Allow Page To Load & Discover Mp3 Musique du Jour Patronizingly Posted By A Demented Denizen Of The Left Coast
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Excuse the brevity but I have to get out the door here as the dawn comes...
I'm losing sleep due to climate change, or so it would seem...
Today is the start of a two day Climate Change shindig I'm involved with. Beginning at 8 am there's a group of esteemed panelists & professors from all over who'll be laying out strategies for emissions reductions, from legal, scientific & political perspectives.
Folks speaking and attending run the gamut of NGO's and Institutions, University of London, Earth Institute, World Bank, Pew Center and even our marquee name brand Mayor whose pet project is photo ops where he is pictured being the "eco dude".
I'm just the roadie, videographer and wacky web monkey who'll be helping out with seemingly stupid tasks like changing the batteries in the wireless mics, and getting the internet stream up so people can tune in on potentially a global level.
Live Audio Webcast of the "Surviving Climate Change" Conference http://peace.str3am.com:6360/listen.pls Use this link if you would like to listen to the conference through winamp, real audio or other software. The audio streams live. Thursday it will begin at 8:45am PST and end at 5:30 pm PST. On Friday it will begin at 9:00am PST and end 3:00pm PST.
The Keynote Speakers at the conference include:
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board
All this while half a world away, the real players are in attendance at the current round of United Nations climate change talks with reps from 163 nations that got underway on Monday in Bangkok. There so-called "Third World" African Nations are demanding a portion of 1st World GDP be set aside for them to combat the effects of climate change.
So instead of being out til 2:30 like last night watching Evolution Control Committee and Fluff Girl rock a St.Stupid's Day after party...
Dan Rather vs Evolution Control Committee vs AC/DC - Rocked By Rape
Since it's a leap year and the final February Friday and the weekend is coming to take me away, I'm just gonna throw up a mutant mini mix for all those trolling by today...
Feel free to add to your own digital diversity collection by perusing the ye olde tunes I have gathered on yer behalf today...
To lead things off I'm gonna pay tribute to my favorite city.
Here's a tune by the late Mr. Turk Murphy, a trombonist who was a legend in Herb Caen's San Francisco for many years. Turk and his many musical cohorts were leading performers in a New Orleans jazz Dixieland revival that was popular here throughout the 1950's & 60's.
Here's a pic of Turk jamming away...
A veteran of Lu Watter's Yerba Buena Jazz band in the 1940's, by the 1950's Turk had his own band playing spots like The Tin Angel & a regular gig at the busy Italian Village at Lombard & Columbus.
In 1960 he opened his own club... Even after the mob owned strip clubs & punk rockers made North Beach nightlife a less wholesome affair, Turk kept at it, but left the neighborhood.
He kept his club Earthquake McGoon's going, but moved it to a spot near the Embarcadero, and lastly it's final resting place at tourist trap Pier 39, which stayed open until the mid 80's.
Joining on vocals is fellow horn player Bob Schulz who played with the group from 1979 until the end of the Earthquake McGoon's era.
Continuing on this wayback machine journey, I steer this post on down to the tropical isle of Jamaica...
We head into Sir Coxsone Dodd's Studio 1, where a Mr. Welton Irie gives up a classic track fer yer perusal, it's one of about 6000 recorded songs & versions laid down in that hallowed ground...
Just in case ya never heard of this Irie individual, here's a short video clip of him boasting and a toasting of hitting the White House one night and sleeping with the President's daughter...
Welton Irie was born circa 1960, and recorded at Studio 1 circa 1977 before Dodd split for NYC. This track is also sometimes listed as featuring both Lone Ranger & Welton Irie, but what do i know. Maybe you should ask him. Welton, while obscure, is still active and has a MySpace page where you can simply be his friend, or even book him for session y'all. Welton Irie - Chase Them Crazy
We continue drifting back into 1972, where a certain LA based latin rock group put their spin on a perpetually popular Van Morrison track...
I have had their groovy Viva Tirado LP for years, but this track also on the Kapp label is new to my world... and hopefully yers...
The band was called El Chicano, and they still play a few oldies gigs every year I believe El Chicano - Brown Eyed Girl
A year earlier than that last track was recorded, a UK band that was signed to the Harvest label released an album called Message from The Country. Their orchestrated psychedelic pop sound is notable, mainly because it marks the beginnings of a new group that would soon sell multiple millions around the world and remain popular for decades... that being the Electric Light Orchestra.
Here's an early effort from The Move featuring Bev Bevan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood. It's from a remastered edition of this group's 1971 album, plus bonus tracks that EMI has painstakingly reassembled from original master tapes stored at Abbey Road and in Don Arden's archives.
The Move, who eventually evolved into one of the slickest groups ever in ELO, were alos known for wild antics onstage, and had a crash about stage show that apparently rivaled The Who, and would not have been out of place in punk rock years later.
Here's a live Move track from 1968, a cover of a Love tune written by the late Arthur Lee. This line up predates Jeff Lynne's involvement... as he didn't join til midway through 1969.
While I wasn't even born when the Move were tearing it up, and I got to town a bit late to enjoy Mr. Turk Murphy live, I did get in my fair share of live entertainment over the years.
One of those entertainers still going strong is the lovely Miss Stephanie Finch, a school teacher that rocks.
I have had the pleasure of watching her play and sing around these parts for quite some time and she is perhaps better known to most in her role as thee Mrs. Chuck Prophet...
As seen supporting the man in action in this here live video clip I shot & edited awhile back...
Here's a little live sonic serendipity from the same folks, a random revelations rarity for y'all ...it's a nice clean recording of Chuck and his wife Stephie pulling off a delightful cover of an old Jerry Ragovy & Mort Shuman composistion. The original is best known as a song by southern soulman Howard Tate ...
This one was recorded in my old stomping grounds up in Sonoma County in 2003...
It's a look at some of the best in Brazilian music, an anniversary celebration of sorts for David Byrne's pet label which first began reissuing Brazilian stuff 20 years ago...
and what a long strange, wonderful trip it's been...
I myself have to thank Mr. Byrne for turning me onto to two of my favorite groups, the legendary psychedelic sounds of Os Mutantes and this fine featured performer...
Tom Ze'...
In 1990 Byrne issued a collection of rarely heard & mostly forgotten tracks that were a revelation...
I actually was lucky enough & got a chance to see the now 70 something Mr. Ze back in the late 1990's at Bimbo's when he was in his 60's and touring with the guys from Tortoise...
It was a quirky, uplifting, silly & really remarkable show, in which Ze wore coveralls, a construction helmet and played a variety of percussive devices, and mumbled many cute but mostly indiscernable sayings in Portugese.
I would gladly do it all again...or at least buy a video if such a thing exists... Here's a track that originally appeared on his 1975 album Estudando O Samba. Byrne's interest in Ze's obscure music rescued Zé from a job at a relative's gas station and enabled the artist to return to professionally making music. One of Luaka Bop's first releases was the Brazil Classics Vol 4 compilation, which reappropriated 9 out of print tracks from Ze's Estudando o Samba.
Well, why should we stop milking this classic from 1975 now ...
Here's a track from a classic New Wave LP "stateless" that has just been reissued digitally for I- Tunes users via Oval Music...
For those of you who still refuse to give Steve Jobs .99 cents a song, here's a chance to buy some actual hard copies, or just a free mp3 sample of what yer missing.
For you wet behind the years newbies, I'll just say that it's an old 1960's Tommy James and the Shondells bubblegum psychedelia cut that teen star Tiffany had to mess up a few years after Lene Lovich had her quirkier shot at it...
Next up is some new music from one of Brazil's most infamous musical mayhem makers. I had the joyous experience of catching him on his last US tour several years back and new music from this man is a treat indeed. The new album translates from Portugese to mean Dance of the Heirs of Sacrifice... However, paying a few pesos & grabbing a hold of these tracks is no sacrifice for lovers of unique sounds...
In fact I'll give ya a few freebies down below just in hopes you might seek out more from his outrageously fertile & funky history...
Amongst his 70's titles that feature perfectly percolating time signatures and perverse perspectives are Se O Caso É Chorar, Todos Os Olhos, Estudando O Samba, Correio Da Estação Do Brás. He's credited as one of the founding fathers of the tropicalia movement along with Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, and many others in Brazil during the late sixties. After basically wallowing in obscurity for years, it was David Byrne's curiosity for world music that helped bring Ze' back to the fore of alternative music with a series of reissues on Luaka Bop.
Now in the new millennium, Ze's re-emerged as @ vibrant and critical force , even as 70+ years old artist and somehow, at least in my feeble mind is still creating mandatory musical journeys across the Americas, almost as entertaining as a Brazilian Borat with a beat...
The hype on the album he's created says it's based on an MTV marketing research, which showed that there is an unexpected trend for hedonism, consumerism and social irresponsibility in youth.
"
... soon anthropologists, journalists and filmmakers will mobilize themselves, and this will help youths to engage in the optimistic project of being the black person that we are, heirs of the sacrifice of various African nations, whose blood depurated art and religion in the 3 Americas - just consider samba, the Tropicalia movement or rock, Hip-hop and reggae."
Here's one that appeared on the Com Defeito De Fabricacao CD issued stateside by Luaka Bop that saw him finally tour the US, where I saw him in 1998 with members of Tortoise as the band...
next a track that Mr. Ze' put out in 2006, originally on Brazil's diverse and deep Trama label, then was reissued in the US via David Byrne's Luaka Bop imprint.
and a 2003 foray into post Iraq political commentary that is a musical attempt to describe our fine U.S President Bush, who believes he is brilliant, godly, widely admired, and respected worldwide in nearly every time zone and hemisphere...
oh and this 20 track compilation is about as sweet an overview of Tropicalia ya can get yer sticky hands on... excellent Soul Jazz label effort with extensive sleeve-notes and choice cuts... including not only Tom Ze' but contemporaries like Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso and more. Click da cover art for more info...
"Mã"
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