Happy Birthday Vivien Goldman!

Cheers to musician, journalist and educator Vivien Goldman on her day – here are a few clips worth checking. 

Watch Kamasi Washington's video for Street Fighter Mas

Kamasi Washington's new album Heaven and Earth is out now as a 4 LP set with a bonus 5th LP containing an extra 35+ minutes of music.

Happy Birthday Lloyd Maines!

Celebrating the birthday of Lubbock legend Lloyd Maines with a 1980 clip performing Fingernails with Joe Ely. 

Fishin' musician Chris Coole combines obsessions for The Road To The River

Lonesome Ace Stringband picker deluxe Chris Coole has recorded some tunes about fishing for a good cause.

Here's Chris Coole's statement about his new project
"I wanted to let you know about a new project that is very special to me. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit of a nut for fishing. It's something I've done my whole life, and there's always been a connection between music and fishing to me. Over the years, on several different albums, I've recorded music that has in one way or another been inspired by fishing and the places I fish. I've always wanted to put them all together in one place, and add some newer ones that I hadn't had the chance to record...the result is Road to the River - A Collection of 14 Tunes and Songs Inspired by the Fishing Passion.

"The album features 9 previously recorded tracks, and 5 brand new ones, and is a benefit for the Elk River Alliance (ERA). Based in Fernie BC, the ERA is a community-based water group that aims to connect people to the Elk River ensuring it is drinkable, fishable and swimmable for future generations. 100% of the profits from this album will go directly to the ERA. Fernie has become a home away from home for me when I'm on the road and there's nothing I like more than fishing in the Elk River and its tributaries. I know some of the folks who work with the ERA and I respect their dedication and inclusive approach to protecting the water in a way that serves the whole community (not just, but including, fisherpeople).

"You can read more about the project, hear the album, and hopefully order a copy (or download) off the website: www.road2theriver.com. This is the only place to get it, and once again, all the money from your order goes directly to the ERA. If you know have any friends that you think might be interested in supporting this project, please forward this email along.

"I think this collection is some of my best work. I'm joined by some amazing musicians such as Andrew Collins, Ben Winship, John Showman, Chris Quinn, Erynn Marshall, Arnie Naiman, Brian Wicklund, Max Heineman, Burke Carrol, Brian Kobayakawa, and Andrew Downing, just to name a few. I hope you'll take the time to check it out!" – Chris Coole

For more information about Chris Coole and his upcoming gigs, go to https://www.chriscoole.com. Check out "Deer River" below, of which Chris says "The Deer River (as it is locally known) flows into Belmont Lake, and is where I like to be in May when the pickerel (walleye) season begins."

Happy Birthday Jeffrey Lee Pierce

Remembering the late great Jeffrey Lee Pierce on his day with a memorable performance at The Haçienda in 1983. 

Langhorne Slim, Jeremie Albino @ The Velvet Underground, Wednesday

Langhorne Slim will be playing songs from Lost At Last, Vol. 1 tonight. Watch a couple of recent performances below.

Jeremie Albino

DJ Muggs & MF Doom unveil Death Wish b/w Assassination Day single

Muggs & Doom's "Death Wish" features Freddie Gibbs with Kool G. Rap on "Assassination Day" – listen below. 

Guided By Voices to play Lee's Palace on October 25

Tickets will be on sale June 29th via Ticketfly for GBV's triumphant return to Toronto in October. Check the clip below. 

Nicky Thomas vs. The Guess Who

The Nicky Thomas tune credited as "Lonely Feeling" is actually the Guess Who's "No Sugar Tonight" – you're welcome Randy Bachman. 

Ry Cooder @ Massey Hall, Tuesday

Watch Ry discuss his new album The Prodigal Son and play a couple of songs from it.

Krautrock legends Faust play Toronto's Jam Factory on July 15

German Krautrock legends faUSt (formerly known as Faust) will be embarking on their Vagabondages in North America tour in July 2018! faUSt is an experimental rock band which came out of the Hamburg music scene in the late sixties. Formed in Wümme in 1971, faUSt were the first band to have the term “krautrock” applied to their music, and to the genre that ensued. German for “fist,” and also the protagonist of Goethe's eponymous play, faUSt were one of the first bands to use the recording studio as an instrument. Their live appearances were explosive (literally), as the pinball machines and jack-hammer legends detail.

Featuring founding member Jean-Hervé Péron, faUSt's North American tour begins on July 11th in Chicago. There will be line-up changes and guest additions at various points of the tour – founding member and drummer Werner 'Zappi' Diermaier will join the ensemble in Brooklyn on July 22 to the end of the tour. Also featured with the band is guitarist Amaury Cambuzat.

faUSt will ride again the highways of your continent, up and down from Chicago/IL to Montreal/QC, across and back, from Brooklyn, NY to L.A., CA, spreading the good words of DadaKrautRock.

Here all musicians involved in the tour... well, almost all because we do have “last-minute guests”...

In the North East faUSt will be: Jean-Hervé Péron aka art-Errorist (voc, strings, wind and tools), Amaury Cambuzat (guit, voc), Tim Barnes (drums and sounds). In Chicago we will share the stage  with  Bobby Conn (guit, voc), Monica Boubou (voc, violin) and Josh Johannpeter (drums). In Brooklyn we will meet up with Braden Diotte (bass and sounds)... and  Zappi, yeah! That's “ze big man wiz ze big nose!” on drums, voc, tools and metal.

But wait: on the West Coast faUSt will fuse with the German/Spanish/Croatian all female dada-punk trio Ernsthafte Angelegenheiten.

"Each day, each gig a new adventure, like vagabonds on tour... Rund ist schoen!!!" –  Jean-Hervé Péron

faUSt line-ups:
July 11:
Bobby Conn (vocals and guitarist), Monica BouBou (vocals and violin), Josh Johannpeter (drums), Amaury Cambuzat (guitar and vocals), Tim Barnes (drums and sounds),  Jean-Hervé Péron ((vocals, strings, wind and tools)

July 12-21:
Amaury Cambuzat, Tim Barnes, Jean-Herve Peron

July 22:
Amaury Cambuzat, Tim Barnes, Braden Diotte (bass and sounds), Werner 'Zappi' Diermaier (drums, vocals, tools and metal), Jean-Hervé Péron

July 25-29:
Ernsthafte Angelegenheiten (all-female punk trio), Amaury Cambuzat, Braden Diotte, Werner 'Zappi' Diermaier, Jean-Hervé Péron



faUSt tour dates:
July 11 - Chicago (IL) - The Empty Bottle
July 12 - Cinncinatti (OH) - Woodward Festival
July 13 - Detroit (MI) - El Club
July 14 - Hillside Festival / Guelph (ON) / Canada
July 15 - Toronto (ON) / Canada - Jam Factory
July 16 - Montreal (QC) / Canada - BAR LE RITZ PDB
July 17 - Portland (ME) - Space Gallery
July 18 - Boston (MA) - Brighton Music Hall
July 20 - Philadelphia (PA) - Underground Arts
July 21- Baltimore (MD) - Creative Alliance
July 22 - Brooklyn (NY) - Murmrr Theater
July 25 - San Francisco (CA) - The Chapel
July 26 - Felton (CA) - Don Quixote's Music Hall
July 28 - Los Angeles (CA) - Summer Happening / Social Shamans / The Broad
July 29 - San Diego (CA) - Casbah

In May 2017 faUSt released a new album “Fresh Air”; a partially live CD, some tracks were compiled from the band's gigs in Los Angeles, Austin and Jersey City in 2016. To purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Air-Faust/dp/B06XR82XV9/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1

For more information:
http://faust-news.blogspot.com/
http://www.art-errorist.de/

Watch Akalé Wubé perform a Sound Check Jazz Session

Akalé Wubé on tour

 29-06-18 - STUDIO DE L’ERMITAGE (Paris)
 20-07-18 - STUDIO DE L’ERMITAGE (Paris)
                 w/ Girma Bèyènè, Sammy Yirga
 21-07-18 - AFRICAJARC FESTIVAL (Cajarc) w/ Girma Bèyènè
 22-07-18 - LES NUITS DE FOURVIERE (Fourvière)
                 w/ Mahmoud Ahmed, Girma Bèyènè, Éténèsh Wassié
 27-07-18 - STUDIO DE L’ERMITAGE (Paris)
                  invite Qwanqwa
 28-07-18 - JAZZAPASSA FESTIVAL (Perpignan) w/ Girma Bèyènè
 02-08-18 - FESTIVAL FIEST'A SÈTE (Sète)
                 w/ Mahmoud Ahmed, Girma Bèyènè, Éténèsh Wassié
 05-10-18 - STUDIO DE L’ERMITAGE (Paris)
 10-11-18 - STUDIO DE L’ERMITAGE (Paris)

Fake Humans LP release @ The Tranzac, Saturday

Carl Didur and Colin Fisher present the uplifting sound of their new Fake Humans album with Blisk and Mark Hundevad. 

The name Fake Humans for the duo (yes, it’s a duo, even though sometimes it seems an entire orchestra) formed by Colin Fisher and Carl Didur may really be the most appropriate one, considering that any atempts to define the music they play and even to list their instruments are inhuman tasks.

Usually, they’re presented as a “spiritual free jazz” project, pointing you immediately to a Pharoah Sanders or an Alice Coltrane reference, but if you may recognize somewhere the saxophone of the first and the harp of the second, the music takes you directly to something very far from jazz. Is it space rock? Exotica? We’re never sure, and it doesn’t matter. The same way we’re never sure if we just heard a guzheng, a flute, a bass guitar, an analogue synthesizer, a drum kit or some phantomization of those instruments by way of magnetic tapes, in a sort of figuration of musique concrète, if something like that can exist considering music as the only non-representative art. Once again, you won’t care. By then, you’re imersed in a sound world that becomes addictive.

The right sound world to honor the journals written by Philip K. Dick which inspired this record and gave its title, “Exegesis”. You’re on another planet now, in the middle of a strange forest where human names like “jazz” or “exotica” mean nothing, and where a monkey can be a bird and a flute something else. Sap maybe, dripping from the giant trees?

If you enjoy what you hear in the soundclip below, head over to Grasshopper Records (1167 Dundas St. West) and grab a copy of Fake Humans' Exegesis LP while you still can.

The Mystery Lights' new single "Thick Skin" out now

You'd better move quick if you wanna get the limited candy apple red version of the new Mystery Lights seven-inch.

Daptone Records has just released the latest platter from Brooklyn's own Mystery Lights on their Wick subsidiary. The a-side, Thick Skin, finds the boys moving away from a tradition '60s garage feel towards an angular, late '70s no-wave sound - but with a driving beat and verbal assault that brings groups like MC5 to mind. Coupled with scratchy/noisy bits that tip the cap to the more experimental side of The Velvet Underground, The Mystery Lights masterfully blend bluesy riffs, dorky farfisa, and tough rhythms to create a sound that's wholly their own. And the lyrics? Simple: Don't be a cry baby.

On the flip is In the Darkness which shows the more introspective, soulful side of The Mystery Lights. With guest vocals by Coley Gold, Mike laments about finding comfort in the darker side of life, while Coley reassures our protagonist that there is light in all things dark. But hey, sometimes it feels good to feel bad. The limited-edition candy apple red version is available right here. Watch the Mystery Lights perform Thick Skin live at The Owl Sanctuary in Norwich below.

Charles Gayle, WAYS @ Arraymusic, Friday

Happy Birthday Eric Dolphy

Remembering jazz great Eric Dolphy, who died in 1964 at 36, with the sweet Last Date documentary from 1991. 

Simply Saucer launches new single at The Baby G, Thursday

Simply Saucer's "Lo-Fi Garage Symphonette" comes backed with "Alien Cornfield" on their new Label Obscura seven. 

Here's the scoop from Saucer pilot Edgar Breau:
"Excited to be performing live with Simply Saucer at the Baby G in Toronto this Thursday, June 21st along with Blonde Elvis and DJ Twig Turnbull. It has been a while since we've recorded a new single, going on 40 years or so but it is what it is, the future has arrived and here we are again putting out new vinyl.
"On stage with me is a stellar crew consisting of phenom, Kevin Christoff on bass guitar, the fabulous Colina Phillips on synth, percussion and vocals, multi talented renaissance man, Mike Trebilcock on guitar and Skully theremin and the creative hurricane, Mr. Jesse Locke on drums.
"Our new songs Lo-Fi Garage Symphonette and Alien Cornfield will be available courtesy of Label Obscura. Our show is dedicated to one of Toronto's greatest musicians, our friend and colleague Ed Roth who is on a sabbatical from the band at present, but looms large on our recording, playing his magical keyboards. Looking forward to our blastoff at Baby G. Hope you can make it out to the show!" Have a listen below.

Vintage Toronto: Raving Mojos

Here's some 1982 footage shot by Paul Fox capturing Toronto's unsung legends, the Raving Mojos at the Turning Point. 

Raving Mojos in Mannish Boy from mark westin on Vimeo.

One For The Weekend: Jimmy Delphs

Seems like the right time for this Detroit soul swinger from Jimmy Delphs, written and produced by Popcorn Wylie. 

B-Side Wins Again: The Mist

"Life Walked Out" is on the flipside of The Mist's rare Twinight single, The Girl In The Window. 

Check out Swamp Dogg's video for "I'll Pretend" and "Answer Me, My Love" audio clip

"I'll Pretend" and "Answer Me, My Love" are off Swamp Dogg's new album Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune out Sept 7.

Dehd opening for Flasher @ The Baby G, Wednesday

 Chicago's whumpin' Dehd (see below) join DC's Flasher for post-punk throwdown at The Baby G. Doors open at 8 pm.

Lost John Coltrane recording with classic quartet due June 29th

John Coltrane's session from March 6, 1963 – featuring three unknown compositions – will be issued as Both Directions At Once.

Happy Birthday Howlin' Wolf

Remembering the great Chester Burnett on his day with a smokin' live performance of "Don't Laugh At Me"

That time Pharoah Sanders and Sonny Sharrock tore up Frankfurt

Here's an audio clip of the full concert at the Deutsches Jazz Festival on November 1, 1992.

One For The Weekend: Sinkane

Here's Sinkane performing "U' Huh" which shoulda been a massive hit off the Life & Livin' It album from last year. 

Whaddya mean you don't know The Mighty Duke

Here's the synth-enhanced "Freedom In Africa" off The Duke's Harps Of Gold album from 1980.

Hot Snakes @ The Phoenix, Thursday

Watch John Reis and company knock out "Six Wave Hold-Down" and "I Need A Doctor" at The Troubadour in L.A.

Wooden Shjips @ The Horseshoe, tonight

Check out the video for "Already Gone" off the new Wooden Shjips album V out now on Thrill Jockey. 

Happy Birthday Curtis Mayfield!

Remembering Curtis on his day with "Underground" and "Hard Times" which he wrote and produced for Baby Huey.  

Dong Hong vs. Tan Shun Cheng

Listen to 70s Singapore pop idols go head-to-head in a battle royale over the classic "You Are A Heartless Person"

R.I.P. Eddy Clearwater

Remembering Mississippi-born blues guitar great Edward Harrington aka Eddy Clearwater with a 1959 swinger.

That time Mitch Easter joined The Velvet Crush on Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Listen to Paul Chastain, Ric Menck and crew play "Hold Me Up" off Teenage Symphonies To God from 1994. 

One For The Weekend: Theophilus Woods

Grenada-born calypsonian Theophilus Woods recorded his double-entendre gems under the alias Small Island Pride.