King Heroin - James Brown

This is hands down one of my favorite track of all times. And here good ol' James doesn't even sing..

A very fine gentleman with excellent musical taste and also one of my best friends in the world once played this tune for me and it totally blew up my mind. A review from the records label explains it the best:

"King Heroin" is one of James Brown’s finest moments, at the time an urgently needed reality check on the growing heroin crisis swallowing much of inner city America, and appreciated today as one of the most breathtaking pieces of haunted funk and conscious soul ever released. Reissued here in all its glory and featuring the impossible to find instrumental reprise on the B-Side, “King Heroin” once again hits the streets to combat the uncertainty of post civil rights era urban malaise. Much more than a “message” record, more than a few of which James Brown & company put out with preachy fervor, "King Heroin" holds no bars in its blunt reviews of addiction and its painful fall-out, all from a man who himself struggled with the beast inside for decades. Beyond the sweet irony remains one of the most disturbing and starkly beautiful downtempo soul records ever, a perfect encapsulation of a lost era only dreamt of in weak blaxploitation Technicolor vision today. An essential piece of eternal soul history'

For years i tried in vain to buy it on vinyl, till this one day while i was living in Brixton (my friend sheltered me over there for months for which i will never be grateful enough) and i got to find a copy in rather good condition in some record store. I didn't have the money on me but i asked the guy to please keep it and promised to be back for it just the very next day. So,.. the day after i run to the shop and... dude is not there and record is not there either. 'What the hell?!' i said, but it didn't change the fact that my record was gone.

Now, a few years later i just happened to find another copy on eBay, at last!!!. The cover was slightly damaged but the record seemed to be in pristine condition so i didn't think it twice and just bought it.

Man, i don't have much.. not a property, not a car.. not even a bike! (it got stolen just the other nite in fact).. but i have my beloved James Brown/king Heroine Polydor 1972 vinyl record. So just in case, If someone is entertaining the idea of putting hands on it he best start considering to live without 'em. And i mean.

A masterpiece of a song by the hardest working man in heaven. Dedicated to here mister Roger Bascho-George, my GURU. You are very missed around and indeed i love you like cooked food.

Cristo Redentor

A Duke Pearson original, and what a great one. Used (stolen?) along with some of Keith Nordine's reading (yeah the man in the previous blog entry) for the soundtrack of a student's project back in San Francisco, late 60's.

May you be wondering..No, i'm not gonna post a link to the short film in question cause brutaly honest it just bored me to death.. too bad for such a dreamy and beautiful tune.

Take your pick, Here in Harvey Mandel's version:

..and here in Donald Byrd's one.




Enjoy it gentlemen. And us ladies, we shall enjoy it too.

Ken Nordine

What a voice.

In case you're not familiar with him here Tom Waits can tell you the best:

"Ken Nordine, yea I know that guy, I heard his voice 1000 times, he's the guy in the bus station that says "go ahead I'll keep an eye on your stuff for you," and you see him the next day walking around town wearing your clothes. He broadcasts from the boiler room of the Wilmont Hotel with 50,000 watts of power. I know that voice, he's the guy with the pitchfork in your head saying go ahead and jump, and he's the ambulance driver who tells you you're going to pull thru. He's the guy in the control tower who talked you down in a storm with a hole in your fuselage and both engines on fire. I heard him barking thru the Rose Alley Carnival strobe as samurai firemen were pulling hose. Yea he's the dispatcher with the heart of gold, the only guy up this late on the suicide hotline. Ken Nordine is the real angel sitting on the wire in the tangled matrix of cobwebs that holds the whole attic together. Yea Ken Nordine, he's the switchboard operator at the Taft Hotel, the only place in town you can get a drink at this hour. You know Ken Nordine, he's the lite in the icebox, he's the blacksmith on the anvil in your ear."

-Tom Waits

Cheval Sombre 'I Found It Not So'

Cheval Sombre.

ANY day of the week. And i mean it.

I got to see him on stage last year, just by casualty. This music mag i used to work for sent me to cover a Festival called Tanned Tin where he'd play along with Spectrum, Dean&Britta,..the Black Lips (..No i cant see the logic on this bit of the lineup either..).

You know, it was one of these times when you think you're just gonna take the typical hit&run pictures of some bands you already shot but lucky enough some unexpected whoever totally blows up your mind. Now that whoever is in my opinion one of the most talented musicians i've ever got the chance to see live in a long long.. very long time.

Damn i even send him Christmas gifts in handmade packages. And hey, you can bet i don't do such a thing for hardly anyone.

No fun city

..hum i think i might be going to Vancouver one of these days..



i smell GOOD pictures.

Honkeyfinger - Running on Empty

I'm gonna shoot this fine gentleman.

Well his doesnt know it yet. But he will.



Go Go John.

WINTER'S BONE (the movie)

Daniel Woodrell is a fucking genius. I DO hope the movie is up to his book or we're gonna have some serious trouble here..

Stay tuned, coming over very very soon..

Rapid Eye Movement

R.E.M. is is my humble (and sometimes not so humble) opinion one of the best bands in this face of earth. AND Michael Stype is one of the most interesting frontmen ever. If you ask me who i'd like to put in front of my camera if i could posibly choose anyone in this world he would be up there on the list any day of the week. Period.

There's this documentary called 'This is not a show' (Vincent Moon, 2008) that shows them playing at the Olympia theater in Dublin, i got to watch it last year at the In-edit music films festival and one thing i can say about it is that even if it turned out to be a bit too much of a 2 hours '..man i'm so conceptual i'm so artistic i'm so so damn cool filming videoclips i'm gonna jerk off on my own magnificence' exercise from Moon truth is that musically speaking is a great chance to see the band on a five nights public rehearshal which they recalled as an 'experiment in terror' BUT lucky enough makes a wicked compilation of a number of kick ass live performances of some of the tracks that would end up being in their album 'Accelerate' and later on at the double record 'Live at the Olympia'.

Check it out or loose something good. Up to you.

R.E.M. - THIS IS NOT A SHOW - TRAILER


Now, in the meantime here they go 3 of my favourite R.E.M. songs. Or in another of these sweet as poisoned candy twists.. 'if you dont like them, go get yourself a brand new pair of ears on ebay cause dude you must be deaf as fuck'.

Amen.


R.E.M. - Drive (Milan 2008)



R.E.M. - Until The Day Is Done ('This is not a show', 2008)



R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts (Live at Glastonbury 2003)


Otto, va por usted. (ya le dije que le había robado la idea ; )

Felix ZEE visionaire

i used to live with his brother Florian.. and he came over for a visit and ended up staying with us for like half a year after which he eventually was sort of kicked back to Berlin. Long, very long story. And then at some point Florian followed that way and we eventually lost track of each other.

Felix could sometimes give you the impression of being dumb as a goddamn rock but he was a very smart guy, his way. He used to have horrible nightmares nearly every night but was such a sweet person to have around, like if he wouldnt let that shit turn him down. He was definately living somewhere out of this world, dont ask me where..

Last thing i heard about him was that he was about to marry old friend and former german tv star 'Supermommy' (just in case u cant picture her, think of a HUGE version of Oprah Winfrey)

crazy huh..

I wonder whats been of their lifes and stuff all along these years. Folks are some of the most genuine people i have ever met in my entire life. Fuck. I miss them.

Bill Withers

One day i will play this song for someone worthy, not the usual 'i know i'm wasting my time on this son of a bitch who couldnt care less about me'. Positive thinking, that's how this is called.



And maybe, if that's true that luck exists, i'll even take a picture of the fine gentleman singing it.

Life would be a complete piece of shit without Bill Withers in it. And that my friends, is a fact.

Crush matters. The spice of life, you know.

In the last couple of days two different people whose only connection is probably being friends of mine and also proficient at shaving their incipient morning beard just told me exactly the same two things: 1. That they split with their long time sweethearts and 2. That they fell in love again. With another subject, i mean.

Ha. I reckon that's just a clear and undeniable sign of pure good ol' school fortune. Damn, and i'm really glad for them.

Let's entertain a minute trying to find an answer to the following question: whats better than feeling your blood running through your veins everytime you just cross with that particular whoever? Hum. Maybe my homemade cocktails. But now thinking.. nah, not even then. And oh boy, they ARE good.

Right. This is a song for those ones who just found out that there're still matches in hand and wood in the oven. Congratulations you bastards. I'm happy for you.

Tyler Ramsey - "A Long Dream"

i stumbled into this gentleman of remarcable talent the other night while watching the movie i talked about just below. The fine tune in the following video is actually part of its OST (which is in fact a very good source of GREAT music, so in the future i'll probably try to burn your ear with recurrent mentions to it. Please note that you ARE just being warned and dont act all surprised later, right?..)

..aint it good? Go pay him a visit goddamnit.

www.tylerramsey.com

The Vicious Kind

My friend Otto told me the other day that he linked my blog to his, he just wanted to gimme a hand with getting my work some exposure. (which is greatly appreciated btw). Now he was wondering.. 'are you gonna fucking BLOG every once in a year or what?. Well those werent his exact words but.. in essence that's pretty much what he meant, so.. lets stick to it.

In the meantime (till i find something so unbelievably intelligent to say).. this is a movie i watched the other night. Is in fact one of the best films i watched in a while,.. i later read that someone said about it something like 'there's a lot of hurting in it, and a lot of healing too'. I agree. And some great characters too, so.. go have a look. Adam Scott totally nails it and I think it kicks ass. Or as we say in Spain, es cojonuda.

Ah, just one more thing.. never trust anyone who says that swearing is rude. Swearing is actually an art and he must certainly be an uptight prick. Screw him. Or her.

Hope you enjoy the movie.

Some people make me wanna buy a gun

Apparently we live in a world where a woman can be accused of adultery even if she was raped AND therefore be largely punished to end up stoned to death. Awesome.

And then if you call them barbarians they say you're disrespectful with their culture & tradicions. Yeah what-e-v-e-r.

FUCKING CUNTS you are.


Read about it HERE (english)
HERE (english)

HERE (spanish)

William de Vaughn for president..

..of the sweet jams.

Good mood guaranteed.

interviewed by LAMONO magazine

My two seconds of fame. I like this people and you should TOO.

Its in Spanish so if you aint got a damn clue about what i'm saying just drop me a line (..and i'll give you a fake translation making myself look way waaaaay cooler) Ha.

Btw flattering emails are always welcome which means.. dont be shy. In fact you will probably make my day.

Billie Holiday - Foolin' Myself

..a good friend told me that i should maybe start writing something about this and about that. 'It'd be kinda.. 'therapeutic' i think he said. It sounded good enough.

Now i guess this one is as good or bad as any other night to start with it, so.. here it goes. And instead of some long and complex story i'm just gonna go to the basics, yeah? Not a good day, nah. Not even a good year. Not entertaining the idea of jumping off the bridge yet though.

Let' s see what's in the cards.