Every now and then Big Tony Janda will send out these mixes that he does. There's nothing technically fancy going on with them - they're usually just a collection of songs sans a track list - and they will brandish cryptic titles like "Four on the Floor," "Tread Nightly," or my favorite, "Wade Boggs." But they are reliably great. Because Tony - who hails from Chicago but now resides in New Mexico - has great taste in soul music, and thus as you'd expect, a great collection of 45s.
In the days after a mix goes out if I happen to roll by Big City, Jared or Chris will inevitably be playing it in the store and we'll compare notes on what songs we know/don't know/know-and-wish-we-had/don't-know-and-wish-we-had etc. It's through Tony's mixes that I've gotten familiar with stuff like the Quantrells' "Can't Let You Break My Heart," Guitar Ray's deep depression gem "You're Gonna Wreck My Life," Eddie & Ernie's "Bullets Don't Have Eyes" (early on, before the 45 reissue), and an alternate version of Willie Tee's "First Taste of Hurt" that I never knew existed and would really, really, really like to have for myself. (Really.)
Tony makes his return to NYC this weekend. In between attempting to score Subway Series tickets, or going bowling he will play excellent soul music at Bumpshop. If you can't make the gig (or even if you can) you can always check out his fine "Thermal Pain" podcast mix from the Daptone Records' site, here.
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