FEATURING…
Parquet Courts • Ezra Furman • Art Brut • Alex Lahey • Remember Sports • Lisa Prank • Charli XCX & Troye Sivan • Justin Timberlake • Local H • Duffy • Led Zeppelin • Sonic Youth • Tart • Monica LaPlante • Fea • Joel Jerome
Read More
FEATURING…
Hank Williams • The Dead Milkmen • Tart • Radiohead • Nirvana • Smashing Pumpkins • Los Shain’s • Cookie Monster • Tom Waits • Grapetooth • The Crystalites • Crudo Pimento • The Black Lips • The Moldy Peaches • Wimps • Dead Kennedys
Read More
FEATURING…
The Shaggs • The Moldy Peaches • Tom Waits • The Hives • Lagwagon • Steven Wright • The Sonics • Peach Kelli Pop • Shannon and the Clams • White Mystery • Beatallica • Pickin’ On Series • Link Wray & The Wraymen • The Subsonics • Los Protones • Jan & Dean • The B-52’s • Grandaddy • Luis “Vivi” Hernandez
Read More
Paul Moody and The Revelators live at WholesomeStudio.
Read More
Mambo Pa'Chango
Even in the context of 1940s and early 1950s Afro Cuban music history, Alberto Iznaga seems virtually forgotten. He led what he called "Su Orquesta Siboney" in NYC for many years, and he made many records for major American labels as well as for much smaller labels specializing in latin music and mambo. This side for Decca from 1950 is one hot mambo and it notes Chango/Shango an Orisha! It was written by Obdulio Morales, who researched Afro Cuban traditions, and was as well a pianist and composer. Too bad there does not seem to be any Iznaga collections, because much of his output was very jazz, quite sophisticated, and very strong!
Read More
Llorá
Chano Pozo's Llora was initially recorded by the famous Orquesta Casino de la Playa, in 1946, with Cascarita singing and Perez Prado leading the band. Before the 1940s ended, and perhaps while Pozo was still alive (he died 12/03/48) it was recorded by Jose Curbelo in the US with Tito Rodriguez singing. Curbelo had come to the US in 1939 and he bounced around from the better paying, latin hotel bands (including Xavier Cugat's band) until he formed his own. Many future latin stars worked in his band, including Tito Puente and of course, the singer and band leader Tito Rodriguez!
Read More
RINKY DINK
The late 1950s and early 1960s rock scene in the Pacific Northwest was in some ways extraordinary. Most of the bands were influenced by great r&b and r&b tinged jazz, and many of them were very influenced by the Bill Doggett sound and approach, which always included organ and tenor sax. This goes for Paul Revere and the Raiders. Though some of their earliest music shows surf aspects (Orbit, their cover of Moon Dawg) The Raiders also covered the organ and sax thing, doing Allnight Long (Joe Houston, Rusty Bryant), Night Train, and this cover of a Baby Cortez big hit. It might not have the slinky qualities of the original, but whoever the sax player is, he had a strong go at sounding like early King Curtis, especially after the two minute mark. And seriously, it could BE Mark Lindsay! Cut in 1963 for the Sande label, for which the band recorded Louie Louie before it was picked up by Columbia.
Read More
Echale Tierra Y Tápala
Myrta Silva began her singing career before she was a teen. She wrote a song that Daniel Santos had a hit with when she was 15. By 1947 she was recording with the orchestra of Julio Gutierrez and soon she was known as 'the queen of the guaracha'. And so we have a very lively guaracha on tap, with some mambo touches-flourishes and a great piano solo either from Gutierrez himself or perhaps his favorite other pianist, Peruchin!
Read More
Take Me Back (Destination 635)
Chicago rock group The Flock, when they were on Columbia in 1969, were very much a jazzy fusion of rock and minor classical strains via violinist Jerry Goodman. Goodman did not join and record with the band until their 45 on U.S.A. in mid 1968. The earlier 45s reveal a band capable of some exacting, uptown soul, and sometimes they sounded like a cross of The Spiral Staircase and the more updated aspects of The Four Seasons. This side is a good example. It is really tight pop-rock-soul, with excellent horns, and no violin at all!
Read More
Dynamo A
While in Paris Don Byas continued to play and record with Peanuts Holland and Billy Taylor, and in January of 1947, he waxed this bebop gem. Everyone plays and makes this slice of bebop quite juicy! It should be pointed out that this tune is, by any other name Dizzy Atmosphere, and was actually first done by Dizzy Gillespie as Dynamo A and the original Byas 78 gave Gillespie credit.
Read More
Look What You've Done
For a time, the band Smokestack Lightnin' was popular at the Whiskey A Go Go in L.A. Taking the group name from a Howlin' Wolf song, they did feature blues, blues rock and some gnarly psyche. Their earlierst 45s were done in 1967 before they got signed to Bell. From the end of 1968 to the start of 1970 the band cut four 45s and an album. Much of their material is very good, in part because of producer Bones Howe and also because singer Ronnie Darling's raspy voice handles the material very well. This track is from their second 45 and once the organ enters, it gives off an early scent of The Doors. The guitar solo is also quite sharp and edgy. Perhaps their most commercial release was their last, a version of the Delaney Bramlett gem, Hello, L.A., Bye-Bye Birmingham, but it came out at the same time as the one by Blue Cheer.
Read More
Bongo Riff
On the same day that Dizzy Gillespie and his orchestra were recording Manteca, a milestone in Afro Cuban jazz and bop, Stan Kenton was recording Pete Rugolo's Bongo Riff. This was December 22, 1947. Other latin influenced tracks were cut by Kenton's orchestra the day before and a few earlier in the year. Bongo Riff is certainly brisk, aggressive jazz and shows some knowledge of guaracha--though I cannot think of one Cuban band that played anything this fast in the 1940s--and the mambo, too. It has some affinities with Manteca, though not that many, and it's themes are not as thoroughly developed. It is, however, a steamer and a step in an interesting direction for the coming together of two musical traditions.
Read More
I Fooled You This Time
After his huge Duke of Earl hit, Gene Chandler remained a consistent hit maker into the 1970s, and he was also an important figure in the Chicago soul scene. This record made #3 on the Billboard r&b chart in 1966. it is great, well sung, and beautifully arranged by Gerald Sims.
Read More
FEATURING…
Eagulls • British Sea Power • Pixies • Voodoo Glow Skulls • Wolf Parade • Head Wound City • Robert Johnson • Skip James • Dávila 666 • Sleater-Kinney • Nine Inch Nails • Las Feas • Los Peyotes • Danny & The Nightmares • The Rolling Stones • Joey Ramone • The Electric Prunes • Jay Reatard
Read MoreI'm On Fire
Phil Seymour and Dwight Twilley knew each other in Tulsa, but decided they wanted to make music and be discovered in Memphis. They eventually contacted Ray Harris, a former Sun artist, and Harris introduced the them to rockabilly. Back in Tulsa they met and recorded with U.K. producer Denny Cordell; he had started Shelter Records with Leon Russell. Their initial 45 was recorded in 1974 and released in 1975. Hitting #16, it would prove to be the biggest hit for the Dwight Twilley Band. A second 45 and an album followed in 1976 and still with Shetler, they also had an album through Arista in 1977. Seymour would depart in 1978, and quite sadly, pass away in 1993. The Twilley Band made great rockabilly (in part because of guitarist Bill Pitcock IV) and fantastic pop. Their vocals might suggest the Everlys and Lou Christie, but their arrangements and delivery is indeed unique and special. I was lucky to have seen this band three times and they were killer!
Read More
FEATURING…
John Lennon • The Black Lips • Voodoo Glow Skulls • Los Fabulosos Cadillacs • Cafe Tacuba • Ana Tijoux • Tropa Magica • Kumbia Queers • Niña Dioz • White Mystery • Elf Power • Willie Nelson • Tom Waits • Ella Jenkins • Dead Man's Bones • Joel Jerome • Noise Addict • Gael García Bernal, Gabriella Flores, Libertad García Fonzi • The Drums
Read MoreSplash 1
The Clique are best known for their bright, sunny pop hits, especially their cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' Sugar On Sunday. The band was from Texas and their first 45 was also a cover, but a cover of a song on the initial 13th Floor Elevators album. Though neither recording is of the more energetic and visceral music the Elevators made, The Clique manage a wonderful balance between the edgy and forlorn folk rock style of the Elevators and their own passion for layered, pop vocal arrangements. After a local release on Cinema, the national label Scepter picked it up, and it reached #113 on the Bubbling Under Billboard listing in October of 1967.
Read MoreGet It On Up (Get Up The Courage)
East L.A. was a hot bed of hybrid rock, soul and boogaloo in the 1960s. Mexican American bands like Sunny and the Sunliners and Thee Midnighters were wildly popular and had hits, too. Thee Midniters caught on with a cover of Chris Kenner's Land of 1000 Dances at the end of 1964 and Cannibal and the Headhunters followed in a month. The Frankie Garcia (he was Cannibal) version did a little better and has certainly been remembered much more so than the one by Thee Midniters. Kind of a shame as Thee Midniters were an incredible band and they outlasted Cannibal and his group, too. Garcia and company were done by the beginning of 1969 when they had their farewell, a hot dance number that owes a lot to older dance grooves by the Isley Brothers and the Righteous Brothers.
Read MoreOh Babe!
Wynonie Harris was a great and important singer for jazz, jump blues, r&b, and rock'n'roll. He had many huge hits from the mid 1940s into the early 1950s. Oh Babe! was one of his last, from 1950. It also reunited him with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra, the band that had backed him on his first successful releases. Oh Babe! did not come to him from blues or r&b writers and artists, as it was written by Louis Prima, a jazzy trumpeter and band leader from New Orleans. Prima had been performing since the late 1920s and began recording in 1934. During the mid 1940s his big band records had the energy and verve of nascent r&b and he made many fine records in this vein. Oh Babe! was released on his own Robin Hood label, and cut with Keely Smith, whom he would marry in 1953. Prima's record was popular but not as much as the Harris disc. But it is just as good, featuring tart, flag waving trumpet (and two trumpets toward the rousing end) a very solid beat and fine vocals from Prima and Smith. This is the original 78 version; there are several others out there, some shorter and all slightly different. I do not know what their sources are. But please, enjoy this great original!
Read More