RIBS TPTD: Special Guest Mix by Blackmon…
{sigh} Sometimes you just so busy that the hours in the day just rush by and you have NO IDEA where the time went. How in the hell DID I get so busy these past few weeks anyway?
Well, before anything else happens that chews up the rest of the few hours left in this day, let me get this mix up and posted…
One of the great things about having this blog and making mixes are the many, many other people I’ve had the pleasure to “meet” that also share a passion for this music. One such person is the author of this week’s guest mix here on RIBS. His handle is “Blackmon” and he very generously put together and sent me a nice set of Soul/R&B/Jazz music called Mix In Return after checking out one of the RIBS mixes a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it so much that I just had to ask him if I could post it here to share with the entire RIBS family. Here’s what he has to say about it:
Hi Folks!
I stumbled upon this famous spot just a few weeks ago and the more I went back in the RIBS history, the more I dug T’s awesome compilations. {TG’s Comment: amazing the compliments you can get by passing a few dollars under the table, eh? LOL! j/k}Somehow I was reminded to the days when tapes were the only way to share music with friends and related soundheads and thought the best way to appreciate the great job, T is doing here, was by mixing a few of my favs. So that’s how these tracks got together… I didn’t know he would publish it here (probably to get a week off-duty {smile}); but now all I can do is hope y’all dig it as much as we do.
Peace,
blackmon
Hmmmm, I wonder how he knew about that “week off” plan? {BIG smile} Anyway, a generous fellow music lover is always a welcome addition to the “Friend” column in my book.
One of the things I enjoy the most about this mix is that even though I’m familiar with most of the artists in the playlist (except 100% Pure Poison and Chocolate Milk; love that C.M. cut though!), many of the songs are ones by these artists that I had never heard before or had not heard in quite some time. That “Branded” cut by Isaac Hayes especially. As familiar as I am with Isaac’s catalog that one made me open my eyes and try to figure out how I’d overlooked it. Additionally, I thought the Wolfman Jack drops (for those of you old enough to remember him!) was a nice touch also.
So… on today’s menu is Blackmon’s “Mix-In-Return”!
I’ll just echo what he said earlier and, “Hope you all enjoy it as much as we did!”
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Right-click here to download .MP3 file (93Mb, 1:13:11)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist: (song - artist - [time])
- Lil’ Red Ridin’ Hood - Undisputed Truth [4:02]
- Windy C - 100% Pure Poison [5:27]
- Grand Theft - Chocolate Milk [5:30]
- Low Down Dancing - Stargard [4:41]
- Give Me Some - L.A. Boppers [5:52]
- Groove City - T-Connection [5:21]
- Branded - Isaac Hayes [7:02]
- Psychedelic Drugs - Wolfman Jack [0:19]
- I’m Paying Taxes, What Am I Buyin’ - Fred Wesley And The JB’s [9:26]
- Reality - Pleasure [5:04]
- No Matter What - Pleasure [4:50]
- Get Down Everybody - Lonnie Liston Smith [4:24]
- Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby - Jimmy Smith [3:31]
- Ironside - Quincy Jones [3:55]
- Up And At It - Cannonball Adderley [3:37]
- Cafe Regio’s - Isaac Hayes [5:43]
- Old Time Radio (Good-Night) - Wolfman Jack [3:08]
Enjoy!
And remember…
If you have the question: “Where are are the good Soul music sites on the ‘Net?
We have the answer: “Check out NetInfoWeb’s ‘SoulSites’ Aggregator Page!”
PodTech Chronicles #1: Organization of Music/Video Files…
Hey Peeps! I’m starting this new series of posts that I’ve been thinking about for awhile.
For lack of a more creative name, I’m calling this series “PodTech Chronicles” (or PTC for short {smile}). The purpose of these posts will be to get some discussion going about some of the technical and/or organizational aspects of producing a podcast. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily talking about your basic, garden variety “how-to-podcast” type of information. THAT kind of info can be easily found online by doing a basic search on Google (or your search engine/site of choice). Rather, my interest is more inclined towards those little, “background/behind-the-scenes” kinds of tasks that we all have to do such as:
- organizing our audio/video files (the first discussion)
- cleaning up/improving the sound quality of our files
- digitizing analog audio sources
- mixing applications
- mixing techniques
…and many other things.
In this first post I am posing the question:
“How do you organize and catalog your music files?”
Let’s face it, before you can make the perfect mix you have to select the individual song files. However (and I can speak from experience here), if your files are not properly organized and tagged the whole process can become rather tedious at best and downright painful at worst.
(Note: from here on I’ll only be using the terms “audio”, “music” and/or “song” when referring to the files we’re talking about, since I work with audio much more so than video. However, much of the conversation applies to video and graphic files as well. I just want to make sure you understand that discussion of those types of files are welcome here too)
So, as an example and to get the conversation rolling, here is the organizational structure I’ve implemented that seems to be working out best for me. Oh, that reminds me, organization and cataloging IS a pretty subjective type of thing. What I’m about to present to you here is WHAT WORKS FOR ME, TGrundy. It may or may not be the best way to do it and, it may or may not work for you. That’s part of the reason for this conversation, to see what different ways we’re all using to accomplish these tasks. Maybe I can pick up some pointers from you, maybe some of the things I use will work out for you. If we never discuss it, we’ll never know {smile}.
OK! On to the organizational structure. First I’ll outline the points in the following and then expand upon the details and/or reasoning for each item below that. Here is what I do:
- Separation of Audio Files: files are split up on two physically separate drives
- Created Directory Categories: I have 4 major MP3 file directories, 2 major archive file directories
- Directory Sorting: top level category directories are sorted in alphabetical order in LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME format
- Album Subdirectories: subdirectories are created for each album underneath each Artist/Group top level directory
1. Separation of Audio Files
One of the worst days I had a couple of years ago when I first started collecting music in electronic format was when my then current hard drive (40Gb) crashed taking 3/4 of my collection with it into the bit bucket. Suffice to say that I was *not* a happy camper that day! After that I started burning my audio archive files to CD for backup. However, as the collection grew into the gigabyte range this became time and cost prohibitive. Fortunately technology has advanced a lot since that black day and I now have a couple of 320Gb USB external drives that I store my collection on. Half (A-I) on drive #1, the other half (J-Z) on drive #2.
2. Create Directory Categories: 4 Top Level MP3 Directories, 2 Top Level Archive Directories
As stated above, I have gigabytes of files in electronic format. To make it easier to locate a specific artist or song I have arranged my top level directories into 4 major categories:
A) Music_Albums_A-I
B) Music_Albums_J-Z
C) Music_Jazz
D) Music_Blues-Gospel
These are my “working” directories that contain my music files in MP3 format. When I want to play a particular piece of music, I go to the major category and then drill down through the top level artist/group directories to find what I’m looking for.
Additionally, as another form of backup/protection, I keep a compressed archive file (RAR or ZIP) of each album also. These are stored in only two major directory categories:
A) Music_Albums_A-I_RARs&ZIPs
B) Music_Albums_J-Z_RARs&ZIPs
Lastly, the six “category” directories above are split between the two external drives as follows:
DRIVE 1
1. Music_Albums_J-Z
2. Music_Jazz
3. Music_Blues-Gospel
4. Music_Albums_A-I_RARs&ZIPs
DRIVE 2
1. Music_Albums_A-I
2. Music_Albums_J-Z_RARs&ZIPs
This is done so that in the event that either HDD crashes I’ll lose only half of my collection and (in theory) that half can be recovered via the archive files on the good drive.
3. Directory Sorting
Ah, directory sorting! This is the most subjective and (sometimes vexing) part of the entire process. Do we use FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME format or LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME? Do we lump everything together or do we break things out by different genres? And just how in the hell do we deal with artist and group names that begin with the word “THE”?!
What I have found works best for me and the way I think about music (especially when I’m searching for something) is to organize my “Top Level” directory structure in alphabetical order using the LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME format. Individual artists are organized according to their last name, while groups are organized according to the FIRST LETTER OF THE GROUP NAME. You can see examples in the screen shot below:
Group names that begin with the word “THE” always tend to throw things off when trying to sort things efficiently. After researching this particular issue quite a bit, I decided to treat the “THE” in the name as if it were the FIRSTNAME of an individual artist. So… a directory for a group like “The Dells” becomes:
Dells, The
and is properly sorted within the “D’s” and not the “T’s”
4. Album Subdirectories
With most artists/groups you will usually end up with more than one album by that particular performer. Again, what I have found to work best for me is to create a subdirectory underneath the “top level” artist directory for each album release. This IMHO, creates a nice, efficient directory structure for storing and or locating specific song files. You can see an example in the screen shot below:
In addition to storing each album’s worth of music in its own subdirectory, I also like the list of albums to be sorted in chronological order according to release date (year). Therefore what I came up with is a naming convention/format for these subdirectories as follows:
(ARTIST) - ([YEAR]) (ALBUM TITLE)
so in the case of The Dells and their album “Love Is Blue” the directory is named:
Dells - [1969] Love Is Blue
Let me offer up a couple of points of note and/or clarification here as to why I chose this particular format…
- You may notice that I don’t use the “THE” in the artist/group name in this naming convention. Purely a subjective choice on my part; just saving some typing time is the practical reason.
- You may also be wondering why, if I am interested in the chronological sorting of the directories, I don’t start off the directory name with the (YEAR) field instead of the (ARTIST) field. Good point. I originally did do it that way at first, however when I’m making my mixes I actually copy the album subdirectory to another drive and by starting the subdirectory name with the (ARTIST) instead of the (YEAR) field makes it easier to locate under those circumstances.
- Another good question you may be asking is why do I use the (ARTIST) field at all in this directory name format. After all this album subdirectory is underneath the top level artist name directory, so I already know what artist it is. I’ll refer back to the point I made above. If/when I copy the album subdirectory to a different location, having the (ARTIST) field as a part of the subdirectory name makes it easier to quickly identify.
Whew! This ended up being a lot longer than I originally thought {smile}. Now, while I WAS going to talk about naming conventions for individual song files, I think that topic really deserves its own discussion space and we can tackle THAT conversation in the next installment of the “PodTech Chronicles”.
In the meantime, I am REALLY INTERESTED in what you think of the ideas outlined here and also STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to let us know how YOU go about organizing your files so we can compare notes and/or discuss the pros and cons of the variety of ways that this type of organization task can be accomplished.
Enjoy!
RIBS TPTD: B.B. and Q. Band, Slave, Aurra… Second Helping
A little out of the norm around here, but I’m happy to surprise you with a ‘Friday’ edition of RIBS’ Triple Play Thurs-Day!
You know, sometimes when you get going in the kitchen grabbing this and grabbing that, measuring things and getting that great recipe you found all finished and ready for serving… well, you realize that you actually ended up making more stuff than could possibly be consumed in one sitting! And that’s sort of what happened with this week’s RIBS mix. I got finished, the table was all set and I still had a whole bunch of good stuff left in the oven for folks to munch on.
So, you better loosen your belts now cause here’s a “second helping” of B.B. and Q. Band, Slave and Aurra for ya, just in case you didn’t get enough the first time around!
Alternate (if you have a problem using the javascript pop-up): Click here.
Right-click here to download .MP3 file (112Mb, 1:19:53)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist: (song - artist - album [time])
- Slide ‘88 - Slave - Slave 88 [6:49]
- Make Up Your Mind (Tom Moulton remix) - Aurra [9:50]
- Six Million Times - B.B. and Q. Band - GSix Million Times [5:53]
- Just A Touch Of Love - Slave - Just A Touch Of Love [6:19]
- Are You Single - Aurra - Send Your Love [6:33]
- All Night Long (She’s Got The Moves I Like) - B.B. and Q. Band - All Night Long [5:59]
- Watching You - Slave - Stellar Fungk: The Best of Slave [4:43]
- Happy Feeling - Aurra - Like I Like It [5:40]
- Don’t Force It - B.B. and Q. Band - Genie [4:47]
- Snap Shot - Slave - Showtime [3:20]
- Checking You Out - Aurra - Send Your Love [6:43]
- Hanging Out - B.B. and Q. Band - All Night Long [5:15]
- Nobody Can Be You - Slave - Stellar Fungk: The Best of Slave [5:24]
- Undercover Lover - Aurra - Live And Let Live [5:03]
Enjoy!
And remember…
If you have the question: “Where are are the good Soul music sites on the ‘Net?
We have the answer: “Check out NetInfoWeb’s ‘SoulSites’ Aggregator Page!”
Technorati Tags: RIBS, TPTD, soul, Rhythms In Black Satin, podcast, music, NetInfoWeb
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RIBS TPTD: B.B. and Q. Band, Slave, Aurra…
Another Thursday, and another batch of tasty RIBS to satisfy your musical appetite!
This week we actually put together a mix in our regular, standard format (hey, imagine that! {smile}). AAMOF, let me give a shout out to my friend Ken who I was hanging out with over the Memorial Day weekend. He suggested the B.B. and Q. Band and Slave for this week’s mix. He also gave me a couple of suggestions for a third group to round out the trio and, silly me, I didn’t write any of the names down and couldn’t remember them {sigh}. So I did the next best thing and choose a group that would compliment the other two and that turned out to be Aurra. If you remember anything about the history of Slave and Aurra you’ll recall that Starlena Young, Curt Jones, Stevie Washington and Tom Lockett, Jr. started out as members of Slave and then broke away in 1981 to form Aurra.
Another shout out must go to the man I affectionately refer to as “The PodFather”, brother EJ Flavors himself, for helping out with many of the song selections this week.
So… we have some 80s era funk for you this week, some of it from Ohio (Slave, Aurra), some of it from New York (B.B. and Q. Band) but ALL of it from right here at Rhythms In Black Satin!
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Right-click here to download .MP3 file (112Mb, 1:19:41)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist: (song - artist - album [time])
- On The Beat - B.B. and Q. Band - The B.B. and Q. Band [5:50]
- So Fine - Slave - Slave 88 [3:24]
- When I Come Home - Aurra - Aurra [5:22]
- Riccochet - B.B. and Q. Band - Genie [5:59]
- Wait For Me - Slave - Showtime [5:10]
- Who Are You - Aurra - Aurra [4:30]
- Imagination - B.B. and Q. Band - All Night Long [5:58]
- Stellar Fungk - Slave - The Concept [8:49]
- A Little Love (Steve Silk Hurley remix) - Aurra - Aurra [6:44]
- Genie - B.B. and Q. Band - Genie [5:57]
- Stay In My Life - Slave - Visions Of The Lite [3:24]
- Talking In Your Sleep - Aurra - Like I Like It [4:55]
- Dreamer - B.B. and Q. Band - Genie [7:07]
- Weak At The Knees - Slave - Stellar Fungk: The Best of Slave [5:24]
- I’ll Keep Waiting - Aurra - Like I Like It [4:31]
Enjoy!
05/30/08 UPDATE:
If this isn’t enough for ya, make sure you check out our “Second Helping” mix from these same three groups!
And remember…
If you have the question: “Where are are the good Soul music sites on the ‘Net?
We have the answer: “Check out NetInfoWeb’s ‘SoulSites’ Aggregator Page!”
Technorati Tags: RIBS, TPTD, soul, Rhythms In Black Satin, podcast, music, NetInfoWeb
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RIBS TPTD: Ohio Players, part 1 - “Funky Stuff”…
Filed under: Funk, General/Misc, R&B, RIBS, Triple Play Thurs-Day, music, podcasts/mixes, soul
Man, let me tell ya… whenever I hear the Ohio Players, especially “Skin Tight” and “Fire”, I am instantly transported back to my junior and senior years in high school and all of the wild parties we had back in the day! (most of which I DJ’d; yes even back then I was a junkie for the music! {smile}). Whoo-Hoo! Man, did we have a good time back then!
Anyway, it’s the Memorial Day holiday weekend and RIBS always wants to make sure you have enough music to go along with the food and the fun. So… relax, enjoy the good company of your family and friends and, of course, groove to the music!
RIBS TPTD: Ohio Players, part 1 - “Funky Stuff”…
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Right-click here to download .MP3 file (112Mb, 1:19:32)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist (song - album [time]):
- Skin Tight - Gold [7:55]
- Fire - Fire [4:27]
- Jass-Ay-Lay-Dee - Jass-Ay-Lay-Dee [8:15]
- Body Vibes - Angel [3:30]
- Pleasure - Pleasure [5:34]
- Love Rollercoaster - Gold [4:47]
- Jive Turkey - Gold [7:10]
- O-H-I-O - Angel [3:11]
- Skinny - Tenderness [3:24]
- Pain - Pain [6:12]
- Fopp - Honey [3:56]
- Glad To Know You’re Mine - Angel [3:46]
- Speak Easy - Mr. Mean [3:40]
- Ain’t Givin’ Up No Ground - Honey [1:42]
- Streakin’ Cheek To Cheek - Skin Tight [5:34]
- Smoke - Fire [6:01]
- Laid It - Rattlesnake [3:00]
Enjoy!
And remember…
If you have the question: “Where are are the good Soul music sites on the ‘Net?
We have the answer: “Check out NetInfoWeb’s ‘SoulSites’ Aggregator Page!”
Technorati Tags: RIBS, TPTD, soul, Rhythms In Black Satin, podcast, music, NetInfoWeb, Ohio Players
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RIBS TPTD: Mandrill, part 2 - “Mellow Monkey”…
And what a weekend it’s gonna be. A three day Memorial Day holiday weekend (for most folks, at least). Time to break out the grill, fire up the coals, and burn baby, burn. On the menu? Why RIBS, of course!! {smile}
This is Day 2 of our 5-Mixes-in-5-Days Funk-A-Thon that we do around here every Memorial Day and Labor Day. Yesterday we started you off with some of Mandrill’s uptempo, funky stuff. Today we look at their mellow side, that’s why today’s mix is titled, “Mellow Monkey”. OK, ’nuff talk, let’s get right to the mix!
RIBS TPTD: Mandrill, part 2 - “Mellow Monkey”…
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Right-click here to download .MP3 file (112Mb, 1:19:53)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist (song - album [time]):
- Universal Rhythms - Mandrill Is [3:23]
- Love Song - Just Outside Of Town [5:43]
- Big La RIBS Promo #2 - RIBS Promos [0:10]
- Afrikus Retrospectus - Just Outside Of Town [7:42]
- Getting In The Mood - Getting In The Mood [5:15]
- Love Is Happiness - Beast From The East [4:49]
- Closer To You - We Are One [4:19]
- Lis-RIBS_Promo1 - RIBS Promos [0:14]
- Children Of The Sun - Mandrill Is [4:57]
- Solid - Solid [7:53]
- The Reason I Sing - Mandrilland [3:25]
- Synthia Song/Peaceful Atmosphere - Beast From The East [3:22]
- Out With The Boys - Composite Truth [5:14]
- Moroccan Nights - Composite Truth [6:31]
- Starry-Eyed - Energize [4:12]
- Chutney - Mandrill [3:05]
- Aspiration Flame - Just Outside Of Town [5:00]
- House Of Wood - Mandrilland [8:03]
Enjoy!
And remember…
If you have the question: “Where are are the good Soul music sites on the ‘Net?
We have the answer: “Check out NetInfoWeb’s ‘SoulSites’ Aggregator Page!”
Technorati Tags: RIBS, TPTD, soul, Rhythms In Black Satin, podcast, music, NetInfoWeb, Mandrill
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RIBS TPTD: Mandrill, part 1 - “Funky Monkey”…
Just in case you think I’ve lost my mind (you might be right you know {smile}), let me explain. I started doing this last year for the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. I pick an artist, take their entire catalog of music and blow out 5 mixes over the course of the holiday weekend. This time around I’ve decided to choose 3 of my favorite funk bands that the crew and I have spent hours upon hours of partying to over the years: Mandrill, the Ohio Players and Kool and The Gang.
Now, when most people think of these groups they think of the fast, funky, uptempo songs that they’ve made. BUT… each of these groups also has a softer side and have, in fact, produced some very mellow, mid tempo songs and some beautiful, slow ballads. So… for Mandrill (Thurs & Fri) and the Ohio Players (Sat & Sun) there will be two mixes, one featuring their fast/funky tunes and one featuring their mellow, slower stuff. On Monday we’ll give Kool and The Gang the same treatment but we’ll combine some of their funky stuff and some of their slower stuff into one mix.
Well, I hope you’ve brought your appetite… cause I’ve got a whole lotta RIBS to serve ya over the next 5 days. First up, a little Mandrill for ya… some of their fast stuff I’ve dubbed the “Funky Monkey”. It’s the “taste of music, to satisfy your soul”. Hey I’m hungry, let’s eat!
RIBS TPTD: Mandrill, part 1 - “Funky Monkey”…
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Right-click here to download .MP3 file (109Mb, 1:17:25)
Download playlist .PDF file here (right-click)
Playlist (song - album [time]):
- Mandrill - Mandrill [4:22]
- Funky Monkey - We Are One [6:32]
- Positive Thing (Part One) - Mandrilland [2:16]
- Positive Thing (Part Two) - Mandrilland [1:09]
- Lo Siento Mucho - Getting In The Mood [4:28]
- The Road To Love - Mandrilland [5:20]
- Silk - Solid [6:34]
- Symphonic Revolution - Mandrill [5:18]
- Polk Street Carnival - Composite Truth [6:10]
- Golden Stone - Composite Truth [7:20]
- Cohelo - Mandrill Is [1:44]
- Git It All - Mandrill Is [4:30]
- Ape Is High - Mandrill Is [5:36]
- Fence Walk - Composite Truth [3:33]
- Hagalo - Composite Truth [2:46]
- Can You Get It - We Are One [7:09]
- Having A Love Attack - New Worlds [4:31]
Enjoy!
And remember…
If you have the question: “Where are are the good Soul music sites on the ‘Net?
We have the answer: “Check out NetInfoWeb’s ‘SoulSites’ Aggregator Page!”
Technorati Tags: RIBS, TPTD, soul, Rhythms In Black Satin, podcast, music, NetInfoWeb, Mandrill
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