Capers "The Only Thing I Really Want"

Capers Mahlzeit 7" EP (Extraplatte, 1988)

Capers were another of Hans Platzgumer's early bands. This 7" EP was their lone release (not counting songs on some compilations), and today's selection was inexplicably omitted when it was reissued in 1995 by the U.S. label Sunday Drive Records. An instrumental version of another tune, "I'm Going Out Tonight," was also omitted, and, oddly enough, an exclamation point was added to the title, making it Mahlzeit! The cover art was completely different, as well, and there was no indication anywhere that two songs were missing.

Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου "DM/βήχας"

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Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου
Πιανοεπαφές
LP
(σειρά αυτοσχεδιασμός, 1980)

I first discovered free improvising pianist Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου (Sakis Papadimitriou) in a bargain bin at a record show around ten years ago. There was a dealer with several boxes of $5 CDs, and Plus and Minus, by Papadimitriou and percussionist Lefteris Agouridakis, looked intriguing. Plus, it was on Leo Records, an excellent jazz label generally worth a risk (other Leo risks that proved fruitful have included South Wind by the Satoko Fujii Orchestra and Hidden Music by the Scottish improv combo Green Room).

Plus and Minus turned out to be a very cool album, and I've been searching out more Papadimitriou ever since. He's released several solo albums, in addition to collaborations with others, and today's piece is from his second release and first solo outing, Piano-Contacts (in English). The name of this piece translates to "DM/Cough." No, I don't speak or read Greek; there are translations for everything on the back cover. Papadimitriou sticks strictly to the keys on this number, but he often plays inside the piano as well, strumming, scraping, and plucking the strings. No matter how he plays, he's a master, imo.

Restoration Is Imminent

The Jukebox is still on hiatus, but will be back in the next few days. I had to go out of town and did not have time to pre-schedule daily posts, and I did not want to announce, of course, that I was gone. I am now returned, however. After I get caughtup on things around the house, the Jukebox will once again flow.

O Captain! My Captain!

I was invited to a Sadie Hawkins Dance my senior year of high school. Since the girl* I liked hadn't asked me, I accepted for the heck of it. It was my first (and last) high school dance. There was a live band, and they were horrible. The drummer cleverly added an extra beat to "Highway to Hell," thereby rendering the usually very danceable beat totally awkward. That was the only song to which we danced. The girl didn't want to dance or talk after that. We just sat there. Strictly. Dullsville. Afterward, we went to her house and watched Saturday Night Live. The musical guest was Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. I thought they were bizarre but cool. It was by far the highlight of my evening. Sadly, the Captain passed away this past week. Another of my heroes is dead. His music will live forever, though. Here're the two songs from that night; both from his then new record, Doc at the Radar Station, his penultimate album. *I was still in heavy, heavy denial at the time Still on hiatus . . . this is a special post.

Brief Hiatus

Due to circumstances pretty much beyond my control, the Jukebox must take a brief hiatus. My apologies.

The Membranes "Get a Head"

The Membranes Crack House 12" EP (Criminal Damage Records, 1983)

A lot of bands start out noisy and become less so as time passes; Einstürzende Neubauten are a good example of this. Some start out relatively tame and get progressively uglier and nastier, like The Birthday Party. The Membranes, however, took a rather different route. They started on the more sedate end of punk, got noisier, got way noisier, mellowed out again, started to get noisy again, got really noisy, broke up. Weird, huh? Crack House was the bridge between the first "nice" era and the advent of the noise. A few records later, they ditched the The at the front.

Steve Cameron "Truck Stop Café"

Steve Cameron Overloaded Diesel various artists LP (Power Pak, 1973)

It's been two months since the last one, so here's another tune from the Overloaded Diesel compilation. As with Pam Gilbert, I've not been able to find any info on Steve Cameron, other than, unlike Pam, he co-wrote his lil' contribution. You may have noticed I spelled the last word of the title Café; on the album itself, it's spelled Cafe. I'm sorry, but I could not bring myself to spell it that way in the post title. I'm such a pedant.

Dagmar Krause "Song of a German Mother"

Dagmar Krause Radio Sessions CD EP (Voiceprint, 1993)

If I had to pick my favorite vocalists of each gender, they'd be Tom Jones (male), Dagmar Krause (female), and Antony Hegarty (transgender) of Antony and the Johnsons.

Korog "Varàzsgömb"

Korog Álmodj makkal CD (Bahia Music, 1999)

I first heard these folks on one of those Southern Lord sampler CDs, Let There Be Doom II (A Kult Collection Of Massive Sub-Harmonics). They were on there 'cause Attila Csihar was their current vocalist, and one of their songs was on his album The Beast of Attila Csihar, on Southern Lord. Of all the bands on that comp that I did not know already, their track jumped out at me.

Two "In My Head"

Two Voyeurs CD (DML Music Entertainment, 1998)

I think I'm one of about five people that actually dug Rob Halford's dance-metal-thing Two. Sure, Fight (his first post-Priest band) had gone splitsville, and he'd said that metal was dead, but he meant popularity-wise when he said it. Not long after Two kinda fell apart, I guess when it hit that lotsa folks hated it, he fired up the metal again with his third band since leaving Judas Priest, Halford, then rejoined Priest, for a really good album, Angel of Retribution, followed by a stinky embarrassment, Nostradamus. They'd gone poop before, can you say Turbo?, then flushed it with good stuff, aka Painkiller, in the past, though, so my fingers are crossed. Oh, yeah, so, like, today's selection is the bonus track from the Japanese version of Voyeurs. Unlike the Japanese bonus track on his previous outing, Fight's otherwise heavy-f'ing-kick-ass second-and-final album A Small Deadly Space, it's an actual song!

Nuit Noire "Lutina"

Nuit Noire Lutina 7" EP (Drakkar Productions, 2002)

Nuit Noire are the world's greatest fäerical blasting punk band. I started listening to them when I found their second album, Infantile Espieglery, in a used CD store near my house. Something about the raw, frantic, screaming, almost naïve sound of them really drew me in. The fact that they're a duo certainly helped, too. Oh, and that the handwritten text on the cover looked like it'd been written on notebook paper by a little girl. And they're French, like toast, Jacques Tati, camembert and S.V.E.S.T. And they write lots of songs about fäeries.

The Velvet Underground "She'll Make You Cry"

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The Velvet Underground
Squeeze
LP
(Polydor, 1972)

My goodness, what a naughty cover!

If you look at the release date, you'll note it's 1972, the same year that Lou Reed hit the charts with "Take a Walk on the Wild Side." But, wait, Lou was the leader of The Velvet Underground! What gives?

Hex Error "Deerlodge Prison"

Hex Error Hex Error CD (self-released, 2001)

I saw these local folk open for someone and thought they were terrible. Just awful. A few months later, I saw them again and was blown away. After that, I made a point of it to get out whenever I saw they were playing. The guitarist's style reminded me strongly of MX-80 Sound, though in a rather different context.

Last Days of May "Sand, Sea and Space"

Last Days of May Last Days of May CD (No-Fi Records, 1997)

When I was in Charlottesville, VA ten years ago, where I'd lived ten years previous to then, my friend Tom Howard gave me a copy of the newest CD, Radiant Black Mind, by his new (since I'd left town) instrumental trio, Last Days of May. I forget how they met, but LDoM was Tom, Jim Ralston, formerly of (DR.) GöTLöD (whom I featured back in September), and Karl Precoda, formerly one half of the original guitar team of Los Angeles psychedelic rockers The Dream Syndicate! Today's song is from their eponymous debut album, released three years prior. Two more albums followed, Inner System Blues and The First 7 Billion Miles, released under the name LDOM. I've not heard of anything further since, unfortunately.

The Barry Sisters "Roumania"

The Barry Sisters Sing LP (Cadence Records, 1954)

Claire and Merna, FTW!

Sativa Luv Box "Groovy Kurtain"

Sativa Luv Box The Bad Sleep Well LP (Splat-Co Records, 1989)

Wayyyyy back in the 80s, Patrick Mata led the band Kommunity FK, who played a mix of punk, industrial and proto-goth. Their debut album, The Vision And The Voice, is an absolute classic in my book. The follow-up, 1985's Close One Sad Eye, was good, but they'd eased up on the punk end a bit too much, in my opinion. After that, they split. In 2003, Mata re-emerged with a new band called Sativa Luvbox and an album called Beloved Satellite. What I heard sounded OK but nowhere near as quality as KFK. I mentioned that on a message board and a buddy of mine contacted me and told me it was actually their second album, and, just like with KFK, the first was better. Today's tune is from that first album, which was released only on vinyl and took me a couple of years to find, probably because the band name was slightly different: Sativa Luv Box. It's the most straight up, hard rocking thing Mata has done and I like it quite a bit. Three of the ten songs were redone for the 2003 CD, but the originals rock harder. NOTE: Mata restarted Kommunity FK a few years back, and their long-awaited album, La Santisima Muerte, finally came out this year. 'Tis a fine album, too.

Talk Engine "Dream Me Coupled"

Talk Engine Talk Engine CD (Engineous Productions, 2005)

Another free bin snatch, and an odd one, at that. The band name is quite appropriate, as the album is primarily blues rock with spoken word vocals rather than singing ones. It works, though! Vocalist Jackie Sheeler is an award winning poet, and she writes some pretty powerful stuff, based on this CD. Patti Smith started the same way, I believe: poet then band leader. Not that Talk Engine sound anything like Patti. Before I forget, guitarist Landru von Dige is, to use the vernacular, shit hot.

Half Japanese "1,000,000 Kisses"

Half Japanese Charmed Life CD (50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Watts Records, 1988)

As mentioned in yesterday's post, here's the follow-up to yesterday's jukebox selection. Enjoy!