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Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Singles Going Steady...
Sevil Öztatlı ~ "Seks Seks Seks"
(Blog: Turkish Psychedelic Music!)
So Nice She Named It Thrice
Random bit of lyrics as translated by Google: "Her hips like a bomb/Pumpkin vine branches/The eyes are seeing cross-eyed/See my woman/They say in the name of sex sex sex."
Continue reading "Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 138" »
On Oct 30th -- Day Three of WFMU's RadioVision Festival -- digital storytellers, creative developers and freeform thinkers will come together for a day of hacking and coding called Re-Inventing Radio.
This isn't a typical hack day, because there are no pre-requisites for participation; you don't even need to know how to code (though if you do, you'll have plenty to tinker with between workshops from the Free Music Archive and Echo Nest). Re-Inventing Radio is a forum for creative people of all stripes to collaborate with each other using open-source digital tools.
Zeega, a new open-source HTML5 platform for interactive storytelling, and a recent winner of the Knight Foundation News Challenge, will debut three projects for people to experiment with at RadioVision. We asked them for a preview...
As much as the word "monetize" makes me reach for my revolver - artists, musicians, writers, and radio stations are now competing for fewer and fewer dollars, as dinosaurs like the music industry and the publishing industry shuffle off the world stage. There is plenty of great work being made right now, but until new funding models emerge its difficult to imagine how creative types can sustain the output.
October 28th - 30th, WFMU is holding its first ever Radiovision festival. On Saturday the 29th (Symposium Saturday) we will examine three possible funding models of the future:
There are plenty of crowd-funding websites and platforms but there is only one Kickstarter. This month the company announced that they just hit one million backers, that's one million backers of comics, albums, books, video games, urban farms, documentaries, exhibits, performances, and thousands of other creative works. Yancey Strickler is one of the co-founders of Kickstarter and he will be on stage to talk about why Kickstarter campaigns are so successful, and what the future of crowdfunding will be.
While most foundations have long lists of requirements you need to meet before they will consider writing you a check, The Awesome Foundation has only one prerequisite: that you be awesome. Christina Xu is one of the founders of The Awesome Foundation and she is going to talk about how her organization is regularly passing out no-strings-attached $1,000 grants to people doing awesome things like documentaries, public art projects, even interactive community notice boards. Awesome Foundation does not have a very complicated formula - every month a group of trustees get together and award a grant to a project they like best. New chapters are opening in cities all over the world, and they were just awarded a Knight News Challenge grant, this is a model with a future.
The music and publishing industries may be in free-fall but the advertising indusry is doing great. Jeff Tammes is the EVP, Creative & Strategy at Cornerstone of Cornerstone a marketing agency that pairs artists with lifestyle brands. Cornerstone also helped set up Converse's recording studio, Rubber Tracks, in Williamsburg. Jeff's message for creators is that lifestyle brands can help artists and musicians realize their dreams.
Our moderator for this panel is Rebecca Gates. who as a member of The Spinanes can remember both the bad and the good of the old model, as a working musician has awareness of the complexity of the current scene and as a member of the Future of Music Coalition wonders: “How are all these shifts affecting working musicians? What are the implications for a musician’s practice? And what do these new models mean for the shape of arts culture in the future?
Tickets are on sale, but they are going fast. We already sold out the Radiovision Opening Night performance with Joe Frank! Don't miss out.
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Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Various ~ Charly Small-Label Chicago Soul Comps
Windy City Soul (One-derful) | Chicago Soul Cellar (M-pac) | Chicago Twine Time (Mar-V-Lus)
(Blog: Twilightzone!)
City of the Big Soulsters
"The Vee Jay-OKeh–Chess axis of companies so dominated the Chicago music scene in the 1960s with their styles of uptown soft soul, it would be easy to overlook the output of the city's many fine raw and gritty singers of hard soul. Much of it was provided by George Leaner in his label group, One-derful/M-Pac/Mar-V-Lus. A veteran of the record business since the 1940s, when blues dominated the R&B charts, Leaner specialized in urban heavily blues-flavored soul, and likes its often indistinguishable counterpart, southern soul, this northern variety had that black church element, gospel." (Robert Pruter, Gospel Soul [University of Illinois Press, 1971])
*FOUR MORE DELECTABLE DOWNLOADABLES ON PAGE TWO!*
Continue reading "Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 137" »
What can Internet Communities teach us about the future of Radio audiences?
On October 28th - 30th, WFMU is holding its first ever Radiovision festival. And on Saturday the 29th (Symposium Saturday) we have a session focusing on three of the fastest growing online epicenters of community activity: Anonymous, Makers and Meme culture. we've lined up four amazing individuals to help us better understand the values of these communities and to learn how they are driving the evolution of the internet:
Bre Pettis doesn't just make things, he can make things that make things. He is a founder of Makerbot (a company that produces robots that make things), and NYC Resistor (a Brooklyn hacker collective).
Kenyatta Cheese may be famous for playing a Meme scientist on the internet (Know Your Meme), but he is one in real life as well. Kenyatta is one of the leading experts of online media, culture and technology. He advises NGOs and is also on the board of the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology.
Gabriella Coleman is an anthropologist and the author of the forthcoming book "Coding Freedom: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Hacking." She is currently working on a new book on Anonymous and digital activism.
Tim Hwang is one of the co-founders of ROFLcon (a conference dedicated to Internet Culture). Tim not only helped us program this panel but he will be leading the discussion as well.
Tickets are on sale, and they are going fast. We already sold out the Radiovision Opening Night performance with Joe Frank! Get yours now.
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Brigitte Fontaine ~ "Le Goudron"
(Blog: Panorama Patchwork)
Fontaine of Youth
"Here's a pretty awesome 7" from Brigitte Fontaine, released sometime between her fantastic pop record "Brigitte Fontaine est...folle" and the more radical explorations of her early 70's output with Areski. This single kind of acts as the middle ground between these two worlds, taking the best out of her capacity for writing a catchy hook while pushing the envelope of what a song can be. She's still writing songs but they are more drone-based and minimalist..." (RTC, at Panorama Patchwork)
Ada Rave Cuarteto ~ "La Continudad"
(Free download courtesy of Pan y Rosas Discos)
Rara Avis: Ada Rave
"A quartet of improvisers and jazzniks out of Argentina. The quartet began playing in early 2009 as trio before adding a guitar/electronics to the mix in early 2010. Their inspiration comes from the language of jazz, free improvisation and out rock of the '60s and '70s. They blend all of these things as a way of reaching their objective – improvisation! Improv as a means of composition and improv as the composition itself. They create diverse spaces, sensory forms, movements, instances and related sounds all the while projecting their own voice and collective identity." (Description from Pan y Rosas)
Louis Armstrong ~ "Louis Armstrong & His Friends"
(Blog: King Cake Crypt)
The Creator Has a Satchmo Plan
"Recorded in May 1970, Louis Armstrong & His Friends was his next-to-last studio session—on July 6, 1971, the jazz giant passed away. When this album was recorded, Armstrong was in poor health; in fact, he wasn't well enough to do any trumpet playing on this album. But he was still able to sing, and he gets his points across on songs that range from "My One and Only Love" and Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" to unlikely choices such as "Give Peace a Chance," Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan (Peace)," and the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." (Alex Henderson, at Allmusic.com)
[name in Korean] ~ [title in Chinese]
(Blog: Ghostcapital)
Reason to Live: "Chang-Boo Tahryung"
"Yet another obscure thrift store LP discovery. Probably my favorite kind of post. Found this record 6+ years ago in Harrisonburg, VA. Don't know the artist, title, genre or year. I sure dig it, though. If you know anything about this record and/or know Korean, please help us out." (Nicholab, at Ghostcapital)
Shelly Manne ~ "Daktari"
(Blog: The Sleepy Lagoon)
Everything But the Kitschy Sink
"Daktari is an original music score that is performed and conducted by Shelly Manne. He accomplishes this with the help of assorted musicians including, four woodwinds players and five percussionists. Keep percussion in mind when considering this album. Because there is "Lots of It." Daktari sounds like an experiment in ethnic African percussion music with the sounds of traditional jazz style melodies and solos mixed in. Some of the more notable songs are "Out on a Limb," a somewhat softer boss nova feel going on. Lots of percussion! Nice flute and vibraphone harmonies. "Clarence" makes me think of an out of control chimpanzee. A busy mischievous sounding tune. Interesting chord structures on the part of the woodwinds. "Africa" is a dark deep slow paced theme. A feel of the Outback! "Elephantime" Up tempo jungle theme in 6/8 time. Shelly cuts loose a little. Also some strong bass guitar."Wameru"-A mix in oriental and african melodies. Keyboards are predominant throughout. Picture a Kung Fu Master practicing in total solitude…" (Silly Amazon review)
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
A number of weeks ago, I was contacted by my friend Roderic, who plays in the Hydra Head band KNUT, for a quote about how different NYC is since 9/11 from an artist's point of view. He works for Swiss publication Le Courrier, and I thought it would be interesting to contribute to foreign language media. Here is the article for anyone curious. This past Friday, the issue came up again, but in a different way. I ran into good friend and local maniac Zenametal; curator of Zena Metal Wants to Conquer the World blog among other things. It was lunchtime on a crowded corner of Canal St., and we both were happy at the turn of events that led us to almost literally bump into each other. She works nearby and was donning fashionable duds for the office, and I wasn't looking too shabby myself. We talked for about 25 minutes, and in that time, the same gentleman approached us several times to vend what I thought he termed "dime bags". At some point I made a comment to her, since we were both looking so damn sophisticated I couldn't imagine he couldn't find anyone else in the throngs of people on a sunny Friday more suited to vend "dime bags" to. Zena, working near that section of Canal St., set me straight. In a quick debriefing, I realized that I heard "dime bag" - an old, almost expected way I had of listening to people mumbling towards me on the street. She let me in on the real words he was uttering: "diamonds, bags!" Oh! Well that sort of elevates us to tourist trash looking for a cheap but expensive looking bargain! I hadn't even noticed it was bootleg bag and bling central there. And I thought he thought we were scum! Still not buying, but a little less confused, I then saw that she was in fact, not toting a pocketbook on her lunch break, which was probably a good reason we were being hounded, not because we looked like we wanted to get stoned. So I'm really comparing from a much earlier time than 9/11; but it is interesting to notice that the things being whispered about on streetcorners are handbags, not dime bags any longer.
Continue reading "Fake Handbags, Dime Bags, Rutabagas and Snoop Dogg" »
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
You may be aware that WFMU is currently in the middle of a month-long fundraiser. Or maybe you're not. You see, the appeal is taking place silently. That is, nary a peep about the event is twitching our on-air VU meters. For a struggling independent non-profit radio station with the capacity to pump up the volume, this may seem a bit counterintuitive. But hey, WFMU has never done things in a conventional manner. We'd prefer to broadcast just one fund drive a year and leave it at that. It is times like this that we put our faith in our listeners and blog readers to value and support our creative approach to running our little corner of the countercultural planet.
To those who enjoy these weekly Motherlodes, I ask that you drop a little something in the virtual tip jar, below, as a way of saying thanks WFMU for all the hard work and great music.
My way of saying thanks to you...
Joe Harriott ~ "Free Form"
(Blog: BritJazz)
Utterly Magnificent
"This is rare music, and great music. Joe Harriott and his group were making confident steps in the area called "free jazz" at a time when that was a daring, even a dangerous undertaking. As with the almost contemporary music of Ornette Coleman, however, these many years later it is the beauty and the lyrical invention of their playing which is most striking. The group has long since passed into legend; the records, in their original vinyl form, have become almost impossibly rare; and with both Harriott and his front-line partner Shake Keane now both gone, there is also a poignancy in rediscovering this wonderful jazz." (Richard Cook, from the liner notes)
Ogyatanaa Show Band ~ "Yerefrefre"
(Blog: Osibisaba with an assist to Groovemonzter)
On Fire
"The Ogyatanaa (or "burning torch") Show Band was founded in 1971 by Kwadwo Donkoh, a former diplomat turned highlife musician and record producer. I don't have much information about Donkoh, yet I consider him one of the big names in Ghanaian highlife, a behind-the-scenes figure and master arranger/composer. In addition to his work with Ogyatanaa, Donkoh founded Agoro records in the early 1970s. Agoro released diverse popular and traditional records, and later it would introduce the first albums by Ga cultural groups like Wulomei. On this first album by the Ogyatanaa Show Band, we have classic tracks like "Mmobrowa" and a funky "Yaa Amponsah," yet my absolute favorite here is the "Yerefrefre" medley on side one, a twenty minute long track which pays tribute to Ghana's highlife greats." (Commentary by Osibisaba, at Osibisaba)
Ustad Ahmed Jan Thirakwa & Ustad Amir Hussain Khan ~ "Rhythms of India: Tabla Recital"
(Blog: Oriental Traditional Music from LPs & Cassettes)
This Is Your Brain, on Tablas
"Rhythm is man's primal impulse: it comes naturally to him. And to the Indian mind, everything in creation moves to rhythm. As the celebrated Sanskrit work on Indian music, the "Raga Kalpadruma" says: "The emergence, sustenance and dissolution of the three worlds come from rhythm. All living beings from the smallest worm onwards, move by rhythm. Even the movement of the sun, the moon and the planets depends on rhythm." (From the liner notes)
Hackamore Brick ~ "One Kiss Leads to Another"
(Blog: Creep Scanner)
Princes of Park Slope
"Hackamore Brick got their sound together by playing their music all day almost every day in a 4th floor apartment on Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn near the corner of 4th street. The people who lived on the 2nd and 3rd floors had steady jobs so there were relatively few complaints to the landlord. The band took breaks now and then to play stickball in the schoolyard on 2nd street and every once in a while went up to Prospect Park to do the things that people did there. When they were almost ready, they went to Manhattan to record an album of ten songs that were truer than fiction. While doing this, the band met Paul Anka who offered to buy them lunch. The boys thanked him but refused. Then they went back to Brooklyn." (From the bio on the band's website)
Various ~ "Major Force: The Original Art-Form"
(Blog: Thirty Six Records)
Everything But the Kitschy Sink
"Recorded through the late eighties and early nineties, these sample-collage grooves from the Japanese Major Force label indicate both the oddly timeless nature of sampling and its status as a truly international musical language. Most of the 32 tracks compiled on these two discs could have been made last week, and their use of mainly occidental elements renders them free of any discernible Japanese characteristics. Formed by Toshio Nakanishi and Masayuki Kudo out of the ashes of Japanese new-wave outfits The Plastics and Melon, the label's general tone is similar to that of the UK acid jazz style, with plenty of electric piano fills and familiar breakbeats but the oh-so-cool funk-jazz surfaces are more pleasingly disturbed by the range of samples stirred into the mix. This is a world where not even old Blood, Sweat & Tears horn fanfares or Troggs expostulations are considered beyond the pale. The results are, in places, as slickly inventive as The Dust Brothers' best work. Well worth investigating." (Review by Andy Gill, in The Independent)
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
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Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Hunting for music is pretty much a constant enterprise for me these days. In an effort to supply my weekly Motherlodes, twice-weekly radio shows and the 24-hour webstream Give the Drummer Radio (listen), I now spend more time scouring music blogs than I care to admit. If, like me, you try to keep tabs on a long list of music-sharing sites, I can't recommend highly enough the use of an aggregating device to manage the madness.
There may well be a better tool out there, but I'm satisfied with Google's Reader, through which I regularly follow nearly 500 blogs. Google Reader is RSS-feed aggregator that pulls all new posts from blogs you've subscribed to into one location. Instead of carpal tunneling your way from blog to blog in search of audible treasure, simply add each new blog you discover to the Reader's subscription manager and let the blog posts come to you. Every time a blog publishes a new post, the item shows up in the Reader's window. If the item is of no interest, simply disregard it. If you can't live without it, you can click right over to the original post. If it appears worth a later look, "star" the item and it gets saved in a special queue.
I'm actually rather proud of myself. You see, for the first time in over a year I've reduced the number of posts in my reader's "starred items" queue below the 10,000 mark! That represents ten thousand downloadable albums—going back well over a year—that I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to add to my hard drive. (OK, forget most of what I said about managing the madness.) Getting as backed up as I have could be a problem, especially since so many blogs and their DL links are getting deleted on a daily basis. One brilliant feature of the Reader is that it captures the cached page of blogs you subscribe to, so even if a blog has been deleted, you may still have access to its pages and links. This little trick has saved me countless times.
Of course you could decide to eschew all this and leave the blog slogging to me. No sweat. Just be sure to visit the Motherlode every Wednesday to see what's popped up in my reader. (And be sure to get on the mailing list for my newsletter in which I share additional download links not included here.)
Method to the madness...
Sly Stone ~ "Recorded in San Francisco: 1964-67"
(Blog: Hippy Djkit)
Camper-Van Beethoven
"Early works from Sly. Rare issue on Sculpture label with many early singles during 1964-67 in San Francisco, pulls together a mixture of pre-Sly and the Family Stone efforts. Sly used many electronic gadgets including clavinet, and essential drum breaks and organ on the cut "Rock Dirge." In terms of quality the ten tracks cover a wide spectrum, ranging from the surprisingly good "Take My Advice" and the unique Broadway-meets-rock "Life of Future & Fame" to the interesting 1950s flavored instrumental "Hi Love," a cover of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man'' and the raw demo "Rock Dirge." Sly's spoken work cover of "Deck of Cards," "I Ain't Got Nobody" was eventually released as the first Sly and the Family Stone single." (DJ Fanis, at Hippy Djkit)
Various ~ "Bulawayo Jazz"
(Blog: Freedom Blues)
The Mind Is a Terrible thing to Waste
"The Bulawayo sound centered on the alto sax playing lead, usually as part of a front line that included tenor sax and trumpet. Strummed banjos and acoustic guitars, double bass or tubas and trombones playing the bass parts, and occasionally pianos and violins, made up the rest of the ensembles. Jazz aficionados may hear echoes of early New Orleans and Kansas City styles in some of the tracks. But the raw material is African folk music or original compositions based on traditional sources, not the blues and Tin Pan Alley pop tunes that fed early American jazz. This is distinctly African jazz, as fans of later artists like the South African saxophonist Dudu Pukwana will immediately recognize." (From a review by George De Stefano, at RootsWorld)
Augustyn Bloch ~ "Unusual Sounds: The Brain"
(Blog: Continuo's Weblog)
This Is Your Brain, on Vinyl
"Subtitled 'The Brain,' [this] second volume, published 1982, collects short sound experiments in the field of contemporary music and musique concrète. Traditional acoustic instruments like piano, flute, trumpet and percussion, are mingled into an unsettling sonic brewage thanks to primitive electronic devices and radical sound treatments. Bloch favors inside the piano playing and percussion sounds from the piano’s structure, while flute parts are usually graced with generous doses of reverb. Several tracks use heavily slowed down or distorted metronome sounds, in a kind of Pierre Schaeffer abstract études from the 1950s – the same process is applied to shrilling cat meows on track #15. Elsewhere, seriously paranoid synthesizer interjections reinstate the menacing atmosphere pervading in the track titles, while some piano parts recall Krzysztof Komeda’s Rosemary’s Baby soundtrack. A fantastic LP, by any standard." (Commentary by Continuo)
Jun Togawa ~ "Togawa Legend Self Select Best & Rare 1979-2008"
(Blog: The Incessant Noise)
She Survived Guernica
"There is a feeling I've had ever since childhood: that there exist many different "worlds" and I was born in the wrong one, a world I don't quite fit into. I've felt this strong feeling of wrongness all through my life. There is no space for me in this world. Every time I believe I've finally found my place, someone comes to me and says "Go away! You're not supposed to be here." I mean, I have always had this kind of feeling. I had a lot of trouble communicating with other children. The discipline was extremely strict in my family. I was not allowed go out freely with friends. So, I tried not to make friends. If I did, because I couldn't play with them outside like a normal child they would hate me. This made me turn away from the ordinary life of a child even more. The world of music and theater is what I finally came to live in." (From an interview with Jun here)
Vincent Gémignani ~ "Modern Pop Percussion"
(Blog: Free Défendu)
Everything But the Kitschy Sink
"These tracks were written for the Comédie Française for performances of the French adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a the first Chateauvallon theatre festival in 1970, under the direction of J. Gilbert. This session was interprated with the help of the best french musicians and was recorded on vinyl." (Comment left at Discogs.com )
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
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The classy video-hosting site Vimeo launched a new service to connect their noncommerical community of creative independent video producers with quality legal music options. The Music Store utilizes the Free Music Archive API to index the portion of the FMA library that can be used in video projects under the Creative Commons framework (i.e. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike; about 11,000 tracks) and offers these curated jams as its free options. This is an exciting moment for those of us who share our music under open licenses to inspire new collaborations and expand our reach.
From Vimeo's announcement:
As many of you know, finding music for your videos can be somewhat... well, painful. Licensing music on your own can be confusing and finding good free music can take forever. Many of us here at Vimeo are video creators or filmmakers as well and we experience these frustrations on a regular basis. So, we decided to do something about it.
The majority of FMA's library is pre-cleared for noncommercial use only, so it might seem strange at first that free music is included in something called a Music "Store" alongside paid music from a company called Audiosocket. But for many artists, allowing for hands-on engagement with their work in the noncommercial sphere plays into a broader promotional strategy, and even leads to lucrative commercial licensing opportunities. We always love to hear about the collaborations that result when producers who actually have a budget discover one of the many great artists who share their work via the Free Music Archive, about artists being commissioned to score new documentary films, mobile app soundtracks, and viral videos that reach 2 million views.
Vimeo introduced Creative Commons licensing for video last summer, and we've already seen a flurry of videos powered by CC music from the FMA -- everything from educational projects, travelogues, time lapses, recipe-sharing, and science videos to the immensely popular cute animal videos (although I guess that's more a YouTube thing). I'm including one example after the jump, along with the latest in FMA's series of mixes curated with the online video producer in mind. Vimeo's Music Store seems is totally new, so it's sure to be refined over the course of time. If you have feedback you can leave a comment here, and we look forward to the new collaborations that this bridge between the CC Music Community and the CC Video Community will inspire!
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
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Keeping tabs on the daily tsunami of killer new blog posts is surely exhausting, but don't dare forget to scroll back through the archived pages of your favorite sites. Periodically, I force myself to go back and check for vital downloadables I may have missed. (Using a blog aggregator like Google's Reader can make this a cinch. More about Reader next week.)
To hammer home the point, all the recordings featured in today's Motherlode were originally posted more than a year ago. (The Mystic Minds LP dates back to January '08, which makes it like a hundred in dog years.) Despite their vintage status, the download links for these incredible finds are all still good to go. Just don't sleep on them because old links are constantly getting wiped. Lately, I've been methodically working my way through the archives at the ever-stunning Holy Warbles. This virtual crate diving has uncovered countless gems, including two on display below.
Beauty isn't skim deep...
Various ~ "Musique Rituelle Tibetaine"
(Blog: Holy Warbles)
More Fun Than a Barrel of Monks
"How could I have lived 50+ years — at least 35 of them in an intense head-long dash to hear the greatest sounds made by humans — and not, until now, experienced this thrilling recording? My voracious blog discoverings here at Holy Warbles and throughout the Interwebs goes a bit like reverse triage. I am constantly scanning for unfamiliar offerings, grabbing first those musics that would do me injurious harm NOT to have. In quieter moments, I reach for selections that appear of interest but through myriad mystical calculations end up as lesser priorities. (Consequently, I sometimes get to posts in the archives a little later than I should.) One magical thing that happens so often at Holy Warbles (one of many) is that so many of these nice-but-not-essential looking recordings, when finally unwrapped and appreciated, reveal themselves to be utterly magnificent, heart-swelling epiphanies." (Comment at Holy Warbles from "gilhodges")
Mystic Minds ~ "Mind Over Matter"
(Blog: A Pyrex Scholar)
The Mind Is a Terrible thing to Waste
"These guys were a trio from California (apparently they Korean War veterans) and as far as I know this private press LP is their only release. This album had some pretty strange moments lyrically. These are only surpassed by their use of a home made instrument called a Brass Orchestra Cabinet. It’s like a homemade pipe organ made of trumpets and other horns." (Source unknown)
Emmett W. Lundy ~ Fiddle Tunes from Grayson County, Virginia"
(Blog: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be)
Lundy Hop
"Undoubtedly one of the finest fiddlers to come out of the musically rich Grayson County area of Virginia, Emmett Lundy is something of a musical legend among older residents there. This record makes his music available once again, bot for his family and friends in Virginia and for students of American traditional fiddling throughout the world. As a document this LP is immensely important because Lundy's music represents perhaps the earliest possible recording, on disc, of fiddling in Grayson County and lends considerable assistance to our understanding of the complex musical tradition of the region." (From the liner notes)
Frederic Rzewski ~ "Coming Together"
(Blog: The Incessant Noise)
Remember Attica
"Rzewski's "Coming Together" is unquestionably one of the great Minimalist masterpieces, and this first recording of it is absolutely incredibly amazing. It's ridiculous that it's never been re-released. "Coming Together" is an extremely simple piece. It's really nothing more than a short text read over a repetitive, fast sequence, much of which is played in unison. But the overall effect it creates is of a very slow build up of tension to an incredible climax after 19 minutes. The text comes from a letter written by Sam Melville, who was an inmate at Attica prison, and was one of the leaders of the 1971 Attica riots, where Melville was killed. The music starts with the piano playing fast rhythmic notes while most of the other instruments playing longer tones over this foundation. Gradually the other instruments start to play faster until they're all playing in a fast, tense unison." (By Aaron, in his premiere post at The Incessant Noise)
Lili Labassi ~ Le Génie du Chââbi (1932-1939)
(Blog: Holy Warbles)
Lili of the Valley
"The day an unbiased musicologist worthy of his title and without any prejudice of race, religion or origin studies Algerian musique [Chààbi & Andaluz] the obvious will appear; that its paramount lord is undoubtedly Lili Labassi." (By Robert Castel [Labassi's son], in the liner notes )
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
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Legendary old-timey star and banjo pioneer Wade Mainer ascended to a higher lonesome earlier this week at the age of 104, leaving behind Julia, his wife of 73 years. Invited by Franklin Roosevelt to perform at the White House in '42, Wade was by then a hugely popular performer and recording artist, which he remained up through the early '50s when, after finding God, he put down his banjo and started working for General Motors in Flint, Michigan. Wade who spent his last six decades in Flint, eventually retired from the auto plant, but was coaxed back into the musical arena, playing assorted festivals and recording mountain gospel albums to thrill new generations of fans. Now, for the first the first time since Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House, the world must carry on without Wade Mainer.
Our lead-off item below is a treasured 1971 recording of Wade's with his beloved Julia singing and playing rhythm guitar. Enjoy.
More than the grass is blue...
Wade Mainer & the Mainer Mountaineers ~ "First Time in Stereo"
(Blog: Jeremy's Saggy Record Cabinet)
Old Man in the Mountain Music
"Throughout the years, the United States has produced many great country artists. In the beginning there was Fiddlin' John Carson, Ernest Stoneman and Uncle Dave Macon only to name a few. Then of course later there came Whittier and Grayson, Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family and Hank Williams. Generally speaking, one of the characteristics that made them great was their ability to behold something and see or hear far more than the normal person would. Calling upon their knowledge of history, past experiences and traditions, with their keen insights they could translate the past into the present and the future. Almost always, the greatness of these men was not recognized until many years after the great deeds had been done. I believe such to be the case with Wade Mainer. His unique ability to take folk traditions and past happenings and apply them to the words of a song is only of late beginning to be recognized." (John W. Morris, from the liner notes)
Del Jones' Positive Vibes ~ "Court Is Closed"
(Blog: Record Fiend)
Positive Vibrations
"Side two, however, really delivers the goods. Although "Prelude ta Hell," "Needle 'n Spoon," and "Cold Turkey" make up a three-part anti-drug suite, it still doesn't prevent them from collectively being one of the most mind-blowing pieces of black psychedelia committed to wax. Seriously, this is some heavy shit, man. Although Jones' range is somewhat limited, he sings his heart out on these tracks, with the uncredited band providing extremely suitable accompaniment throughout the proceedings. It's a shame that the personnel are unlisted even though there are numerous photos of the musicians on the back of the album jacket. The two guitarists alternately lay down wicked wah-wah rhythms or searing leads on all of the performances, while the rhythm section, flautist, and occasional horn players supply just the right amount of musical support." (Words of wisdom from the consistently spellbinding host of Record Fiend)
Ashanti Brothers ~ "Kill Me and Fly"
(Blog: Global Groove)
Ghana Fly Now
"I was trying to find me some useful information on this topic, but Ashanti Brothers Band's album 'Kill me and Fly' seemed (how about this word) ungoogleable. The leader of the band's called Osei Vasco, and that's really all I know. Being from 1978, I must say, the vinyl is in very good condition and spins beautiful. And then, the music, I have seldom heard such great highlife, I'm very fund of this sound with warm vocal harmony and Hammond organ!" (By the mighty Moos, at Global Groove)
Beaver Harris 360 Degrees Experience ~ "Safe"
(Blog: Arkadin's Ark)
Damn, Beaver!!
"Here we have a scarcely known and rare (if not his rarest) album by Beaver Harris and his 360 Degree Experience. Most discographies don't even list it. A pretty accessible effort compared to some of his other albums and worthwhile alone for the first track Boogie on Dawn!" (By Arkadin, at Arkadin's Ark)
[To get a sense of how rarified this drop is, peruse plotzing of the hard-core jazz hounds (including me) in the comments to this posting!]
Sam Taylor Jr ~ "Tunnels of My Mind"
(Blog: Things, Stuff & Music)
Changing Lanes Is Strictly Prohibited
"Here's one that has been ridiculously overlooked among soul aficionados. Maybe it is because Sam Taylor Jr. is usually associated with blues music more than soul, but this is more a soul record at the core...and besides, the two genres are often interwoven; soul was a blues descendant, you know. Took me a while to discover this one, and I can't remember where I pulled it out. However, I couldn't help but misunderstand how Sam Taylor didn't get noticed, even if ... wasn't exactly producing chart-toppers. Mr. Taylor plays a fresh guitar on many tracks, and his rich, gruff tenor screams of serious emotion. On top of that, the blues touch really shines through on tracks like "Now You Got the Nerve" with it's galloping beat and his cover of "Dark End of the Street" (still with the gospel choir, but now in 3/4 time). Many tracks have Hammond organs to go with the guitar licks, and even congas on the uptempo "Cigarette Grubber" (which condemns moochers who just want, well, something like a cigarette) and "Next in Line." The biggest highlight here is when Taylor slows it down for the very bluesy title track; a chopping rhythm guitar and percussion reminiscent of a dirge pace as he makes his plea for his brothers to take a look in the mirror ("tell me, when you gonna make a stand?"). However, not far behind is his version of "Hey Girl" to close out. It actually feels like a slow and desperate goodbye, and might be the best version of the song ever recorded." (By CVoss, at Rate Your Music )
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Every Wednesday, right around the time I post this weekly column, I send out an e-newsletter to followers of Give the Drummer Radio, the 24-hour webstream I manage for WFMU (have a listen) and to regular readers of Mining the Audio Motherlode. For stream listeners, the mailing offers alerts to hear exclusive radio shows (including my own Give the Drummer Some); for Motherlode readers, it contains links to additional music downloads not included in these blog posts.
If you're not on the Drummer Some / Motherlode list and would like to join, please send a quick "add me to the list" request here.
Now for the good stuff...
Dave Pike Set ~ "Noisy Silence—Gentle Noise"
(Blog: Barabara Sounds)
Best Song Title: "Walkin' Down the Highway in a Red Raw Egg"
Speaking of his contribution to the iconic Indo/jazz fusion track "Mathar" on this LP, guitarist Volker Kriegel reveals in the liner notes, "I have been playing the Indian sitar for only two weeks. Here too I'm interested in first of all in the wonderful sound of the great instrument. Mathar is the village where in northern Indian where Ravi Shankar studied 14 years with his guru before performing in public. But there are three things in this: for me the word Mathar also consists of "mother" and sitar." (From the liner notes )
Eddie Siagbo & El Rego et Ses Commandos ~ "Célibataire/Nonvi ô ô"
(Blog: Orogod)
Eddie and the Cruisers
"What little I do know about Siagbo Dieudonne Eddie is that he was from the small African nation of Togo. Also, El Rego et Ses Commandos de Cotonou from neighboring Benin were his backing band. And I have seen one other record that he release on his own label…But that’s it." (Stuart Ellis, at Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe)
Demetrio Stratos ~ "Metrodorta"
(Blog: Inconstant Sol)
Throat Culture
"This was Stratos' first solo release (1976) after his success with Area, and it marked some insane new territory for the voice as instrument. Stratos is raw, sometimes multitracked, but for the most part unaccompanied in the studio—pain, passion and unabashed self expression. A recording that both echoes the ancient and flabbergasts the present and future. Metrodora may not be to everyone's liking—especially at first—but give it a chance." (By WFMU's Wm. Berger, at My Castle of Quiet)
Laszlo Hortobagyi ~ "6th All-India Music Conference"
(Blog: Eclecticipher)
Ragalicious
"Hortobagyi has spent the last 30 years creating the music of a world that never existed but might exist in a parallel universe. A complete Musical History of a Parallel Earth. A planet , where east and west mixed somewhat differently. Much deeper." (By Eclecticipher)
The Three Ring Circus ~ "Groovin' on the Sunshine"
(Blog: Odimusic.net)
Circus Maximus
"The 'Groovin on the Sunshine' single will receive an extensive promotion by RCA. A three-minute 38 second 16mm color promotion film synced to the single has been designed by RCA Records' art director Bob Jones. The film features about a thousand different images from flowers to gravestones, to stock footage from various TV programs to abstract sculpture. In a unique move by the label, the single will be serviced to radio stations throughout the country in stereo only, while consumer copies will remain monaural only. A model dressed as a mime, emulating the four-color single sleeve, will personally deliver the record to radio stations in the New York area." (Billboard, June 22, 1968 )
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Nothing earth-shaking here. Just your standard issue Motherlode with another knee-knocking quintet of marvels offered free of charge:
(1) Tropicália obsessives will recognize the Brasil Ano 2000 soundtrack as its own sort of motherlode; (2) Thurston Moore included this historic duet between Milford Graves (happy 70th!) and Don Pullen on his enormously pleasing free-jazz Top 10 list; (3) India's Simla Cigarettes sponsored killer band competitions in the '60s, giving the winners record contracts—check out the results. (4) Don't let the anti–Sharia law nutjobs in on the secret delights of Pat Martino's psychedelic sonic Koran rendering! (Thanks to WFMU's Scott McDowell for suggesting this gem.) (5) Nicknamed for a small bird with a big voice Brazil's Augusto Calheiros' crooned exquisitely for nearly five decades.
Who needs terra firma?...
(1) Rogério Duprat, Gilberto Gil, et. al ~ "Brasil Ano 2000"
(Blog: SacundinBenBlog!)
Brutality Gardening
Marcel Cruz of SacundinBenBlog proclaims "The missing link! The gap that existed in the Tropicália discography has just been filled!" in his post sharing this soundtrack to Walter Lima Jr's 1969 post-apocalyptic Brasil Ano 2000. Arranged by Rogério Duprat, the music features Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, José Carlos Capinam, Gal Costa.
(2) Milford Graves & Don Pullen ~ "Nommo"
(Blog: Sybylys - Silentsprings)
Mythmakers
"Milford may be one of the most important players in the Free Jazz underground. He enforces the sense of community as a primary exponent of his freely improvised music. His drumkit is home-made and he rarely performs outside of his neighborhood. When he does perform he plays his kit like no other. Wild, slapping, bashing, tribal freak-outs interplexed with silence, serenity and enlightened meditation. This LP was manufactured by the artists in 1967 and is recorded live at Yale University. The interplay between Milford and Don (piano) is remarkable and very free. There’s a second volume which also is as rare as hen’s teeth." (Thurston Moore, from Top Ten From the Free Jazz Underground, Grand Royal)
(3) Various ~ "Simla Beat '70/'71"
(Blog: Resin Hits)
Smoking
"This is an Indian garage psych comp compiled from talent shows hosted by a cigarrette company called Simla in the '60s. A weird cross-promotion between two of the greatest products circulating earth: rock music and cigarettes. As far as the bands go, the eruptions are really good distorted surf rock, and fentones/hypnotic eye have the best cuts overall. and let me tell you, the cross-promotion works. I've smoked more bones listening to this one than even Simla Cigarettes could support, dood." (By Josh Klimaszewski, at Resin Hits)
(4) Pat Martino ~ "Baiyina (The Clear Evidence)
(Blog: The KingCake Crypt)
Does This Get Pat Frisked at the Airport?
"Adventurous fusions of Indian, psychedelic, rock, funk, and jazz music by one of the great risk-takers of the electric guitar. Baiyina features fluid guitars, exotic Indian percussion and drone instruments, unique time signatures, swirling flute and sax, deep grooving bass, and in-the-pocket drumming, making it one of the most unique acid-drenched albums to come out of the late '60s. As the album’s subtitle reads: 'A psychedelic excursion through the magical mysteries of the Koran.' Indeed, each track takes its inspiration and name from different parts of the Koran." (By John Ballon, at MustHear.com)
(5) Augusto Calheiros ~ "A Patativa do Norte"
(Blog: Toque Musical)
Bird Is the Word
"Augusto Calheiros, a singer of enormous success in the golden age of Brazilian song, introduced northeastern rhythms in Rio with his group Turunas da Mauricéia. Known as "Patativa do Norte," he moved with his family to Recife PE, becoming acquainted with Luperce Miranda's family, all musicians. When the Miranda siblings -- Luperce Miranda (mandolin), João Miranda (mandolin), Romualdo Miranda (violão, or acoustic guitar), the blind Manuel de Lima (violão), and João Frazão (violão) -- teamed together to form Turunas da Mauricéia, they called Calheiros to be the group's singer." (By Alvaro Neder at AllMusic Guide )
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
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Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Some lovely and oddball offerings populate the Motherlode this time around with tubas figuring prominently: Bob Stewart blows magnificently on Arthur Blythe's Lenox Avenue Breakdown (listen for his solo on the title track; Howard Johnson channels Jimi Hendrix on Gil Evans's big band interpretation of "Voodoo Chile"; and maestro Ransom Knowling weilds a "brass bass" in support of both Doctor Clayton and his "buddy" (Sunnyland Slim) on a number of mid-'40s blues sessions you won't want to miss.
This group really blows...
Jack Wilcox Sowards ~ "A Marriage of Clocks and Highways"
(Blog: Out of the Bubbling Dusk)
Quiet a Masterpiece
"Jack Wilcox was introduced to me by a good friend as a buried regional LP from my neck of the woods, maybe 3 years ago... a lost loner folk record that sounded like it was recorded by the angry son of a logger, trapped in Northern Idaho, a wayward intellectual youth washed out into the resignation of beer-can spray and icy roads of the soul... I liked the LP then, and still find something very appealing about it now. Allegedly recorded in an empty bar, Wilcox's voice is fragile but coarse, and his songs exude the dull ache of blue collar America's trappings and smoke filled particle board interiors. The whole trip may seem a little flat at first but I found a subtle edge to it all that only grew on me over time. For folk fans, it is most certainly something worth checking out." (By J.D.F., at Out of the Bubbling Dusk)
Doctor Clayton & His Buddy ~ "Pearl Harbour Blues"
(Blog: Don't Ask Me ….. I Don't Know)
Whoop for Joy
"Doctor Clayton was an American blues singer and songwriter who performed barefoot, wearing comically large, round glasses. Peter Joe Clayton was born in Georgia on April 19, 1898 (although he later claimed he had been born in Africa), and moved to St. Louis as a child with his family. He had four children of his own and worked in a factory in St. Louis, while starting his career as a singer. He could also play piano and ukulele, although he never did so on record. Doctor Clayton recorded six sides for Bluebird Records in 1935, but only two of those were ever issued. His family all died in a house fire in 1937, after which Clayton became an alcoholic and began wearing oversized hats and glasses." (By Xyros, at Don't Ask Me...)
Tea and Symphony ~ "Jo Sago"
(Blog: Hippy Djkit)
Hold the Scones
"Tea & Symphony gained a reputation early on, for their strange stage-shows and presentation which included as much theatrical as musical content. They were probably the first local group to perform at Erdington's legendary Mothers club that opened in August of 1968. This internationally famous venue that specialized in booking the top "progressive" groups, was previously known as the Carlton Ballroom where a number of local acts including The Moody Blues had got their start in the early 1960's. In 1969, Tea & Symphony toured with progressive blues outfit Bakerloo who were from nearby Tamworth in Staffordshire. Both groups were signed to the Harvest Records label in 1969 and Tea & Symphony were able to record under the direction of producer Gus Dudgeon who had previously worked with the famous Nottingham group Ten Years After and would later produce records by Elton John." (By John R. Woodhouse, at Brum Beat)
Arthur Blythe ~ "Lenox Avenue Breakdown"
(Blog: Mohaoffbeat)
Best Vibrato in the Biz
"Prodigiously talented as an instrumentalist and composer, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe was one of the most innovative jazz musicians of the 1970s and '80s, and Lenox Avenue Breakdown, his Columbia Records debut, proves it. Blythe's ability to marry the best of the genre's traditions (he is equally versed in swing, post-bop, and romantic styles) with his avant-garde leanings is evident here. "Odessa," for example, a modal exploration, begins melodically, yet pushes further into free-jazz territory as the tune progresses. The angular bop of the title track is offset by adventurous soloing and unique instrumentation (flute and tuba add to the sonic palette here, along with guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer and drummer Jack DeJohnette)." (By Frasco, at Mohaoffbeat)
[This download is in the lossless FLAC format. For 320 MP3, go to Music • Hertz)
Gil Evans Orchestra ~ "Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix"
(Blog: Van Groove Express)
The Cool Grows Up
"Since I am an avid fan of Modern Progressive Big Band music, as well as progressive rock and jazz rock fusion, Gil Evans Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix released in 1975, is a combination of all those styles and I find it a spectacular performance. The highlight tracks for me are "Voodoo Chile," a tune best known for Jimi Hendrix's guitar wah wah-driven intro, the use of the most awkward instrument of them all the tuba, in place of the lead guitar is one of craziest things I have ever heard in recorded music…" (By jjaysmoker, at Squidoo )
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
There are a couple of fantastic blogs I've been meaning to trumpet in this space for weeks now:
Around since May, Tim Abdellah's blissful Moroccan Tape Stash has a wonderful name (somewhat reminiscent of Awesome Tapes From Africa) that may sound like it has a narrow focus. But once you dive into the diverse sounds on offer, you'll soon grasp that the ocean of Moroccan music is wide and deep.
Speaking of deep, another site you should plunge into is Bodega Pop, which posted its first sonic treasure in May 2010. Scouring NYC's outer-borough cornershops the past decade for unusual music, your host Gary is now sharing with one and all the many fruits of his hunting and gathering. Thank you Tim and thank you Gary!
Late update:
Last evening on my radio show (here) I played an hour of jazz-besotted Indian music (and Subcontinental-infused jazz), including the only track I could find off Shankar Jaikishan's groovy collaboration Raga Jazz Style ("Raga Todi," which Eastern Eye had posted in 2008). Then late last night, someone (who I imagine heard the show) left a request for this LP at Holy Warbles — the most likely site in the universe where this audiophonic gem might possibly appear. Lo and behold, not six hours later, arrives a magnificent post delivering the whole album, cover scans, session line-up and complete details! Is there a more thrilling blog in this or any other universe than Holy Warbles? Thank you Øשlqæda!
It's fun to share...
Bnate Houara ~ "Bnate Houara"
(Blog: Moroccan Tape Stash)
Women Work It
"Marrakchi old-school women's party music - rollicking call-and-response singing with funky stratified rhythms on a variety of buzzy drums plus a brake drum or tea tray for some metal clang. This sort of group typically has some songs that roll from start to finish in the typical Moroccan 6/8. They have another type that begins in 7/8 and moves to 5/4, with the same melody stretched to fit into the new meter!" (By Tim Abdellah, at Moroccan Tape Stash)
Phương Dung | Khúc Hát ân Tình
(Blog: Bodega Pop)
HBO? No, BHO!
"Every time I've gone to Chicago, and the one time I was in Montreal, I've picked up half a dozen to two dozen Vietnamese CDs, mostly pop music recorded in Vietnam before 1975—though I do have a relatively sizable collection now of Vietnamese rap, all recorded in the States. The pre-'75 stuff rarely disappoints. That said, it also rarely, in the words of my Minneapolis sound poet friend, Erik Belgum, "blows head off." Last weekend, however, I picked up something that definitely BHO." (By Gary, at Bodega Pop )
Shankar Jaikishan ~ "Raga Jazz Style"
(Blog: Holy Warbles)
Øשlqæda for President
Shankar Jaikishan, also known as S/J, were a duo of composers in the Hindi film industry who collaborated from 1949–1971. Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi was a native of Rajasthan, while Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal belonged to Bansda, Gujarat. Shankar Jaikishan, along with other artists, wrote 'everlasting' & 'immortal melodies' in the '50s & '60s. Their best melodies are noted for being raga-based & having both lilt and sonority. Shankar Jaikishan made a major contribution toward the development of jazz music in India and the new genre Indo Jazz. Their 1968 album Raga Jazz Style is the earliest Indo Jazz recording in India and the first to be released in stereo. On this album, considered to be one of the most innovative, S/J created 11 songs based on Indian ragas with sitar by Rais Khan. (From Wikipedia)
Various ~ "God Give Me Light"
(Blog: Ghostcapital)
Sanctafried
"Outstanding 78rpm gospel collection from Herwin Records, featuring knockout performances from a handful of both black and white sanctified singers of the day. As the liner notes say: "Unfortunately, very little is known about the artists in this album." I do know that I recommend it, highly." (By nicholab, at Ghostcapital)
Various ~ "El Gran Tesoro De La Musica Cubana"
Volumes 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Blog: El Negrito del Batey)
Havana Hold Your Hand
"El 2004 significó para la Egrem la celebración del 40 aniversario de su fundación y el 60 de la inauguración de los legendarios estudios de la calle San Miguel, posteriormente reconocidos como Areito, por donde desfilarían a lo largo de todos estos años lo más valioso de nuestros creadores e intérpretes, enriqueciendo con su arte el patrimonio que atesoran los archivos de esta casa discográfica, que como homenaje a toda esa historia musical, decidió asumir el ambicioso proyecto de conformar una colección capaz de brindar en ocho volúmenes, un amplio panorama de las diversas tendencias, géneros y estilos abordados durante seis décadas por esos músicos que tema a tema lograron construir una monumental obra orgullo de nuestra nacionalidad." (From the Egrem catalog)
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
With every passing Down East vacation, I become increasingly convinced that there really are no moose in Maine. Over the years I've seen bald eagles dive-bombing gulls, starfish the size of dinner plates and even a whale cruising badassedly right by my cabin—but never have I seen even one damn moose. Luring bears to your garbage is like taking candy from a baby, but what does one have to do to attract a dopey moose?
Other than not seeing a moose, the last two weeks were spectacularly restful. I did have a loon swim to within 20 feet of me and ululate its head almost completely off. That's almost as good as spotting a moose, right?
Glad to be back...
Norma Jean & Ray J ~ "Raising Hell"
(Blog: Funk My Soul)
Hell Is for Hoagies
"Norma Jean & Ray J’s “Raising Hell” is one helluva rare nugget. Released on the Hep-Me label in 1974, this has a remarkably polished sound and sophistication in the music to have warranted bigger names on the front of the album cover. And while Norma Jean and Ray J would never topple the likes of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, they have a crude chemistry that has a magic all of its very own. A wonderful wonderful left-fielder that I urge you to give a few plays for it to reel you in and in love." (By Trakbuv, at Funk My Soul)
Johnny Colón ~ "Boogaloo '67"
(Blog: Blue Beat in My Soul)
No Sophmore Jinx
"Johnny Colón is the most exciting new star on the Latin scene today. I am proud of playing a small part in his success. I was the first D.J. to play his first hit album Boogaloo Blues. I flipped when I heard it and immediately signed him for the Village Gate. He broke it up, and the rest is history." (Symphony Sid Torin, from the liner notes)
Eddie Robinson ~ "You in My Life"
(Blog: A Pyrex Scholar)
Bless the Ants and Elephants
"DOPE soulful gospel LP from 1979 courtesy of Eddie Robinson's own Ren Unlimited records . Features some ill electric piano work DON'T SLEEP!!" (By The Purist, at A Pyrex Scholar)
Cecil Gant ~ "Cecil Gant 1944-1945"
(Blog: Twilightzone!)
Pre-Pre-Revolutionary Egypt
"Cecil Gant jumped into the R&B world's consciousness during a war bond rally in downtown Los Angeles in 1944. The 29 year old pianist/singer made a great impression on many in the audience that day and so he was soon in a makeshift recording studio for the small independent Gilt Edge label. The first record released was "I Wonder" / "Cecil's Boogie" on Gilt Edge #501 billed as "The G.I. Sing-sation." Using hidden neighborhood pressing plants and black market supplies of shellac, the record got out on the streets and sold. The side sold in a big way, and so big that this was the record heard around the independent label world. It offered proof that a Black R&B performer on a small independent label could turn a big profit, and so the entrepreneurs cranked it up and the small indies began in earnest in Los Angeles." (From Cecil Gant: The Forgotten Pioneer, by J.C. Marion)
Bob Thiele Emergency ~ "Head Start"
(Blog: La Cintas Recuperadas)
Head/Heart
"Dedicated To Pee Wee Russell, Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Frank Teschemaker, Johnny Dodds, Jess Stacy, Frank Zappa, B.B. King, Bob Thiele Jr, Tenice and my father." (Bob Thiele, from the liner notes.)
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
As you read this, your dutiful Miner is dashing headlong toward a small, off-the-grid cabin on the Maine coast, desperate to put down his pickaxe and pick up a good book and a hefty dose of radio silence. Yes, after the past six months of dizzying downloads, a brief respite from the great sound of sound is seriously in order. So enjoy this mega-post surveying the best posts so far in 2011 (and be sure to follow the jump to page two for a list of readers faves) while Mining the Audio Motherlode takes the next two weeks off.
MINER'S MID-YEAR FAVORITES...
Moussa Doumbia ~ "Keleya"
(Blog: Exp Etc)
Soul Brother #1A
"Godfather of Soul wannabes sprang up like kudzu in the 1960s and '70s, and, outside of Chicago and Detroit, the most badass Brown imitators per hectare came from the gritty urban centers of East and West Africa. Anwar Richard and Matata ruled Nairobi, Geraldo Pino & the Heartbeats concquered Lagos, but the heaviest of heavyweight Afrofunkateers may have been Mali's sax-playing, leather-lunged soul belter Moussa Doumbia, who toiled in semiobscurity in the nightclubs of Ivory Coast's capital city Abidjan. Doumbia was a cool cat but no copycat. While others merely reproduced the James Brown sound, Doumbia seemingly conjured, on a nightly basis, the very soul of Soul Brother No. 1 itself. His massive funk workouts featured all the withering, from-the-gut grunts and squeals, but they were layered over a dense thicket of his native Dioula rhythms—along with, of course, skronking horns and skanky guitars. This French compilation of Doumbia's rare singles and one album may be the greatest single-disc trove of African funk ever released." (From my Favorites of 2007 write-up)
FEATURED BLOG:
The Singing Bones
NOLA Gay
I first became aware of the miraculous blog Singing Bones when Ana-B, its estimable curator, guest-posted over at Derek's Daily 45. Ever since, I've ravenously pounced on each new offering—one magnificent 7" slab of soul after another. Last Xmas eve, Ana posted an epic, 11-song sequence, which I downloaded and aired on my radio show in tribute. (If you do nothing else today, give it a listen.)
Gideon Nxumalo ~ "Jazz Fantastia"
(Blog: Electric Jive)
Alto Gladness
"True to its name in both form and spirit, Gideon Nxumalo’s 1962 Jazz Fantasia is a key document of modernist South African jazz. Vital, ambitious, consummate in conception and execution, it is perhaps the crucial small group recording of the early 1960s, and one of the few complete sets by a small modernist group to have been released on LP during these years. Nxumalo’s compositions are taut and boppish, in places unmistakably water-marked by the language of mbaqanga jazz, but speaking fluent bop – ‘Isintu’ in particular knits the melancholic mbaqanga chords which underpin the piece seamlessly into the bebop-styled changes of the main section." (Description by Fin, at Electric Jive)
[Since this LP was presented, Electric Jive has posted another stunner by Gideon Nxumalo.]
Cheikh Imam ~ "Chante Negm"
(Blog: Afro Soul Descarga)
Pre-Pre-Revolutionary Egypt
The story of Richard Nixon's laughable skedaddle to the Middle East in June of 1974 became rich fodder for the duo of Ahmed Fouad Negm, a poet and folk hero who spent nearly two decades in prison for his subversive writing, and the blind troubadour Sheikh Imam Eissa. Together they wrote and performed songs lauding Che Guevara, denouncing the war in Vietnam and mercilessly ridiculing every Egyptian leader since 1962, when they began their partnership. (Read more from my July 2, 2008 post at Beware of the Blog)
S.D. Burman ~ "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi"
(Blog: Parties, Sarees and Melodies)
Real Men Dig Kishore Kumar
Inspired by the Marx Brothers' antics, this 1958 comedy is landmark in Indian cinema. The account "The Making of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi," by Suguna Sundaram, is almost as hysterical as the film apparently is. Read it here.
Tony Iglio ~ "Drug Store"
(Blog: Mondo Ribelle)
Say Yes to Drug Store
"Unknown Library LP by Iglio and his band. Full of weird exploito-psych-jazz, Ive never come across this artist or label, must be his only release I reckon. Anyway, it's rare, it looks great and it sounds wild." (Anonymous commenter, at iueke.com)
Ghetto Brothers ~ "Power-Fuerza"
(Blog: Resin Hits)
Brothers Gonna Work It Out
"This album contains a message; a message to the world, from the Ghetto Brothers. The Ghetto Brothers, a community organization dedicated to bridging the ever-increasing gap that exists between society and minority groups, believe music to be the common language of the world. Through music, they are able to inform society of the plight of the 'little people' in their quest for recognition. Therefore, the music of the Ghetto Brothers serves as a way of communication. If the Ghetto Brothers' dream comes true, the world will learn that the 'little people' wish to be acknowledged; wish to be properly educated in order for them to pass on their knowledge to their children and proudly inform them about their heritage and culture, and be a functioning part of the growth of America. If the Ghetto Brothers' dream comes true, the 'little people' will be 'little people' no more, and make their own mark in this world. Listen to the Ghetto Brothers…….and take heed." (From the dust jacket of Power-Fuerza [Salsa, 1971])
Fred Jordan ~ "The Frost is on the Pumpkin"
(Blog: Gonzo-Archive)
[Password = gonzoFJFO]
Workman Life Effort
"In the autumn of 1959, Fred attracted the attention of participants in the folk song revival when he appeared at the English Folk Dance and Song society’s festival wearing his everyday clothes – heavy boots, leggings and weather-defying hat. His singing drew immediate acclaim. Since then he has appeared with increasing regularity at concerts and clubs, with other country singers and also with revival performances. He enjoys concert and club work, where he sings with the straightforward ‘professionalism’ and unselfconsciousness common to most country singers. As a folk singer he may be classed with the best – and that best includes Harry Cox, George Maynard and Phil Tanner. Though he is still a young man he has the essential style of this older generation. His musical sense is very highly developed; his ability to make small rhythmical changes to suit the words of songs is marked and his use of melodic ornament is subtle and skillful. the quality of his voice may seem strange at first hearing, but it is not unique, and there is nothing here of an old man’s quaver, for Fred Jordan is in his prime." (Liners for Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker)
Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe ~ "Duo Exchange"
(Blog: Free the Music)
One of the Great Duet Recordings of any Genre, Ever
"Duo Exchange dates from 1972 and reveals Frank Lowe still in the process of purging the overt Coltrane-isms from his improvising. The two collectively extemporized compositions here are not mere sequels to the cosmological visions of Ali's 'other' saxophone-drums duet record, Coltrane's own Interstellar Space. If anything, "Exchange Part 1" and "Exchange Part 2" are less orchestral, less unrelenting, and less flowing than the performances from that earlier record. The scale of Duo Exchange is more human; though there are moments of anguish and triumph commensurate with those on Interstellar Space, the context here is very, very different. Of particular interest in these performances is just how Lowe responds to Ali's virtuosity, his split-second ability to free-associate shards of metric patterns and his kaleidoscopic sense of percussive coloration. Lowe often lets go of his phrases such that his notes somehow fall in those small open cells of silence in Ali's otherwise overpowering detail. The more closely one listens, the more it becomes obvious that Lowe is assembling a steady beat from the wailing pull of his tenor sax against the coruscating push of Ali's kit. In this setting, Lowe is the chorus—the rueful and wise narrative agent—and Ali the flamboyant actor personifying the tragically incongruous circumstances that befall the individual as they follow the trajectory of hubris. It is clear even from this brief recording (barely over half an hour in length) that Frank Lowe is one of the most unique of "free" players, as his playing demonstrates how deeply he comprehends the serious risks involved in his aesthetic. Frank Lowe's art is a super-realistic one, because it is an art open to life and life's endlessly proliferating decisions, each of which is possessed of an integrity and gravity that is to be honored." (By Joe Milazzo, at One Final Note)
Brotherhood of Breath ~ "Brotherhood of Breath"
(Blog: Destination Out)
From September 11, 2006
"Brotherhood of Breath is an easy band to love. The proto-Brotherhood, leader McGregor’s Blue Notes, formed in South Africa: the very existence of this mixed-race ensemble was an affront to apartheid. Unwelcome and unable to secure gigs, the band headed north, eventually ending up in England, where they quickly fell in with a Who’s Who of late ’60s UK jazz players – the more adventurous among them, anyway." (Destination: Out)
[Brotherhood of Breath is available at Brian.]
Continue reading "Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 125" »
Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
After you devour this week's smorgesbord of sound, take a few minutes to scroll back through the first six months of Motherlodes and make note of your favorites albums offered thus far. Either email me your picks or just share them in the comments below, but do let me know what you liked best. I'll compile reader selections with a list of my own in next week's mid-year Top Ten. In the mean time, happy Motherloding.
Five more faves...
Gordon Alexander ~ "Gordon's Buster"
(Blog: Hippy Djkit)
From the album: Windy Wednesday (mp3)
Featuring: "A Bunch of Us Were Sitting Around a Candle in San Francisco Getting Stoned and I Hope You're There Next Time."
"Gordon Alexander offered songs that reflected the beatific side of the hippie experience on Gordon's Buster, yet in a mild, faintly sunshine-pop influenced style that steered it well clear of the weirdest things coming out of California at the time. There's a sense of the playful psych/pop of, say, Sagittarius or Chris Lucey/Bobby Jameson, yet Alexander seems earthier and a little more connected to some genuinely stoned whimsy. Gratuitous washes of echo and distorted guitar come into the mix at times, yet sometimes it sounds like he's trying to do a psychedelic take on Glen Campbell. In all it's an eclectic period curiosity with some interesting baroque touches." (Description by Richie Unterberger, at All Music)
Peg Leg Sam ~ "Medicine Show Man"
(Blog: MilChapitas)
Must Watch: Born for Hard Luck (1976)
"With a sobriquet straight out of the pages of a pirate novel Peg Leg Sam promises much in the way of flamboyant musical knavery. His sole entry for the Trix label makes good on the pledge. Sam’s songbook transcends the blues’ porous boundaries and overlaps with old-timey country and folk repertoires. All were learned on his peregrinations through the States and even overseas to Cuba, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Friendship with songster Pink Anderson led a lengthy career in the medicine shows. As such, the disc’s title isn’t some flippant marketing ploy. Substantial technique informs his extempore harmonica style and he accomplishes some amazing feats, but it’s all in deference to the various moods that strike him. (Description by Derek, at Bagatellen)
Buddy Rich & Alla Rakha ~ "Rich à la Rakha"
(Blog: Dr. Schluss' Garage of Psychedelic Obscurities)
From the album: Khanda Kafi (mp3)
Slap Dash
"For those of us living in the West, jazz drumming legend Buddy Rich is the marquee name here, although it's not particularly representative of what you're going to get with this recording. Neither is the trendy, '68 vintage psychedelic exploitation lettering gracing the cover. No, this is in fact a collaboration with the sterling Indian percussionist Alla Rakha, and it's his musical DNA that is most apparent here. Fortunately, the end result is a quite good album of classically-minded Indian music with a few jazz flourishes (although for the most part it seems that Mr. Rich is joining in with hand percussion or just a tom drum)." (Description by Dr. Schluss , at Dr. Schluss' Garage Of Psychedelic Obscurities )
Bariş Manço ~ 29 Singles
(Blog: Turkish Psychedelic Music)
We'll Always Have Bariş
"Along with Erkin, Baris Manco is one of the earliest stars of Turkish rock'n roll whose first public -success dates back to late 50's. He won scholarship in Belgium Royal Academy in 1963 and went to Belgium to study graphics and art. By the time he was there he was always busy with music and put out records in both Belgium and in Turkey (to where he returned for four or five months every year. Influenced by the rapid cultural movements occuring at the time in Europe, he realised his own country could be the cultural link between East and West, a link avidly sought by many open-minded Western European thoughts. After his collaborations with Les Mistigris and Kaygisizlar, Manço went on to form another band under his name which compromised of multi-national musicians. Best remembered for their fantastic live bluesy underground music." (Description by Gökhan Aya & Jay Dobis, reprinted at Progressive.Homestead.com)
Air ~ "Open Air Suit"
(Blog: música en espiral)
From the album: Card Two: The Jick or Mandrill's Cosmic Ass (mp3)
Air Is Human
"The compositions on this LP are by [Henry] Threadgill, but all three instruments participate as equals in the improvisations. Of particular interest are the complex, fluid rhythms that the group develops, with Threadgill and [Fred] Hopkins sensitively responding to each other from moment to moment to develop the core rhythm, and [Steve] McCall syncopating off of that—or so it seems to me. The effect is kaleidoscopic. Threadgill plays a different instrument on each track—alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone, and flute." (Description by ?, at Kickass Torrents )
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Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
Few things in the prevailing political climate enrage me more than the Republicans' obscene slashing and burning of governmental structures with the capacity to do public good. Given the current governor of Florida, it's a marvel that the Sunshine State still has a shred of a budget line supporting the archival activities of its state library's Memory project. A large component of the effort has been the conscientious work of archivists, folklorists and historians, cataloging and making accessible a considerable trove of sound recordings and photographs from 58 years of the Florida Folklife Festival.
My favorite manifestation of their work so far has been the four full-length CDs of blues, gospel, folk, old-timey and ethnic immigrant musics that the state has produced (here, here, here, and here). You can avail yourself of digital downloads posted on the Florida Memory website, or request physical copies, which will be mailed free of charge! Now a fifth must-have CD—an all-blues collection—has been forged from the Florida archives, and that compilation is the lead-off item in today's Motherlode.
Drop on down in Florida...
Various ~ "Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night"
(Site: State Library & Archives of Florida)
From the album: Apple Farm Blues (mp3) by Moses Williams
Your Tax Dollars at Work
"The music presented on Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night was selected from hundreds of hours of Florida Folk Festival performances and field recordings spanning 25 years, from 1977-2002. Alongside the down-home folk traditions of Emmett Murray, Richard Williams, and Moses Williams are performances of standard Blues by Albert “Buck” Thompson, Charles Atkins and Martin “Tampa Blue” Locklear. The Piedmont finger-picking style of North Carolina guitarist Etta Baker was captured at the Florida Folk Festival, as was the renowned Washington, D.C. duo Cephas and Wiggins’ more modernized interpretation of Piedmont Blues." (Description provided by the Memory Project at Florida's State Library & Archives)
Bill Dixon ~ "Considerations"
Volume 1 | Volume 2
(Blog: Inconstant Sol)
Dixon's the One
"The six minute trumpet solo “Long Alone Song” is quite lovely and evidence of what Taylor Ho Bynum notes as Dixon’s desire to make his trumpet sound like an orchestra. There’s a richness of tone and expression here, but also a naked intimacy that comes from the format. In this week’s New Yorker, Marc Fisher’s article on WBAI legend Bob Fass (article not online, but there is some audio here) at one point cites Miles Davis’s line on choosing “not to play all the notes you could play, but to wait, hesitate, let space become a part of the configuration.” Though Dixon might blanch at the Miles reference, it’s incredibly apt, as Dixon fearlessly embraces hesitation, and makes space an integral part of his musical framework." (Description by Destination Out)
Jeanne Lee ~ "Conspiracy"
(Blog: Free Form, Free Jazz)
From the album: Sundance (mp3)
I Dream of Jeanne
"Her first solo album, Conspiracy (Earthform, 1974) displayed her creative style, which expanded the jazz vocabulary with gestures borrowed from Tibet and India, inspired by Yma Sumac, taking advantage not only of the "voice" but also of lip and throat sounds." (Commentary by Piero Scaruffi, at Sunnyside Records)
Various ~ "A Bottle of Wine and a Ginger Cake"
(Blog: Allen's Archive of Early and Old Country Music)
From the album: Pick and Shovel (mp3) by Clay Turner
All Hail Peanut Cantrell
"The back country of southeast Tennessee, though not as celebrated or documented as east Tennessee, has in the past provided some of the best old-time music to come out of the state. Modern times have done a lot toward breaking down and diffusing this once-thriving folk music culture, but a surprising amount of the old music does survive for those who have the patience and resources to seek it out....All too often we hear today that the genuine old time music is all but extinct in the grass-roots South, that it is played only by folklorists and self-conscious revivalists. Here is proof to the contrary—proof that at least some of the wellsprings of traditional music still flow." (Charles Wolfe, from the liner notes)
Helen Carr ~ "Complete Bethlehem Collection"
(Blog: Sic Vos Non Nobis)
[Click here for password]
A Great Unknown
"She was born in 1922 or 1924 in Salt Lake City. Carr recorded "Say It Isn't So" with Charles Mingus in 1946 in Los Angeles. She married pianist-arranger Donn Trenner and worked with him in a group called The Donn Trio and Helen. She sang for short periods of time with the big bands of Charlie Barnet, Georgie Auld, Chuck Foster, Skinnay Ennis, Stan Kenton and Buddy Morrow. She sat in with Charlie Parker a couple times and made two albums for Bethlehem; one in a quintet with trumpeter Don Fagerquist, altoist Charlie Mariano, Donn Trenner, bassist Max Bennett and drummer Stan Levey, and one with a trio comprised of trumpeter Cappy Lewis, guitarist Howard Roberts and bassist Red Mitchell. These are either from 1953 and 1954 or both from 1955, depending on the discography one looks at." (Scott Yanow, on a message board at Jazz Corner)
Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode