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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
GOOD, BAD, NOT EVIL
BAD KIDS
COLD HANDS
The Black Lips
Good Bad Not Evil
Vice : 2007
[Buy It]
From: Matthew Specktor
Subject: Veni Vedi Vici
To: Alex Abramovich
Date: August 12, 2008
Damn, this Black Lips is kicking my ass just now! It's fucking great. Yet...why? I have all the Chocolate Watchband shit, the Remains, Nuggets & Pebbles comps out the wazoo. I never had much patience for, say, the Lyres (OK, the first record's great), the Chesterfield Kings, the Cynics etc.
So why, why, why is this record so good?
STRYCHNINE
The Sonics
Here Are The Sonics
Etiquette : 1965
[Buy It]
MONK TIME
The Monks
Black Monk Time
Polydor : 1966
[Buy It]
I GIVE YOU AN INCH (AND YOU TAKE A MILE)
The Mods
Peck : 1966
Available on: Teenage Shutdown vol. 10
[Buy It]
HELP YOU ANN
The Lyres
On Fyre
Ace of Hearts : 1984
[Buy It]
STORMY WEATHER
The Reigning Sound
Time Bomb High School
In The Red : 2002
[Buy It]
I'LL CRY
The Reigning Sound
Too Much Guitar
In The Red : 2004
[Buy It]
From: Alex Abramovich
Subject: Vedi Vici Veni
To: Alex Abramovich
Date: August 12, 2008
Let me just preface this by saying, I saw a fifty-something guy, in a Range Rover, on 6th Avenue the other day, blasting the Sonics....
I don't mind the Lyres. I love the Monks. (ie, the first white band to turn their entire white band into a rhythm instrument - please watch this video and write me back an actual letter explaining that the Monks are not actually doing Sonic Youth shit while Sonic Youth are still in short pants?) I'll put my Reigning Sound up against your Grizzly Bear/whatevers, anytime. So I think can answer this:
TBL came up in the post-industry-collapse world, where bands have to prove themselves live - stayed on their grind night after night for years and years - and got tight enough to play loose as fuck.
They're smart, and they're funny ("Bad kids/Product of no dad kids"?!?). Their songs are better than we have any right to expect them to be. They're from Atlanta, which is not Boston (which is not LA). They're not fetishists, like the Lyres, and they seem young enough to not have the anxiety of influence thing which makes curator bands like the White Stripe so annoying. I've seen them live, twice - unlike, say, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, they're fucking great - and they've got the whole Beatles-head-shake down. Their original lead singer was killed in some sad-as-fuck drunk driving accident, so they're not untouched by life & other, ensuing tragedies.
They would never link to something they wrote for Slate....Labels: alex, garage rock, Matthew
posted by Alex
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
BAD BOY
Eddie Taylor
Vee-Jay : 1955
Available on: Bad Boy
Charly : 1993
[Buy It]
BAD BOY
The Jive Bombers
Savoy : 1956
Available on: Savoy Chart Busters
Savoy Jazz : 2005
[Buy It]
BAD GIRL
The New York Dolls
New York Dolls
Island : 1973
[Buy It]
BAD GIRL
The Zakary Thaks
J-Beck : 1966
Available on: Form The Habit
Sundazed : 2001
[Buy It]
BAD MOTORCYCLE
The Storey Sisters
Cameo : 1958
[Out of Print]
BAD MAN FORWARD, BAD MAN PULL UP
Ding Dong
Available on: The Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2006
Greensleeves : 2006
[Buy It]
My bad. *My bad what?* I've always wanted to ask, since I was on vacation or something when that phrase hit the street. Anyway, I am bad, truly. Alex asked me to post, oh, *ages* ago, and I'm only stepping up to the plate now. I've always been bad with deadlines - *superbad* with deadlines, in fact, as a legion of aggrieved editors will tell you. But that's okay, because we all know that "bad" means "good." I believe that this has been traced back to a specific usage in Yoruba, I think it is. But some of us who grew up encased in the mantle of certain religions I won't name here had intuited the concept even before Shaft and James Brown sent entire roomfuls of Andy Rooneys to sputtering outbursts of distress and confusion and ire a generation ago. And for some of us, it all started with "He's a mean motor scooter and a bad go-getter," which is a line from "Alley Oop" by the Hollywood Argyles (1960) that immediately transcended its context and became common if precious coin in the schoolyard vocabulary. Naturally, there's bad and there's bad. If I say, "I think that milk is bad," will that cause you to drop everything and go guzzle it? I mean, you're welcome to do so, and I'll make sure we have some frosty cold bad milk on hand whenever you drop by. And if you hear it said of someone, "He's a bad man," you're likely to think that he cruelly pokes animals and makes merciless fun of small children. But if the same party should be called a "bad boy" instead, all sorts of romantic notions may possibly come rushing into your head. As for bad girls...at my advanced age I'm ambivalent, having seen one of them absquatulate with priceless family heirlooms, and having forsaken at least one European throne for the hand of another. Believe me, good girls are just as hot. But I digress. We also know that bad art is sometimes so bad it's good - in fact it's better than good art, which risks being so good it's bad. Let's face it, badness accounts for a major portion of the cultural history of the past fifty years. Is it running out of fools, or is it just getting started?Labels: blues, doo-wop, garage rock, luc, punk, reggae, rockabilly
posted by Luc
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Monday, June 25, 2007
BLESS OUR HIPPY HOME
The Assortment
Fenton : 1967
Available on: Scream Loud : The Fenton Story
Wayback Records : 2006
[Buy It]
Monday is Brian Howe day in this, the summer of our new Moistworks lineup. But Brian sent a mssg. to the MW superfriends last night: Doom and gloom, deadlines loom, anyone want to play DH?
Well, ok.
Everyone's getting married this summer, and I've got a few songs that, for one reason or another, never quite made it onto a wedding mix I made for my friend Z. (I owed her one, anyway.) Above one of the stragglers (Z.'s not much of a hippy), and below, one which sailed through every cut (Z is, however, very lovable):
CAN'T NOBODY LOVE YOU
Solomon Burke
Atlantic : 1966
Available on: Home in Your Heart
Atlantic : 1992
[Buy It]
Al was in from out of town, and he, James, BJ, & I saw Glenn Mercer, and 4/5ths of the Feelies the other night at Maxwell's. We were, for once not even remotely close to being the oldest folks in the audience. It was like going to church.
YOU'VE GOT TO MOVE
Two Gospel Keys
Available on: Goodbye, Babylon
Dust-to-Digital : 2003
[Buy It]
In mostly unrelated news, the new hotness from Kanye West:
STRONGER
Kanye West
Graduation Day
GOOD : 2007
[Pre-order]
Sounds a wee bit like the old hotness from Kanye West:
ADDICTION
Kanye West
Late Registration
Roc-a-Fella : 2005
[Buy It]
Hotter beat; weaker lyric, right down to "I'd do anything for a blond dyke" (?!?), and the repeating verse about Prince & OJ, which doesn't benefit all that much from the repetition, and brings us right back to Burke:
STUPIDITY
Solomon Burke
Atlantic : 1966
Available on: Home in Your Heart
Atlantic : 1992
[Buy It]Labels: alex, garage rock, gospel, hip-hop, soul
posted by Alex
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