We're sure many of you are familiar with the eccentric ukulele playing, helium-voiced singer Tiny Tim from his surprising successes in the 1960s. Most view the man as nothing more than a novelty act, which may be easy to understand if you think "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and Laugh-In is where the story begins and ends. But Tiny Tim (born Herbert Khaury) was more than just some flash in the pan weirdo, and one thing this compilation makes abundantly clear is that he WAS indeed a highly talented musician. Born in 1932, Tiny had been an avid listener and player of a wide variety of music since his youth. These recordings, many thought to have been lost, span his pre-fame years in the early '60s Greenwich Village scene to his post-fame comedown in the '70s. The range of material here will be surprising to many, and the songs are wisely sequenced without regard to their recording dates to demonstrate this more clearly.
The falsetto vocals are featured on many tracks, sure, but Tiny Tim also possessed an impressive and dramatic croon, while the instrumentation goes way beyond the sparse ukulele accompaniment, even going into some bombastic orchestral arrangements like in "I Ain't Got No Money". When "Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes" follows in the style most people associate with Tiny Tim, his unique genius and skill as a musical interpreter become more obvious. Elsewhere, like on his arrangement of "Maggie May", things are played impressively on piano and delivered in a mushmouthed old man voice. He also completely KILLS with a spooky, Halloween-y rendition of the oft-covered classic "In The Pines". Listened to together, it's all pretty hilarious, not as some joke, but because one man was capable of being not only incredibly strange but also so endearing and highly listenable. The sound quality here is murky, but in a good way, lending a strange out-of-time feel to many of these songs, which makes sense considering this comes to us via the same label that released Michael Yonkers' Goodby Sunball album. We expected to dig this for sure, but really had no idea just how much this stuff would rule. Highly recommended.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Includes extensive and super interesting liner notes from Tiny Tim historian/biographer Justin Martell.
Now, if you read our list regularly, or look at the tags on the cds in the store, you know that we at AQ tend to use the word "ridiculous" (in a good way) quite a lot. And we're also partial to the, again positively-meant, term "fucked". We use these words
Yann Tomita's "An Adventure Of Inevitable Chance" is either a genius work of audio pastiche or a complete put on (or both). To begin with, the album opens with an academic-sounding lecture telling us that Tomita's music is a completely synthetic re-creation of a number of established genres. Yet the musical examples illustrating these genres do not match up. For example, their idea of "Acid Rock" is a banal karaoke lounge tune, and "Country" is represented by what seems to be an excerpt from Sun Ra's "Space Is The Place"! Also, this is supposed to be a live concert from 1993 (with no overdubs, we're told), but...is it? Certainly it would be an amazing, disorienting one, as this disc moves track-by-track through propulsive early-Kraftwerk electronics, simple violin plucking augmented by analog delays, Carl Stalling / Martin Denny exotica, Cornelius-esque whimsy-rock, Barney Miller / Night Court TV show theme style jazzfunk, radio tunings and sputterings, and late '80s cheesy electric dub! Oh, two of the tracks are John Cage pieces, including a not-quite silent version of 4'33"... It's all so unexpected and unfathomable, while often being amazingly quirky and catchy. Tomita claims that his work has influenced countless musicians, DJs, journalists, and fans alike. Some of you may recognize his name from his remix on the Boredoms' Super Roots 8! For those of us who have just encounted his work for the first time here, he claims that he has "influenced you subliminally as well." In the booklets (there's two) you'll find much more to puzzle over (like the catalog of other Tomita releases, including a 7" record with a doughnut on top of it, and a 12" with an ashtray in the shape of a miniature steel drum...there are photos). Oh, in possibly the most brilliantly ridiculously fucked move EVER, this disc is actually packaged as a double cd -- but one of the discs (entitled "Heart Beat") is made of cardboard! (Thus making it unplayable for those of us with *normal* cd players). Odd is an understatement. We're thinking now that if we've judged our customers right, odds are we'll have to try and order more of these pronto...
Some of us are shocked that there's a volume two, collecting still more of the cracked electronic soul pop lo-fi disco of mysterious YouTube phenom Tonetta, but then, there are plenty of folks, like most of us here, that have been waiting for another volume. Why you might ask? Why indeed. Not sure we can describe Tonetta better than we did in the review of the first volume, so probably better to just revisit:
"We were trying to find a simple succinct way of describing Tonetta, and decided to turn to the online source for all things freaky, Freakipedia (oddly enough there was no entry for Tonetta on Wikipedia) where Tonetta's entry described him as "an incredibly gay older man on YouTube who dances half naked to songs he pre-recorded. While most of the music sounds the same in his videos, his lyrics largely differ dealing with sexual fetishes such as pissing and pooping, larger women and men, and ass to mouth." Which does pretty much sum it up. Tonetta dresses in strange ripped Flashdance style outfits, g-strings, torn sweatshirts, bustiers, weird masks, sometimes pantyhose over his head, wigs, dresses, whatever, sometimes he's practically nude, he shimmies and shakes, in a diamond shaped frame surrounded by trippy colors, in front of a backdrop that looks like it's probably in his basement, white curtains, a black sheet hung on the wall and/or a bunch of balloons."
Wow huh? It's definitely weird stuff, but it's engendered a bit of a crazy obsession among all sorts of music lovers, ourselves included. And you'll know how you feel the second you hear it. The songs are super simple, usually, just one or two parts, drum machines, looped samples, disco basslines, all lo-fi and distorted, alternatingly groovy, psychedelic, stumbling and damaged, tripped out and funky, sometimes a head spinning collision of all of those. The song titles, like on the first volume, speak, well, volumes: "Hot Little Fuck, "G+B Showers", "Rape Victim", "Doin A Dyke Tonight", "Picking On Lennon", "Ultimate Whore", "Daddys Little Boy", "Big Rig", "Death Sentence", you get the drift.
It's warped, and bizarre, demented, and weird as all get out, but it's also surprisingly catchy, and a bit irresistible, and while you may scoff now, once you get an earful you might find yourself as obsessed as the rest of us. Don't believe us? Check out the sound samples, or better yet, go watch a few Tonetta vids on YouTube, and then come back for this (and volume one!) when you're ready!
Super fancy packaging, thick silkscreeened jacket, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, printed full color inner sleeve, pressed on nice heavy vinyl, and includes a cd that features all the tracks on the lp PLUS two bonus tracks.
Not to be confused with Doug Martsch's amazing nineties outfit, the Treepeople, -these- Tree People are equally amazing, but are a whole different proposition.
This disc was originally released as a super limited lp way back in 1979 and managed to quietly disappear. Now, here we are nearly three decades later, and whattaya know? There's a whole movement of modern free folk, 'freak' folk and the like, and if you didn't know better, pretty sure we could pass this off as some strange super limited cd-r by some modern folk revivalists. But keen ears would certainly be able to tell. This is so entirely original (especially for the time) and genuine sounding. Mostly acoustic guitars, flute and vocals, the Tree People had two distinct sounds, the first, a lilting melancholy moonlit folk, like Cat Stevens or Van Morrison, a gorgeous lazy drawl, rich and lustrous, over simple folk and fluttering flutes, dreamy and gorgeous, sounding like some lost folk classic one minute, a strange "Girl From Ipanema" style shuffle the next. But even at it's sweetest and softest, the record seems to always have a hint of melancholy, sometimes even a trace of ominous foreboding. Which definitely gives the songs a subtly dark undercurrent. The majority of the record however is spent in full on hippy jam mode. Very Comus-like at times (especially on track two, "Sliding"), wild steel string excursions, dense tangles of fingerpicked melodies and aggressive strummed riffs, with a definite raga like vibe, all over a smattering of hand drums and tablas, a glorious drifting buzzing steel string dronefolk, that just sounds so incredibly timeless. Elsewhere, the same jams evolve into more tranquil acoustic dreaminess, with the flutes floating over sweet lilting melodies, but even then, the songs will be peppered with sudden bursts of buzzing slide guitar, or brief squalls of atonal fingerpicking. SO cool. And considering the current love of all things freaky and folky, it's sort of amazing that stuff like this was already being made 27 years ago!
Obviously, fans of the current crop of modern folk troubadours will find this absolutely essential, Devandra, Vetiver, Espers, Newsom, whatever your particular poison, the Tree People will fit in frighteningly well. Hard to say whether it speaks to the prescience of the Tree People, or just to how much these modern bands have actually been 'borrowing'. Either way, this is absolutely essential.
Packaged in a super deluxe Japanese miniature gatefold style cd sleeve, with a printed obi, and extensive liner notes in English and Japanese!
By their very nature, Moog records are inherently goofy. And to a certain degree, to modern ears, the Moog keyboard too just sounds kind of silly. There's probably not a Moog record, commercial or otherwise, that would convince the Moog haters out there otherwise. You either love that instantly recognizable sound or you don't. The other possibility is that somehow, you've never heard a Moog (or at least didn't realize you had since, those pesky Moogs pop up all over the place!) and in that case, it's a record like this that might just open your eyes and blow your mind.
That's the other thing with Moogs, it's what you do with them and how you use them. Plenty of modern outfits use Moogs, and in those groups the sounds they conjure up are more textural, thick undulating slabs of analog buzz and bleep, space rock is and has always been all over the Moog, but when it was first introduced, as a modern sound making synthesizer, people's first response was of course to try all sorts of applications, one was bound to strike a chord with the record buying public. So thus there was a glut of 'popular music played on the Moog' records, everything from top 40 to soul to rock and roll, and yes country.
Which brings us to Gil Trythall, an academic who ended up achieving a modest bit of fame (or infamy) for his renditions of classic country tunes, performed on the Moog, and collected on two volumes: Country Moog: Switched On Nashville, and Nashville Gold: Switched On Moog, both released in the first few years of the seventies.
Before these records, Trythall was a musical academic, creating experimental sound and performance pieces, music concrete, using light shows and tape manipulation, film projections, and all manner of sounds. He was convinced to try his hand at a record of country Moog renditions, and thus spent months buying 45s and painstakingly creating new sounds and his own version of classic country jams, and these are the results. And they are pretty fantastic, lots of faves, here transformed into something much more futuristic, at least seventies futuristic, anyone into Perrey & Kingsley know exactly what we mean. The rhythms and the tones of the Moog are so immediately recognizable, the sound warm and warbly, but also mysterious and magical, and just a little bit robotic, this disc opens with the Moog-ified "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and it's a rapid fire totally silly, Moog jam, you can almost picture this as the soundtrack to some wacky montage where everyone's moving in fast forward (in fact elsewhere on this disc, Trythall tackles "Yakety Sax", better known as the Benny Hill theme, here transformed into "Yakety Moog"). The tones are clipped and relentless, woven into an alien robotic hoedown. Right after that there's Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", with vocodered / Moog-ed vocals, and some buzzy crunchy Moog leads. "Harper Valley P.T.A." gets a woozy warbly makeover, "Orange Blossom Special" sound almost like a countrified ELP jam, and Trythall's version of "Wichita Lineman" is surprisingly sweet and easy listening-ish, the Moog muted and subtle, not difficult to imagine this as the music for some love scene in a Spike Jonez movie or something.
And so it goes. Moog obsessives, fans of exotica and incredibly strange music freaks have probably been after these discs for ages, for everyone else, this is some wild wonderful, fun and funny stuff. And as with everything Omni puts out (like recent record of the week Plantation Gold, which this fits right in with as a weird country record), beautifully packaged with extensive liner notes and rare photos and artwork.
1977 high schol music in spirit of Langley Musci project and Classroom music.
Twink is back! No, not the psychedelic band from the '60s, but perhaps just as trippy and mind-melting. This Bostonian (aka Mike Langlie) is a mad wizard of utterly tweaked and twisted toy piano based compositions (self-dubbed toytronica)! Some tracks on A Very Fine Adventure are dark and sorta menacing like a theme to some cartoon villain, while others are so deliriously toothsome and playful you'd swear cream soda flowed in their veins. Delight to the sounds of Mr. Langlie tickling the tiny ivories, and then masticating them artfully into some sheer madness that'll surely appeal to fans of Bruce Haack, Raymond Scott and Quintron!
Each Twink release is packaged in an imaginative eye-catching way, and this one is no exception! It comes in an adorable diecut sleeve featuring bunnies, fishies, candy canes and an octopus! Recommended for anyone whose inner child is allowed to come out and play!
Who doesn't become a giddy, drool-y kid again when they hear the chiming melodies of an approaching ice cream truck? You should've seen Cup last summer when she was out in Michigan. The jingle jangle came drifting in through an open window, and she was out the door in a flash! Well, Twink's Mike Langlie is ensuring that you have those delightful sounds sans the calories all year round. Oooh, does that make him cruel or cool? Cue sound of mad scientist laughter. Heh heh. On its candy coated surface, Langlie's music is downright cavity inducing child's view twinkliness, but much like Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory if you look a little closer you'll discover a darker, black humor encrusted side... and we love it! For this particular project, Langlie recorded a bunch of toy piano tunes and gave 'em out to his music makin' friends -- Ergo Phizmiz, Mochipet, Don Limpio, Mister Softee, Rainbow Maze, MNK, Moon Holiday, Jason Dragon among others -- to do with them how ever they pleased (i.e, remix, rearrange and/or rework 'em). Despite the varied participants, the nineteen tracks flow together well, and are all named after delectable frozen treats and flavors such as "Scooter Pie", "Rocky Road", "Slush Bunny", "Softee" and "Nutty Buddy". The one exception both title-wise and sound-wise is "Ice Cream Headache", the comparatively aggro number that closes the album. Seemingly armed with popsicle sticks and plastic spoons, its buzzing blasts of electric guitars tackle the toy pianos leaving a trail of hot fudge, cone crumbs and sprinkles behind. Recommended.
Move over DJ Shadow! Outta the way Cut Chemist! Same goes for all of the rest of you vinyl collagists! Twink (aka AQ pal Mike Langlie) has returned with his thoroughly engaging follow-up to last year's delightful triple 3" cd set of pling-plong music, The Toy Box. Always lovingly and artfully packaged and always with some sort of initial seemingly children's theme, each Langlie release has been very different from the next. You might also recall the cute bunny book with cd combo from a few years back. This new cd is no exception! Now, when you think of a broken record, don't ya think of a needle stuck maddeningly in a repeating groove just waiting to be swatted off the turntable? Well, this Broken Record is far from repetitive. In fact, it'll probably keep you glued to your stereo speaker in anticipation of the next playfully entertaining morsel of which there are a generous twenty one! Meticulously pieced together from vintage novelty and children's records, it's already drawn plenty of tingling attention when it's been played in the store. The Broken Record should definitely cause fans of John Oswald / Plunderphonics, Negativland, and DJ mash-uppers alike to sit up and take notice. For kids of all ages... really. It's a super trip! Released on Negativland's label. Recommended!
Good things come in threes, and this new release by Twink (aka AQ's dear Bostonian pal Mike Langlie and co.) is the proof in the puddin'! Three lil' three inch cds in a wee cardboard box! One features seven tunes played on a pling plong. In case you're wonderin' "What the heck is that?" Well, according to the liner notes it is "a small mechanical instrument resembling the innards of a music box. Pieces are composed for it by punching holes in long cards, and feeding the cards through the instrument by turning a handle. The card's holes trigger metallic tines to produce notes." Another disc is titled "Small Sound All Around" and contains eight delirious, circus-y songs played on an array of uncommon sound makers such as toy sitar, toy pianos and bamboo xylophone, as well as some slightly more common ones such as contrabass clarinet, melodica, ukulele, chimes and mandolin, and finally the totally common guitars, bass, trumpet and keyboards. The third 3" is a particular fave of a few of us around here right now. It's called "Welcome To The Jingle" and yes, its highlight is the cello'n'chimes cover of "Enter Sandman"! Oh and to top it all off there's also a wee picture book starring the same bunny from Twink's last release which was a delightfully twisted children-style picture book with cd. We have a limited number of the triple 3" box set version, but if / when we run out there is also a single 5" cd version as well.
Please note: this is not the '60s UK psych band of the same name!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Sometimes it's hard to keep up with the output of Italian '60s/'70s groovedelica reissue label Easy Tempo. Fortunately this release didn't escape our notice, 'cause it's super great. Italian composer Piero Umiliani has been the subject of numerous reissues and compilations as his "space age bachelor pad" music is finding a newer audience 30 years after it was created. And while the sticker on the cd reminds you that Umiliani's experimental synthesizer (moog, mostly) pop material can favorably be compared to the exotica of Martin Denny, the '60s rock of Jefferson Airplane, and jazz a la Ellington, we're here to tell you that at times the music sounds utterly contemporary, as modern and fresh and full of original ideas as any new "electronica" artist out there. In fact, the electronic material is so clean and avant sounding that we are instantly reminded of Krautrock pioneers Cluster and Neu. You heard me--Cluster. Yeah, it's that good! Not that it's all super serious or anything -- there's a great version of "Caravan" on here worthy of Perrey & Kingsley. Highly recommended!
Even if we weren't already Umiliani fans, we'd have been sold on this from the cover art alone - the painting looks a bit like a still from some psychedelic science-fantasy animation, like La Planete Sauvage, and the creature in the foreground with the one big eye reminds us of a 'minion' from Despicable Me wearing a black leather/latex bondage suit! So there's that. And, there's the music - also cool and strange and not that far removed from La Planete Sauvage stuff either. This album, which was originally released circa 1980 (supposedly, though some sources state '81, and others 1976), was made by Italian soundtrack/library music composer Piero Umiliani, here operating under the "band" name Moggi. We've always loved Umiliani, best known for his nonsense hit "Mah Na Mah Na", made more famous by the Muppets. He's a 'Space Age Bachelor Pad' music maestro, and here, with drums, bass and hella Moog, gets especially spacey, these retro-futuristic ditties approaching kraut-electronica status (a la Cluster), often sounding quite ahead of their time. It's a real wondrous romp of experimental synthesizer poppiness, chock a block with quirky, groovy instrumentals, squelchy and super-catchy and synthed out to the max, with mesmeric melodies, percolating percussion and other splashes of jazziness along with the avant-garde electronics and FX. Utterly delightful.
First time reissued on vinyl, limited to 500 copies, and goin' fast - in fact, we can't be sure if we'll be able to get more at all when we run out. (Oh, and nice label name, by the way!)
OK, what would you think if we told you that this record is basically some white guy, sounds like he's in his forties, doing caffine fueled, stream-of-conciousness, foul-mouthed beat poetry backed by jazzy, exotic music? His intellectual macho rants are full of '60s references ("I know who killed Kennedy. It was Ladybird Johnson. She was the only one with the guts to do it.") and surreal stories (there's a whole story about yeti hunters) and other conspiritorial strangeness. He makes very little sense, talking his own brand of hep jive, spewing bile all the while.
So the question is, is this a parody? Or really meant to be taken seriously? Well perhaps not the latter, since Uncle Jim is apparently Alan Bishop of the notoriously confusional Sun City Girls, who are on hand to provide that background music, along with others including Porest. Of course even if you convince yourself that it's some sort of joke, that doesn't mean it's that funny or that you'd want to listen to it. So maybe it's better to decide that this IS actual serious poetry and if you work hard enough to "get it" it'll be brilliant. Or it's just something for hardcore collectors of everything by Alvarius B, Sir Richard Bishop and Charles Gocher, though presumably you all already got the previously issued limited edition vinly version of this...
I know we always talk about records being "the weirdest ever" or "the most retarded ever" or the ubiquitous "so fucked", but any band we ever said that about before, must now take a step back, give up the crown, and bow before the new masters of the weird, the retarded, the fucked and the supremely damaged and demented. Dutch black metallers Urfaust carry the blackened torch of ultra cult, totally personal, and weird as fuck black metal into infinity with this record. Imagine an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, ducking into a Karaoke bar, only to discover that the back up band is Burzum or Woodtemple or some other stumbling droney black metal outfit, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in a ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones. Sometimes the music kicks up a notch into a pounding Viking style shanty, and the vocals follow right along, spat out in beligerent slurred shout / growl, and punctuated by occasional grunts and wild warbling wooooooaaaaahhhh's. The vocals occasionally get even weirder, becoming a wild banshee like falsetto shriek before slipping back into that campy warbly croon. Sounds goofy and it is, but it's also totally compelling and emotional, dark and weirdly wonderfully creepy. And these songs are strangely catchy and will totally get stuck in your head. Every once in a while since we got this in, I'll find myself humming something to myself trying to figure out what it is only to realize it's Urfaust! Holy shit! How often does that happen? With some demented BM band?! As if that wasn't enough, toward the end of the record things get REALLY weird. The second to last track is an extended mournful epic, just minor key strings, majestic and sorrowful, a slowly shifting doomscape, and the vocals fit perfectly here, like a damned and doomed heartbroken shell of a man, standing alone at the edge of the world, staring into the abyss wailing and moaning his anguish, in that by now unmistakable hyper dramatic caterwaul. Then the final track comes out of nowhere and finishes things off with a tranquil swirl, an instrumental new age-y swoosh, all warm and dreamy and blissed out, like the Orb or maybe Labradford, What the fuck?! I LOVE IT!! This is definitely my current favorite black metal record! And for those of you who think this does indeed sound absolutely essential (which it is!) and really want to go for it, we also have the other Urfasut record in stock, to be reviewed next list!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Some of you somehow missed out on the first Urfaust record we reviewed a few lists back. How anyone missed it is a complete mystery, I mean, c'mon, how could you overlook a band described as an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, who ducks into a live Karaoke bar, only to discover that the backup band is something like Burzum or Woodtemple, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in an ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones?? Maybe you guys just needed a little reminder. Maybe you didn't read the part that said ETHEL MERMAN FRONTING FUCKING BURZUM!!! Holy crap! We wouldn't even have to hear it! Urfaust have to be the most damaged and demented and plain peculiar black metal band around. And it's not just the vocals (which we also now realize also remind us a bit of Morrissey), although they are one of the most amazing parts of the package. The band itself play their Burzum-y black metal to perfection, but they manage to take that black metal buzz and wrap it in layer after layer of affects and distortion, giving the whole thing a druggy, blissed out Spacemen 3 vibe. This is tripped out, drugged up, otherworldly, stumbling loping black metal perfection. The record opens up with a haunting 13 minute ambient soundscape of moaning cellos and creepy otherworldly strings before they all explode into a burst of martial brass and percussion. moments before a swarm of buzzing guitars attack, and the vocalist climbs atop them, like a wailing warrior riding a flying dragon. The songs on this record are much dronier and more hypnotic than the first record, riffs melt into one other, effects smear the whole thing into a slithering squirming mass of buzz and fuzz and moan. Halfway through the record, we get another 10+ minute breather, another gorgeously serene ambient drone, that drifts and shifts before agitated strings join in and the whole thing collpases back into a thick black metal lope. We didn't think it was possible for this record to be better than the first, and maybe it's not 'better', maybe it's just different, but WOW is this weird and baffling and totally brilliant stuff. Together, the two Urfaust records make quite possibly the ultimate outsider black metal document.
This double cd set hits the shelves just in the Saint Nick of time for the Christmakuh holiday season. Thanks to the Idelsohn Society, a wonderful nonprofit dedicated to preserving and illuminating Jewish history through music (they also put out the Songs For The Jewish-American Jet Set comp), Jewish people can make peace with their love of Christmas music and their desire to tinsel a tree. And why shouldn't they? Set to the tune of Jingle Bells, "The Problem" by Ray Brenner and Berry E. Blitzer lays out the holiday conundrum with campy humor: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, it's tragic but it's true / There's joyous fun for everyone, but what's a Jew to do?" (Oy!) If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, it seems. As demonstrated on Disc 2: Merry Christmas, many of the most popular Yuletide songs have been performed by representatives of The Chosen People. Mitch Miller's rendition of "White Christmas", with its all-male chorus and big band swing, easily rivals Bing Crosby's. Mel Torme's beautifully melancholic "The Christmas Song" stands among the best of Christmas tunes and can get even the most devoted Israelite roasting chestnuts on an open fire. Then dreamy Eddie Fisher romantically croons "Christmas Eve in My Hometown" backed by a chorus of angels, Bob Dylan's nasal delivery of "Little Drummer Boy" manages to stir, and the Ramones "Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)" conjures the all-too-common dysfunctional family Christmas that Gentiles have become so accustomed to. As the set's accompanying booklet explains, the production of Christmas music outpaced music for celebrating the Festival of Lights by 10,000 to 1. That's not too surprising, since Hanukkah is a minor Judaic holiday and only rose to prominence in Jewish American culture due to its proximity to Christ's birthday celebration, a national holiday in the US since 1870. As a result, what we have in way of musically commemorating those eight days of candle-lighting on the Happy Hanukkah disc, are not exactly Billboard-charters, but they are just as worthy a listen. Woody Guthrie's "Hanukkah Dance" has a doe-see-doe old-timey feel for dance-y party times. Klezmer ditties include "Hanukkah Tree" by the Klezmatics and "Klezzified" by Klezmar Conservator Band. "The Latke Song" by Debbie Friedman (the so-called Jewish Joan Baez) cleverly tells the story of Hanukkah celebration from the perspective of the latke itself and reminds young listeners that it's important to feed the hungry. Ella Jenkins "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" is the real deal while "Dreidel" by Don McLean (possibly this release's only non-Jewish contributor) is just, perhaps, an ill-chosen metaphor for his own '70s mid-life crisis. The most stirring piece on the Hanukkah disc is a barely preserved version of "Yevonim," sung by the Russian-immigrant sensation, Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt. Greil Marcus writes in an essay contained in the set's booklet : "...the sound is distant, the surviving cylinder worn and scratchy. All that adds to the sensation that something precious is being passed on." That's a lot for one little tune to express and worth the inclusion in your holiday music collection alone!
This cd stinks like an ornament filled with dog-poo. Which is a good thing, if you love John Waters as much as we do! "Have a merry, rotten, scary, sexy, bi-racial, ludicrous, happy little Christmas," declares legendary B-movie director John Waters with this Christmas compilation. A truly amazing gathering of songs to help you survive the holiday season with a sinful smile. Starting out this compact disc is "Fat Daddy", sung by Baltimore's one-time coolest rhythm and blues DJ and source of inspiration for Motor Mouth Maybelle in Waters' film "Hairspray". We hear some very off-kilter and, you guessed it, crude numbers leading up to "Sleigh Ride" by Alvin And The Chipmunks, followed by "First Snowfall" by The Coctails (featuring that most wonderous instrument, the theremin), and we wish the disc wouldn't end, but sadly, it does -- and with none other than "Santa Is A Black Man". Waters suggests, "wrap this cd as a gift to yourself, pretend you forgot what it is and act surprised when you open it." We suggest you do that too. How else could you possibly survive the friggin holidaze?!
Thank goodness for compilations like The In-Kraut and Disco Deutchland which were not only super fun collections, gathering up some of the most amazing late '60s and '70s German grooviness, but they also helped dispel the common stereotype that German music and culture is deadly serious, cold and austere. Those records helped highlight a carefree side to to the German music scene that we hadn't often been exposed to. Achtung! furthers our exposure to this fun filled world with 20 instrumentals that perfectly tie together the go-go kitchy fun of the In-Kraut records, the dancefloor ready jams of Disco Deutchland as well as some serious grooving funk and poppy psychedelia informed by Philadelphia soul, The JB's, afro-pop, cocktail parties, ye-ye French-pop and B-movie scores. Totally fun and totally perfect as the soundtrack to your next party. Artists include: James Last, Max Greger, Peter Thomas, Ambros Seelos, Ady Zehnpfennig, Gerhard Narholz, Hans Haider, Don Kelly Band, Kai Warner And His Orchestra, Theo Schumann Combo, Henry Arland, Heinz Kiessling, Orchester G�nter Gollasch, Pete Jacques, Hans Ehrlinger And His Orchestra, Catch Up, Helmut Zacharias, Roberto Delgado, Berry Lipman and Orchester Walter Kubiczek. All your favorites!
Finally, a song-poem collection that might have a chance of staying in print for more than a month. And finally, a collection that -- while by no means definitive -- collects the best of all those that came before it: Beat of The Traps, Makers of Smooth Music, Human Breakdown of Absurdity, I'm Just the Other Woman and I Died Today. For those who missed out on these wonderful and screwed up collections, song-poems were vanity recordings (from the sixties and seventies) where any schmo with the dough could send in their original poems/lyrics and have them made into SONGS! Small advertisements in the back of music and entertainment magazines urged would-be songwriters that the music industry was in dire need of their inspired lyrics. For anywhere between $75 and $400, one could have their words set to music (all genres were covered) by professional studio musicians. Meanwhile, back at the recording studio, said musicians had to busy themselves on an economy of scale in order to make the venture profitable. Lyrics were given a cursory look, and snap judgements were made concerning tempo, meter, key, chords and melody. Apparently the musicians had but one take to get the song, and if a mistake was made it was just as likely to be left in. Considering what these musicians were up against, it's really impressive what they came up with -- quickly fitting awkwardly (to put it nicely and terribly, to be more accurate) written lyrics into a reasonable meter and still come up with some cool arrangements to boot. Since the companies recording the songs of these terrible lyricists were only concerned with the bottom line (i.e. getting paid), anything could happen. John Trubee's legendary "Blind Man's Penis" is a case in point. And while his words of wisdom were penned in jest, the other 27 tracks included with it on this disc were not. Written in all earnestness, subjects ranging from Richard Nixon to Jimmy Carter, duck eggs to Argentinian cowboys to green fingernails, these tracks are weirder and even funnier than Trubee's track. These singles have been the dreams of collectors for years and until the difficult to track down MSR collections came out several years back, to the rest us they were the stuff of legend. For those of you who have already picked up those MSR collections this one may be a bit redundant, but for all the rest this is certainly the best collection of song-poems to come on one disc. Highly recommended, and sure to be a hit when the upcoming PBS documentary on the Song-Poem industry airs! One wonders what the original "poets" would think of the unexpected popularity of their songs? Probably the person who wrote "Jimmy Carter Says Yes" was sure it would be a hit all along...
True "Outsider Music" lovingly culled from the thousands upon thousands of bad records out there, and don't get us wrong, these are certainly very bad too, but bad in a good way. By Outsider Music we don't mean music made in the Great Outdoors, we mean music
Contained herein: solo warblings courtesy Howard Finster (better known for his fantastic outsider art sculptures), multi-track tape manipulations sounding like early cartoon music a la Raymond Scott, singer songwriter fare performed in a van to an audience of one dog, amateur poems set to music by seasoned "pros", vanity songs played by hired orchestras, Beat poetry performed over psychedelic squiggles, hotel-bar bands playing Smokey Robinson, kids tunes, retarded young adults performing "This Little Light of Mine", music performed on the 1973 Comet (an instrument that has 400 notes per octave!), even a bonus track from electronic children's music pioneer Bruce Haack, himself the object of several recent reissues. 25 tracks in all, 71 minutes of either great listening or aural torture (it's up to you to decide.)
Lots of liner notes and pictures, just be aware that this is a cd-R (and given that, we are sorry about the excessive price of this disc, but it's based on what the compiler is charging us). This recording is for those of us folks who think The Shaggs are all that.
Despite the excruciatingly stupid title (why oh why must the food metaphors constantly arise, as if white people are so ignorant of Asian culture that the only thing they know about it is egg foo young and sweet and sour sauce -- aaaaaaauuuugh), this is an enjoyable compilation of kitschy east-meets-west Asian pop tunes from the '60s and '70s. Most of the tracks feature female
Holy crap! This is just about the most amazing box set we've ever seen! The second we heard about it, we knew it was going to be good, but we weren't prepared for just HOW GOOD. Not sure how many of you are familiar with Bear Family Records, but they're a German label who specialize in super elaborate, incredibly detailed and well researched releases, especially box sets, running the gamut from the women of Sun Records to the Everly Brothers to Ernest Tubb to Perez Prado to Flatt And Scruggs and on and on. Always very expensive and often hard to get, but once you lay your eyes and ears on one of their releases you realize it was worth all the trouble and worth every penny. And never was it truer than with Atomic Platters. This years in the works set is a five cd, DVD, hardcover book, box set collecting "Cold War Music From The Golden Age Of Homeland Security", 5 plus hours of fifties and sixties, rock and roll, R&B and soul, either warning us of the dangers of Communism and the impending atomic war, or more playfully using the A bomb and Uranium and Communism as metaphors for love and romance and partying ("You Hit Me Baby Like An Atom Bomb", "Atomic Baby", "Fujiyama Mama", "Uranium Rock", etc.). Scattered throughout are loads of civl defense spots, most appallingly naive and utterly ridiculous, there's Groucho Marx explaining that we have a good chance of surviving an atomic war, Art Linkletter warning us to not use the phone in case of an atomic attack, and lots of other misguided warnings and advice from Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Fred MacMurray, Tom Lehrer, Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Don Pardo, Johnny Cash, Boris Karloff and lots more, as well as tons of bizarre civil defense dramatizations and creepy little Leave It To Beaver style vignettes. Then there's the music, lots of favorites you've heard on other comps, but an amazing amount or material you've never heard (and probably never thought you'd hear) anywhere as well as totally obscure tracks from some not so obscure artists. Some of the more recognizable folks: Roy Acuff, The Sons Of The Pioneers, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, Bo Diddley, Dexter Gordon, The Louvin Brothers, Carl Perkins, Bing Crosby, Bill Haley, Doris Day, Hank Williams and more, but the lure is definitely the hundred or so other tracks, all catchy or bizarre or both, from a wild cast of one hit wonders.
As if that weren't enough, there is also a disc containing two full length spoken word records released in 1961, If The Bomb Falls and The Complacent Americans, both ridiculous and paranoid, laughable and goofy, but also sort of sad and creepy. Wow. Then there's the DVD which contains 9 short films, over two hours of educational films, teaching us about Communism, the impending Atomic War, and the infamous "Duck And Cover" method of surviving an atomic bomb attack (and we're fairly sure that the narrator of one of the films is none other than Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, and the singer of the "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch"). Finally, there is the book, a massive 11" x 12" hard cover tome, chock full of illustrations, liner notes, photos, and a full page description with pictures and all sorts of extra info for every track in the box. Unbelievable. This is absolutely essential for all lovers of strange sounds and weird music as well as being perfect for history buffs too. And as it's that gift giving season, we can't possibly imagine a more perfect and amazing gift! WOW!
These are a bit too expensive to keeep a bunch in stock, but if you want one let us know and we'll be getting as many as we need next week!
Another glorious glimpse back at the long lost art of the Funerary Violin. A genre all but forgotten and lost, some say quashed by the Catholic Church, a gorgeous mournful body of work, solo violin pieces to be performed at funerals, sad and sorrowful, minor key and miserable, dense with dark emotions, perfectly transporting the listener back to an nineteenth century funeral, the procession, the mourners clad in black... Very beautiful and evocative. But it's not just the music, it's the tangled history of the players and the personalities, the musicians and the composers and the patrons responsible for much of the music. Oh, and the fact that it's all made up.
That's right, these amazing scratchy wax cylinder recordings of simple melancholy violin pieces, and the text accompanying them have all been fabricated. Although sometimes it's tough to tell when hearing the genuinely creepy, crackly and realistically old timey sounding music, and reading the extensive tales of the composers and their tragic lives. Maybe it is all real? Who are we to say? Just because there is only one person in the entire world who knows everything, anything actually, about the mysterious Guild Of Funerary Violinists. And the fact that none of the performers or composers are mentioned anywhere, recorded, written, anecdotal, except within the pages of the book, the liner notes and the website of the genre's discoverer (perhaps creator).
But like we mentioned in a past review of another Funerary disc, who cares? The music is dark and mysterious, emotional and creepy, and the text is fascinating, impossibly well researched considering none of it is real, and totally fun to read.
This disc (supposedly) collects the work of three of the most important figures in the English School Of Funerary Violin. Babcotte, Sudbury and Eaton. All of these recording recovered from the extensive collection of Funerary relics kept by Gunter II, Prince of Schwatzburg-Sonderhausen, who in addition to the wax cylinders heard here, also counted among his prized possessions, the coffins of Goethe and Heine, as well as the death mask of Beethoven. The first Babcotte track here is thought to be performed by Gunter, himself an accomplished violinist, however the rest, the legendary "Funerary Suite # 4", due to their sound and performance are considered to be the work of Wilhelm Kleinbach (whose disc we reviewed a list or two back). The Eaton piece, a slow mournful, sometimes atonal dirge, is performed by the composer himself, captured on wax cylinder in 1913. And the final piece, "The Erroneous Dirge Of George Babcotte is performed and recorded by Maria Rotaru in 1975, a young Romanian violinist who tried to pass the work off as her own composition. When the truth came out, Rotaru disappeared mysteriously, and it was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that this piece resurfaced. Or so we're told...
Even without the fantastical backstory, the music is worth the price of admission. Each piece is wonderfully crafted and beautifully performed, all solo violin, keening mournfully, minor key melodies drifting dreamily in some, the scrape and sawing of the bow constructing miserablist dirges in others, all except the more recent bathed in a thick cloak of crackle and static, giving it that Jeck / Hecker fuzzy-blurry-dreamy vibe we can never seem to get enough of. The fact that this music is set amidst such a dense and complex, passionate world of intrigue and mystery, love and death, only makes it that much more exciting. And the fact that every single bit of it is made up, well, as far as we're concerned that just seals the deal.
Recommended!
Continuing in Lo's series of today's electronic artist's selections of "classic" unheard music (the first being Luke Vibert's Nuggets), Add N to (X)'s Barry 7 scours the libraries of Chappell, Southern and PIL for some rare gems screaming to be heard. For
For those who devoured the first delightful volume of Barry 7's Connectors: Rare Italian Library Tracks, here's an entire second volume! A cornucopia of sonic frolics very much in the same spirit as Luke Vibert's Nuggets and many of the Crippled Dick Hot Wax compilations. Unfamiliar with any of those? Well then, strap on your seatbelt 'cause you're in for a treat! Over the top Euro kitsch, melodrama and campiness! So perfect if you're on the lookout for a diverse array of rather flamboyant theatrical music 'cause these tracks - originally catalogued for '60s and '70s television and radio production backing use - are overflowing with bontempi-esque organs, analog synthesizers, choral singers, and flutes! And four of them come from a gent named Ennio Morricone (very much of the delirously wonderful Danger Diabolik period). Curious who this Mr. Barry 7 is who wants you to hear the unheard music? Why, he's one third of that analog synth jammin' UK group Add N To (X) who clearly have drawn much inspiration from these works. Splendid!
For those who devoured the first delightful volume of Barry 7's Connectors: Rare Italian Library Tracks, here's an entire second volume! A cornucopia of sonic frolics very much in the same spirit as Luke Vibert's Nuggets and many of the Crippled Dick Hot Wax compilations. Unfamiliar with any of those? Well then, strap on your seatbelt 'cause you're in for a treat! Over the top Euro kitsch, melodrama and campiness! So perfect if you're on the lookout for a diverse array of rather flamboyant theatrical music 'cause these tracks - originally catalogued for '60s and '70s television and radio production backing use - are overflowing with bontempi-esque organs, analog synthesizers, choral singers, and flutes! And four of them come from a gent named Ennio Morricone (very much of the delirously wonderful Danger Diabolik period). Curious who this Mr. Barry 7 is who wants you to hear the unheard music? Why, he's one third of that analog synth jammin' UK group Add N To (X) who clearly have drawn much inspiration from these works. Splendid!
A tribute to the Shaggs, what a weird idea. When I heard about this release I wondered if the bands on it were going to attempt to emulate the musical ineptness that was what made the Shaggs who they were, and if so, then why bother. Or would they turn the crazy songs by the Shaggs into their own style, which could be interesting. Thankfully it is the latter for the most part. Ida does a pretty, soft Ida-like version of "Philosophy Of The World". The Thinking Fellers do a great ethereal version of "Who Are Parents" and the best part is that they enunciate each word so the rad crazy lyrics are quite clear. I must admit there were some songs that bugged me like crazy, songs that were wacky and essentially just bad versions of bad songs, but without the demented innocence that made the Shaggs the Shaggs. But you know anything that reminds us how great and pure the Shaggs were is worthwhile in my book.
Ok, so originally we were going to review the bizarre "Necro-Demonic dungeon crawl" fantasy boardgame that this cassette is the audio companion to, along with listing the tape, but we already sold out of the few copies of the game we had (yep, we know some nerds!). Maybe we'll get more, we'd like to, definitely let us know if YOU are interested. We haven't had a chance to actually play the game yet ourselves, but boy does it look cool, with creepy black & white & gray art by Fort Thunder comic book artist Mat Brinkman. In the game, each player takes on the role of an evil Necromancer, digging tunnels in an subterranean crypt and creating grotesque monsters out of ooze to fight against his rivals and their hordes, vying to become the sole master of the Darkest Pit. Pretty darn black metal, eh?
In addition to looking cool, apparently it's actually an excellent game, receiving a pretty high user score on the BoardGameGeek website (7.9 out of 10) and we're read lots of good reviews. Can't wait to play it when we find time and learn the rules. If/when we get more copies in, they sell for $84. Like we said, let us know if you'd like us to get you one! Check out the YouTube trailer for the game at www.caveevil.com - which doesn't actually show the game or anyone playing it, instead it's a short movie purporting to show what the horrific, troglodytic existence of these Necromancers is all about. Love the low-budget special effects.
Soooo, anyway, the folks who made the game also have a tape label, and this is the official Cave Evil tie-in release, with some of the same sounds heard on the soundtrack to the trailer. This 90 minute mix features tracks by 15 different underground artists: Night of Ultraviolence, Wizard333, Swordsect, Abandoned Places, Manifester, Cex, MarderIII, Muroc, Hatred, Crypt Enforcer, Whispers of Dead Gods, Tres Quatro, Mammal, OoznDmrr, and Khand, plus sound FX by filmmaker Damon Packard, who did the trailer. It's an ultimate sinister cinematic synth experience, variously featuring blackened drones, eerie dark ambience, primal percussion, majestic synth-horns, and other dungeon-worthy, DIY sonics. Cool, creepy stuff that is certainly whetting our appetites for a session of Cave Evil. Limited to 300 copies on pro-dubbed chrome plus cassette.
If this does well, we'll stock some more Rotten Shape cassettes, all of which the label has assigned a "GVR", or Game Voice Rating, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being hardest) noting how difficult it is to speak over the music in a gaming setting. The Cave Evil Radio Mix has a GVR of 2.
Is there something in the air lately beside sneeze-inducing pollen? Suddenly children's albums are popping up from all over the map, including this one which was compiled by Ekkehard Ehlers. However with the exception of the burbly sounds on the first track by Fan Club Orchestra and oddly enough Devendra Banhart's contribution, the very sing-song-y, handclap-y "Make It Easier", there's really not much that seems truly engaging for children. C'mon folks, using elfin effected vocals and sounds resembling those of a musicbox or from a toybox isn't really enough to categorize something in this genre! And actually we think kids might lose interest and get bored pretty quickly with it. Soooo, maybe we should just approach this compilation as a neat assortment of 25 gentle, relaxing tracks by an impressive bunch of international artists including Nobukazu Takemura, Asa-Chang & Junray, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Anna Laplantine, Dr. Rockit, World Standard, F.S. Blumm, and Oren Ambarchi. Hmmm, much more appealing for the full grown kids, don't you think? Maybe it should've been titled Parentish Music.
Every once in a while something comes along that we KNOW we're gonna love, just from reading about it ahead of time. Here's a very good example, and now that we have heard it, we certainly DO love it. Heck, it pretty much had us with its subtitle - and also 'cause of the label it's on. From Jonny Trunk's ever reliable, nostalgic UK imprint specializing in all kinds of unusual vintage finds, comes this compilation of children's music - no, not music FOR children, but music BY children, made in British primary and secondary schools, as part of, well, classroom projects, between 1959 and 1981. All sourced from rare, mostly privately pressed vinyl (released by the schools themselves, for educational purposes or to commemorate an event), collected over the years by Trunk. The selections presented here encompass many, many sorts of the strange and the wonderful, brimming with youthful innocence and enthusiasm. There's lovely renditions of traditional folk songs, there's quaint classical pieces and instrumental improvisations, there's experimental stuff influenced by 20th century avant-garde composers like Stockhausen (via an enlightened teacher), there's an oddly amusing choral song about drunk driving, there's a cover of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" from the Watership Down soundtrack�
Of the 25 tracks (19 on the vinyl), some of the standouts for sure are the creative efforts of a group/project called Sounds Of Silence, who contribute the track "Musique Concrete" among others, including the creepy "The Lyke-Wake Dirge". Also many of the folk/vocal numbers are quite gentle and quiet and lovely. Lots of charming tracks to treasure here, in other words. We imagine that Trunk had to sift through a lot of lesser material to find these gems.
For sure for fans of the classic Langley Schools Music Project, as well those who liked a couple previous Trunk releases, namely Carl Orff & Gunild Keetman's Music For Children, and the album by Cults Percussion Ensemble.
Naturally, the cd booklet and lp sleeve includes Trunk's informative liner notes and cover graphics from the original lps.
A great modern Christmas compilation on vinyl featuring a lot of great indie musicians and it's for charity too! Featuring Christmas-themed songs by Rob Crow, Quasi, Wooden Wand, The Music Tapes, Mike Watt, Terry Riley and a host of others. Proceeds got to Homeless Youth Resources, a mighty worthy cause this holiday season. So throw away that warped Bing Crosby record you drag out every year and buy this and help some kids out!
Now here's a collection that's guaranteed to titilate: 40 hot and sticky tracks from 70's porn flicks. And it's all over the musical map, from tracks that sound like they could be from a lost recording of Raymond Scott's 'Soothing Sounds For Sex' to some
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Were you one of the unlucky millions who got to witness the most recent American Idol where contestants brutally butchered classic Beatles songs? We had to wonder if any of them had actually heard the originals or were just played the songs by the studio band. Maybe that's why you don't see too many contemporary artists tackle Beatles covers today. The originals were either so much better due to their deceptive complexity or perhaps they were covered so much during their time that their familiarity has become more of a liability than an asset. Does anyone really need to hear an emo version of "Eleanor Rigby" or an R&B version of "Long and Winding Road" (or for that matter, The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton's version)?
You gotta figure most rock fans during the Beatles' heyday probably felt the same way about this particular set of Beatle covers from the sixties and seventies' softer side: Brothers Four. The Letterman. Nancy Wilson. Dick Hyman, Earl Grant, The Sandpipers. Shirley Scott. Nancy Ames. Just a few of the pop-jazz, pop-vocal, soft-samba, jet-lounge, bachelor pad, easy-listening artists that took a run with the fab fours' immense songbook. Probably aiming at a hipper, younger audience given many of the hyper-upbeat tempos and / or smooth vocal delivery here, most acts really just managed to broaden the musical awareness of their older listeners, like our parents. However, time's a good friend to kitsch, and as we become further distanced from the context of the original songs and era, these songs take on a different feel. They actually sound pretty good, dare we say, better than some of the overtly familiar originals. Some versions are crate digger gems like Ella Fitzgerald's backwardly funky "Savoy Truffle", Gary McFarland's scat samba version of "She Loves Him" and Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcer's organ groover "Hey Jude". Other songs are sheer novelty such as Gershon Kingsley's Moogy "Paperback Writer", The Assembled Multitude's muzak take on "I Want You (She's so Heavy)", and the overly-enunciated delivery of The Brother's Four, "We Can Work It Out". Yet, the best covers are of songs that fall the closest to the easy listening model, The Sandpiper's soft Latin-tinged "Things We Said Today", easily trumps the original, and The Lettermen's sublime string-driven "I'm Only Sleeping" comes really close. Most choices in this collection wisely steer clear from the more rocking or druggy side of the songbook. No "Helter Skelter", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "I Am The Walrus" or "Come Together", though Arif Mardin does us a service by doing an instrumental version of "Glass Onion", a late period rocker whose lyrics (mostly Beatles inside jokes) we never really liked. We think Lena Horne and Gabor Szabo's "Rocky Raccoon" and Bossa Rio's "Blackbird" deserved inclusion here, but we shouldn't really complain. There are probably enough interesting Beatles covers out there to make for a tight second volume. Just don't even think that we'll be having a similar change of heart towards the American Idol versions thirty years from now. Shiver.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Disturbing and baffling, but pretty amusing collection of music from German "Indianerfilmen" - an entire genre of German films about Native Americans. No, not cowboys and indians, just indians. Yes, there's a lot that's just plain WRONG about this genre - the cover features a buffed out topless German man in Indian drag, replete with long black wig, feather & rifle. The music on this disk, which spans from 1966 to 1978 (must have been a popular genre), ranges from faux-Indian psych-rock (sung in both English and German), country, cabaret, lieder and instrumental scores which, when not actual Morricone covers, sound as though they could accompany a Sergio Leone film. Includes two pages of liner notes in German if you can read it. Supply limited.
The second in the series of squiggly early electronic pop rarities from the 60s from Bruce Haacke, The Mindexpanders, Harry Breuer, Gil Tryhall (featuring a cut from his "Switched On Nashville" album of electronic hillbilly weirdness), Fred Weinberg, amongst others. Just like the "Love Peace & Poetry" series, "Electronic Toys" is packaged with the idiosyncratic pin-up photos of Bunny Yeager; after all sex sells.
This past record store day, we were super excited about this amazing book by Johan Kugelberg, "Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992", a hefty, 508-page tome that thoroughly chronicles the history and obsessions of one of the largely misunderstood and under-appreciated niches of recorded music, the "vanity record" - also known as "private press recordings" - also known as outsider weirdness! With that book came a download coupon for an amazing compilation of some of the artists included in the book, and now that compilation has been released by Now & Again on double cd and vinyl and it's both super amazing and completely bonkers in all the best ways. It includes some old faves like Arcesia, whose operatically crooned "White Panther" some might recall from the American edition of the Love Peace & Poetry psych series; the love damaged soul-punk balladeer Gary Wilson (who can forget that line at the end of his song "6.4 = Makeout"? "She's a real groovy girl and she's got red LIPS! She's Real! She's Real!! SHE'S REAL!!!!"? Well, not us anyway), and Florida lounge maestro, Michael Farneti, whose Good Morning Kisses lp we featured on one of our Outsiders & Eccentrics In-between lists. But there are plenty of new-to-us goodies, including one of our new faves, Medico Doktor Vibes, whose Caribbean-inflected witch doctor bedroom funk recorded in LA in 1979 will soon be reissued by local label Companion Records sometime in the near future. As per the Now & Again sound, there are plenty of outsider funk, soul and disco rarities, some naive lounge, burnt out yacht rock, creepy exotica and country pop and just plain weird sounds - like 33 1/3 whose jungle themed "Monkey Bridge" would make any Kid Creole & The Coconuts fan smile. Here's the rest of the line-up: Vinny Roma, Steven David Heitkotter, Joe E., Ray Harlowe & Gyp Fox, Russ Saul, Jade, Boa, Circuit Rider, Dennis The Fox, Bob Harrison, Gary Schneider, The Muzzy Band, The Invaders, Carol-Leigh & Hank Mindlin.
Fun freaky shit!
Yet more interesting compilations from the equally interesting German label Trikont. From the label that brought us collections of La Paloma covers, songs with yodelling and songs of death, all drawing from every genre imaginable, plus Roady music from Vietnam, and other remarkable concept mixes, comes the Flashbacks series. Six disks of music from as early as 1914, spanning to 1947 and each organized by a particular theme.
Volume one, Drug Songs: High & Low, is a collection of songs celebrating the use of drugs: from coffee to cocaine, moonshine to marijuana, hash to heroin and with such colorful titles as "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine" & "The Candy Man". Blues, Big Band, and Jazz tracks here from the Ink Spots, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Big Bill Broonzy, The Memphis Jug Band, Gene Krupa, Bukka White and much more.
Yet more interesting compilations from the equally interesting German label Trikont. From the label that brought us collections of La Paloma covers, songs with yodelling and songs of death, all drawing from every genre imaginable, plus Roady music from Vietnam, and other remarkable concept mixes, comes the Flashbacks series. Six disks of music from as early as 1914, spanning to 1947 and each organized by a particular theme.
Volume two, Novelty Songs: Crazy & Obscure, is an interesting collection of off kilter numbers and arrangements. Some of the tracks are from those you'd expect: Hoosier Hot Shots, Groucho Marx, Spike Jones and Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy. But there's a lot of other tracks from maybe less likely sources as Cab Calloway, The Andrews Sisters and the Memphis Jug band.
Yet more interesting compilations from the equally interesting German label Trikont. From the label that brought us collections of La Paloma covers, songs with yodelling and songs of death, all drawing from every genre imaginable, plus Roady music from Vietnam, and other remarkable concept mixes, comes the Flashbacks series. Six disks of music from as early as 1914, spanning to 1947 and each organized by a particular theme.
Volume six, American War Songs: Hitler & Hell, is an interesting collection of inspirational fighting anthems from before and through World War II. Because nazi propaganda that was spreading throughout Europe and the United States unfettered people, such as film mogel Harry Warner, inspired others to lash back with anti-nazi propaganda. Harry is quoted in the liner notes addressing the American Legion in a speech that was broadcast on news reel in 1939: "...Drive them out. Make America unsafe for those who seek to tear down what others have built through the generations since 1776. Drive them from their secret meeting places. Destroy their insidious propaganda machines. Drive out their bunds and their leagues, their klans and black legions. The silver shirts, the black shirts and the dirty shirts. Help keep America for those who believe in America..." More is included in both German and English in these very thorough liner notes. The disk itself features tracks by Leadbelly, Eddie Cantor, The Hoosier Hot Shots, Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, Nat King Cole, Marlene Dietrich and much more.
Someome at Trunk records has a very dirty mind. And apparently a very dirty collection of recordings. But lucky for us, they're happy to share their dirty little treasures with the rest of the world. Flexi-sex compiles actual recordings originally issued as flexi discs that came free with certain British porn mags in the late seventies/early eighties (Whitehouse and Rustler if you must know) and contain some of the most hilarious and patently un-sexy sexy recordings we have ever heard. Over cheesy, bawdy seventies porno-jazz-schmaltz, older sounding British women, recite their sexy scripts, some more convincingly than others. Lots of talk of pricks and shafts and tits and hairy balls (Kathy Mcginty anyone?) and stems and bottoms and fannies (and fanny means something much different in the UK, needless to say there are no fannypacks over there...) and lots of heavy breathing and sighing and moaning, but all delivered in super prim sounding British accents. Which maybe could make it more sexy, that whole Educating Rita thing, but actually seems to have the opposite affect. Several of the women also make sure to let you know that while they may not be the sexiest women around, they are most definitely the horniest. Good to know. Be warned before you listen to the sound samples that this is definitely X-rated (well, at least R rated) so prudes steer clear.
Who knew? Back in the sixties, not all the folk singers were left-wing pinko peaceniks. Apparently, there were a few "counter-counter-culture" folkies strumming and singing, in much the same style as the more popular likes of Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez, but with a reactionary, not revolutionary, agenda. Singing songs of patriotism and anti-Communism, three folk troubadours for the "Silent Majority" - Janet Greene, Tony Dolan, and Vera Vanderlaan - appear here, on tracks from releases circa 1965-'68, that now sound quite quaint and corny, and maybe did back then too. Leave it to The Omni Recording Corporation to come up with a collection like this! It's both amusing (in a kind of Stephen Colbert kitsch sort of way), and of nostalgic, historical interest. Which brings up a point - it helps if you know stuff like what the S.D.S. was, and who Alger Hiss was, to fully appreciate these songs. Though everybody will get the jokes about hippies and hygiene! Many of the songs here are passionate and heartfelt ("Cry The Beloved Country", "Remember Bloody Budapest"); others are humorous, both intentionally and otherwise. Tony Dolan's "Abolish, Abolish!", which is actually in support of the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee, is quite Tom Lehrer-esqe in its tone of sarcastic, ironic humor ("Now it calls the Reds destructive, they're not that at all, they're actually very constructive, take a look at the Berlin Wall"). His "Join The S.D.S." is like that too, with one line being "They're the soiled young men, who fight for liberty / they know all the four-letter words, except S-O-A-P". Har har har.
Definitely an amusing novelty, and perhaps a great gift for some older person who might actually appreciate the sentiments expressed (like, your cranky grandpa who voted for Barry Goldwater?). However, we're not sure how many times WE'RE gonna want to hear a song like, say, Vanderlaan's "Modern Paul Revere", a paean to then-governor Ronald Reagan!! Still, lots of chuckles the first few times through, and of course it's packaged with typical Omni care, including fascinating & detailed liner notes, plus vintage graphics from the original releases by these obscure, conservative folkies. Anyone into the politics and culture of the era, should find this cd both interesting and entertaining.
Would you rather fight than swish? If so, we think you may be protesting too much, as this compilation of gay themed tunes contests. This hilarious and thankfully varied comp from the fine folks at Trikont showcases the prevalence of "the love that dare not speak its name" in songs from the early sixties to the late seventies. Starting with Jose Saria (aka. The Widow Norton) who held court at the Black Cat in San Francisco in the 50's and ending with Sylvester's uplifting Disco classic "You Make Me Feel", the 24 songs here range from novelty tunes ("Florence of Arabia"), spoken word (Rod McKuen!) queer subtext in songs by "straight" bands (The Kinks, The Ramones) and just rare and amazing songs by Curt Boettcher, The Twinkeyz, and Black Randy & The Metro Squad that are well worth the price of admission no matter where your proclivities lie. Check it out, we won't tell.
Extensive liner notes in both English and German.
For all the stereotypes about how serious and rigid German culture is, we love how so many compilations in recent years have revealed just the opposite, revealing how damn fun and playful so much of the music bursting out of Germany during the '60s and '70s really was. We're talking full on go-go kaleidoscopic cocktail party galore! Much in the spirit of like minded compilations like The In-Kraut series and Disco Deutchland, Funky Frauleins puts its fun focus on the colorful groovy, funky, and disco sounds of the beat queens of Germany from 1968-1978. Just as fun, sassy and spirited as their French go-go counterparts but very much in the '70s with instrumentation that would sound right at home on a game show, in a porno, or even especially at a full on dance party. We only knew a few of these ladies: Su Kramer, Hildegard Knef and Caterina Valente, so we were introduced to a bunch of other super fun vixens. The booklet offers up great photos and bios of all the artists. This is one of those turn off your brain and step into a sweet and delicious cocktail haze kind of records. And we love it.
One can always count on Johnny Trunk of the amazing Trunk records for making a mix that is as hilarious and head-scratching as it is beautifully listenable. When asked by strangers what kind of music his label releases, Trunks's response is usually, "you know, funny old shit", which if you think about it is the perfect response to describe the kinds of audible curiosities he reissues, from long forgotten children's TV show soundtracks to obscure novelty records and forgotten jazz greats. A few of the tracks included here are from earlier out of print reissues in the Trunk catalog such as Leona Anderson's wonderfully awful Music To Suffer By, but many of the tracks are from Trunk's private record collection, likely highlighting the best tracks on perhaps otherwise less interesting albums. You get a full gamut of styles and genres from novelty calypso songs from Robert Mitchum and Bernard Cribbins, space-lounge jazz from Alain Romans and Sergio Mihanovich, musique concrete from Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaffer, the punk dub of The Jellies, classical piano from Glenn Gould, ethnic music curios and warped kid songs. So great and for a real nice price, you'd be foolish not to pick this up! (And sorry, the more expensive vinyl version is now gone it seems.)
