Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers - "Can't Go For That"

Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers are a rock/country/soul band from San Francisco with a busy touring schedule. Between gigs they pass the time by playing cover songs in their van, recording them and posting them online for fun. This tune by Hall and Oates is one of my favorites maybe because De La Soul sampled it on "Say No Go". This one was recorded between gigs in Phoenix, AZ and Pioneertown, CA.

Cobblestone Jazz - Traffic Jam

Cobblestone Jazz are a 4-piece Canadian improvised electronic band, who create deep minimal house music. They remind me of the other excellent Canadian electronic improv band The New Deal. This track "Traffic Jam" came out back in 2007. I'm just digging into their new album "The Modern Deep Left Quartet" out on !K7 Records.

Cast of Cheers - "Family"

I haven't posted in too long ... and I best hurry because spring is here and we need some up-tempo tunes fast! I don't know what you would call this sound, 80's-alt meets math rock meets discordant-slacker-ska ... but it works! And well!!!

B.T. Express - "Express"

How's this for some funky Friday music? A gem from the Super Gold 36. Get on the Express!

Stampeders - "Playing in the Band"

Another great cut from 36 Super Gold Hits. The Stampeders are a 3-piece combo who formed in Calgary back in 1965. In 1966 they moved to Toronto to pursue rock and roll stardom. They achieved this in 1971 with their number 1 smash hit "Sweet City Woman", which won the Juno for best single of the year. They also won best group, best producer, and best composer Junos that year. Fast forward to 1975. These guys are living the life. They're "playing in the baaaand...all across the laaaand". It's a little slice of white prairie rock with a reggae vibe.

Check it out here on the new CBC Music website.

Faces - "Stay with Me"

Here's another gem from 36 Super Gold Hits. Who knew that Rod Stewart used to be cool, let alone badass? Here is his early band Faces, made up of members of The Small Faces, who added Ron Wood on guitar and Rod Stewart on vocals. On this track he gives Robert Plant a run for his money on vocals, and Mick Jagger a run on moves and general coked-up-ed-ness. Ron Wood went on to join the Rolling Stones, and Stewart settled into a solo career of mediocrity compared to this rocking-ness.

David Geddes - Blind Man in the Bleachers (Last Game of the Season)

Last night I dug out 36 Super Gold Hits for a listen. There were so many fantastic tracks on this double record K-Tel collection, that I kind of want to feature them all! I just might! Most I enjoyed unironically, however this one caught my ear for it's over the top melodrama. It takes so many movie-of-the-week plot lines and jams them into one heart-string plucking ballad.
Fair warning: This one might make you cry.



Just to review:
-The Blind Man is in the bleachers, as he is every game, hoping for his son to be a game winning hero
-Son is an underachieving benchwarmer
-It's the last game of the season, Friday night at home
-Kid gets called into the game, has the best game ever
-On the night his father died

Incredibly the world didn't call out for more songs like this one from David Geddes. The over the top schmaltz didn't propel him into a lenghty career. But it did chart into the top 20 in 1975. His biggest came just a few months earlier: another cheese-ballad about a shotgun wedding called "Run Joey Run", which was resurrected by Glee, for some melodramatic reason.

The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)

I love 'The Whitest Boy Alive' a dance oriented project of Norweigan musician Erland Oye also of mellow folkies 'Kings of Convenience'. Oye conceived the Whitest Boy project as an electronic project, but it has evolved into a band with full instrumentation. Oye also DJs and sings over the songs he's DJing (!) He also produced a sweet DJ-Kicks mix that he sang over, mashing up the likes of Willie Nelson/Pet Shop Boys "Always on My Mind", and the Smiths with electronic music.

Here's a nice little remix for your Friday night booty shakin'. French-house mastermind Fred Falke takes Whitest Boy's "Golden Cage" from their 2009 album 'Rules' for a dancefloor spin.

Flight Facilities - Foreign Language

The Aussie duo Flight Facilities who produced one of our fave finds of 2011 "Crave You" are back with another drop of disco inspired pop-house. If I have one complaint about "Crave You", it was the video, which was a bit of a turd. The track oozes style and sex, and the video appeared to be shot in somebody's kitchen. While "Foreign Language" doesn't pack the emotional punch of "Crave You" it's a respectible enough booty shaker, and the offical video is a gem, a mock intro to a sweet 70s action flick.



And to top it off, a fan cut video featuring some sweet roller disco action:



That is double the video power of their first single.

Yuna - "Come As You Are" (Nirvana Cover)

A sweet chilled out cover by Malaysia singer Yuna. This 25-year-old Muslim woman is gaining international attention, and her new single "Live Your Life" was produced by Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D.

Gotye feat Kimbra - "Used to Know"

There haven't been many songs that have got me searching out Top 40 radio stations, but when I heard this one, I found myself tuning to Top 40 hoping it would come on. It is in regular rotation, so probably doesn't qualify as a "find" as it's getting pretty ubiquitous at this point. I love the simplicity of this song, and the power of the emotional quality too. In the chorus Gotye sounds uncannily like Sting, which probably didn't hurt, as this song went to #1 in 13 countries and charted #1 on the Canadian Alternative Chart.

Metronomy - "The Look"

A London based quartet, that started out as a project of synth-man Joseph Mount. Their latest full length "The English Riviera" was released on their own 'Need Now Future Records'. They have a good look and a cool sound. I want that synth!

Burning Hearts - "Burn, Burn, Burn"

This song reminds me of the lo-fi female-led alternative bands from the early 90's. Gentle, strong, and somewhat dark.

 

Class Actress - "Weekend"

Man, this is a sexy song by Brooklyn based trio Class Actress.



Their debut album "Rapprocher" was released late last year on Carpark Records.

Have a sexy weekend!

The Monkees

The Monkees were the first band I loved. That is kind of embarrassing to admit...but what are blogs for if not airing the embarrassing details of one's life! Back in the middle 80s we made regular trips out to Coquitlam to visit my uncle and his family. Their kids were much older than us, so there was a lot of "downtime", spent hanging out in front of the TV, probably while the adults were recovering from their hangovers. My uncle had cable! And not just any cable, BC Cable! There were strange new channels with strange new shows. It was in these summers that I discovered the 60s live action Batman, which was followed by The Monkees.



The Monkees have never gotten much respect, and probably deservedly so. They were formed in 1966 by TV producer Bob Kirshner who wanted a zany show about a rock band, capitalizing on the popularity of the Beatles. The four lads they found Davy Jones (the Dreamy One), Peter Tork (the Stupid/Stoned one), Mickey Dolenz (the Wacky One), and Mike Nesmith (the Straight-Man/Musician One) initially only provided vocals for the songs, which were written and produced by others.

From the start the lads wanted more control over the music, and hard battles were fought to finally allow Mike Nesmith to produce the music that was the backbone of the show. Every week a single was recorded and filmed as part of the show, and the Monkees are heralded by some as the "first video band". Their show included a zany musical montage featuring the single of the week.





Incredibly, these guys released 8 albums in the years 1966-1969. Their show was cancelled in 1968, but they toured extensively, even learning to play their own instruments, but tensions mounted both inside and outside the band. Kirshner was fired in 1968, and went on to record with the animated Archies, so those live actors wouldn't demand control over their careers ever again! In 1969, Tork left the band, and in 1970 Nesmith did also. The Monkees released a very psychedelic movie "Head" which flopped, and signaled the beginning of the end of the Monkees, as controversy continued to swirl over whether or not the boys played their own instruments, and without the TV show, the public moved on.

The Monkees still have some remarkable achievements as a band. They had four #1 albums in a year, they gave the Jimi Hendrix Experience their first U.S. concert appearances as an opening act in July 1967. Jimi Hendrix's heavy psychedelic guitar and sexual overtones did not go over well with the teenage girl audience. During one of the shows, Hendrix gave the audience the finger and quit the tour. Their second album 'More of The Monkees' spent 70 weeks on the Billboard charts, becoming the 12th biggest selling album of all time. And apparently Gene Roddenberry was inspired to introduce the character of Chekov in his Star Trek TV series in response to the popularity of Davy Jones, complete with hairstyle and appearance mimicking that of Jones.

For a few years there I was a Monkees completist, searching out all their records and knowing all their songs. I traced their logo. They subtly influenced my interest in the 60s and counterculture, leading into interest in the Doors, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles. While they were mild and acceptable for mainstream audiences, they still managed to insert some hippie values into their show...like this scene where Davy is obviously stoned!

This week Davy Jones passed away at the age of 66. R.I.P. Davy. Thanks for the memories.

Hawksley Workman - "Warhol's Portrait of Gretzky"

Recently I got a book of essays about Gretz from the library. Written by the likes of Grant Fuhr, Brett Hull, Eddie Mio (Gretzky's rookie year mentor), they paint a portrait of a very big-hearted and fun-loving guy, who reads the game better than anyone. It's hard not to overstate his magnitude in the game of hockey. As an Oilers fan in particular and a hockey fan in general, Wayne Gretzky elevated the game like no other, and we're not likely to see another player of his magnitude EVER.

It speaks to his celebrity that he was chosen by Andy Warhol to complete this portrait in 1984. This portrait doesn't hold with Warhol's best, but still he was doing the likes of Queen Elizabeth, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson. Even in the realm of athletics, it was the likes of Muhammed Ali or Arnold Schwarzenegger that caught Warhol's brush. Gretz was elevated to a high status of celebrity, and he played HOCKEY. In EDMONTON.

There was a great story about the 85-86 playoffs in which the Calgary Flames FINALLY beat the Oilers in 7 games. It took an own-goal by Steve Smith on his 23rd birthday to make it happen, but there was ecstasy in Cowtown when the Feeble Flames finally conquered the Overwhelming Oilers. The Flames didn't win the cup that year, but in the opinion of captain Lanny McDonald "our Stanley Cup was beating the Oilers".

Last summer we were visiting new friends. After a swim, they took my then 3-year-old daughter home, and in the course of their trip asked her what her favorite song was. She answered "Pretty Bloody Sexy" to much to hilarity. Last summer Mixtape 9 was getting some heavy play at our house, and the lead off track by Hawksley Workman "Warhol's Portrait of Gretzky" had the lyric in question in the chorus.Thankfully I did not include this original version of the song on Mixtape 9...as you'll see it's not kid friendly.



Bonus Video: Dynasty era theme music by Meco, Disco version Empire Strikes Back!