Don't Misunderstand! Or Else!

Quickly now- let's have another brief blast from the most recent mix, which includes the song below.



Turns out this was in Kill Bill:
do not recall.

I of course did not pinch my version from some Quentin Tarantino-sanctioned mix.
I do the sanctioning around here, thanks.
Instead, I found this song by what you might call the "lost-wax casting method". That is the "method" whereby one seeks records, sees records, and gets divinely inspired to snap some particular one up. In this case, inspiration struck because of this fairly intriguing record cover.



Will it be Canticles for Catholics? (Santa = Saint)
Cha-Cha, or (Two-to-) Tango?
Spanish Goth for Goya fans? (check the "Castlevania" style font)
Erotic fiction en Espagnol?

More apt pictures, here:









I think this song may have launched Ruth and I into a long little game: in which songs does the singer name herself/himself?
(An example: in "What My Woman Can't Do Can't Be Done" by Jerry Lee Lewis, he says, "If ever there's been a baby/ Jerry Lee has found him one")

No hip-hop obviously -that wouldn't be a challenging game- unless maybe you had to rap the line yourself, and actually do a decent job of it.

And since you are listening to the above song already, you probably can see the related event in that song. In probably the only lyrical derivation from the Animals' track (originally written for Nina Simone- who knew?),
a line is (for no clear reason) added: "Oh, Esmeralda". I imagine that is who he does not wish to be misunderstood by?
Anyhow, since he says "Esmeralda", and the band's name is "Santa Esmeralda", you know, it got me thinking.

Any other examples of singers naming themselves in lyrics; or saying their own band name in the lyrics? I won't say the ones we've already thought of- that way you can play the game too.
In the comments of course.

(you can still download the mix- a summery, disco-filled and disco-infused little scorcher, here- of course, it includes this song. Of Course!)

Double Date with Boppin' Brothers

I'm pretty smart, so I figure stuff out mighty quick. I realized a while back, that although every brother and every sister (singletons too) in the universe loved my mixes, the sheer volume (oh!) of songs on a full mix was overwhelming to some.

---Download recent mix, "AMX: Black Mask McGuffin"
---(including the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown")


(on that YouTube thing, here)

I used to present you with a list of 9-18 songs, all of which present an enticing new world of musical innovation, but which may not be familiar names. Along with that was the link for the mix. But what happened was that most people would skim the list, and skip the link.

It makes sense, after all those words (signifying next to nothing), to forget the link.
But folks, it's not good for you- these bands could be your life; last night a DJ could have saved your life...
So, what I did, see, was to give you a single song off the mix- so you could hear the geniuses, instead of just reading the geniuses' names.
Here, the geniuses are the Everly Brothers.
Then a little later, I would drop another 'single' off the mix. Let you get an idea of what was on the mix, over time.
Give it a listen, and if you like it, you can 'get loaded' with some similar songs, --here--

(((Here are the 'other brother' songs on the rest of the mix:
When You're Alone: Jerry Butler. Someday : Ricky Nelson. Don't Make Me Over: Dionne Warwick;
Cathy's Clown : The Everly Brothers. Sexy Mama : The Moments. Honky Tonk: Duane Eddy;
I'll Guess I'll Have To Cry Cry Cry : James Brown. Play It Fair : DeeDee Sharp & Chubby Checker. If It Don't Turn You On (you oughta leave it alone): BT Express;
Maybe More : The Carlisles. I'm Glad You're Mine : Al Green. My Heart is an Open Book : Carl Dobkins;
Be Real : Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. Be Honest With Me : Billy Brown. Oh, Pretty Woman : Al Green. Never Gonna Give You Up : Jerry Butler )))

This song is so great, that another great song talks about it. Elliot Smith's "Waltz #2" has a character sing the song at karaoke.


(note that the album above has "great songs for listening or dancing")

But instead of listening to Elliot's song, why don't you listen to a live version of "Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers? It's on old TV, so it's got that old oddball flavor to it.



And you know, looking at this video, I am starting to suspect that the Everly Brothers might actually be brothers. The Righteous Brothers are not brothers, okay, so you know, you have to be careful about what lineages you assume.

Lion-Less Helter-Skelter Honky-Tonk

That's Duane Eddy, on Youtube. Okay?
Create a makeable digital download-version of the same here, plus other songs

So, more deets about the most recent AMX mix that I birthed,
entitled "AMX: Black Mask McGuffin".



This one was modeled after the Pulp Fiction soundtrack; precisely, it's based upon my imprecise memory of it. SO there is Al Green-ish RnB; there is surf-y, country-y, honky-y tonk-y rock too. About 6 of one, half dozen of the other.
You should have a good idea of the BLACK side- see all my posts on Philadelphia International Records, on Jerry Butler, etc.

Now I'm giving you a dose of the WHITE side- the honky-tonk bits. You know, the white man's blues: barroom sad-sack business. Chorales for "The Loser's Cathedral", as a jam by David Houston calls bars.


You are asking yourself why the mix "Black Mask MacGuffin" is called what it's named; or conversely, why it is named what it's called.



Definition of a MacGuffin (from www.filmsite.org):
"Alfred Hitchcock's term for the device or plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives the logic or action of the plot and appears extremely important to the film characters,
but often turns out to be insignificant after it has served its purpose;
its derivation is Scottish, meaning a "lion trap" for trapping lions in the lion-less Scottish Highlands (i.e., a trap that means nothing, since it is for an animal where there is no such animal)."

That would be the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.

"Black Mask" was a working title of the movie: I think that would refer to "the Gimp".


One last chance: Download AMX: Black Mask McGuffin.zip.

A Little Black and White Romance: Fire, Fine Wine, and a Footrub

So, I let it be overshadowed on the last post (about the death Teddy Pendergrass) that I had finally released another AMX mix.
Said Teddy Track is on said mix:
"AMX: Black Mask McGuffin".
Inspired by the smooth smoothness on the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack.

Oh man, Oh my: this mix is a real slow burnin' gem. A diamond: ice.
Fire and Ice.





Also on the mix is no not one, but 2! (two) Jerry Butler songs.



You know I love this man; I've posted already about him. So I will hold my tongue
(which is really difficult for me to do! Not my fault! The tongue is actually 16 different muscles, okay, so that makes it tough to restrain!)
for now on him, and turn to the broader description of the mix.

TRACK LISTING

1- When You're Alone )( Jerry Butler

---2 Someday )( Ricky Nelson

3- Don't Make Me Over )( Dionne Warwick

---4 Cathy's Clown )( The Everly Brothers

5- Sexy Mama )( The Moments

---6 Honky Tonk )( Duane Eddy

7- I'll Guess I'll Have To Cry Cry Cry )( James Brown

---8 Play It Fair )( DeeDee Sharp & Chubby Checker

9- If It Don't Turn You On (you oughta leave it alone) )( BT Express

---10 Maybe More )( The Carlisles

11- I'm Glad You're Mine )( Al Green

---12 My Heart is an Open Book )( Carl Dobkins

13- Be Real )( Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

---14 Be Honest With Me )( Billy Brown

15- Oh, Pretty Woman )( Al Green

---16 Never Gonna Give You Up )( Jerry Butler

Download "AMX: Black Mask McGuffin" here

Basically
(although there is nothing basic about this mix: complex, like a fine wine),
this mix takes Al Green-esque classy, clean, clearly superior soulful R'n'B, and alternates that with honky-tonkin', hominy-eatin', hometown classic country. Trying to capture some of that slowed-down, down-home soul, from both sides.
As Chubby Checker says, "What a combination it would be!"
On both sides we have romantic tunes that 'be honest', 'be real'. They'll make you feel like 'a pretty woman', a 'sexy mama', 'when you're alone'.
So we have Mia and Marcel, mixing it up together, on this mix.
See how romantic and how sexy black and white can be?

AMX: Black Mask McGuffin--- Mia and Marcel Wallace, giving each other a little musical footrub.
Or is 'musical footrub' gross?

Teddy Pendergrass- To Know Him, is to Love Him

Teddy Pendergrass on Youtube; specifically, Teddy with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: "Be Real"

We lost one. Teddy Pendergrass passed yesterday. Rest In Power, Teddy P.
I heard about it on NPR, that trusted source for black entertainment news.

The track above is right thick in the middle of my last (official...) AMX Mix. This one apes the sound of the sounds on the Pulp Fiction sdtk (=soundtrack).
It is called Black Mask McGuffin (I'll explain, next post). Grab it here.
So it is some grownup, sexy, calm before the (quiet) storm business. You know that the Reverend Al Green is on there: just extrapolate, and you have half the mix.

You might know Teddy from R Kelly's "I'm A Flirt", where T Pain references him.
(to know him, is to love him)
T Pain calls himself "Teddy Bend-her-ass", which is vulgar, yes, but shows that Teddy P is known for being zexee.

You might also know Teddy (again, with his earlier group, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, hereafter HMBN) from the "Dead Presidents" soundtrack.
(to know him, is to love him)

Groups on the stellar Dead Prez sdtk include
Sly & The Family Stone, "Walk On By" (best version ever) by Isaac Hayes, HMBN, James Brown, Barry White, Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin , Al Green , The O'Jays , Isaac Hayes , and weirdly, Danny Elfman on the score.

Heavy hitters to a one, am I wrong? And HMBN and Teddy hit just as hard as any of the rest.
(the heavy hitters on "AMX: Black Mask McGuffin" include Al Green, Jerry Butler, James Brown, and HMBN too; but I wasn't copying, swear!)
My buddy/pal/confidant Kyle burnt me this sdtk, a looooong while ago. This sdtk used to be about one of two CDs of soul/RnB that I owned, along with Al Green's great Greatest Hits.
(got a few more now)
The CD is so old that it clips in and out near the end. It doesn't skip- it is not scratched- but rather, the CD is reflecting less light than it needs to, so there is a rhythmic clicking/scuffing near the end of the CD. It makes it sound like a scratched record, but not good like that.
Supposedly, all burnt CDs will do this eventually.
(Armand Van Helden burnt CD- also about 10 years old- suffered the same fate.....)
When they all go kaput, it will basically be like the fucking Apocalypse.

Also, let's have an adult moment, since this is some adult music here.
I'll be honest with you: some of these tracks, some not all, are a bit on the scratchy side.
It stands as indirect proof of the greatness of these particular records. These records were so well-loved (by previous owners) that they got played again and again,
and again,
and eventually picked up a li'l scuff here and there.
But you can handle it, right, you can hang tough? I hope so. Even if you cannot, you will only notice the scuff on the tracks right in the beginning; once those strings/basslines/harmonies/etc drop, there will be enough volume to cover li'l scuff. So nuh be afeared, man.

Even if you don't like the sound of the vinyl, it could be worse.

You could be dead.

WanderLust

Albert Camus famously (well, even "cliche-edly") wrote that there "is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
I take this problem much more seriously when grading student papers.

Likely, the best option would be to somehow lead the papers themselves to commit suicide, instead of myself.


( Facebookers, view "Lovers Who Wander" by Dion on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buP1_OhjP5o )

([{Download "AMX: Unsafe at Any Speed", my most recent mix. It, of course, includes the above song.}])

Ah, but a reason to live! Like a crocus, leaping forth from the earth in earliest spring! Like an olive branch of peace, borne across vast oceans! Like a jellybean, delicious if artificial, rolling about my mouth!
Like a drumbeat built for speeeeeeeeeeeed!
.....! with handclaps, even !.....

The above song is by Dion, not Dion and the Belmonts; small detail, except that with the Belmonts, Dion made much less rokkin' tunes. This one swings, really has some of that ol' pep that this mix, friends, has in spades.

Oh papers, your weight, carried it seems for millennia, nearly grinds me to dead dust. And yet the waters of life flow from the ever-renewed spring that is
"AMX: Unsafe at Any Speed":

Healing waters which consist of doo-wop, early rock 'n' roll, "guitar freakouts", and all manner of leather-clad rebels, plain white tees and jeans, and a 'little sis' who can do the Mashed Potato.



Yes, 'Teachers who Wander", wander from the flat affects of required classwork, toward the NeverNeverLand of the Internet. A Musical Mecca to which The Teacher is guided by a profound wanderlust. Oh verily, these papers
"broke my heart, I really showed it,
Look at me now [after downloading "UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED"], you'd never know it
Now my story can be told with a smiling face
I'm the luckiest guy in the human race".

Yes, I traded drudgery for funnery, poorly constructed sentences for expertly-wrought musical mixes. I now pass on the possibility of your own, similar transition. Listen, learn, love, licent, etc., all with the help of "Unsafe At Any Speed.zip", the lovely and lively zip file that contains the above song, as well as many others.

AMX: Bringing Forth the Fruit of Earthly Delights

OH!
MY!

I pridefully present another installment of AMX Mixes !
This lil' monster goes by a number of names. Technically, the ZIP is called "Unsafe at Any Speed", but alternate names include

DeathProof (remember, the distant paternity of all AMX mixes is Tarantino movie soundtracks)
Only the Good Die Young
Attack of the Leader of the Pack
Rebel Beat

Profoundly intrigued- that's what you are!
Here is a youtuby from one of the tracks, the very movie, very driving around, very mod "Il Giardino Delle Delizie" by Ennio Morricone.



Hitherto, for these mixes, which come in at around 15 songs, I have described TheWholeThingAllAtOnce.
Which many found, reasonably enough, to be a bit overwhelming.
So I will now present a few songs, every now and again, and each one will come with a little posty-clicky for downloady, for the whole mix.

Here is the tracklisting, but in alphabetical order. Wanna know what order they really go in?
Better download it then. AMX: Unsafe At Any Speed

(the symbol between title and artist?: it's a car, with skidmarks behind and headlights in front! Pretty good, what?!)

Attack of the Ghost Riders €< The Raveonettes

Boom Boom €< The Animals

Casseurs de Raison €< Pierre Rapsat

Down by the Riverside €< Bill Haley and His Comets

Down the Line €< Ricky Nelson

Guitar Freakout €< The Ventures

Hitchhike €< Martha & The Vandellas

Il Giardino Delle Delizie €< Ennio Morricone

Land of 1000 Dances €< Cannibal and the Headhunters

Let's Go €< The Routers

Love Is A Deserter €< The Kills

Lovers Who Wander €< Dion

Rebel Rouser €< Duane Eddy

State Trooper €< Bruce Springsteen

Teen Beat €< Sandy Nelson

Lots of rapid-fire snare drums. Provocative organ work. Teenage harmonies (teenagers like cars).
You'll see: a perfect mix for driving and for being driven.
AMX: Unsafe At Any Speed

AMX Mix- "Supersounds of '70"

Eek, I'm back! Back in Philly (was way west: Portland), and back up in this here blog.

I've been sitting on this "AMX mix" for a few weeks now, and I'll tell you what:
it really improves with age; the more you listen, the more you know- and the more you know the more you GROW.

Here is the zip file, loaded up with over 20 songs! Supersounds of '70 will blow your business and lay you low. This is one of my (well-received, nearly world-famous) AMX mixes, so it too is loosely inspired by a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. This one comes from Reservoir Dogs. Remember how Stephen Wright was the voice of that radio disc jockey?



And how he played these odd fun bouncy little 'jems' (that is a 'gem' and a 'jam')? Yeah, you remember that 'Stuck in the Middle with You" song that you really, really believed was Bob Dylan.

That sort of jem.
(If you don't know who Stephen Wright is, then you won't remember him from this show:

which, not conincidentally, is like this mix: funny, charming, odd, and old.)

Download the zip SUPERSOUNDS of '70 my friend!

T R A C K :) L I S T I N G
Party Lights :) Cluadine Clark
Band of Gold :) freda payne
La La :) The Cobras
Mocking Bird :) Inez Fox
Sixty Minute Man :) the Dominoes
You came a long way from St. Louis :) DeeDee Sharp & Chubby Checker
Bloodshot Eyes :) George Symonette
Opium Tea :) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
A Horse with no name :) America
Cross-Eyed Gal from the Ozarks :) Ferlin Husky
Bongo Bongo Bongo :) Preston Epps
Amazons and Coyotes :) the Dreamlovers
I'm Wearing the Britches :) The Carlisles
Happy Organ :) Dave 'Baby' Cortez
96 tears :) Aretha Franklin
Kind of a Drag :) Buckinghams
I Put a Spell On You :) Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Hats Off to Larry :) Del Shannon
Puddin n' Tain :) the Alleycats
Honky Tonkin :) Hank Williams
Got to see if I can't get Mommy (to come back home) :) Jerry Butler
Crimson and Clover :) Tommy James and the Shondells

Download the zip SUPERSOUNDS of '70 and set yourself free!

You'll get a fuller account of this mix soon (busy busyWORKbusy busy), but here are some lyrical themes:
A newlywed who isn't getting any
Mom won't let me party!
MOCK! (yeah), ING! (yeah)
Someone not quite being cool enough that you'd believe he was from Missouri, that epicenter of kewl
Alcohol abuse (eyes so bloodshot, that "you'd better close those eyes, before you bleed to death")
Narcotics in liquid form
A girl with a face like a Holstein cow
Congratulating the fellow who broke your lover's heart

You know, 'the issues of our day'. Oh, why "of '70", you ask? Because that is the year of my father's AMX, which is what got this grand project off the ground.

AMX To The Max - Still Ill

The other day, I told you of a plan I had: make a mixtape inspired by some of Quentin Tarantino's movies.

Download ZIP file: 'Still Ill' mixtape

I got this idea because my Dad recently got a really rare muscle car (an AMX), which is talked about in Quentin's "DEATHPROOF". That was the impetus- just random inspiration; it's not like I am some QT fanboy, or that I am so very dearly devoted to his soundtracks. I don't even own one anymore...
There is a pretty distinctive sound to each of his films' musical accompaniment, though, so I figured this idea had the necessary specificity to generate a mix. (Mixes that are just 'songs that I like/that I thought you might like' are not worth my time to produce; I could just put my ITunes on shuffle for that, right?).
All taste requires discrimination; discrimination by definition is specific:
("I like all kinds of music" is general, and shows its speaker to lack taste entirely; or at least to be a "mollycoddle with shaky legs")
there you have it.


My directorial debut is "AMX : Still Ill." ( <--- clicky makey downloady)
Obviously, based off of the RZA-fashioned "Kill Bill" soundtracks.



TRACKLISTING:
#1 Il Ritorno Di Ringo /// Ennio Morricone
4th Chamber /// GZA
#3 Champion Sound /// Jaylib
Poison Dart /// The Bug ft. Warrior Queen
#5 Backyard Betty /// Spank Rock
Bullet /// Ellen Allien
#7 Don't Smile, It's Post-Modern /// Ghislain Poirier
Hide Ya Face (ft El-P and Ghostface Killah) /// Prefuse 73
#9 Wanderlove /// Claudine
Nagasaki Nights /// ...unknown artist...
#11 Slow Grind Italian (interlude) /// The RZA (as Bobby Digital)
Mantis (ft Masta Killa & Tekitha) /// The RZA (Bobby Digital)
#13 Bila El Mambo /// Hell's Gate Band
Heart It Races /// Architecture In Helsinki
#15 Still Got It 4 Cheap /// Clinton Sparks f/Clipse & Pharrell
Bells /// Vitalic
#17 I Lost My Shit in Tel Aviv (live) /// Apparat
1980 /// Pierre Rapsat

(" /// "?: 'oh, that? those are SWORD SLICES !')
"AMX : Still Ill"

Here's a track from the mix; listen to it while you download said mix...

Ennio Morricone is a must for this. This guy composed all those Western movie themes that you know: A Few Dollars More, GoodBadUgly, etc.

"Choose the ball, or the sword": GZA's Wu-Tang Kung-Fu thang. Starts out with a kungfu flick sample: precisely why QT picked a Wu to head the soundtrack project.

You know Wu will be all over this mix; but there's room for other rappers too:
We get J Dilla rapping on a Madlib production. Later, we get the Clipse, SpankRock, El-P -aka El Producto- (with Ghostface), and from the Caribbean, Warrior Queen.


"AMX : Still Ill"
Most of the rap beats employed here lean to the tech-y side ("Glitch-Hop"?). That was the sound of Kill Bill, so that's our sound here.
What that means is that the hip-hop turns naturally and smoothly over into the smart techno of Berliner Ellen Allien and her label-mate Apparat. This isn't daffy club beat or euro(trash)pop -- closer to the Knife, okay? -- so nuh be afeared, even if you are 'not that kind of girl'.
Vitalic & Apparat supply us with sounds that absolutely must play when The Bride is riding on her all-yellow motorcycle through Tokyo, sword slung over one shoulder; faceless in her helmet. She's on her grind: her only love is the game of revenge (she'll win).
"AMX : Still Ill"

Also, we need some of the more strictly computerized beats, not only to keep this from being purely " mixtape-hustlin' ", but to ensure that it sounds like a movie soundtrack. To work with the arc of drama, we have to use some songs which build and intensity and then destroy it. Hiphop can have tension, but it doesn't often 'climax' : it doesn't resolve that tension.



"AMX : Still Ill"
There are mellow moments in Kill Bill, especially in the second volume. So, there is a passage around the middle of the mix when we move to some tropical climes and pop open a ginger beer. Steel drums, and an international feel. Kill Bill involved some serious jetsetting, and after REVENGE gets had, calm settles over the film.
After the international/downtime slice, though, The Clipse set us back on our feet, and the blades start swinging again:



(...it's still not too late to download "AMX : Still Ill", you know...)