Prince Mohammed
Inna Him Head
Early 1980 Dancehall album from Prince Mohammed (George Nooks) and producers Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson (“The Mighty Two”). Featuring a killer band including Sly & Robbie (& killer cover art by Ras Ahara) moving out of the swamp and onto the dance floor. Snakes ‘n all.
12″ EP 45RPM from 1983 on 4AD records. Early Nick Cave when his seeds were ever so much badder. I love this stuff (& this record sounds amazing). “Release the Bats” with Nick doing his best Elvis ever “sex bat horror vampire cool machine. bite“, “Blast Off”, “The Friend Catcher”, “Mr. Clarinet” and “Happy Birthday”. Features Nick, Rowland Howard, Mick Harvey, Tracy Pew on bass and Phil Calvert on drums. (great cover too)
Thorens “Excelda”
Those punks with their fancy portable gramophones are going to ruin music! Thorens is putting the final nail in the faithful music lover’s coffin by offering this dang device in colors! Red, green, blue, brown and black! Like appearance and convenience matter over sound quality! Friends, this is the end. Mark my words, 1931 will be the end of the appreciation of quality 78 RPM music playback.
An event to support and promote the Independent Record Store. Ah-men. They’ll be lots of live events at participating stores. From the RECORD STORE DAY website:
On Saturday, April 19, 2008, hundreds of independently owned music stores across the country will celebrate ” Record Store Day.”
On this day, all of these stores will simultaneously link and act as one with the purpose of celebrating the culture and unique place that they occupy both in their local communities and nationally.
Betty Davis
Betty Davis
Not Bette. Betty. As in Mrs. Miles Davis. Betty Mabry married Miles in 1968 at 23 (Miles was in his 40s), introduced him to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, made him dress young and funky (no more suits), divorced him a year later and released this her self-titled debut in 1973. Backed by Sylvester, the Pointer Sisters, Neal Shon on some wicked lead guitar, Sly/Graham Central Station bassist Larry Graham, Graham Central Station and Tower of Power horns and a host of others, Betty Davis sings some hot drippin’ nasty hard funk.
From her “Anti-Love Song”:
“No I don’t want to love you / ‘Cause I know how you are / Sure you say you’re right on and you’re righteous / But with me I know you’d be right off / Cause you know I could posses your body / You know I could make you crawl / And just as hard as I’d fall for you, boy / You know you’d fall for me harder / That’s why I don’t want to love you.”
Yeow. Poor Miles. This was too hot for radio play back in the day and I’d guess “If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up” or “Game is My Middle Name” might not be on top of Tipper’s chart today. Not subtle stuff. Hot, funky over-the-top sex(y).
* If Betty were singing today she would be something like Madonna, something like Prince only as a woman. (Miles Davis)
* She introduced Miles to Hendrix’s music and got him interested in the hardcore rock stuff. (Herbie Hancock)
* Betty was a G for real. (Ice Cube)
* When I first saw her album cover, I fell in love. (Rick James)
* Warning: She is pure uncut funk way ahead of her time. (Prince Paul) (De La Soul)
* She was the first Madonna, but Madonna is more like Marie Osmond compared to Betty Davis. Betty Davis was a real ferocious Black Panther woman. You couldn’t tame Betty Davis. (Santana)
Michael Hurley
Ancestral Swamp
I haven’t heard any of the preceding 19 LPs from Michael Hurley, aka Elwood Snock. But this one from the January 2008 release on Devendra Banhardt’s Gnomonsong label is a delight. Gentle meandering loopy and loose country folk blues (as expected) sung and played simply and lonely on guitar, banjo, electric piano and fiddle with some minimal accompaniment from Dave Reisch on bass, Tara Jane O’Neil on vocals and guitar and Lewi Longmire on bass.
That’s Hurley’s artwork gracing the cover and Mr Snock is also a cartoonist, truck driver, x-hobo and all-around colorful character. His earliest releases like First Songs (Folkways 1965), Armchair Boogie (Racoon/WB 1971), Hi Fi Snock Uptown (Racoon 1972) and Have Moicy (Rounder 1976) with The Unholy Modal Rounders are rare and highly coveted (by me).
Listen to a special remix of “Uncle Smoochface” from The Wire’s website.
Be sure to check out The Wire’s MP3 Specials for some more rare tastiness.
“To celebrate this week’s single release (we still have those in England) Radiohead have broken up the song ‘Nude’ into pieces for you to remix.”
NUDE BY RADIOHEAD IS OUT NOW. YOU CAN BUY BITS OF IT _HERE_ AND UPLOAD YOUR REMIX _HERE_. WE WILL LISTEN TO THE BEST REMIXES. FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION _HERE_.
Arvo Pärt
Tabula Rasa
A clean slate. That’s what I’m talkin about. And what better antidote to all the forum chest-pounding chatter than some lovely music. Quiet and beautiful…
“When the musicians saw the score, they cried out: ‘Where is the music?’ But then they went on to play it very well. It was beautiful; it was quiet and beautiful.” - Arvo Pärt
