I’d actually been sitting on posting something on this, the 2nd full-length record from LA’s Chicano Batman, for months. Then I up and got sick in February and essentially went MIA for the whole month and record’s release last month. Don’t hold that against this fantastic sophomore effort from the group, which has really hit their stride since adding Carlos Arévalo on guitar. Cycles Of Existential Rhyme finds the band fully realizing and working in all of their varied influences into a trademark sound, with “Magma” as the best example. While “Cycles” 14 tracks have been worth the wait since 2010’s debut, I wouldn’t be surprised if boys in the band are already working on new material. For now, we have this new record and if you’re lucky, many a chance to see the band live performing here in LA and elsewhere.
So, I don’t know about you, but I spent February sick as a dog and over-worked (which then just made me sicker as the month went on). With the loooooooong KPFK fundraiser, I haven’t been on the air in exactly a month. The last time we were on the air was this show where we actually did quite good by KPFK standards, raising over $1,200 in our two hours, our third highest total. Hopefully we’ll be able to stay on through the whole drive next time, that would certainly be my preference. But, we’re back on the air this Sunday and we’re back to business here on the blog, so all’s well that ends well…
So…I’ve been away for quite sometime, mostly because of personal matters and a wicked case of the flu. To make up for time lost, I some rather lovely tickets. One of my favorite contemporary performers and songwriters will be here in Los Angeles playing a “Church Session” on Saturday March 8th, Mark Kozelek aka Sun Kil Moon. For the last several years Kozelek, former frontman of the Red House Painters in what feels like it was a lifetime ago, has been focused on playing nylon guitars and writing deeply introspective songs. I’m not sure if he’ll be here with a full band or just by himself with his guitar, but however it goes down, if you’re a fan you don’t want to miss this performance at the First Unitarian Church here in Los Angeles (2936 W 8th St. Los Angeles, CA, 90005). If you want a chance to go courtesy of Melting Pot, e-mail at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com by 12noon Friday (tomorrow)!
This clip for Urban Explorers might give a sense of the possibilities of Kozelek performing at a church:
Here Mark performs “Mistress” with the Roots on Jimmy Fallon’s “old” show:
{If you are in LA next week, the folks at Funky Sole are having a free event, Grand Park’s Gotta Funky Sole, on Friday February 14th, consider it a Valentine’s gift to the city of LA, over at Grand Park (Between Grand and Hill in DTLA) featuring Orgone, the mighty Breakestra and Miles and Clifton on the decks!}
It was truly an honor to return back to Funky Sole last night. As I mentioned the first time I was a guest DJ there, Funky Sole remains for me one of the best raw soul/funk night in the world, definitely the best in SoCal. The top shelf selection from residents Music Man Miles and Clifton aka Soft Touch (with Chico and Mean Mr. Mustard providing tunes in the “funk yard” patio out back) certainly is a major reason for this. For me, the thing that sets apart Funky Sole from most every other place in LA is how ready and willing the crowd is to dance. The place is packed every single week, line down the block for hours, with a diverse bunch of folks, very few of which are just there to stand around and take up space (which you see entirely too much in clubs these days). This crowd loves to dance and it continues to surprise me just how far you can take it and still have a full dance floor.
The set I put together for last night was a mix of classic breaks, rare cuts and a few more oddities than the last time. The only song I repeated from my previous trip was Franciene Thomas’ “I’ll Be There” which is kind of a signature song for me. There were a number of things that I was interested to hear on that beautiful loud sound system and a few that I was really interested to see what they would inspire on the dance floor. One of those tracks was something I just ran into this past week while digging through a mess of 45s, Jean Kassapian’s ‘The Snake,” a big beat belly dance song with snake-charmer flute. I had no idea what would happen when I played this, but to my surprise there was actually an audible cheer when the track started and everybody just kept on grooving. Early in the night I noticed that there seemed to be more B-boys in the spot than have been in recent weeks. If I had known they would be there I might have thought a bit differently about the set, though many of the last several songs in the set (from the B-Boy classic “It’s Just Begun” to “The Champ”) were played exclusively for that bunch and they did not disappoint. Seeing the joy spread on the B-Boy’s faces when they heard the horns of “Just Begun” and all of the routines they did to these songs was one of the best moments I’ve been responsible for as a DJ.
Last night also gave me the chance to pay tribute to my friend Matthew Africa, who I so dearly miss. For much of the time since his death, some 17 months now, I couldn’t bring myself to go knowing I’d hear many tracks that we all used to dance to at Soulvation in Oakland, or tracks that he turned me onto, but after a really rough end of the year, I made the resolution to get out to Funky Sole more often, to dance and remember good times of the past. One of the ways I honored Matthew was by making a dub plate of one of the last edits he did, a fantastic club designed and minimalist edit of the Ohio Players’ “Ecstasy.” In addition to the B-Boy cuts, this one was one of the ones that went over the best with the club-goers, several of which gave me some daps mid-set in appreciation.
Below you’ll find the set I played last night, especially for those of you who missed it, along with the tracklist. Unlike previous times, I stayed all the way to the end and got a chance to play a couple of extra tracks with Miles and Clifton, trading off from record to record, including Horace Silver’s “Acid, Pot or Pills,” and what turned out to be the next to last song of the night, Tim Maia’s “Ar Puro.” Such a night. I can’t say thank you enough to Miles, Clifton, Nancy Arteaga and the whole crew for having me down again…y’all are most definitely appreciated. Until the next time, I’ll see the rest of you on the dance floor at the Echo, each and every Saturday night.
Funky Sole Guest DJ Set: 02-08-2014
Miguel De Deus – Black Soul Brothers – Black Soul Brothers (Underground)
La Clave – Latin Slide – La Clave (Verve)
The Latin Blues Band – I’ll Be A Happy Man – Take A Trip Pussycat (Speed)
Jean Kassapian – The Snake – 7″ (Kassap) Cumbia En Moog – Cumbia De Sal – El Disco De Oro Vol. 2 (Eco)
James Brown – My Thang – Hell (Polydor)
Ohio Players – Ecstasy [Matthew Africa Edit] – 7″ (Dub Plate)
Di Melo – Se O Mundo Acabasse Em Mel – Di Melo (Odeon)
Bo Diddley – Hit Or Miss – Big Bad Bo (Chess)
Mary Jane Hooper – Don’t Change Nothing – Psychedelphia (Funky Delicacies)
Alvin Cash & the Registers – The Philly Freeze – 7″ (Mar-V-Lus)
The Buena Vistas – Soul Clappin’ – 7″ (Marquee)
Franciene Thomas – I’ll Be There – 7″ (Tragar)
Pacho Alonso – Ven, Ae, Ae – Pacho Alonso (Arieto)
The Jimmy Castor Bunch – It’s Just Begun – 7″ (Kinetic)
The Jackson Sisters – I Believe In Miracles – 7″ (Mums)
Juice – Catch A Groove – 12″ (Greedy)
The Mohawks – The Champ – 7″ (Sir JJ)
A.C. Reed – Talkin ’bout My Friends – 7″ (Nike)
Johnny Tolbert – Check Your Battery – 7″ (Jasman)
Hank Ballard – I’m A Junkie For My Baby’s Love – 7″ (Chess)
I’ve been sitting on this record for years. Every know and again I’ll give it a spin and flip out over it all over again and promise myself to post it up here. But clearly I hadn’t done it. After playing it on this past Sunday’s all-vinyl edition of Melting Pot I just had to make sure I put it up here.
Aorta were a psych group from the Chicago area. In the years before they became Aorta and cut this record, perhaps surprisingly (or not surprisingly depending on your perspective I suppose) they originally had Peter Cetera in the band before he left for the ultimately greener pastures of the Chicago Transit Authority. That’s definitely for the best cause I can’t imagine his falsetto with this group, would have wrecked their whole vibe. Instead what we have here is a nice bit of fuzzy psych loosely built around a bunch of heart related themes. Virtually all of the songs run into each other, many feature either heart sounds or heart references (such as “Main Vein”). I’m so fond of how the songs are mixed together that it just didn’t seem right to break them up. So I’ve kept a few of them together, along with the interesting sound effects that work as bridges between the songs. The sonic trickery that leads off “Strange” is particularly interesting, because to my post-Hip-Hop ears it sounds like a turntablist got transported back to 1969 just to cut up a little routine before this track. There’s some real talent on display here, one of those instances you rarely get anymore, an imaginative group given free reign in the studio with the chance to do whatever they wanted. It’s a shame the band didn’t really go anywhere (if you believe what you read on Wikipedia apparently someone slipped them some bad acid just before a major industry showcase at the Fillmore East and their reputation never recovered). They were able to release a second album in 1970, simply titled Aorta 2, but I’ve never heard anything from it and it seems even more obscure than this one. If I run into it, I promise I won’t take years and years to post that one up.
I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty overwhelmed by the amount of new music that comes out on this planet these days. While the vast majority of the music that gets recorded is bad or mediocre at best (thanks for putting that phrase in my mind permanently Richard Sherman!), even when you’re just dealing with the quality, it seems like the sounds are just never-ending. It’s saddening, maddening and thrilling all at the same time. That sentiment reminds me of the sound of Los Macuanos, a DJ collective out of Tijuana who’s album El Origen has so many different styles mashed up together that I won’t even try to come up for a term for it all. Virtually every track sounds different from the last, but they all have a distinct style to them linking them together. “Pasado y Presente” has a bit of trip-hop feel to it, alluring while also a bit ominous. EL Origen doesn’t sound like a debut, it sounds like Los Macuanos have been at this for some time, thankfully for us they’ve only just begun.
First end of the month all vinyl affair of 2014, and though I plan on bringing in quite a few guest DJs for most of the year, it was nice to start out the year with a big bag of vinyl and no idea where we were going to go from song to song. With these shows all I plan is where I begin, in this case with the H.P. Riot album I just highlighted here. It’s always interesting to see what develops from there, and there are quite a few things that I’ve had for a while and just hadn’t had the chance to share with you guys on air or on the blog. At the top of the second hour there’s a short set foreshadowing my guest DJ set over at the legendary Funky Sole in Echo Park on February 8th featuring Toni Tornado, Mary Jane Hooper, Sugar Billy and more. I’m not sure if I’ll even play any of these tracks (I’m going to be working that out probably right up until I leave on Saturday the 8th) but I think you’ll enjoy the teaser nonetheless. Probably my favorite set is in the first hour with some cinematic sounds from Jun Mayuzumi, Ennio Morricone, Nancy Priddy and Albert Ayler. Then again, I’m really happy with how all of these sets came together. Sometimes I leave these vinyl freeform shows with a bit of regret, “I wish I’d played this there” or “Dang, that would have been perfect in this set,” but not this show. This one is super solid, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I won’t be on the air this Sunday, it’s Super Bowl time, but don’t you fret, I’ve left you in the very capable hands of Mr. Sean Osborn aka Seano from KPFK’s very own Soundwaves!
Playlist: 01-26-2014
{opening theme} Boris Gardiner – Melting Pot – Is What’s Happening (Dynamic)
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H.P. Riot – Gotta Go (The Chant) – H.P. Riot (Concept)
Juan Pablo Torres y Algo Nuevo – Con Aji Guaguanco – Super Son (Arieto)
Jorge Ben – Xica De Silva – Africa Brasil (Phillips)
Howlin’ Wolf – Built For Comfort – The Howlin’ Wolf Album (Cadet Concept)
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Jun Mayuzumi – Miracle – Angel Love (Capitol)
Ennio Morricone – La Lucertola – Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna (Dagored)
Nancy Priddy – Mystic Lady – You’ve Come This Way Before (DOT)
Albert Ayler – Heart Love – New Grass (Impulse)
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Aorta – Main Vein II/Sleep Tight/Catalyptic – Aorta (Columbia)
Santana – Eternal Caravan Of Reincarnation/Waves Within – Caravanserai (Columbia)
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Toni Tornado – O Jornaleiro – Toni Tornado (Odeon)
Maceo & The King’s Men – Got To Getcha – Doing Their Thing (House Of The Fox)
Carl Sherlock Holmes – Black Bag – Investigation No. 1 (CRS)
Sugar Billy Garner – Keep Movin’ On – Super Duper Lover (Fast Track)
Tim Maia – Um Dia Chego La – Tim Maia (Polydor)
Mary Jane Hooper – You’ve Got What I Need – Psychedelphia (Funky Delicaces)
The Meters –Cordova – The Meters (Josie)
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Jimmy Smith – Root Down (And Get It) – Root Down Live! (Verve)
The Lat-Teens – Soulful Thing – Buena Gente (Cotique)
Oscar Milito E Quarteto Forma – Podes Crer – O Primerio Amor: Trilha Sonora Original (Som Livre)
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Gato Barbieri – India – Chapter One: Latin America (Impulse)
Fernanda Y Bernanda Utrera – Mi Malo No Tiene Cura – El Cante De Fernanda Y Bernanda De Utrera (Hispavox)
Rotary Connection – We’re Going Wrong – Songs (Cadet Concept)
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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Bitar (Kemado)
School recently started at Long Beach (which is the main reason I’ve been M.I.A. once again) and I got a big surprise on the first day. As I was checking my mail, which because of the winter break, often includes a textbook or two, I noticed an LP sized box with my name on it. My first inclination was that someone had sent me a textbook in a record box. Granted, there is no reason anyone would send me a textbook in a record box, but it seemed more likely that someone sending me a record at school. When I got back to my office I opened it up to find this record. Shock gave way to the certainty that someone had sent me a record by mistake. After all, records don’t just materialize out of the blue, and especially not at school. Turns out an old friend of mine from Berkeley, Cesar “El Che” Rodriguez had sent it as a thank you gift for an academic related assist from me. It’s a tough thing to do, buying DJs records, but he chose a record that I dug and didn’t own and that was mighty cool in and of itself.
Turns out the record was pretty damn good. This was actually a record I remember seeing at Groove Merchant years ago and for whatever reason I didn’t pick it up then. It’s not something that you generally just run into. The “H.P.” in H.P. Riot stood for Hunter’s Point, a neighborhood in San Francisco where the band came from. Strangely they were signed to a Canadian record label, likely a by product of their touring and probably being “big” in Canada. H.P. Riot had a lot of Bay Area flavor to their sound, with pretty clear influences from Sly & the Family Stone. Just the kind of funk I needed here at the start of 2014. Best first day of classes ever!
This record has been out forever and a day, but part of the new year is making amends for the things that I missed in 2013. Joanna Gruesome is a noise pop band out of Cardiff, with girl/boy vocals and loads of energy that remind me ever so much of the Delgados, though grittier, noiser and with much more attitude. Safe to say I love them very much and one listen to “Sugar Crush” should show you why. As a bonus, here’s the band performing for Break Thru Radio. “Secret Surprise” is the song that I originally wanted to post, just cause of the lyrics, which somehow make “I dream of pulling out your teeth” and “I’ve been waiting to crush your fucking skull” seem charming. It’s all in the delivery, and it’s something that comes across much better while watching the band perform:
Really didn’t think I had this much new material until I’d picked all my songs and realized I’d have needed a whole extra hour to play everything. New tunes from the Soul Jazz Orchestra (covering Gary Bartz!), Dum Dum Girls, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Miles Tackett, Joanna Gruesome, Chicano Batman and King avriel. Quite a few classics thrown into the mix, as you should expect. We’ll be on all vinyl this coming week which will likely feature a number of tracks I’m thinking about putting in the mix when I do a guest spot at LA’s venerable Funky Sole February 8th.
Playlist: 01-19-2014
{opening theme} Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot – Melting Pot (Stax)
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SCLC Operation Breadbasket Orchestra – Precious Lord, Take My Hand – The Last Request (Chess)
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – The Good Samaritan – Free At Last (Gordy)
The Soul Jazz Orchestra – Celestial Blues – Inner Fire (Strut)
Gary Bartz NTU Troop – Sing A Song – Follow, The Medicine Man (Prestige)
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Chicano Batman – She Lives On My Block – Cycles Of Existential Rhyme (El Relleno)
Tempo 70 – En Una Tarde Gris – Tu y Yo (Mericana)
Hurray For The Riff Raff – St. Roch Blues – Small Town Heroes (ATO)
The Electric Flag – You Don’t Realize – A Long Time Comin’ (Columbia)
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Miles Tackett & the 3 Times – Just What I Need – Single (milestackett.bandcamp.com)
Big Star – O My Soul – Radio City (Ardent)
Bart Davenport – Wearing The Changes – Physical World (Burger/Lovemonk)
Bobby Timmons – One Down – Got To Get It! (Milestone)
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Joanna Gruesome – Candy – Weird Sister (Slumberland)
Swervedriver – Deep Wound – Single (swervedriver.bandcamp.com)
New York Dolls – Who Are The Mystery Girls – Too Much, Too Soon (Mercury)
Girl Trouble – Wrecking Ball – Hit It Or Quit It (K Recs)
Tom Jones – Looking Out My Window – 7” (Parrot)
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Michael Dixon & J.O.Y. – You’re All I Need – Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound (Numero)
Jessy Lanza – Against The Wall – Pull My Hair Back (Hyperdub)
Dum Dum Girls – Rimbaud Eyes – Too True (Sub Pop)
Real Estate – Talking Backwards – Atlas (Domino)
Jef Gilson – Ballet Lycra 1 – The Archives (Jazzman)
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The Step Brothers feat. Rakaa & Blu – Tomorrow – Lord Steppington (Rhymesayers)
King avriel – Prelude – Single (Self-Released)
Warpaint – Go In – Warpaint (Rough Trade)
King Crimson – Exiles – Larks Tongues In Aspic (Atlantic)
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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Bitar (Kemado)
Just saw a list of Hip-Hop records that are going to be celebrating a 20th anniversary here in 2014 (which strangely now I can’t seem to find again) and saw the cover for the Beastie Boys Ill Communication. 1994 was a formative period of time for me. I’d just finished my first year in college and first year at Album 88. Like most of the Beastie Boys records, Ill Communication featured some fantastic production work. At some point in 1994 I started making the transition away from CDs and into digging for vinyl. Searching out the samples on that album and others from that Golden Era of Sampling fundamentally changed my tastes and habits connected to music.
I first ran into “Root Down” at the Atlanta Record Swap. I can distinctly remember thumbing through the crates of a dealer by the name of Bill Wolfe, who I’d never seen there before, and there was just gem after gem after gem. Running into this album took my breath away. In those pre-google, pre-Discogs, pre-Ebay days, you didn’t get records over the internet and you couldn’t find information about out-of-print records. You either found them, someome told you about them or someone gave them to you. I just remember being in disbelief that I actually ran into this record and that so much of the original song was in the sample for the Beastie Boys “Root Down.” It was a prized possession until the big sell-off in 2004. It’s only fitting (since I sold him my copy) that I ran into this album again at Groove Merchant via trades with Cool Chris. “Root Down” is the funkiest thing Jimmy Smith ever laid down, “Slow Down Sagg” is almost a more upbeat version of “Root Down” and just as funky. This version of “After Hours” is still bluesy, but it’s a funky blues, though not in the way we generally use the term. So classic, and still takes my breath away every time I drop the needle on it.
Here at the beginning of the year I’m often making up for records that I didn’t play nearly enough in 2013. Sometimes that’s because I just slept on something, more often than not it’s simply because it took me time to get the release. Most of the new music I get is from labels or promo people and since KPFK doesn’t really have a working library, I have to hustle for everything. Though I’m always proud of the “Best Of” shows I do, as soon as I’ve broadcast the show, I know there’s going to be something that I wish I’d put in there (I do make amends during the “Best So Far” show in July, but it’s not quite the same). The thoroughly enjoyable Purple Snow collection from Numero is the first of many echoes of 2013 you’re likely to hear and see on this blog. The collection shines a light on music recorded in Minneapolis before Prince broke out and put that sound on the map. Here (as with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis) Prince is still a teenager and only a bit player on a few of the tracks, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of quality, interesting and distinctive sounds on this collection. “You’re All I Need” is maybe my favorite of the bunch, one of the most slyly funky Gospel songs you’re ever likely to hear, with some spacy organ, hand claps and a chorus of kids. Without a doubt I’ll be making amends most of this year and playing selection after selection from this collection on the radio show.
First shows of a new year are often difficult to produce for a show like this. The beginning of the year generally doesn’t have a lot of new releases, so there’s not a lot of completely new sounds to share. Lucky for us all, 2014 already has a few very strong records upcoming in these first two months of the year, including Swervedriver, Sharon Jones, Spain, Bart Davenport and Chicano Batman, as well as more than a few things left over from 2013 that didn’t get quite the amount of shine they deserved on my program, such as Juana Molina, Jessy Lanza and the fantastic Purple Snow collection put out by Numero. This first show also features a couple of tributes to artists who passed recently, including the criminally under-rated Kermit Moore and the incomparable Amiri Baraka.
{opening theme} Booker T & the Mgs – Melting Pot – Melting Pot (Stax)
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Amiri Baraka – Who Will Survive America? – Listen Whitey: The Sounds Of Black Power 1967-1975
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – She Fell Away – Your Funeral, My Trial (Mute)
King – Go Slow – Red, Hot & Fela (Knitting Factory)
Andrew Hill feat. Kermit Moore – Illusion – One For One (Blue Note)
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Juana Molina – Ferocisimo – Wed 21 (Crammed Discs)
Jessy Lanza – As If – Pull My Hair Back (Hyperdub)
Los Macuanos – Iglesia de San Miguel Canoa – El Origen (Nacional)
The Avalanches – Diners Only/A Different Feeling – Since I Left You (Modular)
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Bart Davenport – Fuck Fame – Physical World (Burger/Lovemonk)
Swervedriver – Deep Wound – Single (Self-released)
Willie Colon – Eso Se Baila Asi – The Hustler (Fania)
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – You’ll Be Lonely – Give The People What They Want (Daptone)
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94 East – If You See Me – Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound (Numero)
Mind & Matter – I’m Under Your Spell – Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound (Numero)
Aura – Taste Of Love – Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound (Numero)
Haze – I Do Love My Lady – Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound (Numero)
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Chicano Batman – El Frio II – Cycles Of Existential Rhyme (El Relleno)
Miles Tackett & the 3 Times – Just What I Need (Self-Released)
Erasmo Carlos – Sorriso Dela – Sonhos e Memorias (Polydor)
Sun Kil Moon – Micheline – Benji (Caldo Verde)
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Spain – To Be A Man – Sargent Place (Glitterhouse)
Songs: Ohia – Hold On Magnolia – Magnolia Electric Co.: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Secretly Canadian)
Yusef Lateef – Live Humble – The Diverse Yusef Lateef (Atlantic)
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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Bitar (Kemado)
