It's a mod, mod weekend folks... and for once, I'm not DJing! But there are so many amazing bands and DJs that (let's face it) you don't need me! Except maybe as a dancer partner, me-ow! Here is the skinny:

Friday, October 28th:

-Tighten Up at the Lithuanian Hall with Selector Pablo Fiasco (Charm City Soul Club) and Mark Zimin (The Wag). Members only, but you can buy your membership at the door!

-Swamp-Ass Weekender Night 1 at Dionysus with Charm City Soul Club, Steel City Soul Club, and Soul Club 51 (DC) representing. Dance your ass off!

 Saturday, October 29th:

-SPINDRIFT (members of Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Warlocks), Bad Liqour Pond, Baby Aspirin, Besitos at the Talking Head. Open your third eye and gaze into another dimension in sound...

-Swamp-Ass Weekender Night 2 at the Ottobar with THE BLACK HOLLIES and VIOLET VECTOR AND THE LOVELY LOVELIES! Some of the best music from the East Coast! DJs upstairs and downstairs playing soul, ska, freakbeat, psych, and yeye!

If you aren't out this weekend: YOU HAVE NO SOUL!

When I was about 20, and completely obsessed with girl groups, I picked up a copy of Lotti Golden’s Motorcycle. I didn’t have a chance to listen to it, but picked it up purely on a whim, driven my obsession with sixties female vocalists. I expected something the likes of the Shangri-las or the Angels. What I got was a dark, strange easy-ride through hell… and I wasn’t ready for it yet.

A few years later I listened to Motorcycle again and was blown away with what I had missed. I understood why I hadn’t been ready for it… it is music without corners. It separates and comes back together. Beatnik-style bongo drums build to a maddening pace along-side revving guitars, and climax with the most powerful musical tool that most musicians lack the strength to use- the pause. All the while Lotti’s vocals, a mix between the hum of a bumble bee and the howl of tomcat, accentuate these melodies.

Lyrically, the album was quite bold for the time. They read like an except from a Kerouac novel. Drunks, death, the devil, parties, hittin’ the road… it’s all happening in Lotti’s songs. And they curl off her lips like cigarette smoke.

"Michael was a siren and a street god...and he said chicks called him Lucifer, because when he got wasted one eye would nod out in the corner...and when I wasn't riding his truth machine, Anabell and Johnny and me...would go down to the eastside docks and watch the jive sun do the boogaloo on the water..."

But why didn’t this groovy chick ever make it to the top, like Grace Slick or Janis Joplin? In fact, she recorded one more album and took a step back, doing backing vocals for Carly Simon. One would think this might have discouraged her from the music business, but she continued as backing support and a producer for musicians like Face to Face, Al Green, and Nina Hagen. Yet it is almost impossible to find any information about Lotti Golden on the internet. Why is this? Oh well, let’s get naked and SMOKE!!!