Friday Music

$(KGrHqR,!qQFBGvGM67dBQYiZsyqTQ~~60_35Welcome back! I said I was going to give this a shot at weekly entries again, so here we are. An interesting mix this week, which I hope you enjoy: Some obscure 60s soul, a killer remix, and another gem I discovered via a television commercial (hey, like I’m going to find new music via the radio?).

The pic at the left is a 45 from Ninandy Music, the New-York-based record label co-owned by the legendary Nina Simone. It’s a release from 1969 — an example of Northern Soul, a music and dance movement that emerged from Northern England out of the Mod scene in the late 60s — essentially black American soul music, sung by white working-class Brits. Most of the acts never made it big, and many only released a single or two. This is the case with this act, which had this one 45 to its name: The Swordsmen – “Oh My Soul.”

My attitude towards remixes is pretty simple: Transform the original, or don’t bother. Don’t just add a dance beat, some drops, and call it a remix. Completely re-invent the original track. Make us hear it another way. This is an example of a great remix — a Chicago-based set of DJs who operate under the name Autograf take one of my favorite songs of all time, Stevie Wonder’s’ “Superstition”, and turn it into a chill downtempo House track. Wow. Stevie Wonder- “Superstition (Autograf Remix).”

I discovered Thievery Corporation back in 2000, when they released The Mirror Conspiracy, which they described as a soundtrack to an imaginary spy thriller. (So you can see why I was intrigued). I’ve been a fan ever since — I love their cool mix of dub, bossa nova, jazz and electronica. I found out this week that they’ve got a new album coming out in April — and this is the first cut they’ve released. Thievery Corporation – “Depth of My Soul (feat. Shana Halligan).”

Another great find from a television commercial — this one the most recent Southern Comfort ad (with the triple exposure of the guy dancing). The song is a 1983 track from Brazilian musician Marcos Valle — a superstar who has worked from the 60s through the present day (although, naturally, less known here). He has worked in many genres – samba, bossa nova, jazz, rock… but this track, when it was released at the height of the aerobics craze, was called “workout music”: Marcos Valle – “Estrelar.”

A track which I first heard on the soundtrack to the video game FIFA 12: The band is pretty much the second-most-famous thing to come out of Wasilla, Alaska. The song is a tone-perfect call back to the British glam sound of the early 70s, which is why I love it: Portugal, The Man – “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now).”

A few years before they became famous for recording the pretty good theme song to a pretty mediocre sitcom (Friends), The Rembrandts released the following song, which got quite a lot of airplay on the Modern Rock charts. I liked it quite a bit at the time, and I still do: The Rembrandts – “Just The Way It Is, Baby.”

So there ya go. Another week down. Hope you like it.

Again, if you’re out there, drop me a comment — these things are easier to do when I know that people are enjoying it.

More next week.

The Return of Friday Music

BuckRogers_b_600_zpsbd26b2b0Here we go again… For those of you who aren’t aware, starting a hair over 9 years ago (!!!) in February 2005, I started a regular feature on my blog, called Friday Music. It was a “Mixtape of Teh Intarwebs” — a set of mp3s of stuff that I’d been listening to recently, or had just discovered myself. It ran for quite a while, years of weekly entries– and then, of course, less frequently, until it faded away almost entirely. My last attempt was in May of last year. I’ve had a few people ask me to bring it back, and when I recently mentioned that I’ve been tempted to do so, I was hit with a bunch of folks saying “Please!” — so here we are.

As always, if a link gives you trouble, try copy-and-paste, and if it’s down (these links usually are ephemeral), a Google search or a search on iTunes or Amazon will track the song down for you. Now for this week’s songs:

This first track is something I’ve been searching for since February 1980, when the “Space Rockers” episode of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century first aired. The episode featured… well, Space Rockers. A band called Andromeda, whose music was being used to make The Kids commit violent crimes on behalf of The Bad Guy via subliminal messages — sort of an early version of the plot of the Josie and the Pussycats feature film. Anyway, the appregiated-synth-heavy funk of Andromeda was something that, for whatever reason, really stuck with me, and I’ve been trying to find a copy of it ever since. Late last year, collector soundtrack publisher Intrada released a 3-CD version of the music from Season One of Buck Rogers, and, sure enough… here are the Space Rockers. Johnny Harris – “Andromeda (from Space Rockers)”.

Long-time readers will recall that I’ve got a fascination with K-Pop groups. This is one that I’ve posted about before, 2NE1 (I previously featured “I am the Best (내가 제일 잘 나가)” – link to video here). This is another one that is a serious ass-mover — but also subject to a bit of controversy — at around 1:55, the song features a sample of a young boy singing passages from The Quran, and the Korean Muslim community immediately took offense. The abbreviated title of this song stands for “Mental Breakdown” — 2NE1 – “MTBD (멘붕).”

Here’s a track that I found via a Target commercial, of all things. I was struck immediately by the very 80s sound of it (to my ear, at least), and out came the Shazam app on the iPhone, so I could find out who it was. This L.A. band played Glastonbury in 2013, and earned a top spot in the BBC’s Sound of 2013 poll. Haim -“Forever.”

UK musician Barry Adamson has been a member of The Buzzcocks, Magazine, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Visage. This swingy sexy instrumental is from his 1996 solo album Oedipus Schmoedipus plays like a lost mid-60s Bond soundtrack tune, which, of course, is why I love it. Barry Adamson – “The Big Bamboozle.”

A track from my writing playlist for FAR WEST, from a late-period Spaghetti Western (and recently used to good effect in Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”). The song was composed by Luis Bacalov (who did, among other things, the theme to the original “Django”), with vocals — in English — by Edda Dell’Orso. Luis Bacalov, with Edda Dell’Orso – “Lo Chiamavano King (His Name Was King).”

A little bit of UK hip-hop, from one of my favorites of that genre, Roots Manuva. This track is a remix by Matt Helders — the drummer from the Arctic Monkeys. Roots Manuva – “Again and Again (Matt Helders Remix).”

Reliving parts of my misspent youth by listening to a bunch of 2nd-wave Ska recently — I found a copy of the concert documentary “Dance Craze: The Best of British Ska LIVE!” from 1981. One of the performances is The Bodysnatchers doing a cover of a 1967 Desmond Dekker tune. No recording of the cover exists, so here’s the original. Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail! Desmond Dekker – “007 (Shanty Town).”

So there you go. We’re going to try to make this a regular thing — so I’ll make you a deal: Sound off with comments below, or via Twitter or whatever — let me know you’re out there, and I’ll see you back here in 7 for another entry. Enjoy!

Down But Not Out

hospitalI’ve been remiss, and have ignored this blog — but then again, everything has been on hold recently. The picture at left is a shot taken by my wife about a month ago — I was unexpectedly hospitalized with a sudden infection.

To copy the update that I posted on Adamant Entertainment’s site: I came down with a very severe case of diverticulitis which resulted in the removal of 12 inches of my colon, and a secondary severe abdominal abscess, which they thankfully caught before it burst (which, I am told, would have likely resulted in severe enough peritonitis to kill me). This resulted in a 9-day hospital stay, and an estimated 6-8 week recovery period involving at-home nurse care and an eventual secondary operation to repair the colon (another week-long stay in the hospital).

Basically, I’ve been getting down with the business of getting well, and as such, everything else has been paused. I’m slowly getting back to work (a few hours each day), and I’m even thinking that I’ll start updating this more regularly (I’ve been tempted to start up my old Friday Music series again, for example).

So for folks who’ve been checking in: I’m still alive, I’m getting better, and I’ll be back soon.