David Berthy Posts

Today I’ve got my two favorite covers of the Beatles song “And I Love
Her.” The first, from Os Mutantes member Rita Lee’s first solo album,
is definitely the grower of the two. Lee gives a full-throated, sci-fi
cabaret treatment to the song that’s a bit shocking at first, but
ultimately insanely winning. While David Bowie is watching the
cruisers below, he should be listening to this. The second cover comes
from a young Bob Marley, who turns the pop song into a deep soul
number by pouring his heart into it. Without losing the sweetness of
the song’s underlying sentiment, Marley sings it almost like a lament.
He aches, but with what pleasure.

Beatles Covers

Swiss electronica Band yellow is probably best known for "Oh Yeah", which has been used in countless films, most notable Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Their 1983 album You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess was a staple in my high school soundtrack. The single "Swing" falls somewhere between The Sparks and The Cure's Love Cats, released the same year.

Swing-Yellow

CELLULOID HEROES-THE KINKS

Start your weekend off right and join Hayward Bluegrass for Honky Tonk Happy Hour from 6-8 PM tonight at Uncommon Ground at 1401 W. Devon. Don't burn the place down, though, k?

Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms-George Jones with Melba Montgomery

David Berthy Posts

One doesn't think of the Everly Brothers exploring their psychedelic
side, but sure enough, there they are on cover of 1967's Roots wearing
love beads, frilly neo-Victorian sleeves, and pants that surely
would've looked at home on Carnaby Street. This wasn't just about
fashion, though. In the late sixties, the Brothers Everly churned out
some oft-overlooked masterpieces of psychedelic folk up there with the
best of the era. Check out their re-make of their early hit "I Wonder
if I Care As Much," and "Lord of the Manner." I love the marriage of
pop perfection that brought Don and Phil fame at an early age with the
expansiveness of an out sixties soundscape, and wish there was more of
this to go around.

Everly Brothers

After playing holiday songs, Chicago Blues, motown, and obscure movie tunes for the past several months, teen band Trace's guitarist Elijah is ready to get back to his first love-classic rock. Maybe Back in Black...or Voodoo Chile...or Paint it Black...or Sunshine of Your Love. When we brought Cream's SOYL in to play for the band, they roundly voted it down. So I went in search of an R&B version of the song to sneak in some cred on Elijah's behalf. The only two I could find were Bobby McFerrin's insufferable acapella take and this curiosity from Ella Fitzgerald, a late career effort to get hip to what the kids were listening to in 1969, the year of its release.


Ella Ftizgerald-Sunshine of Your Love

The World of Garage Rock lost one of its strongest voices last week as Cramps Lead Singer Lux Interior died at the age of 60. Apart from holding one of greatest stage names in the history of music, LI was a pioneer in blending punk and rockabilly into a new genre which would become psychobilly. The band took the rockabilly and surf guitar sounds of Link Wray and Dick Dale, and fused them with early garage bands such as the Sonics to create a sound that would influence countless bands. Both The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the White Stripes built on the sound by mixing it with the blues idiom to create the punk blues genre that would become popular in the late 90"s.

1984's Bad Music for Bad People is a stone cold classic, and a must for any record collector.

HUMAN FLY

Recessional pt. 2

Though less celebrated than Joe Strummer, ex-Clash co-mastermind Mick Jones went on to a distinguished career with Big Audio Dymanite after being ousted by his bandmates post 1981's Combat Rock. B.A.D furthers expands on the third world dance floor sound that the Clash explored on Sandanista, and to great success. Included here are two tracks. The first is The Bottom Line from the 1985 debut This is Big Audio Dynamite, a dancefloor anthem for tough economic times. The second is Rush, from 1991's The Globe...see if you can spot the Who Sample. If I were a DJ, I would bust these both out from time to time.



B.A.D.

David Berthy Posts

Today I've got some reinterpretations of Jamaican dub from the early
eighties. First up is the Clash's "Shepherd's Delight," which comes
from their sprawling 1980 album Sandanista. I never get tired of the
mix of sounds here, especially the one that sounds like the squawk of
a baby dinosaur. "How Much Are They?" is a solo effort by Can's
legendarily eccentric bassist Holger Czukay. There's a Can documentary
I saw once where Czukay gives up the bass to play an assortment of
what appear to be ham radios. The rest of the band members sort of
shrug, maybe because occasionally his knob-twiddling produced
something as singular as this. As a bonus, I'll throw in something
closer to the source: "Justice to the People," from Lee "Scratch"
Perry's album The Upsetter.

Dub Interpretations

New music today from Antony and the Johnsons. Like Patti Smith, while I really love Antony in theory, he's not always easy to listen to. I like this track quite a bit though, and a title like that requires a listen! Also, I'm taken with the lyrics:

Epilepsy is dancing
Shes the Christ now departing
And Im finding my rhythm
As I twist in the snow

All the metal burned in me
Down the brain of my river
That fire was searching
For a waterway home

I cry glitter is love!
My eyes pinned inside
With green jewels
Hanging like Christmas stars
From a golden vein

As I came to a screaming
Hold me while Im dreaming
For my fingers are curling
And I cannot breathe

Then I cried in the kitchen
How Id seen your ghost witching
As a soldering blue line
Between my eyes

I cry glitter is love!
My eyes
Pinned inside
Sea green jewels
Hanging like Christmas stars
From a golden vein

Cut me in quadrants
Leave me in the corner
Oh now its passing
Oh now Im dancing

Epilepsy is Dancing

Fans of Blue Eyed soul should pick up the 1974 debut album Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley from Robert Palmer. Best known for his 80's supermodel megahit Addicted to Love, SSTTA has a less slick, more organic sound, with RP backed by the Meters, Little Feat's Lowell George, and Allen Toussaint.

Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley

David Berthy Posts

Produced in the early seventies, the Sparks song “Fletcher Honorama”
strikes me as a loving parody of some of the excesses of early sixties
psychedelia: it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine Syd Barret singing
this song while being chased by a giant lobster wearing a monocle.
Like the best parodies, the song is more than strong enough to stand
on its own, and creates its own sort of parallell universe where wit
isn't absent from the fifth dimension.

Fletcher Honorama

New Wave Soundtrack King Trifecta Complete

The grand poobah of the indie soundtrack world is Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, who scored all of the Wes Anderson Films as well as countless other TV and movie soundtracks including Pee Wee's Playhouse.


Royal Tennenbaums

New Wave Soundtrack King Part II

When he wasn't playing with the Police as one of the worlds greatest drummers, Stewart Copeland was busy making records of his own. Recording under the name Klark Kent, SC released this terrific toss off EP in 1980, on which he himself played every instrument and sang every note. In his post Police career, SC went on the compose television (The Equalizer, etc) and movie soundtrack music (Wall Street, Talk Radio, etc.)

Don't Care