Monthly Archives: May 2015

SUBWAY SOUL CLUB in Times Square!

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Mr. Fine Wine cues a record as Smokey Robinson and the MIracles do "Mickey's Monkey" behind him!

Mr. Fine Wine cues a record as Smokey Robinson and the MIracles do “Mickey’s Monkey” behind him!

Exactly one week less than a whole year after its last event, Subway Soul Club returned to action on May 9 at a new location and with two incredible guest DJs, but with the same exciting groove,  Lady Dawn at the helm, and with the extra-added production help from our good friends at Cavestomp!

Lady Dawn is all sparkly and swingin' at Subway Soul Club!

Lady Dawn is all sparkly and swingin’ at Subway Soul Club!

The location was Lucille’s Super Club, a groovy joint that is adjacent to, or actually inside, B.B. King’s Blues Club on 42nd Street in Times Square. The venue has an ample dance floor that was full of dancers nearly all night long. The place serves excellent southern style soul food and, with a photo of the great B.B. King overlooking the bar, you know the place was perfect for a Subway Soul Club dance party.

Guest DJs were Mr. Fine Wine and Mikey Post. Mr. Fine Wine is highly regarded by the Boogaloo Bag writers. His presence on the sixties soul music scene is strongly felt in this town, with his radio show Downtown Soulville every Friday on WFMU and his Wednesday night shindigs at Botanica—both of which have been taking place for more than fifteen years. These days you can find him on the third Friday of the month at the Commodore on his Thee Knights of the Round Tables gig and also the third Saturday of the month at Friends and Lovers, a cool joint in Crown Heights. He also DJs around the country and around the world. Cat is busy and wherever he is playing records, you know the place is going to swing!

Dance action at Subway Soul Club!

Dance action at Subway Soul Club!

Mikey Post is another busy cat: He is known as “The Custodian of Soul” at Daptone Records, where he works, and he is also the drummer for two great teen combos, The Reigning Sound and The Jay Vons (and he may still drum with Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens). He is also one of  “Thee Knights of the Round Tables” at the Commodore (along with Mr. Fine Wine and DJ Young Chris). Lady Dawn recently witnessed one of Mr. Post‘s DJ sets somewhere and insisted that he be one of the guest DJs at this Subway Soul Club. Cat has great records, and man, he can play them!

Subway Soul Club’s resident DJ Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus also brought a couple good records to the party. However, he was saddened when he realized that the Subway Soul Club event would take place on the same night that Dig Deeper was to take place in Brooklyn. Dig Deeper, as the Boogaloo Bag reader knows, is the live music night that features a great obscure soul (or sometimes ska) entertainer—usually peforming for the first time in decades—and the superb record playing of its two hosts, Mr. Robinson and DJ Honky. On May 9, the Dig Deeper featured performer was ska/rock steady singer Derrick Morgan, so there wasn’t a major conflict. However, the Dig Deepers announced that it will be their last event for a while and the Boogaloo Bag writers were sorry that they could not be there to show support for their most excellent series of shows. In a perfect world, the Dig Deeper folks would be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the fine work they have done—and hopefully will do again.

Meanwhile, back at Lucille’s, Subway Soul Club swung like an old Count Basie 78! Folks were dressed up and ready for a night in the big city, dancing and drinking and carrying on. Except for some confusion dealing with the cover charge, the night was a major success. Lady Dawn danced around in a shiny, black Go-Go dress and greeted about two dozen British citizens who were in town on business or vacation. She and Phast Phreddie were also very happy to see so many familiar faces—people who have attended Subway Soul Club since its earliest days. Knowing that folks feel so strongly about Subway Soul Club, that they even come to the event when they take place once a year… well it puts a great big smile on the face! Negotiations with Lucille’s are taking place so another event may take place sooner, rather than later.

Also, many of the attendees asked that all three DJs submit a set list (or reasonable facsimile thereof) and the two guest DJs graciously complied. The Boogaloo Blog is very proud to host these set lists.

Here is a list of the records played by Mikey Post. The first section is his opening set. The others are records that he played, perhaps not in order:

Mikey Post swings at Subway Soul Club!

Mikey Post swings at Subway Soul Club!

1st Set:

–more–

Mr. Fine Wine tells us that his list may also not be in order. Note that he actually played a song by B.B. King!

Mr. Fine Wine swings at Subway Soul Club.

Mr. Fine Wine swings at Subway Soul Club.

Last, and very likely least, here’s the list of records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at Subway Soul Club:

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swings at Subway Soul Club!

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swings at Subway Soul Club!

It is very doubtful that any of these records are for sale! Click on the photos and they will electronically big-o-fi! Roll your curser over song titles and click on links to actually hear some of the records!

BB_Lucille

Less than a week after the Subway Soul Club event took place, B.B. King passed away, so it is with a heavy heart that the Boogaloo Bag writers work on this post. We strongly suggest you check out this outstanding article about the great bluesman that appeared in the UK newspaper The Guardian a couple years ago:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/oct/06/bb-king-music-blues-guitar?CMP=share_btn_tw

Thanks to our pal Sid Griffin for the tip on the Guardian article.

Out Of Sight!!!

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Grace of Spades is Out of Sight!

Grace of Spades is Out of Sight!

Thursday night is Out Of Sight—the groovy new soul dance party hosted by our pal DJ Xerox. Each Thursday he rounds up a pair of excellent soul music DJs—and there are dozens of them in New York City!—and asks them to play some of their bossest records for the faithful at the Beauty Bar in Manhattan. On May 7, the two DJs were Grace Of Spades and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus.

Due to a scheduling conflict, the night was set up so Miss Grace could swing early and cut out for another engagement. She’s got a cool radio show called Watch This Sound on BBox Radio that streams over the Internets. She’s also got a bunch of cool records and she played some at Out Of Sight. As The Boog walked in, about an hour into her set, she was swinging with some righteous R&B records, jumped it up with a couple of early seventies funk jams and ended her portion of the evening with Koko Taylor’s great version of “Wang Dang Doodle” (a touching salute to the DJ who followed her). That Grace Of Spades certainly knows how to play a record, that’s for sure!!

Our pal Yana Lil-Jerk was in attendance with her friend Bella, who was celebrating her birthday. The two of them kept the dance floor lively all night long. For his part, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus had fun with the night, especially in the middle, when he played a set of funky “thing” records.

 

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swings at Out Of Sight! This was the last public appearance of The Boog's goatee!!

Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swings at Out Of Sight! This was the last public appearance of The Boog’s goatee!! Photo by DJ Xerox

Here’s a list of every record played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at Out of Sight:

None of these records are for sale.

Sh-Boom! Sh-Boogaloo!

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Josh Styles, Sheila B and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swing at Sh-Boom!

Josh Styles, Sheila B and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swing at Sh-Boom!

Sheila B is a girl on the Go-Go! She puts together groovy compilations of cool music. She DJs at the swingin’est nightclubs. She travels around the world buying records and playing them. She has one of the best blogs on the entire Interweb. She has recently become a fill-in DJ at radio station WFMU. She also is hostess for Sh-Boom, a very hip DJ night that is held monthly at one of Lower Williamsburg’s newest venues, Baby’s All Right. Boogaloo Bag readers will be familiar with her because she frequently guest DJ’d at the Dynagroove—especially the all-girl artist nights called Sophisticated Boom Boom. So, everybody knows Sheila B can deliver the goods at her own show…and does she ever!

Sheila B picks another great record to play at Sh-Boom!

Sheila B picks another great record to play at Sh-Boom!

Sh-Boom features all sorts of groovy sixties music, ranging from pounding Go-Go rhythms to swirling Freak Beat organ stompers; girl group grooves to soulful R&B tracks; from hot soundtrack themes to Euro-pop coolness; from Japanese female funk to fuzzed-out garage rock madness. It is all happening at the Sh-Boom!

 

On Friday April 24, her guest DJs were Josh Styles and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus.

 

Josh Styles was at the controls at Sh-Boom!

Josh Styles was at the controls at Sh-Boom!

In this town, Mr. Styles is the undisputed king of the Freak Beat record. He’s got a ton of great ones and he is especially adept at knowing when to play them. And how! Plus, he swaps gears gracefully by injecting an R&B basher or an organ-driven monster. When Mr. Styles is at the controls, you will want to be on the dancefloor!

 

Miss Sheila also played some great records—many of which had a distinct international origin; jet-set jams that really swing. The place was jumping all night long.

 

All of our friends came out to swing at Sh-Boom!

All of our friends came out to swing at Sh-Boom!

In order to keep up with these two fabulous youngsters, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus trotted out some of his most favorite records in the world—dig: DC5, CWB, Las Moskas, Ambertones, “Slurp” and “Satisfaction!” Dig it all—every record he played is listed here, some with links to the youtubes so you can, like, really dig them:

None of these records are for sale.