"Well I say it's just smoke"

Two posts in two days?! Blimey!

Haven't done this in a bit, but this is well worth dusting off the old SOTW trophy for...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Various Artists - Firecracker EP 03 (Firecracker)

Okay, before the pedants have a shit-fit, I'm fully aware that this was released last week. I was a bit slow on it though. I picked it up today and wanted to bring it to your attention. This is a three-track EP (four tracks if you count the skit at the beginning of side B) that's just come from out of nowhere to be, according to Piccadilly Records, "THE underground hit of the summer". They're waxing hyperbole of course, but this is insanely good.

On the flip, there are two wildly different tracks from Linkwood and Fudge Fingas and His Fidgety Friends (no, I'm not making this up), the Linkwood one being a deep, soulful downtempo number, while Fudge Fingas and co. weigh in with a nice reggae mini-jam. The A-side is where it's at though. Linkwood Family's 'Peace Of Mind' is a smart, tricksy, party-starting discoid banger, full of soul-drenched, choral vocal snippets, a killer b-line and an overall good-time vibe that's impossible to resist. Get it while you can as it's extremely limited. You won't regret it.


And now for something completely different... Having all but cut American indie rock out of my diet after a succession of disappointing albums from some of the scene's leading lights (Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Wilco et al), along comes a new Sunset Rubdown album to renew my faith. However, Random Spirit Lover just highlights how special a songwriter Spencer Krug really is and how most of the more highly regarded mopes have nothing on him.

Krug can melt your heart with grotesquerie and that's no mean feat. Say what you will about Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes frontman whom Krug is said to imitate by some), but I find his songs to be too studied and calculated, whilst Krug exudes a charm and a feel for instinct that Mercer lacks. Songs like 'Winged/Wicked Things' and 'The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life' display a carefree, childlike spirit that elevates Krug above most, if not all his peers. Now I'm really looking forward to that Wolf Parade follow-up.

Sunset Rubdown - Winged/Wicked Things (mp3)

In other news: I am owning High Voltage this week, with five (count 'em!) reviews on the front page. Click through to find out what I think of albums by GoodBooks, The Strange Death Of Liberal England and Chicane and singles from The Cribs and Lightspeed Champion.

Laters,

JMx

"My heart beats for the one I love"

Just a coupla things today, kids. I'll have to start pulling my finger out a bit when it comes to posting, both here and over at No Flipping! It's not like I've gone off music and TV or owt, I'm just too darned bone idle to write about them. Anyways, enough apologising...


The venerable Bill Brewster (DJ History) has recently put together the marvellous Capitol Disco CD that compiles 31 tracks from the Capitol archive that all have a disco vibe. Stretching the point a little to call them all pure disco (some are more obviously soul and funk), but that doesn't stop it from being top-notch. There are uncovered gems from Margo Thunder ('Expressway To Your Heart'), Mystic Merlin ('Sixty Thrills A Minute') as well as some more well-known tracks like Rance Allen Group's 'Peace Of Mind', Diana Ross' 'Work That Body' and Minnie Riperton's 'Adventures In Paradise'.

The one track that really made my jaw drop to the floor though was the second disc opener, 'Twilight' by Maze & Frankie Beverly. One of those "Wow, where have you been all my life" moments. Totally cosmic and out-there, it's most definitely a pre-cursor to all the space disco stuff that's floating about at the moment. Nice and trippy with some seriously warm synths and percussion, it's absolute dynamite.

Maze feat. Frankie Beverly - Twilight (mp3)

Gloria Jones - Windstorm (mp3)

The line-up for this year's Dpercussion has been announced and it's a bit... boring, shall we say? See for yourselves. I'm not surprised that it's going to be the last one and while there's a part of me that will miss it, I'm also hoping that some other promoter takes it on under a different name and manages to nail it next year. I'll be there though and it looks like I'll be dividing my time between the Arches, Barca and Sketch City stages.

My tips for people worth seeing; Elektrons on the main stage should be fun. Haven't seen them live yet but I love the album and am interested to see how well they reproduce it in a live setting. Also, the Best Foot Forward boys are on at Sketch City and they're always pretty decent. I'll probably be checking out FC Kahuna at the Arches too, purely for curiosity reasons and the same goes for the proposed Broadcast DJ set at Barca. As the night draws in and if I haven't got bored of dodging scallies and pissed off to a bar nearby, it's a toss-up between Norman Jay and James T. Cotton (aka Dabrye of Spectral Records). I think Norman might just win that one though, especially seeing as it's at the Arches, the scene of one of my favourite all-time Dpercussion moments when Mr Scruff rocked it about five years ago.

I'll see you down there then. No stalking me though, you hear?

I'm posting this because I heard it out last night and I'd forgotten how good it was. Jon The Beef should appreciate this one too.

Taana Gardner - Heartbeat (mp3)

"Here come the hot-steppah!"

In other news: I'm on the latest Blog Fresh Radio show, repping for the spectacular Sorcerer album. Also, in case you missed my guest spot on the Makin' Music Show on Monday, there's a convenient mp3 of it for you to download over at Niles and Baggy's Cosmic Disco blog. It was a fun experience, one that the guys are being kind enough to let me repeat at some point in the future. Watch out for that.

Oh, and I've continued re-posting the mixtape week, with Friday's edition. Live for another month for your listening pleasure.

Over and out,

JMx

Fractured musings on a Sunday night.

Hello,

Haven't got loads to say tonight, but just wanted to drop in mainly to remind you to listen to me on t'internet wireless tomorrow night. Unity Radio, 10pm-midnight, guesting on Niles and Baggy's Makin' Music Show (them of Cosmic Disco fame). I'm playing some tunes and talking about my favourite subject, myself. Only joking, I'm not quite that conceited.

Also, I'm re-upping the whole of May's Mixtape Week, one-by-one, due to popular demand (aren't I good to you?). Click for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday still to come. Watch this space.

I know very little of Blitzen Trapper, other than the fact that the blogs and webzines are all over them. I've heard the album and it went in one ear and out the other, but I didn't form any kind of distaste for them. That all changed when I read this Pitchfork article in which the singer lists his favourite stuff. Just pseudo-hipster bullshit. "Oh, I don't listen to music really. Also, I don't have a TV. My art suffers if I engage with the world too much, blah, blah, fucking blah". So studied and forced. I hate this kind of shit. Get involved with life or stop stealing our oxygen yer waste of fucking space. End of rant.

Watch this video of Talking Heads live in Rome in 1980. Best band ever. Makes me want to go back in time and see them for myself. I saw David Byrne a few years ago and he was great but I hope that one day, they do the old reform thing that seems so de rigeur these days. It'd have to be this incarnation of the band though, with Adrian Belew, Bernie Worrell, Nona Hendryx, Busta Jones et al. One can dream.

Watch The Wire, morons!

Here's a tune from that D-I-R-T-Y Space Disco compilation on Tigersushi...

Odyssey - Who (mp3)

That's all folks!

JMx

"I'm a union man now, all the way."

Hi!

Sod all this new music crap...


Okay, gun to my head, forced to choose or die, The Band's second album - the self-titled brown one - is my favourite album of all time. I'm posting about this now, rather than, say, two years ago because if I hadn't made the snap decision to pick this up to take to work this morning, somebody would have been killed and I would be in jail.

Yup, The Band saved the life of one of my co-workers (doesn't really matter which one, any of them could have got it today I was that wound up), not that they know. It's a testament to a record that I've lived with for about the last ten years or more that I still get that prick of excitement the minute the mournful horns that open 'Across The Great Divide' strike up and Richard Manuel intones "Standing by your window in pain, a pistol in your hand" like a man with the weight of many a world on his shoulders. Every minor little thing that's stressing me out just falls away at that point and I lose myself in this timeless music once again.

I remember my first encounter with this album was the Classic Albums documentary on it and just being enraptured both with The Band's music and their story. Arguably the tightest, most accomplished band of their time (of all-time, maybe), they also had their fair share of tough times and tragedies, most of which occurred after The Band had split. Co-vocalist and pianist, Manuel committed suicide in 1986 at the age of 42, while fellow vocalist and bass player, Rick Danko died from heart failure in 1999 at 56, following a long battle with drug addiction that he'd recently kicked.

Their eponymous 1969 album stands, in my opinion at least, as their finest work. In fact, even though the albums that followed all had reasons to recommend them, it was their last great record and doubles up with their 1968 debut, Music From Big Pink as one of the most formidable opening one-two punches of any band ever. Fusing country, rock 'n' roll, folk, r&b and soul in their own inimitable style, this record also acts as a retrogressive document of a bygone American era.

I'm not Greil Marcus, so I'm not about to analyse the album's core themes, but I will say that the 'old-timey' feel of the album - for want of a better descriptor - is intoxicating and enveloping (just try to sing along to 'Jemima Surrender' without mimicking Levon Helm's Arkansas inflections). Anyway, whatever, this is one of those albums that I believe everyone should own and cherish, as I have. The Band: it calms your murderous instincts.

The Band - Whispering Pines (mp3)

The Band - King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (mp3)


Another album from 1969 that helped me through a particularly hellish day today was The Flying Burrito Brothers' debut, The Gilded Palace Of Sin (spotting a trend?). Gram Parsons was a god, 'Hot Burrito #1' makes me weak at the knees (we've all been there, haven't we?) and this album is just the tits. That's all I have to say.

What?!

Sometimes you just have to let the music speak for itself...

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Hot Burrito #1 (mp3)

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Do Right Woman (mp3)


And finally, as you can see from the above pic, I'm DJing at Get Girl. Kill Baddies. Save Planet again next month. It's shaping up to be a good one, with an arse-load of bands and DJs all doing their stuff between the hours of 2pm and midnight on Sunday 12th August. It's at The Roadhouse on Newton Street and, oh well, just look at the poster! How could you not want to come to that?!

Get in touch if you want cheap guestlist. Plug, plug, plug...

A couple more shameless plugs...

I'm on Unity Radio on Monday night, guesting on the rather fine Makin Music Show, between 10pm and midnight. The show is hosted by the guys from the also pretty darned great Cosmic Disco blog, so expect the unexpected. Should be good fun, if nothing else.

Also, I'm on this week's Blog Fresh Radio talking about that Italians Do It Better After Dark compilation.

And definitely finally, read my review of Spoon's new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, over at High Voltage.

Hasta luego,

JMx

"We may have fought with teeth and nails, I still recall your banking details"

Because you can't go out every Saturday night and you sometimes have to find things to do rather than subjecting yourself to shite Saturday night telly, I've decided to do some blogging. And for once, it's not a mixtape!


Sorcerer has got some minor love on this page in the past year-or-so, but for those who weren't paying attention, here's the skinny. Sorcerer is one man, Californian Daniel Saxon Judd (ooh, double-barrelled!), who used to be in twee synth-poppers, Call And Response (remember them? Probably not) and also happens to be one-half of Windsurf with Hatchback (him of the barnstorming Prins Thomas mix for 'White Diamond'). That's not important right now though, because what is important is that Sorcerer has just released one of the albums of the year, White Magic on the can-do-no-wrong Tirk imprint.

Musically, White Magic is pitched somewhere between the Balearic kraut-pop of Studio and Lindstrom & Prins Thomas' soft-rock acknowledging soundscapes but it inhabits a little universe all of its own, with recurring motifs and a palpable sense of location (this is most definitely a coastal record) that sets it apart from the rest of the cosmic crowd. Some of you will already know the single, 'Surfing At Midnight' with its warm swathes of Rhodes and choppy/laidback guitars, but there's plenty more here to fall in love with/to.

The lapping wave samples that open 'Divers Do It Better' sets the scene (the sun's going down, you're on a blanket with your beloved, or maybe you're just under the pier waiting for the mescaline to kick in so you can take on those crabs that tried to steal your stash last night) and the album finds its groove from the get-go. 'Airbrush Orgasm' is all vintage synths and evocative melodics and is easily one of the album's most 'hyper' moments, although that term doesn't really apply here. The funk guitar that pervades 'Surf Wax' seems destined to soundtrack a campfire-lit beach party (like the one in The Karate Kid, only with more beards and less Ralph Macchio), while the subtle house textures of closer 'Popsicle Orange' take us through to the dawn with a smile on our faces and sand in our underpants.

So yeah, the nu-disco mafia have ushered forth another great release, as White Magic follows Yearbook 1, Miss Diamond To You and Cosmo Galactic Prism into the rapidly expanding canon. Just don't forget to pack your trunks.

Sorcerer - Tennis (Game, Set, Patch) (mp3)

Sorcerer - Popsicle Orange (mp3)


Yes! Super Furry Animals are back with their eighth studio album, Hey Venus!, an impervious collection of classic Super Furries pop songs. Yeah, it might be a little on the slight side and it's nowhere near as adventurous or bold as they used to be as recently as Rings Around The World in 2001, but honestly, is there a band that's better at this kind of thing than SFA?

I think not and this album showcases the band's talent for melody and harmony in such a clear, concise way that only the most stern among us could deny its brilliance. Bright, breezy and addictive, Hey Venus! is another great album by possibly the greatest indie-pop band that Britain has to offer right now and that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter.

Super Furry Animals - Neo-Consumer (mp3)

Super Furry Animals - Carbon Dating (mp3)

That's it for now. That killed half-an-hour.

JMx

Mixtape, sir?: Crispy as my man Bill Blass.

After this one, I'm going to take a break from the mixtapes for a week or so, as I don't want to bombard you with them. There are more to come though so stay tuned (no flipping?).

I've just realised that, apart from the samples in the Major Force West and Burial tracks, there isn't a single female voice on this mixtape. Apologies for the unintended neglect of the fairer sex.



YER MAM!'S BIG SUMMER MIXTAPE BLOWOUT! VOLUME FIVE

1. King Midas Sound - Surround Me (From the recent Soul Jazz dubstep comp, A Box Of Dub, the emphasis on this tune is most definitely on the dub, not the (2-) step. This is some seriously chest-rattling stuff, but with an irresistibly soulful vocal. This scene is so good right now...)
2. Burial - Shutta (...So let's investigate some more. From the Ghost Hardware EP - a former Single Of The Week, nonetheless - this is more of the clattering, menacing, thoroughly urban sound that Burial is immersed in. Thrilling, inventive and addictive.)
3. Shackleton - Naked (The Skull Disco imprint seems to be ploughing its own furrow in the dubstep subgenre and this is highly indicative of their trademark approach. There are spaghetti western touches in the melodica flourishes, an urgent, paranoid house-y piano and, best of all, some big ol' bass drops, the kind of which could make buildings collapse.)
4. Saul Williams - Black Stacey (Deadbeat Remix) (Bizarrely showing up as a bonus track on Deadbeat aka Scott Monteith's latest album, Journeyman's Annual, this breathes new life into the best track off Williams' last long-player. Dubby, hazy and spooky.)
5. Major Force West - Cup Of Tea (Anyone know what happened to the guys from Major Force West? They were hipper than hip around the late-90s when James Lavelle and the Mo' Wax crowd held them up on a pedestal as forward-thinking producers, then nothing. If you know where they are, their mothers are very concerned.)
6. Dr. Octagon - Blue Flowers ("Paramedic foetus of the east, with priests, I'm from the church of the operating room". Welcome to the diseased, brilliant brain of 'Kool' Keith Thornton.)
7. Wu-Tang Clan - I Can't Go To Sleep (feat. Isaac Hayes) (Word has it there's a new Wu album due later in the year. I'll believe it when I hear it and, if it's true, it had better be great because they're overdue a great album. The W is about the closest they've come since the debut and this is still my favourite tune from it, if only for Ghostface doing his rhyming/crying thang.)
8. Redman - Wuditlooklike (From Red's finest hour, Dare Iz A Darkside, this Funkadelic-inspired cut is a great reminder of the guy's wit and skills.)
9. Blahzay Blahzay - Danger Part 2 (Blahzay are one of the forgotten 90s NY hip-hop crews, mostly because they only recorded one album, a 12" and then disappeared. Don't forget just how tight rappers they were and their ear for a great beat show through on this track from their only full-length, Blah Blah Blah.)
10. Naughty By Nature - Uptown Anthem ("WRECKIN' CREW!!!" This tune will always remind me of the film, Juice, one of my teenage favourites.)
11. Main Source - Live At The Barbeque ("It's like that y'all.... And that's all!" We're really breaking out the old school hip-hop jams today. Nas' first recorded verse, am I right? Probably not.)
12. Rawcotiks - Hardcore Hip Hop (DJ Premier Mix) (Definitely one of my all-time top Premier productions, this has all his patented touches in one smoking hot, KRS-sampling package.)
13. Pharoahe Monch - When The Gun Draws (feat. Mr. Porter) (Something new now from Pharoahe's Desire album. He tells a history of violence from the viewpoint of a bullet here, which isn't very original but the rhymes are inventive all the same.)
14. Clipse - Wamp Wamp (What It Do) (feat. Slim Thug) (I don't think I've put this on a mixtape before and it's one of those tunes that just keeps getting better with each listen. Also, the "It cools to a tight wad, the pyrex is Jewish" line still makes me smile.)
15. Dizzee Rascal - Bubbles (Some may baulk at the inclusion of Dizzee amongst such exalted company but the hell with them. This rocks!)
16. Edan - Funky Voltron (feat. Insight) (As does this. Don't hate.)
17. Method Man - Bring The Pain (The Wu, Redman and Meth all on the same mixtape? I'm spoiling you guys! Classic banger.)
18. Jaylib - Raw Shit (feat. Talib Kweli) (The Jaylib album, Champion Sound has recently been reissued so it's a timely chance to reassess it. Well, it still doesn't hang together all that well but this track is still fine and better than anything off Kweli's latest record.)
19. Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Do Me Gurl (feat. Ty of Ty & Kory) (Something soulful to top things off. The new Sa-Ra album, The Hollywood Recordings has really crept up on me to the point where it may well be one of my most-played from this year. A little too long and nothing entirely new from them but they're really mastering that sound of theirs now.)

Yer Mam!'s Big Summer Mixtape Blowout! Volume Five, Ripped, Zipped and Mediafired

Kool Keith image from here.

JMx

Mixtape, sir?: Whispering words that scream of outrageous sin.

I'm not exactly posting at what you could call regular intervals but I get there in the end. I blame the horrible weather for making me more slothful than usual. Come on! Summer's not supposed to be like this!

Oh yeah, I'm using Gigasize today on the advice of one of my commentors. Hope it works for you all...


YER MAM!'S BIG SUMMER MIXTAPE BLOWOUT! VOLUME FOUR

1. Misha - Scars (Walking that precarious line between charming and twee, 'Scars' ultimately charms with that impossibly good-natured brass break. Lovely.)
2. Seu Jorge - Bem Querer (Soulful stuff from the one-time Knockout Ned. Deserves sunshine and beaches but rain-soaked Manchester suburbia will have to do.)
3. Caribou - Sundialing (I'm starting to think of this as a low-key cousin to 'All My Friends' with its repetitious guitar line and gently pounding drums. It's the cousin that's out of his gourd on psychedelics, naturally.)
4. Metalchicks - Tears For Fears/Conspiracy (You know when people say "It's like nothing I've ever heard" about a song or album, then you listen only to spot the influences straight off the bat? Well, you really won't have heard anything like this before. Disco-metal, only about as far removed from 'Danger! High Voltage!' as it's possible to be whilst still actually being a piece of music.)
5. Dolly Parton - Jolene (Peter Visti Edit) (It had to happen sometime. I'm just surprised that it's taken the disco edit mafia this long to give Dolly's classic sexual jealousy tale a Balearic makeover. This cut from the latest in the Mindless Boogie series is pure Visti, with those trademark phased synths and the new look suits her.)
6. Wild Rumpus - Musical Blaze Up (Rub 'N' Tug Bitches Remix) (After picking this for the recent Blog Fresh Radio summer mixtape thingy, I thought I'd stick it on here too. It's called synergy, people!)
7. Henrik Schwarz & Ame & Dixon - Where We At? Part 2 (Body Language Version) (Yet another slightly different take on this track, built around Derrick Carter's modern classic. Old news for the techno heads out there, maybe, but I love the way you can tell which parts were added by each of the protagonists. A dance music brain trust at work.)
8. Chromatics - Hands In The Dark (Icily romantic cover of the Dark Day tune that graces the Italians Do It Better label comp, After Dark. Modern disco with a retro grounding.)
9. Sheila E. - A Love Bizarre (This might as well be Prince's track as he's all over it like a bad shirt. Not that he'd ever wear one. A bit overlong perhaps at 12 minutes-plus, but as I've said many times before, you can never have too much Prince.)
10. Amerie - Crush (Amerie's new long-player, Because I Love It is easily one of the best pop albums of the year, but this is one that I keep going back to. Amerie reins in the vocal histrionics for a brilliantly underplayed, subtle approach and it leads to one of the best pop ballads I've heard in about, well, forever. Lush!)
11. Queens Of The Stone Age - Make It Wit Chu (Re-worked but not entirely different from the Desert Sessions take (it's only really missing PJ Harvey), it's proof that Josh Homme is a great soul singer trapped in a kickarse rocker's body.)
12. Keith Murray - The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World (It's great to hear a hip-hop love song that doesn't make you want to throw up, but I've had to go back to 1994 to dig one up. An almost-forgotten classic.)
13. Erykah Badu - Bag Lady (Cheebah Sac Radio Edit) (I posted this on its own a while back but I thought I'd bring it back to close this one out. The best thing she's ever done in my opinion.)
    

Yer Mam!'s Big Summer Mixtape Blowout! Volume Four, Ripped, Zipped and Gigasized

In other news: read my fawning review of the Daydream Nation Deluxe Edition at High Voltage.

Back soon with more free music for everyone!

JMx

Mixtape, sir?: Right-on and Righteous!

A heady brew of soul, funk and rock 'n' roll for y'all tonight, with added weirdness along the way...


YER MAM!'S BIG SUMMER MIXTAPE BLOWOUT! VOLUME THREE

1. Glissandro 70 - Bolan Muppets (Sparse, bewitchingly minimal (sort of) indie from Glissandro 70 that acts as a great atmosphere-setter. Ominous, yet alluring.)
2. Dungen - Familj (Acid-fried psyche from the Swedes who'll I'll admit to not really 'getting' until the new album, Tio Bitar. Great Bonham-aping drumwork too.)
3. Serge Gainsbourg - Requiem Pour Un Con (Sampled on many a hip-hop track, most notably by MC Solaar, the original's still the best and the funkiest. Pass the Gitanes.)
4. Big Barney - The Whole Thang (Superb obscure funk-rock about pigging out, with added vinyl pops and crackles for authenticity.)
5. Betty Davis - Anti-Love Song (A recent discovery for me, the former Mrs. Miles Davis' voice is one of the great, unalloyed, carnal pleasures there is in the whole funk canon. When it all comes together in writhing hedonism at the end it will slay you.)
6. Marsha Hunt's 22 - (Oh No! Not) The Beast Day (Carrying on the theme of famous musicians' former squeezes, here's a riotous little groover from the mother of Mick Jagger's first child, Karis. More than just a groupie though, Hunt was a great artist in her own right. mostly through her association with Marc Bolan. Great stuff.)
7. Map Of Africa - Snake Finger ("I'm the king of this disco, baby" wails Harvey as he and Thomas Bullock brew up a slinky, hip-shimmying blues-rock groove from MOA's coveted, self-titled debut album. The pay-off of "Hey babe, you got five bucks?" is hilarious too.)
8. Chris Bell - Get Away (Big Star's tragic figure, Chris Bell's only solo album, I Am The Cosmos, released 14 years after his death in a car accident is essentially just a compilation of his 70s recordings but the whole thing hangs together so well it's easy to forget that. 'Get Away' is a rambunctious rocker, laden with spooky reverb and anchored by Bell's impassioned vocal.)
9. Chicago Transit Authority - I'm A Man (Okay, I'm not trying to disguise it. Everyone knows that they eventually dropped the Transit Authority and became one of the world's biggest soft-rock groups. The band who went on to inflict 'If You Leave Me Now' on the world used to be a wild jazz-fusion group and this cover of the Spencer Davis Group classic is as funky as they ever got. Drum solo!)
10. Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown (C'mon, this one needs no introduction.)
11. The Chocolate Watchband - Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In) (One of the joys of listening to the original Nuggets box set is trying to pinpoint which band(s) these early punks were ripping off. This one's pure Rolling Stones from the Keith Richards-esque overdriven blues riffing to the Jagger-isms of the vocal. Brilliant though, despite how derivative it is.)
12. Black Lips - My Struggle (Newie from Atlanta, GA's finest scuzzball garage monkeys, this is a fleet-footed, poppy number about fleeing in a "Nissan truck". I can definitely think of more glamourous ways to do a runner.)
13. The Dirtbombs - I'm Through With White Girls (Arguably the best of all the garage revivalists, this cut from Dangerous Magical Noise is more Glitter Band than The Sonics, but if those big ol' drums don't get you on the floor then you better check your pulse.)
14. Jay Reatard - Nightmares (Reatard makes great pop songs and layers them in oodles of fuzz and plays them fast as fuck. It's a trick that works every time though.)
15. The White Stripes - Conquest (Perhaps one of the oddest bands ever to hit the big time, Meg & Jack bring a Mariachi band along for the ride here and cook up one of their strangest songs ever.)
16. Mary Weiss With The Reigning Sound - Don't Come Back (Instantly classic bubblegum pop from the erstwhile Shangri-La. Her 2007 album, Dangerous Game is a real grower.)
17. King Khan & The Shrines - Welfare Bread (While we're on a run of garage revivalists, we couldn't leave out the excellent King Khan. More soulful than the rest, The Shrines bring the horns to the party.)
18. The Animals - Bury My Body (Taking it back to the 60s now with this little menacer from probably the best blues band that Britain ever produced. Eric Burdon's voice just drips with conviction.)
19. Neil Young - Walk On (The opener from On The Beach, this is one of those songs that I don't think I'll ever get sick of. I can't listen to it without singing along. "Ooh baby, it's hard to change. I can tell them how to fee-eel.")
20. The Staple Singers - Slippery People (This is a new one on me. I didn't even know until very recently that The Staple Singers did this awesome cover of the Talking Heads' classic, but I'm glad I do now and I thought I'd share it with you.)
21. Nanette Workman - Save Me (Storming disco ballad to take us out. Choppy geetar and tons of percussion rub up against each other while Workman pours her heart out to anyone who'll listen.)

Yer Mam!'s Big Summer Mixtape Blowout! Volume Three, all ripped, zipped and mediafired.

In other news: I've updated No Flipping! again and I've also contributed to the Blog Fresh Radio summer mixtape. Jesus, you'll have to get a ton of C90s to record all these mixes!

Over and out,

JMx