Ahhh, mann. The good Richard Swift recently turned us on to the following 2006 BBC documentary on one of my all-time heroes of any trade - New Orleans' Allen Toussaint. Ride your pony...
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"...Nancy Dupree's 1969 album Ghetto Reality, essentially an inner city version of the Langley Schools Music Project, but with the kids writing their own songs rather than covering contemporary pop hits." - Mike McGonigal
I quoted the above, via McGonigal, several years ago while introducing Nancy Dupree's "James Brown" on the radio and was reminded of it, recently, during a conversation centered around 'noteworthy' children's musical projects. If you've yet to hear . . .
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Fairport Convention :: The Ballad of Easy Rider (Sandy Denny)
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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.
We are in NYC this week. Sebastian Freed, talent buyer at the new Rough Trade room in Williamsburg, guests.
SIRIUS 348: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ Pavement - Baptist Blacktick ++ That Summer Feeling - Jonathan Richman ++ Livin' Was Easy - The Glands ++ Sucker - Water Liars . . .
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It was 1966, a year that saw the Beach Boys drop Pet Sounds, the Beatles unleash Revolver, and the Kinks dethrone the Mop-Tops from Liverpool by scoring a #1 hit with “Sunny Afternoon,” supplanting “Paperback Writer” and cementing their place as legitimate vanguards of the British Invasion. By this time, however, the music of the Beatles and Kinks had already spread like wildfire, inspiring garage bands across the globe to take to their studios and earnestly hammer out versions of their favorite tunes in their native tongues.
From the “Uruguayan Beatles,” Los Shakers, to the Mexican group Los Freddy . . .
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It’s summer and the monsoon has finally crept in. Time to stash a few cervezas in a cooler and sit by a body of water. This cut from Roy and the Dew Drops might function well as a soundtrack. Put to tape in August ‘67 by Hadley Murrell at Audio Recorders in Phoenix, Arizona, the teenage Dew Drops led by Roy Figueroa offer a take on Tejano soul combo Sunny & the Sunliner’s “The One Who’s Hurting Is You.” The Dew Drop's version is woozy and heat-dazed, with the sax and trumpet bleeding together under . . .
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Brian Wilson And The Story of SMiLE. 2004 David Leaf directed oral history of Smile. Originally presented by Showtime, the documentary is loaded with archival footage corresponding around the release of Brian Wilson's SMiLE and subsequent tour. Worth the watch.
And speaking of SMiLE, consider the following absolute required reading: The AD Interview :: Darian Sahanaja (Behind The Smile Sessions)
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Philadelphia soul will always be remembered for the hits of the 1970’s; a lush, string-driven, hit-making sound that was probably more responsible for the birth of disco than any other style of music. However, in the 1960’s, Philadelphia began carving out its own sound on stacks of soul 45’s that took the vibe of this gritty east coast city and began adding the type of trademark arrangements into the mix that birthed the patented Philly sound. These records, presented today, are a handful of my all-time favorite soul releases from ANY city; the level . . .
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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.
SIRIUS 347: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ The Beach Boys - Surf's Up (solo piano) ++ Bedlam’s Offspring — I’ll Be There ++ The Emperors — I Want My Woman ++ The Blue Rondos — Baby I Go For You ++ The Graham Bond Organisation — Early In The Morning ++ Bo Diddley — Bo Diddley ++ Cat . . .
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I was driving through my neighborhood in New Orleans one evening when Brother Claude Ely came on WWOZ. I had to pull over and shake the goosebumps off, then regain my composure. Known as the “Gospel Ranger”, Brother Claude was the walking archetype of Pentecostal Holiness. He spent most of his life on the road, giving sermons to the ones who needed it most and the ones who didn’t know needed them yet. Using his cowboy hat, department store guitar, Holy Bible, and starched white suits, he knew . . .
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It’s been half a decade since we were treated to an LP from San Francisco’s Skygreen Leopards. Having taken some time earlier this year to collaborate with Ben Chasney (Six Organs of Admittance) as New Bums, longtime collaborators Donovan Quinn and Glenn Donaldson have revitalized their brand of bucolic, jangle-pop via Family Crimes, their first effort for Brooklyn-based label Woodsist. Despite a lengthy intermission, the duo returns effortlessly to a project that seems entirely unyielding to any standard cyclical pressures created by the music industry. It is not often you find a group so grounded and determined, yet equally blithe and untroubled.
Ahead of their eighth full-length under the SGL moniker, we spoke briefly with Donovan and Quinn about keeping this band afloat, returning to work with Papercuts’ Jason Quever, and sticking to a formula.
Aquarium Drunkard: Hey Donovan/Glenn. How’s it going and where are you writing us from?
Glenn: San Francisco (while I should be working).
Donovan: Everything is great. About to play at Vera Club in Groningen. Cool place.
AD: You guys are set to release your first LP since 2009. What sparked the writing and recording process again?
Glenn: It's our goal to outlast every other band and trend. No. Basically, every now and then it's fun to be creative around the concept of Skygreen Leopards and hang out; other times we get sick of ourselves and put it on hold for a while.
Donovan: We usually have about a year of harmonious beautiful music making togetherness before we start screaming at each other and making death threats. That's when it's time to take a break and rush back to our respective therapists.
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Known names like Emmylou Harris and Billy Joe Shaver recorded his songs, but Canadian songwriter Bob Carpenter’s work has largely been overlooked, spoke of only by true believers and searchers. As is the case with so many lost records, the trouble was there right from the very start: In 1974 Carpenter recorded an album called Silent Passage for Warner Bros. Records, but the label shelved it during contract negotiations.
One look at the credits list and the move seems unthinkable. Producer Brian Ahern put together a cast . . .
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When I wrote about the Jayhawks' Sound of Lies six and a half (?!) years ago, the album was ten years old, out of print and the band had sailed into what seemed to be their sunset. Gary Louris and Mark Olson had toured as a duo doing Jayhawks songs, but there was no reason necessarily to believe that the band proper was still kicking. Now, in 2014, we have seen reissues of three of the first four Jayhawks albums, a reunited Louris . . .
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Vibes, here. Gal Costa, on her 1969 self-titled lp, covers, amongst other Tropicalia staples, the Caetano Veloso-penned - Os Mutantes-popularized - “Baby.” Costa swaps out the mutant garage-psych for a taste of airy and elegant cool. Gone are the shimmering organ and winding guitar and in their stead we find swirling and soaring strings. The tune starts with a subtle but undeniable bassline, accented by distant drum clicks . . .
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Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1966 album, Memphis Beat, is filled to the brim with covers ranging from the Louisiana classic “Mathilda” to the country standard “She Thinks I Still Care.” But in the midst of all the mediocre covers, The Killer still manages to deliver two and a half minutes of greatness. Lewis’ sole writing contribution lies buried on side 2 in the form of an upbeat tributary anthem to our late great 35th president. “Lincoln Limousine” walks a thin . . .
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