hey all,when we played in birmingham this past fall, my friend ryan russell passed on this compilation of birmingham soul that he did the art direction and photos for and it's been blowing my mind. all tracks were recorded at a studio called 'Sound of Birmingham' which was opened and operated by a plumber named Neal Hemphill. employing a handfull of staff writers and musicians, the studio basically had an open door policy to whoever wanted to come in and record a track. the result as presented here is some of the best soul music you've most likely never heard ('specify' by little lois barber and 'train to tampa' by sam dees especially). also, i really appreciate all the mogmail you guys have been sending me. while i make sure to read them all, the sheer volume is unfortunately too much for me to respond to, so please don't take it the wrong way if you don't hear back.take care,ben
NinjaSquirrel says
I think someone is in a soul mood.
Alright maybe your trying to start a soul movement.
You must get like a million and one maybe a million and two music recomendations a tour.
It must be nice to get that kinda spread.
jamygabb says
Awww. It's okay Ben. Thanks for getting me to like Harry Nilsson. Now I have to listen to him everyday. He's brilliant. Thanks again for sharing music and recommendations!
ebuzzmiller says
i just visited birmingham and it seemed like a city where you have to look hard for the hip stuff - the city just is like a ghost town at night, except for one area with restaurants (5 points? forget the name.) but it seemed obvious that there would be great music somewhere - thanks for the post, it will be interesting to check this out.
southeastpunk says
In response to ebuzzmiller's comment, every town seems like a ghost town if you don't know what you're looking for. I'm going to say, Five Points is not a great part of our town. Should have hit up the Lakeview area, or the bottletree down on third avenue south(http://www.thebottletree.com/), or the all night eatery of Al's on 10th Avenue south, or if you want some coffee ya need to hit up O'Henry's in Homewood (www.ohenryscoffees.com) We buzz down here in the dirty south. Come hang out at Innissfree on monday nights for trivia with Reed(http://www.innisfreepub.com/). Thats where i'll be.
-dnl
aimlessinwonder says
yeah, thanks for getting me really into emmit rhodes! like i said before, my dad was into him, now he has conquered my mp3 player! thanks
SierraThompson says
Yeah you always post great reccomendations. Cool artwork - very birminghamish :D
haha its all cool if you dont reply, even tho the 1 i sent is uberradd ;D
-Sierra
the blue period says
when i saw Red house painters live, kozelek stopped in the middle of playing all mixed up and said "oh u guys only know that song 'cuz its in a GAP commercial!!!" i dont care if he is a snob, he's still a god.
skywalker8716 says
Ben, I would just like to say that you and your band are so inspirational. I've never felt like this about any other band before. I even love All Time Quarterback and of course The Postal Service, but of course who doesnt right? Keep up the good...wait no...AWESOME work!!
veritas says
well i finally made a MOG ben! and i will check out birmingham of sound,and i find it intresting that you have MOG that only other MOGs can comment on and walla has blog but no one can comment on it,but verity is the spice of life so im told,so now i have 4 journals,and by the way i think you should go check on walla and make sure he's finishing his solo cd,i heard some of it but i want to hear it all bro! for reals!
nik3787 says
Benny G
Saw you in B'ham and yall were great. Glad to know that you've found a piece of the town that you like. I'll have to grab a copy of this cd, I'm very interested in it...
Skedaddle!
Comments (30)