Highlife - Valley's Lap | Track Feature





Taking a break to allow the understated turning of time drag on offering a moment of solitude can be a hard thing to find. "Valley's Lap" finds Doug Shaw deep within his most serene aura-laced compositions under the Highlife moniker yet. The track really picking up, or slowing down depending on how you want to get into it all, after the Gang Gang Dance inflected (Shaw is a live member of the group) introduction that combines a visceral droning pulse and some warped voice echoing "I've been in this town so long, so long to the city." A possible ode to Shaw's current home residence in  New York as the the heat and humidity are starting to seep in.

After we get past this rather cold meet and greet at the beginning Highlife kicks into motion with what he does best and lets his beautiful voice soar over a repetitive shimmering drone of a sample. A strange narrative built upon loose metaphors as the subtle feeling of ennui threatens to overtake the listener, or this listener. A deep and meditative listen into the "Valley's Lap".

You can check out Highlife's "Valley's Lap" at his soundcloud and check out his most previous release Best Bless available via The Social Registry.

The Juke Joint Photos of Marion Post Walcott

Marion Post Wolcott (June 7, 1910 - November 24, 1990) : Wiki / Interview
Drummer in orchestra in Memphis juke joint. Tennessee October, 1939
Juke joint and bar in the Belle Glade area, vegetable section of south central Florida February, 1939
Saturday afternoon in a Negro beer and juke joint. Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta November, 1939
Negroes jitterbugging in a juke joint on Saturday afternoon. Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta November, 1939

Store and "juke joint." Negro section, Homestead, Florida January, 1939
Living quarters and "juke joint" for migratory workers, a slack season; Belle Glade, Fla. February, 1941
A cross roads store, bar, "juke joint," and gas station in the cotton plantation area, Melrose, La. - June 1940
Negro migratory workers by a "juke joint" (?), Belle Glade, Fla. February, 1941
Hotel, rooming house, "juke joint" in Negro section. Belle Glade, Florida January, 1939

Creation Myth - Savor | Track Feature





Creation Myth come at the listener with the force one has after a long night out and returning home in the cold chill of morning air, potentially still a little restless. The soundtracks for the someone's sobering come down. The trio's track "Savor" rests itself upon some airy melodic clouds reflecting down upon the listener. The vocals are barely there both literally and metaphorically as they flirt in and out, offering few moments of clarity reinforcing the gentle drone and guitar patterns.

The group's entire collection of demos straddle this same line. At times they feel like the underscore of a scene from a David Lynch film.  This is not necessarily a bad thing but it doesn't make for the most versatile listen, with few peaks to bring any sudden shifts of tension. Maybe though it was indeed meant for those early morning treks. Perhaps I'll  find out one of these days.

Creation Myth's "Savor" is available now direct from the band.

BiLL ABEL PLAYS THE DiDDLEY-BOW

JOHN "Big Nig" BRAY - Trench Blues (Lomax - 1934)

 John Bray, vocal and guitar. Recorded for the Library of Congress by John A. and Alan Lomax, October 17, 1934, in Amelia, Louisiana. Bray, known as "Big Nig," composed this song based on his experiences in Europe in World War I.

I see the Power of Music...



Another great TED talk from Abigail Washburn with some powerful quotes:
I see the power of music to connect cultures. I see it when I stand on a stage at a bluegrass festival … and I bust out into a song in Chinese, and everybody's eyes just pop wide open.
I see the power of music to connect hearts...
DO watch all the way through. Thank you TED

P

Last Nights Presents: Blues Control Record Release Show


Last Nights Presents:

Blues Control Record Release Show

with

Purling Hiss
Tonstartssbandht
Jordan Redaelli

DJ's Brina Turner & Paul Major 
Visuals by Power Animal

Saturday June 23rd 
285 Kent Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11237
||| L to Bedford | JMZ to Marcy | G to Broadway |||
8pm Doors | $10 | All Ages

Flyer by Lea Cho

Beer Damage - Expression of My Sweatpants | Track Feature




Welcome to Beer Damage's first official release (if an internet stream counts. Well you know why not! Or is it the radio? It's ok I suppose.).  The duo, comprised of Pete Swanson & Brian Sullivan, may be known in these parts as part of a Last Nights Presents show this past fall and it seems like they've been quite busy since then. "Expression of My Sweatpants" will most likely be my #1 track title of the year, or possibly decade. I once wrote a short story whose core themes were also expressed through a gentleman's sweatpants but that's neither here nor there, now is it.

A possible reference for these sweatpants could be like listening to a Nintendo soundtrack drunk at a really rad party. The music and general din of the guests are all competing for attention. All I really want to do is chill and bob my head to the groove, but there is always something to lead me away with a subtle sense of humor. Maybe it's because they know they're making straight up avant-dance grooves. Now that I write this though I'm really seeing a general trend of folks moving to New York and "discovering" their love of rhythm, and by default in many cases forms of dance music. Though I think I just bit off more than I can chew at the moment...

You can stream Beer Damage's "Expression of My Sweatpants" from their upcoming LP Hobo on the Face of Music at Pete Swanson's soundcloud here.

New MiXENDORP Edit! BULL AND GROUP - O BERTA

New edit + free download from alt-blues mix master Mixendorp!
This time he's re-grooving one of the classic Lomax prison work gang recordings. Dig:
O Berta - Bull & Group (miXendorp edit) by m i X e n d o r p


MOLLY GENE with THE TEN-FOOT POLE CATS - New Single: Turkey Snappin' Mama b/w Do I Move You

Yr howlin' sister Molly Gene aka The One-Whoaman Band has hooked up with her pals the Ten Foot Pole Cats for a couple new songs Turkey Snappin' Mama b/w Nina Simone's Do I Move You. You can get 'em at CD Baby and iTunes. Hopefully these'll be released on a 7" eventually. 


Jay from Solid Audio Productions explains how it all went down:


"Well, we've all been real good buddies for several years and last year we did a little touring with them and Scissormen on the way to Deep Blues Fest. Every night they (Molly Gene+Ten-Foot and Scissormen) ended the show with Old Black Mattie. They all had so much fun doing that, everyone thought the collaboration was cool, so there was always talk of doing other songs. During our last tour we had a few days off while we were staying at Jay's house outside of Boston. Molly came up with the idea for the Nina Simone song. I travel with some recording gear so we just went on down to the Polecats practice space and laid it down. A couple of days later we all met up with Scissormen to do some shows. When Molly and I first met the polecats Matt Snow was actually sitting in on drums for them, so we thought it would be fitting to have him come in and do an original (plus Matt Snow is just a badass on drums). 

 Molly called her older brother to get some stories about her grandma. The story he told was about how she was the one on the turkey farm that did all the turkey killin, that he had even seen her take a led pipe jump out of a jeep and hit two wild ones in the head in one swing. Jim whipped out those riffs and after about 6 or 8 jams on it, Turkey Snappin' Mama was born." "The whole thing is just one of those cases of "wouldn't it be cool if we did this" but we actually did do it."



Whatcha' lookin' at? Go. Get 'em!
Here's a taste:






Briana Marela - Speak From Your Heart | Album Feature





It all begins with the voice. That is at once speaking as a descriptor to how Briana Marela's appropriately titled album Speak From Your Heart begins and also a way more universal concept. As the self moves throughout many rooms and realities each individual at any given moment though life finds themselves tethered to their voice. Following this concept it is easy to understand the voice as

The album is full of compositions that sound and feel as if they sprung from Marela quite organically. Held together by some heavy atmospherics from an assortment of synths, organs, keyboards, & tuned glass to name a few. It's a dense but uplifting undercurrent that Marela's vocals rest upon floating until the end of the record. Along the way though the listener is shown some of her best landmarks such as the most immediate album highlight "Alternate Realities" where things really kick off and come closet to the golden light in the blackest of sharpie drawn skies as depicted on Speak From Your Heart's cover art.

Yet with anything as downright soft as this the full-length format can be a bit of a dragging affair. While not totally escaping this trap Marela and company usually manages to let her down a bit when it's most needed, having a drum kit kick in when things begin to get too cute, how she can really begin giving the piano a little extra power providing more to hang onto, or when the loops build just right provided a gritty percussive groove. While not always keep on the right path) Marela and company do a good job of avoiding many of the pitfalls which could accompany them.

Briana Marela's Speak From Your Heart is available now via Olympia, WA's Bicycle Records.

T-MODEL FORD HEALTH UPDATE

Photo by Lou Bopp


5.23.12:: Update from Stefan of GravelRoad:
Just talked to Stella...T-Model is resting right now, sleeping a lot, but he is able to use his right arm a little bit, and walk carefully with a walker. He has rehab scheduled for tomorrow...Stella mentioned some benefit shows this weekend, possibly in Clarksdale, but she couldn't recall the details. I told her that people all over the world were aware of T's health problems and that he (and she) is in many people's thoughts right now...she really appreciated hearing that and says "Tell everybody Thank You." More as we know...-SZ
UPDATE! The good folks at SavingCountryMusic.com have set up a PayPal button for donations towards T-Model's care. You'll find it in the top right corner of their page. Thanks Triggerman!

T-MODEL FORD HEALTH UPDATE via Roger Stolle
Hi y'all. I just talked to T-Model's wife Miss Stella. As many of you know James "T-Model" Ford has unfortunately suffered another stroke over the past week. He is to undergo angioplasty and start physical therapy "soon." Since the medical bills are adding up, and he is currently unable to work/play, the Ford family is seeking donations to help with expenses. At 91 years old, T-Model is one of the last Delta bluesmen of his generation. He's also a heckuva tough old dude, and as he sings, "Nobody Gets Me Down!" Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers, and send him a little something if you can. (Red Paden is also talking about trying to put together a blues benefit for T down the road, so stay tuned on that.) Thanks.

SEND DONATIONS DIRECTLY TO BANK:

James Ford
Routing# 084205708
Account# 4700445890
Planters Bank
424 Washington Ave
Greenville, MS 38701
PH: 662-335-5258
FX: 662-378-4429

OR MAIL CARDS, CHECKS, ETC. TO HOME:

James Ford
443 South 7th Street
Greenville, MS 38703

OTHAR TURNER and THE RiSiNG STAR FiFE and DRUM BAND - Shot by Lomax -1978

"We gonna play some drum, we gonna have some fun. Everybody gonna relax, you know what I mean? We gonna treat people right, they come there right they gonna end up right. That's the fun we have. It's our pleasure." 
-Mr. Othar Turner











Othar Turner's Rising Star Fife & Drum band (Turner, fife; G.D. Young, bass drum; E.P. Burton, snare; Eddie Ware, snare) play "the call" to picnic night at Othar's farm. Shot by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in Gravel Springs, Mississippi, August 1978.


Tracey Trance / Run DMT - Little Treats / The Road Soda | Album Feature




The sounds on Tracey Trance and Run DMT newest split cassette begin dripping out of the stereo in a slow-syrupy motion. It's something akin to waking up on a saturday morning and finding your Aunt Jemima left out over night, upside down, and ready to join the THC butter spread all over your pancakes. The first bite is irresistible and sets off the surreal rabbit hole of reality you're about to venture through. All breakfast analogies aside there is some sort of serious nostalgic vibes and pseudo (or maybe not so pseudo) musical naivety happening here that blows the roof of this split. Searching back in some sugar addled recess of the mind where absurdist humor, TV soundtracks, and pop music meet.

Tracey Trance starts things off here with a blurry of fuzzy & faded keyboard patterns that could be the theme song recorded straight from the TV to cassette (albeit one that's been around the block a few times, if you can dig where I'm coming from). Now that I think about it the whole side carries this sort of sound all the way. One could make a rather crude comparison to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as well, if those men & women were children of post-Thachter era. At times haunting and deeply moving while maintaining a total naive weirdo vibe.

Run DMT's side "The Road Soda" has a brief spoken word that sounds as if it could have been taken from a youtube video describing a mysterious clip found at the beginning of a video tape. The clip is of a "guy in a strange mask." On these words a synthesizer rolls into the mix announcing what the listener has in store for themselves throughout the composition. A messy yet cohesive collage of found sound dialogue, synthesizers, noise, and similarly to Tracey Trance's half an eccentric sense of humor and approach to music. A approach that is wholly in line with the times and one that each have helped define and refine.

Tracey Trance and Run DMT's split cassette is available now via CGIFRIDAY (a label who have been killing it as of late, keep an eye out.) 

An Interview With Daniel Cowen, Co-Director Of New Blues Documentary TRUE DELTA

Super Chikan!


True Delta
is a snapshot of the blues scene in Clarksdale today, as seen through the lenses of Daniel Cowen and his documentary team. 


It asks the question: As the older players pass on, is there a torch to be passed to a younger generation of artists? And what will the blues of the new generation of players sound like, considering a culture that is quite different from that of the older players?


"The torch will be passed but it will be a different torch." "A blues man in his eighties grew up in a world that was dominated by cotton and mules and Jim Crow, bringing a very different set of experiences to their music than you will have in a young person today." -Professor Luther Brown, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at State University. 

I appreciate that the question is being asked. The blues is always dying. Then somebody else comes along and the blues says "I'm feeling much better now, I think i'll go for a walk." It's good to check the pulse now and then, right? 

Assuming the minute-fifty trailer is properly repping the thirty-six minute film, True Delta is good looking. If the content matches the drapes it could be a winner. I look forward to seeing it.
           .................................................................

  Daniel Cowen is co-director of the new blues documentary True Delta, which is now in the Kickstarter phase of raising money for post-production work (a slew of pricey processes). They have a few days to go and need your help to bump them over the line. They've got a bunch of different premiums but thirty-bucks gets you the dvd and a 5 X 7 print, plus you'll sleep better with the knowledge that you supported some serious Mississippi blues. You'll show this to your kids, they'll want to play the blues. With you. 


Mr. Cowen took some time out of his schedule to answer a few questions I had about his documentary, True Delta:


What's the impetus behind True Delta? How'd it get started?

The concept for True Delta came from Erickson Blakney and Rich Maloof, both alumni of
Hobart and William Smith Colleges and (along with myself) former students of Lee Quinby. Erickson and Rich were telling Lee about the film they were envisioning, a documentary about the blues revolving around Clarksdale MS's annual Sunflower Blues and Gospel Festival, Lee got in touch with me. We had just finished up another film, Facing The Waves and were ready to jump into another!


You've chosen to showcase a number of my favorite artists- Super Chikan, T-Model Ford, Jimbo Mathus, and Sharde Thomas (who is carrying on the Fife and Drum tradition of her late Grandfather Othar Turner). What was it about these artists that drew you to include them in True Delta, and who else can we expect to see in the film?  Also I was delighted to see  Mr. Johnny Billington and his Delta Blues Education Program / Blues To Schools program make an appearance in True Delta. As you know, Mr. Johnny feels that if you can get a guitar in a kids hand before the crack or meth dealer can get a pipe in it, the kid might stand a chance of survival. Tell us about your experience with the indefatigable and spry Mr. Johnny Billington.

Each of the Artists we include in the film reverberate an intensity, an energy unique to their experience, whether younger or older. We also wanted to show the range of sound in Delta musicians and how the music is still being transformed.

Our focus was more on Mr. Johnny, but I can say that The Blues to Schools program helps teach kids about the Blues, the cultural history of the area and even how to fix lawn-mowers, its pretty much a course in LIFE. Mr. Johnny is hugely respected in the area as a Bluesman and beacon of light. 


At 36 minutes this is a short-form documentary. With that time constraint is there anyone you wanted in the film but just couldnt fit? Anything else you'd like folks to know about the film?

The 36 minutes wasn't a time constraint but what worked given the footage we were able to capture. Producing a documentary is a lesson in humility as there are basic limits to what one can guess the story will be. We went out and shot a ton - collectively over 60 hours of footage. The story that we distilled came out to 36 minutes. Is there a logic behind this? No. But as Jimbo Mathus says in our film, "try to write a Charlie Patton melody down, you can't do it!"

True Delta offers a very rare glimpse of an American cultural bedrock at a time of its struggle and massive transition. Two weeks after we left, a performer in the film, a Clarksdale native, Foster Wiley (Mr. Tater the Music Maker), passed away. A few months after that, Big Jack Johnson, another featured performer, passed. As far as we know, this is some of that last footage of these greats ever captured. And for those who care about the Blues, seeing the next generation of musicians, the kids who have learned from Mr. Johnny and the Delta Blues Arts and Ed program under the tutelage of heroes like Bill"Howl-N-Madd" Perry will be an exciting look into what the music form may mean as a music genre and American culture in the future.




* In 1999 I had the pleasure/work out of assisting Mr. Johnny in a Blues To Schools program at UF. After the kids he'd taught all week to play the blues, had played the blues, I played drums behind Mr. Johnny with my pal Dub on bass and UF gallery director Jim Wyman on guitar. We played for over four hours non-stop. 

SUPER CHiKAN's Twenty-Minute Incendiary Boogie Played On His Shotgun Guitar.

Charlemagne Palestine & Janek Schaefer - Day of the Demons | Album Feature




As deep and meditative as a long trip through the night. Charlemagne Palestine has been aging gracefully I must say, keeping the creative spirit active through some consistently great collaborative efforts. It doesn't hurt that he has a keen eye for partners which is exemplified in his latest outing with Janek Schaefer on Day of the Demons

This is some expansive music that bridges some gaps between art and mysticism. This isn't necessarily something new as Palestine's work has often created direct links to spiritual and other worldly matters. His quintessential Strumming Music essentially strips the artist/musician bare in it's marathon performances whose extreme duration and constantly shifting phrases that have no particular rhyme or reason remove almost remove the composers altogether by it's exploration deep into the recesses of Palestine's psyche.  As such it's somewhat surprising that he thrives so well in the collaborative environment.

On Days of the Demons Palestine's sustaining & dissonant keyboard work is firmly in place providing the initial sonic foundation of the album. Snippets of what sound like prayer chants and drawn out wails mingle with snippets of foreign languages and anguish howls bring a new depth to the thick drones. The two artists create a pretty harmonious pair with haunting results.

Charlemagne Palestine & Janek Schaefer's Day of the Demons is available May 15th via Desire Path Recordings.

Last Nights Presents: The Prefab Messiahs 30th Anniversary w/ Special Guest




Visuals by Matthew Caron
DJ Jason Jones (of Viva-Radio)

Friday June 8th
49 S. 2nd St. (betw. Wythe & Kent) Brooklyn, NY 11211
L to Bedford, JM to Marcy, G to Metropolitan 
8pm | $8 | All Ages

Air Canada - In Flight Entertainment...



The Lemon Bucket Orkestra, who describe themselves as "Toronto's only Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Party-Punk Super-Band", were delayed on a flight to Romania... what better way to while away the time than play an impromptu gig right there and then?

P h/t The Wedlocks

Songs on Conceptual Art | Album Feature








First off concept compilation albums can be tough. Maybe it's the narrow focus or simply the fact that their foundation lies on their very novelty, one which may find itself easily growing tiresome. It is perhaps because of this that Song on Conceptual Art makes such a lasting impression. Curated by the team of Crystal Baxley & Stefan Ransom who took Sol LeWitt's seminal art theory text Sentences on Conceptual Art and more importantly artist John Baldessari's video piece "Baldessari Sings LeWitt" as a jumping off point inviting musicians & groups to reinterpret one of the 35 sentences contained in the original text. An interesting idea that proves to be as listenable as the concept is thought provoking.

The compilation boasts exclusive contributions from Lucky Dragons, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Arp, Sun Foot, White Rainbow, Karl Blau, & White Fang to name a few. The results are a highly diverse look into the West Coasts contemporary experimental / art rock scene. Ranging from the atmospheric (L.A. Ladies Choir, Jackie-O Motherfucker) , house / club oriented (Secret Circuit, Art Husband) , shambolic rock (White Fang, Crazy Band), straight up pop (Dunes, Davis Hooker),  & all out weird (Rob Walmart). Yet for the diversity & eclecticism there still remains some unspoken aesthetic thread (besides the fact that no track ventures beyond the 3 minute mark) that ties the music together making for a cohesive listen that I believe can be heard without knowledge of the project. It is not often enough that compilation albums arrive this well curated, thought out, and thoughtfully conceived.

Luckily the Kickstarter created for the project has already reached it's goal with a much time to spare. So we can rest peacefully at night knowing it was lovingly funded. Before I forget the project also has a beautifully designed website where you can read more about the project and stream the compilation. 

Songs on Conceptual Art will be available as a 2x LP via Marriage Records June 1st. 

T-MODEL FORD with CHRiS COTTON

Supposedly there is a couple hours of this jam somewhere. 
Somebody needs to get on the stick and get it posted!


Alan Watts - ...Is The Fantasy Band | Album Feature




Alan Watts have covered a large amount of ground during their brief existence. Here on  ...Is The Fantasy Band, their second recorded outing, they really begin to cut loose and unwind a bit. For those that need to get your "hit" you can skip right to "Africa Bats" with it's hints of psych rock and Velvet Underground cool.  But for the rest of us the EP is pretty rewarding listen that manages to explore a spectrum of structures & styles. Yet throughout there is a certain indefinable dynamic all their own.

Throughout the album hints & traces of a ton of contemporary underground/alternative touchstones are hit most notably the eccentric electro-squelches of Black Dice, snippets of Animal Collective's hazey hypnotics, & the irreverent nature of some of Factory Records more upbeat releases. Sorry to go on a name checking spree.  Honestly I think one would need to really be looking for some of this stuff as Alan Watts do such a beautiful job synthesizing all of these influences into something unique to them. Something that all those aforementioned groups did a great job at too. Looking forward to seeing where Alan Watts go next.

Also there is no relation to the original new age forefather Alan Watts (to my knowledge).

Alan Watt's ...Is The Fantasy Band is available now via Blackburn Recordings.

An Audio/Visual Love Letter Called M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi


"I'm backed by the river and i'm fronted by the grave."
-Red Paden, owner of Red's Lounge, Clarksdale

Broke and Hungry Records’ Chief Jeff Konkel and his pal Roger Stolle, of Clarksdale's Cathead Art and Music just released their new documentary M For Mississippi to rave reviews, mine included. M For Mississippi is the best and most essential blues documentary since my all time fave Deep Blues


M for Mississippi isn't some soul less academic search for the history of the blues; it's the blues as it's happening now. Part road trip, part buddy film, M for M manages to be just as hilarious as it is poignant, moving, and educational. Not content to put together some dry dull (Cue Ben Stein/Eeyore voice over: This is the blues. This is where it came from. This is the poverty in Mississippi. Then everybody moved to Chicago and lived happily ever after …) film our hosts hopped in the van themselves with brilliant cameraman/filmmaker Damien Blaylock and recording engineer Bill Abel (who has a studio set up in the back of his Volvo wagon) to roll around the state and survey today's blues scene for a pulse check. Attention world: It ain't dead. Not by half. 


Of course it all depends on how you define the blues. Is it some dude slinging a guitar behind his head and wankin' weedleyweedley Chicago-style pyrotechnics with his teeth at a casino in Clarksdale? If that's your thing, I guess. Ain't mine. Ain't Stolle and Konkel's idea of blues either. M For Mississippi delivers a small taste of what's left of Mississippi's non-corporate blues scene. For me, and for these film makers, the blues is Mr. Tater The Music Maker, a street musician so incredibly idiosyncratic he verges on living blues folk art. It's notorious eighty-something year old ladies man and Fat Possum Records’ legend T-Model Ford. It's the seventy-eight year old Mississippi Marvel who hides his identity so as not to cause a rift in his church by playing the devil's music or Pat Thomas, a blues man with a beautiful and haunting voice who also happens to be a folk artist working in collage and, like his father blues man Son Thomas in clay. And it's Jimmy "Duck" Holmes who operates the Blue Front Cafe, one of Mississippi's last real juke joints, and who carries the torch of Skip James and Jack Owens' high lonesome Bentonia Mississippi sound


Whatever it is it's raw and powerful and done with pure honest soul. These artists and others in the film just do their thing and would be doing it whether Konkel and Stolle recorded them and put 'em in a movie or not. Yeah, they can be and are entertaining but that ain't the reason they play. They play because they live it and live for it. What they do has more in common with punk rock than whatever it is that claims to be punk rock today. 


M For Mississippi is a visually gorgeous film that is at once thoughtful and funny, hi-tech and low-down. This film is an audio/visual music geek’s love letter to the native music of Mississippi and America that I proudly declare to be a fine matching bookend to, if not part two of Deep Blues. Thanks to Jeff Konkel and Roger Stolle and, most of all to the artists involved, the story continues.

"Look what you can get if you don't clown.
But if you clown you don't get a dog gone thing
."
-Mr. T-Model Ford


There is also a fine soundtrack available, too. Actually there will be two soundtracks. The tracklisting for the first soundtrack is as follows:

1. M for Mississippi - Big George Brock
2. The wolves are howling - Wesley Jefferson Blues Band
3. Ain't it alright - R.L. Boyce and Lightnin' Malcolm
4. I'm a bluesman - Terry 'Harmonica' Bean
5. Slow down, slow down - Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes
6. Black Mattie's face - The Mississippi Marvel and Lightnin' Malcolm
7. Hip shakin' woman - T-Model Ford and Stud
8. Give it all to me baby - Cadillac John Nolden and Bill Abel
9. The woman I love - Pat Thomas ((((mp3))))
10. Bring it on home - Robert Bilbo Walker Band
11. Rosalee - L.C. Ulmer
The second volume will be out in the spring. It will feature more songs recorded during the filming. Twelve tracks in all, including an unreleased solo-harp version of the theme song.
You can buy the M For Mississippi DVD + the soundtrack + free shipping anywhere in the world for only forth dollars direct from Broke and Hungry right HERE.
You can buy the Deep Blues
dvd from Amazon right HERE.
M For Mississippi Trailers

Last Nights Presents: United Waters, yek koo. Prehistoric Blackout, LA Lakers


Last Nights Presents:

yek koo (from LA)
LA Lakers  (from New Zealand)

Sunday May 13th
89 Varet St. Brooklyn, NY
8pm | $7 | All Ages

MY BLUE STAR - The Life And Hunchin' Times of Hasil Adkins - A documentary - New Trailer

Ron Thomas Smith informs me that he's coming close to finishing thee documentary on Hasil Adkins titled My Blue Star

Mr. Smith has been working on this project for several years now, gathering interviews, stories and footage from a Whos Who in the world of alt-country/alt-blues/alt-wtf  from all around the country. This labor of love should be ready premier this fall.

Girlseeker - "Dream" | Track Feature




Before I really begin I want to say Girlseeker  one of the best band names I have come across in some time. I'm not sure if "Girl" is being used as an adjective or what but I dig it. Monikers aside "Dream" from their recently released 1-800-GREED is some class A post-Ariel Pink pop that has everything from minimal synth crazes, completely charming dead-pan vocals, & the perfect hook for the occasion (I'm quite sure what that is though as I don't understand a word here).

The group hail from Copenhagen, Denmark & combine all of the kitsch aynth pop antics of your favorite new wave cassette that been baking in the back of your car. Just the right amount is retained & the rest transformed into a new living being. Or at least that's the case with these dudes.

Girlseeker's 1-800-GREED is available now via well a whole slew of folks including Big Love, Denim Hologram, Silver Ghosts, KRAAK, New Images, Music City, Underwater Peoples, Insula Music, 4:2:2v2, & Release The Bats.  

Bishop's Got Talent - NT Does Dylan

Former Bishop of Durham ends talk with Dylan, wonder if he will do this at Greenbelt this year?!

P

THE EASY - OFFS Mean Trouble.

@ facebook // interwebs // reverbnation // CD Baby // iTunes


The Easy-Offs are a couple of men from Montreal that our man in Texas turned us on to. By "us" I mean me.  Listening to their new album Life Is A Drone you'd be hard pressed to gather that by "a couple" I don't mean a whole helluva lot more than two. They do have a some friends helping out on a few tracks, some fuzzed-out bass on this one, some harp and/or backing vocals on that but for the most part, and regardless this is just good ol' raw, dirty, fkdup home-made rural blues rollin' in the soul and boogie, with ground and browned-down flourishes of wah-wah'd psychedelia. This is the sound of them dirty, sweaty, hairy grandkids of Paul Jones and R.L. Burnside after they got done messin' in the garage. Dig: