Today's Best Song Ever - "Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic

Digging up rare, awesome or obscure tracks...
Today it's the 10-minute guitar epic from George Clinton's Funkadelic...

"Maggot Brain" is the opening track off 1971's Maggot Brain. The titular song features no vocals--save for the eerie spoken introduction--and little more than a soft arpeggio and drum flourishes.

The spotlight shines fully on Eddie Hazel's blistering guitar solo, rumored to have been inspired by an LSD-taking George Clinton telling Hazel during recording to imagine his mother had been murdered, only to learn that it wasn't true.

Further accentuating the greatness: the entire song was recorded in just one take, the solo was played in only one key and scale, and only two pedals were used to create the guitar's lush effects.

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Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

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MP3s: New Tracks from Wooden Shjips' Forthcoming LP

A couple days ago, Stereogum premiered the first single off Wooden Shjips' forthcoming LP, West. While "Lazy Bones" is a chugging psychedelic anthem that could make Jim Morrison blush, I've got a little premier of my own...

"Black Smoke Rise" is West's opening track. With muddy distortion thick as peanut butter, the desert dirge dutifully sets the stage for the album's overarching themes of "the American West and all of the mythology, romanticism, and idealism that it embodies." So in other words, the perfect soundtrack for Captain America, Billy and George.

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Wooden Shjips - Black Smoke Rise
Wooden Shjips - Lazy Bones

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The Yes Club - Guitars, Fuzz, Shouting and Drums

Last time I was back home, the little brother was giving me flak for blogging so much "weak" electronic music and indie tunes. While the young one still has a lot to learn, the blog could use the occasional distortion pedal, howl or blistered finger.

The Yes Club self-describe themselves as "garage, psych, punk, bitching, lo-fi" and "New York," but the trio's missing "raw." Don't know too much about these guys, but the '60 psychedelia, Ray Manzarek keys and murky, rambling recording of "Whoa" more than warrant repeat listens--179 seconds of basement verve.

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The Yes Club - Whoa

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