Better Than a Stick In the Eye
Thought I'd take a sec to pat my own back here. I noticed an inordinate number of hits here today and found that my
He Got Game post the other day is way up on the
Hype Machine's hit list. Number 2, to be exact. And here I thought everyone had heard that song before!
Thanks to everyone for tuning in and I hope at least a few of you stick around - I might even post something good again at some point.
Labels: no music
Dead City Dealers
In an abrupt turn-around from the music posted yesterday, today I’ve got some working class Pennsylvania punk rockers.
I found the Dead City Dealers a few days ago, liked their music and their attitude and decided to investigate a little further. I found that DCD started life a year or so ago as The Disliked. “Nothing we write is intricate in the least,” was The Disliked’s mantra. “We play three or four chords per song. Sometimes more, but rarely.”
After a couple of personnel shifts, including the departure of vocalist Fidget, The Disliked reemerged as the Dead City Dealers. One thing that remained intact through the shake up was the band's values: “We're not rock stars,” DCD says. “We're regular people. We play music. Period.”
These guys hammer out an uncompromising, get-in-the-fucking-pit, punk rock. They write about things like the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, their hatred of tree-hugging liberals, and drunken shenanigans. This ain’t no Hot Topic poseur band; this is the real deal.
If you like your Oi done up traditionally, Dead City Dealers is the band for you. Once you’re done checking out these songs, you can download all their stuff for free from the DCD
MySpace.
Rural Streetpunk (live).mp3 Our Scene.mp3 Bad Moon Rising (CCR cover – live).mp3 Labels: covers, punk
OST OCD: 'He Got Game'
It’s been a long time since I did one of these OST posts and, truth to tell, the origin of this particular post didn’t come from the movie, but from a Buffalo Springfield song.
I heard “For What It’s Worth” the other day, which got me thinking about Public Enemy’s soundtrack for Spike Lee’s 1998 movie, He Got Game (I’ve mentioned before how my brain moves along those paths). I watched the movie once, some time ago, and, at least in my opinion, it wasn’t one of Spike Lee’s best.
The movie stars Denzel Washington and current Boston Celtic Ray Allen. The plot is basically as follows: Jesus Shuttlesworth (Allen) is an extremely talented basketball player being pursued by the top college programs in the nation. Washington's character, Jake Shuttlesworth, is a convicted felon serving time at Attica State Prison for accidentally killing his wife (Jesus’ mother). Jake is temporarily released by the governor, influential alum of one of the colleges Jesus is considering, so that he might direct his son to sign with the governor's college. (See the trailer
here.)
As a longtime listener of Public Enemy, I got the soundtrack long before I saw the movie. This album reunited Professor Griff and Terminator X with Chuck D and Flavor Flav, giving the album the feel of the early PE disks. They also invited a host of guests, including Masta Killa, KRS-One, and one of the last people you’d expect to find here, Stephen Stills.
Stills stepped in to lend his voice and acoustic guitar to the title track. While the original version symbolizes the unrest of the 1960’s, this more-or-less updated version touches more on oppression: Racial oppression, political oppression, self oppression.
More than your eye can see / And ears can hear
Year by year / All the sense disappears
Nonsense perseveres / Prayers laced wit’ fear He Got Game the soundtrack remains one of my favorite Public Enemy disks and one of only a few soundtracks that can stand on its own.
He Got Game.mp3 ~ ft. Stephen Stills
Unstoppable.mp3 ~ ft. KRS-One
Labels: hip-hop, movies, soundtracks
The Rolling Stones - Oakland '69
I had some Rolling Stones I was going to post the other day; some old outtakes and such, but after giving it a little thought, I decided it was pretty similar to a post I’d
already done. Those links are down now, but it’s barely been six months, so I decided I’d post that stuff some other time.
But I still had that taste for the Stones, so I went back to my collection and dug around a little. What I came up with is a portion of a show from the 1969 tour – a tour that has been called “history's first mythic rock and roll tour.”
This was the tour where the Rolling Stones assumed the title “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.” The tour opened Nov. 7 in Colorado, but the two shows a month later, at the Forum in Los Angeles, would be the ones attracting national attention as the official tour openers. The tour would gradually move east, with the
New York Times calling the shows at Madison Square Garden “the major rock event of the year.”
While
Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! was the official release from the tour, the shows also helped give birth to the bootleg recording industry. One of the earliest live boots was a recording called
Live'r Than You'll Ever Be, which was a recording of the Stones’ Nov. 9 show in Oakland.
So what’ve we got here tonight? If you can believe the notes that came with the file, this recording comes from the same show as the infamous
Live'r recording. This version supposedly came from a 1972 FM broadcast, as part of a series of specials commemorating the closing of the Fillmore West. It is also supposed to have come originally from Bill Graham’s own archives, released to KSAN for those radio programs.
I’ve never had the opportunity to listen to
Live'r Than You'll Ever Be, which was widely praised for being a better album than
Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!. This recording, however, is great in its own right. The sound, while obviously not a professional mix, is very listenable. The nine songs here are barely half of a typical night's set, but still manage to capture a raw and energetic band: One that sounds like The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.
Sympathy for the Devil.mp3 Stray Cat Blues.mp3 Prodigal Son.mp3 You Gotta Move.mp3 Love In Vain.mp3 Live With Me.mp3 Gimme Shelter.mp3 Little Queenie.mp3 Satisfaction.mp3 Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones
Rockin' by Hisself
I’ve been in the mood lately to listen to rockabilly, and in addition to the classic stuff, I’ve also been listening a lot to my generation’s premier practitioner, Brian Setzer.
A disk I’ve had on the shelf a long time and never gave a proper listen to is Setzer’s 1998 solo album,
Rockin’ By Myself. I think the disk was recorded in 1993 during a show in Japan. I do know it was a Japan-only release, although the copy I have is lettered in Russian.
Setzer recorded this performance a couple of years after he started the Brian Setzer Orchestra, but this is a stripped down show: Just Brian on guitar, accompanied on a couple of songs by his brother, Gary. No band, no garnish. Setzer’s underrated talent as a rock guitarist is really on display here. Not the flash typical of some early-90s rock guitarists, but a technical skill that rarely surfaces on his studio recordings. Just listen to him tear it up on “Mystery Train” and “Be-bop-a-lula.”
Since this was technically an official release, I’ll just sample a few things and leave it to you to track down and listen to the whole disk. The tracks I picked are pretty representative of the album; there were a lot of oldies and a couple of Stray Cat songs.
Runaway Boys.mp3 Be-bop-a-lula.mp3 Rebelene.mp3 Summertime Blues.mp3 Mystery Train.mp3 Labels: covers, live albums, oldies, rockabilly
Chewing on Tinfoil
Is it too late for third wave or too soon for fourth wave? Either way, it’s good to know ska-punk survives. I can’t put a finger on what it is that appeals to me about ska and ska-punk but doesn’t appeal to me about real reggae. But that’s how it goes and I guess I’ll have to live with that shortcoming.
I recently got an email and a CD from an Irish ska-punk band called Chewing on Tinfoil. As they say in the song “Hating Every Minute,” “We sing these songs like they’re our own / n’ it’s nothing new, oh yeah we know.”
These guys aren’t reinventing the wheel here; they’re cut from the same cloth as the last wave of ska-sters, i.e. Buck-O-Nine, Reel Big Fish, et al. But you know, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. They make infectious, poppy music, combining ska and rockabilly with a little bit of punk, leaving out the horns and sometimes playing up the twangy guitar. Ska-billy? Call it what you will – this is fun music, meant for listening while drinking a pint during these ruthlessly hot summer days.
Chewing on Tinfoil formed in late 2003, in Dublin. Just last month they released their debut album
Get Rich or Try Dyin’ (and I swear I just now noticed that says “try dyin’.” ha) The album, the band says, was recorded in a 150-year-old cottage built on the burial site of an excommunicated, fornicating monk. They are currently touring the album around the UK, so check ‘em out if you’re in the area. And for more info on the band, the album, or the gigs, check out Chewing on Tinfoil’s
MySpace.
Hating Every Minute.mp3 Labels: new stuff, ska-punk
'Trash'
Regular viewers will know that, despite my seeming random approach to posting, I have an affinity for garage rock. These bands are the last line in the sand for DIY music. Certainly they’re not always original, but they mean well. These are the guys and girls who pick up a guitar and plug it into a beat-up Fender amp and play because they love rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe they’ll get a girl (or a guy) and maybe they’ll get famous, or maybe someone will buy them a pint after their set. It doesn’t matter because it’s about the music.
The bands in tonight’s post come from a compilation called
Trash on Demand, Vol. III. The 20 bands represented on this disk can all trace their lineage at least as far back as the New York Dolls, if not even further (Jerry Lee Lewis anyone?).
Punk legend Jeff Dahl helped assemble this collection, which was released in 1999 on the now-defunct Amsterdamned label. It was tough trying to pick just a couple of tracks to share, but after several listenings, I decided on songs by Philadelphia’s
The 440’s; Berlin rockers the
Cuban Rebel Girls; and
Joe Alcohol and the Hong Kong Knife.
No one here ever made it huge, but every one of them proudly carry that punk / garage / glam / trash banner just as proudly as if they were the Dolls. Essential listening.
Dead Eyes.mp3 ~
Cuban Rebel GirlsLet’s Go.mp3 ~
The 440’sThe Passenger (Iggy Pop cover).mp3 ~
Joe Alcohol and the Hong Kong Knife~~~~~
Note:
Pictured is the 440'sLabels: covers, garage rock, punk
Music from My Mailbox
Some pretty tasty things in this go ‘round of the Licorice Pizza mailbox purge. There’s a cover of an old Sweet song and the first single from a garage band super group.
I’ll get right to my pick of the month, which is “Bow Down and Die,” from The Almighty Defenders, the aforementioned supergroup. It’s a funny thing because when I first read the email, I thought these guys had potential to suck. Wrong I was. Their debut album isn’t due until September, but this preview of the collab between the Black Lips, King Kahn, and Mark Sultan, is some wonderfully grungy gospel.
Somewhat in the same vein is the Generationals, whose “When They Fight They Fight,” reminds me much of the old girl groups. I’m hearing a lot of groups tending back toward the old-school sound, which pleases me. I’m more than sick of the over-hyped electronica. Just pick up a guitar and play. There are a few of those types here today, such as Dala and Cory Chisel.
One other band that needs some special mention is The Lonely H. They’re bringing a sound that would not at all be out of place on a 1970's FM radio dial. And I mean that in a good way. Check ‘em out. There are also a couple bands here that I may have posted before, but as long as they’re sending me decent music, I’m going to share it.
As always, follow the links for more information.
GenerationalsIndie
From: New Orleans, La.
Band
MySpaceWhen They Fight, They Fight.mp3 CitayHappy Hardcore / German pop / Soul
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band
MySpaceSet Me Free (Sweet cover).mp3
Floating ActionOther
From: Black Mountain, U.S.
Band
MySpace50 Lashes.mp3 
The Almighty DefendersGarage / Rock
From: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Band
MySpaceBow Down and Die.mp3
The Lonely H Classic Rock / Americana / Indie
From: Port Angeles, Wash.
Band
MySpaceDiggin’ a Hole.mp3 Will DaileyRock / Acoustic / Roots Music
From: Boston, Mass.
Band
MySpaceColour of Spring (Talk Talk cover).mp3 
DalaAcoustic / Indie
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Band
MySpaceAnywhere Under the Moon.mp3
Emmy the GreatChinese traditional
From: U.K.
Band
MySpaceShe Almost Had a Baby (Simon Raymonde mix).mp3 Charlie MorrisBlues / Acoustic / Americana
From: St. Petersburg, Fla.
Band
MySpaceStagger Home to My Baby .mp3 
JapandroidsGarage / Rock
From: Vancouver, Canada
Band
MySpaceYoung Hearts Spark Fire.mp3
Radical SonsIndie / Rock
From: St. Louis, Mo.
Band
MySpaceAll Signs Show.mp3
Cory Chisel & the Wandering SonsAmericana / Folk / Neo-Soul
From: Appleton, USA
Band
MySpaceBorn Again.mp3 ~~~~~
(Pictures, top-to-bottom:
Generationals, The Almighty Defenders, Dala, and Japandroids)
Labels: alt.country, folk, garage rock, indie, pop muzik, rock
Recent Mohawk Radio finds
About a year ago I
posted the praises of a site called Mohawk Radio, which is sort of a “MySpace alternative alternative.” To summarize my previous post, the majority of the bands with pages there are un- or independently-signed. And, unlike MySpace, where you can only stream music, most of the bands on Mohawk Radio have download links for their music. That makes it a great source for finding new music.
Today’s music is a couple of bands I recently happened across on Mohawk Radio. Neither has much bio info, either on their Mohawk pages or their MySpace pages, but I’ll tell you what I can, then let the music do the talking for the rest.
Some Skank is “fast, loud, booze-inspired, girl punk from Paducah, Ky.” Honestly, tell me the last time you heard of
anything from Paducah, Ky., let alone a punk band. Their influences run the gamut from the Ramones to Minor Threat, and if you’re lucky enough to live in the Midwest, you can see Some Skank play live.
The Fisters’ bio is even more vague than Some Skanks’. They come from Tucson, Ariz., a fact they seem unhappy about, based on the song “Hell, Arizona.” They’re influenced by “noise, liquor, horror movies about giant insects eating people, drugs, Iggy, and anyone who loves Iggy.” You can’t really go wrong there. The Fisters are currently playing in and around the Tucson area.
Both of these bands are everything that is still fun about music. They’re not fat, overproduced rocks stars and they’re certainly not shiny new American Idols. They’re playing rock ‘n’ roll for the joy of it. Check ‘em out and – definitely – if you have a chance to see them live, do so.
I’m Poor More Booze.mp3 ~
Some SkankHell, Arizona.mp3 ~
The FistersNote: The links above will take you to each band’s respective Mohawk Radio page. From there you can link to any other resources the band has, or to the main Mohawk page if you still need to sign up. Once you’re signed up,
hit me up and be sure to let me know how you found me. Thanks!
Labels: punk
Iggy live in Paris
All right, I’m back. I had some non-Internet things going on and I also had to renew my host. Dreamhost is a great host and has always provided me great service, but it does cost a little bit to use. And I hate to come at you with my hand out asking for donations, especially since I don’t think I’ve ever helped out anyone else. But we’re all good again.
It’s been nearly a month since I posted any Iggy, so I thought it might be an appropriate time to share this live recording that’s making its way around the Internets. It comes from a May 28 French radio broadcast of a performance at Studio 105 of the
Maison de la Radio in Paris.
Iggy throws in a couple of classics here, i.e. “The Passenger,” and the opening “Five Foot One,” but the show leans heavily on material from
Préliminaires, since it took place just a couple of days after the disk’s release. The sound, coming from a radio broadcast, is up there with the best I’ve heard from a live Iggy recording – better even than some official releases. The only annoyance here is the DJ translating Iggy’s between song raps into French.
Five Foot One.mp3 Les Feuilles Mortes.mp3 Nightclubbing.mp3 I Want to Go to the Beach.mp3 King of the Dogs.mp3 Spanish Coast.mp3 I Put a Spell on You.mp3 How Insensitive.mp3 Nice to be Dead.mp3 The Passenger .mp3 Willow Weep for Me.mp3 Sweet Sixteen.mp3 A Machine for Loving.mp3 Shotgun.mp3 Outro.mp3 Labels: Detroit, garage rock, live music, punk
'High Society Meets High Sobriety'
OK, so I’m over the hurt feelings of having my posts randomly deleted. Actually, it’s happened before, but it was a couple of posts that were more than a year old and I’d already unlinked the songs. It just makes me mad that Blogger does that. Eventually, maybe I’ll stop posting music and just write about the things that piss me off.
I’ma try again with some music from a Seattle band that doesn’t fit the Seattle “stereotype.” By that, I mean the grunge / indie thing. The Naked Saints are really hard to classify. For the sake of their
MySpace page, they refer to themselves as “indie / punk / roots music.” I suppose you could loosely classify the band within one of those genres, but the music veers back and forth from post-punk to bordering on industrial. Then you’ve got those mandolins that appear out of nowhere.
The band's singer, Tom Sin, was also the front man for Moral Suckling, who broke up in 1992. Between then and 2008, when he formed the Naked Saints, Sin traveled and lived in Thailand for a number of years, doing what he referred to as “focusing on immediate musical experiences.”
The other Naked Saints are Zed, who plays bass and is a devotee of early ska and punk; Eric T. is on guitar and mandolin and likes traditional Irish jigs; and Damian Voltaire plays drums. The Naked Saints refer to their music as a combination of each member’s favorite styles and influences, ranging from the swagger and ruckus of The Pogues to the twang of Link Wray. But they also leave it up to the listener to decide.
High Society Meets High Sobriety.mp3 Labels: "alternative", indie
lol
yeah, so I guess yesterday's post has been disappeared. I appreciate blogger deleting my whole goddamn post instead of sending me a note to just unlink the song.
thanks.
Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.
The notice that we received from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the record companies it represents, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.
The IFPI is a trade association that represents over 1,400 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings (the "IFPI Represented Companies").
The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We are in the process of removing from our servers the links that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/dmca.html for the process that Blogger requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.
Blogger can reinstate these posts upon receipt of a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA. For more information about the requirements of a counter notification and a link to a sample counter notification, see http://www.google.com/dmca.html#counter.
Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this notification, please let us know.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team
Affected URLs:
http://licorice-pizza.blogspot.com/2009/06/jay-z-and-death-of-autotune.html
I'll see if I can't find something less "objectionable" and get a new post up soon.
Labels: no music
