Sid Hemphill :: The Devil’s Dream: Alan Lomax’s 1942 Library of Congress Recordings

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Alan Lomax didn’t know what he was in for tearing down the dirt roads of the Mississippi Hill Country in 1942. He was looking for Sid Hemphill, a multi-instrumentalist he’d one day describe as “the best musician in the world.” When Lomax found him, the “boar-hog musician of the hills,”   he was surprised to learn that the fiddle man and string band leader was blind. Not that it mattered. “His face blazed with inner light,” Lomax writes in his 1993 book, Land Where . . .

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Tom Waits :: Never Talk to Strangers (LP Bootleg, 1979)

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Recorded at the BBC Studios London, for the “Tonight In Person” show in July of 1979, this vinyl bootleg finds Waits working up material from his Asylum years. This particular performance hit the spot recently as I’d been spending a lot of time with Waits’ transitional Heartattack And Vine LP–which ultimately reinvigorated an interest in the earlier catalog. Download and tracklisting after the jump.

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST. Download this week's Lagniappe Session with Night Beds, here.

SIRIUS 288: Jean . . .

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Bombino :: Nomad

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Raised Omara Moctar in Agadez, Niger, Bombino has quickly matured into a young master of the desert-blues. The singer and guitarist got his start as the protégé of Saharan guitar legend Haja Bebe, and eventually Bombino developed his own robust take on the Tuareg style which pushed him onto the international stage. Bombino's latest recording, Nomad, came out this week on Nonesuch and was produced by Dan Auerbach . . .

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Lagniappe Sessions :: Night Beds (Mac DeMarco / Jo Stafford)

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Lagniappe (la ·gniappe) noun ‘lan-ˌyap,’ — 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus.

The Lagniappe Sessions return with Night Beds, the nom de tune of achingly golden-voiced Nashville transplant Winston Yellen. Touring behind his debut LP, 2013's Country Sleep, Night Beds . . .

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Elvis Presley :: Stranger In My Own Town (1970 Rehearsal)

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One on my favorite Elvis records is a bootleg -- Cut Me & I Bleed released on Double G Records in 1999. The album is a collection of alternate studio, home, and live rehearsal recordings that present “another side” of Elvis. Pedestal removed, Cut Me & I Bleed presents "The King” in a raw, more human, and often explicit manner -- one that eschews the family friendly image constructed by the Elvis foundation.

Twenty-two tracks total, the . . .

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Andersons All Stars :: Intensified Girls (Blue Cat Records, 1968)

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Produced by Gladstone Anderson - 1968, Blue Cat Records. 7" A-Side (flip "Jump And Shout").

MP3: Andersons All Stars :: Intensified Girls

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Gene Clark :: Here Tonight | The White Light Demos

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Throughout their various lineups, The Byrds certainly saw some huge talents pass through their ranks, from David Crosby to Gram Parsons, from Chris Hillman to Clarence White (not to mention, of course, the group's one mainstay Roger McGuinn). The best songwriter of the bunch, however, was Gene Clark. Under the spell of Another Side Of Bob Dylan's word-drunk poetry, Clark wrote The Byrds' most indelible -- if not most well-known -- tunes, with haunting vocals, plaintive melodies and an introspective lyrical vision.

Clark left The Byrds in 1966, reportedly due to his unwillingness to tour (the co-writer . . .

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Richard & Linda Thompson :: Theatre Royal, London, UK, 1977

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“Some songs deserve to fall off the radar,” wrote Richard Thompson curtly in response to a question on his website about a handful of “lost” tunes he and his then-wife Linda Thompson debuted back in 1977. The songs in question: “The Madness of Love,” “King of Love,” “Bird In God’s Garden,” “Rescue Me,” and “The Fire In The Garden.” Fortunately, we've got this bootleg tape of Richard and Linda playing in London with a short-lived ensemble. Richard and . . .

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Scout Niblett :: Gun

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I love an album that knows how to make an entrance, an album that makes its presence known. Scout Niblett's upcoming LP, It's Up To Emma, very much obliges. Setting the tone with album-opener "Gun", a caustic fuck you from the vantage point of a jilted lover, Niblett douses the track in gasoline and then proceeds to dance around it, watching it burn. Emma is out May 21 via become a member or log in.

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Fugazi :: Instrument. Documentary film.

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I rediscovered the 1999 Jem Cohen Fugazi documentary,  Instrument, while going through an old box of DVDs over the weekend. Watching it for the first time in a decade, and unlike most things nostalgia related, I came away thinking 'yeah, I'm glad I was there for that in the 90s.' This clip of "Shut The Door", culled from the doc, expertly captures the essence of why I caught this band live every chance I had back then . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

Sam James Velde guest DJs during hour two.

SIRIUS 287: Jean Michel Bernard — Generique Stephane ++ Mac DeMarco - Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans ++ Twin Peaks - Ocean Blue ++ Carnivores - Pillow Talk (w/ Atlas Sound) ++ Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange ++ The Peoples Temple - Blinding City ++ Spacemen 3 - Feel . . .

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The Men :: Live At WFMU

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Some corners still wrestle with what exactly The Men are up to; what to make of the slow march of Americana with a capital Tom Petty creeping into their tracklistings. Live, their plans feel tacked to a different path. The Men deal in a brash form of art -- there's no apologies in their short and varied career. Last year at SXSW, the band ripped between current and future material. Guttural or shouted, scales or licks, every ounce of what makes their records so intimate in their softest and fiercest moments is on display. The Men have their shit on lock - even when boozy or doozy, there's always a chance that this  is the definitive recital.
And it's a thrilling thing to witness, to have documented. The crisper, official-er Live At WFMU, shows them crafting deliberate guitar shreds, drums like a controlled demolition, complex yet measured bass -and   vocals screaming "no, we're still some kind of punk band, but we don't even know what kind specifically..." No matter, we're in it for the ride.   words/ b kramer
MP3: The Men :: Oh Yoko

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The Peoples Temple :: More For The Masses

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Gut punch intro with proper soul-moan grunts, the title track to The People's Temple 2012 joint is a swift kick to wake everyone the fuck up. While the debut was good, Masses does it one better. Howling psych-rock still riffing on all our favorite sixties touchstones, it's a headier, funkier, brew this time around. It also features the best homage to the Velvets . . .

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The Howling Hex :: The Best Of The Howling Hex

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With little fanfare, Neil Michael Hagerty moved to Denver early last year, and began playing out at various Mile High City clubs with a drummer and bassist in tow. While I've only kept limited tabs on Hagerty's post-Royal Trux activities, I was definitely curious to see what the guy was up to. And it was pretty weird. As his rhythm section laid down mind-numbingly repetitive Norteî±o beats, Hagerty chanted well-nigh indecipherable lyrics -- something about farolitos? -- interrupted by splatters of diamond-sharp fuzz guitar . . .

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