Skate Korpse

This record caught my eye-basic black screened on white. DIY/Pettibon'ish feel to it. Song titles hinted at genius. So I rolled the dice. This LP compiles 3 7"s, a demo, and some unreleased songs to give you 22 skate rock anthems. Limited runs on all the 7"s and they are a couple years old. Skate Korpse hail from Rochester NY and want to skate your pool. The 1st single has a real Cali feel to it. Snotty Adolescents/Faction style vocals. Music is more Dead Milkmen or JFA, but the instrumentals give a clear nod to agent orange. There is a real feel of teenage angst that reminds me of the less straight ahead bands on the Mystic "We Got Power" comp. That is a compliment, this has an 80s feel but isn't some retro trip. By the 3rd sinlge which ends side one, they were kiling it with the super catchy "down" More likely to hear reverb than distortion, but it is no retro-trip. The vocals on the unrealeased tracks remind me of early Descendents(ride the wild) and they get a little more anthemic over the remaining tracks.
When I picked this up, I expected Violent Ramp style noisy hardcore. This was a real pleasant surprise and Skate Korpse kick ass. They will remind you of classic skate video soundtracks and classic 80s core.
The labels were reversed on my copy. That must make it super rare. I am definetely keeping an eye out for their singles.

This compilation is a split between Feral Kids Records in Buffalo and Punks Before Profits in MI.

Buttshakes Soul Party V1 LP

16 tracks of "soul,boogaloo, and raw funk". There are some bigger names on this comp Jamo Thomas, Chuck Willis and Monk Higgins as well as some lesser known artists

Opens up with "Soul Pary part 1" by Billy Clark and the Maskmen who don't disappoint dropping a nice laundry list of items you'll need for your soul party.
Nice breakdown at the end of "Socking Soul Power" by Simtex Simmons and Wylie Dixon-good female back up vocals as well.
Pervis Lavawn & The Commanders steal the show with "crossing over". James Brownish vocals with a wicked groove and a killer sax solo. This is the kind of track that keeps me buying these comps
Soul Inc drop a single that demonstrates some challenges in the recording studio, but make up for it with a wicked drum break and solo.
Butterball "the double B" let's you know he has studied the James Brown Review very closely.
Side one finishes off with a dying to be sampled "Marvin's Groove" by B.W. Soul. Loop the first 20 seconds and your off.
Tommy Dark calls out all the skinny leg girls on "wobble legs" and also throws a jab at the "funky four corners" by Jerry O which is the next track up. Jerry O brought Fabulous Shalimars throws down and inspired JB tribute "funkyline" part one and two.
Electric Man Lionel Davis sings his song "electric man" He leaves them weak. Trust him
Chick Willis drops the track about the African animal the "Mother Foyer". Blue lyrical double entendre. Sing the chorus right and you don't have to say "shhh shut your mouth"
Buddy McKnight wraps up the JB imitators on "everytime part one"
The Other Brothers run through a list of stars seen dancing at "hole in the wall". They even throw in the Batman and Robin theme.
Monk Higgins and the Satelittes finish it off with "mister luckee", Nice organ groove that hints at where Monk would go later in his career.

The good news is there is a Vol 3 of this available and the cover is as good as Vol 1 -and hopefully so are the tunes.

respect to the numero group

One of my biggest frustrations is not having enough time to search out and listen to music. Couple that with a tight budget for purchasing and you've got the recipe for one frustrated record collector. I guess it was about 2 years ago when my friend played me the Capsoul comp. Something called eccentric soul. The music was good. Obviously heavily influenced by Motown. Numero Group Definitely hadn't heard of the label. I tracked it down at work and liked the package. Once I bought it, I was equally impressed with the liner notes and effort that went into putting it together. This much soul from Columbus Ohio?? Who would have guessed. This series of comps really opened my eyes to the facts that indie labels back then are no different that indie labels now -regional,hard to find, sporadically distributed etc. Overall the Capsoul disc starts and finishes strong. "Hot Grits" is a reference/jab at Al Green. It takes some balls to put out a record bagging on Al Green for burning himself.
The comps came fast and furious and I am going to single out a couple that I loved rather than nitpick through all of them. No matter want if you want hard to find funk and soul, well researched and presented then you can't go wrong with this label.


Big Mack (009) Opens with "bui bui" a real dirty dancer that would have held it's own on a Las Vegas Grind Comp. Edd Henry keeps it going with "your replacement is here". Soul President's "got to have it" opens with a nice drum break. Miniskirt by the Performers is standout shouter. The additional "instro" version is notable for the vocals bleeding in. That must have been a fun recording session. The New Orleans piano stylings of "Monkey Time Shine:" by l.Hollis and the Mackadoos is another highpoint. This comp might be my favorite of the bunch. Has a much more raw and urgent feel than the others. Many selections here could heat up your house party. Reminds me of some of the tracks that were on the "shaftman" comp from years ago.

Good God(010) is not technically "eccentric soul" and I have skipped discussing Numero's other Non-"eccentric" releases, but this disc (along with the Soul Jazz Gopel comps) was another real eye opener to me of a genre I didn't even know to look for. One look at the cover of Trevor Dandy's lp had me hooked and the music doesn't let down. Influences run the gamut from Ray Charles with a heavy does of Stevie. This is killer

I am now waiting anxiously for the 2CD #13 and considering the subscription series as well. Eventually I will go back and grab the cult cargo comp -when first heard the name, I was hoping it was some collection of obscure Randy Turner recordings, but you can't win them all.
Massive respect to this label which treats the original artists with as much respect as the records.

And be sure to check the "digital dig" section of their site to snatch even more rarities

Dead Child and your inner metal head

Dead Child from Louisville mine some of the same metal history as Early Man from NYC. They even share a member. Dave Pajo. The Dead Child line up has some serious Louisville all-stars including former members of Crain and Slint. But this is not some new Quartertick math rock foray, this is a straight time machine trip to the 80s. Metal Rules and Trash Metal is the king.
If you where a teenager in the 80s and you weren't a complete tool, you liked metal. Maybe it was Slayer, maybe Metallica, who knows. But glam,thrash, death , or crossover all had some unbelievable albums during my teenage years. No matter how you defined yourself "punk" "skater""nerd""jock" whatever, there was a pretty good chance you were cranking Slayer at some point. And even if you didn't own it, you know you rocked out at a keg party to some metal. Don't even act like you didn't crash your mom's car listening to Dokken.

Cold Sweat have released this EP. It harkens back to the golden age a little NWOBHM, some thrash. Not obviously stolen riffs, but a clear tribute to the old guard.
If you were a teenage metal head, pick this up. You will probably still grab that Slayer, Metallica, Priest, Sodom, or Maiden record first but this is still worth your time. Buy this and maybe more bands from Louisville will put out metal records.
Think Kinghorse Don't get me started on Kinghorse.

TOC Wrap Up. PS Hincapie is Cursed!

Levi takes the overall win. Jens second and Jason McCartney 3rd. 4 of the top 6 riders were on CSC. 2 out of the top ten were domestic teams. Pro Tour big guns definitely shook things up and took 6 out of 7 stages.
This race was definitely more exciting than I expected. Caught a couple stages on Versus on whatever OLN is called today. And then there's George
Big George breaks his wrist and will need surgery. No classics for him. When he bonks, crashes into ditches, or fails to be aggressive it is kind of funny. This is not funny. There are only so many years left for him and who knows what Discovery will be like next year. I can't see a pro tour team backing him as a classics leader.

People's Choice 45

The label on this caught me eye and the price was right so home it came. The A-side "I likes to do it" should sound familar to anyone who listened to hip hop because it was sampled for De La Soul's "tread water". Lyrics keep it a syllable above a grunt which works for me. Wicked groove.
The flip is in a similar groove.
This is great single and it seems to float around cheap.

Vinyl -Endangered Species??

Spent a good portion of the weekend looking for records down on the Cape. Surprisingly frustrating experience. One of may favorite secret spots that has 1000s of juke box 45s and LPs was closed. Not closed for the day, but closed-like the building was empty. Records gone. Damn, the last time I was there I passed on a Ventures LP that they covered "whole lotta love" on. Missed my chance on that. Even though the bulk of the 45s were in terrible condition, it always gave me a thrill digging in there. Those records are probably waiting to get sold at some South Shore flea market as we speak.
Then I hit a few other antique/flea market type spots and they were all real light on records and what they had must have been priced after a "how to make a million on ebay" class. No thanks.
The last blow was the almost non existent supply of records at the Salvation Army and Goodwill. This was a troubling sign. There used to be at least a couple hundred LPs at all these locations and now there's barely a milk crate. Could this signal the end of vinyl? Has the last grandparent's attic been cleaned out? Has the latest entrepreneur snatched them all up to make popcorn bowls or purses? This was like a canary in the coal mine moment. How long til there is nothing left except in the hands of other record nerds or stores? Endless days wandering empty handed around yard sales.
I cannot wait for spring because I will be analyzing the distribution and availability of records to test this chilling theory......................