Pressure Drop, the follow-up to 1974′s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley would find Robert Palmer at an interesting crossroads in his career as despite the great craftsmanship on his previous LP he was still vastly unknown outside of the NYC music scene. As a result, Pressure Drop was not as cohesive as an album due to the desire to be more commercial. Unfortunately for Palmer, 1976 was a time where schmaltzy and breezy arrangements were in high demand and despite his best efforts this makes the album quite dated. However, the highlights on here stand up along with the best of Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley, from the title track (a cover of the famous Toots & The Maytals tune), to the slow burn of “Fine Time” as well as the rollicking “Riverboat” and “Trouble”,it’s quite clear (even from the album cover) that Palmer and his crack session band of Little Feat and the Muscle Shoals Horn Section and even James Jamerson (the bassist of Motown fame) have a whole lot of fun.
Summertime
It’s been a while but Art of The Mixtape is back in action with a mixtape for these good old summer days whether its lying on a beach, grilling dinner, or just relaxing in your own home, these grooves should put you in the perfect mood for the summer months. This mixtape features classics from artists like George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis, as well as some artists you may not have heard of. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the tunes.
Small Stack Tuesdays
A new feature here on Art of the Mixtape is Small Stack Tuesdays, an ode to those good old 45′s and 78′s from back in the day. The inaugural edition features a great duet from two unlikely sources as well some great other bands recent releases. Stay tuned and enjoy the music.
A Quick One While He’s Away: Amazing Songs Under The Two Minute Mark
Tomorrow Goes Away- Delta Spirit
Cold War (Nice Clean Fight)- The Morning Benders
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road- The Beatles
The Beatles- Her Majesty
In pop music it seems that shorter is better and in this debut of a weekly series I’ve compiled a few remarkable songs that manage to transfix the listener and make them forget the brevity of the song length. Whether it’s the Revolver flavored “Tomorrow Goes Away” the absolute gem of “Cold War” the amazing vocal workout of “Why Don’t We Do it in The Road” or the quick little tongue-in-cheek “Her Majesty”. All of the above will make your day out for the better, and barely take up any of your time. Enjoy the free downloads after the jump.
Merry Christmas Everyone- Xmas ’10 Playlist
I’ve assembled a playlist of all those good classic Christmas songs, so you don’t have to sit through all the bad ones on the radio, and Merry Christmas!
It is 5 AM…and You Are Listening to Los Angeles
In the annals of 90′s music, you might run across a band called Soul Coughing. If you hadn’t heard the name before you’d be likely to shrug it off as some metal band that was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and probably wasn’t very good anyway. You’d be hard-pressed to find yourself more wrong.
While what we remember as alternative rock in the 90′s may mostly consist of that of two California bands; Cake and Sublime, the east coast too was making its own mark on music. G. Love and Special Sauce is one such example that still has a grip on music today, though his brand of hip-hop blues hasn’t been very groundbreaking since his debut in 1994 (Though “This Ain’t Livin’” is one of the most poignant songs you’d find on any record past and present) yet there was a band with an even more creative vision who came out of NYC who would call themselves Soul Coughing.
Poetry and music had been intertwined before, but usually only to little success, and found mostly in run-down jazz clubs and open mics. M. Doughty and his band mates would try to fill the void in popular music form, Doughty’s alliterative and abstract stanzas would be a percussive instrument of their own backed by a tremendous rhythm section of upright bass and drums. However clever his lyrics, it is doubtful just how good they would have been without another key member, Mark de Gli Antoni, who played keyboards, and more importantly provided samples.
Sampling today is more important than ever in rap music, the backbone by which most rap songs live and die by and yet creatively it was never better than when Soul Coughing was at their best. Listening to Ruby Vroom, their debut album is like stepping into the looking glass from Alice in Wonderland, everything is delightfully surreal and new. Not many bands would have the gall to start their debut song with a line like “A man drives a plane into the Chrysler Building” yet their sound is so unique and dynamic that by the time “Screenwriter’s Blues” and “Down To This” roll around, you’ll never look at Los Angeles, Howlin’ Wolf, or the Andrews Sisters the same.
Yet Soul Coughing isn’t a one-trick pony, their taste for the surreal blends rather well with true sentiment, “True Dreams of Wichita” wouldn’t feel out of place on an early Tom Waits album, with its musings on a recent break-up, and songs like “Soft Serve” combine a mellow instrumentation with intricate imagery.
Check out some of Soul Coughing’s material after the jump.
Snakes, Neighbors, and A Good Kind of Crazy: A Mixtape
It’s been far too long since I’ve done a Mixtape and far too long since I’ve updated the site in general so enjoy this latest mixtape packed full of both old and new, some classics, some you never will have heard of…all of it good. So sit back, relax, get that right-clicking hand ready and enjoy the full mix after the jump.
In Memoriam: John Lennon
On the 70th anniversary of his birth, I’ll be the first to admit that there was a time where I was obsessed with the man, since being a Beatles fan at the age of 5, I delved into the mythology, the legend that made up the story of John Lennon’s life. It was always an intensely sad and morose feeling listening to songs like “Across the Universe” and “Imagine” with the knowledge that a man who was at such peace to write these things was dead, assassinated, murdered by a man who made no more sense than the Catcher In the Rye he claimed to be. I too, as a tremendous Beatles fan, fell victim to blaming his wife Yoko Ono, of destroying the band and was also blinded as to how far love will make someone go. Yet as I reach the final mark of adulthood, I find myself almost at odds with the continuing legend.
Sure, there’s using his image and fame for peace, that’s noble, and true to what Lennon himself believed in, Peace is truly more than just limited to the life of one person, and using a status of fame and fortune for a good cause is never a bad thing. Yet, it’s almost a twist in the gut to at the same time release a remastered Lennon catalog, things that have stripped down the original versions. If anything, this is something ignoble, and something Lennon never would have stood for.
“It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don’t appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It’s the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it’s garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.”
So although it is painful to acknowledge the death of a prolific man before his time, it is almost criminal how his image continues to be used for profit. I do not stand to say that I believe Yoko Ono is a woman without talent but I will say that she is a woman without shame. Remarkably, she claims to stand for what her late husband stood for, but has no problem with keeping the money that comes along with it. She refuses to forgive his killer, even though in John Lennon’s message of peace, it would be understanding, and moving, to forgive a man who did not know what he was doing. John Lennon was a great man, a great musician, a great writer, but he was not God. He never wanted to be. So yes, on his 70th birthday, celebrate his music, his fight for peace, and mourn that he died a horrible death. But please, do not spend your money doing it. John Lennon is no Che Guevara. Every time you see him featured in a TV ad, what he stood for dies a little. Remember the man for the man that he was, not the image that Yoko Ono has made him be.
So in remembrance of his music, I give you three songs which were symbolic of his musical output (inspiring, anthemic, and introspective), and a great cover of one of his best.
Classic Album Series: Ram On….Give Your Heart To Somebody Soon…Paul McCartney’s Ram, Reviewed
While it is common fact that Paul McCartney officially called the Beatles quits in the spring of 1970, most people don’t realize the immense struggle it put McCartney through. While Lennon, Harrison, and Starr went on with solo careers with the vigor of free men, it was McCartney who seemed to suffer. This struggle was rampant through his songwriting of the time; usually a songwriter who prided on third person narratives and story-telling, McCartney was writing about something completely new, himself. “Two Of Us”, “Let It Be”, “The Long and Winding Road”, “Carry That Weight”, even perhaps “Oh Darling” are all not only skilled love songs and some of his best material, but they also reflect a man troubled on the inside. McCartney, his eponymous debut still showed the scars of this massive breakup, with “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “Junk” both showing the man with his heart on his sleeve, and the ragged production not only a sign of his talent but perhaps his mood at the time.
However, McCartney is too much of a showman, and too much of an immense talent to let such things bother him for long, although his writing partner was perhaps more famed for his fight for the working class, it was McCartney who had really come from one, and thus this hardship was almost a challenge for him to do better. Music never seemed to be the issue, McCartney’s appreciation for music was only eclipsed by his talent for it, and of his previous band’s members, he was the most well rounded. Yet this was an unknown commodity of the time, it was a scarce few people who knew that he had played drums on numbers such as “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “Dear Prudence” as well as lead guitar on songs such as “Taxman”, “Good Morning, Good Morning” and the like. Many musicians who have met the man in fact will attest that he is a guitarist of prodigious skill, and only limited by his choice to play bass.
So McCartney set about recording Ram in late 1970 and finished in March of 1971. It had been recorded partly in McCartney’s home studio in Scotland, and it was finished in New York. This accounted for the intriguing overall soundscape of the record, it wasn’t quite polished, but it wasn’t as ramshackle as its predecessor , McCartney, had been. The inclusion of a formal studio led McCartney’s whimsical and homespun melodies to get full production treatment, and let his vision be un-compromised in scope.
Critics, hungry for the sound of his former band, were very harsh at first with the overall consensus being that it was full of whimsy but not much else. However as time played its course, many began to find new insight into Paul McCartney’s second album, some even called it the first indie record, a label which given the range of styles found on the record, seems rather fitting. The album, track by track, after the jump.
Mixtape Monday Presents: Keeping the Light On
Get ready for another thrilling Mixtape Monday presentation. This time around I have a lot of goodies ranging from new indie acts to some great collaborations and some little known older stuff. As always the stuff on the site is free and available for download (just a right click and save target/ link as) but if you enjoy the music, please support the artists involved. The full mix after the jump.
