Happy Birthday Kid Congo Powers!

Cheers to Kid Congo Powers on his 67th birthday! Here are a few interviews, some performances and videos worth checking.  

One For The Weekend: Nic and the Narcs

Nic & The Narcs just shared "Nobody Move" off their Crimewave album out April 3. See 'em with Shredded Beef at The Cameron House on April 11 at 4 pm. 

From Nic & The Narcs HQ...

"ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID OR WHAT CAUSE OUR NEW SINGLE DROPPED TODAY LIKE CHARGES AGAINST CROOKED COPS LOL BUT SERIOUSLY, ITS CALLED "NOBODY MOVE" AND ITS NOT ABOUT TORONTO AUDIENCES, IT'S ABOUT FUCKIN' ROBBING SHIT AND WE ARE PUTTING THE FULL ALBUM OUT APRIL 3. RELEASE SHOW AT THE CAMERON HOUSE ON APRIL 11."

Watch the Nic & The Narcs' videos for "Nobody Move" and "Crimewave" along with a live performance at the Horseshoe Tavern from 2024. 

UK psych-folk duo MILKWEED, LostWorldSounds @ BSMT 254, March 31

Enigmatic UK experimental folk duo MILKWEED make their Toronto debut with LostWorldSounds at BSMT 254 on Tuesday, March 31. Check the clips!

Here's the scoop from Not Dead Yet...

Over the past year, the world has finally started to catch up to MILKWEED. The anonymous duo has spent the last several years mining literary rarities and dismantling the code wrapped within them, finding new futures for stories unheard. Self-described as ‘slacker-trad,’ many are starting to see it for what it is - rethinking of tradition, dissolution of old modes and a true blur between the found and the created. Where do stories come from and who gets to tell them? All wrapped in gauzy loops, damaged percussion and distant melody. Watch the accompanying video for MILKWEED's "Folklore 1979" created by Greg Butler and Oh Kestrel Films below. You can find MILKWEED's three releases, 2025's Remscéla, 2024's Folklore 1979 and 2023's The Mound People, on Bandcamp right here.

They’ll be joined by Toronto’s own psychedelic folk wanderer, Michelle Breslin aka LostWorldSounds, who uses field recording and sound collage to recreate the feelings of the world around them. Michelle Breslin's releases, including 2025's Stranger Butterflies – which seems well suited to MILKWEED – are available on Bandcamp right here. Watch a LostWorldSounds performance below.

Advance tickets for Not Dead Yet's presentation of MILKWEED's Toronto debut with LostWorldSounds at BSMT 254 (254 Lansdowne) on Tuesday, March 31 at 7 pm are $24.94 and available right here. 

Whaddya mean you don't know The Modulation Corporation

Here's a Texas garage ripper from The Modulation Corporation featuring Billy Wilson and his San Marcos pals from 1967.  

R.I.P. Singer/songwriter Chip Taylor, 1940-2026

Sadly singer/songwriter and professional gambler Chip Taylor has passed away at the age of 86. He'll be greatly missed. 

LINKS
Chip Taylor Obituary

Remembering producer Tom Wilson on his birthday

Remembering important but unjustly overlooked producer Tom Wilson with a discussion of his work, some Sun Ra outtakes from 1956 and more. 

Writes Irwin Chusid...

Tom Wilson was a legendary record producer in the '50s and '60s. He produced four Dylan albums, and the first Simon & Garfunkel, which was a commercial failure. So Wilson added a rock backing track to the duo's acoustic recording "Sounds of Silence," and helped invent folk-rock. 

He signed and produced the first two albums by the Mothers of Invention and the Velvet Underground. A decade earlier, after graduating  Harvard in 1955, he founded Transition Records and produced the first albums by Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Donald Byrd. He later produced Nico's first, and co-produced the Soft Machine's debut. In 1978, at age 47, he died of a heart attack. 

In 1967 and '68 the charismatic Wilson hosted a free-form radio program called "The Music Factory," sponsored by MGM-Verve. The debut episode of that series, gone from radio since 1967, will be aired on my WFMU program... listen here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/68065 

More info about Wilson at ProducerTomWilson.com. 

Listen to a Tom Wilson Jazz Sampler put together by Marshall Crenshaw who, despite setbacks due to the pandemic of 2020 and the passing of director Sacha Jenkins last May, is continuing work on his Tom Wilson documentary – right here. Watch a discussion of Tom Wilson's work with Richie Unterberger, an Rock's Back Pages interview with Marshall Crenshaw talking about his Tom Wilson research, followed by some Transition-era Sun Ra studio outtakes and a couple of 1967 clips from Tom Wilson's short-lived radio show The Music Factory. Read the Tom Wilson feature "The Man Who Put Electricity Into Dylan" by Michael Watts (Melody Maker, January 31, 1976) right here. 

Before They Were Famous: Andrew Hill, Malachi Favors, Pat Patrick, Von Freeman

Before signing to Blue Note, Andrew Hill cut a record with his Chicago pals Pat Patrick, Malachi Favors & Von Freeman in 1956.