Osiris

 Artist: Osiris

LP: Since Before Our Time

Song: "Consistency"

[ listen ]

Born and raised in Washington, DC in the 1950s, Osiris Marsh's career got started in high school when he performed with the doo-wop group The Stridells (who obliterated rival doo-woppers The Love Tones in the East High talent show, by the way). In 1977 his group Osiris rose from the ashes of The Family, another group he'd helped form just the year before. Osiris released their first LP in 1978, and their "Consistency" single peaked at #77 on Billboard's R&B singles charts. You can read more about Osiris Marsh on Miss Funkyflyy's website here, and go here for info on Osiris the Egyptian god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead. You can "like" Osiris Marsh on Facebook here and find photos, lyrics, and info from the "Since Before Our Time" LP included below.

Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band w/ The Rootettes

Artist: Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band w/ The Rootettes

LP: Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band w/ The Rootettes
Song: "I'm Not Too Old For You"
[ listen ]

And here's something to represent the third and final (though it was actually the first I visited) of the three basement record shops I scrounged around in during my trip to Washington, DC last week. The clerk at this one [Crooked Beat Records] told me that Root Boy Slim had been a local musical sensation in the DC area in the late '70s, after graduating from Yale and forming a band. You can read all about Root Boy Slim [here] and then you can read even more interesting and scandalous details [here].