.. so here’s a couple of classic 45s from one of the true giants of New Orleans music. These tunes are everywhere down here, all year long and especially during carnival season, but they don’t the provoke the same sort of eye-rolling that hearing, say, ” Sweet Home Chicago ” in Chicago does .. or Sinatra in New Jersey — New Orleans culture is a genuine living, breathing, hundreds-of-years-old thing, and Mardi Gras is its beating heart ( or maybe its liver, but that’s another story ). This ( and Dr.John, and The Meters, and Irma Thomas, and Fats Domino, and many others ) is what the city SOUNDS like, and it sounds great. Listen to those drums in Big Chief : how cool is that? Listen to what Fess says in Go To The Mardi Gras : go see the Zulu king. I am. BTW, Big Chief was split into parts 1 & 2 so it would fit onto two sides of a 7″ record, and I’ve glued them back together for you here.
1. Professor Longhair : ” Big Chief Parts 1 & 2 “
1. Professor Longhair : ” Big Chief Parts 1 & 2 ”
2. Professor Longhair : ” Go To The Mardi Gras “
2. Professor Longhair : ” Go To The Mardi Gras “
I recently managed to score a mint vinyl copy of a classic bounce track – UNLV’s seminal 6th & Baronne. It was one of the very first releases from Cash Money Records, and remains a crowd-moving favorite in New Orleans. Here’s what bounce scholar Ballzack has to say about it :
” This song is great for many reasons… the piano is really dramatic and immediately draws you in, UNLV’s sing- song delivery is hypnotizing, it sounds like it was recorded on a 4 track, and Mannie Fresh’s production is all heart. It’s a great song that gets you bucked up as soon it starts. If they released it now, it would still be great. It’s simply New Orleans punk rock at its finest. ”
UNLV : ” 6th & Baronne “
UNLV : ” 6th & Baronne ”
UNLV : ” Eddie Bow “
UNLV : ” Eddie Bow “
Rik Slave sings with Rock City Morgue, which is the band that Sean from White Zombie plays bass and keyboards with, but he has fronted many groups, including The Phantoms, who were originally active from 1984 to about 1995 and were quite popular here in New Orleans. Back then, the band’s core consisted of Rik, bassist RJ O’Rourke, drummer Greg Terry, and a rotating cast of guitar players.
There are a variety of recordings of the original Phantoms, including a 12″ EP, a 45, and numerous demos and board tapes, but when they reformed last year and asked me to produce their album ( which is pretty evenly split between old songs and entirely new ones ), I reasoned that this is a different time and a different band and so I purposely didn’t listen to anything they had.
It’s not really fair to compare this version of ” Do You Believe ” from 1989’s More Drunken Buffoonery EP to the modern recording – they were in their early 20s then, and they’re grown-up men now, and their lineup has been fleshed out with two guitarists and a keyboard player, but it surprised me the other day when I listened to it for the first time. The new recording is a lot more hi-fi, and it’s got a lot more stuff in it, but it really is the same song.
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : Do You Believe ( 1989 )
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : Do You Believe ( 1989 )
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : Do You Believe ( 2009 )
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : Do You Believe ( 2009 )
1989 Phantoms : LJ, Greg, Robert Lambert, Rik
2009 Phantoms : Greg, Chris Lenox, Rik, Pat Catania, LJ, Ben Caston
Here’s a record I recorded and mixed earlier this year. I’ll write a little more on The Phantoms in a bit, but for the time being here’s some tunes from the album.
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” Dancing In The Rain “
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” Dancing In The Rain ”
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” Friend I Never Had “
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” Friend I Never Had ”
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” Complications “
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” Complications ”
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” I Shouldn’t Hang Around “
Rik Slave & The Phantoms : ” I Shouldn’t Hang Around “
Here’s some early New Orleans hip hop – although this one gets lumped in with the classic bounce tracks ( such as on the Real New Orleans Bounce Compilation ), it is not itself bounce. As with most of the MCs from these early, underground recordings, very little is known about Warren Mayes. He left behind a bunch of stuff, much of it on cassette, but he never again achieved the profile he did with this song, and he was murdered in 2000. The strange thing about this record is that there are two versions of ” Get It Girl ” – the first is the familiar one, the one that I still sometimes hear booming out of cars, and then there’s the second version, which is the same backing track with a completely different, unknown rapper. Same lyrics and everything, same flow, and nothing on the record label about who or why.
Warren Mayes : ” Get It Girl ” Version one
Warren Mayes : ” Get It Girl ” Version one
Warren Mayes : ” Get It Girl ” Version two
Warren Mayes : ” Get It Girl ” Version two
Vinyl Solution Records V/S 004. I guess what they were going for with the cover art for this 1980 New Orleans punk compilation LP was the city post-apocalypse, or maybe they were trying to illustrate the explosive rock n’ roll power contained within. All I know is that right now is the riskiest part of hurricane season, and this picture of a destroyed Superdome and toppled streetcar makes me distinctly uncomfortable. Here’s the entire album.
Red Rockers : ” Dead Heroes “
1. Red Rockers : ” Dead Heroes ”
Red Rockers : ” Red Star “
2. Red Rockers : ” Red Star ”
Aces 88 : ” Character “
3. Aces 88 : ” Character ”
RZA : ” Can’t Never “
4. RZA : ” Can’t Never ”
The Hostages : ” Time To Change “
5. The Hostages : ” Time To Change ”
The Models : ” Fire Patrol “
6. The Models : ” Fire Patrol ”
The Models : ” Intimate Love “
7. The Models : ” Intimate Love ”
The Wayward Youth : ” Thinkin’ Bout You
8. The Wayward Youth : ” Thinkin’ Bout You
David Oh! : ” Preparation X “
9. David Oh! : ” Preparation X ”
The Fugitives : ” Mystery Girl “
10. The Fugitives : ” Mystery Girl ”
Mandeville Mike : ” Me “
11. Mandeville Mike : ” Me ”
The Swingin’ Millionaires : ” The Cannibals Next Door “
12. The Swingin’ Millionaires : ” The Cannibals Next Door ”
The Cheaters : ” A Little Too Much “
13. The Cheaters : ” A Little Too Much ”
The Manic Depressives : ” Not Worth The Time “
14. The Manic Depressives : ” Not Worth The Time ”
The Manic Depressives : ” Think For Yourself “
15. The Manic Depressives : ” Think For Yourself ”
Bonus! I recently picked up an old vinyl copy of the Red Rockers’ 1981 album Condition Red. Here’s the LP version of ” Dead Heroes “, which is more hi-fi but retains the urgent power-punk feel of the earlier version from the compilation.
Red Rockers : ” Dead Heroes ” ( album )
Red Rockers : ” Dead Heroes ” ( album )
This here’s about as close as you’re ever going to get to a White Zombie reunion, not that Sean and I are actually playing together on this record – well, I probably did play a little tambourine or something, but it’s hard to remember. Here’s 3 songs from the brand new Rock City Morgue LP, ” The Boy Who Cried Werewolf “, which we recorded over a bunch of different sessions at Piety Street and some other places in New Orleans. Rik Slave sang ” Carry It With You ” in an abandoned pre-civil war building, in 90º heat, in the dark, lit only by the glowing tubes in an antique radio. That sounds so made-up, doesn’t it? It’s not — if you listen closely you can hear the extra-spooky sound.
Rock City Morgue : ” Creeping In The Dark “
Rock City Morgue : ” Creeping In The Dark ”
Rock City Morgue : ” Burn “
Rock City Morgue : ” Burn ”
Rock City Morgue : ” Carry It With You “
Rock City Morgue : ” Carry It With You ”
Fast forward 20 years from when this rare 12″ came out, and not that much has changed – New Orleans is still the city that is overlooked, the city of doom, and definitely where the party people are at. ” Where __ You From ” is the sort of record that was sold at a few local stores and from the trunks of cars in the neighborhoods that were later destroyed by flooding after Hurricane Katrina. This kind of old school MCing was already dated in ’89, but young producer Mannie ( credited as ” Manny ” ) Fresh gives these tracks a bumping and infectious live feel, underpinning everything with traditional brass band rhythms.
Gregory D. & Mannie Fresh : ” Where __ You From “
Gregory D. & Mannie Fresh : ” Where __ You From ”
Gregory D. & Mannie Fresh : ” Buckjump Time “
Gregory D. & Mannie Fresh : ” Buckjump Time ”
I’ll spare you a scholarly explanation of bounce rap — suffice to say that it is / was a totally organic, specific, 100% New Orleans kind of hip hop that flourished, totally under the national radar, in the 1990s. These tracks are from an old cassette called, ” Down South : The Real New Orleans Compilation “.
Where my 10th ward soldiers at?
Ricky B : ” Shake Fo Ya Hood “
Ricky B : ” Shake Fo Ya Hood ”
Pimp Daddy : ” Gots To Be Real “
Pimp Daddy : ” Gots To Be Real ”
L.O.G. : ” Gs n’ Soldiers “
L.O.G. : ” Gs n’ Soldiers ”
Ruthless Juveniles : ” Run Dat Shit “
Ruthless Juveniles : ” Run Dat Shit ”
Partners n Crime : ” Up Early In The Morning “
Partners n Crime : ” Up Early In The Morning ”
2 Blakk : ” Second Line Jump “
2 Blakk : ” Second Line Jump ”
DJ Jubilee : ” Jubilee All / Stop Pause “
DJ Jubilee : ” Jubilee All / Stop Pause ”
Cheeky Blakk : ” Terk Something “
Cheeky Blakk : ” Terk Something ”
MC Spud : “Creepin’ “
MC Spud : “Creepin’ ”
KC Red : ” Shake On That Stick “
KC Red : ” Shake On That Stick ”
Warren Mayes : ” Get It Girl “
Warren Mayes : ” Get It Girl ”
DJ Duck & MC Shorty : ” Where My Ole Lady At “
DJ Duck & MC Shorty : ” Where My Ole Lady At ”
DA SHA RA : ” Bootin’ Up “
DA SHA RA : ” Bootin’ Up ”
Odoms’ ” Let Me Atom ” CD is out — which was mostly produced by Odoms and Ballzack ( who has fans ) on a laptop, but I did a couple of the songs, including this one :
Odoms : ” Human Is A Smart Thing “
Odoms : ” Human Is A Smart Thing ”
This track is an example of what I call my ” Silver Surfer ” style, where I form a mental image of the Silver Surfer breakdancing, and then try to imagine what the music being played would sound like. You can see the video for ” Keeping Up With The Jetsons “, which is my favorite song on the album, here.
... And here I am, I’ve been putting seven new Rock City Morgue tracks together for mixing at Piety Street this Saturday and Sunday. There was ” The Cat’s Meow “ 4-song EP ( a perfect and seldom-seen format, the 10″ record ) that we did earlier this year, and then they played some shows, recorded, played, recorded, and etc. and etc. and now those songs and these new ones are going to be incorporated into a full album, which they’re calling ” The Boy Who Cried Werewolf “.
I swear that when we get the bugs worked out of this site I’ll start putting up songs for you to listen to, there’s a lot of music I worked on coming out right after the holidays.
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