Bijan Warner - Guitar
Gerald Baily - Trumpet
Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Piano, Percussion, Baritone Sax
Additional Tracking at Dirty North, Chicago

COP IT HERE
 

More Info via The Book of Face
 

Check out By All Means killin it on this live set ..

With the Deepest Sounds inna 1/4" plastic tape construct from The Drastics, MC Zulu, Illuminati Congo, The Pinstripes, JahDan, Dr. Ring-Ding, Deal's Gone Bad & Many More ...
 

Album Release Session For
Drop Steady
Celebrating The Release of 'What You Do!'

and Special Guests
Akasha & On Your Marx

All Night Event Starting at 8pm. $7. Stay Early Come Late.

More Info

With Boss Sounds inna Dub Matrix on Cassette from The Drastics, MC Zulu, The Pinstripes, JahDan, Green Room Rockers, Deal's Gone Bad & Many More ...
 

With Hosts On You Marx
and Special Guests
Akasha (Chicago, IL)
The Soul Radics (Memphis, TN)

All Night Event Starting at 8pm. $5. Come Early Stay Late.

More Info

March 1, 2012

Township, Chicago (2200 N California)

NEVERMIND WHAT DEH POSTER DEM SAY!

We'll be playing strictly instrumentals, and almost all new ones ... So come on out if you wanna hear some fresh music for once in your life!!!

"If I turned up, pointed out that bank robbers always make their escape on wheeled vehicles, and asked, “Can’t we do something about this?”, the answer would be “No”. This is because we don’t know how to make a wheel that is still generally useful for legitimate wheel applications, but useless to bad guys. We can all see that the general benefits of wheels are so profound that we’d be foolish to risk changing them in a foolish errand to stop bank robberies. Even if there were an epidemic of bank robberies—even if society were on the verge of collapse thanks to bank robberies—no-one would think that wheels were the right place to start solving our problems."

THEN SIGN IT

First off, a huge 'WORD' to everyone out last Friday night at our Martyrs' show ... with the help of Environmental Encroachment & BS Brass Band we nearly sold the place out! We have our next show lined up and confirmed with Cincy bredren The Pinstripes, March 1st at Pancho's (soon to be TOWNSHIP) in Logan Square / Chicago. Details to come.

Now some recent press stuff for posterity's sake ...

Want to give a special thanks/shoutout to Newcity & Dave for the generous review...
Check That Here

Also about a month ago Drastics' dummer Anthony got to spit some thoughts at the Reader about reggae... Big thanks to John Ciba (record people: if you ain't been to Johns shop 'Logan Hardware' you are missing out!)
Peep Dat Hear

The Drastics feat. MC ZULU
Live at Martyrs' Chicago
Friday / January 13 / 2012

TELL THE FACEBOOK
OVERLORDS YOUR
COMING

Resident Drastic Selectors King Tony, 8 Hundo and The Graduate get back up on the wheels of steel with more big chunes inna international flavor stylee.

Reggae & International Soul
The Charleston, Chicago
Friday / January 6, 2012
9:30 - Close / No Cover

Let Us Know You're Coming
Join Our New FB Page

Yes ya'll. 'Tis the season and all that. We've been posting our limited arsenal of holiday material on SoundCloud over the past couple of weeks, and just wanted to make sure you knew. Cause we're sure you're not sick of holiday music yet. So please to enjoy! We offered our dub version of 'Winter Wonderland' as a free download last year and we so no reason to not offer it as a bite sized stocking stuffer this year. It's better than coal!

And in non-holiday related news ... 1.5 shows to announce ... !

Friday January 6, 2012

Resident Drastic selectors Chris & Anthony (aka PalmDown Sound) will be back on the 1s & 2s doing it at The Charleston in Bucktown, Chicago.  All vinyl, no cover.  9:30 to close.  Reggae & International Soul.

Friday January 13, 2012

The Drastics w/ MC Zulu will be at Martyrs headlining with Environmental Encroachment and BS Brass Brand.  Ruff inna second line!

OH SNAP!

Almost forgot, we're also gonna be part of this year's WXRT 'Best of 20' Holiday Spectacular .. where you can hear the tunes below paired with our impeccable wit and ability to write 45 seconds skits featuring drunken Santas, bar-fighting holiday characters and what to tell your cabbie on the way home from NYE. This year will be highlights of the past 20 years and we're honored to be part of it. Tune In!

In the meantime check out all the new tunes in our new EMMPEETHREE player up at the top ... we'll be adding new content to this site over the next week, but we just wanted to get this site going so you knew what was up. So, now that you know what's up, stop actin the fool already!

Yes!

It's the return of the Third Thursday Free Mixes series ... Part 25!

Yeah we've missed (you!) more than a couple over the past couple of months so we've gone out of our way to make it up to you with an extra-long jam-packed mix featuring ... you guessed ... nothin' but B sides.

Now, the B side gets a bad-rap, so don't start thinkin' this is some of yesterday's jam sittin' in a mason jar on your aunties windowsill gettin' all moldy. These are slammin bees, deadly bees, boss bees, ill bees, even .. well, you get the idea. Now there are more ballads/downtempo jams on this mixtape than any other but they are still slammin! Highly recommended would be 'You'll Be Sorry' by The Fascinations (dig the piano fo sho) and 'Never Had It So Good' from Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown. Also, fans of polyrhythmia will appreciate the bizarre (BIZARRE!) transitions from 4/4 to 6/8, swing to straight and other things that make musicologist wet themselves.

THEY KILLED KILLER B

Track List
Ain't No Sunshine - Lyn Collins
He Is The Boy - Little Eva
Tribute To The Don - Tommy McCook
Chicken Necks - Don & Juan
Stalkin' - Duane Eddy
You'll Be Sorry - The Fascinations
Hit And Miss Affair - Night Doctor
Part Two Why DId You - Barbara Jones
Mary Poppins - Danny Simpson
You Can't Stop Me From Dreaming - The Playmates
I'm So Glad - Frankie Karl & The Dreams
Keep On Dubbing - Bigger T
May I Baby - Sam & Dave
The Love I Found In You - Brothers Of Soul
Never Had It So Good - Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown
Going In The Hole - Ted Taylor
Hip To Your Game - Renaldo Domino
Drop By My Place - Little Carl Carlton
Can't Get Him Off My Mind - Sheryl Swope
No Love Like Your Love - Fantastic Four
Hot Pop - Jo Jo Bennett
Listen To Me - The Esquires
How Can You Tell Me - The Flirtations
Nine Times Out Of Ten - Simtec & Wylie
Keep Him - Barbara Mason
 

Saturday / July 30 / 9pm

An Extra Special Night
Latin Soul/Funk/Garage
vs
Reggae Roots/Dub/Rub-a-Dub

Missed you last month. We really did. What? No I tried calling! But, my phone was dead! I was stolen by gypsies! My arm was broken! I was attacked by feral weasels! Aw baby don't be like that ... but but but but baby, don't you understand that I do the things I do because I LOVE YOU????

Anyway ... spent last month gettting geared up for our first Sound Craft All Night Dub Session and didn't have the wherewithall to get a mix together. With next month's Sound Craft Series 2 rapidly approaching (August 5) we put together a hardass dubwise mixtape for ya'lls little boiled cauliflower ears.

Definitely some rareities in this pile of chune but familiar names and melodies abound as well. ABOUND.

And hey! If this doesn't satiate your depraved musical needs, your PalmDown Sound Crew will be back at The Charleston on Saturday July 30th with extra special guest DJ Tropicaza form Mexico City in the house. Reggae vs Latin Funk. The gloves will be off. All Vinyl. No Cover. Good Drinks.

DUB WILL FIND A WAY

Playlist
Martin Luther King - Scientist w/ The Forces of Music
Firehouse Special - Prince Jammy
Peaceful Man Dub - Rockers All Stars
March Down Babylon Dub - Prince Douglas
In Those Days - Burning Spear
Galong So Dub - Bunny Wailer
Mr. Walker Dub - King Tubby
Wicked Dub - The Revolutionaires
Iron Bar Dub - Linton Kwelsi Johnson
Idlers Rest - Joe Gibbs & The Professionals
None A Jah Jah Children No Cry - Ras Michael
Fun & Games - Lee 'Scratch' Perry
Round 9 - Scientist w/ Roots Radics

All Vinyl. No Cover. Good Drinks.

JUST CALL US CHATTY CATHYS!

Playlist
Bump Skank - Dillinger
Welding - I-Roy
Jamaican Thing - Shorty The President
Dread A The President - U Brown
Live Upright - Jah Woosh
Spanish Omega - Dennis Alcapone
Forty Leg Dread - Prince Mohammed
Try It You'll Like It - Scotty
Wrong Girl To Play With - Yellowman
Super Duper - U Mike
Ghetto Dance - Jim Brown
Mosquito 1 - Ringo
No Meat - Jah Batta
Cure For Fever - Josey Wales
Big And Ready - Super Cat
 

Good chance there will be a Part 2 of these as I had more source material than I knew what to do with. 

But in the meantime, if you like what you hear, you can come check out more of these jams LIVE at the Charleston in Bucktown, Chicago on Thursday April 28, 10pm when PalmDown Sound (your resident Drastic DJs) spin a Reggae-Gone-Soul themed night. Special Guest Nic The Graduate on board for the musical throwdown.

All Vinyl. No Cover. Good Drinks.

anyway ....

HAILE SOULAISSIE

Playlist
Turn Back The Hands of Time - Winston Francis (Tyrone Davis)
Gonna Take A Miracle - Cornell Campbell (The Royalettes)
Fever - Junior Byles (Little Willie John)
Love T.K.O. - Hugh Porter (Teddy Pendergrass)
Gimme Little Sign - Hepcat (Brenton Wood)
So Unusual - George Allison (The Impressions)
You Dont Care - Lloyd Sparks (The Impressions)
Human Nature - Jrn Reid (MJ)
Baby Now That I Found You - Alton Ellis (The Foundations)
Private Number - Honey Boy (Judy Clay and William Bell)
Aint No Sunshine - Horace Andy (Bill Withers)
Never Had A Dream Come Through - Glen Adams & Upsetters (Stevie Wonder)
Moving Away - Ken Booth (Kenny Lynch)
Lonely Man Am I - The Techniques (The Temptations)
Too Late To Turn Back - Alton Ellis (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose)

SpaceCar Design was nice enough to cook up this poster for our upcoming show with Akasha, Hood Smoke and wax from Impala Sound!

Oh yeah ... we blew it big time.

Where did January go ? Well, a large chunk of it went to moving the Dirty North. That's right, the Drastics resident recording studio Dirty North has moved on up to a bigger and badder home. We'll miss the old digs for sure, but our new space is nearly twice as big and has room for building out a much more professional space. I plan keeping a progress blog of things which will surely make some guest appearances here. So anyway, here is January's installment of The Blends free mixtape (in February, yes WE KNOW) ... appropriately entitled "Move/Home"! And if you detect a theme, you'd be right ... all of the songs either have to do with (or are named) on the theme of moving or home.  Once I scratched the surface I realized how daunting it was to catalog/pick what songs to use ... Moving and Home are pretty ubiquitious themes amongst musicians.  Anyway, the usual gamut is run, featuring reggae, hiphop, soul and  jazz. Some cool/rarer tracks with some older standbys ... Always remember, if you want more of this, you can always come by and check out The Charleston (in Chicago) every Last Thursday to hear Anthony & Chris spinning only the nice grooves ...

And though your Drastics haven't made any formal updates in a minute, rest assured we've still been busy ... Before vacating the Old Dirty North we recorded 5 brand new tracks for an exchange/dubclash with The Dub Robot out in California .. Not to mention the 10 track 'Roots Radics' inspired album we are still putting the final-touches on. When it rains it pours, and chances of precipitation are in the high 90%s.

COMIN' HOME TO ROOST

Playlist
Move - Miles Davis
Gonna Move - Paul Pena
No More Shall I Roam - Jah Woosh
Sad To Know (Your Leaving) - Gregory Isaacs
Move Up - Al & The Vibrators
Flying Home - Tommy McCook & The Supersonics
Move On Up - Greyhound
Won't You Come Home - Delroy Wilson
Move It Up - Wentworth Vernal
Move It - Declaime
Next Movement - The Roots
Changes - Clarence Carter
Move - Ty
We Are Neighbors - The Chi-Lites
Home Made - Jackie Mitoo & The Soul Brothers
Move Me - The Upsetters
I Want To Go Home - Derrick Morgan
That Place - Buddy Miles

This months' installment will feature special guests Chad Tunning and Style Goodworth on the PalmDown Soundsystem! Extra special guest Johnathon Plentymoore will be 'pon di mic! Chattin 'bout yachts n stock splits! Chad will be spinning an only 7" set, so bring it soundboys ... Definitely nuff reggae this month!

Good beer selection, no cover! Polo-reggae and preppy-latin all night!

Proper!

Rather!

Let Us Know If You're Coming so we make sure we have enough bouncy balls on hand for the late-nite-bounce-off!

So I realize it's technically closer to the 4th Thursday, but ... what the hell December ? Five Thursdays in 1 month!? That's some Mayan harbinger of doom-style-shizz! Well, as you may or may have not noticed, we added yet another holiday tune to our big-player-up-top! Auld Lang Syne in a rocksteady fashion! Oh yeah! We used this as the backdrop for our WXRT promo a few years back, but realized we had never put it up as an instrumental ... so please to enjoy!

Anyway, twenty-and-a-half? You may ask yourself? What am I doing here? This is not my beautiful home! Twenty-and-a-half 'cause it's not really a Blends mix and it's not really themed with anything ... As you can read here we took over the airwaves at KDHX in St. Louis a few weekend ago for a guest set on Ska's The Limit. So this is a 1-track mp3 of that set, plus some bonus material we couldn't fit in, and alot of the talkover stuff taken out as well ... there is some blending, but it's mostly just a hard/rare dub/dee-jay mix. Drastics Radio.

10000 WATTS OF MEGAWATTS!

Playlist
The Skatalites - Lon Chaney
Prince Jammy & Black Uhuru - Eden Dub
Jah Batta - Youthman Time
The Senior Allstars - Sniff Dub
Rhygin Rockers - Spooky
Derrick Harriot - Harmony In Dub
The Drastics feat. MC Zulu - Striped Curtain Dub
Prince Jammy - Sleng Teng Riddim
The Drastics feat. MC Zulu - No Lies
Duke Reid & Alton Ellis - Willow Tree Dub
Dillinger - Middle East Rock
Jah Woosh - Danger Man
The Wailing Souls - Jah Give Us Life/Don't Feel No Way
Prince Jammy & Black Uhuru - Firehouse Special
U-Roy - Fire In A Trenchtown
The Skatalites - Lon Chaney

Did a 'lil interview with Courtney Klos of mnska.com for "The Flyover Ska Show" ... Talked for a good while about the current state of reggae/ska, past injuries and new projects ... And can I just say ... I think it's amazing that there are folks out there documenting the current state of Jamaican inspired music in America .. Big ups to Courtney and everyone at MNSKA ... anyway, on to the interview ...

Blah di blah blah blah ....

LISTEN HERE

Boss! Richard Milne of WXRT's Local Anesthetic put our submission for this years "Local Anesthetic Holiday Spectacular" as a featured play on the WXRT website! The background track to the shenanigans is the "Rudolph The Dub Nosed Nosed Engineer" track you can listen to in our player (right above this) ... Rudolph and Frosty get into an adventure after getting kicked out of a bar ... definitely worth the 45 seconds it will take to listen!

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO SEE THE SPRINGTIME?

Also be sure to peep the other brand new holiday tune up above .. Frosty The Dubman! We also put our rendition of Winter Wonderland back up from last year! Happy Holidays Ya'lls.

Tune in to KDHX tonight from 7-9pm for Ska's The Limit and a special guest set/takeover from The Drastics! Drastics Sound a big big sound ... so get ready for a tough selection of hard and obscure dubs ... Thanks to JJ for letting us on! Good thing that lawsuit from the FCC (The FCC v. The Drastics) stops at the state border!

Also, lest ye forget! The Drastics are back in STL this Friday, December 10 at The Gramophone for a strictly instrumental set with special guest Gerald Bailey on trumpet. We're doing the late show starting at 10pm following The Joe Krown Trio's early show. Come for the Krown Trio, and stay for The Drastics for free! That's A Booya!

IF YOU MISSED IT LIVE, STREAM IT HERE!

Playlist
The Skatalites - Lon Chaney
Prince Jammy & Black Uhuru - Eden Dub
Jah Batta - Youthman Time
The Senior Allstars - Sniff Dub
Rhygin Rockers - Spooky
Derrick Harriot - Harmony In Dub
The Drastics feat. MC Zulu - Striped Curtain Dub
Prince Jammy - Sleng Teng Riddim
The Drastics feat. MC Zulu - No Lies
Duke Reid & Alton Ellis - Willow Tree Dub
Dillinger - Middle East Rock
The Wailing Souls - Jah Give Us Life/Don't Feel No Way
U-Roy - Fire In A Trenchtown
The Skatalites - Lon Chaney

1 day early cause The Great Turkey Claus told me how good you've been!

Yes! Holy crap-on-a-log ... twenty freakin' mixtapes. As I sit here at 4am sipping scotch, it's hard to believe we actually made it to twenty. The big two-oh ... What does it all mean!?  Well, at the least it's a sure sign I spend way too much money on records. So here we go, grab a kazoo and skip yer way through the looking glass into a magical musical mysterylogical madrigal madagascarian misanthropic medley of magnanimous melodies. How's THAT for alliteration! I mean, besides the fact it don't make no sense... We got another "killer party tape"^(tm) for ya on the d/l (that's download not downlow)! Bunch of soul on this one ... and generally less eclectic than last months, but once you get up into the 120+ bpm range, there's not alot of hiphop and reggae to choose from. So deal with it. There is some latin, skinhead reggae, 80s rock, etc ... ya know .. the usual bag ... so I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore!!  So just grab it and let 'er rip BROTHER!

ALMOST OLD ENOUGH TO DRINK!

Finally!

Here it is! A new single for ya'lls! We know it's been a while, but we've been on the road and working on this new album, and this applebutter ain't gonna churn itself! A new hard-hitting, dark and heavy rocksteady jam! There is an ulterior motive however ... This track is our entry into a remix competition featuring Drastics' mainstay vocalist MC Zulu.

The original track was laced up by the man called Dub Gabriel and is a spicy little dancehall/dubstep-ish riddim ... well, just like The Skatalites took the music from the movie and put it to the ska, Your Drastics took the music from the dancehall and put it to the rocksteady.

And bump it regularly!!

MC Zulu: Vocals
Andrew Zelm: Trombone
Gerald Bailey: Trumpet
Chris Merrill: Bass
Luke MacRoberts: Guitar
Anthony Abbinanti: Drums, Melodica, Baritone Sax, Juno 60, Fender Rhodes, Bells, Percussion

Production, Dub & Horn Arrangements: A. Abbinanti
Recorded at Dirty North, Chicago

Spent a month in this bar one evening cause this kept happening!!! Shot in Burlington, VT ...

2 hours late cause my internet was acting weird!

Saddle up buckaroos cause this month's mixtape is another series-within-the-series edition! Like our 80s Dancehall and Drastics Profile mixes. Presenting for thine listening holes we humbly offer up "No DJs, Volume One". Rare tracks? ehhh, maybe one .. Pop and party jams? That's a big booya! This is actually a segment of a verrrrry long DJ set I did at a Halloween party 2 years ago .. and this years impending hollows eve is what reminded me of it. All I really remember from that night is people losing their sh*t as this mix went on and the record player skipping with more and more frequency as more and more feet befell the wooden floor.   Which is weird cause I barely drank and you'd think I'd remember more ... The mix is eclectic (nothing new for The Blends as you regular subscribers can verify) but the selections jump from Jackie Wilson to Nena, Foreigner to Salt N Pepa, De La Soul to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers... well, you get the picture.  The whole thing fades out on one of the best party jams ever as I wanted to leave you with a sense that it was just getting started ... cause the mix went on for another hour after that ... and started an hour before the opening track ...

So the bad news is I won't be able to crib parts of this mix for this year's Halloween party but the good news is that YOU will be able to bump this at your very own sans-dj costume gala. Act now and we'll include 3 drunk people you don't know to show up at 2am and weird everyone out! Please hurry as supplies are limited. But not really ...

SPUMKIN BEETS

Chris decides to carbo-load before the show by hittin' the dumpsters behind Bud Shank's Chicken 'n Ribs.. Until some asshole showed up and ruined it .. NAH JUS PLAYIN HE WAS COOL!!!!

That's a booya! The Drastics will be heading north into the great Northern Open this next weekend and hitting Traverse City (at The Loading Dock) and Billy's in Grand Rapids! This will be our first time in both these cities so we'd love to see you and love for you to spread the word! We'll have Fada Dougou 'pon the mic spitting hotta flame so make sure you wear yer lil asbestos drawers so ya don't get burnt like Kurt Russell!!!!

OH HEY! Ya know what else is cool? You remixing, re-dubbing, re-working and generally mussing up some Drastic riddims. But ... how? By downloading the newest in yet another new Drastics series ... this time of DIY mix-packs (sort of a series within a series .. this month it's sitting in for our belated First Tuesday release) . Up first we have Fidelity which originally appeared on our "Chicago Massive" album. The free-for-download DIY album contains stereo drums, bass, rhythm, and stereo auxiliary sounds ... Just don't go muxin' or melfin' or mylin' around with these tracks now ... jussamussin ... hit up the lil application below or get to our BandCamp page (thedrastics.bandcamp.com) and git'a'downloadin ...

This is by no means a competition, but we'd love to hear what you do with our tunes, so send any of your re-workings to contact@thedrastics.com.

Our new album is also still in production ... we are back on track after a near-studio-meltdown and are getting all our ducks in a row before pulling the trigger on this one. Best be ready those cause this is gonna be 10 solid shots to the dome kid .. with some very extra-special guests!!

And in super advance warnings, we are going to be traveling EAST the first week of November .. expect to find us in PA, NY, VT and some more of America's classiest states November 2-7.

Oh yeah, AND we're now on the Reverb Nation and can find us at www.reverbnation.com/thedrastics.
 

July is just the gift that keeps on giving! It's like Christmas ... in July. And this month's mixtape is Hotter ... than July. With the passing of Sugar Minott a few days ago, I toyed with the idea of doing a tribute, but the incompleteness of my Minott vinyl made it clear it wasn't going to happen. So instead we are focusing on the whole 80s/Rub-A-Dub style! I think this era of reggae gets a bad rap, but knowing how trends cycle every 20 years (30 for Jamaican trends) it will be popular in about 10 years. This is a real nice mix of both singers, crooners, djs, dubs, live bands, digital productions, etc ... Worth the download just to hear Lee Van Cliff shamelessly ripping off Eek-A-Mouse and Papa Kojie toasting about Nancy Regan sitting on Mr. T's lap! Folks who have collected all the mixes here should also notice a Sly and Robbie version of "Love and Devotion", the first track off the "Anthony Mix" .. And not to worry, the "Jam Rock Dub" is not a dub of the Damien Marley track overplayed by every cd-carrying reggae "DJ" under the sun, but a bizarre little piece on the "Nura" label from '81. The A-Side of the 7" is simply titled "Festival ........ Jam Rock" and is credited to Sam Carty and The Astronauts. Also, "A Horseman Skabay is the new Stylee". Of course old faithfuls like Yellowman, Roots Radics and Freddie McGregor make appearances as well. The mix starts out with a Mikey Dread production of Sugar Minott's "In This Time". And there is a Part 2 coming next month! The tracks are already picked out, so shutup and quit bugging us about it already!!

SWEATBANDS OPTIONAL, BUT NOT FOR REAL!!
 

You read right. Your friendly neighborhood reggae squadron is heading south to the land of acadème. We'll be at the Canopy on Thursday, doors at 8pm .. a measly 5 bux to get through the door! We'll probably be hitting around 9pm or so ...

Make sure and get there early to participate in our 3rd Biennial "Cluck Out 'Til You Clock Out Cognition Competition". Due to last years unfortunate incidents, this year we begrudgingly are offering seat belts to all competitors. All contestants will be seated in a precarious velocipede and placed on a state-of-the-art rail track (specially built by the Siamese for this year's event!) surrounding the venue. The participant to first succeed in reaching three "Grand Clucks" will receive this years grand prize: a trip to Old Mr. Beederman's Farm and Abattoir where you will be put to work as an indentured servant until the these damn Siamese are paid. Runner ups will receive an assortment of street signs and manhole covers from Orange County.

Michigonians, Michiganers, Michiganese and Michiganites! We want to see you! But really we want you to see us. Actually, just make sure that you're in the club before you get to the show. And you're gonna wanna make sure that you're still there after you've left. So show up 15 minutes before you leave for the venue and we'll be sure to start playing 38 secon...ds after the music starts. But then again if you stick around after you went home, we'll be sure to be on the road before we leave. Ok, so check it out .. if you're not there after you arrived we'll be sure to wait until BEFORE we get to Kalamazoo to play. Cool?

To make up for last month's epic fail of not posting a new tune, we humbly offer you ingrates this ... a free live EP for the downloading.  That's about right ...  5 tracks, 2 new compositions and 3 group improvisations all recorded live at Sketchbook X on June 17, 2010.

I brought a portable recorder and a handful of mics to the gig hoping to capture whatever happened, and the result is some pretty electrifying group playing that teeters between the Sun Ra and Lee Perry schools of music. Drastics' Tenorman Tom couldn't make the gig so we asked our good friends Charles Gorczynski and Nate Lepine to sit in. That left us dub-less and forced the focus onto individual improvisation.

Check it out on BandCamp and preview the songs, download individual ones or the whole album! This music is definitely charting some abstract territories so fare-thee-warned it's not for the faint hearted.

Charles Gorczynski: Alto Sax; Nate Lepine: Tenor Sax; Andrew Zelm: Trombone, Melodica; Brian Citro: Guitar; Chris Merrill: Double Bass; Anthony Abbinanti: Drums.

Check the shows page soon to see the maiden voyage for our new setup and sound!

BOOM.

The boys in The Pinstripes posted this video a few weeks ago, but it's still some awesome footage .. Tippa Irie and Saxon Sound live on British TV .. not sure what program ... Worth it just for his little dance everytime the chorus drops!

Toyan, Josey Wales, Lee Van Cliff rockin' the mic at the infamous Skateland in Jamaica .. this is crucial footage!

Sleng Teng performed on some sort of dijeridoo live in Brooklyn circa '87!

Ninjaman VS Supercat .. I've had the bootleg audio of this for a while and never knew there was accompanying video .. I love Ninjaman, and he comes pretty correct in this battle ... the crowd definitely thinks so ... Supercat definitely "fights" dirty calling Ninjaman a pussy over and over again while Ninja takes the higher route .. I know its from '91 but it's still a killah!

We're honored to be included in this year's Sketchbook (the 10th annual) put on by Collaboraction. Your Drastics will be performing ALL NEW MATERIAL on June 17th as part of the festivities .. special instrumental set featuring Charles Gorczynski on Alto Sax and Nate Lepine on Tenor Sax (plus all your favorite Drastic regulars) .. we'll be dropping that mad science on these theater folks so come get some culture already!!! Come early and be part of the Tennessee Williams Mustachathon! Details of this years events will only be revealed 5 minutes prior to the match, so come early and bring plenty of hair!!

So the First Tuesday of June has come and gone and there ain't no new Drastic track.

What gives !?

WHAT GIVES !?

Why you ingratefu ... well, we are on the verge of finishing not 1 but 2 albums Mr. Smart-In-The-Mouth so shut it and sit down and finish you fried liver pate or you can't watch the Timothy Van Patten marathon on TBS!!! Since we were asked to be part of this year's Sketchbook in Chicago, we took it upon ourselves to write a bunch of new material ... and we'll be dropping 2 albums that couldn't be more different .. one strikkly dubwise inna rub-a-dub style and the other some modern avante-garde dub freakout shizzz .. ya heard!?

FEAR NOT THOUGH .. we will be releasing something shortly to keep you nice boys and girls satiated, and it's a first for us .. Gonna take one song from the Drastics catalog and split it up by instrument so you can dub it, remix it, deejay it and version the hell out of some Drastics ... it'll be posted here in the next day or two and if we get some good response we will consider keeping it going (releasing another one next month)

In the meantime, if you live in Chicago get to the Charleston on Thursday to get a slice of Bassie and Drummies record stacks .. yes, Chris and myself gonna be throwin that hot wax like a scented candle from 10pm to close ... no cover! (note: scented candle may be sandlewood, those with allergic conditions please bring the appropriate shots)

The annual "I Want To Eat Steve Guttenburg" contest has been moved from Thursday at the Charleston and will now be held around the corner in that one guys van. Present proof of entry in the contest to the bar and get sucker punched by Chris!

Well we had to go and dust off another one from the archives cause the killer bees came back. This here a mixtape I put together for a good friend years ago who loves the downtempo and abstract hiphop. This is oddly the only hiphop mix in The Blends repetoire .. so that might have to change. Musically speaking we're gonna jetset from the UK (Roots Manuva, etc) to Russia (Vadim, etc) to both coasts and the midwest ... this is another good one for the warming weather or if you got a house par-teh going with no deejay around .. and you're friends like good tunes. Oooooooooh... sick burn.

On the real though, this mix has got some wicked instrumental cuts from obscure groups like The Prunes, The Khromozones and Slide Five Trio as well as joints from household names like Common and The Roots ...

85 GET LIVE!
 

Cover photo by Nic "The Graduate" Gourguechon

Let's go kids, time to get back up off yer outside playing around and get back inside in front of the damn computer screen! Cause we got a MASSIVE SOUND for you this month .. and until we release it on the iTunes you gotta listen to it online! Save the CDs and Damn the bandwidth! Yes, this month we got a big tune featuring our regular vocal partner in crime MC Zulu .. Here Comes The Bass with accompanying instrumental version Earl Warren Ska!

This tune does require a bit of the 'ol backstory ... See, we here in La Casa de Drastique don't really "do the ska" too often (though we get labeled and thrown on ska bills cause we're white dudes playing Jamaican music, but that's a rant for another day) but we do appreciate the hell out of The Skatalites, Desmond Dekker, et. al.... because of that we do keep one trad ska tune in the repertoire. That one tune was titled "Jack Ruby" and was written by our old cohort Mr. Corey Dixon. The version recorded and put up today is slightly different than the original in that the whole melody has been reinterpreted.

Corey wrote "Jack Ruby" as a sort of response to the Skatalites tune "Lee Harvey Oswald" ... See, when the Skatalites perform live, it is not uncommon to hear Lloyd Brevett say "Who killed JFK?" before the band drops into the Oswald Ska. So Mr. Dixon thought it clever to start up a tune with "Who killed Lee Harvey Oswald?" .. "Jack Ruby" ... Then we thought it even MORE clever to start our version of the tune with "Who Killed Jack Ruby" ... well, the answer to that would be lung cancer .. and, frankly "Lung Cancer Ska" doesn't have the ring to it we'd like .. So we settled on "Who prosecuted Jack Ruby under the LBJ appointed commission to investigate the assassination of JFK?" .. Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Earl Warren .. that's who!

Anyway, enough of the past, on to the future! MC Zulu took the riddim and spit hot-double-time-fire on it inna dancehall style! I know this phrase get's used alot on this blog, but we're pretty sure you t'aint heard nothing like this before (unless you've been to our live show) ... Turn up the bass and let it rip brother!

DANCEHALL + SKA = BRAIN OVERLOAD

Feeling kinda tired and in need of inspiration?

Down and the dumps and need someone to show you "the new way"?

then crank it up

ps A buddy of ours is putting together a mix of montage songs that will be re-posted here shortly .. since I helped him track this tune down, I couldn't help but spread the love

pps If you haven't seen Wet Hot American Summer you have been asleep for the last 6 years

and here 'tis ...
Montage Mix Tape

UGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

The Drastics are now on Twitter. Rejoice America. More people thinking they have something really important to say .. RIGHT NOW!  Here's what I'd tweet at this instant if I cared enough to go back to the site ...

"Sitting in a cafe in Cincinnati. Had a good Indian lunch and spent too much on records."

FASCINATING!!!!!

FOLLOW MORE TITILLATING ENTRIES LIKE THE ONE ABOVE!

Click These And Make Them Grow!

We here in Casa de Drastique like to travel light. It's not only easier on the ol' brain stem when we hit the road, but also saves us: money on gas (carrying less), the headache of getting a trailer, and from having to coordinate multiple vehicles. We also like to sell merch. Almost as much as those 2 things, we like it when people don't spill beer all over our merch and ruin it because it's laying flat on a table. And you know what else sucks about merch laying flat on a table? No one can see it! You need to prop them shits up! So ... how to combine all 3 (4?) of these glorious things? Simple .. a do-it-yourself collapsible point-of-sale combination CD/7" display (patent pending!). I took on this project las night around 9pm and was finished at around 1:00am .. but that included the design, taking photographs, catching up on the last 3 weeks of "Lost" and some testing of ideas ... but for you dear reader, this project shouldn't take more than 2 hours. Obviously, with all DIY stuff, this can be easily mod-ed to fit a different setup ... for example, 2 rows of CDs as oppose to the CD/7" split would be very easy to do. I modeled this on a 6-pack beer-carrier and it's a super easy project for any band trying to attract more attention to their merch table ...

Ok, so let's get started .. here's what you'll need ...

• Used cardboard box
• Scissors
• Ruler/Tape Measure
• Straight Edge
• T-Square (optional)
• Packing Tape
• Duct Tape
• Velcro Tape/Pushpins (optional)

And incase you can't read my chicken scratch to the right, here's what you'll need for the cardboard pieces ...

• 1 x (8" x 5") (1st level floor)
• 1 x (8" x 2.5") (2nd level floor)
• 2 x (10 1/8" x 2.5") (CD sides)
• 2 x (9 3/8" x 2.5") (7" sides)
• 2 x (4 3/4 " x 2.5") (2nd level support)
• 1 x (8" x 9") (back)
• 1 x (12" x 2.5") (back support, optional)

For the cardboard I recycled a box from a case of beer ... it was easy to cut and draw on and durable as it was designed to carry 24 bottles of brew ...

Below is a snapshot of all the pieces you need, pre-folded ...



I started by taping down the supports for the 2nd level ... On these two strips I added little "overhangs" that (in retrospect) I should have used on all the pieces. It makes it easier to connect when there is a little overlap between joints. If you decide to do this, simply add 1/8" to the height of each piece.

When taping, make sure you tape with the display flattened, or at least make sure there is a little slack in the tape .. you run the risk of using too-little tape when you attach the pieces standing up ..



Next, I attached the "floor" for the 2nd level ... easy enough.



Attached the "arms" of the CD level. The "arms" are the 10 1/8" x 2.5" pieces with 3 folds: 4 1/2", 1 1/8" and 4 1/2" .. notice the copy of "Waiting" resting comfortably ...



Almost there .. taped down the "arms" of the 7" level ... These "arms" are the 9 3/8" x 2.5" pieces with 3 folds: 4 1/2", 3/8" and 4 1/2".
I forgot to take a picture of it, but it's important to note that the back of the display has to be folded in half, horizontally ...



Cover in duct tape to add tenacity as well as a space-age silver sheen!


Here's the display case in action! Flat enough to fit in just about anything ...



Optional back brace .. the other idea I had for this was to use 2 pieces of velcro tape; one on the back and one on the side which could be easily fastened .. unfortunately I'm out of velcro tape ... this is totally uneccesary once CDs are sitting in the unit, but figured it couldn't hurt to have a little extra support ...

 

Cosmetically, this can go alot of ways .. cover it with stickers, glitter or sandpaper to ward off would-be-shop-lifters! Go nuts, think outside of the box .. in retrospect I should have covered the cardboard in duct tape first and then constructed it ... I'm sure I'll be adding to this design in the coming days to make it look more professional looking ... but in the meantime, it does the job ... If you make your own or improve on this (very basic) design send us pictures at contact@thedrastics.com

Booya!

Good times from America's new favorite illiterate/racist political cult. Photos from the recent Teabagger rally in DC showing off the new English dialect of Teabonics. Since I'm 99.9% sure no Drastics fans would associate with these "read at the 2nd grade level" prejudiced fucks, I have no qualms saying ... what a bunch of turds.

Thanks to Ms. Paggao for the link.

<-- Kenyan AND Christian!?!?!?!?! GET OUTTA HERE!

Yo, as is apparent on the big board, we got 2 shows this weekend with our good friends from The Natti, The Pinstripes ... big shows, big tunes, pound for pound we like 'em big and round ...

Chris from the Pinstripes even put together a 'lil promo video for the Saturday night show at the Mad Hatter in Convington (across the river from Cincinnati) .. you gotta have ye olde Facebook profile to view ... but peep it here.

Well this one really is a special request and a popular demand! This month's Third Thursday Mix Tape is a doozy. 36 tracks, over 75 minutes of music .. all dedicated to one man .. The Cool Ruler himself .. Mr. Gregory Isaacs. I've had a couple people bugging me to do this mix for a while now, and finally had the time to do the proper research to bring you a near definitive mix of The Lonely Lover. "Near definitive" because a definitive Gregory mix would have to be something like 2+ hours long and boast rare 45s and dubplates I can't afford! But we humbly offer a nice cross section of the man's catalog... starting off with his first 45 release "Another Heartache". The mix isn't chronological and jumps through the decades from rocksteady to roots to lovers rock to 90s dancehall .. the man is a living history of Jamaican music.  Also featured are some of the great Jamaican rhythm sections: Sly & Robbie, Roots Radics, Soul Syndicate, The Revolutionaries, The Upsetters, etc ... Definitely some tongue-in-cheek entries in here, specially from his late 80s albums "Private Beach Party" and "Red Rose for Gregory" ...

I did my best to hunt down dubs and versions ... this is the perfect music for the warming weather, so get on the stoop and turn it up!

Track List
Introduction - The Blends
Another Heartache - Gregory Isaacs
My Religion - Gregory Isaacs
Unitone Skank - Dr. Alimantado
Idler's Corner - The Mighty Diamonds & Gregory Isaacs
Soon Forward - Gregory Isaacs
Ezekiel 29:13 - Sly & The Revolutionaries
Love Is Overdue - Gregory Isaacs
Love Is Overdue Version - Gregory Isaacs & U Roy
Philistines - Gregory Isaacs
Fugitive Dub - Gregory Isaacs
Night Nurse Intro - The Blends
Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs
Night Nurse Dub 2 - Gregory Isaacs
Grow Closer Together - Gregory Isaacs
My Number One - Gregory Isaacs
Number One Version - Trinity
Sad To Know (You're Leaving) - Gregory Isaacs
Way Of Life - Gregory Isaacs
Something Nice - Gregory Isaacs
Ghardaia Dub - Prince Far I
Jailer - Gregory Isaacs
Waterfall Dub - Gregory Isaacs
Permanent Lover - Gregory Isaacs
Can I Change My Mind - Gregory Isaacs
Changing Dub - Gregory Isaacs
Feeling Irie - Gregory Isaacs & Carlene Davis
Loving Pauper - Gregory Isaacs
I Am Alright - Big Youth
De Pauper A Dub - Duke Reid
My Time - Gregory Isaacs
Downpressor - Gregory Isaacs & Baja Jedd
Guilty - Gregory Isaacs
In My Nest - Gregory Isaacs & General TK
Overdrive - Gregory Isaacs
Each Day - Gregory Isaacs


The Original Lovers Rock

Bonus Videos!
 

F*cking magnets ... how do they work?

I think it's safe to say that ICP has finally got into the acid.

Thanks to Bill from Uptown for the tip!

I think because of Jimmy Smiths omnipresence in the world of the Hammond Organ, it's easy to not give him the attention he warrants .. and sure, he put out a ton of cheesy and/or boring albums in the late 70s and 80s (I know, I have most of them) .. but back in '64 he was still working it, hard. Check out at 4:07 (when he starts holding that F key down) how much he does with 4 fingers .... all the while still copping the bassline ... unreal.

MORE FREE MUSIC from members of The Drastics and Spinach Prince

All music by Elliot Ross and Charles Gorzcynski

Get it Here

raw, organic, inspired.
tastes lo-fi with hi-fi tastes
tying a certain mentality to its roots

inverted
live instruments as samples as instruments
in a sort of dilla / madlib tribute
assimilation from the edges of a jazz community

inverted
spinach prince bring
that back nod half step fall
raw, organic, inspired

What started out as a recording collaboration between Brooklyn and Chicago has turned into a full length original album that has been downloaded all over the world for free. Featuring members of The Drastics, Silences Sumire, Colorlist, Moongriffin and more.

Download the entire album in multiple formats at spinachprince.com

Reviews
http://disquiet.com/2010/03/22/spinach-prince/
http://www.dreemstyletransit.com/2009/11/13/spinach-prince-album-download/
http://www.archive.org/details/DWK050
 

The track might be titled "Monday Morning" but it's getting released on a Tuesday ... cause it's been 30 days and it's time for yet one more installment of our First Tuesday New Music Series! Featuring MC Zulu, this track is built on the Drastics' own "Strikeback! Riddim" (off of our third release "Waiting" .. you can check out the unreleased dub of Strikeback! on the player above .. entitled "Counterstrike!"). "Monday Morning" comes with its own dub and immediately follows on the player .. appropriately titled "Striped Curtain Dub". 

8 MINUTES HARD LABOR

DRASTICS LIVE
THIS THURSDAY!
We got conscripted last minute to help out our friends The Pinstripes at The Cobra Lounge .. This Thursday, April 8 .. part of a big night Ska Brewing has going, we'll be playing a 50 minute instrumental set early in the night .. around 10pm or so, but the music continues throughout the night with 2 sets from The Pinstripes ... no cover! Ska Brewing will have 8 taps going as well as limited edition and unreleased cans .. if yer into beer, be sure to check it!
 

And here we go again. Put another nickel in the jik juke machine, put on a silk tie and order another egg cream cause we're here with Part 13 in our Third Thursday Free Mixtape Series! Lucky 13 ... This month we got a very personal mix for your Panama Ear Canals .. Pop's Stacks. These are all tracks off records I've got from my dad, Frank Abbinanti .. though a couple tunes are off records he's picked up for me at swap-meets and 2nd hand stores over the years. The man is/was an avid record collector amassing a significant collection of LPs and 45s since the late 1950s ... and I attribute my propensity for meshing genres in songwriting and djing to being brought up listening to this kinda stuff ...

I put this mix together a few years ago, and originally only shared it with friends .. judging by the response I got; I think you'll dig it. Your brain will probably notice a penchant for latin, soul and latin/soul in the mix .. Some real gems in this set; including tracks what been sampled for your hip-hops, latin versions of Eddie Harris tunes, and tracks covered by Yesterday's New Quintet ...

Track List
Talkin' Wit Pops - Anthony & Frank Abbinanti
Right Now - Herbiee Mann
Fat City Strut - Mandrill
Uno Esta - Bobbi Humphrey
Umqokozo - Miriam Makeba
We're A Winner - The Impressions
You're Doing It With Her, When It Should Be Me - Rhetta Hughes
Pfumvu Pa Ruzevha - Thomas Mapfumo
"T" Plays It Cool - Marvin Gaye
You Better Stop It - Barbara Mason
Magnetic Feel - Enchantment
Mira Como Los Pollos - Jack Constanzo
People and the World - Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Stormy - Gabor Szabo
Bang, Bang - Joe Cuba
You Be My Baby - Ray Charles
Ethiopia - The Hiltonaires
Y Vengo A Bailar - The Gilberto Sextet
Lo Que Quiera Lola - Bobby Capo
Listen Here - Mongo Santamaria
We Got Latin Soul - Mongo Santamaria
Navidad Negra - Pedro Laza y sus Pelayeros

WE'RE LOOKIN BEAUTIFUL

Hey ya'll.  So this has been up for a minute but you know we like to let things marinate before telling anyone about 'em .. it's not cause we're forgetful.  But yeah, we got our lil' Pandora radio station cookin now .. so link that up and play some Drastics Radio already!!!!!

Be Like Lulu

But it's the scene immediately following that I had completely forgot about .. and is the subject of much awesomeness ... I'll let the wikipedia explain ...

After the Turtles de-mutated the two mutants and defeated the Foot and Tatsu in a nightclub, the Shredder appears and threatens to mutate innocent civilians with a mutagen vial, but is ambushed when the Turtles play a keytar at full volume, sending the villain flying from the force of a blown speaker.

Yeah .. beating the forces of evil with a keytar .. but not just any keytar .. the keytar from Vanilla Ice's band .. literally used to send a villian named "The Shredder" fifty feet across a club ... man, the coke musta been amazing back then .... found the scene, clicky click to watch ...

Someone straight torched a car right in front of my apartment last night. Heard some noise at about 4am (I was still awake) and looked outside to see the neighborhood funeral home's windows reflecting a blaze. By the time I got out front, the fire department was already parked and dousing the car. The entire street was covered in a grayish white smoke rising 20 feet high .. foul with the smell of burnt plastic. I've never seen anything like that before. Serious bets on the Russian/Ukrainian Mob .. or the same freak fools that been torching random cars throughout my hood for the past 9 months .... My hair still smells like burnt plastic. And I don't even live in the ghetto! What the hell!?

An amazing singer/songwriter residing in Chicago going by the name of Algebro. Yeah, it's a nepotistic love affair with lots of Drastics friends and family participating in the album but this guy is too gifted to be this unknown. Currently digging the full-length that just dropped ... get a taste of the man's music .. dig station or myspace ... personal favorite tracks are "9 Or 10" and "Miracle Lipstick" ..

Get yaself subscribed to the Drastics' Blog Feed!  We'll feed ya face.  With OUR MINDS!!!!!!

 Subscribe in a reader

We're more than pysched to announce this month's new single: Lightning Train featuring Drastics long-time collaborator and semi-permanent frontman MC Zulu. A bouncy rocksteady/gospel joint with slave-spiritual inspired lyrics. The B-side features the original instrumental version of the track; UV Rockers.

BIG TUNE!

TAKE THIS TRAIN TO FREEDOM

NEXT WEEK!
We'll be dubbin' it on up at The Whistler in Chicago ... 2 Sets .. No Cover. Enjoy fancy cocktails and this. Instrumental set, MC Zulu set. Nice!
 

Well, 1 day, 2 days ... 4 days .. 2 business days. Yeah well .... it's cause this month's Free Mix is actually brand new music from our boy Moongriffin. Him and the crew been working on this disc for a hot minute .. but when your recording sessions keep getting broke up by dudes rolling in and pullin' they own heads off to unleash 50 ghosts ... well ... sh*t takes a minute, aight!?

Part-time door-to-door lightbulb salesman, part-time intergalactic space warrior, Moongriffin in locked in constant combat with the forces of evil who are out to destroy him. Whether they come as goblins, zombie free-jazz musicians, or his evil twin brother he didn't know he had .. he's ready with an arsenal of weapons ranging from battle axes to the most intense stare this side of a corpse with it's eyes open. Picking up help when he needs it from his boys Phantom Crew of Intelligent Robots, HalFlife, Ankleface, Bill Collecta and Dr. Axe .. they'll be chillin' in a train yard swingin' chainlocks and hangin' wit real scary bums until they gots to get to the Elk's Club!!!!!

Download the whole album in CD quality via Bandcamp ....

DUKE PEARSON DROPPIN' AN AXE ON A GOBLIN

Well the story remains the same. Read about it here if you missed the first installment of "Ralph Soul Jackson Meets The Drastics In Dub". This time around we have an oldie, "Set Me Free" and a new tune by Mr. Jackson, "Searchin'". Both get the solid dub treatment and are up for your ear's satisfaction on our MySpace page ... move in the right direction ....

This will (sadly) be the last of the Ralph Vs Drastics series .. the other 92 hours of tape we recorded (including an impromptu "Spoon & Saw" improvisation by Mr. Jackson that lasted the better portion of a whole day and a group variation on a Chinese theme by Cecil Taylor) were destroyed by water damage when the studio was attacked by fire ants.

Free To Dub & A Missing Dub


Ralph "Soul" Jackson - Vocals, Hammond Organ; Elliot Ross - Guitar; Chris Merrill - Bass, Percussion; Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Fender Rhodes, B Sax, Percussion; Tom Riley - T Sax; Andrew Zelm - Trombone; Gerald Bailey - Trumpet.

We just signed up with SoundCloud where you can stream our tracks at CD quality. Some oldies but goodies up there that got taken down from our Myspace page .. leave us some comments!

Track List
A Very Special Message From Dick Clark - Dick Clark
Sivaya - Alice Coltrane
Clap Hands - Tom Waits
Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards of Canada Remix) - Boom Bip
Dub Of Protection - King Tubby
Jimmy Mack - Laura Nyro and Labelle
Bakai - Archie Shepp
Everybody Loves The Sunshine - Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Footsteps In The Dark (Parts 1 & 2) - The Isley Brothers
Black Man's Cry - Fela Ransome-Kuti and The Africa 70
Ain't There Something Money Can't Buy - The Young-Holt Unlimited
Games People Play - Johnnie Taylor
Freedom - David Axelrod
Alfeila - Sami Rageb Trio

LETS ALL DO THE HYPNIC JERK!

Good evening all you bonzai buckaroos out there on the vast parched mesa that is the world wide web. Just here to give a little update. Though there was no notification, we did make our First Tuesday New Music deadline and uploaded a brand new instrumental to the ol' myspace listenin' box! We took McCoy Tyner's ballad "Search For Peace" and put the rocksteady treatment on it.

Originally recorded on Tyner's "The Real McCoy" in 1967, the track featured legends Joe Henderson, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones. The album was his first release on Blue Note Records as well as the first record appearing as a leader after leaving John Coltrane's group. Basically, it's an amazing disc. This our little homage to it's greatness featuring Andrew Zelm on trombone.

You'll also notice we added some tracks to our lil' ol' mp3 player up top. Moved some songs from the myspace player there and added a couple new ones ... so press play already!!!

VAN GELDER DUBS

Live Dub
We also got some cool shows palindromey shows coming up in Chicago on 1.13 and 3.11.  First off; next Wednesday we're doing 2 sets as part of the Q4 Wednesday Music Party and then March we'll be throwing down at new-ish Chicago spot; The Whistler (which I'm pretty sure will be their inaugural reggae event). We're also planning a week out to the East Coast in April so keep your eyes on the big board!

We had opportunity to record a 'lil end-of-the-year jingle for WXRT, 93.1fm in Chicago. So we did a reggae version of Winter Wonderland as the backdrop. Click the link below to get the dub and vocal version. Trust us, even if you hate holiday music .. it's worth it.

Happy Holidays everyone, hope your 2009 was everything you wanted.

AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT  

Well, its 6am and I still haven't gone to sleep so technically it's still Thursday and so I'm in time for our Third Thursday Free Mix ... Our 10th Mixtape! Good God, we actually made it to double digits ..... My brain is fried right now so pardon the brief description .. This month we present Potluck as the finger in the fjord of your ear canal.  So put on your wooden shoes and get ready for the storm.

Except for the self-contained Christmas-themed Mini-Mix at the end, this collection makes almost no sense. We got soul into hiphop into latin into downtempo electronic into ska ...

Eclecticism is the theme.

Happy Holidays ya'll.

We're gonna have aother download for you either this afternoon or Monday. Another holiday treat from The Drastics. So put that in yer stocking/menorah/kinara/hoa mai/yule log/boxing day gift/festivus pole and smoke it.

Track List
Proud Mary - Ohio Players
Proceed (Roy Ayers Mix) - The Roots
El Negro Bembon - Cortijo Y Su Combo Original con Ismael Rivera
Ya Mama (Cosby Mix) - Pharcyde
I Miss You (Remix) - Bjork
The Bridge Is Over (X-Rated Version) - KRS-ONE
Jericho Skank - Jackie Mitoo & Ernest Ranglin

Beatstumental Mix

The Prunes - D.S.B. Style
The Khromozomes - Seein'
Art & Science - Communication
DJ Vadim - Ghetto Rebels (Inst)
Palmskin Productions - Slipper Suite
Southside Crew - Time To Rock The Party

We'll Be There (10 second Remix) - People Under The Stairs
Spread Love (2:20 Remix) - Bozo Meko
Enamorado - Oscar D'Leon
Back Door Santa - Clarence Carter
Merry Christmas Baby - Otis Redding

Christmas Time Growing Up

Christmas In The Stars
Beach Boys
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
The Drifters
The Jackson 5
The O'Jays
The Ventures
Dodie Stevens
Miss Piggy

This Christmas - Donny Hathaway
Christmas Rappin' - Kurtis Blow

GRUSS VOM KRAMPUS

A few years ago we had chance to meet and work with (some of us continually to this day) Northern (Southern?) Soul Legend Ralph "Soul" Jackson. We had opportunity to perform as his backing band on several sold out shows in Chicago at The Hideout and Park West. After being "rediscovered" by East of Eden Soul DJ John Ciba while curating his Birmingham Sound compilation, we got to work on a 5 track EP of new and old Ralph material at the Drastic's resident studio, Dirty North. Included on the list for tracking were new tunes like "Seachin" and "I Love You" as well as some of his obscure and hard-to-find 45 cuts like "Take Me Back" and "Can't Leave Your Love Alone" ...

... for various reasons it never saw the light of day, despite it being near completion when the cord was pulled ...

... Well, in anticipation of the first full-length RSJ album coming out early next year (on Chicago's Rabbit Factory Records) we pulled out the tape, dusted off the magnetic fields and put a hurtin' dub on 2 of the tracks we cut with Mr. "Soul" Jackson back in 2007. No, it's not reggae .. it's soul ... but soul if Muscle Shoals had the same kind of engineers as the Black Ark. Pretty different, but we think you'll dig it ...

Can't Leave The Dub Alone & Woman Pride Dub

Ralph "Soul" Jackson - Vocals, Hammond Organ; Elliot Ross, JD Mark - Guitar; Chris Merrill - Bass; Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Fender Rhodes, B Sax, Percussion; Tom Riley - T Sax; Andrew Zelm - Trombone; Gerald Bailey - Trumpet.

Track List
Intro - King Stitt
Rock and Groove - Bunny Wailer
Dub and Groove - Bunny Wailer
Hap Ki Do Version - Augustus Pablo
You Rest On My Mind - Naggo Morris
You Rest On My Mind Dubwise - Bullwackie
Look Out For The Devil Version - Junior Dan
Juggernaut Dub - King Tubby
Third World Shuffle - Mercenarys
Natty Dread A Weh She Want - Tappa Zukie
Rub A Dub A Weh Them Want - Musical Intermidates
Our Man Flint - Lloyd Young and Augustus Pablo
Harvest in the East - Tommy McCook and The Impact Allstars
Heavenly Dub - King Tubby
Dub Along the Shore - Dr. Ring-Ding & Victor Rice
Rasta Locks - Derrick Harriott
Touch A Dub - Phyllis Dillon
One Way Love - Barry Brown
One Way Dub - Scientist

WORTH 23 DOLLARS OF TRINKETS!

2 Big Announcements!

Our 2009 Digital 7" Series (Volume 1) is finally available for download with the iTunes! ... Featuring many tracks with Fada Dougou, MC Zulu, dubs, instrumentals ... If you're curious about what's happening on the cover, it's the 9 most prominent colors of each of the individual album covers and their ratio used shown in 3D and 2D formats. Science! Download the whole album for less than 9 bux!

And we finally got booked in the face! Come join our legion of minions on Teh Facebook! It's like Myspace circa 2006 when everyone still believed in the dream of social networking!!

Track List
Intro - Reiner & The Blends
Comin' On Strong - Hepcat
Snatching It Back - Clarence Carter
Magic's Wand - Whodini
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
Compared To What? - Roberta Flack
Jokes Fro Redd - Redd Foxx
Dig On It - Jimmy McGriff
Oh My God - A Tribe Called Quest
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
Time Tough - Toots & The Maytals
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Day To Day - Apani B
Rock Steady - Aretha Franklin
For Once In My Life - Stevie Wonder
Alone Again - The Slackers
Mr. Pitiful - Otis Redding


PART OF A BALANCED BREAKFAST

Track List
I'm Sweaty - Tom Riley
Tommy's Rocking Vibration - Tommy McCook
Love Devine - John Holt
Jah Rock Style - Jackie Mittoo
When Revelution Come - Big Youth
Cool Down The Pace - Gregory Isaacs
Close To Jah - The Skatalites
Rocking Time - Burning Spear
Pepper Rock - Prince Jazzbo
Stick By Me - Dennis Brown
Ghost Capturer - J. Gibbs Allstars
Sweet Loving - Lennie Hibbert
Don't Rock My Boat - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Dinah - J. Higgs
Here I Stand - Justin Hinds & The Dominoes
Come Running Back - Ken Boothe
Come Running Back Version - Coxsone Dodd
Occupation - Cedric Brooks & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari

SKY HOOK STYLE

In honor of his birthday next weekend!

Some of you thought it was a joke ... but it's very very real ... and finally here ... ! Our tribute to Michael Joseph Jackson .. imagine Sir Coxsone in the production seat instead of Quincy and you're about half-way there ... Included are I Want You Back, Rock With You, Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, and The Way You Make Me Feel ... These aren't instrumentals or covers-per-se ... you just gotta hear it to believe it ...

as MC Zulu would say ...
SPREAD THE WORD!
DOWNLOAD IT

Track List
Dust A Soundboy - Super Beagle
Bam Bam (Version) - Techniques Band
Walk Away From Love - Bitty McLean
You've Changed - Al Campbell
Go If You Want - Buju Banton
Take A Ride - Al Campbell
The Rights - Johnny Osbourne and Buru Banton
Bad Boys - Barry Brown
The Big Match - Lone Ranger
Bobby Babylon Pt. 2 - Freddie McGregor
Why Keep A Good Man Down - The Immortals
Why Keep A Good Man Down Dub - The Immortals
Sing Along - Scotty
Guidance - Derrick Harriot
Badness A Madness - Yellowman
Isso (Victor Rice Dub) - Strikkly Vikkly
Till Sun's In Our Eyes (Version) - DJ Vadim and Demolition Man
No More Crying - The Slackers
Are You Satisfied? (Instrumental) - J-Live
East Of The River Nile - Augustus Pablo

YEEHAW LIL DOOGIES!
(hosted at Musical Occupation)

Cosmic
Awareness
like
a
spaceship
from
atlantis

Track List
King Of Zion Dub - King Tubby/Brad Osbourne
tubbys Daddy Dub - Roots Radics
Grumbling Dub - The Upsetters
Tribal War Version - Little Roy
23rd Version - Super 8 Corporation
Love Me Little Girl - Jnr Moore
Lippy - The Crystalites
Jah Peoples Dub - Linval Thompson
Wa Di Is Free - Scientist
Human Nature Version - Jr. Reid
Jah Jah See Them Come Version - Culture
Shango - The Revolutionaires
Sunshine Dub - Prince Douglas
Roots of Africa - Tommy McCook
Prophesy - Horace Andy
Lovelight Crucial Version - The Tamlins
Killa Dub - King Tubby
Serious Time Version - The Heptones and Lee Perry Allstars

SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM

The inside gatefold of this album touts Edikanfo as "African Super Band". Combine that with a production credit to Brian Eno and hip Mingus/Dolphy-esque abstract art on the inside and there was no way I was passing this up. The Eno credit was surely to help sell albums in the US as the executive producer, Faisal Hewlani, is a giant of Ghanaian music with album credits stretching back to the 1960s. The band just sounds too tight for this to have been given serious "production" from a British minimalist/ambient musician... but what do I know. I just wouldn't be surprised if this collaboration was more to benefit Eno's musical experience and Edikanfo's distribution. Whatever the case, this record is really slamming, and frustratingly the only record by the band to make it to the West. Recorded at an equally famous Studio One based in Accra, Ghana, and located in a defunct nightclub called "The Napoleon Club", where many of Ghana's top highlife and afro-pop bands cut records through the 70s and early 80s. The recording has the quality of being just a couple pre-synth-takeover in afro-pop.  There is definite use, but not over-use of strange keyboard sounds.

The disc starts us off with a track written by the bass player, Gilbert Amartey, titled "Nka Bom"and has a real nice afro-disco feel to it.  There's something distinctly 80s sounding about this track but I can't place my finger on what it is.  The keyboarist Ishamael Odai really really surprised me with his very western/soul-styled playing on this track.  It's extremely understated (surrounded by pounding drums and disco hi-hats) and almost "gentle" but is extremely sophisticated.  The next track, "Something Lefeh-O" is the weakest track on the disc.  Going full-out disco in parts, the lyrics are just that sort of cliche "happy happy dance dance" style and the combination of the two just make for bad song writing.  Last on the A-side is "Gbenta", the most solid cut on the album.  Written by the sax player Paa Akrashie, it has a nice quick 6/8 feel with funky keys and bass.  Minimal vocals accompany the tune leaving most of the rhythm to be traversed by horns and soloists. 

The flip side gets us started with "Blinking Eye", a poppy disco-beat kind of track with all kinds of crazy little synth "pings" and lines. Again, the keyboardist Odai stands out taking a tasteful solo on the Rhodes (or a synth that sounds like a Rhodes as there's no Rhodes credit). "Moonlight Africa" takes us into funky-highlife territory after a somewhat cliche'd opening. This track falls a bit flat comparatively, but still has that infectious driving beat. Rounding out the album is "Daa Daa Edikanfo", a catchy tune written by trumpeter Osei Tutu. The use of some kind of snyth drum (or a live drum with some strange fx on it) is pretty funky but then annoying by the time the needle runs to the center.  For the most part,  a solid track (except for the trumpet wackery at the end).

This disc shouldn't be that expensive if you can find it, and if you like African music you should definitely grab it.

The Esquires - Get On Up And Get Away
Label: Bunky Records
Catalog No: BS 300
Year: 1967
My Grade: B+

This is sweet sweet soul music, plain and simple. It might not be the most original song-writing (the record does contain some commonly covered cuts), but this unique combination of Chicago-style soul and doo-wop makes for one great album. Originally hailing from Milwaukee, the group made tracks for Chicago in 1966, hoping to gain interest from Curtis Mayfield's Windy C Records label (precursor to the very successful Curtom Records. Finding the group too derivative of The Impressions, Mayfield passed on signing them. Luckily another Chicago producer, Bill "Bunky" Sheppard liked what he heard and had the group re-cut their soon-to-be hit "Get On Up" in Chicago with Thomas Washington as arranger. The record was slated to be released on Sheppard's Constellation Records, however Gene Chandler had recently left Constellation for Chess and sales declined heavily leaving the label in shambles. Sheppard salvaged what he could from Constellation and formed "Bunky Records", releasing "Get On Up" in 1967 with "Listen To Me" on the B-Side. The song killed in Chicago leading way to national distribution by Scepter/Wand. The group went on to national fame and through the 70s recorded for a variety of record labels including Scepter/Wand, Bunky, Capitol, Lamarr and Ju-Par. The group wrapped up their recording career in 1976 with "Get On Up '76" on the aforementioned Ju-Par Records.

I'll refrain from an individual track evaluation of this album, but standout tracks include "Listen To Me" (a dancey/summer kind of jam), "How Was I To Know" (the classic happy/sad tune) and "No Doubt About It" (a sweet ballad).  The singing is impeccable, the arrangements driving and overall vibe just makes you feel good ... like everything's gonna be ok .....everything's gonna be ok ...

More Info for the astute reader

Oscar d'Leon - El Discobolo
Label: TH Records
Catalog No: TH-AMF 2207
Year: 1982
My Grade: B

I'm afraid this is gonna be a short review as I don't speak Spanish and there's not a ton of info on this guy on the internet I can read. What I do know for sure is that the guy is Venezuelan, and is known by most anyone that isn't me. According to his Wikipedia entry .. "In Spanish, he is known as El Sonero del Mundo ('the Improviser of the World')". He is also an accomplished bassist, having started his professional career playing in La Dimensión Latina a band that is estimated to have sold 30 million records since their founding in 1972. I found this album in a serious stack of Latin LPs and 45s at my Salvation Army... none were in good shape, but there had to be at least 100 LPs and 200 45s. I cherry picked what looked interesting having no real reference to go off but the cover or label. Anyway, I'm glad this album had such a crazy cover. The back cover is equally as awesome.

Aight. I bet all you little tricks and marks been wondering where big daddy poppa pants Abbinanti been. Well, I'll tell ya, it's not easy being Rosie Perez's personal assistant ... ok!? Doesn't leave you with alot of time to "blog" ... ok!? She's been all moody n shit since "Pineapple Express" didn't blow up her spot like she'd hope so I kept having to go down to the Sizzler and get her 2 baked potatoes and 3 pieces of fried chicken (with the batter removed) ... then there were all these meetings about her playing the lead in a Sotomayer movie (tentatively titled) "Wise(ass) Latina" .. I think its slated to be a comedy co-starring Billy Crystal and Sgt. Slaughter .. if it doesn't conflict with Slaughter's charity golf tournament. I remember I spent a week one night just coaxing her out of her bedroom after she was convinced the ghost of Woody Harrelson was trying to play her at a game of 1 on 1 ... to this day she still can't tell the ghost of Woody Harrelson and the ghost of Patrick Swazye apart! Crazy! There was this other crazy night when Rosie was suppose to be out of town at a "21 Jump Street" reunion dance at the Olive Garden so I invited my boy Moolar over ...

yo, for real, Moolar got this crazy copper pyramid that he brings around with him, it's like 10 feet across and can fit 3 people in it ... once you get in, he says some shit and the whole muthafuckin thing starts glowing blue with electricity! We started doing mad rips from this solar chalice he got hooked up to the pyramid that's straight HEATED BY THE SUN EVEN THOUGH ITS NIGHT!!!!! shit was rootical. This was back when Madoff was ballin' too so he came by later with like 8 crates of records and this pad of wack ass rhymes he used to write. He started free stylin over the instrumental side of "Break My Stride" and he pretty much killed the binghi circle we had going in the cosmic pyramid. Just as well anyway cause right then Rosie rolls in with a crew consisting of Troy Mallory, Peter DeLuise and Holly Robinson Peete ... they looked pretty fucked up and were talking about taking their cars down to the ravine and doing some drag racing ... I figured the party was winding down so I just grabbed some Miff Mole 78s out of Madoff's stacks, threw em on, and chilled ...

And here we go once again ... We got another brand spankin' new cut for your listening pleasure up on the MySpace wax cylinder, this month we present "Marionette Rock". This is for all you Fela, Femi, Mulatu, Ethiopiques, etc fans out there who have been left stranded in the no-mans-land between reggae and afropop. Another Drastic innovation ... maybe? Featuring the guitar work of Brian Citro and solos from Tom Riley and Elliot Ross. I feel like I type this a lot, but you've prolly never heard something like this ...

UNDER CONSIDERATION TO BE THE NEW ANTHEM OF PIANO TUNERS LOCAL 382!



BIG NEWS/7" PRE-SALE EXTRAVAGANZA!

Holy crap have we got one sweet sweet deal for you when pre-ordering both of our newly minted 7"s ... Love Is War and Lonely No More, both featuring MC ZULU ...

All orders received on or before July 31 will receive free shipping (US only) ... and there's more! On top of free shipping there's free CDs and Vinyl for the first 50 orders!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE/ORDER

Track List
Let Him Try - Alton Ellis
Lonely Man - Scotty
Congo Call - Bob Andy
Real Hot - Lennie Hibbert
Swinging Chariot - Derrick Harriott
Undying Love - Al Campbell
Undying Dub - Al Campbell
Moody Dub - The Techniques
Once Ago - Gregory Isaacs
whipping the Prince - The Soul Vendors with Alton Ellis
Rock Fort Shock - Price Francis
Natural Natty - the Mighty Diamonds
Young Love Version - Barbara Jones with Big Youth
Puppy Love - The Heptones
Puppy Love Version - The Heptones
Puppy Love - Tiger
Since I Fell For You - Alton Ellis
Stop The Fussing & Fighting - Byron Lee & the Dragonaires
Liquidator - The Harry J. All Stars

WHO GOT THE NUMBER!?

Ok, so we're on a roll now ... our second update in a row that was ON TIME ... Looks like all that money I spent keeping Thomas Ian Griffith on retainer as my life coach has finally paid off... Up for your hearin' eyes on the ol' Myspace player this month is a brand-spankin-new-cut featuring MC Zulu: Lonely No More with the "b-side" Dub Me No More. Just in time for summer ... We are gonna be on a performance hiatus until our return on August 23rd at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival in Rogers Park, Chicago ... we will keep droppin' our usual new tracks each month (next months track is gonna be like nothin' you ever heard before) and mixtapes and record reviews, book club meeting minutes, haberdashery tips, mellified man recipes, Greenland Norse midden stratigraphy, gyrfalcon mastery, cantaloupe rind chucking contests, latest square dance calls, etc ...

THE SOUND RON REAGAN Jnr CALLED "SWEETER THAN A JELLY BEAN"

Track List
The Uniques - Love and Devotion
The Heptones - Fattie Fattie Dub
U-Roy - Natty Rebel
Scientist - Girlfriend in Dub
Bitty McLean - A Cruising
The Hurricanes - You Can Run
Cedric Im Brooks - Mun-Dun-Gu
Big Youth - Feed A Nation
Alton Ellis - Willow Tree Dub
The Termites - Have Mercy Mr. Percy
Freddie McGregor - Reggae Feeling
Original Survivors - Come Away Jah Children
T.S.O.S.A. - Theme for Ras 'G'
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes - Do All The Good
The Skatalites - Rocky Road
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Cry To Me
Lee Perry & The Upsetters - Wind Up Doll
The Aggrovaters & King Tubby - Straight To Jackson's Head
Gregory Isaacs - Hot Stepper
Roots Radics/Scientist - Dance Of The Vampires
Barrington Levy - Under Mi Senci (High Grade Mix)
The Wailing Souls - Fire Coal Man

OMG TEH DWNLDS!

I like alot of things about this album, but the aspect that appeals to me most is the breadth of topics covered in the song writing. The A-side opens up with "Federation", a rebuke to Jamaica for pulling out of a short lived "West Indies Federation" that promised greater prosperity to all nations joining (sort of like a mini-UN of the Carribbean). As the song progresses Sparrow becomes more and more passionate, bawling out "Tell the doctor you're not in favor, don't behave like a blasted traitor, how the devil you mean you're not federating no more!?" Like ska in the mid/late 90s, most people's perception of original calypso is that of not-a-care-in-the-world style song writing, or that of a predominently slack style of music. The short lived calypso fad amongst the ska scene in the early 2000s didn't do much to dispell this rumor, and I almost have to remind myself at times that calypso was (is) a serious music used as political commentary, social commentary, folk story telling, and yes; party and slack song. The second tune "Hangman's Cemetary" is a verbal warning to those who choose to harrass Dr. Slinger Francisco on the street with their drunken, envious behaviour. He definitely boasts his fair share on the track saying "When I pass them in my big time limousine, always polish and shiny..." but admonishes the jealous listener to not start anything with him outside the club or he'll "send a few to the grave" and end up in the hangman's cemetary. "Smart Bajan" uses part of the classic "3 Coins in the Fountain" (as made famous by everyone from Dean Martin to Mel Torme) to tell a humorous tale of a Bajan (the only info I could find on Bajan is in reference to the dialect or patois spoken on Barbados, in this song I believe Sparrow is using Bajan to describe the nationality of the person) who preys upon the superstitions of Trinidadians by building a fountain and promising wishes for coins thrown (with the Bajan keeping the money, of course) until he is eventually caught by the FBI. Next on the platter, "Robbery With V" is Sparrow's response to losing Calypso Monarch 1961 (to Dougla) where he decries and even cuts (deep by 1962 standards) the winner as being "... a man with no originality, stage personality, they're trying to make me look small!". And on his material, "all he has is a big crew ... this song that song, same melody, no variety ... ". Overall another great tune. Last on the front side, "B.G. War" is another politically charged message, this time on the state of affairs in B.G. (British Guiana), currently the country of Guyana. (Oddly enough here's a story on Sparrow's first promoter, a Guyanese by the name of Cyril Shaw.) This particular track is another musical scolding, this time to the riots and general disruption leading up to independance from Britains in B.G. in the early 1960s.

After the flip we have "Renegades", yet another tune reprimanding hooligans and delinquents. While researching this tune, I started to think it might be a song about The Renegade Steel Orchestra but (am pretty sure) it isn't. Next up "Take Your Bundle and Go" is another humorous story about a cheating wife. I really can't decipher most of the lyrics on this tune as I'm pretty sure alot of them are in a patois I'm not familiar with. If I ever get around to installing a comment section to this blog I hope someone could let us all what Sparrow's saying on this tune. There must have been a mislabling on this disc as the following track is clearly "Ten to One is Murder" but is listed as "No. 69". Here's a sweet sweet video of the tune featuring live video of Sparrow from the 80s (?) mixed in with staged footage! Anyway, this song should be pretty self explanitory, but here's a little on the history...

Sparrow was apparently chased by ten men and the fellow in front was a big, big fellow and Sparrow detected a white handle razor in his hand. After all Sparrow was simply having "a chicken at Club Mirama" which he thought was "his last supper." Well, as fate would have it, "a Sparrow in flight" was saved by a loud report from some unknown pistol. As Sparrow remembered it, "Ah hear padow pow, and de crowd start to scatter."
source

Moving on, "Wahbeen and Grog" is Sparrow's lament for being away from his dear homeland far too long.  He cries "Darling I can't remain in New York again" and yearns for "Wahbeen and grog and man beating pan, all that is on me mind". Wahbeen (more commonly spelled Wabine) is a loose woman, grog is correctly presumed to be booze and "man beating pan" refers to the steel pan players. The final track on the album, "Sparrow Comeback Home" won him the 1962 Calypso Monarch crown and is a damn catchy tune. Overall, a great album, especially for a RCA release which usually "orchestrated" the hell out of folk musicians to the point of losing any of what made them "folk".  Don't spend alot of money on it, but grab it if you see it.

The Soul Children - I'll Be The Other Woman/Come Back Kind Of Love
Label: Stax
Catalog No: STA-0182
Year: November, 1973
My Grade: B

Ok, so now we're gonna do something different and review a 7" as it's such a jam that I need to share it. The A-Side is (obviously) the hit side but it's the flip that is slammin! How it didn't make it onto either of their "Best Of" albums; "Hold On I'm Coming" and "Chronicle" is beyond me. Opening with a nice series of syncopated band hits, the organ comes in smooth but confidant setting up the raw sounding vocals. Horns and bass really make this tune stand out.  This joint is an easy easy party starter if I ever heard one. Co-written by John Colbert and Norman West, read up some more on The Soul Children here. Only gets a "B" because the A-side isn't nearly as stone cold a jam.

Laura Nyro and Labelle - Gonna Take A Miracle
Label: Columbia
Catalog No: KC-30987
Year: November 17, 1971
My Grade: B+

Well, this record has been pretty well covered so I feel a little sheepish covering it at all, except that I don't think most reggae fans would be familiar with it. Once I put this record on for the first time (yet another aquisition I foolishly let sit on the shelf for months before playing) it stayed in heavy rotation for about a month (in the medium sized pile of records I keep right next to my turntable). It's weird... 'cause it is just an album of covers, but there's something so serious about the versions of these classic tunes that is just... amazing. The songs are presented in an under-produced soulful way that I don't think many people could have realized.  And I don't mean under-produced in a bad way, for example there's only drumset on 1.5 songs on the A-Side. The vocals take front and center on many tunes; accompanied by only piano and/or strings and/or vibes. Recorded at Sigma Studios in it's hey-day, the album's production was overseen by the eminent Gamble and Huff and includes musicians such as drummer Jim Helmer, legendary bassist Ronnie Baker, and equally legendary guitarists Norman Harris and Roland Chambers. For my money her version of "Jimmy Mack" is the finest arrangment of the song I've ever heard ... I know what you're thinking... "that corny ass oldie?" ... trust me though, I don't know if its the harmonic evolution the band adapts or just the pure enjoyment in the voices but holy crap, the needle gets pulled back at least once everytime this tune comes through my speakerbox.

Despite all these elements of success, there are times that the songs don't seem to get going until nearing the end of the tune, and it's hard to find an exact reason why.  Labelle sounds as good as always, the band is obviously thumpin', the production is top-notch and Nyro is truley giving it her all. After some critical listening, it might be simply that Nyro's voice is a little too operatic at points and sticks out too much from the rest of the group.  Since the source material is from a very non-operatic origin the two simply clash (which is really no surpise as she attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts).

But of course since it was recorded at Sigma it has that sweet Philly Soul style; tight drums, lush strings and just enough flourishy layers. One final note I'd like to make is on a somewhat ironicly foreboding observation. In her version of "Dancing In The Street", she repeats the line "Don't Forget The Motor City" 6 times as where on the original Martha and the Vandellas' version they only sing once. I dunno ... something about that is almost a premontion or warning, as anyone who's visited Detroit in the last 10 years is aware of how neglected the city is today.

Track List
Chris Merrill - How To Drink Mad Prof's Cognac
Sizzla -I Got To (Raw)
Sun is Shining Version - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Strikkly Vikkly- Isso
T.S.O.S.A. - 9 to 5 Dub
King Tubby - Long Run Dub
Barrington Levy/Beenie Man - Murderation
Barrington Levy/Beenie Man - Dub Murder
Roots Radics/Scientist - Fighting Radics
The Hardy Boys - Chucky Dub
Tristan Palmer - Miserable Woman
Roots Radics - Miserable Version
Yellowman - Ganja Business
Little Joe - Gun Court
I Kong - The Way It Is Version
Lee Perry & The Full Experience - Disco Devil Dub
Gregory Isaacs - Hush Darling
Tenor Saw - How Water Walk Go Pumpkin Belly
Chaka Demus & Pliers - Gal Wine (Dance Hall Mix)
The Upsetters - Panta Rock

DOWNLOAD DIS

Put a new track up in the lil mp3 player we have embedded up above. "Strange Keys" is a version of "Motherland" off of our first album Premonition. Featuring our good friend Craig Akira Fujita toasting on the mic ... this was included on our Outlaw Tracks EP we put out a few years ago in a very limited quantity (I think only 200 total) ... I would love to do another dub or version of this riddim as well as most tracks off Premonition, but sadly all of those sessions have been lost. Ironically it happened while trying to back up the data ... plugged one hard drive into another, the computer froze and next thing ya know, the hard drive with every song off Premonition was wiped ... in a way, it's a good thing; forces you to go out and create new music ... thinking about that first album brought to mind that I wrote a lengthy description about the recording process to a fan who was taking a studio engineering course and was curious to how we did it ... for all the music recording nerds, here's part of that letter ...

So Premonition ... was the first "real" recording I ever did, done in a small coach house I was renting by myself  ... the basic equipment I used was a Soundcraft Spirit (24 track) console, a Mackie MDR digital recorder, and at that time I believe I was mixing on some kind of Alesis powered studio monitors (crappy speakers, despite being toted as "flat" they boosted the bass significantly, I can only assume to make people's wack mixes sound at least "thumpin") ...

As I said, this was the first real album I ever tried to put together, previous to this I had made about 3 albums of instrumental hiphop/downtempo jams (mostly recording my self and looping, not samples) and an album of instrumental ska/rocksteady/reggae with me playing all the instruments on it (done on a portable 8-track Fostex) ... My mic collection at the time of Premonition was not as robust as I have now with a handful of 57s, 1 decent Rode condenser (I still use), 1 SM-33 ribbon mic, and probably a couple more "pro-sumer" grade mics (like those shitty Alesis made Groove Tubes mics, of which one I still own) ... I had no auxillary preamps (or if I did it was only a stereo Joe Meek) so everything was done off the board, which doesn't have the hottest pre's in the world ... that's 80% of why the record has that dirty edge ...

My own ignorance on how to record also played a factor, in that, I had been reading Tape-Op for about a year, and as I said, been recording my horn for loops (I literally had one Beta 58 I used to record everything from flute to upright bass with), but despite this presedence, I realized over time that you don't really learn how to engineer a session until you just go in and do it ... I made a lot of unorthodox choices ... for example, mic'ed the hihat with a SM59 (strange mic, look it up), the drum room mic was mono (severly "shortening" the sound), recorded some guitar parts though a leslie (Fistful of Dub), etc ... so in a way that record has a lot of character because of the bizarre way it was recorded, but it definitely is not "hi-fidelity" ... oh, the Mackie also records at 16 or 24 bit, and for Premonition I recorded everything at 16bit ... why? ... I have no idea, as the difference from 16 to 24 is insanely noticable even with one listening ... smoother, tighter, more full, etc ...

At the time I had one great rack stereo compressor, and matching stereo eq (both WBS), a DBX 160a and probably a few more eqs (for some reason, I stocked up on eqs at the beginning of building my studio), which let me do crazy stuff to the drums and chordal instruments ... working with the vocalists on this record was pretty easy, especially compared to the "Chicago Massive" sessions (I just mean sheer volume, no one was difficult to work with) ... the only guy I brought in the studio was Prince, and that was a bit trying as he had no idea how to record in a studio setting, and even worse brought his 2 year old baby daughter to the session who sat on his lap the entire time, batting the mic around ... the one track he's on, I finally convinced him to leave his girl in the control room, but the actual recording of his voice ended up super low as he decided to move the mic around (without me realizing it) and thusly had it facing the ground while he spoke ... seriously, nothing worse then a half-assed vocalist who insists he knows how to do your job better then you in the studio ... oh wait, there was also that Vandell Harris guy on 10k ... he was cool and easy to work with and even ended up doing one live show with us ...

Like with most Drastics recordings (of that era) it was done in layers... first drums and bass, then guitars and keyboards, then horns, then auxillary stuffs ... the dubbing is done live by me standing at the board, punching tracks in and out and sending them to the fx, etc ... which is the only way to get that sound, but is such a bitch cause if you do one thing wrong you gotta rewind to the top and do the whole thing again, theres no way to fix a wrong dub except to start over ... the piano was recorded at the keyboardists house on the same Fostex portable recorder I mentioned earlier ... so basically everyone would come by the studio over a week or two, lay down parts, and then I would take the tracks and fuck em up, add sound fx, dub em, give em to the guys and get feedback ... the only track w/o a preconcieved song structure, arrangment, etc is "Psychic War", and for that reason sounds the freshest (still) to my ears ... that tune was done by the keys (Gary Palmer), bass (Chris Merrill) and drummer (Ben Wagely) who were playing regularly as a jazz trio ... so they just sat down and played some a lil jam we had only midly worked on before ... you can even hear Ben at the beginning of the track saying to the other two  ... "what ? something ? just something ? aight, we're ready Anthony" ... the guest horns were all cats from Westbound Train (I think, that¹s all I remember anyway), and they did their parts while stayin at our cribs for a couple days ... the only bad thing about the whole record was that after completion, and dubbings and a small handful of versions (that really have never even put out) while attempting to back up the harddrive containing all the tracks, something happened resulting in a loss of all data ... I took it to a harddisk repair/restore spot but they couldn¹t do anything for me ... thusly those recordings are gone and lost forever ... in a way good as it makes you just move on and not dwell on the past ... I've since moved up considerably ... mixing on a Soundcraft Ghost 24, using Mackie 824 powered monitors, and have a mic closet that¹s pretty damn solid for recording even larger bands in one shot ...

DOWNLOAD ME

Dear Phillip,

It was great to hear from you old friend. It feels like its been years since we've had any correspondence. Your mysterious disappearance from the 7th House of the Knighted Chosen Specimens proved to be disappointing at the least. Everyone was worried that you didn't survive the bridge troll at the border of the McDougal/Colgrove farms on the Ezekial River. You never cease to amaze me Phillip.

Your father got in touch with me last May and inquired about your whereabouts. As usual I told him I had no idea where you were or what had happened. Unfortunately this time I was telling the truth. Your letter wasn't all that in formative as to what has happened in the past few years. Perhaps you could fill me in and put my mind at ease. Your father is sick and needs your help. I'm sending a map to the cabin he's been hiding out at. Directions must be followed exactly as written. It seems you've gotten in touch with me at the time in which your help is needed most. Don't let me down.

Regards,
Moongriffin

If someone knows the time-line of this record, I'd really appreciate the knowledge. This record (the Pickwick release) has the recording date at 1973 but not released until 1978. However, any kind of Google search for this disc brings up an original 1973 release on the Fretone label with no mention of the Pickwick release ... (example here).  Regardless, I'll be honest with ya'll. I saw this record sittin' in the bins at one of my local vinyl digs and thought I should take a chance on it.  Judging by the cover (credited to one Spyros Heromis who I assumed incorrectly to be the man behind Spirographs), I was expecting a record full of disco-funk with maybe 1 or 2 tracks decent enough to get inspiration from or spin at a house party. Man was I wrong (of course after tellin' my Pops about the purchase he replied "yeah, who doesn't know Con Funk Shun", so I guess I've just been sleeping on theses guys). The intro track "Time" comes pounding out the gate with (what sounds to me) an African-style 4 on the floor groove that knocks you square in the face. Big horns, a big drum beat and funky clav for days. The chorus to this sounded familiar, and after some thinking, "thought" it was a track off of Groove Armadas "Back to Mine" that carried the same downward horn line hook. Of course after getting out my copy of "Back to Mine" I couldn't find what I thought I was looking for. That's because a sample of the track does NOT appear on the album, merely, Tony D's "Piano Grand" follows a similar form. Having cleared that up, I can now proceed with the rest of my review. (On a side note, "Back to Mine" is one of those seminal albums to me, I picked up the CD in a used record shop in Peoria, Il on a whim, not knowing anything about who Groove Armada was, but seeing Tribe, Barry White, Roots Manuva and Al Green on the same disc incited such an intense curiosity I was compelled to purchase the disc right then and there. It lived in my CD player without movement for a good 2 months, with me skipping over most of the UK Garage tracks, but always hitting rewind at least once on Roots Manuvas "Next Type of Motion" .... that's still my jam). ... Oh yeah, I'm not reviewing that record ... 

The second track follows suit with a lush yet rhythmic swelling of keyboards (primarily clavinet)  and horns intro before the singer cries out "Get down with it ...  boogy to the music!" to another infectious bass drum driven funk jam.  My only complaint on this tune is that Chicago gets no love. My man calls out NYC, ATL, DC, Memphis, et al. but straight flies over the Midwest! Comon now! Whatever, it's still 6 minutes of a stone groove. The third track on the A Side is a tender ballad complete with chimes, glockenspiels and arpeggiated rhodes titled "Do You Really Know What Love is For?".  The song warns a young (presumably) woman that the man she's with is just trying to hit it and quit, but he's in it for the long haul. A solid 70s sounding ballad.  This side of the plate runs out with "Sure Feels Good To Me" a nice funky Ohio Players sounding jam ... solid dance floor hit.

The B Side opens up with a summer groove style tune titled "Love In Me". For some reason makes me think of the Bay Area with its easy melody, guitar lines, and happy convincing that "Baby can't you see, the love thats here in me ... "  The track fades out while the sounds of an ocean fade in setting up the start of "Seascape (instrumental)".  A nine minute jazz odyssey of sorts that give all the horn players a chance to preach over this extremely laid back tune.  The trombone player impressed me the most with a tasteful solo.  The album closes with another slammer (in the tradition of paranoid funk songs) titled "Funky Things On Your Mind".

So now that I'm hip to Con Funk Shun I've dug up some more of their albums and didn't find them nearly as impressive as this gem. I find their later material to be a little too derivative of Earth, Wind and Fire, the Isley Brothers and 80s George Clinton.  This album has a distinct sound to it, both in song writing and production. Definitely recommended pickup.

David Axelrod – The Auction
Decca, 1972
A 

Sat on this one for a while before I actually checked it out.  Another aquistion from my Pop's stacks, I probably would have checked it out sooner if i had noticed the small "David Axelrod" on the back under the title.  The cover stands out; bold and disgusting with a black female in rags being auctioned off while 2 men stand beside her next in line for the block.  I presumed this must be a musical of some kind which is why I skipped over it for so long, and it is, but it's more a concept record than anything like that, a concept record on American slavery.  The album starts and ends with traditional spirituals arranged by Axelrod with full chorus backing, but the middle is exactly what you'd expect from him in the early 70s, funky funky jams thrown down by a host of heavyweights including John Guerin, King Errison, Joe Sample, Ernie Watts and Cannonball Adderley.

 Opening up the A side is a lively post-Civil War freedom song appropriately titled "Oh! Freedom".  It quickly fades out to a modern funky drumset opening up the next track, the title track, "The Auction".  A somber song recanting a slave auction scene anywhere in pre-Civil War America, or anywhere where slavery was still tolerated for that matter.  Ernie Watts takes killing tenor sax mini-solos inbetween verses until the drums and bass take over with a heavy-ass breakdown.  The chords to this tune remind me MJs "Thriller", which was a weird juxtaposition once I noticed it (that has nothing to do with the song, just something I noticed).  Most of the song's are "spoke/sung" with the singers reciting lines in an opera style.  Not in the sense of grandiose singing, but rather in a narrative way.  Almost every song contains more than a few lines which disregard meter or rhyming convention.   The next track "Sympathy" is a gorgeous ballad where the solo singer (Jessica Smith) laments to knowing "why the caged bird sings".  Again, Watts throws down some tasteful horn licks, this time on flute.  Closing out the front side is my favorite track on the album simply named "Freedom", opening with a nice rhodes cadenza the voices swell until the drums and bass come in so funky it hurts.  I think I like the words most on this tune ... "If there on earth a slave, Are you really free and brave?".  The song is basically an inciting remark to those who see wrong but do nothing.

On the flip it doesn't get any less funky with "The Leading Citizen" opening up for a nice instrumental jam before the chorus takes over.  As you might have guessed, the song is an ironic statement of values, that the "leading citizen" in the community  is the one inflicting the most pain upon the enslaved percentage of the population.   Several of the songs on this album are given an additional writing credit of "adapted from the works of Paul Lawrence Dunbar" (sic). The next song "The Debt" is one of these songs. Unfortunately I haven't read much of Laurence Dunbar's (as it's correctly spelled) work except for a few poems.  For those of you who don't know, he was a leading African American figure in the early 20th century and if you wanna know 'bout him read up here.  Closing out the album is an "end-of-the-show" sounding track, "Be Proud, My Race!".  Full chorus and full band blast through the tune with a positive vibe ... you can almost hear the chorus being vamped during curtain call at the end of this musical "play". 

So yeah, this is a great album.  No idea how rare it is, but if you spot it and it ain't too expensive, nab it.

Various – Rockers All-Star Explosion
Alligator, 1985
C 

Well, I had to include one stinker in this installment of Strictly Vinyl Reviews. Not that it's all bad, but this album really disappointed me. Housing names like Augustus Pablo and Junior Delgado this album is a sampling of Pablo's Rockers International Records catalog put out by the Chicago based label Alligator. I hope these are all the B-sides and throw-away tracks from the mid 80s because no track is that great all the way through. They're all good, not great ... many go on for far too long with mediocre melodies, hooks and even playing! I counted no less then 3 tracks with huge snafus in the drum playing but the tape just kept running! The musicians are the usual lot, Robbie, Horsemouth, Earl Smith, Pablo and Vin Gordon (just to name a few) but there are a handful of drummers credited who's names I didn't recognize.

The album opens up with the happy melodica instrumental, "Jah in the Hills". Good times, but nothing to write home about. Jah Bull comes up next toasting up the peace and unity, another nice track but starts to drag about half way through. Sister Frica puts her best efforts forward on "One in the Spirit" and this is by far my favorite track on the disc. Maybe because I'm partial to female singers, but mostly because this track clearly had the most "work" put into it. Several parts, several melodic lines, etc etc ... it doesn't get static and the binghi playing on it is killin.  Next up is Asher & Trimble with "Humble Yourself" ... a spooky, dubby track in the style of Black Uhuru's 70s material.  Again, the rhythm track is killing but the lyrics just repeat and repeat with almost no variation or even push to the end of the track. Also, not a big fan of the reggae tracks calling out specific nationalities for blame in their hardship, just kind of weird and borderline racist. Ahhh ... well, Tetrack are my kind of guys ... closing out the A side with "Love & Unity". Unfortunately their singing aspirations are not met with talent and the track just sounds like 3 guys trying their hardest to cop the Heptones (more specifically, Carlton & The Shoes) but just not hitting the high notes or even singing in tune. Which is most sad as the track itself is well written, arranged, etc ... ah well ... I'd probably still play it at a party.

Pick up record, flip over and ... Junior Delgado greets us with some epic wailing and moaning. "Away with Fussing & Fighting" is the name of the track and it's pretty good, nice binghi playing in the background and trombone work from Vin Gordon. Again though, like many tracks, the lyrical content is good but repetitive and repeats itself a few too many times for me. Though when compared to the next track, "Freedom Sounds" by Ricky Grant, Delgado's track is a wealth of words. A really nice bubbly steppers-reggae jam with pretty mediocre wordsmithing. Nice melodica accompaniment though. Augustus takes the reigns again next with "Straight to Ethiopia". I like these tunes of his with the kalimba, melodica and clav on em. Delroy Williams hosts the next cut with big phat 80s synths on em, a decent track and the only one with a dub which is particularly good. Lots of space and dramatic entrances and exits of instruments. The B-side closes out with Norris Reid over the ever classic "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown" riddim. I like this guys voice, and the track isn't that bad ... "Black Force" where he states (repeatedly) that they are the, black force ...

So yeah, I think I got this disc for about 4 bux at a used record shop, recommended pick up in that price range, otherwise there's stuff out there your money is better spent on ...

If you missed it, you can catch us live at the Subterranean with Australian reggae Blue King Brown next Friday the 13th.  Free admission to the first five people to butcher the door guy with a chain saw.  As always, BYOCS.

Me 'n Tom talked to the Pressure Sound crew for what became a 2 part podcast. Of course all the relevant info was covered: injuries, releases we didn't know about and Moongriffin.

Dub Diner Part 1
Dub Diner Part 2

Let's get this straight for once. If you find a tomb in the back of a cave that happens to be filled with mummies, get the fuck out of there!! For real....that shit is bad news. I used to know this guy and he told me never to let this shit happen right before he died. Like....he was dead before he said that but I could sense it, you know? So anyway, this is some straight up Egyptian Mrs. Doubtfire shit. For real! I was straight up returning phone calls from responses I got from the want ad I put in the reader about needing a nanny. Anyway...I was all about gettin my George Coleman Petting Zoo Co-Managed by Mummy Nanny, right? Dude shows up at the Starbucks in the West Loop wearin a purple tye dyed Caribou Coffee tshirt. I honestly grabbed as many Frappacino bottles as I could and cracked em over ol' boy's head as hard as I could! After about 8 or 9 of em he finally chilled out. We puffed a little and played some hackysack and decided to call it a night. It was then I knew that I was no better than Alyssa Milano and decided to go to sleep. 

That's when I woke up and took a cab to Braazazz steakhouse downtown.....I seriously ate so much goddamn meats I straight passed out with my feet up in the air and my head stuck in the goddamn chair! I brought my swordcane with me cuz they be servin all them meats on swords n shit! I asked my boys if they could deep fry all my shit and they said, "that's not our job sir." So I said, "fuck this," I'm gettin my ass a deep fryer and headin to my home house spot!!! So I called up my boy Mooly Mool and he gave me a ride to Branko's on Fullerton Ave. I ordered a big ass basket of fries and pulled out half a bottle of  bacardi and doused that shit like I was buildin a campfire! I dropped a whole book of matches on them shits and gave it about 10 seconds before I stomped the shit out of it and just poured Trappey's hot sauce all over it!! I ate that shit with a knife and fork cuz it was all clam baked like a mothafuckin porterhouse steak n shit! I was sittin there with my lil red lobster bib on pretendin I was at Outback Steakhouse!! That's when Uncle Termy rolled up in his 97 Taurus and dropped me off at the Rec Center for my shift. 

After I got off work I was ready for the 2009 Brunswick-Twangy-Twang-Harvard-Newsport Air Hockey Tournament. You better believe I blew them fools out the water! Not only did I win that $50 Gift Certificate to TJ Maxx but some girl was all about goin bowling at 6am! Too bad there wasn't anywhere to bowl! Turns out this girl had her own bowling lanes in her house! Just like Richard Fuckin Nixon. She had a chartered bus with a driver named "Jo Jo K", he was cool though...shitty DJ...but he was cool. We had a 16 hour drive ahead of us and I was glad because I had about 12 DVD's full of home videos from my family trip to Cambodia to watch on the way!  We settled in on the top level of some bunkbeds she had setup in the back while I hit "play" on my portable DVD player. Jo Jo K jus started laughin while givin me the thumbs up through the rear view mirror.

If you don't know that I've moved to NYC from Chicago then it's probably because I didn't want you to know. Most likely you were a real asshole in the past. Now that you know you should work on being less of an asshole all the time. 

If you don't know what a napspot is then you're going to have trouble understanding my blog posts. I will do my best to give a little insight into the experience of living in Bedstuy,Brooklyn. If you don't know where Bedstuy or Brooklyn are then you will have trouble understanding what I just wrote.

Here are some plans of mine and personal friend's that will happen one day:

Location:Random bar that caters to college co-eds

I'm with my friend Ben Seeder and we're chatting up some girls at the bar. We're both dressed like complete Frat assholes. There's shitty loud techno music playing and we're basically yelling over the music to talk to the girls. Doing that thing where we're kind of getting close to them/talking to them at the same time. We've had a fair amount to drink before inviting them back to our place for more drinks. These girls don't have a clue what to expect. As far as they know they were just coming over for a beer and some Ted Nugent from the ipod.

It's about a ten minute walk from the bar to our apartment. On the way there there's two girls in their 20's talking on their front porch. As we approach we overhear one of them saying, "And that's when I found out he'd been cheating on me the whole time! He ended up getting her pregnant and left me to have the baby with her. And he talked me into getting an abortion when I got pregnant!" This is when we appear out of nowhere and I interrupt saying, "Hey, are you guys having a good time?" They both just sit there with their mouths wide open and don't say a fucking word. The 4 of us stood there in silence waiting for an answer for a good 30 seconds before continuing on our walk home. With any luck the poor girl was probably scarred for life.

We get to our front door and say something like, "just give us a minute to clean up." As soon as we enter the apartment we put on full spaceman/alien costumes and the only lights in the apartment are large blacklights. Everything is blacklight sensitive and the whole place looks like an alien spaceship. There are blinking lights, switches, large monitors, etc. The place looks exactly like a fucking spaceship ok?The entire time there is a bright purple light shining down on each of us and follows us anywhere we move in the apartment. We each have our mouths wide open as if we have to make a serious effort to close them with our hands.

We give the girls cocktails in futuristic space age glasses and sit down. There is no mention of the decor or costumes the entire time. "So, you said you go to Loyola?" "Are you studying psychology as well?"

The only thing that resembles any kind of normal human living space is a vintage theater popcorn machine in the corner. The entire time we have playing on repeat,  "Pass the popcorn," from The Roots album Organix. We offer the girls popcorn and as soon as they make any kind of dent in the authentic popcorn bags we refill them. If either of the girls asks about our spaceship theme they are ignored and the topic is changed.

An Evening with Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Al Foster.
Recorded live at the Genova Jazz Festival
Red Records, 1987
A-

I have yet to dislike any album that starts out with a ballad. This record is no different. The opening selection; Monk’s “Ask Me Now” sets the explorative tone for the rest of the album with Joe wildly trilling the melody after a tasteful cadenza.  I’ll admit, despite the impressive line up (Haden on bass, Foster on drums) I was worried (expecting even) that this would fall short like so many of Henderson’s records I have from the 80s. However Joe is on point and you can tell he’s just having a good time on the stand, really opening up on his ideas. Haden lags a little at points, and his solos leave a little to be desired in context with the other playing happening but is otherwise solid. Their rendition of the melody on Sam River’s “Beatrice” falls a little short, playing it in a sort of faux-Latin style (I’m also extremely fond of the original). That’s not to say the rest of the song follows suit.  Foster’s explosive playing compliments Henderson’s soulful outbursts to a “t” and adds the perfect complex rhythmic background.  Don’t get me wrong about Haden, he’s solid as hell, but with the creativity pouring from the tenor and drums, I wouldn’t have minded hearing a little more risk being taken in the bass.

On the technical side, for a live recording this album’s above par.  The tenor sounds rich and full, the bass is clearly off a pickup (which sounds good) and the drums are just “ok” … I feel that some of the subtly in Foster’s playing must be lost in the distant-sounding micing of the drums.  The point is that it doesn’t sound like a jazz album from the 80s (or late 70s for that matter), and for that we should all be thankful. I could only find limited information on this album on the internet, and the bits I could find were mostly in review form with quotes that may or may not be true … such as “Joe Henderson told bassist Charlie Haden that this is his favorite recording of himself” and “This was a one-off concert, was done with no rehearsal …” and according to Wikipedia …

It was only after the release of An Evening with Joe Henderson, a live trio set (featuring Charlie Haden and Al Foster) for the Italian independent label Red Records that Henderson underwent a major career change: Verve took notice of him and in the early 1990s signed him.

Al Campbell – Freedom Street
Top Rank, 1984
B

Also released on the Londisc label, Al Campbell's “Freedom Street” is my kind of 80s reggae.  Opening up with a rendition of Carlton Manning’s “Love Me Forever” (originally a Studio One riddim) the synths come blazing out with no apologies as the kick and snare slap you in the face (courtesy of either Sly or Style Scott!).  Campbell’s singing just does it for me, and I don’t really have a concrete reason why.  On this album he’s on all his own backups and the arrangements are slamming.  The rest of the personnel can easily hang with Willie Lindo on guitar, Lloyd Parks on bass, Robby Lyn on keys, Dwight Pickney (listed as Dwight Pinkney) on guitar, Dean Frasier on alto and Junior Chico Chin on trumpet.

One of the nicest aspects of this record is all songs immediately go into full length dubs without the awkward tape splice or obvious jump in beat (though let's be honest; you'd have to be spinning to just-the-right right crowd to get away with playing 8 minutes of the same lovers rock tune).  The next song is a Campbell original, “Give My Love A Try” (which I assumed, incorrectly, to be a stolen version of Barry Brown’s “Give Love A Try”).  A nice attempt, but the tune falls short, leaving the dub to the stronger choice between the two.  Closing out the A-Side is an updated of Alton Ellis’s classic “Blackman’s Word”. Pretty good. The bass playing get’s a little disco for my tastes, plus the original is so prolific it’s hard to compare a synthed out version to the original Treasure Isle cut. Dub is decent.

After the flip we are treated to the title track, another Campbell original (not the Ken Boothe tune). I like this tune; it has a big swinging feel reminiscent of Freddie McGregor’s style on “Big Ship”. A silly little synth line accompanies almost the entire tune, but doesn’t get too distracting. The next track is the standout of the whole album, “Undying Love”. I’m not a fan of Frasier’s bubblegum alto, but it fits this tune in an oddly appropriate way. Campbell’s vocal backup arrangement is what really sets this tune apart from the rest.  Again, the dub is good.  Rounding out the album is “Time So Hard” sung over the ever-popular “Skylarking” riddim. I like the original/vocal better then the dub for this one as I think the lyrics are exceptionally good.  Campbell stays away from the stock style that has been used over and over again on “Skylarking” and really does well in creating his own, true version of the tune. Definitely worth picking up for the reggae collector, if new to the game, there’s probably some other records worth getting first.

Chico Hamilton – Peregrinations
Blue Note, 1975
C+

I’ve come to really like most of Blue Note’s catalog from the 70s.  As opposed to Discovery or even Verve, they didn’t try to maintain a "status quo" of jazz, instead allowing their artists to experiment not only with new styles but new technology.  And that means funky funky synths … and phase!  This record vacillates between “frantic” and “groove with ease”, and while both styles are great, I think the groove sections definitely stand out as more unique and distinctive. The first track is a fairly forgettable “opening-of-a-record-song” titled “V-O”. Arthur Blythe blows over most it and can hold it down, but the song itself is lack luster.  The second track, “The Morning Side of Love” (great name) is where we get into interesting territory with both guitars soloing along with a phased-out choir section.  “Abdullah and Abraham” follows and is by far my most favorite track on the album.  Very much in the style of Milles’ 70s electric stuff, once the beat drops it feels real good.  The initial groove reminds me of a sort of Fela meets Yesterdays New Quintet playin a tune written by Andrew Hill.

The B-Side starts out screaming “Bloody Disco”. Opening with a frantic Copacabana-esque number, complete with screaming tenor sax, it's a little more then I can handle but sets the mood for the remainder of the tracks. The end song “It’s About That Time” is the only tune i like on the flip (mostly due to the humor).

There are also several tracks on the album that dissolve into each other, leaving the listener unaware that a new track has even started.  Along with this mashing of songs, each melody feels to incorporate elements of its predecessors on the album, making for a “suite” feel at points.  This effect doesn’t save the album, which I felt had some moments but overall was too (dare I say) pop. If you’re the type to buy an album for one or two cuts definitely snatch it up. 

Also on a side note, what's up with that album cover? Blue Note is known for their iconic and, frankly, beautifully minimalist album covers, but this ... this .... this is no good.  Looks like some soccer mom art.