News From Up the Street

Written by Jim S.

News from up the street, she’s people I’d like to meet – Dan Hicks.

From time to time, other bloggers will mention a song to me, sometimes in the comment section. Or I’ll find one on their site that I think deserves wider exposures. I hate to see those get lost in the shuffle. So I hereby present four songs that I heard about – and dug – from fellow bloggers. Thank yew. 

A while back I did a post on the east L.A. band, Los Lobos. As a side discussion, fellow blogger Boppin’s Blog mentioned that he knew of – and had written about – a band called Brownout (pictured at top of post) that does tributes to Black Sabbath.

All well and good, there’s probably a million of those. Sure, you’ve heard “Fairies Wear Boots” by some cover band before. But with congas? And a horn section? They call themselves Brown Sabbath. Chicago meets Sabbath. Does it work? Check it out. From KEXP, Seattle:

Spotify link

I had never heard of the artist named Bishop Briggs. (Apparently, that is the name of her hometown in Scotland.) Fellow blogger Jealous Sounds featured her recently and her voice is so good, I sent a link to my other soul expert, my sister who gave it a big thumbs up.

This song is called “The Way I Do.” I’m hearing Amy Winehouse and Sinead O’Connor if you’re the kind that needs a comparison. (I appear to be.)

Spotify link

Next is fellow blogger and prog-rock lover extraordinaire, CirdecSongs. He came up with a great band called The Aristocrats, composed of guys who had played with Steven Wilson and/or Joe Satriani. Nice pedigree. I’ve only recently learned about Wilson, mostly from other bloggers.

This great tune is called “Boing!… I’m in the Back.” The musicians are Guthrie Govan (guitar), Bryan Beller (bass), Marco Minneman (drums.) This is insane. This is why I periodically throw my guitars in the trash, only to go back out and retrieve them:

Spotify link

Lastly, two bloggers to credit here, Runaway American Dream for detailing his visit to Asbury Park to see a documentary about the local music scene and a jam session (surprise visit from the Boss).

And Christian’s Music Musings, for featuring Little Steven’s Soulfire album. Lotsa good stuff here including some straight blues. But let’s listen to Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul cut loose on the title track, “Soulfire.” a nice soulful, funky thang.

Spotify link

 

20 thoughts on “News From Up the Street”

  1. Thanks for the shoutout.
    This was great timing. I just found out a few minutes ago that Alex Marraro from Brownout is on an album released yesterday called Doom Side Of The Moon with the guys from The Sword.

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    1. Huh! How about that. I’ve actually been sitting on this draft for a while ‘coz other shit kept popping up. ‘Doom Side’ is, what, heavy metal tribute to you know who?

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      1. Funny how that works.
        Fate?

        As for the new album, yes it is.
        I just found out about it today and the vinyl is already sold out from yesterday.
        😦

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      2. Don’t let the term “heavy metal” scare you though.
        The Sword are amazing. I have a concert review on my site if you want to check that out as well.

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      1. Frankly, I’ve never gotten much into Black Sabbath and except for “Paranoid” and a couple of other tunes really don’t know their music. But this post prompted me to listen to the original of the song. I have to say I like Brown Sabbath’s version better – it’s really incredible what they made out of it!

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  5. I dug Sabbath when I was younger, even seeing them once. But I don’t think I – or really anybody – thought they would become so influential and help create a genre. Or that Ozzy would become this sort of statesman of rock. And Ozzfest? Seriously I thought they’d burn out in a couple years. I think Rolling Stone hated them. But I do really like their first couple of albums. Hmm,.. See what you did there? I think you just talked me into doing one of their discs as a Featured Album. 😂

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  7. Love the Dan intro. Remember when Miami released his albums. I dug them. They certainly weren’t big sellers. Liked the tunes he penned for Johnny. Cirdecsongs has some good stuff on his site. I picked up a guy called Stanton Moore there. Real funky stuff.

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  8. “Fairies Wear Boots” is my favorite Sabbath tune What a great cover by Brownout, Thanks for sharing with us. And thanks to Boppin’s Blog for the original

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