Shower Jamz!

This mix was inspired by an arcane practice from my friend Kyle. He and his then-roommate used to sneak the favorite songs of the other guy onto the stereo when one was in the shower. A pleasant, if unexpected, way to start your day.

Download your new favorite series of 'jems': Shower Jamz!.zip.

(Here's a song off of it, to sate your ears whilst you feast your eyes on this oh-so magical blog)

TRACKLISTING:

Wind-Up Doll *** Lee Perry and The Upsetters

I Can See Clearly*** Johnny Nash ("nothing but blue sky"!)

Move On Up *** Mark Eitzel (cover of Curtis Mayfield)

Last night on Earth*** Mekons- ("they can't hurt you now..."!)

The Way We Get By *** Spoon (piano!)

Oh, Pretty Woman *** Al Green (cover of Roy Orbison)

Alright *** Supergrass (keeping their teeth clean: super clean!)

Young Folks *** Peter Bjorn And John (Yeah!: Bein' Young!)

Lady Don't Tek No *** Latyrx (Booty Bassline! Sassy rappin'!)

Beng Beng Beng *** Femi Kuti (...heh heh...)

Oooh (Feat. Redman)*** De La Soul

Oh Yoko *** John Lennon (oh YO!)

Too Young *** Phoenix (Young again!)

To Be Young (is to be sad, is to be high) *** Ryan Adams (again: Young Again!)

Settin' the Woods on Fire *** Hank Williams ("you be daffy, and I'll be dilly; we'll order up two bowls of chili"!)

Bimbo *** Jimmy Dean

If we can land a man on the moon, surely I can win your heart *** Beulah


I made an iTunes playlist, driven by the same desire: to get the day off to a really nifty start. It works! If you don't believe me, listen to this mix every morning for about 3-6 days, and then leave comments and a 'before' and an 'after' picture, okay?
Bet they look like this:
before:


after:


I've had this playlist, growing and growing, for years: I pared it down to some essentials. Some of these are songs I know that Kyle would like or does actually like; some are my own favorites. That some of the songs are simply selfish makes me feel better, because I don't like making mixes for other people: other people are gross!

Shower Jamz.zip

Lemme tell you though: just because I put some of mine own besties on here, does not preclude them from being thine own besties, too. For instance, if you do not know the Spoon song, you will love it (FACT). If Beulah songs don't make you happy and smile, you are dead inside (FACT). Phoenix is hit or miss, but this song?: hit (FACT). (They're mostly hit, by the by.)
I mean, you've heard of these people: Ryan Adams Hank Williams Al Green Spoon De La Soul Yoko (haha JK it's John Lennon, ya dope). See, I don't even need to put spaces in there, because you know when the name starts/stops.
There is nothing scary here, only 110% bestness and favoricity and gollytude.
Download: Shower Jamz!.zip

So I was talking with this Clown...

Really guys! I was!

There was a guy sitting in his car outside my house, putting on pancake makeup, while I was ripping new songs from new vinyl*. He got all dressed up, in full clown makeup and a tux and a Phillies (2008 World Champions) hat.
Later, he asked me "How do I get back to the real world?".
He wasn't high, or crazy (unlike some clowns...).
What he meant was, "How do I get back to Center City?".

One of the tracks I got today was this, which, due to the combination of its greatness (you gotsta listen to it) and its non-obvious nature, proves that I am a Wax Witch, which is like a water witch, but with records. I am basically a vinyl sleuth.

Meeting In The Ladies Room - Klymaxx

I am pretty sure that they were having clown tryouts at the studios across from my house today, because later, I saw a young kid go in, carrying clothes from the dry cleaners and a suitcase.
(See, I've deduced that he was a clown, because kids don't have dry-cleaning! Elementary, my dear whoever you are.)
I am really hoping that the 'case had some serious, even-better-than-Conrad-style magic tricks in it.


* Today, I got more Billy Paul; in fact, this album


a soundtrack (to the movie Perfect, which we've never seen, but has Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta, when he was till dancing) which has on it: a Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, the Thompson Twins (brothers, not sisters), Wham!, Whitney Houston, and ,,uh,, Lou Reed.

Also, Sonny & Cher (better than you think, balee' dat),
a 12" single by Snap,
a 45 called "Folk Attick Presents:--", which a little lacking in the soul department, because they are British, and this is from when 'folk' meant "Negro Folk Music" (as the sleeve says), meaning the blues. British people didn't grasp the blues until like the 60's- hell, they didn't learn to rap until AFTER the French.
an epic album called !Magician's Hat! by Bo Hansson


and Charlie Rich (AKA "The Silver Fox"), which used to belong to Cuyahoga County Library, of Cleveland Ohio: not kidding! It was Dewey Decimal'ed as M783.7 R37SI, if you don't believe me.

And, as stated, the single for THE ABOVE SONG: Klymaxxx "Meeting in the Ladies Room".
I've been sleuthing around for that track for a bit now. It was on an mp3 mix (?Diplo? perchance), which means that I didn't know who it was.
She says at one point, "Don't slap me: I'm not in the mood".
Huh? I dunno: this song is confusing. For instance, it appears to not be about cocaine, which you might think, but about man-stealing. But ((CONFUSING!)) she then leaves her man alone while she has a conference (in the Ladies Room) with her girls about it? Eh, maybe it is about coke. Ask Conrad about it?, two weeks to the day.

HYPERTEXT MGA-BLG

Here's a quote from poet Dylan Thomas:

"Look look, I got books;
See! See! I got CDs!
Fer sure, fer sure, I got pictures;
Stacks and stacks of hot hot wax."

Wax is vinyl; you should know that.

Listen to this:



I'm letting you download it here, too

[[[ Today I also got Jerry Butler and a soul compilation (all Philly Soul Power), with that above song on it. I figured you all might LOVE THE SHIT OUT OF IT because, mostly true, the song "Dirty Old Man" basically was when my blog broke into the mainstream consciousness, and this song sort of sounds like it.
More funk, but a little less sass. But really, isn't funk sassy, and isn't sass a bit funky? So it's robbing Peter to pay Paul, see? ]]]

Here's what I got recently:
CDs from Portland
Surrender to Jonathan! by Jonathan Richman ( on Vapor Records)

...This is really the picture on the CD...
-----------(dude's pretty funny)----------

The Animals: Retrospective (I have a lot of these songs on 'wax' already, but the songs I didn't have are impressively out there... you'll see someday, when I focus my blog's LAZERVIZION on how batshit crazy ALL British rockers are. For instance, The Who?: CRAZY)

Gary Numan: Archive (just totally random stuff of his, compiled by some random British- hence, crzy- label that he never recorded on. Also, Numan, British himself, though not a 'rocker', is also crazy: check the Wiki factsheet)

Suicide: reissued second album, and first rehearsal tapes (weird early American synthesized-not-techno jams: It blurbles, and how.

Guy sings like Elvis, no honest!: remember that song "Juxebox Babe" on the Annie 'DJ Kicks!' mix? That's the same guy/singer/dude.)

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels: Devil with a Blue Dress and Other Hits (on, ahem, Flashback records)
Notice how much old, old old stuff I've been buying lately? I could practically DJ 'Bouffant Bangout' all by my lonesome!
I'm pleased as punch by more expanding 'oldhead' CD section, but really, don't the titles of these sound totally uninspiring?: 'Other Hits': y a w n -but really, it's good

Jonathan Richman: Soundtrack to 'Revolution Summer' (this is really great, because it sounds JUST LIKE him, but it is totally different. More different than his "Jonathan Goes Country!" album. Really, he has an album called that.)
(( I think that maybe 'different' cannot be made superlative, like how 'unique' cannot be: 'more unique', see, just is not right ))
C'mon, I'm serious: Are any of these albums I bought regular albums? 'Reissued Retrospective Archive of Other Soundtrack Hits'...

THE STOOGES: S/T (well, maybe 'N/T' is more accurate)

A proper album, please note....
(same picture, please note)


Hot, Funky, and Sweaty: 10 Super Rare Original Funk Killers From The Late 60's to the Early 70's (THE UNDISPUTED BLACK MIND POWER)
That is the real full (and really full, and fully real) title, and yes, there is a crocodile water-skiing on the cover??!?!?!?!? Because it's a comp from a French label, figure that out. The CD is printed so that it looks like a 45 rpm record: pretty sweet, though not a brand new idea.

But really, if "brand new" were my criteria, first I'd be stupid, and second, none of this would have got bought, right?