You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'eBay' category.
By Max Conroy
The Raconteurs played Saturday night at the Fillmore Detroit with the Atlanta-based garage punk revivalists the Black Lips. All 2900 seats were accounted for, but the place didn’t seem overly packed at all. This would probably have been a concert that I wouldn’t have thought twice about, seeing the ad in the paper or hearing about it on the radio, but a friend called me before getting tickets the day they went on sale. What the hell, I’ll go; I like the rock and roll; I consider myself a fan of J. White even though at times I want to dislike the White Stripes. I really like the Black Lips, particularly their 2005 record Let It Bloom, but didn’t know that they were opening until after I’d committed to the event. No matter what you think about White’s music or his opinions regarding his music, he’s done a lot for rock and roll. I can’t blame him for leaving Detroit either. That said, I can pretty much take or leave the Raconteurs.
When I first heard that White was forming a band, I thought that it was a great idea: breaking away from the mold of a two-person ‘band’ where he most definitely calls the shots to working with three to four other extremely talented people, writing songs and collaborating in a super group, like they did back in the late sixties through the seventies. I could really give two shits about Brendan Benson, based purely on ignorance, but drafting the rhythm section of the Greenhornes, bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler, made me have to take this band seriously. I have seen these two play live probably more than any other group of musicians.
I’ve seen several incarnations of the Greenhornes, as a four-piece and a trio, and have seen them play with Holly Golightly several times. One of my most profound dipshit, foot-in-mouth, moments was making some boneheaded comment about how the Greenhornes weren’t all that great to Holly Golightly while smoking cigarettes outside of Kraftbrau Brewery in Kalamazoo, and she basically said, “There are a lot worse bands out there.” About ten minutes later, the Greenhornes tore the place apart. I’d seen them open for Golightly a few nights prior at the Magic Stick and they didn’t exactly put their best foot forward, but every time that I’ve seen them since, they have been absolutely amazing; one of the best bands I’ve ever seen. And so much of what made them so good was their impossibly tight rhythm section; Keeler, the definition of the jazz-influenced rock drummer, killing the skins, sweat flying everywhere, drinking whiskey; and Lawrence the silent rock carrying the rhythm, his expression is comparable to Elijah Wood’s character in Sin City: blank, verging on scary.
I got the Raconteurs first record when it came out, but never really listened to it seriously. I also had the chance to see them a Lollapalooza a few years back, but chose to see some other band that was playing there at the same time; it might have been Sleater-Kinney playing their last non-Olympia show. The music seems fine, and I’m not sure why I haven’t taken the time to listen to their records, maybe there just hasn’t been enough time, who knows? So this show was a good opportunity for me to really give their music a chance.
Upon entering the Fillmore Detroit, if you are a guy, you have to empty your pockets, hold all your shit for security to go through while they frisk you. It’s been awhile since I’ve had to do this and was somewhat freaked out by it as I did have something that would be considered contraband, which I held under my wallet, hoping they wouldn’t notice. They were some huge fellows and seemed very good at their job. I made the mistake of wearing a green shirt that said ‘Boston’ on it with a clover. The guy who was about to frisk me mumbled something, and it sounded to me like, “If I find anything in your pockets, I’m going to fuck you up.” My stomach sank as I was holding onto my wallet and contraband, hands shaking. I quickly ripped out anything else that I had in my pockets and explained rapidly what it was. He could tell that I misunderstood what he’d said and repeated it: “I should fuck you up for wearing that shirt.” That I could handle. The Pistons were just knocked out by the Boston Celtics in the conference finals. “Oh, sorry, man. I totally didn’t think about it.” “You should go home and burn that shirt.” “Oh, I will.” My hands were still shaking when I bought a round of beer five minutes later.
This one was left out of the Soul auction along with a couple others so I put it up today. Bob Kee is one of the credited songwriters of “Ferris Wheel”. 1608 Argyle st, which is really close to the corner of Hollywood & Vine, is now home to Outlaw Sound. The tune itself is pretty fun
Ferris Wheel
A very Large group of over 200 rare promo 45s, again from 1970. This is a continuation of the collection of radio promo 45s that end today. Some of the highlights of this auction are another copy of Jupiters’ Children, Gracious!, Maypole, Avatar, Iota, Mike Wallace, The Flame, Broken Arrow, Rod Evans, Novelty, Freada Wallace, Loose, Danny & The Mexicans, Pastor Brothers, Jimmy Chapel, Sean McLeod, and Kiss Inc. There are also a couple more soul 45s missed last week including Chic Walker. This batch has some real rare stuff that is on the side of unknown, so as always please ask to hear some sound clips ad I will get them up.
We got a request to post the audio of this 45, so here it is. William Wooten Plays Keyboard on Qualified. Kevin Carter, the guitar player on the song, now plays in a wedding band entitled Intrigue. One of the writers of the Floaters tune “Float On“, Brimstone Ingram is credited as an arranger on Games. As far as the sound goes it is not to bad for ‘88.
Games
(She’s) Qualified To Satisfy
Darrow Fletcher came from the local city of Inkster, a suburb outside of the City of Detroit. The most famous residents to have come out of Inkster was the Marvelettes, as a side note, this fact is advertised when you drive into the city. Inkster is one of the few suburbs of the city that has a mostly African American population, and was at one time the home of Malcolm X. Both tunes are strong so I offer both up to your enjoyment.
When Love Calls
Changing By The Minute
This is another great Northern Soul 45 listed in the “Halloween” group. When Holland Dozier Holland left Motown to create Invictus they thought they would defeat Berry “L.A.” Gordy at his own game. Arguably the music was better, but the business skills were not. They eventually could not compete on the long term. Trapped in a love is one of the 45s that did not get the airplay here, and still dosen’t. Thakfully our UK brothers keep this and other great songs alive.
At first take your reaction to this 45 may be the same as mine, Little Drummer Boy?, fuck that christmas shit. Once you listen to it though you will want to break out the eggnog and put up a tree. This is one long slow burn that really gets you ready to trim the tree or tree some trim. Buy this 45 and play it at your next super cool Xmas party
Piero Umiliani is an Italian film score composer best known for the song Mah Na Mah Na, later used as the muppet show theme song. Some wonderful person has posted the scene of the movie, Sweden Heaven and Hell, that Mah Na Mah Na appeared in HERE. Don’t get lost in that YouTube hole too long as there are a few clips of the movie up. This is the continuation of that groove along with another great tune in Contestazione. As long as the Muppet show song has been stuck in my head, I never knew the story behind it, and now that I know I like it even more. After hearing these two songs I would love to get some more of his work. As always both sound files are from the 45 that is for sale.
Beer Vermouth and Gin
Contestazione
Another Northern Soul classic produced by Choker Campbell. Not a lot of info out there on Albert Jones hopefully our great readers can help us out! Sound file from record for sale!
This is another of the Northern soul classics listed this week for auction. It is a song that really needs no introduction but if you want some more info go to his Allmusic. One intersting thing of note from this 45 is that the flip side “When the Party Is Over” was the intended A-side. This audio comes from the 45 for sale
The a-side of this 45 is a well known and sought after song. When you listen to it it is easy to know why. The sound clip is direct from the 45 for sale. Shelley still performs and has a Website
by Cousin Justin
Going up for auction in the next few minutes is a batch of so many soul monsters you might think it was Halloween. Seriously though, there are a ton of excellent soul 45s going up for auction today. These are mostly from the year 1970 and radio station promos in UNPLAYED Condition. Some of the highlights are Shelley Fisher, Robert John, The Barrino Brothers, The New Apocalypse, Art-Forms Ltd, Piero Umiliani, Albert Jones, Florence Devore, And Rozetta Johnson. This is just the tip of the iceberg on this batch and most of this is stuff that does not come around much. I will be posting on these through the auction and if you would like a sound clip of anything please let me know.
by Max Conroy
If you refer to my post about the jazz flute, you know that I’m just getting into soul/funk-jazz/fusion. I’m crazy about the stuff. It’s also allowed my formerly tepid interest in hip-hip to expand slightly. It’s like punk rock for me; not the music of course but how I view it. Some of my favorite music, proto-punk, is the music that led directly to the development of punk rock, but I really don’t like straight punk all that much. I love the Dead Boys and the Sex Pistols, but both bands were badass rock and roll acts before they were punk. I love all of this music that’s been sampled a ton or could be sampled if it hasn’t but can take or leave the hip-hop that’s made it famous, so far at least. As my obsession has grown for the (I’ll call it fusion, to incorporate soul/funk-jazz) fusion over the past few weeks, I’ve purchased a shit ton of great records and thank God some of it can be found cheaply.
I’d heard of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, but that was probably from hearing them mentioned by NPR DJs a split second, before I slammed the radio off in disgust before my appreciation of fusion. I totally thought that they were venerated by jazzbos and that they were classic bop, but how wrong I was. Justin hooked me up with a rough copy of the In Crowd, which is apparently an early soul-jazz classic. After digging the album, I also noticed that reissues of it are advertized in Waxpoetics, and have noticed the record at numerous shops and online. I thought that the record would be pricey, but since it obviously sold well for a jazz record and was on Chess’ Argo imprint, it’s insanely cheap. Like you would pay three times what an OG copy would cost to get the reissue. Dig the ‘In’ Crowd…
I also recently picked up Ramsey Lewis’ Sun Goddess for cheap. The cover alone is worth the money, but the music could have been sold in a paper bag and it’d still be sweet. It’s ten years after the In Crowd and the funk had dropped in the meantime, and it’s obvious on this record, that Lewis was hip to it. Check out Sun Goddess, Livin’ For the City (the S. Wonder jam) and Jungle Strut…
On the Blue side of things; some Blue Note records from the periphery of their dark days can be got fairly cheaply too. Some of these records sold very well, which makes them easy to find and cheap, but not bad at all. For instance, Donald Byrd’s Black Byrd (the best selling record in the entire Blue Note catalogue) and Byrd’s Best are about $10 records; the cover of Black Byrd, depicting a black wedding or hoedown of some sort, ca. 1890 is worth it, and the music’s funky as can be, slightly dated, but that’s a large part of the appeal for me. I recently acquired Grant Green’s Alive! album, which is a live gig recorded in a small club with Idris Muhammad tearing the place up on drums, for $10. I’m not as much of a purist as the Cousins and will pick up a reissue or a comp here and there, and found a Grant Green record that was part of the Blue Note Breakbeats series for under $10. Sometimes on these records, as with every record, there are bum tracks, but it seems more common for jazz records to me, so a comp with six of the most notable tracks by someone can be a good thing. But I don’t necessarily think that’s true for Grant Green; I’m willing to bet that anything he did in ‘70 and ‘71 with Idris Muhammad on drums is good throughout. Ronnie Laws‘ Pressure Sensitive must have also sold a shitload because it’s everywhere and it’s cheap. One of my dad’s buddies gave me his record collection when I was about fifteen. There were about fifty or so records, all early 70s stoner rock…and Pressure Sensitive. It’s like the fusion Frampton Comes Alive, but way cooler. Here are Grant Green’s Sookie Sookie (the Don Covay song) and Ronnie Laws’ Nothing to Lose…
by Max Conroy
I first heard about the Third Power on this site a long time ago when the Cousins did a write up about their bass player Jem Targal in response to finding a signed copy of his rare solo album Luckey Guy. I downloaded Believe, the only album released by the Third Power and didn’t feel too bad about it because of the album’s obscurity; I believe that it isn’t too hard to track down on CD though. The download that I got was ripped from a record and the guy recorded the second side first, which I didn’t realize till finding the vinyl a few weeks ago. It doesn’t get much better than this if you’re looking for an aggressive, Grande-era Detroit power trio. I’ve scoped this record every now and then for the past few years on EBay and it seems like every copy that I’ve seen was in Europe, which is odd since it only sold about 16,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area.
Like the record itself, information regarding the band is pretty rare. For the most part everything out there is very basic and states that the band formed in Detroit in the late 60s, were very loud, had a cult following, released one record, it flopped, they went their separate ways, the guitarist Drew Abbott went to play lead for Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, and Jem recorded Luckey Guy in the late 70s. I did find an early biography of Jem Targal, their lead singer and bassist, on someone’s personal website. The biography reads a bit strange, almost like it’s Targal speaking in the third person (pardon the pun). According to the site, Targal was born in Ann Arbor, his father studied and taught at the University of Michigan, and when he was young his father accepted a position at the American University of Istanbul and moved his entire family there: ”There were seven families, all related, living in the house together. Targal’s grandfather, a retired general, was there. So, too, was Targal’s uncles. One had been the head of NATO forces for seveal years; the other uncle was a professional wrestler.” Sounds like a trip, man. His family moved back to the Detroit area in 1951 and eventually many years later he met Abbott at Oakland Community College in a speed reading class. Abbott taught Targal the bass and they formed several groups, met their drummer Jim Craig, a solid powerful drummer, and came up with the name the Third Power in the van on the way to their first show together at a club called the Fifth Dimension (a popular venue that had featured Hendrix and the Yardbirds). Power trio…trio…third…third…power…like to the third power, man…get it? The band moved into a farmhouse on Haggarty road, between 12 and 13 mile roads. They were known for having massive parties at their place where rock icons like Rod Stewart and Badfinger would hang out. The band kept playing around and became very popular in the Detroit area, playing shows with local acts like the Rationals, Seger, and the MC 5. They signed with Vanguard, who also featured another Detroit act of the era the Frost, in 1969. The album was produced by poet and blues scholar Sam Charters and came out in 1970.
I almost shit my pants when I saw it in the stack at Encore. They pile up their new arrivals on the floor against the bins, in front of the register. I was in there a few days prior to finding it and noticed that they had a massive pile of new arrivals and quickly paid for whatever I had gone in there to find, so as not to be tempted by whatever was in the new stacks. A few days later I was walking in the neighborhood and decided to go back to see what was left in that pile, and there it was, perfect, in the shrink, bronze Vanguard label. I bought that and Grant Green’s Alive! for $30 and the dude working there said bye to me using my name off of my credit card. Respect, mon. Irie! I got it for $20; the price guide says $30 mint, but Popsike lists anywhere from $50 to $250 previously on EBay.
