Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The Nite-Liters : Serenade for Jive Turkey





Just in time for Thanksgiving! "Serenade for Jive Turkey" is a raving full-band funk stomper with a bit of a prog bent. It starts with a scream and barrels along from there with a solid funk groove. Then around chorus-time, it breaks into an angular riff that's hammered out by the horns and some wordless vocals. Then, in a master stroke, it ends with a killer drum fill and two (just two, no more, no less) claps. Bang, bang! All done!

A sure-fire upbeat mood-alterer. Be sure you play this one while you're stuffing that bird, if you get my drift.

I don't know much about The Nite-Liters themselves. I'm pretty sure I picked this one up from the excellent Funky16Corners website, but it can also be found on their recently re-released 1973 album "A-NAL-Y-SIS".



Friday, November 20, 2009

Pink Floyd : Paint Box




The goal for Topeka is to expose the reader to new music. Not new in the sense of "just came out last week", but new in the sense of "Hey, you may not have ever heard this before." In order to do this, I'm certainly going to pull some "just came out last week" stuff that I like, but I'm also going back into the creates to explore stuff that maybe you heard but forgot. I especially like the idea of pulling non-single album tracks or B sides from more popular groups, hopefully to shake up your preconceived ideas about what they represent.

Also, the music should just be really good. Or, at least interesting.


To that end, here is the first entry. It's a well-known band, but a lesser-known song. I think. I wasn't really around at the time. The song is Paint Box, by Pink Floyd, the flipside to Apples and Oranges (which is also a great song).

This one sounds a bit like a Syd Barrett penned song, but it turns out it was written by Richard Wright. It's a simple enough little ditty, kind of melancholy riff on the mundane perils of going out on the town with your mates. But it's a bit hazy. There's forgetting and confusion. Someone's calling him on the phone, but she's unnamed. He's late, she's mad, and he ... trips out.

This is all backed by a hazy, psychedelic swirl of production. Not so thick that it becomes a parody (like the Lemon Pipers) but just enough to contribute to the whole sense of oddness, disjointedness and anxiety that pervades the track.

The whole song feels like it really captures the befuddled stupor, the fog of a high one might find oneself in after a long night of imbibing alcohol and ingesting narcotics.

This version came off the awesome Early Singles compilation from 1992.


How It Works

"But, where's the song, Risser?" I hear you venting through clenched teeth. "You promised me a SONG."

It's there. Here's the deal.

I hope to use this site, not just as a way to introduce folks to new music, but as a way to prompt myself to get writing.

But Blogger is notorious for taking down messages that contain links to popular bands. They just delete them. No warning, no notification, no saving as draft. Just gone.

So, one way I hope to combat that is to keep the file itself out of the post with the description. So the description will talk about the track, which shouldn't cause anyone any consternation. And it will be followed by a note that explains which post contains the actual link for the song, referenced by number.  Each post with the actual link is numbered and that number links the two posts together. The link is in the body of the post and also in the title. Click the link or title, hear the song. Right-click the link or title, download the song, then hear the song.

Comments work on the description posts, but not on the file posts. Make sense?

Also, I think you should pull down the songs and start them up before reading. If you read beforehand, there might be a spoiler or two, and I don't want to spoil it for you. If you're really disciplined, you should listen to the whole song beforehand, then listen to it again while you're reading.

Let me know if that works or not.

Hello? Is this thing on?

I think one of my new years resolutions is going to be to improve my writing. One way to help with this "they" say, is to write something every day. That being said, I am going to try and get this sharity site up and running. I'm going to try and get 4 weeks ahead with writing, then start uploading and publishing. This will give me the ability to revisit and clean up before I publish.

I'm starting today, though you won't notice until probably after Christmas.

See you then!