The Karl Hendricks Trio

Prefuse 73, “Eve of Dextruction”

Way, way back in probably 1995, I remember making fun of some prehistoric website where someone clearly wanted to be a music reviewer but had no idea how to approach it. He attempted to a bunch of songs, but after writing a sentence or two for the first couple tracks, he just devolved into saying “CLUB BANGA” for the rest of the songs. And that simple phrase, all-caps, CLUB BANGA, has stuck with me now for twenty seven years or whatever. A friend and I used to just text that phrase to each other sometimes, and it never failed to hit.

Tricky, “Brand New You’re Retro”

Maxinquaye is one of the three pillars of trip-hop, along with Blue Lines and Dummy. What’s striking about all three records, besides them all being great, is kind of how dissimilar they all end up feeling. There’s a murky darkness at the core of them all, but they take different paths to get there. Tricky is probably the most hip-hop of the three, although the swirling noise is still pretty distinctly foreign to the hip-hop of the time.

Curtis Mayfield, “Move on Up”

Curtis Mayfield was the leader of the Impressions, but when he went solo, he found another gear. This is the centerpiece of his first solo record, and it’s just incredible stuff. The urgency of the percussion, the punchy horns, just everything about this is a joy. This entire record is one of the greatest soul records ever made, and it along with Mayfield’s other early 70s records set a benchmark for other soul artists to try for.

Ohio Players, “It’s Your Night / Words of Love”

Daaaaaaaamn. The mid-70s Ohio Players albums were all ridiculously good.

Karl Hendricks Trio, “The Official Shape of Beauty”

I have a hard time picking my favorite album from the Karl Hendricks Trio. I often lean towards the first couple records from them because it felt special I was listening to them that early, and I saw them so often in those early days. But the later albums probably on-balance have better songs? I think the sweet spot might actually be this record, A Gesture of Kindness. Pre-Merge Records, but Karl’s songwriting had advanced from his earliest stuff.

Announcement time! I suspect everybody reading this is aware, but just in case, my friend Grant and I have started a new blog over at Game and Tonic. We’ll be chatting about games, booze, music, all kinds of stuff. Just a warning: it’s entirely possible that I’ll end up posting here less, as I only have so much time to spend writing. Anyway, on to the music!

The Karl Hendricks Trio, “You’re The Man”

There aren’t that many people that were as good as Karl Hendricks at the quietLOUDquiet thing. It’s a combination of his aggressive guitar tone during the loud parts, his ability to project emotion in both sections, as well as a fine sense of buildup and release. He also recognizes that sometimes you turn up the guitars and stay even on the vocals.

I had to upload three of these tracks today. I know nobody cares.

Marvin Gaye, “Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky)”

I’m pretty confident I’ve posted my contrarian/asshole take on What’s Going On, which is that it has some seriously great tunes, but actually is kind of flabby as an album and as a consequence is a flawed record. This song is an example - it’s kind of meandering and doesn’t add much to the album.

Punk rock, wooo! And, you know, a DJ track.

Dwarves, “Lesbian Nun”

Really, a song title of “Lesbian Nun” probably tells you everything you need to know about what you’re going to hear. Punk rock shock merchants out of Chicago, Dwarves were every bit as sophomoric as you might expect from a band that put blood drenched nude women on the cover of an album. I never actually ended up with any of their actual releases, but this song showed up on a Dope Guns-n-Fucking In The Streets compilation. It appears to be the only one of their songs I have.

Final rules are available for Fox in the Forest, if anybody wants to check them out. Reviews have started coming in and they’re very positive so far. I’m sure I’ll get clobbered soon, but it feels good right now.

Oh, you came for music?

Steady Earnest, “Wear You To The Ball”

Steady Ernest is a side project of an assortment of Boston-area area ska musicians, most notably Dan Vitale of Bim Skala Bim on vocals. Overall, with Vitale’s involvement, it sounds a lot like Bim Skala Bim - pretty straightforward ska patterned after two-tone bands like The Specials. I think Bim Skala Bim is great, and Steady Earnest is where you go after you’ve gone through their discography. Out Of Line is the album to start with for this band.