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).
There’s been so many notable passings in the world of music over the last month that we haven’t even addressed the political situation in the US yet. We’ll let Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings speak for us in a clip that illustrates their awesome power in a live setting.
Steve Albini’s bands have always been an aquired taste. Shellac shows were always at least 98% dudes. The subject matter of songs would generally be less than pleasant and a hearty dose of black humor always in tow. At times what would be just as (if not more) interesting was the sound of the recordings. Albini always seemed to emphasize the electric aspect of electric guitars. He had a specific way of micing drums, with an emphasis of not micing cymbals and hi hats. His argument was that all the other microphones for the kit had no problem picking them up. For all of those that can’t deal with Big Black, Rapeman or Shellac I offer up this classic piece by The Pixies from their first album as a template for the classic “Albini Sound”. This recording also seems to incorporate another Albini production practice: analog tape editing. Listen for the cut in the instrumental freak out in the middle of the song. RIP Steve Albini, a true 1 of 1!
Peter Sinfield was a lowkey prog legend. He wrote the majority of the lyrics to the foundational album “In the Court of the Crimson King” for the band he named, King Crimson. He later wrote lyrics for Emerson Lake and Palmer. He also produced Roxy Music’s debut album. Here is one of his creations, as well as one of King Crimson’s most iconic songs.
The jazz world lost another legend this month with the passing of Roy Haynes at the age of 99. Roy was THE bebop drummer, having played with the main architects of the sound: Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. Here’s a great example of Roy’s precision and swing from a session from a real gem of a year for jazz, 1958.
The late, great bop saxophonist Lou Donaldson got one of his big breaks playing in the pre-Jazz Messengers Art Blakey Quintet. As with the Messengers, this band was a collection of soon to be legends, including Clifford Brown. Rest in Power Lou Donaldson!
It’s hard to think of someone with a more impressive music career than the late, great Quincy Jones. Everyone knows about the big hits of the 80s, but back in the early 60s he arranged and conducted an album for Frank Sinatra and Count Basie at the tender age of 31! Rest in Power Le Q!
Compared with their preceeding band Minutemen, fIREHOSE was not known to be particularly political. Whereas D. Boon often let loose on the conservative times of the 80s, Ed FromOhio was more prone to writing about more interpersonal issues. In either band there were always tunes by Mike Watt and here’s a little political leftover that turned up on fIREHOSE’s first album. Now, get out and vote!
“Bone Machine” may be one of Tom Waits’ darkest albums. When looking for a studio space appropriate for recording this material, Waits was not content with traditional offerings. It wasn’t until he visited the cellar of Prairie Sun Recording that he found the right vibe: a basement space with a concrete floor and a water heater. It does seem fitting for recording a tune with lyrics that include “We’re chained to the world and we all gotta pull.”