I was hanging around at the record store ( and I do mean THE record store, my favorite one, they don’t update their site very much but take a look, and maybe check their solid-gold 5-star stats ) the other day when a shipment from London UK’s Finders Keepers Records came in. I have a few other discs from this label, so I was like ” ooh, ooh, whadja get? ” – the owner of the shop turned around and spun this tune here, and I bought the record. I’m pretty good at music, but when that crazy fuzz guitar lick kicks in at 0:34, I can’t figure out how to count it – or, wait, is it in 10s? There’s more on the artist, the album, and the label here.
Selda Bagcan : Meydan Sizindir
Selda Bagcan : Meydan Sizindir
The Fuzz : I Love You For All Seasons ( Instrumental )
The Fuzz : I Love You For All Seasons ( Instrumental )
I just like this because listening to it makes me feel like I’m in a 1970s movie.
Mercy : Fire Ball
Mercy : Fire Ball
My copy actually has a crack in it, but, you know, so?
Flyboys : Theme Song
Flyboys : Theme Song
Rocket From The Tombs : Frustration
Rocket From The Tombs : Frustration
I heard this somewhere the other day (umm .. oh yes, in one of those coffee shops where the young employees only listen to old music), and there was a Carnival parade going by (’tis the season), and I was looking at the bagel in front of me and thinking if you tried to serve this sad thing to someone in New York, there’d be trouble – ah, but anyway, it’s a cool song with a neat behind-the-beat herky-jerk guitar solo. This is obviously a very different band from the one they’d become a few years later, but I like how totally of-the-moment (the moment was 1977) it is, the singer affecting a swoopy Bryan Ferry vibrato, the band still very influenced by Roxy Music (the way they layer keys and sounds onto the ‘lift’ parts to make them more anthem-y, the 16th-note piano under the chorus, even the general shape of the melody, all very Roxy), but wrapped up in the choppy energy of punk (the guitars sound great, don’t they?).
Ultravox! : ROckWrok
Ultravox! : ROckWrok
The Balfa Brothers : La Danse De Mardi Gras
The Balfa Brothers : La Danse De Mardi Gras
It’s not Mardi Gras, not yet ( although it’s coming, and if you’re not working on your costume, you should at least have an idea of what you’re going to make ), but it’s nice here, on a winter Sunday. It’s in the mid-60s, and you have a funny situation on the street : people like me, children of the calamitous winters of the midwest, in t-shirts, walking with people who were born here, who are wearing hats and gloves.
There’s good light : neither the blazing, malevolent sun of New Orleans summers, nor the wan little egg-yolk that hangs limply in the Wisconsin sky in January. Church bells ring, 19th century bronze shimmering in the air. We drink coffee with chicory ( they tell me it’s an acquired taste, but I’ve always liked it ) and eat good things. We listen to Cajun music on WWOZ ( you can too ).
01 The Man In The Dark Sedan
Snakefinger : The Man In The Dark Sedan
As you would imagine, down here, this is quite a crowd-pleaser.
DiNOLA : I Wanna Die In New Orleans
DiNOLA : I Wanna Die In New Orleans
I heard it in a coffee shop in Brooklyn ( Otha’s, which is a happy lil’ place ), and, wow, Cuban doo wop. I always check out what the cool kids who work in coffee shops are listening to, because it’s usually good. And usually old, which, I don’t know what that says about the cool kids.
Los Zafiros : Hermosa Habana
Los Zafiros : Hermosa Habana
I taped this off the radio the other day ( ha ha, ” taped “, ” radio ” — but no, really ). Alex McMurray is often described as a New Orleans institution who plays Tom Waits-y music, which I bet is tiresome for him, but, hey, they have to write something. This is him playing live at WWNO, doing an off-the-top-of-his-head clean version of a song which I understand is normally quite filthy.
Alex McMurray : Captain Sandy
Alex McMurray : Captain Sandy
My man, the viking of Sixth Avenue. When I don’t like music, when I like music, when I want to hear something which exists outside of time. In the rain, when the sun’s out, morning, noon, night, snaketime – that’s when it’s time for Moondog.
Moondog : Enough About Human Rights!
Moondog : Enough About Human Rights!
Recorded 12•89 at Fun City, NYC ( so, presumably, by Wharton Tiers ). Purchased by me at Bleecker Bob’s, NYC, 1990, or maybe 1991. Cool track, has a kind of Black Flag stroll to it.
Angel Rot : Monkey Rape
Angel Rot : Monkey Rape
I was at the record store, and they put on Desesperanza by the Meridian Brothers. ” What the heck’s this? “, I asked. ” Crazy psychedelic UFO music from Colombia “, they said. ” Can I buy a copy? “, I asked. They smiled.
When I’m with people and I play the music ( I got the vinyl record, but it came with a download card, and the album’s on Spotify ), someone always asks, ” what the heck’s this? “
” The party record of the Summer “, I say. No tengo pantalones.
Meridian Brothers : Salsa Caliente ( Versión Aumentada )
Meridian Brothers : Salsa Caliente ( Versión Aumentada )
Battambang, Cambodia. I rode a rented bicycle around all day. Returned it to the bike people. Nice kids. I was hot and dirty, and I’d noticed a bar on the corner because of its beautiful tile floor ( don’t let ’em tell you that Battambang retains some kind of charming sleepy French colonial 1930s vibe; it doesn’t – but if you’ve an eye for the little things, like plaster moldings and floor tiles, there are clues, here and there ) and the sign that said DRAFT BEER, so I went in and sat down.
The soundtrack in this place was straight 1960s Cambodian rock n’ roll, which was already pretty awesome, but when this song came on, I started to hoot and holler a little. The bartender was like, dude, what’s your malfunction? and I was like, this song is about my city! New Orleans is my home! -I think she got what I meant. ” This man is excited because the most famous song about his town is the story of a whorehouse “, she may have been thinking.
Fair enough. In the perfect world of J.Yuenger, the Louisiana state song would be I Walk On Gilded Splinters.
Sinn Sisamouth : House Of The Rising Sun
Sinn Sisamouth : House Of The Rising Sun
Things about this track : It’s a version of a song you’ve heard all your life, sung in Khmer, which is neat. Also, there’s some very righteous lead guitar here, fuzz-style. Additional to that, this is Sinn Sisamouth, who was one of the biggest stars ( a singer, performer, songwriter, and producer ) of Cambodian music, who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1976. Nearly all of the great musicians of Cambodia were killed during that era, and it’s pretty much certain that everyone playing on this track was later murdered, or endured hardships beyond our imagining.
Lights Out is album number three by Swedish band Graveyard, and it’s a really solid set. There are some speedier rockers on the record, but this is the track I like the best. I got a tiny bit misty when I heard him reach for, and catch, that high note. I did, I did.
Graveyard : Slow Motion Countdown
Graveyard : Slow Motion Countdown
A tune which, over the years, would, at various times, pop into my head, dimly remembered from a cassette a Finnish penpal sent me. Originally on a 5-song EP from 1982 so obscure that you had to be a friend of the band to get it, now a fancy white-vinyl reissue with gatefold and liner notes. Remastered, I guess, from the original tape, for what it’s worth :
Nolla Nolla Nolla : Silminnäkijä
Nolla Nolla Nolla : Silminnäkijä
” An even bigger problem was that ( producer ) Toni thought we were just doing a demo so he chose to record everything on some crappy leftover garbage tape. The tape was so finished there were basically holes in it, that’s why there are weird noises here and there throughout the record. ”
” ( singer ) Jore and ( guitarist ) Make were present when the record was engraved at Finnvox studios, and that’s when it really dawned on us what a crappy deal we got with the tapes. Seriously, it was bad. They did what they could but in some places the tapes were just fucked up beyond repair. “
Shit! If ever there was a genre that needed to exist, it would be Afro-doom. Zambia, 1974.
Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family : Trouble Maker
Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family : Trouble Maker
I saw an article called ” R.A.E.D. Is The Worst Rapper In History “, and I guess maybe he is, and I’m sort of fascinated by how he totally disregards the meter of the track and just barrels through, starting and stopping wherever.
R.A.E.D. : I Don’t Care Who You Are
R.A.E.D. : I Don’t Care Who You Are
It’s almost fall ( I guess it IS fall – somebody somewhere is probably wearing a sweater, but definitely not where I live ), and so my soundtrack skews naturally towards Euro-metal. And behold, there’s a new Witchcraft album!
Witchcraft : It’s Not Because Of You
Witchcraft : It’s Not Because Of You
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