Some songs that rock...

Some random songs that rock...




Bad Brains - Attitude

Bad (Brains) but still rocking...




The Remains - Don't Look Back

Accountants but still rocking...




Iggy Pop - Consolation Prizes

Will show you his penis but still rocking..




The Saints - This Perfect Day

Who ate all the pies but still rocking...




Iron Maiden - Prowler

Needs a square meal but still rocking...




Flipper - Ever

Burning fat woman but still rocking...




Meat Puppets - Split Myself in Two

Inbred but still rocking...




Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag

Nagging but still rocking...




Human League - Almost Medieval

Human League but still rocking...






maningrey



"Some songs that rock..." > read the full post

My Favourite New Song

If only all songs were as on the money as this peach...

My girlfriend turned me onto this, should be number one all over the world, if I had a label this would be my first release

Lover Hurts by Clemmers





Maningrey







"My Favourite New Song" > read the full post

first impressions of The King of Limbs

Last week I pre-ordered the full package, vinyl+CD+artwork+download for £33, and yesterday was the day you could start getting your download, while the rest will arrive by post eventually.
It could have been £3 less choosing to get the download as MP3, but since there was no indication of how these were produced* I thought I'd pay a bit more for the bandwidth and get full-quality Wavs.

And just to give you the full picture, if you don't believe in material things you can get just the MP3 for £6 or just the Wavs for £9. Very fair.




"first impressions of The King of Limbs" > read the full post

Canterbury Tales: In Praise of English Eccentrics

Been listening to some classic British psyche. Mellotrons, beards, real ale and Leslie speakers abound in the world of the fragile English cult acid head..




As the winter nights close in I find myself needing music that reminds me of the last days of summer, black birds chirping, ice creams melting, straw boaters and used condoms in the canal...here are some classics.


Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease



Steady Ladies! While no looker, the tramp like Harper had a knack for bleak cynical folk, enlivened by some lovely brass. Also a mate of Jimmy Page who as well guesting on his albums dedicated the track "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper", on Zep's third album, to him.




Kevin Ayers - Hymn




Kev had everything to become a big star, blond good looks, a deep croon and Elton John's management but indolence and alcoholism did for him. His albums always sandwiched beautiful introspection, like this track, amid bloated prog rock toomfoolery and lyrics about bananas..





Syd Barrett - Dark Glode



The poster boy for acid casualties in fact Syd probably just got bored of dealing with Rodger Waters as this dismissive song attests. Horse and swaying wildly in tempo (The White Stripes are super stars with the same template) it's still better than 90% of Pink Floyd's output after he was booted out.




Matching Mole - O Caroline



A complete one off, the rest of their work is complete toss but this lovely ballad features Robert Wyatt's school boy vocals and is rather sweet.




Caravan - In the land Of Grey And Pink



Whimsical prog folk from group of art school bozos about whom I know nothing other than this track tickles me.








maningrey




"Canterbury Tales: In Praise of English Eccentrics" > read the full post

Sehr Kosmisch!

Gratified by finally finding a copy of Julian Cope's epic meditation Krautrocksampler
that was not in German, I was inspired to download...ermmm I mean purchase a fist full of music most Kosmisch....



Here are a few of my favourite tracks from my recent investigation and some familiar classics I have cherished for a while.

Faust - The Sad Skinhead




From Wumme but sounding like The Specials! A whole new sub genre like Egyptian Reggae, it's Kraut Ska..




Ash Ra Tempel - Light And Darkness: Darkness - Flowers Must Die



Worth it for the title alone...phazed and flanged to the max, it's hard to imagine their guitarist, Manuel Göttsching, later made the sedate proto trance classic E2-E4.







Popol Vuh - Aguirre I



Something a little more solemn from the mysterious Popol Vuh, named after a manuscript containing the mythology of the Quiché Maya people of highland Guatemala...Hey far out! This is from the brilliant soundtrack to Werner Hezog's deranged exploration of Conquistador greed, Aguirre: The Wrath of God.






Can - Mother Sky



Perennial family favourites Can kick out the jams with this dense rocker. Great timpani!




Cluster - Sowiesoso



Friends of Brian Eno, but don't let that put you off. A beautiful ambient classic, good for a day of Pims and boating..




Harmonia - Deluxe



My all time classic Krautrock track, a collaboration between Cluster and Neu, this positively shimmers like the gorgeous sun on the album cover.




Neu - Hero



The afore mentioned Neu invent punk two years before the fact. All their songs sounded the same but all their songs were good.




La Düsseldorf - Silver Cloud




As you may have noticed all these bands seem to share members and these guys are no exception being Neu's drummer's side project. Neu's guitarist was also in Kraftwerk briefly ...confused? Well just enjoy the monster synths and glam guitars of this strange Euro hit. Also a big inspiration for David Bowie who declared them "the sound of the future".





Tangerine Dream - Zeit



Before they started churning out Hollywood soundtracks the Tang's were space rock in excelsis. This brooding collaboration with Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke (see what I mean about incestuous relationships?) could soundtrack either 2001 or Dark Star. From the heady days when there were no instruction manuals..




The Cosmic Jokers - Galactic Joke



This "band" came about when Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser had the bright idea of rounding up a load of German rockers, sticking them in a studio and feeding them loads of acid. All well and good but he then took the sessions away with him, edited it all into three albums worth of aimless riffing and released under a made up name of his invention. The first guitarist Manuel Göttsching (from Ash Ra Temple) knew about it was when he heard some intriguing music playing in a record shop, inquired who it was only to be shown the album cover with his face staring out of it.




Amon Duul II - Archangel Thunderbird



Sounds like a deranged mix of Queens of the Stone Age with Geddy Lee on vox..Big foot stomping music when out of your mind on beer and speed.




Moebius & Plank - Tollkühn




Proto techno or wot?? Moebius from Cluster and Conny Plank, legendary producer of Kraftwerk, Can and Neu, join together for summit meeting of years-before-their-time electronic pioneers.





maningrey



"Sehr Kosmisch!" > read the full post

Hip Hop - Don't Stop - 5 Classics

A random collection of my fav Hip Hop tracks for your pleasure and comment...





Jeru The Damaja - Da Bichez

Righteous rasta Jeru meets DJ Premier for shimmering ode to ermmm...bitches. Whatever you think of the sentiments Jeru has a cool lopsided flow but it's Premier's narcotic sleazy backing, based on a snippet of The Crusaders sauntering "Whispering Pines", that steals the show, I love the shimmering cymbals. The main sample is at 1.12 but the subtler shivery verse sample is at 2.49.







Pete Rock & CL Smooth - The Basement

Named after the dank cellar Pete Rock used as his studio this really does sound like an off the cuff funky jam but is in fact the usual intricate mixture of clashing ambient sounds Rock is know for during this period. Heavy D steals the show with his angular but swinging rant. Riff sampled a classic ragga song below.






Da Lench Mob - Freedom got an A.K

Ice Cube found the perfect mix between punk rock piss taking and massively funky disco in this monster production for the Mob. He also wrote most of the lyrics so after this career peak i suppose Anaconda was just around the corner...Check out the original groove from Jimmy "Bo" Horne's "Dance Across The Floor".





Jungle Brothers - Jimbrowski

This quirky non to subtle track about a giant penis is one of the simple unsung pleasures on the Jungle Brothers excellent first album. Related to De La Soul but sparser and more zany its lasted better than the better known 3 Feet High and Rising. Based on the massive drum riff from a cool Funkadelic track.







Cannibal Ox - Scream Phoenix


Prog Rap? These guys were reasonable rappers but it was the eery futuristic backing which put them over the top. Along with Philip Glass these guys also sampled Yes and made it work, no small achievement.














"Hip Hop - Don't Stop - 5 Classics" > read the full post

Noise Annoys: A Taste of DNA...And Other No Wave Delights

I just re-bought a CD by DNA, avant garde punk titans, and it opened up a world of unlistenable New York "No Wave" bands whose only mission statement was to annoy...






In the early 80's a group of bands sprang up who thought punk was growing soft, if indeed it had ever been that tough to begin with. With a foot planted in both the art and the music world these artists blended the two disciplines until music and performance were intrinsically linked in their presentations, as much influenced by Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns as The Ramones and Television. If this sounds all very pretentious it is worth remembering that they all produced an invigoratingly unholy racket as well as talking bollocks...Most considered such punk icons as Patti Smith to be as boring as the mainstream bands that early CBGB's punk was meant to replace such as The Eagles. The No Wave acts consumed drugs, partied and rocked as hard as Led Zeppelin, it's just their music was about a primitive NOW rather than goblins and wizards.

Egg headed pretention-meister Brian Eno picked up on the emergent scene and decided to document it in the epical album "No New York" which gathered together four of the most original groups and spread the nihilistic message. It was originally going to feature 10 acts but featured artist James Chance persuaded Eno that his band and friends were the only people worth featuring proving that rock star egomania thrived even in this defiantly "non rock" environment...

Below are a few of the best No Wave bands, "best" is a loose term, most of them are equally irritating and one of our tutors said DNA should be renamed DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). A good place to get an idea of the world that spawned this underground phenomenon is the film Downtown 81. This is a rambling mildly fictionalised day in the life of graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat who wonders about spray painting, looking stoned and running into gigs and rehearsals featuring a selection of No Wave acts including DNA, James Chance, members of Blondie pretending to be a No Wave band, Debbie Harry as a fairy godmother and oddly Kid Creole....

The live clips below are mainly from this film and give you an idea of the quirky energy of No Wave.

DNA



James Chance and the Blacks



Mars



Teenage Jesus and the Jerks




A compilation was released by Soul Jazz called New York Noise which gives a good round up of the main players if you want to investigate further...

maningrey



"Noise Annoys: A Taste of DNA...And Other No Wave Delights" > read the full post

The Metal Militia

Nice nipple plates Missy, you truly are a Heavy Metal goddess....Maningrey has been shaking out the dandruff to a selection of classic metal, here are my current faves...and some disappointments...





For some reason I have found myself downloading a load of old metal albums, this is not a genre I have had much experience with but having almost exhausted all the other types of music out there from D n'B, Dubstep, Best of Eurovision ballads and Bag Pipe Dreams play the Moody Blues, I decided to see what all the tattooed 'alternative" hoards find in this racket. I was surprised at how many had stood the test of time and the ones that proved a damp squib.

Metallica - Kill Em' All

Am I the only person who finds later day Metallica either idiotic ("Of Wolf and Man") or dull as two ditches ("The Thing That Should Not Be")? While it was Alchoholica's ability to add new textures to thrash that soon put them streets ahead commercially of the Anvils of this world, it also made them a little tepid. Heavy metal is only exciting when it is completely unaware of its own idiocy or the band are young enough to get away with lyrics such as " No life till leather, We are gonna kick some ass tonight" and sing it with conviction. This blazing debut is rough around the edges with a wasp in a coal mine production but pound for pound it is the most rocking set they ever produced, no acoustic ballads about war, no southern rock boogie, just 9 rifftastic tunes about leather, phantom lords and more leather..Like Judas Priest in no way gay..This little beaut takes no prisoners and in "Seek and Destroy" features two of the best riffs of all time...Motorbreath is still shit however....




Slayer - Reign in Blood

This albums has everything wrong about metal, lyrics about goblins and wizards (sleeves?),no tunes, hundreds of solos and bad hair...but it all works! The best way to describe this album is simply to list the best bits, like a classic comedy it has moments that are constantly quotable...One to embalm and keep!

The cover is awesome, combining the worst bits of Bosch and Bruegel this is a Hell that makes you want to run to your mummy and swear you will never ever be bad again. Also features two giant penises which nobody noticed at the time due to all the gore...

The opening scream like a cat caught in a dishwasher or balls in a zipper.

The opening lyrics to "Necrophobic":"strangulation, mutilation, cancer of the brain, limb dissection, amputation, from a mind deranged!"

The way Tom Araya growls "Enter to the realm of Satan!" in "Altar of Sacrifice" and manages to make it sound scary rather than cheesy. His shouting through out the whole album basically invented the Death Metal "grunt", much more fun than all that Axl Rose style wimpy falsetto.

The way he sings "leave you ripped and torn" in "Reborn".

The rain at the beginning of the final track "Raining Blood".

The two best metal riffs of all time in "Raining Blood" intro and "Angel of Death" middle section.




Soundgarden - Superunknown

After wading through lots of grunge "classics", including the holy scripture that is "Nevermind", I found that only "Superunknown" was actually still any good. Nirvana sound like Bryan Adams, Alice in Chains are always out of tune, Pearl Jam were always shite and Mudhoney, well I just didn't even bother to download any...Everything else Soundgarden did was poor but for some reason the planets aligned and their freaky mixture of Sabbath, psychedelia, unusual scales and colossal vocals were hung onto actual songs and riffs you can whistle as you deliver the milk. Everything is so murky and layered that strange cool bits keep popping out of the mix at unexpected moments like the the squiggly bass riff in the middle of "My Wave". While technically proficient players they use their skills to investigate interesting avenues rather than just showing off, songs are in odd meters with alternative tunings and possibly due to Kim Thayil's Indian heritage the riffs and solos are sitar like with disorientating effects. In fact its only due to Chris Cornell's viking wail that people got this album, everything else sounds like its was destined for cult bargain bin obscurity.




Faith No More - Angel Dust

Faith No more have a lot to answer for; funk metal, baggy shorts, synths in rock and nu metal...But "Angel Dust" is a genuinely weird album on reappraisal. Following on from the huge hit "Epic" which wedged their whiteboy funk, operatic vocals and pomp rock keyboard sound into the top ten of every frat hour beer bust in the US forever, Mike Patton seized control of the band and took the newly christened (by me) "Paedophilia Rock" to the charts. "Paedophilia Rock" is a combination of singing songs in as many styles as possible while avoiding a melody and making you think of old Amish kiddy fiddlers, surrounding this with musical accompaniment from a haunted circus, making every lyric about how depressed and useless Americans are but somehow making it all rock!

All the bands that tried to follow this approach were horrible, Korn, Incubus, Limp Bizkit so yet another crime is added to the list above but in its way this album is more progressive than Kid A as it made experimental music something teenagers wanted to jump around to while Kid A was bought by people who read the Wire..



Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Megadeth were always seen as Metallica's wannabe idiot brothers, mainly because Dave Mustaine was booted out of the first line up of Metallica and his voice was even more grossly unpleasant than even Jemini at Eurovision. But I have to say if you like your songs massively long and complex with lashings of twiddling guitar solos and lyrics bashing politicians, evil wizards and organised religion then this could be the album for you! The solos just keep on acomin' kids, each more technically perfect and more Middle Eastern sounding than the last, oddly reminding me of punk legend's(and kings of alternative cred) Television. It's interesting how some bands fly under the radar of "cool" (admittedly having a grinning skull man on your album covers does not help) while producing music genuinely without boundaries while ultimately dull musical semi literates like Beck gain critical hosannas. The almost Public Image post punk meets King Crimson prog after reading "The Sheltering Sky" racket of "Hangar 18" is the best example...




Pantera - The Great Southern Trend Kill

This is just a raging bracing blast of hate, that makes the Tube journey to and from work entertaining. The singer looks like an extra from "Oz" (best TV series eva my friends), the guitar player is a mountain troll and they played in front of a southern flag like a KKK convention but Pantera made the long slow trudge from awful glam metalers to marginally less awful south rawk thrashers to textured metal gods, best shown on the creepy song below...




System of a Down - Toxicity

Rabble rousing Armenian Americans these guys avoid the sophism of so many alternative metalers (stand up Korn) and plunge headfirst into agitprop finger pointing. Merrily ignoring the ironies of being corporate slaves while bitching about their White Collar American paymasters, a paradox that other "political" bands such as The Clash and Rage Against the Machine never resolved, SOAD take pot shots at all and sundry while never forgetting they are entertainers first and foremost and there to open up teenagers minds not burn cars. Weirdly reminiscent of some of Zappa's more poppy outings this album is lean and wiry where Soundgarden are thick and sludgy, just one guitar a fistful of crazy time changes and strange chords sprinkled with a voice that says "NO" in a really catchy way.

When this was No1 in the States during September 11th it was perfect cultural symmetry.




Here are two "classic" albums that did not make the cut...

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

I know I know, hard to believe! But for such an influential album apart from the obvious classic singles it drags like a stone. Stiff rather than funky every riff sounds like a rip of "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin, the guitar solos that we all raved about are in fact really annoying, why not just get a turntables rather than making your guitar sound like one? The killer blows to this albums status are the vague lyrics and terrible rapping, Zac De La Rocha makes Mike Patton sound like Slick Rick and compared with the razor sharp poetry of System of a Down it comes across as rather ill informed and juvenile.

Guns and Roes - Appetite for Destruction

First of all "Welcome to the Jungle" does rock and I even enjoyed "Paradise City" (apart from the 'orible synth part) but the rest?? Boring boogie woogie rock like an Aerosmith tribute act, nasty misogynistic lyrics and of course that ear splitting fires alarm screech. Slash does play some fancy solos but you can't help thinking of the ridiculous self parody he is now. Ultimately this is not a million miles away from such tripe as Poison or Motley Crue, G n'R just happened to be better musicians so you get drawn in to their murky world, but take a step back and its a little depressing.

maningrey




"The Metal Militia" > read the full post

Essential Disco Comps

Found a couple of cool compilation series that are worth checking out for DJs...





An extensive and attractively packaged series of rare disco compilations have come out under the pleasant appellation Disco Discharge. There are eight titles in the series ranging from the roots of house to Eurodisco. To be honest a lot of it is horrendous but there are sampling opportunities aplenty and many excellent vintage synth sounds on display. My favs are the ones dealing with the German and French side of things, amazing almost prog rock tracks that drone on for 16 minutes or more, disco as a cross between Giorgio Moroder and the smash robots. Usually utterly fantastic until some awful German porn star comes along with a heavily accented whine and starts going on about taking you to "the mystic hills of Katmadu"...



Another good set are the 12"/80's series, again variable quality but some interesting insight into the development of technology and mixing fads. There are a few types of these but I think the ones that are in this series are the best quality.


maningrey



"Essential Disco Comps" > read the full post

Superbreaks!

A friend of mine introduced me to a great series of compilations...




The Superbreaks series covers a vast range of rare funk, soul and hip hop that have been sampled over the years. A friend of mine got into them after searching in vain for the Ernie Hines track below, as sampled by Pete Rock, for ages...



Another couple of killers from the range:










maningrey



"Superbreaks!" > read the full post

Power Pop Mix Tape

I've been going through a power pop phase, possibly due to the weather, mostly because it makes the hellish tube journey surrounded by grunting sweating cow people bearable on the way to werk...OK OK I'm going a bit Son of Sam, it's this dam heat!




Here is a classic ten track comp of the very best of Power Pop for you...

The Raspberries: Go All The Way

Dig the furry bouffants, Revlon trousers and double necked "axe", Snap your fingers to the groovy graphics and wah wah intro music of the show, revel in the "recorded in a coal mine" sound...Everything you want from a 70's talk show and power pop band! The Raspberries were the rocking grandpappies of all things power and popping providing its basic ingredients namely an Anglocentric love of crunchy guitars from The Small Faces and The Who, a layering of American street corner Doo Wop, short catchy tunes as a reaction against the meandering heavy rock soloing of the time and a desire to get back to when music was fun and made for drinking cokes at the drive in, copping a feel in your dad's caddy...and big big hair and collars..

These guys started with a bang and a top 10 hit as "Go All The Way"'s saucy lyrics escaped the censors in a wash of sweet harmonies (yes they had censors back then kids), released four killer albums that went unbought, then imploded after the brilliant last gasp hit of "Overnight Sensation". The list of classics is endless: "On The Beach", "Tonight", "Ecstasy", "I Reach For The Light"....

Cheap Trick: Candy

After the Raspberries, power pops greatest band, and biggest sellers. In fact the only reason they are not the top pick is their later decent into hair metal horribleness in the 80's with No1 power ballad "The Flame"...Mutated the basic template for PP by beefing up the guitars and warping the previously innocent fun and girls lyrical imagery with tales of pedophiles and gigolos. This song takes suicide as the cheery template but wraps up in jangle and harmonies until the chilling final line. Da Trick also had the amusing conceit of playing up the discrepancies in looks between the dorky guitarist and overweight drummer, who would feature on the back covers of the albums and the interchangeable dreamboat singer and bassist. On one album the dreamboats lounge on custom choppers under the albums title, on the back the uglies are riding tiny midget peddle bikes..

The DB's: Bad Reputation

Coming a bit after power pops 70's peak, The DB's meshed the same basic ingredients as their predecessors but replaced the Doo Wop elements with a gnarly punky attack borrowed from GBGB's band Television. However they still worshiped The Beatles, unlike punks, and were generally superior players, again unlike punks, leading to a new wiry version of classic PP. This song also enshrines the classic PP lyrical subject, the cool girl who is always just out of reach to the inevitably specky singer.

The Knack: Baby Talks Dirty

Oh god should this go on the list?? The Knack had a huge hit with "My Sharona", one of the biggest singles of the 70's which sold like an album. They were then subject to a brutal backlash dubbed "Knuke The Knack", instigated by a press disgruntled by their perceived lack of integrity (who cares?) and sexist lyrics (fair enough). This was the follow up single after the campaign and it scraped the top 40, if The Knack were trying to make up lost ground this unpleasantly catchy ode to picking up teenage sadomasochists was the wrong way to go about it. The gasping mewls in the verses are teeth grindingly obscene, while the fact that singer Doug Feiger looked like a deranged insurance salesman and sings with such lipsmacking relish only completes the package...there is also a negative side...

Tom Petty: Century City

Dear old Tom Petty, was there ever a more silky blonde barnet? The fact that Tom spent his entire career trying to cross Dylan and The Byrds and ends up being ripped off by The Strokes (compare "Last Nite" with "American Girl") only shows how wrong he got it, but in a good way. All of "Dam The Torpedoes" is great but this is the most rocking song, I enjoy the fact that admitting to enjoying artists like Petty will make certain of your friends look at you like you are a rapist, which makes the guilty pleasure all the guiltier and more pleasurable...

Todd Rundgren: Couldn't I Just Tell You

Amid the egocentric jumble of philly soul, garage rock, show tunes and in-jokes that was Todd's classic album "Something/Anything" lay a brilliant stab at ringing power pop. This is a period where even John Lennon referred to Todd as "God" and he just seemed to churn out classic songs, it all went horribly wrong of course...Growing bored with the ease with which he had mastered classic songwriting Todd yearned for greater complexity and formed the hideously misnamed prog band "Utopia", the hits dried up and he ended up joining The Cars...There is a moral here I feel..

The Cars: My Best Friend's Girl

Which brings us to..The Cars! Another basically awful group, like The Knack, who seemingly sold their souls to the devil for the ability to churn out toe tapping new wave. The down side being that most people would rather be flayed alive than admit to liking them. Tall beaky singer Ric Ocasek produced some pretty cool bands like Suicide and Bad Brains so he can't have been all bad but The Cars were a cold hearted hit machine like The Police. It is odd that they were so popular as the underlying sound is of 60's garage rock and bubblegum pop but played by machines who will one day turn on their creators and destroy them...this is their best track before the fear and loathing of "Drive"...

The Nerves: Hanging on The Telephone

These guys produced one four song EP and then broke up so there is not much to tell other than that it contained this track, subsequently a massive hit for Blondie. While the version by Debs and the boyz is fine the jittery clammer of the original is much more effective in conveying the paranoia of the lyric. Two of the band went on to form cult acts The Plimsouls and The Beat (US version not the ska band), while the guy who wrote this vanished into probably very wealthy obscurity...

Blondie: Will Anything Happen

...But not before penning this song which Blondie also covered on the classic "Parallel Lines" album. A fraught tale of unfullfilled rock n' roll dreams, ambition and failure, the song works so well because Deborah Harry seems to have lived every word she sings. Great guitars as well from Chris Stein and Frank "the Freak" Infante, never really mentioned on all time best guitar band lists the Blondie guys could really churn out a racket for a supposed "pop" act.

Big Star: September Gurls

Maybe the definitive power pop anthem, Big Star's first two albums basically invented 90's indie, for better or worse..Needless to say in the era of Emerson, Lake and Palmer their albums sold virtually nothing but their influence is huge. One of the few bands who never recorded a bad song and broke up while still good.

Other bands who have produced at least one classic that fits the power pop template include:

The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action

The Records: Starry Eyes

The Replacements: Alex Chilton

Joe Jackson: Is She Really Going Out With Him

The Pretenders: Kid

Badfinger: No Matter What

The Only Ones: Another Girl, Another Planet

Maningrey

"Power Pop Mix Tape" > read the full post

The Itchiest Rhythm Guitar licks...volume 1

Like Pedro the pooch there are some guitar licks that just make you want to scratch behind the ear with your hind claws...read on...






In Indie music the rhythm guitar player is the friend of the bass player and does what he is told, see Bone Head from Oasis...strummy strummy AAAA GGGG DDDD all the way to the bank...In Funk and Disco rhythm guitar is a vital itch inducing ingredient to a funky brew, here are me n' Pedro's favs...


Sly and the Family Stone - In Time

Great opening lick from the under rated Freddie Stone on a track that was a favorite of Miles Davis. His spidery interlocking riffs can be heard to best effect on the albums "Fresh" and "There's a Riot Going On".

See also: " You Can Make It If You Try".




James Brown - Funky President

You could pick virtually any classic period James Brown track and find a wealth of brilliant guitar work but this is my favourite!

See also: "Brother Rapp/Ain't It Funky Now" medley live.

Talking Head - Moon Rocks

David Byrne was always an overlooked player, despite being nominally a punk group his playing had little of the bar chord blasting of his contemporaries instead drawing inspiration from such source as Bohannon, Fela Kuti and Parliament.

See also: "Found A Job".





The Temptations - Shaky Ground

Great scene setting riff that sounds like it was played on barbed wire, then leads into one of the best bass riffs of all time. In an attempt to make the suit wearing Temptations catch up with the new psychedelic funk movement of Sly Stone their producer simply hired Funkadelic, the freakiest and most spaced of the competition to play the backing track. The guitar player is Eddie Hazel, the bassist Billy Nelson.

See also: "My Girl" intro riff.




Fela Kuti - Zombie

Talking of Fela Kuti here is a groove as long and strong as a python and guitars as needling as a tsetse fly. All of his music features crazy guitar that sounds like the meeting point between Funkadelic, Captain Beefheart and Steve Reich minimalist music.

See also: " Lady".






Cameo - Freaky Dancing

Before they became a synth driven new wave act Cameo had ten members and vied with the mighty Ohio Players for the worst hair and silliest vocals in funk. None of this would have mattered if they had not also cut some shaggy haired monsters from the funk lagoon like this..

See also: "Rigor Mortis".





Norma Jean - I Like Love

The shimmering opening riff is the work of legendary producer/songwriter and session player Nile Rodgers. Having worked with Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran, he also produced this little know gem from a former singer with his band Chic.

See also: "Lost in Music".




Betty Wright - Clean Up Woman

Perennial classic riff, one of those songs, like "Satisfaction", where the riff rather than the song is what people remember.

See also: "Shoorah Shoorah".





Chaka Khan - Fate

Infuriatingly I can't find this track on Youtube so you will have to make do with the introductory guitar sample as robbed by Stardust. Spotify the original as its great!

So also: "Clouds".





Average White Band with Ben E. King - Star in the Ghetto

Again no joy on Youtube, but I first heard the opening lick as used by N.W.A on "If It Ain't Ruff", see below, and then spent years looking for what it was(before Whosampled came into my life) then stumbled onto it on this obscure AWB collaboration..

See also: "Cut the Cake".






Main Ingredient - California My Way

As sampled on "Things Done Changed" by Biggie Smalls, an absolute killer cut...

So also: the rest of the album "Euphrates River".





Jean Knight - Mr Big Stuff

Nice 'fro and trouser suit Ms Knight! I feel sorry for Mr Big Stuff, I bet he didn't get any good loving that night...Classic riff sampled by Beastie Boys and Heavy D (the real life Mr Big Stuff) and a hundred others..

See also: no more hits for Jean unfortunately so we will go for the similar "Shame, Shame, Shame" by Shirley & Company.




Defunkt - Make Them Dance

Cult band who virtually invented "punk funk", they played their quirky free funk in mainly punk and new wave clubs in New York, they were lumped in with the "No Wave" movement rather than funk, and had lyrics written by a Hungarian poet in exile from Communism, three things that probebly held them back. Amazing guitars though, one of them is Vernon Reid later in Living Colour but don't hold that against them...

See also: two great albums on one CD, "Defunkt-Thermonuclear-Sweat"





Can - Moonshake

Lovely German disco from the band that specialised in lovely German disco...and horrible prog rock freakouts...brilliant weaving guitars and a middle that sounds like someone playing with a lighter and one of those bird calling thingermyes...

See also: "One More Night".




Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up

Sounding weirdly not unlike the Can track above, the first half of this disco epic is dominated by the almost avant garde musings of James Jamerson's bass line, then at about the 7.00 minute mark the dueling guitars come in. Gaye himself say "don't stop, this is the best part of it" as the players wiggle around the groove. As none other than Lou Reed said "most players would give their left ball to play like that", I wouldn't necessarily go quite that far, maybe just my little finger?

See also: "I Want You".





Mandrill - Fencewalk

Some righteous swaggering wah wah action from these latin funk masters, like Santana but ermmm good...Managed a rare fusion of funk and rock that actually worked. Would also make any list for most shrieking guitar solo...

See also: "Ape is High (and so and I!)




Slave - Slide

This is a bit of a cheat actually, while it features a master class of slinky interlocking rhythm riffs its the mental guitar solo that so unexpectedly leaps from the funk strumming that makes your hair stand on end!

See also: "Drac is Back".




Betty Davis - He Was A Big Freak

Girlfriend of both Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, she introduced Jimi to Jazz and Miles to rock...nuff said...

See also: "Your Mama Wants You Back"




Jimmty "Bo" Horne - Dance Across The Floor

Got this from the sampled used in Da Lench Mob's "Freedom Got An AK", one of my all time fav rap tracks. Written by KC of Sunshine Band fame...

See also: everything else he did was rubbish so go for "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the Sunshine Band.







Maingrey with help from Pedro de Dawg

"The Itchiest Rhythm Guitar licks...volume 1" > read the full post

"this guy... he ain't my kinda guy"

Buddy Rich was a drum legend, maybe the best that ever lived, but he was also a man with an explosive temper...





...members of his band used to record Rich flying off the handle when they made errors in performances or even, legend has it, for wearing a beard...



...and as an example of his drumming prowess...





maningrey







""this guy... he ain't my kinda guy"" > read the full post

How to Destroy Angels - free download

Trent Reznor's newest project is How to Destroy Angels, and there's a 6 track EP free to download!

Just head here and register to get the download link.

"How to Destroy Angels - free download" > read the full post

Funky Monks...

For some reason I'm going through a big 80's electro funk phase, read below for my top trax in this much malagined but influential genre (the pic is a talk box by the way, as used by Zapp)...



1) Heartbreaker by Zapp



The titular woman treats Rodg so bad, she sold his precious collection of talk boxes to buy jewels, she said his glittery suit and PTM combo was naff and then she ran off with Prince who had a bigger vocoder..but Rodger doesn't mind as she gave him the inspiration for this glittering electro novelty...odd how contemporary it sounds?





2) Tonight by Kleeer



More pornographic squelching synth pads and oily slightly creepy vocoder...sort of the sound track to a pedophile convention in Dusseldorf..introduced to me only a week ago by a student.




3) Glide by Pleasure



The slappathon to end all slappathons...



4) Single Life by Cameo



Jolly lyrical meditation on swinging, but the eery music sounds completely grim however like Larry Blackmon just caught the clap from a lady boy...




5) Busting' Out by Material



Relentless urban art funk by Bill Lazwell and former Labelle singer Nona Hendryx..they were told by a deranged millionaire to make a hit disco record and spent loads of money producing this racket, it sank like a stone...




6) Ghetto Life by Rick James



The lizard like Mr James looked like a cross between Cher and Tutankhamen but that did not stop him producing a classic album in Street Songs, this being the best cut..



maningrey


"Funky Monks..." > read the full post