Thursday, June 30, 2011

Loco Means Crazy




















"Crazy moonbeams cover up the sky, oh crazy, you're the light in my eye..." Un poco loco? Good. Presenting a mad mad ten pack. Dig in.

Bud Powell - Un Poco Loco MP3
Patsy Cline - Crazy MP3
Daniel Johnston - Crazy Love MP3
James Brown - I'll Go Crazy MP3
King Tubby & Friends - Real Gone Crazy Dub MP3
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms MP3
Slick Slavin - Speed Crazy MP3
O.V. Wright - I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled And Crazy MP3
Meat Puppets - Crazy MP3
El Lebrijano - Lo Mismo Que Un Loco MP3

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Truckin' With The Cat




















Hi-de-ho, partners. Like double entendres? Wanna hear two very funny, risqué novelty songs, in a jazzy Western Swing style? Here ya go. The Modern Mountaineers ('37) use a saxophone, a jazzy guitar and J.R. Chatwell's hot fiddle to get their message across. Listen closely to find that their lead singer Smokey Woods doesn't actually sing 'trucking' all the time... Meanwhile, the Light Crust Doughboys ('38) are all stressed out, looking for their lost kitty. More fine fiddling on this guaranteed earworm. "My pussy has no stripes, and besides it ain't never smelled like that..." Meow.

Modern Mountaineers - Everybody's Truckin' MP3
The Light Crust Doughboys - Pussy Pussy Pussy MP3

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sparkle City Break















I'm off for a few days visiting the coolest city in the world. Maybe meet a hobgoblin or two. In my absence, please make do with this sparkling theme time ten pack. Hasta luego/back soon...

Shuggie Otis - Sparkle City MP3
Blind Willie Johnson - I'm Gonna Run To The City Of Refuge MP3
Bob Dylan - Marchin' To The City MP3
The Only Ones - City Of Fun MP3
Sonic's Rendezvous Band - City Slang MP3
Mark Stewart & The Mafia - Liberty City MP3
Luscious Jackson - Citysong MP3
The Fall - City Hobgoblins MP3
Pink Fairies - City Kids MP3
Horace Silver - Break City MP3

Monday, June 20, 2011

Foxtrot, Lope And Pace












Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats...
Presenting a galloping six pack.

The Beatles - Dig A Pony MP3
Charley Patton - Pony Blues MP3
Bob Dylan - New Pony MP3
Paul Siebel - Pinto Pony MP3
Lee Dorsey - Ride Your Pony MP3
Ween - Mister, Won't You Please Help My Pony? MP3

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Wild Weekend Vol. 64




















Hello again and a warm welcome to Wild Weekend, issue 64. As no real interesting new stuff struck my eardrums this week alas, we'll just have to make do with a bunch of oldies goldies. No probs, as we're talking tracks by Delroy Wilson, Sir Doug Sahm and Louis Jordan amongst others. And a Japanese star fruits surf rider. Now is that wild or what?

We'll start with a fine song from a very fine album: Doug Sahm's '74 Tex-Mex masterpiece Groovers Paradise. Sir Doug's got the blues bad and boy does he wants you to know it. "Got your big Eldorado, take you where you wanna go..." Featuring the ultra-tight Creedence rhythm section of Doug Clifford and Stu Cook, which makes this a guaranteed groover. Carl Gardner, lead vocalist and founder of legendary fifties hitmakers the Coasters, died this week. He was 83. Here's personal fave Yakety Yak, which as most of their hits was written by that amazing duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Don't you dare talk back...

Doug Sahm - Devil Heart MP3
The Coasters - Yakety Yak MP3

"Caldonia, Caldonia, what makes your big head so hard?" Dunno, but this sure is an infectious jump blues tune from 1945, featuring wild vocals and an even wilder sax. At the height of his career, Louis Jordan was known as the king of the jukebox. In hindsight, he became known as the father of rhythm & blues and the grandfather of rock 'n' roll. With good reason, as you can hear below. And we continue with a so-called kbd - after the cool Killed By Death series of albums - punk oldie by Austin's the Inserts. Their sole single from '81, it's got a great bass sound and neurotic vocals. Find it on a recommended compilation called Bloodstains Across Texas. If there's interest, I'll do a ten pack of this stuff one day. Sign up in the comments please.

Louis Jordan - Caldonia MP3
Inserts - Doctor's Wives MP3

One of my faithful readers brought to my attention that I overlooked the crucial Conquer Me by Delroy Wilson in last Tuesday's conquering reggaethon. He was right of course, so I'm glad it's never too late to set the record straight: here's the extended version in all its Studio 1 glory. Note that the riddim was used by Dr. Alimantado for his Can't Conquer Natty Dreadlocks smash which was already on the playlist. And we'll make our exit with that postmodern madman from Japan called Cornelius and a trippy '97 song with a great title. Sayonara!

Delroy Wilson - Conquer Me MP3
Cornelius - Star Fruits Surf Rider MP3

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Wear It All The Time




















"Hit me like a hurricane,
I don't even know your name,
Kiss me in the Hollywood rain..."

A pair of supple pop beauties. Try 'em on for size.

The Chills - I Love My Leather Jacket MP3
The 6ths - Heaven In A Black Leather Jacket MP3

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Conquering Dreads




















"Without love you're like a ship that's lost its anchor, lost at sea in the swirling tides..." Presenting a conquering ten pack, inna strictly roots stylee of course. Cause you just can't conquer natty dreadlocks, seen?

Prince Alla - Only Love Can Conquer MP3
The Meditations - Rasta Shall Conquer MP3
Linval Thompson - Jah Jah The Conqueror MP3
Dennis Brown - Conqueror MP3
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Duppy Conqueror MP3
Dr. Alimantado - Can't Conquer Natty Dreadlocks MP3
Stranger & Gladdy - Conqueror MP3
Yabby You - Conquering Dub MP3
Cornell Campbell - The Conquering Gorgon MP3
Aggrovators - The Conqueror MP3

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Wild Weekend Vol. 63


















Wild Weekend, take 63. A little something for everyone as usual, though I obviously dig it all. Be it reggae or soul, freakcore or flamenco-jazz. Or is that jazz-flamenco? Doesn't matter really. Just have a wild one.

Kicking off with a Nostradamus alert. "There's something burning away at me so deep inside, I can't hide it anymore..." Could it really be that the way underrated Supreme Dicks foresaw the recent Arab Spring nearly twenty years before the fact? Answers on the proverbial postcard, and please don't miss this rather magnificent piece from '93. Our weekly reggae track comes courtesy of Enos McLeod. Enos was a fine singer who sadly never really hit it big, and it sure doesn't help that the excellent career overview The Genius Of Enos on the mighty Pressure Sounds label is long out of print already. Demand a repress, my Babylon brethren.

Supreme Dicks - The Arabian Song MP3
Enos McLeod - Jericho MP3

In the new music department we've got a beauty of a song by Village Of Spaces Corners, the collective formerly known as Uke Of Phillips. Pastoral freakfolk, like Pentangle crossing paths with the Sun City Girls. You can order their new disc Alchemy And Trust, which took three years to make and offers a guest role to the great Michael Hurley, here. Do it now, I'd say. Meanwhile, we continue with a way-too-obscure soul diva. Mitty Collier recorded her best work for the famous Chess label in the sixties, and the heartily recommended compilation Shades Of Mitty Collier is choc-a-bloc with scorchers as I'm Satisfied. "Nobody else can do what you do to me... oooh baby that's just how it ought to be." Indeed.

Village Of Spaces Corners - Ovums Influence MP3
Mitty Collier - I'm Satisfied MP3

Jazz and flamenco may not be the most likely bedfellows, but it's known to work. Especially when Spanish sax great Pedro Iturralde teams up with guitar virtuoso Paco De Lucía. A song like Adios Granada, recorded sometime in the late sixties, almost effortlessly brings you the best of both worlds. And we make our exit tripping back to the early nineties with Victims Family, freakcore students supreme at the renowned NoMeansNo academy. Loose the screws, close the blinds, go wild and enjoy.

Pedro Iturralde con Paco De Lucía - Adios Granada MP3
Victims Family - Caged Bird MP3

Friday, June 10, 2011

No Mercy




















"Death never takes a vacation in this land..." I know which version I prefer. But Jerry Garcia & co's brooding jam - from Live/Dead - is not bad either, I'll give you that.

The Reverend Gary Davis - Death Don't Have No Mercy MP3
The Grateful Dead - Death Don't Have No Mercy MP3

And since we're on the subject of Garcia, and I'm still full of that fantastic Patti Smith gig I saw last Wednesday, here's the beautiful ode to Captain Trips she opened with. "One common wire, one silver thread..."

Patti Smith - Grateful MP3

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Patti Tonite




















"They called her the queen of Sheba, laid her down in Ethiopia..." As I'm going to see living legend Patti Smith play this evening, here's some rare stuff from the bootleg vaults. Three exciting tracks from Teenage Perversity & Ships In The Night, recorded live at the Roxy in Los Angeles in 1976. Pay special attention to her impressive take on Birdland, complete with near-breathless spoken intro. "If we rip apart the ozone, there's gotta be another zone under it..."

Patti Smith - Real Good Time Together (live LA '76) MP3
Patti Smith - Pale Blue Eyes/Louie Louie (live LA '76) MP3
Patti Smith - Birdland (live LA '76) MP3

Monday, June 6, 2011

Better Metal




















Leave it to the Calexico gang to provide the perfect soundtrack to all your imaginary westerns.

Calexico - Minas De Cobre (For Better Metal) MP3

Sunday, June 5, 2011

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

Friday, June 3, 2011

Three Times Two




















"Oh I could've loved you better, didn't mean to be unkind, you know that was the last thing on my mind..." Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Mr. T and the Possum team up with the Backwood's Barbie, the Coal Miner's Daughter and the First Lady of Country Music respectively. Three mouthwatering duets.

Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton - The Last Thing On My Mind MP3
Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty - Lead Me On MP3
George Jones & Tammy Wynette - Two Story House MP3

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Numbers Game




















Because it all adds up in the end anyway, here's a somewhat mathematical ten pack for your listening pleasure. Buy some albums if you like what you hear, mi amigos da musica. I've got your number.

Wire - The 15th MP3
Mantis - 199(7)1 MP3
The Outcasts - 1523 Blair MP3
Ry Cooder - 634-5789 MP3
Pere Ubu - Cloud 149 MP3
Prince Pompidou - 70 Times 7 MP3
Dead Moon - 54 40 Or Fight MP3
The Godz - 1+1=? MP3
The Haunted - 1-2-5 MP3
Easter Monkeys - Heaven/.357 MP3