If political correctness is your bag, read no further, but if you like the frisson of a spicy tale told in a hushed whisper, my darling, read on. Lord Kitchener made his name singing saucy and downright ribald calypsoes. His lyrics tell down-home stories of sexual derring-do, the stories of a naughty, but hugely loveable scallywag, and his wicked ‘Carry On’ exploits.
Check out this amazing book covering body adornment from all over the world. These decorations have meaning and cultural context. Tattoos from the modern primitive movement don’t compare with these for authenticity, complexity or truth.
Step forward my main man, Davie Allan, the axe toting Clint Eastwood of down and dirty fuzz guitar. Link Ray showed the way, here you go lads and lasses, the guitar sounds well cool when it fuzzes and distorts. Taking on board all that Uncle Link could teach him Davie set forth to bring his own ways to bare upon this much loved instrument.
Badly shaped and fresh faced, art school antics afoot, the Night Train Express with me in tow for a wild night, Loud by Half Japanese was coming out of cheap speakers, masking tape and wire strung, the turntable that played too fast.
If you got love trouble, you got a bad woman you can’t control, I got just the thing for you, something called Controlling Hearts and get together drops.
If you work too hard and you need a little rest try my Easel eyes rub, and put some of my balls fix gel in your breakfast.
Lead by Joseph Byrd, The United States of America were an experimental, psychedelic rock band, mixing avant garde composition with a radical take on progressive music making.
Yellow dog head with elongated pig snout. Is this Quasimoto, the Bad Character?
Quasimoto, The Lord Quas, he has a high pitched helium voice, a squeaky rapper, he’s the Loop Digga, his influence come from odd corners, Russ Meyer, the phat beats of David Axelrod and the intergalactic grooves of Jazz freak Sun Ra, the Astro Black numibian with a message for the world
With everything there’s always a starting point. Abrasive non-conformists and proto punks running wild in Hamburg, The Monks are that point. The beat group that would be the anti-Beatles, the first Krautrockers and they’re were all American GIs. It’s the 60′s, it’s Germany and it’s The Monks.
Thinking back to when I first started buying records as a kid, one of the things that helped me decide what to buy that week was the graphics and sleeve designs. I thought I’d collect together a bunch of my favourite generic company sleeves for this post.
From the starting point of COUM Transmissions, a performance art group centred around Genesis P Orridge and the stripper Cosey Fanni Tutti, a notorious history and reputation for confrontation, experimentation and invention was born…
For 50 years or more, music from the Indian subcontinent has taken Western influences on board and mirrored them back at us but with a unique twist which is quirkily Indian. Here you will find Bollywood and sitar takes on funk, surf guitar, swing and garage! I’ve tried to include some of the greats of Indian music from composers RD Burman and Kishore Kumar through musicians Ananda Shankar and Shankar Jaikishan to the fantastic vocal talents of Asha Bothle. I’ve finished off with Ravi Harris reversing the trend as a Westerner playing Eastern music. Tune in, Turn on, Wig out.
The ‘Chanson Marocaine’ was a Moorish-influenced mix of rumbas, tangos and tziganes. These were Spanish and North African sounds which must have spoken to the desire for the exotic amongst Parisians of the time.
Before they gained their international reputation for outré electronica, Warp records were a killer proto-rave label with outstanding Sheffield bleep tunes by the likes of the (then unknown) Aphex Twin, Tricky Disco, Nightmares on Wax, Sweet Excorcist and Coco Steel and Lovebomb.
For me, Guru & DJ Premier are essentially telling the same story as Robert Johnson or John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters or Howling Wolf. They are using intelligence and wit to rise above their adversity and to lead others away from the same predicament. The Blues at it’s finest.
Tricky (in my mind) is a true one off; no other would (or could) imitate the ideas behind his music. In the ten albums to his name to date, there lies a maze of potent material well worth exploration.
When Mongo Santamaria ‘bangs’ the drum, other people listen. He is one of the greatest percussionists ever recorded and to hear his music is a fine privilege indeed.
For a Few Dollars More, I’ll take you down into darkest Mexico where the chica’s eyes flash like daggers, but you just might get your throat cut, Gringo. Mexico; the US’s bad little hermano, where the cactus pricks you like a sharp conscience and where the touch of a woman is a sweet “Aloe Vera”. The legendary land of ‘La Cucaracha’ and of Pancho Villa, of Santa Anna and the Alamo. Let’s go get drunk down in Baja, boys and let’s see if the little men in pantalones brancas don’t come back and bite you on the ass! Que Pasa Hombre?
Living in the 21st Century it’s easy to think that we have a monopoly on behaviour of a certain type, that we invented transgressive sexuality and that the frisson one gets when taboo subjects are raised is an entirely new emotion. These records are here to prove that this is not the case.
Some people will immediately disagree with me, perhaps they’ll say it’s the guitar, maybe drums, but I’ll always opt for brass. Always. When you hear a killer jazz track with a great horn line that’s the instrument that does the deed, kills it. Stone dead I might add.
Popcorn is a form of music retrospectively applied to pop music with a rockabilly or rhythm and blues feel. It tells the story of love lost, and other dark tales. It is often linked with Belgium, where some of the tunes come from although many of the tunes were also no-hitters made in the United States. Many of the tunes reinterpret the rhythm and feel of the track ‘Fever’ by Little Willie John.
We surely need to reinvent a way of acknowledge the brilliance of great thinkers without trying to own their ideas in whatever form. If we don’t, we’ll end up in a world where everything, but everything, is owned.
Many people like monkeys, they think they’re kinda nice I guess. I’ve only had bad experiences myself, a really stupid monkey with dirty finger nails stole me from my parents when we were on safari in the congo.
Thunder and passion, stormy seduction, naughtiness, passing trains and ships in the night, the Hi-fi sensation of the sixties was undoubtedly The Mystic Moods Orchestra.
Born in 1939 with a thirst for Delta Blues and Roots music John Fahey aka Blind Joe Death emerges picking on a steel string acoustic guitar as if life itself depended on it.
Who is this strange figure that stands before me, nonsense words pouring from his mouth? The year is 1916, the photo captures a performance by Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. The new century is just getting up a head of steam, WW1 underway, the worlds of art theatre and music are all finding new ways to express belief in the future promise or ways to protest at the injustices of the modern world.
The songs of Dave Bartholomew swiftly become dear to the heart of anyone who hears them. Seek him out. You might even catch him live if you are very, very, lucky!
As a bandleader during the 30’s and 40’s Raymond Scott was well respected as a great tunesmith and musician, his melodies later found their way into the Loony Tunes cartoons of the 1950’s, helping along many a Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny cartoon.
From Bristol to Barcelona to Bahia, from Casablanca to Charleston to Cartageña, from Lagos to Liverpool, Marseille to Mumbai, and New York to New Orleans, we tell the musical story of port towns…
The Blaxploitation Movies of the 1970′s were the first films to give black folks positive role models and to make Black people the star of the movie. They told the stories of the street, of pimp’s, hustlers and hookers and are the true origin of the phrase ‘ghetto fabulous’. They have some of the funkiest soundtracks ever created.
By the late 40′s and early 50′s calypso was being sold hard to the adventurous Yankee tourist daring enough to visit the British colony of Trinidad and Tobago.
Dallas born, classically trained musician Mark Griffin, becomes the rapper MC 900ft Jesus, an experimental Hip Hop artist with an abundant wit and a natural flair for story telling.
Silver Apples were an American psychedelic electronic music duo from New York, composed of Simeon, on a primitive synthesizer of his own devising (also named The Simeon), and drummer Danny Taylor.
I thought it would be fun to check out some of the greats of funky hammond jazz. I’ve selected a bunch of my favourites and you are in for a treat here. From Jimmy Smith to Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff to Lonnie Smith, Ronnie Foster (who played with Grant Green on Sookie Sookie) to Charles Earland (who played with Lou Donaldson), these are amongst the hottest organ players of the 60s. Boy could they stroke those keys!
In the 20′s and 30′s itinerant musicians would travel around with their guitar developing a sound that came from gospel, african, and slave roots. These intermingled to form the blues. A storytelling mode, the blues often told tragic tales of woe in a simple twelve bar format. New guitar playing techniques were invented to describe musically these tales of the downtrodden.
I dunno about you but I can’t think of much better to listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon than some bad-ass Kentucky blue-grass with banjo and baritone voice à la redneck. Good ol’ boys singing about one night stands, and clear blue windswept skies. It leaves you feeling pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, much like the octagenarian lady embossed on a plate on the album’s front cover.
A very special long player hit the racks in 1980 called Miniatures, an album of tiny masterpieces created to last 1 minute. Miniatures enlisted the talents of a broad range of artists, ranging from the contemporary avant garde elite, improvisers, poets, punks and raconteurs, all rising to the challenge of the minute time slot in their own unique style.
The best early ragga came out of the dancehall scene in late 80′s and early 90′s Jamaica. It features MC’s ‘chatting’ lyrics in Jamaican patois over electronic beats and basslines. Often, the same rhythm track would be used over and again with different lyricists toasting or rhyming in a competition for the best match of rhythm and MC. The Jamaican DJ’s would play a number of these variations on the same currently popular ‘riddim’ and the people would decide… Here are a few of the winners.
Twisting styles in his vocal delivery, a true rockabilly originator and a country singer who would cover and own all the songs that he put his mark on. Like a lot of the rockabilly I first enjoyed, I came to know Charlie Feathers music through my passion for The Cramps warped take on rocking sleaze, garage boogie and b-movie meltdown.
Written in 1967 as a collaboration with fellow composer Michel Colombier for a Maurice Béjart ballet project, the Messe Pour le Temps Présent is no doubt Pierre Henry’s most widely known work. Pierre Henry started experimenting with sound when he was 15 and has devoted his life to avant garde composition and music concrete.
I grew up in a childhood Xanadu. Now, living in the concrete jungle of London, the camp imaginings of Exotica play heavy on my heartstrings. I love this weird ‘totally tropical’ music with its’ imagined tribal utopia full of nubile Amazons (as opposed to Amazonians) clad in leather loin cloths. Tarzan and Jane dancing in a frenzy to ritualistic tribal beats.
As the 60′s drew to a close, the kids in Spanish Harlem were tripping on a new sound. With a growing self assurance a younger generation of Cuban, Puerto Rican and South American immigrants began to tell a new story in their Boogaloos. This is the altogether more gritty and dark tale of a life hustling on the streets of New York. Labels such as Speed and Cotique brought these yarns of blunts and broads to a small but appreciative audience as a new psychedelic latin sound was created.
Hailing from Pittsburgh, Mad Mike was an ‘iconoclastic’ DJ who built his reputation on playing music from the underbelly of rock & roll. During the 60′s, he sought out the unknown in music and brought it to the mainstream through his Radio show Mad Mike developed a world-wide reputation amongst lovers of rock & roll by playing wild garage tunes from bands such as the Sonics on his show, often giving them exposure for the first time.
Underground disco with emphasis on the breakbeats in these tracks. Some of these tunes have been sampled by contemporary producers, others have not, but all are banging dancefloor numbers from the crates of yours truly.
Sandoval’s graphics are hugely evocative of their time, part of the post war boom that happened in graphics and advertising in America and especially New York.
Gabor Szabo has got to be one of the finest Jazz guitarist of all time. His finger-licking picking is of the highest calibre and references both western Jazz traditions and Eastern paradigms.
In the early 80′s, slightly behind the UK and US, digital keyboards and especially drum machines hit Jamaica. As is so often the case, these new instruments spawned a new sound.
It’s funny what you can find right under your nose sometimes. I live around the corner from a little DIY venue called Stoke Newington International Airport, and some friends invited me to a gig there last night: L’Orchestre du Montplaisant.
Straw hat and bandana, bad boy chewing on a chicken bone, thumping on the bass drum with one booted foot and thrashing manic on his beat-up guitar, this is how Hasil Adkins performs and learnt to play the songs he heard on the radio as a kid.
Outstanding Country Bluegrass Band The Wagon Tales whoop up the Home Spun Sessions Kentucky style. Fresh from releasing their thigh slappingly fab debut album, “Introducing the Wagon Tales“ These good ol’ boys are going places. Yee-Haw diddly de Haw!
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The best record cutter in the industry was George ‘Porky’ Peckham. Porky Prime Cuts featured notes for the fans scratched into the records – Ace!
A great toaster: Yellowman, the original albino ragga muffin sound bwoy.
The growth and growth of the folk movement in Britain. How bands like Daughter are stretching the folk music envelope to breaking point.
Combustible Edison designed their own cocktails they were THAT loungey!
Ethiopian Rumba with an old master: Mahmoud Ahmed was one of the grandfathers of the Ethio-Jazz scene way back in the early 70′s.
Sister Ignatius, the diminutive nun with a ministry of music in Ska.
Like shooting stars aimed straight for the heart of darkness, Folie Ordinaire take the swagger of Rock and the strut of Disco and turn them on their head. With Punk spikiness and Post-Acid electronics, they create a rhythmically pulsating live sound that defies categorization. They’ll be members of a futuristic leather-clad glitterati before you know it! Rock & Roll at it’s finest! Check out Folie Ordinaire’s unmissable live parties this summer.
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One of the unsung heroes of Mambo, Al Castellanos was one of the first Cuban musicians to arrive in New York.
The yearning towards a rediscovery and reinterpretation of African roots in the late 60′s Chicago Jazz Scene.
KRS-1 takes out the US autocracy in one with a direct hit from the ghetto.
From Black Nylons to Black Panthers, the arcing career of The Charmer.
US anti-Communist Witch hunts of the 1950′s were a travesty of justice.
The troubled soul of Nina Simone: An Atheist who read Gospel music against itself to create a whole new thrust in the Jazz idiom.
Quirky Colchester duo Park & Ride create quite a buzz when they bring their whimsical, eccentrically English take on French Chanson, Surf Guitar, Pop Classics, B-Movies and Breathy, Stylophonic Sex to the Home Spun Sessions.
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So you thought Punk was a male dominated style? The girls rocked it big time with Siouxsie Sioux, Kleenex, The Slits, X-Ray Specs, The Raincoats.
William Shatner: The Star man who always got the girl, especially if she was a green-skinned Orion Slave Girl.
The Conga vs The Cossack: John get’s drunk and attempts a bit of Russian Dancing to prove it’s better (or at least less simplistic) but then everyone realizes he’s cheating by sitting on a stool. Outrageous!
Russkie-Alien visitations and Post-Apocalyptic bombers. How the cold war influenced Ed Wood Jr. to create a B-movie masterpiece: ‘Plan 9…’
What’s a Boyyo to Do? Simon’s Parents only listened to the Beatles.
“What the FUCK is going on?” They asked of the music industry, back in 1987, when Whitney Houston joined them for Mission Impossible. They donned capes and made a pilgrimage to Dura, but by 1994 they were in the money. Their costly Art statements made blood boil on a million quid bonfire. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty wrote The Manual on how to have a hit record and then proceeded to ‘Kick out the JAMS’ again and again.
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We got the Foghorn! Interracial sex, Colombian style with the Afrosound.
We dig those Black girls, Oh! so much more than White girls.
Why get married when you can Shack Up with Banbarra?
The Harder they Come: lost on the white cliffs of Dover and Kingston with Jimmy Cliff.
Can one band create a movement? We say no! The Sex Pistols didn’t create Punk (it was the Damned, of course) and Elvis didn’t invent Rock & Roll (neither did Ike Turner, however).
Don’t you speak my language? Why Slim Gaillard became the lexicographer of Beat Poetry.
Angelically glum: The divine dirges of Nick Drake.
Did you ever get the feeling that some of us were born bad? With a naughty or even wicked tendency that if unchecked leads to disaster, glorious disaster. Skid Row baby! The Cramps gave us a master class from the dark side of Americana by re-imagining the desperate tunes from the underbelly of 50′s Rock & Roll.
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A countin’ with Dicky Treadway & the Salados – they got your number.
Black Christ of the Andes: Mary Lou Williams’ preaches the Gospel according to Jazz in a dark mass that cuts to the quick.
The Dadaist tropical sounds of Tom Ze brought back from the wilderness by David Byrne in 1992.
How James Brown earned his dancing shoes and learned the steps.
Snap, Crackle and Hip Hop with Positive K.
The sparks that fly when a Moroccan muse takes a yuppie for his wife.
A sight for sore eyes? Matt dances around the studio in his Mankini!
Get three boys together and the tone always lowers somehow. But it was the good ol’ boys of Rock & Roll that really brought the Copulating Blues to the tender ears of teenage America. A mention of ‘fucking’ in early Rockabilly earned a stiff reprimand and rather large fine from the Record Industry of America (RIAA). As usual the ‘peanuts’ escaped punishment even if ‘Her Love Rubbed Off!’ on Carl Perkins
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How Gene Vincent lost a bet to Eddie Cochran on who could get past the censors of the RIAA with a classic bit of lewd lyric mumbling…
Salsa Dura – getting wood with Willie Colon.
Something to get your claws into: A few tunes on the feline theme.
Carl Perkins - loved by the Beatles, but disappointed with his own success, not as cute as Elvis, but he did have the original pair of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’.
How Bob Marley’s first hit was a slow boiler for Coxone Dodd.
Voodoo Breaks – the proto-disco sound of Edwin Starr.
Lalo Schifrin – Argentinian Composer of the gangster breaks.
In which our good friend Crap Matt rocks up half cut and insists on some heavy, heavy Jungle rinse-out from back in the day. Proper? Proper! The Home Spun Show is always happy to oblige the inebriated with a shoulder to lean on and some soothing tunes for the ear.
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The heavy cuts of DJ Zinc and the True Playaz.
We visit the heart of English soul with Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll but listen to a song about snake charming in the end.
From Mansion House in the country to his own Island in the British Virgin Islands (Not a bad joke). How to become an Arsehole in a few easy steps.
Ma Polaine’s Great Decline visit The Home Spun Show this week for a brilliant session encompassing whiskey steeped Gypsy Reels, 1940′s Chanson, Country Death Songs and deep, down-home Delta Blues belters. We love their genre defying dark visions and warm tales of love lost and found.
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The hugely influential lyrics, rhythms and dark stripped down sound of Tom Waits late albums.
When studio experimentation becomes a part of the composition process you often get great results.
Which came first the 303 or Acid House? Huh chick?
International Funkateers, Ma’Grass join us this week for the Home Spun Session. Matteo Grassi and his band give us a sneak peak of their brand new album, Fingers in the Socket, 2 years in the making. Their music harks back to the golden era of funk in it’s sound: tight Sly & the Family Stone style beats couple with consciously low slung lyrics from Ella Flierl. Heavy!
The tribal Tibetan vibes of 23 Skiddoo.
The sexy troublemaker who led Miles Davis down the garden path. Betty Davis, 20 years Davis’ junior proved herself his equal and gave a raunchy new vitality to his work as well as making great albums in her own right.
The story of Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack”, a seedy tale of too much philandering. You read it here first.
The Chiterling Circuit: Black only tour venues spawned by segregation.
“The Hardest Working Man in Show business” docked his musicians’ wages if they played too hard. Practice what you preach James!
Download the Ma’Grass album for free but please make a contribution ‘cos piracy is killing music, me hearties. This podcast has paid it’s dues BTW!
All Aboard the musical locomotive! This week we play hosts to special guests Richmond Kessie from the awesome African Afro-psych dancing band Yaaba Funk, DJ Volta African DJ extra-ordinnaire and Oli Hurez taking us on a trip to the French Caribe via Ghana, Senegal and Angola.
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High Life – proper smart – no messing about! Playing to the British Colonial masters – no trainers allowed!
What’s the best insect to come back as if you are reincarnated? The Bedbug of course. You can spend all night biting young ladies’ bumpers!
The Senegalese are the foremost Cuban music players in Africa. From Youssou N’Dour to the Super Eagles these boys do it best. Or do they? The Ghanaians have a thing or two to say about that!
When the Mafia ran Cuba, was there much exposure to R & B there?
The storytelling ritual in Afrobeat: Fela and the origins of the 12″ single.
The man with the big voice,T.J. Johnson is our special guest on the Home Spun Sessions this week. T.J. is a fabulous Jazz crooner and pianist with an inimitable style. He crosses from country standards to bebop and beyond and delivers without fail. Outstanding!
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Three songs on the theme of Simoleans, Scrilla, Spondulicks, Swag to you!
How money mainly grows on family trees…
Big Dada’s Toastie Taylor – the voice of a skunk smoker.
The trials and tribulations of working on the jazz scene in the UK during the early 90′s.
The Afro-Calypso of one of the few great female Calypso stars, Maya Angelou.
WE think Errol Linton is one of the best harmonica players in the UK and we’re not wrong. He’s won UK Best Harp player 3 times!
Well, this week he graces the Home Spun Sessions for a knees up with a bunch of mates, and he brought along a fabulous band to boot. You’ll rarely hear a better Rhythm & Blues sound.
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How good is the recent album by Chicago Blueser J.D. McPherson? His band really swung when he played at the Electric Ballroom last month.
Henry Flint The man who stepped in for John Cale of the Velvet Underground but fell out with Lou Reed.
Are cowboys cool or is it only girls and gays that look great in a Stetson.
Missionary women! beware The Mighty Sparrow cuts his teeth on white meat.
Brillliant young singer songwriter Alastair James brings his new band to the Home Spun Sessions. Alastair’s songs are reminiscent of Paul Simon at his best, and this cat is only 20 years old so expect great things! You heard it here first.
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Original Girl power with X-ray specs and the Raincoats.
How Machiavellian Malcolm Mclaren left Adam Ant out in the cold.
U.S.Warren:Unique in his field. Gardening with the green fingered.
Rocking the psych guitar with Capitol K.
How sad it is that the record industry no longer has the balls for career development?
50 years of the cassette tape . John and Simon reminisce.
Why Sting’s solo career lacks something in the tail.
This issue of our podcast ended up being strewn with innuendo, stories of peculiar practices, the Battle of the Sexes, Man-Woman, Porno-Beat, and general flirtation with the dark side of the human psyche.
We have an extended, special this week with the astonishing live freeform soundscapes of Orchestra Elastique. Their music is a place of encounter, a musical catalyst, a Vorticist experiment and a new musical paradigm. Check Orchestra Elastique’sfuture gigs.
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How Geordie band, The Animals brought Jimi Hendrix over to busk on the streets of Newcastle, His first gig in the UK?
The early Blue Beat sound of Duke Reid.
Hoffman the Dr of Theremin. You’d play it in your lab coat wouldn’t you?
How musicians interact in free-form pieces: It’s all about listening and mutual respect, but make sure to make a surprise instrument!
Catch a desert wave! The Arab-Surf, Moog-Beats of Omar Khorshid.
The power of music to transport comes from the ritualistic celecbration. Music can lift the human spirit to a shamanistic trance-like state.
People are anaesthetised by the news. It becomes a soap opera of horror, which we watch compulsively, and without empathy. How Anarcho-punk outfits such as Flux of Pink Indians tried to redress the balance.
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The early 80′s Digital Dancehall sound of Cutty Ranks, the original Raggamuffin Soundbwoy.
Why the kids shouldn’t start taking Ayahuasca.
The KLF’s Manual “How to have a Number One the Easy Way” still applies.
A Modern Mersey Beat: the banging sounds of the Boom Boom Booms.
John Airs his knickers – top drawer stuff!
Mayo Thompson’s itinerant music career: from West to East, he’s moved up and up, working with Robert Rauschenberg, producing for Rough Trade and played with Connie Plank & Dieter Moebius in Germany.
And Finally… why the Home Spun Show vastly dislikes Noel Edmonds.
We rate the Shankar musical dynasty. From Ravi, who taught the Beatles what they know about Indian music, to Ananda, who’s exploits opened up the psychedelic sitar sound, to the Anglo-Indian sounds of Bishi Bhattacharya. Mesmerizing Indian Bhangaz one and all.
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Howard deVoto’s celluloid sexual exploits: shooting off the full Magazine.
The sly saxophone in garage with the Salados – take note!
Caught in the headlights, collecting roadkill with the men from Uncle.
How to forget that you’re working on the chain gang.
The early blues recordings of Alan Lomax.
Matthew goes goating up the hill and misses the Moonshot!
The rather brilliant Untouchables bring their special brand of harmonica Blues to the Home Spun Sessions. Little Walter eat your heart out – they’ve got enough harps to shake a stick at! plus:
The boys quaff Mötorhead’s Shiraz, but wonder why wine? It just ain’t Rock & Roll… Why not Mötorhead Whiskey? Lemmy would be the toast of Hard Rock Cafe Society!
Sing for your Supper: the psychedelic ‘karaoke’ rantings of Can legend Damo Suzuki.
Flash, the Grand Master who took over from James Brown as the hardest working man in Show-Business.
How Run DMC used to bless all the people at their gigs personally as they left the building.
How the Wu-Tang Clan rejuvenated hip hop by bringing Eastern Mysticism into the genre and telling serious Black history with a unique voice.
Young Holt Unlimited: One of the best studio bands of the 70′s.
The fabulously flambuoyant Bikini Beach Band rock their surf noir sound for the Home Spun Sessions. This was a crazy gig recorded at the Red Hot Grind Show in Shoreditch.
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Japanese Gentlemen stand up please! Tightening up and funking out with The Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Head Saucier, Googie Rene rocks the sleazy beatnik beats. We learn the difference between a titty-shaker and a grind. One not to forget!
The classic flatshare: Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. More punk than Johnny Rotten!
One micro-cosmic year: Youth Culture: Blink and you miss it.
Wara bring their fab take on Cuban music to the Home Spun Show. Salsa meets Reggae, Afro-Jazz meets Rap in the underground sounds of London’s new pan-world immigrant communities. plus:
How the CIA exported Abstract Expressionism around the world during the 60′s to promote ‘freedom’ & the American Way.
How the Jamaicans took foghorns from American warships and turned them into bass speakers, inventing sound system culture.
Tom Collis extols the virtues of the VW Combi ‘bread loaf ‘camper van. So long as the damned thing doesn’t over-cook and catch fire!
It’s Banjo bashing time with Robert Crumb & the Cheap Suit Serenaders.
In the 80′s, Christian fundamentalists in the US heard voices in Rock music which when you played particular records backwards became intelligible and told you demonic messages. We reveal how to play a record backwards so you can hear these backwards messages in the music.
Bono Sucks: We say his self-importance isn’t justified.
The world of movie soundtracks is a glorious world to explore!
When you reissue records you should either do exact repros or create your own new logos and branding.
Drunk on the Lord. Gospel with the Rev. F.W. McGee.
The Latin bass virtuoso Cachao was king of the Cuban music scene.
How the Shangri-las turned the pictures from love story comic books into pop gold.
Slides of the Vinyl
Richard Caiton - Liston to the Drums
J J Johnson - Across 110th Street
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Angel of Promise
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Angel of Promise
Joe Hill Louis - Gotta Let You Go
Rev F W McGee - He is the Savior for Me
The Upsetters - Move Me
Joe Cain - Pa-Pa Bajo
Joe Cain - Pa-Pa Bajo
Virgin Prunes - Baby Turns Blue
Davy DMX - One For The Treble
Asha Puthli - Space Talk
Eno Moebius Roedelius - Tzima N'arki
How to play a record backwards
How to play a record backwards
Psychosis - Tornado
The Shangri-Las - Give Him a Great Big Kiss
Can - Man Named Joe
Buffalo Jams - Liquid Jungle
Beastie Boys - Brass Monkey
Episode 56 Tracklist
Richard Caiton – Liston to the Drums
J J Johnson – Across 110th Street
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Angel of Promise
Joe Hill Louis – Gotta Let You Go
Rev. F. W. McGee – He is the Savior for Me
The Upsetters – Move Me
Joe Cain – Pa-Pa Bajo
Virgin Prunes – Baby Turns Blue
Davy DMX – One For The Treble
Asha Puthli – Space Talk
Eno Moebius Roedelius – Tzima N’arki
Psychosis – Tornado
Gary Burton – Vibra Finger
The Shangri-Las – Give Him a Great Big Kiss
Can – Man Named Joe
Billy Hamlin – If you ain’t got no Bread (You might as well Stay in bed)
Now eating giant live spiders is not my idea of a good time but Seth the dog has no problem with it. Yum, Yum, for some, but me? Not in a month of Black Sabbaths!
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The three kings of Mambo: Rainbow, Fiesta and Mardi Gras, the first New York Mambo labels.
The Seeds: Matthew likes the borlotti’s whilst John preferes mung.
How Sid Barrett monged out on too much acid and lost the plot.
The Violent Femmes, kings of the art school scene during the 80′s.
Reggae Royalty: DJ Derek, the West Country Selecta.
Jimmy Smith the funky fingered man casts a spell with his loins.
The Spice Girls did nothing for women’s rights with girl power. More likely they set feminism back by a decade. Bet they never knew what asafoetida was either…
We are very proud to present the inimitable Jardares Por Fuera, who bring their superb Gypsy Flamenco sounds along to the Home Spun Sessions for a Dancefloor mash-up!
plus:
4 Magnums in a row on the train? So What! The undisputed king of Tutti Frutti is still Little Richard!
The Musique Concrète of Pierre Henry: a harsh inpenetrable sound?
John threatens to bring his container lorry full of prog rock along to the show…de Sade or just Sad? A torturous evening nonetheless!
The Canadian Reggae Scene: many reggae artists were able to make Lps in Canada when there was little support for them in the US during the 70′s and 80′s.
The sad demise of a man way ahead of his time: The beautiful warmth of Nick Drake’s music didn’t sell at the time, but is hugely influential now.
Cyrus Gabrysch and James Byron’s brilliant A Little Night Music are joined byTrombone Poetry and Katy Jungmann for a jazz-country-blues poetry special. plus:
An enduring debt: The Buzzcocks paid for the studio to record the The Fall’s first album but were never paid back!
John Lurie from the Lounge Lizards worked on scores for Jim Jarmusch’s films.
You can get in a lot of trouble nicking your mates’ tunes – nah mate music is meant to share – that’s how you learn about new tunes! (not file sharing – Ed)
Vampyros Lesbos: A film that shows a bit of ankle! Why aren’t all nightclub promoters Vampirellas?