The Strangest of Supergroups

More of a loose collective than a band, the Golden Palominos featured a revolving line-up for each new record. 1985's "Visions of Excess", features Richard Thompson, Michael Stipe, Jack Bruce, John Lydon, Bernie Worell, Bill Laswell,and GP core members Anton Fier and Arto Lindsay. Here is the lead track Boy(go), with Michael Stipe on Lead Vocals.

DOWNLOAD BOY(GO)

Soul Country

If I ever do you wrong
If I ever leave you all alone
If I ever tell you a lie
If I ever make you cry

I hope a fly lands on my pie
I hope a bee stings me over my eye...
I love my pie,
I love my eye,
so you know I'll never do you wrong.

So sings soul balladeer Joe Tex on this smooth and playful ditty from his 1968 album "Soul Country", which features several versions of country pop songs, including Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe.

DOWNLOAD IF I EVER DO YOU WRONG

I Fall in Love with The Light

Many months back, David Anthony Singer sent me a gorgeous song, The Orchids, from Califone. I knew it was a cover and that the original version was by Psychic TV, a band I vaguely remember hearing about freshman year in High School. Born out of earlier punk bands Alternative TV and Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV began publishing a monthly series of 23 live albums in 1986, but stopped without explanation after 17.The tenth, a picture disk known as Album 10, could only be obtained by submitting tokens contained in each of the previous nine releases. The band subsequently earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year.

I hunted down the original version of The Orchids and enjoyed it immensely. Whereas Califone's version is hushed and melancholic, the original has an innocent, naive quality to it. Its the kind of track I would expect to turn up in the next Wes Anderson Movie, as at the rate he's moving through the Kinks catalogue, he'll soon be up to the "Come Dancing" era.

DOWNLOAD THE ORCHIDS BY PSYCHIC TV

VIDEO BONUS!!!! I enjoyed "The Orchids" so much that I went searching for more from Psychic TV and happened upon "Godstar", a pop nugget that pays tribute to Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, using the riff from Brown Sugar as its main motif. It sounds entirely unlike "The Orchids". Rather, it sounds to me a lot like Echo and the Bunnymen, Love and Rockets, and even the Pixies. Heres the video:

El Perro Del Mar

El Perro Del Mar is the project of the unfortunately named Swedish songstress Sarah Assbring. Reminiscent of 60's French pop, the music is relaxed and the vocal delivery childlike, making it a nice Sunday morning sountrack.

Download Candy by El Perro Del Mar

Rusted Guns of Milan

Art Brut's Impotence anthem was the highlight of their blistering set at Metro on Halloween. I happen to love this band, but if you're not a fan, I can understand why, especially if melody is important to you, even a little. For me their sheer exuberance, brutal simplicity, and great sense of humor make up for that little omission. Oh, also, their drummer, dressed like an extra from Starlight Express or Xanadu, played the entire show standing up. I'm not talking about some Stray Cats thing with just a snare and a ride either... this was a full-on ROCK, and he was fantastic.

DOWNLOAD THE RUSTED GUNS OF MILAN

PS. If you should ever want to create your own Art Brut song, just follow these easy steps-

1.Pick A Phrase, any phrase- Shout it 3-4 for times in a row- this will be your chorus, and in most cases, your song title.
(Leave the lights on, we formed a band, modern art makes me want to rock out, my little brother just discovered rock & roll, and I'm considering a move to LA have all worked for Art Brut)

2. Make up a story and tell it in a spoken, conversational tone. If possible, it should be confessional and make some reference to how lucky you your are to be getting laid, or how unlucky you are not to be getting laid, or in the case of this song, how bad you are at it. This will become your verse.

3. Come up with some irresistable monster riffage behind it and some group chanted oohs and ahhs

A Little Trip To Heaven

Before Tom Waits was the junkyard growler we've come to love on stellar albums such as Swordfish Trombones, Rain Dogs, and Frank's Wild Years, he was a beatnik Cabaret act and a piano balladeer. Here's a sweet little ditty from his early demos, recorded when he was 22 years of age.

Download Little Trip to Heaven

Sail Away

DAS tells me this one is actually about slave trading, but I always just assumed it was about the early North American settlers. In any case, enjoy it and Happy Thanksgiving!
Its the title track from Randy Newman's 1972 album. Meet you back here on Monday!

Download Sail Away

Great Debuts-Herbie Hancock

Quickdraw's requested some Jazz, so here's the first track from Herbie Hancock's 1962 Debut album as a leader, Takin'Off. The album was recorded when HH was 22, and would catch the ear of Miles Davis, whose new band Herbie joined in 1963.

Download Watermelon Man


Herbie refashioned Watermelon Man for the Fusion/Funk Magnum Opus "Headhunters"in
1973, one of the highest selling "jazz" LPs of all time. Listen to it here:

Tribute Song

Many months back, David Anthony Singer sent me a gorgeous song, The Orchids, from Califone. I knew it was a cover and that the original version was by Psychic TV, a band I vaguely remember hearing about freshman year in High School. Born out of earlier punk bands Alternative TV and Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV began publishing a monthly series of 23 live albums in 1986, but stopped without explanation after 17.The tenth, a picture disk known as Album 10, could only be obtained by submitting tokens contained in each of the previous nine releases. The band subsequently earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year.

I hunted down the original version of The Orchids and enjoyed it immensely. Whereas Califone's version is hushed and melancholic, the original has an innocent, naive quality to it. Its the kind of track I would expect to turn up in the next Wes Anderson Movie, as at the rate he's moving through the Kinks catalogue, he'll soon be up to the "Come Dancing" era.

DOWNLOAD THE ORCHIDS BY PSYCHIC TV

VIDEO BONUS!!!! I enjoyed "The Orchids" so much that I went searching for more from Psychic TV and happened upon "Godstar", a pop nugget that pays tribute to Brian Wilson from the Rolling Stones, using the riff from Brown Sugar as its main motif. It sounds entirely unlike "The Orchids". Rather, it sounds to me a lot like Echo and the Bunnymen, Love and Rockets, and even the Pixies. Heres the video:

Honky Tonk Masters-Waylon Jennings

Chris Lozier sent me this, Waylon's version of Roger Miller's "I've been a Long Time Leaving (But I'll be a Long Time Gone) from his 1975 LP Dreaming My Dreams. This track is a lot of things at once...rowdy but playful, heartbroken but humored, growling but crooning too. The chorus would make a great singalong for the wiggleworms set. Consensus on the album seems to be that its Waylon at his absolute best. Whoop whoop!

DOWNLOAD I'VE BEEN A LONG TIME LEAVING (BUT I"LL BE A LONG TIME GONE)

BUY THE ALBUM HERE

My First Concert

I adore my father for myriad reasons, but the greatest thing ever was when he took me to see Rush at The Checkerdome in St. Louis (STL=Purina HQ) on the Signals Tour in 1982. I was in middle school and had just started to play the drums, and of course Neil Peart was my greatest hero, very soon to be replaced by Stewart Copeland, then Phil Collins, and finally, Nigel Olsson (Elton John). The Cardinals were in the World Series that year, and so for the entire concert, my father was listening to the game on these giant radio headphones (like the ones pictured). It was so deafeningly loud that he probably couldn't hear a thing about the game, but at least his hearing was being protected. I believe the Cards won that night, and after NP's drum solo, I felt like a world champion myself.

Do you remember your first show ever?

Start your weekend right and DOWNLOAD SPIRIT OF THE RADIO BY RUSH

BONUS VIDEO-Live in 88

**Bad Idea Grab Bag** The Stills-Young Band's Black Coral

"At Two hundred eighty seven feet
I saw Jesus
and it made sense that He was there"

So goes the lyric to "Black Coral", the epic scuba-diving-as-metaphor-for-the-fast -life song from the ill fated 1976 Stills-Young Band LP "Long May You Run".

"Take it easy down there, you've only so much air"

indeed, Stephen, indeed.

Sent to me by Tony B, the song is quite a curiosity, with its overblown arrangements and relentless extension of metaphor. Its gets pretty groovy in the middle there, though. The circumstances of the making of this album are pretty sketchy too.
The rest of CSNY recorded backing vocals for the record, which Stills and Young decided they didn't like and removed. Then, just a few dates into their 30 date tour, Young bailed, leaving Stills to finish solo. Apparently fed up with Still's booze and drug consumption (How else does a song like Black Coral get made?), he simply left the tour and sent a telegram "Funny how things that start spontaneously end that way... Eat a peach, Neil." God Bless Neil Young
DOWNLOAD BLACK CORAL

Between You and Me

You may know him as Cooper on Private Practice, but Paul Adelstein also writes, records, and performs under the Doris moniker. Many years in the making, "Between You and Me" is one of my favorite albums, and I've been listening to it quite a bit in recent days. Here is the opening track-Heartstrings.

DOWNLOAD HEARTSRINGS

BUY THE ALBUM HERE OR ON ITUNES
(Judging by the comments, I'd say Paul is big in Europe!)

Great Moments in Vocalese

Vocalese was born in the early 50's, when singers began writing lyrics set to solos in previously instrumental Jazz compositions. Whereas scat singing uses improvised nonsense syllables, vocalese uses lyrics... The word "vocalese" is a play on the musical term "vocalise" and the suffix "-ese", meant to indicate a sort of language.

King Pleasure was a pioneer in the genre. Here's a track from the classic album King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings. Its timeless, and also includes "Twisted" from Annie Ross, which Joni Mitchell Later recorded.

DOWNLOAD I'M GONE

Have You Been to the Carnival?

Todays's post comes courtesy of FI Modern Adventure Rock svengali Tony Bianchi
I dont' know too much about this band, except that they are aussies, and they are really good at sounding like all the founding fathers of metal, i.e. zeppelin, sabbath, etc. But after a listen or two you (well, I) don't mind because they are that good at it.

Plus the dude has incredibly cool hair (Click Here to See)

DOWNLOAD WHITE UNICORN

Bonus-Check out the awesome fantasy artwork on their site

Beautiful Boy

The FI Community Welcomes Cyrus Hyunjun Black to the world!!!
Born yesterday morning, the hardy boy is 8 lbs 5oz, with a full head of hair.
New Dad Brian reports that the family is exhausted but doing well.

Congrats to Brian, Heiji, and Cyrus!

In celebration, today's song is John Lennon's Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy).

DOWNLOAD BEAUTIFUL BOY


For those to lazy to download, listen here

When Classic Rockers Went Disco

Back in the late Seventies, they all gave it a go, some with more success than others. The ones that quickly come to mind are:

1. Miss You- The Rolling Stones
2. One Of These Nights- The Eagles
3. Shakedown Street- The Grateful Dead
4. Hurricane-Bob Dylan
5. Do Ya think I'm Sexy- Rod Stewart

Miss You is listed at the top for a reason, as its head and shoulders above the rest. The whole album (Some Girls) is terrific, probably the last great Stones record, with the exception of Tattoo You a few years later.


DOWNLOAD MISS YOU BY THE ROLLING STONES

The King of Swamp Pop

Swamp Pop is a style out of Louisiana, akin to Cajun, but leaning heavily towards 50's rock and country twang. Its leading practitioner, Johnny Allan, is best known for this version of Chuck Berry's "The Promised Land". I came across it on a compilation a while back and was struck by how smoothly it rocks all the way through. Dig the accordian breaks!

DOWNLOAD THE PROMISED LAND

Thats You My Love-Johnny Cool

Guest Post Today from FI's Rare Soul expert David Berthy


I found "That's You My Love" on a deceased soul blog called, "Funk & Soul." It must be a pretty rare 45, because web searches reveal only one other song by Johnny Cool and the Counts and no biographical details whatsoever about the group. Whoever they were, they're responsible for one of my favorite songs. Neither the lyrics of the song nor the sentiments they express are especially original, the guitar isn't tuned all that well, and the singer can't really sing. Despite, or maybe because of these reasons, the song conveys an almost unbearable sense of ache. We can tell by the singer's tobacco-cured, middle-aged voice that this isn't the first song he's sung, and we can reasonably speculate the object of his affections isn't the first woman he's loved. Whoever she is, we know from the lyrics that she's taken her share of lumps. The result is the rare love song that works as a break-up song. It sounds good at a wedding, for sure, but it also sounds good to those who drink until last call because they don't want to go home to an empty bed. If anyone knows anything about Johnny Cool and the Counts, or has a copy of the other song mentioned mentioned on the web, "The Love Bounce" please let me know.


DOWNLOAD THATS YOU MY LOVE

A Ranch They Call No. 51

Heres a song about UFO's landing on the Vegas Strip, from the Pixies underrated 1990 album Bossanova.

Download The Happening

Rusted Guns of Milan

Art Brut's Impotence anthem was the highlight of their blistering set at Metro on Halloween. I happen to love this band, but if you're not a fan, I can understand why, especially if melody is important to you, even a little. For me their sheer exuberance, brutal simplicity, and great sense of humor make up for that little omission. Oh, also, their drummer, dressed like an extra from Starlight Express or Xanadu, played the entire show standing up. I'm not talking about some Stray Cats thing with just a snare and a ride either... this was a full-on ROCK, and he was fantastic.


DOWNLOAD THE RUSTED GUNS OF MILAN

PS. If you should ever want to create your own Art Brut song, just follow these easy steps-

1.Pick A Phrase, any phrase- Shout it 3-4 for times in a row- this will be your chorus, and in most cases, your song title.
(Leave the lights on, we formed a band, modern art makes me want to rock out, my little brother just discovered rock & roll, and I'm considering a move to LA have all worked for Art Brut)

2. Make up a story and tell it in a spoken, conversational tone. If possible, it should be confessional and make some reference to how lucky you your are to be getting laid, or how unlucky you are not to be getting laid, or in the case of this song, how bad you are at it. This will become your verse.

3. Come up with some irresistable monster riffage behind it and some group chanted oohs and ahhs

The Fabulous, Most Groovy, Bell Bottoms!

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion took Hound Dog Taylor's Two Guitar and Drums Blues assault to new heights in 1994, adding strings, samples, theramin, shrieking sax and a heavy dose of punk attitude on Orange, an epic party record. Still no bass though.

DOWNLOAD BELL BOTTOMS

VIDEO BONUS! Talk About The Blues Video featuring Winona Ryder, John C. Reilly, and Giovanni Ribisi as The Blue Explosion

Songs That Scared Me as a Child

I was thinking yesterday about songs that scared me when I was little. There were a bunch of them, and the ones that come to mind immediately are:

1. Theme from Mahogany (Do you Know Where You're Going to)-Diana Ross. Numero uno for sure, this song creeped me out big time. The chord progression is jarringly eery,and the question "Where are you going to, do you know?" spooked me at a young age, just as it does now!

2. Eleanor Rigby- The Beatles-Those tense string arrangements (which make up the entire song), all the talk of loneliness, and images of teeth in a jar by the door were all unsettling to little Simo

3. Sundown-Gordon Lightfoot. This one didn't scare me per se, but I found these lines confusing and menacing.

Sundown, You'd Better Take Care
If I find you've been creeping round my back stairs

What does that man? I didn't want anyone creeping round my back stair either.
I dug the groove so much, though, I didn't really care


DOWNLOAD SUNDOWN BY GORDON LIGHTFOOT

Do you have a song that scared you when you were little? If so, leave a comment!