New Scoobie Brothers Joint

Oh damn! Over Thanksgiving my cousin got me hip to the new Scoobie Brothers video that dropped on the YouTube. It's dope, 5 out of out five guitars.

dc

I Don't Get It

You know I try. I keep an eye on Pitchfork to try to keep up with what the kids are listening to these days. I have a Rhapsody subscription so I can try the new hotness without ponying up twelve bucks or so for each CD. Every so often, I get a good tip: Black Dice, the latest Mos Def, the first Lupe Fiasco, etc. But more often than not, I'm confused.

So it is with Real Estate (the link is to the review, not the album). I mean, really? I've listened to it twice, I don't hear anything. There is more depth and texture to white noise. Or not . . . can someone tell me what I'm missing?

Apropos the hip hop discussion here recently, I went outside my normal hip hop comfort zone and checked out the new Lil Wayne mixtape No Ceilings (again, the link is to the review . . . my link to the mixtape is dead, though I'm sure it would be easy to dig up). I don't get it. I'll try it a couple more times, but I can't see it hanging around my house until the spring. Maybe someone can tell me different.

I'll try to come back soon with something I like.

The Grodeck Whipperjenny

Did I post this already? David Matthews (not Dave Matthews), arranger for James Brown, did this psych LP in 1970. The story is James Brown said "go make a psychedelic album" to try to capitalize on the hippy flower children scene, and David Matthews went off and did this. It's pretty awesome.

Here is a place to download it:

http://musicalschizophrenia.blogspot.com/2009/11/grodeck-whipperjenny-grodeck.html

DC OUT!

Metropolis Ensemble & Sergey Kuryokhin

Caught a pretty amazing show Friday night at Le Poisson Rouge, on Bleeker street in the west village. Before I say anything about the show, first what a cool place LPR is, they have such an eclectic mix of music. Prefuse 73 did a free show there recently, they had a night of doom metal also recently, and the other show I had seen there was James Blackshaw; I'm always hearing about shows I want to check out there. Whoever curates the place has a great vision. Anyway, a friend of mine told me about the Metropolis Ensemble, he knows the conductor, and I was glad I heard about it. They premiered 4 new pieces by different young composers, each one was amazing, though a few went on a bit too long. Lots of experimentation--the first piece was by a female composer who added vocals that reminded me of a Brian Ferneyhough album I have--and the music often transcended genre incorporate elements of Brazilian percussion, Balinese folk music, and jazz. One of the most interesting shows I've seen in a while.

Still going strong pouring through seventeen green buicks, so deep. I've gotten so much killer jazz the last week or so it is ridiculous. One strange and very cool find has been this solo piano record by Sergey Kurokhin, who I guess was a Russian actor who also produced experimental music. This album, Some Combination of Fingers and Passion, is odd and amazing, swinging wildly from boogie-woogie to avant-garde classical to more traditional, Chopinesque sonatas, to free-jazz. It's challenging but not too much so, if you've liked Cecil Taylor or Charles Ives' Piano Pieces you should check this out.

Cymbals Eat Guitars

I know I'm lame. I stopped listening to James Blood Ulmer decades ago. I don't own anything by Frank Zappa. When a cLOUDDEAD tune pops up on the 'ol iPod I tend to give it a knock to check that it's not busted... Yes, I return to the same well again and again and... Sadly, I'm risk adverse.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12826-why-there-are-mountains/

Just got their one and only off of emusic. Pretty awesome stuff in the vein of Pavement via Abe Vigoda via Built to Spill. I don't feel guilty for liking the music of my people: upper-middle-class white boys/men of the early to late gen x period (which, to be honest, probably makes this particular act a revival one).

Great Weekend

Moving to the suburbs has hurt my game considerably when it comes to digging for records... but this weekend was a score:



ALL KINDS of John Cage, Stockhausem, my man Morton Subotnik on the Buchla Synth, if you feel that, Charles Wuorion, avant composers and early synthesizer music. You don't understand, that shit just does NOT HAPPEN. You just don't stumble on records like that for $1 or $2 a pop.



Sweet OG Liquid Liquid 12" in really good shape. This was just reissued I think.



All kinds of soul, funk, Al Green shit, and this Eddie Kendricks record is a major stand out. J Dilla sampled this on "Donuts".



A bunch of latin stuff, Joe Bataan, Joe Cuba, SalSoul, a bunch of great stuff. It's all scratched up and the covers are trashed but they still play.



OG Melvin Van Peebles joint?!? Are you kidding me!>!



Like six or seven Ravi Shankar and other Indian musician LPs. This is actually what I have been listening to since i bought all these records. Really getting into it. Also got the sounds of Bali, the Japanese Kyoto Flute or some shit, as well as "Field Guide To Bird Sounds" and "How to Speak in Radio Code" and bug LPs like that.

ALso like 10-15 jazz LPs, an old Blue Note and an old Prestige joint, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock Man Child, Larry Coryell, etc. etc...

One of those rare, awesome record digging weekends! DC!!! DC!!!! DC !!!!!!!!!

really cool jazz blog

Found another killer blog--there are so many now--with great jazz albums called seventeen green buicks. Unlike My Jazz World, which has tons of cheesy stuff on there along with some good finds, this dude has great taste and I've wanted most things on there. I've been on a flurry of downloading and found some killer Paul Chambers and Paul Motion albums in particular. I would actually like to start a blog like this where I could just randomly upload albums to share, give a line or two about what they are like, etc. But I'm wary of the record companies, though I wonder if you could do it on a members-only basis, kind of like posting on WWLTN, where you need to get the approval of DC the grand pooba before you can post.

What I'm currently rockin...

http://lucidmedia.blogspot.com/

is where I found it.

Random

This is one of the reasons why I like collecting records. You wind up with stuff like this on your shelf after a few years. Totally random. I never ever would have googled or Captain Crawled this shit. A lot of it sucks. Every once in a while it is amazing. Who cares? Most of these I got for $.25 cents at a Salvation Army or something.

Some have the sweet 5 second sample for a music project. Some have a great jam for a mix tape. Some have a funky cover that brings a smile to my face. It's stumbling upon stuff like this randomly in your life. And, straight up, it's nice holding a "thing" with the music on it. It's a different experience.

DC OUT

Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V7HEJ0O9

Too lazy to type much but you know the vibe here, a fresh comp of Afro Beats. I probably have way too much of this kind of stuff already but you know that's not going to keep me from grabbing it. Listen for the Santana lick on the Barbecues cut.

Tobacco

Tobacco is the mastermind behind the band Black Moth Super Rainbow, an amazing group that I've posted about in the past.

Tobacco has made a record called Fucked Up Friends that basically sounds just like Black Moth Super Rainbow, which is a good thing. Every track is raw psychedelic goodness.
Basically, the anatomy of Tobacco and BMSR tracks are as follows:
1. distorted, fat drum beats
2. fat, crunchy (but sometimes round and smooth) synth bass
3. poppy synth melodies, usually catchy as hell
4. mellotron flutes
5. sometimes some acoustic guitar thrown in for good measure
6. vocoder robot vocals with hard-to-distinguish lyrics. when you can decipher the lyrics, they're usually about the sun melting, death and decay, and eternally blossoming blissful flowers. yeah!

DC LOOCH MEGA POST

Hey bros. It's been a minute since I rapped at ya. Here are a bunch of records i've gotten lately.

Everybody should know by now that i am totally on Numero Group's jock, but their latest is crazy.

Deluxe 2 LP set of amazing funk jams from Chicago in early 70's, plus a god damn coffee table book of amazing black and white photographs from the same era, taken in seedy funked out night clubs. All comes packaged in a gigantic case like an inch and a half wide that looks great next to all the other records on a shelf. This thing is beautiful. Plus I pre-ordered so i got a limited edition 45, AND a limited edition print by the photographer.






Speaking of Numero Group, I got hip to this LP on their blog. It is a limited edition joint called "This LP Crashes Hard Drives" that was sold at Record Store Day last year. I never realized what Record Store Day was all about until this year, and even then I missed it. So, when I hit up Other Music two days later, this was long gone. Anywho, I scored it on eBay $19.99 "Buy It Now". It's a comp with tracks from Numero, Now Again, Jazzman, Daptone, Honest Jon's, etc. Great comp, plus came with some promo shit including a CD comp from Light in the Attic records out of Seattle that is really really dope. Plus when you put it on your record shelf it gives the illusion of being a full shelf, which has helped my game considerably.




I was going to drop a massive Kurt Vile post because I was jocking his LP from last year "Constant Hitmaker" on Woodsist so hard (my entry for best album of the year, which is going to be a thing on the blog next month), but then the new one came out which is great. A little more polished than the first one, but that ain't saying much because the first is like 4-track demo quality with a Frusciante "Niandra Ladies" level of bedroom intimacy, if you feel that. But the new one is more of just a rocking good time. Kurt Vile, ladies and gentlemen, great stuff.



Speaking of Woodsist, here is the sweet "Boat Trip" LP on Woodsist from my new fave band, Sun Araw. This is a eBay score as well, but a Captain Crawl search should get you this or "Heavy Trip", both of which are the greatest fucking music you have ever heard in your entire life. After a few beers and whatever else you are into listen to this on 11 and it is the best music you will ever experience.



I got this Norman Connors joint for $1.00 from some lady on Eighth Avenue, it's good, it has Herbie Hancock, Gary Bartz, a bunch of those type of dudes, Cecil McBee, Stanley Clarke, etc. Still in shrink wrap! DC!! DC!!!!



Speaking of which, Norman Connors is the drummer on this Pharaoh Saunders joint which is also becoming an all time fave:



All right, let me wrap this shit up. I found these at the Flea Market in Park Slope and got as a part of a three-for-$5. "Muhammad Ali Defeats Tooth Decay" classic beat digger joint, funky jams with Muhammad Ali doing his thing on top. Any old school heads, if you remember the old school Money Jackson All Star track with a sample that goes "Oh.. the name sends chills up my spine!", that is from this record. Anywho, I got that and "DOPE! The Fall of the Dope Pusher" which has a bunch of killer samples and funky wah wah jams on it. Both are apparently from the JImmy Carter collection. The red vinyl on dope LP just looks cool as hell, and the white vinyl with picture of Evil Dr. Tooth Decay is pretty tight:






Here's the last one. This is a shitty 80's 12" called "Krayzay" or something, but I thought it was note worthy that it featured Sly Stone... wasn't he deep in hiding in the 80's? Or did that happen later?




DC OUT!