Saturday, November 9, 2013

Blenders - Daughter b/w Everybody's Got A Right



"Daughter" seems to get comped a lot and is a sweet enough tune, but "Everybody's Got A Right" is a such raving gem, a message of tolerance and unity driven home with great energy and goosebump-hatching falsetto in its last 40 seconds.

I may disapprove of what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang - Jewish and Israeli Favorites



One of the choicier acts from that trusty staple of thrift-bin sub-sub-subspecies, the all-harmonica ensemble.

Tzena, Tzena

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

EX- - Stop/Don't EP


Very cool and nearly unknown 1982 collab between Gong-meister Daevid Allen and fellow Australian composer and improviser David Tolley. The music is a queasy meeting of post-punk, sequencer-hewn electropop and stream-of-consciousness lyrics exposing the absurd and grotesque elements of the everyday. Small shame about some scratches audible for the first minute, but this is apparently limited to 3000 copies, and definitely worth a share.



Somehow, I managed to lose the fist track. I'll try to rip it again soon, but for now here's the rest: STOP/DON'T

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Charles Brauer - Home & Away LP

Awhile back my friend Kyle asked me to make a digital rip of this 1982 private press LP as a favor to his uncle, who was a good friend of the musician, who has since passed away. A very homespun pastiche of traditional folk, country, and bluegrass sounds interspersed with readings of Brauer's own poems and stories. The songs have a warm and relaxed atmosphere with Brauer's guitar and vocals joined in places by a revolving group including fiddle, banjo, mandolin, string bass, and clarinet. I've found almost no information on the internet, except that he appears to have made at least 2 other very rare albums, Out in the Open (1972), and Blue Sky & Scraped Knuckles (1974). I'd love to hear those if anyone has them.

Home and Away

Friday, October 18, 2013

Re-ups...again

New links for all posts are up now, with more vinyl rips forthcoming, I promise!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Guilloteens - Hey You! b/w I Don't Believe



Pretty killer 1965 waxing by Memphis garage 3-piece The Guilloteens. "Hey You!" is an early Kinks-as-fuck punker, while "I Don't Believe" is a bit of tambourine-paced folk-rock with soulful harmonies.

HEY YOU

Monday, September 2, 2013

Capitol Custom Media Music Release No. 3, Record No. 5: "World Of Technology"

Basically no info at all on this production/library music record, which I found earlier this year along with 20 or so others from the same series, in addition to a slew of unique radio promos, sound effects records, and various programming lead-ins, queues, and background spots. All long abandoned, unearthed from a warehouse and sold to me in bulk prices (maybe 20 cents per record all told) by a cheerfully disinterested individual happy to be unburdened of the wax trappings.

The sometimes anonymously-authored jams on the Capital Media Music series shift in theme from record to record, but generally flit between lite cocktail jazz, exotica, and orchestral pop, with some quirky arrangements in places. "World Of Technology" is one of my favorites of the bunch, evoking Percocet-limned images of a campy, spotless, Jetsons-style future. Compositions on this particular record are credited to Ib Glindemann.

Mechanical Fanfare

Trumpets Of Zion - Weak Situation b/w Dry Bones

So, why did I stop doing this, again?

Can't quite remember, some combination of laziness and cowardice I guess.

In any case, all the old posts have been re-upped and I'm back with a crapload of swell records to rip. First up is a gospel platter from Trumpets Of Zion on H.O.B. Records of Detroit, MI. Couldn't find a date on this label discography, but the topical references in the lyrics of "Weak Situation" seem to indicate late 60's.

Here

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Mabuses - The Mabuses (1991)



Wonderful little-known gem released stateside on the usually-interesting (sometimes quite amazing) Shimmy Disc label, and in the UK on Rough Trade (same words apply here too). With some trepidation one might call it well-produced psychedelic pop with an early-90's bent, but these are meticulously crafted songs with a hyperactive melodic sense and strange, evocative lyrics (sometimes warbled slightly out of the realms of my perception, making them that much more compelling) that really do seem to exist in a place all their own. In fact, the only other record I could compare it to would be the excellent Fahy-Harley-Kramer one-off Egomaniacs, an album whose songs would also seem primarily penned by Mabuses songwriter Kim Fahy and which I'll also try to rip eventually.

According to Wikipedia there's one more album from the early 90's as well as a 2007 effort, which I'm definitely going to make an effort to hear in the future.

HEAR THE MABUSES

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

Mosaic - Mosaic LP



Some kinda blissed-out 8-piece jazz-fusion ensemble (alright, you already know if you'll be downloading this or not) that might have been based in Champaign, IL. Adventurous enough with its formula-meddling forays into funk, latin grooves, progressive rock and some choice bits vaguely reminiscent of Grand Wazoo-era Zappa.

MOSAIC

Friday, January 14, 2011

Supporting Actress - An elegant tease with report



Quite an interesting band that was loosely based in Normal, IL for a short time around 1995-97 (I think) before splintering off into various other projects and pathways. I befriended a couple of the folks in the band and was impressed at the enthusiasm and creativity with which they pursued every aspect of the whole DIY lifestyle matrix thingy. Steven, the guitarist, seemed to devote every waking minute to either playing in what seemed like a million different bands and recording projects, running a cassette/record label, distributing strange little zines and self-published books, relentlessly networking (ah the days of snail mail and megalithic long distance telephone bills) and just generally trying to share and instigate community in any way possible.

This 7" has three songs that I still enjoy though to this day I have no idea what half the lyrics mean. Incredible use of a Frank Sinatra painting on the back cover! They also recorded a fine CD, which I should dig out and listen to one of these days.

Dirty fingers working in the garage
new link, sorry 'bout the fuckup

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Country Girl Kay - Life is Not a Bed of Roses b/w Arkansas Boogie



Super crackly and hiss-y goodness on this ancient mystery slab about which I know nothing, except that it turned out to be the dusty prize lining the bottom of a box of mostly abysmal country 45's purchased at a garage sale in Cortland, Illinois. Who is this Country Girl Kay and what's her story? The internet yields nothing, and a Google image search is probably a bad idea depending on your taste in rural-themed smut. I would love any information if anyone has the slightest clue. Until then all we're left with is two simple and enjoyable ditties of unadorned singing and picking.

boogie woogie down the line

Many thanks to the anonymous reader who pointed me in the direction of this obituary:

Country Girl Kay is Helen Evelyn (Kay) Smith Whittaker Gardner.
March 7, 1923 - March 12, 2002
Born in Missouri. Died in Washington (state).

Kay and her sister Wanda grew up as country singers, and were regular performers on KWTO in Springfield, Missouri ("The Smith Sisters"). Wanda met and married singer Ted Henderson and they went on to perform and tour as the country duo "Wanda and Ted."

Ted introduced Kay to Carson Jack Whittaker, a Livingston Montana singer who was looking for a duet partner. The two traveled the US, performing as a duo, and in the 1940s they married, eventually moving back to Montana. Carson Jack then gave up performing to became Kay's manager, and she was soon billed Country Girl Kay. They formed the Whitkay record label during this time (recording at Valtron Studios in Helena). Carson Jack was murdered July 1964, while hitchhiking near Afton, Wyoming. According to media coverage of the crime, when the accused shooter was discovered, he had in his possession a suitcase containing "unpublished songs" written by Kay.

(The Whitkay recordings were all made before 1964, as Kay did not record after her husband's death - but the exact year the singles were made is not determined).

Kay stayed in Montana, and later married Bill Gardner, who moved the couple to Cutbank. In 1975 Bill passed away and she moved to Kalispell, where she taught music, and performed locally.

In 1999 she relocated to Washington state, to be closer to her son. She died in a nursing home in Spokane, and is buried in Buffalo, Missouri.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Frank Gay and the Gayblades - Hades b/w Down Bound Train



As the amorous inscription on the record above indicates, ol' Eddie might not have been much at spelling, but he certainly knew his stuff when it came to kickass instrumentals.

I also dig the vocal side in a slightly hokey b-movie theme song sort of way.

Hades

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Teengenerate Twofer




Two absolutely freakin insane slabs of Japanese punk and roll.

go ape