Academy Entertainment #1215

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I remember a while back, one of the gossip sites was giving Beyonce Knowles a bunch of crap for posing in numerous photos with her arms up behind her head. She always looks great, so I guess it was a very slow news week or something to that effect.  Anyhow, here's a batch of covers with people also showing off their pits-- some au naturel, some shorn, some covered up.

BTW, Nugent is the king of said pose; there's almost always at least one pic of him doing it on his album covers or inner sleeve.

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              AMOEBA MUSIC HOLLYWOOD HIP-HOP ALBUMS TOP FIVE CHART 08:29:08         

1) Ice Cube Raw Footage (Lench Mob)

2) GZA Pro Tools (Babygrande Records)

3) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)

4) MF Doom Volumes 1 & 2 Nastradoomus (HHS)

5) Arabian Prince Innovative Life: The Anthology    
                                  1984 - 1989 (Stones Throw)

Thanks to  Marques for supplying this week's top five  chart for the Los Angeles Amoeba store. Hometown rap veteran Ice Cube occupies the number one slot with his latest album, Raw Footage, which hit Amoeba shelves August 19th. The album simultaneously debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and Top Rap Albums Chart, and at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart.

"Thank God the Gangsta's back... and we ain't got to put up with this brainless rap," spits Cube on the catchy new album track "Thank God" -- just one of many strong cuts on this eighth solo album from the 39 year old artist. Others include "Jack N The Box," "Here We Come" (feat. Doughboy), and the singles "Do Your Thang" and "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It." And speaking of gangsta rap: listening to some of these new Cube tracks remind me of old Ice Cube and also of how the original gangsta rappers (NWA, Geto Boys, etc.), while demonized at the time for being so lyrically violent and offensive, were actually quite political and socially aware, comparatively more so than the most  prominent current crop of gangsta rappers.

Other entries on the current chart include GZA, Lil Wayne, and the just released Stones Throw retrospective of the Arabian Prince's 1980's electro years. Last week the pioneering LA hip-hop artist and original NWA member did an instore at Amoeba Hollywood, which, according to Marques, included the artist playing a lot of electro and electronica. 

August currently occupies the number one spot on my top twelve list of favorite months of the year. Surely it has something to do with the fact that I’ve only just returned from a much-needed three week vacation; the dog days of summer are the new spring break. Also there’s something about the word “august” that really floats my boat. Really there is no other word that conveys a true and simultaneous sense of majesty and wisdom like the word august does: for example, “the jellyfish regulates its deepness by augustly changing the amount of gas in its float”-- how lovely. Still, with Autumn closing in on San Francisco with nary a thunderstorm nor scent of burning leaves wafting on the wind, the month of August has got me stunned, obsessed with the notion of slowing time until it stops. The easiest way to do this is to let the music take you to that magical spot where time stands still. 

Future Sound of London (FSOL), the duo comprised of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans, had their breakout hit with "Papua New Guinea" in 1991 and the track remains both the UK electronic group's best known and arguably best recording ever. It is one of those great records where the first time you heard it, it just grabbed you and pulled you in, leaving you thinking: WTF was that? Even now, all these years later, after just re-listening to it for the first time in ages, it sounds as tight (to these ears) as when it was first released 17 years ago. 

The song has the perfect balance of the slow rumbling bass, a trancey mix of breakbeats, plus the pitch perfect mix of dreamy vocals and sounds, all cascading into a dance pop masterpiece; one that has been remixed to death by DJs/producers all over the world who all helped make this a true rave/club classic. One of the great remixes I got of it back in the day was by the Twitch guys -- the SF remix crew that included Jim Hopkins, who used to put out limited edition double vinyl (later released on CD) sets at 45RPM of nearly always really great remixes of popular rave/techno tracks, including many UK imports.

"Papua New Guinea" also appeared on FSOL's album Accelerator as well on the 1992 soundtrack to the film Cool World.  Besides being remixed countless times, the song has also been released in various versions many times over the years since its original release (both bootlegged and legit versions + on countless compilations/DJ mixes) with the most notable including re-releases in 1996, 2003, and in 2001 when a five version EP of the song was released on FSOL's label Jumpin' & Pumpin featuring the original "Papua New Guinea" plus remixes by Hybrid, Satoshi Tomiie, Blue States, and Simian.

There are many bands over the years that I have been obsessed with. At one point it was Depeche Mode, The Cure, and The Smiths. Then it was Suede, Pulp, Blur, and The Verve. Once your obsession reaches a certain point, I think it never really goes away. Part of it is always there or it just builds and gets bigger and stronger. I have no doubt that these bands will be with me the rest of my life. Depeche Mode and The Cure are my Rolling Stones and The Who. The Smiths are my Beatles. My obsession can live on in Morrissey's solo career much like that of Paul McCartney does for fans of The Beatles. The Verve could not have come at a better time in my life. I sort of needed them. I needed a new band to latch on to and get obsessed with. My shoegaze bands like Ride, The Pale Saints, and Slowdive were starting to break up and dissolve away. The first Blur album had come out a couple of years prior to 1993, but I didn't really get into them until 1993. This was the year of the first Verve album, A Storm in Heaven and also the year of Blur's second album, Modern Life is Rubbish. The album that really made me a fan. 1993 was also the year of the self titled album by Suede and my first Pulp album, His 'N' Hers. Pulp had already been around for a decade or so but I had never heard of them until 1993. I suddenly had all these new bands to obsess over. The albums were all excellent and easy to get obsessed with. Many of my friends, and most everyone else in the world, were all into Oasis, but I remember seeing Oasis in some interview and right then deciding that I didn't want to like this band..but they obviously played a part in this period of music. Their debut album Definitely Maybe would come out a year later in 1994. These bands were also all over the magazines and a lot of my friends were also getting into the same bands. It was just an exciting time for music.

Korea's recent global rise in profile is sometimes referred to as "The Korean Wave" or Hallyu. Back in the early 1990s, Korean Drama underwent an explosive growth in popularity around East and Southeast Asia as well as in cities like Los Angeles, with large immigrant populations from these regions. Soon, Korean movies (beginning with Shiri) gained an audience among American critics who'd previously (with close-minded, snobbish prejudice) limited their viewings of Asian films to critically-canonized Japanese and/or (1980s) Chinese productions. And Hollywood has taken notice too, remaking numerous K-Horror films, the romcom My Sassy Girl, and the magic-mailbox drama The Lake House.


I'm told Korean music grew in popularity too. I guess I know a couple of non-Koreans who listen to K-Pop. Whilst flipping through the unparalleled multiculturalism of Los Angeles' AM radio band, I've occasionally stumbled across Radio Seoul (AM 1650) and Radio Korea (AM 1230). Just judging from the cadence and character of AM radio in general, I'd guess that the majority is Christian in nature, but they do occasionally play Korean pop music. Last year at the Hollywood Bowl, K-Pop was showcased in a program featuring BoA, Epik High, Fly to the Sky, Ivy and Super Junior.

In 1970, Detroit native Rodriguez released his auspicious debut album, Cold Fact. It failed in the charts. His follow up album fared even worse, and he was subsequently dropped from his label, his music doomed to obscurity.


Luckily for us, reissue label Light in the Attic has recently re-released Cold Fact, and it is a fantastic surprise, a cohesive, shrewd and confident record. Oh, and it sounds effing great too! The album is awash in late 60s-era production touches, along with Forever Changes-like horns and overall orchestration that add to the complexity of the songs. Rodriguez' vocals are plaintive and his delivery style somewhat Dylanesque, although I think his voice is much more consistent than Dylan's. A few of my coworkers have said the album sounds much like Donovan, but I think it sounds much, much smarter than any Donovan record. The songs are clear eyed views of poverty, city life, sex, drugs and rock n roll-- views of the muddled '60s. I love how in the album's second song, "Only Good For Conversation," he calls a woman out as "the coldest bitch I know" by the second line! I think the album is pretty bold for 1970. It also still sounds fresh to these ears, even today.

Rodriguez was born Sixto Diaz Rodriguez in 1940s Detroit to Mexican immigrant parents. He was discovered playing guitar in bars by Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore. Coffey was a member of the Funk Brothers, the incredible crew of musicians that had played on countless Motown Hits. The two signed Rodriguez to the Sussex label, where he would record his two albums before being dropped. The label folded a few years later.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

 

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Saturday August 30

Don't Let The Title Fool You

Little Darlings

1980, 96 min

New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Midnight, $7

 

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September
September 6 Idle Hands
(9th anniversary for the 1999 stoner horror comedy! Special guests TBA!)
September 13 Showgirls
(Beyond your wildest dreams. Beyond your wildest fantasies!)
September 20 Michael Mann's The Keep
(25th Anniversary! Paramount Archive 35mm Print!)
September 27 Over The Top
(Sylvester Stallone. Big Rig Truckin'. ARM WRESTLING!)

 

October
October 4 Hard To Kill
(Steven Seagal is Mason Storm. Mason Storm is... Hard To Kill!)
October 18 All Night Horror Show!
(100% Movie Mania! New Bev Fundraiser! 12 Hours Of Movies, Fun & ??)
October 25 The Wraith
(If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear!)

November
November 1 Alien Nation
(Prepare Yourself for the 20th Anniversary!)
November 8 The Stepfather
(Daddy's Home and He's Not Very Happy!)
November 22 Waxwork
(20 Anniversary! More fun than a barrel of mummies!)
November 29 Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon
(Now, when I say, "Who's da mastah?" you say, "Sho'nuff!")

Often cited as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Man Ray, was born Emmanuel Radnitzky on this day, August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia. He significantly contributed to the Dada, Surrealist and Avant-Garde movements of the 20th century and was a significant voice in the Parisian art world after The Great War. Though he mostly considered himself a painter, it’s as a photographer and film maker he is best remembered, not only for his experimental photography and films of the 1920’s and 30’s but for his fashion and portraiture work also.

A side note, during the Second World War, Man Ray returned to America, settling in Hollywood from about 1940 until 1951 at 1245 Vine Street-- the Villa Elaine apartments, across the street from the old Hollywood Ranch Market, right around the corner from present day Amoeba Records in Hollywood.

In previous decades many department stores and record chains developed a pricing code system. They'd have a few different letters, each signifying a different pricing tier. There would be a little chart around the store giving you the price break down. I never really understood how this made things simpler or more efficient, maybe someone out there knows?

                                       JAMOEBLOG HIP-HOP TOP TEN: 08:27:08                                             

1) Homeboy Sandman "Opium" (Homeboy Sandman)

2) NaS feat Eban Thomas "You Can't Stop Me Now" (Def Jam)

3) Lee "Scratch" Perry  "$hine" (Narnack Records)

4) The High Decibels "Miss Cindy" (Rolling Jack)

5) Paris "Don't Stop the Movement" (Guerrila Funk)

6) Murs "Can It Be" (Warner)

7) Double Dee & Steinski "Lesson 3" (Illegal Art)

8) Foreign Legion "Come To The City" (Hunger Strike)

9) DJ Spinna "The Spirit of '94" (Colt 45)

10) The Bug "Freak Freak" (Ninja Tune)

The number one on this week's Jamoeblog Hip-Hop Top Ten (a subjective song-based chart) is from up-and-coming Queens, NY emcee talent Homeboy Sandman, whose totally unique flow and style is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise overcrowded sea of cookie cutter rappers. So far only available through his website, as well as at a few select East Coast record stores, Homeboy Sandman's self-released debut CD Actual Factual Pterodactyl offers up hip-hop like you've never heard before, with great songs such as the slow-mo flow of "Opium" or the funny uptempo rapid fire delivery of "Food Glorious Food" which draws its hook from the Oliver! soundtrack.

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I have to say that I do understand how an album as solid as Surrendered could get lost in the shuffle. David S. Ware has been recording under his own name since 1988, and in groups led by legendary names like Cecil Taylor, Andrew Cyrille and Barry Harris since the early 70's. In these last 20 years of releases under his own name, Ware has released about an album per year. So, where to start? And what are the chances that an album or two might slip through the cracks and end up in Amoeba's Clearance section?

Ware is considered by many to be a technical (and perhaps theological) descendant of John Coltrane. His tenor is big and brash, in a mold not unlike Pharaoh Sanders, Arthur Blythe or Archie Shepp. His facility is masterful, never neglecting the changes and yet pushing and pulling at the melodic core of the composition. He plays the whole range: he dives off the pier and swims far enough from shore to nurture tension, but he never lets go of his lifeline-- the strong melody within a strong composition. In fact, that's what pulls me to Ware over and over again. His albums are always so full of real composition. Songs are what he and his teams bring to the table, in this case, the killer quartet made up of pianist Matthew Shipp, percussionist Guillermo Brown, and a man I consider to be essential listening any and every time one has the chance, bassist William Parker.

Surrendered starts strongly with a tone poem of sorts called "Peace Celestial." Matthew Shipp holds the core of the piece with piano meditations conjuring Bill Evans or Keith Jarrett at his more internal. "Sweet Georgia Bright" follows, and is the album's most traditional "bop" composition, and it's the lesser for it. This quartet's strength is in the idiom of the post-Coltrane continuum. Tracks like the aforementioned opener, "Theme of Ages," the loping title track with its slow, even build reminiscent of Charles Lloyd's "Night-Blooming Jasmine," and even, to a great extent, "Glorified Calypso," tour that greater territory of improvisational and textural possibilities that the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago liked to refer to as, "Great Black Music," rather than bind it within the limits and collected baggage of the term "jazz."

If you find Glam too brainy, too challenging, too confusing, then perhaps you're what the press used to refer to as a Glitter Kid! These bands didn't take their cues from the androgynous, artistic pretensions of David Bowie, Bretty Smiley, Cockney Rebel, Doctors of Madness or Jobriath. They looked to the big, stomping beats and refined stupidity of T. Rex and sliced away everything til there was just a skeleton.
Enjoy!

Kenny



Slik



The Osmonds



The Glitter Band



Mud



The Sweet



Alvin Stardust

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Today marks the anniversary of the birth of a personal hero of mine, the poet Guillaume Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, better known as Apollinaire, who was born on this date in 1880. His greatest contribution to the 20th century, other than coining the term ‘surrealism’ and helping to publicize and define the Cubist movement, was probably his poetry, influencing many of the avant-garde, dada and surrealist writers in post-Great War France, such as André Breton and Tristan Tzara.

Early in the century Guillaume Apollinaire’s began to devise his Calligrammes, a term he used to explain his shaped poems.

It’s Raining

It’s raining women’s voices as if they had died even in memory
And it’s raining you as well marvelous encounters of my life O little drops
Those rearing clouds begin to neigh a whole universe of auricular cities
Listen if it rains while regret and disdain weep to an ancient music
Listen to the bonds fall off which hold you above and below

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I first saw the above video a few months ago but figured that today -- the official first day of the 2008  Burning Man Festival, which runs through Sunday, September 1st -- would be the appropriate time to post this very funny clip.
Burning Man started 22 years ago on Baker Beach in San Francisco. As Burning Man gets more widely known with each passing year, it seems more important for the organizers of the event to reiterate the goals of this unique participatory arts event/mass party. This time round they pose the following to folks planning on attending the event in the desert: "Leave narrow and exclusive ideologies at home and carefully consider your immediate experience. What has America achieved that you admire? What has it done or failed to do that fills you with dismay? What is laudable? What is ludicrous? Put blame aside, let humor thrive, and dare to contemplate a larger question: What can America contribute to the world?"

Note that for this year's Burning Man the ticket sales timeline has been extended and it is possible to buy tix online through midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, August 26th) at this link.  Advance tix are always required. You can't just roll up on the event at Black Rock City, Nevada and expect admission without having your tickets arranged beforehand. Nor is it ever advisable to attempt to sneak in (as some try each year) to avoid paying the pricey admission.

The Bay Area and Sacramento walk-in ticket outlets stopped selling tickets yesterday but the Reno ticket outlet is selling tix through the end of the business day tomorrow.  Also, those with will call tix must collect them by noon on Saturday at the latest. Click here for last minute ticket info. And if you are one of the tens of thousands expected to descend upon the world renowned festival, remember to be safe and most importantly, drink lots of water (i.e., piss clear) and read over the essential official 2008 Burning Man Survival Guide.

I was watching the Argentina vs Nigeria game the other night and started fiending for some N.O. Bounce. Before long I was searching for some Hot Boy Ronald and I stumbled on this fan video that made me lose it.

But let me back up a little bit first. Hot Boy Ronald is a 9th Ward Bounce artist who's collaborated with Choppa, Juvenile and others. Some of his certified bangers have included "Shake it like a oink" and "Walk like Ronald." The latter is on Bounce Back (2005 - King's Ent.). Looks like he's got a new record called Bottom of the Map. I tried to do a little background on him but Wikipedia's got nothing. Allmusic's got nothing. His own myspace doesn't have a bio (although it's got more bells and whistles than the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics). At that point it becomes a cold case.

As with any Bounce hit, popularity isn't measured in terms of CD sales, but how many youtube videos people post of themselves dancing to your song.

First up you've got Ashley in San Antonio sort of lethargically doing the "Walk like Ronald" with some enormous slippers on.



And then you've got Christina and friends. Um... still a little rough.



Mark, Nick and Stacy are a bit better. But the image quality will screw with your eyes.

Cycling down a completely traffic-free Park Avenue in the heart of New York City over the weekend, I was reminded of the numerous futuristic or Sci-Fi movies in which the Big Apple is abandoned after some major disaster.

Last year's I Am Legend (available on DVD at Amoeba) -- in which Will Smith and his canine companion wandered a deserted midtown Manhattan -- specifically sprung to mind as myself and other cyclists, hikers, and skaters, unhindered by any autos, passed by the raised street level outside Grand Central Terminal at Park and 42nd Street, heeding the city's invitation to "Play. Run. Walk. Bike. Breathe." 

The reason there were no cars two days ago, and also on two previous Saturdays this month, was because it was the third and final weekend day in the first ever city initiated Summer Streets program. From 7AM to 1PM, all autos were banned on Park Avenue from 72nd on the Upper East Side all the way downtown, essentially connecting Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge -- a seven mile long distance, all traffic free!

But what made this whole cycling experience so special is that it is normally impossible to do a bike ride like that, at least in such a stress-free way.  Like most major cities, the best way to see New York is by bike, but the problem is that cycling round Manhattan is far from safe. Typically you take your life in your hands, maneuvering your bike through New York's congested auto-dominated streets, on weekdays especially, with erratic drivers (including lots of yellow cabs & buses) unpredictably accelerating and cutting you off or worse. And as for the few bike lanes on Manhattan's major thoroughfares: drivers notoriously ignore them and cut off cyclists all the time. I personally know of several NYC cyclists sent to the hospital due to negligent drivers.

This past Friday, August 22, while the rest of the civilized world was watching the Olympics, shredders from around the world had their head bangin’ attention fixed on the 13th annual Air Guitar World Championships Grand Final held in Oulu, Finland.

After a two year Air Guitar reign, Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke of Japan was overwhelmingly crushed by Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" Billmeier, who hails from Alameda, California.

Hot Lixx scored highest on the First and Second Rounds, defeating his strongest opponent, Andel "John Sniffler" Soreen of the Netherlands, who took second place. Canadian Cole "Johnny Utah" Manson came in third.

In addition to the instant international recognition and the fame and glory, Hot Lixx Hulahan was awarded a Finnish hand-made Flying Finn electric guitar. He also received a laptop backpack by Golla.

For the 13th time the jury was chaired by Juha Torvinen, the Finnish guitar legend. Also on the panel were the 2005 Air Guitar World Champion, Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels; Amanda Griffiths, who is doing her PhD on the air guitar culture; and the Air Guitar contest organizers, Rita Cadillac and Mark DiPietro.

Of course, after the competition the night doesn’t end until, as tradition goes, Air Guitarists summon the whole world to go forth and play Air Guitar to “Rockin' in the Free World." According to Air Guitar Ideology, all evil, bad and unspeakable things on this planet will vanish if everybody, even for a moment, plays the Air Guitar.

For the Beatles purists out there who thought the worst thing imaginable was having the Bee Gees redo Sgt. Pepper's, here's something even worse-- Ozzy and Dweezil redoing "Stayin' Alive":

"Every man has his price" and every man discovers his threshold where Huey Lewis no longer sounds that bad. My threshold was reached upon rediscovering this video for "Summertime Girls" by Y&T:

The half-shirt, a sign of 80s masculinity. It made a comeback with Axl when he did this duet with Elton John on "Bohemian Rhapsody" (skip to the end where the two walk towards each other in 60s variety show fashion for the denouement):

I'm sorry for not being able to stay away from the Axl videos. However, the most holyfuckingshit moment comes from his ex-bandmate Slash's team-up with Puff Daddy for some vague, all-inclusive charity function. Note the "Ending Hunger" message dead center in big Broadway letters while Puffy raps "It's All About the Benjamins":

That kind of dimwittedness requires a purity of essence. One would have to go back to Tom Mix serials to find an equal lack in irony.

AIP Home Video #7022

Born Elise Amelie Felicie Stern in Vienna in 1901, Lisette Model was schooled as a classical musician, but soon after arriving in Paris in 1926 she took to the visual arts, picking up photography. She moved to Manhattan in 1938. Later that year she was hired as a staff photographer for Harper's Bazaar, and began to photograph not only street life, especially the Lower East Side, but also the nightlife of New York City’s cafés and bars. Model, along with Berenice Abbott and Weegee, became the photographers who most captured the ebb and flow of mid-century New York and its anomalous collection of eccentrics, curiosities, elastic cityscapes and culture.

In 1951 Model was swayed by Berenice Abbott to teach at the New School for Social Research in New York. Several of her students would become some of the most prominent photographers of the second half of the 20th century, including Rosalind Solomon, Bruce Weber and her most famous protégé, Diane Arbus. Model would continue to teach until her death in 1983.

Lisette Model was said to be direct yet enigmatic at the same time, inventing her myth and simultaneously denying its existence. She had a knack for intimacy, and even when photographing her most unusual subjects she maintained and revealed their self-owned dignity. Then again, some of her photographs have a harsh, claustrophobic feeling, situated along a dark and troubling and misanthropic edge.

Esto es nuestro nuevo vidéo, para la canción Por Fin, que viéne en la edición 1.2 de nuestra serie de 12” EPs titulado isolated incidents.

No wonder Metallica is so successful and so goddamn terrible now. What were you doing in high school?  Here's what Cliff Burton was doing with Faith No More's guitarist, Jim Martin:

Mmm.  I never heard anything like that at my high school talent shows. Closest anyone came was a spot-on Night Ranger cover band.

Catholicism - Santa Rosa de Lima & Saint Philip Benitius' Feast Days.

Santa Rosa is the patron saint of the Peruvian Police Force and of people ridiculed for their piety. Phil B. was a Florentine who raised a couple of kids from the dead, exorcised a demon and smote some blasphemers. Don't ridicule!

           

Lithuania - Black Ribbon Day

A Day of Mourning in Lithuania, marking the Nazis' and Soviet's "political rearrangements" wherein they decided how to divide up Eastern Europe.

      

Rome - Vulcanalia

Vulcanalia is celebrated by sacrificing a red bull-calf and a red-boar to encourage Vulcan to keep the destructive power of fire in check. Maybe drink a red bull and pray that Griffith Park doesn't go up in flames this year.
Romania - Liberation Day

Forget about yer Lollapalooza, Coachella, Bonaroo, yer South by Southwest, yer what have you... once and only once a year it's time for a truly hallucinogenic celebration of musical mayhem, and it's called AMOEBAPALOOZA! Twenty Amoeba Music employee bands in 4 hours -- ten-minute sets, a cavalcade of rock, rap, soul, tributes, impersonations and uncategorizable strangeness! You are there!

The cavernous space of the King King in fabulous downtown Hollywood looms before you... seething with an assortment of delinquents, sickos and lovable kiddies... the red stage lights beckon! The gigantic extended family of Amoeba has gathered here to see what kind of musical freakiness they can come up with, while bewildered onlookers watch in wonderment. Let the show begin!

The festivities got started with the '60s sunshine lady pop of My Mellotron Summer, and rolled right along with the suave sounds of the Amazing Reverb Engine, until they crashed head-on into a white-noise raveup from a knockout Velvet Underground cover band! Very inspired performances from a demented first-time Lou Reed and a frosty Nico, a tom-pounding Mo Tucker and three wailing Sterling Morrison guitars.

Brooke Back Fountain featured the eponymous leading lady busting out some Four Non Blonde covers in a voice bigger than Linda Perry's ego! Folks were pretty bowled over by that (having unsuccessfully blocked those Four Non Blondes songs out of their memories all these years)... those '90s were a golden age of top hats and dreadlocks, lest we forget!

… once again I’m a day late and a dollar short, but that’s just the beginning…

Yesterday was the thirtieth and, oddly enough, the twentieth anniversaries of the deaths of legendary designers Charles and Ray Eames. Mostly known for their furniture design, their work also includes major contributions in industrial design, graphic design, architecture and film. Charles died August 21, 1978, Ray died on the same date, ten years later in 1988.

Architectural colleagues Charles Eames and Ray-Bernice Kaiser married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles to open their own firm. In 1946, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine's "Case Study" series that commissioned architects of the day to design and build inexpensive and efficient model homes, the groundbreaking Eames House design was selected. Built on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at 203 North Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades, and once a part of Will Rogers' estate, this unique house, also called Case Study House #8, used pre-fabricated steel parts and was hand-constructed in a matter of days. The structure was entirely constructed from "off-the-shelf" parts available from steel fabricator catalogs. However, immediately after the Second World War, steel was in very short supply, which explains the three year delay in construction. The Eames house was completed in 1949.

Working from their office located at 901 Washington Boulevard in Venice, Charles and Ray Eames’ hit their stride in the 1950’s in modern furniture design. Their landmark and highly collectible furniture includes early molded plywood chairs and their innovative use of materials, such as the fiberglass and plastic resin. Aside from the molded-plywood DCW (Dining Chair Wood), other classic furniture designs include the DCM (Dining Chair Metal with a plywood seat), the Eiffel Plastic Armchair and side chair from 1959, the Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman from 1956, the Aluminum Group furniture series and the wire mesh chairs designed for office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, 1962’s Eames tandem sling seating, as well as the Eames Chaise designed specifically for film director Billy Wilder in 1968. At the time of Charles’ death they were working on what would be their final design, the Eames Sofa, which went into production in 1984.

AMOEBA SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE:

1) GZA Pro Tools (Babygrande Records)
2) Immortal Technique The 3rd World (Viper)
3) Messy Marv Cake & Ice Cream (Siccness.net)
4) Ice Cube Raw Footage (Lench Mob)
5) Stacy Epps The Awakening (JapanNubianMuzzik) 

Thanks to Luis at Amoeba Music San Francisco for this week's hip-hop top five album chart. In the number one chart slot is Pro Tools, the latest from Wu-Tang's GZA, aka The Genius. Note that this is the fifth solo release from one of the founding members of the almighty Wu-Tang Clan, who dropped their groundbreaking debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) fifteen long hip-hop years ago. 

Although Pro Tools was originally slated to be a compilation overseen by GZA or a "GZA presents WU" type album (and it essentially still is, due to the numerous collaborators) it is officially listed as a GZA solo release. Taking its name from the production software popular with music producers, Pro Tools       features many contributing talents, including production from RZA, True Master, Mathematics, Black Milk, Bronze Nazareth, Arabian Knight, and Dreddy Kruger, as well as guest vocal appearances from RZA, Masta Killa, Sean Price, and GZA's son, Young Justice (Kareem), who joins his pops on the tracks "Groundbreaking" and "Cinema." The Pro Tools track that most hip-hop fans have already heard is the advance leaked track, the 50 Cent diss rap, "Paper Plate," which continues the artist's beef with the G-Unit main man.

Remember that band called Stereolab? Yes, they are still making great albums. They never really stopped, you just may have forgotten about them. They have a new album out this week called Chemical Chords. I think it might be like their 20th album by now. They were on a major label for a long while, but they are back on the indie label 4AD now. They had that EP collection out last year, but this is a real new album. I have not had a chance to listen to it yet, but I can't really wait. They are one of those bands that I got really obsessed with when they first came out. I had lost a bit of interest over the last 5 or 6 years, but I feel ready to be a Stereolab fan again. I just hope the album is as good as I want it to be. I like the song that I have heard from the album. I don't really see how you can't like a Stereolab album. They are always so fun and catchy. I am just glad there are some releases out this week that I actually want to bother listening to.

The Dandy Warhols also have a new album out this week. I have had sort of a love/hate relationship with the Dandy Warhols. I still don't really know how I feel about this new album. I am going to give it one more listen before I make up my mind. I also have been listening to that new album by The Uglysuit. It is slowly growing on me but I doubt it will turn into one of my favorites. There is also the debut album from Uh Huh Her. I have not heard this one yet either-- however, I do love Leisha Hailey. She plays Alice Pieszecki on The L Word. She is the funniest thing about The L Word and the only reason that I watch it. Many years ago she was in the Murmurs, so it's not like this is her first time making music. There are also some great other albums that are coming out this week that I just fell in love with.

Gang Starr, formed back in 1986 and comprised of DJ Premier and emcee Guru, are no longer officially a group -- at least according to Guru in an interview a little while back. But then, who knows if they ever will perform or record together again? A Tribe Called Quest have gotten back together -- more than once -- so maybe Gang Starr will too.

Regardless, the hip-hop duo's rich back catalog is enough to satisfy this hip-hop fan for hours on end. If you don't already have any of the incredible duo's six albums (plus two greatest hits compilations), I suggest you pick up the double CD retrospective Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr (originally released in '99) at any of the Amoeba Music stores.

Full Clip is a great starting point, as it  includes all but one ("Arena") of the songs in the six Gang Starr videos below, including "Words I Manifest,"  "Step in the Arena," "Mass Appeal," "Who's Gonna Take The Weight?," "Take It Personal," and "DWYCK" featuring Nice & Smooth. Listening back the other day to this 2 CD set from start to finish made me realize not just how amazing Gang Starr's music is, but also how influential their work has been on hip-hop.

And are the videos/songs below a comprehensive best-of Gang Starr? Hells no! Just enough to whet a hip-hopper's appetite.

During the late 80's and early 90's, bands from the Spanish speaking nations started to get into Ska, Reggae & Punk. Bands like The Clash and The Bad Brains had a big influence on Latin Rock movement yet the bands of that era differed from the Roc En Espanol groups that came before them. No longer were they trying to emulate the music that came out of Europe and America; they started to get their own identity musically and lyrically. The groups weren't afraid to incorporate music they grew up with. Groups like Mano Negra, Todos Tus Muertos, Tijuana No! and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs fused Brazilian, Cuban, Middle Eastern, Jamaican and African influences into their music as well as the music from the countries they originated from. Lyrically, they spoke of oppression, revolution, self-determination and the need for change.

Mano Negra - "Sr. Matanza" - Spain
This was Manu Chao's band before he went solo.



Todos Tus Muertos - "Andate" - Argentina



Tijuana No! - "Pobre De Ti" - Mexico
This song was co-written by Julieta Venegas.



Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - "Matador" - Argentina

The current situation in the Caucasus prompted one of the loyal blog readers to request that I post about the confusing region and shed a little light. If you blog readers have any requests for blog topics, I always welcome them.



Caucasia is a mountainous region located between the two continents of Europe and Asia. While it's not the Nazi-imagined homeland (a concept invented by 18th century craniologists) to the blond & blue-eyed, it is home to some of the oldest human populations in the world as well as the birthplace of wine. It's also one of the most culturally varied regions in the world, where tiny populations of little-known peoples have somehow existed between some of the biggest, baddest imperialists of world history. Perhaps it's not surprising then that they seem or persevere by clinging tightly to cultural expressions like music and dance, as well as deeply-embedded xenophobia, mistrust, mutual hostility and self-preservatory instincts.

Just to name a few, in this tiny global neighborhood you've got Abazins, Abkazians, Adjarians, Adydhe, Aguls, Archins, Armenians, Avars, Azerbaijanis, Balkars, Bats, Chechens, Cherkes, Cossacks, Dargins, Georgians, Greeks, Ingush, Kabardins, Kalmyks, Karachays, Khinalug, Kists, Kumyks, Kurds, Laks, Laz, Lezgins, Mingrelians, Mountain Jews, Nakh, Nogais, Ossetians, Rutls, Svans, Tabasarans, Talysh, Tats, Trukhmens, Tsakhurs, Ubykh and Udins... my apologies if I've forgotten anyone... also my producer, my wife and so forth. I just know I'm forgetting someone!

Big ups to the female artists in the history of Bay Area hip-hop who, as it seems to be the case with the rest of the rap nation, are (and have always been) in the minority. Why? A variety of reasons-- the main one, in my opinion, is that women can never fare well in a male dominated field that is predominantly (but not exclusively) sexist and misogynist. If you have any strong insights into why you think there is still such a unbalanced female to male rap ratio, please share in the COMMENTS box below where I invite you to also list your favorite female emcees from the Bay Area or elsewhere.

By no means is this post inclusive of the many female hip-hop artists from the Bay; it is merely a salute a select talented few -- both new and old school -- who come to mind, including such old school emcees as 80's East Bay female rapper Cassidine. When she dropped her debut twenty years ago on 75 Girls (the Oakland label run by the Hodges Brothers), she was heralded as the female counterpart to (label mate) Too $hort. Cassidine's album, Man Handler, contains such hardcore tracks as "She Daddy." Unfortunately, the a killer collection of hardcore rhymes and beats from a bygone era in Bay rap has never been re-released. 

Also from 1980's Bay rap is Oaktown 3-5-7, the female rap crew who first came to fame as MC Hammer's backing singers/dancers on tracks such as "Let's Get It Started."  In fact, they performed this song with Hammer and the rest of his large entourage when they made their national debut on the The Arsenio Hall Show. When they released their own music on Hammer's label they enjoyed reasonable success but not enough to keep them from breaking up in 1992. Their 1989 Wild and Loose album was their most successful and made waves on the Billboard pop and black-album charts two decades ago when it spawned the singles "We Like It" and "Juicy Gotcha Krazy" (video below).

Virus - "Juegos Incompletos" - Argentina



Caifanes- "Matenme Por Que Me Muero" - Mexico



Mikel Erentxun - "A Un Minuto De Ti" - Spain



Los Prisioneros - "Tren Al Sur" - Chile

RBD, the band that came out of the hit Telanovela Rebelde, decided to call it quits over the weekend. Latina tweeners and their mothers alike are left in a state of shock.

Rebelde (Rebels) was a novela about wealthy students in a private school wearing revealing school uniforms trying to start a band. The novela was so successful that the actors formed their own group. Their first release, Rebelde, was an instant success. They played sold out arenas not only in Latin America, but also around the world, including a performance at the 2008 Pre-Super Bowl show & a sold out show at The L.A. Coliseum. They followed the success with four albums in four years that never quite managed to pull the success of the first release. Among the releases was an ill-advised self-titled English language release, Rebels, which just bombed.

The six members of the three-girl/three guy pop group, Alfonso Herrera, Christian Chávez, Dulce María, Maite Perroni, Christopher Uckermann, and Anahí Portill, all plan to pursue solo careers. My prediction is that Anahí Portill and Dulce Maria will be the most successful ex-members of RBD, much like Paulina Rubio & Thalia were the most successful ex-members of Timbiriche. Trivia question…can you name at least five former members of Timbiriche?? (Ahhh…not including the ones I just mentioned!) Answers below.

Here is the token break-up statement from their website:

"México DF, August 14th, 2008

To all our fans and media in the world:

Continue reading

Amoeba Hollywood’s Top Selling Latin Music for the months of July & August:

Julieta Venegas - MTV Unplugged
Manu Chao - Clandestino
Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos - Cantan En Español
Ximena Sarinaña - Mediocre
Manu Chao - La Radiolina
Quetzal - Die Cowboy Die
Thalia - Lunada
Mana - Arde El Cielo
Molotov - Donde Jugaran Las Niñas (reissue)
Belanova - Fantasia Pop

With the power of MTV Tr3s behind her and a great line-up of special guests, Julieta Venegas not only has sold the most CD’s but also DVD’s in the Latin Rock section. Manu Chao continues to sell a gazillion CDs, capturing the # 2 & 4 spots. A surprise at number 3 is Eydie Gorme y Los Panchos’ 1964 classic, Cantan En Español, getting the mom vote. Ximena Sarinaña is the latest Mexican actress to release an album. She has already gone gold in Mexico and is not doing too bad at the store either. Local favs Quetzal have outsold major label artists like Thalia and Mana at Amoeba Hollywood despite having no label, no radio or video play and very little promotion. Ah, Amoeba, the great equalizer!

Salsa Top 5:

Jameoblog Top Ten: 08:18:08

1) Wale - "The Kramer" (10 Deep/elitaste.com)
2) Fatlip - "What Up Fatlip? (Breakbot RMX)" (Delicious Vinyl)
3) NaS "Sly Fox" (Def Jam)
4) KRS-One "Pick It Up" (KOCH)
5) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder - "2-32's"  (Blacksmith)
6) Alltruisms - "Jalopy" (Gravel Records)
7) James Brown - "There Was A Time (Kenny Dope Remix)" (Verve)
8) Paris - "Get Fired Up" (Guerrilla Funk)
9) Girl Talk - "Don't Stop" (Illegal Art)
10) A.G. Cubano feat. The Jacka, San Quinn, & Matt Blaque - "I'm Winnin"  (City RIch/Blackhouse Ent)

On Wale's instantly engaging song "The Kramer," off his recent Nick Catchdubs mixed-Seinfeld themed The Mixtape About Nothing album-length digital download, he jumps head in and addresses the current hip-hop driven cultural use and abuse of the N word and, to a lesser degree, the B word. The Washington DC emcee, whose name is pronounced "Wah-Lay," uses Michael Richards' (aka Kramer on Seinfeld) infamous N word tirade, which he samples at the beginning of the track, as the jumping off point to address society's current use of the N word and its contradicting implications when used by blacks or whites-- specifically the dilemma of white diehard rap fans continually hearing the N word in their favorite music.

                     

The Dog Days of summer are at our door step. At our compound in Pasadena that can mean heat managing up to 105-110...It's been holding off for now, but when that weather arrives I will look longingly at this blog...

AMOEBA MUSIC HOLLYWOOD HIP-HOP TOP FIVE 08:15:08

1)  eLZhi Preface (Fat Beats)

2) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)

3) NaS Untitled (Def Jam)

4) Immortal Technique The 3rd World (Viper)

5) Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's (Hall of Justus Records)

This week's number one seller at the Amoeba Music Hollywood store is the brand new release from longtime bubbling-under Detroit emcee eLZhi (pronounced Els-Eye), who made his introduction to most in the hip-hop world a few years back when he joined Slum Village. Consequently, he has been keepin' active, between touring and appearing here and there on others' releases doing guest shots, including on many records from his Motor City hometown. Many of the Amoeba Hollywood shoppers who made Preface number one this week had no doubt obtained copies earlier this year of elZhi's Europass, his limited edition independently pressed-up CD/ download-able collection, which has won the talented emcee worthy praise from many quarters and also included "Motown 25." But it is the brand new Fat Beats issued Preface that will put eLZhi permanently and deservedly in the hip-hop history annals.
 
Stylistically, eLZhi is a gifted storytelling emcee whose delivery harks back to the more golden age of hip-hop (even the records scratched in are from that classic era in the genre, such as KRS-One) with tales of the hard knock life he has led coming up in Detroit. For samples off the new album and other recordings check out eLZhi MySpace, where you'll hear such great album tracks as "Motown 25," featuring Royce Da 5' 9" and "The Leak" featuring Ayah. Other guests on this recommended new album include A.B., Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Fatt Father, Danny Brown, Fat Ray, Phat Kat, and Fes Roc.

When I was a kid my dad surprised me one day when he told me that his two favorite guitarists, hands down, were T-Bone Walker and Roy Buchanan-- two mostly obscure blues guitarists whose lofty talents are usually held in awe by only record collectors and guitar geeks. You would have thought my dad was a blues musician or at least someone with a passion for obscure vinyl … well, no, he just digs music -- he always said he was too busy working, customizing hotrods in those halcyon days of the 1960’s to be anything but a just a fan, but he does play a mean "Malaguena" from the Suite Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona on classical piano.

Anyway, T-Bone Walker’s most famous number was "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)." His other classic recordings include "T-Bone Shuffle" and the brilliantly understated parable, "Let Your Hair Down, Baby, Let's Have a Natural Ball."  Walker lived to be a reasonably old man, especially by blues standards, passing away in 1975 at the age of 65. Unfortunately, Roy Buchanan’s life didn’t get that distance.  

20 years go today, Roy Buchanan was found hanging in his cell in the Fairfax County Jail in Fairfax, Virginia, by his own shirt, shortly after being arrested and soon after being placed in a holding tank. Buchanan had been picked up by the police earlier in the evening for public intoxication. Though he had a long history of drunken, restless and destructive behavior, many of his fans, friends and family have always doubted the suicide verdict of his death. He was 48.

Countless aficionados in the guitar world have long considered Roy Buchanan one of the finest and most overlooked guitarists of the blues-rock genre. According to legend, Buchanan's soulful and fiery skills led him to being invited to join the Rolling Stones in the late 1960’s. In 1971 Roy Buchanan found his greatest public exposure in an hour long Public Television documentary appropriately titled The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World. For a moment he was famous and in demand, signing a multi-record deal with Polydor. His 1972 self-titled debut contains one of Buchanan's best-known tracks, "The Messiah Will Come Again." Here’s some live footage of that song from a German television show in the early 80’s.

The past few days I have really been getting into the new Karen Dalton release, Green Rocky Road.

I am a big fan of Dalton's studio albums, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You the Best (1969) and In My Own Time (1971). When I first heard them, they seemed like precious relics from the past. It also seemed unlikely anything else of hers would ever be uncovered and released, but now, just a few years later, there have been reissues and even video footage released!

Dalton's life story is very compelling. She seems to have lived on her own terms, with little compromise and a lot of eccentricity and self destruction. Basically, Karen was a free spirit. She was half Native American and grew up in Oklahoma. She married and had two kids by the time she was 21. She also played banjo and 12 string guitar. Dalton left her husband and moved to New York in time to take part in the early '60s Greenwich Village scene, playing clubs and hanging out with Bob Dylan and Fred Neil. Later, she moved north to Woodstock, where she was surrounded by a creative community that included her friends and sometime lovers The Band. Her two albums never sold well and she slipped into obscurity, heartbroken. Eventually, after a life of drinking and drug abuse, she died of AIDS in New York in 1993.

Her voice is unmistakable: a craggy, worn sound that cracks and warbles its way through old folk standards. Green Rocky Road is a 1963 recording of Karen in her home, something never intended for release. Her sound lends itself to this type of setting and is only enhanced by the intimacy of the recording. Dalton slowly winds her way through the songs, taking her time and allowing her throaty voice to coat the jingle jangle of her banjo accompaniment. It's well-known that Karen hated being in the studio, and though her two official albums are extremely well worth seeking out, there is a certain pleasure, a palpable ease and comfort that the informed listener can wring from her voice in these home recordings that may be lacking from the studio records. It's also enjoyable to listen for the idiosyncrasies of the recording: her mother's voice, a phone constantly ringing, picking errors that simply serve to remind me of the organic nature of song. Dalton's voice is haunting and like no one else's.

Last of the Blacksmiths are one of the most talented and moving bands here in the Bay Area.  Comprised of Nathan Wanta, Nigel Pavao and Bert Garibay, who play everything from mandolin to keys to guitar to drums, the band's sound rolls from The Band-like harmonies and depth to deep fried Southern- sounding funky interplay and heaviness. To check out their music, visit the band's Myspace page. Their latest record, Young Family Song, is available at Amoeba. I chatted with Nathan and Nigel recently about their influences, their love of punk and how the band came together.

Miss Ess: So, what have you been listening to lately?

NATHAN: Seems that this can change so drastically from day to day, but thinking of albums that I’ve listened to most in the past year or so, I’d say Allen Toussaint’s first three records probably win, followed by Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue, the Amazing Visions Black Fiction cd that Bert gave me,Terry Allen’s Juarez, Candi Staton’s Candi, Clifford Coulter’s, East Side San Jose, and I can’t leave out Eugene McDaniel’s Outlaw. Was pretty obsessed with the song “Cherrystones” for a while.  

This is another sad week for new releases, but it does come in waves. You just have to wait a couple more weeks for some great new albums. I really wish that just one label had decided to put out something good this week. It would have been really easy to get your album to the top this week. It would have also been really easy to get me to talk about your album this week. I just can't bring myself to talk about Daddy Yankee or David Sanborn. The number one selling album of the week will probably by the Jonas Brothers, who I am tempted to talk about. I guess they are sort of the "new" New Kids on the Block, so it is fitting that this week also sees the release of a greatest hits of the New Kids. They seem to be a bit more hip than the New Kids but I guess that it just because they are more up with the times. They wear tight fitting suits and drive the kids crazy. It will be interesting to see where these kids go in the next couple of years. It is weird to have to grow up in the public eye. One out of these 3 "brothers" is bound to have some trouble with the law, or at least some explicit photos show up in the tabloids. The music offers absolutely nothing new or interesting, but I guess it serves its purpose. The tweens've got to listen to something. I guess there parents would rather them listen to the Jonas Brothers than Judas Priest, but I personally think that the Jonas Brothers might be more damaging.

I've got to go back a couple of months to find an album to talk about. I don't usually find myself listening to comedy albums. I especially tend to avoid "crank call" albums...but maybe I have been missing out. I put on a sampler album advance of this new album by Earles & Jensen a couple months back, but I really was not expecting very much. I listened to it on a Monday morning with my coworker. It was really early in the morning and I was barely awake, but we both could not stop laughing for the entire length of the album. I wanted to listen to it again. I couldn't wait for more Earles & Jensen. Luckily this was just a sampler and there would be a 2 CD version out soon. The album is actually a reissue of stuff that was out before. I had never head of them before, so I am happy this came out to a wider audience. This double CD Earles & Jensen present...Just Farr a Laugh: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever Vol. 1 & 2 was released by Matador Records. The folks that brought you Belle & Sebastian and Cat Power have managed to put out the funniest comedy album ever! I seriously love this album and love introducing people to it. It is sometimes hard to convince people to actually pick up this album and give it a chance, but it is worth your time. You will never laugh more than this.

Meet Susie Wyshak. She believes in dreams. More importantly, she believes in chasing after and accomplishing those dreams in life. The San Francisco resident thinks that not only should everyone have a concise list of life goals but that they owe it to themselves to nurture and rigidly go after these dreams, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched they may seem to the rest of the world.

So, being a woman of action, Susie decided to do something about this. A couple of years ago the LA transplant launched her website SuperViva.com where she encourages people to draw up "life lists" (kinda similar to the theme of that recent movie The Bucket List). Her goal is to inspire people to develop their inner goals in life (mostly dreams already in peoples' subconscious-- just not fully hatched & realized) and make a life list of these personal goals, and then one by one go about executing them.

Susie, an Amoeba fan and dedicated music lover (who "grew up during the great 80s punk era" in SoCal) already had her own life list but thought the web would be the perfect place for keeping a long list of ideas and tracking how they are developing: a way for herself and others to stay on track with their life lists by posting updates. When Susie meets people she gives them one of her SuperViva business size cards which encourage people to "LIVE A FULL LIFE" -- her mantra -- and she also invites them to "jot down their top dreams" which she hopes they will do, and perhaps post the results on her site. Recently she did something a little different -- she trekked around the Bay Area to cold interview strangers (a "brainstorming project" is what she called it) and posted the results on her site. I recently caught up with Susie to ask her about SuperViva, her own life goals, and, of course, music.

Don Helms, steel guitarist and the last surviving member of Hank Williams' band, the Drifting Cowboys, died Monday in Nashville of a heart attack. He was 81. Helms played with Williams on and off for about decade, from 1943 until 1953 when Hank Williams died from just living too fast at the age of 29 on New Year's Day, in Canton, Ohio. Helms is featured on over a hundred Hank Williams recordings -- actually 104 to be exact. His steel guitar sound added a heart breaking mournfulness to many of Williams' ballads, songs like “Your Cheatin' Heart,” “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “Cold, Cold Heart,” but Helms could also add a touch of playfulness on up-tempo tracks such as “Jambalaya” and "Hey, Good Lookin'."

Donald Hugh Helms was born Feb. 28, 1927, in New Brockton, Ala. He got his first steel guitar when he was 15, and by 18 he was playing with Williams in juke joints around the south. After serving in the army during World War II, Helms re-joined the Drifting Cowboys when Williams became a star on the Grand Ole Opry in 1949.

After Williams' death, Helms stayed in demand as a session player and went onto play on dozens of classic recordings such as Patsy Cline's “Walkin' After Midnight,” Lefty Frizzell's “Long Black Veil,” Ernest Tubb's “Letters Have No Arms,” and Stonewall Jackson's "Waterloo." Helms recorded with most every great Country-Western star of the day, including Ray Price, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Webb Pierce, Ferlin Husky, Chet Atkins, Cal Smith, the Wilburn Brothers, and Jim Reeves. According to legend, Helms wrote Brenda Lee's first number one hit “Fool Number One” in exchange for getting Loretta Lynn a recording contract with Decca Records.

The ever-recommended DVD sections in each Amoeba Music location are the kind of places where time can stand still as you lose track of everything else around you and get lost in the sea of video/DVD delights in front of you. You can spend hours just digging in row upon row of a wide variety of movies and TV shows and music videos and concerts of every genre imaginable. 

For proof, check out the current Top Sellers Movie charts for each of the three Amoeba stores (Berkeley, San Francisco, Hollywood), where you will also notice a real diversity of content on each of the Top 25 charts. The five DVDs listed from each store below are drawn mostly from these current Top 25's but also include some additional current hot sellers at Amoeba.

Amoeba Hollywood: 5 DVD Picks

  Girl On The Bridge
  Control (Joy Division)
  Mad Men: Season 1
  Spaced: The Complete Series
  Cocaine Cowboys

"The French movie Girl On The Bridge is doing really well right now," said Rigo at the Hollywood Amoeba of the movie La Fille Sur Le Pont (Girl On The Bridge). Check out a scene from the film below. This three minute clip is from the film's knife throwing scene and is set to the moving score of Marianne Faithfull's "Who Will Take My Dreams Away." Another music themed movie doing well with a clip below is last year's big screen biopic on Joy Division's late lead singer, Ian Curtis.

In Papua, a Kapiraya chief announced Monday that he's launching a campaign to get compensation for environmental damage wrought by US mining company Freeport. The gold and copper-mining giant has polluted the coastline and streams around the Karpiraya's lands in the world's largest copper and gold mine, established in 1971. Due to the considerable pollution, the Kapiraya are faced with a water shortage.



Freeport is a joint venture co-owned by Indonesia and the U.S.A.'s Freeport McMoRan. They pay an estimated 1.8 billion dollars in taxes to the Indonesian government, which doesn't help the Papuans, whose land is occupied by Indonesian soldiers who suppress the indigenous population.

How did West Papua end up in the hands of the notoriously heavy-handed Indonesian government?

Since then, like many of the 100s of non-Javanese peoples of Indonesia, things have been crappy all over. During the seemingly unending rule of the murderous, military dictator Suharto, the best that can be said about the Indonesians' treatment of occupied Papua is that they didn't do much. In 2001, the Indonesian government passed a law granting a degree of autonomy to Papua, although they've failed to enact any of the law's requirements.



Papuans have lived in the land for at least 40,000 years. It's the second largest island in the world and was created when, at the end of the last ice age, the glaciers melted and flooded the Torres Strait. With nearly 1,000 languages spoken, it's the most linguistically diverse area on Earth.

It’s not often that I get emotional over a musician’s death, but when I heard Isaac Hayes passed away I was saddened, like I'd lost a friend. In fact, his music was my friend in times when I needed it the most. If I was in love, Isaac encouraged me. If a girl left me, Isaac was there to console me. When I hated the world, Isaac was there to show that love conquers all. Basically, when the shit hit the fan, Isaac Hayes was a friend when no one else was.

Back in 1994, I was hired as a bass player to go on the road with a band. After each tour, someone in the crew or band got let go in the most absurd passive aggressive manner. It was never "thank you, but your services are no longer needed", it was just  a lot of bad vibes until you either quit or once the tour ended you were replaced without notice. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I figured they were going to fire me at any time. It was like being in the mob and waiting for a hit that would eventually come. On the last tour, I knew my time had come. We were in Europe and I was starting to get the bad vibes. I was getting the silent treatment from everyone on tour, including the star of the show. I felt ignored and was getting shut out of activities that a band and crew engage in on tour. Alone in my bunk on a bus, I found solace through music. My anger about my situation was alleviated by a rotation of The Stooges Funhouse, Black Flag’s Slip It In and NWA’s Straight Outta Compton. But once I was done with my anger and the rotation of those CD’s, I felt that isolation deep inside. Those long drives over night from city to city can be some of the loneliest times, especially if you don’t feel like you have any friends around you. I missed my family, Los Angeles and Mexican food. I missed talking to people on a homie level. That’s where Isaac came in.

Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician (and rapper before it was officially called "rap") whose “Theme From Shaft” earned him both Academy and Grammy awards, was found dead at his home earlier today. He was 65.

According to the Associated Press, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill today. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis. The cause of death was not immediately known.
  
Like so many great American soul artists, Hayes started out singing in the church from a very young age. He taught himself how to play piano, organ, and saxophone and before launching his own career in Memphis at Stax-Volt (whose treatment would later cause him much stress), he worked behind the scenes at the label as a writer for others.  His work there included co-writing the big hit "Soul Man" for Sam and Dave. 1967 was the year Hayes began his solo career with the debut Presenting Isaac Hayes, followed two years later by the commercially successful landmark album Hot Buttered Soul. 

The albums kept coming, including The Isaac Hayes Movement and To Be Continued, but it was the 1971 release of the score to the movie Shaft that would push him to the top. The score also earned him an Academy Award (for Best Score) and a Grammy. He continued his creative streak that year with
the amazing Black Moses album. In 1973 he released Joy and the next year composed two soundtracks, Truck Turner (a film that he also starred in) and Tough Guys.

Ganymede

Ganymede is the largest satellite in our solar system and probably more interesting than the planet Mercury. It orbits the largest planet in the system, Jupiter. Imagine taking a gander into the sky and seeing that red storm swirling above you like the eye of Sauron! Luckily for citizens of Ganymede, you can't get shrooms there, because that would pretty much guarantee a scary time.



200km below Ganymede's icy surface, a salty subsurface ocean exists*. It is the only moon in the solar system to possess a magnetosphere. Its atmosphere is primarily composed of oxygen in various states.

 
           
The handsomest man alive since the handsomest man expired               The handsomest moon

It was named after the Gods' cupbearer in the Greek religion. The position of divine cupbearer had previously been filled by the goddess of youth, Hebe, who was replaced following the abduction and installation of Ganymede at Zeus' insistence. 

Where it all went down- in what's now Turkey

Ganymede was a Trojan prince and the most handsome guy alive in his day. One day he was tending sheep whilst vacationing in Phyrgia. There he caught Zeus' pederastic eye and the god sent a giant eagle to abduct the guy and bring him to Olympus. In Olympia, he was well-liked except, perhaps not surprisingly, by Zeus' wife Hera. His greatest contribution to we mortals was inventing mead, the delicious alcoholic honey brew which made Grendel go cuckoo for cocoa puffs in distant Götaland.

Due to the sheer volume of really great new hip-hop dropping these days, this is the second Amoeblog hip-hop round up for this week. Click here to check out part one from Friday, which included the Berkeley Amoeba Music Top Five plus news items on A.G. Cubano, DJ Teeko, Diplo, and NaS.

Meantime, this second part round-up comes complete with my personal top ten hip-hop chart. This chart is song oriented rather than album based. The songs are all new 2008 releases, unless otherwise noted, and are culled from various formats including vinyl, CDs, mixtape CDs, 7" singles, and MP3s. Most should be available at Amoeba Music now or in the very near future. Ask Amoeba's always helpful & informed staff for assistance if you ever have questions on any music.

                    JAMOEBLOG TOP TEN HIP-HOP TRACKS: 08:10:08

1) NaS "Black President" (Def Jam)
2) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder feat K Hill, Edgar Allen Floe, & Joe Scudda "Smashmouth" (Blacksmith)
3) KRS-One "Pick It Up" (KOCH)
4) Rza as Bobby Digital feat. Monk & Thea "Drama" (KOCH)
5) Stacy Epps "Cosmik Dust" (JapanNubianMusic)
6) Keak da Sneak, E40 & Clyde Carson "All I Know" (KOCH)
7) DJ Quest "Killing The Cut" (ZQ Records)
8) Tony Matterhorn "Big Belly Guns" (Mad Decent)
9) dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip "Look For The Woman" (Strange Famous)
10) Esen "Please Don't Leave Me" (Take A Record)

In anticipation of Chico Sonido’s DJ set for Worldwide Underground. I wanted to post up some of my favorite videos. What does this have to do with Chico Sonido? Well…he, along with his crew of DJ’s Ganas, Enorbito, Hoseh & Lengua, have a night called Mas Exitos. They describe Mas Exitos as “a bi-weekly event that traces the connections between the music made on both continents of the Americas. Think of it as a National Geographic documentary on sound that will take you from the Andes of Peru to the East Side of LA. From fuzzy cumbias, to funky jazz oddities, to psych freak-outs and janky beats...”

I call it the best DJ night currently in L.A. The next Mas Exitos happens 8/12
@
The Verdugo Bar
3408 Verdugo Rd.
Glassell Park 90065
Free


Anieto Molina "La Cumbia Sapuesana"



El General "Muevelo"

I try to refrain from blogging too much about the passing of entertainers, lest I come off like a buzzard, but Bernie Mac was an inspiration to me and many others and I can't let his loss just pass without mention. He was my favorite living comedian and I'll miss his humor.



I always loved his attitude toward children- a mixture of disdain and violent justice. He reminded me a lot of two other late greats, W.C. Fields and Robin Harris (whose character in House Party was shown to be Bernie Mac's brother in the third installment.)



Just like me, he was raised by a single mother who died when he was sixteen. He then moved to Tampa, just as I did. Unlike me, he started getting small roles in films, beginning with Who's the Man? in 1993. In 2000 he appeared in The Original Kings of Comedy, which I mainly watched for Ced the Entertainer. I ended up being blown away by Bernie Mac, though, literally rolling on the floor with laughter at his routine. Next to D.L. Hughley's familiar, cliched "black people are like this, white people are like that" schtick and Steve Harvey's G-rated advice, Bernie Mac shone (despite being really dark).

In 2001, he got his own show. The Bernie Mac Show, like few other comedies, was fairly unique (for network TV) in that it didn't have a damned laugh track, leaving the viewer to figure out what was funny. Whilst toned down from his stage act, he showed he could still usually be funny even without profanity or punching kids in the throat.

45 years ago today, on August 8, 1963, a band from Portland, Oregon, The Kingsmen, initially released their classic version of "Louie Louie" on Jerden Records. Written by Richard Berry in 1955, it has since been recorded by hundreds of artists, becoming a rock standard, especially for garage bands cranking their amps to 10 in beer soaked clubs and basements everywhere. Richard Berry recorded his version in 1957, and it was released on the Los Angeles based label Flip Records. The original version is sung in a more of a bluesy-calypso style and tells the story of a Jamaican sailor bragging to his pal Louie about his "fine little girl" back on his island home.

The best-known version is of course by The Kingsmen and has always been thought of as being outrageously obscene, describing lascivious acts of extreme perversion in such detail as to warrant an investigation by the FBI-- an investigation that ended without prosecution. Here are the legendary lyrics:

Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go

Fine little girl waits for me
Catch a ship across the sea
Sail that ship about, all alone
Never know if I make it home

Three nights and days I sail the sea
Think of girl, constantly
On that ship, I dream she's there
I smell the rose in her hair.

Okay, let's give it to 'em, right now!
 
See Jamaica, the moon above
It won't be long, me see me love
Take her in my arms again
Tell her I'll never leave again

Remember how Russia was grousing when Kosovo declared independence? Remember how they said it would open a Pandora's Box of evils like autonomy, diversity, cultural expression and self-determination? Well, in an unprecedented about face, Russia invaded the breakaway region of South Ossetia today to repel US-encouraged Georgia's forces who launched a surprise attack on the hapless Ossetians at the encouragement of the Bush administration, killing unconfirmed numbers of Ossetian civilians without provocation. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how most of the media have used this to denounce Russia, and not to defend the Ossetians, whose homeland was invaded without apparent provocation.

Condoleeza Rice said, “This is not 1968, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can invade its neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it,” she said. “Things have changed.” It's sort of funny coming from the people who invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, occupied their capitals, overthrew their governments and got away with it. But they're not our neighbor so it's ok. So why did the media throw their support behind the breakaway republics of Yugoslavia but not Georgia? Because Georgia is a tool and partner in the US's efforts to expand influence in the area, so they aren't beholden to the same standards as our enemies.



The Ossetians homeland lies both in Russia and Georgia. They're an Aryan people who moved to the region some 7,000 years ago. The word "Ossetia" comes from the Georgian name for them. Their own name for their country is Irættæ. Their ancestors founded the kingdom of Alania, which was a beneficiary of the Silk Road. They migrated to their current home in the Caucasus to flee the Mongol Horde. When the USSR collapsed, some Ossetians proposed reviving the name of Alania. Soon afterward, the term Alania was revived in many enterprises and added to the official title of the Russian-occupied north, making it Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.

BERKELEY AMOEBA MUSIC HIP-HOP TOP FIVE: 08:08:08
 
1) Diplo Top Ranking Santogold (Mad Decent)
  
2) NaS Untitled (Def Jam)
  
3) Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's (Hall of Justus Records)
  
4) Lil Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)
  
5) The Roots Rising Down (Def Jam)

Just 366 days to 09:09:09. Meantime, happy 08:08:08 and thanks to Tunde at the Berkeley Amoeba Music for this week's hip-hop top five on which the number one album of the week comes care of superstar DJ/producer Diplo who, in keeping with what he did on MIA's Piracy Funds Terrorism mix, delivers the goods with a killer 75 minute mix of Brooklyn female vocal force Santogold mixed with a ton of other sources. Incorporating music off of her recent debut release along with other material, Diplo serves up original blends/mixes of Santogold and other artists' that run the gamut from dubstep to Dirty South. The non-stop, hour and a quarter, 35-track mix, which is heavy on the old school and reggae flavors, includes a refreshingly diverse mix of music that Diplo makes fit perfectly together. Included are Barrington Levy, Three 6 Mafia, Devo, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Sister Nancy, The Clash, and B-52's.

Zo, along with Tigallo (aka Phonte) from Little Brother, have merged forces to record and release this week's chart's number 3 entry: the limited edition (reportedly only 2,500 copies pressed & individually numbered) Love the 80's. A throwback, fun r&b based EP (right down to the cover art), it combines the smooth, slick production by Zo topped with Phonte’s vocal chops as they cover some of their favorite songs from that colorful decade known as The 80's. Also included are remixes by Trackacademicks and Nicolay.

Last night I watched the 1973 movie Payday starring Rip Torn, which was released on DVD early this year.


It's about an aging country singer songwriter named Maury Dann who is on the road, working his way through gigs, women, alcohol and more during the day and a half of time the viewer spends with him.

It's a fully certifiable "Man Movie"-- that is, women are objects, hysterical and insecure, while the men grapple with their own manliness and keeping up appearances of masculinity. There's a lot of beer and belt buckles in this movie, is what I'm saying. There's gambling, hunting and fist fights and even a stabbing and a car accident! So much action, so much manliness on the line. 

The movie is interesting because Maury is so completely flawed and dynamic. He is more than slightly off the rails and no one has ever really been able to rein him in. We see him using and abusing overeager women and handing his mother a pile of pills to keep her quiet, yet we also see him gently pressing his face against his beloved spaniel when he realizes he can no longer keep him. It is clear that he thinks of himself as a great singer songwriter, but the film shows that the gigs are no longer as big as they used to be and that he has not had a radio hit in a while, if ever. Maury's life seems to have moved for years, decades maybe, at a non-stop pace-- from gig to car to hotel to radio station to restaurant and on and on and from whiskey to women to pills to weed and on and on and on. While he is busy puffing himself up, he actually appears more and more degraded.

I don't know if it was intentionally planned or not. But this week The Faint is in a battle with old label mate Conor Oberst for the number one indie album. It may not be as publicized as the album battle of Kanye West and 50 Cent, but it is no less significant...for me, at least. Conor Oberst was actually a member of the early incarnation of The Faint for about 5 minutes and they both remained on the same label up until now. Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) has put out a couple more albums than The Faint. Saddle Creek helped to make them both household names across the world, at least in the indie rock community. I was always more of a Faint fan. I didn't give in to Conor until years after my Faint obsession began. But I became a Faint fun much like how I became a Bright Eyes fan. I was sort of forced into it-- I had resisted The Faint for a couple of years. I had heard about them and knew some of my friends were fans but just had not gotten around to listening to them yet. I was going through a big R & B phase in my life at the time, so indie rock was not as much of a priority. I was intrigued as soon as I found out that The Faint were using keyboards and sort of adopting a more synthy sound. My first Faint album was actually their third album, Danse Macabre. A friend of mine gave me the record for my birthday. It was actually just a couple of months before I made the first big move back to Los Angeles. He told me that he knew I would love it, and I fell in love with the album, as did many of us. Sort of like with the Teaches of Peaches album by Peaches, I became obsessed. The album just seemed to take over many peoples lives. I couldn't stop listening to it, it was so good. It was one of those albums that I was so glad to have discovered. I was just so glad that it existed.

Born in North Dakota, Mr Bubble was created by the entrepreneur Harold Schafer (1912 - 2001), who founded the Gold Seal Company during The Second World War. Schafer also invented Glass Wax and Snowy Bleach; each of these brands became the number one selling products in the world in their respective categories by 1960. In 1986, Schafer retired and sold his Gold Seal Company.

Ascendia Brands, the Hamilton, New Jersey based present day owners of Mr Bubble and makers of health and beauty products such as Baby Magic and Calgon, said they have filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and are seeking a buyer for the business. Reports say Ascendia and five affiliates listed debt of $279 million and assets of $194.8 million as of July 5 in Chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

So tonight, when you slip into your bath with your glass of sherry or a cup of chamomile tea, think of what Mr Bubble used to sing to filthy and grubby kids everywhere, “I’m Mr. Bubble and you can watch me pop!”

DJ Pierre is a house music legend. The pioneering Chicago DJ/producer/performer, who these days keeps busy DJ'ing round the globe, producing tracks, and running his recently formed Afro Acid Digital label, will always be known as a member of the 80's group Phuture, and as being one of the creators of acid house.

Acid house is a strain of house music that Pierre concocted on the Roland TB 303. He did this in the studio along with his partners in the trio, keyboardist Herb J and producer and Phuture founding member Spanky. In 1987 they unleashed this new sound on the world with the release of their revolutionary EP Acid Trax, which would have a major influence on house music for years to come.

The Roland TB 303 bass line synthesizer was manufactured by the company from '82 to '84 and was originally intended for guitarists to use as a bass accompaniment. Acid House was created almost accidentally by Phuture on the Roland TB 303, when the group was trying to get that unique "squelch" or "wiggly worm" or "funky worm" sound out of it. This sub-genre was particularly influential in the UK, a country that embraced American house music in all its musical mutations much more so than the scene  back in the USA. However, there were always pockets of musical fanatics in the States who embraced the new electronic music, including in San Francisco, where the long gone I-Beam club on Haight Street (not far from where Amoeba SF is now) once hosted a night dedicated solely to playing the acid house sub-genre. Meanwhile, the UK had its big "summer of love" (house music honeymoon) in 1988, and acid was the preferred flavor, with other artists putting their spin on the 303-generated genre and scoring pop hits.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

---

Saturday August 9

Rainbow Brite in

Rainbow Brite & The Star Stealer

1985, 85 min

New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Midnight, $7

 

---

August
August 23 The Gate
(... pray it's not too late!)
August 30 Little Darlings
(Paramount Archive 35mm Print! Rare Screening!)

 

September
September 6 Idle Hands
(9th anniversary for the 1999 stoner horror comedy!)
September 13 Showgirls
(Beyond your wildest dreams. Beyond your wildest fantasies!)
September 20 Michael Mann's The Keep
(25th Anniversary! Paramount Archive 35mm Print!)
September 27 Over The Top
(Sylvester Stallone. Big Rig Truckin'. ARM WRESTLING!)

October
October 4 Hard To Kill
(Steven Seagal is Mason Storm. Mason Storm is... Hard To Kill!)
October 18 All Night Horror Show!
(100% Movie Mania! New Bev Fundraiser! 12 Hours Of Movies, Fun & ??)

After a brief hiatus, we are back with Anda! Fans of Cumbia, Retro Salsa & other Worldly music rejoice!
This week's Anda! features a DJ set from Amoeba employees Ray Ricky Rivera, Gazoo & yours truly and an extra special live performance by the group Cava. Check out Cava's myspace page to listen to their great music. Hope to see you there!

American fans of Simon Pegg and his movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are obviously quite happy now that Spaced, the wonderful British television show that predated and influenced both these big-screen action/comedies, is finally available on DVD as the nicely packaged Spaced: The Complete Series (BBC Video). 

The British TV situation comedy ran for two seasons back in 1999 and 2001 and has more recently been shown in the US on BBC America. The new DVD set is available at each Amoeba Music location, including the Hollywood store where, according to Rigo in the DVD department, "it has been selling briskly since it was released two weeks ago."

Featuring many of the same players in Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, Spaced was also directed by Edgar Wright, and was written by and stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (formerly known as Jessica Stevenson). Spaced also stars Pegg's movie sidekick Nick Frost, as well as Julia Deacon, Mark Heap, and Katy Carmichael. The witty, fast-paced, sci-fi based comedy TV show that ran for just two seasons -- seven episodes each -- nine and seven years ago, is packed with references from pop culture and movies (including Resident Evil and Star Wars) and is given to veering off into surreal scenes in which its main characters become action movie or video game or comic book style heroes. 

In a recent edition of the L.A. Weekly’s Ask a Mexican column, someone asked why it was that so many young Mexican kids seemed gaga for Morrissey. The columnist thought the better question was why so few children of the imperialists (white kids) weren’t as equally gaga about some of the excellent music made by Latino musicians. Granted, as I hear my neighbor drive up blasting his stereo beyond what could possibly be comfortable for him inside the nuclear heart of that volume, I have to admit that much of what he plays for the neighbors sounds pretty good. Not necessarily something I would run out and buy, but I was far from hating it.

What’s that got to do with Canada? Good question, but in some ways, it's obvious. Canada is the Mexico of the Great White North, dont’cha know? It has only been the fact of a more-or-less common language that has allowed the very few Canuck rockers to break USA radio charts that have so far. Neil Young, Bare Naked Ladies, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette, Steppenwolf, Rush, Leonard Cohen; there aren’t many that spring to mind and most of them are not in my personal collection, but they built careers with American money without being American or British. Good job, guys!

So, trawling thru the Red Sea of Clearance, I happened upon an album cover that has haunted me since my childhood. The vacant stare of the half-man/half-mannequin surrounded by the glowing hoop and splash of light has taunted me from Clearance bins for as long as I can remember being conscious of music. “Now’s the time,” I declared and grabbed it.

FM's Black Noise was in Clearance due to some condition issues, but it was there and cheap, so I took it. FM formed in Toronto in 1976, and Black Noise is their first album, from 1977. I hear a lot of Fragile-era Yes in their sound, some Jean-Luc Ponty, a splash here and there of Jan Hammer and a lot of the prog that defined the reigning Canadian supergroup of the day, Rush.  Perhaps it was the curse of the also-rans, the stigma attached to coming later than first with any particular sound that kept FM from being heard, or maybe we had already filled our Canadian quota for 1977. I certainly don’t mean to give the impression that FM were copy-cats, by any means. There’s enough Buggles in their sound to tilt them towards what was becoming known as New Wave and a bit away from the pack of dyed-in-the-wool proggers. Their drive is provided by fuzzed guitar, virtuoso drums and the central wail of Nash the Slash’s electric violin.

Well, here they come...The men in the white suits...and sweaters and horses bodies and whatever the hell Menudo is wearing. Kinda looks like a karate uniform mixed with PJ's. Maybe that's what they had to wear for the band slumber parties...

In W., the third in Oliver Stone's trilogy of "you're expecting a leftist nut, but really I'm just another bourgeois liberal" films (following Nixon and World Trade Center), our current President gets Stone's patented humane treatment:

The majority of Stone's post-JFK work points to something I didn't initially realize about that one truly great film of his, namely that its frenzied, foaming at the mouth and forgetting to breathe conspiratorial style came from a humanistic fear. Similar to those racialist conspiracies of Atlantis and other myths of ancient white civilizations that are grounded in the fear that non-whites might've advanced technology and world culture, Stone doesn't want to accept that another human being might be so foreign to his own humanistic beliefs as to behave in a manner that would call into question his own humanistic worldview.  Thus, he needed to fantasize about the machinations of a Big Other in order to fit the evil that a common man might do and has done into his provincial ontology. This approach de-humanizes evil by making it always one-step removed from its practitioners. As with white racists not having to worry about "savage" technology -- being explained away as the result of their own mythological Aryan ancestors -- humanism is inoculated from evil, since it's always something else causing it, never humanity itself. Instead of looking at how we might be just like them, Oswald, Nixon, Castro, etc. are made to be just like us. Little wonder why Natural Born Killers was so hellbent on blaming the media. A little bit of Saint Augustine's worrying about his dirty thoughts would be good for Stone.

A late entry in the vinyl yesteryear was the barcode. When exactly did they start appearing on the back of album jackets? I'm not exactly sure myself, but it appears to have been very early in the 80's. I've seen copies of the 1st Dickies on original yellow vinyl with one, and that album is from 1979. It might be that they had old copies of the vinyl lying around and had to repress covers in the early 80's though. Sometimes certain records can be difficult to track because a company might press up a ton of covers while pressing smaller batches of the actual vinyl, or vice versa. Coltrane on Atlantic is notorious for that-- you'll see covers clearly printed in the mid 60's with 70's label designs and such. Anyhow, I digress...This is not a gallery of barcodes off of the actual albums; it's a collection of price tags, primarily from the 80's-90's...

Remember the anthrax attacks of 2001? The case was named Amerithrax by the F.B.I. The attacks began one week after the 9/11 attacks and were linked by the government and media to Iraq as yet another reason to invade. And then, as quickly as it began, the anthrax scare ended with a conspicuous lack of closure. By the time the US invaded Iraq, the media were content to be Bush's hype men.

The anthrax attacks came in two waves. The first set were mailed out, as mentioned, one week after 9/11. Letters were mailed to ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Post and AMI (publishers of The National Enquirer). Robert Stevens, an employee of AMI, was the first to die. Following him to their deaths were Thomas Morris Jr, Joseph Curseen, Kathy Nguyen and Ottilie Lundgren. At least 22 were infected with anthrax. The original wave of letters read:

09-11-01

THIS IS NEXT

TAKE PENACILIN NOW

DEATH TO AMERICA

DEATH TO ISRAEL

ALLAH IS GREAT

The attempt to make the anthrax-containing letters look like the work of a fanatical Muslim was crude. Few Muslims write the date in the American manner of day/month/Christian Calendar year. In addition, most Muslims say "God is great" if writing in English, not "Allah is great." I'm not suggesting that the anthrax attacks were part of a conspiracy to drum up support for the invasion of Iraq, but they certainly helped win support.

The second wave of letters were dated October 9 and were addressed to Democratic senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. They were identified by the media as opposed to the Patriot Act over concerns of its violation of civil liberties. The second letters read:

09-11-01

YOU CAN NOT STOP US.

WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX.

YOU DIE NOW.

ARE YOU AFRAID?

DEATH TO AMERICA.

DEATH TO ISRAEL.

ALLAH IS GREAT.

If the rationale was, as it seems, to target opponents of the Patriot Act and to use the media to get attention, it suggests that perhaps the perpetrator was not a crazed Muslim hoping for abuses of civil liberties. No, the perpetrator's main aim was apparently to make himself needed and he merely used the post-9/11 paranoia as a smokescreen and tool for his own advancement. Indeed, in 2003, Dr. Bruce Ivins (a top US biodefense researcher) and two of his colleagues at USAMRIID at Fort Detrick were awarded the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service for their development of an anthrax vaccine.

Ethan Miller is one of the Bay Area's best musicians. He formed the psychedelic/noise, super intense band Comets on Fire in Santa Cruz in 1999. The group has met with much success-- Comets was signed to Sub Pop, has toured all over the world and released four great albums. After relocating to Oakland, around 2004 Ethan brought together another outlet for his creativity, the riff-heavy Howlin' Rain. Howlin' Rain has released two exceptional records and was recently signed to musical luminary Rick Rubin's label American Recordings, which should bring the group's heavy rockin' sound to even higher highs. Check out Howlin' Rain's performance at Amoeba back in March here.

What follows is my recent chat with Ethan about songs that make him cry, his old piano teacher, and why the studio is what really winds his clock.

Miss Ess: Is there someone in particular who recognized and nurtured your musical interest/talent when you were young?

Amoeba Music San Francisco
Hip-Hop Top Five: August 01, 2008

1) NaS Untitled (Def Jam)

2) Jean Grae + 9th Wonder Jeanius
     (Blacksmith)

3) People Under The Stairs The OM Years 
     (OM hip-hop)

4) Husalah & B-Luv Tonka Boyz
    (SMC Records/City Hall)

5) RZA as Bobby Digital Digi Snacks
    (KOCH)

A shout-out to Luis in the hip-hop department at the San Francisco Amoeba Music for this week's Top Five chart, which includes the new Bay Area indie rap release from the rhyme duo Husalah & B-Luv, Tonka Boyz, that features guest spots from such local faves as PSD, Yukmouth, The Jacka, and Dubee. Also charting high this week is the double CD retrospective by People Under The Stairs (PUTS) from OM hip-hop. Disc one is "The OM Years" and includes such crowd pleasers as "San Francisco Knights," "The Cat," and "Jappy Jap," while disc two (my personal fave, since it has some stuff I had not heard before) is titled "B-sides & Rarities."  

Luis admits that he is not really feeling the new RZA as Bobby Digital (Digi Snacks) and I have to fully agree with him.This, the artist's fourth solo record, not only fails to match any of his Wu Tang output, but also falls short of his own previous solo work. However, as is often the case with overall mediocre albums, there are a few great songs to be found on the 15 track Digi Snacks, including "Drama" featuring Monk and Thea and "You Can't Stop Us Now" (feat. fellow Wu warrior Inspectah Deck).