This first, shortened week of the New Year has somehow managed to seem a bit too long. Here's my buddy, Buddy, here to help segue your work week into your weekend.
Dang its cold already. What happened to those lovely old days of flip floppin' and worrying about Sun Block? Now I'm lucky if the soup I buy during lunch makes it back to the office before turning into a Minestrone Icecube. Pick your favorite layer and stay warm.
Happy New Year to all the readers/listeners out there. It's been a great year filled with great songs. Thanks for participating in this interesting thang we got going here. Stay tuned for more ear tingling adventures in a wide-world of music.
Here's something these fellers here have in common with my great-great-great-great-great grandpappy, Mortimer Jehoshaphat Kazynzky. He is the proud gent below standing by hundred-ton pile of buffalo bones.
Meet my favorite rockers of the moment, The Buffalo Killers. They follow an old Cincinatti, Ohio recipe for a kick ass music video: Take some big dudes with neckbeards, add the american flag and throw in a few women standing in a field. I hope they drive that rusted out pickup through New York some day.
Buffalo Killers - Let It Ride
NOTE:
EVERY DAY, ANOTHER SONG DOES NOT CONDONE THE KILLING OF BUFFALOS.
This past slushy Saturday, I down to the annual WFMU Record Fair to get my vinyl fix. On my trek down the entire city was basically empty, however when I entered the Metropolitan Pavilion, it was SWARMING with like-minded wax-centric individuals. After a day of heavy negotiating, I welcomed eight new members to the family.
Clockwise from top left:
Ray Charles - A Touch Of Gold From Gusto, The King Years
Paul and Linda McCartney - Ram
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Band - Stage Fright
Canned Heat - Human Condition
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Sir Douglas Quintet - Mendocino
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East/West
It was an amazing time. I geeked out hard with a bunch of vendors, collectors and musicians alike. I was lucky to hear the Black Hollies perform while I was there, but I missed one of NYC's most unique treasures, CSC Funk Band perform on Sunday. I've gotta give a shout out to my Oboe Brother (O-broe?), Dave Kadden, who is the only man truly insane enough to funk out on the double-reed devil. Luckily, WFMU posted a few (horribly skippy) videos of the action on their website.
I feel like I would be doing an egregious disservice if I didn't include a bonus song from my epic haul. My current favorite is the album in the middle, the Sir Douglas Quintet output introduced to me by the creator of one of the best music resources in history, TheRisingStorm.net. Here's the title track off Mendocino.
Happy 125th Birthday to the Statue of Liberty, you've come along way baby.
In honor of the Torch Bearer of the Atlantic, I thought it appropriate to post a fierce performance from the woman that nearly set the island on fire. Here's one of my favorite (and free-est) concerts I went to this summer; tUnE-yArDs, Live at Pier 54, rocking the river with her lazerfilled anthem, "My Country".
This is the most beautiful song I have heard in such a long time. It goes perfect with today's light Manhattan rain. Over the past year I've become more and more infatuated with the rich Psych history of Africa during the 70's. It must have been such a ridiculous blast to be at the clubs and shows at this time. The problem is most of the bands from that time only have one or two recordings that have survived long enough to let today's listener enjoy them. I have come into such a dilemma with The Elcados, I found only two songs and I've already worn them out and even deep searches come up empty. I guess this period is just filled with beautiful mysteries.
Last Tuesday (9/20) I was down at Highline Ballroom taking in one of #EDAS' reggae favorites, Barrington Levy. This was my second time seeing the man famous for his 'Squbbilys' and 'Whoas.' His famous inflections were showcased all evening and his voice has barely changed since he took Jamaica by storm at the age of only 14.
Listen to his trademark sounds in a live-concert video below, but be forewarned, the bass is "Dangerously" overwhelming.
Now a more satisfyingly mixed version chock full-o-squeebs. Here's one of Barrington's mainstay hits, Under Mi Sensi.
The other night, the purity of the first football game of the season was soiled when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly interrupted the game to report on a credible but unconfirmed Terror Threat.
Appropriately enough, New York City is on alert this weekend;
The 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
Locked down... Somewhat... Once again...
Forgive me if I thought the whole point of the last 10 Years was to not feel terrorized. Now I can barely leave my house, not because of the threat itself, but because of the influx of tourists and politicos who are in some ways, ripping the actual events of 9/11/01 from their context and repurposing them into whatever form best suits some elephant or donkey's crooked agenda. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I'm not hating on anyone in particular, but I think the true strength shown by us New Yorkers only begun on that fateful Tuesday; it was the continuation to September 12th, then the 13th, then October and November, then the first New Year of 2002 and then onwards to '03; Through the various Wars, and collapses, '05, '06, '07, '08, 'O-bama and the new decade, the attempted attack of Faisal Shahzad and any cowardly copycats, all leading up to today, 10 years later.
The victory is how this enigmatic, dynamic and prismatic Urban Organism got up after taking the worst sucker punch in the country's history, dusted itself off, and went back to work. I guess I'm saying that if going down to Ground Zero and hearing all the names of the innocents who perished provides you with a sort of healing, then please go forth and do so. I just think in a city where everyone lives, loves, and mourns differently, closing down half the city for a memorial, especially while the heroes and first responders sit at home unsure if their next treatment will be covered, kind of brings back an eerily familiar feeling I don't care to relive. I'd rather celebrate September 12, the day the great city rose from the ashes to maintain the most beautiful and diffuse way of life this world has ever known.
If you want to see real evidence that the terrorists lost, pick any other day and go watch the High Schoolers spaz out in Union Square or Old School Rollerbladers skate-dance through Central Park; go to Bryant Park during lunch hour and see all the working stiffs (myself included) using their 60 minutes to smush into a single block of greenery before rushing back to their cubicles so they can afford to do it all over again tomorrow; ride any subway at 4am and watch as half the people drunkenly stagger to get home, while the other half are just leaving theirs, heading to work to make an honest buck.
The feelings surrounding this day are as varied and complex as the people who feel them. I have lived 3,650 days since 9/11, carrying the events I eye-witnessed with me for each and every one of them. I will never forget exactly what happened and exactly how we fought so diligently and emotionally to preserve and protect the security of our culture, I don't need a media circus to help me remember it.
I wish everybody reading this (and even those who aren't) all the comfort and strength a fellow human-being can, but I wish you more than one day's worth, I wish you enough strength to carry on forever, it's all we can do.
God Bless America
Simon and Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York
Time really flies when your workin'. I have already been back for days but between a swollen inbox and a belated bout with Montezuma, I haven't had a moment to post. In honor of Labor Day Weekend, here is a double dose of work for the holiday weekend.
Here is one of the true New Orleans stalwarts, Allen Toussaint with his ode to menial lugging, followed by the De-evolution version of the same song.
Allen Toussaint, 2009, Brooklyn
Picture by Matt Katz Enjoy the long weekend.
Allen Toussaint - Working In The Coalmine
BONUS SONG: Devo - Working In The Coalmine (Live 1988)