Super Random Friday Five Track Free For All Freak Out

Greetings from the tail of what was my Hectic Hump Day...and man, if Friday isn't banging on the door already...

I'm currently in the midst of simultaneously monitoring the taping of 3 different classrooms with a total of six cameras...and using the ol' sneaker net to monitor a "Digital Media Law Seminar on IP Rights As Corporate Assets" moderated by the lead counsel for a company y'all know, even if yer not using their software anymore.

So let's further complicate matters by attempting to distract myself and get a "blog" post up for y'all...

and then I'm outta here, no last call, no b.s

So how about a Five Track Free For All Freak Out...



Whoops I noticed that in my haste, I didn't bring my "stash"...

Y'know the deep digital repository from which I oft draw my inspiration from...

I am referring to the fact that I thought I left the house today with my extra "hard drive", the one with the 250 Gigabytes of mp3z to supplement my meager "blogging" skills...

Turns out where gonna have to wing it with my wits alone & the mere 80 gigs of tuneage I have on hand...

Well I guess i'll get by, and somehow distribute some of those corporate assets around & increase the sonic peace...

hey

Not only is it Super Sunday this weekend...

But considering we've just had a super state of the union, and we're heading into another round of "Dupe the Nation" coming up on Super Duper Tuesday, I imagine everyone's feeling pretty super?

right?

here's some super news stories for y'all , each with a little super duper freakiness quotient for ya




Anyhow in honor of all this wintry freakiness in the air:

Here's a Brazilian hit track called Freak Cat by the band known as Jumbo Elektro, from São Paulo ...

Jumbo Elektro
"Freak cat" (mp3)
from their album "Freak to meet you!The very best of Jumbo Elektro"
and also featured on
"Tratore Basics 2: New Brazilian Rock"
(Tratore)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
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Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon
More On This Album




I recently was digging in the digital crates and pulled this nugget of classic jazz funk flim flam out of the detritus, and I think it's a story that's worthy of sharing with ya...

It's got some serious street cred, unlike most of the candidates for office you see running about these days.

Eddie Jefferson was one bad mutha, a tap dancer and an O.G vocalist whose "vocalese" style influenced not only King Pleasure, Lambert Hendricks & Ross, and the Manhattan Transfer, all of whom worked with him. Also I swear indirectly lots of jazzy funk, especially the Sugarhill era rap, and quite possibly the less fluid crap you still hear these days. Eddie would kick back in his jammies with his Victrola, and used to come up with lyrics to great jazz instrumentals. He'd play these composistions after hours for pals, and one got out to the wider world.

His biggest hit being "Moody's Mood for Love", was based on a song that was a 1949 instrumental hit for Jack Moody. Eddie composed lyrics that got picked up by the curious ear of touring musician King Pleasure when he was visiting Cincinatti.

King Pleasure recorded Jefferson's version, but when asked to duplicate the style again for a new tune, the King fessed up that it wasn't his idea. He told people about some dancin' fool on the midwest black vaudeville circuit. Eventually by 1952 Jack Moody the alto saxman went looking for Eddie and found him in Cleveland. Moody reportedly needed the now quasi-legendary Eddie Jefferson to tour & deliver the lyrics to appease the audience demand, and everywhere they played was packed.

Eddie Jefferson created lyrics to a Lester Young solo on 'Its Only A Paper Moon' and renamed it 'Lester's Trip To The Moon', which was a big track for Dexter Gordon.

Eddie Jefferson had a long & winding career path, and was tragically shot and killed by a bullet fired from a black Lincoln Continental as he was leaving a famous Detroit club called Baker's Keyboard Lounge on May 8th 1979. Apparently the shooter, a fellow dancer had some bad blood with Jefferson, but the corrupt Detroit cops never came up with enough evidence to convict the purported killer.

Interestingly, just two nights before his death, a crew filmed his show with Richie Cole in Chicago. It's out on DVD under the title, Eddie Jefferson: LIVE FROM THE JAZZ SHOWCASE

Here's Eddie from 1968's Body & Soul, his comeback LP where he gets down while revamping a Horace Silver tune by giving it some serious "vocalese" swagger.

Eddie Jefferson - Filthy McNasty


I noticed that supposedly importing Absynthe is now legal here in the states...

In fact the first distiller in the US is operating just a few miles away on the little island hamlet of Alameda.




I haven't been in a big hurry to pound any, afterall, I've seen the holes this liquid chews in marble in all the old Absinthe houses in New Orleans...and god knows what it does to the soul. It contains "wormwood" extract, and that can't be very good for ya can it?

Although, my deranged distant relative Edgar Allen Poe swore by it, it appears he also seemed to be into syphilis as well...

Anyhow, I do enjoy this song that goes by the same name as that weird green elixr

In fact I have a video of the track I shot some years back at SF's Covered Wagon Saloon posted below the mp3 here...

Ladies & Gentlemen, hopefully they need no introduction, here's The Gits, from their Seafish Louisville live release recorded in their hometown of Seattle by Doug Pray's crew during the making of Hype...

The Gits - Absynthe ( live )



It's getting late and I gotta get out of here so I can get back by 8am

So here's the last two tracks of this friday Freakout Mix:

First Up

One Am Radio in a collaboration mix with Lymbyc System...



One AM Radio - Mercury ( Lymbyc System Mix)

Incidentally Lymbyc System, dialed in the remix above, not only are being repped by my pal Todd Cote's Leafy Green Booking empire, but have their own remix EP coming out in which other acts muss up & mangle their tunes from their "Love Your Abuser" CD...details here

Here's the track from the upcoming release where One AM Radio returns the favor of the flavor to the Lymbyc System

Lymbyc System - Astrology Days ( The One AM Radio Mix)

Anyhow...

gotta go folks...

If ya missed my last post on Willie Dixon, be sure to check that out here

I have 2 songs from some rare live video shot in 1981, and some classic cuts in mp3 form for ya as well

Willie Dixon : Till The Day I Die !

On this date in 1992, while America's teens came to grips with grunge, and the NY Giants celebrated their recent Super Bowl victory over the Buffalo Bills, in Burbank California, at St. Joseph’s Medical Center, a one legged, diabetic old black man passed away.

Very few people working in the hospital probably realized that the man, whose musical influence was still felt daily on rock radio, was one of the most important blues musicians, if not musician of any genre in the post World War II era.

Born one of 14 children in 1915 in poverty outside of rural Vicksburg, Mississippi, his life was a story of fights & skirmishes. A man who'd once been Joe Louis' sparring partner, and a 1937 Golden Gloves Boxing Champion. He also fought against the US Army and served a year in jail in 1941 for his conscientious objection to the draft in WWII. He was escorted by Military Police off the stage of Chicago's Pink Poodle Club.

But he prevailed after his release, parlayed his talents into some gigs, record deals, and eventually became a man who'd written and recorded so many songs, they numbered well over 500. By the time of his death, his publishing catalog rights alone were worth well over an estimated 10 million dollars.

That man was Willie Dixon...



He may have seemed a background figure during his peak productivity period of the 1950s & early 60's, merely backing up other performers, but Willie Dixon had a plan. He was always working, playing bass, writing and producing sessions, and through it all, he is considered the driving force in what's known as the "Chicago Blues sound", particularly that on Chess Records, and later for Cobra. Artists who relied on his skills for their successes include Muddy Waters, Magic Sam, Chuck Berry, Howling Wolf, Memphis Slim, Otis Rush, Little Walter, Buddy Guy and many others. While the Chess brothers may have owned the studio at 2120 S. Michigan ave in Chicago, one must wonder how thriving of an enterprise would it have been without Willie Dixon's creative genius?

His bass playing laid the foundations of so many blues & rock songs it's impossible to calculate the depths of his influence and his role as an architect of the blues & rock idioms. So many of his songs went on to become hits for other artists, including a slew of white arena rockers who used his compositions as a solid sound & foundation to further their careers.

In the 1970's, Dixon continued to tour & record, and aside from some occasional work with Chess & Columbia, mostly as a solo act for smaller labels like Yambo and Ovation. He also won the first of several legal fights in 1977 to see the return of copywrites, and publishing monies from his Chess years. In the 1980's he established the Blues Heaven scholarship foundation from his increased royalty funds. His final album "Hidden Charms" was released in 1988 on the indie Bug label, distributed by Capitol. He also released his autobiography, "I Am the Blues" at around that same time in 1989.

In his autobiography, Dixon recounts his saga of becoming one of the first professional blues song-writers to benefit from his craft materially. But he had to fight to do it.

His legacy is an important symbol of the injustices that early writers and recording artists were put through.


Seven years prior to his death, in 1985 he'd won acrimonious litigation & damages, and the right to writing credits, in a dispute that a certain British rock group named Led Zeppelin had stolen his musical ideas for a song they called "Whole Lotta Love" and appropriated them as their own.

Willie Dixon's victory over Zeppelin was just one in a war, and the legal battles did not even end with his death. After he passed, a former manager kept sniping claims at his estate, attempting to secure as much as 33% of Dixon's publishing royalties that he claimed he was due. Finally after many years of contentious court cases, the decision finally rested with Dixon's widow in 1995.

Willie Dixon, a child of the segregated south, eventually had a street named after him in Vicksburg MS, but it was posthumous, much like his election into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame Hall of Fame.

That doesn't mean he isn't slandered to this day, those who say he was a shrewd bully in the studio who'd steal the collaborative songwriting credits just for himself. Detractors include David Johansen of the NY Dolls who tells a story In the film New York Dolls - All Dolled Up, how Dixon used to offer meals to hungry songwriters newly in Chicago from the Delta in exchange for the rights to their songs. Johansen claims "Hoochie Coochie Man" was one such song and called Dixon "The Vampire of the Blues."


WC Handy was apparently guilty of the same thing, and at least Willie Dixon ddn't build up his reputation by simply sampling his way to the top like so many in the current crop of creeps on the charts...

He's a truly remarkable character... and dead too...

So let's not speak ill alrighty...

Vampire or not... he should be recalled long after "Vampire Weekend" fades from yer cranium...


We think about ye sir, and we salute ya Willie...up there in Blues Heaven.

When in Chicago, be sure to visit the Blues Heaven HQ at 2120 S. Michigan Ave, site of the Chess studios where Willie did some of his most famous studio work...and due to Willie's persistence, it is officially recognized as a protected Chicago Landmark.


Here's a tiny sample of music associated with Willie Dixon:

Before Willie Dixon had his Chess era, he was a member of the Big Three Trio, which formed in 1946.

The groups first big break was backing Rosetta Howard on a recording of her #8 charting hit Ebony Rhapsody in 1948. Even though the recording of this 78 is over 60 years old, you can hear Dixon's thumping bass fairly clearly.

Rosetta Howard - Ebony Rhapsody

Here's a recording the Big 3 Trio did for the Delta Label out of Nashville in the early 50's.

Big Three Trio featuring Willie Dixon - Till The Day I Die

The Big Three Trio
"Till The Day I Die" (mp3)
from "The Best Of Delta Records"
(SnailWorx)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon
More On This Album



Here's a cut from a 1964 Folk Blues tour of Europe where Willie was in the band backing up various Chess blues stars, like Etta James cousin...

Sugar Pie DeSanto + Willie Dixon - Slip In Mules

This next & final track is actually a soundtrack excerpt from an out of print video I've posted below from a 1981 Willie Dixon show. In it, you'll hear some brief interview comments on the Blues by Mr. Dixon, and the song 29 Ways, plus an excerpt of I Think I Have The Blues with an elongated spoken intro from Willie.

Willie Dixon - 29 Ways + I Think I Have The Blues

and the video version for y'all



For more videos of Willie in action, check out this collection:

Historic performances by the aristocracy of American blues, unseen for forty years and never before released, comprise the latest addition to Folk Blues DVDThe American Folk-Blues Festival DVD series. The British Tours 1963-1966.

In this archival footage Willie is seen as part of an all star band backing folks like Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Turner. Playing alongside Willie are guys like Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Hubert Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim, Clifton James, Bill Stepney, Otis Rush, Little Brother Montgomery, Jack Myers, Fred Below, Cousin Joe Pleasant.


Here's an 18 track audio collection worth checking out featuring Willie Dixon in conjunction with many of his collaborators...




Good Stuff!!

and have a good day...

Happy Birthday : Elmore James

On January 27th back in 1918, Elmore James was born in Richland Mississippi.

From inauspicious beginnings, he went on to become one of the most influential blues guitarists of the 20th century. Legend has it that his family was so poor that Elmore had to improvise homemade instruments made of broomwires nailed to the frontporch.


James whiled away his early years playing on the Mississippi itinerent musician circuit alongside contemporaries like Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson, before joining the military in WWII. After serving in the navy, where he was stationed in Guam, he came back to central Mississippi and resumed playing the juke joints, including a stint as sideman for the second Sonny Boy Williamson. Eventually a small label in Jackson owned by a lady named Lillian McMurry called Trumpet Records gave Elmore a chance to record. On August 5, 1951 he went into her furniture store at 309 Farrish St, played an old Robert Johnson tune he remembered called "Dust My Broom". Rumor has it that James was frightened of being electrocuted by the recording equipment's microphone that Mrs McMurry led him to believe it was only a rehearsal. Elmore was supposedly so angry at the deception that he refused to record anything more for her, but this event changed the course of his life when it became a surprise regional R&B hit. By 1952 it was in the top ten on the national charts.

Elmore James - Dust My Broom

The success of Dust My Broom led to more opportunities including more money for his favorite moonshine liquor, plus lots of touring with his band the Broomdusters and more recording contracts. Another Mississippi musician named Ike Turner soon hooked Elmore up with the Bihari Brothers' based on the West Coast. Elmore recorded another minor juke joint hit in 1952 called "I Believe" for the Bihari's Meteor label.
They then issued many sides under the Flair imprint. Elmore also recorded in the later 50's for Chicago's Chess Records, as well as Vee-Jay. Perhaps his best known work was done in the early 60's for Harlem based Fire records, including the stand out track "The Sky Is Crying".

Elmore James - The Sky Is Crying

Despite his fame, very few pictures of Elmore James seem to have survived, and no film clips that I know of.

Here's one hot number from a 1960 session for Chess

Elmore James - I Can't Hold Out (Talk To Me Baby)

Elmore was born with a heartt condition, and died of a heart attack at the age of 45 in Chicago in 1963 and is buried in Durant Mississippi.


He was specifically cited by many famed Brit rock n rollers as their top electric guitarist of choice, including kudos from Brian Jones & Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer and Eric Clapton. His wailing bottleneck slide style, gruff vocals and the general feel of his music was very influential for rockers like Robbie Roberston, Jimi Hendrix, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughn who often played sweltering versions of James' classic "The Sky Is Crying" in his sets. Other bands you may have heard of doing his music include Albert King, George Thorogood, The Allman Brothers and even Ike & Tina.

Elmore James - Standing At The Crossroads


pssst... if ya digging the Chicago blues

check out my post on Willie Dixon

Happy Django's Birthday

Happy Birthday Django...


On Jan 24th 1910, in a traveling gypsy camp in Belgium, Django Reinhardt was born. His father was an itinerent musician, and the wee Django accompanied him on trips throughout France, Italy and North Africa.

By the age of 12, he was a "professional" Parisian musician, who'd made the banjo/guitar his instruments of choice. Playing dancehalls by night, he'd made his first recordings under the moniker Jiango Reinhardt by the time he was in his late teens.

In 1928, at the age of 18, a fire destroyed the caravan he shared with his wife, badly burning his right hand, and severely limiting use of his left hand. During recuperation, he revised his technique and to the surprise of many, continued his career using only two fingers. After hearing sides of not new U.S jazz from contemporaries like Louis Armstrong's Hot Six, and players like Joe Venuti, and guitarist Eddie Lang, he was invigorated to join them in playing "Hot Jazz". His friend, Emile Savitry, who reportedly first introduced Django to jazz said that when Reinhardt heard the uniquely beautiful recordings of these influential artists,

“he took his head in his hands and began to sob.”

In 1934 he and his fellow guitarist brother Joeseph had a gig at the tony Parisain nightspot Le Hot Club, and formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Also in the group was violinist Stephane Grappelli joining Louis Vola on bass and Roger Chaput also on guitar.

Django Reinhardt Et Le Quinttte Du Hot Club De France - How High The Moon

Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Sweet Sue

Django Reinhardt Et Le Quinttte Du Hot Club De France - Limehouse Blues

The group were revolutionary in their approach, with a lead guitar backed by two rhythm guitars with Grappeli's violin and the guitars augmenting for the missing percussion parts. Their 78s swept the European continent, and the band began expanding their fan base to include fellow visiting jazz musicians like as Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and Louis Armstrong who all jammed with the group.

Django Reinhardt ( w/ Coleman Hawkins) - What A Difference a Day Makes (1935)

The Hot Club were part of Paris famed nightlife, particularly in the quarter Saint-Germain. Reinhardt, once he became less hungry & better known, began displaying his eccentricities, such as occasionally skipping gig, or refusing to carry his own instrument.

As WWII began breaking out the group was on tour in the U.K, where the jewish Grappelli stayed and Django decided to return to France. The group continued with clarinetist Hubert Rostaing replacing the violin of Grappelli and toured as far from the Germans as they could. Even though thousands of his beleaguered gypsy people perished under Nazi rule, Django was rumored to be protected by a sympathetic Luftwaffe official Oberlieutenant Dietrich Schultz-Kohn aka Doktor Jazz, who appreciated the gypsy's remarkable talents.

Reinhardt wiled away the war and earned a living, despite Jazz being officially banned in Vichy France under Hitler's despotic rule. Reinhardt was a gambler, drinker, pool player, and ladies man and soon had hooked up with a second wife whom he had a child named Babik in 1944.

After the war, Grappelli and Reinhardt continued their collaboration, culminating in a tour organized by Duke Ellington that ended with a 1946 performance at NYC's Carnegie Hall with Ellington's orchestra.

Despite being feted by critics, the music business itself was not kind to Django, and he grew impatient with the hustles & structures. At one point he was given an endorsement for Selmer guitars, but was forced to play electric which annoyed his old fans. Some say if Django had stayed in the US and learned to speak Anglais his life would have been far different. Yet, he was a gypsy and not prone to taking advice, following orders or schedules.

He stayed stateside for awhile, toured with Ellington a bit, but by 1948 returned to France. He immersed himself back into Gypsy culture, more or less fed up with the record industry's royalty games & lack of financial rewards thrown his way.

His last great recording was released under the title Djangology, featuring Reinhardt back on his acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri guitar. Joining him was Grappelli and the recording was true to his classic form.


After moving to a small riverside town outside of Paris, he died suddenly on the 16th May 1953 when Reinhardt suffered a massive brain hemmoredge and was pronounced dead.

For many years now, the town he lived in Samois du Seine has played tribute to this Romany hero each year with a music festival in his honor, and his music has brought joy to many millions over the years.

His legacy continues to be recalled for new generations in movies, including recent soundtrack uses in films like Chocolat, Sweet and Lowdown, The Aviator, The Matrix Revolutions, The Pallbearer, The Sopranos, and Gataca to name but a few.

Here is a brief and rare clip of Reinhardt playing from a French film from 1951, with some additional downloadable mp3 tracks below...





Django Reinhardt - Claire De Lune

Django Reinhardt - Three Little Words

Django Reinhardt - C Jam Blues

When Wednesday Comes, Bill's Asleep, Tuesdays Gone

Monday was a day off for a lot of Americans.

Apparently it's because some preacher got shot a long time ago trying to help out some striking sanitation workers.

Just goes to show you better stay out of other people's business, especially if it's garbage business.

My favorite MLK celebrant had to be the white guy smoking in the doorway of the copy shop I went to. All the machines & lights were on there yesterday, he just didn't feel like working I guess. Said he was on holiday. Wouldn't let me in out of the rain to copy a couple sheets of paper.

Dude if yer still at work, then that's not a holiday...



Looks like Bill Clinton could have used a day off Monday...

Apparently Bill's wife might be keeping him a little too busy...

What happened to all the pizza & b.j's?

So By Now, Tuesday Is Almost Gone...

Which was supposed to me some sort of U.S financial market meltdown, but that funky Bernanke cut the interest rate just enough to keep the bleeding in check.

Darn... I really wanted people to jump out windows, and that guy Cramer to blow a gasket or off himself on CNBC.

Remember last year when he aploogized for saying stock manipulation was easy, and that all the hedge funds were doing it?

Oh I guess he didn't "really" mean it...

well neither does anybody anymore...

Except our little Amy,

Despite the US financial markets escaping a serious meltdown, Ms. Winehouse seemed to suffer another PR blow as some skanko friends sold a cellphone video of her to the UK tabloid the Sun.

In the video, she babbles a bit in her thick cockney and pulls a few crack hits off some sort of glass pipe contraption. Nice...

Amy Winehouse, of course, has apparently refused any induction to a rehab.

here she is in another cellphone video, this one from her appearance less than a year ago in SF, opening with the prescient addicted.


And a local DJ's remix of her biggest hit...


Amy Winehouse - Rehab - Party Ben Remix Mash Up

And then as if that wasn't enough drama, some Australian Brokeback Joker dude named after a candy bar turned up dead of an O.D in New York.

Sounds like a good day for a song...

Hmm...

Being that I never paid to much attention to these classic shlock type things, all I know is this is the most mournful song ever composed for the day before hump day.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Tuesday's Gone

Maybe Tuesday is the name of the chick... or something. The thing does go on and on a bit...

Tuesday's gone with the wind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
My baby's gone with the wind.
Train, roll on 'cause my baby's gone..
I'm riding my blues away, baby
turn around my blues
ride on, train, ride on, train
ridin' my blues, babe
come back to me, babe
come back to me
oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh train...

oo-ooo, boo f*ing hoo ya big redneck galoots...

We know the rest of the story...

yer so sad to see yer baby bye bye that within minutes it's all "What's yer name little girl?"

Then there's something about the hassle of "Working for MCA". I know, Wasserman and them cats, they shoved all that blow, needles, spoons and groupies down yer throat.

We didn't exactly see ya reaching for any "Saturday Night Specials", and taking yer own life of misery did I ?

Like ya'll didn't just love it when yer woman was crying, and yer road manager was smacking around shyster club owners, and you were packing arenas, and stadiums and picking on Neil Young and getting in private plane crashes...



and suffering 30 more years of Tuesdays...

anyhow...

I'm a bit busy here...

So we'll leave it like this...

One more Tuesday track:

This one a Jagger/Richards composition from the soundtrack to Children of Men... ( a movie sitting on the DVR at home that I've sorta been meaning to watch, but have never gotten around to for one reason or another.)

Franco Battiato - Ruby Tuesday


And in honor of Wednesday...which is already here in many time zones...

Let's do these:


From a 1983 recording featuring the late Paula Pierce (later of The Pandoras)

Action Now - When Wednesday Comes

The Guthries are a rootsy combo that hail from Nova Scotia, and this was on their 2000 release "Off Windmill".

The Guthries
"Wednesday Night" (mp3)
from "Off Windmill"
(Hay Sale Records)

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More On This Album

So High, So Low, So Long

Hey...

Looks like ol' Ike Turner iced himself on the cocaine after all...

Now who'd have thunk that mean old maestro at 76 years young & well hung was still dabbling in the devil's dandruff...

Bad Boy til the end...

nothing new there...

so here's something sorta new:

Gorillaz feat Ike Turner - Every Planet We Reach Is Dead

and something old school:

Ike Turner - Twistin' The Strings


I LIKE IKE: There's more rare Ike Turner tracks at my tribute I posted last month here

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

Not only did I just have to shield my eyes from that news, but another all too real & disturbing tale Greg Palast is spinning today at his website...

Including an excerpt from Palast's latest audiobook & Ed Asner reading this prescient excerpt from the script of Paddy Chayefsky's 1970's masterpiece Network:

“The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. … It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity…. There are no nations, there are no peoples. There is only one vast and immense, interwoven, multi-national dominion of petro-dollars. … There is no America. There is no ‘democracy.’ The world is a business, one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work.”

Ed Asner - Network

I also just spent a good chunk of lasterday considering the meaning of "community justice" here in San Francis-fiasco. The mayor's minions have cooked up a new plan they think that could help rid the city of the drug addicted waystrels, and homeless nuisances. We'll see I supppose...

As much as I'd like to hear something innovative in the works, I wasn't real impressed, but at least they were trying to impress I suppose.

I doubt anyone in ol' Vladimir Putin's Russia, or say in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran or in the Myanmar of Than Shwe's Junta would even bother to try...

Which i guess makes me at least resigned to appreciate the good ol' USA.



In fact here in the good ol' USA, your gov't starts with the constitution.

Which leaves you to figuring out what's important, and what you like and might want to preserve.

Perhaps consider what you want to continue to like about living in the good ol' USA...

And what you don't want others to f*k around with...

But before you get ahead of yourself, a good place to start is reading the constitution...

I suppose that's out of the question for most of y'all...

The fact you even stopped by some lowly lil' blog is nice enuf I suppose...

So here's an idea...

Some friends of mine recently recorded the whole archaic Constituition thang, all it's preambles and amendments etc...

Even the OG stuff about people that only own a small percentage of their freedoms and whatnot...

Here's a two minute sample...

The U.S Constituition ( as read by Debra Jean Dean)

and for the real diehards... go ahead and download the full 60 meg mp3

at http://www.debrajeandean.com/constitution/index.htm

Then maybe you'll better appreciate Brian Dykstra, and his spoken ode...

Brian Dykstra - They're Killing Us
Brian Dykstra
"They're Killing Us" (mp3)
from "The Jesus Factor"
(Uproar)
Download more at iTunes Music Store
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and for the rest of ye not so civic minded sick lil monkeys...

join me in guzzling some brwws tonight, and getting "so High" with Nick Oliveri's Mondo Generator crew...

Mondo Generator - So High

Download "So High" (mp3)
from "Dead Planet"
by Mondo Generator
Suburban Noize Records

• Download more at iTunes Music Store

More On This Album



Is this a great f'n country or what?

War & It's Side Effects

We'll be paying as a country for lil' Bush's ill-timed folly turned endless bloodbath in Iraq for a long time.

Not only are the bills going to be financial & political weights around the necks of future generations, but the unintentional socio-emotional prices will be high as well.

Look at this sad, likely leftover human detritus from our war in Vietnam.

Meet Lam Luong, he's a 37 year old immigrant from Vietnam whose been here since 1984.

A quick glance at his features though, and my bet is that his daddy was a G.I drafted and serving in Vietnam circa 1971 at the time he was conceived. I'm guessing that this messed up multi-cultural moron possibly never met his G.I Joe daddy...he certainly didn't get rights to his Pop's last name.

If our bloated bully nation had never spent so much time while shedding so much blood in Vietnam, this guy never would have been conceived.

Which in turn means he also never would

• a.) have ended up in the U.S working for low wages as a shrimper,
  
  
• b.) become a loser crackhead
  
  or best of all possible worlds:
  
• c.) never thrown his own kids off a bridge in Alabama.
  

It's as easy as A - B - C my friends:

Anyhow...

The American dream has been pretty much a nightmare for many years ...

Growing up in the post Vietnam , Cold War Era shaped my warped perspectives...

And I became a nasty lil' psychedelicized punk rock rebel dropout... which seemed like a fitting idea at the time...

Not so great for the ol' bank account, credit rating or your slick social standing... but at least ya save money on all those golf lessons & country club memberships...

Plus the perks are plentiful... no job to waste your time at, and plenty shows & substances to keep ya spinnin' for years until ya realize ya only have a fraction of yer hearing & liver left.

Here's some of that good ol' rebel music that got me through the sickening haze of watching my country turn fat, stupid & lazy...

These are simple songs that say more in their attitude than they do in their production value...

We'll start with one of my all time fave political pranksters...

He levitated the Pentagon, created a panic on Wall Street when he threw money on the trading floor, riled up Daley's pigs in Chicago, fled the Feds & lived on the lam, grabbed protest headlines with former first daughter Amy Carter and is now 20 years gone after dying in a far too sad fashion for such a feisty figure...



Abbie Hoffman - God Bless America



I was of course a big fan of DEVO, and a lot of folks of my generation were duly impressed with their approach.

Formed in the wake of Kent State in the industrially f*cked environs of the once pastoral rubber city of Akron Ohio, these guys ascended to an unlikely artistic greatness, and are really not to be ignored. They were a near perfect execution of a late 20th century pop cultural statement. Everything from the quirky tunes, to the costumes, production, merchandising, videos and the whole shebang were amazingly well constructed purposeful parodies in an age that was beyond my teenage comprehension...

(They are still chiseling away at the youth culture, with Mark Mothersbaugh working behind the scenes on children's music projects for clients like Nickelodeon & Disney.)


My pals in Lagwagon were apparently also in the same camp, and along with our mutual love for the ponderous pomp & satanic sword play of vintage Iron Maiden, they also had time for Devo...

You can look up Devo in yer own time I suppose...


Here are Lagwagon doing the title cut from a 1981 Devo LP

Lagwagon - Freedom Of Choice

I saw an interview with our next draft dodging contestant, who mentioned how important it was for his bandmates to avoid the draft. Imagine if the Stooges hadn't perfected their 4F status and the world was forced to endure another decade of crap like The Association and Dino, Desi & Billy.

Thank gawd that this peanut butter & blood smearing freak lived through Vietnam, and can continue to entertain us all today...

Gawd forbid, he had gone to 'Nam and started making babies...

Where would aging boomer targeted companies like Cadillac and Carnival Cruiselines get music for their wack tv commercial ad campaigns ?

Iggy Pop and The Stooges - Cock In My Pocket

Iggy And The Stooges
"Cock In My Pocket" (mp3)
from "Metallic K.O. - The Original 1976 Album"
(Jungle Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album







In the wake of Vietnam, with the petrol addicted 1st world empires in repose, we ended up with Britain huffing a whiff of the Stooges & NY Dolls. Soon bands like The Clash, Ian Dury & the Blockheads and Eddie & The Hot Rods arose out of the pubs & shook up the scene.

Ian Dury wrote an enduring punky 70's sort of anthem, that still holds plenty resonance today with a certain fringe devout following...

Ian Dury - Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll

Here's a midwestern U.S based band known as Soul Asylum doing a live Eddie & the Hot Rods cover a decade or two later, showing that the wasted U.K pub pop scene had legs, if not a legacy. (At the end you can hear Dan Murphy dedicate the track to Articles of Faith singer Vic Bondi, a fixture on the 80's hardcore scene in Chicago and featured in the documentary "American Hardcore".)

Soul Asylum - Do Anything You Wanna do( Eddie & The Hot Rods Cover)

In the late 70's UK trend spotter Malcolm McLaren smelled blood & lots of bloody money, and suddenly we had the Sex Pistols, and even solo Sid Vicious attempting his best Eddie Cochran impersonation before stabbing the shit out of some whiny junkie broad from New Jersey.
Sid Vicious
"Something Else" ( recorded live Sept 28th '78 )
from the recent dbl CD release "Sid Lives".

Incidentally, this track was recorded live with with itinerant scenster Steve Dior on guitar backed by Jerry Nolan and Arthur "Killer" Kane of the NY Dolls as the rhythm section upstairs at Max's Kansas City.

On 9/28/1978 these junkie bashers in NYC banged away two sets ruthlessly in oblivion, while their 70's contemporaries like prog rockers Yes performed in the round at the Checkerdome in St.Louis. Hee Haw banjo man Roy Clark guested on the Muppet Show, and in Austin TX, at Armadillo World HQ, future American Idol judge Randy Jackson played jazz fusion as part of Billy Cobham's band, the same venue where months earlier an ill-fated Sex Pistols performance had been held.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in the Vatican, it was announced that Pope John Paul the 1st died mysteriously 33 days after he was named Pope. It was also just 2 weeks before Sid would reportedly find himself covered in blood at the Chelsea hotel and be charged with Nancy Spungen's murder.

(Jungle Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album





Eventually, like in any good war, the Canadians get involved and one of the greatest hardcore punk bands of all time would have to be Vancouver's D.O.A, whose War on 45 record is amongst the best punk releases ever...

Joey Shithead & Co.'s take on Edwin Starr's hit War written by Norman Whitfield is the definitive version if ya ask me...

Here's a couple more from that classic, and links to get it yer bad self...

D.O.A - War In The East



D.O.A - America The Beautiful

War On 45

D.O.A

Sudden Death Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at eMusic

Anyhow

gotta go pay some bills here... and plan my happy hour.