Somewhere in Space, This May All Be Happening Right Now...

Glow (Hybrid remix)
Unkle
Never, Never, Land (Limited 2 CD) 2004
[Download] [Retail Therapy]

Unkle has remained at the top of my list since I first discovered Psyence Fiction back in 1998. I was on a mini road trip to another college to see Reel Big Fish and The Pilfers. After the show, someone put on a sampler CD for, what was at the time, the upcoming Unkle debut. I had only begun my fandom of DJ Shadow about one year prior, so the breaks of Psyence Fiction really hit home for me. Josh's (Shadow) production values really take an intangible hold on the guns-blazin' sound of that album. Myriad co-conspirators (guest artists) and samples from every corner of the basement make this a must-have - or in any case, a must-listen.

After the space ships had landed and the Futura 2000 designed aliens made their rounds distributing limited edition Japanese EPs and rare B.A.P.E. t-shirts - it would seem that the time had finally come for James Lavelle (Founder of Mo'Wax Records and up to this point the only constant of the Unkle equation) to lay down another set of new tracks under the Unkle Moniker. James is known for his DJ skills just as well as his song writing. But he's also a business man, perhaps that first and foremost. The amount of Unkle related fetish items continues to grow. You can find shirts, limited transparent colored vinyl, Kubrick character toys and even limited edition Nike "Dunkle" sneakers. Much of these spawned from Lavelle's relationship with Japanese music artist and entrepreneur, Nigo, owner of The Bathing Ape (B.A.P.E.) brand.

Where does one fit in the time to really record an entire album among the DJ nights and dealings alike? Perhaps this is one of the reasons that James brought in DJ Shadow to begin with. Unfortunately, after Psyence Fiction, Shadow jumped the proverbial Unkle ship - perhaps it was due to artistic differences, and this could have been true. But, it's also obvious that a great amount of time went into Shadow's The Private Press and it only makes sense that he would have started that project after the Unkle album. So James brought in Richard File, a technically impressive DJ whose stand alone work is currently released under the moniker of Forme. File's style, though obviously a far cry from what Shadow brought to the table, is comparatively impressive. When mixed with Lavelle's brand of Elec-trip-hop, the equation yielded Never, Never, Land - the true second Unkle outing. Grounded in dream-like rock, experimentalism & down tempo with few visible hip-hop roots - it's by no means a Psyence, but it's a solid listen. Eye for an Eye is an excellent track; riddled with samples of Elias Koteas from the film The Prophecy (You may also remember Elias as Casey Jones in the TMNT movie). Reign is another great track that takes use of strings to create an almost spiritual sound - something usually only done well by Hybrid. I am still surprised that Reign was never picked up as the theme song to the cartoon by the same name which loosely retells the story of Alexander the Great with a nifty Sci-fi angle. In A State, the spiritual single of the album, would have remained on my A-list of Unkle tracks except for Lavelle's overuse and abuse of the track in live shows and DJ mixes, still a great track, especially the Sasha remix - though overused as well, I can never tire of the genius that is Alexander Coe. The album was released on 2003, but fans were treated to a, ahem, treat late last year when the album was re-released with an additional CD of remixes and exclusive new tracks. I must say that I am just a little bit upset that the elusive RJD2 remix of Reign did not appear on the CD, but this wound was treated quickly when I noticed a mix by one of my all time favorites, Hybrid. Mike Truman and Chris Healings hailing from Whales are Hybrid. The two man production and DJ team that never fail to impress. Masters of quite the heavy beats, Russian string orchestras and breaking down samples to an almost microscopic level - They have a few releases available, The Wider Angle being my first recommendation. Their signature heavy beat and the embodiment of the Hybrid sound have been imprinted onto Unkle's Glow, audibly transmogrifying it from a bed time story to a dance floor's secret weapon and an eclectronic aficionado’s tune of choice. Enjoy

A New York Story

SMOKE AND MIRRORS
RJD2
Deadringer 2002
[Download It] [Buy It]

AT THE CHIME OF A CITY CLOCK
Nick Drake
Bryter Layter 1970
[Download It] [Buy It]

PRETTY GOOD DAY
Loudon Wainwright III
Social Studies 1999
[Download It] [Buy It]

PRIMATES
IllyB Eats
Drop the Needle 2002
[Download It] [Buy It]



THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 31, 2004
By DAN BARRY

A Forest Monk's Lesson in the New York Jungle

The stolen bag did not contain much in the way of material value. But its sudden absence greatly distressed the Buddhist monk who had been victimized, and so the police were summoned to the scene of the crime: a Starbucks at the opulent Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

A police officer in a softball jacket sat down to take the statement of the tall man in a brown robe, whose decaffeinated coffee, no milk, was turning cold. Routine questions elicited complicated answers. For example, the victim's name was Venerable Kassapa, but Venerable is a term of respect, not a first name.

"I'm a Buddhist monk," the robed man confided. "In case you're wondering."
"I knew," the police officer said gently. "I've been around."

This is a simple tale that is not so simple, about a monk, a theft and New-York style redemption.
Venerable Kassapa, 41, is a forest monk in Sri Lanka. He usually lives alone or with a few other monks in rock-shelter huts, where he depends on the charity of villagers. He eats one proper meal a day, does not carry money, and devotes much of his celibate life to meditation, contemplation and the study of Buddhist texts. People often bow before him.

He sometimes travels to other countries and often speaks to very small groups about Buddhism. For the last few weeks he has been in the New York area, his trip sponsored by the New York Society of United Sri Lankans.

On Monday afternoon he sat on a stone bench in front of the Plaza Hotel and recalled how, as a young boy in London, he became disillusioned with the world. "I wanted to find a way out of discomfort and uneasiness," he said. "A way out of suffering."

His mother's struggle with an illness may have prompted his brooding; he is not sure. But he is certain that the factors leading him to a Buddhist temple at the age of 13 included these: his mother's interest in transcendental meditation, and his own interest in a popular television program of the time, "Kung Fu."

When he asked one of the temple's monks whether they taught martial arts as well as Buddhism, he recalled, the monk laughed. "Here we don't tend to the body," the monk told the boy. "We tend to the mind." At 14, he became a novice monk and moved to Sri Lanka; at 20, he was ordained. "And I've never, ever, regretted making this move," he said.

With the sun slipping behind the Plaza, Venerable Kassapa agreed to take a stroll for a cup of coffee at the Starbucks in Trump Tower. Walking down Fifth Avenue in his simple cloth robe, a simple cloth bag clutched in his hand, he was a character out of context: a six-foot-four study in self-denial, ambling along the boulevard of acquisition.

"I am a beast out of its habitat," he said.

He passed under the "You're Fired" advertisement that adorns Trump Tower and moved through the marble lobby, seemingly unaware of the effect his presence had on others. As an escalator raised him up to a floor redolent of coffee, he was asked whether he knew the name of Trump. "I've heard of him," he said. "He's a very wealthy man."

Venerable Kassapa sat at a small table and accepted a cup of decaffeinated coffee. Soon he was sharing what he described as his "vision" for the United States: that this great country, filled with energy and potential, would one day lead the world into a brave new era of truth and harmony.

Shortly after suggesting that American power "can be harnessed for harm or for good," he noticed that his cloth bag was missing from the chair beside him. He felt no anger when he realized that the bag had been stolen, he said later. Only shock, because such things do not happen to contemplative monks.

"This is very bizarre," he kept saying. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before."
Security officers were summoned, and then two police officers from the Midtown North precinct. They glided up the escalator and walked directly toward the monk. He was easy to pick out.

One officer went off to check garbage cans, while the other interviewed the monk. Finally, the time came to detail what was in the bag. No money, of course ("I don't use money," the monk said), but an eclectic list of items duly recorded by the officer.

Among the articles inside the cloth bag: a white plastic bag, a cellphone that someone had lent to him for his New York visit, a bottle of water, some white thread that he gives to people as a blessing and many pieces of paper. On these were written the names and telephone numbers of his supporters around the world.

"I would really appreciate it if you could do as much as you can," the monk said to the officer. But the officer leveled with the monk. "A lot of times, with nothing of value, they just throw it in
the trash," he said. "It could be in Brooklyn, it could be in the Bronx."

The officers left Venerable Kassapa to contemplate his loss, especially the bits of paper bearing the names and phone numbers of all those friends. "This is a raw lesson in life," he said, the kind of thing that "I first became a monk to overcome."

He descended the escalator, peered briefly into a garbage can — just in case — and then paused to study Donald Trump, who was standing at the elevator bank, talking on a cell phone. "I've never seen a billionaire before," he said.

Outside, on Fifth Avenue, the forest monk expressed a keen desire to go to that Manhattan forest called Central Park. "I need a little bit of a breath of fresh air," he said, and then he was gone. That could have been the conclusion to the monk's New York tale. But destiny would not allow it.

Late Monday afternoon, Riccardo Maggiore found a white plastic bag at the entrance to his hair salon on West 56th Street, just off Fifth Avenue. Yesterday morning, his wife, Eileen, did some sleuthing. And before noon, plans were under way to return the plastic bag — though not the cloth bag — to its owner, a forest monk.

There wasn't much inside the bag. A cellphone. Some white thread. And what Ms. Maggiore described as "a million pieces of paper."

There's hope in this old dog yet -- Part Two

4.
IN THE STREET
Big Star
#1 Record 1972
[Download It] [Buy It]

5.
BEETLES IN THE BOG
War
The World is a Ghetto 1973
[Download It] [Buy It]

6.
LOVIN' BLUES
Bobby Blue Bland and the Beale Streeters
I.O.U. Blues/Lovin' Blues 12" 1952
[Download It]


4.
Everyone knows Big Star. They're fused into public consciousness, into the minds and musical tastes of everyone. Turn on the radio, and the first upbeat power pop song you hear by whoever's new, and you can bet they own #1 Record or Radio City.

What everyone doesn't know is that Alex Chilton was not its founder. Instead, Chris Bell put the group together, setting in motion a few years of McCartney/Lennon-esque squabbling and dysfunction. For their first album, #1 Record, the duo split the majority of the composing duties, and it's not hard to tell their work apart. Bell's songs are uplifting, electric and melodic, Chilton's broody, melancholic and dark.

'In the Street" is a well-known example of Bell's wizardry. Covered by Cheap Trick in the 1990s and used as the theme song to FOX's That 70s Show (as "indicative of the era"), it shows off the flawless harmonies between Bell and Chilton, as well as Bell's ear for melody.

While the tension served to make that album better, each virtuoso working towards their own musical vision, it didn't help the band in the long run. Bell left the band soon after, gripped by depression and suffering under the poor record sales. He returned briefly as an uncredited contributor for their second release, Radio City, on which he supposedly penned two of Big Star's more memorable tracks, "September Gurls" and "Back of a Car".

He worked on a solo career during the 70s, putting together a top-notch album I am the Cosmos (that inexplicably didn't see release until 1992). On his way home from a band rehearsal on December 27th 1978, Bell lost control of his car on the Memphis streets, crashing into a tree and dying instantly from his injuries.


5.
1978 was a busy year for music. Usher, Fiona Apple and the lead singer of the Strokes were born. Chris Bell died in a car crash, and popular funk band War suffered their own brand of tragedy.

War were the quintessential funk outfit of their time, putting out countless hits: Spill the Wine, Low Rider, The Cisco Kid to name only three. Filled with the laid-back, sunny sensation of the SoCal region, War were entertaining. Extended live jams, the fusion of jazz/reggae/blues/soul, their politicism; War had it all, to a point. The early 1970s were kind to them, but over time, the large-scale funk party outfit began to falter.

Charles Miller, their saxophonist/flutist/vocalist, one of the band's original members (when they were known as the Creators, an R&B cover band comprised of Compton-area high-schoolers) was murdered during a botched robbery. The band became a touring novelty in the mid-1980s, releasing little or no new material, and percussionist Papa Dee Allen collapsed and died on stage during a 1988 concert from a brain aneurysm. From there, the band toured off-and-on until the late 90s, bringing an end to a 35-year run, riding the coattails of interest drummed up by DJs and hip-hop feeding off War's catalog for samples and beats.

Beetles in the Bog isn't anything particularly earth-shattering, but it comes off perhaps their best-known album, The World is a Ghetto. It's a musical buffet, you get a little bit of everything: their muddy and vast instrumentation, their playful nature, the shuffling reggae beat, singalongs, synths and the kitchen sink.


6.
I can't find a lot about the Beale Streeters. All in all, they represented exactly what music should be: a group of friends with a common interest and no pretense. Playing together across Memphis and the South on each other's recordings from time-to-time (normally, two or three of the group would record together and then move onto solo pursuits), the Beale Streeters were a fixture on the Duke label throughout the 1950s. BB King got his start with the Beale Streeters, as did Ike Turner.

This track features the whisky-smooth vocals of Bobby "Blue" Bland floating gently across the langorous blues shuffle. Slide guitar refrains, scratchy sax, and soulful piano - the ingredients of the blues.

Their inclusion in this morbid list stems from a Christmas Eve concert in Houston, TX. Around midnight, Ace shot himself in his dressing room after a game of Russian Roulette. He was 25 years old.

There's hope in this old dog yet -- Part One

1.
66 SLEEPERS TO SUMMER
Hope of the States
The Lost Riots 2004
[Download It] [Buy It]

2.
RAILROAD MAN
Eels
Blinking Lights and Other Revelations 2005
[Download It] [Buy It]

3.
SOON TO BE LARGE
Charizma and PB Wolf
Big Shots 2003
[Download It] [Buy It]



It's not always easy to be in a band. Sure, there are yr average, cliche, run-of-the-mill difficulties: fights, drunken misgivings, drug-addled lead singers. Brawling bandmates. Misfiring pyrotechnics. Group therapy, religious intervention, creative woes. Awkward concept albums, beating up yr critics, knocking the teeth out of yr rivals. Stolen girlfriends, rehabbed ex-wives, bus, train and plane scuffles. Sometimes, it gets worse. Being a musician is not all sunshine, rainbows and Van Halen. Sometimes it's doom, storm clouds and Def Leppard.

When it all comes down to it, death comes to all of us, and it doesn't always come in the way you might think. Musicians too, like other mortal, despite the godlike capabilities of them and their instruments, find their ways to the grave. It can be banal and ordinary, and yet Death can also throw that fatal curveball that is not expected, is transcendant, is, well, memorable. A small (and I do mean small, of those out there) cross-section of bands overcoming death are featured here today, because there are few better ways to celebrate life than through the acknowledgement of death and all its foibles, its quirks.

These bands not only made memorable music, but their members lived through events worse than the cartoonish squabbles made famous by VH1's Behind the Music; their music lives on, as do some of them, but it's their deceased members that are of particular interest.

(Note: this is Part 1 of a 2-part series. Songs 1-3 are featured today, with Songs 4-7 to be posted and delivered over the weekend)



1.
Hope of the States never had an easy run of things. Not the only band to suffer serious problems of course, and pity might not be high on their priorities, but making damn good music is. This is perhaps one of the more tragic, and yet, more expected for an up-and-coming band with all the pressures of expectation and trepidation upon their shoulders. After a promising EP, Hope of the States were in the final throes of recording a debut album. It was in the studio that the cleaners found guitarist James Lawrence. He had hung himself at some point during the evening.

Their music is part-plaintive and personal and part-epic. Their stage shows fill the audience with awe; the fusion of politics and British disenchanted polemics give them a power that I have yet to experience personally in concert but that I'm assured is overwhelming. The 6-piece band have a lush sound that expands slowly out of itself, constructed with simple instrumentation. String harmonies flood the background, and the booming Bonham/Bonzo-drum rattle sits agitatedly underneath careful, angular guitars. It gathers momentum, and singer Sam Herlihy's voice is gentle enough to blend with its surroundings and yet cut through just enough for you to grab onto the message and sway with it in both hands. "66 Sleepers to Heaven" is but a small tasty cut from a quality album that grows on you, much like their music.


2.
Mark Everett, otherwise known as the enigmatic and quiet E, has suffered enough for a whole litany of bands from an entire genre of music. His "band", a loose conglomerate of musicians cobbled together for the live shows, found success in 1996 with the release of LP "Beautiful Freak". Perhaps best known for the MTV hit-single "Novocaine for the Soul", complete with a striking video that showed E floating through an alleyway and up brick building facades, Eels found a niche for themselves: his high-pitched and invasive vocals sliced across twanging guitars and simple synth riffs.

Their international success was strong, until one afternoon in 1998. His mother told him that she had been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, and she died that year. In addition to the suicide of his only sibling, sister Elizabeth, in 1996, and the teenage discovery of his father dead in his study at age 19, the death of his mother brought it all back to the forefront of his mind.
He had to deal with these losses somehow, effectively the deaths of every member of his immediate family (it was not to be the last -- cousin Jennifer was in the plane that struck the Pentagon on 9/11), and he did so by making incredibly raw, incredibly intimate music.

"Railroad Man", a song of his latest release, the 2-disc Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, is a gentle and melodic evidence of the catharsis Everett finds in music.

I feel like an old railroad man
Who's really tried the best that he can
To make his life add up to something good
But this engine no longer burns on wood
And i guess i may never understand
The times that i live in
Are not made for a railroad man

The pain of his life echoes in the scratchy vocals, the lap-steel guitars that stretch over the horizon, the gentle shuffle-beat matching the steam and beat of a train. E has suffered a lot, but finds solace in making beautiful music, music that communicates, music that helps you understand.


3.
Real hip hop sometimes comes from strange places. For instance, Charles Hicks, a.k.a. Charizma, from the tiny San Jose suburb of Milpitas. Here is a kid who grew up with three primary concerns - hip hop music, sweets, and apple juice. By sweets, I don't mean the kind that you buy at the 7-11. And the apple juice, only Martinelli's uncarbonated.
- stonesthrow.com

Charizma and Chris Cut (aka Peanut Butter Wolf) were cut from a different cloth. Brought together from different upbringings and backgrounds, the two converged on a common love for hip-hop of the era: KRSOne, Big Daddy Kane, the Biz, anything California and the East Coast kept on making. At age 19, Charizma was writing songs left, right and center, and the scene seemed ready for them -- a record deal with Disney-owned Hollywood Basics followed, and the duo recorded an entire album, only to find that the only "material" HB could use was a cut of "Red Light, Green Light". It's safe to say that Disney doesn't know much about music outside of Hakuna Matata.

The two released some singles periodically, but their collaboration came to a premature end in December of 1993, when Charizma was shot dead in his car at age 20, killed inexplicably in broad daylight outside a church in the rough East Palo Alto, CA neighborhood. PB Wolf shelved the album, releasing bits and bobs ("My World Premiere" in 1996, the excellent "Devotion" in 2000) before finally letting it see the light of day on his own label, Stones Throw, home to many superb hip-hop/funk artists (Madlib + all his aliases, Medaphoar, Wildchild, Percee P, Dudley Perkins, Breakestra, the list goes on) and musicians.

The vocabulary and MC style is dated, but then again, this 2003 release was cut in the early-90s before the harsh age of gangsta rap, when the only things to riff about were youthful ego and show-off braggadocio. Charizma's flow is smooth, and this penultimate track, "Soon to be large", cuts a deep party atmosphere -- self-referential old school, reggae riffs, nu-jazz horns and tick-tock beats. The song fades into an interview with Charizma talking about his talents, and he holds no pretense.

Despite the swank and swagger of his lyrics, deep down it's quite simple: Charles Hicks was just a kid who loved hip-hop and loved to make it.


(Part II tomorrow)

Looking Forward to Danger & Doom

Somersault (DJ Danger Mouse remix)
Zero 7
Somersault EP [2004]

(See comments)
[Download]

SurFuture

Clean up on Aisle #9 (Turn up the Monitors)
Man or Astro-Man
Is It...Man or Astro-Man? [1993]

[Download this track] [Buy it now!]

Listen to the drum countdown to surfboard armageddon. Who is it? It's Man or Astro-Man? - The bathing suited quartet here to bring you space-age Surf Rock for the future (albeit from the past). They've got a sound reminiscent of the beach blasting sun and the turbo-boost overthrusters with smashing guitars of the '60s & the 3000s and enough air in between that you can smell the sea salt and intergalactic-dust.

Pre-approved for surfboard and hover-board cruising alike.

Tempo-ratures rising

BE
Common
Be 2005
[Download It] [Buy It]

SAVE ME
E.T. Mensah & his Tempos Band
[Download It]

TSURUGI NO MAI
FORCE OF NATURE / Nujabes / Fat Jon
Impression (Samurai Champloo Series) 2004
[Download It] [Buy It - although the price is a bit rough]

THIS ROOM (Four Tet & Manitoba Remix)
The Notwist
Different Cars and Trains EP 2004
[Download It] [Buy It]

GAGGING ORDER
Radiohead
Com Lag EP 2004
[Download It] [Buy It - ouch again on the price]


It's been a long week in FMGT-land. Working hard, trying to make ends meet, but also trying to find time to dust off some significant mp3s for yr listening pleasure.

Today, perhaps like many other days, will be a 5-way aural assault. A British Bulldog suplex to the senses, here's a quintet of tracks to push you a little harder towards the weekend mood. Tonight Ozomatli will take the Prospect Park/Celebrate Brooklyn stage, another reason to begin unwinding early, and these songs should provide enough pep.

Kicking it off is Common. Yeah yeah yeah, so a lot's been written about this fellow, but who cares? This is not about one-upmanship or who got here first, it's about apprecation and respect. His album, Be, isn't half-bad -- a suite where rough lyrics get forgiven given the tremendous production of Kanye West (he can sure as shit conjure up a catchy hook) and the alchemist Jay Dee. With the opening track on the album serving as my fade-in too, it has a gospel-like uplifting feel with the string samples, and a catchy riff underscores Common's solid, smooth vocal style. As smooth as his impeccable facial hair, which is perhaps, I fear, a little too smooth.

Sliding into Afrobeat territory, we encounter the legendary E.T. Mensah and his Tempo Band. The absolute god of highlife (the West African big band counterpoint to the staid sensibilities of imported European ballroom and dance), Mensah knew how to swing in his own unique way. Here, he takes Aretha's classic track "Save Me" and turns it inside-out, giving it a Ghanaian infusion and a much more celebratory feel that fit the late '60s well.

Some Si1ent K-inspired music next: Force of Nature, Nujabes & Fat Jon. While I'm still getting into the Samurai Champloo series, the music holds the major resonance to this point. And it's fantastic.

Four Tet and Manitoba are two of the best out there at what they do: fractured, introspective ambient tunes. Their remixes keep upping the ante outside of their respective oeuvres, and now it's the Notwist's turn to get the makeover -- "This Room" is cracked about and submerged in the crackled/boom-bip/pots-and-pans approach that made Four Tet's Madvillain remixes so good. Homespun, and yet rich.

To calm you down slightly, a slab of Radiohead. Lifted from the Com Lag EP, it is the best of an otherwise fans-only sort of bunch: sideswept cuts from the OK Computer/HTTT sessions, filled with stuttering drum machines and effects. Some solid live interpretations shine through, but "Gagging Order" is, to me, the stand-out - originally titled "Move Along", it's understated steel-plucked guitars and honest lyrics are just enough to turn down the heat on this 5-some and remind you that it's not the end of the week yet. Regardless, it's gentle and an excellent outro. Listen to it while on a speeding train, or better yet, a speeding car, one that doesn't belong to you, and lose yrself in the blur of the landscape. All very glass-half-empty really, but it's nice to have that balance before you short-circuit.

Enjoy, more of the same tomorrow, perhaps some kind of theme although we'll see what my head comes up with.

Dr. Jones

No time for the kind of long, analytical, loving rambling today because of work, but I do have enough time to slap up a quartet of songs that will have you bouncing round yr cubicle.

DRY RAIN
Meat Puppets
Huevos 1987
[Download It] [Buy It]

NEW MUSIC MACHINE
Cornelius
Fantasma 1998
[Download It] [Buy It]

NIGHTWAVES
VHS or Beta
Night on Fire 2004
[Download It] [Buy It]

HANG IN
Question Mark
[Download It]

Mapping the Future Head

MAP YOUR PSYCHE
Busdriver
Fear of a Black Tangent 2005
[Download It] [Buy It]



Busdriver's talents as a babbling, intellectual and socially-acute rapper shine through hardest on this track from his long-time-coming Mush release. Listen, feed off the menacing string lines and snarling bassline, and enjoy all the appearances from Abstract Rude (another solid release in 2005) and Ellay Khule, flooding the mic with verbose vitriol.

We've mapped your psyche
We know what you do before you do
Packaged it nicely
and sold it to who feeds off the style

It's aggressive, it's piercing, it's a damn good song. I've been big into Busdriver since hearing some live recordings using the material from "Cosmic Cleavage", and especially after the rendition of "Unemployed Black Astronaut"... Busdriver is in session.

More Birthday Songs

Fuck You It's My Birthday
The Millers
Live From the Vietnam Underground [2000]

[Click Here to Download This Track]

A Happy Birthday to JT. May all your birthday songs be as offensive as this.

Mah Birthday

BIRTHDAY PARTY
Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster Flash vs. the Sugarhill Gang 1998
[Download It]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
The Vandals
Live Fast Diarrhea 1995
[Download It]

BIRTHDAY
The Beatles
The White Album 1968
[Download It]

The end of the Road?

END OF THE ROAD
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Band
Express Yourself 1967
[Download It] [Buy It]


It's been a rough day in London. Thankfully, my family is alright (all of them work in London), so I can move on a little bit without getting too vitriolic.

However, it does seem a little coincidental that the song with the heaviest rotation at my apartment is this pensive and sad little Wright/Watts creation. A great soul/funk group sprouting out of Mississippi and Los Angeles, they performed some cracking tunes. Helped early on by Bill Cosby, who gave them opening slots during his early comedian days, the Watts 103rd Street Band is perhaps known best for the rollocking rendition "Express Yourself", a hit that rivalled "It's Your Thing" by the Isley Brothers in its promotion of freedom and individuality.

It opens with a plaintive, gentle piano and slowly blossoms into a simple rhythm, accentuated throughout by Wright's soulful voice and the rich, warmth of the horns section. The song breaks into funkier territory with a heart-rousing bridge and the song keeps bouncing from there.

There isn't much more to say about it. It's an ideal tonic to a difficult morning.

Coming from Mars

THE EVE OF WAR
Jeff Wayne
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds 1978
[Download It] [Buy It]


I am sure this is not a sleeper pick. I wanted to slap this all over FMGT for the nostalgia value last week, on the release date of the new "film", but then I decided not to be cheesy. So now kick off yr wednesday with this synthesized, pan-piped gem.

Jeff Wayne, long-time producer for English pop crooner David Essex, split from him in the late 1970s, and before the dust had settled, he'd composed an entire musical version of War of the Worlds, a musical that Essex contributes voices to. If you listen to it for one thing and one thing alone, listen to it for the noises the aliens make (which I won't ruin or spoil for you), so instead this is the opening song from the WOTW suite.

Kicking it off with the eerie Royal English brogue of the narrator (none other than accomplished Thespian and actor Richard Burton), reciting the introductions from the book in a menacing tone. Orchestral strings follow, throwing down the minor chords before being replaced by a fuzz-slap up-and-down bass line and shuttling drums. Synths pour in through every pore of yr speakers. Harpsichord effects, wailing wah-wah guitars layer over the staccato violins. Pan-pipes, grandiose, sweeping shifts in the music --- this album is a prog rock wet dream. Eat it King Crimson, sorry Yes, thanks for playing ELP, but Jeff Wayne's taking over.

As ambitious as anything Rick Wakeman ever did (and arguably better), Burton's voice carries the haunting track through each flute-filled minute. Filling the space with well-chosen pieces of the novel, the momentum grows into the laughable chorus.

"The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one," he said,
"The chances of anythiiiiing coming from Mars
are a million to one, but still, they come..."

Yes, it's a little outdated, but entertaining nonetheless for a few minutes. I remember listening to this as a kid, racing through the countryside in my Dad's car. It was ethereal at the time (children are easily entertained with all the effects Wayne pours on for good measure), and now it has that frozen-in-time feel, that sensation of carrying with it the exact moment in time I first heard it.

Give it a spin, and despite how funny it sounds to me now, it was pretty damn good for the era.