ALEGRANZA!

Okay let's go a thousand miles away from SISTERS LOVERS, ALEX CHILTON and all things depressing.

EL GUINCHO is my favorite musician that ever came out of the Canary Island - and I've heard so many of them. His album ALEGRANZA was released two summers ago and it still fills me with joy just as much as the first time I heard it.
And like other sample-heavy albums that educated me when I was younger (finding the songs sampled by, say, De La Soul or the Beastie Boys made me discover so much good music I otherwise wouldn't have known of), it allowed me to find these two pieces of great exotic music, sampled respectively in the two opening cuts of his album, PALMITOS PARK and ANTILLAS.
Both these songs are magnficent.

The first one is an early-60s Cuban doo-wop, Y SABES BIEN by LOS ZAFIROS apparently a huge band and a huge hit in their native island, I must admit I had never heard of them.

The second one, surprisingly, is not a Zouk from les Antilles like the title of EL GUINCHO's tune suggests, it is actually a Kenyan duet called ORIANGO & KIPCHAMBA, and the song is called PELINA. Courtesy of AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA.

DON'T BE AFRAID

For two days I couldn't listen to SISTERS LOVERS...
Now I can't listen to anything else.

NO MORE THE MOON SHINES ON ALEX CHILTON

So I'm sitting here devastated by the news of ALEX CHILTON's death.

Here is a mixtape showcasing FIFTEEN YEARS OF GENIUS, including originals and demented covers, songs he sang and songs he produced, classics and lesser-known-of or rare songs.
We purposely excluded songs from the mighty depressing SISTERS LOVERS, because it's hard enough as it is.
However, there is over half of the 1975 sessions that were later released as BACH'S BOTTOM because it's fucking great.

1967-1982: FIFTEEN YEARS OF CHILTON

1- THE BOX TOPS : Neon Rainbow (1967)
2- THE BOX TOPS : I Shall be Released (1969)
3- ALEX CHILTON : The EMI Song (Smile For Me) (1970)
4- BIG STAR : Thirteen (1972)
5- BIG STAR : O My Soul
6- BIG STAR : Morpha Too (1973)
7- SCOTT ADAMS : Mojo Man (1974)
8- ALEX CHILTON : Walking Dead
9- ALEX CHILTON : Take me home and make me like it!
10- ALEX CHILTON : Every time I close my eyes
11- ALEX CHILTON : All of the time
12- ALEX CHILTON : Oh Baby I'm Free
13- ALEX CHILTON : Jesus Christ (1975)
14- ALEX CHILTON : Bangkok
15- ALEX CHILTON : Can't seem to make you mine (1977)
16- ALEX CHILTON : Boogie Shoes
17- ALEX CHILTON : Hey! Little Child
18- ALEX CHILTON : Hook or Crook (1979)
19- THE CRAMPS : Garbage Man (1980)
20- ALEX CHILTON : No More the Moon Shines on Lorena (live) (1982)


And here's a few Youtubes:

Alex, age 16, singing THE LETTER on TV, not able to keep a straight face.

With Big Star in the studio, cutting #1 RECORD in 1971.

On MTV in 1985, playing a coupla BOX TOPS HITS on his acoustic guitar.

And of course the ultimate tribute, ALEX CHILTON, the song, by The Replacements.

GOODBYE

We are actually crying right now.
Mixtape coming very soon.

ECSTASY ECSTASY

Lately, I've been doing a lot of XTC.
They have so many great songs to choose from.

My favorite right now is BEATING OF HEARTS because it sounds so modern (but I suppose it may say more about today's production values than about the song itself).

My favorite album is of course 25 O'CLOCK, the one they made under the alias DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR, pretending it was actually the reissue of a forgotten psych album from the 60s.

I always will have a soft spot for SCARECROW PEOPLE, for it's the first XTC song I ever heard, when I was 10.

But when it comes to lyrics, I'D LIKE THAT is a major acheievement, containing the best metaphor used in song lyrics since DEWEY COX'S MID-60s PERIOD :

We could grow high, really high
Like a really high thing

If that ain't deep poetry, I don't know what is.

BIENVENUE A GRONLAND

Catchy bassline + sensational vocal arrangement + fantastic lyrics + a beat you could dance to + LSD video = THE BEST SONG IN THE WORLD.

KILL FOR TOTAL PEACE

It's a sad day when a drummer gets thrown out of his own gig for smoking a fag on stage. But it's also fun to watch.
KILL FOR TOTAL PEACE

CHANGE DE BEAT

FAB FIVE FREDDY was not only part of the best show ever in the history of television (no, not YO! MTV RAPS but of course TV PARTY), he is not only many other things that he is, but for us French people he is also important for being instrumental in the birth of French hip-hop. Mais c'est UNE AUTRE HISTOIRE.

DON'T START ME TALKIN'

I never really liked BOB MARLEY. He never did anything for me. Sure, I like the odd track, like some EARLY 60s SOUL SINGLES, or some of the ORIGINAL SCRATCH-MIXED VERSIONS of what would become Catch a Fire, but that's just about it. In my mind, he was neither the best songwriter nor the best singer to come from this small island where it seems every other person is madly talented.
Plus, it's hard to like a guy who's worshipped by every braindead dreadlocks-sporting White-ass loser.
And then the other night, my friend MOGADISHOW played me this live album called TALKIN BLUES. Now I remember hearing that title a thousand times, back in high school where every kid was a Marley fan, and around the time it was originally released, but I never bothered to listen to it since I don't like Marley. But man I was in for a shock. This album is a live session recorded hastily for the radio. It seems that Marley's voice is close to being broken, and for my money he never sang better than here. THE WAILERS also play with a feeling of urgency that was never captured on a studio album. And now I have to admit it: I do like Bob Marley after all. I used to think I was original, I had to BURN ALL MY ILLUSIONS.