Monday, December 24, 2007

See You Next Tuesday


Well boys and girls, bloggers and bloggettes that's it from me for 2007,I'm all cozied up for Christmas and am blogging off until the New Year.

A big thank you is due to anyone who's popped by, posted a comment or taken part in any of the ol' puffery going on here. So have yourselves a swinging Christmas and rocking new year and I'll leave you with

A Christmas message from Marc Bolan


This little known nugget from Frank and Bing

We Wish You The Merriest.MP3




And this internet treat - A winner if you've got little'uns

NORAD Tracks Santa
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense)have been 'tracking' Santa for 50 years, and now live updates are available the web, vi sat nav and Santa cam's - there's even a manned hotline you can call for an ETA on Santa's arrival in your own home town

So over and out and see you in 2008

Friday, December 21, 2007

Funky Friday - Festive Funk and Merry Mixmas


Every Friday is Funky Friday on Planet Mondo and this week is a 3 course Christmas bellyful of groovy goodies. So bloggers and bloggettes tuck in and fill your boots from the mondo menu below - then why not burn off those fatback calories by raising a glass and shaking a leg to my home made Funky minimix packed with tasty treats and seasonal shakers and stompers.

For starters

Run DMC- Christmas in Hollis

That snappy horn riff in 'Hollis' was lifted from 'Back Door Santa' by Clarence Carter.(see below)

The main course

Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa.mp3



Billy May Orchestra - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer(Malibu Remix).mp3




Al Hirt - Nutty Jingle Bells.mp3




CCC - Body Sleighin'.MP3



And from the sweet trolley...

Mondo Mixmas mini mix



Track Listing
Marc Bolan - Christmas Message
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
Keith Mansfield - Snowman Stomp
Jingle Bells - Booker T and the MG's
Ramsey Lewis Trio - Here Comes Santa Claus
Oscar Peterson - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Stu Hamm - Sleigh Ride
Up With the People - Jingle Bell Beat
Anita Kerr Singers - Jingle bell rock
Soulfoul singers - Santa Claus is coming to town
Soulful Strings - Sleigh Ride
Edwin Starr - Snowflake Boogie
The Rhodes Kids - Winter Wonderland

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Countdown to Christmas Pt 4 - Snowy Beatle Boots and a Brassy Bonus



As mentioned before I'm a terror for a bootleg remix and was lucky enough to grab these Go Home goodies a couple of years ago.

The Beatles bootlegging with Boston

GHP - Christmas in Boston. MP3




Macca mashes it up with Jennifer Lopez

GHP - Christmas on the Block.mp3




The Carpenters get the last sleigh to Skaville

GHP - Carpenters Christmas.mp3

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Countdown to Christmas Pt 3 - Have Yourself a Mexi Little Christmas


In the early 90's I was afflicted by a buzz for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, brought on by tracks like 'Spanish Flea', 'Tijuana taxi', 'A Taste of Honey' and 'Bean Bag'(used as the theme from It's a knockout) - each one a piece of polite but punchy trumpet pop. The snappy arrangements, the swishy album artwork and being cheap as chips at charity shops made these dusty Mexican nuggets perfect for collecting. But it was almost impossible to find the Holy Grail of Herb albums 'The Christmas Album'*(with H looking bored in his beard and as convincing as as in store Santa) amongst the Stereo Impact, James Last and TV Theme Tune vinyl - how many versions of Onedin Line - Theme from Spartacus and Owen MD (whatever that was) can you possibly need?

*The Herb Christmas album was eventually released on CD but didn't live up to the expectation.

As an interim I decided to make do with the CD of 'Tijuana Christmas' by the Torero Band/Sound of Brass being sold at Woolworths. What an absolute winner it turned out to be, with the Toreros coming across as the most swingingest Salvation Army band EVER and starring the hardest working bass man at EMI. Using the textbook formula of cheeky key change after every verse, the uptempo thumpers could be themes for Carry On Christmas Specials, the mellow moments are like seasonal instrumental beds for Generation Game 'Potters wheel' sequences and as tight and sprightly as anything by Ronnie hazlehust.

Even now, every Christmas this is the first CD out of the Santa sack and onto the stereo at Cloudbase Mondo - 'Tijuana Christmas' is now deleted so why not treat yourself to some of these MexiChristmas classics.

Good King Wenceslas.mp3


God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.mp3


Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.mp3


O Come All Ye Faithful.mp3


Recommended reading for more Christmas Kitch n' Campery

checkthecoolwax - sack loads of goodies including the artwork for 'Christmas with Colonel Sanders'

Jeffco Productions - includes the the complete Tijuana Christmas album for download.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Funky Friday - Birthday Treat

Every Friday is Funky Friday on Planet Mondo, but this week FF is different for the following reason..

It's my birthday this Sunday, so I hope you'll allow me the indulgence of loading up the A and B side my favourite Northern Soul single EVER by Luther Ingram

A - 'Exus Trek'
B - 'If It's All The Same To You'

I only stumbled across these tracks six months ago, but the moment I heard them it felt like I'd known them all my life and I've had to play them at least once a week ever since. The A side 'Exus Trek' is a glorious Northern Soul stomping instrumental, but flip it over and it's even better on the B side. A vocal version of 'Exus Trek' with heartfelt lead vocals and haunting backing vocals - and for me THE perfect Northern Soul song (I really can't understand why the vocal take was tucked away on the B side)

There are few other tracks constantly in flux and contending for second place on my Northern Soul playlist..

Bobby Fuller Four - 'Magic Touch'
The MVP's - 'Turnin' That Heartbeat up'
The Younghearts - 'A Little Togetherness'
'Love is Like an Itching in My Heart' - The Supremes

But Luther Ingram is always there in pole position.

I don't know much about Luther Ingram except that his greatest hit was '(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right' and he appeared at Wattstax, - but I do know that 'If It's All The Same To You' and 'Exus Trek' are the distilled essence of Northern Soul and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Luther Ingram - Exus Trek.mp3



Luther Ingram - If It's All The Same To You.mp3




Exus Trek - home made vid' found on you tube

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Countdown to Christmas Pt 2 - New Wave Nativity

Still feeling rough, raggy and rotten, but managed to drag myself out of sick bay to long enough to load up two more seasonal sing a longs.


The Three Wise Men - Thanks for Christmas
Thanks for Christmas - b/w Countdown to Christmas (what does b/w stand for - backed with?). Was the 1983 XTC Xmas single released under pseudonym The Three Wise Men. Writing credits went to Kaspar, Melchior and Balthazar, and production credits went to The Three Wise Men and The Good Lord. TGL may not have interrupted his busy seasonal schedule and pitched in on production if he'd known XTC would return the favour by recording Dear God two years later.

The Three Wise Men - Thanks for Christmas.mp3




Aimee Mann once managed to coax Andy Partridge out of live retirement and into a rare onstage appearance in 1993 along with XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, who has regularly appeared as Aimee's guitarist of choice for session and live work. This is her take on the Dr Seuss Christmas classic


Aimee Mann - The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.Mp3


Monday, December 10, 2007

Countdown to Christmas Pt 1 - Have Yourself a Punky Little Christmas

I've been off sick today, am feeling a bit grot' and grog' - so will be keeping it short and simple. Here's a couple of Christmas crackers to kick off the Christmas countdown, and continue the Punk them from last Fridays posting.
PS -Why not have a peep at my other Christmas themed post here too



The Damned - There Ain't no Sanity Clause.mp3



A snow storming Christmas anthem from The Damned, sleigh bells, "ho ho ho's" , a verse about each member of the band, and a sing a long backing vocals with the phrase

Here comes uncle Nick
Let's give him some stick


You'd never have got this from The Clash, but you would from the Sex Pistols (well, Cook and Jones anyway) who teamed up with Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy formed The Greedies - short for Greedy Bastards and cracked out a festive fretfest called 'A Merry Jingle'.


The Greedies - A Merry Jingle.mp3



Friday, December 7, 2007

Funk Friday - When Punk Went Funky

Every Friday is Funky Friday on Planet Mondo and this Friday brings you two New Wave nuggets with videos and downloads for both tracks.



Given that the Sex Pistols coverered tracks by the The Who and Small Faces, Matlock's Mod roots and Lydon's love of Reggae, it was invevitable there would be some funky fallout following the Punk explosion. (An early Pistols gig was billed as Machine Bubble Disco, and the Seditionaries Vive le Rock (version 2) T shirts featured a scrawled "Punk Rock Disco" slogan). Disco and Punk were both driven by a sweaty energy,manic dance routines and a highly stylised dress code as escapism from the bleak prospects of 'No Future', 'dead end' jobs and long term unemployment - unheard of for teenagers in the 50's and 60's.

For all it's trademark jerky, angular clangings, New Wave recycled the uptempo high-hats and handclaps of Disco and Funk, with the dress down charity shop trimmings of Punk - PIL, The Clash, XTC, The Slits, Talking Heads, Eno and Byrne, Blondie, Adam and the Ants, The Police, Ian Dury and the Blockheads all dabbled with Dance or Dub rythms and Rock riffing.

And after visiting New York, the Professor Pat Pending of Punk Malcom McLaren was instrumental in bringing Hip Hop, scratching and break dancing to the UK (and as a consequence the rest of the world) in 1982 following an appearance on 'The Tube' and the release of his single 'Buffalo Girls' (McLaren also put World music on world stage on his 1983 album 'Duck Rock')

Two years later Lydon and Afrika Bambaataa put their heavily coiffeured heads together, mergered Rock, Rap and the omnipresent 80's terror of nuclear armageddon to create 'World Destruction' the first 'Rapcore' track pre dating Run DMC and The Beastie Boys by two years.

Time Zone - 'World Destruction'


The 'Hardest Part' was only ever released as a single in America, which is probably for the best as I would have become a complete wobbling hormonal mess - if this vid' had popped up on 'Tiswas' with Debbie Harry swishing and snapping her way through it like a brunette Bardot .
Blondie - 'The Hardest Part'


Click on the highlighted links below to download or the Divshare link to preview

Time Zone - World Destruction




The Hardest Part

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Who are The Who Boys?



I've mentioned before that I'm a terror for bootleg remix ,(here ,
here and here), but as a mashup maniac it's getting increasingly tricky to track down new booties. Luckily though via The Who Boys Myspace site I've found a goldmine of goodies to grab.

Like Santa The Who Boys have have got sackfuls of winners to dish out - Podcasts, videos, original tunes several albums worth of tip top booty remixes and all available for free download via their website www.whoboys.com, these are a small sample of the boys booty nuggets I've taste tested so far

London Crying

Is The Beatles 'Cry Baby Cry' riding on the back of 'London Calling'

Return of the Dub Auctioneer

Sees Santana, The Doors and an anonymous auctioneer getting smashed, mashed and merged.

How Many Roads

Is described by The Who Boys as "Led Zep meet Canned Heat and go for toast in the garage"

Other tempting treats include...

AC/DC meets Duke of Earl,
Rolf Harris and Prince Buster,
John Cooper Clarke with grooves from Roy Budd and The Who Boys
The Beatles and Frankie Goes To Hollywood

The website is here, and the myspace site is here
Why not get on over and fill your boots for free.