To Babylonians Head

"It sipple out deh..." Presenting a red hot Babylonian ten pack for the weekend, dreader than dread. Go down & keep cool.

Max Romeo & The Upsetters - War Ina Babylon

The Prophets - Babylon A Fall

Junior Byles - Beat Down Babylon
The Meditations - Babylon Trap Them

Desmond Irie - Babylon You Must Go Down

Tappa Zukie - Don't Deal With Babylon

The Heptones/The Upsetters - Babylon Falling/Version

Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus - Keep Cool Babylon
Brent Dowe - Down Here In Babylon
Zeddie Bailey - Dub To Babylonians Head

Wild Weekend Vol. 62

A not-so-sunny Sunday brings us edition 62 of Wild Weekend, which this time around features two brand new acts, a reggae classic complete with mondegreen, and a lost lofi Dutchman to boot. Is that wild or what?

Gonna start with the gorgeous Bettye LaVette though, as I just bought a much recommended collection of the soul diva's late sixties Memphis recordings with the Dixie Flyers. Thirteen songs and not a dud between them, with We Got To Slip Around my current fave. "You've got another woman, and I've got another man..." To think it wasn't even released at the time, because the version by its author Charles Hodges utilized the same backing track. Roots reggae up next. A good friend asked me recently if I was familiar with Max Romeo's War Ina Babylon album. The answer was a clear yes of course, as I've treasured that Lee Perry produced classic more or less since it came out in the year of our Jah 1976. This pal also told me that when he was young, he always thought Maxi sang "I'm gonna put on an Ajax shirt" in I Chase The Devil. And that's a mondegreen that even puts Hendrix's "Scuse me while I kiss this guy" to shame...

Bettye LaVette - We Gotta Slip Around MP3

Max Romeo & The Upsetters - I Chase The Devil MP3

Two new bands up now, as it's certainly not all old, mothbally stuff around here. The Zermatts hail from smoggy LA, do the lofi pop thing, and use a cool organ to boot. Ramshackle and fun, so worth keeping an eye on I'd say. God bless, you guys. Mount Moriah from North Carolina stumble around in Americana territory, and they do it well. They have a fine singer in Heather McEntire, plus a guitar player who definitely treasures some Crazy Horse and Allmans in his record collection. And since they proclaim in the lovely Only Way Out that "the only way to love something is to give it away...", here you go.

The Zermatts - The Babes In The Woods MP3

Mount Moriah - Only Way Out MP3

Most bands from the noisy Amphetamine Reptile records stable always sounded a bit the same to me, but I make an exception for the Cows. They certainly were loud and uncompromising, too, but used a certain neurotic weirdness to differentiate themselves from the pack. Try their ingeniously titled Cunning Stunts album from '92 to see what I mean and don't look back. And it's closing time with someone who once was the lofi pride of Holland: Joost Visser. He made headway with De Artsen, but missed out when the rest of that band hit the big time with Bettie Serveert. Visser soon made a rather uneven solo album, on which highlights like Fingers In The Wind were promising to say the least, but it seems he has withdrawn from music altogether since then. Come on man, it's comeback time already.

Cows - Heave Ho MP3

Joost Visser - Fingers In The Wind MP3

Grab this bag!

Friday means grab bag time in this neck of the woods. So here we go again with six great songs that caught my ear this week. Got some early punk, some pubrock, and some neo-country from Nashville. Also there´s room for roots reggae, an oldie from the Mountain Goats and Mr. Johnny Cash... What else could you possibly need?

Let´s start with Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Hell was one of the visionaries of New York´s CBGB´s scene. He played in the first line-ups of the Heartbreakers and Television, invented the ripped t-shirt look along the way and made a name for himself with the classic album Blank Generation. "And when I want to write a song that says it all at once..." That´s the late great Robert Quine on guitar btw. You can find it on the Time compilation (Matador records).

Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Time MP3

Here´s a brand new song for you. Spiritual Family Reunion have just released an album called Goodbye Ceremony on Tract Records, a label to watch. They operate out of Nashville, have former Calexico and Silver Jews members among them, and I think Coral Reef sounds mighty fine.

Spiritual Family Reunion - Coral Reef MP3

I´ve been a fan of the Mountain Goats ever since they released Beautiful Rat Sunset way back when on the wonderful Shrimper label. For my money head-Goat John Darnielle is among the most original songwriters working today. The new album Heretic Pride hasn´t reached me yet, so we´ll make do with an oldie. There Will Always Be An Ireland is from the Jack & Faye ep, which never came out as the label that was supposed to release it went belly-up just a little too soon. Shame.

Mountain Goats - There Will Always be An Ireland MP3

Roots reggae time. Max Romeo is best known for his Lee Perry produced War In A Babylon album, but he released many more amazing sides in the seventies. Check out Valley Of Jehosaphat/Version for example, from the excellent compilation Open The Iron Gate (Blood & Fire). Red hot indeed.

Max Romeo - Valley Of Jehosaphat/Version MP3

Dr. Feelgood was the archetypical pubrock band. They set any venue on fire in ten minutes flat with their no-nonsense mentality. Milk and alcohol: a great diet. You can find it on the Singles - The U.A. Years compilation. This one´s dedicated to my brother in law by the way, who has seen them live more times than I´d like to count.

Dr. Feelgood - Milk And Alcohol MP3

And last but not least here´s Mr. Johnny Cash. Need I say more? "For on the wall there appeared a hand..." He´s best when biblical. From the extremely nicely priced but excellent 3 cd box Walking The Line, The Legendary Sun Recordings (Union Square).

Johnny Cash - Belshazzar MP3