We are Hiss Golden Messenger and this is What's in Our Bag.
I'm MC Taylor and first is The Pilgrim Jubilees
and it kind of just sold me on the description, although I'm pretty sure that I have
some Pilgrim Jubilee records on Peacock. This is greasier, apparently.
But the cover's great. It's a reissue.
Started with a tape, the preferred format for Freddy Fender.
We're hoping our van has a tape player. We haven't checked but...
If it doesn't then we'll get a Walkman.
Being in a band with these two has been about the most ear-opening five years
I've probably had as a musician.
There's not a better van to ride around the country in than the Hiss Golden Messenger van.
I pretty much go to one section in every record store I go to, which is the gospel section.
Luckily you guys have a killer New Orleans section
which is right next to the gospel section. So I didn't have to go very far.
So Daptone, in the last few years
Daptone's been really kind of moving down into more gospel recordings.
But this new release they played with the Daptone band
and I've listened to it several times.
They do some great tunes on here.
'Out of the Wilderness' is great. '99 1/2 Won't Do,' so good.
I got the McCartney record
because I went down into my stacks the other day in Durham, North Carolina
wanting to hear 'That Would Be Something'
and I realized that I don't actually own this record.
This picture right here, wait, hold on. That.
Actually, that one.
That speaks to me at a higher level.
Is that the one where he has a baby in his coat? Or no that's another one. Oh yeah, of course.
Paul McCartney is beautiful. He was the guy that I overlooked the most when I was a kid.
Now I think he's the deepest musician of that whole band.
I was really happy to find this record.
I think it's pretty recently reissued on vinyl but
it's a beautiful instrumental record by Gimmer Nicholson
and it's really chimey, acoustic guitar stuff.
That is an incredible record.
Kind of like Big Star crowd. Beautiful.
This is my all-time, my all-time favorite band.
This is early on in their career, live at a church
and the energy in this is just like... I can't believe I'm holding it in my hands.
This should be flying around the room right now.
Also just a wonderful copy of 'We'll Get Over.' Steve Cropper produced this.
One of the last recordings Pervis was a part of, the son of the Staple Singers.
That's one of my favorite Staple's records.
Yeah there's Mavis, there's Cleotha. Cleotha is my favorite.
Cleety sang all the high parts and I recently got to open Mavis' hometown show in Chicago
which was basically the honor of my entire life and I might've overdone it a little bit.
Y'know I didn't know exactly what to do, so I had a painting of Cleotha made for Mavis.
What did she say?
Well I gave it to her and she's like, 'you're trying to hurt me.'
Just in a great way, where she was just like, aw Cleety.
So this is a compilation of African-American gospel music from the 30s and 40s
that I don't know all the names on it but
Arizona Dranes is on it. She's a piano player who I really like.
And Blind Joe Taggart, and there's a Blind Willie Johnson song that I love so.
Which one? Which Blind Willie Johnson song?
'God Moves On The Water.'
This record I'm really excited about.
I heard this song 'Wildfire' on the radio
and I was dropping my daughter off and it was one of those times
I pulled off the road and had to find out what it was
and it's Laura Marling and a beautiful record.
I think Mike Mills made that record.
Yeah I think he did.
Alex Bradford on VJ.
Chicago label, did a lot of blues and gospel.
Alex Bradford is kind of like a precursor to Little Richard.
People like Little Richard and some other really fiery soul singers
got y'know a lot of their stage antics from church.
He also wrote 'Low Is The Way,' which is one of my favorite gospel songs that the Staple Singers did.
This is a record by a guy named John Moreland from Tulsa, Oklahoma called 'Big Bad Luv.'
I love it so much. I've listened to it more than anything else new.
It's not fancy, it's just incredibly well executed songs with
super deep melody. I mean he's definitely a guy that thinks about melody
which is really important to me.
It doesn't feel like a pastiche, it doesn't feel like he's trying to make something from the past.
It's totally contemporary and awesome.
It's so beautiful.
I own this in many formats but I had to... whenever I see it I have to buy it.
Especially being back in California you gotta love the hippy country.
How can you not, y'know, here you go. Just look at these guys for a second.
Did a cover of...
Is that on here? Yeah 'Seeds and Stems.'
'Seeds and Stems.'
Yeah, Phil knows.
I know.
'Gospel at Colonus.' This is a theater recording of a Broadway show that came on in the 80s
and basically this is important because
Clarence Fountain and The Blind Boys Alabama were kind of in a low point in their career
and really looking for work.
This production came about and starred The Blind Boys as the choir for the whole thing.
Big role and shot them right back to the top
and basically this reignited their career that they're still touring on.
I got my son Elijah some Weird Al CDs.
I'm getting him the UHF soundtrack because we were all out with our families in Durham the other day
and Elijah, my son, he's eight and he already is a Weird Al freak.
But Elijah and Phil started ping-ponging back and forth with Weird Al lyrics
and Elijah got super pumped up and so happy.
I'm like, there's no way...
Elijah, do you know the record 'Dare To Be Stupid?'
And he's like, 'oh which song do you want to sing right now?'
And I was like, 'Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White' sounds great.
We were going back and forth with lyrics
and I'm like, this is an amazing thing to be connecting with an eight-year-old over right now.
Then Phil was like, 'you've seen UHF right?'
and Elijah was like, 'what's UHF?'
So then the next couple days, until I left on this tour, Elijah was like
Dad, when can we see 'UHF?'
Never before in the history of motion pictures
has there been a screen presence so commanding, so powerful, so deadly.
Conan The Librarian.
I'm sorry, these books are a little overdue.
Conan The Librarian, tonight, only on U62.
Last but not least, Jimmy Giuffre.
Our friend Michael Chapman turned us on to this guy.
One drunken night.
Yeah.
A night in northern England, we heard a different one of this, but this guy's cool.
He has a jazz trio. I guess this is a quartet
but there's no rhythm section, which you would think is odd but it's actually really cool.
Where are those chords coming from?
And this is coming from the bass player here so I know, I like it.
I don't know if y'all are fans of The Band, but in the late period, Levon Helm
he had Larry Campbell in his band, from Bob Dylan's band.
Larry Campbell is a hero to all of us too. Great producer.
So he assembled The Band with Levon and with Garth Hudson
and they did a record, The Dixie Hummingbirds
and the songwriting is just phenomenal.
This is my second copy of this CD, I haven't had it for a while
but I absolutely love it. There's great songs on here.
So yeah, a lot of good gospel at Amoeba today. Thank you guys so much.
