sometimes when no one’s around and i’m feeling optimistic i whisper, “you can get an original you can get it if you really want trojan pressing if you really want” over and over.
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fine videos daily:
1960s on mon
1970s on tues
1980s on wed
1990s on thurs
2000s on fri
i'm a journalist at bloomberg news, here's recent work
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this website ft. the beatles, aretha franklin, neil young, dr. dre, will oldham, serge gainsbourg, the kinks, dusty springfield, jimi hendrix, pavement, the clash, the smiths, al green, rolling stones, cat power, yo la tengo, stevie wonder, antony, wilco, elvis, talking heads, elliott smith, r.e.m., ray charles, velvet underground, the monochrome set, randy newman, the cure, queen, duke ellington & more
"sing a simple song but keep the swing strong." -de la soul
"mtv makes me want to smoke crack." -beck
see the archives & a random post
"i just happen to be here, and it's okay." -caetano veloso
"gotta think straight, keep a clean plate." -joanna newsom
"keep a clean nose, watch the plain-clothes." -bob dylan
"it took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, nightlife. most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom. do it very slowly and don't confuse him." -charles mingus
"she had a chihuahua named carlos that had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind." -tom waits
"you can't hold the hand of a rock 'n' roll man." -joni mitchell
"think about something else. was art tatum talented?" - shoot the piano player
"hey there, hey now, well, you can make a pacemaker blink, yeah, easy thing, make a man's heart go bibbity bom like a gentle drum. -john cale
"i’ve still got things inside me, sad things, happy things, that people don’t know about." -loretta lynn
"to try to maximize the relationship of listening to a record through promotion is like experiencing driving a car by reading about stimulus programs." -bonnie 'prince' billy
"after cheesecake with all of your friends and family, who's gonna front the bill? me... say you want to take first-class trips, well i want to work those first-class hips. yes i do." -r. kelly
"we can make each other happy, or we can make each other happy." -harry nilsson
"my mother used to tell me about vibrations. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death." -brian wilson
"i'm an idiot for you." -iggy pop
"i mean every letter in the words in the sentences of my quotes." -lil' wayne
"lyrics choochoo from my mouth like locomotion." - pato banton
"i'm going to boogie my scruples away." -lowell george
"i drive a rolls-royce, cause it's good for my voice." -t.rex
"i'm dealing in rock and roll. i'm not a bonafide human being." -phil spector
"at a certain point phil approached me with a bottle of kosher red wine in one hand and a .45 in the other, put his arm around my shoulder and shoved the revolver into my neck and said, 'leonard, i love you.' i said, 'i hope you do, phil.'" -leonard cohen
"they’d whisper at each other and look at phil and whisper at each other. finally this lady, tanked, comes over to phil and says, 'alright, sonny, what’s your problem?' and he said, 'premature ejaculation, what’s yours?'" -tom wolfe
"he's got a mind like a sewer, and a heart like a fridge" -elvis costello
"i bite my nails and if that fails i go get myself stoned, but when i do i think of you and head myself back home." -gram parsons
"i would say groucho marx, to name one thing, and willie mays, and the second movement of the jupiter symphony, and louis armstrong’s recording of potatohead blues, swedish movies, naturally. sentimental education by flaubert, marlon brando, frank sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by cézanne, the crabs at sam wo’s, tracy’s face." -woody allen
"where have you been all my life?" -emmylou harris, to my brother tommy
"the first time i got stoned on grass was with john paul jones of led zeppelin. we'd been talking to ramblin' jack elliott somewhere and jonesy said to me, 'come over and i'll turn you on to grass.' he had a huge room with nothing in it except this huge vast hammond organ, right next door to the police." -david bowie
"tired of the tango? fed up with fandango? dance on moonbeams, slide on rainbows, in furs or blue jeans. you know what I mean." -roxy music
brian eno songs that will make good book titles for my 10-volume memoir, in order: here he comes, baby's on fire, golden hours, brutal ardour, taking tiger mountain, events in dense fog, through hollow lands, some of them are old, everything merges with the night, dead finks don’t talk
ry cooder albums that every man should own: into the purple valley, boomer's story, paradise and lunch
thelonious monk's middle name: sphere
"really, we don't want people twiddling their goatees over our stuff." -radiohead
#1 song on the white album (tie): long long long, happiness is a warm gun
"the only word is love." -john lennon
"i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. and mother. and god." -johnny cash
"i could even find it in my heart to love mike love." -belle & sebastian
"the moon is clear, the sky is bright, i'm happy as the horse's shite." -the pogues
"i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead.” -pete seeger
"but chuck berry isn't merely the greatest of the rock and rollers, or rather, there's nothing mere about it. say rather that unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports chuck berry as well as it does marcel proust, we might as well trash it altogether." -robert christgau
mashable.com says about us: "you can expect the unexpected with this awesome gem. groovy," 33 1/3 says: "it's nice to have someone steer me in a more worthwhile direction," others say: "pulitzer."
download albums, see album covers, photos, posters, quotes & 'staches
the olden days: 08 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 09 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 10 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 11 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 12 j.
make a tumblr!
1960s on mon
1970s on tues
1980s on wed
1990s on thurs
2000s on fri
i'm a journalist at bloomberg news, here's recent work
feel free to email
this website ft. the beatles, aretha franklin, neil young, dr. dre, will oldham, serge gainsbourg, the kinks, dusty springfield, jimi hendrix, pavement, the clash, the smiths, al green, rolling stones, cat power, yo la tengo, stevie wonder, antony, wilco, elvis, talking heads, elliott smith, r.e.m., ray charles, velvet underground, the monochrome set, randy newman, the cure, queen, duke ellington & more
"sing a simple song but keep the swing strong." -de la soul
"mtv makes me want to smoke crack." -beck
see the archives & a random post
"i just happen to be here, and it's okay." -caetano veloso
"gotta think straight, keep a clean plate." -joanna newsom
"keep a clean nose, watch the plain-clothes." -bob dylan
"it took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, nightlife. most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom. do it very slowly and don't confuse him." -charles mingus
"she had a chihuahua named carlos that had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind." -tom waits
"you can't hold the hand of a rock 'n' roll man." -joni mitchell
"think about something else. was art tatum talented?" - shoot the piano player
"hey there, hey now, well, you can make a pacemaker blink, yeah, easy thing, make a man's heart go bibbity bom like a gentle drum. -john cale
"i’ve still got things inside me, sad things, happy things, that people don’t know about." -loretta lynn
"to try to maximize the relationship of listening to a record through promotion is like experiencing driving a car by reading about stimulus programs." -bonnie 'prince' billy
"after cheesecake with all of your friends and family, who's gonna front the bill? me... say you want to take first-class trips, well i want to work those first-class hips. yes i do." -r. kelly
"we can make each other happy, or we can make each other happy." -harry nilsson
"my mother used to tell me about vibrations. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death." -brian wilson
"i'm an idiot for you." -iggy pop
"i mean every letter in the words in the sentences of my quotes." -lil' wayne
"lyrics choochoo from my mouth like locomotion." - pato banton
"i'm going to boogie my scruples away." -lowell george
"i drive a rolls-royce, cause it's good for my voice." -t.rex
"i'm dealing in rock and roll. i'm not a bonafide human being." -phil spector
"at a certain point phil approached me with a bottle of kosher red wine in one hand and a .45 in the other, put his arm around my shoulder and shoved the revolver into my neck and said, 'leonard, i love you.' i said, 'i hope you do, phil.'" -leonard cohen
"they’d whisper at each other and look at phil and whisper at each other. finally this lady, tanked, comes over to phil and says, 'alright, sonny, what’s your problem?' and he said, 'premature ejaculation, what’s yours?'" -tom wolfe
"he's got a mind like a sewer, and a heart like a fridge" -elvis costello
"i bite my nails and if that fails i go get myself stoned, but when i do i think of you and head myself back home." -gram parsons
"i would say groucho marx, to name one thing, and willie mays, and the second movement of the jupiter symphony, and louis armstrong’s recording of potatohead blues, swedish movies, naturally. sentimental education by flaubert, marlon brando, frank sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by cézanne, the crabs at sam wo’s, tracy’s face." -woody allen
"where have you been all my life?" -emmylou harris, to my brother tommy
"the first time i got stoned on grass was with john paul jones of led zeppelin. we'd been talking to ramblin' jack elliott somewhere and jonesy said to me, 'come over and i'll turn you on to grass.' he had a huge room with nothing in it except this huge vast hammond organ, right next door to the police." -david bowie
"tired of the tango? fed up with fandango? dance on moonbeams, slide on rainbows, in furs or blue jeans. you know what I mean." -roxy music
brian eno songs that will make good book titles for my 10-volume memoir, in order: here he comes, baby's on fire, golden hours, brutal ardour, taking tiger mountain, events in dense fog, through hollow lands, some of them are old, everything merges with the night, dead finks don’t talk
ry cooder albums that every man should own: into the purple valley, boomer's story, paradise and lunch
thelonious monk's middle name: sphere
"really, we don't want people twiddling their goatees over our stuff." -radiohead
#1 song on the white album (tie): long long long, happiness is a warm gun
"the only word is love." -john lennon
"i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. and mother. and god." -johnny cash
"i could even find it in my heart to love mike love." -belle & sebastian
"the moon is clear, the sky is bright, i'm happy as the horse's shite." -the pogues
"i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead.” -pete seeger
"but chuck berry isn't merely the greatest of the rock and rollers, or rather, there's nothing mere about it. say rather that unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports chuck berry as well as it does marcel proust, we might as well trash it altogether." -robert christgau
mashable.com says about us: "you can expect the unexpected with this awesome gem. groovy," 33 1/3 says: "it's nice to have someone steer me in a more worthwhile direction," others say: "pulitzer."
download albums, see album covers, photos, posters, quotes & 'staches
the olden days: 08 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 09 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 10 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 11 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 12 j.
make a tumblr!
this week i spent $4 on desmond dekker’s very aptly named trojan records two-lp double dekker. not only is the first track 007 shanty town, which is incredibly not about james bond, but the second is israelites, history’s best song about israel—except for that “light one candle for the maccabee children” hanukkah song, which is the greatest! i got double dekker at my favorite store in new york city, good records. i almost hesitate to mention that name because it’s so nice and quiet, and the owner johnny is such a sweet guy, with $1 rolling stones albums and $80 west african ’60s albums that i like to ogle with my mouth open. bless desmond dekker and bless good records.
#894: u-roy - natty rebel (1978)
when u-roy does that walk at 2:45, halfway between a glide and a wiggle and a wade, wearing his spotless orange suit, what he’s doing is apologizing for the relatively light posting recently on this blog. it’s a magical walk, readers, and it can mean whatever you need it to mean.
but i can change. and you can change, too, if you in your arrogant blindness have somehow conducted your lifelong affairs without at least once enjoying u-roy’s perfect orange-suited shuffle. enjoy it, friends.
i would never under any circumstances get a tattoo, but if i did it’d be this. or “mom!”. thank you, u-roy.
even though these are partisan times filled with divisions and prejudices, i think we can all maturely agree that the best use of melodica was not actually on an augustus pablo album, despite his ferocious playing, but at the end of u-roy’s dread in a babylon. another inarguable thing is that those pictures of u-roy on the back cover are reggae’s only use of drug photographs that’s both glamorizing and also a caricature of an ad council warning not to get lost in a metaphoric (or literal!) cloud of smoke.
#861: bob marley & the wailers - african herbsman (criteria studio rehearsal, miami fl, 1980)
i just wrote a novella-length dissertation on the wailers’ african herbsman as seen through the lens of randy newman’s sail away in mid-70s america. feeling pretty good about it.
#829: the clash - this is radio clash (the tomorrow show, 1981)
who would win if mick jones’ drum synthesizer solo had a fight to the death with joe strummer’s bicepts, paul simonon’s royal crown pomade, and topper headon’s beret? topper headon’s beret.
#775: byron lee & the dragonaires - jamaican ska (and more from this is ska!) (1964)
if you need me i’ll just be thinking quietly about feverishly celebrating this avalanche of new york springtime by sprinting shirtlessly down park avenue waving my arms to and fro in what this very early reggae documentary describes as “a regular ska session.” you know the one—it’s a throbbing, pulsating dance craze! you keep the beat with the upper half of the body, bowing forward with a straight back and slight bend in both knees, the arms extending at the first bow to the sides, then crossing in front at the second bow, with the body straightening up in between the change of arms from one position to the other. and don’t forget the added side step! first to the right by moving the right leg on the extension of the arms, then bringing up the left leg on the arms’ closing—right, then left, swinging up and down in front of the body, finishing with a body beat when the right arm is in the air. that’s exactly what i’ll be doing out in the sun, in my mind, as i sit here.
#704: robyn (ft. diplo) - dancehall queen (2010)
dancehall queen’s chorus is the world’s greatest miley cyrus cover. robyn and diplo must have been listening to a lot of the young lady’s party in the u.s.a. chorus (“so i put my hands up!”), or maybe they just happened to hear a lot of it on their respective radio stations in stockholm and philadelphia, because they’ve inadvertently recreated its pulpy melody (“now what! your jaw has dropped!”) awfully well. still, to robyn and diplo’s credit, their song is richer and prettier and weirder than the late-2009 hit it briefly rips off, and plus their video has lots of nylon and cosmetics and also a helpful karaoke crawl. maybe miley will sing along.
gregory isaacs is in person in heaven, if it exists. you know what i mean? he really is—the cool ruler, the smooth shooter, the lonely lover, the sweet singer—in the clouds.
listen to mr. isaacs’ extra classic tonight in your red car in his honor.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Comments (View)
#631: neg ki pa ka fè la fèt - kimmannye (1990)
i definitely think that the next big thing is an obscure creole hybrid of dancehall reggae and hiphop made on the island of martinique, where the basslines are from the apocalypse and the lyrics sound like the barren and violent hours directly afterwards. frankly though i am not sure about this band’s name: it seems to also be spelled as negkipakafelafet, and i believe they’re a trio that includes a rapper named neg lyrical. i also had to make educated guesses about song title and year—the little information i found is written in french? if you know more, please let me know. either way, enjoy the sultry, cryptic, cataclysmic dancehall sound.
#630: the clash - bankrobber (1980)
great moments in unexpected expressions of joy from members of the clash:
0:37 - mikey dread, producer and reggae legend, smiling with his tambourine
1:20 - joe strummer, frontman, twirls his bandana around
2:03 - mick jones, guitarist, grins punk rock’s rarest and most likeable grins
2:26 - mikey dread, at the controls, stands up and wobbles his knees to the beat
2:32 - baker and johnny green, clash roadies who co-star in the video as bank robbers, and who during filming were stopped and questioned by south london police officers, celebrate their new bags of money.
#611: the specials - gangsters (1980, saturday night live)
i just underwent a very expensive and top-secret surgery that doubles suaveness, triples style, and quadruples intelligence, likability, composure and verve, and i’m still a tenth as cool as the specials were on a bad day. i’m thinking of taking up the trombone, though.
