Ghana High Life...

Nota genre I am too familiar with but what I ahve heard is ripping. It seems that this stuff is really hard to find, even the reissues that came out in the early 90's are impossible to get (60's Guitar Band Highlife of Ghana, Telephone Lobi:More Giants Of Danceband Highlife etc). I found some tracks from a comp LP called "Akon Ko. All pretty hot, this track by Akwaboah's Band is one of the best...Yamoah the singer has been called 'one of the greatest highlife singers ever'...who am I to disagree??? Check Likembe for more...

Akwaboah's Band - Osu a Mesu

Grizzly Bear

This video blows my mi-iind. If you like the film Fantastic Planet and enjoy some mind-bending psych ... not a huge G Bear fan, but after this video ... I'm reconsidering.

Henry Fiats Opens Sore

Totally underrated these Swedes take garage punk and mix it with speed and spite of hardcore..... all thier stuff is worthy... they look mental too...

R.I.P John Martyn

Fucked Up On Fox

Who woulda thought?? Fucked Up on a major? then on the news???? wow. I love this band...they get a ot of stick, but they are super cool and the new record is great.

Something Fierce

My band was lucky enough to play with Something Fierce on Tuesday here in SF and witness them decimate the Knockout on a Tuesday night. Now we don't usually play on a Tuesday...or at all very much these days, but Dougie was insistant, as well as telling me they were going to be my new favorite current band... brave words, but he's a good judge. We muddle through some new songs, then SF played. Holy shit.... super catchy, energetic...kinda weird looking and really charming. There were a bunch of folks hugging the bar who were converted within a song. Trust me...if you get a chance...go see 'em. If not, then buy the new CD... its rocking. Something Fierce Myspace.

Grime

no...not the SF tattooist this time... but East London Grime. as a genre I think its been pretty played out, but the good shit still stands - some pretty interesting docs on this stuff.... this one on Camden North London is roughneck.



then this one trys to explain Grime.... some good tunes, but some of the interviews make the people seem like retards.

Human Beinz

I just picked up another copy of the epic Human Beinz 7" for the Neck. Always a dancefloor banger. here's the track set to some old Sidney Poitier movie...

Sunny Days

San Francisco is mental...raining one day, hot as fuck the next...no complaints, just takes some getting used to. I haven't totally made my mind up about the Fleet Foxes, though friends are all over them.... sounds pretty good when accompanying a ride across the Golden Gate bridge in the blazing sunshine....


Golden Gate Bike Ride from Tyler Howarth on Vimeo.

Distance

I'm a big fan of Dubstep... DJ Distance is one of the originators bring his own metallic outworldy sounds. Here's his "Night Vision" track... turn up the subs...


DISTANCE night vision from FunkySpaceMonkey on Vimeo.

Voodoo Funk

I was listening to a great podcast from WFMU called "Radio Freetown" hosted by this German guy playing MINDBLOWING psych and shit from West Africa...places like Benin and Ghana. Amazing stuff and then I remembered seeing a trailer for a documentary about a German DJ travelling to West Africa looking for records.... so I had a dig around, and of course it's the same guy. This is my kind of record fetishism...no ebay here, straight to the source!!! seems he's back in West Africa as we speak.....digging. Can't wait to hear the results.. Check his blog here


"Take Me Away Fast" Trailer from Leigh Iacobucci on Vimeo.

Curumin

I don't know too much about Brazilian music... but my pals at Quannum hooked me up with the latest Curumin release and it's pretty sweet... trad Brazilian flavors with beats...



For all the SF heads Curumin plays tonight at Slims with Money MArk, Lateef and Blackalicious.....


gonna be pretty sick...

Grime

On the tattoo tip thought I'd post up a vid of local hero Grime... his tattoos are legendary (he has a 3 year waiting list) and his graffitti is great too...

Zamrock 2

As promised some more Zambian music... this time a comp compiled froma bunch of singles and LP tracks by the Peace, WITCH, Blackfoot and more. Some of the quailty is patchy.... but the tunes are boss.... get in there quick before the link expires...

Swoop

Giant

Rad article on local artist/tattooist Mike Giant at Swindle.

Hozac

The past few months I have been picking up new releases on the Hozac label - they do impossibly limited presses of out there bands loosely connected to punk from the likes of No Bunny, Subtle Turnhips, France Has The Bomb and a bunch of other bands you've never heard of until you see them in Spin mag.... I was pretty anti the whole 'impossible to find the minute it comes out' scene, and while some of the records are hohum, some of them are really great. Case in point, the Jacuzzi Boys...terrible name...but pretty ripping...

24 Hour Garage People

I dug out a bunch of half man half biscuit records today... what a band!! And without Peel they would probably still be playing in their bedrooms... I could have picked anything....but this video is pretty sweet

You're Wondering Now...

I always loved the tune 'You're Wondering Now"...even the Snuff punk version - here's the orig rocksteady version with some sick dancing....

Inna Dancehall....

Been jamming a lot of early digi dancehall recently like Josey Wales, Yellowman etc... some really good shit, and nothing like the schlock that passes for dancehall these days.... found a pretty epic dancehall doc on the tube - quality is shiiitttty, but the footage is pretty epic. Check the bouncer talking about the trouble he has with people bring M16s to the dance.... jesus - we never had thaat problem at the local discos.....

Frustration

I was just listening to the new record by Frustration "Relax" and was wondering why they aren't huge... shit is dark as fuck, like a mix between JOY DIVISON, TUBEWAY ARMY and the WIPERS... but sung by Frenchies.....

Hooligan

I was looking back on the autobiography of stinky Turner (vocalist with the Cockney Rejects) and reading about footabll violence in the 70's and 80's - he was a paid up member of West Ham's infamous ICF. Then today I watched the documentary "Hooligan' which was on the BBC in 1985. Go to Skinbyrd to watch the whole 50 mins... mental. Checck out the barnets on some of these clowns...

Headache...

Back in the day I couldn't stomach Big Black, just too weird and industrial for my ears... these days I am more and more attracted to their stark bleak percussive sound.... and for a speccy nerd Steve Albini is one weird motherfucker. Above is the cover for their Headache 12" - bet that got lots of parents hearts fluttering. Here's a pretty devastating liver vers of Kerosese.

Home is where the floor is...

I was digging through my records the other night and I pulled out the 'Aspirations' LP by the Aussie band X. Recorded in 5 hours in 1980 this is one helluva record.... and pretty much overlooked except by the collector nerds. Our very own Icki reissued the fucker a few years back, no idea how hard this is to get ahold of, but well worth the trouble. They were pretty explosive on and off the stage, and it seems life caught up with them as most of them are dead. Bassist Ian Rilen was also one of the founding members of Rose Tattoo who I have mentioned before.....

A Little Time...

Can't believe I have'nt posted this before.... The Marked Men are my favorite band of the past decade - the new LP is just fantastic... here's a vid of one of their earlier songs..... soooooo good.

WITCH

In continuation of the Zambian music post from last year I present the WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc). Yet another total obscurity from 1975 that was repressed last year in a criminally small run of 300. I missed out on that press, but luckily the sucker is out there again thanks to Shadocks music of Germany (again 300 copies..this time on blue). USA heads can swoop a copy here (yes, I know its 40 bucks... it's worth it...trust me.). recent discoveries of bands like Blo and the Peace have shown that african psych was alive and well in the 70's. This shit has some classic fuzzed out guitars but with some African inflection and synchopation....trippy shit. What is even more astounding is that this band were'nt a bunch of white ex-pats...but black locals. I was born in Zamnia and my uncle Steve lived there for his entire youth...and trust me, these cats were'nt playing at the local white dances. Where the fuck were they playing??? who knows, but this shit SMOKES. Me and Steve are doing a little detective work to find more info about this stuff staright from the horses mouth, but so far its all blanks. Dig in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IRkFpJh3JE

RIP Ron Asheton

there will be many words printed (or blogged) about the passing of Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton at the age of 60 years old. I'll just post this video from YouTube and leave it at that. Another legend is gone.

Staying Single...

Happy New Year...apologies for the lack of posts... we were too busy enjoying the Christmas Spirits.... anyway... pressing on... Over Xmas we had a couple of good knees ups in my new music room ...which included my 6 year old son DJing old 45s... good times, which reminded me in this age of MP3s, downloads and all that shit that the 45 is where its at.... couple of minutes of music then its time to move on. I also just got ahold of the documentary 'Staying Single' which came out in the 90's and is a great homage to the 7", hosted by John Peel

Staying Single