Slow Jam of the Moment

For some unknown reason, I've only recently discovered the work of electric saxophonist Eddie Harris. This is strange for a number of reasons, particularly my unhealthy obsession with delay and echo units (Harris used the Echoplex) and my interest in electrified, spacy jazz (a la Donald Byrd's Electric Byrd album). In any case, I've been lovin' me some Eddie Harris lately - especially this quiet, sensuous track from Is It In (1973):

"Space Commercial" - Eddie Harris

I love the delayed, (probably) Uni-Vibed guitar work and Harris' electronically treated solo. Supposedly the mechanism used for this song was built by Bob Moog, which should give you some idea of Harris' cred among the 1970s' electronic music community. Bonus points for the early drum machine.

Enjoy.

Funky Foundations.

Despite three major pop hits in two years, the Foundations were floundering by late 1969. Their final Top 10 hit ("In the Bad, Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)") had fallen down the charts and two subsequent releases had fallen largely on deaf ears. Fearing that their pop-soul fusion was becoming irrelevant, the group (a septet at this point) began to incorporate funkier, more contemporary sounds into their sets. In June of 1970, they released "I'm Gonna Be A Rich Man" b/w "In The Beginning," the latter track an instrumental incorporating funk drumming as well as a middle section featuring jazz flute and a harpsichord. Unfortunately, the single went nowhere and the intriguing b-side remained mostly unheard. The group was all by defunct within a few months.

Just before their breakup, however, the Foundations recorded a track entitled "Where the Fire Burns" that remained unreleased until their material was reissued on CD in the 1990s. Like "In the Beginning," its relatively obscurity is unfortunate, given that the song's cinematic jazz-funk looks forward to the blaxploitation soundtracks then still a few years in the future. Indeed, it's hard to believe that this track was recorded by the same group who brought "Build Me Up Buttercup" to the top of the U.S. charts only a year earlier. Take a listen:

"In the Beginning" - the Foundations

"Where the Fire Burns" - the Foundations

(Much of the information from this post can be found in Roger Dopson's liner notes to the Foundations' Baby, Now That I've Found You release on Sequel Records.)

Local Atomic-Age Paranoia.

Here's a slightly morbid bit of musical trivia from Polk County's past:

"Fallout Shelter" - Billy Chambers

(Incidentally, "Fallout Shelter" was recorded with a chorus of backup singers from my undergraduate alma mater, Florida Southern College.)

And while we're at it:

"This Cold War With You" - Floyd Tillmann

Enjoy.

2008 Playist

the rules I've imposed on myself are as follow: I can only pick one song from each record I've listened to or enjoyed from 2008. some records only have one track that I liked, so those were easy to pick. others were harder (especially from records that worked together as a full album, such as microcastle). anyway, I'm sorry for the lack of download links, but if you come across these tracks, they're all pretty good (even the vampire weekend song!).


Chopped N Skrewed (Feat. Ludacris) by T-Pain (Thr33 Ringz)

Kim & Jessie by M83 (Saturdays = Youth)

Time To Pretend by MGMT (Oracular Spectacular)

Things I Did When I Was Dead by No Age (Nouns)

Water Curses by Animal Collective (Water Curses)

A Milli by Lil Wayne (Tha Carter III)

Live-Long by Abe Vigoda (Skeleton)

Sabali by Amadou & Mariam (Welcome To Mali)

My Life (Feat. Lil Wayne) by The Game (L.A.X.)

Recent Bedroom by Atlas Sound (Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel)

All The Years by Beach House (Devotion)

I'll Be Glad by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Lie Down In The Light)

Rode Null by Hauschka (Ferndorf)

The City In The Sea by Crystal Stilts (Alight Of Night)

Strange Overtones by David Byrne and Brian Eno (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

I Decided by Solange (Sol-Angel & The Hadley St. Dreams)

Gobbledigook by Sigur Rós (Me› su› í eyrum vi› spilum end)

Never Stops by Deerhunter (Microcastle)

Old Old Fashioned by Frightened Rabbit (The Midnight Organ Fight)

Oliver James by Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes)

Waves of Rye by Department Of Eagles (In Ear Park)

Weekend by The Sea And Cake (Car Alarm)

Wrestlers by Hot Chip (Made In the Dark)

Lights Out by Santogold (Santogold)

I’m Watching You by Jay Reatard (Matador Singles ‘08)

Another Day by Times New Viking (Rip it Off)

Tane Mahuta by The Ruby Suns (Sea Lion)

Black Rice by Women (Women)

A-Punk by Vampire Weekend (Vampire Weekend)

The Snow Leopard by Shearwater (Rook)

2008.

Well, it's list-making time. Here are a few of the songs that I played endlessly in 2008:

"Campbell Lock" - Don "Soul Train" Campbell

A funky dance number from the creator of "locking" (soon to be paired with "popping"). Campbell was a founding member of The Lockers, a pioneering dance troupe that also featured a young Fred "Rerun" Berry and a pre-"Mickey" Toni Basil.

"Thrills and Chills" - Helene Smith

This is one of my favorite tracks from the Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label compilation. There's something about the insistent beat and reverberative organ that makes this track instantly memorable.

"The Shadow of Your Smile" - Jack McDuff

Speaking of reverberative organ, this song oozes with sensuality thanks to Jack McDuff's fluid mastery of the Hammond organ. I first heard this on the What it is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves box set, but it's originally from McDuff's Tobacco Road album. If you love soulful jazz, pick it up.

"Ice Cube Island" - Merrell Fankhauser & H.M.S. Bounty

I read about Merrell Fankhauser in high school (Richie Unterberger's Unknown Legends of Rock and Roll, again) but his stuff is so obscure that I didn't hear much of it until recently. "Ice Cube Island" is from the 1968 Things album, which is really just a great folk-rock record with slight psychedelic tinges here and there. This song, however, embraces the album's druggy subtext with a dreamy, sighing vocal and gloriously vague lyrics. (Why, for instance, does she "hate us all?") I also love the sunshine pop-esque backing vocals.

"Yokomo" - Yamasuki

I learned about this record from Oliver Wang's Soul Sides blog. Yamasuki was, apparently, a bizarre French project aiming to fuse Japanese culture with funky soul. There's a whole album of this stuff, most of it really freaking awesome. This is my favorite track from the record.

What did you keep on repeat this year?

La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela - The Black Record

This is an incredibly rare record from one of the original minimalist composers. La Monte Young was a little more out there, a little less formal than Philip Glass, or even Steve Reich. He spoke in interviews about the first sounds he remembered hearing. He was a pretty far out there guy.

This record, however, is captivating. The first track is the real reason to download it. It's very eastern influenced. In certain ways it's almost a space rock record, but it's also so completely stripped down to the basics. The second track is very much a noise composition. It's almost an early incarnation of industrial (think Einsterzende Neubauten, not nine inch nails). Anyway, download this gem and enjoy it, because God knows none of us can afford to buy it (I've seen copies go for as high as $650!).


download "The Black Record"

In the holiday spirit...

The Star Wars Holiday Special

The Rising Storm.

One of the books that I tore through as a teenager was Richie Unterberger's Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll. I learned about oodles of obscure and wonderful artists from this book. It pretty much established me as a record geek. It's worth getting.

Anyway, the book has a chapter dedicated to sixties garage rock. One of the groups that Unterberger profiles is Andover, Massachusetts' the Rising Storm. Composed of six prep school students, the band recorded and pressed an album just before their graduation. Recorded in a week for $1000, the record largely consists (typically) of covers.

Calm Before, however, also contains a few original compositions which are truly sublime. One of these cuts, "Frozen Laughter," was included on the CD that came with Unterberger's book. Quiet, mysterious, and vaguely gothic, these folk-rock originals sound otherworldly - especially for 1967. I've included three of them for your listening pleasure:

"Frozen Laughter" - the Rising Storm

"To L.N. Who Doesn't Know" - the Rising Storm

"The Rain Falls Down" - the Rising Storm

Enjoy.

Edit: Updated links. Apparently two of them weren't working. My bad.