That boy ain't right

Podcast: The Sex Episode

No track listings here, unless you abolutely really really need to know. (Another massive download too.)

But I can't resist coming up with some slightly mischevious liner notes of my own:

1. Why not start with a breakup song? (I actually chose it because those beginning soulful chords just wrap around you.)
2. She might have made a cottage industry out of making sex songs for Lite FM stations everywhere, but there's a reason for that, and when she's remixed by a great DJ the sound is even better.
3. Sometimes my lady love and I sing this at each other, usually followed my smiles and winks.
4. This was playing in the lobby of L'Hotel les Ateliers de L'Image, deep in the heart of Saint Remy de Provence (and those pictures do NOT do it justice). The music, however, did just fine.
5. Double entendres never get old for us. For when you get giggly.
6. I always saw his songs as goofy/cheesy/fun rather than actually sexy, except for this one song.
7. She can give you shivers with her voice.
8. For that first, long, wonderful kiss. The kiss where you're luxuriating in your love's touch and smell.
9. There's the more obvious song on this same album, but his wistful, aching voice here is powerful.
10. For when you're waiting at home, ready to pounce.
11. This one was on one of two mixtapes that Mammamer made for me when we first started going out.
12. Mammamer is always very direct, too.
13. Tom Jones' version is cheesy and fun, but her version is actually pornographic and fun without being cornball.
14. When the kisses get longer and more insistent.
15. Holy crap.
16. Naughtiness in the dark. This is also a song that fairly reliably gets me into striptease mode, not that you could've lived your whole life without hearing that.
17. Again, holy crap.
18. Ocean + rain = aphrodisiac. It reminds me of our final times in Thailand, where the warm rain came down outside as the sea lulled us to sleep. Or at least tried to lull us to sleep.
19. The overall sensation of complete restfulness.
20. Sexual obsession.

Enjoy...

20 songs about gettin' down with your bad self

(It's better if you listen to these in front of a plate of St. Louis style ribs and candied yams.)

I'm a big believer in the groove, so I pulled 20 tracks together from the funk libraries. However, I picked things that weren't immediately well-known; everybody's heard Flashlight, Up for the Down Stroke, or even Pass the Peas and Cold Sweat. (And if you haven't heard these, for crissakes, get yourself to iTunes or the CD store, stat.) No, by and large I selected artists not as well-known as James Brown or Parliament/Funkadelic (although they're represented here with less chart-topping tracks).

This is all to add a little rumpshakin' to your day -- to add the spirit of this man to your life:

(Side note: I've added information to the podcast in iTunes and added a logo. This is also a monster download at 20 songs, and a running time of an hour and 20 mins. Be warned.)

The Funk

1. Soul Dance Number Three - Wilson Pickett
   In honor of the Wicked Wilson Pickett, R.I.P.
   


2. Let's Start the Dance - Bohannon
   This song is sampled in a few electronica tracks today.
   


3. Your Love is a Miracle - Average White Band
   The funkiest band ever to come out of Scotland.
   


4. Family Rap - Breakestra
   Although this LA band just appeared last year, they fit in the continuum somewhere between the Greyboy Allstars, the Brand New Heavies, and Shirley Jones and the Dap Kings.
   


5. From the Love Side - Hank Ballard and the Midnighters
   In addition to his sidemen the JB's (which included Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker), James Brown attracted quite a following of funk musicians and hangers-on, who released songs and albums in their own right. Hank Ballard had been around since the doo-wop days, but it took the Brown influence for him to get really funky.
   


6. Down To It - The Sugarman Three & Co.
   Based in NY, the Sugarman Three are part of the resurgence of soul music in recent years; rather than simply improvising on the form, they recreate it.
   


7. Toys R Us - The Greyboy Allstars
   Another modern soul/jazz group based on the West Coast, they're most notable for picking up Fred Wesley (former JB, master funk trombonist).
   


8. Fancy Dancer - The Commodores
   I couldn't resist throwing in at least one hit here. Check out the 'fro on Lionel Richie!
   


9. Booty Ooty - Johnny "Guitar" Watson
   I live for trashy album covers like this. It's a relief that the song is just as trashy and funky too.
   


10. Do Me - Jean Knight
    Almost in response to the previous song, the singer of "Mr. Big Stuff" gets nasty.
    


11. Crumbs Off the Table - Laura Lee
    Don't get caught with someone else's booty ooty!
    


12. Dance to the Music - Bootsy Collins
    Here's another picture of Bootsy -- I just wish I could get away with dressing like this. Or maybe I don't. Anyway, this original member of James Brown's JB's and George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic has the distinction of creating the best band name ever: Bootsy's Rubber Band.
    


13. All the Way Down - Esther Phillips
    Although primarily known as a jazz/torch song singer, just like all the rest of them, she got sucked into the 70s soul/funk vibe.
    


14. Get It Together, pt. 1 - James Brown
    Yes, the abusing, rampaging Godfather himself. (I still need to see live footage of him. I need to see him go across the stage on one foot and do soul acrobatics before I die.)
    


15. Nappy Dugout - Funkadelic
    My favorite Funkadelic song (it's that nasty), in spite of its title. However, I feel this term should be in more popular usage -- it's better than many alternatives, anyway. Initially formed as a reaction against White America's rock music, Funkadelic eventually became interchangeable with Parliament's emphasis on dance music -- all led by ringmaster George Clinton's mad genius. (The song isn't on the album pictured here.)
    


16. The Dump - Soul Vibrations
    You know it's really obscure when a record producer has to dig through the record company vaults to find soul bands nobody's ever heard of and then gather the cuts all together on a single album.
    


17. Fopp - Ohio Players
    Well... OK then. (And this is one of their tamer album covers.)
    


18. Fonnovo - Los Amigos Invisibles
    One of the things I really love is discovering really nasty funk in other countries. For instance -- Venezuela. I might ask Badger to translate the lyrics, although I suppose she'd look at me askance and just say that it's all about chasing women and boobies.
    


19. Let's Play House - Parliament
    One of the less popular Parliament songs, but one that's been sampled a lot nonetheless.
    


20. Funkify Your Life - The Meters
    New Orleans' own: your commandment for the day, if not for the week.
    
Posted by brian at 06:33 PM | Comments (1)

1st bittersweet podcast, pt.2

The Bay Area

1. I Get High On You - Sly and the Family Stone
   One of those songs, performed by one of the ultimate Bay Area bands, to play as you're going over the Bay Bridge into the city, with the entire night skyline laid out in front of you. A funky song for a funky town. Even though Sly himself succumbed to various drug addictions and lives reclusively somewhere around Beverly Hills, he's still larger than life.


2. Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
   Even though it's a frothy song by a frothy band, it gives voice to all my misgivings about what I'm doing in the Valley, as if I'm contributing somehow to a technological dependence/uselessness that'll catch up with us all in the end.


3. In Hale - DJ Mark Farina
   Although Farina is hated in some quarters -- most notably by my friend (and SF DJ) rrrrus -- I think the real pulse of the Bay Area is here. It's somewhat dark, and even somewhat spare, but it's always funky.


4. Gamblor - Calamalka
   On one of the CDs I gave zombiegrrrl and Mudge to say goodbye, there was another Calamalka song, but they both fulfill the same function: to remind you of a specific stretch of 101. The one that goes up a hill, almost before you can actually see the city skyline from the south. The one where the bay and Candlestick are on the right, and there are what seems like a thousand gulls and seabirds all perched on a giant warehouse, sometimes flying around in great circular patterns. The one that's suddenly enveloped by a great bank of fog some autumn evenings, or suddenly subjected to amazing lightning storms.


5. Mocha Supremo - Buscemi
   For those luxurious days when you can simply listen to the August rains in bed. Preferably with no book in your hand, no lamplight on, and the shades open on a window, so you can just watch the rain fall.

Driving
What is this state if not addicted to car culture? Here's a Bay Area remix of Night on Earth, told over the course of 9 hours of nighttime:

1. Cars - Gary Numan
   For those hours from 6-9PM when you're either commuting home or going out. I've always liked the somewhat creepy message.


2. Moonlight Drive - The Doors
   That wild time in between 9PM and midnight. This song is all kinds of cheesy, but it's still seductive...


3. Hindsight - DJ Shadow
   The ghostly time from midnight until 3AM. That time of night when things turn halfway menacing in city neighborhoods, and the lights on the Dumbarton Bridge set off the blackness all around. In spite of the undefined menace that seems to be all around at this time, it's easier to be alone with your thoughts...

San Joaquin Valley
I couldn't spend any time making this little weird musical compilation without noting a nice irony: I'm from the part of California that's most like Oklahoma in almost every way -- the farmland, the politics, the whole deal. There are two songs here about:

1. Lodi - Creedence Clearwater Revival
   The dire need to escape.


2. Far Away Eyes - The Rolling Stones
   Running 20 red lights through the middle of my hometown because you thought Jesus told you to. And, considering their itinerary, this is an incredibly appropriate song to end on.

   We'll miss you, zombiegrrrl & Mudge, and we'll miss you more after that.

   
   

   Posted by brian at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

1st bittersweet podcast, pt.1

This is my first stab at doing a podcast, so bear with me if things don't show up quite right in your player, or the streaming goes all kaflooey. (Also be warned: the first track linked here is 34 mins long, so it's a heavy download even on a fast pipe. Be prepared to wait.)

A couple very dear friends of ours -- zombiegrrrl and hubby Mudge -- are leaving the Bay Area within days, for the snowier yet cheaper climes of Boston, to be closer to family.

As is usual in these situations, I'm conflicted about it.

On the one hand, living here in California has certain extreme disadvantages: the high cost of living, one of the highest in the world it seems, puts you into a netherworld where discussions about real estate pricing, how much the people down the street sold their house for, mortgage payments and property taxes, are not only not out of the ordinary, they're positively mandatory to talk about in polite company. Commute times of around an hour plus are not unusual. The amount of hard, unbelievable scrabbling you have to do just to carve out a place in the world is surreal. People turn into flakes, and when you find yourself turning into one you shrug. You live in a dark libertarian dream, where you have the freedom to succeed just well enough to have a nice life for a while, but you have the freedom to fall very, very far. And you're tired -- God, you're tired.

On the other hand, there's the life-giving sun, the summer walks through the neighborhoods of Victorians in the city, or the tree-lined avenues of 50s postcard suburbs, the open-top drives over that wonderful, wonderful bridge into Marin, or the pulse of life in the place that makes me ever curious about it, and ever willing to stay just a bit more. San Francisco, like many urban places, seems one of the last sane places left in America -- or at least the insanity there is harmless enough. Everyone you run into seems to be brilliant -- and if they're not working on something that will change the world in some small way, at least they're fascinating to talk to and to get to know. And some of them even put up with you. There is life here, and possibility, and there's something to be said for that. As a visiting friend of Mer's said: "It's expensive because people want to live here."

So I have a love-hate relationship with the place. It may kick us out yet when baby #2 decides to come along, whenever that may be. But we're playing the housing game now, possibly in that place where we're constantly trading up as we move along. It's a lot of work, but I expected no less.

So this podcast, narcissistic thing that it is, is for zombiegrrrl and Mudge. I dumped a lot of burned CDs on them for Christmas of things that I'd been asked for, and things that I thought they'd like, including a sad mix CD of songs that I thought of when I thought of them leaving... although this is a little more personal to me, I guess. I went through my collection and picked out 20 or so things that had some relevance to thoughts about my native Golden State.

Needless to say, if I move out of the state, I think I'm going to buy a giant bear flag for wherever we go.

California Culture

1. Estavanico - Donald Byrd
   First of all, I apologize for putting this track first -- I guess the technical term is "challenging".
   It was something I was exposed to as a kid: in addition to being raised on classical music, I was exposed to jazz and experimental music (e.g. Walter/Wendy Carlos). So a song by a jazz trumpeter stuffed with psychedelia and wandering rhythms, jarring dissonances and hippie flute sounds, wasn't that odd to me.
   The album's place in jazz history is fitting, too: after a stint of teaching jazz at various colleges, Donald Byrd lit out for the West Coast, and adopted a new, more Miles Davis-like sound that took him in a new direction away from his more traditional bebop East Coast roots. This was made in 1970, when a number of jazz musicians were experimenting with the form. (It's too dissonant and weird for Mer, but I love it.)


2. San Andreas Fault - Natalie Merchant
   California is definitely the source of the world's fascination with celebrity, and fame for fame's sake.


3. California Soul - David Holmes/Marlena Shaw
   ...so the people started to sing
   and that's how the surf gave birth, I'm told
   to California Soul
   California Soul

   The perfect soundtrack to that drive over the Golden Gate, when the setting summer sun is shining on the sailboats in the bay.



4. God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
   Mer and I originally had this one as a strong contender for our wedding song. Mel Carter's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" eventually won out, along with goofy dance moves that we couldn't perform if our lives depended on it, but both of us still have some twinges of regret that we didn't choose this one instead. Even though it has those overly-dramatic lyrics of "so what good would living do me", and even though it has that weird break in the middle (I think Mer and I would've resorted to "jazz hands" kind of mime moves at that point), those endless four-part harmonies at the end always take me back to that summer day in Soquel, when everyone was hot, slightly drunk and hopped up on Pez. Well, that and the poetry of Leonard Nimoy.


5. My Blue Heaven - Esquivel
   

   When whippoorwills call, and evening is nigh,
   I hurry to my Blue Heaven.
   A turn to the right, a little white light,
   Will lead you to my Blue Heaven.

   You'll see a smilin' face, a fireplace, a cozy room,
   A little nest that's nestled where the roses bloom;
   Just Molly and me, and baby makes three,
   We're happy in my Blue Heaven.

   When whippoorwills call, and evenin' is nigh,
   I hurry to my little Blue Heaven.
   A turn to the right, a little white light,
   Will lead you to my little Blue Heaven.

   There's a smilin' face, a fireplace, a cozy room . . .

   And a little nest that's nestled where the roses bloom;
   Just Molly and me, and baby makes three,
   We're happy in my Blue Heaven . . .

   We're happy in my
   Blue Heaven . . .

   (lyrics by George Whiting , 1927)

   Happiness is being a goofy dad, in a sunny place with lots of windows, in
   My...
   Blue...
   Heaven...



6. Mexico - Dick Dale & His Del-Tones
   Nothing like surf guitar to make you start planning your next weekend in San Luis Obispo.


7. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Thelonious Monk
   

   I don't want you
   But I hate to lose you
   You've got me in between
   The devil and the deep blue sea

   I forgive you
   'Cause I can't forget you
   You've got me in between
   The devil and the deep blue sea

   I ought to cross you off my list
   But when you come a-knocking at my door
   Fate seems to give my heart a twist
   And I come running back for more

   I should hate you
   But I guess I love you
   You've got me in between
   The devil and the deep blue sea

   The feeling I get when we pay the mortgage.

Faster
A series of 3 songs that adequately capture how tired this place makes me feel sometimes.

1. Deadweight - Beck

   measuring your dreams
   of this life seems like the gristle of loneliness

   don't let the sun catch ya crying
   don't let the sun catch ya crying

   Not letting the sun catch you crying seems like the least of our problems, sometimes.

2. No Surprises - Radiohead
   Kind of an anthem for the struggling middle class, yes?
3. Badass - The Crystal Method
   A metaphor for the morning commute. You rush through most of your daily life - gobble something down, hop in a neglected car, listen to depressing news about death and destruction (or avoid it all by listening to music when it gets too much), go to a job you have an abiding toleration for, while away the day, and hurry home to savor what's important for a few brief hours before you go to bed, and repeat the whole process for four more days.

More podcasts will follow, on more thought-out themes than this one.