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