Category Archive

By Max Conroy

Living in Ann Arbor, it’s strange to have to purchase a European import that compiles a bunch of records recorded here, but I’m glad it’s available at all.  The name of the label, A-Square, is a nickname for the city of Ann Arbor.  It was created by Jeep Holland, a compulsive music and comic collector, DJ, manager, promoter, and manager of Discount Records, the store that Iggy Pop worked at as a teenager.  Holland would stock import records that no other stores would carry, British Invasion records, and get a feel for what area kids would respond to in the store and while DJ-ing events.  He met local musicians at Discount and eventually started promoting some of them.  In 1965 he began producing records exclusively as promotional material to get gigs for acts that he was promoting and put them out on his A-Square imprint. 

In five years, he put out records by approximately a dozen bands, including the MC5, the Rationals, the Scot Richard Case (SRC), the Up, and the Frost; all Detroit legends.  By 1970, for a myriad of reasons, including his domineering personality, poor business acumen, lack of payment from distributers, and changing times, he left Ann Arbor for Boston, leaving behind A-Square records and a wake of debt.  A lot of these records are very hard to find now, 40 plus years later, and the 45s have been the only way to hear most of these great bands.

A-Square (Of Course) was released this past May on Big Beat Records, distributed and marketed by the mega-reissue label Ace Records out of the UK.  The title comes from a button issued by the label that read A-Square (Of Course).  There are definitely some issues with this package, but the good greatly outweighs the bad.  First off, there are no Rationals tracks on it, which seems odd since they were the biggest act on A-Square and the label’s flagship act, but Ace intends on releasing a compilation of their work on A-Square soon, to be named Think Rational! (again from a button).  According to Scott Morgan of the Rationals, they’re still working on obtaining the rights to the masters.  Secondly, this is by no means an exhaustive collection of A-Square’s catalogue, which would require a multiple-disc release.  This collection contains 25 tracks by ten bands, 8 tracks by the Thyme and 5 by the Scot Richard Case.  More than half of the compilation is music that was never released originally, which is great if you’re looking for really rare stuff, but not if you’re looking to have high fidelity copies of the famous records that were actually released on the label.  Also, there are several bands that recorded for A-Square whose masters cannot be located and are not represented here; the Jagged Edge, the Children and the Gang most notably.

The bottom line, however, is that this anthology is filled with a ton of highlights and is most definitely worth the $19.  It contains an early MC5 single, Looking at You/Borderline, which has been released a ton and isn’t that rare, but is great to have in this context with fantastic documentation in the liner notes.  Apparently, Holland and John Sinclair didn’t get along that well for a variety of reasons, even though Sinclair managed the group and Holland was in charge of booking them.  According to the liner notes:

Jeep:  Sinclair went into United Sound and recorded that record with Danny Dallas, then just decided to use my label name.  He designed his own A-Square label, designed his own package and just put it out.  He finally got around to informing me as the record was coming out: ‘Oh, by the way, I put the record out on A-Square.’…My label was a success, and John thought it would get his record more attention… Danny Dallas told me some wonderful stories about that session.  He said they immediately turned their amps up as loud as they could go.  Danny kept trying to tell them, ‘You don’t have to do that.  Get a good sound and I’ll boost it in here.’  But no, John Sinclair came into the control room, looked at the board and went like this [sweeping arm motion] pushing every one of the faders up all the way.  Then he ate a big chunk of hash or something and lay down on the floor while the band played. 

Let’s just say that it’s not the 5’s best moment sonically, but well worth hearing and a great addition to this collection.  Also featured here is a rare live recording of the Prime Movers.  The Movers were a highly respected blues outfit in the Ann Arbor area at the time that never released anything.  The band included Michael Erlewine, the brain behind the All Music Guide, on vocals and harmonica and a young Iggy Pop on drums.  The track here is a cover of the Yardbird’s version of I’m a Man that was used as a tape that Holland took to New York probably around ‘66 to promote the band.  It actually features Iggy on vocals instead of Erlewine and might possibly be the earliest recording of Iggy singing.  The Up’s Just Like an Aborigine is a raw-as-hell protopunk gem and another massive highlight on this disc.  Everything else not mentioned here is good if not great, making this a must have for anyone even remotely interested in psyche, garage rock, the Detroit high energy sound, or Southeast Michigan culture.

The Up’s Just Like an Aborigine:

Been busy buying record collections.  I’ll be bringing in a few thousand records to the shop in the next few days. So we’re swamped, but a lot of good stuff will be listed soon. 

What else is happening? 

Max interviewed Scott Morgan last week, like three hours worth of stuff.  He was excited and I can’t wait to hear more about it.   

Also, Justin, Max and I (Geoff) went up north to the farm last weekend and recorded an album (keep in mind that Max is a hobbyist guitar player and Justin and I have close to no musical talent).  We may post some of the songs.  The name of our band is The Electric Watermelon, although we are determined to change names frequently.  We have dubbed our music style “Farm Psych”.  If you want to sign us to a record deal, the first $10,000,000 takes it.  But that price is firm.

Just bought a great collection (400 or so) of mid to late 60s to early 70s rock, mostly psych.  Stuff like Music Machine, Fat Mattress, Revolution, Funkadelic’s self titled, complete Beatles including Introducing, the Rolling Stones first press England’s Newest Hitmakers, ? and The Mysterians, Sunday Funnies, early Beach Boys, A Time Is Near, early Riverside Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis Bitches Brew, just good 60s rock and roll albums - a ton more sweet stuff (I’m trying to remember the titles of all the cool psych albums I’d never heard of).

I bought it from a hippie women about 50 years old or so, who told me stories of John Sinclair and the Rainbow Party revolution in Ann Arbor.  She also had a sweet drum set for sale and told me she took a few lessons back then from the drummer from the MC5.  This women answered the door in a t-shirt that said something about not eating meat and being kind to animals.  She was moving to Florida soon, and it just about killed her to part with her old record collection.  I told her that Justin and I would keep a few for our own collections and the rest would be shipped all over the world.  She seemed satisfied with that idea.   

Look for it to go up sometime next week.

By Max Conroy

There are several definitions of the word scrummage.  It is synonymous to a rugby play called a ’scrum’, but also means ‘a general row or confused fight or struggle’.  A scrum can also, according to the Brits, mean ‘a place or situation of confusion and racket; hubbub’, which seems like the closest definition to the venue in Detroit.  Here is their mission statement from their site (do not click on this link if you have or might possibly have epilepsy): A psychedelic loft in Detroit’s Eastern Market district.  We achieve maximum fun.  We have giant parties with totally rad music encompassing all generas.  We teach you here at our university that no one is too stuffy to party.  This is the place where all your wildest dreams can come true.  There is apparently a market in Detroit’s Eastern Market district, but there’s no evidence of it at night; in fact, there doesn’t seem to be anything besides a graveyard, bombed out buildings, and the occasional liquor store and gas station…and this place. 

Scrummage University is a huge warehouse that must have been a toy factory at one time, based on the painted signage on the front of the building.  I drove by it a few times before coming to the conclusion that this must be the place.  There were several flyers that mentioned that it’s the large building that has ‘Toys’ painted on the front of it, but not the flyer that I had.  The flyers also stated that the event was to begin at 9PM, which is when I arrived, but there was no one there, except for a few people running the show and the performers.  Also, there is no mention of the Silver Apples playing at Scrummage on the venue’s site, so I’d seek other verification that a band will be there before driving through post-apocalyptic Detroit to get there. 

The Scrummage gate is barely wide enough for a car to fit through and is situated next to an operational junk yard; I deduced that it was operational based on the five rabid dogs hurling themselves at the fence, attempting to kill hipsters.  The parking lot is huge with weeds thriving in the cracks of the asphalt, an active train line in back, and several huge bonfire pits.  I walked around for a bit, soaking up the scenery, snapping photos, as other guests arrived.  After awhile, I noticed that everyone had 40s of beer, and asked the door guy Ian if it was cool to bring beer here: ‘Sure, man.  You should pick me up something.’  He gave me some shoddy directions to a liquor store, but I ended up finding a different one that had all the choice malt liquor and grabbed a 40 of Olde English and Ian a 24oz of Cammo XXX High Gravity for the shitty directions; he was thrilled.

By this time they were throwing huge pieces of furniture into the fire pit and igniting them.  When the fire would get low, they, presumably ‘official’ events organizers, would politely ask some people to get off of the wardrobe they were sitting on and then drag it into the fire.  This place is the ultimate in blind pigs, anything goes. 

You enter the warehouse through a defunct loading dock and enter into a wide open concrete room, piles of debris in the corners and outsider art everywhere.  There is a working bathroom that isn’t the worst that I’ve ever seen.  From what I gather, people live at Scrummage, so they probably rent the space, or maybe even squat there.  The electric hair trimmer in the bathroom also made me think that people live there. 

The opening act Benny Stoofy is kind of Scrummage’s house band.  They are some talented musicians that blend the low fi aesthetic with competence, much like Dr. Dog.  I dug a few songs and then went back to the bonfire with my 40 to chat up some people and enjoy the evening.

The Lotto Ball Show went on next.  They’re a synth-driven postpunk outfit from Chicago.  They seemed good, but the vocals were noexistent in the mix, so I again headed out to the fire after about two songs.

I went back inside after the music stopped to look at the unattended merch table and to watch people climb dangerously onto makeshift trapezes hanging from the ceiling.  Simeon, a perfectly normal looking fellow in his mid-to-late 60s, dressed in a bright green turtleneck, strolled across the floor to his rig and began calibrating or whatever one has to do to a pile of oscillators and beat machines to prepare them for a performance.

The Silver Apples are Simeon now.  He manipulates bass and melody sound oscillators over drum tracks, and sings: that’s the sound of The Silver Apples in 2008.  After listening to some of their records recently, I’ve come to really appreciate the late Danny Taylor’s drumming.  He lays down a hardcore breakbeat jazz style that really propels the monotonous vocals and bleeps and bloops.  But the music is essentially electronic music and the last thirty years of music has proven that a drummer isn’t absolutely necessary.  The lack of a drummer has actually transformed the Silver Apples sound into what it inspired: electronic dance music.  It’s fitting to see one of the pioneers of electronic music performing this way to the city that basically took what he was doing eons ago and went crazy with it. 

Simeon played for exactly an hour and politely declined an encore; this isn’t exactly encore-type music.  He performed a lot of the ‘hits’ like Oscillations and I Don’t Care What the People Say and did a handful of new compositions.  In the middle of the set, about twenty people got on stage a danced their freaky, uninhibited dances.  I went back to the merch table and bought the only Apples vinyl available: a limited press of 1000 called Selections from the Early Sessions.  I then went up to Simeon’s rig and snapped a picture of it just before he went up to it to tear it down.  I said, “Thanks, man.”  “It’s a pleasure,” said Simeon.

Click Below for information about the Selections record, some audio of the show, and pictures.

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By Cousin Justin

One of the most exciting things about selling records has been selling obscure music to the people originally involved.  Recently we sold this 45 to original The Novelty drummer Chip Pace.  When he brought this fact up to me I asked if he could tell me what he remembers from the sessions and he gave me this info:

We recorded the record at Trod Nossel Studios; here is the link.  Good link for you to get information on many obscure 60’s\70’s east coast bands. Follow the website and links into some interesting information. 

We recorded the 45 RPM with legendary Doc Cavaliere at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford CT.  Doc mentored us over 2 days of rehearsal on how to get the tracks perfect.  It took over 25 takes to get the lead vocal tracks to sound gritty enough to please him.  Doc made the lead singer (Ron) drink to get him a little drunk so he would loosen up and deliver the performance he was looking for.

Doc took a particular liking to the drum tracks (Chip), so much that he was adament about doing too many retakes because he did not want to lose that driving feel. He felt the drum tracks were hot!

The keyboard tracks (Larry, on a Hammond B3) were solid as were the rhythm guitar track (Dave) with the exception of producer Bill Durso over dubbing some extra guitar tracks (most notable in the opening of “Handwriting On The Wall”) to give it a more funky-bluesy feel.  The horn players (Ray & Dan) were hitting some pretty high notes during that session and pretty much shredded their lips, another reason to limit retakes. 

All in all it was a memorable experience and we all walked away feeling great about the session.  The record did quite well on the East Coast and opened the doors for promotional concerts and a video, opening for acts like The Young Rascals.

Thanks,

Chip

Novelty-Handwriting On The Wall

Novelty-Long Time Waiting

By Max Conroy

The enigmatic and visionary electronic ‘band’ The Silver Apples will perform tomorrow night at Scrummage University.  I don’t know anything about the venue and was handed a flyer for the show, which is a photocopy of a primitive pen and ink drawing, by a group of teenagers that I befriended at the Jandek performance in Ann Arbor. 

The Silver Apples formed in New York in 1967, consisting of Simeon Coxe III (Simeon) and Danny Taylor, drums.  The duo were in a band called The Overland Stage Electric Band prior to the Apples, where band members rapidly left the group as a result of Simeon’s incorporation of a 1940s vintage audio oscillator, leaving the two.  Simeon developed a homemade instrument, the Simeon, consisting of “nine audio oscillators piled on top of each other and eighty-six manual controls to control lead, rhythm, and bass pulses with hands, feet, and elbows”(from the liner notes of their first album).  They recorded a self-titled album, released in 1968 on Kapp Records that barely cracked the top 100 and the follow up, Contact, in ‘69.  They toured to support Contact and recorded another album in 1970, but it was shelved when Kapp was devoured by MCA.  This third record would eventually be released as Garden in 1998.  The band dissolved as a result of Kapp folding and lay dormant for the next twenty-five years.

The Apples were brought back to life in 1994 when a German label TRC began issuing bootlegs of their first two records, causing a long-awaited rebirth of interest in their music.  The original records eventually were officially reissued, they toured (Coxe and a multi-instrumentalist named Xian Hawkins), and released several singles and albums in the late 90s that received favorable press.  In 1999 their tour van was involved in an accident that broke Simeon’s neck.  He’s been recovering since, but will probably never fully recover the movement of his hands, so apparently his performance is a bit more direct now.  Danny Taylor died of a heart attack in Kingston, New York in 2005.  Simeon went back on the road as a solo version of the Silver Apples in 2007 and is supposed to still put on a good show. 

This music must have been totally unpalatable in the late 60s, but it absolutely presaged the future of music and the advent of electronic music, from bands like Suicide and Kraftwork in the 70s to Detroit to Radiohead.

Oscillations:

I Don’t Care What the People Say:

From Pitchfork:  Better bring some extra cash to these shows, as Mr. Silver Apples will be peddling both a tour-only ChickenCoop Recordings LP of remastered tunes entitled Selections and a new Gifted Children Records EP called Gremlins at the merch table.

by Cousin Geoff

Justin just launched a killer batch of old school rap, including a ton of rare local stuff.  But the record that caught my eye was Disco D, A Night At The Booty Bar EP. 

Disco D, real name Dave Shayman, grew up in Ann Arbor, like me, and attended Pioneer High School.  A lot of the kids I grew up, along with my friends from Funktelligence and Athletic Mic League, with were real tight with Dave as he was a huge part of the Ann Arbor/Detroit hip-hop/techno music scene.  Shayman was a badass DJ even back in high school, playing all over Detroit and helping DJ Godfather to popularize the Detroit Ghetto Tech sound.  He helped found the Ghostly International label, and then cut out to New York after graduating from U-M.  In New York, he started his own label, Booty Bar Records (and released this EP), and produced tracks for major hip-hop artists including 50 Cent.

Disco D was a brilliant, brilliant music mind who went to all levels to perfect his art, even studying Brazilian funk and Jamaican dancehall in the quest for the perfect dance track.  Unfortunately for everyone who knew Dave or was associated with him, he committed suicide in January of 2007 at age 26.  Dave had just prior to this gone public with his battle with bipolar disorder. 

This got quite a bit of press at the time, including numerous blogs, myspace pages, and message boards.  I felt really bad about it, knowing quite well who he was, and having just lost a close friend to suicide.  Fortunately for us, Disco D’s music lives on.  I wanted to write this post, but I feel bad about potentially profiting from the sale of this record based on this article.  So I’ll donate the proceeds of the sale of this record to a charity or good cause in his honor.  If it doesn’t sell, I’ll keep it - and play it loud. 

Go here to view the listing.

Hottest Of The Hot (BG):

Detroit Zoo featuring Paradime:

by Cousin Geoff

I picked up the latest issue of Waxpoetics today, came home and read it pretty much cover to cover, so I was in a different sort of frame of mind tonight.  Reading that makes you want to reach a little further.  Suddenly, the common stuff doesn’t sound appealing at all.  Not really even James Brown, which seems to always satisfy something.  You read about a boogie-funk DJ from California and get a glimpse of his collection and the mind behind assembling a collection like that, and you realize how far you can take record collecting.

The problem for me and Justin is we have to make money.  That’s why the majority of stuff that we come across that is super rare tends to end up being sold, landing in collections that I read about and envy.  But, you know, every now and then we take a few good ones home for our own personal collections.  But like Max alluded to in a previous post, there’s just so much music that most records I take home I give a quick one-sided listen to and file away. 

So tonight, after reading WP, I really wanted to dig deep.  I went through my rows and crates and pulled out about a dozen or so fairly obscure records that I hadn’t listened to in a while and lined them up next to the turntable, laptop ready to record.  I had such a strong craving for exactly the sound I wanted that most of them didn’t get very far.  I came close to writing about Tower of Power’s first record on the tiny San Francisco record label, but the one record that beat them all was The Spirit of Atlanta’s LP “The Burning of Atlanta”, released in 1973 on the Buddah label.

Produced by legendary composer/producer/arranger Thomas Stewart and backed by a ton of Atlanta session players, “Burning” is just an all-out assualt of the funk senses.  It’s a grand orchestra of high energy soul.

listen to Freddie’s Alive and Well:

By Max Conroy

On Wednesday night, Donita Sparks and her band the Stellar Moments performed at the Magic Stick.  They were great.  Unfortunately, there had to have been less than fifty people there, even thought it was a featured event in most Detroit entertainment papers.  It’s a bummer, but those are the breaks; hopefully the turnout in Detroit wasn’t indicative of the turnout for the entire tour. 

Observing this band from a slight distance makes me like them all that much more.  They all hung out in the bar before the show and seemed approachable and even goofy.  I’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately and had a chest cold, in the middle of a heat wave, the night of the show, so I opted not to speak to anyone other than Cousin Justin, and I could hardly understand what he was saying half of the time.  Most of the band also made it a point to watch the young opening acts, and were very supportive of them.  This shows a lot of empathy and character because there is nothing more disrespectful or arrogant than not paying any attention to your opening acts.  The Stellar Moments also tuned their own instruments and did the sound check; to save costs I’m sure, but the overall sound of the show only benefitted from this simple act. 

They played a full hour set and did an encore.  The set consisted of the entire Transmiticate album and three L7 tunes.  Donita has still got it to be sure and was all over the stage shaking her ass, blonde hair a blur, gold tooth shining in the lights.  Allan the Italian was a perfect lead accompaniment to Donita and Logan’s rhythm guitar.  Dee Plakas created a driving train of sound while Dat No (probably spelled wrong) carried the rhythm.  Donita declared that the crowd was tiny, but mighty.  Everyone there loved it and was dancing instead of head banging, as Donita predicted in the interview that I did with her.  Should have been there, man.  You missed out on this one. 

I’m posting a couple of tracks from the show.  Again, a Digital Voice Recorder that has a built in mic was used, so this is hardly representative of what the show actually sounded like; the vocals were much more prevalent at the show.

Pretend We’re Dead:

Headcheck:

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.

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By Cousin Geoff 

Aaron Timlin, executive director of CAID, is planning a 192 hour dance-in to protest the unnecessary force Detroit Police used to break up a recent after-hours funk dance party.  John Sinclair would be proud. 

A dance protest seems like no big deal, except that the Detroit Police told them that they needed a permit to dance, and this was one of the things they got ticketed for. Timlin was quoted in the above mention freep article saying, “We’re standing up for what we believe in.  We’d prefer that the police come dance with us.”  Translation: screw you and your laws, we’re dancing, come and stop us.  Totally a page from Sinclair, who once stated that authority figures have no right infringing on the people’s consciousness.

This has gotten a huge amount of attention, with the freep spinning it in favor of Timlin and those who were ticketed at the party.  The comments section on both articles in the freep have a ton of responses, with people taking both sides.  My initial reaction was that this was totally uncalled for, but now I am starting to see it from the DPD’s perspective.  If the police gave the art establishment a fair warning in advance, and they still broke the law, they had every right to crack down - just maybe not with so much force and intensity. 

But let’s break this down a bit further.  Had this been a mostly black party or a gay club illegally serving alcohol after hours, would there have been this much fuss made?  Or did the police treat these white suburbanite hipsters like they would anyone else? 

I am very interested in seeing how the police respond to this act of civil disobedience.  Do they let ’em dance, or will they show these hipsters who runs things in Detroit? 

Maybe Timlin should hand this 45 to the DJ and see where it takes everything:

By Max Conroy 

It’s finally summer here in Michigan, the sweat pouring down my back as I type this in a coffee shop, is proof.  The air is thick, it’s hot as hell and there are tons of music-related events going on in the area; I’ll try and keep all of you hipped to what should be worthwhile and, of course, my opinions and reflections of those events.  Speaking of which, stay tuned for my write up of the Raconteurs/Black Lips show, which should be posted by tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning if any SNAFUs arise. 

Here is a track I recorded earlier today.  My friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, dusted off his Telecaster and let it fly.

PS:  The Donita Sparks show is coming up on Wednesday, which I promise will be worth the $10.

One of our customers, diditrepel, bought the Marcus Joseph, Things I Meant To Say album and sent us a review.  We both thought it was great, so we thought we’d publish it on the front page of the blog.  If anyone else would like to have a review published, please see our contact page.  Thanks again diditrepel; we’re glad you enjoyed it.

The strength of this album is in the lyrics. Marcus Joseph is an American poet.  His lyrics are touching, simple, and timeless, and the words cut to the heart of the matter. His phrasing is exquisite, and the melodies unusual.  Some of the songs are a bit over produced as was the style back then, but I find myself listening to the simpler sweeter songs again and again. They have a universal theme, and if you like the music of Steven Bishop, England Dan & John Ford Coley, or Seals & Crofts, you will enjoy Marcus Joseph’s album.

by Cousin Geoff

New Orleans funk star Eddie Bo says: “Hook it baby!  Now sling it!  Ha!  Good God!  Whooo-weeee!”

This 1969 funk hit on the tiny Scram record label is one of the only ones by local legend Eddie Bo to crack the national charts.  I’m guessing that when Eddie barked out these orders live, people did what they were told, and it soon swept up the nation from The Big Easy.

Hear those New Orleans trumpets coming in?  What a sound.  “Now hook it baby!  I feel it now!  You got it!”

The strutting, helter-skelter tribal-soul drumming of James Black cuts it up.  The bass line guides your booty.  But how did they do it?  “You over there with the big yams! Sling it!” 

Eddie Bo is the New Orleans square-dancing caller.  He’s got the mic, the dance floor is packed.  People are sweatin’ as they hook and sling.  You can’t stop.  You gotta do what he says.  And this isn’t even Part 2 yet. 

So how do you do it?

The James Tatum record that we posted about is currently up for auction.

The Xian auction ends soon, but we have new batches up and more on the way.

Cousin Geoff started a Detroit sports blog, detsports.net, check it out here.