Here's a video from a movie about Gil Scott-Heron called Black Wax. I haven't seen this video for sale in quite a while, so if you see it scoop it up for sure. It's amazing from start to finish.
I guess Gil Scott is playing shows again too. Apparently, I just missed him in AZ! I found out about it a few days too late. It would have definitely been worth the long trek. Hopefully, he'll be out this way again. If you're somewhere else in the world, you can check up on his schedule at http://gilscottheron.net/
New record comes out in about a week. Buy it.
1/24/10 Gil Scott-Heron "We Almost Lost Detroit"
This is Gil Scott and his Amnesia Express twenty years ago in London. If you like this, there is also a video of their performance of "Winter in America" from the same show. That's one of my favorites, and unfortunately a song that always just seems more potent than before.
Enjoy.
01/17/10 Gil Scott-Heron "Me And The Devil"
I had heard that there was a new Gil Scott-Heron album coming out soon. His first in over ten years. I'm a pretty huge fan so the news excited me alot. As we drove home tonight, I had my first taste of the new record thanks to the good taste of kcrw. I flipped out in the middle of the van when I realized what I was hearing and how much I loved it already. The production is unlike any Gil Scott album ever released, but shouldn't that be expected with such a long lapse in output. I've always felt so much less alone next to his poems than I do anywhere else in this wilderness of mirrors. I CAN NOT WAIT for this album. The hunt starts tomorrow. The next week will be one Gil Scott-Heron video per day. Savvy?
12/21/09 Robert Wyatt "Shipbuilding"
I read it in the news today. Meet one of two new, san diego based warships:
It's easy to forget why we build these. Or at least easy to ignore.
Anyways, sorry i missed a few days. I don't really think there's anyone that would notice. If there is, I hope you enjoy this performance. It's one of the best songs of all time. There's a music video for this that is really good too, but i just found this live version which is amazing.
Roxy Jones "Chantal Goya" 7"
b/w Something on Your Mind
Format: 7" Price: $5 hand numbered and limited to 300
12/18/09 Sifl and Olly "Llama School"
Sorry, it was hard to post this last night with my face in a toilette. Enjoy.
12/17/09 Buddy Rich "Drum Solo at the Hague"
Ok, so my over-imbibing has landed my on a phil's couch for the night. I was very insistent about my access to a computer for the evening so that I could "do work". Anyhow, me and tommy ended up watching a bunch of blues videos, in search of one elusive little gem......which never turned up. He needed to sleep with a pretty lady, and god knows i've got some important shit to do, so....we watched some bull shit we both like and then took a vote. So here's democracy in action:
BTW, this is the best BR solo that I know of. Check out when he plays the snare so fast that it's no longer percusion but an actual wave frequency!! Super tits! This guy is the bruce lee of drums, and there's no way that you can tell what's really going on in a youtube video. Actually, he's probably fast than any filming of a budy rich performance. But, since that's all we got...
Roxy Jones "Chantal Goya" 7"
b/w Something on Your Mind
Format: 7" Price: $5 hand numbered and limited to 300
12/16/09 Yellow Fever "Cats and Rats"
If you've seen me anywhere near a record player in the past month, then you've almost certainly heard this song. This duo is from austin, tx i believe. They played at the bar pretty recently. I'm inclined to think that this is maybe my favorite new song that I've heard this year...if we were to do some sort of end of the year list. We won't cause that's stupid, but this song is dope. See the difference?
12/15/09 Big Friendly Jazz Orchestra "Haitian Fight Song"
Here's a high school jazz band playing the above mentioned Charles Mingus song. Not too damn shabby! This is from the Japan Student Jazz Festival in 2006. The same school covers Fables of Faubus two years later, if anyone's curious.
Those are two of my favorite songs by mingus. They're both on this rad mingus compilation that ken burns put out. Sometime during the lost summer of 2001, my roommate had this on heavy rotation. Haitian Fight Song was our fight song. It was the perfect rallying cry to turn driving to a bummer day a work into a pregame party for six hours of drinking mini-bottles of whiskey, smoking behind the dumpster, stealing toilet paper for home, and sliding teas every which way.
The kitchen crew found out what was up pretty soon, so they made us bring it inside and blast it full volume out of their deep-fried stereo, an honor usually withheld for the latest popular southern hip hop thing. That's not a stereotype either, it's well known the world over that hip hop is the gas that heats the kitchens grease. Without it, you can only serve salads.
Then the gm comes out of his office and says, "This is great. This is really great, Peter. Can I borrow this?"
Since our gm was[is] a pretty rad[drunk] boss[dude], I thought it would be cool to lend it to him.
My roommate wasn't disappointed, but more than a bit mad, and there were never any more parties ever.
12/14/09 Conway Twitty with The Residents "When You're Cool"
I don't even know how I stumbled onto this. The internet works a lot like my brain. If you've ever had a conversation with me, you might notice some sort of extended silence follow by a comment that has nothing to do with what anybody else is talking about. Sometimes I'll get asked, "where the hell did that come from?" To which I can respond with a full list of 'degree of separation' style connections that my brain made from the conversation point to the current comment. The start place is usually minutes behind the actual conversation, which makes it all the more confusing.
What I'm trying to say is that I started by looking for a video of Dwight Yoakam playing "Crying Time". I ended up with this little gem. WTF?
If you can name all the pathways the led me from one to the other, I'll buy you drinks for life.
Good luck.
12/13/09 Stanley Jordan "Eleanor Rigby"
Again with the fucking beatles!!! I know, i know. Anyway, this song is for dom. I just left his house. He was sleeping with a glass of wine in his hand. He lost the frak fight.
He likes to play his guitar with all his fingers, so i hope he might find this inspiring or neat.
Doesn't matter though. He doesn't have the internet.
12/12/09 Vashti Bunyan "17 Pink Sugar Elephants"
I stumbled on this while trying to find a Karen Dalton movie that my friend justin showed me. I can't remember hearing her name before, but all the songs sound really familiar. Apparently, she was on a roll as a folk singer by age 18, made one record that never founds its place, disappeared for thirty years, and re-emerged after her music finally gains momentum to collaborate with people like d. bernhardt and animal collective.
As far as any older footage goes, I've only found one sound stage performance (the stones' some things stick in your mind). Her presence is definitely unique. Coy and a bit absent, but with an openness. Oh, my ice caps are melting.
This song is my favorite, but i have yet to hear the full record, so....Plus, she's got new stuff out too. I'm really good at finding reasons to stay up until 5...
12/11/09 The Beatles "Blue Jay Way"
Ug, I just got home from work. It was sort of torturous. The show was rad (agent ribbons, vaginals, some strange tape delay with drums); there were some really nice people that it was great to see too. It's just that I'm sick as a dog. A sick dog.
I actually bought and consumed nyquil for the first time in years (along with some cup noodles).
The last time I took any sort of cough syrup while in the midst of a horrible fever, I popped in magical mystery tour. By the time this song came on, I was tripping strong as hell. I guess it would be better described as "frying", because that's what your brain is doing to itself....proteins start to break down...
Ever since, I've been in love with this song. Sorry if any of the two of you are disappointed at two beatles songs in almost as many days, but eh...george's songs are so nice.
If I die of swine flu, I suppose there's a possibility that this little video blog could become popular. If so, wait to you see the last video! Eh, now i'm going delusional.....
12/10/09 The Paddle Boat "B Side of a Life"
I'm posting later and later each night. eh. This is Paddle Boat. It's the first local san diego band on here so far. With good reason. I remember the first time I saw these guys. It was at this little hole in the wall art gallery across the street from the bar I worked at. A chill little place owned by some ex-olympia folk (the nicest i've met by far) where you're free to bring booze and smoke and all the stupid shit we like to feel entitled to do in other people's places. I had heard the name. eh.. I've heard lots of names. But the harmonies...Oh god, their sweet voices. I remember thinking how much work it must have taken to put those vocal parts together.
Anyway, I could type nice things all night, but I just got home from work and I have more scholarly persuits....
These guys released their new album tonight..I think their first actually. I missed the show because I had to be at my job, which wasn't that bad at all. However, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this!
Here is a video of a song from their last 7". So far, I think it's one of the coolest looking videos that's come from around here. So, I'm going to quit typing and watch it now. Goodnight.
"B Side of a Life" - The Paddle Boat from Single Screen Records on Vimeo.
12/9/09 Japandroids "Racer X"
A little late today, we had a big dinner at our band meeting that kept me confined to the couch until minutes before work. Here's a video of one of my favorite current bands covering one of my favorite Big Black songs. We got to play with Japandroids a while ago. They blew everyone out of the water.
I had spent about a week listening to their album while visiting old friends in south carolina. Music always has the most powerful effect on me when my mind has made a connection between the music and good memories with friends. This was the latest example. I was so ready to hear that shit cranked up through the three separate amplifiers that brian uses. They skipped one of my favorite songs on the album "I quit girls", but it made sense. Their whole set was pure energy.
Unfortunately, pretty much the only press we've gotten this year involved this show. Some blogger painted our presence on the bill as some kind of nepotistic act of conflicting interest by a band that can't play worth a spit. Maybe it was...
We played with Happy Hollows that night too (who we love), and despite the review, I remember it as a really fun night. They did, however, come back to town recently, playing another amazing show (the song from their upcoming 7" is tits-up) at casbah to about 10 times as many people. So either we're evil conspirators or maybe the musicologists in the south are ahead of the pack when it comes to new music. I won't speculate.
12/8/09 Willie Nelson "Always on My Mind"
I thought it was going to be still pouring today so we could watch blue eyes crying, but instead here's a song for after the storm. Willie's playing tonight in Los Angeles if you get the inclination. If I didn't have to work and had lots of money, I'd think about it. Anyway, the professionals say that there's a few days before the next storm, so don't fear the highway.
12/7/09 The Beatles "Rain"
It's been pouring all night and day. I miss this kind of weather, though it's a different temperature then I remember. Anyhow, this was broadcast on Ed Sullivan's show in 1966 but recorded live a week earlier at Abbey Road. Sound familiar?
12/6/09 Barry Adamson "Can't Get Loose"
More Tomorrow!
