ORG Music RSD releases: Sun Records; Ocampo, Ocampo + Watt; Winter
Record Store Day falls on April 14 this year, and reading the multitudinous list of RSD releases, one wonders how pressing plants have the bandwidth to do any other work this time of year. As is the case in most instances of overabundance (I'm thinking of you, SXSW), I'm focused on one or two items. (My buddy's desperate for a mono Pink Floyd Saucerful of Secrets. If anybody can help a brother out, leave your contact in the comments.) Myself, I'm hoping to lay hands on ORG Music's already acclaimed reissue of Cecil Taylor's The Great Paris Concert (of which I sadly didn't get a review copy; sigh). But the label's releases also include three that prominently feature women (since that appears to be our theme for the week).
Sun Records Curated by Record Store Day, Volume 6 is the latest in a series of compilations curated by no-fooling employees of RSD-participating stores. If you're expecting Sam Phillips-produced rockabilly and blues, know that the "Sun Records" in the title refers to Sun Entertainment Corporation, the multi-label and distribution entity producer Shelby Singleton created after using the profits from Jeannie C. Riley's classic C&W sass-fest "Harper Valley PTA" (included here) to buy Sun from Phillips in 1969. (The comp also includes Patti Page's massive 1950 hit "Tennessee Waltz," to which Singleton was apparently assigned the rights.) The selections range from the Southern soul wonderment of "At the Mercy of a Man," a shoulda-been hit by last-soul-queen-standing Bettye Lavette, and "There's a Break in the Road," an Allen Toussaint production featuring a couple of Meters and sung by Betty Harris, to the midwestern girl group sounds of The Jelly Beans' "Baby Be Mine" and The Blue Angels' "I Wonder." Fun stuff.
This week I was checking out punk rock superhero Mike Watt's great collab with guitarist Mike Baggetta (imagine a love child of Dick Dale and John Abercrombie), so the arrival of a new RSD 7-inch by the man in the van with the bass in his hand was most welcome. Ocampo, Ocampo + Watt's Apparatus b/w Better Than a Dirtnap finds the ex-Minuteman/Stooge in the company of a DC married couple, singer-guitarist Devin Ocampo (a Cali expat who's been in a couple of Dischord Records bands) and drummer Renata Ocampo (Brazilian by birth, and also a visual artist whose embroidered portraits are quite stunning). Their long-distance collaboration back in January yielded a song apiece by Devin Ocampo and Watt. The A-side's a slice of moody indie rock, while the flip, sung by Ocampo, chugs along in Watt's signature style.
Speaking of Brazilians, Winter's Infinite Summer is a five-song EP of feather light dream pop, sung in both English and Portuguese by songwriter Samira Winter, following last year's appropriately named, crowd-funded full-length Ethereality. Winter has a voice quality not unlike the Sundays' Harriet Wheeler, and the record's airy internationalism makes it sound like something you could sell by playing in-store a la High Fidelity's Beta Band record. Bliss out!
Sun Records Curated by Record Store Day, Volume 6 is the latest in a series of compilations curated by no-fooling employees of RSD-participating stores. If you're expecting Sam Phillips-produced rockabilly and blues, know that the "Sun Records" in the title refers to Sun Entertainment Corporation, the multi-label and distribution entity producer Shelby Singleton created after using the profits from Jeannie C. Riley's classic C&W sass-fest "Harper Valley PTA" (included here) to buy Sun from Phillips in 1969. (The comp also includes Patti Page's massive 1950 hit "Tennessee Waltz," to which Singleton was apparently assigned the rights.) The selections range from the Southern soul wonderment of "At the Mercy of a Man," a shoulda-been hit by last-soul-queen-standing Bettye Lavette, and "There's a Break in the Road," an Allen Toussaint production featuring a couple of Meters and sung by Betty Harris, to the midwestern girl group sounds of The Jelly Beans' "Baby Be Mine" and The Blue Angels' "I Wonder." Fun stuff.
This week I was checking out punk rock superhero Mike Watt's great collab with guitarist Mike Baggetta (imagine a love child of Dick Dale and John Abercrombie), so the arrival of a new RSD 7-inch by the man in the van with the bass in his hand was most welcome. Ocampo, Ocampo + Watt's Apparatus b/w Better Than a Dirtnap finds the ex-Minuteman/Stooge in the company of a DC married couple, singer-guitarist Devin Ocampo (a Cali expat who's been in a couple of Dischord Records bands) and drummer Renata Ocampo (Brazilian by birth, and also a visual artist whose embroidered portraits are quite stunning). Their long-distance collaboration back in January yielded a song apiece by Devin Ocampo and Watt. The A-side's a slice of moody indie rock, while the flip, sung by Ocampo, chugs along in Watt's signature style.
Speaking of Brazilians, Winter's Infinite Summer is a five-song EP of feather light dream pop, sung in both English and Portuguese by songwriter Samira Winter, following last year's appropriately named, crowd-funded full-length Ethereality. Winter has a voice quality not unlike the Sundays' Harriet Wheeler, and the record's airy internationalism makes it sound like something you could sell by playing in-store a la High Fidelity's Beta Band record. Bliss out!
posted by stashdauber at 10:05 PM
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