A Song A Day

A Song A Day #184 - Mudhoney was my introduction to the grunge sound. Their first single, Touch Me I’m Sick and EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, were released by Sup Pop in 1988. By early 1989 I had bought both. I’m not sure if the term grunge was yet in common usage, but for those paying attention Seattle obviously had a growing scene of talented like-minded musicians. I was already paying attention to Sub Pop and sometime around 1989 or 1990 I joined their Single of the Month Club. I haven’t listened to Touch Me I’m Sick in ages but I still love the intensity and fuzzed out guitar sound. This is punk rock gold. It feels like they are channeling Iggy and the Stooges on this tune. 

A Song A Day #181 - I don’t think I had ever heard any of Imperial Teen’s music before this morning. I had heard of them and was aware that they had generated some critical praise, but that’s about it. There are probably dozens (and maybe hundreds) of bands/artists that fit that profile. That’s just the nature of the modern musical landscape. That being said, I knew immediately that I liked Imperial Teen. I listened to at least a little bit to every tune from On (2002), their third album, but first on Merge Records. I had an instant strong response to 10 out of 12 tunes. That’s well beyond a solid batting average.

Imperial Teen is more pop than punk, but they definitely inhabit a post-punk world. They create lots of great melodies and harmonies, but their sound is far from over-produced. They are in it to create great pop, not to become popular. Yet, in a prefect world (or at least my perfect world) there would have been several hit single from this album. Sugar just happened to be the first tune I listened to so that’s why I chose it for A Song A Day. 

A Song A Day #178 - When Hip Hop artists began extensively sampling old funk, soul, and jazz records in the mid-eighties it was like I was suddenly enrolled in an incredible course in musical history. I imagine that I would have inevitably gotten into James Brown but Hip Hop both accelerated and deepened my knowledge of his music and his extended family of artists. I have no sense of where my musical interests would have taken me when it comes to old funky grooves without the emergence of Rap and Hip Hop culture.

The process really took off in the late-eighties with an amazing array of sampladelic masterpieces like the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique (produced by the Dust Brothers), Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (produced by the Bomb Squad), and De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising (produced by Prince Paul). Funky nuggets and gems were be uncovered by the truckload for anyone paying close attention. Those three albums in particular just backed up the truck and dropped off the motherlode for music fans.

In the nineties we saw the rise of reissues and compilations of incredible music that the true diggers were shining a light on. The British label, Harmless, released a series of comps of “funky jazz classics and original breaks” called Pulp Fusion that were packed with great tunes. I listened to the original release in that particular series again and again. Burning Spear by S.O.U.L. (Sounds of Unity and Love) was one of my faves and something I likely would not have heard without Hip Hop and the culture of digging that it spawned. S.O.U.L. were a funky soul group from Cleveland that released only two albums, What Is It (1971) and Can You Feel It (1972) on Musicor Records.

A Song A Day #175 - Starting sometime in college, jazz has always been at least a portion of my musical diet. The first two jazz guys I gravitated towards were Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Most of the jazz I heard through my early twenties was what I heard listening to WBGO, a public radio station out of Newark, NJ, when I was home from school. Miles and Coltrane were the first jazz artists I could recognize simply by their sound. I was intrigued by Ornette Coleman too but his music was tougher to absorb and figure out for me. 

Then G-Man came out in 1987 and I really dug it. I knew who Sonny Rollins was but I hadn’t heard much by him. Primarily, I knew about his legendary “sabbatical” from 1959 until 1961 when he practiced every night out on the Williamsburg Bridge. I thought that was totally cool and was blown away by the commitment. I haven’t listened to G-Man in years, but it still really knocks my socks off.

I need to give props to Robert Christgau for pointing me in the direction of this album. The first two sentences of his review sums up my reaction to this performance better than I ever could: “The live soundtrack to Robert Mugge's Saxophone Colossus is jazz for rock-and-rollers to cut their teeth on. It's exciting, fun, a gas, all that stuff great rock and roll is supposed to be and so rarely is these days. Title track is fifteen minutes of Rollins at a peak--a showman who never shows off, a virtuoso who's never pretentious or (in this situation) even difficult.” 

A Song A Day #172 - Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. He came to play a role in the jazz fusion scene of the sixties and seventies though his connection with Joe Zawinul. He played on most of Miles Davis’ recordings in the seventies. He appeared on Weather Report’s first album and played with other heavy hitters from the era. Just letting you know that his creds run deep even if you haven’t heard of him. Househeads should be aware of him as the source of the sample (Samba de Flora) for the Basement Jaxx’ 20 year old smash Samba Magic.

A Song A Day #171 - I’m a big fan of compilations and DJ mixes as path to discover great new music even if a rather high percentage of both are shit. A good one is hard to beat. Rub' N' Tug Present Campfire (2005) compiled by Rub N Tug (Thomas Bullock & Eric Duncan) introduced me to quite a few new tunes that I fell in love with. Thomas I already knew as part of Wicked, a crew of English DJs who spearheaded the early 90s San Francisco rave scene. Eric I’ve come to know through his many edits and various other musical outings. I haven’t heard Thomas dj in over 20 years and I’ve never heard Eric dj live. 

A Song A Day #170 - Happy 90th Birthday to the one and only Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry. Chuck has always been my favorite Rock ‘n Roller. His influence is immeasurable. He is the archetypal Rock ‘n Roll guitarist and probably the greatest lyricist of the Rock ‘n Roll era. His influence in this regard on Bob Dylan is undeniable. 

I started becoming a big fan late in high school or at least that is when I started investigating beyond what I heard on the radio. I first bought two of his compilations, Chuck Berry's Golden Decade (1967) and Chuck Berry's Golden Decade Volume Two (1973). My copies were in decent but not perfect shape so when The Great Twenty Eight came out in 1982 I snapped it up. It was missing one thing - Promised Land. I had to keep Golden Decade Volume Two so I could listen to my favorite Chuck Berry song.