Eclectic Grooves

Recently, I checked out the latest full-length movie from Portland filmmaker James Westby entitled Rid of Me. While I had been trepidatious about wasting my time on seeing a movie with Storm Large (kitschy lounge singer from Portland) in it,  I have to say that it was well worth it for the music alone. I'm not going to go into a synopsis of the movie because there are other avenues like Metacritic or IMDB at your disposal if you so desire to go down that road. The reason I am posting today is to let you know about these two fantastic tracks by Ros Sereysothea that are featured at the end of the film. For the esoteric music aficionados out there, you may recall these tracks being featured on the long out-of-print classic compilation Cambodian Rocks .  The first track entitled "Chnam Un Dop-Pram Muy", translated to "I'm 16" in English,  was a perfect song to show the transformation that the main character Maris was undergoing after deal...

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 apologize for not revealing the artist from the last "Plain Brown Wrappers" sooner, but I have been utterly consumed with my job lately. There wasn't nearly the amount of feedback\comments on this one, but I guess it was a little too out there for you guys. The artist is ... drum roll please... Henry Jacobs Vortex and the album title is Electronic Kabuki Mambo. For those of you looking for this record, it was released on Folkways Records in 1959, so I imagine that you will be digging into the dusty crates for awhile in order to find this one. Caustic Resin: Drive #47 and Keep on Truckin' From: Keep on Truckin' [Up, 2003] Caustin Resin's record Keep on Truckin' came out in 2003 and was almost instantaneously relegated to the cutout bins in record stores. Sometimes there is no accounting for taste, since this album was an underrated masterpiece of expansive psychedelia with anthemic choruses and guitar pyrotechnics courtesy of head axe-slinger Brett Nets...

Happy 4th of July to everyone who recognizes the 4th as a holiday! About a week ago, someone requested that I post a very rare Howlin' Wolf album. Ask and ye shall receive. Here is a review I posted during March on Ear Fuzz that hopefully gives you an idea of what it sounds like. Howlin Wolf was persuaded to record This is Howlin' Wolf's New Album for Cadet Concept in 1969. This label also released Muddy Water's Electric Mud which has a similar electric rock-n-roll blues sound designed to pull in bigger audiences for both bluesmen. Wolf's opinion of this record was emblazoned on the cover in bold letters- This Is Howlin Wolf's New Album. he Doesn't Like It. He Didn't Like His Electric Guitar At First Either. The idea of creating this album came to Marshall Chess after he toured with the Rolling Stones and realized that they were making money off of the blues legends who influenced them. He brought in the same band that was used in the Electric Mud sessio...

Today, I am featuring a variety of tunes that I've been listening to lately. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Bardo Pond: Destroying Angel From: Ticket Crystals [ATP, 2006] First off, is a sludgy, psychedelic slab of wax from Philadelphia's Bardo Pond . Bardo Pond's music can best be described as long passages of transcendental and psychedelic "stoner rock" which is highly influenced by Black Sabbath , Acid Mother's Temple , and My Bloody Valentine . Destroying Angel is the first track on the band's latest mind-blowing effort entitled Ticket Crystals . While Ticket Crystals is a mellow album for the most part, this song rips out the walls of your speakers with loud, distorted and droning guitars, propulsive drumming and dynamically searing vocals. After the first verse, the band maintains this intensity, while the lead singer's wordless, yearning moans and psychedlic flute playing give the track a sense of mysticism. Absolut...