LOWRIDER

Another deadly collection of old school street jams from Lowrider Magazine. Heavier on the hip-hop this time, the early '90s explosion that combined street soul, classic rap and the adoption of the sound/s by different subcultures creating divergent subgenres under the same umbrella. HASHIM, QUE SA, JEAN KNIGHT (the inclusion of "Mr. Big Stuff" is an anchor point for the rest of the mix), KID FROST, HISPANIC MC's and a timeless slow jam from THE FUZZ that belongs on every Barrio Music, East Side Story and Lowrider compilation - just so every listener is reminded where the roots are. 

LOWRIDER SOUNDTRACK VOLUME 4

NEW WAVE THEATRE

New Wave Theatre was a television variety show broadcast in (or "from") Los Angeles in the '80s. Eventually the show (or a version of the show) made its way onto USA Network's Night Flight - a program that was a lifeline for small town freaks like me who were limited by cable networks that didn't include MTV. I remember sitting in front of the TV with my boom box aimed at the speaker, ready to record anything that felt interesting...and it all felt interesting. I would love to go back in time and experience those moments again with adult perspective so I could know what I was learning about, but that's not what innocence is. Innocence is not knowing.
No idea if this is a single episode or a collection of segments......because this is from a tape recorded and archived by someone who was doing the same thing I was doing. A stranger from a completely different place living a completely different place, making a recording that I heard for the first time last week. 

NEW WAVE THEATRE

KILLED BY GERD

 

It's Friday, so here's another collection of songs from bands that I had never heard of before I popped Killed By Gerd in the deck for the first time a few weeks ago. Death rock (PELTERAS), new wave/college alt (THE NORTHPALM, MALARIE), driving shoegaze (DENIAL), dreamy twee/indie new wave (CLOSURE), tracks that sound like a bridge between JOY DIVISION and INTERPOL (LELAKIDIVJVNGTANDVK, THE PORNO), angular post punk (MEGATRVTH, HIGHWAY)...you get the general idea. Most of these tracks would be just as at home on a mix of late '80s college rock with DINOSAUR and MBV or a collection anchored by WAX IDOLS and DIIV. According to the sub/title, this is the first volume in a series - where are the others?!?!

KILLED BY GERD VOL #1
A Mixtapes Bootleg Series

WALK SOFTLY

 

All of the praise I showered on last Friday's Astral Maps collection apply here as well. Two dozen gorgeous slabs of unheralded country music from the likes of JIMMY PATTON, CHESTER KNIGHT, RONNIE THARP, FIFI QUEEN, WILLA RISP, TIDE CARTWRIGHT and so many more your head will spin. Choicest cuts are from ALLEN R. ADAMS and an under the radar slammer from JOHNNY PAYCHECK, but there's not a singe clunker in the bunch. All praise to the mysterious folks at Little Axe in Portland for constantly striving to remind you how much you don't know...

WALK SOFLTY

ASTRAL MAPS

 

I posted the first Astral Maps volume almost a decade ago and I highly recommend uninitiated visitors visit that collection as soon as their done with this one (or vice versa). Now as then, the title manages to say it all without letting on how much gold it contains. Aside from JERRY JEFF WALKER (who closes the mix with the brilliant "Shell Game") and NICO (who most wouldn't expect on a mix like this, but of course it's perfect), these artists are going to be new to all but the most dedicated old country aficionados....which is to say that Astral Maps is a very special gift. BOOTS WALKER, RONNIE HAWKINS, JOHNNY ROBERTS, RONNIE McFARLAN, HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS, DAVID BLUE and loads more sing songs about traveling and wandering and love and loss. It's an honest collection of songs and singers that will take you to a completely different place if you let it. Listen to TOMMY FLANDERS' "Between Purple And Blue" before you do anything important today, and thank the folks at Ack Ack Ack Tapes for helping you (me) get through. 

ASTRAL MAPS Vol.2: COUNTRY ROCK '65-'75

LOWRIDER KUMBIAS

 

What a glorious re-interpretation of the classic soul and R&B jams that continue to provide the soundtrack for summer city nights and lowriders. More than just remixes, this is banger after banger turned into low and dirty cumbias by some genius who probably had an idea while stoned as shit....and followed through. "El Duque" has never sounded this fukkn cool, and I feel like anything approaching in depth description of how this tape hits me would run the risk of being interpreted as cultural appropriation. I remain on the sidelines, with the bass and volume pumped as loud as possible. 

TURBO SONIDERO: MUSIC DE BARRIO

PARTY JAMS 91

 

The name says it all. 

PARTY JAMS 91

The only question is whether or not you want to party.
Do you?

APLOGETIC DAWN

 

There are a few Loathed Sound Department tapes I haven't unearthed and I savor them as they (re)surface. I eagerly consumed every release I could when the label was active, each one felt like a deep dive into a world I was (almost always) unfamiliar with. Apologetic Dawn is no different - you know funk and you know soul, but ADAM GRUP's "I Got You" and 6IX will turn your shit on its ear. The hard driving groove of THE STOVALL SISTERS, the silky smooth funk of THE TEMPREES, everything about FUZZY HAWKINS. The whole damn thing - start to finish.

APOLOGETIC DAWN: Music With Movement For The Funk And Soul Deep Inside

IT'S ALL ABOUT FUCKIN' RAGE

 

I hope you're sitting down, because this thing is going to knock you on yr fukkn ass. A perfect assemblage of early '00s DIY hardcore and crust focused on USA (A.O.S., DISSYSTEMA) and Sweden (CROSSING CHAOS, AVSKUM, DISKONTO, PROJECT HOPELESS) with SICK TERROR (Brasil), DISBEER (Austria) and RECHARGE (Germany) filling in the gaps. A strong tip of the hat to Indonesia's Hardcore Curse Records for not only putting this compilation together, but for including a couple of shit-fi tracks from countrymen DICKHEAD so all of the punks know wheat belongs where....and DICKHEAD absolutely belong sandwiched between AVSKUM and DISKONTO even if (especially if?) their tracks sound like absolute shit.

IT'S ALL ABOUT FUCKIN' RAGE: A Compilation Of International D.I.Y. HC/Punk Bands

1-800-REMIXES

 

A better summer party mix has perhaps never existed, and can someone tell me if MC HAMMER was directly (or indirectly?) associated with the 1-800-REMIXES series? It just seems too perfect. Anyway, The No.1 Selling Tape Is Back so go get yourself some summertime. 

1-800-REMIXES VOL.3

LOWRIDER

 

The third volume in Thump Records' Lowrider Soundtrack series is a master class in funk and freestyle anchored by DEBBIE DEB's "When I Hear Music," an indispensable track worth the price of admission and then some all on its own. Follow that up with "I Need A Freak" from SEXUAL HARASSMENT and TONY-O's "Drop Them Drawers" and you know this a different kind of party. There are still solid lowrider jams here (HISPANIC MCs, DAZZA, SAPADILLA) but overall this collection is way freakier and more hi-NRG mix than the first two collections. So get down to TOGETHER BROTHERS, CRAZY CLOCK MC, FREESTYLE, BABY G & TRUE FUNK POSSE and HOLLYWOOD HAMILTON and you're talking about an actual fucking party....you're also talking about a brilliant mix tape. 

LOWRIDER SOUNDTRACK VOLUME 3

WEEKEND AT GRITTY'S

 

I don't know how many times I will tell you that a well crafted and curated mix tape is a wonderful thing....but here I am telling you again today that a well crafted and curated mix tape is a wonderful thing. Weekend At Gritty's is the seventh in the Pinhole Mixtape series (the first five volumes are already here - the sixth is....well, you're gonna have to wait for Halloween or something) and the brilliance in construction is perhaps best demonstrated when the curator rolls effortlessly from NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL to JEF THE BROTHERHOOD to a cut from Return Of The Living Dead. This mix is soundtrack heavy, which makes for an even better "casual" listen that allows you to relax and drift before yanking the leash with cuts from SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET, JESUS AND MARY CHAIN or THE SQUALLS. It's a gorgeous listen...highest recommendation.

WEEKEND AT GRITTY'S

SUMMER JAM LOVE CLASSICS

 

Summer is right around the corner - shit, looks like the Central Valley is going to kiss 100 degrees this weekend - and that means it's time to dust off some summer love jams. Don't worry though, we've got you covered. I don't know what subsequent volumes of Summer Jam Love Classics had to offer, but it's entirely possible that the creator/s simply looked at this first volume and decided it would be pointless to try to top perfection. Kinda like SLAYER should have done after Reign In Blood - even South Of Heaven was a lateral move at best, but I digress. A solid hour of slow soul grooves, late '70s to early '80s R&B...Summer Jam Love Classics, just like the title says. ENCHANTMENT, WHISPERS, SKYY, DENISE WILLIAMS, ATLANTIC STARR all anchored by PEABO BRYSON's excruciatingly sexy "I'm So Into You." Yeah, summer will be here before you know it. Get ready to sweat. 

SUMMER JAM LOVE CLASSICS Vol.1 

BARRIO MUSIC

 

This is probably the coolest Barrio Music volume I've delved into so far, which makes me excited to keep plowing my way through the twelve tape series. Anchored by undeniable classics by ELVIS PRESLEY ("Now Or Never"), ? AND THE MYSTERIANS ("96 Tears"). LITTLE RICHARD ("Good Golly Miss Molly") and JERRY LEE LEWIS ("Great Balls Of Fire"), you've also god JAMES BROWN's deadly ballad "Try Me" and "Doing It To Death" by FRED & THE NEW JB'S (a song I always thought was actually by The Godfather Of Soul). And then there't the other stuff....GENE & EUNICE, LARRY WILLIAMS, MANHATTANS, PEACHES & HERB, even PAUL fucking ANKA delivers a killer. A standard from THE PLATTERS and a smooth as fuck track from the suitably named DON & JUAN round out the roster and.....my people this is just a perfectly curated mix of perfectly wonderful music. Like, can you think of a better way to end your week?

BARRIO MUSIC vol.4

AUFLAGE 100

 

What a.....what a sweet collection of songs. You could really stop listening after the opening track from GHOST AMBULANCE and feel satisfied - one of the most innocent and sincere love songs I can remember hearing. What follows is a perfectly curated mix of '90s proto-shoegaze and harmlessly mellow indie cuts from TRAUMA GLOW, MANIC YOUTH, COMBAT BEACH, LAUNDROMAT CHICKS, a surprisingly addictive groover by SWELLE and an airy epic from SAKURA.....basically a grip of modern Austrian bands I would never have crossed paths with if I didn't have a well connected pal who likes to meets for burritos on occasion. He says "you're welcome."

AUFLAGE 100

KALX

Y'all know the drill with these tapes, but even so....this is a really good one.
Here's life as broadcast on KALX in Berkeley 39 years ago today. 

HERE

Worth noting that life as broadcast on KALX in Berkeley 38 years ago today was posted last year.... 

DOGGISH BOYS

 
I don't even know what to say here. Just listen, okay? A wild and unhinged spectrum generated hip-hop mix tape orbiting the mind of JEFF DOGG. Chopped and/or Screwed drug addled rap dispatches like you've never even imagined from the Pinhole Family.....the shit sounds weird, the shit is infectious. I feel like this is something Aesop would have created and/or released (which reminds me that I should hit that dude up to say hello). Just listen, okay?

DOGGISH BOYS MIXTAPE

1-800-REMIXES

 

If you weren't alive when (most) these songs were unavoidable then mayhaps you can't really grasp what a comfortable listen this is. I was there though - I was high school kid with a weekend job as a small town commercial radio DJ and I heard damn near every one of these tracks countless times. I didn't hear them like this though, and there's a magic in this era-appropriate collection. Until today, I never knew that MC HAMMER name dropped Oaktown in "U Can't Touch This" (which is followed by DIGITAL UNDERGROUND and EN VOGUE, two more outfits that helped put the East Bay on the mainstream map around the same time ECONOCHRIST moved out from Arkansas), and until today I never knew that JANET JACKSON collaborated with HEAVY D on a remix of "Alright." And Canada's JANE CHILD dropped one of the most essential freestyle bangers ever with "I Don't Wanna Fall In Love" and she's basically the arctic Sheila E or some shit. Basically, I learned a lot of things today. MICHEL'LE, ROB BASE, JOHNNY GIL round out a remix tape that was hopefully distributed out of the trunk of a stolen Camry...and could have provided the soundtrack for every episode of In Living Color. 

1-800-REMIXES VOL.1

If anyone has a line on subsequent volumes....you know where to find me. 

MEZTISOUL

 

Half hour chill-house mix from Central (CA) Valley's MEZTISOUL. Bump under heat during the Season Of The Disappearing Sun if you'd like to have the same listening experience I had.....and it was a sensational listening experience. 

PRESCRIPTION PART 1

PAIN IN MY HEART

 

I don't know how often I need to remind you how much impact the right mixtape can have in the right moment. There's an art to curating a cassette the right way - it can't just be bangers and it can't just be unknown gems (even if the gems are all diamonds), it's better if there's a through-line but if you deviate from the mission it can deaden the impact. A perfect mix is indefinable, but when they come to you.....you know it because you feel it, and you cherish them. Bailey makes them. Jensen makes them....and apparently Pinhole Collapse makes them. Pain In My Heart is the fifth in a twelve tape series, and is among the most gut-wrenching and excruciating listens that I have endured. Ever. You want to talk about variations on a theme? You want to talk about heartache in song? You want to talk about fucking pain? REUBEN BELL and BILL BRANDON and JOE WILSON and MARION BLACK and JOHNNY THUNDER and CALA THOMAS are gonna tell you about pain, motherfucker. The only hope on this tape is the hope that hopefully you'll be able to make it through the pain. The pain will never go away, but maybe you'll make it. I told you a few months ago that Howlin' At The Moon was perfect....and Im here to tell you today that this next volume hits ever harder. Absolutely devastating. Listen to DIANE LEWIS' "Please Let Me Help You" and cry. Cry, motherfucker. 

PAIN IN MY HEART