Happy Birthday Robert Pollard!

Raising a glass to Bob Pollard on his day with a new Guided By Voices tune "Cohesive Scoops" off the 100 Dougs EP.

A Wes Anderson-style Halloween treat from SNL

Edward Norton playing Owen Wilson playing a Wes Anderson character. Happy Halloween!

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Midweek Mixdown: Andy Votel & Jane Weaver's Halloween special

Andy & Jane play creepy tracks by Jean-Michel Jarre, Vampires Of Dartmoore and others below. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Gaye Su Akyol

Gaye Su Akyol's new album Istikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir (Consistent Fantasy Is Reality) is available right here.

Carole King decides the time is right to revisit "One"

Carole King just released an updated version of "One" which she originally wrote back in 1977.  Watch the clip below.

Carole King on "One"

"I was going to play a few songs at a women’s luncheon at which nine female candidates would introduce themselves.  I kept thinking about the song “One” for which I had written both music and lyrics in 1977. It’s a song about wondering what we can do when we see injustice, and it expresses my long held belief that we - all of us humans - are most effective when we come together as “One” and stand up for our values such as dignity, inclusivity, equality of opportunity, and caring for our most vulnerable neighbors.  Drawn to the piano like pins to a magnet, I was inspired to write some new lyrics for the last chorus to reflect my feelings about the 2018 election.   And then I wanted to record it.

"My manager quickly booked Studio B at Henson Recording Studios.  Studio B at A & M (as the studio was known in the 1970s) was where I recorded most of Tapestry.

"Studio B was still intensely magical for me on that October Saturday when I recorded “One 2018.”  More details about that later.  Meanwhile, I’m releasing the recording (a) for the sheer joy of sharing it, and (b) in the hope of inspiring more people to participate actively in the coming election by voting and bringing other people who value humanity, truth, and love above fear, lies, and hatred."  – Carole King


Credits: 
Video Directed by Alexandra Snow
Videography by Sofia Danielson and Alexandra Snow
Produced by Louise Goffin & Sherry Kondor
Recorded at Henson Studios by Keith Greitlein, Second Engineer Brian Rajaratnam
Mixed by Dave Way
Mastered by Ian Sefchick at Capitol Studios
One - Words and Music by Carole King

R.I.P. Freddie Hart, 1926-2018

Remembering honky tonk hero Freddie Hart with some Compton Town Hall performance clips from 1958-59. 

Kikagaku Moyo @ Lee's Palace, Sunday

Kikagaku Moyo will be presenting the music from their new Masana Temples album tonight at Lee's Palace. 

“Masana” is a fictional word created by Kikagaku Moyo to express a Utopian feeling; an existence where everything can interact harmoniously and offer inspiration and understanding. Their fourth album Masana Temples (out now on Guruguru Brain Records) radiates this vision, architecting a vibrating world that isn’t confined to the known limits of what came before it.

Kikagaku Moyo progressed from early days in Tokyo’s experimental scene to traveling the world with their mind-bending sounds, exploring different facets of psychedelia on each new release and blowing minds with a live show that was just as searching as their records. The shifting dimensions of Masana Temples are informed by various experiences the band had with traveling through life together, ranging from the months spent on tour to making a pilgrimage to Lisbon to record the album with jazz musician Bruno Pernadas. The songs came together in the wake of the band breaking up the communal house most of them had shared in Tokyo, with some members relocating to Amsterdam, and others moving to different parts of Japan. Transitioning from being based in the scene they had roots in to scattering around various locales made for an even more enhanced understanding of how mystically connected the sum of their parts were when the band reunited to record new material. The music is the product of time spent in motion and all of the bending mindsets that come with it.

The band sought out Pernadas both out of admiration for his music and in an intentional move to work with a producer who came from a wildly different background. With Masana Temples, the band wanted to challenge their own concepts of what psychedelic music could be. Elements of both the attentive folk and wild-eyed rocking sides of the band are still intact throughout Masana Temples, but they’re sharper and more defined. Without sacrificing any of their experimental impulses, songs are more composed and cohesive. Pernadas’ bright production meets with nearly telepathically locked-in performances, on both lazy cloud-like jaunts like “Nazo Nazo” or fuzzed-out expeditions like lead single “Gatherings”. Drummer/vocalist Go Kurosawa, guitarist/vocalist Tomo Katsurada, bassist Kotsuguy, sitar and keyboard player Ryu Kurosawa and guitarist Daoud Popal Akira act as a unit, with an intuitive attention to space and dynamics that could only come from years of playing together in every imaginable setting.

More than the literal interpretation of being on a journey, the album’s always changing sonic panorama reflects the spiritual connection of the band moving through this all together. Life for a traveling band is a series of constant metamorphoses, with languages, cultures, climates and vibes changing with each new town. The only constant for Kikagaku Moyo throughout their travels were the five band members always together moving through it all, but each of them taking everything in from very different perspectives. Inspecting the harmonies and disparities between these perspectives, the group reflects the emotional impact of their nomadic paths.

Coming together in a way more deliberate than the beautifully floating improvisations of their Stone Garden EP or the sometimes hushed dreamstate of 2016 album House In The Tall Grass, Masana Temples is focused and clear in its vision in a way that feels unlike any of Kikagaku Moyo’s earlier sounds. Listen to the song "Gatherings" below.

Blandine + Fatoumata Kouyaté + Mabinty Sylla @ Lula Lounge, Sunday

Blandine + Fatoumata Kouyaté + Mabinty Sylla

Blandine
A talented singer, composer and dancer, Blandine blends traditional and popular sounds from the Congo with afrobeat, R&B, jazz and pop. Having worked as a vocalist for highly-renowned artists such as Mbilia Bel, Afrisa International, Awilo Longomba, Quartier Latin, Simply the Best, Natalie Makoma, Mélanie Durrant and Donne Roberts, Blandine has released a number of singles under her own name. The latest Rockyna, is a return to her rumba roots and a collaboration with Congolese veteran musicians, Nyboma Kanta and Lokassa Ya Mbongo.

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and raised in Lome, Togo, Blandine developed a passion for singing at an early age and was exposed to a variety of music from Africa, Europe and America. She apprenticed with jazz and classical choirs and in Canada studied at York University. She has performed at major festivals in Ontario, Quebec, New York, Colombia, Europe and Africa.





Fatoumata Kouyaté and Mabinty Sylla
Descended from a long line of griots, Fatoumata Kouyaté is a balafonist, singer, percussionist, founder of Groupe Djéliguinet et ses Enfants, member of the National Theatre Troupe of Guinea and Amazones Women Drummers. The balafon is sacred Guinea tradition and traditionally only played by men. The first was made by the King of Susu (former African empire in the 11th century) and was given to the griot Balafaseke Kouyaté. The Kouyatés have been an important family of storytellers through the generations. Fatoumata is a direct descendant and one of the first African women to play the balafon, breaking an age-old taboo of the Manding Empire.

Born in Guinea, Mabinty Sylla is a professional dancer, choreographer and instructor of West African traditional dance. She began her dance training in Conakry with Mamadouba Camara, the first soloist for the Ballet Djoliba and former soloist for the Ballet Africains; two of West Africa’s most respected traditional groups. She also studied and performed with Ballet Tayeli before moving to Toronto in 2008. Mabinty has performed in many festivals and cities across Canada and teaches dance in schools, community programmes and private workshops for individual and groups in the city.




Note: dinner reservations guarantee seating at Lula Lounge.
Visit https://www.lula.ca/ or 416-588-0307 to reserve.

R.I.P. Sonny Fortune, 1939-2018

Remembering the saxophone great with a rare clip of Sonny with Weldon Irvine at the Village Gate in 1975. 

Watch Alex de Laszlo's 1978 short film for Human Fly by The Cramps

Catl's 4th Annual Halloween Bash w/ Volk @ Dakota Tavern, Saturday

It may be tough to top Catl's Skele-Runt™ costumes but you can try. Check out their "I'm On" video and Volk's "Honey Bee" clip below. 

Catl congratulates the winners of this year's best costume contest – Venus Fly Trap and Bed Crumb. 

Peter Brötzmann's lessons learned from a life in jazz

Saxophone great Peter Brötzmann spoke as part of the Red Bull Academy in Berlin recently.

Eli "Paperboy" Reed's Roll With You album gets deluxe reissue treatment

Although Eli "Paperboy" Reed made his debut with the self-released Walkin' and Talkin' (and Other Smash Hits) CD manufactured with a loan from his parents in 2005, his first full album of original material was Roll With You initially released in 2008 by Q Division. Now 10 years on, the limited-run vinyl version of Roll With You is changing hands for $60 so the smart folks at Yep Roc decided to mark the 10th anniversary of Reed’s break out album with deluxe remastered CD and vinyl versions, complete with exclusive content, packaging, and bonus tracks. Get Reed's Roll With You directly from Yep Roc right here. Listen to Walkin' and Talkin' (and Other Smash Hits) over here. Watch the clip of Eli and company performing "Stake Your Claim" off the album.



Check out the video for Eli "Paperboy" Reed's latest single "99 Cent Dreams" featuring Big Daddy Kane after the tracklisting.

Original Tracklist:
Stake Your Claim
Am I Wasting My Time
It’s Easier
The Satisfier
Take My Love With You
I’ll Roll With You
She Walks
I’m Gonna Getcha Back
Won't Give Up Without A Fight
(Am I Just) Fooling Myself
(Doin’ The) Boom Boom

Bonus Content:
Outside The Record Hop
Love Is A Five Letter Word
I’m Gonna Getcha Back (Original Demo)
Watching The Late, Late Show
It’s All Wrong (But It’s Alright)
Am I Wasting My Time (Original Demo)
We Belong Together
Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday
Won’t Give Up Without A Fight (Original Demo)
One Sweet Hello
The Boom Boom (Original Demo)
Roll With You (Original Demo)

Real Sickies, Enchanters, DJ Chico @ Duggan's Basement, Friday

Edmonton's Real Sickies are joined by Toronto's own Enchanters and DJ Chico for a pre-Halloween frolic in Duggan's dungeon. 

One For The Weekend: Franco Micalizzi

Just in time for Halloween, here's Franco Micalizzi's creepy "Dimitry's Theme" from Diabolica aka Chi Sei?

R.I.P. Tony Joe White, 1943-2018

Sadly, the great Tony Joe White died of a heart attack at his home in Leiper's Fork, TN on Wednesday. 

Tony Joe White's last studio album Bad Mouthin' was just released on September 28. You can get a copy right here. 

Makaya McCraven releases ambitious Universal Beings album

Beat scientist Makaya McCraven is back with his most accomplished work yet, Universal Beings out Friday.

Paris-born, New England-raised, long-time Chicago-residing Makaya McCraven has been at the forefront of genre-redefining movements in jazz since 2015, when he introduced the world to his unique brand of ‘organic beat music’ on the breakout album In The Moment. Culled, cut, post-produced & re-composed by Makaya using recordings of free improvisation he collected over dozens of live sessions in Chicago, through incubation & experimentation In The Moment established a procedural blueprint that he has since been sharpening & developing.

Honing this process on narrower sets of source material, Makaya followed up In The Moment with 2 mixtape releases – 2017’s Highly Rare, a lo-fi free-jazz-meets-hip-hop suite he made from a live 4-track recording, and June 2018’s Where We Come From (CHICAGOxLONDON Mixtape), which he produced using live recordings from London jazz hub Total Refreshment Centre (captured at a showcase called CHICAGOxLONDON).

Now, after 4+ years of refining his approach, Makaya McCraven puts forth an ambitious new work – Universal Beings (out Friday) – a culmination of concepts conceived by In The Moment, and his most elegant & articulated work yet.

Spurred by a desire to connect with old friends & new collaborators in places where similar spirits & diasporic jazz innovations are thriving, Makaya worked with International Anthem across late 2017 & early 2018 to setup intimate live sessions in New York & Chicago, and pop-up “studio” sessions in London & Los Angeles. Though the contexts and logistics were D.I.Y. (as they almost always are with IARC), the friends & friends-of-friends that Makaya was able to enlist are top tier players across the board. Some might call them super groups of “new” jazz musicians from their respective cities, with Makaya as a common denominator. But more importantly, collectively they make an inspiring display of the organic global inter-connectedness of the Black American music tradition in 2018.

Physically spanning national & international borders to create an album that musically spans deep spiritual jazz meditations, pulsing post-bop grooves & straight-ahead boom-bap, Makaya McCraven defies the simplifications of revisionism & regionalism while celebrating the sounds, settings & stories that define the provenance of his work. Universal Beings projects an all-encompassing message of unity, peace & power by embracing transcendence in all its expressions.

Tracks 1-6 (New York Side) recorded live @ H0L0,
Ridgewood, Queens, NY, August 29th, 2017.
Brandee Younger (harp)
Joel Ross (vibraphone)
Tomeka Reid (cello)
Dezron Douglas (double bass)
Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tracks 7-11 (Chicago Side) recorded live @ Co-Prosperity Sphere,
Bridgeport, Chicago, IL, September 2nd, 2017.
*Shabaka Hutchings (tenor saxophone)
Tomeka Reid (cello)
Junius Paul (double bass)
Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tracks 12-16 (London Side) recorded @ Total Refreshment Studios,
Stoke Newington, London, UK, October 19th, 2017.
Nubya Garcia (tenor saxophone)
**Ashley Henry (Rhodes piano)
Daniel Casimir (double bass)
Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tracks 17-22 (Los Angeles Side) recorded @ Jeff Parker's house,
Altadena, Los Angeles County, CA, January 30th, 2018.
Josh Johnson (alto saxophone)
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (violin)
Jeff Parker (guitar)
Anna Butterss (double bass)
Carlos Niño (percussion)
Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tank and the Bangas @ Danforth Music Hall, Thursday

Check out Tank and the Bangas' recent "Spaceships" video followed by a Tiny Desk Concert. 

Watch Anna St. Louis perform her song "Water"

"Water" is off the new Anna St. Louis album If Only There Was A River out now. 

If Only There Was a River is the first full-length studio album from Anna St. Louis. The songwriter, who originally hails from Kansas City, began writing songs after moving to Los Angeles five years ago and has previously released a cassette of recordings on Woodsist / Mare Records, appropriately titled “First Songs”.
On her proper studio debut, St. Louis, spreads her wings and expands on the promise hinted at on First Songs. To achieve that, St. Louis enlisted Kyle Thomas (King Tuff) and Kevin Morby to produce the album, which was engineered by Thomas in his home in Mount Washington, LA. The collection of 11 songs also features Justin Sullivan (Night Shop) on drums and multi-instrumentalist Oliver Hill (Pavo Pavo). While hints of influences like Loretta Lynn, John Fahey and Townes Van Zandt peek out of the corners of the songs, If Only There Was a River is not a nostalgic affair. Rather it marks the emergence of an artist fully coming into their own.

“Being from the Midwest means a certain tone is woven into ones’ fabric," says co-producer Kevin Morby of Woods fame. "And every now and then, someone comes along who has the power to convey that feeling in their cadence alone. And so all hail Anna St Louis, who lets us into her world of heartache, wonder and a never-ending, never-beginning dance with time. Her album is for the mystics, reminding us that the world is full of magic at every turn, if only we let ourselves see it. Sometimes just by stating a simple observation, St. Louis lets us in on an infinite truth that perhaps we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. To step into the world of Anna St. Louis is to step into a world where the heart leads straight to the soul and where everything is cloaked in beautiful mystery. If Only There Was a River is a record of longing - of a soul reaching for more."

You can order a copy of If Only There Was a River right here. Check out Anna's performance of "Water" below.

Henry Wesley vs. Al Green

Check out The Holy Providers' "Surely He Died (On Calvary)" after Al Green's "You Say It". 

Watch Takeo Moriyama's band perform East Plants in Tokyo

Takeo Moriyama's overlooked 1983 gem East Plants has just been reissued by BBE. Check out the performance clip.

Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart @ The Horseshoe, Wednesday

Here's Jah Wobble explaining his journey from Public Image Ltd. to Invaders Of The Heart and more. 

LINKS
The Guardian Jah Wobble Q&A with Dave Simpson from 2015
The Aquarium Drunkard interview from 2017

Ace/Kent mines Muscle Shoals for Fame Northern Soul

The 24-track Fame Northern Soul CD is slated for release on November 30.

Best-known for producing some of the greatest southern soul from their Muscle Shoals, Alabama studios, FAME was successful at any type of music they turned their hands to. The young writers and musicians were as keen to replicate the sound of Motown as they were to follow the innovative sounds of Stax.

Candi Staton

This CD spotlights uptempo southern grit with club classics like Clarence Carter’s ‘Looking For A Fox’ and Arthur Conley’s ‘I Can’t Stop; No, No, No’, but the label was also capable of chasing on-the-fours dance appeal, with James Barnett’s ‘Keep On Talking’ and Linda Carr’s ‘Everytime’. They could also ape the big city soul sounds of New York and LA with tracks such as Jimmy Hughes’ ‘I’m Getting Better’ and June Conquest’s ‘Almost Persuaded’. When the more produced sounds of the 70s arrived, they were more than adept as with George Soule’s ‘Midnight Affair’ (issued at the time by Sandra Wright) and their whole string of hits for Candi Staton.

Speaking of Candi, Ace’s access to the FAME vaults unearthed some amazing music and her ‘One More Hurt’ and Spencer Wiggins’ ‘I’m At The Breaking Point’ proved to be massive dancefloor hits when finally unleashed to eager fans at the start of this decade. Those were the stand-out discoveries but we have released around 300 previously unheard FAME tracks and there is dancefloor gold among the 25 or so compilations we have produced over the last eight years.

Highlights include the pumping rhythms of the fictitious Billy & Clyde (aka unknown artists) on ‘A World Of My Own’, Ben & Spence’s moody and atmospheric ‘Stone Loser’ and ‘It’s Not Safe To Mess Over Me’ – the pick of over 120 George Jackson tracks. Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces’ ‘Come Back Baby’ is a superb mid-60s vocal group groove, while the largely unknown Marjorie Ingram’s ‘In The Heat Of Love’ will appeal to sister soul fans.

Jimmy Hughes’ ‘It Ain’t What You Got’ could have been a Sam & Dave smash – his star was somewhat waning by 1968, but perhaps Art Freeman’s ‘Slipping Around With You’ was always destined to languish in discount record racks, until fresh-faced Brits liberated it and took it back to become the talk of provincial towns where Northern Soul was the byword.

Fame Northern Soul tracklisting
01  Keep On Talking - James Barnett
02  A World Of My Own - Billy & Clyde
03  It's Not Safe To Mess On Me - George Jackson
04  Slippin' Around With You - Art Freeman
05  It Ain't What You Got - Jimmy Hughes
06  Looking For A Fox - Clarence Carter
07  In The Heat Of Love - Marjorie Ingram
08  One More Hurt - Candi Staton
09  I'm At The Breaking Point - Spencer Wiggins
10  You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy - Ralph "Soul" Jackson
11  Almost Persuaded - June Conquest
12  I'm Getting Better - Jimmy Hughes
13  A Stone Loser - Ben & Spence
14  Holding On (To A Dying Love) - Spencer Wiggins
15  Midnight Affair - George Soule
16  Your Love Lifted Me - James Govan
17  I'm Qualified - Otis Clay
18  Love Light (Edited version] - Herman Moore
19  The Door To My Heart - Dan Brantley
20  I Can't Stop (No, No, No) - Arthur Conley
21  Baby Come Back - Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces
22  Everytime - Linda Carr
23  Ten Miles High - David & The Giants
24  Love Is A Wonderful Thing - Prince Phillip

That time Gene Clark sang Silver Raven on Japanese television

Here's Gene's 1979 performance of Silver Raven. 

Thelonius Hank skewers Doug Ford's cynical Buck-A-Beer scheme

Check out the clever Stompin' Tom-style rip of Premier Doug Ford courtesy of Toronto's own Thelonious Hank.  

John Prine and Bill Murray recall their early days

Whaddya mean you don't know the Mauskovic Dance Band

Amsterdam's hard swingin' Mauskovic Dance Band are releasing their "Things To Do" single on Soundway on Nov 23 – get it right here.

Hear Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe's "Die Neue Welt"

The new Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe collaborative album is available here. Check out "Die Neue Welt" below.

Happy Birthday Lux Interior!

Remembering The Cramps' mainman Lux Interior on his day with live clip of "Her Love Rubbed Off" from 1990.

Junior Parker vs. Danny White

Junior Parker and Danny White's version of Don Bryant's Cracked Up Over You both benefit from Gene "Bowlegs" Miller's arranging skill.  

The Tiki Collective @ Hugh's Room Live, Saturday

Jaymz Bee's Tiki Collective will hit the stage at 8:30 pm. Listen to Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo sung by Tyra Jutai. 

Happy Birthday Norman Blake!

Celebrating Norman's birthday with two versions of his Teenage Fanclub classic "Everything Flows" 

Autogramm, Comet Control, King Creep @ Monarch Tavern, Sunday

Evidently 80s new wave never went out of style in Vancouver. Check out Autogramm's latest below. 

Manchester's Dead Sea Apes reunite with Adam Stone for Warheads

Classic British pessimism and speculative dystopian fiction entwine artfully with morbid social commentary and a long piss-streak of bleak humour.

This is a claustrophobic and self-contained world where paranoid bunker mentality goes for a Pot Noodle with a faded society always teetering on the brink of collapse, ranting street-punk drops bad acid and space station fuses with bus station.

Standing their ground in a dirty jumbled junkyard in-between Robert Calvert’s schizoid Hawkwind monologues, Dead Kennedys stinging cranked-up racket, Gil Scott Heron’s rhythmic social polemic, Butthole Surfers deep-brain-fried psychpunk and John Cooper Clarke’s wry wit, Adam Stone leads Dead Sea Apes through a whistle-stop tour of planet Earth’s inevitable descent into political confusion and bureaucratic misery.

WARHEADS by Adam Stone & Dead Sea Apes is available from Cardinal Fuzz as a limited black and red swirl vinyl and standard black vinyl with insert and download code. Edition of 350. Have a listen to Warheads below followed by a clip of Adam Stone reading "In The Year 2039" with Dead Sea Apes live back in September, 2016.

Drake joins Travis Scott on a trip to Houston for "Sicko Mode" video

Check out the clip for Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" feat. Drake, directed by Dave Meyers of course.  

Tyler Childers, Ona @ Danforth Music Hall, Friday

Kentucky's Tyler Childers will be joined by West Virginia's Ona at the Danforth Music Hall. Doors open at 7 pm.

One For The Weekend: Chuck Berry

Here's Chuck Berry and crew swinging through "C'est La Vie" (You Never Can Tell) in Bremen, Germany in 1972.

Kool G Rap @ Revival, Thursday

Influential Juice Crew MC Kool G Rap makes a rare appearance at Revival tonight. Here's a recent Madrid show.  

B-Side Wins Again: Click Click

The boffo no wave whumper "Reanimation" was hidden on the flipside of Click Click's ace debut EP from 1982.

Midweek Mixdown: DJ Diddy Wah

Freakers Ball Roadshow @ The Horseshoe, November 2

Check out some recent performance clips of Daddy Long Legs,  F. Scott & The Nighthawks and James Matthew VII. Get yer tickets here.

Whaddya mean you don't know Ayalew Mesfin

Check out Ayalew Mesfin's Hasabe anthology of primo 70s Ethio-funk issued by Now-Again / Vinyl Me, Please.