The music world has suffered many losses in the last week. Brian Wilson and Sly Stone were both pillars of modern popular America music. Lesser known is Douglas McCarthy, singer and songwriter of the EBM group Nitzer Ebb. Alongside New Order, Depeche Mode and Front 242, Nitzer Ebb’s songs were a major thread of the dance music fabric of the late 80s and early 90s. If you went to a club and did NOT hear one of their songs it was notable! I believe that McCarthy had to have had a healthy sense of humor, so let’s also revisit the time when Beavis and Butthead commented on a Nitzer Ebb music video:
Sublime Frequencies is “a collective of explorers dedicated to exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, other forms of human and natural natural expression not documented sufficiently enough by various communication channels.” They have multiple releases that are edits from radio recordings around the world. These not only act as ethnomusicological studies, but also fascinating examples of audio collage.
Apparently Lou Reed was really going through it in 1978 when this live recording was made. His feisty, aggressive and blabbermouth tone sounds like a mix of alcohol, drugs and the strain of being considered a “living legend”. All the while his very good live band tries to hold down the proceedings by keeping up with very different arrangements of some of his classics. While most (if not all) acts overdub their live records to make them sound as good as possible, Reed clearly was taking a “warts and all” stance with this release. I’m not sure who was more brave in putting this out: Reed or his record company?
The music world keeps getting hit with losses! Cocoa Tea came to prominence during the classic rub-a-dub dancehall era, recording for the likes of Henry “Juno” Lawes. He transitioned into the digital era of the mid-80s and had some of his biggest hits. In the 90s he set up his own label, Roaring Lion. In 2008 he utilized this platform to boost the political platform of Barak Obama. Rest in Power to a true reggae legend!
Jazz and Soul legend Roy Ayers passed away recently. A sometimes neglected page in his storied career is the six weeks in the late 70s he spent in Nigeria playing with afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Surely, the spirit of the Funk was further fortified by this meeting of the minds! Rest in Power Roy Ayers!
The music world lost one of its best song stylists last week. Roberta Flack could take just about anyone’s song and make it her own. The kicker was that she had impeccable taste, as well as chops at the keys and on the vocals! RIP to a true master!
Max Romeo is a certified roots reggae legend. He has spoken of times spent under a tree writing tunes with Lee Perry and Niney Holmes. This track is from his 1975 album “Revelation Time” which featured a hammer and sickle on its cover. This kind of revolutionary roots seems to be making a comeback. In January the French label Irie Ites re-recorded the song with Romeo and modern singer Chezidek. Now more than ever, Babylon must fall!
Back in the late 80s and early 90s HipHop could be political. After eight years of Reaganomics, it made a lot of sense. It seems like conditions are even worse in the 20s, and yet not many artists are willing to make verbal statements as truthful and bold as Michael Franti did back in 1992.
Legendary grime producer Terror Danjah passed away last week after falling into a post-stroke coma. Rest in Power to one of the best to ever do it!
For his sixth album, “Flamagra”, Flying Lotus enlisted a great number of collaborators, including the late, great David Lynch. The track and its video are super Lynchian in tone. It’s doubly ominous these days with the deadly LA area fires still resonating in the news. RIP David Lynch, a true one-of-one!
Gravediggaz were something of an underground hip-hop supergroup. Formed in 1991, the group featured DJ Prince Paul and the RZA. Frukwan, formerly of Stetsasonic, claimed the group’s name signifies "digging graves of the mentally dead, and it stood for resurrecting the mentally dead from their state of unawareness and ignorance.". Their style mixed the horrific and the humorous, predating any “Horrorcore” artists. This tune predicts a lot of that genre’s rock crossover appeal as well. Bang Your Head!
Apparently, the making of Iggy Pop’s first solo album, “The Idiot”, was a turning point in his and David Bowie’s substance abuse. After writing and recording the record during a Bowie world tour the duo took off to Berlin where Bowie would record three of his best-loved albums. Poltically speaking, the Dum Dum Boys are back and I still can’t speak the language.
U2’s fourth album, “The Unforgettable Fire” is their first collaboration with the production duo of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois as well as their most impressionistic full length. Here is the closing tune, one which Bono has described as "as sort of a lullaby for an idea that was dying in our country: the idea of non-violence... All inspired by a black reverend from Atlanta who refused to hate because he thought love would do a better job."
In their first iteration, Wire were constantly moving forward. From their 1977 punk debut, “Pink Flag”, to 1979’s art-rock masterpiece “154” the band was evolving at a dizzying pace. Their songwriting and production became more and more avant-garde and artistically adventurous. Their demos, however, still sounded like the tight four piece punk band they started out as. Here is a little ditty from the round of tunes that would become their second album, “Chairs Missing”. Story has it that once they wrote the album’s opener “Practice Makes Perfect” slight songs such as this did not seem relevant or interesting enough to make the cut. Hindsight shows that even sub-par Wire material in the 70s was still damn good!
When folks think of the 70s punk scene in NYC they usually think of CBGBs, Talking Heads, maybe Bad Brains. What usually does not cross anyone’s mind is Memphis. After the breakup of his band Big Star Alex Chilton headed to the Big Apple. With his decades of show business, song writing experience and desire to try new things, Chilton made a big splash on the scene. He played a CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City. Terry Ork caught the Memphis fever and released Chilton’s “Singer Not the Song” as well as a single produced by Big Star’s other singer/songwriter Chris Bell in the form of the band Prix. The Big Star influence continued to shine brighty on this Ork released by dBs frontman Chris Stamey. It’s a good time to think warm thoughts here in the Northern Hemisphere, so soak up the power pop rays!
Zakir Hussain was a master tabla player who continued his father’s (Alla Rakha) work in bringing awareness of Indian Classical music to an international audience. As his father played with Ravi Shankar at Woodstock, Zakir played in Shakti with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin and later toured extensively with bluegrass master and polymath Bela Fleck. RIP to a truly transcendent musician!
Musician/comedian/silly person Reggie Watts dropped a holiday themed EP this last week via Flying Lotus’ label, Brainfeeder. Known for his irreverant humor and jibberish talking tendencies, Watts does his best at spreading some holiday cheer. Have a happy one (or just eat and sleep a bunch, no presh).
