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From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Author Archives: Little Danny
Walls of Sound
“Wall of Sound” is one of those descriptors that’s been tossed around for years in discussions of pop music. The phrase, though, is genuinely serviceable, referring generally to the ‘60s pop production style of erratic Los Angeles studio wizard Phil … Continue reading
Promotional rescue
1. The Houston Post, Get With it (Pams Productions) The basslines thump and the bongos bounce. “Get with it,” the voices exhort, “get with the Houston Post!” The mood is celebratory. A manufactured celebratory. But still – it’s celebratory. If … Continue reading
Organ safari
Rarely did exotic masquerade as authentic. That’s part of what made exotica exotica: an odd minor key or flourish of African percussion here, some warmed-over Arabic melody there. Exotica, in all of its post-War musical splendor, created an aura of … Continue reading
Raga rock
There came a point in the mid-‘60s when pop’s cutting edge was culminating in a great blur of flowers, sex, drugs, and haphazard Eastern mysticism. And rock music, more than anything, was right there, the vessel of a new pop … Continue reading
The Now Sound
Beneath the racy exteriors of this week’s selections – the exotic chimes and flutes, the fuzztone distortion, the invitations to grooviness – beat the cocktail-tippling heart of an older generation. The work of veteran New York City and Los Angeles … Continue reading
Office Naps Psychedelic Pop mix, 2006
Dreamy pop psychedelia, soundtrack gadgetry, and ’60s electronics: my version of the holidays. Merry Mix-mas! Office Naps Mix 2006 Johnny Harris Orchestra, Footprints on the Moon (7″, Warner Brothers) Scott Walker, It’s Raining Today (Scott 3, Smash) West Minist’r, Carnival … Continue reading
Soul woman
This week: Late ’60s R&B; records, that fertile medium where the cross-over popularity of soul music and the voices of female empowerment and social consciousness were all beginning to intersect in a profound way. 1. Jean & The Darlings, How … Continue reading
Biker fuzz
First commercially available in the mid-‘60s, the fuzzbox was the earliest mass-produced means for distorting your guitar tone. The unassuming device was heard memorably on the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” and the countless American garage bands who … Continue reading
