hearsay

I know, I know. I completely neglected this site, and the months without mixes were lazy. The excuse is that I started a new job, and although I continue to DJ at work, the format in which I do so has changed and makes it difficult for me to casually pull together selections over the whole month. Combine that with me inheriting a vintage record player/stereo, discovering that the coolest record store in L.A. is in my neighborhood, and picking up a copy of Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music to feed my musical knowledge; I’ve been listening to more vintage music and relying less on the blogosphere for finds. Heck, even Baths, the one new-ish track on this month’s mix, is only really getting rotation because I picked up the vinyl when he played back in July.

So that’s all a long way of saying, “I’m sorry.” To both of you two occasional readers that I may have had. But as an olive branch, I offer this collection of gems. The Aretha Franklin & James Carr tracks were ones that I wouldn’t have paid much attention to had I not stumbled upon them within records that I bought for other reasons. “Cry Like A Baby” is just amazing. From the piano intro to her practically rapped “No body knows except my pil low at night;” a song of pain that ends on a high note, not dissimilar from Ann Peebles “Trouble, Heartaches and Sadness;” it immediately found its way into the few songs I think of as my all-time favorites. I like the build up and changes in mood of Carr’s “To Love Somebody,” his strong voice singing the pain of “you don’t know / what it’s like to love somebody / the way I love you” is exactly the reason I love 60s soul music. Add to it the much sampled drum break after the chorus (1:12 & 2:21), and you have all the elements that will soon wear down my $4 LP. It took me a while to remember why, months ago, I had thought to put a Cap’n Jazz track on a mix, until I remembered that I they played back in August. They were awesome. My voice was hoarse and I was drenched in sweat. Sorry if that sounds gross to you, but I guess we just have different tastes.

But the real gem of this month I think is this Blackrock track. An early 70s group from Memphis that bordered between funk and rock, they apparently only ever recorded this track and a B-side. I’ve honestly never been all that in to funk. My taste for soul usually peters off around ’72 or so, so it is kind of amazing to me that this track has the potential to open a whole genre to me. I ran into it off a compilation of 70′s Memphis late soul/funk and immediately recognized it as a sample that both The Hood Internet had used, as well as my favorite current Detroit hip-hop producer/rapper that will go unnamed to avoid calling him on it. I plan to go through the recommendations people made to O-Dub at Soul Sides when he posted the track a couple years ago to see if there is more in the genre for me. ‘Face melting’ is right. I immediately added the track to mixes that I play when I have people over and it always seems to get people moving. I admit that I can’t help to make the stank-face every time that first James Brown “uhn!” kicks in. Priceless.

I probably won’t get around to a mix for November; hopefully this will tide you over until December.

[banner image by Alex Roulette]

October 2010 Mix
01 Bo Diddley – Here ‘Tis
02 Aretha Franklin – Cry Like A Baby
03 Marvin L. Sims – Danger
04 Small Factory – Everyone’s Happy For The First Time In Weeks
05 Cap’n Jazz – Precious
06 Blackrock – Yeah Yeah
07 Baths – Aminals
08 Brian Eno- Driving Me Backwards
09 Ben E. King – It’s All Over
10 James Carr – To Love Somebody

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