Saturday, April 20, 2013

MF Doom feat. MF Grimm – Tick, Tick……













I took a blind listen the other day to MF Doom’s album “Operation Doomsday” and unearthed a pleasant surprise. Disclosure: The Beatles are the be all, end all for me when it comes to any music, how does this fit in with this track? MF Doom eloquently samples, and loops at various speeds The Beatles track “Glass Onion” on Tick, Tick. The lyrics are so, so I must say but the beats generated with Glass Onion being the backdrop are fitting and done tastefully. The pace slows and quickens the pace with the hook,

Cause I'mma slow it up, speed it up, slow it up, speed it up
Mettle Finger's feed beats Grimm Reaper eat 'em up
Speed 'em up, slow 'em up, speed 'em up, slow 'em up
Brainsick, Tick, Tick, Tick, MF blow it up
Slow it up, speed it up, slow it up, speed it up
Mettle Finger's feed beats Grimm Reaper eat it up
Speed 'em up, slow 'em up, speed 'em up, slow 'em up
Brainsick, Tick, Tick, Tick, MF blow it up






Thursday, April 18, 2013

Santana - Santana (Debut Album) {MOFI Vinyl}














“Perfect Timing”, this phrase is thrown around freely but it couldn’t have been more apropos for the San Francisco jam-band Santana in the summer of 1969. Santana had their coming out party at the Woodstock Music Festival and around the same time Santana’s self titled debut album was released. If there was ever a perfect time for a debut album, it is was the time Santana was released. Santana had an audience of nearly a half a million people at their disposal at Woodstock and fresh debut album waiting at the stores for these new fans. Chances are many of the people who were at Woodstock especially the local crowd may not have heard of Santana unless they were in the bay area to catch one of their shows.

Santana is such a strong debut album, it is a melting pot of genres including rock, Latin, blues and soul. There is a hit single “Evil Ways” which peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts which introduces Santana to an even greater pop audience on AM radio. The album is also loaded with some short stirring instrumental jams concluding with the epic “Soul Sacrifice”.

Carlos Santana absolutely shines with his diverse guitar playing with many blues and jazz undertones. Keyboardist and vocalist Gregg Rollie just tears it up on “Persuasion” and my favorite the intense and bluesy “You Just Don’t Care”. 





Santana is not an audiophile gem by any stretch but the Mobile Fidelity vinyl is great. A nice clean analog sound and it gives a true live feeling to the music, you feel the band is right there with you in your listening room. The vinyl is a high quality 180 gram pressing, flat and dead quiet and is mastered from the original stereo master tapes, still hear a bit of that tape hiss on the quieter tracks but that is what you want, no noise reduction, just a good clean reproduction of the master.
















Santana peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts and was designated by Rolling Stone Magazine as 149th Greatest Album Of All Time.

Tracklisting:

Side One
1.    "Waiting" (C. Santana, G. Rolie, J. Areas, D. Brown, M. Carabello, M. Shrieve) – 4:07
2.    "Evil Ways" (Clarence "Sonny" Henry) – 3:58
3.    "Shades of Time" (C. Santana, G. Rolie) – 3:13
4.    "Savor" (C. Santana, G. Rolie, J. Areas, D. Brown, M. Carabello, M. Shrieve) – 2:47
5.    "Jingo" (Babatunde Olatunji) – 4:23

Side Two
1.    "Persuasion" (C. Santana, G. Rolie, J. Areas, D. Brown, M. Carabello, M. Shrieve) – 2:36
2.    "Treat" (C. Santana, G. Rolie, J. Areas, D. Brown, M. Carabello, M. Shrieve) – 4:46
3.    "You Just Don't Care" (C. Santana, G. Rolie, J. Areas, D. Brown, M. Carabello, M. Shrieve) – 4:37
4.    "Soul Sacrifice" (C. Santana, G. Rolie, Marcus Malone, D. Brown) – 6:34





Tuesday, April 16, 2013

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~Dan "The Agent Of Truth"


White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane




















My last post was referring to the most known anti-drug songs, “Kicks” by Paul Revere & The Raiders, now I am on to what I consider the most glorifying drug song “White Rabbit” by The Jefferson Airplane. White Rabbit is a sorted trip of Alice and her time in Wonderland. Alice In Wonderland is meant to be a children’s story which for all intents and purposes is, but there scenes of psychedlia within the story that are present. 






One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head

White Rabbit is short, concise and to the point and does it sound like a great trip that someone would go, all you need to take is those pills that make you big and small. There is a literal interpretation within the story where Alice takes these substances to get big and small but in the drug world you take that drug and you are on the high but eventually that high brings one down and you are back to your normal life or being small. The rest of the track goes through some of the other characters of Wonderland which are relevant to the song but is the clear message of the track is in the first verse, take those pills and you will go on a wild ride but your ride will be taken while awake and not in a sleepy dream that Alice thought up. The song was a tremendous success for the Jefferson Airplane having a peek chart position of #8.