1972-Reggae meets the moog and shit gets (even more) lifted
Newish Konono No. 1. Playing likembe's (thumb pianos) through homemade amps but now in a studio setting with some other musicians and a little better production. Ancient-future jams ... ... .
"We would have thought the parenting to be better in this town but of course we were lead astray. Joan Timmons had sent her son Patrick to Hillsbury only to later learn that they were force feeding the children the left over rabbit that had been used as a vehicle for the educators sideways glances. The little creatures were so full of terrible vibes that the children responded much like they too were products of a bygone era." - George Washington Carver's I'm a Peanut Man: Peanut Talk (Peanut This, Peanut That, Fuck You Too if You Don't Want to Talk Peanuts) (1792)
This album is incredible. Talk Talk may best be known for their song "It's My Life" which was covered by No Doubt in the late 90's? Anyway... They started off as a typical 80's sounding synth inflected pop band but moved towards a more post-everything sound with their 1988 album Spirit of Eden. By 1991 most of the band was gone and just the main instigator Mark Hollis was left to make music under the Talk Talk banner. He went ahead and made an album that touches on everything (rock, blues, jazz, ambient, electronic, etc. etc.) while sounding like nothing else. A moody and sad album to be sure with moments of intense brooding and also of grandeur. A fucking epic album start to finish. Amazing on rainy Fridays. Here it is. Taken from your tube...
Look at that turtle go bro, indeed.
"Hector had no idea that vandalism was encouraged in these parts. You see, he had just flown in from easterly shores and had a mind to scrub his nether regions so that they were pristine enough to hold court on. He decided to skip lunch and reflect on the genocide that had occurred in his kitchen earlier in the day" - from Randy Savage's memoir Snapping Bones and Beef By-Products: Shame, Sadness, And Glory Behind the Shades (1792)
"Condemning the masses will not explain your singular action. You went about in your caterwauling nature until you received the robot eyes you lusted after. Eat your porridge and forget about selling Tyler's pet tarantula to purchase a Thai lady-boy's penis. Lord knows he (thee lady-boy) needs it for the knife fights he will encounter in Dang Qhauk Province. - Thomas Jefferson explaining the cosmic infallibility of his "I Have a Dream (That My Slaves Will Bear my Kids and I'll be President)" speech (1792)
Indeed.
"To disrobe and mount Ophelia was his only goal. If he had to kill to do it he would entertain the thought. Luckily for him this was Canada and not some remote island death camp where savages dance about speaking in tongues and gesticulating their desire to fill our cavities with first world drapery." - excerpt from Hieronymus Bosch's Speaking Frankly, Fairly, Freely, Frenchly, and Other Ideas Beginning with "F": Mom Says Keep It on the Stove for Another Thirty to Forty (1792)
This is from a comp called Ouaga Affair: Hard Won Sound of the Upper Volta 1974-1978. I don't know much more about it other then I purchased it solely based on the cover and it fucking rules. Note the "fucking". Plenty of liner notes if you really want to know what's good. The guitars on this are sick.
Maybe my favorite album of all time... I don't know. Relax.
This might be one of my favorite songs? Funkadelic's first LP. Clinton recorded everything but the lead guitar parts, he slowed down the tape and had the guitarist (Ray Monette?) play over them. He then brought the backing tapes to full speed to make the guitar sound completely otherworldly. Clinton didn't do much singing or playing in the early incarnations of his bands but he created the music by bringing together amazing musicians and producing the efforts. Along with Lee Scratch Perry and Brian Eno, Clinton created new sounds that have shaped modern music as we know it. Check Funkadelic's second LP Free Your Mind ...And Your Ass Will Follow for what it sounds like when everyone takes acid and makes a record for a major label, circa 1970.
Jorge Ben brings the funk with this one. Mixing Samba with soul and funk as well as afro-latin rhythms he created some completely original music. Brasil 1976.
Caetano Veloso. Along with Gilberto Gil he created Tropicalia. Brazil's Dylan+Lennon+Marley. This one was recorded in London in the early 70's while he was living there in political exile. So smooth. So heavy.
Ebo Taylor. So dirt. On par with Fela. Talked about him in an earlier post. Apparently Strut or one of the other great labels that's been putting out ill stuff from the dark continent is putting out a comp of his later this year. Cop that shit.
Always a good one.
A cover of The Normal's "Warm Leatherette". The original is awesome and this one I dare say is better. Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) kills the vocals and White's fuzzed out guitar sounds so choice. "The handbrake penetrates your thigh. Quick. Let's make love before you die"
"Although I do so rarely abscond from the premises in an effort to obtain taste bud enlightenment, I believe I can make an exception considering the circumstances. Fuck your wife and her simpleton brother Herman IV as well." - excerpt from Christopher Columbus's novella On the Creation of the Doughnut (1792)
SST is (was) one of the most important labels in underground rock and punk music. It was started in the late 70's by the guitarist of Black Flag, Greg Ginn. The roster of bands that Ginn put out music by were to forever change the face of music as well as promoting the DIY aesthetic that is now echoed in small home run labels. Open up your ears bitches...
First Black Flag EP. Keith Morris late of Circle Jerks fame on the mic. Beginnings of hardcore and SoCal punk in general.
The Minutemen. D. Boon on guitar. Mike Watt on bass. George Hurley on drums. Unlike anything before or after. Punk as a medium to do whatever, and they did it better then anyone else.
Husker Du started off as a speed oriented hardcore band from the Midwest. They now are the blueprint for modern day alternative rock. Frank Black of the Pixies claimed he only owned four albums when he formed his band and three of them were Husker Du records.
Bad Brains. After they created hardcore and blew every other act off the stage they joined the SST roster to put out I Against I. This album veered off in a more metal-inflected sound. H.R.'s vocals are all over the place in a true display of pain and love. Apparently during the tour for this album the band would play their set and then don ski masks and rob some of the clubs who decided to underpay them.
Essential listening: Bad Brains (ROIR Cassette)
Meat Puppets are probably most famous for being championed by Nirvana (they covered two songs on their Unplugged album with aid from members of the band). The band was comprised of the two Kirkwood bros, Curt and Cris, and Derrick Bostrom. They hailed from the desert in Tempe, Arizona. You can hear the vast expansive openness of the desert in their songs as well as slightly off sensibilities. The boys claimed that they didn't need drugs to make their music they only needed to rake their twisted minds for the sounds they created. I'm pretty sure drugs helped.
This is just a taste of what the SST label had to offer. They also put out amazing albums by LA jazz inflected punk band Saccharine Trust, Dinosaur Jr., indie godfathers Sonic Youth, fIREHOSE, and sludge metal purveyors Saint Vitus, as well as countless others. Here's one more jam for you to weez some juice from (Natas Kaupus skate vid with fIREHOSE's "Brave Captain" playing)...
This dude was big shit in Ghana in the 70's (maybe not, I'm gonna assume he was). At the forefront of Afro-Beat along with the incomparable Fela Kuti (whom he studied music alongside in London). Tight funk with endless grooves and BIG horns.
Amanaz were one of a handful of rock groups that came out of Zambia in the early 1970's. These guys took the fuzzy rock n roll du jour and made it the only way they knew how, with a distinctly African flavor that is full of depth and feeling. Check out the entire collection of their songs available on an album entitled "Africa". It fucking rules.
Dirty, I keep shit stinks in my drawers
So I can get fuhh funky for yah
Coltrane and co. killing it live at Birdland in 1963. At about 4:40 Elvin Jones decides to go apeshit all over the drums and Coltrane starts blowing for the heavens. Pure, deep, essential music.
