TRILOGIES

Christmastime is here!

I made these 3 DJ mixes a few years ago. Figured that I might as well share them! It's that time of year afterall. You can stream them here via SoundCloud or click on the links to download them.

Happy Holidays all y'all!




Happy Haggard Holidays Tracklisting:
Lisi - My Silent Night
Dana Dane - Dana Dane Is Coming To Town
James Brown - Hey America
Material & Nona Hendryx - It's A Holiday
Cristina - Things Fall Apart
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
Was (Not Was) - Christmas Time In Motor City
Wesley Willis - Merry Christmas
Spectrum - Santa Claus
King Stitt - Christmas Tree
Audio Two - A Christmas Rhyme
C3PO & R2D2 - Christmas In The Stars [MF Edit]
The Lennon Sisters - Outer Space Santa
Mark Mothersbaugh - Enough Xmas For All
Juice Crew - Cold Chillin' Christmas
Kick & Snare - Twas Xmas Rmx
Cassette Boy - XXXXmas
VoiceDude - Here Comes Santa Claus In Black
Jeff Lorber - God Rest The House
The Treacherous Three - Santa's Rap
Super J - Santa's Rap Party
MF - Hail Santa
Ver6 - Silent Night Honey Pie
Evolution Control Committee - The Christmas Wrong

Glædelig jul





A Rhythm & Blues Soul Christmas Tracklisting:
Reverend JM Gates - Did You Spend Christmas In Jail?
Little Esther - Far Away Christmas Blues
Felix Gross - Love For Christmas
Floyd Dixon - Empty Stocking Blues
The Midnighters - Christmas Time For Everybody But Me
The Uniques - Merry Christmas Darling
Andre "Mr Rhythm" Williams - Poor Mister Santa
John Lee Hooker - Blues For Christmas
Leadbelly - Christmas Is A-Coming
Lil McClintock - Don't Think I'm Santa Claus
Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz, It's Christmas
Titus Turner - Christmas Morning
Lowell Fulsom - Lonesome Christmas [Parts 1&2]
Sharon Jones - Aint No Chimneys In The Projects
Rose Graham - Black Christmas
Soul Saints Orchestra - Santa's Got A Bag Of Soul
James Brown - Soulful Christmas
Pastor T. L. Barrett And The Youth For Christ Choir - Jingle Bells [Parts 1 & 2]
Jimmy Butler - Trim Your Tree
Count Sydney & His Dukes - Soul Christmas
Fat Daddy - Holiday Baby
Clarence Carter - Backdoor Santa

Jwaye Nwèl






Have Yourself A Haggard Little Christmas Tracklisting:
Elvis Presley - Santa Claus Is Back In Town
The Beatles - Christmas Time Is Here Again [MF Edit]
The Who - Christmas Morning [MF Edit]
The Fall - Hark The Harald Angels Sing
The Wedding Present - Step Into Christmas
Brendan Hanlon & The Bat Men - Christmas Party
Shonen Knife - Space Christmas
Detroit Junior - Christmas Day
The Sonics - Santa Claus
Claudine Longet - I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You
Jacques Dutronc - La Fille Du Père Noël
Jackie & The Cedrics - Silent Night Rumble
Booker T & The MG’s - Jingle Bells
The Wailers - Christmas Spirit?!?
Low - Just Like Christmas
Chuck Blevins - Sleigh Bell Rock
Jack Scott - There’s Trouble Brewing
The 5.6.7.8’s - Rock & Roll Santa
Houghas Sorowonko - A Groovy Christmas & New Year
Huey Smith & His Clowns - Happy New Year

Nadolig Llawen



Also! If you love Christmas visit this old holiday blog that my best pal and I made!

'93 FEELINGS

Beck has so much goddamn music out there. He was insanely prolific from 1993 to 1998 which always made me crazy when people referred to him as a slacker. He released close to 100 songs as singles, b-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, remixes, and live on air sessions. That is on top of releasing the following albums: Golden Feelings, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, Mellow Gold, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay and Mutations. Seven albums, fifteen singles, eight collaborations, twenty seven compilation tracks, remixes of and from various musicians and a bunch of videos. There's also a missing album he recorded with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion and an album he made that would have been "a more rock-based follow-up to Mellow Gold…an album that sounds like a Pavement, Sebadoh kind of thing”. All of this in a span of 5 years. That's fucking insane.

Anyway, this is the first part of my series of Beck compilations. It is made up of all the singles he released mixed with some live on KCRW sessions. Also, I decided to dissect Beck's album Golden Feelings because it always seemed more like a demo tape to me and a lot of the songs were salvaged for future releases. "Mutherfukka" and "Nighmare Hippy Girl" ended up on Mellow Gold. "Special People" and "Super Golden Black Sunchild" ended up as b-sides on the Beercan single (which is why I included them on the 1994 Beck compilation). "No Money No Honey" ended up on Stereopathetic Soulmanure (although in a pretty different form). And "Totally Confused" ended up on A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight. I added most of the rest of the songs (but not all - there are a couple of stinkers on there) and ended the compilation with "Close To God" which was made by Beck & Calvin Johnson in late 1993.

Tracklisting:
MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack
To See That Woman Of Mine
The Fucked Up Blues
Trouble All My days
Bad Energy
Schmoozer
Heartland Feelings
Put It In Neutral
Whiskey-Faced, Radioactive, Blowdryin' Lady
Soul Sucked Dry
Mexico
Will I Be Ignored By The Lord
Bogus Soul
Death Is Coming To Get You
Head Cut Off
Whimsical Actress
People Gettin' Busy
Close To God

Old man Johnson got his head in his hand
Making his way across state in a fiddling band
With hair all down in his eyes
And the microphone all covered with flies

RAT PATROL FROM FORT BRAGG

"Was Glyn Johns’ remix the reason why these sessions were able to be salvaged into something commercially palatable? Probably so, but so much of the original album’s life had been removed in the process, leaving Combat Rock sounding tepid and uneven. Was the record buying public even ready for Rat Patrol’s Vietnamese-reggae/narcotic-funk or whatever-the-hell-kind-of-music?"
-Popmatters

Much has been written abut the first version of Combat Rock which was produced by Mick Jones and titled Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg. The quote above is from one of my favourite articles about Rat Patrol: The Clash Album That Never Was: 'Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg' on Popmatters.

The Glynn Johns album we ended up with, Combat Rock, isn't a bad album or anything, it's just a rather lackluster and not very cohesive album. To be honest, I was 7 years old when it came out. So when I was older and stumbled into the wonderful world of punk rock a few of my first favourite songs were from Combat Rock ("Should I Stay Or Should I Go" and "Know Your Rights"). But as I got even older and started collecting their albums on vinyl or digitally, I found that Combat Rock was pretty much my least favourite album of theirs (I only learned about disowned Clash album Cut The Crap about 10 years ago).

Anyway, I always wanted to own what would have been the much better album, so after many years of listening to and seeking out the extended versions and outtakes from Combat Rock, here is my collection of Rat Patrol. I sourced the songs and tracklisting from various compilations, bootlegs, remastered bootlegs, the Omega Auctions US Masterdisk acetate recording and even the recently reissued album (the 'Peoples Hall' version of Combat Rock). I mixed them together to give the already great flow just a little bit extra oomph.

Tracklisting:
The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too
Killtime
Should I Stay Or Should I Go? [Original Version]
Rock The Casbah [Ft. Ranking Roger]
Know Your Rights [Extended]
Red Angel Dragnet [Ft. Ranking Roger]
Ghetto Defendant [Extended]
Sean Flynn [Extended ‘Marcus Music’ Version]
Car Jamming
Inoculated City [Extended]
Death Is A Star
Walk Evil Talk [MF Edit]
Atom Tan [Extended]
First Night Back In London
Cool Confusion
Straight To Hell [Unedited]

Selling is what selling sells
But only saints on the seven avenues
Can sell the seven hells

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And as a little bonus here are the outtakes:

Outtakes, B-Sides, Combat Rock:
The Escapades Of Futura 2000 [Dub]
Overpowered By Funk
Rock The Casbah [Extended Version]
Long Time Jerk [Extended Version]
Hell W10 [Demo]
Midnight To Stevens [Outtake]
He Who Dares Or Is Tired [Outtake]
Know Your Rights [Combat Rock Version]
Should I Stay Or Should I Go [Combat Rock Version]
Red Angel Dragnet [Combat Rock Version]
Cool Confusion [Instrumental]
Mustapha Dance

Overpowered by funk
Don't you love our Western ways?

TRILOGIES

Echolocation by Fruit Bats

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Mouthfuls by Fruit Bats

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The Ruminant Band by Fruit Bats

A perfect three album arch by Fruit Bats. Their first album Echolocation is slightly electronic, folky and full of early 2000's indie rock goodness. This album is lovely and not smug like a lot of their contemporaries sound in hindsight. It was created by Eric Johnson and a fairly big crew of his friends and recorded in Chicago. It is very much an album about the midwest. Real and imagined.

Their second album Mouthfuls picks up where Echolocation ends but, overall, feels fuller and little more epic. There are some great strings and horns added to their sound. The electronics are still there but used a little more sparingly and more as instruments than sound effects. The midwestern, rust belt stories continue but feel bigger to me on this album.

Their third album is not part of this trilogy. While it is a good album and has definitely grown on me over the years, it feels and sounds like a very different band to me. Maybe it was the whole 70's vibe that Eric Johnson was going for but it just didn't sound the same to me.

Their fourth album, The Ruminant Band, completes the trilogy. It really picks up where Mouthfuls leaves off. The stories being told are grander and filled with a weariness that comes with age and experience. The midwest shines once again. Shines like a neon bar sign or lights from an old county fair. The electronics are so subtle that I can't even recall if there are any other than the Chamberlin and Mellotron on the closing song? It's a beautiful album.

Take a listen to the album's here: