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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers • Vampire Weekend • Surfbort • Bhi Bhiman • Billie Eilish • Blanco Suave • IDLES •Kumbia Queers • Dead Kennedys • Tart • Pinky Doodle Poodle • The Cell Phones • Against Me! • NOFX • Ezra Furman • Girls • Tacocat • Bleached • Bikini Kill
Read MoreShake For Me
I discovered the Southern Friedalbum in 1970, sometime after it was released. Most of it hit me right off. I was also drawn to it because Duane Allman is on four of the disc's tracks. I was already familiar with Hammond's Vanguard label albums, since the public library had them. I liked them, but really felt this album was in a different class: it had horns and a much different drum sound. Probably because it was recorded in Alabama. The lead track on side one was also put out on a 45 at the end of 1969, before the album was issued, and though it didn't light up the charts, it is easy to tell why it was chosen: Allman adds a lot when his slide enters during the second verse.
Read MoreC.T.A.
In April of 1953, Miles Davis recorded with sax player Jimmy Heath, and that session also produced a recording of Heath's composition, C.T.A. Sometime after this session, Heath's drug problems escalated and he did two prison stints, not getting out until 1959. During that time in jail he worked hard on his writing and composed several things that ended up on an album by several prominent, west coast players. It was originally called Playboys (in 1957) and later was issued as Picture of Heath, as all the tunes were written by him. Among the musicians on that disc are Chet Baker, Art Pepper, and the very prominent bassist, Curtis Counce. C.T.A. was also recorded, and this helped propel it toward becoming a classic, and quite significant jazz standard. actually WRITTEN by a jazz musician!
Read MoreOye Mira
Pianist Pete Rodriguez had been leading his combo/conjunto for a few years before he made his explicitly boogaloo records 1966-67. The track his band members Tony Pabon (trumpet-vocals) and Manny Rodriguez (percussion), wrote, I Like It Like That, became somewhat anthemic to the rise of latin boogaloo, and though it must have received air play around NYC, it did not chart nationally. Some of the ingredients to the boogaloo Rodriguez help popularize were evident on his earlier records for the Remo label, such as this excellent guajira, also written by Pabon and Rodriguez. The piano solo Rodriguez turns in sparkles with dissonance and then really pronounces the vamp. To me, it is a latin grind, great dance music and still drawing on traditional Afro-Cuban song forms.
DJ π a.k.a. Paul Yamada
Read MoreWe'll be live at WORKSHOP 4200 at the PRF BBQ streaming live @ wholso.me/radio and live Wholesome Presents video sessions with Ex Okays, Maple Stave, Tart and Korean Jeans.
Read MoreFEATURING…
The Hives • Amyl and The Sniffers • Ezra Furman • Tropa Magica • Tony Gallardo II • Kumbia Queers • Making Movies • Xenia Rubinos • Tijuana No • Woody Guthrie • Cat Power • Bob Dylan • Jeff Tweedy • Margo Price • Johnathan Rice • Bhi Bhiman
Read MoreCheck out my new show tonight for a snapshot of mid 1960s L.A. I feature one great, great band you may not have heard of, The Preachers. Wow are their records a revelation! Other bands included are The Arrows featuring Davie Allan/Davie Allan and the Arrows, Love and the Chocolate Watch Band. Did you know that as the Hogs, an early version of the Watch Band covered Allan's Blues Theme? Well, you can hear them both tonight. It's a rad show!
Read MoreAre You Lonely For Me Baby?
Chuck Jackson has one great voice. It has been many years since I last saw him, but in the late 1990s he STILL had that marvelous baritone voice. His career began in the 1950s as a member of the Del Vikings. His own records began to chart by 1960 and he was consistently there for the decade. He is perhaps best known for I Don't Want To Cry and Any Day Now. My early favorite is I Wake Up Crying. As the decade passed, some of his releases became harder soul and less pop, including his final Wand 45 done with Papa John Schroeder, before he signed with Motown. His strongest hit there was a cover of the 1966 Freddie Scott smash, Are You Lonely For Me Baby; produced by Clay McMurray before his greater success with Gladys Knight, it id dynamite. I do truly dig the Scott record, but this is very great as well, and hit #27 on the national r&b chart in 1969.
Read MoreThis Time Tomorrow
Before Motown and success on her own and with Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell had recorded as Tammy Montgomery, which was her born last name. Her final 45 as Montgomery was done with Bert Berns and leased to Checker. While I like the A-side, I find the B-side more interesting, with its sly fuzz guitar and the twang break in the middle! It might not be her very best solo outing (that is quite possibly her hit remake of This Old Heart Of Mine) but this is a very solid effort from her and producer Berns.
Read MoreLeaving Me
I am not sure why I started to collect the records of the Royal Guardsmen since I don't really like their Snoopy hits. But it did allow me to discover that they were a pretty talented band. They could rock AND sing, as a few of their sides are almost as well sung as records by the Association. Their first 45, before any of the Snoopy records, was a version of Baby Let's Wait, which had already been out on the debut Young Rascals album. It was mildly popular in Florida, which is where the band was from. But the B-side is a solid rocker, with a rousing fuzz guitar line. It is NOT a Snoopy recording, that is for sure!
Read MorePlease Mr. Foreman
"I don't mind working, but I do mind dying!" In the late 1960s that became a slogan and a line of protest in Detroit, and in many ways it was adopted from a great blues by Joe L. Carter. Carter recorded as Joe-L (or Joe L.) and he had several 45s on small Detroit labels in the late 1960s. Please Mr. Foreman (on the Classic label run by Rudy Robinson) was one of them and if not the best, certainly the one which attracted the most local attention. In 1971 he worked with Willie Mitchell and had two more releases; one of those four sides was even a re-recording of Please Mr Foreman.
Read MoreTeardrops From My Eyes
Billy Jack Wills was the youngest brother of the famous fiddler and western swing band leader Bob Wills. He did not get a chance to lead his own band until brother Bob left California for a residence on Oklahoma. The much younger (20 years) Wills was quite current in his musical interests, which included jump blues, r&b and even bebop. He was able to to center his own band around two great and unique musicians: Tiny Moore on electric mandolin and Vance Terry on pedal steel guitar. While Billy Jack made a few fine records for MGM from 1954 to 1957, perhaps his best recordings were done for radio transcription services, like this killer version of Teardrops From My Eyes.
Read MoreGamblin’ Man
Washboard Sam (Robert Clifford Brown) went from being one of the most popular blues artists in Chicago during the 1930s to a police officer who, when he passed in 1966, ended up in an unmarked grave. He came to Chicago in the early 1930s from Memphis and shortly there after began recording for the famous/infamous Lester Melrose. While I like some of his 30s sides, the records he made that I like the most all were done after WWII and they have a slight jazz tinge to them. This one in particular has a nice sax solo, followed by pianist Bob Call, someone who has been largely overlooked. But after that, there is a profoundly great electric guitar solo by Willie Lacey. Lacey had become known for playing with John Lee Williamson (THE Sonny Boy Williamson) before his tragic death. His fluid lines and dazzling technique are unlike any other guitarist I can think of in Chicago during the late 1940s, and his work on this record is quite great!
Read MorePistol Packin’ Mama
OK, two days ahead of Mother's Day here is a great and important song. Al Dexter began recording in 1937 and his approach draws on western swing, among other things, and his music from 1938 into the early 1940s is considered one part of the foundation of honky tonk music. It is also, in some ways, western swing, though with some limitations much of that music does not have. Whatever. This is classic and about a special kind of "mama"!
Read MoreJonah's Wall
Though he played and recorded with many different bands, trumpeter Jonah Jones is probably best known for his work in the 1930s with the superb violinist Stuff Smith and his time during the 1940s with Cab Calloway. This track comes from one really hot session and it features (in order) Dave Rivera on piano, Rudy Powell on clarinet, Milt Hinton on bass, Tyree Glenn on trombone, Ike Quebec on tenor sax and finally Jones, whose hot touch is enlivened by the drum bombs of Kansas Fields. While all the solos are quite fine, note the hard blown squall from Quebec and the bristling, wicked tone Jones has! In many ways, this is swinging jazz during the 1940s at its best, embracing elements that were around in the 1920s, and some that just emerged at the end of the 1930s. It moves, its is hot and it shows a little anger! From September of 1946
Read MoreGravier Street Blues
In the era of 78s, an album was an oversized book containing several, often it was at least six, 78s. Sometimes the packages were devoted to a single artist, and sometimes to a set of related artists, or to related music. In 1940 the Decca label released such an album consisting of older musicians associated with the thriving jazz scene of New Orleans during the 1920s. One of the discs was credited to Johnny Dodds, often considered the most important clarinet player of the 1920s. He, sometimes with his drummer brother Warren 'Baby' Dodds, recorded with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and many, many others. The side posted has a beautiful solo by guitarist Lonnie Johnson, who was from New Orleans, though many blues fans probably do not associate him with NOLA. It is during his solo that the piano, played by Richard M Jones (his name is attached to Trouble In Mind!) can be heard. Jones and Johnson sound great together, though everyone plays beautifully!
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Read MoreSmall Package
I really liked the early records by the Strawberry Alarm Clock, though I suffered for it as their image (and some of their music) was quite ridiculed back them. To me they had many great talents on record: incisive lead guitar, cool organ and very good vocals and vocal arrangements. Eventually the vocal side sort of too over, and I didn't really like their later, middling pop hits, such as Barefoot In Baltimore. But even as late as 1969 they were capable of some groovy psyche, with hot lead guitar and very well done vocals. This track is a great example, and it has a very surprise ending, too!
Read MoreOut & About
When I was in junior high and the beginning of high school, despite their recording success, in many circles Boyce and Hart were not cool. This was in part because of all their work for the Monkees, and many kinds and young adults thought the band was, well, fake, in a way. That Boyce and Hart appeared on an episode of the Singing Nun didn't help their image. I liked their 45s and when I got their three albums, I found that there was some pretty sophisticated and wonderful rock on them, and they certainly had a great band. Of their three top 40 national hits, I think I like Out And About the best. It just did crack the national top 40, reaching #39 on August 12, 1967. On a different note, my experience interviewing Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, and Hart was pretty much a disaster. The only bright note was how friendly Micky Dolenzwas before he ran off after somebody or something! And there I was with Boyce and Hart and all they wanted to do was complain about being in STL on New Year's Eve! Jeez guys, I didn't want to have been there either!
Read MoreC.V. Jump
The beginnings of bebop were from early 1944 forward. By the start of 1945, Dizzy Gillespie was making his own records. Soon Charlie Parker would as well. In many ways bop gathered creative energies that had been emerging in NYC, at jams, and at a club called Minton's. The cats out in LA, however, were not clueless. This great side from March of 1945 was under the name of Charlie Ventura (note that it is misspelled on the label) who had been in Gene Krupa's big band. He teamed (and would continue to do so in the future) with Howard McGhee, who had been with the bands of Andy Kirk and Charlie Barnet. They cut this very bopish track which also features fine piano from Arnold Ross and a very strong solo by Dave Barbour, who is best known, perhaps, for his relationship with Peggy Lee. So while Hollywood was hardly the incubator of bebop, it was there and in early 1945!
