to Matt Johnson and Rakim and on occasion japes ensued. He founded the music magazine Snackcake! (95-99) and is a much published music critic. He went to High School with Calvin Broadus. Every album Actionslacks release is the album I'm sure will push these guys into the really big time. Same way I always feel about the Wizards on draft day.
The 3 songs I posted are from their prior 3 records, in reverse order. Check out the actionslacks site to hear music from their new record and all your other needs.
posted by James |
Friday, May 21, 2004
Life is working on my last nerve, I'll see your ass next week, peace.
Boss aka Lichelle Laws has gotta be the scariest female gangsta rapper ever. I wonder where she is now. Maybe she has traded in her glock and black leathers for some Atkins fiendly Applebees entrees and WNBA season tickets. I hope not though, cause she kind of turned me on. Born Gangstaz was her only real album of note, though she had a song on the Mi Vida Loca soundtrack. Def Jam paid 10 grand for the main sample (Bary White's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe") which was alot for the time, but well worth it.
Slick Rick, "Lick The Balls." Its a great picnic song!!
Check out this DIY LO-FI greatness from Aquarium. Aquarium is Laura Harris on drums and my talented man Jason Hutto on the organ and other things. Jason also goes by "Cigar Man" on the club circuit. Imagine White Stripes with a Moog and without the matching polyester outfits and all that money. Aquarium plays a fair bit in DC these days, including next Friday at the Black Cat I believe. I have yet to catch them live but its widely reckoned to be a worthy experience. Jason likes to buy 8-millimeter educational films on Ebay and project them during shows. These 2 songs are from their debut record. Keep an eye on their site for CD release info as well as upcoming shows.
odd nosdam is is a dirty Lo_Fi beat oven. "Track29" is off a cassette called plan 9... meat your hypnotis that he put together using an old school drum machine and a beat up teac cassette deck. MUSH has reissued it on CD. Here is their artist page for nosdam. He is also a member of the fairly successful trio cLOUDHEAD.
Also... Everyone must go to Moebious Rex right now and download the disco magic, especially the "Native New Yorker 12" ", possibly the greatest song EVER written. It makes me long for the days when I was an office secretary and club queen in the late 70s, when I wore those blousy polyester fashions and cork was everywhere and I owned this city.
And if you live in Brooklyn, like I do, "We Live In Brooklyn, Baby" is a must have.
Kittytext has a lovely instrumental called "Homeward Bound/The Slipper Shoe."
And Gramophone has a perky peanut from The Be Good Tanyas.
posted by James |
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
They say goodbye so very politely, and I say hello to the killer inside me
MC 900 Foot Jesus is Mark Griffith, a pasty bloke from Texas who can play all sorts of instruments. Most of his music is a little overstuffed for my taste. Like a more free-form Moby, too much electronic jazzy stuff and purposefull art-rock lyricism. But when he got hiphop he was killer.
"The City Sleeps" got some good airplay in '91 on the alternative stations. The easily frightened accused the song of stimulating arson. Its superduper moody. The lyrics are solid but this would play great as an instrumental track. "Killer Inside Me" is a funked out portrait of the serial killer next door -- MC9J's very white voice works well here. MC9J didn't sample much, but on both these tracks he does so to great effect.
I just learned a couple other things about MC 900 Foot Jesus:
First: He named himself after a vision that Oral Roberts had of a 900 ft savior dropping in for a chat. Second: he is still living in Dallas, working on getting his flight instructor certificate, not really doing music.
I learned this from a very dedicated fan site, that covers everything of note from his brief career.
Also...
Have a look at Dream Chimney. Various people over there posting some fantastic music of all varieties. I havn't had a longer look at this site yet, but it appears you can sign up and post your own fav. songs...
This is as weepy as white guys get. This is O(ww)G!! Safe to say the "2 Stones in my Pocket" aren't testicles. Probably just a couple stones to ponder, or maybe to weigh him down when he jumps off the pier.
Weepy white alram bell #1: NME said he wrote "the kind of honest, heartfelt love songs men are too scared or too cool to write these days".
Weepy white alarm bell #2: "No, that's not a woman on backing vocals, it's me! It took me quite a long time to do that."
Heres what you do: Call your most fine featured buddy, drink some domestic beer and fuck your hair up with craft scissors. Then grab a Hi-8 digicam, pile into your uncles NOVA and drive to some rundown spot in New Jersey. Just drive around in circles until the sun starts to go down and theres a glare on the dirty windows. Put "High Hopes" in the tape deck. Turn on the camera. Just film stuff -- whatever.
Hey -- You now have what The Village Voice will call "Gus Van Sant's most frankly relevant obiter dictum since Mala Noche" !!!
Now, Japes aside, these are really good songs. Its Nick Drake City.
Neil Halstead is a Brit., and is in a band called Mojave 3 that are alt country and I find quite bland, but I also thing Wilcos bland so there. He was also in a band called Slowdive.
Mojave 3 has a nice site (check it out here). They have a bunch of additional mp3s, as well as some live stuff, including the version of "Hi-Lo And in Between" that I posted here.
More strong weepy white action at Listen Closer (Malcolm Middleton -- "I think you'll find he's mastered a sort of triumphant failure") and Suburbs... (PasCal) and Gramaphone (Tiger Lillies).
Soul Sides has the great redneck Gin and Juice cover. You can also see an entertaining video of Snopp Dogg reacting to the cover for the first time here.
I've been enjoying the PE/Kanye/Coltrane bootleg over at hiphopmusic.com the last couple weeks. Then a few days back, I was listening to some Kid Koala and thinking how he's got decent chops but his work doesn't have enough balls, so's I opened up this PE acapella I had lying about in a separate music player and.... chockity choko the chocolate chicken!! They synched up! (albeit somewhat drunkenly) Try it at home, the poor mans bootleg. Play around and try to get the "One Two Three" line from the start of the PE lyric to fire just before the first proper beat kicks in (about the :19 second mark of the Kid Koala track)...
I threw up "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need" from 2002's Revolverlution because it was just so criminally overlooked when it came out. The last 20 seconds of this track is vintage PE. It could easily have rolled off Nation of Millions... or Fear Of A Black Planet. Of course the great advantage of being Public Enemy is that you can sample yourself.
"Mister Roberts" is an hilarious bit from the National Lampoon Radio Hour, with Christopher Guest doing one of the first Mister Rogers sendups, and Bill Murray just killing as a cotton-mouthed bass playing soul brother. Many folks (Murray, Belushi, Chase, Radner, Shearer, Ramis, ...) from the Lampoon Radio Hour went on to a start-up TV show called "Saturday Night Live." There is a National Lampoon Radio Hour Greatest Hits CD available but for some reason, this skit didn't make it. If you want more info opn the Lampoon Radio Hour, check out Marks Very Large National Lampoon Site. It comes exactly as described.
"Little Twelve Toes" is my favorite Schoolhouse Rock number ever. If you are too young to have seen the Schoolhouse Rock gang during your Saturday morning TV, then you really missed out. Its first rate EDUTAINMENT. It was a golden age. Today's FCC would never let your kids get this close to hippies. The series won a bunch of emmys. A young Michael Eisner was involved, when he still had all his hair and some of his soul. I don't know how effective the messages were though; I must have seen "Conjunction Junction, thats my Function" a thousand times and still have no idea what be the function of a conjunction. This ones all about the base-twelve fancies of a benign alien vistor blessed with a dozen little piggies. You can buy Schoolhouse Rock CDs DVDs and everything else at their site.
Also...
Much thanks to Soul Sides and Tofu Hut for the good word. Right back at you.
Slammed with work so just a quick post of some classics by the very under-rated The Coup, along with a pretty solid remix you may not have heard. Heres the Coups site; some additional not so solid remix mp3s available there
posted by James |
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
I'm a top billa', part-time illa', permanent chilla', Son of Sam killa', the horra' in the villa'
"Strong Island" was one of the better rap singles of the late 80s. Its been sampled a ton since.
"JVC Force" stands for the very legalese "Justified by Virtue of Creativity For All Reasons Concerning Entertainment." Its been pointed out that this would actually provide the acronym "JVC Farce."
"It's A Force Thing" is from their second and last follow up record Force Field.
Best bet for picking up JVC Force records is ebay.
From the Where Are They Now file... check out an older and portlier JVC's AJ Rok on Checkoutwax.com, an Aussie hiphop site. Its a great interview. AJ Rok gives his thoughts on 9/11 and offers this list of his Top 10 Things of All Time:
1. God 2. Paula Sharelle Woodson (my daughter, my pride and joy) 3. My Autographed picture of Pam Grier 4. Hip-Hop (especially Pre-1992) 5. Real Music (anything you can feel) 6. The Internet (great for small business & independant / underground artists) 7. Writing 8. Being Mobile 9. Church 10. Heineken or Grey Goose & Cranberry
The cool thing is, if you swap #'s 1 and 10... then you pretty much have my Top 10 Things of All Time list.
Garageland have been making reliable popular indie rock in New Zealand for about 7 years. They are one of the more mainstream acts on the famed Flying Nun label. "Come Back" is the best approximation of The Pixies I have heard in a while... or maybe The Strokes approximating The Pixies. Its not a new sound, but its a nice one.
I've been listening to The Sun by Ghostface Killah' (w/ Slick Rick and others) non stop since I got it off a music blog, Soul Sides I think, about 2 weeks back. It's just the greatest shoutout to the sun of all time. So I'm posting some other tracks that have brought the sunflava.
Definition Of Sound had a million singles in the early 90s, all from Love and Life..., most of them irritatingly anglo and perky (like "Wear Your Love Like Heaven"), most of them listened to by euro kids who tragically believed that "black" really is just an attitute. But "Rise Like Sun" was a great sleeper. Its the first rap song my girlfriend liked, and though the vocals aren't all that strong, the instrumentals are sleepy and more soulful than most hiphop. A very earnest Amazon reviewer has the following to say:
This album will become a part of your life. Beckoning you... These words will speak to your heart... to what you know to be true and just. I bought this album in 1992. As I proceed on my lifes journey this cd beckons me to dig it out and listen. These guys have knowledge and if this album is their foundation then they have no limits! Listen, and you'll listen again. This album is a gift to the world.
MY MAN!
"Wake Up" is from Brand Nubian's seminal One For All. They were big into the 5 Percent Nation thing, and white people being created by a crazed scientist alled Yakub 6000 years ago etc... but were not above dropping "Threes Company" refernces. From googling the 5 Percent Nation thing I found the following factoid:
Indeed, many staples of hip-hop slang may possess forgotten origins in Five Percenter terminology. For example, the greeting, "'Sup, G?" is said to represent "What's up, God?" as opposed to the more popularly accepted etymology, "What's up, Gangster?" And Five Percenters may be the source for the standard hip-hop greeting "Peace."
And I always thought "Whats Up G" came from Damon Runyon ---
And "The Sun God" is onme of the better cuts from Hi-Teks 2001 album. Hi-Tek made a name as a producer for Mos Def and others before taking his solo...
posted by James |
Friday, May 07, 2004
"They said, that he shook himself to death I wanna dance to my last breath."
Here are a trio of new, nice and mellow bootlegs I tracked down recently. Great covers are hard to come by. Tricky's interpetation of PE's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a standout in a generally weak field. I tried for years to convince Eddie Vedder to cover "Stuck On You" by Lionel Ritchie, but to no avail. Artists either have too much pride or the source material is just too definitive. But thankfully, DJs are much more reckless and unaccountable. Listen to "Cherry Blossomed Demon" once and its obvious that Macy Gray and Air should really get into the studio together as soon and often as possible. The Macy Gray vocal is of her single "Demons" with Fatboy Slim from Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. The Air sopng is "Cherry Blossomed Girl." The DJ calls himself "BlueGlue" but I can't find a website for him. His Get Your Bootleg On bio claims he's 25 and from Milan.
The "Don't Talk Remix" is just about perfect. The tracks are "Don't Talk" by the Beach Boys and "The Chad Who Loved Me" by UK band Mansun. Heres Jules FM's site. Make sure to also download his Jeff Buckley bootleg "Dream Bro."
"A Fine Dream" brings togther "It's A Fine Day" by Opus III and the theme from Requiem for A Dream which was mostly the work of Kronos Quartet. You remembeer that summer matinee pleaser Requiem for a Dream. It was just like Finding Nemo, except Nemo was the black chasm of heroin dpendency!
Also... Soul Sides has another great song up today, "Sunday Afternoon" by Blossom Dearie. Go and download it and bookmark Soul Sides.
And read the books by this man Sam Lipsyte!!!!! You can buy them with the money you are keeping from the musicians featured on these pages. He's a tremendously funny and provocative talent and a world class big-wave surfer.
Rocksteady dame Phyllis Dillon died a few weeks ago in Long Island. Despite her fame, things were pretty much down hill for her since she recorded her signature tune with Duke Reid. In this interview she claims she was paid 5 pounds for her trouble, and even though she wrote the song, never received royalties. Its a beautiful thing, this song. Its got a throwback 50s sound to it without being too precious or David Lynchy MEta-Ironic ... if you know what I mean. And how many Divas today would sing a line like: "You have got another girl, She treats you nice, I know, She's even more beautiful than I" ? This import has a good collection of Dillon's work.
Duke Reid also produced "Queen Majesty" for The Techniques during the same year. This song is exactly how I sing in the shower each morning. They have a Best of CD with patronizing cover art.
Duke Reid also worked with the Ska_talites, but long before they recorded this goofy Bond cover. The Ska-talites have been around forever, with a revolving lineup. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary. They have everything you need to know on their website, including a handful of new mp3s for download.
Heres A Duke Reid bio. He died 30 years ago so don't be too mad at him about the five pounds thing. You can pick up a solid Duke Reid starter set here.
posted by James |
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
"You gotta wham-bam funkify the Fyde with Clyde"
"Dance to the Drummer's Beat" is from a time when you were cool if you could afford the toothpick in your mouth. Play it at a block party near you. The bridge has been sampled a million times. You can buy the vinyl here or probably pick it up on old school CD compilations.
I loved "Attack Of The Name Game" during my space-man hip-hop phase, which I think I'm just coming out of now. Stacy Lattisaw released this when she was 16. Here are the lyrics. Heres a Stacy Lattisaw discography. You can buy The Very Best of Stacy Lattisawhere. The song was written/produced by a guy called Narada Walden who went on to carve a truly awful career making Soundtracks for films like 'Beverly Hills Cop II', 'Perfect', 'License to Kill', and 'Free Willy'. He runs a production company called "Tarpan," a name which he claims means 'satisfaction unparalleled,' thouigh Webster's would disagree; they reckon a Tarpan is a European wild horse extinct since the early 20th century.
If you are not Australian you have probably never heard "The Real Thing." But you probably have heard "Hurdy Gurdy Man," which is probably why you have never heard "The Real Thing." Russell Morris' single was a big hit in his native Oz in 1969, a year after Donovan's album was climbing the charts in the US and Britain. Its still a great song and has a workmanlike quality to its psychedelics. From this good web-bio:
'The Real Thing', became more something of Meldrum's creation than either Russell's or Johnny's. Russell just sang it. Johnny just happened to have written the basis for it. In the studio, using The Groop as backing musicians, Meldrum spent unprecedented hours and money to create a seven-minute production extravaganza, complete with The Groop's Brian Cadd reading from the side of a recording tape box for an imitation Hitler speech. Once the song was released to shocked radio programmers who had never been asked to play such a long Australian single before, it was up to Russell's personality, and singing and performing talents to make the record work. It reached Number One nationally in June 1969.
"Meldrum" being Ian "Molly" Meldrum, an Australian hybrid equivalent of maybe, say, Paul Scheffer & Dick Clark & Simon Cowell & Jay-Z. "Hitler" being the guy from the holocaust.
Heres a Russel Morris discography and you can pick up The Real Thing Import (packaged with follow-up album Bloodstone) at Amazon.
If Russell Morris sounds like Donovan its nothing compared to how much Emitt Rhodes sounds like Paul McCartney. And GOOD Paul McCartney, before he started grooming his beard and wearing scarfs. No small feat for a kid from California. These songs are from his fairly popular self-titled album of 1970. According to this bio, he disappeared quickly after, possibly due to grandiose self-promotion of the following variety:
"It's just songs.... It's melodic. I like melodies that go from one place to the next. I like chords. "
Now Emitt is just trying to pay the rent, which probably became that much easier when Wes Anderson stuck "Lullabye" on the Royal Tenenbaum Soundtrack.
First off a :40 second beaut from my fav hiphop gang Digital Underground. Off the Sex Packets album. Sure they sampled PFunk to death but they came as close as anyone to capturing the funk mob's mad communal spirit, the extended Family Affair, in a bottle. Shock G and his mates could also play instruments, especially the piano. I hi-fived a very young Tupac about 12 years ago after a DU show and remember thinking how I would rather have gotten skin from one of the bands blue chip talents, like "Big Money Otis" or "Money B." Everyone go buy "Sex Packets" and "Sons of the P."
"Me Or The Papes" is the instrumental version of Jeru the Damaja single, from the Wrath of the Math record (1996). DJ Premier is the man responsible for this great thing. He has busy hands. Busy, magic hands.
And finally, someone please tell me who this really really infectious 3rd beat belongs to. I ripped it from a tape a friend of mine gave me about 5 years ago. If I had to guess I'd say DJ Cam, or Krush or Shadow or one of their mates. I've had a hard time getting to the bottom of this. Plugging "Doo Dah Dippity" into google only made things worse. If you know who it is, please let me know.
Also:
The Royal Music blog has a great Lootpack song: "Whenimondamic" along with some not too godforsaken Tom Waits.
Suburbs... has some great New Orleans Funk, and uses the phrase "OG musical biscuits."
Listen Closer has some strangely beautiful music by Joanna Newsom
And Tomas Diablo, genius behind the masterful bootleg "Lost" that I posted last Friday, emailed to let me know that the piece actually borrows from:
Paul Simon - "Slip Sliding Away " Billie Holiday - "Be Fair with me Baby" Marvin Gaye - "Trouble Man" Ella Fitzgerald - "How Long Has This Been Going On?" Ani Difranco - "Providence"
I'm not sure where I got the previous info from, but I'm happy to hear that Depeche Mode was out of the picture. If you didn't listen to "Lost" last week, scroll down and get it right now.
posted by James |
Friday, April 30, 2004
"To ya bootleggers we breaking off both of ya legs"
LOST Paul Simon vs. Billie Holiday vs. Marvin Gaye vs. Ella Fitzgerald vs. Ani Difranco Mixed by Tomas Diablo
SWEET CHILD O RAVI Melvin Bliss vs. Barry White vs. Norah Jones vs. Guns N Roses vs. The Doves Mixed by Lenlow
LOVE WILL FREAK US VIDEO Download here Missy vs. Joy Division Mixed by Dsico
I love this bootleg "Lost." Super chill. In my opinion, every bootlegger should knock 20+ beatsperminute off everything they do. Maybe there just isnt' enough chronic or sullen rage in the anglo-urban danceclub scene. Maybe also the british kids have little snow white legs and tie their shoelaces, so they can dance quicker. I don't now much about the tracks used in this mash: I don't recognize any Depeche Mode though I tried to stay clear of them as a youth, and I think the Boards of Canada song is called "Spectrum" off A Few Old Tunes. If anyone knows where I can get this original, or other good mellow bootlegs, I'd love to know.... You can hear more Tomas Diablo work at his site here. "Crucify The Verse" is nice too, and "Super Rockin Cuts" would be OK except for the unpardonable sin of making Chuck D. sound like a chipmunk.
Lenlows been blogged a fair bit, but I thought I'd throw this one up there anyhow. Lenlow's work is a lot closer to songwriting: he uses multiple loops with very dynamic results. "Sweet Child O Ravi" is my favorite. It borrows from: Melvin Bliss - "Synthetic Substitution"; Barry White - "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby"; Norah Jones - "Nightingale"; Guns N Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine"; The Doves - "Words." Check out his site for more.
And I have to end the week with some Missy Elliot. "Swat That Shit" is from the prolific Jimmi Jammes. Great album art too. And if you havn't seen it, the Love Will Freak Us video is a must. Dsico has a ton more work at his site.
Spent yesterday taking a prelicensing course at a Brooklyn auto school. I watched 5 hours of 80s and early 90s high school safety specials, including: The Ultimate Driving Challenge, starring Craig T Nelson, Scott Bacula, Tim Allen and MC Hammer among others, most of whom were probably fulfilling some court appointed community service. Another highlight was The Game of Your Life starring Ken Olandt of "The Fall Guy", "Simon and Simon", "21 Jump Street", "A Team" AND "Airwolf". This guy was the Armin Mueller-Stahl of 1980s TV!!
More than one of these videos illustrated the effects of alcohol on driving ability by getting a bunch of "college age young adults" liquored up on white wine and them having them swerve around a closed obstacle course. You could tell the young adults were really committed to spreading the message about the horrors of DUI by the huge white smiles they flashed as they ran over the cones and cardboard children.
The LudaKriss boot mixes 2 of the catchiest songs ever into an even catchier all new block party jam. About 10 years ago me and my friend Dave were hanging out with our friend Tim in his sound proofed rehearsal space. We lured a couple cute high school girls down there and drank a bunch of Fosters oil cans and put our jeans on backwards and fired up the mics and rapped for maybe 2 hours, sure beyond doubt that the girls were really really impressed. It turned out they were actually thinking what any high school girl would think if she was locked in a soundproof room with some drunk strange men at 2 in the morning. I know this now because 10 years later, Dave and I are married to those girls. Not really, but Ive still got a soft spot for Kris Kross. Check out Instamatic's site, and the Kris Kross Sony site which looks to have been abandoned some time ago.
Double Freak uses the excellent old Reggae hit "Double Barrel" with the oft mashed "Freak Like Me" (you'll know it when you hear it) into a nice dusty piece of nasty dancehall. Soundhog is also behind the magnificent Beatles/Mogwai remix. If you loved "A Day In The Life" but think youve just heard it too much for this lifetime, its nicely reinvented here. You can find "Double Barrel" lots of places, including a great box set thats been out for a few years: Tougher Than Tough, The Story of Jamaican Music.
Every Australian knows Rolf Harris. Along with the massacre of Aboriginies, he is an integral part of the country's "Dark History." He covers popular songs with something called a wobble-board. Middle-aged British ladies love him. Here's his website. You can hear a sample from his classic reworking of "Stairway to Heaven"
ROLF: "Oooh, and it makes me wonder... How does it make you blokes feel?" BLOKES CHORUS: "Oooh, and it makes us wonder..."
This Divinyl's remix is extra disturbing. The backing track is Madonna's "Secret". The crazy bastard responsible for this is Jason Coulls aka Mutant Miscreation.
Also... Got an email yesterday advising me that the "Rapture Rider" bootleg is not by "Allen Dean"; rather by Go Home Productions, as part of the AllenDean Project. Cheers John. Go Home Productions is also responsible for the fantastic Crowded House/Snoop Dogg bootleg which you can download with a bunch of other songs right here. He appears to working for Bowie these days.
Lots of Mashups from C.H.A.O.S. Productions here. The Erick Sermon vs. The Jacksons one is esp. tite.
The Mystical Beast has some great rare Flying Nun songs for download. Expect lots of Bats songs on this blog in the future. The Bats are just superb.
Yesterday was the moistest to date at moistworks, so thanks for those who have linked to me, especially Fluxblog.
posted by James |
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
No update today, at the DMV. Super fantastic update tomorrow!
posted by James |
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
"I'd idly pondered a TRON costume in the past..."
There should be a name for Rap songs like 50-Cent's "21 Questions" and Jay-Z's "December 4th." When the tough G bares his earnest Ijustwannabeloved inner boy for all the world. It should be a really contemptuous name though cuz I don't want my soft musings from 50Cent any more than I want a handbag from Monica Lewinsky. Damn Handbag Rap. Still 50 and JayZ have quality pipes and these bootlegs are big improvements over the originals, really big in 50's case.
The Jay-Z/Weezer one is part of the well-circulated Jay-Zeezer album and is more of a guilty pleasure.
DJ Crook Air mixes 50 with some German bloke called Zuri West. The Zuri song is "I schanke dir mis Harz." Its a great remix. It asks the question we all find ourselves asking in darker times: "Would Vivica A. Fox still love me if I didn't smell good, and worked at a Burger King?"
Support Zuri West by buying a record here. 50 Cent doesn't need to sell any more records but if you see him, give the man some love.
And the Beyonce vs. James Brown bootleg is masterful. Despite being re-pitched in a way that suggests Salsa commercials and animatronic barn animals. DJ Crook Air has a ton more mashups at his site.
Also... Check out Jay Maynard's TRON Costume. The observation: "I made a few compromises" is the understatement of the year.
posted by James |
Monday, April 26, 2004
"You and your crew better jump the buss."
I'm on the bootleg bandwagon, all week long. I'll post the best mash-ups I have come across over the last couple months. Your first stop for the latest bootlegs has to be the Get Your Bootleg On forum where our generations premier young dualists pitch their works on a daily basis.
I found the SiBegg Coldplay/Buss mashup through Boom Selection. Unlike many bootlegs, this one just gets better each time you listen to it. Check out SiBeggs site. Look for the Chris Martin vs Gwenyth Paltrow breathing mashup this summer at a juice bar near you.
"Rapture Riders" is a bit gimmicky but just so perfectly blended. More Go Home Productions works at his site. The Rapture Riders Christian Motorcycle Gang's website is here.
"New York at Last" isn't really a mashup proper, but rather a posthumus remix of a 1984 Freddie Mercury demo using various Queen samples and some original programming. Takes a while to get going, but it's a bit of a masterpiece, and true to Freddie Mercury in a way that that "Lion Zion" song never was to Bob Marley. You'll be screaming DEAR FREDDIE MERCURY, I LOVE YOU, LOVE MOISTWORKS!!!! See how it was all put together over at Smash's website, and dowload some of his other efforts, including Kylie Minogue meets Massive Attack.
posted by James |
Friday, April 23, 2004
"I am so small, and so is my.... misery"
These aren't really prototypical weepy white guys, especially Kid Silver who can be downright pert. You want a real weepy white guy? Go to Chip's music blog and download "Carry Me Ohio" by Sun Kil Moon. Actually, I think he has taken it down now. But trust me, its great WWG. Not Mark Eitzel types who actually cry while on stage, thats just unprofessional, but just capital-G Guys with some angst on their arm, keeping it real, keeing it weepy... Kind of like Chip, who turned me on to Kid Silver. Kid Silver was in a band called Rollerskate Skinny that kids seemed to like. I think hes from some damp, pasty foreign place like Dublin or Cleveland, but he moved to NYC a while back. Dead City Sunbeams came out on JetSet, in 1998 I think.
Ratcat is a Melbourne, OZ band that had a huge super-catchy hit called "That Aint Bad" in 1991ish. "Getting Away (From This World)" is off the same 6-song demo and samples the NASA Control feed of the first Space Shuttle explosion. If you know my friend Nick James, ask him to tell his Ratcat story, the one with the urine and the big bogan and the big bogan's girlfriend, its a great story.
Also: Kittytext has a great Eazy-E track "The Muthaph**in' Real"
And Fluxblog points out the now-completed "London Booted" project, available for download. Mashups and bootlegs of your favorite Clash Classic. "What About Brixton" is fantastic.
posted by James |
Thursday, April 22, 2004
"Like Sly Stone dying on the mike."
If New Zealand is Middle earth, then Shayne Carter is Tom Bombadil
Look, someone had to write that sentence at some point.
Carter disbanded the genius band Straitjacket Fits in the mid 90s, just as they we're gathering steam above the equator. A few years later he started Dimmer and persuaded Sony NZ to ship a studio pod into his NZ backyard where he spent the next 2 years writing songs and teaching himself electronic stuff. The result was I Believe You Are A Star and it was real good.
Carter had this very cool thing to say about the project:
"Much of the record was played by real people. Organic approximations of the electronic vibe. Most of the sounds that sound like samples are actually fucked with guitars. Human shonkiness... Our whole concept was to make the music woozy and gone - Like Sly Stone dying on the mike. It has an inverse power. The music drops where it should go up. Nothing instead of the glory chord. Space is your friend."
Carter called his new sound "Pop Noir" and he's half-right. This is intensely dark and urban music. It's the lime-lights of traffic tunnels bouncing off your windshield, insomniacs in hotel corridors, impure narcotics. So, not dark and urban like Will Smiths "Summertime."
Dimmer has just released its follow up, You've Got To Hear The Music. Early reviews are good, with this one saying the record has a "bigger, wobblier bottom."
Hear samples from You've Got To Hear The Musichere
Watch a video from the new single "Getting What You Give" here.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
[I don't know what category" Poignant Summer" is gonna end up being. I thought it could be nostalgic songs, esp. the kind of R&B you hear in John Singleton coming of age films, but it'll probabkly just end up being a grab bag category. I just like the word "poignant" -- as many of you know. Its probably my 3rd fav. word, after "moist" and "pliant", but certainly ahead of "turgid".]
Foster Sylvers wrote this in 1973 when he was ELEVEN. Which still doesn't explain all the traffic metaphors.
What the Jackson Five might have sounded like without Tito and Marlon and Dennis and Luis. Foster even co-wrote and produced Janet Jackson's funk rock single "Come Give Your Love to Me" in 1983. Foster also partnered with his siblings in the band The Sylvers, who had the monster hit "Boogie Fever."
You can find Misdemeanor on this CD(with Patches!!!)
Also... There is a great Crowded House vs Snoop Dogg bootleg over at a site called punkassedbitch.com (on the right hand side). Go and download it immediately!!! The Psychedelic Furs/Smiths and The Beastie Boys/A-Team Theme ones are pretty good also. Actually the Beastie's one is really good.
posted by James |
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
"Reagan Gave The Pentagon The Farmer Brown Money"
The bass is just mental. This is the B-Side from their mid '80s "nationwide hit single" Sardines. (Go-Go PR folk have always tended to outpunt their coverage when it comes to estimating success.) The Junkyard Band started as a way to keep kids from the Barry Farms housing project on the streets, and on the streets banging buckets. I first saw them some time in the late 80s on an August Saturday at DC's annual folklife festival on the mall. Apparently Reagan didn't give the Pentagon all the farmer Brown money, b/c on that humid afternoon the Federal Government was paying the band to teach puffy tourists how to do the Cabbage Patch. Maybe one of those tourists was a young Tim Allen!!!
The Washington Post has some more Junkyard tunes, which are hit and miss, as well as some history iof the band. Junkyard on Amazon, again, hit and miss.
In the waspy DC private prep school circuit I grew up in, the three things you could count on at a house party were Ocean Pacific cord shorts, cocaine and white kids dancing to Go-Go. This songs was one of the biggest crowd pleasers. Little Benny and The Masters is such a great name. It would also be a great name for a young adult novel, especially one about a special olympics golfer with short pants but tall dreams.
