One For The Weekend: The Champs feat. Johnny Meeks

Here's an overlooked 1962 gem from The Champs called "Red Eye" featuring a killer opening lick from Johnny Meeks. 

Pop Group releasing dub version of their classic debut album

The Pop Group's "Y in Dub" is due out digitally via Mute on October 29th with a vinyl version to follow.  

Here's the scoop...

Following the announcement that The Pop Group and dub maestro Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell MBE will perform the worldwide premiere of Y in Dub as part of Terry Hall presents Home Sessions for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, this clash of titans have now announced the album release of Y in Dub, the dub reinterpretation of Y, one of the era-defining releases of the post-punk period.

Check out the dub version of “Words Disobey Me” (below) adapted into an uncanny reckoning of expanded off-key noise and ricocheting song remnants. 

Y in Dub will be released by Mute on CD and digitally on October 29 (pre-order it here: http://mute.ffm.to/yindub) with the LP release set to follow at a later date, due to ongoing worldwide production issues with vinyl. CD copies will be available for the Toronto release party with DJ Nick Smash at The Piston (937 Bloor West) on October 31. See flyer below for details. 

Mirroring the track listing of their 1979 debut, Y in Dub is a 9-track collection of heavyweight dub versions that match the prodigious intensity of their source material, reflecting the enterprising originality of the dub and reggae music that inspired The Pop Group, as well as the legendary ingenuity of their longstanding collaborator Dennis Bovell, who recently was awarded an MBE for his services to music.

After celebrating the 40th anniversary reissue of Y – released by Mute in 2019 – The Pop Group enlisted Bovell to reinterpret the album after his extraordinary appearance at Rough Trade East in London for the band’s ‘Salon Y’ event series the same year. The event saw Bovell perform live versions of ‘She Is Beyond Good & Evil’ and ‘3.38’, based on the deconstructive principles of dub. With Y In Dub, Bovell reprises his role at the controls.

Testifying to the legacy of the original yet also signifying a new, alternate triumph, Y In Dub sees The Pop Group and Bovell explore latent possibilities within the fabric of Y. Here they amplify shadows and echoes, intensively accentuating the resonance of each element. The original material is submerged and prolonged, shattered, splintered, and sculpted into turbulent, contrasting forms which deviate from the original tracks in compelling, unexpected ways.

For more info on the 'Y in Dub' release party with DJ Nick Smash, check the Facebook page right here. 

Happy 80th Birthday George Clinton!

Before celebrating his 80th with Snoop, George Clinton sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone  you can watch below. 

That time Roy Ayers sang "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" on Soul Train

Here's Roy Ayers and his Ubiquity crew doing "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" for the Soul Train dancers in 1976. 

R.I.P. Chuck E. Weiss, 1952-2021

Sadly, singer/songwriter and arbiter of cool Chuck E. Weiss has passed on. Here's his "Anthem For Old Souls." Roll on Mr. Weiss. 

LINKS

L.A. Times Rickie Lee Jones Remembers Chuck E. Weiss

Variety Songwriter and fixture of L.A. music scene Chuck E. Weiss dies at 76

Radio 8Ball Chuck E. Weiss & Eleni Mandell

Listen to David Thomas on the Ubu Dub podcast

Here's the premiere episode of the Pere Ubu podcast featuring David Thomas talking about The Long Goodbye album.

R.E.M. reissuing Hib-Tone "Radio Free Europe" single

R.E.M. is re-releasing their 1981 debut single recorded in the Winston-Salem garage of Mitch Easter's parents. 

Here's the scoop...

For the first time in 40 years, rock icons R.E.M. are reissuing their foundational, debut single “Radio Free Europe,” first released in 1981. While many fans know the 1983 version of the song, which appeared on the band’s first studio album Murmur, only a lucky few have heard this version, which marks one of R.E.M.’s earliest recordings. Due for release July 23rd via Craft Recordings, and available to pre-order today, Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single) will be presented in its original format: as a 45-RPM single, housed in a jacket featuring photography by Michael Stipe. In an homage to the band’s hometown, the single was pressed in Athens, GA at Kindercore Vinyl.

In addition to the 7” single, R.E.M.’s 1981 demonstration tape—titled Cassette Set—is also being made available for the first time. This ultra-rare collection will be available exclusively via the official R.E.M. store as a bundle with the 7”, limited to 1,500 copies worldwide. The Cassette Set tape—also releasing July 23— will replicate the original packaging, which was self-assembled by the band, using photocopied cardstock for the J-card inlays and handwritten cassette labels by Stipe. 

In 1979, singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry were students at the University of Georgia, in the vibrant college town of Athens. Buck worked at Wuxtry Records—a local record store that Stipe frequented. The two young men quickly bonded over their shared love of proto-punk bands like the Velvet Underground and Television. Roommates Mills and Berry, meanwhile, met in high school and had already played in several bands together in their hometown of Macon.

That fall, the four young men met through a mutual friend, Kathleen O’Brien, and began casually playing music together. Several months later, O’Brien was organizing a concert/ birthday party and invited Stipe, Buck, Mills, and Berry to open the show. The group played a loose set of covers and original songs to more than three hundred people. Needless to say, it was a success.

Within a few months, they built a following in the local scene. By early 1981, they had a fanbase that expanded beyond the confines of Athens. That spring, the band were connected with singer, songwriter, and producer Mitch Easter (later of Let’s Active), who booked the band for a session at his Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, NC.

On April 15th, set up in Easter’s parents’ converted garage, R.E.M. recorded three songs: “Sitting Still,” “White Tornado,” and “Radio Free Europe.” The resulting tracks were copied to several-hundred self-produced cassette tapes—approximately 400 copies—and distributed to clubs, journalists and labels. The collection, titled Cassette Set, included a few playful additions; “Sitting Still” was prefaced by a few seconds of a high tempo run through of the song done in Polka-style; “White Tornado” was followed by an aborted “White Tornado” take where Buck blunders, the song grinds to a halt, and Buck is heard apologizing before Easter’s voice appears. This Cassette Set was the only place to get the very original Easter mixes of “Sitting Still” and “Radio Free Europe.” Outside of the copies originally produced, this early demonstration tape collection has never-before been reissued—until now.

A copy of the tape also made its way to Jonny Hibbert, who owned the Atlanta-based indie label, Hib-Tone. Impressed, Hibbert offered to put out the band’s first single. On May 24, the band returned to the studio and laid down some overdubs onto “Radio Free Europe” and Hibbert mixed both “Radio Free Europe” and “Sitting Still” the next day.

While the band preferred Easter’s original mix of the song, Hibbert chose his own mix for the 7-inch single, which featured “Sitting Still” as the B-side. An initial pressing of 1,000 was released in July 1981, with 600 copies designated for promotional use. Later, an additional 6,000 copies were issued, due to popular demand (and for practical reasons, as the first pressing inadvertently omitted contact info for the band.)

Despite mishaps along the way, the release of the “Radio Free Europe” single earned the band critical acclaim and an offer from I.R.S. Records. Under the new label, a more experienced R.E.M. re-recorded “Radio Free Europe.” The new version—which featured a slower tempo than its predecessor and slightly revised lyrics—was released as the band’s first official single with I.R.S., and appeared on their 1983 debut, Murmur.

The single garnered the band their first chart success, peaking at No.78 on the Billboard Hot 100, and helped to propel Murmur up the album charts, where it landed at No.36. Decades later, the song was regarded by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, while in 2010, “Radio Free Europe” was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry—noted for having paved the way for subsequent indie rock acts “by breaking through on college radio in the face of mainstream radio’s general indifference.”

Despite the breakthrough success of that 1983 recording, R.E.M. has long stated that the rougher, Hib-Tone version of “Radio Free Europe” is the superior recording. And, while eagle-eyed fans may note that the single was listed as a track on R.E.M.’s 1988 compilation, Eponymous, and then on 2006’s I.R.S. years compilation (And I Feel Fine…The Best of The I.R.S. Years 1982-1987), the version that was labeled “Original Hib-Tone single” was, in fact, Easter’s original mix, not Hibbert’s. That formative pressing, however, has remained a sought-after rarity for four decades—and is available again for the first time here.

Have a listen to R.E.M.'s original Hib-Tone version of their "Radio Free Europe" single and the Cassette Set version of  "White Tornado". Check the links section below for an interview with Mitch Easter. 

LINKS

Aquarium Drunkard – Mitch Easter interview