Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

10.31.2005

Working a new job at the green restaurant across the street means I'm getting re-educated in Ragga/Dub. I said my hippie days were over, and now I spend 30 hours a week cooking organic food next to a picture of Bob Marley. The next soccer mom to ask "Oh, is that you?" is getting a handful of habaneros in her fish taco. The best part of the job is picking the music. Being the newest of six employees, I'm easing my way into their raggamuffin hearts with a healthy mix of grime, dancehall, and baile funk. Give me another week to get settled, then stop by for a steady diet of shoegaze & soup, served loud.

I brought Sharon Jones to my first day at work, and she hasn't left the 5-CD changer since. I didn't know anyone since the Godfather of Soul even made this music anymore. I want to see this band live more than anyone playing today.



Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - How Do I Let A Good Man Down?
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - This Land Is Your Land

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Young ladies, in my Mercedes

10.26.2005

I inherited a different taste in music from each of my older siblings. Ann and Paul in particular were two sides of a discoball. Ann gave me my guilty love for early 80s soul, cruising around town in her top-down convertible singing "Never too Much." Paul, on the other hand, considered my musical education strict business. His idea of babysitting was locking me in his room with two crates of records from the garage. The first time I saw the Sugar Hill logo, I was hooked. Then I dropped the needle on Superrappin'. Flash was on the beatbox.



Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five- Superrappin'
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five- The Message

Bonus points to whomever can name everyone in the above picture. No googling.

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PASH - Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

10.21.2005

Pash is a computer program for efficient, parallel, all-against-all comparison of very long DNA sequences. Pash is also Australian slang for a long kiss & cuddle: eg, Most teenagers go to drive-in theatres just to pash on. Merideth Munoz (vox/guitar/style) named her band after one of these things.

Pash sound like that time in college when your friends dragged you to the overcrowded sports club. You are waiting drinklessly four bodies from the bar, cold sober and gagging in a cloud of cologne, when the jock jams stop suddenly and the lights go even dimmer. A beautiful thing forms in the void that very instant—a dirty wall of electric guitar. Then another, followed fast by a steady foundation of high-hat and thumping bass. Just as you are turning around to watch the band build an NYC dive-bar out of thin air, your friend from Seattle, whom you miss dearly though you never call him, walks up, grinning, and hands you a beer.

Here is an exclusive Pash download, from the upcoming Exotic Fever release This is a Care Package. The compilation, graphically designed by yours truly and featuring music from Mates of State, Mirah and Murder by Death, among others, is a benefit for HIPS, a DC-based organization dedicated to helping sex workers lead healthier lives.

"Down" was recorded by Jason Caddell of the late Dismemberment Plan, and sounds fresh as a cold-cracked PBR. "Four Straight Days" is from Pash's first full-length, available from Dischord Records.



Pash - Down
Pash - Four Straight Days

In related news, who remembers Pets or Meat? POM ONLINE!

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Veruca Salt wants it now, daddy.

10.20.2005

Did you forget about Veruca Salt? I sure did. Then I decided to make a mix for my niece, who was born in the 90s and thus missed them completely. So I got American Thighs, and wow. I forgot about Veruca Salt.

Only drugs can explain why I sold this album in middle school. It's everything I love about 90s rock. Slow-grinding, fuzzy guitars, pop-punk hooks and a girl driving the (unstoppable) bass. Please read the list that Stephen Walsh published over at McSweeney's.

WAYS ONE COULD, IN THEORY, FIGHT THE SEETHER

You remember Veruca Salt.




Veruca Salt - Seether | Spiderman '79 | Forsythia

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Cassette Jam 2K5: Cat Stevens + Toots & the Maytals

10.19.2005

I owe the inspiration for this post to Noz at Cocaine Blunts & Hip Hop Tapes, and Phillip at the MAKE: Blog. Noz said it the best, grammar or no:
In the mp3 blog press frenzy a lot of writers compared the phenomenon to making a mixtape and that's just not the case. As much as i love what technology has done for the dispersion of music...it will never come close to the hand to hand distribution of a really good pause/mixtape. it pains me to think that the youth of this and future generations will never know what it felt like to have to tape new songs off the radio if the album hadn't drop and you either couldn't find or afford the cassingle. They'll never fret over getting everything perfect on a mixtape for or about a girl you had a crush on, they won't know third generation hiss or cross their fingers in hopes that the drop outs won't be that bad after rerecording over a tape for the sixth time. They'll never shove tissue in the top of a wack retail tape to record some good shit, or have a song cut off at the end of the side and have to rush to flip over the tape to get the rest of it. ipod playlists are heartless beasts in comparision.

You're damn right they are. I've had my free iPod mini for two months now, and have yet to prance oblivious down the street with it. This is downtown Fredericksburg, for Lee's sake. I would feel ashamed, ruining some nice White family's Civil War re-enactment with my little white earplugs and my groovy black silhouette. Truth be told, the ryPod is currently plugged into my stereo via Matt's tape adapter, and I have no idea where the little white earplugs are.

The cd deck in that same shitty combo has been broken all year, so we've been leaning hard on our tapes & vinyl. Imagine my delight when Phillip linked this crazy collection of nearly every cassette tape ever made. Thank you, anonymous Japanese archivist, for the trip down Memorex Lane. Here are a few favorites to wash this morning's soundtrack flashback down with.

Alisha made me a mix in high school, covering one of these with rainbows & butterflies & stars. My first thought was "Fuji DR-I? What a classless bitch." I've been considered an asshole for about as long as I can remember - that's just my style. But I'd feel really blue if I didn't think you were going to forgive me.

Uh-huh, this my shit. Now if Alisha had given me her "specially picked good songs mix" on an XLII, we'd probably be conceiving little brown babies while listening to her tape, which would have retained a very high fidelity over the last decade, matched only by that of our fruitful hippie love marriage.

This beast is from the Seventies. Deven's mom gave me a sweet Deadleg on one of these. Mrs. Karvelas was on tour cooking for the band, and sat on the edge of the stage while Jerry sang "It Must Have Been The Roses" to her. That show was later released as Reckoning. I can't believe I'm listening to the Dead again.

Man all I know is that I have this tape somewhere. I don't remember what's on it, or where I got it. But just look at that shit, would you? It's like a little Trapper-Keeper for all your Human League B-sides.







So I dug around a while and found Alisha's tape. Here's a few choice cuts. See 'lish, at least I kept it this long. There's hope for us yet. "Trouble" is one of my favorite Cat Stevens songs. "Pressure Drop," I'm ashamed to say, is the only Toots song I've ever heard, unless you count "54-46," which I don't. Bad hippie.




Cat Stevens - Trouble
Toots & the Maytals - Pressure Drop

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Dolly Parton

10.18.2005

Everyone loves making fun of Dolly Parton. Ask most people my age what they know about Dolly and they'll say "um, she has big boobs." Truth be told, Dolly can write, sing and act circles around most of us put together. In addition to penning over forty top-ten singles, she's been nominated for a Grammy every year since 1969, winning seven. She was writing all of her own music and singing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville at the age of thirteen.

Not only is Dolly a fabulous songwriter, but a shrewd businesswoman as well. At the outset of her stardom, she began to invest her earnings into her hometown of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the current home of Dollywood, a bigger tourist draw than Graceland.

And have you heard her songs? "Don't Drop Out" is a classic girl-group tale about the benefits of staying in school. It sounds haunting, like a Phil Spector-produced girl-group from the early 1960s. Conversely, "Baby I'm Burning" is sheer countrypolitan disco magic (thanks to Matt at fluxblog).

This is not a joke. It's time we all gave Dolly a little fucking respect. Here is a quote to that end, from the Ladies' Home Journal, 1995:
"I'll be this way when I'm eighty, like Mae West. I may be on crutches, in a wheelchair or propped up on some old slantboard, but I'll have my high heels, my nails and makeup on, my hair'll be all poufed up and my boob'll still be hangin' out."



Dolly Parton - Don't Drop Out
Dolly Parton - Baby I'm Burning

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MashupMonday: (Dizzee Rascal + [New Order) + MIA]

10.17.2005

Today's hottest UK club sensations meet the number-one 12" single of all time. There's a great Kylie Minogue mash-up too, but I wanted to keep this colorful. Warmer...warmer...DISCO.



Blo Up - Blue Rascal
New Order - Blue Monday
Métamix - Bucky Monday

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Out of 5 - Themed Mixes

10.16.2005

I'm really digging this site, Out of 5. They do themed weekly mixes, with ten songs chosen by ten people. And the site design, also updated weekly, is fabulous. This week's theme has tracks from The Verve, John Lee Hooker, Paul Westerberg and more. Check these kids out.




www.outof5.com

SPIRIT WEEK Day Five: Joan Baez

10.14.2005

I'm all blogged out from yesterday's post. Joan Baez went to Paly. She grew up, dropped out and sang songs. She came back to Palo Alto and ate at my mom's gourmet deli a lot. For fans of Judy Collins, live Dylan, and high-pitched yelping soprano.



Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

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SPIRIT WEEK Day Four: The Grateful Dead

10.13.2005

I can't do written justice to my relationship with The Grateful Dead. No single memory captures those years of my life. The two years when they were the only band I listened to. Literally. Sure, I heard other music every now and then. But for my last two years of high school, the only tapes, records and CDs I chose to play were recordings of The Dead.

I could tell you about the time Deven and I took acid and PCP at Furthur Festival '96, where I spent most of the show believing I was a panther and growling at people who neared my lair.

Then there was the answering machine at Nick & Theo's house in Santa Cruz, which went something like this: "Hi, you've reached Jerry, Bobby, Phil, Pigpen, Mickey, Billy, Robert, TC, Donna, Keith, Nick and Theo. We're not here right now. In fact, we were never really here to begin with, so there's no point in leaving a *BEEP*."

This being Spirit Week, I should probably relate how every year we'd swear we weren't taking part in the rallies & races. But there's no such thing as a lonely stoner, so every year Aidan, Theo, Jesse and I would end up standing on a table in the middle of the pep rally with our mandolins and banjos, playing bluegrass covers of the Alma Mater. And "Friend of the Devil," of course.

How about the time we took acid before the talent show and got shut down for jamming to "Dark Star" twenty minutes past our time-slot? Jesse's guitar case was covering the kill switch, so they shut off the entire building's power to make us stop. "Ms. Wilson, I swear to GOD, it felt like we were up there five minutes!"

Too much man, too much, too much. But it is October, so I'll tell you what. Lemme hip you to this mean Vox organist, hella crazy, I mean this guy can play, and man he sucks a bottle of Southern Comfort like a C# harmonica. Yeah, you know who I mean, I'm talking about the nasty man himself, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Let me tell you about the Halloween we went to see old Pig.

Pigpen died at 27 from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage, brought on by advanced cirrhosis of the liver. Pig grew up in Palo Alto, in fact, he and Bobby briefly attended our high school. Kevin heard he was buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park, over by Kesey's VA hospital. So along with Theo, Deven and Ashley, we decided to pay him a visit.

Alta Mesa locks it's tall gates at sundown. But the wrought-iron only borders the cemetery on three sides. The fourth wall is a ten-foot high hedge that separates the back of the park from Foothill Expressway. We figured we'd park at Cow Hill, cross the highway on foot and break in through the hedge. We packed flashlights, forties, and blunts, with the plan to smoke & pour one out on Pigpen's grave, at midnight.

Halloween night came, and we were ready. Alta Mesa is a few minutes drive from my house. Those kids lived on the other side of town, so they picked me up in Kevin's van around eleven o'clock. We parked the van on the opposite shoulder from the cemetery. Being already a little drunk and extremely excited, we high-tailed it over the highway, held our breath and hit the hedge running.

Big mistake.

It was after midnight when we found a hole, barely deep enough to crawl through on our bellies. Ashley was bleeding through her tank top and we were all soaked in mud by the time we looked out on the moonlit graveyard. It was gorgeous. And enormous.

"Kev. Did you find out where exactly it is?"

This was usually the point in the misadventure where Theo flipped out and whipped someone with his chain-link belt until they cried. But none of us had done our homework, and it was a graveyard on Halloween. We split into two groups because Ashley refused to walk around alone. I would have done the same if she hadn't beat me to it.

Over the next few hours, we combed every headstone, footstone and mausoleum in the park. Up and down and around the perimeter, we double-checked, we checked each other's sections. We did one last lap as a group. The blunts had broken apart on the hedge, and what was left of the forties was warm and dirty. It was almost sunup, when Alta Mesa would open, so we left the cemetery, crawling on our hands and knees.

They dropped me off and I made straight for the shower. My parents were fast asleep until the pipes started running. As I rinsed off the night's failures, I couldn't stop wondering about Pig's grave. It had to be there. He was buried in Palo Alto. Kevin's uncle said so. When I got downstairs, my mom was making pancakes with apricot syrup. I wolfed down a stack, told her I was going to the library, and got on my bike. I was back at Alta Mesa in fifteen minutes, and the gates were open.

The caretaker saw me biking in and came out to meet me. He was a tall, older man with silver hair, dressed immaculately in a white shirt and skinny black tie. He looked me over for a second, then spoke:

"You must be here to see Ron."
"What?"
I was still on my bike.
"Hey that's alright, ol' Ron gets plenty of visitors. Most of them bring something though, roses or something."
"Oh."
I stared over his left shoulder, then at the ground.
"Some kids were walking around last night looking for him."
"What?"
"I said, some kids were walking around last night looking for him. Dunno how they got in, but they walked around for a while. "
"Oh."
"I sleep here, you know."
I nodded once and got off my bike.
"It's a shameful thing to do. That's why I lock the gates at night, you know. Sometimes the dead don't want to be disturbed."
I flipped my kickstand down.
"Anyways," he said, "I suppose you'll want to know where he is."

The caretaker pointed me down the road to a dying tree I'd passed at least three times the night before. And sure enough, two rows in from the road, nine plots right of the tree, is a small rectangular slab, covered in flowers and beads and notes tied with ribbon. It wears a small steal-your-face inlayed in pearl, and the epitaph reads in capital letters:


PIGPEN WAS
AND IS NOW FOREVER
ONE OF THE
GRATEFUL DEAD




The Grateful Dead - Easy Wind
The Grateful Dead - China Doll

If you are a dead fan, these are old favorites. If you aren't, they are unlike any Grateful Dead you've heard before. "Easy Wind" is an old blues jam, sung by Pigpen. "China Doll" is sheer slow-build psychedelia...the resolution-to-major at 4:15 is like tantric sex after a sin.

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SPIRIT WEEK Day Three: Fleetwood Mac

10.12.2005

Okay, Fleetwood Mac didn't go to my high school. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham went to my rival high school. They met during her senior year and immediately formed The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band, earning moderate success opening up for Jimi and Janis throughout the late 60s. The couple got romantically involved soon after Fritz broke up in 1971. They dropped out of college, moved to LA, got mono and wrote a lot of songs together.

Here are what I consider the quintessential Lindsey and Stevie songs, respectively. You can hear the sleepy, mono-induced hours of fingerpicking practice evident on "Never Going Back Again." And "The Chain" is Stevie at her most dramatic occult stage. Both can be found, of course, on the only Fleetwood Mac album I own.



Fleetwood Mac - Never Going Back Again
Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

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SPIRIT WEEK Day Two: Third Eye Blind

10.11.2005

I promise to never again post music I don't like. But it's Spirit Week, and so here you go - Stephan Jenkins, the lead singer of <gag> 3eb </vom> was friends with my sister Ann when they went to one of my high schools, class of '83. Ann still has all his albums and plays them out. I've only heard the hits, which I refuse to post. I heard these two songs are pretty popular though. Enjoy?



Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive-By
Third Eye Blind - How's It Gonna Be?

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SPIRIT WEEK Day One: The Donnas

10.10.2005

The Donnas ruled my world. They were at Paly when I was a freshman, and the only all-girl band I'd ever seen. We were never friends - they were (sort of) cute senior girls in a punkrock band, and I was a freshman hippie boy with a hemp necklace and an afro. But somehow they never slipped under my radar. Maté and I went to shows at Palo Alto's teen center, The House, and they were playing. Dean gave me his tape-cassette label's comp, and they had a song. Deven and I climbed on his roof every weekend to watch Torry (Donna C.) sunbathe in her backyard, directly across the street. Finally I discovered The Ramones, and these girls suddenly made sense. By this time The Donnas were going to college, and I was putting "Get Rid Of That Girl" on every mixtape I made.

The first two albums (The Donnas and American Teenage Rock'n'roll Machine) are still the best. 1999's Get Skintight has a few good tracks, but nothing special. Personally, I think they fell off with 2001's Turn 21, an uninspired repeat of their previous efforts, sans talent. I had completely written them off after their disappointing 2002 major-label debut, Spend The Night. Then Matt came home from work last year with a copy of Gold Medal, and my faith was renewed. Everything about Gold Medal is fab, from the gorgeous James Jean cover art to the rockabilly-tinged title track. The Donnas have completely reinvented themselves with this album, adding lush instrumentation, inspired songwriting and dynamics (dynamics!?) to their previously flat formula. If you'd given up hope like me, you need to hear this record.






Rock'n'roll Machine | Get Rid Of That Girl | Hook It Up
Crush On Me | Too Bad About Your Girl | Gold Medal

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SPIRIT WEEK Intro: Freaks & Geeks

10.09.2005

October 3rd-7th was Spirit Week at Paly, my favorite of the four high schools I ostensibly attended. I should have gone to Gunn like all my siblings, but it was full and so I overflowed four miles across town. The daily bike ride was worth it. I had everything I could ever want: a photo lab thrice the size of MWC's, an award-winning yearbook/newspaper/tv show, and plenty of stoner friends. Paly has it's own Robotics team, for Jobs' sake. Opportunities abounded.

So I made a cheesy anti-war video with my friends Dean and Jon. We spliced atomic bomb footage with Hendrix playing the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock, then finished up with gory scenes from Vietnam set to "Happiness is a Warm Gun." We called it Proud to be an American, with a dramatic question mark fading in to punctuate the title. Pipilotti Rist, move over. For some reason our video production teacher, a wild grayhair hippie named Ron, wouldn't stop raving about it, wanted to send it to festivals, showed it to all his classes. Dean moved to Boston, I went to boarding school, and Jon is now the cover story of the Palo Alto Weekly, wrapping up a short film with his NYC-based film crew. In the article he credits our junior year video class as the reason he decided to pursue film.

Some of my friends call our hometown "Shallow Alto." I'm sorry they had such awful childhoods. While it's true that most Paly students drive better cars than their teachers, it's also true that more Nobel Prize winners come out of the Bay Area than anywhere in the country. We grew up in one of America's hotter cultural crucibles, and I, for one, am grateful. So in true Viking spirit, this week's music piracy project will be five of the more famous bands to come out of Paly High. But first check out these Spirit Week pictures and video, taken by my friend Nick's kid sister for the Webby Award-winning Paly Voice (Columbia College took a close second place). Good job, Nell.

Starting tomorrow we'll go backwards in time with some bands that walked my hallways. Today we explore those halls with the theme song from "Freaks & Geeks." The fictional McKinley High was loosely based on my alma mater; with the same open-air campus, gym uniforms, school colors and mascot. Freaks star James Franco graduated from Paly in 1996, the year I started. I tried desperately to find his yearbook photo, but all I got was this interview with his brother Davey, who admits to getting laid a lot.




Joan Jett - Bad Reputation

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you say love and it sounds so good

10.07.2005

This song sounds like slow sex in love. It's my favorite Slowdive track, when I'm in a good mood. When I'm not, "Dagger" usually does the trick. They need to reissue Pygmalion, cause I'm not spending £80 on eBay. Until then, you can pick up the still-ridiculously-overpriced 2 CD comp.

In other news, I can't describe how good it was to see you all last night.




Slowdive - Blue Skied An' Clear

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Capitals vs. Blue Jackets

10.05.2005

I'm going to my first hockey game today. It's gonna be sweet. I feel like hardcore hockey fans probably listen to Evanescence though. Personally, I'm getting pumped to Bon Scott. Nobody since has rocked like Bon. When he drowned in a pool of vomit, the official coroner's report stated "death by misadventure." So bring it Columbus. If you want blood...



AC/DC - T.N.T.
AC/DC - Thunderstruck
AC/DC - If You Want Blood (You Got It)

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UPDATE: We got there real early, and the first song over the loudspeakers was "Back in Black." The Caps won 3-2.

Donovan

10.04.2005

Every time I watch The Rules of Attraction I lust for the split-screen scene that follows Sean & Lauren, up early on a Saturday for their (cancelled) tutorial on the post-modern condition. And every time it comes, I tell myself to find the song that's playing and never let it go. But then Victor gets back from Europe and Paul dances with Dick and the movie is over and I'm way too high. I owe my life to David at music (for robots), who posted that beautiful tune a couple days ago. Ironically, the 1965 mono version he posted (also on the movie soundtrack) is not the version actually used in the film. That is the out-of-print 1969 stereo version, which I'm posting here, along with the more common recording. I've listened to each one about twenty times this morning. In the morning, when we rise.




Donovan - Colours (1969 Stereo Version)
Donovan - Colours (1965 Mono Version)

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Jill Scott

10.03.2005

If you enjoy good early 70s soul, you've probably heard of Jill Scott. She sings prose with a modern slant, over retro beats. Don't talk to me about "neo-soul." This is an old formula; Jill just took it home and made it better. Here is the single from her Y2K debut album, and her track from the fabulous The Roots Come Alive. Erykah Badu mangles the chorus on the album version of "You Got Me," written originally by Scott. Who is Mike Jones? Nigga please.





Jill Scott - A Long Walk
The Roots (ft. Jill Scott) - You Got Me

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mirthday mix

10.01.2005

01 How Long? Out Hud
02 Lorelei The Cocteau Twins
03 Floating Julee Cruise
04 Don't Ask Why My Bloody Valentine
05 Candy Says (closet mix) The Velvet Underground
06 Unreleased Backgrounds The Beach Boys
07 Please Mr. Postman The Beatles
08 Little Stars The Jesus and Mary Chain
09 No Fun The Stooges
10 Party and Bullshit The Notorious B.I.G.
11 Cracked Actor David Bowie
12 Going Down The Stone Roses
13 Some Song Elliott Smith
14 Ride a White Swan T. Rex
15 Damaged Goods Gang of Four
16 Twilight The Raveonettes
17 Ghost Showers Ghostface Killah
18 When I Come Back Around Jamie Lidell
19 Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk
20 The Ass Pharoahe Monch
total time: 68:08

Have a great year.