various artists - Good Vibrations: A Record Shop, A Label, A Film Soundtrack

It's a quiet Sunday, the first weekend of April, here in the PNW, a bit rainy and grey. A wonderful day for laundry, the Criterion Channel, and a bit of light blogging. We're back in the saddle again, picking up where we left off with this, the soundtrack to a documentary about one of the all-time great shops/labels/institutions, Belfast's Good Vibrations. And while I've not seen the doc, this is one I couldn't leave behind on the Central Coast last winter when it crossed my path at $7.

Is it nitpicky to ask why Protex isn't here? Yeah, it is, but "Don't Ring Me Up" was G.V.'s sixth release. Its absence seems a bit pointed. But I can't find any fault with what was compiled here. A mix of Good Vibrations releases ("Teenage Kicks", "Big Time", "Just Another Teenage Rebel"), inspirations (Bert Jansch, Bowie, Niney The Observer, the Shangri-Las), and contemporaries (S.L.F., the Saints, Suicide) make for a really great record of what made the shop so special in its relatively short life.

Discogs

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various artists - Yesterday (16 Fab B**tles Reggae Classics)

4/30 update: apparently, I forgot to post the link. And Mega was giving me a hard time, so you get a Kraken link on this one. Sorry, gang. On with the shit talk.

It's confession time. I....(sigh).

I do NOT like the Beatles.

It seems antithetical to my current "let's see how dumb I was to dislike this when I was 18" stance, but I still cannot get into the Fab Four in my late age. I will offer grudging respect to solo George Harrison and Paul McCartney, definitely fuck with Beatles-adjacents like Billy Preston and Yoko Ono, but I just can't hang with the Liverpudlian legends. Maybe it's the boomer worship, maybe it's that John Lennon always struck me as a self-important pud, maybe it's just because the Stones are more fun. But I just don't get how anyone under the age of 60, most of whom weren't alive when the Beatles were a working band, can worship them.

HOWEVER...I can absolutely get behind a Beatles cover. Whether it's Motown covering the early pop catalog, or Nina Simone's version of "My Sweet Lord", or this collection from 1991, there's something about a different artist interpreting Lennon/McCartney that makes it click for me. This has a few AAA headliners on it (the Maytals, Dandy Livingston, John Holt), but it's a lot of deeper cuts from the Trojan vaults AND includes a fair amount of solo work. Even viewed as a relative novelty, this helps prove that the Beatles weren't TOTAL shit, and maybe I should pull my head out of my ass on this one.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Change The Beat

The subtitle here is "14 Tracks From Madonna's New York Scene", which, if it's not a good selling point for ya, then, homey, you've come to the wrong place.

Herein is a sampling of what you might find playing in the DJ booth at Danceteria, back when Ms. Ciccone was still modeling and working through demos of her first record. My pockets are a bit light and my septum a bit fragile for the sort of pharmaceutical intake these jams call for, but I'm not certain that's even necessary to appreciate the likes of ESG, Delta 5, Judy Nylon, and Funkadelic all showing up to the same party.

It's just good jams for 68 minutes. And who amongst us is having too great a life to want that?

Cool cover photo, too.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Cigarettes And Alcohol

Today's commentary, brought to you in the form of two screencaps:

and:

Why waste words, when The Simpsons have already done it for you?

Discogs

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various artists - Bonus CD: Rebel Discomixes

Another reggae record, since I forgot to load up something for Friday.

This one came via a Half Price Books "fill a bag for $25" sale several years ago, and while I'd prefer to have the whole "The Best Of Studio One Collection" set, I'll settle for having this disc of extended mixes. You get a trio of Dennis Alcapone deejay cuts, a lil' something from the Jackie Mittoo-led Soul Vendors, some early Winston Francis, and Tommy McCook leading the Brentford Disco Set.

Six tracks, 47 minutes, dub on, gang.

Discogs

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various artists - Young Gifted And Black: The Story Of Trojan Records

UPDATE 1/25/23: new Kraken link uploaded.

I stopped by the local Half Price Books over the weekend, my favorite ex-employer, on the hunt for some Criterion laserdiscs and other fun at (you guessed it) half price. Any day that ends with a double disc of "Glen and Glenda" and "Bride of the Monster", a copy of Samuel Fuller's "The Naked Kiss", and a few other classics on 30mm aluminum is a good day. However, I took a quick peek into the music book section and found a copy of "Young Gifted And Black: The Story Of Trojan Records", a 2003 book put out by Trojan owner (at the time) Sanctuary Publishing. While I wasn't necessarily feeling spending the money, I'd never seen a copy on the shelves before, and it came with the compilation I share now. Who am I to deny a sign from the reggae gods?

By now, it should be quite clear that I'm into reggae. I'm not into some Ras Trent/cultural appropriation/I like to get wicked stoned white boy reggae scene. I'm into the deepest south soul, six hours of Lee Perry dubs, a chanting down of Babylon and a celebration of skinheads. My first ever Trojan purchase was a two-fer: Symarip's "Skinhead Moonstomp" and the classic "Monkey Business" comp. It was the introduction to another bit of obsession, searching out not just more reissues and compilations, but always keeping an eye out for dub plates and white labels and the records I'd mostly just read about or heard on the random radio show.

I've yet to start reading the book, but this was am immediate "load it onto the phone" record. At 33 minutes long, it's almost just a sampler; barely scratching the surface of initial seven year heyday. But, fuck, if this doesn't pique your curiosity, get you dancing or crate digging, then I guess you're in the wrong place, baby.

Discogs

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various artists - Natty And Nice: A Reggae Christmas

UPDATE: new link for youse. Enjoy skanking under the mistletoe.

I just sold my copy of this one on Discogs, so I took the opportunity before shipping it to re-rip it and share with you cats and kittens on this, the first Friday of December.

Truly a most irie comp, and one of my favorite "novelty" Christmas records, this one leads off with a track from Lee "Scratch" Perry, and moves on, covering a wide swath of JA music history in one go, with December 25th the common theme. John Holt's cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is an absolute knockout, and while I'm not much of an Inner Circle fan, Jacob Miller steps in with a "Wish You A Merry Christmas" that I've added to more than one holiday mix. There's a little something for every fan of reggae's evolution, from ska and rocksteady into Trojan's heyday and thru into dancehall and ragga.

If you're looking for something to play instead of that shit Wings track, give this one a spin.

Discogs

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various artists - Solid Gold, Coxsone Style

I found myself a fine little find today, amidst a post office/Starbucks run. This here is a 1992 expanded CD release of a 1971 Studio One compilation, all featuring tracks produced by Coxsone Dodd. For $2, I got myself a healthy dose of John Holt and Jackie Mittoo, of Alton Ellis and the Freedom Singers. Hell, I even got extended mixes of songs by Dennis Brown and Delroy Wilson, and didn't even have to pay extra for the privledge.

This is, by far, my favorite era of reggae. Whether it's releases on Trojan that were recorded with the export market in mind, or the antecedent to lover's rock, or just monster sounds from the island, there's just SO many qualities tracks and singles, leading to banging comps like this one. It's unfortunate that there's a ton of Heartbeat releases that have gone out of print; as I've gotten older, I'm really drawn to their reissues, even with the shitty replacement artwork. It makes a body want to work out a licensing deal or three...really restore and reissue some of Sir Clement's deep cuts.

Discogs

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Big Youth - The Chanting Dread Inna Fine Style

What we have here is the CD reissue of an American collection from 1982 of Big Youth, toaster extraordinaire, and his A-sides issued on his Negusa Negast. As best as I can tell, it's the Soul Syndicate backing him on most of these cuts, with drop-ins from the likes of Augustus Pablo, Carlton Barrett, and Dougie Bryan. I don't know if you can call this a greatest hits, per se, but it's pretty hot. I love the original cover art from the 1982 Heartbeat release; why they redesigned it, and gave it that darker, 90s look, is beyond me.

This was one of those $3 Goodwill finds that I picked up at 50% off sticker after it'd sat on the shelves for several weeks. I love it when I come across these things; it's boggling to me that something like this could still be there, two months after going into the store. There aren't a lot of joys in this world right now, but turning up a cool record like this, long out of print, is one of the ones I have left.

Discogs

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Augustus Pablo - East Of The River Nile

I'm 43 today.

I've really hit a wall about what I wanted to write about for this momentous occasion. Birthdays are just...mehf. I come from Patton Oswalt's stance on the matter: when you're an adult, a celebration once a decade until you're 90, then a slap on the ass the other nine birthdays. Is it a sign of a depressed personality? Almost certainly; I'll own it. I'm part of that last "great" generation of white men who were raised to believe that no one really gives a shit about your feelings, and that you should do something that really "matters" if you think you should be celebrated. No wonder I'm fucking depressed. What a hell of a way to be raised.

I've often thought about musicians dying young as I've grown older. I once thought I wouldn't make it past 22 (Buddy Holly, Darby Crash). 1999 was such a shit year, having sold a big chunk of my record collection, split up with the first love of my life, and moved off to a college I'd fail out of within a year. I slept with a pistol under a pillow for months, begging myself not to use it. I blew past the 27 Club. I got married, finally got a degree, and bought a house. Within another five years, most of that would be gone, the only thing left another several years of student debt. I hit 40, and I felt like I finally had the world by the balls. I lived in a place I loved, with a woman I adored, making a living wage for the first time ever. I even took a real staycation for the first time ever. I returned to work three days later, and got laid off. I haven't had a stable job since.

Can you see why I'm not high on my birthday? There are times where it feels like it's the herald of a new load of misery.

Augustus Pablo was 44 when he died of a collapsed lung in 1999. There are two ways I look at this. One is that I'm almost as old as he was, and that I'll never make a work of art as great or lasting as "East of the River Nile". The man made the melodica sound as cool as Coltrane's sax or Watt's bass. What can I possibly do to measure up? The other is that I'm still here; I can still discover the genius in a piece of art like this. It's in the discovering that, even when everything else feels like it's shit, I find the momentum to keep moving. Crate digging can make a bad day good, a good day great. I found a Canadian cassette of this a couple years ago that had never been entered on Discogs; at 19 cents, it's probably one of my favorite thrift store finds from the past few years.

Depression is an anchor that weighs me down every day. I take medicine and participate in therapy and work on myself every day and it's a fucking drag even on the best days. Yeah, even on a day like today, it can be tempting to let myself drown. It's music like this that helps me float, sometimes even surf in life.

Discogs

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