You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2007.
The first thing that interested me about this 45 was that it was on Mira Records home of the garage band, The Leaves. This dosen’t have the same sound, but I could not immediatley find any info on it, which always intrigues me. After trying to research the songwriters I tried to learn more about the producers Clancy Grass & Bob Mahoney. I stumbled upon a website from Gary Brandts. Gary appears to be a producer himself and owner of some interesting credits. His site lists the members of the group as Himself Guitar-Vocals, John Gulack-Drums, Denny Shaw-Guitar, David Holeman-Keys, Brian Coffey-Bass. At the bottom of the page is a great article of his experience in a battle of the bands right after the Beatles came out. You can bid on the 45 HERE
I See You
THE LIFE YOU LEAD
Up for auction now is a catchy tune on Verve. This song has appeared on a couple of comps and I can dig it. Does it have value? you decide by getting it here
By Cousin Geoff:
I’ve been wanting Satellite Radio for a while, after listening to Justin’s Sirius since he got it a year ago and then hanging out up north with Gerard listening to Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio hour on XM.
I’ve also been toying with the idea of getting an ipod, so I can record some of my records to listen to in the car (although I can just do that now with a CD). I came across the Pioneer Inno, which is a player for XM that is portable and also can store 1GB of audio files from both mp3s and recorded material from XM’s programming. If you choose to store just recorded XM audio, the limit is around 50 hours. So I could record and save enough Theme Time Radio Hours to last me over two days straight of listening. Bob Dylan’s show is the reason I’m leaning towards XM.
But for the rest of XM’s programming? I’m not exactly blown away. I signed up for a free 3 day trial. Maybe I’m spoiled living around here and being able to tune into Ypsilanti’s WEMU’s 89.1 Jazz and Blues station, and Ann Arbor’s WCBN, which has one of the best reggae shows in the country (served up by our friend Brian Tomsic). WEMU’s specialty is jazz, and their DJs have an unbelievable knowledge and taste - and they play the kind of classic jazz off labels like Prestige, Blue Note, CTI, ect. that I’m into. They play decent blues when it’s on, but it’s limited. WEMU also plays some of the best National Public Radio shows, which does radio the way it should be. Plus, it’s free.
XM’s stations for the most part seem to be a bit generic. It sounds like someone’s ipod shuffle across a broad range, instead of specialized formats thoughtfuly carried out by a real person. Their reggae station, The Joint, apparently just changed their format, which is extremely disappointing. They advertise that they play roots, rocksteady, ska, and dancehall in a “daily trip to Jamaica”, but it’s really much more modern and commericalized. I want to discover new music, I want to listen to the best reggae DJs in the world. I was expecting to tune into more specialized shows, with the deepest roots, the rarest ska, the heaviest dub, the most energetic dancehall. I want the soul of the music - I don’t want some preprogrammed set list from a limited database. I’m worried that sattelite radio will be taken over by a Clear Channel type media giant and be ruined, streamlining to the masses in order to increase profitablity. As I write this, I’m more thouroughly convinced that a computer is selecting the songs because it went from a great instrumental version of One Love to Shaggy.
The soul I’m talking about is certainly the case with Bob Dylan’s show, which was the greatest radio experience I’ve ever had. Bob reaches way back in his own personal record collection, playing a mix of roots, country, bluegrass, blues, Americana, folk, and Rhythm and Blues, all woven in with Dylan’s cool distinct voice telling stories about the songs. It’s the way radio should be. Tom Petty also has a similar program, and that also looks extremely promising.
It appears as if Sirius has more shows like I’m describing, but they don’t have Bob Dylan. They do have a better selection of rock channels, like their Underground Garage channel which looks fantastic and is one of Justin’s favorites. There’s definitely pluses and minuses to both.
It will take some more investigating and exploring. I’ve enjoyed the bluegrass, Willie Nelson, and old school rap channels so far on XM (and despite the shortcomings, I’ll still listen to The Joint). In the summertime, I know I’d enjoy the Major League Baseball channel, which broadcasts every game of every team. I’m waiting patiently for them to play an encore set of Bob Dylan, which may make it all worth it.
Just got an email from Josh reminding us all that today is the anniversary of the day, November 21st, 1877, that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Edison hailed from Detroit, Michigan. Read more about the very first phonograph here.
God bless him, Cousins Justin worked his ass off and put up almost 400 45s off a collection he bought recently. A real solid batch, it features soul to modern soul in real nice condition. Here are some that intersted me on first glance:
This just looks sweet. It’s on Bang - Justin claims it kicks ass.
Billy Lamont - Girls Girls Girl/Shake and Jerk
This cool janitor I used to work with used to ask me all the time if we had any Willie Hutch. I wan’t hip to Willie Hutch, but I figured he must be sweet with a name like Willie Hutch. This title has to be good.
Willie Hutch - What You Going To Do After The Part
Bill Withers, on Sussex, one of my favorite labels. Sussex put out some great stuff - catchy funk and soul. Lean On Me is one of those songs you just gotta have.
Justin, is this any good? I’m extremely interested - on a Detroit label I’ve never seen, last name the same as mine, great title.
This looks really promising.
Jimmy Delphs - Do You Know What I Mean
So does this.
Well, I’m going to stop here. But I encourage you to go exploring because there’s a ton more cool Detroit stuff and a bunch more classic mod soul and other more obscure hidden gems. This is a much better batch than I realized. I gave Justin this lead and he sounded kind of excited but not like jumping out of his pants or anything after he bought the collection. After looking this over, it’s good. The condition is excellent too. If you’re hunting, browse around and take some chances here - I think you’ll get some good deals. We don’t really know what’s what - like always, it just goes off starting at $7.50.
By Max Conroy:
The night prior to the Sharon Jones show, Cousin Justin and I made it to the Magic Bag to check out Scott Morgan’s Powertrane and Blue Cheer. I’d never been to the Bag, which apparently hosts a brew and view, along with live music. From what we saw, there doesn’t appear to be a bad seat in the house, which is actually filled with seats, and a tiny pit in front of the stage. The beer was reasonable: under $5 for a Bells.
Scott Morgan opened the show. His band consisted of himself on vocals and guitar, Bobby Gillespie on lead guitar (apparently a Detroit rock scene vet who played with Rob Tyner post-5) and a dramatically younger rhythm section in comparison to Gillespie and Morgan. The Sonic Rendezvous Band is a band that you either absolutely love or you just don’t get it. I’m part of the former crowd. When I got the Sweet Nothing album (recorded in ‘78 at Second Chance in Ann Arbor and released in ‘98) when it was released, my freshman year of college, I could hardly believe what I heard. While playing it for the first time, I saw a buddy on my floor walk by and I grabbed him and forced him to listen to a track at high volume. He likes cool music and is still a good friend, but he’s definitely a person who doesn’t get it. He politely found a reason to get the hell out of my dorm room quickly and I learned that people don’t have to dig your tunes to be cool. SRB never released an album, only a single, which the cousins have shamefully unloaded twice. That’s part of the mystery behind the band, that they could be so fucking sweet and never actually be a proper band. Scott Morgan was just as important as Fred Smith was to SRB, writing and singing approximately half of their material, so naturally I was very excited to have the opportunity to see some of this stuff live. Surprisingly, Scott Morgan still sounds great. He has to be over sixty and sings from the gut. They did two SRB songs, Love and Learn and Highjackin’ Love, which were great. His voice doesn’t quite have the force it did back in the day, but that was 30 years ago. They also did a Rob Tyner song, which Mr. Gillespie wrote and several songs that appear on the new Powertrane album. The highlight of their set was a blazing rendition of Respect, which was the song that put Scott Morgan on the map with the Rationals back in the sixties. There was one flub, where the drummer wasn’t able to hit a cymbal at the right time, but that seemed to piss off Scott Morgan more than the crowd, which is what we should expect from a professional.
Now for Blue Cheer. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t really know a whole lot about the band or what they’d sound like after all this time. The most recent Cheer song I’d heard up till the show was recorded in 1968. Walking up to the doors Justin and I were talking about the Grande and how we were certain that they played there and that we’d have been on acid if we were walking up to the doors of the Grande to see them. After the first song, Dickie Peterson reminisced that his first time playing Detroit was at the Grande in ‘68 with the Stooges and the MC5, which he called the first power rock concert. As Dickie recanted the days of yore my heart started to regain its natural rhythm and my brain stopped boiling for a second. Dickie is the rock star of the band and the bassist, so the bass is cranked to the point of affecting the body’s internal chemistry: eyes cross, synapses misfire. Then, wham! They’re into the next song. They played virtually all Vincebus Eruptum, excluding BB King’s Rock Me, and several more recent numbers, more recent being ‘85 to the present. The band is made up of original members, Dickie and drummer Paul Whaley, and Andrew McDonald on guitar who has been with them for the past 23 or so years and wails with the classic uncontrollable guitar-face. Whaley looked to be in poor health, but could still pound those skins. Peterson even mentioned in between songs that there’d been rumors about Whaley, presumably that he wasn’t with us anymore. He also mentioned that he’d seen Whaley do unspeakable things with Janis Joplin, which was kind of cool. Justin asked me if I saw that guy walking down the street would I believe that he’d been with Joplin…no. They sounded great, played well and rank up there with Slayer and Motorhead as one of the loudest, heaviest shows I’ve ever seen. Immediately after the music stopped, I looked around and noticed that every last person was wearing ear plugs. I should have brought ear plugs.
By Cousin Justin:
On Wenesday Max and I made the trip down to the Majestic complex in Detroit after being put through the rock and roll blender the previous night. We got there early and had a drink and got in line once the doors opened at 8pm. We snagged a table along the wall of the dance floor because we knew we would have some merch to protect. When I first saw they had the entire Daptone catalogue on vinyl, my first reaction was to buy it all. I went back to the table, smoked a cigarette and thought better of it. My nicotine aided brain held my purchase to Sharon Jones first and third albums. The other album I bought was the Bob & Gene album, which is an album of unreleased material from these two young teenagers in the 60’s. I also got three of thier 45’s. The “opening act” was a DJ that played some deep soul cuts off of his I-Pod. At about 10:30 the Dap kings came out to warm up and get the crowd dancing. The stage at the stick is smallish and was packed with the 8 piece band. They started off with a couple of Instrumental tunes before band leader and bassist Bosco Mann sang a tune or two. You could feel the crowds energy grow as the dancing got easier. Once Sharon Jones hit the stage the already live crowd got more hyped. Her prescence on the stage is awesome. The show was filled with on-stage crowd participation. Sharon Jones is a very talented performer whose voice does not falter during a very active stage show. I have often made the comment to Max that I wish there was a concert I could go to and feel the need to dance. By the end of this show I was ready to boogie, unfortunately both of our significant others are more responsible on a Wed night. They came back on stage for an excellent encore that included a little Tighten Up. After the concert Max and I agreed that Daptone is doing the indie thing perfect. The formula they are following is very similair to that of Stax. I hope they can continue to put out great music and I will see them next time they are in town.
Here is a short video of the show
Bought a couple new collections - mostly soul 45s but some LPs too.
Justin also found for me another recording on the bluegrass gospel label Pathway from Ypsilanti. It’s a 45 by Carl and Evert and the Golden Strings Quartet (P108). One side stands out - called I Have Found The Way. The 45’s in rough shape - it plays with steady background noise - but it’s still a good find. I like that Ypsilanti had such a label from the 60s - it’s just as Ypsi as Lee Osler.
I’ll post the picture and audio later.
One negative with being so obsessed with vinyl, is that you tend to miss exciting new music. At a recent get together, my friend Carl pulled out a retro looking CD Case with a heavy set black woman on the cover. He put the cd in and said that they are appearing at The Magic Stick on Wed. Within seconds Max and I both said we had to go. I may have come a little late to the party, but I am on that train now! The best part is that Daptone Records puts stuff out on vinyl. I am sure myself or Max will write a review for both of the concerts we are headed to this week. In the meantime check out Sharon’s myspace and listen to some tracks.
Cousin Justin
The Ypsi Winter Shadow Art Fair is December 1st this year. It’s being held at the Corner Brewery. I’ve already got my eye on another Matt Callow photograph. I complained last time about there not being enough art or photographs but it looks like they’ve got a really good line up this time. My friend Mark Maynard is one of the organizers - and he’ll be selling paintings of severed unicorns on records he got from our backstock. And the cover charge to get in is a nickel (seriously). I always get the urge to volunteer to play records there - maybe all local stuff or something. But then I think about it and get lazy and I never do. But I’ll go (if Ella allows it) - it’s always a great time.
I love the poster design. It’s a jackalope. You know I hunt them in the U.P, right?
This is very preliminary, but Justin and I are looking into the possibility of opening a walk-in record store in Ypsilanti. The online store would still exist - we’d have both. This is by no means a certain thing, and in fact it is still a longshot, but we’re investigating an opportunity that may make it possible.
Do you think a record store would be successful in downtown Ypsi? I’m sure the city would like to see one go up. There have been two other vinyl record stores in Ypsi in the past 10 or so years that haven’t made it - so we would have to do things a bit differently. I’d also like to support local artists and community events. We’d need a ton of community support and rallying for us to be brave enough to do it.
We’ll see how things shake out over the next few months. A lot depends on a lot of things for this to happen. Pretend I didn’t mention this.
by Max:
On November 13th, Blue Cheer will be playing the Magic Bag with Scott Morgan’s Powertrane. I don’t know a whole lot about Blue Cheer: San Francisco power trio, famous for a cover of Summertime Blues almost 40 years ago. There’s one more thing I know about Blue Cheer, they were heavy, very heavy. No one in 1968 were even close to this heavy…maybe the MC 5. Imagine pillars crumbling into the ocean. I’m not sure what they sound like now at all. According to a freak at a record show early last summer, two of the original members are involved. I’m more interested in seeing Scott Morgan. He was a member of the Rationals and an integral member of Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, writing most of their early, and some of their best, material. He’s still got it, too, from what I can tell. As a result of the profound, welcomed, interest in Detroit Rock and Roll, he’s teamed up with members of the Hellacopters in the past few years to form a band whose mission it is to give this guy a chance to properly record his SRB material in a studio, the Hydromatics. The two albums he’s done with them are fantastic. His two Powertrane albums are well worth finding also. Scott Morgan is responsible for some of the best music to come out of this area ever and I can’t wait to pay homage. Let me know if any of you are interested. Here is Powertrane performing the SRB hit Dangerous
by Josh:
The band: The Osmonds
The album: The Plan
The “Concept”:
After putting out their lite-Led Crazy Horses, apparently about the perils of pollution (the “crazy horses” were smokestacks no-we’re-not-on-drugs), the singing brothers decided to put out a rock opera about Mormon eschatology in as vague terms as possible.
The execution: At its best moments, “The Plan” is a reminder that the distance between Mormon theology and ’70s glam is shorter than David Bowie or Mitt Romney would acknowledge, but at worst it’s a muddled mix of schmaltz and oblique spirituality. The “opera” is more like a Mama Mia floorshow, a Guffman-esque Elton John, but songs like “One Way Ticket to Anywhere” are so ingratiating in their stupid earnestness that it’s hard not to sing along.
For more see: The Plan
