04.10 vinyl podcast - Incredible Bongo Band
On this show I play “Apache” by the Incredible Bongo Band, from their 1973 album Bongo Rock. The Incredible Bongo Band was a vanity project of Michael Viner, an executive at MGM records and head of its Pride subsidiary. Viner was a bongo player, and he got various session musicians together to record in spare studio time purchased by the label. None of the players are credited on this particular album, but it’s been assumed that one of the percussionists is King Erisson, in addition to Michael Viner, and there’s a rumored cameo by Ringo Starr.
As you might imagine, this lp features eight percussion-heavy tracks, mostly covers. At its worst, the group sounds like a cross between a marching band and a cheesy big band, but at its best, the percussion breaks are rock solid and funky. My general feeling is that Apache, the Incredible Bongo Band’s cover of the Shadows song, often veers toward the cheesy, but I long ago ceased to be a reliable critic of this song. It all sounds good to me, because I know what’s coming a little more than two minutes into the song, one of the funkiest and most iconic drum breaks I’ve ever heard. These drums were a staple of early hip hop, played in the parks by Afrika Bambaata, covered by Sugar Hill Gang, and sampled over and over again, and I just love them. So, do me a favor, bear with this track for a couple of minutes, or, if it’s just too much to bear, fast forward a little.
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April 10th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Sorry… cheesy just about says it all. Even with the drum break. Blech.
April 10th, 2005 at 9:25 pm
Hate to break it to you, but this song isn’t as obscure as you might think. Fatboy Slim used this very track to open his “On the Floor at the Boutique” mix CD. A fun song, nonetheless.
April 11th, 2005 at 3:35 am
cheesy my a**…….this is classic stuff
April 11th, 2005 at 5:53 am
Marc, at least you can’t say I didn’t warn you. They can’t all be funky flute, I guess.
Devin, as I mentioned in the podcast, the song has been sampled dozens of times, and it’s a crate staple of many hip hop and electronica djs. The song and the album are well known, but they’re still not that easy to come by.
T Money, glad you have the same nostalgia for this track that I do!
April 11th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
I know this track intimately, but had always known it as Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band and could never find this track. This might be one of my favorite all time tracks! I should just have asked my main soul man Cody… What was I thinking?
April 12th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
[...] ps too. Apache (via Stereogum) Strangely this weeks Vinyl Podcast also features the song Apache for this weeks song. [...]
April 14th, 2005 at 7:24 am
I am pretty sure the Beastie Boys have used that little spanish-sounding guitary part before. I think it was on the live version of “Root Down” from the Tibetan Freedom Concert set realeased a few years back.
April 14th, 2005 at 7:25 am
The part just before the drum break
April 14th, 2005 at 10:44 am
Apache is the shizzle!
April 18th, 2005 at 10:37 am
great stuff - a couple ideas however:
1) play whole albums!
2) offer he “dj” info as text online or in an rss feed, not as voiceover
thanks
April 20th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
Bah! I like your style my man keep on talking like a champ!
April 20th, 2005 at 5:58 pm
Yeah, I have so many long podcasts on my computer (Funtime Ben’s included), it’s nice to have a quick 6 or 7-minute one I can breeze through!
April 21st, 2005 at 9:32 am
http://soul-sides.com/2005/04/all-roads-lead-to-apache.html
You guys might like this Apache feature on soul-sides.
April 25th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
http://viritys.1g.fi/apache.mpg
‘Nuff said/seen.
April 26th, 2005 at 4:44 am
I have this on many formats. It’s a beginners break, so to speak, but even so, listening to it never ceases to give my neck a rest. One of the greatest drum parts for real. F- all that bullsh*t. It’s about good music. And for the record, I don’t find it cheezy at all. I even enjoy the country sounding part. YehaaH!!!!
Anyway, you made Adam Curry rapp. That was some funny ish.
May 21st, 2005 at 5:29 am
The whole LP is a gas. I do have this on CD, shockingly enough. It was released by Dove Audio (mostly they release books-on-tape, but they have done a few weird music titles), and I’m sure it is out of print as well. But if you need a CD of it, it’s out there somewhere.
Now how’s about some Preston Epps??????