Disco Sucks!: Hosanna

Posted on August 10, 2010 by pulse

Some 35 years later, this one-hit wonder has become somewhat of an elusive mystery. Sure, it’s not hard to find…eBay usually has a copy up for five bucks. But inernet searches yield precious little information on this gem.

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0503/disco45.mp3]

Even when this came out, it was pretty difficult to obtain. I just remember one of my friends saying they saw it at the local disco record shop in Brooklyn (Wiz!) so I ran and grabbed a copy. They used to play it at the 2001 Odyssey. So much so that this *should* have been part of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Damn those Bee Gees!! Anyway, that’s all I can tell you about this. Feel free to add comments if you can give us some more info…

The label, Calla Records, on the other hand, is legend. Calla was a small, New York City-based independent black owned Soul record label run by Nate McCalla and active c. 1965 to 1977. It defined New York soul in the sixties, and artists who recorded for the label included J.J. Jackson, The Sand Pebbles, Little Jerry Williams (aka Swamp Dogg), Jean Wells, The Emotions, The Fuzz, Lonnie Youngblood, The Persuaders, and Geraldine Hunt among others. Part of Roulette Records, they were distributed by Shakat Records, then later by CBS.

Compilations: Thurston Moore’s ROOT

Posted on August 5, 2010 by pulse

“LO RECORDINGS PRESENTS 30 GUITAR PIECES BY THURSTON MOORE OF SONIC YOUTH. REMIXED, REMODELLED & RESHAPED FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE.”

Thurston Moore, of course, needs no introduction, that is, unless you haven’t been paying attention to a variety of alternative music genres for the last, oh, thirty years or so. As a part of Sonic Youth, he funnelled a variety of cultural influences into a musical sound which, since their inception as part of lower Manhattan’s No Wave scene, has influenced countless artists for decades.

Originally released in 1998, Thurston Moore’s “Root” project inspired 100 artists to rework his short improvisational guitar pieces into finished works. But don’t expect this one to sound like Sonic Youth; even still you can rest assured that it’s fantastic. The list of experimental musicians ranged from both well known and obscure, and from those works he culled this great compilation which includes dramatically different takes from Alec Empire, Derek Bailey, Stereolab, V/VM, Merzbow, Echo Park, Add N to X, Twisted Science, Blur, Mark Webber (Pulp), Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Angela Bulloch, Russell Mills, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst — the contributions are as different as these artists’ own works. The selection featured here is by Spring Heel Jack.

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0508/comp.mp3]
Click the arrow above to hear the Spring Heel Jack reworking.

The 5 LP box set shown here is a compilation of those audio tracks and artworks from the Root exhibition. From the liner notes:

In May 1997 Lo Recordings received a DAT tape containing 30 different one-minute guitar pieces by Thurston Moore. Each piece was copied onto individual tapes and packaged in custom designed vacuum cleaner bags amidst various debris which one had to “root” through to obtain the source tape. One hundred bags were sent out to a selection of visual artists and musicans, inviting them to create a brand new work utilising the original piece as a starting point.

The vinyl version contains 38 of the musical resulting reworkings, and comes in a box with label artwork by Cedric Christie, Joe Ewart, Martin Fletcher, Savage Pencil & Gavin Tork, and also includes a poster featuring a selection of images from the Root exhibition. A special edition of the CD came packaged in one of the vacuum cleaner bags used to distribute the source tapes. (See image below.)

The CD version and the vinyl version both have tracks exclusive to each, making them both necessary for the compulsive collectors among us…

Cassettera: MUUDO

Posted on July 30, 2010 by pulse

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0508/k7.mp3]

One of the most mysterious artists ever, I received these cassettes anonymously over a period of a year. No return address, no information, just the cassette packaging you see in the image. I loved the whole 80’s cassette counterculture for precisely this reason. Madmen and geniuses lurking in their bedrooms producing passionate, urgent music. While the fidelity here is low, and the execution is less than, shall we say, produced, the notion of producing menacing choral music from cheap synth banks was captivating – especially given that there are apparently many, many hours of this in this artist’s archive.

Each tape consists of two 30-minute plus sidelong compositions of eerie, ethereal and even frightening music, with no title information other than a three-digit code. The track presented here is excerpted from “69M”.

(P.S. “Cassettera” rhymes with “et cetera”…)

Bizarro Cover Versions: Druscilla Penny

Posted on July 27, 2010 by pulse

Bananafish is a magazine which was founded in 1987 in San Francisco, California, by “Seymour Glass”, focusing on various aspects of underground culture, particularly musical genres such as noise music. The style of the magazine was a mix of interviews, articles, fiction, and music reviews, often written in Glass’s absurdist, stream-of-consciousness writing style, which at times bordered on nonsense. “Reviews” were often contextual accounts of a day in the life of Seymour in which the record under review happened to be playing. The text was complemented by bizarre artwork and photographs, frequently unrelated to the articles they accompanied. One trademark of the magazine was its use of appropriated text and images from uncredited or unknown sources, taken from found objects picked up by Glass, other contributors, or readers.

Another regular feature was the inclusion of a compilation 7″ record or CD of music by artists profiled in the corresponding issue. Bananafish is often credited with giving many Americans their first exposure to Japanese noise musicians such as Merzbow and Solmania, as well as domestic noisemakers like Emil Beaulieau.

One of the issues that was published was a sort of twisted tribute to the Carpenters, and the 7″ record, produced by Rrron Lessard’s (yes, of Emil Beaulieau fame) well established RRRecords label, and featured several artists covering tunes by our beloved brother/sister duet. The above portrait of Karen and Richard is a special rendering of the duo especially for use on the label of this 7″ record. The image below is the cover of the Bananafish issue that accompanied this record.

Banafish Issue

The included single was a twisted tribute to K&R. All the tracks were Carpenters’ covers and included such artists as Thinking fellers Union Local 282, World of Pooh and Emil Beaulieau. Included here is World of Pooh’s cover of Druscilla Penny, one of the few tracks originally sung by Richard. World of Pooh is one of the stops along the way in Babara Manning’s extensive recording career, part of which was covered here in a previous Jukebox Heart installment. This track was culled from the single included with the Carpenters issue of Bananafish.

Click on the arrow below to hear World of Pooh’s cover of “Druscilla Penny”.
[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/current/cover.mp3]

Record included with Banafish

See the track listing below:

A1 Cathy Kidd & Tim Smyth – Rainy Days And Mondays
A2 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – Superstar
A3 Piglatin – Hidden Track
B1 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – KLTX
B2 World Of Pooh – Druscilla Penny
B3 Lucian Tielens – Sing
B4 Cathy Kidd & Emil Beaulieau – Hurting Each Other

Big Ten Inch: Bobby Sue and the Freeloaders

Posted on July 21, 2010 by pulse

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0412/shellac.mp3]

I originally bought this record for its A side, “It Takes A Lot of Love”, which features one of the best vocal groups ever, The Empires, whose “Corn Whiskey” single rocks like nobody’s business. Morty Shad was the owner of New York City’s Harlem label. The Empires were available in the studio, because they were recording their own “Magic Mirror”/”Make Me Or Break Me” released in 1955 on Harlem 2333, Morty recruited them for back up vocals on “It Takes A Lot of Love” as well as another blues rocker, “Ragged and Hungry” on Harlem 2334, backing an artist called Lightning Junior – whose real identity was none other than Champion Jack Dupree.

Here is a great blues number, with no backing vocal group, with Bobby Sue lamenting her empty-handed mailman. Released in 1955, and only available in this format. Fabulous.

As Recorded Live: Minny Pops

Posted on July 19, 2010 by pulse

Minny Pops Live, 1980

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/current/live.mp3]

Of all the fascinating bands to emerge from the twinned label stable of Factory and Crepuscule in the post-punk era, Dutch electro pioneers Minny Pops are probably the least understood, and least lauded. Which is a great pity, since much of their output still impresses today as powerful and original experimental music. The creative anchor to Minny Pops was Wally van Middendorp, a key figure in Amsterdam’s underground Ultra art movement, and founder of the Plurex label in early 1978. His first single, as Tits, coupled We’re Glad Elvis Is Dead with Daddy Is My Pusher (PLUREX 001), and was a fairly typical new wave record, though darkly humorous.

In September of that year Minny Pops were formed as a predominantly electronic band, taking their name from a primitive Korg rhythm box named Mini Pops, and having something in common with Suicide, The Normal and Human League. The first line-up, featuring Wally on vocals and drum machine with bassist Frans Hagenaars, guitarist Peter Mertens and two dancers, including Wally’s brother Rob, made their live debut on December 12th at the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam.

The band returned home to play a Dutch tour with The Tapes in May, which resulted in a rush-released Minny Pops Live ep (PLUREX 0016) in June, featuring Night Out, Dolphin’s Spurt and Mental, later recorded as Een Kus. In August the group returned to Manchester to record their debut Factory single, and complete a short headlining tour of the north of England in August, taking in Leeds Warehouse, Sheffield Blitz and Manchester Beach Club. The image above is the band in 1979.

There is a scant website for the band. It doesn’t have much information, but does provide links to various other sites featuring more about this great and elusive band, including availability of their reissues on Les Temps Modernes, so check it out!

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Label Spotlight: Junior Aspirin Records

Posted on July 13, 2010 by pulse

This particular podcast has involved the most planning of any that I’ve done until now. I think this is because this particular label offers an unprecedentedly diverse catalog, and picking represenative tracks proved to be a daunting task. From the urgent, spasmodic and absolutely stunning post-artpunk of Skill 7 Stamina 12 to the naked ramblings of Bob Parks to the Film Noir soundtracks of Dan Fox to the stretching freeform of Advanced Sportswear to the violent poetics of Emily Wardill and all of the one-off tracks on the Remove Celebrity Centre compilaton, Junior Aspirin Records has made the task of cleanly classifying it all but impossible and of making an accurate representation not much easier.

By now, the memory of how I first encountered Junior Aspirin is lost in the gluttonous haze of having consumed the entirety of the label’s output. But I do remember being so impressed with what I heard that I immediately wrote to the label hoping to hear more. What you will hear when you click the arrow below results from six months of conversations between Andy, co-founder of Junior Aspirin, and myself.

In addition to this podcast, be sure to check out the 4 Junior Aspirin videos above.

And finally, be sure to keep up with Junior Aspirin by subscribing to their news and podcasts.

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/labelspotlight/junioraspirin/JuniorAspirin2.mp3]

The list of tracks, in order of appearance, is included below. For images, links and more detailed information, scroll down and click “Read More!”

The Rebel – Soar Throat
Bob Parks – Chair
Advanced Sportswear – Mirror Script Floating Ghost
Dan Fox – Buffoon Mutaton
Emily Wardill – A Lake of Blood
Skill 7 Stamina 12 – Platform
Socrates That Practices Music – Spritza Boy
Bob Parks – South Central
Mysterius Horse – Mysterius Horse
Same Things – Toothache
God In Hackney – God In Hackney/Nasal Sex Joke
Skill 7 Stamina 12 – Robotics With Strings
The Rebel – Billy Mackenzie, I Wish He Were Still Alive!
Bob Parks – Spiritual/Chair (reprise)
Jukebox Heart Surprise Guest Cameo Appearance
Andy’s Jukebox Heart ID. (Thanks Andy!)

Images, links and more info below the cut.

Not subscribed to Jukebox Heart yet? You should! It’s Easy and It’s FREE! But until you’re ready, you can download this podcast here. Jukebox Heart is also on Facebook and MySpace.

Continue reading →

Special Report: Muddy Waters at the Newport Jazz Festival 1960

Posted on July 3, 2010 by pulse

[audio:https://jukeboxheart.com/specrep/muddywaters/muddy.mp3]

This stands as one of the most transformational performances of all time. It was this concert, a blues segment at 1960 Newport Jazz Festival in Newport Rhode Island, that brought the blues out of smokey basement clubs and into the mainstream. It was recorded on July 3, 1960, exactly 50 years ago today.

As sublime luck would have it, I happened across a pristine copy of this LP, still enrobed in torn, flapping shreds of yellowed shrink wrap, parts of which were intact enough for me to be able to call this LP SEALED. But the timing of this was so right, of course it was going to land here in Jukebox Heart.

This a superb set of live blues. Muddy is backed for the set by James Cotton on harmonica, the great Otis Spann on piano, Pat Hare on rhythm guitar, bassist Andrew Stevenson, and oe of the best blues drummers ever, Francis Clay. The performances are straightahead Delta favored Chicago blues highlighted by an explosive take of “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man”.

The concert was filmed, and although it has deteriorated significantly over time, it’s still good enugh to enjoy seeing the man perform live:

Hard Copy: Emigre

Posted on June 30, 2010 by pulse

This idea for a new topic on Jukebox Heart has been fermenting for a while, and finally late last night it all sort of gelled. In another popular social networking forum, one of my postings veered directly into a discussion of relationship disharmony and my passion for reading. Obviously, the time was right, I thought, to talk about music publications and the delight of an accompanying freebie recording. Hard Copy was born.

With the advent of digital dowmloads, though, it has become much less frequent to find a CD or 7″ single tucked inside any of the more interesting rags, and this is something I miss whenever I checkthem out on my cool record shops’ news stands. The fact is, I have a ton of this shit. I’m sitting here in my studio staring don ten overstuffed boxes of it. So where to begin. This could include anything, from fanzines with handcrafted mixtapes to fully produced books with professionally manufactured CDs attached. I decided to launch this series with Emigre.

Emigre logo in use c. 2002.

Emigre, as I’m sure many reading this already know, is/was a pioneering type foundry and graphic design firm. Their publication, Emigre Magazine, ran for 21 years and published 69 issues between 1984 and 2005. The “4AD” issue, featuring Vaughan Oliver, 23 Envelope and the design of 4AD Records legendary and is part of the canon for design students globally. Emigre’s alliance with Bruce Licher – the man whose Savage Republic band defined southern California post punk music for nearly a decade and who set a standard of design using hand letterpress techniques in all of his designs for his Independent Projects label – was evident in many of the later issues of Emigre. The union of image, design and music was never a more harmonious relationship than in Bruce Licher’s contributions to Emigre.

Chipboard wraparound folder (left). Magazine cover (right).

Click on the arrow below to hear “Lightspeed” from Scenic’s “The Acid Gospel Expeience”.
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/hardcopy/emigre/scenic.mp3]
7:37 | 7.14MB

So here, I am featuring issue number 63 from the summer of 2002. It is accompanied by a CD by Bruce Licher’s post Savage Republic band, Scenic, “The Acid Gospel Experience” premiered in tis format along with Emigre magazine and has since been reissued in a more traditional format. Emigre Magazine always succeeded in marrying the notion of a fully realized journal with a font catalog, typesetting all articles in whatever new typefaces they were marketing at the time. The print component of the issues of Emigre which contained an audio component always thematically matched the music housed inside. This issue includes landscape photography by Jason Fulford, landscape painting by Shelley Hoyt, design ephemera by Charles Wilkin, and music by Scenic, all set in Zuzanna Licko’s Fairplex typeface family, which was premiered in the issue. Each face was presented and described in an essay discussing the font, its development and use.

Below are some page spreads from Emigre 63:

Landscape photos from Jason Fullard

A sample from the essay on the Fairplex font showing some of the available faces.

Two of the paintngs from Shelley Fords View From Berkeley series.

Pagespread from designer Charles Wilkin introducing his Index A font.