Booker T. & The MG's - House Band Extraordinaire

Bring up the name Booker T. & The MG's, and the majority of people will connect it with the instrumental Green Onions (only the second track the members recorded - and actually first intended as the B-side!). What most people don't realize is that the group was the house band for legendary Southern soul label Stax Records. What that means is that if you listen to almost any track recorded by the label in the 60's, whether it's Sam & Dave, Wilson Picket, The Staple Singers, or countless other Stax artists, you're also listening to Booker T. & The MG's.

Notable members of the band included Isaac Hayes (of Theme From Shaft fame - who sometimes played keyboard), Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Steve Cropper (who both can be seen in the 1980 classic The Blues Brothers as members of "The Band"). And while their names have settled into relative obscurity, their influence on Rock & Roll was monumental. Besides being the session musicians that helped their label-mates sound so good, their style of playing (The MG's stood for Memphis Group, and their Memphis sound was what helped defined Southern soul music) was appreciated by many, including The Beatles (John Lennon was a huge Stax fan).

What brings Booker T. to mind is the current revival of soul and funk courtesy of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (The Dap-Kings being the house band of Daptone Records). Besides putting out some quality material of their own, various members of the group worked as session musicians on Amy Winehouse's Back To Black and performed as the backing band on its supporting tour. Thankfully, it seems that they're getting the credit they deserve and not being left in Amy's drug dependency hazed shadow.


Booker T. & The MG's - Green Onions : The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968 (disc 2)

Booker T. & The MG's - Time Is Tight : Time Is Tight 7"

Booker T. & The MG's - Johnny, I Love You : Time Is Tight 7" B-side

Visit the Official Stax Museum site and the current Stax Records site,
and Buy some Booker T. & The MG's

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The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love : The Blues Brothers Soundtrack

The Clash - Time Is Tight (Booker T. & The MG's cover) : Super Black Market Clash

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Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Ain't It Hard : Dap-Dippin with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Amy Winehouse - Monkey Man (Toots & The Maytals cover) : You Know I'm No Good Single

Adam Franklin Live / Swervedriver Reunion!

Going to be kicking around the house Wednesday evening? Tune into internet site JamNow for former Swervedriver frontman (and future with the announcement of a reunion tour in 2008) Adam Franklin. Having released his latest solo outing Bolts Of Melody earlier this year (under his own name even), Adam will be conducting a live audio interview and performance during which he'll discuss the album as well as the news about the band getting back together next year. The webcast will take place at 3:00pm ET on Wednesday. Can't make it? Fear not - it will be available on-demand the following day at the same link.



Adam Franklin - Sundown : Bolts of Melody

Toshack Highway - Cannery Row : Magnetic Morning / Aspirin Age

Visit his website, his label Hi-Speed Soul Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

Morning Recordings Contest

You might remember me writing about the the sophomore release The Welcome Kinetic by Pramod Tummala's band Morning Recordings in October. If not, travel back in time and read about it now. Don't have the time? Here's what I said about it then: "Going deeper into the album will reveal pieces that focus as much on the instrumental aspects of the music as much as the lyrical / vocal content. You'll feel as if you're sleepwalking through a melancholy etherealness that washes over you with the lightest of ambient strokes." The album is theoretically divided up into ten tracks, but in reality, they feel like they all piece together to form one large musical tapestry.

If you haven't picked it up yet (or even if you have), here's your chance to win a super-deluxe holiday gift set which will include a copy of The Welcome Kinetic CD and poster, a Music For Places CD (the band's first release) and poster, and a CD-R of the digital-only Let’s Love EP. (the EP the band released between the two full length albums). Talk about holiday cheer - you won't need any mistletoe if you give this prize pack to a significant other! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment (or e-mail me) with your name and e-mail address and you'll be in the running. I'll pick a lucky winner next Tuesdayish and notify them faster than you can say "I got coal in my stocking!"


Morning Recordings - We Loved the City Years : The Welcome Kinetic

Morning Recordings - Just Be Still : Let's Love EP

Morning Recordings - Can't Help Fading Away : Music For Places

Visit their website, their label Loose Thread Recordings, and become their friend on MySpace.

A Johnny Cash Christmas

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Johnny Cash’s Christmas special from 1976. The following year, Johnny came back to release another special, one which once again featured Johnny and June and a collection of their friends. This one is also now available from Shout! Factory and is the perfect alternative to watching The Santa Clause (any of them).

As with the one from 1976, the show features Johnny and June interacting and celebrating with family and friends. But where as the previous year primarily included other performers from the country music scene, the 1977 show brings together alumni from Johnny’s years at Sun Records, including Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, who sing some of their own material (Orbison’s Pretty Woman, Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes, and Lewis’ Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On) and team up with Johnny on others. Besides including numbers from these acts, Johnny shares his feelings for and some personal memories about these entertainers with whom he use to tour and record with. There are also some recollections of Elvis (who had died two months before), as well as a song dedicated to him (This Train Is Bound For Glory).

Compared to the previous year’s special, this one feels a lot more genuine. Johnny’s memories in particular feel less scripted and more intimate. And as far as the guests go, the 1977 line-up would completely kick the ‘76 crew’s arse from here to the barn and back. If you’re looking to get that last gift for someone, I would absolutely recommend this DVD as the perfect stocking stuffer.


Johnny Cash & Roy Clark – Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer : Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977

Carl Perkins – Blue Suede Shoes : Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977

Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, & Carl Perkins – This Train Is Bound For Glory : Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977

Visit Shout!Factory and order the video!

Sunday Spotlight - Marco Mahler

Welcome to the inaugural post of a new feature that I'm starting here on Mainstream Isn't So Bad - the Sunday Spotlight.

As a listener of music, when trying to connect with an artist, I'm often left wondering what was going through their mind when he or she composed and performed certain tracks. As a reviewer, I often try to piece together the puzzle and guess at influences, meanings, and emotions. From this was born my inspiration for this feature: how to remove myself from between the artist and the listener (get rid of the middle man you could say) and really convey the essence of a song.

Keeping that in mind, what better source to go to than the artist? So, that's what you're going to get with the Sunday Spotlight. I'm going to be asking artists that I particularly enjoy to open up to the world; crack open that mystery of their muse; shed light on their craft.

For the first post in the series, Marco Mahler has agreed to talk about Fields, a track off of his self-released album Design In Quick Rotation. Marco draws upon his Swiss and American heritage, as well as a diverse range of music (from Irish folk to mainstream hip-hop), in the creation of his own. Here's the song; listen to it while Marco talks about its birth, its personal meaning, and his music in general. Text in red is Marco's voice, text in black is mine.

Marco Mahler - Fields : Design In Quick Rotation

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Music:

With most of my songs I have a rough idea and then add and finish it while recording it. Many things are improvised, meaning I play a guitar line for the first time while recording it and I don’t go back to it. I very much like the energy that comes from improvisation. It’s fresh and honest. For Fields, as with most of my songs, I came up with the music and recorded it within around two hours.

I hear Outkast, Bert Jansch, Lou Reed and Stephen Malkmus in the music.

Outkast are one of my all time favorites. Listening to Andre Benjamin always puts me in a good place.

Bert Jansch opened a whole new world to me. The first song I heard by him was The Gardener and I felt like this fascinating new world was opening up to me. I spent a lot of time sitting in front of the stereo and went to any of his shows that I could get to, trying to figure out how to play his songs. It made me aware of the infinite possibilities that an acoustic guitar holds and how one can create complex yet simple and solid multi-layered music with just an acoustic guitar and vocals.

Bert Jansch - The Gardener : The Best Of Bert Jansch

Part of the electric guitar solo in the last part reminds me of Stephen Malkmus guitar on the Silver Jews’ American Water, one of my favorite albums, and one that I think stands up to, and keeps standing up to the greatest albums of all time.

Lyrics:

I wrote the lyrics while laying on a golf course that was just being built on what used to be farm land. A big bird kept circling around. It looked like it was looking for something, maybe mice.

“New notions of aesthetics may seem pathetic to you
Because you're nostalgic and you do,
What’s already been done, I don't see the fun”

It’s a defense and justification for me to stay true to my own musical standards and ideas.

“The senses perception is past
Conception will last
The vast ignorance, delivers the difference
Between reflecting gases
In front of dark space and the sky”

It’s the idea of seeing things for what they are, of describing what’s actually really there instead of what it seems to be on the surface, deranging the senses, breaking down patterns in perception, becoming a clean slate and then you’re able to really see. Bob Dylan, Henri Poincaré, a mathematician and physicist who was influential to both Einstein and Picasso, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud are people I was into when I started thinking about those kinds of ideas.

I was also able to ask Marco some questions regarding his work as a whole:

1.) On many albums, there is often almost a battle between vocals and instruments over which will be heard, which will be front and center. Your album feels almost exactly the opposite. It's almost as if you and the instruments are striving to be more silent than the other. Was this a conscious element of the album on your part?

I don't like to over do it in the recording process. I don't like adding something if I don't feel like it really should be there. It feels right to me when there's only a handful of elements, each with its own solid purpose and clarity, that complete each other instead of interfere with each other or fight with each other over the space available.

2.) I've read that your wife is an accomplished poet and reading her work has influenced you. Have any of her verses found their way into your music?

Nothing directly but my writing changed after I read hers. In 1's And O's [another track from the album] her writing's influence shows the strongest, I think.

3.) Not being familiar with Swiss music what-so-ever, are there any elements of it in your work, or have you been more influenced by English / American artists?

Mostly by English / American artists, some other international, and very little Swiss. The Swiss music market is small and can sustain only a small number of full-time bands and musicians.

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In addition to Fields, listen to Orange Chinese Car below for a better feel of Marco’s work. The entire album is just as richly and deeply constructed as Fields and deserves a concentrated listen. This isn’t the type of album that you can play in the background to fully appreciate. Its hushed lyrics and instrumentation require undivided attention. I’ve seen it described elsewhere as “music that captures the dawn of Sunday morning and embodies it through verse and song,” and I couldn’t agree more. I can’t think of a better way to experience the album than listening to it while lying in bed as the sun rises on a quiet morning.

Many thanks to Marco for being so open and generous with his thoughts and inspirations. His album, Design In Quick Rotation, is available now and would be an excellent addition to your holiday wish-list.

Marco Mahler - Fields : Design In Quick Rotation

Marco Mahler - Orange Chinese Car : Design In Quick Rotation

Visit his website and become his friend on MySpace.

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Bert Jansch - The Gardener : The Best Of Bert Jansch

P.S. I Love You

Confession time - I love romantic comedies.

I know, I know...you're asking, "How can he consider himself a real man?" It's true though. Even when I know who is going to end up with who, unless it's really bad acting (or it's about teeny-boppers going to a prom that looks more elaborate and costly than a wedding), I love 'em.

That being said, P.S. I Love You looks rights up my ally. The film is based on the book of the same title and the premise is something like this: Hillary Swank's character's husband (played by Gerard Butler) dies young of a disease. After he has gone, she receives messages from him in various unpredictable formats. These messages are designed to get her to move on without him and enjoy the rest of her life. I know what you're thinking: visions of Patrick Swayze's spirit sensually assisting Demi Moore making pottery from the other side running through your head a la Ghost. Well banish all thoughts of the supernatural from your mind. P.S. I Love You requires no visit from the Ghostbusters.

The film is slated to open in theaters nationwide on December 21st, but the soundtrack is already available. Here's the line-up:

1. The Pogues - Love You Till The End
2. James Blunt - Same Mistake
3. NEEDTOBREATHE - More Time
4. Laura Izibor - Carousel
5. Hope - Fortress
6. Ryan Star - Last Train Home
7. Paolo Nutini - Rewind
8. Toby Lightman - My Sweet Song
9. Chuck Prophet - No Other Love
10. The Academy Is... - Everything We Had
11. The Stills - In The Beginning
12. Flogging Molly - If I Ever Leave This World Alive
13. Nellie McKay - P.S. I Love You
14. John Powell - Kisses and Cake

Most of the songs come from other albums, with a few exceptions, including the beautifully captivating title track by the adorable Nellie McKay.



NEEDTOBREATHE - More Time : P.S. I Love You Soundtrack

Nellie McKay - P.S. I Love You : P.S. I Love You Soundtrack

Visit the soundtrack's label Atlantic Records, the soundtrack's official website, and the movie's official website.

Fighing the Wintertime Blues

Winter has hit for real here in New England. To fight off those short winter days and the wintertime blues, here's some Don Ho for you:


Don Ho & the Aliis - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (Righteous Brothers cover) : Don Ho & the Aliis

Don Ho & the Aliis - E Lei Ka Lei Lei (Beach Party Song) : Don Ho & the Aliis (originally from The Don Ho Show!)

Time to Experiment

So over the last few weeks, I've been listening to three albums that all wildly (and uniquely) experiment with the definition of music. And while I'm talking about all three here, by no means do I suggest that they have much in common other than their uncommonness.

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The first is by a married couple that go by the name Oh Astro. Both members of the couple (Jane Dowe and Hank Hofler) had previous experience in the international electronic scene before joining together (in more than more way). Their album, Champion of Wonder, is exceptional in a couple ways. First, the album manipulates vocals using spectral software coded by Dowe and Christopher Penrose, a long-time mentor. This allows them to bend, tint, and warp vocals, such as in Journey to the Center, below. (some vocals from other tracks even come from the couple's children). The other oddity of the album, and what is especially impressive, is that every sound in the album's eleven tracks, with the exception of some of the vocals, is taken from pre-existing recordings (including club music, kids' songs, pop, and rock).

Helping out on the album is Stefan Robinson, A.K.A. Yea Big (who I recently wrote about in regards to his collaboration with Kid Static on their new album here).


Oh Astro - Candy Sun Smiles : Champions of Wonder

Oh Astro - Journey to the Center : Champions of Wonder

Visit their website, their label Illegal Art, and become their friend on MySpace.

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The second album I have to share is from Oh Astro's label mate, Realistic, which is the moniker for sound collage artist James Towning. He's just released his third album, titled Perpetual memory Loss. Like Champions of Wonder, the album is a blended mixture of fragments over almost club beats. The album's beginning includes many voice samples - as if you were listening to the radio and tuning from one station to the next, never stopping, just wandering. As it progresses, the mood transforms, with a deeper electronic / techno feel to it that reminds me of a danciful mix of The Crystal Method and Fat Boy Slim. At all points you'll experience multiple layers to take in and interpret.

Try diving into the following: The Camera Track, which is the album opener, and Post-Corporate Fantasy, which if you listen carefully you'll make out a snippet of Robert Plant's wail.


Realistic - The Camera Track : Perpetual Memory Loss

Realistic - Post-Corporate Fantasy : Perpetual Memory Loss

Visit his website, his label Illegal Art, and become his friend on MySpace.

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The last strikes me as the most unique / artistically creative of the trio. Decomposure is the moniker of Caleb Mueller, a Canadian who also is not new to the genre of electronica. Unlike Oh Astro who constructed using other people's blocks, Caleb carried a tape recorder around with him for a year, pulling in collections of sounds here and there, dismantled them, and then reconstructed some of them into Vertical Lines A (which is the first half of the project - the second I'm guessing will be Vertical Lines B perhaps?), his fourth album.

The CD and its music are only part of the project though. Each and every physical copy of the CD comes enclosed in artwork that is manually assembled and the numbered. Along with the music CD is a second CD full of "supplemental materials" that include things such as the original sound sources for the album, a 79 page sketchbook, a video overview of the album, the recording process, and loads more fun stuff to play with. It truly is an artistic package, and if you do buy the album, I would HIGHLY recommend getting a physical copy of it for the packaging alone.

Whereas Oh Astro rings in as playful and Realistic turns technoesque, Decomposure offers a harmonic bric-a-brac of brightness. Begin the journey with the first two tracks below (the tracks are named after hours - Hour 1, Hour 2, Hour 3, Hour 4, etc...).


Decomposure - Hour 1 : Vertical Lines A

Decomposure - Hour 2 : Vertical Lines A

Visit his website, his label Blank Squirrel Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

Elvis Perkins - Live

Although I haven’t firmed up my faves of 2007 list, I can already guarantee you one thing about it: Ash Wednesday will be on it. In fact, if I were to rank the 11 albums (which I don’t), there’s a 99% chance that it would be number one on the list. Truth be told, I could have told you that about eight months ago when I first wrote about the album. Yea, I liked it that much.

That being said, you can imagine how excited I was to see Elvis Perkins when he rolled into Northampton, MA last night. Having missed him earlier in the year (which I kicked myself for as early as that very night), I vowed not to do the same given another chance. Providence delivered, so as a birthday present to myself, I bought a pair of tickets about a month ago.

I’m not going to reiterate what so many people have said about him. I’m not going to throw salt into the wound by repeating his tumultuous life. I will however repeat what I wrote about him earlier: his album was one that struck such personal chords that I could not ignore it. No other release this year came close to feeling as soul-baring as his. No other felt so genuine.

That being said, how does an artist replicate such a personal exhibit night after night in front of a crowd? Well, he did, and he didn’t.

The set opened up with two of my favorite tracks from the album: It’s Only Me and Good Friday. Elvis and his band Dearland then continued to play most of the rest of the album, with a few new songs mixed in to boot: Hey!, Shampoo, 1-2-3, Goodbye, and Doomsday (which appropriately ended the evening). And to show how atypical his style is, the lone cover song of the evening was Weeping Pilgrim, a gospel song written in 1859 (listen to another version of it below – one that’s only about 80 years old!).

Listening to the album gives one a feeling of melancholy, a sense of enduring sadness. In concert, the songs took on a different feel to them. Part of it was the bountiful harmonica work (very Dylanesque) provided by Elvis, but it went beyond that as well. Perhaps it was the complete band behind. Perhaps it was the live setting that dictates a sound to fill the hall. Perhaps Elvis has come to grips with some of the emotions behind the songs. Regardless, the music lost some of the intimateness and confessionary flavor it conveyed on the album. In its place is something else: maybe hope. All of the new numbers carried an upbeat current in them (even with the instrumentation that they employed). In some ways, the concert was almost a chance to experience the album in an entirely different way. Think about where the album starts, how it developed in his Daytrotter Session, and now project out a few more steps in the same direction to get an idea of what I mean.

Other notable numbers during the night included a new version of All the Night Without Love (available on iTunes – with something like a Flamenco feel to it almost), The Dumps (the B-side to All the Night Without Love, listen to it below), and a bluesy rendition of It’s A Sad World.

A wonderful evening of music - in many ways new music.

Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping : Daytrotter Session (Studio version on Ash Wednesday)

Elvis Perkins - The Dumps : All The Night Without Love Single

Visit his website, his label XL Recordings, and become his friend on MySpace.

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Allison's Sacred Harp Singers - Weeping Pilgrim : Heaven's My Home 1927-1928

Just Like A Woman...

Crying

She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.

Nina Simone - Just Like A Woman (Bob Dylan cover) : Here Comes the Sun (taken from LP Record)

Paul McCartney - Still going strong

When one thinks of The Beatles, their contributions to pop music are immeasurable. Something you might not realize though is how prolific they were for only being around for only roughly ten years. That's it - ten short years. How many bands languish in obscurity for ten years before producing something that is truly memorable?

That being said, for close to the last forty years, Paul McCartney has been making music on his own as well as with bands of his own. While clearly not as influential as his work with The Beatles, he's clearly created some well crafted music while developing the most successful solo career of the remaining band members . Now he's back with his 30-somethingth album, Memory Almost Full. Paul performs nearly all of the instruments on the album (minus some of the string work). While the optimistic upbeat McCartney is clearly present, there are also some notes of melancholy (Ever Present Past and The End of the End spring to mind).

Besides the standard release with thirteen tracks, the album is also available in a CD/DVD Deluxe Edition, which features three bonus tracks (In Private, Why So Blue, and 222), exclusive live performance footage (a "secret" show at the Electric Ballroom in London in June, 2007), and music videos for Ever Present Past and Dance Tonight (two tracks from this album).


Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight : Memory Almost Full

Paul McCartney - 222 : Memory Almost Full

Get the Deluxe CD/DVD Edition here.

Visit his website, his label Hear Music, and become his friend on MySpace.

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Paul McCartney - Ebony And Ivory (with Stevie Wonder) : Tug Of War

Paul McCartney & Wings - Live and Let Die : The Best of James Bond 30th Anniversary Collection

A Soul Revival

Stax Marquee

You can't take two proverbial steps around the blog-o-sphere without running into a Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings song. And to be truthful, I've got nothing bad to say about that. Their music doesn't just sound retro - I'm convinced that somehow Sharon is channeling genuine soul music from the 60's that was mistakenly unreleased by Stax Records and is manifesting itself through her. I'm sure of it.

That being said, if you've been groovin' to Sharon, Scion (yes, those people who make those boxy squatish cars that are hipper than a pimped out low-rider Corolla) have teamed up with Daptone Records to release a two CD sampler that will get you ready to Boogaloo. The first CD contains 9 remixes of songs from various bands from the label (The Budos Band, The Daktaris, The Sugarman Three & Co., and of course - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings). The second CD is a sampler of album cuts from the same bands. You can pick up the pair of CDs for FREE at Scion events across the country, or if there's not one near you (or if you're too cool to attend), you can buy the Remix album on iTunes (follow the link below).

For those of you who've newly discovered Sharon and are wondering where to go from her, this compilation offers some excellent leads to follow to some of her label-mates. All proceeds from this comp go right to the bands, so even if you don't peruse the rest of Daptones' rich catalog, you're still supporting some solid music.


Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Stranded In Your Love (Cool Calm Pete-Sweet Nothing Mix) : Scion Sampler, Vol. 19 - Daptone Records Remixed



The Sugarman Three & Co. - Take It As It Come : from Pure Cane Sugar

Visit Daptone Records and Scion.

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Have you already explored Daptone Records deep line-up? Check out the following to delve even deeper to discover new (old) artists and for more sweet soul music.

To listen to:

Stax Gold (eMusic listeners go here)
The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles Vol. 1: 1959-1968
The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles Vol. 2: 1968-1971 (eMusic listeners go here)
The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles Vol. 3: 1972-1975 (eMusic listeners go here)
Atlantic Gold

To read:

Sweet Soul Music
Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music

To read and listen to:

Souled On (Music, Art, Politics, and Life)

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Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft : Greatest Hits

Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle And Roll : Atlantic Gold: 75 Soul Classics From The Atlantic Vaults (Disc 1)

Sam and Dave - Soul Man : Soul Men