Saturday, April 28, 2012

March 27th 2012 - Metro

Had a great time last night at Metro here in Chicago. I won a drawing that I entered on Record Store Day and got 2 tickets to see JC Brooks and Uptown Sound.



Little did I know that a fun poppy band would be opening (I didn't care for the first band Blah Blah Blah) by the name of Gold Motel. My friend Joe and I, as old as we are, sat there trying to figure out comparisons in lead singer Greta Morgan's voice and I just keep coming back to Belinda Carlisle and the GoGo's. Juliana Hatfield? A little bit of Blondie? All I know is that it's fun.



I haven't done my Wiki homework yet, but it looks like Greta used to be part of another band called The Hush Sound



 

Cmon Clap Yo Hands

I've loved The Magi - C'mon Clap Your Hands since I heard Mark Farina play it in his Mushroom Jazz 1 set at a sparsely attended event in Hawaii. I can't even remember the same of that spot on Cooke St...



Since then, I've found more joy from it as I stumble across the tracks that its elements were sampled from. This is an edit of the main one:





(well, it looks like he's rotated this off his postings...here's a video instead)



and another one that I love because that "white, black, Puerto rican" part was that shit I could never figure out until I heard it in the context of the original song:








Friday, April 27, 2012

I'm not sure how I discovered John Lee Hooker's album The Healer, but it was my introduction to his stuff. In retrospect, I like to think that his collaboration with Santana in the title track was Carlos's inspiration for his later HUGER albums where he was partnered with various pop stars and other artists...that's probably not true though.

I've played this track out in bars, sushi restaurants and weddings and whenever I can. 



This video had the best quality even though it's a bit weird and the person who posted it named it as a Santana song.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

More scratchandsniff = more disco

I heard this song on V103 here in Chicago the other day and had to Shazam it since it had such a nice groove. Bought it on Amazon mp3 and lo and behold it shows up in my feed. 


 

Part of the reason I don't do many edits is because they sound like this: the extensions sound a bit forced. I don't know if it's because I am familiar with the song structure already so I know where the edits are, but sometimes these aren't as perfect as I'd hoped. I wouldn't have posted this if I didn't like it, it's just that it does tend to show the limitations of cut-&-paste style editing which has been my strong suit and part of the reason I think I like this guys work as well.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Disco Holiday






A long time ago on an island far, far away...I was asked to dj a disco party at The Wave. I don't remember if it just the night that I was scheduled to work, but in prep for that, I asked to borrow some records from one of the dj's I admire, James Coles. I think he left me with a crate for a few days to listen to stuff that I didn't know and find some non-obvious stuff to play.

There are 3 tracks which I had never heard before that I came away from that gig especially loving. LAX - All My Love (albeit the instrumental b-side),  Jackie Moore's "This Time Baby" and this Change song. The last two subsequently were released on a Best Of Hot Tracks Volume 2 comp, which I bought (also featuring a nice PYT edit which everyone has heard me play) but I had already grown to love the 12" versions so they just sounded odd to me. This is a bit better job.
 



Scratchandsniff was one of the first people I followed on Soundcloud. Like most of the things I find on the cloud, I don't love everything, but I do like quite a lot of what he does.  

Bonnie vs Gerry

I was checking out the new Bonnie Raitt (Slipstream) and finding myself a bit disappointed. I usually try to start at the end and work back to the beginning. The first tracks always seem better and I wondered if it was because I heard them first in the process. Anyway...this is track 2 off the album and at first I was thinking how it had a bit of a reggae groove to it and I was bouncing along. Then the chorus comes up and I recognize the song. Didn't know it was Gerry Rafferty until I looked it up, but thanks to my mom, I DO recognize my 70's radio hits.

           
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bonnie Raitt - "Right Down the Line"
www.colbertnation.com
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so, yeah...even backwards...Tracks 1-3 are the strongest ones for me.
        

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Thirty For Thursday Volume 19


Thirty For Thursday Volume 19 - Ladies edition

This ended up being a ladies only post just simply because of what I bought from eMusic lately. If you checked in here this week and noticed more stuff on the blog besides these Thursday posts, you caught the Saint Jude video and the mention about Grace Potter (pictured left who sadly doesn't appear this week) and Alabama Shakes.
I think I've mentioned the Army of Three cover (aka Ingrid Michaelson) on FB before, but I've ripped the song from YouTube so I could listen to it when I wanted.

Without further adieu...

Download here or listen below.



1. Joan Osborne - Kiss and Say Goodbye - I really love Eliminate The Night (from this same Breakfast in Bed album) but for some reason her soul covers are hit or miss for me. This one of the Manhattans is a keeper.

2. Saint Jude - Angel (see video of a couple other songs a few days ago)

3. Alabama Shakes - Be Mine - I wish I liked this record more. The hype is huge. I just think that they're second album will be tighter

4. Etta James - Something's Got A Hold On Me (live) - the intro is all over the place lately after being sampled in at least 2 songs that I know of...love it when the groove kicks in

5. Imelda May - Wild About My Lovin - for Joe so he can hear what she sounds like on her own (without Jeff
Beck)

6. Jeff Beck ft Joss Stone - I Put A Spell On You - since we were talking about Jeff Beck's record....

7. Army of Three - Somebody That I Used to Know - Ingrid Michaelson and her fine self covering the ever-so-huge Gotye song...watch it below for maximum Ingrid sexiness:


Phyllis Dillon - Perfidia (Daytoner Edit)

I think I first heard Phyllis Dillon thanks to an Ellen Melon mix CD, but it wasn't bumped up like this. Haven't heard Daytoner's stuff before, but will probably have to check his page after hearing this beauty.

I'm not really on a reggae kick, despite what you might think after the House of Pain, the Adele etc...I just happen to be coming across these crazy spring time joints. :) I love it.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Bobby Long

I think I heard "Who Have You Been Loving" on Esquire and I meant to come back to the album when I had some credits on eMusic. Can't say I love it all, but this is another track I liked enough to buy.



He kinda has some elements of the singer songwriters I've been digging lately. Not too melancholy, nice production on the album. Not too raw and not too polished and well-written lyrics.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Saint Jude

After digging on the Cochella live feed of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals I went looking for one of the songs she performed (Medicine off the last album) and in the comments section some guy mentioned Saint Jude claiming that Ron Wood and other UK icons are digging on the lead singer Lynne Jackaman.
The first thing I played, I didn't like: The lyrics seemed lamely constructed. I did keep looking though and found a few things that are promising.






Their first album is on eMusic, so I'll check that out later this week, but I think I'll burn through my reload on Monday since there are other ladies needing my attention with that aforementioned Grace Potter track, Alabama Shakes (speaking of HYPE and singers) and the new Bonnie Raitt out as well.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters



There is a theater inside the Rock Hall that plays the full 25th anniversary show on a loop. Art Garfunkel gives me chicken skin at the end of this and was stoked to find it on Netflix:

http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Rock_Roll_Hall_of_Fame_The_25th_Anniversary_Concerts/70213067?trkid=2361637

been cleaning the apartment today with this on TV as a soundtrack.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Thirty For Thursday 18 - back again


Today's Thirty brought to you by the letter B. B is for Brauerhouse Beverages and also the Buzz that they created that made last night's drive home so fun. I had a playlist worked out for this week on Monday, but that now gets pushed to next week since last night's iPod was fun.

If you don't remember...Thirty for Thursday is 30 minutes of music on random Thursday's. It's all one track.

You can listen here:



or if you right-click and save on THIS, you can download the MP3 and play it later. The tracks for this week are as follows:

1. Breadfan - Metallica (Pandora at Brauerhouse had spit out several Metallica songs while we were there and I was digging it all - this one was the only one on my iPod last night
2. Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker
3. Brujeria - El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico
4. The Bump - The Haggis Horns
5. But You Saved My Life - Andrew Ripp
6. By Any Shmeeans Necessary - Lettuce
7. By The Numbers - Jamaica

and as I pulled into a parking space at home, we switched to "C" and this was too fun to not include since I was sitting the car, enjoying the Doors groove and thinking about Darius Rucker dropping the third verse of this at a Hootie & The Blowfish concert at the Waikiki Shell in a medley they were singing.

8. The Cactus - 3rd Bass