Pocketknife and Cousin Cole – Tambourine Dream

 

You know, you never really get a grasp on an event until it’s effects reach you sometimes.  Like our financial crisis.  The axe began to fall yesterday at my office and when they were through 23 people were gone from our office landscape.  Truth be told, some of them were pretty useless, but there more than a few who weren’t…like my boy in Customer Service.

He was one of the only guys back there who didn’t have his head firmly up his ass.  But since he never got along with the evil succubus who runs the department, he got the axe.  Right before Christmas too. Sheee-it.

It makes me sad and angry all at the same time…which I guess makes me “sangry.”

About the only thing right now that cheers me up is Pocketknife and Cousin Cole’s masterpiece of a mixtape called “Tambourine Dream,” which hits you like milk and cookies and a warm hug all at once.  I would have to say that it is just what the doctor ordered.

You may know the duo as the masterminds behind the Flagrant Fowl label who have been blowing up the scene for a hot minute now.  If I were you, I’d click that link and check their site for sweet downloadable goodness. They hit the ground running in 2006 with their first two Ep’s of remixes “Ruffle Yo Featherz” and “Tougher Than Featherz” where they remixed everyone from TI to Ram Jam.

With “Tambourine Dream” the dynamic duo spaz out on acoustic dreamscapes over dope beats with artists like Neil Young, Feist, Panda Bear, Nick Drake, John Lennon…the list is just too long and fucking awesome to cover.  Anytime someone can drop a good Nico track into the mix, I’m a happy man.

Poketknife (AKA Skooby Laposky) grew up in Iowa where he befriended legendary 70’s DJ Wolf on the basketball courts.  Even better, he ended up friends with Theo Parrish at art school and polished up his craft before moving to New York via Detroit.  Cousin Cole (AKA Cole Gerard) moved to NYC from Missouri in 97 to attend NYU.  He was mostly a hip hop head back then, but he branched out from there.  The two hooked up in 2004, both now live in Brooklyn… and the rest is DJing history.

What sets “Tambourine Dream” apart from the rest of the mixtapes isn’t just the odd selection of tracks that most DJ’s wouldn’t dream of throwing down (although that’s a big part of it for me,) but also in the way that neither DJ really overdid any of the remixes.  Seriously, this could have been a huge train wreck in the wrong hands…with all the songs losing what made them so special and becoming deluged by drums and samplers. Instead, the understated approach fits like a new pair of socks right out of the package.

Don’t sleep on this one folks, head over to TurntableLab and pick up a copy while they last.  And while you’re at it download this freaking sweet mix they did over at Allez Allez for some free ear candy.

At least while some things are still free.

DJ Spinbad – Rock the Casbah

Eleven years ago, I had no idea what a real mixtape was, at least not in a way that didn’t entail making a tape full of songs that you like to give to a friend…or a girl…or a girlfriend.

Then came the internet boom, and I found myself stationed at a nice cushy graphics job.  One day I was walking past a programmer’s desk and saw him doing something odd.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Napster!”

“What’s Napster?”

“It’s a program that lets you download music from people on the web for free!”

“What Kind of music?”

“EVERYTHING!!! WHOO HOOOO!!!!”

So the next thing you know, I’m downloading away…and it’s even sanctioned by my company!

Needless to say I built up most of the original bulk of my digital collection in those heady days of the 1990’s.  But one day I came across something I hadn’t seen before. While searching for tracks by Cut Chemist, I found something called “Rare Equations” and it was, like, and hour long.  I wasn’t aware of any track by that name…or an album for that matter.

After a quick Google, I found out it was a mixtape; a professionally mixed compilation of music used by DJ’s as promo tools and give-aways.  After that I was hooked.   Now I have several hundred mixtapes, and even more live sets and radio sets.  The genre is great because it gives you stuff you want and stuff you need at the same time, all while making the delivery as fresh as possible.

I’ve often thought that all modern recorded music will one day be used in this fashion.  As a promotional tool to get people to come see you live.  And of all the people I want to see live, DJ Spinbad is at the top of my list. Spinbad, born Spencer Kitson, grew up in New York as a member of the infamous Cold Cutz Crew and can be heard on NY radio stations WWPR and WHTZ almost on the daily.  He also is one of the most prolific and collected mixtape makers in the world. (I own his entire collection)

In the mid-nineties, the mixtape game was kind of stale. As Spinbad puts it “A lot of the mixtapes that were coming out of New York at the time, were the Clue type of tapes, where things weren’t mixed together, there was no blending or scratching and they just shouted over the top. Basically they had only exclusive songs on DAT and they shouted over them. And I hated it, I couldn’t stand it and I wanted to do something that those people would absolutely despise.”

So what did he do?

He made an 80’s mixtape.  Originally done as a 15 minute joke, Spinbad showed it to fellow NY DJ, Jazzy Jeff, who thought it was awesome. With Jeff’s encouragement, Spinbad went back to the studio and finished the tape which, when it came out in 1995, looked like this:

Ahhh…remember cassettes?

Full of every corny 80’s song you can think of, Spinbad mixes them up in really cool ways and has a knack for dropping in 80’s movie and TV quotes.  Where else can you hear Chevy Chase shouting a line from “Vacation” only to have the track mix into The Go Gos ‘Vacation?’

Originally, only a few hundred copies were dropped off at Fatbeats NY, but the tape has been bootlegged more times that you can count and traveled around the world.  The CD version I have has a completely different cover than the one at the top of this page, and I’ve seen several legit and non-legit versions.  He has a sequel as well which is equally awesome on all counts.

If you see DJ Spinbad’s name on a mixtape, you can rest assured that your ears are in good hands.  And to keep the underground vibe going, download the fucker HERE!

Give it to a friend…or a girlfriend.

And check out the set list HERE!

LCD Soundsystem – 45:33

I had to chase a crack-head out of my bar yesterday. 

I usually shy away from conflict but this asshole was askin for it. I was fiddling with the soundsystem when he wandered in shouting “Barak Obama is President!” 

At first I felt he was just excited about the Primary Election, until he started calling my partner Jeff a “redneck motherfucker.”  This went on for way too long, and our bouncers don’t come in till after dark, so everyone was just kind of hoping he would go away.  But crack-heads don’t do that.  I didn’t move  until he wandered over to a table full of elderly customers and started yelling “Motherfucker” at a 95 year old woman.  That’s when I reached my limit, grabbed him by the lapels a tossed him out the back door.

It wasn’t easy mind you, he was wiggling and yelling the whole time and shouting that if I hit him he’d call 911. To be honest I didn’t feel too threatened by this.  We locked the back door behind him…thinking it was finally over.

Wrong…this is a crack-head!

Five minutes later I hear him coming back towards the front door, still shouting, and now I’m really pissed.  Jeff has already grabbed his pepper spray and is ready, but I just start charging toward the door at full steam. So when Crackie comes around the corner all he sees is my crazed ass barrelling down on him. He turned and ran.  He stood out in the parking lot for another few minutes shouting insults at us from a safe distance before finally leaving…which made me kind of sad, cause I was fully ready to beat that dumbass.  Beat him like he owed me money.

But back to the real topic at hand, The LCD Soundsystem project simply titled “45:33.”  Now I’ve been a fan of these guys since their much overlooked self-titled first album dropped in 2005.  Their sound kind of resides in a strange musical grey area that encompasses dance music, rock, punk and electronic. Led by DFA label co-founder James Murphy, the group puts out some seriously great music…if you don’t believe me, check out their most recent release “Sound of Silver.”

No really, check it out!

So, anyhow, in 2006 Murphy teamed up with Nike and iTunes to create a digital promo mix that was designed for workouts.  Supposedly it was based on a workout graph arc, where it would start slow, work up to a decent workout tempo, then drop to a cool down.  While this sounds like a great plan, and the mix seems to follow it, but rumor has it James Murphy was simply looking for an excuse to create a really long piece of music.  That, and the mix strangely comes out closer to 46 minutes than 45:33…wtf?  Luckily, I like a musician who isn’t afraid to take risks.

I somehow missed the original digital release, and never knew about the mix until it was dropped on vinyl a few months ago, but I have to say I was pretty fuckin impressed. Split into six tracks aptly labelled I-VI, it has a lot of groovy beats…but also some incredibly catchy melodies as well. Seriously, I’ve caught myself whistling some of the tunes throughout whatever days I listen to the mix.

Vocals don’t figure to prominently in this mix, except for a smattering of almost hip hop style party chants like ‘Shame on you…” but who cares, what you get here is an incredibly listenable musical experiment by an artist who has not yet failed to delight and surprise even the most jaded audiophile.  I was hoping for a nice Youtube version of the mix…but no dice.  So heres track III for your enjoyment!

DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist – Brainfreeze

This is the stuff Mixtape legends are made of.

I picked this up on a whim at the record store because I knew DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist and was already a fan of their work.  I thought to myself:

“Hmmm…a mix of funk 45s, how quaint.”

Then I tossed it in my pile, only to discover later that it contained some of the rarest, funkiest shit I had never heard of.  I have a shitload of old funk and soul in my crates, so for something this awesome to come out and not have a single track I could identify kind of brought my mind to a halt.  45’s like these go for mucho dinero on Ebay! But to fully understand the brilliance of this mix, you need a little history.

See, there used to be an awesome club in San Francisco called Future Primitive.  Their hook was that they would pair up two DJ’s with different styles, usually a party rocker and a turntablist, and have them throw down for an evening.  One one occasion DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist were on hand, and already good friends and musical contemporaries when they decided to rehearse a little set just using their old funk 45’s.  What happened was nothing short of magic…so they kept the recording, pressed up 1000 copies to sell at their shows and another 1000 for local record shops. 

It sold out real fast.

Back in the 80’s, when DJing was just beginning to evolve, guys like Double Dee and Steinski started a mini revolution by releasing a few tracks called ‘The Lessons’ which cut and mixed snippets and parts of popular tracks together into a new track.  What most DJ’s didn’t know was that this was done in a studio by cutting and pasting audio tape.  As far as they knew it was being done live, so they began emulating this technique using two turntables instead.  The rest is history, and would eventually lead to the skills you hear on this mix.

“Brainfreeze”, named and themed after 7-11 promotional 45 that actually has a sick break on it, was never repressed officially after 7-11 sent a cease and desist letter and they boys decided to simply move on. This was a huge mistake by 7-11, who should have jumped on the bandwagon and supported this project instead. But god forbid they be associated with something this fucking cool. It has been bootlegged to death though, and can still be found at some record stores.

If you were lucky enough, you got to catch the boys doing this show live…and got to enjoy a Slurpee while doing so. What’s more amazing than the rarity of the 45’s on this mix, is the fact that Shadow and Cut pretty much destroyed their copies by doing this mix.

But real art requires sacrifice.

Bonus!!! Here’s the tracklisting via Wiki!

Mix One

• Lamont Johson Quartet – “Thunder Kick” (Trailer to unreleased film)
• The Jules Blattner Group – 2001 – “A Soul Odyssey”
• Fried Chicken – “Funky DJ”
• The Mohawks – “The Champ”
• Reuben Bell – “Superjock”
• Albert King – “Cold Feet”
• Ultimate Force – “I’m Not Playing”
• Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – “Lover And A Friend”
• Mack Rice – “Three People In Love”
• The Nu People – “I’d Be Nowhere Today”
• Nu-Sound Express Ltd – “Ain’t It Good Enough”
• Mystic Moods – “Cosmic Sea”
• American Gypsy – “Inside Out”
• Odetta – “Hit Or Miss”
• The Mar-Keys – “Grab This Thing (Part 2)”
• Rusty Bryant – “FireEater”
• Simtec and Wylie – “Bootleggin’” (Part 2)
• Wilbur Bascomb and The Zodiac – “Just A Groove In ‘G’”
• Eddie Bo and The Soul Finders – “We’re Doin’ It (Thang) (Part 2)”
• Rufus Thomas – “Sophisticated Sissy”
• The Showmen Inc. – “The Tramp (From Funky Broadway)” (Part 1)
• The Original Soul Senders – “Soul Brother Testify (Part 2)”
• Rufus Thomas – “Itch and Scratch (Part I and II)”
• Alvin Cash – “Keep On Dancing (Instrumental”)
• Lou Courtney – “Hey Joyce”
• Bummer radio spot

Mix Two

• The Singing Principal – “Women’s Lib”
• Salt – “Hung Up”
• The Soul Lifters – “Hot, Funky, and Sweaty”
• Frankie Seay and The Soul Riders – “Soul Food”
• The Interpretations – “Jason Pew Mosso” (Part 1)
• Thunder and Lightning – “Bumpin’ Bus Stop”
• Billy Garner – “I Got Some”
• Pleasure Web – “Music Man (Part I and II)”
• Gary Byrd – “Soul Travelin’ (The G.B.E.)” (Part I)
• Clifton Chenier and Grandma Gee Gee – “Just Keep On Scratching”
• “W” radio spot
• Marlena Shaw - “California Soul”
• The Vibrettes- “Humpty Dump (Part 1)”
• Eddie Bo - “From This Day On”
• 7 Eleven- “Dance The Slurp”
• Kraftwerk - “Numbers”
• Flash and The Five – “Flash It To The Beat”
• Pearly Queen – “Quit Jivin’”
• Tony Alvon and The Belairs – “Sexy Coffee Pot”
• Chuck Mangione – “Hill Where The Lord Hides”
• Funka Fize – “No Words”
• Schooly D – “Gucci Time”
• Jurassic 5 – “Unified Rebelution” (A cappella)
• Third Guitar – “Baby Don’t Cry”
• Don Pierce – “This Funky Thing”
• Funka Fize – “Because You’re Funky”
• The Troubleneck Brothers – “Back To The Hip Hop”
• Stu Gardner – “Devil In A Man”
• Samson and Delilah – “There’s A DJ In Your Town”
• Giorgio Moroder – “Tears”
• Tim and Bill – “Someone”

DJ Z-Trip & DJ P – Uneasy Listening Vol 1

Ah…the opening shot that began the mash-up craze on the late 90’s/early 00’s.  ( I guess that’s what we call ‘em…the 00’s?!?)  I picked up my copy when Z Trip opened for DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist for the Product Placement Tour.  I then got really drunk and passed out on Dana’s couch.  When I awoke in the morning, hung-over and groggy I popped this in my CD player for the long drive home…after which I didn’t stop driving till it ended.

I know a lot of people already know about this, but a lot of people don’t.  I readily accept that these people don’t have a ginormous mixtape collection like I do, but it’s never to early to start.  

When you open the jewel case (this is if you have a legit copy and not one someone burned for you) the CD says “THIS IS THE BEST CD I OWN.” 

I like that.

What this mixtape truly excels at, though is innovation.  Z and P had been dropping stuff like this into their shows for years already when they decided to do a mix that was nothing but blends.  And not just a song thrown over a beat, but multiple layers, scratched and cuts. When this tape dropped in 1999, it truely was a whole new game.  

It’s got Bruce Hornseby’s “That’s Just the Way It Is” mixed with RUN DMC’s “It’s Like that.”  Midnight Oil’s “Bed’s are Burning” over the top of Metallica’s “One” The Beatles, Jobim, AC/DC, Madonna and the Eagles all show up this party.

Recorded over the course of a week (On real records…no pro tools, fools!) they figured it was kind of a fun experiment, and didn’t expect the slew of imitators it would spawn.  True, the UK kind of had their own thing called bastard pop, led by the likes of Freelance Hellraiser,  Frenchbloke and Osymyso…but still nothing here came close. 

I was at the fist and last live performance (I think there was one more in SF)  where Z and P did the whole thing live and it was a sight to see.  After that Z blew up a bit, riding the wave of publicity and had kind of a falling out with P…negating the chance of Vol 2 ever being made. 

At least for now.

BTW:  Feel free to download the whole thing off Z-Trip’s site HERE!  Below you’ll find an excerpt that was played over some electronic show stills by Andy Batt.  Well done Andy!