The headline death this past month was that at 75 of Sylvia Robinson, who featured on this blog before with her 1973 hit "Pillow Talk", a song taught Donna Summer all she needed to know about pleasured moaning to a disco beat. But Robinson was much more important than that. As the founder of Sugar Hill Records, she produced and released the first ever rap hit ("Rappers' Delight"). Robinson's label also released what I still regard as the greatest rap record of all time, Grandmaster Flash's monumental "The Message". Also notable is the death a day later of [...]
I must confess that I find it hard to mourn the death of Amy Winehouse. Don't think of me as a man possessed of a callous heart. Of course the death of a young, talented woman is a cause for sadness. But Ms Winehouse did not die in a tragic accident, as Otis Redding did, nor did a dread disease claim her, as it did Minnie Riperton. Amy Winehouse was a victim of her own excess; she lived a self-destructive lifestyle which first wounded her talent and then (as it appears) ended her life. My empathy is directed at her [...]
Beastie Boys - Johnny Ryall [ CD ] [ mp3 ] [ vinyl ] I think most sentient beings can agree that Paul's Boutique is one of the greatest albums of the last 20-30 years. Catch me on the right day and I might say it's the greatest album ever. Released in 1989, Paul's was the by-product of 7 men: The Beastie Boys , an LA DJ named Matt Dike (who later went on to co-found Delicious Vinyl ), two other LA DJs [...]
A southern fried Stax O'Wax Trax that sounds just as finger lickin' good today.
Monroe, OhioY'all are used to this from me, right? You're just sighing and rolling your eyes, right? :)Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff
Having last focused on some Wardell Quezergue productions that were more toward the mainstream, I thought I'd feature two examples of his unique brand of funk, most evident in the early 1970s, when he was recording virtually all of his projects in Jackson, MS, at Malaco Studios . I've visited this period before on various cuts with the Big Q touch by such artists as King Floyd , the Barons Ltd , Elliott Small , Denise Keeble , and [...]
U.S. Army-Jody (mp3) Hawks-Joe The Grinder Quincy Jones-Boogie Joe The Grinder Jimmy Coe-Run, Jody, Run "Jody Calls" Wordorigins.org : The military use of jody was introduced to the U.S. Army by African-American soldiers. Jody is a clipping of the name of Joe the Grinder [...]
Photography by Pixelwelten Happy new year! Hope you enjoyed (and are still enjoying) our Most Awesomest Tsururific Albums of 2007 with Accompanying Mixtape!!! Though I never understood people's fascination with zeros in dates or "new years" (it really is just another day afterall), I do understand the need to move on and put the past to rest, a man-made day called "new year's day" is as good a time as any, right? So, I thought to myself, what better [...]
Mikester's post on a book of pre- Crisis Superman trivia got me to thinking about the awesomeness that is Steve Lombard. A sportscaster and co-worker of Clark Kent's at WGBS-TV, Lombard was the Superman mythos' answer to "Flash" Thompson, an obnoxious jock adversary- slash -rival whose purpose in life is to make life difficult for the hero's civilian identity, thus providing a more readily reader-identifiable conflict than rampaging super-gorillas or old men dressed as carrion birds could. I'd like to see Luthor try [...]
MP3: Jean Knight - "Mr. Big Stuff" MP3: The Cool Kids - "Pump Up the Volume" MP3: The Shanghai Restoration Project - "Miss Shanghai" MP3: Cornershop - "Sleep on the Left Side" MP3: The Slits - "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (Live) MP3: The Black Ghosts - "Some Way Through This"
Any five-year-old boy can tell you that being referred to as "Mister" is usually not a good thing. If any five-year-old boy is being called "Mister," it's usually in the context of a mother (or some other higher ranking official) beginning a command/lecture/punishment "Listen, mister..." and therein seeds a displeasure for the title for the rest of his life (see: middle aged men pleading not to be referred to as "Mister," as MR. -insert last name here- lives in Florida/Arizona). Wikipedia defines the pre-nominal social title as: "used for a man too old to be [...]
LOW YO YO STUFF Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band 1972 Available on : The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot Reprise : 1999 [Buy It] HOT STUFF The Rolling Stones Black and Blue Virgin : 1976 [Buy It] YOU THINK YOU'RE HOT STUFF Jean Knight Mr. Big Stuff Stax : 1971 [Buy It] SISTER BIG STUFF John Holt [...]
The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger Booker T. & The MGs - Soul Limbo Rufus Thomas - Do The Funky Chicken Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There A couple of weeks ago I picked this up for $15.99. It is a 2 disc set of classic Stax Records material from the '60s & '70s, all remastered and packaged with a cool booklet (lots of photos and stories) in a hardboard box. That
Any Major Dude With Half A Heart
The Adios Lounge
Music @ Blogcritics.org
All Eyes & Ears
Home of the Groove
WFMU's Beware of the Blog
T S U R U R A D I O
Armagideon Time
MusicWarship
Ain't superstitious, but these things I've seen...
Moistworks
silence is a rhythm two
Cadence Weapon - "Conditioning" (CFCF Remix)
Gaggie x Bo Deal – Loose Lips [Prod. by Young Chop]
Summer Camp - "Always"
