Record Store Day 2013: Little Richard

Today is 20 April. Famous world-wide as Record Store Day.  This is the day to ignore iTunes and every other online record store and trundle, pedal, walk, run, race, stumble, hop, skip, gambol, weave or dance your way down to your local INDEPENDENT record store. Go through the LPs, CDs, DVDs, T-shirts etc and buy something that catches your fancy.

I'll be doing that myself. I've got my eyes on a few old LPs in local favorite shops and can't wait to get round and hand over my money.  Incidentally, I think this Record Store Day thing is really catching on because my favorite shops are thriving, indeed bursting at the seams with all sorts of vinyl, weird CDs and stuff.  Everytime I go in there is more and more to browse through.

I picked up this great early rock 'n roll record a couple RSD's ago.  A joyous, no nonsense shot of classic American music from non other than the incredible Little Richard.  I bought it at Quality Records on Glenferrie Rd., Armadale, which has a great selection of new and old (especially jazz) vinyl not to mention CDs, books and other music related. The staff are very knowledgeable and always ultra friendly.  A great place to pass some idle moments between stress and strain of daily life.

Happy Shopping!

Track Listing:

01 Long Tall Sally

02 Send Me Some Lovin'

03 Good Golly Miss Molly

04 She's Got It

05 Jenny Jenny

06 Miss Ann

07 Ready Teddy

08 Hey!Hey!Hey!Hey!

09 Slippin' and Slidin'

10 All Around the World

11 Tutti Frutti

12 Lucille

13 Ooh! My Soul

14 True Fine Mama

15 Heeby Jeebies

16 Boo-Hoo Hoo Hoo

17 Rip It Up

here

Ol' Blue Eyes in Bali: Los Sinatras

Bali faces

I’ve mentioned before that one of the great pleasures in life is the unexpected. Being surprised.

Last week during my abbreviated trip to Timor Leste I discovered that one of the men working in the office was an Indonesian. This took me back a bit considering the history of bad blood between the Timorese and Indonesians.  In 1974, when the Portuguese pulled up the tent and sailed back to Lisboa, the Indonesians, citing a certitude that non-voluntary integration of the small island into Greater Indonesia was exactly what the Timorese desired, (of course, no attempt was made to test the basis of this confidence), the Indonesian army launched a clumsy but emphatic invasion.  They were driven out at last, in 1999, after twenty five years of heavy-handed rule.

So to come across an Indonesian working in Timor was like meeting an American in Pyongyang. A bit unexpected.  But even more surprising was the fact that this Indonesian, a smiling young man named Younis, was a musician. One of his musical duties was managing a ‘rockabilly band’ based in Bali!  Not a Link Wray or Stray Cats tribute bar band but a genuine, honest-to-god, Balinese rock ensemble, playing their own tunes.

The final and most pleasant surprise came when Younis handed me a copy of the band’s album. Their name is Los Sinatras and it’s their album, Suicidal Sinatra, that we highlight tonight.

This music is not exactly what I would call rockabilly but it has a strong rock with a slight, and very pleasant, country vibe percolating through the mix.  These guys are a very competent three piece band: Anox Sinatra on drums, Leo Sinatra plies the guitar and Kape Sinatra manages to keep the bottom bubbling with a white double bass.  As I listen to the album I hear strains of Los Lobos via The Del Lords and the Clash.  Even a bit of Neil Young.  Half the songs are in Bahasa Indonesia (or maybe Balinese) and the other in English. The end result is a distinctly Indonesian musical nasi goring, that spicy, ever so tasty street food loved across the archipelago.  Thoroughly enjoyable music. The next time you’re in Bali be sure to keep your ears and eyes open for them and be sure to tell them you’re there because Younis the Manager is doing his job! And to give him a raise!

            Track Listing:

01.  Masa Kecil

02.  Anak Rock

03.  Los Sinatra

04.  Hope

05.  I’m a Soldier

here

Pure Kenyan Gold: Extra Golden

A while back I posted Thank You Very Quickly by the American-Kenyan group, Extra Golden.  A few days ago I found their first album OK-Oyot System going for a song in yet another struggling retail outlet.  I grabbed it and have been listening to it all weekend. This is a record that places the electric guitar front and center, whether it be the languid plucking of shantytown Luo rhythms or elongated swathes of American stoner rock.  Sound weird?  Not at all. These guys work up an entirely pleasurable aural feast that ploughs a deep, but always gentle, groove.  That it was recorded in one afternoon session is a wonder to behold.

Some of the other sounds that came to mind as I listened: 3 Mustaphas 3, Black Keys, Cornershop!

Recorded in Kenya under a canopy of personal hardship, sacrifice, and loss, Ok-Oyot System has the type of compelling backstory that seems as though it should automatically translate into a powerful listening experience. The album is a collaboration between Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari-- both members of the Kenyan group Orchestra Extra Solar Africa-- and Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff of the D.C.-based group Golden. It's a collaboration that began when Eagleson went to Kenya for a year to conduct research for his doctoral thesis on benga-- a jazzy, guitar-centric strain of dance music popular in Kenya since the 1960s.

As guitarist and vocalist for Extra Solar Africa, Otieno provided much assistance for Eagleson's research; ultimately, Extra Golden were assembled in April 2004 to create and record their unique benga/rock hybrid. Along the way the musicians were forced to overcome numerous obstacles, including a costly run-in with the corrupt Kenyan police force and the effects of Otieno's severe physical ailments. Suffering from kidney and liver diseases that were complicated by HIV, Otieno's health continued to deteriorate after this recording session. He passed away in May 2005.

The title Ok-Oyot is derived from a Luo phrase that means, "it's not easy." This expression is used regularly as an exclamation in benga songs, and needless to say it seems a particularly apt descriptor for Extra Golden's all-too-brief collaborative experience. Yet considering the misfortune that seems to have plagued the album's creation-- and the political nature of some of its lyrics--the music on Ok-Oyot System is not particularly freighted with angry defiance, outward gloom, or self-conscious poignancy. Instead it's an album that sounds very much like what it is: Four talented, enthusiastic musicians playing together as a group for the first time, patiently working through ideas to determine a common musical vocabulary.

The bulk of the album was recorded in a single afternoon, a spontaneous approach that perfectly complements the exuberance of tracks like the opening "Ilando Gima Onge". In the hands of Extra Golden, benga seems an especially malleable genre, one that coarsely blends Indestructible Beat of Soweto propulsion with fluid, almost Cuban-accented rhythms and miles of complex, interlocking guitar figures. On the opener, Otieno adds some appealing, laid-back vocals, but the 11-minute song is dominated by the ambitious dialogue between his guitar and those of Eagleson and Minoff. Both the title track and the deceptively sunny anti-Bin Laden cut "Osama Rach" were written in the studio, held together primarily through Omari's agile, inventive drumming and the group's obvious sense of camaraderie.

(http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9102-ok-oyot-system/)

            Track Listing:

            01 Ilando Gima Onge

02 It's Not Easy

03 Ok-Oyot System

04 Osama Rach

05 Tussin and Fightin'

06 Nyajondere

here

The Other Side of the Tracks: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan had taken to painting in 1974, to try to find a new way to put songs together. He’d grown tired of his recent results and so had the critics.  He was declared past his prime and out of puff. Nothing new to say.

His painting teacher was a grumpy old school Central European named Norman Raeben who was never one to think twice about saying exactly what he thought.  ‘You’re tangled up in blue,’ he scolded Dylan, one day when the singer seemed to be painting only with one color.  His master’s voice stuck in Dylan’s mind. When in early autumn 1974 he went into a New York City studio to record his next album he named the opening song Tangled Up in Blue.

He worked with a top-notch band of sessions players and made the album, Blood on the Tracks, in typical style.  Fast, spontaneous, unscripted and flying by the seat of the pants. His band found it hard to keep up or follow. But they were exhilarated by the music they were making.  The album was a ‘wrap’. Columbia Records had printed the cover and were about to press the wax but Dylan himself was less than happy with the results.  The more he listened to the album back ‘home’ in Minnesota the less he liked what he heard. He asked his brother David to get some local Minneapolis musicians together, ‘I want to make it again,’ he said.

Sound 80 studio was a local Twin Cities landmark. Even I, who had absolutely nothing to do with music making, but read the music reviews in the Reader every week, felt proud that Minneapolis had one of the country’s best recording studios.  Artists like Leo Kottke, Dave Brubeck, Cat Stevens and Prince recorded there and though I didn’t know what it meant, I knew that Sound 80 was the first studio in America to make a digital recording.  That Dylan had recorded Blood on the Tracks there was also part of our local ‘coolness’ factor.

Blood on the Tracks is my favorite Dylan record of them all. And for years I was dismayed not to be able to find any reference to Minneapolis musicians on the sleeve. I wondered if perhaps the story of Dylan using local players to back him on the album was an urban myth. But of course, what happened was that since Columbia had already printed the jackets they didn’t want to bear the cost of designing a new one. After all, Bobby hasn’t been selling too many records lately.  Best cut costs.

Of course, we all now know that Blood on the Tracks is not only one a good album but one of the most admired pieces of popular music artistry in recent history.  He had found his voice again, plus a new way of using it.   Tonight, the Washerman’s Dog shines a light on the ORIGINAL New York version of the album which sounds familiar but has a much darker feel than the one we’ve all been in love with, and know by heart. But there is beauty in these versions without a doubt. Dylan’s voice offers different shadings of each classic song and in many places the lyrics are different.  The arrangements are more complex and the instrumentation more diverse than the spare, ‘small-group’ sound of the version that was released in 1975.

Its not often we get two versions of the same masterpiece!

            Track Listing:

            01 Tangled Up In Blue

02 Simple Twist of Fate

03 You're A Big Girl Now

04 Idiot Wind

05 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

06 Meet Me In The Morning

07 Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

08 If You See Her Say Hello

09 Shelter From The Storm

10 Buckets of Rain

here

61 Years Old Today: Tom Waits

Tom Waits is 61 years old today.

What does a man want more than to have a bunch of women sing his praises?

This collection shows what a fantastic songwriter Tom is and how ‘feminine’ his song writing is.  So many of his songs have such strong women characters in them. Or somehow have the hovering presence of a woman in them. Love stories, troubled love stories, searching love stories, road love stories.

This collection is great also because it covers the waterfront of styles, demonstrating how versatile his songs are. About the one place they don’t fit is in a 80’s stadium rock (Patty Smyth’s version of Downtown Train is a shocker).

Tom Waits

So happy birthday Thomas. From some of the best lady singers in the world!

         Track Listing:

         Disc One.

         01 Blow Wind Blow  Astrid Seriese

02 Diamonds And Gold The Silver Hearts

03 November  Liz Durrett

04 Diamonds And Gold  Aileen Loy and the Blue Valentines

05 Anywhere I Lay My Head Anna Ternheim

06 Downtown Train Patty Smyth

07 Earth Died Screaming Tracy Bonham

08 Strange Weather Marianne Faithfull

09 Christmas Card From a Hooker In Minneapolis  Neko Case

10 Day After Tomorrow  Joan Baez

11 Another Man's Vine.mp3

12 Green Grass  Cibelle

13 Big In Japan Aileen Loy and Blue Valentines

14 Jockey Full Of Bourbon Meret Becker and Ars Vitalis

15 Please Call Me, Baby Sally Norvell

16 Broken Bicycles Christine Collister

17 29 Dollari (e una borsetta di coccodrillo) Laura Fedele

18 Chocolate Jesus Janelle Lauer

19 Fumblin' With The Blues Claudia Bettanaglio

20 Anywhere I Lay My Head Sista Spooky

Listen here.

         Track Listing:

         Disc Two.

         01 Temptation Diana Krall

02 Tom Traubert's Blues  Maria Joao and Mario Laginha

03 Yesterday Is Here  Cat Power

04 Temptation  Clara Bakker

05 Come On Up To The House Owilde

06 Jersey Girl  Holly Cole

07 It's Over Vamosbabe and Pascal Fricke

08 Underground Astrid Seriese

09 The Heart Of Saturday Night Diana Krall

10 I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You Olivia Gale

11 Ol' 55 Sarah McLachlan

12 Tango Till They're Sore Holly Cole

13 Day After Tomorrow Linda Thompson

14 Long Way Home Norah Jones

15 Poncho's Lament The Blacks

16 Ol' '55  Lisa Bassenge Trio

17 Muriel Eleni Mandell

18 I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You Priscilla Herdman

19 Ruby's Arms Megan Mullalhy

20 Sea Of Love  Cat Power

Listen here.