Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies

New York 2011 was not quite the highlight I hoped it would be but it gave me great chances to do some record crate digging.

I learned early that I wouldn’t be able to check out the WFMU Record Fair. After two consecutive years of WFMU Record Fair, the separation anxiety was a slightly bitter pill to swallow. I was forced to make do with any and all record stores I could visit during my time in New York.

I remember saying that I was going to use restraint and discretion where my record buying was concerned. I believe that subconsciously the lack of WFMU Fair made me seek comfort in as many vinyls as I could find.

In 2010, I brought back about 1.5 crates of records from that visit. I probably brought back the same amount in 2011 but the difference was that I found want-list albums and sprung for records that were a bit more expensive, along with some reissues.

I played Peter Parker snapping photos with the good graces of the stores who remembered me from the last few years. 

These photos are from the first record store I visited upon my arrival in New York 2010 & 2011.

I was devastated to find out that Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies closed.  I was not too happy to hear that news because it is a loss of a New York record store option.

Bleecker Bob was opened incredibly late even by my standards but was great for passing time before going back to the hotel to sleep.  I miss the store for the memories and most importantly the records.  

Cosmos Records

Ironically or maybe not, I stumbled upon an Exclaim magazine from 2013 with an article listing record shops in Toronto just before my departure a few years ago. I treated the magazine like a treasure map and hit the city's pavements.

I wasn't able to spend Record Store Day 2015 in Toronto like I did last year.

  

I had been looking forward to returning to Toronto since Record Store Day 2014.

My weekend in Toronto for the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the AGO was made sweeter by a quick trip to Cosmos Records.

Due to time restraints, Cosmos Records was to be the one destination for me to dig.
The crates in front of the store brought back sweet memories of my first time at the store 3 years ago.

That batch was primarily hip hop 90s.

My May 2015 visit batch was from primarily disco, boogie and funk of the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Unlike the Dreambeat Convention in April where I caved in and bought the same amount of duplicate records as I did new ones, I minimized the doubles/triples factor.

By the time I had finished choosing my final selections listening, I was down to less than 50 records which fit perfectly in only one of the two record bags I brought with me that day.

There weren't many duplicate records for me to choose from while I was at Cosmos so the focus was on bringing home new additions to my collection.

Had I not listened to the records before buying them, I still would have been very pleased with the haul. 

Thankfully I had the luxury to make good decisions even better.

Thankfully there's a Cosmos Records for me to make those decisions.

Martin Lawrence

Richard Pryor was on my mind yesterday. I was happy to see him get full article treatment in a Waxpoetics magazine. I didn't finish reading it, but I did enjoy what I had read so far. I want to finish reading the article.

Richard is one of many names for a king. Prior means happening or taking place beforehand. The name Richard Pryor to me means that he was the king of comedy doing and saying things long before his successors.

I am not saying anything that hasn't been said already. He laid the groundwork for Black comedians that came after him. After one viewing of Richard Pryor: Live In Concert, I knew I was looking at the architect of Black comedy at work.

The interesting thing for me was learning that there was someone breaking ground in comedy before Richard Pryor. His name is Redd Foxx. I grew up hearing about a foul-mouthed, elderly comedian and that I was to stay away from him. I decided to allow myself to watch a rerun of Sanford & Son and learned how funny he was.

I will never forget the episode where Fred Sanford walks into his living room to see a goat. His reaction to the goat was priceless comedy. When they said a show was filmed in front of a live studio audience, they meant it. The audience reaction to Fred’s upcoming reaction made the moment that much more memorable. Redd Foxx also did impressions which were also uncanny. There was an episode where he imitated Bogart and it was hilarious. Do yourself a favor and watch any and every Sanford & Son you can.


Bill Cosby was a mentor for me as a boy. I looked up to him as a father figure and was thrilled he was involved with Fat Albert. Of all the Black entertainers I saw as a child, I hung on to him and practically modelled myself after him. I would say my sense of humor is derivative of him in more ways than one.

Eddie Murphy’s Delirious is the comedy routine my generation knows from beginning to end. He couldn’t even top himself with Raw. I remember being in elementary school, riding a train with my class on a field trip, listening to Comedian (do your homework) on a Walkman, laughing hysterically at the impressions.

My other memories of Eddie Murphy were from Saturday Night Live. If my parents went out, they would leave my brother and I at his godparents` house and their oldest daughter would like after us. We would fight as much as we could to stay awake long enough to get passed the WPTZ News to watch Saturday Night Live. If memory serves me correctly, I watched the Buckwheat Shot sketch the night it aired. Those were good times!


Bernie Mac stole the show under the other Kings of Comedy and gave us some great episodes of his show. I’ll never forget the episode where he was in the shower and he told the child to not flush the toilet. The look on his face as he howls when the water hits him is again priceless. R.I.P. Bernie Mac.

Dave Chappelle came very close to walking in Richard Pryor’s footsteps. Like Pryor, he had a short lived and controversial show. Chappelle’s ran longer than Pryor’s and I don’t think it was a coincidence that Richard Pryor Show DVDs surfaced shortly after the success of Chappelle Show DVD sales. With Chappelle gone, the comedy throne is vacant. I’m very sure that the heir to the throne will have elements of the other kings and make a name for themselves on their own terms.

Sam The Record Man

Going to Sam The Record Man was an event for me when I was growing up.

As I think about it, record conventions like WFMU Record Fair and the Dreambeat Conventions are the closest I get to that community feeling of being surrounded by music consumers in one setting.  They are the descendants of my experiences of watching people roaming around Sam The Record Man in search of their perfect beats.

From childhood to my teens, Sam The Record Man was packed with people on most days until its last days.  Boxing Day was nuts as expected with people lining up for blocks to get in the store as if the artist was performing there.




Sam The Record Man was the music store in Montreal in my mind.  I bought my first of many hip hop albums there, including King Tee’s Act a Fool.  There were specialty record stores carrying more hip hop and artists that never saw the inside of Sam The Record Man but Sam was the among the cheapest for a young, record-ravenous Solespin to get the music he craved. 

I miss the store and the days of when Sam was The Record Man among record stores.  I never thought I would see the days when stores like Sam The Record Man would disappear.  I thought I might have carried the tradition of taking my child to Sam The Record Man but that is not going to happen.  I am sooner to tell them about the store rather than bring them to it now that the franchise no longer exists.
I'm thankful to have at least have those memories to speak, blog and reminisce about anytime I pass by or look at the Montreal corner where the store once stood.

On September 24 of 2012, I learned that Sam Sniderman had passed away. 

RIP and again thank you for the wonderful years of music and memories.

Never To Be Forgotten - The Flip Side of Stax 1968-1974

On a Record Store Day years ago, I discovered Light in the Attic’s Never To Be Forgotten - The Flip Side of Stax 1968-1974 collection when all I had on my mind was The Pharcyde 20^th anniversary box set.

I have a lot of respect for Light in the Attic releases and couldn’t resist their Stax/Volt collection.

Being familiar with up to 50% of the music in the collection, I decided to spring for it so I can enjoy spinning some sweet Stax/Volt soul singles.



I had seen Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song days prior to that Record Store Day and when I saw the Theme as one of the 7” in the collection, my decision was slightly swayed towards getting it. 



The Emotions’ music, either on Stax or Columbia, is obviously a selling point for me.  To have a 7” of Blind Alley to call and spin of my own was not easy to turn away from.

Steppenwolf

I have a special place in my heart for Steppenwolf. I grew up seeing their Magic Carpet Ride 7” in my home before I would have a profound interest and liking for the song. When I began searching for 1960s rock, I picked up whatever Steppenwolf albums crossed my path.



During my show with The Reaktor’s Abby Schacter, she said the magic words that Magic Carpet Ride was within my grasp and I loaded it into Winamp in an instance.



I think Steppenwolf was one of the funkiest rock groups of the late 1960s to early 1970s. The band covered Don Covay’s early and funky Sookie Sookie. Magic Carpet Ride is one of the funkiest rock songs ever recorded since The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil.

The band, especially John Kay, looked like what I know The Ramones would eventually look like.  One of the band members had an Afro similar to Eric Clapton in his Cream heyday. I don’t know if an Afro is what that Steppenwolf member would call his hairdo but let us call it as we see and know it.

Early punk rockers like The Ramones and Stooges are the hardest rock sounds I’ve heard shades shy of Sabbath. The Steppenwolf brand of rock had more of an edge and daresay a mean streak to it compared to most popular acts of the late sixties.

My reference to Kay’s vocals and image as precursor to punk rockers The Ramones dictates that bands following Kay and company would have to be edgier or meaner than the hardest rock bands of their time.

Steppenwolf is synonymous with Easy Rider, the iconic motorcycle movie of the late 1960s.  I believe The Ramones may have been recording as early as the late 1960s,  alongside Steppenwolf, but with Kay on a mainstream platform, The Ramones and Stooges would be the underground, punk prototype kings they renowned as today.

The Jimmy Castor Bunch

As a boy, I saw his name on my close friend’s sister’s Troglodyte 7”. I didn’t know who or what his Bunch was. I knew less of what a Troglodyte was but probably could’ve pronounced it properly, if I dare say so.

If his single It’s Just Begun, or a cover of it, played in either Breakin’ or Beat Street, I heard it but did not know who sang it.

It has taken Jimmy Castor’s death and for me to start writing this post to realize it.

It would take the late 90s/early 2000s for me to put a face to the name Jimmy Castor. Around that time, most of my Montreal crate digging/DJ peers and I were exploring and learning sample sources and I heard the name Jimmy Castor Bunch spoken in many a conversation. It was not until I got my hands on Rhino's The Everything Man CD compilation that I understood the importance of his music and the song It's Just Begun.


Jimmy Castor’s legacy is that he recorded one of hip hop’s most important songs and albums.

He made us dance, laugh and sometimes do both at the same time. From my childhood of not knowing who he was to now blogging about his passing, he was always there where hip hop is concerned.

Jimmy Castor laid the grooves for future generations to groove to and will be missed dearly.



I remember the mythical It’s Just Begun album hanging on the wall of a prominent Montreal record store and metaphorically speaking, I felt it was out of my reach. The price tag was more than I was prepared to pay for any album at the time, especially one that I knew little about other than its legendary status in hip hop history. One day I got the nerve to actually take the record off the shelf and hold it so that I could at least say I got that close to the album and its cuts. Fate was good to me years later when I was able to get my own copy at an inviting price.

For whatever reason, Santana’s early work on his first 3 albums comes to mind when I hear the It’s Just Begun album. I learned from the Rhino records compilation that Castor recorded a great deal of music with Latin rhythms. It would come as no surprise that elements of psychedelic rock, soul, funk and Latin grooves runs deep throughout that album. The album found a home in early 1970s New York at the genesis of the hip hop movement.

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 1-2am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the links below for more of your favorite show and mine.

Below is the 1st Anniversary CKUT episode to bring you up to speed. Click here to download other podcasts.

The Suite Delight 1st Anniversary CKUT Playlist:

1.       The Monkees – Mary, Mary

2.       Harmonica Paul – Motherless Child

3.       Eddie Kendricks – Date With The Rain

4.       Yellow Sunshine – Yellow Sunshine

5.       Magic Disco Machine – Scratchin’

6.       The Incredible Bongo Band – Bongolia

7.       Lack of Afro – P.A.R.T.Y. (Instrumental)

8.       The Jimmy Castor Bunch – Troglodyte

9.       Booker T. & The M.G.s – Lady Madonna

10.   GZA & Ras Kass – Lyrical Swords

11.   RZA & MF Doom – Biochemical Equation

12.   Camp Lo – Luchini

13.   Digable Planets – 9^th Wonder (Blackitolism)

14.   Danger Mouse & Jemini – Ghetto Pop Life

15.   Hi-Tek – The Sun God

16.   K-os – The Love Song

The Suite Delight - 2014-02-11 (1st CKUT Anniversary) by Dj Solespin on Mixcloud

The Avengers

I was never the biggest Avengers comic book fan as a kid.

As I may have hinted in my Magneto Manifesto post, the Marvel Comics teams like X-Men and The Avengers were beyond my grasp. Those series were several decades and issues deep, I barely knew the origins of the characters and most of The Avengers members had their own series that were several decades and issues deep.  It was too overwhelming for me.

On a whim, I remember asking a parent to buy either an Avengers issue with Morgan Le Fey on the cover. 

Since I was curious about The Avengers, I veered towards Avengers West Coast because it seemed like less of a runaway train that I could jump aboard. 



Regardless of my apprehension about The Avengers, I wished, dreamed and imagined for the day when I could see a movie with the heroes assembled on screen.  Like The Chambers Brothers told us years ago, Time Has Come Today.

The X-Men trilogy was already great in my view.  First Class allowed me to start the story all over again even though I didn't think I needed to.  The Edward Norton Hulk, Iron-Man, Thor and Captain America films prepped us for a wallop of a movie. 



The Avengers movies are dreams come true for comic book fans, including those like me who have less of a connection to the series than die-hard fans.

The films are the equivalent of a roller coaster ride in a movie theatre.  The actors each brought something unique to their roles.  I always rather enjoyed Tom Hiddleston in Thor and got to do so even more in subsequent movies.  He plays Loki brilliantly.  The scene with Scarlett Johannson's Black Widow is well-written and acted.  Ironically, as with most villains, Loki does more smiling than any other character in the film. 

I was concerned about Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner but all of my doubts were smashed aside.

Most of the films' comic relief comes courtesy of charismatic Robert Downey Jr. 

The summer blockbuster season is about to be kickstarted.  My advice to anyone that can read this is to catch up on the aforementioned films leading up to Avengers: Doomsday to fully experience this upcoming marvel of a film.

Classified - Self Explanatory (2009)

When Self Explanatory was released, I knew it would be his biggest album to date.

After an initial listen, I knew it was the Best Canadian hip hop album of 2009.

I somewhat put Self Explanatory on a pedestal. 

Quit While You're Ahead is one of the best Cancon posse cuts since Northern Touch. 

Anybody Listening grows on you and One Track Mind is surprisingly good.

I knew it wouldn't get all the recognition it deserved at Junos but there was time for Classified to be a household name.

Please make yourself familiar with the link below for more.

Below is a playlist and podcast to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download.

The Suite Delight - March 11, 2014 Playlist:

1. The Roots - Proceed III feat. Bahamadia
2. Maestro - Stick To Your Vision
3. Classified - Quit While You're Ahead
4. Marco Polo - Back to Work feat. Artifacts
5. Moka Only - The Taste
6. DJ Format - The Place feat. Chali 2Na & Akil
7. Miles Jones - Coast to Coast feat. Kae Sun
8. Poor Righteous Teachers - Easy Star
9. Das Efx - Kaught In Da AK (Remix)
10. Zion I - We Got It
11. Dujeous - All M.C.'s
12. Substantial - That Damn Good
13. DL Incognito - The Masses

Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet

I’m not a psychic but my prediction of what the Fear Of A Black Planet album cover was going to look like was pretty much dead on.

In my mind, the black planet with the Public Enemy logo was Earth and not eclipsing it. 

I had not seen, heard or thought about the album until the summer of 2012.

The Montreal boulevard on the Main has huge sidewalk sales every spring and fall and I sometimes rummage through to see what CDs I can find. I found Fear Of A Black Planet with a mangled booklet. The only thing that mattered to me was that the CD wasn’t mangled. Funny enough, I’m at a stage that I’m picking up doubles of CDs I already own. It is either on purpose, by mistake or laziness to avoid rummaging through my music to get to the particular CDs.

I bought the Fear of A Black Planet CD and listened to it in its entirety for the first time since I owned the vinyl. It was a Sunday morning heading into the afternoon and I popped the CD into the player and sat down in my most comfortable chair.

As mentioned numerous times on this blog, Public Enemy’s 1988 album is easily one of the three most important hip hop albums of my life.



If It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back didn’t do it for me, Fear Of A Black Planet was surely the next in line.

For whatever it’s worth, The Bomb Squad producers managed to take what they did on Nation to another level. Quite frankly, they live up to their name with the 1989 album.



The B-Side Wins Again is a song title and a statement of fact especially where Fear Of A Black Planet is concerned. The audio assault of Revolutionary Generation, Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man and Who Stole The Soul is almost too much. I mentioned earlier I was seated while listening to the album. The image of the seated Maxell man being blown away by the sounds from the stereo seems like not much of an exaggeration.



I remember Fight The Power closed off the album. By the time the song ended, I was again nostalgic as I am when revisiting classic hip hop. Hip hop albums the caliber of Public Enemy are not made anymore. Thank goodness their music was recorded. Thank goodness I was able to bear witness to those glory days.

 

Public Enemy are inductees into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. It goes without saying, writing or typing that I hoped that would happen for them sooner than later.

Thank you to the Public Enemy crew for the music.