i have been meaning to listen to hallelujah the hill’s recently released record for misra, colonial drones, but thus far it hasnt happened. i thought i got a promo, but when i searched for said promo i came up empty. so, its off to emusic for me where i will use up 13 of my download credits. which will then leave me with 12, and i have no idea what to use the remaining on. anyone got any suggestions? the men of h-t-h are currently on tour and unfortunately coming nowhere near new orleans. next stop is tonight at luigi’s slice in sacramento, ca. check their site for all the tour details and other goodies.

classic tapes
blank passports
flight of the paper pilots – stolen from the boston phoenix

there’s sometimes more to a band’s story than i feel comfortable getting into. couple that with the fact that my reporting skills are for shit, and any reporting outside of the truly banal is not going to turn out so well for everyone involved. which brings me to the ghetto brothers, whose story is not so much complex as it a little involved with lots of names and places and such. so you can find a bit about their story and their one and only record, released in 1972, power fuerza. what i can report on and not fear screwing it up, is that truth and soul records are releasing their original 7″ which features the track below, “ghetto brothers power” and the b-side “i saw a tear.” its been cleaned up from the original recording and is available via their site. definitely check em out…

this is taken from their wiki page:
The Ghetto Brothers were a gang (or club) founded in New York City’s South Bronx in the late 1960s. They eventually spread to much of the Northeastern United States. Like the Young Lords, they were involved in Puerto Rican nationalism, including, in the case of the Ghetto Brothers, an association with the then-new Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Ghetto Brothers founder Benjamin Melendez, who left the organization in 1976, was also known as a guitarist. He led a band, also known as the Ghetto Brothers, which included his late brother Victor Melendez on drums. They released one (self-titled) album in 1972, which had only informal, local distribution.

The Ghetto Brothers, especially in their early years, had a reputation as one of the more politically minded and less vengeful of New York-area gangs. After Cornell “Black Benjy” Benjamin was killed in 1971 trying to prevent a fight between two rival gangs, the Ghetto Brothers did not seek the expected revenge on those responsible for his death. Instead, under Melendez’s leadership (and that of Carlos Suarez, also known as Carlos Melendez), they were instrumental in achieving a moderately successful truce among South Bronx and other New York-area gangs at the Hoe Avenue peace meeting which occurred December 8, 1971. Among those present was Afrika Bambaataa, then a 14-year-old Black Spade warlord known on the streets as Bambaataa.

Under Melendez’s leadership, the Ghetto Brothers represented one end of the spectrum in terms of how they treated the women involved with the gang. Referred to as the Ghetto Sisters—the respectful term contrasted sharply with the names used for the women attached to other New York gangs of the period—the women were generally viewed as organization members and as girlfriends, whereas many other gangs treated women almost entirely as sexual property.

Current as of 2004 Hartford, Connecticut mayor Eddie Perez was a member of the Ghetto Brothers when young. New York Daily News columnist Robert Dominguez was the leader of a Ghetto Brothers division in the Bronx when he was a teen.

ghetto brothers power

im still here everyone, just not feeling terribly well. so, in an effort to get my shit together i am going to be taking the week off. everyone have a good one…

so, pollard is releasing another suitcase with this one being number 3. from the looks/sounds/etc of it, this one, a 4 disc set, should definitely be the best of the bunch cause most of the material is being pulled from the mid-90’s to the present. the 4th disc is an impromptu acoustic set featuring pollard, demos and sprout. tell me that aint worth the 28 buck price tag alone. i cant remember how much i paid for the other two, but i think i remember it being much more than 28 bucks. seems like i remember it being more around $40 or $50? i could be totally off though. anyway, its out this tuesday, 11.3, and here’s a couple tracks from it. btw, there’s also a briefcase version, which is the best of the suitcase plus one special track. oh btw, part two, the briefcase is only being printed on red vinyl and limited to 500 copies. why the hell does he do this stuff to me?

pre-order both of them here

jane wait
100 colors

well, this is a bit of a surprise. admittedly, i actually forgot about home’s existence after their 1996 release, elf: gulf bore waltz cause they didnt put a record out for another 9 or so years. during that time, i am pretty sure i sold back the three records i owned by em, and well you know the rest. from what i remember of home’s sound, and this song solidifies that memory, is that they reminded me of a soundtrack to a drugged out local theatre companys version of a space odyssey. make sense? probably not. if you wanna know more about home and their sorted past, check their wiki page. well, they have a new record coming out entitled, seventeen, and is being released by jagjaguwar on 1.26.10. most of their records have been numerically titled, or well roman numerically titled, minus elf and the concept record “about fucking” sexteen. looking forward to this…

photographed with ease