Miriam Linna tops Norton Records' Caravan Of Stars Revue @ Horseshoe tonight!

Don't miss ex-Cramps drummer Miriam Linna rock the mic at Norton's summer spectacular. 

If you're feeling as though this unseasonably cool summer has passed you by without a single boffo rock 'n' roll blowout, the thoughtful folks from New York's Norton Records are in Toronto to help make up for the entire lacklustre season with one sweaty night of lowdown shakin' thrills.

That's right, the Norton Records' Caravan Of Stars is stopping at The Horseshoe this evening for knockout quadruple bill featuring the decidedly demented Ding-Dongs duo of Mark "BBQ" Sultan and Bloodshot Bill, blues-wailin' Brooklyn bad boys Daddy Long Legs, Toronto's own garage-psych goomers The Green Rays, topped off at 11:30 pm by a stunning vocal turn by Norton Records honcho (and A-Bones/Cramps drummer) Miriam Linna crooning tunes from her way overdue solo debut Nobody's Baby.

The epic extravaganza will be hosted by celebrated Norton co-chief Billy Miller and feature an appropriately floor-shaking selection of vintage vinyl artefacts curated for event by DJ Chico. The heavy duty hunching gets underway promptly at 8:30 pm and tickets are just $12 at the door. Check out the swank video for Miriam's My Love Has Gone stylishly directed by Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones followed by a couple of Daddy Long Legs performance clips and a hot number from The Ding-Dongs.

Be sure to grab a copy of Miriam's super sweet solo debut Nobody's Baby at the merch desk.

See High Klassified @ Day Off Festival, September 6

Expect the unexpected from Laval DJ/beatmaker High Klassified at T.O.'s Day Off Fest at Muzik Pool Bar.

Happy Birthday Ai Weiwei

LINKS
site http://aiweiwei.com/
twitter https://twitter.com/aiww
Art Gallery Of Ontario Ai Weiwei: According To What?
The Guardian Ai Weiwei prepares for Blenheim Palace show but must keep his distance
Smithsonian.com Is Ai Weiwei China's Most Dangerous Man?

See guitar slinger deluxe Albert Lee @ Hugh's Room tonight

Watch Albert Lee rock the socks off Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe recording at Eden Studios in 1979.

Boredoms vs. Mekons

The Boredoms' 1998 version of the Mekons' 1978 classic Where Were You? is titled 7 (Boriginal).

Watch the new Bad News Boys video for We Are The Champion starring Max Danger!

The album We Are The Champion by Bad News Boys (aka King Khan & BBQ) should be out next year.

"This was the first song we wrote for the album. Not necessarily the best song on the record, and not a single, but where our heads were at during the recording."

Mark 'BBQ' Sultan - vox, guitar, drums
King 'Bama Lama' Khan - vox, guitar

"Video-film created with vivid fascination in quality with the finest equipment. Another year arrived, Zondervan Bronté, film-man and musical video by Zonder, starring Zondervan Bronté, Stan Suntache, Sarah B, Sarah C, "Rashtah", tells the story of and how, through a drugged dose of tea from pioneer leader with revenge as vigilante priest. Tramp, through doors opened in third-eye of his mind-head, sees taste of fine-taste of leader of alter-ego wealth and prosperity. What will the outcome? Follow story, addict of outstanding music harmony, melody, assembled by finest THE BAD NEWS BOYS."

"A love story... of hate."

After a long, hard hiatus, it was love that finally resurrected this pioneering rock'n'roll legend.

"It's deep love and commitment to right the wrongs and bring the kids what they really need, what they deserve: true, passionate, overtly-erotic, heart-melting ROCK and ROLL!!!" - King Khan

"We give up the ghosts. If we open that portal on stage or on vinyl and you choose to step through it, we can give you release. We're like a budget Thai massage done with Ex-Lax fingers." - Mark Sultan (BBQ)

http://www.facebook.com/badnewsboys
http://badnewsboys.tumblr.com

Tia Brazda sings Billie Holiday @ The Jazz Bistro, Tuesday

Tia Brazda follows up her swingin' Cabin Fever EP with the "Hard Luck" single in September.

Feliz Compleaños Beny Moré!

One For The Weekend: Vee Vee

"I'm Your Fool" is one of Vee Vee's two northern floor-fillers on Detroit's Movement label from 1972.

Happy Birthday Dale Hawkins!

Remembering the late great Dale Hawkins who recorded much more than "Susie Q."

The Heliocentrics meet Orlando Julius

Nigerian saxophone legend Orlando Julius’ collaboration with versatile UK psych-jazz combo The Heliocentrics – who have previously worked with Mulatu Astatke and Lloyd Miller – is one of the most adventurous Afrobeat projects to come along in a while. The fully collaborative album Jaiyede Afro (Strut) finds Orlando Julius reaching back to his funky roots, revisiting a few early compositions and creatively repurposing James Brown's In The Middle with hard-pounding beats provided by Malcolm Catto.  The Jaiyede Afro album, set for release September 8, can be pre-ordered now on iTunes. Check out the track “Buje Buje” below followed by the entire Super Afro Soul album which Orlando Julius cut with his Modern Aces group back in 1966 and Strut reissued in 2000.

Orlando Julius discusses the origins of the song Buje Buje
“My parents used to tell us stories, folk tales and there were a lot of different stories involving tortoises – they often made tortoises sound like human beings. There was one about a tortoise who had a farm and I always thought, ‘how could a tortoise have a farm?!’ This tortoise is working on his farm and a pretty lady is passing by. So, he cuts his foot with his cutlass and pretends that he is injured so that he can get her attention. The lady comes over and tries to help him and he says, ‘I can’t work with this cut. Could I climb on your back to go to get help?’ She agrees, he climbs on her back and she starts to walk. He says, ‘I’m too far up, could you push me further down your back?’ Finally, the lady realises that he is up to no good, she is very unhappy and tells him to find his own way. Once she has left, the tortoise continues to play this trick on other women.

“I made the story into a song and brought human nature into it – good people and bad people. The song teaches us not to copy something that is bad, fake or deceptive.”

Peter Zaremba's "Golden Horseshoe of Horrors" tour hits Toronto Friday

The Fleshtones' Peter Zaremba will be joined by members of Crummy Stuff for a boffo bash at The Sister.

Whaddya mean you don't know Khun Narin

The debut album from Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band is being released by Innovative Leisure August 26.

It all started over a year ago with the caption “MINDBLOWING PSYCHEDELIA FROM THAILAND”—the Youtube video that accompanied this headline on the Dangerous Minds Blog was exactly that. Here was a group of Thai musicians being filmed parading through a remote village hundreds of miles away from Bangkok playing some of the heaviest Psych known to mankind out of a crazy homemade soundsystem. Who were these men and how on earth was this not some unearthed archived footage from the ‘60s or ‘70s?! The Youtube clip quickly made its rounds amongst music enthusiasts leaving many in the Western hemisphere to question who was this group of contemporary Thai villagers loosely named Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band.


Six months after that first encounter with Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band, a Los Angeles music producer named Josh Marcy used Facebook and some unlikely interpreters at his local Thai restaurant to get in contact with the band and inquire whether they’d be interested in having him travel to their town to record their music for a global audience. At first the band was naturally suspicious, but
through subsequent interactions the group’s leader and namesake Khun Narin (also known simply as “Rin”) warmed to the idea of having Marcy come visit. And so began the journey of uncovering who these mysterious men from an obscure blog post actually were.

Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band’s membership is always in rotation and spans several generations, from high school kids to men well into their 60s. A standard engagement has the band setting up at the hosting household during the morning rituals, playing several low-key sets from the comfort of plastic lawn chairs occasionally working in a cover version of a foreign classic (The Cranberries ‘Zombie’ is a recent favorite) while the beer and whiskey flow freely. After a mid-day banquet, they start up the generator and lead a parade through the community to the local temple, picking up more and more partiers along the way.

The music they play is called phin prayuk. The first word refers to the lead instrument, a 3-stringed lute known as the phin. Beer, the phin player, uses a string of Boss effects pedals, including a phaser, distortion and digital delay to get his sound. He also builds his own instruments, installing Fender pickups into hand-carved hardwood bodies, with elaborate mythical serpents adorning the headstock. The band takes pride in their custom PA system, as well as an imposing tower of 8 loudspeaker horns atop a huge bass cabinet.

To capture the essence of the group and their sound, Marcy recorded th em in their natural environment by doing a proper field recording, literally in a field outside the city of Lom Sak, in the valley of mountains that form a rough border between Thailand’s North and Northeast. The result was 40 minutes of hypnotizing psychedelia filled with heavy drum breaks that sounds like something RZA would sample for a Quentin Tarantino film. Pre-order the album right here.

Happy 80th Birthday Michael Naura!

Mr. Scruff @ Wrongbar, August 20

Manchester DJ Andy Carthy aka Mr. Scruff takes you on a tour of his eclectic record collection.

Happy Birthday Lil' Son Jackson!

Here are a couple of Imperial label swingers from the late great blues mechanic from Tyler, Texas.

One For The Weekend: Raymond Scott

Here's the visionary Raymond Scott at home in 1955 and a swingin' tune from two decades prior.

Detroit Punks: John Brannon

Celebrating John Brannon's birthday with his episode of the Detroit Punks documentary. 

Happy Birthday Oscar Peterson!

Remembering the jazz piano great with his soundtrack to Norman McLaren's Begone Dull Care (1949).

Back To School with Blowfly @ Smiling Buddha, Sept 18

Blowfly lands in Toronto Sept. 18. After watching Nardwuar's Blowfly interview, check out his follow-up here.

Byron Coley issues rare Jack Ruby no wave recordings on vinyl

"Back when Thurston and I were working on our book No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980 (see book launch clip below) about the New York No Wave scene, a key mystery we hoped to unravel was the one surrounding the band Jack Ruby. I knew George Scott had been in the band, along with Chris Gray, but we were never able to nail down any hard info. Lydia Lunch and Rudolph Grey both had blazing memories of their weirdness, originality and power, but no one could turn up anything solid. 

"Time passed, the book came out and – chuffed by the fact we'd name-checked the band in the book – some of the participants began to emerge. Weasel Walter got his hands on a great tape of material which he released on CD (most of which is reprised on the limited run Jack Ruby - JACK RUBY vinyl edition), and bits and pieces of the band's story continued to roll out. 

"They'd actually formed in 1973 with Boris Policeband on electric viola and Randy Cohen on Serge synthesizer. The two pretty much constant members were guitarist Gray and singer Robin Hall. They'd done a demo for Epic. The original band never played live, etc., kind of crazy. Then a batch of old tapes was found in Pennsylvania. We sent them to Don Fleming who transferred and catalogued them for us, and we were totally blown away by what he was uncovering. 

"The songs 'Hit and Run' and 'Mayonnaise' are the original line-up recorded in a small Times Square Studio. Boris left after that and they recorded the Epic session as a trio. That's 'Bored Stiff,' 'Bad Teeth,' and 'Sleep Cure.' The other songs were recorded by the later, performing version of the band with Chris and George and another (all but anonymous) person or two. They played five live shows, featuring crawling dolls, buzzing dildos and the cracked Rocket From The Tombs sort of sound they'd evolved. The last one was in November '77 at Max's with Vivienne Dick's then-boyfriend, Stephen Barth on vocals. And the shit may be lo-fi at times, but it is genuinely fucked and a real pleasure to hear nonetheless. Volume 2 coming soon." – Byron Coley

Hit and Run


Bored Stiff


No Wave book launch 26/09/2008

Whaddya mean you don't know Local Traffic

Nawlins psych blast "Time Gone To Waste"  appears on the Angel Dust Psychedelia  comp.

Hear the new single by The Melvins' Dale Crover featuring Lou Barlow!

The sleeve for "United Fruit" was created by Tom Hazelmyer who's releasing the single at the end of August.

Happy Birthday John Ellison!

Celebrating the 73rd birthday of Hamilton's John Ellison (right) with an overlooked Soul Brothers Six gem.

Pieta Brown vs. Mark Knopfler

Pieta Brown's cover of Before Gas and TV is off her forthcoming Paradise Outlaw album due Sept 30.

Pieta Brown's Tour Dates:

# with Iris DeMent
* with Greg Brown 

September
19 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Music Box Supper Club #
20 – Ann Arbor, Mich. @ The Ark #
21 – Chicago, Ill. @ City Winery Chicago #

October
3 – Cedar Rapids, Iowa @ CSPS
10 – Minneapolis, Min.. @ The Dakota
11 – La Crosse, Wisc. @ The Root Note
17 – Stoughton, Wisc. @ Stoughton Opera House
18 – Chicago, Ill. @ Schuba’s
23 – Nevada City, Calif. @ Miner’s Foundry #
24 – Berkeley, Calif. @ Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse #
25 – Napa, Calif. @ City Winery Napa #

November
14 – Cambridge, Mass. @ Passim’s
15 – Northampton, Mass. @ Parlor Room
16 – Portland, Maine @ One Longfellow Square
19 – Vienna, Va. @ Jammin’ Java *
20 – Sellersville, Pa. @ Sellersville Theater *
21 – Wilmington, Del. @ World Cafe Live @ The Queen – Upstairs *
22 – Beacon, N.Y. @ Towne Crier Cafe *
23 – New York, N.Y. @ City Winery NYC *

December
13 – Iowa City, Iowa @ The Englert (w/ The Pines)

Black Milk x BadBadNotGood = Now or Never

Black Milk's forthcoming album If There's A Hell Below is out October 28 on Computer Ugly.

Massey-Harris @ Duke Of Gloucester, Sunday

Gord Cumming, Scott Bradshaw and the rest of the Massey-Harris crew hit the stage at 10 pm. 

Happy Birthday Willie Henderson!

Before They Were Famous: Joni Mitchell

Having a bowling alley in the basement paid off for Joni Mitchell shown here with her high school bowling team.  

Boris @ Lee's Palace, Thursday

Japan's double-neck axe wielding power trio Boris promise to wreak havoc at Lee's Palace tonight.

Watch Rich Aucoin's nutty animated video for Yelling In Sleep

Yelling In Sleep is off Rich Aucoin's Ephemeral album due Sept 9. Check out Joel Mackenzie's clip below.

Happy Birthday Airto Moreira!

Here's an overlooked gem Airto Moreira cut with Brazil's influential Quarteto Novo back in 1967. 

Video of the Week: Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra's High Speed Train

"High Speed Train" is off the Newcastle crew's new Talk About The Weather album out now!

Boukman Eksperyans @ Harbourfront, Sunday

Boukman Eksperyans lead a free celebration of Haitian roots culture at the WestJet Stage tonight at 9:30 pm.

Happy Birthday Garth Hudson!

Celebrating the birthday of The Band's multi-instrumentalist with a New Jersey performance from 1976.