While putting up last night's post with the Teardrop Explodes live set from 1981, I came across this solo Julian show, shot at the Ritz in NYC by MTV, in January of 1987. He was on tour at the time for his third solo album, Saint Julian. I was at this show and don't recall any cameras, but then again it was a very long time ago, and who knows where my head was at this particular evening?
Setlist
01. Trampolene 02. Pulsar 03. Eve's Volcano 04. Strasbourg 05. St. Julian 06. Sunspots 07. Non Alignment Pact 08. Bouncing Babies 09. The Greatness And Perfection Of Love 10. Bandy's First Jump 11. Shot Down 12. Spacehopper 13. Zabriskie Point 14. World Shut Your Mouth 15. Levitation
I stopped keeping up with the latest hip hop much longer ago than I'd care to admit. When I WAS into it, however, one of acts that you could not ignore at the time was Boogie Down Productions, whose Criminal Minded (1987) was certainly a stunning debut, and has definitely gone down as one of the great hip hop albums in the genre's history. That should go without saying.
Last week DJ Kenny Parker, via the Frozen Files show on East Village Radio, shared the tracks you can listen to below - BDP practice tapes from the mid-80's as they shaped what became Criminal Minded. Fascinating stuff especially in light of the fact that hip hop bootlegs (and I don't mean mix tapes) still seems to be a somewhat under-exploited thing. But hey...I could be wrong about that. Enjoy these old school beats.
This is a true document of a time and place: Two hours of ecstasy on the final two weekends at possibly the last great large underground dance club in New York City, the Paradise Garage. The quality is a little rough, but you'll get the idea. You may even start dancing. Hat tip to the Paradise Garage NYC tribute page on Facebook.
Felt live at Subterraneans, Greenock, Scotland, January 1987: Includes "Declaration" and "Riding On The Equator." The video is dark, but if you put some brightness it'll be ok. By Paul Barr & Chris Davidson.
As mentioned recently, I'm now working with James Chance and helping him out with some online stuff. One of the things James would like to do is share some rare goodies from his personal vaults. In this case, its a rare video of him performing the standard, "These Foolish Things," from a 1987 Japanese-only release. It was released under the James White & The Blacks moniker, and the album title was Melt Yourself Down.
Visit the official Facebook page for James Chance here.
A classic from 1987 directed by Alex Cox, and starring Dick Rude, Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love, and a host of other hepcats. My favorite thing about this film besides the soundtrack? Spoiler: Everyone dies.
Take a walk with Nelson Sullivan through New York's meatpacking district circa 1987. These days I refer to it as the douchebag district. For more check out his YouTube channel here.
Originally posted at The New York Nobody Sings: Merry Christmas everyone...over the next few days I'll be posting some NY-specific holiday music for everyone to enjoy. We'll start with this 1987 gem from Queens' own Run DMC. Artwork above courtesy of Tom Lambert.
Hands down this is probably the weirdest tape that I own. I came across someone’s entire collection of Smiths tapes a while back and bought them all because, even though I own them all on LP, it was like what the fuck? It’s a no brainer right, I mean it’s like a no duh situation because it’s THE SMITHS, you just got to have it.
Whatever though. I originally intended to use these as visual artifacts more than actual audio documents. However, when my girlfriend and I moved in together there were like two weeks when my records, still packed up, were un-playable. All we had was an old AM/FM stereo with a tape player. And presto: I was all, ”Wait a minute dear, let me just dig out my entire collection of Smiths tapes to get us through these challenging first few of weeks co-habitation.”
In retrospect The Smiths may have saved what has turned out to be the greatest relationship of my life. I should write Morrissey a letter, but I probably won’t because I’m not one of those fans that brings flowers to his shows and then cry all over the place when he starts playing “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.” I’m just not going out like that. But whatever, I’m not even to the point about how weird this tape is.
By the time I got around to putting Louder Than Bombs on I was pretty deep into the zone, as in like I didn’t want to listen to anything non-Smiths related at that point. So you could imagine my surprise when side two clicked on and I was all juiced to hear “Ask,” “Golden Lights,” etc. and Herb Alpert came on. Apparently whoever had owned this tape prior to me had jammed some little bits of paper into the little divots on top of the tape, thereby making it a recordable cassette. With this industriously won freedom they chose to record Herb Alpert’s 1979 jazz/instrumental pop/disco opus Rise. It was, given my circumstantial desolation, an unnerving moment for me, but I let it ride.
Rise is a pretty tight album on its own terms, a little soft here and there, but overall a pretty smooth affair. Biggy actually sampled the title cut for “Hypnotize.” So maybe you’re feeling me now. This is all kind of beside the point though. The point is that of all of the records in the world to put together why would you choose these two? I mean is this some sort of statement or is it just the mad rambling of some musical savant? The shit is post-modern. Whatever the case, this is the sort of thing that gives me hope. Of all the things in this world that there are to know you can never know them all and there is a certain beauty in that notion. This tape is somehow the realization of that very notion made physical. Many things in this world are more rare than you might realize.
Wow...my head is about to explode...I've had this on a bootleg for ages now, but completely forgot about it. Thankfully, the folks over at the Anti Records blog didn't. This is a recording of Tom Waits performing "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" by James Brown. Recorded in Toronto, 1987. Yes, please.
This post was inspired by the incredible series of originals/covers posts that Any Major Dude has been running for a while now. For the last twenty years I've been under the impression that a song called "Biting My Nails" was written by Renegade Soundwave. Their version was probably the closest thing they ever had to a hit. At least here in the States. So sleazy, menacing and bad attitudinal was their version...who else could have written it? It was tailor made for them, no? Apparently not...not at least originally.
Originally the tune was written & performed by one Genevieve Waite on the 1973 album, Romance Is On the Rise. The album was produced by her then husband, John Phillips of Mamas & Papas fame. She being his third wife. According to Wikipedia, the album was released to some critical acclaim at the time, and the artwork used a photo by Richard Avedon so there must have been a decent artwork budget.
Anyway, I only found this out a few days ago as I was visiting my friend Michael Overn. Once a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Michael took tickets, and shot video and did some lights at Danceteria here in NYC. He and some friends, including Karen Finley and Carlo McCormick also did a public access TV show. Michael pulled out a DVD and proceeded to show me an episode that was a tribute to Haoui Montaug's monthly cabaret show at Danceteria, No Entiendes (yes, this is where Madonna made her live debut in 1982 or so).
That's Haoui on the left. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Falgerho)
In this particular episode was a performance of "Biting My Nails" sung by Deb Parker & Cathy Underhill. As the song was playing, it sounded a bit "downtown New York" which was typical of the time. Sort of campy, ironic, fun...sort of like Pulsallama with a pretty hot backing band. Not much different than the original version it turns out. It didn't take long for me to recognize the tune, and realize that it preceded, by a good 3-4 years, the Renegade Soundwave version. It really sort of blew my mind.
. Artwork above courtesy of 
