They're trying to wash us away

I always disliked Randy Newman, having only heard "I Love L.A" and such; had chalked him up to be just another Hollywood jingleoid songwriter. To a great extent, he is that. But he's also a masterful lyricist of an acrid intelligence and a black sense of humor.

I remembered reading an Elvis Costello interview in which he said that on his first album, "My Aim is True", he had basically done a Randy Newman imitation, so i got curious and downloaded "Guilty", a 2 cd greatest hits comp, and this is where I first heard songs like "Rednecks" and "Louisiana 1927". The former, sung in the voice of a racist southerner cliche, the latter to resurface as a premonitory foreshadowing of the tragic mess that was Katrina.

I don't usually go for concept albums, but in this case, like with Terry Allen, I make an exception.

"That's what I wanted-- I think my goal wasn't to get rich and famous, necessarily, though I cared about that. I always thought, "Oh, this could be a hit," or "that will sell records." But the first thing I wanted was that people who knew a lot about music, or had taste-making qualities, they would like my stuff. Writers, people like that. And I kind of got it, and realized, I want more! [laughs] It's always gratifying to me when someone like Elvis Costello mentions me, someone whose work I admire." (from PITCHFORK)

GOOD OLD BOYS

1. "Rednecks"
2. "Birmingham"
3. "Marie"
4. "Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)"
5. "Guilty"
6. "Louisiana 1927"
7. "Every Man a King" (Huey P. Long, Castro Carazo)
8. "Kingfish"
9. "Naked Man"
10. "Wedding in Cherokee County"
11. "Back on My Feet Again"
12. "Rollin'"

This is Radio Joe on Private Satellite

Joe Strummer spins his favorite tracks from around the world on these U.S. rebroadcasts of 8 episodes of Joe's "London Calling" radio show he did for BBC's World Service in the late 90's. The thing i get a kick out of the most is his love for Colombian "cumbia", as seen in the above video.

Get it all, in 3 parts:

** 1 * 2 * 3 **

For the full songlist and streaming audio, check out the Public Radio Exchange page!

Quaye Redux

Hey. Long time no post, I know.

So here i am.

This was a request for a reup (from Dead Billy - check out his blog for some more Quaye tunage!), which i don't usually do, but what the hey.

This is the bonus disc that came along with Finley Quaye's "Maverick". Just 4 songs - 2 vershans of "Your Love Gets Sweeter" plus 2 more.

Enjoy it if you didn't catch it the first time round!:

MAVERICK A STRIKE Bonus Maxi

The Odd Couple

“Jon just works. He doesn’t sleep. He’s like a bat,” says songwriter Richard Buckner, who Langford lured to Chicago to help record an album. “He’s a pure, sweet guy, and I think his art is pure.”

A match made in purgarory..

These are two of my favorite artists doing a very unexpected one-off collaboration.

Mekon Jon Langford and Devotion and Doubt Richard Buckner get together in Sally Timm's pad to lay down some tunage.

Like Ruben Blades said, "La vida te da sorpresas, sorpresas te da la vida, Ay Dios!"..

I debated on whether or not to post this, but I decided I would since it's a tough-to-find cd, particularly for us thirld-world types.

That being said, please, please, PLEASE:

BUY the cd if you hear this and do enjoy it.

NUFF SAID.

Thanks for having me back. enjoy.

Jon Langford & Richard Buckner:
Sir Dark Invader Vs The Fanglord

1. Rolling Of The Eyes (Buckner/Langford)
2. Nothing To Show (Langford)
3. Sweet Anybody (Buckner)
4. From Attic to Basement (Langford)
5. Torn Apart (Langford)
6. Stayed (Buckner)
7. The Inca Princess (Buckner/Langford/Rice/Odom)
8. No Tears Tonight (Buckner/Langford)
9. Do You Wanna Go Somewhere? (Buckner)

Why Obama, by Jon Langford

Tones On Tails

Ok. First post in forever, I know. Just haven't felt like it in a long time, seeing as nobody leaves any messages (ok, with the odd random exception, and i thank you for those) so it feels like pissing into the ocean.

So, please, take a second, tell me where you are and who you are and whatever else you want to say.

Anyway, enough whining.



This is Tones on Tail, post-Bauhaus, pre-Love and Rockets and superior to both (blasphemy!). Silly, minimal industrialish pop genius. Enjoy.

Tracklisting:

1.01		Lions (3:57)
1.02		War (3:18)
1.03		Happiness (3:08)
1.04		The Never Never (Is Forever) (3:20)
1.05		Performance (4:12)
1.06		Slender Fungus (3:35)
1.07		Movement of Fear (3:51)
1.08		Real Life (5:06)
1.09		Rain (8:27)
2.01		Go! (Club Mix) (4:27)
2.02		Christian Says (3:42)
2.03		Twist (5:10)
2.04		Burning Skies (6:27)
2.05		O.K., This Is The Pops (3:03)
2.06		You, The Night And The Music (5:00)
2.07		When You're Smiling (5:47)
2.08		There's Only One (4:03)
2.09		Now We Lustre (4:29)
2.10		A Bigger Splash (4:31)
2.11		Copper (3:06)
2.12		Means of Escape (3:51)
2.13		Instrumental (3:29)
2.14		Performance (7" Version) (3:12)
2.15		Shakes (3:54)
2.16		Heartbreak Hotel (Live) / Interview With Daniel Ash (Hidden Track) (12:17)

1 * 2 * 3

Biting My Nails

This record is back from 1989. Again, the culprits behind my finding out about this band was mtv's 120 minutes. When I heard "Biting My Nails", not only did I identify with the lyrics (and, unfortunately, I still do bite my nails, or rather, what is left of my freakish nubs), but I dug the Mark E Smith-y vocal delivery and the poppy hooks. Their latter more clubby dub stuff is interesting too, but I wish they had done more things along this line. Oh and the name of the band itself is one of the best ever:

RENEGADE SOUNDWAVE: "Soundclash"

1. Blue Eyed Boy
2. Lucky Luke
3. On TV
4. Probably A Robbery
5. Traitor
6. Space Gladiator
7. Murder Music
8. Biting My Nails
9. Pocket Porn
10. Can't Get Used To Losing You
11. The Phantom, It's In There
12. Ozone Breakdown

Lubbock on Everything

Lubbock, TX. Buddy Holly. Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Joe Ely.

And then there's Terry Allen.

Terry is a conceptual multimedia country artist, if there is such a thing. Born in Kansas, bred in Lubbock, educated in L.A., and now in Santa Fe, Terry writes wry lyrics about art, good ole boys, pillpopping and the Nashville country establishment, among other things. And he's a sculptor. I actually got the chance to meet and talk with him when I was getting my mfa in New Orleans in 1997. Nice enough guy, very unassuming. At the time, I was undergoing a small existential conflict about Art, so when I heard this song on a wonderful country show on WWOZ, It really hit a nerve:

Well I give up all my sculpturing
'Cause my life had gone all sad
An I went to work down at the factory
It weren't art...but it weren't bad
So They put me on the assembly line
Puttin plastic leaves on the plastic palms
Then they shipped them off the Los Angeles
Yeah it weren't art...but it weren't wrong
Now some say it's pathetic
When you give up your aesthetic
For a blue collar job in the factory
But all that exhibiting
Was just too damn inhibiting
For a beer drinking
Regular guy...like me

This double album was recorded in Lubbock in 1979, with the participation of folks like Joe Ely and Lloyd maines. To be more precise:

Engineered & Mastered by DON CALDWELL & LLOYD MAINES
Produced by: everyone on this record

Musicians
Piano & Vocal/Terry Allen
Pedal steel, acoustic & electric guitars, dobro, mandolin,
tenor banjo, bell tree/Lloyd Maines
Bass/Kenny Maines
Drums/Curtis McBride
Percussion, marimba, jawbone, skin castanets/Alan Shinn
Fiddle/Richard Bowden
Accordian/Ponty Bone
Saxophone/Don Caldwell
Harmonica/Joe Ely (courtesy MCA Records)
Jazz Guitar on "Cocktails for Three"/Luis Martinez
Flatland guitar on "Flatland Farmer"/Jesse Taylor
Trumpet/Tommy Anderson
Trombone/Mark Anthony
Tuba/Russ Standefer
Strings/Ruth Ann Truncale (violin), Susan Allen (viola), Karen Blalack (cello),
Leslie Blackburn (viola)
String arrangements/Don Caldwell
School song/Monterey High School Marching Band
Harmony/Lloyd Maines, Kenny Maines, Sylvester "band-aid" Rice, Gwen Hewitt, Suzanne Paulk, Jo Harvey Allen
"Whooooit" Harmony/Freddy Pride, Mike Austin, Vincent Thomas, Jimmy Sampson

LUBBOCK ON EVERYTHING:

1 Amarillo Highway
2 High Plains Jamboree
3 Great Joe Bob (A Regional Tragedy)
4 The Wolfman of del Rio
5 Lubbock Woman
6 The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma
7 Truckload of Art
8 Collector (And the Art Mob)
9 Oui (A French Song)
10 Rendevouz USA
11 Cocktails for Three
12 The Beautiful Waitress
13 Blue Asian Reds
14 New Delhi Freight Train
15 Ffa
16 Flatland Farmer
17 My Amigo
18 The Pink and Black Song
19 The Thrity Years Waltz
20 I Just Left Myself

NOTE: tracks in compressed file are out of order. Reorganize at will!!

Darkness and Doubt

This is a record from 1985, by a bunch of friends from Leeds. Foreshadowing alt country by a decade, this was their 3rd album, and a comeback of sorts, having briefly disbanded after their 2nd, not very good album, recorded for Virgin records.

They are currently on their 30th anniversary tour in the UK, Spain and the U.S., so catch them if you can (because I can't!!).

Ridiculously deep, and deeply silly, these are The Mekons!!:

FEAR AND WHISKEY


1. Chivalry 04:03
2. Trouble Down South 04:15
3. Hard To Be Human Again 03:59
4. Darknes And Doubt 05:14
5. Psycho Cupid 02:52
6. (Dancebird On The Edge Of Time)
7. Flitcraft 03:23
8. Country 02:54
9. Abernant 1984/85 02:21
10. Last Dance 03:12
11. Lost Highway 03:02
    
    

HOLE IN THE GROUND

Quaye

This is a CD that my friend and colleague Victoria lent me by a Finley Quaye. I had read good things about him and had heard that he was Tricky's Uncle (although he was 24 when he recorded this) so I was curious. Eccentric pot-influenced stylee, heavy on the Uroy "appropriations", but with a different mood. Very mellow sometimes, sometimes more rocking, and a really good bassline= very nice. Check it. (.. before you wreck it .. or something) ... A couplea vids from this record below the cut ..

FINLEY QUAYE PT 1

FINLEY QUAYE PT 2

1.01		Ultra Stimulation (3:52)
1.02		It's Great When We're Together (3:39)
1.03		Sunday Shining (3:42)
1.04		Even After All (3:54)
1.05		Ride On And Turn The People On (3:47)
1.06		The Way Of The Explosive (4:44)
1.08		Supreme I Preme (4:59)
1.09		Sweet And Loving Man (3:21)
1.11		Falling (3:16)
1.12		I Need A Lover (4:04)
1.13		Maverick A Strike (4:59)
2.01		It's Great When We're Together (Fun Lovin' Criminals Re-mix) (3:45)
2.02		Sunday Best (3:31)
2.03		It's Great When We're Together (Live) (3:50)
2.04		Even After All (Live) (3:59)
2.05		Can't Be Left Alone (7:32)
2.06		Morning Practice (4:09)

Even After All:



Suday Shining:

Bush

As I mentioned in the Vic Chesnutt post, I have been re-listening to some albums that I hadn't heard in more than a decade. Some have aged well and some ... not.
Kate Bush's "The Dreaming" has aged surprisingly well, while this video... hasn't. Harlequins, minotaurs and dunces - oh my!! Can you say "Low Budget"?:

For this one they actually had a real set, a bunch of dust and a big ol' fan:





And here, the video for the title track. She can do the funky chicken like it's nobody's business! Eat your heart out, JLo!!

Anyway, musically speaking, she was way ahead of her time. This was her first self-produced work. If Kate were more business savvy she could make a cheesy Broadway musical out of this and rake in the bucks, a la Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, Mel Brooks etc. God bless her soul that she isn't.

The Dreaming 1982

1. Sat In Your Lap
2. There Goes A Tenner
3. Pull Out The Pin
4. Suspended In Gaffa
5. Leave It Open
6. The Dreaming
7. Night Of The Swallow
8. All The Love
9. Houdini
10. Get Out Of My House

Revalushan Rock

Ok so I figured before I lose the 10 or so regulars who never leave a message (hint hint) but do seem to check back once in a while, I'd better put somethin new up!! So here it is, point blank, without any of the bla bla, no nice lil picture: The Clash's rehearsal tapes in preparation for "London Calling", aka,

The VANILLA TAPES.

As a bonus, here is a clip with the boys running through "Louie Louie" instrumentally as well as London Calling producer, and ex-Mott-the-Hoople, Guy Stevens going bonkers with a chair.

Entre Casa y Babylon

Born in Spain, grown up in Paris, France, Manu Chao absorbed influences of all kinds - punk, hardcore, rockabilly, ska, dancehall reggae, flamenco, African music, RnB, etc.

Now a solo artist, this was the last album by his band Mano Negra. I first heard this when a penpal sent a TDK cassette of it to me when I was in college. This was one of my favorite albums for years.

While maybe not as palatable to english-speaking ears as to spanish/francophone ones, I think this CD from 1994 still holds up in a BIG way. Later, when I was in New Orleans and discovered all the great, unknown New Orleans 50's RnB, I found that the song "The Monkey Speaks His Mind" was not a Manu original, but a NOLA hit penned by Dave Bartholomew (which you will soon see here). Then, back here in Medellín, I discovered one of my favorite Cuban artists, Bola de Nieve (also to make a future appearance on HSR), and I recognized Bola's song "Drume Negrita" as being the original of "Mamá Perfecta"!! Talk about mindblowing!

This album was written between Paris, New York, Buenos Aires and Bogotá, after a crazy tour on a train that was transformed into a traveling circus that went from the Colombian Atlantic coast to Bogotá (and which some credit for the demise of the band).

The song "El Señor Matanza" ("Lord Massacre", kind of) was about the political/social climate at that time and still to a great extent, at this time (no matter what Prez Uribe would like you to believe). Including guest cameos from people like Fidel Nadal of (Argentina's answer to the Bad Brains) Todos Tus Muertos, and backing vocals from one Jello Biafra, you are respectfully invited for a stay at:

CASA BABYLON:

"Viva Zapata" – 2:04
"Casa Babylon" - 2:34
"The Monkey" - 2:47
"Señor Matanza" - 4:06
"Santa Maradona" - 3:27
"Super Chango" - 2:53
"Bala Perdida" - 2:13
"Machine Gun" - 4:25
"El Alakran" - 3:50
"Mama Perfecta" - 1:54
"Love And Hate" - 2:28
"Drives Me Crazy" - 3:38
"Hamburger Fields" - 3:14
"La Vida" - 2:41
"Sueño De Solentiname" - 3:51
"This Is My World" - 4:57

The video for SEÑOR MATANZA, filmed in Bogotá:

Damon Albarn's Mali Music

Before Gorillaz, before The Good, The Bad and The Queen, there was Mali Music:"It was quite a random thing, " he says, picking up the story. "I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician."

"I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics," he explains. "So I went back to them and said that I'd rather go and meet the musicians and see if there is some kind of common link that I could develop something from."
Oxfam set up chances for Albarn to meet and play with Malian musicians and the experience worked. "I just listened and talked and occasionally joined in with my melodica," he says, sounding rather proud.

"I played it on the last few albums I've made and it's just become my instrument of choice. In the context of Mali music it worked really well. It's a very simple instrument and it sonically fits in, for some reason."
Armed with a DAT tape, he recorded his collaborations in Mali and returned to his London studio with over 40 hours of music. "I spent two years figuring out how I could turn it into something that would satisfy me as a musician but also make some kind of cross-cultural link," he says.

Damon Albarn - "Mali Music"

1. Spoons
2. Bamako City
3. Le Relax
4. Nabintoue Diakite (Live)
5. Makelekele
6. Djembe
7. Tennesse Hotel
8. Niger
9. 4am At Toumani's
10. Institut National Des Arts
11. Kela Village
12. Griot Village
13. Le Hogon
14. Sunset Coming On
15. Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia On River
16. Les Ecros