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February 23, 2010

The Devil Made Me Do it ("big-box record stores are such a drag...")

As a rule, I can't stand giving my money to the big-box record store chains. There is no feel there, no personality and certainly no charm. Its all profits and loss and debits and credits. This is not to say that our independent record store friends aren't in the game to make some bread...they are. It is just that these guys aren't afraid to leave a little blood on the tracks. 

When I was living in Sydney Australia, I only bought my music from one shop and one shop only...Mojo Music (see pic for a snap of the shop).  The owner (I calls him The Kingfish) runs a bow-down operation. Check out this post to learn a bit about the most down-right, damn-straight, hot shit record shop south of the sun: "If you ever get lonely, you go to the record shop and visit all of your friends...".

All that being said...I'm a fucking rat-fink.  I went to the dark-side the other day...the HMV on Oxford St. in London. I wanted to pick up the latest/last release from my ol' pal Johnny Cash.  I figured I would pick this up in a quick dash and grab to get a new release. Usually I love to hunt for buried treasure only found in used vinyl shop.  Anyhow, this newbie is the last in the American Recording series from Rick Rubin & Johnny: "American Recordings VI: Ain't No Grave".  It is a stellar swan-gsong from a lost legend. This record is still riding towards the setting sun...I miss Johnny Cash. 

I went down the bottom floor of the HMV and saw two things that knocked me out: a full on dedicated display to ACE Records and a country music section that was, well, a country-mile wide. 

ACE Records' HQ is here in London, so I wasn't surprised to see the display...but sho' nuff if it didn't look impressive.  

I found me a blue ribbon prize in the country section, too...black gold.  I picked up my fave Willie Nelson album...on a shinny new piece of vinyl, no less.  This is my favorite Willie period. During this time he made the records he wanted and had a full-on, all-out ball doing it with his Family Band. 

Here are three ditties from Ol' Willie from that chestnut of an album: "Shotgun Willie", "Devil in a Sleepin' Bag" & "Stay All Night".  The last song is a live version of the song...listen to Willie riff on Trigger (that's his trusty old guitar for those of you who don't know). 

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p.s. Hey Kingfish...sorry about going into HMV.  It won't happen again...

     
Click here to download:
The_Devil_Made_Me_Do_it_big-bo.zip (4280 KB)

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Filed under  //   Johnny Cash   London   Mojo   Music   Record Store   Sydney   The Kingfish   Tune Tags   Vinyl   WIllie Nelson  
Posted by Judd 

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November 27, 2009

"It Might Get LOUD" (it damn well better be)

I just scored tix to see the UK premier of "It Might Get Loud".  It is going to be at the, star-studded, mind you, Hammersmith Apollo on the 15th December. 

Do you know of it?  It is a documentary about three guitar players from three generation and three very different backgrounds. Maybe you heard of these guys: Jimmy Page, The Edge & Jack White. The scene is set for these three gun slingers to meet on an empty sound stage, start talking about their own story about how got into the guitar and then, [cue the spontaneity] hopefully a three-pronged jam will breakout.

Here is the trailer:

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I like rock documentaries much better than I like straight-up rock concert films. I want to learn something when I watch music. I love the stories behind songs and albums and artists. I sued to love the Behind the Music series on VH1. Even when they had an artist on I didn't particularly like, I still watched for the story.  Too bad it got drunk on hubris. I kept watching until I could no longer stand to see its show formula dry hump the legs of the performers until it turned into a parody of its former self.

Rock-Docco best done by someone who is passionate about the subject. Taylor Hackford is a great rock-docco/film director. He did Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, the biting look the life and (fucked up) times of Chuck Berry.  He did his best to make a glory film about Chuck even thought Chuck gave him a shit fight of a time. The deluxe version has loads of great interviews with rock and blues legends.  

There is a GREAT interview with a very, very drunk...absolutely shitfaced...Jerry Lee Lewis on the deluxe version that is worth the extra bread (couldn't find it anywhere on the web).

Scorsese is another one. While I didn't really like all that he did with his latest on the Stones ("Shine a Light"), he has done some damn good work, a la The Last Waltz" and  the Bob Dylan docco, "No Direction Home".

If you want to see a PHENOMENAL music documentary, watch "Respect Yourself: The Story of Stax Records" RIGHT NOW! If you don't fall in love with this, you have no soul. Here is a promo clip for it.  When I saw Steve Cropper & Duck Dunn (remaining MGs) in Sydney two years ago, they played this clip from the movie before the show. The MGs were opening for this young Aussie wanker-pop-star. He went to Memphis to blood suck the soul music legacy to supplement his lack of creative song-writing talent. Cropper produced his album and was supporting it on this punk's Aussie tour. 

I guess you know who I was there to see.

They showed this to make sure the Aussie audience knew that they knew just who the hell was up there...MUSIC LEGENDS. My old buddy Nev, owner of Mojo Music in Sydney, used to say about Cropper (one of his heroes): "Steve Cropper...never played a bumb note in his life. Agreed, Nev.

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Here is a list of all of my music DVDs. You'll see that the majority of them are rock-doccos:

(download)

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Filed under  //   Chuck Berry   Hammersmith Apollo   It Might Get Loud   Jack White   Jerry Lee Lewis   Jimmy Page   Judds Juke Joint   mojo   Music   Rock Docco   Stax   Steve Cropper   Sydney   Taylor Hackford   The Edge  
Posted by Judd 

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September 8, 2009

London Music Shops: The Search for The Sounds & The Scene

For the past four years I have spent close to every Friday night at my fave local Sydney Australia record shop, Mojo Music.  At Mojo they serve up "The Best of the Fringe and All of the Backbone".

I have written many posts about that joint and why I loved it so much.  It is unlike any retail shop that you will walk into.  Have a read of any of these links below if you haven't been keeping up with the Mojo happenings on The 6149.
Images from the Mojo Scene: 


Now that I moved to London I need a new place to talk, listen and buy music. But where am I going to find a shop that has an owner who cares so much about keeping The Feel alive?  It wasn't just about buying music.  No, it was about experiencing it in the shop with like minded musicheads in a place where you could throw back a dozen beers and that felt like you were in your own living room. Tough...impossible?...act to follow.
_____

London has a lot to offer in the way of a record shop vibe. Which London record shop has the right combination of Sounds & Scene to fill the Mojo void left behind...? I aim to search high and low to find the right shop for me. 

This list has no room on it for the big chain stores. This list is as much about feel as it is sound. Chain stores don't have The Feel. Independent music stores do. This list is all about the independent shops.

This is a map of suggested independent record shops throughout London (new & used). I'm going to hit the trail and find the right one to make my music nerve centre. If any 6149 readers know of any other London record shops that are not on this list that should be, drop a comment in the box and I will add it on.  Likewise, if you have any firsthand thoughts on any of the shops on the list, hit the box with a few words.

I reckon that the first shop I walk into and has the Bo Diddley beat playing is an automatic winner...

Map Link: London Music Shops: The Search for the Sounds & the Scene

Go to the map in your browser for a closer look. You can get shop info and links to their sites.


View Larger Map

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Filed under  //   London   maps   Mojo   pics   record shops   riffs  
Posted by Judd 

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September 3, 2009

Pull the needle off the record: Last images of Mojo

Left Mojo last night around 11:30pm. Sad to leave. Mojo Music is a special place owned and run by a man dedicated to the music and to keeping The Feel alive and well.  If you ever go to Sydney, you need to stop by Mojo.  Tell 'em Judd sent you...

Thanks Kingfish.  Thanks Uncle Frank. Thanks to all the regulars...you know who you are.

(download)

                 
Click here to download:
Pull_the_needle_off_the_record.zip (10265 KB)

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Filed under  //   friends   Mojo   riffs   thanks  
Posted from NSW, Australia
Posted by Judd 

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August 25, 2009

"Best of the Fringe and All of the Backbone" - Mojo Music

(download)

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August 25, 2009

Front Burner Alert: More Vinyl straight from Heart of the Beast

Went to Mojo today.  Walked out with choice cuts under my arm...
  • Rolling Stones: Out of Our Heads & England's Newest Hit Makers (Keef's guitar hand was HUNGRY at this stage.  I think he sounds more like BB King every day now...like a horn...a trumpet...like the Memphis Horns. Keef Richards has turned in to the Memphis Horns and I love it).
  • Aretha Franklin: Aretha Arrives (her voice was down right, down right on this one.  The Willie Nelson cover makes you want to take her home)
  • Beach Boys: Surf's Up (this is one intense album.  So damn good. I'm blown away by how cool this is.  The cover of the album is a sure sign this thing ain't sunbeams and white caps)
  • Townes Van Zandt: Live at the Old Quarter (brilliant lamenting on this one)
  • Sonny Clark: Cool Struttin' (The Kingfish recc'd this one.  It's a front burner fo' sho')
  • Hendrix: Axis: Bold as Love (my fave Hendrix..."Just ask the Axis.  He knows everything")
  • Steely Dan: Aja (this one is Lefsetz's fault)
Judd's Juke Joint: Open for Biz'ness

       
Click here to download:
Front_Burner_Alert_More_Vinyl_.zip (266 KB)

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Filed under  //   black beauties   mojo   riffs  
Posted by Judd 

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August 13, 2009

The Kingfish speaks...I listen: New Bits & Bytes and Black Beauties

I am not sure what I am going to do with out my friends down at Mojo Music.  Each time I walk into the shop, The Kingfish (Nev, the owner) has a stack of choice sounds waiting for me in the backroom. He's always on the mark with his suggestions.  This past week was no exception...

A new rarity for me this week...I picked up some vinyl ("black beauties") and CDs ("bits & bytes").  It has been so long since I purchased CDs.  The vinyl is such a rewarding experience. I love the flipping of the records and reading the album covers.

When I bought the last lot of music, I went to a bar to have a beer and check out my score. Each of the three records I bought had extensive details/writing on the backs of them.  I worked up a fever pitch reading it all.  I couldn't wait to get home and drop the black beauties on the turntable (the attached pic is from the bar I was at).

Here is what I picked up:

Otis Rush: Mourning in the Morning (black beauties)

The Kingfish knows I love Otis Rush.  He turned me on to the great live album, "All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fool's Pub Chicago" on the Delmark label. That album, as I have said before, is a complete bow-down event.  It is an all time fave now.  I am trying to find it on vinyl...with no luck thus far.

But, when The Kingfish does get any Otis vinyl in, he drops it on my pile. This is album was recorded for the Atlantic label in 1969.  Back then, Atlantic was using Muscle Shoals Studios in Memphis to produce some of the finest music ever to come flowing out of the south (think: Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett).

Otis recorded this monster down there and the result is a fine studio album that hints at his prowess as a live act. I was reading the back of the album jacket and learned that this was recorded at the Shoals. I was none-too surprised to see that Duane Allman was on the album as well.  Duane used to do studio work there before the Allmans took off. The tunes he is on, "Gambler's Blues" and "Baby I love You" are stellar.

I prefer live Otis and his work on Cobra more, but there's no complaining here.  A great party starter.

Bow-Down tune: Gambler's Blues

The Bar-Kays: Soul Finger (black beauties)

You can't talk about or groove along to the "Stax sound" without thinking of the Bar-Kays. The Bar-Kays were not only a back-up band for the legendary Stax recordings, but they also did there own thing.  This is their debut album.  The title track was a Top 20 hit and a bonafide engine starter. Check out Jimmy King's nifty little guitar run in the middle of it.

Booker T. himself talks up the band on the back of the album jacket.  The Booker T. Seal of Approval is front and center.  He calls out their contribution to the Sound that he and the MG's helped establish. To get this on vinyl is a real thrill.

Bow-Down tune: Soul Finger

John Lee Hooker: Travelin' (black beauties)

There are hundreds of albums out there by The Hook. Many pseudonyms and labels with scores of retakes and rehashes of famous songs. What I love about this album is that it is early Hooker. His sixth album and it is on the label that (I think) he did his best work: Vee-Jay. This is prime and primal JLH.  His songs are dark a nd moody and the performances show just who the hell is in charge: John Lee.  He pumps the rhythm with his trusty right foot and finds his trademark groove and continuously hammers it until it says uncle.

The passionate liner notes on the back with a song-by-song bllow-by-blow take are excellent.

Bow-Down tune: Whiskey & Wimmen

 

Jerry Reed: When You're Hot...The Very Best of Jerry Reed: 1967-1983 ("bits & bytes")

I'll admit it...I didn't know Jerry Reed was this good and this damn cool. You, like me, may know him as the Bandit's CB talking sidekick in the "Smokey & the Bandit" movies.  I was just flat-out unaware of Jerry's contribution to one of the "Three Musical Truths": country music. 

One thing you can say about Jerry is that he is his own man and not afraid to be himself.  He was a Southern Boy who played Southern Music. If you don't like it...go listen to something else.  I am still having fun digesting this retrospective.  Shit, I'm having a hard time getting by song #1: Guitar Man.

Jerry is no novelty act.  I'm blown away (and a bit embarrassed) I hadn't heard his sounds before. Put this in the CD player in the car, roll down the window and drive on a dirt road...and sing along to this good ol' boy music.

Bow-Down tune: Guitar Man

Memphis Slim: "at The Gate of Horn" & "Memphis Slim"

Both of these studio albums are rollicking.  Memphis slim rocks the key son these albums.  I am just starting to get in to him as a solo artists.  "At the Gate of Horn" earns extra points for having Matt "Guitar" Murphy on guitar.

Bow-Down tune: The Come Back

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Filed under  //   mojo   riffs   Vinyl  
Posted from Sydney, Australia
Posted by Judd 

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August 11, 2009

Buddy Guy: "Get it like you was gettin' it when you first started..."

A couple Saturdays ago I was at Mojo Music hanging out for about four hours with the owner, Nev (I call him 'The Kingfish").  We were checking out a slew of rare and familiar footage on DVD.  We threw on this one DVD called, "Messin' with the Blues".  

It is a DVD of Muddy Waters at the Montreux Jazz Fest in 1974.  Buddy Guy and Junior wells opened for him and then backed him up during his set. We were watching Buddy & Junior heat up the crowd when after the fifth song, Buddy stepped up to the mic and said this:

"Yeah, I don't know why I got those type a blues tonight..."

When I saw Buddy Guy talk those words into the microphone, I could see that he was serious.  He meant it.  He was feeling it that night. There was something in the mix of crowd, mood and music that made him feel this way.  Now, I am not sure whether or not this was canned banter that Buddy would run through at gigs. When it comes to playing the guitar I think Buddy is a man of his word. As far as I am concerned, he was stone cold true that night when he spoke these words:

"Yeah, I don't know why I got those type a blues tonight, but uh 
Something, it's alright, something told me tonight to, uh 
Get it like I was gettin' it when I first started 

And it's such a great pleasure to be on this show tonight Ladies and Gentleman 
Tell uh, it's given me a thrill inside, you know, and I wish that 
You may think I'm puttin' you on, but uh please believe me 
For somehow or another,I hate to say this, but uh, 
We get a better thrill out of playing over here then we do at home 

So uh, haha, but uh, I must, thank you, I must say this that uh 
Regardless to how an entertainer feel it are always the people that makes him feel okay 
So that's why we always get the question asked us, during the course of a tour 
Do you ever get lonesome by it for not beeing at home, you know 
People can make you feel at home 

And when I, thank you very much 
And when I get that feeling like that I go be that and 
Play a tune that goes something like this..."

(click here to hear Buddy's Banter)
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Just watching him say this hit me hard in the breadbasket.  

He was talking to the crowd and saying, "hey, thanks for letting me spill my guts for you. Playing the blues live is a two-way street. You, the audience, is inspiring me to reach down deep and pull out some licks that I only bring out on special occassions...like this one. I'm inside out and going to play some real-deal blues for you". 

I am not the biggest Buddy Guy fan. I really like his earliest work (think more blues than showy-stuff) & stuff with Junior (Hoodoo Man Blues is a mofo and on Delmark Records to boot).  But...I think he gives it everything he's got when he plays. I wrote about another Buddy performance before where I was knocked out by the authenticity and the passion of his playing. Have a read of it...there is also a great video of there of Buddy bringing it. It is a killer performance from two Buddys, actually.  Buddy Miles is smashing things up in the background. 

You can buy the Buddy & Junior set as a single album, too (I'm playing it loud and proud right now). 

Here is a vid of the tune Buddy & Junior played straight after his words (I couldn't find a clip of the intro): 

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Filed under  //   blues   Bow-Down Post   live   Mojo   passion   riffs  
Posted by Judd 

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August 9, 2009

Quentin Tarantino knows where to go and who to talk to when he needs his vinyl fix: Mojo Music & The Kingfish

Seen here hanging out in the backroom, two "inglorious bastards": Q.Tarantio & "The Kingfish" (owner, Nev Seargent)

Nice.  Even Tarantino knows where to buy "the best of the fringe and all of the backbone": Mojo Music in Sydney Australia.

QT stopped by the shop last week on a recommendation.  Picked himself up some Dylan & Gene Vincent vinyl, amongst others.  The man has taste...in records and shops. If any Gene Vincent music is in his next feature film...you know where it came from.

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July 23, 2009

Mojo Banter: That Feel

I know, I know...I keep talking at The6149 about Mojo Music, "my" record shop here in Sydney.  I can't help it.  I love that place and the guys who run it. It is my Friday night regular haunt.  I can talk up a storm about it, but it is much better to be there to get That Feel.  Ah, That Feel.

Like with anything that hits bone, you feel it.  Mojo hits bone for me.  That Feel I get from it is a thick-realness.  There is no false pretenses at Mojo.  Just real people, real music (the "The Trinity of Musical Truths") and a real good time. That Feel is alive and well at Mojo Music. 


I thought I'd share some of That Feel with you.  Here are some audio clips of some Mojo Banter for you. Real people, real music, real good times...

  
(download)

  
(download)

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Two music heroes of mine are Tom Waits & Keef Richards.  Keef joined up with Tom to write a song for Tom's "Bone Machine" album. If anyone knows That Feell its Keef and Tom (in their own very distinct ways, mind you).  The tune really jells when Keef starts croaking out his anti-harmony vocals that somehow blend perfectly (everytime).  This is a slow cooker, but it's hot shit. Here is the tune and the lyrics:

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That Feel - Tom Waits & Keef Richards

Well there's one thing you can't lose
It's that feel
Your pants, your shirt, your shoes
But not that feel
You can throw it out in the rain
You can whip it like a dog
You can chop it down like an old dead tree
You can always see it
When you're coming into town
Once you hang it on the wall
You can never take it down

But there's one thing you can't lose
ANd it's that feel
You can pawn your watch and chain
But not that feel
It always comes and finds you
It will always hear yo ucry
I cross my wooden leg
And I swear on my glass eye
Itt will never leave you high and dry
Never leave you loose
It's harder to get rid of than tattoos

But there's one thing you can't do
Is lose that feel
You can throw it off a bridge
You can lose it in the fire
Yo ucan leave it at the altar
But it will make you out a liar
You can fall down in the street
You can leaveit in the lurch
Well you say that it's gospel
But I know that it's only church

And there's one thing you can't lose
And it's that feel
It's that feel

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Mojo is has an in-store event on the 31st July.  If you are in Sydney, come check it out (see you there):

Friday 31 July is Party Night at Mojo Music. And to kick off proceedings we will have an instore performance by up and coming local band La Mancha Negra. The band will be crankin' from 7pm.

For the uninitiated, La Mancha Negra combines diverse elements such as jungle beats lt;/span>, fuzz bass, surf guitar and blues harp to concoct a unique and exciting sound. 

Admission is FREE - so we'll see you then for what will be a rockin' good night!

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Filed under  //   audio   mojo   That Feel  
Posted by Judd 

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