I barely like this, and I’ve always thought they were a goofy “band from the 80s”, but after watching a documentary on how hard they worked trying to make it happen, they almost made “Too Good Monday”. Whatever they are, they’re not a band that was just thrown together to make a couple hits to cash in on 80s fads. Really, I have never heard of a band showing up and killing every night like these guys did, and I’ve heard a lot of stories.
“Every town we went to, we made an impression. Every town we went to, we sold records. Every town we went to, the local Atlantic rep would call the office the following Monday and go ‘Holy shit! I just saw the future of Rock ‘n’ Roll, their name is Twisted Sister.’ And the main office—Doug Morris and company—would have to hear the dreaded ‘Twisted’ word, over, and over, and over.” — Dee Snider (on how they handled being blacklisted by the head of Atlantic records)
The vocals of this track are as much a joke as the bass and melody are serious. And you can bet that at the right time of the night, when Larry Levan dropped it, in the dark Garage this had people tripping. With or without drugs …
• Bumblebee Unlimited – Lady Bug
“Originally released in 1978 on Greg Charmichael’s Red Greg Records, Lady Bug and Love Bug are probably Bumblebee Unlimited’s most recognizable hits. Much like Cloud One, Universal Robot Band and Inner Life, Bumblebee Unlimited was a studio-based disco unit conducted by Patrick Adams and Gregory Carmichael. Their only album Sting Like a Bee was released by RCA in 1979 with contributions from longtime Adams & Carmichael collaborators Leroy Burgess (vocals), Norbert Sloley (bass), and Richard Taninbaum (drums). With an undeniable groove, signature keys and arrangements by Patrick Adams in addition to the comically sped-up vocals, Lady Bug is considered by many to be one of the most important underground tracks of the Disco era. As with the original Lady Bug 12 Single, the John Morales and Frank Trimarco Sunshine Sound mix takes the A-side of the RCA release. A true Disco version in every sense of the word, this almost 10 minute mix brings out the Latin percussion to the front making it a true dance floor classic and establishing John Morales as one of the best remixers in the industry. The B-Side belongs to one of New York Citys hottest DJs at the time: Larry Levan. Despite being a very early remix by the Legendary Paradise Garage DJ, the talent was evident and his understanding of a club mix in wide display. Its no wonder Larry Levan would go to become one of the most respected and revered remixers of his generation. Similarly to the Morales/Trimarco version, the percussion are accented throughout the mix making it ready for the discotheque. However the two mixes are undoubtedly different with Levan’s bringing out more funk out of the Adams composition focusing more on the keys and the infectious bass lines. No real point in arguing which is better, so lets just be glad we have both.” https://earcandymusic.biz/bumblebee-unlimited-lady-bug-12-vinyl/
“This is before the success of the French Touch sound, so our aim was to sell records outside France, hoping it would eventually be accepted back here. We were building our dream.” — Laurent Garnier
• Choice from Paris (Shazz, Laurent Garnier, Ludovic Navarre (St. Germain)) – Acid Eiffel
First time I watched this, I had no idea what it was … It was late at night and Conan introduced them as “The Greatest Band In The World”; it wasn’t sarcasm and it was too quick to see if it was jest because then my attention went to the two guys dressed like superheroes—even cooler because Jack Black almost looked like a Mexican wrestler.
They had acoustic guitars, sounded great and started telling this crazy story. Nothing looked like this at the time: almost everything on the air was either pop (Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, etc.) or bands with no sound and only affectations (remember Limp Bizkit standing on a giant toilet?). Somehow, these two guys with theatrical lyrics and dressed like superheroes—with Jimmy Vivino looking like Ra’s al Ghul for good measure—was a lot less fake than everything I was being bombarded with …
The performance was amazing, band tight as it could be, and after it was over it was gone.
I lived in Latin America at the time, which had a different MTV (even worse than the US one, if that’s possible) that would not show anything remotely like this; so finding this there wasn’t an option. I still had dial-up internet which amounted to almost having no internet so it wasn’t really a thought to look them up (and bands didn’t use social media or websites as much as these days, anyway). And there was no post-performance interview. So I was just left with an excited feeling of “What the hell did I just watch?” “How can this be a band, just two guys?” (I knew that Conan’s band was just helping for the night). That feeling lasted for months until I kinda just forgot about them.
Later on, I learned that Jack Black was a comedian and, years later, I realized that it was a magical-and-mysterious band not quite. What happened that night was more like Jack Black was acting the way he acts everywhere …
This almost made it on Too Good Monday.
• Tenacious D – Wonderboy (Live on Late Night with Conan O’Brian)
Motorbass (Philippe Zdar and Etienne de Crecy) is considered by many to be the first proper French House group. Enough said.
• Motorbass – Flying Fingers
“To record the Motorbass album we had an Akai S1000 sampler, an Atari computer, a Juno 106 synthesiser and one drum machine. That’s it. We did everything with that. We had no plan, no marketing, nothing. When we were made album of the month in ‘Muzik’, you couldn’t buy the record because it was so badly distributed. We didn’t care about anything.”
The world is changing: music is changing, drugs are changing, even men and women are changing. One thousand years from now there’ll be no guys and no girls, just wankers.
Just found out that Celso Piña, “El Rebelde del Acordeón”, died a few months ago. I wish I could explain how important he was in terms of bringing vitality to the music of a whole region. From Monterrey, Mexico to the world! He will be missed.
• Celso Piña y La Ronda Bogotá – En Vivo (Vive Latino 2013)
A classic cumbia from Colombia. The Bronco Cover turned it into a Mexican classic; I remember this would be on every bus I would ride … One of those songs that underscores a whole period of time.
Massive Tunes 