various artists - Heavy Nuggets Vol. 4 (13 Sabbath Inspired Tracks)

Rabbit, rabbit, my friends. We've made it this far into 2026; let's keep going. Happy June.

An old friend of mine, the last person I attended high school with who I still stay in contact with, celebrated their 50th birthday last weekend. When I think of bands like BORIS and Sleep and the Obssessed, I think of him. Where I dove deeply into the the numerous branches of punk, he explored the world of metal. So when I'd want to know if it was worth picking up a new record from Sunn O))) or Boredoms, I'd turn to him. Matt's a fountain of information, and has impeccable taste. Just a good dude.

Happy birthday, old pal. I wish I'd been back home to celebrate you in person.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Who Jukebox

I sometimes wonder if I hold a low opinion of the Who because they just won't go away. Like, if they'd wrapped it up, gone solo after the death of Keith Moon, would I more easily be able to separate the music they made from 1964 to 1978 from the people composing the band? This is one of the bands I actually remember my parents going to see when I was a kid, whose records I was allowed to look through and listen to in my first encounters with the family turntable. I still enjoy a lot of their catalog, but it seems like, for most of my life, anything I've heard about Pete Townshend or Roger Daltrey just left a bad taste in my mouth. I almost want them to pass away so they can't further damage their reputation.

But this was a minor step in the right direction. Even if you think Roger Daltrey is a grumpy old prick, or that Pete Townshend might have...predilections, there's no disputing that they can put together a solid comp. There's not a bad song in the lot. I'll even give them a pass for putting on two songs released after my birth, b/c they're by Ian Dury and ANOHNI and, hey, not everyone can keep their finger on the pulse of modern music like Paul Weller or Jon Savage do with their compilations.

In conclusion, Primitive Offerings remains a blog of contradictions. They wish death on 80+ year old rock stars, but commend their curation of giveaway comps.

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various artists - The Lowrider Sound: Low & EZ

If you're not tooling about this weekend in your 6-4, what are you even doing with your life?

You can make up for things by downloading this fun comp from the good folks at Thump Records, who are as Los Angeles a label as SST or Buddyhead, IMHO. Bonus points if you play it while riding a mower while cutting your yard or cruising around on a minibike.

Discogs

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various artists - Paul Weller Presents: Into Tomorrow

Apropos of nothing, I picked up a copy of the April 2026 issue of Mojo a couple weeks ago. The cover star was one John Lydon, complete in punk mufti from his Pistols days. The freebie was a celebration of Miles Davis' 100th birthday; you can expect I'll write about that one in about three years. But if you're out and about and have around $14 you feel like spending, you could almost certainly do a lot worse. If nothing else, it's a nice way to find out what got reissued over in the UK recently.

As for this one, it has songs from the Blow Monkeys, P.P. Arnold (who was an Ikette!), and Mr. Weller himself. The rest of the 15 tracks, handpicked by the former Jam & Style Council leader who HOLY SHIT has been performing single for over 30 years, haven't really caught my attention. The exceptions to my ignorance are Black Pumas, who have drifted in and out of my focus in recent years with their Texas-based psych rock, and Gabriels, whose website bears a single "2026" legend on the landing page, which tells me they should have a new record of neo-soul out sometime this year. That's a cool tease, as far as I'm concerned. 

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Small Faces & Friends

The things I know about Small Faces could fit on an index card. I know that "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" is one of the first concept records (if not the first), that Kenny Jones replaced Keith Moon as the Who's drummer after Moon died, and that "Whatcha Gonna Do About It?" is a killer proto-punk banger. Oh, and Steve Marriott left to start Humble Pie, which led to Rod Stewart & Ronnie Lane joining the leftover members to start Faces, whose entire catalog I celebrate.

See, an index card.

But, in the estimation of Mojo Magazine, they also had some cool friends. I'll cosign Nico (performing a Gordon Lightfoot composition) and the Nice; one of my favorite Teutonic vocalists AND some proto-prog featuring Keith Emerson is worth checking out. I only knew Murray Head from teaching me about one night in Bangkok; I discovered via this freebie from 2014 that he was a label mate of Small Faces with his 1967 single "She Was Perfection". There's an early Rod Stewart solo cut from 1968, and compiler Rob Caiger even whipped up a pair of Small Faces rarities.

This one's even got a pretty cool cover. Not something I typically see in Mojo comps, but here, it's poppin'.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Heavy Soul

Pardon the terse blogging today. I've had this shit settle into my chest for two weeks now. She's instructing me to hustle off to bed. The missus sez, "you're not a newspaper. You're sick."

So here's a 15-track compendium of funk and soul. Anything that leads off with Betty Davis and Funkadelic should be able help me expectorate the mucus in my lungs. It's time to bust out the funk.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Music Guide Vol. 3: Raw Soul

Dear Mrs. Pettigrew,

Please excuse ApeMummy from class this week. His absence was due to ingesting too much raw soul. It's given him a case of shakes, and the only prescription has been to dance it out.

Sincerely,

Mummy Mommy

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Brotherhood

I am not a particular fan of the Black Keys. I came by the opinion honestly; I've owned, at one time or another, most of their records through "El Camino". I'm pretty sure they played the Ottobar at least once while I worked there. And they play a brand of heavy blues that should fit well with my tastes. Yet for the money spent and the decibels incurred, I just don't rate them very highly. Taste being subjective and all, you know?

So it's with a bit of reluctance that I share this, Mojo's companion release to the Black Keys' 2010 album "Brothers". Not that it's bad, but it doesn't get the ol' blood pumping like I feel it should. There are parts that I can co-sign; a live recording of "Have Love Will Travel" by the Sonics from 1964, a deep cut Nathaniel Meyer track, a Captain Beefheart track. But, on the whole, it's a lot of Black Keys rarities, as well as some related bands, and that ain't my cup of tea.

But let's not let that get between us, friendo. One man's trash is another's treasure. So I hope you dig this one.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Sticky Soul Fingers (A Rolling Stones Tribute)

I came to a decision recently, and it is this: this Mojo release, cover dated January 2012, is pretty indispensible. A soulful recreation of "Sticky Fingers", it's less a simple re-reading of the classic Stones record, 40 years on, and more an expression of how inspiring it was to these artists. Some of the arrangements are far away from the Jagger/Richards compositions, and that's for the best. I've owned too many tribute records where those offering encomium stuck with a straightforward cover not too different from what you'd hear from in the original release. But Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings performing "Wild Horses" is a great example of how to put your own stank on a classic. "Sister Morphine", played here by Ren Harvieu, takes on new meaning when in the hands of someone who's not been chasing the dragon. And the Bamboos tackle my favorite "SF" track, laying some serious funk on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking".

Yeah, it's a proper tribute, this one. Plus, you get a bonus reading of "Angie". Not bad for a freebie.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: James Brown's Funky Summer

I mean, May 22nd is close enough to summer that I don't feel weird posting this one.

Here's a welcome soundtrack for Memorial Day weekend, which every red-blooded American agrees is the start to pool season and a proper time start wearing white shoes. You will get those shoes awful dirty as you shake ass to the hot beats contained herein, but it's worth it, I assure you. And since we've really been breaking the balls of the rest of the world, I invite those not native to this land to also cut a rug. Pretend its Kristi Noem's face you're dancing on...it's feels good!

Get off on the good foot, as the Godfather himself would suggest.

Discogs

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various artists - Hairspray (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

It's dawned on me that I probably underrate "Hairspray" as a movie, almost certainly on account of what it became. I still can't believe that there was a successful musical adaptation of a John Waters movie, yet here we are. I think my niece auditioned for Traci Trunblad last year. It's a weird world. Thankfully.

The musical makes me mad because there isn't nearly enough Toussaint McCall or Gene Pitney or Barbara Lynn. There are a bunch of theatre kids singing about acceptance, I guess. Which is all well and good, but nothing equivalent to "The Bug".

John Waters soundtracks are the shit, is what I'm saying. I like this one so much, I own copies on vinyl, CD, and cassette. And I'd probably buy it on 8-track if it'd come out in that format.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Southern Soul (15 Righteous Tracks)

The heat bubble has landed in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm currently sweating at 9:40pm-ish on a Sunday night, which seems quite unjust. After all, did we not move here to spend nine months out of the year in darkness and gloom, in damp and dank? I spent my childhood in the South, in 120% humidity, far away from any water. Just. Sweatin'. And hearing sweet, sweet soul music playing on a lot of radios.

Which leads me here, to this April 2005 giveaway from Mojo. Almost 20 years on, so many of these greats who then here are now gone: Tina Turner, Etta James, Little Milton, and Don Varner amongst them. Death comes for us all; I know this. But it really seems hard to believe that these giants no longer walk the Earth, that all I have left are increasingly soft-focus memories of backseat rides with the windows down, Sam & Dave playing on a tape deck, the smell of my granddad's Viceroy cigarettes and off-brand vodka and freshly tarred pavement.

The heat will break in a few days, the 90 degree noons disappearing for another year. And I'll file this one away in a box for storage for another decade or so. And all that will remain sharp are a few bars of the Mar-Keys, an Eddie Floyd chorus. And that's ok.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Bad Seeds Jukebox

This one's been sitting in my Kraken folder since last September. I had initially intended to dash off fifty words about this; "it was compiled 10 years ago by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, it has a bunch of weird shit on it, blah, blah, blah." But something told me, "hold back for a laundry day. Listen to this on random. Throw the tracks in with a bunch of your regular tunes."

So I did. And gratefully so.

Other than the curators, I grabbed this initially because it had tracks from Adrian Younge (who I've heard and loved), Betty Davis (ditto), and Karen Dalton (who I'd heard of, but never heard). And there were no surprises there; everything I'd heard about Karen Dalton was, if anything, understated, and I rushed out to cop her two initial releases.

It was the unfamiliar that knocked me for six, especially when it was slotted in between a Get Up Kids track and some classic Adam & the Ants. The likes of Moondog and  Giorgos Xylouris were revelatory; "Else Torp singing Arvo Part" is a sentence that is almost unfair in its simplicity, for how powerful a track it is. Even songs from Thurston Moore and Bill Callahan are almost gobsmacking in their strength. It's enough to make me reevaluate how I feel about those artists.

(Hint: I wasn't a fan.)

So, yeah, this has been on my phone for about five months now, on account of how it inspires me to listen broadly and experience sound differently.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Purple Soul

I think I snagged this mainly because it has Arabian Prince and Arthur Russell tracks I hadn't heard before. Well, that, and it was a buck. It's a lot of Prince-inspired and Prince-adjacent R&B; everything from Toro Y Moi to Poliça to a sampling of the Stones Throw catalog. And if it seems like I'm reaching for commentary or trenchant insight, well, it's because this is a world of music I always enjoy, but am not particularly educated in...certainly not to same degree I am on punk or hardcore or free jazz. I sound dumb enough writing about music I know a lot about; no need to sound below stupid.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Changing Man

There was, up until about 20 minutes ago, a 6 foot tower of boxes, filled with CDs and DVDs, sitting in my living room. I looked up from rolling cigarettes just in time to watch it tip over and crash upon the floor.

I'm avoiding getting up to examine the damage.

Here's a Mojo CD from 2008 that I bought for a dollar a few months ago. It has William Bell, Washington Phillips, Gil Scott-Heron, and Dinah Washington on it. Plus, Paul Weller's the theme..."Rarities & Inspirations" the common bond of these 15 tracks.

I feel like a paraphrase of a "Spinal Tap" line when asked, "don't you already own records with all these songs on it?" "Yeah, but this one was a dollar."

Sigh...I'm going to go clean up now.

Discogs

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various artists - I Pee In Pools

Straight out of San Pedro, it's an 11-year-old sampler of one of the most underrated labels around, Recess Records. If you're into the kind of punk rock that Razorcake champions, then you'll probably dig this.

Remember: we don't swim in your toilet, so please don't pee in our pool.

Discogs

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various artists - A Date With John Waters

As a teaser to the next Criterion Collection preview, I present to you one of the finest outings you can undertake: A Date With John Waters. I remain a huge fan of Towson's own, a man whose impeccable taste in music neatly pairs with his delightfully trashy aesthetic. His soundtracks have always been these cool collections of outsider music, whether it's been the collection of 50s rhythm & blues and rockabilly in "Pink Flamingos", the foundations of soul present in "Hairspray", or the Locust and Meatjack alongside Liberace and DJ Class in "Cecil B. Demented". It's all a young punk ever needed.

"A Date" came out a few years after John's final theatrical release, "A Dirty Shame", and, yeah, it's a fucking tragedy the man can't get $5-$10 million from a studio to knock out another film or two, his way. But if the reward for us is his published output since 2004, yearly spoken word appearances around the world, an emeritus position amongst exploitation filmmakers and a regular source of inspiration for all us perverts...well, it's a fine consolation prize for me. I could go for another curated collection of music where Dreamlanders Edith Massey and Mink Stole get slotted alongside Ike & Tina, Elton Motello, Josie Cotton, and Ray Charles. This will have to suffice.

Discogs

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Binky Griptite's GhettoFunkPowerHour

Uggh. It's been a tough week to sit down and write. An eff ton of admin will really dampen your desire to hop on a computer. But here I am; sitting up in the middle of the night, ready to kick you some jams.

"Binky Griptite's GhettoFunkPowerHour" made its way to me via my copy of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' "100 Days, 100 Nights". I wasn't expecting an extra dose of soul, but far be it for me to turn down 58 minutes and 2 seconds of mixtape goodness taken from the Daptone Records catalog. Slapped together by Dap-King/Antibalas/Amy Winehouse guitarist Binky Griptite, this is the sort of thing that I'll always welcome as a bonus. Or, hell, just post one up once a year on Bandcamp or something.

Discogs

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Deep Throat Anthology, Parts I & II

Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems in Deep Throat (Gerard Diamano, 1972)

I've always been drawn to the feature-length pornography of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, aka The Golden Age of Porn. It's not necessarily because of a prurient interest (although I'm not just reading Playboy for the articles, if you know what I mean). I'm interested in it for the same reasons I like watching American International movies from the same period, or listening to lo-fi, limited edition cassettes, or finding yellowing paperbacks at the bottom of a box. It's all low culture shaping high culture; in this case, it's the start of a sex-positive culture.

Also, the music slaps.

I mean, when you're describing makin' LUV to your honored partner, doesn't "BOW WOW CHICKA WOW WOW" come to mind, if not get verbalized? Even if you don't engage with hardcore pornography, the soundtracks are part of our cultural language. They were made by under-recognized composers, who often filled the role as performer. AND they were made under less-than-optimal circumstances: sometimes written and recorded within the space of one or two days.

The soundtracks to Deep Throat and Deep Throat Part II are infinitely interesting to me, and should intrigue you as well. There is little to no background available on the recordings from Deep Throat, due in great part to the U.S. government having seized the master tapes during their 1976 Memphis obscenity prosecution. So no one is quite sure who recorded what, who wrote the score...nothing. It was also a press-only giveaway, so the original pressing is worth a pretty penny.

The soundtrack for Deep Throat Part II, the R-rated sequel released in 1974, is more documented. Kenny Vance, working under the pseudonym T.J. Stone, put together an outstanding slab of sleaze soul. The two tracks featuring vocals from Laura Greene are particularly good. The soundtrack, along with lead single "She's Got To Have It", were the lead releases from Bryan Records, the label wing of noted mob-owned film distributor Bryanston Distributing Company. Bryanston, as we all know, was the short-lived distributor of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dark Star, The Way of the Dragon, and the Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey films Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein.

Look, this isn't my favorite porno soundtrack (that would be Patrick Cowley's Fox Movies work...duh), but it's more than just a curiosity. Give it a listen.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Ain't Nothing

Here's something I've been meaning to post since I kicked things off again back in April.

I have a lot less need to front on my musical knowledge these days. I know what I know, I know what I don't know, and I know where to go to learn about what I don't know. The incredible posting community at Twilight Zone has played a great role in opening up new musical worlds for me in the past two years; I can only express my gratitude by sharing the occasional post-punk record that someone's looking for. There's a person who posts these big ol' .zip files of 45s from the 60s and 70s, chock full of soul and doo wop and early rock 'n' roll and all kind of tasty treats I would have never checked out on my own. They're the one who got me coming back every day.

Shortly after I got hipped to TZ, I discovered this CD-R in a stack of dollar CDs at a local storage space liquidator. I recognized a few of the names: Curtis Knight and Wilson Pickett, the Pyramids and Little Johnny Taylor. And that cover: that is a killer cartoon. I've wasted more money on worse things. So home it came.

And a damned good thing it did, because this is a really great comp. There's very little you'd randomly stumble across in the world. Sure, you might turn up one or two or even three cuts, but nothing so well curated at such a low price. From what I've been able to research, this appears to have originated out of Rooky Ricardo's Records in San Francisco. When it was made, I couldn't say. But it's a great idea. If you're a seller of obscure records, it makes a ton of sense to put a sampler together of what you stock in the shop.

Since I snagged this, I've kept my eyes open for a lot of 50s and early 60s soul, and heard a lot of "new" artists from the early days of modern pop music. I've also been steadily downloading the East Side Story series, kindly shared by Robert over at Terminal Escape. It covers some of the same ground, while highlighting artists you might be more familiar with. They're all great to listen to, and, who knows? You might get a native nod from the old head in the car next to you in traffic.

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