Berkeley Cat Records – Page 17 – Berkeley Cat Records

Comeback Pete Re-Releases Anthemic “Mankind” On Berkeley Cat Records!

A very special July 4th release, here is “Mankind” by Comeback Pete! This track was recorded in 1976 and released as a single on Beserkley Records. It’s long been a favorite here at Berkeley Cat Records, and when Son Of Pete announced his return, like cats we pounced! A unique song from a unique artist, this is our Interdependence Day anthem here at BCR world headquarters.

“Mankind” has a straightforward message – Nature and mankind are one – and while it’s astonishing that humans could ever have the hubris to think otherwise, here we are, destroying the earth.

Pete has a straightforward message too – VOTE! Our web-footed friends don’t get to the polls, so it is our duty to never miss an election as fellow citizens of this planet. Pete wears it on his forehead.

Comeback Pete has a blog where you can keep up with his activities and efforts. And we’ll be releasing more music from Pete here as 2020 continues to unfold. A Beserkley Cat at Berkeley Cat!? Who woulda thunkit?! We are very proud and delighted to welcome Pete to BCR, and a little bird tells me we’ll see some other Beserkley kitties moseying in soon too!

Vote. Save the world. We can do it.

Matte Martin – Mutilate

Video and single 2 –Mutilate- from Matte Martin’s new album, “Bridge” going live in the streaming services on July 11. We’re so excited to share these previews, and proud to welcome Matte Martin to the Berkeley Cat Records fam! More to come soon about this extraordinary album, produced by the artist himself.

Russ and Bella Ellis – Apollo 11

How much am I freaking out? Oh a lot. This glowing meteor just landed in my backyard, the latest from Russ Ellis, this one featuring his granddaughter Bella. Climb aboard, strap in and put on your space helmets, kitties, cos we are blasting off to EDM pop heaven. For track 10 on this album, I am proud to present, Apollo 11! I’m over here discoing down in my Spaceman Spiff pajamas, people. I invite you to have a listen, download if you like, read Russ’s liner notes and share it to the moon!

-Dinsky

Liner notes from Russ:

Dave Ellis and Lauren Rivera blessed my wife and me with our first grandchild in the year 2000.

And what a blessing. Bodacious. Dancie. Verbal. Tuneful starting at around three.

So, in thinking about collaborations for this album, I thought of her. Bella and her father had come up with some playful collaborations over the years. I was certain she would be up for it.

When I asked her, she readily agreed. Bella suggested some possibilities from a menu of compositions she was creating in her dorm room at San Francisco State University, where she is a student in the Theater Arts Program.

We settled on Apollo 11, largely because I had just watched a PBS documentary on the mission called “Eight Days to the Moon and Back”. I reviewed the documentary for the astronauts comments that I found interesting.

Bella made a few adjustments, and her Daddy Dave mixed it. Here it is.

Lyrics:

Fly so high, up above.
Fly so high, soaring through the sky.

Apollo 11, I hear the rocket taking off.
Soaring through the sky.

Fly so high, soaring through the sky.

Apollo 11
Apollo 11
Apollo 11
Fly so high, soaring through the sky.

Apollo 11, I hear the rocket taking off.
Soaring through the sky.
Fly so high, up above.
Apollo 11

Credits:

Music: Bella Ellis
Voice: Russ Ellis & Bella Ellis

Produced by Bella Ellis and Dave Ellis at Ellis Island Studios

The Recyclists – Release B!

It’s astounding! Time is fleeting! Release B by Berkeley’s beloved Recyclists is live on all the streamingnets!

Play it on Spotify below, or click here for links to Apple or GooglePlay! Or here for Pandora! Whaaat? So many options! What is a Berkeley cat to do?

Organically grown in Berkeley with the finest locally sourced catnip, this is next level jam band chillreggaerevolutionrock! Send it to yer pals. Put it on your playlists. Dance in your kitchen or garden. We’re with you on this. Without further ado ladies and gentlemen, Berkeley Cat Records is proud to present, The Recyclists self-produced EP, Release B! Rock it!

Island Life by Eric Din

I posted an earlier mix of this just in time for the Xmas holidaze. Here it is completed and mastered for release to the Interwilds! I’ve been feeling this one anew during this social distancing time, and I hope it takes you to a nice place for a minute too. Island Life comes out in the streaming services on Caturday, May 23. Exclusively here and on BandCamp now.

ISLAND LIFE

I’ve been workin’ late on Friday night
And I’m goin’ in on Caturday
I’ve been thinkin’ bout the island light
As another summer peels away

Hanging in this curtain
Grey skies over urban
Lately my mind’s been wanderin’

To where the horizon shoulda been
Touch, but I can’t be certain,
Where it all ends I start again,

Let’s blow it off
I wanna get away
I wanna hear some music
I wanna hear ya say

All the world’s an island, life is free,
Half a million friends, but I’m lonely,
As the glaciers fall and raise the sea,
Won’t you save some island life for me?

Why can’t we all just live in peace?
Sometimes I break down in the morning and cry
Scream out in the night
Only to realize
There’s nothing in the world we can’t do
Anything we set our minds to
Maybe someday I won’t always be alone

Hanging in this curtain
Grey skies over urban
Lately my mind’s been wanderin’

Right over the silver lining
South, to the blue shining
A postcard sent home to mom

All the world’s an island, life is free,
Every day looks still more crazy,
Greta sailed the wide and open sea,
For to save some island life for she
For we

——————–

Eric Din – Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Loop Drums
Michael Urbano – Live Drums
Paul Jackson – Synths and Percussion

Recorded at Din’s house and East Bay Recorders,
by Michael Rosen and Mr. Din
Paul Jackson recorded by Paul Jackson at Paul’s house
Mixed by Matt Winegar
Mastered by Eric Din somewhere out in the woods
Cover art by Shannon Wheeler

Music and lyrics ©2019 by Eric Roy Dinwiddie,
King Roy Music, BMI

Much Better by Eric Din

The latest from Eric Din was recorded mere hours ago where he’s diligently isolated. We’re compiling a collection of Din’s more sensible comments. “Much Better” is the first entry in this exciting new log.

Much Better

Much
Better

It’s much better
It’s much better
It’s much better
Without butter

Go to your room
Calisthenics
Kook mal, Schtruppi

It’s much better
It’s much better
It’s much better
Without butter

Guaranteed in at least thirty states

It’s much better
It’s much better
It’s much better
Without butter

A gelatinous, seething tube
From outer space
They’ve come
To put us in our place

Quack quack

Guitar, voice and production by Eric Din
Artwork by Shannon Wheeler

Chicka Ding by Russ Ellis

I’m excited to announce the release of this new song from Russ Ellis. Russ told me a few weeks ago he wanted this to come out on May 1, International Workers’ Day, to which I said, “right on, let’s do it.” It’s May 1, here it is! Please share this far and wide. This is track 9 (wow!) for Russ’s album-in-progress live, Songs From The Garden. I also thought this was a good moment to share the lovely portrait of Russ by the great Judy Dater, which will be part of the CD package, fairly soon, I think! Without further ado, I invite you to have a read and a listen, to “Chicka Ding.” Thank you.

-Eric Din

UPDATE: Check out the video for this song, here!

Liner notes from Russ:

Al Marshall was another of those Bay Area kids that went to Berkeley’s Cazadero Music Camp. He and his talented family came to family camp, kids’ camp, jazz camp. As he dove into his teen years, he spent a lot of time up in Dave’s room “crankin’ jams.” So I was told.

His musicality was beyond doubt. Thinking about collaborations for this album, he was yet another of Dave’s friends that, early, came to mind. We bounced ideas around online for a while. Highly motivated, I sent Al many, many borderline-absurd Voice Memo’s trying to capture my idea for the piece. (It is only recently that I learned from Al the amount of time he spent cracking-up at these e-sillies, until —he says— he saw how they advanced his understanding of my idea for the enterprise).

Then I spent a couple of long sessions at the big, funky studio in the basement of his Oakland home. I left him with the chicka ding chant, some squawks, burps, shouts, pronouncements and the responsibility of finding a groove that matched my political intentions for the song.

When he successfully put it all together, he handed it off to David for tweaking & mixing. Happily, my daughter Zoe decided she wanted to play and included her daughter, Lily.

If, somehow, one young person is moved to vote in November in the direction this suggests, I will rest in peace.

Chicka Ding.

Lyrics

Rich man with your appetites,
Gonna bite you. Gonna bite
Poor man eatin’ race for lunch
You’re starvin’. You’re wasted.
You need to eat some real food.

Listen fool.
Divide and rule.
That’s what they do.
Let’s change that.

<a href="http://russellis.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-the-garden">Songs From The Garden by Russ Ellis</a>

Russ Ellis: Voice
Al Marshall: Music
Zoe and Lily Ellis: Voice

Mixed by Dave Ellis @ Ellis Island Studio

References

“Eleven/Twenty Twenty” – The presidential election.
“MacVout” – Slim Gaillard
“Rope-a-dope” – Muhammad Ali
“So, How’s This Set Up?” – Robert Reich
“Alreet” – Cab Calloway (via Geordie slang?).
“Oo, She tee-nincie” – Greta Thunberg.
“Bubba Shoop Shoop” – “Get ready.” Neologism created for this tune.