Le Beat Bespoke 3

As mentioned a while back, upon my last visit to NYC, I made my customary stop at Rockit Scientist.

One of the items that I picked up was Le Beat Bespoke 3. I have seen the prior installments over the years, but this is the first volume that I have heard, (and purchased.)

The 20 song set starts out with "Abba" by The Paragons, which is a garage nugget that I have been familiar with for years. It is an awesome track, but seemed a tad out of place here. Seems most of the tracks are British or Continental in origin...

The good stuff that kicks it into action is track 3 "Love Me When I'm Down" by Soul Inc. The vibe continues with the very next song by the Neon Express with "Flashback." The guitar is fuzzy enough that friends of the Dick Taylor trashy sound will not be disappointed. The horns and stuff kind of kill it, but there you go.

The Ro-d-ys from Nederlands kick it with the track Looking for Something Better." Nederbiet with soaring harmonies. Not the Outsiders, but this is an airy track that has a break down that has smashing Moonesque drums accompanied by skronkity sax and smashing and gnashing of the the relatively clean guitar.

"Flipping" the disc over to the back side, Douuglas busts some craziness in the Francophonic "Si Je Buvais Moins." The guitar is nearly silenced by the level of distortion foisted upon it. the call and respinse of the organ and the guitar are excellente. Freak beat from Belgium? Oui.

Overall the juxtaposition on some of these tracks that contain both horns and symphonic elements matched with fuzz guitar is a bit shocking, but with repeated listens, I find it to be less jarring.

Some of the sonic quality is a bit specious here. "Is It Off Is It On" is an example of a very crunchy disc trying to make the transition to the digital realm. Seriously for US$30, I would expect perfectly sounding discs. Not suggesting for a moment to engage in "digital mastering" fuckery...

Still, I recommend that you find this one and crank it up on your hifi with a glass of Louis Jadot 2006 Beaujolais Nouveau. I know I did.

Here is a recent Morgan sighting in Northern IL, a rad British car to go with some rad moderne sounds.

NYC a week or so back

Greetings from fog encased IL...

As my blogging comrade, Vincent at FuFuStew, likes to say sometimes real life gets in the way, and that is definitely the case in my situation.

Hope you had a chance to listen to DJ Colonel and his set at the dub controls that I recently posted.

I went to NYC over a week ago and had some interesting adventures, some of which I will share here. First of all off the plane, I hopped into a standard issue NYC cab. I directed the driver to take me to 110 Fifth Ave (between 16th and 17th.) I spoke very clearly and the hack said that he understood. I then got deeply invloved in both email and phone calls.

A few minutes later I realized that I was not in the MidTown Tunnel and I looked out the window to see that I was on 116th Street! Quite a distance from the desired destination of the environs of Union Square!

Of course the hack said that he thought I meant 5th Ave between 115th and 116th! I corrected him, told him to turn off the meter and get on the FDR. Luckily, I sort of know my way around, otherwise this could have been a serious cluster... Welcome to NYC.

While in Gotham on unrelated matters, I was able to get over to my fave place in the East Village Rockit Scientist. As usual, John was in a talkative mood and we chatted about business, NYC and of course music. I spent some serious coin on 2 CDs, but they were worth it. I picked up the s/t Air reissue as well as Le Beat Bespoke 3. I will spill some digital ink on more in depth reviews of both soon as I am able to bust some of my work back load.

The very next night I headed out to Botanica (the former Knitting Factory) on the south side of Houston. I was able to catch Mr. Finewine's first set and that of a laptop wrangling soul slinger as well. I was able to speak with Mr. Finewine as well and I am proud to say he has visited this humble blog.
Did I mention that Botanica has reasonably priced Duvel as well?

Sorry about the pics, they were taken on my phone.

DJ Colonel in the Cratedigger Dubzone

DJ Colonel has been honing his skills way out in Bend OR. He sent me a batch of his shows, and of the ones that I have had a chance to review, his Dub Special was my fave.

Here is the tracklist:

01 Banana Walk Dub Specialist
02 Don't follow Babylon(Blood and Fire Meets Wai Wan Remix Dub Shop Stylee) Twilight Sound System and Ranking Joe
03 Rasta Dub Horace Andy
04 Dub Out Oku Onuora
05 Drive By Dub Dub trio
06 Since I Dub Aggrovators
07 Fist Of Fury Prince Jammy
08 Buck Rogers in The Black Hole Roots Radics
09 Red Shift Scientist
10 African Jumper Tommy McCook
11 Reggae Train Cornell Campbell
12 King Tubby The Dub Ruler King Tubby
13 One Armed Boxer Lee Perry
14 DJ's Choice Dennis Alcapone
15 Dub Organiser Dillinger
16 Reggae-mylitis Peter Tosh


I hope that you dig Colonel at The Controls.

Download DJ Colonel Dub Radio Spectacle HERE

The Twenty is done for now

So here is the Raleigh Twenty that I rescued a while back. I removed much of the house paint but there is still a fair amount of it left on the bike-call it patina.

I removed the rack on the back and rattle canned it a black glossy coat of Krylon, it looks much better than the half assed house paint that wa on it before. I also had a trunk bag that I got from Nashbar a while back, it seems to fit nicely.

I replaced the tubes, rim tape and tires (with Schwalbes). I also replaced the seat post with an alloy one with an integrated clamp. I repurposed an old mountain bike saddle that I had in the parts bin.

I took the bike on its' first trip this past weekend to Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. I used it to venture around the paddock, and see all of the vintage race cars.

The bike did well although the clearance between the the front tire and the mudguard stay is pretty tight. I also need to replace the grips as the originals look like they could split at any point and they really don't help reduce road shock.

Pretty psyched how it turned out so far.

The Digging And The Damage Done Take 4

I took a road trip to Wisconsin today as we are having record rains, 7 inches yesterday(!) There was a record show at my favorite haunt and I was able to scare up some great 45s.

Here is what I came up with after an hour or so of digging:

Moulty The Barbarians /Laurie This is the track where Moulty tells the story of losing his hand, this guy had prosthetic hands!!!

Inside and Out Dave Clark 5 /Epic DC5 must have been pschedelicized, because this mint disc is awesome- bordering on freak beat. Totally not what I would expect.

Hold Your Horses Jimmy Soul Clark /Moira I am sucker for anything on Moira, this one is growing on me.

Don't Tread On Me Kit and The Outlaws /Philips A recommendation from a dealer. This has two guitar breaks. Kit et al just beat a basic riff into submission.

Better Man Than I Terry Knight & The Pack /Lucky 11 I have read about Terry Knight and his escapades but have never seen a 45 for a reasonable price. I think this was was $3. A great version of this song, it also features a great break.

I'm Leaving Here The K-otics /Bang Another garage treasure, described as Kinks worshippers to me, I am not so sure.


Wade In the Water Willie Mitchell / Hi My first Willie Mitchell find. I have only listened to this side and it is an awesome instro.

Tell It Like It Is Aaron Neville /Par Lo This one was kind of weak, at least on one side, I need to bend my ears a bit more. Cool label from NOLA that I have not seen before up close.

I Can't Seem To Make You Mine The Seeds /GNP Sky Saxon, no more needs to be said.

Double o Soul Sonny Stitt /Wingate This sounds to me like the basic instro tracks used for the Edwin Starr track subsitituting Stitt's horn for Starr's vocal. The back singers also sound familiar. Songs runs on both sides.

You're Gonna Miss Me 13th Floor Elevators / International Artists The 'Vators are pictured above. I am embarrassed to say that I could not find this 45 in my record cave. At least I have a copy that I can find now- essential for anyone with ears. I read somewher that the guy behind IA is/was Leland Rogers, brother to Kenny "No when to fold 'em" Rogers. Odd that.

Come On Back The Wild Ones /Sears these dudes were on the Sears Roebuck label and have that distinctive Chi town cheesy garage sound. I had never seen this one before. It was $2.50.

He's Bad Bad Bad Betty Wright /Alston Come one a Betty Wright single in mint, I had to get it.

The Damage $50.

Since I picked up more garage records this time, I had to pay the piper. I think that I still made out OK. Some great tracks here.

A New Mix-- Cratedigger in The Garage

Any one who knows me, knows that garage is one of my fave record genres. The records are hard to find in the wild, so getting original, at least in this neck of the woods is much more of a challenge.

All of the records in this set are original 45s that I have found in garage sales, dusty junk shops, the occasional record show, or in one particular case via a mail order trade.

The sub genres are pretty well represented as well, as punk, folk, moody, bubblegum and even some borderline mod are in the mix.

Hope you dig it.

Cratedigger in The Garage Tracklist

01 I Lie Awake New Colony Six Centaur 1202
02 Try It The Ohio Express Cameo Parkway 2001
03 Believe Me The Guess Who Scepter 12131
04 Sunny Day The Stillroven Roulette 4748
05 I Told Those Little White Lies The Painted Ship Mercury 72662
06 Leavin' Here The Rationals Cameo Parkway 481 DJ Copy
07 I Cannot Stop You The Cherry Slush USA 2032
08 A Question of Temperature The Balloon Farm Laurie 3405
09 She Left Me All Alone Tidal Waves HBR 482
10 No Correspondence The Beckett Quintet Gemcor 5003

Download here.


Some notes:

New Colony Six are one of the biggest, most well known 66 Chitown punks, but in my opinion overstayed their welcome as they continued to issue 45s they sounded weaker and weaker. This is one of my favorite NC6 sides, the flip is also a winner- At the River's Edge. I can picture people grooving to this 45 at Gulliver's Pizza or something back in the day.

Moving over to the harder, more fuzzy side of garage, studio phantoms, Ohio Express do a version of Try It that is actually quite good. This has to one of the toughest sounds from Kastenetz and Katz' Super K Productions. How could you not like that fuzztone? Bubblegum was more often their sound-- Yummy Yummy and Chewy Chewy, are the more likely 45s that a digger will find in the wild. Look for this one, though. I think I paid buck for it.


66 Garage from our northern neighbor, Winipeg Manitoba, Canada, makes an appearance with Believe Me by The Guess Who. The Randy Bachman guitar work on this side will keep you coming back for more. Dig the break followed by excessive organ abuse. Yes, it is the same band that later issued the classic rock staple, American Woman. This one cost me a but at a record show.


A little more folky sound is exemplified by The Stilroven's Sunny Day, the flip to their take on Hey Joe. There is a bit of a lilt to the sound and there is a modicum of jangle, so I will say that it is sort of folky. All the way from Minneapolis. This shouldn't be too hard to find, at least here in the mighty Midwest.

Next up, is one of my all time favorite garage tracks, I told Those Little White Lies. It also has to be on any garageiste's top put down snotty punk sinlges as well. I had to pay a bit for this one, maybe $30, but it was worth every penny. It looks like these gents might have been from Vancouver, BC. You may have heard the flip, Frustration on Pebbles 7...

What can be said about the Rationals? Underrated, underappreciated??? Certainly. When I hear their take on Leavin' Here, I hear a backing vocal style that other Michiganders would co-opt into their sound, especially the Motor City 5... Great vocal harmonies and arrangement by Jeep Holland on this Holland-Dozier-Holland number. I heard that there is a proper Rats' reissue coming out, I would recommend that all reading this missive go check out.

I Cannot Stop You by The Cherry Slush is an odd duck. A killer track that has sort of a downer feel due to the lyrics and some of the sounds and effects utilized on it. I would say that in total it is less garage, but more in a mod type zone soundwise. It has a wavy guitar break. Maybe that is why it is such a DJ hit in Norway and Sweden. A Norske DJ told me that it was "wary waluable" in his homeland when he was spinning it a few years back in prep for a mod chicago set. They were from Saginaw MI, and released this on the Chicago USA label. I got my copy from Mop Top Mike a few years back. Might cost a bit more now.

Back into the fuzz with A Question of Temperature by The Balloon Farm. This track made it into the Billboard Top 40 in 68. Apparently my 45 is the original pressing since there is a typo "Tempature" is how the track is spelled on the label. Nice sound effect usage here. Don't really know much about it other than the song rips and I got it for $.25.

She Left Me All Alone is an excellent example of a moody garage song. This one is on the Hanna Barbara label. I wrote about these guys a while back, and made some wrong assumptions, which were duly corrected by others in the blogosphere.
The Beckett Quintet round it all out with a pretty common 45. I think I spent a few bucks on this one, but it is in mint.

Hope you all enjoy these tunes as much as I do. It is great to find these gems out there, hope I expanded some ears out there.

got the new parts...

The pic above, even though it gives me a headache to look at, sorry about camera phone pics in advance, shows that my shipment finally came.

I received 2 Schwalbe tires in 1.75x2, two new tubes, and an aluminium seat post with an integral seat clamp. The post should help the little bike shed a couple of pounds as the current steel post is kind of heavy as is the clamp. This post is also a little longer.

Developing...

Ugly Things #27

I have been a huge fan of the Ugly Things fanzine for 15+ years. Mike Stax puts out a great publication that still feels zine like- though it is over 200 pages and the writing keeps getting better and better.

This issue is no slouch, as it includes a feature on the 68 tour of The Who and the Small Faces Down Under.

California garage band, the Spats get the complete UT treatment with a complete history, that includes many old photos and record label scans.

One of my favorite parts of UT is working through the huge selection of reissue reviews.

In fact, due to the proliferation of blogs, I would have to say that UT is the only zine that I continue to read with regularity. Order this now!

Big Apples Do Not Fit

After an easy time mounting the tires and tubes onto the R20 rims, I threw the front wheel and alas, the mudguard stays will not clear the tires.

No big deal, right?

Except, my favorite tire source Bike Tires Direct had a massive fire and is out of commission for a while.

Apparently, the 20 x 1.75 size is a bit more difficult to find, so after much searching, I think I found some Schwalbe Marathons at Universal Cycle. Should be ordering up today.

Projects are always more involved than you think...

More Raleigh 20 info, original instruction sheet

Here is the original R2o instruction sheet.

http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/twntyinst/index.htm#pictopEach of the sections of the booklet enlarge if you click on them.)

Raleigh 20 Update

As yet another project continues to wend its' way though my life, here is the latest little bit of progress on the Raleigh 20 that I picked up a little while back.

I have been working on removing the ugly green brush paint from the frame, but it is tedious and the turpentine fumes do get to be a bit much after a while.

As such, my first sidetrack was to remove the front wheel. I took off the original 1.75X20 dry rotted tire and tube and tossed them into the trash. After some inspection, it appears that the front tire had never been removed. I ditched the factory rim strip which also looked quite virginal. I got ahold of my preferred rim tape, the cloth Velox style and stuck it on the rim, the tape looked to be made for 700c rim, so I used my trusty Swiss Army knife to make the cut.

Now here is the rub, I have some nearly new Schwalbe Big Apple Tires and tubes that I had in the cupboard from a Dahon that I upgraded. These tires are 20X2". Will they fit? I am pretty sure that they will fit the rims but as the mudguards are connected directly to the axle and not to an eyelet on the fork, I am worried that there won't be clearance between the fatter Big Apples and the mudguard stays. I will mount them up and see how it goes.

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.

A Weird Sighting

I was walking down Wabash around 1 PM today and I saw the vehicle above and below and just had to take a snap with the camera phone. It was a three wheeled vehicle about the size of a Smart Car, but was much lower. It had a fairly large trailer attached to it that was lined with solar panels. Very odd. It was starting to draw a small crowd.
Doing a search, it looks like, the company, q-cells.com is doing a world tour starting in Lucerne Switzerland. The name of the car is Smart Taxi. They have a cool photo gallery of Chicago.

Photovoltaics are definitely their specialty. Take that Prius drivers!

A New Addition to the Stable

As you can see, I succumbed to the temptation to purchase yet another old bike. This time around it is a 1972 Raleigh 20 folder. An acquaintance mentioned that he still had it available when I stepped into the LBS (local bike shop) where he works. He first mentioned it maybe 2 + years ago. I initially balked at picking it up as some tool at some point in the past had brush painted the frame. Over the ensuing couple of years I realized how hard it is to find an original complete 20.

When I went to check out the bike over the past weekend, I noticed that the paint looked like a latex paint that one may use to paint an old outdoor chair or something. I figured that I could get the paint off somehow, with some elbow grease and at the same time keep the original finish.

The bike rode and shifted well, so the deal was done and the bike came home in the Honda Fit. It is amazing how much stiffer this little bike is in comparison to the Dahons that I own. It is even more stiff than a Bike Friday that I once rode.

I have a couple of tubes and Schwalbe Big Apple tires that I plan to install at some point. At the same time, I need to replace the hardened brake pads, and I will replace the rim tape with the cloth type. I already replaced the heavy vinyl dual rail saddle with a single rail seat clamp and a lighter mountain bike saddle that I had in the stable.

After experimenting over the past couple of evenings, I think that I found the solution for removing the old paint. I tried Goo Gone, engine cleaner, but when I tried turpentine, the paint just fell off. (I am using one of those old kitchen sponges that has the green abrasive side to apply the turpentine and then using an old t shirt to remove the residual paint scrapings as well as the extra turpentine.)

See the detail pic below. You can see the chain guard and the seat stay where I have started to remove the paint.
Sometimes these things take time. Stoked to get this one back on the road!

RIP Isaac Hayes 1942-2008

You left us WAY too soon! You will be missed.

The Digging and The Damage Done Take 3

I went out to some garage sales locally and came up with the following after some HARD haggling, with a pretty mean Eastern European woman, with whom I have had some run ins in the past. I almost had to break out my broken Russian skills.

She had a nice box of records, which of course were not marked, so you know what that means.

"How much for the LPs?"

"$5!"

"No way, they go for $.25 to $1.00 at the sales around here."

So I came up with these:

The Digging

Beastie Boys "Fight For the Right..." Def Jam 45
Curtis Mayfield "Superfly" Curtom 45 Pic sleeve
Electric Prunes "Mass in F Minor LP
Jerry Garcia "S/T" Warners

The 45s were sort of beat, but I think that I can clean them up. The LPs were mint, though they are missing the paper sleeves.

The Damage

$3.00

Like I said, this lady was brutal, but I have never seen the Garcia record in the wild, pretty sure it went out of print immediately. But in the end a few bucks from me was better than nothing.

New Mix--The Waite

This mix was a ton of fun to mix live powered by Iced Tea as the humidity lays its sloppiness over the area.

The title is a reference to a family name, but it could also refer to the weight of the hunidity here as well. The cover model is my faithful pet, known as Chooch.

I tried to keep it pretty funky in general, even when the soul is in the house, I still leaned to the funky side. Many of the 45s in this baker's dozen set are DJ items with both stereo and mono mixes, in which case the mono mix was consistently selected over the stereo. Many of the discs have been on the mental want list for quite some time, so it was most excellent to finally score some of these and get to spin them for y'all.

As per usual all of these original 45s were mixed live in cratedigger labs on the 1200s.

Please leave a comment, and let me know your thoughts!

Some random notes:

• Rasputin's Stash is a great Chi band, glad to finally get a copy of one of their 45s.



• I am a sucker for Andre Williams, and the '69 track shows him in fine Chitown funky finery.



• The Charles Wright was found in a dirty pile of records recently and I was able to clean it up so that it sounds pretty good. Freaking love that quiet intro!



• Funky Meters- really swinging track there.



• Try it Again is Byrd in the funkiest. The mono mix is LOUD here. Love the horn charts over the guitar. RIP Bobby!



• Spill The Wine was a request from Heavy Soul Brutha Dave. It is a rather surreal version of said track. Lalo was the man. Killer use of Moog noodling in there.

The Waite Tracklist

01 Your Love Is Certified Rasputin's Stash (Cotillion) Mono
02 My Part Make It Funky Pt. 4 James Brown (Polydor)
03 It's Gonna Be Fine in '69 Andre Williams (Checker)
04 What Can You Bring Me Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St Band (Warners)
05 King Kong Pt.1 Jimmy Castor Bunch (Atlantic) Mono
06 Get Ready Rare Earth (Rare Earth)
07 Good Old Funky Music The Meters (Josie) Mono
08 Cold Blooded The Bar-Kays (Volt)
09 Mighty Mighty Children Pt.1 Baby Huey & The Babysitters (Curtom)
10 Here Comes The Judge Pigmeat Markham (Chess)
11 (I Got) So Much Trouble In My Mind Joe Quarterman & Free Soul (GSF)
12 Try It Again Bobby Byrd (Kwanza) Mono
13 Spill The Wine Lalo Schifrin (MGM)

Download here

A new edition to Cratedigger Labs

At long last, Cratedigger Labs, now has a Marantz. A.Toots and I were out at garage sales over the past weekend, and she saw an old stereo cabinet next to some opera records. I was hoping to find some good vinyl in the stacks, but came up empty handed.

A.Toots opened the cabinet and inside was this Marantz 2230 receiver from 72/73. Nice! I turned it on and the 30 watts and strong tuner put out a clean sound. I was able to pick it up cheap (with an old Garrard turntable with all the attachments).

I cleaned up the unit a bit and installed it in the Cratedigger office, as this is not a part of the reference system. I hooked up the 2230 with my Rega 3 turntable and my Paradigm speakers.

It sounds awesome, and it looks great too as all of the lights work, which is a rarity for old Marantz units.

New Eno and Byrne Project

Just came across this site this morning.

Always been a huge fan of the Eno / Talking Heads phase, so this will be worth checking out. They are also touring!

Never thought that this would happen.

Fuel for Cratedigger Labs-Visions of a "Modern Moonshiner"

I hate to admit it, but sometimes I drive north of the border to get beer. I am a fan of Point beer as long as it is in the returnable, refillable bottles. The car was pretty loaded down.

Visions of a "Modern Moonshiner"

I hope to have an update on some new Hifi equipment that I scored over the weekend as well.