The Go-Go’s have released their first new song in almost two decades and “Club Zero” will likely make you realize how much you missed them. If you weren’t around in the Eighties, when they helped to define the sound of that decade, it may introduce you to this band whose body of work is very much worth diving into. The new song coincides with the appearance of a documentary simply called “The Go-Go’s,” directed by Alison Ellwood, that recalls the quintet’s significant place on the continuum of music and role in the culture while celebrating the eternally infectious quality of their songs. Listen to my new interview with guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Charlotte Caffey here.

Last Friday I had the opportunity to guest host Rita Houston’s Whole Wide World free form radio show on WFUV. As is my habit when I fill in on the WWW, I cooked up a theme that would be enjoyable to explore. Last fall, it was my pleasure to interview Steven Van Zandt and host a session in which he played a pair of songs from his new album Soulfire. Of course THAT

was super cool. One of the songs that he played was Down in Out in New York City originally recorded by James Brown for the Black Caesar soundtrack.

What a dynamite song and a testament to Little Steven’s great taste and eclectic knowledge that he would cover it. In our conversation, he spoke about his love of Blaxploitation film soundtracks and he got me thinking that they may constitute a subgenre unto themselves. Arguably this is true as the artists charged with scoring these films achieved the desired cinematic quality by incorporating more elements associated with jazz, like the vibraphone, than in the R&B that was their bread and butter. The results were sometimes fantastic and I had big fun doing this show. As my knowledge of Blaxploitation is not encyclopedic and as the number of great tunes from them is clearly finite in any case, I mixed in some tunes generally regarded as psychedelic soul and funk that called out across the decades as being worthy companions for the ones from soundtracks.

Here’s the playlist:

Little Steven – Down and Out in New York City

James Brown – People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul

Curtis Mayfield – Superfly

Roy Ayers – Coffy is the Color

Bobby Womack – Across 110^th Street

Dennis Coffey – Theme from Black Belt Jones

Lyn Collins – Mama Feelgood

Earth Wind & Fire – Sweet Sweetback’s Theme

Marvin Gaye – Trouble Man

The Undisputed Truth – Smiling Faces Sometimes

Shuggie Otis – Aht Uh Mi Hed

The Isley Brothers – Get Into Something

Isaac Hayes – Theme From Shaft

Swamp Dogg – Total Destruction of Your Mind

Willie Hutch – Theme from Foxy Brown

Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove

Jimi Hendrix (Band of Gypsys) – Who Knows

Stevie Wonder – Maybe Your Baby

Sly & The Family Stone – Sing a Simple Song

The Impressions – Three the Hard Way

The Temptations – Ball of Confusion

The Chambers Brothers – Time Has Come Today

Joe Simon – Theme from Cleopatra Jones

The Four Tops – Are You Man Enough?

Herbie Hancock – Actual Proof

Curtis Mayfield – Freddie’s Dead

Bang!  The Bert Berns Story is now available on iTunes and Apple Music.  It is one of the best music documentaries I’ve ever seen and I watch an absurd amount of music documentaries!  The film, narrated by Steven Zan Vandt is the vision of Bert’s son Brett Berns who I spoke to recently about his extraordinary father.  Here’s the trailer…

Friday, December 30 marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of Bert Berns and only now is he receiving the accolades and attention that he earned in his short life.  The Bronx native died at 38 but his body of work as well as his larger than life persona inspired a book (Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues by Joel Selvin published in 2014) and a jukebox musical with a book by Daniel Goldfarb as well as the documentary film co-directed by Brett Burns and Bob Sarles.  For his work as a songwriter and record producer, Bert was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year as well as given the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award. 

The soundtrack to the film was released today on vinyl by Legacy Recordings.  The notes below on the track list were written by my friend (and a bit of a music biz legend in his own right) Bob Merlis…

1. Piece of My Heart – Erma Franklin – the original version of the song written and produced by Berns was recorded by Aretha Franklinâ€s older sister for Bangâ€s Shout subsidiary in 1967, shortly before Berns’ death at age 38. It went Top 10 on the R&B chart.

2. A Little Bit of Soap – The Jarmels  – one of the earliest hits written by Berns, a crossover hit in 1961 for Laurie Records and established its writer as a force to be reckoned with in the business. It has been covered many times since.

3. Tell Him – The Exciters –the first Top 5 record written by Berns.  Produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, it was released by United Artists in 1962.  Itâ€s said that when Dusty Springfield heard the record she changed career directions.  Over the years it has been covered by Linda Ronstadt, Sonny and Cher and Kenny Loggins.

4. Twist and Shout – The Isley Brothers – written and produced by Berns, was originally recorded by The Top Notes whose Phil Spector-produced version did not chart.  The Isleys†version, released on Scepterâ€s Wand subsidiary went to #2 on the R&B chart in 1962. The Beatles covered it the following year and reached #2 on the pop charts and became one of the bandâ€s signature songs.  In the film, Paul McCartney says, “People thought we wrote it.”

5. Cry Baby – Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters – Co-written and co-produced by Berns with Jerry Ragovoy, the record was released on United Artists in 1963 and went to #1 on the R&B chart and #4 on the Hot 100.  Its gospel-inflected mid-song narration is notable and innovative.

6. Show Me Your Monkey – Kenny Hamber  – While it didnâ€t chart, this track was written and produced by Berns and released on the Atlantic-distributed De Jac label.  It underscores the strong Latin influence heard in many of Berns†productions.

7. Baby, Please Don’t Go – Them – produced by Berns when he went to London in 1964 to work with British artists.  The record, released by (British) Decca went to #10 in the UK with lead vocals provided by a 19-year-old Van Morrison.  Jimmy Page, then a session player, provided the rhythm guitar parts.

8. You May Be Holding My Baby – The Pussycats – Written and produced by Berns in 1964 and released on his own (pre-Bang) Keetch label, named after his pet Siamese cat.  It represents intention, later fulfilled with Bang, to control his own destiny as songwriter, producer and label chief.

9. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love  – Solomon Burke  – Berns co-wrote (with Jerry Wexler and Burke) the song and produced it for Atlanticâ€s soul standard-bearer in 1964.  Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones and The Blues Brothers successfully covered it thereafter.

10. Here Comes The Night – Them – A classic, written by Berns that was earlier recorded by Lulu.  The version by Them (featuring Van Morrison) was released in 1965, going to #2 in the UK and hitting the US Top 25.  Jimmy Page participated in the sessions for the song that has become a standard over the years.

11. I Want Candy – The Strangeloves  – Released on Bang in 1965, the songâ€s title is derived from Terry Southernâ€s risqué bestseller Candy.   It was written by Berns and the bandâ€s Richard Gottherer, Bob Feldman and Jerry Goldstein. The record went to #11 and has since been successfully covered by Bow Wow Wow whose 1982 version has become an enduring new wave classic

12. Are You Lonely For Me Baby – Freddie Scott   – Released on Shout and written and produced by Berns, it went to #1 on the R&B chart the year of Berns†death (1967) and stayed there for four weeks.  Back up vocals were performed by Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations. It has been covered by artists ranging from Al Green, Otis Redding & Carla Thomas to the Grateful Dead and Steve Marriott.

13. Mr. Success – Bobby Harris – was one of the first releases on Shout, an obscure B-side to an even more obscure song called “Sticky Sticky.”   The strong influence of Berns†idol Sam Cooke is on display in the lead vocal performance.  It never charted, but remains an important example of the autobiographical nature of Berns†work as the stress of his success accumulated to take his life within a year of the Bobby Harris session that included Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations on background vocals.  

14. Chick-A-Boom – Van Morrison – was the artistâ€s debut solo single and released on Bang in 1967.  Co-written by Berns and the artist, it highlights Latin cadences so favored by Berns throughout his career.

15. Hang On Sloopy – The McCoys – Released on Bang in 1965, it went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Top 100.  It was co-written by Berns (with Wes Farrell) and originally recorded as “My Girl Sloopy” by the Vibrations.  The McCoys†mega-hit was produced by Feldman, Goldstein and Gottherer (a/k/a The Strangeloves). The song has gone on to become a staple of the Ohio State Universityâ€s marching band which has performed the song at OSU football games for more than 50 years.  The official website of OSUâ€s athletics department is “Hang On Sloopy.”

16. Cry To Me – Freddie Scott – Written by Berns and first recorded by Solomon Burke on Atlantic in 1961, it was released on Shout! in 1967. 

17. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison – the artistâ€s signature song was a Bang single that established Morrison and is offered here in its original stereo mix. It hit the top 10 in 1967 and has been re-recorded by Morrison many times over the years.

18. Am I Grooving You – Freddie Scott – written and produced by Berns and released on Shout, it hit the charts in 1967 and was the follow up to Scottâ€s “Cry To Me.”

19. Heart Be Still – Lorraine Ellison – masterpiece of symphonic soul, it was written and produced by Berns and Jerry Ragovoy.  It was Berns†idea to take the gospel classic “Peace Be Still” and turn it into a love song. It was one of the very last productions before Berns†untimely death on the penultimate day of 1967.

20. Piece of My Heart– Big Brother & The Holding Company â€“ a cover of the Erma Franklin song featuring Janis Joplinâ€s lead vocal, itâ€s the best-known and most successful version, recorded and released in 1968; Berns never got to hear it.

New Documentary Film & Book On H.R. Of Bad Brains – Event at Saint Vitus Bar on January 24, 2017

One of the Bad Brains CDs in my collection has a sticker on it with two well chosen quotes about the band:

“If you want to hear real excitement, real energy, real soul…listen to the Bad Brains” – Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

“The Bad Brains influenced me more than any other band in the world.” – Adam Yauch, Beastie Boys

It was brilliant to be able to get a chat with Bad Brains’ frontman H.R. in Brooklyn last week along with James Lathos and Howie Abrams who have devoted years to exploring his music, personality, and spirituality.  Lathos, who directed the documentary, told me straight up he is not a filmmaker. He builds houses in Florida for a living.  However, he is a maniacal H.R. and Bad Brains fan who used to write for a skate mag and had become friendly with his future documentary subject in their common hometown of Washington D.C.  Abrams has roots in New York City and, while researching a book he had a notion about doing, heard that interviews for a film had been going on.  He reached out to Lathos and the two decided to team up with the best bits captured on video going into the flick while the oral history allowed for transcripts of the most compelling conversations.  Lathos emphasized that the movie is not just blowing smoke (about how genius H.R. is) but looks at the struggles that he has had to endure.  

Pick up the book that’s out now and keep your eye on this website for the latest screenings about Finding Joseph I and future release info.

So, can we hope for another Bad Brains record with H.R. at the helm?  The answer is YES!  Enjoy these bonus bits from the powwow in which H.R. points to studio sessions planned for the fall as well as gives a nod to The Ramones and CBGB…

New Morphine Documentary, Vapors Of Morphine Shows in Brooklyn This Saturday 10-15-16

Oh the joy Morphine has given me! One of the bands I have played the most in various living rooms of apartments I’ve lived in. Always there to create a very cool vibe. As he said near the end of our conversation on Saturday, Dana Colley – with the Vapors of Morphine – is keeping the vibe alive.

Colley, who played baritone and tenor saxes – sometimes at the same time – in Morphine, has brought that band’s music to the stage in a series of projects since the death of Mark Sandman in 1999. Orchestra Morphine was a nine piece band that toured playing the music of The Night. Twinemen – consisting of Colley and Morphine’s second drummer Billy Conway along with Laurie Sargent – put out three albums of original material. Vapors of Morphine was formed to do a show on the tenth anniversary of Sandman’s death and the trio of Colley, original drummer Jerome Deupree, and Jeremy Lyons has been doing it – including a pair of albums, ever since.

Over the past three years or so, Mark Shuman has been compiling material for the documentary Morphine: Journey Of Dreams. Shuman was the proprietor of an Austin nightspot named The Electric Lounge where Morphine performed a handful of times. Colley and Shuman became friends and when the latter proposed the idea of a documentary, the former provided essential cooperation including the tour diaries that he had kept at the suggestion of his wife. The documentary comes to DVD on the 21st and VOD on the 18th of this month.

This Saturday, you’ve got two bites at the apple to experience Vapors of Morphine on stage in Brooklyn. In the afternoon, for free no less at Rough Trade and then down the road at Union Pool at night following a pair of screenings of the film. The 8p is sold out but tickets still remain for the 6:15p screening as well as the performance. Here’s more of the interview with Dana Colley…

Steve Aoki Talks Hardcore Roots, New Documentary

I met the great character that is Steve Aoki at The Roxy Hotel in Tribeca on August 22nd, 2016. He was in New York to do a handful of interviews about the new documentary film, Steve Aoki: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, that was released on Netflix last week.

I spoke to him briefly about the movie but, as both the main produced piece above as well as the bonus bits below attest to, we really got carried away talking about punk and hardcore bands. I asked him if he modeled Dim Mak Records on Ian MacKaye’s DC based Dischord and the answer was yes. He said that the models for his label were Dischord along with Revelation Records which is based much closer to Steve’s home base, in Huntington Beach. Even if Dim Mak, that he started as a 19 year old out of a dorm room, were his only accomplishment, one might applaud Aoki’s great success. The label’s twenty year anniversary will be celebrated at this year’s Electric Zoo Festival with its own stage featuring only its artists on Saturday, September 3rd. Steve Aoki will anchor the Dim Mak stage and play last.

His remarkable run with Dim Mak, of course, is just the tip of Aoki’s accomplishments’ iceberg. His drive, clearly, was inherited from his father Rocky Aoki who was an entrepreneur as well as a daredevil for the ages. The minutes spent introducing him and the relationship between father and son in I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead are among the flick’s most rewarding. Among the bonus bits of our conversation below are Steve’s reaction to the documentary and some comments about Rocky and New York City where he lived.

Also below, enjoy tidbits about the tremendous rock bands who turned up for Dim Mak Tuesdsays as well as details about Aoki’s record collection, his take on and experience with DIY culture, and first DJ gig…

New Documentary Film: Miss Sharon Jones – playing this week in NYC

“Her spirit is driven by music, and this was always her source of inspiration to continue onwards, despite the odds. Sharon makes you believe in anything.” – Barbara Kopple

As a lover of her music as well as her life story, it was a thrill to meet Sharon Jones in February of 2014. The occasion was her return to the stage after being forced by cancer to take a break from performing. We spoke a few hours prior to the curtain going up at the Beacon Theater. While shooting a little video of the concert, I noticed some other cameras. What I know now is that Barbara Kopple was in the final stages of filming her documentary that was released on Friday: Miss Sharon Jones.

I sat down again with the indomitable vocalist this week as well as the acclaimed filmmaker at the NY1 studios in Chelsea Market. Sadly the circumstances were not as favorable as our last meeting. While celebrating being cancer free 29 months ago, this time Jones was enduring more treatments but powering through to do press for the new movie. She’s as tough as they come as the flick makes plain. It’s got to be an inspiration to families dealing with cancer not to mention aspiring musicians, New Yorkers, and well anybody with a heart and ears. It also gives fans a chance to be a fly on the wall at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn and get to know better amazing figures like Gabriel Roth, Binky Griptite, and Dapettes Saun and Starr.

Miss Sharon Jones is at the IFC Center in the West Village this week and the soundtrack album will be out later this month. The latter includes a rousing new autobiographical ditty she wrote called I’m Still Here. It traces from her birth in North Augusta, South Carolina to the Civil Rights Era and through her unforgettable gig on Rikers Island as a prison guard and her current sparring with the big C.

Here’s a flashback to the conversation from 2014…

“Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music. Music is the best.” – Frank Zappa (From Packard Goose off Joe’s Garage, Act III)

Few artists are as worthy of a documentary film as Frank Zappa. His musicianship; including his composing, his talents as a band leader, and his guitar work, were the stuff of genius. His treatment of hypocrites and posers was uncompromising. His social criticism – biting, and often hilarious, ran through his body of work as a through line. The new Frank Zappa Documentary: Eat That Question gives insight into the fascinating character whose standing in the rock, classical, and even jazz and political worlds has only grown since his death in 1993 at age 52.

Maybe the most amazing thing about him was how he cultivated his bands’ ability to play music in unpredictable ways. As he explained in The Real Frank Zappa Book, he’d use hand signals on stage to communicate dramatic stylistic shifts from whatever the band was doing into reggae or ska or heavy metal. Beyond that, he used what he referred to as ‘stock modules’ or ‘archetypal American musical icons’ such as The Twilight Zone, Jaws, and Mr. Rodgers to create musical humor and put some lyrics, as he put it, in parentheses.

FZ standing toe to toe with the Washington wives of the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) is not only one of my favorite moments of Eat That Question but one of my teenaged self’s favorite moments. I was sixteen when Zappa so eloquently characterized the group’s scheme to put warning labels on albums as “an ill-conceived piece of nonsense that infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretation and enforcement problems inherent in the proposal’s design.” His analysis of the whole circus was razor sharp. He called out not just the PMRC but the RIAA (whose priority was getting a blank tape tax) and the politicians who unethically gave their wives’ sham organization a legislative fast track. He became a hero to me at that point and I hadn’t even yet heard Apostrophe or Shut Up ‘n Play Your Guitar.

This documentary, culled from archival materials, gives insight into Zappa by stringing together a string of interviews he did throughout the course of his life from his 1963 appearance on The Steve Allen Show to his 1990 meeting with Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel. Eat That Question was directed by Thorsten Schutte whose credits include 2003’s I Was The King Of Porn…The Adventurous Life Of Lasse Braun. Schutte spoke to me at the NY1 studios in Chelsea along with Frank’s first born child Moon Zappa. Moon was born in NYC during Frank and his wife Gail’s period living in Greenwich Village between ’66 and ’68 and immortalized herself on the song Valley Girl in 1982. She is an actress and author.

The flick opens Friday at Film Forum.

Miles Davis Biopic & Albums Coming Soon

With the New York Film Festival 2015 and the Sundance Film Festival 2016 in the rearview mirror, Miles Ahead – written by Steven Baigelman and Don Cheadle – will get a pair of screenings at the South by Southwest music festival this week.  Don, along with Robert Glasper will be there speaking about it as well.

The film, one that Cheadle learned to play trumpet for as well as his directorial debut, is not a standard birth to death biopic.   It focuses on a pivotal point in the life of the genius musician who grew up in East St. Louis and moved to New York in 1944.  The past is illuminated through flashbacks.  Cheadle has been quoted as referring to the narrative as modal.

Robert Glasper composed music for the film and scored its soundtrack.  A handful of tracks that Glasper wrote, co-wrote, produced and/or performed appear on the soundtrack along with eleven choice Davis tracks.  The project led to a whole other album as well in which Glasper interprets Davis’ music along with a mob of talented artists eager to paint their own musical colors on a Miles canvas.  Everything’s Beautiful features Bilal, Illa J, Erykah Badu, Phonte, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laura Mvula, KING, Georgia Ann Muldrow, John Scofield and Ledisi, and Stevie Wonder.  The film is in the now as much as that forthcoming album.  The closing concert sequence boasts Gary Clark Jr and Esperanza Spaulding along with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter aside Cheadle’s Davis.

The flick and soundtrack will be out a week from Friday (4/1) while Everything’s Beautiful will be released on May 27th which is the day after what would have been Miles’ 90th birthday.

Music has the power to free the soul so authoritarian regimes across history have often attempted to suppress it.  Such was the case in Pakistan beginning in the 1970’s under a military dictatorship and exacerbated by The Taliban’s influence from the mid 1990’s.  The country’s traditional music made primarily with flutes, tablas, sitar, and the sarangi includes Sufi devotional music qawwalis, rhyming poetry ghazals, and shares common ground with classical Indian ragas.  The music was passed down from older generations to younger ones within families – most often from fathers to sons.  When masters began dying who had not passed down the music, Pakistan was in danger of losing the musical component of its culture.

Now, an inspiring film Song of Lahore shows how a group of artists did not let that happen.  Through their determination, love of the music, and a remarkable example of a video going viral via social media, Sachal Studios has not only preserved Pakistani classical music but created a new form that incorporates jazz into it.  Much of the film is concerned with a Sachal Studios ensemble traveling to New York City to play with Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center and what a profound experience that was for the players.  The musicians returned to New York City this week for a screening of the film and to perform at Django in The Roxy Hotel.  I spoke with co-directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy who hails from Pakistan and Andy Schoken who lives in Brooklyn.