No sweat

Miles Davis, Get Up With It (Columbia 1974)
One of Miles' tape-splicing experiments with producer Teo Macero. "Rated X" is mental -- sounds like it was recorded in 2007. "Calypso Frelimo" is one of two songs that were allowed to stretch out over a whole side of vinyl. Sick glasses, Miles.

Miles Davis - "Rated X"

Miles Davis - "Calypso Frelimo (excerpt)"



Flora Purim, Stories to Tell, (Milestone 1974)
Vocalist first known for singing on Return to Forever's albums flies solo with big-name help: Airto, King Errisson, Earl Klugh, George Duke, Carlos Santana. Bass legend Miroslav Vitous composed and arranged the two best songs on the LP, the title track and "Silver Sword." Just like on "Rated X," the fx toward the end of "Silver Sword" get pretty wild for '74! Musta been something in the water.

Flora Purim - "Stories to Tell"

Flora Purim - "Silver Sword"



Le Pamplemousse, Sweet Magic (AVI 1978)
Best. Album cover. Ever. Disco auteurs Rinder & Lewis helmed this electronic-disco-funk hybrid. Some of the production feels too "bright" and the tempos a little too fast, but that doesn't detract from the deep diva vocals on "Deeper" and the alternating juiced-up / laid-back grooves on "No Sweat."

Le Pamplemousse - "Deeper"

Le Pamplemousse - "No Sweat"

Odds and ends and curves and nerves

• The Hold Steady are on Myspace now, with a couple of remixes and the (prev. unreleased?) track "Curves and Nerves" available for download. Important lyrical developments re: Charlemagne. Their third full-length comes out in the fall, new songs sounded great live this spring at Warsaw.
  
  The Hold Steady - "Curves and Nerves"
  
  
• Good DJ lineup at Capone's in Williamsburg on 7/15 -- Todd Terje with Bumrocks and Tropical Computer System. Earlier that day Terje spins at PS1's Warm Up.
  
  
• New Nas track ("Where Ya'll At") over at Soul Sides is worth a listen, with a low-key flow over an abstract Minnie Riperton loop. The bassline sounds like a slowed-down version of ESG's "UFO."
  
  
• Been meaning to mention this Mae Shi dvd Lock the Skull Load the Gun and by the time I get to it the band is shedding members and searching for a singer. More than 30 videos, some budget and some not, sometimes multiple vids for one song (wtf?), plus a tour movie and other shtuff. Here's the trailer:

Panik

This post was gonna be about the 1970s Cleveland rock time capsule Those Were Different Times, put out on triple 10" by Scat Records (GBV, Cobra Verde, etc.) in the late '90s. But then I realized a) it's still in print on CD and b) arguably the three best tracks are already available for download direct from Scat. So check it .... the bands collected on the comp are the Mirrors (V.U. influenced gtr jams), Electric Eels (fucked nihilistic noiserock) and Styrenes.

(Edit: I probably should have flagged the questionable racial content in the lyrics to the Eels' "Spinach Blasters." From what I understand, these guys were the sort of shit-starters who would dance cheek to cheek with each other in bars just to provoke fights and give homophobes bloody noses. So I don't think any malice is meant by it. But sorry if anyone was taken aback.)



Pere Ubu, Datapanik in the Year Zero (Geffen 1996)
Instead, let's bring out Cleveland's big guns, Pere Ubu, and the box set that took them (in my malformed college radio mindset) from over-the-hill so-and-so's who toured with They Might Be Giants (no joke, I saw the show - Ubu was good!) to art-rock godhead. Around the same time, a 4x7" package of the reissued Hearthen Singles (essentially the first half of disc one of Datapanik) came out, including "Final Solution" .... if you see that bright yellow box, don't hesitate.

Pere Ubu - "Final Solution"

Pere Ubu - "Street Waves (Live)"

To tie it all together, disc five of this thing is a Cleveland scene primer of sorts called "Terminal Drive," featuring Eels, Mirrors, Rocket From the Tombs (the group featuring Peter Laughner that mutated into Ubu) and many others. (The quote that ends the post is from the "Terminal Drive" liner notes.)

Mirrors - "She Smiled Wild"

Rocket From the Tombs - "Amphetamine"

No amount of nostalgia can bring those years back; they were different times. ... We found it hard, in 1975, to imagine anyone would live to see the year 2000.

New sun

This Heat, Out of Cold Storage (ReR 2006)
Wow, This Heat's whole life's work just fell into my lap. They were a post-punk band that used a world of sound, not just sharp guitars -- tension, drones and strange sound palettes, dynamics, dub and world music, and subject matter that's almost always dark (or darkly humorous). Six-CD set includes their two LP's, 1979's self-titled "blue and yellow" album and 1981's Deceit, plus an EP, Peel Sessions and a live disc. "Makeshift Swahili," from Deceit, sounds like a pop song thrashing and kicking to escape from a straitjacket, only briefly breaking through before being dunked underwater again ....

This Heat - "Makeshift Swahili"

This Heat - "Horizontal Hold (Peel Session)"



Boredoms, Pop Tatari (Reprise 1993)
I've been on Liars and Boredoms overload lately given their upcoming NYC shows. Pop Tatari doesn't sound much like the outerspace drum-circle, krautrock Boredoms of Seadrum or Vision Creation Newsun -- more like spastic savants run amok. Still, it makes a hell of a lot more sense now than when I first heard it in high school, probably beacuse I'm familiar with more of what they're blenderizing. The beginning of "Cory & the Mandara Suicide ..." is grooooovy before it goes all bazerk.

Boredoms - "Cory & the Mandara Suicide Pyramid Action or Gas Satori"

Boredoms - "Poy (Mockin' Fuzz1)"

p.s. NEWSUN

Wasted

Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped (Geffen 2006)
I was loving SY's spiralling neo-deadhead epic songs circa Murray Street, so at first the relatively tame + tight alternarock on Rather Ripped (their poppiest since Dirty) didn't connect ... but it just took some repeated spins and volume. Kim rules this album with "Reena," "Jams Run Free," and especially "What a Waste" ... love her new singing-in-tune initiative, as heard toward the end of this track while the guitars follow along ... hot.

Sonic Youth - "What a Waste"

I think I'm gonna highlight some more rock stuff all week, so check back.

Fire pt. 2

Another new dance record in the vein of the tracks I posted a couple days ago. Dean Meredith (Goat Dance, White Light Circus) is in Chicken Lips with Andy Meecham (Emperor Machine). The guitar at first sounds like "Goettsching" or the more woodsy side of Lindstrom, but the song morphs into disco dub with a liquidy tweaked bassline. "High Voltage" is just as huge. Out on Bear Entertainment.

Goat Dance - "Sizzle"

I'll just sit here

Trap Door (Dis-Joint 2006)
"International psychedelic mystery mix" from the record label arm of the Groove Merchant. No tracklist or titles ... but the mix is a lot easier to hunt down than the originals anyway. Not that I recognized any of em. Great mix.

Various - Trap Door (Excerpt)



Pissed Jeans, Don't Need Smoke to Make Myself Disappear / Love Clown 7" (Sub Pop 2006)
Losers' anthem ... awesome lyrics .... Shallow still in heavy rotation ... can't wait for the next one.

Pissed Jeans - "Don't Need Smoke to Make Myself Disappear"

Fire breathing

Rahhhrrrr

Dondolo - "Dragon (Shit Robot 'Fire Breathing' Remix)" (Tiny Sticks)

Emperor Machine - "Bodilizer Bodilsizer" (DC Recordings)

Padded Cell - "Konkorde Lafayette" (DC Recordings)

Megamix

D.S.O., It's Partytime (Future Record Ship 198?)
33/45 Friday night special: I found this Patrick Cowley megamix in the used bin, 17-plus minutes of hot synth-disco action. I don't know all the titles but it runs through all his big hits -- "Megatron Man," "Menergy," "Right on Target," plus "I Feel Love," which he had done a famous extended version of. There's not much information on the LP but the intro sounds like it's a "tribute mix" made after Cowley's death in 1982. The graphics make me think of this Playgroup mix from 2002. (This is Side B; Side A is a freestyle/pop mix with Janet Jackson and stuff ... )

D.S.O. - Patrick Cowley Megamix

Back to the dancefloor ...

Disco funk on Prelude from 1981.

Secret Weapon - "Must Be the Music (Inst.)"

Slick witch

When you're done observing the National Day of Slayer, commune with these early '70s glam/prog rockers from Florida ....


White Witch, A Spiritual Greeting (Capricorn 1974)
Dude's voice gets a little shrill on "Auntie Christy," but hang on for the space ritual.

White Witch - "Slick Witch"

White Witch - "Auntie Christy / Harlow"



White Witch, White Witch (Capricorn 1972)
More mellow, less metal. Hard to tell if these guys were hippies or whut.

White Witch - "You're the One"

Mix of the month - Rocks

Summer bbq bro-down rock n roll, funky hippie fusion, Brooklyn-bred krautrock mix. 45 min, 52 MB.

Rocks

Intro / Psychic Ills - East
Cat Stevens - Foreigner Suite
Booker T and the MG's - L.A. Jazz Song
Isis - April Fool
Jeff Beck - Come Dancing
John Kongos - He's Gonna Step On You Again
Spooky Tooth - Waitin' on the Wind
Power of Zeus - It Couldn't Be Me
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe
Oneida - Did I Die
Tasavallan Presidentti - Milky Way Moses
Black Oak Arkansas - Hot 'n' Nasty
Spirit - Mr. Skin
Atomic Rooster - Gershatzer

Enchantment

Two things led me to pull out these albums by Martin Denny, the king of exotica -- first, it's apparently monsoon season up here, and secondly, "The Enchated Sea" popped up to trance-like effect toward the end of Days of Being Wild, a great Wong Kar-Wai movie that I Netflix'd the other day (and the source of the shot seen above). Denny would go to all lengths to give his lush arrangements a "jungle atmosphere," using exotic instrumentation and having his horn players perform bird calls and other sounds.

Martin Denny - "The Enchanted Sea"

Martin Denny - "Similau"

Martin Denny - "China Nights (Shina No Yoru)"