The first time I encountered a record by R.J.’s Latest Arrival, it was in a bargain bin at 2nd & Charles in Woodbridge, Virginia. The moment I saw their 1986 album Hold On, with its mid-’80s barbershop’s assortment of jheri curls on the back cover, I knew I had to have it (it helped that it cost less than three dollars).
Tag: detroit
-
Dystopian Book Club Podcast, Jheri Curl June Edition: The Memoirs of Rick James
It didn’t take a stroke of genius to come up with the idea for this year’s Jheri Curl June podcast. Rick James may be the most important architect of the genre we call Jheri Curl Music who we hadn’t already commemorated with a long-term feature. He also has a hell of a story: one he told in not one, but two posthumous memoirs–2007’s Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Superfreak and 2014’s Glow–which makes him a perfect candidate for the Dystopian Book Club. A “habitual line-stepper” in both life and art, James was vital in bridging the gap between 1970s P-Funk and 1980s Jheri Curl; his later decline into drug addiction and imprisonment was unfortunate, but could only somewhat dampen his boundless talent and charisma. So join us on this most sacred of occasions as we celebrate Mr. Cold Blooded himself: a man whose artistic potential was the only thing bigger than his larger-than-life personality and appetites. Gimme some ganja!
(more…)Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Jheri Curl June: One Way’s “Cutie Pie”
This year, we’re kicking off Jheri Curl June with Detroit R&B group One Way, formerly known as the Soul Partners. Although not exactly a household name, One Way has made a significant impact on music. Between One Way and Zapp, you pretty much have the sound of West Coast G-funk down pat: Everyone from Too $hort and DJ Quik to the Game has sampled One Way’s heavy bass and whiny synthesizers.
One Way’s Who’s Foolin’ Who album from 1982, which includes their biggest hit, “Cutie Pie”; © MCA Records.
One Way had a consistent output of top-charting R&B singles throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s. “Cutie Pie,” their biggest hit, is the perfect music to listen to in your vintage Lincoln Continental while you cruise through the strip on Belle Isle.
We’ll be back tomorrow with this year’s Jheri Curl June special, on the music of Jesse Johnson. In the meantime, check out our Spotify and YouTube playlists below!
-
Dystopian Listening Party Podcast: Memorial Day, 2016-2017
Well, here we are: for the second consecutive year, we’re turning Memorial Day weekend into a time of remembrance for the many great artists we lost since last May. But because this is still Dystopian Dance Party, and we’re constitutionally incapable of being reverent for more than a few minutes at a time, please be aware that the resulting podcast is about 70% wake, 30% roast (well, maybe 60/40). Just believe us when we tell you it’s all coming from a place of love. Hopefully, while everyone good continues to die and leave us trapped on this smoldering husk of a planet, we can at least entertain you (and ourselves) with our impressions of “The Force M.D.’s Meet the Fat Boys”… R.I.P. to Trisco Pearson. Show notes below.
(more…)Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Dystopian Art Party Podcast: Happy Birthday, Yoko Ono
Last Saturday, Yoko Ono turned 84 years old; so we’ve decided to take the opportunity to shout out one of our favorite visual and musical artists, who has been fucking shit up for five decades and is still going strong in 2017. If you’re a Yoko neophyte and want to know what the fuss is about, here’s our (deeply personal, 100% subjective) primer on why she matters and where to start. No hate allowed–Callie will ether your ass. We’re taking next month off the podcast, but we’ll be back in April with another KISS memoir. The sublime and the ridiculous, folks!
(more…)Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Dystopian Book Club Podcast: Ace Frehley’s No Regrets
Our series of Book Club podcasts on the autobiographies of KISS continues with No Regrets
(more…), the 2011 memoir by the band’s original guitarist Ace Frehley. Listen to us talk about Ace’s propensity for driving under the influence and analyze the similarities and differences between his and Gene Simmons’ sides of the story–or, put another way, just listen to us bash Gene for another 90 minutes. We’re pretty sure Ace would approve. Show notes are below, and we’ll be back in the New Year with the next installment: Makeup to Breakup
by Peter Criss.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Dystopian Listening Party Podcast: Memorial Day, 2015-2016
With every passing week, 2016 feels more and more like a never-ending, real-life Grammy Awards tribute montage. We couldn’t even go the six days between recording and posting the podcast without losing another pop music icon: this time, Marshall Jones of the Ohio Players, word of whose death regrettably reached us only after we had finished editing. Clearly, this is a trying time to be a music fan. And, as I’ve found myself saying more than a few times in the past several months, the sheer volume of notable musicians’ deaths starts to feel overwhelming to a small site like ours. I’m not a full-time obituary writer, so even many worthy artists who passed away have inevitably gone unmemorialized.
That’s why, in the spirit of the real Memorial Day holiday, we’re taking the time to commemorate those the music world has lost since last May. Unfortunately, this will almost certainly be a recurring feature: the cruel realities of the human lifespan, combined with the generational ebb and flow of American popular music, means that things are only going to get worse in the coming years. And sadly, even this tribute isn’t truly exhaustive–even aside from the aforementioned omission of Marshall Jones, we’re only really talking about musicians of whom we have some miniscule level of knowledge, so plenty of important people are still going unmourned (at least by us). But we did our best, and we at least tried to do everyone justice. Here’s hoping we get a break, at least for a couple more weeks.
(more…)Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Dystopian Listening Party Podcast: David Bowie, 1947-2016
Last week, we decided that our next podcast would be devoted to one of our mutual favorite artists, David Bowie, in celebration of his 69th birthday and the release of his 25th studio album
, ★: sort of a more personal companion piece to the career-spanning Bowie guide we published that Friday. We didn’t expect to be recording an elegy.
Early Monday morning, however, we got the sad news that Bowie was no longer with us. That news irrevocably changed the tone of our tribute, which we recorded on Tuesday night. But it isn’t all solemn mourning (though one of us does cry at one point–no spoilers which one). Instead, the following is a personal reflection on the many ways in which pop music–that tawdry, cheap, commercial entertainment–can shape, and even irrevocably change our lives, through the prism of an entertainer who did just that for both us. We hope you enjoy it!
(more…)Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Dystopian Listening Party Podcast: The True Meaning of Thanksgiving
Last year, Zach wrote that Thanksgiving is about two things: whitewashing the brutal history of colonialism against America’s native peoples, and eating a lot of goddamn food. We took care of the latter topic at the time; so now, we’re turning our attention to the former. This month’s Dystopian Dance Party Podcast is all about the relationship between popular music and Native American culture–an often fraught relationship, as you might imagine, but an endlessly fascinating one nonetheless. Check it out, then check below the jump for a list of the songs played and an accompanying Spotify playlist so you can hear the music without us yapping over it.
(more…)Podcast: Play in new window | Download