Tag: RZA

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Friday Link Session

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  • Brendan Toller, who brought us I Need That Record!, has a new documentary in the works about musical jack-of-all-trades Danny Fields (it’s difficult to encapsulate Fields’ career because he’s done so much, but he had a hand in the careers of the Doors, Iggy Pop, the Ramones, the MC5, Lou Reed, etc.). Read about the film here and follow the production progress on Facebook.
  • In 1977, Marc Bolan (T. Rex) had a short-lived music variety show on British television. Marc ran for six episodes, kicked off with a performance from the Jam, included awkwardly-choreographed dance routines, and was overflowing with glitter and lip-syncing. Stuepfaction has gathered all six episodes for you to watch.
  • File under: Really? Here’s footage of a collaboration between Liam Ó Maonlaí of Hothouse Flowers and Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, circa the early 1990s.
  • As to collaborations that have been proven good, RZA and the Black Keys have come together again to produce a track for RZA’s upcoming directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists. You can listen to “The Baddest Man Alive” at Fuse.
  • If you’re into toys, Mike Watt has been added to the Aggronautix “throbblehead” line, which also includes the likes of Roky Erickson, J Mascis, GG Allin, Keith Morris, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Jello Biafra and more.
  • The Savage Heart, the new album from the Jim Jones Revue, is streaming at Q.
  • There’s an hour of recorded-for-television concert footage of Thelonious Monk on YouTube. This past Wednesday, October 10, would have been Monk’s 95th birthday.
  • Learn about Cleveland-born, world-famous Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in the documentary I Put a Spell on Me.
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A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: Nate Burrell

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

Inaugurating the series is photographer Nate Burrell. An Ohio boy who now makes his home in St. Louis, Nate takes primo shots of exceptional musicians, sometimes as they work the stage and sometimes away from the stage, in more relaxed moments. Regular readers will have seen some of his shots of mr. Gnome and JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, as well as his personal favorites of 2010, graciously shared on this site. Nate has his own site, Before the Blink, featuring some of his beautiful work.

And he’s just a hell of a guy. Take it away, Nate…

 

Good Read:
The Tao of Wu (by RZA) — a really solid read that has a unique way of telling a story page after page that is some parts philosophy, other parts autobiography, with a healthy dose of street knowledge, interpretations of clarity, and tales of everyday life from an extremely talented and insightful man who has certainly walked both sides of the line.

 

Good Listen:
I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die (various artists from the 1959-1960 Southern Journey Field Recordings by Alan Lomax) — Alan Lomax, who is one of the most important preservationists of American Music, turns in an absolute gem on this 15 song LP. With an extremely raw sense of capturing the soul, love, pain, and yearning from the instruments and voices of folks ranging from Pentecostal choirs to farm hands to prison groups, this album also includes the first known recordings of Fred McDowell, and also documents the first time that field songs were recorded in stereo. The quality is superb, the music is honest, and the feel of the record is timeless. Just a wonderful listen from start to finish.

 

 

Good Drink:
you can’t really go wrong with a nice and simple Whiskey & Ginger poured with a heavy hand into a rocks glass with a few ice cubes; I mean…it’s good in the summer and even tastier in the winter, so it’s got to be okay, right?

 

Photo credit: Corey Woodruff

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Bits: Conrad Plymouth, Americana Music Fest, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Plastic Ono Band, The Afghan Whigs, Ohio Hip Hop Awards, The Black Keys-ish

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  • Conrad Plymouth has another beautiful song, a demo called “They Keep Everything So Clean”, up at their Tumblr.

  • The Americana Music Festival starts up tomorrow, and if you can’t make it to Nashville for the festivities in person, npr.org will be simulcasting the awards and honors show Thursday evening, according to the Carolina Chocolate Drops Twitter account (though I have yet to find any information about it on npr.org).

  • Speaking of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, here’s a nifty mini-lesson from Dom Flemons on playing the bones.

  • The Plastic Ono Band has a pair of all-star gigs coming up in NYC on October 1 and 2. Special guests include RZA, Mike Watt, Iggy Pop, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Perry Farrell, among others.

  • Cincinnati, Ohio’s Midpoint Music Fest on September 23-25 will include a couple of Afghan Whigs-related highlights in the form of photographs by John Curley and a documentary entitled Ladies and Gentlemen: The Afghan Whigs. Details here.

  • The Ohio Hip Hop Awards and Music Conference will be hitting downtown Cleveland September 17-19. Details here.

  • And because I’m trying to get used to being a self-promoting hooer blogger, I invite you all to check out the guest post I wrote for the lovely Brucini over at the Black Keys Fan Lounge. It was an honor to be asked and a pleasure to do it.

  • I wanted to close this out with the new Flaming Lips Black Cab Session, but the embed is inoperable, so follow the link for a little delight.
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Bits: Les Savy Fav, Walkmen, Lissie, RZA, A.A. Bondy

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  • Les Savy Fav will release a new album, Root For Ruin on September 14.

  • Also dropping September 14 will be the Walkmen’s Fat Possum debut, Lisbon. The band will hit the road next month.

  • Lissie, who has been a cover song powerhouse this year, will release her first full album, Catching a Tiger, on August 17, and you can pre-order it from Fat Possum now.

  • Via RZA’s Twitter: Post a picture of yourself with the Swarm cover/logo to RZA’s Facebook for a chance to win an autographed copy of Pollen: The Swarm, Part 3. Winner will be chosen June 26.

  • NTSIB favorite and part of the inspiration for turning this blog into a reality, A.A. Bondy will be hitting the road again in October, sharing dates with his new label-mates the Walkmen.

Speaking of Lissie’s great covers, here she is doing Cleveland-native Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQMJCOT2wlQ]

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Bits: The Wu is coming through, Strummerville by Letts, the story of K Records

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  • There’s never a shortage of news from the Wu-Tang Clan, and our first four items are devoted to them. Up first: The Wu will be playing the Rock the Bells festival tour at the end of August, performing their masterpiece Enter the Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers) in its entirety. This year’s bill also includes Rakim, KRS-ONE and Slick Rick, among others.

  • Raekwon has released a new mixtape, Cocainism, Vol. 2, and you can download it here.

  • Pollen, The Swarm Part 3 is on its way, and you can download the first track, “Roll with Killer Beez”, here.

  • It was inevitable: RZA is making a kung fu film. The Man with Iron Fists was co-written by RZA and Eli Roth and will be directed by and star RZA.

  • Filmmaker Don Letts has produced a documentary about the creation of Strummerville, the foundation that carries on Joe Strummer’s work of promoting music from beyond the fray, and the DVD of the film is being sold exclusively through the Strummerville site where you can also watch a trailer for the film.

  • Pitchfork’s One Week Only feature this week is The Shield Around the K, the story of K Records, the independent label founded by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening in 1982 and still operating to this day.

And because you know I can’t let an opportunity to push the Black Keys pass, here’s a web exclusive of the guys performing the excellent “Ten Cent Pistol” during their appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week. (And you can see their televised performance of the bangin’ “Howlin’ for You” here.)

http://widget.nbc.com/videos/nbcshort_at.swf?CXNID=1000004.10045NXC&widID=4727a250e66f9723&clipID=1231142&showID=243

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Bits: This Is Jim Jones, Sleigh Bells, Trent’s new joint, Liquid Swords II, Murder by Death & whiskey, litrock, Frank the Funkasaurus Rex wrecks ya

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If you have somehow missed the puppet dinosaur craze, please meet Frank the Funkasaurus Rex. Frank loves him some tits ‘n’ tubs, and we love Frank.

Addendum: So, that scroll across the bottom? Not a joke. TBK was seriously pissed about this video. Sorry, guys. Wish I had known before.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_PrT25o8Vs]