Thanks to Inge Bos for these great pictures (and many more) of The Seatsniffers. Check them out on her site: www.ingebos.com/seatsniffers.shtml.

This afternoon The Seatsniffers presented their new album live @ Tune Up.

Although the sun was shining bright outside, a nice crowd showed up and witnessed a ”sweaty” set. The guys played some old songs, mixed with new work from their upcoming (split) album Roadmasters.

Thanks Seatsniffers for playing at Tune Up, and thanks people for showing up! More pictures and some video footage will be posted soon.

In a couple of weeks the other band on Roadmasters, Smokestack Lightnin’, will pass by Tune Up. Keep an eye on our website for more info.

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Still in Berlin, still running into new record stores. After surviving the May 1st riots I saw this store in the Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg. It was closed that day obviously for security as this is not a good day to be open in this neighborhood. I went back but forgot my camera. I went back a third time but then the recordstore, which is on the second floor, was closed. I give up, you will have to do with pictures from the ouside. I like the store, it is a book store down stairs and a record store upstairs. They have a good selection of Punk, Rock, Jazz, Soul, Hip Hop and so on, you know, the whole shabang. With the book store downstairs it kind of reminds me a lot of that legendary incredible store in Antwerp called Tune Up .

address: Oranienstrasse 195, Berlin

Dont miss The Seatsniffers live concert at Tune Up this Sunday, May 24th at 15:00.

The Seatsniffers are probably Belgium’s if not Europe’s best, most popular, longest running and most international roots rock band. Their music is best described as a blend of Rock and Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Rockabilly, Soul, Gut -Bucket Blues and Ska, delivered with a Punk-Rock energy and attitude.

The Beatles: Revolver, 1966, Capitol Records
I never was a big Beatles fan, but I guess there is little choice when it comes to this album but to just bow down and admit they were ahead of the pack. Inspiration for a Generation, must be all those drugs they took or something. It is a pretty expensive copy (if it is still in the store), but it is in good shape.
Below consecutively:
Taxman with a ‘bush bash’ clip, damn I miss the Bush era
Eleanor Rigby, the strangest poppy pop song i’ve ever heard (that is if you can call it a pop song)
Tomorrow Never Comes, just to remind you where the Chemical Brothers get their butter from.

Other albums in store

Well now you know where Elvis and Janis got their butter from. Admitting my ignorance and that I was not aware of this I gotta give props to elsepelse for pointing me in the right direction and showing me the light. In the clip ‘Houndog’ on the left it should be clear where big mama got her name from (although the picture on the right should actually be pretty illustrative as well), the link on the right is the original version of Ball ‘n’ Chain. Enjoy.

As you’ll recall, last time we discussed the ‘ABC’ label. Now we move on to ‘Impulse’ , which was ABC’s jazz label.

Background:

‘Impulse’ was launched in 1960 as a subsidiary of ‘ABC’ by producer Creed Taylor. After Creed Taylor left the label to go to ‘Verve’ most of the albums were produced by Bob Thiele , who was later assisted by sound engeneer Rudy Van Gelder.

‘Impulse’ is best remembered for its free jazz. The company was sold in 1979 to ‘MCA’. ‘Impulse’ is now part of ‘Universal Music Group’. The covers were known for their deluxe gatefold covers with distinctive design with high quality photography (photograpers included Arnold Newman, Charles Stewart and Peter Turner) and the orange and black on the spine of the cover.

The most important artist on the label was John Coltrane, and the label came to be known as “the house that Trane built”. Other important names are Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Shirley Scott, Oliver Nelson, Art Blakey, Curtis Fuller, Milt Jackson, Count Basie, Max Roach, McCoy Tyner, Shelly Manne, Duke Ellington, Chico Hamilton, Coleman Hawkins, Charles Mingus, Paul Gonsalves, Coleman Hawkins, Yusef Lateef, Johnny Hodges, Lorez Alexandria, J.J. Johnson, Elvin Jones, Stanley Turrentine, Gabor Szabo, Chico O’Farrill, Gary McFarland, Zoot Sims, Mel Brown, Albert Ayler, Ahmad Jamal, Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Gato Barbieri, Keith Jarrett, Elvin Jones, Blue Mitchell and Kenny Dorham. Pretty impressive!

The label:

The first label was orange and dark brown with ‘IMPULSE’ printed around the perimeter 4 times with ‘A product of ABC-Paramount Records, Inc. PRINTED IN USA’ printed on the bottom of the label. As used from the early sixties until 1968.

The second label was red and black with ‘Impulse!’ printed in a multi colored box, ‘abc RECORDS’ printed on the right side, in a multi colored box as well. ‘A product of ABC Records. Inc. New York, N.Y. 10019 * Made inUSA’ or ‘ABC Records, Inc.’ or ‘A product of ABC Records. Inc.’was printed on the bottom of the label. This label was used between 1968 and 1972.

The third label was black with ‘Impulse’ multi colored in a box in white, ‘ABC’ in a white circle, and ‘RECORDS’ underneath in a white box. ‘ABC Records. Inc.’ written on the bottom of the label as used in 1973-1974.

The fourth label was purple & green as used between 1974 and 1978.

Some recommendations:

Buy all the records while you’re reading The House That Trane Built: The Story Of Impulse Records by Ashley Kahn.

Otber labels in the series

Walking in Berlin in Prenzlauerberg, just minding our own biz, apparently not a lot going on here as far as recordstores. We ran into this one store called ‘da capo’. Dark store inside, snifferd around, not that much going on, not a big hit if you ask me, but maybe I was looking in the wrong crates. They are also a book store.

Address :: Kastanienallee 96, Prenzlauerberg Berlin
Website :: www.da-capo-vinyl.de

Title: Radio Modern in Antwerp
Location: De Roma
Link out: Click here
Description: With Laura B and the Moonlighters (UK), Scopi Tonics dj\’s from Amsterdam, all at the most beautifull ballroom on this side of the ocean.
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2009-05-20