Resident Drastic Selectors King Tony, 8 Hundo and The Graduate get back up on the wheels of steel with more big chunes inna international flavor stylee.

Reggae & International Soul
The Charleston, Chicago
Friday / January 6, 2012
9:30 - Close / No Cover

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HO HO HO HO HO!
Well what is this early stocking stuffer for all you good boys and girls?

Yes!

It's the return of the Third Thursday Free Mixes series ... Part 25!

Yeah we've missed (you!) more than a couple over the past couple of months so we've gone out of our way to make it up to you with an extra-long jam-packed mix featuring ... you guessed ... nothin' but B sides.

Now, the B side gets a bad-rap, so don't start thinkin' this is some of yesterday's jam sittin' in a mason jar on your aunties windowsill gettin' all moldy. These are slammin bees, deadly bees, boss bees, ill bees, even .. well, you get the idea. Now there are more ballads/downtempo jams on this mixtape than any other but they are still slammin! Highly recommended would be 'You'll Be Sorry' by The Fascinations (dig the piano fo sho) and 'Never Had It So Good' from Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown. Also, fans of polyrhythmia will appreciate the bizarre (BIZARRE!) transitions from 4/4 to 6/8, swing to straight and other things that make musicologist wet themselves.

THEY KILLED KILLER B

Track List
Ain't No Sunshine - Lyn Collins
He Is The Boy - Little Eva
Tribute To The Don - Tommy McCook
Chicken Necks - Don & Juan
Stalkin' - Duane Eddy
You'll Be Sorry - The Fascinations
Hit And Miss Affair - Night Doctor
Part Two Why DId You - Barbara Jones
Mary Poppins - Danny Simpson
You Can't Stop Me From Dreaming - The Playmates
I'm So Glad - Frankie Karl & The Dreams
Keep On Dubbing - Bigger T
May I Baby - Sam & Dave
The Love I Found In You - Brothers Of Soul
Never Had It So Good - Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown
Going In The Hole - Ted Taylor
Hip To Your Game - Renaldo Domino
Drop By My Place - Little Carl Carlton
Can't Get Him Off My Mind - Sheryl Swope
No Love Like Your Love - Fantastic Four
Hot Pop - Jo Jo Bennett
Listen To Me - The Esquires
How Can You Tell Me - The Flirtations
Nine Times Out Of Ten - Simtec & Wylie
Keep Him - Barbara Mason
 

You know what THE BLACK HAND MEANS

Your resident Drastic Selectors Chris & Anthony will be back on the wheels of steel THIS FRIDAY DECEMBER 02 at The Charleston in Chicago...

Aside from our usual choice selection of Reggae, Roots, Lovers, Latin, Afro, International & Domestic Soul and all things with a beat; Come celebrate Senior Democratic Majority Leader Harry Mason Reid's Birthday! We'll have him liquored up and in the cake, ready to jump-out by midnight !!!

We'll also be hosting our annual CELLOPHONE WAX-OFF ! Special celebrity judge Corey Feldman will be onhand to officiate the proceedings .. this year's theme .. death masks! Come take a whimsical stroll down Grim Reaper Lane with an assortment of death masks being used to keep yo Ritz cracka's all fresh n ish.

Let Us Know If You're Coming ... WE AIN'T PLAYIN!!!

Our sabbatical was well needed.

And we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming. Finally, after 2 months of waiting, pining, fighting and reclining .. we got a new mixtape for ya'lls. This one is a special request and a popular demand to our boys at Impala Sound and Soul Summit. We humbly offer to the court of yer listening pleasure, surprise witness Reggae/Soul. An all thriller, no filler, 15 track attack of soul tunes gone down the JA-way. Of course to the inundated listener, the connection between soul and reggae is obvious, and soul/reggae comps aren't exactly hard to find, but we think you'll enjoy our special blend of common-and-obscure, northern-and-southern, contemporary-and-classic styles on this mix. I mean, Teddy Pendergrass tunes covered in a reggae style? WHACHUTHAWTYOONOO??.

Good chance there will be a Part 2 of these as I had more source material than I knew what to do with. 

But in the meantime, if you like what you hear, you can come check out more of these jams LIVE at the Charleston in Bucktown, Chicago on Thursday April 28, 10pm when PalmDown Sound (your resident Drastic DJs) spin a Reggae-Gone-Soul themed night. Special Guest Nic The Graduate on board for the musical throwdown.

All Vinyl. No Cover. Good Drinks.

anyway ....

HAILE SOULAISSIE

Playlist
Turn Back The Hands of Time - Winston Francis (Tyrone Davis)
Gonna Take A Miracle - Cornell Campbell (The Royalettes)
Fever - Junior Byles (Little Willie John)
Love T.K.O. - Hugh Porter (Teddy Pendergrass)
Gimme Little Sign - Hepcat (Brenton Wood)
So Unusual - George Allison (The Impressions)
You Dont Care - Lloyd Sparks (The Impressions)
Human Nature - Jrn Reid (MJ)
Baby Now That I Found You - Alton Ellis (The Foundations)
Private Number - Honey Boy (Judy Clay and William Bell)
Aint No Sunshine - Horace Andy (Bill Withers)
Never Had A Dream Come Through - Glen Adams & Upsetters (Stevie Wonder)
Moving Away - Ken Booth (Kenny Lynch)
Lonely Man Am I - The Techniques (The Temptations)
Too Late To Turn Back - Alton Ellis (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose)

Well the story remains the same. Read about it here if you missed the first installment of "Ralph Soul Jackson Meets The Drastics In Dub". This time around we have an oldie, "Set Me Free" and a new tune by Mr. Jackson, "Searchin'". Both get the solid dub treatment and are up for your ear's satisfaction on our MySpace page ... move in the right direction ....

This will (sadly) be the last of the Ralph Vs Drastics series .. the other 92 hours of tape we recorded (including an impromptu "Spoon & Saw" improvisation by Mr. Jackson that lasted the better portion of a whole day and a group variation on a Chinese theme by Cecil Taylor) were destroyed by water damage when the studio was attacked by fire ants.

Free To Dub & A Missing Dub


Ralph "Soul" Jackson - Vocals, Hammond Organ; Elliot Ross - Guitar; Chris Merrill - Bass, Percussion; Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Fender Rhodes, B Sax, Percussion; Tom Riley - T Sax; Andrew Zelm - Trombone; Gerald Bailey - Trumpet.

Well, its 6am and I still haven't gone to sleep so technically it's still Thursday and so I'm in time for our Third Thursday Free Mix ... Our 10th Mixtape! Good God, we actually made it to double digits ..... My brain is fried right now so pardon the brief description .. This month we present Potluck as the finger in the fjord of your ear canal.  So put on your wooden shoes and get ready for the storm.

Except for the self-contained Christmas-themed Mini-Mix at the end, this collection makes almost no sense. We got soul into hiphop into latin into downtempo electronic into ska ...

Eclecticism is the theme.

Happy Holidays ya'll.

We're gonna have aother download for you either this afternoon or Monday. Another holiday treat from The Drastics. So put that in yer stocking/menorah/kinara/hoa mai/yule log/boxing day gift/festivus pole and smoke it.

Track List
Proud Mary - Ohio Players
Proceed (Roy Ayers Mix) - The Roots
El Negro Bembon - Cortijo Y Su Combo Original con Ismael Rivera
Ya Mama (Cosby Mix) - Pharcyde
I Miss You (Remix) - Bjork
The Bridge Is Over (X-Rated Version) - KRS-ONE
Jericho Skank - Jackie Mitoo & Ernest Ranglin

Beatstumental Mix

The Prunes - D.S.B. Style
The Khromozomes - Seein'
Art & Science - Communication
DJ Vadim - Ghetto Rebels (Inst)
Palmskin Productions - Slipper Suite
Southside Crew - Time To Rock The Party

We'll Be There (10 second Remix) - People Under The Stairs
Spread Love (2:20 Remix) - Bozo Meko
Enamorado - Oscar D'Leon
Back Door Santa - Clarence Carter
Merry Christmas Baby - Otis Redding

Christmas Time Growing Up

Christmas In The Stars
Beach Boys
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
The Drifters
The Jackson 5
The O'Jays
The Ventures
Dodie Stevens
Miss Piggy

This Christmas - Donny Hathaway
Christmas Rappin' - Kurtis Blow

GRUSS VOM KRAMPUS

A few years ago we had chance to meet and work with (some of us continually to this day) Northern (Southern?) Soul Legend Ralph "Soul" Jackson. We had opportunity to perform as his backing band on several sold out shows in Chicago at The Hideout and Park West. After being "rediscovered" by East of Eden Soul DJ John Ciba while curating his Birmingham Sound compilation, we got to work on a 5 track EP of new and old Ralph material at the Drastic's resident studio, Dirty North. Included on the list for tracking were new tunes like "Seachin" and "I Love You" as well as some of his obscure and hard-to-find 45 cuts like "Take Me Back" and "Can't Leave Your Love Alone" ...

... for various reasons it never saw the light of day, despite it being near completion when the cord was pulled ...

... Well, in anticipation of the first full-length RSJ album coming out early next year (on Chicago's Rabbit Factory Records) we pulled out the tape, dusted off the magnetic fields and put a hurtin' dub on 2 of the tracks we cut with Mr. "Soul" Jackson back in 2007. No, it's not reggae .. it's soul ... but soul if Muscle Shoals had the same kind of engineers as the Black Ark. Pretty different, but we think you'll dig it ...

Can't Leave The Dub Alone & Woman Pride Dub

Ralph "Soul" Jackson - Vocals, Hammond Organ; Elliot Ross, JD Mark - Guitar; Chris Merrill - Bass; Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Fender Rhodes, B Sax, Percussion; Tom Riley - T Sax; Andrew Zelm - Trombone; Gerald Bailey - Trumpet.

And here we go once again ... gonna keep this entry short and sweet cause I gotta finish squeezing the OJ. So this month we place on the altar of your aural consciousness; Instajam! This is the first mix up here that isn't strictly reggae .. it's a collection of some of my favorite tunes, plus tracks that just make ya nod ya head ... nawsayin? Now drink the whole thing or you don't get none of Uncle Abbinanti's famous chocolate covered biscuits n gravy for dessert!!!!

If the download link stops working, drop us a line and we'll try to get it back up and running

Track List
Intro - Reiner & The Blends
Comin' On Strong - Hepcat
Snatching It Back - Clarence Carter
Magic's Wand - Whodini
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
Compared To What? - Roberta Flack
Jokes Fro Redd - Redd Foxx
Dig On It - Jimmy McGriff
Oh My God - A Tribe Called Quest
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
Time Tough - Toots & The Maytals
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Day To Day - Apani B
Rock Steady - Aretha Franklin
For Once In My Life - Stevie Wonder
Alone Again - The Slackers
Mr. Pitiful - Otis Redding


PART OF A BALANCED BREAKFAST