Okay, I was afraid of this, and now my worst fears have come to fruition. Delving into the gateway drugs of Church No. 9 and Nothing Is has led me to a full-on mp3 bender that hasn’t let up all weekend, save for several short recesses to crack open Hangover Square, Patrick Hamilton’s fictional memoir of a socially-blighted Pre-War Britain, sleep and eat. A stack of partially-finished reviews and a barely-begun year-end feature for Dusted Magazine lie neglected on my hard-drive; a half empty container of Dutch double salt licorice coins my sole source of nourishment for the last several hours.
A couple new haunts discovered during that span:
Dinosaur Gardens: a deliciously eclectic blog that for some reason reminds me of Lileks in its collected kookiness. Check out the recent highly edifying posts on the history of “Miserlou” (complete with evolutionary mp3 ladder), Leopold Stokowski’s seminal version of “Danse Macabre”, and Robert Lee’s hilariously kitschy “Ballad of Bruce Lee” and fuzz-disco-funk of “JKD- Jeet Kune Do”, the latter of which I just can’t seem to stop jammin’. The soundtrack to El Topo is accessible just a few more posts down & they even have Sammy Davis, Jr. rockin’ the “Plop Plop Fizz Fizz” Alka-Seltzer theme(!). What a wonderful weird world we live in.
Brazilian Nuggets: Set-up much the same way as Church No. 9, but with a focus on obscure Brazilian platters. The text is in Portuguese, but the cover scans alone are worth a thousand words in terms of selling the contents of each. Seriously, the holdings here make the Dusty Groove selection (impressive in its own right) look like the vinyl section at Sam Goody (before it presaged Tower in going belly-up). It’s a spot I’m just starting to explore.
Patrick Moutal’s Indian Music Page: Not that pretty to look at, but a pretty amazing mp3 collection of Indian Classical 78s, indexed by instrument and performer. I’ve barely scratched the surface here, but have enjoyed what I’ve sampled thus far immensely.
Honey Where You Been So Long: Compendium of Pre-War Blues and Jass 78s. Many are familiar, but it’s nice to have them sequenced and annotated as such, shellac crackles & all. Dig Mattie Hite’s keening take on “St. James Infirmary” custom-tailored to her man Joe & w/ a young Fletcher H. on ivories.
One thing’s for certain, I’m already sorely in need of a mp3-methadone regimen.
Posted by derek on December 10, 2006 8:54 PMYou too? Thanks to you the hard drive has filled up with over 20 Giga since I read the Church No 9 piece just yesterday morning!
Stack of partially finished reviews, eh? I know one of them's for me! Did you find that Warne Marsh LP in the garage Derek?
There's some awesome stuff up for grabs though. The files need a bit of cleaning up, but who's complaining about a few pops and a bit of compression? I'd been waiting many years to hear Shepp's Force, and to replace my ancient decaying cassette copies (William Basinski eat yer heart out) of the early FMPs. Outspan, yo! I made a rough calculation that if I was to invest in all the LPs I downloaded yesterday - assuming I could find them in one place - I'd have to spend somewhere approaching $3,000. So 4.5 Euros for a 2 day Premium download pass (I'm limiting myself to 48 hours) is a steal.
Look at what's new on the Brazilian blog, hilarious. I'm still waiting to find my own though!
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at December 11, 2006 8:03 AMNo dice, Dan. I think the Marsh might be in my parents' garage in Tucson. Good news is I'm heading out there for Xmas. Bad news is I don't leave 'til the 20th. Fortunately, there's lots of other options now thanks to the mp3 binge.
Schau, as usual your eldritch humor is beyond my comprehension. Guess I best download that LP for clues.
Posted by: derek at December 11, 2006 6:14 PMDan - can you be a bit more concise?
What's turning your crank and twisting your noodle?
You discovered P2P or is it just some good acid?
"Schau, as usual your eldritch humor is beyond my comprehension. Guess I best download that LP for clues."
Walter Franco-Ou Nao is the one Brazilian disc to make it to the infamous NWW list, and Frau Schau has mentioned his attempts to locate said CD on a few forums recently. I'd also love to find a copy, I've never seen it actually in stock at Dusty Groove. definitely worth grabbing, a good one.
Posted by: jon abbey at December 11, 2006 7:19 PMThanks for that swift translation of Schaumannese, Jon. Any other recs from the Brazilian Nuggets holdings?
Posted by: derek at December 11, 2006 8:14 PMnot really my thing, but a lot of people love this one:
Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho - Paębirú (1975)
Posted by: jon abbey at December 11, 2006 8:42 PM"Dan - can you be a bit more concise?"
No.
"What's turning your crank and twisting your noodle?"
?
"You discovered P2P or is it just some good acid?"
No x2. Concise enough?
Mea culpa, I posted in a hurry, DT. Yes, I've been hunting that little fucker down for a while now. It's paired on a twofer reissue w/"Revolver", though admittedly I'm on its tail because it's a Duprat production purportedly in a similar vein (and recorded around the same time) as Veloso's delightful "Araça Azul".
I'm none too familiar with much of what's offered on that blog, Derek, I've just been going after a couple of the better album covers and it's paid off. The Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho record is smoke though, that Northeast twisted folk/rock stuff.
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at December 12, 2006 7:19 AMI deliberately only bought a 48 hour download Premium pass, in the knowledge that if I'd gone for anything longer I'd still be downloading now, instead of enjoying the 33 I've snagged since Sunday morning!
I was kind of hoping someone somewhere would have some old 1950s recordings of Jackson do Pandeiro for download - am dying to hear more of his stuff; only know the original version of Chiclete com Banana on the old David Byrne compilation (Gilberto Gil's cover is, of course, much better known). Any experts out there?
Jon - I'm with you on the Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho issue.....an absolute classic!
Mr. Bongo had a very nice issue of some rare Brazilian stuff earlier on this year - "Brazilian Beats Brooklyn"...Erasmo Carlos, Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti, Ely Camargo, Silvio Cesar, Toni Tornado...it's all so sweet and so damn good. I haven't been able to force it out of my car stereo system for the last few months!
hey thanks so much for the heads up regarding Church Number 9 and Nothing Is. I don't know how obtainable Dialogue of the Drums with Milford Graves and Andrew Cyrille is, but it's great to find it again. I only heard this once before, and, as the saying goes, "have always wanted to have it." Having studied for a while with Cyrille I'm always looking to complete the discography, and it always amazes me how musical the man is, because his chops are unsurpassed and he could indulge in so much flash if he chose to.
who has time for all of this? If I were to download everything from these sites that I "need" I'd starve to death. Maybe someone should start a "download servant" business where they get paid to download music for their clients, burn it, print the discographical info, search for stuff, etc. (Sort of like those consignment stores that sell one's worthless crap on eBay).
PB
Posted by: peter breslin at December 13, 2006 10:18 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................