Curious Curation

This site is sick. Just pictures. No explanations. None needed. Just lots of great pictures of style, fashion, art, music and everything in between.

Curios Curation

Bricks And Mortar 9hr Blazedown

The crew are kicking down a monster bash next weekend. Come down and celebrate - all the heads plus more on the decks... Thanks to Peter for the sick flyers...

Fume

I haven't lived in London in 10 years...but when I was there Fume ruled West London. Along with Diet and Rate shit was EVERYWHERE. This piece is 20 feet high by Westbourne Park. Anyone know if he's still writing???

Gamble & Huff Fire

I read yesterday that someone set fire to the Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International Records. I guess a sizable section of the building burned (although not the recording studio itself). I've never been a big fan of the Philly Sound (mainstream & often silly), but...

Piece By Piece

Old news for Graf heads, but the SF Graffiti doc 'Piece By Piece' is ill. Lots of great shots and a good overview of SF graffiti history. Especially great to see all the Dream and Tie pieces...

The Allure of the game...

It's a couple years old now but I just stumbled back over Ratatat's Remixes Vol 2. They took a bunch of pretty banging hip-hop, albeit well-known (i.e. Jay Z etc) major label stuff, and mixed various vocals over new music they produced. I might be alone on this one, but some of it is really sick, and without fail completely eclipses the original versions. And in this super clean driving atmosphere, gave me a new appreciation for the lyrical ability of some of these dudes.

This song in particular, a mash of Jay-Z's "Allure" and B.I.G's "Runnin", blows me away. True fucking poetry. Sorry for the long-ass post, but you gotta read these lyrics. Especially JayZ's bits on the ghetto's "mental telepathy" and a girl's anguish after "learning [she's] the mistress." Modern day Shakespeare shit, I kid you not. I read this somewhere: "Black America's influence on popular music cannot be measured." Fuck, no joke.



JAY Z:
The allure of breakin the law, Is always too much for me to ever ignore, I gotta thing for them big body Benzes, it dulls my senses, In love with a V-Dub engine, Man I'm high off life, fuck it I'm wasted, Bey Venay kicks, or them Marvin Kaye wrists
My women friend get tennis bracelets, Trips to Venice, get their winters replaced with, The sun, it ain't even fun no more I'm jaded, Man, it's just a game, I just play it to play it, I put my feet in the footprints left to me, Without sayin a word, the ghetto's got a mental telepathy, Man my brother hustled so naturally, Up next is me, but what perplexes me, Shit I know how this movie ends, still I play, The starrin role in "Hovito's Way"

[Chorus]
It's just life, I solemnly swear, To change my approach, stop shavin coke, Stay away from hoes, put down the toast, Cause I be doin the most.. oh no! But every time I felt that was that, it called me right back, It called me right back, man it called me right back - oh no!

I'm like a Russian mobster, drinkin distilled vodka, 'Til I'm under the field with Hoffa, it's real, Peal the top up like a toupee, Mix the water, with the soda, Turn the pot up make a souflee, All of y'all can get it like group page in your 2-way, I'm livin proof that crime do pay, Say hooray to the bad guy, and all the broads, Puttin cars in they name for the stars of the game, Puttin 'caine in they bras and they're tomorrow on the train, All in the name of love, Just to see that love locked in chains and the family came, Over the house to take back, everything that they claimed, Or even the worst pain is the distress, Learnin you're the mistress only after that love gets slain, And the anger and the sorrow mixed up leads to mistrust, Now it gets tough to ever love again, But the allure of the game, keeps callin your name, To all the Lauras of the world, I feel your pain, To all the Christies in every cities and Tiffany Lanes, We all hustlers, in love with the same thang

NOTORIOUS B.I.G.:
Check it, I grew up a fuckin screwup, Got introduced to the game, got a ounce and fuckin blew up, Choppin rocks overnight
The nigga Biggie Smalls tryin ta turn into the black Frank White, We had to grow dreads to change our description, Two cops on the milk box missin, Show they toes you know they got stepped on, A fist full of bullets a chest full of Teflon, Run from the *police* picture that, nigga I'm too fat, I fuck around and catch a asthma attack (heavy breathing), That's why I bust back, it don't phase me, When he drop, take his glock, and I'm Swayze, Summer break, my escape, sold the glock, bought some weight
Laid back, I got some money to make

Scum

All this talk about getting tooled up reminded me of my all time favorite scene in a film... Scum, Alan Clark's super gritty depiction of life in Borstal with a young Ray Winstone is heaaaavvvvy. This four minutes will put you off yer lunch...

Soulful Dolly

Intimidated by Pierced Heart's gems... nevertheless, here's one of my most surprising finds from a few years ago (couldn't locate any youtube clips so here's a lastfm link):

Dolly Parton: Don't Drop Out

The Firm (1988)

Couldn't mention 'The Firm' without posting this one up. Bex getting tooled up. C'mon let's ave ya!

The Firm (2009)

Watched this one on dvd - Despite being a big fan of Nick Love film's (Outlaw, Football Factory, The Business) wasn't sure whether it was wise to remake the Oldman classic but the familiar story of hoolies on and off the terrace didn't disappoint thanks to Love's usual mix of wideboy swagger, violence and humour.

Soul 004

Skived off work yesterday and put the time to good use by mixing up some more bangin 60TS Soul. This is my fav tune on there - sweet vocals combined with a driving beat. Killa.

Smart's Palace

My bad day turned around to find a heap of records I ordered at my doorstep. Best cover art: Smart's Palace, a compilation of Wichata soul. Two guys are digging the handstand. Two have seen it all before.

If you like that...

If you like that old-style country and bluegrass stuff, you might be interested in this guy. I've seen him a couple times here in NYC at a regular night he holds at Rockwood Music Hall. His name's Michael Daves and he's true to the original style, not doing it as a gimmick. He can even nail the "high lonesome" (tongue stuffed into his cheek, singing through his nose) style. It's not totally my bag, but seeing him live is really something. Only once in a while do you see someone who COMPLETELY surprises you.

Roots

Diggin' the roots of the recent posts, I just happen to be listening to a Roscoe Holcomb compilation this morning...

If It's All The Same...

Can't beat Shanksy's Flirtations post, but up with that track as my all time fave dancefloor banger is this one by the mighty Luther Ingram (RIP). Kills me every time....

The Flirtations

Pierced Heart's Soul mixes have been ripping. Stumbled across this piece of gold, by The Flirtations. The song's great, but I'm posting it here mostly because of the video. Sick! Next vid I do I want it to look like this shit.

Mance Lipscomb

Was chatting with Brooksy earlier about the blues...been getting back into the OG stuff, from the guys who'd seen the evil shit in the South. And my fave is probably Mance Lipscomb. Born in the late 1800s, Mance was the son of a former slave. And "Mance" was apparently a name he took for himself...a shortened version of 'emancipation.' The walking & talking guitar..playing slide with a pocket knife...this guy is the blues. The second vid has a bit of an interview on the end of it.

Girls

SF hipsters. Thanks XsweatsX.

Dictators

While in NYC we spent some time at Handsome Dick Manitoba's bar 'Manitobas' on the Lower East Side. The man was there (piocs to follow). Awesome.

NYC Graf

Spent a weekend in NYC. Saw some good shit up on the walls.....

UK Street Style

Been watching this cool documentary about UK street style from the fifties teds onwards. This is Part 4, that focuses on the skins, but to be honest the whole thing is worth watching... Fix Up, Look Sharp.

Tattoo's Gone Wrong

Cool site with a mix of great tattoo's and complete disasters.

War On The Terraces

For Casey.

REVS NYC

NYC legend Revs who probably hit up more spots than any other writer in the 90's with his partner COST. After COST was busted REVS went underground. He now makes sculptures...but I bet he's still writing too....



wiki

pics

Beg Waves

Put this Ponytail song on a compilation a few years ago... got mixed reviews. I still think it's a pleasant ruckus... they're from Maryland but their sound reminds me of maybe some old Howling Bull stuff + Deerhoof. The video? I don't think it helps make my case.

SF Graf.

Been locking into to some local writing.... quick blast of history here...

Magnetix

Brain Out. Frenchies. Lofi. Feeling it.

Death Row Dubs Vol 1

Hasn't been much on the UK digi steppers scene for a while that's done it for us (not since the massive King General lp) - but just got sent a link to this from the one like Jah Waggy - comin soon on his record label. Not finished yet but sounding pretty gnarly...thumbs up.



If you like this check out some of the King Earthquake dubs - some of 'em pretty dark and heavy.

Karen Dalton

Butthole Surfers

Our pal HJ is a bonefide Buttholes maniac. Dude has seen them a billion times. He showed me this today as an example of one of their shows. Hit it up a minute in.... shits fucked up - smoke, strobe, naked chicks, naked Gibby, 2 drummers.......fuck

Home Blitz's

"Two Steps" might've been 09's catchiest song...

Numero & Ubiquity Sales

A couple purveyors of mostly brilliant (but overpriced) vintage soul compilations are havin' sales. Numero Group is offering Three CDs for 45 bucks (plus a bit of free vinyl). Meanwhile, Ubiquity Records is offering 50% off vinyl.

Ubiquity

Numero

The Guvnor

Here's anutha Mclean fight for you. - This time 'The Guvnor' sets to work on Roy Shaw (who was also a respected boxer and knuckle fighter) in a slightly longer fight (all of about 60secs). Read his book a while back and seemed a pretty together bloke, not the nutter you might expect (unless you crossed him). Fair play to Shaw though for getting up after that pasting.



If you're still in the mood for more brutality check out some of the Cro Cop fights on youtube.

Getting inside your opponent's head

Was looking at different Bronson stuff following the Tom Hardy post below. That lead me to this gem. Typically, trying to get inside your opponent's head is a pretty good tactic. In this instance, however, pretty fucking stupid.

Shogun Assassin

Trailer for one of the best sword flicks ever made. Lone Wolf and Cub get down to some serious killin, set to some dope Carpenteresque electro. Lovin it.

Bronson

I know we mentioned this movie before...but this wee interview with Tom Hardy is genius.

Until The Light Takes Us

A little late on this as some of the showings were in Jan, but this new Black Metal doc looks rad...especially as it has recent interviews with Varg Vikerness...

Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning

More class 80's gear. The Upstarts were leftie hooligans who thought nothing of taking boots and bats to Nazis heads.

All Twisted

I was reading some posts on a message board today about 80's punk bands with promo videos... some good shit out there. This is Kraut from NYC doing 'All Twisted'. Good shit.

Pierced Hearts - New Site

Finally got the northern soul site up and running (the blog was just a temp measure). Posted up a new mix and there should be another installment by the end of the week. Also archived a pile of reggae mixes and will do some jungle and dubstep when get a mo. Check it here.

Rip Offs

Best band from the bay area in the 90's... they rule. they reformed to tour Europe a couple of years back... no US dates. Fuckers. Shane White is a fucking legend....

Slumgang (again)

I posted this a while back. One of my all time faves. Heres a link to the complete 7" recording...

http://www.mediafire.com/?ilfnd5uqdkb

S is for SLAYER

This has been around a bit, but I've been on a Slayer kick and had to watch it again. Fuck, so funny, particularly from the breakdown on (~:48).

All You Haters (Suck My Balls)

Mashin

The MASH crew are Mashin on any bike. Walton CX wheelie.

Tiger B. Smith "We're the Tiger Bunch" & "Tiger Rock"

Fuck. 1974, Kraut hippy-glam power trio channels Iggy and MC5. Apparently Tiger B. Smith released two albums, both absolutely rock/groove. Here are two tracks chosen mostly because this video provides the much-needed glimpse of lead singer Holger Schmidt's amazing 'fro. After these two "singles" much of Tiger B. Smith's other tracks are 7-9 -minute-long funk/psych/glam jams. These guys found the groove.

Razorcake

Razorcake (along with Maximumrocknroll) is our favorite indie print zine. Todd (who runs the show) sees life through the same glasses we do. Some of the B&M crew play in the Young Offenders and for some reason Todd saw fit to interview us and put us on the cover. That aside this is a great zine, and this little expo is awesome - Todd's enthusiasm and love for punk rock just shines through. Killer.

More Ranking

The Shaka collection reminded me of Diplo/Santigold's '08 mixtape, Top Ranking. Best I'd heard in a spell, featuring covers/samples from the Clash, Dead Boys, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains...

Sorta new 'round these parts, might've missed an earlier plug for it. Cheers

Shaka Killers

Crytough Soundsystem have been inviting top reggae selectors to choose some of their favorite tunes as played by Jah Shaka for sometime now. Seventeen volumes have been planned and so far 8 have been finished.

What makes these a must is that all are WAV quality - Volume 11 in particular mixed by Englishpound is a masterpiece with full on fx and delays. Other selectors have chosen to just present their selections unmixed - which are equally valuable.

Grab it ere.

Snobs

No mark 60's Freakbeat from Sweden/ Their cover of heartbreak hotel bangs... couldn't find that but this video of them more than makes up for it....

Whatever happened to Jay Adams?

Jay Adams Interview

Radio Clash

Mikey Dread - Saturday Night Style
The Last Poets - On The Subway
Sam & Dave - Hold On I'm Comin'
Lee Hazelwood - Run Boy Run
The Tennors - Ride The Donkey
I Roy - Black Man Time
Warren Miller - Everybody's Got A Baby But Me
101'ers - Sweet Revenge
Television Personalities - Part Time Punks
Janie Jones - House Of Juju Queen
Tommy Steele - Singing The Blues
Thea Gilmore - I'm Not Down
The Spencer Davis Group - Every Little Bit Hurts (Live)
The Rulers - Wrong Em Boyo
Joe Strummer - White Man Live At The 100 Club

No qualms about posting this up as it was given away free with a mag. Tidy comp from the one like Mick Jones & Paul Simonon - Worth it for the Tommy Steele and Lee Hazelwood tracks alone. Grab it 'Ere (Stuffit File).

Psychobilly

O' to be a 14yr old youth again - Used to think local lad Paul Fenech was the shit - and aspired to be a member of 'The Crazies' when I was old enough to see them live.

The psychobilly phase was a relatively short lived one, replaced by house and acid, but not before I'd spent my hard earned pocket money on a number of their albums (their 83 live lp was the most cained) together with the likes of the Guana Batz, King Kurt and The Cramps (Poison Ivy - how fit?)

As time passes I often wonder looking back at my musical tastes (Psychobilly, Mod, Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, Reggae, Jungle and Dubstep to name a few) - what the common link is, if any - I guess it comes down to 'Lightning and Thunder' (Rhythm).

In Crowd - things She Says

Got this smokin' 60's R&B/Freakbeat comp the other day "Searching In The Wilderness". It's all fuzzed out blazing shit - but check this R&B blazer from the In Crowd..... shiiiit.

SF the brotherhood

SF folks and others...

As Tim noted in a previous post, Dougie recently turned him onto JEFF the Brotherhood. Before that post I have to be honest, I'd heard the name out here and based on the name alone I assumed they were another slice of Williamsburg Hipster Pie. That will learn me. Saw them tonight and I'm a convert. Total slayage. They will be loved (but hopefully not ruined, though the full-leather threads and full-pro roadie set up is worrisome) broadly soon enough, so catch them now. Gotta love the two-piece that can get fuckers nuts and stage diving en masse. Playing SF April 1st.

Southside Steppers - Super Storm Decay

Killa from Southside Steppers On Soul Jazz - My mate dan on the beatz front with 2Ice on mic duties - Maybe biased but this wrecks it everytime...Lord Ave Mercy!

Willie Parker - I Life The Life I Love

Been Smashin Up This 60's Northern Soul Track Today - Anthem!

Jedi Mind Tricks/Genius - On The Eve Of War

I just picked up the "Soundtrack From The Shaolin Temple" LP by the Wu Tang Clan. Not really a 'new' album this collection is all the usual suspects with a bunch of collaberations. Where a lot of these cash in collections are patchy at best this one is strong. This collab between one of my faves...the unstopable GZA and Jedi Mind Tricks is fierce. I love the rhymes but it's the production that kills me....

Die Antwoord - Enter The Ninja

Not as good as what Brooks posted earlier, but I think this still falls into the "trainwreck that you can't look away from" category.

UV Race

I have waxed lyrical about Eddie Current Suppression Ring and The Ooga Boogas. Here's more current Aussie schlock for you....with links to those bands I think. Fuckin a.

Digging For Records In The Digital Age Pt 2

Decided to take Sir Shanksalot's idea of pulling audio off the net and run with it this week.

Started on youtube downloading tracks that were elusive and beyond my budget and then ended up rinsing the various corners of the net.

Had originally planned a Northern Soul mix but ended up discovering all manner of freshness from all sorts of genres - genres that I wouldn't normally consider.

The biggest pain in the arse came when I had to re-eq most of them as they sounded a bit shitty (surprised at how many bloggers still upload files at poor bit rates).

That done transferred em all to cd and had a mix up...and here's the result a slammin uptempo mix of obscure and rare vinyl that I wouldn't be able to afford or trackdown using conventional means...Everything from soul,blues,garage,psych,freakbeat and mod.

After all that my conscience was surprisingly clear but then I've always be lacking in moral fibre.

Mix - Here.

Empire

New Empire teaser. Totally feeling this...in part due to the fact they are using my favorite Cro Mags song, but also cos they are just firin'. Even the tricks are hard...

The Beat Merchants - Not Just A Pretty Face

One for Brooksy - Discovered this band on an english freakbeat comp - this track's got a strong blues vibe - absolutely tearing.

Die Antwood - Zef Side

Our pal Mike @ Mashsent us this. I have no idea what it is....but I'm feeling the video.

Fortunes - "Fire Brigade"

The song is so so from these Brummies, but the video? pure class.

Blue Aces

What I love about some of the UK Freakbeat stuff is that it has so much soul. I dig a lot of blue eyed soul because it packs a load of punch...like punk soul. This lot were from Ireland. Don't know shit about them, but this song bangs....

The Simonsound - It's Just Begun.

Slammin moog version of the Jimmy Castor Bunch classic - yours for $1 here. HUGE.

Shitlickers

I have been on a raw punk kick recently much to the chagrin of the missus. I was blasting the Shitlickers this morning. Doesn't get much better if you like it rawwwww

Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll

If there's one thing us brits know how to do well that's make twee movies: Bridget Jones, 4 Weddings, Rock n Rolla, Love Actually blah, blah, blah. So when a mate slung us a copy of the new Ian Jury flick wasn't expecting too much, especially never being a massive blockhead myself. Despite being a tad over dramatized and ripping off 'Bronson' in places - was worth an hour and a half of my life - Gollum definitely brings it home.



And this from the man himself...

Taxi Boys - Paris

May as well keep the Frenchie vibe rolling . More fruity synthpop... this time the Taxi Boys (not the Boston Real Kids offshoot), a bunch of nonces from Gay Paris. Killer.

BIPP - French Synthwave 1979-1985

I picked up this killer comp the other day 'cos I was intrigued to know what French synthwave sounded like. Turns out it's pretty ruling. Here's a taster from the LP set to lego people. (we all know how much I like amusing lego animations).