Download the Blackbyrds' Thankful 'Bout Yourself.mp3 This song is the kind that will go on the Cosby Show mix, "Hello Jello".
Speaking of BlackByrds, what is going on with all the bird deaths lately? Could it be.... a sign of the impending apocalypse?!?!?! Clearly a rhetorical question.
Margeaux and I saw a dead bird by my house; I saw two more by Villanova's main chapel; the three ladies-who-lunch next to me are talking about seeing some too. I think it is fair to hazard that they saw different birds than the ones I saw. Which means that there is a minimum of four dead birds, seen by 5 different people -- clearly we have an epidemic on our hands.
But what kind of epidemic? Avian Bird Flu? Maybe the birds flew too much and died of exhaustion?: but what were they flying away from? The planet's impending doom, perhaps? Or something more sinister?...?
Aren't birds supposed to get born, not die, in the spring? Well. Anyhow.
Well, as of noon, I am done with the semester. In full. In toto. In-joying myself.
Margeaux will be done tonight too. Which requires that I present another helping of the mix I am preparing: Hello Jello!, the The Cosby Show-inspired mix I mentioned last time.
Ayo! Si muy caliente, y fuego mas fina! Please note the almost NSFW cover art. Scandalous.
I am not sure if I will put this very song on the mix yet, but certainly some Ohio Players song will go on there. The YouTube clip doesn't have to be the exact song yet, since I am just trying to let you know what type of sounds to expect.
The clips are just a taste,
just a teaser,
of what greatness and grandness is to come.
Maybe "Fire" will go on the mix, that is a big one; maybe "Ecstasy" would be better for this mix than "Together." "Ecstasy" got a li'l more bounce to it; but then, "Together" has those horns. Brass instruments will be big on this mix, because it is going to be deeply funky.
For a mix I'm putting together, inspired by The Cosby Show, called Hello Jello!
My lady friend Margeaux loves The Cosby Show, so I am making this mix for her. Still crafting it though: I will post songs that have the right sound here first, until I shove the full, fully finished mix on you.
And what is that "Right Sound?" It will be dentist-office funk: smooth (or even shmoove) jazzy things. Describable as slinky maybe. "Easy, not Cheesy." (that should be trademarked, yeah?) The songs are having fun, without being outright silly. Loose-limbed, they will make a nice background as we shift into early summer. Sade could go on there, although maybe she won't. Why?: because I want it to sound Cosby-era, so 70's and 80's gems.
( Although technically Sade's 1st US single came out at the end of 1984*, to me, Sade feels like 90's music. And although technically Cosby show started just a few months before that**, since I don't remember watching it much [although I did watch it plenty- when I watch it now, I can recall the plots as they are unfolding], it feels 70's-80's to me. )
* had to look it up ** also had to look that up, believe it
Enough about the mix; how about the song and band?
The Commodores do "Brick House": you know that song. It would totally play at a wonderful summer wedding reception:
The Commodores also had Lionel Richie in their band for a minute. Weirdly, after he left, they got more mellow. Once he was gone, they started to sound, well, like Lionel Richie. Before that, they were this hard-driving 'fonk' machine.
De La Soul sampled this song, on the Stakes Is High album. That is a feloniously undervalued record, like all of their records (except for 3 Feet High... And Rising: that gets about the right amount of praise).
( First De La album I ever bought- a little late to these fellows... 2000? also, I have it on vinyl, AND, after the above Commodores song, De La Soul came next on my iTunes random. F'serious! )
What I was initially leaning toward putting on Margeaux's mix was the Commodores song, "Girl, I Think the World About You" (obv), which I will:
1) maybe still put on the mix and 2) maybe put up on to Youtube, where it cannot yet be found. Can it really be all that tough to post to YouTube?
De La also sampled"Girl, I...", for "Hey Buddy;" so you can see where their heads are at, right? Tricky sampled The Commodores too!: info for the samples got drawn from this detailed site, Sample Spotters. 19 songs- nineteen- are listed for sampling (just the drums) from a single Commodores track. Wow.
This one's a duet. From the random selection on my IPhone which I brought to Portland- and will shortly bring to Houston.
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: Hope That We Can Be Together Soon AKA "Teddy Pendergrass Feat. Sharon Paige: "Hope That...." Teddy and Harold had a little spat, see- Harold founded the group, but by the time they were successful, well see, Teddy was doing all the lead singing. (And How!) Teddy wanted his name added to the existing group-name, which would have produced the titular monstrosity of "Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Featuring Teddy Pendergrass".
"No dice", says Harold; Teddy says "I quit". But not before recording this song with Sharon Paige (and the rest of the Blue Notes); she too was a Blue Note at the time, so this track really only needs the title "HM & BN: 'HWCBTS'", not "TP FT SP (AKA HM & BN FT TP & FT SP): 'HTWCBTS'".
Clarifying, I'm sure. I think we all learned a lot today.
Another song off my IPod: Jive Talkin', by Los Bee Gees. Oh sure, you want to knock the Bee Gees. Yeah yeah, you think you are too slick for all that. "Pfff", is what you say. Well, I say, "Pffffff" back to you, sucker. Listen here:
I am now back in Portland, and listening to my IPhone's mp3s. A very loose collection of stuff made it onto my phone's IPod. I'll post up those songs which I think you all could make friends with: post them as I hear them, more or less.
Here is one such tune, and very appropriate to start off with:
Evidently, this is the theme song to "Welcome Back Kotter", which I have never really seen. Which means that, while you can get multiple videos of "theme song" length -- including one with footage from Grand Theft Auto!? and another from Final Fantasy VII!?! -- I could not find any longer* version. (Note that the above video does not even mention the name of the artist who sang it!: John Sebastian. I'd be insulted- but then, he's prob dead.)
S'okay- all I really needed, which is included in both short videos, are the lines:
"Well, we tease him a lot/ 'cos we got him on the spot; Welcome Back."
* !Newsflash! This Just In! My Mom has just cracked an egg of knowledge all over the place: back in the 70's, some theme songs were written special for the show. "Kotter" is such a theme. So, the original version is the above short version! And what I have on my IPod is a later version, which they lengthened some, to 2:40-ish. So while the above videos for John Sebastian's "Welcome Back" are odd -- deeply odd -- they do in fact give you the original version.
Went digging through CDs to find something to listen to the other day. Felt in a particular kind of mood, so grabbed some Drum and Bass CDs I hadn't listened to recently, including.... the classic...
Metalheadz two-disc of golden-era Junglist anthems.
(if you are impatient, go to about 1:30 for the big drop...)
This is the kind of CD that nobody sells used. You don't just accidentally end up buying this- so nobody is selling it used, because they happened into it with no idea what it was.
(although the tracklisting for it on amazon.com is incorrect, so maybe 'no idea' is true, in a wholly different sense. The right tracks are listed on Discogs.com.)
You also don't get tired of it, unless you just get tired of whole genres of music. All the reviews of this state accurately: peak tunes; never tire of these; "don't make 'em like this no more"; sick wicked dope; etc. For this genre of music (drum 'n' bass, aka jungle), this would be like a Led Zeppelin greatest-hits package: if you ever like it, you always will, and never any less. So nobody ever bought this and liked it, and then eventually soured on it, bored of it, overplayed and so played-out it.
But how did I get it used then? Well, Everyday Music in Portland sells used CDs, and they will sell you scratched CDs. Sounds bad: is good. They mark out the scratched ones; they sell them for less; and they even will take them back if they skip. You know how almost all of your CDs are scratched, somewhat at least, and how many of those never ever skip. SKUFFS, they call them. Well, this mamajamma was skuffed pretty bad. Two whole tracks just ain't played right, ever. Or at least, ever for me, since I bought it scratched. One that never got all the way through, was Dillinja's "Angels Fell", above. Obviously, the YouTube version no skuff.
But what you can do, see, is copy a scratched CD. Because while the CD player has to deal with scratches in real time, your computer's CD-ROM does not- it will keep patiently scanning, scanning, re-scanning-- until it can find out just what 0s and 1s made up that track, in its prediluvian state. So usually, the copy will be a like-new, scratchless, unskuffled version. That beats a lossless copy- it actually improves your version.
So now, for the first time ever, I can listen to this track all the way through- And so can you.
Danzig's Mother is a suggested video, so is Halo Benders (the laziest band in rock and roll!). What is funny, is that my dad has something to say about both lazy bands, and drum n bass. He said (says) that Pavement et al. "aren't even trying" when they sing. It's true! He also once said a drum and bass song was "Ferris Bueller music", which I took to mean: sounds like that Ferrari music in the movie. Which is false; But what he meant was, it sounded like another drum and bass song Which in fact! Sampled a line from the movie.
I must have got my "right all the damn time" gene from my pops.
Music; musing; must-haves.
The curatorial agenda. Sealing up a void whose vacuity was a source of distress to no one. The seed I am most likely to sow is a certain jargon. Built on tilt. The center of a new universe of counterfeit. Increasingly random and increasingly increasing.
THE SIDEBAR PODCAST: REBOOTED
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15 years ago, I started my own, personal podcast: The Sidebar. This was my
attempt to explore podcasting as a medium, having been very much inspired
by the...
Hotel Bar Sessions, Ep 31: Whose History?
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The HBS hosts sit down with Dr. Charles McKinney, Jr. to talk about whose
history is (and isn't) being taught.
Following on the heels of a recent and ...
