13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere (1967)

HAPPY EASTER Y'ALL!!!

Perhaps the only thing better than Alice's Restaurant Massacree on Thanksgiving Day, is the album Easter Everywhere on Zombie Jesus Day.  Featuring Tommy Hall's trippy electric jug, Roky's otherworldly screech, Stacy Sutherland's pounding guitar - it's all so good!!!

While the Elevators are far from an obscure psych gem, too often the only album people own is "The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators".   While the first album is totally awesome, Easter Everywhere is the best of the best.  So, do yourself a favor, whilst reveling with anthropomorphic chocolate-fiending bunnies, fake plastic grass, pink eggs, and that most venerable soul seeking zombie - blast this equally psychedelic album!

Pete Rodriguez y Su Conjuto - I Like It Like That (1967)

I have spent the better part of the last two days cleaning my house.  Doing dishes, sweeping, mopping the floor, folding laundry, and scrubbing the bathtub.  It's not enjoyable work, but it is work made more enjoyable if you can listen to good tunes while your at it.  This right here is the perfect soundtrack to any type of tedious or unenviable task.

Puerto Rican pianist and vocalist Pete Rodriguez is called Mr. Boogaloo, and after listening to this album it's tough to argue with that. He leads his band, y Su Cunjunto, which the best I could find translates to "the overall", "the whole", or "the set", though a thoroughly danceable set of boogaloo and salsa workouts.  The title track, "I Like It Like That" is one of the most famous boogaloo songs ever, and has been covered a countless number of times.  But thats just the tip of the iceberg here.   Check out the singalong on "Micaela" or the killer horns on "Si Quires Bailar".  

Check the comments, get this album, and go get some work done.

Magic Sam - West Side Soul (1967)

John Belushi, a.k.a. Jake Blues, dedicates the Blues Brothers performance of "Sweet Home Chicago" to the "late, great Magic Sam".  The dedication is earned.

Samuel Gene Maghett came to the city of Chicago in the late 1950's from his native Mississippi. When he arrived he was known as "Good Rockin' Sam", a talented guitarist who learned to play by listening to the Chess Records recordings of Muddy Waters and Little Walter.  At only 19 years old, he was invited to record for Cobra Records.  The subsequent sessions gave birth to the 1957 single "All Your Love" as well as a new stage name, Magic Sam.

This record, released by Delmark in 1967, is pretty much pitch-perfect Chicago blues.  Born of a decades worth of dues paid, both on the road and in the studio.  Technically sound, impeccably produced, with a healthy dose of hard-earned, dance-ready pop licks, it's tough not to gush about this incredibly talented bluesman.

But enough from me, check out Magic Sam starting with the incredible opener "That's All I Need".  Other highlights include "Every Day and Every Night" and "Mama Talk To Your Daughter"