Volume 3 has landed and i think it’s the best of the bunch. Sonny & the Sunsets got the top slot and being San Francisco’s best reclusive homebody band they deserve a little attention. “Chapters” is a hit in every sense of the word, its timeless boogie woogie and doe eyed earnest positivity is just as undeniable as it is adorable. I’ve been listening to it everyday, rain or shine, and it has its best effect under duress of sunshine. Just something to keep in mind. The rest of the mix is pretty much drowning in killer tunes, some of which being featured on this site before and others not. Also, if you haven’t noticed yet each of the three volumes end with a special dreamy come down jam that is meant to hit right as that sun sets or rises after some life affirming fun that the squares just couldn’t and wouldn’t ever understand. Here’s to a lovely summer where ever you are.
Sonny & The Sunsets – Chapters
Victims – Anette
Tall Dwarfs – Nothing’s Going To Happen
Van Dyke Parks – The Attic
Surf City – Headin’ Inside
Velvet Underground – Guess I’m Falling In Love
Som Imaginario – Morse
The Troggs – The Raver
The Strapping Fieldhands – Battle Down The Quarter Mile
Tomorrow - Now Your Time Has Come
Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band – I Felt Like Smashing My Face In A Clear Glass Window
Sparks – Talent Is An Asset
Television Personalities – This Time There’s No Happy Ending
Alrite, volume two up now and the third in the trilogy coming next week. Hope everyone enjoyed number one, if that wasn’t enough to keep you satiated for the week i’ll plug Summr Jams 2k8 one more time. Give them a try on for size, you might like them better than 2k9. Magic first track is by the totally riteous Further, introduced to me by Monsieur Matthew Correia a little while back. They were some of the folks who went on to be in Beachwood Sparks and The Tyde, never really listened to either but i hear some good things. Anyway, “California Bummer” is total shredder that’s perfectly distorted and catchy with that amazing twitchy spazzed out guitar and helium vocals. Pretty perfect video, too. Go get ‘em, ya yahoos!
Three volumes, 65 Songs, 3.4 hours (thanks iTunes) of sunburn inducing, curl ripping, beach ball bopping good times! Babes, Beaches, Bikes, Basketball, BBQ, Brews… Intentions for the mix’s were first and foremost to command and conquer bad vibes. Secondary intentions were to hopefully turn some ears on to some new favorites, maybe incite a dance party, provide ambiance to an already killer event or simply give you a break from whatever you are bored of listening to.
Each volume is roughly alphabetically sectioned to cut down on the silly task of organizing and sequencing 65 songs and the first on each volume is an specially chosen tune that i wanted to highlight for it’s all encompassing qualities of everything i wanted these mix’s to be. This first song by Happiness, called Track 13 because it came off of a cdr with no song titles, is the best thing i’ve heard from one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets Gerard Padwan. I hope i’m spelling that right. His old band Kool Teen ruled real hard and he’s been using the Happiness moniker for a few years now recording pretty consistently in his house, i do believe. The dude is a real talent with a heart’o gold. Enjoy!
So you have three highly artistic young ladies who want to start a band. Some members know how to play and some don’t, the main instruments for the band is a ukulele, toy piano and toy drum set. Blend this all together in New York’s early eighties music scene with direct associations with Glenn Branca and 99 records and guess what? The results are fantastic, yeah, go figure. But it’s not really fair to use hindsight in this case to declare that Y Pants was going to be great even before their first practice. The charm these songs have, using limited abilities and instruments as a leash to simplicity, is up there with the best of Rough Trade ladies catalog, an association i don’t make lightly. Keeping things minimal and simple yet maintaining interest and intelligence is a delicate balance and is usually the result of honest artistic vision and a good amount of heart. Y Pants got that shit on lock.
This rascally group of savagely passionate and dangerously excitable young ladies really came into the worlds view a couple years back when Rhino released the wonderful Girl Groups box set, from which the Tammys were shining stars even amongst some all time greats of the hormonally imbalanced and infinitely talented teenage girls musical pantheon. Their big hit (but never an actual hit) “Egyptian Shumba” is spine tingling, mesmerizing, hair raising, mind blowing, and every other worthy cliche you can think of. It’s the musical equivalent of two (three?) suppressed sixteen year olds having sex like ferocious animals. Imagine a drunk Shangri-Las singing like their life depended on it and you’re getting closer. Other hits on this comp “Guitars & Bongos,” “Too Many Miles,” “Part Of Growing Up” are more excellent numbers with great catchy chorus’ and determined vocals, all penned my Mr. “Lightning Strikes” Lou Christie himself. What he did to rile these girls up and inspire these performances is truly a mystery best left to the imagination.
From Yoko’s rap as the Beatles killer to her very bizarre “art” career whether it be fluxus, music, painting most people are understandably baffled if you tell them that at one point she made a a truly rocking pop record. But it’s true and most importantly it’s good! It’s reeeaaalllyyy good, actually! Needless to say this isn’t your standard whiz, bang, pow fluffed up radio schlock pop, but it none the less goes down easy and it’s plenty tasty. She has an ace backing band in Elephant’s Memory and she really does have an ability to write tunes that seem to come from deep within her strange strange soul. The opening track, “Yang Yang” on the (double!) LP is a psyched up jam that really makes ya want to let your hair hang down, while “I felt like smashing my face in a clear glass window” is a monumentally great pop song about teen frustrations and botched home life. Other album highlights are “Move On Fast” which is a serious ripping tune that would go swimmingly sandwiched between the Pink Fairies and 13th Floor Elevators on a mix tape, and also the title track, “Approximately Infinite Universe” is a spaced out (pun intended) hit the Shocking Blue should be seriously jealous they never wrote.
I, like many others, have been pretty captivated by many of these comps of new and old music coming from Africa over the past few years. There’s the novelty of uniqueness, to our side of the world anyway, of the voices, instruments, structures, recording techniques present in all the songs, which are what i would consider to be the exterior appeal to the music and then there is the truly wonderful spirit and earnestness that many of these recordings hold which work as the magical intangible qualitative characteristics that stir souls with aural smiles and tears. I think the reason these recordings cause people so much excitement is a lot of the artists featured have that wildly mysterious, oh so commonly misdiagnosed, criminally overused, and truly rare quality of S O U L. I’ll tell you right now, these people ain’t no Michael McDonald.
So, the headline says folk, and now i’m talking about soul – i do not mean either in the narrow genre barrier we sometimes need in order keep things straight. I’ve always enjoyed and romanticized the use of “folk” to describe any craft that uses primitive methods for developing a good of quality and purpose. I see no reason why Shaker furniture can’t be described similar to recordings of a group of Motown inspired street musicians in Nigeria. As for that soul thing, anything can have “soul”, i just don’t believe it’s a very common trait. Sorry to sound negative, but it’s ok that soul is a rare thing. It just makes those special instances that much more special.
More Tronics up for the frothing masses today, this time their earliest stuff. Ziro Baby, and crew sure were masters of that Hobo Pop song writing that many in the Messthetics, Homework, D.I.Y. shambling rockandroll spectrum head for but rarely deliver on. If you were a fan of the previously featured Love Backed By Force LP, but maybe wished it had a bit more energy or scruff to it, your ship has come in and it’s a lovely floating shack held together by bong resin and bubblegum. The contents of the link below is the What’s The Hubub Bub cassette and the songs from the first three singles. The Cassette is an interesting listen and there is some great inspiration to be taken from it, but you’re getting your real value in those singles. For these ears, they’re a standard of quality in the leagues of the first Modern Lovers LP, Television Personalities or R. Stevie Moore’s more coherent tunes. I’m thinking this is a really good model for a band. Put your best songs on singles, and only on singles. Full lengths give you so much more space to be creative, take some chances and work for something that fits together as a whole. A single should be reserved for those tunes that stand on their own so solidly that putting them next to anything else is going weaken them and anything else around them. Maybe i’m rambling and should call it a day. Good idea. Enjoy. Bye Bye.
This is a document chronicling the sounds of a desperate city and the scum bags who lived there, and what else would you expect from a project funded from the sales of amphetamines and petty theft. Complied in 1982 by Mike Hudson, Lead singer of the Pagans, Cleveland Confidential is yet another gem in the blood, puke and bile covered crown of the cities musical heritage. “Cry 816″ by The Women Haters, which is also sung by Hudson, leads off the comp and sets the corrosive bleak anger that permeates this comp, it also features the most haunting use of a guitar slide this side of the 1930’s. Dave E of the untouchable Electric Eels contributes “A Love Meant To Die” with the fantastically named Jazz Destroyers. The biggest highlight on the album for me, “Even Lower Manhattan” by Menthol Wars, is a moody and primitive dirge with an unforgettably simple guitar and organ riffs that work seamlessly together. The song is an all time favorite and i only wish there was more to hear from the band.
The totally righteous Sublime Frequencies label has recently uncovered a second volume from their incredible Guitars From Agadez series- truly some of the most magical music i’ve ever heard. I don’t really feel my ramblings would do their story much justice so i will recommend you watch the videos below and read a synopsis here. I hope you enjoy these as much as i do.
I’m thinking this is a really good model for a band. Put your best songs on singles, and only on singles. Full lengths give you so much more space to be creative, take some chances and work for something that fits together as a whole. A single should be reserved for those tunes that stand on their own so solidly that putting them next to anything else is going weaken them and anything else around them. Maybe i’m rambling and should call it a day. Good idea. Enjoy. Bye Bye.
