Toe, jammed.

Get ready people... it may be Monday, but I'm not easing you into it this week. Today's post if very deep, thought-provoking, conversation-starting... you get the idea. Ready?



So... last night I stubbed my toe on my desk so hard that I expected it to be pointing sideways when I looked down at it. Luckily it's not broken, but it hurts like heck. I'm limping around the office like a gimp. Lovely. So this funky little Hugh Masekela jammy is dedicated to my bashed up little toe, for obvious reasons...

Hugh Masekela - Toejam (ysi)

Sorry to make it so deep on you all today, but it can't all be fun and games....

Keeper or Coaster?

Allow me to wax nostalgic for a wee moment, if you will...



Back in the days before Amoeba put every other record store in town out of business, L.A. was the place for cheapo parking lot sales. Aron's Records, Rhino, Rockaway, Record Surplus... hell, you could go at least once a month and feast on $1 CDs like Kirstie Alley at a Vegas buffet. It was beautiful, I tells ya... in part because you could just buy shit because it had a cool name/cover art, and if it sucked, big deal... it made a handsome drink coaster. Of course, sometimes you'd get lucky and pick up something like this Moon Orchestra record. Cool name? Check... I'm a sucker for any "orchestra". Cool cover art? Check. (Actually I found you could tell a lot about an unknown CD from the font used. I'm not even making that up.) The music? Nu-Jazz chillz from a solo Norwegian dude that wouldn't sound out of place on Sonar Kollektiv...

Moon Orchestra - Midnight Movies (ysi)

... but! That's it in the Moon Orchestra oeuvre... except for like, a production credit on a Princess Superstar song. Therefore I can only conclude that, since Mr. Moon was from Norway, that he was most likely trampled by an Elk. Pity, that... the boy had potential...

Davis Represent!

I don't generally do dedications here, but since this song popped up on the shuffle, and it's her theme song, this one is for Miss EJ... I mean, you gotta give a shout-out when there's a theme song involved...



Solesides, I think I can safely say, was the greatest Hip-Hop record label ever to be founded in the thriving metropolis of Davis, California. It earned that label by A) being the only Hip-Hop record label ever to be founded in the thriving metropolis of Davis, California, and B) being the launching pad for people like, oh, DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born and Lateef, the last two of which formed with their Wonder Twin powers into Latyrx and recorded my friend Miss EJ's theme song...

Latyrx - Lady Don't Tek No (ysi)

The label more-or-less morphed into what is now called Quannum Projects, and continued to put out what is now called Dope Shit. Explore...

Soul Brother #1

I like to be hip and up-to-the minute sometimes, and I like to be the nerdy crate-digger sometimes, too... but sometimes I don't need to turn ya on to music you don't know, but remind you of who's responsible for it all in the first place...



I would have to imagine that between whoever invented Jazz (I believe it was Al Gore, right?), whoever invented the Blues, Kraftwerk and James Brown, that's pretty much the group people responsible for the whole of modern music. Okay, those folks and whoever invented sea shanties. You don't want to leave sea shanties off the list... first thing you know there's a knock on the door and some pirate's standing there like, "The fuck?!?! Arrrrr!"... Anyhoo, today I have for you some classic James Brown...

James Brown - Licking Stick, Licking Stick (ysi)

You know the part that kills me in this song... in the middle of the first verse where James just goes "horns" and then they come in. Amazing. But then again it's James Brown (who eats grits and craps amazing) so duh...

Yo, aliens! Check this out...

Hey all, back to normal around here, not that anyone seemed to notice anything had changed over the weekend, but hey, whaddaya gonna do? I merely try, people...



So... kinda cool that the new Boxcutter record would pop up in the shuffle so soon after I just mentioned it, but lookie here! Synergy, bitches! Or is it Serendipity? I have no idea what either of those words means, so your guess is as good as mine! :P Anyhoo, in case you can't be arsed to click, the point is that this is one of the better Dubstep records, period...

Boxcutter - Old School Astronomy (ysi)

One thing I did not know is that the Arecibo Message is that transmission they shot out into space in the '70s that contains the basics of the human race for aliens to check out... and then decide how best to destroy us. (Psst! When in doubt, go with really big lasers). Interesting read if you click that link... if, of course, you can be arsed...

666 666 666 666 666 666

Welcome to Post #666 of the Tonegents Interweb (DEVIL!) Blog. In honor of this (SATAN!) occasion, I've concocted a special (HELLFIRE!) mix experience. And I believe you've probably figured out the (DAMNATION!) theme by now, because DEVILDEVILDEVILDEVILDEVILDEVILDEVILDEVIL! (Okay... I'm done.) BEELZEBUB! ADAM SANDLER! (Okay, really done.)

Tonegent presents "Too Much Devil"

(Continuous Mix - 70:08 - 96.32Mb @ 192kps)

1) The Grateful Dead - Friend Of The Devil
2) Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo
3) Cesar Ascarrunz - The Devil & Montezuma
4) The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil (Neptunes Remix)
5) CunninLynguists - Hellfire
6) Talib Kweli - Hell
7) The Pharcyde - Devil Music
8) Tony D - The Jersey Devil
9) Tricky - Hell Is Around The Corner
10) 20th Century Steel Band - Heaven & Hell Is On Earth
11) Curtis Mayfield - (Dont' Worry) If There's A Hell Down Below, We're All Gonna Go
12) Nina Simone - Go To Hell (Mowo Remix)
13) Max Sedgley - Devil Inside (Kraak & Smaak Remix)
14) Meat Beat Manifesto - Hellfire
15) Orbital - Satan (Industry Standard Edit)



I suppose I could have waited until tomorrow, 6/6, to post this, but I didn't want to go all overboard... Enjoy.

Droppin' Names... and Funk

I do love to name drop, I gotta admit it. Hey, I live in Hollywood... it's a fuckin' sport out here...



The first time I heard of L.A.-area funk band Orgone was when they played one of my best friends' weddings. Little tiny room in a restaurant/bar in Newport Beach. They absolutely killed it for what seemed like hours, mixing their originals in with covers like "Funky Nassau" (which I found out that day was already being caned by people like Gilles) and Syrup's "Sweatshop" (which really scored them bonus points from me). That and the fact that they were some really cool peeps. The Lady and I bought 'em a bottle of wine to quench their thirst and chilled with 'em between sets. Did I mention they're really cool peeps? So I'm gonna give you one for free as usual, but you better run out and buy this record like pronto, people...

Orgone - Already Doin' It (ysi)

Tomorrow, a post months in the making...

Be afraid. Evil lurks...

Arcane references and samples

It's Humpday, time for the Shakey's Bunch of Lunch Buffet! Somewhere out there, someone will get that... for the rest of you, some sample source fun awaits...



Tummy Touch Records, headed up by the inimitable Mr. Tim "Love" Lee, has been turning out slightly off-kilter tunes for quite a while now. The label's releases tend to be funky but a little bit disturbed... in a good way... much like Mr. Lee himself. Groove Armada actually got their start there as well, and this compy from 2000 contains what might be GA's funkiest song ever... but the shuffle didn't land on that one. It landed on this number by Los Chicharrons, who are somewhat less famous... but no less funky... check it out...

Los Chicharrons - Silence Before The Storm (ysi)

I like the "met him at the party" sample, so I dug it up for you. Turns out it's sloooooooowed down snip from a Gloria Gaynor song (or more likely the a cappella thereof). A song that seems like a very unremarkable slice of whatever Disco until about three minutes in when the borderline amazing conga & spoken word break drops...

Gloria Gaynor - Casanova Brown (ysi)

Somebody needs to sample that shit! Ah, I'm sure someone has. But I can't be arsed to figure that out right now, so I will bid you good day...

Afrobeat is rather neat...

And that is easily the laaaaamest title for a post in the two-year-plus history of the Tonegents Interweb Blog. You're welcome...



Now, I've been known to bitch about how America is the worst at just about every current form of music around here, and well... it's mostly true. Quite ironically, one style that has no shortage of good, new-ish American bands right now is Afrobeat. Because of course, right? You got yer Antibalas, Kokolo, Akoya, Chicago Afrobeat Project... and maybe my favorite, Nomo, who rep the Serengeti-adjacent oasis of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Nomo just logged album number three, Invisible Cities, but the shuffle landed on a track from their first. Authentic biznezz...

Nomo - Hand And Mouth (ysi)

I'll never get tired of Afrobeat horns, no sir. Okay, busy day here at the salt mine... both Chris Isaak and Soulja Boy Tellem are in the house. Can anyone say "dream duet"?

In which I make a painful admission...

So apparently Eminem got some Sacha Baron Cohen balls in the face at the MTV Awards last night. The disturbing thing about this news item... the MTV Awards were last night? I had no idea. None. I mean, as a fan of good music I have no reason to care about the MTV Awards, but damn, I am officially out of touch... there, I said it.



... so I guess I'll just do what I do and post a record from 1969. This Ralfi Pagan cat apparently made a name for himself as a "sensitive Latin lover"-type... and with a voice as weird and high as his, I'm guessing "sensitive" was a good way to go. I'm just sayin', dude was no Barry White. Unsurprisingly, most of the stuff on this record is a little on the slow, sappy side, but there are a couple of burners on here that make it worth your attention. Like this...

Ralfi Pagan - Latin Soul (ysi)

Ralfi also earns bonus points for being murdered under mysterious circumstances. What?