Den o'sin

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT? R.I.P. HOLY WARBLES

2012-01-27T13:06:00.001-05:00

Hey - I suspect most of you here are ONLY here because you saw me commenting incessantly over at owl's place ;-) - and the other 2 or 3 of you need to be aware of all we've lost, and all that we're still in danger of losing.

Gary at Bodega Pop's eloquent, impassioned post is a must read, & he had generously given permission for re-posting. Here it is in full:

Guilty until proven innocent?

It's hard to measure the full impact of the FBI shutdown of Megaupload. The site was responsible for a reported 4% of all internet traffic, with millions of registered, paying users happily up- and downloading everything from wedding pics to the complete Lady Gaga discography.

God knows how many of them were trafficking in crappy Hollywood films or dreck like the latest Chris Brown or Adele. All shit that will be footnotes some day in some knowing culture studies textbook look-back on the early part of this inglorious century, but otherwise forgotten, and thankfully so. As far as I'm concerned, people who up- or download any of that sludge should definitely be fined or sent to jail ... but not for copyright violation. They should be fined or sent to jail for disseminating the corporate roach-vomit that constitutes most of contemporary American pop culture. You don't even want to know what I think should be done to the people who create or publish that shit.

But, seriously. Should Britain have allowed Iran to extradite Salman Rushdie for his blasphemous Satanic Verses? Because that's basically what we're looking at here. One culture's laws trumping everyone else's.

That said, I'm not here to argue in Kim Dotcom's defense. I'm here to lament the loss of countless music blogs, the loss of the communities they fostered, the loss of the evidence of otherwise forgotten expressive culture(s) that they brought to the surface and shared.

Most notably, Owl Qaeda's Holy Warbles, which first had its Megaupload content stolen by the FBI action. As if that weren't enough, no doubt freaking out over the Megaupload action, Blogger simply shut his blog down, claiming multiple instances of copyright infringement. Of--we should be clear--expressive cultural artifacts that were either long out of print (and never to be reprinted) or so obscure as to be readily unavailable to anyone whose head is not a giant interactive encyclopedia.

The last thing I downloaded from HW was a rare, completely out of print album by Marie Jubran, a Syrian artist who recorded mostly during the 50s I think and who doesn't even have so much as an English-language Wikipedia page. I have a lot of Arabic music from the period and a couple of related books, and I'd never even heard of her before visiting Holy Warbles. That is the sort of thing we're talking about. Gone now. Not just the music, mind you, which is lovely. But an artifact that is now once again unavailable for, say, anyone studying the region and period.

Holy Warbles, and blogs like it, are--for all intents and purposes--libraries. That, really, is their function. Libraries that store things that not even the NYPL or Queens Borough Public Library have. (I should know; I've ransacked both for their CD and other media collections, which I--yes, you guessed it--immediately download to my computer. Will the FBI be visiting our libraries next?)

Another casualty in the FBI's completely unethical shut-down: Madrotter. Run by Henk, a self-described "Dutch guy living in Bandung since 1996," the site links to, or used to link to, some 2,000 out of print Indonesian records. Henk isn't giving up. "As long as I can find an upload service that still works Imma keep giving you people great music," he writes in a recent post. Again, not just great music, but a library. A library that was being accessed by more than 40,000 people a month.

The carnage hardly ends there. The wildly popular Mutant Sounds and Global Grooves were both significantly spavined as well. Then, there's my absolute favorite music blog of all time: The Vault: Japanese Music Junkies Unite, a semi-collaborative blog that housed more than 5,000 Japanese records and tapes, most completely out of print, was also more-or-less wiped off the map. In a very real sense, it's like the Library of Alexandria burning down x 1,000. Or 10,000. No one really knows.

And this, we must assume, is just the beginning. How long before Awesome Tapes from Africa, Moroccan Tape Stash or Monrakplengthai are wiped out as well? Again, we're not talking about shit you throw onto your iPod before heading off to the gym; this is serious cultural evidence. These are, I can't stress it enough, libraries. And thoughtless, good-for-nothing corporate asswipes who supply rat-diarrhea-producing mental aphids like the members of MGMT and Bright Eyes with, like, cocaine-spending money are, essentially, destroying them.

As Lily Tomlin once put it: "I resent losing the ozone just so we can have PAM."
xxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooxoxxxoxoxoxox

Thanks, Gary. Your blog is also a treasure.

For The Sake of ...Howe Gelb

2012-01-14T21:41:00.002-05:00

Quite a while back Ramone666, proprietor of the most excellent For The Sake Of The Song, asked if I had a "Best of 2011" list. Nope. No, I don't. I wouldn't know where to start, or stop. But as I've mentioned over on his site, I do love all things Howe Gelb, including the great 2011 lp Alegrias. So as a very belated Winter holiday present for everyone, and especially Sr. Ramone, here is a digital copy of the very first Gelb-related music I ever purchased, the third 7" by the pre-Giant Sand Giant Sandworms. I read a good review in Bucketfull of Brains (my bible at the time) & there ya go!
Here's the a-side:

Giant Sandworms - Don't Turn Away (One Big Guitar 001, 1986)

The b-side isn't really all that, but completists such as myself will want it anyway. Plus I threw in a bonus picture of Howe with cats. Get the whole thing here.

Happy 2012!

The Gals of The Big "D" Jamboree (Dragon Street Records, 2001)

2011-12-07T20:01:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to share ths wonderful OOP cd for ages! In the interests of expediency (& sheer laziness) I lifted the following review from Amazon - thankfully, it's spot on:

For the uninitiated, the Big "D" Jamboree was a weekly variety show broadcast over 50,000 watt radio station KRLD beginning in the late 1940s. It was a weekly event much along the lines of similar music-oriented live entertainment programs like the Grand Ole Opry, the Louisiana Hayride and the National Barndance. Held weekly at a Dallas, Texas wrestling venue called the Sportatorium, the Big "D" Jamboree's heyday ran from the late '40s through the early '60s. In continuing their superb Legends of the Big "D" Jamboree series which in addition to a wonderful 2-CD various artists collection from last year (The Big "D" Jamboree Live)as well as other single artist releases focusing on such stalwarts as Groovy Joe Poovey, Johnny Dollar, and Gene Vincent, Dragon Street Records rolls out what is easily its most humdinger collection yet with The Gals of the Big "D" Jamboree.

Clocking in at over an hour's worth of music spread cross 29 tracks that are culled from a combination of live material, studio demos and 45 RPM records, it's a collection that presents both known quantities (Janis Martin, Wanda Jackson, Charline Arthur) and unknowns (Helen Hall, The Lovett Sisters, Abbie Neal & the Ranch Girls, Pat Smith, Doreen Freeman, Sherry Davis, Betty Lou Lobb and Ramona Reed) from the Big "D" gal corral. In comparison to many of their Nashville feline country contemporaries, the gals were a more hard-edged, saucy bunch of honky tonkin' ladies for whom a cigarette and a bottle of beer with the fellows was likely never out of the question. More importantly, these were Virginia Slims types (remember those old TV ads??) who weren't afraid to speak their mind in song. Heck, all it takes is a listen to piece-of-mind pieces like What Else Does She Do Like Me? which opens with the not so lady-like line "She smokes the same sort of cigarettes as I do" or Wasted Life about a malcontent husband who can't pry himself from the barstool ("Sitting all alone at the bar / No one knows or cares where you are / You don't care about your home / You don't care about your wife / You're a perfect example of a wasted life") to understand what I'm talking about. Each of those cuts come from the tough-talking honkabilly pepper pot Helen Hall who takes the cake in this collection. Quite frankly, it doesn't get more hardcore honky tonk country than numbers like these and even better, The Gals of the Big "D" Jamboree is filled with plenty more from where these two came from.

All too often overshadowed by their C&W male contemporaries, The Gals of the Big "D" Jamboree is an insightful look at a vital chapter in the annals of female country music. Accompanied by a deluxe, 20-page booklet featuring discography, artist biographies from noted Texas country music historian Kevin Coffey, and an intro by current female rockabilly star Kim Lenz, this is a first rate package overflowing with hot tunes that comes highly recommended - Dan Ferguson April 20, 2001

Here are 2 of my favorite cuts:

Helen Hall - What Else Does She Do Like Me?

The Lovett Sisters - Bacon & Eggs

Get the whole shebang here

Daniel Moore - self-titled (Dunhill lp, 1971) @160

2011-07-17T12:08:00.002-04:00

vinyl

By request. Please see Mr. Rayne's post at the wonderful Aquarium Drunkard for detailed information. Y'all can sample the full lp here. Many thanks to the original uploader, whoever he/she may be. And if anyone has a better rip, please let me know!

Ferrante & Teicher - Soundblast (The Sound of Tomorrow - Today) [Westminster, 1956] @320

2011-05-02T12:29:00.003-04:00

This is for flash strap, who recently posted some other great Ferrante & Teicher exotica. This is NOT the crap found nestled next to Mitch Miller in your parents' stack of lps - unless your parents were oodles more cool than most - but then they wouldn't have Mitch Miller albums, would they? And we're probably talking about your grandparents. Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, per the ever invaluable Wiki , Steven Tyler of Aerosmith states that during the 1950s Messrs. Ferrante & Teicher practiced in the home of his grandmother Constance Neidhart Tallarico. So maybe young Steven heard some of these songs when he went to visit Gram after school. Or not!

Get Soundblast here

And c'mon, you can't tell me you don't love this.

Happy Birthday, Max!

2011-03-17T12:09:00.003-04:00

I pray now child that you sleep tonight
When you hear this lullaby
May the wind that blows from haunted graves
Never bring you misery
May the angels bright
Watch you tonight
And keep you while you sleep

The Pogues - Lullaby of London (If I Should Fall From Grace With God, 1988)

And, of course, happy birthday to D. as well! This next one's for you & N. - shared with much love

Andy Stewart & Manus Lunny - Take Her In Your Arms (Dublin Lady, 1987)

I am NOT a Tri-stater vol 1

2011-03-14T07:24:00.001-04:00

First in what may be a continuing series featuring Connecticut-based bands that Brushback hasn't yet discussed. Why? Why not! I need a schtick.

First up, the Five Satins, hailing from New Haven. Everyone knows the classic In the Still Of The Night, but my favorite song by the Five Satins is the following much more soulful & upbeat number, released by Roulette in 1964. I love this song. LOVE it. Almost as much as I love the best pizza in America, also from New Haven. But I digress.

The Five Satins - You Can Count On Me (Roulette, 1964)

And another song I love, also from 1964. These songs are meant to be placed together on as many feel-good mixtapes as possible. This goes out especially for Rockin' Jeff, who recently posted a later cover version from his amazing collection of 45s.

The Tams - What Kind of Fool [Do You Think I Am] (ABC, 1964)

The Tams are not from Connecticut. The Tams are from Georgia, but are best known as mainstays of the Carolina beach music scene. Did you know that they took their name from the Tam o'shanter style of hat that the group chooses to wear on stage? Neither did I. Thanks, Wiki! Anyway, that opening flute reminds me of a third song that needs to be included in this imaginary mix. ALSO from 1964 (honestly, this was not planned). Taken from one of the best box sets ever:

this is a picture of the reissue, not the original box set

Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers - Oh Mary Don't You Weep (SAR, 1964)

That "drownded" gets me every time.

Sam Cooke was not from Connecticut, nor was his brother L.C. But L.C. did put out a fantastic song that completes this evolving set nicely -and guess what - it's from 1964. Spooky!

L.C. Cook(e) - Put Me Down Easy (SAR, 1964)

Don't you feel all warm & fuzzy now? The only thing better than listening to these songs would be listening to these songs while eating the meal of my dreams, below:

Pepe's White Clam Pie

If anyone's ever traveling from New Haven to Durham and wants to make a girl's dreams come true, please let me know!

Y'all have a nice day.

Revenge is a dish best served...today!

2011-03-13T16:45:00.003-04:00

Duke 75 - UNC 58

Cold Crush Brothers vs. Fantastic Freaks - Basketball Throwdown (Dixie: Razorcut Mix)

Wild Style OST, 25th anniversary edition

All the cool kids are doing it...

2011-03-03T12:55:00.000-05:00

<br><a href="http://wfmu.org/marathon/pledge.php" target="_blank"><img height="156" width="150" src="http://wfmu.org/marathon/images/tl/insta_marathon_badge_150x156.png" alt="Pledge to the WFMU Marathon!" border="0" style="padding: 6px 6px 6px 6px; margin:0;"></a><br>

Seriously.

Oh, You Sexy Thing

2011-02-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

First, y'all need to go to Howdy's fine blog and check out this post - and this one, too.

And now you're sufficiently primed for Ms. Sassy herself:

Sarah Vaughan - Frasier The Sensuous Lion

Further info here - including lyrics!

So, so, sorry! (King Solomon - Missing Track)

2011-02-20T01:44:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your vigilance, Anonymous! Here is track three from the King Solomon comp 'You Ain't Nothing But a Teenager' - the original version of 'Separation' issued on Magnum. Anyone who's already dl'd the cd, please add to your folder.

King Solomon - Separation (Magnum version) - track 3

King Solomon - You Ain't Nothing But a Teenager (Night Train, 2005)

2011-02-18T23:42:00.005-05:00

This post is for ana-b, whose blog The Singing Bones is one of the best on the web. Ana recently gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, & to welcome little Anza to our world I figured I'd post something that I promised her mother quite some time ago. Ana, here's my lazy girl synopsis of Nick Loss-Eaton's very thorough liner notes:

Born King Sylvester Lee Melicious Solomon in Tallulah, LA on October 12, 1934 Solomon says simply, "I guess all the kids had long names". As a teenager, Solomon sang with an a capella gospel group that opened for a pre-Sam Cooke Soul Stirrers. In 1949 the aspiring singer got on a bus to Chicago where, in addition to running a restaurant, he met early mentor Sunnyland Slim & befriended Rufus 'Bearcat' Thomas. After 5 years in Chicago he made his way to Los Angeles and assimilated West Coast blues stylings into his Chicago blues & northern soul foundation - billing himself as either King Solomon & the Soul Brothers Band or King Solomon & the Handicappers. His bands included, among others, Maxwell Davis, Joe Kincaid, & Charles Wright of "Express Yourself" fame" (whose band accompanies King Solomon on the 1965 title song of this collection).

So. Here we have 24 songs released on 8 different labels between 1960-78 - and no wonder Ana has been confused! Also per Mr. Loss-Eaton, a different King Solomon (Hill) was a country-blues singer in the pre-war era. Yet another King Solomon was a pianist who accompanied Lowell Fulsom. Then there's Solomon Burke's nickname. And also apparently a 'hip hop artist' (can't you hear Mr. Loss-Eaton's sniff of disdain?;-)) Point is, this King Solomon, over several incarnations, is most enjoyable and y'all can listen to him here.

And for a preview, here is one of my favorite cuts from the cd. Recorded in the early 60s, it's obviously deeply indebted to a much more famous bluesman & one of his most famous songs - but hey. Dig it.

King Solomon - Yodelling This Morning (originally released on Magnum 720)

Ferlin?!?! Swing West Vol 2 - Guitar Slingers (Razor & Tie, 1999)

2011-01-30T20:29:00.005-05:00

So... a couple of months ago I was listening to the radio & was absolutely floored by a version of Duke Ellington's 'Caravan' that totally sounded like something Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant would've cooked up. Said song was credited to none other than Ferlin Husky, who, while the singer of one of my fave country novelty songs of all time, has not ever been known for his guitar prowess. Hmm.

I had to purchase this awesome, sadly out of print cd to ascertain that a sadly UNKNOWN Nashville session guitarist (along with steel player Curly Chalker) put down this smoking & previously unreleased tune during a 1965 Ferlin Husky recording session.

Enjoy the entire cd - and here's the highlight:

'Ferlin Husky' - Caravan

And as a bonus here's Ferlin singing his ode to Eli - Eli, NOT Joe - the camel:

Ferlin Husky - Eli the Camel

And, double bonus, another wonderful cover from an oft-maligned player. Totally different style but who cares!

Chet Atkins - Walk Don't Run (originally from Hi-Fi In Focus, 1957)

UPDATE 03/17/2011 - R.I.P., Ferlin

If you're reading this there's a good chance you love Dan Melchior 's recordings...

2011-01-20T12:58:00.004-05:00

..and if so, I urge you to visit here .
Dan & I worked next door to each other until very recently. Small world.

Satan Go Away! Scat! Seriously, right this minute! Dude, I am talking to YOU!

2011-01-02T12:46:00.001-05:00

By request, here's a nice OOP compilation of Frank Guida productions.
Highlights include the Gary U.S. Bonds number referenced in the post title, yet another song about an ugly girl by Jimmy Soul, the maudlin 'Last Phone Call' by Lynn Earlington & a very nice straight soul song by The Soul Cop, who may or may not be Lenis Guess.

UPDATE 2/20/11 - Thanks to commenter doggett, we now know that the Soul Cop is in fact Oliver Christian. Thank you, doggett!!!

@320, no scans

Nick, I hope you enjoy! [And everyone who somehow found their way to this sorry excuse of a blog should immediately go visit Nick's totally awesome site!]

VA - Frank Guida Presents The Norfolk VA. Rock 'n' Roll Sound (Ace, 1994)

get it here

Dredd Foole & the Din - Take Off Your Skin (PVC, 1987)

2010-11-15T22:55:00.000-05:00

By request for Jeff Din/Sun.

dredd

Update 11/18: The awesome Brushback alerted me to this equally awesome interview with Jeff Weigand. So, also for Jeff, here's one of my very favorite Volcano Suns songs - play LOUD (ideally before or after Death of Samantha's 'Coca Cola & Licorice' to complete your mid-80s Homestead-centric listening nirvana):

And 2 songs that I totally overplayed in the waning months of 2001 & still put on every other work mix that I make :

See y'all later -

testing

2009-07-21T14:07:00.000-04:00

Maybe this'll work....

Green Pajamas - Kim the Waitress