Hey peeps, Party Dad here, breaking an Internet silence that has been kinda forced on me while I get settled into a new apartment. Did you miss me? I’ve missed you.
Anyway, I’ve been making good use of my unintentional cyber-sabbatical, working on a new mixtape and planning a couple of A/V collaborations with one of my tightest bros, hyper-prolific Charleston artist Matthew Foreman. I’m really excited to be working with Matt, so I thought I’d share some of his work here for the benefit of the uninitiated.
Matt uses hand-cut stencils and spray paint to create psychedelic portraits of his friends and heroes. A lot of people compare his work to Andy Warhol and Shepherd Fairey, and it’s not hard to tell why (he’s even had his work hung next to Warhol’s in a Pop Art show in Houston), but I think his spray-paint approach gives his work its own gritty feel. If you’ve spent much time walking around Charleston in the last couple of years, you’ll probably recognize his style. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
Oh, Donna...
The one and only Continental!
Yours Truly (gettin' nasty with a 45!)
Foreman’s latest steez, though, is video, which is what our upcoming collabs will revolve around. He doesn’t have anything up yet on YouTube, but from what he’s shown me so far, the layered aspect of his work on canvas is definitely present in this new stuff. I can’t wait to tell you more, but we have to get more work done first. Stay tuned to the blog for more details. Until then, you should head over to his website for a closer look into Foreman’s incredibly fertile mind.
Hey friends, it’s Party Dad again with another helping of disco history for you, and what a generous helping I have this week! Let’s talk for a minute about the original celebrity DJ, and one of my biggest personal influences, Tom Savarese.
Tom Savarese got his start DJing in 1973 at the ripe old age of 29 and held residencies at a number of legendary New York discotheques throughout the 70s, including the Hollywood, the Ice Palace, 12 West and the Sandpiper on Fire Island.
Here’s a five-hour mix recorded by the man himself straight to reel-to-reel for a New Year’s Eve party in 1978. Back then, it was a common practice for club owners and some DJs to record an evening’s set and sell it the next day. These were the very first DJ mixtapes!
(Note: These are 320kbps mp3s, so the files are huge, but it’s totally worth it for the sound quality. Enjoy!)
Hey! Party Dad here with the first installment in my series of musical history lessons here on the EF blog. This week I want to talk about one of my favorite forgotten soul singers, the great Esther Phillips.
I first discovered Esther last year on one of my frequent trips to the dollar bin at 52.5 Records, and since then I’ve become a little bit obsessed with her. I’ve done fair amount of internet research on her, and the more I find out, the more amazed I am that she isn’t worshipped as a goddess by soul aficionados worldwide. I mean, she recorded 21 albums over a 30-plus-year career, and ten of the over two dozen singles she released cracked the U.S. R&B Top Ten, including four Number Ones! Perhaps the problem was that she was too versatile for her own good, and record companies never knew how to properly promote her.
The track I’m sharing today, 1976’s “Boy, I Really Tied One On,” is probably my favorite. It’s a tale of morning-after regret that’s both sad and funny, like a lot of the best Esther Phillips tracks. Priceless lines like “allow me the pleasure/of taking your measure/though I’m sure you ain’t nobody’s treasure” (keep in mind she’s saying this to someone she just woke up next to!) are set over a backdrop of eerie synths and chilling guitar harmonics, a killer clavinet bassline, plenty of strings and horns (this is a disco track) and a beat that would almost sound at home on a Bmore club track. It’s my personal hangover anthem, and I hope you like it as much as I do.
