Sir Guy and the Rocking Cavaliers

Ewwww- Weee. Here be a hot funk burner. Sir guy from '69 with "Funky Virginia," a track that shows love for his home state. Just from the drum intro you know this one is out of sight...

Tighten Up

Ramsey Lewis

Posting an old classic since I haven't in a long time. This one never strays to far from me, a perfect sunny day listen you can let ride all the way through. For anyone who hasn't heard Ramsey, check out his vast catalog- he's a pioneer and has made a long career in stretching the possibilities within jazz piano. This record is one of my favorites along with Sun Goddess, Mother Nature's Son from '68 is an all instrumental reworking of select tracks off the Beatles' White Album. He collaborated with famous Cadet/Chess producer/composer Charles Stepney to create a truly amazing record full of both acoustic and electric piano, great funky drum beats and original arrangements. You will recognize every track whether you're a Beatles fan or not, then let these two take you on a ride that keeps steam the whole way through the album. Here's the feeler "Rocky Raccoon" below followed by the rest of the album...

Mother Nature's Son

The Carter

So at this point, this progression of hiphop posts has gone from highly polished to pretty damn rough with this final post.  The Carter

I just found out this movie existed and I was pretty damn interested to find out what the hell it actually was.  And it’s a fuckin trip.  Wikipedia says it was filmed in Cinéma vérité style, which after looking it up seems about right.  Lil weez actually withdrew his support of the film after it’s second showing.

I got this movie thinking it’d be about Lil Wayne and how you start with straight shots and whatnot.  It’s not.  It’s about this dude who’s always got a blunt in one hand and a styrofoam cup in the other.  He doesn’t drink or do any other drugs, just Purple Drank and ganga...all the time.

He refused to do any interviews directly with the filmmakers, so they just followed him around and got bits and pieces when he’d do other interviews.

The movie kinda drags b/c he’s always twisted on Sirup, speaking verrrryy slooooowwwwllllyyy and never really saying much.  It’s pretty interesting though, he’s constantly recording new tracks, I guess he’s got over 1,000 recorded.  He says he doesn’t write anything, just comes up with hot lines and spits directly from those.

Then there’s the thing about the drank and the friciton it’s caused, so that’s another aspect of the movie.  Overall it wasn’t at all what I thought I’d see, but it was an unprecidented look at a truely strange person.  Check it out.

The Charmels

In the soul mood today, and after Ted's last couple post about Wu-Tang- figured I'd post the C.R.E.A.M sample that blew them up. The Charmel's "As Long As I Got You" is a beautiful track itself, and ridiculously good if it's the first time you've heard it...

Joann Garrett

"It's No Secret" by Joann Garrett of her record Just For Taste from '69. Cool instrumentation with her voice makes this a unique track...

Rock The Bells

Rock the Bells is a 2007 documentary about promotor Chang Weisberg’s nightmare of a concert which attempted to bring together the Wutang for a final reunion show.

Now I was at a Rock the Bells concert with Noah in NY back in 2007, this however is about the first one in 2004 in LA.  The lineup consised of Wu-Tang, Redman, Dilated, Sage Francis, Supernatural and on and on and on.  Naturally there’s some good concert footage of the supporting acts, but the real focus is on Wu-Tang and the logistics of putting on a much anticipated concert in douche bag city.

The doc's kindof gotta home-spun feel to it, with lots of, what I would imagine was, B roll making it into the final cut.  I’m guessing the reason was a lot of it was classic shit was shot, like Redman on the phone refusing to do any interviews b/c the promoter didn’t greet him at the airport him with a bag of weed.  Or the two Wu Tang roadies with vaguely familiar names talking shit to the camera.

Man, what a nightmare though, I don’t want to say much about what transpires but there’s definately a part where ODB is locked in a hotel with what was discribed as “7 crack rocks.”

One review on rotten tomatoes said this flick is a combination of celebration of hiphop culture and disaster film.  I think that’s about right.  Check it out, it’s a wild story.

One last thing, if you look at the Rock the Bells Wikipidia page, there’s a note in the reference seciton which I’ll quote directly:

"Tickets and Lineups...Problems cited include: weather and scheduling conflicts. However, it was later revealed that the real reason for cancellation was that Chang (promoter) had too many penises in his butt at the time."

That last line made me laugh.  Check out this flick though, it's pretty dope...and I think it's the last footage of ODB before his death.

The Stereo Shoestring

Texas psych monster "On the Road South" by the Stereo Shoestring.

Whisky David

Wow. My new theme song. "Whisky" from '75 by the Whisky lovin' Whisky David. He sounds like a really drunk ZZ Top but funkier. Can't go wrong here...

Party, Party

Willie Mitchell

Here's some happiness for your old man winter blues wherever you are. Cheer up, you're almost through it. Mr. Mitchell is here to save you. Willie unfortunately passed away recently, I've been listening to him- digging through the vast amount of grooves he blessed us with. I'm going to give you three of my favorites, and two are covers of unlikely tracks that he distinctly made his own. First is his cover of the Young Rascal's "Groovin'" from the album above. Most of you will recognize it immediately due to the fact it is one of the most seminal samples of all time used by the Wu. Next is the track "20-75" which is rich with style and Willie's signature touch. Lastly is a cover of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" that is infectious to say the least...

Gloria Walker & The Chevelles

"You Hit the Spot Baby"- 1968

Willie Bobo

"Fried Neckbones & Some Home Fries" -1966

Stitch

Satan! If this doesn't make you want to lose it then most likely you're dead inside. Behold the power of Stitch bitches. From Sweden and from '82.
Devil's Deal

AKA

Essential listen here furls. Indonesia's AKA wraps psychedelic, funk, prog and fuzz into their unique sound, here's their whole anthology Hard Beat released last year. Listen to "Do What You Like" below and check out the riff followed by funky ass break-beats. Some of the best shit I've heard in a long time. Thanks Mr. Wyld Chyld for this...
Hard Beat

Wu

The best hiphop album of all time has to be, unequivocally, 36 Chambers.

The 2008 BET documentary “Wu-The story of Wu Tang Clan,” tells the story of the Wu, this is a real picture of who the Wu were and are now.  I’d seen it a few years ago I think I actually watched it with Noah, and because there’s not much else out there about Wutang, I got it again just as a refresher.

I’m sure most people have seen this, but if you haven’t yet, check it out.  There’s lots of old footage from videos and old interviews with most of the members.  There’s also a good bit about ODB and his release from prison.

There is also a 2009 doc called “Dirty: The official ODB Documentary” which I’ve been searching for but as far as I can tell it’s not available.  If anybody knows where I can find it, hit me up.

Tribe

And now for something completely different.

Today we’re going to flip the script well away from the dark and depressing and move into the world of hiphop.  First up is one of the greatest groups to come out of Manhattan, the Tribe Called Quest.

Michael Rapaport’s 2011 documentary “Beats Rhymes and Life:  The travels of a Tribe called Quest” documents the beloved rappers tracing back their roots to the group and how the whole thing started.

It’s a dope retrospective that’s made with a sortof sober style that gives it a foundation as a serious film.  The story of tribe is pretty well known, they all hooked up in the mid eighties dropping their first album in 1990 with four subsequent albums coming out over the decade.  Nearly all of them I would consider classics now save for maybe the Love Movement.  I remember in college I would have days where I’d put on the first 4 albums and listen to them back to back, all day long.

Now it’s nearly 30 years since their inception and Rapaport was right in his timing to make a focused documentary.  It’s funny seeing them all grown up, until now the dudes from Tribe were always the scrawny kids with quick one line interviews in hiphop documentaries.

It’s a pretty interesting story, naturally there’s the beef with q-tip who’s kinda a bitch in my opinion, but whatever that’s what happens with most long running groups.  Overall though, I’d say check this doc out if you’re a fan, it’s really fun to watch, if you’re anything like me you’ll be pretty well captivated by the nostalgia of it all, singing along with the tracks as they play in the background, remembering how much you were into that track or that album.  Let us not forget that hiphop was actually really good music once, check it out for a refresher in what once was...

Black Metal

Huh, well I guess that was a movie about black metal, but it wasn’t really.  It was more so a movie about church burnings I guess.  I don’t really care about church burnings.  Arson is bad, sure, but I don’t see churches as much more than buildings, and if nobody's inside then, well, it’s not that big of a deal.


The movie features some prominent figures in Black Metal and gives a good foundation to understanding it as a misinterpreted type of music, or at least it clearly wasn’t Satanic.  I don’t really know why the churches were burned, I guess it was a rejection of Christianity and cheers to rejecting it and making a statement.

It’s interesting how the media perpetuated the whole thing, creating this ‘brand’ as Eponymous puts it.

Unfortunately the movie doesn’t really get into the music at all, no live footage, no crazy shit on stage, there’s no real connection between the content of the music and the people.  No explanation is really given to what the music is and where it comes from.  I guess that’s what I was looking for and got a bunch of info about arson.

It’s all good though, kinda interesting but I would have really liked some more nuts and bolts so to speak.  That and some on stage animal sacrifice.  Then it’d been pretty damn good.

Although there is a suicide scene which looks pretty goddam real.

Thats all
-T

Krautrock

Krautrock.  That’s a hell of an name for a genre, but there it is.  This Documentary by the BBC which aired a couple years ago traces this genre of bizarro German goodness over its ten or so year reign (1968-1977).  The bands include Noid, Can, Faust, Amon Düül and most noteably Kraftwerk.

I’m not exactly sure what possessed me to get this I think I was researching Kraftwerk and came across it.  It’s really interesting though as a lot of it’s taken from the perspective of post war Germany.  There are some good interviews and some really rare really out-there concert clips.  And, if you’re interested, there’s a great collection of Krautrock albums floating around out there which can shed further light onto the good, bad and ugly of what is Krautrock.

Ugly Things

Hands down one of the best garage comps I've heard in a long time. This came out in '92 I believe, weird I never got a hold of it till recently. Ugly Things is all Aussie bands with a few familiar names such as The Master's Apprentices "Poor Boy" and the Lost Souls "This Life Of Mine," but every song on the comp hits. Listen loudly and enjoy ya louts...
I'm Your Witchdoctor

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats

Finally posting some recent music, here's one of my favorite albums of 2011. Some nice original heavy doom/psych/garage/murder/occult/rock for your ears. These dudes are out of the UK, and kinda came out of nowhere. This is their sophomore release aptly titled Blood Lust, here's the track "Ritual Taste" below...
Horror Time

Strawberry Path

Japanese psych furls Strawberry Path with "Woman Called Yellow Z" off When the Raven Has Come to the Earth from '71. Same dudes from Flied Egg but heavier and bluesy.
Yeah