Soul on Sunday - Somethings Burning / The Marvellos

Having featured one of the best known soul tracks last week, I feel duty bound to go for something a little more obscure this time so I present a song about which I know almost nothing. It was release in 1966 on Warner's soul subsidiary Loma and it features on a compilation called After Hours 2 which is well worth a fiver of anybody's money.

Mogwai Fear Satan

Here's everyone's favourite Scottish post-rockers doing ..fear Satan live in France:


Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

The First Latitude Blog of the Summer

I'll once again be making my way up the A12 to Henham Park this year for my 4th latitude festival. The organisers have pulled out some pretty surprising choices for headliners, leaving the Indie crowd somewhat nonplussed.

On Friday, the Obelisk arena is headlined by the Pet Shop Boys who are due to release their latest album, Yes, soon. They're still doing pretty much what they've always done which is good synth pop. Not sure I would want a whole 90 minutes of it, but they will definitely put on a show. Here's the new single: Love etc.



On Saturday comes the most controversial selection, Grace Jones. Definitely a brave choice, it remains to see whether she can win over the doubters. Being something of a newcomer to her music, I've been listening to stuff on youtube etc, and this is definitely her best song:


The organisers are on somewhat safer ground with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on Sunday. Definitely at a career high with Dig Lazarus Dig being well received wherever you look, they should provide a strong finish to the festival.

I'll Take You There - The Deltones

Listening to this fantastic cover of the Staple Singers' classic, it's easy to hear how the Stax group "borrowed" the opening riff from the reggae sounds that were no doubt making their way into America at the time. It's a nice way to wrap up reggae week on One More Down... I'll probably do another one soon, had too much fun this week!

Java - Augustus Pablo

The mid-70s saw the rise of dub and one the leading lights was Augustus Pablo. The music was slowed down and the bass was pushed to the foreground - with the melodica in his case!

Lively Up Yourself - Bob Marley

This is probably the only Bob Marley album you really need... Bob marley live was a phenomenal live performer (helped by a kick-ass backing group) where his natural charisma was allowed free rein. Youtube has loads of live clips of him, I've picked this one from Sunsplash in Jamaica, 1979.

Mr Brown - Bob Marley

You may have heard of this guy! His output on Island records was one of the leading factors in taking Reggae outside of the caribbean, but I love the stuff he recorded with Lee 'Scratch' Perry of which this is a great example.

I Don't Know How The Young Men Living - The Executor

I wanted to include some calypso this week as I love it's laid back accompaniment and social comment in the lyrics. I have a great album of calypso called Calypsos From Trinidad: Politics, Intrigue and Violence in the 1930's which I highly recommend, this is from that. Calypso, as well as being popular at carnival, was used to tell the news stories of the time in a way that the often illiterate working classes would understand - look at the song titles on that album to see the evidence: "Govenor's Resignation", "Treasury Scandal", "Shop Closing Ordinance"!

Rudy, A Message To You - Dandy Livingstone

You might recognise this - a song made famous by the Specials of course. This was made in the UK by Dandy Livingstone a singer who left Jamaica as a teenager in the late 50s. Trombone on this song is from the great Rico Rodriguez.

Are You There? - Dawn Penn

There weren't all that many successful female vocalists in West Indian music in the 1960s, however Dawn Penn is probably one of the best known. She worked with some legends including Coxsone Dodd, Prince Buster and Bunny Lee. After becoming semi-retired in 1970, she returned to music in the late 1980s. Following a performance at a Studio One anniversary concert, she re-recorded You Don't Love Me (No No No) which became a global smash hit.

Sufferer - The Kingstonians

Rocksteady was probably when the Windies started pushing the singers to the front of the songs. You can clearly hear the influence of the likes of Sam Cooke on this particular track as the sounds of black America in the late 1960s filtered into the mixing pot.

Take it Easy - Hopeton Lewis

I'm probably not the best person to differentiate between the different stylings of West Indian that all get lumped together under the catch-all title of reggae, but I'm learning... The next couple of songs I'll be featuring are from the Rocksteady period that came after Ska and before the likes of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff took Reggae to an audience outside of their homeland. Rocksteady covered a relatively short period of time in the second half of the 1960s, but produced some amazing music. This is generally reckoned to be one of the earliest songs in the style which was slower than Ska, but not as smooth as Reggae:

Skylarking - Horace Andy

One of the most versatile vocalists in West Indian music, Horace Andy has produced a remarkably consistant back catalogue. This is perhaps his best known song, and as can be seen from the video he's still going strong.

54-46 Was My Number - Toots and the Maytals

Some ska from one of my favourite bands. Saw them a couple of years ago at Lovebox, and they were the highlight of that particular festival with a remarkably energetic set. Believe me, it takes a lot to get me dancing!

Fisherman - The Congos

This is reggae week on OneMoreDown, and to kick us off, here's some classic roots reggae, with production from the legend that is Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Had Perry not had a row with Island, this would have been distributed by the label and would be far better known than it is now. The album this is from, Heart of the Congos, was reissued by Mick Hucknall's Blood and Fire label, surely the best contribution he's made to music!

Soul on Sunday - Heard in Through The Grapevine / Marvin Gaye

Probably my all time favourite song. Here is Marvin Gaye doing it in 1968:

The Mummers - March of the Dawn

Another new band that are appearing at End of the Road this year, this is a pretty fabulous album. The obvious touchstone is Bjork, perhaps with more of a showtune mentality. Personally I find Bjork can be a little grating, and that I love this album is down in no small part to the excellent arrangements for every song



You can download this track free in exchange for your email address here and buy the album here!

Soul on Sunday - I'm Just a Prisoner / Candi Staton

Yes, I know I'm a day late... Sorry, won't happen again etc.

I was sure that I'd featured Candi Staton on a previous Soul on Sunday, but when a song of hers came up on iTunes, I checked and found epic fail on that score. So to make amends here she is, doing the title song from her 1969 album.



She really emerged in the late 60s / early 70s as a superb southern soul vocalist, performing a range of material including covers of country classics like this version of Stand by Your Man:



Of course she may be best known for some of the work she did with the Source in the 80s and 90s, including this mega smash, You've Got the Love.

Ohbijou

This is very nice. They're a Canadian band who have just signed to Bella Union over here and are starting to get heard. They're doing End of the Road in September, I'll be there for that!

The Otherside


The Woods

New Album From Broken Records

Broken Records gave good gig last year on the two occasions I saw them, and now they've announced their new album which comes very much OMD-approved! The album, Until the Earth Begins to Part, is out in June and will be preceded by a single of the same name in May.

They've made a widgety thing available so here goes:


I do hope it works...

Soul on Sunday - Steam / Laura Vane and the Vipertones

Something about as new as it's possible to get, this is the debut single from a new anglo/dutch soul act... and it was out last month (ish). It's weird how some of the best soul releases of the last couple of years have come from countries not normally associated with that kind of music (I'm thinking of the Soul Investigators from Finland and Lefties Soul Connection who are also from the Netherlands)... maybe there's something in the water in Northern Europe? Or maybe the world is just getting a little bit smaller. Anyways this is great, and I'll definitely be looking out for the album which, according to the website is due for release in May.

Not the East 17 song:

Free Music Round Up

Feeling the (credit) crunch? Time for some free music...

It's SXSW time again, and continuing the annual tradition the SXSW website is making a load of MP3s from featured artists available for download. If you don't want to do them all individually, go here for some torrents.

Few artists have embraced the new business models for music offered by the internet better than Kristin Hersh. To prepare for the release of a new album by her band 50footwave she's making available a load of back catalogue to download here. It's some seriously good stuff, and don't forget to get the new 50gootwave album, and her solo and Throwing Muses stuff!

Insound have put together a free sampler with the guys from Noise Pop, featuring the likes of Les Savy Fav and Deerhunter.

And last but by no means least, my favourite of the recent Daytrotter sessions is by a band called Pontiak.

Soul on Sunday - Wish There Was Someone There / Irma Thomas

It's always nice to discover new soul acts and this is one such case - before listening to Mark Lamarr's Friday night/Saturday morning show I had never really listened to Irma Thomas, but then I had a "where have they been all my life" moment and will definitely be checking out more of her stuff. Apparently she was a contemporary of Aretha Frnaklin et al but never really crossed over to mainstream success.

Anyway this will have to do for now, one of my favourite of the songs played on God's Jukebox: