Palace

Last day of "Six Degrees of Will Oldham Week!"

At the beginning of the week I mentioned that Will Oldham performed and recorded under various permutations of the Palace name, including Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music (1993-1997). During this time Will Oldham wouldn't rehearse his musicians. He'd choose the players shortly before the session so the music was always spontaneous, on the verge of falling apart – thus creating moments of greatness you couldn't rehearse.

If you're not familiar with the lo-fi recordings of Palace...here's a mix...

[DOWNLOAD] Palace mix
01- Stablemate -- Palace
02- Arise, Therefore -- Palace
03- The Brute Choir -- Palace Music
04- New Partner -- Palace Music
05- Marriage -- Palace Music
06- West Palm Beach -- Palace Music
07- Ohio River Boat Song -- Palace Music
08- Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow -- Palace Songs
09- There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You -- Palace Brothers
10- Riding -- Palace Brothers
11- Pushkin -- Palace Brothers
12- I Send My Love To You -- Palace Brothers

Matt Sweeney

Day four of "Six Degrees of Will Oldham Week!"

Matt Sweeney was the singer and guitarist for NYC heavy rock band Chavez in the mid-90's. The late 90's found him continuing to work a day job and touring with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Will Oldham) as a guitarist. In 2001 he started playing and writing with Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain in what was to become Zwan – with David Pajo also on guitar. He resurfaced from that band's implosion playing guitar once again with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy for several tours in 2004. January 2005 saw the release of their collaboration Superwolf on Drag City records. Since then Matt Sweeney has found lots of work as a guitarist and producer for many bands and projects.

If you're not familiar with Matt Sweeney's work...here's a mix...


[DOWNLOAD] Matt Sweeney mix
01- (Some Say) I Got Devil -- Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
02- Bed Is For Sleeping -- Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
03- I Gave You -- Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
04- Four Screams -- Bonny/Sweeney
05- Top Pocket Man -- Chavez
06- Guard Attacks -- Chavez
07- Flight '96 -- Chavez
08- Pentagram Ring -- Chavez
09- You Faded -- Chavez

Tortoise

Day three of "Six Degrees of Will Oldham Week!"

I mentioned Tortoise in yesterday's post about David Pajo (Tortoise's guitar player for two albums). Tortoise is a instrumental post-rock band with jazz, Krautrock, dub, minimalism, electronica, and rock influences. Their connection to Will Oldham is an album of covers they recorded with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Will's alter-ego) entitled The Brave and the Bold.

If you're not familiar with Tortoise's work...here's a mix...

[DOWNLOAD] Tortoise mix
01- (Some Say) I Got Devil -- Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
02- The Calvary Cross -- Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
03- On My Own -- Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
04- DJed -- Tortoise
05- Along The Banks Of Rivers -- Tortoise
06- TNT -- Tortoise
07- Swung From The Gutters -- Tortoise
08- I Set My Face To The Hillside -- Tortoise
09- Seneca -- Tortoise
10- Benway -- Tortoise
11- Eden 2 -- Tortoise
12- The Lawn Of The Limp -- Tortoise & The Ex

David Pajo

Day two of "Six Degrees of Will Oldham Week!"

David Pajo's connection to Will Oldham began with the band Slint. David was their guitarist and Will took the photo which became the cover of Slint's influential album, Spiderland. He's released music under many names, including Aerial M, Papa M and Pajo. His earlier work was mostly guitar instrumentals but in recent years he's become more comfortable as a singer, too. His best vocal album, Whatever, Mortal, was produced by Will Oldham. David's also recorded music with Will Oldham, Tortoise, and the short-lived Billy Corgan-fronted rock band Zwan (but we won't fault him for that).


The first time I heard David Pajo's guitar playing was on Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die, but it was Aerial M's debut album that made me a fan. In fact in the late 90's, when I was in my experimental improv band ambibat, my guitar influences at that time were John McLaughlin, Sonny Sharrock and David Pajo.

If you're not familiar with David Pajo's work...here's a mix...

[DOWNLOAD] David Pajo mix
01- Dazed And Awake -- Aerial M
02- Skrag Theme -- Aerial M
03- Vivea -- Aerial M
04- Mountains Have Ears -- Aerial M
05- Xmas 1997 -- Papa M
06- Roadrunner -- Papa M
07- Up North Kids -- Papa M
08- Jaded Lover -- Papa M
09- Black Is The Color -- Papa M
10- Who Knows -- Papa M
11- The Trees Do Grow So High -- Papa M
12- Over Jordan -- Papa M
13- Beloved Woman -- Papa M
14- Krusty -- Papa M
15- Tamu -- Papa M
16- High Lonesome Moan -- Pajo
17- Manson Twins -- Pajo
18- Foolish King -- Pajo
19- Insomnia Song -- Pajo
20- New Gypsy -- Will Oldham
21- Nosferatu Man -- Slint

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

This week is "Six Degrees of Will Oldham Week!"

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is actually zero degrees from Will Oldham because Will Oldham is Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Besides releasing albums as Bonnie and Will Oldham, Will has also recorded under various permutations of the Palace name (Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music).

I was first introduced to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy from the At Home With The Groovebox compilation on the Beastie Boys label, Grand Royal. The Beastie Boys gave a bunch of musicians a Groovebox synthesizer and asked them to compose a song using only it and voice. At first I didn't care for Bonnie's song, "Today I Started Celebrating Again", because I wasn't used to his vocal styling. But after a while I grew to like it.

A few years later I saw two Bonnie 'Prince' Billy videos on the TV show New York Noise – "Horses" and "No More Workhorse Blues", the latter directed by Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo). From then on I've been a hardcore Bonnie 'Prince' Billy fan. Bonnie's got a new album coming out next month...can't wait.

If you're not familiar with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy...here's a mix...


[DOWNLOAD] Bonnie 'Prince' Billy mix
01- A Minor Place
02- Ease Down The Road
03- Sheep
04- Master And Everyone
05- Joy And Jubilee
06- Horses
07- No More Workhorse Blues
08- Love Comes To Me
09- Cursed Sleep
10- I'm Loving The Street
11- The World's Greatest
12- Easy Does It
13- Keep Eye On Other's Gain
14- Today I Started Celebrating Again
15- Ruby

Now that you're a fan of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, too...here's a radio performance and interview with Will/Bonnie...

[DOWNLOAD] Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - [2006-08-18 WHFR, Dearborn, MI]
01- (interview 1)
02- O Let It Be
03- (Interview 2)
04- (Interview 3)
05- I Called You Back
06- (interview 4)
07- Gulf Shores
08- (interview 5)

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is another band that isn't as popular as they should be. Great song writing...great guitar playing. They've got a new album, The Century of Self, coming out next month. If you haven't heard them, here's a mix...

[DOWNLOAD] ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead mix
01- Mistakes And Regrets
02- Mark David Chapman
03- It Was There That I Saw You
04- Another Morning Stoner
05- Baudelaire
06- Relative Ways
07- Worlds Apart
08- The Rest Will Follow
09- Caterwaul
10- Let It Drive
11- Stand in Silence
12- Eight Day Hell
13- Sunken Dreams

Swervedriver

Swervedriver is one of those bands that never got the recognition they deserved. I suppose their music is considered shoegaze – like My Bloody Valentine – but they also leaned toward hard rock psychedelia. The thing I like most about them is the guitar work – the way the guitars interact with each other using sonic dissonance.

Swervedriver released four albums in the '90s before calling it quits. They recently reformed and started touring, gaining new fans. So maybe we'll see a new album soon. If you haven't heard Swervedriver's music, here's a compilation to give you a taste...

[DOWNLOAD] Swervedriver compilation
01- Sci-Flyer
02- Son of Mustang Ford
03- Rave Down
04- For Seeking Heat
05- Duel
06- Duress
07- Bring Me the Head of the Fortune Teller
08- Other Jesus
09- How Does It Feel To Look Like Candy?
10- 99th Dream
11- Up From The Sea
12- Wrong Treats

Thin Lizzy - Live At The Tower '77

[DOWNLOAD] Thin Lizzy - Live At The Tower • Philadelphia 10/26/1977

01- Introduction
02- Soldier Of Fortune
03- Jailbreak
04- Johnny The Fox
05- Warriors
06- Dancing In The Moonlight
07- Massacre
08- Still In Love With You
09- Cowboy Song
10- The Boys Are Back In Town
11- Opium Trail
12- Don't Believe A Word
13- Emerald
14- Bad Reputation
15- Baby Drives Me Crazy
16- Me & The Boys
17- Are You Ready?

Elton John - Madison Square Garden (with John Lennon) 11/18/74

This live soundboard recording has made the rounds on various blogs. But in case you haven't heard it I thought I'd share it, too.


In 1974 a collaboration with John Lennon and Elton John took place, resulting in Elton covering The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and Lennon's "One Day at a Time". In return Elton John and his band played on Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night". In what would be Lennon's last live performance, the pair performed these two number 1 hits along with The Beatles classic "I Saw Her Standing There" at Madison Square Garden. Lennon made the rare stage appearance to keep the promise he made to Elton that he would appear on stage with if "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" became a number 1 single.

Here it is...

[DOWNLOAD] Elton John - Madison Square Garden (with John Lennon) 11/18/74
01 Funeral For a Friend
02 Rocket Man
03 Take Me to the Pilot
04 Bennine and the Jets
05 Grey Seal
06 Daniel
07 You're So Static
08 Whatever Gets You Through the Night
09 Lucy in the Sky
10 I Saw Her Standing There
11 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
12 Your Song
13 The Bitch Is Back

The Stars Come Out & Dinah! (1979)

Last day of "Another Sesame Street LP Week!"

Here's a Sesame Street album full-o-guest stars...

[DOWNLOAD] The Stars Come Out On Sesame Street (1979)
01- Wonder Child -- Helen Reddy
02- Nasty Dan -- Johnny Cash with Oscar The Grouch
03- Yes We Can, Can -- Pointer Sisters
04- One Thing Leads To Another -- Judy Collins with Biff
05- Sing After Me -- Madeline Kahn with Grover
06- Yestaerday, Today and Tomorrow -- Judy Collins with the Sesame Street Kids
07- Oh What A Beautiful Morning -- Ray Charles
08- How Do You Do -- Lena Horne with Grover
09- Five Feet High And Rising -- Johnny Cash with Biff
10- A World Without Music -- Jose Feliciano with the Sesame Street Kids
11- I Make Up Songs -- Helen Reddy


And here's another Sesame Street album with guest star Dinah Shore...


[DOWNLOAD] Dinah! I've Got A Song (1979)
01- I've Got A Song
02- Makin' Music
03- Junk
04- Nothin' To Do
05- A Song To Munch Cookie By
06- Beautiful Day
07- I Like Myself
08- Monsters Can Be Unhappy
09- Blue Skies, Apple Pie
10- Numbers

Bob Sings! (1977)

Day four of "Another Sesame Street LP Week!"

[DOWNLOAD] Sesame Street - Bob Sings! (1977)
01 Sir Duke
02 Do-Re-Mi
03 Muskrat Love
04 In The Good Old Summertime
05 "Sunshine" Medley: You Are My Sunshine/Sunshine On My Shoulders/You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
06 Jamaica Farewell
07 Getting To Know You
08 Isn't She Lovely
09 I Whistle A Happy Tune
10 Good Morning Starshine
11 Edelweiss
12 High Hopes

The Muppet Alphabet Album (1976)

Day three of "Another Sesame Street LP Week!"

Today's post is brought to you by the letters... ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z.

[DOWNLOAD] The Muppet Alphabet Album (1976)
01- The Sound of the Letter A
02- Oscar's B Sandwich
03- C Is For Cookie
04- Dee, Dee, Dee
05- What's My Letter?
06- Four Furry Friends
07- Two G Sounds
08- Ha Ha...
09- Stand Up Straight And Tall
10- J Friends
11- Herb's Silly Poem
12- LA, LA, LA
13- MMM Monster Meal
14- The Noodle Story
15- Would You Like To Buy An O?
16- My Favorite Letter
17- The Question Song
18- The R Machine
19- Sammy The Snake
20- The Tale Of Tom Tattertall Tutteltut
21- Lecture
22- Very, Very Special Letter
23- The National Association Of W Lovers
24- X Marks The Spot!
25- Just Because
26- The Zizzy Zoomers

Big Bird Leads The Band (1977)

Day two of "Another Sesame Street LP Week!"

[DOWNLOAD] Sesame Street - Big Bird Leads The Band

01- Old MacDonald Had A Band
02- Four Fun
03- The Mary Had A Little Lamb March
04- Merry-Go-Round Waltz
05- Hop, Skip And Jump
06- Frere Jacques
07- Turn Over The Record
08- Jolly Jamboree
09- Hickory Dickory Dock
10- What Was That?
11- Roll, Rock 'N Rattle
12- If Only...
13- Alphabet Song
14- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
15- Grand Band Finale

¡Sesame Mucho! (1974)

A while back I hosted "Sesame Street LP Week!" which was a success considering the amount of downloads. I received a request from a reader named BigBirdFan who's trying to collect every sesame street album for his blog, Sesame Street Block Party – check it out here. Turns out I have a few more LP's he needs. So for BigBirdFan, and all the other Sesame Street fans out there... here's day one of "Another Sesame Street LP Week!"

Today's LP is a personal favorite because of it's rareness. ¡Sesame Mucho! is the same album as Welcome! (see photo below), but the cover is in Spanish. Makes sense they released it in both languages because the material on the album is performed in both English and Spanish. But for some reason, my copy of ¡Sesame Mucho! has a gatefold with some cool illustrations while my copy of Welcome! does not. Not sure if they ever released a gatefold version of Welcome! but that's just another reason what makes ¡Sesame Mucho! a favorite. BTW, Jose Feliciano performs two songs!

[DOWNLOAD] Sesame Street - ¡Sesame Mucho! (1974)

01- Sesame Street Theme
02- ¡Bienvenidos! (Welcome)
03- No Matter What Your Language (No Importa Su Idioma)
04- Yo (Me)
05- I'd Like To Tell You A Story (La Del Cuento Soy Yo)
06- Loud And Soft (Fuerte Y Suave)
07- Puerto Rico -- Jose Feliciano
08- Rubber Duckie (El Patito)
09- Tu Me Gustas (I Like You)
10- People In Your Neighborhood (Gente En Tu Barrio)
11- Snow (Nieve)
12- Show Me How You Feel (¿Como Te Sientes?)
13- Take A Breath (Respirari)
14- Bein' Green -- Jose Feliciano
15- Canta (Sing)

Paul Williams - Guest Star

I'm finishing up "Paul Williams Week!" with a couple of scenes from The Love Boat and Baretta.

Here's Paul on The Love Boat as Nelson Ho, a man who must marry before his birthday or he loses a large inheritance. Episode: Musical Cabins (1978)



And here's Paul on Baretta as Sandy, a novelty shop owner who's in over his head selling dope. Episode: The Goodbye Orphan Annie Blues (1975)

Paul Williams on The Odd Couple (1974)

Paul Williams guest starred on just about every TV sitcom in the 70's. In this episode of The Odd Couple, Felix forbids his daughter Edna from seeing a Paul Williams concert. So she runs away and takes a job as a waitress at the night club he's performing. Here's Paul singing his songs "You and Me Against the World," which was a hit for Helen Reddy, and "Old Fashioned Love Song," which charted for Three Dog Night. Felix and Oscar interrupt mid-way through...



And here's Paul singing to Edna, "The One Who Loves Ya", a song inspired by a letter from Felix...



Here's what Paul had to say about that scene...

"I did what I was asked to do. The only thing was Garry (Marshall, the show's producer/director) said, "I want you to write a song at the end that Felix writes for his daughter. Take that note and write a song around that." They kept changing the end of the story and never got around to writing the note so they gave me the note the morning of the shoot. I wrote that song that morning. One of the great moments of my life was sitting on the foot of my bed one day watching television. My daughter walked in the room, she was seventeen or eighteen at the time, she says, "What are you watching, Dad?" I said, "Oh my God, come here" and she sat with me and we watched that song play and that scene. It was an amazing experience."

And here's the studio recordings of "You and Me Against the World" and "Old Fashioned Love Song" by Paul Williams...

[DOWNLOAD] Paul Williams - "You and Me Against the World" and "Old Fashioned Love Song"

Paul Williams' theme song for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Thunderbolt... the man with the reputation. Lightfoot... the kid who's about to make one!

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, stars Clint Eastwood (Thunderbolt) and Jeff Bridges (Lightfoot), and co-stars George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis, Gary Busey and Catherine Bach. It's an action packed bank heist movie with Eastwood playing the veteran bank robber and Bridges playing the young aspiring crook. Throughout the movie Kennedy and Lewis try to assassin Eastwood and Bridges (who's guilty by association) over an old bank heist that went wrong from years back. Kennedy and Eastwood were partners during that failed heist and the money was never recovered. Kennedy believes Eastwood stole it and is now out for blood. Eventually, after many chases and gun firing, the two teams put aside their differences to pull off one last bank heist. The rest I don't want to spoil if you haven't seen it.

Here's some screen grabs...


But today's post is really about Paul Williams' theme song "Where Do I Go From Here" from Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. It's a great song that I'd eventually like to find one day. Here it is...