ERNIE & EDDIE + MENAHAN STREET BAND: MORE 7s posted by O.W.

Eddie & Ernie: Snippet Medley
From: "Bullets Don't Have Eyes" b/w "These Very Tender Moments"
+ "Bullets Don't Have Eyes" b/w "You Make My Life a Sunny Day" (Daptone, 2009)
(All three songs also available on Lost Friends.

Menahan Street Band: Snippet Medley
From: "The Wolf" b/w "Bushwick Lullaby" (Daptone, 2009)

I've been meaning to post about the Eddie and Ernie 7" for a while - the A-side is one helluva soul jam from the early '70s - explosive right out the gate with those horns and one of the more memorable titles you'll come across (bullets, indeed, don't have eyes. Or any other facial features!) The pic cover 45 comes with a beautiful heartbreak ballad on the flip, "These Very Tender Moments," originally from 1967. Ernie Johnson and Eddie Campbell were originally a duo out of Phoenix but apparently were impressive journeymen around the U.S. R&B circuit during the '60s and '70s.

The group is so nice, Daptone put out "Bullets" twice, the second copy being a website exclusive with a new B-side, "You Make My Life a Sunny Day" which was a previously unreleased track, discovered by the folks at Kent in the studios of San Francisco's Loadstone (if this sounds familiar at all, it's because Jacqueline Jones put this song out, also on Loadstone). Great, great, great tune.

Meanwhile, the folks at the Menahan Street Band have a new 7" out, not available on anything except 7" (more reason for you to get that record player). The MSB and Budos Band join forces here (which makes sense since Tom "TNT" Brenneck is a member of the latter and creator of the former. As a result, that MSB sound gets a Ethio-makeover on both sides for a mellow, hypnotic ride. A nice little slice of instrumental soul to tide things over until that Charles Bradley LP is ready.

(And that reminds me, the long-awaited Lee Fields album is coming soon, stay tuned).