DJ's Old-Time Granny and Dyn-O-Mite spin old school soul, funk, and disco jams! The show airs on special occasions on WCOM radio, 103.5 FM in Carrboro, NC, and streams online worldwide. www.resoul.org
Today's Cinco De Mayo, latin-funk flavored JOTD is going out to a pal of mine from back home in RI who just gave our blog props on her FB page. Way back in the 2nd grade day, I moved to a new neighborhood in my hometown and started going to a new school. My new classmates included a sweet girl named Kim Patton (Descoteaux), who lived right down the road from this school, close enough to have supposedly invited a homeless dude who may or may not have lived at the playground to follow her home for Christmas.
At the time, I was rockin' out to the killer heavy metal sounds of Kiss. My ideal radio station would have been KISS-FM, as long as that meant a station playing all-Kiss, all the time. 'Cuz I was a young dude, and that's what we did circa 1978. Kiss were our Gods of Thunder. But unbeknownst to me, Kim was already tuned into the funk! She was throwing blue light parties at her place listening to the K-Tel classic, Super Bad Is Back. "This was my FAVORITE record in 2nd grade," says Kim, "me and Tracy Perron used to roller skate to it in my basement." It was probably the coolest record K-Tel ever put out, originally released in 1973, and packed with 20 tracks of super funky soul and disco. Don't take my word, watch Joe Simon hosting the original (Canadian TV) ad:
So here's what I think Kim told me was her fave track, Fencewalk by Mandrill. From their biggest-ever LP, Composite Truth, which also dropped in '73. It was the funkiest cut on all of Super Bad Is Back, beating out stompers by James Brown, Fred Wesley, Kool & The Gang, Curtis Mayfield, EWF, the O'Jays, and even the Chakachas' infamous sex funk hit Jungle Fever, which ended up on the Boogie Nights soundtrack.
YouTube has also got a short clip of Mandrill performing this track LIVE when it first came out.
Whenever the SOUL crew gets our shit together enuf to throw a blue-light basement roller-skating party, we'll be spinning this track as a shout-out to Kim!
From Eumir Dedato's 1984 LP Motion, feat. Camille on vocals. This LP either recently materialized in the dolla bins at All Day Records, or as a $2 record in the stack I picked up at the Carrboro Record Show last Sunday. All but one of which I bought from Gene Brown's friend Paul O'Boyle.
And as luck would have it, I already had a copy in my Lost City back stock that was ready for sale. But whatever, now I can sell it instead of hanging outo it like I would have done otherwise. Becuz it's a classic track with a timeless feel, it spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Top 20 Dance Chart.
Where'd you learn to funk like that? This joint came from today's Carrboro Record Show, out of the stack I picked up from Gene Brown's friend Paul O'Boyle, who runs a Charlotte record label. Old-Time Granny and myself were sucked into his selection immediately, becuz one of the first things we saw on his table was a great record, with no price on it. And when we asked him how much it was, he didn't give it a second thought, he was like, oh, a dollar. So that was all it took, we dug through all the funk & disco stuff he had. This was before we found out he and Gene were tight.
The highlight of the show was seeing my man Gene again after at least ten years. I would trade records with Gene back when the Lost City first opened, after he came through a couple of times and mentioned that he was into old school.
DJ Jaycee, Dave West, and Gene Brown in Hotlanta (January, 2009)
He was also pals with Jacob Ehrmann, the cat who had a tough time returning rentals within a reasonable time frame. I particularly remember him checking out the Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo cult flick Forbidden Zone from our dolla rental section and then keeping it indefinitely, to the point where I eventually made a housecall and went by his place to try and retrieve the tape. I don't even know if we even found it, since Jacob had a ridiculously cluttered crib. He was a beat junkie and producer, and his place was truly a vinyl graveyard. Lots and lots and lots of records, stacked up everywhere you turned. I was in awe, and of course, all I wanted to do was dig through the stacks, so looking for the tape took a backseat to that. But Jacob always gave our store lots of hookups when he worked at Kinko's back in the day, so it all evened out.
Then Gene helped me DJ both the infamous 70s-themed parties that we threw at the Lakehouse during the summer of '98. Nothing I can say about these parties will do them justice, at some point I may have to post the scene reports I wrote from that summer just so I can link to something here backing up my claims. Or REALLY get my shit together and transfer the videotaped evidence from HI-8 to a more YouTube-friendly format. Let's just say that things got fairly wild and crazy.
When I first got to the Century Center today, OTG greeted me with a copy of Breakin' Out, the Fat Larry's Band full-length from '82 with Act Like You Know and Zoom. I think the guy wanted $4 for it. And she was saving for me, but I had no cash. So I asked him to hold it. And then forgot all about it. Just like I also lost my water bottle. Mercury was in retrograde, and shit was all out of wack. I wasn't the only one losing stuff. DJ Tongue was AWOL from the show for a good while becuz he'd dropped his iPhone, and was frantically retracing his steps through the streets of Carrboro looking for it. Eventually, somebody found it, and all was good. Meanwhile, I was on a mad quest to find twenny bucks to cover the stack I'd picked out from Paul's stuff, which meant trying unsuccessfully to (a) convince the clerks at Carrboro's upscale mini-mart to let me trade a credit card slip for cash, without making a purchase of any kind (which should demonstrate the mania I was feeling that afternoon as I felt myself sinking further and further into a temporary vinyl addiction relapse); and (b) get cash back from a banana purchase at the Teeter, something I never do, and of course, it didn't work properly - a big NO THANKS going out to Wells Fargo, whose takeover of Wachovia is giving me a headache, in addition to making my bank owned by a wack bunch of greedy banksters who had no qualms about funding payday loans and subprime mortagages in the very recent past, and are probably still up to their eyeballs in other shady business; before (c) breaking down and driving into downtown Chapel Hill to visit an ATM.
I could have avoided all this hassle by simply bringing some cash with me to the show. But that would have encouraged me to buy records. Just like recently, when I stepped into that same upscale mini-mart with Old-Time Granny and Tongue, this time to actually purchase some beverages. No sooner had I offered to pony up three bucks towards the tab when Tongue was like, oh too bad All Day is closed, we could have gone over there and bought 3 dolla rekkids! And OTG was all over that, she said, "Oh no, are you sure they're closed? Maybe there's somebody still in there!"
Okay, so the record in question is by Poussez! Pronounced "Poo-say," as the cover helpfully points out. There's also a translation, which I just noticed for the first time ("Poussez (French verb, active; imperative mood) - PUSH!"). This was entirely an Alphonse Mouzon production (produced, arranged, and conducted by, plus "all keyboards, synthesizers, bass synthesizer, drums, percussion, vocals"), with Randy Brecker among the guest musicians and a bunch of sexy female vocalists (The Poussez Singers), two of whom may or may not have been the foxes featured on the cover.
(UPDATE 8/16/11 - Since Alphonse succeeded in getting his videos pulled from the dastardly YouTube, I foresee versions of this track will only be sporadically available in the future during the lag time between when fans upload them and when they're taken down. IMHO, old school artists whose hits dropped thirty-plus years ago should realize that YouTube is a valuable promotional channel to catalyze paid downloads of their dusty grooves. Far more than the marginal revenue they stand to lose from the tech-savvy population of users who simply download YouTube videos and convert them into MP3's. Let's face it, most music consumers in 2011 have no idea who Alphonse Mouzon is or that he created some great tracks back in the day. So taking action to shut down one of the few ways new fans might discover him is extremely counter-productive).
This was a record that Paul swore up and down I would dig if I was into disco. So I went with it, despite the fact that the cover had been shot through with a freaking BB gun! WTF is that about? That's some little kid f-ing up his big brother's record collection shit right there.
But it was the first track we listened to when we got back to Old-Time Granny and Tongue's place, and it didn't disappoint. The LP version is what we heard, and it sounded great, but the video included here is the original 12" mix, which is even better.
Yesterday, I got the first taste of the party flyer for an upcoming event in O-Town hosted by our West Coast funk correspondent Hot Damn. And it's a beautiful, revolutionary work of art almost ready for mass distribution on the telephone poles of Chapel Thrill. Gay Sock Hop in the hizzouse, all the funk you can handle spinning at 45 RPM!
To give Hot Damn a sample of the funkiest stuff I'd heard in the past twenny-four, I hit YouTube to search for a track I'd re-discovered the nite before, the title cut from Shadow's 1979 debut LP Love Lite. Which is a masterpiece, but it's not on YT. Very few tracks by this group are. Shadow were an Ohio Players-spinoff who never got the love their impeccably tight music demanded.
But in the process of digitally digging, I found another cut by Shadow that I'd never heard before, off their third LP, Shadow In The Streets.
And that cut is today's Joint of the Birthday, since apparently a member of the SOUL crew is having a birthday today! Shadow themselves were shrouded in mystery, so we won't reveal exactly which DJ is celebrating. Or where the party's gonna be.
There's no f-ing doubt this is the birthday jam right here. A mind-blowingly funky, solid as a rock choice, and even better that it dropped in 1981, exactly thirty years ago. When this particular birthday DJ was 10 years old, and wishes he had been hanging out in Kim Patton's basement at some of her infamous rollerskating jams. So without further ado, presenting...Born To Hustle!
The whole reason I went by All Day Records in the first place yesterday when I ended up with a dollar bin score (besides the fact that I was hanging out with my pal Barbara, formerly known to some as DJ Berrytone, now shopping for a new name, and considering DJ Taco Trouble) was naturally, to pick up another record from out the dolla bin that I had on hold! Which I figured was a karmically silly situation, since back in the day at the Lost City, it drove me right up the f-ing wall when heads would hand me a fat stack of expensive rekkids and ask me to put them on hold. Then not show back up for months at a time. I would regularly paw through the hold crate just to see all the great records we weren't selling.
But just to set the record straight, it wasn't becuz I didn't have a dollar in my pocket that I had to put the joint on hold, altho there's no shame in being a broke-ass DJ with a vinyl habit. I spotted this LP during a previous visit as Ethan was desperately trying to evict us from the store at closing time, and just wanted to make sure it wasn't totally scratched up before taking it home.
It was the full-length LP of Keep On Jumpin' (1978) by Musique, produced by Patrick Adams. Missing the sexy picture sleeve, which is the only reason this record got slept on, since it was sitting right at the front of the dolla bins, staring kids in the face as they walked in the store. Besides the title cut (which went #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play charts), this one included In The Bush (also hit #1 Dance, and was a late nite Lost City fave), plus today's Joint Of the Day – Summer Love. The fourth track on this LP (they all clock in at around 8 minutes) is an instrumental, soundtracky version of the same cut (Summer Love Theme). But the vocal version is the bomb. Too bad it's not the summertime yet. Listen to this, and it'll get you in the mood early.
Earlier today, Old-Time Granny busted me as I was digging through the free crate outside All Day Records. But I was supporting the store, too – by helping them clear out their dollar bins! It was difficult to focus, tho, becuz Ethan kept spinning a never-ending stream of really great records from all genres on the store's sound system. WADR should be its own radio station, and I encourage vinyl shoppers to spend as much time in that store as possible. Mad props to Ethan and Charlie for helping local record junkies feed our addictions! They do international mail-order too, off their website, so check 'em out.
Anyway, I dug up a few choice goodies, including jazz cuts from Stanley Clarke, Tom Browne, and my man the fusion flutist - Tim Weisberg! Plus the killer find of them all (at least the best of the free crate), "A Logger's Reward," by Buzz Martin. Straight outta Oregon. With hits like "Too High On The Stump" and "Since They Repossessed My Used Log Truck." Buzz Martin was the Johnny Cash of the Northwest, and while the song titles sound like novelty songs, these tracks are actually very heartfelt tales about his existence as a struggling logger.
And I found this 12" right here, by Side Effect. In the dolla bins, not the free crate. A sure sign of quality from the get-go. Who already represented in a JOTD a few weeks back, but here they are again. I'm A Winner is just too good to pass by. The scat singing during this track's break is especially funky.
Since for the past few days I've been huffing the memory fumes of Hot Damn our West Coast funk correspondent's last visit to the Triangle, it's only fitting to give a shout-out to the Livin' Large and In Charge Tour '09 with at least one more flashback Joint Of The Day.
After HD himself e-mailed me yesterday to discuss an important upcoming funky Oakland throwdown, this LP magically leaped into my hand. Seriously, I ducked into a closet and stuck my hand into the then-dimly lit stacks of my 70s dance vinyl archives, reaching for who knows what as I waited for the compact fluorescent glow to magnify, and the next thing I knew, I was holding Bustin' Out of L Seven. Rick James, circa 1979. Notable b/c the title cut was another of the main theme songs of the LLIC Tour, track #8 on the mixed CD full of choice jams he brought for me all the way from O-Town. Notable b/c it's an ANTHEM for all the funky misfits and refugees from square society out there, especially the ones that don't give a damn, if you don't like our funk, you can take your stuff and scram.
Rick James was a funk giant who today doesn't get nearly the respect he deserves for the influence his music had on the world, unfortunately largely thanks to Dave Chappelle. BTW, I just stumbled onto a great site, the Funkalicious Blog, and a post that contains an hour-long interview done with James in 2002. Check it out!
And as luck would have it, there's one final memorable episode from the LLIC Tour that happened two years ago today. It was in the aftermath of the Durham house party where our knucklehead posse last hit the dancefloor with Hot Damn, involved Queen Steve K., and went down around 3 am. But we really can't go into many details, 'cuz it's definitely not family-friendly. Earlier that night, he was quoted as claiming "the ------- love me, they want to take me home and ---- me with -------." Which even in its edited state should be evidence enough that with QSK in the house, anything in your wildest dreams could have happened.
So. In honor of the two-year anniversary of when Hot Damn perpetrated his final party mop-up operation at the Aretha Factory (not that the memories aren't burned forever into his mind), let's fire up this funk!
Hard to believe it's been TWO WHOLE YEARS since our West Coast funk correspondent M. "Hot Damn" Stewart last swung through Chapel Hill on his infamous Livin' Large and In Charge Tour, Spring '09 edition. That visit and the exploits it unleashed have already been chronicled on various other underground blogs, but since it was exactly two years ago TONITE that yours truly and a posse of other miscreants hit the dancefloor with Hot Damn at a bangin' Durham house party, a little flashback Joint Of The Day action is called for. Here's the heavily edited, (somewhat) family-friendly version of what went down at that bash:
"Saturday, 3/21/09 - at the party, Hot Damn burned up the dancefloor as Queen Steve K. did his best to seduce any straight boys in sight. All eyes were on Hot Damn. "BITCH, I am a mufukkin POPSTAR and a TRUE DIVA!!!," said HD. "Act like ya knew." The entire crew was jamming during "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," an old Pink House party standard. Dyn-O-Mite copped as much attention for his 100% polyester wardrobe as his smooth disco moves. D.C. Lumsden got his jiggy on before holding things down from the easy chair, enjoying the scene.
Hot Damn's got a posse
But although the track selection started strong, the quality of the tunes rapidly deteriorated. Of course, Dyn-O-Mite had brought along key pieces of vinyl that had been providing the soundtrack for his and Hot Damn's adventures all week, hoping to get DJ Wonder Bread to drop some into his set. But the cat was a rude motherfucker who couldn't even be bothered to play ONE REQUEST for an out-of-town guest, "You're The One For Me" by D-Train, a Hot Damn fave. Dude had TWO TURNTABLES at his disposal, but wasn't even spinning on real vinyl, just MP3's."
This track reached #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play charts when it dropped in late ’81. The dub version (Special Dub Vocal Edit) is probably the best all around dancefloor filler, as remixed by Francois Kevorkian, but this YouTube mix is notable because it's synched up with some killer Shaw Bros. kung fu footage. Which is totally reminiscent of the original stop on the LLIC Tour at the Pleasure Palace where HD cued this track up on his iPod, as we were all watching Spock and Kirk throw down in a gladiator death match during a classic Star Trek episode. Hot Damn, mad love, and we miss you!
The night before the vernal (spring) equinox, and turns out there was a supermoon in the sky, shining bright like a giant plate (I stole that last part from a poet friend of mine). It was the closest the moon had been to Earth since 1993, and the event was hard to miss if you were awake after dark and steppin' outside for any reason. That thing was freakin' gigantic!
Of course, The B-52's provided the soundtrack. From their 1979 debut LP, the best supermoon theme I know of on this or any other planet. Technically a new wave group? I dare you not to dance to any B-52's number, and this one's no exception. And they got even funkier live, their concerts have always been giant dance parties.
Check out Fred, Kate, and Cindy rockin' their own wild dance moves in this cool concert footage from 1985 in Brazil, playing alongside guests Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads. This was one of founding guitarist Ricky Wilson's last live performances before he died that year of AIDS.
Maze feat. Frankie Beverly have consistently toured the Triangle pretty much every year or two for the past two decades, which is how long I've been down here, and probably the decade before that, too. So I kind of slept on them b/c of the familiarity factor. Well, I really should have taken the time to listen to them first, and the self-titled Maze feat. Frankie Beverly LP is a great place to start.
It was their 1977 debut on Capitol Records, the one with hits like Happy Feelin's and While I'm Alone. My #1 fave is Color Blind, not least b/c of its super positive message and appeal for racial unity. I also really dig the 9:27 closing cut, Look At California, and found an awesome video clip set to it featuring footage of the breathtaking natural beauty on the drive along the Avenue of the Giants, inside Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern Cali.
My copy of the Maze record that served up today's JOTD still has its original $4.99 price sticker from the House Of Sight & Sound. Which is a store where a lot of the great soul, jazz, funk & fusion vinyl I recently scored at the Elliott Road PTA apparently came from. Now I'm curious to know where that store was. Google seems to indicate it may have been in Van Nuys, CA, described in a 1963 Billboard article as a "prime San Fernando Valley dealer."
A little more digging turned up a photo of the place!
The House of Sight & Sound circa 1960s, located at Van Nuys and Victory in the San Fernando Valley
And Billboard ran a complete article on the spot, dated 7/4/64, confirming it was THE main record store in the area, and also sold a full line of stereo equipment, TV's, even pianos. That's pretty cool. Billboard reported that "S&S customers primarily purchase middle of the road LP's, but jazz purchases are starting to increase as a result of new people into the Valley," according to Jerry Johnson, the store's owner.
