So one of my favorite 45s I've picked up recently was Mody-Vation's "Ghetto Kung-Fu" on Phil LA of Soul, a sort of dreamy, idiotic rip-off of Kung-Fu Fighting. I wanted more, and I found that there was ONE more Mody-Vation recording out there. Way out there in Germany on the Hansa label. Well, with a cover this stupid, I had to spring.
I don't know if I can say whether they quite match Ghetto Kung-Fu musically but they're fun enough. Friends might actually be my favorite of the two, reminding me of that Ween EP that came out in 2007 or so.
I also have no idea whether this featured Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine or any Wrecking Crew members. I do know that it's produced by Joe Saraceno and Superbird is written by Larry Duncan, like the old Routers, which is why I don't think this is a separate group. But it is a complete break to a very funk sound.
Superbird is the better of the two. Does this surprise you? They named their album after it!
Sack of Woe is a Cannonball Adderly cover, right? Well here it is, slow and funky
When I showed this to my friend Ben he asked "have you listened to it? It looks too good to be true". I know what he means, and I think back to 45s I bought on a gut like "Hell Yes I Cheated" by the Virginia Dare Gang on Dare Records (maybe I'm mixing two records up in my head). That sounds bad-ass! But it ended up being mopey over-twangy country
Well, it's not as 100% funky as hoped, but it's about 80% there. Totally intending to be funky with all the attitude you'd expect from a label called Ghetto, it's just not guaranteed to set the dance floor on fire. But I don't want to undersell it either: it very well could
I don't know anything about any part of this 45 and searches for "Ghetto Records" really don't help. As always, info appreciated
Y'all are going to think I'm insane, but this is a desert island disc for me. The subject matter is stupid, the recording is muddy as hell, the cover art sure ain't much, but I'm going to have more fun on my island than yours. This is the sort of gleeful boogaloo nonsense that bypasses your frontal lobe completely and is strictly built for dance.
Normally, I don't know anything about what I post and google's not a help. This time, there's all sorts of information on Alvin Cash, and I'm not the first one to rip this record, but I haven't seen it on blogspot (his singles, on the other hand, are all over). In fact, for once the information on the back of the album is surprisingly informative: Born in St. Louis, starts a dancing troupe with his brothers, catches the ear of Andre "Bacon Fat" Williams and gets picked up on Mar-V-Lus. Twine Time shoots to the top (and sure enough, it's not hard to find covers of it), he keeps at it for a while and never gets quite the same success and, correct me if I'm wrong, never releases another LP. He also appeared in a couple of movies.
Seriously, everything on this has an addictive sort of bounce to it, and I actually kind of like the semi-nonsensical lyrics. One song is about not being able to see a hawk. One claims that a girl "shot him through the grease" and the album is packed with "awwwww but you're _____in ____, baby!"
I've heard this LP is a collectors item. I don't know, I got it off the amazon used marketplace for $20 lookin' pretty mint except for the holes in the cover, nothing claiming it's a reissue. The original Twine Time/Bump 45 (TWO SIDES OF FIRE) had a real badass Mushroom Cloud on the label, which might have been why I listened to Alvin in the first place
EDIT: These downloads work now. Jeez, you guys need to tell me about these things
I know nothing about this 45, its artist or even its label. I've seen it on people's playlists, I've seen people selling it even describing it as "unknown". I know that it's good and that it was essentially donated by Marty over in Metairie, who so graciously fed my record addiction the other day.
Commence bullshitting: As much as they would like to, not many soul bands can call themselves Chocolate Milk, and since our fair city had already claimed the title, these guys had to resort to an awkard pun, as if chalk had incandescent properties. That was error number one for this band, error #2 was choosing a soulful cover of Willy Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" as your A-Side.
I will tell you straight off why this single is great: on Go High, these two men have recently fallen on hard times with their women and decide (real quote here) "Well let's get out of this place!" "I know, let's take a rocketship to outer space!" It's like people write this stuff with my blog in mind, I swear.
Go High
The Neck is probably the more danceable song out of the two and the one I've seen mention of more often. From what I understand, our friends are checking out a party, scoping out all the familiar friends and characters and Tall Timmy with NO REGARD for the safety of his peers, breaks out doing The Neck, after which the song mostly inquires about your own ability to perform this hazardous dance move.
Once again I'm covering for WTUL's Funk and Soul show at Midnight Central time tonight. To stream it online just go to www.wtulneworleans.com or tune in at 91.5 FM if you're in the area.
The playlist will be edited in after the show
edit: true to my word
Cliff Nobles - Judge Baby, I'm BACK African Music Machine - Black Water Gold The Mighty Imperials - Kick the Blanket Connie Price and the Keystones - Sucker Punch The Soul Finders - Why Don't You Do Right Major Lance - Rhythm Syl Johnson - Come on Sock it To Me Robert Willis - Stoop Down
The Meters - Ease Back Booker T and the MGs - Soul Clap '69 Ramsey Lewis - Party Time Menahan Street Band - Birds Mandrill - Positive Thing Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns - Say Blow By Blow Backwards J Blackfoot - You can't Take It With You Apollo - Space Cannibals
The Emperors - Karate Honey Cone - Stick Up Sweet James - Soul Man Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - Soul Investigators Theme Black Merda - Reality Hannibal - All Nite Long O.V. Wright - Ace of Spade Boogaloo investigators - Moove to the Groove King Khan and his Shrines - Pickin' Up the Trash
Blo - Blo Bad Medicine - Tresspasser pt 2 Dr. Victor Olaiya - Omelebele The Rwenzori's - Handsome boy (pts 1 & 2) The Nite-Liters - Afro-Strut (around here I kind of forget because the next DJ couldn't make it and I needed to figure out what to do. I just kind of played whatever was in front of me) The Kustard Kings - Jungle Boogie The Wild Magnolias - Smoke my Peace Pipe
Sun Ra - Hot Skillet Mama Curtis Mayfield - We People Who Are Darker Than Blue Sun - Radiation Level Ebony Rhythm Band - Soul Heart Transplant something or rather Benny Spellman - Fortune Teller
The Rock & Roll Hoo-Ha What What, though it hasn't been demonstrating it much, is a funk friendly internet place. Tonight at Midnight Eastern I'll be doing a live funk show streamable at wtulneworleans.com
I'll update this posts with playlists when I have them.
Hopefully it'll be a show of victory
edit:
Nice one dumbass, you live in CENTRAL time, not Eastern. Anyway, Obama won, my show was great, they apparently played me in some bar
here's the setlist:
Curtis Mayfield - We Got To Have Peace Cane and Able - Who's Gonna Take The Weight Cliff Nobles - Love Is Alright Ike Turner - Gettin Nasty Major Lance - I Just Can't Help It Ebony Rhythm Band - Don't Get High Billy Preston - Space Race
Meco - Star Wars Fred Wesley & The JBs - Damn Right I Am Somebody Chet Poison Ivy - Poo Poo Man Clarence Carter - Funky Fever Golden Toadstools - Silly Savage Tom and Jerrio - Boo-ga-loo The Emperors - My Baby Likes to Boogaloo Kashmere Stage Band - Do You Dig It, Man?
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Baby How Long Spanky Wilson & The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Waiting For Your Touch Rufus Thomas - Push and Pull pt. 1 Eddie Bo - Hook and Sling pt. 1 Dyke and the Blazers - Funky Broadway Pt. 1 Mandrill - El Funko The Gaturs - Wasted Budos Band - My Girl Brothers Johnson - Come Together
Femi Kuti - Sorry Sorry Karl Hector + The Malcouns - Debere Afrique - Hot Mud Fugi - Jo Jo Ofo & The Black Company - Allah Wakbarr
The music made available on this blog has been posted in hopes of helping the popuarity of culture that I enjoy and in almost all cases I try to post things that are out of print. If your music is featured here and don't like it, please contact me and I will remove it immediately. If you do like it, please drop some knowledge because I tend to be missing some.
I used to run this off my home fileserver. I can't anymore. So a TON of these links are broken. Your best hope for getting them back is to comment!
