The Duct Tapes

The long awaited album "The Duct Tapes" is finished and online!!!!!!!!

Here is the link to download our album for free on Mediafire!!!!!!

Leon Russell

Leon Russell is the golden boy of Oklahoma rockers from the 60’s and 70’s. His main weapon of choice was the piano, but he was known to get absolutely wicked on the guitar when he wanted to. Deeply rooted in country, blues and early rock, Russell moved from Tulsa to L.A. in the early 60’s. Russell went on to play a key role in a selective group of top studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. He played on recordings from a wide spectrum of artists including the Byrds, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and George and Ringo from The Beatles.

Leon received his first big exposure to the public when he was asked to be the musical director for Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour in 1970. Cocker had just killed at Woodstock the previous summer and was in high demand for live shows. The Cocker tour was also filmed and released as a movie. Leon had a very high profile role on the tour as leader of a 20-piece rock and roll band. Immediately after the success of the Mad Dog tour, Leon was doing session work for the Beatles’ Apple Records. It was during this time that Russell started to record his first solo project. He used his connections with the Beatles and Rolling Stones well. Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Kieth Richards, and Charlie Watts (guitarist and drummer from the Stones) all played on the album. Eric Clapton also got a few licks on it too.

Leon kept the ball rolling with his performances with George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan during the Concert for Bangladesh that Harrison organized to raise money for the impoverished country. The Concert was a huge success and an album and documentary film were also released. Once again Leon gained attention by the large role he played during the concert. He played bass for Dylan, and had a raunchy set where he jammed out a ten minute plus medley of Jumping Jack Flash/Youngbloods. By this time he was a sort of sensation within the rock community of the early 70’s.

By 1972, he had moved back to Tulsa and bought a huge mansion in an old oil money neighborhood and had matching Rolls Royce’s in the garage. He also had another mansion out at Grand Lake. He had his personal studio set up there and started to go to work. He went to Nashville in ’73 and hired all the old time session musicians that nobody in the country music industry were working with at the time. The result was a concept album in which he took on an alter ego of Hank Wilson-a honky-tonk crooner. Leon Russell is a great rock n' roller from Oklahoma, check him out!

Here is a sick sick sick jam with Leon on lead. Yes that is George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr jamming out with him. Holler at your boy, give it up for rocking Okies!

The Modern Sound

The Modernaires were an excellent vocal quintet from the 40's. They gained their reputation as one of the smoothest jazz harmony groups when they hooked up with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Their sound is so tight and aurally stimulating that is is hard to digest all at once. The thick, layered harmonies that they laid down are dense yet bright. This is the vocal group of the modern era in pop music.

The Modernaires vocal blend directly inspired groups like the Hi-Lo's and the Four Freshmen, who in turn inspired Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. Paul McCartney's love of Brian's music can be seen in the vocal arrangements of songs such as "Paperback Writer," "Here There and Everywhere," and "Michelle." Connecting dots like this makes it easy to see just how influential the Modernaires are. When my mom was a kid she lived next door to Ralph Brewster (bottom of picture) who was the tennor in the group. I grew up listening to their songs but I didn't realize until recently how groundbreaking the group was.

Here are some film shorts from the era:

Jukebox Saturday Night (Ralph is the one who does the talking in the middle of the song)

I Got a Girl In Kalamazoo

The second clip also has one of the most amazing dance routines I've ever seen. Check it!

Indian Territory

This is some hardcore Okie shit. Woody Guthrie wrote this tune and his cousin Jack changed up some of the lyrics and put it to a country swing beat. Truth.

Here is a video of the song.

Funky Fresh!

Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway were two great composers, arrangers and performers. Both played piano. Mayfield played bass, guitar, drums and horns too. They were fucking ill. They were ghetto prophets for the down and out. Both wrote beautiful melodies and were socially conscious. They did it for the people. Mayfield’s songs remind me of epic stories or movies.  Hathaway was more introspective and subtle. He drew heavily on French classical music.

            All of their songs bring to mind the inner city of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. This was a time when Blacks in America had finally seen integration pass into law and start to slowly be accepted. At the same time however, Uncle Sam's racist draft policies ended up sending off all of the Black Community’s young men to Vietnam. The vets came back shell-shocked and addicted to the heroin produced in Cambodia (which was funded by the CIA if you hadn't already heard about that). The music represents the hope that the community had, but at the same time, these songs are brushed with a melancholy tint representing the frustration and despair living in the ghetto brings.  Bottom line : Hard times= brighter days coming.  

Here is the Curtis Mayfield Track "Super Fly" 

Donny Hathaway "Jealous Guy" 

Iranian Elections

The Iranian protests are a bitter sweet affair to watch.  I hope that the reformists keep at it. The Daily Beast has a good guide to the current leaders in Iran. 

Here is the story.

Sunshine PoP!

Its summertime and that means hot tunes with cold refreshments!  

Here are some tracks that are great for the summer:

"Aren't You Glad"-The Beach Boys

"I'd Like to Get to Know You"-Spanky and Our Gang

"Good Day Sunshine"-The Beatles

"Celia" Simon and Garfunkel 

"All Summer Long" The Beach Boys

"Ooh la la" The Faces 

"I was made to love her" Stevie Wonder 

Here is "I Was Made To Love Her"

Live On University!

There was an interesting article in today's Oklahoma Daily-the student newspaper for OU.  It was about Aubrey McClendon's donations to the Honors College.  Some of the students don't like his political affiliations and are protesting his ability to influence the college curriculum. I don't have an opinion formed about that specific issue but, the Dean of the Honors College made some very irresponsible remarks to the student reporter who wrote the article. 

Here is the disturbing response the reporter received from Dean Robert Con Davis-Undiano: "I would [make a statement], except that I don’t have a statement to make. I’m busy running the college and don’t know anything about these issues,”

It is a truly amazing comment. The Dean of the University of Oklahoma's Honors College doesn't know anything about the most important donation to his college by one of the most prominent citizens in Oklahoma?

Huh?

Someone commented online that the student who is running the petition this article is about is a black mark on the University for acting like this. What about the Dean? His comments could be seen as immature and damaging to OU's image as well.

I think that open debate and discussion should be promoted between students and the university. OU is a special place. We all come here to learn and grow. I wish the Dean had been more open, but it is our duty as students to voice our opinions and hopefully we will receive helpful, positive feedback from our Leaders.

Here is a link to the article.

Red Dirt, Green Country.

Woody Guthrie is the greatest musical/social/political person to ever come out of Oklahoma. He was the voice of a generation during the Dust Bowl, and spoke to the everyday hardships that working folks went through.  

The music he sang and wrote was a perfect representation of the best aspects of Oklahoma history.  He learned the blues from an old black man in Okemah, which, as everybody knows, is the only good way to learn the blues.  He had a strong political streak from the hotbed of populist socialism that formed Oklahoma's political landscape in the Territorial days to the depression. Most of all he was a man who straddled the economic and social classes of America and bridged the gap between intellectual east coasters and the middle American progressive farmers and union workers. 

Woody built upon the music and writings of those who came before him to create song about underdogs and hope. 

Dust Bowl Refugee

The Band: We Can Talk

The Band is a good description for this particular rock group.  They were Dylan's backing band on his infamous tour from Sept. 1965 to May 1966.  It was during this particular tour that Dylan first employed electric guitar, bass and drums to his stage performances.  

As Dylan got booed by uptight folk purists, The Band kept the steady-rootsy-Americana back beat alive and swinging. On one memorable night in the UK an audience member shouted out "Judas!" at Dylan, referring to his electric set up.  Dylan turned and shouted "I don't believe you, you're a liar!" He then yelled to The Band "Play it fucking loud!" Priceless! That is one of the greatest moments in Rock history. 

The Band went on to establish their own foothold in the pop music scene of the late 1960's.  Their first venture was titled "Music From Big Pink."  The Band wrote and rehearsed all of the cuts from the album in a huge pink house they rented in upstate New York. 

The results were stunning.  The Band perfectly displayed an uncanny ability to convey a very down home-rustic feel in their songs while still managing to keep their rhythm and blues prominently in the mix. At a time when many bands were veering into the stratosphere of experimentation with the sounds of the psychedelic era The Band kept a steady hand on the plow.  Their rhythms are as hard as a rock but at the same time breath with a subtle nuance.

My favorite track from the album: "We Can Talk" 

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Bob Dylan is so sick, not due to cold.  

He is one of the true bad asses of our age. Some call him a leader, but he has never taken to that title. He is an artist pure and simple. 

Dylan makes no apology for his art. He makes what he wants and lets the listener decide what to make of it all. He famously went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, an act which enraged some of his die-hard acoustic folk fans. 

 I enjoy his obscure lyrics and his ability to construct word collages evoking vague imagery and feelings.

Here is one of his first electric rock songs:

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Yes that is Allen Ginsberg in the background of the video.   

The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons?

Today our President called for the end of nuclear weapons saying they are "the most dangerous legacy of the cold war." 

Yes that was our president who made that call.  Amazing! Simply Amazing! 

Obama made the remarks in a speech he gave today in Prague. The speech comes just a day after North Korea test launched a missile of thier own. The BBC believes that there were at least 20,000 people who showed up to hear him speak. We haven't seen a president greeted like that in a foreign country since the days of Kennedy!  

International politics and finance is a messy, dirty affair and who knows what will come of this. But the fact that Obama is delivering this type of message to the rest of the world fills this writer with literal hope for human kind. We need leaders like this to shepherd us into an area of understanding and cooperation while still retaining national sovereignty for the United States. 

My hopes, prayers, and thoughts are with Barack and his family.  

Here is a link to a BBC story about today's event. 

Connections

Want to know how the western world came to be? Big question huh? BBC science correspondent James Burke has all the answers you could ever want.  

In the 70's Burke put together a massive ten part series called "Connections." In this groundbreaking documentary he chronicles the seemingly random events that transpired to transform the western world into what it is today. 

He is a witty British reporter with a knowledge of history can't be topped. 

check him out!

Connections

JJ Cale: Magnolia

JJ Cale is a great example of what my dad always called a "musician's musician." I didn't know what he was talking about for a long time.  After intensely listening to most of his albums over the past five months I finally understand.   

JJ wrote songs that make the listener feel intensely about what ever mood he is conjuring up.  He was the master of country-blues-rock nuance.  JJ has a laid back attitude that borderlines on laziness.  Thats what I love about his music.  Instead of his music strutting around town, it moseys, swaying gently in the breeze.  

JJ was indeed validated by his peers and critics all through his career.  He is most noted for writing "Cocaine" and "After Midnight" performed by Eric Clapton. He also wrote "They Call Me The Breeze" performed by Lynard Skynard. 

"Magnolia" is undeniably JJ's greatest ballad.  It is a warm, dusty, spring evening with an intense sunset and solitude. Room to breath and think.

Here is the link: "Magnolia"

New Track off "The Duct Tapes!"

Ok Kids, so here is the deal.  We are done with the production and mixing of our album "The Duct Tapes," and are waiting on a few other things to make it all complete. The whole album should be put up  for free download in the next two weeks. 

This is going to be a great album. There is not a single weak track.  They are literally all extremely well crafted and produced. For now here is a link to a track.

"Let It Be Known"

HoLLeR!

Hi-PoP!

Brother Ali and Wale-"2nd Time Around"

2nd Time Around is off of "The New Deal" mixtape presented by 10 Deep productions and DJ Benzi. It was released a few months ago but I still can't stop jamming out to it.

This song is truly a powerful statement and indictment of the current state of commercial rap.  Walé spits a pretty tame verse but Brother Ali goes off for like 32 bars.  He talks about Rapper's responsibilities to their neighborhoods and the people they represent. 

 He also describes an incident where Homeland Security froze his record company's assets and bank account because they were concerned about a wire transfer of money for an up-coming show from a promoter in Australia.  His verse is mainly a report card on the status of the hip hop community as it is today. He just spits that day to day real life rap. 

Brother Ali-"people are starvin and you talk about ballin?/can't think of nothing more important than that jargon/hundred different ways to describe diamonds sparklin." 

Walé: "Walé, I turn beef into mince meat/ your condescending ways, don't convince me/and i aint no what condescending meant till yesterday/So i through it in a rap so I'd remember that/yeah, it aint nothing to me/I play the background whole time, Mario 3.

Good Stuff. 

Here's the link.  

The Bryds: Artificial Energy

We've already looked at one great B-band via The Beach Boys. Now let us move on to another infamous B-band. The Byrds!

 

The Byrds were the product of strong egos, the LA folk scene, and lets be honest here: The Beatles.  The Beatles come into play in a couple of different factors.  American record companies were desperate to put out bands that had the same look, feel and groove as those wonderful lads from Liverpool.   They also happened to be the coolest thing going in 1964, so of course American bands were going to feed off that. 

 

"Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood" chronicles the rock scene in L.A. from the early 60's onward. Author Michael Walker describes how The Byrds were kind of a rag tag band thrown together quickly to meet the sudden and dramatic rise in the popularity of Rock and Roll. 

 

Chris Hillman played bass for the band. He literally had never played electric bass before joining The Byrds. Before that, he was a bluegrass mandolin player.  In the book he describes how none of the guys in the band even knew anything about rock and roll.  They all came from the folk scene. 

"The Byrds weren't a rock band," Hillman says. "We didn't know anything from that stuff. We didn't even know how to act on stage."

His statements can be confirmed by looking at their early singles of 1965. On their first hits with "Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)" the entire backing instrumental tracks were played by seasoned L.A. session musicians. The only actual member of The Byrds to play on the recordings is Roger McGuinn.  Oklahoma's very own Leon Russell played the piano on the sessions for "Tambourine Man." 

While they may have had a rocky start and an even rockier career, The Byrds solidified the folk rock movement and bridged the gap between Bob Dylan and The Beatles quite nicely.   

Here are some links:

Tambourine Man, 

Turn Turn Turn, 

Artificial Energy. 

The first two tracks are early byrds.   The last track is later on in 1968. 

Neil Young: Out On The Weekend

So you wanna be a rock star?  Neil Young's got the perfect song for you then. 

 "Out on the Weekend" is about Young's life and his decision to head to California.

It is the first track off of his wildly popular "Harvest" album.  It has a dusty other worldly feel and is introspective in nature. Young was dealing with all of the trappings of fame and celebrity as he wrote this song.  He had just done a stint with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and was moving into the realm of super celebrity rock star.   The search continues....

Here is a live version.

Pet Sounds

Pet Sounds:

The Beach Boys made some wonderful contributions to pop music. They were led by the creative talents of Brian Wilson.  He was the band’s only songwriter, producer, and arranger. Brian was extremely groundbreaking.  Almost all bands at the time had separate musical arrangers and producers directing their albums.

            Most people think of fun in the sun, or hot rod songs when the Beach Boys are mentioned.  As Brian’s talents expanded, he wanted to put out more serious songs.  He was an extremely bright and thoughtful writer, but the other members of his band wanted him to continue composing songs they thought their young fan base would like.  In early 1965, Brian began smoking grass and taking LSD.  He has said that during this period of time he grew intellectually and started to search for a deeper meaning in life.

             He became introspective and started composing brilliant new pop songs that sounded like small symphonies. Strings and horns started to show up in his songs, and his percussion section continually came with some of the most innovative rhythms of the day. Most of his songs during this time period sound very large, with multiple layers. Some of the songs actually sound like classical music with pop lyrics and rhythms. He considered his music to be spiritual and an extension of his own life. 

            Brian grew up in an abusive home.  Because of this, he was much more sensitive to the world around him than others his age. That sensitivity became more apparent in his work as he became more interested in growing both spiritually and intellectually.  He had always found relief in music, but with Pet Sounds he was putting all of his emotions out there for the world to see. Brian wrote songs that give the listener vivid visual images and feelings that the music conjures up.

            It is apparent just from the song titles that he was a young man on a search for meaning and identity.  Titles such as “Wouldn’t it be Nice,” “You Still Believe In Me,” “I know there’s an Answer,”  “God Only Knows” and “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times,” all give clear signals that he was searching and exploring his thoughts and emotions.

            This is also a groundbreaking album in many ways.  This is one of the first “concept albums” ever to be made.  A concept album takes a single idea or group of interlocking ideas and expands on those themes throughout the album. The main theme of this album is a search for meaning in life, in relationships and within one’s self. The songs themselves are groundbreaking as well. No one in the world of pop music, especially rock music, was making songs as shatteringly honest as Brian. 

   The most famous example of a concept album is “Sgt. Peppers” by the Beatles.  Paul has said many times that “Pet Sounds” inspired him to think up “Sgt. Peppers”.  In turn, Brian has said that he was inspired to make a whole album of really great tracks because of The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul”.  I love the way the two groups fed off of each other’s work. Rolling Stone magazine named "Pet Sounds" the second best album of all time, just behind Sgt. Peppers.

            "Pet Sounds" has been very influential to me.  I identify with Brian’s search for deeper meaning in life.  He has said that he wanted to put a whole lot of love into his music and I think he achieved that goal.  The music on this album makes me more aware of myself and reinforces my belief that music has a powerful energy to convey feelings and emotions.  This album is a classic example of an artist using his craft to express himself. 

Here is a link to the first track: Wouldn't It Be Nice

Hi-PoP plus Early Beat.

So Hi-PoP's production unit consisting of Zach and Spencer have been working on Early Beat's new album for quite some time now. Zach has spearheaded the project with Spencer helping on percussion and mixing .  

Early Beat is from Norman Oklahoma. Zach produced their first self titled album in 2008.  

The new album is called "A Crashing Melody of Color in Silhouette."  The group is expanding their song writing capabilities and exploring new sound textures via more harmonies and exotic percussion.  Stay tuned for some previews as they arrive. 

For now, here is a link to their myspace page with songs from the old album. 

The Duct Tapes

Also here is a link to our myspace page. The tracks are from our upcoming album "The Duct Tapes" We make music ya know. So holler one time when ya see us coming!

In the Heat of the Night

The first murder mystery movie I ever remember watching is "In the Heat of The Night." It stars Sidney Poitier from a "A Raisin in the Sun" and Rod Steiger from "Docter Zhivago"

Its a great murder mystery based around a small southern town in Mississippi. Poitier is a detective from Philly visiting family. He gets mistaken for a murder suspect and is taken down to the county sheriff's office to be questioned. When the chief finds out he is a detective from the north, the deputy who arrested him is chastised and Poitier is set free. 

The plot thickens when Poitier's chief in Philly has told the chief in Mississippi that he is the top homicide detective on the squad and that he would allow Poitier to work on the murder case that the small town is obviously not prepared to handle.  

The film addresses many social factors that are still relevant today, but were extremely hot topics in the 60's. Please search this movie out! 

This film is also a great example of why the Miranda Laws were put into place.   The police arrest the suspect and give him no warning of his constitutional rights to remain silent, seek legal counsel or that anything he says can be used against him in court.

Here is one of the great (but not greatest) scenes in the film. 

HoLLeR! Hi-PoP!

Hi-PoP, is a collective of like minded, creative individuals in Norman Oklahoma. Our focus is music.  We provide production for outside projects, and are involved in our own hip hop project as well.   

Check for more updates soon. 

Hi-PoP!