People’s Republic Of Disco

Since the People’s Republic of Disco ethos involves us playing the tunes you bring to us, we thought it would be cool to return the favour.

So from time to time the PROD crew will be uploading mp3s of new, interesting, obscure or simply wonderful tunes here for you to check out. We’ll only host each tune for a limited period and we’d encourage you to go and purchase any you like.

Happy Mardi Gras Comrades,

Here’s Ernie K-Doe,

Newly famed in the UK thanks to the Christmas Boots ad and ‘Here Come The Girls’. Sadly Ernie ain’t around to get characteristically overexcited about the whole business having passed on in 2001. Let’s hope his widow Miss Antoinette is getting some helpful revenue from it as The Mother In Law Lounge they ran took a beating in Katrina. Anyway, I don’t have much time to go into the remarkable life and myth of K-Doe right now but his recordings seem to be available only on pricey imports and some compilations so here’s a couple of other tunes, both of them fantastic

A Certain Girl    &    I Cried My Last Tear

So, Willie Tee 

Wilson Turbinton to his mama, he’s the guy in the hat playing keys, his brother Earl is on the left. Willie passed away last Sept 11 about a month after Earl. They formed The Gaturs together in the late 60’s playing a mix of R’n'B, Jazz and Funk years before the arrival of the unfortunate ‘JazzFunk’. Fairly successful locally but unknown outside New Orleans ‘Gator Bait’ is short sharp and funky, one of three singles they put out on their own label Gatur records. Why they chose to spell Gator two ways I don’t know.

The core of that band went on to be the backing band for The Wild Magnolias, which is probably the stuff Willie Tee is best remembered for. The Wild Magnolias are a Mardi Gras Indian Gang part of an extraordinary and unique New Orleans folk tradition which I couldn’t really begin to explain in a couple of sentences (click the links, Wiki, google there’s plenty there if you want to find out). Their music is percussion and chants played in the street, Willie Tee put a band behind them and did arrangements for the first recording ever made by the Indians and still, basically, the only one you need. I pondered whether to go for a more funky, Willie penned track or a more traditional chant but in the end just went with my favourite off the album which is more the former than the latter I s’pose but still a good mix of the two and funky as it gets.

The Gaturs - Gator Bait

Wild Magnolias - (Somebody Got) Soul, Soul, Soul

Gator Bait and another Indians track are available on this wonderful collection from the dependably great people at Soul Jazz

Gaturs at Amazon

Wild Magnolias at Amazon
 

www.nola.com

www.wwoz.org

www.backstreetmuseum.org

www.donnasbarandgrill.com

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We will occasionally upload files of music for the PROD MP3 CLUB we think PROD followers will like.

This will be music which is either brand new, forgotten, deleted, under-exposed, can’t usually be heard elsewhere, etc etc etc. It is not our intention to in any way diminish profit margins for record labels or more importantly artists. Quite the opposite - we’d hope that by offering these tracks - which are here because we love them - we might actually generate some interest and even some sales (hence the link to Amazon or wherever when possinble)

We hope by doing this that people will get interested in new music. We are aware that people who read our site do go out and buy music they have read about here.

We are, ourselves, usually buyers - rather than downloaders - of music. Insatiable “P2P gluttony” devalues music, in our opinion.

We apologise if artists or labels, or publishers or copyright holders, do not want us to make their music available.

If you contact us at our email adddress - “thecollective (at) peoplesrepublicofdis (dot) co (dot) uk” then we will remove the relevant material as soon as possible (usually within 24 hours, if not sooner).

Similarly, we’d like to hear from you if we have featured your music and you think that is a good thing!

Any mp3 files we upload will only be available for a limited time.