Eclectic Grooves

This is the place for any comments you have that don't relate to a specific post. This is a place where you can leave any requests, suggestions and opinions that you have about this blog. It will always remain at the top of the blog so that it is visible to everyone. We can use this as a forum for an open discussion on music in general, as well as just simply saying hi. Let's get the ball rolling.

While the title of this post sounds like one of my own mix-tape creations, it's actually the title of the latest encyclopedic, music-reference tome from the prolific author Vernon Joynson. Over the past several years, I've been intrigued with the plethora of music reference books available which highlight the most obscure artists in the pantheon of music.  The first books I heard about that were written by Vernon Joynson were Fuzz, Acid and Flowers and The Tapestry of Delights, but the price of these has always been so exorbitant that I could only hold the vision that there would be a new pressing that was more affordable. Recently, I discovered that he had released a revision of one of his earlier books Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares from Far Away Lands Revisited that would showcase music coming out of Turkey, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and the Middle East. After doing some research about the cost of landing a copy of the aforementioned A Melange of Musical Pip...

It is once again time for me to reach back in the refrigerator for some "choice cuts". Each time, I will be featuring sizzling and succulent morsels that are grabbing my ear right now that range from funk to country, from afro-beat to garage rock, etc. Sometimes there will be a theme to these songs that ties them all together in a nice bow, but other times the songs featured will just be a musical hodgepodge of eclectic delights. Without further ado, lets see what "choice cuts" the vinyl butcher has prepared for us today. Today's edition of Choice Cuts features a track each from the latest releases on Tompkins Square: This May Be My Last Time Singing- Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM 1957-1982 and To What Strange Place- The Music of the Ottoman -American Diaspora.  R. Jenkins and the Dayton Harmonaires: Put Your Hand in the Hand From: This May Be My Last Time Singing- Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM 1957-1982 ...

With the recent news of Megaupload going down, I have been reminded to check my own links. Unfortunately, I hadn't been paying close enough attention to this and have found that many of my links are no longer active. My plan is to start from the oldest posts and work my way up to check that each link has been re-upped, so it will take some time to complete this task. I don't know how many of you actually check the archives of the blog, but I would imagine that there are a fair amount of people who do. If you notice something that is no longer active, please let me know so I can re-up that link for you. There are some links that were taken down because it was requested that they be taken down by the label or artist. I will not be re-upping these under any condition, in respect to them. Over the past two days, I have re-upped all links from October- November of 2006. Please click on the links below for easy access to these posts. October 2006 Los Comadrejas Free Jazz F...

The recent news of file-sharing site Megaupload being forced to shut down its operations is stirring up quite a frenzy in the music blogging arena. Many blogs have closed down due to the fact that their entire music collection has been uploaded on Megaupload, and it would be an incredible undertaking to re-upload these files onto a different file-sharing site. Thankfully, most of my files were uploaded onto Mediafire, so I won't have nearly as much work to do in getting my blog back up to speed. With that being said, if any of you find any links that are no longer working, please let me know as soon as possible so I can get them uploaded to a new file-sharing site. On the brighter side of things, thanks to the countless blogs and websites who went dark the other day in protest to the PIPA and SOPA laws, Congress has decided that they are not going to pass either of these laws based on their blatant censorship and attack on our basic human rights. This is a consider...

I was going to make my site go dark today due to the protest of new bills in Congress called SOPA and PIPA, but I decided to raise awareness about this in a different way. For those of you who don't know what these bills are all about, please visit this site for an in-depth overview of what the passing of these bills could potentially do to our freedom of speech on the internet. Most websites would be affected by this, so each and every one of you who doesn't want their freedoms taken away should contact their congressman to protest the passing of this bill. In a nutshell, they want to stop piracy and copyright infringement from foreign sites, but they haven't clearly defined what constitutes a criminal act or what defines a foreign site. This will severely impact social networking sites, blogs, music sharing services, etc. The bottom line is that the government doesn't have any business censoring the internet and we need to all take a stand to figh...

As I sit here all warm and cozy inside my four-walled world, heat cranked up to the max on this blustery night, I feel like giving thanks for some fundamental things in my life. I am thankful that I don't have to sleep on a downtown street corner in the bitter cold , that I have the love of a beautiful woman, clothes to wear, medicine to keep me healthy and especially that I have amazing friends and family who are there to help me through the challenges that life poses for me each and every day. Most importantly, I am thankful that I am living and breathing today, because not everyone is so fortunate. In the past month, the music world has lost three stellar musicians: Hubert Sumlin, Howard Tate and Sam Rivers. Hubert Sumlin, the masterful guitar player for Howlin' Wolf's band, died of heart failure in a hospital in New Jersey at the age of 80 on December 4th. He left behind a musical legacy that will never be surpassed, and his signature playing style h...

Well, its that time of year again where vinyl and out-of print rarities are pushed to the bottom of the listening stack to make way for albums released in 2011.  Initially, I set out to start this project in the first part of December so I wasn't rushing frantically to beat the clock on New Year's Eve. However, those of you who have a predilection for collecting and listening to music know that this is quite an unrealistic expectation to set for myself. This quest for creating the perfect list of albums that caters to every taste out there is practically impossible since list-making is completely subjective. Albums from artists like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, PJ Harvey, Kurt Vile, Wilco, Adele, St Vincent, Lykke Li, Feist and The War On Drugs were featured on virtually every top 10 list. Whether or not these albums are deserving of this seems to be irrelevant to the fact that most people found these records to be t...

The latest edition of I Hear a New World is available to download here, and at http://ihearanewworld.podomatic.com/. This episode of I Hear a New World features a diverse mix of new and used vinyl that I have picked up recently at the Night Owl Record Show and Exiled Records over the past month. Since I have been buying a lot of international music lately, it leans heavily towards this style with a considerable dollop of funk, jazz, spoken work and psychedelic garage rock to even out the flow. Bands featured include Eddie Harris, Erkin Koray, Thee Oh Sees, Ahmad Zahir and Los Destellos. I would love to hear what you think about the songs featured on this week's episode of I Hear a New World. Also, stay tuned for my annual Best Music of 2011 list and a Christmas podcast.

I am happy to say that this year I am ahead of schedule for once, so you will have at least a week to listen to this year's Halloween mix. This time around, you can expect to hear a diverse assortment of rockabilly,  doo-wop, blues, rock and soul interspersed with snatches of old horror film trailers and spooky noisescapes. I worked on this for many hours this past weekend, and I believe that I have constructed a mix that will be perfect for scaring the bejeesus out of those trick-or treaters beating down your door. For those of you would like a tracklist for this year's Halloween mix, I will be happy to provide this to you upon request. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that Eclectic Grooves celebrated it's 5th birthday yesterday. It's hard to believe that it's been this long, but I've really had a blast sharing thoughts with the readers about new musical discoveries throughout the past 5 years. Here...

This is the last installment of the Halloween podcasts that are no longer available to download on Podomatic. It was first posted last Halloween, and was split up into two parts due to the length of the mix. As I recall, I was able to comeplete this one earlier in the day on Halloween, as opposed to the previous year where I completed it just before the clock struck midnight. Here are my notes from last year's post: Given the time of the season, it is once again time for me to dredge through my seemingly endless archives of spooky music to present a new Halloween mix to the readers. Last year I was rushing against the clock to complete my Halloween podcast before the clock struck midnight on Halloween. After learning my lesson from this, I began compiling my list two weeks ago with possible songs that could make the cut for this years mix. These songs were culled from my own collection, Soulseek users and the numerous Halloween blogs and forums across the internet...

Vincent Price from House on Haunted Hill Just to get you geared up for the Halloween season, I figured I would keep cranking these out. This one was first featured on Podomatic back in 2009 and is entitled Halloween Hodgepodge.  I would love to hear what you guys think of these mixes so please drop me a line in the comments. Again, for those of you who would like a tracklist, I would be happy to provide this upon requset. Hope this mix gets you in the Halloween spirit! Halloween Hodgepodge

Painting by Edward Gorey from The Gashlycrumb Tinies Over the next week, I will be featuring Halloween mixes that I have posted over the past few years. These were originally posted on Podomatic, but since my server space is limited I was forced to take them down to make room for the newest episodes. This one was posted back in 2008, and it was entitled House of Horrors 2008. For now, I will be leaving the tracklist up to your imagination, but drop me a line in the comments if you would like the tracklist. Hope you enjoy this blast from the past! Until next time... Keep those doors locked and make sure to keep one eye open while sleeping cause you never know what evil may be lurking around the corner. Muwahahaha! House of Horrors 2008  

This week, I attended the movie Vinyl: The Alternate Take by Alan Zwieg on Thursday followed by an insightful panel discussion with Terry Currier from  Music Millennium , Hisham Mayet from Sublime Frequencies and Eric from Mississipi Records . Then, on Saturday I went to the Night Owl Record Show at the Eagle's Lodge for a couple hours. All in all, it was a pretty exciting week for me! Alan Zwieg's first feature called Vinyl  was about obsessive record collectors whose predilection for hoarding vinyl seems to have impacted their ability to carry on normal relationships with friends and family. While the first edition of Vinyl was mildly entertaining, it mostly depicted the profound sadnesss that these people experienced due to their excessive collecting habits. I felt that  Vinyl was too one-sided in it's message that anyone who collects to this extent is an inherently sad and depressed person, as there were no portrayals of the vinyl ...

This past June for my birthday, I received a fantastic book from my girlfriend entitled Turn On your Mind by Jim De Rogatis. Within the confines of the book, the author ambitiously strives to effectively present an  overview of the last four decades of psychedelic rock according to his tastes and sensibilities, and he is largely successful at doing so. At roughly over 600 pages, it is a thoroughly researched, painstakingly detailed and thoughtfully constructed opus consisting of lists, further listening recommendations and numerous quotes taken from musicians, producers, writers and other scholars who either experienced psychedelic music firsthand or have taken a specific interest in it over the years. When DeRogatis is firing on all cylinders, it shows in his writing. There is an incredibly insightful introductory chapter that outlines the history of LSD, an in-depth analysis of Syd Barrett and Pink F...

The latest edition of I Hear a New World is available to download here, and at http://ihearanewworld.podomatic.com/ . This episode of I Hear a New World features a diverse selection of music including blues, surf rock, jazz, soul and flamenco. Some of the artists showcased on ths episode include Manitas De Platas, Brian Eno, Dexter Romweber and Lightnin' Hopkins. This is a tasty batch of morsels designed to satisfy the musical cravings of even the stuffiest music critic writing for that flavor of the month rag. I would love to hear what you think of this week's podcast, so please give me a shout in the comments. Stacks of Wax Vol.11 1) Manitas De Platas- Tarantas y Bulerias- 5:02 2) Lightnin' Hopkins- Last Night Blues- 5:06 3) Otis Redding- Groovin' Time- 2:46 4) Brian Eno- Back in Judy's Jungle- 5:14 5) David Bowie- Beauty and the Beast- 3:32 6) The Hospitals- Hairdryer Peace- 3:26 7) Dexter Romweber- Cobra Theme 2 Revisited- 3:06 ...

Word on the street is that blogging has become irrelevant thanks to social networking behemoths like Facebook and Twitter. While I don't usually like to agree with bold statements such as this, I would have to agree that these sites have unknowingly contributed to the ever decreasing popularity of the music blog. Over the past couple months alone, I have seen countless bloggers decide to pack it in because there just wasn't enough feedback or interest from the readers.  This can likely be chalked up to our generation's indelible need for instant gratification. Because most people want everything right now in an easily digestible package,  they aren't taking the time to enjoy the simple pleasure of listening to a record in its entirety. Memories of my first record purchase are fuzzy at best, but I never will forget the euphoric feeling of holding that 12" round cylinder in my hands for the first time....

Ever since stumbling upon an article discussing Spotify on the Mercury blog End Hits, I have been obsessively compiling playlists and searching for new music on Spotify like a kid in a candy store. It is currently invite only, but I received my invite within a week of the service launching in the U.S. If you don't want to wait for an invite, you can purchase their premium package for only $4.99 a month. Like any new service, it is imperfect, but what it does offer is well worth it. The cost of the service is free with advertisements for six months,  $4.99 for the premium package with no ads and $9.99 for the mobile version which allows you to access your entire I-tunes library as well as a massive archive of over 15 million tracks from Spotify. While they don't have everything on Spotify, they are adding over a hundred tracks a day. I was surprised that the sound quality is as good as it is for most albums, with only a few things ...