So Simple So Clean

Real quick tomorrow night tune your cable modems, ham radios, banana phones etc to So Simple Records. These guys are putting on face melting events constantly and on top of that they broadcast live for four hours every Tuesday night. From what I'm told, depending on when you get to the party, you'll hear:

Sweet Baby Ray and David Romo of Briefcase Scenario fame

Jung Hollywood
DJ Bobby Ramberg
Zaptra
Wet Mango

and probably much much more. I heard Obama is debuting his live incarnation - Obamatron. Maybe. If he can get it together.

Be there.

Eye Candy

Dr. Hook - In Over My Head (1979) (buy)



Dr. Hook - Sexy Eyes (1979) (buy)



Dr. Hook - Love Monster (1979) (buy)

Definitely put down the price of admission 1979 Dr. Hook album Sometimes You Win on the merits of 'Sexy Eyes' alone, so the other two tracks today were all just extra frosting. This band is my new ELO and Cat Stevens all within the span of a single album.

Plus they had Shel Silverstein and eyepatches, and secured their first record deal with a live in office performance at CBS, replete with wastebasket drumming and tabledancing.

Telefunken

Kinsmen Dazz - Saturday Night (1977) (buy)



Kinsmen Dazz - Get Down With The Feelin' (1977) (buy)

Consulting ye olde annals of funk, one finds that today's band in focus, Kinsmen Dazz, actually arose from two earlier groups - Bell Telepunk and Mother Braintree. Apparently Kinsmen came from the name of a street / club members of the later band performed on / at, and Dazz just sounded cool (even before this and this reached the tip of everybody's tongue).

Anyway nothing complicated about the appeal here - these songs groove to themselves whether you're around or not. They take you where they're going, like strangers in cars only safer. You need them more than they need you.

A Creative Human

John KaSandra - Follow Your Heart (1974) (buy)

Easy Sunday afternoon track here sliced out of the Stax archives. KaSandra apparently made a splash in academia back in the seventies. Canadian professor Homer Hogan devoted a chapter of his book Poetry of Relevance #2 to Kasandra, saying, "KaSandra's songs can keep us thinking long after the music is over. Even in popular songs lyrics (the frailest literary form) we can see how greatness can at least be pre-figured when a writer like KaSandra strips away the veil of ignorance".

Not sure about that but if you're trying to strip away veils of ignorance it can't hurt to have Bill Withers' rhythm section in your back pocket. Take it or leave it. See you next time.

Hot Fingers

Griffin - Move (1984) (buy)



Griffin - No Humans Allowed (1984) (buy)

One of the first vinyls I grabbed once I had a pair of turntables sitting in my apartment, I've been meaning to get a couple of tracks up from Reggie Griffin's 1984 release Hot Fingers upped for a while. The album, in its entirety, is swimming around out their in the primordial soup that is the internet, but these are the fingers that tickled that 80's synthbotfunk spot in my brain the best. Funk always gets better when the humans get out of the way, so go ahead and add a little autonomy to your weekend.

Soulviewmirror

Alla Pugacheva - Сонет (1977) (buy)



Alla Pugacheva - Песенка Про Меня (1977) (buy)

These songs are so ridiculously good I couldn't type their names without a help from a website, and that was after I tracked down a translation of the album from which they're drawn, Mirror of Soul, via the serial number. Anyway for anybody with Russian characters on their keyboard I'm sure this is a no brainer. Alla Pugacheva has been honored with the titles Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR, People's Artist of the RSFSR, People's Artist of the USSR and finally 3rd Degree Order of Merit of the Fatherland. In terms of record sales, she is the most successful artist of all time. Her music makes babies smarter.

So check these out. I feel smarter - maybe you will too.

Free Kutmah

Little more serious note than usual this evening - many of those reading from Los Angeles probably know the name Kutmah. What you might not be aware of is that presently Kutmah has been detained, and is sitting in a government facility somewhere in New Mexico awaiting prosecution hearings that could result in his deportation. You can get more details on the situation and what you can do to help here. If nothing else spread the word - get it on Twitters, Facebook feeds, Buzzes, whatever - if you're reading this chances are you're about two clicks away from transmitting to everybody you know.

Anyway do what you can - in the meantime, a little reminder (in addition to beating M.I.A. to the Suicide dub punch) of what Kutmah has brought to LA, CA, USA:



Kutmah - Song Song (2009)

Lights Out

Lonzo & World Class Wreckin' Kru - Lonzo Land (1988) (buy)



Lonzo & World Class Wreckin' Kru - Lover (Revised) (1988) (buy)



Lonzo & World Class Wreckin' Kru - Turn Off The Lights (1988) (buy)

Don't believe the hype, especially from record sellers. Throwing on my purportedly sealed copy of Lonzo & Kru's 'Turn Off The Lights in the Fast Lane' I was aghast to find wax slightly flatter than the bowls in my kitchen sink.

Actually it wasn't a huge deal - it just sounds like the tide is coming in on the first track of either side. Luckily the filler on this album isn't filler at all, and while the Cru only became the Kru after Dr. Dre exited to N.W.A. fame, there are all kinds of things going wrong here in just the right way.

Horrendous Disc

Daniel Amos - (It's The Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs (1984) (buy)

Forward thinking post today courtesy of Daniel Amos, one of Terry Scott Taylor's better known musical vehicles. The title more than gives this one away. It has everything you want, expect and love about eighties/rocket pack oriented music, including the eighties, rocket packs, robot voices, synthesizers, Byrnesque vocals, reverb. It's all here. And here especially. I'd be willing to bet that given a choice the majority of the population would choose a rocket pack over an iPad. Keep that in mind - Mother's Day is right around the corner.