Black Cat Bone

I know, right?! Mystery upon mystery.

Benjamin Booker - Violent Shiver



I played the hell out of Booker's debut S/T album a couple of years ago, but haven't played it for at least a year and half i reckon. Then suddenly while i was walking around today the little guitar intro to 'Violent Shiver' came into my head, and i've been revisiting again on youtube for most of the afternoon.

Highly recommended for those who like a mix of rock-y, punk-y, soulful energy.

Never heard of him, but that was pretty cool.

The Pagans - What's This Shit Called Love?



I really like all of the Pagans' songs from their late-70s period, but this one holds a special place for me, for personal reasons (yes, there was a girl involved, with the most gorgeous hazel eyes and wicked smile you'd ever hope to see) as well as those absolutely monumental-sounding fuzz chords from Mike Metoff's guitar.
One thing's for certain, Cleveland sure had their fair share of wonderful punk and post-punk groups.

Tyrone Davis - Turn Back The Hands of Time



Hot damn, i love this record. Everything about it is nigh on perfect - the snap of that snare, the gorgeous groove of the bass, Davis' as well as the backing singers' vocals, the arrangement, just everything.

Healing Force - Golden Miles



It was a really, really uncomfortable day today in Hong Kong weather-wise - the rainy season has kicked in properly, so it was beating it down till about lunchtime, and then the scattered bits of sunshine afterwards just made the 90-100% humidity level all that much harder to take.

It's days like today that I daydream of being back in Melbourne, standing near the bay somewhere maybe, and feeling an honest bone-chilling, late-May wind come blowing up out of the south. I used to head down the coast on weekends with family or friends, playing the radio a mixtape or two on the way; Rye or Sorrento backbeach, or maybe a trip over to Torquay, wetsuit in the car for some bodyboarding and then some hot chips and a flake or two for lunch.

Man, I can still hear the waves and taste the salt on my lips.

Hoodoo Gurus - Bittersweet



One of the best live acts I have ever seen, and one of the best pop-rock "singles" bands Australia ever produced.

If you don't have a good compilation of the Hoodoo Gurus' singles, do yourself a favour and get one.

The Earthworms - Fishtail



I've always loved stories of artists who - usually for legal/contractual reasons - write or release a song under a pseudonym or a different name than the one most people would usually recognize. In fact there are a couple in the previous pages of this here thread! See, I told you I love 'em!

Anyway, 'Fishtail' is a cracking little R&B-pop number, released on the Bobbin Records label in 1962 I think, and it's a song I came across years ago when I was just cruising youtube and enjoying some nuggets of just this variety.

I knew the label well because of its association with the fabulous Little Milton. Milton had started releasing singles on Bobbin Records out of St. Louis in the late '50s, and it was from there that the Chess brothers started taking note of his talents, and hearing the growing word of mouth about him floating into Chicago, they decided to sign him to their Checker/Chess label.

That's why the songwriting credits on 'Fishtail' piqued my interest - I guess it's possible that the "Campbell" on the label might not be James 'Little' Milton Campbell, or that the "Sain" might not be Oliver Sain, the saxophonist and band leader in Little Milton's band in the late '50s and early '60s. It's possible, right? Well, if it IS them, my money is on the fantastic pianist hammering away on the track being a young Fontella Bass too, who was playing with both of these guys before her singing career took off.

fange wrote:Well, if it IS them, my money is on the fantastic pianist hammering away on the track being a young Fontella Bass too, who was playing with both of these guys before her singing career took off.

I did not know that.

Not a bad little record.

Charlie O. wrote: I did not know that.

Oh yeah, Bass paid her dues on the club and studio circuits for years before 'Rescue Me' hit big. A very talented woman, who eventually got the credit and success she richly deserved.

fange wrote:

Charlie O. wrote: I did not know that.

Oh yeah, Bass paid her dues on the club and studio circuits for years before 'Rescue Me' hit big. A very talented woman, who eventually got the credit and success she richly deserved.

And I assume you know that the drummer on "Rescue Me" (and Billy Stewart's "Summertime") was Maurice White...

Charlie O. wrote:

fange wrote:

Charlie O. wrote: I did not know that.

Oh yeah, Bass paid her dues on the club and studio circuits for years before 'Rescue Me' hit big. A very talented woman, who eventually got the credit and success she richly deserved.

And I assume you know that the drummer on "Rescue Me" (and Billy Stewart's "Summertime") was Maurice White...

Yes! Who was also the drummer for Little Milton's 'Grits Ain't Groceries', which featured a young man named Donny Hathaway at the keys.

I didn't know that!

Teddy and His Patches - Suzy Creamcheese



I was trying to find the thread where we talk about the little bits/parts/moments of songs we really love, but couldn't find it. The search function seems to be cactus.

Anyway, I love pretty much all of 'SC', but when it popped onto the ipod today I was smitten all over again by the sound of the organ/keyboard(?) in the 2nd section of the song; the part when it slows down after the 2:15 sec. point, and the organ player plays those little see-sawing, stabbing notes with his right hand - it's so fucking trippy and beautiful. Makes me want to close my eyes and smile inanely like a stoned numbskull.

Today's is a double-wammy -

Rodge Martin - Lovin' Machine



Sadly, this is one of the very few sides of vinyl Martin cut before his untimely death in '67. I love the guitar on this one so much, and the arrangement as well, making Martin's frenetic vocals the icing on the Nashville Soul cake. Promoted by the legendary DJ Bill 'Hoss' Allan, Martin's career was off to a strong start before his passing, and his handful of singles and especially 'LM' quickly became faves of the soul, beat and garage bands, including an Australian-formed group who spent a lot of time in the UK and Europe during '66-'67...

The Easybeats - Lovin' Machine



A tune like 'LM' was perfect for the Easybeats, a hard-driving live combo who loved to work the crowd and make sure everyone had a ball, including themselves. It's so great watching them in their pomp like this; slim, lean and mean like the song says, and writing their names on a corner of the '60s.

RIP George.

LADY - Get Ready



Beautiful soul from 2013.

Forget the "retro" handle - soul music is soul music. The year it was made don't matter.

Didn't you pick that for one of the cups in the recent past? It looks familiar.

Not exactly my kinda thing, but I can hear what you might like in there.

Yeah you're right, i think i used it in the 2000s Cup. It's from one of my favourite albums of the last decade.

2 tunes today -

Wah Wah Watson - 'Bubbles'



'Goo Goo Wah Wah'



Ah, the '70s. The mad cross-pollination of musics by the middle of the decade had the genre experts, record company publicists and execs and music store shelf stackers biting their combs in frustration, but hot damn there was so much good music made that just didn't seem to find much of an audience because a lot of people couldn't tell who the 'correct' audiences were.

Melvin "Wah Wah Watson" Ragin's '76 album for Columbia was this kinda record. Was it jazz, funk, rock, pop, disco, psyched up drug music? The man could play a mean guitar, and he had guys like Wilton Felder, James Jameson, Herbie Hancock, Bernie Maupin, Ray Parker Jr. and a bunch of other crack players in the studio with him, so the music was probably pretty damn fine... but the LP died a quick and quiet death.

Was it Ragin's Holmes-hat-and-pipe-wearing mug frightening people off? Was it the extremely liberal use of the Talk Box vocoder thingy throughout the opening track 'Goo Goo Wah Wah'? Was it because people just didn't know about this record, coz Columbia were too busy throwing money at Journey or Santana albums instead?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Madeline Bell - 'Comin' Atcha'



As far as musical collaborations go, the pairing of the U.S.-born but often U.K.-based soul singer Madeline Bell with bass guitar rock god John Paul Jones may seem a bit unusual to many average rock listeners. But like Jimmy Page, JPJ often did studio sessions for others before Zep exploded, and the two had worked together in either '67 or '68 on some of Bell's soul-pop singles recorded in England.

Like the album it comes from, which was released in '73 between Zep stuff (they even did a live show), 'Comin' Atcha' features Jones displaying just about every arrow in his musical quiver - bass, keys, guitar, backing vocals, writing, engineering and producing. It's a gorgeously simmering piece of slinky soul funk, a track that deserves to be much more widely known, but for some reason the album itself has never been reissued, though the odd individual track might appear on compilations now and then.