Brothers gonna work it out

More heavy hitters today, but instead of 50 years ago, a look 2 weeks into the future...



The Chemical Brothers' latest, We Are The Night, is due to drop in a couple of weeks, and well... is it any good? The answer... sorta. I've always found their studio albums to be a bit spotty, and this one is no exception. There's a freakin' rap song about salmon (not the color, but the fish, mind you) on this thing. No, really... it's quite mind-boggling. Me, I've always thought Tom & Ed are at their best when they get their psychedelic freak on, and this tune here gets my vote for best of the album...

The Chemical Brothers - Burst Generator

That one will be bonkers live, no doubt! Like, for instance, in this show... Glastonbury 2000... Enjoy!

Part 1:




Part 2:




Part 3:



That brings back some good memories, right there...

Have a great weekend!

Best. Jazz. Evar!

It was only a matter of time before Miles popped up on the shuffle...



... and I don't really need to say much on this one. A lot of people say that Kind Of Blue is the best Jazz album ever recorded, and I'm inclined to agree with them. I'd read this here and there before I bought it, and on first listen I was actually convinced I'd heard the recorded sound of perfection. It's that freaking good. If you only own one Jazz album ever, this is the one. (Narrowly beating out Kenny G.'s Greatest Hits, of course... but I kid). And when you realize that the players (a bunch of no-names: John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb) walked into the studio that morning, were handed this simplest of sketches, and then hammered out, on the very first take, this...

Miles Davis - All Blues

... that sounds like they must have worked on it for a month to perfect it... Wowzers. They were good at music and stuff.

And your bonus from the YouTubes, a live take with a different group from about 5 years later.



Good stuff, that. Actually... essential. Like a mofo!

Cookin' up some funk...

... grilled up rare and smothered in robot sauce!



UK record label BBE Music puts out a lot of damn fine compilations of rare vintage tunes, and their Funk Spectrum series is seriously unfuckwiddable. The series is curated by legendary UK DJ Keb Darge, who brings in a different famous crate-digger to help with each one. For instance, on this first release, his partner in crime was none other than DJ Shadow. So yeah, all killer/no filler! Now, as for today's track, I certainly don't know anything about it, but why pretend I have the knowledge when I can just steal a write-up from teh interwebs? Thanks, Al Gore!

"As funk 45s go, this is also one of the rarest and most obscure of them all - only 500 copies were pressed on a tiny Milwaukee-based rock label, making them notoriously difficult to find, so much so that you'd have to fork out over $1000 to get your hands on an original!

Like many groups The Chefs were inspired by the early '70s robot craze, and "Mr Machine" is one of the best examples of the tight, rhythmical funk that was the "in" sound. In music we all know that "practice makes perfect" - brothers Don & Fred had been practising drums and bass together since they were old enough to walk, the result is one of the tightest rhythm sections ever to be caught on wax! And as for the psychedelic guitar twangs that make the track, can you imagine a wilder sound to blow your mind?! This is a funk 45 that has everything you want: hard heavy deep funk for the listener, dancer, collector, everyone!"

Well, that write-up sounds pretty good, eh? Does the track live up to it? I vote yes...

The Chefs - Mr. Machine

Funk + Robots = Werd!





(that's a real product, btw... I think I need one...)

Bad girls / Talkin' 'bout the bad girls...

Well, my three days off weren't quite as exciting as Lindsay Lohan's, but they were pretty good nonetheless. We need her rehab and Paris' jail stint made into a reality show, maybe some kind of competition... but make it hard. Plant piles of coke in Lindsay's room and give all of Paris' fellow inmates jewel-encrusted shivs and see who makes it out alive. Don't you think that would be the best thing that has ever aired on television? Just find out who I have to pay to make this happen, because I will sell as much sperm as I have to... okay, I may have just taken that bit too far. Music!



And we'll start the week with a track from the Fifth Anniversary compilation by Turntables on the Hudson. These guys are a gang of DJ's from NYC who put on this regular party, and damn... I wanna go! Actually I saw them spin once and they were incredible. Some of the funkiest shit I've ever heard. Very organic and raw and just grrrr! I don't know where these records come from, or why no one else seems to play them, but I suppose the mystery is part of the fun. I also got no idea who Banda Favela are, but here you go...

Banda Favela - Samba De Ile (Waiwan Remix)

Now, Waiwan is a name I think I've heard before, however, maybe on some Compost stuff? Hmm... anyhoo, heck of a track there. There are 6 Turntables of the Hudson volumes out there. Go get 'em all... but save some money to donate to the Paris/Lindsay Reality Show project! You KNOW you want to see it!

Watch yer toes...

... 'cuz I'm droppin' a heavy one on ya today.



Randy Weston is a jazz pianist I had never heard of until I found some of his music on the great jazz blog Pharoahs Dance and decided to give it a shot, despite the fact that I have a hard time taking anyone named "Randy" seriously. It's just a thing I have, okay? Well, I'm glad I gave Randy a chance, because his music is an awesome meeting of Jazz and African styles. I could pretend to drop all sorts of knowledge about this album, but instead I will refer you to the handy liner notes. I'll just say that this is a big ensemble (featuring a number of heavy hitters like Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Max Roach) jazz number made special by an absolute monster of an African percussion break... dig it.

Randy Weston - Bantu

If that doesn't get ya all fired up, I don't know what will. So take that energy and go out and have an awesome Memorial Day weekend, everyone (everyone in the US that is, the rest of you just have an awesome regular weekend. Us Yanks don't have to go to work Monday, so neener neener neener!)

Peace!

Yppah-ki-yay!

You may start to sense a pattern here...



... as once more we turn to the good folks at Ninja Tune for today's selection. You Are Beautiful At All Times is the debut of Houston musician Joe Corrales, a.k.a. Yppah. Kind of sounds like something Speedy Gonzalez would say, huh?



"Yppah! Yppah! Andale! Arriba!"


But alas, this is no Mariachi music. It's atmospheric electronica with a healthy dose of heavily effected guitar and punchy beats (which figures, since according to his bio he has been both a rock guitarist and a turntablist DJ - talk about jack of all trades). And while that description is pretty lame, the music is not. Have a listen...

Yppah - Cannot See Straight

Be sure to check out the Sade remix on his Myspace, it's pretty wild.

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And since the sound is kinda sorta similar, I'm gonna take this opportunity to direct you to another artist with a Myspace page, a good friend of mine, Mr. Shawn Lyon, who produces under the moniker Delicate. This guy is also a super-talented guitarist/knob twiddler despite the fact that he is from Idaho. Seriously, I thought all they had up there was snow and potatoes. Expect his music to be at a record store/on a big screen near you in the very near future.

On Planet Dub, the trees smell really good

I must ask that you don't let the horrendous cover art scare you off of this one :P



... cuz, ya know, a giant, crazed space moth smoking a huge doobie can send, um, mixed signals, I suppose. But never fear! This is actually a pretty good 2-disc set from the now defunct Planet Dog Records, which had a good run in the '90s as one of the better trance-related labels, featuring Eat Static and Children of the Bong at the top of it's roster. Planet Dub features some pretty trippy, Orb-like electronic ambient/dub goodness and also some slightly more traditional-sounding dub selections, like this track by some dudes I won't even pretend to know anything about...

A.N.R. ft. Roots Lepkie - Rockers Rising

It may not be Lee "Scratch" Perry or Mad Professor, but it's pretty close. I gotta go now, though. I need to buy a can of Raid. That moth is freakin' me out...

Ronson's got it covered

I can be all current like those other blogs when the occasion arises...



"Funky" and "Coldplay" are two words not often uttered in the same sentence (unless of course that sentence somehow works in a mention of Gwyneth Paltrow's lisp), but that has all changed now, thanks to the ubiquitous Mr. Mark Ronson. But hey, when you get the Daptone Horns involved, there's gonna be some funky going on. Ronson takes Mr. Paltrow's uber-sensitivity, throws it into the wussy bin where it belongs, replaces the vocals with scorching horn lines, and picks the tempo way up to turn the song into a soul stomper. Pretty damn impressive...

Mark Ronson ft. the Daptone Horns - God Put A Smile On Your Face

Maybe I'm a little harsh on the Coldplay, but hey, you name your kid Apple, you got some smack coming your way. "Hi, I'm Tony, this is my son Banana and my daughter Cantaloupe". Wrong! They're your kids, not a friggin' fruit basket!

As for Ronson, you might be surprised to know that his album of funky covers, Version, still isn't out in the US yet, since the tracks have been floating down the interweb tubes for months... You'll have to wait 'til July 10 for that... but it's gonna be a good one. Here's a bonus live video of Mark and pals from a UK TV show with their take on The Smiths...



Why do I look at that singer and think Blow Monkeys? Hmmm....

Straight, no blather

Another installment from our good friends at Compost Records to start the week off right.



Compost's The Future Sound of Jazz series of compilations is one of the longest running around, with the last installment being number 10, but for today's pick we go back to number 2 and an fast-paced jazz-house number by British producing team Chaser. And, um, yeah... that's about all I know. So I'll spare you the mindless drivel that usually occupies this space and get straight to the tune...

Chaser - Sides of Iron

Nice one... and that's how we roll on Monday. All killer, no filler :P

The man with the fat soundtrack

How about a group living up to their name?



I've been getting into The Cinematic Orchestra more and more over the last year or so, especially since I copped the live set from Vancouver that has been squishin' around in the interweb tubes (go find it... it won't be hard ;) ). Their sound is just so lush and warm and um... cinematic. Really Tone? You don't say? Man, you are so deep... they must pay you to come up with brilliant insights like that!

I wish. Anyhoo, The Man With The Movie Camera is the one work of theirs which was actually composed for a real film, a film with an awesome poster, btw. Check out this baby...





What do they call that style of art?

So they had a film festival in Portugal in the year 2000 and they asked The Cinematic Orchestra to perform a live score to the movie and voila, here's a sample...

The Cinematic Orchestra - Reel Life (Evolution II)

Great stuff. And thanks to the magic of the YouTubes, here's a clip from the film along with T.C.O's score...



Trippy shit, eh?

Finally, they have just released a new album, too, so you might want to check that out. It's a bit different, way stripped back from their normal sound. See what ya think...

... and have a great weekend!

Rollin' thru Khartoum

I don't imagine you could get farther away from yesterday's selection than this...



Okay, I'm not going to pretend I know anything about today's artist, apart from this. Abdel Gadir Salim is a Sudanese singer and oud player, the title means "I am destined to love", and I picked up this song a while back from the great African music blog Benn Loxo Du Taccu. I tried to get some expert opinion, but I couldn't pry Tom Schnabel off his Filipino pool boy long enough to get any information out of him. Figures. So I'll just say this is a nice, subtly funky groove that has African, Arabic and even Western elements (sax solo!) to it and the singing is silky smooth... this is really "accessible" African music (although I kinda hate that term, but whatevs).

Abdel Gadir Salim - Qidrechinna

Sounds like summer music to me!

Stuart Scott owes these guys some money

Before we get to today's music choice, I'm stoked to say that my Brazilian summer mix has been given props and linked to by the king of all Brazilian music blogs, the mighty Loronix. So a big thank you to Zecalouro... I am honored!

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And now, the musical group you least want to ever get in a fight with...



... unless the thought of tangling with 7 gigantic, tatted-up Samoans who, by the way, also used to be card-carrying South Central Bloods, sounds like a good time to you, in which case go for it. I am of course talking about the one and only Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.! Definitely the second toughest group of Samoans ever, after of course these guys...


Afa & Sika say "Boo-yaa" too!

Anyone with me on that one? No?

Anyhoo, the thing about the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. (standing for Too Rough International Boo-Yaa Empire, so actually they had Boo-Yaa in their name twice, which is twice as awesome), is this... despite the fact that the phrase "Boo-yaa" has become bad comedy, these guys were actually pretty damn good. They were down in the beginning of West Coast gangsta rap, (among the founders, really), they worked with everyone, and their shit is tight. Just check it out...

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. - Riot Pump

Yeah, the vocals are a bit shouty but the beat is right on. And another cool thing is that all 7 of the brothers (yes, they were all real-life brothers, too) played their own instruments! You can't front on that folks!

And you can't front on The Wild Samoans, either...



Boo-yah indeed!

This is not my beautiful Salsa!

A glimpse into the formative years today...



You know I have a thing for the Latin music, what with the horns and the bongos and whatnot, but strangely, this thing pretty much started with, of all bands, Talking Heads and their final studio album, Naked. If my memory serves me (and it rarely does anymore :P ), I picked this up on my senior year school trip to London. So, I'm expecting, I don't know, something like "Burning Down the House", and I pop this tape (you heard me, tape!) in and all of a sudden today's song starts playing and I'm like Moe from The Simpsons...



"Whaaaaaa?!?!?"


It grew on me though, and then David Byrne's latin-themed solo album Rei Momo (which is awesome) came out shortly thereafter (I think), and I was in. Hey, you get it from where you can when you grow up in a small town. There weren't exactly any Latino (or Black or Asian or Non-White of any kind) people around, so I had to learn about the Latin vibes from some of the whitest people you can think of. But whatever, it did the job!

Talking Heads - Blind

I would pay big bucks to see a Talking Heads reunion, but apparently David Byrne is a huge cock and the rest of his former bandmates hate his guts, so I guess I won't hold my breath on that one...

They plump when ya book 'em?

Oh God, is it Monday again already?

It is? Fuck. Well, I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was super, and some of you may have already noticed a little bonus post that I snuck in there yesterday when you weren't looking. What, didn't catch that one yet? Well, go ahead... I'll wait...

...

...

Got it? Good! I want to hear some feedback on that one, folks!

But just because I got all mix-y over the weekend, that doesn't relieve me of my daily duties. So...



Not a whole lot of edification to go with today's pick, just some simple instruction. Plump DJs make fine music known as breaks. Finger Lickin' Records are fine purveyors of said breaks. Search out and acquire said breaks on cd, album, or electronic media such as mp3. Play said breaks on stereo equipment of choice. Shake booty.

Plump DJs - The Funk Hits The Fan

Repeat as necessary. That is all.

Hello Summer!

Tonegent Presents "Mistura Do Verao"


(Continuous (sorta) DJ Mix (or should I say blend?) - 76:48 - 87.9 mb @ 160 kps - yeah, I know... it's huge. Deal with it :P )

100% Pure Brasilian Summer Vibes:

1) Escola de Samba da Cidade e Paulinho e sua Bateria
2) Milton Banana Trio - Vesti Azul
3) Mandrake Som - Deixa Isso Pra La
4) Trio Mocoto - Swinga Sambaby
5) Raul De Souza - Estamos Ai
6) Luiz Carlos Vinhas - Ye-Mele
7) Dom Um Romao - Escravos De Jo
8) Escola de Samba da Cidade e Paulinho e sua Bateria
9) Sergio Mendes - Capoera Do Brasil
10) Escola de Samba da Cidade e Paulinho e sua Bateria
11) Luiz Bonfa - Apache Talk
12) Luiz Carlos Vinhas - Pourquoi
13) Azymuth - Esperando Minha Vez
14) Joao Donato & Eumir Deodato - Whistle Stop
15) Bebeto/Helcio Milito/Luiz Eca - Reflexos
16) Jorge Ben - Ponta De Laca Africano (Umbabarauma)
17) Caetano Veloso - Alfomega
18) Gilberto Gil - Bat Macumba
19) Tom Ze - Dor E Dor
20) Banda Unaio Black - Black Rio
21) Gerson King Combo - God Save The King
22) Banda Black Rio - Vidigal
23) Miguel De Deus - Black Soul Brothers
24) Dom Salvador e Abolicao - Uma Vida

Enjoy!

No, Soup for you!

One of my all-time favorites today...



Alphabet Soup are straight-up legends in the Bay Area, and the only live hip-hop band I've ever seen that can come within shouting distance of The Roots. I actually came to know of them completely randomly, though. At the time I was living in Marin County, and one night a bunch of the folks that I worked with at a movie theater decided to go out together. After a harrowing 100mph drive down the twisty part of the 101 to the Golden Gate (thanks to my insane friend Puckett), we ended up at this relatively nondescript club on one of the piers, and the Soup just happened to be the evening's entertainment. I was blown away, and probably went and saw them once a month for the remaining time I lived up there as they gigged constantly. This is the only album they've put out in any kind of wide release (as far as I know), and why they never picked up any kind of following outside of Cali is a mystery to me, especially since the Acid Jazz thing was so big in the early '90s, as was the jazzy hip-hop like Tribe and Digables. I'm so stoked to see that they are apparently still out there doing it and even have an active Myspace page. Made my day. Enjoy...

Alphabet Soup - Take A Ride

You can cop the record for a measly buck on Amazon. It'll be the best buck ya ever spent.

Peace. Have a great weekend.

Today in NPR Music Cues...

Jazz Guitar, bitches!



And probably the best ever in Mr. Grant Green. I'm trying to remember exactly which show on KCRW uses this for their promos (pretty sure it's "All Things Considered"), but that's neither here nor there. This is actually a Burt Bacharach tune, with some cute lyrics basically telling women that just because you're married, don't be gettin' all frumpy and shit, or your man will go out and get himself a little piece on the side! Well, that's the 00's version... they said it a lot more, um, politely back then...

Hey, little girl,
Comb your hair, fix your make-up.
Soon he will open the door.
Don't think because
There's a ring on your finger,
You needn't try any more

For wives should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
I'm warning you.

Day after day,
There are girls at the office,
And men will always be men.
Don't send him off
With your hair still in curlers.
You may not see him again.

For wives should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
He's almost here.

Hey, little girl
Better wear something pretty,
something you'd wear to go to the city.
And dim all the lights,
Pour the wine, start the music.
Time to get ready for love.

Dim all the lights,
Pour the wine,start the music.
Time to get ready for love.
Time to get ready,time to get ready for love.
Time to get ready,time to get ready for love.

I'm so ready for love right now, let me tell ya.

Anyhoo, no lyrics on this version. Green is accompanied by two of John Coltrane's top guns, pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones (two names you need to know), as well as bassist Bob Cranshaw who I've not heard much about. It's a catchy little number in 6/8 time, so get ready to snap those fingers...

Grant Green - Wives And Lovers

BTW, I'm going to the dentist today for the first time in (cough cough)... so if I survive that, I'll see ya tomorrow...

Mos Def vs. Jack Bauer

Hey, we haven't heard any hip-hop in a while...



Mos Def is pretty much just an all-around cool dude. He makes good music, he's a pretty good actor, he's does the Def Poetry, he hangs out with Dave Chappelle... and he closed down Coachella a couple years back in most memorable fashion. You wish you were there... it was awesome. Yup, he's kind of a renaissance dude. The only thing he can't do is program a TIVO. Seriously, I missed three episodes of 24 because I left that guy in charge, and I'll never forgive him. You can't just miss three episodes of 24, ya know? Too much goes on! (Okay, that didn't really happen, but I gotta say, this year after getting off to an awesome start... what with Jack having to kill Curtis and the nuke going off in Valencia, the show went straight into the crapper. The appearance of Ricky Schroder = the exact second 24 jumped the shark. If Zack from Saved By The Bell shows up next year, I'm gonna go burn down the Fox lot, I swear.) They should put Mos Def on the show next year as Curtis' pissed off brother who comes and challenges Jack to a freestyle battle, loser gets a cap in his ass. But Jack would probably win because Chloe would be sending him rhymes on his PDA. Either that or Jack would shoot him in the face.

Where the hell was I going with this? Uh, never mind...

Anyhoo, Mos Def put out his third musical album recording in December, and this is a selection from it. I like when Mos sings, as he does here, and I like the reggae vibe for him as well...

Mos Def - Crime & Medicine

... so yeah, that's pretty good. And check out this flick he just finished shooting with with Jack Black. I'm gonna see the shit out of that movie. But unfortunately it's not out 'til next year... damn.

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Finally, a quick reminder not to fuck with Jack Bauer...



That tree got off easy, if you ask me.

From here we go Hoff!

Another selection from a German record label today... if this keeps up, we may just hear a David Hasselhoff song by the end of the week...



From Here We Go Sublime, the debut record from Swedish producer Axel Willner, aka The Field, has been getting some major love around the blog-o-sphere these days, and with pretty good reason. Although it's out on techno label Kompakt, I wouldn't exactly call it techno... it's not all about the thump and has a nice, lush, even ambient texture about it... actually it's even kinda trance-y and though that sounds pretty scary, it's really quite good. Here, see what you think...

The Field - The Little Heart Beats So Fast

Definitely something different for around here, and the album is a nice listen all the way through. Good music for night driving, I would imagine...

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And you know what? Fuck it! Here's the Hoff in all his glory! I've been making proclamations lately, and this may very well be the Greatest Music Video Ever Made...



I could start commenting on that, but honestly, I'm just speechless right now. Just don't hassle the Hoff, 'cuz who knew the motherfucker could fly? Imagine a drunk Hasselhoff swooping through your window on his flying motorcycle with a spear in his hand and a chip on his shoulder! Be afraid. Be very, very, very afraid. I just had a nightmare and I'm not even asleep...

Plus Music

Okay, it's official. Summer is here. How do I know? Because it's 8:00 AM and it's already 80 degrees in Burbank. Get ready to sweat, people. This one's gonna be a doozy.

Ready for a genius segue?

Wait for it...

From hot weather to cool tunes!

Damn, I'm good :P



Germany's Compost Records is one of those labels where you can buy anything they put out without listening ahead of time, and have no worries that it's gonna be tight. Take this record for instance. I'm pretty sure I came across it at an Aron's sale or in a used bin somewhere, looked at the artist, title... never heard of 'em. Flipped it over, saw the word "Compost" and instantly put it in the "to buy" pile. Took it home and was just floored by how good it is from start to finish. Minus 8 is in fact the alias of Swiss producer Robert Jan Meyer, and well, that name is kinda boring, so good work on the handle, bro. The sounds on the record vary from way-downtempo to way-uptempo, kinda like Jazzanova, and since I've brought that name up, I'm guessing I don't have to say much more. Here's some mid-tempo broken beat bliss...

Minus 8 - Beyond Material

I could listen to that stuff all day...

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Oh, and for some great videos from Coachella, be sure to check out the stellar recap over at Benzaiten Music. You'll feel like you were there, except your braincells will still be intact and you won't have had to throw away your shoes. Peace.

This is where the magic happens...

I've noticed that in the short run of my shuffle-based blogging, that Friday's selections for whatever reason have turned out to be quite funky. Today, not so much....



I made a big proclamation yesterday about Led Zeppelin and I'm about to make another big proclamation today. Saint Etienne are quite possibly the Greatest Pop Band of the Last 20 Years. Yeah, they have a rabid, albeit small, fan base, but they've been criminally under-appreciated by the mainstream. The members of Saint Etienne pick perfect pop songs out of their teeth after breakfast, I'm telling ya. If all pop music was as good as Saint Etienne, we wouldn't have to bitch all the time about how bad pop music is. If Saint Etienne was the biggest band in the world, the terrorists would throw away their car bombs and start bunny farms.



Continental is a Japanese import, odds-n-sods compilation and it's the only place where this song has popped up. So this perfect little pop song here isn't even good enough to make a proper Saint Etienne album. That should tell you something. Be careful though, it might make ya cry...

Saint Etienne - Lonesome

Buy It!

I'm a little choked up myself. Just focus on the bunnies, Tone. Focus on the bunnies...

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Now, I am not ashamed to admit that I think David Blaine is awesome, at least when he's doing his street magic. But he certainly is ripe to make fun of. This parody, in two parts, is one of the funniest things I've seen in quite a while.

Part 1:



Part 2:



Genius. Makes me wanna borrow a camera and shoot something. Hmm...

Have a great weekend!

Ready to (Classic) Rock!

It ain't all drum machines and synthesizers 'round here...



Since I don't consider Radiohead to be a quote-unquote "rock band" (You ever hear any stories of Thom Yorke trashing hotel rooms or banging groupies or snorting ants? Me neither! They may be geniuses, but they're pretty much a bunch of boring nerds. They have a freakin' blog for crissakes! That is SO not Rock & Roll!), I consider Led Zeppelin to hold the title of Greatest Rock Band of All Time. And really, it's not even close except for maybe the Stones... and don't even mention the word Beatles in this conversation, or I will smite you - they were the original boy-band until they did a load of drugs and got freaky. Led Zeppelin, now, they were born freaky, and that my friends, makes all the difference. You think Jimmy Page would put up with Yoko Ono's bullshit for more than like 5 seconds? Hell no! He woulda kicked her shrieky ass out the door, erected a bouncy castle in his hotel room, filled the sink with Jack Daniels and wrote a song about Gollum while getting a three blow jobs! And you know what, the Gollum blow-job song would fuckin' RAAAAAAAAAWK!!!!!!!

This song, however is all quiet and pretty, from their fifth album, Houses of the Holy, which I would say is one of their best, but they're all brilliant, so what's the point in that?

Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song

Buy It!

Because sometimes you gotta serenade a lady before you stuff a live fish up her hoo-hoo...

Anybody remember Drum & Bass?

It was pretty popular for a second there, ya know... what with all the drums and... er... bass... and, um... I got no idea where I was going with this bit.



So anyhoo, here's one of my fave trax from '96 (yeah... '96... I don't think I'm going to get over how old I am any time soon... this is just getting silly) off a 2-disc mix compy by LTJ Bukem. Actually there were a series of these. Adam F, well, if his website is any indication, is a bit of a wanker. But he came out with a few good tunes, and this is my favorite, probably because it's got MC Conrad on vocals, and damn if that dude doesn't have the most booming voice ever. Brother could make "My Humps" sound ominous...

Adam F - F Jam (Vocal Mix)

Buy It!

I'm hung over. See ya tomorrow.

2 x 4 (Tet)

Today a couple of collaborations by Mr. Kieran Hebden, better known as Four Tet. First, the one the shuffle picked for me...



This album was the first in what has turned into an ongoing series of collaborations between Hebden and veteran Jazz drummer Steve Reid. Reid has a long and impressive resume, hittin' da skins for everyone from Miles Davis to James Brown (you may have heard of them?), so why he wanted to collaborate with this skinny knob-twiddler is quite beyond me :P The results have been pretty interesting, mostly taking the form of free jazz freakouts + electronics, maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but certainly interesting listens. This track more of a straight up jazz number with a thematic horn line, some solos and Hebden squiggling away here and there at his leisure, with Reid keeping a solid rhythmic underpinning... hah! Actually sounds like I know what I'm talking about there, don't it! Goin' all NPR on yo ass!

The Steve Reid Ensemble - Which One

But It!

They've put out three more since, with more to come. If you check out their website, there is some interesting video of them at work. Geek out on that.

-------------------------

So that was today's shuffle pick, but I also recently came across this:



Mr. Tet also has a band that he formed way back when with his mates from university, and that band is called Fridge. Their third album, The Sun, is coming out soon, and the sound is a little bit closer to what you'd expect...

Fridge - Comets

Nice. Out June 19th. You heard it here first!

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So, a couple weeks ago, the little lady and I were out for a morning walk along the Marina channel, cuz that's how we roll, and I took what I thought was a nice picture of the UCLA rowing team practicing. I decided to send it to them and they liked it so much it's now the first photo that comes up on their website. So add the "photographer" feather to my hat. Put it right next to the "dork" one.