2008-06-24
In the past it’s been called Terminus, The Gate City Of The South, Dogwood City, The City Too Busy To Hate, more recently The ATL, and always Hotlanta. But despite also being called the Black Mecca, until recently, Atlanta had produced a relatively small batch of black records.
This latest release in our Eccentric Soul series tells the inspiring and ultimately heartbreaking story of songwriter, label owner, performer, and believer Jesse J. Jones as he struggled to make even the smallest dent in the national soul scene from his Atlanta headquarters.
Lost for thirty years among the kudzu and Coke bottles of central Georgia, the Tragar & Note labels are the latest Numero Group unearthings to join our landmark Eccentric Soul series. Spread out over two discs, Eccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels is a ridiculously thorough survey of Jones' twin labels that operated between 1968-1977.
Researched with leading Georgia soul expert Brian Poust, the accompanying 32 page booklet features a dozen unpublished photos, memorabilia, label scans, and a 7000 word essay that gives a rich overview of not just these two labels, but the Atlanta soul scene as a whole.
Per usual, all finer retailers and e-tailers worldwide will stock this 20th Numero release on Tuesday June 24th.
Also, through no arranging of our own, Atlanta's Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge will host a release party on Friday, June 27th, where compilation producer Brian Poust will be spinning Georgia soul records all night and signing autographs after last call.
2008-06-10
In a bold move that will likely send shock waves through the reissue community, the label America loves to ignore (The Numero Group) will re-reissue our first record on June 24th 2008.
When we set out five years ago to package the best of the Capsoul label, we never imagined how much deeper the rabbit hole would go. Our liners were based on chats with label founder Bill Moss, and his photo archive left much to be desired. The resulting package was light on story and imagery (though it did set a minimalist packaging tone), and to our ears, a little flawed sonically.
All that has changed now. We've gone back and re-mastered, re-interviewed, and re-wrote the whole shebang. We've crammed the 2LP/CD set with scores of unpublished photos and even managed to squeeze a bonus track on both formats.
Yes, you read that right, Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label is finally available on vinyl. Housed in a gorgeous tip-on gatefold jacket and pressed on 150G wax, the record Numerophiles have been begging for is two weeks from stores, but you can order it here now (free shipping in the US!).
2008-05-15Nagilah means celebration or rejoice, and with 021, it's time for celejoicing and reberating all around. The unofficial second compilation in our Good God! series, Soul Messages From Dimona tells one of the coolest stories we've ever gotten our hands on. Literally charting a physical path from heavy midwestern funk and soul to Liberian afrobeat to a final destination in Dimona, Israel, the Soul Messengers and their pals were (and still are) a group of Black Hebrews enacting their Judaic beliefs through a sweet sweet music that is more diverse and more groovy than M.I.A., Georgio Moroder and Donna Summer all smoking out of the same hookah. The compilation covers four of the groups that developed in and around the Dimona kibbutz: The Soul Messengers, Sons of The Kingdom, the Spirit of Israel, and the Tonistics. The songs run the gamut from enthusiastic kid soul tributes to their hometown (Tonistics) to freaked out afropsyche jams interpreting Hebrew prayers (like, most of the record, yo). The CD is out now, the 2LP to follow in June. From the All Music Guide:
The quality of the music here here is so high (and for the most part beautifully recorded), one cannot envy Numero having to top this collection. These cats continue to surprise us, but this is more of a shock to the system. This is in the label's top two or three releases and thus far, the compilation to beat in 2008.
2008-04-29
You thought our trading cards were limited? When we had our Numero No-Hitters trading cards printed up we asked the printer to send us some uncut sheets. We got 108. That's it. All 90 cards on one sheet. Rather than paper the office walls with them (it was tempting) we framed a few for ourselves and in a rare moment of generosity, we're offering the rest to you. Trust us, they are insane. Stare at one long enough and your Mini-Cooper will turn into an AMC Pacer. Your fridge will go from white to avocado. This item will transform your cottons and wools to sturdy polyester.
2008-03-19As of last week when your tireless Numero team unloaded 1600 pounds of LPs into our 1200 square foot office, Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label has once again become an in house favorite. The CD was nice and all when it came out in May of 2006, but as new things come in, old stuff gets pushed to the back, and we'd forgotten about the urgent, heavy handed piano of future dancefloor favorites L. Hollis & The Mackadoos and the sultry moans of Ms. Tyree "Sugar" Jones. The deluxe 2LP set comes packaged in a heavy tip-on style sleeve (per uush), with a handful of newly unearthed photos and a bonus track in the form of an instrumental version of Bob & Fred's "I'll Be on My Way."
Stop your lolly-gagging and get on with it:
Big Mack 2LP
2008-02-14
The hits keep on coming. Or rather, they never came but we're bring them now. Tired of wasted guitar virtuosos? Bored with Miami's Marching 100? Not feeling the Propinquity album? Worry not Numerophiles, we've got your next fix (and favorite record too). A fix in the form of an epic compilation of tracks from Jeremiah Yisrael's Tap Records archive. This is the darkness at the edge of the dance floor, that which the gleaming reflective light of the disco-ball barely touched. You may have been privy to the 12" singles we released from some TAP artists (Fabulous 3 MC's, Jackie Stoudemire), which would mean you are currently well aware of how exciting this release will be. Don't Stop: Recording Tap will be not only the first album in our new Don't Stop series, but will also be the first Numero Release to feature an LP version with AN ENTIRE EXTRA 2-SIDED LP OF MATERIAL NOT FEATURED ON THE CD. Do you mokes even know how serious this is??? The CD will be great for doing lines off of, sure, we love disco as much as you, that's why we're releasing this. But with this release, it is truly the limited-to-3,000-copies 3-LP's-in-a-beautiful-box with two separate sets of insert booklets, one chronicling the Tap story, and one reprinting the TAP songbook, culled from the man-height stacks of sheet music we got a hold of. Yes, the CD comes with both of these booklets, sugar, but I want the LP's, you want the LP's, we ALL want the LP's, but only 3,000 of us will ever have them. The LP comes out April 8th, while the CD comes out March 4th. Put on your boogie shoes, dad.
2008-02-14
If you are who we think you are, than you’ve probably noticed our latest, NUM018 Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli while picking up a water pipe and black light posters at Paramount Imports last week. For those steering clear of skull rings and hobbit cloaks, Guitar Soli is a fine collection of plucked and rambling guitar pieces that will carry you off like smoke from a chimney. Something of a follow up to our 2006 record Ladies From The Canyon, Soli follows the floundering private folk market from 1968-1980, dragging from beneath the woodpile a rustic mix of John Fahey’s American Primitive also-rans.
Released 1/15/08, the compact disc comes packaged in a sturdy chipboard Numero slipcase with art by Mike Davis and a massive booklet with essays by Jim Ohlschmindt and Dan Lambert, and! a handy suggested listening guide should you choose to delve a little deeper. On March 25th we’ll drop the double LP, replete with two bonus cuts not on the compact disc, one of which was sampled by the always-working DJ Shadow. Embark on your very own Terrence Malickesque adventure with these auditory landscapes as the score, or just drop out in your own living room after your friend of a friend “Mike” stops by with a delivery.
2008-02-14
Last Wednesday a semi truck showed up at our backdoor. Three palates and 4900 pounds later we were rich with two fine new Numero LPs that await your shelves and grubby little hands.
NUM017 Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts Of Deep City
*4 Boscoe: S/T
Both are pretty much must owns, the former for its five bonus tracks and tip in gatefold booklet, the latter because, well, because it's the ideal format for 70s skronked-out spiritual soul. Even if you don't have a record player (dude, seriously?) both these titles will liven up any wall, start any conversation, and in the case of Boscoe, make you exceedingly rich once we run out of the limited to 2085 copies pressing.
2007-12-27You suckers thought the first Deep City compilation was all we had in us? HA! Actually, it was all we had until Miami soul guru Willie Clarke delivered unto us a box of never before heard tapes from the many branches of the previously shrouded Deep City family tree. Included on our latest addition to the library (
Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts of Deep City) are tracks from just barely labels like Blue Star, Reid, Sun Cut, Lloyd, Concho, and Solid Soul, as well as a grip of previously unreleased tracks by the Rollers, Clarence Reid, Snoopy Dean and the Deep City Band. You read the story of the rise of Miami soul in Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label, so rather than rehash we’ve created an appendix, replete with track by track descriptions, rare photos and flyers, a glossary, discography and bibliography. The 2LP set (coming in late January) features four tracks not on the CD and one of the nicest packages we’ve ever created.
Also, after way too long on the proverbial burner,
Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label is finally available as a deluxe double LP and sounds even better than the CD. This is of course all due to the aforementioned box of tapes, wherein we turned up not only the original masters for Paul Kelly's NCAA tournament theme song, "The Upset" and its flip "It's My Baby," but also a grip of unreleased and unknown instrumental versions of Deep City classics. We were blown away by how intricate these sketches are (listen for guitarist Snoopy Dean slinking in the background!), that we just HAD to include them.
Don't forget to complete your Deep City experience by adding a
T-shirt or a limited edition
Rollers 45!
2007-09-25
Fall already? How can this be? We were so busy working we barely saw the summer, and what we did see was just few swatches of sunlight peaking in the blinds during our state regulated 15 minute coffee break. There were no visits to the pool and the croquet set was only broken out once. Just thinking about our trip to Cedar Point in May is getting me depressed. While you were at the beach lathering yourself up with a little coconut scented sun tan lotion, we were licking the inside of Almond Joy wrappers. You backpacked through Europe; we listened to Europe?'s ?Wings Of Tomorrow? album. Do you see the imbalance here? We blew our summer so you could have a handful of decent record choices this fall, and we think the least you could do is spend the next few minutes of your life atoning by reading the Numero Group update.
Four years ago when we set out to be the world’s best record detective agency we never anticipated how many amazing recordings would turn up in the process. But while we were busy compiling obscure soul labels and documenting non-genres like gospel funk and kid soul, fantastic little albums got stuck on our turntables. Not long enough to warrant the elaborate Numero treatment, and yet too good to keep secret, we had to start an entirely new label to house these curiosities.
Serialized by number and design, * releases will follow the path blazed by Numero, with well researched and thoughtful liner notes, photographs, and memorabilia all housed in miniature gatefold LP jackets. The results will feel like a little library, its shelves stuffed with the under heard and seldom known.
*1 Johnny Lunchbreak “Appetizer/Soup’s On” (CD)
After an obscure acetate turned up in Connecticut in 2004, Zero Street Records issued a 300 copy limited edition LP of the complete works of Johnny Lunchbreak. The non-album was a mélange of post-Velvets New York mixed with the up turned collar of the Modern Lovers’ New England. Oddly enough, the band was shooting for the Bee Gees, and their horrible miss was our gain. That LP was perpetually on our office turntable during the spring of 2007, needle drop, flip, needle drop, flip, over and over. It had * written all over it. A few months later we had the original tapes, a stack of unpublished photos, and one of the five lunchboxes the band had made in their brief run. The band existed for less than two years and played outside of Hartford, Connecticut once, and yet somehow, their priority was merchandising?
*2 The Four Mints “Gently Down Your Stream” (CD)
Not quite an album upon release in 1973, Columbus, Ohio’s Capsoul label was going more for Meet The Supremes than What’s Goin’ On. Gently Down Your Stream, the only album by the Four Mints, is really just a collection of their five singles, with an unissued track tacked on. In 1997, the album was issued on CD, but a faulty turntable belt slowed down these popping group harmony jams to a crawl, making the CD nearly irrelevant. We brushed it aside for our inaugural Numero release, Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label, but had to take a serious second look when a grip of unreleased tapes turned up two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2006. We’ve remastered the original ten-track album, added three never before heard rehearsals and instrumentals, dredged up a few unseen photos, and even got resident Ohio soul expert Dante Carfagna to write the introduction, making this, the definitive Four Mints.
*3 Propinquity “S/T” CD
After including Carla Sciaky’s lovely “And I A Fairytale Lady” on our Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From The Canyon compilation, we went ahead and had the original tapes for the album transferred. Issued in 1973 on Colorado’s Folkways-like Owl imprint, Propinquity is the only album this Boulder group ever recorded. Steeped in the CSNY tradition of strong solo pieces knotted together by friendship, the album is a dreamy blend of folk and rock, rural, but with a city public school sensibility. The twelve-song album has been expanded to sixteen, with two unreleased tracks, and two others featured on Owl’s 1971 Sing-In Boulder compilation.
All three of these finely crafted records are available today in finer record shops throughout the world (IE don’t go into Best Buy to buy a new microwave and expect to walk out with a bag full of *).
Eccentric Soul at forty-five revolutions per minute
We threatened to do this from the very beginning, and now four years later we finally have. Eccentric Soul has come back to the format where it began. Housed in a two-tone stock sleeve, sequentially numbered (for the Numerophiles out there), and limited to 500 copies, these fine 45s will eventually pay for your children’s college tuition.
The skinny:
ES-001 The Rollers “One Little Piece b/w Knockin’ At The Wrong Door”
After we finished Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label, a grip of tapes turned up at famed Miami producer Willie Clarke’s ex-wife’s house. From the second we heard this unreleased Deep City girl group, we knew it had to be available on 45, for no other purpose than to file it in our own boxes. “Knockin’ At The Wrong Door” borrows heavily from the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back,” while the flip is a nice ballad in the Honey Cone vein.
ES-002 Eddie Ray “Wait A Minute b/w Instrumental”
From our recent compilation Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label comes the best 45 the Columbus, Ohio imprint failed to release. “Wait A Minute” is the same version issued on the CD, while the instrumental flip is only available on the deluxe LP version. Both cuts are must haves in any self-respecting northern soul lover’s collection, and certifiable future monsters on that scene.
ES-003 M.A.S.O. “Poon Tang Thump Pt. 1 b/w Pt. 2”
A year after finishing Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label a Chicago collector approached us about a heretofore unknown 45 on Arrow Brown’s increasingly mysterious imprint. Only two copies are known of the Michigan Avenue Sound Orchestra’s retardedly funky instrumental “Poon Tang Thump Parts 1 & 2,” and it was crushing us not to have them available. Finally, Bandit completists can get some sleep!
Available now (but keep in mind that any place selling car stereos probably doesn’t have a 45 bin).
This season and next:
We’d love to be digging in for another season of Nanny Fight, CSI: Albuquerque, and that Smokey & the Bandit reality show, but instead we’re putting the finishing touches on a slew of new records. In October we’ve got a three more additions to the Twinight singles series, including 45s by Nate Evans, the Mystiques, and George McGregor & the Bronzettes, as well as the final disco 12” of the year (and second from the Tap archive) by Jackie Stoudimire. A few weeks later (and by a few weeks we mean November) we’ll drop an eight song album of spiritual soul/jazz by Boscoe (*4) and at the end of the month Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts Of Deep City (NUM017). Following in January is Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli, a collection of privately released fingerstyle guitar jams.
And that’s it. A whole summer boiled down in less than 1500 words. An “A” paper certainly, and possibly worthy of posting on the refrigerator. We’ll catch up again around Halloween (Tom said something about us doing a Doobie Brothers cover night at the Bottle but we’re way out of practice). Scarves are coming out, the Bears are losing, outdoor seating is disappearing, and summer comedies are coming out on DVD. Yes, fall is here.
2007-09-06
You know Michael, Jermaine, Tito, Marlon and Jackie, but what about Altyrone Deno Brown, Michael Washington, or Little Murray & the Mantics?
Home Schooled, the 16th record in Numero’s library of the lost, looks at the unknown side of the early 70s kid soul revolution. Beyond the Osmonds, the Five Stairsteps, and the Brighter Side of Darkness lay hundreds of aspiring children (or parents) bent on becoming the next Michael. Numero has selected seventeen of our favorites. A detailed and photo stuffed booklet breaks down the history of the phenomena, while the disc straddles the line between historical artifact and wild mix tape.
But don't trust us...
"Home Schooled spells out the childish roots of '70s pop as clearly as one might expect, now that everything has been spoiled by uncool adults who will never understand." - Minneapolis City Pages
"Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” may be this summer’s bubblegum-electro anthem, but if you want the real deal, look to the Numero Group’s latest compilation of ’60s and ’70s kid soul and R&B. Every cut here is a digger’s dream–loose, funky, raw, and hard to find. What were you doing when you were ten years old?" - XLR8R
"The massive success of the Jackson Five was to blame for a sudden explosion of junior jammers recording one-off vinyl documents of their own, and Home Schooled: The ABCs Of Kid Soul collects some of the best indie releases from the kooky soul subgenre's early-70s peak years." - Now Toronto
Deluxe 2LP, CD and MP3 available here, there, and everywhere right now.
2007-04-06
Good question.
Goombay is a drum. Goombay is an annual Bahamian street festival. Goombay is a flavor, literally, and not entirely distant from pina colada. And goombay is the genre of Bahamian music given its name by the drum that beats its rhythm. But goombay is also a sort of shorthand for what native Bahamian musicians of the 1970s crafted: an island music instantly familiar and specifically Caribbean, yet unequivocally Bahamian.
From the second we stumbled off the seven-hour ferry onto the duty-free shores of Freeport we knew it wasn’t going to be easy to uncover the remnants of the island’s musical history. Ravaged by three hurricanes in the last decade alone, much of what we were looking for had been washed or thrown away years before we entertained the idea of documenting Funky Nassau’s redheaded sister city. Still we pushed on, peeking through the glass of Wurlitzer jukeboxes for singles by the likes of Willpower, Dry Bread, or Sylvia Hall. We tore apart the archives of the island’s only studio, GBI, and interrogated its owner Frank Penn for hours. We tooled around in a crappy little Toyota with the wheel on the opposite side, asking directions to houses that are identified by landmarks and not street numbers. Names were mentioned and calls were placed, meetings arranged and blown off. Our portable record player blasted sounds not heard in three decades, triggering glassy eyes, guffaws, and more often than not, head scratching. We were late, certainly, but there was still time to capture what was left. Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay is the story of what remains in Freeport. Ten years ago we would have returned with everything, ten years from now we would have returned with nothing. Sonic archeology is nothing if not a crapshoot.
What we managed to smuggle home in our suitcases goes beyond the trappings of common island sounds. It’s your neighbor’s interpretation of the sounds he heard wafting in over the fence from the barbeque you didn’t invite him to. Poolside soul, second deck cruise ship karaoke, sand in your bathing suit funk, jump rope rhymes, hurricane ravaged R&B, and a genre that can only be classified as “goombay,” are all here. Crank up the blender, the stereo, and slather on the SPF 35. Have your mail held. Freeport, Bahamas is a mouse click, a play button, or a needle drop away.
Avaialble as a deluxe 2LP or CD on May 8th, this is your summer soundtrack. You just don't know it yet.
2007-01-17If this steaming dish of Belizian soul, funk, reggae and folk has caught your attention in bits and bytes, now you can hear it just the way fortunate few Belizians did when it first came out: black and spinning. In addition to a brilliant color sleeves displaying pictures of CES LP and 45 covers and labels,
the double vinyl version of Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up has two new tracks - "I Hear You Calling" by Francis Reneau & the Mission Singers, a tropical gospel groove, and Lord Rhaburn Combo's "Soul Brother." which, astonishingly enough, is an instrumental cover of Bill Moss' "Sock It To "em, Soul Brother," featured on
Numero 001, Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label. When we discovered this stuff, it hit us like a tropical storm. Now it's your turn.
2006-09-20
Five deep already? Yes, we've seen Columbus, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and now we're stopping at soul's great mecca (pick up the sarcasm), Phoenix. "Funky Broadway" is certifiably great, but when you see a twelve year old doing the centipede at a wedding reception to it, you've gotta believe there's more to the seat of Maricopa county than Dyke & the Blazers. Most left for L.A. and never came back, but for the ones that stayed... there was Mike Lenaburg.
Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg is a deep dig through the photo albums and tape libraries of Phoenix's second family of soul. Released on a half dozen local and national labels throughout the 60s and 70s, Mike Lenaburg's productions represent that wrong side of the desert sound. A melange of Tejano psychedelia, flutey funk, horny soul, and fistfight doo-wop, his recordings are feral, unhinged, mind melters. "The Quarrel" alone will put your friends in a state of unease and fascination at the same time. Lenaburg's soul is raw and bleeding and just waiting to be discovered by discerning listeners like you. Immerse yourself in its lack of decadence on September 26th.
2006-07-25
You know that we can bring the soul, but this time we’ve added some spirit! That’s right, Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal hits the streets August 29th 2006, and we invite you to take of the funky communion.
Good God! explores the re-entry of the profane funk into the sacred sound during a unique moment in gospel music. Completing the circular journey of the hallowed rhythm, the tracks featured here are the sanctified message passed through the earthly delights of the groove. Bear witness to the union of unholy drums and a twenty person choir in the form of Detroit’s Voices of Conquest. Or travel down-river to Ecorse, Michigan, where the Revival studio still stands, one-time home to the Mighty Walker Brothers, the Apostles of Music, and the Mighty Voices of Wonder. Top it off by having your mind blown by the sound of fire & brimstone set to congas by LaVice & Company, taken from a musical performed in a church basement. You too will become a true believer in the gospel funk!
Again, your local record store will have it in their shop window on the 29th, or you can order it from us now and have it arrive on your doorstep a little before the release date. And!!! By popular request we have begun our journey into the vinyl realm. Good God! will be available as a single disc CD or gatefold double vinyl. You’ll finally have a Numero record to separate seeds and stems on.
2006-05-02
The (non) hits keep on coming! On May 23rd our latest excursion into the depths of independent soul continues... right from where the movement started. We've taken you to Columbus, Chicago, Miami, and now into the heart of the beast, Detroit.
We racked up a lot of miles on various rental cars over the last two years trying to get this project finished, and we can say with some authority that the fifth trip sealed it. Ed McCoy (literally Big Mack) had been shunning collectors for over a decade by the time we made our first trip in 2004. Stories surfaced immediately about a guy who was lowered in a bucket two stories deep to get his hands on some of Detroit's most sought after 45s. There was black gold in that flooded basement, and those who could afford the plane ticket were coming by to ride the bucket. After an incident where McCoy was badly ripped off (and then found out about it), he closed up shop completely, leaving the Big Mack story untold, and the Numero Group incredibly curious.
Eventually we dragged it out of him. The story about a label that would last nearly 20 years without so much as a sniff of success. The story of a recording studio that doubled as a an ice cream truck dispatch center. The story of young adults with awful, wonderful, and awfully wonderful voices. Of middle aged blues crooners and wiry teenage garage bands. The story of a studio where you could cut your own record for less than one day's wage.
Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label examines some of the better recordings produced by Ed McCoy during an extremely fruitful period for both Detroit and popular black music. Featuring nineteen tracks that have never been issued on CD by the likes of Ms. Tyree "Sugar" Jones, Soul President, Bob & Fred, Edd Henry, L. Hollis & the Mackadoos, Manhattens, Performers, Sleepwalkers, Essence, and Mae Young.
<<<< This belongs on your shelf.
2006-03-13Available at finer retailers now:
Ladies From The Canyon is the first in a series of records dedicated to unearthing the best of folk's private underground. The first volume focuses on the wave of female folkies who would follow in the wake of Joni Mitchell. Fourteen little masterpieces that happened well after Dylan plugged in.
We'll have it on sale here for all of March, but if you can't wait for the post, try your local independent record shop. If they don't carry it, demand that they do so.
2006-03-07
If you read, and hey, you might not, and you read the east pond publications, you might have seen some serious ink on our records over this last month. Here's a taste:
On Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label
Q
"A smouldering stew of rumbling bass, chinking guitar and crashing percussion" ****
Mojo
"Exquisite." ****
On Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up:
Straight No Chaser
"Sound archivists at Numero follow on nicely from that wicked Capsoul compilation with a collection of key recordings from between 1960 and 1980, lovingly restored from original analogue sources and demonstrating a strong lineage to the calypso, reggae and island rock sounds of the Caribbean."
And Q again!
"Recommended!" ****
That prompted Honest Jons to peek in and see what the fuss was all about, and they immediately ordered stock for London's premiere shop.
As our dear departed friend Bill Moss would say, "Inch by inch everything's a sinch."
2006-02-24
We've been inundated with inquiries about what's around the bend at Ranchero el Numero, so for you gossip hounds and spoiler junkies get ready for a Teen People caliber scoop on the next few releases.
The Eccentric Soul journey continues on May 23rd. Next up in our tour of regional American soul restorations is Detroit's Big Mack label. The twenty year enterprise wasn't far from Hitsville, but was in nowhere near the same league. No gold records, million dollar buy outs, or museums lie at the end of this story, instead we'll treat you to a delicious slice of Motor City funk and soul. Artists include Bob & Fred, the Manhattens, Edd Henry, Ms Tyree Jones, the Essence, the Performers, Mae Young, the Soul President, the Sleepwalkers, the Grand Prix's, and L. Hollis & the Mackadoos. As the label lasted nearly twenty years, we're treating you to a variety of different sounds. From soulful doo-wop to blistering garage funk, this disc is the epitome of Eccentric Soul.
Also, we'll be finishing up the commercial version of the Disco Connection 12" and introducing a whole line of other 12" singles around the middle of May. The second is an infectious eight minute storm of disco rap from the legendary T.S.O.B. label. This is your summer jam.
In August look for a collection of Gospel Funk that will tear the shutters off your church.
You keep buying them, we'll find a way to make them.
2006-01-30We’ve been talking this project up since early last summer after a fortuitous trip to Miami. The vacation was awful, but it did give us a chance to drive around Miami’s most lawless streets with Deep City co-founder Willie Clarke. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a pack of wild dogs wandering around Overtown. It also gave us the chance to seal up the next volume in our Eccentric Soul series.
The Deep City label is where Miami soul began. You can trace KC & the Sunshine Band, George & Gwen McCrae, and Blowfly back to a little outfit run out of the back of a record store in Liberty City. It is here where Willie Clarke and Johnny Pearsall discovered Clarence Reid, Paul Kelly, and Miami’s second lady of soul, Betty Wright. Between 1963-1968 they released about 20 singles by the likes of Them Two, The Moovers, Freda Gray, Frank Williams, and Johnny K Killens, and even managed to squeeze an LP by the label’s can’t-miss-but-did star Helene Smith. From all that we culled the 17 tracks we feel best represent Deep City’s all too brief existence.
We'll have it
on sale throughout February, or if you really want to save you can
subscribe to a full year of Numero. The record will be available January 31st 2006 at fine and not so fine record stores everywhere.
If you're looking to dig more Deep City, fear not, we'll be posting ten brand new outtakes shortly at the Digital Dig.
2006-01-23
Don't get us wrong, we love the Twentieth Century, but we've now become full-fledged members of the Twenty-First. As of this writing, Numero 001 - Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label and Numero 006 - Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up, are now available at the iTunes Music Store, with the remaining titles not far behind. So if you're a pod person or know one or have one in your family, spread the word. If Little bits of ones and zeroes aren't your thing, no worries, we're still making real records and have no plans to stop doing that. It's all music and it's all good.
2005-12-14We’ve got ten brand new
Digital Digs waiting for your perusal. For a limited time you can buy Helene Smith’s “Thrills And Chills” (from our upcoming collection Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label) for the low price of 50 cents. You’ll spend more than that pumping the meter downtown, so stay in, kick off your kicks, and fall in love with Miami’s first lady of soul.
The Digs:
Majestic Arrows "Love Won't Pay The Bills"
Trend "Southsiders (Wanting To Go Northside)"
Trend "(I Need) Another Fix"
Luxury "Eyes Of Love"
Luxury "Tube Ballet"
Fern Jones "Keeps Me Busy" (Alternate Version)
Fern Jones "Whispering Hope"
Professionals "I Can See Clearly Now"
Harmonettes "Ding Dong Ding"
Helene Smith "Thrills And Chills"
2005-12-01Here at Numero, we subscribe to the idea that great lost music doesn’t have to stay lost, that timeless artists will find their time and that there are no “re-issues,” only records whose issues have finally been resolved.
We also subscribe to Wax Poetics, Mojo, Salon, The New York Times, Tape-Op, McSweeny’s and Jay Ryan’s Bird Machine. And if you want to go back in time, we've got a card-carrying member of the Sub Pop singles club on staff.
Which got us thinking. We know you subscribe to our principles. What if you could subscribe to our records? What if for one price, lower than buying each release individually at a retail store or on our website, you could get everything we put out for a year and get it before it's officially released? Get that? What if you didn’t have to wear your digits down surfing down to www.numerogroup.com every day hoping we’ve come up with yet another perfectly curated piece of musical history? What if you could just pony up one price and just kick back waiting for the next nugget to drop in your ample mail receptacle?
Is this some kind of sad dream where you check your email and drink Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper straight from a two-liter bottle? No, this is real, and your life is about to get a whole lot better every other month.
The Numero Subscription Series. Let’s talk about it.
In 2006 the Numero Group will release six records. These records will be priced at $19.98 at retail. That adds up to, if you’re going to buy them all… what are we talking about "if," you’re going to buy them all… $119.88. Subscribe to the series at $90.00 a year and you’ll be getting them for $15.00 apiece, including shipping. Can't subtract? We just saved you $29.88, enough money to buy a VCR.
Next year’s schedule is shaping up to be our deepest dig yet, with three Eccentric Soul releases, representing Miami, Detroit and Chicago, an incredible hippie-folk collection of Joni Mitchell’s unheralded competitors, a treasury of funky gospel, and a disco-rap bomb from Brooklyn that you might as well glue to your CD player.
Here's how it works:
Go to
The 2006 Numero Subscription Page, put the item in your cart and check out. A bout a week later you'll receive your first record in the mail, Numero 007 Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label. It's that easy, possibly easier if you've got auto fill. Don't like/trust/understand the internet? Call over (773-235-0706) to our HQ Monday-Friday, 8-6 CST and we'll take your order.
Know someone who’d like the gift that keeps on grooving? Subscriptions make properly dusty presents for the rubber-gloved, aspirator clad obsessive in your clan. We'll even give you a nice little card explaining the wonderful gift you've given. We're all about removing the burden, folks.
Look, now is not the time to wring your hands and doubt. This offer is only good through January 31st 2006. After that you'll have to pay full price, and you can forget about being the first one on your block with the latest Numero disc. Timmy Twostep will have you beat, and there will be nothing you can do but drink flat CVDP while you wait for the official release date.
We've got an unpaid intern standing by to take your calls and orders. Don't let him down.
2005-11-28
In the opening moments of the Johnny Cash biopic, “Walk The Line,“ we hear one song twice; first as performed by gospel legends The Blackwood Brothers and next by Joaqin Phoenix as Cash as he auditions for Sam Phillips at Sun Studios.
The song is “I Was There When It Happened,” a gospel standard of the day. But until you hear that song performed by its author, a fire and brimstone cross between Patsy Cline and Elvis, you haven’t really heard the Gospel truth.
The song’s author was Fern Jones.
Numero 005 Fern Jones: The Glory Road, collects those tracks and more, including her original recording of “I Was There When It Happened.” Hear it, and you’ll see “Walk The Line” with a totally new sense of what might have been.
2005-11-04
The record dropped last week, and if you've caught us out, you've heard us gush. But don't take our word for it:
"Boil Up is possibly the most solid release to date from Numero Group, which is by this point one of the best and most thoughtful reissue labels in the country. If you like funk-- and especially if you feel you've already largely mined American r&b-- there's plenty to dig into here, and hopefully more where that came from." - Pitchfork
"Astonishingly great." - Now Toronto
"Another start-to-finish classic from one of America’s very finest record labels, the Numero Group out of Chicago. There’s a warmth—an ease—that’s absolutely seductive. You can just get glimpses of their accent. Numero specialize in upending every notion you have that there is, or has ever been, a meritocracy in pop. They prove that human achievement on this planet is continuous and happens wherever people have time on their hands. It does not take place in the easily circumscribed times and places and sequences that VH1 or self-appointed music experts like ourselves like to place it in."- Arthur
"This tiny Central American country is a darn funky place. Who knew?" - Entertainment Weekly
"The 16 tracks chosen for Cult Cargo make the case for Belize’s importance not just by their quality, but also for the idiosyncratic twists they give to everything from ska and Stax soul to Latin jazz." - Time Out Chicago
"A seriously funky brand of island soul." - Rolling Stone
"This disc – like its name implies – is an aromatic and spicy stew concocted from wildly divergent ingredients. And damn, it's funky" - Orlando Weekly
2005-10-05The process of unearthing the extraordinary Contemporary Electronic Systems catalog was long and arduous, but constantly full of discovery. In the 1970s, CES head Compton Fairweather had manufactured a large quantity of ultra thick, laminated and embossed custom record jackets which bore the CES logo. They were intended to house the series of extremely limited historical and spoken word documents that he had planned to document the audio of Belize history. He issued speeches, plays, and even stand-up comedy in runs of 50 copies or less. Even Fairweather doesn't know how many releases there were in the series.
While excavating his basement, we turned up about 100 of these custom jackets, thicker and tougher than anything that could be made today. We are introducing our new line of 12" singles with a limited run encased in the sturdy CES veneer.
Disco Connection B/W Guajida (+001) contains two of the most dancefloor friendly cuts on the forthcoming compilation
Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up, plus re-edits that cater to the discerning deejay. "Disco Connection" is everything disco should be: raw, charged rhythms with minimal production and rough horn blasts that enforce dancefloor discipline without the cheese. "Guajida" is a gleeful take on the latin funk classic made famous by Willie Bobo.
Cut and chopped by producer James Hayford both of these cuts belong in all crates.
This laminated CES sleeve version is strictly limited to 100 copies.
2005-09-29If you watch TV (and we're guessing a few of you do), you may have seen a new commercial for HP that features a song with a line that sounds suspiciously like "Let me take your clothes off." Actually though, it's the Speedies "Let Me Take Your Photo."
We first got to work with the Speedies on Yellow Pills: Prefill, now they've given us the opportunity to put their entire catalog up digitally on the Digital Dig. We've got their two impossibly rare singles, two videos, and three songs never released, all for your downloading pleasure.
Dig on the Speedies
here.
Over the next few months we'll be branching out the Digital Dig to include content other than what we've passed on releasing. If you can't spend your weekdays hip deep in vinyl, fear not, the Numero Group will.
2005-09-05
We started brainstorming this back in November, and ten months later we are finally finished. Anyone can throw a new coat of paint on a house, so we decided to knock down the building and start from scratch.
Welcome to Version 2.0 of www.numerogroup.com. Included in this new version are an improved cart system for easier shopping, a daily updated account of our troubled lives, a near-complete archive of all our press, and the centerpiece of the entire overhaul, the Digital Dig.
Digital what?
The biggest problem we sometimes face as a label is having too much content. The decision making process over which tracks make the cut and which do not are long and tedious, and sometimes really great tracks are left off because we've run out of room or time. The Digital Dig is where you'll discover the gems we tearfully triaged in the painful track-ordering process. Think of them as the footage left on the cutting-room floor.
So what is a Digital Dig? It's more than a dollar a download. It's crate digging without the dust, without the mold and without the cranky, chain-smoking, clueless check-out guy who marks everything "rare" and jacks it up another five bucks. Click on any box (currently we only have about ten boxes filled), alphabetically ordered for your convenience, and you're doing vinyl archaeology without leaving the air conditioned comfort of your desk. Or bedroom. Or bomb shelter.
Every month we'll add ten new tracks. There will be more Eccentric Soul, more Pills; more Cargo, more of everything, including some rare videos you can find here and nowhere else. Currently we've got digs by Altyrone Deno Brown, Luxury, Brat, the Colors, Tommy Rock, the Four Mints, Lord Rhaburn, Bill Moss, Fern Jones, the Majestic Arrows, the Capsoul Group, the Trend, Michigan Avenue Sound Orchestra, and the Wind.
Enjoy the fruits of our winter, spring and summer labor, you deserve it after that long three day weekend.
2005-09-02
On September 17th 2005, when half of the music business convenes in New York for their twice annual VD swap (Known in most lower-res circles as CMJ), the Numero Group's Rob Sevier and Ken Shipley will invade Brooklyn's Union Pool for seven hours. Our good friends at Bloodshot Records are having their 10th annual party/BBQ and have invited us to compete with the mellow-fi country and indie rock in the room over.
In tow will be a few hundred of our favorite records. Plenty of mind melting soul, piles of pills, Caribbean cargo, random rap, junked out country, holy rhythms, Euro-trash, and whatever else we find the day before at Academy's Vinyl Annex.
The details:
Bloodshot 10th annual CMJ showcase/party/bbq
Presented by Bloodshot Records, KEXP.ORG, and Pabst
Saturday afternoon September 17, 2005
Union Pool 484 Union Ave (at Meeker) in Brooklyn 718-609-0484
$10 general admission / $7 with CMJ badge
Free BBQ and 1 (one) free PBR to anyone who dares enter
We know it's the last weekend of summer in New York, but it's likely you'll just be rolling out of bed as the needle drops. Come waste an afternoon with us, beg for an autograph, or buy advance copies of our latest releases. Be the envy of all your friends and show them the unwashed hand that shook the hand of the guys who brought you "Teen Again," "To Climb The Cliff" and "You Can't Blame Me."
2005-09-02
If you're a repeat offender, you've probably noticed that we have a new website. We started brainstorming this back in November, and ten months later we are finally finished. Anyone can throw a new coat of paint on a house, so we decided to knock down the building and start from scratch.
Included in version 2.0 are an improved cart system for easier shopping, a daily updated account of our troubled lives, a near-complete archive of all our press, and the centerpiece of the entire overhaul, the Digital Dig.
The biggest problem we sometimes face as a label is having too much content. The decision making process over which tracks make the cut and which do not are long and tedious, and sometimes really great tracks are left off because we've run out of room or time. The Digital Dig is where you'll discover the gems we tearfully triaged in the painful track-ordering process. Think of them as the footage left on the cutting-room floor.
So what is a Digital Dig? It's more than a dollar a download. It's crate digging without the dust, without the mold and without the cranky, chain-smoking, clueless check-out guy who marks everything "rare" and jacks it up another five bucks. Click on any box (currently we only have about ten boxes filled), alphabetically ordered for your convenience, and you're doing vinyl archaeology without leaving the air conditioned comfort of your desk. Or bedroom. Or bomb shelter.
Every month we'll add ten new tracks. There will be more Eccentric Soul, more Pills; more Cargo, more of everything, including some rare videos you can find here and nowhere else.
2005-08-09
This morning we received the very sad news that our dear friend Bill Moss has passed away. Bill was the first of the regional soul pioneers we approached for our Eccentric Soul series and unquestionably the most deserving of that tribute. A remarkably strong and centered man, deeply rooted in faith and family, his work as a producer and record entrepreneur stands toe to toe with the finest soul and R&B of his era. As a man committed to community service, Bill had few peers in the struggle for civil rights and justice for African-American men and women. We are deeply saddened by the loss of our friend, advisor and source of inspiration. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wonderful family and the community he served and loved so well.
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