Carmen Electra and Friend Eat It
This isn’t music related, but what the hell. Start your weekend off with a good laugh…
Priceless!!
A Saw Doctors Saint Patrick’s Day
In 1990, this song became Ireland’s biggest selling single of all time. In 2007, it finally reached my ears thanks to Larry Kirwan’s Celtic Crush show on Sirius. Apparently, the Roman Catholic church raised a stink at the time because of some suggestive lyrics mentioning the church…
Well, I used to see her up the Chapel when she went to Sunday mass,
When she’d go up to receive, I’d kneel down there and watch her pass.
The glory of her ass!And…
And I walked straight up and made an ostentatious contribution
And I winked at her to tell her I’d seduce her in the future,
When she’s feeling looser.The Saw Doctors, from Tuam, County Galway, have been going strong since the mid 80’s, when the Waterboys discovered them in a Galway pub, and invited them to open for them on their next Irish and UK (Fisherman’s Blues) tour. The band is spending this St. Patty’s Paddy’s Day playing the Vic in Chicago.
Crank this up and have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day…
The Saw Doctors’ Official Site
Ear Fuzz Referral:Miles Davis at the Isle of Wight, 1970
This is way too cool not to share. For amazing video of Miles Davis and band at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, go to Ear Fuzz now and take some time to watch this incredible footage.
The lineup: Jack DeJohnette (drums), Dave Holland (bass), Airto Moriera (perc), Keith Jarrett (keys), Chick Corea (keys), Gary Bartz (sax), and of course Miles Davis.
Observe the Stage Presence of Miles. What a badass mother—er. RIP Miles.
New Music: Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
This is a pretty easy segue from my last post about Tony Allen. I was reading the latest Rolling Stone yesterday, and in Austin Scaggs’ Smoking Section, he gave a heads up to the new album by Antibalas (which just came out March 6th). Scaggs said they “churn out the best Afrobeat since Fela Kuti left the building”.
So naturally, off I went to eMusic to download the album, and glad I did at that. Brooklyn-based Antibalas is most certainly hugely influenced by Fela. I would say it’s impossible to play Afrobeat and not be influenced by Fela. But these guys also manage to reinvent the form at the same time. The album is produced by John McEntire of Tortoise. If you want to spend an hour falling under the groove and spell of good Afrobeat (with some good rips on Bush & Cheney in “Filibuster XXX”), pick up this album.
Here’s the cool opening track to the album, the aptly named “Beaten Metal”.
Antibalas: Beaten Metal
Antibalas’ Official Site (includes their latest tour dates, which includes SxSW in Austin over the next few days, and just about every American city it seems except for here in Phoenix – shit!).
Tony Allen and Ginger Baker Poundin the Skins
Kudos to Jefito for throwing a Fela Kuti / Ginger Baker tune on one of his Friday mix tapes a couple months back. It made me aware of Fela and the Africa 70’s “Live” album with Ginger Baker. It was originally released in 1971 but was reissued late last year with a 16-minute bonus track – a Ginger Baker / Tony Allen drum jam.
Tony Allen was Fela Kuti’s drummer for many many years, and is active today in The Good, the Bad, & the Queen, which also features former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, and former Clash – yes CLASH – bassist Paul Simonon. Hidden Track caught one of their shows over the weekend, and has some sweet pics posted in their photo review.
So I’m a percussion kind of guy and can happily spend 16 minutes of my life listening to a fine Afrobeat / funkin’ drummin’ jam. Can you?
Ginger Baker & Tony Allen Drum Solo – Live at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival
Help Save Internet Radio
On March 2nd, the Copyright Royalty Board (part of the U.S. Library of Congress), released the new royalty rates that Internet Radio broadcasters have to pay, retroactive from 2006-2010. The new rates are so high that, for the most part, they exceed 100% of the revenue of most online radio stations.
What this means is Internet Radio as we know it is threatened big time. I can’t count the number of songs and artists I’ve been exposed to because of online radio. Great sites like Radio Paradise, Pandora, KCRW’s streams of Morning Becomes Eclectic, and Live 365 have been invaluable to me. To even consider life in this day and age without them is something I don’t even want to think about. It can’t happen!
The best defense against this is speaking out. You can help by going to Save the Streams.org, signing an online petition, and submitting an email or printed letter to your congressman. They have pre-written letters there for your convenience.Please , if you’re a music lover, and you agree that these sites have a right to fair royalty rates, help out and speak out.
Resources and reading:
Time Running out for MP3 Blogs? There have also been recent mumblings about the RIAA going after music bloggers by approaching their Internet Service Providers and having their accounts suspended or their sites taken down. Is this the beginning of the end? See what Jefito has to say about it. And check out Gizmodo’s Boycott the RIAA Month.
Fingers crossed.
Intervention
I’ll need an intervention soon to stop me from listening to this tune.
Arcade Fire’s “Intervention” is blowing my mind! I’d heard live versions of it before (on their KCRW appearance, for example), but never like this version on their brand new release, Neon Bible. I think the church organ does it. And the incredible lyrics which I never paid close enough attention to in the past. And the crescendo building.
I listened to this while I was running today. The hair was standing on my arms, and I muttered “WwwOW” before playing it again. To me, this song is of EPIC proportions… goose bumpage proportions.
Arcade Fire: Intervention
Buy: Neon Bible
Carbon/Silicon’s Crackup Suite
Mick Jones (formerly of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite) and Tony James (formerly of Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik), are old friends from the Brit punk scene of the mid 70’s. They are alive and well these days, churning out new music as Carbon/Silicon.
Free new music.
Every now and then, new albums pop up on their web site with free mp3’s and artwork. Today was one of those days. 4 out of the 6 songs that make up their new album, The Crackup Suite, appeared this morning. You can read the rationale behind this project here on their web site bio.
Here’s one of the new tunes. I picked the strangest one.
You can download all four here. How does this one grab you?
Carbon/Silicon:
T.F. Madness(mp3)The Past and the Present: the Pogues in Boston
With St. Patrick’s Day quickly approaching, and the Pogues set to play two sold out shows at the Avalon in Boston this weekend, what better way to celebrate than with a Pogues show from the very same venue twenty years earlier? It was called the Metro back then, and this was the period when Joe Strummer played guitar for the band on tour (87-88). In the early 90’s when Shane MacGowan left the band, Joe would take lead vocal duties for a couple of years.
While the lucky folks in Boston get to enjoy the 2007 Pogues this weekend, the rest of us can live vicariously through them and the 1987 Pogues. If the crowd at this weekend’s show is anything like this crowd, one hell of a good time is in store.
Lucky bastards.
The Pogues (featuring Joe Strummer on guitar)
The Metro, Boston, Mass.
December 1st, 198701. Streams Of Whiskey
02. The Irish Rover
03. Medley
04. The Body Of An American
05. If I Should Fall From Grace With God
06. The Repeal Of The Licensing Laws
07. Lullaby Of London
08. South Australia
09. Bottle Of Smoke
10. Metropolis
11. The Broad Majestic Shannon
12. Dark Streets Of London
13. I Fought The Law (Joe on Vox.)
14. London Calling (Joe on Vox)
15. Fiesta
16. Turkish Song Of The Damned
17. Dirty Old Town
18. Sally Maclennane
19. The Sick Bed Of CuchulainnPOGUES/STRUMMER VIDEO ACTION: But that’s not all, folks. How ’bout St. Patrick’s Day, 1988? From a DVD? Some kind soul has the whole show up on YouTube. With guests Joe Strummer, David Byrne, and Kirsty McColl. It’s broken into 15 parts but well worth it. Here’s part 3, “If I Should Fall From Grace With God“, with a Joe Strummer interview leading it off. Check all of ’em out here.
