Category Archives: Pop Culture

Afrika Bambaataa 1983 Club DJ Set At The Roxy NYC

This is a 6+ hr DJ Afrika Bambaataa set list from tunes he would put down at the Roxy ( a roller disco) in NYC circa summer ’83 where the flyer proclaimed:  No Skating! Just Dance Your pants Off Every Friday Night! – B There! 

NYC 80's Hip-Hop Club Flyer

Hosted by Fab Five Freddy, with live Graf art provided by Futura 2000, while the Double Dutch Girls & Crazy Legs from the Rocksteady Crew would be Breakdancin’ down on the floor Jazzy Jay & Bambaataa would man the wheels of steel and a DJ battle featuring Grand Wizard Theodore vs Grandmaster D.S.T. ( made famous via Herbie Hancock’s Rockit) would soon be scratchin’ up a storm. To get a sense of the vibe, this clip posted below from the 1984 film “Beat Street” has a scene shot there featuring Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force performing their electro funk rap song “Same” with cameos from the Rock Steady Crew.

 

This 6 hr+ mega mix I have made available as a playlist on either Spotify or Amazon Music recreates the crate diggin’ sequences of contemporary music one might experience in a hot early 80’s club that kept beats pumpin’ until the sun came up.  This old school tracklist featuring soul , electro funk, rock, new wave & early Hip-Hop faves of the day was compiled from archival playlist info provided by Bambaataa himself. The original posted mix included 80+ Songs, but rights holders have begun pulling catalog songs from shady silicon sucka streaming platforms, so results may vary on your music apps.

I listed all the O.G. 80’s club mix tracks below, whether currently available, for completists to seek out and so you can find out what you’re missing from artists as varied as Newcleus, Marley Marl, Strafe, Egyptian Lover, Reggie Griffin, Re-Flex, KRS One, The Fantastic Aleems ft Leroy Burgess and even Foreigner whose recordings may no longer can be found on Spotify.

 
2009 pic of the Roxy in the old Meat Packing district on edge of Chelsea before it was demolished to make way for a modern residential highrise
Photo By Aloughman – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7161708
Bambaataa Playlist on Spotify
 
 
 
 
Tracklist  :
 
Billy Squier – The Big Beat
 
 
 
The Treacherous Three – Yes We Can-Can
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa – Jazzy Sensation – 12″ Remix
 
 
 
Shango – Zulu Groove (Edited Version)
 
 
 
Trouble Funk – Trouble Funk Express
 
 
 
Hashim – Al-Naafyish – Radio Edit
 
 
 
Strafe – Set it Off …
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa & Family – Bambaataa’s Theme (Assault On Precinct)
 
 
 
Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Gals
 
 
 
Foghat – Slow Ride
 
 
 
Ram Jam – Black Betty
 
 
 
Queen – We Will Rock You – Remix Ruined By Rick Rubin
 
 
 
Rush – Tom Sawyer – Z-Trip Remix
 
 
 
Gary Numan – Cars – Live
 
 
 
Liquid Liquid – Cavern
 
 
 
Jimmy Spicer – The Bubble Bunch – Original Jellybean 12″ Mix
 
 
 
Cheikh Lô – Shakara/ Lady (Part One)
 
 
 
Love Childs Afro-Cuban Blue Band – Life and Death in G and A
 
 
 
Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
 
 
 
Larry Graham – Now Do-U-Wanta Dance
 
 
 
KRS-One – M.a.r.l.e.y. (skit)
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa Nation Soul Sonic Force – Zulu Nation Throwdown (Soul Sonic Force)
 
 
 
Malcolm McLaren – Double Dutch
 
 
 
ESG – Moody
 
 
 
The Flying Lizards – Money – Edit
 
 
 
Herman Kelly – Dance to the Drummer’s Beat
 
 
 
Defunkt – Razor’s Edge 12″ Version
 
 
 
The B-52’s – Mesopotamia
 
 
 
Culture Club – Time (Clock Of The Heart) – 2003 Mix
 
 
 
Sequence – Funk You Up – Long Version
 
 
 
Re-Flex – The Politics Of Dancing
 
 
 
Man Parrish – Hip Hop Be Bop (Original Version)
 
 
 
West Street Mob – Break Dance – Electric Boogie
 
 
 
Yazoo – Situation – Us 12″ Mix
 
 
 
The Pointer Sisters – Automatic (Album Version)
 
 
 
Michael Jackson – P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
 
 
 
New Edition – Candy Girl
 
 
 
Kool & The Gang – Jungle Boogie
 
 
 
The O’Jays – For the Love of Money
 
 
 
Prince – Controversy
 
 
 
Rick James – Super Freak
 
 
 
Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime – 2003 Remaster
 
 
 
Run–D.M.C. – It’s Like That
 
 
 
George Clinton – Loopzilla – Broadcast Version; 2000 Digital Remaster
 
 
 
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Mickey’s Monkey
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa – Renegades Of Funk
 
 
 
Blondie – Rapture
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa – Funk Jam Party
 
 
 
Cameo – Flirt
 
 
 
Lyn Collins – Think (About It)
 
 
 
Grace Jones – My Jamaican Guy
 
 
 
Yellowman – Zungguzungguguzungguzung
 
 
 
Sister Nancy – Bam Bam
 
 
 
Michigan & Smiley – Diseases
 
 
 
Nicodemus – Boneman Connection
 
 
 
The Bus Boys – Did You See Me
 
 
 
The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up – Remastered
 
 
 
Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride
 
 
 
Grand Funk Railroad – Inside Looking Out – Remastered
 
 
 
Billy Squier – Everybody Wants You – Live
 
 
 
Foreigner – Urgent – Radio mix
 
 
 
Madonna – Everybody
 
 
 
James Brown – Papa Don’t Take No Mess
 
 
 
The Fantastic Aleems – Release Yourself
 
 
 
Newcleus – Jam on Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)
 
 
 
Kraftwerk – Numbers – 2009 Remaster
 
 
 
Reggie Griffin – Mirda Rock
 
 
 
Ronnie Hudson – West Coast Poplock
 
 
 
The Egyptian Lover – Egypt, Egypt
 
 
 
Shriekback – My Spine Is The Bassline
 
 
 
Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love
 
 
 
James Brown – Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved – Pt. 1 & 2 / Mono
 
 
 
Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun
 
 
 
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam – Head to Toe
 
 
 
Daryl Hall & John Oates – I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)
 
 
 
Re-Flex – The Politics Of Dancing – Extended Version
 
 
 
Donna Summer – I Feel Love – Edit
 
 
 
Bobby Byrd – I Know You Got Soul
 
 
 
Freeez – I.O.U. (12″ Version)
 
 
 
The Sequence – Funk You U

LIlMike.Me’s March Madness Mixcloud

Relish Our Random Retro Rambling Rockin’ Ravin’ Soul Patrol Across The Pond And Beyond…

Experience 2 Hours Of Streaming Music From The Meters To Motörhead

Acts brought to bear on this perfect playlist include Blues Project, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Young MC, Pixies, Allen Toussaint, Willy DeVille, Irma Thomas, Buzzcocks, Hector Lavoe, Joan Jett, Siouxsie Sioux

and more, more, more

 

Lil' Mike's March Madness Mix

Tracklist Highlights

1. No Time Like The Right Time by Blues Project

2. Why? by The Byrds

3. Purple Haze Latin Mash by Jimi Hendrix

4. Know How (McSleazy Mash Up) by Young MC

5. Tame by Pixies

6. Zony Mash by The Meters

7. You Got To Fight by Clarence Reid

8. Koto Mata by Tali Bong

9, Family Affair by Veit Marvos Red Point Orchestra

10. Hurricane Suite: Storm Warning by Dr John

11. Natural Soul Brother by Danny White

12. Teasin’ You by Willy DeVille

13. Who’s Gonna Love You by Johnny Adams

14. Breakaway by Irma Thomas

15. Night People by Lee Dorsey

16, Dap Walk by Ernie & The Top Notes

17. You Got Me by Lee Calvin

18. Woncha Gone by Tommy Ridgely

19. Hollow Inside by Buzzcocks

20. On With The Show by The Get Up Kids

21. Love Is Like Oxygen (Demo) by Sweet

22. Back by The Zulus

23. Roll Away The Stone (Live 1990) by Fastbacks

24. You Got Me Floatin’ by Joan Jett

25. Omaha by Golden Palominos

26. Cause I Said So (Live 1989) by The Godfathers

27. Mi Gente [Louie Vega Remix] by Hector LaVoe

28. KISS by Señor Coconut

29. Rehab by Shawn Lee Ping Pong Orchestra

30. The World Is Gone by Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra

31. Sebastiana by Gal Costa

32. Can’t Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head (Live 2002) by Kylie Minogue

33. Ace of Spades (The CCN Remix) by Motörhead

34. Happy House (House Mix) by Siouxsie & the Banshees

35. Freakaholic by Egyptian Lover

 

 
 

Fundraiser For Fun Raisers At Make-Out Room & Latin American Club in SF

“Hello you beautiful people! …so began an email plea from my friends that run the SF Make-Out Room, amidst all the worrisome news related to the covid-19 panic was the news that a few dozen fine people I know, and the businesses they work for are desperately struggling during to the efforts to stem the spread of some “novel” virus…

It continued “I hope everybody is holding up OK and staying safe during these unprecedented times. As many of you know, once we are free to go back to our day to day lives, the city of San Francisco, and many of our favorite bars and venues, wont be the same, if they are even there at all.”

Then came the call to action…

“That’s why the Make Out Room and the Latin American Club need your help. And why I am begging you to donate anything you can. ”

-click to read more at link below from my friends on the Make-Out Room Staff hard hit by the Corona Virus lockdown and if you can, help support them while their jobs are in limbo…

Make-Out Room & Latin American Club Staff Go Fund Me

Or as my pal Pat Thomas (a multipurpose culture vulture whom you can see talks with here) put it more succinctly: “In 1997, my band Mushroom played their first ever gig at the Make Out Room in San Francisco. Our most recent gig (August 2019) was there too. Over the past decades for many of us – the Make Out Room has been a home away from home. Not only a place to play, but a place that has had weddings and funerals for members of the Bay Area music scene. I encourage every San Francisco musician who has ever graced the stage, every fan who attended a show, every drinker who got wasted there to donate even just $10-20 dollars – if we all do it, we can save Marty’s sweet succulent ass. click on the link here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-make-out-room-and-latin…


Here below are some linked videos I shot to give ya an idea of the type of recent music related events the Make-Out Room has hosted over just the past 5 years… the club also hosts numerous gigs, “Writers With Drinks” & “Litquake” spoken word events, comedy, burlesque, DJ music and many other types of community gatherings ranging from birthday parties and political benefits to cumbia dance nights.

I donated instantly because music seems about main thing that makes my life worth living, and there is no where else left in SF that would serve as a clubhouse people like this… it is a creative concentration camp of affable alcoholics, cantankerous cranks, dapocaginous DJ’s, hirsute hipsters harboring bad bourgeois beards, musical misfits & morose mopers amidst the last of the loquacious & lovely ladies that all should know better. This injustice will not stand…this too shall pass. Vive La MakeOut! There’s links below to two dozen some videos of various live music I’ve edited from the Make-Out over the past few years fer yer perusal

Dig into the video links below…

Continue reading Fundraiser For Fun Raisers At Make-Out Room & Latin American Club in SF

Is Khaela Maricich The Woman You Want Her To Be?

In the clip below shot in San Francisco at The Rickshaw Stop, Khaela Maricich and her partner Melissa Dyne deliver a track from “Brand New Abyss“, their 2017 album release from their performing entity known as “The Blow“.

Khaela first released music under the moniker The Blow in Olympia Washington 20 years ago. Since then her music, art and performances done under the name The Blow have produced albums and performance works, traversing the fields of popular music, social critique and contemporary art.

 

THE WOMAN YOU WANT HER TO BE

She will be
the woman you want her to be
woo woo woooowooooo
the woman you want her to be
the woman you want her to be

She’ll be smart enough to know
if you want her to not be smart
or just not to show it
her face is a surface
it seems like there’s something below it

And she’ll be the woman you want her to be
woo woo woooowooooo
the woman you want her to be
the woman you want her to be

She’ll be your privatest property
yours to posses
to dress up and undress
she’s an infinite yes yes yes yes
there will always be more of her
unless of course you’d prefer less
she can do that too, just let her know what you want her to fix
she can take care of it

And she knows what you want
she knows what you want
she knows what you want
she knows what you want
(it’s like she can just feel you)

Think of her as a mass
not one ass
but a mass of asses
plastic, magic, passive, perfectible
limitless: a living receptacle

And the bigger the better
the tighter the sweater
the bigger the better
the tighter the sweater
Or wait- is it not big is better?
we need to compress her
shrink up her sweater
and make her be lesser
When you fire in your cannonballs
you want them to really hit something
not just go floating off
into endless mysterious space

She is accessible
you can walk right inside
through the welcoming holes
in her mouth and her eyes
“Hi!” There’s a comfortable area there
you can chill in.
Around back is the VIP entrance
it’s invite only and many resent this
they swear
their name must be on the list
They wanna get in get in get in get in…

Ask yourself what you need her for
never mind, tell yourself that she needs you more.

If she is a game and you’re wanting to win her
maybe make a club and just don’t let her enter
keep her on the side of wherever’s the center
like you’re in a sunny locale
with a beer and a smile
and havana cigars
and the subs pumped up
and your cells all charged
and everything’s yes
there’s a gleam on your car
and she’s off in some permanent winter.
Then after ten thousand years
of getting your coffee
freezing conditions
killing her softly
her hula girl uniform rigid and icicle frosty,
yeah she might kinda wanna
get in get in get in get in
get in get in get in get in
get in get in get in get in
get in get in get in get in (etc)
What wouldn’t she do to get in?

She’d be the woman you want her to be.
woo woo woooowooooo
the woman you want her to be
the woman you want her to be

You want to conquer the unknown:
she can hold your hand while you do it
and if you can’t find the unknown
she can be your unknown
she’ll lay down and let you voyage through it.

She just seems so haveable,
at the very least halve-able.
Split up the middle and grab what is palpable,
an unlimited free material,
give-able, take-able, breakable,
think what all you could make with this resource
a pile of woman
a landmass of layered up woman
a suburban mega mall of woman
a stairway to heaven of woman

And she’ll be the woman you want her to be
woo woo woooowooooo
the woman you want her to be
the woman you want her to be

  • Khaela Maricich

Khaela Maricich, if she didn’t exist, is sorta like a character you might see created for the “alt rock” influenced show “Portlandia”, who not only has emerged like an enigmatic lithe elfen critter from the evergreen Pacific NorthWest, but carries with her its living balsam fringed rebellious artistic spirit.

She once wrote about the process of creating ” The thing about making things is that you don’t always know what you are making while you are making it. In the best-case scenario, the thing that you are making is bigger than you or your ability to perceive it or conceptualize around it, so you sort of have to open yourself up and watch as the new life forms come out, and trust that the process won’t kill you. “

Always exhibiting a challenging confident persona, yet with just the right mix of unraveling unease on stage or record, Khaela has been the chief creative officer and sole consistent member of her “group” The Blow since its early 2000’s inception. Her creative work somehow exists stretched out & pivots and pirouettes at the intersection of “spoken word”, “performance art”, “indie rock” and “dance music”. Khaela, performing either solo, or as “The Blow” has challenged audiences and been well received critically while being heard via radio, or seen live in performance in venues all over the world, including The Kitchen, The Warhol Museum, Henry Fonda Theater, Sarah Lawrence College, The Manchester Deaf Institute, and Yerba Buena Center For The Arts.

The artists maintain http://theblow.org website as well Khaela’s more personal site at http://www.khaelamaricich.com

Memories of Miami Floridians of The American Basketball Association

The Floridians Logo

In the late 1960’s an alternative league to the established National Basketball Association started up called the American Basketball Association. Imported to South Florida from ill fated beginnings as the Minnesota Muskies, a struggling semi pro b-ball team was rebranded as The Miami Floridians to enliven offerings in a resort and retirement area where golf, and gambling on jai alai and horse racing were the preferred past times. The Miami Dolphins NFL team were the dominant champion level pro sports phenomena in town and there was seemingly little demand for basketball and ticket sales seemed to show this.

After two years playing with lousy lineups in ill suited venues like Dade Junior College, and an old aircraft hanger called Dinner Key Auditorium, the bleak experience and team’s stale image helped doom attendance. A new vision would be required at the dawning of the age of Aquarius to get the team off the ground.

old Dinner key Auditorium from a 1970 Miami News photo

Fortunately, a new owner had been bought in by 1970 named Ned Doyle, one of the original imaginative literal “Mad Men” of Madison Ave giants Doyle, Dane & Bernbach, who had overseen and help create memorable campaigns like Avis “We Try Harder”, he’d stuffed Wilt The Stilt into a Volkswagen beetle, and had made Sara Lee seem like a member of the family, so how hard could it be for him to sell sweaty men in shorts?

Floridians ABA Basketball
a Floridians trading card
Doyle arranged for more colorful uniforms, gave away youth tickets and brought in sponsors to help get the nascent team more notoriety

Doyle had done so well from the advertising business, that upon retirement, he invested a spare million bucks into the novel idea of launching his revamped version of a pro basketball team in Miami Florida. One of Doyle’s first attempts to bolster the floundering, but potentially successful, teams’ image was move the games to the more respectable and comfortable downtown seaside environs of the Miami Convention Center, where national political parties held conventions. He redesigned and added magenta, black and orange to the team color scheme on the uniforms, and created a new contemporary sans serif logo. Most importantly, aside from getting ‘ball girls’ in skimpy bikinis to attract eyeballs, Doyle tried to improve the product by investing in new talent. By bringing in some experienced ball players, Doyle saw every single member of the previous year’s roster either traded, sold or released, even local hero and crowd fave Al Cueto aka “the world’s tallest Cuban”. The Floridians bold advertising slogan that year was, ‘We didn’t fire the coach, we fired the team.’ The next year they fired the coach…

Ned Doyle's plans for the Floridians at time of purchase did not include failure
Ned Doyle’s ambitious and innovative ideas for the Floridians at time of purchase did not include failure

Despite putting new athletes on the court, there were still other obstacles to overcome… one strategy attempted was getting the whole state to embrace the team, so they soon scratched “Miami” from the name and went with the brash desperate idea of barnstorming the team around statewide to various smaller less media saturated towns like Jacksonville, Palm Beach, Key West and Tampa to truly earn the name Floridians.

Tampa Bay Times newspaper story about an October 1971 Floridians  game in St. Pete that was ill attended
Tampa Bay Times newspaper story about a 1971 Floridians game in St. Pete that seemed notable to local press only for how ill attended it was

Despite a winning record, and even making the playoffs, the team failed to win enough fans to break even. They still had some great fun in the front office creating what buzz they could, not only bringing in those beautiful body painted dancers in short shorts to entertain fans courtside, but put on stunts like alligator wrestlers on the court at half time, and tossing bagels and promotional pumpkin pies to fans, or giving away concession stand items like Ice Cream & free T-shirts or even Flying Dutchman record LPs out to attendees. One game featured Dolphins infamous All Pro placekicker Garo Yepremian attempting to kick a football through the basket ball hoop from a spot way behind the portable bleachers in the Convention hall…

According to Arthur Hundhausen‘s great RememberTheABA website: “Other Floridians promotions included these creative giveaways: live turkeys for Thanksgiving, 15 pounds of smoked fish (to one lucky fan!), 57 pounds of Irish potatoes (on “Irish Night,” also to one lucky fan), 53 pumpkin pies, vats of gefilte fish, kegs of beer” and those memorable red, white & blue ABA basketballs. My father was the PR director for the team and recalls many stunts and foibles while attempting to fill seats in a relatively sleepy jewish retiree community, back in the days when South Beach was mostly run down old deco vacation motels and across the causeway were some English as a second language Cuban enclaves like Little Havana.

So while Doyle eventually lost all his invested money on the venture, and folded the team a little over a year later, they have gone down in history if at least for some of the promotional stunts. Miami would not have another Pro Basketball team until 1988, when the NBA brought “The Heat“.

Click To Watch The Video Below For More Insights…

1970 Miami Floridian Ball Girls

When all was said and done in the spring of 1972, my Dad one day was on the phone trying to arrange a buyer for the team in Omaha, when he was told to pack up his desk as team promotional director, and literally had to help carry the heavy wooden beast of a desk to another office, that was up a flight of stairs. In a last ditch effort to recoup, The GM sold the office furniture to new tenants in the building. Turns out one of the long haired buyers in tattered denim was Jerry Rubin of the Yippies who were moving into the same office building to make a HQ for their upcoming protests of the 1972 Democratic Political Convention at the same Convention Center in town the team had just abandoned.

Column from Cocoa Beach Today newspaper by Jerry Green on why the Floridians never caught on

Thus ended The Floridians ABA Franchise…

I was so little back then that I barely have memories of the games, but can recall the warm weather, the empty arena seats and kinda faintly recall those ball girls in short shorts actually 🙂

Culture Club – The Truth Is A Runaway Train

In 2015, Culture Club reformed and made a tour stop at The Greek Theater in Berkeley, before the tour had to be cut short due to Boy George O’Dowd suffering some vocal polyp issues. They eventually came back with a new album called LIFE, in 2018 with this song on it, but with a somewhat different arrangement, but that still namedrops Michelle Obama.

Here is the original version of “The Truth Is A Runway Train”, which I assembled as a slideshow montage.

This original Johnny Cash country folk influenced sound of this song differs greatly from the more glossy gospel/soul style version that they ended up putting on their next album, and even did an upbeat sort of gritty Philly Soul/Stax style remix featuring Gladys Knight who also joined the band onstage at The Greek Theater in LA.

Murder In The Front Row: Bay Area Thrash Metal Documentary Premiere Q & A

Thrash metal Documentary Movie Screening Tickets are now onsale for a Murder In The Front Row Bay Area

Buy Tix At The Link Here Thursday, September 26th 2019 8:45 p.m. – 11:15 p.m. screening at Jack London Sq’s Regal Theater in Oakland

The 18th Annual SF Indie Documentary Film Festival screened it in May and I got a chance to catch the sold out premiere of  “Murder In The Front Row: The Bay Area Thrash Metal Story”. The film is a social study of a group of young people defying the odds and building something essential for themselves. Featuring interviews with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Testament, Death Angel, Possessed and many more!

Here’s some snippets from the rowdy crowd that night checking out the post screening chat with the filmmakers at the Murder in the Front Row: The Bay Area Thrash Metal Story screening event put together by San Francisco IndieFest. I was lucky enough to score tix early to even get in to to see this premiere of Murder In The Front Row as the line was stretching around the block when I arrived. You’ll hear some of the audience’s overwhelming roars of excitement as the first few frames hit the screen, as well as the Q & A afterwards with the director Adam Dubin, lifelong thrash metal fan and narrator Brian Posehn and one of the subjects of the film, the meat handed maestro Tom Hunting of Exodus .

Starcrawler 2019 Fall Tour

Arrow de Wilde
Arrow de Wilde of Starcrawler (live shot by @LilMikeSF)

A wild throwback to shades of the seedy 70’s Sunset Strip nights at Rodney’s English Disco, or teetering down the steep stairs to find whatever awaited in CBGB ’s toilets, Starcrawler are actually a vehicle for frenetic millennial LA wunderkinds seemingly born decades too late to make those scenes.

The band, comprised of  Henri Cash gtr, bassist Tim Franco, and  Austin Smith on drums started out as raw amateurs just practicing Runaways’ covers, and have evolved into their own show biz phenomenon, fronted by the fearless gangly nymphette Arrow de Wilde on vox. Their sound and stage presence has built a solid following on the road supporting bands such as the MC5 and Spoon.

I caught one of the opening nights of their fall 2019 tour in San Francisco and Starcrawler’s musicians presented an impressive sonic spectacle, caustically cool, crunchy, captivating and a perfect foil for the caterwauling of frontperson Arrow deWilde. While deWilde’s antics at the mic stand, and mostly on the floor between songs are what draw eyeballs, do not discount the pulsating precision rhythm section that drives the throbbing sound, or the slashing guitar and vocal support of Monsieur Cash in his green satin suit looking reminiscent of something Gram Parsons might’ve left behind

Starcrawler have released their Nick Launay produced sophomore album “Devour You” on Rough Trade and are hitting the clubs across the USA to earn more cash and converts as they establish themselves as a vibrant exponent of 21st century hypnotic rock n roll abandon. The first single to the new album has a video directed by the enigmatic Jellyclaw called “Bet My Brains” inspired by subterranean urban dwellers both real and imagined.

Says singer Arrow de Wilde “that song came from thinking about the tunnel people in New York and Vegas and the Catacombs in France, and the underground village of people who live in the sewers of the L.A. River. I was fascinated with the fact that there is a whole other world happening right under our feet.” Guitarist and vocalist Henri Cash adds: “Arrow and I hadn’t even talked about it yet, but I’d already written something about the same thing—about how these people’s eyes adapt to pitch-blackness, and they end up going crazy from never seeing the sunlight.”

Arrow promises “We want to put on a real show and give people some kind of escape from all the shit going on in the world,” she says.

The band make several west coast stops in the wake of their Bottom Of The Hill performance in San Francisco on October 5th, and will play two Third Man Records Halloween shows in different cities, and make it as far north as Montreal. See the complete show date list below to find a fall 2019 show near you, and click the link get your tix before they’re all gone HERE.

Starcrawler - photo by Arrow's mother Autumn de Wilde
Starcrawler – official band photo by Arrow’s mother Autumn de Wilde
Starcrawler tour dates
10/4/19 – San Diego, CA – The Irenic
10/5/19 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
10/7/19 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
10/8/19 – Vancouver, BC – Fortune Sound Club
10/9/19 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
10/11/19 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
10/12/19 – Denver, CO – Lost Lake Lounge
10/14/19 – Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
10/15/19 – Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge
10/16/19 – Saint Paul, MN – Turf Club
10/17/19 – Chicago IL – Lincoln Hall
10/19/19 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern
10/22/19 – Montreal – Bar Le Rtiz PDB
10/23/19 – Somerville, MA – ONCE Ballroom
10/25/19 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/26/19 – Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
10/27/19 – Washington, DC – Pie Shop
10/28/19 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Café
10/30/19 – Detroit, MI – Hell Night @Third Man Records
10/31/19 – Nashville, TN – Halloween @Third Man Records
11/1/19 – Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5
11/2/19 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
11/5/19 – Austin, TX – Barracuda
11/8/19 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
11/9/19 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
Find Starcrawler here : Official Facebook / Instagram Twitter

RIP: Jerry Lawson of The Persuasions

Guess this news was off my radar last week, but I’ve just learned today that Jerome “Jerry” Lawson, the charming, but gritty voiced baritone singer and longtime frontman of The Persuasions, who recorded some two dozen albums with the vocal group over a 45 year span passed away at a hospice in Arizona on July 10th at age 75.

Jerry’s contributions to keeping the art of acapella singing alive were innumerable since that first Persuasions album arrived 50 years ago in 1969. His unlikely and long career includes being discovered by Frank Zappa singing to him over the phone, and then getting signed to the Straight/Bizarre label run by Zappa and Herb Cohen around the same time Alice Cooper and The GTO’s were also recording for the imprint. Soon The Persuasions were on the road opening for The Mothers Of Invention, and the first gig was in a segregated southern resort town… a place where none of the band members had ever dared go.

By 1971, now signed to Capitol, the Persuasions opened other shows for Zappa including The Mothers of Invention concerts at Carnegie Hall doing material found on their landmark break thru LP “We Came To Play”. Their sound was pure street vocal harmony, that combined elements of soul and gospel, but was not afraid of rock, in fact their repertoire included covers of songs by Lou Reed, Paul Simon and later even full acapella tribute albums to The Grateful Dead and The Beatles. Wrote future Persuasions’ album producer Rip Rense of the band in a 1986 profile for the LA Times, “They have Persuasioned everything from Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me” to Sam Cooke’s “Good Times” to Curtis Mayfield’s “Man Oh Man.” The recording of “Papa Oom Mow Mow” heard in “E.T.” was theirs.

Of those early informal years in the 1960’s before they were recording records, Jerry Lawson recalled after moving to Brooklyn from Florida that “We’d get a crowd around us. Boy, that harmony was lovely. People would sit around, and get popcorn and Crackerjacks, and just listen to us. Sometimes we would sing until 3 o’clock in the morning,” he told music writer Jim Harrington of Bay Area News Group in 2011. “We had a crowd, and we were singing, man — even the police were all in the crowd,” Lawson told Chris Hansen of the Mesa Az Tribune in 2007. “A lady yells out, ‘Boy, y’all sound good!’ Then she said ‘If you don’t know what you’re singing, it’s called a cappella.’ So that was the beginning right there.”The Persuasions who began performing professionally after so called “Doo-Wop” records had peaked, never wanted to be known as an oldies group and instead referred to their unique sound as “contemporary a capella”.

Whether they planned it or not, by the early 1970’s, The Persuasions, whose career began a decade earlier as just a group of friends singing outside on the basketball courts and front stoops of Brooklyn, were almost single handedly keeping the youthful improvisational spirit of street corner “Doo Wop” alive yet via major label records and tours in a music industry that mostly favored “dance” records, and thought vocal groups were not worthy of airtime or promotion. Jerry was always interested in expanding the horizons of vocal music, not being boxed in, and stayed emphatic that The Persuasions not play any “Doo-Wop” oldies shows, and insisted that booking agents turn down all offers to perform or participate in any nostalgic “Doo Wop” revues.

By the 1970’s The Persuasions were putting out some two albums a year, some were great, memorable charting titles including 1972’s “Street Corner Symphony” with its stunning “Temptations Jam” medley, and the funky drums and electric piano arrangements on “More Than Before” that arrived via A M in 1974. By 1977 they’d moved on to Elektra, and fortunes waned and soon by the 80’s they were on indie labels like Rounder, but still over the years they soldiered on, and Lawson got to record and share stages with an array of artists ranging from Joni Mitchell to Ellen McIlwaine, Stevie Wonder to Rod Stewart, Garland Jeffreys to Ray Charles, Paul Pena to David Essex, Leon Redbone, Sheryl Crow and even Liza Minnelli.

Spike Lee featured Jerry and The Persuasions in a 1990 documentary film he put together called “Do It A Capella” where they told some of their group history.

After 40 years with the group, a tired, bitter and worn out Lawson walked away from The Persuasions in the early 2000’s. Jerry moved to Arizona, and thinking he’d given up acapella singing for good, listening to the Johnny Otis radio show on KPFA, he’d soon stumbled upon a Bay Area group called Talk Of The Town that re-inspired him and they joined forces. The group recorded an album, toured and found a niche and can be seen performing with Jerry here on a nationally televised NBC TV show in 2010.

It wasn’t until 2015 Lawson released his own debut solo album, Jerry Lawson “Just A Mortal Man”, on Nashville based Red Beet Records that includes contributions from Jim Lauderdale. The title is a nod to a 1973 song that was sung by one of his biggest influences, the late David Ruffin of The Temptations.

Here’s a video of Jerry rehearsing “Woman in White,” a song co-written by Lawson with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter for the solo album he recorded with producer Eric Brace at a studio in Chandler Arizona in 2015.

Over the years Lawson made some remarkable music and brought joy to hundreds of thousands of people in concert on the road or through recordings, radio and tv appearances. In 2017, his hometown of Apoka Florida honored him with a special street designation, “Jerry Lawson Way”.

Aside from the street naming, and his solo album release, one of the last accomplishments he was proud of was having his Persuasions’ recordings used in advertisements, like the sample of his voice on “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” by Jamie XX that was used in a 2015 Apple I-Phone spot. Another was the Persuasions’ version of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” that was chosen as soundtrack to a 2018 Winter Olympics promo spot that aired all over the country featuring young athletes preparing to head to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang South Korea. The ad was produced by 72andSunny, a Los Angeles based advertising agency

In the years prior to his death, Jerry was excited that a documentary film was in the works that would tell his life story. That film “Jerry Lawson – Just A Mortal Man” is as yet unreleased, but will tell the story as Jerry went from street corner singer, to internationally renowned recording artist, and into his later life, when after beating alcoholism, he was a renaissance man, who became a humble, yet proud counselor and caregiver to developmentally disabled adults he referred to as “his kids”. Lawson is survived by his wife Julie, his children, and has two official personal websites that document his storied career

http://ThePersuasions.org

and

http://JerryLawson.biz


San Francisco’s $2.1 Billion Dollar Bus Barn Boondoggle

In #SanFrancisco, Where Homeless Tent Cities & Needle Strewn Sidewalks Overflow With Human Fecal Matter, The Transit Agencies Of The Local Mono Party Political Cabal Casually Squandered Two Billion Tax Dollar$ On A Fancy Bus Shelter That Is A Total Bust !

Due To Safety Concerns About Shoddy Construction, It Was Blocked Off From Public Access A Year Ago, Only Days After Opening, And Its Closure Escalated The Already Miserable Gridlock Downtown.

The Site, Which Even Empty Still Costs Taxpayers $2.5 Million A Month To Maintain, May Host Actual #TransitPassengers In Late July 2019, But As Designed, Will Still Have No Direct Connections To Existing Subways or Rail Lines.

Here’s A Few Seconds Of Footage I Got Of The Impractical Massive Monstrosity That Looks Like It Was Dreamed Up In As A Dubai Discotheque Landing Pad During The Brief Period It Was Open Last Year

The Empty Basement “Might” Someday Have A Rail Stop In The Very Far Off Nebulous Future, But Only If A Batsh/t Bait & Switch #BulletTrain Scheme Is Ever Fully Funded.

Remember Kids! This Is The Kind Of Magic #TheDemocrats Can Accomplish If Given A Super Majority And A Checkbook With Unfettered Reins Of Power! Good Job Gang! You’ve Made Us Proud In #TheCityThatKnowsHow !

Next Time You Are Standing In A Packed Bart Train At Rush Hour Wondering Why The System Sucks, Remember The Transit Masterminds Spent 2 Billion Tax Dollars On A Bus Barn To Nowhere Only A Few Blocks Away.

@LilMikeSF Media Maker Myriorama