Category: Saturday Matinee

Saturday Matinee – Utopia, The Nicholas Brancker Band, Bernard “Pretty” Perdie & Co., and The Cleverlys

Utopia (2019) is a short by filmmaker Kosta Nikas. A man lives in a society where citizens police each other with their mobile phones. [Found here.]

The Nicholas Brancker Band plays 60’s-70s spouge, a style that was “Barbados’ answer to ska in Jamaica and calypso in Trinidad.” I’d heard before but never knew it had a name until recently (thanks to Queen H.). Jump to 01:10 for the music.

Tighten Up (Part 1) is a cover of the classic 1969 Archie Bell & the Drells hit. Music starts at 0:40. This all-star lineup features:

Bernard “Pretty” Perdie – drums
Chuck Rainey – bass
David T. Walker – guitar
Sonny Phillips – organ
Bill Bivens – tenor sax
Virgil Jones – trumpet
Pancho Morales – percussion
Lou Donaldson – alto sax

“If Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton, and Spinal Tap spawned a litter of puppies, it would be the Cleverlys.” – NYT

As long as we’re doing covers, The Cleverlys‘ take on The Proclaimers‘ 1988 song is a good’un. A lot of the songs they cover are parodies of a sort (I expected to hear “pterodactyl” in the refrain) but they play I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) straight… mostly.

There’s a hunderd other things that I can think of to post, but I gotta wrap it up and ship it out. Have a great weekend, and you know what to do.

Saturday Matinee – A Banana, Бра́во, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & Cam Cole

This banana comes with a cool Django Reinhardt vibe.
[Found here.]

Marty Robbins goes to Russia? Бра́во [Bravo] was founded in 1983 in Moscow, was one of the most popular underground acts.
Ветер знает [The Wind Knows] sounds just like the real deal. (There’s an English version here.)

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones‘ song intro has been stuck in my head for months and now that I’ve rediscovered it I can finally sleep at night. This live version is from 2011.

Cam Cole, busker, bluesman, rocker, recording artist, and “the most impressive one-man band you will ever see” nails the blues to your forehead and plugs it into your ears. This guy is definitely one to watch for.

Have a great weekend, something else will show up here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Specials, Rude Pride & The Interrupters

The Specials in 1979, with A Message To You Rudy.
From the Utoobage comments:

“For those who do not know the story already, the “rudy” of this song is not a person. In fact, it refers to the slang term “rude boy” (rude boy-rudie-rudy) that originated in Jamaica in the early ’60s to define a specific sub-culture that used to listen to ska and rocksteady. As you can imagine, the term “rude” refers to the not exactly in-line-with-the-law lifestyle they had. [..] This particular subculture heavily influenced the mods and the skinheads, particularly in the look. And in in regards of music too , obviously, since the genre Oi! is heavily influenced by ska.”

Rude Pride is/was a band from Madrid (2013-2020) that played 1970s style Oi! Although the sub-genre is often misconstrued as music by racist pro-fascist bands, this is not one of them. I just like the song. (BTW, that’s the Flag of Jamaica on the wall in the background.)

Keeping with the accidental theme, let’s go with some nasty ska.
The Interrupters cover Billie Eilish’ Bad Guy, and their version is better. Duh.

I think that’ll do for now. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Richie Kavanaugh, Indiara Sfair and Guilherme Tosin, Justin Johnson & G.E. Smith

“Like Aon Focal Eile, I had no idea how big that would be. I was afraid I’d get a slagging from the Irish speaking people but the boss man in Glór na Gael wrote me a very nice letter thanking me for having a song with a full Irish title in the charts.” Richie Kavanaugh

Brazil native Indiara Sfair & Guilherme Tosin cover Robert Johnson’s Walking Blues. Sfair is/was a member of Brazilian blues band “Milk’n’Blues.”

Justin Johnson‘s axe is a shovel, and he sells ’em, too.
Utoob comment: “Just imagine what he could do with a backhoe.”

G.E. Smith gets all swampy and stuff with a tribute to late bassman Tom “T Bone” Wolk. Both backed Hall & Oates and were the core of the SNL Band (1985-1995).

Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Joey Ramone, Geddy Lee, Stanley Clarke & The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

Joey Ramone‘s song and stop-motion vid New York City were made and released in 2012, 11 years after his death. The song was an overdub of a demo tape. Tommy Erdlai (Tommy Ramone) is in there somewhere (I think that’s him at 02:57).

Geddy Lee cranks it. I should have paid more attention to Rush; I liked the sound but couldn’t stand the vocals.

Stanley Clarke‘s Touch, live at the Newport Jazz Festival (2003). Another amazing bass solo (with some annoying narration stuck in the middle of it).

Delvon Lamarr – Hammond B3 organ
Jabrille “Jimmy James” Williams – guitar
David McGraw – drums
The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (aka DLO3) grooves it. Someone in the vid comments said the guitar sounds like Hendrix doing jazz. Someone else noted that the bassman is playing with his feet.

Hope those of you getting hammered by the record breaking cold get some relief soon, and that the following thaw doesn’t make it worse. We’ll all be here tomorrow. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – This Is Hormel (1964), The Rave-Ups, Tom Waits, Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, and Freddie King

Everything you ever wanted to know about Hormel… up to 1964. [h/t SL]

The Rave-Ups got some traction for their work in the movie Pretty In Pink (1986). Their cover of the Byrds‘ You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere is pretty good, too.

Tom Waits does rockabilly his way, and the intro on his live version is pure awesome.

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood tell the truth (2009).

Any Freddie KIng jam makes me smile, and Boogie Funk (ca. 1968) matches what’s been going on in my brain lately. (I’m not sure that’s the correct song title – it might be Feelin’ Good.)

Have a great weekend, we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Corridor Crew, Mad Sin, Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones and Moon Hooch

“Disclaimer: This video is a comedic parody and is not owned, endorsed, created by, or associated with the Boston Dynamics company.”

Yeah, but it could happen. Video is by the Corridor Crew.

Quirky vid, catchy song, and an f-bomb, Mad Sin plays “a combination of rockabilly, punk, white-trash blues and tongue-in-cheek sarcasm.”

Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones do the roots rock retro nicely.

Too cool not to share. Moon Hooch got stuck in a traffic jam in France and decided to make the best of it. Most popular Utoob comment? This:

*marches all the way to front of traffic jam
*four car collision accident no survivors

So there you go. Have a great weekend, try out this Superbowl Chili and lemme know how fast it goes.

Saturday Matinee – Blender CG Compilation, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Mountain Music & Joe Bonamassa

I’m on the Blender email list, and occasionally they link to video tutorials/demos. I don’t use the CG program, but its capabilities blow me away. The guy who compiled the animations ran out of audio at about 03:10 but dealt with it pretty well.

In 1965, David Hoffman filmed some genuine hill music from the mountains of North Carolina for a television documentary. Music starts at 04:28. (If you want to hear the four and a half minute lead in, start at 00:00.) Hoffman filmed those same musicians in the best clogging video you’ll find.

This animated cartoon music video of Richard Hell and the Voidoids‘ single “The Kid with the Replaceable Head” (Radar, 1979) was created by Washington D.C. kid’s show “Pancake Mountain.” The song was written by Richard Hell, and this recording was produced by Nick Lowe.

2009 Joe Bonamassa sounds a lot like 1974 Robin Trower. I like it.

Have a great weekend or something. More to come.

Saturday Matinee – Orkestra Obsolete, Thee Sinseers, Kemuri & The Ghost Town Blues Band

“It’s like a bunch of 1930’s comic book villains got together and formed a band.” – YouTube Comment
Not much can be found about Orkestra Obsolete except that Scottish guitarist Angus McIntyre assembled the band for the BBC. The original un-colorized video was released ca. 2016 and is a cover of New Order’s 1983 electrobeat song of the same name.

Thee Sinseers have the chicano soul groove down and mix in a bit of Motown on the side. Wait’ll Joey Quiñones’ voice ages a bit and they’ll be even better.

Founded in Oxnard, California in 1995, disbanded 2007, reunited 2012, Kemuri is more to my liking these days. They released two albums back-to-back in 2015 and they’re still touring world wide.

Ignore the tacky stage decor, The Ghost Town Blues Band nails the Memphis sound of the early 70s.

That should hold you over for a while. Have a big fat sloppy weekend, but be back here tomorrow just because.

Saturday Matinee – El Twanguero, Hot Club du Nax, John Prine & Grandpa Elliot Small

Spanish guitarist Diego Garcia, aka El Twanguero, plays his original composition Minor Rag / Spanish Rag. Stay with this one; it starts out slow then jumps to amazing.

Austria’s Hot Club du Nax features talent from Innsbruck, Prague, London and Bologna, and do a damn fine job playing 1930s gypsy swing.

John Prine had the perfect voice for his style of songwriting and was “among the English language’s premier phrase-turners with music relevant to any age.”

Grandpa Eliott Small & his PFC Band pulled off a great version of Buster Brown‘s Fannie Mae (complete with some whoopin’ and eefin’). A New Orleans street performer, Small once said he doesn’t know what beer tastes like, he’s never touched drugs and the only thing he smokes is the exhaust from the cars that pass Royal and Toulouse.

As I was looking for some music videos for this post, I began searching my memory for loud, angry, pissed-off frustration songs to reflect the recent abhorrent events that have fallen upon our Republic, knowing that things are about to get worse.

Then I decided that I didn’t want to go there. Venting is wasted energy, at least for me, so I wandered off in a different direction. Hope you like it.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow.