The Mighty Turbines - The Best Of Mighty Turbines (19??)

Here in the States, it is time for my personal favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. We all have something to be thankful for, some of us more than others. This group of young Jamaican steel drum players must have been thankful for their gift of raw talent and pure ingenuity.

According to the back cover of the record, The Mighty Turbines were a group of "ghetto youth" from Trelawney Parrish, Jamaica. They had apparently never played instruments before, and had zero musical training. When they heard steel drums for the first time, it must have stricken them like a bolt of lightning, because within a year of their introduction to the sound, they had banged out their own instruments from trash can lids and recorded this astonishingly good album.

Whether you believe this story or not - I'm not sure I do - this is a great record (even if you don't typically listen to steel drum music). The songs are catchy and whimsical, with complex poly-rhythms and warm joyful tones. The dead of winter - as it appears to be outside today - is just the right time to crank this up and dream of life on the islands. Be thankful y'all.

ENJOY

Frankenstein and the All-Star Monster Band (1984)

I know, I know... I've allowed this blog to slip into oblivion once again, this time for nearly 5 months. But - in the spirit of Halloween - I'd like to say that this blog isn't dead. It's undead.

That being said, I am excited to present you all with a very special Halloween post (one which I made several failed attempts to share last Halloween, and which I've waited all year to try sharing again, because I love being topical). This very special album is the self-titled release by Frankenstein and the All-Star Monster Band, a high concept piece of weirdo Halloween pop brewed up by Rock 'n Roll mad scientist Kim Fowley (manager of the Runaways and much, much more)!

According to the borderline insane liner notes, the album is dedicated to "all the ugly, stupid and misunderstood people of the world," a sympathy not unfamiliar to the irreverent, rebellious underdog nature of Punk Rock and New Wave which this album is very much a part of. The difference here is that these songs tackle this subject matter through the lens of B-movie monsters shunned by society - monsters trying to survive in a modern world full of artificial beauty, high unemployment, dwindling individuality, and damsels who won't accept a casual date with the likes of vampires or werewolves.

The band consists of Kim Fowley (appearing here as Doctor Dog, in the role of Frankenstein), whose vocals sound sometimes like Billy Idol, Jim Morrison, David Bowie or Bob Dylan, and a bunch of mystery players using names such as Larry Lizard, Jumbo Frog, Video Pig, Dorothy Dinosaur and Empress of the Underworld (each with their own character role... it gets a bit convoluted). The songs are fun, catchy, witty pop music with a brain - the brain might be floating in a jar in some Transylvanian laboratory, but it is definitely pulsing with life.

This is essential weird pop music, and a must for any Halloween dance party.

ENJOY

Billy Paul - War Of The Gods (1973)

Billy Paul is a very well-loved Philly Soul singer, best known for his number one hit "Me and Mrs. Jones" which is still just as great more than 40 years after its release. This album, War Of The Gods, came out one year after the one that spawned his biggest hit, and shows Billy Paul exploring a more psychedelic side of Soul music.

The first side of this album shows Billy Paul demonstrating this style over the course of two jaw-dropping psychedelic Soul ballads - one of which is the title track "War Of The Gods" which is about exactly what it sounds like, and which opens with legendary Hip Hop producer J Dilla's well known siren sound effect. 

Side B sees Billy Paul playing it a bit safe with a few short, but sweet pop songs. Although not as memorable or experimental as the first two songs, the last four are still excellent examples of the magic of Gamble & Huff Philadelphia Soul music. "The Whole Town's Talking" and "Thanks For Saving My Life" are upbeat and catchy dance numbers, while "I Was Married" sounds almost exactly like "Me and Mrs Jones" except that it features the cheeky lyrics 'I was married... it just didn't work', and "Peace Holy Peace" sees Billy Paul doing the Gospel thing to great success.

Out of the few Billy Paul albums in my collection, this is the one I keep coming back to. At the very least, the first two tracks are absolutely essential for any music lover.

ENJOY.

R. Kelly - Your Body's Callin' 12" (1994)

Today is my birthday. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I would stay home and write a blog. I kid, I kid - to celebrate my birthday, I wanted to share some music that expresses all the freaky thangs we do to make births possible in the first place. And who better to express those freaky thangs than Mr. Robert Kelly himself?

In 1993, R. Kelly left his group Public Announcement to fly solo and burst onto the scene with his nasty-and-proud debut album 12 Play which pretty much changed the tone of R&B forever. This album is known best for spawning the mega-hit single "Bump N' Grind" which probably caused a boom in the population for the next 5 years.

Pants unzipped, with steampunk rearview-mirrored cane in hand

A year later, Kells released the slinky Caribbean-tinged slow jam "Your Body's Callin'" as a single (which was later sampled by DJ Premier for Biggie's single "Unbelievable"), along with 3 other stunning tracks (including a "His & Hers Mix" of the single which was completely re-written with more explicit lyrics, a sleazy 808 track, and an uncredited appearance from a then-brand-new Aaliyah, and is featured below).

Also featured, are the chill-inducing "Prelude," which starts with a sparse arrangement of keys and the crashing waves of (I like to assume) Lake Michigan. Just as it begins to build a sexy funked out bass groove, the song fades away into nothing. Finally, R. Kelly provided an instrumental of the "His & Hers Mix" which features some Jazz piano in place of the vocals and trust me - this beat still hits hard 20 years later.

ENJOY

Viola - Little Girl [Club Mix] (2001)

This is a special Mother's Day edition of Dollar Bin Radio. For this occasion, I would like to present a song that has been stuck in my head since I first heard it years ago.

This very soulful New York Gospel House track, "Little Girl" by Viola Sykes, was released in 2001 by the reliable Nervous Records label. This song is wonderful for not only being lush, musical, and extremely catchy, but for capturing a certain motherly nature in its lyrics.

Viola does not approve of your outfit.

Here, girls are reminded by Viola (or insert your Mom's name here) that they are beautiful and strong, and that they should put some clothes back on and win a man's respect. This might not be my philosophy 100% (people with less clothes on deserve some respect too) but hey, mother knows best.

Bobby Bland - "The Soul Of The Man" (1966)

Bobby "Blue" Bland is a legend of Memphis music and one of the greatest Blues crooners that ever was. His rich, soulful voice works amazingly well in just about any genre, and has given him an edge in the industry shared by other soulful Blues/Gospel artists like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles.

Bobby Bland is probably best known by today's youth as sample source for Jay-Z's Blueprint album, and the original performer of "I'll Take Care of You", covered by Drake and Rihanna, and a whole bunch of other people.

The Soul Of The Man is Bobby Bland's fifth studio album, released in 1966 on Duke Records. This album has an intimate, yet spacious sound, and features Bobby rocking it out over all variety of songs. "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Dear Bobby (The Note)", his duet with backing vocalist Vi Campbell, share the bellowing, pained sound of "I'll Take Care of You", while "Back In The Same Old Bag" and "Reach Right Out" are punchy Rock & Roll dance numbers. Best of all, this album features a really wonderfully minimal, funky cover of "Fever", featured streaming below:

The sound quality is on the crackly side, but I feel like it does the music justice. I'm generally a big fan of Bobby, and though I hadn't heard any of these songs before I found this copy, I feel like this album does a great job of exhibiting Bobby Bland's best qualities.

ENJOY 

Percy Faith and his Orchestra - Passport to Romance (1956)

Percy Faith was one of the premier "Mood Music" composers of the 1950's and 60's, and along with his pal Mitch Miller, remains one of the premier artists in dollar bins and thrift store record boxes around the country to this day (second only perhaps to Barbara Streisand herself). This lingering influence only goes to show just how popular Percy Faith's sound was at the time, and for good reason: the music is dynamic, with personality to spare.

This album explores matters of the heart by way of various European compositions - everything from Waltzes to Tangos, and from French carousels to enchanting Elvish forests. Sometimes the music is romantic in a grand tragic sense, and sometimes in a cheeky 60's Hollywood sense. 

You can do many things while listening to this album. You can wear a leotard and pretend to be a cat, you can kick your legs in the air like a Russian dancing man, you can pretend to have a forbidden love with a member of the French underground, or you can frolic around with a deranged look on your face like Ren & Stimpy on one of their good days. Truly "mood music" for every romantic expression.

ENJOY

Buddy Miles - A Message To The People (1971)

Buddy Miles (1947 - 2008) was one of the greatest Rock musicians to ever live. Not only did he famously play drums in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys in the final years of Jimi's life, but he played just about everything else on his own solo albums - on this particular one, he is responsible for: lead vocals, drums, lead guitar, organ, and background vocals. A true visionary. With his combed-out Afro and his skills on the drums (not to mention every other aspect of music), Buddy Miles was kind of the original ?uestlove.

Oh! And he did the lead vocals for the California Raisins!

Also, look at that damn album artwork!! Abdul Mati painted it, along with many of the greatest album covers of all time - such as Miles Davis' Bitches Brew  for instance. 

Anyway, the most important thing of course is the music, and it is worthy of every ounce of curiosity that artwork inspires. Simultaneously funky, powerful, soulful, and totally rocking, this is music of a certain quality that just isn't heard anymore. Here is my favorite song on the record (and one which balances all these elements in a way that gives me chills every time), "The Segment":

If that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what to say. Maybe one more taste of this album art will help.

ENJOY

Goldie - Crack Kid/Get Funky 12" (1986)

There's not much to be said about Goldie (because there really isn't much information), but all I can tell you is that she was an Electro-era rapper who liked to wear fly sparkly outfits, and who was signed to a Bronx label called Real Def records.

Side A features several mixes of a single she had called Crack Kid, which warns listeners about the dangers of smoking crack (it will turn you gay, or into a prostitute, and you will die on the street!). There is a club mix, a shorter radio edit, and an instrumental (which is quite funky). I've included all three in the link at the bottom, but only because there were some audible flaws on the club mix version.

Side B features a vocal mix and an instrumental version of another song called Get Funky. This one is a more straightforward party record, and it does not disappoint. Goldie's lyrics are endearingly simple, and the beat is so good, she actually takes the time to apologize for it, as if it was distracting. Both versions are included in the link below as well.

Both songs are produced by Robert James, and both feature the self-declared "Human Beat Box King" Lamont "Kendu" James. I can't really find much info on these people either, which is a shame, because they are all really talented. Not sure what happened to Goldie, but she sure was fly.

ENJOY

Santa Esmerelda - Beauty (1978)

Santa Esmerelda was a French/American group who was best known for their Flamenco-influenced lengthy Disco ballads, especially their cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" which was featured recently in the film Kill Bill.

This album, Beauty, featuring the group's second vocalist Jimmy Goings in all his Blacula glory on the cover, fine-tunes these musical qualities into a singular focused vision. The album plays almost like a Latin/Disco/Glam Rock symphony, with several recurring movements that bleed into one another and tell an epic tale of desire, sin, beauty, and passion which crescendos to a dramatic conclusion - the album closes out with a cover of "Hey Joe," so that might give you an idea how the story ends. The dynamic use of Spanish guitar, pounding dance rhythms, bright, punchy horns and string arrangements, along with gutsy masculine vocals and a sophisticated musical and narrative concept make this album a really fantastic and funky experience.

ENJOY

Donald Byrd - Black Byrd (1973)

Since he just passed days ago, I figured I would be topical in a way my posts rarely are, and share one of my Donald Byrd records. I bought this one at a yard sale from a strange European woman. I also bought The Clapper.

Trumpeter Donald Byrd (1932-2013) played alongside just about every notable Jazz legend throughout the 50's and 60's as a sideman and solo artist, and eventually blazed the trail for Jazz Fusion and took the genre to commercially-friendly places that Jazz purists probably will never forgive him for.

Besides the cool Afrocentric artwork (hey, it's Black History Month! Topical x 2!!), this record was one of Donald's most successful in his long career recording for Blue Note Records, and happens to be a pretty seminal Jazz/Disco Fusion record, so haters beware. 

Black Byrd is pretty much entirely composed and produced by Larry Mizell of the Mizell Brothers/Sky High Productions, who interestingly enough were both students of Donald Byrd's when he was teaching at Howard University. Even more interestingly, Larry Mizell once worked as an electrical engineer, and played an important role in the Apollo space program, as well as the development of liquid crystals, which you are probably using in whatever display you are reading this on. How's that for Black History??

The sound of this album is a mix of joyful, mellow Disco grooves with airy horn and flute solos peppered in to Jazz things up. It probably won't pack a dance floor, but is pretty much perfect for winding things down when they get too sweaty. This is far from Donald's most challenging material, but it conveys such a positive vibe, I can't help but want to remember him this way. 

ENJOY

Jon Lucien - "Song For My Lady" (1975)

Jon Lucien (1942-2007) was a baritone Jazz and Soul vocalist originally from Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, and known best for the spacey romantic ballad "Rashida". If nothing else, Lucien was about as silky smooth as anyone could ever hope to be in the vocal department. Imagine, if you will, this recipe: 1 part Nat King Cole, 1 part Teddy Pendergrass, 1 part Nate Dogg, 1 part Codeine. 100% Lucien.

Song For My Lady is Jon Lucien's fourth release, and his first on Columbia records. The back cover of the record features an immensely glowing review of Lucien's talents from none other than Herbie Hancock, who has referred to Lucien as "the man with the golden throat." Hancock also co-wrote the song "Maiden Voyage" on this album, which was sampled famously by MF DOOM on his Special Herbs series.  

When I say that Jon Lucien's Jazz is smooth, I don't mean to imply that this is easy listening. He was more G-Funk than Kenny G.

As Q-Tip would say, 

                             "Lucien, Lucien, Lucien, Lucien...

                                                         You

                                                                              Should

                                                                                                         Know."

ENJOY

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I know not a lot of people use Blogger or Google+, so I thought I would make it easy to follow the blog on Facebook. "Like" the page, and (hopefully) never miss an update!

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69 Girlz - "Tootzee Pop" (1994)

There is a long history of bandwagon-hopping in the Rap world. Every time a hot new beat comes out, everyone wants to put their voice on it (see: "One Blood"). However, once in a great while, an act decides to build their entire image around the popularity of one song (by someone else). Welcome to the stage: 69 Girlz.

In 1994, 69 Boyz released their smash single "Tootsee Roll" which took the world by storm with its simple, candy-centric lyrics about shaking butts. I have very clear memories of classroom parties in grade school where this was played, and remember wondering what exactly the "butterfly" was, even though the 69 Boyz were already declaring it old. 

That very same year, a mysterious group of ladies calling themselves 69 Girlz came very quietly onto the scene with "Tootzee Pop," rewriting "Tootsee Roll" with a bit of a pornographic (albeit pro-condom) twist. Listening to this song is kind of the musical equivalent of renting "Transmorphers" instead of "Transformers."

However, because the raunchiness of this song is so awesome (especially the grunting sound effects you hear whenever the Girlz feel a "nut" coming on), I've included the (mostly) acappella "Taste Test" version for all you remixers out there.



 It is safe to say the 69 Girlz were never heard from again, but that doesn't mean they can't still be listened to and appreciated today. Enjoy.

Jimmy Lynch - "Tramp Time Volume 1: That Funky Tramp in a Nite Club" (1961)

Jimmy Lynch a.k.a. "Mr. Motion" is a multi-talented entertainer and good friend of Rudy Ray Moore's who sang, danced and joked his way through just about every movie Rudy Ray ever released. Like Rudy Ray Moore and Blowfly, Jimmy Lynch is known for his raunchy humor, and then-controversial use of explicit language. According to his official bio, he made his comedy debut as "the Funky Tramp" one Halloween when he was still underage, using the hobo costume he was wearing as a cover for his age. This persona would go on to become the heart of his stage show for most of his career.

According to an interview with Lynch paraphrased on Rudy Ray Moore's website, "Tramp Time Volume 1" was Jimmy Lynch's first recording, and was released in 1961 (there is no known record of the actual date). It is also apparently the first record to feature the word "fuck" without background music, though this historic claim apparently remains unverified. Just for fun, I've paraphrased the humorously cautious album liner notes below:

"This party record was not designed to be played on radio at any time - this record only for personal and party use only.

...We admit that some of the words of this recording are not Sunday School words so if you are a preacher or a deacon do not listen to this album. If you are under 18 you will not understand it. If you are over 80 you cannot stand it.

This LP contains some of the common words used by the common people every day and we do not intend for them to be obscene in any way.

We advise you to hang on to this record, it could become a collectors item.

...This LP was recorded live at the famous El Grotto bar in Battle Creek, Michigan at one of its fabulous Sunday afternoon matinees. Without any notion he is Mr. Motion.

I can only say we didn't actually release this album, it escaped.

-Mr. Vic"

Oh, how times have changed.

ENJOY

Bo-Dacious - "Bass" 12" (1991)

Hey, long time no share. After months of technical issues keeping me from sharing a lot of great music and music history, I've finally found a solution that will allow me to get back into full swing. I hope I haven't lost any of you readers in the interim. 

This song "Bass" is a late-era Electro track by a mysterious artist named Bo-Dacious who only released one other song - these two tracks making up the entirety of Rhythm & Blues Records' catalog. "Bass" is pretty funky, and a bit on the unusual side, which places it pretty much right up my alley. The lyrics warn of both the allure and the destructive nature of cocaine, and I'd like to think of this as the weird offspring of Alan Vega and Melle Mel.