Moist Paula's Moisturize Daily

[moistpaula]

‎Melvin's Hotdog by Moist Paula

‎Song · 2:09 min · 2019

For a while I forgot about Tumblr but recently on @instagram (you can follow my comings and going at @moistpaula) I shared a story about my @bringarecordtakearecord project of a few years ago and the response was so staggering I decided to bring it back. Meantime, back at the ranch, so much has happened since I paused my vinyl swapping capers - the building where I was living was sold and I put my records in storage and started heavily touring on bari sax with Nick Waterhouse, @cwstoneking, Burnt Sugar Arkestra and Reverend Vince Anderson. I got an EWI (electronic wind instrument - a synth in a sax!) and started making eerie, ambient electronica and released 2 EPS which you can find on my Moist Paula @bandcamp page - these were combined and released as a cassette on the @personalaffair label, AND closest to my ❤️ I released this single, Melvin’s HotDog, my first solo bari sax instrumental. I recorded the song 3 years ago at Ivan Julian’s Lower East Side studio NY Hed with Jim White on drums, Tony Scherr On upright bass and Michael Kammers on organ, for the birthday of my friend Melvin Van Peebles, with a cover of his song Ain’t Love Grand from his 1973 musical Don’t Play Us Cheap. I wanted to release a 45, but haven’t yet made that happen 😰 - so decided to digitally release Melvin’s HotDog in the meantime, in between time. I can’t refrain from saying I love this song and the way the recording came out - I’m not even bragging, Melvin’s HotDog just makes me smile and that’s the truth and a great feeling of satisfaction I wish upon everyone. I shared the @applemusic version here as that’s my favorite mainstream streamer, but it’s also available for your listening pleasure on @spotify, Bandcamp and CD Baby. I hope you listen, dance, repeat, place and release on vinyl with an accompanying video. And do stand by for Season 2 of Bring A Record Take A Record because I’m bringing it back.

[moistpaula]

My #ElectricEmbouchere Early #EWI Experiments EP is on @bandcamp link in bio - I will donate all sales today to @womensmarch and #bandcamp is donating their share of all sales today to @aclu_nationwide #eerie #original #ambient #electronica to alleviate #anxiety (at New York, New York)

[bringarecordtakearecord]

It’s been a while since DJ @dhundee brought me 3 records and left with 4. I threw in Abba’s Greatest Hits as a gift for his daughter since I enjoyed it so much as a little girl.  I can’t imagine what that music would sound like to a kid today, but songs like SOS, Nina Pretty Ballerina, Bang-A-Boomerang, etc, etc, etc, rocked my world when I was little.  

More childhood memories were totally tied up in David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, which I thought was a fair swap for the Kraftwerk record Dhundee had brought.  I remember the first time I saw David Bowie on TV when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I was simultaneously thrilled, attracted, terrified and repulsed.  He was singing The Jean Genie, which I thought was amazing.  Naturally I’d never seen or heard anything like it and sang along, not understanding.  In his Aladdin Sane period, Bowie, in addition to the waves he was making in rock & roll history, became a pin-up pop star for adventurous little girls (and, I imagine, boys) and his picture was  right alongside David Cassidy’s and Michael Jackson’s in all the teeny bopper magazines.  I didn’t have Aladdin Sane at the time, but when I copped my copy as an older teenager I marveled at its mastery and mass appeal and Lady Grinning Soul was my jam.  I loved my current copy of the record but was happy for Dhundee to take it with him if he didn’t have one.  

Also on the kiddy music tip, Dhundee grabbed for himself a record by The Invincible Beany Man -  The 10 Year Old DJ Wonder.  It is indeed the first LP from THE Beenie Man, the latter day self proclaimed king of dancehall.  With song titles such as Bony Punanny, Sleep With A Gal and Grandma Cooking, this early example of late reggae is as much an anomaly and historical document as it is dancehallishly listenable.  Not that #BringARecordTakeARecord has to go this way, but in my mind this record was an excellent swap for Dancing Machine by The Jackson Five – perhaps not the best album by the artist but very enjoyable as a whole package in terms of cover art and the idea that these people were making records as children. 

  For his final choice, Dhundee moved on from the kids’ stuff to the unquestionably sensual, adult themed Theme from Last Tango In Paris & Sensual Love Songs by Riccardo, His Saxophone & Orchestra.I don’t think I can really enlarge much on the title of this 1973 Pickwick release, except to say that in addition to versions of some of Gato Barbieri’s music from the Bertolucci film, there are some other sexy film themes such as The Summer of 42 and A Man And A Woman.  It’s late night music and was the perfect swap for The Stylistics LP Dhundee brought, Thank You Baby.  And it’s the only release I was able to find on the www by Riccardo, His Saxophone & Orchestra.  I wonder what became of them.

[moistpaula]

(moistpaula)

[moistpaula]

SPR 10 - Summer of Robot - on Livestream.com

[moistpaula]

(via https://soundcloud.com/moistpaula/streamofconsciousness-musicforstreaming-ewi-improvisation-903?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

[moistpaula]

(via https://soundcloud.com/moistpaula/streamofconsciousness-musicforstreaming-82715?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

[moistpaula]

(via https://soundcloud.com/moistpaula/streamofconsciousness-musicforstreaming-ewi-improvisation?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

[moistpaula]

(via https://soundcloud.com/moistpaula/moistpaula-electricembouchere-streamofconsciousness-music-for-streaming-ewi-improvisation?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

[moistpaula]

Listen/purchase: Moist Paula's ELECTRIC EMBOUCHERE Early EWI Experiments by Moist Paula

[moistpaula]

I hope all your sweetest holiday expectations are fulfilled

[moistpaula]

We always fought on Thanksgiving

It's a very emotional time 

for Americans everywhere

issues arise 

and lurk among the turkey thighs and pumpkin pies 

Joyous reunions and cranberry sauce 

cooking and feasting and sharing the chores 

with loved ones home for the holiday season 

What on earth could be the reason 

We always fought on Thanksgiving? 

[bringarecordtakearecord]

One night at The Church of the Electric Dirt, the DJ caught my ear — I emerged from Moist Gina’s room where I’d been hiding out to find out who was playing the Brothers Johnson version of Strawberry Letter 23 preceded by a strange mixture of several other favorite songs of mine and saw it was girl about town Kerry Lacy.  Another time I was in the crowded front bar at Union Pool and heard a string of my favorites - I looked over to the DJ Booth and it was Kerry again.  Next time I saw her I invited her to #BringARecordTakeARecord and I wasn’t surprised when she brought along a very groovy album with an amazing cover.  Kerry brought me a copy of A.NAL.Y.SIS by The Nite-Liters, which I’d never seen or heard of, but which I knew would be a record I’d enjoy exercising (ie dancing in the livingroom) to as soon as the needle of my RCA Victor landed on the first track. Almost unimaginably to some, the hot orchestral funk jams arranged and conducted in part by my friend Tina’s grandfather (!) Harvey Fuqua remind me of my childhood in Australia in the early 70s.  Somehow, and clearly only through the radio, TV and the movies, this kind of music was available to my 10 year old ears who were constantly seeking and sifting through sounds with which to build and forge my aesthetic identity.  It was a groovy time, even in suburbia. Anyway, to this day I’m a sucker for a funky horn section bouncing around in a deep bass pocket so I immensely appreciate Kerry’s contribution.  

Of course, in return for The Nite-Liters album, I had to relinquish one from my shelves and as always I found it interesting watching Kerry flip through my records and pull out a few to consider.  As we listened, there were a couple I was reawakened to and promised myself I’d listen to if she didn’t take them; fortunately for me she didn’t and she went with the first record she’d been attracted to, George Clinton’s R&B Skeletons In The Closet.  

George Clinton has certainly the most popular artist for people to TAKE since I started #BringARecordTakeARecord; people have grabbed albums by The Parliaments, Parliament, Funkadelic and now a solo LP.  So if anyone is considering BRINGING a record by any of George Clinton’s projects, at this point there’s a good chance I won’t have it!  But I’m glad Kerry got to take this album off into the world with her because I know she’ll have people dancing to Do Fries Go With That Shake, whereas at best I’d be exercising to it in my livingroom.  

[moistpaula]

This is my first attempt at making up a song with the EWI5000 - it started out as a lullaby for my friends' baby, but was too creepy, so I decided to change it into a little Halloween Suite.

[moistpaula]

View this post on Instagram

The #bringarecordtakeareord record swap is back! bringarecordtakeatecord.tumblr.com

[bringarecordtakearecord]

_"My name is Smoota.  I, of course, brought Teddy Pendergrass.”  

I, of course, already had my own Teddy Pendergrass, so now I have two and am down one Sylvia.  A funny thing about Lay It On Me, it never made a strong impression on me until Smoota put it on the RCA Victor and wanted it; only then did I realize I was laying something good on him, not that he doesn’t deserve it.  And look at her outfit on the cover! 

Thank goodness, however, that I bent the rules as I went along and drew the line at Smoota being allowed to take my Ashford & Simpson Gimme Something Real LP (with gatefold sleeve).  

I have one small shelf of records I’m not giving up for these Bring A Record Take A Record vinyl swapping affairs, and said copy of “Gimme Something Real” should have been on it.  When I first started doing this, that shelf contained records I played on, that my friends played on or that I received as a gift; also records that couldn’t be replaced or listened to digitally.  As time has gone by I’ve been less stringent and allowed myself to put on that shelf any record I simply don’t want to part with.  After relinquishing five Funkadelic LPs, I put my last remaining one (Let’s Take It To The Stage) on that shelf along with a couple by Parliament and then started adding to that just any record I use and enjoy ever.  My Ashford & Simpson record should definitely have been put away, since I regularly take side 2 of that LP, which starts with Bend Me and ends with the title track, both of which I LOVE, out for a spin on my RCA Victor.   Anyway, Smoota and I are good friends and he was very sporting about me making up the rules as I go, and I’m sure he’ll find a way to punish me down the line.  We’re also fellow hornblowers and you catch us playing together most Mondays in Brooklyn with Rev. Vince Anderson & The Love Choir at Union Pool.  You should also check out his pop music and thoughts at http://www.smoota.com  Watch the "Body To Body" video; it may shed some light on why he “of course” brought me a record by Teddy Pendergrass, one of his patron saints.  

[moistpaulaprefers]

#MovieDocumentaries Always Make Me Cry #JoniMitchell #MoistPaulaPrefers