Tuesday, July 04, 2006
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 11: Familiar Melodies, New Songs
Both of today's tracks feature sounds that'll likely sound familiar; the first tastes a bit like (the very much contemporary) Coasters 'Yakkety Yak'; the second is a dead-ringer for Sam Cooke's 'Wonderful World'... only it predates that classic by a good two years.
The Cadillacs - Peek-A-Boo
THe Harlem based band The Cadillacs are probably best known today for their mid-50's hit "Speedoo" (as in, "They often call me..."). 'Peek-A-Boo' was a success upon its release, climbing up to #28 on the pop charts and #20 on R+B; it also represented their sole foray into the British market prior to reissue. It may likely have seen some play in the Burlesques of the day, making this an rnb strip club throw-back of the elder variety. 'Get Low' it ain't; but you should still be able to shake it to this silly little doo-wop wonder without shame.
tell me more about it...
Neither iTunes nor eMusic offers much to speak of but you can buy a twelve dollar single disc best of for The Cadillacs from either Amazon or direct from Rhino. If you've a taste for this Lucky 13 stuff and a few extra bucks in your wallet though, why not supersize it for ten bucks more and get the three disc, mostly complete Cadillacs: For Collectors Only box set?
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Read this enthusiastic, multi-part biography of The Cadillacs.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about Cadillacs, but didn't have the cash to ask.
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Listen to a snippet of'Peek-A-Boo's B-Side, the even catchier 'Lolita'.
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Funny thing about somethin' as easy as peekaboo: no matter how simple it sounds, there's always someone who's gotta go and make it look hard.
The Travelers with Lou Rawls - I'll Always Be In Love With You
Formed in the 1930's, The Travelers AKA The Pilgrim Travelers kept touring and performing up until 1960. 'I'll Always Be In Love With You' finds the band at the end of its storied career giving a leg up to their newest frontman, a young Lou Rawls. Rawls and Sam Cooke were good friends and Cooke was intimately familiar with The Travelers; it's not too far fetched to imagine Cooke appropriating elements of this song to craft 'Wonderful World', one of the most loved and best known RnB songs of the past century. Of course, the pretty sing-song melody that 'Wonderful World' and 'I'll Always Be In Love' share is likely a bit older than either than of these, but doggoned if I can think of any songs that predates it off the top of my head. Any of ya'll got any ideas?
To the best of my knowledge, this little rarity has never been reissued (in fact, it's obscure enough that I had to reference this Keen records discography just to date the track) but seeing as this is a title that's more or less googleproof; I welcome correction on this point. Any Lou Rawls fans out there wanna school me?
tell me more about it...
Visit Lou Rawls official website.
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Listen to more Lou Rawls and The Pilgrim Travelers at this admirable Lou Rawls obit post over at the always admirable The B Side.
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Read more about the history of The Pilgrim Travelers.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Hall of Famer Etta James, before she dropped the weight
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 10: Hot Rockin' Mamas
19. Ivie Anderson - 'The Voot Is Here To Stay'
Ivie Anderson is yet another once-wildly popular artis that time has treated unkindly. Ivie spent eleven years as a singer for Duke Ellington's orchestra, before retiring prematurely due to a severe asthma problem.
Ivie's also famous for stealing a scene from the Marx Brothers classic A Day at the Races.
'Voot' is a popular bit of street-talk from the forties that you'll hear in songs of the era. While some believe the word refers to booze, drugs or cash; 'voot' more likely appears to bemalleable as any object of desire ("I'll be fine once I get my voot").
In any case, 'The Voot Is Here' is a pretty sweet little slangified track; Ellington's unparalleled band (featuring a young Charlie Mingus on bass) would be hard pressed to do anything but excel and Ivie's brassy voice gives this hootch some extra kick.
UPDATE!
In an extremely unlikely coincidence, the good folks over at Tuwa's Shanty appear to have me out-vooted, 12 to 1. I'm downright embarrassed I didn't notice this post before I put up these songs but you can colour me deeply impressed; Tuwa's new companion Dan has put together an astonishingly comprehensive audio history of the word voot (featuring the indispensible and prime example of the field, Marion Abernathy's 'Voo-it Voo-it!'), replete with damn near obsessive annotation. It's stuff like this that makes the world go 'round, folks; go snap em up now and don't forget to bookmark the Shanty while you're there for future downloading wonder!
tell me more about it...
Not much from Ivie on either eMusic or iTunes but you can buy 'I Got It Good and That Ain't Bad', a collection of many of Ivie's best tracks with Ellington's band, from Amazon.
Read this brief Ivie bio.
Listen to 'Voot's' A-Track, 'I Thought You Ought to Know', in realaudio, courtesy of the always wonderful Vocal Group Harmony website.
Read a vivid remembrance of Ivie by acclaimed jazz critic Nat Hentoff.
20. Etta James - 'Good Rockin' Daddy'
Etta James has over forty five years of recording history under her once-ample belt, but today's Hut entry finds her early in that career, squealing like the seventeen year old she was.
'Good Rockin Daddy' was an early hit for Etta, charting as high as #6 on the 1955 R+B charts. It's a tribute to Ms. James' talent that 'Daddy' still holds up; it's a catchy, toe-tappin' doo-wop rocker powered as much by an excellent band of sidemen as it is by Etta's growling come-ons.
All the daddys get up on your feet and do th' crazy twist!
tell me more about it...
Etta's material both old and new is pretty easy to find. You can buy digital copies on both iTunes and eMusic; as is almost always the case, the selection on iTunes is better but the prices on eMusic can't be beat.
If you're more about owning a physical copy of Ms. James' best, Amazon has two bulls-eyes. For the somewhat curious, there's Etta James At Last!, the reissue of Etta's 1960 excellent, first full length recording, on the Chess label.
For the more ambitious, there's The Essential Etta James the two-disc, thirty dollar greatest hits collection that concerns itself more seriously with Etta's earlier work.
Visit Etta's official site and listen to her new cover album, All the Way.
Worth a once over for the sheer "wha?" factor; Ms. James' take on 'I Believe I Can Fly' is an earful in and of itself.
Explore this text-dense fansite.
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 9: Back Off, Baby
A fabulous double header for you on this sunny Spring Wednesday: a pair of incredible, soul-quakers from two of the greatest bluesmen of the century. Tuck in and start downloading; these are prime vittles!
17. Bobby 'Blue' Bland - You've Got Bad Intentions
Bobby 'Blue' Bland is a Tennessee treasure and a well-known champion of the "Memphis Sound".
'Bad Intentions' is one of Bland's first pop hits; it's also an excellent example of his unique brand of velvety, soulful squalling. I don't know about you, but it took me a few listens to realize that there was no harmonica solo after the second verse... that's Bland vocalizing!
Some vicious lyrics on here, too:
"You say you can't go on living/ if you can't be by my side /Gonna send you a bottle of poison/ Please commit suicide"Damn, that's HARSH!
tell me more about it...
No eMusic, but plenty of iTunes love if you want to get more Bland's music online. Truthfully, this might be a case where a best-of disc would serve you as well as anything.
The one you probably want is The Anthology, available from Amazon for twenty-three bucks. It charts thirty years of Bland's career over two discs; you'll find 'Bad Intentions' on there as well.
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Listen to (and download) Bland's Ray-Charles-esque heartbreaker 'Touch of the Blues' on Livin'Blues.com.
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Read this history of Bland and this lengthy Salon essay.
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Tip of th' Tofu hat to Adventures of a University Finalist, who ran a Bland post with 'Bad Intentions' way back in '05.
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If there's a worse intention than a pop to the kisser, I've yet to see it.
18. Charles Brown (with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers) - It Ain't Gonna Be Like That
The name Charles Brown brings Charles Schultz to mind for most people. More's the pity; they're missing out on one of the great pianists of our time.
Brown was an amazingly prolific and successful piano player throughout the 1940's. He is regularly recognized as a major influence on Brother Ray, but he's likely best known for his perennial holiday classic 'Merry Christmas, Baby'.
Charles Brown stayed active and recording for a good sixty years. His impressive career took an upturn late in life when Bonnie Raitt added him as her opening act in the nineties.
This track finds Brown behind the ivories for a trademark smooth blues song with a combo known as The Three Blazers; the cool cat on the mike is Johnny Moore (no relation to the Johnny Moore who sang with The Drifters).
tell me more about it...
Though not especially well known by the layman, Charles Brown's discography is luckily still very much in print. You'll be able to find plenty on iTunes and on eMusic... including this comprehensive five disc, 120 song set of Brown's recordings from the 1940's... well, almost comprehensive.
If you want a disc with 'Ain't Gonna Be Like That' on it, you'll have to sojourn to Amazon for this Johnny Moore's 3 Blazers reissue of their Swingtime recordings. It's nice stuff and worth a listen.
Charles Brown isn't very well served on the web, but you can still read Brown's Rock + Roll Hall of Fame induction page and his obit.
This is the requisite Charlie Brown link.
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spiffy
Twenty-six number one singles, but we're not listening until you sing in English?
Well, t'hell with that; I'm off to Bollysongs.com.
Pop-ups out th' wazoo, but live DLs; get em while they're hawt.
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"Place a rubber duck on your monitor and describe your problems to it. There's something magical about stating your problems aloud that makes the solution more clear."
But what if your problem is that you talk to inanimate objects?
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Here's a pair of oddball gaming links for you: A student who was shot and paralyzed in the Columbine killings talks about Super Columbine Massacre RPG.
Especially interesting in that the kid wants to work in the gaming industry as a sound designer.
Speaking of which, In The Pit is a sound only videogame (that requires a xbox360 controller, boo) in which you play a blind monster that stalks people thrown into your lair.
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Pimpadelic Wonderland
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It is with great excitement and a sense of relief that I welcome the first (that I know of) independently run, classical-themed audioblogs into our midst; make them feel welcome.
A big hand for classical connection, le roi s'amuse, different waters and master fade.
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As part of an effort to stop the imminent operation of the Nuclear reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, electronic elder statesman Ryuichi Sakamoto has posted a handful of tracks for downloading and remixing.
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And continuing on the nuclear theme: set aside about ten minutes, turn your speakers down and commit to watching The Legacy of Chernobyl.
Be warned: this is as sad and obscene as anything I've ever posted. It's heartbreaking, but it should be seen.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Monday, May 22, 2006
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 8: A Slow Dance + a Side of Syrup
Two uber-sweet rnb cheek-to-cheek ballads.
Freakazoid robots, find your sweetie and report to the dance floor, stat.
15. The Chanteclairs - I've Never Been There
Another case of not much recording and not much documentation, the little known Chanteclairs produced only four sides that I've been able to find, all of them in 1954 for Dot Records.
'I've Never Been There' is gently swinging doo wop with a train-like 'Happy Trails' beat. Great performance from the lead, too.
tell me more about it...
Not a whole lot of avenues to find more from The Chanteclairs but, if you gotta, you can buy the sixth volume of the Dot Doo-Wop Collection from Dead Dog Records. It contains three of the band's four extant songs, including 'I've Never Been There'.
Listen to this realaudio clip for The Chanteclairs only other A-side, 'Baby Please', courtesy The Doo Wop Net.
Read the story of the Gallatin, TN based Dot Records label.
16. The Flamingos - I'll Be Home
The Flamingos are one of the best-known bands of the doowop era, primarily for their memorable cover of the Dick Powell classic 'I Only Have Eyes for You'; which hip hop heads may best remember as the hook for The Fugees 'Zealots'. 'I'll Be Home', pressed in '55 on the Checker imprint at Chess Records, was the band's first big hit on the Billboard R&B and, as covered by Pat Boone, pop charts.
Beautiful echo-chamber vocals and lovely choral flourishes probably got many a debutante to give it up in the bucket seat.
Suggestive lyrics, too: "My time's about up, doll. So long until I'll be home to start serving you."
tell me more about it...
Not much Flamingos love (barring the obvious token 'I Only Have Eyes') on either iTunes or eMusic.
Amazon has a host of options, best boiled down to either the eleven buck Rhino best-of or the 'Collectors Only' twenty-six buck, two disc set; 'I'll Be Home' is part of both.
Visit the official Flamingos website, this interview heavy fanpage on Bob Davis' Soul Patrol (mind the embedded sound), the band's inductee page at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and this surprisingly comprehensive wiki.
Listen to an album's worth of Flamingos classics.
It's realaudio, but you can't have everything.
A quarter million bucks buys a lot of cokes.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Flamingos but were afraid to ask.
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bonus glisten: delicious norwegian pizza jingle
Grandiosa - Respekt for Grandiosa (Lørdagspizza)
Grandiosa is a Norway based frozen pizza company whose products are phenomenally popular amongst Norwegians. Their pizzas are also exported to some of the outlying Scandi countries and to expats across Europe. The above song is the theme for their current advertising campaign and its popularity is hard to believe; it's topped the Norwegian pop charts for eight weeks, beating out Shakira, Rihanna, Mary J, Pink and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
That's-a spicy pizza!
Bouncy and synthetic as a ball of processed mozzarella, the Grandiosa jingle is just too good to go ignored by American pop listeners. Since we Yanks are unlikely to get hit by this particular not-sold-in-the-states ad wagon, I figure it's a public service to drop 'Grandiosa' on you as a bonus track. Respekt!
Visit the largely defunct Grandiosa website.
Watch the 'Respekt for Grandiosa' advert video.
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spiffy
Yeah, I remember The Inhumanoids too.
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I'm only about five thousand sites behind on the audioblog list on the right (I'll likely have to take a week off from work to get it back together again before the end of the year), but here's three guys that have taken the model and run with it:
Good Hodgkins representing the Cleveland/Indie scene to the fullest.
Fidelisharium offers obscure, out-of-print full length albums, running the gamut from Yamaha organ demonstration discs to Nigerian high-life.
Basement Songs hails from a WNYU DJ; mostly hipster stuff but a sprinkling of offbeat world pop and electronic too.
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Poor widdle wallaby...
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I've been reading Paul Lukas' excellent Uni-Watch column on ESPN for almost a year now; it's an obsessive collection of sports uniform ephemera and evolution written in a style of dense hyperlink and opinionated rhetoric that will seem pretty familiar to any fans of th' Hut.
Dude finally got a Uni-Blog; go check it out.
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Bolly YouTube Gumnaam Fun comes in pairs.
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Gnarls Barkley hit NYC's Webster Hall today; anybody with tickets or label connection should drop me a line as I would love to see Cee-Lo live sooner rather than later.
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Insane props to controversial costumed Finnish deathmetalheads Lordi, on winning Eurovision, a feat best understood as GWAR winning American Idol or, less prosaically, Carrie winning Prom Queen and then killing her entire class with TK.
Watch Lordi's winning performance and read this interview with Lordi frontman, Tomi Putaansuu.
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8008135 and 800813 |)15(U5510|\|
NSFW, natch.
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I'm about three hundred emails behind; if you've written lately, please be patient. I'm gettin' to ya.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Monday, May 15, 2006
Born on April Fool's Day, but Amos Milburn was nobody's fool ('cept maybe anagrammatically)
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 7: Amos Milburn
#13: Amos Milburn - Let Me Go Home, Whiskey
#14: Amos Milburn - Three Times A Fool
Amos Milburn is one of the missing links between the boogie down juke joints of the forties and the bad boy Southern rockers (think Presley, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee, Little Richard) of the fifties. His rough and tough rhythm and blues made him king of the roost for almost a decade on the RnB charts; the man put nineteen songs on the top ten between '48 and '54.
The two songs I've put up here are pretty indicative of the man's repertoire; both are fairly danceable rough and tumble fun. Both also carry dark messages under their catchy coat about the payment due for the good life. 'Let Me Go Home' is, more or less, about alcoholism and 'Three Times' is about cuckolding... but hey, it's a good time, man!
Let the record spin; let Amos sing and let's make a night of it.
tell me more about it...
Want more? Sure you do.
Hardly anything on iTunes but eMusic offers a solid best of; copies of the three disc Capitol box set sell for seventeen bucks used on Amazon and the two disc 'The Chicken Shack Boogie Man' compilation goes for thirteen simoleons at Elderly. Price looks right all around.
Listen to two more tracks from Amos at Livin' Blues.
'Bad Bad Whiskey' is not to be missed; you WILL be astonished.
You can also listen here to the Milburn holiday classic 'Christmas Comes But Once A Year' and to read an excellent brief on Amos from one of my all new favorite bloggers, Red Kelly.
Red runs not one, not two but three fabulous blogs of vinyl rippin' goodness, chock fulla soul and glory. The wise among you will get your bookmarkin' fingers ready when you click on these; dude's work is golden.
Read this extensive history of Milburn.
The internet, oddly enough doesn't offer many decent pictures of Milburn (though there's several lovely watermarked ones over at Redferns). If you'd like to get a better look at the man, I'd recommend this "badass" portrait from a fave cartoonist of mine, Jim Blanchard.
Have some fun with whiskey.
Looks like Milburn's heirs are putting together a hopefully-soon-to-be-live official website; here's hoping it comes to fruition soon.
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spiffy
A few hundred of the 90's best hip hop singles; add your own, but don't forget to Control+F.
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Wrap that Rottweiller
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I often ask myself, where can I go for my Ernie Hudson fix? At last, my dreams are answered.
I kid; I love the guy.
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It ain't where yer from, it's where yer at.
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The Carolina Chocolate Drops
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404? Or something more?
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This little webslinging game is not recommended for the obsessive; it's tough to put down.
I crapped out at 1100. Best of luck.
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Wii?
Wii.
Wiiiiiiii!
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
nothing is more appropriate for children than a talking sugar cube with killer gams
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 6: Box o' Chocolates
#11: Eddie Banks and The Five Dreamers - Sugar Diabetes
Two grab bag singles today, one that's just knock-down good and the other more of an oddity.
'Sugar Diabetes is the treat; it's another no-hit wonder for you. As best as I can see, The Five Dreamers released four sides of music total, only two with Eddie Banks and all of it, for all intents and purposes, is functionally out of print. Regardless of their skimpy track record, this track is an A1 charmer; a novelty cut that can run with 'Rockin' Pneumonia' anyday.
This swingin' sweety features some real killer one-liners, as Eddie invites the honey-pie of his eye to "stick your finger in my coffee" and dubbing her to have "more sugar in one kiss than a Baby Ruth factory".
tell me more about it...
Obscure and offbeat yes, but not genuinely RARE; though 'Sugar Diabetes' somehow eludes a listing in the otherwise generally reliable Both Sides Now Discography, you can buy an excellent looking import compilation of 50's soul on the Jubilee/Josie label that contains 'Sugar' from Amazon for a ten spot.
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Read more about it.
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Explore this historical diabetes timeline
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"Why people believe they have sugar rather than diabetes is not clear."
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Wilford Brimley knows Beetix
#12: Ray Charles - I Found My Baby (end clipped)
So here's an odd little rarity: a 1950 track from Ray Charles in its reissued 1960's form. 'St. Pete Florida Blues' was originally released in '51 when Brother Ray found his way into the sunshine state; this single was reissued several times over the next decade or two, sometimes as 'St. Pete', sometimes as 'I Found My Baby There' and sometimes (as on this Time label issue) as 'I Found My Baby'.
There's a good reason why this little-known track is, well, so little-known: it's pretty minor. 'I Found My Baby' is Ray doing low-key troubadouring in a voice that's not quite yet his own. By far the most interesting part of the song is the oddball scat singing, something I don't think I've ever heard Charles do on any other song.
You may notice some odd warping of sound on this song; that's not intentional. The record this was dubbed from was pressed off-center; the grooves are somewhat off-kilter. That explains the clipped ending; the record simply won't play to the end. You'll hear the weirdest wobble in the sound on the aforementioned vocal scat solo; Ray's voice weaves into strange and impossible keys as the stylus cuts into unbalanced grooves. It's a nice example of a sound that's personal to the specific album. I rather like it, but I imagine you might not, so if you'd like to purchase yourself a clean recording, more info follows...
tell me more about it...
Lots of ways to purchase this and several other early rarities from the Charles catalog, you can buy a copy of the King label 'Ray Charles: The Early Years' disc from Amazon or you can buy
a four track EP of Ray's Miami recordings direct from Henry Stone, one of Charles' first producers.
If you'd prefer to opt for the online route, you can get these tracks on iTunes or eMusic; your choice.
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Visit Brother Ray on the web.
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I wrote up a big ol' link-heavy tribute to Ray when he died back in '04; the music links are dead, but there's plenty to click around to and explore.
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Find your baby in St. Pete.
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spiffy
And now, a koan: Black People. White People.
Honestly, I sometimes just open this in a separate window for, say, four or five hours until its sublime and poignant message becomes a part of me.
I'd love to hear more about the history on this little gem. Anybody know who made it?
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The indispensible Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog has an incredible selection of the work of legendary cartoonist, Milt "That's My Pop!" Gross!
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At home with The Zappas.
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For those of us too cheap or simply wise enough not to engage in the freebasing that is World of Warcraft, you can experience a fast and free Murloc RPG right here.
I'm finishing up my first scratch-built computer with the help of an IT buddy; we're back to the drawing board for RAM that'll fit the motherboard and some SATA cables, but I should have a rip-roarin'-no-crashin' machine up pretty shortly. If you, like me, wanna know how them things work, take a peek here.
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Pirolettes look useless and expensive and I want one.
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The Starlight Mints - 'Submarine #3' Toon Mix
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Guinness: Lee 'Scratch' Perry approved.
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Last chance for the music in the first post of the Lucky 13 series; it comes down on Friday.
Get it while it's lukewarm.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Friday, May 05, 2006
not too hot, but she ain't no Lena the Hyena
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 5: Ugly Women Sing th' Blues
#9: Big Mama Maybelle - That's A Pretty Good Love
Big Maybelle had a voice with as much kick as a mule and the heft of a sledgehammer. That's a Pretty Good Love has one of my fave lyrics of any of The Lucky 13 tracks: "Ain't much to look at and I won't win a prize / When it comes to lovin', I'll open your eyes."
I ain't the tattoo type, but that sounds like a good logo to me.
tell me more about it...
Big Mama Maybelle's music is fairly easily available; you can buy the two-disc Savoy Maybelle best-of 'Blues, Candy and Big Maybelle' from Barnes and Noble for thirty two bucks or download both discs from iTunes for ... $46!?
Man, this internet music revolution is really something, eh?
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Read this Big Maybelle Bio; poor lady fell victim to heroin, diabetes and stress and it drove her to a too early grave. Raise a glass.
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Listen to two other Big Maybelle tracks in full length MP3 form (courtesy of
Livin' Blues), including the awe-inspiring Rain Down Rain.
Just... wow.
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Explore Big Maybelle's discography.
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Necessary dap to blogmeister Reverend Frost's Spread the Good Word who big upped Big Maybelle about a year ago and... what's this?
He's got an album out? I detect a trend! Alert the NY Times!
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My Yiddisha Ugly Woman
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Nice try, no cigar.
#10: Pearl Reeves (Reaves?) and the Concords - I'm Not Ashamed
The Concords recorded all of two records and Reeves only saw six sides, but there's plenty to love in that short history. The big and memorable hit was 'You Can't Stay Here', of which 'I'm Not Ashamed' is the B-side.
FWIW, I've seen a picture of Pearl Reeves that was clipped from the ad for this single and Pearl was a serious knockout. "Ugly woman," my sweet patootie.
tell me more about it...
If you simply MUST own a copy of this track on CD or, more likely, you'd like to hear more of the same, you can buy 'Rare 1950's Boston Doo Wops' from Dead Dog Records.
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Read this history of the Concords.
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Listen to Pearl and The Concords big hit, 'You Can't Stay Here';
courtesy of the amazing Hound, whose archives you should be plundering just as fast as your mouse can click.
Really, this is a link that may just make your year. 32 kbps or not; thar's gold in them thar pages!
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The Concords eventually went on to become The Solitaires; click the link and find out where they ended up.
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'Ugly' mom sues ABC for nixing makeover
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All the old timers know that I loved me some ugly women
since before ugly was cool.
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spiffy
Yes, they're sinfully hipster and obscenely expensive, but these Salvor animal pillows are entirely too cool to front on.
The girl and I have Pearl the Squirrel and Watson the Dachshund on the couch; I can think of few things nicer than a menagerie of animal pillows to recline upon, except perhaps a flotilla of tape babies.
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Dubplate style
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Enthusiastic but Mediocre wrought umlauts which begat Enthusiastic but Mediocre; forever and ever, amen.
So go get you some Euro/World Pop excitement, eh?
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Oooooh, mysterious.
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In another strange case of life imitating art, Mikey really will eat anything.
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Super Mario Soundboard D-Lux
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WFMU's Beware of the Blog has long since become one of the most important and consistently necessary sites on this big ol' intarweb; if you still doubt, then I suggest you find yourself some religion.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
decades later, after the accident
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 4: Percy Mayfield
#7: Percy Mayfield - Sugar Mama, Peachy Papa
#8: Percy Mayfield - The Voice Within
Talk about a hard row to hoe, Percy Mayfield sure had one. At thirty, Percy fought his way to the top of the hill with a self-penned number one R+B single, 'Please Send Me Someone To Love'. His movie-star looks and songwriting chops put him in the running to become one of the first great pop stars of the fifties but two years later, Mayfield gets in a horrendous car crash that terribly and irrevocably disfigures him.
He spends months recovering, writing and, finally, touring again. Mayfield spends the next seven years on the road, fighting depression and alcoholism. His songwriting had always focussed on a dark inner life (Percy's first published singles included 'Two Years of Torture' and 'Life Is Suicide') and the fallout from his accident fuels a number of macabre blues ballads that would become standards, among them 'Stranger in My Own Town' and 'The River's Invitation'.
By 1961, Mayfield has pinballed from Specialty to Chess to Imperial and appears to have reached the end of his career when he sells a song to Ray Charles titled 'Hit the Road Jack'. The tune is a massive jackpot and, knowing a good thing when he hears one, Ray signs Mayfield to his newly formed Tangerine label. Mayfield stays with Tangerine to the end of the sixties, but eventually moves on to write tracks for RCA Victor until the mid seventies, when he effectively retires. In 1984, not yet sixty-five, Mayfield passes away.
The two tracks I have up today showcase Mayfield's intensity, virtuosity and versatility as both a songwriter and a performer.
'Sugar Mama, Peachy Papa', Mayfield's duet with obscure rnb singer Joy Hamilton, is a pop gem; bouncy and sweet as molasses. Frothy and full of nonsensical scatting, it's a wonderfully syncopated call and response, uptempo swinging sunshine that's utterly frown-proof.
'The Voice Within,' on the other hand, gives a look into Mayfield's harsh inner world. Essentially a schizophrenic interior argument for suicide, 'Voice' is driven by buzzing demonic saxophones, death-march drums and a skeletal, tripping piano line. It's less a blues and more a malaise. Both songs are amazing listens and memorable melodies; if this is your first time meeting Mr. Mayfield, I imagine you'll be hungry for more.
tell me more about it...
Both of these tracks hail from 'Memory Pain' the second volume of the outstanding two disc Percy Mayfield best of. You can buy the discs from Amazon for fifteen bucks a pop or from Oldies.com for a few dollars less.
If you'd rather download, both iTunes and eMusic have the greatest hits; neither, unfortunately, has the gorgeous Rhino handmade Tangerine/Atlantic set that tracks Percy's later and equally impressive work. The disc is long out of print and starts at the usurious price of a hundred bucks on Amazon.
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Read this bio.
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spiffy
Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak run an occasional LA bus tour that explores some of the darker spots of Los Angeles' criminal history. Over the course of 2005, Kim and Nathan have taken their interests online, obsessively blogging the police blotters and local dustups and murders of 1947 L.A..
Recently, they've started a new project with the same bent, only they've dialed the wayback machine this time to 1907.
Lots of great newspaper clips and plenty of film clips as well; it's a clear porthole to an earlier, equally complicated time.
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King Hippo, we hardly knew ye.
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I'm sure all you 1337 kids already know how to save youtube and googlevideo movies as mpegs, so I won't even bother telling you.
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I strongly support drawing on things. Just not on people.
That kind of thing leads to Mr. Cool Ice.
Apparently, he had a T-shirt company design the tat in Corel Draw. Arial Black is forever, I guess.
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The last statements of everyone executed in Texas since 1982.
All three hundred and sixty two of them.
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"showPAN's Sharezo No. 1 in b min, op. 20 ".
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All kinds of cool and geeky print for sale at fairly reasonable prices from Nucleus Gallery in California.
Your tastes may vary; look around the page a bit as there's flavor variation throughout.
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Last I heard, there was no more limbo; which is probably for the best, all things considered.
Labels: clicky, favorites, Lucky 13, music
Monday, May 01, 2006
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 3: Jimmy Scott
#5: Jimmy Scott - Very Truly Yours(personnel)
#6: Jimmy Scott - My Romance(personnel)
Who is Jimmy Scott?
He's the definitive voice of many a jazz standard; a sufferer of Kallmann's Syndrome whose high voice, hairless face, gender neutrality and short stature made his first run at stardom difficult and is arguably close to the heart of his modern day popularity; he's a man whose fans and collaborators include Madonna, Nancy Wilson, Lou Reed, Antony Hegarty, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and David Lynch; he's an American treasure.
That's Jimmy Scott.
I got to see Jimmy live earlier this year at Carnegie Hall, where he did a single song for the Joni Mitchell Tribute (strange set of circumstances, but go fish). He needed three handlers to help get him on and off the stage and seemed to have some difficulty figuring out how to leave and he didn't even perform a Mitchell song, but he was absolutely arresting and powerful as a tidal wave. Jimmy's eighty now; opportunities to watch him ply his trade should not be taken lightly.
The attached tracks hail from Jimmy's impressive body of work on the Savoy Jazz label. There's a considerable bit of surface noise and warp on them, which I think only adds considerably to their charm. They're both, like virtually all of Jimmy's catalog, touching and powerful. If you've never heard Scott before and these tracks leave any sort of impression, you owe it to yourself to delve a little deeper; he is certainly worth the trouble.
tell me more about it...
With the combination of Scott's latest resurgence and the prevalence of music on the internet, it's never been easier to purchase Jimmy's music than it is today. But where to start?
Amazon offers a lot of options: you could snag Falling In Love Is Wonderful and The Source (from '63 and '69, respectively), which are generally regarded as classics. Alternately, there's The Fabulous Songs and Timeless, which pull a number of pretty solid highlights from Jimmy's career at Savoy (they're available as a pair for twenty-three bucks).
If you'd like to download the tracks, iTunes offers a pretty broad variety, including 'The Source' 'Falling In Love,' 'Timeless,' and 'The Fabulous Songs' along with a lot of the newer material. eMusic's collection is unfortunately limited to Scott's work post-2000; as noted above, he's certainly still got the voice but it's a different animal from when he was in his prime.
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A few more gee-gaws for your shopping cart: the critically acclaimed biography Faith In Time: The Life of Jimmy Scott and the award-winning documentary film Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew.
PBS aired 'If You Only Knew' in 2004 and crafted a jim-dandy website full of all manner of bells and whistles, notably a video of Jimmy singing 'Motherless Child' circa 2000.
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Visit Jimmy Scott's official website and this extensive fan site.
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Read the extensive liners to the excellent (and reasonably priced) Savoy-centric Essential Jimmy Scott.
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With his sharp tongue, fascinating life and unique voice, Scott is a natural for radio; there's a plethora of online interviews with him, including this one from KCRW,the requisite 'All Things Considered' piece, a more in-depth NPR profile and a quick talk with an Oregon public station.
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Read this fascinating profile from th' NY Times and this lengthy interview from All About Jazz.
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Listen to three classics from Scott in realaudio: 1950's 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool', 1969's 'Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child' and 1992's 'All the Way'.
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Pics of Jimmy Scott at Carnegie Hall, 2005, via Brooklyn Vegan
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Explore this Jimmy Scott discography.
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spiffy
In the mailbox:
RE your recent writeup of audioblogs
making cd compilations
I guess I don't run a traditional website, but do I not even rate? my new comp cd is due back from the pressing plant today (or so I've been told) and you can preview the entire thing just by clicking this link.
and I'm not really mad at you, I just felt like I should at least give you a hard time.
Signed,
Avi from it's a trap!
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Everybody's favorite curmudgeon, Pappawheelie has a party AND a posse. So don't get him angry.
You wouldn't like him when he's angry.
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My old pals at Red State Update have released a series of shows documenting their war on "girly-voiced aggressor" Neil Young.
Check 'em all out: "How messed up do you have to be when David Crosby's sperm is better than yours?"
"I cut the brakes on Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane."
And best of all: The Last Waltz
If the idea of Martin Scorcese calling Robbie Robertson "the prettiest Indian in the world" prompts a giggle, you owe this last one a click.
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Shout to all my New York homies: Don't dare miss the Tzadik sponsored New Voices from Japan show at the Japan Society on May 12 + 13.
Featuring John Zorn, Mike Patton, EYE, Makigami Koichi, Haino Keiji and Jim O'Rourke; I'll see you there on the 12th!
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Here's another excellent musical peek into a world most of us in the US might never see: Dalston Oxfam Shop chronicles the writer's explorations through the cheap-o tape bins in a British Oxfam shop (think Salvation army); he posts said tapes in MP3 form. Some real winners up this week, including an early Senor Coconut and a mega-obscure Orbital remix. Sally forth!
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Werner Herzog eats a bullet
Via Crispin Glover's Soundtrack for the Undead
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Yay and hooray: Sharpeworld is resurrected and she's got dozens of videos from the venerable California cable access variety show Stairway to Stardom.
Start out with April Lauren doing 'Good Ship Lollipop, BJ the Messenger's 'Crackhead', Tony Sanchez on 'Mack the Knife'.
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Longtime Hutsketeers likely remember that I'm quite a fan of
Leslie Feist, but with nothing but a remix album out since, what's a fan to do?
John over at All Things Feist offers a quick fix with obscure mixes, live sets and out of print rarities; supporting the artist by keeping the hardcore types excited without taking cash out of the artist's pocket. Hustle on over!
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I love comic nerds SO MUCH: Check out these eBay auctions for pyrographic renditions for the covers of Giant Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #136 (the death of Jean Grey ish).
Seriously, these are rad in a major bathroom art way.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Sunday, April 23, 2006
copping a feel has never been so easy
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glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 2: Dead Girlfriend
#3: The Dominoes with Clyde McPhatter - The Bells
Too intense and finely crafted to be a simple novelty track and too nutty to be taken entirely seriously, 'The Bells' is a lost lover song unlike any you've ever heard. The bells in question are church bells ringin' the deceased to sleep, but even Hamlet handled the death of his love with some greater self-control than THIS.
There's so much to love here: the corny preacher, the organ dirge, the titular tubular bells, the solemn doowop mourners; but most of all there's the lead, the amazing Clyde McPhatter in his prime, having what sounds like a complete and utter breakdown on tape. It's an unmatched display of histrionics that culminates with an anguished scream SO absurd that it just might tip you off to 'The Bells' dirty secret: McPhatter is actually LAUGHING, not crying. This certainly ups the creepy quotient, but it's an inspired and ballsy performance in any case; how many songs can _you_ think of where the lead male is meant to be weeping his way to the end?
The Dominoes were an influential and popular rnb combo that made the majority of their hits in the 1950's. The band was comprised of a notoriously mutable selection of personnel that centered around bandleader Billy Ward. Ward was known as something of a difficult taskmaster, levying fines and restrictions on anybody who stepped out of line. Fed up with the iron fist treatment, McPhatter would eventually leave the band (fired or quit, depending on who you ask) to form the Drifters. The Dominoes were able to keep the ball rolling by bringing in an impressive new lead in former Golden Gloves champion Jackie Wilson, arguably one of the best rebounds in the history of music.
tell me more about it...
Nothing at eMusic or iTunes, but you can buy the twenty-five track "The Very Best of Billy Ward and The Dominoes", featuring 'The Bells' and many other classic cuts with both McPhatter and Wilson front and center, from Oldies.com for fourteen bucks, postage paid or at Amazon for seventeen, plus postage.
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Read this brief bio of Rock + Roll Hall o' Famer Clyde McPhatter and peruse his considerable discography.
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If you'd like to learn more about the fascinating and complex story of the Dominoes, you can read this brief band bio... but why not just go all in and read Marv Goldberg's meticulous history and discography of the Dominoes?
Might as well check out Marv's take on McPhatter while you're at it.
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The Dominoes really _did_ have a lot of turnover; I hear they even cut a few sides with this guy...
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For those of you who can't get enough of those sweet sweet tintinnabulations: here's E.A. Poe's 'Bells', tuning church bells, The Bell Witch, Schulmerich Bells (since 1935), telling time by bells, Bell's Theorem and (of course) Saved By the Bell.
#4: The Checkers - Ghost of My Baby
Just when you think you've ditched the chick... Seems we just planted the girl and she's already coming back in a long, white chariot looking for more.
If you're hearing continuity in the sound as well as the theme, it's not just you. The Checkers sound pretty similar to The Dominoes for a good reason; this splinter band was originally formed by a few of the latter band's ex-members: Charlie White and Bill Brown (who does the bass and shares lead on this track).
Perry Heyward, then lead tenor of The Checkers (later, of The Sparrows) and lead vocalist on 'Ghost', called the track "one of my favorite songs. If you've never really paid attention to it, it's about a guy who has such a high opinion of himself as a lover, that he dreams his recently-deceased girlfriend comes back 'all the way from heaven, just to be with me once more'. I used to fall on my knees to sing it."
tell me more about it...
Again, I'm not seeing any downloadable music, but you can buy Ace Records excellent Checkers compilation, Checkmate: The Complete King Recordings from Amazon or else purchase the band's somewhat less expensive best-of, "White Cliffs of Dover", from Oldies; both feature 'Ghost of My Baby'.
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Read this brief overview of the Checkers or this predictably extensive bio of the band from Marv Goldberg.
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Paranormal pictures from The American Museum of Photography
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Baby, don't you know this sort of relationship rarely ever works out?
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i ain't 'fraid of no, etc. etc.
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spiffy
Q: Is it true that Twisted G is the world's first openly gay gangsta rapper?
Twisted G: I'm not sure if I'm the mutha fucking first, nor do I give a fuck! But I'm definitely one of the very few. There are a lot of mainstream rappers that are in the closet fags. I am just one of the few that has the balls to be real about my shit!
Surprisingly, the music's not bad! Reminds me of a mix of Ice Cube and Tech N9ne, only gay. Real gay.
Try 'Run From the Faggots'.
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Exceptionally sweet use of my girls Patience and Prudence in this gorgeously produced ad for the British National Lottery.
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Tip of the Tofu Hat to the silly fellows over at PCL LINKDUMP who invited th' Hut by to participate in a census that dared to ask the burning question: what's your favorite album smell like?
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Mighty Optical Illusions, daily.
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These Pythagorus Switch (aka Rube Goldberg) machine videos already made the rounds last week, but did you ever get the straight dope on where those fascinating films came from?
An open request to anyone who's feeling helpful: I'd love to get an mp3 of the original music in that clip, especially the extended song with the male vocalist (the one with the 'Shi-Cho-Nee!' chorus).
Send it along and I'll send back something special!
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Eminem has been accused of minstrelsy before, but probably never in such a positive sense.
More wondering minstrels, for the curious.
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Andy Warhol has a blog
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If you ever wanted to hear Tom Baker sing 'House of the Rising Son'; man o man, do I have a link for you.
Otherwise, I can only offer you a festive collection of a variety of furry lobsters.
Your call.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
Friday, April 21, 2006
beats a steamed ox penis, right?
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First off, I'm embarrassingly late in spreading some props to my audioblogging brethren at music for robots, lemon red and soulsides; these cats got the gumption to go out and drop honest-to-god CD mixes of their favorite tunage for discriminating listeners. I'd like to take a moment to heartily applaud, endorse and give love to their enterprises; we're still in the early days of the internet and I'm always excited and curious to see where this strange little ham-radio-stylee audioblog adventure will lead us.
I'm neither bright nor economically-minded enough to release a Tofu sampler for the non-internet savvy, but all this wonderful audioblogging action got me thinking that it's been far too long since we here at the Hut have dropped a cohesive series of tracks. Well wait no longer, Hutsketeers!
Today's entry marks the beginning of a four week cycle of posts that I'm calling 'The Lucky 13'; it's a twenty-six song, seventy-minute collection of fairly obscure and lovingly handpicked favorites that spans the years 1945 to 1960, offering what I consider to be a pretty impressive selection of R+B flavored rock from luminaries and unjustly forgotten artists alike. And what's a better way to start our piecemeal than with a wacky snack? Let's kick off the Lucky 13 with two 1956 Brooklynite doo-wop tracks about oddball edibles.
glisten - Lucky 13 Pt. 1: Amazing Appetizers
#1: The Rays - Moo Goo Gai Pan
The Rays heyday came at the tail end of the fifties; they toured heavily on the strength of their massive 1957 hit 'Silhouettes' (tip of the tofu hat to The Central Oklahoma Classic Chevy Club for the realaudio link). 'Silhouettes' solidified The Rays as a perennial doowop touchstone; you can find the band's music in as recent a nostalgiafest as the currently-running Broadway show Jersey Boys.
Awful hard to believe this track came from the same guys, eh? The band's first release in 1956 was 'Tippety Top' on the Chess Label; 'Moo Goo Gai Pan' was that disc's nutty B-Side. It's a bouncy, relentlessly dumb song that shouldn't hold your attention for five minutes and yet, fifty years later, it still rocks the house.
tell me more about it...
A Rays best-of collection titled 'Silhouettes' does exist, but it appears to be long out of print. No luck finding any of their material other than their big hit on iTunes or eMusic or much of anyplace else, but if you'd like to hear more nostly unknown doowop with a foodie bent, you could buy 'Delicious Doo Wop and Tasty Treats' Volume 2' direct from Dead Dog Records.
I've not done business with them and can't vouch for the sound quality of the disc, but the price is right (fourteen bucks, delivered to your door) and the titles are temptingly absurd. If anyone DOES buy this disc, drop me a line and tell me what you think; I might follow suit.
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Read a bit more about the history of The Rays.
And here's a trick that you might find useful: hold down the control key and roll your mouse's scroll wheel. Better?
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Explore this absurdly broad collection of "nonsense syllabses" songs from 1930 to 1969.
Google cache; I loves ya.
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For the record, Moo Goo Gai Pan is NOT a traditional Chinese dish; it's an American riff on the Cantonese Mah Gu Gai Pin, which apparently translates roughly as 'button mushrooms with chicken'. If you'd like to make your very own Moo Goo Gai Pan, there are any number of recipes for this popular stir-fry: you could do a low-fat version or one that's low in sodium; whip some up with family or, heck, even make it WITH family.
Just don't scrimp on the Crisco, y'hear?
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Listen to some "authentic Shanghainese dinner music" from Zhou Xuan, China's Golden Throat of the forties.
The site housing these excellent bonus tracks was found on eatingchinese.org, which features dozens of fascinating resources for those who would like to learn more about the history and art of Chinese cuisine, Americanized or otherwise.
#2 - The Chips - Rubber Biscuit
As little-known as The Rays are today, the Bed-Stuy kids of The Chips always had them beat on the count of obscurity; the band made only one record with its original line-up... but what a record! 'Rubber Biscuit' was released in '56 and never charted, but was kept alive for decades by late night and Dr. Demento-esque DJs on the East coast as an essential go-to non-sequitur.
The song had an unlikely revival in 1979 when Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, in full Blues Brothers regalia, performed it on Saturday Night Live. The Blues Brothers cover became a top-40 hit, spawned a like-named tribute band and even spurred a brief Chips reunion tour.
More's the pity then that the original remains such a rarely heard gem; it's THE novelty song, one that made the cut for Dave Marsh's Top 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time and that Frank Zappa dubbed "the ultimate in nonsensical music". He knows whereof he speaks; 'Rubber Biscuit' is one for the ages.
tell me more about it...
'Rubber Biscuit' has appeared in all manner of compilations and soundtracks (most recently in the docudrama Super Size Me). It also turns up in the aforementioned Delicious Doo Wop and Tasty Treats but if you simply MUST own a copy of the song on CD, why not buy 'Rubber Biscuits and Rama Lama Ding Dongs: Doo Wop For Kids' from Rhino Records via Amazon? It's sure a lot cheaper than trying to get the original on vinyl.
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Apparently, you can't even get a rubber biscuit for nothing anymore.
They start at five bucks.
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Read the transcribed lyrics.
Woody woody pecka pecka, y'all!
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spiffy
This is why I finally gave in and got an emusic account: they appear to have the entire catalog for Document Records.
Which is FUCKING AWESOME. Go get you some.
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I imagine this already got boingboinged, but if you haven't taken a peek around Kondoff's Records, you've a treat in store (pun intended).
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MC Spookytooth: The Rapping Deputy Prosecutor of Arkansas
Surely someone could say something here about what this means in the grander scheme of the history of hip hop, but I ain't the one.
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Dert is an LA DJ who's mashed Hut favorite Jose Gonzalez with Nas, Common, Kanye, Talib and Madlib to make the Gonzalez-approved / Nice and Smooth-inspired 'Sometimes I Rhyme Slow', which is about a hundred times better than it has any right to be.
Seven bucks seems about the right price for this; I should get my copy shortly.
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The internet has a lot to offer, but few sites offer quite as much bounce per ounce as The Bounce-o-Meter.
Much more bounce for the NSFW ounce, kids.
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Biblioddysey is an excellent clearinghouse for all manner of plates, prints, maps, charts and illustrations from the musty tomes of yesteryear.
Primo desktop fodder and a great time-sink to explore.
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Ten full minutes of Oscar(TM)-Winning "Crunchy Black Talking Much Shit"
Quoth Darnell: "Crunchy sez 'You Lost In the Sauce'."
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The Avalanches 'Frontier Psychiatrist' is much fun; positing a universe in which all samples are not only cleared, but live.
Labels: clicky, Lucky 13, music
