Tuesday, March 13, 2007

TAPE WORM


Cassettes have made a mini revival as a bedroom musician's medium of choice. Better than Cd-Rs, which feel cheap and somewhat of a ripoff, cassettes just have more class. Nothing worse than ordering a CD and it shows up as some lame CD-R from Staples with a label maker special on the top.

I always felt having a cassette of an available album was like paper money without the gold backing (my same beef with MP3s). Never one to buy an album on tape but i loved getting unreleased gems handed to me in that little plastic package. The only cassettes that survived my moves were the ones that friends have made for me of their bands. So i decided to to rip a few of these dusty, hissy fits and put them up for you to enjoy (and for me to rub in your face)

Prepare your feeble brain for a PUFFTUBE resurrection. After years of (supposed) silence The Tube is finally ready hop outta his candy coffin and plant anti-personnel mines in yr cochlea.
While the rest of the indie/undie world was hopped up on piss poor cle. crap, Pufftube was still cooking up unfathomable sounds. A little know fact: yours unruly is officially the unofficial Pufftube archivist. I have tapes and tapes of cloistered clandestine jams that were being made
during those quiet years. What i have here are 2 rare as fuck tracks from the immediate post "Emergency Peanut" era.

CHATTERY TEETH
SKEW LALLO(W)

In the mid 80s, Kent was the ugly autistic/artistic sister to Cleveland's loud and lumbering big brother. More art damaged and twice as fucked, Kent bands didn't so much kick ass as kill brain cells. THE RAGGED BAGS were one the more "put together" groups of the time (and that is not saying much at all) and one of the least documented. I am not going to front and say i know a hell of a lot about them. These tracks from a cassette that one of their more (in)famous drummers made me explain them the best.

I'M DRUNK
DAZED

The LAUGHING HYENAS were just flat out devastating (well up until da' blues took over). Live they could make you black and blue from the inside out and their first 3 releases are still essential American primal scream therapy. One of my most prized possessions is a tape with their rarely/never heard 4 track and 16 track demos from late summer '86. These sessions were done with their original line up that include Mike Danner (the guy that hooked me up and one of the funniest MFers this planet has ever known) on drums. These 2 cuts are 4 track demos done in a basement in August '86.

HELL'S KITCHEN
EIGHTEEN

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

grape pop and hot fries


Was i the only person that watched The White Rapper Show on Vh1? Now i dislike MC SERCH as much as the next person that knows 3rd Base sucked, but i have to acknowledge the fact that he was a major source behind the greatest hip hop album of all time (NAS "iLLMATIC) and one of the most slept on (O.C. "WORD...LIFE"). I'll let his awkward fat ass slide on those merits alone.

The real reason that show slayed all other reality shows was that it was produced by EGO TRIP. For those who may not know, EGO TRIP was at first an amazing periodical in the early 90's that covered hip hop with unrelenting insight, wit and love. They were the only magazine during that time that even came close to MOTORBOOTY's god head smart ass status. Since they folded, they put out 2 must have tomes: Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists and Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism

Anyhow... the point being that THE WHITE RAPPER SHOW, beneath it's seemingly played out premise, was filled with cameos and references to a time in hip hop where all seemed to be right. When it was the most vital form of music vs today where it is for the most part a virtual muzak. Yes, there are still great artists, decent labels and good tracks to be had but they are in the minority (irony?).
So this got me flipping thru my poorly filed 12"s and i put together a set of some of my favorite records from 1990-1995. After '95 there was a definite change in climate (and not for the worse) so i decided to take it EZ on myself and just stick to those years.
below is the track list and below that is the link.
Word to your tattered Afrika Medallion.

1. buck-whylin - terminator x '90
2. murder rap - above the law '90
3. make it happen (remix) - ultramagnetic mcs '91
4. this is a visit (hardhead mix) - downtown science '91
5. one in the chamba - the almighty rso '92
6. fat pockets (radio remix) - showbiz & ag '92
7. punks jump up to get beat down - brand nubian '92
8. saturday nite live (horny mix) - masta ace '93
9. close the crackhouse - professor x '93
10. get funky (remix) - the beatnuts '94
11. suckas need bodyguards - gang starr '94
12. mad izm - channel live '94
13. the funkiest - funkdoobiest '94
14. 9th wonder (slicker this year) elaine brown - digable planets '94
15. headz ain't redee (beatminerz remix) - black moon\smif-n-wessun '95
16. daaam! (buckwhild remix) - tha alkaholiks '95

on the DL

Sunday, March 4, 2007

live from the nut hut

Almost 10 years ago i was an office drone and i spent my lunch hour across the street at a used record shop almost everyday. I was already friends with many of the employees but the real perk was being in tight with the manager. This long hair was an ex-junkie by the age of 18 and obsessed with Spacemen 3, Deviants and Hawkwind... so anything outside that realm was free gain for me.

One average afternoon i went over to the store and he gave me a nod and motioned for me to go into the back storeroom with him. There, in piles on the floor, was a huge blues and roots collection in near mint shape (or NM for the collector scum). He let me pick out whatever i wanted and then proceeded to bag them up and give them to me for free. I nearly shat.

Apparently, this widow brought this amazing booty in the night before. Her husband worked for a blues station and these records were squirrelled away in the basement. There were countless gems that i still have even after suffering a severe karma attack.
while filing the records, a stack of them fell off the top of my shelf and conked me on the head... knocking me out for a few seconds. When i came to i had this fucked up twinge in my back that i still suffer with today. I have no doubt that the ghostly hand of that old coot pushed those records on me to let me know that my ill gotten fortune took him a lifetime to acquire.

One of the best LPs in that collection was this compilation called COUNTRY NEGRO JAM SESSION on the late great Arhoolie label. Nestled in the midst of the fantastic slide blues and dusty country licks was this fucked up jam called "Foxhunt".
I think it's better enjoyed without my pontification.
Below is the description from the back of the album.
Click on it to download.