Summer is Heavenly

Okay, brief rundown of all the traxxx on the recent mix- Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

Listen to a track from ze mix: "Spirit In The Sky", by Norm Greenbaum.

(if you want a higher quality sound, listen to the YouTuber below; below has weird, weird religious stuff in it though- creepy, but we want
summery,
not creepy. Above is literally a guy recording him playing it on his den's jukebox: it has a certain je ne sais quoi, oui?)


Hold your breath here we goooooooo
Summer Shower Jamz: LoveLeigh Days.

Summer Madness ~O~ Kool & the Gang
chilled out, nice way to start the mix. Sampled by Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, for "Summertime"; Jazzy will be at the Roots Picnic...

Reunion ~O~ Bobbie Gentry
Whoa now, an odd-ball, to get you intrigued about what your genius musical guide will pull next. A handclapped, bottle-smackin' little rhythm, a bit like 'Iko Iko'. First words, no joke: "Momma can I huh, Momma can I huh huh, can I Momma won't ya please let me Momma can I huh". About a family reunion: a little charmer, sweet funny little thing. Looks sumthin like this, but from deep down South




Maggie May ~O~ Rod Stewart
You know this.
DOWNLOAD Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

Summertime ~O~ Billy Stewart
Cover of sorts of a song from Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess". Evidently, during that show, they sing at among other times, during a craps game. Upbeat, lots of little darting guitars. Horns, man, horns. Tongue rolls, like so: 'dddddddddah!'.

Spirit In The Sky ~O~ Norman Greenbaum
aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! If I were a DJ, like a pro who gets $, it would be an uncommon night out when I didn't play this. Right? My goodness, just listen to your ears! I'm killing you, just killing you, with this track right now. Big stomping drums. You could play this at 'A Flyers Hockey Game', and I bet they would win. A woman singing backup, in a falsetto.
Can women even sing falsetto? This one can!

Party Lights ~O~ Claudine Clark
Another Killer. Old rock/RnB. Girl is watching all her friends go to the party across the street, but Mom won't let her go! "There goes Jenny and Sue, and Bobby and Mary Lou, oh-oh-oh there goes my boyfriend too!" "Party lights, red and blue and green; everybody in the crowd is there, but you won't let me make the scene!" Real rapid fire snappy snare drums. Piano tinkling, and some peppy-ass horns make an appearance.

DOWNLOAD Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

In the Summertime ~O~ Mungo Jerry
A pic shall suffice:


If Not For You ~O~ Olivia Newton John
A pic shall suffice:


Summer Breeze ~O~ Isley Brothers
Told you about last time.

Two Tickets To Paradise ~O~ Eddie Money
"Oh, what?!?! Hit me again with that Eddie Money, Son!"
(That's you talking, after this song drops. You are driving, in a Camaro, f'real. Top off- on the car, you jokester...
"I'm gonna take you on a trip so far from here,
I've got two tickets in my pocket, now baby, we're gonna disappear.
We've waited so long, waited so long.

I've got two tickets to paradise,
Won't you pack your bags, we'll leave tonight,
I've got two tickets to paradise
[guitar solo- 32 bars]"

That's you singing it at karaoke, and really, it made our night.

I Fought The Law ~O~ Bobby Fuller Four
A pretty jaunty guitar in this song; really jaunty when you consider that the first lines are about 'breaking rocks in the hot sun'. We'll just bracket the rocks, okay, and focus on the sun, you feel me? A million famous people covered this song for a reason; that is, a reason beyond its sassy 'F-the-P' attitude- it is a funtime summertime spectacular.
I bet even cops like this song.

Summer ~O~ War
Return to Mellow. Almost all of War's stuff is proper for a summer mix; guys rocked a Texan melting pot thing; soul, Texana, sunbaked, relaxed. More horns, lazzzzzyyyy ones. "Summer: my time of year". Well-said, War, well-said.

DOWNLOAD Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

aaaaand here is the creepy-video-version of Norm Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky".
I think someone kidnapped her daughter? And this someone may be the state of Missouri? And Jesus is angry about it? Or what?

Brothers From Another Mother: Isleys and Big Poppa

Speaking of samples (as I did last time), here is a gem of a song I've been sitting on for a minute. In a hot HOT batch of records I snatched up the other day, I procured a few Isley Brothers albums.
Of which there are roughly a million, by the way. In fact, Wiki tells me they had 20 albums between 1969 and 2006: excuse me, that's 20 albums that reached the Top 10, in 35-ish years. I guess when you have like 7 guys in the band, there are more songs getting written?
(7/35=5; 5x20=100; 100/10= 10; 10/10 = perfect: do the math, it adds up)

Who knows- the point is, that these Brothers From The Same Mother got sampled- and that produces another song, A Brother From ANOTHER Mother, as it were.

Here is the "elder" song, a real sexy satiny sort of thing.
Download Isley Brothers: "Between The Sheets"



A little suggestion: give it a listen on YouTube whilst ye download it.

The Isley Brothers: Between The Sheets on YouTube



And here is the song built around the former- I'm pretty sure we all love this song.

Big Poppa, Notorious B.I.G.



Also, I was trying to find a good picture of sample-sized-spoons, and I found this instead. A marrow- that's bone marrow, you understand?- spoon. A Narrow Marrow Spoon, that.



Interesting. I bet Biggie would be crushing on some marrow if he weren't dead. Sigh.... His loss, and ours.

Better Living Through Explosives

Last night was good, for two primary reasons.
First, St. Patty's Month was not as horrible as you might think. I was in Old City (oof), which should have been real real yucky. There were hardly any green hats, hardly any beads, etc. Negatively good: the absence of obnoxiousness. Phew.

Second, more positively good: Neil had some Irish friends in town; these friends have a band; this band has good songs (at Rhapsody) . They're called Butterfly Explosion (Myspace).
We went to the Khyber, which I love but hadn't been to in a minute. You know that High Lifes (High Lives?) are only $2.50 there? Downstairs even (upstairs beers are always crazy cheap). I'll be darned.


Butterfly Explosion on YouTube
Butterfly Explosion sound like M83 with less synthesized business (as Neil accurately stated). They do have a keyboard, but it's more for an extra layer of sound, not for beeps and bloops.
Or like Mogwai, but less often loud. 2 or 3 songs got 'Mogwai loud'...
...this would be an explosion, in Mogwai mode:

...

but the bulk built and waned without ever making a huge crashing. So mellower than Mogwai, but not crybaby-mellow. Just more restrained, like so...


Most of the songs didn't have words, which is a strong merit. Songs don't need words! If you require your music to have words- a non-musical element, of course- I think there may be something wrong with you.
There is probably something wrong with you regardless.