Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Research Arkestra - It's After The End Of The World

Been getting kind of lazy about posts. Yes, this too can be found elsewhere online but there is often times a LOT of Sun Ra material to sift through. This is one of my favorites.

Beck - Live in L.A. 1997 (Opening For Bob Dylan)

Been a long time since I've posted, I know. Schoolwork, travels, and moving have prevented me from doing a decent job on this blog over the past few months. A friend emailed me and urged me to keep it up so here I am frantically trying to type a draft of a research paper on Alan Lomax and simultaneously posting this here gem.

I know we probably all have our share and favorites of early Beck material and this one is probably available elsewhere online but I couldn't help myself after this came on shuffle about a half hour ago. I think I got this from a friend whose ex bought a bunch of early Beck bootlegged CD-R's (Banjo Story, Golden Harvest, etc.) off ebay some years ago and this was in the lot. It was so great to hear Beck go back to his acoustic roots for this show opening for Bob Dylan in 97, right around the success of Odelay's big band approach. There are versions of songs from the yet-to-be-released "Mutations" on here but the real treasures for me are the songs from "One Foot In The Grave" and the Jimmie Rodgers cover. Found the photo online. Is that really Beck? Here's the song list:

1. Intro

2. Waiting For A Train
3. Lampshade
4. Cold Brains
5. Girl Dreams
6. Sing It Again
7. Leave Me On the Moon
8. One Foot in the Grave
9. Dead Melodies
10. Rowboat
11. Little Sparrow
12. Nobody's Fault But My Own
13. He's a Mighty Good Leader
14. I Get Lonesome

I've got some more vinyl and cassette rips coming up soon...

The Velvet Angels - Acappella Showcase Presents The Velvet Angels

I grabbed this from roommate's friend's computer late last night while drinking gin and tonics with PBR sidecars. Gorgeous, gorgeous a cappella doo wop at its best here. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info on this Detroit-transplanted-to-Jersey-group but you can read the All Music Guide write-up here. It confirms what was Danielle telling me about these recordings being made in a hotel room before one of their gigs. This was the perfect music to hear at 2 in the morning after getting buzzed on gin and chain smoking cigarettes. Beautiful.

Sterile Garden - Bind Them

Sterile Garden is the brainchild of my good buddy, Jacob DeRaadt in Fort Collins, CO. This experimental noise/ambient project has changed sounds and approaches many times throughout the last few years I've known him but the effect never ceases to amaze me. Jacob uses anything from contact mic-ing sheet metal to live cassette collages to running 80's drum machines through weird pedals to quarter inch tape loops and more to create a sometimes dissonant and sometimes beautiful atmosphere of grinding mechanical sound. On this recording he uses all tape loops with a little help from Alfred Beattie on violin. I remember when Jacob was recording this at our old band house in Fort Collins and how the sounds wafting up from the basement while I'd be napping would give me some really far out dreams. By and large, this guy is one of the most avant-garde and prolific musicians to come out of the little known Fort Collins cesspool of talent. He also runs a label called Basement Tapes that you can check out here I remember Jacob once telling me that one of the main inspirations for Sterile Garden is that static-y hum that live telephone and electricity wires make when it's really humid or right after rains. Awesome.

Various Artists - Rural Blues: Sacred Tradition 1927-1930

Ben emailed me the conversions of this rare gem a while back and I've been waiting for him to do a little write up on it, but this record is too good to not post. Haven't been able to find much info on this record except that it was released on Herwin and looks to be ultra-rare/expensive. There are a total of 16 tracks here from three different artists: Mother McCollum, Eddie Head and Family, and Edward W. Clayborn, The Guitar Evangelist. These songs definitely have some powerful gospel driving them. Mother McCollum's "Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane" is an awesome declaration of her faith. There's also great versions of "Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!" and "I Shall Not Be Moved" on here. The recording is a bit grainy at times but I imagine that's due partly (or mostly) to the way the original songs sounded when they were put together for this comp. Thanks again to Ben for converting this to the digital realm. If you liked This Old World Is In A Hell of a Fix then you're gonna love this.

Friends Forever - Killball

Friends Forever was a Denver band during the early to mid 2000's that underwent several line-up changes. Notorious for playing shows from INSIDE their van outside of the clubs they were booked at and using full on fireworks and homemade lightshows(see video below), this band completely ruled. They play a particular brand of fun-ass-hell noise rock that drives an 18-wheeler in a demolition derby. Think Lightning Bolt playing new wave, which makes sense since this album was released on LOAD records in 2003. Killball is a concept album. From LOAD's website:

FRIENDS FOREVER'S KILLBALL details an ultra-violent future where games are played to the death. KILLBALL is similar to American football circa 1920-2016, except the players wear no pads and are given PCP to ensure a grizzly game. Each player is equipped with a switchblade and a machete. To be tackled is to be destroyed. Tonight you have been chosen to play KILLBALL. Can you win?

Summer Jams Compilation

This is a compilation of summer songs that my friend Morgan put together when she asked her friends to write and record a summer jam. Here's what she has to say about it:

For maybe five years, maybe more, I had been talking about doing a summer jam challenge- getting my friends who write songs to write and record “the ultimate summer jam,” whatever that means to them. It finally happened. There are 15 songs on here, most of them are by friends in or from Michigan (since I see them more often and could bug them about finishing their songs, I guess). I kept pushing the deadline back, mostly because I didn’t have any ideas for my own summer jam, but then my friends Jeremy and Ryan and I came up with something (the third song on here) so I could finally put this thing together. A few people said they had something in the works that they couldn’t finish in time, so maybe there will be a volume 2?

-morgan

Morgan's track by Psykedisco totally fucking rules, too. There's a little something for everyone on this diverse collection. This is solid evidence that there are super great things going on in MIchigan right now.

Tyvek-Cauldron Born

Killer lo-fi garage punk from Detroit. Bought this CD-r from 'em on tour a couple years ago. Kevin's guitar style is so raw that it hurts. If I had balls, I would strive to play guitar like this. This album has alternate versions of some songs on their two major releases like "Air Conditioner" and "Hey Una." I'm really partial to the song "Flowers."

Hoyt Axton - The Balladeer

Hoyt Axton had a long and varied career as a country-folk musician/actor from the early 60's and in to the 80's. This is his first album recorded during the early 60's in San Francisco. I should point out that this is missing the first and fourth track because of it being a pretty bad rip from Limewire as I had an extremely hard time tracking down this album. Normally I wouldn't post an incomplete album like this, but I think this one is worth it anyway. The rest of the songs are fine though. Hoyt had a booming voice that could fill an arena. The sound on this record fits in quite nicely with the folk revival that was going on in Greenwich Village at the same time. It would be easy to write Hoyt Axton off as a squarish folky from that era but I think that undermines some true talent here. He has some serious soulful moments on this record and plays one of my favorite versions of "John Henry" ever recorded.

Lou Reed - All Tomorrow's Dance Parties

Found this little gem hiding in the 7" bin at the record store where I'm currently employed. It's a 2000 reissue on Norton of Lou Reed's earliest recordings. The first side is two songs written by Reed and recorded with studio musicians in late 1962. They were recorded for a producer named Bob Shad and were apparently Lou's first lead vocal performances. Side B was recorded in 1958 with Lou Reed's high school "band" called The Jades. On the back of the sleeve it quotes Reed as saying "The Jades wasn't a band. It was just one guitar and two other guys singing." Phil Harris was the lead singer for this band so I don't think Lou actually sings on these tracks, though they did get studio cat King Curtis to play sax on the recording. Lou Reed was 16 years old when these songs were recorded. The music is FAR from any similarities to the Velvets and is much more straight forward 50's pop music. The songs are great though, and it's really neat to hear where this iconic American musician got his start.