Monday’s Music Box: Toe…

…Live in Buenos Aries, 2018…playing to a clearly enthusiastic and appreciative crowd.

These guys are quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite bands. Well…quickly as in over the last 5 years or so….one cannot rush these things…

They’re like punk meets Engrish (sometimes…they’re mostly instrumental) meets post-rock meets math rock meets good old fashioned Rock and Roll.

And I love to watch the guitarist on the right (I still don’t know all their names…but the one on the right, who–sorry dudes–sings rather horribly [but somehow still charmingly and fittingly]).

…and sometimes you can see why he wears one kneepad.
…and sometimes you can see why he duck-tapes his shoes to his feet.
…and sometimes you have to wonder why he doesn’t also wear a helmet.

And, well, the drummer is simply ridiculous.

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You know the drill.

Press play.

Go on about your punky day.

Sunday’s Soundtrack for Surfing: For my Fiftieth Year on this Rock….From 1970: Eric Burdon and War…

Really, basically, unlike any other band at the time. If not ever. Not least for their mix of musical styles and inter-racial membership. Funk. R&B. Soul. Blues. Plain ‘Ole Rock & Roll.

With that incredible rhythm section of B. B. Dickerson on bass, Harold Brown on drums (a singularly under-rated Great Drummer of Rock and Roll) and “Papa Dee” Allen on percussion (most notably here, on Congas–Holy Crapoli! What a player! He’s got some seriously broken blood vessels in his hands, I guarantee!). Plus Lee Oskar’s signature harmonica work (though not exactly in the fore-front of these performances….).

This is a recording from the great German TV show, Beat Club–So much great stuff from them on YT–Do not hesitate to check out their amazing line-up of vintage Rock & Roll performances from the greatest era of the late Sixties and Early Seventies–

https://www.youtube.com/c/beatclub/playlists

You WILL be seeing more from them here in the near future….

Seriously–quite possibly some of the Coolest Shit on the Internet. DO Check It Out….

But in the mean time….

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You know the drill.

Press play.

Go on about your day.

Oh, yeah. And don’t forget to try not to move….. Ha!

And if you’re really diggin’ this Eric Burdon version of War, do also check out this killer album:

Which of course includes the studio version of the songs in this Live Beat Club preformance, so…..

Wednesday’s World Music Challenge!

(Maybe the beginning of a new series…..we’ll see…)

This Wednesday: Mulatu Astatke, The Grandfather of Ethio-Jazz

The absolute Master. A sound not entirely like anything else you’ve ever heard.

The Challenge?

Don’t. Move.

Really.

Seriously.

Just try and listen to this and NOT move.

I’m pretty sure it’s impossible.

Even if by some strange chance you are able to keep your various limbs and digits from thumping, bumping or tapping, I am quite certain that the neurons in your Auditory Cortex will be having their own Massive Dance Party.

It’ll probably raise your heart-rate too….

So there you go. A (BIG!) little something to help you Groove and Boogie your way over (or past or through) Hump Day!

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You know the drill.

Press play.

Go on about your day.

Sunday’s Soundtrack for Surfing: Julia Stone….

…in a recent live-stream…

Such an amazing talent. A touching and lovely song-writer.

Utterly unique.

Pay special attention to the words to “We All Have”. A song for these times.

Many thanks to Silvia at diespringerin for hipping me to what Julia has been up to, and especially for “We All Have”. I needed this song right now.

(and do follow the link over to Silvia’s place for a gorgeous acoustic rendition of this song….)

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You know the drill.

Press play.

Go on about your day.

Sunday’s Soundtrack for Surfing: For my Fiftieth Year on this Rock….From 1970: A band, a windy city, the incomparable sound….

….of Chicago.

They were truly unique. Terry Kath’s killer licks, the combined rhythm section of Peter Cetera’s driving bass and Daniel Seraphine’s frenetic beats, Robert Lamm’s funkalicious keyboard work, Kath’s and Cetera’s and Lamm’s signature vocals and Those Horns…..

Man……the shit was really goin’ down the year I was born….

And what a live show. I pretty sure I was boogie-in’ in the womb.

Highlight for me is Colour My World / Make Me Smile going into I’m a Man, (at 1:06:53) especially Kath’s blistering solo guitar work….and the horns….and the drums….and…and…and….Maaaaaaaaan…..

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You know the drill.

Press play.

Go on about your day.

Sunday’s Soundtrack for Surfing: For my Fiftieth Year on this Rock….From 1970: The Masters of Psychedelic Rock….

(OK, so I was born late in 1970….and I’m just now getting around to this….so it might seem like the math is off…..but it is still my 50th year on this planet so…..)

Without a doubt my one, all-time favorite band (if I had to pick….which I wouldn’t want to….so please don’t make me…..).

Pink Floyd, from a rare double album titled “More Blues”. From a tour they did after producing a soundtrack to the movie “More”, in 1969.

Recorded live at Montreux and Paris Theatre, London in 1970

My favorite era of Pink Floyd’s music.

Don’t get me wrong, I love their later stuff too. After all, my very first CD purchase (as in…when CD’s were still new as well as when I was still new to buying music) was, after all, a limited release of Dark Side of The Moon (arguably one of the greatest albums of all time) pressed on 24 karat gold (I still have it). And I love Animals, Wish You Were Here, The Wall…..

But their early, post-Syd Barret stuff is my favorite. And this is an awesome example of them at their creative peak. Just before Live at Pompeii. Just before Dark Side of the Moon.

Quintessential Psychedelia.

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You know the drill.

Press play.

Go on about your day.

With or without chemicals…

(With music like this, who needs chemicals?)