Devil In Disguise

Don´t you mess with Christine, folks. Gram knows, he´s been there and back. "It´s alright to call her but I´ll bet you, the moon is full and you´re just wasting time..." A bona fide vintage country rock classic, coming at you in true cosmic American stereo, with vocals left, right, and centre.

Should Ingram Cecil Connor III be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as soon as possible? Of course. He may not have invented country rock single handedly, but he sure played a very important part in its conception.

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Christine´s Tune MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 25

It´s the silver jubilee of Wild Weekend, which means the ghost in the iPod cooked up a six pack of eclectic tunage for aural advancement twenty five times already. Fifty beckons. Get with it and get down.

Let´s start with Gram and his Flying Burrito Bros, giving a glorious Aretha-inspired soul injection to their cosmic American music. From The Gilded Palace Of Sin, a countryrock masterpiece everybody should own. All together now: "Take me to heart, and I´ll always love you..." And don´t forget: Nudie suits (see album sleeve) rule. Next up are Ohio´s prime noisemakers the New Bomb Turks and one of their trademark punk blasts. Stop press: their singer Eric Davidson just published a book on the scene his band was part of in the nineties. I just got my copy of We Never Learn - The Gunk Punk Undergut 1988-2001 and it looks übercool, so expect the full lowdown in these pages real soon.

Flying Burrito Brothers - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man MP3

New Bomb Turks - Cryin´ Into The Beer Of A Drunk Man MP3

Nothing beats Sandy Denny singing ye olde Wild Mountain Thyme. From Fotheringay 2, the aborted second album that finally saw the light of day a couple years back. Not as amazing as the eponymous debut mind, but still well worth it. "All around the bloomin´ heather, will you go, lassie, go..." You can almost smell the stuff. Off to Washington DC now, where Eggs fried up some adventurous indiepop in the mid-nineties. Their homage to the city of Evanston in Illinois features some fine trumpets to boot. Over easy indeed. Find it on Exploder (´94).

Fotheringay - Wild Mountain Thyme MP3

Eggs - Evanston, IL MP3

Grant Hart will forever be known as the singing drummer in Hüsker Dü, but this doesn´t mean his solo work should be underestimated. His stint with Nova Mob for instance, yet another band name derived from the Burroughs oeuvre, produced such majestic songs as Admiral Of The Sea. Here´s the 79 A.D. version. And the last track of this Wild Weekend milestone happens to be a roots reggae monster from ´78 by the rather obscure duo of Albert Bailey and Clifton Howell, also known as Earth & Stone. Dig that Channel One rockers sound. "False rulers of the world, them have to get a beatin´..." Hear hear.

Nova Mob - Admiral Of The Sea (79 A.D. Version) MP3

Earth & Stone - False Ruler MP3

Friday grab bag

If the good Lord´s willin´and the creek don´t rise, every Friday night will be grab bag night here from now on. A selection of songs that caught my fancy over the last week for one reason or another. Old, new, borrowed, blue: everything goes.

First up is Tyler Ramsey, who´s better known as the bearded guy in Band Of Horses. No One Goes Out is a song from his brand new solo album A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea (Echo Mountain records). Beautiful melancholia. It reminds me of a certain Neil Young track, but the title won´t come... Anyone?

Tyler Ramsey - No One Goes Out MP3

Next are the Bongos, a nearly forgotten power pop trio from Hoboken, NJ. Their sparkling album Drums Along The Hudson from ´82 - which includes In The Congo - finally got a cd release last year by Cooking Vinyl. Hurrah!

The Bongos - In The Congo MP3

Gram Parsons can do no wrong in my book. Here´s a lovely Stones-cover off the second Flying Burrito Brothers album Burrito Deluxe (´70). For more hot Burritos and Parsons stuff do yourself a favour and head over to the mighty Setting The Woods On Fire blog. Rumour has it Paul put up some tracks from a newly released Burritos live album...

Flying Burrito Brothers - Wild Horses MP3

Julian Cope is as mad as they come of course, but in a very pleasant way. I particularly like his Peggy Suicide album (´91), featuring Beautiful Love. Great moog, great trumpet, great song. Did you know Copey is a fine writer as well? His autobiography Head-On may very well be the best book written by a so-called rock star. Sorry Bob, Chronicles is great too of course.

Julian Cope - Beautiful Love MP3

Here´s an oldie for you, from Harry Smith´s amazing Anthology Of American Folk Music box set. One of the most powerful blues vocals ever recorded. I always thought Blind Willie Johnson sang "Who´s that riding...", and had this vision of John The Revelator speeding through a biblical landscape on a big black stallion, cape a-flowin´. I now know that John is actually writing (and the book of the seven seals at that), but I don´t think I can ever shake that image when I listen to this song. Oh well.

Blind Willie Johnson - John The Revelator MP3

Tonight´s closer is my favorite popsong of 2007. Vampire Weekend hail from New York City, look square as hell and just released their self-titled debut on XL records. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is full of jumpy hi-life guitars straight from Africa´s townships, neurotic Feelies-like vocals, a namecheck for Louis Vuitton luggage (surely a first in a song?) and an irresistable beat. "Is your bed made? Is your sweater on?"

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa MP3