Tuesday, December 19, 2006

rip joseph barbera

At the risk of turning Domino Rally into your one-stop shop for kid's TV theme tunes, here are a few more as a tribute to Joseph Barbera, one half of legendary toon-team Hanna-Barbera, who died on Monday.

I've always thought that every piece of music you've ever heard has an influence on you in some way, especially if you're a musician. So these are some very early influences on Johnny Domino!

Hanna-Barbera - Dastardly And Muttley [Main Title]

That's Paul Winchell on lead Dastardly.

Hanna-Barbera - The Flintstones [End Title]

The end title from The Flintstones features some great sound effects and is almost good enough to make you forget the AWFUL John Goodman film. Don't mention The BC-52's...

Hanna-Barbera - Perils Of Penelope Pitstop [Main Title]

Fantastic laugh here from Paul Lynde.

Hanna-Barbera - Hair Bear Bunch [Main Title]

Visit The Hair Bear Bunch

Hanna-Barbera - Secret Squirrel [Main Title]

I love this one because the vocals are so totally half-arsed. You can pracitically hear the cigarettes dangling off their lips and the studio clock ticking down. It's mixed strangely, too - it's like your mates are singing along with the TV... "with a rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

Hanna-Barbera - Hong Kong Phooey [Main Title]

I couldn't miss that one off, could I?

Hanna-Barbera - Josie & The Pussycats [Main Title]

Hanna-Barbera - Josie & The Pussycats [End Title]

...and Marc-o would have had a total mard if I'd not put these on. I can't remember this one at all (although I've seen the GREAT film from a couple of years back). Bloody excellent theme tune, however. The End title is included to give you the full-on nostalgic rush from the Hanna-Barbera ident at the end.

Hanna-Barbera - Touché Turtle [Main Title]

Brief and to the point, unlike...

Hanna-Barbera - Wacky Races [Main Title]

Does this say something about the HB quality controversy? There can't have been much time for the cartoon after that...

Hanna-Barbera - Tra La La Song [Banana Splits Theme]

...but you can't really argue with the good vibes you get from this one, can you? Enjoy.

Visit - Hanna-Barbera on Wikipedia
Visit - Hanna-Barbera.com
Buy - Tunes from the 'toons: The Best of Hanna-Barbera

Monday, December 11, 2006

an inappropriate christmas mix

Can anyone remember all of the hoo-ha that accompanied the BBC broadcasting Jerry Springer: The Opera? You'd probably be thinking that the Beeb would be being super-careful to avoid upsetting Christian groups at this time of year.

Here's the song they're using to trail their seasonal TV schedule:

Spinal Tap - Christmas With The Devil



Oopsie. Someone didn't think that through...

Visit - Spinal Tap
Buy - Break Like The Wind

One of the most rewarding results of the blog this year was when we prompted a comment from the great songwriter, Tim Hensley - we've been vocal on more than one occasion about our love for his work, almost becoming a nerve centre for Hensley Studies. Here's a seasonal gem from Tim in his Victor Banana guise from a few years back, the spookiest Santa you ever heard.

Victor Banana - Here Comes Santa

Visit - Tim Hensley's MySpace

Another great result of me whaffling on about music came from my Mary Margaret O'Hara post from way back. In it, I wondered if I would ever get my hands on a copy of her near-impossible to find Christmas EP - and lo and behold, a reader sent me a copy! (Apologies, I've lost your name but thanks again if you're still visiting)

Mary Margaret O'Hara - Christmas Evermore



There are some quite odd versions of traditional Christmas tunes but this track is easily the best, the strange lop-sided groove sounding like an offcut from Miss America, complete with beautiful swooning background harmonies - yummy.

If you don't own Miss America by now, you're no friend of mine.

Visit - Mary Margaret O'Hara

Another inappropriate Christmas song here from The Handsome Family, who I managed to see play live this year. I know that some of our friends are not fans but I thought they were great - weird and homely and funny. This is another great song about a Christmas gone horribly wrong.

The Handsome Family - So Much Wine



Visit - The Handsome Family
Buy - In The Air

Here's a truly weird song from Sheffield singer-songwriter John Shuttleworth. John continues to hone his craft in the garage, sitting on cans of Sprite, using the tub freezer as a keyboard stand and churning out classics like this utterly bizarre tune. If you want to ruin someone's Christmas, play them this.

John Shuttleworth - The Christmas Orphan

What's going on with the children's laughter at the end? Chilling.

Visit - John Shuttleworth
Buy - The Yamaha Years

While we're on a downer, here's a great kind-of-Christmas break-up song from Lisa Germano. I've mentioned Lisa briefly in the past but listening to "Excerpts from a Love Circus" again the other day, I realised that I should really do a much bigger post about this fantastic album. This comes quite near the end and my take on it is that the couple in it are meeting up for a friendly drink, shortly after breaking up. In my experience this sort of "being mature" never quite worked out and that's what happens here. Especially when booze and recrimination rear their heads. Oh lordy.

Lisa Germano - Messages from Sophia



This is a beautiful moving song with a great vocal (heart on your sleeve much?) and I love the instrumentation throughout. But why include it in a Christmas post?, I hear you cry. Well, Lisa quietly wishes us a Merry Christmas at 2.10. And the gentle appearance of Jingle Bells at the very end after the final line... well, if that doesn't get you then you're truly made of stone.

Visit - Lisa Germano
Buy - Excerpts from a Love Circus

I promise more good vibes next time....

Monday, December 04, 2006

the face of evil

Back to my Dad's old singles for some more great songs. First up a real oddity - on one level a sweet song about pretty laydees, on another a frankly chilling vision of an international sexual predator. Sure, he looks nice...

Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man



This chap has been about a bit ("I've made a lot of stops all over the world"). But despite his free and easy way it doesn't work both ways - "And in every port I own the heart / Of at least one lovely girl" - he own's the heart?! What is he, some kind of international, seafaring pimp? Too harsh? Well, what about, "If you're ever in Alaska stop and see / My cute little Eskimo". He's like Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver - outrageous.

His Geography ain't up to much, either. Fancy a trip into Berlin town, anyone?

Unlike the tracks in the earlier post this was a double A-side with "Hello Marylou, Goodbye Heart" - now that's what I call a quality piece of vinyl.

Bobby Darin - Not For Me



Amongst my Dad's singles there are lots of tracks by Bobby Darin. He had a really interesting life, too bizarre to go into here (try ubiquipediaTM). This song was the b-side of "18 Yellow Roses", a fairly naff song about a father and his hopes and dreams for his daughter. "Not For Me", however, is an insanely dramatic, nigh-on pyschopathic depiction of self-pity- fantastic over-the-top orchestration by Jack Nitzsche, too.

Bobby Darin - Oo-Ee-Train (b-side)




Bobby Darin - Lazy River (a-side)



This single is so great, I had to put both tracks on. "Oo-Ee-Train" is just cool; barely scraping over the 2-minute mark, wicked rumpty-tumpty beat and all. There's some more of those "phoned-in" backing vocals like on the Little Eva track I posted previously - strangely, that had a fairly lazy-sounding 12-bar structure as well.

"Lazy River" starts off deceptively low-key, before it ditches the ukelele and shifts up a gear at 32 seconds. All of the bloody "X Factor" wannabes (I include Robbie Williams in those) have learned the tropes of swing singing but just don't the balls - just listen to the way he says "from the halfway mark!" at 1.32. Too cool for school.

Buy - Ricky Nelson's Greatest Hits
Buy - The Very Best of Bobby Darin (only features "Lazy River")
Visit - RickyNelson.com
Visit - Bobby Darin.com

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

plastic slip covers on his vinyl couch

Some things beggar belief while others bugger it senseless. I saw an advert for this album on TV last night. I was thinking about it this morning and had to ask Mrs Domino if I'd imagined it. I HADN'T.

What sort of fever dream are we living in? I appreciate that this album is being done for a good cause, but couldn't the "artists" involved have... I dunno, given the hefty studio costs to charity instead of inflicting this mess on us? What sort of twisted individual would listen to (for example) "Modern Way" by Kaiser Chiefs (what sort of twisted individual listens to the Kaiser Chiefs, anyway...) and thinks: "I know what this needs! A snappy samba beat!! And while you're at it, let's give Bono a guiro!!!".

Seriously - if your stomach can take it, have a listen to some of the clips and boggle your mind but be warned, this album also features Dido and Maroon 5.

Meanwhile back on planet Earth, I *heart* the interweb. You know why?

Back in the days when home taping was killing music, me and my bro, like so many others, would hover over the pause button while listening to John Peel. One of the songs that we taped which always stayed in our heads was "Vinyl Grind" by More Fiends ( I particularly liked the stilted way that Peelie intoned the album title, "Yo Asphalt Head").

A few years later while I was at university in Sheffield, I used to have to walk past a second hand record shop every day and in their window was a copy of the album. For some reason, I never bought it. Over the last few years I've become occasionally obsessed with getting hold of it - every city I visit, I'll find a record shop and head straight for the "Indie-Alternative" section, hoping to find it. Before you ask, I don't like the idea of buying used vinyl off the internet, otherwise I could have had it years ago.

This week, I finally got it from download store Audio Lunchbox.

More Fiends - Vinyl Grind



And you know what? It still sounds pretty damn good to me. The album as a whole ain't bad either - scratchy, ugly, erratic, angular, punky, nasty, quick and dirty.

More Fiends - More Fiends Theme



I think we recorded "Vinyl Grind" in 1988 on a tape like the one above. Consider these songs a snapshot of a certain time - this was the music we listened to at school/college which marked us out from the trendies and sports-foundation students.

It's late-80's Alternative music trapped in amber. Enjoy! Consider it a palette cleanser after dipping into "Rhythms Del Mundo".

By the way I got that image from tapedeck.org, a great website to pass a few hours in misty-eyed reverie.

Buy - "Yo Asphalt Head" by More Fiends from Audio Lunchbox
Visit - tapedeck.org
Don't Buy - "Rhythms Del Mundo"

Thursday, November 16, 2006

best gig i never saw - pt. 1

I'm sure we've all done it - a band goes on tour and one of the dates is just down the road from you. You plan to go for ages in advance. But for some reason when the night arrives you don't go - maybe something comes up, or more shamefully, you simply can't be arsed.

Jim and I still console ourselves for having missed Bitch Magnet on their last tour when they played in a tiny room above a pub in Nottingham. That same room was the scene of a date on the last tour from Thin White Rope.

Now, I won't pretend to have been their biggest fan at the time but they were, by all accounts, a ferocious live band - I remember reading a gig review in Melody Maker which talked about how the walls seemed to be melting through the heat (cathedrals of sound, anybody?). I guess they were a kind-of Post-punk-Americana take on Television, twin guitars conjuring up squalls of feedback and noise, which makes them sound like another West Coast art-rock noise experiment.

But TWR had songs with WORDS and STORIES and such like, all strange and dark lyrical narratives. At the time I was massively into the more extreme aspects of the Blast First roster - it wasn't until a few years later that I really started to appreciate bands who didn't put such massive stock in leaping on the LOUD pedal and who played with more dynamic control. This is a great relentless version of a Can song - bet it sounded awesome live...

Thin White Rope - Yoo Doo Right



Most of their songs have really knotty interlocking guitar parts (hence the Television comparisons, I guess). My absolute favourite track by them is "On The Floe", a really great song that starts off deceptively simple and quaint, before it hits a crushing riff throughout the chorus which gets repeated and developed over and over in the long instrumental play out - really clever without being "clever-clever".

Thin White Rope - On The Floe



Thin White Rope took their name from William S. Burroughs' description of semen. I remember another Melody Maker article where singer Guy Kyser was asked what his most embarrassing moment was. His answer was something along the lines of, "When a female flatmate pointed out that I had jism on my wrist". With all of that, it's hardly surprising that they didn't achieve much by the way of mainstream success. Especially when you consider songs like "Puppet Dog", which tells of a lonely man who can only find (ahem) release through the titular glove-toy - "Puppet dog, come bite your master".

Thin White Rope - Puppet Dog



The resulting song is as pathetic, funny and weirdly-moving as that bizarre story would suggest, with some beautiful lead guitar weeping over the end. Maybe I should end this post with something a bit more rousing (I hesitate to say "uplifting")... How about this great widescreen epic which mutates into a rockin' rendition of "Amazing Grace"?

Thin White Rope - Americana / The Ghost






Visit - Thin White Rope fan page
Visit - Thin White Rope on Wikipedia
Buy - "Sack Full of Silver"
Buy - "The Ruby Sea"

Monday, November 06, 2006

book 'em, steve-o

Following a particularly dreadful time at university (and dear reader, if we are ever to meet in person, I will surely tell you all about it but I fear that a website is not the place), I returned to my old home town, my mum and dad's house and a PARTICULARLY toxic and pointless relationship (alas, dear reader, should we meet, I will surely NOT tell you about that).

This was a weird time - I'd studied subjects I was interested in but with no thought to what I wanted to do with my life, a question that continues to plague me to this day. So I ended up signing on for a while and taking temporary part-time jobs where I could - and I can tell you that the only good thing about an extended period of claiming unemployment benefit is that, at parties, I can thrill audiences by reciting my National Insurance number.

But I managed to organise my time - on weekdays I would go to the local library, check the vacancies in all the papers, come home, tidy up and be done in time for lunch and the lunchtime edition of Neighbours, this being the golden era of Paul and Gail Robinson and the mythical, always-misplaced Udigowa Contract ("Gail... have you seen the...?"). Most days I would then retreat into the dining room for an afternoon of computerised card games whilst listening to "Hawaii" by The High Llamas.

The High Llamas - Sparkle Up



Despite the bleak picture I've painted above, I have nothing but happy thoughts associated with this album. It's still one of my "Top 10" albums after all these years, as I discovered when I dug it out again today. At the time I heard it, I didn't really have a clue about any of the influences that seem so obvious now - Steely Dan, post-'Pet Sounds' Beach Boys, John Barry, soft-rock. (In fact, this was the period in my life when I was still coming out in a cold sweat whenever I heard the Beach Boys.) None of that seemed to matter as I listened to the smooth vibes and weirdly-twisted, smart-arse lyrics.

The High Llamas - Literature is Fluff



Everything is recorded with such precision and the instruments are placed exactly just so, but at the time I was more of a lo-fi enthusiast. It's weird - I know why I like it now, I just don't really understand why I liked it then! Despite all of the smoothness, there's something a bit cracked about it all - I don't think it's entirely sincere and Sean O'Hagan is obviously an adept musical magpie. But the warmth and heart audible throughout stops the album from being a parlour-room songwriting-contest smirk-fest.

The High Llamas - Peppy



According to the ubiquitous Wikepedia, the album is "a musical spaghetti western on themes of tourism and colonialism", none of which mattered a jot to me at the time, as I switched between Tai Pai and Vegas-rules Solitaire. "Peppy" was always a favourite with gorgeous picked guitar and harmonies.

The High Llamas - Campers in Control



There really isn't anything that complicated about why I like this stuff; it's immensely enjoyable but dense enough to keep you coming back for more. The album has 29 tracks, ranging from the "proper" songs I've included here to bizarre musical collages and short snippets. To me, it's still a perfect album, one that I can listen to again and again.

As my brother will tell you, I am nothing if not a musical completist but I've never felt the need to buy another High Llamas album - I can't see what they could possibly add to this. However, despite the lack of updates on their own website, Wikipedia hints that there'll be a new album next year.

Visit - High Llamas website
Visit - High Llamas on Wikipedia
Buy - Hawaii

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

spooky tooth

Ho hum, it's Halloween and blogs the world over are posting relevant tunes - songs about death and ghosts and such like. (especially the mighty Spread The Good Word)

Here's some more scary shit right now. Get behind the sofa.

Unsane - Bath



Unsane - 4 Stix (Led Zepellin cover)



Golly, these chaps are very grumpy. Unsane were (in)famous for having police photos depicting the aftermath of murders and suicides on their record covers - whooo, scary, eh?

Or is it? In their attempt to sound like serial killers, they come across as... well, a bit stroppy. I used to love Unsane but really, lads, there's nothing hard about playing loud electric guitars, is there? Calm down, eh? Having said that, still love that version of "Four Sticks".

Genius/GZA - Swordsman



Now this young man certainly is rather cross, isn't he? At least the music is scary. Classic Wu-Tang spin-off here, the album is interspersed with dialogue from chop-socky films and the like.

Again, trying to put the wind up you but not quite there. Nice try, tho'...

Nah if you want REALLY terrifying stuff, any fool knows that it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for, yes?

Van Dyke Parks - The Eagle And Me

Not content with sending Brian Wilson careering over the edge of sanity, Van Dyke released Song Cycle, an album that sends right-thinking people everywhere screaming into the basement - this track was a single, for gawd's sake... Van Dyke looks as though his clothes were chosen for him by his mother. And then he killed her. Just wrong.

Please, don't have nightmares...

Visit - Unsane
Visit - Liquid Swords on Wikipedia
Visit - Van Dyke Parks
Buy - 'Unsane' by Unsane
Buy - 'Liquid Swords' by Genius/GZA
Buy - 'Song Cycle' by Van Dyke Parks

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

miles ahead - part four

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the late great Miles Davis. Here are parts one, two and three.

I met up with an old friend the other week and we were chatting about the blog and he said that he enjoyed reading it but he avoided the jazz posts... Arch, if you're reading this, you should REALLY give this one a listen as we're about to get into the relams of Miles davis' electric output.

Recorded in 1969, Bitches Brew took abstract jazz improvisations and played them on electric instruments with a straight rock backbeat (following on from In A Silent Way a couple of months earlier).

This recording is taken from Black Beauty, a recording of Miles' group at the Fillmore West, San Francisco, on April 10 1970. Miles was trying to engage with as wide an audience as possible (he even dropped his usual performance fee to play at both of Bill Graham's Fillmore venues). But judging from this questing, relentlessly abstract music, he could hardly be accused of selling out...

Miles Davis - Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (live, 1970)



There really isn't a whole lot to say about this except LISTEN, because this is as funky as you like. The band take the most straightforward track on Bitches Brew, the slow, driving blues of Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, and turn it inside out.

Things start out slow, low and dirty until the rhythm kicks up a gear at 2:17 (never fails to make me smile); particularly love the percussive keyboard stabs from 3:10, which get even more frenzied under Steve Grossman's soprano sax solo (around about the 5:00 mark). Things get seriously abstract from 7:30 onwards, especially when they start monkeying around with the Echoplex from 9:14 - this is the bit that I really love, where they have the balls to make some seriously messed up noises. The abstract squiggles finally coalesce into an almighty roar at 11:29

It's not really that far removed from the abstract deconstruction of So What that I posted in the previous part, just the sounds they were using move it into the jazz-rock zone. And don't get me started on people who think that anything after 1966 isn't jazz... It's jazz because Miles Davis called it that. He's more intelligent than you. Shut Up. Listen.

Man, this recording is 36 years old. Who's doing anything this interesting these days? Miles was so far ahead of music that he's practically standing behind us right now.

Buy - Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West
Visit - Miles Davis (wikipedia)

Monday, October 16, 2006

trouble man

My favourite Marvin Gaye album is also his most misunderstood, his 1978 divorce settlement release, Here, My Dear. When Marvin divorced Anna Gordy in 1976 he was so hard up that his lawyers came up with a solution whereby Anna would receive Marvin's advances for his next album and recoup the royalties until an agreed amount was reached. Marvin initially didn't want to put much effort into the album, as his ex-wife would get all the money. But he gradually became obsessed with the project, viewing it as a way to finally rid himself of Anna.

The misconception is that Here, My Dear is Marvin pouring his heart into the microphone, exemplified by the album's keystone, "When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You". But I think the truth is more revealing, twisted and way more interesting!

Throughout most of the album, Marvin is keen to portray himself as the hard-done-by divorcee, chewed up and spat out by a wife who had been evil and unfaithful. Bear in mind this is the man who had (in 1973) performed the whole "Let's Get It On" album as a love letter to Janis Hunter, then aged 16 (one key track on that album was co-written with Anna Gordy!). By the time the divorce came through 3 years later Marvin and Janis were living together with two children.

Marvin Gaye - You Can Leave, But It's Going To Cost You



The album as a whole is an extreme example of someone telling their side of the story - they didn't have Heat in those days, I guess... But knowing that most of the accusations Marvin makes (that Anna stopped him from seeing their child, amongst other tasty tit-bits) are either made up, wildly embroidered or told from the exaggerated viewpoint of "the wronged man", far from making the album ridiculous, actually makes it a fascinating peek into... well, I guess you have to call it quintessentially male self-pity.

From stuff I've read, Marvin appears self-obsessed and deeply troubled. By this time, most of his money had gone up his nose (hence the bizarre divorce settlement). Marvin was perpetually plagued by performance anxiety (both public and private), which made it even harder for him to live up to his role of "lover of all ladies". He added the "e" to his surname in an effort to distance himself from his father, a sexually ambiguous cross-dressing preacher.

Marvin Gaye - Everybody Needs Love



The complex nature of his relationship with his father makes for one of the most beautiful and revealing musical moments on the whole album, during 'Everybody Needs Love'. At 40 seconds, he sings the line "And my Father, he needs love" - all the lines before this (flowers, bluebirds, babies, all god's children need love) are sung straight, almost whispered. But when he gets to his father, the harmony takes a brief detour and he hits one of his beautiful high notes - it's like he can't sing it straight because their relationship was so complicated. I don't know - maybe just a coincidence, but then there are no coincidences, right? This track also features the only example I know of an "aural wink-to-camera" at 1.40 ("... even a superstar *cymbal crash*"). Cocky bastard!

Marvin Gaye - A Funky Space Reincarnation



It's not all bitter recriminations and one-upmanship - there's even this bizarre bit of psychodrama. Here, Marvin imagines sometime in the future, getting stoned on Venus-ian drugs at a party and getting it on with someone he feels like he's met before. But it's not Janis, it's Anna. The subtext seems to be that, despite their divorce, they're destined to always be together in some way. And also (perhaps more sinisterly) Anna will always be his and that that he can have her any time that he wants her. Creepy.

This album is very strange and incredibly one-sided but in a sense it's his most honest - "Here, My Dear" is all Marvin, all his arrogance, all his pettiness and all his insecurities. And it would be nothing if it wasn't as funky as anything and a showcase for Marvin's beautiful mutli-layered vocals. Weird and utterly essential.

Buy - Here, My Dear
Visit - Marvin on Wikipedia

Sunday, October 08, 2006

god, show me magick

"The Secret Chiefs are said to be transcendent cosmic authorities responsible for the operation and moral calibre of the cosmos, or for overseeing the operations of an esoteric organization that manifests outwardly in the form of a magical order or lodge system. Their names and descriptions have varied through time, dependent on those who reflect their experience of contact with them." [more]

Secret Chiefs 3 is a band formed in the mid-nineties by Trey Spruance, Trevor Dunn and Danny Heifetz - respectively the guitarist, bassist and drummer in Mr Bungle. The line up has changed with each record, but it's fair to say that Spruance has remained the "chief" creative force - excuse the bad pun.

Steve's recent post reminded me that I hadn't contributed to the Rally since April. Whilst I offer no apologies for this state of affairs, it seems like an appropriate time to contribute again. In truth, I had considered writing something about Secret Chiefs 3 for a while, but in a "5 degrees of separation"-sort of way, it was Steve's live album post that finally did the trick...

To be more precise, it was Hibbett's comment. Here's how my brain works:

Modern Lovers Live > Jonathan Richman > he needs to get his sinuses sorted > as does Chuck Mosely, vocalist on Faith No More's first couple of albums > FNM? I prefer Mr Bungle > but I like Secret Chiefs 3 even more.

Naturally all of this was processed in a nanosecond or three.

Ok, enough beating about the bush. To warm y'all up, here's a track from the band's second album, "Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws: Hurqalya":

Secret Chiefs 3 - Renunciation



On their most recent album, "Book of Horizons" (2004), SC3 have formed 7 sub-bands (only 6 of which are named...), each one representing one or more aspects of their musical interests. Now, I'm developing an aversion to the use of 'eclectic' when describing music, as it's usually applied to bands that play songs at more than one tempo, or use instruments other than guitars, but here goes: SC3 are truely eclectic. You can read more about this elsewhere (yes you can), for now listen to these:

Secret Chiefs 3 [UR] - Anthropomorphosis: Boxleitner



Secret Chiefs 3 [Ishraqiyun] - The 3

Good. Now go buy all their records immediately...

While you're at it, visit the SC3 website and also the Web of Mimicry label pages.

domino rally: 203-305

Without me realising it, we've gone over the 300-track mark. Here's a list of what we've written about recently - I'm listening to them as I write this, it's a pretty weird mix! (Is it really that long since we heard from Jim and Oxbow?! For shame!)
Many of these tracks are long gone so please read the posts and support the artists involved by buying their records. Cheers.


203) Palace Brothers - "Ohio Riverboat Song"
204) Palace Brothers - "Don't I Look Good Today"
205) Inner City - "Good Life"
206) Kim Fowley - "The Trip"
207) Kim Fowley - "Beautiful People"
208) Primal Scream - "Sonic Sister Love"
209) Primal Scream - "Imperial"
210) Sonic Youth - "The World Looks Red"
211) Sonic Youth - "Shaking Hell"
212) Huey 'Piano' Smith and The Clowns - "Don't You Just Know It"
213) Shirley and Lee - "Feels So Good"
214) Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - "Ain't Got No Home"
215) Franco Godi - "Mr Rossi theme (aka Viva Happiness)"
216) 3rd Bass - "Sons Of 3rd Bass"
217) 3rd Bass - "Product Of The Environment"
218) Yello - "Oh Yeah"
219) Yello - "Bananas To The Beat"
220) Yello - "Night Flanger"
221) Let's Active - "Every Word Means No"
222) Jason Falkner - "Follow Me"
223) Brendan Benson - "Folk Singer"
224) Marvin Gaye - "Clique Games/Rick James (Original Version of "Midnight Lady")"
225) Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing (Original Vocal)"
226) Marvin Gaye - "Marvin's Message to CBS Records Staff"
227) The Go-Betweens - "Cattle And Cane"
228) The Go-Betweens - "Bye, Bye Pride"
229) The Go-Betweens - "Apology Accepted"
230) Donny Hathaway - "You've Got A Friend (live)"
231) Rush - "Freewill"
232) The Spinto Band - "Brown Boxes"
233) The Spinto Band - "Oh Mandy"
234) David Bowie - "Magic Dance (from 'Labyrinth' OST)"
235) David Bowie - "Port Of Amsterdam (B-side of "Sorrow)"
236) David Bowie - "Growin' Up (Previously Unrealeased Track from the Pin Ups Sessions)"
237) Thin Lizzy - "Don't Believe A Word"
238) Belle & Sebastian - "I'm A Cuckoo"
239) Phoenix - "Rally"
240) The Beach Boys - "Be Here In The Morning"
241) The Beach Boys - "Busy Doin' Nothin'"
242) The Beach Boys - "Anna Lee, The Healer"
243) The Beach Boys - "Transcendental Meditation"
244) The Lemonheads - "It's A Shame About Ray"
245) The Lemonheads - "Alison's Starting To Happen"
246) Codeine - "Pickup Song"
247) Codeine - "D"
248) Idaho - "Skyscrape"
249) Pierre Etoile (Damon & Naomi of Galaxie 500) - "Nineteen Sixty-Nine"
250) Medeski, Martin & Wood - "We Are Rolling"
251) Medeski, Martin & Wood - "Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus"
252) They Might Be Giants - "Birdhouse In Your Soul"
253) Athlete - "El Salvador"
254) Athlete - "You Got The Style"
255) Miles Davis (orchestration by Gil Evans) - "My Ship"
256) Miles Davis (orchestration by Gil Evans) - "Summertime"
257) The Jack Rubies - "Lobster"
258) Mighty Mighty - "Is there anyone out there?"
259) Bob - "Kirsty"
260) Mighty Mighty - "Built Like A Car"
261) Petra Haden - "God Only Knows"
262) Petra Haden - "Armenia City In the Sky"
263) Miles Davis - "Straight, No Chaser"
264) Miles Davis - "Milestones"
265) Coconut Monkeyrocket - "Shopping For Explosives"
266) Coconut Monkeyrocket - "Accidental Beatnik"
267) Victor Banana - "Strange Things Are Happening"
268) Victor Banana - "Here Comes Santa"
269) Victor Banana - "Shiver Me Timbers"
270) Victor Banana - "Iamatology Walking Through Lineal Theanthropism"
271) Neil Smythe - "Butterscotch Sunday"
272) The Beatles - "Some Other Guy"
273) The Kaisers - "She's Gonna Two Time"
274) The Kaisers - "She's Only Doggin' Round"
275) The Muppets - "Mahna Mahna"
276) The Muppets - "Pachalafaka"
277) The Muppets - "Halfway Down The Stairs"
278) Shack - "Byrds Turn to Stone"
279) Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?"
280) Shack - "A House is not a Motel"
281) Dr Coca-Cola McDonalds - "I Don't Like Heavy Metal"
282) Dr Coca-Cola McDonalds - "I Don't Like The Jazz (I Like Heavy Metal)"
283) Dr Coca-Cola McDonalds - "Dr In XXX Shocker"
284) The June Brides - "Every Conversation"
285) Eric Matthews - "Fanfare"
286) XTC - "Miniature Sun"
287) John Coltrane - "Alabama"
288) Julee Cruise - "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart"
289) Julee Cruise - "The World Spins"
290) Jimmy Scott - "Sycamore Trees (from 'Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me' OST)"
291) Los Bravos - "I Want A Name"
292) Little Eva - "He Is The Boy"
293) Curtis Lee - "Gee How I Wish You Were Here"
294) Roxy Music - "Editions of You"
295) Brian Eno - "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch"
296) Miles Davis - "So What (live at The Plugged Nickel, 23 December 1965)"
297) Young People - "The Night Of The Hunter"
298) Split Enz - "My Mistake"
299) Split Enz - "Six Months In A Leaky Boat"
300) Talking Heads - "The Great Curve"
301) Meat Puppets - "Automatic Mojo"
302) Meat Puppets - "Cotton Candy Land"
303) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Master & Everyone"
304) Henry Mancini - "A Shot In The Dark"
305) Henry Mancini - "Peter Gunn"

Thursday, October 05, 2006

he really is a groovy cat...

We're talking seminal moments in musical development again here...

It's a 1970's Saturday afternoon - me and Ox are at our Grandma's. We've just finished watching the wrestling on World Of Sport (presented by Dickie Davies) so we turn the TV over double-quick to watch a Pink Panther cartoon - the series where in the opening credits the kid drives a massive car to the Chinese theatre and the Pink Panther gets out the back. I was always dead jealous of that kid - for driving the big car rather than being a snooty cartoon animal's skivvie. I particularly loved the Inspector Clouseau stories...

Henry Manicini - A Shot In The Dark



... which used the theme to A Shot In The Dark throughout.

I was reminded of this at JD rehearsal last night when I started playing the riff and found it totally impossible to stop - it's one of those great riffs that goes round and round in a loop and it's addictive and difficult to stop (apologies to the other band members).

Henry Mancini - Peter Gunn



Mancini wrote some fantastic stuff and listening to these tunes today I was struck by how amazing and wild they sound - there are sections of Peter Gunn where it sounds like something Charlie Mingus would have put on The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady - the talking brass parts and organised chaos going on under the solos, in particular (back me up here, jazz-bo's...).

Like most cartoon characters, the Pink Panther was RUBBISH when he started talking...

Can anyone help me out with the other characters above? Vaguely remember the anteater...

Buy - The Best of Henri Mancini
Visit - Henry Mancini on Wikipedia

Thursday, September 28, 2006

live is life

Our friend and occasional commenter Frankie Machine has started up his own mp3 blog, Frankosonic. Well worth checking out (this Frank Sinatra post is particularly good), I'm also enjoying his series of posts about the best gigs he's ever seen.

It made me think, why are there so few Live Rock albums that bear up to repeated listening? Case in point: Wilco are responsible for two of the very best gigs I've ever seen - so why do I NEVER listen to "Kicking Television"?

Looking at my collection there really aren't that many that I would listen to regularly. However, some have already featured on The Rally and here are some more favourites - see you at the back, all the better to watch the band with minimum disruption! (TRUE FACT: the closest I've ever got to being in a mosh was at a Galaxie 500 gig...)

Talking Heads - The Great Curve (live 1982)



Most people of taste have got "Stop Making Sense" in one form or other, but "The Name Of This Band Is..." is also worth getting hold of. It features live recordings from 1977 to 1981, following the band from whey-faced New York art-school aesthetes to the expanded, 10-piece minimalist-voodoo-funk band of the "Remain In Light" tour, where this cut is from. For a start, this band is super-super-tight, playing their intricately intertwining lines with real precision to make a great big rhythmic mesh. I find the bass playing on this track totally hypnotic. This is the kind of live-band I want Johnny Domino to be... with a little bit of...

Meat Puppets - Automatic Mojo (live 1988)

Meat Puppets - Cotton Candy Land (live 1988)

In an earlier post I said that the Meat Puppets stopped being of interest to me after "Up On The Sun" in 1985... well, this album is bloody great, so never mind.

I love the looseness but you can tell they're still fantastic musicians. There are some great examples of the turn-on-a-halfpence hardcore chops that they'd built-up on their first album (especially on "Automatic Mojo" - what a great guitar solo!). There are also some real head-scratching bits of banter... Love the fact that they can do gigs with songs like that as well as "Cotton Candy Land" - again, say I, what a great guitar solo! Marvellous stuff.

Well worth getting this album for the version of "Maiden's Milk" (which is taken at double-speed) and the truly disturbing sound of Cris Kirkwood telling you to "pull your panties down" so he can stick his "uh-uh-uh" in you (from "S.W.A.T. (Get Down)")... *shivers*

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Master & Everyone (live)



Bonnie "Prince" Billy is one of those artists who I sometimes get the feeling is taking the piss out of his audience... I'm thinking in particular of the bloody awful "BPB sings Greatest Palace Music" album, which I took as a PERSONAL INSULT. Especially the dreadful version of "I Send My Love To You" and the hidden extra track... of silence. Cheers, Will.

But "Summer In the Southeast", which came out last year is fantastic - It sounds like he's actually having a laugh, as opposed to laughing at his followers. At it's best it sounds like Crazy Horse or Bob Dylan. With a bit of Krautrock thrown in for good measure. It's heavy and loose and psychedelic and good fun!

Buy - 'The Name of This Band is Talking Heads'
Buy - Meat Puppets - 'Live in Montana'
Buy - Bonnie "Prince" Billy - 'Summer In The Southeast'

Visit - Talking Heads
Visit - Meat Puppets
Visit - Royal Stable

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Band of Brothers

It must have seemed a good idea at the time, it was the seventies and theatricality was all the rage but did it put the punters off? I'm referring to Split Enz bizarre appearance, very original and a good laugh for all concerned but did it distract attention from two great songwriters, Neil and Tim Finn.

Split Enz- My Mistake



'My Mistake' really makes me smile, the twists and turns of the arrangement, the fairground ooompah of the rhythms and dissonances, you can tell somebody clever is at work here. At the same time it's recognisably pop music. Once Neil Finn had joined, Split Enz got more 'Noo Wave', 'I Got You' is a pop classic but to me their high point is 'Six Months In A Leaky Boat'

Split Enz- Six Months In A Leaky Boat



This caused great controversy as it was accused of being a sarcastic reference to the Falklands War, it was recorded in January '82, before the war but if the cap fits...To me this song finds Split Enz using the sounds from their homeland, New Zealand. It's a great singalong but it has a lovely widescreen sweep to it. The Finn Brothers have never been cool but their collective scrapbook of songs should impress even the most cynical and jaded.

Split Enz Fansite

The Finn Brothers

Buy The Best of Split Enz

--

stevedomino
marc-o, you're mental - thanks for these, never heard 'em before.

'my mistake' = the "chorlton and the wheelies" theme tune
'six months...' = "johnny and mary" as played by Grandaddy

you know i have a soft spot for the Finn's on the QT... yes, they're clever (and, let's be honest, a bit "Driving With Dad") but they're overriding pop-nous stops their best songs from being strictly academic ventures, or the results of a Paul McCartney fan-club songwriting workshop...

i'll get mi coat... 

marc-o
Spot on with the Grandaddy bit...arpeggiators set to stun.

Anonymous
Nothing wrong with Split Enz. "I got you. That's all I want.''

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

rip svc

So late last week, Spoilt Victorian Child closed it's doors. It's safe to say that if it hadn't been for that site, we wouldn't be doing this (is that a good thing or not...). It was the first 'proper' mp3 blog I'd come across and I remember feeling right at home when I saw the list of recommended albums in the right hand column, which included Faust and Billy Joel. Hey! it was even named after a Fall song!

The blog was started by Simon, who I've never met, but who has always been really encouraging and supportive of us and everything we've done - I know that a lot of blogs that started up in the wake of SVC feel the same way. Simon even included a Johnny Domino track way back in the heady days of 2004.

I heard and re-heard a lot of great stuff because of SVC and this is one of my favourite tracks that the site introduced me to. Good luck to Simon and all the Spoilt Victorian Children in whatever they do in the future.

Young People - Night of the Hunter



I ordered the Young People album 'War Prayers' from Dim Mak following a post on SVC and very nice it is too. However, nothing quite beats the demented party atmosphere of this track (which perfectly captures the completely bizarre nature of the film) - great smoky vocals, funky brass and music-therapy accompaniment. Plus it's got a talky bit (more songs need talky bits...). Other Young People stuff I've heard since has been a bit grumpy and arty - this is nice and loose and stoopid.

Imagine my surprise when, about a week or so after receiving my copy through the post, I got ANOTHER copy. And here it is, still in it's cellophane wrapping.

Who want's it? Drop me a line! Seriously, I've been trying to think of a good way to shift it for ages.

Call it a competition, if you will. First person to email me their address (don't leave it in the comments, m'dears) get's it FREE.

Honest.

Read the original SVC post about this track here.

(PS - I got the great photo above from this site.)

Visit - Young People
Visit - Dim Mak records
Visit Dim Mak store and get 'War Prayers by Young People
Pay your respects - at SVC

Friday, September 15, 2006

miles ahead - part three

This is the third in a series of posts about the late great Miles Davis. Part one is here, part two is here.

These recordings are very hard to write about and exceptionally hard to blog about. This is a track from the legendary live recordings Miles Davis's second great quintet made at The Plugged Nickel in December 1965 - Miles, Herbie Hancock [piano], Ron Carter [bass], Tony Williams {drums] and Wayne Shorter [tenor sax].

As far as modern jazz is concerned, the Plugged Nickel sets are The Bible, Ulysses and Wagner's Ring Cycle all rolled into one.

Over the space of two nights, Miles and chums blast through 7 sets of mostly 'standards', stuff that had been in the Miles Davis live repertoire for years. But the way they treat tunes like "My Funny Valentine", "When I Fall In Love", as well as Davis' own material, the source material is pretty much irrelevant. Over the course of two nights they rip the tunes apart, taking serious liberties with structure, harmony and time - it's amazing music which demands you listen intently to the frightening level of intuition that is going on between the players - scary stuff.

The reason it's hard to write about is because, by ripping a single track (albeit one that's just shy of 14 minutes long) and compressing it down, you lose so much of what makes these recordings great.

Miles Davis - So What (live at The Plugged Nickel, 23 December 1965)



Take "So What" for example. This track comes at the end of the second set on 23 December - after this incredible performance, they still had another TWO SETS to play, following on from the three they played the previous night.

What's amazing about hearing it in context is how the tension between the different players is built up throughout the set, finally being released in the railing crescendo behind Shorter's solo (3.45-8.35) and carried through Tony Williams amazing extended solo (8.58-11.27). Counted in at almost twice the speed, it's about as far removed from the studio version of "So What" (on 'Kind Of Blue') as you could imagine. "Cool Jazz" this is not - by the way, you really need to play this loud!

I dunno if I'm reading too much into this but this track sounds like the end of something - a way of working, a way of thinking about music. A couple of years later Miles was going electric and turning his back on the small band format.

Whatever - The Plugged Nickel sets are well worth investing in. They're great recordings, really capturing the atmosphere of the night - at various points you hear a phone ring, the cash register, people chatting.

"So What" is available on a single CD of highlights but I was lucky enough to pick up the complete set for next to nothing. Sad but true, one year I fully intend to have a two-night Plugged Nickel party - play the sets in their entirety, soup to nuts.

Who wants a Martini?

Buy - The Complete Live at The Plugged Nickel
Buy - Highlights from the Plugged Nickel
Visit - Miles Davis (wikipedia)

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

'E's got the hump

It is not false modesty when I admit I'm no great musician, I'm a bit of musical Utility Player, a bit of guitar here, a bit of bass there, even a maraca or two. Inevitably it is the instrument I have least theoretical knowledge of that I play in Johnny Domino, the keyboard. I take solace that I share non-musician status with Brian Eno. I have always loved synths, the older and more gnarly the better. They don't gnarlier than Eno's VCS 3 on the first two Roxy Music album. All the musicians in Roxy were quirky and individualistic but only Eno could unleash the mayhem on 'Editions of You'

Roxy Music- Editions of You



I don't know an awful lot about his later career but any man involved with Devo and Talking Heads can be forgiven U2.

Brian Eno- The Paw-Paw Negro Blowtorch



Buy Roxy Music- For Your Pleasure

Buy Brian Eno- Here Come The Warm Jets

Visit EnoWeb

Thursday, September 07, 2006

on the flip side

Way back in the early days of The Rally, I did a post about one of my Dad's old 45s. In that earlier post (here) I talk about how I played the B-Side of one of the singles without flipping it over for about 15 years (shades of Father Dougal McGuire, methinks). So here are some other great B-Sides!

Los Bravos - I Want A Name (B-Side of 'Black is Black')



Completely mental song, featuring a deranged vocal performance from a man with so few mates that he doesn't even have a name. If he keeps making the "Waaa-ooow!!" noise (first appearance at 0:37), then frankly I'm not surprised.

Love the music-therapy feel of the glockenspiel in the background but let's be honest, they've thrown the lot at this and fair play to them for that. Seemingly-pissed guitar makes first appearance at 0:46.

In the second verse he dreams of a dog without a collar that he can befriend. Could singer Mike Kogel have given any more in this performance? I think not - I especially love the impassioned "help me!" bits.

"Black Is Black" was Number 2 in the UK, Number 4 in the US. And this piece of genius-lunacy was on the other side. Los Bravos - I salute you!

Little Eva - He Is The Boy (B-Side of 'The Locomotion')



One of those great tracks where it sounds like they've left themselves with 15 minutes at the end of the session to write and record the B-Side. It's a lazy shuffle with Eva intoning her love for a (in short order) thick, lazy, ugly so-and-so who happens to be good at kissing. The piano solo from 1:48 is a work of genius, especially the bit where they obviously didn't finish writing it - there's also a great stumble right at the end, which they obviously couldn't be arsed to correct. Plus the backing vocals sound like they've been phoned in!

It sounds like I hate it, but the ramshackle nature and the matter-of-fact coolness sell it to me every time. I would happily trade in much of my more "fashionable" music collection for more songs like this.

But the thought that this feckless swine might be the guy who inspired "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" is pretty troubling, don'tcha think?

Curtis Lee - Gee, How I Wish You Were Here (B-Side of 'Pretty Little Angel Eyes')

 


The GREAT thing about this track is the fantastic vocal support from The Halos - they're not quite there all the way through... hell, let's face it there are some proper CLAMS - that opening chord is a bit shonky for a start. And what's going on in that final section?

But this has such a great feel and a great matinee idol lead vocal from Curtis Lee. Great lyrics, fantastic instrumental backing.... God I love this song! Great memories of singing along with this one on the way back from the pub in the back of our mate's Land Rover!

Buy - Los Bravos
Buy - Little Eva
Buy - Curtis Lee
Read - Los Bravos on Answers.com
Read - Little Eva on Wikipedia
Read - Curtis Lee on Wikipedia

Thursday, August 31, 2006

perfect sound forever

It's hard to explain to anybody who didn't watch it at the time just how bizarre Twin Peaks really was. A show about the brutal murder of a High School Prom Queen at the hands of (*plot spoiler!*) her dad, who had been possessed by some elemental force of evil, set in a weird hybrid time zone of the 1950s-via-late-80s - actually, that doesn't even begin to describe the show... Anyway, it wasn't what you expected to see on BBC2 at 9pm on a Tuesday night.

I've been thinking about the show since I dug out my copy of "Floating Into The Night" by Julee Cruise, an album of songs written by TP creator David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti.

The three of them first worked together on the song "Mysteries of Love", featured in "Blue Velvet". Apparently, some people used that song to soundtrack their weddings. These are the same people that think "Every Breath You Take" is a sweet love song, or that go around singing "You're Gorgeous" to the object of their affection. Y'know - psychopaths.

Julee Cruise - Rockin' Back Inside My Heart


Julee Cruise - The World Spins



I guess people could use these songs to soundtrack romantic moments... but there's something so unutterably WRONG about them; they're like psychotic versions of 1950s death songs ("Johnny, Remember Me", "Tell Laura I Love Her", etc.).

The music occupies the same time-warp as the show, all sweet, echo-y finger-clicking backing tracks, synthesisers and dreamy guitar. But rather than being smooth and easy-listening, the music is completely devoid of all humanity, totally synthetic and precise, and really cold. Plus Julee Cruise sings these songs as if she's dead or dying.

At times it's like she's sat in the wreckage of a car crash, the lone survivor, cradling her dead lover in her arms - "Love, don't go away / Come back this way / Come back and stay / Forever and ever". The idea of "Forever" is very big throughout all the songs on the album, so they could be sweet, if taken at face value. But the way they're presented they're more likely to creep you out. "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" can be seen as the most romantic of these two songs - "Do you remember our picnic lunch? / We both went up to the lake...". But the last line (and the way it's delivered)... - "I thought our love would last... for... ever...". Yikes.

Jimmy Scott - Sycamore Trees



Julee Cruise performed "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" in the 'Twin Peaks' pilot episode; jazz legend Jimmy Scott sang "Sycamore Trees" in the series finale. This amazing song was featured on the soundtrack of the rubbish follow-up film 'Fire Walk With Me'.

The Julee Cruise songs also appeared in David Lynch's Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted.

Visit - Julee Cruise
Buy - Floating Into The Night
Buy - Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted (video)
Buy - "Fire Walk With Me" OST
Buy - Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to "Twin Peaks" (book)

Friday, August 25, 2006

what is soul? - part 129

Before we head into the next part of my irregular series of Miles Davis posts, I thought I'd post a track by one of his many sidemen, which is one of my favourite jazz performances ever.

John Coltrane - Alabama



"Alabama" was Coltrane's response to the horrific bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham on Sunday 15 September 1963. White racists planted a dozen sticks of dynamite in the church basement which went off at 10.45am, injuring 20 people and killing the four girls pictured above.

Coltrane was not a player noted for his brevity. On one of his final live recordings, there is an hour-long version of "My Favourite Things". He once admitted to Miles Davis that he was often at a loss to know when to stop playing, to which Miles responded, "Try taking the saxophone out of your mouth".

Coltrane could have gone all the way with "Alabama", shrieking and wailing with torment to vent his rage at the senselessness of the act. Instead, the piece is just over 5 minutes long, subdued, elegant and noble. I found a great piece about this track (and Coltrane's work) by Martin Smith, that originally appeared in the Socialist Review:
[Coltrane] patterned his saxophone playing on Martin Luther King's funeral speech. Midway through the song, mirroring the point where King transforms his mourning into a statement of renewed determination for the struggle against racism, Elvin Jones's drumming rises from a whisper to a pounding rage. He wanted this crescendo to signify the rising of the civil rights movement.
The playing throughout is beautiful, with amazingly sensitive backing from McCoy Tyner (piano), Elvin Jones (drums) and Jimmy Garrison (bass). The outpouring of volume and grief towards the end is so much more effective for the soulful way that it gets there.

There's a TOTALLY GOB-SMACKING TV performance of "Alabama" here.

The bombing became a turning point in the US civil rights movement - read more (particularly about the hideously drawn out investigation and prosecution process) here.

Visit - John Coltrane
Buy - John Coltrane Live at Birdland

--

Francis
Typical! You big Miles Davis Nazi..posting Coltrane and labelling him a "Davis Sideman"

Please - more respect for The Trane!

Next you'll be posting Sinatra as Bing Crosby's sideman...

xxx

Jon
Excellent stuff, especially the YouTube link. Superb! 

stevedomino
Miles Davis Nazi...

lord knows i have nothing but respect for The Trane, I was just tying it in with my Davis posts - you could do a whole blog just posting great stuff by people who have played with him. "Sideman" was a poor choice of phrase, admittedly. but the Miles tracks I posted last are credited to "Miles Davis", so in a sense Coltrane was a sideman on those sessions?!?

i look forward to your blog, Francis, and expect to see "Kulu Se Mama" in full...!

Francis
Om!

Frankosonic is rolling...