To Tha Extreme

Houston Rapper Devin The Dude

Over the past couple of years I've become a big fan of Houston rapper Devin The Dude. The Dude has enjoyed a long career on Rap-A-Lot Records and first came to prominence as a guest on Dr. Dre's 2001 Album.

Stylistically, DTD is the James Taylor of Hip Hop, with his frog in the throat voice and laid back delivery. I know its crossed his mind because he covered "Handy Man" when he played Intonation in 2006 and sampled "Shower the People" on his 2004 album To Tha Xtreme.

Contentwise its mostly about smoking weed and rolling with the ladies, but something about the juxtaposition of his crass lyrical content with his sweet, relaxed style makes his music wickedly funny.

I highly reccommend both To Tha Xtreme and the 2007 album Waiting to Inhale, featuring today's download, "What a Job This Is". Listen for great guest spots from Andre 3000 and Snoop Dogg on this ode to the recording life.

DOWNLOAD WHAT A JOB

Pure Pop Pt. 2

Yes, its another pop nugget from Nick Lowe, who's just re-issued his seminal 1978 album Jesus of Cool (renamed Pure Pop for Now People for its original US release). The hook laden bevy of tunes on this record stand the test of time, sounding as fresh today as they did back in the seventies. The cover is a pretty good representation of the music, which shifts stylistically from song to song. Highly recommended! B

DOWNLOAD SO IT GOES

Tonight You Belong to Me x 3

David Singer and Eva Yusa performed a lovely version of the ditty "Tonight You Belong To me" at The Ukulele Cabaret. It was written in 1926 and recorded many times throughout the years. The uke version was made famous by Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in the 1979 movie The Jerk, with Martin playing the ukulele and Peters playing the cornet:



Oh and here's David and Eva Playing it (sorry so dark!):



And Fiona Apple with Jon Brion and Nickel Creek:

Hawaiian Sunset

David Berthy sent me this track prior to his terrific Elvis monologue at the Ukulele Cabaret a couple of weeks back. His reading, both funny and sad, was a first person rumination from beyond the grave about a variety of real life issues and events from Elvis including cars, karate, Richard Nixon, Colonel Parker, and more... revelaing a core of loneliness and loss as he read.

The song is from the 1961 Album and movie Blue Hawaii, and I can't stop listening to it. One thing Elvis' swindler/svengali Colonel Parker always insisted on was that Elvis record at least ten songs for every movie he made so that he would have a full album ready with every film he released.

I believe a full scale Elvis phase is on my horizon.

DOWNLOAD HAWAIIAN SUNSET

Heroes and Villains

Brian Wilson & Mike Love

When I was little, my parents took me and my brother to Streetside records from time to time and let each of us pick out an album. After a few missteps (Most notably Sha Na Na Live), I scored Endless Summer from the Beach Boys, a double best of collection.

Though I wasn't hip to who was singing what at that tender age, I could tell that there were two very different things going on. On the one hand, there was a high school guy football captain type singing faux Chuck Berry songs about surfboards, chicks, hot rods, and school lockers, and on the other was the class outcast singing complicated love songs and aural renderings of a strange and beautiful inner world. They featured incredibly lush harmonies and a warm emotional center.

I didn't think of it in these terms of course, but
it was the songs of Brian Wilson I was drawn to and the songs of Mike Love I skipped:

Brian Wilson (Hero):

The Warmth of The Sun
In My Room
Good Vibrations
God Only Knows
Let Him Run
Don't Worry Baby
Caroline No
Wouldn't it Be Nice
Wendy
Surfer Girl


Mike Love (Villain):

Surfing Safari
Be True to Your School
Little Deuce Coup
California Girls
Catch A Wave
Surfing USA
I Get Around (I Like this one!)
KOKOMO!!!!!!?????

No wonder Brian Wilson eventually lost his mind!

So as I head out today for a vacation to warmer climbs, it is of course a Brian Wilson Gem I leave you with.

DOWNLOAD SURFER GIRL

PS> FI will return next Tuesday

Back in The Game

Like Syl Johnson, FI is back in the game! By way of explanation, I had decided to stop posting because I truly thought that no one was Fingerhutting. Well, you all proved me wrong, so thanks for chiming in! Let me know you're out there from time to time...

Here's a fitting track from Chicago R&B Legend Syl Johnson.
In the 70's, he recorded three albums for Willie Mitchell's Hi Records label , produced with the Hi house band ( who created that signature Al Green sound). This song, certainly not his strongest material (downright brutal actuallly), is the title track from his 1994 comeback album on the local Delmark imprint.

DOWNLOAD BACK IN THE GAME

DOWNLOAD A REALLY GREAT EARLY SYL SONG-DIFFERENT STROKES

Adieu, Adieu!

Well, folks, all good things must come to an end, and FI is no exception!
We're going on hiatus until further notice, so heres to many sonic adventures for us all until we meet again on these pages!

DOWNLOAD GOODNIGHT LADIES

This is the outer and inner sleeve photos from Daryl Hall & John Oates Self-titled 1975 album. Daryl Hall later said in an interview of their androgynous look that he made himself up to "look like the girl I had always wanted to go out with". John Oates looks utterly like Prince, 8 year before the purple one would hit the scene.

The hit Sarah Smile appears on this record...blue eyed Philly soul at its finest!

Ten years before his first solo #1 hit Lucille, Kenny Rogers formed The First Edition in 1967. The country rock outfit signed with Reprise Records and recorded the pop-psychedelic single "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)". Two years later tehy again hit the charts with this complex love song "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", about a disabled veteran slowly losing the one he loves.

DOWNLOAD RUBY, DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN

Happy Valentines Day from Reggae Legend Horace Andy!

Download Sea of Love

Vision Deferred

Reading the paper, I saw a review
Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew
Now that's been a problem
feeling unseen
Just like I'm living somebody's dream

What am I doing anyway
Telling myself it's not too late

My children look away they don't know
what to say

So starts the first track "Not too Late" from Lindsey Buckingham's 2007 solo album, Under The Skin, released 34 years after his debut album with Stevie Nicks in 1973. Buckingham Nicks would be dropped from their label after the record stiffed and then join Fleetwood Mac a year later.

Buckingham is a hero of mine... as a guitar player (fingerpicker, no pick,ever), producer, singer, and songwriter. I like his willingness to lay himself absolutely bare before the listener. Hushed and direct, his voice is so close it sounds like its inside your head and his gorgeously amped up fingerpicking creates a suitably claustrophobic aura.

For my money, its one of the finer and more overlooked efforts of 2007.



DOWNLOAD NOT TOO LATE

They All Look Just The Same

I've been enjoying a WEEDS marathon as of late, and never seem to tire of the theme song, Little Boxes, sung by Malvina Reynolds. For season two and beyond, the suburban sprawl ditty is performed each week by a different act, including Elvis Costello, The Shins, Regina Spektor, Deathcab and more, but its the original I like best.


DOWNLOAD LITTLE BOXES

Herbie Takes Off

Congratulations to Jazz Pioneer Herbie Hancock, who beat out both Amy Winehouse and Kanye West to win the Best Album Grammy last night, an honor which hasn't gone to a jazz musician since 1964. The Album, River-The Joni Letters, is a collection of Joni Mitchell Compositons including performances by Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, and Norah Jones who appears on today's track, Court & Spark.

DOWNLOAD COURT & SPARK BY HERBIE HANCOCK WITH NORAH JONES

Worst is Best Vol 1

For me, there are very few artists for whom the formula is this:

The worse their music is, the more I love it.

Lou Reed tops the list by a margin of infinity

I will prove this to you periodically

lets start with a track thats only marginally terrible, so that we have somewhere to go from there later.

After his "music to slit your wrists by, Vol 1" 1973 opus Berlin, RCA begged Lou to lighten up, literally. In 1974, He died his hair bleach blond and put out an R&B record, Sally Can't Dance. I think the logic was that his "doo doo doo" back-up singers worked to make Walk on the Wild Side a hit on Transformer two years earlier, so lets try again! The results are hilarious. Lou gets funky ala Robert Palmer!


DOWNLOAD SALLY CAN'T DANCE

Winterlong

my long distance dedication to Spring.
Its the Pixies covering Neil Young's Winterlong from The Bridge Tribute Album.

DOWNLOAD WINTERLONG

Like Father Like Son

Music from Liam Finn, Son of Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House Fame. From his 2007 debut album I'll Be Lightning, on which the younger Finn plays most of the instruments himself, with dad joining on bass.

DOWNLOAD LEAD BALLOON

Here's to a Super Super Tuesday



DOWNLOAD CHOCOLATE CITY

Upper West Side Soweto

I caught these guys on letterman last week and liked their mix of Indie Rock and afrobeat. Their self-titled debut came out last week.

DOWNLOAD MANSARD ROOF BY VAMPIRE WEEKEND