go retro with edna million

Eye Candy (that has nothing to do with Christmas)

Ahhh. Christmas is over. Now my favorite websites and blogs will go back to their regularly scheduled programs and stop posting bad music about snow and fictional characters. I prefer songs about rocking, substance abuse and women. Let's get to it, people!

While home alone for a few days over the past week, I had to get creative and discovered a few new sites that are worth mentioning. Working in the corporate world where everything is branded and follows a predetermined style that can only be deviated from by The Man, I've been looking for artistic inspiration outside of work. Trying to get back into music, art, writing, and I need to bombard myself with inspiration in order to erase the artistic monotony of corporate logos. Needless to say (I hate this phrase, if it is needless to say, then why say it?) ... so I need to clarify that I am lucky to work somewhere, however, that is very cutting edge and has an amazing design team, although much of their creative energy is squashed by the necessity to appeal to The Man and His People. It is inspiring to work with talented and creative people, but more inspiring to find things that appeal to my personal sense of style.

The Record Envelope is a little site that posts scans of vintage 45 record sleeve art. It has inspired some ideas that I plan to use to redesign The Furniture Lounge website eventually. Something a little less clunky and more fluid and simple.

Grain Edit is a little website that features design work from the 50s-70s and modern designs inspired by that period, children's books and ephemera from their private collection and a ton of archives to peruse.

Arts Not Dead (dot com) has some fantastic prints for sale, including an entire section on vintage pulp art, a great place to blow that dough that your distant relatives gave you because they really don't know you well enough to buy you the obligatory holiday gift. Of course, if you have extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to buy me something on my Amazon Wish List simply out of pure gift-giving want rather than of obligation. Smash the system!

p.s. I would be perfectly happy with just the poster of I Married A Monster From Outer Space

Last and certainly not least, Dark And Roasted (dot com) has a lovely gallery of Ladies and Robots.  What more do you need? Vintage, modern, soft, hard, metal, fleshy, robots and ladies together = crowd-pleasing good times!

the day I first listened to Tim Fite

I was poking around ANTI-Records MySpace page, assuming since they're the label of choice for one Mr. Tom Waits, they might have another artist or two I would enjoy. As usual, I was right. Tim Fite. And he was easy to find. The headshot drew me right in. I thought, this is a guy who just HAS to make good music.

He makes some damn good music.

I'm partial to:
Away From The Snakes (mp3)
You've Been Warned (mp3)
and
No Good Here (mp3)

Basically, I'm partial to his rock/bluesy folk stuff, but he also rocks the hip-hop. For a glimpse into his cross-genre hip-hop sound, Camoflage is a good place to start.

Tim Fite has a YouTube channel and a little video show called Gunshow, which is worth checking out also.

Some of my favorites include:

Episode 1

and Episode 8

The coolest thing about Tim Fite? He gives away almost all of his music! Go to www.timfite.com and you can download all of the tracks from his previous two albums and a few from his new one, Gone Ain't Gone, which you can purchase in its entirety here or here or via ITunes

Andre Williams

"Andre Williams makes Little Richard sound like Pat Boone" - Lux Interior

Andre Williams is a true rock & roll badass.

Started in the mid-50s, recording Bacon Fat (claimed by some to be the first inklings of a rap song), and most known for his accomplishment in co-writing and producing "Shake A Tailfeather", recorded by The Five Dutones and later Ike & Tina Turner. He wrote some songs for Parliament Funkadelic and produced some stuff for Ike Turner. But, with a bad drug habit, by the 1980s he was broke. He came back in the late 90s with some of the sleaziest stuff you've ever heard, on the album Silky. Later he followed that up with The Black Godfather which went back closer to his real sound, but it's still the primitive 50s and 60s stuff that I love.

   

That's all I got. I'm short on time, so just read this. I know, lame. But I'm a busy woman.

Andre Williams - Jail Bait (mp3)

Andre Williams - You Got It And I Want It(mp3)  (My favorite!)

Andre Williams - Poor Mr. Santa (mp3)

Andre Williams - Black Godfather(mp3)

Andre Williams - I'm Movin' On.mp3