The 'Spill: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Truly There Is None Other...Than Holly Golightly!

The record shop was good to me last week - I got Sonic Youth's "Goo" (where my old copy has gone is a mystery) and "Truly There Is No Other" by Holly Golightly for £4 each.

Holly Golightly (real name, folks) has been known to knock about with the legends Billy Childish and Jack White and has released about 15 solo albums.

What I like about Holly is her love of fags and cups of tea, her curiously English voice, her sometimes twisted but always heartfelt lyrics, her love of old blues and 50s rockabilly - that when she recreates the style - sounds really fresh and lovely.

The record is very varied, and it's hard to pick a couple of tracks to represent it. It's very Kinksian, a point that's made even clearer by the two Ray Davies' penned songs she covers, but avoids being de-riv.

(Double Bass on the LP was provided by Sir Bald Diddley, according to the sleeve notes. Nice one Sir Bald!)

"You Have Yet To Win" is like a stone cold lost classic from the 60s, and "Without You Here" makes me wonder why it's Duffy at number one.

Anyways, here's the tunes, from her 2003 record (I must check and see what she's up to just now) and if you like them, please buy them.

You Have Yet To Win by Holly Golightly
Without You Here by Holly Golightly

Pato Donald

And in something completely unrelated (music), I've just heard this, and I like it.

Here's Your Bill, Sir...

We'll have a top ten soon!

Here's the only hip-hop tune I've heard that has Looney Tunes vocal samples as a chorus:

Duck Season by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
Bonus track - Howard The Duck by Cherry Bomb

Nice Weather for Ducks

Bookmark this for any time you need cheering up (or have taken hallucinogenic drugs):

So do we have a full duck playlist now?

Duck soup

Seein' as how wildfowl seems to be the unofficial theme in the dull interregnum while we wait for Maddy set us our next homework, I can't let you escape The Ugly Ducklings with their rendition of "Nothin' ", building on Saneshanes excellent starter. Now I'll duck before the rotten eggs start flying...

DUCK !!!!!!

Indian Runner ducks = cool

Not sure exactly when this changed from being a music to a waterfowl blog, but hey, this is one of my mum's Indian Runner ducks. She'll look back on the top-knot as a terrible fashion faux pas in a few years, I reckon.

Rooms For The Memory

Speaking of rooms and memory, sometimes on RR I think of a song far too late for it to be considered in the list. Oh well. Here's Michael Hutchence doing "Rooms For The Memory" as taken from the finale of the best rock n roll movie ever made "Dogs In Space". Evicted from the house, the fun times that were had in those rooms are over, and Anna is dead to boot.

More geese

Just because, y'know, geese are cool.

There IS Hope

See, Dick Cheney has already figured out his retirement, and it doesn't seem to involve general Darth Vader activities. Even the most evil among us have a warm fuzzy side. Next time I walk by, I'll muster the courage to try one.

Rooms

Here be my room-y playlist, headed by a particularly fine effort from Lambchop. Credit to 2Jokers for nominating the second Kid Loco song, and making me think of the first. I should also point out that there may or may not be a monster at the end of Poe's 5 1/2 Minute Hallway - though you'd have to read House of Leaves, the book that inspired it, to find out... The last two are kind of cheats - Your Ghost is already in the A-Z but it's such a great track I included it anyway. And the last one is bedroom related (and barely even that) but I'll happily take the most tenuous of excuses to post a Laura Veirs song.

Hit me with music

Sorry about the picture, it was ready to load and fit the goose theme. I'm just practicing uploading to imeem, but I was also thinking about what TFD said earlier. "Hit me with music cause when it hits I feel no pain" was graffitied on a train bridge where I lived when I was younger, and it resonated with me. So here's the song it came from...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

More balm for the soul

Music for whenever you feel humans are evil. This may restore your faith.

Chicks with Guns! Oh Yeeaaaah!!

Nouveau Stereolab - "Trois Femmes"

Stereolab, ils sont retournés, et sont un peu plus de louche, et de loungy, et plus rétro, et plus, hum, français??

If anyone can help with a rough translation, that'd be nice!

Jimi Hendrix Sex Tape, Anyone?

So, a Jimi Hendrix sex tape has surfaced, and will be available to buy soon on DVD.

A few questions arise from this;

1. Will you be watching it?

2. I'm assuming most folk will answer q.1 "no", so who (in the music arena) would you consider viewing then?

Click here to see Jimi "in action"

Talking of rooms, thank God none of us have had to endure the appalling ordeal of Elisabeth Fritzl and her children.

If there's one thing I hate, it's people like Josef Fritzl, people who knowingly destroy the lives of other for their own gratification in one way or another. Unfortunately, there are all too many of them, and far too many of them in positions of power.

As I've got older, hopes of celebration of a life well lived and much enjoyed have been gradually replaced by despair as I look at the state the world has come to. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Right, thats my cathartic post over. For sanity's sake, it's back to the music. A sanctuary or a bolthole? Whatever gets me through the night, I'll take it.

Monday, April 28, 2008

melanistic pheasants

THE MIGHTY MAC.

We've never spoken of computers here except in passing, today Apple released the latest model in their iMac series, I just spent a few minutes at their online site looking at the specs and then I knocked of an email to another Mac friend in UK, here's what I said.

Bill: I just 'built' my ideal Mac, just for the fun of it at this stage, I added twin fastest processors, extra memory, bigger H/D, wireless mouse/keyboard, top of the line graphics card, iWork and insurance. With the 24" monitor it comes out less than I paid for my 512K Mac in 1986, [$2800] in fact it's less than any Mac I've ever bought and it's hundreds times more powerful. I'm tempted. I don't think $2500 is a lot for that computer given how much time I spend with it and the enjoyment it gives me: that's the Education price, retail's about $250 more.
In addition I'd add Parallels and Darkroom.

Summary

Estimated Ship:
1-3 business days
Free Shipping

Specifications
* 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
* NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3
* 750GB Serial ATA Drive
* Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
* Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + User's Guide
* iWork '08 preinstalled
* Accessory kit
* AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* 24-inch glossy widescreen LCD
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Subtotal $2,569.00

Currently my wife and I have 3 macs in daily use plus all my old ones are upstairs, my main one is a G5 with extra memory, graphics, hard disc and a 22" monitor, there's also an external 300GB drive. My second is a G4 and my wife uses an eMac. I don't NEED another but I am tempted. Beyond email and internet I use all mine for music: Sound Studio, Audacity, Wiretap, for photos: Photoshop and Illustrator, Nikon scan 4, Vuescan and iPhoto, for photo and video retrieval from my file system, both Popcorn and Toast get a bit of use and I've dabbled with Protools. It's obviously a sophisticated 'typewriter' and built in file system and broadband takes it into an entirely new world

What does everybody else use and think of computers in general and how do you use them?

Jump around...

...just a picture of a couple of geese I took today...

Sunday, April 27, 2008

She 'ad an 'orror of rooms...

I'm afraid this weekend has seen my brain frazzled and a little non-plussed by the topic, but I found this long-forgotten gem whilst searching for my Frazier Chorus collection and thought it almost apt...

Laters

SM

more rooms for improvement

1 Abdominal twists some cooking tips onto DJ Formats beats RR from samofnewcross

2 Vampire Weekend start in the basement

3 Shout Out Louds (not as Curetastic as some other tracks on the CD)

4 Julia Stones idiosyncratic croaks

5 Dogs Die in Hot Cars do their Dexys impression.

6 Loudon Wainwright III turns on the tap..there's cold and hot..walks out the door doesn't get shot.

Out from the ranks so blue.... Rolf's finest hour

Well I did promise. And it brings a tear to Maddy's eye as well. I love old archive photos so I was very pleased to discover this lovely photo montage on Youtube which perfectly accompanies this towering work of story telling in song. What a twist, eh? I just hope to God this isn't post N° 500...

Where it (almost) all started...

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Domestic bliss

Of the many great tracks mentioned on RR this week, I've posted here a small selection that attracted the attention of my dondometer. Gordonimmel had an early double whammy with the Beats and Jona Lewie. Catcher pitched in the Lemonheads. Then eejaydee invited us to a party in his basement, along with Etta James and Sugar Pie de Santo. To round things off, there's a delightful dose of smutty innuendo from Bessie. Enjoy

R.I.P. HUMPH.

This afternoon I was googling Big Bill Broonzy prior to possibly doing a piece about him, many years ago I saw him twice, once in Ipswich with Josh White also on the bill and once in London where he was supported by the Humphrey Lyttleton band, Jimmy Rushing, and I believe the Chris Barber band. It was a benefit for Big Bill who'd been diagnosed with cancer and didn't have any medical insurance, his primary income came from the small farm he ran in Arkansas.
That event was initiated by Humph: a few moments ago I saw on the front page of the Guardian that he'd died. He was a very special influence on my life, he pointed me in a direction that I've appreciated throughout my life, not in a personal way but by his music. Immediately after WW2 I was just entering my teenage years and was living in Barnehurst, Kent; I'd somehow discovered jazz and the only place in England at that time to hear live jazz was a pub just down the road, it was the Red Barn and the George Webb band with Humphrey Lyttleton performed there every week. I was only about 14 so I couldn't go to a pub but I'd stand outside during the warm summer evenings and listen to the music coming through the open windows. I was able to get into the 100 club on Oxford street where he also played regularly so that's where much of the money I earned from my paper route went. That was where in defiance of a government edict against American musicians performing in England he hosted the great New Orleans musician, Sidney Bechet.

Initially I was obsessed with New Orleans jazz and Louis Armstrong was my idol, however over the years Humph's band evolved towards the Kansas City style and the Basie small groups and those have been my main interest in music throughout my life. He wrote quite prolifically and authored several books on his life in jazz and when I left England in 1958 I brought two of them with me, they're in the bookcase in my living room and three of his albums that I also brought with me are in my vinyl collection. By coincidence my stepmother, who was a teacher, had a girl in her class, Jill Richardson, who went on to marry Humph in 1952.

Whenever I've visited the UK over the years I've always tried to listen to his BBC radio program and have even recorded several which I still occasionally enjoy. He will definitely be missed, not just by me but by everyone who enjoys jazz in the UK, he's influenced every aspect of the music and has performed with many of the major musicians both British and American.

Here's three cuts by Humph from the early years:

1. Weary Blues from around 1948.
2. Beale Street Blues with Marie Knight from around 1952.
3. How Long Blues with Jimmy Rushing from the mid 50's.

skeletons in The Closet

I submitted this over on RR, and it is a good song, but I don't actually have any hope of it being picked, because, let's face it, a closet ain't a room. It was more of an excuse to share my brand-new-good-for-you monster picture. Oh, he's cranky. (and podbean hasn't changed at all for me)

rooms for improvement

Rooms for improvement

some of the tracks I like for rooms
but missed out a lot

enjoy some hopefully.

I might hate The Fall but I do like this

Not sure why, except he can play a bit.

I am sure he could be as unpleasant as Mark E Smith but the playing makes up for it.

Am I just a rock chick floozy underneath it all?

Friday, April 25, 2008

Jumping on the 500 bandwagon

Well, we all have to bend the shoulder and get our noses to the grindstone, don't we?

This cathartic thing is interesting.

I am going to talk about The Fall.

I have somehow always loved the idea of them.

I like the names of their albums, I mean, come on Live at the Witch Trials? Hex Induction Hour? I like the idea that they are so far from the mainstream, I love the way that Mark E Smith is so dismissive of the whole apparatus of the "biz".

One fly in the ointment though:

I think their music is crap. Major steaming, unlistenable poo.

And Mr Smith is just another unpleasant macho drunk. He reminds me of the kind of men who get really nasty if they try and chat me up and I tell them I am just not interested. I can easily do better than a Mark E Smith lookalike.

I bet he smells as bad too.

I am not flattering myself, I am knocking on a bit, well, so are they, but I am not that f*cking desperate.

Rant over ................................... for now.

Blimpy's Full Disclosure

I felt very inspired by reading Snadfrod's amazing first 'Spill post, and by reading the comments that followed it. Because, I'm going to be away this weekend, I thought I'd use my potential comment as a new post, to get us nearer the magic 500 (only 7 posts to go, 'Spillers!).

So, full disclosure is in order, I believe.

There's some things I''ll happily admit, or maybe admit is the wrong word to use. I'll happily talk about how much bollocks the sodding Beatles add up to. Fuck 'em. Fuck the Beatles. Fuck the shitty Beatles. Yeah, they did some stuff first, so what - fuck 'em. Fuck 'em and fuck those people who think music starts and ends with the fucking Beatles.

Anyway, proper confession time then:

1. I really like Blink 182 and Less than Jake. And NOFX too.

2. I went off one of my favourite bands, Radiohead, when OK Computer got all hyped and jumped on by idiots. Things have never been the same since. It's my own myopic fault for missing out on what is, probly, some of the best music ever made.
I tried to rehabilitate myself with In Rainbows, but it didn't work. Radiohead playing The Forum just after The Bends was released was one of my bestest gigs ever.

3. Sometimes I look at my itunes library of six billion songs and can't find anything I want to listen to, can't find anything that ignites me like the 20 records I had when I was 15. Sometimes i think that's it's all a dead end from here on in. Which, for a music geek like me, is no good.

4. I don't believe in records being "collected" or calling the shitty pile of vinyl I own a collection. "A collection" means one of everything. I dont' want one of everything. All I want is 3 minutes of pure joyous noise where I can experience the moment, and nothing else. I don't want the weight of music history bearing down on me, I don't want context, I don't want to recognise influence, I just want Wow! Blam! Fuck! Like a fucking Lichtenstein painting for my ears!

5. I don't believe in the canonisation of musicians, even if they're ones I like. This goes for Kurt, Lennon, Buckleys, Elliot Smith, Richey Edwards, and the rest. They aren't any more special for being dead. Fuck people who say they are.

6. I got into Belle and Sebastian late, cos I was blinkered by the fact their singer is happily christian when they first came out. This put me off at the time, I now view Tigermilk as being one of the best records ever made. I'm less judgemental these days.

7. I'm an indie snob, and sometimes can't help myself. I'm sorry, BUT, I was into them first. Now us humans don't rely on hunting and gathering meat to survive, is this all we have?

7a. And yes, I will look down on you according to the music you listen to.

7b. Or up to, if you're ejaydee.

8. I can't really be bothered listening to all the Beefheart records that I inherited. Can't be arsed with Television either.

9. I lost interest in dance music after I stopped taking the drugs. LCD soundsystem doesn't count.

10. I own over 100 Manics records...

And then? Only Martha has the answer:

Martha's Swaery Number

In Every Dream Kitchen A Heartache

The campaign to gain international recognition for the genius of Tim Freeman's Frazier Chorus is on the brink of succeeding. Well, a couple of people on the Readers Recommend list seem to feel the same way as I do and that might just be as good as it gets.

I've put together a playlist of five songs with a domestic setting - inculding two from Frazier Chorus's stunning debut album, Sue.

Apologies for the quality of the EBTG track - a very scratched and warped 7" single is to blame. Hopefully this will not affect your listening pleasure.

Also on the playlist, my two favourite unfashionable singer-songwriters, Gilbert O'Sullivan and Dean Friedman.

Hope something here ticks your box...

the crying room

Denise Roughan and David Mitchell, two former members of Flying Nun band the 3ds, teamed up to produce the contemplative, acoustic piece "the crying room".
Check out their current group the Ghost Club for some dark, wierdly victorian psycho pop.

It's A Beautiful Day

The sound isn't great but I really LURVE this song.

It's A Beautiful Day always remind me of my student days, sitting on the grass outside Halls on sunny evenings, just pretending we were in San Francisco, instead of South London.

Listening to this almost makes me want to wear cheesecloth dresses and clogs again.

Think I'd better listen to some Siouxsie or Kristin Hersh now to bring me back to sanity..............

Ode to Mild Disappointment...

...tinged with embarrassment that I should even care. To the tune of the Dr Hook classic:

Darcey's Dad's a hero, so is shivsidecar,
And nilpferd, and CaroleBristol,
And Blimpy McFlah,
Mnemonic, BeltwayBandit, goneforeign and ejaydee.
Everybody's making it into the acknowledgements of The Guardian Book of Playlists but me.

I recommended Purple like gordonimmel does
I donded The Divine Comedy like frogprincess does
I admitted to a Barclay James Harvest fixation
Though that did nothing for my critical reputation.
Yes, everybody's making it into the acknowledgements of The Guardian Book of Playlists but me.

How about "Squawking Chicken in D7#5b9" by the brilliant and undeservedly obscure Lithuanian jazz bassoon player Pjotr Ix?
Well I don't see nothing wrong with that recommendation...

Feeling Good

I know I've mentioned this before, but I do love it, and it's such a beautiful day, and I'm so happy to see glowing green leaves on the trees, that I just felt compelled to post it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

A psalm on my palm?

A song from my current obsession, the deliciously dark Alopecia album by Why? I am inspired to (try) and put this up by the uber-downbeatness of the brilliant opening line. Fingers crossed...

07 - fatalist palmistry.mp3

"We're all listening to downbeat shite"

Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the ingrained national inferiority complex, who cares.

Here's some lyrics from a few of my current favourite tunes:

"And we're all listening to down-beat shite,

We over-did the good times and now we can't sleep at night"

Blue Plastic Bags - Malcolm Middleton

"I'm armed with the past, and the will, and a brick

I might not want you back, but I want to kill him

Leave the rest at arm's length

Keep your naked flesh under your favourite dress"

Good Arms vs Bad Arms - Frightened Rabbit

"Girlfriend, it's you I'd scuttle ships for

Make my first mate walk the plank for

Admire the all or nothing

I'm admiral of nothing at all

Nothing at all"

Admiral - King Creosote

I'm seeing the first two on Saturday (along with Mogwai and Clinic) which will be fab, and then KC in a couple of weeks.

Hooray for Scots miserablism, it really is a thing of beauty...it really makes me happy.

you can buy their wonderful records here, here, and here respectively.

More noise

Seeing as we are doing NOIZE!

Here is Test Department

and Einstürzende Neubauten

Sleep tight children!

MASH IT UP!

Well here's an alternate mash-up, this one is an all star band: you've got Miles and Chet dueting, with Coltrane poking in there briefly, The rhythm section is the MJQ and Oscar Peterson with Illinois Jacquet on bassoon, the Gotan project's in there also as is an opening and closing theme by Salif Keita.
Mash up or Mess up?

Cleanin' out the Closet

I was so happy the other day when I realised that its Omar in Trapped in the Closet. Anyway...
So.
I've been loitering around here for a little while, getting in the way more or less, and I figured now is the time to plunge in properly. To whit I thought - since we're all friends here right? - that I might as well start by getting a few little secrets off my chest. That way we can all move forward with a bit more freedom. Full disclosure and all that.
Here, then, are a few of my darker and more revealing confessions....

- I don't own a single thing by the Beatles. Its not that I don't appreciate their influence, its just that they have always left me a bit cold. I just don't really GET it.
- I once went to see Kula Shaker live.
- I almost always, without fail, love a band when they are little and I saw them in the Ramsbottom Cock'n'Thistle, but go right off them once they have become everyone's favourite band.
- I have an overbearing love for the work of Jim Steinman.
- I have seen Meat Loaf live. Twice.
- When I hit 20 I realised that, completely by chance, I didn't own a single record with a female vocal on it.
- The Pixies? Meh.
- I have always been quite badly swayed by critical opinion.
- I have seen Elton John live. Twice.
- The first album I bought with my own money was by Bon Jovi.
- The second was Aerosmith.
- The first record I ever asked for was 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' by Bomballurina ft. Timmy Mallett.
- The second was Ed The Duck.
- I only really started to listen properly to the lyrics of songs about three years ago.
- I have never been to a festival.
- I know very little about any music in a tongue that is not English.
- I often get overwhelmed by just HOW MUCH music there is and how little of it I can hear.
- I HATE the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Obviously I realise that the last one may not be controversial if, in fact, any of the above is. Still, at least I've started the ball rolling and got some things off my chest. I do this in a spirit of comradeliness and make no excuses for my sins. Please be gentle.

So, anyone else got something to confess?....

VERY ANGRY NOISE

Herewith, as requested, the Peter Broetzmann Octet with the loud, terrifying and very angry 'Machine Gun'. Well, almost; just as I was getting the hang of Podbean's embeddable whatsit they've changed it all, but I hope the following link will take you to a page where you can play the track. Note that, depending on your disposition, this is either very good for hangovers or not under any circumstances to be played when you have a hangover...

http://shlabotnik.podbean.com/machine-gun/

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

nightly post

I posted this last night, in a certain context, then deleted it, so I figure I'll post this every night after a glass or two of wine and then delete the post, and it will be like a fairy-sighting, if you get to see it. I'm just in love with this song right now--Mos Def, Common, Talib Kweli, produced by Hi-Tek. I'm not sure it gets any better than that. The lyrics are poetry, the music is gorgeous, (is that creamy, FP?). And it amuses me because the chorus is "breathe in breathe out," and in Kanye West's song of that title, he says he has to apologize to Mos Def and Talib Kweli, because he promised them he'd rap about something important, and here he is "rappin' 'bout money, hoes, and rims again."

Oh no, not another feckin' quiz!

Yep. And this time it's the quiz for the rest of us. Absolutely no jazz (sorry, nilpferd), indie (sorry, blimpy), hip hop (sorry eejay, steenbeck) or reggae (sorry, goneforeign). Just pure unadulterated chart toppin' stadium fillers (well, sort of). These are all well famous bands/artistes. All the clips (ten, count 'em) are Intros. There is one at least from each of the last 5 decades, to make it fair to all concerned. Mr DNA can leave the room for a few minutes, please. Right, while he's outtadaway, get crackin' and solve it. As it's so easy, it will depend on speed of response, not a vast knowledge of indygrungetripgarage. So, fingers on the buzzers...

My First Ever Mash-Up

It's 2008 now, the brave new world of mash-ups has ceased to be a novelty, a few corkers did come out of it - as well as a new type of pop single.

The Sugababes made the most of it, getting to number one with Freak Like Me - and even their most recent smash hit (About You Now) was a rip off of the Strokes/Aguilara mash-up that was amongst the first to appear.

Go Home Productions made a few corkers, the best being Radiohead vs Marvin Gaye (I've lost my copy of this, but I know DsD is a big fan), and the track I've posted below. Which, in its own way, is a lot like the snippets quizzes we've done of late (I think there's about 5 or 6 songs in there)

I'm also posting my first attempt at a mash-up, which I did a few years ago. I've tried others since, but either they work or they don't. My Bloc Party vs Ben E King should have been a thing of beauty, but I fell foul of simple things like key and tempo. I guess you guys may have seen the awful Run JAMC thing I did (tipsy, for RR).

Right then, points go to identifying all the elements in the tracks, first up my mash up - then a pro shows you how it's meant to be done!

Blimpy's attempt

Go Home Production's proper jobby

******edit******

Darcey'sDad came through with the goods! Top hole, sir! Have another vodka as a reward!

Here's THE best mash-up ever; Marvin Gaye vs. Radiohead with "Sexual High" - a tune that is more than the sum of its parts!

"Sexual High mp3 Radiohead vs Marvin Gaye via Go Home Productions

Charlotte Gainsbourg & Etienne Daho - "If"

Bloomin PCs! I had written a whole post about Charlotte Gainsbourg and how fab she is, but for some reason it all got lost as I toggled between the edit and compose windows - this doesn't happen on my macs at home, i tell you!!

Now I'm too angry to re-write it, I'll add to this once I'm back infront of my iBook.

In the meantime, does anyone know what the duo are singing about?

CORINA, CORINNA; TAKE YOUR PICK.

OK, I didn't intend that we start a historical analysis of what I thought was one of Taj's more obscure songs but, the conversation over on the side suggests that there's a bit of interest. I found that list online and that got me searching and I found a few more versions. There's seemingly two versions of the song, here's two of each.
1. Jimmy Witherspoon with Ben Webster and Gerry Mulligan at the Renaissance on hifi jazz - credited to Joe Turner and Pete Johnson.
2. The Rolling Stones with Taj guesting on the No Security live album.
3. Steppenwolf from Live at the Matrix, 1967, credited to arr. by John Kay.
4. Blind Lemon Jefferson - Supposedly the original, it sounds like he starts with SeeSee rider and evolved into Corina, it's titled as Corina blues.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Weddings

The In and Outlaws - Weddings.mp3

Blimpy Is Confused - Please Help Him

I'm getting confused by Africa, music, and U2.

If U2 did an album of traditional African songs, they would be a laughing stock, no?

But if African musicians do an album of traditional U2 songs, then that would be as absurd?

Or would it?

I know there's lots of fans of both things amongst the RR community, so after you play the song below, I would like some answers please!

Mysterious Ways by Angelique Kidjo mp3

The album review that set my head scratching in the first place is here

More songs from the album can be heard/bought here

***** right off

..as I said under Carole's Grumpy post, we listen to Miles Davis' Right off whenever we feel extremely pissed off...

(player removed)

Forever Heavy

Righto, I've had enough of podbean - so it's time to try something new!

Let's see what happens with the below tune, click the play button to listen to it (you will still be able to scroll about the site), and click the link if you really like what you hear:

Forever Heavy by Black Moth Super Rainbow

click here to for BMSR's website if you want to buy their stuff

Bernard: the denouement

So, having eaten Bernard, the monster starts disrupting the household...

...and gets sent to bed with a mug of milk.

Dance, Dance, Dance

I nicked this off a GU blog on Grace Jones, I really love to see people dancing, especially when it's such a joyous way, it makes me happy. Watch out for the end of Grace's performance, when the balloons come in, then the crowd reaction at the beginning of Disco , and the people dancing to Don't Leave Me This Way. It's quite long though.

People don't twirl like that anymore.

One For Steenbeck and Her Monstrous Obsessions

It's "Monsters" by The Sugars - which clearly shows in the video where you'll end up with all those "monsters in your head"!

Corrina, Corrina, Corrina, Corrina....

Here's Mississippi John Hurt, Bob Dylan and the Ding Dong Daddy. Sorry about the picture, I'm still slightly obsessed with monsters.

Monday, April 21, 2008

TAJ MAHAL AT THE WATTS MUSIC FESTIVAL

Watts, a black community in south central LA, famous for it's riot and it's towers, has a free music festival every year, it's not a big deal, basically it's just for the benefit of the community. It's held outdoors in the summer and there's always at least one headliner, one year it was Taj Mahal, a guy I've seen many times and I always enjoy his music.
It's a small event and the stage is only about 18" high and the audience is usually less than a couple of hundred.

Taj came on and I was there with my camera, immediately in front of the stage there was an old drunken guy in the first row who started mumbling a request for Taj to play Corina, Corina right from the start and he kept it up throughout the entire performance mumbling his request at the end of every song. He wasn't disruptive, he was too drunk for that, he was just insistent. Taj ignored him and played the set he'd come to play.
When he finished and when the applause died down he set his guitar down and stepped off the stage and walked to the rear where there was a concession selling beer and drinks, he bought two beers and came back to where I was sitting on the edge of the stage, he went over to the old guy who was only about 10 feet from me and stuck one of the beers in his hand and then grabbed him by his lapel, "Alright motherfucker, you want to hear Corina?

sit down and shut the fuck up" and with that he deposited him on the edge of the stage right next to me, he then sat down next to him, picked up his guitar and started to sing 'Corina': he gave the old guy not only a beer but an individual performance. From my point of view as a photographer it was unbelievable, I was within about 2 feet of Taj and I had my wide angle 24mm lens on, perfect! As he sang I kept shooting getting great stuff everytime, I think I shot a full roll of 36 on them.
When they were processed I was very pleased with the results, I had lots of very intimate shots of this unique performance. I had an artist friend Tony who was a wonderful painter and when he saw my shots he asked if he could borrow one, he'd like to copy it in a painting which he did and it was marvellous, an oil painting about 15" by 24" which he titled 'The Blues'. The woman in the painting is Randy Crawford who also performed that day.

A couple of years later Taj was in town again and he performed at McCabes Guitar center in Santa Monica, Tony and I went taking the painting with us. We went backstage after the performance and I asked Taj if he remembered the incident at Watts, he did: Tony presented the painting to him and he was very touched by the gift.
And then many years later after I'd retired and moved to northern California I met a kindred spirit, another record collector, but he put me to shame, he had rooms FULL of music, I only had one, but his obsession had extended to video also. One day when chatting with him on the phone Taj's name came up and he mentioned that he'd shot a video of him many years earlier, I mentioned shooting at the Watts festival and he had the realisation that that was where he'd shot his video. He called me back a little later to tell me that he'd found it and had just watched it and realised that the guy sitting on the stage right next to Taj taking all the photographs was me! Small world. He gave me a copy of the video on a DVD.
The second cut below has long been one of my favorite Taj song, it's with the Pointer Sisters from his 1972 album, 'Recycling the blues and other related stuff'- there's a nice picture of him on the cover with Mississippi John Hurt.

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