That Skinny MothaShutyomouth
* Dump: 1999 (9.5 mb) | Pop Life (5.0 mb) | Another Lonely Christmas (5.5 mb)
From That Skinny Motherfucker With The High Voice? : Shrimper : CD 106
Prince. Just the name alone evokes memories of hot, sweaty, summer night dance parties. There’s just something about his music that really gets my fat ass a gyratin’. Well, maybe not gyratin’, but my toes definitely start to tap and my head starts to bob up and down.
In browsing through my music collection though, I realized that I didn’t have any of his stuff converted into MP3’s yet. Shame on me, I know. But then I remembered that I had something that was even better. Well, maybe not better, but maybe more surprising. What we’ve got here is Dump doing an album (with the best title ever) of Prince covers. If you don’t know who Dump is, here’s the rundown: Dump = James McNew = white guy = lo-fi solo bedroom pop = Bassist for Yo La Tengo = indie rock super-band . Now, this might sound like a recipe for a sound disaster, some white indie dude trying to compete with That Skinny Motherfucker With The High Voice? but the results are awesomely endearing. Sure, there are some missteps on the album, but in this case the good far outweighs the bad. In fact, I had a ton of trouble trying to figure out what tracks to include from this album. But don’t worry, I managed to narrow it down.
—–+—–
I was having a lot of problems deciding what to post for today. A part of the problem is that I have way too much music to choose from. That might not seem like a hindrance or a hardship, but it can be overwhelming sometimes and I (many times) forget what I have. In addition, a lot of that collection consists of musics that I’m hesitant about posting (mostly free improv and/or avantgarde and/or hardcore psychedelic). While I constantly think that I’m just posting the tracks that I want to, there’re still concessions being made due to the fact that others will be reading and listening to what I’m posting. And there’s a part of me that doesn’t mind that at all, just like there’s a part of me hates the fact that I (currently) lack the intestinal fortitude to just post whatever the hells I want.
I also wanted to add that this blog has been a real pleasant surprise for me because I didn’t know whether or not I’d be able to keep this thing going. Mostly because for the most part writing comes very difficult to me. I’ve never really been comfortable with writing and I’ve never been good at it. In fact, I got some pretty atrocious marks on papers that I wrote in college. But, and I don’t mean to toot my own horn, in 5 months I’ve done over 70 posts and written over 30,000 words. That ain’t bad for someone who hasn’t written anything (except for at work) for the past five years. Of course not all of it is good writing…but I’d say it’s not all bad either.
So, I guess this is all just the long winded way of saying y’all should look forward to more posts (not that there’d be too many people who would be concerned if I stopped) and don’t be surprised if some of the aforementioned musics start showing up.
j-remy said,
April 4, 2005 @ 5:33 pm
Bring on the hardcore!
Love the selection thus far, especially posts on Soul Jazz gospel, Doris Duke, and Sublime frequencies–but look forward to out genres, esp. psych and newer free improv.
thanks!
Ph said,
April 5, 2005 @ 2:04 am
do not stop, please
sooo goood
and, yeah, bring the free-garde on!
cb said,
April 5, 2005 @ 8:52 am
Thanks for the encouragement!
No worries about me stopping, this is too much fun to do.
Will definitely think about posting some more out-there stuff in the near future.
-cb
Anonymous said,
April 5, 2005 @ 9:00 am
Love that cover of “1999″. Where can I get the album?
cb said,
April 5, 2005 @ 10:41 am
Honestly, your best bet would be to see if your local record emporium can special order it for you. I have a sneaking suspicion that the album is out of print. And, unfortunately, Shrimper Records have no web presence to speak of.
You can also try it analog style and write them.
Shrimper Records
P.O. Box 1837
Upland, CA 91785-1837
Good Luck.
-cb
Fil said,
April 5, 2005 @ 12:54 pm
I find your reviews insightful. I’ve just started checking out your blog and it reads as if you’ve been doing this forever, or at least since Al Gore ‘created’ the internets! Keep on trucking & I’d love a blog post featuring 80’s French musac if you catch my drift. I loved that stuff you played on the say to Sin City!
shaun said,
April 8, 2005 @ 1:25 pm
i’ve met james mcnew several times and he said that prince found out about this album and sued. james had to go around the country and take all the copies of that album off the shelves. pretty messy ordeal. he said that he would keep a few copies on consignment at other music in nyc. i would say this is your best bet to find “that skinny motherfucker with the high voice”
cb said,
April 8, 2005 @ 2:57 pm
Ah, yes. I think that I remember hearing that same thing about Prince. He seems to be a touchy fellow. At any rate. The home page for Other Music is here
-cb
Gary said,
April 8, 2005 @ 10:35 pm
Any Dump recording is well worth tracking down, except “Superpowerless” (I think that’s the title, but I sold it back so I can’t check). And I’d add that hearing what James was doing as far back as 1993/94 or so suggests that he played a much bigger role in shaping Yo La Tengo’s sound than most YLT fans would ever imagine. For example, their first album, which featured Dave Schramm, basically sounded like a Schramms album. Dump’s “Superpowerless” and “I Can Hear Music,” on the other hand, include elements (e.g., certain loop techniques) that would later be heard on YLT’s “Painful.” Just my theory, but I think it holds some water.
su said,
April 9, 2005 @ 12:56 pm
hey, just wanted to throw some props. this blog is the only one i check regularly now for ingenious, creative sounds from the waaaaaaaaay out there, and the only mp3blog i know of that dedicates itself avant-garde classics, contemporary and old school. you SHOULD toot yr own horn - i hope you keep this up!
the music you post that i like the most is the japanese psychedelia (Cosmic Invention, MSHB and Ghost are all awesome!), and i would love it if you posted more improv and avant-garde from your abundance of records, for those of us who have considerably fewer records…:( —->
peace, su.
nb1.be
the of mirror eye » Sounds Dumpy said,
January 30, 2007 @ 7:44 am
[...] There must be something totally liberating about lo-fi four-track recordings that causes musicians to come back to it, again and again. James McNew is a perfect example. As bassist for Yo La Tengo (look here and here), he already has an outlet for his musical demons and decent studios to work in and yet, he still breaks out the ole four-track and gives it a while every once in awhile as Dump (look here). [...]