Betty LaVette Child of the Seventies CD

I generally steer clear of the "Rhino Handmade" scene as it seems to be populated by scalp collecting idiots who want to own artifacts rather than enjoy killer music, but even a pretentious shithead like myself will put his attitude in check when they drop a Betty LaVette record from the 69-70 era. I'll even buy it new.
I had high hopes for this and she delivers. 22 tracks of southern soul brilliance recorded in Muscle Shoals and sitting on the shelves until now(unless you got the 2000 euro only reissue...) Grab this and all her other records and the good news is you can still see her live.

the winner for now

Contador wins the TDF.... for now. Who knows when more Puerto documents leak.... Rasmussen,Vino,Sinkewitz,Mayo,Moreni. That is a lot of scalps, but still a small percentage of the peleton. Seems like all the "men in black" got dealt with.
Conspiracy of the week-Vino set up by the Russian mob who bet heavy against him and ratted him out....
The Mayo situation brings to mind a simple rule a friend of mine uses,"If you are under 30 with a receding hairline or balding problem, you are suspect". Holds up pretty well in field testing.
Vaughters transfer acquisitions seem mainly to get UCI points. Vandevelde and Zabriskie???-at least it's not Hincapie. Millar gets an ownership stake in the team? Seems like a Mini-LA move. How happy do you think Lance is in having an ownership stake in a team without a sponsor? Cofidis is gone next year. Astana must be too so that should leave a spot for a team to move up to the pro-tour(if the pro-tour still exists next year) which might push JV to grab more riders fast. He says a "recent Paris Roubaix winner" as well. Backsedt maybe? He seems bummed at Liquigas.... No way is it O'Grady,Boonen or Cancellara. I doubt the aging man from Brakel aka PVP would come back to America.
Losing a couple D1 teams should make the off season like musical chairs.
Back to vacation

Persausions We Came to Play LP

I am pretty much a sucker for buying records that have covers on them, so by the time I flipped over the Persuasions "We came to play" LP and got over the Penniman quote("You should never try and put a tuxedo on the funky blues") and the sweat suits(which were provided by Levy's of Jersey City), it was a done deal. Beatles, Curtis Mayfield,Motown, Sam Cooke. Done deal. I figured I was in for some 70s funk workouts,but I didn't expect a full blown doo-woop vocal assualt. If they were as good a basketball team as they were a vocal group that would have been a tough to beat team-even in Jeresy City or Orange(Respect to Eric Williams!)
Opening up with "Chain Gang" by Sam Cooke and closing it out 10 tracks later with "Let it Be" these 5 guys deliver the goods.
I guess they raised their profile by working with Frank Zappa, but this is some pretty traditional shit and not in some shity Sha-na-na fashion.

Herbie Mann Memphis Underground

Herbie Mann always struck me as a creepy older uncle type dude who would show up at your parties and bum everyone out trying to smoke weed with them. Despite that, he made being a hairy flute player cool, was on Atlantic ,and always had a good ear for covers, so I pick up his lps when the price is right. That is how I grabbed Memphis Underground.
5 tracks.1969. The subdued and arty front cover is in stark contrast to the shirtless Mann working in the studio on the back cover. A shirtless,sweaty, hairy mess. That is more in keeping with his aesthetic.
Went immediately to the Sam and Dave cover which is pretty epic and gets the thumbs up-even if it misses the sledge hammer drum work of the original. Ripping guitar solos (Larry Coryell,Sonny Sharrock, and Bobby Woods) and sick vibraphone action(Roy Ayers) in addition to Herbie's flute fireworks.
I can't quite perfect an alliteration coup of "Herbie the hirsute flautist's funky fireworks make the track".
"Memphis Underground" is a 7 minute workout. Funky but not earth shattering. The guitar players step up. Sandwiched between this and "Hold On" is the 2 minute funky workout on "New Orleans" which seems like it deserved a more streched out treatment.
Side 2 opens with "Chain of Fools" and you know these jokers have to kick it up a notch to try and match Aretha's take on it. A slightly funkier take with an effected guitar solo that takes off with almost a sitar sound. Bass and vibes step up as the tune kicks out into the 10 minute time zone with kind of a krautrock groove..... (maybe I am getting carried away....)
He closes it out with "Battle Hymn of the Republic" which tragically is kind of snoozefest for most of it's 7 minutes.
This is a mid vaction post, I am doing more record hunting and riding then writing. No internet, etc. Plus with the TDF in shambles I am going with a "no comment" on cycling-excpet to Big Up Village Cycles in Westport MA-did an awesome group ride with them last Sunday. Good shop if you are in the area.

Myrna Summers The Mystical World of ... LP gospel soul

Inspired by the Gospel comps on Soul Jazz and Numero Group, I have made several unsuccessful forays into searching for gospel soul grail. Today I finally scored. Myrna Summer's The Mystical World of LP on Savoy. Luckily for me she made it easy by covering "Have a talk with God". So even if the rest of the record sucked, I figured this track should at least hold some promise.(Once I got home a quick google check confirmed that this track was on Soul Jazz's Soul Gospel 2 comp) Phil Stencil is credited with "Synthesizer for Special Effects" as well as Clavinet and Organ. The record has a nice funky groove with an obvious nod to SW's 70s sound.
There are a bunch of good tracks on here. "Take Courage" has some frantic disco/funk fueled gospel choir action and "Have a talk with God" is true to the original.

Godess of Fortune LP Krsna Rock Part 21

This seems to be a real attempt to leverage George Harrison's name to get people to buy an essentially devotional LP. Late 70s, 7 tracks produced by Mr.Harrison. More than likely the same cast of characters that were on the Apple Krsna LPs. In fact thanks to Wikipedia, it is clear this is a reissue of the Apple Radah Krsna LP.Different song order and some altered spelling but the same seven tracks. Well done and enjoyable. Back Cover says "special issue" which may or not mean private press or Harrison Vanity Press, or Copyright issue/out of print issue. Hard to say, but someday I will get to the bottom of the gnarled and twisted shell game that makes up the Hara Krsna record label families. Label says "Spiritual Sky" which could be the label and their is another pressing with a maroon label and different record label name. So try and keep that all straight. This is pretty minimal in the liner notes dept. Back cover is a cool obtuse artistic statement about something-must be good art then! Hara Krsna Mantra and Govinda Jai Jai are both here which were hits from the Apple/Hara Krsna records.
Side 2 opens up with some guitar work that could be GH and is one of the few Western instruments to turn up. This track bears the ancient name "Sri Isopanisad" but is the closer to a folk blues or "acid-folk" feel which I missed on the Apple version. Either way another cool devotional entry in the Krsna Rock Series.

El Michels Affair w/Raekown PJs

The El Michels Affair are a good trippy acid jazz/soul jazz type band, but they came across the genius idea of doing covers of Wu-Tang. 2 45s into what I hope is a long series right now and they were good enough to get a guest spot from Lex Diamonds himself on this track. Rae spits his standard back in the day coke slinging story rhyme over a rootsy Brooklyn groove.
Side 2 has the instrumental and some bonus beats. Including the monster surprise "this one's for my baby" which opens with a wicked string hook before settling down. It wouldn't be hard to see these guys rocking behind Amy Winehouse if the Dap-Kings were busy.
An added bonus is the nice artwork which most 12"s don't get. Very nice.
I guess getting stoked on Wu-Tang covers and cameos is some nostalgia shit, but if you were buying records like 36 Chambers,Iron Man, or Only Built for Cuban Linx when they just came out, you know how mind blowing these guys were. There were a few Hip Hop groups that totally changed up the game. Think Public Enemy and NWA for example. It's hard to remember how wild these records were once they have become holy grails or classics.
Truth and Soul Records.