If you haven't made plans for Friday night you've got them now. Heard of Elephants is putting on part two of two of it's year mark celebration. I'll be spinning all night between bands and afterwards for people who want to stick around and dance.
Heard of Elephants 1 Year Anniversary Show FRIDAY 7.31.09 $5 All Ages Chiparaki Cultural Center 1635 N. Spring St. (Right next to the cornfields)
Bringing the Minnesota transplant series to a close, the last stop I made on my jaunt around the Twin Cities was the Electric Fetus (not to be confused with LA's Electric Lotus or, for that matter, Flying Lotus). This was that stage of the trip where, realizing how much I had spent on records for myself, I had to pick up a couple for people back here to justify the fresh stretch marks my luggage bore from the crate's worth of vinyl inside.
Anyway let the guilt parade continue. The first track today is from White Gold, the 1974 release from the maestro Barry White and his Love Unlimited Orchestra. Luxurious:
Next few actually take me back to Hymie's (check a couple posts ago) and the 1978 self titled album from female vocal trio Gentle Persuasion, produced by Jerry Ross, the producer:
not the astronaut:
Speaking of space though, this record is out of this world. There are too many good songs on this record to just post one or two, so here you get a galaxy's worth of grooves, harmonies and tasteful string arrangements:
Coming back at you with more wax from the land of 10,000 lakes, today's specimens came from the Cheapo records in uptown Minneapolis. The door you see above was actually locked - I had to go around the front, as demonstrated in this handy tour video.
As the name suggests you will indeed encounter many a cheapo down at the Cheapo. The tracks I offer you today would have cost more to send through the mail than to purchase, and for the mere pennies you're spending on the electricity running through whatever it is you use to get around the internet you can have them for your very own as well. First off, a couple of tracks from Ronnie Laws' 1976 Blue Note Recording Fever:
The second track is the kind of thing I'd use for the intro to my own sitcom, some kind of Mr. Rogers outfit change kind of thing. Or better yet one starring Mr. Rogers and Koko:
Maybe they could be working together at a record store. Maybe at a Cheapo. Maybe if Ronnie Laws' sax wasn't smooth enough for the theme they'd take this number from the Sylvers' Forever Yours:
I think 'Fever', 'Let's Keep It Together', 'Forever Yours' and 'Come On Down To My House' would all make fine captions for that picture but as always until next time, I invite you to choose your own adventure.
More Minnesota action on the way, but a quicky here of two dance tracks that deserve your feet along with your ears:
Alaska y Los Pegamoides - Bailando (1982)
Irene Cara - Breakdance (1983) First one should have shown up in a Go! Team song if it hasn't somewhere already, and stands as the most shocking, interesting, and sports metaphor free item associated with the 49th state to grab my attention in some time. Second one has got Moroderprints all over it. Here's to 2012.
So I spent the 4th up in Minneapolis with some of the ol' extended fam which, aside from a lot of getting away with calling soda 'pop' and sunshine until 10:30 P.M., meant record hunting with my uncle (whose film reviews you can check here, fyi). Today's tracks come at you straight from Hymie's Vintage Records:
There you see the listening station where I first encountered the following:
This one, the title track of the album from which it is culled, shot to #1 on the charts, got the Tom Moulton (if anybody has this I'd be very intersted) treatment, and was quickly followed on the single train by:
A follow up album couldn't quite deliver the same goods and the group disbanded before a third album made it out, but check these two tracks for some epic vocal disco.
Behind door number 2 I present to you The Atlanta Disco Band's 'Bad Luck', which can be found on their 1975 Ariola America Records Inc. release Bad Luck. Strings and guitar bends. Elegance to spare, friends.
I should warn you that this one ends a little prematurely. I was as shocked and angry, and then I found this extended edit. Thanks to the fine contributors at Dollar Bin Jams.
Anyway look forward to more northern lights to come, and hit up Hymie's if you find yourself on Lake St. in the Twin Cities.
Real quick - I'll be spinning at the Downtown Independent this Saturday as part of the Summer Time Fun Society's Photography Soup, along with DJ Shark and bands Briefcase Scenario and the Hammerheads.
They just don't make them like they used to. That might be because they are no longer Meco Monardo (above). Basically Meco is like if you took Giorgio Moroder and combined him with someone who writes Star Wars fan fiction. His 1979 release Moondancer:
credits musicians not only from the Milky Way galaxy, but also our neighboring Cormar Galaxy (i.e. The Quibley Twins on shazzas). It also features a song dedicated to Dracula. It also sounds pretty good. Name an album that's come out in the last ten years and covered those bases. Try twenty. Try these:
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