video: Mountain Man at the Church

"Lay Your Head"

Ray Concepcion capturing Mountain Man at the Chocolate Bobka Church show two weeks ago. Amazing.

bootleg: Tom Waits 4.19.1974

"Twilight Coup DeVilles"

A poetic vision of the dusty backstreets and alleys of the American landscape, no one conjures such bourbon soaked images as marblemouthed railroad preacher Tom Waits. His prowess and power have never been questioned, and certainly shine on this bootleg of his first ever performance at the San Diego's Folk Festival in 1974. The city's native son, Waits delivers hobo hymns like a sad, dog howling at the moon, shining on "Shiver Me Timbers", a shanty tune probably sung by men Shanhai'd in the San Francisco port bars. However, Waits may be most poignant most on "The Ghosts of Saturday Night", his piano-spoken word portrait of National City, California from 4am til dawn, in which he oh-so-eloquently describes every diner waitress in the history of diner waitresses as having "Maxwell house eyes, and marmalade thighs and scrambled yellow hair."

Tom Waits 4.19.1974 San Diego Folk Festival
1. Better Off Without A Wife
2. The Heart of Saturday Night
3. On A Foggy Night
4. Shiver Me Timbers
5. Fumblin' With the Blues
6. Semi Suite
7. San Diego Serenade
8. Glad That You're Mine
9. Ice Cream Man
10. Depot Depot
11. The Ghosts of Saturday Night

Download Tom Waits 4.19.1974 San Diego Folk Festival

Bobkast #23: I Dream A Highway

"Home I'll Never Be"
(photo by Dorothea Lange)

Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I seek, the heaven above, and the road below me Robert Louis Stevenson

Lonely, broke and desperate, yet brimming with optimism, the song of the great American highway is deeply ingrained in the psyche of anyone born from sea to shinning sea. Some say it's Manifest Destiny, others merely an idyllic hobo's dream. Whatever it is, it's easily felt on cold, dark nights on lonesome highways, heading off the grid, or to some fabled watering hole, or, simply, home, wherever, or whatever, that may be. As Gillian Welch once said, "I dream a highway."

Bobkast #23: I Dream A Highway
Utah Phillips- Starlight on the Rails
Bob Dylan- Thunder on the Mountain
Marissa Nadler- River of Dirt
Karen Dalton- Down on the Street (Don't You Follow Me)
Townes Van Zandt- Waiting Around to Die
Magnolia Electric Co.- Hard to Leave the City
Dr. John- Travelin' Mood
Peter and the Wolf- Safe Travels
Woody Guthrie- Hard Travelin'
Antony and Bryce Dessner- I Was Young When I Left Home
Solomon Burke- Memphis
Gram Parsons- Return of the Grievous Angel (w/ Emmylou Harris)
Bruce Springsteen- Reason to Believe
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy- Goodbye Dear Old Step Stone
Tom Waits- Home I'll Never Be


Download Bobkast #23: I Dream A Highway (PC: right click + save as; Mac: apple (command)+click)

classick albums: Rain Dogs

"We sail tonight for Singapore, we're all mad as hatters..."

Last summer, I was flipping through a record store in Amsterdam for the better part of two hours, and came across what appeared to be an original pressing of Tom Wait's legendary album, Rain Dogs. Two Euros. Mint. But how to get it back safely to the States? An overstuffed backpack isn't exactly the best place for precious vinyl. I decided not to risk it, to allow someone else the opportunity, and have regretted it ever since. Still, this album remains one of my favorites to really listen closely to, the vividly-drawn characters interacting like a movie in your mind, brawling and bawling their way through cheap hotels, foreign jail cells, and more rowdy bars than you can shake a porkpie hat at. Be careful though, as I've gone on jags where I listened to this album 3 or 4 times in a row, unable to escape. Your best bet is to wash it down with Andrew Bird's Thrills, and forget about that dream life as a boxcar-hopping hobo. You wouldn't last a week.

Here's a cut from Rain Dogs, and be sure to check out Tom intimidate the shit out of Iggy Pop in this scene from Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes:

Tom Waits- Jockey Full of Bourbon

Valentine's Day Mix Up

"Let's Stay Together"

This year we're starting a new tradition. Every Valentine's Day instead of giving out candy hearts and chocolate's, we're gonna share a few songs. Know matter what kind of mood you're in this year, we've got a song for you. Don't believe us. Just take a gander down below.

For the innocent Virgin couple celebrating their first Valentine's Day->The Beach Boys- Forever
Also, for Full House fans who remember Uncle Jesse rocking this Denny Wilson classic (Stamos' favorite B.B's song) out with an elderly version of the Beach Boys.


For someone still in love with their Ex-> The Magnetic Fields- I Don't Wanna Get Over You
"I don't wanna get over love/I could listen to my therapists/Pretend you don't exist/And not have to think of what I think of...Or I could make a career of being blue/I could dress in black/And read Camut/Smoke Clove Cigarettes/And Drink Vermouth/When I was 17/ That would be the scream/But I don't wanna get over you." A 69 Love Songs classic.


For the soul mama who loves his her funky daddy-> Aretha Franklin- Baby I Love You
Ain't nothing wrong with that.


For the lustful cougar who just signed up for Facebook -> The Chromatics- I Want Your Love
Something wrong with that.


For people who practice kissing their hand late at night-> Cat Power- Where Is My Love?
If you're gonna pretend to make out with someone, Chan Marshall's a good pick.


For those seeking closure-> LCD Soundsystem- Someone Great
Who knew James Murphy was so human? We were convinced analog wires ran through his veins.


For sexual philosophers-> Silver Jews- How Can I Love You (If You Wont Lie Down)?
David Berman never sounded so enlightened. Come to think of it, he always sounds the same.


For thirteen year old mall rats & drunken 19 year old celeb-utants->Uffie- First Love
What middle school dances are all about.


For the sappy, hopeless romantic->Jens Lekman- Someone To Share My Life With
Sometimes he goes a little overboard with the melodrama...Take that back, never enough melodrama.

For the heartbroken drunk->Tom Waits- I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You
Nobody knows whiskey and women better than Ole Mista Waits.


For Sexual Deviants-> R. Kelly- Sex Planet
"Girl I Promise This Will Be Painless(Painless)/We'll Take A Trip 2 Planet Uranus(Anus)."


For making love on crushed velvet-> Barry White- Ecstasy When You're Next To Me
You know that voice does you mmm mmmm good...Ok, that was nasty.


For "Schmooopies"-> The Explorers Club- Forever
Yes it has the same name as the aforementioned Beach Boy's song. And yes it sounds just like the Wilson's and Friends. And yes, you're the schmooooooopie.

For anyone with a heart-> Joy Division- Love Will Tear Us Apart Again


And we'll end with our collective favorite Valentine's Day Jam-> Silk- Freak Me
It's hard picking a particular lyrics to associate with this song, but we're gonna go with this one. "You, you, you, you/Oh you/You, you, you, you/Let me freak you/ You, you, you, you/ All of you/ I want it, I want it/ You, you, you, you/ Oh you/ You, you, you, you/ Let me do you/ Cuz tonight baby, I wanna get freaky with you"

The Bobkast: V.4- I DIG YOUR MIND

"I'm Dead and I'm Perfectly Content"

Inspired by my longing for autumn in New York this mix is concentrated in nostalgic, timeless rock and roll deeply indebted to '60's pop and rock. While much is culled from 2007 releases (Band of Horses, Buffalo Killers, Stars) I tried to blur chronological lines with this podcast by incorporating classick old skoolers like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and ferocious '60s garage rockers The Nervous Breakdown (Thanks to Aquarium Drunkard for introducing me to "I DIG YOUR MIND"). At the same time, where would we be without progress. That's why we've got modern retro outfits like The Raveonettes, Buffalo Killers and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings ripping it up.

The concept for this podcast came after relentlessly listening to The Black Lips. Unfortunatly for better or worse, I decided to leave the Lips off this podcast. But please, please check them out. If you haven't heard them yet they sound like the early Beach Boys raping Iggy Pop with Jan & Dean's guitars, followed by Iggy slicing each one of their peppy So-Cal necks with a broken bottle of Beam, turning the bottle on himself and cutting his chest, consequently using the blood ,and the bottle, to produce a super reverberated slide guitar tone. Yeah, they sounds like that.

PS- Yes the B.O.H song is named after everyones favorite European three-point shooter.

The Bobkast #4: I DIG YOUR MIND
1. Spoon- The Way We Get By
2. The Nervous Breakdown- I DIG YOUR MIND
3. The Rosebuds- Waiting for the Carnival
4. Buffalo Killers- Don't You Ever Think I Cry
5. Band of Horses- Detlef Schrimpf
6. The Kinks- Get Back in Line
7. The Zombies- I Want Her She Wants Me
8. The Kinks- Along Way From Home
9. Tom Waits- (Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night
10. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Gee, Baby Ain't I Good To You
11. Sharon Jones & the Dap-kings- 100 Days, 100 Nights
12. Candy Payne- By Tommorrow
13. The Raveonettes- Ode to L.A.
14. Charlotte Gainsbourg- The Songs We Sing
15. Stars- Celebrated Gun

Download the fourth BOBKAST here

NASA featuring everyone and their mother

North America South America

So Squeak E. Clean and DJ ZEGON are NASA and they have some really cool friends that they make music with:

David Byrne, Tom Waits, M.I.A., Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O and Nick Zinner, RZA, the late Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Kool Keith, CSS' Lovefoxxx, Spank Rock, John Frusciante, Fatlip and Slim Kid Tre from the Pharcyde, E-40, Gift of Gab, Chali 2na, KRS-One, George Clinton, Seu Jorge, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, the Cardigans' Nina Persson, Amanda Blank, Z-Trip, and DJ Qbert

Check out this sick megamix for the 4th, courtesy of P4K.

NASA MegaMix

"Megamix" tracklist:

01 The People Tree [ft. David Byrne, Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, and Z-Trip]
02 Strange Enough [ft. Ol' Dirty Bastard, Karen O, and Fatlip]
03 NASA Music [ft. Method Man, E-40, and DJ Swamp]
04 Money [ft. David Byrne, Seu Jorge, Ras Congo, and Z-Trip]
05 There's a Party [ft. George Clinton]
06 Way Down [ft. RZA, Barbie Hatch, and John Frusciante]

Knuckles Podcast #10: Twangggg

Loretta Lynn- Van Lear Rose (Van Lear Rose)
Arcade Fire- (Anti-Christ Television Blues) (Neon Bible)
Susan Christie- Ghost Riders in the Sky (Paint a Lady)
Bruce Springsteen- Atlantic City (Nebraska)
Emmylou Harris & the Nash Ramblers- Lodi (At the Ryman)
Bright Eyes- Middleman (Cassadaga)
Lucinda Williams- Lake Charles (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road)
Gillian Welch- I Want to Sing that Rock & Roll (Time (The Revelator))
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott- Leaving Cheyenne (I Stand Alone)
Solomon Burke & Emmylou Harris- We’re Gonna Hold On (Nashville)
Tom Waits- Long Way Home (Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards)





Download Knuckles McGregor Podcast #10 here