Andy Votel's Brazilika comp

The last time that I was in Gotham, I stopped at Rockit Scientist as is my habit and came up with the following, Andy Votel's Brazilika compilation.

The sourcing for the records on this comp come from the Som Livre and LGE labels. The liners say that the genre of post Tropicalia. It is hard to tap your foot to tracks such as these. There are psych interludes (like 2.40 into track 3) that in an earlier part of my life would have been more "heavy" but now are just weird. I don't mean that in a bad way. This set is oddly engaging, but I cannot imagine throwing it on as background.

Since it is from Brazil, there is the language barrier but I doubt that should scare anyone off.

A head swirler it is. Layers of fuzz populate the sound scape (3 min into track 5 for perhaps the most killer fuzztone. Nearly garage in primitive tone-- I am sold!) Abrupt changes in tempo and interludes provided a collage effect. Since all of this music is new to me, I am not sure how it sounded before it got the treatment from DJ Andy Votel. I think that I need to spend some more time with this set.

I feel that the best listening experience for this record s either through an old amp and speaker set up or via the headphones. I listened to the record in my econobox and it was not the same.

Here is a link to Far Out Recordings, who released this one.

December 24th Mix

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all cratedigger visitors and regulars.

I think that this blog and my knowledge of music has come a long way over the past year. Thanks for stopping and for all of your input (and comments.)

In thanks, please find the latest mix from cratedigger labs, imaginatively titled dec 24 mix.

I have culled these sides from a variety of real world sources, junk stores, record shops and garage sales, mostly from the Northern IL area, but there are a number of tracks that were rediscovered on a recent trip to SF.

The odd pic above is from a house party during last summer.

Hope you dig. Best in 2008!!!

dec 24 mix tracklist

01 Intro-Shure Brothers
02 Detroit Emeralds I Bet You Get The One (Who Loves You) Westbound
03 Intruders Turn The Hands Of Time Gamble
04 Stereo’s Stereo Freeze Pt. 1 Cadet
05 Meters Sophisticated Cissy Josie
06 Dynatones The Fife Piper HBR
07 Solomon Burke I’m Leaving on That Late Late Train Chess
08 Kool & The Gang North, East, South, West De-Lite
09 Simtec & Wylie Nine Times Out Of Ten Mercury
10 Chi-Lites Being In Love Brunswick
11 Lonette McKee Save It (Don’t Give it Away) Sussex
12 Rufus Thomas The Funky Penguin Pt. 1 Stax
13 Swamp Dogg Do You Believe Elektra
14 King Curtis 8th Wonder Atco

Download here

Some digging this past weekend

I have found a place that seems to have some pretty good booty when it comes to cratedigging here in the Chicago area.

I dont want to share my haunt, but I will share some of the many discs that I picked up over the weekend. The turntables were certainly happy with their new styli and plenty of old wax to dig through.

Yardbirds Shapes of Things Epic
JBs Same Beat People (2 copies)
Timmy Thomas Funky Me Glades
Bobby Rush Mary Jane Galaxy (2 copies)
Jimmy Ruffin Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me Soul
The Who Pinball Wizard Decca
War Lowrider UA (promo)
Parliaments I Wanna Testify Revillot
Wilson Pickett Don't Knock My Love Atlantic
Wilson Pickett Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You Atlantic
Martha & The Vandellas My Baby Loves Me Gordy
Cliff Nobles The Horse (Instrumental) Gold Soul
ZZ Hill Hold Back Mankind
Santana Oye Como Va Columbia
Sam & Dave Hold On I'm A Comin Stax
Muddy Waters Tiger in Your Tank Chess
Mongo Santamaria Bossa Negra Columbia
Tommie Young Do You Still Feel The Same Way Soul Power
Wilson Pickett We've Got To Have Love Atlantic
Clarence Reed I'm Working While Its Day Jewel
Andre Williams Cadillac Jack Checker
Jimmy Witherspoon Love is A Four Letter Word Capitol
The Radiants Anything You Do Is Alright Chess
Charles Wright Express Yourself Warner Promo
Jr Walker Sweet Soul Soul
Bill Withers Ain't No Sunshine Sussex
Eddy Senay Ain't No Sunshine Sussex
Willie Hutch Party Down Motown
Herbie Mann Watermelon Man Atlantic

I don't have any interesting record people sightings, except for maybe the guy that was trying to sing garage tunes, while looking at Sundazed reissues, that was sort of surreal.

I need to get together another mix...

Another Guest mix: DJ Blueprint from this is tomorrow

If you are down with the soul and funk blogosphere, then surely you are aware of this is tomorrow, which happens to be one of my faves.

DJ Blueprint, the proprietor of this is tomorrow put together a tight 30 minute funk work out set for cratedigger.

I am pleased to present:

30 min funk workout 4
tracklist:
1. incomparable seven - funky grand paw part 1 (top hit)
2. landlord & tennants - sagittarius part 1 (coach)
3. soul patrol - don't knock the cop (zuma)
4. communicators & black experience band - is it funky enough?
(duplex)
5. the marlboro men - (ride on) iron horse (nite beat)
6. sammy gordon & the hiphuggers - upstairs on boston road part 1
(archives)
7. house guests - my mind set me free part 1 (house guests)
8. tommy bass - (i can't help it baby) this is my thing (soulful)
9. city council ltd. - when you git through wit it put it back (gt
graytom)
10. mary davis - danger! (playboy at work) (conclave)
11. con-funk-shun - clique (fretone)

Please download 30 min workout 4.

Enjoy.

SOULMAN 2001 SPACED ODDITIES PT. 2

Phill over at thatrealschitt has posted the second half of his 2001 Spaced Oddities.

I dug the first half and my trip out of NYC yesterday was put to a most excellent groove to the recently posted second half.

Go check it out.

Link

Rockit Scientist Records-NYC

I had a long day at the office in Gotham, and my dinner plans changed.
So what to do? I decided to take a little hike a bit south and a bit east over to the new Disney Land that is The East Village.

As I ventured a bit, I came upon St Mark’s Place. In the back of my mind, I remembered that there was a record store that has been advertising in Ugly Things for 12 years or so. I could picture the ad, but could not remember the store.

On the south side of the street, I saw Kim’s Video, which is the most absolute sickest video store that I have ever seen. It has at least 2 levels, and to be honest, since I can only focus on one collecting addiction at a time, I just bypassed looking at all the video and DVDs, and went up straight to the back of the second floor to the vinyl section. I found a couple of things, but when I looked at the condition, missing the paper insert, general wear, etc, I could not pull the trigger on a few $6.99 records.

As I left Kim’s, the name of the record store came to mind—Rockit Scientist.

I went about another half block or so, and I saw Rockit on the north side of the street. It is a couple of steps down off the sidewalk. When, I walked in, I was taken aback. This is a place of musical nirvana. On the right side of the store there are racks from floor to ceiling, filled with cds that range from soul to funk to 60s garage, psych and cool music of all stripes. Along the left side of the store is the traditional record store raised counter of yore, featuring various record related ephemera and an older Technics turntable. Moving towards the back, past the basement stairs, there is a rack of LPs on the left and LPs on the right. Going up the walls and continuing onto the ceiling there are other records- mainly mid value 45s. The record explorer needs to be careful to not stub your toes on the budget LP crates that sit in front of the other racks.

I found a box of LPs titled, James Brown. Bingo. I looked through the box a bit and came up with a sealed copy of Sho is Funky Down Here priced at $9.99. The record is marked as all instrumental. “James Brown plays and directs the James Brown Band.” Done.

Frankly, I was a bit overwhelmed at the depth and breadth of the music on offer in this tiny store. I struck up a conversation with Robert (?) the proprietor. We discussed all manner of music and musicology. This guy knows his stuff and knew many of the old garage folks from whom I have purchased records, reissues, reviewed their releases, or even interviewed- Crypt Records, Norton Records, Mop Top Mike, etc. over the years.

I remembered something that I was interested in getting a copy of and asked for a recommendation of some Gil Scott Heron. I picked up an LP compilation of Gil Scott Heron called The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. I can’t wait to hear this one either.

I will definitely be back to visit.

Been a while... some tunes to tide youse over

I have been away from the Cratedigger homestead all of last week, with nary a chance for digging. In the meantime and in order to keep things interesting, here is a list of interesting mixes put out by other bloggers:

Vincent at Fufu Stew has a new mix called, Fufu Soul Soundcheck. Some great covers are on offer on his mix. Makes me wonder how he has the time to put together so many tough sets.

DJ Dubstrong at Disco Devil has a new dancehall dub mix that I have been listening to today called, Uptown Skank v. 2. He hails from Brasil, so much of the blog is in Portugeuse.

Phill Most Chill at That Real Schitt put out a digital version of his mix called 2001 Spaced Oddities from a few years back of some killer beats and breaks. Here is Side A. It is cool listening. I have much to learn, Grasshopper.

Heavy Soul Brutha Dave from Soul Brutha's Put The needle on the Record has the second installment of his series, Soulbrutha Meets Caplog V. 2 on Mod Radio UK. It is an internet radio show that repeats. Maybe he will post it soon... hint, hint.

Enjoy and support the players above. I am off to Gotham. Hopefully, I will be able to put something together on Friday or over the weekend.

if the glove don't fit...

If the glove don’t fit- a cratedigger compilation

01 Intro
02 Soul Searchers Funk To The Folks Sussex 517
03 Isley Brothers Don’t Give it Away T Neck 901
04 Dialog
05 Bobby Blue Bland Turn On Your Lovelight Duke 344
06 Clarence Carter Funky Fever Atlantic 2508
07 Dialog
08 Ike & Tina Turner Funkier Thank A Mosquita’s Tweeter Liberty 56216
09 Curley Moore Funky Yeah House of The Fox 1934
10 Dialog
11 Rufus Thomas Do The Double Bump Stax 236
12 Dennis Coffey Scorpio (rb edit) Sussex 226
13 James & Bobby Purify I’m Your Puppet Bell 648
14 James Brown Brother Rapp (pts 1&2) King 6310
15 Dialog
16 Fantastic Johnny C Boogaloo Down Broadway Phil LA of Soul 305
17 Sons of Slum Right On Stax 120 (mono)
18 Dialog
19 Kool & The Gang Funky Stuff Dee-Lite 557(mono)
20 Jimmy Castor Bunch Bertha Butt Boogie (pt 1) Atlantic 3232
21 Outro
22 Funkadelic Loose Booty Westbound 205 (promo)


all of the above tracks were captured from original 45s, gathered in various dusty midwestern locales. no ebay track diggin' whatsoever...

dialog comes from the aip motion picture "abby" starring carol speed and william marshall, which comes from a very old vhs transfer.

Please download if the glove don't fit...



D/L Link

Thanks to Fufu Stew, Fleamarket Funk, Funky 16 Corners, this is tomorrow, and Soul Brotha's Put the Needle in The Groove for inspiration.

Happy 4th. Be safe.

N.B. It appears that the divshare link above is AOK, but the zshare version of the file is shortened. I tried to reupload, but it continues to chop my file in half. There is a save option within Divshare. Sorry about the technical difficulties.

Funky Shout Outs--Some Mixes to pass the week

Since I have a few minutes this morning, I wanted to give some shouts out to some other blogs that are doing the funky work, to make our weeks roll a bit more smoothly with good tunage:

First up, Vincent at Fufu Stew has a new mix called Fufu Funk Fix #2.

Next, this is tomorrow has a set up called 30 min funk workout mix #2.

Dave at heavy soul brutha has a set called Caplog Meets Soul Brutha Mod Radio UK Show.

All of these sets should put some more glide in your stride, support these blogs!

Cool Blogs- FuFu Stew and The Snack Bar

Vincent has a couple of cool blogs here:

Fufu Stew

The Snack Bar

I came across his stuff via some other blogs, what strikes me about Vincent is that he has a variety of tastes and is not afraid to stretch out a bit and discuss (and mix) different styles and genres of music. He is a prolific poster of mixes, so take a look and LISTEN.

He recently posted a Meters live set excerpt from Bonaroo from a couple of years back.

Check these sites out, you will not be disappointed.

Damn This Blog is Cool- Voodoo Funk

I came across this blog and it really makes mine look lame. Frank is a digger of records, but he is not combing through record fairs, garage sales or ePay...

He is in West Africa hunting for funky African discs. Frank has also posted some MP3 mixes, and I am starting to check them out. Above you can see some of the pic sleeves that he has amassed. I need to start reading this one from the beginning.

Tinnitus Mix Link

Here it is at long last, a mix posted in MP3 format. I viewed the excellent Flea Market Funk blog and used some of his ideas to post this. I took all of the records that I used for my CDR comp and then mixed them via the excellent shareware program, djay. This was mixed live on my macbook. I would love to hear some commentary on both the mix as well as the hosting service.

Here is the playlist:

01 Jimmy Castor Bunch Troglodyte (Cave Man) RCA 48-1029
02 Archie Bell & The Drells Tighten Up Atlantic 45-2478
03 Bobby Blue Bland Gotta Get To Know You Duke 447
04 Bob Seger & Last Heard Heavy Music I Cameo Parkway C-494
05 Dyke & The Blazers Funky Broadway Parts I&II Original Sound 64
06 George Semper Rhythm Committee It’s Your Thing Rama Rama 7799
07 James & Bobby Purity You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down Bell 660
08 James Brown Lowdown Popcorn King 45-6250
09 Funkadelic Music For My Mother Westbound 148
10 Jean Knight Mr. Big Stuff Stax STA-0088
11 Lavell Hardy Don’t Lose Your Groove Rojac 117
12 Jbs Gimme Some More People 602
13 R. Dean Taylor There’s A Ghost In My House Tamla 896 (Import)
14 Cliff Nobles & Co. Love Is All Right Phil LA of Soul 313
15 Ramrods Soultrain Rampage 1000
16 Aretha Franklin See Saw Atlantic 2574
17 Edwin Starr Stop The War Now Gordy 7104

Tinnitus Cratedigger Mix

Finger licken', Chubb Rock.

Here is my first attempt at a funk and soul mix, it is called Tinnitus.

Here is the playlist:

01 Jimmy Castor Bunch Troglodyte (Cave Man) RCA 48-1029
02 Archie Bell & The Drells Tighten Up Atlantic 45-2478
03 Bobby Blue Bland Gotta Get To Know You Duke 447
04 Bob Seger & Last Heard Heavy Music I Cameo Parkway C-494
05 Dyke & The Blazers Funky Broadway Parts I&II Original Sound 64
06 George Semper Rhythm Committee It’s Your Thing Rama Rama 7799
07 James & Bobby Purity You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down Bell 660
08 James Brown Lowdown Popcorn King 45-6250
09 Funkadelic Music For My Mother Westbound 148
10 Jean Knight Mr. Big Stuff Stax STA-0088
11 Lavell Hardy Don’t Lose Your Groove Rojac 117
12 Jbs Gimme Some More People 602
13 R. Dean Taylor There’s A Ghost In My House Tamla 896 (Import)
14 Cliff Nobles & Co. Love Is All Right Phil LA of Soul 313
15 Ramrods Soultrain Rampage 1000
16 Aretha Franklin See Saw Atlantic 2574
17 Edwin Starr Stop The War Now Gordy 7104

The mix was made via collecting the 45s, none of which set me back more than $8 each, then tracking them on my Rega 3, and getting them into my MacBook and into GarageBand and then iTunes to burn to CDR.

If you would like a CDR copy, shoot me an email and we can set up a trade. In the meantime, I will work on getting a link for some flacs.

Earth Day 2007 Vinyl Finds

Well, I did something environmentally friendly yesterday for Earth Day, I rescued some old vinyl from the landfill. Recycle, Reuse, Repeat.

I made the venture to the Great White North on the warmest day of 2007, as it was 85 degrees and very sunny. Vestax portable in tow, the quest was funk, soul and garage 45s. The garage ones are hard to find. But I always manage to score a couple.

While I don't feel like sharing my source for these 45s, I will share a list and the prices paid. Despite the location, I feel that at least the first set of discs mentioned below were found "in the wild." While the conditions were great and the prices were low, it took a couple of hours digging through boxes of un sleeved 45s to turn them up.

Archie Bell and The Drells Tighten Up If you have ever heard a funk comp, you have heard this disc , solid. Part II is on the flip.
Jimmy Castor Bunch The Bertha Butt Boogie, He even name checks his other "hit" on this one- Troglodyte...
Jimmy and Booby Purity Wish You Didn't Have to Go, This seems an attempt to hit the gold that is their previous side I'll Be Your Puppet. The bass on this disc will not let you down.
Wilson Pickett Funky Broadway Dot ever think it is only about Midnight Hour with Mr. Pickett, this track is a solid winner.
Booker T & The MGs Green Onions
Michael & The Messengers Midnight Hour Solid garage R&B disc by these Chicago(?) lads, on USA records, home of both The Cherry Slush and Don't Wanna Cry by The Buckinghams.

All of the above records cost a total of US$1.25. The conditions range from VG to NM. Some solid cranking options.

Here are some more sides that I scored:

Bob Seger System The Last Song. I liked the flip Ivory better. Seger liked to drive the R&B. Not so much garage, and definitely not Like a Rock.
George Semper Rhythm Committee Its Your Thing This one is credited to the Isley Brothers. The other side sucks but this one is a sold funky number that also features a nice organ break.
Booker T & The MGs Time is Tight. Mint copy with the cool Stax snapping fingers sleeve. You can't go wrong with any of their stuff can you?
Bob Seger System Heavy Music (PT I & II) This is a driver, another reason to totally hate Mr. Silver Bullet. Found listed under "Non Chart Northern Soul." Um, wrong.

The above discs were US$8.00. I feel as I am finally starting to get my legs under me. I have bought only one CD in 2007. Finding awesome 45s feeds the audio jones and the CD Reference System prefers 45s. The low end doesn't even compare.

I heard some bottom feeders saying that it "was starting to dry up." And that they may need to head to Chicago to find more vinyl. Good luck with that. Even scratchy 45s are US$5 here.

Lavell Hardy Don't Lose Your Groove

The mid bass and vocal proceed the great horn intro on this track. Then the mood comes down a bit. There is a solo warbley bass, with a soloed vocal over it. JBesque yelps also populate the track after this point. The tempo and the feel picks up...

Then there is a nice build into the break. The drums clatter for a few measures, then the horns come in after the mid bass. Much too short-- the song just ends. Hardy's vocal is just killing it, too. Repeat.

Women of the World, on the flip, is a song about you guessed it, women. Mr. Hardy doesn't appear to have a good track record. The vocal contains more lyrical content and the track appears to be more of a song as opposed to a band workout, like the other side of this disc. The horns are loud but a lot more buried in the mix. The bass appears to be in front of the vocs and the horns.

Jack Taylor produced and wrote both of the sides of this 45. Maybe he had bad luck with the females...

Found this record at the bottom of a pile of dusty wax. I paid a few bucks for it. I dig it, but I think I need to invest in a record cleaner. I think this disc could sound a bit better. I would like crank this one with the screen doors open.