What is Mod? Mr. Suave's Mod, Mod World is one of the web's original modcasts celebrating mod music, and mod-influenced music from past eras including soul, ska, garage, sixties R&B power pop, punk, britpop, acid jazz, lounge, easy listening and more.
Everyone knows that jazz and soul played a big part in the early mod scene, and so of course did the blues. Mostly white British youth became enamored of delta blues belted out by black American musicians in the mid to late '50s. The sounds of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and Sonny Boy Williamson swamped London music clubs. A first wave of older players latched on to the music like Alexis Korner, Zoot Money, George Fame, Cyril Davies and Graham Bond. These early blues adopters took other younger musicians under the collective wings and mentored the future stars of the British invasion in rhythm & blues such as Long John Baldry, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Manfred Mann, Eric Burdon, Rod Stewart and more. It was these stars that the early mods embraced and turned into the icons of their burgeoning teen music scene. This then is the blues in the beginning of the mod era.
Cyril Davies & His R&B All Stars -- Country Line Special (1962)
Davie Jones & The King Bees -- Liza Jane (1964)
George Fame & The Blue Flames -- Do The Dog (1963)
The Steampacket -- Baby Baby (1965)
The Artwoods -- If I Ever Get My Hands On You (1964)
Spencer Davis Group -- Midnight Train (1964)
Them -- Don't Start Crying Now (1964)
The Rolling Stones -- I'm A King Bee (1964)
The Kinks -- Bald Headed Woman (1964)
The Who -- Daddy Rolling Stone (1965)
The Yardbirds -- A Certain Girl (1964)
The Birds -- Next In Line (1965)
The Pretty Things -- Big City (1965)
Downliners Sect -- Tiger In Your Tank (1966)
The Birds - That's All I Need You For (cameo in The Deadly Bees 1966)
Mick Jagger talks about Cyril Davies
Eric Burdon, Stevie Winwood, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Rod Stewart (Steampacket) - I Feel Alright
In 1980 musical currents were steeped in punk, post-punk, power pop, and new wave. The Specials were riding high off the success of their debut album, and founder Jerry Dammers pushed the band to immediately record a follow-up, More Specials. But rather than continue the DIY, punked up ska and reggae they had mastered on their first LP, Dammers pushed for doing something entirely different, something new and contrary to the popular sounds of the era.
In an interview in mid-1980 Dammers said: "It's time for 2-Tone bands to begin getting experimental. Some of the home-grown ska has started to become a cliche. We've got to start all over again." So he drove The Specials in hard left turn creating an album of easy listening, exotica, lounge music. And young mods like yours truly ate it up.
We didn't realize we were cutting our teeth on lounge music and that it was training us up for the coming cocktail revolution of the 1990s. There's no doubt that Jerry Dammers trained mods to like lounge, exotica, tiki and other incredibly strange music that we embraced decades later. So who are the people Jerry really trained? Who are the graduates of Jerry Dammers' Bootcamp? DJ Ken from The Shingles joins me in highlighting a few of Dammers contemporaries and his musical progeny.
The Specials - Holiday Fortnight (1980)
Beautiful South - Tonight I Fancy Myself (1990)
Colourfield - Thinking of You (1985)
Blur -- To The End (La Comedie, feat. Francoise Hardy) (1995)
Everything But The Girl - I Must Confess (1984)
Animal Nightlife - Love Is Just the Great Pretender (1985)
Buster Poindexter - Knock 'em Down Whiskey (1994)
Combustible Edison -- Blue (1994)
Love Jones -- Alcohol & Little Pills (2011)
Madness - Return of the Las Palmas 7 (1980)
English Beat -- Can't Get Used To Losing You (1980)
Supergrass -- Coffee In The Pot (2005)
Style Council -- Luck (1985)
Jerry Dammers -- Riot City (1985)
Jerry Dammers interview 2014
"It would never have happened without Jerry Dammers. It was Jerry Dammers made all that happen." The Specials / Jerry Dammers (2 Tone)
Herb Alpert -- Sneaky (2014)
Liquid Soul -- Equinox (1996)
Curly Hamner & Milt Buckner -- Bernie's Tune (1962)
James Taylor Quartet -- Man Of Mystery (1997)
Chet Baker -- Stella By Starlight (1989)
Stan Getz -- Barbara's Theme (1960)
Camaro 67 -- Voyager (2016)
Birds & Brass -- Sort Of Soul (1970)
Claus Ogerman -- Watusi Trumpets
Button Down Brass Band feat. Ray Davies -- The Odd Couple (1972)
James Clarke -- Double Take (197?)
Jack Constanzo & Don Swan -- Bei Mir Bist Du Schon/La Furiosa (1956/1960)
Sam Butera & The Witnesses -- I Love Paris (1958)
Little Big Horns -- Get Back (1965)
Enoch Light & The Light Brigade -- Swamp Fire (1964)
I've been pressed to impress myself of late. Got me a new suit, some new ties and have been upping the game with a bit more effort to step out with style. But, the music is still the same. So, here we go again with a great set of new music, along with a few older gems to round out the mix.
This week's modcast sort of came together by accident, as some of my best shows do. It didn't start out that way, but eventually as I was working on things the theme presented itself and I thought it would work pretty well. As you listen I'm sure it won't be hard for you to nail down what the theme is. No matter the theme it's a nice mix of funky, soulful, acid jazz goodness.
The Younghearts -- A Little Togetherness (1968)
Diana Ross & The Supremes -- Someday We'll Be Together (1970)
Al Green -- Let's Stay Together (1972)
Detroit Sex Machines -- Rap It Together (196?)
USN Port Authority Soul Band - Get Together (1971)
Monophonics -- All Together (2012)
The Untouchables -- Soul Together (1985)
Gazzara -- Keep Yourself Together (1995)
Mother Earth -- Very Together (1995)
The James Taylor Quartet -- Love Will Keep Us Together (1995)
The Style Council -- World Must Come Together (1989)
Brand New Heavies -- Keep Together (1994)
Lack of Afro -- Together At Last (2009)
The Charlatans -- Let's Go Together (2017)
US Navy Port Authority Soul Band -- Scoobe
East of Underground (US Arny Banbd) - Smiling Faces
You know when you're at a baseball game and as soon as you hear the crack of the bat you know it's a homerun? That's this show folks. Tons of great new music for you. So, get yourself a hotdog, some peanuts, and a cold one as you enjoy this week's modcast.
Hello garage rockers, are you ready to rock and roll? Special delivery to you on this modcast is some great old 80s garage rock. It's loud and brash, with lots of fuzzy guitars and pounding drums. The girls will all be in miniskirts and gogo boots, while the boys will have Prince Valiant hair and lotsa paisley shirts. This show is packed with great music, some of it a little obscure as I've chosen some deeper tracks that maybe don't get played as much. So packed that you won't even hear groups like Gravedigger V, Tell-Tale Hearts, Pandoras, Crawdaddy's, or the Fuzztones. But what you do get is going to blow you away.
Lyres -- You Won't Be Sad Anymore (1986)
The Corsairs -- Here She Comes (1984)
The Cheepskates -- Here She Comes (1984)
Backdoor Men -- Going Her Own Way (1986)
The Leopards -- If You Come Back (1986)
The Barracudas -- On The Strip (1980)
The Gruesomes -- Unchain My Heart (1986)
The Chud -- Rumble At The Love-In (1987)
Plan 9 -- I'm Not There (1982)
The Chesterfield Kings -- She Told Me Lies (1984)
Crawling Walls -- One Last Kiss (1985)
The Beguiled -- I Don't Care (1985)
The Funseekers -- Kismet (1988)
The Brood -- I'll Put You Down (1988)
Running Stream -- I Never Loved A Girl (1986)
The Dawgs -- My Town (1982)
Welcome to the modcast kids, I've got a great show lined up for you. Out here in the Pacific Northwest we just survived Seattle's snowpacalypse. We got over a foot of snow here in West Seattle at Suave Mannor and spent the past week housebound. That doesn't usually happen out here. Rain yes, a little snow sometimes, but not like this. It was Seattle's biggest snowfall in almost 100 years, but being snowed in did give me time to work up this modcast. Some new stuff, some old stuff, all great stuff.
If you're enjoying the show then I'd much appreciate it if you gave me a nice, big, 5-Star rating in iTunes - Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World.
So, this is my first modcast of 2019. I know it's a little late getting started. But I needed a break I guess. Only been doing this almost 13 years now and this is first month without a modcast! Not a bad track record if I say so myself.
I can't remember who but a while back somebody messaged me and asked if I'd do a whole show of cool organ jazz, and well here it is. The first one at least. I've got a couple of other organ shows brewing in the back of my mind. But this one is all just cool jazz numbers really. Some by artists you're sure to recognize and some by a few that might be new to you.
This is it, the end of another year. 2018 is bowing out and 2019 is stepping up to the plate. This past year was a pretty damn good one for new music. So much so that it's taken me weeks to really filter through the crop and pick just the ripest bits of tasty musical fruit. Tons of good bands simply didn't make the cut, not because they didn't produce good stuff, but just because I only have one more hour this year and so you're going to get just the tastiest bits. The bands that didn't make the show could have a show of their own like The Mads, The Chats, Alkaline Trio, Faz Waltz, Outtacontrollers, the Darts, The Vaccines, The Interrupters, and The Laissez Faires. Which means what remains is going to give you one hell of a ride.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and you know what that means. Time for another modcast office Christmas party. At past parties DJ Ken and I have thrown up on Christmas, been blown away by Christmas, blown off Christmas, but this year we're blowing up Christmas.
Christmas Christmas -- Mojo Nixon
Bellrays -- Christmas train
Brad Marino -- Christmas Time Almost Here
Mark Bacino -- Merry Christmas, I Love You
Jeffrey Foskett -- Christmas Time Is Here
The Sonics -- Santa Claus
The Vipers -- Christmas I'll Be Home
Fuzztones & Screaming Jay Hawkins -- It's That Time Again
The Love Machine -- The Lonely Hearts Club Christmas
Rancid -- Xmas Eve
Ravers -- Punk Rock Christmas
The Business -- Bollocks to Christmas
JD McPherson -- Hey Skinny Santa
Yobs - Run Run Rudolph
Mistle Toads - Santa's A Boozer
Tommy Tutone -- 867-5309 Christmas Version
Empty Hearts -- It's Christmastime
Fountains of Wayne -- Valley Winter Song
