Motown Mixtape

Whilst ensconced back home I decided to make a mixtape in between reading and eating Twiglets.

Having been brought up listening to Motown (and a strange amount of prog) I've always been a little obsessed, so here's a little mixtape I made of some of my favourite songs to come out on the label. I decided to choose songs that weren't massive hits because everyone has a Motown compilation with those on there right? You'll probably know some (or maybe all) of these songs, they're not all super obscure - b-sides to big singles/ used on a KFC advert etc etc. Anyway, hopefully these songs aren't too played out and this mixtape will be of some interest...

1. 'Bye Bye Baby' – Mary Wells (Released December 1960)
2. 'Jamie' – Eddie Holland (Released October 1961)
3. 'Contract On Love' – Little Stevie Wonder (Released December 1962)
4. 'There He Is (At My Door)' – Martha & The Vandellas (Released July 1964 – b-side to ‘Dancing In The Street’)
5. 'You’ve Been A Long Time Coming' – Marvin Gaye (Released January 1965 – b-side to ‘I’ll Be Doggone’)
6. 'My Baby' – The Freeman Brothers (Released mid-1965)
7. 'You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me' – The Miracles (Released November 1962)
8. 'Put Yourself In My Place' – The Elgins (Released December 1965)
9. 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)' – Chris Clark (Unreleased – recorded 1966)
10. 'Just A Little Misunderstanding' – The Contours (Released 1966)
11. 'I Like Everything About You' – The Four Tops (Released July 1966 – b-side to ‘Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever’)
12. 'Mother You, Smother You' – The Supremes (Released October 1966 – b-side to ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’)
13. 'Since I Left You Girl' – The Monitors (Released November 1966)
14. 'I Think I Can Change You' – The Marvelettes (Released December 1966 – b-side to ‘The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game’)

DOWNLOAD - MOTOWN MIXTAPE DECEMBER 2009 (YOUSENDIT LINK)

Banjo or Freakout Christmas Album

AC Milan fan and all round lovely Italian Banjo or Freakout has made a beautiful Christmas album including all the hits - 'White Christmas', 'Jingle Bells' and 'Blue Christmas'. You can download the whole thing from his blog LINK

TRACKLISTING:
01 White Christmas
02 Merry Christmas, Baby
03 Jingle Bells
04 Christmas Is Coming
05 Must Be Santa
06 Silent Night
07 Come On Ring Those Bells
08 Joy To The World
09 Blue Christmas

Recorded first take at home between December 3rd and December 13th 2009 apart from Silent Night (Dec 2008) and Blue Christmas (Dec 2007).

The Dirty Hearts Club - Jan 05-Dec 06

A few years ago I started DJing and working on the door of a friends night on Canvey Island. It was called Bored and was on one Thursday a month, then every other Thursday. It was run by my friends in Thee Harmacy (Canvey Island's weirdest and possibly hardest working lazy band). We put on some ropey bands that played ska and what was referred to as 'alt-rock'. In between though we (Thee Harmacy and I) DJ'd, playing things like Roxy Music, The Stooges, MC5, The Fall, Sonic Youth etc etc. It was good fun, got pretty popular cos there was no other 'alt' night around and we had a very slack attitude to the over 18s rule the club imposed...



Bored ended when we were given a Saturday night cos loads of people started coming. We got monumentally drunk and accidently blew the entire soundsystem by turning up the Flaming Lips' 'Talkin Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues' until everything was in the red (and forgetting to turn it down for the rest of the night).

My friend Dean and I then decided to start a night in Southend, we called it Vive Le Rock (after the Adam Ant song), it was a shit name. We admit it. We did this night at Saks basement on one Tuesday a month. Nobody came and when they did we'd scare them off by playing The Clean really loud.

We then moved to the Royal Hotel after the owner decided he needed more nights there and asked us to come down (one Wednesday a month). There was a recently started night there called Junk (we went to the first couple, there was always about 6 people there who didn't like outsiders).



Anyway, after six months of hardly anyone coming we managed to blag a Saturday night (third Saturday of every month). With this new night we decided we needed a new name. So we replaced shit name with shit name and the Dirty Hearts Club was born.

We started on the third Friday of January 2005 (don't know why). It was instantly popular, which was an odd sensation for us.

The night went from strength to strength, getting three times the capacity in there, creating a very, very sweaty club. When Black Wire played we had far too many people there, followed by an amusing after party at somebody's house which ended with a load of umbrellas up a tree and Tom from the band sucking red wine out of the cream carpet with a straw...



In that time we put on some good bands and some shockers. We put on first gigs by These New Puritans (its funny to read now that they say their first gig was at fellow Southend night Junk, which came a year after they'd played every night in London and Dirty Hearts three times...), Hadouken and stuff. We put on Kaito's last ever gig and brilliant early gigs by Good Shoes, Les Incompetents, Blood Red Shoes, MIT, The Violets etc.

Klaxons, Shitdisco, Dandi Wind and Roland Shanks all pulled out due to illness/ shit managers last minute too. We also turned down The Automatic, Arctic Monkeys and Vincent Vincent & The Villains (several times) to play too and I'm pleased we did.

It lasted from January 2005 to December 2006. We decided from the first one that club nights turn shit after 2 years and we would end then.

The DJs every night were me, Dean and our friend Anthony Vicious (now owner of Hottwerk Records). I've made a Spotify playlist of some of the stuff you were likely to hear on an average night. There's lots missing that isn't on there (loads of weird white label remixes and what not). But if you click this link you can get a flava:

DIRTY HEARTS CLUB SPOTIFY PLAYLIST (BEST LISTEN ON SHUFFLE)

Nite Funk

Dam Funk + Nite Jewel = Nite Funk. Clever.

The first track to come out from their collaboration, 'Am I Gonna Make It', sounds like those moody scenes in Miami Vice where Crockett drove around in his convertable contemplating his failed marriage and the conflict he has with going back to his family or protecting them via his dangerous job. Emo. Phil Collins would usually do the music for these scenes with some awesome sounding drums, but Nite Funk do a good job of filling in, making it sound like an Imagination slow jam.

NITE FUNK - 'AM I GONNA MAKE IT' MP3 [SENDSPACE LINK]

Via XLR8R