Thursday, April 28, 2005
TLC vs. Lauryn Hill
"No Scrubs"
No, she don't want to get with your deadbeat ass, but thanks for making my girl's daily run a daily ordeal. Drivers of seven different vehicles---all crappy pickup trucks and vans---decided to harass her in one day. A new record! Usually it's just two or three of you calling out vulgarities, though you're always in the company of your buddies because jackasses travel in packs. (cf. National Geographic, Dec. 1964 issue, "The Homoerotic Bonding Habits of the Homophobic Suburban Mule")
What makes you so sure that under my girl's baggy shirt and ankle-length sweatpants she's not packing heat? You know, like a cell phone with 911 on speed dial? She could have the police at your house faster than you can say, "Momma, I'm home!"
But it's not just my girl who you're affecting. By turning into Linda Blair and twisting your neck all the way around to cop as long a look as possible, you're endangering the people crossing the street. "Damn, I totally obliterated that little kid in the crosswalk and now I will go to jail for life, but at least I got to see some of that sweet lady's flesh---granted, it was her middle finger, but I'll take what I can get."Posted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Doris Duke
"The Feeling Is Right"
"I Wish I Could Sleep"
I'm a Loser / A Legend in Her Own Time
(Kent Soul, 2005; rec. 1970 & 1975)
"It's 4 a.m. / Tuesday night / My life is filled with gloom."
Doris, honey, I rocked a 4 a.m. sheep-counting shift myself last night. My pally J.S., she's been seeing daybreak, too. It's not all bad, and sometimes the feeling is right---especially when you hear a bass line that's so damn tite. But no matter what, baby, you're not a loser---though it's a great effin' title for an album. Or a song. Though in this case, there's not even a title track; it's just a straight-up declaration from a mighty sad Double D.
But oh, Lord, tonight I wish that I could sleep.
Download two more tracks from Our Kid London Lee, #1 Soul Bro in Heaven. Buy this 25-track, two-fer-one CD of classic deep soul. Read about Doris here and here.
Then please, Mr & Mrs. Owl Eyes: get some shuteye.
Monday, April 25, 2005
The Field Mice
"September's Not So Far Away"
For Keeps + Singles
(LTM, 2005; Sarah, 1991)
The Field Mice
"End of the Affair"
Snowball + Singles
(LTM, 2005; Sarah, 1989)
The Field Mice accompanied my pasty ass on more breakups than I care to remember.
J.S., these are for you.
Buy For Keeps and Snowball from Darla.Posted by CP | Link |
Monday, April 25, 2005
From the Washington Post photo essay on the genocide in Dafur.
In 10 years or 20 years from now we'll being watching a Hotel Rwanda-type film about this, wringing our hands and wondering why nothing was done yet again. After all, the G word has actually been used this time---not officially by the U.N., of course, because that would demand action according to the organization's charter. But the numbnuts in the House of Reps have said it. Meanwhile, "never again" is again and again.
More info on the Dafur genocide and what you can do here and here.
And in case you missed it: Here's the Post's excellent multimedia story on the history of war and genocide in the Congo
Yeah, I'm feeling pretty peppy right now.
So, to get you inspired for action, why not listen to some music from Sudan? Peter has posted a cut by Mohammed Wardi, who you can also hear on the new CD The Rough Guide to the Music of Sudan.Posted by CP | Link |
Thursday, April 21, 2005
In the Country
"Beaver Creek"
"How to Get Acquainted"
"In My Time of Need"
This Was the Pace of My Heartbeat
(Rune Grammofon, 2005)
Keyboardist Morten Qvenild is one of Norway's most valuable utility players. To put it in baseball terms that only Baltimore Orioles fans from the mid-'90s can understand: Qvenild is like Jeff Reboulet with a better batting average and minus the porn mustache.
Qvenild is the "orchestra" in the incredible post-Bjork duo Susanna & the Magical Orchestra, writer and arranger for jazz singer Solveig Slettahjell, former member of pop-prog-jazz instrumentalists Jaga Jazzist and Shining, and part of chart-topping supergroup the National Bank. Qvenild gets to display his piano-jazz chops with In the Country, featuring bassist Roger Arntzen and drummer Pal Hausken. The trio's debut CD, This Was the Pace of My Heartbeat, is a stunner.
From the jazz world Qvenild cites Paul Bley and Norwegian free player Svein Finnerud as influences; from classical, Olivier Messiaen and Morton Feldman. Qvenild also has a great ear for pop melodies: His gorgeous solo cover of Ryan Adams' woozy ballad "In My Time of Need," played with almost no extrapolation on the theme, renders the song a pure lullaby. Qvenild's mixture of jazz phrasing, classical sensibilities, and love of songcraft leads In the Country through 11 songs that rarely rise above a whisper but carry the emotional power of a screaming stack of Marshall amps.
I caught up with Qvenild (who's pictured on the right in the sweater photo above) via e-mail, and this is what he had to say about making This Was the Pace of My Heartbeat:
This record is a really exciting little baby. It's the first time that I've written and collected all the material myself, and this makes it more personal. We went to Atlantis, a wonderful studio in Stockholm, Sweden, that's been running since the '60s. ABBA has done a lot of stuff there, especially piano recordings. We tried to do the music in an honest way, trimmed off all excess, and in the end it became this record.
How did you guys meet & form, and how did you end up doing this sort of slow, expansive, beautiful music---was it by chance or or was it a decision to play this way?
We met at the Academy of Music in Oslo, studying at the jazz department there. The period we went there, the school was packed with interesting people. In 2000 I joined Jaga Jazzist, and then we formed Shining and Susanna & the Magical Orchestra. That says a lot about that place! In the Country formed in 2002, but Roger and me had played together for a couple of years as a duo. This was kind of a rehearsal band, where we played a lot of Lennie Tristano's material and tried to get a hang of it. Then I started to write more music, and we fetched Pal and made the trio. At first we were only playing on each other's exams at the school (it's a bit difficult for unknown guys to get gigs), but then we won a prize called "Norwegian Young Jazz Musicians of the Year" at Molde Jazz Festival. After that we played some concerts, and then we made this record.
The reason why we play like we do is a result of some different things:
---Me writing the music that feels right for me. That's very often quite calm pieces, written with as much honesty and passion as possible. I try to develop by all the time trying to write my music as the musical person me, instead of trying to sound like someone else. This also is a concern in the trio. If we can't play a song, and feel like we own it, then we don't play it.
---It's a greater sense of control in slow-paced music. It's easier to have a "fingerspitzgefuhl," as the Germans put it. For me as a piano player, its important to work with my instrument to get the sound and the melodies to sound right, so that the music presented comes out as clear and undisturbed as possible.
---We try to trim the improvised parts if they don't sound natural according to the musical environment. There are a lot of improvised parts on the record, and improvisation plays an important role in playing the written music in a good way, but we have also put a lot of effort into orchestration and finding tight solutions that fit the compositions. So, the way we play is built upon a lot of trying, discussing taste, and thinking about what we want to do. So it is definitely a decision. Things will change and develop, but we try the whole time to be aware and to do our stuff with love.
Your gorgeous version of Ryan Adams' "In My Time of Need" really sticks to the melody and chords of the original song; you didn't do the usual jazzbo thing and reharmonize it almost to the point of it being unrecognizable. Why do you play it so straight?
"In My Time of Need" is one of my favorite songs, and therefore I think it's perfect as it is. I often feel that the core of a good song lies in the very simple structure of it, and I try to look for this simplicity and present it in my own way. The strength of this song lies in the wonderful melody, and I didn't want to disturb it. It comes very natural for me playing this tune. I wish it were mine!
When's the next Susanna & the Magical Orchestra CD due?
Right now we're rehearsing a lot with Susanna & the Magical Orchestra. We hope to be in studio sometime during the next six months. We've started to get some work out in Europe, and the last album is still working well for us out there. The record will come out when we're ready and the music is good enough; 2006/2007 is a qualified guessing.
Any plans to have the National Bank CD licensed in the rest of the world? It's difficult to buy outside of Norway.
Exporting Norwegian pop-music like the National Bank seems almost impossible, but we're sure going to try when the Jaga Jazzist boys comes home from their months of touring the new album. Don't know any concrete about labels yet.
Any plans to perform in the U.S. with any of your groups?
No plans of going to US at the moment, but hopefully....
>>Visit In the Country's Web site
>>Visit Rune Grammofon
>>Buy the CD from Forced ExposurePosted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
We stumbled upon late-night TV ad god Matthew Lesko in a Silver Spring restaurant!!! Over steak tartar and $9 cocktails he taught us how to spend 500 hours writing a proposal to Uncle Sam in order to make $3 in government grants!!!
And yes, he's wearing the goddamn Riddler outfit!!!
And yes, he's touching my breast!!!
 Posted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Junior Delgado
"Sons of Slaves" 12-Inch Mix
I Am the Upsetter: Story of the Lee "Scratch" Perry Golden Years
(Trojan, 2005; rec. 1977)
"Tichion"
"Fort Agustus"
Original Guerilla Music: The Great JA Recordings
(Sound Boy, 2003; rec. 1976/77 & 1979)
Junior Delgado had such a great growl. His raging political songs should be considered on par with those by fellow 1970s rootsmen Marley, Tosh, and Burning Spear. Delgado died on Monday in England.
Observer obit
Star obit
Junior's homepage
All Music bio
Buy Original Guerilla Music
Buy the box set I Am the Upsetter
Buy more JuniorPosted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Lord Finesse
"Check the Method"
DJ Premier: Crooklyn Cuts, Tape B
(1996)
Why honor our Our Kid Brian Coleman's fab new tome, Rakim Told Me, with Lord Finesse refixed by DJ Premier rather than some 1988 jammy? Because both BPMD and the Lord flow like spring water. Check the technique, but don't get caught in an OshKosh jumpsuit.
B Coles is known to those who work for NAFTA's Jazz Magazine as the no-b.s. publicist, pushing saxo-mo-fones by day and beats by the pound at night. For the past 75 years he's penned XXL's "Classic Material" column, which provided the egg & seed for Rakim Told Me. The book is an extended remix on 21 classic albums, acting as the liner notes these LPs never had. For anyone who loves the Golden Era of hip-hop---and wondered whether Mantronix played a Juno or a Fairlight on "Bassline"---these pages are a must.
Coleman can write, but he lets the artists do most of the talking. For instance, here's Biz Markie on "Pickin' Boogers" from Goin' Off: "I wanted to do a record like that because I knew a lot of people that used to pick boogers."
WORD.
Read the sections on Schoolly-D's Saturday Night: The Album and Eric B & Rakim's Paid in Full.
Then order the book here.Posted by CP | Link |
Monday, April 11, 2005
Tord Gustavsen Trio
U.S. tour dates, 2005
Wednesday, April 20 ~ Boston, MA ~ Regattabar
Thursday, April 21 ~ New York City ~ Merkin Concert Hall
Saturday, April 23 ~ Baltimore, MD ~ An Die Musik
Monday, April 25 ~ Washington, DC ~ Blues Alley
Tuesday, April 26 ~ Los Angeles, CA ~ Jazz Bakery
Wednesday, April 27 ~ Seattle, WA ~ Triple Door
Friday, April 29 ~ Minneapolis, MN ~ Cedar Cultural Center
Saturday, April 30 ~ San Francisco, CA ~ SF Jazz Festival
Friday, June 3 ~ Charleston, SC ~ Spoleto Festival, the Cistern
Who in the fjord is Tord G, you ask?
Download the title track to his new CD, The Ground (ECM), from America's Jazz Magazine.
Read an excerpt from this month's feature in America's Jazz Magazine.
Read my CD review of The Ground in America's Jazz Magazine.
Read me going nuts about him last December (ignore the parts I cribbed for the CD rev in America's Jazz Magazine).
Visit his Web site.
Buy his CDs, like, right now.Posted by CP | Link |
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Looking dapper and handsome at 61, he sang along to his own records, spun by Rae Town's Senor Daley, in front of a blinding spotlight, under a waterstained ceiling, at the Setting Night Club, Adelphi, Md., where the doorman pats you down for guns and policemen sporting bulletproof vests linger at the entrance.
Kingston karaoke: Hit after hit from one of Jamaica's greatest singers sent the crowd into a dancing and singing tizzy. "Rewind dat fi mi!"
Lawd Gad, cut di damn spotlight!
Adelphi top rankin'!
Rastaman was never wanting for dance partners.
Neither was this honey.
The real boss man himself---along with Alton Ellis.
Alton Ellis
"Rocksteady"
His catalog is so deep that Ellis didn't even do this, his most famous song! Or maybe Senor Daley just forgot to pack it.
For nearly six hours I pigged out on jerk chicken & pork, Red Stripe & rum, oldies & even older oldies. I dropped legs to "The Loser" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," and hearing the blend of "54-46 (Was My Number)" and "Feel Like Jumping" at ear-splitting volume felt like the greatest thing on Earth---cuz, Boops, it was. The only thing missing was Kamall.Posted by CP | Link |
Friday, April 08, 2005
For the D.C. Massive
Alton Ellis
"Live & Learn (Studio One 12-Inch Disco Mix)"
"I'm Still in Love With You"
The legendary rocksteady vocalist Alton Ellis will be playing here tomorrow, April 9, in a waaaay underpublicized show.
The Setting Night Club
2063 University Blvd.
Adelphi, Md.
Tel. 301-439-7015
Tix $20
Doors: 10 p.m.
Buy more Alton
Read more AltonPosted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Michigan & Smiley
"Nice Up the Dance"
Rub-A-Dub Style
(Studio One/Heartbeat, 1992; rec. 1979)
"OPP"
Reality Must Rule Again
(VP, 1992)
Happy b-day to the Suburbs, you filthy-beautiful husk of a site. It's been one year since my first posting, so here are the trax again for the billions of people who are reading this now (as opposed to just Moistpants and Kittydiaper then).
Paraphrased from the Rub-A-Dub Style liner notes:
Errol Bennett---aka General Smiley---loves Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, and Gregory Isaacs (locally), and the Bee Gees and the Delfonics (foreign scene).
Anthony Fairclough---aka Papa Michigan---loves Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, and the Mighty Diamonds (locally), and the Bee Gees and Lou Rawls (foreign scene).
Never saw the Gibbs bros, but I did see Lou "Human Butta" Rawls---the unheralded if baffled star of the Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy DVD commentary track---perform in Jamaica this year before a way-enthused crowd, and I'm pretty sure I peeped Michigan & Smiley at the show. Granted, they were selling jerk chicken with the other vendors in the back, but it's good to know the guys are still working. (I kid because I love.)
"Excuse me, my lady love, but could you hook me with some of General Smiley's jerk pork and a side of Papa Michigan's bun & cheese? Feel free to bring me some collie, too. Merci beaucoup, baby. What? Him? Oh, yeah, that is a pasty vibes man."
Reality Must Rule Again---edutainment title!---is out of print, but you can buy Rub-A-Dub Style---where the guys are deejaying over some of Studio One's greatest riddims---from Ernie B's.
Thxs for reading, and especially for the comments. Thx, too, to those sites who link up the 'Burbs. In the words of Lou Rawls (or rather, renowned Philly soul producer, activist, and Scientologist Kenneth Gamble), you'll never find another love like mine. Big up to all you groovy people.
Posted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Carl Dawkins
"Pluggy Brown"
Mr. Satisfaction, 1966-1976
(Upstairs Music, 2002)
The incredible roots reggae / R&B soul-shouter Carl Dawkins had a big hit with "Satisfaction" in 1970, and it still gets cries of "Big tune!" at oldies sessions. But I think it pales next to the smokers "Pluggy Brown" and "Dr. Rodney."
Dr. Walter Rodney was a Marxist historian-activist from Guyana. In 1968 he was a lecturer at the University of West Indies Mona, in Kingston, and regularly mixed with Rastafarians and sufferers in addition to his professorial peers. Dr. Rodney was a hard-core lefty, and Jamaican politics was devisively split (now & then) between the pro-USA right of the then-ruling Jamaica Labour Party and the socialist-leaning People's National Party. Not liking the Commie tones bubbling up in the shantytowns, Prime Minister Hugh Shearer banned left-wing and black-power books (in Ja!?), and while Dr. Rodney was at a writers' conference in Montreal he was barred from returning to Jamaica in October of '68. This caused riots in Kingston, and in 1969 Carl Dawkins cut the protest jam "Dr. Rodney" with producer Clancy Eccles for the New Beat label; it too was banned. Unable to return to his post at U.W.I., Dr. Rodney went to Dar-es-Salaam to teach at the University of Tanzania, and in 1974 he returned to Guyana to fight against his country's corrupt government. Dr. Rodney died in 1980 when a walkie-talkie rigged with a bomb blew up in his hands.
Dawkins cut the cautionary "Pluggy Brown" in 1975, and like "Dr. Rodney" it's another boom-bapper that my officemate and wife (very nearly the same thing) probably want to kill me for singing all the time (as much for my pinched-nerve vox as for the utter repetition).
For a guy with so much talent Dawkin's hardly recorded at all; just a bunch of singles and not a single LP. Why? In a November 2002 interview with Colby Graham's essential Jamaican fanzine Vintage Boss, Ras Carl admits, "I'm a user but not an abuser of no substance that society tends to push people aside for, when they are users too." Yeah, I don't really know what he's saying either, but maybe he had a drug problem.
The Vintage Boss interview is cool because there's very little info about Carl Dawkins on the WWW. Here are some more quotes:
"My father [Joshua Dawkins] was a drummer with Sonny Bradshaw Big Band, and I used to go with him to help pack up the drum set when he played at Shady Grove and Glass Bucket. At that time he was based in Spanish Town. My Daddy eventually left for England and then to Germany..... I remember I was living in Allman Town when we had the 1951 storm [Hurricane Charlie], and my closet friends were the Sterling brothers [including the Skatalites' Lester]. I went to Allman Town Primary and then to Senior (Kingston) School where I would sing at school concerts along with the likes of Slim Smith, Marcia Griffiths, and Samuel Barton.
"I used to play football and cricket, and I was very close to Slim Smith [later of the Uniques], Fredrick Waite [the father of bassist Patrick and drummer Freddie Jr. of Musical Youth], Winston Riley [of "Stalag" riddim fame], and Franklyn White. That group eventually became the Techniques. I wasn't a member of the group, but we were all close and I helped to choreograph their stage act in the mid-'60s.... Slim Smith was my idol, and whenever the group finished doing their thing at the end of each day I would take the guitar and go off on my own and play. As boys we used to go down to Hunts Bay by the sea, and one evening when we were returning home the group went to audition for J.J. [producer Karl Johnson]. While there Slim Smith said to him that I have some 'hit songs.' He laughed at me like Santa Claus: ho ho ho! I sang my first songs, one called "Run Your Shoes Off," then "Baby I Love You' and 'Hard Times.' Man! J.J. loved the songs and they became hits."
But Ras Carl liked to huff boo, and bredren was tossed into the clink soon after he made his first recordings. Again from Vintage Boss:
"I went to Richmond Farm Prison, and lots of other artists were there, too, for smoking the weed. You had Lord Creator, Toots Hibbert, Bunny Wailer, and more. At Richmond we had celebrity status, and we wrote lots of songs while there."
Once out of the hoosegow, the ganja burning continued, which led to Dawkins writing his biggest-selling tune:
"One day we played some football and smoked weed, and I felt nice. I had a guitar and I started playing with my friend Milton. I said to him that my heart was beating fast and Milton started making a beating sound. So I said to the weed man, 'Boy, mi satisfy, tell you the truthfully, you weed good yu see.' I then put words to the event and came up with 'Satisfaction.'"
Sorry about the crappy vinyl MP3 rips. But you can buy a CD collection called Mr. Satisfaction, which has 22 tracks to the LP's 17, from Ernie B's. (You can get Vintage Boss back issues there, too.) Actually, on the back of the Mr. Satisfaction CD there's an address and phone number for Carl Dawkins Music: Abyssinia Court, 7 Miles Bull Bay, Jamaica, W.I.; tel. 876-387-0188. Tell him the Suburbs sends much love, much collie.
Here's Carl doing an a capella jingle of his 1966 single "Baby I Love You" (only seems to work in IE, not Firefox).
Posted by CP | Link |
Monday, April 04, 2005
Lady Sovereign says, "Wake the town and tell the people!"
Boom Bip
"The Matter (Of Our Discussion)" w/ Nina Nastasia
Blue Eyed in the Red Room
(Lex Records)
>>>Mmmm, might be the greatest song I've heard this year.
Get the MP3 from Scissorkick.
Or get it from A Million Love Songs.
Interview w/ Boom Bip, plus two other songs to stream, at the BBC.
Boom Bip homepage.
--
Lady Sovereign
"Random (Brucker and Sinden Remix)"
Random remixes single
(Casual, 2005)
>>>Like this remix better than the regular jawn. Like MIA with hooks.
Get the MP3 from Boom Selection (scroll to March 27 postings).
Watch the remix video here at Rapdirt.com (different mix from Brucker & Sinden).
--
Mulatu Astatqe
"Mulatu"
Multatu of Ethiopia
(Worthy, 1972)
"Ene Alantchi Alnorem"
Ethio Jazz
(AMHA, 1974)
>>>So damn chill.
Get the MP3s from Captain's Crate, a great world-music / rare-groove blog.
More Mulatu on Ethiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974 .
--
Emiliana Torrini
"Sunny Road"
Fisherman's Woman
(Rough Trade)
>>>Described as folky Bjork. Not as quirky, but mos def pretty.
Get the MP3 from Aurgasm.
Emiliana's homepage.
--
Audible
various MP3s
>>>Once a weepy white guy, always a weepy white guy.
From the band's homepage and from Music.for-robots.
--
Funky Do Morro
>>A massive MP3 archive of favela booty beats.
Download 12 comps here.Posted by CP | Link |
Friday, April 01, 2005
New Order
"Krafty" (Japanese language version)
Waiting for the Sirens' Call
(Warner Bros. Japan, 2005)
Bernard Sumner's gotten lumpy, and Waiting for the Sirens' Call is mostly paste. At least "Krafty" is great, right up there with New Order's best singles. Minus the lumpy comment, the same applies to 1993's Republic (paste) and "Regret" (one of the best). I have nothing much to say about 2001's Get Ready, but I'm sure lumpy, pasty, and another word that ends in y would come up if I did.
I feel lumpy, I'm definitely pasty, and there's no doubt that most of my best days are behind me, too.
But at least Bernard can still write a fantastic song every 12 years (me, still waiting), plus solid if unspectacular ones such as the title track, "Turn," and "Guilt Is a Useless Emotion." (Preview album here.) Plus, his Japanese is better than mine---though I imagine it's not better than anyone else's, ever. Arigato gozaimasu.Posted by CP | Link |
| |
 |
Who cork the dance?
|
