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

New Wave Soundtrack King Part 1

Before he wrote the Simpsons theme and about a thousand other television and film scores, Danny Elfman was busy leading american new wave outfit Oingo Boingo, whose sound falls midway between Devo and XTC. This song, the title track from 1981's Only A Lad, was a freshman year high school favorite of mine and makes great Friday music. Enjoy the weekend!

Only A Lad

David Berthy Posts

My sister gave me the new Kinks box set Picture Book for my birthday recently. For fans of the Kinks, it’s probably not the best investment, as no doubt you own most of the music already and the band’s later work is a mixed-bag at best, but Picture Book does reward with some rarities. I thought I’d share two of my favorites. The first is the hauntingly beautiful “I Go To Sleep,” a Ray Davies demo recorded in 1965 that explores the eerie side of unrequited love. Next up is a performance of “This Strange Effect” for the BBC. Another example of British melancholy, this track seems a natural for a bar scene in a David Lynch film where everyone drinks in silence except for two il-fated lovers who linger by the jukebox so they can play “This Strange

Kinks Rarities

About five years ago, Norah Jones and some pals put together a band based on their love of country classics. The result was an album featuring covers of tracks by Hank Williams (I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive), Willie Nelson (Gotta Get Drunk and Nightlife), Townes Van Zandt (No Place to Fall) and Kris Kristofferson (Best of All Possible Worlds). There are a couple of originals, and I like this one
best.

Roll On

On Sound Opinions this past week, Dero and Kot both trashed and burned the new album from Andrew Bird for being wordy, rambling, and short on song-writing. I've never been a huge fan of AB, but enjoy his peculiar whistle and violin laden folk pop from time to time. When I heard the song Oh No from the new record, I recognized the chord progression right away, but couldn't put a name to it. After several more listens, I realized it was the 1978 hit Fool if You Think Its Over by Chris Rea.




Oh No



Fool If You Think Its Over

I turned on Elvis Costello's hosted live music show Spectacle this weekend to see Kris Kristofferson singing this one, from his debut album back in 1970. Though the album stiffed, several songs would become hits for other artists-most notable Me and Bobby Mcgee for Janis Joplin and SMCD for Johnny Cash. While the first couple of Spectacle episodes I saw were complete train wrecks mostly due to EC's poor interview skills and brash musical interpretations, its been getting better with every episode.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Props to The Hitmaker for hipping me to this smooth soul revival music from Raphael Saadiq, who first came to prominence as lead singer and bass player of the new jack swing/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! back in the late 80's. He went on to collaborate with D'Angelo, Q-Tip, and countless others before going solo.His third solo LP The Way I See It, released late last year, is packed with velvet grooves and guest appearances from Joss Stone, Jay X, and Stevie Wonder.

100 Yard dash

David Berthy Posts

“The More I See You” is an effervescent piece of lounge pop by sixties sensation Chris Montez that strikes a surprising note of sincerity. According to allmusic.com, Montez first played a part as one of the rockers who helped fill the void Ritchie Valens left in the early sixties LA Hispanic rock community. Later, he shifted his style after he fell under the tutelage of Herb Alpert and adopted the easygoing, mainstream approach you find on “The More I See You.” Incidentally, I’ve always detested Herb Alpert, not because I’ve actually listened to him much, but because of the distracting ubiquity of Tijuana Brass records in thrift store record bins across the country. Sadly, Montez fell out of favor after “The More I See You” and a few other MOR hits in 1966, though he still tours. Hopefully he makes frequent stops in Vegas, where I’d love to see him most.


Chris Montez

Happy Inauguration Day

Thanks to Quickdraw for suggesting this one from The Staple Singers for the occasion


Long Walk to DC

Ditty for the Last Day

Au revoir, auf wiedersehen
You wont see another morning
You wont see another evening
Good night
Buenos noches o senor
Senorita see ya later
Buenos noches bye-bye

Auf Wiedersehen-Cheap Trick

Winter Anthem

Happy Friday with a Playful Winter Ditty from Swedish Songstress Lykke Li


Let it Fall

David Berthy Posts

In response to the overwhelming mandate for more things posted from vinyl (or at least Tony B’s comment to Mike’s Townes Van Zandt post), I offer two selections procured from an ill-advised detour to Dusty Groove last week, where I found Odetta Sings and a number of other records I couldn’t possibly leave without. I love the unique sound of Odetta’s voice on the folk records of hers I own, but what caught my attention about this album was that a bunch of the songs were recorded at Alabama’s famed Muscle Shoals recording studio. The prospect of Odetta’s voice backed by the legendary session men at Muscle Shoals sold me, and the record doesn’t disappoint. You can really hear this pairing at its best on this re-recording of Odetta’s song “Hit or Miss.” As a bonus, I’ve also included a cover of the Randy Newman song “Mama Told Me Not To Come.”

Odetta Sings

Blue Girls Come in Every Size

Its that time of year again folks, when The ultimate tribute project, Musical Box, rolls into town for a couple of shows at the Vic. I'll be in attendance, as will my brother Paul, who is coming in from NYC for the show. The occasion is the highly controversial move of taking on Phil Collins era Genesis for the first time. They are recreating the tour which followed the release of Trick of The Tail, the first to feature Collins as frontman and by far the best record from the post-Gabriel Era. Here's a song they won't play, but which I love anyway.

Ripples

Vinyl Lovers Rejoice!

The figures are in and vinyl sales were up 140% in 2008. I knew something was afoot when I saw a sizable LP section at Best Buy this past December. Apparently, the legions of kids who were raised on music in digital-only format have discovered something called Art. Something to hold, something to look at, something manifest. Browsing the bins at the best record store in the city for new releases, Dave's records, I was thrilled to find that Townes Van Zandt's first few LP's have finally been re-released on 180 gram vinyl. Here's a track from 1971's Momma Delta Blues.

Nothin'

My favorite tune in Hayward's new setlist is Southern Flavor by Bill Monroe. Referred to by most at the "Father of Bluegrass", Monroe's performing career spanned over 60 years, from the early days of his Bluegrass Boys (Featuring young Flatt & Scruggs) all the way up through his winning of the first Bluegrass Grammy in 1989 for the album Southern Flavor.

Southern Flavor

Johnny Lunchbreak

David Berthy Posts

Chicago’s Numero Group label consistently digs up lost and forgotten artists and re-issues them in beautifully reproduced, high-quality packages. I especially love their “Eccentric Soul” series. The Johnny Lunchbreak record released a few months ago is something a little different. According to the Numero site, writing about the tapes that came their way, “The non-album was a mélange of post-Velvets New York mixed with the up turned collar of the Modern Lovers’ New England.” Which is just a lyrical way of saying the band sounds unpolished and intoxicated in a completely irresistible way. In the first song, “It’s Got A Hold On You,” look out for the part where the singer seems to be whistling to his dog, perhaps to keep it from leaving the basement and bothering his mom. The second song, “Amazing Pain,” is my favorite on the disc. I love the riff. I love the handclaps. I think the title may make my list of all-time greats. Unfortunately, Numero Group informs us the band existed for less than two years and only played outside of Hartford, Connecticut once, though they did manage, somehow, to produce five lunchboxes. Check out other Numero releases here: http://numerogroup.com.


Johnny Lunchbreak

Speaking of Ryan Adams, When he's not ripping off other artists for whole albums at a time (The Grateful Dead on Cold Roses, The Replacements on Demolition etc. Jeff Buckley, etc.*), he writes some real gems. With a new album's worth of material released every 8 months or so average, even one or two good songs per set adds up to a significant body of work.That's pretty much been the case from the early post Whiskeytown era all the way up through his work with the Cardinals with a few exceptions-Heartbreaker, Jacksonville City Nights, and his latest-Cardinology, all three of which, along with both Whiskeytown albums, are solid, papless efforts. On the other hand, there are at least three records-Gold, Rock and Roll, and Easy Tiger which are 100% crap all the way through. That sort of inconsistency becomes infuriating over time as does the insincerity of the genre exercises. He's the kind of artist who requires a well chosen best of collection in order to listen to him more than 5 minutes at a time, but its worth the effort. I will create that collection and post it in the weeks to come.

Here's one of my favorites from Whisleytown's second record

The Ballad of Carol Lynn

Ever wonder what Ryan Adams would sound like if one of the styles he relentlessly rips off was that of Bleach era Nirvana? I didn't think so, but just in case, here's music from Athens GA Indie Rockers Dead Confederate's debut album.

Start Me Laughing

Bridging the gap from our pre-break post by Donnie Hathaway, I present a pre-funk instrumental classic from early 60s Chicago -- and one of the best-selling records by young guitarist Phil Upchurch, who played in Hathaway's band. He went on to do considerable studio and session work over the next few decades -- for Chess and Atlantic Records. This track, "You Can't Sit Down", reached the US Top 30 in 1961 and the UK Top 40 on its reissue five years later.

You Can't Sit Down

Q: What do Alexander O'Neal, Macy Gray, Christina Aguilera, Peabo Bryson, Chicago, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Patti Austin, Patti LaBelle, Gloria Estefan, Freddie Jackson, Bobby Womack, Destiny's Child, Ashanti, Boney James, Harry Connick Jr.,Faith Evans, Diana Ross, Menudo, Usher, Boyz II Men, Dismemberment Plan, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Aretha Franklin, and 'NSync all have in common?

A. They've all released covers of Donny Hathaway's top notch Holiday tune "This Christmas"

They all pale in comparison to the original, which wins my vote for best holiday song ever. Hailing from Chicago, DH came up working as a songwriter, session musician and producer at Chicago's Twinight Records. After participating in projects by The Staple Singers, Jerry Butler, Aretha Franklin, and Curtis Mayfield, he recorded his first single in 1969. "This Christmas" was released as single by Hathaway for Atco records in 1970.

TC is also the song that was chosen by the Fuller Park Teen Band Trace for their recent Holiday Show. Guitar teacher Randy grew up under the tutelage of Hathaway's guitarist Phil Upchurch and remembers walking miles with his guitar in hand to the park each day to soak it all in. He refers to "This Christmas" as the Black National anthem, suggesting that its the most recognizable song of all in the black community. If the crowd's response ("Play it on boy!") to Trace's performance is any indication, I'd have to agree.

A few years after its release, DH's collaboration with Roberta Flack took him to the top of the charts and won him the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the duet "Where Is the Love" in 1973. Unfortunately, due to substance abuse problems,Donny Hathaway's life and career was cut short on January 13, 1979, when his body was found outside the luxury hotel Essex House in New York City; his death was ruled a suicide.

This Christmas

Happy Holidays to you all! FI Will be on hiatus until after the New Year. See you here in 2009!

Well Hung, Snow White Tan

If you're a fan of The Beatles, Os Mutantes, Dungen or the Elephant Six Collective, then you're going to want to skip to the chase and buy this collection of Hungarian 70's Psyche Rock, despite its terrible name. I mean, you've got $10 for 22 fuzzed out
nuggets in a language you don't understand, right?

Buy Well Hung on Amazon

Or if you prefer to sample the wares first, check out this track from Illes, known all over Eastern Europe as The Hungarian beatles (they pre-dated the Fab Four by 3 Years"

a boland lany

David Berthy Posts



I recently watched “Killer of Sheep,” the 1977 film by Charles
Burnett. Set in South-Central Los Angeles, the movie has an
incantatory veracity that makes it feel somehow more real than
documentary even though it’s a work of fiction. By holding on
characters until their interior states are clear, the film achieves
the novelistic effect of engaging the viewer in its subjects’ inner
lives. The film’s soundtrack plays a primary role in this
achievement. Though the soundtrack is eclectic, it is always fitting,
often in surprising ways. Sometimes, it’s intentionally jarring, as
when Paul Robeson sings about America as his home over a scene of
kids in a desolate lot throwing rocks. On other occasions, there’s an
organic, playful feel, as when a little girl sings to her doll along
with Earth Wind and Fire. Most arresting, for me, was the way the
blues songs I include here are used. You’re listening to the blues
while the characters are feeling them, and the combination of image
and sound is a more evocative expression of their inner landscape
than anything that could be achieved with dialogue.

Killer of Sheep

And there ain't nothing wrong with that...

The greatest misheard lyric of all comes from the Jeffersons Theme Song. Danny's sister Jill Bernstein thought the line "As Long as we live, its you and me baby" was " Long Sweet Lips, Chewin' Me Baby". Now on the rare occasion that I hear the song, I can't hear it any other way.



Movin' On Up

Dirty Deese and The Dunderchief

I was 7 years old when this rock anthem took the airwaves, and my friends and I really had no idea who Dirty Deese or the Dunderchief was, just that these two were locked in an epically aggressive battle told by the sound of the music and the throatily chanted chorus.


Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Misheard Lyrics #1- Assy Lovers in The meadow

Much of this week will be devoted to my favorite misheard song lyrics. Back in the 80's I had a notion to publish a book of of the best, but alas, someone beat me to the punch.

Here's one from Bob Dylan's 30th studio album Time Out Of Mind, released in 1997. It was a great year for highly atmospheric albums with themes of stasis and alienation, and this one and Radiohead's OK Computer took turns on the stereo throughout the year.

The first line of the second verse on album opener Lovesick is easily misconstrued as "Assy Lovers in The Meadow, Assy Silhouettes in the Window". Of course its "I See" in both lines, but the other way is much funnier against the brooding backdrop of the song.

Years after its release, Bob would inexplicably license this song and others for a Victoria's Secret marketing CD.

Lovesick

David Berthy Posts



I recently drove from San Francisco to Chicago. In order to avoid the Rockies, I took I-40, which more or less follows the defunct Route 66 route from Los Angeles to Chicago. The drive took us through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri before we finally made our way to Illinois. The drive was visually epic and as good an excuse to listen to music as I can remember encountering, particularly a certain kind of country music. The popular cliché about country is that “It tells a story,” and that’s certainly part of the allure, but I can’t enjoy a story if it’s slathered in the kind of bombast or schmaltz so often associated with current country. It’s necessary to go back a bit to find the sort of sounds I like best on a road trip.

My first choice is “You’re The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly,” an inestimably well-titled Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn duet. Aside from the greatness of the performance and the sharpness of the lyrics, I love how the backbeat mixes with the twang in this song. This dynamic also exists in my second choice, Willie Nelson’s “Devil in A Sleeping Bag.” The song comes from 1973’s Shotgun Willie, an album that’s perfect any time, but especially brilliant while you’re driving through Amarillo, Texas resisting the urge to watch people try for free steak dinners by putting away 72 ounces in less than an hour.

You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly

I've always been a grinch when it comes to holiday music....until now. Perennial Uke Cabaret favorites Heavy Boxes have changed that with this sweet and winsome new holiday collection. In addition to traditional holiday favorites, husband and wife team Melanie (Vibes and vocals)and Evan (everything else) have given us three new original songs of the season to add to the canon. Its hard to pick a favorite- Melanie's ode to knitting "Eventual Mittens" or Evan's piano based love song "Sweater Weather". The Heavy Boxes were kind enough to hand the album out for free at Uke Galactica and online, so today's download includes the entire album. Do yourself a favor and make it your holiday soundtrack.


Outdoor Hums for Snowy Weather

Pure Imagination

Fuller Park Teen band guitarist Elijah brought this one in for his band to play. You might remember if from the film Willy Wonka. It's the song that Gene Wilder sings as he and the kids enter the Chocolate room. The song is a brilliant choice for a kids band with its lyrics about the power of will and imagination

If you want to view paradise,
simply look around and view it,
anything you want to, do it,
if you want to change the world, there's nothing to it

I went in search of lyrics and chords to discover that the song has been covered by
a host of artists, from Lou Rawls to Maroon 5. After hearing 5 versions, the band decided to use Maroon 5's version as a template. I've include three versions here-the original, Lou Rawls, and Maroon 5.

Pure Imagination

Props to The Hitmaker for hipping me to this album from Sammy Davis Jr., one of the artists I would most like to have seen live in his heydey. Released in 1970, Something for Everyone is a collection of pop covers written by the likes of Jimmy Webb, Paul Anka, and Blood Sweat and Tears. The record was released on Motown Records, but bares no resemblance to the Motown sound , which may be why the label chose not to release a single from it. Its a shame, because Sammy's exuberantly groovy over-the-top arrangements of "Spinning Wheel," "Wichita Lineman," and "In The Ghetto" smoke!

Spinning Wheel

David Berthy Posts

Today’s post concerns the third and fourth tracks on the Impressions 1968 LP This Is My Country. First up is “I’m Loving Nothing.” Taken on its own, the title phrase does double duty by suggesting both that there is nothing to love, and, more penetratingly, that the narrator is “loving nothing.” The vocal performance is a Mayfield classic, and this is easily one of the most moving songs I know. There’s something perfect about how “I’m Loving Nothing” leads into the next track on the album, “Loves Happening,” where Mayfield dips his toe into the waters of hippiedom. The lyrics get a little slippery here—love is apparently happening in a place, “…where color speaks to flower girls, hippie beat, in a macro (or is it micro) world.” This may or may not be a solution to the existential dilemma explored in “I’m Loving Nothing,” but it doesn’t really matter, because “Loves Happening” sounds like Curtis Mayfield is singing while being backed by The Zombies—an irrefutable cure for just about any ill.

Loving Nothing/Loves Happpening

Set the controls for the inner and outer cosmos at Uke Galactica! Bring your songs of planetary ukesmanship for an exploration of our universe. This Saturday, December 6, at Silvies. See You There!


Major Tom

Each year I like to pick a few CD's for my dad's holiday gift. He's been getting into music in recent years, and since he's new to the music scene, I'm not limited to new releases and can cherry pick the entire canon of music history, which is great fun. This year I started with Dusty in Memphis, which I knew he would dig. Then I picked up the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss album Raising Sands, which I've been curious about since it came out late last year. We listened to it together and I really enjoyed its moody understated feel for the most part. The album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, features a great roster of players, from Marc Ribot to Norman Blake, with Plant and Krauss singing duets on songs from the likes of Gene Clark and Tom Waits. Upon first listen, this one jumped out at me.

Killing The Blues

David Berthy Posts

For Thanksgiving, I thought I’d post two songs from impossibly romantic Ray Charles and Betty Carter album. You may want something a little more upbeat while you’re cooking and eating, but this is a great one for dessert or after, when it’s all over, the dishes are done, and you’re enjoying a well-deserved drink with one or a few friends. If you’re going to be with your family, Ray and Betty might be the perfect salve for wine-laced wounds inflicted over dinner. The album, recorded over two sessions in 1961, is worth picking up for the months ahead, particularly if you live somewhere like Chicago that goes from Russian to frightening between December and February. The quiet virtuosity that results when these two legendary performers join together is a perfect excuse to stay inside during the winter months. Happy Thanksgiving to all. FI will be back next week.


Ray and Betty

Guilty Pleasures 101

"Somebody's Baby" is a 1982 pop nugget from Jackson Browne. It was on the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, featured in a key coming of age moment for Jennifer Jason Leigh's character' Stacy Hamilton. The song was later covered by Yo La Tengo, and remains a staple in their live set.

Somebody's Baby-Jackson Browne

Bombast
Bom"bast\, a. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.

Chinese Democracy

Back at Wydown Junior High School in St.Louis, one subset of the pre-Smiths/Cure goth crowd was made up of girls sporting the pirate look. The look was made up of striped (also known as the munchkin look) or black tights under black skirts with white shirts and dark eyeliner and lipstick. I even remember a pirate hat or two, though that may be a revisionist image on my part. This crew took their fashion and music cues from Adam Ant, with whom they were all hopelessly smitten. I always dug the Adam and The Ants sound, and still put on this record occasionally.

Ant Music

David Berthy Posts


Al Green was the artist who got me into soul music. I pretty much beat his greatest hits record to death when I was younger, and I haven’t given his back catalogue its proper due until recently. Last week, I came across the track “Love Ritual” on 1975’s Is Love. Whereas most Green songs strike me as slow-burning hymns about either the sacred or the profane, “Love Ritual” stands out as something else altogether. I love the up-tempo, percussion and organ-based build that notches up one degree at a time, teasing out a shift from a simmer to a boil. Even more irresistible, Green really goes out there with his vocal performance: yelping, chanting words that may or not be “juana” and “zula,” and at one point venturing into a language all his own.



Thinking about the song brought to mind the 1970 Marvin Gaye performance of the Strong/ Whitfield song “Cloud Nine” from That’s The Way Love Is. As with the Green track, the buildup here is notch by notch, and there’s something trance-inducing about the frenzied percussion. Gaye’s scorching vocal performance, abetted by wah-wah guitars, really takes this over the top. That’s The Way Love Is was the last album Gaye made before going into relative seclusion for a year and emerging with his masterpiece, What’s Going On. You can hear some of the anguish, anger, and longing for transcendence in “Cloud Nine” that will emerge into a fully realized suite of songs a year later.

Love Ritual/Cloud Nine

H. and I recently held a Miles Davis Marathon on a cold and rainy weekend night.
We listened to everything from the classic early quartets through the modal and electronic periods right into the faux funk of his latter days. Something clicked when I dropped the needle on Side one of 1974's Big Fun, a double album of material largely recorded during the Bitches Brew sessions. Recorded in 1969, The indian tinged pre-fusion jazz rock of the album-side-length opener Great Expectations made for the perfect rainy late night soundtrack. The track is a dense extended modal vamp with electric sitar and spooky electronic keyboards, and features Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea and Bennie Maupin among others. Four years after this track was recorded, Herbie Hancock would popularize the fusion sound for the masses on Headhunters, one of the highest selling jazz albums of all time.

Great Expectations

We'll leave the dial tuned to Hip-Hop with brand new music from Q-Tip, the velvet voiced half of A Tribe Called Quest. The Renaissance is his first record in many years, and I'm happy to report that it represents a welcome return to form upon first listen.
I like the quirky jazzy number "Official, which reminds me of his purple highness in the chorus.

Official

I've been waiting since Summer of 2006 to see Houston Rapper Devin The Dude again.
DTD brings his smooth hazed out jams to the Abbey tomorrow night. I'll be there, and so will you if you know whats good for you. Here's one of Devin's many tributes to the his favorite "North American Tree"


Sticky Green

The Return of Roller Boogie

David Berthy Posts

Lately I’m noticing a resurgence of the early eighties roller-boogie sound. There were two obscure skate tracks on the Rapture’s recently released mixtape Tapes, and I’m hearing it a little bit on Q-Tip’s new record as well. The closest I’ve gotten lately to a roller boogie was when I watched the movie ATL on demand, but when I lived in Venice Beach I used to walk by the regularly held skate circle on the boardwalk, and I have dim recollections of the slow grooves and swirling lights at certain skate rinks I frequented in the early eighties as a clueless youth (I danced on the carpet just outside the rink, so as to avoid injury). I’ve been around the music enough, then, to know the sound is characterized by a rolling beat that lends itself to the bounce and rock of skating, and fat, fuzzy bass that recalls the legendary funk artist Roger Troutman. Here are two newish tracks that reference and update the sound. The first comes from the young Scotsman Calvin Harris, who supposedly made his silly-fun I Created Disco record in his bedroom on a Commodore 64 or something. The second song, a more obvious example of the genre, comes from LA-based Plantlife’s recently released record Time Traveller. Hopefully, the trend picks up steam and we’ll see a widespread proliferation of roller boogie nights in the near future.

The Return of Roller Boogie

Back in the mid-nineties, I had the priviledge of working at Jazz Record Mart for a couple of years. It was the greatest type of music education-constant exposure to great jazz, blues, and soul music I had never heard before. The owner of JRM, Bob K., is also head of Delmark Records, a local record label that broke Buddy Guy and Junior Wells back in the day.

Bob is legendary among JRM staff and clientele for his frequent uninhibited vocal tyrades, "outside the box" thinking, and liberal use of non-sequitors. So much so that the JRM staff, which includes many of the finest Jazz and Rock musicians in the city, banded together to have some fun at BK's expense. The Lead Lined Bags put together a collection of country, funk, and rock tunes built around some of BK's classic moments. Granted, this is "you had to be there" kind of music, but I think you'll get a kick out of it just the same.

I've included my two favorites for your listening pleasure today.

Blow On Your Arm- This catchy number recounts the years that JRM's air-conditioning was on the fritz, and BK's solution for his employees, which did not involve getting it fixed.

Never Put A Typewriter on the Floor-This country inflected ditty recounts the time when JRM mail order guru Steve Dawson (on lead vocals here) had a typewriter sitting on his office floor and came in one morning to find a note attached in BK's writing angrily all cap screaming
"NEVER PUT A TYPEWRITER ON THE FLOOR!


Other titles include "Trained Monkey", "Jewel Bag", "The Black Dame", "Whitey Likes it Tight", "Slightly Dished", "Stet!", "I Like to Air Dry", and "Doesn't That Make More Sense?"

This brand new limited release split 7" from David Singer and Wes Hollywood is a great looking and even better sounding small platter. The terrific mod technicolor jacket design recalls those of early Elvis Costello, and the music on both sides conjures the same era. As a hopeless vinyl junkie, its nice to see that people are creating works of vinyl art for the sheer joy of doing so, and I feel honored to be a part of it!

French Cuffs

You can get your very own copy here

In 1962, Jazz legends Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins finally realized a joint project that had been in both of their minds for 20+ years, but had eluded their incredibly busy parallel careers.On November 18 of that year, the two giants finally got in the studio together, and the results made for a highly enjoyable listening experience. My favorite track on Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins is the light and catchy calypso inflected opener Limbo Jazz. According to the album's liner notes, the number was composed spontaneously by Ellington on the spot while Hawkins was changing a reed. The engineers rolled tape, though the musicians were unaware of this, as indicated by drummer Sam Woodyard's unselfconscious singing.

Limbo Jazz

Bluegrass legend Del McCoury and his band will take the stage at The Old Town School of Folk Music this Saturday night for two shows. If you're curious about Bluegrass you should come check it out to see a master at work. originally hired as a banjo picker, he then played guitar and sang with Bill Monroe back in the 60's... the rest is history. Hayward is making a band outing of it for the late show.

Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms

David Berthy Posts

Every 1's A Winner

What a strange thing it is to walk around feeling dumb happy. Please allow me to aid in your celebration by contributing these two tracks from UK band Hot Chocolate, best known for their smash hit, “You Sexy Thing.” I’ve found gold (my sort of gold, anyway) by digging through Hot Chocolate’s back catalogue, where I discovered the source of both of today’s tracks, the Every 1’s A Winner album. Neither “Confetti Day” nor “Stay With Me” possess the universal appeal of “You Sexy Thing,” but they certainly aren’t without their charms. Sure, the synth lines could have been a touch less grandiose; and I won’t argue that the lyrics for “Stay With Me” aren’t patently ridiculous; but I, for one, am all in favor of this sort of solid-gold enthusiasm right now. Every 1's a winner indeed.

Confetti Day

Stay With Me

Are You Ready to Rock?

Hello There-Cheap Trick

Stand
For the things you know are right
Its the truth that the truth makes them so uptight
Stand
All the things you want are real
You have you to complete and there is no deal
Stand
There's a midget standing tall
And the giant beside him about to fall
Stand. stand, stand
Stand. stand, stand

Stand