The Basement Rug

To re-direct you to a most excellent holiday offering from Miles over at Birds With Broken Wings, who has posted a rather excellent collection of NRBQ: New Rhythm and Blues Quartet/Quintet.

NRBQ’s sound revolved “around the gritty guitar work of Steve Ferguson and the rollicking piano of Terry Adams. Ferguson’s style was a fiery and rootsy one, distinct and unorthodox, a sound that remains highly unique even today. Adams on the other hand, drew his inspiration from the curious well of Jerry Lee Lewis and Thelonious Monk - two unlikely bed partners - but the blend proved both intoxicating and exciting, resulting in unexpected surprise and originality.”

Jerry Lee Lewis AND Thelonious Monk?

Oh but it gets better. They were influenced by Sun Ra (like the MC5); had Carl Perkins front on vocals for an LP; were involved with John Sebastian, jazz artist Carla Bley (among others); and had wrestling star Captain Lou Albano as their unofficial manager. They are also promoting an album by The Shaggs from their website. Talk about a who’s who of misfits - I love it!

Head over to Birds With Broken Wings for the complete write-up and to download the compilation.

You can listen to a taste of NRBQ - “New Tune” - in the player below:

Those who are interested can find CD and LP re-issues of NRBQ from Sundazed.

“If you have selfish ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish ignorant leaders.” –George Carlin (1937-2008)

Mark Twain said, “Those of you who are inclined to worry have the widest selection in history.” Why complain, try to do something about it. You know, it’s going on nine months now since I decided that I was going to declare that I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States. Oh yes, I’m going to run.

I shopped around for a party. Well, I looked at the Republicans. Decided that talking to a conservative is like talking to your refrigerator. You know, the light goes on, the light goes off; it’s not going to do anything that isn’t built into it. And I’m not going to talk to a conservative anymore than I talk to my damn refrigerator. Working for the Democratic Party… now that’s kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

So I created my own party. It’s called the Sloth and Indolence Party. And I’m running as an anarchist candidate in the best sense of that word. I’ve studied the presidency carefully. I have seen that our best presidents were the do-nothing presidents: Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding. When you have a president who does things, we are all in serious trouble. If he does anything at all, if he gets up at night to go the bathroom, somehow, mystically, trouble will ensue. I guarantee, that if I am elected, I will take over the White House, hang out, shoot pool, scratch my ass, and not do a damn thing. Which is to say, if you want something done, don’t come to me to do it for you; you got to get together and figure out how to do it yourselves. Is that a deal?

That was Utah Phillips announcing his candidacy for the president of the United States back in 1996. “Candidacy” was included in “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere”, which was recorded with Ani DiFranco and released on her “Righteous Babe” record label.

This post is dedicated to both Carlin (12 May 1937 – 22 June 2008) and Phillips (15 May 1935 – 23 May 2008), probably two of the funniest and most inspiring rebels of the 20th century. You can listen to this podcast using the player below while you continue to read:

Phillips plunged into alocholism after returning from the Korean war, riding the railroads and writing folk songs. His social and political thinking began to change as he travelled. He joined Ammon Hennacy from the Catholic Worker Movement in establishing the Joe Hill House. He ran for the U.S. Senate as a candidate of Utah’s Peace and Freedom Party in 1968. He also ran for president of the United States in 1976 for the Do-Nothing Party.

When it comes to social and political commentary, few have been as sharp and direct as Carlin. From his rants on our consumer culture and rampant narcissism to the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, and the “tyrannical owners” who run America, Carlin told it like it was - grim.

After decades of trying to spur a grassroots revolt from within the American public, Carlin’s final performances were no holds barred anger at the complacency of the masses. He deliberately provoked them to consider radical change:

“I look at it this way… For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers… so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it’s natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.”

In other words, if you are going to refuse to act, you get what you deserve, and that includes the useless leaders you elect:

“Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain’t going to do any good; you’re just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here… like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There’s a nice campaign slogan for somebody: ‘The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.’”

Fuck hope indeed! The number of people who have gotten sucked into “Obamamania” has me more than a tad depressed. The most radical thing I have heard this guy say was merely a recognition of what is already common knowledge to anyone who gives a shit and bothers to make an attempt to be informed about what is happening in our world:

“The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions.”

Thanks for bringing the TV nation up to speed Mr. Obama, but you’re gonna have to say a lot more than that to impress me. That being said, it’s hard not to root for a guy like Obama when you consider the alternatives:

“….in small towns we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they’re listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.” –Sarah Palin, referring to Obama, RNC, 2008

Obama, McCain, Palin, Bush, the Clinton’s - these people are not the problem. Both Phillips and Carlin were quick to point this out. WE are the problem. As Carlin pointed out:

If it is really just the fault of these politicians, then where are all the other bright people of conscience? Where are all the bright honest intelligent Americans ready to step in and save the nation and lead the way. We don’t have people like that in this country. Everybody is at the mall, scratching his ass, picking his nose, taking his credit card out of his fanny pack and buying a pair of sneakers with lights in them!

If we refuse to stand on our own two feet; to build autonomy; to build community; and to challenge these creeps, then some form of tyranny is nearly inevitable. Most people have at least enough cynicism to recognize that human failings leave precious few options.

You don’t have to be an anarchist like Phillips to recognize that deference to rulers leads to tyranny. Go back to the first book of Samuel. G-d warned us about asking for rulers. We get what we deserve.

Small government is no better, because it just means more power in fewer hands = less democracy. A militarized state is even worse, as it must justify its position through the aggressive projection of its power.

We live in a time where neo-fascism builds its base support from insulating the public from reality. We are kept ignorant, complacent, isolated and defenceless by a media symplex which feeds us endless distractions to keep us from challenging basic assumptions.

COMFORT = FREEDOM

So long as enough of the masses have creature comforts and a talking head to amuse them, they think they are free - happy even. They cannot fool themselves forever. The powers that be know this. Eventually the physical reality will supercede the virtual, and the masses will be forced to see that: the emperor wears no clothes; they are helpless; the comfort train will soon make its last stop.

And then the people will realize how unprepared they are for even just the next day. And g-d only knows where that will lead.

It’s time for America to grow up and recognize that it is living way beyond its means, and that its criminal “foreign policy” is an extension of this reality. The U.S. now spends more than 50% of its annual budget on the military, and yet people are still reluctant to admit that they are in a militarized state.

Author Naomi Wolf recently decided it was time to take the truth to the people, and so she hit the road to tour her books “The End of America” and “Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries”.

In The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (2007), Wolf takes a historical look at the rise of Fascism, outlining the 10 steps necessary for a Fascistic group (or government) to destroy the democratic character of a nation-state and subvert the social/political liberty previously exercised by its citizens:

1) Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy (Muslims, via the 9/11 false flag operation)

10) Suspend the rule of law (Habeas Corpus suspended for non-citizens by military order on 13 November 2001)

Canada recently elected a minority government that intends to militarize its economy much like the U.S. It has plans to spend half a trillion dollars over the next 20 years in order to complete its “Canada First Defence Strategy” (CFDS).

How Orwellian is that?

The CFDS is a product of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a corporate response to 9/11 that aims for deep integration of the economies, cultures, and military apparatus of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The SPP will create an energy pact between Canada and the U.S. (already defacto under NAFTA) and a “Fortress North America” via military “interoperability” and “joint excercises”.

Under the SPP, the United States coordinates the security (by directing the integrated military operations), while Canada and Mexico provide the prosperity via cheap resources, energy, and labour.

And you thought Canada was so cute and peaceful. Guess again. It is in on the game.

Canadians and Americans need to start working together to protect themselves and their autonomy from corporate globalization. They musn’t let constant propaganda and rhetoric sell them what common sense says isn’t true.

So I put this compilation together to remind people to be dilligent, to be strong, and most importantly, not to get “fooled again”.

The first 12 tracks are available in an mp3 podcast, or you can download the entire compilation and burn it to a CD. I hope you find it inspiring!

Track Listing:

1) Candidacy ~ Utah Phillips
2) He’s a Mighty Good Leader ~ Barack Obama & Beck
3) I’d Love to Change the World ~ George Carlin & Ten Years After
4) Gimme Shelter ~ Barack Obama & The Rolling Stones
5) A Well Respected Man ~ George Carlin & The Kinks
6) Fuck Hope! ~ George Carlin
7) Power to the People ~ John Lennon
8) Fortunate Son ~ Barack Obama & Credence Clearwater Revival
9) The War Drags On ~ John McCain & Donovan
10) The Democrats are Zombies ~ Bob Hope
11) Christ for President ~ Billy Bragg & Wilco
12) When Did Jesus Become a Republican ~ Sarah Palin & Cindy Lee Berryhill
13) For What It’s Worth ~ Buffalo Springfield
14) Politician ~ The Cream
15) Cult of Personality ~ Living Color
16) Guerrilla Radio ~ Rage Against the Machine
17) Won’t Get Fooled Again ~ George Carlin, Mario Savo & The Who
18) A Change is Gonna Come ~ Sam Cooke

This collection is a re-mix of the full Garlock double-LP I posted back in September 2007. The production was put together as a radio show pilot in December 2006. Since it looks like that radio show will never make it to air, I decided to offer up the program as a podcast and also as a download for burning to CD.

Frank Garlock is an evangelical minister who spent a good part of the early 1970s travelling to high schools preaching about the evils of rock and roll. He wasn’t speaking metaphorically either. Garlock believes that “what the musician believes affects the listener”. Talk about some heavy mystical powers!

“I played Black Sabbath at 78 speed” “and then what happened?” “I saw god.” –Cheech & Chong.

Garlock believes that the bible tells us what kind of music g-d wants for us, and of course rock and roll is not it. Yessiree, rock and roll is eeeeevil. So evil in fact that Garlock tells us we shouldn’t even dabble in it, lest we get “hooked”. Yet on his 1971 double-LP, Garlock claims to have listened to more than 2,000 rock and roll records in a single week. Do the math. Even at two minutes and thirty seconds per song, that’s more than 83 hours of music listening in 7 days, or twice as long as a full-time job. Poor Mr. Garlock was quite the rock and roll addict in those days, and yet the music never had any adverse effects on him - or so he claims. For all we know he is thoroughly deranged. You can listen to the original unedited 2-LP lecture in the player below:

Track Listing:

1) A Friend of Teenagers (Frank Garlock, 1971)
2) The Banquet (The Deadly Snakes, 2005)
3) Kick Out The Jams (MC5, 1969)
4) Rock and Roll (Frank Garlock, 1971)
5) Rocker (AC/DC, 1975)
6) Revolution (The Beatles, 1968)
7) Break Beat Indictment (Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, 2005)
8) Twist and Shout (The Beatles, 1964)
9) Tomorrow Never Knows (The Beatles, 1966)
10) Tombstone Blues (Bob Dylan, 1965)
11) Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan, 1965)
12) Jethro’s Gyrations (Frank Garlock, 1971)
13) Dharma for One (Jethro Tull, 1968)
14) What the Musician Believes Affects the Listener (Frank Garlock, 1971)
15) My God (Jethro Tull, 1971)
16) Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones, 1968)
17) Rip This Joint (The Rolling Stones, 1972)
18) Jim Morrison Feels Spiritual Up There (Frank Garlock, 1971)
19) Petition the Lord with Prayer (The Doors, 1969)
20) Break on Through (The Doors, 1969)
21) She’s a Lady (Tom Jones, 1970)
22) Frank Zappa is the Devil’s Advocate (Frank Garlock, 1971)
23) Catholic Girls (Frank Zappa, 1979)
24) Rock and Roll Addiction (Frank Garlock, 1971)
25) I’m Waiting for My Man (The Velvet Underground, 1967)

Track List:

1) I Walk the Line
2) Ring of Fire
3) Orange Blossom Special
4) It Ain’t Me Babe
5) The City of New Orleans
6) Ghost Riders in the Sky
7) Get Rhythm
8) Bonanza
9) Blue Train
10) So Doggone Lonesome
11) Hey Porter
12) Folsom Prison Blues
13) Time of the Preacher
14) Rowboat
15) Thirteen
16) Rusty Cage
17) Country Boy
18) The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea
19) Redemption
20) I Never Picked Cotton
21) In My Life
22) Hurt
23) Personal Jesus
24) Further on up the Road
25) If You Could Read My Mind
26) God’s Gonna Cut You Down

This compilation was inspired by Danny Schmidt’s recent “Little Grey Sheep” album. The opening track, Leaves are Burning is another great mystical and somewhat cryptical exploration from Schmidt’s growing reportoire. Here Danny wades into the murky end of the pool where few tend to travel these days. His guitar work and singing style overlap in a cosmic event that weaves us a timeless reminder of the human condition. It reminds me of many other American talents who have incorporated “dark” sounds into their playing: Ry Cooder, Roy Buchanin, and Leo Kottke.

Mysticism and music have been crossing paths throughout all time in all cultures. At some point I hope to explore this further here with posts of music from around the world, especially the various classical traditions. This particular compilation however (and a rush job at that) is based entirely on American styles - mostly folk and blues. With the exception of the European flavour of The Old Country by Bela Fleck, the first 7 tracks outline my interpretation of Acerbus Americana.

The path continues, albeit in a somewhat more lighthearted vein - at least lyrically - in When I Grow Up, and the rest of the tracks - quickly culled from albums laying around my office (I am in the middle of a big sorting job), flow nicely from there, with an intermission of bluegrass, courtesy of Bela Fleck and the Osborne Brothers.

Track List:

1) Threads - Vic Chesnutt, 1996
2) Leaves are Burning - Danny Schmidt, 2007
3) This too Shall Pass - Danny Schmidt, 2005
4) Dust Bowl Children - Peter Rowan, 1990
5) Black Widow - Michelle Shocked, 1988
6) The Old Country - Bela Fleck, 1986
7) The Thrill is Gone - Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, 1990
8) When I Grow Up - Michelle Shocked, 1988
9) Four Wheel Drive - Bela Fleck, 1986
10) Up This Hill and Down - The Osborne Brothers, 1966
11) Oxycontin Blues - Steve Earle, 2007
12) Graffiti Limbo - Michelle Shocked, 1988
13) Backlash Blues - Nina Simone, 1967
14) No Education - Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969
15) He’s a Mighty Good Leader - Beck, 1993
16) Fourteen Rivers, Fourteen Floods - Beck, 1993
17) South Nashville Blues - Steve Earle, 1996
18) Jesus Sings the Blues - Tom Wilson, 1998
19) Cosmic Wheels - Donovan, 1991
20) Universal Soldier - Donovan, 1991
21) Morning Dew - Bonnie Dobson, 1962
22) Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad - Woody Guthrie, 1940

This is the first in a series of compilations that will be coming your way, courtesy of The Basement Rug. The biographical information below was taken from the official website of each artist whenever possible. Click on the artist name link for the full bio of each artist in this compilation.

Track List:

1) Trinidad - Broadbelt
2) Move Faster - Valdo Williams
3) Yasmina, A Black Woman - Archie Shepp
4) Intergalactic Motion - Sun Ra
5) Minor Mode - Philly Joe Jones
6) Theme From a Symphony - Ornette Coleman
7) In Pursuit of the 27th Man - Horace Silver

The free jazz of Broadbelt is the gathering of musical energies of Courtney Byron on drums, Girswin Broadbelt (bass), Sean Broadbelt (Guitar), Garnet Broadbelt (percussion). The music comes from the 4 souls and the fifth soul being the band itself. The direction is as free as the wind and blows every direction that your imagination can fathom. From meditative energy to skydiving without a parachute right into the cool clean ocean as the life energy skims through depths along coral reefs and back into the clear clean sky floating effortlessly like a small bird that has just learned to fly. The is a very Broad Belt to this music.

Valdo Williams was a little-known post bop free jazz pianist best known for his trio work with Reggie Johnson and Stuart Martin, who recorded together for the Savoy record label. He also appeared on Canadian television with Charlie Parker in the 1950s and later with Hal Singer in the 1960s.

Archie Shepp is a New York City native and alumnus of Goddard College. Archie started playing jazz in the early 60’s and continues to dazzle audiences around the world playing tenor saxophone and piano, accompanied by his soulful voice. Currently residing in Massachusetts, he teaches music history as a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Archie has collaborated with Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane and Yusef Lateef, as well as countless other jazz greats.

Eclectic, outrageous, sometimes mystifying but always imbued with a powerful jazz consciousness, the music of Sun Ra has withstood its skeptics and detractors for nearly three generations. And well it should, since Sun Ra has been both apart of and ahead of the jazz tradition during that time. Like Duke Ellington and swing-era pioneer Fletcher Henderson, Sun Ra learned early on to write music in an arranged form that showcased the specific talents of his individual Arkestra members, and he has retained the services of some of these musicians to this day: John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, and Julian Priester for example since they first joined in the 1950’s. On the other hand, Sun Ra was the first jazz musician to perform on electronic keyboards, the first to pursue full-scale collective improvisation in a big band setting, and his preoccupation with space travel as a compositional subject predated bands like Weather Report by about 15 years. All this from someone who refuses to even cite the earth as his home planet and prefers to have arrived from Saturn. As Sun Ra once explained it, “I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me”. Equally as mystifying is the fact that Sun Ra has no legal birth certificate. The Library of Congress claims that he arrived in Alabama, U.S.A., and his passport states that his legal name is Le Sony’r Ra, thus making all other names such as Sonny Lee, Sunni Bhlount, Armand Ra, and H. Sonne Bhlount merely pseudonyms.

Philly Joe Jones began playing with the rhythm and blues bands in the 40’s, establishing himself on the New York jazz scene. The first group that he recorded with was co-led by Johnny Griffin and Joe Morris, along with Matthew Gee on trombone and Elmo Hope on piano and Percy Heath. For a time they played standard Monk and pieces of Bud Powell, but reverted back to playing the blues for the sake of money. Philly, unhappy with the music, split with the group and joined the already established Ben Webster, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Tony Scott, and Tadd Dameron. He worked in Philadelphia as the local drummer for stars such as Dexter Gordon and Fats Navarro. He was in the army for a short time and len left in 1945 taking a job up as a streetcar driver. He was supposedly fired from the job because he would stop the steetcar with people in it and go in to play a set at the jazz clubs on the way, sometimes forgetting about the people in the car.

Early on in his career, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, recorded an album entitled, ‘The Shape of Jazz To Come.’ It might have seemed like an expression of youthful arrogance - Coleman was 29 at the time - but actually, the title was prophetic. Coleman is the creator of a concept of music called “harmolodic,” a musical form which is equally applicable as a life philosophy. The richness of harmolodics derives from the unique interaction between the players. Breaking out of the prison bars of rigid meters and conventional harmonic or structural expectations, harmolodic musicians improvise equally together in what Coleman calls compositional improvisation, while always keeping deeply in tune with the flow, direction and needs of their fellow players. In this process, harmony becomes melody becomes harmony. Ornette describes it as “Removing the caste system from sound.” On a broader level, harmolodics equates with the freedom to be as you please, as long as you listen to others and work with them to develop your own individual harmony.

In 1951, Horace Silver moved to New York City where he collaborated with Art Blakey in forming the Jazz Messengers during the early 1950s (which Blakey would continue to lead after Silver formed his own quintet in 1956). He also accompanied saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and many other legends. During these years, Silver helped create the rhythmically forceful branch of jazz known as “hard bop”. He based much of his own writing on blues and gospel—the latter is particularly prominent on one of his biggest tunes, “The Preacher.” While his compositions at this time featured surprising tempo shifts and a range of melodic ideas, they immediately caught the attention of a wide audience. Silver’s own piano playing easily shifted from aggressively percussive to lushly romantic within just a few bars. At the same time, his sharp use of repetition was funky even before that word could be used in polite company.