English Hip-Hop from the Nineties

I'm not sure why these artists are making repeat appearances in my iPod cue of late, but they are. And what they have in common is that both artists made hip-hop in England in the 1990s. That's about it. For a thorough look at the history of hip-hop in the UK, try here.

Hailing from the East End of London, which I knew well from the PBS-syndicated Brit soap Eastenders, Gunshot found their way into my collection first via a catchy 12" called "Clear From Present Danger," which was as hardcore as any UK stuff I'd heard (and I heard it all, friends-- Monie Love, um...Coldcut) at the time. On the strength of that vaguely Public Enemyesque single, I bought their 1997 album, and it was pretty damn good. This track would be from said LP.

Gunshot - Ghetto Heartbeat
Buy it!

Lewis Parker's first LP was released on Massive Attack's Melankolic label in 1998, and I dug the ominous, orchestral sounds Mr. Parker offered, as well as his sleepy delivery and vaguely mystical subject matter. But I saw him open for someone...maybe it was the Black Eyed Peas, Behind the Front era. And no one...I mean, no one... was giving him the time of day, except for maybe me, with my hands in my armpits, quietly praying for him. Another album followed in 2003, followed by a 12" with Yungun.

Lewis Parker - A Thousand Fragments
Buy it!

Plus, because I couldn't resist:

Monie Love - Monie In the Middle
Monie Love - It's A Shame (My Sister)

Hypnotic

Readers in Chicago may well know the sound of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, (or, just Hypnotic). A couple of days ago, they turned up in NY. Having been turned onto them by a friend who knows, I just happened to catch wind of that sound on the down escalator in the Times Sq. subway station that night. There they were, pulling a crowd, selling cds.

Their name is apt. They create an aural hypnosis, with this eerie sound that calls to mind all kinds of horn music (for me, Rebirth, Skatalites) but is entirely its own thing, utterly melodic and chordal. You can get totally lost in it, like I did, standing there for half an hour last night. And when they break it down, the way they bob their horns in unison, that's hypnotic too.

To me, seeing and hearing them in person was out-of-body. But I'm given to that kind of rapturous exaggeration when things hit me on an emotional level. Much of their stuff is...sad. It's mournful or regretful or something amorphous like that that doesn't make you cry or depressed, just makes you all warmly melancholy.

The band is made up of (I think it's) eight sons of Chicago jazz great Kelan Phil Cohran. This track is from their second cd, which, as far as I can tell, can only be purchased direct via phone at 773-264-6573.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Birthday
Buy it! ph: 773-264-6573

In the meantime, The Raymond Brake

I figured, since there's been no posting in the interim, why not throw up the Raymond Brake, of which I spake in myne last poestinghe. They were quite good, and I think I saw them play with the ol' Mariner Nine, who were similarly quite good.

Here is the seriously anticipation-building leadoff track from their debut LP.

The Raymond Brake - Philistine
Buy it!

And, although for some reason I didn't get my ass in gear to get all "Here Are They Now" about this post, a little jaybird was kind enough to inform me that Andy Cabic, formerly of TRB, has continued as Vetiver. So here's some of that somewhat more acoustic, organic sound, from the debut Vetiver opus, which was followed up by a mini-album last year
Vetiver - On A Nerve
Vetiver - Farther On
Buy it!

In case you haven't heard Re: NC: The Torch: Re-burning!

A while back, I set out to find out what was up with the ex-members of Greensboro, NC's once-scene, once-teen, once-Simple Machine(s) rock ensemble The Raymond Brake, as part of the Here Are They Now feature. I didn't get very far, and I welcome any tips on that front. They put out two albums during their short, bright burn. Anyway, I'll get into that in another post, I'm sure. But my point here was going to be that, in the meantime, I came across a pair of NC bands who seem to, in my estimation, have picked up the long-doused, long-forgotten torch once carried by TRB, kind of like the one in the picture, which has clearly made it to Venice.

Now, time and time again, I've read tales heralding the arrival of some new standard-bearers or other to reinvigorate the North Carolina scene, to bring back the Chapel Hill glory days or what havest thou. But who cares about all that? Can't we just listen to the bands? Here are two. Both have put out records with the people at Pox World Empire, and both have that kind of broingy, jankly, Pavement-like Sonically Young guitar-pop that recalls, for me at least, the Raymond Brake. I hear it more in Durham's the Sames, less in Chapel Hill's Pleasant, but still, why have one without the other when you can have both and it tastes better? Check out both of their sites for more downloads, so that you can carry your own little torch for a bit.

The Sames - Heart Pine Buy it!
http://www.thesames.com
Pleasant - Welcome Come In Buy it!
http://www.pleasantmusic.com

Philly-Style #7: For the truly, deeply interested

I was tooling around the hinternet looking for an old Wishniaks EP when I came across a couple of sites that might be of interest to fans of the Philly-Style feature. KenKramar.com, the eponymous home of one-time member of The Chant, Trained Attack Dogs, and Still Stupid, has a whole roomfull of TAD and Ken Kramar mp3s here. And then, anditgoes.com is a website that touts itself as an "exclusive club of (Philly) scene veterans who are still making great music, and those who aren’t currently active but still deserve the attention." Run by ex-Kenn Kweder associate Rob Johnson, this site/blog combo hosts a slew of rare tracks here, by Philly notables Alan Mann, The Darrows, The Hooters, The Johnsons, Beru Revue, Honor Society, and The Daves, not to mention the Xmas jams "Sleigh Ride" and "Hang Up Your Stockings," by the All-Star Review, which featured members of The Hooters, Beru Revue, The Vels, Da Pliars, Pretty Poison, and Bunnydrums.

Anyway, it gave me a bit of a thrill. Here are some noteworthy highlights, spanning the Philly genre spectrum from both:

This was an old favorite of mine from my "Amore" cassette. Synth driven reggae-wave like only Philly's favorite sons could do it.
The Hooters - Fightin On the Same Side from the 1981 single

Trashy, lo-fi recording of trashy Philly punk.
Trained Attack Dogs - Ankh Salomen (live) from "Lotsa Fun"

All-Star xmas cover rewritten with a Philacentric bent, parts of it sound as if they were written by the Philly chamber of commerce.
The All-Star Review - Sleigh Ride (jam-packed with top-of-mind Philly references)

True Philly blues punk.
Mikey Wild - Die, Die, Die (live) from the (JC) Dobbs Lives! compilation

I have no familiarity with this band, but this song is insanely good. And I'm not even talking about that "Don't Fear the Reaper" open.
The Alan Mann Free Arts Band - Lost And Found recorded 6/27/78 at Grendel's Lair. Dig the sax.

Another TAD track, this one a studio recording.
Trained Attack Dogs - Friend Larry from "Pizza"

Sandinista Edited!

Following the success of their double album London Calling, I expect that The Clash felt like the could do anything. If they loved the double album, let's give them a triple album! Sandinista! is a sprawling collection of 36 songs, taking in punk, dub, rap, rockabilly, reggae, soul and stirring it into a big mess. The pacing of the record is bizarre nightmare; every time momentum starts to pick up, it is sabotaged by the appearance of a too-long novelty piece or a half-written track. In the end, Sandinista! is an uncomfortable marriage of mammoth ambition and unfinished, unedited ideas.

All that said, The Clash were a great band and they wrote dozens of great songs. Sandinista! has more good songs on it than most bands generate in their career. Searching through the junk to find those songs is the hard part.

I put together a track list for the album that The Clash should have released. It's still a double album, but trimmed from 36 to 17 songs. It clocks in at about an hour, the same length as London Calling. I used a few operating assumptions putting the track list together.

1) The Clash were better at using dub recording techniques and rhythms within rock songs than actually playing pure dub.
2) Joe Strummer (R.I.P.) was not a good rapper, although I had to keep "The Magnificent Seven."
3) Clash songs ought to be sung by members of The Clash.
4) The Clash are not a good jam band.
5) I tried to think about pacing and how the album could work as a whole, something you could ingest in one sitting. Some solid tracks are missing because of this...

I'm expecting some passionate feedback on this one.

1) The Magnificent Seven
2) The Leader
3) Somebody Got Murdered
4) Corner Soul
5) One More Time
6) The Call Up
7) Charlie Don't Surf
8) Look Here
9) Something about England
10) Washington Bullets
11) Police on My Back
12) Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)
13) Hitsville UK
14) Let's Go Crazy
15) If Music Could Talk
16) Rebel Waltz
17) The Street Parade

buy here!

Venice Is Sinking

Venice Is Sinking is a nerdy young chamber-pop group from Athens, GA, just like all those other cool bands. Their van has a name ("The Baptist Bump") and their bassist has funny hair: two big plus's in my book. This tune is particularly affecting.

Venice Is Sinking - Undecided
buy here!

Some pun on Lifetime.

They're back! Not only is Jade Tree bringing you the full-on 2-disc package of rarities and goodies from the golden years of New Brunswick, NJHC's feel-good crew Lifetime, but it would appear that lucky west-coasters will get a chance to see Lifetime play a smattering of reunion shows this month. A smattering indeed!

Katz and Golley resurfaced in Zero Zero a few years after Lifteimes's disappearance, before Ari went on to Miss TK and The Revenge, and Yemin has been hard at work, first with Philly's Kid Dynamite (who are sporting their own retrospective DVD over at Jade Tree), and, more recently with Wagenschutz in the severely intense Paint It Black. St. Hillaire plays in The Fire Still Burns, Palaitis in Neutral Mute, and Martin was in an early iteration of Jets to Brazil. All artists well worth having in your stacks, many of them released by Jade Tree as well. You could save yourself a lot of trouble by just buying JT's entire back catalog.

And! And! As if the Garden State weren't getting enough attention thanks to the Alito hearings and the Lautenberg/Whitman double-shot introduction, the 'Time have seen fit to name their new collection, Somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey, after their own song of the same name, which was or was not a not-so-subtle tribute to the McSpringsteenster.

Lifetime - Starsixtynine from Somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey
Buy it!

Here, a few of my favorites from the band's second and third lp's.
from Hello Bastards
Lifetime - Daneurysm
Lifetime - (The Gym Is) Neutral Territory
Buy it!

from Jersey's Best Dancers
Lifetime - Young, Loud & Scotty
Lifetime - Hey Catrine
Buy it!

Lifetime - The Boy's No Good from The Boy's No Good b/w Somewhere in the Swamps 7"

Pre-game! Hot rock!

I recently discovered nyc bloggers, a site that documents what blogs are being produced where in NYC. You select a subway station and see what people are posting nearby. It's s nice little tool for sketching out pet socio-economic theories, as well as a fun way to find new blogs. I was wandering through and discovered Living in Chinese Gitmo, a funny, exhibitionist and quite depressing diary blog by a hard-drinking young woman working the advertising biz in NYC.

She refers a few times to the concept of the "pre-game," the practice of knocking back the first of the evening's drinks at home, saving a bit of money and getting a "jump" on the rest of the crowd.

I have been known to "pre-game" myself; more for the opportunity to play some of my own rock loud and get pumped for the night ahead. These five tracks should do that job nicely; nothing fancy, but hard workers all of them.

My fiance played me this song not long ago and it made me wanna move. Chicago's Davis (on this track anyway) reminds me of other mid-western cow-punk types like Uncle Tupelo and Columbus, OH's under-heard Greenhorn. Don't miss the loud "Whooh!" in the background when the band slams into the second verse. And horns!

Devin Davis - Iron Woman
buy here!

Speaking of off-mic enthusiasm: around three minutes into "Gimme Shelter" Merry Clayton (the fantastic backup vocalist) shoots for a drama and her voice breaks hard. You can hear Mr. Jagger give a big yelp in the background. He was feeling it. For more on Merry Clayton and other soulful backup vocalists of the 60's and 70's, check out Funky16Corners.

From my young teens into my 20's, the only copy I had of this tune (on the album Gimme Shelter) was a tape copy I had made from my Mom's scratchy LP. I was never too dilligent about removing those copy-protect tabs from my tapes and somehow, about 3:30 into this tune, a short clip of someone (probably me) playing drums got recorded on to the tape. To this day, whenever I hear the song, I expect the drums to come in there. I kinda miss it.

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
buy here!

According to classic rock rumor, Keith Richards and Gram Parsons were more than just junk buddies; some say Parsons actually wrote "Wild Horses" and other say that Keif and GP actually had few rolls in the hay. We'll never really know, but it's fun to wonder...

Gram Parsons didn't make a lot of albums before his young death, but everything he recorded was stellar. This track is from his time with The Flying Burrito Brothers, his project in between The Byrds and his solo albums. This stomper wouldn't sound out of place on The Velvet Underground's Loaded. ASIDE: Angus Young's band before he joined AC/DC was also called The Velvet Underground, a real testament to VU's un-fame.

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Older Guys
buy this!

Sure, these pretty boys sound like Pavement, although I don't think Malkmus and co. ever played this fast and tight. Used to be that everybody and their brother was ripping off Pavement, but it's a rarer sound these days. This track grabbed me from go.

Hockey Night - For Guy's Eyes Only
buy here!

I can't believe I've been blogging all this time and I have not yet posted a Thin Lizzy track (have I?) I'm a model of restraint. Anyhows, I thought the indie guitarmony of Hockey Night flowed nicely into the arena-rock of the dual-lead masters. Check out the flange on that bass!

Thin Lizzy - Waiting For An Alibi
buy here!

Up, Up, Down, Down, Sweet, Lord, Yes, Yes!

Holy wow! The guys from Haddon Heights, New Jersey's Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start have just popped out a whole 'nother free Internet EP. This one,Girls Names tops last year's Internet EP(in my estimation), and, true to its title, is all songs named after girls.

Their website is a veritable cornucopia of short, majestic, often bombastic free (as in both "fluid" and "costing no money to download") guitar prock, something like Hum meets Joan of Arc, but chopped off at the knees and much easier to talk to. Get in while the getting's good, people. Before they realize that they could be selling this stuff! For money!

Here are a few of my favorites from over the years, but you should visit their site for yourself, to stock up on all of their stuff, both the free and the purchaseable, which is all well worth being stocked up upon.

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Melanie Flury
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Come Away
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - By Surprise
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Here I Am Away
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Walked Out This Season

Also, check out TheirSpace.
And then visit the recording studio they run, Gradwell House.

Plus, there's a nicely done, short, bombastic conceptual video that is strangely affecting.
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Please Come To Me (mp4)

If You Don't Listen, You'll Be Sad

This is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the greatest lost tracks of the new wave era. Recorded in 1982 by Boston's 21-645, it just hast this timeless pop urgency-- somehow akin to what Bloc Party's doing now.

From my research, all I can tell you is that bassist Jay Parham and drummer Randall Gibson went on to play in the Flies...Parham stayed there, Gibson moved on to moderate success in Scruffy the Cat. I also remember that Moving Targets covered the song on the Last of the Angels EP, but even Ken Chambers, with his killer instinct, couldn't quite do it justice.

Here it is for posterity. It can be found, if you're lucky like me, on a 4-song 7" put out by Propeller Records, and featuring a song apiece from Thalia Zadek's Dangerous Birds, a band called "V;", and Christmas.

21-645 - Babble

Good Night All

Well, Lou's death has sent me down a little.

I think it's time for some lay down, deep soul. I want you to swim, yes swim in the reverb. You know, it used to be the _only_ effect there was.

Roberta Flack - Bridge Over Troubled Water

(I wanted that to be the first dance at my wedding till I realized it was seven minutes long!)

This may be stretch, but I can't help but spin into Bobby Birdman here. I am a true believer, even if he did perform in bare feet. Maybe not as torch as Antony, but it still burns nice and hot.

Bobby Birdman - Born Free

Louis Allen Rawls, 1933-2006.

Sad news today, that of Lou Rawls' passing. Chicago's gift to the world made great music for decades. I was scrounging for my mp3 of "You'll Never Find..." when I remembered that several friends had gifted me some old Rawls LPs about a decade back. So, consider the crackle of the surface noise a fitting complement to Mr. Rawls' singular gravelly baritone.

First, a tough-luck, stomping, grammy-winning groove produced and written by David Axelrod.
Lou Rawls - Dead End Street from Too Much!, Capitol, 1967
Buy it!

A Gamble & Huff product, backed, naturally by TSOP.
Lou Rawls - See You When I Git There from Unmistakably Lou, Phila. International, 1977.
Buy it!

Rest in peace.

Beat Planet Mix Tape Tracks 2 and 3

So I haven't revisited the Beat Planet Mix Tape concept since it began back in mid-November. To recap, the point of these posts is purely to serve my own quest to remake an old mix tape here on the blog, one that was culled from hours of WXPN Philadelphia's once-upon-a-time-in-better-days overnight show, Beat Planet, which, on top of giving the old double cassette deck a serious workout, effectively led me down the road to all kinds of goodness (and occasional badness) in the realm of music.

Two tracks just to get a little joementum going again:

For Against are a phenomenal...phenomenon. Products of what was likely not a burgeoning goth-pop scene in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1985, they have consistently churned out eerie new-wave. They continue today, after several hiatuses (hiatae? hyatu?), and are set to release a new record this year. This song haunted my high school tape decks.
For Against - Sabres
Buy it!

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, from Woolston, Christchurch, New Zealand, were part of the early Flying Nun revolution that included the Chills and the Clean. JPSE did all kinds of stuff, from straight happy guitar pop to more groovy breakdowns and more just generally oddball stuff. This song was my first exposure to the greatness they had to offer. It will plink its way into your heart and ride around on your blood, visiting all your body parts and making them tingle.
The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - I Like Rain
Buy it!

Synthpop's Second Tier

There's no better way to trumpet a post than to diminish its importance in the title. Here, a few hits sampled from throughout the 80s, from a few bands who didn't achieve the fame of, say, your Depeche Modes or your OMDs or Pet Shop Boys or Erasures or whatever. Exclusively by virtue of their minor chart success, I'd call them B-Listers. Blisters. But they'll always occupy a place at the top of my heart's A-List.

Candy and cheese time.

Two smash hits from London, ca. 1981.
Visage - Fade to Grey
Buy it!
Ultravox - Vienna
Buy it!

One from Berlin, ca. 1984.
Alphaville - Big in Japan
Buy it!

Liverpool ca. 1986.
Dead or Alive - Brand New Lover
Buy it!

Frankfurt, ca. 1987.
Camouflage - The Great Commandment
Buy it!

Manchester (!) ca. 1989.
When in Rome - The Promise
Buy it!

Africa Addendum

To keep the bonanza going, here's MC Lyte's refashioning of Toto's Georgy Porgy story into pure hip-hop romantic tragedy. To me, Lyte is the only one that pulls off the Toto sample with any panache.
MC Lyte - Poor Georgie
Buy it!
And the original.
Toto - Georgy Porgy
Buy it!

The Lure of Africa

Thanks to Kurtis for encouraging me to pop this one out.

TOTO: everyone loves those sweet Jeff Porcaro grooves and the sailing AOR/prog-rock melodies of such mega-hits as "Rosanna," "Hold The Line" (my personal fave) and "Africa." But who knew that those serious white boys in Toto has provided the foundation for a few hiphop tracks. Even stranger is that two tracks by major artists were based on "Africa" in the space of 3 years. That's silly!

Ja Rule - Murder Reigns
Nas - New World
Toto - Africa

More second hand Toto:
MC Lyte’s “Poor Georgie” samples “Georgy Porgy”
Roger Sanchez’s “Another Chance” samples “I Won't Hold You Back”
Art of Noise’s “Beat Box (Diversion One)” samples “Rosanna”

New Discoveries for 05 in 06.

I have finished compulsively scouring the web for good new music for today.
Here, the fruits of my labor. If you've already heard of any of these folks, kudos, i'm sure you're incredibly good-looking.

The Mini Band are from West Chester, PA. It appears that they started out as something of a novelty, playing only miniature instruments. But their talents got the best of them, and their music, while not un-novel, is certainly no longer a novelty. Check out this hard little jam, especially the little spy-movie breakdown bridge.
Mini Band - Down the Tube
Buy it!

Elizabeth, from Vancouver, BC, create dark new wave-inflected stuff. They have already toured extensively with a host of big names, in spite of having only just released their debut EP.
Elizabeth - War is Beautiful
Buy it!


Finally, from Austin, TX, comes Sound Team, who recently finished a tour with Mazarin. They make dreamy distorganated disco. Very nice.
Sound Team - Don't Turn Away
Buy it!

Loose Ends

Here are a few things I found in the pockets of last year's pants, although some of them are older than that.

The Double are a recent Matador signing. Indie pop carried along by noisy squalls of guitar, organ, and plenty of slappy vocal delay.
The Double - Idiocy
Buy it!

The Casual Dots combine the talents of several DC luminaries, and manage to sound almost exactly like the sum of their parts (or their parts' former bands). To me, this is an asset. No surprises here, just some herky, jerky, Autoclave-y, Slant-6-y, Frumpies-y, Bikini Kill-y tick-tocking.
Casual Dots - Clocks
Buy it!

Formerly at the front of Factory Records' French/Belgian electro-sambaists Antena, Isabelle Antena (née Powaga) continues to make sultry music with French words. She may be doing it as we speak. This track dates from the Antena period, ca. 1982, and can be found, thanks to LTM Records, on a collection of Ms. Antena's work with and without the band.
Antena - Camino del Sol from L'Alphabet Du Plaisir: Best of 1982 - 2005
Buy it!

Bonus:
Loose Ends - Hangin' on a String (Contemplating)
Buy it!