Played 485 Times
Serious Momentum From 1934
The oldest African-American vocal group around, The Golden Gate Gospel Quartet is still active and singing jubilee-style today! This song is from the original four, who were all students at the Booker T. Williams college in Virginia. More directly from Wiki:
“From 1935, the group sang in churches and on local radio, gaining a regular spot on radio station WIS in Columbia, South Carolina in 1936. They began as a traditional jubilee quartet, combining the clever arrangements associated with barbershop quartets with rhythms borrowed from the blues and jazz like scat singing. They would often include vocal special effects in their songs, imitating train sounds in songs such as “Golden Gate Gospel Train.”
—-Eddie
Played 33 Times
Rollin’ and Driftin’ Along
With the exception of heavy-hitters like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, there aren’t too many female blues musicians from the 1920s that people other than music geeks hold in high regard.
Lottie Kimbrough (is that not just the best name?) was born in Kansas City in 1900. She was reportedly very large, and went by the nickname “The Kansas City Butterball.” Kimbrough recorded with “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey, one of Paramount Records’ first stars, in the mid-20s, and later recorded with her brother Sylvester and other musicians. This tune was recorded in 1929, and there is little known about her other than her recording career.
Kimbrough’s voice has a unique country-blues quality, but what really makes it is the guitar accompaniment by Miles Pruitt, which nicely complements the “rolling along” feel to her vocals.
This has quickly become one of my favorite country blues tunes. I found it on the Yazoo compilation “I Can’t be Satisfied,” which features all manner of Hatties, Berthas and Lotties singing blues tunes from the 1920s.
Oh, and here’s a sweet video of folk musician Del Rey playing this tune on ukulele.
-Nick
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Played 11 Times
Could’ve Been A Loretta or A Wanda
Patsy Ruth Elshire was just 16 years old when she sang this tune in 1953! And if you’re wondering why the quality is a little shoddy, it’s because it was recorded in a living room. The label she put her handful of songs out for, Stardays, recorded her there and a few times at their club.
Her voice and energy are definitely up there with some of the more acclaimed female honky-tonkers, which makes it a pity she never really got to blossom. Regardless, enjoy this ‘tudey gem from Odessa! And remember fellas: Patsy Elshire don’t take no shit.
—-Eddie
Played 150 Times
The Title is a Type of Moonshine
Oh boy, today’s sauce is a special sauce, and it took several years to get here.
Have you seen the movie “Slacker”? No, not “Slackers.” I’m not enough of a film buff/snob to comment on the movie’s “importance” but it’s worth seeing.
Anyway, in college Eddie and I became obsessed with the song that plays in the ending scene. It’s called “Die Grasskop Polka” by South African musician Nico Carstens, and that’s about all we could find on that particular version. We even played the tune (ripped from the DVD) to close out our final radio show. But we were never able to find the song itself.
So the other day I was reading Neil Hamburger’s hilarious Twitter account, and he tweeted this weird jab at the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But then I heard the song he posted by The Four Lads. (who you might know as the original performers of “Instanbul, Not Constantinople”) My eyes went all a-glow because HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE SONG.
It’s an instrumental called “Skokiaan,” originally recorded in (maybe) 1947 by a group called African Dance Band of the Cold Storage Commission of Southern Rhodesia in what is now Zimbabwe. This version was recorded by the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band by the South African label Gallo in 1954
August Msarurgwa, the guy who wrote and arranged it, apparently met Louis Armstrong when he toured Africa in 1960. Satch was one of dozens of people to record a version of this. Bill Haley, Perez Prado, random surf rock bands, Trinidadian steel drum bands, and others did “Skokiaan”, sometimes with added lyrics that had nothing to do with actual “Skokiaan,” which is a type of moonshine.
We’re just glad this highly infectious tune has finally been tracked down and quarantined.
P.S. I made a Spotify playlist of 20 different versions of “Skokiaan.” Warning: some of them suck.
-Nick
Played 47 Times
Songs Like This Are The Reason Man First Sauced
You know Michael Hurley? You know, that bad-ass songwriter and folk singer who got down with The Holy Modal Rounders in his youth. Michael Hurley. That 70-year-old guy who is still around and playing coffee shops in Portland, and who sometimes Nick goes to see live in-the-flesh, filling me with excruciating envy. Well this is like my favorite song of his.
It’s basically winter. Pour a cup of hot tea in a cold room, stare at the wall, and remember to tear-stain-proof everything in the house before listening to this one.
—-Eddie
[I saw him play at a teahouse a couple weeks ago and he played this song. I was basically frozen for like 7 minutes. -Nick]
Played 19 Times
JA JA JA!
So, remember that “Da Da Da” song that was used in a million commercials about a decade ago? You now have that song stuck in your head. You’re welcome.
But Trio, the German group who played that song, had at least one punked-out jam that kills it. This is from their 1982 live album. I can’t claim to be a fan of Trio, but I love playing this song for people and telling them it’s the same guys who did “Da Da Da.”
We learned this tune from Memphis garage-punkers The Oblivians, and it harkens back to our rowdier college days when Eddie and I were inexplicably granted access to a drum set, amplifiers and microphones.
-Nick
Played 10 Times
My Bones Can Cure
This evening brings you the shortest and most morbid sauce until one of us is depressed enough to post “I’ll Never Marry”. Apart from being featured by Ghost Capital on his beautiful collaborative mix with Holy Warbles, Eileen Aroon (do yourself the favor of checking this autumnal masterpiece out ASAP), it was first recorded by the infamous Anne and Frank Warner. It can be found with a score of other tunes sung by Edith on the first volume of their lifelong collection, Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still. As far as field recorders went, the most compassionate and involved of em all, Alan Lomax, describes their pursuits as “a continuous act of unpaid, tender devotion and a lifelong love affair with the people who remembered the ballads.”
Recorded in 1941. Warm your bones!
—-Eddie
Anonymous: i heard the butthole surfer song "kuntz" is actually an edited thai recording, or something like that
Ah, you are correct, good sir or madam! Thank you!
It seems WFMU’s ever-excellent “Beware of the Blog” posted the original song by an unknown Thai artist back in 2007. The only info is that it comes from something called “Thai Shotgun Cassette.”
The Butthole Surfers merely mangled it in their own mad psychedelic way.
Here’s the original tune. Have a listen.
(And, by the way, we love it when people give us extra info/corrections about the songs we post, so don’t be shy.)
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Boredom in Action is a Way of Life
SHOUTOUT TO MAH WORKIN’ STIFFS!
M.O.T.O. - Masters of the Obvious, is a good ol’ rock band that’s been around for three decades. It’s kinda like a Mountain Goats thing where “M.O.T.O.” is mostly just one guy (Paul Caporino) who’s performed with various musicians over the year.
If a number of Facebook fans is any indication of an artist’s popularity, (which, weirdly, it kinda is) then M.O.T.O. has not really reached any kind of widespread recognition, except among garage-rock geeks like ourselves. Hope you’ll check `em out.
-Nick
Played 169 Times
I Know That I Could Show Some Respect
So if you’re anything like me, and you’re listening to this tune right now, you’ve probably just gotten through your 2nd double-take at the band name above. Well the answer is yes, That Stealer’s Wheel made this wee triste crooner. My idea of this band was like a poor man’s 3 Dog Night; an American rock group from the 70s with one hit and a handful of others that sound like imperfect clones of it.
Well, considering that Stealer’s Wheel is actually a Scottish group consisting of (basically) two school-days chums (Jerry Rafferty and Joe Egan), I’d say I missed the mark pretty well. Honestly I haven’t checked out any other tunes, but I do fucking love the pacing of this one. Kinda just deflates and swells over and over. Great song for being cold and sad and drinking tea and staring at the wall.
—-Eddie
Played 51 Times
Jamaican Gospel!
One of the reasons I love Jamaican music is because I’m fascinated by how music in other countries is influenced by American music. In the 50s and 60s, for example, ska and rocksteady bands were basically doing their own interpretations of R&B tunes they heard on the radio stations out of New Orleans.
But this song seems to be influenced by American country music, which I’ve never before heard in any Jamaican song. This is from the beautiful compilation “Noah Found Grace,” a collection of Jamaican gospel songs from the 60s and 70s.
Sez Mike McGonigal, who put the comp together: “Radio stations throughout Jamaica used to shut down early in the evening, allowing high-wattage AM stations from the American South to waft in unimpeded.” So I guess it makes sense that Jamaican groups were taken by Hank Williams tunes as well as Fats Domino ones. Really cool pedal-steel guitar sound here, and there’s still something distinctly Jamaican about it.
Anyway, I can’t find any info about the “L. Winter” who recorded this tune. If you’re interested in the LP, it appears to only be available through the Social Music Club, who I’m happy to pimp on this blog.
-Nick
Played 11 Times
It’s Startin To Feel Like The Red Hot Revival In Here!
Ain’t no shiftin Brother Claude Ely’s mind about it! This is a great gospel song I first heard on Dust-To-Digital’s Goodbye, Babylon. While this song is undoubtedly about insisting on getting into heaven, I like to ‘use’ it as a pick-me-up when I’m feeling incorrigibly optimistic about the shit that falls on our heads from the ass of Life.
I was kind of surprised to learn he was white, honestly. Brother Claude received his call to preach the pentecostal revival in 1949, and continued to grow in fame as his songs and preaching style reached Americans across Virginia and Kentucky. This song went on to become a revivalist standard, and he recorded for King and Ace records. More info on the man here.
So fuck it! There ain’t no grave gonna hold you down.
—-Eddie
Played 21 Times
Loretta And I Are The Mayors of Fist City.
Consider yourself a denizen if there’s someone whose clock needs a’cleanin!
KNUCKLE SANDWICHES FOR ANOTHER MULE KICKING IN YOUR STALL
—-Eddie
Played 6 Times
Like, what?
Great tune that lent some titular support to the compilation it was featured on, Garage Beat ‘66, Vol 1: Like What, Me Worry?!
—-Eddie
Two monkeys, one in Boston, one in Portland, talk about tunes worthy of daily ingestion. 
