“Lovey Dovey” & “Nip Sip”

The Clovers popped onto my radar after Oxford American featured their amazing cut One Mint Julep on their 2007 music edition. I’ve since got a copy of this outstanding compilation featuring 22 brilliant Rhythm & Blues tunes. These tracks just ooze doobie-di-does, bar room smoke and truly inspired vocal arrangements. Two of my favorites are Lovey Dovey (so that’s where Steve Miller got the line, “really love your peaches, want to shake your tree”), and Nip Sip (the White Light / White Heat of R&B drinking songs). Dig the tunes…

Retread Sessions

Thanks to the great blog Flux=Rad I now have a new regular pit stop on the internet: The Retread Sessions Vimeo Page. Great acts like Akron/Family, Jose Gonzalez, Do Make Say Think and many more are up on the site already. I really love the aesthetic of these videos. Here's a particularly awesome one below. If you like the sample, make sure you go to the actual Vimeo page to watch 'em in HD.


No. 6 Bill Callahan - "Nothing Rises To Meet Me" from Retread Sessions on Vimeo.

Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Been

Do I really need to tell you about this album? Isn’t that album cover enough? No? Ok, here we go…

I’ve only recently discovered Spider John Kroener, but already the encroaching stages of obsession are upon me. First, I stumbled across Running, Jumping, Standing Still (psst…) and just let it play day in and day out, but that wasn’t enough. I needed to hear more. So I immediately got Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Been, and it’s absolutely brilliant. To crib a sentiment from the liner notes, he makes these well-worn songs sound fresh again, as if he’s the one who originally wrote and performed them. Hell, the guy even rescues Cotton-Eyed Joe from it’s jock jam peril, that alone earns him major kudos. Here’s a couple of diddies that go down particularly easy, enjoy…

“Headache” Video

You gotta love randomly typing “Frank Black” into a youtube search and getting an awesome video you never knew existed for one of your favorite songs. This thing is hilarious, (especially those back-up singers). Still have to pick up that new mini-album, heard it’s pretty great. Enjoy…

Big Dipper!!!

If you listen to The Best Show On WFMU, you may be familiar with the Boston rock band Big Dipper. Not only has Tom Scharpling sung their praises on his show, he also contributed to the liner notes in the box set. That solid endorsement coupled with the tracks posted on their myspace page was all I needed to go out and buy the beautifully packaged 3-disc set. The compilation collects all their minor label albums along with a whole disc full of unreleased material. "That's all fine and well Danny, but how's the music?" you ask. Fucking awesome! Just song after song of pop rock gems. There's 49 tracks here that are thankfully rescued from obscurity and so far I'm loving them all. Honestly, there's nothing I can say here that Scharpling doesn't put perfectly in his liner notes, so after you sample these tracks, I HIGHLY recommend you pick up the very reasonably priced box set. And if you just want to listen to the tunes, you can download all 49 of them on Amazon for a mere $9. I'm posting All Going Out Together, Loch Ness Monster and Faith Healer from the particularly strong first disc, but rest assured, there's lots more where those came from!

Unhalfbricking

For the last week or so I've been completely hooked on Unhalfbricking, the album from the influential British Folk Rock band featuring Richard Thompson and a bunch of other amazingly talented musicians. The whole album is just beautiful, but these two tracks are my favorite: Million Dollar Bash, one of three Dylan covers here, and the long jam A Sailor's Life. If you think I'm out of my mind during the first couple of minutes of A Sailor's Life, please hang in there, you'll know what I mean when Thompson and fiddler Dave Swarbrick take over. I'm expecting the follow up to this album, Liege & Lief, in the mail any day now, if it's anything as brilliant as this, I'll be a happy man.

50's & 60's Magic, Part 2 of 2

As promised, here's the second installment! Keep those oldies alive!

Zip!

50's & 60's Magic, Part I of 2

So my friend Pedro, (aka memofromturner) put together this really great compilation of 50's and 60's songs. I've been listening to them all morning and it's fantastic. It's like listening to Magic 104.3* without the lame car commercials, but there's also stuff in here Dick Biondi would never play. Enjoy Part 1, check in tomorrow for the next batch.

*On a side note, I just learned that the Oldies Station I grew up listening to in the Chicagoland Area has recently changed to a Jack FM, is nothing sacred?

Zip!