Barry Sisters Yiddish Swing Sampler

Considering that half our institutional title is Yiddish for "mushy cooking fat", I feel like a complete shmendrick for being ignorant of the Yiddish Swing movement until this week. Luckily, I stumbled across the Barry Sisters "Their Greatest Yiddish Hits" on the Rhapsody Just Added list recently, and things are getting better. Claire and Merna have taken me to their ample bosoms and filled me in on everything I missed by being born a couple decades too late and not Jewish.

Big, vibrant harmonies and impeccable dance floor-filling swing. Perfect stuff for the throw-the-windows-open weather we're having this week. Here's a sampler of a playlist for you. For the curious, there's an illuminating story on the heyday of Yiddish Swing on the NPR audio archives containing some recollections from Claire Barry herself.

Barry Sisters Sampler Playlist

Bublitchki Bagelach
Vyoch Tyoch Tyoch
Zug Es Meir Noch Amool
Eishes-Chiyell
Dem Neyem Sher
Fargess Mich Nit

Soul Sides Sampler

It took a while, but another record has finally knocked Fox Confessor Brings The Flood from the heaviest rotation slot here at R&S Labs. Of course, I'm talking about "Soul Sides Volume 1." Far out and solid from start to finish.

And what an odd route to get here: Oliver "DJ O-Dub" Wang keeps a scholarly soul blog, issues a compilation album, said album gets added as a Rhapsody exclusive, shows up on the New Releases feature page, then cements itself in my Play tab.

Somewhere a snake is chewing on its own ass pondering the moral to this story. In the meantime, here's a sampler, but go ahead and listen to the whole shebang. And thank you to annotater Sam Chennault for pointing out that Clarence Reid is Blowfly. Next I'm moving on to the one Reid compilation in Rhapsody, which so far is more consistent and original than Blowfly's output (nothing against his vital classics, of course).

Soul Sides Sampler Playlist

Masterpiece - Clarence Reid
Jealous Guy - Donny Hathaway
You're Gonna Miss Me - Ann Sexton
Ordinary Guy - Joe Bataan
All Over Again - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

Brown Reason To Listen Saturday

Well, let the good times roll. Operations here at R&S Labs have been hindered by a prolonged visit from a stomach virus that's had Schmaltzy Junior and now Mama accessorizing with a large stainless steel bowl and performing more wardrobe changes in an hour than Madonna.

Yes, it's the perfect week to welcome "Brown Reason To Live" and a pantload of other early Butthole Surfers albums to the Rhapsody Just Added list. It looks like Brown Reason To Live, PCPEP, Psychic...Powerless..., Locust Abortion Technician, and Hairway to Steven are all in Rhapsody now.

May it color your week as much as it has ours!

Brown Reason To Listen Playlist

The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave
Lady Sniff
Cherub
Human Cannonball
John E. Smoke

Some Girls Songs Fresh Catch Playlist

Here's a motley fresh catch playlist of songs from some girls and a song from Some Girls. It hit the spot for me, I'll tell you. Go spring.

Some Girls Fresh Catch Playlist

The Way I Want To Touch You - Captain & Tenille
The Windmills of Your Mind - Dusty Springfield
Magic Man - Heart
Far Away Eyes - The Rolling Stones

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch a vaguely identifiable stew (could be goat or it could be dik-dik) scooped up with some still-warm injera.

"Allah Wakban" is an invigorating part of the recent Luaka Bop (re-?)invasion on Rhapsody, "Empty Room" is a dynamic suite of a song in itself, and "Ziguener Song" comes from a Stan Getz album featuring fruity vocals, also recently added.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Allah Wakban - Ofo & The Black Company
Empty Room - Luiz Bonfa
Zigeuner Song - Stan Getz

Old Man Thursday Fresh Catch Playlist

Another fresh catch batch of fine songs to put the Geritol in your glottis and the Metamucil in your malleolus.

Old Man Thursday Fresh Catch Playlist

Lovesick Blues - Floyd Cramer
If I Had A Choice - The Pearls
You're Absolutely Right - The Apollas
Try Me - James Brown
Kicks - Paul Revere & the Raiders
Something in the Air - Thunderclap Newman

Summer of 1991 Duo-ver Playlist

For no particular reason other than they fell into my Play tab together yesterday, I present to you a pair of the feel-good hits of the summer of 1991. Particularly, the first Cypress Hill album and the fine closing track from Slacker. May the summer of 2006 offer such cultural high-water marks!

Summer of 1991 Duo-ver Playlist

Hand On The Pump - Cypress Hill
Skokiaan - Louis Armstrong

Out To Lunch With Edgar Winter Friday

Today we head out to lunch with Edgar Winter. Yesterday I cued up his first album for the first time in my life. Some of it was a little silly even for my tastes, but there's no denying he's got one of the most inspiring falsetto screams ever set to record. I think it's on best display on Hung Up, along with one of the unmistakable themes that would later show up in Frankenstein. And the end of Tobacco Road? Holy fudge-a-mals.

For dessert, we segue quite logically into the perennial Blind Melon Chitlin and more inspired over-the-top caterwauling in Jane. Happy Friday, world!

"Let's take it from four, and really burn."

Out To Lunch With Edgar Winter Friday

Hung Up - Edgar Winter
Tobacco Road - Edgar Winter
Peace Pipe - Edgar Winter
Blind Melon Chitlin' - Cheech & Chong
Jane - Jefferson Starship

Not Another Fresh Catch Playlist

Another fine fresh catch playlist in the original mold: simply a few good songs that got stuck in the Play tab while trolling the Rhapsody estuaries recently.

Not Another Fresh Catch Playlist

Full On Idle - The Breeders
Double A Growler - The Boss Martians
Cahokian - Jay Farrar

Spring Low Grade Fever Fresh Catch Playlist

A short playlist to mark the early stirrings of the full-time window-gazing and wanderlust sure to come soon.

Starting with some classics, moving through some renewing rehash, and winding up with one of the two full albums of humpback whales I've seen breach in Rhapsody.

Spring Low Grade Fever Fresh Catch Playlist

Bali Ha'i - Frank Sinatra
El Cable - Esquivel
Chasing For Young Blood - Messer Chups
Calm Afternoon - Humpback Whales/Paul Knapp Jr.

Out To Lunch With Prince Far I Friday

The islands of Dub are a perilous landscape. There's a fine line between spacey and boring. Between the rhythmic inspirations of the hola herb and the scattered ramblings of a stoned guy with alot of fancy equipment. Somehow I got lucky with the first dub album I got my ears around years ago when I mail ordered a cassette of Prince Far I's Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1. It had everything you need: carefully woven instrumentals, lions roaring, an abundance of reverb, echoey water drops, and great beats.

Well, that album's not in Rhapsody but another Prince Far I album featuring some fine dub versions was on the Just Added list earlier this week: Silver and Gold: 1973-1979. Here's a playlist of the more delicious tracks to whet your appetite while the prince finishes cooking up whatever's in that pot on the album cover.

Out To Lunch With Prince Far I

Gimme Version
354 Version
Silver and Gold Version
Ears To Hear Version
Talking Rights Version

P.S. I couldn't let the week end without documenting another hole filled in the Rhapsody catalog this week. We can all rest easy now that Ferry Cross The Mersey by Gerry & The Pacemakers is Rhapvailable.

Spring Classic Rock Fresh Catch Playlist

Local radio broadcast of baseball spring training kicks off tonight with a scrimmage between the Red Sox and cross-town squad the Minnesota Twins. Set the rocker on the front porch, watch the snow fall, and debate who has the funnier name: Jonathan Papelbon or Coco Crisp.

Here's a fresh catch of classic rock nuggets that have been accumulating in the live well recently.

Spring Classic Rock Fresh Catch Playlist

Sookie, Sookie - Steppenwolf
Land Ho! - The Doors
Play The Game - Queen
Give The Man A Hand - The Left Banke
Bell Bottom Blues - Derek & The Dominos

Disco Enlightenment and Beyond Playlist

I've previously documented the gaping hole in the Rhapsody database where "Born To Be Alive" by Patrick Hernandez belongs. When I first heard the song as a youth the very title just bent my mind like a zen koan and brought about some kind of elementary school state of enlightenment.

Well the original still isn't Rhapvailable, but this overblown remix was on the Just Added list this week. It'll do for now.

The list is rounded out by kindred tunes and thematically appropriate recent additions.

Disco Enlightenment and Beyond Playlist

Born To Be Alive - Disco Kings
Boogie In Your Butt - Eddie Murphy
Johnny Come Home - Fine Young Cannibals
Along Came Jones - The Overlanders
Thunder Island - Jay Ferguson
I'm Alive - Electric Light Orchestra